[0:57] Okay, Ryan, you ready?
[1:02] All right, we will resume uh this
September 3rd, 2026 meeting at 502, no
[1:11] sooner than 501.
And um for the uh the public hearing on
[1:16] the annual budget and just looking
around the room, like to welcome all of
[1:22] Valuchia County Sheriff's deputies.
Thank you for coming. Where's all the
[1:27] firemen?
[1:31] » Where? Okay, we're Hey, Joe. [laughter]
We're we're glad you're here.
[1:39] Um, so uh we will open the uh open the
public hearing and I'll turn it over
[1:48] first to to you or to George to county
manager.
[1:51] » Get off. Appreciate it. Mr. Chair,
honorable county council. Uh I'm pleased
[1:57] to present the recommended budget for
fiscal year 2627 and open up this
[2:02] hearing. Uh uh this budget reflects a
full year of careful analysis beginning
[2:09] with the five mini budget workshops we
had between February and April of 2026
[2:16] where we reviewed core services. Uh we
followed through, if you recall, with a
[2:21] 5-year forecast presentation to council
on June 2nd and June 16th.
[2:26] Um once again, uh we've taken a fiscally
conservative approach in this
[2:30] recommended budget.
Uh it does not include the significant
[2:35] reductions in county services that would
be required if voters did approve uh
[2:40] amendment three. So just want to make
sure everyone understands this is
[2:43] separate than amendment three.
It did take a better part of a year to
[2:48] put this uh budget together. We always
start in in January and and here we are
[2:53] in in September.
Uh this bill this budget is built on uh
[2:58] providing efficient reliable services,
supporting continued economic growth,
[3:04] attracting and retaining quality
employees, investing in the
[3:08] infrastructure our residents rely on,
and improving the quality of life for
[3:12] everyone who calls Valuchia County home.
I also would like to report again that
[3:18] uh for the general fund county
departments
[3:21] uh they're recommended at a net budget
decrease when compared to prior fiscal
[3:26] year. This marks the second year in a
row of decreases in the county uh
[3:30] department budget requests. That means
that these county departments absorb the
[3:36] full cost of a proposed 3% wage
adjustment, Florida retirement uh system
[3:42] rate increases, health insurance
increases, corrections, staffing needs,
[3:47] and all while reducing uh the combined
budget uh by $185,819.
[3:54] Um, and with that, I'm going to turn it
over to uh Ryan to go through the nuts
[4:01] and bolts.
Good evening, council members. Ryan
[4:03] Osowski, chief financial officer.
Before you, we have our recommended
[4:09] budget, the gross budget of which is 1
bill800,271,784.
[4:16] This year, we introduced the concept of
a net budget. This aligns us with Semino
[4:20] County and many other counties whereby
we take that headline number and we
[4:25] reduce out duplicative uh amounts such
as interfund transfers, internal service
[4:30] funds uh and we also reduce reserves.
Interfund transfers and internal service
[4:35] funds are amounts that are reported
twice in the budget. Once in the fund
[4:39] that uh is uh paying for such a service
and the other side in the fund that's
[4:44] receiving it. Uh it does gross up your
budget quite a bit. Um and our budget is
[4:51] very complicated. It has nearly a 100
budgeted funds and by the time we add
[4:56] grant resolutions that occur throughout
the year, it is over a 100 funds.
[5:01] The reserve amounts that I'm deducting
here to arrive at the net budget are our
[5:06] ending savings account balances. And
this is across the entire budget. There
[5:09] is of course the general fund reserves
which we hold for emergencies such as a
[5:14] hurricane which we are not going to have
this year and uh reserves for future
[5:21] capital reserves for contingency. Uh the
general fund represents uh less around
[5:28] 15% of the total reserve number. To make
that equivalent to somebody listening
[5:33] online to what what does a reserve mean?
It means when we budget the county's
[5:37] budget, we have to budget like a
household would budget for their income
[5:42] and their expenses, but what we have to
count as income is also any savings left
[5:46] over from prior years. And a lot of
those savings are left over on purpose.
[5:50] They're amounts that we set aside just
in case for an emergency or to build up
[5:55] for capital projects. So those amounts
carry over from year to year to year and
[6:00] they're not actually amounts that are
going to be planned to be spent in this
[6:03] year. So once you reduce for net uh
interfund transfers, internal service
[6:07] funds and reserves, our budget for this
year is 1 bill64,798,131.
[6:15] While we're not talking about amendment
three, I do think that that helps put
[6:19] into place a little bit about how the
scale of amendment 3 could impact us.
[6:26] Purpose of today's agenda item, it's
required by Florida's truth and mill
[6:29] section 200.065 Florida statutes. We are
going to discuss the millage rates,
[6:34] their percentage increases over roll
back where applicable and the reasons
[6:37] for the proposed increase over roll
back. Of course, we'll have uh public uh
[6:43] opportunity to speak uh setting tenative
millage rates with the final adoption at
[6:48] our second hearing and adopting a
tenative recommended budget with the
[6:52] final adoption also at the second
hearing. While it's going to be at the
[6:56] end of the presentation, just for
following along online, it is September
[7:00] 22nd that we're scheduled for our second
budget hearing.
[7:05] Millage rate comparison. I have listed
on the screen uh the different millig
[7:08] rates of the county. We have 10
different taxing funds and they uh vary
[7:13] in purpose and size with the general
fund being the largest and the Silver
[7:17] Sands Bthoon Beach MSD being a fund with
a budget of $16,000.
[7:22] It pays for an electric bill for street
lights in that district. Uh it is a very
[7:27] small district. Uh so they range in size
and complexity. The tentative roll back
[7:33] rates are listed here on the screen. Uh
with along with our tentative adopted
[7:37] rate, the tentative sorry tentative
recommended rate. The tentative
[7:42] recommended rate is equal to last year's
adopted rate with no change in eight of
[7:48] the 10 taxing funds. It is proposed uh
as a recommended rate at the roll back
[7:53] rate in the pon inlet port authority
fund and a partial uh reduction in the
[7:58] rate uh in the fire rescue district
fund. The change from roll back in all
[8:02] these various funds is approximately
3.3%.
[8:07] That is basically in line with inflation
right now. And
[8:13] uh that inflation number is that that
I'm quoting is what you hear in the
[8:16] media when you talk about uh core CPI
for urban consumers. Uh was at a
[8:23] conference recently or not a conference
but a presentation and it was pointed
[8:27] out that governments don't buy TVs and
apparel, they buy fire trucks and pay
[8:34] for police officers. And the inflation
rate there is different than it is when
[8:38] you factor in technology that goes down
in price and uh other items like apparel
[8:43] that don't go up as much as perhaps
firet trucks do.
[8:49] The general fund comparison to a roll
back rate uh our proposed rate is
[8:53] 3.20007
mills which would bring in uh an adopt
[8:58] recommended budget of 200
uh 213 million822
[9:03] 389. The proposed the roll back rate
would be 3.107
[9:08] mills or 27,141,91.
[9:13] The difference is an additional
6,680,488
[9:18] of advalorum tax revenue. This
additional dedicated revenue is
[9:22] dedicated to elected office expenditure
increases.
[9:25] uh the primary one of which is the
sheriff's office uh the debt payment for
[9:30] the new sheriff's office headquarters as
well as small increases in uh some of
[9:36] the other elected offices. The second
largest area would be in judicial but
[9:41] that is not a single line item. That's a
small increase in the clerk's budget,
[9:44] some increases in software that we're
required to pay via article five of the
[9:48] constitution for the public defender and
the state attorney's office. Part of
[9:52] that is uh the 3% wage adjustment that
George mentioned in those areas. There's
[9:57] really not a single line item to point
out in judicial, but it was the second
[10:00] largest line it uh area of increase. We
also have mandatory expenditure
[10:05] increases. We have to cover required
expenditure changes from the Department
[10:09] of Juvenile Justice. The state sends us
a bill. We pay 50% of the cost of DJJ
[10:15] and that is controlled by the state but
we have to pay whatever the bill goes up
[10:19] and it goes up every year as well as
state Medicaid program and CRA payments.
[10:25] Also countywide operational expenses
previously paid for by investment
[10:28] income. As I mentioned during the 5-year
forecast uh we've used reserves in the
[10:34] last few years which have drawn down the
size of the county's portfolio. That
[10:37] means we have less to invest.
At the time that we prepared the
[10:42] recommended budget, and it probably
hasn't changed too much since then, but
[10:45] definitely at the time that we uh
prepared the recommended budget, we use
[10:49] the Fed Reserves dot plot to project
what future investment rates would be.
[10:55] And at the time, they were looking at
rate decreases over the future.
[10:59] Currently, if you're paying attention to
the press, there's uh alluding to a
[11:03] potential rate increase,
but that was not at the time that we had
[11:06] prepared this recommended budget. Harm
general fund millage rate history.
[11:12] Uh we've been at roll back for three out
of the last 10 years. We've been at
[11:18] partial roll backs for three out of the
last 10 years. And I'll point out that
[11:23] there is an anomaly in this chart in the
in the interest of fair disclosure. and
[11:26] FY24 is when we started the separate law
enforcement fund. Nevertheless, we have
[11:32] had a steady rate of decrease over the
years in the general fund.
[11:36] The law enforcement fund, which funds
exclusively the sheriff's office budget,
[11:41] is proposed at the same rate it was last
year, 1.5994
[11:45] mills, which would bring in6,847,730.
[11:52] At roll back of 1.5485 mills, it would
bring in $13,447,361,
[12:01] the difference of which is $3.4 million.
And that is dedicated to fully funding
[12:06] the sheriff's budget request this year
to satisfied uh countywide law
[12:10] enforcement needs.
The library fund is presented at the
[12:16] same rate that it was last year. Three
uh 0.3697
[12:20] mills which brings in 24,697,765
[12:25] as compared to the roll back rate which
would be 0.3576 mills which would bring
[12:29] in 23,889,426.
[12:33] The additional $88,000 of revenue is
dedicated to uh primarily staffing
[12:39] issues. The library is a heavy staffing
um agency. Uh so you got the 3% wage
[12:45] adjustment, increases in health
insurance, uh and then an increased
[12:49] budget uh that increases with CPI for
publication purchases.
[12:54] The library millage rate has been at a
roll back for uh five out of the last
[13:00] seven years. And if we two of those
years includes what I'm what we're
[13:05] recommending right now. So if you ignore
what we're discussing here, it was five
[13:09] out of the last six years.
Uh this fund has has uh survived on the
[13:16] new construction values that have come
in. However, inflation that it's
[13:20] experienced in personnel and
publications and the and the rest of the
[13:24] operating of the library have trended
above the amount of new construction. So
[13:28] there is a need at this point to adopt a
flat rate especially considering how
[13:33] many years it survived on just the new
construction values.
[13:38] Busha Forever and Echko I'll cover at
the same time. They're currently
[13:41] proposed at the full amount that was
part of the um voter millage uh voter
[13:48] ballot initiative of 0.2 mills which
each program would bring in $13,361,10.
[13:55] If each of these programs were to go to
roll back, they would be each at.1936
[14:01] mills, which would bring in 12,933,457.
[14:06] Each program will bring in an additional
$427,553
[14:11] at the proposed rate. Both programs are,
I mentioned before, they're proposed at
[14:16] the maximum military that was approved
by the voters back in uh the I think it
[14:21] was 2011 2021.
The additional revenue for the Echo
[14:26] program will allow for more grant
opportunities. This council uh recently
[14:31] revised some of the the grant
requirements and we have seen during our
[14:34] most recent grant cycle an increase in
the amount that was requested. It was
[14:38] factored into the 5-year forecast. Uh
but it is above the amount that the the
[14:43] fund collects in a single year. The
additional revenue for the Forever
[14:48] program will provide for more funding
for land purchases and land conservation
[14:51] management.
As you may recall, we've talked about
[14:54] how we set a tentative um reimbursement
resolution under the IRS. If this
[15:00] program experiences significant land
purchases, each one which would be
[15:04] approved by council subsequently, we may
need to even borrow money in this fund.
[15:09] So, without borrowing money, uh if you
set it at the maximum millage, it'll
[15:14] it'll abate the need for that borrowing
partially.
[15:18] Mosquito control is proposed at the
millage rate of uh last year of 0.1573
[15:23] mills. Mosquito control is an east side
district. It is not taxed across the
[15:28] county. It's the first one uh that we've
talked about that is not a countywide
[15:31] tax. You only pay this if you live on
the east side of the county, which is
[15:35] why that mill rate doesn't bring in uh
the same amount of money that it does in
[15:39] similar mill rates. It brings in
7,316,892
[15:44] at the roll back rate of 0.1525 mills.
It would bring in 7,93,617.
[15:52] The additional difference is $223,275
[15:57] and that and more are are needed to make
up for the increased budget in chemicals
[16:03] this year
for spraying. The mosquito control fund
[16:08] has been at roll back for uh three out
of the last seven years, including the
[16:13] current year. So, three out of the six
if you're not including what we're
[16:16] proposing today.
And the MSD or municipal service
[16:21] district is another fund that doesn't uh
tax the entire county. This only is
[16:26] levied in the unincorporated area of the
county. So, if you live in a city, you
[16:30] do not pay this tax. This is proposed at
1.6956 mills, which brings in 22,445,38.
[16:40] At the roll back rate of 1.6495 6495
mills. It would bring in $21,835,64.
[16:46] The additional difference of $610,244
is dedicated fully to funding the
[16:53] sheriff's budget request to satisfy
unincorporated area law enforcement
[16:57] needs. The sheriff does uh patrol for
the unincorporated area. Unlike the
[17:01] cities who have their own police
department, this the sheriff is the only
[17:04] responder in the unincorporated area.
And therefore, part of the cost of the
[17:08] sheriff's office is allocated to the
unincorporated area for that increased
[17:12] level of service. The budget request
from the sheriff this year that was
[17:15] allocated to the unincorporated area
increased by $2.8 million. So, the 610
[17:20] is just a portion of what's funding
that. The other portion of what's
[17:23] funding that is new construction values
as well as increases in utility tax
[17:27] collections.
The MSD millage rate history uh in the
[17:33] last seven years shown on the screen, it
has been at roll back three of those
[17:37] seven years. It has been left at a flat
rate since 2024.
[17:43] In 2024 was the year that we repealed
the communication services tax and this
[17:47] fund started to experience a uh deficit
and we are continuing deficit spending
[17:54] in this fund even in this recommended
budget. Uh, as I mentioned in the
[17:59] five-year forecast for this fund, it
also has a sizable reserves.
[18:04] So, to recommend an increased rate, it's
not something that we would even be
[18:08] discussing at this point due to the trim
process, but just for your clarity, uh,
[18:13] it has reserves that it can operate on
for a little while longer before we will
[18:18] have to address this fund. But cutting
it any further would just make the rate
[18:22] that we're dealing digging into those
reserves to fund recurring expenses even
[18:26] larger.
Silver Sands, Bthoon Beach, MSD. Uh,
[18:31] this fund is 0.0099
mills and it is a very small taxing
[18:36] district, so it collects $15,661.
The difference between this and roll
[18:41] back is $158.
When we're looking at what this fund
[18:45] pays for, it pays for utilities for a
lighting district. The utility costs
[18:48] have gone up. If we do not get a flat
mill rate in this fund and we go to roll
[18:52] back and we have to continue paying
those electric bills, the funds will
[18:56] have to come from the general fund and
all county taxpayers will have to pay
[18:59] for street lighting for a tiny area of
the county
[19:04] budget and taxes by taxing fund. I will
not read the numbers that are on this
[19:07] screen. They were in the packet. Um you
can see the gross recommended gross
[19:12] budget for each fund. The net budget
concept only works when you're talking
[19:15] about the total budget because remember
how I said we netted interf fund
[19:19] transfers but you can't do that when
you're presenting just a single fund. So
[19:22] we present the gross budget and the
amount of advalorum revenue from each
[19:25] fund.
Here you have a pie chart of our net
[19:29] revenues and where they come from.
The $455,500,000
[19:35] of property taxes represents 42%
of our net budget. Uh fund balance is
[19:42] the next largest piece and that is 192
million and that represents the capital
[19:47] projects that we're going to be funding
and the savings that we're using to fund
[19:50] those one-time expenditures out of a
variety of funds, most notably impact
[19:56] fee funds for roads. As far as the
single largest piece of that uh charges
[20:01] for service, there are lots of different
charges for service. I have a breakout
[20:04] on the side for some of the largest ones
which include EMS ambulance fees,
[20:08] landfill, water, sewer contracts that
the sheriff's office has with city of
[20:13] Deltona, Deerry, Pearson, and Oakill.
You also have things like the airport,
[20:19] which is a self-sustaining fund, but it
still makes up part of our countywide
[20:22] budget, and they operate purely on
charges for service.
[20:27] And uh you got some other items there
too. Got intergovernmental revenues
[20:31] listed there uh as well. I will note
that the net of that fund balance gets
[20:37] you to really what our recurring
revenues are in this budget, which is
[20:40] about $870 million. That's what we're we
project to collect during the next year.
[20:49] Net expenditures uh by type, personnel,
operating capital are all similar equal
[20:55] installments. Uh the sheriff's office
transfer is shown separately here as a
[20:59] percentage of our total budget uh as
well as the other uh constitutional
[21:04] offices. I like this chart a little bit
better though by function. And it does
[21:08] tell you the types of areas that are
funded. Uh public safety of the entire
[21:14] county budget which a lot of which is uh
capital projects, those self-sustaining
[21:20] enterprises like the landfill and the
ocean center and water sewer. Those are
[21:28] all in the gross budget number. And you
may remember hearing much higher numbers
[21:33] for public safety like 60%. That's when
you're talking about taxing funds. When
[21:38] you're talking about the entire budget,
it's 35%. Public works makes up the next
[21:42] largest chunk at 27.9%.
And I won't read any further from there.
[21:47] At this point, I'll pause for public
participation. But first, if you have
[21:51] any questions from me or we can do that
after public participation, up to you
[21:55] guys.
>> Any questions before public
[21:59] participation?
Okay, let's uh Thank you, Ryan. Let's
[22:04] start with uh like we have six people
who want to speak. When I call your
[22:09] name, if you would just come to the
microphone, make sure that there's a
[22:12] microphone
in front of your mouth so that everybody
[22:16] here can can hear you. And people
online. Yes, there is a button on the
[22:21] left side of the podium.
Have it uh go up and down if you need to
[22:26] do that. You have three minutes to uh
speak on budget issues. Um the uh and
[22:36] also you you don't have to give your
full address for safety purposes. Um but
[22:42] if you would tell us what part of the
county you're from, then your
[22:46] representative up here knows uh knows
who you are and where you're from. Uh
[22:51] first up today is Russ Molton.
[22:59] » Thank you, Chairman Brower, members of
the council. really appreciate your
[23:03] time. Hey, I'm here to talk about
quality of life that our county manager
[23:08] mentioned. You know, we're in a bubble
here, right? We're focused on county
[23:12] employees and county departments.
>> Microphones.
[23:15] » Yeah. Thank you. But there's a whole
group of folks outside here that
[23:20] couldn't be here today. The taxpayer,
the working people of this county. I
[23:26] urge you to go to roll back.
Prices are up. Gas is up. Rents are up.
[23:32] Insurance rates are up. Where are
taxpayers, particularly working folks
[23:36] who don't have a homestead exemption,
where's their protection? We got to be
[23:41] thinking about them.
Roll back is misunderstood. It doesn't
[23:46] mean a cut in budget from last year. It
actually means a slight increase
[23:51] because of the natural economic growth
that you get. But let's talk about roll
[23:56] back a little bit because our sheriff
Chitwood made a claim last night on
[24:00] social media that chairman Brower simply
because he's pushing roll back or folks
[24:06] like me pushing roll back that we want
to defund the police.
[24:12] You zero it out. That's what defund
means. Well, let's take a look at the
[24:17] sheriff's budget. In 2024 was $133
million.
[24:22] It jumped over 150 million in one year.
In one year
[24:29] with a 22% increase in the law
enforcement fund with a massive tax hike
[24:33] that you all voted for and we're still
paying for
[24:38] this year. It's 163 something million.
And at roll back it goes to over $168
[24:46] million.
Now, I'm not a PhD in math, but I can
[24:51] tell you that's about five and a half
million dollars more than last year for
[24:54] the sheriff's department.
So, I'm concerned that we're
[24:58] misrepresenting what roll back is. But
I'm more concerned about the sheriff's
[25:02] department and Sheriff Chitwood pushing
what is obviously not true. Sheriff, you
[25:08] know it's a lie
and you're hurting the integrity
[25:13] and the credibility of your department
when you do it. Our deputies have to go
[25:18] out in harm's way.
They need to have the credibility
[25:23] and their boss doesn't have credibility
right now.
[25:28] So, Sheriff, I urge you to restore the
integrity of your department and speak
[25:32] the truth about your budget. Thank you,
John Nicholson.
[25:48] John Don, the town of Beachside.
I hate to disagree with the gentleman
[25:52] before me, but um for the last 40 years,
I've talked against roll back. Roll back
[26:00] really doesn't cover the increase that
we go through, especially lately. All
[26:05] right. No one likes to pay additional
taxes,
[26:09] but you pay for what you want.
And we want salary increases for our
[26:15] employees.
We want
[26:19] uh vests for our police officers. We
want uh all kinds of things. And all of
[26:25] those things come with a cost.
You can't pay for increased insurance,
[26:30] which you must have.
You can't pay for salaries increases
[26:35] without additional money. We've been
lucky for the last 10 years that we've
[26:40] been going through a building boom.
We've had money left and right that we
[26:45] don't know what to do with and we've
been spending like a madman,
[26:50] but we've been building as well because
all those additional people
[26:55] require additional services.
And so we're lucky we have a gentleman
[27:01] that is quite good with numbers and I
don't question a single thing he says
[27:06] because they're always accurate.
And what he's telling me
[27:11] is this is the best he can do and if we
want a solid year next year we can't go
[27:19] to a roll back because you saw the roll
back how much it's going to cost and I
[27:25] think one of them was uh we need 2.8 8
million and we're going to make 400,000.
[27:30] It doesn't hit what we need. So, I'm
asking you to look at it carefully. I
[27:36] know it's politically correct to go to
roll back, but I've said this for years,
[27:41] but Asher went to roll back for seven
years and when he left, we had a 27%
[27:47] increase in uh taxes. So, we really
cannot do roll back forever. Thank you
[27:53] very much,
Miller.
[28:03] Thank you, Nancy Miller. Um, Daytona
Beach Shores and Matt is my
[28:07] representative. So, I want to talk a
little bit today about public safety. It
[28:11] really is the foundation of a high
quality of life. It extends far beyond
[28:16] the simple absence of crime. It's a
sense of well-being, confidence, and
[28:21] feeling safe. I want to give you a
little example of what I'm talking
[28:25] about. So during Hurricane Ian and
Nicole, we had our new public safety
[28:30] director, even though he had been with
us for several years. He was on the job
[28:34] two days when Ian and Nicole hit. I
cannot thank Sheriff Jitwood enough for
[28:40] reaching out to our public safety
director and saying, "What do you need?"
[28:45] Within hours hours, the sheriff sent
over over a hundred officers, deputies
[28:52] to Daytona Beach Shores. These brave men
and women went into our hund I'm sorry,
[28:59] 27
condos, high-rise buildings that were
[29:02] deemed unsafe. Did not hesitate at all.
Backed up our officers when they helped
[29:08] with the evacuation that we needed to do
in those buildings. They helped getting
[29:13] the residents belongings out. They
helped them get to their cars into safer
[29:18] areas. They carried them along the way
if they had to. Above that, they stayed
[29:24] with our officers and our command center
for several days to make sure that we
[29:28] were safe. And many of you know the
extreme devastation that we had in
[29:32] Daytona Beach Shores. They also did
double duty by also going down to Wilbur
[29:38] by the Sea. And nobody will forget those
pictures of those houses literally
[29:43] falling into the ocean with all of their
appliances and their belongings on the
[29:48] ocean uh floor. So while they were doing
that, they were still doing their duty
[29:54] in other parts of the country, uh,
county. So I just want to tell you how
[29:58] much I appreciate those brave men and
women. They do this on a daily basis.
[30:03] They never know when there's going to be
an active shooter, a violent domestic
[30:07] dispute, a traffic stop, or criminal
activity. It's Port Orange the best
[30:12] example of that. You never know what
you're going to get. So I want to thank
[30:16] the sheriff. I want to know that he has
my support and I'm asking you to please
[30:20] accept his proposed budget. Thank you.
>> Thank you for your comments. Uh Sheriff
[30:26] Michael J. Chitwood.
[30:34] » Thank you, Jeff. I want to call you with
your
[30:36] » point order. Point order.
>> Um chair,
[30:39] » what is your point? the fact that uh
Sheriff Chitwood is a constitutional
[30:43] officer here in Valition County. We've
extended the privilege of not having the
[30:46] clock on. We do it for others. I I'd ask
if we give him the same latitude. I'll
[30:51] make that motion.
>> I'll second that.
[30:53] » Okay. All in favor?
>> I.
[30:56] » Any opposed?
>> All right,
[30:59] Jeff. I'm just going to call it what it
is. You're here to defund us is what
[31:02] you're trying to do. Okay. I got my tax
bill here. $42.65 65 is what my taxes
[31:09] went up for this year according to the
trim notice. That's $358
[31:14] a month for Lucia County administration.
They deserve kudos for what they do. And
[31:19] and you folks as well, 37th, this is
according to Tax Watch. 37th per capita
[31:25] in property tax out of 67 counties. 53rd
per capita in total revenue. 50th per
[31:31] capita in total county expenditures.
Well, I think these folks have done an
[31:36] amazing job. And when I first took over,
we had 90 vacancies, Jeff. 90. You
[31:40] didn't allow your kids to come to work
for me because you didn't like the
[31:42] salaries. Remember that? That
conversation? I'm sure you don't. No,
[31:46] » but it occurred. My training staff
remembers that very well. That's what it
[31:50] is. This is what this is all about.
Deputy River is here, shot three times.
[31:54] Did you ever reach out to his family?
No. Deputy Thomas shot in the face. Did
[31:58] you ever reach out to his family? No.
But what did you support for sheriff? a
[32:03] convicted felon convicted of attacking a
Orman Beach police officer with a metal
[32:08] pipe. Multiple arrests, okay? Multiple
bankruptcies. And you supported him to
[32:15] lead these brave men and women of this
county. That's pro law enforcement. But
[32:20] I want you to look at these faces right
here. I want you to look at these young
[32:23] folks that have come to work for us.
They're new. I hired them without asking
[32:27] for another penny. I did it within my
budget. Everything the county has come
[32:31] to me to ask to work on, we have worked
on with them to figure out a way to keep
[32:35] this county safe and keep us
competitive. Quarter payraises you were
[32:39] offering, I had people running out the
door to go to Bies to go to work. So, I
[32:42] would like you to look at them as you
move forward with your defending the
[32:46] funding project and tell them all go
back to where you came from. They all
[32:50] came here under the Dantis bill to work
in our county to move into our county to
[32:56] educate their children in our county.
That's what they're here for. And they
[33:01] think they can get the support from the
county chairman when something goes
[33:03] wrong. They're out protecting the people
who voted for you. So, you think maybe
[33:07] you would look at that and say, "Hey, we
understand what we're doing here. We
[33:11] understand what we're doing. We put one
hell of a product out there on the
[33:13] street and we'd appreciate a little bit
of support from the county chair." And
[33:16] it would be unfair to end on a bad note.
I'm going to hearken back to when I had
[33:20] 90 vacancies. I'm going to hearken back
to when our dispatchers were bailing out
[33:24] for to go to work at BIES. A lot of you
on this dis got together with the county
[33:28] administration and you able enabled us
to slowly move forward to get to where
[33:34] we are now. We're competitive in the
market. We have people looking at us
[33:37] because you're competitive and Russ for
a smart man. You should be able to
[33:40] figure out what happened in 2024. We
took over the beach. Guess you missed
[33:45] that in your little presentation. So I
appreciate you listening to my anger. Uh
[33:49] but I'm just telling you, you're a
defender and you've been a defender
[33:52] since I've known you. That's why I've
never supported you because you've never
[33:55] stood behind us. You You do it because
you have to do it politically, but now
[33:59] that you're a lame duck, this is what
the true colors are. So, take a look at
[34:02] these guys when you vote tonight and
these ladies and think think of that
[34:05] what their future looks like. They
wanted to come here because of what we
[34:09] have, everything that we have.
Schooling, housing, everything that
[34:12] makes Felicia County special. That's why
these folks are here. Thank you.
[34:18] Thank you for your comments.
[34:23] » [applause]
>> Eric Eaggan.
[34:30] All right, Mr. Chair, honorable council
members, my name is Eric Egan, Dand
[34:34] Florida, assistant chief of the Valuchia
Sheriff's Office. I've served this
[34:38] community and public safety since 1985.
Starting as a fire cadet and later a
[34:44] firefighter EMT for more than 37 years
as a deputy sheriff with the sheriff's
[34:49] office. I've witnessed firsthand how
critical stable and responsible funding
[34:54] is to public safety. Tonight, I need to
speak earnestly about the harmful impact
[34:59] the proposed roll back tax rate will
have on the sheriff's office and
[35:03] ultimately on the safety of our
residents. Blue County is currently
[35:08] experiencing one of the lowest crime
rates we've ever seen. Our solvability
[35:12] rate is exceptional. Our deputies and
detectives consistently identify and
[35:17] apprehend suspects. Recover stolen funds
and fraud cases, reduce overdoses,
[35:23] prosecute overdose deaths.
We've made major strides in reducing
[35:28] traffic crashes. This outcome is not an
accident.
[35:33] This is they're the direct result of
sustained investment in our employees,
[35:38] their training, equipment, and modern
technology. A roll back would jeopardize
[35:42] all of that. It would reduce our ability
to leverage the technology that helps us
[35:47] do more with less. Technology that
allows deputies to respond faster,
[35:52] investigate smarter, and keep our
community safer without needing to grow
[35:56] the workforce at the same pace as our
population. It would also significantly
[36:01] impact our training academy which has
become a state-of-the-art highly
[36:05] respected institution recognized across
the state of Florida and the nation. In
[36:11] fact, the training academy is host to
the FBI National Academy leadership
[36:16] certification program and the Florida
State University certified public
[36:20] manager program, highlighting the
outstanding work being done by the
[36:25] sheriff's office. Cutting funding will
force us to scale back the very training
[36:30] that keeps our deputies prepared,
professional, and ready to respond to
[36:34] any threat.
Once training quality declines,
[36:38] rebuilding it takes years. Most
importantly, this roll back threatens
[36:43] the sense of security that every family,
including mine,
[36:47] feels living in Valuchia County. Today,
most criminals avoid the county because
[36:52] they know that they will be caught and
held accountable. That reputation keeps
[36:56] crime low and once lost, it will be very
difficult to regain. Council members,
[37:02] I'm asking you not to defund public
safety. Our community does not deserve
[37:07] backsliding.
We have worked too hard and our
[37:10] residents rely on the strong, effective
law enforcement presence that your
[37:15] funding supports. Maintaining our
current level of service is essential to
[37:19] keeping Blue County safe. Thank you for
your time and your continued support of
[37:24] the men and women who protect this
county every day. Thank you
[37:30] for your comment
[applause]
[37:35] Robert Manai.
[37:40] Yes. Hello. Well, I'm I'm Robert Mooney
in the land and I own two properties in
[37:46] a trucking business and I am a Valuchia
County taxpayer and my experience with
[37:51] quite uh with Chitwood is quite
different than what what was described
[37:55] here previously. Um I'm here to oppose
Chitwood and his bully tactics against
[38:01] the county chairman and the public as
he's demonstrated that made for TV
[38:05] sheriff and his theatrics and bullying
from the Holy Bible. Ephesians 6:12, for
[38:11] we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against
[38:15] powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this world, against
[38:19] spiritual wickedness in high places. I
am currently a proay litigant in federal
[38:24] court, Mooney versus Chitwood, and an
Amazon published book author, Trinity,
[38:29] all things, which presents my nearly two
decade struggle against complete
[38:34] systemic failure. What I know to be
truth and what was done to me and others
[38:39] is completely unacceptable and there
will be accountability. The truth cannot
[38:44] be defeated. Valuchia County does not
belong to Sheriff Chitwood. It belongs
[38:49] to God. I will expose and defeat this
overwhelming evil for the glory of God.
[38:56] You can't defeat me, Satan.
[39:01] Cat pant.
[39:15] Good evening, council. As a retired law
enforcement officer of the city of
[39:18] Daytona Beach, I find it especially
concerning when there are discussions
[39:21] about reducing funding for law
enforcement. I understand that this
[39:24] council has a difficult responsibility
of balancing a budget. However, I would
[39:28] ask that you remember that law
enforcement officers make decisions in
[39:31] seconds that can affect whether someone
lives or dies. They don't get hours or
[39:36] days to analyze every possible outcome.
They have seconds. Corporate executives
[39:41] earn six figures making decisions after
having time to consider consequences.
[39:45] Our deputies and dispatchers make
potentially life-changing decisions in
[39:48] real time for far less compensation. And
if they make the wrong decision in those
[39:53] few seconds, they can lose their
careers, their livelihoods, and much
[39:56] more, including their life. When Sheriff
Chitwood took office in 2017, Valuchia
[40:01] County had more than 90 vacancies among
deputies and dispatchers. At that time,
[40:05] Valuchia County ranked 46th in the state
for law enforcement pay. It has taken
[40:10] years to improve compensation, recruit
qualified personnel, and retain deputies
[40:13] and dispatchers we have today. We cannot
afford to go backward. Our public safety
[40:18] budget also supports critical resources
such as an air ambulance services. Those
[40:22] aircraft provide life-saving medical
transportation for vehicle crashes and
[40:26] other emergencies throughout Valuchia
County. They also support law
[40:29] enforcement by helping locate missing
children and vulnerable elderly adults
[40:33] and assisting with violent criminal
apprehensions and supporting fire
[40:36] suppression efforts. Law enforcement
must also adapt to emerging crime
[40:40] trends. For example, exploitation of
elderly residents through fraud has
[40:43] become a serious problem, which is why
specialized resources have been
[40:47] dedicated to addressing these crimes.
When vacancies are left unfilled because
[40:51] of budget reductions, the consequences
are predictable. Response times
[40:55] increase, deputies have to operate
without adequate backup, days off or
[40:59] canceled, overtime becomes mandatory,
and our first responders has less time
[41:03] to decompress and spend time with their
families. Ultimately, these cuts can
[41:07] cost taxpayers more. The overtime
required to compensate for staffing
[41:11] shortages can quickly offset the savings
from reducing the budget while
[41:14] simultaneously compromising officer
safety and public safety. Public safety
[41:19] is one of the fundamental
responsibilities of government. Law
[41:22] enforcement, fire rescue, lifeguards,
and emergency medical services should
[41:25] never be compromised. These are not
simply budget line items. These are the
[41:30] men and women who respond when someone
is having the worst day of their life. I
[41:34] respectfully ask this council to fully
fund the public safety professionals who
[41:37] protect the residents of Lucia County
and the visitors who come here each
[41:41] year. Thank you,
>> Kyle Tottton.
[41:56] Council, my name is Kyle Totten. I am a
IUPA business agent. I represent the
[42:02] officers, sergeants, and lieutenants of
the V Felucia County Division of
[42:05] Corrections.
We are here to speak and support on
[42:09] behalf of Chief uh Sheriff Chitwood and
his budget. We fully support fully
[42:14] funded budget. A matter of fact, we
support Sheriff Chitwood so much, we're
[42:18] asking you to consider transferring the
division of of corrections under the
[42:23] sheriff's office with all their budget.
That's how much we support him.
[42:29] um you guys start rolling, you know,
cutting budgets, you start to have
[42:33] problems and you can look over to the
Division of Corrections or you can go
[42:37] back 20 years in any part of the county
and look. I was in law enforcement in
[42:41] this area for about 30 years constantly.
Every time you have a budget cut, you
[42:46] reduce pensions, reduce medical
insurance, you have a flock of people
[42:50] leaving and they go wherever the money's
better because they have life, they have
[42:54] families, and they have things that they
want to do with themselves. So, please
[43:00] fully fund it and consider transferring
the Division of Corrections under the
[43:04] sheriff's office. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Uh Dana Mcool.
[43:19] » Good evening, Mr. Chair and council. Um
I wanted to talk about roll back for
[43:23] just a second because it's a segue into
what I'm really here to talk about and
[43:28] really I've been an elected official. I
understand the man in the arena concept
[43:33] and it's you're making hard decisions
countywide and I understand that you
[43:37] take a lot of direction from the state.
I understand that also. But roll back is
[43:42] kind of like the equivalent of political
glitter. It looks sexy. It sounds sexy.
[43:47] It becomes the invogue thing of the day
when we start around the cycle, right?
[43:52] Election cycle. And I understand the
practicality of what we're trying to do,
[43:56] but there are areas that we simply can't
touch.
[44:00] You're talking about our sheriff's
department who takes care of a good
[44:03] portion of community services that
aren't currently being covered. These
[44:08] are the gatekeepers right here for our
homeless epidemic. These are the
[44:12] gatekeepers here for our drug and
alcohol issues that we have. These are
[44:17] the people here that are seeing mental
health crises every day. And so we're
[44:23] trying to take money from this. If you
want to really cut back on the sheriff's
[44:29] budget, then let's start talking about
what we do to solve the root cause.
[44:33] You're corporate people here. Most of
you are. And if we keep putting money in
[44:38] places where it's not serving, we're
going to keep having these issues and
[44:42] we're going to keep having an escalation
in public safety funding. Right? Roll
[44:47] back is not the thing because we've not
succinctly talked about what's coming
[44:51] down the pipe with amendment three. it.
Everyone is terrified. There are now 13
[44:57] organizations terrified about this what
we are trying to do. And you know, it's
[45:01] going to get worse. The economic
climate, we're not going to have less
[45:04] crime. We're going to have more crime.
We're not going to have less addiction
[45:08] or substance abuse. We're going to have
more because people aren't going to be
[45:11] able to handle the realities of their
lives. And these are the people here
[45:14] that monitor the horror stories every
day.
[45:18] and you want to take money out of these
guys pockets, they sacrifice mental
[45:24] health, time with family, these are not
measurable. These are not measurable. I
[45:30] think it's negligible for what we're
really trying to do here. I don't think
[45:34] that this is the area that we need to be
pulling money from. I work on the front
[45:38] front lines every day with these issues
that I just told you about and we're
[45:43] working really really hard in a fiscal
responsible way to try to come up with
[45:47] ways where we can go back to a millage
rate that's acceptable so we can go back
[45:53] but we can't do that until we fix the
root cause. So please let's think about
[45:57] that as we move forward with any funding
choices along with amendment three. We
[46:02] have some really hard decisions to make
but this isn't it right here. Thank you.
[46:08] Bob Vogle.
[46:15] Sheriff Bob.
>> Sir, good evening members of the county
[46:19] council.
It's uh my pleasure to be here this
[46:22] evening in support of um our sheriff
Mike Jitwood.
[46:26] The uh I heard that uh there there's an
attempt to take $4 million out of his
[46:32] budget.
I think most of you, if not all of you,
[46:37] support Sheriff Chipwood. And I know you
have the uh big picture law uh the
[46:43] responsibility,
but in 1996, I stood here. That's 30
[46:48] years ago
and it was my third
[46:52] um election
and I had to face the county council
[46:57] just like Sheriff Chipwood had has to do
in an effort to uh get my budget
[47:03] approved. All the 12 years that I spent
as sheriff of Lucia County, I never had
[47:09] an had uh the county council disapprove
my budget or tried to cut my budget.
[47:15] They approved my budget. It was took the
first term to understand what the new
[47:21] sheriff requires because I would my
predecessor
[47:26] uh didn't uh oppose the county. Anything
that the county wanted to do, he agreed
[47:32] with it. The uh sheriff's budget, as
most of you may or may not know, there's
[47:38] two major areas in the sheriff's budget
he has little control over, and that's
[47:43] the personnel matters. you have to buy
equipment for them, the the deputies,
[47:48] the uh uh the cars, the guns, the all
the equipment they need. Then there's
[47:53] other issues too with the public
demands. The public demands these body
[47:58] cameras and things that are out of his
control. So there's very little control
[48:02] that uh he can impose uh and take away
from his budget. He understands that uh
[48:08] during an election year the county
council wants to the budget to be flat.
[48:14] They want to even go talking about going
to roll back. He knows that he cut his
[48:19] budget as as short short and as sweet as
he possibly can. I encourage each and
[48:24] every one of you to approve his budget
as it's submitted. Now, we know that the
[48:30] state requires
certain things from uh the sheriff's in
[48:36] Florida. These are mandates just like
you have mandates as a county council
[48:41] that ought that are out of his control.
The uh the state estimates that we that
[48:48] we are receiving what 1,000 new
residents in our state each day.
[48:54] Valuchia County estimates that we
receive a thou 1,000
[49:00] uh person new residents in Valuchia
County. These are out of your control
[49:05] and out of his control. Now, the
dynamics of this is that every time you
[49:11] have an increase in population, rising
in crime occurs. It's out of his
[49:16] control, out of your control.
>> [bell]
[49:18] » But I encourage you to vote in support
of his budget and uh the increase
[49:25] with that amendment number three. Who
knows which way that's going to go.
[49:29] Thank you all. Thank you, Sheriff.
Okay, that uh is the end of the uh
[49:35] public comments for this meeting. So,
we'll go into uh council discussion. And
[49:42] first up from early on was David
Santiago.
[49:48] Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to I
didn't want to be the first one to come
[49:53] out the gate, but I was just so
impressed with um the the new folks that
[49:57] have just joined the department. I
wanted to just talk a little bit about
[50:00] that. And thanks for sitting up front.
If if you were told to, that's okay.
[50:03] That's still good to see you because it
was it showed um what the impact has
[50:08] been of the efforts that have happened
over the last couple years with trying
[50:13] to fix the vacancy problem that we've
had over years. So, thank you for coming
[50:18] to Valuchia County. We welcome you and
we are very grateful that you came here.
[50:22] So, I think you've joined a good force
here. Um, I also personally will share
[50:28] um I'll sit in this room because when we
have these events and a lot of sheriffs,
[50:31] you know, a lot of the white shirts that
I see back there back in 2003 is when I
[50:36] was first elected, I I did a lot of ride
alongs. I think I I got a little I have
[50:39] a little bit over a hundred ride alongs
in my tenure serving. And a lot of the
[50:43] folks that were would be sitting there
are now back there with the brass and
[50:47] the white shirt. So, uh I guess I'm
getting old, sheriff. Uh but thank you
[50:51] for all you uh that are staying around
for years. And and I'll just say this
[50:55] before we get into the details. Um
obviously we've talked over the many
[51:00] budget workshops. We had five of those
throughout the year if you remember
[51:04] because we were knowing we would lead to
this point and make some tough
[51:08] decisions. and the five mini budget
workshops. We heard from every
[51:12] department during that time. So, I'm I'm
going to be very interested in hearing
[51:18] where anybody may propose to do any
potential additional cuts that have not
[51:24] already been proposed by by staff and
from discussions that we've had with
[51:29] staff. But I'll leave it with we also
talked with core priorities. We've said
[51:34] that and how do we narrow in? There
couldn't be no more number one core
[51:38] priority than public safety. Um, and I
know there's some fire folks here, too.
[51:43] So, everybody needs them when you need
them and you expect them. And I've been
[51:48] a 35 year resident here of Valuchia. I
feel safe to you all because of you all.
[51:54] I really feel safe in Valuchia and I
welcome anywhere. When I come back home,
[51:59] if I'm outside of the area, if anything
happens to me or my family or friends, I
[52:03] know that we have a good team, whether
it's from medical to law enforcement
[52:08] that's going to help either solve the
crime or save someone. So, I'm very
[52:12] grateful for that. And um I am not
interested not interested in cutting
[52:17] your budget. So, as we go through this
process, I am making it very clear that
[52:22] my position is to continue to support
the efforts. We are a state-of-the-art
[52:27] agency. The the investments that you've
made, Sheriff, you and your team are
[52:32] very visible and you know, in the past,
I've kind of had conversations with you
[52:36] like, "Oh, we're spending money, but I
see the results of that effort and I
[52:40] think Volutions is seeing it also. So,
it's been good investments. Um, and um I
[52:45] will not be supporting any cuts to any
public safety today. Thank you, Mr.
[52:50] Chair.
>> Thank you. Welcome. So, I'm I'm going to
[52:53] go next. All of you are are here because
you've you've heard the the back and
[52:58] forth. Um, most of you uh don't like me
right now. I hope by the time I'm done,
[53:05] you're going to see that I'm your I'm
your best friend. I do appreciate the
[53:09] new people that are here. Um, you do an
an excellent job. I don't know why
[53:15] anybody in America today wants to put on
a uniform and go out and and uh try and
[53:23] protect the rest of the public. You are
heroes and I appreciate every one of
[53:28] you. I have always defended uh law
enforcement, firefighters, lifeguards,
[53:34] the EMS people. I have always we have
always held you harmless in our budget.
[53:40] Which means where we cut anywhere, we
didn't cut here.
[53:46] Here's the problem that we face this
year. Everybody's heard of amendment
[53:50] three. If amendment three passes, we're
not talking about a 3% cut in in budget.
[53:59] um not zeroing you out, not taking
millions of dollars away, slowing down
[54:05] the rate of increase of growth that the
people of Valuchia County have said we
[54:11] can't keep up with it anymore. Taxes are
too high. They want a tax reduction.
[54:18] They're having a hard time staying in
their own houses and we have to listen
[54:23] to that as well. The problem is when we
hold
[54:28] hold this many people uh harmless
is that
[54:33] sorry sheriff but your budget is out of
control. Since 2024
[54:39] your budget has gone up 30%. Since 2024
you've added 39,821,697.
[54:49] 2024 isn't that long ago. So holding you
harmless hasn't increased. What I'm
[54:56] suggesting today is that not just for
this and this isn't something that I
[55:01] thought about yesterday. I have said
this every year that I've been elected
[55:07] every time we come to budget season. In
fact, every January be long before we
[55:12] ever started. I have said we need to
either go to roll back. In fact, the
[55:17] first year I said we need to just cut
10% or 5%. and we've had that. This is
[55:22] not something new to me. It's not
something that I've sprung on you. It's
[55:27] something I want to have the strongest
sheriff's department in the state of
[55:32] Florida. If amendment three passes, it's
not going to be how do we cut 3%. It's
[55:38] going to be how many of you people are
going to be unemployed. It's going to be
[55:43] how many helicopters do we get rid of?
How many of the boats did we get rid of?
[55:47] How many programs do we get rid of? How
many parks do we close down? How many
[55:51] how many libraries do we close down?
We're talking about huge cuts. I'm
[55:56] trying to avoid that and protect the
safety and the health and the integrity
[56:03] of Valuchia County. So, if we go to roll
back in in just the sheriff's budget,
[56:10] it's not it's not that you're getting
less money that you're getting uh that
[56:15] you had last year. You would get without
a roll. Without a roll back, you get a
[56:20] 9,592432
[56:25] increase. With roll back, you get a
5,581819
[56:33] increase. There are no cuts. There are
no giant cuts. No defunding the police.
[56:40] Sheriff, I wouldn't do I've never called
for that. Nobody on this council would
[56:45] call for that. But if we don't start
rolling back what we're charging the
[56:51] citizens of Valuchia County, we're not
going to have a the sheriff's department
[56:56] that we have or anything that looks like
Valuchia County that we have now. So,
[57:00] I'm not I'm not picking on you guys. I
love you guys. I haven't supported the
[57:07] blue every time I ran just because it's
politics. It's in my blood. It's how
[57:12] I've raised my kids. It's how I've
talked all throughout public. I support
[57:19] law enforcement. I support our
firefighters and our EMS. That is the
[57:24] most important thing. And our
lifeguards. That's the most important
[57:27] thing that government does. That is the
essential services
[57:33] that we provide to Valuchia County. So,
what I've proposed is going to roll back
[57:38] in every fund except for uh one when we
go through it. We because if we don't,
[57:46] here's my warning to you.
If the if the citizens of Valuchia
[57:51] County, if the citizens of the state of
Florida do not see counties and cities
[57:56] doing everything they can to keep a
check on the rate of growth, to keep the
[58:02] check on their taxes and still provide
good service, they're going to vote for
[58:07] Amendment Three. And then all bets are
off. And we've got we're next year we're
[58:12] talking about a 28% 38% in uh decrease
in spending with nothing that I can do
[58:19] about it. So that's that's where we are.
Uh
[58:27] you got double dinged. That's all I'm
laughing. [laughter]
[58:30] » I figured.
>> Am I next? Yeah.
[58:32] » You are next. Councilman Don Dempson.
>> Am I understanding this right? All you
[58:37] uh law enforcement officers in the front
three rows are all new hires. Is that
[58:41] right? Man, that is awesome. Um, you may
not know I'm
[58:47] a criminal defense attorney. I used to
be a prosecutor. I've been here for 36
[58:50] years. And I I I have to say this. Um,
historically there's always been a
[58:54] shortage of law enforcement officers in
our county, municipalities as well as
[58:59] the sheriff. And um I think this is the
first time I can ever recollect where
[59:04] we've been appropriately staffed with
law enforcement officers, which is huge.
[59:09] Um and and my compliments to you guys
and sheriff and his hiring team because
[59:14] I get to deal with you guys on a daily
basis. I don't know if I've ever met
[59:18] most of you yet, but I do depositions
with with your officers, Sheriff. And um
[59:24] I get and and you run at different
levels of law enforcement officers. A
[59:28] lot of them are kind of learning the law
as they go. Some of them are very
[59:31] knowledgeable in Fourth Amendment issues
and stuff like that. And I got to say,
[59:35] and I'm not saying this just to Brown
knows you guys, but I I really am
[59:38] impressed with the sheriff's office um
because you guys do have a pretty have a
[59:44] good training uh
uh policy, I guess, or a training
[59:49] program. And so your your your hires are
great, and I don't want to see them go
[59:53] away. And I remember when the the
governor was offering the incentives and
[59:56] stuff to get northern uh law enforcement
officers to get down here and this this
[1:00:00] is awesome to see that we've come here.
Um I I I got to say this on behalf of
[1:00:06] the the chair. Um I don't take what he
was proposing as a roll back. I mean as
[1:00:10] a defunding the police. Um I would say
that historically um even this past uh
[1:00:15] in the last year we approved uh nearly a
$40 million project for the new
[1:00:20] headquarters. Um, so and I don't think
anybody even boked at that up here. Um,
[1:00:26] I was the one that boked the the
helicopters. I mean, we have a probably
[1:00:29] the most pristine helicopter uh air
force or whatever you want to call it um
[1:00:34] in probably Central Florida, which is
great. I mean, it serves its functions.
[1:00:37] I was kind of against it, but I wasn't
trying to defund, but it it's worked
[1:00:40] out. Um, so I don't want to see the
chair I don't want to see the chair be
[1:00:45] um accused of trying to defund um
a uh it was I was just made aware
[1:00:52] recently about you know the house bill
that came up 1329 that's going to
[1:00:55] require us on January 1st to go through
a mandatory I want to call it a fire
[1:01:01] drill but we have to the council at the
time has to go through a mandatory 10%
[1:01:06] budget reduction workshop
anticipation of uh amendment free
[1:01:11] because if it does pass, I mean, it's
going to be a a fire drill up here. I
[1:01:16] mean, there's going to be some drastic
cuts having to be made and the governor
[1:01:20] signed it into law that we have to
actually go through the the maneuvers to
[1:01:24] cut 10%. And where that's going to come,
I don't know. But there'll be a group of
[1:01:29] maybe some other portion of the
sheriff's or I'm sorry, not the
[1:01:32] sheriffs, but the county's employees
that may have to lose their job or
[1:01:36] whatever. It may get ugly if this
amendment three goes through. Um, so I
[1:01:40] don't I think the the chair is being
proactive. I think he's just trying to
[1:01:44] be fiscally conservative. I don't see
him as as anti-law enforcement. I think
[1:01:48] we're all up here pro law enforcement. I
really appreciate you guys. You guys are
[1:01:52] really when I deal with you guys, you're
very respectful, very polite. I've never
[1:01:57] come in contact with I don't think any
um bad cops on the sheriff's office. I I
[1:02:02] really I'm not I'm just trying to be
honest. Um but I think it's common. I'm
[1:02:08] going to go along with this as well. Um,
but I I
[1:02:12] because they have done a good job of
filling all the positions. I don't want
[1:02:15] to see them lose the new hires or the I
mean they're they're actually running
[1:02:19] really a good machine right now and I
don't want to see anything mess it up.
[1:02:23] But um I am worried about what next year
is going to do. So that's all I have to
[1:02:28] say. Thank you guys.
>> Thank you, Vice Chair Matt Reinhardt.
[1:02:31] » Thank you, Chair. um 1986,
[1:02:36] long time ago, year I started at the
jail, 30-year career, and I'm going to
[1:02:40] mix a little bit of apples and oranges
with that with law enforcement. I saw
[1:02:44] time and time again what a roll back in
any branch of law enforcement does in 30
[1:02:50] years.
What that man back there, which I'm
[1:02:54] going to give credit for, Joe Deore, our
director of corrections, what he has
[1:02:58] done with corrections and bringing our
staffing back up is remarkable. We have
[1:03:02] not done that. I commend him for that.
The same thing happens with the sheriff
[1:03:08] to fill those positions. So I see what
happens. It's cost of equipment.
[1:03:14] Every time we turn when we started, we
had this conversation the other day when
[1:03:17] I started at corrections. We didn't have
I I worked started at the old jail right
[1:03:21] across the street over in Dan. We didn't
have body cams.
[1:03:26] We did not have pepper spray. We did not
have tasers.
[1:03:32] We had nothing. Probably the result of
five knee surgeries, two neck surgeries,
[1:03:36] a head surgery,
but nonetheless,
[1:03:41] we had to. And then still taking that
roll back into account. We we would try
[1:03:46] to allocate for for different equipment,
more equipment,
[1:03:50] and we couldn't because of that. That
being said, I'm in support of what's
[1:03:56] being proposed and what the sheriff has
brought forth. And I think that it's
[1:04:01] it's reasonable.
So, you have my support. Always have had
[1:04:06] my support and always will have my
support.
[1:04:10] And I'm going to leave it at that.
Councilman Dailyaly Robbins. Thank you,
[1:04:15] Chairman.
Council, I want to remind everyone that
[1:04:19] we are a law and order state.
a state where all 67 counties have
[1:04:27] prioritized our law enforcement and our
public safety to the highest across the
[1:04:34] boards that it can possibly be. And
because of that, nationally, we have
[1:04:40] people fleeing
states like New York, Baltimore,
[1:04:45] Maryland, Chicago, Dearbornne, Michigan,
Minnesota,
[1:04:51] California,
and many more because they've seen the
[1:04:55] firsthand effects.
When you don't,
[1:04:59] they started a fire that they can no
longer control.
[1:05:04] Our businesses will decline. Our tourism
will suffer. Our law enforcement will
[1:05:12] have vacancies.
Crime will indefinitely rise. And our
[1:05:17] residents will ultimately pay the price.
Violent crime and mental illness will be
[1:05:24] rampant throughout Valuchia County.
and the public health and public hygiene
[1:05:32] on our streets will most certainly
decline.
[1:05:37] Everything that we have worked for as a
council
[1:05:41] in public safety, our parks, you name
it, across the board when it goes to
[1:05:46] improving our quality of life will be a
waste if we go in the opposite
[1:05:52] direction.
council in the public. The sheriff's
[1:05:56] office supports all 16 cities throughout
Valuchia County and our unincorporated
[1:06:02] areas areas. Whether when it's a canine
is needed, whether they need help with
[1:06:09] investigations or evidence collection or
crime scene processing, additional
[1:06:14] manpower, and we can't forget that
they're also the primary air ambulance
[1:06:20] service when it comes to medevac when
seconds really count.
[1:06:25] Whether it's an active shooter that we
see on Ridgewood several weeks ago or
[1:06:31] what happened this morning in in Port
Orange where thank god everybody is
[1:06:35] okay. Um
it should reiterate, be evident and
[1:06:42] solidify the fact that our law
enforcement
[1:06:47] needs all the help they can get. Um I
don't know if I'd go back in that uh
[1:06:52] profession right now for for any money
in the world. So, um, and we need to
[1:06:57] provide them with all the tools, uh,
that that we can and and and what has
[1:07:03] been submitted, I believe, is more than
reasonable at this point. I urge council
[1:07:10] to reject
defunding in any way, shape, or form um,
[1:07:16] in any capacity and vote in the
affirmative to accept the sheriff's
[1:07:21] office budget that's being proposed.
Thank you.
[1:07:25] Councilman Troy Kent.
>> Thank you, Chairman. [snorts] Sheriff
[1:07:29] Chitwood,
I love that you brought your tax bill in
[1:07:33] here today
and you read the numbers
[1:07:39] and the increase
because that's across the board. As long
[1:07:44] as you're homesteaded, that's basically
what most people are getting in Valuchia
[1:07:48] County. And sheriff, you and I met way
back when you were the chief of police
[1:07:53] of Daytona Beach and I was a city
commissioner in Orman Beach. And you've
[1:07:58] always been good to the entire county.
But I'm going to talk about my hometown
[1:08:03] a little bit, Orman Beach and Orman by
the Sea, where you and your deputies
[1:08:08] take great care of those people there
right now.
[1:08:14] And sheriff, you and I have had some
some good discussions in the past about
[1:08:19] making sure that your department is
fully funded because
[1:08:26] I can tell you, you know, my brother
retired from Simo County Sheriff's
[1:08:30] Department as our longest serving
sergeant and and he's retired and and by
[1:08:35] the way, he loves retired life. He loves
it.
[1:08:39] But I talked to you about him then and
about how important it is for us to give
[1:08:46] you all of the tools necessary to do
your job.
[1:08:51] And then also
people under you when you were at
[1:08:55] Daytona Beach. I think about Orman the
city of Orman Beach uh Chief Jesse who
[1:09:02] was under you. So I'm appreciative of of
that as well. But council, this isn't
[1:09:09] just about the sheriff's office. We've
got other departments that we you heard
[1:09:14] about today. I mean, from from the
library, etc., etc. And how do we as an
[1:09:21] elected body
approve raises like we've done
[1:09:27] and then say we're going to go to roll
back and and bring in less money? The
[1:09:33] people that elected me to serve in this
rented seat elected me to make good,
[1:09:41] healthy, sound decisions so that a
couple of things were going that they
[1:09:46] don't have to even think about public
safety. Number one,
[1:09:50] sheriff, I'm going to just tell you,
I've said this to you privately, but I'm
[1:09:54] going to say it publicly.
I have heard on on from a good good
[1:09:59] source that you are the most popular
elected official in Valuchia County and
[1:10:03] it's hard for me to say that being an
elected official
[1:10:06] that your approval rating is over 70%.
But in Orman Beach is closer to 80%.
[1:10:13] Okay, I'm going to tell you I've got
that on good accord that I' I've heard
[1:10:16] that. All right.
The people love that you get the bad
[1:10:21] guys and they love that you call them
scumbags
[1:10:25] because you call a spade a spade
[snorts] and you take care of what
[1:10:29] you've got to take care of. But council,
I can't sit here. Well, let me back up a
[1:10:35] moment. This is what people expect. They
expect
[1:10:39] uh public safety number one. They want
to make sure that they have good police
[1:10:44] and fire. Also, they want to make sure
you have a capable paramedic and
[1:10:49] ambulance to get you if you are in
trouble. Number two, they want good
[1:10:55] water. It's got to be great water.
Number three, your roads better not have
[1:11:00] potholes. They want to be able to get to
point A to point B. And that's what they
[1:11:04] want. Then we can talk about recreation
and things like that. But in that order,
[1:11:10] that is what the people that elect us
expect from us with our decision-making.
[1:11:16] Um, so I I certainly will not be voting
to go to roll back. And I'll just tell
[1:11:22] everybody, I'm not on the ballot. This
really isn't a political decision for
[1:11:26] me. I've got two more years before I'm
on the ballot for my last term as a
[1:11:30] district 4 county councilman. So, it's
not political for me. It's just how do
[1:11:36] we approve raises like we've done and
then say we're going to go to roll back?
[1:11:41] It just doesn't make sense. And with my
last 44 seconds or so, Mr. Rectenwald, a
[1:11:47] couple of years ago, and I hate to throw
you on the spot like this, but what was
[1:11:51] our vacancy rate out at the jail?
[1:11:56] » Yeah, you had about 70, I think, at a
peak.
[1:11:59] » What's our vacancy rate now?
>> Uh, I had to check, but it's down to
[1:12:03] just a couple.
>> Just a couple. You know what we did? We
[1:12:06] met privately and said, "Pay them more.
Give them more money because that's what
[1:12:12] they need so that you don't have these
vacancies." And what paying people more
[1:12:17] money means, it tells you something.
Says, "I appreciate you. Thank you. Come
[1:12:23] to work for us. We're not asking you to
do it just on, you know, your good
[1:12:27] looks. We want you to do it. We want to
thank you for it." Thank you, Chairman.
[1:12:31] » Councilman Jake Johansson. Thank you,
sir. Um um for for the sheriffs and the
[1:12:38] deputies out there, uh thank you very
much for everything. I'm not going to
[1:12:41] echo everybody everything else
everything everybody else said, but I
[1:12:47] appreciate everything you all do. Um I
have conversations with the sheriff. Uh
[1:12:53] not often. I try to leave you alone,
Mike, but uh occasionally. and uh uh he
[1:13:00] knows how much you all mean to me and my
family and and the citizens of Lucia
[1:13:05] County. What I do want to talk about
generally, and I I do this probably too
[1:13:10] often, uh get a little bit
philosophical. Um if
[1:13:16] if I'm going to look to do something
that's going to affect somebody in life,
[1:13:21] I hate confrontation. and I'd rather
have a conversation with them and and
[1:13:26] try to solve it uh uh not springing on
them. Uh
[1:13:31] couple months ago, uh we pulled some
cultural arts money and my my main
[1:13:36] argument was we promised it, now we're
pulling the rug out. Um uh and and so
[1:13:44] when it comes to the budget, I think
it's very important that if if we're
[1:13:48] going to do something like go to roll
back with with any fund, uh that we have
[1:13:54] the conversation and and maybe um maybe
if I had thought about that, the sheriff
[1:14:01] and I could have sat down with George
and figured out ways to get creative
[1:14:06] without affecting wages or or other
stuff. Um but but apparently that didn't
[1:14:12] happen because I didn't know what the
hell was going on till this morning. So
[1:14:16] um
so in the in the things that I'm going
[1:14:21] to talk about later uh in the budget and
and I don't know if this is my one bite
[1:14:28] at the whole budget apple but um I'm
going to possibly talk about SMA
[1:14:34] funding. Now, I've had a conversation
with SMA about SMA funding. Uh
[1:14:41] I'm not going to talk about TDT
restructuring, but I did have a
[1:14:45] conversation with uh all the uh tourism
people about TDT restructuring.
[1:14:52] Uh, and and there's one thing that I
haven't had a conversation about yet,
[1:14:56] and I'm going to try to sneak sneak in a
sidebar conversation, but it's very
[1:15:02] important that that we have those frank
discussions and and work those issues
[1:15:08] and work those relationships and work
that network just like you all do out
[1:15:13] out in the uh on the um on the streets,
right? If we community police and get to
[1:15:20] know everybody, they're less likely to
flip you off, call you pigs, and do
[1:15:25] something stupid behind the back of the
uh 7-Eleven.
[1:15:30] But if you don't talk to them and you
boss around and you show your gun and
[1:15:36] you tell them that they they suck and
you don't, it's not going to go well,
[1:15:40] right? So, we got to we got to work good
relationships. And I I think that's
[1:15:46] probably where we could have done a
better job. And and um uh I I think
[1:15:52] that's how you move forward with the
budget. It's a little bit late in the
[1:15:55] game like some of my partners said. We
have workshops in January, February,
[1:16:00] March, April, May, and June. And uh I
beg people to look at cuts then and I
[1:16:08] think we all went to George and
indicated where where we wanted to see
[1:16:14] or we could see uh a funding change and
and I know he's made or or staff has
[1:16:20] made some hard decisions already um on
how to save some money this year and
[1:16:27] next year. So, uh, uh, I I think most of
us did our job. Um, and and moving
[1:16:34] forward, I I still think we need to
communicate in order to collaborate and
[1:16:40] make things work. So, again, I
appreciate everything you all do, even
[1:16:45] the guys in the back that are hiding
behind the uh the video uh box there.
[1:16:50] and um uh I'm I'll be supporting uh at
least the um the sheriff's budget here
[1:16:58] tonight. Thanks,
>> Councilman Santiago.
[1:17:01] » Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll be quick. I I
just as I as I heard a lot of the
[1:17:04] commentary or some of the commentary, I
don't I wanted to say I don't think
[1:17:09] considering the pending amendment three
should be part of our discussion here or
[1:17:14] evaluation. At least it's not a factor
for me because the voters haven't spoken
[1:17:17] yet. um they'll tell us in November
whether they not they support that
[1:17:22] amendment and then then we have all
counties all 67 counties will at that
[1:17:27] point have to restructure. Um I don't I
I don't think we should gut our uh law
[1:17:32] enforcement or public safety uh uh
budgets in [snorts] anticipation of what
[1:17:39] may or may not happen in November with
amendment three. So um we should just
[1:17:43] take this budget based on its merits and
make the decisions accordingly. Thank
[1:17:46] you, Mr. Chair.
Uh George or Ryan, as you go as we go
[1:17:53] through the different funds, does each
council member uh will they all have an
[1:17:59] opportunity to speak on that if they
want? Jake said he'd like to speak
[1:18:05] about something else.
Well, each of the uh
[1:18:12] I I believe I'd recommend at this point
that each of the funds be addressed
[1:18:15] separately as far as a mill vote.
>> Yeah.
[1:18:18] » So, okay.
>> If we if we want to do each one
[1:18:21] separately, we'll vote and then you can
discuss.
[1:18:23] » Yeah. And so I'll just let council let
you know J
[1:18:29] um since you brought it up as we get to
each fund if you want to say something
[1:18:34] about that fund we'll I I'll give you
that opportunity.
[1:18:39] » 10 minutes for each one.
[1:18:43] » Maybe we won't. All right. Um I'll just
close with one more thing. I I uh you
[1:18:51] can tell you're safe. I'm the lone voice
here um that thinks that we need to
[1:18:56] start uh um reducing the rate of growth
in our budget. Now, I do think it is
[1:19:04] absolutely plausible to consider
amendment three. And I'm going to say it
[1:19:10] again. Here's why. If we can't cut 3.14%
from a fund,
[1:19:18] » the public's going to look at us and
say, "Okay, we've we've given up. We've
[1:19:22] asked you, we've told you to reduce tax
rates. I've not proposed any cuts. I've
[1:19:28] not proposed defunding anything. Going
to roll back in any one fund, especially
[1:19:35] the sheriff's fund, gives you more
money, almost $6 million more than you
[1:19:41] had last year. Yeah, it's not nine, but
it's a it's a small decrease to preserve
[1:19:47] what we have in Valuchia County. So, um,
I'm just going to stop with that. You've
[1:19:55] you've all heard from from all of us.
You know where I stand. But I will say
[1:20:00] this in closing because I just heard it
again from Jake. This was just sprung on
[1:20:05] me this morning. That's not true. For as
long as I've been up here, I've talked
[1:20:10] about the need to go to roll back, the
need to cut the budget. Um, started last
[1:20:15] year. We need I want a 15% cut. and the
county manager said, "How about if we
[1:20:20] just get to roll back?" It's a constant
conversation. This is not new to me. Um,
[1:20:26] we've held
first responders harmless. This year, I
[1:20:32] want to hold taxpayers harmless while
preserving the maximum amount of money
[1:20:38] that you can be uh that you can operate
on next year after amendment three is
[1:20:45] voted on.
so that you don't have to hear me
[1:20:49] anymore tonight. That's it for me. I do
thank you for coming in. I do appreciate
[1:20:54] you. I want you to be able to go home
safe to your children every night just
[1:21:00] as I want for me to go home to my I
don't have any children at home anymore,
[1:21:06] but I do have 15 grandchildren and I
want to see them be raised safely in
[1:21:12] Valuchia County. I appreciate you. Um, I
am worried what happens next year and
[1:21:20] the year after.
Okay, Ryan.
[1:21:30] All right.
[1:21:33] Well, I have a slide on the screen with
the uh current millage rate, the
[1:21:37] proposed millage rate, and what the
change would be. Uh, the first fund
[1:21:42] that's up is the general fund. uh
hearing that there may be comments from
[1:21:48] council members on it before we
uh I I have a recommended motion that
[1:21:53] was in the packet. Just want to hear
what where we're at.
[1:21:57] Is there a motion for general fund?
[1:22:03] Uh Councilman Santiago has a question.
>> Thank you, Mr. Chair.
[1:22:08] On this one, the roll back is 3.107,
right?
[1:22:12] » Yes, it is.
What would be the uh you know you may
[1:22:16] have had another slide and I apologize.
What would be the uh net increase
[1:22:21] decrease sorry um going from going to
the brback?
[1:22:27] » I'll show you the exact number.
This is the slide that covers the
[1:22:32] difference. The difference is 6,680,488.
>> Okay, that's all I need to know for now.
[1:22:38] Thank you,
>> Councilman Robbins.
[1:22:42] I would just like to get a an idea if
council would be um interested or if
[1:22:49] there's any support to instruct staff uh
to hold the partial roll back for now
[1:22:54] because we could only go down, right? Um
and bring back a budget to reduce
[1:23:00] possibly uh a little silo with road
subsidies uh that we put in a few years
[1:23:06] ago. uh as well as looking at programs
across the board that we pay into uh as
[1:23:12] a county that we're funding above
statemandated uh levels.
[1:23:16] » Making a motion.
>> Sure. Making a motion.
[1:23:19] » Second.
>> Tell me the motion again to instruct
[1:23:23] staff to bring back a budget um
reflecting a reduction in the road
[1:23:29] subsidy that I believe it was me and
Troy put in a couple years ago. It was
[1:23:33] about 5 million uh that we subsidized
from the general fund as well as looking
[1:23:38] at programs across the board that we pay
to as a county that we're funding above
[1:23:43] and beyond above and beyond the
statemandated amount.
[1:23:47] » Is that specific to just the general
fund? Sorry, Mr. Chair.
[1:23:50] » Just just just the general fund. That's
the one that we're on.
[1:23:54] » Okay. Ryan, let me ask you because our
next meeting is on the 22nd. You have to
[1:23:59] have everything ready then. There's
really not time to bring back, but you
[1:24:02] could if if the motion is go to partial
roll back here, then that's what you
[1:24:08] would bring back on the 22nd.
>> The motion can only be an exact uh it
[1:24:12] has to be a military. So, if you wanted
us to bring back a budget that looked at
[1:24:17] uh modifying the road subsidy and
programs that we fund that are above
[1:24:23] state mandates that are external
programs,
[1:24:27] we could do that, but I don't know the
exact impact of putting all that stuff
[1:24:31] together unless you tell us you have to
get to roll back. I know that number. I
[1:24:35] know that's 3.107, 107. But if you want
to do something in between, I would
[1:24:39] recommend just
>> this is like the trim setting where you
[1:24:43] can only go, you know, from this point,
you can only go down,
[1:24:46] » right?
>> So my recommendation would be you can
[1:24:51] make that motion and vote on it and
we'll bring it back, but I would vote
[1:24:54] the the current my suggestion would be
to keep it at the proposed rate right
[1:25:00] now. You can always lower it.
>> And I'll amend my motion to reflect
[1:25:03] that. uh keep it at the current rate
>> until they bring that.
[1:25:07] » Actually, it would be better if you just
kept your motion to direct us to do
[1:25:09] that. We'll do that separately and then
I'll read the required statutory reading
[1:25:14] that has percentages in it.
>> Sounds good.
[1:25:16] » Okay. So, so then therefore the motion
is
[1:25:23] Danny
[1:25:28] keep it at the current rate, but to um
instruct staff to bring it bring back a
[1:25:34] budget to reduce the road subsidy uh
that we do from the general fund as well
[1:25:39] as looking at programs across the board
that we are uh funding above and beyond
[1:25:44] the statemandated amount.
[1:25:49] Okay. And there's still a second second
by Vice Chair Reinhardt.
[1:25:56] Okay. Does everybody see where we are?
Chissa, would you call?
[1:26:02] » Sorry. Councilman K.
>> Thank you. So,
[1:26:08] Mr. Robbins, I I'll just tell you, you
know, we we talked about in the past
[1:26:12] about possibly, you know, pulling money
back from the roads program, but
[1:26:18] you know how much the roads are going to
be tomorrow compared to today
[1:26:22] and next year compared to this year.
Council, I'm going to tell you right
[1:26:27] now, I'm looking at this list
[1:26:32] from general fund, law enforcement,
library.
[1:26:35] I'm going to skip past, come back to it.
Municipal Service, Silver Sands,
[1:26:39] Mosquito Control. I'm gonna skip Fire
Services and come back to it. Valuchia
[1:26:43] Echo and Valuchia Forever.
I I could make this go very quickly
[1:26:49] because I'm I'm going to make motions if
no one else does to keep all of those
[1:26:53] proposed millage rates the exact same
that they were, not going to roll back.
[1:26:58] The only ones I want to talk about are
possibly Leon at a 3.03% reduction and
[1:27:04] fire service is at 0.68 68
uh% reduction because last year we had a
[1:27:10] little bit of a hiccup with fire
services whenever staff it really wasn't
[1:27:14] a hiccup but um staff recommended one
thing and then we heard something
[1:27:18] different from the union and as long as
fire services and possibly on have what
[1:27:24] they need then then I'm okay with with
those reductions as long as staff has
[1:27:27] vetted that and we're okay with it. Um,
but I'm I'm not for what I said earlier.
[1:27:35] We we gave people raises.
Mosquito control the chemicals costs
[1:27:41] more.
We got to put boots on the ground in the
[1:27:45] library. So, I'm I'm not I'm not for
reducing any of those things. And we've
[1:27:50] got roads that need attention. So, I'm
not for looking at George and saying,
[1:27:54] "I'm going to pull five million bucks
out of your roads program." Because we
[1:27:58] talked about
Hey, George, hire some people and let us
[1:28:01] do the job. And the state says, not so
fast, right?
[1:28:07] » So, they've got fail safes in place so
that elected bodies can't do that.
[1:28:14] But what I'm saying, council, is I'm
going to vote no on that because I'm not
[1:28:18] for taking five million bucks out of
that fund.
[1:28:22] It is what it is. And uh
I'll be making motions to keep the
[1:28:28] proposed millage rate that's proposed
here of 2627 on each of each of the rest
[1:28:34] of those. So
this is this is the public's meeting. So
[1:28:37] we can we can be here as late as we need
to be. I'm fine with that. Um but I want
[1:28:42] to make sure that not just because law
enforcement is here, but not only them,
[1:28:47] but every other taxing fund receives the
support that they deserve. Thanks,
[1:28:56] » Councilman Robbins.
>> And Mr. Ken, I think I I think we can
[1:28:58] get there, but I think there also needs
to be some clarification, whether it's
[1:29:01] Ryan or county manager, to uh explain
exactly what we did. Uh so there's no
[1:29:08] misunderstandings or miscommunications
or um
[1:29:13] » whatot what that what that road fund,
our additional subsidy has done, what
[1:29:18] it's actually done, and and how we would
proceed forward if we did to decide to
[1:29:24] uh keep it or not keep it. Is that
something you can do?
[1:29:27] » Yeah. Uh at least generally uh
like you mentioned it is a road subsidy
[1:29:34] because for the uh 30 years I've been
here at least the last 27. You know all
[1:29:41] the roads were done uh using gas tax
impact fees and of course prop share
[1:29:46] which is really impact fees ahead of
time. So it's really you get down to it.
[1:29:50] And then grants, we go after grants from
the Florida DOT, federal government.
[1:29:56] That's your road program. And
interestingly, I will just say uh you
[1:30:03] know, I think the gas tax amount is
almost the same when I uh started 30
[1:30:08] years ago. So it's been a flat amount of
gas tax, somewhere in the $20 million
[1:30:13] range. Um that's your old program. So
the good news is though, it's steady.
[1:30:18] You have it. It's not property tax
based.
[1:30:22] There is money uh I will say about $5
million in the MSD that goes to uh Roco
[1:30:29] Road, your dirt road, your side streets.
Um that's what handles that. So that
[1:30:34] part is property tax. You guys uh I
think Danny, like you said, uh you and
[1:30:40] Mr. Kent a couple years ago came up with
the idea of how about we subsidize that,
[1:30:46] give it a little extra push. And that's
with the $5 million out of the general
[1:30:50] fund. So that's the new part that was
given. It's gone into various projects.
[1:30:55] It's it's either been used to do
resurfacing of roads. There's been
[1:30:59] several safety projects that I they've
worked on and also uh
[1:31:06] plug the gap in other funding because a
lot of times these roads are put
[1:31:10] together these projects like I say with
a combination of a grant, some gas tax
[1:31:14] and impact fees. So they also use that
to plug that hole. Um so that that's
[1:31:21] what it is. It's not the primary source.
It's it's a subsidy to uh um try to move
[1:31:27] us a little forward was the intent.
Okay.
[1:31:30] » Thank you, George. And and just just so
we know, we're not going to be cutting
[1:31:34] anyone's position. We're not going to be
cutting any raises that we factored in
[1:31:38] out of that 5 million.
>> No, that's all project based. That's the
[1:31:40] one thing about it is it's project
based. Totally separate. Yeah. It's not
[1:31:44] on our day-to-day operations.
>> And I think council is just gives us a
[1:31:47] little bit of an opportunity as an
option to see what we're, you know,
[1:31:50] looking at. Let this marinate uh for a
week or two. And I I may not commit to
[1:31:56] it, but it's an option. Uh in case this
council decides
[1:32:02] um just like kind of what the public is
saying, hey, if this council decides to
[1:32:05] go to roll back, here are some options.
So, thank you.
[1:32:08] » I'm I'm okay with the option. We we'll
have two weeks to think about. Okay,
[1:32:13] you're good with it.
>> I hear the directions. So, do you want
[1:32:16] me to read the official motion that has
to be made? Because as the as the
[1:32:21] manager recommended,
>> uh you can't go you can't go any uh
[1:32:25] direction but down. So, right now, we'd
recommend you set the proposed millage
[1:32:29] rate as listed in the agenda. And I'm
going to read that now. Uh looking for a
[1:32:34] motion to move approval for tenatively
adoption of general fund advalarm tax
[1:32:38] rate of 3.20007 20007 mills which is
3.23% greater than the roll back rate of
[1:32:45] 3.107
mills.
[1:32:48] » Mr. Chair, real quick because we do have
a motion on the floor unless that was
[1:32:51] withdrawn.
[1:32:55] » No, sir. Don't we have I thought we had
Mr. Robin's motion with a second that's
[1:32:58] still on the floor to be voted on.
>> There was a motion to direct us, but
[1:33:02] I've heard the direction. So maybe we
need to resolve that. Yeah. Why don't
[1:33:06] you just withdraw your motion and then U
Ryan just gave you the motion.
[1:33:12] » I I've heard the direction.
>> I'll withdraw my motion.
[1:33:18] » Do we have a motion for the 3.20007
mills?
[1:33:23] » Motion to approve
>> with options next time.
[1:33:26] Okay.
[1:33:30] All right. Carissa, call the role,
please. Can you clarify who the
[1:33:36] secondary was?
>> Mr. Johansson?
[1:33:41] » Yes.
>> Mr. Kent?
[1:33:43] » Yes.
>> Mr. Reinhardt?
[1:33:44] » Yes.
>> Mr. Robbins?
[1:33:46] » Yes.
>> Mr. Santiago.
[1:33:48] » Mr. Dempsey.
>> Mr. Brower.
[1:33:51] » No.
>> Okay. Move to the second. The law
[1:33:55] enforcement fund.
>> Law enforcement fund. Advalorum tax rate
[1:33:58] of 1.5994
mills is 3.29% 29% greater than the roll
[1:34:03] back rate of 1.5485
mills.
[1:34:08] Do I have a motion?
>> Move approval.
[1:34:12] » Have a motion for approval by Troy Kent.
Second by Vice Chair Reinhardt.
[1:34:19] Any questions? Chris, call the role,
please.
[1:34:23] » Mr. Johansson,
>> yes.
[1:34:24] » Mr. Kent,
>> yes.
[1:34:26] » Mr. Reinhardt,
>> yes.
[1:34:27] » Mr. Robins,
>> yes.
[1:34:29] » Mr. Mr. Santiago.
>> Yes.
[1:34:30] » Mr. Dempsey.
>> Yes.
[1:34:32] » Mr. Brower.
>> No.
[1:34:35] » And the library fund.
>> Library fund out of alarm tax rate of
[1:34:39] 0.3
n sorry 0.3697
[1:34:43] mills is 3.38% greater than the roll
back rate of 0.3576
[1:34:50] mills.
>> Move approval.
[1:34:53] We have a motion to approve the uh
the mill rate as presented by uh
[1:35:00] Councilman Kent and a second by Vice
Chair Reinhardt.
[1:35:05] » Questions?
Chris, call the role, please.
[1:35:09] » Mr. Johansson,
>> yes.
[1:35:11] » Mr. Kent,
>> yes.
[1:35:12] » Mr. Reinhardt,
>> yes.
[1:35:13] » Mr. Robins,
>> yes.
[1:35:15] » Mr. Santiago.
>> Mr. Dempsey?
[1:35:17] » Yes.
>> Mr. Brower?
[1:35:19] » No.
And that takes us to Valuchia Forever.
[1:35:23] Valuchia Forever fund advalor tax rate
of 0.200
[1:35:28] mills is 3.31% greater than the roll
back rate of 0.1936
[1:35:33] mills.
>> Move approval.
[1:35:36] » I have a motion to approve the 2 mills
by Troy Kent.
[1:35:44] Did the second come from you from Vice
Chair Reinhardt?
[1:35:50] Christa, would you call the role,
please?
[1:35:52] » Mr. Johansson,
>> yes.
[1:35:54] » Mr. Kent,
>> yes.
[1:35:55] » Mr. Reinhardt,
>> Mr. Robbins,
[1:35:57] » yes.
>> Mr. Santiago.
[1:36:00] » Mr. Dempsey. Mr. Brower.
>> Yes.
[1:36:04] » And then move to echo echo fund adorum
tax rate.
[1:36:08] » Discussion.
>> Uh, I'm sorry, I didn't see your name.
[1:36:11] Councilman on echo or the previous one?
>> Echo.
[1:36:15] » Okay. Jack Johansson. Um [snorts] I'
I've noticed that uh uh quite a few
[1:36:21] cities are ratcheting down their budgets
in preparation for what might happen.
[1:36:27] And um uh I foresee uh based on my
experience that a lot of cities will not
[1:36:34] be asking for
uh grants because they won't be able to
[1:36:39] make the match for bigger uh grants. We
have a heck of a good chunk of reserves
[1:36:48] in the echo program. And uh I I think
this merits possibly going to
[1:36:56] uh going to roll back in the echo fund
this year uh and let it even out, let
[1:37:02] the reserves wind down a little bit and
um take a look at it uh next year if if
[1:37:10] required.
um
[1:37:13] something to think about with with
Danny's proposal that that may net five
[1:37:19] maybe uh $5.5 million and getting echoed
down um uh I think it's about a mill uh
[1:37:30] that in effect as it appears would would
get
[1:37:35] the same as what we would do if we went
to roll back in the general fund as far
[1:37:40] as cost savings.
[1:37:45] Okay. So, is there a motion for echo?
[1:37:51] » Yeah, I'd like to make a motion to go
roll back and echo.
[1:37:56] » Jake Johansson makes a motion to go to
roll back and echo.
[1:38:01] Is there a second?
[1:38:06] » I don't think you're going to get a
second.
[1:38:08] » Chairman, seeing no second, I'll go
ahead and make a motion. um to approve
[1:38:11] the the echo millillage as staff uh put
forward.
[1:38:15] » Second.
>> Let me read into the record. The
[1:38:17] Valuchia echo fund advalorum tax rate of
0.200
[1:38:22] mills is 3.31% greater than the roll
back rate of 0.1936
[1:38:27] mills.
>> Move approval.
[1:38:28] » Second.
>> Chris to call the role.
[1:38:35] » Can you tell me who seconded?
>> I did.
[1:38:37] » Vice Chair Reinhardt.
[1:38:44] You have another question.
>> I have of someone who would like to do
[1:38:48] public comment on this.
>> The motion
[1:38:51] » failed.
>> It failed the second.
[1:38:59] » Mr. Johansson,
>> yes.
[1:39:01] » Mr. Kent,
>> yes.
[1:39:02] » Mr. Reinhardt,
>> yes.
[1:39:04] » Mr. Robbins,
>> yes.
[1:39:05] » Mr. Santiago,
>> Mr. Dempsey,
[1:39:09] Mr. Brower.
>> Yes. Mosquito control. The mosquito
[1:39:13] control fund advalorum tax rate of
0.1573
[1:39:18] mills is 3.15% greater than the roll
back rate of 0.1525
[1:39:23] mills.
[1:39:26] » Move approval.
>> Have a motion to approve the uh uh 1.573
[1:39:33] mil rate by Councilman Kent and a second
by Vice Chair Reinhardt. Any questions,
[1:39:38] comments? Carissa, call the role.
>> Mr. Johansson,
[1:39:43] » yes.
>> Mr. Kent,
[1:39:44] » yes.
>> Mr. Reinhardt,
[1:39:45] » yes.
>> Mr. Robins,
[1:39:47] » yes.
>> Mr. Santiago.
[1:39:49] » Mr. Dempsey?
>> Yes.
[1:39:50] » Mr. Brower?
>> No.
[1:39:53] » Pon Inlet Port Authority,
[1:39:58] which is at the roll back rate of
0.06400.
[1:40:02] The pon inlet and port authority fund
advor tax rate is at the rolled back
[1:40:06] rate of 0.0640
mills.
[1:40:10] » Motion I got a
>> I got a question first.
[1:40:16] » Okay. Um sorry
>> we have a motion by by vice chair
[1:40:21] Reinhardt. Uh no second yet. Uh Troy
Kent, you have a question.
[1:40:25] » Thank you. Uh Mr. Rectald, this is one
of the two that uh staff is recommending
[1:40:30] um a decrease.
Tell me why
[1:40:36] we have sufficient with with what we're
proposing. We'll have sufficient funds
[1:40:41] to do any of the projects that are
planned, the dredging and what that
[1:40:45] comes out of that particular fund. So,
we're not going to ask for more when we
[1:40:48] don't need it.
>> Second.
[1:40:51] » Okay. Second is by Troy Kent.
and um Hapansson. Let
[1:40:59] uh
I don't think I have to call the role,
[1:41:03] but go ahead and call the role. Carissa,
>> Mr. Johansson,
[1:41:07] » Mr. Kent,
>> yes.
[1:41:08] » Mr. Reinhardt,
>> yes.
[1:41:10] » Mr. Robbins,
>> yes.
[1:41:11] » Mr. Santiago,
>> Mr. Dempsey,
[1:41:14] » yes.
>> Mr. Brower,
[1:41:15] » yes.
>> And that brings us to the fire rescue
[1:41:19] district fund.
>> Uh might not be the exact same order
[1:41:24] that's on the slides. I'm following the
order that was listed. I'm sorry.
[1:41:26] Separate agenda.
>> Silver sands.
[1:41:28] » I'm actually at the municipal service
district. Municipal service district
[1:41:31] adarm tax rate of 1.6956
mills is 2.79% greater than the roll
[1:41:37] back rate of 1.6495
mills.
[1:41:41] » Sub move.
>> Move approval.
[1:41:45] » Second.
>> Troy Kent. Uh move to approve the MSD
[1:41:49] fund
at its current military. Second by
[1:41:55] Councilman Robbins.
Uh
[1:42:00] any conversation questions on this? Just
uh please verify if I'm correct on this.
[1:42:07] We're already hurting in MSD.
>> The MSD fund is using reserves to
[1:42:11] balance its budget uh for quite a few
years in a row now. It does have
[1:42:15] sufficient reserves in our five-year
forecast to go throughout the five-year
[1:42:18] period. That's why we didn't recommend
anything like a rate increase. But re
[1:42:22] recommending this at a flat rate helps
not make the gap larger.
[1:42:27] » Okay. Councilman Robbins Ryan, what's
our reserves in there right now? What's
[1:42:31] the number? You know,
[1:42:42] D, you made the second on that.
[1:43:04] The recommended budget has $32 million
of reserves.
[1:43:08] We are using $4 million of reserves a
year at this point. That's why we it's
[1:43:12] it's a large reserve number. So even
though you're unbalanced, we're not
[1:43:16] recommending to make the gap wider, but
we're also not recommending to increase
[1:43:20] the tax rate to do undo the balance
because it does have a sizable reserve.
[1:43:24] Thank you.
>> Okay. Motion and second still stand.
[1:43:31] Carissa, please call the role on the
municipal service district fund.
[1:43:36] » Mr. Johansson,
>> yes.
[1:43:38] » Mr. Kent,
>> yes.
[1:43:39] » Mr. Reinhardt,
>> yes.
[1:43:40] » Mr. Robbins,
>> yes.
[1:43:42] » Mr. Santiago, Mr. Dempsey,
>> yes,
[1:43:45] » Mr. Brower.
>> Yes. And that takes us to
[1:43:48] [clears throat] Silver Sand Bthoon Beach
MSD.
[1:43:51] » Silver Sands Bthoon Beach MSD fund
advalorum tax rate of 0.099
[1:43:58] mills is 1.02%
greater than the roll back rate of
[1:44:02] 0.0098
mills.
[1:44:09] » Move approval.
We have a motion to approve. I think
[1:44:12] Vice Chair Reinhardt beat you to it.
I'll
[1:44:15] » second that. Yep.
>> To keep the uh military at 00099.
[1:44:25] Any questions, comments? Chris,
>> Mr. Johansson?
[1:44:29] » Yes.
>> Mr. Kent?
[1:44:31] » Yes.
>> Mr. Reinhardt?
[1:44:32] » Yes.
>> Mr. Robbins?
[1:44:33] » Yes.
>> Mr. Santiago.
[1:44:35] » Mr. Dempsey?
>> Yes.
[1:44:37] » Mr. Brower?
>> No. And the last one is fire rescue
[1:44:42] district fund
at 3.5990
[1:44:50] mills 2.19% greater than the roll back
rate.
[1:44:53] » Fire rescue district advalon tax rate of
3.5990
[1:44:58] mills is 2.19% greater than the rolled
back rate of 3.5217
[1:45:03] mills.
>> I see two people. I I hope I didn't miss
[1:45:08] you last time, Councilman Robbins.
>> No, thank you. Uh staff, uh for the
[1:45:13] decrease
there or the or the 68 change, uh we
[1:45:18] heard some concerns this morning from
our our fire folks. Can you just hit on
[1:45:23] um some of the projects and explain what
we've been doing there? Uh how the
[1:45:28] reserves are in what situation? Um
>> Sure.
[1:45:31] » or how healthy they
>> Yeah, they're very healthy reserves.
[1:45:34] Also, I would just say the concern this
morning, uh, the the tender is been
[1:45:41] delivered, I believe. So, the the fire
truck he was talking about, he just
[1:45:45] hasn't seen it yet. Uh, there are quite
a few stations and so it's mean mean
[1:45:52] they just didn't see it. But anyway, the
that that truck is here and we were
[1:45:56] waiting until the truck was here before
we staffed it. So, now we're in the
[1:46:00] process of hiring to staff it. And the
other concern about the logistics center
[1:46:05] that has to do with the fact that
um uh right now they share a logistics
[1:46:13] center with EMS. EMS is going to have
their own. So they'll be moving out and
[1:46:17] and that'll leave uh the uh what they
call post two down in Orange City will
[1:46:22] now be uh used as the fire logistics.
So,
[1:46:26] » is this going to affect any
>> I know we've we had some concerns last
[1:46:31] year, you know, and obviously we want to
do the best we can for for them and and
[1:46:35] our first responders. Is this going to
affect any um payraises or equipment or
[1:46:41] uh anything like that?
>> You uh well, you they're already in a in
[1:46:45] a middle of a contract for their for the
majority of them. There are one uh
[1:46:50] smaller group, the battalion chiefs that
we're working with right now, but they
[1:46:54] will not affect that.
>> Okay, we're in good shape financially
[1:47:01] and that's again what we recommended.
So,
[1:47:05] » uh Councilman Kent was that was going to
be my question to Mr. Rectenwald and you
[1:47:09] just answered it. We're in good shape
financially and Chief uh King is on
[1:47:13] board.
>> He is. He's right there.
[1:47:16] » Where is Chief King? Chief, you just
from from the audience, you could tell
[1:47:19] me thumbs up or thumbs down. You're good
with this. That's all I need to hear.
[1:47:22] Thanks.
>> He gets to keep his thumb. That's good.
[1:47:25] [laughter]
>> I I had a feeling I had a feeling the
[1:47:30] response I was going to get, but I
didn't want to get burned.
[1:47:34] Pun intended. [laughter]
[1:47:37] » Okay. So, I can Can I have a motion?
>> Motion to approve.
[1:47:42] » Second.
>> Okay. The motion is to keep the current
[1:47:46] 3.5990
millage rate by vice chair Reinhardt and
[1:47:51] second was by uh Troy Kent. Did I get
that voice right?
[1:47:55] » You did.
>> Okay.
[1:47:57] » Questions, concerns,
and call the role on the last fund.
[1:48:02] » Mr. Johansson,
>> yes.
[1:48:04] » Mr. Kent,
>> yes.
[1:48:05] » Mr. Reinhardt?
>> Yes.
[1:48:07] » Mr. Robbins?
>> Yes.
[1:48:08] » Mr. Santiago. Mr. Dempsey?
>> Yes.
[1:48:11] » Mr. Brower? No.
And that takes care of all the funds for
[1:48:16] you.
>> Yep. The next thing is the uh
[1:48:19] recommended budget amount which I've
list I've shown on the screen here. The
[1:48:23] motion that I would be seeking would be
approval to adopt the fiscal year 2026
[1:48:28] 2027 tentative gross budget of 1 bill800
million271,784
[1:48:37] which less inter fund transfers in fun
uh internal services and reserves
[1:48:41] results in a net operating budget of 1
bill64 million798,131.
[1:48:52] Second.
>> We have a motion to approve the
[1:48:55] recommended budget by uh Matt Vice Chair
Reinhardt. Second was by Troy Kent
[1:49:06] » and Councilman Santiago for a question
>> for my clarification. That is all of the
[1:49:11] U funds included. Correct.
>> It's all the funds put together. These
[1:49:15] are not just taxing funds. It's nearly
100 funds including n nearly 90 that are
[1:49:20] not tax living funds. Thank you.
>> Any other questions? Carissa, call the
[1:49:26] role, please.
>> Mr. Johansson,
[1:49:29] » yes.
>> Mr. Kent,
[1:49:31] » yes.
>> Mr. Reinhardt?
[1:49:32] » Yes.
>> Mr. Robbins?
[1:49:33] » Yes.
>> Mr. Santiago?
[1:49:35] » Mr. Dempsey?
>> Yes.
[1:49:36] » Mr. Brower?
>> No.
[1:49:40] » All right. Now I have the easiest one of
the night. I need a motion to approve
[1:49:44] the scheduling of the second public
hearing to adopt the fiscal year 2627
[1:49:49] budget with Valuchia County Advax rates
and budget set for Tuesday, September
[1:49:54] 22nd,
2026 at 50:01 p.m. in these chambers.
[1:50:00] » Motion to approve.
>> Second.
[1:50:03] » Motion to approve the next meeting on
September 22nd uh from Matt Reinhardt.
[1:50:08] Second was by uh Councilman Robbins.
[1:50:14] questions, concern. All in favor say I.
>> I.
[1:50:17] » Any opposed?
[1:50:22] » Okay,
[1:50:26] that's all I have.
>> And that that is all for the night.
[1:50:31] Unless any council member or staff has
any closing comment.
[1:50:36] No. No. Then we will adjourn at 6:51.
again. Thank you for coming