Commission - Special Meeting

Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta. Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, two line.

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to this special city commission meeting of the city of Boynton Beach. Today is Tuesday, July 14th, and the time is now 5.30. We will now turn to the city clerk for roll call.

Rebecca Shelton, Mayor. Present. Thomas Turkin, Vice Mayor.

Present.

Andrew LaCruz, Commissioner. Present. Mack McCray, Commissioner. Present. Amy Kelly, Commissioner.

Here.

We have a quorum.

Thank you. Our invocation tonight will be by Commissioner Mack McCray, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance by Commissioner Amy Kelly. Let's all stand for the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance, please.

Let us bow to the creative makeup of all mankind. Here we stand before you in your presence, asking for your guidance, but most of all, asking for your leadership. We ask that you give us a guiding hand and also take our minds as we deliberate tonight on the meeting and the amount of information that is before us. Let us be cognizant of the things that we make here tonight because it not only will affect the citizens now, but for the rest of their lives. All these blessings we ask in your name. Why? Because you still live. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

We are now moving on to the agenda approval, additions, deletions, and corrections. Let's begin on my right with Commissioner Cruz.

Nothing for me, thank you.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Turkin.

None, Mayor.

Commissioner Kelly? No, thank you, ma'am. And Commissioner McCray? No, ma'am. If there's nothing else, we have a motion to approve the agenda. So moved. Second. We have a motion and we have a second. All those in favor of approving, say aye. Aye. All those opposed, say nay. Motion passes unanimously. We are now moving on to public audience portion of the agenda. Citizen may be heard concerning any matter within the scope of the jurisdiction of the commission. Speakers will be limited to three-minute presentations. At the discretion of the chair, this three-minute allowance may need to be adjusted depending on the level of business coming before the commission. If anyone would like to speak, please join us now. And this is for the CRA portion, and then we'll have it for the city, and then we'll have it after, sorry. You're right, so city portion now. Are you city or CRA? We have a meeting, yeah. We didn't hear you. Just go. We're gonna have it for both, so it's fine.

Hello.

So I'm three minutes, correct? Yes.

Good afternoon, Commission. My name is Tayshaun Smith, and I am a resident of Boynton Beach. I am here today to raise awareness about transportation issues affecting people with disabilities, especially those who are visually impaired, blind, and cannot drive. Because of my visual impairment, I rely on Uber and other forms of transportation services to get to work and do daily tasks and responsibilities, sorry. Right now, I can spend about $30 a day to get to and from work and sometimes, sorry, $30 a day to get to work and then $30 sometimes to get home. Over time, that becomes a serious financial burden. The money could be used for goals that help build futures, paying bills, sharing a business, investing in property, benefits and benefits. Both of those, I'm sorry. Benefits. Benefit both the individual and the community. Instead, a large portion of our income goes towards transportation. So we can work. and remain independent. The solution I would like to propose is a partnership with Uber. I know we also have a partnership with Lyft, the choice program, but right now it is limited to county, but I want to be able to continue. I'm sorry. I want to make it county to county. I believe we should explore a rideshare service that connects West Palm and Broward together, because that would make transportation much easier for people like me and others. For example, if I live in Boynton and I work in West Palm, or if I need to travel into Broward County for work, current county to county systems create delays and extra stress. If I were using the Choice Program that LIFT offers, I might be able just to get to Boca, but I would still have to wait and arrange another rideshare service just to get to Deerfield and nearby locations where I need and wherever else I may need to go. That delay finds, That delay creates stress, wasted time, and makes it harder to get to work and rely and have reliable transportation. I have spoken with other visually impaired and blind individuals who face the same challenges. This is not just my situation. It affects many people who are trying to, sorry.

Go ahead. Thank you, super nervous.

Here we go. Okay. So basically I am trying to start a rideshare service that'll connect Broward and Boynton and West Palm together due to the fact that there is no rideshare service right now. Due to the fact that I work in Deerfield, but I live in Boynton, I would have to relocate just to afford to continue to live here because I'm basically paying $600 to $700 a month without even having a car. But I do know with my city officials and office sitting individuals, maybe we could come together and basically build a program for people with disabilities that would create one rideshare service that basically would connect all counties regionally. And I've spoken with other Division of Blind individuals managers that say that they would love this idea because even when I went to Florida school for the deaf and blind and with mobility, like, um, there's, there's nothing that could help. Like even with the bus transportation, yes, that is there. But at the same time, just for me wanting to go to the store or me wanting to go to school, I can't do that because I'm paying so much money in just my transportation. So I'm really asking you all if we could come together and actually try to work on a, a rideshare service for visually-implied and disabled individuals that would basically help us have that freedom to travel with a little bit of a discount, almost like a discount program or a partnership, almost as if in Jacksonville they have something called you serve. So an individual I know up there, she pays about $3, $3.64 to get to work and $3.64 to get back. That's around $7. And so I'm paying $30 just to get to Deerfield at 3 in the morning to go to work, and then I'm doing my part. I'm catching the bus. I'm walking. I'm doing that extra mile to save those little coins so that I can still stay in Boynton Beach and not have to relocate somewhere where I would have to basically

get familiar with so basically i'm here today to try to get you all support to see if we can come together and make that happen thank you very much thank you angel could you get his contact information please thank you miss robe hello everybody elizabeth rowe i live in 637 oak street in boynton beach and i just wanted to find out because i'm a little confused um if it would be the city, the county, CRA, what it might be, in reference to the entrance to Oyer Boat Park, because at that time, I don't know if you've ever gone in or out of there, but it's very difficult, it's a very narrow area, When we go fishing, if we pull a boat in, it just happened to us recently, as somebody's trying to pull out, they only had a pickup truck. We were pulling in with our boat. They had to stop, back up, so we can pull in to get in and out. In the past, back in the day when Maury's was around, they took that area, put all trees. I just didn't know that with the overlay coming in and a lot of things that are happening over at the park, if the city or county or who would be involved in having to do a survey or something, what would be needed at that entrance? Do you need to have a light? Do you need to have yield? Do you need something? I was one of the people that kind of helped back in the day to put parking lots in the park itself. Everybody used to park up and down Federal Highway. When you had your boat, you parked from Gateway all the way almost to the spillway because there was no parking. So I was a little concerned about that. I had received an email that, and I'm also not understanding what construction is. I thought that construction would be when a place is being demoed, that that would be considered construction. And I had talked previously about when they were going to be working on 670 Oak Street, where the new park property was, is that they wouldn't be using Oak Street as its main thorough to go back and forth to do demolition or anything down the street. But from my understanding, they will be using Oak Street, which is just a small little street, to be bringing their trucks and things down there to do the demo that's gonna be upcoming. So that's kind of where I was at there. We have a little street, it needs some work, I know that. but also my biggest concern is once you start expanding that park, the entrance is gonna be something that the city really needs to look at. But thank you so much.

Thank you, next please.

I just want to clarify, is this where we talk about the assessments? Are we there? This is what this venue's for? Okay. So, hi, Cindy Falco de Corrado. I live in Boynton Beach. I'm here tonight to oppose any increase in the fire assessment of the Boynton Beach residents as we are paying enough taxes. Our fire rescue department provides services, and many of you might not know this, not only just for the Boynton Beach, but also for Ocean Ridge, Hyperluxo, ocean, pardon me, Hyperluxo, Ocean Ridge, Briny Breezes, and Gulf Villages. Now these communities, they should be picking up any assessments. We should not be assessed anything. Period, end of story. Why are we continually to pay for monies out of our assessment? We already pay high taxes. Why aren't those municipalities who are using our services not being divided up into four different groups for that same assessment? We the people should not be paying for that whatsoever. We already pay, like I said, for city taxes and county taxes, water, utility bills, numerous other fees. By the way, did you know that our water is also being bought out by other municipalities? Why aren't they being charged more money and we're not being charged less? Why is the city of Boynton Beach residents paying out the nose for all these services when we are selling it to other municipalities? They're benefiting the benefits from that. It's not fair. It's not right. And I don't know where this even started to happen. I had no idea until I sat into the budget meeting to find out that we are servicing these other municipalities and they should be paying and covering this, not we the people. You're here to represent us to save on our tax dollars. It's just unfathomable to me. So I want to just say that even with our city tax, pardon me, county tax, and I know that you're not part of that, the only thing we get is county roads. Do you know what we pay in county taxes? I pay over $1,000. I'm not getting the benefit. The people here, and if I'm one house, can you imagine all the other houses? What are you going to do to cut our taxes while everybody else is enjoying the fruit of our hard labor? Enough is enough. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, Gary Woodworth, Boynton Beach. Just a couple of comments. You're going to talk about the cost reductions further this evening. I would just ask that maybe we focus a little bit on a lot of spending is discretionary. I won't make a list, but you know where I come from. And then there's mandatory. Okay, if I want a new kitchen, that's discretionary. If the water heater's leaking, that's mandatory. We've got things all over this city that were discretionary. Some of them worked out, some of them didn't. You're gonna rip one out that's over behind a church soon for millions of dollars after millions were spent. Those kind of things maybe we could consider a little more. The other thing, it's gonna sound a little strange coming from me. Everything that same across the board for fairness isn't. There is communities in this city, there's people in this city that can withstand cuts more than others. There's departments that can withstand cuts more than others. I'll give you an example you had an example at the budget meeting where somebody cut in a tremendous amount out of their budget they didn't buy a bunch of golf carts this year that they did last year that's not a budget cut okay that's just discretionary spending that didn't happen this year maybe we could take the discretionary mandatory thing and then also the equity of it, I guess, is the word I'm looking for, that the cuts don't have to be the same across every department. They don't have to be the same across every community, that there are people in the city that can withstand some of these cuts to services or whatever. They're going to be better than others and that there might be some consideration for that as you're discussing these things. And I get the budget stuff. That is what it is. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please.

David Katz, I know the commission doesn't like to respond to those people, but I think Cindy needs to know, and I hope you don't mind me calling by your first name, that these other communities that get our water, they also pay a 25% surcharge on top of that. On top of that, and I think that's very important. That's a lot of money that comes into the city. The other thing is that recently, there have been quite a few interesting articles in the Palm Beach Post about our city, and the author, Chris Prasad, I found out that years ago, he was in the field of journalism, and he left that to go work for the Palm Beach Post.

Thank you.

If there's no one else in the audience, we'll move on to online.

No one, right?

There, there is nobody online. We have no one online, so public comment is now closed. We will now be moving on to Item 2A. Staff, would you like to begin?

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

Do you want to read it in? Catherine, you want to read it in first?

It's a resolution. You can read it into the record if you like, but it is a resolution. Okay.

That way people know what's going on.

proposed resolution R26123, a resolution of the City Commission of the City of Boynton Beach, Florida, amending and restating resolution number R26-110, relating to the provision of fire rescue services, facilities, and programs in the City of Boynton Beach, Florida, revising the estimated fire rescue assessed costs and estimated fire rescue assessment rates for fiscal year 2026-2027. describing the method of assessing fire rescue assessed costs against assessed property located within the city of Boyne Beach, directing the preparation of an assessment role, authorizing a public hearing, and directing the provision of notice thereof, providing for conflicts, supersession, severability, and an effective date.

Thank you. Staff.

Hello, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commission, Alan Lawson, CFO. Briefly want to give an update of where we are doing this special session around the rollback fire assessment and general budget overview. Where we are right now from a millage and fire assessment perspective is that the current millage is 7.775. What is being proposed right now is 7.4257, which is roughly a $2.7 million reduction to our constituents here in the city. The impact to the CRA as well is around 700,000. With that, the fire assessment currently stands at 145 bucks, and it's being proposed to be 170, which is roughly only $1.5 million impact. So the delta right now is around 1.2 that we're going to absorb into the budget, which I'll walk through on the next page. Just to make sure that we're all on the same page, here's the updated budget of the general fund. There is no change to what we have committed to presenting to you guys several weeks ago. That's not changing. There's some assumptions that have changed as well as I want to walk through the COLA and ultimately kind of walk through the add backs that are impacting the budget as well as any revenue and reductions in expenses that we are currently identifying through our continuous improvement. Right now, we have shifted our six-month hiring freeze to 12. We've gone through, worked that with HR. That's going to add back a reduction of about $1.5 million. And as you see, I've gone ahead and identified the assumption that $2.7 million impact due to the rollback rate of 7.425. Now, just to make sure we're all on the same page and for transparency purposes, walking through the COLA that was currently zero and the budget that was presented to you guys three months ago. So the COLA impact is roughly $2.9 million. That's just general fund only. $800,000 of that is general employee. One million of that is PD. Now, fire is 1.1. At the time that we were doing the analysis, I did not have their step plan, but a big portion of that actually is a step plan for fire. I've been working with that with the chief on trying to understand that number, but we know the total impact to the compensation is around 1.1 million. Now, with the ad pays as well as the PD step plan, you're looking at a total impact of the compensation that was not in the plan that was presented roughly around 3.8 million. So shifting to the right side of the page on the ad backs, you see the 2.9, the 600,000, 300,000, there is your 3.8 million, you've added that up together. And then you have the rollback of 2.7 million. So what that means is at the time that we presented the budget, there's $6.5 million impact to the budget that we have to go find. Right now, what we've done is the fire assessment would take up a million and a half of that. Below that, the vacancies that I showed on the left side of the page, 1.5, and then I have additional plan reductions that have been working with other departments, PD as well, I've found right now about 1.7 million. What's happening is, what that means right now is the draw on the fund balance right now is sitting at about 1.8 million. We have $30 million sitting in our fund balance, but right now the impact would be drawing from fund balance of about 1.8 million. next steps so the next steps that we have is we are not stopping again we talked about this during the original budget workshop we continue looking at budget budget is not a three-month exercise it is a 12-month exercise we are not stopping with that the commitment is try to get to limit that exposure of the 1.8 i'm fairly confident that that will happen but more work is still needed and what we will do is that i will give updates to the commission as needed to provide transparency of when we hit that goal of reducing that exposure. But I'm confident that we will get there. Just a reminder that our first budget hearing is September 8th, and then on September 16th is our final budget hearing. With that, I'll take some questions.

No questions? No comments?

No, I think, you know, for me to go back to the rollback rate while every other city is looking to raise taxes is a huge step in the right direction. And, you know, when you look at the fire assessment, there's no way I would approve it without an increase without doing this rollback. Because what that does is it gives a cost savings to every resident within the city and those who have... you know you know those who maybe don't have the means are still eligible for that fire assessment waiver but on top of that they're going to pay less than their millage rate and so for those who truly need that waiver and that relief this hits this hits those individuals in two ways and then also there there was a comment about mandatory spending and discretionary with the fire assessment that is regulated to where it can only be used for the fire department. And so in a roundabout way, by reducing the millage rate and the ad valerum revenue, and almost shifting that, you're restricting the use of those funds to what I think I would believe, and most residents would believe, is a mandatory spending, which is public safety. Everyone's right. and so i think um you know the only way i could go for this is if we go for the rollback rate and um you know i think that will be significantly less than the three dollars monthly uh the change will be so this trade-off will produce a larger tax cut while every other city in the county is looking to raise their military given what may happen in november and so i just want to commend the city manager Allen and the rest of staff for taking this approach. And we had a good conversation yesterday, Allen, about looking at what you need, what you actually need, and when you don't have it, and you don't have it for six months, you realize you really don't need it, so you can eliminate that service, that position, whatever that is. And so it's that type of methodology that I think will ultimately continue to propose initiatives like this to where we can provide quality services, but do it more efficiently at a lower cost for our residents. So that's my opinion.

Mayor, thank you. My take on the fire assessment, you know, I was here when the fire assessment was first introduced to the city of Boynton. When they came on, I told them, I said, this is going to be a tax that we're going to be taxed for the rest of our lives. And they told me they said, no, it's not. The fire assessment was supposed to have sunset within seven years. But with needing fire stations, more employees, et cetera, it kept going on. And they tried to assure me, said Commissioner McCrae wants to get in and we do what we have to do. It will go away. In good faith. Because of District 2 and the medium income of those households over there, I will not be able to support an increase. I'm just saying fairly and go back and look at my community and smile and say I did the best that I can. I'm going to have to vote against the fire assessment only for that reason. Thank you.

We're not just talking about increasing the fire assessment. We're talking about decreasing taxes for every resident in the city. So if you look at it, voting against this could actually be higher taxes for every resident. I'm just saying, if you look at, if you look at how much somebody pays, so everyone, everyone's property value is different. You know, I just don't want the sentiment to be out there that this is going to be more cost burdensome when, in reality, it could actually have the opposite effect and be more of a cost savings for residents, if that is our concern.

Thank you. I do understand that it is a cost savings, but everybody that lives in District 2, okay, we have a lot of rental properties, okay, and those individuals, they're hurting not paying for rent. et cetera, and I understand what you're saying. I understand it is a cost savings. I own three properties. It's going to be a cost saving to me three ways, one way, and it's going to be an increase to me three ways, another way. But I'm just saying because of the citizens that live in District 2, and they're already crying out that we're already hurting. I can vote for the rest of this, but like I said, I cannot vote fairly and feel confident Go back and look at the citizens that said, well, we're going to be hit with another $25. That's the only thing I'm saying. I know we waste money doing whatever we want to do, how we want to do it. But in good faith, ever since we had the fire assessment and it's supposed to have sunset in seven years, I have never supported it because of that reason. I'm going to still have to hold true to what I've been doing. Thank you.

I'd be open to discussing and having another workshop to cut so we can get to the rollback rate. If we want to cut services to get there to produce a real tax saving for a residence, I will join you in that and I will show up here any day, any time so that we can deliver an impact.

And Vice Mayor Turkin, you brought up a good point. I think it's very important that we also educate. We do have the waiver program. It's very important. I push it out. And when I have conversations with residents, if you are a resident that truly has a need and you just don't hate tax, I mean, nobody likes to pay taxes. I don't like to pay my taxes, but I pay my taxes because I like my clean water and my fire to show up and my police department to show up when I need them and I love the services that we pay for and that's what our taxes are for but we do have a waiver system in place and maybe we look at the waiver criteria and see if we can change that up so that it does benefit more residents that truly have a need and they just don't want to pay the tax because they don't want to pay the tax or the assessment or whatever it may be But if they truly have a need, we do have a mechanism for that to assist them when it comes to that. So maybe we re-look at, maybe at the next meeting, we can look at the waiver requirements and see if there needs to be any adjustments and see what we can do, if anything. And I would like to know, I know, I asked this last year too, how many residents request waivers, because I know that there is a scale that we can utilize to see how many are asking for them, how many are we waiving and approving, and how many are we denying, and what those criteria are that we're denying so we can see if there are adjustments to be made. So I think it's important to know if people are applying, and their applications are not getting approved, what is that, what's making them not approve? Is it that's a $5,000 difference in their income versus requirements. I'd be curious to see how that breaks down as well.

Commissioner Kelly, just so you know, I approve all those. Every single one was accepted last year and the year before last. The criteria's pretty simple, and it's pretty consistent, the residents that actually do that. So none of them have ever been declined. We work with those residents, and I literally have driven out there to people's homes to make sure that the forms are filled out correctly. We do whatever we can here for the city to make sure the constituents are taken care of. So nobody gets denied with their forms filled out.

Right, and I think it also comes down to educating and letting our residents know, especially our most vulnerable, that there is this opportunity out there. And so whatever we can do as a city to make sure that we are reaching that community. Maybe it's the ones that are late to pay their utilities and we know they're in a certain age bracket. Maybe we can just make sure we're educating them too. Thank you.

Excuse me. I do need to say something in regards to this assistance that people give. I know it's in there, but you did not answer the question that Commissioner Kelly asked. She said, how many for the last couple years came before you all and asked for a waiver?

It's not as lot as you would think it is. Actually, I'm very surprised at how low it is on the request. I can get that number for you that's sitting on a desk out there because we're actually starting to make the count now to truly understand what the impact is, but I can get that for you by this week.

I would like to have that as well, and I do understand that it will be in place for this that we're going through, but I am in favor of the rollback, but I'm just saying I'm going to still have to say right now I'm going to have to hold fast with what I'm saying in regards to I hear the whole story. I'm in favor of the rollback, but For the fire assessment, because the only thing that we have to really do that I have not seen done is fire station three. The replacement of that, I know that that's going to be one of the reasons. But I'm just saying, if you give me information in regards to the fire assessment at the next meeting, I can say I vote for the entire thing. But right now, I can only vote for the roll back. And I'm up to stand right now not voting for the fire assessment until I get some more information. Thank you.

Fair enough. OK.

This is just a discussion, ma'am.

No, there needs to be a vote this evening with respect to the proposed resolution because you're setting what would otherwise be the maximum rate.

But that doesn't finalize the rate?

Correct. You have a final hearing in September with respect to the fire assessment, and you'll have two hearings in September regarding the final millage rate, but what goes out on the trim notice will be the millage rate that you adopted at your budget hearing on the 30th, and either the fire assessment rate that was adopted that date or if it's changed this evening. What goes out are the maximum amounts that this board will consider in September.

With that being said, I will have to go ahead and vote for it now until we have the next two hearings. Yes.

You have to vote on the preliminary assessment.

Preliminary. I will vote in favor of the preliminary, but at the next time we come up, if there's any changes, then my mind can go a different way.

We have a motion to approve resolution R26-123. I got one quick question.

Okay. What is the revenue gap as far as if we didn't increase the fire assessment and we did go the rollback?

Well, the revenue gap right now is, if we go back, is the revenue gap right there is anywhere between, it's 1.2 million.

1.2 million.

The impact would be $2.7 million to the budget.

2.7. In total, as opposed to 1.2.

if okay so 2.7 without the fire assessment that is 1.2 so either way you guys are going to have to come up with 1.2 we're going to do a uh fund balance appropriation like we did last year and again these are all everything we do from a budgetary standpoint is projections the best way we can project and i can tell you like last year we were going to we had a 2.2 million dollar fund balance allocation we ended up I'm going to say close to 3.2 in the green versus the appropriation that we had last year. Same thing. This is a projection of what we're going to ask the commission to do as far as a fund balance appropriation of $1.8 million. If you were not to do the fire assessment this year and only do the rollback, that would grow to right around 3.3 million as far as a fund balance appropriation, which I think- Pulling from the fund balance?

What's that? 3.3 to pull from the fund balance if we didn't do the fire assessment?

Correct, and that's okay if you have a capital expense that you want to see done as far as, say we had to build a fire station and we had to build a new rec center, but when you get into the overall aspect of year-to-year operational expenses from an OPEC standpoint, It is not good budgetary practice to do fund balance. So I want to keep that minimal. Last year, we had a 2.2. This year, we were asking for a 1.8 to accomplish what we need to get done. And like I said, this is our best projection that we're providing you guys. So next year, I can come back and tell you guys post-audit. When we're done, it could be a $2 million surplus into the fund balance as far as a delta from what we saved. So again, this is our best estimate as far as coming in at 1.8. 3.3, I wouldn't be comfortable doing a fund balance because that's growing compared to the 2.2 we projected last year.

okay thank you for that clarification um so right now we just need to vote on the resolution and then we can amend it yes to go lower so my my ask would be and i'll propose this to my colleagues is that we move forward asking the city manager to go back in one more time and see what what else we can what else we can trim and see if we can Maybe not raise the fire assessment and stick with the rollback rate. Or propose different variances with that fire assessment so it's not, you know, what is it, $25 now? Which is still going to be less than, there's a savings if we go back to the rollback rate.

If I can find it, I'll find it. If not, I'll let you guys know. I'm fairly direct with all of you. So we have a legislative break coming up for about a month. I'm sure some of us are looking forward to our European vacations. But, yeah, we'll sharpen our pencils and come back to you guys. And if it's possible, we'll definitely make that happen.

Right. So with that being said, you have something to say? So with that being said, I'm just saying so that we can get things out that need to be got in a timely manner, I'm going to offer that resolution, R26-123, be approved.

Hold on a second. Commissioner Cruz wanted to say something. We have a motion and a second.

For discussion.

Thank you. I do want to say I appreciate staff's looking into possibilities of reducing the millage rate. This is a very complicated time and there's a lot on my mind, but I do want to say, you know, as when we started talking about this and we said, hey, we're going to do a bare bone type of budget this year. We're going to look at, you know, maybe not having increases and things of that nature. You know, I think it is important to keep the commitments we've made in the past when it comes to CBAs and COLA's. and also providing an opportunity for general employees to get a cost of living adjustment. There's still a lot of questions around, nobody knows what's gonna happen in November. And these are very challenging times in government overall with regard to that. I would caution of just being very conservative with our approach right now because any changes we make this year are going to be the baseline for next year. But I would not want to do is going roll back this year and then November goes a certain way and then we have to, not we, but there would potentially be either two things, either a need for significant cuts and potential layoffs, which is not what anybody wants, nor what I want, or we would need to change that rate to be, and when I say we, I mean the board and everyone has their own opinion and discretion, I'm not saying I know what's gonna happen next year, but I just wanna caution us to be very conservative in our approaches and try not to use fund balance if possible. When it comes to the cost of living adjustments, I do wanna ask, what can we do? Are there any other opportunities for reductions? Since we do wanna honor the CBAs and we do wanna provide that 3% for staff overall, in addition to the CBAs. What can we do to reduce that number from one million to less? What can we find? I do wanna ask for us to look for trimming more fat from somewhere else that we can. I think we can do it. I don't see why we couldn't, and thankfully we're not in a you know, catastrophic point yet, but we do need to do that exercise. And I, I, I would like to see where else we can decrease because we, we are looking forward to, to having those, um, you know, cost of living adjustments. Like where can we, where can we make some more, um, I don't want to use the word cuts, but where can we trim some fat from, you know, both of your budgets in a different place so that we can take care of our staff. That's kind of where, where I'm coming from. Thank you.

Thank you. Alan, real quick, I feel like your last slide kind of touched on, and you touched on it very briefly, that you were gonna continuously look at different ways to bridge that gap. Did I misunderstand that?

No, 100%. So to get what Commissioner Cruz was saying is that this effort is not stopping, right? There are ways, there's money, right? I mean, we've kept the budget flat already year over year, which is the first time in the history of the city that's ever happened. There are ways to make sure that our contracts, that our vendors are giving us the price that they guarantee. I work with NGR to make sure that that happens. You'd be surprised what tries to slip under the, you know, tries to slip by the goalie. And it's making sure that you have the proper workflows, processes, and check and balances in place to make that happen. The money's there. term that we always use all the time is literally the first meetings i did when i started city is i am not paying that you need to sharpen your pencil if you want to do business with the city that should be our first statement to anybody who wants to do business with the city if it isn't it better be and that's been our that has been our message within our team and procurement and it has saved hundreds of thousands millions of dollars already And also making sure that we have the proper investment platform and the money that we receive is invested that we're getting that three and a half closer to 4% that we're not getting zero. These things add up over time. And it literally, you know, hemorrhages the city sometimes when things because it adds up $5 million over five, seven, you know, three is a lot of money that could be used somewhere else. So we look at that every day at every angle. And the great thing is the team here has been very active among all doesn't matter public works, it doesn't matter who it is. It has been fantastic the way everybody has kind of come together to make sure that we are scrubbing what needs to be scrubbed and find the dollars that need to be found.

Yeah, so I think when you look globally over the whole city, because although, I mean, it is citywide, and every department can look at what they can curb, and it was brought up about the one-time things, and I know you touched on that, and it was one of the benefits of going to this zero-based budget is that it really had all the departments look at things that maybe have accidentally gotten left on the budget that were a one-time thing or we purchase it every three years and to really clean up the budget and to make sure that what we're spending this year is truly what we're spending this year and what we need to spend this year. But I think when you look at $1.2 million, when you're looking at the entire city and all of the departments, Everyone can find a little bit to shave off, and true savings, not necessarily just a shift, because we see that too. We'll just put that in this bucket, and we'll put it to, you know, we'll do a budget amendment when we find the money somewhere else. But, you know, to really see that shave and savings as opposed to just a shift, I think, is what we have to look at.

Well, one of the things we looked at with Andrew R is simple things that just operationally make a lot of sense from a financial perspective. I don't need to have a landscaping company that does just utilities and then public parks should be one contract. You leverage that vendor. to get the lowest cost possible, and you share that across the organization. These are the type of things. So I don't have one organization or department negotiating. It's one contract. That brings down the price. It's these simple things that adds up over time a lot to the city.

So I look forward to hearing how we were able to make up that difference, because I have faith that you can make that up. Maybe a little bit more.

I do.

Thank you.

Okay, good.

We have a motion. We have the second. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye. All those opposed, say nay. Motion passes unanimously. If there is no other further business, we have a motion to adjourn.

Second. Second.

We have a motion to adjourn, and we have a second with no further business to discuss. This meeting is adjourned at 6.12 p.m. Staff will take, how long do you need? Ten or five? What do you need? Ten? Ten-minute break. And the regular, we'll just start at 6.30. And the regular CRE meeting will start at 6.30. Perfect.