Commission - Regular Meeting

But you gotta unplug shit, don't you?

This laptop doesn't last very long.

Good evening, everybody, and welcome to the City of Boynton Beach City Commission meeting. Today is Tuesday, September 8th, 2026. The time is now 6 p.m. We will now turn to the interim city clerk for roll call, please.

Commissioner Cruz.

Present.

Commissioner McCray. Present. Commissioner Kelly. Here. Vice Mayor Turkin.

Present.

Mayor Shelton.

Present. Mayor, you have a quorum. Thank you. Our invocation tonight will be led by Commissioner McCray, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by me. Let's all stand for the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance, please.

Let us bow, please, to the creator and maker of all mankind. Father, we pause at this time just to say thank you. Thank you for all your goodness that we take for granted. We want to say thank you tonight for our chamber full. But whatever reason, let us agree. And also, if we disagree, let us remember that we're still human. We all make mistakes and we all have opinions. I ask that you continue to bless this great city, the city of Boynton, but most of all, bless the United States of America. As we get ready for another election, let us vote, and vote the correct way. And one thing about it, if we let you lead us and guide us, there's no way that we will make a mistake. Guide our tongues tonight, but most of all, guide our decisions, because the decisions that we will make from henceforth will not only affect tonight's meeting, but also for the citizens who will come behind us. In your name we do pray, 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 vice mayor turkin um yes mayor real quick i just want to add if possible if we can get an update on the pioneer uh park boat ramp construction at the next agenda meeting under city manager's report i know that we might be going into litigation but i'm getting a lot of questions about this so okay maybe we can talk about what questions you're getting and i can craft a response or talking points but there are some things that um

We probably shouldn't go into it this time.

Fair enough. So then I'll reach out to you offline.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. I did want to ask if we could move up the proclamation to 2B before we get into the budget, just because I don't know how long those discussion items are going to take, and so I'd rather move that up if we could.

Do you want to put it before the discussion?

Yeah, if we could do it as 2B.

That's what my thought would be. Let's just put it as right before 2A because let's not change the A, B, or C. Correct, 1B. Okay.

Thank you. That's all I have. Commissioner McRae.

Thank you, Mayor. If I need to pull anything, I do it in proceedings right now. It's good the way we are. Thank you the agenda. Thank you. Motion to approve. Second.

We have a motion to approve the agenda. We have a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes. We will now move on to informational items by the member of the City Commission. That's speaking on my left with Commissioner.

No, we're going to do the proclamation. Sorry.

Moving into the proclamation. You have it, correct? Yes, I do. Next would be the proclamation for Hunger Action Month. The proclamation will be accepted by Allison Volks from Feeding from South Florida and Commissioner Kelly is going to read the proclamation into the record.

Thank you. Thank you. I saw Allison in the audience. So I'll read the proclamation and then we'll come up. Whereas since 1981, Feeding South Florida has worked to end hunger in the city of Boynton Beach by providing our community in need with immediate access to nutritious food. And whereas hunger does not discriminate, it knows no race, religion, or age. In South Florida, approximately one million individuals face hunger. Food should not be an impossible choice for the community of the City of Boynton Beach. And whereas Feeding South Florida leads hunger and poverty advocacy efforts in our community while transforming lives through innovative programming and education that provides economic growth and overall well-being. And whereas the City of Boynton Beach is therefore committed to supporting Feeding South Florida so that together we can achieve a hunger-free South Florida. And now, therefore, be it resolved that I, Amy Kelly, City Commissioner, District 4 for the City of Boynton Beach, Florida, do hereby proclaim September 2026 as Hunger Action Month and call upon the good people of the City of Boynton Beach to join us in supporting Feeding South Florida during this month of action. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, Commissioners, and members of the City of Boynton Beach. It's a privilege to be with you this evening on behalf of Feeding South Florida. Our Boynton Beach location is known as Feeding Palm Beach County. We're grateful for the City of Boynton Beach for recognizing Hunger Action Month and for giving this important issue a place at the table. Hunger is one of those challenges that can be easily overlooked because it's not always visible. It exists beyond front doors and households where parents are quietly making difficult decisions in the lives of seniors on fixed incomes and among working families who are doing everything they can to make ends meet. The scale of the need is significant. In 2025 alone, Feeding South Florida served 1.7 million individuals across our four county service area including more than 200,000 in Palm Beach County. Those numbers only tell a part of the story. This is really meaningful, as I mentioned, because our Palm Beach County facility is actually in the city of Boynton Beach. And so a neighbor in Boynton Beach can walk into our client choice pantry and select nutritious foods for them or for their household. We've seen a 40% 40 to 60% increase since the government changes last fall. And with the snap certification challenges over the last several months, months as well we have a community kitchen where we prepare meals for our neighbors across the service areas home delivered meals grocery boxes for seniors we also host our culinary training program at that facility as well we invite each of you to come in and visit and see the incredible work that we're doing we're also expanding that facility in order to BE ABLE TO STORE AND HOUSE MORE NUTRITIOUS FOOD AND GET MORE OUT INTO THE COMMUNITY. IT'S AN INVESTMENT IN THE INFRASTRUCTURE AND ALSO BEHIND HUNGER RELIEF. AND WE CANNOT ACCOMPLISH THIS ALONE. SO WE APPRECIATE THE CITY AND MAYOR, COMMISSION FOR STANDING WITH FEEDING SOUTH FLORIDA. WE APPRECIATE YOU. THANK YOU.

MOVING ON TO INFORMATIONAL ITEMS. COMMISSIONER McCRAY.

Thank you, Mayor. First of all, I'd like to put emphasis on our community meetings that we have that last Monday of each month over at the Carolyn Sims Center. Although it's held in District 2, this is not only for the citizens of District 2, but for all of the citizens that live here in Boynton. The last meeting we had the privilege of having State Representative Rob Long Address us. County Commissioner Bobby Powers, yours truly. City Water Department gave information to the conditions of the water system here in Boynton. And also we had representatives that gave us information in regards to how to vote in the upcoming election. We're growing. I like for it to get so packed that we won't even have room for it. us to be seated, that we have to have standing room only. Please come out and support this. It's done by just a few individuals who started this. And since I've been there, I've been watching it grow now by leaps and bounds. First, I would like to, secondly, I'd like to speak about the city library. And I'd like to urge all of my colleagues up here, if you're not a friend of the library, please go and join. Please go and join. And for those of you out here who might not have joined, please join. Visit our library. This month is called Library Cards, and if you don't have a library card, this would be a great time to go in and get a library card. For those of you who lived here in Boynton and recognize where we're sitting at now was where our library was, and since it's upstairs, I'm just saying, we have so much room, so much room and so much information. Get to know the staff. Get to know your city. I'd like to say this week, since we're going to be celebrating, not celebrating, but remembering 9-11, the 25th year anniversary, I'd like for us to remember those families. You never know who we know that was touched by what happened on that day. I was watching the Channel 5 news this afternoon, and one of our own Captain Deal of our Boynton Beach Police Department He was doing an interview. He had a cousin who was affected by 9-11. I say all of that said this. We take our first responders, men and women, sometimes we take them for granted. Sometimes we forget about their human just like we are and that they have families that they would love to go home to be with. So whenever you see a man or a woman in uniform, city of Boynton, Just pause just for a minute just to tell them thank you. And I'd like to say tonight, thank you.

Commissioner Kelly? No, Mayor, I do not have any information.

Commissioner Cruz?

Nothing for me, thank you.

Okay, moving on. We are going to be moving on to the proposed millage rate and the tentative budget will be presented and discussed today and then voted on separately. I will turn to the clerk to read item 2B into the record, please.

Public hearing on proposed resolution number R26-150, a resolution of the city of Boynton Beach, Florida, adopting proposed millage rate of the city's general operating fund for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2026 and ending September 30th, 2027, announcing the percent, if any, of the proposed millage rate exceeds the rollback rate, announcing the date, time, and place for the second and final public hearing on the budget and millage rate providing for severability conflicts and providing for an effective date. Public hearing on proposed resolution R26151, a resolution of the City of Boynton Beach, Florida, adopting a tentative budget for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2026 and ending September 30, 2027, providing for its variability, conflicts, and an effective date. Staff, your presentation.

Yes, Alan Lawson, CFO, City of Boynton Beach. here with Fabio Baca, who is our Director of Budgeting. Going with the first page, where's the clicker, sorry. Bring us all back to June 30th, which is our original budget workshop. We had the proposed millage rate still at 7.425. It was creating a negative $2.7 million gap at Delta that we had to overcome. With that, the proposed fire assessment at the time helped offset that by about $1.5 million. So we had about a $1.2 million Delta between those two on the increases and the decreases. And then how that actually translated to the budget. The important piece here is to show that down at the right hand side is that we actually had about a $1.8 million negative drawing from fund balance, which is our reserve for any sort of city emergencies. So with that, I was challenged by the city to go back, work with the team here and directors and above to find ways to minimize that impact to the fund balance for the city. So through the efforts of the city to give it an update where we are today, still having the rollback rate at 7.425, which is still a reduction to our citizens here in the city. But when we got our update from the county on the impact, we actually saw a $200,000 improvement. So we went from $2.7 million in the hole to 2.5. In addition, we got the updates from our consultants regarding the fire assessment, and that actually improved 200,000. So the delta actually dropped from about a $1.2 million negative to an $800,000 negative. How that translated to the overall general fund budget is that we were able to achieve zero impact. The reason why you see the green up there on the right-hand side, we were able to achieve zero. zero impact draw from fund balance but the important piece that actually happened is that for the first time in the city's history we actually have shown a decline in budgetary spend from last year to this year so never in the history of the city has this happened so we're actually showing that we are actually drawing down two million dollars in spend for the city which created about a one point Sorry, $1.4 million reduction overall net-net. That includes covering the COLAs for our associates here at the city. We did have an increase to our healthcare plan on the right-hand side. You can see the salary and COLAs. And then overall, we had to, salary impact was about $4.3 million negative. But through the efforts of our looking at how we're gonna lease next year our vehicles, the fire assessment coming in, the vacancies, the hiring freezes, and other plan commitments that other directors have made in the department, we were able to offset everything and come back down to a zero impact to fund balance. Now from an overall perspective, I'm gonna hand off to Fabio. So for all fund summaries, as you can see up at the top right hand side, top right, you can see that there's the negative $2 million reduction year over year with the 1.4 and then we will go down the rest of the page to show how the rest of the city's operations are showing a reduction as well.

This slide summarizes the changes in the overall budget for the city for every single fund. Most of the changes are driven by the item that the finance director has described, meaning that there's several savings showing that we've gone from purchasing vehicles to leases. And that's why many of these funds do show a decrease. If you might remember, this was not in the numbers that we've shown you back in June 30th. I'd also like to highlight the fact that the funding for the surtax dollars in CIP has decreased, and therefore the amount of projects that have been funded in CIP has also decreased. That's why you show this drop in the CIP line item. We've also removed several one-time purchases that were showing in the previous year's budget, such as equipment, computers, items that cost more than $5,000. Those have been removed, and that's why you also show savings in the plan for next year. I ALSO WOULD LIKE TO HIGHLIGHT THE PERSONNEL CHANGES. COMPARING THE TOTAL FTE COUNT FROM LAST YEAR TO THIS YEAR, THE CHANGE IS ZERO. WE REMOVED THREE FTE POSITIONS, AND WE'VE ADDED THREE FTEs, WHICH ARE LISTED AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS SLIDE. ONE OF THEM IS THE CITY ARCHITECT, AND THEN THERE'S TWO POSITIONS IN UTILITIES. That summarizes the changes in the entire city's budget.

But just to be clear on that, the vacancy rate that we have right now, we're roughly around 50 employees. We do have a hiring freeze that is instilled in the city right now. We are maintaining that through the rest of the year next year. So right now we have a hiring freeze that is in the budget that's worked out that was called out on the previous slide for the general fund.

Thank you.

The next slide summarizes the changes that have taken place since the last time we presented you the CIP plan. So this slide summarizes those changes. On June 30th, the total for the CIP was $71 million, and since that point, $31.4 million worth of projects have been added. And I'm going to summarize what those projects are in the next slide. In the Fund 302, we added carryovers from the previous year that represents Fire Station 3, the Marine Complex, and Penn Spark. We've also added projects that are reimbursable by the CRA, and those include the demolition in West Boynton Beach Boulevard, the Marina Conduit, the Marina Seawall MLK Entry, Federal Highway, and then the Cottage District Paving as well. And the last box to the right summarizes the changes in the Fund 303 and 403.

Real quick, though, just to make sure that we're fully clear, is that the impact, even though there was an increase in the final $31 million, these are all funded items. So this is not a draw out of city funds. These are all either coming from grants. These are funded sources to where that's not getting drawn from the city's bank. So where we are right now, so just so we understand where the next steps are, is that we have gone through, we have completed our continuous improvement activities with all the directors, which is why we are at where we are with the budget at 0.0 draw for fund balance. Today, we're right now, here and now, we're at the September 8th first budget hearing. And then on September 16th, which is next week, next Wednesday, we will have the final budget hearing where we have that agenda item for you guys to ratify the budget going forward. Are there any questions?

Are there any questions from the commission?

Thank you for your report. First of all, I'd like to say you talked about rental of vehicles. Have you all looked into rental of fire trucks, garbage trucks, et cetera? Is that savings? I'm just saying maybe the public would like to hear that.

Absolutely. That's exactly what we're doing. A lot of that savings, including the police vehicles, are working diligently with both chiefs. Actually, to be honest with you, Chief Bruder was the one that actually kind of came upon that item, and we looked at the finances. And so we looked at kind of the risk versus reward, understanding that cash is king, and we looked at that doing it for sanitation as well as public safety and any other vehicles that are necessary, utilities across the board. where we can then take that money, invest it, and offset any interest that will be charged on that. And we get a really good rate because we are a non-for-profit. So we get a very good financing rate being a municipality.

My next question is, we have a lot of city staff, high-ranking, that have vehicles that they drive that the city provides. I'm just saying, is there any way that you all can look into it and find out who, really don't need a city vehicle can use their own vehicle and can pay for their own gas and stuff. I'm just saying a penny earned is a penny saved, and that's the way I'm looking at it.

We're already going through that right now. It's one of the agenda items that we have going into this next year. We are reevaluating that on who that is. It's been one of the things I've been tasked by the CMs to make sure that we looked at that. I've been working with Daniel Whitefield to make sure that we do it the right way. We've already removed cell phone allowances. Those have already been taken back. We have removed already some folks already. Car allowances, as a matter of fact, car allowances have already been removed for a lot of the directors already. So that has already folded away. And the next step that we will do is just, you know, time happens, right? So the next phase is to look at this next phase as far as the vehicles are concerned.

When we're presenting a budget to the citizens of this city and anybody else, I'm just saying, The main thing after we show where we're saving money, we need to show them how we are saving money and what we are cutting out. I'm just saying we're cutting to the bone. So when people say y'all could do better, I'm just saying show me, show them that we're doing better. We are cutting out everything that's not of a necessity. and not of a priority.

No, that's a great point. I mean, for the first time, right, so coming into this role a year and a half ago, we really looked at doing, and a lot of people don't understand what this means, a zero-based budget. It means I'm going to hold you flat, which means you have to find ways to offset the cost of business, right? Every year we know it costs us more to do business. But that means you go back. We worked with these directors. We held them flat. but not only did they held themselves flat, they went back and even delivered more. And that's why for the first time in the city, we're able to take back another $2 million out of the budget, uh, year over year.

I was, I was shocked when I came back and I found out that we did not have a PI budget. And I'm just saying that was kind of shocking to me. I'm like saying, who made that decision? And I don't know how we got to that point, but, uh, I guess you all are doing the right thing. I'm watching you all to make sure that we are doing the right thing. I'm just as guilty as you all are, okay? No, you're watching. Thank you, sir.

Okay.

Any other comments from the commission?

Chair, thank you. No, I just want to thank you for the hard work. We've been talking about zero-based budgeting for quite some time now. First time that we've ever gone to rollback, there was a couple articles.

With a millage decline, mind you. That's right.

With a millage decline. And, you know, there's a lot of uncertainties right now, especially given Amendment 3 with the property taxes. And, you know, that could pass. And, you know, at the will of the people, if it does, we're going to have to be even tighter with our budget and identify, you know, what are necessities. and what our wants. And so I think this is a good exercise and practice to be prepared for that if the will of the people does decide that. And then I think generally with this budget, it's the overall spend of government, right? It's not an assessment to where that revenue source is held by state statute to spend on X, Y, and Z. And so I think this is a good practice to help figure out what is important What is urgent? So thank you guys for your due diligence and delivering the first rollback rate.

Again, it could not have happened without the leadership of the rest of the folks in this building. So it was painful, but it was necessary, and everybody stepped up to the challenge.

Yeah, and while the majority of other cities are increasing their taxes right now or doubling or tripling their assessments right now, you guys have identified to go the other way. and look at doing a rollback rate. So it's good to see and thank you again for all the hard work.

Mayor, I'd like to say since we have the audience here and a lot of people don't know why the city manager is not here. Anytime a city manager is absent when we're doing a budget, it's nice to let them know he's under the weather. He's not out because we're doing the budget. So I just want that to be clear.

He's not chicken. You are correct. He's certainly not that.

Commissioner Cruz, did you have something to say?

I just want to say thank you for your hard work and really going back to the rollback rate. It's never happened before and I know we've tried to decrease slightly every year, but this has been definitely above and beyond.

Thank you. Real quick, I don't know if you can answer this question or if the, I have, so my concerns of course go to where we're talking about hiring freezes. especially in public safety, where that has been one of our, as a commission, our focus has been on public safety and making sure that our community is safe. We have boots on the ground doing the work. And so I have concerns when we're talking about hiring freezes for not only this budget year, but moving into next budget year, Right now, we're sitting at... My understanding, we're sitting at six officers down from where we were. This is just having to do with the police department. Down from where this commission approved and fought for those additional boots on the ground. So my... And this might have to come from the chief. It might come from Adam. But I would like to know what the plan would be moving forward because as... People do retire, things happen. We lose officers to other departments, to retirement, to better opportunities or issues that come up. And so when we're under hiring freezes, how does this affect our public safety? And I know that we have grants that require us to have officers on the ground. And so are we looking at pulling people from specialty units to make sure that we have our road covered? Because obviously that's what's most important. That's what our residents see are the officers that are showing up to calls to their house. And so chief, thank you for coming up. I know you weren't expecting this, but I have concerns. We're talking about hiring freezes when it comes to public safety. And I understand that there's a need for us to look at how we can make this millage rate decrease happen because ultimately that saves our residents. But I don't want to do it a detriment if we're talking about boots on the ground, losing services, having increased response time and things like that. So if you could just briefly touch on that, I would appreciate that.

Well, I echo that same sentiment. I do have concerns about hiring freezes as well. I think we all collectively have fought so hard to get to that 172 and to actually staff it higher. As you know, there's a lot of work to be in that. Right now we're at 166, and we did agree to that. 165 would be the floor prior to us doing any type of hiring. And we do have, we are starting, we are continuing the process of doing interviews and backgrounds. We have people ready to go. For the academies I have also I have public safety aides and people who have other positions that use that utilize that as a Way to get into the department build the foundation and then eventually go to the police academy that we have them Kind of in the bullpen as well So we're always feeling we are pretty good at keeping that 165 and I think we're gonna be able to maintain that As far as road patrol, we're actually at a really good level of road patrol. We are at the capacity It should be our night chef has 18 officers on it plus the canine unit supervisors and So we're where we need to be. If we were to absorb the shortages or the loss, it would be in special teams, it would be in traffic, it would be a position here, a position in the detective bureau. And we would spread it out throughout the department where you wouldn't feel it.

Okay, and then, I mean, are we, I know, are there positions that we're anticipating through this, the year that we will be down further where we're talking about having to make some shifts and some changes? I understand, I believe there's some people retiring. So do you have those numbers?

There are currently we have one due to retire at the end of this month who is a supervisor. And we do have plans to replace that supervisor. As you know, replace a supervisor with an officer and it's a trickle down effect. But, you know, we're always being prepared because we have about 35, I believe, sworn officers that are in the drop. And at any moment, those officers can decide to go. I'm one of them that are in the drop program. So that's why you always have to continue to recruit. Even on a hiring freeze, you're always looking to recruit and making sure you have people in background, looking at people who are certified, bringing them in. Because at any given moment, we can have some serious shortages. But as far as mandatory retirement, we only have one that needs to go at the end of September because the drop ends.

Okay. Thank you, Chief. Okay.

Mayor, when we start putting out the word hiring freeze for the city of Boynton, we have to be careful and make sure that we explain it the correct way because people are saying, well, I don't want to go to Boynton because they're not hiring anybody. I'm just saying, so we have to be cognizant of what we're saying and how we say it.

It hurts our recruiting, sir. Yeah, absolutely. That hurts our recruiting.

For sure.

No other comments? No. Thank you, Chief.

We will now open to public hearing on the proposed millage rate and the tentative budget. So if anyone would like to come down and make a comment on this item, now's the time. We'll definitely check if anyone is online. Please come down, sir. This is not the open public. This is just this item. Yeah. Once we get through these, then we'll be into the regular public comment.

If it's about this item, yes, we're gonna go each item Do you want to take it item by item I'm going to talk about this one and then come up Can I be just clarify so this presentation was for both items regarding the millage rate and The what? The tentative budget. So if you have any comments related to the tentative budget or to the millage rate, now is your time.

I'm Susan Geary. I'm from Gulfview Harbor. I have been looking at your budget. Thank you. I've listened to your budget, and it was very interesting a couple times. I've been trying to follow the city budget, and I don't quite understand the city math a bit. And not because of the fine job. Okay. It took me a while to sometimes figure it out Yes, and I don't have your qualifications for certain But what I'm trying to say is that the city lowered the millage rate They're trying to that from seven point seven five to seven point four two five seven and according to your presentation There was a two point five million dollar drop To that and then at the same time the fire assessment has been increased 145 270 generating 1.7 million So the taxpayers are seeing a millage reduction rate on one side while being charged more through a separate assessment on the other. The city's own calculation nets the difference is about 800,000. Am I somewhere in there? Yeah. And so I think that this is kind of where I'm going to stop on that because this is a math that I don't understand. But I do have more math things going on with things we're talking about tonight. So I can come back with that. It's up to you. So I'm just saying it seems like we're trading and Getting in other words you're giving away money, but then you're charging us some money But not getting you back the money that you're trading so I don't understand that I just that's my city math Looks good on the people that live here. You know having the millage rate go down. I understand because it's high but now we're getting assessments that are are on the other hand, so. Do you want me to leave and come back? That's fine. You're finished.

Yeah, if you're finished with this part, yeah. With this part, yes.

Okay, thank you.

Ms. Falco.

Cindy Falco de Corrado, I wanted to thank her for bringing that up. It's very important. We are getting side-balled by what looks like a smaller number and being charged additional numbers, and the bottom line is we're still being overcharged. We're still paying for things, and I know I'll talk about the fire station down the road of the $170 that we have four other municipalities who use our fire department who should be paying the higher prices and i wanted to bring up in regards to i guess i can't because it's not this issue um why we're going to be paying that as well but i did want to bring it to everybody's attention so what looks like you're getting less on one end when you look at the whole picture we're being deceived again and i want transparency and i want to stop all of this saying we're getting something for less we're doing good and then you're getting slapped in the back by higher prices so thank you ma'am for bringing that up that's what i was going to bring up thank you

Hello. My name is Dan Adele. I just, I wondered if you could bring up the topic about what to do about if that resolution passes, we don't have any more homeowner taxes coming in. What's that going to do to the city? And then what's going to be the impact down the road? You know, I'm torn because I'd love not to be able to pay taxes, but I know that money has to be made up somewhere. And so it's like, you know, keeping a household, we have a budget. So what's going to happen?

Hmm. That is what we're working on right now with the staff. I'm going to be blunt. It's going to create a significant challenge. Sorry. I'm not allowed to? Sorry.

My bad. Comment.

Anything more? Sorry.

There's no one online, correct?

No, just somebody who wants to speak later at a different item.

Okay.

And then just as a follow-up, I think it's important to note that, you know, because the budget goes in with the discussion of property taxes, and I think it's important to note that with assessments, any assessment, like, that's a revenue line item that has to be spent in a certain way by law, right? It's not this operating budget that... the city manager, the city commission adopts, and then the city manager can spend, right? So if you have, you know, a fire assessment or, you know, solid waste assessment, right? The county charges a solid waste. Those funds have to be spent for a certain reason. And so if in a world where, if that property tax amendment does pass, right? And that tax is slashed, I wouldn't be surprised. And I'm not saying this, you know, from a perspective of the city of Boynton Beach, but municipalities as a whole, you would probably see a shift between ad valorem to assessments to then help fund those mechanisms. And I'm not going to give an opinion on either one, but I'll say that an assessment has to be spent a certain way. You know how those dollars are being spent. And so I think it's important to know that that way. You know, I can try to communicate that as best I can. There's a lot of uncertainty. And next budget year is going to be quite interesting if this does move forward. Thank you.

Seeing no further comment in the room or online. Do you have a comment?

Not a comment, but a question. Would this be the right time to? What I wanted to ask the finance team is if we could pull up the calculator like we've done in the past just to show what the difference would be for an average home from the 7.75 Avalorum rate to the rollback rate and how much savings that would be on the property taxes.

We do not have that readily available, but we can present it or we can send it to the commission later on tonight. What we do have readily available is the calculation of the overall millage rate on the city's revenues. And if I understand you correctly, that's not what you're looking for. You're looking for the impact on the resident.

Yeah, just like we did in past years. In past years, we would look at rates and look at examples at the budget workshop and just say, oh, this is how much you know, an average home would be able to save in taxes if we do the current rate versus the rollback rate.

We do not have that presentation readily available. We will have it as soon as we get a chance.

Thank you.

Comments? If there's nothing else, we would take up the millage rate first. For the rollback rate, 7.4257 mils. The proposed operating millage rate is 7.4257 mils, and the percentage increase over the rollback rate is 0%.

Motion to approve. Second.

We have a motion. We have a second for resolution number R26150. Let's turn to the clerk for a roll call.

Commissioner Kelly? Yes. Commissioner McCrack? Yes. Commissioner Cruz? Yes. Vice Mayor Turkin? Yes. Mayor Shelton? Yes. In a roll call vote, the motion passes unanimously.

Next is the tentative budget. Motion to approve.

Second.

We have a motion to approve and we have a second. R26-151, adopting the tentative budget for fiscal year 2026-27. Let's turn to the clerk for a roll call.

Commissioner Kelly? Yes. Commissioner McCray? Yes. Commissioner Cruz? Yes. Vice Mayor Turkin?

Yes.

Mayor Shelton? Yes. In a roll call vote, the motion passes unanimously. Thank you.

Moving on to item C, proposed resolution number R26152, approving the annual comprehensive fee schedule rate for fiscal year 2026 to 2027. Staff, do you have a presentation?

We do not have a presentation, but I can highlight the overall changes that the fee schedule includes. These are displayed in different departments. Utilities does show an increase of 17.25% across different rates. Solid waste in the residential rates does show an increase of 2.6% in CPI. And also does show... INCREASE IN BUDGET AND PLANNING IN DIFFERENT PERMIT FEES. IT ALSO SHOWS AN INCREASE IN FIRE AND SOME POLICE RATES AND ALSO INCLUDES INCREASES, A RESTRUCTURED FEE INCREASE IN THE ARTS AND CULTURAL CENTER. AND THE STAFF IS PREPARED TO ELABORATE ON ANY OF THESE INCREASES. IF THERE'S ANY QUESTIONS, DIRECTORS AND CITY STAFF ARE READY TO

I don't have a question, but I have some concerns now. The concern is that what Commissioner Cruz asked, you didn't have a presentation for that, which I understand. We asked something else. You didn't have a presentation for that. Make yourself a note. I'm just saying, you know, when you give it to us next time, the public needs to know this. I'm just saying it's not just for us. It's their money and our money that we're spending.

We do have the, isn't the comprehensive fee schedule available? Correct. Yeah, these fee schedules is available online. It's online right now. They can pull it up if need be. We'll tell them they can pull it up. It's there.

We do have presentations for utilities and for solid waste as well.

Yes, we have a separate, we have a separate, we've already worked with the teams on that piece. That is correct.

So now would be the time for solid waste if you want to hear that presentation. We're going to do utilities at the next fee structure, and they can do that one there, or we can do it now, if you like, the utilities and solid waste presentations.

Let's just stay on, and then we'll have them come up. Let's just go on. Are there any other comments from the commission on this?

Just one quick comment. I wanted to see if we could implement some sort of a resident discount. I do see that the golf fees stay the same. There's a bit of a change in some of the... rental fees for facilities or rooms for parties and events and things of that nature. And that's the majority of the things that my constituents have talked to me about that they use mainly. So I wanted to see, even if it was at least once a year, if you're a Boynton Beach resident, can you get, for example, a 20% discount to rent one of our rooms? I would like to see if we could implement something like that. to help the pockets of our residents as we do have a different rate for nonprofits versus private rate. So I wanted to see if maybe we could do something like that for the residents, even if it was once a year that they can do it or whatnot.

I would be in favor of just not doing this increase for residents. I can get on board with that. I do want to highlight, thanks for keeping the Harvey Oyer boat ramp fee the same. We fought hard to reduce that threefold, and having the senior resident and military discounts in there as well.

When we start saying reduce rates for citizens, we have to be cognizant of making sure that people who say they live in this city lives in this city.

Yes. And for sure.

Thank you.

And we would set up a system, you know, to implement it, which would require showing ID or a water bill or something that shows that you're, a City of Boynton Beach Incorporated resident, not just, you know, the same zip code.

So we currently do have rates, discounts, not so much discounts, but it's discounted over the rate which is for non-resident. So like, you know, for instance, Summer Camp, there's a resident rate for Summer Camp versus non-resident, and they do have to prove a residency requirement for that. So it would be similar to that. But we do have some rates now currently that are resident rates versus non-resident.

I think the idea is behind like the recreational activities like the nonprofit, private, commercial.

So when we have like baby showers, birthdays, family reunions, the social celebrations, that's kind of what I was scaring to. Maybe we could either give our proven Boynton Beach residents the nonprofit rate or if we could give them maybe whatever the commission desires, whether it's a 20% discount or whatnot. For our residents that have proven to live inside the incorporated limits of the city

I have a question on that end. So I'm looking at this and it doesn't indicate a separate fee for resident and non-resident when it comes to rentals of our properties. Is that because we don't typically rent to non-residents unless it's a commercial rental? Because this says resident rates, non-profit, private, commercial. do we only rent our facilities to residents, but there's different categories based on if it's a resident who owns a commercial or a resident that's coming for themselves or a resident who is renting it for a not-for-profit. So I guess because there isn't a resident rate versus a non-resident rate. So I'm just kind of wondering, do we not rent our facilities out unless they're a resident? And so then...

Good evening everybody Craig Clark director of recreation and cultural services We we do have a rate structure for residents and non-residents Which is quite a bit cheaper for residents and then we have the nonprofit the private and the commercial in each of those categories Do you have any questions on Don't say cheaper said more economical more economical.

Sorry

I guess we can talk offline. In our schedule of fees, it doesn't break it down that there's a resident versus a non-resident. In this chart that we have, it just says resident rates. And so coming into this conversation, it doesn't look like there, which I'm sure is kind of how that came about, you know,

Commissioner Kelly, if you look, I see what you're looking at, and pages two and three are resident, and then if you scroll to page four, it shows non-resident rates. So they've set out the same fees, but on different pages.

Well, that's very confusing, so maybe we can think of a better way to do this so that it makes more sense. For a 64-page attachment, it would be helpful if it was... A little bit easier.

Something that we're going to change probably next year is, you know, we went to a combined comprehensive fee schedule for transparency, but trying to do one fee schedule for all different types of facilities, all different types of departments just doesn't work. So next year we're going to look where the departments keep their own fee schedules and we're just going to have them prove individually and then we'll bring them back as a comprehensive just for transparency on our website. So that's something that Alan and I have already talked about that we're gonna look at next year. It is very difficult to read, so that is something that we'll probably reformat now and then republish. And if there's some adjustments to the fees that we need to make, we'll bring it back at that time as well, if there's something that we need to clarify or fix.

I'm not opposed to having the discussion about maybe doing a one-time. I think it encourages people to maybe use our facilities as opposed to going to their, or thinking outside of the box. So, you know, as a one time, like if they've never rented before, if they've never used our facilities as a one time, like, you know, giving a little bit more of a discount to kind of encourage usage of our facilities, I wouldn't be opposed to that, having that conversation. Okay.

Any other questions or comments from the commission?

If there's nothing else, is there a motion to adopt proposed resolution number R26-152? So moved. Second. We have a motion and we have a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes unanimously. Moving on to item D, proposed resolution number R26-153, authorizing the City Commission to set rates, fees, and charges for water, wastewater, stormwater, and reuse water for upcoming fiscal year 2026-27. Staff, presentation.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, and audience. This is Ryan Smith. I'm Poonam Kalkat. I'm the Utilities Director, and Ryan is our rate consultant. And he's worked with us for the last couple of years to provide rate studies for us and assessment on what the rates need to be. And this year, as he'll go through the revenue sufficiency to show you what our rates, why we are asking for a rate increase, Keep in mind that most of this increases because of the regulatory requirements for PFAS treatment at the two plants. That's what's driving the infrastructure cost. Our consultants have looked at what the probable cost for implementing this PFAS treatment at both plants is going to be, and that's close to $300 million. So the utility will have to take a utility bond to be able to provide these required needs that EPA is requiring all utilities, all through all water systems throughout the country. So I just wanted to remind everybody that that's what the rates are really being driven by. But I'll let Ryan take over, and I'm here if there are any other questions I can answer too.

THANK YOU, PUNAM. ONCE AGAIN, MY NAME IS RYAN SMITH. I HAVE BEEN PREPARING RATE STUDIES FOR FLORIDA AND NATIONAL UTILITIES FOR THE LAST 15 YEARS, AND I'VE BEEN WORKING WITH THE CITY OF BOYDTON BEACH FOR GOING ON FOUR YEARS NOW. A part of the study and what I wanted to talk about is what have we done over the last four years, right? During the last four years, we made a concerted effort to continually make incremental rate adjustments to move us in the right direction, really kind of recognizing that that time would come when we would need to make substantial improvements in our water treatment facilities. Over those last four years, we've done a number of other really big benefits that you all have moved forward with, including system planning. We've improved our technology and our GIS system. We've come up with what is the actual improvements need to be made at both water treatment facilities. And staff has identified approximately $30 million in grants and other proceeds that have been available to also kind of offset as much of this near-term capital as we can. Now, during that same period of time, really looking back to 2012, we've continued to monitor how have our historical rate adjustments compared to the cost of inflation. And what you're seeing on your screen right now is a comparison of the city's historical rate adjustments to the Water and Sewerage Maintenance Index, which is published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And through 2027, what we're projecting is that our overall increase in rates is still going to be about approximately 20% underneath inflation. So still tracking in the right direction. And when we look at our current rates for a typical single family residential customer utilizing 5,000 gallons a month compared to our South Florida peer utilities, what we identify is we're still below the average. Right now, the average bill for water and sewer service only, assuming 5,000 gallons per month, is approximately $65. And our other neighboring utilities that we've surveyed have an average that's approximately $91. So we're still about $25 below the average for our other peer utilities. So still very, very competitive. Okay. Now, as we've moved forward with this financial plan, one of the things we like to do is continue to look at our financial metrics and those metrics that are really important to the rating agencies. It's kind of going to be our report card when we go to the bond market. There we've seen these metrics really improve over the last three years. Days of cash on hand, very, very strong. Do we have enough cash in the bank to offset any operational or capital emergencies? Our operating margin has also improved over the near term. Now, we still know that one of those areas of concern are age of our assets. It's been a little low or a little high, excuse me. And that's where we're going to focus on going forward with these water treatment plant improvements. And overall, one of the other bright points for the city is total debt outstanding to net plant assets. And really what that says is how much of our house is mortgaged. You all have about approximately 22% of our overall assets are mortgaged. finance from debt currently. And that's about half of the median for a AA credit utility. So there you look really, really strong. So we've put ourselves in a good financial position to be able to move forward and secure bonds. Now, recognizing those plants, what has been built into our forecast this year, because that's really the biggest driver of our need for rate adjustments. Now, we do want to mention that what we've built into the plan is $325 million of improvements, and that's for both facilities. These improvements are required by federal regulations that we make these improvements to meet PFAS requirements. And I do want to mention that that total cost that we're projecting for this financial forecast does include a contingency in it. And that's really in there to be fiscally conservative, right? Because we don't know if the project costs are going to come in exactly at what the engineers are estimating it at. And we don't know what's going to happen with interest rates in the bond market. So recognizing those two items, we want to make sure we have a reasonable contingency built into the forecast to allow us to continue to move forward with the plan even if something changes. And recognizing that when we take all those items together with our projections of our operating budget, capital needs in the system, including those water plants and our outflows of debt service, we want to come up with a balanced funding plan that really kind of ties our revenues to our outflows. What you're seeing on your screen now is our projection of where do we see our costs going over the next several years. You'll see those costs increasing and that's really associated with the financing of both of those water treatment facilities. And things will start to level off here soon once we start to move forward with financing those improvements. Our total capital plan is also important to note. Over the next five years, what we've presented is approximately $500 million in total, with the majority of that really being associated with those two facilities. And what we come and we ask of you today is to help support the plan. Right now we're recommending a 17 and a quarter percent rate adjustment for fiscal year 27. That will continue to allow us to maintain and improve those strong financial metrics that you all have worked to secure going forward. We have strong cash positions now, which is also something that the rating agencies are going to look at. We want to make sure that we maintain those going forward. And moving forward with this plan will allow us to secure revenue bonds to fund both of these facilities. Now, when we look at how do our rates compare for next fiscal year to our peers, that's what you're seeing on your screen now. What we see is that average monthly bill increasing to $77 a month approximately for water and sewer service. We will still be below our other surveyed utilities by approximately $14. And I do want to mention that when we can look at this chart, We're really not comparing apples to apples because we're comparing our fiscal year 27 rates to fiscal year 26 rates for the other surveyed utilities. So it is very likely that many of these other utilities will continue to move rates up over the next year and the next coming years as all utilities are really dealing with this same regulatory water treatment related issue that's driving our capital costs higher. Thank you very much. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Any comments?

I'm ready. My first one will go to staff. I'm just saying, when was the last time we had a rate increase here in the city of Boynton?

We've had a couple in the last couple of years. Before that, almost for 12 years, there was no increases at all. Can you go back to that graph? I think it was the second or third slide. So look at that. If you look at from almost 2000, four, five, up to 2023, there was hardly any increases. So we are trying to catch up with what there were no increases at all for a long time, and that's gotten us into this place. And now, because of the PFAS requirements, it's become kind of like a double whammy that timing-wise, we can't do anything about the, we could defer certain things, but we can't defer when it's a regulation that's coming from the federal government. And I try to point out that federal government is not providing, they've actually cut some of the loans and some of the grants in the past year, two years. The money is harder to find. So it's almost as if there is almost an unfunded mandate that we as rate payers are having to pick up on. So I know League of Cities and other elected officials are grouping together, going to the federal government to ask for more money on SRF loans and other loans and grants to help.

Okay, I'm in favor of going to the government to get as much as we can, grants, whatever. Per cent. Because, first of all, I'm just saying when you look at the graph and we're talking about, you know, increases, increase, you know, we have retirees. We have people who have families and everything. And all of a sudden I recognize that this should have been done years ago. We look like we waited until we got to the worst and said we need to do something now. And I'm just saying this is a, excuse me, this is a hell of a bill for somebody to chew. I'm just saying, I'm sitting up there looking at it saying 300. $300 million, and I'm just saying that's no chuck change. I'm just saying millions. Not $300,000. And my whole take is that when you bring something to us and we have to take it to the citizen, they're saying, like, what have you all been doing? I'm just saying, I'm kind of, because they said, a lot of people tell me, say, hell, we're paying for water and water's free. And I'm like saying, well, what's going on? You know, I know it has to be treated. I watch your plants. I've toured them. I was on Boynton Beach Boulevard. I watched those pipes that y'all dug up. They look like cast irons or something. They have so much rust. And I'm like saying, hell, was I drinking that water? I'm just saying, you know, for things going forward, I'm just saying, you know, you have to treat people fair. You know, do it over time. I'm just saying instead of coming here like saying, okay, hell, the house done burnt down. Now we got to build another one. That's what you're looking at giving it to me.

I get it. I totally, totally get it. I'm a rate payer too. So I understand what you're saying, and I agree with you completely. The problem is when you have a price tag of $300 million that you could not, it's not, you can't defer it because PFAS treatment has just over the last, two, three years, they've put down what the requirements are going to be. It used to be the requirement used to be much higher, and I'm not saying we shouldn't take PFAS or any other chemical that needs to be taken out that could be harmful to any of us. We should take them out, absolutely. But what the requirements were a couple of years back from what the requirement is now for what needs to be taken out, it is a huge difference in what the cost of that treatment is. So pretty much everybody all through the country has either done this in the last couple of years or is doing it now or is going to be doing it in the next few years.

I appreciate that. You all keep coming back before us and saying, you know, a study done here and a study done there and a study done here and a study done there by the government. The government is supposed to be looking out for us, and I'm just saying, you know, for the What study did you all read? That's what I'm kind of putting my things on, saying, you know, somebody missed the boat somewhere. When the boat's docked, somebody didn't get on. I'm sorry. I know it needs to be done. That's what you all are telling us, but if you all got grants out there, you all need to find as much money as you all can find. If you have to go to some of these things that we got going on and find some money, I'm just saying that. Come to the citizen and say, we're going to do an increase. I know $20-some dollars might not look like a lot to you all or to me or somebody else, but When you want to fix income, that you get one check a month. So security and everything, and you keep dilly-dallying, and food's going up, gas is going up, everything is going up. We need some help somewhere. Tell us where you all can help us so we can tell the citizens.

Yeah, we are absolutely looking at everywhere we can find the money. We already, for the plants, we got at least $5.4 million, which was a principal forgiveness loan, which means we don't have to return anything out of that. It's Again, most of these loans and grants are reimbursable. So you have to initially have the money, spend the money, and then apply for reimbursement. So you have to figure out where that money is going to come from. There are not too many options. And I understand that everything's going up. It's the same problem as a utility when you're running it because electric, materials, chemical costs, all of those are also going up for running these treatment plans. So I'm not giving excuses. I'm just giving you the reasons for why we are where we are. Right.

Okay. You said that you found $30 million in a grant. Different grants. Different grants. Y'all looking at some more grants?

We are. Absolutely. More grants? Absolutely.

I think y'all need to step up the game. I'm sorry.

We're trying.

Okay. I'm through. Thank you. We'll go in order.

Thank you, thank you guys. I know this is, I feel like for the last couple of years since we really started focusing on prioritizing the health of our water plants, we have had this conversation every year and I know the room is a little bit fuller tonight than it normally is when we have these conversations. I'm kind of glad that it is because I feel like these are important conversations to be having in front of a room full of residents. um our aging facilities have been neglected for years and years and years and when you're talking about not increasing the rates that's because all of those years it was a bad year and everything was going up and cost of living was going up and so whoever was sitting on this board at the time didn't didn't support rate increases didn't support rate increases kick the can down the road. The administration at the time wasn't focusing on let's look at what this water plant is gonna do for us in 10 years. What do we need to do so that this water plant can live another 20 years? Now we're at a point where our water plants can't live another 10 years. On top of PFAS and the mandates that are being run in, that's not even what the health of our water plants look like. we would have to make those changes, but we have to address the issue of the water plants because if we don't, then the alternative is we then don't maintain our own water plants. And that for me as a resident, that's something that I, a conversation I don't want to have, and that's not a conversation I want to have with my residents, that sorry, we didn't raise the rates, and we didn't put ourselves in a good position to continue maintaining our own water plants, and so now we're selling off our water plants, and then we have no control over what happens to the residents and to the rates and all that. This was a painful conversation last year when we had it. I feel like the last couple years it has been. We have been working hard so that this increase would be less painful. every year moving forward because we have done smaller increments along the way but it's inevitable that unfortunately these increases have to happen because we have to maintain our water services. I don't like the idea of thinking that we will lose our water plants and we will have zero control over the water that goes in and out of our city because we didn't increased the rates and we weren't able to maintain our facilities. And we kept kicking the can down the road. And so this is kind of, my colleagues who were up here last year, this is almost the same conversation I had last year. There's just less people in the audience, but this is a reality that we're facing. and I don't wanna pay more for my water, but I know based on conversations with staff and our consultant and everyone that it can't not happen because the alternative is we lose our water plants. They are 65 and 45 years old and we've been putting band-aids on them for years and years and years and years. Every time we didn't increase the rates, We put more bigger Band-Aids. And so now, unfortunately, we've been left with making these tough decisions, and we look like the people who don't care about our residents, and we just want to increase rates, and we just want to increase rates. And that is furthest from the truth. If you know any of us up here, we fight for our residents every day that we're sitting up here. And so it is a little, you know, it's... It's not something, it's not a conversation we like to have. You know, we've had this conversation many times. So I just, going into this, I just want to make that very clear that this is a conversation that unfortunately we've had for the last couple of years, knowing that this was coming. And it, but the reality is we have to take care of our plants because if we don't take care of our plants, we will lose our plants.

And I appreciate Commissioner Kelly, your comments. You're right. Even if it wasn't the PFAS, the plans have been let go for a long time. Staff would sometimes bring it up and say that this needs to happen. And it was like, can we defer it a little bit longer? So it was probably the thought was to try and save. and keep the budgets low and not increase and not have rate increases. But it's gotten to the point where even if a PFAS wasn't there, we did just replacing in kind and not being able to meet the regulatory requirements, our spending would still have to be on those plants, would have to be at least a couple of, it was $100, $150 million for both plants, just not to even bring new technology in that will take care of some of these requirements that regulatory requirements uh, uh, requirements that are coming from the federal government. So, um, I do agree that that's, we've gotten ourselves into this spot and we shouldn't, we should all be doing what we need to do. I think you all have said the same thing and you've asked us to do the right thing. So we will, we'll continue bringing, being transparent, bringing what is the reality. You are the policy makers and you decide. If by chance the Commission decides not to raise rates, it's the regulatory requirements are the regulatory requirements. If you don't meet those requirements, then EPA comes down. You can get into a consent order with violations, and you'll still have to do the same thing, but you'll have to do it in a hurry. So planning helps you at least offset some of those. So I just want to at least have you all know that this is not a choice. Sometimes replacing some pumps here and there may be a choice. Meeting the regulatory requirements coming from EPA is not a choice.

Thank you. I have a little bit different philosophy around the utilities, as we've seen before. You know, it is a liability, as we know. And, you know, there is concerns about rate caps, so on and so forth. But I think if we were to ever entertain a transition with that, it allows a giant lump sum into the city to then use that money to then generate ancillary revenue to then offset costs, provide rebates potentially. So financially, you could actually get quality water at the same regulatory requirement and overall spend potentially less. Again, that's a conversation for another time. The 17% is too high for me. So I'm not opposed to an increase because I understand, you know, everything you've mentioned. I just think that there can be conversation to meet somewhere in the middle. And then ultimately, you know, the next thing is a bond's going to come forward. So that is the ultimate form of democracy to allow the residents to make that decision. And so I just want to know, does it have to be 17%? Can we continue the conversation for something a little bit less?

One more question before you answer that. The services that we're providing outside of the city limits, do you want to go over what they're now going to be charged as well? Because we do service...

They are already charged 25% more, but the state legislator has been coming down last couple of years and asking us to... It should be the same cost, just because they're outside the city limits doesn't mean as a utility that you're, why are you charging them more? So last year, there was a bill that was passed that has asked utilities, if you do charge any outside city municipal boundaries, anybody, any extra, you gotta show the methodology of what you're charging, why you're charging. And this has been coming for the last couple of years, and pushing back with utility councils, explaining some of these things. But the trend's continuing where we can see it that that extra surcharge will go away. They will not allow utilities in the future to continue charging. Extra to anybody living outside the city limits just because the utility is still providing the same services So it's one of those things that's been happening So we are anticipating that that's going to happen and we are going to lose revenue because of that also so that was one of the reasons for why we built the 17.25 because it is going to Definitely impact us There I have another question

When we did the East Water Treatment Plant and we put up that champagne glass, y'all call it, some years ago, probably 20 years ago, a little less than that, and we had the big old pipes running from Warbright all the way out to the West Plant and all that stuff, I was under the influence then that doing all of this, they told us before on another different set of individuals that this will help get Boynton Water where it needs to be. I feel like when they did that to us, we was duped then. So I'm, I don't want to be duped again. That's all I'm saying. 17% is a little too high for me to go at this time. I'm sorry.

Um, thank you for your comments and, and Dr. Puna as well for your expertise. It's, it's unfortunate that we have to deal with unfunded mandates and, aging infrastructure that hasn't been taken care of in decades. But at the same time, I represent a district that has a very high percentage of a population of seniors living on fixed incomes and small families that are also growing. I don't generally like to see increases, but I do understand that everything is increasing, including food. Even when we go to the grocery store gas all kinds of things So there there is a need right there is a need to fix the to stop putting the band-aids and actually have a final solution But I agree with with what's been said earlier 17% it's it's and I understand I understand why you need the money I get it, but it's just a very hard pill for me to swallow and you know, so What can we, I'm just trying to figure out what an alternative solution might be so that we can get a bit of a cushion to continue to move the needle forward in the right direction, but also not be such a high percentage to where it's too much for the residents.

I'll let Ryan talk about this. The only thing I'll mention is that if we are to go out for bonds, so we have to meet these PFAS treatment requirements by 2029. We are in design of those plants right now. And you know how construction takes and time that construction takes. So if you're not able to secure a bond in time and we don't have, we can not get, either we'll have really high interest rates to get that bond or we will have to, so there are some, things in the future that we don't know. We don't know what the interest rates are going to be. They haven't been. They were doing very well a couple of years ago, and now they've come up a lot more. We have to meet those requirements, like I said. If we cannot meet those requirements, we will be in violation. And violations means we'll be sending letters out saying, we're not meeting this, and EPA will ask us, what is your plan to meet it? So we will have to figure out how we're going to get the treatment done. You can't do these treatment plant projects in kind of segments. You can't do it in phases. You can't say, OK, I'll be able to, if I have a 24 million gallons plant that we are producing around 17 million gallons every day, if we can do 10 million gallon, we are good. Because we've got to meet all or none. All the water has to meet all the requirements, the federal regulatory requirements. You can't meet half of it. So that's the problem we get into when you do these treatment plants. Pretty much, if you look at Delray is building a plant right now. Rivera is building a plant right now. Palm Beach County has two plants that they will have to build. I think Wellington is working on getting their plant built. Almost everybody around us is already working. Lantana's generally asked us what we are doing. Manalapan's asked us what we are doing because this is a problem that everybody has to figure out what they're going to do about because you've got to meet those requirements. Otherwise, if we don't meet those requirements, EPA may require us to do point-source filters. So you can imagine if every household has to be given filters and we have to replace them in time, that cost is going to be even more than what we are spending now over time. What we are trying to build is going to be for the next 30 years. Or we will be required to provide... And again, all of those costs are not practical in a situation. But I'll let Ryan talk about some of the financing portion.

Right, I think there was a lot of really good things that were brought up tonight. Continuing to look for grants I think is an excellent option. The only problem is, Commissioner McRae, is those grants have really dried up in the last year. Those large grants subsidize interest rates through WIFIA or SRF, larger potential loans. Our total potential avenues to secure debt financing has really kind of narrowed quite a bit in the last year or two because of this reduction in debt. FEDERAL GRANTS. NOW, I ALSO WANT TO MENTION THAT WE'VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT THESE WATER PLANTS FOR GOING ON THREE OR FOUR YEARS NOW AND SLOWLY MAKING THESE INCREMENTAL RATE ADJUSTMENTS. NOW, ON A PERCENTAGE BASIS, YES, THEY SEEM HIGHER, ABSOLUTELY. But when we talk about the actual dollar impact and the service that's being provided for the actual amount of the bill compared to your peers, I want us to remember that we are still extremely competitive in our rates, right? When I go back to our Other neighboring utilities, and these are the same exact utilities we've surveyed now going on four years. You all have consistently been in the very lowest quartile, right? You have the most competitive rates around. And even with moving forward with the larger percentage-based rate adjustments, we are still gonna be on the lower end. So recognizing that, I get real concerned that if we don't continue to move our plan forward, right, we're getting closer and closer to that window that we're gonna have to move forward with these improvements and deferring the rate increases now would mean a larger increase to be able to move forward with those bonds and to be able to move forward with those improvements.

Yeah, I just want to say for the record, because this rate is more affordable than anywhere in the county, right? You see that a lot with home prices in the city. It doesn't justify that we should increase. I don't like that argument. Oh, well, we're less than the rest of the... you know, the rest of the cities in the county neighboring. I just don't like that as a justification. I love the methodology. I love the reason why. But I don't like saying, oh, well, we're still behind. So because we're behind, you know, we should increase the rates. And I understand why you're saying that. I just don't like, I just don't want that to be used as a justification.

No, you're right. It's not a justification. It's just telling you that the cost of treating water and producing water is expensive and is getting more expensive. So that's the only thing we are trying to provide. That's why other people are also raising the rates. We're not saying we need to become like... Palm Beach County or somebody else or Wellington we're not saying we're not comparing that we're just saying we're seeing their rates increase for the same reasons and that's why we are at that stage also.

This is my final question okay tonight we're talking about a 17 percent increase will you all be back here next year talking about we need to keep going up?

I I don't plan to be here to ask for increases for the water plants or anything. I wish I could retire. These rain of nights make you feel that. But no, if we fund the plants, infrastructure-wise, we are in a good place.

I just want to say thank you. I know you have a hard job and it's difficult to come up here and talk about something that's very difficult but also very necessary. So just thank you.

Any other questions or anything else we can address? Any other comments or questions from the Commission?

So we have two choices here. We either get a motion or is it something that you can revisit it at not the 17.25% increase when we come back next week and talk about it.

I think it comes down to the funding piece. We'll have to go back and work on the you know, if it's not 17%, if it's something different, that limits the bond and the cash, the liquidity that's available for us to be able to reinvest and fix it. So it's something mathematically we're gonna have to look at.

That's something you can do before next budget meeting.

What I would do, Mayor, excuse me for interrupting, is table it, let them work on it, and understand we do publish tomorrow. So what would be published would probably still be the same, and then we would just have to pull the rate and republish right before the meeting. Okay.

Motion to table.

Second.

We have a motion to table and we have a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes.

Thank you. Appreciate everybody's time.

Moving on to E. Tammy, you're up to read item 2E into the record.

Okay. Public hearing on proposed resolution number R26154, approve the provision of canal maintenance services in the city of Boynton Beach, Florida, approving the assessed costs and assessment rates for the canal maintenance services for fiscal year beginning October 1, 2026, imposing canal maintenance services special assessments against assessed property located within the city of Boynton Beach for fiscal year beginning on October 1, 2026, providing for its variability, conflicts, and providing for effective date. Do you need a chair?

Are you sure? You can try to find your stool.

No, no, no, I'm good. We haven't changed anything in the canal assessment, but I can go through the same presentation.

No, I'm okay. Just for the record, this isn't a canal assessment for the whole city. This is just for a certain amount of properties that are impacted by that inflow from Lakewood Change District.

Just that area?

There we go.

Perfect. Just those couple of canals, and it's assessed every year, and based on the assessment, around 100 residents are charged based on just that assessment, what the cost is, and it's divided between everybody.

Thank you. Any other comments or questions from the commission?

The public hearing.

We are now opening for public hearing on the canal maintenance special assessment. This is an opportunity for effective property owners and members of the public to comment on or object to the assessed cost and the assessment rates. If anyone would like to speak on it, please come down. Just on this item?

No one's online, Commissioner Kelly?

No, Mayor.

If there's nothing else, is there a motion to adopt proposed resolution number R26-154? So moved.

Second.

We have a motion. We have a second. Let's turn to the clerk for a roll call.

Commissioner Kelly? Yes. Commissioner McCray? Yes. Commissioner Cruz? Yes. Vice Mayor Turkin? Yes. Mayor Shelton? Yes. In a roll call vote, the motion passes unanimously.

I will turn to the clerk to read the fire assessment item proposed resolution number R26-155 into the record, please.

Public hearing on proposed resolution number R26155, a resolution of the city of Boynton Beach, Florida, relating to the provision of the fire rescue services, facilities, and programs in the city of Boynton Beach, Florida, imposing fire rescue assessments against assessed property located within the city for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2026, approving the rate of assessment, approving... The assessment role confirming and continuing the procedure of hardship waivers or deferrals of all or part of the city's fire rescue special assessment, including application and review by the city's finance director or designee and eligibility criteria for such waivers providing for conflicts, providing for severe ability and providing for an effective date.

We have a presentation from staff.

Good evening mayor vice mayor commissioners Hubert or fire chief So I'm here to answer any questions you may have on the fire assessment. Do you want to go ahead and pull it up?

Chief if I may real quick just can we just get a quick? Understanding about like this assessment and like how it's regulated and it's spent and it's spending I had mentioned earlier tonight that you know this assessment collected can only be used in for certain things. So if you could dive a little bit more into that, just for the public's benefit. Because I wanna maintain that it's better, if ad valorem or any taxes is gonna be spent, and I'm pretty sure we may see this next year, that you'll see assessments pop up in other municipalities and where that revenue will then be assigned to a certain expenditure. And I think, you know, one could argue that, you know, you know where that money's going. It's not going into the hands, you know, of an individual, and that revenue is going to be shifted around. So I say all that to say, can you just explain, like, how assessments work, what it can be used for, what it cannot be used for? That way we understand, you know. where this potential increase was going.

Yeah, sure, absolutely. So essentially the fire...

Excuse me. Yes, sir. Before you go any further, let me go back to this fire assessment, the history of the fire assessment, then we can go on. I understand what you're saying. Go ahead with your question, but I still want to go. Go ahead. Let him go ahead. Go ahead and respond. Go ahead, sir. Go ahead.

Thank you. So the fire assessments, or if I may go a little further, the purpose of the fire assessment is to solidify funding for your first responder fire department agency that is not tied to the potential swings in ad valorem tax revenue. That was the initial reason that these fire assessments were created, so that we don't have these issues when you do have these potential swings or potential issues with funding that may occur. Statutorily, the language specifies that based on the rate study, and the rate study is done every so many years, we'll be doing one for next year, So basically the rate study is done that allows us statutorily somewhere in about the 65% range of a fire department's budget can be covered by fire assessment fees, but they are not to be used for anything EMS related because we do charge for EMS transports. So the legislation doesn't allow us. So for example, I can't come back as your fire chief and say, well, you know, we're not going to charge EMS transport fees and then charge everybody the you know, this assessment, or the money from that assessment going towards the entire budget. So statutorily, we can't do that. So approximately 65% of that goes towards funding the fire department, and that can be everything from fire stations to fire trucks to the salaries of the firefighters to anything related to that itself, fire hose, the training that occurs. Can you take that down? I don't need it up. So essentially, it's anything that's non-EMS or emergency medical services related. And that's about 65% of our budget is non-EMS related, which follows the statutory requirement.

Ready now? Thank you. I sat up here when the fire assessment was first introduced to this city. At the time it was introduced, they said it was sunset in seven years. Follow me because a lot of you all wasn't here. I was here. I was the same individual that made the statement. I said, once it gets put into Boynton, We're going to be taxed for the rest of our lives. They say it's not a tax. It's an assessment. You call it whatever you want to. I consider it still a tax, and it's been years and years. We're still paying for the same thing over and over and over and over again. You might not want me to say it, but when you know what you know, that you know that you know, you can say it. I'm just saying, for seven years, it has not sunset. It's not going to sunset, and we need to stop fooling the citizens. Just say every year we're going to be doing a fire assessment. Let's be honest with the citizens.

Do you have a question, sir?

I'm sorry. Do you have a question?

No, I don't have a question. I had a comment, but anyway, I just want to say, you know, I've got to vote for it, but my whole take is like this, you know, stop talking about, you know, it's supposed to be used. We use it for what we said. We got a new fire station that we're supposed to be building now because we're going to be closing that one. But we was duped the first time this was put in. Now we got to continue to live with it because I'll be dead and gone and we'll be still talking about fire assessment and we won't need a fire station. Go ahead. I'm just saying, you know, let's, let's be honest.

Any other comments from the commission? Do you have anything else?

Chief, can you briefly explain, because we do have, this is one of the benefits of this assessment and doing it as an assessment as opposed to a tax, is that there is also a hardship application that our residents can apply for if they truly have a hardship and it's anywhere from disabled veterans to meeting certain income qualifications. And so can you briefly, because I don't know that all of the residents really know that, and we have a good group of residents that can share this information with neighbors and other residents that they know. If you could just briefly go over the hardship application process and what that does and how it works.

So if I may, and not that I don't want to answer your question, but the city's CFO is the one that actually is authorized and makes those decisions. It's not the fire chief that makes those decisions. Once those forms are filled out, they're sent to the finance department and the CFO reviews those. So if you wouldn't mind having the CFO answer that, that would be great.

So yes, we have the form, it's out on the website, they all come in. Last year, 53 were approved, zero were denied. So it's a very comprehensive form, but I'll be honest with you, if someone takes the time to fill out that form, We don't deny it for the city. If they take out the time to fill it out and I can see that they're trying to do what they can do because some of them are very disabled. I've literally driven out to folks home to make sure that they get it filled out correctly because they don't have a printer. So we do that. Last year it was 53. Right now we've only had around 25 to 30 sent in.

Right, so, and that's, it's on our website. Yep. And if you don't have access to the internet, call the city and we'll provide that. But it, I mean, there's a rate. There's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, eight different categories that you can potentially qualify for this benefit. So if you do truly have a need, and it's not just that you don't want to pay this assessment, I don't want to pay assessments, but I know that the reason why we have this assessment is for our fire services, which is important. Everyone talks about public safety and how they want the firefighters to show up, and this is how we pay for that. But if you truly have a need, there are ways that you can You can apply to have that waived and so if you do not have access the internet or don't have a way to get it Reach out to me reach out to any of staff reach out to anyone up here on the dais and we're happy to provide you with that information because it is I think it's important for us to talk about and if you have neighbors who you know think that you know, they have a need and may qualify and Then you know apply for it. That's you know.

This is one of those Those things that we are able to provide support for Commissioner Kelly what I'll do is I'll make sure first thing tomorrow morning that a stack is available at the front counter with Jay I'll get with Jay make sure that that a special section is available at there at the There at the main desk and people can come by and pick them up as they want to fill them out and drop them off There as well.

Thank you I Yeah, that was a good question about the eligibility. I do want to say that there is an income. If you're low income based on the HHA requirements, you would be eligible to receive the FHIR assessment. I think that maybe we could expand knowledge of the exemption, especially for seniors. One of the One of the categories that applies would be seniors 65 and up and also disabled veterans and among other categories. I just wanted to put that out there. We can also put it on the city's Facebook page or the website and make sure that people have access to it. For me, historically, I've been opposed to any increases in the fire assessment. I would be okay with maintaining the current Cause but I'm not able to move forward with that based on the district that I represent So I just wanted to say that thank you Yeah real quick no I

Proposed the rollback rate and I said that if we do that that I'll support the fire assessment And so I'm going to be a man of my word I'm not going to revert or pivot and I am gonna support this because it's good to know where the money's going you see amendment 3 on the ballot because You have seen a lot of inflation, a lot of waste, government spending that has been misused. And so when you look at things we want versus things we need, public safety is a right. And when that funding mechanism is potentially... endangered you have to be able to pivot and think about the future and so you know if we want to have a conversation about finances two dollars a month for public safety then maybe we should look at some recreational things maybe we should look at things that people want but don't need right libraries are great do we need them to get the work do we need them you know to make sure when we dial 9-1-1 someone shows up The answer is no, I'm not saying let's cut the library, but what I'm saying is we have to have these hard conversations and regroup and focus on what government is supposed to do and what our lane is. It has exploded, it has expanded significantly, but I think everyone in this room can agree that if we wanted to dial 911 and make sure our loved one was attended to immediately, we'd probably pay an extra $2 of that. There has been no other bigger critic of the fire assessment than Mack McCrae, than myself. Chief Bruder will attest to that every single year. However, we're facing a lot of unknowns. And again, when we reduce the ability of how the money's spent and we focus it in a certain source, I think decreasing that tax rate on and on again and making sure that money goes and we know where it's spent and it's not in the hands is a better operating mechanism for government, in my opinion. And, you know, I'm not saying that's what this city is going to look like in the future. I just think that when you look at the public sentiment about government spending and you look at the needs and wants, you know, people are struggling. You know, gas is $4 a gallon. You know, a lot of things matter. But, you know, when you look to public safety, that's what government's purpose is, to provide, you know, quality of life, you know, for our residents, whether it's a city, county, state of Florida. No, whatever that may be. And so if it means that the city manager can't spend some money on certain things or the department loses something so that I can maintain that the fire department operates efficiently, I'll take that 10 over 10. And I would say that if this passes, we're going to see even more crucial conversations come down the pipeline. And I really want to remind our body, this body, that we have to focus on the needs and the wants what is urgent versus what is important. And I think every life is urgent, every life counts. And so again, I'm gonna be a man of my word. I'm gonna honor that I support this because we supported, because we endured the rollback, right? Thank you, sir.

This will be my final comment. In regards to the assessment, how many people call, utilized I need help applications last year? 53 so we could be looking for 53 more. Uh, in regards to district two, my neighborhood, I'm just saying people complain. I had a lady that called me. She said, commissioner McCree, you all want me to pay a fire assessment and hell I can't live in my house because I had a fire and you want me to pay a fire assessment. These are things that I have to hear. I can say that, you know, for the city of Boynton, the fire stations that you said you was going to build with the assessment money that we received, you all built those. Now we're up to fire station number, what is it, three or four? Three. Three that needs to be built because you all don't know it, but it's been closed because of the air quality out there. We're down one fire station, and we do need that. I don't want to say that this side over here, the east side is taken care of and forget about the west side. So that will be the only reason tonight that I will vote for this fire assessment because we promised them that they will be getting a new fire station, and that money is going to be used for that new fire station. So I'm going to have to go ahead and say I will support that. because they need that new fire station out there because I'm just saying quality of life for people that's working for the city needs to be taken into consideration. That's the only reason I'm voting for it. Thank you.

We are now going to be opening up to the public hearing on the final assessment, on the fire assessment. It's an opportunity for effective property owners and members of the public to comment on our object to the fire assessment rate and the assessment as applied to their property. Any written objections received have been made part of the record. So if people would line up on the fire assessment, if you have something to say, already come down to the podium. We're gonna use both sides of the podium. We have still a lot more, and we have a CRA meeting after this. We wanna keep things moving in a timely manner. You're up first. Thank you.

Please line up on both sides.

Yeah, come over to the other. We wanna really switch them out every time the clock changes. Thank you.

Okay, again, Susan Geary from Gulfview Harbor. The fire assessment two years ago, which came, and that particular fire assessment actually had physical things that need to be done, like the fire station you're discussing. I really, before this one goes through, I really would like to know, because I don't see any specific, it's this money's going here, this money's going there, or finishing the fire station, which we all have been worried about, I have to agree with Commissioner McCray, I realize that you're saying you want it finished, but that money was earmarked there. Only 53 people, and I know that there are more out there, but it was not easy to get that application. It came out late in the game. The taxes were assessed. People had to fight to get their money back from their mortgage brokers or anybody else handing that money, and I know that it stepped up this year. Between September 1st, we just got them in our neighborhood to hand out this past week, and they must be finished by the 30th. So I don't really think it gave adequate time for people to even know that's there or available. And some of the rules changed on this year's assessment. And I ended up spreading them out to the people I know. One thing I do not like is that a disabled fireman that no longer can work lives in our neighborhood and every year must justify filling this out. That should not be. This person is never going to be back on the force. This person has had multiple fire problems from being in duty. Should never have to worry about that. I have a lady in our neighborhood that's blind. She's never gonna get her sight back. And she always has to fill that out or have someone help her to get it in. And it's never been consistent. I want our fire department to be very, very much taken care of. But I want to know where this money's going. It's a lot of money. We're dropping that millage rate. I know we're losing the money, but we're getting little back. We're losing $800,000. You know, I don't like that. I'd rather have the millage rate and everybody share that burden and not have this continual thing that keeps going up and up and up, just like the utilities. You know, it's a hard press for us right now. And I know, hopefully we have better years. Once again, it's the city math. And I do want to support them. I really do. And you too. And you've all made really good decisions. But this one's hard. Sir.

No. No.

Now it's on. Thank you. David Katz.

First, what I'm assuming is that a majority of the commission is going to support this, and I agree with those who are going to vote for it. The folks that are the men and women of our fire service are not rapacious at all. They're not greedy. earlier there was a comment like the municipalities that we serve, why don't they pay this, why don't they pay that, not just the people in the city. Well, there are four places that we have contracts with, which bring in $2.7 million a year. Ocean Ridge, town of Hypoluxo, Village of Golf, and Briny Breezes. If we didn't have that $2.7 million, we'd have to go to the general, not we, but the fire department would have to go to the general fund for that money. They don't increase their their personnel to make that service to those four municipalities. So that's money coming into the city. And that's by the work of the chief, the fire chief. So these guys are doing the right thing. And I believe there's a new fire station that's a little bit further down Congress, close to Gulfview Harbor. Well, that came from the fire assessment money. And so I think the people in District 4 need to have their new station. And I'm glad to see the lady from Gulfview Harbor thinks we should have it. Thank you.

Name Bob foot. With my wife Jenny, we've been moved in. 1980. On the West side of their tracks. In 2000 we have appeared at the first public hearing about fire assessment. We moved to the east side in 2003. We had the complement of the fire station being built on the east side of the tracks. We are happy to pay the $175 a year.

Thank you, sir. Next, please. And anybody else can move over to the opposite podium if you're waiting to speak.

Good evening, everybody. It's my first time. on those meeting and never been in those meetings. So I'm just coming because I received that letter. It's concerning me by the address where I live.

I'm sorry, ma'am. Can you state your name? State your name for the record.

I'm Sandra Michel. Okay, I just received that letter. I probably received letter before, but this one bring my attention. And I have a lot to pay. I have $21,000 on the condominium assessment this year. And every year, my HOA keep going up and up. I moved to Boynton. I used to live in Delaware. I moved to Boynton in 2021. My HOA at that time was 340. Now it's come to 649, plus an assessment of 221. We come to like about 919 a month. And then I have a son who live with me, and then he's told me he's going to move. And by November, and I will not be able to pay my mortgage plus the assessment. So that's the reason I'm here to impose that assessment of $190 on my property. If anything can be done for me of, you know, for me not paying that assessment, I will be very appreciated. So that's the reason I'm here. Okay, thank you.

Cindy Falco de Corrado. Well, we know the fire department has bought little golf carts, boats, et cetera. And you are absolutely correct, Mr. McCray. I've been here at meetings for years. Same thing, same assessments, always going higher. And we know that the money that's supposed to be set aside for using specific things has not been used for those specific things. Now, the intention is, but it doesn't really get to where it needs to be. Now, as you stated, you're right, there's four other municipalities that absolutely uses our services for the fire department, okay? He named them. Hypoluxo, the Village of Gulf Village, Briny Breezes, and Ocean Ridge. Now again, this is taking away from the city of Boynton Beach the people who pay in their taxes, which we don't get any of their taxes, for these services. So our firemen are going out of our district if somebody needs something in our district. Of course they should be paying higher rates, otherwise let them build their own fire stations. Are we looking at ways to save and quit buying toys for the fire department? Are we looking at ways that we can charge these other municipalities so that our residents who already are paying exuberant, I mean exuberant taxes and not getting the benefits of those taxes and we're being assessed. This has been going on for year after year after year. I have watched it. You are absolutely correct. And it's time to stop. I think they need to do budgeting better. They need to be wiser with their dollars. Something is wrong, and it's not should be taxed to the people. It should be taxed to people who are using our services outside of our territory, okay? Because they're getting our services. We pay. And I want you to really think about that. And think about that. They should be paying the higher costs, not us. Why should we have to be depleted? As I stated before, we are not the redheaded stepchildren. This is our city. And by the way, we the people own this city. We own these buildings, not you guys. You're here as managers of those, of what we the people who are the ones who are governed by giving you limited authority And we sit here today, and I sit here, and listen to you talk about what's going on in my life, and I don't agree with most of it because you guys work within the system. You're not really feeling the pain of the people. And we've had enough, and we want you to put us first. And by the way, police protection, we've already been there. I've been beaten up by the police right here in this room, so please do not tell me for my protection. Those words cut and hurt me to the core. Okay, so let's be honest and let's be transparent and let's look at what's really going on with these dollars. Thank you.

Next, please.

Good day, Dan and Adele. So the current building trend in Bowen Beach is going up. You see it all around in this general area, all these high rises going up. What I worry about is with that trend, are we getting enough money from these developers that are building these high rises Because the type of construction calls for different type of fire equipment. And that fire equipment is going to be large ladders. You know, it's different type of safety equipment. And there's bigger risk to the fire department to actually service those type of buildings in case of an event. So are we actually pulling enough money from these developers to cover the cost of this new type of equipment that we need to service that type of architecture that's going up? Because that's really the only thing that's really we have room for. That's it.

Next please.

Hi, I'm Emily Ash and I live in District One. I live in Leisureville and I want to say that I know it's a hefty price for our people who are on fixed incomes, but I also want to say that every single time One of our seniors falls. The fire department is there to pick us up. Never ask anything. They come all times a day, and they come over and over and over for the elderly who are infirmed, and it is a great gift, and we should pay that. Thank you.

Anyone online? Commissioner Kelly?

Yes, Mayor, there is a David Karasik online, and if he would unmute his computer and state his name for the record, he can begin. I'll let you know when you have 10 seconds remaining.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes. Yes.

Hi, good evening, everyone. My name is David Karasik. I won't keep you very long. I appreciate I've gotten a lot of my answers just listening. And also, there's a form to fill out. I will definitely qualify income-based. I'm a year away from 65, so luckily feeling good. So I just want to say that I have a small business, Boynton Beach, superb signs. I was on Boynton Beach Boulevard for 37 years, my storefront, part of the community. I've been down here since 1974 in Boynton Beach. I had a house here for many years. I was here, sorry, my purpose is to object for that assessment from the fire department, although I've been educated in this meeting quite a lot and understand the need for it. I just wonder if the methodology could be improved. That's not my business to say how. I have some ideas I'll share with you. Right now the store where my business was in 37 years is now Bait and Tackle Shop, so you probably recognize that little place there just west of Seacrest on Boynton Beach Boulevard on the north side, a nice family business. So I took a lot of notes. I don't know if I can read my writing, but I'll try to be quick. I appreciate your time. So one thing is budgeting, how do you say, to save money. But maybe there's some ideas we could think about, maybe implement, that may work for the citizens to bring in more money in maybe a fun way, maybe some good ways. Please pardon me if they're not the best ideas. I'm just writing some things down. For example, I think there was some talk about the water treatment plant. It's old. It's of a certain age. I can relate to that. And maybe have a thing, world's famous city, Boynton Beach Water. Maybe it could be marketed to Costco or Walmart or places like that. It could be a pretty cool niche to help fund the city's needs. Just an idea. You know, water is so important. Everybody drinks it. What else? I can read my notes here. Volunteer fire department. I don't know if they have a division that can be volunteer fire department. Maybe some of the costs of the firemen can be spread among more people who are volunteer, which, you know, they're volunteers, so they're not adding to the costs and maybe alleviating some of the expenses. Also, this is out of my league whatsoever, totally mean, totally, completely. But a lot of money, I believe, I don't know if pensions still exist within the framework of the government, but I would suggest that many people who retire from the city, firemen, police, civil capacity, leave the state and so does their contribution to the state or the income of the area. And I say this very respectfully, because I never want to spend anyone's money, nor make any judgment, but perhaps incentivize for them to live in the area in which they worked by giving them an additional, I'm sorry, giving them an additional 1% or 2%, maybe 1%, or taking away 1% from their pension. Not a big deal, but maybe it's a hub of getting more income.

Perfect.

Thank you. Thank you. There's nothing else? Would anyone like to make a motion on proposed resolution number R26-155? Motion to approve. Second. We have a motion to approve and we have a second. All those in favor say aye. Oh no, it's a roll call. Tammy.

Commissioner Kelly? Yes. Commissioner McCray?

Yes.

Commissioner Cruz?

No.

Vice Mayor Turkin? Yes. Mayor Shelton? Yes. In a roll call vote, the vote passes four to one.

Thank you. We are now moving on to public audience. Everyone has three minutes per person, non-transferable. It's not a Q&A. Same rules apply. Speaker must address the commission as a whole. Again, this is for any issue that you would like to come down and speak. We ask you that you already start to line up at the microphones and keep things moving. So if you want to speak, please come down and line up now. And you're up first, sir.

Justin Johnson, marketing and outreach manager. Just here to officially, for the record, invite the commission, the mayor, and the members of the general public to our 25th anniversary 9-11 remembrance ceremony that will be taking place this Friday morning. September 11th at Centennial Park and Amphitheater. That begins at 8 a.m. This is a collaborative effort between Recreation and Parks, Special Events, the Boynton Beach Fire and Police Departments. We are currently working on a sponsor to provide breakfast for all in attendance, and it will be free and open to the public. Thank you. Next, please, sir.

And if we could just hold applause and things till the end, that would be great.

My name is Robert Lee. And what I want to talk to her about is the swells. I got a letter that I would be given a ticket if I parked my car in front of the house in my swell. Now, how many swells in Boynton Beach? There's a thousand of them swell. You're going to have to hire two or three people to give tickets They park in the swells. The swells are city property, but you don't maintain the swells. It's the same thing with the alleyways. You maintain the alleyways. The guy comes by once a month to do the alley behind my house. So if I can't park on city property that's in front of me, that I maintain, I got sprinklers there, pretty yard, pretty lawn, but it's city property, and I'm not supposed to park on city property. Now, the second thing I want to say is I commend whoever doing Sarah Sim's cemetery over there. That is beautiful, and you brought some good stuff to the northwest section. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please.

Hi, thank you, Mayor and Vice Mayor and Commissioners. I'm Emily Ash from the First Presbyterian Church in Boynton Beach, and I'm here to ask that you will possibly consider doing an amendment on our zoning so that we can have our two tenants. There are two social services tenants. One is iCare and the other is Turtle Adventures. They are both programs that benefit this community. iCare is a program that supports the neurodiverse community, which is autistic and Down syndrome individuals, adults who are maybe 250 participants on our property, not all at the same time, but during the course of the year. And Turtle Adventures handles all things turtles from Boynton Beach Inlet down to Gulfstream. And they would like to make our property their permanent resident, but they cannot because the zoning is zoning church only. We have talked to zoning. The zoning would be amended. We would still be 51% church. They would be 49% nonprofit social services, but this has been a very positive thing for our city. People have actually moved here to be part of the eye care program for their children. You can imagine what it's like to have an adult 25 year old who is autistic and doesn't have a place to go anymore without the school system. This is a place for them to go and have a meaningful participation and friends. So we would like for the commissioners to consider this as an amendment. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next, please.

Hi, I'm Stacy Deloy. I live in Gulfview Harbor, directly across from the FPNL property that was considered for the public safety unit. Today, I filed a public records request for communications between the engineer's office and the city manager's office and Florida Power and Light officials. The reason I did that is because there's been no communication from the city. And many of us have left phone calls. Many of us have sent letters. Nobody answered my letters. Nobody even said thank you for your letter. And so when there is silence, when there's no response, we get very anxious. This is a profoundly important issue to us. It affects our home values. It affects our ability to retire. It affects many things. So I wonder if you folks would consider asking your staff to create a one-paragraph update on where things stand with our requests to preserve the property and find another location for the police training facility because the anxiety in our neighborhood, as you can see from all the people with the T-shirts, is off-scale. So there's a meeting happening at our clubhouse again tomorrow night among the neighbors to talk about what to do strategy-wise because people don't trust that things are going to go the right way as this drags on. So if somebody could please send us an update of one paragraph, here's where things stand, I would be happy to share that with my neighbors tomorrow. It's terribly important to us. And thank you for your consideration for working on this.

That issue is on the agenda for next week, for the next meeting on the 16th.

Hi, good evening. My name is Yolanda Robinson and I am a resident of Boynton Beach and mother of a child that's five years old, nonverbal with autism. So I'm here tonight for one thing, asking for inclusion. I'm asking when the city has cities funded events that our children are thought about so we don't have to stay home, that we have inclusion. I'm also asking for autistic child at play sign because that sign could alert a driver that a child with autism is in the area. Children with autism are low and it could save a life. So thank you for listening to me. That's all I have for now.

Thank you. Next please, sir.

Good evening. My name is Nico Della Bono and I am the CEO of shroud and I'm here on behalf. It is a technological consulting firm as well as a political think tank. And I'm here to raise the question of the flock safety cameras that the city of Boyan uses and wondering if you as a city are going to follow in the governor's lead of getting rid of them for public safety. Now I bring this up because you guys have done excellent work in the past. And I don't want to bash the police or anybody because you guys do excellent work, truly, and by far great leader of the rest of some places of Florida. I'm just concerned more of the ethical use of the data aggregation of a private company taking information in a public space as it is a clear violation of the first, fourth, and fifth amendments as it was well stated within Chattery v. United States as well as in Carpenter v. United States. And I just hope that the city of Boynton takes a look at their contract with Flock and decides to end it as I'm concerned with the ethical violations of a company storing heat map data and as well as private records, even though they are licensed and reported to be only APLRs license plate readers, they are infrared cameras. So they possess facial recognition technology of which Flock does have a patent for and And even though they, within their contracts, even across multiple municipalities in Florida, they very clearly state and against their own wishes, vow that, oh, we do not store data. Just yesterday in the state of Wisconsin, they had to testify in court that they actually do collect up to five years of private citizens' data despite their contract saying they do not withhold data amongst 30 days. And the next firmware update for FLOC shows that they are able to collect bank account information of anyone who so much as walks or drives within the distance of its cameras. Additionally, even though they are reported to only work within whatever vector they are given for cameras, they are able to tap into your Bluetooth. If anyone in here has a Samsung phone, you can even check your Bluetooth as you're walking by. there should be a repeated six-digit code of the camera tapping into your Bluetooth publicly against their wishes. So I just hope that the city of Boynton takes that into serious consideration. I hope you guys don't get any lawsuits from that, and that's why I'm trying to help you guys avoid that. And you guys do excellent work, and so do the police department. So I would just like you guys to consider that in the future. Thank you. Thank you. Next, please.

It's hard to pass that. Susan Oyer, Boynton Beach. So once again, I'm here asking where our $100,000 piece of art is that's missing. The head of art that oversees all this makes $190,550 per year plus her CRA stipend and still can't respond to me and send an email as to the status of the piece of art. Of course, I'm now hearing from other people who are aware of other pieces of art that are missing. We have a Bernard Thomas mural that is missing. If you don't know who he is, he is one of the most famous muralists in the United States. He lived here in Boynton. His wife was the principal of Boynton Middle School that's now Galaxy L. There's a park named for her. You know, the Thomas family's been here forever. One of his murals is missing. Where's it at? I don't know the price. I haven't gotten that far in my investigation. I also understand that the sailfish that was a piece of art that was supposed to be here in this building, for the Sailfish Cafe that we were supposed to have that still has never appeared. Where is that gone? Don't know. And then I recently heard that, and bear in mind I don't like this piece at all, but there's this thing that looks like a Frankenstein fish. It's really awful. We had a huge fight in the arts board whether to keep this or not, but it was given to us at one of the kinetics, like two kinetics ago, three kinetics ago, and it's Where's that at? I'm not telling you to make that one first on your list to go find, because it truly is its own special kind of look here, but it is an art piece. It's probably worth 15, 20,000. Where's it at? So that's now four pieces of art that are missing in our city. No one's emailing me. I hope somebody's investigating. I'm gonna keep bringing it up till we find out where these pieces of art are. and because Adam says every time I send an email, and he very graciously responds, yes, Susan, I know you love the arts in Boynton Beach. So let's actually start investigating, and that person who makes all that money really should at least reply to my emails. Thank you. Next, please.

Dr. Woodworth.

Good evening, Harry Woodward, Boynton Beach. Got a couple of handouts here I'll give them to you later on. Nothing fancy. FYI, one is the camera growth in Atlanta, Georgia versus the crime statistics in Atlanta, Georgia. I think you'll find that very interesting. It's the FBI data, so it's CITY REPORTED, AND A PIECE OF PAPER THAT HAS MAYBE 15 CITIES OF DATA ON HOW THEY PERFORMED WITH SOUND DETECTION SYSTEMS. I THINK YOU'LL FIND IT PRETTY INTERESTING. TWO PAGES. MY TOPIC THIS EVENING IS 10B, THE FLOCK. NOT AS GOOD AS THE PREVIOUS SPEAKER. I'd like to first thank you for doing it. I know that's a tough dig. Appreciate having another conference on it. I think you'll remember March 23rd. You probably look back on that and think that was time pretty well spent right now, or you'd have a line of reporters out here asking you why you have the largest single system in the state. Good deal. Appreciate having that. My discussion this evening is, okay, we all know they make legal pictures of license plates in a portrait of a car. No debate. So what I want to talk about tonight, discussion is, and hopefully it's gonna be about the security of the data that's collected. And let me read this a little bit because I wanna just kinda get through it. The discussion tonight will be the security of the database that this collects. Vehicle details, locations, and movement running on flock software and a flock network created by 120,000 cameras in 6,000 agencies in 49 states taking 20 billion pictures a month. That is one mother of a database. What we ought to be talking about is the safe use of our data in that database, because if you've been watching the news at all, you get it. That should be the prime focus of the conversation on 10B. What in the heck happens to our data? Well, let's talk about that real quickly. In March, Flock was here, two here, one on the phone, one on the text, I guess. We own our data. They said that. It's deleted every 30 days. They said that. It's never sold. They said that. It's never been hacked. They said that. It's only used by authorized users, they said that. We picked those users and it's audited and that's in place and it's only used by authorized users. Been watching the news for the last three months. Okay, what was not discussed on the March 23rd meeting, although I wanted to, most agencies share their data, we do too. Once you share it, you will never have any control over who uses it. You no longer have any control downstream of what they use it for or how long it's retained. What was also not discussed and was known at the 23rd meeting was that there have been unauthorized access We don't call it hacking. So at the end of the day, my only question with all of this is, what is going on with this? They preserved this data for five years, and what are we doing business with these people for?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, please, on the right.

Hi, my name is Daniel Gillum. I live in Lake Add, Boynton Beach. My concern is with the lady back there earlier I spoke to as far as utilities are concerned. I'M ONE PERSON, AND YOU WOULD EXPECT YOUR ELECTRICITY BILL TO BE MORE THAN YOUR WATER BILL. MY WATER BILL IS 2.35% MORE THAN MY ELECTRICITY BILL. NOW, I'M WONDERING FROM THIS STANDPOINT, IS IT BECAUSE OF THE CAPACITY THAT WE ARE HAVING ISSUES WITH THE WATER? AND THAT WOULD BE A QUESTION IS HOW MANY PEOPLE HAS MOVED INTO POINT AND BEACH? And that capacity has pushed the water limits up. And my other chief complaint is there's technology out there to cut the water off when it's raining on city property. All down through Federal Highway, the water is going to water the new shrubbery. That water does not go off when it's raining. Still raining, still watering the nice shrubbery that was just installed. I think we need to really look at that, that's a problem. And that's really affecting the water usage. City Hall, probably the same way. That's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you. Cindy Falco de Corrado. Well, we could save $2.2 million by not getting flock cameras. We already have Governor DeSantis having them removed, and we don't want Axon either. So when they say they're going to remove flock and quit spying on us, because that's what they're doing, I don't know if you saw the movie A Person of Interest. It's like in China. They watch every move you make, every step you take. Is that what you really want for us as Americans? This is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave. I don't feel very free lately. Do you? I notice flock cameras up and down Seacrest. My husband and I walk and we go, my gosh, there's one on every corner practically. It's insane. And if we're going to pay for police department, let them get out there and work for it. We want to give them a raise, but yet we've got flock machines and they're pinging people and chasing cars. No, let them do their job, let them do old-fashioned policing, okay, if we're gonna have to pay for this stuff. And it's our money, by the way, and they work for we the people. And now I wanna go on about the water. My water, first of all, they came up years ago with the AMI, and they put out like $30,000 of these meters, right? and people would drive by, you could just drive by and they could read the meters, they didn't have to stop and really check your meter. Well, then they changed that after they put all this money into this new technology, and now we have what, the iPerl? Okay, and it's now a systematic, by the way, the reason why your bill goes up too, because your smart meters use electricity, more electricity than what you want it to use. So everything goes up. So here, I had a situation at my home that my water bill kept going up and up and up. I was belittled because I'm like, why am I paying $6.21 for gallons of water? Well, come to find out I had a leak. Nobody told me. These smart machines are supposed to let them know what's going on. Only because I was irate about a $250 bill for two people living in a house, which is absurd that we find that I had a water leak. And for two years, they were just estimating my water bill. They weren't even coming out and reading my water because the machine didn't even work. What is going on? So all this about this water, first of all, as you stated, it is free. God gave us water, okay? And if everybody bought a reverse osmosis system for your home, I think we'd be a lot better off and we'd get really good water. And after we paid for this water raise that we kept hearing about with the tea gallons and all this stuff, then we had to shut our water off because they were putting fluoride or something in our water just, what, a couple of months ago? I mean, this is insane. And if you want to keep buying and drinking the Kool-Aid of what the water department is doing with our water and all these things that need to be done, I would definitely do this as well, guys. Check the federal government. See what the regulations really are. I think that we're being bulldozed and blindsided and sideswiped. Check everything. Trust no one. Because these are the days that everybody is taking a little something, making it a big something, and they're getting rich on our hard backs. And we the people are tired. We cannot carry this load any longer. And it's up to you, because you are elected officials by we the people, because you work for us, to do your due diligence and make sure what we're being told is true. go look up those federal things that she was sharing and see if you really have to get 17% for the water before they can get a bond. Check it out. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please.

Hi, my name is Mary McGovern and I live in Colonial Club Apartments. I'm on the board there and I worked on the budget and our water bill is $370,000 a year for this condominium association. We did an intense analysis and what we found is most of the water is going for irrigation. We've asked if the city of Boynton Beach Water Department could get us reclaimed water because I feel that then you don't have such a strain on the water treatment plant because the reclaimed water would save us a lot of money and it also helps with your infrastructure as well. The other thing is, which I'm not real sure about, but are we now supplying the city of Gulfstream with water? And they were getting water from Delray before, and now Delray needs a new water plant, but now we're gonna sell them water instead? So that's just something new that came about, was that should we have done that? when our own infrastructure is not working for the city of Boynton Beach, how are we taking on contracts with other surrounding areas? And the other thing I'm not sure about either is, which someone did mention, but is the city of Gulfstream paying the same rate per gallon as the city of Boynton Beach? Because I wanna say that what I read, which obviously is on the internet, which we can't always believe, that their rates are actually lower than what the citizens of Boynton Beach are, which that I'm not sure about, but I would assume that that would not be the case. And then the last thing would be, with the water EPA guidelines, I'm not sure if the reclaimed water would maybe help with that situation as well. Thank you. Next please.

And have you come up.

Hello, Damian Bobrick. I live off of Boynton Beach Boulevard. I've lived in this area now, actually in the same place for five years, although this is my first time coming to a city commission meeting. I don't think I've been here especially long, but a lot has changed. And so I also, I tend to run. So I see a good bit up close more so than just driving. I've seen a lot of new buildings go up. And some of them have been what I would guess are cattle-based tax vehicles being converted into residential developments. Now, many of these new developments have flock cameras. I suppose they're private enough property that the HOA, for their part, could make sure to impose surveillance onto the new communities that they've built for the new residents when they come in. Perhaps some of this is driven by insurance or real estate investment trusts. And those have a penchant for incentivizing treatment of people. I think more like, well, the cattle that used to be there. And so, you know, then when I'm running, I'm thinking, oh, huh. So it's not just when I'm driving and, you know, it's reading my license plate all the time and recording that for who knows how long, as previous speakers had said. Is it recording my gate now too? Recording how I run, how I walk? My face, storing it for who knows how long? These automatic license plate readers sure do a lot, it seems. We're not cattle. We're people. It may be easier to treat people like cattle for the sake of investors and insurers, but we are real people. We are neighbors. We are coworkers. So Boynton Beach, the city of Boynton Beach, for its part, should not be part of this trend. Public safety starts with relationships. It starts and improving it, moving in this direction away from mass surveillance starts, does not end with getting rid of flock. There should be no mass surveillance, no flock cameras, none of those other surveillance measures like the fake cell towers that are used for surveilling protests like stingrays. I don't know if Boynton Beach PD in particular uses them, but those are the sort of things to watch out for. And then also, furthermore, I would encourage the city to follow Key West's lead and end your 287G agreement with the federal government. We don't need to be deputizing our police department to work with the professional rights violators at ICE. I don't need them surveilling and racially profiling my neighbors, my loved ones, my coworkers. It's unacceptable. End the mass surveillance. We're people, not cattle.

Thank you. Next, please, sir. Yeah, over to the right, okay.

Hi, my name is Owen. I live in Gulfview Harbor. I think animals deserve the kindness because they're living things.

Hello again.

Dan Adel. A couple of different topics. So kind of torn on flock. Benefit in the tool to the police department, I can see that as a great tool. But the reality of it is it's a private commercial company. It's not a government entity. I don't know if you remember the lessons of 23andMe. It was a private company. They swore up and down they weren't going to sell that data to anyone. And they held to that promise. They didn't sell that data to anyone. They sold the company to a private equity firm. That private equity firm then in turn sold all that information to everybody else because they were no longer bound by the contracts to the individuals that essentially had given their information over. The same thing is probably going to happen with Flock. Five years down the line, one steeps from mass to an incredible amount of data, they are going to sell to a private equity firm because they will be very valuable at that point and they will sell that information to private industries. Next topic is I live in Gulfview Harbor. I just want to again represent the fact that as a homeowner there I have concerns. I'm blessed with the fact I have several large trees on my property and just this weekend I was sitting outside and I was listening to the vast amount of birds that were on my property. In the trees, it was just incredible the amount of noise that they were making, but it's so relaxing. And I'm worried that with a shooting range within proximity, what's that going to do to the migrating habits, to the birds coming into my neighborhood? They're not going to want to be there anymore with that constant sound of doom, doom, doom. And I'm pretty sure we're going to be able to hear it. That's pretty much it. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next, please. Can I just say one thing real quick? Let them finish public comment. Okay. Go ahead. No, go ahead. We're going to finish public comment.

Hi. I know everyone's tired and hungry, but I'll try to make this quick as possible. Alyssa Thorne. I also live in Gulfview Harbor, if you can't tell by our shirts, and I do want to echo my neighbor's comments about the birds because, yes, I am at that age where I appreciate bird watching. But it's not just the nature, it's the community as a whole. I bought my home to start my family there. And I'm trying not to be emotional because my seven-year-old spoke. And if he can get up here and speak how important it is, I just want you guys to take that into consideration, what that neighborhood means to us in the next generation. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please, sir.

My name is Tony Senkar, Gulfview Harbor resident. I've spoken here before. I appreciate all of your time. I know we're on the agenda for next week to talk about it, so I don't want to get too far into the weeds on that. But I think what's clear tonight is that we have a finite amount of resources. We would love to pay all of our first responders $300,000, $400,000 a year. It would be amazing. I think all of you, quite honestly, are underpaid. You have to listen to guys like me, right? But we have a certain amount of resources. And I think Vice Mayor Turkin said we have to distinguish between the needs and the wants. And it's tough times for a lot of people right now. So I think it's important that you distinguish between those things. And I think a training facility, we don't know what's going to happen on the ballot in November. that this could greatly affect what's going forward. So to me, any big budget item such as this, which is gonna cost tens of millions of dollars, Maybe put that off until after the election and you know where you stand as far as your budget property tax-wise. I know I sent an email to, I think, all of the commissioners and I believe the mayor, and we never get a response, which I understand you guys are busy. Maybe to go with what Stacey said, maybe just even a standard response saying we received your email and we'll look into it or thank you for your input, just so we know that it was received. A lot of us came tonight because, quite honestly, there is a lack of trust. When I was on the board for Little League a couple years ago, when we negotiated the deal where we gave away the field for a dollar a year, I read the contract, and a lot of our negotiations were centered around the private entity was going to build a challenger field. They were going to give free clinics for Boynton Beach youth for baseball. All wonderful things. So when I was disappointed when you guys settled and you gave away the field for 50 years for a dollar a year, I thought, well, at least our disabled children are going to get a field of their own. I read the contract. None of that was in there. The free clinics, none of that was in there. I talked to the city manager and he said, well, we signed it and kind of you guys are going to have to deal with it and we trust him to do the right thing on this. I gave it to an attorney friend of mine and I said, can you read this because I'm involved emotionally with this. Can you look at this contract? And he said, quite honestly, it looks like the private entity wrote that contract and whoever signed off on it was either, it was either incompetent or corrupt. Either way, it's not good. I don't believe any of you are corrupt, but the ball got dropped on that. So our concern tonight is this was something and it tried to get pushed through before this was on the agenda for next week for Gulfview Harbor. And for the record, the private entity for the little league fields, that challenger field was never built. No free clinics. I checked with the president today of the Little League just to make sure that, you know, if something had happened recently, and he said, it's not going to happen. It was all talk, and they didn't put in the contract and protect us. So our concern going forward as Gulfview Harbor residents is we just want an honest conversation. Be straightforward with us and let us know what's going on. Thank you.

Thanks, please. Susan Geary again. With Gulfview Harbor, but we're talking budget. So I'm going to stay on budget. The situation that I see is what we've talked about before the trading back and forth for the assessments and so on. But when we come back again to the public safe police, public safety training center, In June, the commission authorized CPZ architects for up to $477,694. Only $364,490 was funded through the police impact fund. The remaining approximately $113,204 had to come from an internal transfer. Okay? And now buried in a five-year proposal capital improvement plan attached to the September 8th budget agenda is another number, $10 million in fiscal year 2027-2028 for a PD training facility, new construction design build. $0 coming this year, and then $10 million the following year. So we're lowering one tax, raising the assessment, transferring money between funds to cover a nearly half-million-dollar design contract and simultaneously planning for a $10 million training police facility. And three years ago, the taxpayers spent $163,751, our money, on the Reimagine Recreation Master Plan. Yet today, we are still waiting to see meaningful results from this investment. And before the commission approves this budget, I think the residents deserve one simple thing. Please explain the city math. It keeps changing. And we're paying, but we're not getting, just like the ball field thing. And it's really getting tiresome. And I do agree with the last speaker. We are a little bit not trustful because some of this stuff was bulleted through. And here we are. And now we're looking at the budget, and $10 million is on there. Razzle dazzle. And we're worried about our property, which some of you say wasn't park property. But in actuality, in the reimagined plan, it did say park. And now it's not. It's a parcel. But the Girl Scout Park is still a park. Amazing. Presto change-o. Change-up. That's why we're concerned. But I really appreciate you continuing to listen to us. And thank you. And we look forward to speaking with you again. And again, great job on the budget. I cannot tell you. It's hard work. I get it. Thank you.

David Katz, Boynton Beach. First, I would suggest that everybody not buy a Samsung phone. And I'd also like to compliment what happened on First Friday. There were 47 vendors that were children. It was the best First Friday I have ever attended. It was fantastic, and I spent money too. So I guess that's, well, maybe that's why I didn't like it. But anyway, I was gobsmacked after watching the pre-agenda meeting. that the commissioner from District One at the last commission meeting leaned over and accused the city manager of having him set up the comments that I made. I would like to say that about the District One commissioner, let me say that no one on the dais, including staff, can influence or control any comments I may ever say. What I can say is that the district one commissioner was the one who influenced my comments because of the Kabuki theater she orchestrated at the previous meeting. I haven't witnessed this level of paranoia from a city commissioner in Boynton Beach since Moby Dick was a guppy. Thank you.

Any comments online? Anyone?

Mayor, there is nobody online for public comment.

Okay, we are closing public comment. Next, we are going to have a discussion.

I had a request to say something.

Oh, sorry. Go ahead.

I just want to tell everybody from Gulfview Harbor that there is a meeting on September 16th. Protective covenant was brought up at a previous meeting, and it will be discussed at the next meeting. So I understand everybody has questions. Just wanted to make that clear. It's not today. It's the 16th.

Thank you.

Next is a discussion of moving the November 3rd City Commission meeting because the general election is on the same day, so we might want to take out our calendars.

You guys thinking Monday or Wednesday, maybe Wednesday?

Andrew, what was the day that you were, wasn't there a proposed?

Yeah, we were recommending Thursday the 5th. Thursday the 5th. We know that it's available that evening, but Tammy does have other dates if you guys want to look at other dates that work for you guys.

Okay. Fifth works for me. That's fine. Okay.

Is there consensus to move it or a motion? Please.

Motion to move the November 3rd City Commission meeting to November the 5th. Second.

We have a motion and we have a second to move the meeting to the fifth. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes. Moving on to 5B, Advisory Board. The first nomination is for me to appoint a regular member to the library. This was tabled on June 2nd. I'd like to keep it tabled. The next nomination is for Commissioner Cruz to appoint a regular member.

I'm fine with keeping it tabled for today. Thank you.

Okay, we're going to keep that tabled. Same with, no, same with the parks and recs? Okay.

Parks and rec isn't tabled.

Recs and parks board.

It's not tabled for parks and rec, but the senior advisory board is, but that was after parks and rec. And historic preservation. That's what I meant, correct.

Okay, so historic is tabled, but the recreation and parks is not. Okay, would you like to make a motion or?

No, I just wanted to table the entirety and just move forward.

We have to do it one by one though, right? Well, there's two already on the table, so it would just be a motion to table Commissioner Cruz's applicant for Recreation and Parks Board.

Okay. Motion to table the remainder of the applications.

Second. Second.

Yeah, I just, I mean, second for discussion, I just, I mean, I understand tabling it once or twice, and we're, I guess, maybe hoping that applications will come in, but I just wonder, you know, we've been talking about these... I know, but we've been talking about needing people to, you know, serve on our advisory boards, and we encourage it, and it's been pushed out on social media, and I just, you know, there's people that are applying, and we're not appointing them, so I just... It's discouraging, I'm sure, when people apply that then they're not being appointed and it's being not addressed and just tabled and pushed off. And so I just, I don't wanna get in the habit of we just continue to table this and table this and table this because we want people to serve on our advisory boards. And if you're not gonna appoint, then just don't appoint. And then that way, at least the person who applied that's been sitting on the agenda for you know, three months now, we'll know that they're not going to get appointed for that, and maybe they'll apply for something else. I'm just, I don't want to just continue to table something and leave it open when we're trying to fill these vacancies.

I ditto what Commissioner Kelly says. That too, thank you.

Yeah, we will. Oh, we need the vote. There was a second, so a vote, please. We have a motion and a second to table these. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes. We will now be moving on to consent. If my colleagues would like to pull any items from consent, let's begin on my right with Commissioner Cruz.

Not for me, thank you.

Vice Mayor Turkin. Not me. Commissioner Kelly. No. Commissioner McCray.

Yes, I'd like to pull item 6B.

Okay. Do we have a motion to approve the agenda as amended? So moved.

Second.

We have a motion. We have a second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. All those opposed, say nay. Motion passes. Commissioner McCrae, since you would like Resolution R26-157 pulled, we'll start with you.

Thank you. The reason I pulled this was that when I read it, I started laughing. It said the mayor and chief to accept the grant if awarded. That's the only way you could accept it if it was awarded. So I just said, you know, was that the wrong language or? You know, they put grants out there. You know, you're not awarded. You can't accept them. I'm just saying, you know.

So we have to apply for them first.

I understand.

But once it's awarded, there's additional paperwork that has to be brought. So this, what this is doing, it actually, what it's saying is, If approved, it's giving the city attorney's office the authority to review it without bringing it back to you. That's all.

I understand that as well. But I'm just saying, for somebody picking this up and reading it, you know, first, second, or third grade, when you read something like this, they're rewarded. They started laughing as well as I did. I'm through with it. Are you supporting it? And I stay. Do you have any questions for it? No. I would just tickle about it if awarded.

Thank you.

Motion to approve.

We have a motion to approve in a second, R26-157. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes. We will now be moving on to consent bids and purchases. If my colleagues would like to pull any of these items, we will begin on my left with Commissioner McCray.

I'm good, thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Kelly? No, thank you. Vice Mayor Turkin. And Commissioner Chris. No, thank you. Great. If there are no further changes, we have a motion to approve. We have a motion to approve. We have a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. And the motion passes. We will now be moving on. I will turn to the clerk to read in item 8A.

Proposed ordinance number 26025, first reading and ordinance of the City Commission of the City of Boynton Beach, Florida, amending part three, land development regulations, chapter four, article 10, flood prevention requirements, section one, general, and section five, specific requirements by type of improvement or development of the city code of ordinance to ensure compliance with state statute providing for codification, severe ability, conflicts, and providing for an effective date.

Good evening, Mayor and Vice Mayor, and Commissioners. The presentation. Currently, our restrictions for- Sorry, can you please just state your name for the record? Oh, John Koonsman, Building Director. Thank you. My apologies. Currently, our Article 10 flood prevention requirements do not allow mobile homes Manufactured buildings in special flood hazard areas These restrictions were put in place. So we wouldn't have mobile homes in Special flood hazard areas. This has also been part of our Higher standards and our CRS So Now we are required by statute 55338 to amend our flood ordinance to include the mobile homes, manufacturing buildings in special flood hazard areas wherever a single family detached home is allowed. So now we are updating our flood ordinance to include the allowance of the mobile homes and special flood hazard areas. And we're also updating our firm map of the effective date. Okay, as with all new construction in special flood hazard areas, a new mobile home, manufactured building would be considered a new construction in a special flood hazard area. And we would also be bound by the strict requirements from FEMA and the Florida Building Code to allow these structures in special flood hazard areas. Things such as elevating the lowest member of the mobile home to one foot plus BFE, which is a base flood elevation. All duct work, electric, AC equipment, water heater, insulation, anything that is under the mobile home would need to be one foot above base flood elevation. Any foundations would also need to meet the requirements for manufactured homes Those are homes that are put on foundations and those foundations would need to meet the minimum base flood elevation per FEMA The designs will or shall be in compliance with FEMA's P85 guidances and that needs to be signed and sealed by a design professional architect or engineer. If there are mobile homes or manufactured homes that have skirting the skirting would need to meet the Flood requirements if it's solid Skirting then flood fence would be required to be placed in them if it wasn't the Solid skirting then the water would be able to pass through And not cause any damage to the mobile home And at the end of every project a elevation certificate would be required We have any questions

Any questions from the board?

I have one. If we approve this, which I'm in favor of, I'm just saying if there's a hurricane or anything like that, we're not liable, are we?

The mobile homes and any manufactured buildings would need to be on approved foundations, approved tie-downs, and that would be signed and sealed by an architect or an engineer. And it would need to meet wind load requirements and flood requirements.

Thank you.

Real quick, John, so we're changing our laws and ordinances because the state is now requiring us to permit manufactured homes in flood zones and so we are this is a cleanup we're cleaning up so that now we're complying with the state law because now the state law is telling us that we have to allow manufactured homes in flood zones even though it's probably not the smartest thing to do that is uh per house bill 803 And it has to meet all of our building codes, so you haven't preempted any of our local building codes and all of that, correct?

Yes, it would need to meet the minimum requirements of the residential code and need to meet the minimum requirements for FEMA.

Okay, thank you. If there's no other comments or questions from the commission, I would now be open to a public hearing on this item. If anyone would like to come down and speak on this item, now is your time. I assume there's no one online.

Oh, he's coming.

You're coming down, sir?

Okay.

That's okay. Gotta get some steps in.

Hello, Dan Adele again. Does this impact existing mobile homes or new construction mobile homes?

mobile home that's brought into a new lot that would be considered new construction.

Okay, so this doesn't impact like our friends at Brandy Breezes and existing mobile homes.

I'm sorry, this is a question and answer.

Okay.

If you could just make your comment. Thank you. Thank you. That was pretty much it. Thank you for answering. No, he can answer after. I just, the back and forth.

After, if you want to address it after. He'll speak with you. I'm so new to this. That's okay. I'm sorry. That's okay. Mr. Pinson will meet you in the back and explain it to you.

Okay, but I'm good.

You're on it. You're on it. Thank you very much. The more you come, the better you're going to be. There's no one online, and so we will be closing public comment on this. If there's nothing else, do we have a motion to approve proposed ordinance number 26-025? Second. We have a motion. We have a second. Let's turn to the clerk for the roll call. Thank you.

Commissioner Kelly? Yes. Commissioner McCrack? Yes. Commissioner Cruz? Yes. Vice Mayor Turkin? Yes. Mayor Shelton? Yes. The roll call vote. The motion passes unanimously.

And Tammy, can you please read an 8B into the record?

I suppose ordinance number 26026 first reading an ordinance of the city commission of the city of Boynton Beach, Florida approving abandonment of a portion of a 20 foot alley within block five line between lot 22 and lots 23 to 25 inclusive lake addition to Boynton authorizing city manager to execute disclaimer which shall be recorded with this ordinance in the public records of Palm Beach County, Florida providing for an effective date and for all of the purposes.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, Yazan Bata from Planning and Zoning. We ask that we have a presentation ready, but we ask for the applicant to go first, and then if the Commission would like us to present, we'll present. Thank you.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of the Commission. My name is Michael Sanchez. I'm with Managed Land Entitlements. I'm a local land development consultant representing the property owner for the property at 812 North Federal. I have a very brief presentation. Is there a presentation to put on the screen? Sorry. Okay. This is relatively easy, Madam Mayor. I just want to run through the... Yeah, keep moving.

Yeah, I know it's a late night.

This is basically a 20-foot wide alley. It's adjacent between the property located at 812 North Federal and the hotel property to the east. My client is the owner of the property at 812 North Federal, which is on the corner there. The property owner on the other side of the alley is the hotel owner, and although they were not... An applicant, they did sign easement documents related to the abandonment of the alley, which showed their support for it. They did not object. This is related to a proposed development of the property at 812 North Federal Highway. We're working with staff and putting together an application for a new medical office building. This will provide 10 feet to each adjacent property owner. There have been other alley abandonments to the north and the south, and the alley is currently not used, and it doesn't continue north or south beyond a couple of blocks. So I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

Any comments from the commission or questions?

I'm good.

Okay. We're going to open this up to public hearing. If anyone wants to comment on this item, come on down. Okay. No public comment. No one is online, so public hearing is closed. Would anyone like to make a motion on proposed ordinance number 26-026?

So moved.

We have a motion and we have a second. I'll turn to Tammy for the roll call, please.

Commissioner Kelly?

Yes.

Commissioner McCray? Yes. Commissioner Cruz? Yes. Vice Mayor Turkin? Yes. Mayor Shelton? Yes. In a roll call vote, the motion passes unanimously. Thank you.

We're now moving on to the regular agenda, item 10A, proposed resolution number R26-162, adoption for the Boynton Beach Public Art Master Plan. Staff, please come down and do the presentation.

Good evening, commissioners. Mayor, Vice Mayor Gapes, if any... Interim Director for Planning and Zoning Division. I'm going to do a quick introduction to the firm that put together the Art Master Plan, and they've got about a 10-minute presentation to go over the overall plan. So again, the consultants that were chosen for this plan were the future forms. There is a Jared that he will be the person here representing that firm. They did translate inputted information into 12 distinct artwork typologies. spanning four categories. It was built on robust public engagement, a period from October to December of 2025, an online engagement survey, four virtual sessions, and again, the community workshop. The plan has been developed using this publicly collected data. We did receive unanimous support on the August 12th Art Board Advisory Committee. And right now, next steps, the Future Forms team will walk you through that framework and how we got there. I do want to make sure that it is important to note that no art is being approved with this plan. It's just an art master plan. And also that this does not prevent any private property owner from seeking art on their property. This is just a guidework for public art. So for that, I'll turn it over to the Future Forms.

Thank you everyone. My name is Jared Elizares and as mentioned, I'm representing Future Forms. Wanted to thank you for the opportunity to present this initiative and thank the city staff for collaborating with us on this. So the document that we're providing is the Public Art Master Plan. And it outlines the details of our community engagement, our findings, our strategic planning process, and then it goes further into the proposed public art locations. These are just potential locations. None of them need to be approved individually. You also don't need to approve all of them collectively. They're just suggestions. Our document also includes implementation practices. So we provide some sample RFPs and RFQs. some databases for where you can post art calls, as well as an appendices section which has precedent studies, and a small database that's non-comprehensive but showcases local and regional artists. So as mentioned, we did a couple of virtual sessions with city staff. We did community art members, local businesses. We also did a virtual, I'm sorry, an in-person community workshop at City Hall. And we have an ongoing public survey that's still up and collecting data right now. This gave us some insights onto what people value in artwork, where they would like to see it, and what themes would be coming out of these artworks. So for example, some of the key terms that we hear often are culture, history, nature, the environment, and interaction. So we started by looking at what exists in Boynton Beach. You have a robust public art program already. There's plenty of existing public art. You run the biannual kinetic art festival, and there's the recent approval of the transforming traffic boxes into public art program. We then went a step further and looked at art precedents across the United States. There are many cities, metropolitan and suburban, that include comprehensive arts master plans. This one is the island in New York City, which represents a linear path that people travel regularly and sprinkles art into that path. On the opposite side, we have the Miami Design District, which is a collection of artwork in one area, creating a concentrated network of artwork, which boosts the community profile, but also has economic benefits. So we took these ideas, the existing strategies, and our research, and we came into this concept of spines, nodes, and art in public places. So the spines are the major thoroughfares across the city, the roads that are most commonly used. We heard a lot of feedback that most people are going to be driving through the city, so they would like to see artwork along their daily routes. The art nodes are the intersections of these spaces and places where we can gather more artwork. And on top of that, we wanted to layer in public parks, city-owned buildings, and other opportunities where artwork could be placed. The document goes into these individual spines and nodes, showcases a collection of artwork along those routes. and then dials in a little bit further to what those specific locations would look like. So as an example, out here in front of the library, we know that this is a major public area. There's a park next door. People are always here. So one of our goals was to try to suggest that an artwork could be functional, not just an object. So here we took some precedent studies of art sculptures that are also seating. We wanted to make sure that whatever we were proposing could be engaged with in some way. We like interactivity. As was mentioned, we're not necessarily suggesting these artists or these works of art. This is just meant to be inspiration. We provide the location, the map. We give some keywords. All of these things can be swapped out. We suggest a typology and scale, but these are not fixed ideas. We do provide some typologies that can help you think about the process of implementing art down the road. As I mentioned, we prefer that art is interactive or engaging or serves a purpose. So for example, there are shade canopies, there are pavilions. Some artwork provide seating or lighting. Sometimes it can be played with. There's also two-dimensional artwork in the form of murals, mosaics, digital works. All of these things will have a different impact on the community and the people who engage with it. So on the whole, we looked at what was existing. There were about 92 artworks in place already across the city, at least the ones that we know of. We suggested another 60 pieces of artwork in various places. This is really meant to be a catalyst. Again, not all of them would necessarily be approved, and there's plenty of potential as the city continues to develop for other works of art to be implemented across the city, wherever it makes sense. So, as mentioned, we do provide a lot of resources. Art plaques are really important for recognizing the work of the artist, but also getting the community to engage with these artworks and understand their importance. It helps develop a sense of community for that area. We provide information about where to post artwork calls. We provide some information on the exact documents that you would need, the RFPs and the RFQs. And finally, our appendices include precedents. I only mentioned two, but we have many of them, as well as a small database of local and regional artists. So with that, thank you, and any questions? Any questions or comments from the commission?

I have one, and not being facetious, you didn't find any missing art, did you?

No, no. Yeah, I don't even understand where that art is. I have seen some of those pieces that were mentioned, though. I would like to know. In pictures.

If there's nothing else, do you have a motion to adopt?

Super quick. And this is one of the suggestions I have is also looking at how we can modify or change something that's already in use and changing it into an art piece. like for instance, you were talking about the city hall and putting an art piece there for sitting. We have some nondescript kind of boring round bike racks, but there are some amazing art pieces that are bike racks. And so really looking at how we can maybe not necessarily add to what is there, although adding is great when there's not anything there, but what we can do to modify what's there to bring in are to make it just not some boring round bike racks that don't take up extra space, but maybe provide a little bit more engagement with the residents that are coming downtown. So just looking at different ways how we can maybe just change things out as opposed to creating something new in places where there may be ways we can upgrade. Garbage cans, bike racks, things of that nature that are easy fixes.

Yeah, I would concur, and I see that happening across many cities across the U.S. Bus stops are an easy place to just put some seating platforms, for example. Bike racks are increasingly more artistic. Also, any time that you need to do improvements or need to work on an existing building or structure, that's an opportunity to jump in and potentially make it a little bit better.

And if I might add, Gabe's doing it again. Just as a reminder, the art fund is actually funded by developers. So that's the fee that they pay. And just for everybody in the audience that's aware, this is not something that the city would be pulling from. I just want a reminder on that one. But as was mentioned as a guide that all of these elements would be considered at that time with the public art.

Awesome. Thank you. If there's nothing else, is there a motion to adopt proposed resolution R26-162? So moved.

Second.

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

Aye.

All those opposed, say nay. Motion passes. Moving on to 10B, on the city use of flock. Vice Mayor Turkin, this was your request.

Thank you, Mayor. I want to start off by saying... I unequivocally support the police department. I unequivocally support investments into our police department resources, technology, innovation as force multipliers. I think, you know, all the sentiment around flock is pretty public. We've seen that everywhere. We just saw that. The governor of the state of Florida had removed it from state agency use and is canceling the permits for any municipality or organization that is utilizing it on a state road. And so, you know, I know there hasn't been an issue here. I just I worry based on all the things that we've been seeing and hearing about, you know, throughout not just the state of Florida, but throughout the nation as a whole about, you know, what Flock is doing. There's a lot of concerns about surveillance. There's a lot of concerns about potential litigation with Flock. you know, breaching our rights as citizens, the data collection, you know, all those things that have been listed in the media, you know, public comments, so on and so forth. And I do believe that there more than likely will be some form of legislation that'll happen this next year in the session, given the public outcry and public sentiment on this. And we've seen You know, mixed reviews between other agencies terminating Flock, you know, or similar technologies, and then other agencies standing firm. And so, like, I think it's important for us to have that conversation, again, because public safety is a human right. But at what point do we defend that right when it starts infringing on others' rights? And so, you know, I just want to have the conversation, start the dialogue about what alternative methods that we can utilize to continue the drastic increases in our violent crime rate that we've seen. And I didn't get a chance to mention this earlier, but, you know, I know that there's a little bit of a gap as far as our... as far as the number of officers that we have employed. But I want to say, from where we were at to where we're at now, and data doesn't lie, right? When you look at the statistics, Joe, you've done a great job leading the department. And when you have 30 people in the drop that are staying, I think that says something. So I don't want this to be a conversation that is around The police department, this conversation for me, at least, is around the mechanism that we've seen continue to be abused throughout the state of Florida. And so, you know, I just worry that if there is legislation that's going to be passed, you know, should we start being proactive now and in a sense to. you know, look at not just a cost savings, obviously, but look at ulterior opportunities where we can try to, you know, maintain you know, innovation and force multipliers without infringing on, you know, on the rights of residents. So, you know, I don't know what that looks like. I don't know if, you know, we look at the interests of this and say, hey, you know what, until the legislator comes with something, you know, we suspend the program. Obviously, there's, you know, questions about legality of the contracts and everything else, city attorney. So I just wanted to get this conversation started because it is important. And, you know, I also think it's important for it to be an educational opportunity to on what this what these cameras do, not just for law enforcement, but also for looking at like what are the cons of this as well? You know, and then allow us to make a decision moving forward, you know, based on such. And, you know, I heard a lot of stuff tonight. I've heard a lot of stuff throughout the last few months. I've talked to staff about this relentlessly. You know, I'm a huge advocate of leveraging force multipliers. But at some point, you know, we have to draw the line and we have to say, you know what, enough is enough. You know, we need to pivot in that sense. So that that's, you know, that's my lead on the conversation. I don't know if my colleagues share any of the same sentiment or having other comments or if the chief does. But, you know, I think at this point in time, you know, it's starting to seem like the risk is starting to outweigh the reward. And, you know, I'm just looking to collaborate and identify a solution that keeps our residents safe without infringing on their rights.

Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, I have two pages worth of comments. Far more than... You brought it up on Thursday, so I came prepared to talk about it. No, and I think, you know... We, you know, you start going down this road and you start talking about, and there are amazing pros to this program. We've seen it. We've seen us solve crimes in days that took, you know, doing normal everyday police work or back in the day police work would have taken our officers months. if they even solve them, that we're putting people, getting people off the streets. We're also helping people. I think that's something that we also lose in that, too, is that these programs are used in our silver alerts and our amber alerts and all that, too. And so I see the benefits to this program, but I worry about how, you know, the openness of the program, too. And so my two concerns, similar to Vice Mayor Turkin, one is being the data. You know, we do, it's in our contract, we share it with certain agencies, and I know we were really strict about what it gets shared with, but it was brought up tonight and it's on my paper, We then, but we can't control who they then share it with and then how long they keep it. So even if we made it a day that they retain, because New Hampshire has the strictest, I've done all kinds of research. New Hampshire has one of the strictest policies. Theirs is a day. They keep the data one day and then it's gone. And I don't, and I would have to look further if they even share. They may not share with only like a couple of agencies. And I think that that, when you're looking at it, like that's, key to being transparent, open with the public, like we're really only keeping it for just as long as we need for it to run through the system, see if it's hit anywhere, and then it's gone. The concern comes into once we're sharing it with 15 agencies, where then those agencies are sharing them. And it was brought up also, you know, flock's ownership of that data and where, if they'd sell and where it ends up. And so those are all, you know, real conversations and valid concerns that the residents have. So that's one of my concerns is even if you made it as strict as possible, A, is it a benefit? You know, would it then be a benefit if you made it so strict? Is it really useful at all? But then, keeping it less strict, are we opening that up? So data is a big concern of mine. But, and I, As everyone knows, I fully support the police department. We have a great group of officers, but you can't, we have to plan for the what ifs and the unexpected, right? And so another department that I looked at They have a very strict policy when it comes to who can have access to the system. And I think that that is a key element, too. They go through, they have an email, and there's one or two people that monitor this email, and every request goes through that email. And so not every officer has access to look at license plates. And should every officer really have access to just... Pull up flock and and and look and we've seen the really bad things that happen and those are the things that we we have to protect our You know our residents from as much as I you know, don't think that will ever happen We we know we say that all the time. We don't think that'll ever happen until it happens, right? Everyone says that happened in Fort Pierce today so it was on the news before we came to the meeting and So these are things that I think that are concerning enough to me where I think we need to take a step back and really evaluate what our priorities are. And like you said, Vice Mayor, do we really, what's the use? Are we really, is it really outweighing what we're getting out of it? And I think that that's a big question. Are we getting our value back? out of this program. So those are some of the things. I think that there's a lot of, in order for me to get excited about supporting this to the residents, I think there's a lot of questions that have to be answered and maybe some other strongholds that we can put in place if that's something that is the will of the board to do that, but I think that we have to really look at how this looks overall. But those are some of my concerns. I could keep talking about this because, like I said, I have two pages of notes, but I will, I'll reserve, but I mean, my position is I think that we, you know, if that means that we suspend it or if that means we take a step back and really look at what we, are we protecting the residents enough? And are we protecting our officers enough too? Should we be putting some safety nets in so that they don't end up on deflock.com as being the top flocker out there? Because that's out there. You can, it's out there. So that's my position on that. So thank you.

Well, I do think, you know, resident did give us a handout. I don't know if you, SAW THIS, CHIEF, BUT IT IS A GOOD ANALYSIS OF WHAT'S HAPPENING IN OTHER CITIES, AND I THINK IF WE HAD SOMETHING SIMILAR TO THIS DATA, WE COULD MAKE MORE OF AN EDUCATED DECISION ON THINGS. I KNOW YOU GUYS PROBABLY HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO LOOK AT IT, BUT I WAS ABLE TO LOOK AT IT YESTERDAY, AND SO WE CAN SHARE THIS WITH YOU, BUT I THINK IF YOU SAW THIS, IT MIGHT BE SOMETHING THAT IF YOU COULD GIVE US THE ANALYTICS ON SOMETHING VERY SIMILAR, WE'RE GOING TO BE ABLE TO REALLY SEE HOW THIS PROGRAM IS REALLY WEIGHING OUT, AND IT DOESN'T SOLVE THE data concerns or the abuse of access to the system concerns, but I think at least we could address it as how much is it really working for the safety of the residents. Commissioner McCray.

Thank you. My whole take on the whole system is once data is gathered and stored, it's there for the taking. That's all I need to say.

Yeah, I guess. First, I would love to see what was provided, because I'm sure I can provide that to you as well. But the one thing I just want to just talk about, I think is really important, is that since 2022, crime has been on the downward decline on property crime and violent crime, to include the last two years on our shootings. We've seen huge decreases. That's not from technology. That's from the hard work of the men and women of the police department. And technology will never be able to replace that. So we have great results because we have great officers. The technology is a tool. It allows us to be more efficient. It allows us to use our time more efficiently. I'll give you an example. We had a homicide a month ago. Curtin District 2. We had a suspect identify in a vehicle within 15 minutes. And we had a safe resolution on taking them in custody because the technology allows us to have information that gives us time and allows us to prepare and be more informed when we make these decisions so it provides safer outcomes. And we can go down from a value perspective of if it works. I provided it to you, I believe, a month ago. There's fantastic cases. But the biggest concern we keep hearing is the data and what happens in the privacy. And we want to be part of the conversation as well. And we will never push anything that the community doesn't want to even include the training facility. If our community doesn't want it, we support that. We don't want to do anything in a vacuum. So we're here to be part of whatever conversation that may be. And I would like to be able to provide the same information that you received. And I think Commissioner Kelly, some of the points you brought about narrowing down the scope are great solutions, because we don't have to throw away the technology. It works. We've seen it work. It just comes down to minimizing the risks. And we can only go on with what Flock is telling us what they do with the data. From what we are told, once the 30 days is up, the data is gone. That's what we know. And we understand that there's a lot of other conversations that are happening saying it's not that. Maybe the conversation is looking outward to other vendors. to have maybe a more stringent policy on the way data is being retained. We can also control how long we keep the data, but to your point, from an investigative tool, because at the end of the day, yes, we understand that these LPRs could be as a crime prevention because they're We all know that crime happens because of opportunities. And people who are committing crimes see that Boynton Beach, the city of Boynton Beach, is a harder target because of the technology. Maybe they go other places. But you can never quantify when you have a reduction or crime. But what we do know is that it's a great crime investigative tool that's used every day by the officers and the detectives in our real-time crime scene that we put so much money into and so much investment in as well. So I also want us to make sure that we look at it as what is the collateral damage and what else is going to happen if we decide to move on from the technology. But we 100% want to be in the conversation. We want to be part of the conversation moving forward and making sure we have a good resolution that not only fits the needs of the police department but is digestible by our community.

You know, excuse me, my whole take is that, you know, we put out to the community and put out saying, you know, Boynton is not in favor of Flocka and going against it. I feel like the criminal is going to say Boynton is a good target. I'm just saying, I hate to say it like that, but, you know, we have to be careful.

Well, it's something we need to revisit.

Yeah, I mean, I would like to have maybe a formal presentation about this, look at it, make an educated decision, and again, have the police department, like you said, Chief, very well, be a part of that conversation with the public, right? Because we know and we increasingly see the risks day in and day out, and I just don't... I don't want to have this conversation in six months because it's reactionary. I want to be more proactive. And, you know, so I would like a presentation. I would like, obviously, Flock is a brand. It does its own thing. You know, they're innovative. You know, whatever. Like, is there an alternative, right, where we can have, you know, because LPRs are not new. These have been around for a long time. These are not new. Frankly, this started on the West Coast with immigration enforcement, and that's how this conversation started. Now it's shifted and become a hyper-partisan issue, and now what we need to decide is the value, like both Commissioner Kelly and you have mentioned. In order to make that decision, I think we need a presentation We need collaboration amongst the public. We need also someone maybe not from the police department to do – outside of ourselves to do also research. Maybe that's the city attorney's office looking at what are some other municipalities doing as far as – You know, when when these come up, when these issues of abuse come up, right, like like a risk analysis, I would say. And that way you guys are impartial, you know, to what the police department will provide. Not that I'm saying that you guys are impartial. You guys are in your lane. You guys are fighting crime. And so, you know, I just think it'd be important to have. you know, the perception of risk involved in that conversation. So that's what I'm asking for, you know, and ultimately it's, you know, to solve a concern that residents are bringing up. That's what we're here to do.

Okay. We're going to bring this back on an agenda. How long do you need, Chief?

I don't need much. Not the next commission meeting, but the commission meeting, yeah. I do too, I want to add something, though. Sure. We've had LPR since 2017. And the police department has access to databases that have very sensitive information, right? At the end of the day, we also have to make sure that, or understand that, the policies we put in place... are dictating and controlling the misuse. And when we do have misuse, what our processes are. And we do have those processes. We do have an internal audit function. Just so we're all on the same page, we've been dealing with very similar databases for years. NCIC, FCIC, our driver, our driver, David we call it, which is our driver and vehicle database. And there's significant consequences, third degree felonies for misuse of these systems. to include official misconduct. So there are some heavy consequences for misusing it. But the police department is not foreign to having access to very sensitive databases.

And I think that's key that it's you have been in control of that data. And I think that's where the public and our concern is, is that once that data goes out to someone who is not our police department, then that's what raises that concern. And I think across the country, that's what's raised the concern is now Flock has access to... insane amounts of data. And so I know that we've had systems in place for many years and they've worked. It's rare if not very on probably one hand where you've had any instance or an even question about it, the security of that data. But it's that bridging that to an outside company that I think raises All of the flags and you know, Vice Mayor Turkin, thank you for bringing this up at our agenda review to talk about it. I think I am glad that we're talking about this because I don't want the state to dictate what we do for our residents and I think we've we've been having to play that catch-up game with the state where we'll just wait to see what the state's gonna do and then we'll follow or follow suit, but then what happens is we lose control over our city and what our residents need and want and expect and have come to expect. So I'm glad that we're having this conversation and seeing what we can do moving forward. One of the things that I've done recently, I don't know if anyone else has but i've been doing town halls and i do them at the it just so happens i do them at the police department because it's really the only location in district four we're gonna have my town halls um but we've been doing them um i have one coming up um in october but where we've um done little tours of the real-time crime center i think that that is key for the residents to see how that real-time crime center works, what is controlled in it, and it's a very secure, controlled environment. But to just see how it's being utilized, and I think it is an eye-opener, I think that the red flags and the issues come in the data. I think that the residents can appreciate and respect what we're doing in the real time crime center and what our men and women of the police department have been able to do with the data we've collected. It's the once it leaves our department then what happens that has raised concerns for me and for residents. I've been getting emails and responding and looping Adam in and you in to have those conversations. So I would just suggest if you haven't had a little town hall at the police department, that might be a good way to educate some of the residents who are interested in the real-time crime center and seeing how it works for the benefit of our residents. So thank you.

We are good to have this on for the first meeting of October.

Can we do the second meeting? Let me see, let Andrew and I look and see the best place to put it.

Put it on the future agenda.

If I may, just one question for the Chief, though. I know we're talking about the LPR portion of this, but I know you have Flock OS, and I don't know whether or not that's something that is more time sensitive that we want to bring back separately for discussion at the next meeting.

I would like to do that. Yes. Thank you.

So there's two portions to this contract and one of those orders is scheduled to renew in November of this year. And I think there's a discussion that the chief would like to have before it auto renews.

Okay.

So let's get it on the agenda. Okay. Thank you everyone. Moving on. Thank you. Moving on to Tennessee discussion on the censure of the city of the city commission. This was your request.

Thank you, mayor. Yes. I'd like to raise something that the city doesn't currently have. I'd ask that we treat this as a tool to build now for later. Here's the gap. Every other line of accountability in this city runs downward. The manager answers to us. Staff answers to the manager. And if you live in District 3 or you're the mayor, technically you answer to Dan Duggar because he's a resident of this city. Voters hold us accountable at the ballot box, but only every few years and only in whole terms. Between elections, this commission has no formal way to address a breach of decorum or a liability to the city amongst its own members. We have rules of decorum, but with no procedure attached to them. That gap matters because we're staff, residents, and each other are concerned. The restraint has to come from us. And right now, the only thing enforcing that restraint is good judgment. And good judgment is not a system. Without a defined process, we're left with two options when something goes wrong. Say nothing or improvise. Silence signals that whatever happened was acceptable. Improvising looks like invented for the occasion after the fact. So tonight I'd like to ask for consensus to direct staff toward that process and I want to flag one key design point for that direction if possible. I believe the threshold for censure should be a super majority. Four votes, not a simple majority. A simple majority turns a censure into a factional tool. Any three members who agree could formally condemn the one who doesn't. And this body, regardless of who sits in these seats, could eventually see that used. A four vote threshold prevents that. It means no censure can pass on a single block vote. That issue has to be clear enough that members who disagree on some things, or everything, can still agree on that one thing. I'd rather have a process that's hard to use than one that's easy to abuse. So again, my ask is that we direct staff to prepare an ordinance establishing a censure process with a supermajority threshold. Separately, while we're on the subject of accountability, I want to flag something else that's worth putting on the record, not as an accusation toward anyone here or elsewhere, just as a reminder that public servant, as I understand it, broadly includes our appointed executive staff along with us. We've unfortunately seen a history of politics that has gone way too far in the city, reaching families, livelihoods, and people's ability to provide. Criticism is fair. Disagreement is fair. Vigorous public advocacy is fair. That's why we're here. But the moment somebody reaches past a colleague, goes after their private life, their family, or their employer to vote, to move a vote, or to punish one, they've left the business of governance. And so I'm asking that we direct the city attorney. I hope to have the support to come back with something. I know that Robert Rules does have something, and I thank you for the research you've done already, but that's what I'm proposing today.

Thank you. In regards to the discussion of censorship, I'd like for you all to go out and find out how other cities react to this. I'm just saying. I can answer that. Go ahead.

I actually researched it, so I can tell you. There's really two ways, or three ways to do it. Robert's Rules does have a motion process, which just talks about a motion and a resolution is brought, which basically says the commission board censures this person for X. That's Robert's rules. The deputy city attorney and I are always lean more towards having something formal in writing. For example, I looked at, excuse me, I think it was Lake Mary. I could be wrong. but they just have a board policy and procedure so that it's fluid and it's flexible and that sort of things. But as we found when we came to the city, unless you'd been here for five to 10 years, you wouldn't know what was in place or what wasn't. So our practice is always to put it on the books so that residents and people, electeds, everyone knows exactly what standards are there for that city. We find it to be more transparent. So that is always our recommendation. If there is a taste for this board to do that, this has come up in previous meetings and there was no taste for it. So it's completely up to you. We can do it one of three ways. And like I said, a lot of cities don't have it. A lot just follow Robert's rules. And then some do have ordinances or policies.

Since you brought that back to me the way you brought it back to me, let me say it this way. The cities that have it, they already have something on the books. Bring me a copy.

Okay. I can do that.

Yeah. Let me read it first. I'm just saying, you know, because everybody's sitting up here, you know, when we were sworn in, we were sworn in. We took an oath that my whole take is that everybody said, but we're adults and I don't think we need nobody babysitting us. I don't need to buy the babysitting me. I'm just sorry. I'm like that, but whatever's on the books, let me read it. Thank you.

Okay. I can shoot a memo out to you guys and we'll make this a future agenda item. If that's okay?

Yeah.

Thank you.

There's no other final comments tonight. Do we have a motion to adjourn this meeting and move on to our next? Motion to adjourn. Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. I hope not. Five minutes. This meeting adjourned at 925.