City Commission - Regular Meeting

as you should. All right, let's call this meeting to order. Um, we don't have it on the agenda, but I'm going to do this anyways because I just think this is the best way to uh start a a uh meeting. Uh, if you don't mind, I'm going to have uh Skip will do the pledge and then Jeremy will do the uh invocation. Please turn and face the flag. 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.

Would you pray with me? Lord, thank you so much that we live in such a great, special place in the beautiful free state of Florida that we can have citizens that are engaged and interested in the decisions we make. Uh we're so thankful for the freedoms we have every day. We cherish those. In your name we pray. Amen. Amen.

All right, guys. Thank you for coming to the state of the cities. I don't know if this is my third or fourth one now, but um should give you some insight to the future and what we've been working on all year. I want to introduce some of our commission. Um we've got our vice mayor, Skip Williams here. Um we got Jeremy Hutcherson over here, Tim Tamulti over here, and Joshua Jackson. Keith, mayor,

and I'm your mayor, Keith Capezy. Um, and then we'll have Wes, which is our city manager. You can introduce our staff if you'd like. Sure. Good evening, everybody. Welcome. Uh, I would like to introduce each of you to the best city staff in Central Florida. So, my directors, when I call your name, please, uh, stand up so we can recognize you, please. Our HR director, Cindy Deina, please. And our city clerk, Karen Grooms. [applause] finance director with the money, Hannah Juman, and her deputy director, Devin Tally. Please hold, please hold your applause until the end. [applause]

Our IT director, Kevin Perez, is not here. He just had a baby with his wife. So, our deputy IT director, Ron Mun, is in the house here. Welcome, Ron. Our police chief, Chris Cuin. Our fire chief, Justin Grimes. Please hold your applause. [laughter] Our public works and water reclamation director Brad Cowso pulling double duty. He's here. Our development services director Dave Dicki along with his deputy director Brian Palmer. Our rec services director Andy Sigara and recreation supervisor Cara Potter is here. And our utility manager for storm water Morgan Morgan Zulki is here as well. And last but not least, my awesome executive assistant, Carrie Lombardo is here. [applause]

So that's the staff commission. Thank you. Can we clap for the rest of them now? There we [laughter] Yes, SIR. [applause] All right. We like to have a good time here. We're not so uh uptight. We need to polish the city manager a little more because he said the best city staff in central Florida should have said a little broader than that. Yeah. Well, we'll work on that. Okay. We have next year to to perfect that one. All right. All right. So, this is the state of the city.

All right. So, um, just so you know, this commission is is very, um, dedicated to paying down debt, to being very conservative in our budget. Um, I'm really, really excited for the future, for what we got going on. These guys, they really do. They they they crunch the numbers. They they check, they double check, they they ask to to uh hold the the um employees accountable. So, um, you know, all the stuff that's happening, while I get to, you know, reap the benefits of the good stuff, I also get to be blamed for all the bad stuff, too. So, I'm excited to to reap some of the benefits of the of the good stuff and take uh take credit for some of it. But, I could not do it without the rest of this commission. This commission is really uh top-notch, and we all get along so well, which is nice. If you if you look at a lot of the other commissions in the in the county, uh they do not run this smooth. They do not get along. Um, so this is this is a real blessing to have you guys. So, thank you uh commission for for helping uh push these agendas through. All right. So, when I when I took office, uh what I ran for was fiscal responsibility and paying down the city debt. So, for me, uh those were those were two really big things. And I know the same thing with with Jeremy as well and and the other guys on here. Um and sometimes, you know, we staff could get annoyed with us, but we're really trying to look out for for the resident's best interest, but um you know, they do well, especially uh Hannah uh she's been she's been a real like a hawk when it comes to budget, too. And then our our our new city manager has been looking all different ways to uh to make sure that we are financially stable. Um so uh Cocoa Beach finance

department was awarded uh the government finance officers association uh they're awarded for the distinguished budget presentation award and the certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting. Um that was for our audit.

Yeah. Go ahead. Um, some of you will probably know and I know Janice would know, but um, we had a previous auditing firm that ran for a decade plus and um, we chose as a commission to kind of mix things up and pick a different auditing firm. And uh a couple years ago when that firm came on a came on board, they found a lot of discrepancies that hadn't been uncovered in the past and uh that really helped tune up, you know, where we were in the past and where we where we are in the future. So, um, there's some good things to be said about not staying with the exact same contractor year after year. I mean, the these awards are great, but that's just basically the uh company that did the audit putting the paperwork in and the city putting their two cents in to get those awards, which were welld deserved. But um the the bottom line is the auditing and being succinct on every line item on the budget. Right, Jeremy?

Go ahead.

All right. So, just wanted to show you some rates. Um the you see there's our millage rate over here and our debt uh balance. So, just so you know, so the millage rate starts at 2017. And uh if you look at when actually I think I believe it's when Jeremy and I were elected, um you can see our millage rate where it starts where it plateaus right there. That's when we came in. And then last year was the first year um in nine years that we actually dropped the millage rate. So thank you Jeremy for proposing that. and the rest of the commission voted 50 to to drop that millage rate. So, uh, as you can see, um, with this leadership and with with the, uh, the, um, finance director, we were able to to figure that out. And then if you look at our debt balance, um, you can look from so from 2014, uh, you can see it was a steady increase. We went all the way up to nearly $44 million in debt. And then uh when I took office in 2022, we that peak is right there. We are dedicated to bringing down the debt. We brought it down. It's all the way down to uh 30.85 million right now. So it was at 44, just under 44 at peak. So we've been able to bring that down, too. So as you can see, we're really working to try to keep your taxes down to keep your millage rate down. If we can keep debt down, then we can keep your millage rate down. All right. All right. So, we've got some uh community improvements. Uh we've done a um some downtown stuff here for Cocoa Beach's downtown area is bustling with activity. We're featuring uh filled storefronts and renewed commercial investments. We're driving local uh

economic growth. Uh the Dirty Birds, we we helped them with some facade grants. Um uh there was a a few others that had taken taken advantage of that and uh the nice thing about that is it encourages other other um businesses to fix their properties up as well. It's kind of like a domino effect which also brings up property value and when property value goes up we bring in uh greater tax revenue for the city so that you can keep your property taxes lower. Uh as you may know or may not know, business commercial property tax is capped at 10% raise a year where uh homesteaded properties are capped at 3% uh raise a year. Uh so it it's beneficial to have thriving businesses and and uh property values going up for them because it helps keep our personal taxes lower. um our schools are full that so one thing is a lot of people were concerned about uh Cape View um closing down while that is unfortunate um and it's you know I remember as a kid my friends went to Cape View as well uh the one good thing about that is uh the the cut off for Cocoa Beach was you know where the Publix is uh south here um about two blocks south of that was the cut off for Cocoa Beach uh kids to have to go the actual Cape View Elementary. So, probably half of our kids in Cocoa Beach were not actually going to our Cocoa Beach school, which means our school wasn't full and neither was Cape View. Um, so it was kind of inconvenient for our local residents because they would have to drive basically 5 1/2 miles down the road when they can just drive 2 miles down the road to take their kids to school. So, while it wasn't the best for them, it will ensure that our school stays open and full, and it is more

convenient for our Cocoa Beach residents that that did happen. Um, we have strong leadership. The city benefits from efficient management as uh leadership invests in expanded staffing for maintenance and ensuring community needs are met effectively. So, our city manager, Wes, uh, has been looking into. So, one of my my things that I ran on too was um improving uh roadside maintenance, medians, and parks. Um and Wes is has agreed that he he thinks that that's a good thing as well. So, he's looking at ways that he can maybe use some employees that are um that are in similar type of uh work to when they're slow to maybe use some help with more maintenance because right now we only have um three maintenance workers for the city and to maintain this whole city. I mean, I've seen just small resorts that have a staff of 20. So, um we need more maintenance workers if we want to have this like it is. We we're really good at building stuff, but we're not the best at maintaining it. And moving forward, that's that's one of the things that I really want to focus on is making sure that when we build something, we maintain it properly and we set funds aside to keep it maintained. Um, if I could ask Karen, uh, toward the end, uh, before all the applause, of course, um, could you pull up the the new traffic loop that is, uh, that Wes shared for Cape View Elementary, I mean, for Roosevelt Elementary. Because for anybody that uh is listening or is here that lives out on uh the country club area, you know how bad it can be with traffic trying to get in and

out of that school or get by all that school traffic. Um they have a new uh traffic loop in design and hopefully that's going to push a whole bunch of those cars that used to be sitting out on Minute Man into a traffic loop and only exiting, you know, back onto Minute Man. So, um if we could show that some somewhere toward the end, that would be nice to let people know about. And uh to add on to that, we are actively looking at trying to figure out how we can add a another lane heading west there as well so that people can rather than drive on the on the grass to get around the turn lane that they can actually drive on a road to get around the turn lane. So in conjunction, you know, we just got to figure out how we can get the money for it, but we are actively trying to figure out a way to to ease um some of the traffic concerns there. All right. So, on our on our city manager side, some of the accomplishments that they've did was uh that centennial celebration, which was amazing. Um, and uh Main Street had a big uh part in that as well. You you did an amazing job setting that up. So, thank you, Kenny. Um, it was it was really good. Um, and then as also with our city staff. Um, uh, so everybody everybody worked so hard and it turned out amazing. So, thank you for that. Uh, the drone show. Um, and I don't Was it Carrie? Were you the one that set that up?

So, Carrie set up the drone show, which was nice. We were trying to figure out something that would be, uh, cutting cutting edge, something that would be newsworthy, that would kind of get us free publicity. Um, but also something that would be, um, you know, less harsh on some of the people that are worried about maybe their dogs getting scared or veterans getting scared with with loud noises. That's not to say that we won't have um you know fireworks in the future. I love fireworks. Honestly, I'd love to have them both. It just it all depends on on budget. Um then we had the air show and we opened our city hall. So that's pretty exciting. Uh on development services um who who's in charge of development services? Dave Dave you. So this is under Dave's uh purview here. Um, so we've got uh Dirty Birds that that had opened up. That's I mean that just transformed downtown. Um, the Surf um Wave Haven and Destination Downtown. So those were all um different developments that we've had this year. you know, before I think it was before 2022, um we really haven't had any significant growth in Cocoa Beach as far as uh commercial growth. Um and that's that's hard on the city because that means we're not we're not getting extra tax revenue. Um when you're stagnant, that means that you have to you're going to have to raise mill rates if you're not getting it from somewhere. So some of these other, you know, things, for example, the Weston, a lot of people like to poo poo on the Weston, but you know, understand that uh that was a that was a 502 unit uh complex in the beginning and it used to be thriving and then at the end it uh it dwindled and uh that value of that property was I think

they sold it for $12 million, something like that. We're talking now uh a $500 million complex. when you're talking about a tax revenue. Um that's going to help with the city a lot. Um we have a a proposal right now. I think it passed um it passed what was it the house. So now it's got to go to senate. But for the uh the um the property tax, what what they're proposing is um doing away with property taxes for homesteaded properties at um a $100,000 exemption added every single year until your prop your homesteaded property tax goes away. When something like that happens, we're talking about a loss of close to $19 million in in uh revenue for the city. and for us to operate it's it's it's going to be really hard for us to do and we're we're we are looking ahead. We're thinking about stuff like that and we're trying to figure out ways that we can cut now so that it's not such a a burden when it when it comes into full effect. Um it is stepped so we'll have some time to try to figure it out. But if that passes we're going to need some of these development projects um like the drift. It's a uh a uh 221 unit um apartment complex on 520, which which is that dirt lot that hasn't been developed for a while. When I was younger, that was uh that was a Gatsby's uh uh was it surf emporium or Gatsby's um

sports emporium, right? Gatsby Sports Emporium. So, it was something. It's not like we're building something that, you know, wasn't there. We're just it's it's a renewing of that project. And that project's probably going to be close to 60 million which is going to be a significant um tax uh revenue for the city. So all that kind of stuff because it can't be homesteaded is going to be something that adds to our tax base that is that is much needed. As much as I I don't want to overbuild and I don't want um more people here and more um development, we have to think about smart development. So something like this is smart development. We're talking about residents that are living here that are contributing to the community that are keeping the businesses afloat and and open um that are keeping our schools open with with uh with children. So, that was a that was a good project and it's going to help pay um the tax revenue that we're going to miss if this uh proposal comes in. Uh public works. So, we've got the Shephard Park uh the small pavilion was replaced. We've got the Dune crossovers on Oio Lane and Fiser Park and Sydney Fischer Park playground and electric sign. All right. And leisure services. You got Andy over there. Um, so what do we do here? We updated a shade structure at the aquatic center. Um, we did irrigation system for 18 holes at Cocoa Beach Golf Course. That was a big one. Um, for that, you know, we have a we have a really nice amenity. Uh, but if we don't if we don't maintain it, we're not going to be able to charge what we need to charge so that it's profitable. So, it's really important that again that comes back to maintaining our facilities. So,

that was while it was a big, you know, a big nut to swallow, we were able to um kind of preserve one of our amenities. um new bleachers at the recreation center. And now we've got city clerk. So she is here. She's been increasing our community engagement and improving the communication through expanded use of social media platforms which is great. Uh you know that was one of the things too when I came on that I was I was uh encouraging that we be more engaged with the residents. I think the old way of thinking was well they could just go on CBNN or um you know they could they can get it from from somewhere but the fact of the matter is that the average citizen is on Facebook regardless um they're going to get their news from somewhere and it might not always be accurate but if we can kind of my my thought has always been if we can kind of put out some factual information when somebody puts out something wrong or or or put a link to give them some accurate information. It's going to keep uh the residents a lot happier and less disgruntled because really there's a ton of of poor information on Facebook and it's important that we can point them to a good uh platform to get good information. Uh we did upgrades to the commission room including new technology enhancements to improve accessibility, transparency, and the overall meeting experience. And we close the year with a 417 public records request. Uh 417 public records request uh proceeds proceed proceed processed. That's a lot. 417.

Yeah, we're already at 100. Wow. I'm at 108 as of today.

Wow. So we will exceed that by next year probably. And it's always, you know, honestly, it's always more when it comes to uh election, the election year. Um, all right. Human resources. Um, so we developed a succession planning uh process. Uh, Florida MU Municipal Insurance Trust, FMIT. We did a general liability and loss experience. Uh, improved and overall rate is down 11%. So 11% uh of an overall loss. That's that's good. And um there you are. So she's been trying to make sure that we are safer and when we're safer then it's saves you guys money. Uh our auto liability is uh so our loss experience improved and our overall rate is down 5%. Um, our auto PD we lost experience improved and our property rates dropped by 4%. All right, our city departments uh water water reclamation. So, in 2025, we had our gravity sewer pipe repair uh for A1A crossover pipe replacement. We had four locations throughout the city. We replaced old cast iron pipes with PVC. [clears throat] We smoke testing of the sewer system. That's to make sure that we don't have any leaks. So when it does rain, we're not filling up our our uh our storm water more than what it needs to be, which uh when it rains a lot, it it can overflow. We have a and correct me if I'm wrong, Brad, but we've got basically our big holding tanks are open air. So,

if it rains a lot, those get filled up um when it rains as well. And then if we have drains in our manhole covers, that just adds to to filling it up. And that's why sometimes um we we have we tell you don't don't uh don't flush your toilets as much, [laughter] but that's very rare. That's usually only on like monsoons and stuff like that. Um, we had 221 defects observed and we had 171 defects repaired to date. Our manhole inspections, we had [clears throat] uh could somebody grab me a water by chance? Thank you. Um, let's see. Uh, 1,162 manholes inspected. We had 600 we had 66 manholes left to inspect. And we have buried underwater sidewalk asphalt vegetation. I don't know what that means.

Buried [clears throat] under buried. Thank you.

Do you want to give me that, too? No. No.

All right. our our bioolid uh bioolids uh dewatering upgrade and we we replaced equipment from the 1980s and we achieved achieved drier cake solids to reduce landfill cost. I think that is when we so when they're grabb when they're straining our waste water basically we we put it out somewhere and we dry it out so that we get less um so there's less mass when we do take it to the landfill which saves us money. Is that correct? Okay. [clears throat] All right. So, our city uh departments, we've got our our accomplishments for our police department, [clears throat] our telecommunications P25 compliance, full P25 implementation completed for compliance to ensure compatibility with modern encrypted digital standards. I don't know what I just said there, but that's what [laughter]

you go. City manager, would you like to add anything in the about the new developments or are they not solidified yet? Not solidified yet. Okay. They're in the works. Yep. [clears throat]

All right. our law law enforcement field training application, LETA. Uh we secured software platform designed for law enforcement to manage training performance and documentation enables tracking trainee performance, automate daily observation reports and monitor training compliance. And we have a volunteer chaplain program uh which provides personal, emotional and spiritual support to all members of the department. The chaplain program seeks to ensure that confidential counseling and encouragement is provided proactively and in times of crisis response to continually improve work environment and morale. All right. So, our fire department uh our accomplishments in 2025, we pushed in our 2025 engine and our new squad vehicle, which I believe is like a that's that big that big truck, right? The It's like a off-road truck. It's pretty impressive looking. I wouldn't mind having one. [laughter] Uh well, I guess I do since we're all residents and we own it. Uh we maintained ISO 2 ratings. Our our USLA certified aquatic rapid response team uh A RRT and we have the only flood and swiftwater rescue certified team in Bvard County and we also train the other divisions uh WRT. We do training and professional development um for we had three firefighters that completed the paramedic school. Uh they all graduated at the top of their class. We had one valictorian

who and we completed over 12,000 hours of training last year in fire, EMS, rescue, and safety training. And they all exceeded the required 279 hours. We had 30 water rescues. We had two confirmed uh code saves and we had one victim and two cats that were saved from a uh structure fire.

Mayor, I understand I got a a text from uh Wyatt Werner with Drown Zero saying that this is the first calendar year that we haven't had a drowning in Cocoa Beach. And hopefully that's accurate. Huh. But that that's a good thing.

That would be awesome. I know we'd had we maybe had a couple last year, right? But I'm glad to hear that this calendar year we have not. So that's great. All right. Um so here we keep going. We got fire marshall inspectors. They completed 200 and uh 2,451 fire inspections in 2025. Uh up from 800 982 in 2024. There was over 43,000 oh sorry 43 43 million 83,761 square ft of buildings. Wow. They were that were inspected in 2025. We added a new fire inspector to complete the annual inspections of the short-term rentals and there were 945 reinspections including short-term rentals. Um we had a community paramedic program with 57 plus home and hospital visits with 90 plus phone consultations, 77 plus home companionship visits. Uh we have 32 pieces of medical equipment distributed. We did transportation to medical appointments provided through volunteers in motion. And we have community outreach which hosted a senior resource fair and a veterans resource roundt. All right. Our future initiatives um enhancing our community. Upcoming projects include beautifying our medians, our roadsides, um looking to widen I'd love to widen our sidewalks just for better ebike safety. Um implementing ebike safety measures to improve accessibility and safety for all residents. Another thing I'm trying to figure out too is is how

we can get FDOT to um widen our bike lanes on the side of uh A1A. That's just something something there is if I can keep the ebikes on the side of the road but still be safe cuz I don't think it's safe for them right now on a 3-ft wide uh bike lane. Um something we're actively looking we're always trying to do just to keep the residents safe. Um more future initiatives. So we've got uh boat ramp repairs. We've we got planned repairs and upgrades to all city boat ramps uh including Holiday Lane boat ramp which was completed uh by Centennial Park and and uh Brad is that open yet?

I can report tonight that it will be open first thing in the morning. Oh great. Now just for the boat ramp uh restroom still closed all that stuff but the boat ramp we have a certificate of occupancy right Brad? temporary. So, it's a temporary, but just so we can get the ramp open for Boers. Thank you. I was going to put that out, too. What's the issue with the bathrooms? It's not completed yet. Oh, okay. Yep. It's just not completed yet. All the plumbing issues, not it's just not ready. But we do have the boat ramp ready for use. Okay. Yep.

All right. So, and then also we've got um Ramproad Park which is still in process. Um uh all these will help enhance safety, accessibility, and overall functionality for residents and visitors. If any of you guys know, the 520 ramp was honestly it was is completely useless. You couldn't even launch a jet ski before we started this. So, uh that is that's going to be a huge one for the the Boers in the area.

Did you want to say something, Skip? Yeah, I just want to say it ramp road um that retention pond there when we dug that out years ago that got a lot of antique bottles out of there. It used to be the dump in Cocoa Beach and when they started digging up on the uh north side of there, uh city manager informed us as a commission that they dug up a what could have been a bomb. turned out to be a uh practice bomb back World War II era when you know Patrick was there and we were basically just fledgling getting into the space program. So I'm trying to get it they Patrick took it and I'm trying to get it back so we can auction it off and make a bunch of money to help the budget. I think it'd be kind of cool to have it displayed in the

We put [laughter] it on a pedestal out here in front of the city hall. I don't think it was part of our history.

I don't think it was that big. All right. Uh we did lift lift station upgrades. Um we're planning improvements to the city lift stations. Uh will enhance the systems uh reliability, will increase capacity, and support the long-term performance of our wastewater infrastructure for residents and visitors. Uh I'll just add too a lot of these times, you know, people when we have some of these projects that that are newer that are coming on, a lot of the concern is uh like I said, extra traffic, extra use of the of infrastructure, water, uh pipelines, stuff like that. Um and and the crux of it really is for a lot of this stuff. Um there was there was pretty much Cocoa Beach has always been I mean it's been pretty much built out and the lots that we have that are not improved. Most of them were were built out at one point and now they've been vacant for so long that people forgot that there was buildings on them. So, you know, another thing there is, you know, when we approve some of these projects, we're not we're not we're not really increasing density from what it was. We have the great thing is we have a a commission, I think, that's really dedicated to uh ensuring that we hold fast to our density and our height restrictions. Um, at least I think I think the majority of us are really dedicated to that because we know that that's what you guys want. Um, I never plan on on voting to to raise height or or density uh beyond what what our current stuff allows. So, I think that's important for you guys to know that we we hear you and we want to we want to make sure that your voice is um transferring to our decisions. Um, let's see. We did a vulnerable a vulnerability study. We continued

efforts to reduce flooding through updates and improvements uh identified in our storm water plan. The vulnerability assessment will identify areas under city jurisdiction that are vulnerable to the future impacts of the SLR [clears throat] storm surge and coastal flooding. So, what's next for Cocoa Beach? Our vision for a thriving and connected community. Any questions or or uh any anybody have any questions or or any comments from the commission that you'd like to add to anything I said or city manager or any staff?

Throw up that slide.

Not to close questioning or public comments, just let people see this. So, if you look at the top of your screen, that's all the cars stacked up there trying to come into Roosevelt. And usually they turn in right in front of the school, loop through and head out. If you look on the the left side of the picture, they're going to have two lanes for traffic. all those uh people coming to pick up or drop off to be able to stack up in that whole it's pretty large area, you know, it'll hold a lot of vehicles. So then they the only thing that will be an issue is I mean they're going to be onesie twoosies going in front of the school picking up their kids. So when they're funneling back out onto Minute Man, it shouldn't be, you know, a big deal. And that's not the lane that's always been uh clogged. So that's in the design phase and hopefully coming soon to a theater near you.

And to piggyback on that, I sent Wes a note of is there something we can do because in the morning they're coming at various times, right? They're collecting there, but in the afternoon everyone's leaving at the same time. So it's equally as bad going eastbound. So I asked or I just suggested to Wes is there something we can do at Bvard Minan Boulevard and A1A. to temporarily leave those lights. I think that's equally as bad. When they're leaving, they're going one one at a time. I'm saying when it goes eastbound on Minute Man, we'll get the high school kids cuz nobody's releasing them one at a time. They're all The point is we're going to deal with the the double the student capacity. We're going to come with solutions. Yeah. School's school day ends different times for uh grade school and high school.

Right. Right. But when the high school gets out, that parking lot's a, you know, free-for-all and everybody pretty much. Yeah, pretty much. Um, yeah, I've been talking about this for a couple years about putting a loop in there because, uh, I don't want to put another, um, lane on Minutemen. Um, you know, I think just be throwing money away doing that. But this loop should take care of that. I've always thought that. There's there are a couple other options too we could use, but um, this is certainly a good plan. It's it's not going to go into effect, I could imagine, until the beginning of next year, next school year at their earliest. That's what uh Dr. Rendelle's talking about and we are very very thankful to the school board for helping us out with this. Yep. As well. So, thanks.

Question out here. You may have just answered my question. When do we think this would be in place? And did you say probably probably beginning of next school year? There's no way they're going to implement it in the middle of the school year. Oh, no, no, no. But but when you're doubling the the population of students, you know, at the start of the next school year. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. I just wanted to point out that on the leisure services side, you missed the $1.2 million tennis court renovation that was accomplished last year as well. Excellent. Thank you. At no cost to the city and it didn't cost anybody any money. Yep.

Yeah. the US gave us a a grant to renew the tennis courts and uh you know it's it's nice to to be able to have partners that want to work with us so that we can provide the residents with with nice amenities J.

Uh good evening everybody. I'm Janice Scott Beach. Um, I'm a former mayor and I there's an election coming up this uh fall and I can only count on my paper about eight women in the last 45 years who ran for office here. And so nothing uh for women's lib or anything, but I just hope that somebody will step up to the plate who will hold down the height and density. And um I was one of the people that fought really hard for the lowering the building height and the density here. So if you've moved here in the last 20 years and you think it was always like this, it was destined to be that way. No, it wouldn't have been that way. And um I just have to say, mayor, I know you didn't have anything to do with this, but directly, but whenever uh I've had so many people ask me, is that Western Hotels been built? What in the world is going on there? And I just have to tell them, it was a hard fight to lower the building height here. Six big lawsuits. We cut the density and the building height six uh 45 to 55%. And it's very disappointing that they allowed that um density of 502 rooms to be grandfathered there because it's ruined the whole uh view of Cocoa Beach as being a low density um beach community. So, if you plan to run for office here in the fall, that you're all going to the citizens academy, I hope that you will be very mindful that that was a big fight by the residents and anybody who comes after this. I hope they'll fight for that, too. Um, the other thing because the

traffic's going to be horrendous. You can't uh, you know, put lipstick on that. I'll tell you how long I've been here. You mentioned the uh um Gatsby's Emporium, Sports Emporium. Well, before that it was the Shark Lounge and a two-story motel. It was the old sin city. We went the carnival club [laughter] and um

and the Shark Lounge, of course, we can't forget that because anybody who wasn't old enough to drink tried to get over there one way or another. And last, I I'm a big fighter for keeping the taxes down. If you don't need it, don't spend it. And um I worked on a project last year with the county uh property appraiser. She will confirm that these figures are correct that 54% of the properties here in the county have religious and 501c3 exemptions which leaves 46% of us and we're municipal residents or county taxpayers too. 46% of us are carrying the tax load for the county. So, I hope they'll cover that more in your uh citizens academy. And I'm glad that you all are here tonight. Thank you.

Thank you, Janice. Anybody remembers Carnival Club? [laughter] Give us a history lesson on that one. We have a comment in the audience. Yeah. Go ahead, Caroline. Hey, I had a question. Um, since it's the state of the city, what for the next fiscal year, it'll be budget season soon. For the next f fiscal year, what are your top priorities of capital projects? And with I I guess a lot of you have in mind to roll back the military even more. How do you plan to accomplish those with the roll back?

Sure. Um are do you want to talk about anything as far as um trying to um consolidate some police stuff or we No, right now. Um I'll just say that on the uh public safety side, Commissioner, we have uh some plans in place that I'll announce soon for some uh ease of payments, I guess. Um but that's all I can speak to you right now on that.

Go ahead. Yeah, I think from my perspective, maintenance is key. You made the point of we're good at building things. I'm I'm not sure we're good at it, but we build things, we just don't maintain them. So, that's a key for me. Um, that's less of the capital. But, I think we've done a good job in the last three or four years at least getting the five-year plan laid out. And what we focus on traditionally is just one year ahead. But, if you look at the spend plan, it drops way off. So, to balance that roll back, we can push some projects way what year it actually is accomplished in. And historically, we've only ever looked one year out. So, it's always raise more money and raise more money. So, I think it's with your property values going up 10%. There's no need to raise millage. We're getting 10% more tax base than we did last year. So, I think it's going to be relatively feasible without changing any um city services and certainly impacting the capital investments

with if I can if I can say roll back doesn't actually negates that. So, so it's the same dollar amount if you do roll back. So, if we uh generated $15 million in uh in ad valorum tax last year and we do roll back, we will generate $15 million next year. That's how that works. Even though there's inflation and everything else, not really sure how you pay for all that um without without any other money. Um, you know, we can raise prices of parking and and other things, but uh um rolling back, if we roll back every year, um you know, in 20 years, we'll be making $15 million, which cost uh dollar cost is uh a lot less than that, right? And just so you guys know too, so this is the only time that we really get to speak. So,

[clears throat]

um, we're not allowed to talk to each other outside of this. So, what what you're seeing and what you're hearing from us is basically stuff that we want to get off our chest that we can't tell them otherwise. So, sometimes you'll see us where we actually have to have some some frank conversations. Um, and and I'm I'm happy that we we do it respectfully, but I mean, the fact of the matter is we we all have an idea of how we want to do stuff and we don't necessarily always agree, but I think at the end, you know, we just want to make sure that we have the residents um, you know, interest in mind and also, you know, that we're respectful to each other when we do go through this stuff. Uh, one of the other capital projects is we've been looking at um the the North Fire Station and uh me and Wes and Brad, we went up to to Tallahassee to try to help uh secure some funding for that. Uh we were anticipating it could cost up to 5 million. Um personally, I think that's a lot of money and maybe overkill. Uh but that was what we tried to propose so that we can get money for it. Uh currently, uh we're still going through the process, but they're only wanting to match us with a with a 50% grant. Um if it does go through, which again, that makes it hard. It makes it hard to try to come up with that extra $2.5 million to try to do a project like this. While we say, "Oh, well, that's a good deal. We're getting 50% off." Um then again, we're raising debt, which means it makes it harder for us to um to reduce millage. So, we have to think about all that. And also, we're also looking for some gravity sewer line um repairs of of a million dollars where they're trying to match 50% of that as well. Um when we do this kind of stuff, again, it helps save uh maintenance costs, which uh in in turn uh keeps taxes down as well. Any any other questions?

Yeah. Where's the money going to come from? I mean, it's not enough. Take property taxes out. What's the big scheme of things that they expect you at this level to come up with money?

Well, so that's that's the that's the thing that has all of us concerned is where where is it going to come from the extra income? Is it going to come are they going to add a an extra 2% to our sales tax? Are they going to, you know, what are we going to do? And the problem with Cocoa Beach compared to the rest of the of the county is Cocoa Beach is built out and the rest of the county has room to expand. So, um, and when you say expand, uh, you're going to get your tax revenue from business or from, uh, non-h homesteaded properties. So, while we would benefit honestly from, uh, hate to say it, um, Airbnbs because they're they're going to be paying greater taxes and there's a a 10% cap, meaning they can go up 10% more on the rates every year. um you know the residents have to deal with the fact that we live in a in a resort you know friendly town. It's it's just it's the balance right the balance of how do we live in in a resort friendly town and and try to be residential people. The only way that we can survive is if we if we have some smart growth where we're getting uh some greater tax revenue from some of these bigger projects. Like I said, you know, the the Weston is is a big project and and is it is it uh it it it's a little off-putting. Uh I mean, to be honest with the way it looks, but um that that's one thing that's going to help save us from from this that's coming in place. I don't like it. But sometimes it's like you can't you can't uh squeeze blood from a beat. You got to you got to you got to do what you got to do sometimes. Yeah, I'll just say that um the the last uh look I had at these uh the House and Senate bills um as far as the homestead

property taxes phasing out over basically three years for pretty much everybody. If you're currently homesteaded, you're already at a lower bracket. So, it would essentially go to zero. But if you read between the lines and you know basically it's in there in the fine print is you can't cut uh emergency services. You can't cut fire. You can't cut police. You can't cut paramedics. You know that all is off the table as far as any kind of cuts. So currently the city's budget spends 37% of their money on public safety. Well, if you take away the uh property taxes on homesteaded properties, you end up with 37 uh 54% of our budget is just for public safety. And the the reason our public safety budget is so much higher per capita than any other beachside community is we're the ones that have all these visitors coming to the city that can swell our city from, let's say, 10 11,000 residents to 30,000 on any given weekend. And we owe it to our our residents to have a safe city. And if we have to have that much staff so that if something happens that has to do with all those other people, we still have to keep the roads open. We still got to, you know, get people efficiently back and forth to the hospital and and all

that. So, um, that piece won't be touched. Okay. And whether it's the percentage that they say you can't ever go below or whether it's a dollar value. And if it's a dollar value, then we may be able to find some efficiencies in the future where we can combine some positions and such so that we can keep uh the salary increases to living wage and above. And I've always said our public safety people all deserve to um have a a wage that's higher than the average in the county just basically for retention of employees. So if we can keep uh our salary overall at a certain pace, it's still going to be 54 or 57% of our budget, but we can uh keep it as the dollar amount. So, I didn't mean to get so far into the weeds on that, but but it is an important factor and that means we're going to have to dig deeper in other areas to be able to uh sustain ourselves without increasing the um the millage rate, which probably will happen eventually. But um the thing is we are uh one of two cities in the county beachside communities that actually is would turn out to be in the black even with having to raise our uh our millage rate, you know, which would not be on the homestead properties, it would be on the businesses. Um we could we could still be in the black without hitting the statewide cap on the maximum amount of

uh um you know adorum uh property taxes. And there's quite a few cities, beachside communities uh that are south of us that are going to be completely broken because they're going to hit that cap and they're they're not going to have a out. So fortunately the city's positioned pretty good position but we're going to have to you know work through all the nuances if this passes to be able to make things work. And it's going to take not only the commission that'll be up here. It won't be me. I'm tering out. Um it won't it won't only be the commission that's up here. It'll be the city manager and all the city staff and all the residents and businesses working together to try to make this uh work and still have a healthy viable city.

I want to weigh in. I Skip, you you mentioned terming out. Um one, thank you guys for being here, right? Uh the citizens academy is phenomenal. It's it's in fact where Keith and I met. Um and then the following year Jeremy went through there. So, it's it's produced a lot of a lot of the commission leadership and I think every one of the commissioners has he he was there before um started the program.

Yeah. Started the program. Uh but it but it's one um kudos to our police department to the city for a phenomenal program that when I took it turned me into a huge fan of our city government, right? Um I already loved the city. We moved here. We were delighted with it. Um, but I was astounded at what all the city accomplishes. Um, a big part of that is residents stepping up. Residents, every one of us are residents. Um, a number of us moved into this type of role by stepping up and joining boards. So, there's a number of boards that you guys have have hopefully at this point already heard about or may be hearing about yet. Um, the opportunity when uh when the elections happen, any new commissioners will be placing board members. So, I would encourage you be looking at the city boards. They're they're volunteer positions, but they they carry significant weight and contribution to the city, and they're a they're a really uh great way to understand what this type of role and burden is and whether one of these seats up here is right for you, right? And as as former mayor uh mentioned, there's there's going to be seats open, right? there's seats that you need to be thinking about because this is a community that is led by the residents and so all of us are up here for that. Um I I I think I would just uh end with that to encourage you to think about what it looks like to be up here, what it looks like to step up and lead. It's the residents who see where the pain points are, but it's also, as you can see, residents who are going to solve the problems. So anyway, thank you guys for being here. Yeah, thank you. So, the same thing with me, like when we met, I I went to uh Citizens Academy, I was I was one of those Facebook warriors that was I don't understand why the city's doing this and why is it look like that and this and

that and I don't want any growth period and all this stuff and um you know, when I got elected and I I saw the backside. So you guys are seeing a a piece of it when you get elected and you you're you're behind the scenes and you see the backside and you see the numbers and you see all this stuff. Um it it changes your perspective on a lot of stuff as well. So I honestly I had to I had to I had to humble myself and tell the previous mayor I'm really sorry that I made your job harder. I didn't realize I didn't realize what you knew and now that I know kind of embarrassed for my for my behavior, you know, towards you. And uh obviously he he was he he thanked me for saying that. But, you know, it's it's a lot different seeing it from the outside than being on the inside. So, you know, just if you talk to people and you know people, just realize we're trying to do the best we can and we have information sometimes that you don't quite you can always do public records requests and get the information, but you just don't realize it until you're in in the mix. So, you know, understand these guys, they really do care about you and they're working hard and so and so does our staff. Anybody else?

Uh, yeah. So, [clears throat] okay.

Uh Josh, I I had the same situation. You know, it I I went through Citizens Academy in uh with my wife Courtney in 2012, so like 14 years ago. And um we did it for you all have a lot of reasons why you're here. Some of you are want to run for office. Some of you are just maybe you're retired and you want to you want to get involved in the city. And so you so you've gone to Citizens Academy to learn about the city or you just actually Well, we went Courtney and I went because there was construction going on on Fairway Drive behind our house on the golf course. They were digging a pond. We didn't know why. So we started coming to city commission meetings and talking to the commissioners and talking to um uh the uh city manager and and kind of made sense what they were doing. But that brought me into this this room, of course, the old building. and um went to a couple meetings and then I found out, hey, there's a citizens academy. You can learn about all the different departments. So, we joined it and um it was it was pretty awesome. Had the same experience as you guys did of it was just amazing what this city does with a water treatment facility, golf course, a full fire department, a full police department. not for a, you know, a city of 11,000 people, but for a city of like 50 plus thousand people really. And um and everybody was happy. All the employees were just smiling and more than happy to show you what they're doing and and uh you know, take you on a little tour of the building or wherever they were. I'm sure they did the same for you guys. Um, I had no intention of running for office back then and um, it was just brought to my attention to consider it and of course I said no, you know, like five or six times and then finally C said, well, why not? You know, we're going to be here for the rest of

our lives. Now is the time to get involved. And um, and we did. And that's the same for you guys. You know, that's it's um, you're here, you're probably not going anywhere. I mean, if you join Citizens Academy, you're you're here in Cocoa Beach for, you know, for a reason, right? And uh and join that for a reason. So, um yeah, if you're thinking about getting more involved, it's not just the boards, but there's lots of other volunteer opportunities uh with Main Street and Kowanas, um the Elks Rotary, a lot of lot of different places you can go for, uh to volunteer and get involved with the city. they do a lot of really good things for not just city but also the you know the students and the schools. Um so just reach out to those folks as well.

Thank you. We had another comment here. [clears throat] I don't want to not have you stop telling us how good we are, but uh [laughter] but I'd like to bring it back to the um thing that's going on in um Tallahassee and and um is all of the little towns and all of the counties are having the same difficulty we're facing if they do something about the property tax. Is there a group that is meeting and going up there? Um and uh um the officials I mean not the residents but I mean are do you have an official group that maybe other that you've become acquainted with with other uh county people or other town people that are um petitioning them and talking to them and telling them what a hardship it is even though I aren't listening. I know, but um is something going on and what can we do

too as citizens? Skip Skip wants to grab this one.

So, state of Florida. Where is the most expensive properties in the state of Florida? ocean front and some uh lakefront, you know, maybe some of the McMansions in Orlando and some of the other cities. Um, where does all the revenue come in? big cities, you know, Orlando, Sarasota, Tampa, uh, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, you know, Jacksonville, uh, Tallahassee, Pensacola. Um but there's a lot of there there's a certain amount of representatives in the state legislature from different districts and senate the same way uh house of representatives and the and the senate and they represent uh people that are in basically can I call it the heartland of Florida who aren't, you know, uh, just going off the rails with growth and bringing in a whole bunch of money. Um, but they see us as basically the cash cow. So they've got as much a voice in the state of Florida Congress and politics as the communities such as us and the other uh uh oceanfront and you know high rent communities. So basically

they want a share of the wealth from us. And one way of doing it is to get rid of their property taxes to make things more affordable for people. And I I hate to I'm kind of a stereotyper, but I mentioned places like, you know, Yeehaw Junction and Hollipaw. You know, they're not big bustling towns, even though they actually have grown a little bit. But, you know, they don't have a bunch of money and, you know, we got towns in Florida that have uh one police officer on each shift and they share a car. Um, so how safe would you feel in that committee? So, um, it's kind of, you know, we can lobby all we want. And I've written my letters to the, uh, the people I know in the in the state house and the state senate to say that this isn't going to be good for us. But I do know that, as I said before, that we can actually head above water in Cocoa Beach. But um you know uh if this goes down, it's going to be based on [clears throat] the number of House and Senate people that vote for it. And a lot of the ones that are going to vote for it are going to be from the less uh quote affluent, you know, bringing in more uh cities and municipalities and counties in the state of Florida.

Two.

Yeah. Um I think what Commissioner Williams is saying is is very relevant um to your question. Um Space Coast League of Space Coast League of Cities uh the commission is engaged in Space Coast League of Cities where uh across Bvard the cities and the municipalities combine and have a joined voice. So that's one area and being involved being engaged businesses can be involved and engaged with Space Coast League of Cities as well. Um, and then we do have as a city residents, we have a representative who goes up there for us. Jason Steel is the city lobbyist. Um, and so absolutely your voice can be shared with him and he he represents us to the uh to the the the legislature there in Tallahassee. Um, we have uh Congressman Heridopoulos and and Debbie Mayfield. They are absolutely open to hearing and receiving your inputs. um we as as a city government are involved with them, but absolutely as as residents, as constituents, um very important to hear from your residents. It a lot of times can feel like uh you've got politicians who are off, they don't care. They honestly from this seat, from this side of things, and I know this is true for every one of the folks sitting up here, when residents call, when they contact you, when they share their stories, that's the stuff you're looking for. That's the stuff you want to know about. Um, and I've talked with uh talked with folks from Heridopoulos office. They really do want to hear from you. And I know that it doesn't sound like it when you watch the evening news and hear the politics, but from this side of things, I can tell you it does matter.

Yeah, that was a good answer. Um, it's exactly what I was thinking was the Space Coast League of Cities, which we which we attend every month. Um, and we actually just got back from uh Tallahassee uh last month where the League of Cities had had met with us as well and they were lobbying for uh trying to make sure that we had our our tax funding needed. Uh from what he was saying too, the the the differences with these smaller communities that's that's going to be hit much harder compared to us is because we have a lot of commercial buildings. you know, the the hotels. Um, like I said, we have a lot of Airbnbs. We have a lot of um a lot of restaurants. So, we will still be receiving uh quite a bit of tax money from that. But a lot of these smaller um places that are in the middle of the state are mostly just residential. Um and if they do have a restaurant or something like that, it's usually just a little mom and pop, you know, breakfast or or dinner place. So, they are going to get hit hard. Uh but luckily we we have a diverse um a diverse population here that helps um even out our our loss in that tax. Uh you know, if we lose that tax as if it's gone already,

it you know, it's it's because I've been there and we've been talking to to different uh lobbyists and stuff like that and something is going to happen. It's just how is it going to get rolled out and and when will it take place? It's absolutely something is going to happen. Um we just we we just have to see what happens. Um not a coin flip anymore.

Yeah. And then I was going to actually mention now that we're here, I don't want to forget to talk to you, but um this is something I just just uh today I was just asked to meet with uh Mike Herodopoulos um with with Wes and uh we'll have to see if our if our on the 11th at 1:30, but um so that's something that we do too, a city manager and I is we we meet with with our our um you know, our representatives and our senators and um you know, I try to make sure that we can maintain a good relationship so they understand where we're coming from and they they take it to heart. You know, you you usually want to take care of your friends. You have a a closer relationship. So, I want to always try to make sure that we can build good relationships with our our representatives. I just want to go back to the whole question about the roll back tax rate. Um, I've been following the development for 5 6 7 years and the West End and all the projects that were coming online and the promise was at the end of the tunnel, we're going to see all this tax revenue and we kind of get caught in a little bit of a a bind because a lot of these didn't come online anywhere near as quickly as we thought they would. So, you know, I've watched the budget process over the past few years and maintenance has been deferred, road maintenance and all these other items have been deferred. So, from what I understand, if you we go to a roll back rate, we go back to revenue flat. So, we we limit our revenue to what we had last year regardless of how many new sources of revenue come online. And and I just wonder where the logic is in that where we've been counting on this for the last 5, six, seven years and okay, finally we can maybe accelerate our our our road maintenance program. Maybe we can we can spend more on public safety and and and and ease off a little bit. But it just seems to me that talking about rolling

us back to revenue neutral in a time of inflation doesn't make sense. I'm gonna let Jeremy take this one because I see he wants to he he's very This is Jeremy's baby and he's very

No, I Great point. I, you know, I'm probably the one that that is in favor of the legislation passing because I think there's a cost side of it that we can challenge as well. If you look at our budget, we've grown we far outpaced inflation. So, we're not we're far exceeding what the cost of doing business is. Um but I think on the um on the roll back rate last year, I think it was a delta of $100,000. So basically, if we challenged our $50 million budget, another $100,000, we would have to roll back. So it's not as big a mountain as we as I think the perception is. But I think you'll find this year we're going to have a substantially better budgeting process. So I hope you'll involve that. Hannah's already rolled out worksheets she's given to each one of those commissioners. So we give her input. So I think the first workshop will be night and day better, more productive than it has been in the last four years that I've been a commissioner. So hopefully we'll get that ironed out. It'll be and I'm I'm not opposed to to to raising taxes or or keeping it, you know, not hitting roll back, but I just want to have transparency so you guys know where the money's going. And I think that's what's been lacking for the last couple years.

Yeah. I want to I want to thank Commissioner Hutcherson. Um, and I think every commissioner here is serious about handling the city's funding. Um, but Commissioner Huterson, you have sharpened the pencil and you've dove in in a way. I've not seen anybody, but it's it's a skill you bring to the table, and I think that's excellent. I'd also like to highlight our our fearless financial leader. Um, she has she has gone to work since getting here in a way that she is just she is renovating and reinvigorating the budget, the budget process, as the commissioner has mentioned, she is the right person at the helm for this time, and that's a fantastic thing. Uh, a couple a couple hopeful notes, right? um the the city manager uh taking some very very interesting takes on new opportunities. There's a lot of money that moves through this city, but it moves excuse me through the city. Tapping into those streams of money is a brilliant opportunity, right? And there's there's some ways that we can look at that, but there's also found opportunities where the residents and I think we've talked about them in a few previous uh meetings where residents are paying for where the city out of the out of out of our coffers are paying uh uh what we do not owe, right? Uh we're paying other folks bill. And so as we really uh get into the different departments and understand where we may be paying for the the repair of infrastructure that is serving another city or one of the base, you know, one of the base infrastructures, those kinds of things are ways we can absolutely lower the amount that the city should and and has to be spending by making sure that others are paying their fair share. So, I want to thank you, city manager, um, and the staff for the looks that we're taking at new ways to innovate revenue sources as well as scrubbing the ones that we've got so that residents aren't paying for what we

should not be owing. Mr. Anderson, I I was going to be less pontificating in my response to you. Really? [laughter] You meant than me. I know. It's unlike me.

But I would just say we we just started the budget cycle a month and a half ago and um there'll be churn as we go through the budget cycle. There'll be public meetings and then we'll have the first call on the on the millage rate and the second call and then the final. So, a lot a lot will be assessed and uh looked at between now and when we determine the final military. Yeah. Let me real quick before you get on there. Um

it's I mean all of it honestly it's it's a it's a team effort honestly. uh you know, our staff doing what they can to make sure that they're they're running lean and our city manager to make sure that our staff is um is running lean. Um you know, a city manager can really make or break uh the way a city runs, whether it's efficient or not or or whatever. And speaking with Wes, uh, I'm honestly, uh, you know, I always go into everything with a little skepticism, but the more I I talk with him, the more we meet, the more we we brainstorm, uh, I have I'm 110% behind him. I think we are in excellent hands. I think you guys should understand that I I am I am so hopeful that we are going to meet the mark on whatever we need to do. The the mill rate roll back is is an endeavor. That's something that we want to shoot for it. You know, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. But if we say if we don't have that goal in mind, we have nothing to shoot for. So I I don't think that any of us are dead set on, you know, it has to happen, but we want to be responsible with your money. And if we just say that, hey, you know, there's no limit. We're going to raise the millage rate to whatever it can go to, then our staff has nothing to shoot for to try to be better. You know, they you're you're always going to spend what you what you have available if if you can. I mean, there's just no there's no

you have to

you you ha you have to you have to try to endeavor to do better. So that that's all where we're at with this. And and I think as a team effort, we all understand that and we don't we don't want to we don't want to make it harder for our residents, but we don't want to make it harder for our staff either, and we don't want to make it harder on anybody. This is everything we do is carefully thought through and it's not like we just come up here and just willy-nilly say, "Hey, we we want to we want to strip them of their funding." This just not how it happens. There's a lot of thought and like I said I used to come in with my fist fist pounding and this is why can't you raise the military or lower the millage rate before and I came in that's I wanted to lower the mill rate as you can see that three three year or two years straight I voted to keep the mill rate the same so it it wasn't my thinking without having the information it just wasn't feasible to do that so this might be feasible and we're going to we're going to endeavor to to save the residents money. Uh go ahead, Jennice.

You mind if I stand up? Okay. So, um going back to the roll back rate and everything, who do we serve? The voters of Cocoa Beach, right? So when you collect the sales tax here and goes off to Tallahassee comes back to us based on our permanent population. So that's why all the metropolitan areas get the greater share. We we get the wear and tear on our infrastructure so on and so forth. But the the factor that I always find and it and I don't know how to say this nicely or to get everybody there's no way to sugarcoat it but the people that live here and make their lives here their purchases their investment when they go to the store not only are they paying right right now the way things are the adorum taxes on their property but you know everything else goes up gas has gone up groceries have gone up but with The things you can't avoid when you go to the store are the sales tax and the schools putting a tax back on on the ballot in November. The Indian River Lagoons wanting their tax on there too. Everybody wants a piece of the action. So what happens in Tallahassee in the next two months is going to be really important because for 3.9 square miles of upland here people uh we have more police and fire than any other community in the state of Florida this size and that's because of tourism and there was a study I know it doesn't get dusted off enough uh it was done here between the hotel years and the city about 25 years ago that showed I because we had this argument all the time. Oh, no, tourism's great. It's doing all these things.

Well, it is to a point, but the residents are carrying that burden. So, I just want everybody to think about that again because you won't know until July, August who else is adding uh a share 1% a 5% onto your uh sales tax.

Thank you, Janice. And uh one one more thing on top of what we were talking about how we're going to pay for stuff or how we want to try to get the militaryrate down is we also actively um with Wes, we're we're looking for for more grants for for uh roads funding and sidework sidewalk funding and uh infrastructure funding. So um we've got some stuff in the mix hopefully where we might actually get some some real money towards towards road repair and stuff like that as well. So and Wes you said you want to say something? Yeah, I would just add Janice, I completely agree with your assessment, Janice. I completely agree and I think staff does too and I know commission does. Um I would just tell you that in addition to focusing on the expenditure side, we are now going to focus somewhat more on the revenue side as well and some opportunities that have gone uh just possibly overlooked. I don't, you know, I can't put too much out right now, but we're just trying to reestablish some of those relationships with our community partners in and around the county and see uh if we can get some help. I'll just kind of leave it there.

City manager pulling [clears throat] on that thread on the revenue side. U we'll be voting on the second reading the end of March on an impact fee. So Dave did a great job putting together, we're one of the few cities that doesn't have a comprehensive impact fee. And what that does is it takes the capital investment burden off the residents and gives basically a one-time tax to development. So I think that's the end of March. We'll vote on that second reading. And then there's there's disputes on how much revenue, but the idea is that we'll bring in revenue that bee off the resident's back and a way we could achieve millillage and that won't hurt any new or existing residents at all. That's right. Any other? All right. So, uh, yeah, take a minute and and I think

where Wes is headed is really fantastic, but to not pontificate for just another second to appease uh, Commissioner Williams. Um, he's he's following on in the footsteps of AJ Hudson and Wayne Kerino who also were sharpening the pencil. And I just want to take a minute to thank both of those guys, too. Uh, they set the direction and I think you are going to continue to amplify and increase what they were doing already. So, I love it and thank you to the guys who set us on this course. All right, guys. Thank you for coming. And uh did you want to say anything about this before I Sure. Yeah. Why don't you uh Yeah, you can get the

Thank you for the opportunity. Um I'm with the Rotary Club of Cocoa Beach, Ellen Cruz, and we are having a big fundraiser on March 14th. It's at 6:00 p.m. and it's at Beachside Hotel and Suites. if you're available. It's called A Night at the Races and it's going to be some uh videos of horse racing and uh also the artists from Studios of Cocoa Beach. We've got a lot of fun planned for the evening and we'd love to have you at our event. So, uh please see me after the meeting if you'd like more information. Tickets are $60 and it's going to be a lot of fun. Hope to see you there and support the Rotary Club and our projects. Thank you. Thank you very much. We are adjourned.