Charter Review Board - Regular Meeting

02/26/2025, charter a new board meeting. Will the board clerk please call the roll?

Chair Valvo? Here. Vice chair Esquireza? Present. Board member Albo? Here. Board member Menzies? Here. Board member Riziv? Here. Deputy city attorney Kathy Mahaffy? Here. And we will note for the record that city attorney, Tharrell Piper, is currently not here.

Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Here. So

I'd like to go ahead and remind everybody to please silence your mobile devices to help with sound quality. Please make sure that you speak clearly so that the microphones can pick up your voices. This meeting is being conducted live with the quorum physically present. The material for today's meeting is available online at www.cocooncreek.net. Anyone wishing to appeal a new decision made will need a record of the proceedings and for such purpose, we need to ensure that a verbatim recording of the proceedings is made including the testimony and evidence upon which the appeal is to be based. The audio of this meeting may be requested from the city clerk or may be heard online at www.coconutcreek.net.

Excellent. Thank you. Do you have any minutes?

We do. We do.

We have the minutes from the 02/05/2025 Thank

Thank you. You. Well, we have two more board members perusing them quickly. Can I just ask, are these after they're approved, will they be available online?

Yes. In minutes? Yes. They get uploaded to our website, and there's a link to it in minutes. And then from there, you go to an application called Ledger Star. It's all loaded in there.

Excellent. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Well Alright. Does anybody have any comments? Corrections, revisions, anything? Very complete, sir. Alright. Thank you.

I have

very good staff. I thought they

were great. Alright. No other objections. I'd like is there a motion, second, to approve the minutes from the February 5 board meeting? Second. Second. Alright. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Same. Okay. We'll move on

Thank you. Alright. The

meeting We'll now hear agenda item number four by city manager Sheila Rose, finance administrative services director, miss PK Lake. So I'll turn it over to you.

Oh, and I'm I'm embarrassed. I'm not sitting here with the agenda in front of me. I know there was discussion on several items, and now I have it in front of me. Alright. So the discussion items we covered last time I was here were related to the rollover period. Is that the is that the item that we're talking about?

We did. Section three zero eight.

Yeah. We can revisit things that we we had discussed and or in general financial highlights, and we have some financial information. So let Peter do that.

Yes. I'll go out good evening, everyone. Peter Gay Lakes. I'll go ahead and go over the financial highlights really quick. I know that some of you had some questions regarding how the finances work for the city. Mhmm. You know, budget document is this lovely book right here. It's almost 500 pages. I'm sure we don't wanna read that together today. So we did provide a packet for you with a few pages from the budget book that really wanted to draw your attention to that because it does provide a comprehensive overview of the budget document.

So the first page you have is our budget highlights and basically that identifies the different revenues that we collect as well as all the sources and where that comes from. So basically revenues is where the money comes from, how are we funding the expenditures that we have. You can see from this sheet that our millage rate is set at 6.8988 mils and that, you know, we our fire assessment assessment is $302.96 for single family homes for the year, and the solid waste rate is $312.48 for the year. So from a revenue perspective, our total operating revenues is a $164,000,000. You can see from the pie chart one of the largest components of that is charges for services.

So a charge for services is pretty much a fee that we set to try and recoup the majority of the cost of a program. For example, when we have summer camp, we try to set that fee so we recoup the cost of that program so that it's not subsidized by other revenues. Building fees,

would building fees be in or permit fees?

That's separate under license and permits.

Got it.

Sorry about And it also includes like transport fees for emergency medical services and so forth. The next large component is well, I'll talk about property taxes. It's 18% of the total budget. And again, that's generated from our millage rate of 6.8988. And the other component I wanted to highlight was appropriated fund balance, which is at 27% of the total revenues.

And that's basically the accumulated balance that we keep on hand for emergencies, for hurricanes, and just in case we have any downturn in the economy, we can continue operations. So we have that money set aside for that purpose. We the city currently does have a fund balance policy that was approved by the city commission. And basically what it says for the general fund, we need 5% of our operating expenses for emergencies, whether it's like, you know, pandemics or hurricanes or so forth. And then a minimum of 20% of operating expenses and additional reserves for any kind of downturns in the economy and so forth.

So that's part of what that 27% is made up of. So we have those reserves available for any unforeseen change excuse me, changes. Alright?

The the percentage is based off the 163,000,000?

It's based on the total. So the $163,000,000 is just the operating piece. Okay. And we there's another page in here that shows you the total that we'll go over also. Okay.

Alright? And I'll let Petigay go ahead and give that overview, and then I think that there were two issues that I think we wanna talk about, and that was the appropriations in that specific section in the charter. And also, I understand there were questions about the independent audit. So I'll make sure we hit those two as soon as she gives the financial overview.

Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Alright. And then on the expense side, we had a total of 167,000,000 and as you can see from the pie chart, lot of that is for police services, that's 16%. Utilities and engineering is also on there at 12% and they're responsible for all the street maintenance and the water and sewer lines. And then we have contingency and reserves for 25. So that's the first page. On the second page, it's just a summary of our property valuation. It shows how our property taxes are calculated.

So essentially the property appraiser is responsible for determining market values and then they use the Florida statutes to identify all the exemptions for each property and they apply it and they come up with what we call a taxable value. Now each agency within Broward County then determine their millage rate that they need to charge in order to generate the revenue that they need to fund their their services. So this page kind of summarizes what our taxable value is, what our millage rate is, and the funding that it's generated. So basically I mentioned what our millage rate was and the funding that that generates, and this table kinda calculates that for you. It shows also that our millage rate did increase, and we did that to be able to generate additional revenue to fund some major upcoming capital projects which includes a permanent fire station and renovations to our police department.

The table at the bottom is very useful because it shows what that increase in millage rate actually translates to for a homeowner. So in our average taxable value in the city is 264,000 and based on that the increase translated to like a $120 for the year. And the table below kind of shows you the amount that's paid in total taxes for Coconut Creek. Any unspent proceeds from the year basically carries forward to the next year and then we use that to prepare the next year's budget. So it's never a case where we over generate revenues and it just sits out there.

We always monitor that so that anything that's unspent, we factor it into the next year to see how much we need and whether we need to reduce or adjust rates accordingly. Alright and the next slide the next page sorry that you have shows the millage rate and the fire assessment fee and how we compare to the other 31 municipalities in Broward County.

Okay, I just have a step you say

the average taxable value is $2.64? Yes and that's for single family homes.

Just single family homes? Yes.

And a lot of that depends on when you purchased your home also. Sure. You know because if you purchased your home twenty years ago that's a completely different value than if you purchase it today.

Yeah. All of it. Right. There isn't one single family home worth

$264,000. Correct. Right. It's just the average of all of that that we have within the city.

That's all from that, you know, the homesteading In the exemption. Right. Right. So but that's just of the single family homes.

That is correct. Yes.

And is the millage rate the same for every resident? I've like, the mobile homes, I noticed the fire fee is different for each type of residence.

Correct. But the millage rate is the same for for everybody. Correct.

And do mobile homes pay a millage rate, or is it just on the property, not on the

It would be on the actual total. The property is the land.

Is considered like a vehicle. Right? It has to be registered because you have the vehicle. And

That is correct. It's the same rate, but it's all just it's based on the value of that particular property.

So I think that there were two items that I understood that you wanted PDGA to expand on. And and one of them, stop me if I'm going too far, but was related to the charter section on the independent audit. And I think you were looking for some additional information on that process. So I have that here. Did you get

a chance to look at that? Yes. So I did. And and I just wanted to summarize my understanding of what the concerns were and then you can expand as needed. The the requirement for not having some kind of a rotation of auditors or allowing for current auditors to resubmit.

So so basically, we had revised that at the last charter review because we did have a mandatory rotation that after five years we could not use the same auditors and we had changed that. Reason being the pool of qualified auditors that can do municipal audits have been decreasing over the years. There's not much profit in doing a municipal audit. So a lot of auditors prefer to go to the private and do the audits there. So we just wanted to make sure that we we were able to invite back the current auditor to complete the audit on our behalf.

I know, you know, there are pros and cons to both sides to having a mandatory rotation for auditors. You know, if you keep the same auditors, it's a lot more efficient. They know the books. They know the information. They don't ask as many questions of our staff, so it makes it a lot more efficient.

But there are other rules also that that kinda govern us that hopefully will provide some some comfort. So first of all, we had changed the charter to match what is done for publicly traded companies. So in The US, the Securities and Exchange Commission also oversees the rotation of auditors for publicly traded companies and their requirement is that you have to replace the lead auditor which is the partner on the audit because they're really the ones that are interpreting the rules and regulations that's where you know you could have potential fraud that would impact an audit and so forth so we do have that in our charter right now where they have to rotate the lead auditor. Another point that I wanted to point out too is that Florida statutes has specific requirements for selecting auditors. So basically I cannot be on the Audit Selection Committee.

It has to be the the committee has to be made up of one commissioner who serves as the chair and then finance professionals. It cannot include any employees of the city of Coconut Creek. And I do have a handout here I wanted

to share with you if

you wanted to take a look at that. Actually I have two. One is for the security and exchange requirements that shows the audit partner rotation for publicly traded companies and the other one is state you know, that's that's state

of selection

this past year.

And

it was actually made up of finance professionals from other cities that's setting on that border. So it's completely independent of staff.

Auditing and the

selection of the auditor.

The selection of auditor. Think it's the first I heard of the committee. Yeah. With one commissioner being on that committee, which Right.

So it's process. Yeah. So we basically established the committee solely for the purpose of selecting the auditors to go through our request for proposal process to actually go out and solicit submittals, evaluate experience from all the different vendors out there, and make a determination on who would provide the best value and who would be most qualified to do the audit for the city. The the committee that we had, we chose finance professionals from other municipalities in the area. Again, because, you know, government accounting is so unique. We wanted to make sure that we had great representation from other, you know, finance directors within Broward County to be able to make that decision for us.

We might have gone far farther than the discussion you had, but I think there was conversation about section three zero eight on the independent audit. Peter Gage is providing any background that might help you, you know, if you want to delve back into that section or if you have specific questions, she's the expert. That's

great. That makes sense. And knowing that there's a committee that selects the auditor, I'm sure there's auditing accreditations and probably organizations. I know in, like, the nonprofit world, I know some of them. So I'm sure there's other ones in the public space.

Yes. They do

have Association of local public auditors. Yeah. Have many many different And the selection committee.

And and you know since the when we had the whole issues many years ago with with auditors, the rules have changed so drastically. They're so strict now that there isn't an audit partner who's gonna sign off without having done their due diligence.

Yeah. Pre Sarbanes Oxley, it was the wild wild west. Right?

Correct. Right.

You would say, who what auditing firm should we hire? And they'd say, well, what are you trying to accomplish? And I'll tell you which one to hire.

Right. And you can

get all sorts of stuff.

And they could do consulting at the same time as auditing, which is a direct conflict. So that fixed all of that. So That's good.

Alright. Thank you for all this information. Alright. You're welcome. Does anybody have any questions about this?

Yeah. Guess. Just the committee, I think, is in section three of the commission, Shopify. So is the commission then taking the recommendation of the committee and issuing that as kind of a selection? That's what that's what confirms the selection of the auditor?

Yes. That's

correct. Okay. That that helps context.

And while we've got PDGA here, the last time I was here, we spoke about section six zero four. Are we are you ready to jump to that? And just the discussion of the lapse of appropriations?

Yes.

This is how you're

going to handle this Cathy. This

is great.

And then I wanna turn it I just wanna jump back to the members after that a little

bit if we could. Oh, sure.

Don't if she's here still.

And you can jump right to that if you if you're more comfortable. I was just I didn't I was very quiet in the room. Sure.

It's good. It's good. We're we're 604.

Okay. So at the when I attended I think one of your first meetings, we talked about the appropriations that were required to lapse and some of the issues that the city was having with those. And and that's just one of the recommendations that the city city staff was making that you consider is striking that section. So I asked you to Gay if she could just give you a little history and some examples of why we think that this isn't good government, government, and

and

and we'd like you to consider striking this section.

Alright. Thank you. So there there are times when we have projects that might extend more than the five years for various different reasons. You know, sometimes we have price increases and we require additional funding so we have to wait until we can accumulate the funding to complete the project. Sometimes we're waiting to get grant approval from different agencies because we try to leverage grant dollars as best as we can.

And sometimes we have to wait on that approval. Some projects, by their very nature, just takes a very long time to come to fruition. So, you know, that may delay the process also. And, you know, last but not least, human capital part of it is, you know, if you have turnover and you have a large project, sometimes that delays it. So when you kinda combine all of that, the five years sometimes cuts it very close for us to have to re budget capital dollars for a large project.

I know the last time you had some questions about the amendments that were previously made to this section. In 2001, it wasn't specific to this section. It was just overall, they were adding the requirement for a five year capital improvement program. So it wasn't specific just to that section. And in 2020, the change that we made was it was previously three years.

We were able to get it increased to five years, and now we're looking to to remove that section. Some of the issues we have is when we rebudget these large capital items, it skews the numbers for our budget. So I'm gonna give you two examples. We have like a a automatic automatic meter reading conversion project that we had budgeted $3,000,000 for AMI. AMI. Yes. That was on pause for several years. We, you know, we we kinda started in the interim when technology was changing, and we didn't wanna be one of the first ones to make the change.

You know, we want to

make everybody else work out all the kinks and then we implement the system. And then we have staff turnover. We were pursuing grants. Many different reasons why that was on hold. And then at the time it was the three years. And the three years passed, and we had to rebudget it. And when we did that, it actually overstated our budget for that particular fund by 10%. And then another one we had was wastewater pump station for Main Street area. Everyone's familiar with Main Street? Yes. We had set those funds aside because it was in our rate study and we didn't want to lose track of it. And we probably wanted Main Street to be finished ten years. 2009. Yes. Right.

But, you know, that wasn't the case. And so we had set aside 2,500,000.0 for that, and we kept reappropriating it every year, which we're allowed to do. And then we had to rebudget it because of this clause and that overstated the budget in that fund by 78%. So, you know, we have a very clear process and a transparent process for reporting capital improvement projects in our budget book if anyone is ever interested to look. We actually every CIP we have, we have a page in the budget book and it shows what was previously budgeted.

It shows what we're requesting for the current year so we never lose track of what's outstanding. So I just wanted to remove that five year requirement even if we reworded it in the context of, you know, it it's considered abandoned if it's not in the budget book or in accordance with the budget book, you know, or something along that line and taking away that arbitrary five year requirement is what we're looking to do. And just from a practical perspective, one

of the issues that we try to manage is we try to anticipate projects that are gonna be in out years. And when they're big capital expenditures, we try to gather the funds over a to to level the budget, gather the funds over a series of years so that when we're ready to do, let's say, Lakeside Park or one of those big projects, we've been accumulating the funds over a period of years, and this would help in that instance as well.

What kind

of identifier are we using when we say large project? Is it, like, 2,000,000 plus or any particular number?

Right now, there isn't a particular number. How the code is worded is just if if we have not spent from that capital account or we don't have it on a purchase order, which is a commitment to spend, then after five years, the funding would go away. So there's no definition of large capital, but all of that depends because, you know, if it's a $5,000,000 project and we don't wanna, you know, budget all of it in one year, we may build it up over six years and put money towards it versus having to come up with $5,000,000 in one year.

Is there any mechanism for revocation of appropriation? Appropriate, let's say, $5,000,000 for a particular project, five, six, seven years. Let's say this is eliminated. And at some point, we say, we really don't wanna go forward with this. They'd rather have the money sit there is a way the commission can, through the process, revoke that that appropriation that has been sitting someplace.

And, yes, they could. They could through the annual budget process. So let's say we, you know, we've set some money aside for a project and we're going in a different direction and we don't need it anymore, then it would it essentially falls out of the budget. We wouldn't reappropriate it. We wouldn't budget it in the new year and then that fund money would be freed up to be used for other purposes. And then all of that is presented to the commission and the budget book for them to consider and and we actually do strategic planning session and a budget workshop where they will actually go through any new programs, any capital items, and and make decisions from there.

Yes. So was thinking along the same lines. Like a future commission being saddled with the previous commission's appropriation. I think upcoming too, we have a large turnover in commission at some point, I think. If I'm not mistaken, is 2029 gonna be, like, a 100100%. Turnover. Right? So,

theoretically They could be reelected, but, yes.

Potentially, could be.

Right? But, yes, all seats are

And they have plenty of term limit left in their term limit fund. But the yeah. So or or like a technology could change. We could find in two years from now that everybody's using phone apps to do parking meter things or something like that where it doesn't really require any capital infrastructure. Just put paint some numbers on the parking spaces and you go into your app your space number 12 the meter reader looks at Space number 12 sees you've paid for it and you're good to go things could change right so so there's a so would there be a reason to or so if we remove the five years, would there be a reason to consider putting in a clause that, like, it the funds roll over after a certain amount of time or just roll over indefinitely with city commission's approval or something like that?

I was thinking something like that. Until such times the commission and look at the rollover of the year. Until such time as the commission may decide to cancel that appropriation. Cancel project. Right.

For clarification is that kind of what already happens as part

of our budget process yes so that is correct right now the capital items automatically roll over but if the decision is not to move forward with the budget process then it would fall out so yes some language along that line would be helpful.

But at the five year mark, it falls off altogether? It expires.

If it expires and we haven't spent from it or it's not a work contract commitment, then we'd have to

re budget it. And does that include, like, partial? So we're one third of the way through a $3,000,000 project. We spent $1,000,000 in year five. There's two thirds of the project still to be done sometime down the road does the balance fall off or is it once the project is as long as it's opened within that five year period

and

No.

So if it's there's no activity at all for that five year period. So in that instance, because there was activity in year five, then it's now active, and then you'd have to wait another five years for activity then to to cease.

Okay. That makes that makes sense. I hope it would be

like that. I can see we're eliminating this would make sense. This five year automatic lapse. As long as you have language in there, we're a commissioner a new commissioner of size, want you to but they can do that. So or just not

So if if if it came with a provision that like city commission approved to perpetuate it or extend the would that would that be helpful to staff or would that be helpful in your opinion?

If so I do have some proposed language like, you know, redeem abandoned if it's not included in the city's five year capital improvement program, which is approved by resolution by the commission. So if we could do something like that, that would be helpful because the commission does see the budget and the forms with all the funding on an annual basis.

And then with the commission's reviewing the budget, they can they can line item things?

Yeah. They get a copy of the entire budget and depending on what's new and what's going on, they

will walk through the capital improvement program section. We walk through every single page. And the capital the capital items each have an individual page where we walk through and discuss each item. Sounds like It's a long day.

Yeah. Yeah.

And then they can read they can redline individual things as they want. Right?

So So it be would more of a policy discussion if they chose not to go forward with the project. We that we had proposed in the budget or that had been in the budget for several years.

But it wouldn't require a public hearing or anything. Would it require for them to

It would happen during the staff and the working sessions with the commission, and then the budget that would be presented during the public hearings would have that item removed.

I I just think it'd be good for them to be able to for the staff and commission to be able to move kind of freely and not have to, you know We agree. You shift gears and then we gotta go take six more months to kind of extend delete something or whatever.

And I think more to Peter Gay's point, our concern is that if you have to rebudget an item that you've actually been carrying, it makes our budget look look like this. Looks like a a wave as opposed to a nice straight line.

Yeah. Makes sense. Does anybody else have any questions about that? How does think it makes sense for Do me.

You wanna So read the specific language? Yeah. I was gonna

say maybe we could read that into

Alright. We can tweak it as needed. So I had just for the last part, the purpose of any such appropriation shall be deemed abandoned.

If

it's not included in the city's five year capital improvement program or something along that line.

So that would be a proposal not to actually strike the section, but to modify it. No.

I'm afraid if you strike it, people would do a stupid question.

Why are you doing that? This is Okay. Very political way of doing that. That was masterful. Alright.

So we'll add that language into the the running list, and you'll see it next week in full strike through and underline. And when we put it all in there and see it altogether, if we have any tweaks or recommendations from staff, we'll include those, and you can discuss them in more detail for a final consensus next week.

So that to me would would exchange the expense requirement. Requirement. Like, there's not been an expense within five years, and that would kind of exchange it with the city's the commission's intention. As long as the city's intending to continue to move forward on it That

is correct. Then it's alive and well. Yes.

Right? Kinda just swapping those two things out of it, and that would provide the flexibility in the energy. That makes sense to me. To And if I could just ask you a couple more questions about some numbers to help me understand. The first pie chart on the budget highlight for revenue is the incomes.

Of the total city am I reading that correctly? The total city budget, the total income of the city, only 18% of it comes through revenue from, like, our water and

wastewater so fund and so forth. Forth. Impact fee funds, so it's 18% of the total budget. That's different from specific to just the general fund.

But the appropriated fund balances, those are income accounts or I think I mean, I something I think of them as reserve accounts, like money that's put aside every year to

Correct. But but in the spirit of being transparent, you know, we include all our resources like of your, you know, personal finances. I have $5,000 in savings. You put it in and then at the end, you take it out on the expense side that, okay, I started with 5,000 in savings. I wanna add 500 to it, and then my ending balance is 500 and so that way we show everything altogether.

But So we Right. And then the way the city I don't wanna say the city because it makes it sound the way a city would do that accounting, it would look like the 5,500 is income for

It would be on the revenue side, but it is clearly marked as as appropriated fund balance.

Okay. Even and then if you don't use it then it goes to revenue the following year?

Correct. Right.

Okay. Yeah. I guess just in my uneducated mind in this field, I'm just it just seems like wow only 18% of the income of the city comes from property taxes I thought that would be 80% of the income of the city comes from property taxes

yeah not not in totality with the the appropriated fund balance included And and then the the last page actually shows you the numbers and breaks

it down also. You see, you

can kinda see how those numbers are distributed if you want.

On our income, on the city's income. It's a minimal increase.

The and very interesting very specifically, the tax increase that we did this year, calculated what it would cost us to construct the new fire department, the modifications to the police department to update it because it was built in 1984 and a few other very specific capital expenses. And then we spread the need for that income out over a period of years, and the tax increase was only enough to cover those additional capital costs. So we our expectation was not to increase the general operating expenses. It was to fund very specific capital improvements using the add more of taxes as opposed to, for instance, a general obligation bond or some other mechanism of financing. For

a one time well, we had a

one time assessment. Didn't we last year? Two years ago? Assessment. Was there a one time assessment of fire? Are you thinking of the fire? Yeah.

But that's not one time that's interacting.

Yeah. That wasn't a concern. Yeah. The assessment, I knew that the it was we're I get out of it, was Word word assessment scared the people in mind. And you're

like, oh my god.

Mother's assessment. Well, that I mean, it's it's interesting because we're small enough that we can say, we increased the property taxes to pay for our separation of our dispatch service from Broward County because we were having such significant issues, and it cost us money to set up the new fire department and the dispatch center. So it was a very specific item that that was used to fund. And in this instance, this year, it was very specifically police, fire you know, it was public safety. Oh, no objection. No. No. I'm just I'm it's kinda it because it's a we're small enough that we can dig in and understand exactly what we're trying to fund.

So am I under I guess, am I reading it right to say that the millage rate went up, like, 7.2%, but the assessed values of the properties in the community also went up 7.2?

That is correct.

Yes. Just coincidentally the same. Yes.

Is it exactly the same? It's a

little different. One is seven point two two and one is 7.02. I'm sorry. What about I'm not sure I counted numbers here.

I calculated the the millage as 7.2. I could have been wrong. And then the other one was seven point O two. Two two. Yeah. The mill the assessed property values would be 7.22. In total. Yes. Right. And then And I have

the millage rate itself going up by 7.02.

Oh, I could be wrong. Yes. 7.02. I'm gonna defer to you on that. So just coincidentally, I can

Yes.

Alright. Okay. Sure I wasn't misunderstanding the number. So

But the assessed value also takes into account new development, new apartments, let's say, new complex being built, obviously, now that's worth a certain amount of money.

Correct? Yes. That's correct. It's not that

everything's been reassessed and raised 7.2%.

Right. Because anything that was homesteaded, you know, has to save our homes cap.

Do we have any feel off the top of your head of the percentage of commercial property versus residential property tax base wise? I'm throwing you a buzz in here. I'm not trying to catch you. I'm just

No. That's fine. Well, don't know that one off the top of my head, but I can find it for you really quickly and and provide it. Oh, just curious. Yeah. Just need

some percent. I've heard some conversations about the business environment in the city and the importance to grow the business base and just I was curious if if the business portion is 5% of our community or 45% of our community and just out of because that's

it's closer to maybe a eighty twenty, but I don't wanna I will get you the

exact Those are never protected through the homestead.

The commercial that is correct. Right. When

we were doing the live local act, when we were doing some of the an ordinance last year, part of that distinction or how we could implement that ordinance was based on our ratio. And at that time, we were close to 18%, I believe, but it was definitely under that 20%.

And then after 20%, does it

It just changes the regulations options for that particular type of ordinance under statute. But we had to look at that and at that time it was approximately 18% or just there under. And

on the chart with the millage rates, the third page, is there an easy way to kinda understand the huge disparity? Like, how Westin can operate their city at a 3.3% millage rate and Lauderdale Lakes takes 8.6. I mean, maybe that's the way they do it.

Probably not values.

So, yeah, there's no easy way to really answer that question, but that is a part of it too. It depends on their makeup, how much commercial they have versus residential. You can see some of the cities that have lower rates, they probably have a much higher commercial base. So their assessed values goes up more than the residential every year. You know, another too is age of construction and and level of infrastructure maintenance and all of these things that goes into a budget that would cause that disparity in the military.

So it's all just kind of all the obvious not the obvious stuff, but I don't if it had anything to do with cities using a common different combination of ad valorem and not ad valorem taxes or something like that.

It probably does because I think one of the things that we've talked about is whether a general obligation bond, which ends up on your tax bill, is a way to fund these type of capital projects for ad valorem. So there is, you know, for instance, in Pompano there, you know, they carry debt and that does affect the that does allow them to keep their millage rates lower. Right. So it's a

Nothing to do with anything. Where is Lazy Lake?

It's you've never heard of Lazy Lake?

It's in

the middle of Fort Lauderdale.

Really? Okay. I'm

I'm just just thinking. Thinking. Little Little tiny town. Yeah. It has,

like, maybe 25 residents. Is

that the one next to the Rindian Reservation, or is that West Park? There's one It's West Park. Near the Seminole Triad where they have, like, one police officer who's also the mayor.

I'm sorry. Was saying cards at 33 residents.

33 did drop.

They just saw Lazy Link. Was like, 22 heard of Lazy Link.

So there might be more, but that was, like, the last census. Wow.

Red blue. Holy smokes. And then I had I just had one more question about financial stuff, and I don't wanna talk too much about the is does the city have a financial policy on how does the infrastructure handle like like Main Street? From what I understand, there's this we're in this moment of time maybe where the developer in order to secure financing needs to do some things and does the financing get done? Does the infrastructure get financed through developer financing or through potentially Right. City bombs or

So it it really actually interesting conversation because historically, Coconut Creek, the developer has been required to install the infrastructure and then convey the infrastructure to the city where there are public roads. So the developer in any of the classic subdivisions, Winston Park, township, the developer built the infrastructure and then where the roads were public, the infrastructure was conveyed to the city for maintenance. With Main Street, it's a little bit of an interesting conversation because very recently, we've had a conversation of creating a community development district which allows the developer to get low interest bond financing to build the infrastructure. So they actually create specific unit of local government that allows them to take the debt and spread it out over years as opposed to upfronting all of the infrastructure funds. So that's what's currently proposed in Main Street.

The city still will not be funding that. We'll only be funding the parts of the infrastructure that are our responsibilities, the park construction, the roads near the new fire department, and some of that infrastructure. But the roads that will service the new development will be built by the developer, developer, and our expectation is is that they will form a community development district, and that's how they'll finance it. But we won't be paying

for it.

The debts in the developer's name or in the is it secured by

the city? It's in the CDD's

name. It's in a community development district, which becomes a a a specific unit of local government used to pay for infrastructure. So the CDD would be responsible for paying for the drainage and the roads and the water

and sewer. And then are and are then are those monies collected through the property tax bill?

Yes. For the CD. No. Well, it would be an assessment that's collected through the property tax bill and the assessment goes to the community development district. That item is gonna come before the commission on first reading probably March 13. So, the very next meeting, not tomorrow and then for second reading probably April 10 and then as part and parcel of that, there is a development agreement that will lay out who's responsible for what infrastructure specifically that will probably be coming forward to the city commission sometime late spring. We're still working that up.

The city is potentially exposed for the payment of that debt if the developer

No. Not at all. That's specifically why we're not doing that's why we're not doing that. And the expectation is is that in this instance, this new specific unit of local government will also take on the long term maintenance. So the distinction here is, let's say, the public roads and the township, the city is resurfacing those. We take on the responsibility for those roads. What's proposed, and it's just in the working stage, in this instance, this unit of local government will build, finance, and maintain that infrastructure.

Is that, like, a lifetime thing or, like, a

certain, like, ten years? They're typically set

up for about thirty years at a time. They can be extended from there, but the petition, I believe, is for thirty years as is, again, typical of standard under state law.

While

we have everybody here, you also were provided on your desk some salary surveys and referencing other charter provisions. You all had raised an issue, and I believe it is item one c on page four of three of your running charter list. You've asked a question about commission compensation and how other cities and local governments collected their their or set their commission salaries. So, you have a spreadsheet which tells how each and provides the charter or code provisions for each local government and how they set those and any limitations they have on how those are set. You know, Parkland takes a collection and average of three or four surrounding cities.

Some people have a it's by set by the commission by resolution with a cap. Some people just have it it's set by resolution of the commission, same as ours is. It's set by resolution of the commission. You also have a spreadsheet which shows the history of Coconut Creek's salaries and compensation and expenses. Right now those are increased by COLA each year, and that is set out in that survey. And then the third item COLA is cost of living. Yeah. Sorry about that.

Just in case you were unsure.

And then the third item you have in front of you is the survey of actual service salaries and benefits for the 15 of the surrounding cities. Or a number of them, not 15, but a number of the surrounding cities. I guess half dozen. A dozen of the surrounding cities in their average and mean median. So we have HR director. We have our finance director if you have any questions about that.

Okay. So they were looking at section three zero three.

Yeah. It's in three zero three c that they is our provision addressing compensation on page three.

On the running list. I need more.

You know, the median would eliminate the the weight of some of the outliers, those that are

far above average or far below average, so you

can see we're right about at median.

So as it relates to the the nonspecific expenses, the city commissioners use their cars. They provide their own car insurance. They provide copies, giveaways, and things like that. From an accounting perspective, it is certainly simpler for it to become just part of their salary so that we're not processing all those individual receipts.

So it's not reimbursement. It's just

Not reimbursement. It's actually and expected that they pay for those things.

They also pay for their own cell phones. The city doesn't issue them one, you know, so those kinds of expenses are Question,

Question,

I I guess, guess, more more for. For. Obligation wise, can I mean, obviously, I think, right, they can have other businesses, other jobs in in addition to being a mayor, vice mayor, commissioner? As far as is there any set hour or any verbiage around that? Like, you have to commit per position or anything? No.

No. The expectation is is that they are at all city commission meetings at a minimum. They do our commission participates in community events many nights a week and on weekends. But there isn't a a designated job description.

Is there, like, a minimum meetings that they have to attend? I know there's some something around there. And

hopefully, for commissioners, there an attendance requirement for board members, but commissioners don't have one that I'm aware of. Just the public and the public expectation that they're there to represent

represent them. Them. And they have sorry. And they have to be excused. So the other commissioners have to basically vote to excuse them if they're absent.

But there's no requirement for

a certain number of meetings per year? No.

No. But I know that there is something as it relates to vacancies.

True unexcused, I think, or more or true. Something just

will read. So here we go. There is something under three zero five b forfeiture of office if they fail to attend three consecutive regular meetings of the commission without being excused by the commission at a So they have to be excused, means they have to have a valid reason for missing the meeting and usually they will be excused. But if they miss three more than three consecutive meetings and are not excused, like, let's say they just put AWOL or something, then they would forfeit their office.

Rejected whole by the commission. Right?

Yes. They have my consensus.

Okay.

I think that's outlined on one of these sheets.

But I think the adjustments, just to be clear, I mean they have to pass a resolution if they're gonna increase the salary or expenses. However, they can decide not to take the full COLA or that kind of thing for the budget process and often times, they've done that.

They did that the last two years. Right. Yes.

Has it kept pace pretty much in mathematics, not being a strong point? Hasn't been sort of kept pace with with the CPI.

The only point I would make is that I think the it it may just be Coconut Creek or the era of social media. I do think that their time commitment is has increased from boards in years past. Mhmm. The expectation is is that they're responsive on social social media, that they show up at community events.

Yeah. I think the current setup we have, I mean, all of them does an exceptional job. I mean, I was just at the festival last week, and it's amazing. Know, You you've been overall, and everybody was pretty much there. But more so looking forward in the future Right. You know, what what does that look like? And would you recommend anything for, you know, after 2029 or anything along those lines?

For a requirement for the number of meetings or events or hours? Anything along those lines.

Do you even foresee if necessary? Or

I I personally I mean, I I don't wanna speak for everybody else. I don't think it's necessary. I think if our if any commissioners didn't do what our residents think they should be doing, that would work itself out in the following election. So I don't know that it's necessary to come up with an arbitrary number of hours or anything like that. I can

see meeting requirements within hours. Yeah. The hours, especially now, it's so you you're so reachable. There's no such thing

They're reachable twenty four seven.

There's no such thing as off hours anyway, unfortunately.

But I could see I could possibly see some kind of requirement.

Maybe the conversation should be more about more, right now, the three unexcused absences if that were something to discuss. Because if somebody, if someone genuinely has a health issue or a family crisis Mhmm. Our commission can continue to operate, but, of course, we always like to have all five there. In the spirit of collegiality, if somebody has a crisis, two meetings three meetings would be could be six weeks. You we need, you know, we need the representation there.

I wouldn't think you'd ever wanna go beyond three meetings. As unexcused, that would mean somebody's just not showing up. So you might wanna consider that

if you if

you feel the need to put some guardrails there, that might be something you wanna think about.

Well, can they zoom in?

If there was well, that's

I don't think that's allowed. So No? Well, so that's interesting. The short version is we have to have a quorum physically present under state law in order to meet the Sunshine Law requirements. And so they could zoom in or phone in if it's kind of a one time thing and it's just essentially no more than two of them because the quorum would be three. And that has happened on occasion if somebody sick or has a sick child and they still want to be able to attend and participate in the meeting. But it does impose additional burdens on staff to set it up and can create some limitations. So, ideally, we try to encourage them to come and attend in person as much as possible plus, you know, a quorum with them is required to.

I remember an emergency meeting that was called somewhere around 03/20/2020 for COVID. During COVID. And

one of

the commissioners was kind of zoomed in, and it was almost made the meeting impossible to have. Like, it was just laughable. Somebody would say something, and then you hear a voice coming out of the desk. Say that again. I could oh, it was buffering. Oh, it was it was rough.

We had not yet mastered the art

of Zoom. Yeah. On 03/20/2020.

It was rough. That was

Early Zoom. It was rough for everybody that we We

did that with the council meeting with 44 representatives in the early days of Zoom, and it was

Oh, this sucks. No.

And I think it's for that reason that the governor has decided that you need a quorum physically present in order to,

you know So it's still a functional meeting?

Right. Still a functional meeting.

And if the commission's trying to gauge another commissioner's commitment to their role, zooming in is showing a commitment. It's not just abandoning your position. You might be limited, but so the meeting's happening. So the core function of government's proceeding because you have a forum and somebody's trying to participate.

Agree. You could have somebody in the hospital or, again, they could be just ill or have a family member that's ill, and it allows them to participate, you know, remotely if they have to and still be part of the conversation. That said, you know, I I know that I mentioned that the quorum is required to be physically present. Obviously, during COVID, those rules were sort of waived, if you will, by the governor, and that's how we were able to have complete online Zoom meetings for a while, for a little while during that time period. However, those rules were put back into place after, you know, things were deemed to be safe by the governor. And it's possible, I guess, that such a thing could happen again, but we would

not be able to do

it without the rules being waived.

And the process of it being an excused I think is that the term that uses excused abscesses. If if commissioner a doesn't attend a meeting, do do commissioners b through e, like, vote on whether it's excused or not excused? Or, like, how does that become?

They generally give a consensus to excuse ex commissioner, you know, maybe ex commissioner has a sick, maybe they had a surgery or something or they have a sick family member and they're not able to attend because they have to attend to that family member, so they can't even attend by Zoom, that kind of thing. It happens rarely, but they do do that.

For a point of discussion. Yeah. Okay.

Do you have any other questions for city manager and HR director and finance director while they're here?

Just just an example of the appropriation. So obviously, this is a extensive budget, but what does it look like in a budget? So there there is a regular lapse that occurs at every fiscal year. Is that what the transfers in the general fund are from other funds? Is that basically something that lapsed in another fund prior?

So any lapse in appropriation, would see it through that appropriated fund balance and reserve line items in the budget. The transfer in is the common rules. If if we need to fund, a capital project in a different fund for accounting purposes, we have to transfer the money there to fund it. If we we have to separate debt service and a separate fund, which is its own set of books, we have to transfer the money there. So that's what that transfer line item is.

Okay. I guess also, I'm trying to, I guess, recognize what a reappropriation looks like in in the budget. Is there is that explicitly called out in this? Or Just just I can see, I I guess, the examples that we've talked about, obviously, some some of these things can take a while. But from year to year, it'd be nice to see, hey. This has been reappropriated. Can tell me to know what the mechanism is.

Look. How it works is it really is done in our accounting system for the reappropriations. Because again, the budget that you've set up already accounted for that capital project or that, you know, CIP or it's already set that money aside. So it's just an accounting entry to to move that amount from year to year so you can continue to complete the capital budget.

Okay. So it just moves it just moves to the new budget every year?

But we just do, like, an an entry in our accounting system to

move it.

Okay. So that's that's more a reappropriation. Correct. You're appropriating the year, not the category. I guess that makes sense.

We're we're more appropriate in capital projects. Yes. Okay. I agree. That helps. Thank you.

Before I go, I know there was some conversation about adding boards or or like a public safety advisory board to the charter. And I just wanted to just have some thoughts. I wanted to share that with you. And I think maybe the the distinction is is that we go through a police accreditation process, and it's a very rigorous professional accreditation done by accreditation professionals from around the state and the country. And that addresses the public safety and police operations policies.

A public safety advisory board, if you are considering something like that, should in my opinion, should be more focused on the types of community outreach and that, you know, the the what the expectation is for community policing and community outreach. We believe that when we move to the accreditation process, our public safety advisory board was unnecessary, and and they were in an uncomfortable role because they did not have the credentials to do the type of work that put our police department in that reviewed every single policy and our adherence to those policies. So the accreditation is a very rigid process that makes sure anything that's going on in police meets or exceeds those standards. So the the concept of a public safety board that we had some time ago was kind of they wanted to be involved in that. They didn't have their professional credentials, so they got more focused on what should police do.

Should we have pizza with the po po? Should those that was more the focus. I don't know that that's an appropriate charter amendment. I mean, I think if there's a policy discussion about needing to have more public outreach, that might be something that you would wanna recommend to the commission that we handle that as a board that could come and go or could be a focus of one of the ambassador programs. I don't know.

This year, you know, we do we kind of ebb and flow based on what we think the public is interested in. This year, we're doing the sustainability lecture series. You know, last year, we did you know, there were all sorts of different topics covered. Police and fire both do specific community outreach programs, but they also do those ambassador type things where our mission is to get feedback from the public as to what kind of programs the public would like to see and to educate educate educate educate the public as to what we offer. And I think that's where if the goal of the board is just to be a group that educates, a five member board is not as effective as some of the other programs like the ambassador program.

So I just want you to I just wanted to I didn't hear your original discussion, but I wanted you to think about whether that's the direction you're heading and if you're familiar with the accreditation process and if you have questions about that. Was that clear?

Yeah. No. That's good. You know, I I think any board formed currently or in the future should kinda have a purpose statement or mission statement to it. And I like what I when we formed when we when we gathered for this, it was kinda laid out. Here's your cross. I see what you're doing. It wasn't really told to us, like, this is in bounds. This is out of bounds. But I think maybe this board, there's less maybe that's out of bounds. What we can talk about?

Well, you all have a very

specific Like Goal. In re redistricting, it was here's the guidelines.

You know, mean, the Here's

the law. District's equal and equitable. We wanna try to observe natural boundary boundaries when possible. We wanna take into consideration this and that. It kinda just the framework was put in place. And I would think that for, like, a police advisory board, to your point, that group of lay citizens should probably not be getting into the finer practices of policing and how to police police policy any more than this group probably should get into auditing financials. Rather, say, hey. There is an audit done every so many of years. Here's the policies about auditing. So there's an accreditation done.

Here's how often it happens. Right. Here's the agencies or whatever that do the accreditations. And to me, like, that would be the furthest that board should get into the practices of policing.

I think

yes. There's an accredited I agree. I mean, I think we have come a long way. I mean, we were accredited just over three years ago. There are not everybody is accredited. We had our first reaccreditation, reaccreditation, and it is an extensive process where the reviewers come and spend a week with us. It's a week, maybe, on a pre review, and then they come back and look through all of the files. It's it's an incredible process. But we, I will proudly say, have members of our police department that have been so focused on accreditation process that they're actually invited to other cities to help them get there. Fantastic.

So it is it is a detailed process. And I'm just I would be reluctant to suggest putting a board in the charter when we don't think it's when it is meant to be more of a policy direction thing, not a mandate. You know, you're thinking about the charter as a as the constitution. Sure.

Last week, we had discussed, and I know I emphasized it a bit more on it, was an educational board,

not necessarily a policing board. And and I think there was a concern that it was shut down because of budgeting. So if you have any insight into that.

It's so I would so and I will try not to be too blunt, but we

are Munch is welcome.

Okay. We are a coequal unit of government with the Broward County School Board. We have very little authority over what happens at the schools. We work, we partner, we share resources at every turn. But we had at the time, we set up several different boards, different city manager, several different boards, and the staff was tasked with coming up with discussion items for this board on items that we have no jurisdiction over.

So we do have what's called the lunch bunch where we meet and offer to share resources with the school principals. But to have an advisory board over an area where we have no jurisdiction is, in my mind, wholly inappropriate. Can suggest our outreach, but we don't have any authority over the schools.

That's fine. I'm saying you need to run schools. Rapid County does that. What I thought was really cool that the city was doing before was getting the younger generation engaged. Mhmm. Right? I'm over the I mean, minus the last year, but before, I never seen such engagement on Good. On LinkedIn, on Facebook about younger generation, whether with the mayor or in the city form.

I think the last week, they did it at the technical school.

Atlantic Technical here.

Right. I like to that's why I brought up, like, that having that educational board where the students have those hands on experiences that they could get involved instead of principals. They don't need

to be involved. Right.

And I think that's I mean, it's certainly I think that is a great policy suggestion. And our commission is very engaged, you know, at the schools. Each commissioner has specific topics that they need. We do the government week where we offer lectures. The mayor goes or vice mayor, various commissioners speak at the schools.

We do the tree plantings in the schools. We offer technical assistance on some of the, you know, even the food recycling programs. Our staff is often speakers in the schools. We offer just recently, we've identified a new volunteer program where city staff is urged to volunteer in the schools to engage the kids. I was my when I was speaking as bluntly as I was, it was related to putting it in the charter to create a board.

And I and I treat the charter as a fairly formal document that sets out our constitution on exactly what we shall do. But I love any suggestions that you all have about incorporating and including the kids in any of the activities? Our you know?

My concern is that if we don't have something in the charter, you could just shut it down just like you did before. And I I don't wanna see that happening in the city. That's my opinion.

So shut what down?

Like, the educational board. So the whole engagement that was happening, I guess it's put on hold where there were the kids were participating from the various schools.

Oh, so I think and and I'm just I think you're talking about the we had the team political forum, which actually wasn't a product of the board. It was a product of the city commission. So we do adopt programs every year. We have the Teen Political Forum, which has morphed because we had a difficult time getting teens to participate. But just last week, we had Atlantic Technical, 90 students here engaged with a mock commission meeting and a political forum.

We do the student awards programs, which will be in May. So those are programs that come through the budget process and at the direction of the city commission, not from what was the education advisory board.

So would you like to see anything in the charter regarding so that you have that always in the budget so you can have those programs?

It's it's the way you framed the question, would I like to see it in the charter? No. Would I like to see the programs continue? Yes. And that's my And I just How do you ensure that? How do you ensure that?

Because that the way I see it

is So maybe it's more function of the strategic plan, and that's kind of a change. And that's I think you bring up an interesting point because and this is our 2030 strategic plan, but the strategic plan before this one actually had coordination and collaboration and I'm not using the exact terms with the schools as one of our pillars. During the last sort of community engagement with the strategic plan, that was did not rise to the top, and so it was removed. So the strategic plan

would be the more

in my mind, the more appropriate location. And I'm not arguing with you. I'm just trying

to I talk

think it's an interesting question. That might be I think it's also I would urge you to participate in the budget process because I think that's where these kind of programs get developed. You know, the commission brings up these programs, and we staff them. Very candidly, most of the programs we roll in either through Parks and Rec or the city manager's office or HR. HR goes and speaks at the schools, the career days. I mean, we do these things ongoing, but to have it as a strategic pillar would be very important. That might make more sense. Don't know. I don't know. I

part of our budget process, we have an annual don't don't town hall meeting where, you know, any resident can come, business owner can come and attend with suggestions of, you know, changes to programs, new programs, and so forth. So that's also a channel that we do use to get feedback and ideas of programs we Yeah. Implement for, you

I mean, that's what I'm I mean, to be blunt, I'm always blunt afraid of because just like our voter turnouts, you know, what is that turnout? Right?

10%. But interesting, this year, you know, with our new city clerk, not that new, but we've actually done for the first time, you know, a program where we are the city is actually advocating voter turnout. It in years past, has been left to the supervisor of elections. Joe Kavanaugh has worked on that.

Yeah. He has informed us the meeting.

Yeah. Interesting ideas. And I we're open to anything that you wanna suggest. I just don't see it as a charter issue.

Thank you.

Amy, while you're here, can I ask you it can be a quick answer, I guess? I don't wanna go too much, but at least one commissioner when they came through suggested restructuring the reporting changing the reporting structure of, like, police chief going to the commission as opposed to the city manager. One or two other commissioners strongly disagree with that idea. Safe to say you kinda preferred the way it is?

I I think that's I think the question is, do you want a political a politician as a police chief, or do you want a cop? Right now

Another way of phrasing the question. I'm not I'm not I'm not inclined to be in favor of the idea. I just think like from an organizational structure, I can see where it just be a mess. But

I think you look at the city of Margate and and it concerns me. Of course, it concerns me. I wouldn't wouldn't be truthful if I didn't say that concerns me. I think that, you know, it's interesting, you know, the last several years is it's been eye opening. We did have some hiccups in the police department, and I I'm fortunate that I had the jurisdiction to fix it.

Yeah. A diff a different commissioner pointed out the amount of turnover that city of Margates had in their police chief position over the last southern Right. Average I mean, one and a half years of tenure over the last several years.

And then you look at something like Broward County where the county commission has authority over the the sheriff's budget but can't hire a firearm, and that's a mess.

Yeah. In my opinion, political scene at the county level is Sounds good. Is nauseating. It's not

good. Voting for a good.

And I think the the level of technical the sophistication in the police department is something that takes years to develop. It is it is not in in my mind, a political political appointment might not get you the best person for the job. Okay. But 100%. I

And then how do we and then financially, but I think it's more of a management question. How do we keep the city from becoming one of the highest property tax cities in the county? Like, if there's a surplus, is it is is the app appetite like, I've run a nonprofit before and with my colleagues in that time frame and and and that time in my life, was some some people who ran nonprofits would look at the money that came in and said, cool. We get to spend more money next year. And others would say, you know what, our budget's gonna be pretty consistent whether or not our revenues go up 10% or 12% or 15% or 1%.

And they would be a little more financially prudent and build reserves. Like, as a resident, I'm not quite lifelong but a long time resident in the city, pretty comfortable with our property taxes. But when I look at our tax basis grew grew to 7% this year so we we get more money coming in the doors without having to do anything just because the values of the property went up. And then we raised the millage rate 7% also. Right.

That's a pretty heavy hit to me. That's a huge jump. And if we had one more year like that, we'd be one of the most expensive cities to live in. Mhmm. Maybe not the highest tax bills because of the value of the assessed properties, but that's kind of the age old thing, right, where a politician can say your taxes went down. They say, no, wait. I paid more last year than I or this year than I paid last year. They go the percentage rate went down but your taxes went up and actually I heard commissioners talking about that not long ago a few months back one of them said that taxes went down.

Last year when your bill didn't actually go down.

And your bill didn't go down.

So from a financial perspective, I mean, I I I think we do a tremendous job. Probably our biggest we have a couple of really nice things out there. One, we have our agreement with the Seminole tribe that gives us a little cushion of funds that we know we can rely on. The other thing that we do probably better than any other city is we pursue grant funding. We, you know, the Broward County Surtax was recently approved and last year, the city was ranked number one on a $14,000,000 project to resurface the roads in South Creek.

We have, you know, that we focus on funding projects with money that we get from other people. So federal appropriations, state grants, our mission is to be very financially conservative, but we are also small enough that I would say we know we know we know where every dime goes. So when when I said we when we raised the millage rate, I mean, very candidly, Peter Gay and I worked through the numbers to figure out how many years it would take to fund the remodeling of the police department and the remainder of the funds to build that new fire station. And those are the minimum public safety things that we believe you need. The option would have been to do a geo bond, which would have also hit your tax bill.

So I think that's I think it's a we don't think we're gonna be ever the most expensive. We're trying to watch it very, very closely. However, our residents, I believe, expect concierge level service. When you call city hall, somebody answers the phone, you get a callback. People ask questions, and we respond.

Our code officers are proactive as opposed to reactive. So it's not ever gonna be the cheapest city to live in as well. You know, you live in other cities, and the expectation is that if you don't hound city hall, you're not gonna get any results that is that's not what we're running. So I I don't think you want us to run that, but I think that's the difference is that we do. We are very responsive. And if you're not

getting calls, let me know what. We'll call you back.

But we try to be very responsive. We do think, you know, one of the big initiatives in the next year is an economic development master plan. The city owns several properties around that we actually bought for the purposes of being able to participate in the development of Main Street. And there are several properties around that are underutilized, and we feel that it's good planning to be developing concepts for how those properties could or should be redeveloped so that that commercial tax base continues to spin. Because it is the goal is no offense, but to have more of the burden carried by the nonresidential tax base.

All the apartment complexes, for instance, are assessed as commercial properties. Sure. No. It's it's no effect.

I mean, I pay a small portion of that, like, operating a small business in the city. But I think that's healthy, and I and I and I hope that that plan that's being developed and the change of government format with the elected mayor and the elected mayor can be helpful in Right. Spokesperson. Pursuing that. And and I hope it's in place pre well well in advance of that election because I think it's important when so our our our citizenry is gonna be voting on this elected mayor thing, but without a real clear delineation of what what person's role that the importance of that role, I don't think every one of our commissioners would be an asset in that role.

But if the citizenry thinks of it as kind of a a nice title to kind of honor somebody with, their their voting wouldn't necessarily be educated. But when it's when when it's clearly stated that those types of things business initiatives increasing tax base and and and is part of that

There are a couple of for the Metropolitan Planning Organization is where we get so all the federal money comes to the state and it's doled out through the Metropolitan Planning Organization. To have somebody more than a staff voice speaking up and advocating for the money to go to one of our projects is important. To have somebody go out and meet with the like, the marketplace in Hillsborough. That shopping center has been the bane of my existence because they wouldn't improve the center. They were making enough money. Spite of its It needs a facelift.

In spite of its quality ownership and such.

Right. Wow.

That's

It needs a facelift. So that's something that the expectation would be that the mayor would be able to step in somebody's office and oh, imploded.

Drop the hammer on.

Yeah. Drop the hammer.

That's a great example. I'm very familiar with that project and all the people involved in it. And it's been just Dragging along. Bunch of promises. And it's a plaza full of tenant of tenants who sign leases based on all those promises too. And they're if not actual residents, they're kind of corporate residents in the city. True. True. So okay.

So that's I think that's the conversation about that role is that that would be what they're would be doing.

Okay. I would just love to see us be able to somehow have which, I guess, you stated, balance the tension behind it between you know great service which the city does as a resident my experience in the city is fantastic anytime I've served on anything in the city the experience has been fantastic. If the city was a vendor of my business it would be the vendor that's most responsive to me. Excellent. Really? Like, in terms of what you're saying, phone calls returned Good. Like responsiveness, fantastic. Good. Code enforcement, public safety, all

of it. Good.

Yeah. But

We're lucky.

I'd sure not to not like to go through another 7% millage increase in a year where we had 7%. Right? Because if we don't have 7%, if we have some flat real estate markets, then what does that millage rate in the is it easy?

Well, but in the next few years, we're gonna have main street project coming out of the ground and that'll be adding. So you won't actually be seeing

it on your you know, your home would

be limited to a 33%? Yes. Saver homes? 3% in a race here. So

the value of my next door neighbor's home when they sell it is going to be based on at least in part what the buyer's willing to pay in property taxes. And so the value of my neighbor's home is then gonna impact the value of my home just in general.

You know? So Right. Right.

The tax the tax stuff does matter so far. Make sure you'll generate more revenue, but it'll also have an appetite that'll devour a lot of revenue also. And alright. Well, thank you for sharing.

Certainly. Yes. You're

awesome. Can be a little alienated. Sorry. That's awesome. It's up to you.

Gentlemen, anything else for the great resources that are with us at the moment? That's totally funny.

I thank you for this presentation.

Oh, my pleasure. If we

And by the way, congratulations on executing the butterfly festival. I would imagine that kind of fall at least falls under you somewhere.

I'm not just

saying Parks and rec, police, and how it works.

Jerry, that day. Yeah. But thank you.

Not a good vote. But at

least 10 people told me that it was the best one they've ever been a part of.

I'm sorry you missed it. Yeah. I asked Fireworks were amazing.

You had to jump in for a little bit of it. Okay.

What are we we're hiring now? We're already hiring more. Right? For the year.

We're hiring.

For the

non trash war.

Yes.

Lousy vote. That was

Painful. Right? Yep.

Is there any teeth to what read just publicly about the lawsuit and, you know, is there any

So if I could, you know, obviously, we're in the process of drafting the complaint, and so I can't necessarily speak strategy. If you have specific questions, I'd be happy to speak with you separately. But we do we have hired outside counsel. We have initiated chapter 164 dispute resolution process, which means that we're required to meet with them first at the staff level, then meet the county first at the staff level, and then a joint meeting of both boards, the county commission and city commission. And then that is a condition proceeding to us filing suit. So we have to do that, and then we can go ahead and file suit. And it very likely will be a lawsuit both against the county and Lee's nantrum.

But it's actually tangible. It wasn't just a sound bite that a reporter was reporting. It was actually some that's awesome. Yeah. Good. I'm sorry. We fought the best fight we can fight in that fight. I just want to continue to fight the best fight.

It was blessed. I thought I was away for Yeah. No. It's not unexpected.

It's still upsetting. It's upsetting.

Yes.

We need a landfill, but we don't need to continue

to expand an old, outdated ish landfill. Right. It needs to go somewhere else.

Alright. Well, so nice to see you all.

Alright. Thank you. Thank you.

You.

I don't what the current key time is for Brad and Saleed for vote by mail. If you want to, after the meeting's over, give me your contact information. I'm not sure we have it through the Charter report. I don't mind reaching out to my contact provider so we can

get an update for you. Great. I

you guys. You're to go until about seven? Yeah. Yeah. I think we left off at section eight zero one last time. Maybe that's okay with right now, so we can strip away a little bit more.

Didn't know if you wanted to do that first or go over the provisions that we

had some language for. That makes sense. Because the eight zero one was a

real big It is. Real big. That's right. Although there's just a couple of incident issues in it that we can get there pretty quick. So just on the the review list that you've been handed or were mailed yesterday, you've got the first change in in the bolded block box that bold outline box that you gave us consensus on last week. Then under items for discussion in the gray box, you discussed that and decided not to move forward with it. Now once my question to you is, as a board, once you've made that determination, do you want me to completely remove it from this list, or do you want it just grayed out like this and left it?

I mean, it doesn't kill too many trees. Maybe keeping it grayed out, but, I mean, if you guys wanna act physically make the list smaller, I'm not removing it.

Or we just go till it's all gray and boxed. That's fine too. I'm kind

of Yeah. I don't mind reflecting back on what we And then

there. It's there, so we see your progress.

So gray will be

Grayed out and you don't have any changes to it, or you haven't given us any to date. You discussed it, decided not to move forward with any changes.

And then the And if

it has a a bold outline around it, then it is a proposed change. And if it is in the top of the list, you've given us consensus on it. If it's under draft changes reviewed with consensus, that

in that very first page.

And that's our goal is to make any of your changes to that project. So what's So in list then. On page two, you have a gold box, and that is you gave us direction to go ahead and draft it. We've drafted it, so I would like your review of that actual language and to give us consensus or changes. Is that the first one?

This is on page two. It's item one b addressing meeting board the So we have a the city or other than mayor or vice mayor or serve as an officer on a homeowner or condominium association board within the city or serve as a city employee during the term for which he or she is elected to office or be employed as a paid lobbyist. It's in this section, and it applies to commissioners as opposed to candidates. So consistent with your discussion, they're not required to meet this at the time of their candidacy, but only at the time that they're seated as a commissioner. Any questions about the language?

No. Okay. Do I have consensus to go ahead and keep that language and we'll move it to the top of the list as a proposal for you? So that's our second proposal? That's your second proposal.

Thank you. So commission compensation then, you had discussed it. They gave you a bunch of information. Do you want to go ahead and talk about it now, or do you want to talk briefly about eight zero one?

I'm good with thinking into this here. It's fresh. This is top of page three.

This is the top of page three on the compensation and expenses. Expenses.

Your

questions initially had been how other places said it and whether there's any limits to them. And d is still in there, but in reality, you've already addressed d.

Yeah. Because that's on the But first at least you can see for context.

If you're comfortable with them sitting at establishing by resolution, which is fairly common in the other cities that we surveyed by ordinance or by resolution, then you can leave it. That's or you can come back and evaluate it and think about it after you've had a chance to look at the materials.

I

don't think so. I was just looking for context. You should just give it

at this point. I don't know if it's actionable. Okay. We'll go

ahead and gray that out, but leave it there in case you change your minds later. You had no changes to that other than getting the information. And you're now you're comfortable with those at this point? That's on the independent audit and the requirement that they replace the lead auditor every five years.

That's fine. I mean, my only ambiguity was around this committee versus commission. So the commission has the, I guess, wherewithal or flexibility to figure out whatever mechanism they want to choose the auditor, and then the commission pick approves it. I guess what I'm saying is the committee was initiated at some point. Did the commission say we need a committee to do this?

Or did

The committee is established by state law.

Okay. So

This is an area where we really don't have a whole lot of flexibility. It is established by there's certain state law provisions that regulate this committee as opposed to other normal procurement committees.

Yeah, I guess maybe just including that this reflects state law because that was my only thing. And the rotation, which is another seemingly not a law regulation from the SEC, isn't even our language, right? So just that some of these things aren't our decision, but are, I guess, higher

order They're submitted credit here to state

Yeah. Or federal. Because in other sections, we mentioned state law. Right?

When we were doing a global massive change, we used Alright. So did you wanna go on to eight zero one? You've got about fifteen minutes.

I don't have a point we're going down

to point five on our Okay. Did you want our suggestion list?

So five a is consistency between this treatment of the city manager and the city attorney. And that might be a good one for Terrell to our city attorney to address. There are some very significant differences between how they operate. Thank you, Kathy. So in short, yes, I mean,

the city attorney functions as a legal adviser to the organization, the city, which includes the city employees and the city commission, city employees and officials. The city manager, as you heard from early heard from her earlier, she is over all city employees. There is a reason in part as to why there are some differences between the two sections. One, the charter was created or the charter provision involving the city attorney was initially put in place at a time when the city utilized outside counsel. And it's possible, although it would would really hurt my feelings but that they may at some point replace me with outside counsel again so not having any more specific language in the charter that would limit them is probably in the best interest of the city as an organization under nine zero four.

Additionally, there is language in nine zero four pertaining to the city attorney that says, you know, the commission shall appoint a city attorney, and the city attorney shall appoint such assistant city attorneys as he she deems necessary, subject to final approval by the city commission. So if I want to appoint a deputy city attorney or assistant city attorneys, I have to get final approval by the commission. If I want to appoint outside counsel, I have to get approval by the city commission because any legal fees that they would bear, you know, I need their okay. The city attorney and assistant city attorney shall act as legal advisers to the city and all of its officers in man matters relating to their official duties and then assist the city attorney shall approve as to form all contracts in the municipality before the same shall be effective. Assistant city attorney shall perform those duties assigned to them by the city attorney.

Assistant city attorneys may be removed with or without cause by the city attorney. So that last line was actually added in there in 2016 because of concerns that I would suggest that he added in there. Because really the city attorney is over the assistant city attorneys, not so much the city manager and it shouldn't be up to the city manager who helps to make policy decisions and runs the rest of the city to hire and fire assistant city attorneys over which he or she being the city manager does not have any supervisory purview. So I have the ability to hire and fire assistant city attorneys. I can only hire them with the blessing of the city commission and I being the city attorney.

And Sheila Rose, the city manager, has the ability to hire and fire all the other employees of the city. Again, difference in roles. She runs the overall day to day operations of the city and her job is in part operational and in part she does have the ability to help make policy with the city commission. I and my team only have the ability to provide legal advice. We do not make policy.

So there are completely different responsibilities and requirements of our jobs. So that is part of why that language is different. I don't think that you would want them to read the same. I guess what I'm trying to say is for city manager, let me maybe point it out. She I think that commissioner Reidel had a concern that there wasn't language in there provided that said that she would be able to essentially hire and fire assistant city managers or deputy city managers but in the very next section, which I'm unable to find it at the moment, it does provide that the city manager powers and duties of this

so under four zero one And four zero two eight.

It says the city commission shall appoint the city manager, and then it basically had said it doesn't reference that she can hire or fire the assistant city manager or deputy city manager, but then in four zero two, it says a. Thank you. Under four zero two a of the existing charter, he, she, shall appoint, and when he, she deems it necessary for the good of the city, can suspend or remove any city employees and appoint administrative officers. So that includes assistant city managers and deputy city managers. So you don't need to distinguish that in the earlier section because that is inclusive of that.

So it doesn't really make sense to put something in that earlier section that could run the risk of creating a conflict with the later to have oversight of all city employees, you know, minus the city attorney who answers directly to the city commission and assistant city attorneys.

Right. She doesn't have the authority to rule the city attorney.

Correct. Because the city commission currently has two employees per the charter. One is the city manager, one is the city attorney. Both are handled by contract directly with the commission. And the commission, you know, we serve at the pleasure of the commission. The commission can hire us at any time for for pretty much any reason. So I don't know that there's a need to change anything related to the hiring and firing process. Now as it relates to the of assistance because I

think it's already addressed. Yes, correct. What precludes the city manager from being able to terminate the assistant city attorney?

Section nine zero four having to do with the city attorney's duty.

It says it says the city attorney can.

Right? Because technically the

Does it say the city manager can't? Because because four zero two a says the city manager

Six seven.

It it says any it have to be subject to his or her direction and supervision. And the assistant city attorneys are not subject to the The top as the top that says, may suspend or remove any city employees and appoint of administrative administrative administrative officers provided for by or under this charter.

Well, since the charter doesn't really give the city the charter doesn't place the assist the city attorneys under the the city manager, unless you wanna put specific language in there with the exception of the city attorney of the city attorney.

I like to keep the legal department separate.

Yeah. I agree.

I guess just because it just says plainly any city employees.

I think nine of are a total amount. By the end, the last two sentences that that we perform the duties assigned by the city attorney. We don't perform the duties assigned by the city attorney I mean, by the city Now reality is we all work together as a

team. Sure.

But I take my first and final and last orders from the city attorney, and it is the city attorney who has the authority to remove me. That that specific authority. Think where you call that

a

specific direction, the specific direction rules over the general.

So your instructions to the existing city attorney the

I I case.

In a vacuum is simply as possible. Yes.

Well, like I I like the separation. I think it's critical.

I I agree. I think that, you know, we serve two completely different roles, the city attorney versus the city manager. And, again, we both serve serve at the pleasure of the commission. If the commission does not like what me or my staff is doing, they can fire me. That's really But they couldn't connect.

So they would end

at you. They couldn't go down your assistant. Right?