City Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the City of Delray Beach regular commission meeting this Tuesday, September the 8th. If the clerk could kindly call the roll.

Deputy Vice Mayor Markert.

Here.

Commissioner Mollica. Here. Commissioner Casale. Here. Vice Mayor Burns. Here. Mayor Carney.

Here.

We have a quorum.

Thank you very much. If you could all please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you very much. We have the agenda approval. Is there any items on the agenda you wish to pull? Yes, go ahead.

I have one item, 6F1, the appealables. And the item is the SPRAB 8-26, 120 Southwest 3rd Avenue, please.

So you want 6F1 to be the appealable, which will become 7AA. And which is the other?

That's it. I was just being specific about the item. There's two in that category. Oh, fine.

OK. Are there any other changes? Then I need a motion to approve the agenda as amended.

Motion to approve his agenda as amended.

All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That's it. That's adopted. All right. We're into the proclamations at the moment. So the first is the proclamation of Constitution Week. Marjorie Ferrer is here somewhere.

I'm going to be making this proclamation, and you are going to be on the other side.

So there we go. Okay. Whereas, in this 250th anniversary year of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which proclaimed to the world the revolutionary self-evident truths that all men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, And whereas in this 239th anniversary year of the drafting of the Constitution of the United States by the delegates to the Constitutional Convention, which created the enduring governmental foundation of we the people securing these self-evident truths, and whereas it is fitting and proper to ask our citizens to reaffirm the truths proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, reflect upon personal and governmental actions necessary to reaffirm and protect these truths as expressed in the Constitution, and execute their duty as we the people by participating in their government thoughtfully and actively. And whereas it is fitting and proper to accord official recognition to these anniversaries through patriotic celebrations which will commemorate the occasion, and whereas public law 915 guarantees the issuance of a proclamation by the President of the United States designating September 17th through the 23rd, 2026, as Constitution Week, And whereas during September 17th through the 23rd, the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Henry Morrison Flagler Chapter, NSDAR, will celebrate the Constitution and the 235th anniversary of the Bill of Rights. Now, therefore, I, Thomas F. Carney Jr., Mayor of the City of Delray Beach, on behalf of the entire City Commission, do hereby proclaim this week of September 17th through September 23rd as Constitution Week. and encourage all citizens to study the Constitution and reflect upon the privilege of being an American with the rights and responsibilities which that privilege entails, remembering that rights lost are difficult to regain.

Thank you very much.

Why don't we do the photograph and then I'll give you two. We're just going to go right to the front with the American flag right behind us.

Thank you.

I just wanted to congratulate the city of Delray Beach for, first of all, being the first city for the America 250 project, my individual project, which was celebrating the graduating class of 2026. It was bigger than I thought. There were 13,800 students, but we made it through. It was a five-year project. And Delray Beach was the first city to donate the money for all of the graduating seniors in your school's Atlantic High School in Calvert. And so I wanted to commend you for your support over the past five years and for Constitution Week. And just in case you forgot, I have the bookmark about writing your constitution in case you forget. And just think about it. I mean, Delray Beach was settled in 1845. you know, not incorporated as a city. And that was 181 years, 80 years after the American Revolution. I mean, you think about it. The city is, you know, pretty close, you know, pretty close to the 250th part of that. So go back on your history. I don't have it all, but if you get through your historical society, Delray Beach is like right there. We didn't have any of the battles fought here. But we're certainly involved. And I want to thank you on behalf of our whole chapter, Henry Morrison Flagler chapter, for all of your support. And don't forget, Constitution Week is the 17th to the 23rd. Thank you.

We now have the recognition of the beach keepers. Commissioner Casale will present this item.

Oh, great. Thank you. And this is a good thing to be presenting at this meeting because we are also approving the proclamation as September 19, 2026, as National Cleanup Day. So, totally appropriate timing to recognize the Beach Keepers here in Delray Beach. And I will read the recognition. Beach Keepers Inc. is a Delray Beach-based 501c3 nonprofit environmental beautification organization that has been active and in good standing since February 2017. The organization coordinates volunteer cleanups through Delray Beach and South Florida, focuses on beaches, parks, city streets, waterways, and other public spaces. Their mission is to maintain Florida's beaches in their natural, pristine condition by removing debris that negatively impacts natural resources. Beach Keepers was founded in 2017 by Paul and Andre Fazzino, who began by personally picking up trash along the beach in Delray Beach. Their efforts grew into an organized nonprofit whose volunteer work has expanded beyond the shoreline to the public streets, the parks, the parking lots, and the waterways. And truly, you can't go to any event without seeing these gentlemen and their team helping keep our city beautiful. Beach Keepers Inc. organizes regular community volunteer cleanup events engaging residents, family, youth, and local businesses in hands-on environmental stewardship along Delray Beach coastline and public spaces. Their student debt initiative program offers students and graduates the opportunity to serve the community through litter abatement, administrative duties, social media content, and pollution awareness work while receiving financial support of up to $800 per month towards their student debt and their educational needs. They partner with local organizations for youth engagement including Youth Cleanup Partnership with an EJS project to involve young people in protecting the environment. The organization has collaborated with local partners for community partnerships such as the Downtown Development Authority, the Sandaway Discovery Center, and area businesses on large-scale cleanup events, including Earth Day and Great American Cleanup activities in Delray. This is presented to you on this eighth day of September, 2026, and I just want to say thank you for showing up, thank you for caring, and thank you for making Delray better than you found it.

Thank you.

If you want to say a quick 30 minutes, 30 seconds, excuse me, not minutes, I apologize, Mayor. No, that's fine. And then we'd love to take a picture with you so that you can have a photo. Okay, great.

I just wanted to thank you all. Good evening, Mayor Carney, Vice Mayor Burns, commissioners, and everyone that came tonight. We're known as beach keepers. And we're generally excited about being here this evening and standing before you. It's been nine years. And we look forward to a successful future with you here. And we want to continue our good work. So please join us. And thank you very much for this evening. It means a lot to us. Thank you, Tom. Okay, good. Thank you. Thank you, everybody.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Great. OK, the next item on our agenda is the School Board of Palm Beach County Educational Update. I am pleased to welcome a member of the board of the School Board of Palm Beach County, Mr. Edwin Ferguson.

Welcome. Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, City Council, good people of Delray Beach. I'm Attorney Edwin Ferguson, your District 7 representative. This is my fourth year in giving this presentation just to give you all kind of an overview of how your District 7 schools performed last year. I'll be less than 10 minutes, probably less than 5, so if you all have any questions for me, feel free to talk. And I'm being short also because I'll be here next week doing another town hall. So I'm welcoming everyone who has questions about the public education system here in Palm Beach, whether it's District 7 or even beyond that, feel free to stop by. And to that point, before I even get into District 7 schools and some other points I wanted to bring to you all, I want to applaud Carver High School. I went out of my way to recognize them for getting a B. Carver has not been a B school, I don't believe ever, definitely not in a very long time, and that's a testament to their leadership at Carver, and I believe the support of Delray residents to help that school be greater, be better, and be great. So I want to applaud Principal Grice and her team for doing an exceptional job at Carver. So a couple of things before we get into District 7. I know there's been a lot of talk about student enrollment. We estimated that our student enrollment would be down by about 2,800 when in fact it actually, at least to date, is down 5,900. So that's about a 3,000 student shortfall. But there's nothing to ooh about because actually we are fairly certain that the majority of the students who are not in our district are students that would have been in our ELL program. So our students who are children of foreigners. So we still feel there's some remnants of the federal policies that are making people want to stay away. So we believe that's mainly what it is. It's not about the vouchers because we're looking at that as well. In fact, the home ed vouchers, everybody thought that everybody would be keeping out children at home. The number of parents who have opted in to do home ed thus far is well below what it was last year. It was 6,500 right now. And last year and the year before, we were at around 8,300. Now, to be fair, we do expect that 6,500 number to go up a little bit, but the point is I think things are kind of leveling out there. It's not easy to educate and teach your children, and some of us probably should leave it to the professionals in that regard as far as that goes. Now, also, kindergarten enrollment is down this year. It's at about 9,700, and in past years it was somewhere between 10,500 and roughly 11,000. Persons were saying that that was due to the birth rates, but as an attorney, I like to look at the data. So according to the state, our birth rates are fine. Our birth rates are right at where they've always been, which is to say somewhere around 14,500 or so to up to 15,000. So it's not about people having less babies because that was a, There was a hypothesis out here that fewer people are having babies in Palm Beach, and that's why we see the drop-off. So it does seem to kind of point toward the fact that we have a lot of students from foreign countries whose parents are choosing not to enroll them in school, presumably for fear of deportment and detainment. Be that as it may, let's talk about District 7. So you all have a slide deck up there. I'm going to kind of push through this fairly quickly. Do I have one? I forgot where I was. You all always look out for me. Sorry about that. So, yeah, I'll briefly talk about academic results. Go Heat, go Dolphins. We're going to take the Raiders down here on Sunday. So what I'm really focused about is making sure that the product that we are providing at the school district meets the needs of the community. So you all know that a lot of our parents and our students are really focused on career and technical education. It's not necessarily trying to get a doctorate or be a lawyer or whatever the case may be. They want to be entrepreneurs. They want to be able to provide for themselves sooner than later, for themselves and their families. And I think that's very admirable. So I, as well as the majority of the board members, we're continuing to expand our CTE portfolios. through here in District 7, whether that's at Atlantic, Village Academy, all the way up to my other schools, Palm Beach Lake, Suncoast, et cetera. One thing that I think is of note here in Delray is you still have a fairly large number of persons whose native language is not English. So we have a lot of Creole speakers and things of that nature. I've been working with the superintendent and his staff for the last couple of years to encourage us to use what's called native language support. So that's not the same as having a dual language program, but it is a situation where, say, if Mr. Moore was fluent in Creole, that we're giving him the authority to use Creole to help me, Edwin, understand this lesson. So you want to get it done by any means necessary, basically. So that's something that's kind of unconventional, but we've seen that it's starting to pay results throughout those areas of the county where we have those large numbers of, say, Spanish speakers. Maybe not so much a concern with Spanish speakers, but definitely in regard to our Creole speakers, which I do know affects Delray Beach directly. This the Delray Beach data, I'm going to skip that just because if I click on it, it kind of gets kind of clunky. But everyone, you have that QR code. I would encourage you all to scan the QR code. You can go back through the data, look at it. If you have any questions, you can reach out to me. My contact information is at the back of the slide deck as well. And as I said, I'll be right back here. stone's throw away from City Hall next week so any questions that you all have regarding the data we'll be there to have a conversation with you in that regard but the point of it all is and all these town halls that I always do it's kind of a little mantra that I came up with and I say I came up with it I've never heard anyone say it before at least this way those who start ahead tend to stay ahead those who start behind tend to stay behind and so when you look at the data you'll see that those those students who are not kindergarten ready They tend to struggle the entire time. They fall into what I call that triage education where we're just trying to get you just enough so we can kind of move you on. And I don't think that's what we want because those are not children who can provide for themselves. Those are people who are likely going to have trouble being gainfully employed in the future. They may get sucked into the criminal justice system. They may have trouble with housing. So if you know a thing as a community, we have to do better. So it's really a we problem. It's not a they problem or a you problem. It's a we problem because this is something that's going to stay at our door 5, 10, and 15 years from now. So early education is the thing. So what I would say to you all is when you look at the data, there are a couple of things that we need to start doing from a community standpoint. We need to make sure that all of our kids are kindergarten ready. And by that, I mean they can recite the alphabet. They can hold a writing utensil the proper way like this versus like this, like they're using a stirring spoon. They know colors, brown, black, yellow, red, et cetera. These are things that many five-year-old, matter of fact, the majority of students in Palm Beach County are not kindergarten rated. I think our scores right now are 48%, maybe 52% this year and 48% last year. Tomato, tomato, neither is good in my opinion. Counting to 100, if my name is Tom and I see it in a written format, I know that my name is Tom. I'll represent to you that the greater majority of students in kindergarten do not have that in their toolbox, and that's a problem. And it's offensive to me because as a parent who had a child who was autistic, he was kindergarten ready at three. And he was not like an Elon Musk type level of performance. He was more toward the middle. He had some serious struggles. But even he showed mastery of these things. So my point is if my son Xavier can do it, I think the greater majority of our students can do it. So there are a lot of tools that are embedded in this slide deck that I would encourage you all to look at, learn, and master as well as I have in this point, and make that the standard. Because we need to have, honestly, our three-year-olds kindergarten ready. Because, again, those who start ahead tend to stay ahead. And there's another ask that I would have for everybody as well. Engaging the youth. So don't let the iPads or whatever else serve in your stead. We have to do the work. At minimum, 20 minutes a day, you've got to read with your child. That interaction, asking questions. These are all things that help make their trajectory from an educational standpoint. Much easier. I know it can be challenging because we all have multiple jobs. I have two. I'm sure some have three and four and five as far as that goes. But we've got to put in the work. We put in the work to make them. I said that last week and everybody burst into laughter. We put in the work to make them. Let's do what we have to do to make sure they can be all they can be. Because who doesn't want their child to be independent and provide for themselves as an adult? That's something that every right-minded person would want. So we've got to put that work in. And it's really not as hard. as you might think once you get into it. And there's some other tools inside of this slide deck for those who may feel a little apprehensive about jumping into those waters. There are other support groups throughout Palm Beach County that can help you with that. And if you are not clear on that, again, either come see me next week or just reach out to me. I'm here to serve you all. I was elected by District 7, but I represent everybody in Palm Beach County, all the schools in my schools, as far as that goes. How am I doing with time? I feel like I'm getting close to that 10 minutes. All right. So, yeah, this is the whole point why kindergarten readiness is important. School 3, there's an actual school in Palm Beach County last year. That was their kindergarten readiness score from three years prior. That's their ELA reading score last year. So, you see, that group of students is probably going to be somebody gainfully employed. I would be willing to bet they could very well be on the city council one day or be a better lawyer than I could ever be or a better elected official than I could ever be. The group over on the other end, 17 and 28, 17% of their kindergartners were kindergarten ready. That means they showed match of those very basic things that I just mentioned to you. And only 28% of them were performing at a C, basically a C or better when we determined their reading proficiencies in third grade. Those are going to be the children that are more likely to get sucked into criminal justice, the criminal justice system, not be able to provide for themselves by keeping a roof over their head and not being gainfully employed. Who wants that citywide or even in neighborhood wise? So if you know better, Delray, let's do better. So again, here's many of the tools. I could spend an hour on that. That's why I'm going to keep on going. But again, it's the interaction with the parent and the children. You've got to interact with the kids. Whether it's your kid, whether it's your neighbor, if their parent is comfortable with you talking with them, do it. It'll pay off huge benefits to us in the future, 5, 10, 15, to 20 years, even when we're not here. Be involved with your SAC and your PTSAs at your school as well. The school works for you all. I want to say that again because I think sometimes there's some confusion there. We work for you all. So we only rise as high as you allow us. But you've got to engage with us and let us know what the deficits are. Don't just complain about it. Let's have an honest conversation and let's work. If somebody's not doing what they need to do, they got to go. But we don't burn down the building. The building, the paradigm of the public education is great. It's served many of us very well over our years. So let's make sure that it's always working at an optimal level. But that only happens when we, on the private sector, come into the public sector and give our input, like Mr. Markey did last year when I met with him. 20 seconds. I can hit this one. I can hit the game-winning shot. Bright future scholarships. You all take a look at that. That's very important. We have a cleanup that we do up in West Palm Beach to help people with their community service hours. It's the best cleanup in the county right now. We do it every month. We've helped West Palm Beach remove over 12 tons of trash in less than three years. So we don't just talk about things. We do things. And so I'm done. So I apologize. I thought I was going to be in five minutes, and the data got the best of me. I should have stuck to the script. But I apologize, everybody. Like I said, I don't want to encroach or anything like that. But if you have any questions for me, I'll be happy to answer, or better yet, See me next week. Where are you next week? I'll be at the old Carver High School. Town Hall starts on September 15th, and it starts at 6 p.m. 6 p.m. at the old Carver High School?

Yes, sir.

Perfect.

We'll see you there.

All right. See you there.

I would say thank you for coming. It's always a pleasure to see you. And I think we were just, I was just talking to Kay Johnson about the children rating and how important it is in that scenario where we need some improvement with the younger children. And I would be remiss if I didn't say we did have our education roundtable, the first ever. Nice. And it was... Quite a great experience, and I would say very productive, I think, outcomes for us in how to move forward and help our children get a better quality education and also young adults moving into the workforce. So thank you very much, and we look forward to continued engagement. I do.

Any other comments? Just a big thank you for what you do. Oh, absolutely.

You know, what people don't understand is that the kids at reading level by the third grade, their chances of success or doing anything and not ending up in jail or worse is just multiplied by exponentially, and it's just unbelievable. So keep up the, you know, I love your initiatives.

Yes, ma'am.

Probably too heavy for a quick question, but like how do we reach the three-year-olds? For somebody like me, my kids all grown, my grandkids, I helped them out. Now how do I help out some three-year-olds? And the second one is some of the people that are afraid to bring their children to school, can people like us that aren't afraid take those kids there?

Well, you'd have trouble unless they – Plunger's guardian of their child, being able to enroll them in the school, she would still have that conundrum there. But the first question, none of these questions that you would ask me hard, I live this stuff. Where there's a will, there's a way. So if you have a relationship with someone who maybe struggles with, maybe they don't read so well, that's a real thing too. So I'm not begrudging anybody who's not doing the 20 minutes as I suggested. But if you have a relationship with someone in your neighborhood or in your community and they're willing to allow you to engage with a child for 20 minutes a day, that's amazing. And then she should do that. And as far as that three-year-old question, which you also asked, this is why I tell people, hey, don't get so mad at the school district because, again, you only can work with what's coming in the front door. And we have no jurisdiction over the greater majority of our pre-kindergarteners here in Palm Beach County, although I would like to. I would say reach out to the child care centers. Make sure that they're implementing these standards with fidelity. Everybody knows what the answers to the test are. The question is everybody's not studying. in my oversimplified way of seeing things. So I would say get out into the community, into the religious centers, and make sure that everybody knows these are the goals that need to be hit by five, but we want to hit them by three. Because, again, if my son can do it, I'm pretty sure the greater majority of our students can do it as well.

You just have to be exposed.

The wraparound programs, right? That's why we're advocating for those programs, right? So that by third grade, kids can read.

So you wouldn't need a wraparound program if everybody came in like Vice Mayor Burns. You follow what I'm saying? So if you're already kindergarten ready, there's no need for wraparound programs. The wraparound is to help people who have that deficit.

Right.

You follow what I'm saying? Yeah. Like, I didn't need wraparounds. I don't need any now, I don't think. And I think it's because I came in kind of well-equipped and prepared. It's been easy selling for the most part for me since. I want everybody to be just like me and many of you other high performers as well. And I also forgot, Mayor, you have two of the best schools in Palm Beach County that happen to be in District 7. One is called Pine Grove. Yes, King is your principal there. They just made A for three years in a row? Two, and it's about to be three. And then we have Plamosa. They already are three in a row, and there's about to be four. If you want to see how public education should look, you should go to those two schools. They are testaments to why Palm Beach County truly is your best choice for the greater majority of our residents.

Thank you for the recognition. Absolutely. Thank you very much. Okay, 4D. This item, by the way, was on the agenda last week, which we moved it to here because we were running late last week, so we moved it to here. This is the city manager's annual report from the city manager about accomplishments that the city has done this past year, just to put on the record so that everybody knows that we're just not up here not doing anything, that we actually are moving forward in a lot of different areas. So, Mr. Moore, I turn it over to you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And frankly, I wasn't prepared to offer much in this regard because every year, typically by the end of July, beginning of August, I provide to the City Commission an annual report summary of outcomes, record of achievements, accomplishments, etc. And what I like to Highlight whenever I've given the opportunity is the numerous major projects and programs being implemented by the city of Derry Beach So to your point, mr. Mayor and quite frankly all of you I'm appreciative of the support you've all been able to demonstrate because major decisions and major investments were authorized by the City Commission to enable us to proceed with the development and construction of the new water treatment plant for example the golf course renovation program and the beach re-nourishment program comes to mind. You'll be celebrating via groundbreaking ceremony two days from now the long-awaited Pompey Park renovation program and numerous other mid- to small-scale events, but this is really unprecedented for the City of Delray Beach and the basis of my report for 2026 is to highlight and underscore the basis as to why we are where we are so nothing more to add mr mayor ladies and gentlemen nevertheless i do appreciate the opportunity to offer administrative leadership and guidance to get us to where we need to be nevertheless it's a continuous process thank you very much for the opportunity

thank you very much and the report is part of the record so if you haven't had everyone you have a chance to read it and they're out there with this part of the record and it really articulates all the different things that the city is doing including the major projects and it's it's where it's a good read it's it's good to see what we're doing um to get things done thank you mr moore our approximation national forensic science week Whereas forensic science is a critical component of the criminal justice system, providing crucial tools for the investigation of crimes and the identification of suspects. And whereas the dedicated professionals in forensic science disciplines, including DNA analysis, latent fingerprint examination, blood stain pattern analysis, crime scene reconstruction, and crime scene investigation, apply rigorous scientific principles and meticulous attention to detail daily. And whereas these committed mavens work diligently behind the scenes to assist law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, defense counsel, medical examiners, and the courts by providing unbiased scientific analysis that protects the rights of victims and the public alike. And whereas forensic science continues to evolve through research, innovation, education, collaboration, improving the accuracy reliability, and effectiveness of criminal investigations, and whereas Forensic Science Week provides an opportunity to recognize the dedicated professionals whose expertise and commitment often take place behind the scenes, yet whose contributions have a lasting impact on the safety and well-being of our community. Now, therefore, I, Thomas F. Carney, Jr., Mayor of the City of Delray Beach, together with the City Commissioners, do hereby proclaim the third week of December as Forensic Science Week in Delaware Beach, Florida, and encourage all residents to join in in recognizing the important contributions of forensic science professionals to acknowledge their commitment to scientific excellence and ethical practice and to celebrate the essential role they play in promoting justice, protecting public safety, and strengthening confidence in our community and witness whereof I have set my hand and seal on this eighth day of September 2026.

Yes, we appreciate you guys recognizing National Forensic Science Week. My unit works long and hard hours to help and does a phenomenal job at identifying suspects to commit crimes in our city. So we're just trying to do our part to keep the city safe and make it the safest city in America. So, thank you.

Thank you, guys. Thank you. Thank you so much. Three, two, one. Three, two, one. Sorry, that was an audible sign.

Great. Thank you very much. All right. We are now to the comments and inquiries on agenda and non-agenda items from the public. And I'm going to read the rules as it relates to public comment, and then I'll be turning it over to the city manager for any responses. The meeting is now open to the public. Any members of the public wishing to comment on any topic or agenda item other than a quasi-judicial item or public hearing item should come forward. Members of the public have an opportunity to speak on quasi-judicial and public hearing items later in the meeting as those items are called. For public comment, please sign in, state your name and zip code for the record, and you will have three minutes to address the commission. This is not a question and answer opportunity, and members of the commission will not be responding to inquiries from speakers. Speakers must address the commission as a whole, not any individual. Insults, personal attacks, and disruptions will not be permitted, and you'll be asked to leave if you violate these rules. Please come up to the podium, state your name and zip code for the record. You will each have three minutes. Mr. Richwagon.

Mr. Mayor, I believe I go first.

Oh, you go first. I'm sorry, Mr. Richwagon, you'll have to stand by.

Thank you, just indulge me a second, because I actually do have one item, and it actually accompanies an update I provided in this past Friday's information letter report, September 4th, 2026, the selection of CUNY Cemetery Consulting for the work that was consented to proceed a few weeks ago. We completed the selection process to bring them on board for a pretty comprehensive scope and assessment in terms of what the path forward should look like in terms of capacity, proper execution of roles and responsibilities as it relates to operations at the Delray Beach Memorial Gardens Municipal Cemetery. So it's pretty comprehensive and that information was shared this past Friday. I bring this up publicly because I have an additional footnote and it's in response to a conversation I had late Saturday morning while I'm here at City Hall. Vice Mayor Burns and I had an opportunity to talk a little bit about this, and therefore I thought, oh, this is good for the public to be aware. So back in August, there was commentary about lack of space availability, et cetera. I'm pleased to report over the last couple weeks, re-engineering and land reconfiguration became possible over at the Derry Beach Memorial Gardens Municipal Cemetery to make available 100 additional plots. for availability, for use, and given the level of interest and the amount of activity associated therein, the City of Derry Beach currently anticipates these opportunities to be available for about the next four months. That shows you how robust we are. And the consultancy process will be about a six-week endeavor to commence beginning next week. And I'll be keeping the commission and everyone else informed in terms of steps and progress being made in that regard. But again, to accompany the report from this past Friday, I wish to underscore the availability of plots now available at Derry Beach Memorial Gardens Municipal Cemetery so that clarity and background can be shared in that regard. And again, Vice Mayor Angela Burns, thank you for Texting me, I decided to give you a call and talk it out while upstairs Saturday morning, circa 11.30 a.m. To get squared away in this regard, so I was encouraged and inspired to offer this update.

I saw him at 9.30.

He sure did. Actually, you were 15 minutes late, sir. That was 9.30.

I thought it was 9.30, to be fair.

Yes, sir. So in any event, ladies and gentlemen, I thought it would be good information for the public to be aware in addition to the aforementioned path forward. So look forward to productivity as a result. I yield at this time. Thank you very much.

One of the issues is I think that's extremely important, but I also, you know, some of the criticism has been about the day-to-day maintenance.

That's part of the scope of the review as well.

well yeah i agree but it seems to me that the maintenance component is something that should be ongoing and current as opposed to just seeing how it's going to you know end up on summer and that's the case as well okay all right you're finished now i am thank you we are now opening it up to the public i've given you all the instructions mr rich wagon albert rich wagon 33483 two years on subculture coffee no sidewalk still a bob's barricade sign for two years

Two years on, a waste of police use and resources on a daily basis for writing tickets and trying to teach dum-dums that you can read a sign that says no parking real easy. Two years on, still events going on on a weekly basis. Yes, they're not advertising them, but they're still going on. Two years on, one single no parking sign, but five cars illegally parked. Two years on, a Freshwater Commission guy decides to park in the handicapped space because there's no sign there. I didn't know we could have handicapped Florida Freshwater Commission officers. Two years on, staff parking in the same place. I think she's received over 11 tickets. Two years on federal highway, still a total disaster of dangerousness. You can't drive through their parking lot. Two years on, more waste of police time and presence. Two years on, you can't drive through their parking lot. Their parking lot is not up to code. It's not double-striped. Nothing has changed. We're still over there agonizing on a daily basis. I used to love my job and to go to my business on a daily basis. In fact, I did it six days a week for many years. But it's not fun anymore. Their phone doesn't work anymore. So I had to walk over there today to ask one of their patrons to please not park there. As I was walking back, he decided he just thought it was cool to just cuss me out, chew me out, and tell me how stupid and small I was for kicking him out of my nine-lot parking space, and there was five available spaces that he was going to buy a bike, but now he no longer would ever come to my store. I'd like to enter this into the record for the commission to review. Yeah, so we got another minute left, so... I just want you to know that one minute of 60 seconds is so small. But you know what? I deal with this all day long, every day, all day, every day. It used to be fun. It's not fun anymore. It's not fun going to work at my bike store anymore because I have to walk outside 20 times to ask people to not park in my parking lot with giant tow weight signs. And people say we should get a tow company that can perform. I called Zucala's. By the time they got there, they've left. They got their to-go coffee and they're gone. But it still caused me a half hour of aggravation. I just don't understand why we can't do something to fix it. The police do the best they can. They come out every time as much as they can. But what are they going to do, you know? There's only so much they can do. You can't fix stupid. And that's just the way it is. It's a cult over there. It's not fun. So, please, can we get a sidewalk?

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Good evening, all. Greg Page, we have the duplex at 246 North Dixie Boulevard. Want a zip code? Use zip code. 33444. Thank you. On that property. Basically, you probably know I'm asking about not accepting the budget as is and see what you can do to adjust this so because right now we're set for another 400 something dollar and change increase on our little spot compared to last year presently delray beach takes up a quarter of our taxes on that unit and through the years we've been paying more and more taxes on it the value has been going through the roof and there are a few things That have, you guys might be aware of, but we don't need to have the extra inflation that we're suffering and trying to get more money out of tenants. They're not happy with it. And then the future proofing, I understand you need to get some sort of a fund together to protect us if something happens where we don't get any more state money coming back here for some dumb reason. But we don't really need to take it now. Let's see what happens. after the amendment if it passes or not. Maybe we can go ahead and future-proof later. That's about it. I do appreciate the past choosing not to pass the amendment as is. And then one other thing. I was here a while back, and that gentleman's problem is still going on. I don't know what you got to do for him, but it would be nice if somebody can do something for him. All right. Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much, sir.

Hello. My name is Julie Nixon. My area code is 33444. I was here at the last meeting about the cemetery, and I spoke my truth. Since then, I have received threatening text messages saying that I need to stay from out of this building, in this meeting, speaking my truth. What they're gonna do, they're gonna have the code enforcements come out, they're gonna have the health department come out. And then they made the statement in the text, you don't even have a headstone for your dad. No, I don't have one. Because I don't want to put one there. I want him to be put next to my mom. So my job, now moving forward, since someone is sending me threatening messages, leave Yasmin alone, I never mess with Yasmin. I only came here and spoke my truth. Told you all what my family went through. I never throw anybody under a bus. I never wanted anybody's job. But now... I want my dad dug up and put where he belongs. What we paid for. The first time. Not the second time. The first time. Because now I'm being threatened that they're going to do this to me and that to me if I come back. I'm coming to every meeting you all have. You'll see me. I'm going to be voiceful. Because it's not fair. Because to me it looks like a cover-up. Somebody's trying to cover something up. I only spoke my truth. No one else from this board reached out to me to ask me, you know, what happened? What went on? You didn't get to say everything. No, I did not say everything. But to get someone to text me and say those things to me multiple times, not one time. They didn't text once. Multiple times. Leave Yasmin alone. Leave Yasmin alone. I'm not messing with Yasmin. When did I ever say anything on this pool of tape? When did I ever say anything wrong against Yasmin? Never. But now I'm going to get me an attorney and I'm going to do everything I need to do to get my daddy dug up and put where he belongs. Whoever's there, go get dug up and y'all can put him wherever you want to put him. Don't matter to me. But he's going to get put right there. The certificate, yeah, I have it. And we will be getting him in that place. So whoever it is, they watching it, or they're here in the city, I don't know who it is, but listen to me. We don't have a headstone, but we will have one soon, and it will be next to my mama. Because that's where he going.

Thank you very much.

My name is Cynthia Ridley. I live at 210 Northwest 2nd Avenue, Derry Beach. I was here also last week before you closed out to listen what will go on with the debt that some of us owe. It's sad that I felt like this city could have given us some grace to the people who name you called out. financial and one other commissioner felt like we should be put in jail that's how I felt of a debt that this city and people in this community feel not 100% but 200% to this community to feel like I need to be locked up put in jail back and forth about a debt that you can wipe away. We've seen many things going away, but to sit here to say that we need to be put in jail or we need to be, you got to die before a debt is paid. Wow. That's what the city of Delray commission and they financial decided that what should happen. That's how I felt. I felt like walking to him with some handcuffs today so you could take me to jail because my name is on one of those lists. But for you not to give this city some grace for the people who work, the Roots Cultural Festival, Bahamian Committee, none of y'all in this city is not doing anything for this side of town. So for us to feel like we have done something wrong and to be put down in the front of people, I got $100,000. Shame on y'all. We should have some grace and some commitment that we work hard for this community, that we need to be feeling like the only way that debt going to be wiped away is to be put in jail or die. Same on you. Shame. Next time, all these ones who want to walk over this sad community, If you ain't find a cent sitting on this commission, don't come asking me to put a sign in my yard because I will not. And I will get on public media to say just what he said. We need to be put away or we need to do this and be dead. Come on, commission. We better than that. All we asked was some grace and you could not do that. I bet you'll be knocking on our doors and asking us to vote for you. It's coming around. So show some grace sometime. And stop bickering back and forth for the people that work in this community. I work in this community. We don't get one dime of pay for what we do in our sick community. Not one dime. But not to show any grace for that. Shame on you.

Thank you very much.

given honor to everybody in their respective places to the mayor and the staff and all the officials here. It has come to our attention.

Your name and zip code, sir?

My name is Ronald Williams. Zip code 33444.

Good.

Thank you. It has come to our attention. it has come to our attention that the Delray Beach water treatment plant is new up and running and since then we received a notice I didn't get to bring the paperwork with me but basically what they're saying is the bill for us is going up and up and I see no justification for the increase in in our particular home because I know I cut the sprinkler off. Whenever it's raining, that sprinkler doesn't come on. I don't do car washes in the yard. I don't do any extra water usage. And the bill has jumped up like almost 25, 30% this last time around. And I think that's an injustification. It's not justified. I don't mind paying my bills. Or should I say me and my wife? We don't mind paying our bills. We don't try to skip out on anything like that. But to be charged just because someone estimated that, oh, they might have used this this month. Send the people out that do the jobs and let them measure what has been used. Please, please get some real accountability in the water treatment plant. Not passing the buck and say, oh, it's not my job. Let them do it. Because all this passing the buck stuff, it's not working for the citizens that work here and pay taxes. It doesn't work. We pay our taxes, but we want to be represented You know, just like you. When you put your money into an investment, you expect some return on that investment. You don't want to pay your water bill and you turn on the water socket and nothing comes out, right? I don't expect them to give me no 80% discount or 50% discount like that, but just send the people out, let them measure the meters, let them do their jobs, and that's all I have to say.

Thank you very much.

I will say that the water plant is not complete. It's going to be complete in a couple of years. And the water rates had not gone up for almost 10 years or so plus. 15. 15 years. And we're finally raising the rates in order to pay for the new water plant so that hopefully in two years from now, when you turn it on, you're going to get a nice, clean, great experience in your water with no, you know, little floating around plastic pieces.

and also can i say something we don't have plastic pieces no sir no but i'm just saying i'm just i know we don't and i want can i add something to that sure so also the new system that is working a lot of people will build for 42 days 43 days so look on your and as opposed to the 30 days and it it did make the bill go up a little more But once the cycle clears itself, then you'll go back to the 30 days. Go back to the normal.

So we got billed for May 6th more than the one month. That's correct. It tells you the number of days. You may have.

Just check that. In all likelihood.

Perhaps as much as 43 days or something to that effect, Mr. Williams.

Because I had a lot of people come to me and that was the case.

And if I may, Mr. Mayor, just to support the comments by you and Vice Mayor Burns and others. So this is the result of the implementation of an enterprise resources programming software. So we're making operations more efficient in that regard. And that transition resulted in Billings for this temporary brief period of pay may be 43 days, 41 days, 45 days, et cetera. Typically it's based on 30 days and that will be cycling back in the next cycle. So for that reason, I don't think there's much to be concerned about. I would also invite you, Mr. Hajimiri, who's our director of utilities, who's here behind in the commission chamber, he'll be happy to walk you through the specifics in that regard. But given the aggregate increase you've experienced, calculating the mathematics, it appears that you have a 43-day approximate billing cycle based on a 25% increase, and that would actually make sense. Therefore, it will adjust in a proper position on a 30-day cycle in the next billing.

Okay.

So please visit with Mr. Hajimari if you would. He's here. And he'll be more than happy to offer you more specifics. Okay.

In other words, what you're saying, that that's a temporary condition as far as the rent crisis. That's exactly right.

As a result, we believe, because we initiated this transition late summer, June-July timeframe, and thus the most recent experiences regarding August billing reflect that. I myself, resident and homeowner of Derry Beach, Florida, I was on a 43-day position. So I was able to see that and understand what's going on. And that's all in likelihood the case. So, again, I would invite you to visit with Mr. Hassan Hajimiri. We'll be more than happy to offer you specifics. He's here. He just waved his hand. And please take advantage. Mr. Hajimiri, if you would raise your hand, sir.

All right. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Williams.

By the way, for the record, what I was trying to say is that we have all this PFAS, the PFAS things, they're all going to be cleaned out in the new water, in this water treatment. We're going to be a state-of-the-art. With the new system. We are going to be a state-of-the-art thing. With the new system.

With a new system. Don't nobody want plastic floating around?

No, I don't mean that. Or anything else. I wasn't referring to, I was exaggerating. Obviously, there's no plastic in the water. Yeah, the mayor said, yeah.

Put that in our newsletter.

I'm talking about the PFAS filtration system, ladies and gentlemen.

Don't start me yet, but based on the water thing, does that mean in the middle of the night where I live and the water is shut off from the city that we'll start getting water again? I'll tell you who I am then. Yes, please.

Your name and zip code for the record.

My name is Roberta Silver. I live at Seagate Towers. It's 33483 is my zip code. We're located at 200 and 220 McFarlane Drive. I'm here today to ask you to restore freebie service to Seagate Towers for this season, for 2026, 2027. I understand that bids are going out for contractors so you can have more service from military down to the barrier island. But right now, for this season, we're requesting freebie to stop by us. And I want to make the case that this is not simply a request from someone, one condominium company, community. It's an opportunity for the city to connect 150 households directly to downtown businesses, restaurants, cultural venues, and everything Atlantic Avenue has to offer. And I added on here, not only that, but anyone who goes to Trader Joe's Tries to get into that parking lot. There is just no room. So if we could have freebie for there, too, that would be great Seagate is a nonprofit condominium with 150 residences primarily two and three bedrooms the average per purchase price now is 1.3 million and And our community continues to attract new owners. We've had approximately five to seven sales to new owners this year. Our median owner's age is 65. Many of our residents are deeply involved in the city's nonprofit, cultural, and civic life. and Seagate does not permit rentals. These are permanent residents who live here, spend here, and contribute. There's something else that makes our request particularly reasonable. Freebie already comes extremely close to us. Today, Freebie Services met Far Lane Drive just one block from our cross street at Ingraham. And importantly, Seagate was included in Freebie Services until i think 2022 because that's when amanda said she started but before then we got the services so we aren't asking the city to create an entirely new route for an isolated community we're asking you to restore um a connection that already existed and that makes geographic and economic sense um Why does that matter? Because our residents want to go downtown. They want to have dinner on Atlantic Avenue. They want to visit restaurants, attend events, enjoy the shops and cultural attractions, and participate in the downtown. So that's what I'm asking for. I have more, but that's it. Thank you.

We'll see you next week to complete it.

Oh, okay.

Thank you very much. Two weeks. Excuse me, two weeks.

Andrew Loric, 33426. I first wanted to thank the mayor for recognizing the engineers that worked on the George Bush Bridge. I, too, am an engineer, and we rarely ever get recognition for what we do. Usually when people talk to us, it's because they have a problem that we're supposed to fix. So I appreciate getting some public recognition. And I wanted to thank Commissioner Cassell for always looking out for the taxpayers. Anytime there's talks about impact fees or event fees being waived, stuff like that, I really appreciate that. You've been very consistent. And you're also the chair of the CRA, and the CRA is what I wanted to talk about today. The CRA is doing a townhouse with ADU project, part of the affordable workforce housing program. I think having a townhouse and an ADU that you can possibly rent out is a very good and creative way to attack the affordable housing problem we have in America. My concern is I'm afraid that deceptive investors will try to buy these houses and resell them. I went to the CRA event last week, which was great. By the way, the tacos were great. I saw Ms. Burns. And I discussed it with some of the CRA staff, and I was told that there are resale restrictions on workforce housing, which is good, something like 35 to 40 years before you can sell it. But I haven't heard any official rules or decisions about this project specifically. And I would like to find out some stuff about this project. I think these town homes could truly be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for people in my generation to own a home because without something like an affordable housing initiative, even me as an engineer probably would not be able to buy a house, which is not what I thought things were going to be like when I grew up. This is I have a little more time. I go to Subculture every weekend on Saturday, Sunday without fail. I love it there. But to get somewhat reasonable parking, I kid you not, I wake up at 8 a.m. to go and get coffee. And I have to park there at 8.30 and pray that I get the most inconvenient spot on the end where I park halfway in the dirt because I can't fit the whole car there because there's no double line. And the wheel stop is always at a new angle every time. And I love the place, but it is a genuine issue, and people just don't respect the no parking rules. That's everything. Have a good one. Thanks.

Hi, everybody. Marjorie Waldo, Arts Garage 33444. You look beautiful this evening, all of you. Especially you, Mayor.

Beautiful.

I wanted to remind you all that in addition to impacting the city's economic development, Arts Garage supports our community in a variety of ways. Since December, our senior series has served over 1,200 seniors, veterans, and Alzheimer's and dementia patients in five Palm Beach County senior centers. Since November, our artists in residence program has provided complimentary program tickets to over 1,000 seniors and veterans in our space. Since October, our partner program has provided another 376 complimentary seats. Since October, we've accumulated 98,000 in rental fee savings for our nonprofit partners. The Kimmel Family Series served 3,000 underserved students from local public schools last year with a target of 3,600 this year. And we continue to showcase 12 months a year world-class internationally touring music, comedy, and theater, as well as visual arts exhibits. We're very grateful for the city's investment in Arts Garage. As we did in prior years with the CRA A Guide grant funding, on 25-26, we used the city funding as detailed in our contract and explained in our year-end report. Number 3.2 on our contract says the terms of funding require that the, quote, that the grant funds will be used exclusively for programming costs and expenses as outlined in Exhibit A. We included in our Exhibit A Performance fees, professional photography, hotel fees for touring performers, and 48% of three employees' payroll, house managers times two, and tech person only there during the programming. We didn't think it might be an issue. Maybe we were incorrect. Of nearly 32,000 patrons, approximately 60% of them spend before and after shows, and 30% of those patrons are from out of state. While we are a not-for-profit, we are still a business. We're proud, after an extreme turnaround, if you remember, and the pandemic, to have built a reserve, which is equal to approximately 26% of our budget. Data says 26, 25% is best practice. for a not-for-profit. I talked to a partner today, and I think it's not enough. We do not draw down on our reserves to balance our annual budget. These dollars are only for emergencies. We have invested heavily, and I don't talk about this, but I want to say it, in the overhead and improvements to the interior of the building, including painting, plumbing, and air conditioning, the air conditioning alone totaling over $200,000, $250,000 in the last 10 years. I've invited you to join us on September 17th at 2.30 for the Palm Beach County Legislators Tour. It's a complimentary performance for the legislators, for our board, for you, and for our volunteers. We would love for you to attend some other events, but for those, you shall have to pay full price. So thank you so much. It's great to see you all. Thank you for everything.

Thank you very much.

Good evening, Andrea Bruton, 33445. I wanted to add to Ms. Ridley's concerns and ask you all to please take into consideration many of these organizations were improperly charged. In other words, the fees to them before their events were different, or if any fees, they were totally different than the final amounts that they received in the end. So I ask you all to please take that into consideration as well. Now, I'm asking for clarification regarding the noise ordinance and the impact on events held at Pompe Park and the Libby Wesley Amphitheater. Currently, the events at Pompe Park must end at 10 o'clock because of the noise ordinance. However, we all know that there is a difference east of Swinton. Our community deserves consistency. fairness and transparent um i'm sorry i'm jumping ahead of myself um again it just appears that we're being treated differently on the east side especially at pompey park and libby wesley and along the atlantic corridor avenue corridor so we ask that you consider all of that especially um looking into pompey park and libby wesley for the noise ordinance to go to be extended past 10 o'clock as well I would also like to talk about address to approximately 100 grave spaces that have seemingly appeared without notice to the public. Cemeteries and people who are familiar with the property have consistently said that the space remained available even when we were being told that it wasn't. Yet, the public is repeatedly told that the cemetery is out of space. Last year we were publicly informed that roads would be removed to create additional burial space and that doing so would require time and careful planning. Now additional roads have suddenly been removed, creating approximately more than 100 grave space. The entrance to the area where these spaces are located has been closed off for years. So to say that that road was recently removed is not true. I live on Southwest 6th Street, born and raised, and my street went right into that road that we're being told that was recently removed. It wasn't removed recently. It's been removed for about probably 15 years now or more. I'm very familiar with it. So I'm asking, we're asking for transparency consideration and respect in this neighborhood. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Good evening, good evening, good evening. Angela Hill, 33444. I respectfully ask that the decisions affecting our community be made with that of integrity, fairness, sound judgment, and a strong moral compass. That is your job. It is extremely difficult to understand how anyone could conclude that a non-profit organization should suddenly be held responsible for debt allegedly dating back three to 10 years, particularly when those obligations were not properly invoiced, communicated, tracked, nor managed, which is the responsibility of that of the city. Accountability must work both ways. If these organizations are not appropriately billed, notified, or given the opportunity to address them, the alleged balance when it occurred, the serious question must be to that of the administration, not of the non-profits. I have zero skin in the game. I have zero obligation to any of these non-profits. I'm not attached to them. However, the way it went when you all spoke on it, it was personal. I won't call commissioners name, Commissioner Market. But to use words like thief, thievery, and it must be paid, it was some very harsh words to the people. Understanding that non-profits are generally probably 10 times more volunteer than ever that of payment. So it's not a lot of money being shuffled around with those things. There's not a profit to be gained by them, thus the name non-profit. So I just want us to use the proper etiquette, empathy, and professionalism when addressing that situation. But that sounded very personal. And you all circle back to those same people with that false smile saying, I'm here for you. Let's not do that. Don't play that game. We're wiser than that. So I'm just asking you all to take ownership as the commission for the role the city played in it as well. And again, Angela Hill has no debt to the city or anyone else. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Michelle.

Billy Roach, 33483.

I'm sorry, the name was what? Billy Roach. Oh, yeah, Billy Roach.

So I just wanted to come in. Sorry, I'm at three minutes in rebuttal to this trim notice. Last year when you guys did your vote, for to raise our taxes um i listened to what every one of you said and in particular um miss casal said the money's just not there i'm looking it seems like you dig deep into the binder and see if there's any money to cut mr market mentioned have you been to the grocery store lately yeah we've been to the grocery store lately inflation is bad the gas prices the grocery store prices. And then you followed up with, well, your housing values, your appraised housing values have gone up. So that's a nice boost for you. Well, this isn't what's actually happening. And a lot of people don't understand that this inflation, the dollar is losing value. So we're bombing other countries. Our president comes in and says that he's going to be a president of peace. And then he spent the taxpayer dollars bombing other countries, spending our money Elsewhere, not on our streets, not on our decaying infrastructure. So he lied through his teeth. So now we basically trust in the public office of basically government is at an all-time low for good reason because Basically, we know when we get these flyers in the mail and you have your dog, everybody's smiling, vote for me, you never write on there higher taxes. Because if you did that, you wouldn't get elected. But what happens is when you come in, you vote, oh yeah, your housing prices are going up. The dollar's tanking relative to gold, relative to a pound of ground beef, and that is why these prices go up. So these are values that we don't see as a homeowner. You can work your whole life, you can pay off your house, And then if you have a couple bad months and you were your bad year and you can't pay your property taxes, a sheriff comes with a gun and drags you out of your house that you worked your whole life to pay for, that you supposedly own, and you're out. So when I get a bill here for $72,000 when you want to raise your – this is property taxes. I homeschool my child. I cut my own lawn. My wife has a business that helps other people. How do you guys justify – you're elected by us. You're paid by us. All the services – you gave a raise to the government. You gave a raise to yourselves, and you're taking more from us. It's already high. When do you have any empathy or any humility or ever humanity? Seriously, people are struggling right now. And 72 grand, I don't mind paying if I can get a cop at my door within 20 minutes when I call 911 and we know what we went through. I might get into that now. But my services haven't gone up. So why are you raising my taxes when we're not getting anything for it? We understand the roads, but we can come together as a community and we can pay for the police, pay for the fire, pay for some clean water. But this is ridiculous. And you guys need to dig into your heart, not as business people or as government officials, as a human and say, enough's enough. People need a break. Don't raise this trim. Do the rollback. Don't change it. Do one year to show the people that you actually have a heart.

Thank you very much. By the way, we did not give ourselves a raise.

Well, you gave the local government a raise.

Employees had a contractual raise. Yes, they did.

for cost of living and for inflation. When do we get a break on inflation?

Thank you. We don't get anything for inflation. Noted.

Thank you. Good day, commissioners. My name is Nicole Ivey, 33444, and I'm coming up here today. And I wanted to speak about the cemetery as well, and I wanted to provide you with some insight on the conversation that I had with the cemetery supervisor. So I hope I don't get any backlash either, because there's gonna be a big problem with that. So recently I contacted the supervisor because I was trying to locate my grandmother's burial plot. Her name was Dorothy Williams. She was one of the first black barbers here in the city of Delray, okay? So she's a beloved member of the community. Everybody knew her. And I was calling just to find out where her burial plot was because of the recent conversations about the cemetery. So I was told by that supervisor that she was unable to identify where my grandmother was located, the specific spot. She said that she was somewhere in there, but she couldn't identify where it was. I explained that I was going to be ordering a headstone, so I did need to know where that plot was actually located. And her response was essentially that the headstone would be placed somewhere in the cemetery. I asked, so you're telling me that it's going to be at a random location? And that response I received left me with the impression that yes, essentially my headstone would just be placed somewhere in the cemetery. I cannot adequately explain the pain of hearing that when you simply are trying to honor somebody that you lost. And the fact that I never even met my grandmother. So now I can't even put a headstone. But more about that later. My family has been here for many years. My great, great, great grandmother is buried in that cemetery, Maddie Ivy. I have over 11 family members who are buried in that cemetery. And these are our mothers, fathers, grandfathers, grandmothers, relatives, and loved ones. When a family walks through those gates, they should feel like their loved ones are being cared for with dignity, accuracy, and compassion. And I do want to recognize two people, and that would be Andrew Haynes and also Mr. Curtis Wise. They were actually able to find my grandmother on my birthday. So that was truly a blessing. So I have now a plot, I mean a headstone, and now we have the plot so that we can put it there. But I just wanted to give you that insight on the conversation that they were able to put my grandmother's headstone anywhere.

Thank you very much.

Good evening, Mayor, City Manager, Commissioners. Nice to see you this evening. I'm Dr. Spencer, 33445. As you consider the CAREN funding tonight and the grant kind of parameters, I'm asking if you can take a look at the definition around supplantation. Typically, this makes sense when organizations are government funded. But take for an example a case like Living Skills in the Schools where Our funding is actually community funding, which can be variable, right, depending on how much we fundraise this year from the community versus government funding. So it would be helpful if we had a definition on that so that the very organizations that the grant was meant to fund are not excluded. from that application. And then number two, if you can take a look at the parameters around an indirect rate. I think right now it's showing that an indirect rate will not be allowed and typically And I think there's a lot of other people here that do grant work. There's usually a boundary of 5% to 10% that's allowed for administrative costs. So I'm just asking that you take a look at that and consider those parameters when you're looking at the care and fund grant. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Dr. Spindler. Are there any other members of the public wishing to address the commission? Seeing none, public comment is closed. We now go, what? You don't like noise? I now need an approval of the consent agenda as amended.

So moved. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? It is approved. OK. We are now going to item 7AA, which is former 6F1. Commissioner Casale, you had this pulled from the agenda to be discussed. Yes.

I turn it over to you. 6F1 is the appealables. The second item is the SPRAB 826 decision on 120 Southwest 3rd Avenue. We look closely at what SPRAB is doing, because sometimes those projects don't come back to us for review. And in this case, I think we should just give this. This project deserves our review up here. It's 120 Southwest 3rd. The project density proposed exceeds the base allowance, according to the report. It's five units on 0.46 acres. There are street tree reductions and questions about performance standards. I have not fully seen the presentation, but I do believe that we should review this ourselves.

So you would like to have a de novo item on this to be brought to the commission?

That's right.

Commissioner, Mr. Orris, did you have you? He's on another thing. He's coming for the next one. Oh, you're on the next thing. Okay. So it's up to the commission if we would like to do this. Is there a consensus to bring this back for a de novo review?

It's OK with me.

I think we should. OK. That's fine. Then we are. Do we have three? I need a motion. I need a motion to what? We're going to think that this is going to be appealed by the commission? Yes. OK. Would you make a motion to please appeal it? So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No. Fine.

OK. For the record, Mayor, 1231 South Congress is still going to. 1231 South Congress.

We need to approve the 1231 South Congress. So moved.

Second. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Fine. We're unanimous. Thank you for that consideration. 1231 South Congress is approved, and 120 Southwest 3rd Avenue is coming back to the commission for a de novo review. Yes, sir. Perfect. We are done. Okay, 7BB. Excuse me, 7A, which is an update on the opportunities of outside agencies and grants from the Karen Foundation Settlement Funds and Opioid Litigation Settlement Funds. Mr. Orris.

Jeff force assistant city manager just here to kind of tell you where we are in the process we've been working on a request for applications for three different programs if you recall through the opioid funds the Commission had approved an expenditure plan that included included grants to provide workforce and job assistance and also to provide affordable and or supportive housing those are both programs that will be to I think it's on the next slide, to folks who have opioid use disorder or at risk for it and have some other co-determining issues. So those are particular to that. You had also asked me to go to the Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee to devise a program for use of the CAREN funds to provide substance abuse training or education. This is where we are. I brought to them. I said, what do you think of the parameters? They gave me some parameters. I went out. I found a really decent outline of a program in Highland County, which we then plugged in what they wanted to it. Actually, most of what Highland County did was the things that the opioid committee said we should do. Some alterations were also made after you all had indicated you'd like to fund some education programs with care and funds, so we expanded beyond what the OSEC had put for that. Also, again, that note that the opioid grants should provide services to those at risk of opioid use disorder or other co-occurring disorders. You may have seen the presentation. It was emailed out to all of you late last week. It's long. I will make it much shorter because a lot of it is duplicative. The opioid, the workforce and job assistance grants, you allocated $135,000 for it. The idea is for it to be a reimbursement grant. Most everything we're trying to do now is reimbursement-based. Grants are only to be used to assist Delray Beach residents. And the administrative expenses are limited to 10% of the total reimbursed. The idea of that is that you don't just put in 10% of what you're asking for. It would be 10% of the total that's actually used and reimbursed.

Can you clarify what you're saying? I apologize.

Okay. So often you'd say, okay.

Who's reimbursing? The fund?

Yeah, it'll be reimbursed through the opioid settlement funds.

You're talking about Karen and opioid. We need to keep them separate because they're two separate things.

Yes, right now I am talking only about the opioid workforce and job assistance.

OK, the other slide said Karen on it. OK. So let's go back to the opioid money. We're getting how much money annually from the opioid litigation? It shifts around. $62,000 to $92,000, I think you said last year. Right. Listen, guys, and I was going to wait on the budget for this. I am extremely concerned about how we're handling this money. We are committing to increasing our staffing in our highest paid jobs in the fire department, which we were going to be using some of this funding and some of the Karen funding. But now we understand the Karen funding is probably coming to an end. And we definitely know that this is $62,000 to $92,000 for a few years. And if you go back, I wrote to Mr. Moore whatever it was, a week ago about this, and I'm going to find the email. We're talking about taxpayers are paying $352,000, is it, Mr. Moore? Right. And we don't have that money covered by any of this. Now we're sitting up here talking about our budget, how we need to cut. You're talking about at the last meeting you asked why is there growth in the, you know, we have so much growth in the highest paid department, the fire department. It's our votes. That's why. I do not think at this point in time, this paramedical program, when you did the presentation to us back in, um, May. You did February. I believe you did it in May or June. No, May you emailed us the document that was the three standardized levels, right? They started at $600,000 for this program and go up to well over a million with $700,000 to retrofit the fire department, right? And now how are we paying for this?

First of all, Commissioner, I apologize, but that's not the issue at hand.

No, it is, but it kind of is because this may be, I understand, but the grant program we should take, I've said this before, you're using a portion of this grant money towards this program.

I'm using the portion that the commission allocated to these grants for that.

Right, but I'm saying we should revisit that decision. In this current fiscal situation, I don't know how we could possibly be doing that and go to prevention.

There's a bona fide point here, which is that we are relying on the settlement agreement to derive these benefits from the counter foundation. And that's as a result of their ownership of one particular property in the city. Right. Should that property be sold for some reason, and I don't know that it is going to be sold, but should that property be sold for some reason, this money dries up. Meanwhile, we will have committed, I'm sorry, did you have something to add? We have committed.

They're two different funds.

I'm getting there, but go ahead.

No, you understand, Mayor, what I'm saying.

With the Karen Fund, nothing has been set in stone. Right.

Right.

Not for the Karen. So right now we have $900,000 plus. The paramedical program is not, the Karen Fund money is not being used for that program. Mr. Orris is talking about using some of the opioid money, which will have a stream nowhere near enough to cover the program. We talked about potentially supplementing it.

Excuse me, Mayor. Thank you for accelerating my thought. Because in the opioids, we have the same issue. In both of these categories, we have the issue of funding that is not assured. Certainly the amounts are not assured. Yes. But not assured for a period of really greater than one or two years, maybe.

Now, the opioid is for an extended period of time, but it's nowhere near hundreds of thousands.

And we're getting into financial commitments with the hope and a prayer that all this money always comes in the way we want it to come in, but we'll still be short. And I have argued up here about doing programs where I can't fund them, and then I've got to rely on going to the trough to get paid. I just think that is not...

We're going to the trough in the next fiscal year to get paid because we don't have the money. Well, I want to clarify why I brought this up. Because in the beginning, we had talked about potentially having the Karen be somewhat supplemental to this. And then what Mr. Moore said to me is that right now, in our current budget upcoming, we have allocated $251,000 to start the program. 50% of it is not covered, and we need to go to outside agencies to look for coverage. No outside agency is going to give the city of Delray Beach taxpayers money to fund a program. And I don't say that this program doesn't have value. But we need to do, I think, a full investigation on what Delray Medical is doing, what other places are doing. Miss Spencer is here. She has this fabulous, I just got the opportunity to look at it today. prevention program that she's distributing through emergency responses. It gives you all the resources, access to information in a second. And I do believe, I'm not going to go into depth about what's in this packet, that we need to start looking at using the opioid money for prevention and hold off on the paramedical program. And whatever we're doing with the Karen, none of it should be used to supplement that program because it's not going to be, the money may not be there. And we can't keep committing taxpayers to long-term additional spending.

This has already been discussed. The Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee, which were 11 to 13 volunteers that worked very, very hard They are in the addiction community. They're the ones that said that this is what they thought the people needed. We talked about the education, and then we said, well, you know what? There's enough money for prevention in the CAREN fund, and there is. So the program that I think is a very good one can be funded. But the opioid money is a separate set of money. It's not enough. And when we discussed the, what is it called when they go out? Paramedical. Yeah, the paramedical. We already agreed that we would have to come up with half of that because it could overlap to the elderly as well, which was the tune of 110,000. It can overlap to the elderly.

We agreed on that at the last meeting. It cannot overlap to the elderly.

That's why it was presented to us. that we would have to come up with $110,000. It's way more.

And when the fire chief stood up here, I went and watched it the other day. It's $251,000 right now. And that's at the base with one individual. And what the chief said, plus there's the retrofitting of the fire station, which is a $700 charge according to that document.

I could pull it up. I have it here.

And this is not giving us even the lowest level of service. The chief said, once this program begins, I am going to be coming back in front of you and asking you for more money. That is what Chief Martin said at his presentation. And my concern is, I brought up over $3 million of cuts last time. I don't know why that gentleman said I brought none. 2.954 million of the cuts that I brought up are going in this budget. And that still only takes us down a tiny bit. to give the residents relief. I don't say this isn't a good program. I'm just telling you I don't know how we can begin down the road of starting a program that's going to be so expensive to our taxpayers under the current situation.

We agreed to it, but the thing that's in front of us now is not that.

Right, but some portion of that money we were talking about using for it. So I just want to have, I'd like to have the full discussion now because I think it's important. It's all working together.

I'd like to have all the facts in front of me before I have the full discussion now. Because I'm prepared for what we're discussing, but not for what we discussed, I think it was two months ago.

Well, I'm going to bring it up at the budget because I do think it's in our current budget that we need to revisit it, Judy.

I really do. So those numbers that you and I are speaking about right now are in our current budget that we're going to speak about.

The $251,000 is in our current budget. $251,000 is in the budget. Is it $251,000? Yes, it is in our budget.

What amount was coming from the opioid? Because I remember $110,000. $125,500. I'm sorry? $125,500. Okay, $125,000, which is one half of the $250,000. So the other part of the $250,000 was coming from the funds. Is that accurate?

Well, yeah, the $251,000 in the budget is going to get half the money from the opioid fund and half the money from the general fund. Understood.

So we're talking about $125,000, not $250,000.

And what the police chief and I have done is we've gone out and found some potential partners.

You mean fire rescue chief, not police chief.

Yes, thank you. I apologize for that, Chief. Chief Martin and I have gone out to look for some potential partners so we can relieve the general fund of that obligation. intent is fund this for at least one year bring back statistics that will determine whether it should continue or not there's a lot of potential savings to the city in doing this you heard from the chief that we have a number of people who utilize our transportation services repeatedly over the course of the year and if we can get just one of those people to stop using our services we will save thousands of dollars

That's how we arrived at our decision when we made that decision. I recall that discussion.

And the intent is to not put in something that's funded long term.

You can't start a program and then pull it.

We've never seen that happen. It's funded for a single year, and then we determine whether we continue it.

Okay, may I read this document? Lowest level funding is $412,000. Level two, three minimal funding, $424,000. That's minimal funding. Okay. Mid-level service funding, $619,000. And highest and best service funding, $1,541,568. And facility augmentation estimated at $712,500.

I remember that document, but I also remember Chief Martin's presentation on that evening. depicting the numbers that we're talking about now at 250. So it wasn't as extensive of a program as the numbers in the initial document presented.

But he said with this price, you can only do one person and you're not really going to have... In other words, it's like you're not even half doing it. It's putting in a little bit of an effort. And at the end of the day, we all know once you hire somebody in that department, in that job, it's a commitment. It's a long-term commitment. And I just don't know that, I don't know how we sit here talking about the finances and say we're going to make that commitment. I don't think it's responsible. I think we should use the opioid money to...

that repeat trips that these people with problems are creating.

He talked about a guy going 50 times or something to, right? But the hospital has these services. I mean, we're duplicating efforts that are being provided by other organizations. We're a city municipality. I mean, this is providing a service that, to me, is great if we had a ton of money. But I don't know why at this point in time, well, when the taxpayers are asking, you know, why are costs are going up? That's all I'm saying is it's these votes up here.

Well, this is money that we were deciding where it could best go to the people that were most at risk. Right, but we're going up to supplement it. And it's prevention of death. It's, I believe in prevention of addiction, but this is prevention of death. And that's what was presented to us when we made the decision.

And I don't, I definitely don't want to waste... Well, actually what the person is doing is not preventing death. They're following somebody through their services. It's almost like a social worker. So the Delray Beach is going to essentially have a social worker that is going to be helping somebody with their recovery process. That's what it is. And it's going to become a larger department, depending on how successful it is. And listen, if we had a ton of money, I would say we should do it. But the fact of the matter is, which agencies are you speaking to that are going to come in and help fund this?

Which agencies repeat this effort? The hospital. We already have them.

Delray Medical has this. The county has a whole paraprofessional unit. Like, I just, I don't know that cities are really doing this.

Mr. Orr, you said that we committed to one year? Yes. Okay. Thank you.

I mean, when the board appeared in front of us, they did make a rather compelling argument, and using the word death was repeatedly used. Right, that's true. So I acknowledge what you're saying with respect to the others that are doing this. My whole concern is that we are creating an infrastructure that we may not be able to pay for in year two and three, but meanwhile the employees will be in their jobs, and I won't have the money to pay for them. So that's kind of what my concern is. Putting together an infrastructure and a structure that I can be reasonably assured that I can pay for. And I'm not positive I can pay for it, especially in light of all the other numbers that they're now throwing at us, all the other things we need to do to build that infrastructure.

It's expensive stuff. But there's a lot of that that is not required to run a basic program. The chief did come to you and say... He doesn't need to make modifications to the station at this time. He doesn't need additional equipment.

He said, I'll be back asking for more money once it gets started.

That's exactly his quote. I'm feeling comfortable if we need equipment moving forward in the future. This is a portion of this program near and dear to Congresswoman Frankel's heart, and that we can go to her and ask for her help in finding some federal dollars to fund capital improvements that we may need to do. So we have avenues. They're not fully explored at this time. It is one of the reasons why we went out looking for other people's money to cover the 50% that the commission had accepted that they were going to have to pay.

Have we found any of that money? You've been out looking for money for over six months to help cover this.

We have two sources that are interested. We have one we still need to contact.

Can't even get that, Judy. That's the problem. Sorry? He hasn't gotten that yet. I mean, that's the problem.

Well, I can't hear him because you keep talking. I'm sorry. Well, I mean, but we don't have the money. I just have to hear one person.

Well, so... You're just giving, Cindy, you're not asking for a direction here today, right?

I'm asking for direction just on the grant programs, not on the entire expenditures in anything else. And we'll address the care and funding and whether it goes away or not through some of the recommendations of the opioid settlement advisory committee.

I had one comment about that with the provision of substance abuse training and education programs. Is that the one that I saw something in? No, that's the education. It's confusing.

Where did I have that underlined, Lynn?

No, it was the other one. Yeah, the job assistance had housing in it, and I was confused about that.

It's there because the idea of you can't get a job if you don't have a place to live.

Oh, but I mean, we separately have the housing.

It's not intended to be something where we're getting into the housing part of it.

Got it.

But again, some of this needs to be discerned through the review process of what somebody's asking for. Is it reasonable based on what they're doing? It should not be a housing-only program so somebody can get a job. There should be some reasonable thoughts put into it. And we have not yet put together a scoring program, but we will do that prior to this hitting the streets. It's basic ideas of the parameters of the grant that I'm here to present to you and make sure that you're okay with.

So may I, Mayor?

Yes, please.

The two grants for the opioid money I think are absolutely fine as they are. I was a little confused about that housing going into the job thing, but you've explained that. The Cameron money grant week, have it we know there might be an insecurity about that money on a continuous basis and We have a three-year grant.

Perhaps we should look at making that a one-year grant I think we should push it doing well that I agree with yet. We shouldn't make it for three I think it's or what because I don't know what's gonna happen to the Karen.

I Mean we know we have what nine hundred thousand so three three-year grants or we could make it stretch out if we only did a one-year grant and um right that's a consideration that's so current that's on the current side on the care yeah i think that they maybe should have been yeah are we speaking of any specific organization are we talking in general in general okay because the this grant is for um up to three years right that somebody would and it's very specific guidelines i'm i don't know why we're discussing them in the same

I know. If it were separate, my brain would be better.

But I folded it.

I also can both funds frequently.

No, I folded it. And now it's separate.

I think given, we certainly heard in public comment today, a desire to try to keep our expenditures and our costs as low as possible. And I think we've been all trying to do that. And that's been a lot of work up here. And we're making progress. Probably not where we need to be, but we're getting there. I think we have to be very short term in our thinking here, given the uncertainty. around the money. And I would hate us to build an infrastructure that is very hard to disassemble if the grant winds up going away. And infrastructure can be hiring a couple of people or a person. That's an ongoing cost, and it costs us money when we have to do layoffs and things like that. So I would just caution us to be very short-term in our thinking here. I think we should really try to use the money that is coming from the grants and that we don't try to burden the city with additional costs here. Given, I mean, we all heard the public comment today. I mean, that's fair. Costs are rising, and, you know, we're trying to do everything we can to keep our costs in line as best we can, you know, without giving up the goodness that we have in the city. And, you know, I'm empathetic to that.

Again, that was the chief and my intention in going out to some outside agencies to look for that portion that you all had already accepted would come from the city's budget. We're looking to alleviate that. And if we can come up with partners that are longer term, then we have a better opportunity if the numbers pan out to continue funding moving forward.

Mr. Mayor, how about this? I'm sorry, Commissioner.

Well, I'm wondering, would it be appropriate to take the Karen money and put it back into our budget for if we're insisting on starting this new program, and by the way, you're going to have one person doing it at this cost, then you're not going to have two people for $150,000?

The entire cost is just personnel. Okay.

I think what Mr. Marker was saying, which I agree with, is we want to make sure that this money is going to be used for this year, not to build the infrastructure.

Could I just finish, please? Two people, one single certified paramedic, $155,100 a year, one fire paramedic assistant, $185,000, and then the various equipment, the total cost is $412,600 for two people.

That was not the most recent update that the chief gave. It's not the number.

Well, this is his document that he sent to us on this memo city fire rescue department.

He sharpened his pencil more, and that's why we had the number of 250.

So he took that down by half. We can just go across the board and take it down by half the cost of the program from what was presented to us. That concerns me greatly. We are seeing a lot of things that can just be cut in half randomly. Which makes you wonder, how much padding is going on around here? Because that's really strong. Now, I'm just saying, one minute. So maybe we take the $155 from this for this moment, put it back to cover the cost of the paramedical program, and hold off on the grants until we understand what the long-term funding is going to be for the Karen. how much we're actually going to get, because I understand it ranges from $62 to $92 a year, and I don't even know for how many years, and what the actual cost of this program and success is going to be in the first year. You do your trial first year, so the taxpayers don't pay anything out of pocket, and then we see how it goes for next year's budget.

We can't pay for the other 50% out of opioid dollars.

Out of the Karen Foundation money.

not sure we can use it i'm not sure if you could use it for these programs why couldn't you use it but i will say that if he sharpened his pencil and it's not the four hundred thousand dollars education and training i'm sorry i'm sorry too many people are talking i'm sorry i was trying to hear what the city attorney was saying hi

I don't recall providing an opinion that the Karen Foundation can be used to staff a program like this. I don't think so either. It's substance abuse training and education. So, I mean, that's pretty clear. There have been some interpretations made where, you know, they go into the schools, they do a bullying program, but part of that bullying program does touch upon substance abuse education. So, yes, that was okay. i would be very hesitant to to opine that that money can be used for a staff level position which is why it was presented at 50 Did Ms. Warren provide an opinion on that?

No, no, no. I mean, 50% of the opioid would come from opioids. They're a little too separate, but not the same.

This conversation is just particularly confusing because there are two very separate programs. One has a lot of strings that are attached to it. The other one is a little bit more loose, but one is also a very small amount of money over the course of years. Commissioner Burns sits on the Palm Beach Committee. She knows this. And the other one could be a finite amount of money that you know we don't know how long we're going to have that money so i think this conversation is is getting a lot very conflated right now and i think that maybe we should just take a step back i know we're going to discuss the budget shortly um my only advice is that i don't think that i i i'm confident that the karen money should not be funding positions in the city agreed I haven't looked at the opioid monies yet, but that too. I mean, they're very specifically tied to how we can use these monies. And you don't want to misuse them, because that creates a whole host of issues for the city, much less the fact that if you're hiring somebody for a position, We don't hire people for a year, right? Right, that's the concern. And some of these positions may be tied to union benefits. Right. And it's not just, oh, we're going to do away with the program, thank you for your service. Right. These are people's livelihoods.

Yeah, that was my point. We're building an infrastructure that we're going to have to live with. Exactly. You know, down the road, year two, three, four, five, and –

I don't have complete recall, but I feel like the chief indicated that that would not be a case, that they're not creating a new position. But I don't have 100% sure.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to offer a suggestion. But Fire Rescue Chief Rhonda Martin and Assistant City Manager Jeff Forrest talked about the commitment of identifying external opportunities to engage and connect. So I'd like to go ahead and have us perhaps pursue those opportunities to see what's actually out there before making the determination in terms of what resource allocation commitments might be made available. The opioid and excuse me, the Karen Foundation funding is in position. You don't have to make any expenditure commitments right here and now. Let's see what we can come up with in terms of any external partnership opportunities before making a final decision. Let's see what that looks like because that's an arduous process to identify who or what organizations ancillary may be able to partner with the city of Delray Beach with regards to this matter. I will offer that suggestion. That way there's not a commitment at this particular point in time. Let's see what the marketplace bears in terms of opportunities for partnership. We report back if there's one, there's two, there's nothing. We go from there.

Are you referring to the opioid fund? Yes.

That is correct. I apologize. Just to be clear.

Do we scratch these two things also? The workforce and the... And the job program?

I wouldn't call it that. I would suggest let this be the next step forward. Identify what's available in the external marketplace in terms of partnerships, and we'll go from there.

Even though those two would be fully funded with the amounts offered.

And or for their family. They have to worry about their family as well. So some of those supportive things may be child care or it could be tutoring. We don't know. We'll see what comes in the door. Applicant requirements are basically the same, although we added in certification from the Florida Association of Recovery Residences. If you're providing housing, everything else is the same. The Opioid Advisory Committee also said they do want to try to give preference to organizations that are based in Delray or have a history of providing services and have service locations in the city for both of these two opioid grants. Again, only to serve Delray residents. All right, care and funds, completely different. Forget everything I just spoke about. The idea right now, you have about $947,000 available. The OSAC had recommended that you only allocate half of that right now, simply because we know that that can go away at any time. And they thought doing a million dollars worth of programs right up front was an awful lot. So they said, let's only allocate half now and keep the half for later because we don't know what's going to happen. Again, a reimbursement grant, grants only to be used to provide programs or trainings to organizations or schools located in Delray Beach. And administrative expenses limited to 10% of the total reimbursed. These have to be abuse or education programs geared to charitable organizations, religious organizations, schools, or other similar organizations. Again, applicant requirements must be based in Palm Beach or Broward counties, preference to those with Delray, at least two years experience providing relevant services in Palm Beach County, documentation of the ability to provide service to Palm Beach schools. You do have to go through some sort of a certification program, I'm understood, to be allowed to enter the schools and do this. So we need to know that they either have done such a thing or they're able to get the approval to go into the schools if they're looking to do it in the Palm Beach Public Schools. Again, the 990 or the annual tax filing. Applicant, this is where there's a lot of discussion in OSEC. They like the idea of $100,000 per year, but they also thought maybe a multi-year wouldn't be bad because there is a lot of money here and it would avoid us having to go back again. So they came up with the idea of a multi-year award up to three years. As best as I could tell and in this case, I don't necessarily want to speak for them But the discussion was very much if you don't do that, you don't do that It was kind of a maybe this would be a good thing so that we'll have to go through this every year for some of them That have programs. We know you want to keep going And again, the city reserves the right to award lessons requested Then applicants basically submit all of the same things they do for the other grants and So then just the appropriate documentation. All that's all the same. So some of the items I thought you all might want to discuss was the timeliness to spend. We put in 18 months to completely spend workforce dollars, one year for housing. And current programs were two years to spend each one year allocation. If you do multi-year awards, that would be two years for each year you're funded. the amount of Karen funds to award now again we have those concerns any additional changes or to the parameters the requirements that you might want to do and any funding preference if you want to split dollar have some dollars for things that aren't public school based or whether you have some of these programs that aren't entirely related to drug reviews versus one that may be 100% if you want to allocate different pots of money for that or just one big pot everybody apply and we'll we'll see what comes out in the wash and if there's anything else that that you feel should be changed in these thank you for the presentation

And so these suggestions came from the opioid committee? Yes. Okay.

Commissioner Casale, you wish to be recognized?

Sure. You know, from the beginning when we started talking about using funds, how we could use the funds, I support a lot of these programs, and it's a fair amount of money. I think you could eat it up, I mean, in the housing sector. Quickly, but I am really thinking we need to be in our schools working on prevention with our children I've been to Miss Spencer's facility. It's right down the street here She serves Delray kids in Delray schools and Delray families and now Delray adults with her latest Adventure and it's really impressive so I would ask you all to go check it out and I do believe that we should be working on preventing our kids from using drugs and Get them before they start versus trying to help the guy who, and I'm not saying one or the other, but it's going to be harder to have an effect on the gentleman who's been in our ambulance or lady 50 times than it is on the child before they get involved in drugs. There are two different pots of money. I didn't say that one is exclusive of the other. I'm saying I think it would be easier to work. to work with the children and have accomplishments at a young age rather than the person who's got the issue. And I'm just saying I would like to see, and I thought we had already decided, because we haven't. Allocation in the current fiscal year. This is talking going forward that we were supposed to be Allowing people to apply for grants to utilize that money already for education yet when I went to see miss Spencer No money had been I don't know what's going on in that process the Commission asked me to bring this to the opioid civil advisor committee for a program and a process to go through and

This is the process.

We said we were to the RFP at the last meeting.

So just to be clear, the care and funds of 947,566 is for preventative education, correct? Correct. And then the separate pot of money, which is the opioid money, is what the Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee suggested that we do those two other grants for, and plus the mobile unit, correct? Yes. So they're two separate things. Yes. So yes, with prevention, with the care and funds money, we can decide whether it's a three-year or only a one-year grant. I'm not sure exactly where the scholastic fits in. Is it scholastic achievement? Junior achievement. I'm sorry.

I mean, I think that's easy. It's only $50,000? $50,000 a year for three years.

Do they have time to go through this process?

I thought they'd gone through all the process they needed to go through. That's the way I thought.

Okay. Junior achievement is a pretty well-established... Yeah, I'm very happy with it. I mean, many of the criteria that they...

If we're going to do a funding request, then we're saying, you don't have to go through that application. We're giving you that. And then we're going to make everyone else go through the application? Right.

So why does Ms. Spencer have to go through an application if we can just allocate the money?

I would vote for I just think that I do think we don't want to ignore the procedure because if you ignore the procedure for when you got ignore for everybody So I mean I but in the case of juniors you I think the them filling out that application would be enough This is a suggested procedure.

We haven't adopted these yet. No

You have not. Right.

And they're two separate procedures. One is the cash money procedure. The one thing that I think that we need to do is I've been on this commission now four years. We have not spent a dime. We need to start getting this money out in the community and get it being used for what it's supposed to be used with. Every other city, they're using their funds, the OPI funds for West Palm Beach. They're using it. It's out in the community. It's being used. We're sitting here talking still four years later how to give the money. Like, enough already. Let's do this.

I'd be okay to agree with the Junior Achievement getting the portion that they need for the program that was presented in the two schools, right? And for the, is it Dr. Suzanne? I'm sorry. Spencer. Thank you, Dr. Spencer. Getting an amount for her program. I'd be absolutely, without the application process. What was Dr. Spencer's amount?

Could we ask her what to study?

Why don't we have staff work with her, and we'll work on funding agreements. We'll bring those back on the 22nd. And then at that point, whatever additional commission. And there will be an action item. We can approve them and the money will be spent.

Great. So now let's work on the opioid.

Do we have consensus on that?

Yes. I have consensus for the Karen money. Now let's work on the opioid money.

Now we're talking about the opioid money. Okay.

I think we should move forward with those two grants that the group agreed were very, very important and try to get funding for the other half of the mobile unit.

And the intent with the grants will be that we will put a request out on the street for applications. Staff will review them for completeness. We will bring them to the Opioid Advisory Committee for a ranking and then to the commission for a final ranking.

Can I ask the assistant fire chief? Travis, I'm sorry, I don't know your last name. I don't mean to be disrespectful.

Franco. We just call him Chief Franco.

Chief Franco. Oh, well, no. Travis and I are on it. Thank you. Can you speak to the different amounts? Because I know that the chief came with a sort of a condensed amount for this operation. And we determined...

that half of that could overlap into the elderly so the city would take a half of that which i remember to be 110 but it looks like it's 125 or something but can you speak to that do you recall yes so i was not as involved uh deputy chief travis franco um fire department um i was not as involved in the creation of this program as chief martin was he kind of took this under his own wing and wanted to champion this cause um however there were prior iterations of this program that i was involved in and they were specific to elderly and that's where congresswoman lois frankel got involved her mother had a fall we actually did a whole joint effort press conference and everything with her years ago relative to these positions that the fire chief is speaking to, I'm unaware of the memorandum that Commissioner Casale is speaking about because the cost as I know it, I'm not saying that the document doesn't exist, I'm saying the cost as I know it are along the lines of $200,000 plus, because the positions would be single cert, meaning that they wouldn't be dual certified, meaning that they wouldn't be in the firefighter's pension system, which means the cost of the personnel and the positions is far cheaper than it would be had they been dual certified. So that's where the savings for those positions would come in. But it would be two, as I understand it, two new positions. It would not be something that would be done with existing staff. It would be two new positions that would be brought on. One would be a single cert paramedic. The other would be a clinical social worker. to help with those aspects of it.

Thank you. Why couldn't those positions be contractual, like a one-year contract? So then we're assured that we don't have to deal with that personnel issue after year two. Unless we want to. If it's year two, if we don't have the money in year two.

So I know that there are a multitude of companies out there, such as AMN Healthcare, Club Staffing, Medtron, all these companies that do contractual work. So that would be possible. But I don't know how that would all... work with the public entity, but I know that they, my wife happens to work for one, so.

Is that legal under the terms of the contract, Lynn? Are we allowed to use these funds for contractors?

No, I'll look at it, but I think so. Honestly, I feel more comfortable having a contracted employee versus a staff.

We all would. Absolutely.

No question about it. My inclination would be the contract's not going to allow us to do that.

I'll check it.

But assuming it does, I would be more comfortable with doing it on a one-year contract. That's why they exist. They're looking at these things longer term than we are. Right now we're playing a short game, which we've all been talking about. I don't know. I'll read the contract. Lynn can read the contract. But there's a part of me that says they're not going to want that. No, I'll put your cookie.

Cookie.

I hope I'm wrong. I could offer you a free one.

Mr. Franco, excuse me. This is a March 3, 2026 estimated mobile integrated health program memo. So if there is an updated document, would you have somebody get that to me?

Sure. No problem.

what we're going to do come back with the funding for the for the karen foundation dr spencer's thing for junior achievement those and those things and we have agreed to come back with something we're going to be doing this money on a con on a contract basis it's a some certain that we have and and assuming we can do it on the contract basis on whatever the scope of services that they have to provide in order to comply with the use of the funds then

I'm going to agree that he can move forward on the grant application for the $135,000 for jobs, $135,000 for workforce.

The people seeking the grant would be under a one-year contract. It would be a contract for a year.

No, this is a separate thing. But yes, you're right. It would be one year. Absolutely.

So are we all in agreement on that? Everybody? Yes? I am.

Yes, it's just we need confirmation from the city attorney with respect to that.

Obviously, it's contingent upon you coming back saying we can do what we just said we would like to do. Correct. Okay, I'm done. Thank you. I hope you are, too.

No, but I mean this is just a one-year grant.

Thank you very much, Chief. Thank you very much, Mr. Orrish.

That didn't hurt too bad.

Next up, Allie Berman is going to be up here talking to you about the Special Events Manager. This is Resolution 131-26.

A resolution of the City Commission of the City of Derry Beach, Florida, approving a non-impact event known as the Cocoa Market to be held the first Sunday of each month, 2027. As more specifically described herein, authorizing the City Manager to take all actions necessary to effectuate the intent of this resolution, providing for an effective date and for other purposes.

Thank you. Ms. Berman.

Good evening. Allie Bierman, Special Events Manager. We're here tonight to talk about the Cocoa Market, which is produced by Cocoa Yogi Inc. It's the first Sunday of every month in 2027 at Old School Square. We're here to approve an event that had violated their permit this year and city code. I'm sure you are aware. that at the February 8th, 2026 Cocoa Market, there was a dog rescue vendor on site with adoptable dogs. This vendor was not on the vendor list given to me by the event producer, and any animals must be approved by the Parks and Recreation Director, and that was not done. No certificate of insurance was given for the vendor as well, and a minor went over to the vendor and asked if they could pet one of the dogs. The handler said yes, and the dog proceeded to bite the minor in the face, causing permanent damage. Having dogs in parks without the approval of the parks and recreation director is a violation of the city's code. The event producer was suspended for three months for violating the permit and was fined for violating code. They have since served the suspension and paid the fine. The event producer has stated they will never have rescue vendors again at the Cocoa Market, and city staff is confident that the event producer will remain compliant moving forward. That's the map of the site.

Thank you very much. I'll start off because I've always been critical. I believe in second chances. I believe that this woman has done a good job while she's there. She's taken responsibility for the action. She's given us assurances that it's not going to happen again. She's going to have the requisite insurance. My inclination would be to say go ahead and do it. But that's just me. Commissioner Casato.

I agree. She apologized profusely and was very kind on social media and didn't engage. Some people were, you know, looking to do that, and I think, you know, yes.

Commissioner Malika? I would move forward on this. Commissioner?

Yeah, I'm also in favor of this. The applicant was very remorseful, and, you know, this won't happen again, I'm sure, on her watch, so I'm okay with it.

Commissioner Burns yes I'm in favor of moving forward with it I need a motion to approve resolution 128-26 I think it's 131 131 motion to approve resolution 131 131-26 thank you so much I mean second

All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? It is adopted. Thank you very much. Now we're moving on to Resolution 128-26.

A resolution of the City Commission of the City of Zahrae Beach, Florida, amending its budget for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2025, by providing for supplemental appropriations in the amounts identified in Exhibit A, repealing all resolutions inconsistent herewith, providing an effective date, and for other purposes.

Chief Financial Officer Henry Dacquois, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you all.

Is that supposed to be music or something?

Balloon drop. Right here in our shoe.

So this is the monthly budget amendments. The first is Parks and Recreation requests a $250,000 revenue increase to prior year surplus. and $250,000 expenditure increase to other current charges, tennis tournament related to hosting the Billie Jean King tournament at the tennis stadium. The two amounts balance each other. And that's in the general fund. The development services request an $8,812.54 expenditure transfer from freight and postage to rental and lease equipment to cover payments for Crywolf and $37 expenditure transfer from office supplies to tuition reimbursement related to an unanticipated cost. So the total transfer amount is $8,849.54. The Water and Sewer Fund Utilities requests an $8,000 expenditure transfer from General Operating Supplies to service equipment maintenance to cover an increase to PO 2026-309 for camera repair and $62,465 from salary wages plus $300,000 from non-operating contingency to various general ledger accounts to resolve negative balances identified in the finance department's quarter three, 2026 variance report. utility billing printing until ERP go live July 27th water treatment plan incentive pay for new hires water distribution increase to overtime for water shutoffs and engineering staff changes upgrades and out-of-classwork reclassification transfer amount requested is a total of of $370,465, and it's just line item changes within the water and sewer fund. Those are the requests this morning.

Thank you. Great. To the commission, any comments? If otherwise, they need a motion to approve.

Motion to approve resolution number 128-26.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? It is adopted. Thank you, Mr. Dockowitz. You're not leaving, I understand, but that's all right. The next item is the resolution for the first as it relates to setting up the millage for the city. I'm going to ask you to pass that down. Can I read this? I've got artwork. You can go ahead and read it if you like.

Thank you. Resolution number 140-26, a resolution of the City Commission of the City of Delray Beach, Florida, certified to the property appraiser and tax collector of Palm Beach County. the rates of millage to be levied by the City of Delray Beach for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2026, establishing the City of Delray Beach's general fund operating millage at 6.350... 6.3501. Establishing the City of Delray Beach's debt service millage rate at... 0.0289, providing an effective date and for other purposes. The intent of the City Commission is to adopt an operating millage rate of 6.3501 mils. The rollback rate is 5.855 mils. Therefore, the proposed operating millage rate is 8.45% above the rollback rate. The increase in ad valorem taxes is necessary to help fund increased budgetary needs, primarily associated with public safety, parks and recreation, general government, community services, development services, and parking facilities. The proposed operating millage rate of 6.3501 requires approval by a two-thirds vote of the full membership of the City Commission. The City Commission also intends to adopt a service millage rate of 0.0289 mills for a total city millage rate for fiscal year 2026-2027 of 6.3790 mills. And as a reminder, this is a public hearing.

Thank you very much. I have passed out to my commission, which I'm going to actually send some letter in to somebody on this. But I am still of the position that we should not be raising the millage over and above where we are this year. As it is, if we just keep the same millage, it's going to be a 6.9% increase at what taxpayers are going to actually pay. At the recommended rate of 6.3501, that's a 10.2% increase in what they're going to be paying. I'm just not prepared to layer another 10% taxation on the people of Delray when they're paying for increased insurance, increased groceries, increased all these other kinds of items. You know, we're still going to be having an additional six point, if we kept the same millage now, we're still going to have an additional $6.4 million coming in this year. Everyone keeps talking about services. I just know when we had our rollback rate, there was really no, none of the services were impaired. Everyone loves talking about services. There's no empirical evidence to say that any services are going to be disrupted. And we have, we've had 77 properties get COs this year. at the tune of $77 million in increased value to the city. And there's more properties coming online. Because as everyone knows, we pay taxes and arrears here. So come January 1 of next year, all of the properties that received benefits this year and CO'd this year will be added to our tax rolls. We'll have more money coming in. We can afford to stay with the same millage we have today, not increase in burden the people who can least afford to pay it. I'm already asking them to pay 6%. The city's asking me on this recommendation to have them pay over 10%, and I just think that that's unfair. And I'm sticking with, I mean, I'll put this, it's now part of the record, and the clerk will post it or do whatever they do. I don't know what they do. But there's no, it is time we give relief. All I'm saying is we should keep the same millage rate. And this is already a 6% increase. Let's not bring it up to 10%. Let's set over 10%. I mean, the original proposal was 11.7%, which we all nicely got rid of. This is not going back to the rollback. This is saying we want the city to get an additional $6.4 million, and they'll have to manage. Everybody else is managing. Companies are out there, and when the companies say, well, we're short on cash, we need you to do this, the first thing they don't say is, well, we'll go out and raise our prices. Well, that's what raising taxes is, is raising your prices. They find ways internally to cut. That's what I'm saying the city needs to do. I mean, we had this one fellow, Billy Roche, got up there and that's what he said. When are they going to get some relief? Because just because our property values go up, We don't have to. We're the beneficiary for their property values going up. We just spend it. I want to stay where we are and not have any more tax, not go above the rate that we are today. But obviously, there's going to be a lot of discussion on that. And I do have this whole little.

Mr. Mayor.

I got more of them.

Mr. Mayor.

That's not it.

That's a different one. There's more. Trust me.

Mr. Mayor.

Yes. I'm turning it over to, I've got more to say, but which, you know, I'll wait to my.

I would simply like to have us have the presentation, please. The presentation. We have a full presentation lined up. It's fairly succinct, but it is.

Do you have a presentation that's going to show that we're not going to pay 10.2 in additional taxes?

The presentation is based on last week's consensus. However.

Yes, I mean, to move it forward, yeah.

Yes, sir. Nevertheless, I think it's important that we afforded the presentation before City Commission offers its direction, whatever that might look like today. That's fine. That's all. Okay. That's all. Mr. Dakos, if you would please, and we have the material presented on each of the screens. Mr. Dakos, please.

Historical and proposed operating millage rates, actual expenditures, and municipal cost index. We've shown this before. The green rectangles show our millage rate and the history that for eight years from 2017 to 2025, the millage rate was decreased, including the rollback of 2025. It was modestly increased this current year. to 6.1611 and the proposal for this coming year is 6.3501 and as can be shown it is not even equal to what we were charging in 2023. the yellow line on top is municipal cost index this is done independently and they show what the costs to municipalities across the country are and how they've gone up from 244 to 340 over these 11 years. The orange line in the middle is our actual expenditures here in Delray Beach in millions of dollars. We have gone from $117 million to $200 million this current year, and it's up to $219 million for the proposed year. The orange and the yellow lines are very similar. We are within the reasonable boundaries of what municipals are facing across the country. Inflation is unfortunate and unfair, but it hits all of us, including running a government operation. General fund tentative budget revenue summary by category. So we have revenues. Taxes are going down by $1.6 million. okay permits fees and special assessments up by a little intergovernmental revenue we get from the state charges for services is going up by 4.6 percent judges fines and forfeitures a little bit of an increase miscellaneous revenues up by two and a half million other sources down by 6.76 million that's mostly because of the drawdowns from reserves which are shown below the subtotal Property tax revenues from the taxable value in the tentative budget is $8.5 million. Property tax revenues from the millage rate increase is 5.7 million, and we're projecting a fund balance drawdown of 6.8 million. So we have a total of almost 20 million from the subtotal of 196 to get to the revenue of 217 million. On the expense side, we have to have the balanced budget. So the second column, tentative budget, has a total expenditures of $217.3 million. Police, up by $1.8 million. It's 3.2% of the largest budget in the city budget. Fire... is up $6.4 million, 12.9%. That's because the unknown is that we are in the midst of negotiations with the fire union for the next budget.

No, we're actually complete, so the position is where we are. Solid.

Solid. Okay, it's solid at $6.4 million. Parks and Recreation was up by 1.5 million to 24.4 million, 6.5%. Public works engineering, up by 1.6 million, 14.8%. The others, neighborhood and community services, about a half million. Finance is a reduction because there were changes in the department organization. The purchasing department that used to report to me is now a separate line item. Also, the pension administrator has now moved to human resources. parking facility um small increase of uh 279 000 but on a small budget it's 13 city attorney city manager human resources is up 330 000 uh and they have included the um the pension administrator to their department city commission down two hundred thirty nine thousand dollars purchasing is is being shown with a zero for the current year that's why the entire department cost is shown as an increased internal orders similarly used to be part of city commission that's why you had such a reduction two hundred ninety six thousand so you have the subtotal of expenditures of 213 million and then we have the cra tiff funding from property tax it's 2.1 million from the millage increase it's 1.2 million so the total is 217.3 million an increase of 16.2 million dollars eight percent if we look at some of the surrounding cities um The first line, the proposed millage rate, 6.3790 for Delray. That includes the debt millage of 0.0289. Fort Lauderdale is 4.3. Boca Raton, 4.69. Palm Beach Gardens, 5. Pompano Beach, 5.6. City of Deerfield, 6.1. Coral Springs, 6.18. Those are lower than we are. Miramar, 7.12. Boynton Beach, 7.75. West Palm Beach, 8.18. But let's look at the millage rate growth since 2016. The earlier graph showed how we consistently reduced our millage rate for eight years. We had, if you just look at the beginning and the end of that 10-year period, we reduced our millage rate by 11.5%. Fort Lauderdale was up 5.4%. Boca was up 7%. Palm Beach Gardens is most comparable to us. They reduced their millage rate by 10.8%. Pompano up by 2.2%. Deerfield 7.8% down. Coral Springs up 21.4%. Miramar 5.2, Boynton Beach a small decrease to 1.9, and West Palm Beach a small decrease to 3.7. Then let's look at taxable property values. We have a $21.06 billion taxable value, which we multiply by the millage rate to get our tax revenues from real estate. Fort Lauderdale is more than three times at 67.5 billion. Boca is 42.7, more than twice. Palm Beach Gardens, similar, a little bit higher than us at 23.57. Pompano, higher at 24.68. Deerfield is lower at 12.78. Coral Springs, 16.8. Miramar, 16.9. Boynton, also lower at 11. West Palm, 27.85. Now, the last piece is that All of these other cities except for Palm Beach Gardens have a separate fire assessment fee. Meaning when we look at a millage rate of the city of Delray of 6.3501, it includes fire services. In every other city except for Palm Beach Gardens, there's a separate charge. And the annual per dwelling unit, Fort Lauderdale's $338, Boca $224, Pompano $361, Deerfield $365. Coral Springs 308, Miramar 479, Boynton Beach 170, West Palm Beach 250. So you can't just look at that top line comparing our proposed millage to the other cities. You have to look at our history of reducing the millage rate of how much taxable property value we have and also whether we're charging separately. The two footnotes are the key takeaways. Most peer municipalities leverage fire assessment fees and maintain stable millage rates. The city of Delray Beach does not collect fire assessment fees and continues to maintain low millage rates. Looking at all taxing authorities to our taxpayers, the total millage rate is 18.59. Delray Beach is 6.379, a little bit more than a third. The public schools are 6.287, also a little bit more than a third. The county is a quarter, 4.521, and other independent districts, 1.404. So we understand that there are other charges and they have to be included, but we're working on our one-third charge. Homeowner pays 3,073 in ad valorem taxes to the city, assuming a 481,794 taxable value. That's the average according to the assessor's office in Palm Beach County. If we look at the operating and capital budget by fund types, general fund you've seen before, 2046 to 217.3, a change of 12.6 million, 6.16%. The special revenue funds have gone from 34.5 million down to 28.3 million. a reduction of 2.3 million or 18.17%. The enterprise funds, those are business-like where they charge fees for their services and they are usually programmed, the goal is to become break-even including all expenses. They've gone from $157.45 million to $156.64, reduction of $800,000, one-half of 1%. Debt service funds, $4.5 million this current year, $4,015,000 next year, an increase of $9,750, one-quarter of 1%. Capital funds. This current year's budget was $336 million. It's going down to $269.7 million, a reduction of $66.4 million, or 19.75%. Internal service funds, these are funds that provide services for the rest of government operations and get charged out. The current year is $47.2 million. It's going down to $42.3 million, a reduction of $4.9 million or 10.4%. In total, the amended budget this year, $783.9 million, being reduced to $718.2 million, a reduction of $65.7 million or 8.4%. Operating budget by fund type, here's a nice little circle graph. General is 30% at $217 million. Enterprise funds are $156.64 million on the left side. Capital projects down below, $269.7. Those are the largest. Internal service, $42 million. Debt service is $4 million. Special revenue, $28 million. General fund budget highlights, personnel services, firefighter collective bargaining agreement negotiations have been completed. Salaries and benefits increased 7.2% from 120.8 million to 129.4 million. including $1.9 million for cost of living adjustments. Increase in fire pension contributions of $589,000. Increase in police pension contributions of $723,000. So we're looking at $1.3 million increased contributions for public safety. Operating expenditures increase to public works, street maintenance of 500,000 that the commission requested. Increase to fleet fuel and lube costs of 370,000. Ever since the conflict with Iran, costs of oil and gas have gone up. Decrease in transfers to neighborhood services funds of $274,000. an increase in payment of tax incremental fund revenues to the community, the CRA of $2.9 million. Enterprise fund highlights, water and sewer fund, rates are projected to remain stable. Projected monthly bill of $78.43 for average customer with 6,000 gallons of usage. Stormwater fund, rate adjustment of 4.8% was approved August, just a month ago. Sanitation fund, rate adjustment of 4.47% effective. October 1 of 2026. This is we negotiate with our outside vendor, and we do the best we can. But that's part of the inflation and the municipal cost increases that we talked about curbside collection for residential single family of $20 41 cents per month. Municipal and Lakeview golf courses renovations and repairs are nearly complete city marina and cemetery mausoleum construction in process. You've seen this before. We've simplified it a little bit. Start on the left side. If we look at our revenues, the city manager recommended budget and millage rate was $205,792,000, and the tentative budget and millage is $206,517,000. The operating millage rate was reduced from 6.4371 mills to 6.3501 mills. Property tax revenue splitting that into the two parts how much came from the increase in the taxable value 8.5 million this year the city manager recommended and 5.667 from the millage when we decrease the millage rate we still got 8.5 million increase from the increase in the taxable value, but the amount of revenue from the millage rate increase drops to 3.8. So now we're at a total of 12.3 million for the 6.3501 for the current recommendation. Projected fund balance drawdown. It was originally 8.1 and now that we have gotten decreased revenues from the millage rate, we are drawing down less, $6,860,489. The calculation on the right is as follows. About a year ago, September 30, 2025, we have our audited financials and our fund balance. This is the rainy day fund, not reserved, not restricted, $49.13 million. We estimate that for the current year ending September 30, 2026, we will require a drawdown of reserves of $2 million. That would mean our projected fund balance at the end of this fiscal year in three weeks would be $47,131,000. At that time, the fund balance as a percentage of expenditures would be 22%. The projected drawdown under the tentative budget and millage rate is $6,860,000. Projected fund balance at the end of the year, we take the 4713 at the beginning of the year minus the drawdown of 68, and we would get $40,270,511. The projected expenditures less transfers for the fund balance calculation as specified by the commission is $212,516,685. Therefore, we are projecting a fund balance as a percent of expenditures of 19%. So we would be dropping from 22% to 19%. That takes care of the top left explanation of the millage rate and the fund balance drawdown. On the expenditure side, the expenditures we had cutbacks in overtime from police and fire, public safety, so our expenditures went from 216.239 million to 214.319 million, a reduction of 1.4 million. But because of that, our TIF funding from taxable value stays the same at 2 million 99 000 but the additional cra tif funding from the millage rate goes from $1,227,000 to $840,000, a savings of almost $400,000. So when we look at our total expenditures, we've dropped it from $219.565 million to $217.25 million, a reduction of $2.3 million. Total revenues and total expenditures were 219.565. They're now 217.259. And that's the budget process as it remains. Thank you.

Great. Thank you very much. I want to ask you a question because, and I looked at all your figures there, and you're very good with showing what all these other cities do. Do you know offhand what the taxable base change, when you apply your millage rate, it has to be against what your taxable base is, right? I mean, we all agree on that. Do you know what the taxable base change was, for example, for Boca Raton for the last five years? No. What percentage? No. I do. It's 47%. Boynton Beach is like 51%. Do you know what Delray's is? What? 57%. In the last five years, 57% increase in our tax base. We've had only 11%. You're very quick to point out we've reduced it by 11%. Yeah, we did, 11%. But we had a 57% increase. I don't consider that really passing on anything to the taxpayers, who, by the way, I work for. Just like, you know, when you're in a company, you don't sit there and say, I'm raising my prices. Don't worry. We'll make it up in volume. I mean, you know, all your figures are assuming that we're not tightening our belt in a lot of different areas where I believe we can tighten our belt. And I am not... All these numbers are all true, but unless you really measure it against what your true increase in your tax base was so that you can see what it really meant when you reduced or raised the millage, as the case may be, then all of this is just saying they've gone down up and we've gone up. No, our taxable base went up 57% in the last five years. We've given an 11% relief. If that doesn't resonate with every taxpayer in the city, which it does, who I work for, and what they want me to do, I mean, I've talked to a lot of people in the last few weeks. I know what they're looking for. They're looking for us to tighten our belt. They're asking for what they want is a rollback. I'm not even, you know, I mean, I don't go to Disneyland, so I don't worry about, you know, fantasy. But to not increase the millage rate is the very least that they are expecting.

Can I ask you what the change in inflation has been? We're subject to inflation. I'm happy to answer that question.

I'm happy to answer that question. Starting from 2015 to 2025, okay, we increased our budget from the 98 million.

How did we increase our budget? No, no, no. The general economy, what has the inflation rate been? Because we don't live in an order. You know, when I borrow money.

And when you know something, when companies are. Excuse me, let me finish. Let me finish mine. When you're in a company and they're dealing with inflationary issues, they don't sit there and they don't pass it on to the customer. Because there's only a certain amount that you can pass on. Don't they look at what their competitors do? Of course they do.

So if the competitors are passing it on, they pass it on too. That's why we look at other cities.

Gentlemen.

Companies are not passing on 100%. One second. My point is, what is the inflation rate? When I borrow money for 30 years, whether it's for Delray or any other city, I borrow fixed term, fixed rate for 30 years. That's the only cost that doesn't go up every year. Okay? 60% of our costs are people. Agreed. Okay? We have unions.

We have negotiated contracts. Then you need to deal with personnel issues.

How do you propose to continue running a $200 million operation? without increasing costs and revenues by the 5% to 8% that our staff gets, and you people will authorize the COLA.

Then you're going to have to learn how to deal with staff. What does that mean? Gentlemen. Let me just say one thing. That's on me. Our budget in 2013 was $98 million. Okay? I'm just going to go up. It goes up to $190 million. I had the same question asking me for the press. Well, when you add inflation. Yeah, we did. We did a whole inflation analysis. It would have been $140 million. We were still. 100% higher than the inflation rate in terms of what money we were spending. When you have a 56% increase in your taxable base and you give an 11% relief, The inflationary component was about $22 million. So I'm still outpacing inflation by about 80% in terms of my spending. So yeah, I did. We looked at all this. I spent the entire weekend. And I'm looking at the cities which are raising their taxes. You know, you've got people who don't have a strong tax base are the only ones raising their taxes. Briny Breezes, well, they're all kind of built out. Highland Beach, no new construction there, all built out. Palm Beach Shores, same. Royal Palm Beach, same. Lake Park Shores, Lake Park Shores is actually reducing. South Palm Beach is actually reducing. And then everybody else, the rest of the whole page is here. And all these other municipalities, the other 39 municipalities, I didn't count them, 30 municipalities are all staying the same. Yet they did not enjoy the huge increase in tax base that we have.

Mr. Mayor.

Yes. May I please? You may.

We spent a lot of time, energy, and effort to offer data analytics metrics, the kind of metrics, all the background necessary to offer what our recommendations are and why. We offered an element of zero-based budgeting. We went through all the steps. If I may, please. Please call it what it was. It was a modified zero-based budgeting using last year as the base.

That's not a zero-based budgeting under any analysis.

I said that.

You're just, well, be honest about the zero-based budgeting process, because it was not a zero-based budgeting.

I said an element of zero-based budgeting. I said that.

Well, it was an element, but it was called. Modified zero-based budgeting.

Synonyms. I said the same. I agree. So the point is, we've offered a lot of background information, and this is the first hearing. The second hearing is two weeks from today. I think we need to hear from the commission at this time so that we can accept the appropriate direction and go from there. The recommendations have been made. It goes with the office of the city manager, so I will take full ownership in that regard. All the department directors did an excellent job in terms of helping with data analytics metrics, econometrics, all the necessary background to get these considerations underway. So on that note, I don't feel that it's productive to be overly critical. My interest, if I may please, as city manager, I would like to have some sense of direction, and I would like to help facilitate an outcome that makes sense so that everybody can be comfortable.

I think I've made my piece known. So who would like to go next? Commissioner Burns. I'll go next. Thank you.

I just want to say thank you Mr. Moore for the presentation you've done what we asked you to do here we sure did thank you and thank you mayor for this you know We do have to be very mindful of our taxpayers with, you know, everything has increased, and that's for everybody, and things are compounding. And so, whatever millage rate we adopt, I want it to be the lowest rate that allows us to responsibly operate the city and maintain, and as you said, we didn't lose any level of services by remaining with the 6.1. The lowest that we can go that allows us to operate the city, pay the bills, and maintain the level of service that our residents expect and deserve. So that's all I have to say right now. I have another week to think this over. Two weeks.

We'll do it in two weeks. Actually, we need to have a tentative adoption tonight, so I would like to hear from you all tonight so that we can prepare for two weeks.

Okay, you're comfortable leaving it where it is. I'm very comfortable with leaving it where it is.

Okay we have work to do so let's hear from the rest Okay may I just ask a few questions first of all so we can talk about why we're where we're at and Mr. Dockwood says

It's our spending collectively, us, prior commissions. The costs have increased. If you go back and look from 2016 to present, the cost of our fire department has gone up 112%. Our police, 91%. But you talked about surrounding areas, and I just quick checked. I'm using AI, so I'm hoping it's accurate. But comparing our budget 2016 to present general fund, Boynton has gone up 90%. Delray has gone up 97%, and Boca has gone up 83%. And the other two have assessments. We are consistent with what's going on. It's not like, what is Delray doing so horribly? The thing that concerns me, I sat here the other day and brought in about $3 million of cuts. And Mr. Moore, thank you, put them in the budget. I said I thought it was 2.9. It was 2.854. And my thought was we give a small reduction. And it only equates to a small reduction. It's $43.50 per $500,000 of tax value. But we also look to keep our reserves low. at a reasonable place. We have a policy that says our reserves are supposed to be at 21, as they said at the last meeting. They used to be 35 just three years ago, 35%. We dropped them down. They were 25. Yeah, they were. When I sat up here before, they were 35%. And we agreed to start utilizing some of that money and feeding our funds. down to 25 to make the budget work, they had to be dropped down to 21. We're modifying our reserves to make the budgets work. That is not a good day-to-day practice, and it's not fiscally sound for our long-term financial future. Now, you gave us this cute little thing, and it's all great, but if we hold, your added revenue is $6.4 million. Mm-hmm. OK, $10.54 million is our cost just to pay for our employees' pay increases under various contracts. Now, I brought in $3 million of cuts the other day. You, I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but you didn't bring any cuts. And you're saying, cut. You're talking right here off the top. Over $4 million that you are needing to cut. Where will you do it? We can't, I can't do.

With respect, that's not my job. That's his job.

You wanted the workshop. OK, you have to give him some direction.

I think you picked up a lot of what I was talking about with the overtime, which is fine.

You weren't talking about it. I talked about it. Well, you went first. OK, you're right. Maybe I'll go first next time. And I met with Mr. Moore and told him about it.

But the point is, the point is.

No, the point is, where are you going to cut? Last year, you sat up here and said, or sorry, two years ago, perhaps we drop one person off the ambulance. The chief explained to us, we would save $2 million. But at the end of the day, You can't pull the trigger because what they say is life safety, health, response time, and the like. You're just talking about $4 million that you need more to just keep your current level of employees paid. Well, if your amount, you were $4 million in the hole, so do you want to dig into the reserves, use another $4 million, and drop them down to 10? Is that your plan? What is your plan? Because it's great to just throw out numbers.

My plan is that the city manager will figure out if we have to address

numbers of personnel then we have to just every other city is doing so you want how many people are we firing everybody else is doing it no but which departments are we losing people are we going to drop down the police i'm not going to i don't want to know it is your job in a sense because you voting you're voting for these contracts that are costing the money all year long Then you're sitting up here after you voted for these. No, we voted on police and fire.

I don't remember any contracts.

Every consent agenda is a contract of some sort. Everything we're approving is a contract, an increase to the contract.

Not the salaries contract. Not the personnel contract. We don't vote on those. So we don't vote on those. Those are his purview.

Mayor.

Go ahead. I'm sorry. Did you?

problem is you don't with sticking where you would like to say stay and everyone would like to you think we all don't want to cut taxes and you're the only one who wants to yeah but you never it last year same thing you didn't present anything viable to take it down so you wanted to wait where you mayor We cut the fireworks. You got a text about the fireworks. And you wanted to put the fireworks back on at the last minute. The idea of cutting sounds great. But when we get right down to it, what are we cutting? And you can't say nobody experienced any loss. We stopped our road paving program. If you don't pave your roads and upkeep your roads and you wait a year or two years, It costs you tremendously more.

Agreed. But we're not talking about the capital improvement budget. Making decisions about here is- We're not talking about the capital improvement budget.

I'm talking about things that- Well, you're talking about it. General fund money goes into CIP, so don't say it doesn't. So if you're cutting and you're taking money out of the general fund, then that's some money that may not go into CIP. So it is connected.

Projects may get delayed. No question. It's correct.

So you are okay delaying. Right. But I want you to say to me today here, which projects do you want to delay?

not my call his call i'm not going to second guess i'm not going to become city manager part of the issues that i've had is that we we i am not the city manager okay why don't i take he gets instructions he figures out a way to make it work and that's the way it works and and the taxpayers who i work for

We all work for the taxpayers.

I went through that 300-page document three times to come up with 3 million of cuts.

Well, I mean, I don't know who you're talking to, but the ones I'm talking to certainly don't want to have a 11% tax increase this year.

They don't know that we are raping their reserves and we're taking all the money for a rainy day fund. They don't know. They know what they're experiencing in their household, but they don't understand we're experiencing it here, too.

I would hardly say by leaving an 18%...

It's going to go down below 18% at your cut. It'll probably go down way lower at this current rate. Now, if you go down to the 6.4.

If you don't want any structural changes in your city, you may be right.

I gave $3 million in cuts.

Structural changes are needed.

Well, then you keep calling workshops, but you can't list out one of them. List them out. We're here, right? It's 8 o'clock. We don't have a heavy agenda. List them out. What's your structural changes? Do you want to cut police? Then say it. Do you want to cut fire? Then say it. What do you want to not do?

I would like 5% across the board.

Yeah, but across the board, it doesn't work. You can't just say, pull this out of this department, pull that out of that department. You have to know what you're cutting.

I just want to ask a question. The PFAS funds, is that earmarked for a certain thing? Can we use that as part of the budget? How is that? It's earmarked for utilities.

Based on prior commission direction, it's been earmarked for a water treatment facility. It's restricted.

Can that direction be changed?

Yes. So was it because we just recently got another payment, correct? Yes. And so any POS funds, we've allocated that.

I have to double check with our outside counsel. I don't think that they have restrictions, but I just need to verify that they don't before we go and use those funds.

We agreed to use that to pay for our water treatment facility because we need that money for our water treatment facility. How we cost it out, our water treatment facility was in part dependent on that money being allocated. Yes, it is.

It was going to infrastructure related to water utility operations, including that and to help offset concerns related to aggregate expenses with the water utility. And of course, in terms of public budgeting and evaluation field, those are one-time opportunities. It's not something that will happen on an annual basis in that. Not as advisable, especially considering the allocation commitments, and there's two sources of outcomes. There's the 3M settlement and DuPont settlement. Right. One had more strings attached than the other, generally speaking, and that needs to be verified across the board. However, it was all previously committed that that be directed in that regard, because frankly, I thought about that briefly, and it goes against my background and expertise in public budgeting and evaluation public finance because they're one-time outcomes. So it's not a sustainable way to budget resources in that regard. But quite frankly, ladies and gentlemen, I like to offer my participation much like I did a week ago so that we can get to a place and I can run some calculations and figures.

I'm sorry. Before you do that, Mary, just a reminder, this is a public hearing, so we do need to open it up to the public.

What? I'm sorry?

It's a public hearing that we need to open up.

Would you like me to open up to the public?

I mean, there's been a lot of discussion. No, no, no. I know. You're going to finish, but typically we get a presentation, we hear the public comment, and then you can have your discussions based on what you hear from the public. It's up to you. I just don't want to forget.

Would the commission like to hear from the public now?

We can wait if you want to after our discussion.

Commissioner Cassell and I have already spoken. The other two didn't get a chance to speak, so maybe they want to speak. Would you like to speak before we speak to them first?

No, I mean, I'm happy to come up with this mysterious several million that would keep us at the old millage rate. I know that police and fire, we already know that takes up a portion, and that is a contract that we have to agree upon, and we have agreed upon, to pay them. And the rest of the departments are scrimping to get to the numbers that they got to. They're at their bare bones. We act like there's some big fluff money sitting around that I didn't see, you didn't see, you didn't bring it up the other day. And I thought about the PFAS, too, but we're really borrowing money from Peter to pay Paul. We have an expense. We have to pay it. Mr. Dakwich and Mr. Moore beat their heads against the wall to come up to lower it to the mount to still keep a decent amount of reserves, not taking that way up of the 6.35. And I'm okay with that. I don't like to raise it. I don't like to raise it at all. I'd like it to stay the same. I know that you said the rollback that you did didn't hurt. It did hurt. The rollback we had two years ago.

We were going lower.

Lower, lower, then we went way low, then we had to make up. I don't have the numbers.

I don't have the numbers. No, I didn't say any service was cut. But we had to make it up. We had to make that money up.

Mr. Mayor? Yes. And may I, Commissioner Malika, because I'd like to contribute to the observations you just shared. And that is, whatever millage rate is set for fiscal year 26-27 will serve as the baseline for the following fiscal year 27-28. We talked a little bit about this. in terms of what our capacity may or may not be based on what the outcome is in November 2026 as it relates to Amendment 3. So if we were to go too far, be too drastic about it, we did what we could to strike a balance in that realm, and that's a compelling factor as well. So just to contribute to the observations that haven't been shared, Our recommendations are not simply based on fiscal year 2026 and 2027 alone. It does take under consideration the future beyond, if that makes sense, given the baseline considerations as we get to that place. So I think a lot of good work has been done in that regard, but I'm listening to the feedback and I'll be prepared to offer thoughts based on what the aggregate direction is so that we can strike a balance, achieve a happy medium to the extent that we can, so to speak. So I would encourage you, Mr. Mayor, to allow Markert to speak. That's all about a public hearing. Then we can debate from there. Commissioner Markert, excuse me, Deputy Vice Mayor Markert. Deputy Vice Mayor Thomas Markert.

And then I have a response for you. Go ahead.

St. Lawrence University, Class of 1981. I know who you are.

All right. First of all, Henry, I want to say thank you for all the hard work. I know, having been in the corporate world for a million years, the work that goes into setting these budgets up is monumental, and it's the hardest task, and it's a relief when it's finally over. We're not there yet, clearly, but we're trying to be. Thank you. I was relieved to see that we're not really out of step with the other cities around us. When you do the math the proper way, as you pointed out, I mean, we don't have – A fire assessment at some point, maybe that's something we should be considering. You know, we don't have a police assessment. Maybe that's something we should be considering because we seem to be a little bit out of step with some of our neighbors on that. I don't know if there's wisdom in that or not, but we should. I've said from day one, I continue to be against drawing down our reserves. I think that leaves us so vulnerable. And the moment we need that and we don't have it, then there's going to be some really bad things that are going to happen. I've been through the budget with you, Mr. Moore, several times over the past month or so. We are at the point where we have cut out all the fat. And we are now sawing through the proverbial bone. And what does that mean to all of us? That means we're going to have to cut out things that are going to be super-duper noticeable. So there may not be any more parades. The Christmas event may go away. You know, Commissioner Cassell brought up our roads. Yeah, you may have a lot more potholes down the road on that. Police and fire, I'm not sure what we can cut. We have union contracts, which we negotiate in good faith, and we have to honor those. There are some things in there called overtime that probably we could affect, but that's going to affect safety and other things that I think we should all be really super aware of. I doubt that. And then there's things that we've discussed earlier today that we want to invest in. The cemetery. There's nobody sitting up here that feels good about the situation that we're in. But you know what? That's going to take money. So if we're going to cut, is that going to get cut? We've talked about Veterans Park as being another area that we want to do more with. That might be cut. And I would just say for me, gentlemen, as I said, I really appreciate everything that you've done. And I think to be fair up here, I don't want to be closed-minded to lowering the budget further, but I want to be in a position where all of us can see what those cuts are going to mean, and I still don't see that today. Because we have cut through all the fat. I'm convinced of that. So now we're going to go into bone. And there's going to be painful cuts that we're all going to see, I guarantee you. And if that's where the community wants to go and we don't want to invest in future things, as I mentioned earlier, we can do that. But... recognize just from my three years of experience up here, we're going to cut through some bone. We're going to all feel it. If that's what we want to do, that's okay. But I want to, for the next time before we vote, I want everybody to hear what those cuts are going to be because they're going to be draconian.

I need to have a discussion this evening in terms of how we get to a place in which we know what the military position will be because we've done a lot of that. We've been through all of that, and I appreciate that. We'll continue the education process during the course of the fiscal year. That doesn't just happen September 8th and September 22nd. That's a continuous process because part of the administration of annual budgets for municipalities, ladies and gentlemen, involves budget adjustments, which you all engage in quite regularly, which is appropriate, and that's your opportunity to understand what the adjustments will be, good, bad, or otherwise. So that's a continuous process. My interest today, so as to prepare for two weeks from now for final public hearing is get to a place in which we can say the millage rate is X, the fund balance position is Y. So that's what I like to do. I have thoughts, but I got to hear from you. We've offered recommendations. We've modified recommendations for the better. We came up with a lower millage rate versus what we initially proposed. And given the adjustments that were talked about by Commissioner Casale, I actually verified those in advance of September 1st as well. we were able to tweak the fund balance position a percentage point higher. So there'll be some give and take on both sides as we get to this place. This is not an environment, ladies and gentlemen, to say, Terrence, go back, come back September 22nd. We need to be at a place today so that we understand what the direction is so that we can update our modified presentation for the final hearing two weeks from now so that we can be clear. That's it, ladies and gentlemen. I know what my obligations are as city manager. I think we've done a lot of great work in terms of fiscal stewardship and getting us to a great position, striking balances, et cetera. Nevertheless, that's what we have to have this evening so that we can be adequately prepared for September 22nd because, again, we've been working since, really, February. It's September 8th, 2026, ladies and gentlemen. We began this dialogue back in February. March, really more robust, six months of work. Not a lot of other cities can say the same. This I know for sure as a long-term city manager.

I just want to make one quick comment. I understand that you addressed Commissioner Gasol's issue with respect to the fund balance.

That's not only her issue. That's everybody's. Forgive me. I apologize, Mr. Mayor.

But I do recall that Commissioner Burns also said that if we're going to do any reductions, further reductions, she wants us to inure to the benefit of the taxpayers.

Right.

That's not what that has done. And when someone says it only costs us $43 or $50 a person, a $3 million bad expenditure doesn't become a good expenditure because I can spread it out over 47,000 people. I know we're saying we have fat, that's fine, but you can't have this kind of growth And it's telling me that there's no structural changes that can't be made. And maybe they have to do with some restructuring some personnel. Maybe it has to do, I don't know. That's your job.

It is my job. It is exactly right, Mr. Mayor. I 100% agree with that sentiment.

And we have the money. We certainly are going to be making more money next year. We have more things coming online. I mean, there's already $77 million worth of property that's not reflected in this, that's going to be reflected in this on January 1st.

Depending on what happens. I understand.

Automatically. COs have already been issued. They have not issued the COs yet on Sunday Village. So that increase in value we haven't even seen yet. They are operating, but they're operating under TCOs, which means the property appraiser hasn't gone in to reassess. They have on Atlantic Crossing to the tune of almost $300 million, which we get about $4 million of it or so, right? You know about $4 million of it. From that, thank you for taking a penny or two. Thereabouts. The other lot there, which is currently under construction, is not yet on the tax rolls. So we're pretending, and one of the reasons West Palm Beach, you see it's dropped, which is why the line that's missing here is what's the increase in the tax base of each one of these towns when you're trying to measure what the millage rate adjustments are going to be. You have to look at how much their property tax values have increased. That's a key component because that's what you measure your millage against. And of course West Palm Beach has gone down because Everything the three huge properties come online last November that hit the January tax rolls And so they got all kinds of money we can't balance a budget on the tax rules that are going to explode When those new properties come on we have to look at the numbers that are in front of us right now But I'll tell you doesn't say we're worried about this the property Amendment 3 so therefore we ought to put money under the mattress now

There's no money under the mattress.

It's a rate. If we have to deal with creating special taxing units down the road, if we have to deal with these things, we will deal with them as we are presented. You don't budget with the expectation there's going to be some legislation passed and you're going to be trapped.

I think this budget is about a number, not about padding it for the 10%. It's about what they were able to crunch down to. I don't see any. Maybe if you can find it, I'm happy to look at it. And I know that's his job.

Mr. Mayor, if I may please. Please, sir. I would like to encourage you all to engage the public hearing consideration. However, once that's completed, I'd like to dialogue with you all in terms of what makes sense so that we can go forward for once and for all. I know what my job is. I know what my responsibilities are. As always, I'm prepared to do that right here at the dais. That's my insistence on using September 8th this evening as an opportunity to get us where we need to go. So I'm always thinking, I'm always executing my thoughts, and when it comes to data analytics and metrics, I'm actually pretty good about it. And responsive and attentive. Yeah, well, I need to do that a little bit more, Vice Mayor Burns. I'm generally not that way, but yes, humble person. Mr. Mayor, you came at me here in person this past Saturday, 9.30 in the morning, 15 minutes late, and I offered you my time, as I always would any of you. So it's nothing to be sorry about. It's OK. I thought it was 9 o'clock. We're here. We are. I need direction.

It was 6 o'clock in the morning we spoke. So I made a 9.30 instead. That's OK. Can I make a point of order, please? We're going to get an extra 15 minutes sleep.

Can I make a point of order before you open it up?

Sure.

What we're getting from the Edwards Company in Delray Beach operation is $1.3 million debt.

Yeah, that's right. The $4 million bill, we get like 40%.

$5,000, and the DDA is getting $200,000. It's not $4 million.

And then we get like one-sixth of it.

Right. But the point is, and we've had this conversation last year. You said the same thing. All this stuff's going to come on, and we're going to find this money. And you said it the year before. Until it's there, as Ms. Malika said, it's not reliable. And it's not $1 million for that. The cost that that costs us, when you're talking about what we have to provide back to the taxpayers as a result of that large increase in population, that $1 million does not cover it.

I absolutely agree with that.

So we can't argue that all this new development is going to pay.

I'm just saying we have additional stuff coming on, which is why the millage rates, when you look at these things, it's all related to what their increase in taxable value. I understand, but then you have an increase in. Yes, sir. And then we'll go to the public.

In anticipation of the referendum, I looked at what layoffs would look like to the city. I'll say it again, 60 to 70% of our costs are people. Right. Well, Lee Sutton said, you gotta go where the money is. So I explored what layoffs would mean. We have three very strong unions. So what happens is, when you initiate layoffs, there are bumping rights. And it's not based on merit. It's based on tenure. It's based on tenure. So it's one thing if you say 10% across the board and we cut 10% of the payroll and the weakest performers would be counseled out. That's not the way the world works. So what tends to happen, I've been through this with other governments, where the people who have the most tenure, been here the longest, whether they're the best performers or not, or maybe they're older, they slow down, they don't produce as much as they used to, they bump and keep their jobs. And the people who get laid off, unfortunately, The youngsters, I call them, 20 to 35, they're motivated. They're still excited. They're not cynical yet. Oh, I'm giving back to government service. I'm doing great things. They were born with computers in their cribs. They are techno wizards. Yeah, those are the people who can get laid off. So the reality is, except for dancing around the periphery, The other 35%, which we have squeezed eight months this year, eight months every year through the budget process. Unless you're willing to look at wholesale people changes restricted by union requirements because we sign all these contracts. We went to 2472. We had police negotiations last year. The point is we're dancing around the edge. I do not agree with you that there are millions of dollars lying around waiting to be discovered as savings. I go back to what other commissioners have said. I look at reliable. We've provided services, we've invoiced people, we had receivables, and then we don't collect. I'm sorry, I'm a CFO until I get the money in my grubby hands. And even then it could be clawed back. I've seen banks do that. Not Carney Bank, of course. But the point is, we got to deal with reality. And we do have a referendum coming up. Whatever the percentage you give on it passing or not. This is all the pain just to balance this year's budget. We didn't talk about the referendum at all. But if that goes through, it compounds. I will tell you personally, looking at the environment, now's the time I want to borrow money. The bond market is breaking. Interest rates are going to go sky high because we have $40 trillion in debt, over $2 trillion in a budget deficit every year. Japan said, we're going to do quantitative easing. We're going to buy our own bonds to keep our long-term rates down. But they are the largest sovereign country in the world, not China, owning bonds. Federal bonds. Okay? So they said to Scott Bessette, we'll just sell some of our U.S. bonds and we'll buy our own debt. He said, don't do that. We'll lend you the money. It's a worldwide phenomenon. Rates are going to go up. So to me, I want to borrow now as much as I can and pay it back in less valuable currency down the road. And so the reality is we have to look with an eye to the future of what's coming. And I look at layoffs because that's where the people were, and then we have restrictions. So I just said my piece.

All of that is, I'm acknowledging, all of that is true. I still want to know why, you know, for example, this 10.2% tax increase is not what the taxpayers, I mean, we work for them. I work for them, too. Gentlemen, Mr. Mayor.

I work for them, too. I throw quarters around like manhole quarters. Gentlemen. But you know what? I see everybody in every department with golf shirts that we paid for. And I joked for two years, and people laughed in my face. And I said, when it saves a body from being fired, maybe you'll give up the golf shirts and pay for it yourself. What about all the freebies? What about all the stuff when we don't collect receivables? And, gentlemen, that's our job to address administratively. We've looked at all of the easy, low-hanging fruit, as Mr. Mark has said.

I know it's going to be hard. I never said it's going to be easy.

Gentlemen.

Well.

Gentlemen. I never said it's going to be easy. Gentlemen.

I said my piece. Great. Gentlemen. I'm going to open this up to the public. Are there any members of the public wishing to speak on this? non-controversial matter please come to the lectern you'll give your name and zip code for the record and you will each have three minutes unless I really like what you're saying then I'll give you more time just to keep going on Greg page 33444 thank you okay what I didn't mention earlier was the overvaluation of all of our properties

That's a biggie. I don't know where the money has gone, but if we just go back to 2010 on our little thing, and I said 20, you know, when I talk about $400, what you'd be taking from me, that's only the city of Delray's money that you're taking, adding to my existing. So it'd be about $3,300 I'd pay. Now, in 2010, we had a millage rate of... 8.1 percent that uh increased from the previous year uh cost me 19 dollars okay now uh 2026 this proposal 6.42 or you're going to drop it down i suppose but 6.2 uh 42 percent It's going to cost me $431. Something has changed, and we know it's the valuation of our properties. So you're taking a smaller percent. I got it. I understand you're bringing it down, doing the best you can, and you all really are impressive, I've got to tell you. I've never seen this meeting before. So with this, I know you're trying, but I'm not smart enough to figure out how so much value – overvaluation of our properties because we're not stock traders here we're either renting them out or so we do have a lot of hidden money which I think you all know about the short-term rentals you've heard of them they're not paying their share the long-term people these are tenants who are spending that Tax dollars here, sales tax, they're doing everything, and they're not really overusing our facilities, but the short-term rentals are not being collected on. There's ways of getting that. The other properties that I guess we can't touch, but they've been taken offline. Many houses or smaller properties have become private schools. I don't know if you've ever noticed that. There are small daycares. That was somebody's house before, but then it turned into a preschool. Well, now this preschool has a $2 million property across from mine that was taken offline a few years ago. No tax. These are places that taxes can be gotten if you all have a way of figuring through certain propositions. But that's my short

Thank you very much.

Are there any other members of the public wishing to speak?

Last call. Seeing none, public comment is closed.

So, Mr. Mayor, I'd like to be city manager now, please. Again and again.

I was going to answer Commissioner DeSalle's thing about some of the recommended, but go ahead.

I apologize.

No, go ahead. It's fine. Please do.

My interest is to do what we can to cut to the quick and get some decisions from the commission so that we can come back properly so that I can go back to my econometrics part of my mind and bring back a structure that makes sense so that everybody can feel comfortable. I thought that was accomplished fairly well during the September 1st city commission workshop meeting on a subject. The basis of presentation this evening when we went from 6.4371 to 6.3501 there was a super majority consensus offered at that time that's the basis of why we're presenting as we are we took under consideration the the adjustments that were presented so i was already there with the 1.4 on the public safety side six hundred thousand dollars on fire rescue casal was close with that number A little less than that, a little bit more than that on the police side ended up being $800,000. So $800,000 plus $600,000 was $1.4 million. I bring that up specifically because that outcome, that metric, ladies and gentlemen, that $1.4 million metric resulted in the transition from $6.4 four three seven one to six point three five zero one that is how that was paid for the other number now i credit you commissioner casale you talked about this explicitly one million four hundred fifty four thousand dollars one point four five four million dollars we factored that to strike a balance on a higher fund balance position which put it from 18% at the time to 19%. All of that was the basis of the presentation this evening, ladies and gentlemen. So I just wish to highlight that yet again to help underscore how we got to that place econometrically, financially, et cetera. So please understand, we did our absolute utmost to accept the supermajority consensus, which was to go to 6.3501. We showed you how to get there mathematically. We did it, that's the basis of presentation. So what's warranted at this time is another similar exercise given the variety of commentary being experienced here at the dais so that we can put our heads together, crunch some numbers to showcase what that might look like. And that means a military position, a final military position for goodness sake, so that we can be prepared to finalize this two weeks from today. Enough information has been communicated, enough data has been articulated, for months. I need direction.

And that will help us get there. I'm going to say that you keep saying about this adding to the fund balance. I remember specifically in this chair saying at the meeting, we're not going to worry about the fund balance. Get us the lowest you can get on the millage. And what you've done is you've kept your 3.5 and the additional reports you could have applied against the millage reduction.

6.3501 was expressed by an act multiple times down the line.

Everybody said, yeah. We were going to be able to, Commissioner Burns said, if you can find additional monies to save, We're not going to deal with the fund balance. We're going to add that back to the taxpayers. That was said.

Fine. I clarified that. I clarified why we are where we are.

But at the time, any additional savings, we're going to go to reduce the millage.

So let's get some consensus then. We need supermajority consensus in terms of where to go.

I do not agree to continue to take money from the reserves. Okay. Rating the reserves we will not have FEMA support and as mr. Dawkins pointed out to us We are going out for for big money on four different big projects and our reserves are Declining quickly and we are well below at this point our own Procedures and practice.

But aren't we going in the reserves with either rate that you're asking us?

It doesn't matter. Yes, but we have a 21% policy.

But the 21 went to 19 according to that.

Right, and you want to go lower and lower and keep going? I mean, we're rating our reserves.

But just curious, you keep mentioning about ratings. What percentage of the rating calculation is based on your reserve? We got a study saying – No, no, no. I'm sure Mr. Dockowitz knows this. Anywhere between 20% to 25% of your rating is what the reserve of a – It depends on all the factors.

Correct. It's a whole list of stuff. But the point is if the other factors are weak –

The reserve makes a big difference. But the good news is they're not weak in Delray Beach today.

We have a millage rate that's gone down eight out of nine years. They're looking at repayment of bonds. They say, I don't know how much they're going to get. And we have a referendum coming. And they're going to say, this isn't what it was before. They may downgrade all Florida municipalities.

That's a separate issue.

No, it's related. It's the biggest issue. If we get lower to single aid compared to Tennessee or Texas or anywhere else, then it's harder for us to pay bonds, and we're going to have to have a higher income.

In those scenarios, we still have the ability to raise taxes.

No, we don't. Yes, we do.

It depends on our rate. Today, there's a compounding negative effect because if the referendum passes, today's millage rate, this year's, becomes the base for a limitation of increases.

I certainly understand that, but that's when you would be deciding whether or not you want to be having special taxing units that cover different portions of your element.

We looked at special taxing. It takes two years to get that in place. Agreed. So the point is, so what do we do in between?

It's not quite two years.

It's two years. A fire assessment might be quick, but a special taxing district takes quite a while. We have explored a lot of avenues and because the referendum hasn't passed, we haven't spent Too much time. We're trying to get the current budget done. But to say that the reserves don't count and that lowering the millage rate now will not have a negative impact when we borrow money, I'll say that I think that will hurt us.

The Moody's people will say that really depends, again, on the line that you're missing here, which is what is the increase in the tax base? Because if you have an increasing tax base that exponentially increases beyond your millage rate, then you are not really doing a reduction. You're trying to, when your taxes go up, your base goes up 10% and you take off one mill, you still get a 9% increase. We still have, if we do nothing, we still have a 6.4% increase.

Mr. Mayor?

If we do nothing.

Mr. Mayor? Getting back to the place of direction. And before I do that, I'd like to further underscore as part of the presentations we've made over the last few months that property tax bills are, we're only a portion of it. So as we talked about repeatedly during training sessions, during town halls, and all other engagements with the commission, representing about one-third the property tax bill. So, sir, just to provide some content and clarity in that regard, it all does not come to the City of Delray Beach. The lion's share does not go to the City of Delray Beach. You're actually, on my personal, you're more than half of the increase. Okay, well... nevertheless thank you but just in general speaking just to offer that clarity and background so in any event ladies and gentlemen please understand that and i like to offer some direction please so that we can prepare adequately because i'll have some homework to do but i like to do as much of that as i possibly can this evening so that we can get down to business just to verify your your recommendation is the 6.3501 it is okay

With reserves at 19%.

It is. What would it be if it was reserved for 18%, like they were?

6.2249.

So the way we would get to that place.

All right. Are you checking my hat? Is something you want to share with the class?

He will.

So just a little background information. The commission, to be advised, that the military tentatively adopted tonight establishes the maximum millage rate that may be adopted at the final budget hearing. The final millage rate may be equal or lower than tonight's tentative rate, but it may not exceed it. Going back to the point I'm hoping to accomplish, let's get this squared away tonight, please. If no millage rate receives enough votes at all, then the first budget hearing is not completed. Florida's Department of Revenue guidance specifically addresses that situation. When the first public hearing does not result in adopted tentative millage rate and a tentative budget, the taxing authority recesses the hearing and notifies the public of the continued hearing date. That process can be repeated until a tentative millage and budget are adopted. That also means the clock for the final hearing does not really proceed as planned because

Okay, we don't want to put that into the universe because I'm confident that tonight we're going to come up with a tentative.

And that's the point. So I say all this to say that we need to get down to business tonight. That's what I was getting at. I was just offering some context.

I think the takeaway tonight is, number one, we need to have a number. Understanding, again, that the number can't be, we can't go up at the next budget hearing if you hear information from Mr. Moore that additional cuts aren't satisfactory to you. My recommendation is this. um you know that if we don't adopt a rate it's going to be the rollback so what i would recommend understanding what mr moore has recommended and mr dakowitz has recommended that we adopt that today and we will come back if you want to have a workshop we will come back at the next meeting and we can figure out the exact number that we need to reduce the millage by to get to the place where commissioner burns and the mayor seem to be and we can give you the exact cut so if mr moore determines that it's a 1.5 million dollar cut that's going to bring us to the lower millage rate then at that point staff is going to come in and we're going to have to tell you what's going to be cut and you're going to have to make an educated decision on the dais if if you're willing to do that because And it could be things that are things that your constituents enjoy. It could be things that you don't care about. But at least we're doing this in an educated manner as opposed to just throwing numbers out today where you don't know where those cuts are going to be. If I do the research and the PFAS money can be used, we can come back. I'm not recommending that, but I will give you that as an option. And I'll say you can lower the millage with that. Like Mr. Moore said, I don't think that that's the best practice because it's a one-time payment. It's not something recurrent and you don't want to depend on that. But I just think that for today's purposes, understanding that we did do the homework and we did get the number down to what the consensus was at the last meeting, I think we should tentatively adopt that number, knowing we can still go down, and then instead of reflecting on what everyone else is doing, Maybe we come back at the next meeting and give you the exact cuts. I think that's what everybody here is asking for. I think I keep hearing it over and over. And it's not just, you know, personnel are going to be cut. It's going to be this program is going to be cut. This project will have to be slowed down. And at least you can have that information to determine if that's worth it to you to lower the military again.

Well, right now we know the following. If we didn't try to increase the reserve and we kept it at the original 18 that was talked about, we would be going down to a millage of 6.229. Is that correct? 6.2249.

6.2249.

6.2249. So I know that there's already a lower number.

Hang on, if I may, because you talked about the rating.

And that's without doing anything else, right? For my colleagues, if I may. It could be 6.2249 right now without making the adjustment, the upward adjustment that personally I don't think is necessary because we have more than two months of operating expenses and we still have the ability to raise money and our taxes don't stop because of whatever. I suggest that be the ceiling, a 6.2249, which is better than 6.114. I'm 6.1611.

Moody's report, rating methodology and scorecard factors. The fund ratio is rated. It was measured at 136%, and it's rated at 20%. There's only one other thing weighed 20%. Everything else is well below that. And that is, if you look at this, a factor in why we got our AAA rating. And it seems like, based on this rating methodology and scorecard factor that I'm looking at here, it's heavily weighted. Compared to the others. The others are all 10, though.