City Commission - Regular Meeting

mayor how to do it uh mayor branson here vice mayor joy smith i'm here commissioner brandon smith here commissioner eviart i'm here commissioner touchstone here we have all right so we will entertain motion to close this meeting back out and go back to our regular um back to our budget hearing so the motion is there a second Is there a second?

Hold on. What was the motion?

To close the regular meeting and go back to finish our budget.

I didn't hear that.

To recess.

Can the person who's making the motion make the statement? Yes.

Madam Mayor, motion to recess this regular commission meeting and go into the budget meeting.

Second. That's how you do it. Roll call.

Commissioner Touchstone.

Yes.

Commissioner Brandon Smith. Yes. Vice Mayor Joyce Smith. Yes. Commissioner Eviar.

Yes.

Mayor Brunson.

Yes.

Motion passed.

All right. So we're back on to the initial item. So that everyone is clear again. Chris, do you want to restate where we are on this item and what we need to move forward?

I think you have a motion about... For... for the item for the 30th again Chris indicated we're and as I indicated here. The city clerk made a vision and that's the 28, but we will go back to them to the said we had 3 dates for them.

The preference is the 28 but we'll go back and the preference of the 30th can you allow him to finish being and then into jet ahead, Mister Bell on the newspaper that you allow him to finish speaking and not interrupt him.

We will go back to the newspaper while the newspaper's preference is the 28th for availability. We'll have them do the 30th and push them to have the date for it. We didn't have any. That's why I said at the beginning, 28th, 29th, 30th.

Okay. So everyone understands what's happening here.

Not quite. What's your question? Because... Why you didn't put that date in the backup?

Point of order, Mayor. Can you control the audience noise in the outburst?

We should have been aware of the tentative date for the final budget hearing.

You can't put options in the resolution. You want to change it to the 30th? We'll change it to the 30th. Tell the newspaper why they prefer the 28th. We want the 30th. That's what I'm hearing. You wanted to write.

Yeah, I understand. Okay. I'm trying to say is that I, when I read this, this resolution thinking that we're trying to approve it so that we can continue with this first budget hearing. I didn't know you're actually talking about scheduling the day also for the second final budget hearing. Well, you, you, you look at what you're saying verbally, but I'm just saying IT WASN'T ANTICIPATED, YOU KNOW.

NO, IT'S ANTICIPATED. IF YOU TURN TO PAGE TWO OF THE RESOLUTION, YOU WILL SEE THE DATE THERE ON SECTION THREE. IT'S CLEAR IN THERE. IT'S CLEAR. GO TO SECTION TWO. IF YOU GO TO SECTION THREE, SECTION THREE, FOLLOWING PAGE OF THE THING, IT'S CLEAR IN THERE THAT THE 28 IS IN THERE. OH, OKAY. OKAY.

OK, so go ahead. So basically here based on Section 3 that has to come out of this resolution, correct? No, you we changing that to 30. OK, so if we. But this is based on. Going back to the the the newspaper. Gonna tell the newspaper so weird engine. Section 3 now, from the 28th to 30th, based on the approval for the newspaper.

We pushed the newspaper to accept that and try to find a better place to put it in the paper.

Otherwise, this is going to be approved with just September 28th there. And it didn't say nothing about... So this motion needs to be amended and Section 3 amended.

Thurston just made a motion to amend it to the 30th, September 30th. Thank you.

So the amendment that is before us is for the 30th?

Yes.

Does everybody understand? Anything else, Mr. Balgon? Anything else? Chris, anything else?

No, it's pretty straightforward.

I'm seconding the record.

Roll call.

Who's seconded by?

Who's seconded the motion?

The motion?

I said the motion. I second it. Everlard.

Commissioner Churchstone.

Can you read it? Interrequired.

It's the end of motion made by Commissioner Touchstone to approve the resolution with the date of the 30th.

Are you calling roll? Yes, yes.

Commissioner Bransmith. Yes, Vice Mayor Joyce Smith. Yes, Commissioner Everyard. Yes, Mason. Yes, motion passes.

I didn't remember resolution. This is also a public hearing. Mr Claire is the clerk needs to read it in the first.

A resolution of the city commission, the city of West Park, Florida, adopting a tentative millage rate for the fiscal year commencing October 1, 2026, through September 30, 2027, pursuant to section 200.065 Florida statutes, providing for a diet of representations, providing for an effective date.

Commission, what's your plan? Mayor? Yes.

I have a question on this. It's a public hearing, so you want to allow for anyone from the public to speak first?

It has to be.

Is there anyone in the public that desires to speak on this item? What's your name and address, please?

Yes, Cheryl Robinson. You gave me my check, my check, my check, my check.

Can you give us your ads, please?

Yes, Cheryl Robinson. Well, Cheryl, who that Robinson? 5,000 Pimmel Road, West Park, Florida. When it comes to the military, I really want you guys to better for the residents to just do as best as you guys can. A lot of times it seems like it only stops in the city. If we go outside of the reach, try to network with the county, the state, whatever. We really need these people to really get some help. It's a shame how these taxpayers are paying to nothing. It hurts me on the down-down maybiness of the city. It doesn't make any sense, and we're sitting here fighting and continuing and being divided due to complications. Once we start really understanding how point of order and everything is supposed to be, we'll understand what's really going on. Thank you.

Is there anyone else that would like to speak? Name and address, please.

James Sparks, 5300 Southwest 23rd Street, West Park. One of the things I'm saying is it seems like nobody know what they're doing up here. And what I just heard in the last meeting, one person don't know which item we were voting on. One person don't know what we where we are. Mayor. That is what he needs to know.

Exactly.

The millage rate. I need for everyone to please be quiet, please. I need for everyone to please be quiet. Mr. Sparks, do you have anything to say about the millage rate?

Yes. Thank you. Again, I don't think nobody up there, what they're doing, because nobody seems to understand what's being said. We in the audience understood what was going on in the millage rate. BUT ONE COMMISSIONER DIDN'T KNOW WHERE WE WERE. ONE COMMISSIONER DIDN'T KNOW WHAT WE WERE VOTING ON. ONE COMMISSIONER WANTED TO READ IT AGAIN. SO WHAT THAT TELLS ME IS WE'RE VOTING ON STUFF THAT YOU GUYS DIDN'T GET US TO MEET AS YOU USUALLY DO IN THE PAST. SEE, TONIGHT, NOTHING KNOWS WHAT'S GOING ON. Mayor, apparently they didn't get the chance to meet on the millage rate, so now nobody knows what's going on. Everybody is confused. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone want to speak on the millage rate on this item? Any other comments? The opportunity for the public is now closed. Commission, what's your pleasure here? Mayor.

Yes. I would like to approve a discussion. Move to approve for discussion.

Is there a second? Motion and second.

I want to understand clearly this is not the finalization of the of the military. Because it's going to be hard for us to make that determination with, again, not having the information before. At the last hearing, we requested information as far as what the budget looked like with the proposal that we had on the floor. of 0.6. We also asked for a tentative look at what it would look like if the Amendment 3 passed with the elimination of property taxes. So we can't outright vote on the millage rate without knowing what the budget is going to look like. So please explain to me what's going on.

Mayor, if I could, first and foremost, the millage rate sets the budget because the millage rate is our largest form of revenue. The budget is contingent upon the millage rate, which is why we're in this once again now because we did not approve both of them together, which is the finance director is a potential violation of that we could have incurred because of that. Your millage rate sets the budget. It determines where you're, because if you don't know how much you bring in, there's no way you can budget for anything. So that's why the two go hand in hand. You can't have a budget without setting the millage rate. And so you don't know how much you bring it in, how much to prepare for, because you don't know what things are going to look like. So this is why the two go hand in hand. And, you know, going back to the point of why... YOU KNOW, IT'S PRUDENT FOR US TO, IF WE HAD ANY QUESTIONS BEFOREHAND, I'M LOOKING RIGHT HERE, AND I PULLED IT UP, THE E-MAIL THAT WAS SENT TO EACH OF US, IT SAID, GOOD AFTERNOON, MAYOR, VICE MAYOR, AND COMMISSIONERS, ATTACHES A PICTURE OF THE BUDGET BOOK FOR FISCAL YEAR 2025, EXCUSE ME, 2026, 2027, AND IT SAID, uh should you and i'll just uh forward all the way down to the bottom where it says the last line by the city manager should you have any questions uh or comments please do not hesitate to contact me about where but when the when the budget book was delivered to us and when it was available online and all of that other good stuff so what's the date of that email when it's not recent though what's the date of that email give all the information for transparency there you go

YOU JUST HAD IT UP, RIGHT?

YEAH. HAVING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES? PULL IT BACK UP LIKE YOU HAD EARLIER.

I KNOW. ASKING IF YOU'RE HAVING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES.

WE'RE NOT GOING BACK AND FORTH. COMMISSIONER SMITH, WHEN YOU FIND THE DATE, CAN YOU LET US KNOW?

NO PROBLEM. I WILL. I'M PULLING IT UP. BECAUSE THE BOOK WAS LEFT IN ALL OF OUR OFFICES. I THOUGHT YOU HAD IT IN.

I GOT THE BOOK.

WE GOT THE BOOK IN ADVANCE. TWO WEEKS.

Okay.

You're saying we didn't. What's the date of the email? Listen, first of all, you're not going to rush me on what I do or say what I say. Go ahead. Anybody else?

No, no, no, because he interjected to respond to my question. Mayor, I had a question on the floor and you allow Commissioner Smith to address my concern. Wait, point of order. I want to answer the question. Because, yes, my question was never answered. You allow Commissioner Smith to talk his nonsense before my question is read.

So, again, the first speaker was Commissioner Smith and then Mr. Ballagher. I was the speaker first. No, you were not, Mr. Ballagher.

You are next, Mr. Ballagher. Mayor, point of order.

Mr. Ballagher.

I motioned and it was second for discussion. I started off the discussion by asking the question. You allowed... He was not the first one. Are you confused?

No, you are.

You're next to speak. Everyone in the audience know that I was speaking first and I asked the question about the millage rate.

I just want to ask the question that was raised regarding the why we raise the question. Why are we here addressing this military and if the military who raised that question.

You don't want people to interrupt not because you're trying to indicate responses to. Ms. Balagon, please finish. You're confused.

The question regarding the millage rate, why are we doing this? Is this going to be the final time we address this? That was my question. This is not the final time we address this millage rate. that we're going to have millage rate again on the 30th, which we just adopted for that date. The reason the millage rate always and forever has always been in the order is because that's what the statute state. During the last meeting, Chris explained that. This is the first choice, and we do this every year. You have to do the millage first, and then we discuss the budget. We do whatever we want to do with the budget. And then the next minute we come back with the millage rate. Exact same thing we've done for the last, I've been doing this for 18 years as a matter of fact, and 30 years in government. That's the same order and it's by Florida statute. So this allows you to adopt this tentatively. That's why it says on here tentatively. The next one will not say tentative. It will say final. So that's why it says tentative on it. You can hear the budget. And I know you've, as I said earlier, you have approved this before. That's what I was. Because you did not do it together before the statute, we are bringing it back in abundance of cost so the record can properly reflect that it was done at the same meeting. Right. That's all it is. We didn't expect any argument about this because you approved it before. But when we're going to have an opportunity to do it again on the 30th.

Mayor, I just wanted clarity on that because I knew that we had already approved the tentative budget. I mean, military. So I didn't want this to be snuck in like other things and we're approving something that we are not clear about. So I wanted us to ensure that Why was this before us again when we had already approved a tentative millage rate on September 3rd? So thank you for clarifying that.

Anybody else have any questions?

Yes, ma'am. Commissioner Smith, do you have the date email?

Yes, I do. I pulled it up. That was August 19th, 2026, August 10th.

Okay. So you are not copied on any correspondence with the city manager. You're not notified of any calls that any commissioner may have made the city manager. No. Right. Okay. So when you're making a statement that we had the opportunity to, what gives you the idea that we did not try those means of communication when the commission has told you that the city manager has been unresponsive to emails and have been unresponsive to phone calls? Why we made such statement is that if you already are abreast by your fellow commissioners, they have a breakdown in communication with our city manager.

I advise everyone of the email that was sent to all of us. That's all I stated.

Right, but you said that we each had an opportunity. You said that at the end of it, that he had the opportunity to reach out to him, alluding to the fact that no one did, when you don't have that knowledge base in what was done.

That's what the email stated. Okay, thank you so much, sir. Thank you so much. Comments, please do not hesitate to contact. Thank you so much.

Are we finished with this?

I sent an email, but I did not get any response. That's what I'm trying to let them know, that we always try to communicate with the city manager. He's not following his role and responsibility towards this commission of making sure that we are abreast. If you're going to vote, I'm going to entertain a vote of order. He can't make point of order.

Well, I can do that.

No, you cannot. Go read the code. Read Robert rules of order. You're not a voting member of this body. You can go ahead and take a motion.

I will let you address it later. Wow. Because it's false.

All the comments are false.

I will. There is a motion on the floor. HE WANTS TO BE A PART OF THIS COMMISSION. CAN YOU PLEASE, NOT RIGHT NOW. MAYOR, YOU KNOW HE DOES NOT MAKE A MOTION. WE HAVE A MOTION ON THE FLOOR. WE HAVE CITY BUSINESS TO DO RIGHT NOW. LET'S FOCUS ON THAT. YOU NEED TO CORRECT THAT. OLA, I'M SORRY, CLERK, WE HAVE A MOTION ON THE FLOOR AND A SECOND, CORRECT?

YES.

CAN YOU PLEASE CALL THE ROLL?

COMMISSIONER BRENDAN SMITH? YES. COMMISSIONER TUSHSTONE? NO. Vice Mayor Joyce Smith, yes, Commissioner Everyard, yes, Mary Branson, yes, motion passes.

Alright. Mr. Manager, you had a comment.

Now we can agree the ordinance OK.

An ordinance of the City Commission of the City of West Park, Florida, adopting the operating budget for the fiscal year commencing October 1, 2026, through September 30, 2027, pursuant to Florida Statute Section 200.065, Trim Bill, authorizing expenditures of funds established by the budget, authorizing encumbrances, providing for grants and gifts, providing for post-audit, providing for adoption of representations, providing for severability, providing for conflict and repealer, providing for an effective date.

This item is a public hearing. Is there anyone from the public that would like to speak on this item? Now would be the time to do it. Please give your name and your address, please.

Yes, Cheryl Robinson. 5000 Pima Road, West Park, Florida. Again, I just hope the community able to really get what they deserve. 20 years of nothing. Thank you.

Is there anyone else that would like to speak? Opportunity for the public to speak has now Mr. Bell on mayor present presentation.

Is it going to be presented in what we asked for?

So mayor before. I'm going to ask that one of the things I always do is try to make sure. I take the part of the budget very important and I always want to make sure that the I get excited because I wrote the intel from page one to the end will explain every time and my question might come to the Commission to address what was said earlier while I didn't plan that, but I think it's important to indicate to the record. that I did not receive any email or question regarding this via email as I indicated.

Mayor, is there a copy of the presentation that we're getting?

He has it.

He's coming around. Would you give him a chance, please?

We now have a presentation that addresses the questions and will be, I have here with me, my finance director, who will... who will go with me and we're gonna ask that we, the same way we kept quiet during the last meeting and let us go through the questions, let you pose your questions, ask that you make your notes. If on the paper, we can go through the questions that was asked. So we're gonna go to the first part. The first part, if you're gonna go to the next slide. We're gonna start with the first part of it. Chris, we start along with human resource

I can't even see this.

Be able to make that presentation. Chris, if you will take it from here and start with the budgetary organizational chart and it'll go down the list part of the questions asked. And we go in phases of that. We ask that you, again, take notes of your comments. We cannot. We'll take care. We cannot see anything.

It's on the paper right here.

You cannot see that. You can't see it on the screen and you can't see it on the paper.

Go to the next slide. This same budgetary information is going to go over it in detail. Go to the next slide.

So I will just kind of allude to the last slide. One of the questions was how many people are from each department. What makes that a little complicated?

Chris, can you speak more into the mic? Because we're having a hard time hearing you. How's that? Can you turn up, Chris, mic, please? Thank you.

It was asked for how many people and the name of the employee. The name of the employee. Exactly. Not just the numbers, but also it says specifically their names and how much they make in.

Absolutely. We'll address that. So that first slide basically was why it's so busy and hard to see was it's just a lot to look at. You have a handful of employees that work in multiple departments, so their salaries are allocated, say, 85% to this operation and 75% to that. That's all that first slide did. So these next slides will go department by department to show you how they're allocated. This one's pretty straightforward. It's the commission salary. Everything's 100% associated with the commission. The second one's the city manager. So you see the office of the city manager. What you'll see is other city managers 100% allocated to that. The administrative assistant is 79%.

Who is the administrative assistant?

Well, we chose not to put names in here.

We asked that specifically. How can you choose to not do something that the commission has asked for?

They're trying to answer. If you allow them the opportunity. Chris, I know one of you was trying to speak.

Go ahead.

Thank you. If we can allow them to go through the presentation and then I need for you all to be a little bit respectful and allow them to give the presentation.

Mayor, it was disrespectful for them not to follow the pleasure of the commission.

I need for you all to allow staff to go through the presentation with the information that you asked and we'll come back. We will ask.

But it's not what we asked.

So they're not what we are. We are on the second slide. Can you give them an opportunity? Please get through the presentation.

Mayor, can you all do respect? This is a point of order because we asked for is not being depicted. This is another instance of the commission has asked for information and the city administrator and staff is trying to be arbitrary and capricious against the will and pleasure of this body. And you allow that disrespect to occur. We ask specifically for specific things. They do not get to decide what they provide to us in full transparency.

It's not in here. It's not on the slide. Can you continue with your presentation, please?

Thank you mayor and customers. So we would like to address that. Yes, the commission did come and ask for the salaries of each employee, which we will be providing later on in the slides. However, this is a budget meeting and what we are doing is presenting the facts and the numbers based on budgeting. We are not we're trying not to target individual employees. And we're also trying to keep this fair. So I will pass this along back to Chris and let him continue his presentation. But I would like to reiterate that we are trying not to call out different employees. And we would like to keep this as a fair practice. And what is available for public record is the staff employees' salaries, but not the individual. We will not be... We will not be releasing our information, such as the employees' names. Thank you.

Mayor?

Yes.

Everything is public information, including the name of the employee. Including the name of the employee. This is the city's business, the residents' business. We have a right to know who is working for us and in what capacity.

Mayor, if I may further address that. I'm going to ask again. Chris, if we keep interrupting, we won't get to the end. And for the information that you want, to be able to prepare for the next meeting, you won't be able to get to it. We need to be... At least we can agree to disagree, but we need to be civil. I mean, it was mentioned earlier, but it hasn't been practiced forever. But please, let's give courtesy and respect to them. Let them make presentation and I'll jump in later. Chris, if you can go ahead on. If you have a comment later or a question, please ask it. Otherwise, we will not be able to get to this, the end of this meeting.

Mayor. Yes. We need the name of each individual. In the position.

And they have heard you, but can we allow, so here's what we can do. We cannot have this presentation without getting the information that we requested. Okay, so do me a favor. Allow them to go through the presentation. Let them get through the presentation the information that you need more of. Just take a quick note and we'll be able to give that to them so that you would have that information. But allow them to get the presentation.

I understand your intent, Mayor, and I can appreciate that. But we wouldn't have to be having this conversation if they did what we asked for in the first place. This is the whole reason why there's an issue right now. Why should we have to take notes when we specifically on September 3rd let the city administrator know what it is we wanted to be brought back? And he chose to allow Saab to go against the will and pleasure of his body. And what you have took an oath against. to abide by our charter and our ordinance that says the will and pleasure of this commission is the authority. You are allowing our staff to have a derelict of responsibilities to this body. And you're OK with that.

No, we're just trying to get through the meetings. No, we need your information. You don't need to do this.

So the staff needs to provide information that this body has asked for.

Chris, can you all continue with your presentation? We're going to allow them to continue their presentation right now.

Before they continue and wasting time in the fact that this is not what we asked for, we might as well skip this presentation and move on to the next one. um presentation Chris can you things that we asked for this is just wasting time this is wasting time this is not what we asked for and then next time they can come prepare what we asked for but let's get this and move on to the next um they should have been put already Mr. Mayor can you allow him to respond please

Chris, just continue. You were here. Just continue.

Let's get through this.

I'll try to be as quick as possible. Thank you. The next slides, they just go through and show how the departments are allocated, the percentage of salaries dedicated to departments and so on and so forth. It's not so much important to us who occupies a position because that can change throughout the year. So whoever's in the position today may not be in that position come January. So the cost of the cost, and you're really just talking about the bid, and it's really kind of a lot of detail to go through. But since you're not interested in it, this is the enforcement allocation. You can see that there's one position that's allocated between two departments. 60% of that person's positions are allocated as code enforcement. So there's basically 3.6% or 2.6 full-time equivalents in that position. And then you can see how much their salaries are for that position and what percentage of the budget they represent in that department. The same in the building department. There's one position there, 100% allocated. Next. Public works, you'll see that you have four people who are allocated to multiple departments. But the percentage of the department that is allocated to salaries is fairly small because you have some very high operating costs in public works, such as solid waste costs. In the Parks and Recreation Department, once again, you see that there are some people who are allocated between multiple programs and a percentage of the budget of that particular budget. In this case, Mary's Park, how much of the money of the budget is going to salaries? Just as a note, there are some departments that are very heavily service-oriented, and the salaries make up a large percentage of their budget. Then you have things like public works where you have a lot of operating, so relative to the total budget salaries don't really make up a big percentage of it.

Next.

So this is McDeer Park, same dynamic as you would see for Mary Saunders Park. Juvenile crime prevention, which is mostly grants funded for the youth force and maximizing out of school time. And then you have the senior citizens programs. You have some allocations there for other departments. Then you have stormwater, and you have two people assigned to this department, and half their salaries here, half are in other operations. So it was just designed to basically show you how many people are working in each operation, what their salaries are in those operations without having names that you seem to want. And now I'll turn that over to the manager for the organizational chart.

Okay, this organizational chart just kind of explains what he has as an organizational chart format. So at this point, the next item, I'm going to have Arklane go over the survey. THAT SHE PREPARED SINCE LAST YEAR. STAFF'S SALARY COMPARISON TO CITY'S USE FOR CITY COMMISSION'S BUDGET, CITY COMMISSION'S SURVEY, AND SHE PREPARED THAT SINCE LAST YEAR, WAITING TO PRESENT. SO OUR CLAIM, IF YOU WILL, AT THIS TIME.

Okay. So what we're seeing here is, um, a comparison of 10 other cities with the city of West park. We compared at Valorum military population and the square miles of each city. So every city that was used, um, here today in this chart of similar size, just a point of order.

Um, this is not the same cities that were, um, illustrated. when you all did the comparison of salaries for the commission, this is not the same cities. And we asked for the comparison to be the same as the ones that we use for the city commission analysis. This is not it.

Okay, go ahead and continue.

No, I want accountability as to why do they not follow the direction of the commission? So the direction of the commission mayor, was that they use the same cities as the cost savings analysis for the commission. Yet they go and they're adding all these other cities that was not in the analysis for the city commission are clean.

I'm sorry.

Um, these were the same cities that were, you know, it was not.

So can you, can we go ahead and continue?

All right, so also these rates, just to let you know these values, this was supposed to be presented during the same time as the commission, when the commission rate were presented. So this was supposed to be presented last year. However, with the delay of the commission agenda, these values are from previous years. So you might notice that some of the rates are slightly different. So here we have a comparison of every position that is held with management and supervisors of the City of West Park. If you notice across the board, you'll see that the City of West Park's pay rate is lower THAN OTHER CITIES THAT WE COMPARED THIS TO. FOR EXAMPLE, THE CITY MANAGER'S PAY IS $196,084.46. FOR 16 YEARS AND FIVE MONTHS, HE'S BEEN WORKING WITH THE CITY OF WEST PARK. WILTON MANORS, THE CITY MANAGER MAKES $240,000 AND HAVE BEEN WORKING WITH THEM FOR 10 YEARS. PINE CREST, $261,867. and has been working with the Village of Pinecrest for four years. City of South Miami, the City Manor makes $275,285, has been working with them for three years. BELLGLADES, THAT CITY MANAGER HAS BEEN SINCE 2001, BUT WE DID NOT SEE A RESPONSE. VILLAGE OF LATANA, THE CITY MANAGER WAS WORKING WITH THEM FOR FIVE YEARS AND MAKES $251,206.96. North Palm Beach, the city manager made $155, $410.01 and has only been working with them for two years and seven months. The same with Miami Springs, Key Biscayne, we didn't receive back. For the city of Opa-locka, the city manager has been working there for seven years and makes $190,000. Miami Shores, the city manager makes $198,000. and has been working with them for four years. Our city manager has been the longest incurred at 16 years and five months and makes on the lower end compared to other cities. The assistant also to the next three positions the assistant city manager assistant to the city manager and the deputy manager are common prisons that are held with these cities of other size um millage ad valorem and you'll see that all these cities have all three of these prisons filled however with the city west park we only have the assistance to the city manager position um OFFERED, AND THAT MAKES $98,066.54. HOWEVER, WILTON MANOR HAS BOTH AN ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER AND AN ASSISTANT TO THE CITY MANAGER, AND THEY MAKE THE ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER MAKES $149,000, WHILE THE ASSISTANT TO THE CITY MANAGER, IT RANGES FROM $63,000 TO $96,000 ANNUALLY. The village of Pinecrest has two positions that assist the city manager, and that's the assistant village manager, which has been there for eight years, and they make $180,000. The assistant to the village manager has only been working with them for a year and makes $70,000. South Miami has one executive city manager that makes $68,208,000. The city of Belle Glade has all three of those positions that help. I'm sorry, going back to South Miami, they also have a deputy city manager that makes $195,000 to assist the city manager in daily operations. The city of Belle Glade has all three of those positions to assist the city manager, and the executive administrator makes starting pay $99,000 upwards $148,000. as well as an assistant city manager starting at $108,000 to $163,000. Also, they have a deputy city manager with starting pay $131,000 to $197,000. With the village of Lantana, the town clerk serves in the role in both roles of assistant to the city manager as well as the town clerk. We'll get to that later down the line. North Palm Beach. Their assistant to the city manager has been working there for only two years and makes $60,728.29. They also have a deputy village manager to assist them in that department, and they make $206,000 a year. Opelika also has three positions available, and Opelika's... Oh, sorry. And has all three positions occupied. Thank you. The assistant city manager makes $115,000 annually. The assistant to the city manager makes $49,000 annually and has only been working there for six years. The deputy city manager makes $115,000 and has been working there a little over five years. Key Biscayne has the assistant to the city manager position occupied, and that pay range is from 68,000 to 112,000. Also, these same cities in comparison to Code Enforcement Supervisors. Our Code Enforcement Supervisor make $78,230.34 annually. We have a code enforcement supervisor as well as a code enforcement officer, as you saw in the chart previously. However, these other cities, they have multiple of the same positions available. I know that the chart is small, but we did try to... put as much information in there to give you an overview that these are not the only positions that they have occupying this title or department. So a lot of times, like for example, the supervisor that is mentioned, they also have a code compliance officer in the city of Wilton Manors. The code compliance supervisor makes $56,763 to $86,814. And they also have a code compliance officer. Pinecrest, same thing, $54,000 to $83,167. The city of South Miami has a code enforcement officer and also has other employees that help with this department, such as the code enforcement officer starting pay is at $52,000 and it goes up to $84,000. They also have a business tax receipt coordinator that helps with this department that has a starting at $52,000 and goes to $84,000. They also have a code enforcement officer to assist. Moving on to the city of Belle Glade, they have a code enforcement officer that makes $41,000 to $62,000. Also, they have a code enforcement officer too that makes starting $44,000 to $66,000. A lead code enforcement officer starting pay $48,000 to $72,000. And a enforcement manager that's a starting pay of $53,000 to $80,000. Village of Montana, the code enforcement supervisor has been there for eight years and makes $87,270.56. North Palm Beach has a code compliance officer that's starting to pay $50,000 to $81,000. Emmy Springs has a code enforcement officer of $46,000 to $69,000. Opelika has a code enforcement manager with a starting pay, I'm sorry, that makes $71,999.98 and has been there for 12 years. Moving on to the Superintendent of Administrative Services. This position helps out the supervisor here at the City of West Park. They make $99,718.06. This position is the supervisor of the building department as well as events, organizing any events, city events that may occur. In comparison to other cities, it was really difficult to compare positions like these to other cities because it's such a wide range. So that's why you'll see multiple names listed. And then some cities, they said that they just don't have it. Well, it's not that they don't have it. It's that they don't classify it in the same name. For example, when I mentioned that the Supervisor of Administrative Services They are the supervisor of the building department. This, in other cities, they would have one in code enforcement or the, I'm sorry, building department listed as an additional employee. So we tried to do fields closely related to what we have here. which in the city of Wilton Manors is Lear Services Director at $86,622. It goes up to $108, 277,000. So then they also have an economic and development manager that helps out with that position, as well as Pinecrest has an administrative services manager that makes $91,884. MOVING ON, HERE WE HAVE A COLLECTIONS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SUPERVISOR. THAT COLLECTIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SUPERVISOR HAD TO BE DIVIDED WHEN I SENT OVER THE SURVEY TO OTHER CITIES. IT HAD TO BE DIVIDED INTO OTHER POSITIONS. FOR EXAMPLE, THE COLLECTION AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SUPERVISOR HERE MAKES $85,363.20. However, in other cities, this same position has to be divided in three other positions. Permit and collections, community development services specials in the city of Wilton Manors starting pay at $48,972 and goes up to $75,000. As far as the information technology supervisor in cybersecurity in Wilson Manors, that is a totally different person, which is information technology director at $110,000 to $166,000. And then they also have an IT manager with a starting pay of $76,000 to $94,000. And there's also other employees under that help. And then Wilton Manners also has permit coordinator starting pay $45,000 to $70,000. Pinecrest, the same thing. They had to break it up into three different positions because that's what they have closely related. They have... THREE DIFFERENT PEOPLE, AND ACTUALLY MORE. JUST BECAUSE THE TITLES ARE HERE, IT DOESN'T MEAN THAT IT'S ONE PERSON PER TITLE. A LOT OF TIMES I WAS RUNNING INTO, OKAY, WE HAVE TWO OR THREE DIFFERENT PEOPLE THAT DO THIS POSITION, BUT THIS IS THAT MAKES THIS AMOUNT. SO COLLECTIONS AND EDUCATIONAL SPECIALISTS STARTING PAY $49,316 AND GOES UP TO $76,000. THEIR ISO AND NETWORK ADMINISTRATOR HAS BEEN THERE FOR 15 YEARS. that person makes $127,000. They also have a permit service supervisor who's been there for two years and makes $61,000. South Miami, the same thing, had to divide it up. Here's another example. They have two permit coordinators and also an IT liaison. Belglade, same thing, they had to break it up. They have an account specialist. They also have a system programmer. They have a building permit clerk, and these positions range from $41,000 all the way to $62,000. Village of Montana, they have a permit clerk as well as a business tax receipt specialist. Their starting pay is at $48,000 and goes up to $60,000. They also have a permit technician. Same thing, $44,000 to $57,000. Their information technology director has been there for 18 years. makes $122,297.76. They also have a business taxi coordinator. Lantana again, their permit coordinator has been there for two months and makes $49,000. No Palm Beach. They had to break it up into more than just three different positions. If you'll see the first two, so the permit and license technician makes $62,000. IT supervisor makes $96,000 a year. And then for their permit coordinator, they range from $50,000 to $77,000. And they have about 40 positions that they was trying to provide there. Miami Springs has an assistant IT manager that makes starting pay $47,000 and goes up to $70,000. Opa-locka has a coordinator that's been there for four years, starting pay $49,000 and goes up to $70,000. The IT supervisor has been there for three years and makes $95,000, and the other two cities didn't provide information. So I'll move on to the director of engineering. This is another position that we try to put together. HOWEVER, HERE, OUR DIRECTOR OF ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION MAKES $112,481.41. BUT THIS POSITION HAD TO BE BROUGHT UP IN OTHER CITIES AS THE CITY ENGINEER OR DIRECTOR AND ALSO THE CONSTRUCTION MANAGER. SO THE CITY ENGINEER AND DIRECTOR FOR LYDIA WILSON MANORS They have assigned these due to the fire marshal, and the starting pay is $74,000 and goes up to $112,000. Their construction manager, their duties were assigned to the capital project and grants administrator. The Pinecrest, the building official handles their city engineering questions or anything that they have to do with engineering. And they have been there for three and a half years. And they make $202,000, $254,000. Construction matter for Pinecrest, these duties have been assigned to their public works directors. They've been there for six years, makes $184,912. South Miami, we were able to group it with South Miami, and they have an associate project engineer with a starting pay of $71,000 and goes up to $114,000. They also have a city engineer construction manager that makes $130,888 a year. Belle Glade, they have a city engineer with a starting pay of $125,000 to $188,000. Montana, we didn't receive information. Palm Beach, they have an engineer in comparison. They make... I'm sorry, they've been there for two and a half years and make $130,726.02. They also have a building construction manager, a senior building construction inspector, a senior building construction, I'm sorry, they have two other ones, both full-time and part-time. Moving down to programs, manager and emergency manager and director, coordinator. Here, that person at the SIGWES Park makes $107,959.02. This position, however, had to be broken up into five different positions in other cities. For the city of Wilton Manors, they had capital projects and grants administrator that makes starting pay $91,000 to $139,000. Administrative project coordinator starting pay $46,000 to $57,000. They also have a utility and an emergency manager director starting pay $110,000 to $166,000. Emergency manager and utilities director that's starting pay $127,000 to $183,000. And they also have an assistant director of emergency management and utilities. Same with the village of Pinecrest. It had to be broken up into three different positions. with an administrator, service manager that has been working there for seven years and makes $94,000. A public works director for six years that makes $184,912. An administrative services manager that makes $94,447 and has been working there for seven years. The city of South Miami has a grant coordinator that makes $85,000. They also have other positions in between to help with this same position, whether it be parks and recreation, cultural affairs, and things like that that have to be broken up into different departments, have to be broken up with different employees. Same thing with the city of Belgrade, everything had to be broken up with the starting pay of 39,000 going up to $104,000. Village of Lantana, that person, the program and services manager has been there for three years and makes $93,000. I'm sorry, that was the grant writer that has been there for three years and makes $93,000. Miami Springs, the assistant senior center manager starting pay 39 and goes up to $58,000. They also have an athletic supervisor starting pay 35 and goes up to $52,000. And they have a recreation coordinator. The city of Opelika has a social services manager with a starting pay of $67,000 and goes up to $107,000. Again, these are in comparison to our program and services manager and emergency management director. Theirs had to be broken up into a grant writer, a program services manager, stormwater administration, and stormwater manager and an emergency manager and director and coordinators for other cities. Moving on to Public Works. We have a Public Works Operations Manager that made $86,250.06. In other cities, these positions, as you can see, I know that they're small, but they've been broken up into several different positions because the assistance that's needed. such as the city of Wilton Mears, has a utility agency director with a starting pay of $110,000 and goes to $160,000. They also have a facilities maintenance supervisor with a starting pay of $43,000 and goes upward to $54,000. And also public works, maintenance workers and maintenance workers too. Pinecrest, as a public works director, has been working there for six years, made $184,912. City of South Miami has a public works director that has been working there for eight months and makes $107,000. Bell Glade has a director of public works with a starting pay of $9,000 to $135,000. They also have an assistant director to public works as well as a solid waste manager. These positions range from $69,000 to $120,000. LANTANA, THEY HAVE A MAINTENANCE, THEY HAVE TWO MAINTENANCE WORKERS AND A SUPERVISOR. THEY ALSO HAVE PUBLIC WORKERS, BUT THIS IS WHAT THE INFORMATION WAS ABLE TO OBTAIN FROM THAT CITY. NORTH PALM BEACH, THEY HAVE A FIELD OPERATIONS MANAGER THAT MAKES $75,000 TO $120,000 ANNUALLY. THEY ALSO HAVE A STREET MAINTENANCE WORKER AND ALSO A FACILITY MANAGER THAT has a starting pay of $71,000 to $114,000. Miami Springs has a public works director with a starting pay of $112 to $156,000. The building maintenance technician starting at $35,000 to $54,000, as well as other maintenance workers and clerical assistants in between to our one public works operations manager. Moving on to Parks and Recreation Manager for the City of West Park. They make $94,147.56 annually. Other cities have to break this position up into several different positions in order to run the department, such as Leisure Services Director, Assistant Director of Leisure Services will administer starting pay is $74,000 and goes up to $108,000. Pinecrest. Pinecrest has a gardens manager that has been working there for three years and makes $163,488 annually. They also have a Parks and Recreation Director that has been working there for eight years and makes $141,000. $24 annually. Lantana, their parks and recreation manager makes $109,000, $109,172.96 annually. North Palm Beach, they have a recreation manager, a parks manager, and a recreation supervisor with a starting pay of $56,000 and goes up to $114,000. Moving on to the city clerk. The city clerk here makes $70,720. Other cities have a city clerk as well as an assistant city clerk or even a deputy city clerk. to assist with these services. Wilton Manners, the starting pay is $78,440 and goes upward to $118,000. Pinecrest is a village clerk that makes $130,000 $85 annually and they also have an assistant village clerk that makes $53,000 to $83,000 annually. Belgrade has a city clerk and deputy city clerk. The city starting pay is $80,000 and it goes up to $120,000. The deputy city clerk, the starting pay is $48,000 and it goes up to $72,000. Lantana has a town clerk that is also the assistant to the city manager. They make $104,576.16. North Palm Beach, the village clerk makes $113,199. They also have a records clerk to assist as well as a communication manager. Miami Springs has a public information and professional services specialist as well as an assistant to the city clerk to help them with that same position. The city of Opelika, the city clerk was there for 10 years and makes $135,000. If we move on to the next position, social services manager here at the city of West Park makes $103,227.28. In other cities, such as Wilmington Manors, the supervisor starting pay is $50,000 to $62,000 in comparison. Pinecrest is $76,000 to $83,000, and Opelika is $67,200 and $7,800. Human resources supervisor here makes $76,514.36. In comparison to other cities, they have an HR and risk manager assistant and a director with a starting of $78,500 going upwards to $28,500. The village of Pinecrest has a human resources manager that makes $107,004. They also have a HR generalist to assist at $47,274 annually. Opelika, their pay for a human resources supervisor is $5,000.

They didn't do the same analysis. That's the problem.

The Community and Economic Development Director at the Sea of West Park makes $108,434.30. There are other cities, it's the same thing. They had to have other... other assistance for the doctors and other assistance for the department to help. So this position has been split in other cities between different people. For the community development services director, the starting pay is $86,000 to $108,000. They also have a community development services manager and a community development services supervisor. The Village of Pines, the planning director makes $169,182 and has been there for 13 years. Belgrade has a community relations coordinator, a community development manager, as well as director of planning and development. These positions range from $36,000 to $126,000 annually. Lantana Development Services Manager makes $80,941 to $101,000. NORTH PALM BEACH, THE COMMUNITY AND DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR MAKES $130,227. IT'S IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT THE SALARIES PRESENTED TODAY FROM THE CITY OF WEST PARK EMPLOYEES ARE ALL CURRENT VALUES, AND SOME OF THESE OTHER THAT WERE IN COMPARISON, BEING THAT THIS DATA WAS DONE LAST YEAR, SOME OF THE DATA IS FROM PREVIOUS YEARS, SUCH AS 2025. Thank you for listening.

We'll go on to part two. Mayor. I want to underscore that what.

We're not going to another presentation without addressing the concerns of the men on the first presentation. That's inappropriate.

Can you. We're not finished with this.

No, we're not going to go through several series of presentation without getting our concerns addressed.

So there is an order to this.

And we did take the order on this day.

So we're going to allow staff to present this. No, ma'am. And then we're going to.

I have questions about this presentation.

No, ma'am.

If the commissioners have questions, I think it's appropriate to address part one first before we move on to part two.

So I need for you all to listen here. You ask for this information, allow staff to get the information out, and then you will be able to come back and ask all the questions.

No, ma'am. It's the will and pleasure of the commission. It's the will and pleasure of the commission. You are to follow the, what the will and pleasure of the commission is.

I have a question. Let him share. Before we go into it.

Okay. So I need, I need for everyone to please, please be quiet. So staff is presented this information. We need to get through this stuff and then we can ask all the questions that we, let me finish, please. You're just rude. So we want to hear all this information. We definitely want to hear it, but we want to get through the presentations so then you can ask all the questions that you got.

So I just, can I finish? I'm just letting you know. Can I finish? I don't, I don't care. I just, I need to finish.

I understand you don't care about your colleagues.

So let me, let me, let me just be clear. And to the residents, again, we apologize for this foolishness that's happening. We're trying to get you the necessary information so that you know exactly what's happening in the city. And can I speak? Can I speak? I don't interrupt you. Can I speak? So I'm speaking to the residents trying to get out all this information so that you two can be an educated resident and know everything that you need to know about the budget. We're trying to get through it, so I would just ask the Commission if you allow staff to get through the information so that you can come back and ask all these questions. That's all I'm asking. So I know what you're going to ask your questions anyway. So what are your questions?

Ask your question. Mayor, ask your question.

I want to make my comment concerning what you're saying currently right now.

No, you want to ask questions about the question. Mayor, you're interrupting me. You're rude and disrespectful. You want to ask a question? You gave me the floor, and now you're interrupting me. Which one is it? I'm asking you a question. No, let me make my statement. Are you asking a question? Stop being rude and disrespectful. Stop interjecting when you give me the floor. I am asking you a question.

Go ahead and talk. I'll wait.

I'm asking a question. Is your question to staff about this? That's what I'm asking you. Whenever you yield the floor, I'll be ready. So, okay. So, okay. You... Staff, go ahead. Mayor.

Okay. Go ahead.

Mayor.

Go ahead, staff. Okay. Mayor. I'm sure. If I'm recognized. Mayor. I'm sure.

Mr. Balagon.

Yes. Mayor. I go to the next slide. I'm sure. Mayor. This second one asks questions about- Point of order. Some questions that were asked this time.

Point of order. Okay.

Point of order. Wait for a minute so we can get this thing clear up here.

Mayor.

Mr. Balagon.

There's a point of order. Because you're out. Order, Mayor.

Mr. Balgon, you guys want to go.

We want to try to. We told we want to be in the violation. Mayor. Of the Florida statute, as was indicated. We want, like we did the courtesy last time. I want us to get to the end so we can, even if there's going to be some delay later, you can act on the order. Mayor. And we can then go back to the second.

You cannot delay. The recognition of the city commissioner is in our code of ordinance. You're violating our law. The mayor, our presiding officer, should not use power as chairperson to dominate our discussion, nor shall the mayor, our presiding officer, unreasonably cut short our prolonged debate, discussion, our taking of a vote. You are violating our rights as fellow commissioners. Currently, you're violating our code of ordinance 2-24. The city manager knows that you're violating it, and he's really going along with your games.

Stop bull. What is the other information you have?

Mayor, there's a point of order. I'm only making water. I've not started the presentation. There's a point of order. Okay.

So we want to, I am asking everyone up here, You were finishing up the, are you finished with all of our presentation, Arklan? Oh, my goodness. Did you get everything out?

Yes, I'm done.

Okay. And that's part of what I mean. The mayor wants to give credence to staff over the commission that made the decision. If the commission has questions and concerns, this is how we can't get to the business. Because the mayor wants to play games. The staff had made a presentation with all these numbers, all this information provided, and she won't allow us to ask questions that we have.

If you would be quiet, you will have.

It's not my responsibility to be quiet. I have a point of order.

You would be quiet. You would not be silencing us. We were voted to be heard. So again, residents. I apologize for this display of foolishness. No, your display of foolishness and ignorance.

At this time, we're going to have each person that does have questions ask questions to staff so that we can move on and go through this.

Thank you.

So to the residents, once again, I must say we're trying to get through the entire presentation and then be able to ask all the questions at the end. So we're going to stop So again, I apologize for wasting your time, but we're going to stop. We're going to allow for a few questions, and then we're going to get back to the presentation for the second part. So if you have a question, now you have the floor. It is time for you to ask your question now.

Okay, first and foremost, in this information, we do not have information on what the sizes of the cities are, what the city budgets are as far as their budgetary constraints are concerned, or any of that information. In addition, it's not taken into account our contracted services that take up some of the slack. of us not having those positions filled. So there was no presentation or any allusion or correlation to what we're paying to our outside building department. There's no correlation in the records here to indicate what we're paying and that in relations to contracted services as well as all of our other contracted services as well. The presentation is very convoluted. It's just a bunch of numbers just being presented without any contents or relevancy to what was asked by the commission. We have already stated that we don't even know who these staff members are that are occupying these positions that are working for us as residents and business owners of the city. I do see that there are some areas in which we should be able to reduce the cost. It seems like we have a lot of chiefs and not a lot of Indians. I take exception to the fact that, as I have stated before, we don't have anyone that lives in the city that work for these lucrative positions where they could be making a sustainable living for their family in the city in which they live. They should be able to work. That's why it's important to identify the individuals who are working in these capacities because I have continuously alleged nepotism and cronyism in which the most of the benefit of the work in the city is going to friends and families of management and so forth. So it's very important for us to have the transparency as far as who is working in those positions. I also stated last time that we have had economic and development personnel for over 8 years now since I believe 2018 there's not robust economic and development. So we need to see in which areas we can scale back the costs associated with what our residents are paying out of pocket for. So specifically Arc Lynn had indicated that these costs are current. They would have been correlated to the page number within the budget and which it correlates to. Because I did take a brief look at the city clerk position in which it says that for the fiscal year 2027, $74,256 of regular salary. That's not including the $5,681 for FICA retirement at $10,121. life and health insurance at $15,143. So are these salaries that you've given, are all of these salaries base pay? Are all these salaries inclusive of FICA, retirement, life and health insurance, work compensation? and all the other things that come along with employer's responsibility to pay. So you have everything outlined in here, but you're not giving the totality of everything. We don't know if this is base pay that you're including, whether this is base pay with additional benefits or whatever. You're just throwing out numbers. We don't know where data was gathered from. And me having a clinical background where I am a big researcher in analysis is not even clinically significant. This is not even something we can trace back that this is factual input that is being provided. There is no footnotes here given as to where this information was extrapolated from. So to me, this is all made up numbers. You don't have any reference to where this information was gotten from. There's no email correspondence to you getting any correspondence from anyone on this. So did you just Google search and you got Google what the amount of salaries were? Like how was this information compiled? and so forth. There's a lot going on here. And I will reserve my time again to speak more and tell about each individual item. But I do think that there's some opportunity to use the calls to our residents of our city. I do think that there are some opportunities to consolidate. That's like with our social service manager. There's nowhere on here other than the city of Opelika that has a max salary of $107,800. We only created a social services department a few years ago, and the person is already receiving the top salary of $100,000. These individuals for parks and rec manager as well as the social services to my understanding all fall under parks and recs and we're paying $200,000 collectively for those departments. There needs to be some consolidation here. This is why there's so much concern throughout the state of Florida that we have excessive fat in our budget. We have individuals who are working for us that are not delivering on the expectation of the results that the residents desire. We have a human resource supervisor, and we also have Chris Dubbing as the finance director, the risk manager, and HR. He had three roles in which I don't even understand how he's qualified to do all three, being the finance director, the risk manager, and the HR director. And what I understand that you are, Glenn, are the human resource supervisor that works under Chris. So I don't believe that that role dictates for it to be $76,514.36. When on the lower end of a assistant director and our HR journalist, which that is what it seems as though will be closely aligned to that position. The highest amount for even Pinecrest is $74,041.50, in which that salary exceeds that, right? Again, with the community and economic development personnel, $108,434. $108,434.30, whereas we have some information that you have provided from God knows where that indicates that we'd be onboarding someone for less than what but we're currently paying now we're a small city with a tight budget right now we're considering going into our reserves are emergency funds to fund our general budget right right now residents throughout the state of Florida is a pining on amendment 3 to eliminate property taxes where as If the Amendment 3 passes, we will significantly lose a great amount of our revenue as far as funding essential services because the statute indicates that we can only fund essential services with that and not necessarily salary and benefits and so forth. I also asked at the September the 3rd meeting to have a breakdown as far as the benefits of the Administrator's Office. I had indicated that it's almost $600,000 that we the residents are paying underneath the Administrator's Office. So I wanted to find out, you know, what was the breakdown of that almost $100,000 going into a pension or a state retirement benefit each year for the administration's office? There was no such breakdown of that in this presentation. There are several things that I can take exception to, but I want to put this on record emphatically. How can we make a decision on the budget when we're getting last minute information? We were just provided all of these numbers to be able to go through, analyze on the spot, and make a decision to approve a budget for you. How can we do that? You guys sitting there, could you process all of these numbers and all of these information and all the analysis of one presentation of a series of presentations? Right? This would have been better suited in a workshop, whereas we could have asked all of the questions and concerns that we had, right, before we even got to you guys. But now we're still going through a budget that we got a couple of weeks ago that we haven't had the opportunity to speak with our administrative about our concerns on the budget. The first time we was able to speak to our city administrative about the concerns on the budget was September 3rd meeting. And now this subsequent meeting, he's supposedly answering our concerns from the September 3rd meeting in which they're not being answered. They're not being fully responded to. They are providing us what they want to provide us and not what the mission requested. So would you be comfortable making a business decision of this gratitude when not having all of the variables and all the information that you need to make an informed decision? Would you guys want the commission to prove a budget blindly and you not know where your money is going and how your money is being utilized and why? That's what I have to say. Thank you.

One more comment and I'll come back to you.

No, all the commission need to come here.

Can you allow me to run the meeting? You have to run it according to our rules. You have to run the meeting according to our rules, Mayor. According to our rules. Commissioner Evelard, you have the floor.

Comparing the salary to all these cities. I'm pretty much sure that these cities have a high commercial tax base. So I'm going to make an assumption that some of them that are paying to our employees, you have to take into consideration that most of these cities, they have a high commercial base, but we don't have a lot of bases that we're dependent on to sustain this. So With this type of salary, you know, the fact that it's not that we're a small city, but it's the fact that we don't have that high commercial base. So I'm going to say that some of these salaries, we've got to look at it and reconsider it. And so, too, I'm not seeing salary for the actual employees that are doing the work. that are making things happen. For example, the assistant to the code enforcement officer, the assistant to the city manager, the assistant to the superintendent of services, and the assistant to the first service manager. We have all these other employees that are working below these supervisors which are the ones that are actually getting the one, but we're not seeing their salary sharing on this report. So as Commissioner, Dr. Thurston stated, some information are missing. So again, this is a reason when I say we can set the millage rate to 7.6. We're always worried about cutting services, right? But no one hasn't thought about, in most industry, for them to restructure, they also look at their salary. Sometimes they have to cut salary or lower the salary or combine things to make it work. So I think for the bitterness of the resident and the city to make things work, you have to take in consideration the overall aspect, not just think about just raising the resident taxes. I know the employees, they need a job to sustain their family. But at the same time, for a small city too, we have to think about us, the residents, you know, paying those high taxes. And the fact that, yes, I understand that we want to make the salary compared to other cities, but we have to remember these cities have a high commercial tax base, but we're only relying on the residents. And if we keep on raising the taxes and keep and not taking consideration just to say that we're a city, then eventually we're going to run our residents at home.

I'm sorry, Commissioner, but we're getting a lot of feedback from the audience. I need you to be quiet, please.

Okay.

Go ahead, finish.

Yes, I'm just saying that if we can also show the information for the employees that are really doing the work, you know, to see how much make to see. Also, too, how we can help improve the salary and balance it out that everybody can, you know, make an inferior, you know, a fair income. And also, too, for the residents to have a fair tax break.

You're finished?

Yes.

Vice Mayor.

Yes. I share mostly sentiments with my colleagues here with what's happening here with this information sheet that we just received. I've noticed on here where, for instance, the director of engineering construction has been under the city administrator's budget, also under public works. Also, Parks and Rec for Mary Saunders and also McTier Park. That is this. I would like to know, my question is that this position here, is it one, two, three, four? Is it four different people doing this job?

No, ma'am. It's one person doing four different jobs. is the way you should probably look at it. So he's being allocated in part to the city manager's office for the duties he does there. He's being allocated in part to those other operations for the duties he does in those operations. It's really kind of a way of trying to allocate the cost of those programs to illustrate what they're actually costing the city. And you have a number of those positions within the city where people are being allocated to more than one program. Now, most employees are allocated to one program only. But you do have a number of people who wear different hats, and they are being allocated to different operations of the city. So it's not four different people. It's one person doing basically four different activities.

So for instance, okay, from the city manager's office, this person is getting $5,000. What person are you talking about? The director of engineering and construction. $5,624.32. Okay. THIS IS THE FIRST PAGE. AND THEN... HOLD ON JUST A SEC. THEN IN PUBLIC WORKS, SAME PERSON HAVE A SALARY OF $87,975.16. NO, SORRY, THAT'S NOT THE ONE. $84,000.

Not just reading what's here in front of me, but I read you I know what you're looking at, but you're right.

It for. You're correct, it's a big work part man, director of engineering construction 80,364 dollars and 80 cents in them. DIRECTOR OF ENGINEERING CONSTRUCTION. THIS IS PARKS AND REC FOR MARISON PARK. DIRECTOR OF CONSTRUCTION, $11,248.64. AND MYER PARK, DIRECTOR OF ENGINEERING CONSTRUCTION, $11,248. THAT'S THE SAME FIGURE AS UP HERE. And I've seen like the assistant administrators tools and stuff, they're double as well. So my thing is this, all these figures that I'm seeing on this sheet that you give us tonight, all these are to just, I don't see there's an actual breakdown for that position. My question is, all the figures that I just asked about, when that adds up, how much is this one person getting for all these three, four positions here? As you say, that one, something is not right. This doesn't make sense to you right here.

I apologize. It's not an unusual thing for.

Just a minute. You're saying that a base figure for this director, what is it, of engine construction, what is this total salary during the three or four position that you say you get? What is that? Because based on this here.

They're saying $112,481, but The further concern with that, Vice Mayor, is that we have a building department that would generally handle all of that. So now you have a directive engineering and construction. Then you have someone that's over the building department, right? We got so many.

No.

If I may, I'm going to let Chris address it, but I want to address the mayor and the last comment that was made that building department does not do anything that engineering and construction is totally, totally different. So I want to make that crystal clear. They do totally different things. The totality of what you were saying in the document that Arklan addressed the exact total number that you have there. So that's why we want to go in chronological order so that when Chris makes his statement, he shows the total of it. If you look at Chris's, if you look from what you just saw that Chris presented, if you look at Arklan's number, you see the position, you see the total amount. It is very important, and like Chris stated, and he wants to stay, I think his mic is low, he's trying to stay, is that you allocate. It's not unusual to allocate people to the department. I'll give you a case in point. I want to tell IC about, for the city, about almost 10 years ago, and they said they want to know the particular cost when they were trying to transfer my tear park to the city, particular cost of what that city is costing us. And we're able to do that by getting all this cost, who was worth in there in that cost. If we are told them it's only... We don't have anybody there or something, but there are people that are working and doing activities in that park, just like the construction person and engineering. He's doing construction over at McTea Park right now, which he did, oversaw the design, the engineering, and doing the construction. We're seeing it right now. That's a cost that you never get anywhere. He also did in McTea Park, Mary Saunders Park. BEFORE, AND IT'S STILL WORKING ON THAT RIGHT NOW, AND IT WORKED ON THE GRANT FOR THAT. SO DOES PUBLIC WORKS, WHERE IT DOES THROUGH ALL ROADWAYS. IT'S PRESENTED SEVERAL TIMES OVER HERE FOR YOU AS TO THE ROADWAY THAT'S HAPPENING, WHICH IS UNDER PUBLIC WORKS. SO INSTEAD OF HAVING, WHICH ALL THE STATES WHERE YOU WILL HAVE ENGINEER AND CONSTRUCTION PERSON FOR ALL THOSE DEPARTMENTS SEPARATELY. WE ONLY USE ONE PERSON TO DO WORK FOR EVERY ONE OF THOSE DEPARTMENTS. THAT'S WHAT WE'RE EXPLAINING. BUILDING DEPARTMENT, JUST SO YOU KNOW, ONLY ENTAIN BUILDING CONSTRUCTURES THAT ARE WITHIN THE VENDORS BRING FORWARD, NOT CITY ACTIVITIES. AND THEY DO NOT GO INTO RIGHT-OF-WAY WHILE THIS ENGINEER DOES EVERYTHING WITHIN RIGHT-OF-WAY AND EVEN ISSUE PERMITS WITHIN RIGHT-OF-WAY. The scope of work that Arlene submitted to these agencies and these other municipalities is what made them realize so many people do the same, so different people do the same work. in their city. That's what she was trying to explain. By looking at the scope of work that this one person does, they have to divide it in so many places in other cities. Cities have been part of other cities where each department has their own engineering. And that's what we can afford that here. That's why we have one person. And it was stated earlier that somebody has There's assistance all over. We don't have. Even assistance, you will see that in the chart, assistance are shared by multiple departments. And that's why we put it. The assistance share is shared by code and public works and also assistance in another department. So that's where we try to make sure one person helps every several departments. SO WE WON'T HAVE TO HAVE ONE PERSON TO COVER EACH DEPARTMENT. AND THAT'S WHY WE DO IT AND CONTRACTUALLY BECAUSE WE KEEP IT SO SMALL. AND DESPITE WHEN YOU HAVE CONTRACTUALS TOO, SOMEBODY HAS TO SEE THE CONTRACTUAL AND PROCESS ALL THE PAPERWORK THAT GOES WITH THAT CONTRACTUAL. THAT'S HOW IT WORKS.

MAYOR? YES. We don't really have a whole robust construction and building and so forth, right? We have someone that does a collection and information technology supervisor that's supposed to do the permit collections and IT supervisor, IT. Like, don't we have a separate IT personnel that does IT work? Like, we have all these assistants that he says are doubling in other departments, but the commission itself doesn't have an assistant. Everything that the commission does, we're doing it individually. We don't have any assistants of any staff whatsoever. None. None to do any research, none to do any follow-up, while also maintaining full-time employment. There's nobody relegated to assist the commission to get the things that are needed to done as well. So we have deficiencies everywhere. in regards to how the city is being run. And maybe because we do have people who are dubbing in three and four different positions while we have so many complaints, not only by residents, but on business owners, how long it's taking for them to get permanent approval processes and so forth. How it's not, you know, how we're not being business friendly in certain regards. And this is probably why it is that when the commission is asking for questions and information and transparency, we're not able to get the things that we're asking for because we have individuals that are dubbing in so many different positions that they can't focus and do their best work in one area. It just seems like we have a lot going on that we need to figure out collectively. I don't understand. We never had... I'm still honing in on this HR thing because I get so many different... And I know you guys have to get emails too from employees about HR processes and so forth. There was a... individual like I had brought up before they had complaints on the human services director and this is not the first complaint nor the second or the third and I don't know what's being done to help secure that issue because there are some very liable things that are being stated in the email correspondences that I see everyone was copied on and But there's been no addressing of that situation with our direct report already manager to find out what he's doing to look into those matters that can produce liability for the city. If someone is manipulating time seats for our employees that work underneath our director of services we should be very concerned about that and those are the type of things that we need to be in updates on um you guys yeah it's quite funny what we get updates on that doesn't really relate to city business but the things we should be getting updates on we're not getting updates on and information that we are requesting informed decisions are not being presented. Shameful.

Did you have something to go with this presentation, please?

One more thing while they're getting the presentation. Mayor, one more thing while they're getting the presentation ready. I did have a question because we have a opening this year for the public works. Have we had a position posted for the public works?

Yes.

We're working on it. It's currently posted now? Yes.

The position has closed because we are in review. We have received applications.

When was that position?

The position was advertised before he left. The position was advertised and we have received applications for that position but since it has closed. To give us time to review.

I've never seen any posting or any information shared to let The residents know that there was a position available to be posted for. We have our social media. We have the text blast, our email. I haven't seen any of those modal of communication to try to get a good pool of individuals to apply for that. So how was that position advertised? It was just on the website.

Exactly.

It was just on the website?

It was on the website as well as other websites.

Okay, so you guys did indeed and you did our own website, but no other type of posting of availability of positions, correct?

That's the way we post. We post on the city's website.

Okay, well.

Okay, thank you.

Can you continue? Thank you.

Who's there? Okay. Next slide. We're asked to bring forward the explain the increase of BS cost of BSO budget. We'll have before you the consideration that's submitted. What we generally do is and what you have here, you have the comparison from last year to this year and which is what we review in-house all the time. As you know, the legislator also passed a policy that increased the retirement attribution for offices, which contributed to some of these major items on the line items here to your right. To the left is the letter that submitted summary of the consideration, which is general personnel expenses. It kind of went up by 1.75% approximately, and the operating expenses at $735,350, approximately 11%, and the capital outlay actually by 2.9 percent approximately and reserves amount is about 4.25 percent. You will see on the next slide the breakdown of all those items in this year for a total amount with the increase by the state that the state imposed on every special pay category of the retirement. It went up 11.9%. Mayor, point of information.

Yes. I thought that I heard something about the reserves. Can you restate that?

In every budget since day one that we see a prior year every year in there. Go to the next slide. In the budget consideration, there's a transfer. This is last two items. A transfer to general fund, OPEB reserve, which is a reserve that I referenced, the OPEB reserve line item. So the total of that, in this case, this year they don't have OPEB reserve line item. You see that the bottom is three, so drive to general fund for their department, which is BSO. Every city gets that for administrative services that they do with the department. That's $318,000, which is 4% increase from last year. They transfer to reserve for activities such as payroll, administration, management, and all of those things. Every city gets that part of because it's the services. Everybody has to administer all their work, the transfer they put into the reserve. That's how it is. That's the section.

What does it indicate here, transfer reserve?

No, no, no. Okay, the category is titled in the prior page. The category on the left slide of the slide, the category is listed transfers and reserves. It's listed as that. Look at the left side of the first slide, which shows the category is 318,000. However, if you go to the next page, which is the last.

Be highlighted on that screen because I'm not seeing it.

Okay. You don't have I will be here here. Let just just follow my cursor. Follow it. See right here. The summary consideration letter that they sent over says transfers and reserves over there you talking about? Okay, it says transfers and reserve which is $318,000. Chris, you want to make a comment?

Yeah, reason the sheriff does that is that those first three line items on that consideration letter. or what the sheriff's budget is. That last thing, the transfers and reserves, is what the county commission burdens the sheriff's office with, is transfers to the county's general fund and also what they call OPEB, which is other post-employment benefits. The county commission requires the sheriff for his contracts, both at the port and at the cities, to suicide money for future retiree health benefits. Now, this isn't something the county pays its employees, so they just burden the sheriff with that. And in turn, the sheriff burns us with it because the county commission, keep in mind, the county commission is the one who ultimately approves the sheriff's budget. So they burden that burden that the county puts on the sheriff. In turn, that's their share of the cost that the county is burdening him with. So that money goes to the Broward County, not to the sheriff.

Right, so then why is any extra funding that the city has paid goes to county?

Well, that's a really good question. Fortunately, we don't have any control over how the county commission adopts their budget. We're just burdened with it. That's been, you know, I don't know what to tell you about that. The county commission and the county budget office tries to recover their overhead. which is their budget, you know, anything that they feel their burden with, you know, oversee the sheriff's office and other constitutional offices. They feel they should be able to recover some of those administrative costs, and that's what that is intended to do. The OPEB is a separate line item. There's a separate line item in the budget, and there used to be an OPEB reserve, but that doesn't exist anymore. That was a separate line item that the county commission had to set aside money for future retiree health benefits for the sheriff's office that the city's had to pay for. I know it's a mouthful, but it's basically overhead that we're having to pay in the sheriff's contract. The sheriff does not budget for that. The county commission tells them what to do, and that money's just paid by us and then transferred over to Broward County.

Yeah. And this is why I made the statement over and over that we need to put out a RFP for our public safety services because there's no way that our residents are paying BSO any refund that we get back or any charge that goes to the county reserves and not back to the city. That's ridiculous. That means that we don't have any autonomy over the monies that we're paying to BSO.

Well, I would say you do have a good deal of control over it, but ultimately that overhead that I was just explaining is not something you're going to have any control over. Now, whether your budget comes in under or over, you do have control over that and how you negotiate the contract. And I understand your concern about, well, maybe you should do an RFP or whatever. But, you know, I'm concerned tonight. We're going to run up last year we ran right up until 11 o'clock and almost ran out of time and we need to adopt a budget to not I just don't want us to go off on any tangents.

I'm glad that you said that because that is that we ran out of time, but it's due to the planning of the city administrator on how he's chosen to provide us the information that we need, right? If we would have scheduled a workshop in between this to kind of hash this out before the decision was actually supposed to be made, then that would have been a better way to handle all of these concerns instead of wanting to shove all the information down out to be able to consume and to comprehend and to analyze all in one sitting and then want you to make a decision immediately afterwards.

One hour.

All in one hour. Because mind you, we just went over into another meeting. So this was all supposed to be done in one hour. One hour.

I would also remind you that we do have, I mean, it'll probably go five hours, not one, but we do have a second budget hearing for both the millage rate and the budget, so there is time to discuss it. I just don't want you to not have a first meeting and end it like we did the last meeting because that's going to be a real problem. I just want to remind you of that, not to lecture or scold, just to keep an eye on it and try not to go off on too many tangents because it does erode the touch you have for major ticket items.

Okay. So I was also inquired about the general enforcement contract. And this is the contract for the law enforcement of BSO. We just discussed this last year. We presented the same slide and brought it back, which is the same item. Next slide. The page 44 was echoed during the last meeting that page 44 of the budget police department at 84%, 88.71%. And the question was asked, is that the increase in police department from last year? The answer is emphatically no, it's not the increase. The analysis, the table and chart shown on that 44 of the budget book is intended to compare each department to the total expenditure of the general fund, but you will notice that if you look at that number of that department, which is not all for BSO, it's just the department. If you divide that by the total general fund, multiply that by 100, you'll get 38.71%, which is generally all the analysis is. It should also be noted that on that page, 2.3 4% of that amount, or you will call it $246,392, has to do with other parts instead of the police, the BSO. It covers school crossing guard, explorer expenses, rental and leases, and the grants that we received from Brian Jack Grant. On page 44, which is what I referenced the last time, time, this is the chart. And you will notice that the chart is reflected of the pie chart. The table is right over the pie chart. Next to it, we kind of correlate the total from each side, because that was mentioned. I wanted to make sure I clarified that was this. Also on page 44 shows we continue the table that I, the budget portion that reflect that is also included and carved out where the professional services is what BSO is and the rest that I called out are listed on the five that I called out are listed in the bottom of that page.

Mr. Balgon, it's a question for you. It's the one question.

Okay, so... What you were saying about the 38.71%, that's not the portion of police department from the general budget? Yes, that's what it is.

Did you just state that or did you just misstate? That's what I just stated, that it's the 38.71%. of the police department budget is from the entire total expenditure on the bottom. Last meeting, you said is that the increase police department budget, is that the increase of the police department from last year? It is not.

Okay, so then are you going to answer what is the difference in the increase over last year?

that I just went by that two slides ago.

No, no, I didn't see that. What was the difference? What is the percent increase over last year?

Cause that was, I went through all when I was explaining all of these. Okay.

Can you just say it again? What's the percentage of increase? I didn't see that. I don't see that. What is the percentage of increase over last year? Last year we budgeted something million dollars. This year is budget 10.1. What is the percentage increase over last year? that would allow him the opportunity to answer.

I wanted to make sure he understood. Mr. Balagon.

Well, again, not only would we understand the question, we just explained it, and I'm going to go back and explain it again. I went through line item by line item earlier, and I explained that the total budget for that department from the considerations submitted from BSO is at $9,918,000. And the breakdown, total personnel expenses, 8.5 million is a decrease of 11.7%, which is what I, to your far right, you see the total.

Where is that? I just want to see, where is it in here?

If you compare the bottom.

Be quiet.

If you compare the bottom, the 8.55, And the bottom there with the prior year, if you look at the right column, the column shows last year, it shows this year. By looking at that, You will see 7.5 for personal expenses and 8.5 for personal expenses. The difference in that is approximately 11.7%. And then you go to the next page.

Where are the 11.5% on this presentation?

I'm telling you that because I know how to calculate. So it's not written there. If you calculate the difference from 7.5 to 8.5, you will see 7,520,826 was last year's general personnel expenses. And this year, 8,554,494 THE DIFFERENCE IS THAT IT'S APPROXIMATELY 11.75%. I MEAN, IF YOU GO TO THE NEXT PAGE, WHICH IS, I'M TRYING TO EXPLAIN WHAT IS IN THERE, CONSERVATION TO THE LEFT THERE, YOU LOOK AT OPERATING EXPENSES, 725,000, WHICH IS WHAT THE TOTAL IS UP ON THE SECOND COLUMN TO THE RIGHT OF THAT. THAT IS ALSO THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO. $651,130, and for this year, $125,350 is approximately 11.4% of that. You go to the next one, capital outlay, which is what indicated in this consideration letter. Last year, it was $129,721. This year, it actually reduced, and I threw this earlier, $320,128. It's approximately... 2.9% less than last year. And that's why I mentioned that the last final item, the last category, we consider the mentioned transfers and reserves. That's a total of from 305,000 to 524,000. to $318,771 for approximately 4.34%. So the general total at the bottom, total at the bottom of the entire thing went from $8,807,209 to $9,918,745. Again, that's approximately 10.9% of the increase. That's what I'm calling out.

Why are we budgeted for $10.1 million if the actual cost is 9.9? In the budget book that we are proposing to approve tonight, the budget for BSO does not correlate with the cost that's on this form.

I explained that also earlier, and I'm going to explain it again. If I go through that right now, if you let me explain, I just explained it just a few minutes ago. The department... I INDICATED THAT THE DEPARTMENT DOES NOT ONLY INCLUDE PROFESSIONAL SERVICES OF CONTRACT OF THE BSO. IT ALSO INCLUDES SCHOOL CROSSING GUARDS, POLICE EXPLORER, RENTAL ANALYSIS AND VARIAN GRANTS EXPENDITURE. I WENT TO THE NEXT PAGE, AND YOU SEE THERE, THAT $9,918,745 CORRELATES WITH THE NUMBER THAT I JUST CALLED OVER HERE AT THE BOTTOM. THE OTHER FIVE THAT ARE LISTED ARE THE ONES LISTED DOWN HERE. I JUST EXPLAINED ALL OF THAT. SO WHEN WE'RE COMPARING THE DEPARTMENT, WE LOOKED AT THE TOTALITY OF THE EXPENSES IN THE DEPARTMENT. WE'VE ALWAYS INCLUDED IN THAT DEPARTMENT SERVICES LIKE PROBABLY rental and leases for the building and also Police Explorer and also the Bryant Grant, which has to do with law enforcement. All these categories includes law enforcement. That's how it's always been, even before I got here over 16 years ago. So we correlate all of that with that. And that's where the total is.

So do we add the 10.9 and the 2.42% on page 26? to get the total percent of increase over last year. So we do the 10.9 that you are approximating it is without having the values before me. And then the 2.42% that you have allotted for the school crossing guards, police escorts, renter, rental and leases, we add that to the 10.9. for a grand total of approximately 13.1% increase over last year.

The police department compared to the... My question is very simple. No, it's not.

You're mixing apples with oranges. No, I'm asking do we, since that was not included in the operational costs, the $246,000 $392 that you said was not accounted for to make up the 10.1. You have indicated the percent on page 20 cents. That is 2.42%. That is what that accounts for, right? I'm asking you then now, do we add that to the 10.9% of the operations of percentage that you had for the 9.9?

Absolutely not.

Why we add that together?

Because it's not. You're comparing oranges with apples. Apples with oranges.

That don't make no sense. It makes sense.

You need to listen.

The comparison of this budget is from... Mr. Balogun, give me one quick second.

It is so simple.

I need the entire commission to allow him to explain because we've been over this several times. So, Mr. Balogun, I need for you to be quiet.

No, it's not. They're comparison apples to oranges. Number three of what?

Mr. Balagon, can you... Can you share that info, where, what page?

I'm going to start, listen. I need you to be quiet.

I just need you to be quiet. Why are you taking so much energy on one resident? You're out of order. You stay out of that. You are out of order. Mr. Balagon, please continue. Audience, please. STOP POINTING OUT ONE INDIVIDUAL. AGAIN, AUDIENCE, I APOLOGIZE FOR THIS FOOLISHNESS.

MR. BALAGON, CAN YOU PLEASE CONTINUE?

BSO's cost is totally separate and apart from the other percentage that was mentioned. This BSO cost and the percentages I mentioned there is only comparing last year to this year. So that's different and apart. When you are finding percentages, you go by the numbers from the prior year and this year, difference times 100 gives the same. That's totally separate. The item that I mentioned here, It's just comparing this with 2.3% is from the $10,000. $10,000,000 doesn't have anything to do with the percentage of the difference of these two. Mayor, so he's totally different.

Can you go back to page 28? Or on the page 28 of the hand that you get that you gave us? Yeah, OK on page 28 showing the total amount from. 2,026, but it says 8,083,194. And then for 2,027, it's 10,165,107. So it is that 10,165,137. That's where you get the percentage for the budget. So to know the difference of increase, you just minus the 10,000, the 10,000, the It may be the difference right there.

And that's the 13% that I was talking about.

No, it's not. From what you are saying, if you go by what you are saying, it's right up there. That's what you're looking at. I'm glad you said that. I'm very happy with that. Mr. Balligan, please continue. I'm talking to the commissioner. That 2.45% of that total is what I'm talking about, total. If 2.45%, that means it's 97.58%. Trust me, I thought math. The BS budget of this page is 97.58% of this total. I could give it to your head.

I do this all the time.

Listen, no, we don't. If you look to the left, crossing guard, school crossing guard, I've contracted for school. I went through all of this last year. We have two contractors. Camp, they get paid that. The rental services, it gets paid to the building where it's occupied. The explorer.

Huh?

A company that serves crossing guards, not BSO. That doesn't go to BSO.

No, what I'm saying is that the city cuts the check directly to the company for the crossing guard.

Yes.

And the city cuts it directly to the rentals for BSO.

Exactly. And the Big Explorer is an explorer program that you adopted here for $10,000 for us to get the money and put it for them from grants. And then the Byron Grant is a grant that we received. It's that grant that we received from the federal government. And we put that, we allocate that one in here. for security reasons. That's only $3,000. Now, the 2.45% is the percentage from this 10,000. If you add that number together, 2.45% and divide it by 10 points, you get 2.45 if you want to know what the percentage of BSOs budgets to this total that I'll be I don't even do the math ninety seven point five six percent So it's that example. That's why I'm saying you do it oranges to apples If you take your calculator house, you connect me up ten hundred minus two point four six is ninety seven point five eight You say that's what the number of ninety ninety nine nine million and eight is so you losing you doing the oranges to apples the other

percent i was talking about is just how is finding the difference between two of these departments that's how simple is total opposite ranges yeah i understand what you're saying but it's um it's portraying differently when you look at the graph because exactly you're including the police department as overall for for all those other entities you know the crossing guard no it's not using no okay on here on the graph says police on page 27 it says this department 38.71%. But we're thinking that that's for, you know, police department. What you're saying now, the crossing guard, the rent, those in a way should not be included as part of the policy.

It's always been police department. It's not, we went through this several times before. Police department is professional services, which is the line item. If you look at it up there, police department is that. Because police department enforcement, since before I even got here, and it makes sense, even red light camera, if you look up there, used to be up here. It's not on here now. Red light, anything enforcement goes on the police department. That's always been everywhere. Yeah, I understand. So that said, we've explained that professional services, For police, the BSO is 9.9, and it correlates with the total I just told you right here. So when all I was explaining is that the numbers, if you go back to the chart, the numbers that you saw at the police department of nine, it not only includes professional services for police department, it also includes this. We were trying to make it clear that it is clear. We did the exact same chart we explained last year.

Right. I understand. But no, you can't see where Commissioner Thurston.

No, it's not.

She says I'm totally different.

Why is he cutting off the commissioner? Like, Mayor, why is he cutting off the commissioner when she's speaking? Where's the decorum? Why is he cutting off Commissioner Evelard?

Go ahead, Mr. Bannon.

But what I'm saying is that...

Go ahead, Mr. Balagon. It's the fact that you say that that encompasses enforcement. So I'm thinking that I'm calculating everything that encompasses enforcement. But what you are explaining now is that you're showing us this separation from BSO and other entities, even though they're all from the same category as police. But now, from what I'm understanding is that The police department encompasses BISO, encompasses the crossing guard, encompasses police explorer. It's like different entities compromise the department.

That's the second part. The first part, which is this part here, where on the screen, that part, I was comparing last year's budget to this year's budget. And the percentages was what I was calling out. You can't add the 2% to that. It doesn't make any sense. Now you're going somewhere else. So, but just to continue to make sure the spirit of what Chris said earlier, uh, these are the other, uh, was requested to actually present it last year. We needed that. This is, this is the contract. These are the information and the comparison I've already explained that. And then, uh, uh, Just so you know, we went last time, so I'm just going to brush through it. These are the items that we discussed just Monday, right? These are the items we discussed Monday. We also talked about the fees in there. One item that was brought up was also during the last meeting that want to know why public works budget is $4 million. There was a question that is that That formula, does it include solid waste? It, in fact, includes solid waste. It was said that it does not include solid waste. Yes, it includes solid waste. In fact, the majority, 3.3 million of it, is part of solid waste service. The rest of the budget is based on streets, roads, landscaping. This is mostly funded from solid spatial assessment and tax, gas tax fund. So you will see in the chart below that the 3.2 million is for the solid waste services and we also have the Excess bulk trash and county fees that also pay to the to the accountable let people go dump out the transportation and also we have the solid waste authority assessment that we collect all of that totals are probably $33 million. I wanted to point that out.

Okay, for this. Wait, um, where does it where does it reflect the commissioner? I beg your pardon? It doesn't reflect the administrative fee. Can we have the franchise fee? Because I know this had a mention at the last presentation that there was a $75,000 overall administrative fee. So we're in here in the fees that you're breaking down?

This is expense line item. This is the expense. The administrative, if you go to the page of the budget as part of the revenue, that's where that goes, in the revenue line item. This is the expense portion. Okay, that goes into general fund and the line item on the solid waste, where the amount goes into revenue, this expenditure.

But isn't the franchise fee also revenue?

Yep. Yeah, but that franchise fee is also listed in revenue. You go to the solid waste commercial transfer, then you have solid waste franchise fee. It's all in the revenue item.

Right. No, my question is...

This is expenditure.

Right, but the administrative fees are expenditure. So where does it reflect on here?

No, the revenue is not expenditure. Administrative fee that comes from the $75,000 comes into revenue. Right, I think I understand.

Yeah, but the resident is paying for it.

Right. I think I understand the question you're getting to, Commissioner. So we do franchise agreement. We do charge $75,000 to the contractor for the cost of administering the contract. So that's basically to cover personnel costs, mostly in public works and code enforcement. They're specifically identified like that in the budget. It's just kind of like we think it's about $75,000 in labor that we spend annually between the commission, the manager, the public works director, whoever, in managing the cost of those contracts. But that's the cost that the contractor pays us, but eventually that's recovered from the customers themselves as part of managing that contract. So if you want to know where that $75,000 expenditure is, it would be buried into the costs of public works and code enforcement salaries.

No, that's not the question I'm asking.

Okay.

You said the residents are the ones paying for it, right?

Well, they pay for that.

This is what we said. The amount that the resident is going to have to pay is... $677.88. So somewhere in the line, that $75,000 is being incorporated in that figure. So my question, what line entry or what separate line entry is recovering that fee?

Okay, it's in the revenue account that the manager was just referencing?

No, on here on the breakdown that you're showing us. In the budget, in the budget.

OK, so on the budget, there's an expenditure and there's a revenue. They're two separate things and we have to account for them separately. We can't like blend them together or offset them against each other. They have to be accounted for as a revenue or an expenditure. So the expenditure is basically what the contractor is going to be paid for their services. And the assessment that we collect from, which includes the franchise fee, which we get back from the contractor as a form of revenue, perversely. So everything that we charge to the contractor, there's a charge that we pay the contractor, but in turn, the contractor has to pay us certain fees, one of which is the franchise fee, which is ultimately paid by the customer. Another is that $75,000 administrative fee, which is ultimately paid by the customer. And then there is a charge that we hit them up for scholarship funds, I think. And that ultimately, I'm sure, is paid for by the customer somehow, some way. But those are all revenues. So you'd have to look at the revenue side and you look at the expenditure side, and they're going to pretty much each other out because like the scholars money of course is accounted for as a scholarship expense and the uh the 75 000 administrative fee which we would get from is accounted for in salaries of public works code enforcement mostly although not specifically identified as such and uh what did i forget it seems like i'm forgetting something else that is accounted for the little pockets if you will because i i understand what you're saying about what i'm trying to aim

is that that $700 and 13 cents that shows us our tax bill.

Correct.

Is what taking care of everything right there.

So, yes. So keep in mind, I mean, it says $706, but I'll know that. Yeah, I know they get the 4% discount. Right. So what we're budgeting for is that of that discount because we're never going to get it.

I understand that.

All right.

I was just concerned about how is the cost of paying for.

It's all their garbage assessment.

But I see everything is in that.

Yeah, what's not in the garbage assessment is those excess bulk waste fee and also the solid waste authority fee that we have to pay now to the solid waste authority. That's something that's easy eating. So, I mean, you can also bury that in the assessment if you wanted to. It's already pretty high. So we're kind of cognizant of what the bills actually are. Solid waste is a very expensive proposition. And it's only going to get worse, I'm afraid.

All right, thank you. Commissioner Touchstone. Commissioner Touchstone had a question.

Just to go back to what was stated about the contract, Chris was about to explain when the BSO contract and what was the time that we would have to give notice to terminate the contract.

Well, I don't think I was addressing.

I think it was on the page that you guys are skipping over page 25. It says visit language within the BSO contract for termination of the contract. Let's get to that, please.

It's right there on slide 25. It's right in there. I can't read it. It's so small. But it explains it in several facets. It was added in the top there, and it explains the verse 14 here. It explains that, and it goes to B, C, and D. Can you read it, please? You have it in your...

I cannot read it, and I cannot see it on here.

I'll have to stop.

And for full transparency... We gave you... Let's talk about it. What is the terms of the termination?

Can you allow him the opportunity to explain or give you a response?

Thank you.

Mayor, I'll have to print that. We went through the same exact document last year. We disputed it before the commissioner for it in an email, and we gave it to her, the entire contract before. So we didn't think it was necessary to do that. So if you want a copy of it, staff will get you a copy of this particular item. I believe it's clear. The residents should know as well.

We need to verbalize what it is. Let's vocalize for transparency. What is this state determination clause is?

When they bring it back in the printout, we go over it.

Well, you did this on your screen, right? You can see it visible on your screen, right?

You want to read and go to anything else except this part, right? It's in the paper that was given to you. Can you read it out for Dan Fancy? I want staff to make sure they have a copy and you have an exact copy. Staff will make a copy for you.

I have a copy, just can't read it. It's so small.

Okay. Staff will make you a copy of this.

But you can read it, though. We don't have to belabor the time. You can read it and let us know what it says.

Staff will make some copies for you. What what does it say he could just tell us what so again that will make the copies can anybody read that what is the mission of Smith can you read it.

Staff is going to make copies. You know any other. Questions that anybody have.

Yes, I have additional questions. But I wanted to get that answered on the record.

So staff will get that information.

You guys seem to have selective things of what you guys want to say on the record.

Is there anything else to present, staff?

I'm speaking. Is there anything else to present? You gave me more, and you're being rude, interrupting me. Again, Mr. Balagon, is there any other presentation on this?

Yes. Yes. I'm on this item. Mayor, I was speaking. I'm going on to the next item.

You asked if anyone else had any additional questions, and I said yes.

and then you rudely went on to speak with the city manager while I was speaking. I was talking to staff. I was not speaking to you.

You asked the commission if they have any other concerns.

What's your question?

Okay, so we also can go forward to the solid waste assessment fees portion of it. Now, I just want to make sure on record again, the termination of the solid waste contract is 30 days. So there's a situation that arises with that because we still have the consideration about the commercial impact and the eight-year contract. I had indicated before that there are several businesses that have raised concerns about having the sole source vendor for commercial businesses. So have we gotten an update on any of that.

We don't have any complaints that we know of that I stopped that not allow THINGS TO PROGRESS WITH ANY SERVICES THAT ARE GOING ON. DURING THE LAST MEETING, I ASKED IF THERE'S ANY COMPLAINTS FROM A BUSINESS, PRICE IT ON, AND WE PRICE IT ON SO WE CAN CURE IT IF THERE'S ANY. AND OTHER THAN THE ONE THAT WE KNOW OF, AND THE VENDOR WAS ALREADY EVEN TALKING TO THEM, THEY MISUNDERSTOOD THE STRUCTURE, AND THAT'S ALL WE KNOW. OTHER THAN THAT, SINCE THE LAST MEETING, I HAVEN'T GOTTEN ANY COMPLAINTS, ANY LIST OF ANY COMPLAINTS FROM VENDORS. It was echoed that colleagues had, but nobody provided anything.

Thank you. These individuals have reached out to waste management directly. So are you saying that you want these businesses to reach out to you when the contract is not with you?

It's not. Are they shady? Last meeting, what was said that they're... Commissioners, you stated that I've gotten claims and my colleagues, I'm sure I've gotten complaints. My response was, give us that complaint from the names of the businesses and we have vendor. To this date, I haven't won yet. Is there a way you can do it reversely?

Let me complete my sentence. What I'm saying is, is there a way that you can query the vendor for any complaints? Because the The vendors are getting the complaints directly from the business owners. So instead of having to give you the information of the business owner, the vendor themselves should have a running list of issues that they are coming up with with the business owners. Why can't you get information from them?

If you let me finish, I'll answer. We have already asked the vendor the same question, and the vendor, all the list, anyone that has complained, they've addressed it. And they're not only doing that, they're going to the store. They don't have anything. Okay. Even the day that the same very next day or the day of, staff met with them, three people met with them right here in this chamber, and they echoed the same thing. They don't have anyone that has not been addressed. Rizal. Okay. All what they've had in a nutshell is approximately people that do not understand the structure. I'm going to go through that. If we get through this, you will see a presentation that all reflects that. So that's why I want us to get to the end so you can see in totality what we have for you.

Mayor, let him finish.

Well, I have a point of information.

Can you let him finish?

I'm trying to.

Go ahead and finish, please.

I have a point of information.

Can you let him finish answering your question?

No, the point of information, according to Robert Ruth.

Mr. Ballin.

The point of information.

Mr. Ballin.

You can't follow the rules, Mayor. Point of information.

Anything else that you have to say, Mr. Ballin, on this issue?

Point of information. I'm going to yield in the spirit of making sure we get to the next, to get through this so we can go on. I don't know what other information. But I have the information.

Let her speak. Well, I haven't been recognized.

Go ahead.

The point of information is the city manager just indicated that the vendor has indicated there was complaints from business owners, but he has indicated that those have resolved, but that just lends to the point that it is more than one that you know about. You are saying that the vendor has received complaints and has resolved those. What has been the quantitative response? Results what has been first the issues that have brought forward to the vendor second what has been the resolution to those issues and what do they plan on doing to address the totality of the concerns that are at because if there's confusion have multiple business owners, then maybe that's something that the vendor should be looking into to try to make sure it's clarified for everybody. So there is data there, according to what the city manager is saying, that there are complaints to the vendor that has supposedly been resolved already. So that just lets me know that they do have a line of sight on these complaints and that the commission is being held in the blind. Because that information should have been put forward to the commission to say, hey, since the initiation of this, the vendor has indicated that the business are either confused. They feel as though the rates are too expensive. The complaints have been X, Y, and Z. And none of that has been brought forth to the commission. So instead of, like, the manager trying to indicate, like, oh, everything is all great when I know that everything is not great because I've been getting the complaints from business owners, there should be a line inside of transparency of what the business is providing. Waste Management said that they're doing all type of reports about the solid waste pickup. We haven't gotten that. I just think at this point maybe we need to hear back from the vendor before the 90 days. So perhaps maybe at the next meeting, have a presentation by waste management addressing those concerns.

Mayor, for clarification, the only information I referenced I know of is the email that was forwarded over the complaint. And that's the only thing which was referenced at the last time. Now, we're self-assigned to it. Again, staff met with the folks, and if any, it was even minimalized in understanding their rate structure, how that rate is significantly less than what they pay, and the chart and the graphs. That said, whatever you have, I'm going to repeat again, if you are certain that you have received complaints, bring it forward. Just bring it forward, and we will let them address it. But without that, all they're doing is clarifying the cost structure, the sizes of their cabins. And to our understanding and staff's understanding, the report is that when they explain to them the rate structure compared to whatever they have. Keep in mind. This same vendor owns approximately 70% to 80% of the commercial even before now. So then they reintegrate from their bids. And then now the other vendor, they complete going back and forth with all the just so they can explain to them. That's what I understood they're doing. But if you have, I'm going to repeat again, if you have any complaint, even if it's just one, Let's have it. We'll give it to them. And as they provide, as I said, when they responded to that, we can tell to give us some more information and details of that, and we'll address it with the businesses. To explain the items you have in the spirit of time, if IT can switch over, please, to the next slide. It was echoed and questioned about wanting to know about the free pay program. IT, IF YOU CAN SWITCH OVER, PLEASE, TO PRESENTATION. IN COLLABORATION WITH BROWARD COUNTY, WE RECEIVE RECYCLING LATEX PAINT AND DISTRIBUTE TO RESIDENTS AT NO COST. THE PROGRAM IS NOT PAINTED BY BROWARD AND THE COUNTY SUPPLIES ONLY THE FOLLOWING COLORS LISTED THERE. Again, they are recycled paint. And with that, staff keeps a list of all that are interested in it. This is the form they use for it. The forms are kept in order, received, and residents are contacted when the paints are available for the program. It was also indicated that There was a, where do we, it's a line item in the budget for $26,000 for streetlights revenue. For many years, the FDOT have entered into a streetlight maintenance agreement with Broward County Municipalities. All municipalities have this agreement. Part of Florida Statute 3. 337.044 and 35.055 which are discussed here multiple times the last four years um to the to the extent that in may of this year this company adopted the latest agreement from FDOT via Resolution 225-27, which is attached to your memo and to this presentation. And also, the agreement in details is also included in here that you adopted in May of 2025 for seven years. And we discussed this line item in detail and talked about it, and we used it to help It can only do the replacement of light bulbs or minor things that we can do on site. The state recognized that it's not enough money to replace a complete street light. So we do have that or do have a major. We contacted them and they take on those challenges. I'm going to move to the next slide.

There has been several concerns with residents about the dimness of the street lights. and not enough visibility along several different areas. We had gave the direction to the city manager to have staff to do an assessment of the streetlights throughout the different corridors of our community. I know that there are some specific areas that have been complaining in the areas of Lake Forest. Even when I'm driving at night, there's pockets of dark areas all throughout the community. And I think that public works or code enforcement and our law enforcement should be taking notes of the areas in which can produce a public safety concern and report back to the city for us to get those issues resolved. So is it my understanding that the $26,000 that we received in the street revenue does not contribute to improving the quality of light throughout our residential areas?

Mr. Manager.

This street light is totally for FDOT right-of-ways. We do survey of our streets and we call them, even police assist sometimes to let us know where they are when they're driving around. This one is intended for DOT right-of-ways and in the agreement you approved, we will throw in details. We will list the locations and we also have They listed the locations of those streets in there. So this does anything. These are DOT right-of-ways. Once we do on the citywide, those ones, when we get them, as you know, we went through a contract with FDOT. You've approved multiple contracts. improvement through fdot here to include uh uh changing the live daylight so with a lot of those in here and as you see we report it to fpl as well so they can make sure they re uh they upgrade those as well and we'll continue to do that all right mayor do we have uh the copy of the contract termination clause for bso

The mayor, the manager has prolonged providing that transparency long enough. Does staff have the copy of what it says on top of that contract so that it can be provided for transparency?

All right. Mayor, they're making copies and that's what she's telling me now.

How long does it take to make a copy? I thought that's what she went to do when she brought these back.

No, we contacted them to come. She's working on it.

Okay, so no one is able to read. You're able to read and see everything else, but this one portion that the commission asked. Mr. Balagon, you can use that. He knows about all of the contracts up for this one to be able to talk about it. What determination falls on the PSO contract?

Chris is going to the next one. We want to make sure that the idea of the transparency.

I'm sorry, Mr. Balagon. Give me one second. Can we allow him to respond, please? Mayor. Mr. Balagon, what were you saying? Wait one second.

Hold on, Mayor. Like I've said in the past, we've provided, especially Commissioner Touchstone, we've provided this contract to her before, and we're going to provide it again so you can have it. No, I want it read into record.

Well, you can read it when you get back. No, you can do that. That's your responsibility.

Okay, so staff are in the paperback.

Mayor.

Yes, staff.

I would like to motion for a five-minute recess. All right.

No, we have to get done. Mayor, I am motioning for a five-minute recess. Let me say this to staff. And the motion has been seconded. And I can discuss it now. Please recess. No, there's a discussion for recessing.

There's no discussion for recess. It's a motion and it's a second.

I read the meeting.

So again, I say this is not what we need to be doing. It's 95. We have to pass this budget tonight. And you have you have commissioners up here that are delaying this. This has to be the city manager is doing it by not providing. Once again, I'm apologizing to you for this delay of foolishness and being able to go about the business of city for tonight.

So they have a first and a second. No, you have the staff making the copies. That's why they all left. And the contract is being pulled. City clerk, they have to go into the system and pull resolution. So they will continue. Chris, if you go to item- Five minute rest.

Go ahead, Chris.

Chris is gonna undo part three.

Are those the copies right there?

Yeah, Chris is bring, go ahead.

Residence, I apologize again. And I consistently do this because you deserve better than this. You all deserve better than this. Can you not this way?

No, she can't.

No, she can't.

Staff has provided the copies.

So everyone has a document.

Madam Mayor, we can reconvene. It's been more than five minutes. It's been more than five minutes, Madam Mayor.

I know. I just wanted to make sure that this is correct, Doctor.

This is it. This is it. It's time to reconvene. It was supposed to be five minutes. Five minutes have gone by already.

So everyone should have part three.

Are we able to continue now? Is it Chris or who's doing? Mr Balogun OK. Can you please be quiet? Chris, is it Chris or Mr Balogun?

Who's mayor?

So everyone has the document that says part three.

mayor yes i just want to um read into record determination clause for the bso contract from part two it says that termination either party may terminate this agreement at its discretion either with or without calls by giving written notice thereof to the other party provided the other party has no less than 90 days prior written notice of such termination. At the expiration of the 90-day notice period as described in the preceding provision, the transition period as set forth in Section C of Section 14 shall commence in which it says in the event of termination or expiration of this agreement, The BSO and the city shall cooperate in good faith in order to effectuate a smooth and harmonious transition from the BSO to a city police department or other provider of police services and to maintain during such period of transition the same high quality of police service as contemplated by this agreement. In the event of such termination or expiration and the further event that the city is unable to provide for the same level of police protection at the time of such termination or expiration, upon the city's request, then pending term of this agreement shall be deemed automatically extended for a period of a 180 days or until the city is capable of rendering such police service, whichever occurs sooner. The consideration to be paid to the BSO during the transition period shall be based upon the projected cost of providing such services during the transition period of the level of staffing determined reasonably necessary by BSO. And the reason why I wanted to read this into record is, again, I want to state the record that I feel that being the best interest of the city and the residents to put out an RFP to solicit services to see whether or not we can reduce the cost of public safety in the form of law enforcement. and to also see whether or not we can get better service being provided as far as the visibility and enforcement of the laws.

Chris, who's speaking next, Mr. Balgon or Chris?

We've got 90 days.

Go ahead, Chris.

Which button does it? This one? This one.

The cost of BSO is too expensive. Currently, Mayor, the cost of the services exceed what we're getting in ad valorem taxes to the point where we have to go into the reserves. And I hope that that's going to be a part of the third presentation, how we are utilizing and going into our reserves to pay for BSO.

Go ahead, Chris.

All right, so the next part of this presentation continues with the answers to some of the Commission's questions. One of the questions was what do these different line items in the budget represent? So rather than go one by one with these, you know, you'll have an explanation as to what each line item in the budget is. Some of these line items occur in multiple budgets throughout the document. But just as one example, both publications and dues is just used to account for the memberships and dues paid to Various employees are officials in their official duties. But, you know, there's a lot of those. So unless you particularly want to go through them, I don't want to belabor the point.

I can't hear me. Can you speak up a little bit in the microphone?

Sorry. So the commission and some of the commissioners had asked what the different line items, what goes into those accounts. So we tried to briefly describe what each of those line items has going into them. And some of these line items, like other tractual, for instance, might be for a particular professional contract. Books, publicans, and dues was the example that I used just a few months ago. That's basically you'll set many line items, but it's used to account for memberships and dues. that these employees or officials have as part of their official duties. And as you'll see as I go through them, there's, you know, many line items that we have and each one of them I've tried to put a description as what they are. But since we're running out of time, I don't want to go line by line and talk about them. The other question is if there was reported that over $70,000 was spent on a lawsuit, You don't see a line item for it. Well, the reason is we don't generally budget for lawsuits that we have to pay for ourselves. Those come out of the contingency line item. We usually just set up as we get these. So insurance will pay. If the insurer is going to cover it and provide and pay for the legal representation directly, then there is no expense to us other than premiums that we pay.

Can you say that a little louder? Because you have the mayor and Commissioner Smith reporting that taxpayers are paying for it. Can you say a little louder for those in the back? That the city insurance policy is paying for and reimbursing legal fees and that it's not coming from the taxpayers.

Well, I don't know that that's entirely, but I'll try to. All right. Well, let me let me elaborate on it.

OK, well, the city insurance is paying for it in its totality. And where is it coming from? The taxpayer?

Well, let me explain. So everyone will be clear on that. There are two forms of coverage. If the league insures us that they determine that our policies not provide for them to cover legal expenses directly. There's another form of the policy that allows us to be reimbursed for our expenses to $100,000 per claim. So if that claim exceeds $100,000, we will ultimately eat anything over $100,000. Right. So that's why I didn't agree with it. I mean, it's true to a point. Right.

But for this amount, the $70,000, are taxpayers paying for the $70,000, Chris?

No, not directly. And the other part of that is... Well, let me also explain every time we have a claim, whether it's covered up in this fashion, it tends to increase our future premiums because of the law experience that we have. Just like with workers, the more employees are injured, the higher our premiums are going to be. You can't quantify that until future years. So that's how it goes. And I think everyone understands that.

But I think that it was a gross misstatement on the behalf of the city manager. and the mayor to go on record saying this is coming from taxpayers' money when they knew that it was coming from the municipal trust insurance. I think that that was a gross misstatement to say that it was coming from taxpayers' money. And the reason why we have the insurance, because any business has lawsuits, whereas we have eight pages of lawsuits on the city of Clark website. We have lawsuits coming from all different sorts of directions that this insurance is is supposed to cover. So I just want to get emphatically clear. The representation of the mayor and the city manager was wrong in stating that this is coming directly from taxpayers' money that could have been allocated in our budget for other things. That's not true. It was paid by the municipal insurance with the Broward League of Cities, as I have asserted over and over again.

And it's a gross state that the city can there has to be you are wrong.

You were wrong on and they didn't that it was past parents money you lied to the people I didn't lie and say any yes you did it on the note you said that it was past parents money that could have been allocated to other products which is not true.

So you're just a liar the residents.

Once again, here is another situation.

Why don't you say that?

Another situation that has put West Park in the light in a negative way.

Because you're illegally abusing your power.

So I just want to say to residents, continue to keep your eyes on what is happening. And you know this, that just as Chris stated, That when you have an insurance policy, there is a claim. And this is an augmented thing that the city now has to deal with.

You lie, Mayor. Just like you have your own insurance. You lied and said the resident's parents' money was paying for this.

And it's the insurance that's paying for it. Just like when you have a car accident. Your premiums may go up lightly for a claim, but you're not paying directly out of your pocket.

Chris, can you continue, please?

In continuing of the budget presentation, I think we've kind of exhausted that discussion.

Yes.

One of the next questions was what are the departments in the parks? So we've identified that Mary Saunders accounts for all the activities at Mary Saunders Parks with the exception of the juvenile crime prevention grant programs that occur there. The budget also includes youth council activities. Juvenile crime prevention, this line, this budget is for the juvenile crime activities funded by the Children's Services Council Youth Forcer Maximum Out of School Time and also the Law Enforcement Trust Funds and in recent years funded by grants from the State Department of Juvenile Justice. McTeer Park accounts for all activities that happen at McTeer Park other than the grant programs funded by the senior programs. There's a separate budget for that. And, of course, the senior programs accounts for all the senior program activities that are largely funded by grants or entirely funded. Then there's discussion on what's in the contingency line item. Well, the contingency, when we do city budgets, like there are things that will happen during the year. I can't tell you what they are. They're just going to pop up and happen. And we try to budget a line item for contingency and not try to use it. But it's there, so we don't have to come back making a separate appropriation for that, because that's just unwieldy.

But, Chris, we should be getting a report of whenever the contingency funds are being utilized.

We budget monthly. We prepare a budget report for the commission.

We haven't gotten a budget monthly report. We have not gotten it.

Once a month it's in the agenda.

We have not gotten an explanation of what's being utilized out of the contingency fund. And in fact, you know and you are aware that we have not had any one-on-ones either. You have not been in attendance with any one-on-ones that have been scheduled for several of the commissioners that sit up here to be able to provide that line of sight. When was the last time that you had a one-on-one with me?

Well, I scheduled them, but it's been a while.

But I'm just saying, have you been present on a one-on-one?

With you?

Yeah, with me.

It's been several months ago.

Okay.

But if you guys want details of every time we spend contingency, it's the first time you've asked us for it. I have no problem presenting that to you, but there is an every monthly budget report, and it's in the agenda every month. For the budget report for that month, well, actually for the entire month, for August, for instance, for the July meeting.

We haven't had one every month in our backup.

Yes, you have.

I have not seen a report for finance.

But I know I prepare a report every month because they asked me for it.

But it hasn't been there.

All right. Well, I'm just saying we prepare a report monthly, and if you want the detail of what's going in and out of contingency, I'll be glad to do that because it's no big deal. I mean, you can just ask for it, and I'll be glad to provide it.

And Chris, don't you go with our one-on-one?

Well, he just said he had a one-on-one with me for several, several months.

So I'm just asking, I'm talking to you, Chris. So the one-ons are where you go and you're able to ask questions and get answers to anything that's on the agenda, including the budget, correct?

Yes.

And has there been any schedule for myself, Commissioner Everlard, or Vice Mayor Smith in several months now?

I have not had one.