City Council - Regular Meeting

He thinks back. All right, back to it. Uh, I apologize for that interruption. We did pause at Mrs. Clerk's presentation to make sure that uh, no one watching online missed anything. So, if you can just briefly start over and I promise we won't dig into your seven minutes that you already took. Okay.

All right. So um just I the overview of our office. We are the official custodian of the city records. Um we do handle the public records request. We um post all the notices for the meetings, maintain all the minutes in accordance with sunshine laws. We are the supervisor of elections uh for the city administrating all municipal election processes ensuring accuracy, integrity and compliance with state and local election laws. Uh we oversee the se city cemetery as far as records and work directly with families and funeral homes to ensure accurate mapping for maintenance, coordination, and making sure that all the records are are um kept because they are permanent records. And uh we do the lean searches for the city uh for the um different various lean search companies. And we also um support residents any any calls that come in any any other requests that they need to come see us for. And staff if staff is in need of anything, we we assist them. So then um what we're asking for this year is um I don't need any positions. Uh we are going to be offboarding our um lean search process. We're going to um have a company that's actually going to to to pull the information and create those reports and that will save our time um and ensure more accuracy on that too. Uh we are so but we what we would like to do is increase our training for certification purposes for our girls and um that would include um going to the webinar or the

ummies and doing webinars and such. Um we also um need have found this year that we needed additional money in the advertising budget because there's a lot of things that we have um taken over for other departments that we've needed to um advertise but our budget was a little bit too small. So we're going to ask for that. And um we recently just on April 1st um updated our cemetery fees. Um this is going to increase our um our perpetual fund. It's going to give um $500 per sale to the perpetual fund so that we can maintain the cemetery after we sell out of lots. And because we did a crosssection of our immediate demographic and the um there's a lot of cemeteries that are really low on inventory and others, you know, have sold out altogether. So, you know, that time is coming. We still have plenty of space right now, but but that's going to be in advance of what we need it for. So, and um we are also working with the supervisor of elections office to um locate a new uh polling place so that we don't have the issue that we had this past election with long lines and um the crowding and uh I think we've outgrown that area. So, we're going to have we're going to be working on that. We've already started kind of trying to compile a list of what we want to go out and see and then we're going to do a field trip on that. So that's about it. If anybody has any questions, I'm here to answer them.

I'd like to start with public comment and then come back to if that's okay. Just so you can respond to the public from there, too, if that's okay with Okay. So, we'll do the public comment then right now. Does anybody have anything they'd like to say?

Please come on up. Okay. I want to thank the city clerk's department for everything they do because they they seem to be a nucleus of the city for handling problems and especially with the uh public records requests and trying to reach reach out to all the other departments and get things done. And it's very hard trying to tell another director what to do. Um and having to handle um I rate citizens trying to get the records. She's very tactful and friendly about it. Um, one thing uh I want to I haven't got the answer to is if the soil was ever tested in the cemetery um for Brownfield if that's if the water test soil tests were ever done and that's one thing that I've asked for a couple years now and I want to I need those results. Um and uh that regarding World War II and the uh uh cattle dip and then um I really appreciate them and that's something that we need to do is recognize our employees more often.

Absolutely. Thanks for those kind words and we'll get answers on the brownfield. I don't know if we have an answer right now but we will get one. Albert McKime 360 Golden Chamber Road. Just one of the things that that that always gets it irks me a little bit. A lot of the time I require public record requests at much shorter notice because previously when the agendas were put out, it never gave us time to research things and as a consequence I could never come here prepared. uh some of the things that we ask for come in zip files or PDF files. A lot of the time we have difficulty in open them. This is something that not only I have mentioned to to uh Susan but you know we'veveve I've mentioned it to to the director of it as well. Is there some way that we could do as other municipalities do and have a computer and a desk so that residents can come in and they can have immediate access here so they don't have to go home and print out files. They don't have to worry about things. If I come down here, I don't want to be bothering staff and and spending a whole lot of time. It would be much easier for I've got a lot of questions just now about the connectivity and the in infrastructure within the roads. there's plans that I need to view and I could simply come in if they're already on on file. It's easy for me to look at things and and maybe zoom in and do things. I don't have that ability from a public records request. So I feel that the other thing I mentioned the other time before is in the past public records requests when we asked for them they wasn't censored but they started to charge us for things because the more they wanted to charge us the less information we were likely to get. So again if we had a computer desk here and

things that are already in the system we could simply come and look at that would be really excellent. Thank you, Mr. RKU. I appreciate that feedback. Um, I think it's Oh, sorry, Mr. Bell. Um, on the $500 that you was talking about, that's after the cemetery fills up that No, okay. And I see that you say you work with the park and recreation department to obtain uh way find the sign. Uh, but you don't have anything to do with the m the maintenance and maintaining. Okay,

thank you Mr. Bell Sylvester. This is the part when I say the honeymoon is over and we want to deal with things on emotion uh without emotion but based on facts. Now, if you follow me from the years before, I put up this graphic where, you know, people can look at the same thing and see something completely different and people can deal with different individuals and get treated completely different. And so, Dr. O, when she come up and she say, well, sometime you have hostile people come ask for public comments. Well, that's the same thing of when people used to call me the peanut gallery when I come up here. The fact is I know I went to get public comments a few times and public I'm going say public records I'm sorry public records and you shouldn't have to go through what you go through to get per uh public records. We shouldn't have to shouldn't have to do that period. And now we was having a budget and I saw I think it was a lift station where I saw repairs need to be done. It was in the tune of uh you know if I'm not mistaken it was over millions of dollars. So I say, "Well, let me find out how many lift stations we got, how often the PMS is the the maintenance being done on the upkeep." Because if we got this kind of repairs for one, what are we looking at down the road and see that's when I say you want to get to the bottom of things, you want to get the facts. So I wanted to know how many we have, when plan maintenance was done on them, and how often it was done. And what I got back was an insult to my intelligence. And the other one I came about and this is over the the course of some time here was about

our staffing issue. It's been well documented. Mr. Olsson come up here talked about it. I have talked about it and it just falls on deaf fear. So I said well let me see if I can get some facts here. So I went and requested every department how many position they had, which was filled and which was vacant. And what I got back was an insult to my intelligence. And so when we say let's deal with real issues, let's come here and let's deal with real issues. And I can look Miss Bone in the face in the eye to eye and these things happen and they shouldn't have happened. And why they happened, I don't know. Whether it was other leadership, I don't know. But that's when I say when we're moving forward, we need to make sure we're moving forward with the right team. The people who are going to operate this city with integrity, honesty, and treat everybody with courtesy because we are serving everybody salaries paid through taxpayers. We are serving other people for the city of Apopa. So, I don't know what the situation is, but I know it needs to improve and it needs to change and need to get better overnight. Thank you.

Thank you for that feedback, Mr. Hall. We will look into that as well. And it it appears to maybe provide a little more support for your team as well, just through processes and things like that. But are there any specific questions that maybe the public had that you can answer or feel like answering?

Well, I I do know that as far as the records, we we we can provide the records that we have but we're not required to create documents. So there have been instances where you know we'll give the the documents that we have they might be this document is some of the portion and the you know so then but we have you know we don't create we don't really probably have the the um manpower to do that because that also there's there's a factor that could you know possibly make an error if you're trying to merge documents, but we can look into that.

No. And and I think to to Mr. Hall's point, the there's a lot of documents you would assume we have. And and we don't. Well,

so we're working on making sure that we have the correct filings going forward for every department. So there's definitely missing pieces of information uh that we're working on. I I can promise you that. So um your frustrations are definitely heard and well received and we'll make adjustments definitely moving forward. Specific to the brownfields, we don't have any information on that. Correct. I don't but we we have um some you know Dr. O has asked us to do the soil testing um that is something that we haven't done yet but we you know it's it's had to do with some cattle vats or something like that. Okay.

So so that's you know it it's not that we're not listening but we're you know it just hasn't been done. Understood. Okay. No problem. Commissioners, any any questions from from up here? I have a question about the the lean search program. So, we are contracting. Is that our is it something like a system that we'll have here or we contracting with a third party to provide the services? So, it's a third party service. So, would it cost us anything if you're contracting with them or No, there's no cost on that. In fact, um can you speak a little bit more into the mic? Sorry.

Yeah. So, the I'm sorry. So, the charge would be $75 as it is now. um and they keep 15 and we still m or retain the 60. So there's no cost at all to them doing that. But it does save um an enormous amount of time. We we in fact there's a lot of cities though. Okco does it, Eustace does it. There's a lot of cities that are already doing it with very good success. So, so before we would it would be $75 charge to the customer and it would cost us just time just well time which cost money. Okay.

Yeah. Okay. Understood. And the new polling place that's something that we have to budget for. I I know how that works now when it comes to budgeting for that. So, we don't have that in the budget yet. We're just going to look at what we have as far as inventory. We're also going to check with the the library and see what we can do. But we've got a couple of things that we're working on with the supervisor's office. But but from my understanding, for each new polling location, we're responsible for a percentage of it. Correct. The city to staff it. The buildings that we own, we um are we just have to pay for their staffing staff that will be additional cost. But we don't have an election this year. So I haven't for anything for the yet. So

and that's it. Thank you. So you had you had mentioned that the advertising budget you needed more. Which other departments do you do the advertising for? Well, there's some um for just general ordinances that we create through legal or through um maybe there's something that we have to put up for, you know, like a D notice or something like that. And um also sometimes our well our budget um advertisements you know so I want to make sure that we have subst you know enough funding for that so that we're not doing budget transfers. Anything else?

You know my request and my request is to have an automated for elections to have an automated opportunity for treasurers to report their treasurer. Yes. uh reporting like that automated um because that would help significantly moving forward, not just for myself but anybody else that chooses to run, right? That's just my my been my request to you. Okay. Thank you. So, and we are working on that because I I we talked about it the other day and yeah, so I've talked to them about that.

Awesome. The only thing that and and we haven't discussed this recently, but it was the um the the the baby fund that was created. if we can look into how to build that into the budget to where it's not it's just funded how it needs to be, right? I think it's important and then the commission can decide if that is important to them as well to make sure it's included. But if not, um it's a small portion of our budget and and small portion of the the cemetery that I think is okay. I'll see what a nice contribution to families going through some terrible things. So, okay, just a thought. Let's see what it looks like and if the commission agrees to it, great. If not, we'll find a different way to fund it on on my end. So, okay. And also as far as the cemetery goes, we are we are going to be um looking into the weightbearing sign so that people can find their way around the cemetery because it's

awesome. You know, there's not we're getting calls that after the guys leave and they they ask us where's, you know, Greenwood for and you're going over here and so it'll be helpful for that. So, excellent. Thank you so much for that. I appreciate it. Thank you. Uh, next up, human resources. Mr. Dr. Patton, please. And the goal, I don't think we said this moving forward is making sure that presentations are seven minutes. As close to that as possible, seven minutes. Where's the timer? You want the timer? You want a timer?

Yes, I do want. We need a timer. Makes us all on track. We got to stay on track. seven on there. I'm making three for him now. Yes, please. So, good evening everybody. Um Joe Patton, director of human resources. Thank you for having me here. So, there there are some some things that we're going to request. I just wanted to give you a little overview about HR and what we're responsible for. So, uh, unlike many departments, we handle the whole city. We handle all employees.

We're responsible for their employee development. Um, we are responsible for benefits. Um, pay, setting pay rates. Uh, when somebody has a, uh, thank you. uh when somebody has a request to change a position we have to do a lot of research in that to get the pay right to get the position right so on and so forth so a lot of moving parts in that area so with that being said um and I'm just touching a little bit about what we do we also handle um employee relations which is a big part of what we do as many of you and out there are probably familiar with uh handling employee and uh supervisor complaints. So uh and community complaints about employees. So those all come in as well and as you know they take a lot of time a lot of time to investigate uh and you have to do it right. So, right now, um, we have 649, this is what we're authorized, 649 full-time employees and 115 part-time employees. And let me tell you, it takes just as much time to uh onboard a part-time employee as it does a full-time employee. So, a lot of people will say, "Oh, well, we'll just take those part-times and make them and take two and make them one." Well, it doesn't work as far as time goes. So, timing, expense, all those things uh comes into play. So, last year we added approximately 91 positions. this year when I was looking at you know talking to different people uh finance

the other departments we're looking at 60 plus more positions this year the industry standard for HR support is one person for every 100 to 110 people I say 100 to 110 depends on what what uh validation place you look at uh this is from society for human resource management but there are different things different societies that that will give you different numbers but it's around those numbers. We have approximately seven staff in my my department. Uh we also handle legal and risk management. So that one staff member handles those sections. Um the another staff member handles the front desk, Sandra. And I know everybody's met her. Uh she's wonderful, but that person does not handle the day-to-day operations within the HR department. So, we have four individuals, not counting myself, that handle day-to-day operations. And that's where I'm asking for several staff to be added. So, with that, we have a I have a part-time uh records clerk that I'd like to make full-time. I've asked for this for about three years now. Uh has not been approved. It's it's difficult because this this person uh updates all personnel records. Also, they get uh records requests from outside and some of those records have to be redacted. So they have to be familiar with what to redact, what's legal, what's what you can't redact, so on so forth. So it's very important

task. Uh another position is for risk management. Risk management handles and I know all of you have have met Christie uh risk management manager. She handles all of risk management. That means liability insurance uh which includes vehicles, buildings, claims from outside. Somebody trips on a sidewalk, they bring they make a claim, it goes to her. Uh she is a liaison between the insurance company and our organization. Uh also uh workers comp. So when an employee gets injured, she handles the workers comp. when she's not here, my staff have to to take her place and do those duties. So then again, it takes away from from the work that has to be done. Um, with updating records, as you can imagine, we we fulfill a lot of data that goes into the system. Uh, so it takes a lot of time to do that. I'd also like to ask and this is above and beyond. I think I can I can do it with with those two asked. However, um I feel a need for uh an executive assistant position. The reason I'm saying that is because it takes so much time for me uh when I'm doing my investigations, so on and so forth, answering questions. when I answer a question, I may have to do some research, which takes time. Uh, I also have to uh take away from my staff. If if I can't do something, then I ask them to fill in, make arrangements for maybe um interviews, um, investigation interviews, so on and so forth. There's a lot of different

tasks, letters that have to go out, uh, notices, um, management for for different avenues. How much time I got? I'm looking. See, I'm looking.

Oh, what I do? I'll get there. So, also this year, uh we're asking for uh every year, this is from the last pay study, we uh adjust our pay bands. Uh according to the CPI, consumer price index. In March, it was 3.3%. Now, that's not going to affect every employee at at one time. That's going to affect those that if we raise the minimum, it will affect those employees. We doing I'm going You're doing great. Got it, mayor. Got it, mayor.

So, we plan to keep the 6% um merit increase. That is a big recruiting tool that we use. Um, also employer contributions for health care, those are estimated at 6.5% this year. We won't have the the correct number until the middle of next month. So, it's down, we're projecting down from 11.5% from last year. Primary driver of course is decreased cost claims and that's because of an effort that that we do uh for health screenings so on and so forth with our with our uh clinic. Uh we're also doing uh I'd like to ask funds for a self-funded insurance fund uh study that would um give us uh information whether we're viable to go to a self-funded type of insurance plan. Right now we're with a consortium. So, we get no no credit for having our own clinic, which costs us a lot of money, but it also helps us with decreasing our uh rates going up. So, liability insurance, these are premiums that are expected to go up. We did uh estimate them very, you know, a little higher than what we think they're going to be because we really don't have those numbers yet. But hopefully within a few weeks we will teleatics and data driven fleet safety. That's another program we're uh working with uh sanitation and other truck you know vehicles that we may have. Uh this

is a program that is with our uh risk management. Uh that is a camera system that records rear and forward any type of accidents we may have. There have been accidents where somebody says, "Well, you hit my car," but there's no there's no camera. There's no witnesses. So, we have to leave it up to the um insurance company to decide, you know, what that's going to look like. So, HR risk strategies, some of our uh initiatives. Let's high points. High points. High points. Leadership. You're doing

leadership. All right. I'm going leadership. Uh we've been do doing a little bit of that. Uh the plan is to give uh newly supervisors and current supervisors leadership programs. We've already started it this year. We want we want to continue that. Employee development. We've started that with skill path and I just added uh 250 more licenses. That's an online uh learning system that anybody can go in, they can take whatever course they want. There's like over 2,000 courses and we can assign courses to individuals. So, leadership courses, so on and so forth. salary and compensation study. We've uh contracted that for this year and hopefully we'll get the results of that uh within June uh or early July. Re I know I know Blanch. Reinstatement of a performance bonus award. We have that in our regulations already. However, we have not used it. So, uh, with that, um, we'd like to also, uh, citywide field day, which is something we've tried to plan, haven't initiated, but we we want to get buy in for that as well. We've also initiated well up to work. Um, let's see. And I've I've spoken about these things already. And another thing is to request about scanning. I'm going to bring that to you too. We've been trying to scan our personnel records. However, it's very time consuming and when you have a part-time person, you it it's very difficult to keep that person. So,

appreciate that. Thank you. Sorry for going over time. It's okay. It's okay. We're doing great. I'm very wordy sometimes.

Uh public comment. Anybody have anything they'd like to Just a quick observation. I'll keep it really brief. The throughput of employees in a municipality is going to be directly proportional to how happy they are within that environment. Do we expect that the throughput of personnel could be reduced with uh the fact that there's a new administration? And if that's so, then perhaps we won't have so much pressure put on their staff to do so much work as they've currently got to do. Well received. Thank you, Mr. McKim.

The issue of redaction came up and uh one complaint that the community brings up is why did this get redacted? Why is that off? Well, there's state laws and but also part of the state law is that when a when a public record goes out to the citizen, it has to state exactly what state statute caused that redaction. And so that's what they're not seeing when they're complaining online and in the community when we're out talking. What is the state statute that caused you to put that black mark across there? Especially um whether it's to do with a personnel issue or a police issue or a um EMS issue is it's got to be stated in the public records request statement. And so that's in training the employees that's very important to make sure it's done.

Thank you for that. Sylvester Hall. And like I said, the honeymoon is over. Uh I can't, you know, we can't hold the last administration, you know, hostage for everything that happened. We can only look at it and see how we can learn from it and get better. Uh but based on the things that I saw from the last administration and from department head here, when you come and you're representing that department, you're kind of one of the the first line of defense for safety. Uh being properly staffed, that's paramount for our success in this community, period, being properly staffed. And so when we get to a level where we're so short, so many employees, we say, "How do we get there?" There's got to be some some some things that need to be corrected because we should never get there. We should never be where we at now. Period. And we need strong department heads to come to you and say, "I need this." And not be afraid of losing their jobs. by saying that. So I'm saying when we look at these things, let's look at them and let's be very serious because it's the safety because if we don't have the people to do the jobs, then when we have a natural disaster, it just compounds things and we lose lives. And what I was talking about with the with the records before is the ponds. Look out when we have a two or three days of rain. How over there on high peak we call high just the road is just flooded and it's been going on for years.

And so when I say hey look who been doing the maintenance on these ponds because we had a workshop over at the VFW on on the ponds. And so when I talk about staffing and we have people in position to make sure these things are up to par, they need to do their job. They need to be given the equipment, the resources to do their job and the personnel to do their job. So here again, I say the honeymoon time is over with. We don't want to sugarcoat and everybody forget what happened. No, because we'll be right back in the same situation. Just a different flavor doing it. So now let's look at things and let's make a serious determination how we want to move forward and give people opportunity to correct what was wrong. But after that if the job is not being done it's time to move on. Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Hol Olsen. Uh just a couple quick comments. one the aspect of much like the budget cycle the wage benefit survey should be done every year well in advance of the uh budget projection so you can build around it I coming from a healthc care background we did quarterly because if we couldn't stay up with doctors with nurses in particular with therapists we did quarterly and for a period of about four years in a row we did monthly for therapists because there was so much competition for our fire department and our police department as agencies make these increases. I know this last year both I think both parts got additional ways we need to stay on top of it and stay in front of it so we're in a position to compete with regard to the aspect of self-funding your health plan. I'm very familiar with it. I'll share more information. I've talked to Joe about it before. We are able to expand coverage and reduce cost. Expand coverage and reduce cost. So something to look at. Thank you.

Thank you so much. And I'll tell you, as we progress through some of these presentations, you're going to see some much larger asks as we move forward, especially in personnel and in some capital projects as well. Commissioners, any any questions from from your end for this one? I I do. So, thanks for that presentation. So, just a few questions. So, in regards to the salary and the compensation study, is that for every department, every employee? Yes, it's included in the commissioner. Did we include the commission? We did. Yes, I made sure that was in there because I know that's something I want to make sure we have that discussion and just a finalization from the commission. Where are we setting it? How are we setting it? And let's just move forward with it. So, um we did make sure to keep Yeah, I did that. So, they're going to compare

uh other like cities and uh their process as well. In addition, the tele just one note on that not firefighters that's a yeah contract union.

The union Okay. The telematics are monitoring. So is that to decrease the overall uh the overall let me go to let me see one second I know it's one second okay let me for uh correct something just a number in here so the number of positions of 91 added those are for the last two years so you're talking about the telematics on the uh uh not fire trucks on on the sanitation truck. The video sanitation trucks. Yeah. Is that like a device that's put on there?

It's a device. It's a device. It's It's got several cameras on it where it will look at different aspects uh of the driver. Uh it takes a video of the driver, takes a video of the front where they're going, and takes a video of the back and the sides. Okay. And will that decrease the insurance cost because we're monitoring the drivers? It it may. We don't know yet. We're still in the infancy stage of of looking into that. And I think that it, if I may, the the rationale behind implementing this is I think we've recently had a few accidents, a few too many um more than average. So I think we're adding this to just track and make sure that we have the right people in the right seats literally and figuratively.

Yeah, we're we're just looking at increasing safety and try to determine, you know, what's going on, what actually happened so that we can uh put corrective action into play. Okay. And you also mentioned about the scanner. So, there's a part-time one part-time employee that scans in all the documents. I know we talked about this last year as well, right? Something that was a concern. So, that's still a concern, right? I'd like to make that person full-time. Full-time a specialist. Is that the same full? Is that an addition to the other part-time position that you're seeking? Is that maybe two? There is no other parttime. So, that's that's the part time for the scanner. The one, right? The part-time is I'm transferring uh reorganizing that to a full-time.

Okay. For the scanner that position well personnel records. Personel record. So they don't just scan they also once they scan it they file it. We have to keep personnel records for 50 years. Some personnel records and that's what they're scanning. Okay. And you also mentioned about the health that the clinic but I didn't kind of grasp that. You were saying something about the clinic about something reducing cost with the clinic or so. So when we since we're with a consortium

for health care which means a group of you know insure uh organizations go in for one health insurance. So we do not get credit for having a uh clinic. In other words we don't um you know that clinic produ issues prescription drugs for individuals. They uh have uh x-ray machines. So they give X-rays there. So an individual if they get hurt, it's advantageous for them to go. A lot of times in especially in some of my other research that I've done that individuals if they get hurt, they don't want to go to the doctor. For one, they have to take off work to go to the doctor. They don't want to lose their pay. This way they go to the clinic, they don't clock out. We pay them to go to make sure that they go. they go, they see the doc, they get treated, and then they get released depending on what the situation was. So, it helps with um also followup. So, it helps with our claims process as well online. So, that brings down costs as far as uh our increases in insurance premiums because they come from the consortium.

Okay. Okay. Thank you for So these this 6.5% this is not always the same. Like I said last year was 11.5 and I can't remember the year before. It was 12 12 something I believe. That's all. Thank you. Commissioner Vasquez. No. Okay. No, we're moving along. I took up time, didn't I? I'm sorry. Joe, would it be safe? Make sure your mic's on. Would it be safe to say our ID badge for the card would be coming soon?

I hope so. We're we're in design with that with We can blame that again. Uh that one it was something to where I wanted to just rebrand it in some capacity, but then I understood that economic development may be working on a kind of a rebrand in some capacity as well. So, we didn't want to rush it and then have to do it again. So, yes, they're coming. Yeah, I just blame it on me, please. If I accidentally set it beside somebody, if my other commissioner would if you really if you Yeah, if you really need one with a picture ID, I can give you a generic one if that's what you want. So, we we can do that. No, I think I think we had that conversation the other day as well. That's a good idea. That's what she does. I just put my business

just put something inside. Okay. Does the city supply those business cards or I did my own the delay is also on my end. That one can blame me on again. I was going to redesign it and they didn't for I just wanted to make sure. No, those are actually my own. I think they got um ordered today, yesterday, somewhere this week they've been ordered. So, they're coming as well. No complaints on my end. Staff's been fantastic. I appreciate that. All of you know. They they work hard. Yes, they do. They do. Um so, I just had a quick question. And uh first of all, your part-time person that scans, I I see where she works. And if you haven't had the opportunity to see that, um

she she needs she needs kudos for sure. Um but I did have a question in terms of um to piggyback commissioner Anderson's question on the tarmac. Are you looking at all the fleet to equip these this uh camera to all the trucks in the fleet? We we are. We're looking at that. Uh right now we're looking at sanitation with with Josh. Uh I'm not sure if Christy had a conversation with him yet, so I'm surprising him right now. But uh we are uh looking at that along with, you know, our uh carrier to see if that maybe help us with rates next year. We don't know.

Is there a specific area in which these accidents are happening? I I don't have that information and I just say that is that maybe that could be your focus in terms of these need to be equipped first just based on accidents historic historical I would I would say sanitation is the big one because those trucks are so large right

and they have a lot of obstacles to to overcome uh Josh could probably speak to that more than I can but uh it's it's a difficult job to to one try to get through some of those streets, especially if another car is parked there. And uh as as the mayor said, we just had an accident not too long ago where, you know, somebody ran into a a car and there was a witness. However, if we had a camera, that would have been a lot better,

right? I just say that in case that we can't put on all the fleets, at least we can focus on where is most of our accidents and then we from there. Yes, that's that's what we're targeting first. Yeah, sounds good. Thank you. That's all I had. Excellent. Thank you so much. Thank you. It Mr. Hippler, that wasn't seven minutes. It wasn't. So, I'm glad you noticed. That was not seven. Now, you will stay on it. Excellent. That was not seven minutes at all.

Seven minutes again. Bayer Commissioner is Robert Hipler, information technology director. Um, I will make this as painless as possible and I'm actually going to progress my slides unlike the other individuals. Um, our department currently has 10 positions in it. We have 11 um, budgeted for it. Unfortunately, public services has one of our folks right now and they will take over his salary, I believe, in the coming budget. So, we will be filling that spot. Um, we do anything and everything. Uh, as you see, we we play uh helter skelter uh Russian relay with the uh media system here. Sometimes it doesn't want to work and uh getting come back up. They did a great job. My staff of uh nine people including myself, I would say I have the best individuals that work for the city. Uh everybody in here is awesome. I've worked with everybody in here, but I will tell you my staff is amazing and I appreciate every one of them. Um again, we do uh networking, cyber security, uh we we are embedded into each department. anything they do technology-wise, we're involved with it. Um, we do the best we can with what we actually have the dollar-wise. Um, we don't always get um I say everything we want. It's not everything we want, everything we would love to have, but you know, it is a tax dollar uh budget that we run here. So, we have to be conscious of what we're taking and what we need and what we can operate on. So, uh we also lead on the implementation planning support of any operations going on. We have a huge multi-year multi- million dollar implementation going on for the ERP that's going to span through the entire city. Um the idea on that at the end of the game and this year will start as well as next year is to get rid of some of the solutions we have some of the software solutions that'll be redundant. There'll be cost savings in that and hopefully we'll have a better solution that works uh much in much better integrated. Uh I'm purposely talking fast. I talk fast normally but I'm going to try to get everything out that I want for you. Um everybody can read this portion of it. We deliver anything and everything from IP, whether it's inside a building wired or outside wirelessly. Half of our city infrastructure is a wireless shot. We do not have fiber to each of those locations. And I'll touch on that later. That is going to be a uh

a uh long-term goal for us is to get fiber to these locations. It is fairly expensive per mile to get it in the ground, but currently we have six towers that provide voice and data throughout the city for our aligning fire stations 23456. Uh the Gileium or not the Gillium, that's on fiber. the uh Gross and Bacher water treatment plant. All of Northwest Wreck is under a uh tower pointto-oint shot. We are operating six gigahertz band license uh um radio that we actually just have the uh radios upgraded at each of the towers. They still have one to do out in station two. Um providing us with a gig of bandwidth in every direction. If we lose a tower, we send data back the opposite direction. So, it is a pretty resilient and it also allows us to put uh if we need an internet device or we need a camera out in the middle of nowhere, as long as I can get power, I can get uh data to it. So that is a nice part about it. However, I'd love to have fiber out there. Um, this past uh year, we've been working on our cyber security, enhancing that. Uh, we have a pretty good culture within the organization. Um, it can be better. It can always be better. Uh, our our biggest enemy is ourselves. Uh, we are our weakest link going to it. Our outside um, our outside vision, I guess our uh, look from the outside is pretty solid internally. Uh, people can be fooled and that's the biggest issue is somebody plays down to it. They get an email from a compromised email account and they say, "Oh, okay. I know this person. and they respond back to it, they click on it, executable or try to and next thing you know, their account's taken over. So, can we continue to push out training? We uh we do fishing emails uh indiscriminately. They go out and we get a good response to the help desk whenever that happens. So, I know they're paying attention. Um also, we are working on replacing our sand switches which connect our storage to our servers. It gives high-speed connectivity to that. So, we're actually upgrading that. We're in the know that process right now. As I mentioned, the Tyler implementation that will be going on for um probably the foreseeable future, at least another year and a half. Um on the website, we have a accessibility solution set up. The DOJ had a rule go into place that on April 24th of this year, um PDFs on your website were supposed to be mandatory ADA compliant, meaning assist of technologies can read them. They've uh

since kicked that scan down the road, but we've anyone that we put on our website, we've been making it the actual ones we put on, they are ADA compliant, 100% compliant. Some of the ones that we are having to deal with and the pain points are the ones that come through the v agenda. Outside documents um if something's not alt texted or if there's a document that comes in as an image if it's scanned creates issues for the uh end users using assistive technology. So we use a solution right now that is actually real time will convert a document for it and it's very accurate and I'm very uh very optimistic that it's going to help in the future. Camp Weiwa. Um we were asked to get a connectivity out there. So when we go out there to relax and get away from life, we have internet still out there to make sure everybody's still in touch with each other. Uh Orange County tower site. We had an additional site for the uh s or the utility building to get another metering out there for the west side of the city as they were getting some issues out there. Um our backup appliance for disaster recovery that was upgraded as well. The last one was three years back. Code enforcement as mentioned or I don't know if they mentioned it yet, the police department will. Um they're going into a implementation which possibly will be kicking off in the next couple of weeks um to get out of the existing solution they have. Um in our new building we were uh kicked out um by the finance department of our building due to rapid growth over there and so we are now over in the old chamber building.

Minute 55. Um current initiatives as I mentioned there's a code enforcement that's kicking off. Um Susan mentioned to you that there is a uh a lean search uh implementation going on which is going to interface with our existing ERP at some point. will have to be moved over to the uh the new one we're going to. So, that's going to be a uh another process. It'll be simple getting it there initially, but it it's going to have to change again. Um utility billing is looking for additional tower sites to get on to. And again, as I mentioned, we have our six personal towers here that will we be getting on some of those locations where we're seeing disparit readings. Um building department for their uh building processes. They have a high call volume up there for uh calls coming in asking about permitting. So, we're looking at a uh streamlining some of that process using some AI into that one. It'll be voice as well as chat. Uh full sentences coming into it. Uh able to send you text message and of course we need to do it in a cautious approach with the proliferation of AI. Um you know, it can be the next thing since sliced bread. You can create cute videos with it. It can also be the worst weapon they can have out there. Um so, we will have a cautious approach with this and uh they will be the first ones to go in with it. Um VMS solution. I need video management solution to house all of the data coming in from the cameras we currently have. The system we have is actually a crime center. Uh it's a video wall that's not it's not meant to do what it's currently doing. Um there's a lot of issues with it that we cannot maintain and manage. The cameras show up in it but yet they're not working and we get a call on it. We're like ah looks like it's up and then we look at the camera, the camera's up but it's not up in the system. So if we're going to be in charge of uh maintaining and ensuring that the video is there and being recorded all the time, I will need a solution for it. It's not a huge huge amount, but it is a cost. Data storage expansion or yeah data storage expansion we're looking to increase that as well as our flash array is getting it's about 60% full. Um that's not a huge expenditure as well but that's something that we need to get going the system. And lastly on this portion network penetration testing I'm looking to get another another round of that coming in. The last one was two years back from the findings. uh long-term goals uh master plan from

the comprehensive plan we did the strategic plan we did um completing that uh we also need to develop communications department for internal external communications um so that we're getting a focus message out to the public and ensure that the message is getting to everybody um as I mentioned extending municipal fiber to all locations uh city buildings and anything new happening out on the northwest side of the city that is not yet hit for us um if they can be identified to me Wi-Fi and public spaces if there's defined 100% this is the downtown city center we can start looking at putting access points in those locations and um you know I wait the direction for that and the discussions on that SCADA network itself they're looking to get away from the existing RF model they're using go to cellular that's going to require uh some VPNs on our part as well as getting the data in from each of their list station locations and the Harman Road communications tower uh built in the late 80s it is aging I'm waiting for a report back from the uh last inspection I have to tell us that it's going to cost this much to remediate or what what they're going to recommend for us but it is coming to end of life it is a 50-year guy rod tower or pyrod tower with 50-y year galvanization. Uh we're not at that 50 year, but it is showing some uh showing some sign of replacement time. I think that's it.

Very good. Uh public comment, any comments from the public for it? Mr. Hippler is always available to answer questions that are going on in it and very responsive and I appreciate that. Um, as uh, Mr. McKimmy brought up. It would be fantastic if we could add technology that um citizens can access because so many do not have printers. They do not have access to the internet. They have flip phones. Um they don't know how to use technology and if there was a place that they could pop in and do some research. Also, the availability of public access instead of having to go through um the city clerk's office for as many documents as possible would be appreciated. Um especially documents that are public record, you know, that they should be out there and people should be able to search for them and making them more easily available is important. and then getting rid of the ID or at the front door.

Thank you. Just one quick observation. We discussed the advent of using AI and I realize that's not really something that I would advocate normally for because I know just how dangerous it is. But if there's public records that are already in a file that don't need any redaction or anything, can we not formulate some way of using AI, if there's uh a terminal within the city to allow the public to get direct access to those records through because they're flagged and the ani system will allow us to get access to them even if it's just within the city.

That's a great point. Thank you, Mr. McKim. Sylvester Hall. And when I say the honeymoon is over, the honeymoon is over. But it's not all bad. Me and this gentleman had many a sidebar conversation and I'm looking forward to seeing the great things that you're going to do moving forward. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hall. Anybody else? Our commissioners? I have a lot of questions, but I'll just ask you off the record. Go ahead. Yeah, because it's it's a lot. I don't for sake of time. Thank you. Appreciate that. Yes. And again, anytime you guys ever want to meet with department heads and staff to ask questions, please do. Yeah, I'll just wait. Mr. Blasquez,

no. Same thing. I'm I'm just trying to get through this. Yeah, get through it. Appreciate that, Mr. Ruth. That seven minutes was awesome. I am wiped out. I was trying to keep up with it and great job. I don't have questions. I just have a comment. Uh I just want you to know that I put in my requests and I'm advocating for you guys because I know it's you're it's needed and you're your team is truly uh phenomenal in doing more with less and I appreciate that.

Okay. Then I'll just give you a couple of uh some of the things I heard coming up here and I can answer questions while we're going through on it. But um you know putting a kiosk out looking into our email archive is something we could certainly do. But I don't have a way of stopping you from looking at privileged communications unfortunately. So that would be something that we'd have to you know take into consideration that you know if you have access to one you have access to see everything. And I think yeah I think the conversation is more so with kind of the the ones that don't need a redaction that aren't protected stuff that maybe it's it's budgets or something along those lines maybe allowing that easy access to and then those other ones maybe do have to go through the process. So just streamlining I think and we can talk offline more about that. Okay. Um the AI portion that's also going to open some Pandora's box on Oh yeah.

public records request. So anything that could be potentially put into that could be subject to public records. Um you know chats if you're developing documents projects that's going to start getting into the weeds of you know public records itself. Not that there's anything wrong with it but just we have to know that's going to happen. And we also need to look at you know who who's storing the data? Who who keeps the data? Where's the data being stored at? Are they using conrained models? You know what are they doing with that data? So I know there's a lot of uh push for it. We're looking at co-pilot to bring that in because that would be uh engaged with our tenant and I believe we do have some sort of retention on anything that would be put into the system through that. We would certainly ensure that happens before. So, and I think there was something else somebody mentioned um records for. So, we use laser fish. We're laser fish shop. They have the ability to have a public portal on that. The documents could be put in there. We don't have that portion of it, the licensing on it, but that is something that we have in place that could easily be added for a cost and that that could possibly happen. you know, the documents would have to be scanned in there, identified, and again, if it's something that's, you know, subject to records or if it's, you know, redacted, that would be done ahead of time.

Okay. So, know that we have Commissioner Ruth has a is there any way that we can have um calendar requests from public uh from department heads because there's events that go go on throughout the entire city. He talked about that. Some people get, some people don't. And then you run into them and they said, "We were disappointed you didn't show up." And I was like, "I didn't know nothing about that." That's something that's actually being worked on right now. The city administrators actually gotten with me on that to have a calendar so that you all are making sure that you all get to the invites to the same thing. Yeah. The goal is that it's on all your calendars. You may have three events at the same exact time at the same exact day and you pick which ones, but at least you know about it. So we are that's definitely a high priority for us.

Absolutely. Thank you. All right, moving along. Uh Mrs. Forbes, economic development. The walking down counts as your time. Just kidding. Please take your time. Good evening, Antonet Forbes, economic development director. I will attempt to speak as fast as uh Mr. A little louder. Absolutely. How's this? Yeah. Okay.

Okay. So, economic develop I have control over this, right? I just felt it buzz. So, under economic development, we also handle the CRA. So I'm going to do economic development first and then pause and then I'll handle the CRA to give time to absorb. So um as a department overview we look at attracting new investments supporting our existing businesses as well as fostering a resilient, diverse and competitive business environment. And the way we do that is I always look at it as uh three aisles on the stove. So there is the business attraction piece which is how do we get new investment into the city? There's the business retention and expansion. How do we help our existing businesses stay and grow? There's the workforce development. How do we help our upcoming uh talent pipeline that is our graduating seniors and juniors and ones who are either collegebound or trade school or even um to start their own business. How do we foster them so that they stay within the community again for economic prosperity? And then the fourth aisle would be um entrepreneur ecosystem which is how do we um hopefully create the next line of entrepreneurs that will invent or improve a product or service that would again help our local economy. So under highlights and priorities um we have started doing a series of events um for a couple of purposes. Primarily, it's to introduce ourselves to the community, but it's also to bring some of the resources that are available to our business community who may or may not know about it. So, our goal is to do at least one event per quarter. In January, we hosted the opportunity of Papa Business Resource Expo where we had over 30 business resource providers, um, regional providers, um, and we had businesses from all across the city to come where we connected the dots. We also established a partnership with the national entrepreneurship center of which they will help us provide that content programming. We also had the how to do business with the Dominican

Republic which is to help our local businesses learn how to trade outside of not just the Papka but outside of the US so that hopefully there is a new source of revenue stream. Uh we also relaunched our commercial real estate base. So in August when I arrived, we had about seven properties listed on that inventory. Uh right now we're close to 150. So we are constantly feeding more properties into that area because majority of time when site selectors are looking at your city, they've already identified a site before they you get the call. And so how do we help them find that site? We have that database readily available. We also launched our economic development monthly newsletter of which you all should be recipients of that. We also initiated um um what's called site visits or BRE visits. That's where we as staff go out and meet with uh businesses individually, find out what their needs are and see how we can hopefully help connect the dots with them. So that could be anything and everything. So the conversation usually starts with tell me about your business and then more importantly tell me what you need help with. Um we've also initiated business surveys which anyone who is a business owner I hope you um fill it out. We are still getting responses from that. So those business surveys help us determine future programming as well as what our budget would look like so we know what program we need to put in place. We've also expanded our uh department from one to three people as of this year. Um and then we've also provided 10 cases of business assistance. That's where businesses contact us and tell us they need assistance with something. Whether it's identifying a site, maybe they need access to data of which we can provide, maybe they need help with how do I identify who my market share is, we can help with all of that. And then the retail recruitment strategy is our um agreement we have with an outsourced company that helps us identify potential

retailers and restaurants to come into the area under our priorities. So we have several priorities. So if I have not said this a is a relatively new department. So there will be lots of plans as we build out in the future. So one of the primary plans is our retail and industrial recruitment. That is how do we get new business into the area and then coupled with that would be lo location intelligence software. That is software that helps support site selection. So that can tell us we can do geo fencing that helps us identify um what the demographics are, what is the consumer tapestry, what is the spending patterns, what is the purchasing power in that area. So then we can identify where those those residents are going or business are going and how they are spending their money. That then helps us identify who or what businesses we should recruit into our area because that is what's called retail leakage. We also need um to look at business data collection and analytics. Again, that helps us determine market data and and help us determine what strategy in order to identify our appropriate target industries under proactive business engagement. That's for existing businesses. So, one of the things that is very critical um in economic development is you want to make sure there's a balance between trying to attract new businesses into the area and making sure that you engage and cultivate a long-standing relationship with your existing businesses so that hopefully the new businesses that you bring in would identify maybe some of an um what do you call ancillary markets where they can have B2B and I'm trying to use acronyms where they have businessto business opportunities to connect and hopefully um build new customer base, our incentive program development alignment. So, at this point, we don't have a formalized incentive program. And so, if we do not

have incentives, um we do not have specific um uh properties that we are looking to potentially sell, lease, or do a P3. We need to have something that incentivizes companies to come. And so we do need to look at a more formalized incentive program with an associated budget that goes with it. Our downtown and corridor activation which um is handinhand with under our CRA because not just the CRA but just how do we we need to identify specific corridors within the city that we would like to um improve in terms of uh the commercial activation and then marketing and branding which was mentioned. So um Apaka needs to have a brand. How do we identify ourselves? When you drive through the city, you should there should be visibility that shows kind of who we are and defines what's our story also. So under um new initiatives and oh man under new initiatives and programs. So communications and branding. So once we identify what our brand is and what that means, we now need to do storytelling and make sure that we spotlight not just our existing businesses but also we are out marketing who Apopka is. I mentioned about um incentive programming also about trade and export initiatives that goes for existing businesses. How do we help them identify um outside market share? But also we will begin doing trade mission trips where we now go out to um other uh countries and regions and try to recruit their businesses to come here under small business and entrepreneurship um support. That is anything um in the lines of technical and financial assistance that supports our smaller businesses. SBA decide does um defines our smaller businesses as any business under 500 um people and so that is the

bulk of the businesses that we have in Apopka um downtown activation program which we've um I will speak about a little bit more into the CRA but to um define our downtown in a way that produces more foot traffic which will hopefully support our local businesses. uh P3s, also known as public private partnerships, in order to leverage private investment to help with some of our projects so that not all projects are completely reliant on um city funding and then technology and systems modernization. So, the implementation of a CRM, which is a um basically a database that helps us um identify the businesses that we've been speaking to, track that relationship to be able to say, "Hey, we spoke last month. I sent you a couple potential properties. Where did we go with that? So, it's a lot more sophisticated than just keeping an Excel spreadsheet of businesses that we've spoken to.

So, this is the last slide. Um,

so under funding, which we this goes in handinand with um the incentive program, but making sure that as we establish programming that it is something that is sustainable and performancebased. So, it simply just cannot be tied to a one-time cast infusion, but there are clawback provisions that are tied to it. There are jobs that are needs to be created and maintained or um retained better. um downtown redevelopment activation which we've spoke about hopefully providing catalytic projects that will strengthen the urban core target industry growth and diversification small business and entrepreneur econism ecosystem expansion P3s enhancing our quality of life and placemaking investments um as well as organizational capacity and systems growth so one thing that I didn't mention is that um while economic development has now um been assigned two additional staffers They do need training. So that training right now I am providing them that training but we do need to give them uh a little bit more intense training both in the areas of economic development as well as in redevelopment. And so that is something we need to make sure that we continue to invest in our staff so that we have the utmost uptodate um information um particularly as um there are guidelines and programs that change on a federal level that can affect our ability um to market aka and one example I'll give you is for example opportunity zones so now they have been re revised there's opportunity zones 2.0 I know. And we need to make sure that now we're properly trained in all the specifics that go with it so that we can market um that area again that this is the destination business location. So with that, oh last thing I think I didn't mention is that we also include under activities the youth council and we also do uh BTRs. So um our goal under

economic development is a to position APKA as the most competitive businessfriendly destination in Central Florida. and I'm available for questions. That's awesome. Thank you. Uh public comment. Anybody wish to comment on this? Uh Miss F on your on your second slide that you had with the uh organizer and uh is that one? Yeah. On the third line there. Mr. Bill, can you just make sure you're speaking in the mic? Sorry.

Okay. uh on the third line organizing how to do business with the Dominican Republic. Since this last since this last city council have uh uh gotten rid of DEI and with the recent with the recent uh uh legislation coming out of Tallahassee with the DEI uh legislation, how do how do this square by putting this in the budget? do that affect that in a kind of way. Yeah, please. Okay, if you have comments and I'm happy to comment as well on that.

Okay, so specifically this event was geared to um what's called uh basically it's export. It is how to export your good or service to another country. In this case would be the Dominican Republic. So this is not a DEI initiative. This is a business expansion initiative. This is how do you help your business learn how to procure additional market share? So, and now I want to speak very generally. Most of the time small businesses, they rely on traditional markets. Traditional being your walk-in traffic, your your your local residents and such, but there's a whole other market share that's out there that you may not be aware of. And so the point of this event in particular was to showcase, hey, did you know that there are programs available both at a state level and a regional level that can help you sell your good or service to another country and not just help you sell it, they can help you come up with a marketing plan. They can help introduce you to other potential um purchasers of your supplies or your goods or services. They can help you identify as well as how to negotiate the terms of that agreement. They can also help you um schedule meetings and you can and and travel to another country and they will help connect you with that potential procure of your good or service. So a lot of businesses may not know that and all those services I mentioned by the way are at little to no cost to businesses. So the point of that um event and events that are like that of how to do business with is is not DEI. It is how to help you expand your potential customer base

and and thank you for that. And I think the overarching too is that with our attorney involved in almost every step, we're going to have to be very delicate with how we proceed um on any initiatives in that capacity. Any other comments?

Just a quick comment. It hand inhand with the economic development director's position how the public perceive the administration and the feel-good factor in Apopka just now is so intense that in the space of a week I've spoken to five developers who now want to move back into thank you for your comments. Uh anybody else from public commissioners what you got? Nothing.

I just I have a question. I've been quiet up here. You know that I have been asking over and over again. A list of our warehouses. Who's in business? Which ones are empty? And what are we looking for for our warehouses? What are we trying to attack uh attract? And what kind of skill labor are we looking for? And uh are we in partnership at all with any of these new businesses that are in our warehouses that have any training programs that we can share with the high schools?

So yes, you are correct. You have asked that several times. Yes, you have. And so I will tell you that the relationship I have with our uh warehouses are is at its embryionic stages. Um, and for whatever reason that is, part of the process is cultivating a relationship with them that that they feel comfortable enough having these very honest discussions about what is the condition of the property. Um, who has been at potential interest in their property, how can city can assist them with their property. So that is something that I am working on. That is the short version of it. I can tell you that of some of the um I have reached out to several you know some of the the larger companies here um and they have had some concerns of which now we're starting to kind of let's talk about and figure out there's a way that we can address them and then we've also had conversations about okay how can we move forward what are your future expansion um plans if there are any why did you choose a popka do you intend to stay so that's part of that relationship building

okay but I did not forget your your request about who was in the warehouses. Yeah, I mean it they're filling up our warehouses, but we I know I drive and I'm go, "Oh, that's a new warehouse that just got um Are they leasing? Are they buying the warehouses?" I mean, I don't even know if they're leasing because then if they're leasing, they could be in business for two or three years and pack up and leave. And if we don't have a relationship with them, um, because we want them to stay, but we also want them to create jobs. Correct. And that's something that I like to track. How much how many jobs are they creating in our city?

You are correct. And I can get you information as far as the number of jobs that are in APK as a whole. We can do it by by zip code. We can do it, you know, we can geoence it. But that for that specific area that would require um communication directly with those companies or the warehouse owners of which I am still cultivating that relationship. Okay. Commission.

Thank you. Uh and one one quick comment. It may it seems like it may be advantageous to prioritize the incentive program to u incentivize people to to chat with you to give you that information. So maybe we build that out sooner rather than later um and see what that looks like overall and see if that aligns with what the commissioners want to see as well. And then that that may be something that makes the most sense as we progress and be able to get a little more quality data, things of that nature. Awesome. Thank you. Switch over to CRA.

Okay, so the CRA um and this is very brief although I'm sure you guys are already aware. of CRA is primarily a uh dependent uh special independent district which is um committed to eliminating slman blight, stimulating private investment and fostering economic um growth within a very specific area of the city. So that means economic development, business growth, that is community revitalization and placemaking that is infrastructure and public improvements and investment and incentive programs. So, as you all know or um will soon find out that every couple years the CRAAS kind of come under attack and so it is always important for us to showcase the things that we do to show the important work that redevelopment is. So, but also what happens every couple years is that the statute changes a little bit. it tweaks a little bit more because there are some bad characters. And so unfortunately that starts to restrict some of the things that we can do um that we may have previously been able to do and now we cannot do. And I'll just give the example because we do have um some new commissioners. So for example, CRAAS long ago used to be able to use money for marketing and events and such and we cannot do that anymore. So, for highlights and priorities, um, under housing and neighborhood investment, uh, we have our RAP program, which was which awarded 35 homes. And I'm sorry, let me back because again, we we do have some new commissioners. So, our RAP program, which is our residential renovation assistance program, provides exterior improvements to properties within the CRA. That's everything from roofs to doors to windows, landscaping, ADA improvements, driveways, that sort of thing. So we awarded 35 homes uh which included 15 groups and 588 projects. Um to date this

is actually um oh we have now completed 14 homes as of yesterday. Um 960,000 was funded. 6700 was private investment. That means that they went over the amount uh of max award that was available. So they put in their additional amount under FRAT which is the facade renovation assistance program. that is um the same program but that's for commercial property. So we assisted five um businesses um this year as well as for policy and planning. So the C the CRA's annual report and which at this point when we talked about there's all these different policy developments and improvements that keeps happening on the CRA. One of we have several reports we now have to do but one of the annual reports which is required um to be submitted to the not just to the county but also um submitted to the state is our annual report which basically talks about all the things that we've done for the year. So that was completed is due March 30th the 31st 31 days in March I don't know by the end of March. Uh so that was submitted in time and in compliance. We also um the board adopted its work plan which was in compliance with house bill 7013 which required that not just a work plan but also performance metrics have to be reported each year by December. So before we can report performance metrics we need to establish what are we reporting on and that's what that work plan is of which the Siri board adopted which is in direct correlation with the adopted budget. We also the board approved the revision of some of the some of the incentive programs um which we increased the maximum award amount. So under the FRAP um and the BCAP which is the building code assistance program we increased from 5,000 to 10,000. We also changed to a directed contractor payment model. We increased the completion deadline from 6 months to a year. And we also added appeals criteria

um and updated the process for downtown and public spaces. It was the completion of the phase one popka trail. Um we also completed and by we I mean in partnership with the parks department as Siri funded um these projects the resurfacing of the basketball courts at Alon Alonzo Williams Park um as well as the construction of the downtown parket park has begun which you've probably seen it if you parked out front. um and the completion of the skate park and pump track under community impact and activation. Um it is where the CRA is funding officers um on the weekends in the downtown. So um happy to report from Q1 2025 to Q1 2026 um there was a 33% reduction in overall crime and we relaunched the CRA newsletter. So for priorities um under the planning and policy we need to update our CRA master plan. That is something that will be outsourced because it needs to reflect the current market conditions and redevelopment opportunities. And in order for us to establish what programs and projects we need to do, it needs to be reflected in our master plan. If it's not in our master plan, we can't do it. And so that plan needs to be updated. It also needs to include design standards which the Siri board has emphatically stated that is important to have design standards as we do improvements. It has a continuity in the aesthetic under redevelopment investment strategy. We need to expand property acquisition in order to assemble key projects for development. That goes in line with those P3 projects and also being able um to have the CRA having assets so that when the CRA sunsets that we'll still be a the it will transfer now to the city and still the city will still be in the capacity to negotiate for new development and hopefully help dictate the type of development that it would

like. Um, we also need to advance our target 3 P3 opportunities under infrastructure and capital projects. We need to invest in more um, roadway, sidewalk, lighting, and drainage improvements to support the redevelopment. Also enhance our gateway corridors and streetscapes. Again, that's identifying so when you are in the CRA, you can actually tell you are in a particular district. and also align our infrastructure improvements with target redevelopment areas and economic development goals under parks and public spaces to work to implement park improvements and upgrades to expand expand recreational activities. As you know, there's a tie-in between parks and green space and economic development. Also, the creation of, like I said, a distinct CRA identity that reflects the community's character and vision and integrate trail connections and open space improvements under community support and neighborhood investment to launch a homeowner down payment assistance program that supports home ownership as well as neighborhood stability so that as we start improving the CRA district that we will make sure that no one is necessarily housed out or there's the opportunity for um folks to invest into the very area of which they are already a part of. Um also introducing new community a new community policing and safety partnership initiative that is extremely important because the statute talks about um community policing and it expressly uses the term innovative policing strategy. So what are we doing that's hopefully different that we maintain that decrease in overall crime but also we have what's important called a perceived um safety. So it's not just having the numbers but also residents visitors alike and businesses feel a sense of safety in the CRA organizational excellence and capacity building. So that is investing in staff certifications and professional development so that like I said our

existing staff is wellversed in the CRA as well as the upcoming changes that happen. So they have already been provided kind of a um fundamental training knowledge of which I've provided them. But there is a state organization the Florida Redevelopment Association that offers formalized training um which is also certificatebased of which is important that they um go through that process as well as um enhanced cross department coordination to improve service delivery and project execution. It's extremely important that we realize in economic development and our CRA that our customers are not just external but also internal our other departments. So I think we can service our customers overall better if we have a better um idea um of what other departments do and how we can work better collaboratively. So that is under capacity building of how we can do some cross trainining and hopefully provide um better overall service. So this is kind of a kind of snapshot over the next five years of what our priorities or what that looks like and how we get there or what I call what is success and how do we know how do we recognize it when we get there. So, we talked about the master plan, adopting design standards, launching a CRA brand and marketing strategy, implementing revised incentive programs, the home beginning the homeowner down payment assistance program in the community policing, um looking at uh property acquisition and beginning staff certifications. In year two to three, um we will complete that master plan and hopefully begin prioritizing projects um advancing P3 projects as well as um um identifying properties hopefully to create a an asset inventory of properties that are available, implementing infrastructure improvements, hopefully ones that are already in line or in tandem rather with our existing CIP projects. Um, also

beginning park and public space upgrades and placemaking projects, rolling out our historic markers and refining program, and activating the CRA branding through marketing campaigns. In years 3 to five, look at catalog catalytic redevelopment projects um that promote mixeduse development as well as measurable result increases in private investment because that's what CRA's are about, right? that we're putting in public dollars hopefully to recruit a private investment to come in and increase the property values and the CRA's fund themselves is is cyclical. Um establish a fully realized design districts um and also expanding housing neighborhood stabilization outcomes and positioning the CRA as a competitive investment ready district with strong market identity. So with that, we hope to build momentum from planning to implementation to transformation within our CRA. And I'm available for questions.

Thank you. I really appreciate that. Before I open up to the public, I just want to make one comment for us. We're sitted as a um commission right now, not the CRA board. So as you ask questions, be mindful of that that we're not sitting as a CRA board. So just keep that in mind. Um so please public comment. Anybody have any comments specific to CRA? Roger back 7 West Main Street. I just have one particular question observation when it comes CRA the council members or the C are CRA board with additional people on it. Is it possible that you guys can just put in a whole new board or does it have to always be city council? Because me personally, I think it's a conflict. That's my thought. Thanks. So, I did ask that same exact question as I came in and from my understanding, it's statutoily required that the council does sit as a CRA board as well because I had a similar thought. Thank you for your comments and questions. It's so hard to get the information out when there's so many avenues of information and some people only pay attention to um WhatsApp or some people only pay attention to Facebook or some people only read the newspaper. Um, it's so hard to get that information out and people have to apply to get the city newsletter and people have to apply to get the um CRA newsletter. So, there's no one source that the majority of the citizens get. If they're renters, they don't get the the water bill. So, they get no utility bill with a newsletter in

it. And there's a lot of renters. Um, and so that information, we got to find some way to meet them to meet them and get them the information. Now, when it comes to vendors, and we've talked about different ways of selecting vendors. Um, and it goes back to your businesses is years ago, um, when I was, um, an ambassador with the chamber, um, we would come and get from the city clerk the list of the businesses in the community, but it didn't have the, um, warehouses you're talking about, things like that, unless that business registered, you know, um, and who they were and what they did. It just had a name and an address. Um what would be wonderful and and the chamber does not meet this. They only advertise the people who pay them a fee is a directory public directory which used to be called the phone book. the yellow pages of and sortable of all the businesses in town, including the warehouses, including the the people, the realators and the construction people that either live here or have a business address here instead of those ones that tag on fa on the website that they they're from a that they serve a popka and they actually live in Gaines. their offices in Gainesville. Apopka based businesses and service people and products. That is and that's all that goes on the Apopka website that we can go to and

sort for contractors, vendors, products and and you could have it that to be listed they need to be vetted. So, you could have a fee for that vetting because I did get taken by a company um $50,000. They were at the at a fair here. They had a big beautiful display. They were in a magazine and they were frauds.

I'm sorry to hear that. Thank you for your comments and I think that falls more under the economic development side than CRA, but definitely well received. Thank you. Ronald Ols my only comment is with the CRA process it's good to see the money is being expended now but each time each year we have it like daughter-in-law sister-in-law sister cousins and we meet for this we But we need to spend the money.

Thank you, Mr. Olson. Uh, commissioners, any questions specific to CRA? I I have a question. Um, so I see that the phase one of the Apaka Trail is on its way. So, is that is that the sidewalk right in front of uh the fire station right here? Where is that at? Commissioner, uh, phase one's completed. It runs, uh, behind Allans Williams Park, down Hawthorne, up Michael Gladen. Okay. Um, there is some funding for additional phases. We have some conceptuals on that. So, if it's the wish of the CRA board to continue that project, we can certainly pick that back up.

Wonderful. Maybe perhaps have like a ribbon cutting if we haven't had one to, you know, share the tell the community that we have this trail that opened up um and that they're invited to visit it and make a an opportunity for the community to come out and and participate. It's a good idea. Thank you. Commissioner, is the intent of the CRA to be fully walkable? Um, right now the majority of the CRA is walking the street. I think if you press your button there.

There we go. So, that is something that can be addressed in the master plan. If the board it wants to create a completely walkable CRA, then we can specify that in the master plan and then we can put a budget to it and establish an actual project. I was just um trying to put an asterisk by some of the things that might make that approach a little more palatable in the CRA if people could actually walk the sidewalks and see some of the older homes that are here, especially if we're investing in,

right? So I will tell you that the master plan process will not just be with the CRA board. It is very much communitydriven. So there has to be several community meetings as part of that in order to garner what is the kind basically the will of the community um along with um the preferences of the CRA board in order to create this collective master plan. There's also a lot of data collection that goes with it. So if the community for example were to say that um they thought that uh uh there was an increase in crime let's say um then there has to be a lot of data that actually justifies that it's called a findings of necessity and then based on that it can then be included into your master plan of yes because this data says that there is a you know a high crime that now you can create programming that addresses it. So there are several parts to it that includes the community input, the Siri board input, as well as um specified businesses. Um and then there's the data collection that goes with it as well.

Commissioner Velasquez. So um I'm always asking the same questions that downtown center, that residential, are we moving any closer to them turning dirt? This has been going on for about four years. The downtown center. Which project? It's the You talking about the um Yeah, it's in the CR Station Street. Station Street. Yeah, we're we're um reviewing that contract again uh with Mayor Na. I'd like to just see it. So, put it back out because we're going on four years and we need the foot traffic there.

Understood. So, one of the things we are getting mayor nest up to speed on the background of that agreement. We're reviewing that agreement again and we'll be forward to the council a commission very soon on some updates. Is that the commission or the CRA that that's commission? I believe that's with the commission. That's my commission. Okay. Yes, we're we're looking at deep dive because that's Oh, we are keeping track of that. That's four years this year. Four years. Yes. And um and we need it in order to build our downtown. I mean, the one toward 441 Southwick is almost done

and um but we don't have anything to bring them up to here. So, um that one was promising a community center. Uh it it promised a whole, you know, apartments, retail, and a community center. And it's uh we're going on four years. Okay. Well received noted. We will be getting an update for you um soon.

So keep it very short. I'm really excited about the down payment assistance programs. That's something that I've been really really advocating for for since I actually started on the commission. Um I've been in communication with Orange County about what that funding looked like because from my understanding there should have been funding that's passed down to the city, the whole thing. But I'll definitely talk with you offline about that because that is something that probably we should have had years and years ago because the funding has not been given to our to our city and should have been given to our city. That's all. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Forbes. Appreciate that. Planning. Planning department. Mr. Howell, are you going to be the first one that stays under seven minutes? Oh, yeah. You think you can do it? I need 30.

Good evening. Bobby How, planning manager. I'll be presenting the planning department pretty much 50,000 foot overview tonight. Um little bit of an overview on us. We protect the quality of life and of community standards. We provide customer service to citizens and applicants alike. We provide support and advice to the mayor and the city council commission as I should say now and provide support to the planning commission. We assist citizens and applicants in navigating processes. A lot of those can be kind of complicated and hard to understand. So we try to help simplify that and guide them through that as much as we can, especially the citizens of Apakka. We enforce adopted planning and zoning regulations. We review land use and development proposals for compliance with the comprehensive plan and the land development code. And we coordinate the development review committee process. Um I'm going to pretty much cut to the chase. Three priorities is that we need some positions. We've been functioning without them. We've been able to get the job done. Um, however, we run a very lean operation and our city is over almost 67,000. We're closing in on Ocala, which is about 72. So, we're not a small town. We need to grow and and be positioned and have positions like we are a larger town. So, one the first position I would like to have is a GIS addressing administrator. And currently addressing is handled by Dr. Son in the planning department. Um, it'll take him on average about three days to address a subdivision. So that's taking him away from some of his planning duties. And as you've seen, he's been before you guys presenting before. Addressing must be E911 compliant. So there's a lot that goes into that. Um, historically that had been done in the planning department. I believe the former interim city manager even did addressing at one point in time as well. Um, and also most modern planning departments in larger jurisdictions such as ours have an in-house GIS position whose responsibility is to make maps, public hearing items, update layers uh, that's in the GIS which is geographic

information systems. It's basically computer program where you can click on a parcel and it'll tell you everything you need to know about it and to create interactive mapping systems for the planning department. Uh when I was the director at Lake County, we had an in-house GIS person that handled all of our map making, created the layers, and it freed up a lot of time for research and stuff like that as well. And addressing this in addition, another position would be associate planner, and that's pretty much an entry- level position that you see in a lot of planning departments. Um and this is used as the initial customer service contact. Uh this person usually handles basic zoning inquiries, building permit reviews for required setbacks, form board surveys, which is basically ensuring that the house is going to be constructed in the proper location, land use determinations, density determinations, and reviewing properties for potential environmental constraints. These duties are currently handled by all members of the planning or planning department. So it'll be basically it's all hands- on deck right now currently. And this if this position, if we're able to get that, it helps to relieve senior level POS staff to focus on more big picture items. Another one would be a transportation planner. We did have the transportation coordinator. Um that position is now doing more of like transportation engineering. This would be more of a planning focus for transportation. I know transportation and traffic is is a big issue here in the city and most planning departments of comparable sizes have somebody on staff whose full-time job is doing transportation. We currently have a person who is a land use planner doing transportation in addition to their land use duties. Um, this person would be responsible for managing transportation master plans, corridor studies, road expansion projects, intersection upgrades, bike lanes, trails, sidewalks, and transit planning, reviewing development plans, and coordinated agreements for roadway improvements. This person, if my envision is to have them serve as a point of contact with

federal, state, and county agencies and with Metro Plan Orlando uh funding to secure funding for projects. What Metro Plan Orlando is is basically it's an arm of the federal government and they dole out money to do transportation projects. You might get on a list and be on there for 20 years so and have to wait for those projects. And this person would conduct a lot of public outreach. Also, uh we do need new computers. Our computers are so old they could vote. Um they've been around for quite some time and they're having problems processing a lot of the larger files that we have. uh when we use open gov which is our permitting software program. So we're downloading multiple multiple files. We have GIS running in the background. We were using email at the same time. So it's it's causing some problems. They're aging. So we definitely need some new hardware uh which I put in the budget uh at a item I believe cost about $10,000. Uh we need new office furniture. I know some of you visit our department. It's a little dated. Uh

dated.

It is dated. It's so old it could retire the furniture there is. So, but uh it we need standing desks or rotating desks where you can provide more comfort and economic ergonomic correctness for our staff. Uh you know, if we're sitting there all day, it's not good for you to sit all day. It's good to stand up. And if you are healthier, you can work better and work harder and work smarter. Uh and the existing furniture has been taken from storage and is many years old. Um some of it came from the cop building across the street back in the day. Uh, one of the things that I've put in is I would like to reward the staff who have obtained AICP certification, which is American Institute of Certified Planners with a salary increase of 3% upon passing that exam. Uh, currently I'm the only one in the department that has that certification. We have three um members who are eligible to take that exam, but I think that this would help, you know, give that incentive to take the exam. It's a hard test. Um, and it's the main credential for urban planning in the United States. And it basically says that if you're a planner, you have expertise in the field and you have relevant relevant education, experience, professional competence. And a lot of jurisdictions, if you're going to be more of a senior level position, you have to either have it upon hire or within a year of hire. Um, and it brings more credibility to your organization, the pass rate is 60%. And the sad part is is I passed it on the first try, so it's saying a lot of things. But as I mentioned, three planners are eligible to sit for the exam. And I really think that that would help motivate them and reward them for passing that test. It's it's not an easy no easy exam. And our long-term goals and projects is the adoption of the comprehensive plan rewrite. That's been ongoing since 2021. Commissioner Blasp, you'll recall that state denied it because it was not consistent with Senate Bill 180. They denied it. They gave us a list of 10 reasons why, one of which they had cited a policy which had

the word equitable in it. Um, so it was denied. So it will be bare bones. Uh, in order to get it approved, uh, we're going to have to go with what we have to be in compliance with the law. Oh no, I went over. Sorry.

Uh, the second thing is the rewrite of the land development code to be consistent with the comprehensive plan after it's adopted. that's required uh to be done. We put that in the budget for 2526. Uh unfortunately, we did not get to spend that. Um so that we're going to put that back in the budget for 2627. Creation of new new design standards. We have the development design guidelines. They're outdated and they're difficult to implement in some cases too. It says should can you basically pretty please do a lot of stuff. So we've had a lot of push back on that. and then remodeling of the planning offices to be a little bit more modern, clean and inviting to the general public and customers especially uh and have our upgraded technology and furniture that can be used in the current working environment. And that's all I have.

Great job. All right. Uh any public comment on this one?

M 363 Golden Gem Road. If I remember correctly, we had Pam Richmond here who was was her title and was her title director of roads transportation.

So again, you know, we we we delegated that down to Jean Sanchez to do a lot of the work. And it seems to me that one of our biggest problems is our infrastructure and our roads. And I keep harping on about it. And I'm going to tell you the pioneer agreement leaves us in a really really difficult position because I don't see the infrastructure and the roads and the connectivity that was promised in that agreement coming forth. Part of the reason for that is I don't think MD really understands the pioneering agreement in its entirety and because we don't have a dedicated person on staff here to do that now it puts us all at a disadvantage. So, I would think that that's really really important that we get back on. We may not have a director of roads. It might be a different name, but we really need someone to get in there and do a lot of work on our roads because again, I don't know where you're going to find the money to to do these roads. I think there's a shortfall of at least 20 25 billion in work that needs to be done and we we really need to find out where we are with the roads. Well, and thank you, Bobby. hell for for for the work he does. To be honest with you, I come down here and I make a lot of requests and the civility and the willingness of the staff in the planning department to help is exceptional.

That's great to hear. Thank you for that feedback, Mr. McKim.

Ditto on uh Aby's comp communication issues. anytime you have to deal with a department. Oh, I can't I wasn't planning on saying anything on this, but when hearing about the furniture needs, I encourage you, the city, to look at and have a relationship with a salvage yard for every university. I speak from experience that you every year there's some departments that buy brand new steelcase furniture. The next year they buy it again and establish a relationship with those people. had one-year-old equipment that was outstanding at about 10% of the cost. Thank you for the suggestion, Mr. Olsson. Anybody else?

Roger's back. I said West Main Street. Um, just going to go back to a question I asked you just a minute ago. And if my correctly, it states that section 163.357 allows that you guys can either be the board or not be the board. So, if you could just have the attorney kind of look at that ruling, see specifically what it is so we know exactly what we can and cannot. Could you repeat what was the Florida statute um 16357? Thank you.

And I actually did and I will have that circulated. I did have the attorney look at that and there was it's something specific to if you established yourselves as the board which was done years ago already. You can't turn back from that but if you establish residents as the board you can turn that back and become it as commissioners be can become the CRA board. So I there is a memo um discussed it that the attorney just recently sent out that we can circulate that to commissioners and then Mr. Becca, I can get that information to you as well, just so that you understand kind of what the council that at least we've received um for that. Thank you for that. Any other public comment? Uh commissioners, any anything?

Yeah, just just one question, Bobby. Yes, ma'am. Who's rewriting the LDC, the land development code? So, first of all, happy birthday. and say I'm sorry you might have to speak a little louder and let me repeat the question because there is a few people that tune in and they literally tell me you don't speak loud. So I'm asking who is rewriting our land development code?

All right. Uh we don't know yet and we would have to contract that out. Uh we would put out an RFP, a request for professional services, request for qualifications. It would go through the competitive bidding process. So would you be able to take some suggestions from the board as to what we would like to see in the land development code? Yeah. Okay. Yes. Absolutely. Because you know what I'm always asking for? Open space. Yes. Expansion of the green space. Okay. Yep. Absolutely. That was actually my that was my question.

Awesome. Well, then and we'll probably at some point once we find actually probably prior to actually establishing who we're going to go with do some workshops on the LDC, what we want to see edited, what we want to see added, and then we can throw that out to the No, that's a huge one. Okay. Well, thank you for that. Yeah. Good. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Building department, Mr. Hansen, will you be the first one to hit? Not go five minutes.

All right, let's do it. Good evening, mayor, commissioners. Just a quick department overview. The building safety department serves as a crucial public safety function for the city of Apopka, ensuring all construction meets the highest standards of safety, compliance, and quality through efficient permitting, thorough inspections, and consistent code enforcement. The department supports responsible growth while protecting residents and businesses. All of our inspectors are state licensed in the discipline in which they inspect. Many are multi-disipline which means I can inspect of course more than one discipline. We have two certified uh building permit techs on staff with two more studying for the ICC permit technician certification. The two that are already certified are already in the process of working towards their code specialist certification. Budget priorities not adding any new inspectors but replacing one that's going to be retiring at the end of the month. um budget will be real, really really close to what it was last year, just slightly higher because I want more training for the inspectors and the permit tax and there's a lot more available now than there ever was before. So, um and also included in the budget is new code books. We're going to be getting a new Florida building code which takes effect on January 1st, 2027. Uh no capital budget items this year. The cars, trucks are getting a little bit close, but I think I can get another year out of them. They're right around 110,000 miles. So, we can And we just got two new escapes or excuse me, Mavericks last year. I'm looking to get two more next year. Um, sort of like what Bobby was mentioning. I'll be implementing a new inspector and building permit tech incentive program. This program will include a 4% pay increase for each additional standard license for building code inspectors as well as a 4% pay increase for each additional certification for building permit techs.

Long-term goals include a remote building safety department office near the Kelly Park area and to expand my staff from six inspectors to between 8 and 10 and also expand my building permit techs from four to between six and seven just depending on the growth and as needed. Boom. Wow. Wow. Told you questions. Well, thank you for that. That is great. Uh, public comment on this one.

Albuquen Road. Going back a couple of years, I remember when we were only doing 500 houses a year maximum. Uh, now we've got 13,000 homes in one district. the continuity of building in Apopka I would imagine isn't going to be able to continue the way it is. So instead of looking at the long term of providing more inspectors and we we if we if as a declining growth we don't need them. Is there any way we can look at subcontracting out some of the permitting arrangements? because nowadays there's companies who will do a a survey on a building simply over the phone. So again, if there's a shortfall in people, we could look at alternatives that that would prevent us having to employ new employees and maybe having to pay insurance and retirement and all sorts of things.

Good idea. Thank you, Mr. McKim. Uh any other public comments? Any uh uh kind of feedback on that? There's quite a few of the builders or some of the bigger Dr. Horton for one, Lenar for one, they use they're using third party inspectors, which really for us all we're all we're not really losing. We're sort of g it's 10% of the building plans fees and 10% of the building permit fees. So, we're collecting still 80% and not sending any inspectors out there at all and not reviewing the plans. Kind of we're kind of we're sort of kind of do they're doing it for us. They're sort of doing it for us.

And we you just implemented a new policy specific to kind of some uh more random site visits almost as well. Correct. Uh with those third party inspectors, we're allowed to do audit inspections. We can do up to four a month to where we sort of go behind them and make sure they're inspecting up to the standards that we in. And that's something to do. Correct. Two weeks. Yes. Exactly. Yep. Perfect. Thank you for that. You got it. Anybody else from the public commissioners? So that just one question. Yep. So now that you have a third party the cos when you when you give uh provide them the cos who's certifying that co

they give us a inspection packet that shows all of the results. My signature still goes on the co but it their packet of all every inspection is in that when we issue the co that goes with it and we of course keep a copy of it as well. Okay. Okay. Y

I just have a comment. I was going to ask about how are we keeping them accountable in terms of their inspection. So you answered that. Um and that's a good question in terms of the certificate of occupancy. Sure. Um do you follow up before you put your seal on it um to make sure I mean I I know uh Dr. Horton and Lar Home. We haven't done the audits as of yet of going out there, but certainly their paperwork and I make sure everything is passed before issuing the CO. Of course. Yeah. I I if I was you, I'd be like, "Yeah, it's going to be my name." I Oh, yeah. I don't want to just throw my name. Yeah. Exactly. Accountability is there. So, you answer my question, but thank you. One more question. Do they still have project managers out there?

Correct. Yes. Oh, yeah. Okay. They do. Yep. And one small update too. We are internally discussing maybe adding some department changes to uh to um building department. So I'll be providing that once we get some more finalization of that but building department may be running with a new um function here in the near future. So we'll see how that looks but and make sure but I think it's going to be a good change and a little more efficient for everybody. So thank you. I have to take a two-minut break. I make it seven Mr. Hansen. One question from Mr. Uh, Commissioner Ruth here, make sure your mic's on. Question.

John, I wanted to commend you on um trying to keep your your expense as low as possible. Um, because I I know all your inspectors are top-notch. Um, I've seen them I've seen the act I've seen them actually do their product. Correct. And u you know, I'm going to try to do everything in my department to reduce your workload, too. Awesome. Excellent. Thank you. We'll take Thank you.

took over. That's not what it said on my phone. You better check. Check this thing. Rock and rolling. You ready? Miss Sherman, finance department.

Thank you. Thank you. I'm gonna give you a brief overview. Try to stay within my time limit. The first slide uh before you basically it's or chart. Um I have about five managers and the staff below that. So it's 27 staff members right now currently have about three vacancies. The finance department is responsible for maintaining the city's financial accounting system and includes processing of all the financial transactions of the city and producing financial statements um producing the city's annual comprehensive financial report with the auditors. They actually produce that report and oversees the investments, the payroll, the accounts payable, procurement, utility billing, financial reporting, grant administration, budget and financial planning, grant accounting and responsible for debt administration. We provide so support as we are here now for the city's annual budget as well. In regards to the highlights and the priorities, some of the key things that are for the finance department currently underway, we should be live with our new ERP and EAM system come October 1st. The schedule is actually August 3rd for the financial, August 31st for the UB and for HR payroll is October 1st and EAM system is October 1st. at that time that annual support will go into my operating budget right now. So that's that 367,000. In addition, continue those services that we have for the state revolving loan funds that we um was approved back in January. Those applications were submitted. So we'll still be going through that process and as such I'll still need bond counsel and our rate consultant to complete some of the requirements. There we go. All right. In regards to new positions, I'm looking at five new

positions. They're already in priority. I'm looking for an executive assistance. I want to help me with some of the administrative work, the public records, and all of that. So, do not have any support there. Be pulling staff and doing everything myself. Also looking for a grant coordinator to support our grant um administrator. Right now, we are growing and growing and growing in grants. That's why I'm looking for that grant coordinator. and that senior account because that senior account focuses on the accounting of that grants, all the grants. And so we want to get from being reactive to proactive. Okay. And a purchasing coordinator. We do have um three staff under the manager there, but we need another purchasing coordinator so that these the administrators can focus on more of the solicitation type work um and free up some of the coordination and help the U manager in that area. On the utility billing side, we're trying to establish a cost center. I mean, a call center, excuse me. We added one position last year and we still need another one that we really need to truly build a call center. A call I'm so used to cost call center for customer service. We want to be able to respond to our customers. Right now, it with the emails coming in and the phone calls, it could take sometimes almost up to 30 days to reply to an email. and the calls at the peak time, they can be on the phone for almost 30 minutes on hold. So, we want to reduce that, but it's going to take the staff to dedicate to do that because currently those that the ones that are answering the phone are also at the window. They're also doing some of the analytical work. So, we just need someone dedicated. We got one, we just need some more. And then an additional meter reader. We only have one. So, this is another thing that I wanted to do over time. And so we want to add another meter reader to help reduce the um estimated billing to go out and help with um the one meter reader that we have because he can't cover everything

in the capital side of my budget. We're looking at a new base station. Rob touched on this a little bit. You know, we have about nine towers. I think we have four um um base stations on those towers right now. We're going to replace one of the old ones. Um I think it's Harmon Road or Lent Road. We're going to be replacing that one in this fiscal year. We want to add another one if necessary. That's something that we're looking at, but I want to put the money there just in case. And the mobile command center is unit is something that we want to do a pilot on. We're trying to get the pilot underway this year and then we'll have a better understanding of how beneficial it's going to be because currently the meter reader that I have, he has a laptop. He goes around, he rides and it picks up some of the meter, some he has to get out the vehicle, you know, because he came out of public service, thank God, he's able to go out there and help fix some of the stuff, but again, he can only do so much. So, that's why I wanted the other meter reader. And we also want this mobile command unit. We'll see how it works out after the pilot. So, that gives it a wider range as I understand it. Okay. And again, if we proceed with the time and time in attendance, Tyler's this new system, it's not it was not in this current project for the new ERP system, but it's being considered it. We're going to look at it if we do proceed with that time and attendance module and get rid of Kronos. That's another thing that would continue to take us out a extra few months in um the new fiscal year. So, I'm estimating about 75,000 for that. could be a little more with some support service but that's the current estimate that I have some of the goals is continue with the axer our current you know to meet the GFO certificate and excellent we've met that probably what 42 years consecutively if not and continue with the quality annual budget document that's about 19 20 years consecutively we've got obtained that certificate um

provide citywide education and best practice of financial stewardship as it relates relates to city policies. Create and update written policies and procedures to increase internal controls. Continue to work with leadership to improve communication and achieve citywide goals and continue to provide financial information to council and leaders ship for proper execution of managerial and operation functions. Great job. All right. Uh public comment. Anybody?

Yeah, Rod Olsson. Just two brief comments. One, there's a number of projects that seem to sometimes stall in the city. When you talk to the staff on site, it's like, well, funds are tied up. Uh, they haven't been released yet. And I asked the question, was the project approved? Yes. Well, there's steps and procedures. I understand checks and balances, but we need to streamline that process. At least in talking to your staff, they're very frustrated. Maybe it's a matter of understanding, but that's what that's what I hear. The other thing is I would like to see is a monthly P&L review. So, the second city council meeting, just a brief bullet point. This is where we stand with police, fire, budgets. Hit those numbers as to what we're up and down. If we find out an area's blown up, what's the plan to fix it? So, it's not just a matter of the end of the year all of a sudden, hey, look, and needless to say, you know, I get very tired about every meeting we're moving money. That's why this budget process is so so important and I'm glad it's starting early. Thank you.

Thank you for that, Mr. Olsen. Uh, one quick comment on that. We are reviewing because you're department heads have echoed that same sentiment of um a streamlined process or a preference for a streamlined process to receive allocated funds and things of that nature. We're working on updating a policy and should be could be the first meeting of Jan uh June that we get an updated policy yet for that initial yes. So we're going to go through two phases of kind of cleaning up the current policy right now so things can get moving a little bit quicker. Is that the schedule that we kind of laid out or is it a different schedule?

No, that we discussed. Okay. Yeah. No. And then we're going to have we're going to bring in separate council to really advise us on a more comprehensive update to our policy uh so that it's truly taken care of on a on a longer scale and updated to what we're doing now. So uh well received and that's definitely something I think and that's the procurement policy that you're referring to. Right. Correct.

Thank you. I had sent a diagram earlier last year um to the utility department and I recently sent it to um Mayor Neesa and I believe it was Radley I sent it to um about using the utility bill for education. um using it to tell people instead of just that bar graph there that doesn't give any information except one month you jumped up or one month you dropped down how it relates to your cost because everybody shouts online why is my water bill so high they don't understand where the break is and they don't understand what the base is and what per thousand is and if it's made into a bar chart chart and a graph, they'll be able to understand it better. But as we go through these this drought and losing more water and the saltwater intrusion coming into the area, um we need to have people conserving more and the more they can conserve, it's going to reflect in in the bar chart they have. But I sent a sample. Um, and I think that that will help using the bill to educate them so that they're not going and blowing up online and yelling and screaming um in the to the department about why is my bill so high.

Thank you. Thank you for sending that too. Definitely well received. And if you guys would like that, we can I can forward that or if you can forward that to um the commission as well, just so you can see the kind of the graphic that was created for that. Any other public comment? Commissioners, I just have in regards to the grant coordinator that is so important with the city growing as large as it is and some of the infrastructure needs. Um I think in order to kind of help offset the, you know, our budget, that grant coordinator position is going to be extremely important. So, in regards to that position, is it where we're going to look for a skilled person to help seek grants as well or just administer the current grants that we have? Definitely a skilled person. We we just That's very important. That's

Well, we we just hired a person a few months ago. Very skilled. Her name is Precious Lewis. Okay. As the administrator doing an outstanding job. So, she's very skilled, well aware of what she's supposed to do. came in, hit the ground running to, you know, get a handle of all of the grants. So, this is something to assist her. Okay, perfect. Okay, really important. That's great, great news for us. Yeah. Okay, that's all I have for now. How are you enjoying your new office? I don't have it yet. She hasn't. AJ told me I couldn't move until he finished. Oh, so it's AJ's fault now.

AJ told me to ask me how I'm enjoying my my new office. I told you I couldn't move. That's right. I'm still in there. I'm still stuck. Oh my god. No, that was it. I was I was really excited because I asked Rob if he is now in in the chamber building, which I need to take a a walk there and see what it looks like. And uh I had asked is is uh Blanch in her new office? No. Still in front of the bathroom? Yes. Yeah. Yes. still in front of the back. Convenient. It's conveniently located. You would think, but you can't get in. Ruth, anything?

No. Commissioner Barry, no. I I was just going to echo what Commissioner Anderson has said. Also, I was going to ask in terms of the grant coordinator. I I know that's that would be a a huge asset for you in terms of, you know, funding those extra dollars for our city um and support the the grant administrator that we have now. So, um, yeah, definitely think it's important. Thank you. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you, M. Sherman. Thanks for your patience. I'm hopefully I get in my office. So, yes. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Sherman. All right. We are up to parks and wreck and facilities. Mrs. Edwards.

Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners. Uh, tonight I'll be providing a brief overview of the parks and recreation department's operational budget highlights and priorities. I will also review the facilities and department uh and that we're responsible for as well as key capital projects currently underway and future capital needs that will help us continue supporting quality parks, programs, events, and recreational opportunities for our community. Oops. Our mission is to provide a variety of wholesome, innovative, and environmentally diverse recreation programs, activities, and facilities that will enrich the lives of the citizens of Apakka through quality leadership, fiscal stability, and responsible planning. As you can see below, these are the facilities and the parks that we u maintain. The Apaka Community Center, Billy Dean Community Center at Alonzo Williams Park, Northwest Recreation Complex, Camp Weiwa, Doctor's Dog Park, Frank Carlton Center, Edgewood Greenwood Cemetery, Edwards Field, Apopka Action Sports Park, Kitland Nelson Park, Dream Lake Park, Apakka Athletic Complex, Camp Weiwa, and Lake Avenue Park.

You're done. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Kidding. This slide is uh the current and completed uh current projects that are completed and ones that we still have uh to finish. The all-inclusive playground at Northwest that's completed. Construction of six new multi-purpose fields at at Northwest. We are um under construction. Tennis and pickle ball facility currently in the design phase with final reviews pending. Uh new perimeter fencing off of gate four is completed. Three new pavilions that have been ordered. Uh two that will go in the area of the all-inclusive playground as well as one that will be on uh pad 2 up on the soccer fields up top. Recently completed uh our mini amphitheater in Kitland Nelson Park. Uh the front dock at Camp Weiwa. New back patio at Camp Weiwa with outdoor seating. new ADA uh accessible sidewalk areas at Northwest Rec Complex and the rebuild of some of our Gaga ball pits at Camp Weiwa. I listed this slide even though this is uh TDT grant money that's been given to us, but this is also uh two of the large projects that um we are underway on. Uh which is the new softball quad that's $ 8.3 million and then our amphitheater upgrades of 4.8 8 for a total of $13.1 million. Our current large uh CIP projects, as you can see, um listed here, we have that kind of spread out from 2027 uh through 2030. Um several items are replacement needs, um including the trucks and mowers, which are important for daily operations, maintenance, and staff efficiency. We are also planning um continued

investments in pavilions, sidewalks, perimeter fencing to finish going around the Northwest Rec Complex and sand volleyball improvements to support park users leagues and tournaments. One of the largest and most important planned investment in Northwest is going to be our field lighting, um which is critical as the complex continues to grow and additional fields are going to be coming online. Overall, this plan helps us prioritize safety, accessibility, maintenance, and long-term facility improvements over the next several years. The additional uh large CIP um is several of these projects focus on aging infrastructure um including the field lighting rebuilds, um LED upgrades, court rebuilds, and dock improvements. We are also looking at support amenities such as restroom buildings for the all-inclusive playground and the new multi-purpose fields that are getting ready to come online. With new fields, you have to have more equipment. So, sports equipment, including goals, nets, and benches um will also be needed as the new facilities um are completed. An arration pond bubbler system is needed to help circulate and add oxygen to the reclaimed water pond. This improves water quality, helps reduce odors, limits algae growth, and keeps the pond healthier overall. As you can see, there are some big ticket items on this slide. U mainly, um field lights. This is one of our biggest things that we're going to be needing. Also, we can't forget our parkland acquisitions. Uh, we need to be preparing for the future and and growing as the city continues to grow.

The in the cemetery budget, the current maintenance buildings next to the Frank Carlton Center, as you can see, um, are in very, very poor condition and has required repeated patchwork over the years. Currently, we have $488,000 in the budget and we are looking at needing an additional 600 uh to complete construction. Um replacing it is a key need um to secure the equipment, the vehicle storage, park supply storage, park maintenance operations base closer to the downtown and increase our general storage capacity. This location has also been broken into multiple times. the fence has been cut and as you can see the pieces that have been put together um after that. So we really need to secure up that facility. Our staffing considerations um as more facilities are coming online. The new TDT phase one softball quad we're looking at two full-time parks workers requested in fiscal 828 and 29 as those get completed. Um, for the new Northwest Rec Complex multi-purpose fields, we are needing two full-time park workers requested in this year's budget. For our athletics programming expansion, we're going to need one full-time wreck lead one, and two part-time facility attendants to um also be able to keep up um with the expansion. For events, we would like one uh full-time recreation lead two to assist with growing amphitheater and all city events for our new initiatives and programs. Um we are looking to expand youth and adult recreation opportunities including youth indoor volleyball and men's adult

basketball. We also uh pulled our seniors. Um there were over two of 200 of them that voted and they would like to see added um water aerobics and yoga. The concert series at Kitland Nelson Park is another opportunity to activate our downtown park space and bring the community together. And we are also requesting increased funding for marketing uh tree maintenance soding and turf care for better uh to better promote events and maintain safe attractive facilities. I'm available for any questions. Great job. Thank you so much. Thank you. Uh public comment, any feedback on this,

Leroy Bell. Uh I noticed on the on the parks and stuff that we service and uh since the mayor say you you ask and ask me I you know I see all the requests that you're asking but I didn't see any request asked for Lorenza William and Billine Park where we need up there. We need to have some kind of um place where uh when the vendors come in, they can plug in to power. We need to have some kind of concession stand up there. uh uh Brandon Merryweather a every year dude I think it's 31 I forget the name of his organization but he comes up there and gives out bikes and stuff to the kids and and uh sometime you have two to 300 people up there at one time and you only have one bathroom in that building up there and and you need to have a place up there where you can put bathroom facilities in there. So when you have anywhere over 100 people up there, uh uh they have a place to use the restroom. Uh there's no parking up there. I see that you requesting all the money for the covering and stuff. Uh I noticed I think it's on Fifth and Washington, you have a little old parking lot over there where that can be renovated out and put some kind of covering over there. Uh um I think we got a field up there that they use for football and basketball, I mean football and and soccer. And I think the corner that they can use for softball where it used to be um Jimmy

Baker softball field uh Mr. Lee baseball field back in the day back in the back in the uh uh 60s and the 70s. But it seemed to be that we need to we need to put some money. You know, you're asking big for up on the north side. We need to start asking big on this side. And with Billy Dean and Billy Dean and the uh uh Lorenza William Par, that's the only park on this side of 441. I I think the last commissioner was asking for a pocket park and I noticed that you was uh asking for money for land acquisition for parks and and it seems to be some of that need to be put over on this side and I would ask for that.

Thank you. that is definitely wellreceived. And I'll tell you on a high level, uh my goal is to have if the commission is on board with it as well as to have a um parks and wreck um advisory board that'll basically make it so that they have the design standards, things of that nature. So every park, you'll know when you're in a PAKA park. It's not a a north or south park. It is a park of Apka. So that's something I definitely um have some interest in. We'll discuss that um during one of our workshops, but down the road. But thank you for your feedback. Definitely well received. When I've spoke many many times, you've heard me talk about Florida friendly or Florida compatible is all the plantings need to start reflecting that. Um, we need to look at the fact that we've changed from uh a 9A to a 9B uh plant planning zone and that a lot of what we put out there freezes and I've spoke about locally um a popka grown orange raised or only from Florida and uh we need to avoid these trees that are imported from uh California. And we need to make sure that we um for any product you're buying, whether it's basketball, goals, or anything else, you can find somebody locally that produces these things. Um you can find local vendors and um make sure that we um seek them for shirts and things like that that you need. Um, and then the plantings. Make sure that the plantings are going to be compatible and it's we're buying stuff that public works could produce and putting it on the soccer fields. But then that's also all

natural and green. And it's going to eliminate um fertilizer, eliminate pesticide and reduce watering by using the product that they're putting down, which is compost, and it's going to help preserve the fields. But we could be producing our own and saving a lot of money. Thank you for that. Think you have one more? Yes.

Rod Olsson. Uh, as you know, I'm at the park every day and I think we can do more with signage. The number of times people I'm stopped, where's this, where's that? signage at each of the entrance or right by each entrance or any intersection would be helpful with that. Also, sometimes every multi-purpose field, every baseball and softball field is in utilization and sometimes there's only one ranger on hand. That is not enough. That may have been an anomaly every now and then, but it needs to be addressed. With regard to the amphitheater, I think that I'm glad to hear that you're putting some more money in the budget with advertising. We ought to be advertising in Leburg. We ought to be advertising in Sanford. We ought to be advertising in Mount Dora. We've got the best outdoor amphitheater venue in the center part of the state. We need to do more and do better in that area. Uh with regard to uh camp we walk. If when I was a coach, nothing was better than having my whole team in one room. I think that's an opportunity that we have all these soccer, baseball, softball, uh football programs going on. knowing that they could have instead of paying $200 a night for a hotel, we got a swimming pool out Camp Weiwa. You could have the whole team under one roof for for a night or two. That'd be an incredible team building experience. And in addition, in the past, Camp Weiwa was used as a graduation for all elementary students in Apakka or a weekend there was a not one night overstay. That's money coming in from the school board, but it's kind of like the graduation from elementary to middle school as another source of possible revenue. And I would be remiss if you know you've been hearing about it for the last four years. We need to look at equalizing the rate. Soccer, travel soccer should not be paying $25 an hour when baseball football is only paying a dollar and about $166 to $3 an hour. It's not fair.

Thank you, Mr. Olsson. appreciate your your dedication to our parks, too. You definitely always provide great feedback. Anybody else from the public? Commissioners, what do we got? Um, I just I just have one uh inquiry. The women's club, some of the ladies had asked me about when you ready to take down the gazebo. To let them know, I think they want to come and have like a Yes. to be there. Yes. It's very important to them.

It is very important to them. And then I had gotten a request that they would like to name the new amphitheater. And I told them how to do it. You know, give it a they wanted to dedicate it to um some of the ladies from the women's club that was instrumental in creating the g the uh gazebo and who have passed but who have like between 40 and 50 years of membership. No. And uh so I did tell the uh the person that did uh ask me to submit because we now have a policy about naming buildings and streets and that. So I said that they would have to put something in.

Yeah. And just to clarify, we've we've discussed a possible policy. It still needs to come back for commission review and approval. Okay. And uh I believe we were deciding whether it was going to be a resolution policy or a code policy. Sure. And Yeah. And and I want to see if there's other options out there as well that maybe other municipalities are doing because at some point um we want we run we run out of roads and buildings to name after people. So how do we do this in a long-term way that is equitable for everybody and and it's not something that's more sizable or less sizable depending on the person or depending on the timing. So just working on some more equitable options um that that make sense across the board. Right. Thank you, Commissioner Anderson. Anything? No.

Awesome. Thank you. One quick comment to Mr. Bell. Um we we do have in the CRA budget this year the uh design for the parking lot across the street from Alonzo Williams Park. Also the cemetery. Yes. I forgot. Happy Mother's Day. and I went out to my mother's graveyard.

Well, I'll tell you actually and and moving forward, if you can, if you have a comment, come back up here, please. Uh, but well received and it's something that actually the the veterans were just out there last week or two weeks ago to clean it up. And the the problem is we have got gorgeous trees out there, gorgeous mature trees, but that creates constant non-stop maintenance for us as well. So I I guess there was a program previously, I think maybe pre-COVID, that where we used um local jails maybe in some capacity. We don't do them in They don't do that at all. They don't offer corrections discontinued that service. So we need to prioritize. Was it the schools? What school was was it a school that was doing it as well? Trinity Christian School, uh, my alumni, shout out, uh, was out there a month or two ago as well. So,

and they did a lot of work. I have pictures and they did a lot of work. Yes. So, thank you for that, Mr. Unite. I'd like to add one thing, and I noticed you had increased funding for tree maintenance. U, the police had an event at the park this weekend. It was Saturday. There was a limb. It probably weighed a couple hundred pounds and when it fell, it fell right beside the mat where everybody was working. Oh, gracious.

Air was even there. I'd be remissed if I didn't if we could as department heads, you know, I I made a a comment to Radley this morning in reference to that, but if we could identify some of these trees, he said that we have a tree contract with Davey Tree Service. We do, but if we could identify some of these, hurricane season is right around the corner. Identify some of these weak limbs. Let's get them trimmed up and treat it, you know, the maintenance on before the season hits. Be proactive. Absolutely. We got some palm trees, too, throughout the city that we can get ahead of as well. That'll definitely do the same thing. Some type of preventing maintenance. Yeah, my mom and I walked underneath that that tree just before the limb fell. Yeah, you guys were pretty close to

We were very close. Um, but my comment uh was I I would definitely like to see add uh in addition to adding the concert series to Kitlin Nelson, but uh also add um marketing to our Saturday sounds uh to piggyback with uh what what Mr. Olsen has shared in terms of marketing um to other municipalities to make sure that they're they are aware that we have this free concert you know from May to no October October to May

from October to May. One of the things that we're actually looking at is in the past um year's budgets, we've had $21,000 allocated for billboards. And I felt like um and after talking with Bradley, we wanted to utilize those funds in other areas because if you have a static board, it takes forever um for those to get made and then they're expensive and after one event, they're done and they've got to build another one. So, we did the digital rotating signs. They're a little less expensive, but it's so hard to track. And I want to do things that we can actually track our marketing and see what's working and see what's not. Um because we do need to do a better job at that.

And what I' I'd like to also add is perhaps and we've discussed this too, but um revisit the the opportunities of our the food trucks that come out to our Saturday sound. Yes. Um to see what we can do with that. Maybe perhaps kind of do a survey with previous vendors. um see where our downfalls are, where our gaps are, what where we can improve, and then obviously what we've been successful on. Um so that way we can navigate that and really be able to provide a wonderful event for not only our residents, but people outside of our community. Agreed.

And and two quick comments on that, too. One on the marketing side, um and that's well received. I know that's that's echoed up here on in multiple facets and multiple ways is we're looking at potentially creating a whole new department that is just a a media team that each department can tap into and everything that each department is doing should be marketable and is marketable and what's make it is what makes our city great regardless of what it is. It's it's marketable. So, we need to be able to have a team that can do that and provide that in a very high um capacity way. So, that's something that we're definitely looking at. I think is well needed across almost every single department. And then specific to uh Saturday sounds, what we're looking at is doing too is maybe making a little more robust, something that connects with each layer and level of wherever you're at in life, you're going to enjoy it. So I can just say I can only speak from my experience. My family sometimes may get a little bored out there after a little while. And so that's why I I may leave out 45 minutes to an hour in because kids get a little hungry, get a little cranky. So um maybe offering some different opportunities for families to be out there and just different levels. So, I think that would be helpful and we're looking into that too to again to to add to your point to make those a little more robust, a little more just bring creating community is really what it is.

I agree. Anything else? Thank you so much. Appreciate you. PD facilities real quick. Mayor Oh, excuse me. I apologize. You got You guys don't need to present anything. You're deputy chief. You can just calm down. I apologize. Uh, interim city administrator Rad Williams. Uh, good evening, uh, mayor and commissioners. Happy birthday, Vice Mayor. The gift that keeps giving.

Um, I'm going to quickly discuss the facilities maintenance, uh, division uh, that's currently housed in the parks and recreation department. A quick overview, the facilities maintenance division is responsible for maintaining a safe, professional environment for city employees and the public. uh acting as a service unit. It's responsible for the cleaning, maintenance, security, and renovations of all facilities uh within the city. Team is currently led by our facilities administrator AJ Juul and comprises of team of six. Um over the last I say three years, we've uh steadily increased this division uh as far as number of staff. Uh when I started uh four years ago, it was AJ and our facilities coordinator, William, two people running the whole city uh facilities maintenance operations.

Still is AJ. AJ AJ is a big part of it. Where you go in the city, AJ is there. Is definitely there.

Um we have grown over the last couple years. Uh we have administrative help now uh in the department. We have an electrician too and uh three facilities maintenance worker twos. Um some of the upcoming highlights and priorities. Uh we are looking at uh some anticipated enhanced levels of service for some of our routine maintenance and upkeep. Uh particularly looking at the facility janitorial um needs and also just general pressure washing and painting of the facilities. Making sure we're staying up to date with uh uh fresh facilities from the outward facing uh standpoint and also the pressure washing that helps maintain our sidewalks. uh the buildings themselves will help keep the buildings uh uh paint in better condition. Uh we are also going to be requesting some additional uh museum renovation uh expansion possible funding. Uh there are some sections of the uh facility that have uh rotted. We do have funding in this year's budget, but as we've gone through that uh um process of evaluating with um um some of our engineering experts, uh the funding is a little light. So, we're going to have to try and get a little bit more funding in for that to to handle that and also discuss if there's an appetite for any type of expansion as we're doing that work, that would be the time to do that. Uh and then of course additional staffing to assist with the increased project load and routine maintenance. Uh kind of piggybacking off of the comment earlier about AJ's everywhere all the time all at once. Um the workload has drastically increased over these this time period and a lot of that is just renovation projects. Uh whether it be as pictured here at the Apaka Community Center, uh uh completely redoing the wall surfacing and um painting. Um, we have a couple other phases of of upgrades at the community center, uh, including a built-in stage and renovating the the

kitchen and restroom areas to get that facility, uh, up to the current, uh, current time and era, um, to going through city hall in a pragmatic approach to refresh and renovate offices. I know Bobby had mentioned earlier about the planning and zoning uh, office area. one of the last areas that we're kind of moving into next. Um the chambers will start uh here very soon to get a upgrade refresh as well. So there's been a lot of facilities that we've been periodically year-over-year trying to tackle to get the maintenance or get the renovations and get them up to speed with the with the current times and that includes office furniture as well. So, just again to highlight where we're at currently, some of the larger projects in facilities maintenance, and the list is uh immense. Uh AJ has a whiteboard that he keeps running in his office uh that keeps track of all his uh needs. Um but we got fire station renovations. We've got city wall uh city hall access and security upgrades tying back into your your badges and and IDs. um mentioned the community center phase two uh renovation which is uh get getting rid of the temporary stage and putting a permanent built-in stage in place. Uh office furniture replacements year-over-year we've been putting about $80,000 in the budget to just periodically move through on a year-by-year basis to do uh office furniture upgrades. Uh currently in the process or almost done with the fire station bay door replacement program. Uh we've got annex renovations. Blanch's office is up next and uh of course HVAC replacements and a new fleet facility that is almost at the 90% design completion phase. We do have money budgeted for debt on that building and uh as soon as those plans are finalized hopefully in the next month or so we'll we'll start working with procurement to get those plans out for construction.

Uh still left to be done in the future. Uh we've got fire station 3 which uh is either a renovation or a re rebuild. We we're working with Chief Sanchez on some discussions about that. The location that of that facility is kind of in a a weird tight spot. So renovation might not be the best option and might be look for a relocation on that. Uh the public safety complex, fire uh admin, fire station one and police headquarters. uh city hall the air uh the chiller is relatively new, but we do need to come back and do all the replacements on the air handlers and and VAV boxes to make sure the system is running as intended. Uh Lust Road has a large uh unused facility. We'd like to look at some options to whether we could utilize that for maybe storage or just kind of enhance the building. It can't be utilized for much because there are some co covenants restricted onto that property, but explore what we can do with that and do some renovations to utilize a building that would cost us over a million dollars to tear down. So, um the city hall atrium out here, the glass window is starting to reach a point where it's going to need to be addressed. So, kind of rework how that layout happens. uh the community center, uh renovation phase three, mentioned restrooms, kitchens, and then just continued citywide projects, office furniture replacements, renovations, updates, HVAC, generators, those things that we try and put in year-over-year to have some funding as we're going through the plan if something pops up to go ahead and address that as needed. And that's it.

Love that. Good job. Great job. Thank you. Uh

any public comment on this one? uh with just one thing. Uh I spoke to Chief uh Sanchez with with the expansion of Okcoy Apopka Road with the 414 with the roundabout and you got Emerson Park right there uh with the new fire station uh fire station 6 I believe. I think it's paramount that the city need to add a emergency signal right in the front of the fire department so that you know when an emergency come out you know I you I use that road every day going out to the 414 and it's it's it's chaotic in the afternoon and especially if these guys have to get out our first responders we need to have emergency is a signal there to let these people know that emergency is coming through.

Absolutely. Totally agree with you. It's probably something we should have planned during construction phase and it's my well you probably Yeah, it is currently under in progress to get added this week actually. Chief is saying it's getting started this week. So, but yes, it should have been something that was kind of incorporated in that part of the scope original construction. Correct. Are we doing well now? I want to use your time. Are we doing it on um for all the fire stations? Aren't we doing some updated uh signaling or no? Uh yes. So we're we're working through that process right now. Um okay. So I can share a time updated timeline on that. But we are that is in the words. Yes, that's currently active and uh we should start seeing some of that construction here soon.

Excellent. Any other public comment, commissioners? No, we're good. We're good. Thank you. Thank you, AJ. Thank you, Mr. Williams. All right. Now, please uh Mr. Deputy, excuse me, Deputy Chief Dan Garcia. Uh Deputy Dan, I guess, is is how they kindly uh reference coined me as good evening, mayor, commissioners, fellow residents of Apka. Um I'm here on behalf of Chief Quinn Henry. She uh was scheduled to represent our agency at the uh National Police Week in Washington, DC. So, I know she would have wanted to be here.

I love that we're there. Yes. So, the Apakka Police Department is the second largest municipal police department in Orange County. We are premier law enforcement agency accredited by the Commission of Florida Law Enforcement and scheduled for reacredititation later this year. Uh we currently have uh 215 authorized personnel. 147 of those are sworn and 68 are professional staff members. for our capital budget highlights. The first thing we're asking for this year is a mobile command center. Uh the one that we currently have was gifted to us or reallocated us from the Orange County Sheriff's Office in 2021. It's kind of proven unreliable and costly to maintain. So, it requires a specialized license and is very large to drive. Um so, we're looking to get more modernized, smaller vehicle that anyone with any license in an emergency situation could respond with. Um for our fleet replacement and vehicles, we currently are um asking for 23 replacement vehicles and five new. And we're following the guidelines of um that are set by the National Association of Fleet Administrators of 5 to seven years and 100,000 to 125,000 miles. So that's at 23. Uh for uh the community policing vehicle, we're requesting F250. Our community policing unit has a van and Chief Quinn Henry's really set the sta a standard of us continuing to do more and more and more community events. So that that trailer when it's fully outfitted exceeds the towing capacity of the current vehicles that we have. And we've also added an additional person to that unit. So that that would be their their vehicle. Um it it would also expand kind of capabilities with the assets that we bring out to some of these events from you know trailer uh the golf carts and other items like that. The um unmanned aircraft system we currently have 10 FAA certified pilots at the police department. We implemented

a drone program several years ago. As you know the the helicopter that responds to our needs is a shared asset within the county. And this this drone has given us the the opportunity for missing persons, emergency response situations to get that aerial overview. That's it's proven very effective over and over again. So, we're asking for a second one. It would afford our guys the opportunity to attend training and you know, if something happens to the drone to have a backup. So, for our personnel, we've tried to be very strategic in how we look at the growth of our organization. Um when we compare ourselves to other agencies of similar size, we've been able year after year to kind of increase the number of sworn officers, but we haven't focused as much on our professional staff. And obviously with more officers, that professional staff has felt the strain of of the additional paperwork that comes with that. The first thing we're asking for is a uh chief of staff position. That's actually a reclassification. So it's not an additional personnel, it's reclassifying a position. Um that would be a sworn position. Uh that position would manage uh a lot of the agreements we have with our local federal and state partners, the paperwork that's associated with that and the representation that can go with that. They'd also on a day-to-day basis manage the budget and a HR process that as we continue to grow become more and more cumbersome as far as the paperwork goes. That would be a direct report to the police chief. The sergeant is an additional position. that positions for our span of control for our supervisory staff. We've reached the numbers that uh require additional supervisory personnel. Same with our lead police officers, our corporals. I'm going to speak a little bit later on the the future plans on splitting the city and what that looks like. And those two positions, the corporal and the sergeant kind of fit that model that we hope to go to where we can split patrol responsibilities. police records specialist is just have

additional records personnel to support the additional paperwork we've seen um with the assist the the training personnel that we're doing with the comm's division. We're we're really focused on a continuity of operations agencywide where there's not like a single point of failure in any one of our divisions and also with the retaining qualified people. We want them to be able to come to Apakka and know that this is a place that they can grow and they can stay here and see that they they have the chance to professionally develop. So that training supervisor position, the assistant training uh communications training supervisor is just to have a continuity in training. But we also have some quality assurance things that we currently third party to and we pay roughly estimated $35,000 a year towards. that position has the training and the ability to do some of that quality assurance things that would fulfill that for the assistant communications manager. This is also a reclassification request. The personnel that are always already there. And that's just so we don't have that one person that's the manager of that. If if they weren't there, they can there's some secession planning available for that position. And those are vital positions to our accreditation and to our ability to respond to the needs of the community. And then one of our initiatives that I'll talk about, but it's also personnel request, is that community response officer. That community response officer is a civilian similar to what you see with Orange County has they call them field services officers there. A lot of other agencies call them community service officers. Um it's a nonsworn uh personnel that can respond to those lowrisk um calls with that maybe are time inensive, but our vision of this this program and this initiative is also to have equipment that could go out to a an officer if they had a traffic control situation. they would have the ability because they don't have a cage that they

could have cones and extra processing, crime scene processing equipment that they could do. But with our crossing guards, a lot of the times now, if someone calls out sick, we have to fill that position. We're filling it with sworn personnel. So, this would also afford us the opportunity to leave sworn personnel doing proactive policing and true law enforcement aspect and use that that resource to fill those those positions. So, new initiatives and programs. I spoke a little bit about the community response officer program. Um, the uh the victim's advocacy program is a in-house advocate that can assist individuals that suffer from substance abuse disorders. They would provide resource navigation and wraparound services. um funding for that position. We actually have money that was in an opioid settlement fund that has been used for positions like that to fund. So, we're we're exploring that option as an initiative, but this is just someone that would be a strong liaison for the community and what people have going on with substance abuse and being available to ensure that they connect them with the right people and are there for them. the north and south patrol divisions and a substation. As the agent as we continue to grow as a city, the we've seen that the south side's expanding today quite rapidly. There's plans for the north side to expand. The response times would be limited, right? We want to maintain that standard that we've kept with our response times being usually under eight minutes for a call for service. So, we have to strategically place officers in locations where they would be available at any given time. So part of that is an initiative we have of how we're going to start our structure to fulfill that. So so for salary increase uh Chief Quinn Henry talking to some of our partners was trying to see where we would fall. Right. Right now the reason why we're

not asking for additional sworn officers is because we have 15 vacancies as of today. um we have initiatives for our recruiting and and ret strategies and we're going to fill that gap but we want to remain competitive. We want to ma remain one of those agencies that keep is recruiting and retaining the best individuals. So as we as we look towards this in the next what we hope to do is position ourselves where we're not coming back to council every year and saying we need another increase to be competitive. we need another increase to be competitive that we remain competitive throughout that and some of the agencies that you see on this chart have those collective bargaining agreements where they've negotiated three-year contracts. Some haven't. Some we just were told by command staff where they hope to be positioned. So, we want to remain competitive and continue to recruit the best available. So, for our long-term projects and goals, obviously a a new police department, I know some some have echoed that and the plans for that, but we've uh outgrown our current building. Um it no longer meets our operational needs. There's been several needs assessments done throughout the years that have kind of echoed that. Um, so it's confirmed both the need for I have a training facility on there as well and a modern police headquarters. Right now, even with the training facility, we're limited with being able to have our officers do that low light shooting, no light shooting. We're getting noise complaints um based on the area that we're in. And as we continue to grow and even today there's it's it's cumbersome to have to schedule around patrol schedules and stuff without being able to provide that dedicated facility that's needed to maintain the standards that we have to maintain. We're also going to be exploring in our long-term project strategic investments in uh SWAT equipment and technology. So

the long-term goal in this is risk mitigation, right? uh SWAT tactics have changed over the years as technologies evolved to ensuring the least risk to the individual involved in that situation or individuals involved in that situation and our our members of our team through the use of either drone technology or advanced robotics. So we want to start exploring that those options and what those funding options would be to be able to provide the best service possible. So that's all I have. Any questions? It's close to seven minutes. I was getting I was trying to get there.

No, I appreciate it. Uh, any public comment on this for police? We have a great concern about how thin the police department might be stretched, especially with the patrols. Um, do we have enough out there at one time? um if they have to have three go to an accident um or go where there's a risky situation, eight go somewhere. Do we have enough out there on the road to serve? And you know that people do do distra criminals do distraction issues where they've got something going on over here so that you're not over there handling a bank robbery or something. So, I'll ask a rod question. Is this going to give you enough people to serve us properly out on the road?

Thank you.

Great question. So, I think we have the personnel to to do that. We need more inarguably, but some of the initiatives you see with that community response is if there was an accident that was going to require someone blocking the road or something, that's where we think we can fill that gap, right? And even in some of the positions we're asking for would be a new position. So, we're we're still getting that. But the reality is filling that gap this year is the is what's important and that's why we're asking for the increase to be competitive because if we can fill that gap, we we have numbers that we need. We're strategically placing people. our response times are exceeding what national averages are today. Um, so I think we we can do it, but we have to make those strategic investments and goals in to being competitive and being that premier agency people are drawn to.

Excellent. Thank you for that question, Dr. Olstead. Next, uh, Mr. I've already talked to the deputy chief and chief about this, but just one of the thing factors when you look at people always look at what's the population, what's the ratio with officers. Maybe I can say myself coming the fire department as well. We have to look at and add the factor of the square miles that we cover. We are big with biggest city in square miles and we need to look at that. So when you factor what we need in staffing, we need to make sure that we factor in the fact that we're covering more territory. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you for that.

Just exactly what what I was going to echo with with what Rod said. Typically the police and fire service work on what's called population density per capita. And it goes back to the fact that again we've got to have the same look at what other agencies in other municipalities have, but we're not the same because our officers are spread out more thinly and looking at potentially new facilities for them. This idea of having a split north and south division is great, but again, we're going to have to discuss where that's going to be situated because we really need to look at fire station 7 now and whether or not we can actually incorporate a subdivision where the police and the fire service are actually stationed in the same area, maybe over in the in the north because fire station 7 is already operational on paper, but it's just fire service station six and maybe fire station five that service their needs. So it's it's on paper that these that they're they're uh continuously accidents at the junctions of uh the 429 on Kelly Park Road and there's a lot of officer uh from the fire and and police having to attend accidents out there. And again, if we if we were widening that road and taking action there, we wouldn't need to be in that position. But really, we we would need to be looking at substation 7 to be built or to be planned now and maybe look at whether we can integrate the police with that service.

Absolutely. Thank you for that. If you want to make any comments or or speak about I guess that this concern seems to be coverage. Yes. Do you feel covered especially with adding a substation? Does that get us where we need to be or is it more officers and and then obviously obvious? Yeah, I mean I think per square mile. Is it still on? Yes.

All right. So I think as as building develops that's going to some be something that's constantly evaluated. I mean we're constantly evaluating how we're deploying our personnel where they are how many are assigned to each. We've had the cities broken up into zones. How many are assigned each zones and what those call volumes and need are of that particular area. So we know what's coming right. Um, and I think inarguably having an area where we have people dedicated to the amount of personnel that are going to be there is a necessity. Absolutely. Any other public comment? Commissioners, what do we got? Uh, so in terms of the salaries, these are new hire salaries. This is what you're asking.

So I'm asking for a 5% increase across the board to to satisfy compression. obviously somebody I hired last year. I don't want a guy starting next year making more money than him. So I'm asking across the board for sworn personnel of 5%. Okay. Yeah. And then I noticed that you didn't put a fuel program on here. The fuel card I believe so uh Josh might speak on that, but yeah, that it's a city-wide initiative, not just the police department. Yes.

But and the reason why for context for those that are in the room, uh our officers don't have a fuel program in terms of their units. So they've got to go all the way down to where the one pump is at. So if they're heading northbound and they don't have a full tank, they've got to go south to go north again. Um so we want to make sure we have a fuel card, peak card, if you will, for them to um to be able to fuel up and be able to be a good resource on the move. So yeah, I was just surprised, but anyways, that's great comments. uh our m mutual aid agreement with Orange County

because we have a lot of enclaves if we are totally around the county. Do do we have good cooperation with the county? Yes. Yeah. Especially at all levels we we we communicate most of our watch commanders have direct communication with their watch commanders that are on the same rotation as us. We kind of follow the same schedule as that. So you get to know each other but we have mutual aid agreements in place. Anytime officers ask for assistance, we're able to do it through over our radio channels and we able to patch and communicate on the same channels, too. So, we do have cooperation. Do we find ourselves uh being the first to arrive to some of these locations? Yeah, sometimes. Yeah. And sometimes they'll ask us if there's an emergency if we can respond because they have a deputy that's too far out. But we work pretty seamlessly in that.

Okay. So, so we got good cooperation there. How about the incentive for recruiting purposes? Do we do any offduty work where we get incentivized to allow our our sworn officers to do offduty work? Yes, actually we we do. We I mean I speak of it as a marketing tool with the vehicle present.

Absolutely. I mean that's part of part of the issue too, right? Some of these young individuals who are concerned about how much they're going to make today. We we can't compete with the offduty opportunities that Orlando has. It's just not it's not here to today. It's going to be probably a while before we compete at that level. But OPD also has a competitive offduty strategy where sometimes they're offering $100 an hour to, you know, just because that vendor can raise the rate to make sure that theirs gets gets filled and sometimes they they have that. So some of the off duties we have are Orlando. You'll see our officers at Orlando working for them and those are the details they don't want that our officers have, but also at different stadiums with UCF. So, we offer it and we've we've established those partnerships, right, to continue to be competitive and have it. Um, here in the city, we've we've kind of set aside certain events that, you know, several years ago used to be citymandated overtime or they'd have to comp it out. And with the budget that we've had, we've kind of set money aside and say, "Hey, we'll give you off duty so that you can have that extra." And it it is, you're right, you're correct. It's a recruiting tool and it's an incentive.

Well, I I like it for the recruiting purposes. We don't try to decent uh decentivize it by, you know, upping the the rates we charge the the officer for the use of the vehicle. Do we do we charge them? We do charge a few, but the officer doesn't see it. The vendor the vendor pays it. So, a vendor might be told it's $55 an hour. The officer sees it as a $50 an hour rate. Okay. So, we we I just want to make sure that we're not trying to punish the officer. Yeah. We're not making the officer compensate us for that. Okay. Cool. Nope. Thank you. Questions? None. It's 10 o'clock. Thanks. Happy birthday, by the way. I'm gonna save all my questions.

I appreciate that. I'm getting no headshakes. Thank you so much. No problem. Thank you. Thank you. Haven't heard a fire. Chief Sanchez. I see that we saved utilities and public works for last. Interesting strategy. Chief Sanchez, you're up.

Good evening, mayor, commissioners, members of the public. Name is Will Sanchez, fire chief. I'll keep my presentation as brief as I can to allow for more feedback and discussion and questions. Over the last several years, the city of Apka has continued to experience significant growth. Residential, commercial development, transportation expansion. Every day our personnel provide emergency services involving fires, vehicle accidents, enttrapments, medical calls, trans medical transports, fire inspections, and community risk reduction along with emergency management coordination. Today, the Papka Fire Department protects approximately 36 square miles, including the city of Apakka and contracted areas of unincorporated Orange County. We currently operate from six fire stations with 167 budgeted personnel. Our outlook is built around one simple principle. A growing community requires a growing commitment to public safety. The popular fire department operates from three budget divisions. 2110 fire administration, 2120 fire suppression, and 2130 EMS operations. Within these divisions, we are addressing several major priorities. Daily operational coordinations, staffing management, employee wellness and behavioral health programs, fleet and facility maintenance and repairs, personal protective equipment, firefighter safety gear and tools, training, continuing education and credential maintenance, and pharmaceutical and medical supplies. These are missionritical functions necessary to sustain a safe and effective emergency operations 24 hours a day, seven days a week. One of the most important aspects of this outlook is to identify the department's future operational needs. The public fire department is requesting an increase of 10 positions, bringing the total number of personnel from 167 to 177. These positions are focused to

strengthen both operational readiness and organizational support. The outlook includes additional firefighters, administrative position, additional support staff positions within the fire department. There are three primary areas we must sustain in order to remain operational and that's our personnel, our fleet and our stations. Our proposed organizational chart includes the requested positions from the previous slide highlighted in blue. These additions help provide a fourperson staffing model when fully staffed which aligns with national standards. Increase support for employee development, health, and wellness. These investments improve not only the emergency response effectiveness but also firefighter safety, survivability and the risk reduction during high stress operations. One of our priorities within the outlook of this development is the development of our logistics planning sorry logistics and planning division proposed at 428 West Welch Road in Apopka. The facility would support PPE which is personal protective equipment and firefighter gear management equipment and operational support facility management. This project is not simply about renovating a building. It's about building the infrastructure necessary to support modern fire department. Training remains one of the most critical investments we can make. This budget includes continued development of our training center, live fire and training props, training tower improvements to become a certified fire training center. These investments allow us to train locally, improve firefighter proficiency, and ensure our personnel are prepared for increased complexity and emergencies.

On this slide, you can see the logistics and planning building we previously mentioned. The image reflects the current condition of this facility today and highlights the opportunity we have to renovate and repurpose this decommissioned fire station into a functional support facility for the public fire department. It also demonstrates our continued effort to plan proactively and build an infrastructure that supports the long-term needs of a growing community. Sorry, this page is sticking. Uh the positions previously discussed are critical to helping achieve and maintain the direction of the puppet fire department. Education, training, and professional development, expand operational capabilities, enhance firefighter health, wellness, and readiness. These initiatives are focused on preparing the department not only for today's demand, but for the future growth, and the evolving needs of our community. Future priorities include our training facility upgrades, fire station remodeling and modernization projects. Several of our facilities are aging and were built for a much different community and operational demand than what we face today. As a response to volume, staffing, equipment, and service expectations and continue to increase, we must ensure that our infrastructure evolves with it. Additional long-term priorities include our apparatus life cycle replacement. In the earlier slides, you saw the requests for us to acquire a new heavy rescue, our public safety complex, station 7, a future fire station relocations if needed. As our comm community continues to expand, proactive planning becomes critical to maintaining effective response times, operational readiness, and a sustainable public safety service throughout Apopico.

But with the remaining time, I would like to seek a direction regarding station 7 and the public safety complex for budgeting purposes. Previously, our the previous administration was pursuing a land donation off of FE road for station 7 from Orlando Health. Is this still the direction that this commission would like to pursue? And also, the public safety building is in the planning stage. Is this still the pleasure of this commission to remain on track? Well, with that,

thank you commission. Please feel free to engage in that if you have any questions specifically to that. I'll lead, I guess. Let me let me say for specific to any new station. I want to make sure that it isn't just where it's free, but where it's properly providing coverage. So, I understand there's maybe a cost savings on land, but I want to make sure that it's actually perfectly positioned to serve our residents the best that we possibly can and to the requirements to keep our SO ratings and whatever additional ratings we want to be working towards. So, that's kind of my goal on on any station, not just station 7. And then specific to the public safety building, uh, a lot has gone on with that and and it's um somewhat overbudgeted. I think we're at 140 million 150 million in rough cost right now. And I don't think I think day one it's going to be functionally obsolete for both departments both police and fire will both be unhappy the immediate day that we spend $100 million $100 million plus for them to move in. So my concern is what I want to do is break that out and we're working on what that looks on the financial side because we've based impact fees and some other fees on $100 million plus project. What if we break that out into two $40 million buildings, one dedicated to police just for their use, exactly what they need, and one dedicated for fire, just for their use, just what they need, versus trying to mesh the two when they're two very different departments with two very different needs. So, that's my stance on it um and my thoughts on it. You may not have refined thoughts on it yet, but um the chief is obviously looking for some preliminary feedback. If you have any feedback, please.

Well, I agree in terms of um bifurcating the departments. Um, having a north side police department to support the units that are on the north side, obviously having that extra station up there, too. Um, but collaborately with whatever resources you are all I know you all work wonderful together. Um, but just provide uh support and resources when needed. Um, but for me, yes, I I I would be a troop opponent, but I would also say bifurcate them and and build them separately. Um, so then that way we can still support that up up north. Um, and and make sure that we're we're bringing uh the support that we need up in that area. So, my answer is yes.

Thanks, Commissioner. Okay. I kind of like the idea of building separate in investing because it will allow each one if there needs to be an expansion that you can build on that expansion in your building rather than having one building serving two and that it's it's you outrow it like you said you out grow you you take it over and there's no room to expand. Okay. Thank you.

That's why people can't hear you. I know, but I do agree with having the two buildings separate because I believe that um it will allow for expansion. Um you can expand on one building, you may not need to do that with the police department, but you may need to do that with the fire station. And as far as the expanding to what is it, fire station seven or eight, which which one are you working on?

Well, with fire station 7 with the previous administration, there was a agreement or there was a handshake agreement as far as talks of providing a location on Orlando Health's property off of Effie Road, but we do not know when that project is going to take off and we are in need to put another fire station on the north side of town. If you look at this last slide up here, this represents every single fire station that we have. And if you look at that northwest corner, we have zero coverage up there with apartments going up every other month. We're seeing some type of new development going. Would you like to put a fire station in that area? I'm just seeking that direction of can I go separately outside of the current plan that exists or do we want to stay on track with this because then we'd have to look for a land swap or purchase some type of land out there.

So, where is Orlando Health building um the hospital? They have not started. They have some land off of Effie Road and they have it where? on left. Yes, sir. Oh, okay. So, it's on this side over here. Okay. But you're saying on this where uh Rock Springs Ridge, I'm sorry, Rock Springs Ridge. Rock Springs run. There's no coverage on that side. Further north as far as as we continue to annex that red border is the JPA. That's as far as we're going for annexation purposes.

Now, for us to build a fire station, this should be like Olympic rings. They should overlap to a certain point for coverage area. The first dark ring around it is our distance for travel time to meet our NFPA requirements to be in compliance with best practices. When you look at that north side, there's zero coverage and especially with these high or these apartment complexes that are going on and possibility of up to a 10-story building going in. We have to get a tower truck up there. We are modifying currently station five to put our new tower should be here in the next four to six weeks on the north side to provide some type of aerial coverage there because currently the tower truck that would be dispatched is coming from next door. Yeah.

And we're trying to get this to a burning apartment on the north side of town by Round Lake Road, FE road, we're not going to make it in time. That's why this is a true priority for us and we want to get this moving as fast as possible. Well, I guess that's a conversation that I mean, you know best. You know best where the PS are at, but you're right. Right off of um uh the Kelly Park interchange, you already have multiple dwellings there. People already live. How many floors? How many um there's fourtory apartments out there right now? There's multiple neighborhoods that have gone up and we have zero coverage on that north side. Even coming out of station five does take over that 10-minute span to get out there.

The traffic, I mean, we're kind of positioned in a weird location with station five, but getting out of there, depending what's going on in the park and where they're responding to, it does make it challenging for us. Yeah, I guess that's a conversation we could have at some point. Absolutely. It's 10 after 10. So, so right now I'm at 10 o'clock at night. I'm really not ready to make a decision that's so I mean that's a really major decision. Um I haven't been able to speak with the our current police chief to see what her thoughts is about it. Um there's so much going into a strategic plan when it comes to something that we've been discussing for at least two years now. So I'm not willing without really doing a deep dive and what the pros and cons of of both are. I'm not willing to really make a decision. I don't have an opinion on it right now.

Gotcha. Yeah. I'm just trying to seek a little bit more direction in it in sense of our budget still on the 22nd. I want to make sure that's aligned with your wishes. Throw that out as I'd like I'd like to know that we got an agreement with our planning department because a lot of that future construction up there. Yeah, we don't know. That's a lot. Take a line share of the funding of this too. Yeah, it's a lot to go into. And and a quick question, how much was fire station 6 to build all out? Do you remember that number? Just under five million.

So just under five million. So when I speak about $40 million for a new fire, I mean that's it's built out. We're going to be able to grow into it. It's probably a little too much. So, I think there's some savings we can get when we break these out. But to your point, please do meet with um Chief Quinn Henry, meet with our uh Chief Sanchez as well and and work through those kind of the pros and cons of what that looks like. And then unless you had anything else to present,

you also think, excuse me, do you think we need to really because this is something really I think really important. Do you think we need to have like an hour set aside, another meeting to really deep dock? This is a lot. I'd be happy to and I think I think it's important to because our impact fees are dictated by uh the cost of this new building. So we it helps us to refine statutoilally what um what our impact fees look like. The in the impact fees we have the public safety building, the training center as well as I believe fire station 7 as a part of that. So it just may and we're looking into what that looks like to adjust it and and what ramifications that does have. So, but timing is critical because we do have contracts out there for design and the seamar.

Yeah. So, I think let's prioritize that. Uh it's definitely important. I definitely want to get everyone's questions answered as well for that. I got one more thing to add. Yes, sir. And maybe you could add some clarity to it. Chief, um the the logistics building um my recollection of a young younger person, that building was willed to the fire department. So that's a fire department structure and I'm just letting the other members know that that's that that was willed and given to the city for the fire service. So that building, you know, can't end up being a storage area for another department. It's solely for the fire department. I just wanted saying thank you, sir. Yes,

that building was u gifted to the fire department. Excellent. I love that we're using reason. Again, one final comment before we go to public comment on this is um I do know we have a couple um partnerships with local municipalities that are going to be coming in to um take advantage of everything this department has created so far. So that'll be coming across your desks here soon. I just think it shows how well this department is growing and how forward thinking they are. So just kudos to to you and your team. Any other comments from you guys?

I just just a question in terms of your training center. Do other municipalities come and utilize the training center? So we do we have partnership agreements right now with city of Winter Garden. Um we have with the city of Maitland. We are in the legal clearance with the city of Orlando to do a partnership agreement interlocal agreement for them to come out to our training center and do some training here. Does that bring any capital? No. Uh for us the interoperability within the actual departments responding to a major event truly is the benefit behind this not the dollar amount. for us the training aspect they bring their equipment our equipment we shared those best practices that's invaluable for us okay I just wanted to make sure I

yeah and a key point to that too to that like with that we're about to do with Orlando is they're going to allow us to train when they're going in the 10 15 20 story buildings we get to train with them now if they're at theme parks I know it's really unique and and not so much to here it allows us to get that very unique somewhat odd training but it builds some proficiency and unique scenarios so a lot of value there

public comment Albert McKame 360 Golden Cham Road with respect to a partnership with the Orlando Health and the Fire Service on Effie Road. It's a crazy idea just now because guys, if you've driven along FE road until FE roads widened, there's no way a fire service tender can travel down that road in emergency. So if you're looking at that, it's absolutely crazy and we we don't have the money as far as I can see potentially from the pioneer agreement to do anything in the immediate future with every road. We're in the same position on Golden Gem Road. There's no way we can have a fire service tender careering up and down there with school buses. So there is a potential solution that we could do and I don't know how viable it is but it appears that there's some of the partners within the pioneering agreement having some financial difficulties in raising the money to go into escrow to to fulfill their obligations. It would make sense to me if we could partner with somebody within the pioneering agreement to allow a fire station on their premises because if they've already got fourstory buildings and they can spare a piece of land within that area, then the the the travel time to a four-story building becomes negligible. There's a Kelly Park crossroads at Kelly Park and there's Kelly Park VB developments. Both have multi-story buildings in there. In fact, Kelly Park VB develop developments are even speaking about putting an air ambulance in there. It makes sense if we could partner with them in any way to have a fire training facility on their piece of land if they have anything available that that's where we would put it because then ingress and egress is directly onto

Kelly Park Road. It's not consistent with either FE or Golden Gem because you guys can't tell Chief Sanchez when that roads are going to be up to standard. Thank you, Mr. Kimmy. Yeah. And I want to make sure that we have the right site location. I don't want to have to be forced into a location. I want to make sure. So, but well received a developer willing to do it. I think it's worth doing.

Absolutely. We know this is one department we can get rid of. We don't need a fire department, do we? Uh that was sarcasm for anybody out there that thinks I was making uh suggesting getting rid of the fire department. Um I think half of them have been in my house before. um conveying and and that public relations you're talking about possibly getting someone to do public relations is very important. I know that recently um the police department is getting more public relations out there. the fire department is having the organizational charts out there for people to know um who is what and where they are in the structure of things is very important. Um citizens responded really good to to knowing who is there, who they what they look like when they go to public events. they can see who um the chief is, who is um a captain, whatever in all these different departments. Knowing that helps convey a persontoperson relationship and then seeing this type of thing here, I could never visualize this very easily on a maps or a Google. It just had a little dot, but it didn't show me how the response time or anything. And when you look at those areas that aren't covered, and I just asked right before the meeting at the break, I said, "When are we going to

have enough houses to cover these expanded areas and and how many more are we going to need?" And then we have to look at how much more land is out there that some commission might decide to annex. you know, how much further is the city going to expand and have we put away maintenance money? Um, the one thing that a lot of people do not put away is enough PM preventative maintenance money and replacement of capital buildings and repair of capital buildings. And so we look at the condition that everybody was complaining about some of the fire stations at one time. Well, then we had all these roofs that went bad and there was no money available to fix them and they just put tarps or patched them a little. Um, we have to have that PM money slot and then we have to make sure that we have enough capital to fix and repair.

Thank you. Appreciate your comments. Chief, anything else on your end?

Commission, anything else on your end for this? appreciate you. Thank you so much. We are on to sanitation, Mr. Robinson. Come on down. Sanitation and fleet. Excuse me. Mayor, commissioners, members of the public. Um, yeah, tonight we're going to talk about fleet and sanitation. The uh as you all know the the sanitation department we provide residential waste twice a week, commercial wa uh waste on a daily basis, yard waste, bulky waste, appliances and uh recycling. Uh the fleet division services 160 pieces of heavy equipment and trailers and about 445 vehicles and around 700 pieces of small equipment. Um, just want to let you know you've got two really resourceful, hardworking groups between the fleet and sanitation that that keeps, you know, we've got 150 tons of trash. They hit the curb every day and it doesn't matter who called out or what trucks are broke down, they they're up at 5 in the morning trying to figure out how to make it all happen. We don't do it 100% of the time, but we do it about 99% of the time. So, uh, yeah, they they're good. And Charlie and his crew, same with fleet, you know, he's pounded daily by police cars, fire trucks, garbage trucks, all of them that need to go today. So, uh, really good crew there. Some of the highlights and priorities this year, uh, sanitation part of it was the, uh, Geotab data storage. That's about 10,000 a year. And then the

cameras themselves are 10,000 a year. We we already use Geotab. Uh it's a the telematics uh program and we monitor uh you know driving behaviors, harsh braking, uh harsh turning, these kind of things to give feedback to the drivers. But we still have that, you know, 80% of our accidents are caused by 20% of the same people over and over again, you know, until we finally get them out the door. Well, I think the benefit of the the camera system is uh you not only for the to help with the liability, which is a double-edged sword, it can also work against you, but the the real value is the training value. You know, I I've used this in the past, and a a truck may hit a chuck hole that saves the the video so that the camera is looking ahead and looking at the driver at the same time. is recording all the time, but it doesn't save all that unless it hits an event, you know, and the guy hits a pothole and we take a look at the uh video and he's on the phone with a cigarette staring with his elbow, you know, I mean, so yeah, big training opportunity there. So, those are the kind of things we uh we we would benefit from it. So, we have that in the budget. We have quotes for our current vendor. Uh Christy and I will be meeting with some other vendors that there's different levels obviously of of of any type equipment or service out there and we just want to explore some of those. But for kind of a basic setup about an extra 20 grand a year. So, um, disposal fees, that's a big chunk of our total, uh, expense. About 2 million for the garbage, about half a million for yard waste and bulky disposal, 350,000 for

recycling, and, uh, vehicle maintenance. Looking at about 980K this year, and 475 for temp labor. um fleet. We're looking to do some painting on some of the older equipment that that we're keeping. And uh training uh training is probably going to be a big focus for fleet. You know, not only you just want to put some money in for CDL training, but also we have a lot of very experienced and talented and competent people there, but we don't have the certification to go with it. So, we're going to be looking at, you know, continuing the training and also getting the certifications, especially for, you know, EVT for for uh uh the chiefs to have have that uh certification to to show that we, you know, we're we're able to maintain those vehicles as well. But there's uh again, I think we get the job done and and the chief has always complimented uh Charlie and his crew on that. Uh big uh the highlights and priorities for this year. Um big year for equipment for the division. Uh three side loaders are due for replacement. That's about 1.8 million. And one rear loader for replacement. That's 485K. For the fleet division, we're looking at snap-on tool boxes for each uh mechanic station. Right now we use Harbor Freight, this that and the other. the city provides the tools for the mechanics and so we want to invest in some quality tools with some quality stations that they're uh they're all laid out in neoprene so you can see exactly every tool what's missing what's what's there so uh uh you know lifetime tools one time one you know cry once buy once kind of thing and u he wants to replace an old cat loader that they

that's a hand handme-down wheel loader uh 165,000 and a heavy duty wheel lift. Um may not well we'll see when we buy that. Probably put it in the budget this year, but it'll be for lifting fire engines and garbage trucks to to work on. Uh this year I want to develop a solid waste master plan and really get feedback from you all as to what you want our division to look like. There's a lot of u you know Dr. We talked with a vendor that does the composting and a lot of communities just there's just a lot of lot out there. Uh composting, different ways of recycling, recycling education, uh uh right down to uh you know, incineration. You know, there's there's other ways to do it. We have a good solid system that I think you could do no wrong to just stick with what you got. But if the community wants to look at different things, I'd like to kind of put together a plan with your feedback and and see if there's any interest in in changing the way we do things. Some of these can be offsetting in cost. Some of them are going to be an increase in cost. Um uh recycling used to be that we dispose of that 2500 tons a year for free. Now we're paying 133 where we're paying 50 for garbage. you know, it's cost more to get rid of recycling of this garbage. So, these are things I just want you to be aware of and as you're talking to your constituents, uh give us some feedback and direction on that. Uh big one for next year, we hope to construct the uh new fleet facility somewhere hopefully about $6 million. um 20,000 square ft, all the tools and

space uh that he needs to to maintain this fleet and do it do it the way it should be. You know, he's we've way outgrown the buildings now. The equipment doesn't fit in it. He doesn't have room for all the mechanics uh that we need to to maintain it. So, really looking forward to that. uh sanitation. We we inventory quite a few uh garbage cans both for commercial and residential. We keep the residential out at that place on u at Northshore on Lust Road and uh it's not really ideal for that and we we want to so we've used sanitation's money to go ahead. We were planning to do it uh a separate building, but we're going to go ahead and do it for so fleet can get the benefit until we get the new one built. And then the shed on the back of that the one building. Then when we take over that building, we'll have that uh storage area then for the the containers. Uh and then again uh on the the uh talking about training and uh and fleet as well training for Rosenbower and the the uh emergency equipment and getting those certifications for all of our staff. Um to answer your question earlier, Commissioner, uh sanitation has had a lot of accidents, especially this year. We've had a rough year. We had in 25 we hired five people. That's a lot of turnover, five replacements, you know, and we've had a lot of accidents with uh you know, they they put those on these big trucks quarter million miles a year, 40,000 truck hours down every road in the street regardless of the mailboxes and the parked cars and the basketball goals. And it's uh it's a challenging job to to make it. So, in terms of accidents per mile, I don't

know if they we are the highest, but in terms of raw accidents, we're definitely one that uh would warrant probably the first focus of of whether or not we want to utilize permanently this uh camera system. The negative of that system is you've got u 20% of the people that need this. The other 80% have to be subjected to this camera in their face all day. So, you know, something to think about when we when we decide to whether or not we want to fully implement that. It can save money. I think it's a good training tool if it's used right. And that's the key, too, that you can't just install that and then you're done. Someone has to monitor that and use it. And uh so that takes staff time, you know. So there there's there's more to it than just spending money and hope that we uh you know reap some benefit. So but it's we're going to start I mean it's relatively painless uh cost I think to try it uh for a year and see how how what kind of benefit we think we could get long term.

Excellent. And that's it. Thank you sir. Public comment sit in the front. Yeah. Really? You know you're coming

on the phone. It's about to reset for tomorrow. On the phone. He's a lot shorter.

Um Josh is always available when you call except when he takes a vacation when you need him. He does a great job of of getting things done. Um going back to the natural way of thing doing things. Um our society has used technology and uh to cause problems and we've ended up contaminating our soil and our water by these great inventions. And I think that we could possibly uh with with what Josh saw this week and Sarah saw Friday um and materials I've sent you is we can possibly reverse what we've been doing to fill these landfills up. reduce the tipping, reduce the trucks, reduce the labor, and then get a natural product and then eliminate pesticide, irrigation, and fertilizer in the city um on our properties. And that would be through the composting. And uh anywhere up to uh from 50 to 75% of what you're putting in the landfill and these guys are hauling away could be made into compost. And so that's a whole lot of a dump that we can eliminate using. And um there's a lot of material that uh that Josh has now and Sarah. And I think that going back to nature just like planting the native plants of Florida of Florida, the Florida friendly plants, getting away from sod grass, um, which is the law, Florida friendly law is going to help

save money and maybe even make money.

Thank you. Rutles and just a marvelous overall marvelous job that all the city employees do. It's just been incredible. Uh I have had next to Northwest Recreational Complex. I spend more time in the garage than anywhere else. And no matter who pulls up, no matter how busy they are, someone always drops what they're doing to come out. Whether it's police, whether it's fire, whether it's someone from from the fleet or myself as a volunteer, they stop what they do and take care of you. It's awesome. And regard to I've lived in six different states and about a dozen different communities. This is the only community where when it when one of the sanitation drivers leaves the trash can and it tips over, they actually get out of the truck and stand it back up. That's incredible. I want to thank you and your team. Don't go.

Thank you for those comments. Don't go.

Albert became 3603 Golden Jude. I really would like to see Apka live up to its name of the green capital of the world and I think we should really be doing that by looking at recycling. I think we should look at at all sorts of potential technologies for recycling. Composting I'm not sure about but I haven't investigated. My initial reaction to composting is it takes time to to to take effect and I don't know if you can afford the land and the time to compost and and and then if you're trying to do it in a central area whether it creates smell or not but we really need to look at the potential for for green technology. There's so much new green technology that's come out here with electrical generation from from waste materials and things. The other thing is with all this new development that we've got, look at all the the the building material gets thrown into skips. Shouldn't be going into skips. We should in some way or other find a way to recycle that and use that to build homes for the homeless. There's lots of things we should be doing and I'm not going to waste time tonight, but I think it's worth having a workshop and discussing how the city can can move to to a greener future.

Thank you for your comments. Commissioner, any questions?

I You guys got so much energy now. I appreciate it. We're almost to the end. I appreciate everyone's uh focus. Utilities, Mr. Brooks. Yes, it's going to be a while. Don't start that clock just yet. No, I won't be long at all. I hope. Good evening, Mayor Commissioners. Glenn Brooks, utilities operation director. I will be presenting the utilities operation department budget for the fiscal year 2627. This proposed budget will be covering operational expenses, personnel and capital equipment. All capital projects related to the utilities operations division will be presented next by Vladimir Sonowski, public works director. So I just want to get that.

Make sure you're speaking to the mic. Speak into the mic. It's for those tall people. Okay, everyone. Did you get that? We're good.

Okay, we're good. All right. So, introduction. Utilities operation department is comprised of six division is managed by the utility operation director Glenn Brooks. The department provides the following services to the city. 3010 administration, customer support services, work order requests. 3111, water plant, maintenance of five water treatment plants, maintenance of tro tray ariation and chlorination, water quality inspection reports. 3121, the wastewater plant, treatment of waste water and distribution of reuse water to the three reclaimed water treatment facilities. Regulatory testing for water and wastewater departments. 3141 water maintenance, maintenance of water manes, reuse mains, fire hydrants, water valves, air release valves, and water service connections. Utility locate and restoration program. 3171 wastewater maintenance. That's the lift stations, force mains, gravity mains, ARBs, reclaim valves, manholes, and sewer connection services and rideway maintenance and oversee the odor control and bypass pump inspections. 3191 plant maintenance as continuous operation and maintenance of the wastewater and reuse treatment facilities, ensuring capital equipment and life cycles. Some of the operation budget highlights and priorities for the water plant. We're asking for 140,000 extra this year for uh that will be for compliance sampling required by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and with with the St. John's and St. John's Water Management District. Pump repair and maintenance. We're asking for 250,000 here. That will be to replace two high service pumps this upcoming budget year. And uh we're asking 450,000 for sodium hypocchlorite. And that is due to cost increase from a$153 per gallon to a

$1.77 per gallon and going up. Make sure to stay high level with this

high level. Okay. Wastewater. We're going to move to waste water 3121. Sludge hauling cost. We're going to get high level. 775,000 we're asking for. That's due to the cost of uh per dry ton from $84 a ton to $102 per ton. reclaimed water storage pond maintenance. We're asking for 75,000 for it. That is not Golden D. That's down the Cleveland Street to keep the the maintenance of some of the smaller ponds we have there throughout the year. Again, sodium hyperchlorite, we're asking for 396,000 there. That's due to a cost increase. Water maintenance here. Here you said get to it. So, here we go. Mayor, lead and copper program, we're asking for 4.185 million. 460 4 point 4 4185460 for the next 10 years.

Annually, correct? Annually. Thank you.

Yes, sir. Annually. But I got some good news. So, let me share it with you. We're asking for that for the next two years. But there's what we had done. So, we uh like I say, I've got good news. The city has successfully completed and submitted its lead uh service line inventory to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The inventory identified approximately 32,821 total service lines within the city's portable water distribution system, including 29,274 non lead service lines. That leaves us with 3,547 service lines unknown that we feel that based on that number, we can drastically reduce this 4.185 or 60. So, not going to tell you what, but I think we can at least cut it in half. So,

excellent.

Feel feel good. Uh and next is a valve replacement program. We're asking for 300,000 here, the fire hydrant program, and all these are mandatory by D for us to be doing these. So it's not, you know, something we need to be doing. 250,000. Pable reclaim meters, flex nets, we're asking for 1.7 million. New construction meters, we're asking for 700,000 there. Meter resets, we're asking for 100,000. and 200,000 for restoration after the utility repairs have been made. Moving to what uh wastewater maintenance 3171, we're asking for a hurricane. As we know, we're right fixing to be right into hurricane season. We're asking for 200,000 there for hurricane prep. We're asking for 172,000 for sewer manhole rehab, 275,000 for gravity man mains and lateral and CIP lining, and 130,000 for electric instrumented repairs and control maintenance, and 750,000 for lift station replacement and renewal program. Some of the current large CIP, we're asking for a a new scissor lift. This is needed for the warehouse. The one we have is about 20 years old. it won't hold a charge. Uh vacuum truck is another big one. We're asking for one this year. Uh we're going to ask for it for um on sewer on the sewer side at 632,000. We're also looking to replace a truck this budget year of 550 170,000 and F350 sorry or F750 for 350,000. Some of the additional CIP is we're asking for 150,000 for a new gearbox mixer at the wastewater plant, 85,000 for mini excavator, and 70,000 for Plymouth Regional Bleach Tank to replace the the bleach tanks out there and

250,000 for the Northwest wastewater treatment plant high service distribution pump and 500,000 this is for the ground storage tank grad level down at the Cleveland Street Uh we've had our engineers look at it and there's some work that we got to do there. And there we go. I am asking overall I'm asking for over the next three years we're asking for 25 new positions and in this year we're asking for nine. One is for our environmental specialist 3121. We're asking for two uh service workers and sewer maintenance and two in water maintenance. We're asking one utilities records clerk instrumentation specialist. We're asking for two of those in this year's budget. And that that'll be it. But and then and as you can see in year 27, we're going to ask for 10 positions there and then six positions in 2028 29. Some of the new initiative and programs we're doing a guardian skid maintenance repair program we're working on hard piping project to replace belly tank at gross and barker water plant 3121 we're setting up cellular skada I think Robin communication for the northwest uh pump station and a new security fence at our water recation facility uh water maintenance we're looking at valve maintenance and operation program the cross connection which I know Mr. Rod Olsson asked about that uh control program and again the lead service uh line replacement program that I mentioned earlier and the meter replacement program wastewater maintenance um we're two new lateral rehab projects lift station renewal prior prioritization program and ARV replacement program plant maintenance we're looking at chlorination system

maintenance repair and maintenance program and air compressor maintenance program replacement can and for the long-term Project goals continue adding repair and maintenance of lift stations. This is so critical. We got 178 now and uh so we really need and the golden gem which I think Vlad will be speaking of a little later is really essential that we get that up and going and uh we are going to continue to work on the valve replacement and maintenance project meter change outs and the lead and copper program as I mentioned earlier that I'm hoping that'll be reduced from that 4 million that we were we're talking to feel comfortable on that number and continue to work on our wastewater collection system pipeline and rehab and replacement program and that is it.

Perfect. Thank you.

Alvin McKim 36 Golden Gem Road. I'll just mention one thing. Earlier on tonight again, uh it was Sylvester Hall that asked how many lift stations there was. We just got the answer. I always knew it was about 180. But here's the problem. you've only budgeted 750,000 for the maintenance of those lift stations. It's also fairly well known that 30% of those li those lift stations are out past the the the reasonable lifespan. Some of them have been for 60 years. I believe that lift station 17 recently cost I'm not sure. I'm only speculating on this, but somebody said there was a figure of over $1 million for a single lift station. So my thoughts are over the next four years we're budgeting much much more than what you're you're speaking about today. I would I would say but by by a factor of at least 10. So I don't think your lift stations are are anywhere near what you're speculating they are. They're in much worse condition than they are.

Thank you Mr. McKim. Glenn's been worked so hard he's a shadow of himself. He's worn a lot of it off. Um the naturalist uh I believe you said it was a naturalist you wanted

a naturalist the first position you had listed environmentalist. That's vital and especially with us being on um the watersheds we're on and we're in the Wakiva protection area. There's so many intricate laws and that's the only way to protect our water source because if you don't protect what's going down, what comes up to you to drink and use is going to be awful. And then you have to have more equipment, more filters, put more chemicals in. And so that what's going down in the storm drains is important. Education is important for the citizens. They've got to know, that's what I do is is educating people on um that end. But the city needs and that again in that PR is letting people know PI public image letting them know what they're doing in that department and how to take care of it. And so that environmentalist would be vital. Um there was another Oh, I had a question. You're haul paying to haul off all this sludge. Are you not making any bioolids?

Yeah, we are. We're we're we're having the slugs just hold off by Shell's environmental, but you're saying are we making I'm sorry. Yeah, let me get

Yeah, to answer to your question there, Dr. O. Uh, we have our bio we're making bioolids through a belt filter press and it's hauled off by sludge by Shell's Environmental right now. Um, we have looked, we got a thermal dryer down there that makes class A bioolids. We just had another study done on it to see if it was beneficial to use it. Right now, it's not cost effective. So, what we do is we have our bioolids hold off and then land applied. Once it leaves our facility, we're no longer responsible of that. Just as on our facility. So, once it leaves that truck,

it's the hauler's responsibility. uh working with the Orlando man one of the managers in Orland the city of Orlando um he works with bio works with bioolids and they it's sold the materials are sold and uh when he pointed out long uh golf courses that were green all winter long during these heavy freezes and he said what it was was the bioolids put off heat and keeps the grass alive from the heat and that they only have to be applied once every two years um to uh plant life instead of because they stay hard and solid and slowly dissolve. So maybe talk with Eric Malier.

Thank you. I'll stay up here for the last one. Uh Rod Olsen, uh a couple things briefly. The aspect of uh the water meters. I'm pleased you're getting that squirted around, but it's been something we've talked for five years. So, I'm looking forward to that being finalized. I think that you know last May I asked for documentation of preventive maintenance and it showed zero for sewer, water, lift stations. And I can only assume then that some of the equipment as I indicated earlier is running beyond said the work is being done but if it's not documented it didn't happen. I come from a healthcare background we need to verify that PM is actually taking place. And finally with regard to backflow preventers I recommended in the past I recommend again now we should be taking over the responsibility. If my backflow pretor is not Tommy in place, I could impact neighbors and friends with what could be backed up and could be a problem. I think the city is most of the m easy for me to say municipalities around us, they take control of it. That way, you know, I've done this street or this development's been done and it become doesn't become a guessing game or potential health risk. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Olson. I have two Roger back have two questions. Um, and specific to the Golden Gym Rehab, is that the pond that had the issue? The Golden Gym Rehab. Is that the pond? No, no, that's that's North Jason Dwelli. The pond you're talking about the one that I guess collapsed. Um, oh, the one that collapsed. Yeah, Golden Jam. So, is there a cost associated with that? Vladimir be presenting that. Okay. And the lead and copper program and it says 10 years. Is that water pipe? Like water.

So I guess what's the total amount of I guess linear feet that that needs to be replaced I guess is my question. He asked the question so I'm going to address it here. On October the 16th, 2004, the city successfully completed and submitted its lead service line inventory and associated else plan to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, FDP, and EPA in compliance with federal requirements. The inventory identified approximately 32,821 as I said bel total service lines within the city's portable water distribution system including 29,274 non lead service lines and zero confirmed lead service lines and zero galvanized required replacement service lines and approximately 3,500 board service lines currently classified as unknown unknown. The city also established a yes integrated inventory management system, public notification program, public face and inventory lookup capabilities and annual compliance framework. So I think Vladimemer do you know how many was? So these lead and copper pipes are primarily the lateral pipes. They're serving the residents, the the homes, and we can assume some of them will be probably a short run, short service, some of them are long run, which is across the street. Typically, they wouldn't be more than 50 to 60 ft on connection per piece. So, we can do some calculations based on the uh almost 4,000 locations that we have.

So, we don't know. We don't have that number right now. Okay. No, we don't know. Good question, Z. Thank you. Would it be fair to say that they're in probably more of our older neighborhoods? Yes, probably. Yes. Yeah. We just we need to do further investigation and we're going to proceed with that throughout the year. We're going to try to locate most of them and see trying to help generalize. You're going to look in the areas, the older neighborhoods is where you'll primarily find that. Correct. Any other public comment, commissioners? Anything else on this one? All right. Thank you.

Thank you. We're a little over two hours. So, you got like flab on 30 seconds. Okay. 30 seconds. So, where are we? Public work street design engineering transportation department. Seven minutes. Move over here. How many slides do you have? So, number 14, but we're still on May 13. Okay, we're almost there. Great. All right, let's knock it out.

All right. Good evening, Mayor, commissioners, and Papar residents. Thank you for the opportunity to present the fiscal year 2026 27 budget workshop for the public works department. I would like to begin with our department overview and mission statement taken directly from the presentation material. The city of Apka public works department consists of eight specialized divisions that collectively support the planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of the city transportation utilities and storm water system. The department includes 32 full-time employees led by the public works director and plays a central role in delivering reliable infrastructure services for a rapidly growing community. Public works oversee the capital improvement program for transportation, utilities, and stormwater and provides engineering and project support for CIP projects associated with other city facilities including parks and recreation assets. Our mission is equally central to our role which is to plan, design, construct and maintain safe, resilient and sustainable public infrastructure to support responsible development to ensure effective utility, transportation and stormwater services and to provide high quality operational technical support that enhances quality of life for all residents and businesses in the city of Apakka. The eight distinct divisions that together support the Papus infrastructure network are administration, development engineering, transportation engineering and traffic operations, utilities engineering, construction management, GS and assets management, MPDSMS4 which is municipal separate storm sewer system program management and streets and storm water operations and maintenance management.

We also have uh additional department responsibilities of course which is the capital improvement program. Uh focusing on the operating budget highlights and priorities. Uh this year's operating budget focuses on strengthening our capacity to keep pace with growth and improve the resiliency of our city's infrastructure. Key priorities include support for rapid growth. Uh we're expanding engineering inspection and construction coordination capabilities to respond to unprecedented development activity. We're also advancing capital project delivery. Public works continues to lead major transportation utilities and stormwater projects while supporting parks and recreation and other departmental capital needs. Improving roadway mobility performance. This includes congestion relief, intersection upgrades, traffic operations improvements, and multimodel enhancements. modernizing water, wastewater, and reclaim water system. Uh targeted targeted pipeline replacements, capacity improvements, and modernization projects will help ensure long-term system reliability. Storm water system enhancements, improving drainage, increase increasing flood resilience, and maintaining compliance with MPDS requirements remain top priorities. Strengthening operations and maintenance. We aim to improve roadway, sidewalk and rideway maintenance, expand storm water cleaning and repair efforts and maintain strong emergency response capability. Enhancing data asset management and technology means expanding GS asset tracking and long range forecasting helps improve capital planning and maintenance decision making. And finally, improving customer service. We continue working to improve transparency, communication, and responsiveness for residents, businesses, and development partners.

You don't have to read this whole thing. Yeah. You want 17 new positions. 17 new position. Okay. Okay. Staffing considerations to keep going.

Yeah. The staffing plan anticipates a phased approach to filling critical roles over the next three fiscal years. For fiscal year 2627, the department is requesting 11 positions, including engineers, inspectors, crew leaders, and maintenance staff across development, engineering, streets, and storm water and rightway operations. An additional six positions are forecasted in fiscal year 2728 to complete the organizational buildout needed to support rising service demands. No additional positions are projected for now for fiscal year 2829. This phase strategy balances operational needs with budgetary responsibility and ensure sustainable service levels. Uh the main reason why we have these six positions in storm water is we're currently short on two positions and we try to build the second crew. So each crew consists of four members, a crew leader and three maintenance workers. So by doing this additional two positions, we're going to fill in the first crew and complete the second with of course one crew leader and three maintenance workers that will equal basically the streets operations that already has two and the plan is in 2728 to build the third crew for the street operations and maintenance. That's why we have those six plus four total of 10 positions over the two years within the streets and stormwater operations and maintenance. I'm going to skip briefly to uh some of the new initiatives and programs that we have and then we'll go back to the capital improvement program. Uh the following two slides outline our innovationdriven initiatives for the upcoming year including AIdriven pipe inspection. uh using automated sensing technologies to evaluate water, wastewater and storm water pipelines more efficiently and cost effectively. Uh AI based infrastructure

prioritization, predictive analytics for to forecast system risk and optimize repair and replacement schedules, roadway resurfacing and rehabilitation program, expanding resurfacing activities using datadriven pavement evaluations. Our storm water resilience enhancements, modernizing storm water assets and improving flood risk management. uh utility system capacity improvements, accelerating upgrades to support growth and improve system redundancy, right traffic safety enhancements, upgrade upgrading sidewalks, signage, traffic controls and multimodal access, field operations, modernization, strengthening crew structures and operational workflows to improve service response. And finally, GS mapping and digital asset expansion, integrating real-time field data and expanding digital asset management to support a long-term forecast. So, I guess that was in seven minutes. So, now back to the back back to the capital improvement problem

quickly, briefly. Yeah.

So, we can start we can start high level. Exactly. We can start with a portable drinking water system. Uh we're highlighting three projects here that we're going to cover over the next uh three fiscal years. The first one is the citywide asbesto cement and galvanized pipes replacement which will go over probably 5 to 10 years total of $30 million. Uh we're looking at about $24 million which is 80% for the asbestos and cement replacement and about $6 million for the galvanized. We have started a project uh two years ago. We're utilizing now currently. Uh we have grants for about 3.56 million. We uh last uh uh city commission meeting we approved the additional 1 million. So that brings to total 3.56. Uh when we started the program we had about 10.8 mil uh miles of asbesto cement remaining in the system. the one in front of the high school, Popka High School on Martin Street was already replaced. So that was the phase one. So now we're moving to phase two, three and four as we go through the next three years. Uh currently we have 10.4 miles remaining in the asbesto cement pipe and we have about 2.5 miles of uh galvanized pipes and the galvanized are typically smaller pipes between 1 in and 4 in. Uh on the asbesto cement pipe we have 3 inch to I think the largest is a 14 inch but there just a few there are 10 12 or 14 maybe just a few location so you're going to kill one

correct

yes uh the second project that we're looking into it's the new water treatment plant at the golden gem site this is again just portable drinking water. It's This one's going to be 3.8 million gallons a day capacity. It's going to be done over a two or three year period. We're looking between 25 to 40 million depending on what the water testing is going to show for the lower aquifer because we cannot drill any more new wells in the upper aur and we're just replacing the last two that we have. Actually, we completed the one at Groenburger. We're waiting on the fund to be delivered probably sometime in August and that will be completed and we're finishing up the one at Plymouth Regional. This is the old Orange County facility that was transferred in 2004 together with man Plymouth water treatment plant. So with completing these two, we're going to be completely off the upper Florida wells and we'll be withdrawing water directly from the lower Florida and that satisfied all the water management district conditions for the consumptive use permit. So this will of course uh require probably two new wells and once we do the testing we're going to know if we need to

let's not go too deep maybe go to enhance. not going too deep literally and figuratively.

Okay. So 26 27 we're going to start with the design. 2728 anticipation is to start construction and that will probably go over two-year period. And the third project is the Genbucker water treatment plant upgrades. Uh this is an existing and the central uh water treatment plant historically that serves 5.5 million gallons a day. Overall, we're looking at 35 to $40 million over the two three year completion, but we're going to start this probably sometime in 2728 and try to offset some of the cost considering it's a capital cost. So, that will include rebuilding the entire plan and we just build a new ground storage thing. Moving over to the wastewater sewer system, uh we're highlighting four projects. Of course, the most important is the APCO climate facility expansion, which is 3 to 5 years. Uh we're starting with design. Uh we're finalizing the uh the scope right now. We should be starting the design probably beginning of July, maybe even earlier than that. And we have uh put aside about $6 million. We don't expect to be that high, probably somewhere between four and four and a half, but we're going to roll over probably some of the funds and we're going to include that into the construction management of the project. Uh the next project is somebody mentioned earlier, uh it's the forest avenue actually a sewer forceman replacement which is between lift station 17 and the Apco water commission facility. This is the one that goes along Central Avenue all the way from um just where the lift station 17 is uh at the park down to the to the water reclamation facility that we anticipate that cost to be 7 to8 million. Again,

this is 1971. It's the age I was born, but I was born in December. So, this a little bit older than me. It's one of the most important infrastructure that we need to replace and that's why it's on the priority list. Together with that, we're going to be doing the lift station number 17 replacement. We think we're going to do this concurrently. The idea was first to start with the lift station because that was an old package plant that was converted into a lift station. One of the issue is considering the old line at Forest Avenue is really it's a it's a cast iron pipe and we reached to a few contractors and no one would take the risk to connect directly to that. So we decided we're going to go first with replacing the pipe and then we'll start with a with a lift station project and we have 4.8 million for that. And the fourth project is the old Dixie Highway. This is Brett to Citrus Avenue. Another sewer forceman replacement. I believe it's 12 in. This is in front of the area where a Popka Elementary School is. So those are the highlights on the wastewater sewer system. The reclaim water system of course we have multiple projects here. Um one of the important most important project is of course the Golden Gem reclaim water facility. Uh we anticipate this to be over one to two year project. The $12.5 million that we have put aside is for the new pump station there. And then we're going to have additional 2 million to between two and $3 million for the repair of the two liners and the two ponds. We're going to start with the west pond, make that operational, start at the same time the construction with this one, and then we'll continue on the evaluation of the east pond. Uh Rogers Road is one of the project that we're looking forward to. This is the end the north end of Rogers road to

Ponen Road. We have a gap there that goes through the poachi acres new development that will be donated to the city for uh park and we plan to extend the 30in new pipe there. This is going to be again one to two year project possibly three to4 million dollars and they will that will provide more opportunity for us to move more water from the south to the north primarily to the northwest plant and the northwest recreation complex and also to the west to the golden gem. Next project is the northwest recreation complex reclaim water east reservoir irrigation pump station. This is another one to two year. We anticipate between five and $6 million. So far, we have completed uh this this particular one will be basically replacing the pond that is currently at Rock Springs Ridge, which is pond 2A, that has only 5 million gallons capacity there. And at some point, it will it was shared with a golf course. Now that the golf course is not operating for years, we're slowly operating that. uh but it's very very inconvenient and it doesn't allow for movement of a lot of water when we need it during the especially during the dry season. So, we're going to be irrigating directly from the east pond where the fountain is currently just north of the amphitheater and that will help irrigate the entire uh park northwest recreation complex including new facilities that will be on the east side which is the new sword bore and b baseball fields. The northwest recreation complex reclaim water waste reservoir transfer pump station. This is another project that we're just finishing the northwest uh project that should be probably the pump will be delivered sometime also in August, beginning of September. So they

will start operating and moving water from there back into the northwest uh uh reclin water uh plant. And the cost for this is a little bit less because the pipeline is already in place. It was done as part of the first phase one. This phase two was actually put another pump station at a larger pond on the west side and they will pump through the same system back into northwest and then be able to send it more for public access. Uh pleto road we're looking at that project as well. This is between western and pon. This is another gap that we have in the system. 30inch new pipe one to two year probably construction time 5.8 8 million that will help us move more water from the south also to Golden Gem as well to the to the northwest. And we have two other projects. They're currently not budgeted, but they may come in the next few years. The SA Popcar water facility distribution pump station. This is important. It's going to be 10 to12 million. We're just finishing up the design. This particular project will help moving directly water from the lower ponds there on the south side of Snowden which is where the uh wastewater treatment plant is. Send it directly through a 48 inch pipe all the way around the city to the north area to Golden Gem and and Northwest which helps kind of a regional problem because we're getting a lot of water from other municipalities including

too deep again. Too deep. Just knock this out. Let's let's land this plane. Come in. We can do this. And and the final one is the South of Popco reclaim water reservoir and transfer pump station uh which is going to be at the same site. So that's all for the reclaim water. Moving to transportation capital improvement program. I'm going to go quick on this Kelly Park road. The design is already completed between Waypoint and Plymouth Torrento Road. This is widening the road to four lanes. We're looking at 22 to 25 million total. One to two year completion. Perfect. current project funded by pioneers.

Let's get a little cadence to this. Come on. Next road to we have a about two to three year completion. We're waiting on the raised build brand to be uh finally it's awarded its pending agreement. Once that's completed, we're going to move on. Rock Springs Road and Welch Road intersection improvement. We're looking at five to six million. We haven't started design. The county started just approved the design on theirs. We're going to try to work with the same engineering company to work together on the same and tying those two uh Harmon Road and Binan Road. We're looking at two roundabouts, Harman Road and Binan Road and Last Road and Binan Road and they're going to be about one to two year completion. Each will cost design plus construction roughly $2 million. V Road, we have multiple areas. We'll probably be starting on the south side of Old Dixie Highway to Martin Street. is between Apakka Elementary and the Apakka High School which is the most congested at the time and the rest will follow in the following years and we have the Golden Gem Road from Kelly Park Road to about South Golden Gem reclaim water facility we're looking about 14 to 15 million 1 to two year completion we're at 70% design we have applied for a 15 million uh grant through uh Representative Webster's appropriation fund And finally, the storm water capital improvement program. Uh we working actively on the border lake flood mitigation. One to two year completion, five to$6 million roughly. All of this will be fun funded through grants. So there shouldn't be any expense on the city. Uh we're looking into Lake Hammer pump station possibly about a half a million dollar. This is one to two year completion as well. uh the downtown canal uh between Park Avenue and Martins Pond. We're trying to pipe that system so can help moving water because it's

about 320 acres of the downtown area drains through this system into the Martins Pond and that's also one to two year completion and we have Lake Avenue storm water management system burn mitigation. It's about half a million uh dollars one to two year completion. We got awarded a grant also for the some of the other projects, but FEMA is now shut down and we don't know what's going to happen with funding as well as all the other municipalities that have been awarded so far. And finally, I did put on the list there's no funding for this approved yet, nothing planned yet for the clear water lake pump station, the flood mitigation. There was previously a plan that administration had. Uh we're revisiting this. We're looking more depth. We already started first initiate initiating the first meetings with the water management district and we're trying to find something that will be feasible for the residents of the three subdivisions.

They're bordering that and down the road probably in a few months as the negotiation progresses with the water management district and how we can mitigate this situation we'll come up with some plan and we'll present more on that. Thank you for putting that on there. So I just doubled the seven minutes. Now we can see that. All right. Thank you, Mr. Sherman. Oh my gosh. What do you What do you What can I help you with? If you can imagine, I don't remember what I told you to say. I'm going to go to public comment. Is that okay?

I asked for public comment. Please just be mindful of the time. This is not gonna be the last time that we're going to discuss any of these items. Albert McKame 360 Golden Gem Road. In terms of Golden Gem Road Retention Ponds, if we look at documentation the city presented to St. John's River Water Management in April of 2024, at that point, they were saying to St. John's that Golden Gem Road was going to cost 19.5 millions to put in into effect. I have the paperwork, Commissioners, if you want to see it. So today we've reduced that bill by 7 million but at the same time we've lost two liners and it's my opinion that those liners are not serviceable and they're not serviceable for one reason and one reason only. The 950,000 that DVO Seram came here and requested for on May the 15th, I believe it was, of 2024 was for uh aquedams and for an interceptor trench. The interceptive trench was never built. The interceptor trench should have in two years prior to that. The reason that Golden Gem Road failed was because there's no interceptor trench. There's still no interceptor trench today. And until we install that, we're wasting our time. I'm not going to waste your time tonight, but commissioners, you need to talk to me. You need to look at the videos that I have. I can prove to you why that incident occurred, and you're wasting your money trying to fix it until we remediate the initial problem that caused it.

Thank you, Mr. McKim. I do have a couple comments, and I'll give a very concise update on that. the public works has a lot of things they have to do and they cover a lot of area. Um and I think Vlad has been doing a good job organizing all those different areas. Um, one thing that we need grants would help with a lot and I've referenced many different departments including the USDA and RCS, but um, and we have the tree banks and we need to start putting out as large a trees as possible, as much as we can to compensate for all the ones that have been torn down, the ones we've lost to hurricanes, uh, the ones we've lost to construction. uction. Um, and the ones that have aged out because the trees that were planted um at the beginning of the century by some of our pioneers in a century and a half ago um that are dying now um and have been torn down and you saw them coming down along 441 out to the west there in front of the Windixie and all these different places. The trees have aged out and and we've had them come down in the cemetery and in the park. Um, we've got to get them replanted with large trees and a variety of native trees.

Thank you,

Rod. Rod Olsen. Uh, just a couple brief comments. One, prior commissions have approved all kinds of housing that doesn't provide for safe egress for our children to and from schools. They're walking in ditches and side of the road either getting to schools or to buses. There's 323 miles of roadway in Apopka. Before this budget process is finished, someone ought to audit all 326 m 323 miles to ensure sidewalks are safe and roads are adequate. I provided you all with numbers and I know uh Vlad also pro provided numbers as to what the costs are, but it was $28,000 for less than a quarter mile to repair sidewalks between Brush Drive and Pon on Jason Dwelli. When you factor that in, that's probably one of the worst sections of the road in the city. We don't have adequate funds taking care of our streets and sidewalks.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Uh Rogers back at 7 West Main Street. Um, just I'll recap everything that went on tonight. If we can have some type of dashboard to look at cost like the more I hear is like it's like a debt clock running off just kind of like what is the overall budget? What are these things going to cost us? Um, and then too when these things are because I know it was several projects for for Vladimir to put up when they're done, when they're completed, so the public can know that these things are going on because a lot of times we hear it at budget time, but after that we we don't hear it again until next budget time. So from our standpoint to hold people accountable that these things are being done, the money's being used for what they said they were going to be used. I think we should have some type of window a dashboard to look at and see what's happening with the city of Paka because that's been the biggest gripe the money was spent on this. But at some point in time it's a new new beginning. I guess it's a good time to start new different practices because we don't want to just have the same thing happen year after year after year. So that's just my my particular um request. So if we can some kind of way do that' be great. I think there's been a lot of things presented in the budget that also speaks to how we want to develop papa moving forward because apparently we have kind of outreached our b boundaries per se. So we need to look and see okay how can we look in different areas to say okay what industries do we want to come here to impact this in different ways other than just housing everywhere. So I think it's a it's a lot of different opportunities that we have and looking at the budget cost. I don't know what the total number was as far as employees but it seemed like everybody came up need like 10 to 12 people and then if you actually there's just more and more money added to the budget but there again and everything is going up in cost but every resident is not getting a 20 or 30% increase in their pay. So we got to look at how do we balance it all but um there again you guys elected for the job. I just want to give you my opinion what hopefully you can look at to kind of um

lead us into the future. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you so much. So, any comments from commissioners? I know it's late. I do. Go ahead. Please.

Um and I wanted to thank Vlad for I mean you're you're y'all really need to pay attention to pages 12, 13, and 14. They're huge. But I will say this in in reference to Mr. back at a lot of these things have been looked at for de I meant overlooked for decades. So what he's asking for is is bringing stuff up that should have been done over the last, you know, 10, 20 years. And it's gotten to a point where that lifespan is way outlived its life lifespan. And you know, if we're subsidizing a lot of the reclaimed water with domestic water because we don't have the the ability to get it to the ponds that we need it to. So, I commend you for putting a real deep dive and and putting a very creative number together. Your road map is perfect. If you you've identified all the hot spots and all these problems that we see year after year after year could be mitigated by just bringing some of this stuff up to current standards because they're 30 years in the past.

So, thank you for doing it. Thank you. Any other comments from commissioners? No. No. Well, then I will wrap it up. The final comment. I just want to thank staff's Oh, wait. M. Sherman. I don't know what I can't wait to hear what I asked you to say.

So along with with that and trying to maintain equity between, you know, what our customers have to pay and and what we have to cover. One thing we got to look at and for this regard, we talked about um impact fee study as far as increasing. You got it. Um the rates on that we at the four-year mark. So we he wanted to get a consensus of the commission to see if we want to move forward going forward with that study. It can generate some additional revenue. Not sure how much it may end up just you know offsetting some debt.

So so the the the question there is you can only increase impact fees every four years. We haven't done it consistently. Uh last time we did it was 2022. It's coming up now that we can do it again. And this is passed off to developers and and it it gets us to where we're competitive with other municipalities. So I had said I'm definitely interested in in doing this as long as the board is as well. I know it was something we talked about. So yes, because we were waiting on that four year that like can we do it sooner? So yes. Thank you. Sounds like a yesterday comment. Thank you. Thank you.

Um all right then I will wrap this up. I just want to say um thank you so much to our staff. Thank you for the time. Uh, we definitely went over my two-hour goal mark, but what it shows really from each department head and commissioners and our commissioners and our public is that people are engaged, staff is passionate, people are ready for change and and so excited for it. So, I appreciate that. Thank you for putting the time in. Um, happy birthday to Vice Mayor uh Velasquez. I know. So, you got to spend with us and I also just wanted to reference um former Commissioner Smith as well in the audience and thank you for being in attendance here tonight. Have a good night.