Council - Regular Meeting

Let's sit back and let's leave it to it.

Good evening. Today is Tuesday, August the 11th, 2026 at 6.01 p.m. We have a call to order. I have a roll call by Ms. Latricia Wright.

Mayor Goodman, he's excused. President Hines.

I'm here.

Vice President Jones.

Here.

Council Member Martin, she's excused. Council Member Cox. Hello. Council Member Church.

Here.

Interim City Manager Terry Brevard.

Here.

Attorney Kirsten Ballou, she's excused. Finance Director Stephen Bloom.

Here.

City Clerk Latricia Wright, I am here. And all other staff.

Here.

Thank you.

And this is our second budget workshop. We're going to have opening prayer and pledge of allegiance by Chief Mike Rolls.

Let us pray. Dear Lord, as we come before you today, working on the business of this city, we ask that you touch our hearts, touch our minds, Lord. Give us the wisdom to make the decisions that's best for this city, as well as its citizens. Lord, we know in today's time that the challenges we face or talk. Lord, we just ask for your guidance tonight. We ask for your hand upon us as we all try to make great decisions that will benefit this city. Thank you for this council. Thank you for our citizens. Lord, we thank you for the grace and mercy that you give to us every day. In your name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Now it's time for public participation. This will be your first of two times that you'll have to speak on anything that is not on the agenda. You have five minutes to speak. Please state your name and where you're from. Okay, seeing none, we will move forward. We're going to have a review of the revised budget 2026-2027 and budget-related matters. Financial Director Stephen Bloom.

Okay. Good evening, everyone. I do have our slideshow updated. I'm not going to cover every slide in there. Some of it is just more reference material in case we need it. because some of this stuff hasn't per se changed from our prior workshop. But I do want to make sure we cover certain things that have changed. In particular, I guess we'll start with the calendar here. Just more as a reminder, we've got obviously today's workshop. We have scheduled kind of a third workshop at the council's discretion. If they want to do that, it would be on the 25th. And then after that, Then we get into kind of September, which is the two public hearings. And again, actually technically it's three with the fire one being on September 8th, which I believe is during a regular meeting will be that particular one. The other two on the 15th and the 29th will be just for your public hearing for the budget. Again, starting at 6 p.m. as a reminder, and this is just kind of the roadmap for the rest of the way. And then obviously after the second public hearing, that would be kind of it, that you'd be adopting the budget for the year.

Sorry, Stephen. I'm asking her to make it bigger because I can't read it. There you go. Thank you so much.

OK, so I did send out two different versions of the budget as requested. One had no increases in it. That was really the difference between the two. One had a 2% increase in it and one did not. All the other changes that I'm going to cover on the next slide here are in both. So again, it truly is those increases that represent the difference. So in terms of changes. Just the next slide there, slide four. That's one too many. First thing is all of the staffing plan changes, the handout that you had at the last workshop, the separate handout, all those changes were added in. You know, I included the part-time airport position and the new positions that were approved at your last council meeting for the airport. Did really kind of title changes and a little bit of adjusting. Those are all that's in there. I did review the part-time and full-time staff. It's one slide before this. And kind of put together a summary. We had talked about...

It's like missing. Yes, not there. She tried it a couple times.

I don't understand. That's not the right... Is it the right date? Can you go back to the very first and make sure it's the second one versus the first one?

That's right.

So strange. I can send you the file right now. to make sure that because really that one budget changes slide is kind of the most important one that I want to make sure I cover because that's gives you some context as to you know what the changes are and then what's not in there is just as important okay so just sent it I will cover a couple of things just to kind of keep things going here but That is very strange. Okay, so like I was saying, I did create a summary slide on the staffing count page. Again, it's in both of them. And it basically summarizes the part-time positions for the city versus the full-time ones. It was something we had talked about at the first workshop, just trying to make sure we're given the proper weight to what the staff truly is. And then I did add, we had talked about it at the first workshop that there would be two retired employees that needed health coverage, health insurance. I added that as well into the budget. It would be slide four.

Slide four.

On the bottom, on the right of the slides itself. I'm looking at it. That's the same file I just sent you. I do not understand why.

This is very confusing.

I'm sorry to say, is it down farther? Maybe they got it. Isn't that it? The budget overview? That's it right there.

Okay. Okay. Twilight Zone stuff. It's on page two. Okay, so basically I was just covering the very first of that series of bullet points on the updated staffing plan. And like I said, I did add the health insurance for its two retired staff. And you'll see it in the, if you will look through the pages of the budget, there's literally a second line that says health insurance slaps retired so that you can see the difference. I increased the millage rate to 7.25%. Again, from the first version to the second version, that's an additional $100,000 into the general fund. That's what that, you know, from going from 6.75 to 7.25 is an additional $100,000. So kind of keep that $100,000 in the back of your mind as I now cover the next pieces of this. I increased the health care premiums to what was shown in the... August 4th meeting. And so as a result, that was an additional $125,000 across all of the funds with 53 of that being in the general fund. So I'll give you a second on that. So again, I just mentioned I increased by $100,000 and then immediately used 53 of that for the health insurance. Now you have in front of you a little bit lower of a premium, based on some additional discussions with I guess the broker. I don't know who wants to cover that, but that helps to kind of get that increase that I'm mentioning down. That gives you, specifically in the general fund, another $15,000 back. uh to have you know if you with that lower premium so the one that you have in front of you is a it should say on there a 13 and a half percent increase year over year yeah and so um i had in the the versions that you had before we got that was about an 18% increase. So obviously I didn't, you know, the version one did not have that much in there for coverage. And it certainly didn't even have 13 and a half in there, quite frankly on that. In either direction, that is an increase over the version and certainly is using up a significant portion of the millage rate increase. So again, I just wanted to make sure I was clear on that because that certainly was not something we were hoping for. We were hoping for just the opposite. When we had our early discussions, we were hoping that there was enough contingency for some of these insurances that would actually give us something back to play with, and that's not the case. We talked about legal services. I did reach out to them and what's in here is a 3% increase from your prior version. So again, that's using up a little bit. And then one of the things we had talked about in the other line in legal, I left it a little bit too light, I think, for my first version. So I increased that to 10,000 as well, just to give you a little bit more. I had tried to cut it and just probably was way too much. Once you increase the millage rate, the amount of money that goes to the CRA is a function of the millage rate. So that meant another $18,000 I had to increase expenses. So again, they were very quickly eating into this $100,000, which was not our hope. The other thing I worked on were the utility bills. We had seen some increases in there. So what I try to do is split them all out a little bit better so we can see what they were. I mean, there are increases and I'll get some more information out to the operations team to go account by account on that. I did see a couple anomalies in terms of, what I'll say anomalies, one-time billings in both fire and police. So I was able to back those two budgets back because I don't think those anomalies will occur again. I consolidated the OT for special events into parks. It's just not adding more money, just getting it all into one central place. It'll allow for a little bit better tracking as well as transparency. We had talked about at the first workshop putting in a donations expense line. So I did do that. It's a small amount, but that would be the place where if you get More donations and that line item go up. There's really no, it's kind of an offset to the revenue side of that, but it was intended to be able to show that those donations are actually going to the animal shelter. That was the request. And as I mentioned, I created the second budget file that had the 2% increase. Overall, now... The year-over-year budget now is about 7.8% higher, obviously with some of these increases that I put in. So that's what's in there. So let me make sure I'm clear on what's not. And this was discussed at the first workshop. I did not put anything else in there for fire. So the fire department has a request for additional hours. which I believe was Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, if I'm correct. When I put that in there, that would have been about another $100,000 of cost. Right now, I don't have room for it to put that in there. And then I believe there was another $30,000 of some other items or other line items. So about $130,000 is not in here that the fire department requested. I just don't know where to I mean, I could put it in there. I just don't know where to offset it with at this point. And that's pretty much it. Everything else we talked about, I was able to kind of squeeze in. So you certainly still have some significant decision points for your discussions. One is obviously the hope was not to stay at the 7.25. But I've unfortunately used almost all of that just to get the version without the increase And then obviously you have discussions on the increases and then FIRE. So to me, those are kind of the three. I mean, you guys can obviously discuss anything else you want in the budget. I wanted to kind of bottom line it for you in terms of what I was seeing for these versions. And certainly there's still some significant issues to kind of go through. But what you'll see in that second version with the 2%, it doesn't balance anymore. So without the increase in there, you're still balancing. Again, you'll get a little bit more to cover increases from the lowering of the premiums. But if you were to want to do the 2%, there's still some more work to be done to kind of cut some other costs, whatever that might be. And then again, the fire requests were certainly something that was important to figure out how to kind of get which pieces of that into this budget. As a reference point again on the next slide, I am still showing the different percentages for you. I added 1.5%, 2%, 2.5%, and 3%. And so the 2% is costing about $114,000. My biggest concern of all of those individual funds is really the general fund. I think most of the other funds, we would be able to figure out a way to get that in the version. It would tighten some things up. Like in the utility fund, we would tighten some things up. But airport would be good. CRA, those other ones would be good. The $60,000 in the general fund is the tough one. And like I said, you'll get about $15,000 of that and lower in the premiums. So you've just got some more ground to make up, unfortunately, to kind of still get your budget balanced and hopefully try to achieve everything that you were looking to do coming off of the first budget workshop. The rest of these slides, again, are referenced, you know, really, again, I don't need to cover all of the different contribution rates and stuff. Really, the only other guests that's in here right now is your general liability, workers comp, cyber auto, those premiums we do not have yet. So hopefully, again, just don't know what was going to come out of that. But the hope is based on some discussions with them preliminary that, you know, like the general liability would not go up. Auto, they're already saying it's going to go up. They basically mentioned about 25%, which is what I put in there. A workers' comp, as you know, is always the question mark until you actually see the premiums. That's kind of the only spot that I have in here that if everything goes our way, we might have some more money there. But I won't know that. I'm not sure one will even know. Sometimes it's not until September. until we get that quoted and then go back and forth with them as well making sure we got proper coverages premiums are covering everything so that's kind of the budget in a nutshell right now certainly can go to any of the pages any of the versions i have a new version that i'm working on right now you know that i have ready to go in case you want to ask any questions uh... the CRA met yesterday and had some changes already for me for my next version nothing significant that will affect anything that we're going to be talking about but certainly can can put in some other numbers if you want to look at and see where we'll wind up and you know kind of go through anything at the council's will at this point

The airport got, what, two new positions?

Technically, and again, you can correct me if I'm off trace here, when I looked at it, it was really only a half a part-time position and some positions moving around. So really, again, I'm saying titles moving around because I'm looking at the numbers on it so much, but really you're not adding extra positions. You're taking positions and kind of restructuring the department and then putting in that part-time position.

Okay. And then any raises other than the... a couple of the employees that repositioned other titles.

So in the one version, that's what I titled on there without increases, the only increases in the airport would be, like you mentioned, any of the position changes, that's it. Otherwise, no, you know, and that was kind of the intention of making sure we had that in there first. But yeah, no other increases other than, hey, you got a promotion and this would be your new rate. Okay.

I think, too, talking to Ms. Latricia, I know we didn't do anything for special events for 4th of July and such. The keeper of all the records and knows what the costs are. I think, like she said, for $18,000, if we can squeak out a little more, it would be a good thing. And I think, too, with the fire department, you know, I hear on the weekends the trucks go and how many they go out. So, you know, if there's a way that we can... You know, squeak that out. I know it's going to be tough.

That was certainly one of my concerns putting this together was that we were not addressing that need. Now, on the special events... Yeah, it's 22. It's 22. Yeah, it's up to 22. One of the times when Patricia wasn't here, so we lowered it to why she wasn't here to 22. See, told you. In all honesty there. Yeah. But it is 22, and there is some other leeway there with some materials and supplies if you needed to get a little bit more, but...

I think we went from $50,000 to $35,000 to $22,000. I think that's what we did. And that line item.

Because I remember it being $18,000.

It was $18,000 if you look at the year before. The year before the $50,000, it was $18,000. It is 22 now. No. I checked that too. All right. Tell me where in here, I know you said the version that does not have the raises in it balances currently. Yes. Can you tell me where, in which section it shows that? Because I couldn't find that anywhere.

Okay, so... What page is that on? Which version do you have?

I have a...

Without. Okay, so without... Let me go to that page.

Which tab is it? I couldn't find it in this book. It's not in this book, is it?

No, no, no.

I didn't think so because I couldn't find it.

It's the brand new files. Okay. Yeah.

I mean, I have the brand new files in here.

Oh, okay. But I still couldn't find it. It would be the general fund is the one I'm talking about. I mean, they all balance, but I think the one in particular is the general fund. And let me see what page that is specifically for you. I assume it would be the last page. Yep.

So page 36. But it doesn't look like it balances when I look at that page. That's why I'm asking.

It's 36, then that's probably not the version without the raises. That's probably the version with the raises. What's the number that you were seeing on that?

You're right. Hold on. I've got them both in here.

That's the problem with having the two versions. you know sometimes you then you have to switch around but we'll make it work but yeah you can see um right up there um that is a balanced budget i'll say that there's because it's blank that means it balances just again as a point of reference the version that i i'm working on for next time has a favorable fifteen thousand dollars sitting in the general fund Because I've already lowered the insurance premiums. So that's kind of the point. And unfortunately, with the timing of it, I couldn't get that out quick enough, that version. But in essence, right now, the general fund, with everything I've just mentioned, is sitting at a favorable $15,000. But there's no increases, and there's still nothing to do, none of the stuff that the fire wanted.

yes sir thank you madam president so i think probably the the the big question here is that really and and not not trying to put you guys on the spot but i get an understanding what fire is going to push through and as far as the thing he's talked to you what you put in i mean what what does your budget look like now because that's the only one i'm not sure of if there's 130 000 for the stuff in there

can we pare it down or have you all looked at paring it down or where are we at on that because I think that's the unknown right you don't have that anywhere the 130 and again I think 100 of it roughly was the pure hours and then the rest of it was some other needed increases that you had and so it's just a matter of I mean again how much of that and how do we is there any other offsets timing wise or anything at this point

Okay, so a bunch of the increases that he sent you were just like trying to uptick in fuel costs, typical increases across the board that we deal with every year. Is that what you're asking about?

I mean, yes, a piece of it was, absolutely. And some of that I had already put in maybe. Maybe it was just not confirming it. I'm not as concerned about what would be like the $21,000 It's really more the 100,000 and the staffing is the big number. Those are the hours that you had requested. They're just not in here.

Suggestion. And throw something at me if this is not right. I'm looking at both of y'all. Yeah, you're ready, aren't you? If, in fact, Lamar is considering retirement, And we will then have a part-time fire chief. They will not need benefits. And they will not have this high rate of pay. So we should be able to save considerable amount of money there.

And y'all help me figure out how much that might be.

Mr. Brevard.

Thank you, Madam President. I think Trying to get to that answer without the mayor present and understanding which way he's moving forward, I don't know how we get a response. You guys can tell us something. Or not. Probably not. But until we understand what the mayor may do if Lamar may leave one day, I don't know how we get there.

That's why I asked him.

Well, I had an eight ball. But he may not be ready for that.

I don't think he's going to commit.

No, and I don't... And I wouldn't... Miss Vice President.

I told you you could throw something at me.

Go ahead. If that was to go in that direction, that would be a perfect way to work it out.

I thought so, too. I think it would get us at least a quarter of the way there, if not a third of the way there for the 130 that you're looking for.

But I will tell you that the mayor... May have a different opinion there.

Yeah.

I mean, it...

Correct. And we'll have another workshop after this one. Two more, at least. Maybe three.

One more.

One more workshop, two more public hearings.

Public hearings, but one more workshop.

Right. And we can change it right up to the last minute. So, I mean, if we... You can adopt it.

At the second workshop, you can adopt it with changes.

Yeah.

Yeah. But again, you're going to need to still balance it, and you know what your total expenditures is going to be. So whatever you're doing, it's not going to change the total expenditures per se. You're just going to be moving stuff around. So if you were to attack and say that position, which is, I'm going to put that to part-time and take $50,000 out. All I would be doing is moving it out of the chief line down to the duty pay line. Exactly. Yeah.

But it's $50,000 you didn't have before.

Yeah. Again, it's a guess. That is basically a guess at this point. Right.

It's about the only place I can see to get it.

so where are we going with that or anything now what i i don't i don't know what um because

I mean, do you think we'll have another full-time fire chief once Lamar does decide to leave us?

I don't know.

I don't know that we will.

I don't like betting on ducks. I mean, he may not go anywhere, you know. So I think that should be an equation that's not even a thought because we don't know what's going to happen, if anything's going to happen. So that shouldn't even be an issue. thought process at this point. You know what I'm saying? I mean, that's just my take on it.

Do they see a full-time chief?

Huh?

Do they see a full-time chief?

Who is they?

If I may.

They see the chief that's there now.

Yep. If I may, I think you should really readdress this first meeting in January. We will print the positions. We will not ask for those weekend positions. Y'all can discuss it the first week in January.

Okay. Okay. Thank you. Got it. So you're taking that off the table for now? Yes, ma'am.

Got it.

Okay.

Is that better, Stephen? Does that help us out?

Yeah. I mean, that answers a question that was still outstanding, you know. And then by January, you know, there could be a lot of different, you know, some more known variables to figure that out.

We may find some money somewhere else.

Yeah.

Mr. Bloom, we're going to need the rest of that stuff, though, because, like our fire chief, the building's getting older, the trucks are getting older. We need money to fix that stuff. We can't help that.

So you need the other $30,000? Yes.

Hmm.

If you can just kind of look at the rest of the other lines maybe and see if there's any other offsets.

Steven, did you take into account that the county is probably going to increase us by $30,000?

Yes, and that's the other point I want to make. This also assumes that you adopt the fire assessment at the initial rate that you would, or what I'll call the high water mark, that you adopt. I forget which meeting that was. But in September 8th, that's going to come before you. And this budget has that top number as well, which is... almost $319,000, which is about $100,000 more of assessments than this year. So not only does it include the extra $30,000 from the county, it also includes an extra $100,000 from the assessments. And I don't even know where that is in terms of the high watermark, in terms of the whole methodology. I just wanted to mention that so that when you go into that workshop, to that public hearing, that's, you know, again, it doesn't mean you have to adopt that mark. It just means you better, you know, you're going to have to have an understanding of if you lower that down, where are the other cuts, what's the other side of that? And so, again, it just, everything's just so tight this year. In previous budgets, we've always had, like, a couple things in our back pocket. like particularly like last year and again this i don't know if it helps or hurts last year actually health insurance went down you know so when we got into the to our second and third workshop we actually had the the benefit of it going down so part of the increase is kind of you know maybe a course correction on their side um but still you know it hurts And that's if we get the 3032,000 from the county, which does assume that I don't know where they're where they are in their process that they can give some more. I can tell you that it's the math on the county portion of the expenses versus the revenue we're giving. It's still short, and we've kind of discussed that, the chief and I. Basically, when you look at the number of incidences that are outside the city, there's a percentage. So then you say, okay, if I take that same percentage of the expenses, I forget what that percentage is. I know we calculated it. But anyways, the county is still short a couple hundred thousand dollars to the city to kind of cover all that. And again, the $30,000 hopefully helps a little bit, but it's not necessarily a gift. It's almost they're trying to get it closer. It should be almost a balanced budget. If you were to take, hey, just the county portion of fire and pull it out, it should be almost like a pass-through.

It just isn't right now. Yeah, and regrettably, that whole negotiation process was started too late to get it into this budget cycle. And no fault of ours, but if you recall, in the last three or four council meetings, I've discussed that, that that is going to happen, or there are going to be some negotiations going on about that as soon as we get through with this budget cycle. And we've got to do something. Everybody has to do something. And I totally agree 100%. They threw some numbers at us. I threw some numbers at them. And I'll be perfectly honest with you when it comes down to who can run it the most economical, shall we say, that would have been us. But that's not where we need to be. They need to pay us $58. point two percent of our budget for our outside the city calls and that's that's my target is to get us as close to that number as I can I'm not going to tell you that I can get it there but that is my goal to get it there's as as close to that as I can you know when I look at the cities of Newberry and High Springs and I'm comparing apples to apples now call loads staffing plans stuff like that just so y'all know city of Newberry's fire department They've got a $3.5 million budget. City of High Springs, $3.1 million budget. So we're comparing apples to apples here. We run just as many, if not more, calls than they do. Our staffing is very similar when it comes to responding to calls, and this is what we get. Now, having said all that, they currently get paid a pretty good stipend from a logical county to run outside their city limits, and that is our goal is to get there. We need to be there. Even if I got to drag the city manager into these meetings with me, we need to be there. But that doesn't get us anywhere tonight.

So does anybody else have any ideas? They don't like mine, let's hear yours. Yeah, that's all I got.

And you guys have touched everything you could touch.

uh as looking at it yeah i mean it's we we're you know trying to get by the best we can with what we got now our stuff is dated worn out will when i say wheels are falling off i'm not kidding so um jimmy tell y'all last time we had a fire truck caught on fire so oh well yeah yeah you know You show up at budget meetings, you hear about them stories, Latricia. Oh, yeah, you weren't here for that, were you? No, she was not. But, you know, I don't really see a lot of areas we got left to cut because we're just trying to make the expenses with the rest of that stuff. You know, there's really nothing to splurge on there. But most of you know me. I've never put that kind of stuff in a budget anyway. But anyway.

Steven, have we been putting money away for another truck?

Fire truck? No, because we've always financed those. Okay. Yeah. And there is a fire vehicle in here. It's not their big one, but there is a fire vehicle with the loan attached that we talked about at the first workshop. And, again, it actually was supposed to be purchased this year, And just because of the nature of everything being so tight, it literally just, you know, kicked the can to next year. But they have, it's the Brush 72 replacement and some radios is the only, I mean, that's it.

I mean, that's literally it. Yeah, that's it. They're trying to get enough radios to go completely around with the state, requiring us a mandate without pay, requiring us to change our radio systems. And then, you know, we're trying to replace a 1999 brush truck. You know, I hate to say it every year, but I got fire trucks older than some of my firefighters.

There's nothing in here and they're operating. Keep in mind, they also get some grant money back because they have about a $54,000 in materials and supplies. That's offset with some other grant money as well. So it's super tight. And I did some similar trimming that I did to the police department.

I don't know.

Don't know.

Don't know.

When the chief and when Ms. Wright were serving as the interim city manager, Ms. Wright is still for two days a week, I know we increased their pay by the allowable, by the HR manual, 15%. Has that been reverted back? No.

Not for either position. There was a subsequent PAF for the chief that basically, after that, that kept it at the same rate. I guess if you're saying 50%, I don't know what that is, if that was the percentage. But no, for both of those positions, I don't know.

And that subsequent PAF was from the mayor?

Yeah, I was waiting. I was trying to pull that up here just to confirm because the chief thought I was a little bit off on his rate. Let me see if I am.

Ms. Kim.

Yes, it was signed off by the mayor. I'm the one that processed it.

Thank you.

Yep, and just, Chief, it's June 17th, just so you know, this year, and the rate that I have in the budget, 53.69, is right off of the PAF. But for city clerk, I have not reverted anything back on that one either, so I don't know if that... She's still doing it. Yeah.

Yeah, I was about to say, she's still serving part-time, so I didn't take it away.

Right. Yeah, I said that in my initial statement.

Madam President, can we say she's assisting part-time? So we don't get it twisted that she's doing two roles. So can we be a little bit careful in our wording to say she's assisting instead of being the city manager?

Sure. Yeah. She serves when the city manager is not here, which she has always done. And I could tell you where I saw that was in the staffing plan, in the initial staffing plan and then the one for tonight. I could tell that the numbers were different. I don't know. I don't know either. Don't know.

Stephen, how much do we pay you?

No, I'm just joking.

A lot. Not enough. I'm just joking. I'm just joking. A lot.

That was a good one. I know.

If I told you my hourly rate based on the number of hours, yeah.

Almost as much as we pay that auditor.

Oh, really?

Not really. We pay Stephen more.

Oh, okay.

Or his company, should I say.

What we're thinking, right? Do you have any suggestions?

To help us get anywhere?

Well, some of the stuff Stephen and I have talked about is really mainly focused on the open positions and stuff. And I know the chief has talked about he's not filling Matt's position, but he's going to hire a police officer, right? Correct me if I'm wrong here.

Yeah, that's still in here.

Yes, I'm going to hire a police officer, and I have future plans of promoting. Me and Stephen had already talked about this. And what's left over, I'm... The hound of the police officers to put more boots on the ground at the police level instead of the upper administration level. Then there is some possibilities of promotions. And with what is left in my budget, I took two reserve officer positions that I had and turned one into an animal control code enforcement officer and then a part-time dispatcher.

So do you think that's going to eat up all that money?

I'm thinking when we're done with that, it's going to eat that money up. If it doesn't, whatever's left, I mean, Stephen's talked about moving it around. I'm all about the team, so whatever we've got to do to get the team up.

We're trying to think of a way we could be able to mean i mean the budget like i said is what it is we're trying to figure out a way that maybe we can we can look at the open positions and maybe come up with the possibility of being able to provide y'all with an opportunity to do a percentage raise and still pay the um the insurance what is i obviously i would not recommend even though i don't get it i would not recommend that we change anything on our insurance plan and take anything cheaper whatever I mean that's something that the employees really have to have so a lot of our discussion over the last week has really been how do we trim the budget do we need to do and maybe still possibility give you an opportunity to do that and there's open budget there's open positions in the general fund that could do that, but it's gonna come at a cost. I mean, we're not filling positions. I mean, to do that, and I'm sure Nate's not gonna be real super happy with me, but if I knew it was going department wide you know, we can do that. As far as anything else in the budget, I think we've talked out just about everything from y'all and from time Steven and I spent on the phone and going back and forth. And I mean, there's just, unfortunately, the budget is what it is. On top of that, we're looking at, although I can't find the email, but I'm about to find it, gfl.gov. That's a pass-through, so it's an increase, but it's also an increase to our customers. There's a CPI based on that. There's going to be a CPI increase on the water if you don't do something about it, which you've got a presentation coming up with Florida Water, which is kind of eye-opening, but I don't know anything else. I don't know where we get more money.

But what you're talking about is to be able to give raises.

Yes, the other status quo, and then like I said, the only way that we can really afford the opportunities to give raises is to not fill those open positions, and that's it. And then you've got to remember, once you give the pay raises, that's compounded next year and next year after that. So, you know, I know time. Go ahead, ma'am. Sorry.

So what about not giving pay raises right now and maybe January once we figure out whether or not we get the money from this county? and whatever else you were talking about, then once we see where our money is, then we give the pay raises.

I have no problem with that, and I'll be honest with you. I got a meeting coming up Monday that even Stephen doesn't know about with a gentleman that's going to take a hard look at our fiber, and it may cost us some more money out of the loan. But talking to him, he was the guy that led the charge up in Suwannee County and everything they did up there. I come highly recommended by Denny George, and they were doing 125 installs a day where he was at.

That's what we need.

So I'm very encouraged that we will meet that mark. That's my goal is to wrestle that big, and that would give me the time. If y'all did do that, if y'all put this off until January, whether I'm here or not, that will give me the opportunity to get this burden off off your backs and it may be give you some more clarity on how you want to move forward not having to deal with the fiber or the loan or anything else but it's self-sustaining and it's it's what we expected was turnkey and walk or walk away um so that that would hurt my feelings then i mean uh keep in mind to that point i think it might hurt staff's feelings though

Well, just on the fiber, the part of it, because it's a good kind of carry forward on that. The fiber, the budget right now has got 825 subscribers to balance it out for this year. For next year, you need probably over 1,000, maybe 1,100 subscribers. After that, I mean, the whole idea of the fiber dependent upon the long-term goal of it is that's when you, you know, if you can get that fiber up and running at that rate, then that could be another source to try and help the city and the utility fund to give raises and to kind of help balance some of this stuff out. Because again, just keep in mind not to be, you know, Mr. Gloom, we don't know what's going to happen with the property taxes come November. So that's gonna have not an impact on 2027, but that will have a significant impact on 2028 to a potential tune of another $300,000 in that first year lost in property taxes that you then have to figure out and you could not you know again without cutting services like you could not cut any public safety services that's a part of the bill as as we've talked about so again you're going to have you know some more struggles coming up here if that passes and so fiber is one way to actually bring in some revenue that doesn't have you know some other you know cost to property taxes or assessments or anything

I know at the first budget workshop, we looked at the staffing plan, and there were 10 open positions that we said that we were willing to let go.

Not let go. Well, not let go, but have a hold on.

All right. They're open, so you're not letting anybody go. You're just not hiring.

We're not filling them.

Yeah. There were 10 that we were willing to do that with. There was one, like the one in the police department, there was one that the officer's been hired already. We wrote his name there. There was the groundman and the lineman, the trimmer, that we said we really did need as a matter of safety. And we don't have Davey tree trimmers anymore. We're going to have to have them. And the gas technician, we said we needed that one. And we said we needed another road tech because we only have one. But there are 10 others that we said we were willing to put a hold on.

You have a Lyman C that's open.

Right. The lineman C, let me find water. Yes.

It's budgeted, but it's not filled. That's correct. Lineman C. So that is a position.

That's right. It was only the two in the bottom of that category, the electric groundsman and the electric line trimmer, lineman trimmer.

Right.

And we wrote maybe next to that one, that we really needed it if we could manage it. But the only other ones were that road tech, because we only have the one, he really needs a partner. So that's 10 others that were left as open positions. Of course, two of them, actually three of them, are in the police department and they're the reserve officers. So there's not a whole lot of money tied to them.

No, we actually cut their hours. Right. I think we went from 500 to 300, so trying to save some money.

Exactly. And then there was the assistant utility director, the lineman C, the water technician trainee, and there were others that I did not circle, but they were open as well. that we could able, and of course the major, which you have plans for hiring an officer at a much lower rate of pay.

yes but terry's not going to hire the utility director and the other while he's here but the person that's coming in may want to hire somebody when they come in yeah now i didn't name the utility director because we do need it oh i thought you said it was the assistant assistant okay yeah right we don't i was going to say yeah we don't need an assistant we only have an assistant because we were trying to do something with

And if we restructure utilities just a little bit, and Nate and I have had this discussion, you know, is putting crew leaders in charge of those, you know, we feel that we can get by and get the work done. And let's just say this, I mean, I would feel... one of the lower positions before I would like fill the assistant utilities.

And that's fine.

I thought she was saying the utility director. No, we need to. I hope we're already advertising. For which one? For the utility director so that we can hire a person who's it. No?

I have not instructed them to hire a utilities director.

All right. I'm surprised.

Well, so far I've been pretty happy.

Yeah. I mean, I know Nate's doing a great job, but he may want the job. Right now he's interim.

I didn't run him off in the first two weeks. Okay.

So, yes.

How much shortfall are we, Stephen, as far as the 2% increase?

The 2% increase?

I think you said $114,000.

Well, no. Again, really, it's... And you've got 15, so we're out.

But the general, you've got to remember, too, the cuts in the utility and cuts in the general are two different things.

Yeah, so you really want to focus on the general fund. You need 60 to get 2%. You've got 15 of the 60 that's there. So that would be the differential.

So can we go less than 2%?

I don't think it's worth doing.

Something's better than nothing.

I mean, 2% is about 40 cents an hour.

Something's better than nothing.

Yeah. I mean, I was looking at the, if you looked at the 2% staffing plan. I mean, if you really want to give them 2%, then it's. The major basic employee is like 40 cents more an hour. Not much.

Yeah.

Latricia found $8,000. It does absolutely no good.

Go ahead. She's trying. She's helping. Well, Lamar gave us $100,000. Lamar gave us $100,000, telling us we could wait on his people, his firefighters on the weekend. So we got $100,000 right there. Yes, Ms. Kim. She found $8,000.

We need $22,000 more. Yes, ma'am. He found 15. So which positions are we leaving open to pay? Are they already spoken for? No. Like the money, if we leave those positions open, are they spoken for? That means he can hire for those positions. What do you mean are they spoken for? So like in the budget, are they paying for something else, the open positions for next year? The money is in the staffing plan.

So if we didn't hire them, it would be extra.

Yeah, correct me if I'm wrong, if we took money from other places last year to pay for stuff last year, It is budgeted this year. When I look at that staffing plan, it is fully budgeted.

Yeah, the Davy trees is a perfect example. We left that position open and a couple others, actually, and then we used that to cover the contract, which I believe was like $200,000 to keep it level. I mean, literally, there was like three or four. We had a couple different things.

I think it was that groundsman and that tree trimmer.

Yeah, all of those open positions and all that money is in the budget right now at 100% of what it would cost, assuming you would hire.

It would be where they should be. Yeah. And Kim and I have had this discussion, concerned about where did we take money before and do this and do that. So that was one of our concerns. But I know that once a new staff member comes out. Like the tree trimmer.

The tree trimmer is in the budget at 100% for 2027, as if it was filled right now.

And with the benefits, the tree trimmer alone is $71,000. If you include the payroll and the benefits, it amounts to $71,000. That's one position.

Yeah, and I'll be honest with you, that price, you'll need every bit of that to get a tree trimmer.

Well, the water technician trainee position, if you look at the whole thing, the payroll is $38,000. The benefits are $16,000 for a total of $54,000. So you can get it real quick right there if we agree that those positions will be held until we can fund some money somewhere.

Well, they'll help in utility, right? The question is which ones are in the general that we can leave open. That's where we're lacking the most.

You're right. I don't think there are any in general. There are the few reserve officers, but that's not much. There's like 5,000 each. And I think we've got four or five in here. One, two, three, four. We have five. We have five at $4,800 each. So if we kept three and did away with two... We could pick up $10,000 right there. You can't...

I'm not sure you're looking at the correct... Yeah, I don't think you're looking at the right one, Mr. Everett. Because the chief is taking two of those reserves and using them for something else. And therefore, between the first version and the second version, I literally was able to cut out two positions for those reserves because the chief had already... utilize them for something else. So I'm trying to figure out what the page is that you can...

Page six. I'm going all the way back to the first version. That's where I'm getting the money. Over here, it's $5,300 now.

You probably should use the current version because it's even more with the health care stuff. Like the one you had mentioned, 71,000, it's actually almost now 73 for that position. Yeah. I don't know if you can move to the staffing plan. It might be easier to see on the police side.

I see that the three reserve now have names on them.

Yeah.

Yeah, they were – The three reserves are for the patrol side and then one was converted into a part-time animal control code enforcement and the other one was converted into a part-time dispatcher. So we were able to cut two positions.

As well as reduce the hours on those reserved from, I forget what I had it before. 500 from 5 to 3. Yeah. Yeah. So we found that the chief even gave a little bit more. But you're right.

That's the only 1 in the general fund. All the others are in utility.

So how much are we short now, Stephen, since Ms. Deborah?

The general fund would need another $45,000 in order to do the 2% level. I said I'm not concerned about the other funds. I think there is sufficient there and there will be one or two of them will be open positions no matter what to cover the rest of it. It's just the general fund. So it's only $45,000? It's finite. Yeah.

So the extra part-time communications officer to get added to the staffing plan total? Yes.

Yes.

Okay.

Because we took one of those reserve positions that were already in the budget.

And did away with those two.

And did away with them.

Got it. So in my first version, I had all five reserves plus.

Listed as a one. Yeah, exactly.

And so I was able to cut two of them out and then reduce the hours, and all of that helped offset some of the other items that were added. There really is, and like I said, the major would be the only position that might have a little bit out of there. Everything else on here has got a name attached to it already, and kind of the bare bones from the police side.

I'm looking, I'm looking.

And this is with or without the 2% raise?

the $45,000 would be required to get to put in the 2%. Without it, you have $15,000 surplus right now in the general fund.

How much? $15,000. $15,000.

Mr. Bishop?

That's not recommended anymore. We have maxed out. The short answer is yes, you could technically transfer it from the utility fund. Well, but the problem is the utility fund is super tight as well, and we're trying to build up the reserves in the utility fund. And you're going to hear it from when the water rate people come here. Their biggest complaint is that the utility fund has given so much already to the general fund. And then again, I don't know where the legislative is going to come down on that. As you know, we've talked about this very briefly in the past, that there have been some bills that have failed, luckily, that would, it's what, 1.39, which is actually down, by the way, from 2025, 1.39 million that is supporting the general fund. And so that's a lot of money that the utility fund could use. And you'll hear about that, like I said, you're going to hear about it quite a bit from the water rate people. They were very uncomfortable with that transfer amount. So I would not recommend, you know, I think the open positions of some variety, again, some variety, I don't know what that looks like. probably your best bet being come trying to become a little bit more efficient in the general fund I don't know you know how that looks but you know that would be I think the safest bet right now assuming that the county does not come back with some miracle on the fireside it just sounds like they won't tell me I think we'll be lucky to get the 30,000 yeah that's probably how they see it

And that's keeping your fire assessment as high as it is on top of that. Cause that's like income coming to the budget.

Yes. Yeah. It's a hundred thousand. Yeah. That's what it is.

All right, so what do we want him to do for next time?

I know it's not going to be a popular thing. Nothing to do. But 2% raise, I think we've got to be, I know the citizens will probably not be happy if we managed to find ways to come up with raises but yet we're still looking for ways to get money in our you know in our budget and so forth you know we can't do it if it's not balanced i mean it's got to be balanced we can't come up with a way to do it can't do it and i know that's not popular with the uh you know, with the workers, but think back with our, you know, our jobs. There were times when we didn't get raises. So, you know, that's why it's, to me, it's right here, but it's more leaning towards, you know, not having raises this year.

Mr. Bishop, can you come to the mic?

I can respect the reasons why you're choosing not to give raises, because I also look at the budget. But if you're going to cut the manpower, ask people to work harder, what message are we sending? Even if it is the honest answer to send them, how are they going to receive it? So what you're saying tonight, I'm not saying you're wrong in any way, shape, or form, and I actually comprehend the budget, but if you're going to give them less manpower to work with and tell them the 2% raise isn't there, what message are we sending? And your words are correct. I'm not saying you're wrong or being none of that, but if you're the employee, how would you receive that? Right.

So the thought for cutting manpower was to try to get you raised.

Yes, ma'am.

Not just to cut manpower.

Yeah, I'm not saying it's being disrespectful.

Right, but I'm just saying the discussion of cutting manpower was to try to get you raised. Sure.

And I'm not saying cut. Yes, sir, but if we're not careful, we're going to have to do it regardless if we're not careful. So, and trust me, that's tough for me to say.

Yeah, and I'm not saying your words are wrong. Like I said, this ain't meant to be rude and disrespectful, but.

Yeah, I respect that. They're still working on it down here. I see wheels turning and smoke coming up. That's what we've got to do in order to get it. Anyone else? Man.

Yes.

Yes.

So we were looking at the two inmate supervisors. So do we actually have two? Or we just have the one?

The one left in July. So it's currently an open position.

What's the name of the person on the left? Charles Garcia. And where does he come out of, Stephen, do you know? General Fund.

David Kidd's the one that's still here.

Well, Latricia just found some money.

Latricia's good at that.

But why would you not fill that position? Because did we not have an issue with that before? Only having one person?

Yes, you didn't have anybody else actually to go. So if David's not here, we don't get the inmates, right?

Not true. You've got people certified. You've got Devin certified. You've got to fill in if he calls in sick. You have the people to cover it.

But before we did not?

Correct.

Okay. As long as we have somebody to give breaks and to fill in. Okay. Are you comfortable with that?

Yes. Yes.

Are you sure? We don't want to.

Yes, ma'am, but I would like to fill the roads and streets positions and the gas position.

Okay. I know we talked last time that the gas position is mandatory because we've been told by FGU that we have to have that.

Well, how much is roads and streets?

That was going to be a question for you later, was how did your inspection go?

So how much is that position, Latricia?

Like $45,000.

$45,000 for that? $55,000 actually.

Okay, very good. Yeah.

And then how much is the road and streets position?

That's also $55,000. Okay, so it's a wash.

It's already in here, though.

Right. We already said we were doing that one. It's already in here, though. Yeah, so we're going to fill it.

So it's not adding it.

Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So we still found 55 because it's already in here.

Yeah, they're both in there right now. Now they're both in there as open. And so if you leave one open for the full year, you can still leave the position there in case you need it or something changes. Right. But if you don't fill it, then yeah, that's 55 you could put towards the 2%. Yeah, so I would think that, yeah.

So I think we're there already.

The only piece that you're not covering is fire. And just again, I don't want you to be surprised on September 8th. You know, this would put you in line to keep the assessment at that initial rate. And then when we get into the public hearings, your 7.25 up from 6.75, you know, again, you'd have to find something else.

So is this covering the 30,000 that they needed, that fire department needed?

Between the 15 I have plus this 55, I'll get most of it in of what he's looking for, for the 30,000, just not the extra hours. I'll still be short of the extra hours that he had says for January.

The $100,000?

Yeah, the $100,000 for January would not be. That would be the only piece.

But the $30,000 that he needed?

Yeah, between the $55,000 plus the $15,000, I only needed like $40,000 or something for raises. So I'll have roughly enough, and we can negotiate that $30,000 a little bit. to make sure, because some of it I think I already have in some areas, but we'll talk through that.

So the fire department is still in need of their $30,000? Is that what we're saying?

I want to have another discussion on it.

Oh, they got it? Okay.

Yeah, I mean, it sounds like it. I just don't know the details. I'd like to hear a little bit more as to why. You know, like everyone else, just kind of pay what we need. I know building, fuel, those are things that you just kind of have to have. Can't really argue with the fuel costs going up. And then the building is old, so it's kind of hard to argue with that. I don't remember the rest off the top of my head on what else you needed.

What was the $30,000 for?

Fuel prices, cost of materials, fleet costs. The PR events went up by $500 just for the increase in the helmets and pins and stuff. The aging building... um equipment inspection was going up through our vendors and the office supplies had a 300 increase utilities we had going up by six thousand dollars but that was just going off the weekly report on kind of what was recommended the only additional increase we had was a four thousand dollar increase to dues and subscriptions because we were trying to get the the modules for the fire inspector and all that stuff those things are already in here aren't they didn't see him and i didn't see the pay in the latest one i have to look and see if that's in there when you say modules for the inspectors what do you mean it's a new report writing system for us the one we bought last year ended up being a big flop the new system has a scheduling module a fire inspection module a pre-planned module that links together so mr danny goes and does a fire inspection It updates the map and everything for us, so when we go six months later to do company inspections and pre-plans, we actually get the updated map. Our pre-plan right now of Winn-Dixie still has a Hitchcock's name on top of it because it hasn't been updated. This new system integrates everything together. It also keeps up with our fire hydrants, our hose testing. We're using the Excel spreadsheet for it right now. So we're actually trying to put it in a computer program to be kind of in the 21st century. When somebody calls and asks for it, we're sending them an Excel spreadsheet.

so can you bring us back one for the next workshop it has the 2% in it with all those things we just talked about so yeah next version I'll have the 2% in there obviously the reduction in the health care it'll also have I will kind of zero out that one inmate position leave it there the position itself it'll be zeroed out and then I will work with with the fire team on that $30,000. I think the utility on the $6,000, that's one area I probably don't need. I just need to show it to them as to why I believe that. And then we can kind of go through the rest and that'll all be in there.

Yeah, then we'll have one more time to look at it before the actual public hearing. Yeah. Everybody agree with that? Add the 2% and let's see what we got. And we can always take it out again.

Yeah, because... You can always take it out. I really don't have issues with giving people raises.

Especially 2%. I mean, that's just bare bones.

I just know there are other things that we need to do There's staffing that we need to have done, and we're looking for money for raises. You know what I'm saying? Does that make sense? I mean, the fire department needs staffing, but yet we're trying to find money for raises.

But he's willing to wait. We're trying to find $100,000 and trying to find $40,000. It's a whole lot different. Yeah. And if he thinks we can wait until January and we may have more money from the county, that was his suggestion, not ours.

But I said the same thing about the raises. Why don't we wait until January to see what we're going to get from the county? And then if we have the money, then to give the raises.

Because I don't think that the fire money has anything to do with the raises for the whole staff. I'm just saying. Because it's going to go to the fire department, not to the whole staff. That's why I kind of let that go over my head.

Sorry. Chief, last year,

with the cameras, somehow it was 200,000. We're not counting for that for this year, are we?

No, we're not. The cameras did what they were supposed to do, slow people down. So I think Stephen said this year we're only going to maybe think about 50. I think there's 50. And if we get more, that's a lot better than the 250 that we put in last year. Right.

Yeah.

And we'd like to thank Ms. Latricia for her donation.

That wasn't nice at all. That got me so far.

It got my son, but it got me.

Yes, sir. Mr. Bloom, I think most of that $30,000 you have in the budget, there was one line item that was a little bit off, but the rest of it is spot on in the budget.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you, Madam President. So I know Ms. Councilmember Martin couldn't be here. I know she had sent me a couple of emails. We have addressed most of her concerns. The only last one that she had, I just want to make you aware of it, is that she still believed that the travel and per diem and stuff like that could be cut some additional money. So I just want to put that on the record. That was her comments by email to me to bring it up. The other ones I pretty much handled.

Did she say how much she wanted it cut by? 10 to 20%.

I'm sorry I should have told you that.

Why?

I forgot it's in there.

10% is not much. I just want to know how much she wanted to cut back.

10 to 20%. I didn't have it underlined.

And it's underlined.

Can I just add one thing to that?

Sure.

Just remember that even though it says council, that is for the council, that also includes the mayor as well. So we have to factor in his travel and his conferences and all that. That's just a side note.

Okay. Anything else? Anyone else have anything? All right. If we have nothing else... Let's move forward. All right. Public participation. This is your second opportunity to speak on anything. You have five minutes to speak. Please state your name and where you're from.

I will... a bit more in general than specifics. In general, I'm sort of with just what I've heard and what I already have been told. And we know what people are telling you is not always true. I understand you're trying to hold the budget down. I understand how you're trying to keep everything. But the word raise at the economy the way it is, with all of the people that's right now that I see struggling to pay their mortgage, struggling to eat, watching them at the grocery store pick up things and put it back because they can't afford it. It's an epidemic over just not Williston, it's all over the world. 2% doesn't sound like a lot, but 2% of anything based upon its baseline can turn into an awful lot. We try to pay our bills, we're not even, in all honesty, our bills as far as electric, water, sewage, taxes, everything else. We're left with people like you to make those decisions to try to look out for our best interests and at the same time provide the services that needs to be provided. But raises at this time of the year or at this year based upon what the economy was last year, and we have no idea what's going to happen next year. We're going to wait on the taxpayers to talk about whether they want to do away with property taxes. The senator didn't get what he wanted, but it's still on the ballot. And until November, we're not going to know exactly what they're going to do with that and what the overall general taxpayers are going to say to us. And whether we, I guess, percentage-wise or whether, again, that word percentage. The thing I hate the most about the word percentage is because whether it's politics or whether it's just somebody talking to you. Well, 12% of this or there's 45% of that. But you never hear a baseline. How many did they poll to get a baseline to make it 10% or 15% or 20%? 20% of 20. I mean, I've always had a problem with percentages. And I'm going to tell you something my accountant told me many, many years ago. He says, liars figure in, figures lie. So we're supposed to take everything you do at face value that you're looking out in our best interest. But yet we're looking at our budgets and we know what a budget is. We have X amount of dollars we make. We have X amount of dollars we can spend. And when it starts going up here, something has to come off the other end because we've got to stay within that budget. We don't borrow. The majority of the people now is not able to borrow in advance. All they can do now is hope that they can make payments, their bills and taxes and everything that goes with it. So keep that in mind. The one thing I want to say, is I am absolutely opposed to anybody getting a raise right now. Everybody should be happy that they have a job and they're working and they have the benefits and they have everything that they get that comes with being employed. With that, I'll shut up. Thank you.

I just want to respond just real quick in that there is a 4% CPI and we're talking about giving our employees 2%. So they're going to be behind those people you talked about who need to pay their bills. They're part of that group. If we don't give them something, they're farther behind than... than anybody because we leave them with that. So that's where I'm coming from. I'm not giving them the whole 4% CPI that the government says. I think it's 3.91 to be exact. But I think 2%, which is an average of 40 cents an hour, is not too much to give someone who's a loyal employee.

I believe that's very true. I can understand the reasoning behind it. But the thing of it is, is the people that's paying you in order for you to be able to jockey and provide the services and jockey the money, it's a bad time for anyone to get a raise. They are still receiving what their budget is for them, each one of those people. My budget is staying the same because this is what I make. But I'm not going to be able to walk in the door and every year be guaranteed that I'm going to be increased 1%, 2%, or 5% or whatever. That's not a guarantee when you take a job in employment. Employment is employment. If the tables are good, they have a good year, a corporation has a great year, they pass it on to people who deserve it or excelled in it in order to be able to make it a better year, that's fine too. But yes, they're just as behind as I am, if you want to know the truth. So, because they need it, because you say they're struggling, because they now need... Yes, they're struggling. We're all struggling. But the point is, Can we continue to go and just mandate a raise whenever somebody deserves a raise? Sometimes they deserve it, but sometimes economy and economics doesn't show that it can be provided. That's all I'm trying to say. Do they deserve the 2%? Probably, most likely. There's people that don't deserve $7 an hour raise for anything. And there's people that's going to receive nothing that probably with what they do for a living, they should be getting a couple of dollars an hour raise. But there is not always in the judgment of a leader. Sometimes it has to be based upon realities and the expectations of what they're going to receive in order to stay within a budget. A budget is this. You receive and you have to try to fall within it to keep it there, not trying to push it off or to see who you can get rid of in order to be able to try to make it so somebody else can get more.

Not get rid of anybody.

Thank you, sir. We appreciate it.

Any other public comment? Chief Rose? Public comment?

You have a public comment? No, but I was going to ask Stephen a question about FEMA. But I can do it later.

Any other public comment? Seeing none. Any comment from...

chief roles thank you statement uh... have we heard anything about female and i know if our partners always got a comment but i'm trying to get them some money so if do we have any update on the female money uh... return yet uh... it's making its way through a we gotta uh... email to close another step uh... it's still there's no real

site as to when I mean it's about a hundred and seventy thousand dollars but that money just for clarity purposes would go back into the reserve in the general fund and would not be used for any operating that's money that that you know the general fund is is well short of its uh minimum balance for reserve as a result of the hurricane so it would be nice yes yes and i know it is making its way through it's it's obligated but it's not closed out which means it's got a couple more steps before they'll actually send us the money any other questions from the council any questions from the staff

I have a question for Nate. How did the inspection go, the gas?

The inspection went well, yes, sir. We just have a couple of things to button up, but that was from previous years, so everything else went pretty good. Good.

Man, a few words. Love it, love it. All right. Adjournment.

Move we adjourn.

Got a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes by weight four to zero. We adjourn at 734 p.m.