Village Council - Regular Meeting

Hey, what's up, Maureen?

Nothing, what's going on here?

How are you? I'm good.

Good, good, good.

But they said they wanted it. Did you email this person? I did. I raised it and then a little bit. Okay. Did they find it?

Yeah. So they were traveling.

Oh, they actually were. They were traveling.

So, yeah, it's going to be awkward, right? Good, good.

All right. Not going that way. In itself, you're going to feel better. So thank you, thank you.

All right, I've made coffee. Who wants coffee?

Anybody?

I'm good, no thank you.

I guess the video would have caught you.

How are you?

Hey, how are you? Very well. I'm Sam. How are you doing?

Hey, so what's up?

Fine.

I'm going to stay with Cassie. Great. Okay. We're going to have to check. I never heard back from you on getting that email here. Are you ready? Have you done so long? Let me hear you. How are you? So I did go to staff and I said . And that it's not. And according to Ellie, nothing's been done yet.

Nothing's been submitted. That's time. This is going to be done before they get pregnant, but they didn't get pregnant. But, hey, we're going to be together. Yeah, I've got to run after that, but I guess I've got to go.

Okay, no problem. Thank you.

How are you?

Good.

Do you have a good Labor Day?

I work Sunday and Monday. It is crazy.

So what episode is it next? I didn't want to bother you.

I'm not proud of you. I think if I come, since we have an episode. So I think that's going to be next. Yeah. So you want to be next. Does that make sense, that there's, you know, that they've had something somewhere, it must have felt worth it. All of a sudden, they can't agree to something. I'm talking about overturning, well, it's not something, which was built in the 50s.

It's really not new.

It's been seven years in person.

Well, it might be something that people see in the world, and they want to go on and see it.

And that's what we have to do.

I don't know if they need something, because I know these pieces are not this special. You need to have it already installed. You need to know your subpass account number, you need to have your decal number, you need to have your registrations, and all of those pieces. You need to process and upload all of those. Oh, you do? It'll be submitted. You won't pay for it. It'll pay you. I heard about the rate, though. Sometime, they'll get you approved.

And then you'll pay them.

And then after you pay them, it takes a week or two, and then eventually they'll ask for your award. That's what they're doing. What ends up happening is they just stop charging you.

You guys don't know what you're charging?

No. There's no time. There's some kind of account that you create that account. It's like some back-end, systematic thing that they do.

I won't need it. He's got a baby boy, man. He's got a... You have two and a half.

I have two, too. I wrote that down.

He wants to go chase a bag. Yeah. When you get there. When you get there. Yeah. You're good.

It sounds a bit .

Well, it's set. It's just set. So, like, the . Yeah. Honestly, a lot of people don't go east a lot of the time here in Hawaii. During the season, it wasn't as far. Stay here. I've been there. Great, enough of the talk.

Thank you. Saturday was going on. I was going to ask one. Are you ? Oh, OK.

Well, I don't think you can talk here.

Thank you. I also gave one

Okay, the time is 6.30. I'd like to call the Balharver Village Council first budget hearing to order. Mr. Clerk, with the roll.

Mayor Solver? Here. Vice Mayor Wolf? Here. Councilman Fremark?

Yeah.

Councilman Sklar? Here. Councilman Levy? Here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Everyone, please rise for the pledge.

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

Thank you, everyone, for joining us tonight. I would like to recognize our new village clerk. This is actually his first council meeting that he is clerking. So I thank you for joining us, and welcome to the team, and looking forward to having a nice long tenure with you here in Bell Harbor Village.

Thank you, Mayor. It's an honor to be here, and I'm excited to get to work.

Thank you. So requests for additions, withdrawals and deferrals. Seeing none. Consent agenda. Approval of the manager's purchasing authority. Mr. Manager.

Well, it's consent. I can speak to it if you want, but it's just one item on consent. This is our annual, any contracts that we think might reach the $20,000 threshold in the next fiscal year, we get a pre-approval for those. It may or may not. It's based on budget. But just to avoid any procurement issues, we bring those to your attention.

Okay.

Thank you.

Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? It's been moved. Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded. This is a voice vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Passes 5-0. Now the budget hearing resolutions. I think we usually take R7A and R7B together. Is that correct? So do we need to read any special language to hear those?

Well, have the clerk read the item, and then allow me to do the PowerPoint that runs the entirety of the budget. It will encompass all the other items, and then we'll come back and vote on them one by one.

Okay. Perfect. Mr. Clerk.

R7A, a resolution of the Village Council of Ball Harbor Village, Florida, adopting the proposed millage rate of the village for the fiscal year commencing on October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027, pursuant to Section 200.065, Florida statute, providing for conflicts, providing for severability, and providing for an effective date.

Thank you. And the next one.

R7B, a resolution of the Village Council of Ball Harbor Village, Florida, approving and adopting the tentative budget and capital improvement plan for Ball Harbor Village for the fiscal year 2026-27, providing for expenditures of funds, providing for conflicts, providing for severability, and providing for an effective date.

Thank you. Mr. Manager.

Okay, Mr. Mayor, thank you. Can we fire up the PowerPoint, guys? Great. Some of this we presented in July when you set your tentative millage but I think it still warrants us to go through it and set the record. You can stop me at any time but hopefully you've seen this in past iterations so we try to use the same format and we'll get you through and then we can open it up for conversation. We have a new cover this year. It's our 80th anniversary. I hope you like the shot. It's a really spectacular shot of our community and the wonderful event we had on July 4th. I'm going to do this a little faster than normal from what we did in July. This is similar. But this is kind of the budget process. It does not start today. It actually starts back in February when we first get together during our retreats and you give us a lot of policy guidance and prioritization. The important one is in July you did set a tentative millage and you set it at a rate that allows for all of our level of service obligations. In addition, you set a tentative increase to the legal defense fund and application review fund that was established a couple years ago in light of the the increase or the expected increase in real litigation costs in this coming fiscal year. As you know, in September we have two hearings. This is the first of two. We'll be back again on September 15th for our second hearing as part of our regular council meeting. That locks in place. That's why today you're approving a tentative budget and a tentative millage. That locks in place your budget for the coming fiscal year, which begins October 1. And then as soon as we start the fiscal year, then we start the auditing process for the current fiscal year. So it's always a continuous cycle that goes through. As you know, we also budget two budgets every year. We pass an operating budget, and then we also pass the capital budget. I'm trying to see where is the best way to read it. And then our budget is comprised of three separate funds. It's our general fund. It's our special revenue fund, which in this instance is the resort tax that is collected from hotels and restaurants. And then our utility fund, which is what governs and operates our utility, water, and sanitary sewer. And then also we have a fund that we maintain for the gated area to collect the assessment and provide resources to the security and landscaping. Everything we do is predicated on the Bell Harbor experience that you set in place several years ago. I'm not going to go through it or read the words for you, but you see them. It's in every one of our agendas, and it's in the book. This is kind of the fundamental piece of our operating budget, anyway, is the valuation that we receive from the property appraiser every year. And we get that on July 1, and that is the sum of the value that they estimate or dictate as of December 31st of the prior calendar year. So any property that came online after December 31st is not captured in this. This captures existing properties plus new construction. And generally speaking, this year we had about a 4.6% increase in total valuation, which would translate to the millage and therefore what we would expect for the coming year. This is just a reflection of all of the jurisdictions. I think one of the things you can see here is this bold line county-wide property values went up 5.4%, which is slightly more than what we experienced. Again, percentages are a function of the values. Our values are much higher, and so they might be a little bit higher. In July, as I mentioned, we set the tentative millage at our July council meeting. And you can see here a history of our millage over the last several years. And it remains consistently flat at 1.9654 for many years. And then in 2025, you see the little yellow increment. And that was the increment that we first established for that legal defense fund that I mentioned. We kept it at the same rate for two years. And then in 27, as we now anticipate significant run up of our expenses from a legal perspective, In July, you unanimously voted to increase that substantially to make sure that we had proper funding and we also had the proper resources to do the things that this community has asked you to do, which is, you know, defend the community at any cost. When you apply that proposed tentative village of 2.51 in relation to other communities in Dade County, this is a list of how the other communities in Dade County land. You'll see that we've crept up a little bit, which is not necessarily what you want to be doing. But if we just look at the 1.9654, which is your operating budget, you'll be the third lowest. Treat this additional millage increment as a temporary thing. We don't expect it to last forever, but we do want to make sure that we have the funds necessary. As you know, we segregate those funds, and those are exclusively for that purpose. What do I have next, guys? Okay, let's make sure this is working. I'm sorry. Okay, so this is just an analysis of the values that we got on July 1st, so you can get a sense of what is driving that 4.6% increase, divided by single family, which is primarily the gated community, of course, condominiums, multi-families which is more along the west side and commercial and you'll see that primarily where the number is incrementing not just this year but in prior years is in your condominiums primarily the east side of Collins where the greatest bulk of the value is so it stands to reason but you can also see year to year that the gap between the prior month a prior year is is significant as well so the values are growing primarily in the on the east side This is another way to look at it, and this is looking at the value of property just versus taxable. This kind of reflects a little bit better the impact of homestead exemptions and other Save Our Homes reductions. And you can see that the darker versus the shaded is the difference. And in instances, you see how there's significant savings along the single family and the condominiums, though not dramatic. This is basically telling you that our homesteaded properties are generally about 16% of our total value. And so when we hear about the conversation about this Amendment 3 that is up in November and how it will affect an additional increase to the homestead exemption, that is true. It will be going up to $250,000 if it's approved. But there are fewer homes or condos that are homestead exempted in Val Harbor than in many other communities, i.e. second homes or LLCs or other things that do not have the luxury of being able to be homesteaded. And so this is kind of a basic summary. As you saw in July, our current 26 rate is 2.143. As proposed for this coming year is the 2.15132, and that will generate $18,351,000 of tax levy. broken up in this manner. Remember the target was to get $4 million for the defense fund and the $14.3 million is what our general fund, general operations for the given year will cover. Words to the legal defense fund, this is why you established it. And so when you look at the summary of all funds, operating, resort tax, the utility fund, and the gated community, you can see broken up on the far left is the total operating fund of $38 million, broken up by those funds. The second column to the right, or the first column to the right, though, where you get to the... I'm sorry. The third column, does this have a pointer? This column here where you see it goes up to 69 million, that is operating in capital. That is an unusually large number for us. However, this is the year where we anticipate to be in construction both for the jetty and potentially village hall. And as a result, you need to have fully funded the budgets for those purposes. That's why that capital line is significant. Next is the $4 million for the defense fund for a total of $73 million in our overall approved expenditures for this coming year. Future years, you won't have it at this same number because you don't have the same nearly $80 million worth of capital projects that are earmarked for the coming year. When you look at just the operating now, the level of service, the day-to-day operations of the village and what we do, it paints a picture like this. Your general fund is $24 million. Your resort tax is about $6. The water and sewer fund is about $6.5. And the security and landscape is $1.5. Pretty consistent to what you've had in years past. You can see the pie as it breaks out. This is now broken down by resources. So you can see where the revenues are coming up and down. The largest increase is your ad valorem, 4%, 4.6%, as I mentioned earlier. And then below the line is your capital monies coming in and the $4 million for the defense fund for a total of a $20 million increment. This is by type, just that chart in a pie chart format. And this is what's driving it. It's a million dollars increase in the general fund, primarily the ad valorem, as I mentioned, some solid waste, some recreational program fees that are being added, investment income, and the permits and licenses, because we do believe that Next year is going to be a greater activity in the building department due to tenant improvements in the shops that will be upcoming, as well as a rivage anticipated increase. This is the expenditure side. And on the expenditure side, this is the key departments that you'll see. And generally speaking, you're in the ones and twos, maybe up to four or five, an average of 4.4. The two large numbers there is building. That grows by 13%. And that is the additional day of inspection that we want to add on Fridays that we don't do today. We're trying to do that because we anticipate the increased workload. It'll be paid by permits. The increased workload, we want to adversely affect the residents and all the residential projects. And so we want to make sure that all five days are available for inspections. And so that's an increase. And then the other increase is in IT. It's a large percent at 11%, but not a large number. This is additional cybersecurity software that we're being recommended to add as part of the state requirements and enhancement on cybersecurity. Otherwise, you'll see that the other takeaway here is that, of course, and obviously the police department is the largest element of your expenditure. This is a standard in most communities of our size. Your bulk of your expense is public safety, and it's a nearly $10 million budget in the police department. Again, the same chart, but just in pies. And then this is what's driving the increase. Again, the million dollars is, as you know, we're in the third year of our collective bargaining agreement with the police department. And so we're covering the negotiated 4% cost of living adjustment and any required pension contributions, primarily from the Florida retirement system. On the limited discretion side, that is those things that we don't have a lot of, we've kind of bought them. On the enhancements, the things where we have some level of discretion, you'll see there the additional inspection day for building, as well as coming out of reserves, a software upgrade to allow for electric permit review. We have program enhancements in the parks department, additional events, activities. As we start to level out what are the programs that our residents are really enjoying, we want to expand those and make more of those. You'll see in there something that the council asked us to kind of consider is the opening the – the fitness gym earlier in the day so that we can allow for folks who go to work to be able to use that facility. So we funded that. And as I mentioned, the cybersecurity software that we need to make sure we're compliant with the state. And so in summary, you'll see that the budget covers our ongoing services, all our obligations. It funds all of our fiscal policy improvements, the various reserves that we set aside for IT, for fleet, for millage stabilization and the like. It captures the capital projects that we have committed to, and then ultimately the enhancements that I just commented for you. And it's basically a 4.4% increase in your overall spending, which is slightly under the 4.6 of the revenues. On the resort tax fund side, you've seen this chart before. I try to show you that there are generally four buckets that we use for resort tax. Of course, the tourism and marketing efforts associated with enhancing the community's effort at destination and attracting primarily the payers that pay for the resort tax. The middle bucket is kind of those events, activities, July 4th, the museum access cards, things that are available to our residents and our guests from an event perspective. On the right side, the largest of the buckets is the beautification maintenance, litter control of the beaches, the rights of ways, all of the public elements of our community which enhance the tourism experience in our community. And this fourth bucket is the public safety component, a whole special detail that covers our beach ranger and our marine patrol and the police associated with that. While it's showing an arrow down from this year, it's not that we're reducing our resources. We had two retirements, one of whom was a very senior officer in that unit. And so while it's still the same four positions, the salary attrition is reflected as a savings. That's why it should not be viewed as we're reducing our commitment to the public safety there. Again, this shows it in chart form. You can see how the ups and downs are happening in each of those four buckets. One of the things that we're trying to be very careful about is the revenue side of the equation because we did see a reduction in at least one restaurant. We anticipate that that will get filled, but we don't know when. There's talk of a pop-up or some other activity in the Hillstone that will backfill it, maybe not at the same level, but still. Same token, there is interest income and other things that are coming in. And the WITs will be coming online anticipated December, if not January. Volume and sewer rates. This is where we get a little bit of bad news, unfortunately. We buy our water from Miami-Dade County, and then the sewer goes through Miami Beach, and therefore we have to pay Miami Beach and Miami-Dade County. I think we told you last year, and I know we did, that Miami Beach was going to increase its surcharge dramatically last year, and we were able to offset that by splitting it over two years. It's still, and this is year two of that. And so while we're getting a bit of an increase on the water side, when you see water and sewer from Miami-Dade County, our water rate is not really affected dramatically. It's a $3 a month adjustment based on what they're charging and our cost to continue to operate. It's on the sewer side that you're going to see a significant increase on the per month. It's about $30 to the average user. per month, and this is a result of entirely, if you can see here, this surcharge here goes from $1.18 to $2.36 per 1,000 gallons of sewer. And so that's what's really driving it. There's a significant change as well, though not as much from Miami-Dade on that part. R increases the 3%. That is basically CPI that we do, bringing you to this increase of coming from 12 to 14.50. It ends up being in a blended 20% increase, but you see where the significant aspect is. It was telegraphed last year. It's not news, but it still doesn't make it any softer. This is the operating budget for the utility. As I mentioned, it's pretty basic continuing our service. There's a couple of enhancements that we're doing to the sewer lift stations, adding additional pump, a new valve, and recoding of the wells to make sure there's no infiltration. But otherwise, it's pretty basic as far as what we're doing. We continue to do, if you remember, we approved last year a meter replacement cycle over three years. This will be year two. And so we're funding that for this year. And there's not much really left in the capital utility. It's only about a million dollars of the projects that are going on. We've pretty much funded all of the other work. And that should get us through Project 7, as I've mentioned to you before. When we get to the security and landscape, in June you recall that you set tentatively the weight for the assessment for the security and landscape. At that time, the Civic Association requested that it be advertised and tentatively set at $8,500. For the top line, I'm not going to remember the unimproved property or the private recreation facility, but it was set at $8,500 and the others are derivatives of After further discussions with the budget and working through with the gated community representatives, they have asked that you set it at $7,500 and then the commensurate reductions to the unimproved and the private facility. So this is a $1,000 decrease from what was advertised, but it remains a $1,000 increase from the prior year. The representatives from the Civic Association are here, and they can speak to that at the appropriate time, but I'm just working through. On their budget side, those resources plus interest earnings and other income gets you a budget of nearly $2.8 million. They have become quite active in their capital program as well. And so this will fund a major lighting replacement program that was requested. And again, it's something that you have to have the full funds. And so we are actually facilitating that by also forward funding from reserves with an expectation that it will be replenished after the out years. But otherwise, it will continue to do the operations that they are engaged in. And I think they are satisfied with this budget, but they'll be here to speak to it as well. And then our capital budget, there's a lot of numbers here. Remember that you approve a five-year capital plan, but you only adopt the first year of that five years. So really look at the outer column of 2027 as proposed. And as you can see, the big numbers are reflected here. It has to do with these two numbers plus the $4.5 million from resort tax. That is the two large numbers associated with the JETI. and Village Hall. Those are the additional appropriations that we need to fully fund as we anticipate and we're going into bidding. For those two main projects, the rest of it is pretty stable and consistent with what you've seen in the past. This is your five-year plan. And again, the column that is operative is 27, which is this one. But you can see that there's been prior expenditures along the way and you'll see here again the two numbers 12 and 14 added to the previous numbers to get to 39 and 38 on those two capital projects. The expenditures of those will happen beginning next year and over the course of the construction. The jetty we anticipate to be two years from commencement. We are hoping we could commence in early calendar year, assuming the bids come in okay. Village Hall is further in the year, but within the fiscal year. And so if for some reason that slips and any funding that's been appropriated will just be carried forward into the following year, you won't need to reallocate those dollars. You, I think in the past have seen this. This is the breakdown of the JETI funding and expenditure. And we're at 39 million based primarily in this instance, except for this number here, which is previous general fund surplus. Everything else you'll see is non-tax ad valorem funding. So this Jetty project is primarily funded entirely, almost entirely, out of non-property tax funds, which I think is something you should be very proud of. Let's see where the bids come in. And then Village Hall, we're still early. We're still in the design development phase, but we do anticipate having permeable drawings in the early calendar year with getting to take place over the summer. And we should hopefully, if all goes well, be able to award contract and give a notice to proceed before October 1 of next year. And so that's how that breaks down and where the sources of funds on that is. The other thing I would say is just, you know, I want to thank Claudia, you all, of course, for the support you give us and the direction you guide us with. And Claudia and her team in the finance department, as well as all of the department heads and everybody who's been involved in putting this together. As I mentioned, this doesn't start today. It starts in February. And then also the Buddyhead Advisory Committee, who give, volunteer their time and go through, In, I think, a pretty good, thorough way, they get all of the access they wish to have. They spend a lot of time on the right things, the bigger department, the bigger expenditures. And so Nika Logan, who is the chair of the Budget Advisory Committee this year's year, if she wishes to speak, you should afford her that opportunity at some point during the public hearing. Thank you.

Thank you. Before I open it up for public comment, is there any questions from the council?

I just have a question.

Is your mic on?

Yes, hello. That's better. If you could just clarify, go back to the budget changes. I think I'm on page 20. General fund? Yeah, general fund. You mentioned the building, the couple of items on the building, but the budget is up 13%, which is about $320,000. You outlined the staffing, 114, and software, which I guess is 100. So the recreation and other items fall into different headings. So I was just wondering if there was another large item that was affecting that change. Do you guys have that?

The remainder, I'm sure, is the 4% COLAs and other things. I won't say at all. I can do the math. They can do the math. But every department kind of assumes the growth of cost of living, pension, and health. But is there any other unique item in building this year other than the software and the additional hours for? Not any significant. You need to come up here. You need to come up here.

The COLA is about $100,000, so that's probably it.

No, no other significant items.

Thank you. We'll give you the exact follow-up, but that to me seems like the right number is the employee stuff.

Yeah. And then the other question was on the resort tax fund. You mentioned this, obviously the safety going down, but obviously not reducing of services, but special community events as well down. What's the reason for that?

Those are due to the one-time items last year? Yeah.

So this year we had significantly increased for 26 due to the higher expenditure on the fireworks, for example, and the 80th anniversary. And so when those come down, we don't need to maintain it at the same level, and so that's why it's reflected as a down.

Perfect. Thank you.

What we're doing for this year, 27, is comparable at least, if not better, than 25. Okay.

Any other questions? No, thank you.

Questions from, well, Chairman Logan, would you like to give, I guess, your committee's report?

Nika Logan, I'm the chair of the budget committee. Do you know my address? Do we? 64 Camden.

Okay.

As always, the staff is very well prepared in presenting the different departments and the enhancements, and we use that opportunity to ask them a lot of questions. And so when we get to this point of the year, we've whittled through all of the various things and are confident with what the staff is presenting. Thank you.

Any questions from the public regarding either the budget or the military? This is the public hearing. This is... You can't do it that way.

Let's... Because this was just this presentation, then we'll open up our seminar.

Okay, well, we already read that.

Right, right. So let me read my final. Oh, right. Okay, so you read that, George. Yes. Thank you. I need to read this before we go into the actual budget public hearing. So... Under consideration tonight for Bow Harbor Village is the proposed millage rate for FY2026-2027. A millage rate of 2.5132 mills is proposed, which is $2.51 per $1,000 of assessed property value. The state-defined rollback rate is 2.0252 mils. The proposed millage rate is 24.10% higher than the rolledback rate. This rate is consistent with your approval at the July 13th council meeting.

Thank you.

Okay. Okay.

With that being said, are there any members of the public that wish to address the council on the millage rate?

Yeah, R7A first is the one we need. Yeah, R7A. We have other opportunities.

Okay. I'm going to close public comment. Seeing none. I would just like to add, you know, this, like George said, this process started back in February and we realized that this is not an ideal, you know, increase. You know, 24% is significant. But, you know, we heard this community loud and clear when we met in April. And really, this is all stemming from the additional funding that we're putting towards litigation. And it's something where we took your wishes very seriously, and we really are ready to continue the fight. And we're lawyering up, as they say. And we are doing all this to protect the quality of life that we all love and enjoy. And that's why we call Bell Harbor home. I'm hoping this is a short-term thing, but it is a big rate. We realize that. It is a big increase, and we're doing it for the greater good, as they say. Those are my comments. Anything else before we get into the voting? No. Okay. This is just a voice vote, so is there a motion to adopt the proposed millage rate as read in by our manager?

I'll make the motion.

It's been moved. Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Voice vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed, none. Passes unanimously, 5-0. Okay. R7B. This is now the adoption of the budget that George just went through.

Yeah, this is the expenditure side of what we were talking about. Yes.

So is there any public comment on the budget as proposed? No. Seeing none, I'm going to close public comment. Is there any council discussion?

No.

Okay. Do I have a motion to – oh, sorry. Quick question.

Yeah, yeah. Jose Rito on 168 Park Drive. So a quick question, and maybe you addressed it before I got here very late. In every board meeting that you listen to on every public company – and every private company as well. The theme of the, I want to say day, but the theme of the last two years has been AI. What are you guys doing to make things more efficient, cost-effective? How are you leveraging AI so that the admin rates, all of the budget line items that can be impact it positively or negatively reduce the cost what are you doing proactively to make sure that all those line items that have 1% 2% by the way police love the 4% increase keep it going I think we need to keep doing that but on all the other line items what are we doing to reduce those numbers with AI that every other institution is being tasked with so

Thank you. Are there any other comments before we close and then we can address the individual questions? Okay. No further comments. I'm going to close public comment. Mr. Manager, do you want to take that?

I can. With AI, it's still... It's kind of new, particularly in the government sector. We've been meeting with a number of AI teams where there is some interest in focus, where you might actually see some differences in the building, plans review, plans inspection, things like that. When you look at the budget, if you really dive deep into the budget, the propensity of this budget is your staff costs. There isn't a lot of other things beyond the staff, and then with the staff comes all of the obligations, the fringes, the pensions, and things like that. We continue to try to keep it as lean as we can, and we are not, for example, we're not proposing any increases to FTEs or anything like that. Where we can, we will, but, you know, when you look at what you're engaged in right now for at least the foreseeable, It's heavy capital and you need bodies to manage and do those projects. It's public safety. We're not going to reduce that. We're actually trying to enhance that to the degree we can. The building department does create us some opportunities, but in that instance, it's not a tax thing. It's a permit thing. And so you collect the permits for that. The other thing is contractual, and so our contractuals do have built-in CPIs sometimes and escalators. We will use those opportunities to bid that out and see if we can't reduce costs. But what we have found recently when we bid out is that the cost goes up because they are tied to the market. And so we are exploring AI. Every conference that is a government sector conference, you have a million different AI vendors, but at the end of the day, they're not quite there yet on the way you can actually substitute AI for bodies. And so that's where I think you'll start to see the real savings, but they're not there yet.

Okay. Thank you for that, and I appreciate that comment. It's very relevant. Okay, so do I have a motion to approve the operating budget?

Yes, make a motion.

Is there a second?

I'll second.

It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, none. 5-0. Okay, R7C, Mr. Clerk.

R7C, a resolution of Ball Harbor Village, Florida, relating to the provisions of security and landscape services facilities and programs in the gated residential section of Ball Harbor Village, Florida, establishing the rate of assessment, imposing security and landscape services assessments against assessed properties located within the gated residential section of Ball Harbor Village, Florida, approving the assessment rule, confirming the initial assessment resolution, and providing an effective date.

Thank you. Mr. Manager?

Mr. Mayor, yes, I touched on it in your earlier, but this is the actual assessment setting. This is second meeting of this. You passed it initially on first hearing, and this establishes the main revenue source for the Bow Harbor Civic or the gated communities special assessment. It was originally set at $8,500 in June at the request of the Civic Association there asking us to set it at $7,500 per single family resident, residential unit, let me say, 3,750 per each unimproved property and $30,000 for the private recreational facility, the marina. This coupled with other revenues is what funds the budget that you just approved for the civic association and the gated community. Okay. And it's a reduction from the tentative. The other thing I just want to be clear again, they know, is we are also, as part of the budget, forward funding their lighting program, which really reduces a lot of their reserves, and so they've committed to make sure that those get replenished at the proper time.

Okay. Any questions from council before we open up for public comments? Is there anyone from the Civic Association who would like to address the council or the public? It's okay if you, okay. Yeah, yes, you can approach the mic. Please state your name and address for the record. I'm sorry, just we need you to stay in the mic.

in 128 Camden. I don't come much to this meeting, so I'm trying to get knowledgeable about that. Why is that a fixed rate, like landscaping and security, instead of based on the size of the properties?

Okay. We'll address questions once public comment is complete. Is there any other public comment on the security and landscape assessment? Okay, seeing none, I'm going to close public comment. Does someone want to address that?

I can, if you like, I can address it real quick. When an assessment is established, you need to have a study done to determine the direct benefit implication of the assessment. This assessment was established in 2012 and the study that was done and the methodology that was established was a per unit methodology. If the gated community of the assessment wished to do a different methodology, a study could be done and yield a per square foot or per linear frontage or per, you know, different methodologies exist. But that would be something that we would task the Gator Community Association to conduct that assessment study. Our legal department will review to make sure that it meets the legal requirements of an assessment. And then it would need to be approved before the end of this calendar year. for it to be eligible next year. That is something that the civic association I think in the past has considered but not really at the end of the day they thought that this may be the fairest and best way and so that's what's been done.

It seems like there's some interest to address that question from the civic association so please approach.

It's a great question, and we did look at it. We actually had a study done, and we brought it up in a meeting to the gated community. I can't remember how many people showed up, but I'd be surprised if it was more than two handfuls. And there was some back and forth, but honestly, we couldn't really get any buy-in for a significant change. But we have reviewed this specifically. And, you know, happy to address it again, but I agree with George. After going back and forth and reviewing different ideas, I mean, there might be some changes, but the changes happen at the very extremes of the sizes of the homes, if you will, or the properties. And so if I remember correctly, like 80% or so of the homes, any change would not really impact them. There would be some major changes on the ends, on the barbells, if you will, of the properties.

Thank you. Okay, so we've closed public comment on the circuit and landscape assessment. Is there a motion to approve the budget?

I'll make the motion.

It's been moved. Is there a second? Second. It's been moved and seconded. Voice for it. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? None. Passes unanimously. R7D, solid waste assessment, Mr. Clerk.

R70, a resolution of Ball Harbor Village, Florida, relating to the collection and disposal of solid waste and recyclable materials in Ball Harbor Village, Florida, describing the method of assessing solid waste costs against assessed property located within the Ball Harbor Village, Florida. Establishing the rate of assessment, imposing solid waste service assessments against assessed properties located within Ball Harbor Village, Florida, approving the assessment role, confirming the initial assessment resolution, and providing an effective date.

Thank you. Mr. Manager.

Mr. Mayor, similar to the gated community assessment, the village has another assessment, which is to fund the solid waste disposal and collection. I see your hand. We'll get you as soon as you finish this. That is annually done. The assessment is proposed to be $344.89 annually. for each uh dwelling in a multi-family residential establishment and 737.13 for each single family residential again this is unit based it's not based on the amount of garbage that is collected or disposed of, this will generate about $993,000. This goes to fund the contract that we have with our outside waste hauler and collector for the fiscal year. It is a slight uptake, but generally speaking, it's the CPI inflation that we have in the contract.

Okay. Perfect. Buzzy, Councilman Squire, would you like to say something?

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor. What do we pay as part of that contract for the recycling portion?

Oh, boy. Buzz, I'm going to have to get back to you. I don't have that broken out itemized. I can either LTC or call you tomorrow, but I don't have that.

Well, that would be past the vote. You have a second reading on this. That's right.

Yeah, the rate that we were negotiating is a combined rate. They do not split out.

Split it out?

Yeah, they don't actually split it out. What we do have is three days of solid waste and two days of recycle. So there's no real split on the dollars.

There has to be some sort of a split because if we didn't want recycling, it's going to be a different number. The only reason I'm asking is because the recycling is not really working, especially in the buildings. There's so much contaminant that goes into those recycle bins that it can never actually go to true recycling. I'm sure that the same thing is happening inside the gated community where there's so much contaminant inside the recycling bins that it's not truly going to recycling. So if we're paying for a service that it's not even – we're not even getting the proper end use out of. I just want to know what we're paying for that service. And if you don't have the answer, I'd rather you say, I don't have the answer.

Yeah, I told you, I don't have that answer itemized. What I'm hearing is it's part of a blended rate. We can go back and try to recalculate that. And then if that's something that the council wanted to explore, amending the contract or changing the rate, that's a contractual thing. But if you set this assessment at a number, if it doesn't get spent, it just drops to your fund balance. but it's not a number I can, off the top of my head, tell you what it would be like.

I can, well, Julio, while you're up there, based on Councilman Sklar's question, I do remember this came up a few years ago, and I know you weren't here at that time, but there was some sort of, I don't want to say audit that was done, but like some sort of reporting that we got on how much recycling we actually produced.

I remember that, Mr. Mayor. And I think it was a minimal amount. That's why I'm bringing this up again, because it was a minimal amount that we actually put into recycling that actually goes to recycling. I'll ask someone puts a pizza box in there and there's grease in the pizza box that contaminates that whole recycling. So that's why I was asking that question.

Yeah, we can request the volume from Waste Connections for both recycle and waste. So that's something that we can get as far as volume.

Right. And how do they determine if, like at what point in the recycling process do they determine that it was contaminated? Because I know that it has to go from a bin in a garbage room on a floor of a condominium down to some sort of central recycling container that then gets pushed out to the pickup, you know, when it happens on Tuesdays, Thursdays?

That's not decided by Waste Connections or by the people that are actually picking it up. It does go to the county, to the recycle facility at the county, and they do the separation. They can figure out what is good, what's bad, and then they separate it, they compile it, And then what they actually do is sell it. They sell the recycled material. But the answer to your question is that's not done by Waste Connections. They're just picking it up and then delivering it.

On that one, they're the haulers. We're not distributing it.

So can we find out what our contract price would be without recycling, just so we have... We can ask that.

Of course, we can ask that.

Thank you. Are we allowed to not have recycling?

That would be a different question. Even if we get a number, maybe that we're obligated, but I don't know. I'll let Susan answer that.

There is a statutory standard that most people are not in compliance with for the percentage of recycling, but it's been a while since we've looked at how it applies here.

Okay. We'll look that up, buddy. We can do that.

I appreciate it. Believe me, you know I'm all for recycling. You know you are. We're getting it done. We're getting what we're paying for. And if there's a way that we could maybe reduce what goes in a recycle bin so that we can make sure a higher percentage actually gets used, maybe that's a policy decision we can make down the road.

Thank you. Any further questions from the council before I open up for public comment? Public comment on... Oh, Niko Logan.

Nika Logan, 64 Camden Drive. I think Buzzy's question is a good question, but none of the bins are properly labeled, so there's an education process that doesn't exist. My understanding when John Oldenburg was here was if the bin is contaminated and you put it in the truck, now the whole entire truck is contaminated. I don't know if that's truth or not, but that's what he had said back then. a while ago. The other issue which I think we have finally resolved was for people who have excessive amounts of refuge that you can order an extra can at a cost. Right. So that is offsetting where the trucks are over full at times and they can't make the full pickup.

Right. Thank you, Nika. Any other public comment on the solid waste assessment? Seeing none, I'm going to close public comment. Is there a motion to approve?

I'll make the motion.

Is there a second? It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed, none. Passes 5-0. George, before we move on to the next item, I would like to maybe invite them to come out, you know, because I know this contract gets approved kind of behind the scenes and we never really get... to see them, but maybe, you know, have them give a presentation on the recycling activities.

Sure, we can do it. Let me be clear, the contract comes to you. No, I know that. It's a five-year contract. But we can have them come and do, this is what we do. This is how much we collect. This is, you know, kind of a data dump. Yeah. For lack of a better term, and kind of fill you in. I'm happy to do that.

Okay, perfect. Okay, R7E, establishing sanitary sewer and water rates. Mr. Clerk.

R70, a resolution of the Village Council of Ball Harbor Village, Florida, establishing sanitary sewer and water rates for the 2026-27 fiscal year, providing for an effective date.

Thank you. Mr. Manager.

Oh, okay.

Mr. Mayor, as I presented earlier, this is the funding associated with our utility system. As you know, we collect our water and our sewer. I presented to you in the PowerPoint. This does represent an increase to our average user's water and sanitary sewer.

Okay. Thank you. Any public comment on the sanitary sewer and water rates? Seeing none, I'm going to close public comment. Any comment from council? Is there a motion to approve?

Make the motion.

Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved. I second. Thank you. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? None. Passes unanimously. R7F, the consolidated fee schedule adoption. Mr. Clerk? Aye.

R7F, a resolution of the Village Council of Ball Harbor Village, Florida, adopting a consolidated schedule of fees imposed by the village for the provisions of services, providing for conflict, providing for an effective date.

Thank you. Mr. Major?

Mr. Mayor, this is the last piece for your budget. For ease of reference, what we do is approve a consolidated fee schedule so that it's clearly indicated and all of the fees associated with the village are in one place so that it's as transparent as we can make it. In this instance, the fee schedule is being revised, recommended to be revised in three areas. One, of course, is what you just did, the sanitary sewer water rates. And so that's reflected. The other two areas are the police off-duty program has not been adjusted since I've been here. and we were woefully below our neighboring jurisdictions. We are governed somewhat in what the rate can be by the development agreement that we have with the Bell Harbor shops. We said we can't go higher than a certain number. This brings it to that number, so we're still in compliance with the obligations we have with that. That's two components, what the police officer receives, and then there's an administrative cost associated with each hour. So that's reflected in there. What is going to become hourly? $95 an hour for any off-duty. Remember, this is paid for by whoever the user is of the off-duty service. So whatever hours are generated, there's a corresponding revenue associated with it. And then in our recreation arts and culture program, we have fee adjustments for the various programs. And so those are reflected in your recreational program. section of the fee schedule i'm happy to go through any of the items otherwise but those are the three that are being adjusted this year um there are two items i want to kind of tee up if you will um i've mentioned before that we are in the midst of a building permit fee analysis as required by the state of florida and so that is underway but not complete in time for this approval so we anticipate bringing that to you hopefully by the end of the fiscal year, or the calendar year, if not sooner, so in the next couple months. Similarly, we've been debating and discussing for quite some time the stormwater fee, and I think we have a resolution on that, and that will come as well subsequently when we're not ready for this item based on some final decisions that have been made. So you can anticipate both of those in the near future to be an amendment to this resolution for the fee schedule at the proper time.

Okay, so can I get a motion to approve the consolidated fee schedule?

Make the motion.

Moved. Is there a second? Second.

Do we need to do public comment on this?

Yes. Is there any public comment on the consolidated fee schedule update? Okay, seeing none, I'm going to close public comment. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, none. Passes unanimously. Now we have public comment on, I guess, any item that anyone wishes to address to the council. No public comment? Okay. Going to close public comment. Village manager's report? No report. You gave it at the beginning. Yes, you did. Village clerk's report?

Nothing to report this evening, Mayor.

Village attorney's report?

No report this evening.

Thank you. Well, that concludes our first budget hearing. Our second budget hearing will be heard as part of our September regular council meeting, 6.30 on September 15th. Motion to adjourn.

Okay.

Thank you, sir.