Commission - workshop

These recommendations were originally from the Financial Review Committee, right?

These numbers you gave right here, was that, sorry, I just want to make sure I got it right. This is with or without the funding of the rails to trails crossings?

Well, can you show me what it would be just for reference of what our millage rate is right now?

I'll say this I can't tell you how many times I used to come to commission meetings with I think this is going to happen and something totally different happens so oh yeah all the time and as soon as we leave here people will talk to us right and then people will change their minds it happens

I know we talked a little bit about, like, I've been a big proponent of adding those the crosses at the rails and trails. I think they're needed. But if we don't have the money to do all of them at one time, I'm willing to try one out at first so it would be cheaper so that we can see if it's even worth doing. You know what I mean? Rather than paying for all of them at once, maybe just do one, see if it's even worth the time.

We've got two, like, semi-shades of red, two semi-shades of green, two shades of blue. Twenty-five? Twenty-five.

So I just want to verify, the recommendation from the Finance Review Committee was reduce CRA by 50%. Yes. Do away with the animal shelter.

I definitely disagree with cutting the animal shelter. I think we would be in for a nightmare, to be honest with you. And we would have... Bay County is not going to help in the animal shelter part of it. I personally think we should cut CRA 100% and save a lot of money. And if we're being totally honest, and this is my turn to talk, I'm just going to say what I'm thinking. Our finance department right now, salaries are almost half a million dollars a year with five employees. Before Ms. Kiki started, which is, she's been here a long time, we had one person doing finance. And now we're at almo

That was Michael White. That had nothing to do with Beverly.

And I'm not in favor of treasury clerk, but I know we're not voting on that.

So just to talk about that for a second, because I presented this before the city clerk was voted on. I had a presentation to show what the idea was. Not one person. I don't think I even have one resident say we're not for that. No one said anything that they were against it. But now all of a sudden. No. Why?

Are you asking me that question? Oh, I just got into a big hullabaloo with a customer, two today, matter of fact, I called Chris on two of them, make it three, because the last one I got out of there late, and I apologize for being late. I was taking chicken and dumplings to the fire department, and I'm sitting there just fat, dumb, and happy, didn't even remember this meeting. I guess I'm tired. I'm tired of it up to here. Me too. I feel like we're hiding a bunch of stuff. I feel like we're taking away from things that matter to our residents, all residents, and just making our paychecks fatt

Nobody answered it. And I knew nobody would answer it.

Well, then I would advise you not to do that because...

And I don't think we're even supposed to get an email on it.

It's not on the, I don't think it's on the agenda.

But it's something we could vote on in the future, right?

You're polling the commission on something we could vote on. That is a Sunshine violation.

Huh. But I did say do not answer, right?

But anyway, the point I'm trying to make is this conversation should have happened when we discussed this prior. And I don't understand why that conversation never occurred, but now it is.

Oh, yeah, it definitely makes sense. I guess for me, a half a million dollars is a lot of money.

You know what happens when we don't have checks and balances? you get in the position that we are in right now. So if we do away with those checks and balances five, ten years, actually even before that, you're going to be having the same conversation again, and we will be worse off than we already are.

Can I add to that real quick just for clarification? That's not including if we cancel the $16,000 a year for flock? And then that's all, is that including the $25,000 or the $80,000? $25,000. Okay.

But, I mean, we can't go and say, hey, this year we want to go down 50%, but next year we're going to project to be 100% and have them agree to it now.

Kiki, do you have any idea how the CRA will affect the fuel depot property?

It's definitely not? I know at one point they talked about.

So it would be strictly city property, Bay County property?

Yeah, so basically it would be added tax base, but then you'd also have to provide services for that tax base. So it's kind of like you've got to make sure it balances. Now, they do have that special thing where they've said they're going to build a fire station and they're going to build a bunch of things. We don't know any of that yet, though.

Can I ask a question? This is an old lady memory gone. Did we ever get that state audit that we requested?

By the same people. I mean, is that, why did we ask for the state audit?

Well, you did. You wanted it. Amen. Okay.

Well, I'm the one that got with the state reps. for it to get requested, because if we request it, then it costs us money.

When we originally brought that up, you know, that's what was spoken to. It's going to take a while if it ever had.

Well, I mean, I'll say what I said last time. I do not want to get rid of all that money on the table. I understand that it's an upfront savings, but I do think we owe it to the citizens to cut it from 100%. I do think that, but I don't want to go down to zero. I don't have the appetite for that. I mean, that's just... I do think like what Commissioner Wark, I think it was Commissioner Wark said last time, we do need to kind of refocus the purpose of the CRA, focus more on commercial side in terms of incentives than the residential side because we need to bring in those businesses rather than,

I mean, if we had more money, it would be a no-brainer for 75%. I don't know. I almost want to be like, can we cut in between 75 and 50 and do 60 and get a little bit more? But 75 just seems a little bit too much for me. But 50, I don't want to go any lower than 50.

When did we decide this morning we decided to get rid of the Plenty of Animals shelter? As the finance review? Yes, sir, that was their recommendation. What's the total dollar amount of the savings? And wouldn't there be a transitionary time where it would still cost us money during this fiscal budget? We just let it go? Yes, sir.

I think they said it still cost us $150,000 a year.

That is the estimate based on... Is that for lights?

So we're not getting rid of the animal shelter, per se. It's still physically going to be there, but the county would run it?

So would we eliminate those three employees that are employed there now?

Yes, ma'am. Would they get jobs with the county? I mean, wouldn't we?

I wanted to ask, Kiki, do we have any more FEMA money coming?

Because I want to talk about the 640 and the 147.

What happened to the money from FEMA that was supposed to take care of the animal shelters?

Okay, so let's talk about the bridge money, 147.

Kiki, when she gave her that briefing, that's when she briefed us that.

She briefed that Vicki instructed you to do that, right? Put that money into here?

So when she says $600,000 allocated, that doesn't mean $600,000 that we receive. That's just something that, hey, they can get up to $600,000 for reimbursement. We do the work, we send in the receipts and all the paperwork, and then we wait, and then they send us reimbursement.

Right. And we didn't have any insurance. I knew we had insurance money for the library. Did we have any insurance money for the animal shelter?

You're saying that 600 and whatever was never used for anything else?

So then if you don't do it in so much time, it expires and the money goes away.

We have trucks and we have hardware to go with the animal shelter, right?

Is there any, I know this is short notice, we're making a, I feel like we're making a knee-jerk decision, but I mean, can we explore the option of a private partnership with like an Aliqua Animal Rescue, I just mentioned them because I know they're, you know, they're pretty prevalent in this area, or where it was a hybrid situation where they took over the shelter Bay County worked it with the vehicles. I think we owe that to explore before we made this decision.

Have you been over to the animal shelter lately?

You open a door, the wall's gone, and it's all piled up outside in big piles. Oh, yes. You go...

So would the facility be used if we turned it over? At the animal shelter. Sir, I don't feel like we've done anything over there. Would that facility be used to turn it over or would it just go to the county in another location?

So right now, if we put in a 4.2, 35, right, millage, and we had a 75% CRA, a 25% reduction in CRA, and we kept the animal shelter, we would have $192,000 surplus in the budget, correct?

Does the sanitation rate increase have anything to do with this? No, sir. No. It's an enterprise bonus. It's enterprise.

I know. I hope we do. You know, what we're looking at is better than what we've had, and it's a little bit more for the CRA than what the Finance Review Committee put in. And it keeps the animal shelter, but it doesn't have as much of a surplus. Yeah. So we're cutting it. But that means, my fellow commissioners, we all need to vote for this if that's what we want. That's what we're here for, to talk in the sunshine about this. You know, because I'd like to be confident that we walk away from here knowing more what our vote's going to be, not hedging the bets. It's going to be 3-2. We're going

I will say, too, this will be, I believe, the first time since I've been in that we had a surplus.

So what you're saying is you'll never be open to shutting down the animal shelter.

My question is, are you saying you will never, ever be open to shutting down the animal shelter?

Okay, next year and the year after that and the year after that, will you be open to the possibility of the animal shelter shutting down?

The reason I'm asking this is for a very important reason. Hold on, hold on, hold on.

When I originally came, I'll get to you. But when I originally came here with a resolution to look at consolidation of services, we all sat up here and we all agreed, let's look at the numbers. We can't even look at the numbers because we don't have them. Why do we not have the numbers? Because people change their minds. We talked about all this up here on the dais. And I'm going to tell you this right now, and nobody from the county is going to tell you this. The reason they're not looking at it is because they don't have confidence in this commission to make a decisive decision. People come

Then why did we vote on looking at consolidation of services if you were not for it?

The issue is, when we voted on it, you were fine at looking at the numbers, but as soon as we left out of here, you were not. That's the problem. We say one thing up here, and then we go out there and say something different. That's the issue I have, and it puts us in a bad position when we do that, and that's what the county sees, and the county's like, what, they're gonna say this and not do this? Of course we're not gonna look at it.

I don't have a problem with you with that position. But if that was the position that you had, then you should have said it when we voted on the consolidation of services. You even brought up the animal shelter when we talked about consolidation of services. I had. As something that I didn't want to do. Hold on, hold on, hold on. And you said, yep, we're going to look at all these, and you're the one that brought up animal shelter. But now, you're not even willing to look at it.

I am more than happy to say how I feel about the animal shelter, okay? Now, it's not the hill I want to die on, but I do want the employees there, I would like them to stay employed with the county. I would like to know that the county is going to take over the facility. I think we've got an opportunity and originally, if we'd have just stuck to the guns and let it go, we would have had this scenario in front of us with a better situation and a savings. And that's what I'm agreeable to. But we haven't heard back from the county on it since they walked away from negotiations. And I don't know w

Right. That's what I'm sitting here trying to play Texas Hold'em with you guys and know what your hands are and see that we've got to agree on either the millage or the cuts. and know what we're going to, you know, this is one thing we need to, you know, it's okay to say how we're going to vote or what we're agreeable to. It's a workshop. You know, you're saying you're not agreeable, but look what it's going to cost the city if you don't think that, you know, if you get myopic on this and, you know, there's a way out of it with the animal shelter. There's a way out of it. But for right now, wh

I've already said it. I just said it. I started this stuff. I just said it.

I just said it. That's what I just said. I said this. Look at this. This is what I said I would be for, and I need to hear from you guys. You're just recapitulating. Yes, sir. Now, I'm also for... Let that man negotiate with the county and see what we can save in the future and vote on moving the, if it makes sense and the county's agreeable, I'm okay with moving the animal shelter to county services and keeping the employees and saving the money. That'll be another fight, but for now, I want to see this. But I'll damn sure vote to do it if he brings it back and the county wants to negotiate w

So I'm going to say something that I never thought I'd say in my entire life, which is I think I might support a 4.35% increase, just because we've already cut our budget by 23%, at least. And we're still running on fumes. The millage rate was 4.3 seven years ago or so. You know, if the staff had not shown as much effort as they had to cut down on the budget, I would have said absolutely no, I'm not voting for a 4.35, not a chance. But, I mean, the effort has been put there. The Finance Review Committee has put hours and hours into this. All the heads have been put into this to try to get this

I'm not happy with it. We sit here and we say, we gotta make hard decisions. And I don't know, I just, I don't think we realize what that is. But the rails or trails thing, I'll be honest with you, I know it's not a lot of money just to do one, but if someone's gonna use it, they're gonna be walking. If they're driving a bike, something on wheels, they're not gonna push the button. I really, I know it's considered a safety thing, but I don't think it's gonna get utilized like we think it's going to be, and I'd be fine cutting it. I already said it earlier. We should have been having these conv

Okay. Well, you all know I'm not in favor of messing with the animal shelter. I feel like we should cut back. If we've got to keep the CRA at all, I think we should cut back to about 60%. Rails to trails, you can close them all as far as I'm concerned. That was a waste of money, in my opinion, when we started that whole thing. That's pretty much it. I feel pretty strong about the fact that instead of building a pavilion at Kinsall Park, we should have asked James to direct his funds to the animal shelter. It would have been less money than building a pavilion at Kinsall Park.

Oh, he told you he was going to build a pavilion? Oh, okay. Well, I'll be calling him in about 15 minutes because I'm hearing two different stories.

I'm like Jamie. I want to think on it, too.

What always happens is we'll sit here and say something and we'll bond up, but then we go out there and get everybody's feelings. So just what we're going to vote and we're going to put up the armor now and we're going to hear from the public.

Is that sanitation and stormwater next meeting? Yes, sir. Okay. And millage.

Basically, if we want to change the methodology, we need to start that October.

I would like to say on record, when I was saying I'm not happy with the budget, it's not that I'm not happy with the work that you guys did. No, I get it. Yeah, it's just I'm upset with the situation, if you will, the situation that we're in.