City Commission - workshop

Thank you, Shayla. Good morning, everybody. It is September 25th, 2026. It finally feels like it's cooling down a little bit outside. I know that We're waiting on Commissioner McVoy to come on, but I wanted to get us started. Excellent. Can you do the roll call, please, Shayla?

Present. All right. Good morning, everybody. Let's see. So I'm looking at our agenda for next week. It's very heavy utility, which makes sense because it's our third meeting of the month. Let's start with Ed and Vaughn. So let's start with Ed. Ed, do you have anything that you want to prep us for regarding Tuesday's meeting?

No, I think you'll be okay. We have a little bit of space today, which is kind of why I started with you.

Okay. Mr. Perry, would you ask Shona to set those up for us?

Thank you. I see Mr. McVoy. Well done. You've got your actual little yellow hand up. I'm very proud of you.

Sometimes I can find the thing on the phone. Sometimes it doesn't. Let me get to it.

Why don't you go ahead and ask your questions.

This is for Director Liberty. I see that we have something, an amendment for Archstone Inspections to do residential audits or overflow ones, which I assume overflow audits has nothing to do with overflow electricity, but the ones that we can't do with internal staff or maybe I misunderstand what overflow audits means, but I'm wondering whether it's possible for us to do that with staff that are here In general, I prefer to do things with our staff rather than contract out, just as a sort of general preference, because it builds institutional memory. It builds connection to the community in th

Well, and that that all seems pretty logical and reasonable. Here's a couple of thoughts. as energy prices go up a little bit, whether they'll stay up or not, I don't know, but, um, at least in the, in any case, there there's pressure in that direction. So electric costs are likely to go up some, a lot of other costs for people have gone up and there are, uh, you know, certainly portions of our community, substantial portions that are a bit strapped. And, um, I've long felt that there is quite a bit of elasticity in helping customers understand ways that they can manage their electric costs. I

Mr. Segrich, I'm going to let you talk. I just want everybody to be aware that it looks like if we're looking at the fiscal analysis of this, it's a $45,000 a year expense, just so that we know where we are versus an employee. And Mr. Segrich, go ahead.

Thank you. My questions aren't on this. It's on two other things.

Okay, then hold on one sec. Mr. Let's keep on this just so we can put this not to bed necessarily, but finish the conversation on this. And I understand the conversation. The idea that the $45,000 versus a in-house employee, we're comparing apples to oranges because we're talking about culture and finance, which really you can't really compare. So I get that point, Mr. McVoy, if that's something you were trying to make. But Mr. Liberty, how many of our clients utilize this service?

Does the Drops and Watts company have multilingual employees?

And do they interact in person with the clients or do they do it virtually?

And when they went to talk to people, were they wearing Drops and Watts shirts or were they wearing Lake Worth Beat shirts?

Mr. McFoy, would you be satisfied with Mr. Liberty looking into this and coming back to us with more details?

I would be happy with that. I'd like to add one more thing. I don't think we should base our decision making on what has been the demand for it. The way I would approach it is I would say have somebody do a quick analysis of of, and it might have a spatial component to it, might not, but of households that are somewhat or a lot above the typical South Florida planning number of an annual average of on the order of 1,000 or maybe 1,200 kilowatts a month, and use that as a way of figuring out what the need is, if we have, and where they are, And you can refine it a little bit. If you've got some

Yeah, no, I wouldn't measure it on whether they think their bills are too high. I agree that would be pretty much the whole lot. But no, I would do it as my first cut. I would look partially geographically and partially, but more so, how far are they above that number that we're familiar with, sort of the typical planning number. And, you know, it's pretty easy analysis to do. We have all that data, and it's monthly data. It doesn't have to be any more refined than that. And look at it to see whether it – because I can guarantee you there are many households where it's a significant financial

And I remember you helped out a lot with the case out on high road. I think it was out toward Walmart a number of years ago. We, we looked a lot and we couldn't figure it out, but.

Yeah, I was just going to say that that's not a directive from the commission. So I don't think that we need to go that far. I was just saying, and maybe if you could get some of the answers to the questions that we, and then, you know, we can talk about this, Mr. McFoy and our, and our one-on-ones. And if it's something that we as a commission want to bring forward, we can do that. If we don't, then we're, we know that at least we do have the, how the, um, capability of doing the energy audits and helping people when they do feel that their bills are higher than they should be.

Thank you. Mr. Segrich. Oh, wait. Mr. Segrich, I know you have questions. Can I just ask you a quick question regarding the... You were saying that with the prices of The natural gas price is increasing and we would have to consider the PCA, but it does help fund the fund balance. My question is, is there a level where the fund balance, I don't want to say is too high, but would be able to support some of the changes in the PCA so that it doesn't have to come directly from the customers?

I'm just thinking about ways that we can... The PCA is our, is our, you know, our, our cushion.

Right. And I do see that that has increased and we've increased it a couple of times and it is, it is affecting the, the bills. I will say no matter where you live, whether you're near the water or not, I, our bills have increased dramatically and I, anything we can do at this point is, to help the customer not have to help us not have to increase the PCA so that it doesn't go on to the customers would be really beneficial. Cause I think we may be maxing out the amount that people are willing to pay. I mean, we're, we're there.

That might be a good idea, something to think about.

That's what I was going to say. Run the numbers, see the stats, let us know how that works, because we don't want to benefit one while draining the other. We want to kind of balance. Mr. Segrich, go ahead, please.

Thank you. Just a comment on a couple of those things. I actually used the energy audit program. The staff was phenomenal. I think it actually was Joe who helped me out. And they were able to point out a number of things that we actually took their advice on and was able to greatly reduce our energy consumption. I would say, unfortunately, if, you know, I understand where Mr. McVoy is coming from. Unfortunately, a lot of the recommendations are going to be things like, hey, replace that 20 year old air conditioner. That's a six to eight thousand dollar cost. And, you know, so if if families ar

Okay. So I'm glad to hear the work is being done in the background on that. One aspect of it that I found interesting was the base rate and from, from all of my research and I'll kind of cut it off right here, but from all of my research, I don't believe we can charge a differing base rate because the actual cost of the copper and to get the energy there is the same. And there's been, been some issues in Florida where legally they said, you know, if it costs you the same to get it there, you can't charge differently. Um, so, but, but glad to hear that and look forward to that discussion. Um, B

But also, wait, can I just interrupt for one second? Because that reminded me of what William was saying before about some of the houses that he was aware of where it was a multi-use property. It wasn't supposed to be, but it was a single family. And then they had a rental portion of it. And that affected the homesteadedness of the property as well. So I don't know how all of that would... find its way into that conversation.

Well, the homestead is handled not by us.

Oh, I understand that. I'm just saying, could you look for ones that have on one property, there's a homestead and a non-homestead portion?

I don't know. Yeah. I mean, the other problem is, you know, the suggestion was to use the fact that somebody had a DBPR license. Well, I have a DBPR license. For my main house. What's that? DBPR license for rental.

Oh, Department of Business Professional Regulation. Okay. It's where you get all your licenses for the state. Oh, I see. So you need a license from the state. Well, the fact that I have that license doesn't mean I'm actually renting the property.

You mean because that license is addressed at that home? Doesn't necessarily indicate that you are renting said property or renting it as a vacation rental.

So, you know, there are many, many people who, you know, like even the mayor, the mayor used to do vacation rental in one of her properties, but then she switched to long term rental.

But I'm sure during that period, she had that license, right? So the presence of the license is not indication of that. And then the other piece of it is, legally, I think they will also have to apply to just normal residential rentals. Because you can't actually just target... vacation rentals. We do not want to charge commercial rates to rental parties. That's basically the whole discussion, but I just wanted to make sure it was on Ed's radar from a utilities and a logistics standpoint because I recognize that this is not a, oh, let's just do it thing.

But I also think that maybe it makes more sense for you guys to continue your conversation since you're the experts and then come to us with this. You can do this or you can do this. Pick one.

Right. Exactly. We don't need to be sitting there saying, well, what if you did this? Because we're not the experts. Mr. McVoy, are you trying to add into this conversation on the STRs or no? Yes, that's what I was going to add on. Okay, can you...

Be brief. I'll try. The only thought that I would give, I agree with Vice Mayor on you guys work out some of the pathways and then bring it to us rather than we helping work out the pathways. Yes, for all those reasons. However, what I would say, the direction from me at least as part of the policy making would be apply our suggestion of get to yes, figure out what are the ways that we could do this, not figure out how much of a problem it is or how burdensome or so on. Figure out, is there a pathway and how do we get there?

And I think that that was the indication coming out of the commission meeting itself. And I think that's why Mr. Segrich is saying, like, how can we figure this out?

The other one that I had forgot, I was, oh, that's actually why I had my hand up, was on the PCA.

Wait, hold on. That's not, hold on. Were you done with the STR? Okay, hold that thought. Let me let Anthony finish and we'll come back.

Go ahead, Anthony. Okay, so the second question is on the lease addendum for the Promenade building.

This is also electric, so that makes sense.

Go ahead. I understand customer service is there and that's where our operations are. What are the chances of bringing customer services back to 1900? Because we're spending well over $100,000 a year in rent versus housing people in facilities that we have. Is that like a non-possibility? Is that a one-year, two-year possibility? Where do we sit with that?

One to two, two to three years. What's our out on that?

Great. Okay, sorry. Sorry, Anthony, go ahead.

Yeah, no, no, that's great, Ed. Thank you for that clarity. So it makes sense that we do extend for another two years where we're at. And then I would just underscore, this really highlights the need for that facilities master plan for resources. Because we definitely have buildings that we're renting out for far less than $32 a square foot that we're paying out for housing staff. So looking forward to that getting through the process so that we can start planning better for some of this future need for housing employees.

Thanks. Chris, I didn't give anybody else the staff any time and we're at 945. Is it something that needs to be said today or can it wait?

It just relates to the PCA thing. And I could say it very quickly if you want.

Or you could say it on Tuesday where everyone can hear. Okay. Vaughn, I just wanted to jump in with you. Do you have any items on this that we need to discuss early?

Excellent. Get out of my head. I was just going to say that. All right. All right. That's fabulous. And, you know, that just kind of goes and I'm just going to say one thing, Anthony, and then I'll get you. And thank you, Vaughn. This is an overall thing. I think that. As far as communications with the. With the city, I think that sometimes we make decisions, and I'm going to put this on me. So sometimes we, the commission, makes a decision and directs staff to do something that has a direct implication for the community. And sometimes I can assume that they kind of are following along and see

sorry I was unmuting I would agree with you on that topic that was actually one of the things that I was going to bring up it might make an excellent addition to our agenda for Tuesday to maybe discuss the concept of you know I know Troy had some good ideas on that and it you know, that's the kind of thing that we have to do timely. I would agree we could have done a much better job of communication. And I think staff is keenly aware of that. And I think moving forward, they're developing better plans on how to do that kind of communication. And I also think our neighborhood presidents also ar

I'm okay with that because we also need to make sure people are aware that because the business license renewals came out so late that they are not going to be fine for the next two months. So we should definitely add this to the agenda. Chris, do we have an okay from you so that we have three? Okay. Troy, are we good with that? Okay. Anthony, did you have something else?

Yes, ma'am. I did. I kind of got sidetracked on that one. Oh, I remember. So we do have a placeholder for the discussion of the city manager search, right? Okay. And I feel like we can make some headway and some ground by having a brief discussion during that time, even though we don't have a recruiter signed on. And this would be my ask of my fellow commissioners. In the process, you know, one of the themes we heard from several people on the dais was Individuals just weren't there. They just weren't good enough or to the standard of what that particular commissioner wanted. To have a fair pr

Okay. As one of your fellow commissioners, I agree with you. I don't think Commissioner Maliga will be there on Tuesday, and I'm not really sure if the mayor is there on Tuesday. She may be, actually. She may not. I don't know. Does anybody know? The mayor and Maliga will not be there. So, no. I think we give ourselves a little bit more time, and we can talk about it on the 6th. Is that okay? Okay.

Yes. There might be a logistical problem because I was planning on Zooming in.

Well, I mean, you can talk over Zoom, I think.

Oh, well, that's out of my price range. I'm hoping staff can figure out whether we in fact have a quorum.

I'll work on things on my end, but it'll be close.

Okay. I will be there. So I don't know, but we need to, Mr. Perry, do you hear this? I'm sure you're not loving hearing this.

I will be able to physically be there. I just don't know right at 6 o'clock.

Well, that's okay because we have all the stuff at the beginning. We can have a meeting. We just can't vote, right?

I don't know. Elizabeth, can you answer for us?

Okay. So we can do the pledge of allegiance. We can do the utility report, the water report. Ed will love this because he can public comment and then the only, then anything that comes after approval of a minute of the minutes, I mean, including approval of the minutes we can't do until you get there, Anthony. So I think you do have a little bit of a cushion. But obviously we want you there as close to six as possible, but it does seem like you might have a little bit of a cushion.

Okay. So it looks like we're going to be okay, Mr. Perry.

You can breathe again. Well, no, and I know the mayor is going on her trip. That's fine. We can handle it. Okay. And I also, I guess that does do something for scheduling wise. If you're not going to be at meetings, we need to either put in our calendars that we are not there. Or make sure that the city manager knows that we will not be there. I'm not saying you didn't do that, Anthony, but just kind of saying it out loud so that I hear it, Chris hears it, so that we make sure that this doesn't happen. 958, is there anything from Leisure that you want us to know about that's going on this week

Excellent. Thank you for the update. So it's the Maya Fest, 10 to 5 at Bryant Park. Is that a free event or is that a ticketed event, do you know?