Financial Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

Recording in progress.

Hi, Isabel. Since we are recording, would you like to swear in the two new board members? Therefore, we have a quorum and we can start the meeting.

Absolutely. Welcome to the two new members, Liz and Lars.

Thank you. Good evening. Thank you.

So you both can be sworn in simultaneously. Can you see the screen by any chance?

Yep. Yes.

Okie dokie. So if you don't mind turning on your cameras and raising your right hand.

Okay.

Thank you so much. And please repeat after me. I state your name.

I am Elizabeth Pavlo.

A legal resident of the state of Florida.

A legal resident of the state of Florida.

Resident of the state of Florida.

And a financial advisory board member.

A financial advisory board member.

Do hereby solemnly support and obey.

Do hereby solemnly support and obey.

The Constitution of the United States.

The Constitution of the United States.

And the state of Florida.

And the state of Florida.

And that I will in all respects.

That I will in all respects.

Observe the provisions and ordinances of the village.

Observe the provisions and ordinances of the village.

Of the village. Congratulations. Tomorrow I'll send you the fully executed oath and you're officially sworn in. Welcome to the Financial Advisory Board.

Great. Thank you. Thank you.

Lars and Liz, permit me to introduce myself. I'm Commissioner Richard Cervone. I'm your liaison for the commission to this board. We were short on some people. That's why I proceeded to swear you in quickly. So we now have a quorum.

Excellent.

Sandra, you're also back there hiding someplace. Sandra Sifkin. Sandra Sifkin is a longtime resident of North Bay Village. She is a former... controller of North Bay Village. She was former CFO of Bay Harbor, and I believe she is now CFO of Surfside. Is that correct, Sandra?

That is correct.

Welcome. Congratulations on your new CFO position. Full stop, Sandra.

Thank you.

Congratulations. Sandra and I go back together many, many years.

Yes.

We try to hold these meetings as informal as we can. We do have an agenda which we follow, and I'm waiting for Marco to join us, who should be joining us soon. Hello, everyone.

How are you?

Hi, Marco.

I'm sorry. I was having trouble logging in from the invite, so I had to log in from the instructions that were separate.

No problem. Marco, are you in town or are you still in Latin America?

No, I made it yesterday. It's just that I'm driving because I have to go to another meeting after a call. No problem.

Because I've seen your Instagram posts. I know you were out of town. I didn't know whether you were going to make this meeting or not.

No, no, please. I do my best to always make them. And yes, we had a wedding in Colombia, a family wedding, and we traveled, you know, Friday to Monday. So back in town.

I see you all the time.

I follow you whether you know it or not.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Basically, the fifth member, Paul Jacobson, has just submitted his resignation. His company's moving him to Dallas. So we're short one member that hopefully we will fill that position at the next commission meeting next Tuesday. Okay. So I'm going to take the privilege to start the call to order and the roll call of the meeting. And then we're going to have to proceed to... Lightning re-elections of officers since all our officers are no longer active with us. So I'm calling the meeting to order. It is now 6.35 p.m. Good afternoon, everybody.

Sorry, I was so involved in the budget that...

I believe that was Mike Day's...

Yes, that's me.

Sorry, I'm late. Maite is our CFO, who is also part of the, she's part of the administrative team together with me that run these meetings. So a quick roll call, even though I've spoken to all of you. Marcos Uniga. I'm here, present. Dondra Sifkin.

Present.

Liz Zavalo.

Here, present.

and Lars Short. I don't want to kill you. Is that the way you pronounce your last name, Lars? I don't want to kill it.

No, that works. That works fine. Just making sure. Thank you.

So basically, we have a quorum. Is Isabel still with us? Did we have meeting minutes for the July 8th presented, Isabel?

They were submitted a little bit before the meeting today started, so they will be up for approval in your next financial advisory board session.

Sounds good.

On that note, I would like to just say that Ms. Lipkin would like to advise that she can no longer continue as secretary, so that position also needs to be reappointed, please.

Thank you. I saw that email someplace down the line. That's why I said we're going to have lightning.

Mm-hmm.

Position available. Basically, we have the position of chair, vice chair, and secretary available. Sandra, since she is CFO of Surfside, has decided that for official reasons, she will not hold any office. She was our former secretary on the board. So that leaves three of you. at least to fill these positions, at least I would like somebody to be active chair for tonight's meeting, even though I'll be running the meeting from the background.

So remind us again what the duties of the chair are, just so that we're all on the same page.

The duties of the chair basically is to Call the meeting to order, do the roll call, and proceed with the agenda items. You can proceed in the order that they are presented, or you can take them out of place. Basically, your biggest job is going to be before the meeting, you're going to be meeting with Isabel via either Zoom or telephone or whichever way is most convenient for you. And you're going to arrange and create the agenda for the meeting. GIVE ME ONE SECOND, PLEASE. CHAIRMAN, THE MEETING, CAN I CALL YOU BACK? THANK YOU.

AND IF I MAY, BASICALLY, I DO THE HEAVY LIFTING FOR THE AGENDA. YOU BASICALLY AS ALL MEMBERS OF THE BOARD CAN SUBMIT DISCUSSION ITEMS RELEVANT TO THE BOARD'S PURVIEW AND THEN I PREP IT FOR YOU AND I SHARE IT. IT MUST BE COMPLETED THREE FULL DAYS PRIOR TO THE MEETING.

Basically for order, I need somebody to volunteer to be chair for tonight's meeting. We'll do the official roles at the next commission meeting when everybody is in and everybody's friendlier with each other.

I'm kind of like, oh, perfect. Thank you. I was going to say that since I'm driving today, I'm probably not the best.

Yeah.

Person to, you know, volunteer to share. So thank you.

I'll volunteer under your guidance, Richard.

Thank you, Lars. So Lars will be our acting chair for today for minute purposes. It's just going to be reflected on the minute. So you were the chair. Yeah. Since you're new at this, I don't know how familiar you are with advisory boards. I'll take the lead. Okay.

So I'll go ahead and take the lead.

I did not see Roger. Isabel, one last question before you disappear. Is Roger Hogg going to be at tonight's meeting?

I did not have a confirmation or a decline from him.

Okay, because I see we have an update on those capital improvement projects. Okay. Okay.

Yes, that was given to him by the village manager, and I believe that Frank was logging in.

So more than likely, when we get to that, I can give you a brief resume, or we can transfer it to the next advisory board meeting. For the new members, basically, we meet the second Tuesday of every month, and we meet at 6.30 p.m. Meetings are usually, at the most, an hour long. We try to keep them short and sweet, unless we get into heavy topics, and then it extends a little bit farther than that. There's two projects, basically, that you have always, the former members have always requested an update on. One is the TIES project. The TIES project comprises of two sections, the actual Ty's playground or the what is known as the AFA football field or whatever name you may know it under and the community center aspect of it. We'll start with that one first. The update on the Treasure Island Elementary School Ty's project and community center. The community center portion of the project, which is on village property. They have already poured the cement for the ground floor. It's going to be a three-story building, and it's on Galleon Street right next to Schomburger Park, for those of you who are familiar with Schomburger Park. Next to the community center, there's going to be a pour for... three paddle courts and two pickleball courts extending east towards the condominiums. That project is slated to be completed late March, early April. They're trying to have the whole project ready by the time the FIFA World Cup comes here. Our partners in that project is a corporation known as PFL, who's a representative of AFA, which is the Argentinian Football Federation. No, Messi will not be here present that I know of. He has not shown up at any of the functions that we have had or groundbreakings that we have had. The field I know has broken ground. They're starting to work on the infrastructure of the field to make sure that the drainage is done right, that it is done to scale, and that it is done in the proper grading. Basically, the fields are going to be one 11 by 11. I don't mean 11 feet. I mean for 11 players against 11 players, which is... official size, and it's gonna have five smaller fields for five by fives. One of the fields, well, first of all, the fields are only gonna be available after school hours, and of course, Saturday and Sundays. They will not be available during school hours because the school may be using them. After school hours, there will always be one of the smaller fields available for residents to use. If one of the other larger fields or another field is available or needed, it can be used as well. The same thing with the certain hours that the courts will be available for resident use. And there's certain hours that you're going to be able to rent the courts for paddle or pickleball. The community center is going to have a cafe that's going to be open most of the time that the fields are open to the public and their cafes are open. They call it a cafe. It's going to be like little sandwiches, coffee. I don't think they're going to have a wine and beer license. I don't think. I don't know. And basically, that's going to be on the first floor together with the office for the management of the courts. You have to sign up to use the courts themselves. or rent the courts whenever you want them, or when they have practices for the camp or the school, it will be advised that such and such court is taken for these hours. Our Saturday... Soccer practices will take place in the 11 by 11 court, the same as the Tuesday and Thursday night soccer games that are currently being held off city premises because the field is being redone. Hopefully soon those will be moving to the property that we just acquired on North Treasure Drive temporarily, at least starting in the January. We're hoping for January 1st use of that field. And as soon as these courts are ready, they're going to move over here and we'll have a open park. Has not been decided what's going to take place to that park in North Treasure Drive. So that basically takes me to the ties and the community center projects. Questions?

Yes, I have two, I think. So just for my understanding, will this be something that's owned and managed by a third party or is it managed by the city?

Okay, community center will be managed by the city. The courts or the ties field will be managed by a third party, but it is in the contract that once it's open after school hours and Saturdays and Sundays, the city will always have access to at least one field. If we need to have a function for whatever purpose, we'll take over the whole field with proper notice. We're working as partners. It's basically a triple P, a private public partnership with Alpha for 30 years. Okay.

Thank you. And is the city looking to collect anything here in terms of income? I think you mentioned renting courts, or is the expectation that it will be free for residents?

There are times when the courts and the fields will be free for residents. And like I said, there's one field always free for residents when the park is open. I don't want to say the whole day because there's school taking place. Once of the income that is collected from the courts and the fields, because there will be income collected from it, it is split. I don't have the split in front of me. Maite, do you know the split off the top of your head?

No, I'm not very certain about that split, no.

There is a split between us, the school board, and PFL.

Okay, all right. Yeah, so there's a portion there that would be of benefit for the city. Okay, thank you.

There is some benefit for the city. The same thing in the cafe.

Yeah, okay. That would be some kind of concession then, I guess.

And by the way, the community center, the second floor is strictly all North Bay Village use. We're talking about either having dominoes for the older people, computer classes for younger kids, whatever other ideas we get to do on the second floor. Third floor, we haven't decided yet whether it's just going to be a shell at present time or maybe rented out or maybe city use if we need it. And there's going to be a rooftop garden, which is the city's.

Okay.

And any con that anybody wants to cater an event in the rooftop garden, it's for rent and that's strictly city.

Okay. Awesome. Sounds really exciting. Thank you. And then I'm going to be a third question. I said two, but it's going to be three. Go for it. So I know it's in early days, but in terms of tracking of budget for the construction of this, are we on track or is it too early to say?

I, as of the last meeting that I had, which is, which is a couple, I would say about a month ago, we are totally on track with this project. This project is totally the funds are available to finish the project. That's why we're moving forward with it at full speed ahead.

Yeah.

Uh, most of the funds are being paid by PFL, not by us.

Okay.

There is a portion that we do have to pay. Don't get me wrong. We are responsible for part of it, but we do have the funds available for that.

Okay. So with that type of setup, then the risk might be a little less on the city, knowing that there's funding provided by a third party or its partners. You could. No one can predict the future. Great. Thank you.

No problem. Any other questions? Liz, do you have any questions for us?

Nope. I'm just listening and absorbing and enjoying because I live right down the street from it.

I know exactly where you live. I have lots of friends there.

I actually live with the commissioner in the same building now, the commissioner of Treasure Island.

And my mom lived at 1820.

Oh, there you go. Right next to us.

Yep.

It's a small city. It's difficult not to be neighbors here.

Yes. Okay. Next big project is the Village Hall Fire Station project. The Village Hall Fire Station project. has turned into, I don't want to say a nightmare, but it has turned into a huge project. And by what I mean by that is fortunately or unfortunately, I have been on the commission since 2011 with a four year stint off the commission. That's why I'm back. So I have been on now for 12 years. Uh, And I remember when a city hall was proposed for $5 million. This city hall, when we bid it out and got the design team in place, it was scheduled to be approximately 40 to $43 million. Since we have increased it by one floor, We have done some improvements to it, and it's in the $50 million range. In answer to your question, Lars, that you can ask me in a couple of minutes, we have the funding for the, we're close to having the full funding for the $40 million project. We don't have the full funding for the $50 million project. The good news is when the fire station joins us in, Dade County has offered to give us seven, I believe it's $7.5 million. But they're the last funds coming in. So we have to prove to them that we have the rest of the money.

So we're short two and a half? Excuse me? Are we short two and a half then?

No, we're not short two and a half. No. We were short $8 million. We're a little bit over $8 million. Reason being that the prior administration, and I don't want to blame anybody specifically, was leaving all the funds out in the general fund category without moving it to a restricted area. And when we kept on asking, do we have funds? What's our reserves? What funds do we have available? We kept spending funds because they were made available. And it ended up being that we're short $8 million. I don't know how I was tagged as the finance person of the village. but I'm working very hard to get back at least those $8 million in a timely manner. So when we break ground in April or May, we have them.

So it's not a matter of scaling down, it's trying to keep... No, now our finances have been restructured

The monies that are being committed to City Hall are going to City Hall, not left in the general fund. So we have to make up the funds.

Okay, so the idea we spoke of will need to be funded.

We have two items at the next commission meeting. Both being sponsored by me. One's the sale of TDRs for a new project that will bring in $2.4 million. And another one is another project that wants to be built on the causeway is asking for 20 feet. And the mayor jokingly said, I'll sell them to you at 100,000 a foot. When I met with the individual, he's willing to pay the $2 million. So I'm speaking up at the commission meeting to see if we reach consensus to discuss this. So right there alone, we have made up four and a half million of the $8 million. So we're moving at quite fast speed and making up the funds. I don't believe we'll be short.

So commission, if I understand correctly, the community contribution fees, if I understand correctly, were never restricted.

None of the fees were ever restricted, Sandra. When I asked last how much money do we have in reserves, we had $8 million in reserves.

Oh, okay.

Understood. You know the job the controller used to do in restricting our funds?

Mm-hmm.

It was never done after you left. Not blaming it on you, you left. And we got caught with it, you know, we got caught with it.

That's what happens with, yeah, unfortunately that's what happens with turnover.

Yes, it does. But hopefully now we are restructured in the finance department. Maite is doing a fabulous job and she has basically had a look into it and recategorize all these funds. And hopefully, in answer to Laura's question, are we short? We have not done yet a resolution of whatever we did not use from last year's budget that ended September 30th. Some of it gets automatically transferred to the same project for the following year. But some of it that wasn't used gets transferred into the general funds. So we should be able to make up a little bit more than the $4.5 million that I promised.

That resolution will be going to commission meeting in November.

Correct.

Before the 60-day period to close the year.

Correct. But that's why I want to commit right now any specific amounts to speak of any specific amounts, because I know you're still working on it.

Yes. So in these kind of setups, and sorry for not being very familiar with this, but you mentioned that the fire department would contribute, but also knowing that the nearest, I guess, fire station in Miami Beach is all the way by Indian Creek. And our new fire station then could potentially help on the Normandy side. So would Miami Beach be open to assist in any way? Is that something that could be explored?

No. Let me put it to you this way. We belong to the county. There's two close fire stations. There's Miami Beach and Indian Creek, which belongs to Miami Beach. And there's one on 79th Street across the bridge that belongs to the city of Miami. We belong to the county.

Oh, all right.

So our closest fire station, that would be the first one to respond to us if we were to lose our fire station, which we're not. If nothing else, we will build a fire station out and they will have their place here because we cannot lose our fire station.

No.

We've discussed that one already. Is the one in Miami Shores on 95th and North Miami Avenue, I believe it is.

Which also sorts under the county.

That's under the county and that's the closest to us.

Okay.

But if the bridge is up for whatever reason, we're screwed. That's why we cannot use it. That's the reason why we've been fighting so hard to keep the county fire station, which is now located on trailers in Pelican Harbor for the last, roughly saying 15 to 18 years, but keeping it close by so we have an answer immediately to our issues.

Yeah, no, it's surrounded by bridges, so that makes...

Which, by the way, yesterday we had a fire on the 17th for Grandview Palace. It was an electrical fire. And I believe there was another fire in East and South Treasure Drive on the corner, so I imagine it's on Treasures by the Bay. And there was a generator that... Not a generator, a... gas a gas compressor of some sort at elephants so we had three issues yesterday that we needed to fire the apartment for and they were here to respond and there's i mean other than water damage to the apartment that had the fire there's really no major issues okay good questions on village hall

I just had a question. You said the budget was $5 million. How did it get up to $50 million?

Well, the commission changed drastically in members. Connie, who was our mayor at the time of the $5 million, was against the project because she wanted a pool on the rooftop of that $5 million project, which upped it to about $8 million. and not guaranteed that the pool wouldn't leak into the building. So basically that died. Residents were clamoring for a dog park when I was off the commission and they put the dog park at the city hall property. And then we acquired the old Socorro lot for a city hall and had to design a structure that would fit there. The first structure that was designed for that location was a combination city hall, fire station, and condominiums above. And the members of Harbor Island were very upset at us because we were building a very tall building. So basically we went back to the drawing board And as we all know, prices keep going up and up and up and up and tariffs and steel and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. A original $5 million project in 2011 has become a $53 million project in 2025. Wow.

Thank you for the info.

I mean, have you noticed... I know, Liz, you own a condo. Lars, you own a house or a condo?

I have a house.

Where do you live, if I may ask, if you don't mind?

Yeah, in Bounty Avenue.

Oh, okay. You're also a treasurer. You've noticed that the prices of your homes keep going up. the value of your homes, not your taxes. Your taxes will go up because everything is going up. And if you're in your Save Our Home programs, it only goes up by 3%, thankfully, in taxes. But for instance, this coming year, and I'm talking about next year, there are some properties that are being sold. There's a gentleman, and I live in North Bay Island, in an indoor lot, no water. I'm one of the poor guys in this island. I have a neighbor that has purchased 10 lots in North Bay Island and has spent $62.5 million in property in North Bay Island, five of them being waterfront.

Wow.

So all that will be reflected in our taxes, not this coming year, but the following year. Shoma is about to break ground. By break ground, I mean go vertical. Continuum is about to pull their permit as well to go vertical. Whoever is the first one in, I figure about two to three years for construction to take place in the building vertical. One year afterwards, after the building gets their CO, is when the taxes start coming in. You're gonna start seeing In the future, please don't think I'm talking about the near future next year or I'm promising stuff in the very near future. I'm promising stuff for eight to 10 years away. You're going to see our taxes go down tremendously by all these properties that are being built. The next generation is going to benefit from our sorrow when our taxes haven't gone up as they have gone up at present time. And it's been for all the flipping of the properties on the causeway that have never really taken off, have never been built.

So with that said, would that mean then that the expectation is that the tax rate will go down, but that the tax rate will go up?

I will not promise you that the tax rate is going to go down. Because this year, we have maintained our millage flat, which means based on the value of your property, we're still taxing you at the same level as last year. But if your property goes up by $20,000 in value or $50,000 in value, even though it's at the same millage rate, it's going to go up slightly. Not much, but slightly will go up. Next year, our debt millage, which is the monies that we borrowed, the prior administration borrowed $10 million out of the $60 million bond. It starts getting paid this year. We have the money to pay it this year. Next year, we have to start charging the residents to pay back that bond. with that loan so the mill the debt millage will go up as well so i'm not promising you and i'm stating outright that everybody knows taxes will slightly go up this year and will go up slightly again next year because property values hopefully keep going i love the property values are going up

No, no, no. That would definitely drive taxes. But also once these new constructions get their CEOs, the tax base will grow for the city. Absolutely. It could open up later. I'm not talking short term or might not even talk midterm, but long term. based on the services that would need to be provided in total for that new population could drive some benefits on the tax.

Well, in regards to services, when a project gets built, they have to pay for the services for that project. So in other words, that we're going to increase, and we're going to have to increase, I mean, if we do 10 buildings, For argument's sake, I'm going to say 100 units in each building. Some have more than 100 units, obviously. You're talking about more police officers. It's not only more bodies. You need cars, equipment, et cetera, et cetera, for those new police officers. We have one boat. Do we need a second boat? Do we need infrastructure work? Absolutely. We passed a $60 million bond for stormwater. When we passed the stormwater bond, everybody forgot to look at our shore and water lines. Do we have to, now we're doing a study, do we need to increase the $60 million bond to include water and shore repairs? Or are we going to tear the roads twice? Yeah.

Yeah, I know there's several factors that drives cost too. Yeah, no.

By the way, the city has already formally turned 80, but our party is tomorrow night, which means our infrastructure is 80 years old.

Yeah.

So we're working on it all the time to bring it up to date and fix it and patch it and repair it.

No, I know about that. I have old pipes here under this house.

You know, eventually we're going to have to put new ones.

Yep.

So these are all projects that are coming up. We were hoping to have Roger Hogg, who is my director, my capital improvement projects director here to speak about some of the projects. I have his latest update that I can sort of read and go over with you. We can invite him to the next meeting and have him talk about it. I'd like to invite him to one meeting and then I want to invite, we have a new project. the resiliency officer, sustainability and resiliency officer, that I'd like her to come to the meetings, which both have to do with the capital improvements of the city. Basically, at this coming commission meeting, there is one important capital improvement project, which is that I'm bringing up. We have approved two welcome signs that we're having a problem with FDOT approving. So I'm going to see if the commission wants to just kill those projects, release those funds because we have funds held in escrow for these projects, close to $200,000 for each one of the welcome signs that we can use elsewhere. So these are the things that we're looking at, which projects we will continue, which ones we're going to be trading off. We have the Civic Park that we'd like to continue. We have a kayak launch that we'd like to continue. We're right now working on, especially for you two new guys that live in Treasure, in 2012, 2013, there was an idea to build two pocket parks by the East Bridge and do a connector underneath the bridge between the two pocket parks to continue our boardwalk. The one by Grandview Palace was completed a couple of years ago. And we even did some artwork there that was exposed not that long ago. And now we're working now on the west side, the one by Bay Tower, Blue Tower, Blue Bay Tower, whatever the name of that building is there in the west side of the East Bridge. There's a little pocket park there that we want to finish up. We need to do the all the work so people can access it. And then eventually phase three, if it ever gets done, is a connector under the bridge for pedestrians from one pocket park to the other. So the boardwalk can go not only through Harbor Island, through the north end of the causeway, but down to the south end of the causeway. behind Grandview Palace, Caribbean Towers, and the Treasures. I know the Treasures have a new name, but I don't even know what the, they change names so often I don't keep track of those. Civic Park is something that we're working on as well. Civic Park is the, for argument's sake, the Kennedy Causeway portion of the dog park. There are the new buildings that are being proposed. Some of them have dog runs or dog parks, et cetera. So I don't know whether we're going to be keeping these dog parks, convert the whole park into a civic park with a potential band shell. It has a walking area. There was a one-time talk of doing a splash pad on it. But all this becomes very expensive each time a commissioner comes up with a new idea for the civic park and we need to find the money. So a lot of these projects are on, have been drawn, they're there on the shelf. In late January, early February, there will be a delegation going to Tallahassee to ask for funds This year, the funds that are being asked for is for Phase 2 of the filtering projects in Harbor Island. We got funded last year for Phase 1, so we're asking for Phase 2, and we're asking for a donation of $1 million towards City Hall. Since we also have a relatively new board, we have two new members and we're going to have a third one as of the next commission meeting. I'm going to ask Maite to send you all a copy of the just passed budget. By the way, we have a balanced budget for the village for this year. They just started October 1st. And I'd like for you to peruse through it. And any questions you may have, you can ask Mike or I at the next advisory board meeting.

Yes, I think that would be great because as a matter of fact, I actually wanted to look at the budget.

Sounds good.

I will be sending it over to all of you. Just remember, it isn't adopted, but we're working on the final, final book. But I can send you the spreadsheets and everything we have already passed.

Beautiful. I think that will be great.

Thank you.

thank you thank you any questions feel free no no question is a stupid question all questions are accepted and that's and i even try to answer them no questions as far as you i think you've been providing great explanations so thank you

Maybe no questions on the updates. Thank you so much for that, Commissioner. Maybe just one thing, which is in kind of a general comment or suggestion, I guess, also for my fellow board members. Would there be anything that the advisory board, apart from getting familiar with all the projects and the budget and what's going on on the city side from a financial perspective, where we as a group of finance professionals could support the city, support the finance department, and Maite, nice to meet you, by the way, in anything, right? Could be suggestions for process improvements or something in particular that you may want to have some recommendations on that we could, you know, look at and, you know, provide advisory on?

Recommendations are always good. They're always good because everybody sees it with different eyes and any recommendation to increase the transparency and everything in the village is welcome. My door is always open. I might not walk around the village much, but my door is here and I'm always open. But I am busy.

And I make sure that I either speak to you on the phone via Zoom or I can show up at City Hall and meet with you personally one-on-one, any questions you have, or at any project site if you want to do that as well. Basically, the reason why I was named liaison way back when to this board is I was a member of the FAB. Our direction to the FAB at the time was more book, budget-oriented, as Sandra well remembers, because she was in the finance office. And we were always looking at the checks that were issued. We were always looking at the expenses that we had. So questions like you made tonight, Lars, do we have the funds? Where are the funds coming from? What are we short? How are we planning to make up the shortage of the funds? Unfortunately, I am a very open book as well as a commissioner, and I will say it as I see it and feel it. I will never tell you my – or if I tell you my personal viewpoint, I will tell you it's my personal viewpoint. But usually I try to represent the viewpoint of the commission. I'm only one of five, and we each have different viewpoints in a lot of the items. You always have the availability to speak to any other commissioner as well about any project that you hear me talk about to get their input into it. But I try to be, when I speak to the board, I try to be representative of the commission and not representative of Richard Stefani. Because I'm very opinionated. Basically, we like for you to get as involved in the finances of the village without you telling me that I must use this bank or that bank. But, you know, you can ask questions about why did you pay? I mean, the checks show up in the register on the web. You can see everything is transparent. You can see followed commission meetings, what we do at commission meetings. You can question. If you have a question about a specific item, feel free to do so. Why do we expend this money on that? I mean, this is whichever way you folks want to take it. The last board always wanted to hear about ties, City Hall, and any budget amendments that we did. They wanted to review the budget amendments. We will present to you our budget. We will present to you a final budget. We'll Let me just shut this off so there's a box that stops ringing. Somebody's outside my house with the damn ringer. We will present you the budget before it gets passed. We'll present you the budget after it gets passed. We can discuss it at whatever length you want, individually or at a meeting. You can include me. You can include Maite. If you'd rather talk to Maite one day instead of me because she has a different perspective, absolutely. I do not get offended. She does not get offended if you come to me. It's all public. We work together. And I think we work together well. It's whatever direction you as a board want to take it. We will never say no. You will get the opportunity to speak also with our auditors. Once they get the comprehensive report from them, they will present it to the board as well. You know, so in the old days, we wanted to, we try to beat the commission. In other words, we're meeting before the commission. So anything that's coming to the commission that's costly, we would have discussed it at the commission, at this advisory board meeting. And the expenditures that we're making, you know, the agenda already came out today. So we could get to that point from this meeting forward, That when you get the agenda out for argument's sake, I'm going to say the November agenda on Tuesday, you want to say, can we discuss the items that you're expending funds on? But that's a decision that you have to tell us which direction the advisory board wants to go in. We're here to comply to your requests and to be as transparent and work together as possible.

No, and I mean, I think that's a great use of the financial advisory board's function, I think, and I appreciate the offer for transparency, Maite, to kind of have a second look at things and be open with the numbers. But maybe something that we could consider in the board would also be, let's say that Maite have a little particular finance problem. And maybe we could help give recommendations being a group of finance professionals on something in specific. So it kind of would work both ways. If you follow what I mean. So instead of us asking questions all the time, we could be the advisory board.

We want you to be an advisory board and we want you to ask the questions. And I want you to advise us as to what it is you want to see from us in regards to the finance of the village. Not only now, but for instance, in June and July, we start having workshops with the budget. This last board did not want to get involved in actual board recommendations for the budget. When I was a board member, we made board recommendations to the budget.

the commission didn't pay attention to us but we pitched about it I think that's what I'm hinting at and yes maybe the commission doesn't want the input but at least we would have the opportunity to provide something absolutely at least I'm open to it and I think Maite would be open to it as well that's great for me too okay good

Thank you for the feedback, Lars. I think you brought good points, and I've been here for a few years, so I could relate to what Richard has said. And I think that, you know, both are opportunities, right? Asking questions, providing feedback, you know. So, here to help as well.

I think once the next audit is done, we're going to possibly be doing the audit for 24, I believe.

Yes.

You will be very pleasantly surprised with the auditor's reaction to this advisory board because the person who's in charge of the audit is our former chairman of the advisory board. Convenient. That's why he had to leave the advisory board because he's now the auditor.

All right. Yeah, that makes sense.

So, you know, you're going to see a different type... Marco will notice a difference because he was here, Marco and Sandra. Sandra's been here for God knows how many auditors. But Marco has been here for the last auditors and he's used a certain auditing format for calling it such, even though they must follow a similar format. It's a new company, new set of eyes, new findings. And Nick was part of the advisory board, so he knows our faults and our flaws. And there are many.

And guess what? He's also my auditor. He's my auditor, too. Oh, great. Yeah.

Which company is it, may I ask?

CBiz.

CBiz. CBiz. Okay. It used to be... Markham. Markham. Markham was local. CBiz is national. Basically, they're all national now. They're being swallowed.

Yeah, he's great.

Any other questions? Well, there's no other questions. We're going to... Maite, any comments that you want to make?

Commissioner, are we going to select a chair and secretary for our next meeting or we're going to do the next meeting?

We're going to do it for next meeting. Basically, Lars was acting chair for any votes that need to be taken at this meeting.

Okay.

But since we're going to hopefully fill the fifth seat at this commission meeting and he will join us for the next meeting, we will have a full board. Okay. and Lars and Liz will be more comfortable in knowing what we do also. You know, it's very shocking when you first join a board and, hey, we're holding offices and you, obviously, you're not running for any of them, Sandra, no offense, but I understand why. So it's only Marco and the other two new people choosing who's going to do what seat. It's kind of shocking for a new person to just join the board. So that's why I think it'd be best to hold it off till the next one. Let them get their feet wet, get some information.

Understood.

Any comments from the others? That's good to me.

Oh, good to me.

It was nice meeting you all.

Thank you.

By the way,

I'm going to ask Isabel to put it in writing, but just in case you ever need to get a hold of me, I'm very easy to get a hold of. I am on the website. I'm at rschervoney at nbvillage.com. I'm not going to bother giving you my phone. I mean, if you want my phone number, it's on the website, or I can dictate it now, but I don't know if you have paper and pencil handy. I'm available to you anytime you need any information, you want to discuss anything, feel free to call me. We can meet on the phone, in person, at a site, city hall, whatever you want.

And I will include his phone number just as a FYI or to let you know I'm standing by and I'm listening to you, Commissioner. That's what I was trying to say.

Thank you. By the way, Isabel usually does not stay for the whole meeting. She just stays in the beginning. She starts the meetings, makes sure... And she goes on silent.

Yes, today was interesting, and it's good to know these things. It's good that everybody knows everything. It was interesting. It wasn't boring, and I don't regret it. I found it very, very insightful.

So, Isabel, do me a favor and send, especially the two new board members, both my information and Michael's, so they can have it and they can approach us with anything they need.

Absolutely.

Marco and Sandra already have it, so that's why I didn't mention them.

Yeah. So, that's the remaining pillars. All right, you guys, enough jokes from me for one minute.

And if any of you decide to show up tomorrow at our 80th anniversary party, please approach me. I'd like to meet you in person.

Definitely. I sadly won't be able to make it. Tomorrow we have the kickoff for Bounce Back from Cancer, which I'm a big part of.

You're a big part of everything. I don't know how the hell you live.

I do my best and I involve the children as much as I can so that they all feel part of it. Actually, I was not expecting you here tonight.

I thought you'd be in Colombia. Yeah.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You know, like I had said I was going to make it, and, you know, I was here, so, you know. Even if I would have been in Colombia at the time, I would make, you know, my best, you know, I think. I would not have allowed that. No, no, thank you. You know, when I was in, we traveled in the summer, but, again, we were in Europe, so we had a different time zone, so it was harder. But, you know, even if I would have been in Colombia, it would only have been one hour difference. But thank you anyway.

You're entitled to your travels. Thank you, thank you. So the other three, if you show up tomorrow at the 80th, please come over and say hello.

Yeah, I'm not able to, unfortunately, tomorrow. We are, funny enough, finalizing our budgets.

I'm going to definitely try to make it.

It'll be a fun event.

I did make it to the one last week, the one about the police. That was fun, too.

And you didn't come over and say hello?

You know, I actually made it a little late. So it might have been possible that you left by the time that I came in. Because I did see Chief Noriega. I did see Goran. And I did see Julie. And I saw Officer Polanco. And then, you know, a few other faces.

You didn't see the presentation that we made? No, no, no. I came after that. See, I showed up just for the presentation.

Yeah, no, my bad, my bad.

But we have too many events going on all over the place, but you're always welcome to join us. Thank you. So then, Lars, would you ask for a motion to conclude the meeting, please, adjourn the meeting?

Yeah, I move to adjourn the meeting.

All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Meeting is adjourned.

Have a good evening. Bye.