Remarks by Dr. Glen Spiritis
247 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 4 of 10
- Play at 17:49
“Walter, can we get the presentation up, please?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 18:56
“So, Director Sherman, with the request of the debt service, bonding, do we have an opinion of council that says whether or not the loan, I guess, that we're going to be taking for the City Hall project is not considered a bond and doesn't count towards THE CITY'S BONDING RATE LIMIT?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 19:35
“NEW SPEAKER EXCUSE ME, WE DID HAVE A PROPOSAL FROM THEM. AND IN THEIR PROPOSAL, IT SAID THAT THEY WERE GOING TO BE LEASING, AND THAT'S WHAT THE PREVIOUS CITY MANAGER TOLD ME, WE'RE GOING TO BE city hall so my question and i asked you this once before at a meeting is does this count towards the city's bonding limit and that's going to impact this as well so i would like to know something in writing an opinion from legal counsel telling us whether or not this counts towards our bonding limit or does not so if you have a capital and i can i can get something for you but and i'll i'll go there…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 20:39
“So then it will be counted towards our bonding?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 20:45
“I finally got the answer that I've been looking for.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 20:52
“I think the city should have a written opinion from bond council on that anyway. Certainly, we can do that.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 21:46
“Yes, Chair. I'm sorry for taking this up, but these are really important issues. Here we are now, you lowered the bonding limit, the percentage on the millage for the bond. Did you include the possibility that we might bond that $60 million in capital?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 26:09
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 26:17
“Okay, so the full $115 million. My concern to the City Council is not too different than the previous speaker. If this homestead law gets passed, we're going to lose $9 to $10 million. So do we have a plan B? What happens in November if this gets approved? What are we gonna do with our budget at that point? Do we have an exit ramp, a plan B where we can cut things at that point where we're over? I don't wanna do it at the last minute. We shouldn't have this pass and then all of a sudden we're running around like chickens without a head trying to figure out what we're gonna do with the budget.…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 28:59
“So you're looking at the 40 employees and going back to 2022, but I don't know if that's going to do it because we have contractual obligations. We gave substantial raises from 2022 to now. So 40 may not do it.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 31:24
“I mean, you'd have to go back and start cutting out certain programs.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 33:27
“Okay, so two more questions. I'm sorry, I just want to GET THIS OUT BECAUSE WE'RE VOTING AND IT'S OVER AFTER WE VOTE. SAND, YOU HAVE $1 MILLION BUDGETED AS PER THE COUNTY CONTRACT FOR SAND FOR SINGER ISLAND THIS YEAR. AND WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO DO THAT AGAIN NEXT YEAR AS PER OUR AGREEMENT. YOU HAVE THAT IN THE BUDGET?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 33:48
“YOU KNOW THAT WE'RE PROBABLY GOING TO HAVE TO, UNLESS THE CITY MANAGER IS SUCCESSFUL, AND I KNOW I'VE BEEN LOBBYING THE COUNTY COMMISSION, HOPEFULLY THEY'LL COME TO THE PLATE AND PAY THEIR SHARE AND HONOR THEIR CONTRACT WITH US, AND I KNOW THERE'S EXIT RAMS THAT THEY COULD USE TO GET OUT OF THE CONTRACT, YOU KNOW, WHICH THEY'VE DONE ALREADY, AND HOPEFULLY THEY WILL COME BACK TO THE TABLE. THEY SAID THAT THEY ARE WILLING TO COME BACK TO THE TABLE IN THE FUTURE. HOPEFULLY THIS IS THE FUTURE. BUT WE HAVE TO BE PREPARED, HOPEFULLY UNDER THE DISASTER FUND, WE CAN GET THE ADDITIONAL $3 MILLION…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 36:18
“not sure why we even had that discussion then at the briefing when you said there was a 12 million dollar deficit if you would have explained it the way you just explained it now it would make more sense so you were talking about future budget the next year's budget and what the staff was asking not about the existing situation correct so existing we're we're right now on a balanced budget and we're headed to have a surplus of about a fund balance of about We'll have a bigger fund balance right from the previous years. What will our actual fund balance be?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 36:58
“So these aren't monies that you've already put into the next year's budget, are they? That fund balance or is that monies that we can't?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 37:09
“So we can't, well. It depends how you look at it. But we do have the ability to rebudget that fund balance money for other items, correct?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 37:24
“Right. And do we know what the cash component of that is?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 38:00
“So then the fund balance will only be really $3 million. The rest of it is on paper based on cash and cash income coming in. When do you think that that will go? Well, it won't go up. It'll stay the same. That cash will stay the same at the end of the year.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 38:19
“So we'll have about $3 million is what you're projecting. Okay, thank you.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 40:37
“So then you didn't ask the department heads to cut anything from this year's budget?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 40:57
“I'm talking about this current fiscal year did we ask the employees to cut their budgets from this fiscal year no no let's go here now so it's only the future so instead of asking for a five percent increase you told them to stick to a two percent increase correct okay you think that would be enough if this new law gets passed”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 41:32
“Okay, so then when the department heads do this, we save jobs. I'm sorry? If the departments do this correctly, we should be able to save some positions in the city rather than having to eliminate those positions. What did you figure that in with the 40 already? It'll save you from having to lay off individuals. So it will save us. Okay. So that's why it's important. And I just want to go for the record. I want to agree with Mayor Lawson. There are certain positions that actually make us money. We don't lose money. We make money from them, like in the governmental affairs department. I think…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 52:46
“So thank you, Mayor, for bringing that up and letting the public know where we were and where we are right now. As you know, Director Sherman, CDM has already put in an application for resiliency funds as well. And there are other funding sources out there that we're going for at this time. But I have been meeting with our congressional representatives on trying to get the WIPIA interest rate down. And I think I'm hoping that we will be successful in doing so. And that will make obviously the WIFIA program much more competitive. What are our interest rates right now?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 53:46
“right now we're probably closer to four and a half where we were with the 115 million so it's four and a half compared to 5.2 is it with you with 5.2 okay so the what what's the fixed rate though if you don't count srf because srf gives us not only money i think the public should know that the usrf they're probably going to get a 20 grant out of that as well as a loan interest loan uh but so what's the fixed rate on the on the uh the market rate that you went out in the general market?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 54:23
“About 4.5%. Okay. So we're basically looking for less than 2%. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026