City Commission - public_hearing

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to our first budget hearing, September 8th, 2026. The time is now six o'clock on the dot. Madam Clerk, roll call.

Commissioner Bass. Here. Commissioner Irvin. Natasha Irvin, here. Vice Mayor Kelly.

Present.

Commissioner Santiago.

Here.

Mayor Taylor.

John Taylor, here. Can we stand by invocation? Thank you. Madam Clerk, go ahead. I'm like...

Father God, in the name of Jesus, we come together to say thank you, Lord. Thank you for this day that you have given us. Father, now we ask you that you be in the midst and allow us to make great decisions for this great city, Father God, so we can bring it forward to where you wanted us to be. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

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

All right, so Madam Clerk, what we'll do is we'll go ahead and read, have the attorney read the ordinances and to the record, we'll entertain a motion and a second at that time, allow you to explain, explain it, and then we'll open up a public hearing, okay? Madam Clerk, you got it?

Okay. Madam Attorney, 5-1. An ordinance of the City Commission of the City of Opelika, Florida, adopting a final millage rate pursuant to Section 2. 0.065, Florida statues for fiscal year, 2026 through 2027, commencing October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027, setting forth public hearing dates, providing for adoption of representations, providing for repeal of all prior ordinances and conflict, providing for severability, providing for an effective date. This is sponsored by the city manager.

All right, can I have a motion? Move it. Second. Second by Commissioner Santiago. Madam Manager.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Commission. This is to set our final millage rate, and we have not made any changes as previously adopted by the City Commission. I'll ask Mr. Harris, our budget administrator, to approach the podium, and he will go ahead and give a presentation.

One second, Mr. Harris. So this is a public hearing item. We're going to open up a public hearing. Public hearing is open. Hearing none, seeing none, public hearing is closed. Mr. Floyd.

Good evening, Commissioner and Mayor. My name is Floyd Harris, Budget Administrator. The item before you tonight is to approve the city's final millage rate for FY2027. the city tentatively approve the millage rate at the July 22nd meeting of 8.9797 mills. And that is 5.66 higher than the city's rollback rate of 8.4988 mills. This millage rate will bring in an additional $1.3 million. These revenues will be offset by $1.2 million in contractual costs for the police department and $250 in repayment to the state's red light camera program, to the city's red light program that we didn't pay 10 years back.

Got it. Any questions to Mr. Floyd on the military? Mr. Mayor. Commissioner Santiago.

Yeah, that's something that we discussed in early. I'm so happy that we're not raising the middle rate. Thank God that we take that decision because we're giving some relief to the residents, the taxpayers for the great city of Polanco. But what I see is, you know, the money that we're going to receive, I think we were talking before about $1.7 million, something like that. Let me see if I'm writing down somewhere here. And my point with that is, yeah, we're going to receive a little bit more revenue for the fiscal year, but we have so much Spencer that we left before when this come out of bill that we had to pay back to the Florida State. I hope that that don't happen in the future when all the new leaders that we're going to have in the future.

All right. Any other questions or concerns? All right. So, Mr. Floyd, and to the manager, you know, we talked about the millage rate. I'm happy that it's staying the same, but I wish we would have lowered it. And I do understand the comparison between the millage rate being 5.6 higher than the rollback rate, which gives us that cushion, one point something mil, but I wish we would have lowered it.

stayed on that track record but i understand i understand i understand so um any other concerns or we can call the question madam clerk commissioner irvin yes vice mayor kelly yes commissioner santiago yes commissioner bass yes mayor taylor yes motion passes five zero first reading all right moving on to item five two

In ordinance of the City Commission of the City of Opelika, Florida, approving and adopting the City's general proprietary and special funds budget for the fiscal year 2026 through 2027, commencing October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027, providing for the expenditure of funds established by the budget, authorizing the City Manager to take certain actions, providing for appropriation of all budget expenditures, providing for fees consistent with appropriation and amendment, and providing for adoption of representations, providing for conflict and repealer, providing for severability, providing for an effective date. This is sponsored by the city manager.

All right. This is a public hearing item, but can I have a motion? Second. Moved by Vice Mayor Kelly, second by Commissioner Irvin. Madam Manager.

So. Good afternoon again. This is the budget that was previously submitted to the city commission and had to be sent to the state by August 1st as required. Mr. Harris will speak to you with regards to some recommendations that we did receive back from the state. However, we have not made any changes within the current document.

Okay. Before you present those recommendations, this is a public hearing item. Public hearing is open. Hearing none saying none public hearing is close. What's the floor?

Good evening again. Good evening again, commissioners and mayor. So this is to approve this. This is the 1st reading to approve the city's fiscal year. 2027. Budget this budget was tentatively approved tentatively approved back in July and sent to the state. Open revision from the state, they. Mentioned a few items, which. we could look at or reduce or eliminate such items included education, travel for staff, clothing slash uniform for staff. The manager decided against it.

Go ahead, go ahead.

And hence the number stayed the same since the workshop. That number is $71,719,611. 71 million. 719611. Okay.

And Madam Manager, are you going to present the recommendation from the state?

He just asked.

I'm sorry. No, no, he briefed it. But because he said it came from education, travel, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot. So is there a breakdown of what he actually said?

No, it was basically making recommendations to eliminate or reduce some of the education within some of the departments for staff. And I don't agree with that. We're going to remain. We're going to keep it as is.

Got it. So then what you provided with us today, which is this document, what are we looking at here?

Mr. Harris, that's the document that you emailed today.

So the top page of the document represents Division 19, which was a question asked at the agenda briefing today. The document that says FY27 budget amendments workshop, that is a reconciliation that happened between what was presented by staff at the workshop and the changes that were made by the commission at the workshop. So it's a snapshot? Yes. And provides what, okay. Changes happened at the workshop.

So the changes took place in Parks and Rec? Yes. And police department, Parks and Rec and the police department?

Yes.

Okay, so before we attack that... do we have any questions or concerns on any other departmental budget for mr harris that's commission city manager non-departmental city clerk city attorney finance hr housing community development building and licensing code enforcement beautification um pw admin pw street public works um so water um distribution sewer meter CIP management, stormwater, town center, people's transportation, debt services, AARP. These guys are lost. I made no changes. IT, special law enforcement, law enforcement training, safe neighborhood, water sewer CIP, stormwater CIP, and I missed risk management. Do you have any questions on those topics?

Well, no, no question, because I think that we need all that thing that we have here. The only the two points that they mentioned in before the Tallahassee request, you know, to us, don't do not give me, you know, like, or cut it out the uniform for the employments. And the education that we need for everybody, you know, working in the police department, public works, co-enforcement, I think that's necessary to have that type of service in the city for the city employees. One other thing is, I'm okay with everything. We're going to receive like $10 million left of the last year. That's how I understand. Last year, we had like $84 million. $80.4. $80.4. 8-0 poker. Well, okay, yeah, we have, what, like $8 million or $9 million less. Okay, that's a bit different.

Can I say something, Commissioner? Not to cut you off. That's because of the ARPA. We no longer have the ARPA funds that we had in last year's budget, so that's why it's less this year.

I understand perfectly. No, I was just responding. Yeah, okay. My point is, okay, yeah, now we have to see very carefully. We're only going to have $71 million, you know, in our budget for the next fiscal year. And if we're going to reduce something, the dollar has to, you know, order to us. I don't know how can they don't talking about, you know, cities events, all these events that we have.

So that's one of the items that we're going to address tonight. Okay, good. I just wanted to make sure that we had no questions on the other things that were no changes.

Yeah, Mr. Mayor, the only thing is that I don't like to detouch anything about the two requirements or what they tell to us to do, you know, in this budget to cut it out, you know, the training for the employment, you know, for the city and the uniform. We need uniform. We need, you know, to make our city employment look professional in the street.

It was a recommendation. We're not going to move forward with that recommendation.

I don't like it. I don't like that recommendation from them.

And what you have before you is what was discussed in the workshop versus what we already included in the document. It's just to show because some requests were made during the workshop, which we've already incorporated in this document, and that's what went to the state. So the document that you have before you is the same exact document that already went to the state.

All right. You got that? You got it? Well, yeah, for now I'm good. All right. So let's start with the low-hanging fruit, the easier one, the police. Those changes you can explain, and then we'll go with what the commission is probably going to dive into the longest, which is Parks and Rec. So the police department, there were a couple changes on the paper. You want to explain it really quick? Yeah.

First change was to increase the contractor services from $50,000 to $200,000. And that is to cover the cost of their new equipment that they're purchasing, body-worn cameras and tasers. Okay. We had to reduce their travel per diem because of historical costs. They haven't spent $10,000 for the past three years. So that one we brought in line with the actual expense of $5,000. We moved the expense in machinery and equipment to contracted services. We increased their office supplies to show actual expenses from $5,000 to $11,000. Software maintenance, we increased that by $11,300 to include service for poor DMS service that is exclusively used by the police department. There was a included 554 books in the police department. That was an error that was removed. Furniture was reduced by $2,500 to 5,000. Community policing was reduced at the advice of the chief. So to the Explorer program and the vehicle purchase, that was error correction. They already received 11 vehicles this year. There is no need for another vehicle. And they also got $6,000 to cover the cost of computer equipment related to the new software they're getting for Oracle. That's supposed to buy keyboard.

Got it. All right. So do we have any questions for Mr. Floyd or the manager as it relates to the police department and the changes submitted?

Mr. Mayor, I really cannot say much either because I want to get out of here. Contractor service, you're moving to make that $200,000, and I didn't quite hear your explanation of what that's going to be.

What was the reason for it? That's going to cover their body cameras and taser.

By the cameras and tasers? Yes. So that's new for every officer? Yes, yes. For the whole department? Entire department. Okay, so the ones that they have now, whatever they have now, what are you going to do with those?

I think the chief was saying they're going to be returned to the vendor.

They're part of our contractual agreement? Because we leased them or something?

Yeah, it's going to be a swap out.

They're swapping them out? So we're getting some kind of discount for swapping them out?

Yes.

Okay, what is that? Do you know what that discount is? No, sir. Okay. You don't hold the meeting, but I'd like to know what the discount is. It was reduced. Is that the reason for that? We're kind of up to speed now on it.

Yeah. Initially, we had budgeted $20,000 for this fiscal year, and that included the initial purchase of everything that they needed to get the program up and running. So now that it's up and running, the immediate high cost is not necessarily there anymore. So they've reduced some uniform expense and some activity expense. But let us know what it looks like. I would like to cut all of the events so we can focus on.