City Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome to Cloudcast, where you get an inside look at St. Cloud, Florida's local government. Whether you live, work, or play here, we're bringing you the information you need to better understand your city. Cloudcast is hosted by our communications team, including Mariam Abacholder, Andrew Sullivan, Deborah Carson, and Jay Bemeler. Thanks for listening in to Cloudcast.

Welcome back, St. Cloud, to another edition of Cloudcast. I'm Mary Emma from the city's communications department. And joining me in studio, as always, is J.B. Miller.

Hey, everybody.

And our special guest today, our city manager, Veronica Miller. Hello. And our finance director, we call him Coop, Jeff Cooper.

Greetings.

Guys, thanks for joining us today. We are here to talk about what may at first blush sound kind of boring, our budget for the new fiscal year. People don't find budgeting fun. Listen, I'm a word girl. Numbers are boring to me. But, you know, when there's pretty pictures like we do have in this, it's yeah. But no, all kidding aside, very important topic. We spend a lot of money on behalf of our citizens every year. And this podcast is an attempt, again, to just be very clear with our residents about where the money that we get comes from and what kinds of things that we spend it on. So I appreciate you guys being here in studio with us today. Coop, let's start with you. Our budget this year, talk to me a little bit about the millage rate.

Okay. Our millage rate is proposed to be 5.1128. That will be the 14th straight year that has remained the same. That is 3.45% above the rollback rate, which is 4.9423. So we're maintaining the same millage rate as we have for the past 14 years.

Right. And that's no small feat, keeping that rate the same. Now, as we all know, property values have increased over that 14-year period. So we're generating additional revenue that's helping us keep up with providing services to our residents as the city continues to grow. What's our total budget for the year?

Our total budget for all funds is $231.3 million, and of that, the general fund, which is $94.5 million.

Okay. And general fund takes care of paying for what kinds of services?

58% of that is public safety, police and fire. Approximately 10% is parks, with the remainder, the administrative services that support those areas, as well as public works, streets, and traffic.

Okay, okay. So a big chunk of that is public safety, so our police and fire. And I think that's important to note because we have a great, very professional police department and fire department here in the city. They serve our residents well. You know when you call, our crews are going to be there and they're going to be there quickly. And that focus, Veronica, on public safety has been important to you, I know, as city manager since you came in. Talk a little bit about some of the improvements and things that have been funded and prioritized with public safety during your tenure here as city manager.

Well, so since I became city manager in 22, we have, I mean, you can drive through St. Cloud and see the current construction efforts happening right now with our fire department. They have station 32 being updated, complete rebuild. We have station 30, I believe it's 35 on Neptune Road that's under construction, brand new station. Yes. We had outgrown our administration. We found an amazing deal on a piece of property. We went ahead and purchased that to move our administration in there, which fire administration, which will help them grow in the future. And also, I think there's some plans for that building to do more and be more accessible. Additionally, our police department is currently expanding. Phase one is moving forward of the new police headquarters. And so hoping to see that on an upcoming city council agenda in one or two months. But that would be the contract to begin construction of phase one, which will include new emergency operations center. It will include a new dispatch agency.

Yeah. And that building is on Canoe Creek Road on some land that the city already owns, or building will be on the land that we own there on Canoe Creek Road. And as you mentioned, it's ultimately going to be a new headquarters for PD. But initially, very importantly, our emergency operations center will be there and our dispatch center will be there. A lot of people may not know our dispatch center is triple accredited, which is not a super common thing. That's high praise for them and they've worked hard to earn that triple accreditation. They do a great job and it just really is begging for more space just again as we grow and so forth. So our team does a great job, but we are looking forward to be able to move that into a new building, expanded space and increase the technology that goes with that. And, you know, when you think about first responders, a lot of people kind of skip right over those 911 dispatchers, but they are the absolute first line, right? When horrible things happen, those people that pick up that phone are your first line of defense in that.

And I'm pretty happy to say that in this upcoming year's budget, we're actually adding some additional dispatchers to the staff. Awesome.

Yeah, so great things going on there. And our Emergency Operations Center, for those of you who don't work in government and have never had this opportunity, when things such as hurricanes or big events or big issues come up, The Emergency Operations Center is where kind of the hub of where everything runs out of, right? So all of the operations, the logistics, the planning, everything is run out of that one place, which allows us to coordinate with other agencies and jurisdictions that are responding and allows us to more centrally coordinate control our response to it to make sure that we are as efficient as we absolutely can be in responding and taking care of that. I know I look around this table, several of us have been involved in those operations. It takes all hands on deck, but having everybody in that one room is so critical to communication, With the operations in the field and so forth and getting things. So again, and our current EOC, I'm not sure how old that building is. It's probably older than I am. I think it was part of the original electric utility that eventually we moved into it.

It's a World War II surplus.

Okay, yeah, there we go. It feels like it. And it's very small. I mean, we make it work, but you got to really be friends and have great deodorant when you're working in there for a 72-hour deployment. So that's going to be another big asset. And again, will only benefit our residents because it will absolutely enhance our ability to do what we got to do when needed. when bad things happen, when storms come our way and so forth. And then you failed to mention in the fire, we also have opened Station 34 on Nora Tyson. And a new training center. And a new training center. On Court Avenue. Yes.

And I believe we also did that for the police department. Police also, yeah. We added facilities for them on Court. Right.

We've really prioritized public safety to include police, fire, emergency management and all those things.

So we actually added the emergency manager position a year ago because we'd had so many. As soon as I became city manager, I think it was three weeks and I think Hurricane Ian came to visit.

Right.

And then we had a cyber attack. It was one, two, three. And so we went ahead and moved forward with an emergency manager. And, you know, that's the thing you have. Knock on wood, you hear me knocking on the table. Those are things you have to bring on staff and it helps increase our odds of good blue sky weather.

I was going to say, I feel like just by the fact that we have a full-time emergency manager now kind of keeps all of the emergencies at bay. The minute that person goes on vacation, look out. So he's not allowed to have any vacations. But so, yeah. So and as Coop alluded to, More than half of our general fund budget goes to public safety in some form. General fund is funded, Coop, is it entirely funded through property taxes or where does the funding for that come from?

No, the primary funding source for the general fund is property taxes, 38.5% for this upcoming year. Our other larger funding sources are an interlocal agreement with OUC. We currently receive 9.75% of their residential sales, their electric sales. And then the third would be the same type of interlocal agreement with the Toho Water Authority. And then some of our others are sales tax, grants, EMS, transport charge, and so forth.

Okay. Okay. And we haven't talked about a department that touches pretty much every resident. I won't even say pretty much. Touches every resident every week, and that's our solid waste department. They're not part of general fund. They are an enterprise fund. Talk to me a little bit about how that's different and how they are funded.

Correct. So they're not part of the general fund. They're self-supporting what's referred to as a proprietary fund, business operations, if you will. So they're funded with the charges for services that are currently billed through your TOHO water bills, and they have to always operate in the black. So that's why you see the rates going up from time to time because their charges say to go to the landfill, Their fuel charges, the charges for the staff go up over the course of time.

But we also apply for grants for solid waste, too. And I believe this year we received a grant to purchase three new trucks, if I remember correctly. So, you know, we're always looking for ways to help keep the rates down.

Do we use any impact fees to purchase like additional trucks to cover new growth? That's something that we started a few years ago. Okay.

Historically, you know, it wasn't something St. Cloud did, but we did start doing that. I don't know, maybe how many years ago? Eight? Yeah.

Yes, it was prior to my time, but we do have the sanitation impact fee fund. So each new resident pays, I believe it's 600 and something dollars each new, not resident, but for each new home. And so as we add new routes, those funds are utilized to purchase the truck. We're in the process of purchasing some new cans, disposal cans for the new routes that are going to start October 1st.

But I want to point out impact fees can only be for new things. That's one of the things that when I talk to citizens, it's a big confusion. We can't use them to replace an existing truck or to fix an existing problem. It's only for new stuff. I wish we could use it. Right.

So and yes, like when we're in the community, we get a lot of questions and confusion about that. Like, well, you get all these impact fees. What are you doing with them? But it has to be used for new growth. So if we annex a bunch of property in and now we need a new truck to service these communities, we could use impact fees to purchase that new truck that's going to serve those areas. Correct? Yes. But if we have trucks that have been running these same routes for 10 years, that's not an impact fee purchase.

Or when that new truck needs replaced in seven years, that is no longer impact fees. Right.

Yes. Yes. And let's just talk a little bit about impact fees anyway. Obviously, we collect them in a very, we have parks and rec impact fees. Veronica, talk to me a little bit about some of the other ways that we use impact fees in the city or COOP, whoever wants to field this one.

Well, the primary purpose that we currently use police and fire impact fees now is for debt service to repay the debt that was taken for the two new fire stations and the public safety complex phase one. And then we also use it for new police vehicles. We used it for the fire engines and ambulances for the new stations.

Okay, great. We're also using, you mentioned Parks and Rec. Yeah. So the new ball fields, the debt service that Coop's talking about, Parks and Recreation impact fees are helping to pay the debt service for those new ball fields that we have on 17th Street. And Hopkins Park has been planned as part of that debt to be redesigned, I guess, and part of that was going to be impact fee eligible. Yeah.

And so while we're on the topic of debt service, this debt service that we're currently paying is not repaid with the general fund or ad valorem taxes in any way, shape, or form. It's repaid with the combination of parks, police, fire impact fees, and the remainder paid from the 1% surcharge fund. So, the sales tax. It's a sales tax one. So, our ad valorem taxes go basically primarily directly to public safety and are not involved in this debt service.

And I think that's a very important distinction to make because sometimes we'll see comments about, you know, you're spending, you know, quote, unquote, my tax money on... debt or on, you know, you built these ball fields and I don't use ball fields. What do I care and stuff? And so that's a very important distinction to make is so many of these projects are funded not by existing residents and their property taxes. They're funded by new growth and the impact fees that are being paid by developers as they're building each of these new residences. Right, right. Okay. But the maintenance of those facilities then becomes... That becomes part of our operations budget. Yes, yes. So, Veronica, let's switch gears a little bit. One of the things that I know has been a priority for you has been... reducing and ultimately eliminating our use of what's called in Coop's world, prior year fund balance. I always make him boil it down to like fifth grade for me, because again, I'm a word girl. What are these numbers, right? And it's equivalent to your savings account at home. Like you've got a savings account where you're putting money away and And that way, if your air conditioning system goes out or you need to buy a new refrigerator, you've got money over there for what in city world would be like a capital project or capital purchase, right? But your month-to-month expenses, your personal operating budget, if you will, you don't want to be using your savings account to have to pay your water and power bill every month, right? So it's that type of a thing. So our prior year fund balance... really is supposed to be kind of that savings account that we would use for one-time purchases and so forth. But for many decades, the city's kind of just normal operation had been that we were using prior year fund balance to balance the budget every year. Talk to me a little bit about why that was a big thing on your radar, why you wanted to get rid of it, and then kind of how you've done it to ultimately, spoiler alert, The new budget for 26-27 is using $0 to balance the budget for this year.

So first of all, the city has been using prior year fund balance for 30 years to balance the budget. And when I became city manager, the city was using $9 million of prior year fund balance to balance the budget. A year, right? A year. Yeah. Right. So I have been working with the departments for four years on eliminating that. We have been working on increasing efficiencies, eliminating...

I can attest to that. Every year, the beatdowns start. No, I'm kidding. It's true. It was a focus in every year's budget meetings.

I came dressed as the Grinch. And and yeah, absolutely. So I've been pushing each of the departments, you know, making them justify why they needed what they they needed. And and for four years, we've been bringing it down. My goal was to do it, you know, in time. But, you know, it's a risk. to be using it if there's any type of emergency. If something happens, we can't be using our savings. We need to have that for those things that are the one-time purchases, something that was unexpected or a project that the citizens want or that the city council wants that would improve St. Cloud and the level of service that makes people want to live here. It's that savings account. Don't just sleep at night. Right.

Like you're not worried. Oh, my God. What if this breaks? Right.

Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. If a recession happened, you know, we didn't want to be in the position that if our revenues dropped, that we would need to use even more because we have to keep so much in it for actual emergencies. Yes. So, yeah, so I will say that this year especially, I pushed back hard on the departments. I think I sent them back to the drawing board three different times. And everyone has a reduction in their budget except for fire. But that was because they just added how many new firefighters, Coop? Four. Yeah. So, I mean, it was impossible, but everyone else has a full reduction.

But those 48, let me just throw this in parenthetically, those were funded through a grant that the city received to hire them. Now, moving forward, of course, they'll be part of our expenses, but... And again, with the growth that we have, we've gone just in my few years here at the city, we've gone from three fire stations to we're about to have six, right? So, I mean, there's a lot of growth and activity here. We have to have bodies and equipment to run them.

And we were prioritizing those things. Yes. And honestly, we were pushing staff to do more with less equipment. so that we could do those things. Because honestly, when I became city manager, I know we were understaffed in both police and fire. And I wish I had the numbers right now. But since I can tell you, we've added quite a few of both of those public safety departments because it was a priority and eliminated prior use of fund balance to balance the budget. You can hear me smiling.

Could I just jump in and say for our listeners out there, we're talking about not using the prior gear fund balance. That's huge. It's just huge across the board. That's all I can say about it. There should be some kind of recognition about that at the next level, but I'm just going to say it's huge for our listeners out there.

It makes a huge difference. And again, maybe it's just me, but And having that what I call rainy day fund out there and making sure that's protected and keep that growing rather than having to rely on it for, wow, 31 years. So it's no small feat to get it eliminated.

And it's going to be painful for some of the departments this coming year. It is.

And I know a lot of us had conversations of... You have to gel things down to selecting between the nice-to-haves and the have-to-haves, right? And no different than we do in our personal budgets or our residents do in their personal budgets when you've got a cut. You cut the stuff that's the nice-to-haves, you know, and you keep the have-to-haves. And it's important to us... that we continue providing the services that we need to provide for our residents. And I know it was said in a recent budget meeting, I mean, this thing is lean, this budget is lean. And a lot of that was because we were cutting The nice to haves, right? To get that zero use of that prior year fund balance.

And we cut things like we have positions that are currently vacant, but they were vacant because of a transition or because someone got promoted into another position. And we froze those positions and pulled them out of the budget. You know, the department was functioning right now without that position. They're going to need to continue functioning without it unless it was mission critical or public safety. Right.

And operational budgets for this coming year were cut by 9.6% across the board, like total. Also, as a note on fund balance for the citizens' information is we are required to keep a minimum per city code. That is 12.5% of the previous year's expenditures. That equates to approximately $10 million. So we have a $10 million minimum fund balance, if you will. And the Governmental Finance Officers Association recommendation is 16.67%, which is two months' worth of operations. That is approximately $12 million. So we can't spend below that. And our fund balance as of September 30th of 2025 was $13.4 million. So we're above the GFOA recommended limit, but it's not like we have a lot of extra money sitting around, so to speak.

And one of the things that I think it's really important, we had all these cuts, but we also were faced with increases that we had to deal with. Our health care has been going up. Our insurance costs for employees has been going up every year over a million dollars. So, you know, we were cutting our operational cuts while still having to meet that cost. So one of the things that we worked on for implementing this year is And it's going to be the first year is a new health care option for employees. And we're in the process right now of having employees sign up for it. And, you know, right now we're having a great response to it. So, you know, our employees are trying to help us to meet to meet this. So I'm really proud of them. Really thankful. Yeah.

I like that note, because to pass on to the citizens, the same inflationary pressure that you're feeling with your personal budgets, the city feels it many times over. So our property insurance rates go up. As the city manager mentioned, our health benefit rates go up. Gas prices. The cost of fuel, the cost of everything, all the products that we use day in, day out, the cost of living for our staff. So we try to keep our staff competitive with, A, the cost of living, and B, with our surrounding communities as well. So we keep the highest level of professional staff that we can.

So, quick question there. You mentioned, Coop, that you're required to keep two months, and that number was $12 million?

Right. It changes every year. It's based upon the total expenditures for the prior year. So, it was approximately $12 million. So, that would be considered the GFOA recommendation. Now, the amount required by city code is only approximately $10 million.

Okay, so basically it costs between five and six million a month to keep the city running. That is correct. That is a big number. Yes, it is.

Yeah, it is. So speaking of big numbers, we've got some capital projects funded for our new budget year. Veronica, you want to talk about a couple of those that are going to be funded for the new year? And I guess before we do that, we can talk about there's some stuff that's already funded that people are going to start seeing as well. Creekwood's Drive Extension, some of those types of things. Yeah. Projects that are already funded are continuing to move forward, and we've got some new things funded in this budget.

And also to note, these are not funded with the general fund or your ad valorem tax dollars, mainly with the mobility impact fee funding for road projects.

Very good distinction. Thank you. We know everyone wants to see new road projects. So we've been focusing on connections, adding new connections where possible to the main road network that we have here in St. Cloud. Obviously, we have some lakes and they're beautiful lakes, but sometimes, you know, I'm like, it's like God decided I'm going to put a lake right where a road would have been perfect. Yeah.

So get your road. This lake is beautiful. Right.

Exactly. Exactly.

So disclaimer, we're not trying to get rid of our lakes. No, not at all. Not at all. Not at all. It just tells us to be a little more creative in our transportation planning. Yes, it does.

East Lake Toho is, you know, beautiful. It's very large. Right. So in Lakeshore, you know, it's the road that I think is becoming very, very popular. So we need to have some additional connections besides Lakeshore. Right.

You've got to preserve that tranquility down there.

Yeah, absolutely. I drive it every day to and from work.

So we've got a couple of different connections added. So we've been working for Massachusetts Avenue. The plan is to extend that. There is a subdivision there. Sky Lakes, I think is what it's called. And so the plan is to extend Massachusetts Avenue South to connect to Sky Lakes and they will have road network that eventually then we will be connecting further south to Nolte Road eventually. And then we also have LaSalle Avenue extension that we're working on. So the intention there is to Orange Avenue currently south of 192, we'll go through a proposed development known as Roan Bridge. And from Roan Bridge at Nolte Road, there's a subdivision called Old Hickory. So we're going to bring LaSalle Avenue north to that road in Old Hickory. So that will be a new north-south connector. Pretty excited about that one also. Yep. And east-west-wise, you mentioned Creekwoods Drive. We've been working on the plans and the designs for that. So that one's coming close to fruition. Also, there's a Furtick Avenue connection that's going to be coming. It's west of Michigan Avenue to connect actually to that Sky Lake subdivision. So again, another east-west option for us there. And I'm sure there's more, but off the top of my head, those are the ones I can remember. Yeah.

And it's important to note, too, and I know most people, you drive on all these roads and they're in St. Cloud and people think, why doesn't the city do a thing about these roads, right? We don't have control of most of the major roadways in the city. Those, you know, 192, of course, is a state road. A lot of our major arterial roads, Canoe Creek and so forth, are county roads. So we do work with them. We partner with them. could expedite certain projects on some of those, whether it's with traffic signals or windings or what have you. We definitely partner with them, but we don't control those roads. We completely understand this is where people are bottlenecked every morning, every afternoon. Obviously, the turnpike, when some of that construction gets done, that's going to help. And staff is bottlenecked, too. You know, there used to be I mean, I've been working for St.

Cloud for over 20 years. There used to be most senior staff didn't live in St. Cloud or in the area. And I'm really proud to say that we do now. We do. Yeah. Now we do. So I would love for all of our residents to know that because people think that it's just a bunch of people from Orlando coming down here, and that's not the way it is anymore.

We live here, too. We live here, too.

We are using the services. We have the same frustrations, and we're working on it.

Yes, yes. And that's an important note, and we've talked about it before, and we've talked about it on this podcast. I think sometimes people think, you know, the city, I put in quotation marks, is this big faceless blob. But you know what? I see... people in Publix all the time on the weekends and I love them. I got no makeup on, my hair's a mess, whatever, but I knew them from Citizens Academy, right? Like we live here too. This is our community. We also care about it. We love it.

I think I bumped into both of you at Publix at different times.

And we kind of argue over whose Publix that is, but yeah. But to your point, I mean, just in the, I've been here for a little over six years now, the number of traffic lights I have between here and home has greatly increased in that six years, right? That's fine. And when I came here, I was like, wow, this is a lot of open space, you know, on the east side of town. And that's growing up, but that's part of Florida. Yeah. And that's not a thing that we control. The landowners can sell their land to who they want to and get their zoning and build whatever's going to get built there.

We should have a discussion about that another day because there's so much information on that that I would love to help spread the truth.

Mary Emma also very much loves wide open pastures and low hanging fog and cows, but I don't own that land. So yeah, but yeah, another topic for another day. So as we kind of land this plane on the budget, is there anything additional that either of you think of that is important for our residents to know or that you really want to know, want to share for this before we wrap it up?

From my perspective, I'm known as the Scrooge, and I'm sitting next to the Grinch Coast, so I can assure you that we're utilizing your tax dollars as efficiently and effectively as possible. You know, elsewhere they pointed out the potential waste. I do not see it here at all, so...

We have incentives to employees if they can identify a cost savings. We've put this out as an incentive program for employees. Help us identify the savings and we give them a small portion of the savings as an incentive to keep finding more. And we want that feedback.

And that's a thing that's been going for years, right? Like we have been actively for several years looking for ways to save money. And like you said, incentivizing employees to say, hey, here's the thing we're spending money on. We can do it more efficiently and less expensive this other way. This is one of the things I put in place. It gets reviewed, and if it goes through, it's a win-win. The employee gets a little bit of incentive for it, and the city saves money from that point forward on this thing. So it's, you know, and to your point, it's another thing that you put into place to help us be more efficient and make sure that we are utilizing every dollar that we get in the most efficient way possible.

And we also have budget links available on the city website. So we're fully transparent. Whatever questions you might have, I will be more than happy to answer anyone's questions.

Yeah. Coop is the guy who will pick up the phone and talk to you about budgets all day. He loves numbers. He loves talking.

My number's actually on your tax bill.

There you go. Next to St.

Cloud.

Come tax time.

My phone, you know, rings regularly. It rings a lot. explain what those city taxes are and what they pay for just as we've done today.

Yeah. And he mentioned the website. And certainly if you go onto our website, which is stcloudfl.gov, a couple of places you can do, go to the finance page and you've got all the information on our budget or this draft budget for 2026 is available. We will take this to two public hearings in September for council to vote on. The community is welcome to come and speak and provide their input on either or both of those public hearings.

September 10th and September 17th.

Great. And those will be at 630 here in City Hall at council chambers. We also have a page and the easiest way to find it, if you go to the website, stcloudfl.gov, do slash property taxes. We've got tabbed information there on where our taxes come from and where they're spent. It's boiled down to where even Miriam can understand it. It's pretty graphs and charts and so forth. It just gives you a very clear picture of where our money's coming from and what we're spending it on on behalf of our residents. So anybody else have any last burning questions or comments we want to make here?

I just want to say how proud I am of all of our staff for putting together this budget as much as I pushed back and, you know, where we got to with it and the support we had from the city council on the cuts that we've got proposed. It was a lot of work from a lot of people. And, you know, thank you to everybody and staff did a great job. So heavy left, we got it done.

Yeah. I would echo that. We're the ones sitting in this podcast, but all the directors put in an immense amount of work to make their budgets as efficient as possible. So if you as citizens know or see any of them, please pass on your thanks for utilizing your tax dollars as efficiently as possible.

Well, and none of that happens without good leadership at the top. So kudos to you. Kudos to Council for supporting through all of this. And we look forward to many more years of providing great services to our residents. So thank you for joining us for Cloudcast today. And we look forward to talking to you again soon.

Thanks for stopping by.

Bye, everybody. Thank you. Bye.

That's it for this edition of Cloudcast. Don't forget to like, follow, rate, and review. And we'll see you next time on Cloudcast.