Local Planning Agency - Special Meeting

I'd like to call to order this special commission meeting of the Stewart City Commission budget workshop number one on August 10th, 2026 at 3 p.m. Mary, if you could do the roll call.

Mayor Reed.

Here.

Commissioner Clark. Here. Commissioner Giobbe. Here. Commissioner Ritt.

Here. And if you could join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Next up, we have a budget presentation for fiscal year 2027.

Thank you, Mayor. Good afternoon, commissioners and citizens of Stuart. Today is the first day of a very public process to present, review, analyze, revise, and adopt a fiscal year 2027 City of Stuart budget. The budget process is not a one-time event. Budgeting is a continuous process throughout the year. At the City of Stuart, because we have a very experienced staff, we are able to analyze our plan and our execution in real time. to adjust both our planning process itself, which formally takes place between April and August, and the execution of our precious resources throughout the entire year and beyond when it comes to multi-year capital projects. Our intent with this budget is to provide the highest level of local government service in a safe, efficient, and fiscally responsible way. I want to thank the city's budget and procurement manager, Anthony Cooling, each city director and their staff in working very hard to deliver this balanced plan that meets our intent. I also want to thank the commissioners and citizens in advance for their support and constructive input that will undoubtedly improve the product we seek to have adopted a little bit more than a month from now. Additional information on methodology is contained in my transmittal memorandum inside the budget book. Now, may I present to you our financial services director, Kate Ambrosini, who will give the FY27 budget presentation.

Thank you. Good afternoon, commissioners. Before we get started in the presentation today, I wanted to make a note that the draft 27 budget book is available online. So this presentation is gonna review high-level information in that book. That book includes detail by department, including narratives, revenues, expenses, as well as financial policies, really all things budget. So obviously we won't go into that level of detail today in our presentation. It's just to give you an idea that it's out there, and we'll hit the key points in today's presentation. So where did we start? So last time we were here with you in July, we had revenues of about $49.5 million as well as expenses of about $54.3 million. So we started out of balance about $4.8 million. It's a little rough, but we got there. With ad valorem at five mils, we have about $19.1 million in total ad valorem. 3.3 of that anticipated to go to CRA, leaving a net of $15.8 million, or $870,000 approximately, of new funds for this fiscal year. Since then, we knew we had our union obligations, we knew our taxable revenues for CRA in general, and we knew our departmental initial requests. At that time, what we didn't know was our state revenues, our Cigna insurance increase for employees. At that time, we are estimating between nine and 11.5%. We did not know FRS rates, and we also did not know a final millage rate. So there were a lot of unknowns when we came to you in July. Since then, we'll take a look at what we know now. We do have our Cigna insurance increase of about 8.8%, so that's 2.7% less than what we originally anticipated. FRS rates are about a 5% increase, and departmental requests came in. Working with the city manager, we did request that the departments review their operating budgets and make a 5% reduction. They completed that task with about $850,000 decrease or savings to the city. What we still do not know is our state revenue. That's still the outstanding variable. All things combined, all the calculations done, I know Mr. Cooling worked very hard on making sure everything came into play and we accounted for everything we needed to, leaving general fund revenues at $50.2 million and general fund expenses just under that about $50.2 million, but about $16,000 less in expenses than we expect in revenues. So thus far, a relatively balanced budget in general fund. This is, of course, estimating 5 mils. If there were to be any reduction in the millage, it's about a $316,000 reduction that we would have to make additional cuts for every 0.1 mil that we would lower it. So I think before we get into the details, I think it's important to look at what the departments cut because it's a look at what we're essentially not receiving or services that we're not getting as a result of making those adjustments. So police, about 250,000, highlight of some of their cuts is overtime adjustments as well as small capital items such as body cameras and drones. Fire, about $200,000 in small capital items such as thermal imaging units, as well as repairs and maintenance. Public Works, about $230,000 in planned capital improvements, and they were able to transfer $50,000 to CRA for funding. They also have delayed road resurfacing and stormwater projects that will be delayed with the current budget. TECHNOLOGY CUT ABOUT 100,000 IN SMALL CAPITAL ITEMS, COMMUNITY SERVICES ABOUT 70,000 IN LOCAL EXPENSES, AND OTHER CUTS THROUGHOUT THE DEPARTMENTS INCLUDING SUPPLIES, TRAINING AND CONFERENCES, AND VARIOUS OTHER ITEMS ACROSS THE BUDGET. Before we get into the details, I think it's important to understand the structure. We talk a lot about general fund, but our budget is more than just general fund. So the accounts of the City of Stewart are organized based on funds and account groups, each of which is considered a separate accounting entity, so we cannot commingle funds. The operations of each fund are accounted for with a separate set of self-balancing accounts that comprise assets, liabilities, fund equity, revenue, as well as expenses. Government resources are allocated to and accounted for in individual funds based on the purpose for which they intend to be spent, and the city prepares the annual budgets for governmental funds and enterprise funds. So being able to see that breakdown of the enterprise funds being water and sewer, sanitation, as well as stormwater, and governmental funds, including general fund, as well as those special revenue funds. So diving right in revenue for all funds overall, looking at the big picture, $108 million in total general fund being, like I said, just shy of that $50.2 million, uh, or about 46% landfill and property, small 42,000 special police revenue, 6,000. These property management, 2 million, uh, CRA 20 million, 20.4 million. Going down the line, water and sewer, about 26.4, sanitation, 7.7, and stormwater management, about 1.5 million. So looking at that chart on the left, what you're going to see is that general revenues are about 46% of our budget, lease property about 2%, CRA 19%, water and sewer 24%, sanitation 7%, and stormwater 1%. So all things combined, that's how we're breaking down funds for everything across the entire city. High-level overview. I'm not going to dive into every account for every revenue because that would be too many pages that nobody wants to read except for myself and Anthony. But big picture, here we're looking at taxes, ad valorem, as well as utility taxes. So this ad valorem, I just wanted you to be able to see the historical trend. So looking at FY24 actuals, 25 actuals, 26 adopted. 26 actuals through July and what we're proposing for 27. So I think at this point in the process in budgeting, I think it's important to consider historical trend. That's what we do a lot when we're looking at how we're going to allocate via revenue or expenses. It's important to look at what's been done in the past. Those utility taxes, that's a piece that's unknown, so we're still working on some of those, but being able to see kind of that trend and where we project it moving forward, I think is a big piece for the general fund, as these are our largest revenue accounts. Similarly, diving into expenses for all funds, we have general fund at just shy of $50.2 million, or 44%. Landfill and police special revenues, again, minimum. Leased property at just shy of 1.4 million, or 1%. CRA, 25.6 million, or 23%. Water sewer at 27.8 million. or 25%, sanitation at 6% with 6.6 million, and stormwater just over a million with 1%. Overall budget and expenses, 112 million. So we see a little bit of a variance here in some of our funds. General fund is relatively balanced, as we mentioned. The biggest one here is gonna be CRA and some of the other funds, which we are working to finalize here for the next budget presentation, and reeling in the revenues versus expenses for the other funds as well. So similarly, looking at general fund expenses by department, so this is strictly just general fund, but how is everything breaking down by department? I won't bore you with every detail of every line item, but I wanted to highlight a couple of the larger ones since it's kind of small writing on the page. So high-level overview by department, about $1.1 million is for finance. 1.4 million for building and permitting, 2.3 to technology, 1.2 million for building maintenance, 4.5 million for general non-operating, 14.3 million for police, 14.1 million for fire. I did want to make a note here at those two numbers. So looking at $28 million just for fire and police is significantly less than the 19 million that we're asking for at the forum. So just as a comparison, the ad valorem doesn't even come close to funding just those two departments alone. Additionally, transportation at 2.9 million, parks and grounds maintenance at 1.6 million, and recreation at 1.2 million. Again, that total of all expenses, $50,175,422. The biggest piece of our budget, or any budget, is gonna be staffing. So employees, their benefits, it's a big piece. So this also is in the budget book, but I thought it was important to pull it out and highlight it. So the chart on the right is looking at our FY26 current positions. by department, looking at FY27 proposed, and you'll see an increase. So we're looking to increase by nine positions. I wanna make it clear that it is not nine new positions, it is five new positions, and bringing back four that were frozen as a result of the budget process last year. So on the left, kind of the breakdown of those positions. So fire department is asking for three new fire safety officers. Budget, I'm sorry, building and permitting is asking to unfreeze a building inspector. Transportation and maintenance is looking to unfreeze a maintenance mechanic. Athletic field maintenance is looking to unfreeze a groundskeeper. Stormwater management is unfreezing or asking to unfreeze a stormwater team lead. And then water treatment is asking for two new water treatment trainees to start off as a trainee and then obviously work their way up throughout the department. Capital project planning is also a big piece of the budget. So I thought it was important to highlight some of this. I'm not gonna get into every detail as there's a lot on this page, but I will say this piece is our biggest piece of where we have some changes coming between now and the next budget. So there's things in here that are gonna be for future years. And we want our overall capital improvement plan to include just FY27. So we plan to bring that to the commission in the coming weeks. But I wanted to at least highlight, since it is in the budget book, highlight some of the capital projects that are identified through the various departments throughout the city. So how do we move forward? So we know where we were at before, we know where we're currently at, so with that current budget of five mils, we have 870,000 of new funds, we know we have 1.2 million of union obligations, and we know that for every .1 mil reduction, it's gonna cost us approximately 316,000. that state revenue is still the largest outstanding variable. So without that, it's kind of hard to put the final equation together and figure out how we want to proceed. But some things for the commission to consider, as we know with this budget, our general fund is balanced. We know we can operate at that five mils with all the cuts that have been made in the considerations for percentages, et cetera. So the one option the commission would have is to maintain that five mils and add back in some of those items that the departments cut if state revenue comes in higher than what we had planned. If state revenue comes in lower, then it's less cuts because we know we've offset that with the millage. Option two is we can lower the millage and hope that state revenue increases. If it increases, we'll have minimal cuts depending on how much is not offset by the millage reduction. However, if we lower the millage, we could also lower the millage and continue to make increased additional cuts if state revenue decreases. So if our state revenue comes in less than what we planned and we lower our millage, we would still have to offset the revenue that we lost from the state in addition to the $316,000 per .1 of a mill, so that would result in additional cuts outside of what the departments have already considered. Does the commission have any questions on that very high level overview of our FY27 budget?

Anyone have any questions for Kate? I have a couple questions, Kate, and I'll probably bounce around and hopefully other people will chime in as well. Looking at the capital improvement project planning,

I see a million dollars for project lift for the demo and construction of it is that like just getting paid now the demo and construction because it was demoed I'll defer to Pinal on that one good afternoon we do have some invoices that will come in 2027 so we just want to make sure that we have enough money to pay out any last

invoices that will come for the project so for them demoing it though they've already it's not just demo it's just for new construction i just call it demo new construction because that's the name of the project okay that was that was all i had there hopefully i'm not the only one asking questions but what i'd like to see is last budget year we had a millage rate that was lower i'd like to see that continue the same trend things that I think we might be able to look into is is leases what about some of the vehicle leases that we do have throughout the city I've heard of some one lease in particular for a van that the city pays $1,600 a month for but I'd like to see some of the leases maybe looked into for vehicles that we do have. And I see on here for capital improvement projects, there was one for a fire rescue, I believe. Is there any timeline for when we replace the apparatuses, whether it's an engine or a rescue? Is there anything that you go off of then?

historically we we were significantly behind on the fleet so we're probably just now catching up to where we should have been many years ago we do have a we do have a plan that we try to plot out you know like a fleet replacement plan but I think it's more of like a tracking thing and Anthony maybe could chime in I've shared it with them but It's probably more of a planning thing. So just because I put it on that replacement doesn't mean it's guaranteed this year, next year, whatever I put on there. But again, we're approaching being in a very good position finally because of so many years of catching up fleet-wise.

And then my next question is, I know last year we gave fire rescue three new personnel, and then this year is three more I see in the budget.

Right.

Were we that far behind on personnel as well by safety?

Yeah, we definitely were and probably still are, but that's subjective of probably who you ask and what's realistic and what isn't. We've tried to... do it over all of these years responsibly so we only do a little bit per year we've had to have a lot of other pieces of the puzzle come together for us to get to where we are these positions this year or that we're asking for has been many years in the making you know we needed to get other things done first and we needed to get experience levels up and But these positions that we're asking for, we're the only fire rescue department in the surrounding area that doesn't have them.

Now when you say that we don't have them, is that like the actual ranking or is that personnel that is on each apparatus?

So this particular position that we're asking for is really it's for three positions. that will backfill three experienced people that will get promoted into these safety officer spots.

That's for like the EMS supervisor?

Yeah, it's actually a dual role. That's what every fire rescue department does. So they do what's called a safety officer position, which is required by the standards that we follow in the fire service. So they do those when there is a fire or dangerous scene and they respond and do that role and then when they're not doing That role they function as a EMS supervisor which are like paramedic supervisors They go out to all the high acuity medical calls supervise the paramedics. They have specialized equipment That's how that's how every fire rescue department does it so they're not just but what do they do if there's no fire? Right, you know, so that's get two roles out of one person

And then when you say, like, fire rescue is behind, so in prior years, because I've only been here for two years, so I'm playing catch up with some of this stuff. So in prior years, you were asking for personnel and you never received it?

Well, I don't want to say that we didn't receive it. Over the past, you know, many years, we have incrementally increased. So then you throw in Station 3 staffing. We had to get that done, which requires adding more units, right? We did that. But there's other areas that we're behind in. And this is one of them. Another one would be the number of personnel on the fire apparatus. That's kind of our next hurdle. We're close, but we're not done. But that's, again, I could, that's why I don't, we don't come in and say, you know, hey, what do we do, what do we need to fix the problem? Oh, we need, you know, 10 people or whatever. That's not responsible to do that. So I've always incrementally done these things. things over the years so it's so it's responsible and financially you know appealing so we're not just you know but but we're at a good spot now once we or you know once we get these positions that we're that we're seeking right now um really for the safety of our personnel is what it's about because that's their job on on the fire scene and so right now we We try to do it because we have somebody that does it during the day, but we can't do it 365 days, 24-7. That's our goal, if that makes sense.

And then last thing for this, I see something for a bottle refill trailer. I'm assuming tanks. Yeah, so that's... How do you guys currently do it? Do you have a...

We're like, you know, 1975 is what we're doing right now.

So explain what's that right?

So what a capital item that we're asking for now is a, uh. So the air tanks that firefighters wear on fires, um, are breathing air. And so. You know, when you go to a fire, there's only so many spare bottles in the fire trucks. So when we have, you know, 20 something firefighters there on a 110 degree day out and people go through those breathing air tanks fast, right? Well, right now, we could have a pile of 20 bottles on the fire scene, and somebody, so it ends up usually being a staff person or a mechanic, or somebody has to shuttle those back to the station in a pickup truck, which is kind of Mayberry. And so we want to be...

So, like, they would have to bring it back to the station, and then it's going to run tanks back on scene? Correct.

While the fire's still going. Yeah. So, this... again could we have asked for this years ago yes but we we try to prioritize what we what we need and what we need to get done and this is i felt was a good time for us to try to accomplish that and bring us up to the times we already have a truck that can tow the trailer we're ready to go okay i think that's all i have for now then

Just to speak in about your question, because I have the spreadsheet you sent in front of me. So next year, there's a 25-year-old ambulance that will be coming to you separately for replacement. And then for 2028, you have a 1997 reserve pumper that's scheduled for replacement.

And that would be to your question of do we have a plan? That's the fire rescue's fleet replacement plan. That's kind of where we plot it.

So for the one next year, Anthony, we'll budget for it next year or...

Right now the plan is well we were talking about getting an additional note for it like the one We got earlier, but there was some additional discussion that Mike might want to Yes mayor as we talked about in previous meetings of the Commission we're going to do capital differently and Present a capital budget to the Commission with the funding for that capital at least for the first two years So it'll be a separate capital budget that will come before the commission for adoption and the funding and and how everything is going to be programmed will be in that capital budget so you will see it you will know where the funds are coming from and we have yet to produce it, it's in work, and we'll deliver it when it is ready. So we'll concentrate right now in this process on fiscal year 27 capital spending, but you will get a new capital budget which will be probably five to seven years with the first two that we will ask you to adopt.

Hi.

Hello. Last year we did three floaters for the fire department, if I remember correctly. Was it the fire department? Correct. Would that work for the medical emergencies or no? Where you hire, but you can cross-cover positions. I guess that was the whole purpose of the three floaters.

So, yeah, that's for, like, everyday staffing. So... And again, we were trying to accomplish a couple things responsibly as well, but when people are out, those would be what floaters do, whether it's a pregnancy, an FMLA, a workers' comp, then we could float that person over there. And then when that person is there, what it does is the benefit is it increases our staffing, which is what our goal is because we're behind on that, meaning the fire trucks, right? So we should be operating with three firefighters on a fire truck in 2026. That's just the way it is. And we're still not doing that. We're doing it a lot of the time, but we're not doing it 100% of the time. So if that answers your question, that's what the floaters were. This year are those designated safety officer spots because they have to be promoted. So they would be officer rank positions. I don't know if that answers it.

Well, it does because the floaters won't help. You have three floaters, obviously, that you're utilizing. these would be actual stationary standard positions. Correct. Okay. And I know that we're doing the budget, but this is another time that I am going to ask, this is where we really need to look at the impact fees when we do have development. Because the impact fees add to, we just had a new station, what was it, a year and a half ago?

Correct.

Those things require money, and the impact fees are so minimal at this point, and they need to be addressed. And I've asked several times, I know we're going to go forward and do that, I just don't know when. But it is important that we... have the developers pay their fair share of this impact into the community. You know, what's happening now is they pay a minimal amount. They basically are charged an amount at the point where they've been approved. And sometimes it's four years before a shovel hits the dirt. And so then that impact fee is useless almost. So I really encourage the commission to look into reevaluating. I understand from our city attorney that it's every five years that you can do that. We're in our fourth year. And I think within our rights, considering the amount of everything that goes up, salaries, creating a facility and all of that, I think we're very well within our rights at this fourth year to look into that so that we can increase the impact fees. So yes, thank you so much for explaining that.

I was not sure if- And to your point on impact fees, Kate could probably chime in. So we had two pieces of the puzzle that were just approved for that note. A FEW WEEKS AGO, A COUPLE MONTHS AGO FOR THE TWO APPARATUS THAT WERE THREE YEARS AGO. WELL, THE THIRD PIECE OF THAT EQUATION IS A NEW FIRE ENGINE FOR STATION THREE THAT'S REPLACING A 30-YEAR-OLD FIRE ENGINE, AND THAT IS BEING FUNDED BY IMPACT FEES BECAUSE THAT IS A NEW STATION.

RIGHT. BUT OUR IMPACT FEES ARE VERY LOW COMPARED TO WHAT THEY SHOULD BE. SO WHAT I'M SUGGESTING IS THAT THE CITY DO THE REVERSE. LET'S GET THOSE IMPACT FEES IN HERE TO COVER WHAT THEY ACTUALLY CAN COVER. not that we're looking at them two and three years later and the taxpayers are floating most of that money. But I appreciate what you guys do. Thank you for answering my question. Sure, thank you.

Commissioner Clark?

Thank you. Thanks, Kate, for the budget. I want to, Chief, you can sit down. Okay. Thank you, Chief. I know that, I guess, you started this budget with an assumption that we would... use that five mils, and I know that we're at 4.9 now, and the 316, that would be reduced by the .1. I just wanted to kind of get your, logic in not giving us something at the 4.9 versus the five. And I know that it would probably just mean less in the fire budget and less in the police budget, which are the two budgets that are talking about either new equipment or new staff per se, but we did have,

that going in so i just wanted to get sure so the logic behind it was one fiscal responsibility obviously i've looked back at historical meetings to see kind of the trend of the commission and in what direction we're looking to go financially clearly we weren't wanting to max anything out but also we don't want to have to really cut services i think that's important to the community um so the logic behind the five mills was that it gave us that 870 000 of new money but 1.2 of it is going towards union obligations. So really, we're already working with a negative number trying to figure out how to fund the new things that we're asking for, be it the capital projects or the staff or whatever. So it was kind of that number that allowed us to get what we needed without cutting services, but also not be irresponsibly financially for our residents.

Okay, and I think, thank you, Kate. Commissioner Jobe asked a question, and Lee, just on the status of not just the time when impact fees are looked into, but just the general status and our ability legally . We had the road impact fee, and there were some things that changed,

I don't know where we are in the years calculations and I just don't remember where the five years comes up maybe Jody could help us with that I know we started the year amendments for amendment to our comp plan which also has five year period but I don't know if that answers your question. I don't know exactly where we're at. If we're at four years and nine months or four years, I don't know where we're at as far as that time.

This is in through the state, severely restricts our ability to make impact fees. That's what I was asking.

Yes.

I mean, we can phase small fees in over a couple years, but it's not much. It's not much, unfortunately. Unfortunately, that's the reality.

The impact fees also can only be used for expansion, so they can't be used for regular maintenance of what we currently have.

Yeah, I guess maybe, Lee, you can brush up on that and give us some more information at some point, because it's very, very restrictive.

Well, what details do you want?

I'll make sure I'll... Any details you have? any detail all right there's you know maybe give us the last time we received impact fee funds from the county what's going on uh you know that history because that has kind of

If you're just curious, sorry to interrupt, if you're just curious about how much we've been getting in impact fees for the past few years, on page 14, right in the middle of the page, you can see impact fee revenues from 24, 25, actuals through 26, and budget. Oh. They're in the report. Yeah, the biggest one for infant transportation is about $400,000 in 2024.

Minimum.

Yeah.

Not like the old days when... Thank you, Kate, for... I'm sorry, what's your last name again?

Ambrosini.

Ambrosini. And I'm sorry. Cooling. What?

Cooling, sir.

Cooling. Mr. Cooling. The budget is a big deal. The city is a $100 million business with a lot of employees. And we can look at it in so many different ways. And this is something, you know, each commissioner, I assume, will dig down in the budget in the areas that are of importance to them. This is just for an example. If we look at police, we actually hired no additional police officers, correct?

Correct.

Correct? And yet life and health insurance went from $929,000 to $1,235,000. Now she said Cigna came in at $8.8. That's an awfully large increase in that with no new employees. Did we have a bad, did we have some very sick police that?

Well, there was, in general with our insurance, there was a one-time fee that had to go to offset high claims. It was about $300,000. So that was a piece of it last year. This year, this current year that we're in. That just happened a few months ago. So that boosted... Yeah, overall our insurance is about $6.5 million.

But that's a 30% increase just for that. It's a lot. There's an odd element in there. Other current charges, 152, 119, 112, 213. Those other current, 53549. Things like that catch my attention, because you can throw a lot of stuff in there. So I'd like to be able to get more detailed.

on that um the biggest the biggest um uh amounts in other current charges are uh software software maintenance um and those uh those went up there and could speak to that eight to ten percent too for our uh so that didn't that doesn't go into darren's department um Other current charges, software is distributed, depending on the software, amongst various departments. It's allocated by, okay. Yeah, police has some software for software that they use, but the majority of other current charges is software maintenance, and we got hit pretty hard for those. Memory costs.

Was that because it was a result of a cyber attack? Or is that prophylactic, anticipating Iranians coming after our water system?

Not yet. That's not what the cost increase for is. It's generally the data center explosion and the AI explosion. So all of them costs are being passed down to the end user, which is us. So what ends up happening is, just last quarter, our cost for memory went up by 100% in one quarter. And the last year, it's gone up by 400%. So if we're having that issue, so the big providers like Microsoft and Amazon, so all of them, cloud providers are passing those costs back down to us with every new cycle.

No, I agree. It makes sense. I mean, you know, public health and safety is our number one priority, and police are there to protect us against attacks, but now attacks, cyber attacks are just as real and something we have to be just as concerned about as...

Absolutely. And Anthony's point, if it's a shared expense citywide, it's in my budget, if it's an actual... 50% of the time, if it's a department-specific expense, it would be, usually remains in their department, which is why police who have their own dispatch system, that goes in their budget.

Okay, thank you. And then we added interest expense. I see it had been zero, 23,000. What piece of equipment is that for the police?

I'll defer to Anthony on that one.

I think Chief and I would need a little more detail about what you're referring to, sir.

Fiscal year 25, two grand. Fiscal year 26, zero. Fiscal year 27, 23 grand. We certainly have interest expense on something.

Interest expense in the lease budget?

That's for the loan for the tasers. Could you speak to that please?

Yes, if that's the item that you're speaking about we have a current or two years into a 10-year contract with the taser axon corporation or Body cameras tasers in car camera systems for our market patrol cars, and if that expense is related to that it's that ongoing Debt or whatever Anthony called it. I'm not familiar with that exact number without looking in the book myself But if that's the line item that it's under we had prior discussion about where it should be added in and That's the one?

OK. So we can go through, and we should, each of these spending categories in detail like that. And that's the responsibility we have as commissioners. But I think we also, since our job is policy, it's really the explicit responsibility of the manager to manage this budget and control these costs. We need to make sure that overall the spending is aligned with our priorities. I'm disappointed that stormwater management, we seem to be just holding on there. I think, you know, sustainability and resiliency are gonna become any municipality Our creeks have really been neglected, and we speak about restoring them, and yet there's not a commitment there. These are gonna be very difficult choices, and of course, everything is up in the air until we have an idea whether this amendment passes, and then who knows what the heck is gonna go on. So I would hope at some point we have a much higher level discussion on what our priorities towards the safety of our community, the safety of our water system, and the attractiveness of our city, especially parks and green spaces. those elements that draw people to our community and make it more fun and interesting for our families and our children.

Thank you. Thanks, Commissioner Ridge. Does anyone else have any comments for staff at all?

I kind of had my hand up, but I took it down, but I'll put it up again. I'll go back to the overall that you just did, Ms. Ambrosini. And I guess it's on that planning page. Mine is coming up. You know, those large expenses for like the water in the water area. I guess those are one time, those are gonna be one time expenses where it says well feel or the water main, the plant expansion. Those are the ending of that construction project. I think it's on page.

Is that a question?

Page 11. Oh, okay.

Yes, good afternoon. So that's a utility infrastructure related project for expansion of the Florida and Wellfield which is part of the new reverse osmosis water treatment facility and as far as it being a one-time expansion yes it will get us to to the new alternative water source being the Florida and Wellfield and getting us off of the existing surficial aquifer that we've been on the city's been on since the 1960s and yes so that is for the future utility infrastructure improvements for water production for the city for the for the next 50 plus years and then in subsequent budgets i guess we will see recurring fees for inspection and management and We have that budgeted typically for projects in construction there's a construction portion of that that involves inspections that is part of just ensuring that the projects are constructed according to design plans and specifications

Do you do the fire hydrants also?

Yes, we do.

Are we installing new ones or just upgrading?

A combination of both. We're looking at adding additional fire hydrants throughout the city in increments just to get more coverage so that the fire apparatus doesn't have to be Too far away from the hydrants in the event that they need to hook up for a fire and then in addition to that part of just regular repairs and maintenance we do replace older hydrants or hydrants that are not working properly we have that budgeted every year as well as part of just routine operations and maintenance expenses and

Let me ask city manager, when are we going to get, I don't know what format you're using this time, but for the detailed big book, the budget book itself, are we going to have the departments talk to us about their individual budgets?

we could use this forum the next workshop and we're we're prepared each department is prepared to brief each line item if or answer any inquiry from anyone and to include the public if there's any suggestions, recommendations, or some information that could be missing in somebody's mind. The detail in the budget book is a roll-up for the most part, but each one of these has detail behind it, and we could provide that. We could continue the conversation today. Everyone is represented here. Our departments, our directors are here. to answer your questions and as you can see, Peter walked up with a lot of material. We have another budget workshop coming up In the interim, everybody's encouraged to reach out via any means possible with their questions so we can come prepared to answer those and we can answer those from now until the next workshop and then thereafter. So we're prepared to do any exercise that is required to answer everyone's questions with regard to each and every item in the budget.

Mr. Mayor, can I continue?

Yeah.

with regard to that and maybe this is not you Mr. Huchin so I'm a little bit concerned I don't see the numbers but with our vehicle maintenance I want to be clear how much we're doing on our own and how much we're sending out to somebody else to do any repairs or maintenance for us and then if we're going to move the vehicle maintenance place if there's any I don't know if that's put in the budget for this year or not but I just wanted to make sure that if there's something that we could save on on vehicle maintenance by doing more in-house or if we Actually if we do or don't send too much out because I know that there was some issue with the Big vehicles the garbage garbage trucks

speak to it now I mean said garbage well garbage truck that's that's sanitation and I oversee sanitation so the thing is the those garbage trucks are unique vehicles that require specialized types of repairs that quite frankly it's better suited, depending on the repair, sending those vehicles to a facility for that. Our personnel, city personnel, can perform routine maintenance, changing tires, work on some of the hydraulic systems there, electrical, to an extent. But as I said, the larger trucks, the vehicles, some of the systems are... proprietary in some respects so you have to send them out for specialized work at times

and on the other hand in fire we have two staff members that can do these repairs and that those two are sophisticated pieces of equipment so where efficiencies are we're able to make those and of course like I said in my opening remarks we have a very experienced staff here And that means that they can look at a problem set and come up with solutions or have resources to reach out to other folks in the industry and elsewhere to find a better solution. And no one is beyond that. Everyone here is willing to accept as much information as possible to get to the best solution possible and deliver the best product, again, safely, efficiently, and fiscally responsible.

Yes They cost how much a piece

Well, right now it's approximately 550,000 per vessel change out. That's why we budgeted almost $1,100 in the next fiscal year because we are typically looking at changing two vessels. How much? About 550,000. And we budgeted $1,100? about $1.5 million. I'm sorry if I misspoke.

Did he say $1,100? I was off by a factor of one.

But no, so we typically budget for two vessel change-outs.

So for fiscal year 26, did we manage not to have to replace one?

We did two vessel change-outs in fiscal year 26.

And we can anticipate having to do two every year?

We have a total of four vessels. So yes, we have to budget for change out of the vessels about every year, year and a half. Right now, 18 months.

Wow. OK. Thanks, sort of.

Thanks, Commissioner Rich. I did have a question then, Peter. So to touch base on what Commissioner Rich said about the filters, didn't we do like a pilot program where we paid? Is there any update on that?

It's still underway, Mayor. We have what started the initial testing is called bench testing, where samples of the groundwater from different wells were taken and sent to a lab. And they're being checked right now to see how effective certain absorbents or certain media is in removal of the short chain PFAS. Right now I don't have any results back. I should be getting results probably in the next month or so. But there's a lot of laboratory testing that has to take place with just the bench testing. And then after that, once they find various medias that seem to be effective, then they go into the full pilot testing. where equipment will be brought over to the water treatment facility and set up, and they'll be doing the testing on-site from wells that have the short-chain PFAS to check with the various medias to see how effective they are in the removal of the short-chain PFAS.

All right. Thanks, Peter. You're very welcome. Commissioner Giobbi. Commissioner Rice.

Under leased property management in fiscal year 26, we budgeted under rents taxable $1,500,000, and that went away and it ended up under rentals non-taxable. What happened there?

There was a, sir, there was a change in state law about how some of these leases were, whether they were taxable or not. I don't have all the details on that, but that's why they just got shifted like one line below or above.

Just to add on to what Commissioner rich had just said Is there a specific

type of lease that has now come under this law of not being taxable? Is it per restaurants versus facilities for, like, let's take the Splash Park, well, the Splash Park's the county. But what is the actual criteria that all of a sudden they're not taxable?

I would have to defer to Lee and myself to do a little research. I was just working with our accountants and our auditors to see which ones were and which ones weren't, and I just put them in the right bucket. So we'll have to get you that information soon.

Thank you. And then to add to what Commissioner Clark had said, it was my understanding, I thought that we had a contract for sophisticated equipment. We don't want to have to have on staff and for medical and all those things for people who work in the city to have the specialized person who fixes the trucks for the garbage. So we do have a contract, I thought, to a facility that we send those out to.

For some of the larger, for the sanitation vehicles, yes. There's a facility in West Palm Beach that I'm aware of that we send a certain vehicle over there for service.

Right. I guess my question is we have a contract with them or we send it to them. It's ad hoc. As they fix them, we pay for them.

It's primarily the latter that depending on what the problem is we'll send the vehicle there for their assessment to determine what the issue or the problem is it's not necessarily a contract it's just that some of the equipment is a certain manufacturer that they have facilities that are better suited for troubleshooting and repairing those pieces of equipment

And I'm not questioning what your department has done, but I'm just saying, would it be in our best interest to look into a yearly contract, which might be less expensive, where there's X amount of vehicles they do take care of, repair, for a flat fee for the year? It would be worthwhile. I don't know if that is even possible.

Milton, Public Works Director. We have contracts with these companies that we... like a back truck has to go to Fort Pierce and stuff it all depends on what manufacturer does that's how we send them to those facilities right all the small vehicles trucks and all that my employees do it in-house right oil changes all those kind of things it's understandable but I was talking about the more specified you know specifics on some of this equipment that is you know

quite technical. So they're not really a contract that we have with anyone. We just send them to the particular company that either covers that particular part or I get the impression we're sending them to a facility who then tells us where they have to go to be repaired.

No, that company repairs at that place. It's like a sole source that we use to repair these vehicles.

Okay.

They're probably going to send us an estimate, and you're going to pay the estimate for the repair order. Correct. Some of these scanners are expensive. $20,000 for some of the, you know, it's not light duty. You're sending them.

Right. Now, we have scanners in-house, but some of this stuff is like high tech, so we send it out. But we can't repair certain items.

Thank you, both of you. Thank you so much. I have one last, okay. And that is, I agree with the city manager. I think that in the next day or two, we should be looking for the questions that we do want. We know all the department heads. I think we should send them out in advance. They actually, it makes the meeting more efficient. They come back ready and prepared to answer the specific questions that we have. And I think that that would be in our best interest, the best interest of the taxpayers, and certainly the people in the department.

Thanks, Commissioner Jobe. I did have one last question for you, Milton, and this might be for some department heads. Do we see a lot of, like, emission issues with your diesel vehicles, like DPF filters, catalytic converters, DEF injection systems? So it might be nice having that new vehicle, but if they're out of service, because emission problems, they're not going away, and they don't always work.

We haven't had that problem as of yet, no. Fire rescue, they have their own separate mechanics. So with the higher end vehicles, some of the garbage trucks, they might have some issues, but that's the ones that we do send out.

Yeah, because a lot of the emission stuff, stop and go, stop and go, start and stop, and they're not getting the properties. One's paying $1,000 a month. One's paying $1,500. Are we still paying to maintain that building on top of it? Because I'd like to see if we're losing money there. Those are two prime real estate locations in downtown Stewart, and they're getting a sweetheart deal. So, all right.

Not sure. Good question. All right.

I'll have to review the lease. I did, to answer the mayor's question, did look at these properties, but I'll have to look at the lease in detail to see if it's triple net.

Commissioner Rich, you had a comment? Just two quick questions. How many pay periods does the city have?

26.

26, right? Yes. So the budget is through July 21. How many pay periods does that include?

20.

So we're 80%.

Yes.

So this budget... REFLECTS 80% OF THE WAY THROUGH OUR FISCAL YEAR.

FOR THE ACTUALS? YES.

SO IT'S NOT INCLUDING THE LAST PAY PERIOD IN JULY?

CORRECT.

RIGHT. JUST WANTED TO MAKE SURE. AND DO YOU ANTICIPATE, MR. GIORDANO, HAVING TO BRING ANY BUDGET AMENDMENTS FORWARD WITH REGARD TO SPENDING IN 26?

I do not we check almost bi-weekly about on target and these are conversations I have with Kate and Anthony and I don't see anything on the horizon I would agree but I will also say the budgets fluid so and it's a living thing so I'm not gonna say for certain that something won't come up that we aren't seeing in this moment Because if spending goes over what we agreed to, then... That would be a violation of my oath to you, and that is not going to happen. If there is a contingency or something where we have to come to the commission, we will have authority to make the spend, but we will go no higher than our top line. No, sir.

Okay.

Thank you.

Commissioner Giovi?

I think we also all have to realize and we know that there would be a major change one way or the other come the November election with the amendment. So I think that we're all, you know, we understand budgets are fluid, but that could certainly send us all back to the drawing board. And I think that hopefully everybody realizes that.

I'm not talking about that type of budget amendment. The budget is if the city... No, I know what you were talking about.

I was just making a general statement about that.

This is saying we would have to approve any overspend. Yes.

Even if it's a dollar. Mike was going to get a comment on that.

to that point we're sticking to our analysis that was first provided in March and later refined in June on the current referendum that may be on the ballot in November and it is relatively a small percentage when it comes to impact to the city of Stewart. And I know it's an impact, but relatively small according to our analysis, and we stand by that at this time.

Is that all the comments city commissioners have for staff? Mayor may ask is the Commission okay with maintaining the five mills for the next meeting or are they looking to make a change just so we can plan accordingly if we need to I'd like to see it stay the same that's my do you looking for a consensus from the board then all right go down one at a time Commissioner Clark where would you like to see the millage rate I'd like to see it stay the same All right, so we're at an impasse, so I don't know if that helps you or hurts you, but...

Okay, that gives me some direction.

Yeah, and we might have to wait until, you know, yeah. There's an odd number. Correct.

I can do two scenarios, at least it gives me that.

And then when we get that fifth board member, then we'll know what direction we're going in.

Sounds good, thank you.

Finally. Thank you for everything, Kate. Thanks to staff. Thank you, Anthony. I'm gonna go on to comments by city commissioners. I would think there might not be any but I'm still gonna go through the agenda Commissioner Clark Commissioner Rich I'd like to thank all of the department heads and I know the staff that works with you in putting this together everyone coming here having answers for us think our city manager and

Thank you, our city attorney, for all of those questions you get thrown at you at the last minute. And sometimes you have answers. Sometimes you have to come back to us. That's fine. And I just want to thank everyone. It's important. I hope there's enough people here in the community. I know it's in the middle of the day, but it's really important that the community come here. After all, this is your tax dollars. And I think it's important that you hear, and I hope there's people online. That's all I have to say. Thank you.

Thanks. Yep, thanks to staff. And then comments by city manager.

thank you mayor I too want to thank everyone the directors did a great job Anthony again accolades coming in new not only to the city of Stewart but the state and as pointed out this the state of Florida has different laws the same thing with Kate Ambrosini they both came from Illinois so I don't know what that means but it means a good thing for us because we have them and again to the directors for all their input and hard work especially when I asked for a 5% cut and I received it and I appreciate that and you can see the results of that I also want to thank the Commission and the public because their questions your questions challenge us to do better and when we're challenged to do better we're going to produce a better outcome So thank you very much. Everyone knows how to get a hold of us. I know that for a fact. So please reach out with your questions and or suggestions and we will take them and we will bring them forward and we will incorporate them if it's the best idea. So thank you so much.

Thanks. And Lee, I got a question for you on this. So we're going to need an approval of the agenda, correct? I mean, it was a presentation. Just go through the motions. I'm looking for an approval of the agenda.

Move approval of the agenda as published.

So we have an approval of agenda motion by Commissioner Clark and seconded by Commissioner Giobbi. Is there any public comment on this motion? Seeing none, all those in favor? Aye. Motion passes unanimously. Comments from the public on non-agenda items? If anyone in the public has any comments? Seeing none, we're going to close out this meeting then. And as soon as we're cleaned up, we'll start.