Town Commission - Regular Meeting

All right, ladies and gentlemen, if we could please find our seats. Good to go? All right. I almost don't feel like saying the time, because then we'll know how late we are. But it's Thursday, August 27th, 1.40 PM, calling today's budget workshop into order. Madam Clerk, if you'll take the roll, please.

Yes, Mayor. Mayor Danziger?

Present.

Vice Mayor Bemargi is absent. Oh, she's present. My apologies. Commissioner Trevani?

Here.

Commissioner Wildostegui?

Here.

Commissioner Weingart? Here. Mayor, you have a quorum.

Chief, you okay to talk? Yeah, I just didn't know if you could speak after your crown came out. Thank you. All right, moving on to a budget workshop discussion direction for fiscal year 2027 budget. We move this down here a little bit to kind of hopefully ease a lot of the formalities that happened when we're up there and a much more comfortable conversation. It's a little difficult. I know we all got this book last night, or at least the update that Andrea here who will give us some of the highlights was what has been happening over the last couple of weeks. And at some point, I mean, I really wanted to work on a spreadsheet essentially covering all the things that we spoke about, kind of putting a price tag to them so we can start prioritizing. You know, money's not unlimited. We don't want to start raising taxes, so we've got to figure out what's going to be the priority next year moving forward. So with that, I will turn it to Andrea. Do you want to kind of give us the overview? It's all my glasses.

Do you want to go quickly through?

No, no, this is mine. It's part of it.

Yeah.

From last night?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Would you like a comparison?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, with the previous years and strengths, we can say it's sort of a stress test. I don't know.

We're not speaking. We're waiting for Andrew. Well, I think you just let's just cover the summary of the changes from that. Yeah, we can do it from sitting there, right?

Hello. All right. I'll try to speak a little closer.

I know we've got some public comment. I guess we'll start this.

Okay, so I'm gonna go through the changes that we made to the first draft. So starting with the general fund, we have state estimates that were slightly lower than we budgeted and we need to budget 95% of those. So combined between the state municipal revenue sharing and the half cent sales tax, we have a reduction in revenue of $41,000. So that'll have our overall general fund budget 41,899 less than it was before. The other changes that we made were we removed a human resources generalist position. It's a vacant position. So that gave us an expenditure decrease of 91,500 and change. We added a planner for the town, and that's about a $190,000 expenditure increase. We added a police major. Oh, okay, so then I have a, it's not a police major, it's a police lieutenant is being removed and a police major is being added. The wording is off, so we would end up with, no, we wouldn't have a police lieutenant, we would have two police majors. The original draft had a police, a deputy police chief, so we're not doing the deputy police chief.

Yeah, I was going to ask. Do you want me to go over there? Okay. Good if we see it.

I can do it from this end. You don't have to move it. I can do this part from here in a moment. Give a brief, okay, so projected revenues are gonna be 27,162,000 and change. Projected expenditures will go to, will be reduced to 24,196,000 and our reserves will increase to $29,966,000. The dollar changes that I'm going to go through is a $42,000 decrease, which is from the state estimates that we received. So the first budget workshop had it, the July budget workshop and draft had a $27.2 million. It will go to $27.16 million. Expenditures will decrease approximately $626,000 and that $626,000 would be increasing the return to reserves. So here are general fund revenues which are the state estimates that are reduced. And then we have the following changes. We have an HR generalist vacant position that's being eliminated. We are adding a town planner for approximately $190,000. the position that we had originally was to add a deputy police chief and eliminate the, it was actually the lieutenant position. So that's not being done and in exchange for that, we're going to not do a police, a deputy police chief and we're going to add a major position and eliminate the lieutenant position. We have a vacant administrative aid position in public safety that will be removed. And we have five vacant police officer positions that we would eliminate.

I just want to add for the record, these are not positions that are currently filled. There's no disruption to current service or reduction in force. These are just open positions that have been open for the last couple of years that we're looking to close.

we would be eliminating the communications administrative support position, and we are adding $300,000 for communication services as an outside service, which is in the, I believe, the September agenda. and our total increase to reserves, additional increase to reserves after these positions and the contractual services would give us an additional $625,000 to reserves.

That's... Can I ask you if you could go on maybe presentation mode so that it... Yeah, I just have to... Yeah, down at the bottom. Almost, no, up, up left. A little bit to the right. One more. There you go. Well, now.

You're good or you want to?

That's good enough, I think.

And then for the other funds that we are changing, let me just go to that. Okay, for the resort tax fund, the original draft had a parks and recreation coordinator position. That position is being removed from the budget. It's not a current position, it was just a position we were adding. The police forfeiture, we have an increase in the cost of the resource officer at Ruth K. Broad, K-8, for an additional $10,000. So we're just shifting expenditures that we might have used for other things that the police department would pick up, and that's $10,000. And we will use $199,000 less of fund balance. For the fleet management fund, we will not be making a purchase of patrol vehicles at this time, and the dollars will just stay in reserves. Those are the changes that we are making to the draft budget.

I spoke briefly with the manager with the acting manager about some of these changes, especially with regard to the elimination of the positions. And I just wasn't clear whether this was something that was just going into the budget for sure or whether it was part of a contingency plan in case Amendment 3 should pass. And the way you presented it now made it sound like it's just part of the budget.

It would be part of the budget because we don't know what will happen if Amendment 3 passes.

Right. So what assumptions are you building in about Amendment 3?

When we eliminate these positions and these items and then add the others, since we're adding $629,000 to reserves, That would help us cover for the following year any decrease that we might have. And the state estimates a possible decrease if Amendment 3 passes of about $800,000, a reduction of $800,000 in ad valorem taxes. Based on our millage rate. So that would help us and have enough in reserves to be able to cover for the first year of Amendment 3.

And then we would just have to make up for the additional 200 or so? Correct.

We don't know what the figure will be yet, so it's an approximation, yeah.

So I think the idea today was, again, the town staff has gone through this budget, was built essentially throughout, when did you guys start? Like, when did you start putting this together with the departments?

In about, in April, in March, beginning of April.

Beginning of April. I mean, we still hadn't, you know, the commission input hadn't been put in. I think the directive of what our initiatives hadn't been projected yet. And when we looked at a budget, it was essentially utilizing all the general fund revenue for operations. The goal is obviously to look at the growth responsibly. Again, the state has been going after cities that have exceeded, I think it's like 20, 26.3% or something over five years. This budget in a lot of areas has gone up over 25 in the last two. We need to start being a little bit more responsible as far as operations. At the same time, there's projects that we want to get done. I'm not anticipating, and I don't think anyone here is anticipating, that we're going to see a major loss in revenue from Amendment 3. I think the projection is like a million, a million and a half or something over the next year or so. But again, we've seen a rise in the valuation of the property, so. We should be fine. Other cities are talking about having to exceed and maximize the millage rate because they have to make up for lost revenue. I don't think we'll get there. But at the same time, we want to make sure we get projects done. So we work to kind of go through this, see where a lot of the initiatives that had carried over and prioritize them against our own. We have a list. Do we have that spreadsheet that Genesis put together? Is that? I wish I could have prepared a little bit better, I haven't had time. But I wanted to kind of, we did a workshop a couple of weeks ago.

Did you bring out the list that we created from the retreat? We'll bring it out.

Essentially, what would we like to focus on the next years? The money is not unlimited. I don't think any of us want to sit here and start raising taxes. You've been able to create some funds for us to access for some projects over the next few years. But what we don't want to happen is every commission meeting, we keep throwing something else at the town administration. Hey, we want this. We want this. We want this. That's what this cycle is about. It's about prioritizing, putting it together. And so we'll get that list of what we worked on at the last budget workshop. And we'll kind of put that against, I guess, what's available. So, Andrea, do you know offhand, a rough number, what we're playing with either for capital improvement projects or in general what we've allocated within the general fund revenue that we can play with for the next year?

based on the millage rate and the changes that we made, we'd have the $2.9 million to make any changes. We do not have any capital project funding for future projects in this budget. The capital plan is gonna, we project that we're gonna start putting together a capital plan and only the existing projects would go forward. So those are already funded at this point. and those balances will just carry forward as we're working on them and as things are awarded. The main project is Surfside Memorial Park.

Just to be clear, we have $2.9 million, and Surfside Memorial is already included.

Surfside Memorial was funded this year, so that funding will carry over.

When I glanced through this, I noticed it was something like $3.9 million. Is that...

Let's see, capital project. 3.69 from the right. Wait, what was it? 3.69. Let me see. The Surfside Memorial Park. Thank you. Yeah, on the page, page 133. So much better with page numbers now.

Okay. So Summer Memorial Park, 3.69. We approve 3.550. Is there a reason why And again, I don't want to start bouncing book to book, but we were talking about capital projects.

Yeah, we approved 3.23500. That is our funding, and we are supposed to get a grant from the state for a million dollars and from the county for 250 for design. So those combined come to a $4.4 million budget for the entire project.

No, so let's be clear. The county gave us a half a million dollars, which was already spent. We have a million dollars for the memorial. That was the 3.5 is taking into account a million from the state. And then we're hoping that we, in the development order with the property, I believe it's another million, million and a half. But that's all encompass of the project.

Yeah, that includes everything. Yeah. And including the grant funding.

So it's not 4 million, it's 3.550. Why don't we set 3.69?

For construction, we have 3.6. our general fund would contribute 3.223 500 which have 30 000 of it we already we already spent in 2024 the current year is 3.193 500 the state awarded us a grant of a million dollars and the county of 250 000 so that's an additional 1.25 million those three combined We'd have the entire project, including design, at $4.473,500.

That's incorrect. The $3.5 includes a million from the state. It's not $4.5 million. It's $3.5 million. The money from the county was already spent two years ago.

For design. This is the whole project rolled up. So the 250 from the county was applied to design. I don't think we, I don't know if we received it yet. I don't think we received it yet.

Did they grant more money?

Not that I know of.

Okay, so 2.9, does that include, that's in addition to everything that's in the book, correct? Correct.

That project is a current year project?

No, no, no, the 2.9, I asked you.

Oh, the 2.9 that we have going to reserves? Yep. Correct, that's based on the millage rate that the proposed budget is built on, which is the 3.8743. That would be available for other items.

Okay, so I guess it falls now to the commission to kind of look through the list that we were just given, and hopefully we have some pricing to some of it.

I have a question before future projects. At a town meeting here, the commission voted for $500,000 of repairs towards the stormwater pumps and system. That was for emergency repairs and pumps that were found to be in immediate need of repair. Is that included here?

So from the general fund, we have an annual transfer that's built into this budget of 2.5 million, and we will transfer, as we go, if that project goes forward, we'll transfer, let's say, half a million for that, and as we go, if we need the rest of the other $2 million.

Okay, I just wanted to clarify, so that's aside from these funds that are available?

Correct, that's already built in the budget.

Okay.

I have a question, if I can speak. Of course. Can you hear me? Yeah. Yes. So the street lighting project that we're going to, it's going to get approved eventually soon, is that included in the budget?

No, it is not.

No. Okay. And, okay, so that we should put it because that's going to happen anytime soon. I'm guessing. I'm guessing.

Yes, I think the assumption is if we go through this entire list, we might exceed the 2.9 million, right? So what we're here to do today is try to figure out, you know, we're kids in a store. We want everything. I have 20 bucks in my pocket. What is it that we're buying and walking out with today? And that's what we're going to try to do at this meeting. But I guess before we dive into it, let's just open up the public comment. This is Sal's hour.

Atlanta solves our 9317 bad drive. I remember when I was on that side of the table, this is probably the most boring part of the job, the number crunching, but it's also the most important part of the job because this is where you see the priorities and you see what you can actually spend money on. We just got our tax bill. It's going up every year. I would urge you to look at this money as if it was your own money from your personal account that was being spent. Too often politicians put no effort into, you know, they'll spend the money. If they're doing their own kitchen at home, they get five quotes, they compare it, they haggle everything, but here they just, they're happy to spend the money. There are two items that stand out on this budget that absolutely need to be cut. and that are irresponsible in the current economic climate to be doing. Number one is the adding of what was called a chief of staff that you've now changed the name to legislative aid. You can call it whatever you want. It's not okay. That is not a role that's required. Nobody here has a job or staff to have a chief of staff. If the town requires an assistant town manager, you use that money to do that. That is the funding that would pay for an assistant town manager. So if the town needs help, That's what you spend the money on. You do not spend money on a legislative aid, as we saw with Basabe, was just a slap and tickle position, okay? In addition to that, you don't spend $300,000 on a PR firm with crisis communication. I work in that industry. This is a small town. We have plenty of business. The hotels are full. We have too many tourists. It's doing great. We don't have a problem where we need to be doing marketing. Each one of the hotels has their own budget, their own big deep pockets to spend on marketing. That's not our job. Our job is not to send out press releases every time the mayor has coffee with his friend Isaac Salver. We don't send out press releases. We don't get media coverage. This is silly. It's a small town. The job here is eight blocks, and we don't need to know, like a toddler, every time they go to the bathroom. that they need a press release, good job. That is a crazy amount of money. Very few residents in town make $300,000. Okay, that's not, salary in Florida is not $300,000. That was a New York salary, you move down here, they give you 200 and some sunshine, maybe 150 and some sunshine. So that amount of money to be spending on a town, if you have a crisis situation where you need, quote, crisis communications, then you hire on a per incident basis, But we are not a cruise line. People aren't going overboard. Kids aren't falling out. That's not what's going on here. The only crises that are created in this town are of your own making. So don't make the crises, and we don't need to hire someone to make them go away. Taxpayers don't want to fund your own personal future political career. Thanks.

Thank you so much. Michael Kurok in three minutes, please.

Michael Carrick in 9365 Abbott. So first off, thank you again for giving us another bite at the apple. I don't know if this was a scheduled budget meeting or not, but I also like to express my gratitude to the manager and Andrea and staff for once again presenting a very thorough budget. You know, when I hear people saying, where's the tax money go? I always just tell people, read the budget. It's all in there. 300 and something pages. Some of you received an email from me about, I was focusing in on the capital projects as well, so I was glad to hear some of the questions that people are having. I was having the same questions, so I would agree that it would be better to have some sort of schedule or reconciliation schedule that you could track all of these projects over time, so you know what's been paid, what's not been paid, what's been budgeted, funding sources, all that kind of stuff. It's pretty standard stuff. I also had a question about the Collins Avenue water main project, because that was budgeted at seven and a half, or at least it was a ballot question for seven and a half, and now that that got canceled, so I sent an email. I don't want to repeat them. You have all my questions about that, I'm hoping you engage with staff to address those issues when the time comes. I would also, there was no allocation in the 27, I didn't see the updated version, but in the July 24th version, there was no allocation for the downtown alleyway project, so I wanted to know what the status of that was. Just from some line item issues, do we really need a plunge pool in sauna for 57K? You talk about, you know, some fiscal responsibility of, you know, again, some of the line items, the legal fees have gone up, you know, doubling budget, the lobbyist quadruple budget. I just realized somebody mentioned about this PR thing for 300,000. I didn't quite catch that one. Yeah, I mean, those are things, those are nice to have. You need to separate between wants and needs. Most of you are business people up there, so you understand that. This is other people's money. And then lastly, I also would like to ask about the FTEs, because everybody knows When you increase headcount, full-time equivalents, there's some pension liabilities associated with that, long-term liabilities. So you've got to be cautious, even though there's some swapping out. I think the overall headcount now is about the same. But what I did not see, which I thought should get added to the headcount, was this planner and this capital projects management person under the executive branch for 212,000, which is really just another FTE. I did not see that get reflected. I know that the staff does have an answer for it, but I just wanted to make sure that everyone's clear that there were some high-end FTEs that were getting put into the budget Maybe you need to make your prerogative. I just wanted to just run that by. But I think we really could, the biggest expenditures here are these capital projects, so it would really be good to get a better handle on all of them. And then again, some of these line items. But generally speaking, budget seems like it's going in the right direction. Thank you very much. Thank you. That's a good thing.

So again, I wish we had these as kind of a spreadsheet. along with some pricing, and then we can allocate and move it. But, Commissioner, you seem to have a lot of work done. I'd love to hear what the assessment has produced.

Well, so there's some homework that I ran the budget with the CHUG GPT just to see if there were any inconsistencies. So there's just a couple of minor inconsistencies. things that I think need to be fixed, like there's a mismatch in the general fund operating expenses. In the summary it says 7.339, no, summary says 7.639, and then the line item total shows 7339. So there's like a $300,000 difference.

I would need to know.

Yeah, yeah, maybe, you know what, yeah, I think these are clerical errors. We don't need to spend time on those. Anyway, going to the heavy stuff. So... Ah, okay. All right, so we have to balance what we want to do in terms of... the capital improvement projects and what we want to do in terms of the recurring costs that are growing because we picked up some costs on the professional services, lobbyists. Well, the general fund operating went up 25%. And so from 6.12 to 7.64. So I don't know if maybe there's, I mean, it is true that there's a trade off. If we're talking about the communications and chief of staff, and we're also at the same time talking about maybe getting some stuff achieved like, some of the items that we have here between the street lighting. The other thing that will probably generate some cost, I don't know if it's going to be in this fiscal year or the upcoming is the street ends, a little bit of money for that, which is another important thing, in my opinion, that is going to get done within our term. So, but... And so that's why I'm thinking if we want to add these items to the capital improvement plan, then maybe we should take a look at these general fund operating costs. And then, like I said, maybe these two items is something that we can look at and maybe revise them on the communication side. Maybe just... trimming it down to more of a just a strategic consultant that is going to help us in specific cases as opposed to like a constant. So there was like a video per week or something like that. And maybe it could get a little easier and save some money there. And I also wanted to mention that we have $250,000 here for the tennis center, Sunshade. I mean, it's something that we'd like to see. I'm just trying to understand how to tackle this because it's very likely that this is going to fold into the urban capital planning that we have to do. Urban planning that we have to do. Yeah, well, yeah, I'm not going to call it charrette because I think it can generate, I mean, we can call it charrette. But anyway, that workshop that we need to do to figure out the five big things that we want to do in the town, plus the things that we want to achieve within our two-year term. So having said that, that tennis center is probably going to fold into that. I'm thinking so that I don't know if we should be spending money to build a roof. And then maybe as part of this process, we'll figure out that, hey, wait a minute, we can do this or we can do that or we can add pickleball or a paddle court or I don't know, or the gym. So that is something that we should discuss. So, yeah, like I said, maybe reviewing, revising a little bit our approach on the general fund expenses and the recurring expenses and adding... revising this 250,000, possibly, maybe this 250,000 could be money that we spend, because in the street lighting, we're gonna start the design now, I think. Sandra, I think that's.

We already approved it for this.

Yeah, exactly, so it's approved. I don't know if we're gonna be able to start the construction project by September next year, Maybe, I mean, so then we should allocate a little bit of money to that. And maybe this $250,000 could be money for the street ends and the street lighting. And finally, the last comment I have is for the Colonies Water Main, Colonies Avenue Water Main replacement. so now it's off the ballot, but my understanding is that that water main is not doing well. This is pretty corroded, so what are we gonna do there?

If I may?

Oh, sorry, your response. I just wanna emphasize that the $250,000, that's from the resort tax fund, so that will have no effect on the general fund budget.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, the $250,000, oh.

It doesn't affect.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we wouldn't be able to use that for, let's say, street lighting or.

No, no. Yeah, because it's a different fund. Well, I mean, yeah, again, I wish. Until we have scope. Go through this, prepare it, and kind of categorize it, which was going to kind of, I wanted to do that before our next meeting. The 2.9 that we spoke about is general fund money, right? So, you know, we can use it towards capital improvement projects and different initiatives. If there's initiatives that tie into, you know, whether it's the water taxi or pressure washing, those kinds of things come out of the tourist money. So it's different than that. Right, right, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You could have different columns. Again, if I had the time, I would have prepared that a little bit better. We can go through some of these things. Like anything that affects the community center is, for the most part, tourist money, although I think we're kind of reaching the limit on that as well, although there's reserves. So if there's a, you know, we shouldn't be using reserves to tap into operations. But definitely if there's an initiative, that will change the talent moving forward, that's where you dip into it. You don't want to start using all your savings up for, and definitely not build out these different departments and put in a recurring expense, I should say, from a reserve.

Do we have an attorney here? Yes. Steve's on board. Okay. Sorry. Commissioner Trevani, was your question about the Collins Avenue water main answered? I'm not sure. No. Yeah. Because it relates to something I wanted, just another item I wanted us to have in the mix. But I'll admit, I have no idea what's going on with the water main at the moment. I would like... either from the manager or the attorney, some help.

So what I was able to gather today is that we're actually working on the reimbursement for the design portion of it with Nova Consulting for a total amount I believe is the final check was $6,480, but there's currently no construction funds available as grants.

I mean, I believe the governor vetoed an appropriation for the water main this year. I want to put a couple of things on the table. that I don't think appear on the two-year projects list and just see if there's interest in them. I really would like to try to bring back, and this relates to the water main, and it relates to the, I think, still very unsettled issue of the charter limits on spending. I would like to try to bring back the canopy design as part of the memorial, which is the canopy with the 98 punctures, that was really the central design element of the whole thing, along with the water wall. And we had to value engineer it away because of the charter restriction, but it really was the centerpiece of the project visually, like when you're looking at it from the street. I think it's important, and I'd love to find a way. Maybe there's grants, maybe there's still capacity. I remember just hearing once from Mayor Cava. She just said, whatever money you need, we can get this. And I just feel like we should have a plan for bringing that back. So I would like to talk about that. A smaller item, but I still want to mention it. In recent years, we did this last year. I've been meaning to write a memo about this, and I just didn't get to it. A tree giveaway that is part of what helps us qualify for our ongoing Arbor Day Foundation Tree City USA designation. The last one cost about $50,000, and I would love to be able to do that again. The timing of it depends a little bit on the climate. And this would probably be something for the early summer, late spring of 2027. So I just wanted to put those two items out there. I would love for us to be able to talk a bit about some of the new positions. I hope we can just agree among ourselves to call it legislative aid and not chief of staff. I don't know if anybody's committed to one term or the other. But we don't have a staff, so the idea of a chief of staff makes no sense. A legislative aid is, I think, the proper name for it. I'm not clear exactly how that would work. I know we talked about it very briefly at the retreat. The mayor proposed it. And I don't think we have a job description in here. Am I correct, town manager? I didn't see one.

You're correct.

Yeah, so I would like to know more about how that's supposed to work. I had a resident ask me about how the salary of $85,000 compares with other cities, and they were telling me that, for example, North Miami Beach... Pays quite a bit less. So I'd like to talk about that. I am concerned as well about the $300,000 for communications consulting. I think we're cutting, for example, we're cutting a public service aid, and that's somebody who can help with double parking in the business district. That's somebody who can help with, or we're not eliminating a public service aid position, I thought.

Where are you getting that from?

I thought the Andrea transfer. Okay, my bad. But still, we are eliminating certain positions and from the police department and other places. And $300,000 is a lot. I mean, I, you know, in conversations with residents, what you know, what does the town need? No one's ever said to me, we need glitzier communications. I think our communications are really good and kind of appropriate to the town. So I would like to talk about that expenditure. The number is a little staggering to me. So anyway, those are just a few points. I'm not sure how to proceed with them. I wasn't sure whether the $2.5 million figure that Miss Mary mentioned earlier was meant to be a sort of a catch-all for some of these projects, and we have to discuss how to, is that right? We're discussing how to allocate that transfer?

The stormwater?

The stormwater, that's specifically. You have the four projects. There's the current project, and then there was, after the current project is finished, there are additional projects. And so what we did is, in this, in 2026's budget, is we began a process for Allowing funds, allocating funds for that. So we did 2.5 million and in the capital plan it carries out for a few years. There are not, we don't have any specific project yet. We haven't made the transfer yet, but that's in this year. If the dollars aren't used this year, they will return to the fund balance and they can be appropriated again next year. And it's the same thing with the water main. We appropriated in 2026 $6.5 million, so that's the current year. If those funds are not needed, they will revert to the general fund balance, and then we can make an appropriation next year for that. But because it's already in this year, it's not in next year's budget.

So I have a few thoughts for my colleagues. Number one, as far as the communications, I know 300K could sound like a lot, and we have public comment on that as well. And I believe we got a few quotes. I know you're encouraged getting a few more quotes.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we tried, but so far we only have one. I mean, if... We got two. Ah, two. Okay. Oh, we got a second one. Okay.

Yes, it will be on your September 3rd again.

Ah, okay. Excellent. All right.

So a few things, I chair the tourism board and there's actually, it was the first meeting and I had to step out in the last five minutes of the meeting and in that time there was a vote by the board to spend $80,000 on the video segment called the Surfside thing.

I would have weighed in on it, but it's on me that, sorry, 80, eight zero.

And that's something that typically would be covered by a communications department or And this is, you know, or our outsourced resource that can cover that. So I'm just looking at total net spend that would have been rolled up if we had someone doing that as part of it. So that was $80,000 just on that segment for as long as that's going to go. To Commissioner Trevani, as far as some of the bigger projects, and including the spend on the lobbyists this year, which is definitely an increase. I see it as an investment. Firmly believe we'll get appropriations through that. That will be a well-spent investment worth much more than the spend. So hopefully we'll get millions back for the couple hundred thousand dollars that we'll spend to get that and offset a significant chunk of some of the projects that we want to do this year and next.

I'm sorry, Commissioner. I think I'm having trouble hearing something in this format. Sorry, I'll talk more in the mic. What did you think was going to produce the

The lobbying, the lobby. So there's a spend there, but I see it as an investment. Hopefully we'll get more money from the state towards big projects, Collins Avenue, Water Main, hopefully Stormwater, capital improvement projects that we have lined up on the list. So I'm really hoping that that will be a significant offset to some of the spend. And then, finally, a question for you. Right now, we will not have an increase in taxes if we stick to the numbers we have here, correct? I want to address Ms. Salazar's comment. She said she got her tax bill and it has gone up.

Okay, so the rollback rate is... is advertised as a no increase in tax. The 3.8743 that the budget is built upon would be advertised as a 10% tax increase. So it is advertised as an increase. Only rollback won't be a tax increase.

Can you remind me one second, what is the rollback rate?

I'm gonna put it on there in a second.

Yeah, I'm a little confused because last year the millage was 3.8 or eight and we want to bring it

down to 3.78. So that's reducing it. So I'm confused. We're not increasing it. It's the opposite.

You would be reducing the millage rate. However, the advertising of a tax increase is based upon what your current assessment role is so in other words if we stayed at this in order to be at the same amount of tax that would be generated we could we would go to rollback rate which is 3.5 to 2, 1. And that would be an ad with no increase in the taxes. We are lowering the rate that we had in the current year, so we would be going from 3.8830 down to 3.8743, and that's how the budget is built. However, it is considered a tax increase. It would be considered advertising as a 10% tax increase.

Question, what is the money difference between 35221 and 38743?

it's approximately $1,920,000. So if we went to roll back, our return to reserves of $2.9 million would only be approximately $1 million. Unless we find...

So it would touch the reserves, it wouldn't touch... Well, you could cut other things. Yeah, yeah, it has to.

It just depends. If we're already having reserves, then we would go into reserves. that we were planning to put back.

For clarification, for it to be a net zero or zero increase, what would we have to do as a commission?

Yeah, that would be this, 35221. That would be dollar value would be the same as last year.

And what's the risk in doing that other than us?

That would be $1.9 million less in ad valorem revenue for the year.

So instead of having then $3. Down to $1 million. There you go, 2.9 to the reserves, they go down to one.

So, and that's kind of what we're here. I'm throwing a bunch of the stuff that we've kind of talked about. I don't have a lot of pricing for it. I don't know, Madam Manager, if you have some of it already. Let's say urban planning, if I'm not mistaken, there was 200,000 we started getting prices for, correct?

Correct.

Oh. Again, I don't know if this belongs on here, but the home, we spoke about purchasing the last home on Harding Avenue as an initiative for this year. That could, I mean, in theory, we really don't have to budget for that, because that is a lifelong investment in this town, and I think we should be able to access reserves for that. How much do we have in reserves?

Based on the budget? Let's get to it.

33.

Based on this budget for next year, we would have 18 million in unassigned reserves. And then we would have 11 million in the committed reserves, which are reserves for operating and maintenance, hurricane natural disaster, and that's our funding policy and budget stabilization.

So essentially in our savings account we have

Approximately 18 million.

Yeah. Okay. So, I mean, if we have to take a specified amount.

Quick question. Sorry. Yeah. Good question. Are we also budgeting, putting in the budget the fact that I think the town is still collecting funds of permits that we have to give back?

Yeah. Good point.

Is that in the budget? Because that's money that the city owes to the residents.

So... That's not part of the general fund, so that would not affect your taxes. And then it would be in the building fund, and right now the building fund has...

It's half and half, so part of that, you know, these lawsuits or these threats that we've been having now, some of it is the building fund and some of it went straight into the general fund reserves, and they would have to be paid out of that, if I'm not mistaken. Manny's shaking his head yes, no. You want to say something? Just to clarify that, the refunds, the vice mayor's point, right? Certain people decided that they're going to charge whatever they want for permit fees. They're going to charge a certain amount for review. We're going to have to, these people are now suing. Now that they're all getting their COs, they're coming back to the town and saying you violated state law. We want that money back. That money has to come from somewhere. Some of it is coming from buildings. Some of it is coming from general, if I'm not mistaken.

Um, some of it would be from the building fund, because, uh, as I did a comparison from the different fee structures that we had over the years, uh, and I picked up a differential. So some of that is gonna come from the building funds. But there was also some very extraordinarily high funds that were charged outside the building funds. So. Depending on which way they were going and what fees that they're going to challenge There may be some that come out of the general funds because there was other fees that are going to be fixed now So we have the phase two of the fee study program that is going through all of the town's fees So this this 11 million in reserves is gonna be hit I Hope not I hope we're gonna be able to defend a position.

Hopefully I

Well, you know, we're gonna have to try.

It's not like we're just gonna cut them a check, but you can't just make up fees. The state regulates this.

I mean, well, it's a separate conversation anyway.

We'll take it outside. But to your point and to the Vice Mayor's point, there's money. I don't think that's in the budget, but I guess if it comes down to it, we'll have to start pulling it out of reserves. All right, so.

Yeah, it's money that we need to allocate. I mean, eventually we need to pay all that money.

So on some of the things, let's say Vice Mayor, since you're talking, the street cleaning, the robot, one of those initiatives, is there even an estimated price of what something like that would cost?

I mean, I can do the research. If you want me to do, I can do a research. It's not a lot of money. It's even cheaper to just buy, for example, a smart machine than to actually have a crew or to outsource a company to clean it. You just buy, you have them there, and you have the machines running all day cleaning your streets. It's a one-time...

We have a thing on the budget for street cleaning, so I guess we could just kind of keep it as a wash for now if we put a price. All right. I'm sorry. Oh, there's Andre.

One thing about what you mentioned about that urban planning, it's going to be more than 200,000 because the quotes that we got back where the scope was basically mostly focused on aesthetics, which is not what we want. I'm thinking it's going to be, I don't know, between 300 and 400, somewhere around there. Yeah, yeah. But because it's actually, like, the idea is that we have to focus on actual projects. It's not a conversation about just aesthetics. It's got to be a plan, and it's got to include also these things that we want to achieve within two years. So...

All right, so I'm trying to throw some street lighting.

Street lighting is in your September 3rd agenda to approve the expense. The first part of it, the first phase, will be $140,000.

But that's for this fiscal year, not for the next one, right?

I believe it's part of the budget amendment we're bringing forward as well.

The budget amendment for the current year?

Correct.

Okay, so that's not for 27. So assuming that moves forward, I think we had a plan kind of put together. What would an estimate for a project be? Do we have any sort of number for that? Can you make something up, Andrea?

Machine learning.

Especially if I've heard from a member of the commission that they want to actually experiment or research the solar power lighting. That's not part of the scope. And for what we spoke to with the contractors, it will be more money.

So did we get a quote on the design?

You approved the quote that was presented to you in the last commission. Can you remind me? $40,000.

How much?

$140,000.

is so that's to get to complete design right that's like 100 design okay so maybe the project i would i would like to bring that into the september item in the september agenda uh to discuss for the solar you know the solar option the lighting with the solar panel

Yeah, so what's going to happen is they will get to a, I believe, what did we say, 60% design, and then they're going to show us the... fixtures and all that.

So the total fee is for tasks one through five for a total amount of $140, then we'll be presented, come back to all the residents for input.

For input, and probably at that time, we're going to have the opportunity to address the solar, or do they need to know earlier?

But this proposal does not include solar panel options. Yes. Solar options. Do we have a sense of what? It would be basically a new proposal. So we'll have to go back and ask for a new proposal.

Yeah, because we're just talking about design now. So I wouldn't imagine that the design portion is going to change. But anyway, you ask. But just to clarify, 1.4 is just to get to the workshop or to get to 100% design?

It's for tasks one through five. I could open it here. Hold on. Give me one second.

because then I can tell you what is the construction value.

This is Steve. The contract with the engineering firm is... It is design. It's not... And I think it takes us to permit... level drawings. The limitations are that because these poles are being constructed by, installed by, modified by FP&L, they have limitations on equipment that you can choose from. So the engineers are going to provide us with recommended equipment that goes along with their design. So these plans basically are the sort of, they're not electrical plans. They're plans for the locating of the poles, specifications for the equipment. But ultimately, the contractor will be hired by FPNL and Depending on our agreement with FPNL, we will have to pay for that contractor's work to upgrade all of this equipment, add new equipment. So understand that that work is probably a couple of years out.

Yeah, now I remember the points. And actually, FPNL is going to do the detailed design on the electrical part. So, yeah, you will need to go out to Kimley Horn and ask them. Because at that point, then, we wouldn't be relying on FPNL. It would be a standalone project. Kimley Horn does the whole thing. And then we hire a contractor ourselves, I guess, without going through FPNL because it's solar panels.

I've got a few points to keep in mind if we do go solar.

I believe that it's an FPNL contractor, and I think that they hire them to do the work, and we pay for it.

But even if it's solar panels? That's what we're going to ask.

I understand. If that is an option that FPNL offers. In other words, we can design whatever we want, but we don't own those poles.

Right, right. Yeah.

So at the end of the day, you can explore any kind of power source you want. as long as it's within FPNL's options that they give you. Our engineers are going to design and provide us with options that come from a standard selection offered by FPNL. So if we want to look at a solar option for these lighting, we need to make sure FPNL offers that option.

But wait, I have a question. Are we married to FP&L? Like, is that the only option?

Yeah, yeah.

Let's put a ping on this. I'm sorry, Mr. Tony. I don't mean to interrupt, but let's talk to Committee Horn. Let's see what they tell us, and maybe hopefully by next week we'll know if we need to change the fee or not.

Yeah, a few things.

It's going out tomorrow.

Okay, yeah, but still, if you get a feedback, maybe we can circulate it with the Commission. We'll do it.

Just a few things to keep in mind. If we do go solar, the capital expense, the initial investment may be slightly higher, but then we reduce the ongoing electric expense. Keep in mind when we hit undergrounding, this would avoid many complications there. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, we're going to reduce all the. Yeah, sure.

That's very important.

And honestly, in the past, I remember a few times that we had like storms and hurricane season. I remember a couple of hurricanes that we had. It was a disaster. No power. It was dangerous. The power lines fell. It's a ghost town. It's very dangerous. It becomes like a pitch black. It looks like a war zone, completely black. So it would be very beneficial for the residents to really get the solar option. Even if it's a little bit more expensive now and then long term, it's going to be beneficial.

If that's the decision that you want to go with, then we need to get with the engineers because their design will be totally different than what they're proposing to do under their contract. They're proposing literally trenching and everything else in terms of their design.

But wait, can we get our own polls so we don't? have to be married to any company? Can we get our own poles?

We were talking about getting our own poles. Anyways, I think that the challenge, and I may be mistaken, but I think right now the engineering is about spacing, confirming the spacing, confirming where we need them. And then we're going to look at the type of hardware we're looking to do. And that's the next step.

Well, that's all within the proposal. That's the different task within the proposal. But the overall proposal includes all the work. All I'm suggesting is that if we want to go forward with a solar design, it's going to be different than what they're proposing. Yeah.

I don't mind that we do the due diligence and get to work on the solar option. 100%. It's much more beneficial. We don't have to rely on FPL every time. I mean, let's be independent. All right.

So we've got Hawthorne, Flutterman. That's not in here, is it? The second project that we've identified for the flooding, right? We did Abbott. I think the next one we looked at is Hawthorne. I know Christina is looking at grant opportunities now and appropriations. We're going to be looking for those things, but we still have to allocate money for it.

Don't we have it already? Yeah, because there's 2.5, 2.5, 2.5. You see them? 2027, 2028, 2029. It's one, no, actually 30.

Yeah, that's a reoccurring built-in for stormwater.

33? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So we have the money for it. Yeah, that's a five-year plan.

Yeah, yeah, so there's four projects included.

In 26, we were allocating $2.5 million.

Well, that's not gonna be enough. The Abbott ended up being like 10 1⁄2 at the time.

We might need the funds for Abbott at this point. I don't know. So we have 2.5 this year, and we are allocating 2.5 for next year for 2027 is in the budget.

Well, that's not gonna be enough for the project.

It's not a project. What happened is we do it as a plan. We didn't have an exact project. They were priority areas. So I think we had four priority areas.

Yeah, there's four.

And we were planning and we were doing it in stages. So we would slowly allocate so we wouldn't be allocating $10 million in one year. And that was the plan.

All right, again, just to throw some numbers onto these things. Street and parks, are you? Yeah. Do we have a cost for that?

Yes, for the scope of work for the students, phase one will be for the surveying. But that was approved for this year.

For next year, we're talking.

That will be for actually next year if you approve it in September 3rd meeting. It will start on October 1st, more likely.

Nice try. We're going to throw that into 26.

I think that was just a general, I think, looking at the sites and that's in this year's budget.

How long is it going to take you to do that? Three months? We're going to want to start to put a shovel down now.

Yeah, I think that on the street ends, we should be able to get into construction within fiscal year 2027.

So can we throw just a rough number on there?

Yeah. So you got a proposal just for the engineering, I guess, right?

Yes, for those. Hold on.

And how much? Yeah.

The survey will include reviewing all the right-of-ways, easement, property boundaries, potential encroachments, inventory of all existing infrastructure, documented existing security and access conditions. Identify operational maintenance. Rank the street ends from the lowest contained, easiest to advance locations to the most complex locations. That's $40,000.

Okay, yeah, but that doesn't include the landscape design and, okay.

Let's use the face one.

So we should have something like, I don't know, like $200,000, $300,000.

Put 250.

Yeah, put 250.

Just as a rough number, I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Street sign improvements, again, something that's come up. There was a cost to that that we had brought forward a couple years ago. The project got scrapped because of the undergrounding, but there was a cost. Even if it's rough and it's going to go up, again, right now we're at, like, without finishing all our priorities, we're already at 2.7, so... Just want to make sure that we have enough to move forward with our initiatives.

And Mayor, just to add, we do have quotes for the tennis center shade. They're very, I'm actually asking the Parks and Recreation Director to get some more quotes.

So that was in the budget, which means it shouldn't be included in the 2.9, because in theory it's already budgeted for. That's under the tourist.

It's under tourist also, yeah. The 250 is in the budget for 2020.

What are the quotes saying? the quotes are option one six hundred and eight thousand no and but that's what yeah it's two hundred and seventy thousand no sorry two hundred and seventy thousand oh they're all over the place but but that's what i'm saying i i think that we should i mean if we want to provide some uh temporary relief which is a good thing i think because people are looking for that we should go for the cheapest option because that thing you know and once we define what we want to do in that area that might go

Yeah, so I think we can bring that. I mean, it's already in the budget, right? Let's bring that number down. We are not looking to do something permanent since we're already going to be addressing that whole corner. Can I ask Rudy, not to put you on the spot, did we get any pricing for the turf and the parks? Yeah, I guess just a rough estimate of what we're looking. What do we know? All right, so just how much are we paying now to get it done? Like 30?

Yeah. 33?

Yeah, so like two, three times a year we re-sod it. I know this town has asked for artificial turf in the park for years. I'd really like to put that in there finally. Is that something we can take from tourism or not? Because 96th Street Park, usually we're able to access that. Keep it off, it's fine.

So 96th Street Park, those expenditures are coming from the general fund.

Okay. So, I mean, it seems like we pay more at the outset of it. So I'll put that in there, I guess.

Back to the three quotes. Was that like for like as far as the actual product?

No, there were different options.

200?

It was one. Got it.

Yeah, we're 2.95. Street cleaning robot is going to be hopefully just carry over or an enhancement. Street sign improvements, we've got to get some. My point is, and that's why I'm going through this exercise, is we're over budget already as far as what we have in there.

While you work that, I have a question for Andrea. In general, what position do we want to be in with our reserves against our general fund and operating budget?

We maintain a policy that we have, I believe it's 20% for operating, and we do have that in our budget as a committed reserve, so that we always have something. You know, it's up to what the town needs to do and wants to do. So right now we have almost, based on what we have right now, we would have approximately 80% available, 80% of our budget would be in, we have a reserve, so we don't have a financial problem, but. Yeah. I'm sorry?

Maybe what's our net position?

Which is good, too. Oh, I don't have all funds right now.

We have a ballpark or just a general figure?

Because all funds, it depends on what you're doing. They're restricted. I can't use tourist dollars. We can't use building dollars for other things. So it's really just the general fund that we would have. So it's estimated that we would have at the end of, for fiscal 2027, based on this budget, 18.5 in unassigned reserves. for the general fund and 11 million would be for our funding policy. So those two combined would be $30 million, so we're in very good financial.

And does this take into account new developments that will receive their certificate of occupancy and therefore be a tax generating revenue item?

No, so anything that's built anything in this budget for 2027 had to have been built and tco'd by december 31st of 2025. so anything that's tco'd at the end of this year for 20 december 31st 2026 will then go on the 2028 roll and i'm not sure what you know we don't have that yet as to where those projects are at so we would know closer to the end of the year if they would be TCOed or not.

All right, where were we?

All right, I'm looking. I found the proposal for the street signs back then. We've got 284 stop signs, 47 apiece for $13,300. Let me see if I can find the street polls for the corners. There is no price on this sheet. Let's see, F dot, that's the F dot stop signs. All right, we've got some pricing here. Sleeves are breakaway square posts, 4,800. Again, I wish we had more time to do this, but we're talking about, let's see if I can sum this up. 55, 10, 60, 90. We've got the full quote. The total cost of $224,818 was the assumption back then. So just as a reference, if we did street sign improvements for $250,000, again, we're at $3.2 million already. Street improvements, just skimming the road, asphalt. Things like that. Our town has been under construction for decades. I have no idea what that cost is, but we're already way out of it.

Street improvements. Yeah. Like if we wanted to kind of skim the surface of the road.

Uh-huh, okay. Resurfacing. Yeah, resurfacing.

I can't even bring that up because we're already way over budget.

So as of now, we're what, 300,000 over budget?

So can we look at those two things that we discussed? Because I'd like to hear from you as well. So one is the communication and the other one is the legislative aid. Unnegotiable. Well, let's start with the easier one, the communications. Can we maybe set a lower budget for that? We have $300,000 now in there. Can we find a way to reduce the scope? Just aim just that something that is really for strategic communication. Because we can use Cindy and what we have now for the regular posts, I think. And then maybe shave off 100K. Instead of 300, go to 200. Set that limit and see what we get.

Well, to Commissioner Weingart's point, $80,000 for one video. Now you're talking about one a week.

One series of videos.

Yeah, it was like a year of work there. No, but I'm just trying to, because we are $300,000 over, right? So a little bit here and there, I think we can do it. Urban planning. Urban planning.

Tennis center coverage is something we can look at for next year. That would already put it back in.

Mr. Mayor, could you run through what you're saying we're over budget for which projects? What do we have so far that you're listing?

Yeah, good point. So I've got the urban planning for $400,000, street resurfacing. I didn't put a price in there. Tennis setting coverage we have for $250,000. Maybe we can reduce that down to what you said you had, like $160,000. I mean, I don't even think any of us would approve that amount.

And could any of that come from tourism? It's another park.

It should because it's open. What? Yes, but it's for a facility that is open to tourism. I mean, we've built it, we've managed it with that, so in theory, yeah, let me move that over.

Yeah, that comes from tourism.

Okay, so yeah, we're 2.95. Something that's in there that, again, kayaks and paddle boards, you know, purchasing that, bringing that in-house, you're talking about 10,000, whatever, 20, it shouldn't be much to... Insignificant. Insignificant. Again, well, not parks and rent, I don't think we want to bring it from tourism. But if we were to bring something like that in-house, that's a nominal. I don't even have to put that in there.

That probably even falls within the town manager's purview.

Street lighting was 1.5 I put in there, but probably more. But at least for the next year. Street sign improvements, the 250, just as a number. Street end parks, 250. Or you want 300?

No, I think it's going to go, we're going to start this year. I'm not sure if we're going to finish within fiscal year. 2027 might be some money. I was in 2028.

You got to share some of the pot and share.

Um, there was something, and again, it was $20,000, but that could probably come from the building fund, which is, it's a conversation I'm having still got to bring it to the commission and flush it out. But it's, uh, It's an AI company. You integrate it with your calling system. It'll read your website, your flyers, your data, and everything, and people can feel like they're talking to somebody and get a lot of information. It can help offset a lot of what the people do downstairs. If they want to know the status of a permit, if they want to know what's happening at the program on Sunday, if they want to call a freebie, $20,000 a year. Is that an app? No, it's a company name. I can't remember.

You got to call a number or how does it work?

Yeah, it integrates into our calling system.

It's calling.

Yeah.

It's like an AI customer service?

Yeah. It goes through, again, every flyer we ever produce, our website, any system that we decide to hook into it. So it can read Tyler, it can integrate with Tyler and give people, I'm trying to think of the company name, but essentially enhance our customer service here in town without having to hire 10 more employees.

How much is that? $20,000 a year. That's at their high point.

A lot of the cities are starting to incorporate that. Street cleaning robot left alone. Bathroom. Oh, tot lot bathroom. I put in $300,000 for. Okay. That's a self-cleaning, self-maintaining RFID password. Again, I've been on the parks board for a number of years. For decades, residents have been asking for this. And the pushback has always been, well, we don't have the maintenance staff. We're concerned about security, about outsiders using it, about opening up the park to people from all over that are going to start using the park from different cities. Whether it's a homeless issue, teenagers smoking in the bathroom, this solves all of that. It cleans itself. It uses only American standardized plumbing parts, but it does have a 40-year warranty. It can go based on RFID, by passcode, whatever it is. locked to this community. We can change it. It has access. They can reach somebody in the dispatch or the town. If somebody's in there longer than a set amount of time, cops can get an alert.

We need better mics.

You can assign a budget. Assign a budget, we'll get it. Better mics?

Better mics? No. No better mics. Thanks.

Do you want to make sure we include, I think it's important, the routine pressure washing for Harding Avenue and Collins Avenue sidewalks from a static and safety perspective?

Yeah, actually, so when I wiped out the, not wiped out, but balanced out the street cleaning robots, I guess we could put it against that, supposedly. So what's the...

If it cleans the sidewalks. I haven't seen the robot yet. We have to see what that is.

That was an extra how much?

It's like $3,000 a month for twice a month.

That's lower cost than staffing it in-house. No benefits, right?

No, this will be a vendor.

Right, I'm saying that's a lower cost item.

If we tried to get that done with in-house staff, it would cost us more, I believe, by staffing it and dealing with the benefits and all that other kind of stuff.

And then I've got synthetic turf at $200,000. So I wish I could print this immediately. You're happy to share it.

For the synthetic turf, I don't know if, I mean, that's something we haven't discussed as a group before. Is it possible to get a sort of side-by-side of the expenses for that versus natural grass? I'd just like to know what... What is that again? I think it's for the soccer field, but I'm not sure. I mean, I have other reservations about synthetic turf, but I just want to know what the cost elements are involved, and it would be nice to have...

know what our annual layout is I mean we could get that for the future so the resulting for 96 Street Park was just a little bit over 32,000 we do that twice or three times a year I'm still receiving the quotes and estimates for the turf from three different vendors once I have that information we could sit down and have a compare and contrast of what the total dollars would be

Do you know the lifespan of the synthetic turf on average?

Maybe 60, 90 days.

Oh, the synthetic turf. I thought you meant the sodding.

No, the lifespan for turf is almost on a year-to-year basis. You have to do maintenance maybe once a year. Depends what vendor we finalize. Everybody has a different maintenance plan.

50K? Turn off your mic.

I would like to say $50,000 a year. But it's only once a year compared to when we re-sod. We have to do it three times depending. So we easily get over $90,000 a year just to sod.

It's definitely more efficient. But this reminds me of all the soccer tournaments I went to with my son. It's just that during the summer, the heat is brutal because it's a big area, and this is plastic because you've got plastic in the bottom. It's just also the fact that then, you know, you have these kids playing and they fall down and roll over and then you got all these plastic pieces all over you. So that's why, I mean, I'm with Messi on this one that he's saying that he shouldn't be using a turf when he plays soccer. But I know that it's a bit more money, but we got to think about it.

The question, why does the side have to be replaced so often?

The wear and tear of the field, our youth sports, the rain elements, all the special events we host. And then the usage is, since I've been here from October to now, it's increasing every month. There's more and more kids.

And is there any additional maintenance we could do that would protect it for as long as it's serviceable life?

Well, we ask Brightview as many times as we can to The irrigation, just overall, the appearance, the safety, every pothole, ditch. We have uneven grass sometimes on the field. So we try to communicate as much as we can and try to keep the upkeep on a regular basis.

Yeah, I want to say something. I go every Sunday to watch my grandson in Bay Harbor. He plays soccer every Sunday because my daughter lives over there. And they play on the on the big soccer field that they have. And it's the turf. It's like the fake grass. And I'm like, wow, this is... Because to me, you know, soccer field is fresh grass. But I actually go there every Sunday, and I'm telling you, these kids are able to actually play. It's not muddy. It rains. It stops. It's humid. And this is super flat. It's very easy for the kids to play. It's very comfortable. It has a lot of usage, and it doesn't get destroyed like... Like the usual grass, and with the rain, it gets muddy, and the grass gets completely horrible. It breaks. It gets destroyed. It's not worth it, the upkeep. You have to keep putting grass, and then it keeps getting destroyed. It's a lot of money. I don't think it's worth it. I mean, my humble opinion... I would totally go knowing now the experience that I have, that I see every Sunday with my grandson, it's totally worth it, the turf and grass, 100%.

Can we talk about the legislative aid? I know that we didn't really. No, I want to say, because it is true, what is this person going to do?

As they like to say, this is not a job, but it is a job. I think in the last two days, God help me, and I appreciate the emails of support from what was at the end, Jewish Hate, but I think they sent me like 400 emails. I don't know where they put it on social media, but I mean, it completely blocks my mind. But that's just one. I get 1,000 emails a day. If I can look at it twice a week at this point, I am trying to separate out Last time I was in, I put in like 40 hours a week here, came home and worked till 2, 3 in the morning. I can't function that way. It's a family to balance, work balance. I can't do that, but at the same time, I have responsibilities. So I need someone to help me with my emails. I need someone to help with that constituent back and forth. People look at the mayor as a role, whether it's full-time or not. Everybody assumes that they're the ones that push everything. I need that stopgap. I need somebody in between, somebody that's available who's getting paid because I'm not, and I can't sit here all day. But at the same time, I don't want to be derelict to the duties that fall within the role. And every single person, again, every director here, everybody has that. The assumption is everybody needs an assistant, two assistants, and three assistants. The police department has an executive assistant, a regular assistant. I don't know why we keep looking at this role as a joke, and that's the way some people have treated it in the past, but there's work to do.

Is the idea that this person would only help the mayor, though? Or is it an agent of the commission?

For sunshine issues, again, depending on what you're asking for, but you can create a whole other slew of issues. Every other city, depending on how they structure it, some are, you know, everybody will have a couple of people, some will have one. Some people have one person to help, you know, either the mayor and then one for the commissioners. And a lot of the cities have, you know, they'll have drivers and aides. I mean, this is the only city where we continue to look at, you know, and treat us with a certain level. And we should be treating ourselves with respect if we want people to do that as well. I mean, if you like coming here and getting berated by residents every month, that's fine. But there's still work to be done outside of that.

I mean, this is, Mr. Mayor, it has been just a disagreement between us. But I feel like if you really look at the charter, the role of the mayor is not that distinct from the role of the commissioners. We are equal legislators here. Your inbox, I get a lot of emails too, but it seems to me that by creating this position, we're sort of aggrandizing the role of the mayor relative to the commission in a way that we've never done before in the town. And I, yeah, I don't support that. I mean, I think we all have a lot of emails. It's a struggle for all of us, but I don't think that... with all due respect that your role is that different from ours. I also, you know, I know that Commissioner Trevani has an intern from Beach High who gets valuable experience and can help with that sort of a thing. I think that's the way to pursue it. When we're considering cutting other jobs, creating this new one with benefits, I think, is for me a problem. And we still haven't seen a job description of it. And when I spoke with Mario Diaz about it, he had told me it was a legislative aid for the whole commission. Yeah, I think we need to hear more, but I'm not convinced here.

That's fine. Again, we always just agree to disagree. And like I said, I have a different vision of the way the role is. I act differently than some of the others. That has resulted in appropriations. That has resulted in... Relationships that we haven't enjoyed before you know I don't have to tell you the colossal mess up that has happened with Indian Creek the loss of the town that happened when we lost the ability to upgrade our pumps and everything else that came in line with the deal that we made we are now working on joint. between all the cities, and that comes from outreach, and that comes from taking this role on differently than the way you see it. And again, I can appreciate it. I'm not flexible on this. I will tell you right now, if I don't get the help I need to do this job, I will pick up tomorrow and walk. And I know that makes her happy, and that's fine. But that's not, I don't care. I've got enough people in this community that expect me to do a certain job, and I'm going to do that job. And this is what I need to do. Mrs. Salza, if you're going to keep screaming, we're going to have to ask you to leave the room.

Because the point comes up, I have asked, and I You often mention the appropriations as a reason for these. And I'm just asking for the record if you can substantiate that. Because we do get appropriations, but it comes from many efforts of town managers lobbying.

Which appropriations did you get during your two years?

Well, Governor DeSantis vetoed our cause.

You know why he vetoed that? Because your mayor decided to pick a fight with him.

That's why. I don't know why he vetoed it. I know why. I get calls from Tallahassee all year, even when I'm out of office. My point was, can you substantiate that it was your work? Because you have made that point several times, and I don't know what the basis of that is.

It comes from sitting with the governor's person for an hour and 45 minutes going line item by line item. Each appropriation has a number, and that's all it is to Tallahassee. But what that number applies to a woman that was hit by a car in a corner who was six months pregnant and lost her baby, and I could say that person's name and articulate that I need the funding for a light on the corner, I got it. When I can articulate that I live on a barrier island and I've got people whose water is coming in their front door and going out the back and I can say them by name, that gets me the money as opposed to a line item. You don't understand the benefit and the value of lobbying. I know I got a lot of crap for spending $3,000 to bring back all that money, but that's what it is and that's what it takes to get the money. Your lobbyist has no personal relationship with this town. You sending an appropriation through our grant writer means nothing to them in Tallahassee. That's the job. And the mayor, whether you like it or not, that is the way people see that role. And to your point, yes, I'm a legislator. I'm one fifth of the vote up here. But there's a different role, and there's different things that we play. I don't know why we have to have this conversation over. And I get you don't like it, but there's the perception, and perception matters. When people go to someone, they go to the mayor to have that conversation, whether I can do it or not.

The perception is, in fact, created by the person in the role.

No, it's they come to me, I don't go to them.

The mayor isn't the chief lobbyist of the town.

Okay, you know what? This is where you lose us, and you lose this connection. This conversation is over. We're moving forward. You don't like the item. I get it. You don't have to. That's fine. I don't like everything you propose either, but this is what this is about.

Question so if it's legislative aid wouldn't it be because I understand your point about the sunshine law but I'm trying to wrap my head around the so if this is job description that we were all like legislating. So that we would all kind of need that help.

I support that. So let's give the mayor one, and let's give a budget to each commissioner to have a paid part-time or paid intern, because it seems like Gerardo is concerned about the mayor only having it. So let's each give ourselves one. Every other town I speak to. I got a phone call this week that said, I tried reaching the mayor's office. I said, you mean the mayor? There's no staff provided. Every other town. has staff to be, we're talking about, you know, people are complaining they haven't gotten responses. You've complained that we haven't responded to some of your emails. Do you know how many emails I got this week? And I responded to many. And I respond to many of your messages and emails as well over time. But I simply, right now, I have so many, and we're in budget season, and people deserve a response more than an AI automated response. So, yes, it was a much smaller town when you were here.

All right. Eliana, please stop screaming. Sit down.

You're not commissioner anymore.

Please leave. Calm down.

You're one of 6,000 residents.

All right. This is what it is. Every time I go to an event, and I'm speaking yesterday, I met the secretary of the DBPR, as we spoke about. You know what the first response is? Have your office call, and we'll schedule the next. That's the assumption, because that's the way everybody works. Now, you want to keep operating like we're six blocks with a $5 million budget once upon a time? We are not that anymore. I can't tell you how many phone calls, how many emails that people are waiting for me. I get it all day long. I have my friends calling me up. This and this person has been trying to reach you. Why don't you get them back? Because I don't have the time for it. And that's not right. We live in a small enough town where people should be able to reach those offices. I'm having trouble. I'm asking for that help. And I'll get it, whether you like it or not, quite frankly.

Okay, so question, would that be possible?

On the one hand, you're telling me I don't need it. On the other hand, you want your own. I support it. If you're telling me you want that, 100%, because I know what it's like.

Yeah, well, that's the budget, though. No, it's just that the problem is the budget. I mean, obviously, yeah, I would benefit from it. That's why you're coming with, like, three interns. Yeah, but they're all, I mean, I'm teaching them more than... But anyway, because I'm thinking if this can be solved by reshuffling how we do assign the duties inside the tunnel. Like, you know, sometimes I know that Anna was... helping me with the things on, like, I don't know, I'm trying to reach this person, like, to your point, right? So would, and that would be something, like a kind of resource that we all use to coordinate, schedule, make things happen. I don't know, I'm just thinking out loud to see if there is a solution that we can, that can work for everybody. It's just that I think it's important to define the job description, and then based on the job description, see if it can be a resource that we already have, a resource that would work for all of us. Five of them I think would be a little excessive because then we would have, yeah, you know, seven.

Four, because according to Gerardo, we don't need it. So, so far, just four.

Okay. I think that it'd be, I mean, I'm not saying, like, you know, as usual, I try to understand the problem and see what the solution is. I think that it'd be nice if there could be a job description. And then, because quite frankly, it is true, yeah, you know, we could use that as a resource to make things happen. Would it be one, two, zero, use the stuff that we have and reshuffle the roles and responsibilities? I don't know, but...

Listen, maybe you start an internship program if that's what it is, see how it goes, and if you're having trouble, then turn it into a paid position. But I know there's nobody that's going to want to intern and do the work that I'm asking them for without compensation.

How is the hiring of this going to work? I mean, is this person ultimately reporting to the town manager? It's not relevant right now. Well, it's hard to know what we're voting for.

Right now you're voting to keep it as in the budgetary item.

That's what I'm talking about. How do we know what it is?

Well, I know you don't want it. So why am I going to spend the next 30 minutes explaining it to you? It doesn't matter. You've already stated no, and that's without knowing what it is. Mr. Mayor, I want to know what it is so that I know what we're putting in the budget. You've already said no.

I mean, I don't like the idea. This is true, but I haven't already said no. But I'm asking, what is it? Like, is it somebody that you personally hire and who reports to you? Is it somebody who reports to the town manager? I mean, that's relevant information to what we're voting on here.

No, it's not. Right now, it's the money. It's a monetary thing.

Yeah, but we want to know what it is. It's like, if we talk about... Guys, we're moving on.

If you guys are happy with the projects moving forward, I think we have a good list. I would love to... Again, you know, I've tried to answer it. I try to have the conversation. This is a budget meeting. I don't want to have an hour conversation about what it is, right? You know what it is.

Well, I don't know who hires the person. No, this is why I'm asking. I mean, I don't know. We haven't had this before in the town. So I'm trying to figure out how this fits into our structure.

Well, my first objective is to get it approved. After that, I will look at the other cities. I'll see how they structure it and how they do it and what the normal is. I've already had conversations with Mario back then, who has worked for multiple cities and proposed three, four different ways. Let me bring that back. But why would I do all that research before I even get it on the agenda?

Okay, and so the, and the social media, what do we think? Do we want to try to aim for, again, I'm just trying to see if there's something, because I, so on the lobbyist, okay, I mean, it's a fair point. Maybe what we can, I mean, we've had this increase in lobbying, and then we'll see after a year what comes back from that, and then we'll reassess, I guess, if we don't get back enough, right? But, so what does it look like now in terms of, because ideally it'd be great if we can go back to the rollback rate. Which is what? It was like 3.5, it was like the 1.9 million. You have to cut for that.

1.9, I think it was.

Yeah, so 1.9. The reserves would, instead of putting 2.9, we would put 1 million in the reserves, right?

So we're at 2.7 roughly for capital projects.

I'd like to say something about the rates. Just one thing that I have liked about the way the budget's worked in Surfside over the years, and I know that Ms. Meary has a slide that shows the millage rate over the years. We steadily lower it, but we always kind of leave room for the next commission to lower it. And I don't think any one commission should just sort of like, take the whole cut at once because I never want a future commission to be in the position where they have to raise the millage. I feel like that's an unfair thing to do to the future. You can always claim the biggest tax cut, but then you put future commissions in a position where if there's a downturn in the real estate market or something happens, then they have to raise the millage. And we haven't had to do that in a very, very long time. And I would like, in a way, to prevent that from happening. I don't want us to be too hasty in jumping to the rollback rate when the money is good. And then if the real estate market slows down, then we have to raise it. So I'd like to leave something for future commissions to cut.

But in the past, so then segue to this. In the past, how much did we, let's say in the past to budget, how much did we contribute to the reserves?

So in this current year, we were using reserves to, because we were allocating funds for the water and sewer main and the storm water, so we used $10 million approximately in the current year. So there was nothing returned to reserves. It also depends on what's actually spent during the year, so it varies.

Let's see if we can. Did that money go back into reserves again?

Anything that's not spent will go back into reserves.

So the 11 million is including the 10 that was allocated for those projects?

That's in the current year's budget?

Yeah.

Yeah, that's the 6.5 million. and two and a half million for the, I'd have to look back, but two and a half million for the stormwater. Those transfers have not been done yet, but they are appropriated. So if we don't make those transfers, the funds revert to the budget where we were using fund balance in order to do those projects.

Okay, so and before I forget, how's the Water Main doing? because now we put it off to next year. I'm really worried that that pipe is gonna burst, and then we're gonna be in a, you know what? So do we have a report, an assessment? Because now we're just talking about numbers on a piece of paper, but if this is gonna cause an actual issue, and we have a problem with that water main, then I don't want to be in the situation. So does anybody have an answer to this?

Anything? Other than saying it's 40 years old and we have to fix it, has there been a problem that's been isolated? Are we having challenges with it? Nothing years every new development they've been doing the surface of their building so we've been upgrading that slowly. Yes, but is there like a critical have we reached a critical mass essentially.

Apart from the fact that as you mentioned 40 years old and the fact that the developments have been doing the segment in front of their properties we have not had any. you know, significant breakage on that motor main line. Thank God, so.

Okay. I mean, we've asked Christina essentially go out and see what grants and what money is available for a project like that. So if we had to budget, you know, six and a half, nine million dollars, how much of that is coming back to us? And, you know, that wasn't asked when it was thrown into the expense. Or it was and it wasn't given either. So let's, I think the direction at our last meeting to kind of the manager was, and my first question was, where's the money coming from? And we couldn't even get that answer. It's coming from the general fund, great. How much money is there in appropriations and grants for that? So let's find that answer out, and then if we need to do an amendment, start working. But again, doing a complete project like that, you're throwing the town into a massive construction zone for six years.

This has to be driven by an actual need. So I'm trying to establish the need first. So I don't know if there's, when was the last inspection that was done that created the concern?

So I can't say for sure when the last inspection was done on the water main, but as far as it relates to the valves and stuff, as I said, it was installed a long time. So you're talking about valves that have been there and the type of pipeline is on the ground. So that's one of the reasons why they wanted to change it out. We have a lot of developments that are coming in, which means that we have a lot more demand on water for the tail.

We also have more sections being replaced with those developments.

We have more sections being replaced. And what I will say also is what is on the developments now is to ensure it's a 12-inch water main. We have had a few that have been changed out, but they're changing out to eight inch, which was what was there currently. So we need to upsize and that's the reason why.

In the past, it was changed from 12 to 8.

No, the original that is there right now is 8-inch coming all the way from the pipe. So the aim is to upgrade all that water. Everything to 12. Right. But there are some developments in the past that have changed the pipe to 8-inch. So all they did was change the material.

When was the last section that was upgraded because of the new construction we have?

The last one we have currently we can speak on is ocean House across the street, they were instructed to put into which was like a few months ago.

It hasn't been commissioned yet, but yes, okay so when they replaced it how was that the pipe that they replace was still in normal working condition you remember.

No, I don't remember.

I have to look at it. Can you maybe just. Yeah, I can get information. Okay.

Yes. Thank you. Yeah, I mean, I don't think we've reached critical mass.

No, I don't know. We can take a look and then see what it is. That's all I'm saying. Yep.

All right. All right. So like you, I would love to be able to come back down, you know, but we also want to do something here. And that's been the challenge. We kind of came in and the entire budget was allocated for us without any capital projects. Our job is to, you know, obviously keep the town moving, but also improve on it. I think we have some numbers here that make sense. There's projects that we just can't touch this year, and hopefully next year, but.

So communications still 300? Communications, you think 300 is the right number?

We can do everything we want here. No, no, I'm just asking. But if people don't hear about it, it's not helpful. So I don't think it's a lot. We have a couple of quotes coming in. And I think we'll be seeing those before we approve the final budget.

Oh, that's true. Yeah, we have time to.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, this, I think, was the high end or whatever we were putting in as an estimate for Mario. But we'll get some more specific numbers soon.

Vote on that. I want to make sure I heard that correctly. Sorry, because I'm not sure what the communications is for. You said it's so people can hear about what we do?

You're nitpicking on words. No, no.

You said if people don't hear about it, it's not helpful.

I think those were your words. It was a general comment to the commissioner. But it's important for us to improve our communications. I think we have the methods that we have and we've been using, but we want to enhance it. And that's one of the enhancements, one of the projects that the commission had discussed and prioritized was enhancing our communications.

Agreed, but we're also, when we're balancing against other services, the way you said it made it sound like it's publicizing us. And I don't see that as a priority relative to other things. And again, I'm also just looking for, as with the other topic, just information about what we're including here and what the rationale is. And I think if it is about communicating what the commission is doing, then I'm less convinced that it's something that we need.

But there will be something that it's up on the next week's agenda. Because at that time, we're going to have the chance to discuss the scope and maybe trim it down or see, you know, and then revise the number before the following week budget.

I see. Yeah, so there's a unique opportunity to discuss this. Yeah, good. I look forward to that. I just would like to understand the case for it.

And while, before the window of opportunity closes, I know we're looking for places to cut, but I do want to find room to fit in the launch, at least a soft launch and a small-scale rollout of the water taxi. I'm working with Miami Beach, and there will be an invite for the commission to have a tour where they're going to show us how the program works. They're actually operating during the week and closed on the weekend, and I think for our town it would actually be beneficial to offer it on weekends where people could utilize Saturday and Sunday as our soft rollout, and as we see usage there perhaps expand from there. My intention is to seek state grants, actually get some private funds from hotels because there's interest there as far as connectivity and more of a draw to town for them, and finally resort tax funds.

My understanding, I'm kind of a transportation geek, so I'm into this stuff. The only operational one they have is Sunset Harbor to Miami Beach over to Edgewater.

They're expanding a few more stops real soon.

Yeah, but the This would be part of a north-south service. Correct.

Connect in, and we'd be able to piggyback off there.

Do they have a date for the north-south service? Because I haven't heard anything about a launch date for that.

I'm meeting actually with Steve Minor and his chief of staff.

Okay. I'm very curious to hear about it.

They're excited that we're expressing interest in tying into it and connecting. It provides alternate mode of transportation. It's utilizing an amenity, a natural resource that we have.

I just came back from...

Switzerland, and there was a water taxi cutting across the lake in Geneva. It was beautiful, and I used it. I got videos there as well for the experience, but it was a nice way to use a natural resource and alternate mode of transportation, and I think it very much ties into tourism, so I intend on sharing more with our tourism board. Yeah, Phil.

Because it comes from tourism, CITT, it wouldn't necessarily affect the millage rate, but we can add that in there as, I mean, it would be helpful for you.

They're just ballpark figures, and we'd be much lower than this, obviously, especially for a small scale. Miami Beach has two water taxis, two actual water vessels and staffing for that. And I believe it's five days a week right now. Their budget, they're running, it was about 1.2 for the city of Miami Beach. So we would be a fraction of that, tying and piggybacking. So we would save off all the study, all the research they did. They're ready to share all that. And their operator is ready to expand. So we would be able to benefit from not starting from the ground up and being able to have some, so to speak, bulk buying power working with them. I'm looking at something for an annual launch somewhere in the ballpark of $250,000, but some of that would come from resorts, some state grants, and private.

All right. Let's grab it. Let's grab it under $400,000 from tourism. There you go. It's $250,000 for water taxi, $150,000 for tennis center coverage for now.

So we're reducing the tennis center shade? Yeah. From 250 to 150? Yeah. And then 200 for the water taxi?

Well, 250, I think.

250?

Yeah, we shouldn't.

We would, at that point, be using, I believe, reserves, but.

Well, there may be some money from the CITT that we can.

Hold on. What's re-applicable? Reducing what exactly?

The tennis, the coverage for it. So we've gotten different pricing. So we're looking at the lower end as opposed to a higher end. We're going to look at rebuilding that whole area anyways.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

But don't worry. I get yelled at by everybody who plays tennis too. but they could only play two hours a day.

The water taxi for next year, maybe, I mean, if that's an option, if we're going to have it, maybe we can cut down on the, I mean, it could be, I don't know, it's an idea I'm throwing. It could be very beneficial to take the kids from Bay Harbor to sources with a water taxi. It's like a small, you know, a very small, short trip. on the water taxi, it would be very beneficial, maybe just throwing an idea.

That's cool.

Less traffic, less, like a school bus, you know, bringing the kids from Surfside to Bay Harbor, we can bring them with the water taxi.

Perhaps from one of the street end parks.

Yes, exactly. It would create less traffic, less traffic for the kids. Sometimes it gets backed up. The traffic gets insane in high seasons. In November, December time, it gets crazy. Even just to go from Bay Harbor to Surset to Bay Harbor and back and forth, It could take maybe 30 minutes. With a water taxi, we can remove that expense of the school bus next year and use the water taxi option. It's $100,000 that we can, you know.

Definitely could explore the feasibility.

I mean, I don't know. I'm just throwing ideas.

All right, very cool.

Yeah, a question that I had. I'm sorry, a question that I had. Nothing to do with the water taxi. The financial director, is that in the budget?

Yeah.

Is that in the proposed budget?

Yep.

Yes. Okay. And this company that we're paying until X amount of months, it's not going to be in the budget for next month, right? For next year.

I mean, we approved $292,000 for 11 weeks. I have no idea where we're up to.

Okay. Do you get monthly reports in the town manager's report as to what they are?

Of where it's holding? All right, we'll have to review it and see where it's holding, but yeah. I mean, any major expenses need to come before us anyway, so we would see that. But yeah, the assumption is with the onboarding of a CFO or a financial director, again, that takes care of that. I mean, this was brought in to provide, was it a triage? What?

You. The CFO, you. The posting is out there, no?

When you act as town manager, let's pretend, you know, act better.

And I think it's important to be mindful when we're hiring.

I just wasn't sure if you wanted your permanent manager to hire the CFO. So that was just a question.

Okay. For example, with the planner, right now we're using an outsourced service. So that will be cut, and then we're replacing it with a salary. Just to be clear. Meaning there's a spend for our outsourced service right now.

Right now we're outsourcing... The planner does not replace the outsourcing in next year's budget. The planner was managing the, how we had it before, we had an outside planner.

So we didn't cut anything yet. Yeah, the planner is from Corradina, right? So normally the town planner will use the outside services for assistance, but it's in a smaller scale.

There'll be some offset later. So even, I mean, to the point, even if we don't get to lower, I guess, the rate, we get to throw some money back hopefully at the end of the year that we don't spend. But we'll see. We'll try to tighten it up before the next meeting. All right, so I guess I'll follow up. I'll send you the list that we put together so we have that that we're discussing.

Okay. Question. Is it in the budget an increase for Sandra?

Who told you to ask that question?

It was not Sandra.

I'm assuming there's and I guess that's a good question we have a one of the items that we have on with the HR administration is that town-wide study to ensure that we are within market rate and we're paying and compensating our people is that is there is there an assumption of compensation raises you know is that being allocated for for this year Not just Sandra.

So for non-union staff, there is a merit, an allocation for merit for $220,000.

But I think Mario did raise Sandra's salary or proposed to or, I remember, Mario. I think he was...

I did not receive any merits.

He mentioned something.

I received my annual merit increase, but I did not receive any other raises.

No, no, as far as I know, because I asked, sorry, I asked Mario, and no, there is no, she didn't get any raise, and she really deserves a raise. And I think it should be in the budget.

I would think with...

I think everybody, all directors, everybody that we're looking to bring back up need to have that. So is that in there?

There's a 220,000 merit pool.

For union, though, you said.

Non-union, non-union staff.

But if the study comes back and every employee requires an increase, either non-union, we will have to come to the commission for the budget amendment.

Are we perhaps confusing two issues here, one being the... extra pay for the role of acting manager and one being just the regular pay raise? I mean, it just seems like two topics may have been run together here.

No, not at all. I mean, I don't think the town has done an assessment or a study on what the current rates are for the roles that we have. Non-union don't get to, you know, they get to renegotiate that periodically. But as far as our directors, if we want to take care of the staff that we have, we should be looking for that.

But I took the vice mayor's original question, and she could clarify it to be about the acting manager role.

Yeah, so two things. One is the budgeting, how much is the salary for a town manager, and one is the town clerk. Even as a town clerk, Sandra's salary is much less than than, for example, what Bay Harbor or other municipalities pay. Because I did my research, because Sandra is, I really appreciate Sandra. She is a lot of, has a lot of value. She is the one and only, really, has a lot of value for the town. And I did the research. I think Bay Harbor, if I'm not mistaken, they're paying town clerk? 220, and if I'm not mistaken, Sandra, correct me, your salary is 160? 165. Correct. So there's a big gap. It's not only Bay Harbor. You can do your own research and ask around the municipalities. You know, that position, regardless, Sandra, but Sandra, since she has like, I think like 16 years with us, that, you know, her pay, it should be a little bit increased. I mean, at least to 180, I would say. And I mean, I don't know. I don't know numbers exactly. I think we have a contract. I'm not sure, but I know it should be raised a little. And if she, you know, if she accepts, you know, I would love her to be really the actual town manager for the town. If she accepts that offer, I think she's capable for that position. she should have a town manager raise.

I wish you were sitting here so you could see what color her face is right now.

I mean, I'm just talking out of, you know, I value her knowledge, her expertise, the amount of years and the work she's done. I mean, the other night, she couldn't sleep because her head was spinning. She woke up at 4.30 and she came to town. Who does that? She came to town early in the morning at 5, 5 something in the morning. She was already working. Who does that? And she does it quietly, very humble. So that, to me, has a lot of worth. She should be the town manager, honestly.

By the way, you're taking away all our negotiating power. I'm just telling you. Again, I think to bring it back into today's meeting, which is to make sure that we have, and I think the answer was that we have money, because I think not just Sandra, but a lot of directors here there was something lacking in the last few years. That study wasn't done. We wanna make sure that everybody working here doesn't wanna be looking at the next city to see if they could be making a little bit more. So we wanna make sure that we are paying market rate at the very least and everyone is compensated for their job. So if that's in the budget, that's as far as where we go today.

The study is. The study itself is in the budget.

I thought you said you had 250,000 allocated. No, 220 is for non-union employees.

Non-union. Merit.

So what happens when it comes back and everybody's getting $20,000 more?

Then we would need to make a budget amendment for that. This is a normal movement in the...

I vote we take away street ends. All right. Yeah, I think, I mean, technically there's about $150,000, a little bit more, $200,000 still without moving anything. So let's see...

Yes, but we definitely need to be competitive and we need to be in line with surrounding municipalities.

In theory, yeah, there's 250 left roughly from the 2.9 that we pulled out.

Yeah, comparable against other municipalities were very low. That I know for a fact.

So maybe to keep everybody from leaving, we should throw something in the budget since we have some of the numbers in there.

Yeah, because we want to keep our employees happy and keep them.

We're all sitting by the door.

Not keep them from leaving.

All right. Yeah, I think, again, Senator, if you can sit with Andrea, we'll put this together. You'll have some money to play with. We've got a budget for it. I'd rather budget ahead of time than keep getting caught off guard. Again, we don't know what that number is, but let's make some assumptions, I guess.

When do we do this again? September 8th?

I think so, right, first reading?

September 8 will be your first budget hearing at 501. But at that point, do we want this to be set, or is there still room to?

You will determine a millage rate at that point. You can't go higher than the millage that you've advertised. And I'll look at the changes and try and incorporate them into the budget, and we'll know what the budget is. And at that point, you'll decide if there's anything, if you want to make any adjustments to the millage rate, and if so, then how would we do that in order to balance? And then the second hearing wouldn't be the final hearing.

All right, okay. I think that was, yeah, that was production. Thank you. Thank you.