Police Pension Board of Trustees - Regular Meeting

Okay. We call to order the Citizens Tax Oversight Committee meeting for 04/29/2025. For roll call, mister Belasco? Here. Doctor. Safadi? Here. Ms. Kelly? Yes. Ms. Bolan? And Ms. Bamonte?

Yes. Okay.

The first order of business today is an election of chair. Do we have any volunteers or nominations for the chair position? Do

I would like to volunteer.

Okay. I second my last second.

Okay so Doctor. Safadi has volunteered. Will need any other nominations or volunteers? Okay we'll just need a motion to select Doctor. Safadi.

I'm sorry

Ms. Kelly can you repeat that again into

your mind? I motion to select Savati.

Okay and a second?

I'll second. Okay.

Just a second. Okay I'll call a roll call vote. Doctor. Savati? Yes. Mr. Belasco? Yes. Ms. Bamonte? Yes. And Ms. Kelly? Yes. Okay. Doctor. Safadi has selected as chair. Chair Safadi, will turn the meeting over to you.

Thank you. The finance director, Linda Seeney, will be available. We will

Our next order of business is meeting minutes of 04/21/2022.

We call the meeting in order. Order? So are we supposed to start at 01:00PM?

No. We've already called the meeting to order. We're at the approval of minutes.

Okay. A motion was made by Mr. Wilkinson seconded by Ms. Keeler that the minutes of the 03/15/2021 meeting be approved.

Okay, Those that that's those are the minutes that are being approved. We're looking for a motion to approve the 04/21/2022 minutes.

04/21/2022, regular meetings, right?

Yes. So we will need a board member to motion if they want to approve

or amend the minutes.

I will

make a motion to approve.

Okay. Second. Who is in favor please? We all. Who opposes?

No opposition. The minutes has passed and approved. So the motion to approve, I move to approve the minutes of 12/05/2023 as written. I would like to get a vote from the committee. Please voice your vote.

All

in favor raise hands.

All in favor, okay.

Any opposed? Infrastructure,

sir tax proposed project revenue and expenses 20 five-one 159. I would like to invite staff forward to make a presentation, If any presentation is available.

Good morning, Chair and members of the one cent sales tax committee. I'm Linda Senney, the finance director for the city. The purpose of this meeting is to go over the revenues and the expenses from the sales tax fund that city council has approved and the expenses that have already happened and what's in the fiscal twenty five budget. So I will start with the revenues. Since it's been a while since we had a meeting, I'll just start with the 23 revenues.

The revenue that comes in is the $01 sales tax, which is when you go shopping and you have a 1¢ sales tax that's added on to your purchases. That money goes to the state and the state distributes it to Sarasota County based on the population. So it's based on the population is the portion of the 1¢ sales tax that comes back to the city of Venice. So the first line on there, as you can see on the discretionary sales tax, surtax that you can see on your screen, that first line is the sales tax that comes in. For fiscal twenty twenty three, it was it's the yellow column because we have a budget and we have the actual.

So the actual that came in in fiscal twenty twenty three is $5,700,000 and the actual for fiscal twenty twenty four was $5,800,000 And then the other revenues that we received underneath that when it says state HMGP grant, that is we have that budgeted in fiscal twenty five hoping to get 1,100,000.0 for a grant for the fire station, the generator at the fire station. And then the next one is the Gulf Coast community foundation grant. We received that in fiscal twenty four and that was $50,000 that is going to the old building that is currently being constructed right now. If you go by the library and the Venice heritage museum, then you will see the old building is currently being constructed and we received $50,000 from community foundation to help fund that. And then we have the interest on investments because the money that we have within the city, we have an investment pool that combines it all together and each fund gets their portion based on the cash that is in their fund at the time.

And then under miscellaneous revenue, you'll see private contributions. Once again, that's a smaller we received contributions for the old Betsy display from they gave the contributions to Venice Heritage Inc. And then Venice Heritage Inc. Forwarded the money to us to construct old Betsy. So that's what that's for. So any question on the revenue sources? So those are the types of revenue that come into the city. Usually it's just the 1¢ sales tax itself. And then if we get any grants or if anybody donates any money to the city.

Yes?

The question I have is the interest earned was based on the 6,570,000.00?

The interest earned is every month we do an interest allocation. We get our interest earnings, we have our funds invested in different sources, which is basically local banks and local government investment pools. There's limited areas that we can invest municipal funds because it's the taxpayer's property really. So it's local government investment pools and banks is where we invested. And we invest the whole all of the city's funds and then it's allocated out by the cash that's in the fund at that time.

Can we move on to the summary where it says the total funds analysis and get some explanation on the deficits or the negatives?

On which I'm sorry, where?

The total fund analysis.

Yes, okay, the total yes, that's next. Total fund analysis. So the first line is the revenue, which ties to the top column, that's $6,200,000 that's the revenue. So for each column going across fiscal twenty five, 6,500,000.0 ties to that top The total expenses for the bottom. So down there in the bottom you see total twenty three's expenses $600,000,215,006 62.

I'm sorry, I'm reading the wrong line.

6,215,682.

Yes, I'm sorry, the fiscal twenty three I was reading the wrong line. Dollars 3,149,600. So that's the expenses on the fiscal twenty twenty three column? Do you see what I'm talking about? Yes. So that's the total expenses for '23. And so the next sheet shows the detail of those expenses that happened in '23.

So

for example, so then this is showing where the money gets spent in '23. So if we look on this page right here, you have 02/1533. That was for improvements that we had done to the community center. You can see we had some expenses in '23 and '24 for the community center.

Yeah.

For some of it is flooring, some of it is the sound system, some of it was the roof. So there's different things that we do at community center for the improvements for the community center. If you go because I'm just looking at '23, '24. So then if you go down, you see a one fifty three, four thirty four. It's about the ninth line from the bottom of fiscal or the tenth line from the bottom is the city hall had some improvements to city hall for sixty six thousand.

Right above that in fiscal twenty four is city hall AC improvements for the chiller and the AC improvements. And further down towards the bottom, you see we replaced the City Hall Clock Tower. That's outside the clock tower here at City Hall. That was replaced at 40,000 and then there was City Hall. All the remodeling within City Hall, parts of it were done in fiscal twenty three and some of it is budget in '24 and some budget in '25.

It is a project that has been carried out so not all of the money was spent in one fiscal year. If you see all of the improvements within City Hall and the one that is for that includes part of the council chambers here. This was all redone. And other areas within City Hall. Some areas upstairs will be done in fiscal twenty five. So they just remodeled the whole City Hall. Where we added the fire station first and then we did the building division and the cashier's office and a lot of the planning and zoning and this council chambers. All of that is part of the City hall improvements. It's just it was allocated different items were for different years.

Okay.

And then if we go down to the next page, you can see there was the 77430 that's under public works relocation. That's public works relocated to the old what used to be the old police station. So that 77,000 part for public works relocation had to do with we did most of the remodeling all at one time when we did the relocation of that, which most of that was done in fiscal twenty one. If you go further back, it was done in fiscal twenty one. So the 77,000 was redoing the locker rooms.

There was old locker rooms that were in there from when police was in there. So they redid that for public works personnel. So that's what that dollar amount was for. If I

may ask, which page are you on? Which line?

I'm on page four, the fourth line down. One, two, three, four, the fifth line down.

'20 four?

Mhmm. Over to the right, if you look under column fiscal twenty four and there's 77,430.

Mhmm. And

then this is a wide sheet because it includes years from 2010 forward. So the seventy seven four thirty was for locker rooms for the public works department. And then if you go keep continuing going down that line, then there's a $50,000 amount that says city fleet maintenance facility. That's for a down payment that we put on some land. Hoping to purchase that and redo the public solid waste in the public fleet maintenance facility.

And then we had had some bike facility improvements for $8,200 $8,294 going down. Then going down further, see the $39,330 that was to replace a loader for public works. The amount above that in fiscal twenty three, that was 96,462 is to upgrade the fleet fuel system for public works.

Question.

Yes.

Year '24, thirty nine thousand three hundred thirty for the software upgrade, the The fleet F '25, the budget is 120, which is three times as much.

Yeah. Because they started it in they just started in fiscal twenty four, and they'll complete it fiscal twenty twenty five. It's

It's carryover?

Yes. Sometimes you'll see that things are budgeted over a two year period because we do a small portion in one year and then complete it the next year.

That's part

of the whole system itself.

Understood. So what's the total cost of that system? 159,005 and $97

Correct.

Okay.

Yes. Yes.

Excuse me. Can I ask you a question? Sure. This is my first meeting here, and I appreciate the walk through of all the numbers. I just had a broader question about how projects make it on the list that's obviously done in a different group or something. And then how does your I think it would be your department, how do you keep track of the 1¢? So the revenue side, how does that get counted? And then on the expense side, how are these projects determined?

Okay. There was a 1¢ sales tax that was for a fifteen year period. Then there's a referendum that was on the ballot that voted in December I mean, November '21 to extend the 1¢ sales tax for another fifteen years. So the 1¢ sales tax will go out to 2,039. That's the current 1¢ sales tax.

And that's how we get the revenue coming in is people buying their goods and being charged the extra 1¢ sales tax within Sarasota County. That's how the revenue comes in. As far as the expenses then, we have budget workshops. And when we had the referendum we had to indicate what kind of projects. That how you can see on here it's divvied out between some are community projects, some are public safety projects.

Because those are the broad categories that are part of the referendum. Some are transportation, some are parks and beaches. And for specific projects, each year when we do the budget, departments submit and it has to be a capital project. It has to be something that's capital. It can't be for operating expenses. So we can't use it for office supplies. We can't use it for personnel. It can't be used to pay for any personnel or health insurance or anything like that. It can only be used for specific capital projects or improvements of a current building that you already have. So it has to be capital not operating.

So when we have the budget, we we have a proposed budget that we submit to counsel. Departments submit projects that they think would be good to use the 1¢ sales tax money. Right now, we're currently right now, we're saving that money and we're going to use it for the new Fire Station 2 and for the fleet maintenance solid waste facility. Those are the two big projects. But within there, we always have smaller projects. But those are the bigger projects. And we used 1¢ sales tax to help fund Fire Station Number 1. We didn't take out a loan at all for Fire Station Number 1 because we used the 1¢ sales tax. Because the 1¢ sales tax is capital and that's something that people want to be able to see. We paid we paid sales taxes.

What did you use our money for? And so they'd like to see the bigger projects. So we keep the bigger facilities or when public works at the old facility and they moved into the new facility, which was the old police station that we remodeled for them, we used the money from the 1¢ sales tax to remodel for the public works people. So when we have the department submit projects and then I get together with the directors and the city manager and we prioritize. There is always more projects than money available.

We prioritize. Staff prioritize what we think is the most important. That's what we include in the proposed budget which then gets we have a budget workshops in June that its staff meets with city council and is open to the public to come in. And that's when we have first a CIP which is a capital improvement program where we explain all the capital projects. 1¢ sales tax, general fund, utilities has their own fund because they are an enterprise fund. You are charged a user fee for your water and sewer. Are charged a user fee for solid waste. You are charged a user fee for storm water. So those four are all separate funds. And they can only be used for that specific purpose.

And so the ones in sales tax is also a specific purpose for any capital that is not general I'm sorry. That is not utilities because they are in their own separate fund or anything that's storm water. We don't generally use within the 1¢ sales tax fund. So we have the CIP workshop and we explain the projects to counsel. The counsel has to approve that.

Then within the after we have the CIP workshop which is just capital, then we have another budget workshop that includes capital plus all the operating that departments are requesting and asking for their specific department. And then council, we have the budget workshops and then we have there may be changes from June until the budget is actually adopted in September to become effective October. So sometimes there's changes from when we have the budget workshop in June until we actually adopted September. And most of the time there are changes. There might be some other project that comes up or something we want to remove because something else came up that's more important.

Something might have happened. There might have been damage to something based on a hurricane or a fire or anything like that. We're going say, this project we had, we're going to push back and we're going to do this instead. So there's changes. And then council adopts the budget in September and then it becomes effective in October. So that's how the projects get included in the budget itself.

Is there a committee during this process that brings the projects, look at the funding available? No.

It's the it's the finance department along with the department directors determine the project, and we bring it forward to council. And there are times when council may have a project themselves that they think about that we didn't. We, when I say we as the staff, meaning city manager and directors and finance, which an example of that is council chambers being redone. That was not a project that city staff brought forward. That was a project that council brought forward that they would like council chambers redone.

Have when we have the CIP, it's a budget workshop. So it's open for discussion based on the projects we have. And any other project that council member may say, hey, why don't we look at this as a possible project? Then we look at that and then council overall prioritizes and adds what's going to be in the budget.

Thank you

very much. That was Thank very you. You're welcome.

I have a follow-up question for I come from a background where I was building smart cities from ground up.

Building what?

Smart cities Okay. From ground Built actually four of them. The question I have, a one dollars increase in sales tax, looking at the numbers, looking at the expenses, whether it's CapEx or OpEx, it seems like we're in constant lookout for funding or lack of funding.

Yeah. There's always more projects than dollars available. That's why you have to prioritize.

Agreed. And I don't see any contingency funds here other than the 2,000,000 that I saw earlier, which is the target reserve policy.

When you are talking contingency funds, if you look on Page two, we don't really call it contingency in the government world, but it is the ending fund balance, balance. What we expect the fund balance to be at the end. We have Excess. Yeah. The ending fund balance.

And then we have what is the excess available. And that's because we have a standard of what the what our fund balance should be. And then we have what's called because we keep a minimum. The target reserve policy for this fund is 2,000,000. We wanna keep 2,000,000 in case something happens that we're not aware of that we may need $2,000,000 Other than that, we can say choose to want to spend it.

So we say on page two at the end, we say excess available is 12,900,000.0. It's what's available but it's really going to be used up within the fire station, doing Fire Station 2, which will decrease the amount that we have to do as a loan because we'll plan to do some funding for the fire station and the fleet maintenance solid waste facility. Those are the two big projects that are on the docket right now is Fire Station 2, which has started. They're doing they did the ground clearing. I'm not sure if you know where that's at. That's right next to the police station.

Yeah.

And then the other one is where we put $50,000 down on land to move solid waste and fleet maintenance facility. If you're aware where they are on Seaboard Avenue, that's where you see the solid waste trucks and goal is to redevelop the seaboard area. But before we can redevelop that, we have to move solid waste in the fleet maintenance facility away from that area. So that's the other big project. So the money is within the 1¢ sales tax fund will be used for those two big projects and the shortfall will end up having to do a bond issue or a bank loan.

So Fire Station two is requiring somewhere around $19,000,000 for '25?

Yeah. That's the estimate we have. And we don't have the GMP yet, which is the guaranteed maximum price. It's right now being designed. And so we spent money on design. It's currently in design, and we expect the GMP within the next thirty to sixty days probably, which is the guaranteed maximum price. That's where the design and our construction firm that we've selected, Willis Smith, is the construction firm that will be doing the constructing of the fire station, which is also the one that's constructed Fire Station 1. So then they give us a guaranteed maximum price. So that means they give us a price of what it's going to be. They're trying to get all their costs now.

And then once they give us that price, it the contract cannot exceed that dollar amount. So if prices go up, it doesn't matter. They give us guaranteed maximum price rate. So we are waiting for them because they are in the design right now and they are trying to get quotes and prices for all the things that will be needed within the facility itself for the construction. So we should have the GMP hopefully within thirty to sixty days.

Is there a process within the city to announce something like a best and final offer?

I'm sorry.

Is there a process where you can ask the vendors or the construction company to provide you with the best and final offer?

Yes. Yes. We do that within procurement and the project manager. That's project manager within the project itself. And then council has to approve it. Like, so when we get the guaranteed maximum price, that has to come forward to city council and city council has to approve it to move forward with that construction price.

Have we looked at other options like time and material?

Yes. They look at all that when they're looking at the construction costs.

Okay. Mhmm. Mhmm.

Look at time and material, direct purchases. Sometimes if we purchase it versus the contractor purchasing it, we get it at a discounted rate.

Of course.

So we look at all that and we don't pay sales tax for Yeah. The city when we purchase anything. The city, because its municipal government, does not pay any sales tax in the

exempt. Yeah. Mhmm. Okay. Yep.

The concern that I have, and I'm not sure with my colleagues here and members, the $01 increase in sales tax, I believe it's just a band aid on something that could potentially require yet another session to increase it by another 2¢ or 1¢.

Well, that that would always be a voter referendum.

Yeah.

Right? Right now, it's a voter referendum that has passed to keep and that was to keep the 1¢ sales

tax.

And that was passed in 2021 and it goes to 2039. So it cannot increase beyond the 1¢. Until 2039. And after that, it would have to be another voter referendum. And it's a Sarasota County initiative and all the cities within Sarasota County are part of that referendum.

Wow.

Because it's Sarasota County, so it's also city of Venice, city of Sarasota, city of Northport, and Longboat Key. We're part of Sarasota County. So the referendum was all the citizens within Sarasota County had to vote yes or no to continue the 1¢ to go to another fifteen years, is 2039. And that did pass.

But this is specific to Venice, not to the city of Sarasota or

This 1¢ sales tax is for Sarasota County as a whole. Everybody pays 1¢ sales tax and every business that has 1¢ tax has to submit the 1¢ sales tax dollars to the state. Then the state divvies it out based on the population within the county. There's a formula they use to distribute it out. Because they don't keep track and say this one was in Sarasota. This one was in Venice. This was it was in Northport. This was capita. Unincorporated Sarasota County. So it all gets submitted to the state, and then the state has a formula that they distribute it out based on the population within the county itself.

Okay. Fair?

I just had a question back to the Fire Station two. So on the expenditure side on the budget, it shows about $23,000,000 And I think I heard what you said that you're planning to use some of the fund reserve.

Yeah. That's just the projected budget, but that's not the funding for it. When you see the expense side, that's the projected budget

for it. Right. So in order to come up with the fund target analysis, is right now the $19,000,000 that's showing in a possible bond or something, Is that just filling the gap until you figure out how much of the reserve?

Until we know until we know when we get the final cost, and then we'll determine how much that we'll use part of our own city's cash and the difference will be about.

So that's just there for now. Correct. But in will the whole $23,000,000 be expected to be spent in 'twenty five? Or is No,

that that's they'll start. It was expect we budgeted for when we start the construction. We hope to start it in 'twenty five, but it will probably be two, three years. So it will be spent out during that time period.

So next year, we'll expect to see Correct. And you'll have more of the cash flow

for Right. So then you'll see this was actual spent in 'twenty five, and then these are the projections going forward. Even when we do and we get a debt issue or a bond you get your dollars from your bond issue or your debt from the bank. But you have to spend it in a certain amount of time. You can't just get money and then earn interest on it and not spend it. So there is spend down period. So when you do a bond issue or get a bank loan, you have to spend the money.

Okay. I understand. Yes.

Thank you. You're welcome.

Thank you, Mary. That was a good question.

Yes, you guys are asking very good questions. A

follow-up to Mary's question. The 19,000,125 million dollars is there any room of improving that number possibly? Or is it still in design That

was the expected debt proceeds based on what we think the cost was at the time, the 23,000,000. But that debt proceeds will be less because as I said, we've built up money within the 1¢ sales tax from when we first budgeted. Okay. If we budgeted when we purchased the land, then you got to go through design and then you go through it's process. Yes. Because it even takes a process to purchase the land.

Of course.

Because we have to get appraisals and we have to do all these kinds of things and city council has to approve it. So then you buy the land and then you have to get design. So they're in design phase now. And then you get construction. So a project is usually a period of three to four years depending on if you have to buy the land or if we already have the land. And then after you have the land is only when you can start design and then construction.

It's in design today. Right?

Correct. Yes. Yes. It's in design right now and they're working on getting the numbers for the guaranteed maximum price. So this was at the time when we thought the numbers were gonna be. I'm not really sure if these are accurate or good numbers. That's why budget is an estimate. What you hope it is. And then when it changes, that's when you change it to what you think it's going to be. So our loan is not going to be $19,000,000

I'm sure there is contingency also money in that number.

Yes. Yes.

It goes up or down?

Yes. Yes. Correct.

What's the percentage of that contingency? 10%?

Generally, it's not more than 10. It's between five and ten for Yes. They built that in there five to 10% of the construction cost normally.

Of course.

Not design yet.

Any further questions?

I don't have a question. I just have a comment, maybe suggestion for the future. Okay. I think it would be helpful if you were able to put column and line numbers

Oh, so we can trace it.

On your work sheet if possible because it's very hard to talk about numbers.

Got you. Yeah. I'll make that a reference

to the kitchen. That's a good idea.

That's a good idea because you're right. It's a Exactly.

Thank you.

I also have one comment, if I may. Sure. I can contribute to the departmental decisions if needed with my experience building smart cities and going through tendering process and going through vendor selections and going through what I call baffle, best and final offer. I'm sure there is a tendering process, correct Mhmm. Or no? Single source?

Well, it it depends what they're working on, but we have to go through procurement. There's municipalities. We stringent security rules, and our procurement manager is a strictler on following all those rules. So yes, he makes sure that we do what we need to do in order to get the best possible price from the best person company

that

Yes. Can do

Okay. Yes.

It's the best responsive bidder. Responsible responsive bidder at the best price. Yeah. We look at all that.

Yeah. No further questions from the team. Is there?

I don't have anything else unless you have any more questions. That's my presentation then.

Any other

I have a question, but I don't think it's related to this at all. About nine months ago, Kathleen Weldon, is she still here?

Kathleen Weeden? Yeah. Oh, actually, her retirement is May 1.

Oh, really? Oh, no. Tomorrow. Right? She's great. So I live on the island, and I don't even know how this started, but they put sidewalks in across from

Ryder Field. Oh, from Chuck Ryder?

Yeah. Mhmm. They put they put sidewalks all the way down almost to the Mercado. And did that come that didn't come from here. Right?

No. That was we, got a grant. We use we got grant funds for that sidewalk. So that's not part of this 1¢ sales tax.

But that's part of the financial

Oh, yeah. It's a it was under it's a different fund. Okay. It's a different fund. We got grant money for that sidewalk. Because it's it's

kinda crazy because the school buses come flying down, you know, because we have that student leadership academy there. Mhmm. And the cars come flying down, and now there's these huge sidewalks there. So the grant was specifically for sidewalks?

Well, we applied for the grant well, there's some grants that are specific for sidewalks. There's some of it is CDBG money, which is actually from the county. And then we have to submit projects and they have to be in certain areas of the city to use CDBG money. And that was for from that block grant.

So the council decided on the projects?

The city engineer brought the project forward.

Okay. Kathleen.

Yeah.

She's retiring.

Yeah. She's retiring. So she's she'll be done. Okay. And you'll notice on here that we have a transfer from here into the beach renourishment fund because we take 200 to $300,000 a year to go into the beach renourishment fund, which is then separate fund, but it comes out of the 1¢ sales tax.

And that's for the city to set aside when beach renourishment happens. The army corps of engineers in charge of the beach renourishment, which is every ten years, but then the city has to pay a portion of that and the core pays the rest of it. So the city transfers $200,000 into that fund so that every ten years when we have to pay, we have our money available to pay for the portion of the beach renourishment. And the beach renourishment is planned for fiscal twenty six, but it might be pushed off based on the hurricane because they're still trying to decide what to do with the jetty, the South Jetties because that's really the army corps and the engineers for the South Jetty. So they're trying to coordinate that and the beach nourishment at the same time, I think. Thank you.

Actually, that brought another idea to my mind. Planning and development has a big role in this budget.

What's that?

Planning and development has a big role in this budget.

Planning and zoning? Zoning. Well, that that's for developers, which is not really the city's funds. Planning and zoning has to approve the developments. Planning and zoning is a small portion of the general fund. The department itself is a small portion of the general fund. But planning and zoning approves, they bring forward to council to approve any developments. So they are a department within the general fund. Just like finances within general fund, city clerk's office, city manager's office, human resources, engineering is part of the general fund departments. Public works, police and fire, those are the general fund departments.

Thank you. Thank you. With that satisfied, I call the meeting adjourned.

Chair, just have to make on the record that we had no public comment.

Okay. Obviously there is no public to make any comments. Call for the meeting to be adjourned. Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. I've learned a lot.

Thank you for being part of the committee.

Absolutely. Thank you so much.

Welcome.