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   Review of Proposed FY19 Department Budgets

   discussed

   Staff (City Manager and Mrs. Feast) presented the first third of the proposed FY19 department budgets, beginning with the City Council budget. Key assumptions included a 3% wage adjustment, modest revenue growth, and a reduction in the proposed millage rate. Council engaged in extended discussion about how special events sponsorship ($60,000 budgeted) is accounted for, particularly whether in-kind police/fire overtime costs should be tracked as cash or remain buried in departmental budgets. No decisions were made; this was a review/discussion.

   📍Wayne Island parcel🏢Chasco Fiesta🏢Greater New Port Richey Main Street👤Councilman Davis👤Councilman Starkey👤Mrs. Feast#City Council Budget#FY19 Budget#Professional services $5,000#Special Events sponsorship ($60,000)#Strategic plan implementation#Travel and training increase from $2,500 to $4,000#Zoning lawsuit settlement agreement

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   [00:00:17] The first and only item on the agenda is the review of proposed fiscal year 19 department [00:00:25] budgets. [00:00:26] Thank you, Mr. Mayor. [00:00:28] It's a pleasure that Mrs. Feast and I present to you the first one-third of the budget this [00:00:33] evening. [00:00:34] The objectives of the budget are to preserve services at their current level with a modest [00:00:43] growth in revenue and also with a reduction in the proposed millage rate. [00:00:50] Other significant assumptions include the fact that we were very conservative but realistic [00:00:57] in our projection of both revenues and obligations. [00:01:02] We anticipated a low inflation rate. [00:01:06] Generally price levels are expected to increase, however, departments were requested to maintain [00:01:12] expenditures at prior funding levels or attempt to reduce operational costs where possible. [00:01:19] We want to maintain the fund balance to preserve our financial integrity. [00:01:23] This is particularly prudent, in my opinion, given recent economic uncertainty and state [00:01:30] legislative actions which have and will likely continue to negatively affect local revenue [00:01:38] sources. [00:01:40] Wage adjustments have been budgeted to increase by 3 percent. [00:01:49] Based on those budget assumptions, a list of priorities for us in establishing the budget [00:01:57] was to continue implementation of the strategic plan, to provide a safe and well-maintained [00:02:04] community, to continue to encourage private sector development and investment, to focus [00:02:11] on technology to improve efficiency of service delivery, to provide for sufficient infrastructure, [00:02:19] and to maintain high levels of service and quality of life amenities. [00:02:26] And lastly, of course, to maintain a competitive salary and benefit program for the employees [00:02:31] of the city so that we can continue to attract and retain the best and the most talented [00:02:38] in their respective disciplines. [00:02:41] The budget that we have for presentation this evening kicks off with the City Council [00:02:49] budget first, and there is no change in wages as a result of the fact that that is an established [00:03:06] amount. [00:03:09] The city attorney has not requested a wage increase to continuous services for this year. [00:03:18] Professional services we kept at $5,000. [00:03:23] Travel and training we bumped up from $2,500 to $4,000 based on the fact that we've got [00:03:29] a couple new members of council that may want to take advantage of some training opportunities [00:03:37] as they present themselves. [00:03:40] All of the other levels in terms of the operational expenses are consistent with the amounts that [00:03:51] have been spent in previous years. [00:03:53] The only two that I will note to you that are a little bit different is the cultural [00:03:59] affairs, I'm sorry, the special events charges. [00:04:05] This year our budget amount is $50,000. [00:04:09] You actually appropriated over $70,000 for the purpose of supporting special events, [00:04:18] and this year, or for the coming fiscal year, we're recommending that you stay at $60,000 [00:04:25] for special events. [00:04:29] The second point of interest is that the settlement agreement has fallen off as a result [00:04:39] of the zoning lawsuit that the city faced several years ago. [00:04:46] We've actually made the last payment this year. [00:04:48] With the parcel in the river, the Wayne Island parcel? [00:04:51] It is. [00:04:54] And with that, I'm prepared to respond to any questions that you may have on the city [00:04:59] council budget. [00:05:00] Questions, anyone? [00:05:01] Maybe just an early comment here as we go into the budget, you're starting out with [00:05:11] our division, the issues related to what might be considered cultural affairs, cultural [00:05:24] activities, those sorts of things. [00:05:27] Those kinds of decisions seem to be requiring an overall understanding of how the whole [00:05:33] budget looks and how ultimately the adjustments we make at the end of it. [00:05:37] So if the intention is to try to get a start and say here's what it is, we're going to [00:05:44] look at this, and then I'm guessing from a procedural standpoint, Debbie or Mr. Mayor, [00:05:50] whichever one, that we won't be making decisions through this process until we've heard everything. [00:05:58] We can give our opinions or suggest what we might like to see a little more of or a little [00:06:02] less, but it only seems fair, and I seem to recall we always would hear the entire presentation, [00:06:07] go through all of the different departments before we could feel comfortable to increase [00:06:14] anything or make a lot of modifications. [00:06:17] I'm not sure how this is going to go. [00:06:20] Let me bring you up to speed on what we've done, at least for the past few years, and [00:06:25] the answer to your question is yes. [00:06:30] If there is something as we go through these individual budgets that jumps out at you, [00:06:36] certainly bring it up then, but if once we get a look at the whole, the budget as a whole, [00:06:50] if there's something you think maybe we should go back and take a look at and make adjustments [00:06:56] on it after we've considered everything together, then yes, that would be appropriate also. [00:07:05] The only other comment related to that, this division that I would ask for some clarification [00:07:11] on, it would be when we talk about the $60,000 for special grants. [00:07:17] In the past, it's been my recollection that that included things like the sponsorship, [00:07:24] say for example, of the Chasco Fiesta, and then that sponsorship is an in-kind sponsorship, [00:07:30] and those in-kind dollars are really absorbed by the police department, the public works [00:07:35] department, the fire department, the services that the city provides, and sometimes there's [00:07:39] actual cash. [00:07:41] It's my belief that the budget from the city council ought to be a cash budget. [00:07:49] It ought not be a budget that's manipulated internally by identifying the costs of providing services. [00:07:58] In other words, the police department, they get paid a salary, so if we've got a salaried [00:08:03] policeman who's on the Chasco Fiesta, and his salary comes out of the police division, [00:08:10] are we making transfers from the police division to the city council division to reduce the [00:08:18] police division's cost? [00:08:21] Because I found when I was here before that there was never really any big journal entries [00:08:26] for these kind of items. [00:08:28] I'll let you respond to that part of the question. [00:08:35] In this aspect, it's not working on a cash basis. [00:08:39] This $60,000 is really a marker for us to maintain internally how much in-kind services [00:08:46] we will provide throughout the year. [00:08:48] The expenses that are incurred by the police department, public works, it does remain in [00:08:54] their departmental budgets. [00:08:57] My request would be that this would be a cash item, because there are people that can come [00:09:01] ask us for money, and that somehow as you work through your budgets, you look at historically [00:09:07] what you've provided in terms of those kind of services, and not because I just haven't [00:09:16] seen those kind of calculations to make it easy for us to resolve. [00:09:20] I'm not an accountant by any means, and you're a much better person than I am as far as line [00:09:25] items and things like that, but I think we agreed and we went over this and we had work [00:09:30] sessions with all the event coordinators, and by doing it this way, it clarifies how [00:09:35] much money, whether it's in-kind or cash, the city is donating, supplying to these event [00:09:42] coordinators for Chasco and all these other events. [00:09:44] If you just take all that out, all the in-kind out of here, and put it in the police budget, [00:09:48] it gets lost, and where people are looking at the budget, they're like, where's the special [00:09:51] events budget money? [00:09:52] Right? [00:09:53] Is that correct? [00:09:54] Is that not the way we did it like this? [00:09:55] We should reduce the police budget and the fire budget accordingly to what we expect [00:10:01] not to spend there if we're going to post those expenses to those divisions. [00:10:05] The problem has been that it's not something that we're saving in the police budget. [00:10:11] The problem is these events are costing significant amounts of overtime, and that has to be accounted [00:10:18] some way. [00:10:19] If we have a $60,000 marker in the council budget or anywhere, just pick a spot, and [00:10:30] then over the course of the year, if the special events are costing the police department just [00:10:40] for sake of discussion, $25,000, you take the $25,000 out of the $60,000 so that it's [00:10:45] not adversely impacting the ability of the police department to do the stuff that we [00:10:52] expect of them on a day-to-day basis outside of them. [00:10:56] So let me go back to, and I think that I would like to have a little more discussion about [00:11:01] this in this setting right here at the start, which is that in the city's charter and its [00:11:07] code of ordinances, it provides that any civic organization that puts an event on [00:11:13] in the city, if the city determines to accept that event and have it held, that the city [00:11:21] is prescribed against billing anything for traffic control. [00:11:26] So that one element, traffic control. [00:11:28] The other element is the security. [00:11:30] And they also are rules in the city say that if there's got to be security, that the event [00:11:38] coordinator has the right to ask the city for security. [00:11:44] In other words, they can hire their own security services under our current rules. [00:11:49] But what's been happening is, because we're sponsoring and we're putting a dollar amount [00:11:54] on it, we're leading all of these processes through our police department, which may not [00:12:04] necessarily be the – the expenses of a policeman is a little different than maybe the requirement [00:12:12] of security, as I think could be easily seen by going to some of these events, looking [00:12:16] at the log of problems that we have. [00:12:20] Can you clarify for me, can you differentiate what you mean by difference between security [00:12:23] and policemen? [00:12:24] Are you looking like a security guard type company rather than have policemen on the [00:12:27] ground or? [00:12:28] If I'm – if I'm an event and I'm going to be – hold an event in town and I look [00:12:32] at the city's rules, it will tell me that I have the right to ask and request the police [00:12:39] department to provide the security services for that event. [00:12:44] It's overtime. [00:12:45] I mean, it's not that far apart from the hospital, which is not – which is a third [00:12:51] party deal, right, which is not an overtime issue because those policemen get paid by [00:12:56] the hospital for their time off-duty. [00:12:59] So in effect, we can say we want on-duty policemen on-site, but I'm not so sure that these [00:13:07] events require eight or ten on-duty policemen on-site all the time on top of our regular [00:13:18] police force that's out there. [00:13:19] So – [00:13:20] About the Chesco – yes, the street parade, I mean, you're saying we don't need eight [00:13:25] extra additional – additional officers on top of what we would normally have on any [00:13:28] given Saturday? [00:13:29] How much does the sheriff's department charge for their services to – they don't charge [00:13:34] us for that. [00:13:35] They don't charge for that. [00:13:37] What I'm saying is that the event coordinator has the ability to ask the city for security [00:13:42] services, which is what they do, and that's part of the $60,000, correct? [00:13:46] They don't ask for it. [00:13:47] They're told they have to have it. [00:13:49] But let's go back to the parade one more time. [00:13:52] The parade is a crowd control and a traffic control up and down the parade route, where [00:13:58] they have to block off every street and make sure nobody can get out into the parade route. [00:14:02] By our city's code – now, I mean, you want to pull it back up and look at it and [00:14:06] change it – but by our city's code, if there's a civic event, then the entity does [00:14:15] not get billed for it. [00:14:17] And that's in – that's in writing, that's in our laws. [00:14:20] We've – I don't know – I haven't followed closely the calculations we put together [00:14:25] for our $60,000. [00:14:26] I'm imagining this parade's been going on for so long that somebody wrote something [00:14:30] in it early on to – to provide that support to the – [00:14:34] It's not a city event for me, then, because we don't put Chasco on. [00:14:37] We allow it to be held in our city and we're the sponsor. [00:14:39] We used to. [00:14:40] I mean, the city used to put it on. [00:14:41] But we don't now. [00:14:42] Yeah. [00:14:43] So it's not a city event, correct? [00:14:44] Or is it – [00:14:45] But it's a civic organization holding an event that the city sponsors, and by our written [00:14:50] code, we don't charge for traffic control. [00:14:53] We can change the code. [00:14:55] I don't believe that is correct, but I would defer to city attorney. [00:15:00] to look at it. [00:15:01] I can read, and if we read it, we'll read it, and if it says that, I don't know, we [00:15:05] don't need to spend attorney's fees to have him tell us what the words mean. [00:15:11] The point is, these events are costing serious money. [00:15:17] When we started the Great Recession, there was no handle on the amount of money that [00:15:23] was being spent. [00:15:24] The Chasco Fiesta alone, by best estimates, was costing the city somewhere between $80,000 [00:15:31] and $90,000 with no accountability whatsoever, and the other events were on top of that. [00:15:38] It was a six-figure expense that was being buried into the individual department budgets, [00:15:43] and that is just flat wrong. [00:15:46] It needs to be somewhere where, if we're doing special events, it's documented somewhere [00:15:50] that we're spending something on special events. [00:15:53] I understand. [00:15:54] I don't have... [00:15:55] A line item in the department is where it belongs. [00:15:59] It's a line item. [00:16:00] This is how much police we're willing to spend. [00:16:02] This is how much fire we're willing to spend. [00:16:05] The reason, and this goes back to Councilman Starkey's comment about the events and whether [00:16:09] they're sponsored by the city or not, Councilman, there are a lot of other people that want [00:16:14] to hold events in town, and so we have to treat them all the same, and so consequently, [00:16:22] some of them could use a little financial support. [00:16:26] We're trying to bring entertainment in town. [00:16:28] We're trying to do the things we want to have happen, and let those events suffer the cost [00:16:32] of security. [00:16:34] I'm not saying it should be any cheaper. [00:16:35] I'm only saying that you can't have a monopoly to dictate how much it costs to do something [00:16:44] and not allow for us to implement to these other organizations. [00:16:48] If they want to bring in a private security services, we don't want that. [00:16:53] We want to insist on having overtime in our police department and make them pay it. [00:16:59] My comment was you said Chasco is a city event. [00:17:02] I said as far as I interpret it, Chasco has their own steering committee. [00:17:06] We allow them to hold it. [00:17:07] That's all I said. [00:17:08] Because it's not a city event. [00:17:09] We were a sponsor. [00:17:10] We're not the Stacey Kemp, Kemp, Rouge, and Green sponsor, as well as that $30,000, $40,000 [00:17:15] last year. [00:17:16] We do sponsor any kind of whatnot. [00:17:18] That's the only statement I made. [00:17:20] I'm not monopolizing anything. [00:17:21] I'm not saying I prefer Chasco over any other event. [00:17:24] You misunderstand me. [00:17:25] I'm saying if the city insists that when an event is held, that we determine as a city [00:17:31] staff how much services are required for that event. [00:17:36] As example, we had an event where it rained the entire time. [00:17:40] The assessments that I was looking at, because Councilman Davis was at one point pretty hot [00:17:45] because we were behind in billings, and we didn't have everything together, and we looked [00:17:50] at the billings that came out. [00:17:52] It rained the entire time, and we had an invoice for overtime for six officers watching the [00:17:58] beer tent when there wasn't probably more than $100 worth of sales. [00:18:04] This is not that the event should not be opportunities for us to increase the pay to our employees. [00:18:10] They should be employees being offered, if requested, to provide services. [00:18:15] Or if they're needed, then we need to insist on that, and we need to charge, and it should [00:18:20] be overtime. [00:18:21] My question is, I understand the need to manage it, and all of the work you did, it really [00:18:28] didn't get managed well. [00:18:30] And now, even so, as we're speaking, we're not getting financial statements on a regular [00:18:35] basis. [00:18:37] I don't know the benefits of it, other than to say you want to put some kind of cap or [00:18:42] limit on how much we spend. [00:18:45] We have budget amendments during the course of the year. [00:18:49] I think it's more difficult to mix cash and in-kind. [00:18:57] We need to know how much cash we have. [00:18:58] When people come up and say, hey, I'd like to do this, can you contribute something? [00:19:02] And we'll help them put the band on and tell them you need security, and make them pay [00:19:07] for it. [00:19:08] Well, then, you know, from that standpoint, and I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, [00:19:15] if we allocate, for purposes of discussion, $60,000 to all of the special events right [00:19:21] now, and that we tell Chasco, we tell Greater New Port Richey, Main Street, we tell anybody [00:19:28] else that happens to come in to request city sponsorship, that we're giving you X number [00:19:35] of dollars, and you are 100% responsible for all of the excess costs that it costs us [00:19:41] because you are here, then we send them a bill, we give them the check, which is clean, [00:19:50] and then we send them a bill for the $15,000, $20,000, or however many thousand dollars, [00:19:57] they rack up because we had to bring in extra people on overtime in order to secure their [00:20:02] event, or to do any of the other stuff. [00:20:05] Conceptually, I don't have a problem with that. [00:20:07] I just think we need to follow it so we know, because I'd like to see the events be better. [00:20:12] I mean, the city has taken the lead with the music that it's been putting on, and the events, [00:20:18] and I keep hearing more comments about how there's stuff all the time downtown, there's [00:20:21] the activity all the time, and we want to promote that. [00:20:24] My only point of bringing it up is, you know, how do we know what we have to promote events [00:20:31] when we have these, you know, undetermined costs that are out there? [00:20:38] It's an interesting point. [00:20:39] If we do bill 100%, then having it just as a cash sponsorship would solve the issue. [00:20:52] If we do a contract with the event and say, this is what your costs are going to be, you [00:20:57] don't even need to give them the cash until the end, you can even make it a simultaneous [00:21:02] equation. [00:21:03] I mean, I just would like to see some better understanding of what we have in money. [00:21:09] What I don't want to have happen is Public Works or the Fire Department or the Police [00:21:18] Department taking the brunt of this with the expense of these events buried into their [00:21:25] budget. [00:21:26] They need to be made whole. [00:21:27] That's the point I have in it here, correct? [00:21:28] Yeah. [00:21:29] And we had a whole work session on this. [00:21:30] We did. [00:21:31] So that's buried in the police budget, buried in Public Works. [00:21:33] We know as a city how much we're presenting to all of the event coordinators on an annual [00:21:39] basis. [00:21:40] This is the most we're going to pay. [00:21:41] We'll divvy it up by event, based on size of event, things like that, but I mean, in [00:21:45] my opinion, we have to have it out here where we know, and everyone else knows when they [00:21:49] look at the budget, $60,000 is the most we're spending, whether it's in-kind, cash paid [00:21:52] out, and I don't... [00:21:54] Okay, I can answer you. [00:21:57] It's also in the police budget. [00:22:00] It's also in the fire budget. [00:22:01] So when you say you don't want it buried in there, when we approve the budget, we're approving [00:22:06] that money, and we're approving a second layer of that money in our budget. [00:22:13] Go ahead. [00:22:18] What I was going to add is, and I don't know if the Recreation Director wants to step in [00:22:24] to go over the process, but as I understand it, when we have our set meeting and an agreement [00:22:30] is made between an organizer and the city, that in-kind amount that has already been [00:22:36] approved by the City Council is, you know, established at that time. [00:22:42] Well, it's already established, but it's put into the agreement, and so when that proposal [00:22:46] of costs is laid out, they already know what the in-kind amount is at that time. [00:22:51] So it is, in essence, after the event, deducted from the bill that they receive. [00:22:57] So if they spend in excess of that, it's already... [00:23:00] So you're managing it that way. [00:23:02] But my question is, in the Police Department, you're budgeting for overtime, and that overtime [00:23:11] is the overtime that you're going to pay those officers, because... and so you don't increase [00:23:18] the overtime budget every time you do an event and reduce it from our budget and move it [00:23:22] over there. [00:23:23] The way I understand it is, the overtime that's budgeted in the police is for those services [00:23:28] that they provide that's not covered by in-kind and any other off-duty services. [00:23:34] And so you mentioned earlier, a transfer should be done, and you're correct. [00:23:38] So that hasn't been done in the past, but for fiscal year 18, this current fiscal year, [00:23:45] we are identifying what those costs are, and we'll do an end-of-the-year transfer. [00:23:49] Okay. [00:23:50] So that... [00:23:51] So in theory, it's not... the budget is not over-expensed or over-inflated, having those [00:23:58] overtime costs in police, in fire, and also in the City Council budget. [00:24:02] It's really, in essence, in one place. [00:24:04] We should see a reduction in the overtime costs in those departments to correct this [00:24:09] change that has... that you're suggesting is going to occur this year? [00:24:14] There will be a transfer, which would take money out of, you know, those overtime expenses [00:24:19] that are... that have hit their budgets will be transferred into the City Council Special [00:24:24] Events account. [00:24:25] Which will provide them additional overtime in their budget this year? [00:24:29] No. [00:24:30] Unless you reduce the overtime in the original budget. [00:24:33] Because it's not originally budgeted in police. [00:24:36] It was? [00:24:37] It wasn't. [00:24:38] Okay. [00:24:39] All right. [00:24:40] Well, I'm sorry. [00:24:41] I've made my point, and I know that we just have to keep track of it. [00:24:44] Can we put two line items in the City Council budget? [00:24:47] One for cash and one for in-kind? [00:24:51] Yeah. [00:24:52] If you'd allow me, Mr. Mayor. [00:24:53] So that we don't have to... [00:24:54] Wonder? [00:24:55] We do have, in the City Council budget, two line items. [00:25:01] One is for the Cultural Affairs Committee, and that is specifically intended for new [00:25:09] events to the city. [00:25:10] And that can be in the form of cash or in-kind contribution. [00:25:15] The second expenditure is for special events, and those are annualized events. [00:25:22] And the tradition of the city has been to support those events with an in-kind appropriation. [00:25:32] And this past year, we went through a series of meetings with the special event organizers, [00:25:40] and we actually approved a two-year budget for them. [00:25:44] And so the $60,000 that you see in 18-19 is the amount that we obligated to support [00:25:53] special events that are offered on an annual basis. [00:25:59] And I'm certain that you know that already, so I hope I'm not... [00:26:03] No. [00:26:04] I'm just not sure how we give a two-year budget. [00:26:11] You do the one-year budget, and then you indicate that provisionally this is going [00:26:16] to be the second-year budget. [00:26:17] It won't be firm until we vote on it, but there are events that are going to be looking [00:26:23] for financial support very shortly after the October 1st date, and if we didn't at least [00:26:32] give them some guidance on what they could expect, it wouldn't be supporting. [00:26:37] And even Chasco, by the time we get to October 1st, and I don't recall when our last budget [00:26:44] meeting is scheduled for this, but they're going to be well into planning for next spring's [00:26:49] Chasco before we get a budget in place. [00:26:55] Anything else? [00:26:56] I was just going to add, Councilman Altman, that your questions definitely raise a need [00:27:00] for clarification, and so I'll work with the city manager to make sure it's clear. [00:27:07] But with that, we'll move on to the easy budget, and it's the city manager's budget. [00:27:14] The budget is, in terms of the staff expenses, as you'll recall, in conjunction with my annual [00:27:29] evaluation, I did not request a wage increase this year, so salary remains a constant in [00:27:38] the budget. [00:27:40] The travel and training operational expense went down. [00:27:46] Last year, the timing of the ICMA conference was that I was actually attending two in one [00:27:53] fiscal year. [00:27:54] This year, they've gone to a later date, and so there will only be one national event [00:28:05] for the city manager's budget this year. [00:28:10] All of the other operating expenses are consistent or a little bit less than what has been appropriated [00:28:19] in previous years. [00:28:22] With that being said, personnel and operating expenses total $251,110 for the manager. [00:28:32] Questions on the city manager's budget? [00:28:39] Hearing none, city clerk? [00:28:43] Yes, the city clerk's budget represents a portion of Judy Meyer's time. [00:28:53] Her responsibilities are as an executive assistant, as a city clerk, and as a public information [00:29:01] officer, and so we divide her time between two budgets. [00:29:09] As you can see, the budget amount for 18-19 is $15,030, bringing the personnel expenses [00:29:20] to $18,540, roughly $500 less than it was in the previous years. [00:29:34] Our expenses are proposed at $6,000, we have travel and training at $2,000, postage, maintenance [00:29:45] and repairs, postage is $100, maintenance and repairs is down to $150 from $500, code, [00:29:54] book, update services $7,000, legal advertising $25,000. [00:30:00] legal recordings, 6,900. We have a flower fund, which we're bumping up to $500. [00:30:10] Office supplies, which we've brought down by 200. The rest of the expenditures [00:30:16] remain at previous year's level, with a total department budget of $68,290. [00:30:24] Questions? Anyone? Human resources. I'm going to ask Bernie to come on up, and I'll [00:30:40] kick it off, and then I'm going to let you take over. This is the first [00:30:49] staff expenditure that we are requesting an addition for, and currently the [00:30:59] personnel and human resource department is staffed by one full-time and one [00:31:06] part-time employee. The recommendation this year is to convert the part-time [00:31:13] position to a full-time position, so that we have enough staff in place to [00:31:20] tend to not only our internal customers, but to more aggressively handle some of [00:31:29] the responsibilities that Bernie and I work on together. I think she's ready to [00:31:34] do some more on her own, so we're grateful to have her do that, and we need [00:31:40] some part-time assistance to help her in that respect. What else did you do in [00:31:45] the budget, Bernie? The next thing I'd like to talk about is the city's [00:31:50] insurances. The line items 44, 521, 522, and 523, those are the building and [00:32:01] contents, pollution, and automobile insurances. Just to backtrack a little [00:32:07] bit, the city is in its second year of a two-year agreement with World Risk [00:32:13] Management for liability and workers' compensation coverage, so we won't see [00:32:19] any increases in those line items. I have spoken to the representative [00:32:25] for World Risk Management, and it seems like everybody in the state of Florida [00:32:30] with their property rate increases are going to be going up. They're meeting [00:32:35] with their underwriters this week, and they have told me to expect a minimum of [00:32:42] an 8% increase for our property insurance this year. I've spoken to [00:32:49] Crystal about it, and we've budgeted that amount accordingly, hoping that it may [00:32:56] come in a little bit less, but they did tell us that it might be 8%. The other [00:33:03] ones that I'd like to just talk about quickly, labor services has been [00:33:08] decreased from $11,900 down to $9,000, and this is in addition to [00:33:18] the city attorney. This is for labor attorney services that help us with [00:33:24] police negotiations and fire negotiations. The next one would be [00:33:31] professional services. I apologize, $43,199 professional services miscellaneous. [00:33:39] This account is mainly used for pre-employment and drug and background [00:33:45] screenings for new employees. We've seen a kind of a decrease the last year in [00:33:52] this, so I've requested that to be decreased from $10,000 to $7,500. [00:34:00] The next one, $44,915 classified advertisement. With social media, we've [00:34:09] started posting some more jobs and things on social media, and that's gone [00:34:16] down a little bit, so I've requested that line item to be decreased [00:34:20] from $5,000 to $4,000. The next account to be decreased is $43,413, the [00:34:32] employee support program, and I've requested that to be decreased from $10,000 [00:34:37] to $7,000, and that's for the employee lunches, employee years of services, and [00:34:48] also for the employee assistance. Thank you, the employee assistance. I've [00:34:57] requested that to go down. And lastly, the city manager and I are in [00:35:02] discussions with the city's health insurance company. We've had a very [00:35:08] favorable group experience this year, so we are expected to see a flat renewal [00:35:14] rate to this year's rates for health. That concludes my presentation. I'll [00:35:21] answer any questions if you guys have them. [00:35:24] In the old days, there used to be like an employee Christmas party. I think then it became a summertime party or something. [00:35:33] Is this the division that that would be in, and if so... [00:35:45] Oh, there have been a lot of changes in the law reflecting the way you can treat [00:35:51] employees with gift cards or, you know, and employees receive a very, very [00:36:01] modest Christmas bonus. [00:36:06] ...old way versus that got eliminated for cost purposes in dark times. I don't know, is [00:36:19] there any interest in providing a more of a... [00:36:25] We conduct two currently, and we conduct one in the summer and then one at holiday time, and the [00:36:34] employees seem to appreciate that, so I'd like to maintain the two-time-per-year [00:36:41] program if that's acceptable to all of you. You do it during employee hours, this [00:36:48] is not on the winter? That's correct. So I guess my suggestion is, in the old days, you'd [00:36:52] hire a band, have a little activity, rent out the garden, have an employee Christmas [00:36:58] party, have, you know, the mayor get up there and tell some jokes. I don't know [00:37:01] how well that would go, but I'm just raising that opportunity if there's [00:37:08] interest, because I would entertain it. I like the way we do it the new way, too. [00:37:14] They appreciate it, they're put on very well, there's no alcohol involved, we don't have to worry about [00:37:17] liability or anything like that. I think both events throughout the year are well [00:37:22] attended, and I think our employees really, really enjoy them. The staff [00:37:26] that puts it on does a phenomenal job making it fun. It is during the day, but [00:37:30] people come and go as they can, and I think they've been a huge success, and [00:37:34] I'm sure you'll feel the same when you attend them, they're really great. [00:37:38] Any other thoughts? Just to let you know, it is in line item 43413. [00:37:47] Any other questions on this one? Economic development. [00:38:00] I'll let you sit up front and present your budget. All right, thank you. [00:38:07] Our budget is maintaining relatively the same for the previous year. I think it, my [00:38:14] wage does reflect a $2,000 increase. I think that was an adjustment that was [00:38:18] made in employee valuation from the prior year, I think. And, you know, obviously we have Joyce [00:38:24] working with us, and her wage is included in that, and that remains pretty much the [00:38:28] same, I believe, except for a cost of living increase. The operating expenses [00:38:35] are nearly identical, travel training being perhaps the biggest number there, [00:38:44] to maintain the licenses and certifications that I currently hold. [00:38:49] Other than that, that's pretty straightforward. The total budget is $162,690 and supports two full-time [00:38:56] employees. Questions? It's got us through this point. Yes. At which point, we've run out of [00:39:08] departments to look at tonight, so I would entertain a motion to adjourn. [00:39:14] Can I ask one question? Sure. This relates to budget, just to get it out. The ballot in November is going to [00:39:22] have a provision for an additional homestead exemption. I'm assuming that, if that was approved, that it would not [00:39:31] obviously apply to tax bills that we'd be sending out and assessment rolls that [00:39:37] are in this year. So my, I just want to confirm, whatever is approved by the [00:39:42] public on a state basis for an additional homestead exemption has no [00:39:47] effect on our budget for the coming year? That is correct, Councilman Altman. [00:39:53] And just so all of you are aware of it, we have been in contact with the [00:40:00] property tax appraiser and learned that if that ballot measure is approved by

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3. 3Adjournment▶ 40:01