On the agenda

1. 1Call to Order – Roll Call▶ 0:00
2. 2

   Pledge of Allegiance

   The Pledge of Allegiance was recited followed by a moment of silence in honor of servicemen and women.

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   [00:00:14] Allegiance and remain standing for a moment of silence in honor of our [00:00:18] servicemen and women at home and abroad. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

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3. 3

   Moment of Silence

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   [00:00:30] Thank you. You may be seated.

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4. 4.a

   ↳You arrived here from a search for “Main Street” — transcript expanded below

   Resolution No. 2016-23: Pavement Management Plan Final Assessment Resolution

   discussed

   City Council held a public hearing on Resolution 2016-23, a Pavement Management Plan Final Assessment Resolution proposing a 5-year program funded equally by city sources and property owner assessments based on parcel size (EAU) and trip generation (ERU). Staff presented the plan and revised reduced assessment figures, and citizens raised concerns about fairness, particularly for residents on recently paved or dead-end streets and those on fixed incomes.

   Ord. Resolution No. 2016-23

   • direction:Council held public hearing on Resolution 2016-23 Pavement Management Plan Final Assessment, taking public comment without final action shown in transcript. (none)

   📍Congress Street📍Hills Drive📍Louisiana Avenue📍Madison Street📍Main Street📍Marine Parkway📍Massachusetts Avenue📍Orchid Lake Road📍U.S. Highway 19🏢Genesis Group🏢Institute of Transportation Engineers🏢Spartans Manor👤Barrett Doe👤Crystal Feast👤Debbie Manz👤Donna👤Pedro F. Penichet👤Robert Rivera#2002 Roadway Needs Assessment Report#2015 Roadway Assessment Survey#Equivalent Assessment Unit (EAU)#Equivalent Residential Unit (ERU)#Local Option Gas Tax#PACER (Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating) system#Pavement Management Plan#Penny for Pasco#Resolution 2016-23#Solid Waste Franchise Fee#Street Assessment No. 88

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   [00:00:46] We've got a pretty good crowd tonight. We are going to open up for public comment [00:00:51] in a little bit. One thing I would ask, there is a clipboard at the podium. When [00:00:58] you come up, if you could carefully print your name and address, that way our [00:01:03] City Clerk can actually get your name right for the minutes. With that, the only [00:01:09] business item we have is Resolution 2016-23, the Pavement Management Plan [00:01:14] Final Assessment Resolution. Ms. Manz? Mr. Mayor, members of the City Council, I [00:01:23] have to tell you that since the notice of this public meeting was delivered, I, as [00:01:30] well as various other members of the staff, have fielded a good number of [00:01:37] phone calls by frustrated property owners. Their frustration [00:01:45] related to two matters in respect to the Pavement Management Plan. The first [00:01:50] being, and the one for which I must apologize, is related to the public [00:01:57] notice that you received. The public notice lacked many of the facts that [00:02:03] should have been provided to you in relationship to the discussion and the [00:02:09] presentation that's due to occur to the City Council this evening. The property [00:02:14] owners of the City deserve better than that and more of an explanation, and I [00:02:19] regret very much that we did not do a better job telling the story of what is [00:02:24] a pavement plan, why we're proposing one, and if it is approved by the City [00:02:30] Council, how it will be implemented. The second frustration that was expressed to [00:02:37] me relates to the fact that if the proposal is approved, we are planning to [00:02:42] rely on the property owners of the City to contribute a portion of the costs of [00:02:47] implementing improvements. And although that's a very bitter pill for any of us [00:02:53] to swallow, I'm not regretful about that. I've been your City Manager for only a [00:03:00] two-year period of time, but what I'm attempting to do is to address not [00:03:06] only the deficiencies in our roadway system, but the shortcomings of the [00:03:12] existing method of financing improvements for roads in this city. I [00:03:17] hope that at the conclusion of tonight's meeting you'll be satisfied with the [00:03:23] information that we provide as we're prepared to present and discuss and [00:03:28] respond to your specific questions, as long as you'll stay with us in the room. [00:03:33] The purpose of tonight is to have a public hearing, and that means, in short, [00:03:40] that the staff is going to present the proposed plan to you. The City Council [00:03:45] will be eliciting public input, and at the conclusion of that, the Council will [00:03:52] contemplate and deliberate as to what action should be taken. And they have [00:03:57] three options in that respect. The first thing they can do is they can approve [00:04:02] the plan as it's submitted, they can approve the plan with modifications, or [00:04:08] they can reject the plan in its entirety. I think that it's important to [00:04:14] start by providing a historical perspective of how road improvements [00:04:19] have been financed in the city over the course of the last 30 years. And they've [00:04:27] been financed using a combination of funding mechanisms, the first of which is [00:04:32] local option gas tax. There was also funding from other city sources, for [00:04:39] instance, the Penny for Pasco Fund, and they were funded by special [00:04:45] assessment. And many of you, I'm certain, in the room have participated in a [00:04:50] project where a special assessment was conducted and you had roadway [00:04:56] improvements made on the road that abuts your home. The method by which you [00:05:05] paid for that was based on the frontage that you had on the road, and that was [00:05:10] the only factor that was taken into consideration in determining what your [00:05:14] fair share of the charges would be. In May of 2015, the city hired Genesis to [00:05:24] conduct a roadway assessment survey. The result of that survey confirmed a few [00:05:30] things for us. The first, that the lack of investment, because there has been a [00:05:35] lack of investment, there have only been 12 road projects in 25 years advanced in [00:05:42] the city of New Port Richey. That lack of investment has caused a decline in [00:05:49] the condition of the road. The purpose of the program was to impose preventative [00:05:57] maintenance standards rather than restorative standards, which are far less [00:06:02] expensive early on in a pavement management plan than waiting until the [00:06:09] road's completely deteriorated. We also wanted to prioritize a roadway [00:06:15] maintenance improvement project and determine a fair and equitable method of [00:06:19] spreading the cost to benefit property owners. I have Mr. Robert Rivera, who [00:06:24] serves as our Director of Public Services, with us this evening, and he is [00:06:29] going to give a very detailed explanation of the program. We have his [00:06:35] assistant with us, Mr. Barrett Doe, and Mrs. Crystal Feast, who serves as our [00:06:41] Finance Director. Before I turn it over for Robert to present, I think some of [00:06:48] the facts that need to be brought to the surface quickly is that the term of the [00:06:54] program that we're proposing is only for five years. It does sunset, it's not into [00:07:02] perpetuity. The annual assessment amount that you received on your statement from [00:07:10] the City reflects the maximum amount that we would be allowed to assess. It is [00:07:16] not the final amount that you would be assessed this year if the City Council [00:07:22] determined that it was appropriate to implement a program. The methodology is [00:07:29] based on two factors. The first is an equivalent assessment rate, which is [00:07:34] basically how big is your parcel, and then secondly, an equivalent residential [00:07:40] unit, which is how many vehicular trips are made per day on and around the [00:07:48] City's roadway system. I'm going to allow Robert to explain that in detail. I'm [00:07:53] certain that there will be questions from you about that, but what we are [00:07:58] recommending tonight is an annual maintenance program and a five-year [00:08:03] construction plan for improvements to be financed equally between existing [00:08:09] City funds and the benefiting property owners. With that, Robert, could you start [00:08:14] with the PowerPoint? [00:08:15] This is a pavement management plan. Its goal is to create a high-quality transportation system. [00:08:30] A little bit louder, Robert. [00:08:45] What is a pavement management plan and its goals? It's to create a high-quality [00:08:51] transportation system. [00:08:58] Can you hear me now? [00:08:59] Oh, you bet. [00:09:00] Thank you. [00:09:03] What is a pavement management plan and its goals? It's to create a high-quality [00:09:09] transportation system, one that is sustainable and one that's fair and [00:09:14] equitable to the benefiting property owners. The City's existing pavement [00:09:19] management plan contains 75 miles of roadways, approximately, and out of the 75 [00:09:25] there's approximately five miles of alleyways. The pavement management plan [00:09:30] includes the streets and right-of-way operations and maintenance divisions, as [00:09:34] well as capital projects. Now, the funding sources that this plan calls out for or [00:09:41] that we use or utilize are assessments, local option gas tax, general fund [00:09:48] transfers, and grants. The existing plan is based on road frontage of each [00:09:53] property, like Ms. Manns had mentioned, and basically what would happen is the [00:09:58] City Council would meet as a board of equalization. They would determine what [00:10:03] percentage that they would want to contribute to the property owner's [00:10:08] assessment charge. In residential streets, it typically was a 50% match, and then, [00:10:15] of course, a collector road that would be like Madison Street or Marine Parkway, [00:10:20] if you lived on that, the contribution was higher. Our last street assessment, [00:10:24] it was 65%. [00:10:26] The method of payment for the special assessment that was available to the [00:10:30] property owners was either an immediate payment once you were invoiced and the [00:10:35] project was completed, or there was a 10-year loan with interest that was [00:10:39] available. Now, our current roadway needs assessment report was performed in [00:10:47] 2002, and typically a roadway needs assessment report is similar to a utility [00:10:54] master plan, some form of master plan that actually reviews the inventory, the [00:11:00] conditions of your inventories, whether that be water and sewer, parks master [00:11:04] plan, or what have you, and it identifies the priorities and the goals and [00:11:09] projects that you want to accomplish. [00:11:12] Of course, in 2015, what we wanted to do is we wanted to review the existing [00:11:18] pavement management plan. We wanted to rank the existing inventory. We wanted [00:11:24] to provide the first five plan cycles, identify deficiencies in the existing [00:11:30] pavement management plan to see if we could continue to use that existing plan [00:11:35] for the new one, and then provide recommendations. This was all done through [00:11:40] the city contracting with the Genesis Group. [00:11:45] Now, the pavement management plan was based on the pavement surface evaluation [00:11:50] and rating, or PACER system, which was supported by the Federal Highway [00:11:55] Administration. Now, this rating system was based on surface conditions of the [00:12:01] roadways with numerically valued ratings of 1 through 10, 1 being the worst [00:12:07] condition. Now, 80 percent of the city's existing paved streets were rated [00:12:13] between 6 and 8, but it also showed that even though those rankings would be [00:12:19] considered fair and acceptable, the 10-year threshold and a 20-year design [00:12:25] criteria was either right there at the limit or a little bit over. As you can see, [00:12:31] the collector roads came in at 5.6 rating, which, again, the collector roads were [00:12:37] like Madison Street, Massachusetts, those types of streets, Main Street. [00:12:42] The report also called out that your quality of ride drops by 40 percent once the [00:12:47] pavement reaches 75 percent of its lifespan, and that's right before the [00:12:53] construction costs escalate. In other words, instead of doing simple asphalt [00:12:58] overlays, now you'll be getting into a lot of reconstruction areas, and that's [00:13:03] what causes that cost escalation. [00:13:08] The existing deficiencies that were identified were the distribution of funds [00:13:14] varied. In other words, like we had talked about, depending on where your road [00:13:19] frontage was or what type of road it was depended on how much you paid. There were [00:13:25] a lot of projects that the city performed that there was actually no assessment [00:13:31] that was conducted. When we looked at the 20-year design criteria that we were [00:13:37] looking for, this program, the existing program, became unsustainable. [00:13:43] The process of public hearings on an annual basis created a larger separation [00:13:51] between construction projects, which the inflation factor made the cost escalate [00:13:58] as far as by the time you got your projects completed. [00:14:02] Now, the existing system, as you can see it, this is Massachusetts Avenue just [00:14:07] across from the Spartans Manor. This is what we would consider a collector road. [00:14:13] You can see where crews have been out and they've done their patchwork, but the [00:14:17] problem that you have once a road gets to this stage is the patches will hold, but [00:14:23] the existing asphalt surrounding those patches will still be in decline, and so [00:14:29] your patches will continually get larger and larger. This is another example of [00:14:35] what we would call a residential street. This is over on Hills Drive, and you can [00:14:40] see the same thing happening with this. [00:14:43] Now, subsequent to the needs assessment report, we did a management report and [00:14:51] had recommendations, and those recommendations were similar to our needs [00:14:56] assessment. We wanted to have a 20-year design criteria. [00:15:00] area, we wanted to identify a methodology based on a whole road system, not individual [00:15:08] road areas. [00:15:09] In other words, instead of doing it estimated the footage just in front of your property, [00:15:16] we wanted to do it as a whole network or a series of roads that tie into the network, [00:15:23] because in the end, no one just drives on that 100 foot of road that's in the front [00:15:27] of their home. [00:15:29] They're going to the grocery store. [00:15:30] They're going to the doctor's office. [00:15:33] There are different types of businesses that create additional traffic, and so they contribute [00:15:40] more to the decline of the road. [00:15:42] So we wanted to look at something that took those items into account. [00:15:46] The cost estimate in this proposal was $1.7 million a year, and we needed to identify [00:15:54] the program to be sustainable. [00:15:58] Now the assessment computing that we came up with was an equivalent assessment unit [00:16:06] or an EAU, and an equivalent residential unit, and both of them were divided equally [00:16:14] as weighing factors. [00:16:16] The EAU was based on the average parcel acre, and what we did was we ended up taking the [00:16:23] total acreage in the city limits and dividing that and getting the average, and the average [00:16:28] came out to a .186. [00:16:35] When we did the methodology, we excluded the wetlands, right-of-ways, common areas, those [00:16:41] types of things, and that rate came out to $31.32 a year. [00:16:48] The ERU is based on the frequency usage attributed to each class of the property by identifying [00:16:54] land uses in the Institute of Transportation Engineers' Trip Generation Manual, and that's [00:17:01] like we talked about earlier, depending on what type of business you have. [00:17:05] If you had a restaurant, then you would be contributing to the decline of the roadways [00:17:11] more so than, say, a single-family home. [00:17:14] That trip charge came out to $22.75. [00:17:19] The non-residential commercial properties were provided a 50% discount on those trip [00:17:25] counts because we wanted to take into consideration that maybe not all of the people that were, [00:17:32] not all of your customers or clients utilized the city's network to go to your business. [00:17:39] An example would be U.S. Highway 19. [00:17:42] Someone could be coming from New Port Richey or live in New Port Richey. [00:17:47] They're using the New Port Richey Road network. [00:17:49] They're going on U.S. 19, which is State Road, and then they're going into your business. [00:17:55] We included the 50% discount for that. [00:18:01] Then of course, the vacant lots were not assessed. [00:18:07] What we had was, I know that everyone got their notices of potential charges, and Council [00:18:15] will understand that it's similar to when Council sets a millage rate that they have [00:18:21] to turn into the county. [00:18:24] They can give a number, and until they really do all their budget numbers and they start [00:18:29] getting to the end to find out what resources they have, they can go down, they can go lower. [00:18:36] They just can't go higher. [00:18:38] The notice that you saw or that you received was the worst case scenario that it would [00:18:43] ever be. [00:18:44] Of course, the resolution that we've turned in has a few items that were changed from [00:18:49] that initial submission. [00:18:53] One of the things we did on, it would be section five, page four. [00:19:07] The original resolution that we proposed had local option gas tax at $425,000. [00:19:20] It had the assessment charge at $1,275,000. [00:19:26] We ended up taking and adding the solid waste franchise fee and moving that over from the [00:19:33] general fund. [00:19:34] The solid waste franchise fee is a fee that is paid through the trash haulers for their [00:19:41] usage of the road and the deterioration rate. [00:19:46] We included penny for PASCO at $200,000. [00:19:51] Then the general fund transfer dollars is a portion of monies that the general fund [00:20:00] uses for the street improvement program or the street and right-of-way maintenance division. [00:20:07] Those dollars were moved over. [00:20:10] Local option gas tax stayed the same as what we had presented. [00:20:15] The total contribution from the city of existing served tax dollars that are used for services [00:20:23] except for the penny for PASCO and the local option tax came out to $900,000 from the $425,000. [00:20:33] The assessment balance was reduced to $800,000 from the $1,275,000. [00:20:41] Section six, page five, the apportionment methodology reduced the EAU unit cost to $3,132,000. [00:20:56] That was down from $4,916,000. [00:21:00] The ERU total was reduced to $2,275,000 and that originally was at $3,626,000. [00:21:15] We added a five-year sunshine clause to where the first five cycles that were included in [00:21:25] the needs assessment report would have to be completed and then we would be able to [00:21:32] revisit this again to see how the program was going and to get input from the public [00:21:41] so that there would be some form of accountability. [00:21:44] I think the main thing that we were looking for is to figure out if we agreed with the ideology [00:21:55] of looking at this program as a total network of roads versus just that piece of portion [00:22:03] in front of somebody's house, then we could always amend the different types of items [00:22:12] as we go along with this program to kind of make it more efficient. [00:22:20] Section 14, page seven, exemptions. [00:22:22] We added from the first draft privately owned and maintained streets. [00:22:28] There was a code that was an error that a lot of the private roads that were owned by [00:22:39] homeowners associations, they were getting charged. [00:22:43] We removed that and then we wanted to recognize wetlands associated with wetland mitigation [00:22:50] areas to be included because they were removed in the beginning formulas. [00:22:58] Those were some of the items there that were not the norm. [00:23:03] They were those rare cases that didn't fit into a system because it's very hard to get [00:23:07] a system that's going to fit everything versus you're always going to have one or two items [00:23:13] that you're going to have to look at. [00:23:17] Because of that, we also added a corrections of error and omissions, which is actually [00:23:24] an appeal process to where if some of these assessment notices, if it was approved in [00:23:30] some of the assessment notices that you got, you were in disagreement, you would be able [00:23:34] to give written notice to the city manager and have that right for an appeal. [00:23:41] I know this is the best I could do, but this slide actually calls out all the roads that [00:23:46] we are proposing to pave. [00:23:51] You'll notice that most of them are the collector roads. [00:23:55] Massachusetts Avenue, Main Street, Madison Street, portion of Louisiana Avenue, Congress [00:24:02] Street, Orchid Lake Road, to name a few. [00:24:09] The request from staff for council is approval of the resolution number 2016-23. [00:24:15] Thank you, Mr. Rivera. [00:24:21] Anything else? [00:24:23] That concludes our presentation, Mr. Mayor. [00:24:27] Thank you. [00:24:28] We're going to open it up for public comment. [00:24:30] I'm sure a lot of you have things that you'd like to say and also questions and would be [00:24:38] happy to hear. [00:24:39] That's why we're having a public hearing, to be able to hear and get input from you. [00:24:45] I would ask, come up one at a time, if you get to the front seats so you can pop up quickly [00:24:54] after that, that would be great. [00:24:58] As I mentioned at the beginning, please write your name and address so the clerk has it [00:25:03] for the record. [00:25:05] With that, I'll open this public hearing. [00:25:08] Somebody had already put their name in here. [00:25:17] If you could also tell us your name, that would be great. [00:25:22] My name is Pedro F. Penichet. [00:25:30] 71-37. [00:25:41] Okay. [00:25:43] I'm a fairly new member of the city. [00:25:48] I moved from Gulf Harbors some time ago, about a year ago. [00:25:54] And I was pleasantly surprised to find out that street assessment number 88 had not been [00:26:01] paid on my property and I had to pay... [00:26:03] I'm sorry. [00:26:05] Is that better? [00:26:07] A little volume would be better, maybe. [00:26:09] Okay. [00:26:11] Street assessment number 88. [00:26:14] On that street assessment, I paid 900 and some dollars when my closing came to. [00:26:20] Apparently nobody had paid a penny, including the bank that was holding the property. [00:26:25] That's kind of strange, but I guess I'm stuck with it. [00:26:28] That's one complaint that I have, but that is something that can't be helped. [00:26:34] My basic problem with it is the following. [00:26:37] We are on a dead-end road that was just done in 2010. [00:26:44] And it sees very little traffic. [00:26:47] There's just 16 houses in there. [00:26:50] So the road wasn't in that condition according to the neighbors that were there. [00:26:55] There wasn't a single pothole or anything else, but it had to be redone. [00:26:58] And the neighbors paid and I paid. [00:27:03] It's a little bit unfair that for people who had just paid a large amount of money [00:27:08] or are still paying the 10-year plan, as my neighbor Donna here next to me is, [00:27:14] she's still paying for it. [00:27:17] Her payment is going to double, absolutely double what she's paying now. [00:27:22] She is on a very limited budget. [00:27:25] Far worse off than I am. [00:27:27] I'm retired and obviously in a limited budget, but she's far worse off than I am. [00:27:32] Also, I noticed that life expectancy is supposed to be 20 years, Mr. Rivera? [00:27:39] Yes, sir. [00:27:40] 20 years. [00:27:41] Okay. [00:27:42] So my street may never get done for another 20 years. [00:27:45] I'll probably be dead by then, probably. [00:27:47] But nonetheless, that's not my problem. [00:27:49] Okay. [00:27:51] And I kind of think we ought to be able to give the people that have had their roads done recently [00:27:56] and they paid for the opportunity to get a lesser amount that they have to pay. [00:28:01] That's also for dead-end streets, which are not mentioned. [00:28:04] Those are the basic problems. [00:28:10] And I may also bring to your attention that including all the charges, the taxes, [00:28:15] and all the assessments, this would be a 40% increase if proposed as the way it is. [00:28:22] For me, it would be a 40% increase. [00:28:25] I'm sorry to say for Donna, it's going to be a lot worse because she's still paying $80 a year [00:28:30] and she now has to pay another $88. [00:28:33] So for her, it's doubling of it. [00:28:36] Okay. [00:28:37] And I think I got five seconds. [00:28:38] Thank you. [00:28:39] Thank you very much. [00:28:40] Mr. Rivera, could you clarify? [00:28:44] Obviously, the numbers that they have in their assessment is not the numbers that we just presented. [00:28:51] So in essence, if they had their assessment, is it roughly half of what it was before, Mr. Rivera? [00:29:02] If that's the average one, exactly, it would be 5,407. [00:29:07] Somewhere around there, if we compare it to the average. [00:29:11] Initially, the assessment notice... [00:29:14] It's only one of the $134 that I have. [00:29:19] Okay. [00:29:20] The 81 would be reduced to 5,407. [00:29:25] And we're talking averages. [00:29:28] Okay. [00:29:31] Thank you. [00:29:32] Yes, sir. [00:29:33] Yeah. [00:29:34] My name is Andy Hatcher. [00:29:35] I live at 6131 Kentucky Avenue here in New Port Richey. [00:29:40] I also own property out on Big Loop, 4709 Big Loop. [00:29:45] I got a notice the other day. [00:29:47] My dirt road, which is 125 feet long, is going to be assessed $240 a year. [00:29:54] And it's nothing but a dirt road. [00:29:56] I got to drive through an obstacle course to get to my property. [00:30:00] Because, number one, the city decided to put an 8-inch backflow preventer in the middle [00:30:05] of this 15-foot right-of-way, and I got to drive out around it to get to my property. [00:30:12] And the right-of-way is only 15-foot wide to start with, it can't be considered a street, [00:30:18] it can't be considered a road, it's just a right-of-way. [00:30:23] And that's the reason why I'm very upset. [00:30:26] They're assessing me over here to my property on Kentucky Avenue, another $104 on top of [00:30:30] that. [00:30:32] But when a gentleman says that his taxes, when that's added to his taxes, my city taxes [00:30:37] out there, it's going to double. [00:30:42] And the only reason why that road is in the city and my property is in the city is because [00:30:48] I was a good city employee. [00:30:49] I retired from public works, and I've been retired for 24 years. [00:30:53] I remembered your father, and I remembered your mother. [00:30:57] So I've been around here a long time. [00:31:01] But my problem was... [00:31:02] Well, my mom's still alive, and I remember her every day because she calls my name every [00:31:05] day. [00:31:06] Yeah. [00:31:07] My problem is the only reason why my property ever became a part of the city was the city [00:31:13] needed to annex Briarpatch, Hazeldon, the Baptist Church, and that area over there. [00:31:21] If not, I would have never annexed it into the city. [00:31:24] And I don't get nothing for it. [00:31:26] The city does not maintain my 15 foot out in front of my property. [00:31:31] But somebody needs to drive over there when they leave Briarpatch, go through the obstacle [00:31:36] course to get back to my property. [00:31:40] Thank you. [00:31:41] Thank you. [00:31:42] Thank you. [00:31:43] Ms. Manns, is that something that would be covered in the appeal process? [00:31:48] Just want to be clear... [00:31:49] Mr. Deputy Mayor. [00:31:50] ...that those things would be able to be looked at individually? [00:32:03] Is it possible that you could put the sign-in sheet over here? [00:32:06] Yes. [00:32:07] Right here? [00:32:08] Yes. [00:32:09] Thank you. [00:32:10] Better get us out of here before tomorrow morning. [00:32:15] Want to call the names, Brian, if they sign up? [00:32:17] Yeah. [00:32:18] Ready? [00:32:24] My name is Patricia Shaw, and I live on Dell Road, which runs parallel to Massachusetts. [00:32:31] And if I'm not mistaken, I'm not sure who owns that road. [00:32:35] But the county just bought all that property behind me where the watershed is. [00:32:41] I just got assessed last, not even three weeks ago, they tell me I'm going to get assessed [00:32:46] for 10 years to pay for that. [00:32:50] Now, I'm coming here, and you're telling me I'm getting assessed again for other roads. [00:32:56] Plus, they told me they're going to probably need a water retention pond, [00:33:00] and they're going to assess me again within that 10 years. [00:33:03] So you're talking three assessments for the same piece of property. [00:33:07] And I'm not sure what you're even paving where I even live, number one. [00:33:12] My question is, for the price that you're charging me, is that a five-year plan? [00:33:17] And is that the maximum that you can charge me for five years on that? [00:33:23] Ms. Rivera, that's my understanding is the $50. [00:33:27] Right, which is $4.50 a month for a five-year term. [00:33:32] That's what the proposal is, ma'am. [00:33:35] But it's five years. [00:33:36] And then do we have to re-vote on that if you decide you want to extend it for some other reason? [00:33:41] Yes, absolutely. [00:33:42] That's what I figured. [00:33:44] And are you going to actually max out that amount? [00:33:52] Is that going to be in writing that you cannot go higher than that amount within that five-year time? [00:33:57] Yes, it is. [00:33:58] It is, ma'am. [00:33:59] Okay. [00:34:00] And is that all Penny for Pasco is going to pay towards this? [00:34:03] That is one funding source. [00:34:04] There are several local sources that are paying the 50% of the construction costs. [00:34:12] So can you tell me where Del Road falls into this? [00:34:16] I'm on Del Road. [00:34:17] That's what runs in front of me. [00:34:18] And Massachusetts runs right next to me. [00:34:21] And then I've got Rowan here. [00:34:23] So is that part of this plan? [00:34:25] Are you going to be paving Del Road or is that something different? [00:34:28] Not part of the first five cycles. [00:34:31] That's what we're submitting on is the first five cycles. [00:34:34] And we're not looking at it as individual streets. [00:34:37] We're looking at it as a transportation network. [00:34:40] In other words, when you leave your house and you go to the doctor or you go shopping [00:34:45] or wherever you may go, you're using the city's network and contributing to the decline of it. [00:34:52] So there's all holes in that road where you get out. [00:34:55] You can't go straight because you're going to Magnolia Valley, the main road. [00:34:59] I'm not saying, oh, there's ditches. [00:35:01] So you're not paving that. [00:35:03] You're saying that's not part of your first plan? [00:35:05] I have to figure out how I'm going to maneuver to get my car out to get on to Massachusetts? [00:35:10] It's not part of the proposed paving plan tonight. [00:35:13] But based on the concerns that you're expressing, we'll take a look at it and see what we can do. [00:35:19] Okay. [00:35:20] Thank you. [00:35:21] Good evening. [00:35:27] I'm Robert Howley. [00:35:28] I have property on US 19. [00:35:31] I have a question to ask you. [00:35:33] Was it my understanding that the people that live in, have a private road, they'll be exempt? [00:35:41] Mr. Rivera. [00:35:45] Mr. Rivera. [00:35:48] We need the referee to be ready. [00:35:52] Can we start the clock again? [00:35:54] Yeah, we'll start over. [00:36:02] Mr. Rivera, the question was, are the people on dirt roads being assessed or private roads? [00:36:08] Private roads. [00:36:10] Private roads. [00:36:11] That they were exempt? [00:36:12] Who was exempt on that seven? [00:36:15] It was the private roads were exempt because the city is not maintaining. [00:36:21] But those people use the network too, correct? [00:36:24] Right, but we, I'm sorry, let me start all over. [00:36:27] The people that live adjacent to the private roads are assessed just like anybody else [00:36:33] because they're using the network. [00:36:35] Okay. [00:36:36] The homeowners association that owns the road, that basically the homeowners association [00:36:42] are all the people that live in the neighborhood. [00:36:45] We're not going to assess them twice. [00:36:47] So the private road is exempt because they, the homeowners association still has to maintain it [00:36:53] and they still have to repair it. [00:36:56] Okay. [00:37:00] My question was, I'm on US 19 with no city streets at all or no benefit of any city streets. [00:37:09] However, the people that do come to my business, they have to travel on city streets [00:37:14] which they're already getting assessed for, for where they live. [00:37:20] My deal is $607 and I have about 100 feet on US 19 and I just didn't quite know what benefit [00:37:30] I got from this. [00:37:31] My taxes are going up over 10% because I already pay over $6,000 to the city for taxes. [00:37:38] So I was wondering, you said that somewhere along there you were given a 50% off. [00:37:45] It's already 50% off because I'm on US 19? [00:37:49] Yes, sir. [00:37:50] On the trip charges. [00:37:53] The trip charges for where? [00:37:56] There was an EAU unit or an EAU. [00:38:02] One of them was land-based, which was the average acre, [00:38:06] and the other one was associated with trip charges. [00:38:09] I would have probably had an easier time swallowing this if you just said my taxes were going up [00:38:14] rather than say that they're going up for some kind of city street stuff [00:38:18] when everybody's already paying that anyway to get to my place. [00:38:23] Now this other gentleman says sometimes the people live in New Port Richey [00:38:27] and they just come straight down US 19 and pull in. [00:38:29] I'm right across the street from Publix at Southgate Shopping Center. [00:38:34] I live in St. Petersburg. [00:38:36] I don't even drive on a city street to get to work or go home. [00:38:39] But thank you. [00:38:40] I just wanted to have my say in that. [00:38:42] Now can I send in some kind of objection on this? [00:38:47] Absolutely. [00:38:48] Okay, a written objection. [00:38:50] Thank you. [00:38:56] Good evening. [00:38:57] My name is Rocky Marcus. [00:38:59] My situation I think is a little bit different than probably most of the people here. [00:39:04] I live all the way at the end of Indiana, [00:39:07] two blocks off Sims Park on the Cody. [00:39:11] And my road is a wreck and it's private, [00:39:16] except for the fact that I've been with Mr. Rivera and he's been great. [00:39:21] You look at the plans, there's all kinds of pipes and sewage [00:39:24] and this and that and drainage on my land. [00:39:27] That's private property. [00:39:29] I could make that grass if I wanted to instead of a street. [00:39:32] I've got three properties in there, [00:39:35] over $350 worth of assessment if it happens, [00:39:39] almost $7,500 a year in taxes for three properties. [00:39:44] And I've got a road where when the curb ends [00:39:47] you could stick your fingers between the road and the curb [00:39:50] because everybody's water, whether they are washing their cars, [00:39:54] whether we have a storm, comes right down Indiana [00:39:57] and exits out at the end of my road into the river. [00:40:02] It was designed that way back in the 40s [00:40:05] because they knew the water has to go someplace. [00:40:08] It's been 70 years, nobody's touched that road. [00:40:11] It's a mess. [00:40:12] I think, in spite of the fact that it's private property, [00:40:15] I think the city should do something about it. [00:40:18] I'm paying more than my share and I don't care about this. [00:40:21] That's fine. [00:40:22] I'll send it in a gold envelope. [00:40:24] I don't care. [00:40:25] I would like something to be done. [00:40:27] Basically, that's it. [00:40:29] Okay? [00:40:30] Thank you. [00:40:31] If I may? [00:40:32] Yes, sir. [00:40:33] We recognize Mr. Marcus's situation [00:40:37] and there is a lot of public stormwater, [00:40:42] you should say, that goes down that private road. [00:40:45] We have that listed in our master plan [00:40:48] to address that with some stormwater improvements, [00:40:52] a trench box going across the road [00:40:54] to try to capture some of the water [00:40:57] that's coming off of the public right-of-way [00:40:59] onto his private area. [00:41:01] Mr. Marcus lives in the Island House, right at the end? [00:41:03] Yes, sir. [00:41:04] Okay. [00:41:05] Okay. [00:41:06] Yes, sir. [00:41:09] Good evening. [00:41:10] My name's Ken Super. [00:41:11] I have a half a dozen assessments here [00:41:13] for property that I own in the city. [00:41:17] And it's... [00:41:20] The assessments, Ms. Mann has said correctly, [00:41:25] when it's only been 12 paving up situations [00:41:29] in the city in the last 20 years. [00:41:31] And I feel part of it is because of the poor leadership [00:41:34] in the city over the last 20-plus years. [00:41:38] I've been here since 1971. [00:41:41] And it's going to take decades for this city [00:41:44] to dig out of the hole that they've been in [00:41:48] from these purchases of these private properties [00:41:51] for redevelopment. [00:41:54] And I want to address more the people in the city [00:41:59] more than the leadership. [00:42:01] Unless we start looking at how our leaders [00:42:06] run their own private finances [00:42:09] and how they do their own business, [00:42:13] we're going to be in the same boat as we are now. [00:42:18] To spend $3.5 million, upwards of $5 million, [00:42:22] to get out of a piece of property [00:42:25] and sell it for $300,000 is ludicrous. [00:42:31] And no one person is responsible for all of it. [00:42:36] But one of our leaders said, [00:42:39] well, I'm glad to get that behind us. [00:42:41] We're not getting that behind us. [00:42:43] We still owe the money. [00:42:46] We get it out of our face [00:42:47] because we don't own the property anymore, [00:42:49] but we still owe all the money [00:42:50] that's been spent over the last 10 or 15 years. [00:42:53] So it's hard to swallow these assessments [00:42:56] and these high taxes in this beautiful city that we have [00:42:59] when we see the leadership squandering the money. [00:43:03] Hacienda should be run by private individuals. [00:43:08] It's a historic building. [00:43:09] It's a great building. [00:43:10] The city has no business owning that piece of property, [00:43:15] and you're still spending money on it, [00:43:17] and it's a disgrace. [00:43:19] Mr. Supernald, if you could keep it [00:43:20] to the paving assessment, please. [00:43:24] I'm going to pay the paving assessment. [00:43:26] If it comes up, I'm going to have to pay it. [00:43:28] We have to pay what we owe. [00:43:31] But the city, we pay a lot of taxes in the city, [00:43:35] and it's not being responsible. [00:43:39] If you look up your leaders [00:43:41] and you look up their names [00:43:42] and see how they run their personal finances, [00:43:45] we'd be a lot better off asking people to run for office [00:43:49] that run their finances better than they do [00:43:51] that we have now. [00:43:57] By the way, if you want to look up some of their names, [00:43:59] if they use names like Chopper Davis, [00:44:01] his name's Alfred C. [00:44:03] Mr. Supernald, thank you. [00:44:10] I would ask that you all try to remain civil. [00:44:13] It is not appropriate to personally attack anyone. [00:44:17] We're simply here trying to gather information [00:44:20] and gather your opinions on the specific issue at hand, [00:44:24] which is the paving assessment. [00:44:26] Yes, ma'am. [00:44:27] Good evening. [00:44:28] My name is Lois Robinson, [00:44:29] and I've been a city resident since 1972, [00:44:34] and although he kind of got your goat, [00:44:37] it kind of stands for what we all have been seeing. [00:44:40] This isn't so much about the paving assessment. [00:44:43] It's about how the finances have been handled in the city [00:44:45] for the last 20 years, [00:44:46] and I think that's why we're all here [00:44:48] and we're all aggravated. [00:44:49] If this is a residential assessment issue, [00:44:51] is it not, Mr. Rivera? [00:44:53] Then Massachusetts should not be included [00:44:55] because that's a city-county street. [00:44:57] Warren was destroyed last year. [00:45:00] summer and the county stabilized it. Typically they use the penny taxes, the gas taxes for [00:45:06] sourcing here. Most individuals are not as hostile about it when they benefit from an [00:45:13] assessment. We're just being blanketed, blanketed charged. What about the ERU, the equivalent [00:45:21] residential unit? These are questions that I have. Also, I read that the supermarkets [00:45:27] are going to be charged $10,400 a year, a drive-thru, $2,800. [00:45:33] Excuse me, ma'am, could you speak into the mic? We've got people that are... [00:45:36] We've got vacancies down here and you're going to be putting on additional charges. You're [00:45:40] not going to get anybody that wants to come to the city of New Port Richey. So I totally [00:45:44] agree with what my predecessor said and I like some of these answers. What about the [00:45:49] ERU? What's going on with that? Why aren't we using the funds that we have? Why do we [00:45:55] have to have a blanketed assessment? Mine's not $85 a year, mine's $193 a year. I think [00:46:02] the biggest gripe with me and a lot of people is the way the city's been spending money [00:46:07] and that's why we're up here saying no. Because as with the churches, I noticed we just had [00:46:13] a nice new tractor bought, John Deere, for the city. Probably cost about $60,000, $80,000. [00:46:19] I know tractors. What was wrong with spending $25,000, $30,000 to do your little lawns out [00:46:24] here? It's just the constant waste of money. And that's how I feel about it. Thank you. [00:46:29] Thank you. [00:46:42] Hi, my name is George Russell from Grand Boulevard, New Port Richey. Real quick, can you just [00:46:48] clarify, did you say this $128 is going down to $54? Is that what I heard? [00:46:53] No, sir. That was the average. You could have... [00:46:58] $128, what's it going down by, about a third? [00:47:01] I would say that's a safe bet. [00:47:03] And times five? [00:47:04] Figure, something like that, yes. [00:47:06] Okay, just wanted to be sure I understood. Looking at this map, I've lived here like [00:47:12] 21 years and the blue lines, I don't recognize but about three of those names, especially [00:47:17] as thoroughfares. Main Street, yeah. Massachusetts, yeah. Madison, yeah. I don't recognize the [00:47:23] rest. Plus I've got some friends over here that live on the other side of the Cody River. [00:47:27] I don't know why they would be assessed. That doesn't make any sense. I do live on [00:47:33] this side of the Cody River and I drive on a few of those roads every day, at least one [00:47:38] of them every day. But the ones we don't recognize, I think it's kind of like the [00:47:42] dead end street. Why aren't the people living there paying for it? Main Street, you've [00:47:46] got a lot of businesses. Why should I pay the cost of those businesses? Why aren't [00:47:52] they paying for the upgrades to Main Street? Madison's got a lot of businesses too. It's [00:47:57] got a big school on it. Why don't the school funds pay? And Massachusetts, I mean, how [00:48:06] can you talk about repaving something that has a serious flood problem several times [00:48:12] a year on it? And we've got this NPR stormwater assessment for $77 every year. Where's that [00:48:20] going? If we can't fix the flood problem, don't waste money paving because it's just [00:48:23] going to be a bunch of more potholes. Let's learn to spend the money for this city more [00:48:28] intelligently. Thank you. Good evening. I appreciate you having this public hearing. [00:48:37] Gilbert Gianelli. I live in Clearwater. I own 7205 U.S. Highway 19 North. It used to [00:48:43] be a golden tequila restaurant. I'm sure all of you, most of you in this room probably [00:48:47] have had Mexican food there. They were there for 10 plus years, wound up filing bankruptcy, [00:48:54] owing a little over $110,000. I bought the building back in 1985. I paid $170,000 for [00:49:02] it cash. Yesterday I got my trim notice and the property value has dropped to $103,000. [00:49:09] That's a hell of an investment in 30 years. You guys are creating the perfect storm of [00:49:17] negativity here. You hired Mario, your economic development director. You got a new city manager. [00:49:24] You put together some programs that Mario has instituted. You have a grant program which [00:49:30] went off like gangbusters. The money was gone instantly. I hope you institute that [00:49:35] grant again in your budget coming up. I'm a user of that grant. I put a new roof on [00:49:41] the building. I have prospective tenants, but you're pricing us right out of the box. [00:49:49] You put a stormwater tax on for $570. You put a street lighting tax on for $76. Now [00:49:59] you're going to put another $835 on top of a county garbage tax which is $2,300 a [00:50:07] year for a restaurant. You do the math. The poor tenant that's going to come in there [00:50:13] as a restaurant, his overhead is going to be almost $8,000 to $9,000 a year to the [00:50:19] government. How in God's name is a small business going to make it? We were laden [00:50:27] with road construction on U.S. 19 for three years. Look at the vacancies on U.S. 19. [00:50:33] You guys ought to be dropping the taxes, not raising the taxes to bring business in. [00:50:41] You're giving grants which is positive, but you go up one and down two. So from an [00:50:48] economic standpoint, I'm a landlord. How much can I give away the rent to have an [00:50:54] occupancy of a building? We don't like vacant buildings. They drive property [00:50:58] values down. So once again, I'm on U.S. 19. What do I get? I don't get anything. [00:51:04] My road is paid by my federal taxes and my gas tax. Stormwater, I don't get [00:51:11] anything for that. That's all federal and state. So to be fair, the county charges [00:51:19] on these kind of assessments each property owner. It's an assessed figure. So [00:51:25] everybody is in sharing. Each property owner benefits from what's paid in front [00:51:30] of him. And I beg you to keep the taxes low to attract business, especially in [00:51:36] West Pasco. We are hurting in West Pasco. You see the vacancies. And I just hope [00:51:42] that you consider this as a fair tax. And if you need the money, seriously, do [00:51:50] away with New Port Richey. Join the county. Consolidate services. New Port Richey, [00:51:56] New Port Richey, all these towns, you cannot continue this negative budget and [00:52:02] poor spending of tax dollars. It doesn't work. It implodes. It's like Obamacare. [00:52:08] It's going to implode. It can't sustain. [00:52:21] Hi, I'm Jim Schieffer. I live at 7240 Garden Grove Lane. I had a whole bunch of [00:52:27] stuff I was going to say, but since I've been here listening, I guess I have one [00:52:31] question. Is there going to be a transcript of what was said here? Because [00:52:35] you've made some statements here that are very important statements. Could you [00:52:39] speak up? Yes, sir. I can't hear you. There will be minutes. There will be a [00:52:43] transcript because this gentleman said you will never see this rate go higher. [00:52:49] This plan you have is for ten years. Five years, sir. Okay. Here's your [00:52:55] problem. You've said a bunch of stuff. You said it yourself that you didn't tell [00:53:01] people what they needed to know. So I don't see how you could possibly pass [00:53:07] this thing and impose it on people, and we don't know what we're being assessed [00:53:11] for. I've got a tax statement from the county telling me what I'm going to be [00:53:15] assessed. It says it's this maximum amount. You're saying, well, maybe it's [00:53:20] not going to be that. So how do I know? You didn't provide me any details of [00:53:26] what it was based on, and I can't find it on any of your websites. So how am I [00:53:32] supposed to know what you're doing? Everybody else has just recently told you [00:53:38] you're not managing the city in a prudent manner. You're just out there [00:53:44] frivolously spending money. You've got to stop. You've got to be frugal. That's [00:53:50] how you're going to survive. Otherwise, you're just going to drive yourself in a [00:53:54] hole, and like they say, nobody's going to come here because it's too expensive. [00:54:00] Thank you. [00:54:01] Thank you. Next. [00:54:06] Good evening. My name is Carol Kennard, and I live at 6828 River Road. I was one [00:54:14] of the lucky 12 that was assessed to have River Road paved, and I paid it [00:54:20] gladly because it needed it. However, I also recognize that many people who live [00:54:26] on other streets, such as at Burns Point, use that road and abuse that road. I [00:54:36] watch the traffic going up and down my street, and it is, of course, you've heard [00:54:42] me say it before, they're speeding. But I paid it out of pocket, and I was happy [00:54:48] to do that because I wanted my road fixed. Well, I shouldn't say really happy, [00:54:54] but, you know, I was willing to do it. I do not see how the way this has been [00:55:03] calculated is really, it's borne by the citizenry of the city of New Port Richey [00:55:14] more so than those people who do not live in the city. I think we have quite a [00:55:22] few people that cut through our streets, go down in the city, and then go out on [00:55:30] they, you know, I know we're getting money from the county, we're getting [00:55:35] money from Penny for Pasco, and we're getting money for the gas tax, but I [00:55:42] believe that the balance is on the side of the residents to carry more so than [00:55:51] those who do not, who use our streets and abuse our streets. So perhaps you [00:55:59] may rethink the calculation, and some of the streets that I see that are being [00:56:05] paved that I don't see are necessary at this point in time. But that's a layman's [00:56:11] decision, you know, view of it. I would just ask that you don't approve this, and [00:56:19] you go back and analyze it again, because I think many of us are, I don't want to [00:56:25] sound like a kindergarten child and say that's not fair, but I don't think it is. [00:56:31] I don't think it's equitable. And so I ask that you relook at it. Thank you. [00:56:36] Thank you. [00:56:43] Hello, I'm Dr. Sidney Hines. I live at 7435 Congress Street. You know something [00:56:50] people? I've got a doctorate in business, and I see you people wasting money left [00:56:58] and right. Millions of dollars going to Pasco County Development to bring [00:57:05] tourists to a ghost town. No tourist is coming to New Port Richey. Get in your [00:57:12] heads. The only time they're going to come here is when you're having special [00:57:15] events. You don't have any place for them to shop at. And believe me, tourists [00:57:21] love to shop. Secondly, you spent money on Sims Park, redoing it again for the [00:57:30] umpteenth time. It didn't need it. You just did it a few years before then. [00:57:39] Why do you people think you could spend money left and right indiscriminately? [00:57:46] You're supposed to represent us. Then you tell me I'm in the city of New Port Richey. Three homes in the middle of Hillandale subdivision. No, not budding [00:57:59] to any part of New Port Richey. And you send me paperwork to prove it. Well [00:58:04] gentlemen, I've got news for you. It was an obvious forgery. I took it over to [00:58:09] the prosecuting attorney. He caught the same thing that I caught. You obviously [00:58:15] don't know your history of computers. It was done on a computer. 1983. [00:58:22] Computers were not used. They were too expensive back then. So it was an [00:58:27] obvious forgery. So gentlemen, I hope you enjoy yourselves in court. [00:58:33] I guess I wasn't included in that. [00:58:43] Hello. My name is John Pimenidis and I live on River Road. A year to go or so [00:58:54] we pay about three or four hundred dollars for the street there. The street [00:59:00] is under 19, but we pay the money so it can be over. But now I have to pay more [00:59:07] money on River Road and my house for somebody else, for some other street. [00:59:14] As to my first question, the second one, I have to say it's supposed to be a [00:59:20] system to be better for everybody and everybody to be happy. The best way I [00:59:26] think you put them on the real estate taxes. We have already anyway, but you [00:59:31] put them on the real estate taxes. Right now we have a problem. It's a new [00:59:38] thing in Pasco County. Everybody come and say we have to pay more [00:59:46] Assessments. So we have now on Machachusetts, we have to pay assessments [00:59:55] for the water they're going to fix, the storm system. [01:00:00] You have now the new poetry saying we have to pay assessments on this street, this street and that street. [01:00:06] So that one I think is a joke. We're supposed to start with what the other series are doing here [01:00:13] and to do it and not to do it with what the county of Pasco is doing [01:00:20] because what the Pasco is doing is wrong and now the series follows the same steps. [01:00:26] What the Pinellas County is doing, what every other county is doing, what the other series are doing. [01:00:34] I never saw in my life that system here. You come and say you have to pay assessments for the roads. [01:00:40] Why do I have to pay assessments for the roads? Put them under the real estate taxes to be more fair. [01:00:47] And the other one, you've done a lot of things for the series, I know that. [01:00:52] You've done the Sims Park. It's an outstanding place for everybody. I've seen thousands of people there. [01:00:57] You've done the other here for the exercise and stuff like that. It's very nice, very good. [01:01:06] Thousands of people go over there. But also you make mistakes. [01:01:10] But we have to correct the mistakes like the hacienda. It's a mistake. [01:01:14] We're supposed to give the hacienda to the university or college or whichever to have students to come. [01:01:22] That way we don't have to spend the money. The students, they come, they spend the money on the series. [01:01:29] So we have to find a better system to improve the roads. It's not with assessments. [01:01:37] If you know any other series to go with the assessments, I don't think so you know anyone. [01:01:43] It's the only one is doing assessments all the time. It's the Pasco and the New Porichi. [01:01:50] Now if we come, I have three properties here, four, so I have a dime. Bear with me. [01:01:58] Now if you want to improve the series of New Porichi, it's a waste to do it. [01:02:06] I know mistakes happen, and I'm not blaming you, but some is a normal mistake. [01:02:16] But to do an assessment, because tomorrow maybe you come and say, [01:02:20] where are we going to put the olive trees on the street? And we have to pay assessments. [01:02:26] If you can wrap it up, we've got a lot of people that want to talk to you. [01:02:29] I know. I'm going each property by the time. [01:02:32] You've got one three-minute period, sir. [01:02:35] One three-minute? [01:02:36] One. [01:02:37] Okay, my wife is going to talk. The other three. [01:02:40] That's fine. [01:02:42] So you see, here's the problem, Mayor. You like to say and you like to do. [01:02:49] I'm not saying for everybody, but you have to change everybody's attitude. That's the problem. [01:02:56] Thank you, sir. We do want to make sure anybody that wants to speak has an opportunity. [01:03:00] There's another one I have to say. It's a mistake for me to come here in Pasco to live. [01:03:04] That's the one I have to blame, my wife. [01:03:08] Maybe I never have to come from the United States. [01:03:12] You're a brave man. [01:03:15] I used to live in the United States, and I come here in South America to stay. [01:03:21] Okay, thank you. [01:03:26] Tough act to follow. [01:03:29] I'm Sharon Proviance. I live at 7038 Grand Boulevard. [01:03:33] I just have a couple questions because I just sold a property in town that had twice as much road frontage, [01:03:40] but my Grand Boulevard assessment is twice that. [01:03:44] The old house was 74. The river house is 154. [01:03:49] Now, is Grand considered a collection road? [01:03:53] And if it is, really, that's kind of skewed that people who happen to live on a collection road have to pay more. [01:04:00] Don't you think that if their roads are being used by outside sources, they should maybe pay less? [01:04:06] Mr. Rivera, I've heard some other people that have had similar comments specifically about Grand. [01:04:11] Could you address that? [01:04:12] I think there's confusion. That's the way the old system typically used to be. [01:04:16] Now everyone, in your case, it's a single-family home. [01:04:20] The units are the same. [01:04:23] The only thing that might change is if your parcel is larger than, say, what that average .186 is. [01:04:31] It's about a third of an acre, but it's only this much on the road. [01:04:35] It's deep, but it's not wide. [01:04:37] It goes by the size of the parcel, not by road footage. [01:04:40] That's the existing plan that we have. [01:04:44] That's not right. It should go by road frontage. [01:04:47] I'm just going to say now, it should go by road frontage. [01:04:51] I hope that you guys will consider that. [01:04:53] I love this city. I've been here since I was a kid. [01:04:56] I'm not moving away because you're assessing this road thing, [01:04:59] but I think it should be looked at a little deeper before you make any decisions. [01:05:04] Thank you very much. [01:05:05] Thank you. [01:05:06] Thank you. [01:05:14] I was going to say, surely somebody else wants to come up. [01:05:16] We've got to do this. [01:05:18] I live on Park Drive. My name is Gary Tinker. [01:05:22] This assessment that we used to have on our streets, in the paper, [01:05:27] you said you're going to change it because you couldn't collect. [01:05:31] That is correct, right? [01:05:33] That was in St. Pete Times. [01:05:36] People weren't paying you for their assessments. [01:05:40] I did pay you for my assessment. [01:05:44] When they assessed my street, I questioned the price, [01:05:47] and they go, well, the city's paying half of it. [01:05:49] I'm like, it's $4,000 to pay this? [01:05:51] And they said, we're going to dig it up, redo the bid. [01:05:55] I go, you're not doing the brush and the skim coat. [01:05:57] Oh, no, sir. That's why it's so much. [01:05:59] They've done a brush and a skim coat. [01:06:01] Still paid the same amount. You can't fight city hall. [01:06:05] If you're going to go ahead and pay for the people that haven't paid their assessment yet for the street, [01:06:10] I'd like to get my money back that I did pay. [01:06:13] Would that be fair? I would think so. [01:06:16] And also on the commercial properties, when you do your trips, I've had the same location for 50 years. [01:06:22] How many people have been to my location on 19? [01:06:25] None of you? We're wholesale. [01:06:28] All of my rates on commercial is really strict, a lot higher. [01:06:33] I'm on 19. I don't use the city streets. [01:06:37] You've been to Walmart in the last 30 days. [01:06:39] They're not paying anything. They're not in town. [01:06:42] But you assess the businesses that's been here established. [01:06:45] My taxes every year for every assessment just keeps going up. [01:06:50] You're an incinerator. [01:06:52] We were going to have lower electric bills when that came in. [01:06:55] I think that was his incinerator, actually. [01:06:58] So now I'm paying around on the commercial properties $3,000 a year for incinerators, the solid waste, [01:07:06] the stormwater. [01:07:07] I've got to dig it out and hold my own water. [01:07:11] Everyone's paying $55 or $68, and I'm paying over $1,000. [01:07:16] You keep billing it to the commercial in this town or this county, and eventually you're going to run us out. [01:07:22] We can't keep maintaining to support everyone else. [01:07:26] Thank you. [01:07:27] Thank you. [01:07:32] Hi. Good evening. [01:07:33] My name is Aris Laringakis. [01:07:35] I have four adjoined properties on US 19. [01:07:39] And I think it's not fair what always asking US 19 to pay for the main street. [01:07:47] We started years ago. [01:07:50] I came into this county in 1982, and I live in New Polynesia since then. [01:07:56] I brought some money from New York. [01:07:58] We invested here, and I promised at that time you're going to have services with us. [01:08:04] The problem is if we start with occupation lines, the county charged $13. [01:08:10] You're charging $75. [01:08:13] The streetlights on US 19, it's paid by the federal government, but you're still charging us for the streetlights. [01:08:21] A franchise fee for the garbage to the city, storm water utility. [01:08:28] Of course, we pay with the county also the storm water now. [01:08:32] Now you're coming up and you're asking me again to pay another $1,200 for 120 feet frontage on 19. [01:08:41] Which business is yours, sir? [01:08:43] I'm on the Aris Plaza. [01:08:45] Okay. Thank you. [01:08:48] What I have there is 128 plus 45. [01:08:53] It's four parcels. [01:08:54] The other two parcels have no street frontage. [01:08:56] It's storage units. [01:08:59] I'm paying $5,000 as a real estate tax to the city on top of what I'm paying for the county. [01:09:07] So how much more you can ask from us? [01:09:10] You know, we have vacant units. [01:09:13] We have problem renting. [01:09:15] We get in rents that it goes back to 1980s just to keep people in. [01:09:22] I have tenants. [01:09:23] They say, I don't want to rent no more with the city. [01:09:26] With all the regulations they have, you cannot put a sign on the street. [01:09:30] You cannot do this. [01:09:31] Permit for this. [01:09:32] Permit for that. [01:09:33] Double lances. [01:09:35] My printer there pays for the same business two lances. [01:09:39] One for the front and one for the warehouse that he's printing there. [01:09:43] It's one business. [01:09:45] Come on. [01:09:46] You know, it doesn't go more. [01:09:48] You have to. [01:09:49] I hope you consider this. [01:09:51] And, you know, what we're doing is we're chasing business out of the city. [01:09:58] You know, like the gentleman before said, you know, the previous board and the previous mayor, they make mistakes. [01:10:05] We didn't need the hacienda. [01:10:06] We needed the roads. [01:10:08] Now you're asking us to pay for it. [01:10:10] We didn't need those $5,000, I mean, $5,000, those big palm trees on Main Street. [01:10:15] You can put a little one for a couple hundred dollars. [01:10:20] You know, it was the good years when the real estate value was really up and you were spending money left and right. [01:10:27] Now you're coming back. [01:10:29] But I'm sure your budget is supposed to be bigger this year because already the residences are going up. [01:10:35] My time is up. [01:10:36] I hope you consider. [01:10:38] And I don't think it's fair. [01:10:40] Always 19, pay for the rest. [01:10:43] Thank you, sir. [01:10:44] Thank you. [01:10:49] And don't shoot him just because he was the incinerator guy. [01:10:54] I changed it after I left. [01:10:56] Mr. Mayor, members of City Council, thank you very much for allowing us to speak tonight. [01:11:00] My name is John Gallagher. [01:11:01] I live at 6712 River Road. [01:11:05] It's a lot easier sitting on that side throwing the ball this way than this thing gets short. [01:11:12] Somebody get me a stool. [01:11:13] We got it. [01:11:15] Keep raising it. [01:11:17] I want to thank the city manager and Judy for answering a lot of my e-mails, putting up with me, [01:11:22] trying to find out a lot about the program, and thank you very much. [01:11:30] Some of the concerns that I have, I think you've heard most of them tonight, the biggest problem is change. [01:11:36] As we all know, people don't like change. [01:11:39] People don't understand, including myself, why I understand the equivalent residential unit, [01:11:47] but the equivalent assessment unit really has us paying for streets of other residents [01:11:54] when we have already paid the assessment on our street. [01:11:58] It just doesn't seem fair. [01:12:00] And then if you've got a program that's five years and it sunsets, we've paid all that money in. [01:12:08] City Council decides, well, this isn't working. [01:12:11] What happens to all the money we've paid in? [01:12:14] I did a little bit of research with the help of the city manager and her staff on the gas tax. [01:12:21] Between the six cent, fifth and sixth, and a local option to gas tax, [01:12:26] you could be bringing in about a million dollars a year. [01:12:29] The last eight years, you've brought in over 5.3 million. [01:12:34] Gas tax has been in effect since 1983. [01:12:37] You've probably brought in 15 or 20 million in that period of time. [01:12:41] The roads, where did it go? [01:12:45] Every street that I've ever lived on had a paving assessment where I paid 100%. [01:12:50] When I saw the 50% tonight, is that on a case-by-case basis? [01:12:55] When the hall gets filled up, you lower it to 50% or is there something in writing? [01:13:00] The residential streets only pay 50% of the assessment and the city picks up the rest. [01:13:08] I can understand a county where a citywide assessment for the major roads, [01:13:15] but I also think between the gas tax the city receives and the penny for PASCO, which you receive, [01:13:23] about $600,000 a year, you should be able to give the residents kind of a break. [01:13:31] That's it. [01:13:32] Thank you. [01:13:33] Thank you. [01:13:37] As so many of you know, Mr. Gallagher was some of us a government teacher in high school. [01:13:44] So we do feel like we've been down this road before, but he's always on point and we very much appreciate it. [01:13:54] He taught me the difference between Americanism and communism. [01:13:58] At one point, Mr. Gallagher actually was up here before he was over there, and then he was out here. [01:14:06] It's interesting to read. [01:14:08] Some of us have been around a long time, and, Mr. Gallagher, we appreciate it. [01:14:12] It's always fun to be on the hot seat again, but you're absolutely right. [01:14:18] There's a difference in some of those, but thank you very much. [01:14:21] Thank you. [01:14:23] If I could before you start, anybody that is wishing to speak, [01:14:27] if we could get you to put your name and address on the clipboard, I'd appreciate it. [01:14:31] Go ahead, Mike. [01:14:32] Mike Nurembrock, 6910 Grand Boulevard. [01:14:37] At first, when the city manager indicated that there was a sunset provision, [01:14:41] I felt a little bit better, but then when I heard the public works director speak, [01:14:46] it didn't sound really like a sunset protection, that it could be re-upped for another five years afterwards. [01:14:57] I have several concerns. [01:15:00] would be the sunset clause. Is there a method for appealing if the fee is incorrect? But here's what's going to happen. You're going to vote on this, and then the property appraiser is going to want that list of all the assessments immediately so he can get the tax bill out. And if someone finds out, after that's been transmitted to the property appraiser, there is no stopping it. Because it will be a [01:15:30] problem. It will go on the tax bill, and you can't pay just part of the tax bill. You have to pay the whole tax bill. So that's a problem. I can tell you the county has to deal with the solid waste assessments off the tax roll because there are hundreds of appeals every year that are granted. I don't like to speak about the place where I used to work, but it was drilled into us. [01:16:00] That we could not do a street assessment unless there was a direct benefit to the property owners. That it had to be something that we had two methods for those types of subdivisions that were laid out in a straight grid pattern. It was pretty straightforward. In some of our subdivisions where they had winding roads and pie-shaped lots, there was a second one to equalize [01:16:30] because using front footage wasn't fair. But it still was based on the methodology that it has to benefit that property owner. And so that left the collectors and all those other roads that had to be funded from somewhere else. [01:16:52] I'm concerned. I tried to go on the website today and find the proposed 16-17 budget, and I wasn't able to find it on the website. I wasn't able to find the September 30, 2015 CAFR either, which I would think should be on the website by now. But I did find the budget for 15-16. [01:17:15] And in particular, the 701 fund, the street improvement fund, has $2.3 million for street improvement projects, which apparently were originally approved in 14-15 but never got done. My question is, of that $2.3 million in this year's budget, how much has been taken over? Because the actual expenditures in the street improvement fund... [01:17:41] Just another 30 seconds. [01:17:42] Okay. [01:17:43] The actual in the street improvement fund in 13 were $45,000, in 14 were $63,000, and in 15-16 were supposed to be $5.9 million worth of improvements. So have any of the 14-15 street improvement projects been completed? [01:18:05] Ms. Manns? [01:18:07] Mr. Marenbrock, you asked a good number of questions, and I'll try to respond to each of them. Yes, the program has a sunset provision, and it's five years. That is the term of the proposed plan that we are asking the city council to consider this evening. [01:18:26] Does anything prohibit the city council from reenacting it? [01:18:29] No. [01:18:31] Okay. [01:18:32] Not without public input. [01:18:35] Another meeting like this. [01:18:36] And a meeting like this where it would need to be voted publicly. Yes, there is a method of appeal, and that is in the form of submitting a form to the city manager's office. [01:18:53] And yes, we believe that there is a direct benefit to affected property owners in an upgraded pavement management plan. I can get you a copy of the 16-17 proposed budget so you can look at it. And what was the last question? [01:19:10] Well, there was a large balance in the road improvement fund, almost $6 million. And the other thing that kind of worries me about this is you say that, of course, as the appeal goes, we come here tonight and we hear our assessments are going to be a lot less. [01:19:34] So then people will be disincentivized to check to see if actually the assessment is correct. And I don't know what the time frame is for getting that appeal done, because you have to get the property price. [01:19:50] So part of the thing is that in reading some of the things from the public works director and from the engineering group is that $1.2 million of the assessment is going to be used to fund about a $1.7 million project. [01:20:08] So that means you're taking funds from somewhere else, gas tax or penny for Pasco, to bridge the gap. Any future city council can say, we need to spend that money somewhere else, and then the assessment has to go up to cover $1.7 instead of $1.2, which is almost a 50% increase. [01:20:30] As with any government agency, there's not a lot of locks on this, and that's what I think concerns these people. And really, as to the direct benefit, I think you leave yourself liable for a legal action. I'm not threatening one, I'm just saying I think you leave yourself open. [01:20:54] Thank you, Mr. Nirenbrock. [01:20:55] Mr. Nirenbrock, excellent points. And obviously, all of them, that's the whole reason that we wanted to solicit this. The only other clarity that I'm going to ask Ms. Manns and then Mr. Rivera is, and we all get our chance to talk in a little bit, but I want to be clear that when you put this assessment [01:21:23] in its place over what was done, most people think it's just on the ad valorem tax base, and it is not. It picks up all of those entities that don't pay ad valorem taxes today, and I know you know that. [01:21:41] I just want to make sure that there's clarity that some of our largest traffic generators in the city, on a daily and a weekly basis, don't pay back into ad valorem, and obviously that's one of the mechanisms from this. But again, your questions are right on point, and we look forward to working our way through them, but thank you very much for bringing them out here. [01:22:10] And let me just say that if the funds that were already budgeted in the current year are still there, that gives the board the opportunity to postpone this for a year, get the right numbers, and not implement it with this next tax bill, do it a year from now. [01:22:27] Mr. Davis, did you want to reply to the legalities of such an assessment? Even though it wasn't a threat, it's a pretty broad statement, or serious statement. [01:22:37] Well, the assessments are recognized methodology of raising money for capital improvements under Florida law. [01:22:47] Two requirements are that there be a special benefit to the assessed property, and that the amount of the assessment does not exceed the benefit. That's one requirement. [01:23:02] The other requirement is that the assessment be properly apportioned between properties. [01:23:07] So the way you go about establishing that, and I think you've done that here, is you retain the appropriate expert to do the analysis to show that you've met those two prongs that are required by Florida law. [01:23:23] You can assess up to, but not to exceed the amount of the benefit, and you have a great deal of discretion as a legislative body in determining that benefit. [01:23:33] You don't have to use a particular methodology. For example, I've heard in discussion that perhaps the assessment could be calculated based on road footage. [01:23:44] It could, but you're not required to use that methodology. You can use a different methodology, and you've done that here. [01:23:52] So I think the approach that you've used is perfectly legal under Florida law. [01:24:00] Whether the assessment in a particular case is lawful will depend upon the analysis done by the experts, and whether that analysis is appropriate and valid. [01:24:13] Now, we didn't go back. As you know, our firm got involved rather late in this process. [01:24:18] So we worked with the city to try to make sure that you satisfied the procedural requirements in terms of having your appropriate hearing and having it properly advertised and doing the things you need to do. [01:24:32] We haven't gone back because we weren't brought in in the process early enough. [01:24:37] We haven't gone back ourselves and gone over all of that expert analysis to make sure that we agree with it. [01:24:45] But I think that's what you can do as a legislative body. I think that's your prerogative. [01:24:50] Thank you. Mr. Mbrook, thank you for your comments. [01:24:54] Thank you. [01:24:59] Sir, I will only take one minute of your time. [01:25:02] This is in reference to what John couldn't finish. [01:25:05] I would like to talk about Herkley Center. [01:25:07] We put many renovations and remodeling to that unit, and I believe are part of the city in doing what we've done and promoting it as far as renovations and trying to be a good landlord. [01:25:21] The property is 5421, 5423, and 5425 Main Street. [01:25:27] I would like that for your record. [01:25:29] I think the assessment of $420.19 for vacant units, with the exception of one that's rented, I think is quite high. [01:25:40] I would like that to be relooked at and re-evaluated with your committee or whoever is doing that. [01:25:47] The other property is 5647, Suite 1 and 2, and 5649 Main Street, which is the Journey Church. [01:25:55] Again, $278.95 is, again, high, and I don't quite understand how you're coming up with these figures for retail storefronts. [01:26:08] And as simple as that, and if I took much of your time, I apologize, and again, have a nice night. [01:26:14] Thank you. [01:26:16] Anyone else? [01:26:23] Good evening. [01:26:24] Heather Fiorentino, Wyoming Avenue. [01:26:28] One of the things that I'd like to bring up is I have to say I kind of differ with some of the colleagues that are out, my citizens that are out here with you, [01:26:38] and I kind of agree with some of the comments that they're making. [01:26:42] I understand that the city is trying to move forward in bringing up property values. [01:26:46] The city, I moved here in 76, and my opinion has deteriorated, especially in the last 10 years. [01:26:52] Has previous city council done wrong things with some of the money? [01:26:56] In my opinion, yes. [01:26:58] And, yes, that is part of the concern that you're hearing out here. [01:27:01] And I think they're right for saying that and bringing it to your attention so that as you move forward, [01:27:06] you're mindful of the money and the way that you spend it, and you're very frugal. [01:27:09] And we continue to make improvements to improve our city, to improve our values, and improve the conditions of which we live. [01:27:17] In saying that, I do question the $200,000 from GR. [01:27:22] You have a lot of problem, you have a lot of pieces of property within the city. [01:27:27] Your portion may be larger than that for what you need to pay for your footage, for, well, since we aren't using the footage now, we found out, [01:27:36] for your roadways, for the properties of which you own. [01:27:40] I believe the gas tax and those other things are things we've already paid into it, [01:27:44] so that your formula needs to be reevaluated on the portions of that. [01:27:49] I also would like to see what the plans are, because I kind of agree with what was said. [01:27:53] Yes, it's a five-year plan that is going to be sunset, but it can be voted on. [01:27:58] Well, where are you going to then take the money that's been given for the future plans? [01:28:03] I'd like to really see where the city's heading, because I really don't believe it is a five-year plan. [01:28:07] I think it's probably a 20-year plan. [01:28:09] And if you're going to do that, then show me where you're going to be utilizing the money, [01:28:13] because I'm going to be putting in several thousand dollars, $10,000 towards this. [01:28:20] I want to know how you're going to use the money so eventually it's going to benefit my street. [01:28:24] It's not going to benefit it now, but where will I fall into this plan? [01:28:29] Because, as was said, some of us are going to die before you get to our street, and that's a fact. [01:28:34] We have to be. [01:28:36] I also didn't hear anything about the needy. [01:28:38] When the city has done road assessments in the past, one of the things we talked about was, [01:28:42] what was your portion going to be to help offset some of the costs for the needy? [01:28:46] There's SHIP money out there that the county can provide to those people that are poverished, [01:28:51] senior citizens, and also disabled. [01:28:56] We need to be looking at that sort of funding along with block grant money [01:29:00] so that we can help offset some of the cost. [01:29:03] So I think the methodology has to be looked at. [01:29:05] The plan really has to be worked through a little bit better than where it's at. [01:29:09] Not that you're on the wrong path, but maybe we can fix the path of which you're trying to go. [01:29:14] The other problem is you need to be giving credit to some people who have paid their street assessments. [01:29:20] There's a problem there if they've already paid $3,000. [01:29:23] I would hate that I pay $30,000 into a street fund and then find out I'm going to be assessed $3,000 [01:29:29] because now you finally came to my street too. [01:29:32] So that would be a concern. [01:29:33] I also will reiterate my concern about the businesses. [01:29:37] If you continue to tax them above and beyond, you are going to be chasing them out of the city. [01:29:44] And that would be a concern. [01:29:45] One of the things we have tried to do is bring more businesses into the city. [01:29:50] I still think there's a way to do it in a right way. [01:29:53] I'm not sure you have it yet. [01:29:55] I think you still have to work on this plan some way. [01:30:00] not be allowed to continue because all you've allowed is the city to go further down the [01:30:06] pothole if you will. We need to do that. Another concern I just want to throw out is a citizen [01:30:12] advisory board that if you move forward with this that you would have a citizen advisory [01:30:17] board, some people that were for it, some people that are against it, to make sure that [01:30:21] this money is only being utilized for the streets only and that council does not move [01:30:28] it to other funds. Kind of like the school board did that with Penny for Pasco and that [01:30:33] assisted in getting out the information and it also assisted in making sure that it kept [01:30:39] the school board using the money for what it was meant to be done. Thank you very much [01:30:43] for your time. Thank you Heather. Wow. My name is Tim Carr. I'm at 5615 Charles Street. [01:30:54] We have another property at 5353 Lemon Street. Okay first, thank you for the statement. Useless [01:31:00] 19. Okay. My business is on that. They finished our construction about 30 days ago. Where [01:31:07] does this affect everything I'm doing? Financially it's been an interesting drag for my business. [01:31:14] We have paving assessments that we are still paving on. Okay. Started in 2010. We're still [01:31:21] paying on these things and I'm being asked to start another paving project. Is there [01:31:28] any rebate that's going to come to me? That's a question that I have. Are we going to have [01:31:36] to pay another one? There's only so much finances out there. I have $4,800 worth of driveways [01:31:43] to pay for. We know what that's about. Okay. I think the public works department has done [01:31:50] a great job. When they put our streets in in 2010, we asked one thing from my family. [01:31:55] Do it right. Within 12 months, the street was torn up for another project. Not as good. [01:32:04] Sidewalks are cracked. But what can we say? In the many times I have talked with Robert [01:32:09] and Robert, it's good to see somebody here that I recognize. You're one of the few that [01:32:13] are still here. I'm not as old as Heather. We moved here in 75. But what can we say? [01:32:20] You've got to do this, but I don't think you've got the right way and double billing my family, [01:32:24] which is, we're getting to our point, folks. We're hurting. I just hope you say no. Okay. [01:32:31] Thank you. [01:32:32] Anyone else? Come on down. Did you sign your name in on the... [01:32:43] Yes, I did. My name is Mark Huba. I represent the Evergreen Apostolic Church here at New [01:32:50] Portage. I've been here for 33 years. I just got a few questions. I wasn't even aware that [01:32:55] this was going on until we got this notice the other day in the mail, maybe three weeks [01:33:00] ago, which I'm glad for clarification because it looked on these forms that it was an annual [01:33:07] thing that was going to be ongoing. This has got a sunset clause for five years, so I understand [01:33:13] that. It's been reiterated. I don't want to waste a lot of time, but we've paid assessments [01:33:20] for a lot of properties that we have here already. Adams Street when it was redone and [01:33:26] in Vermont when it was done. I don't see the equity and how fair it would be to charge [01:33:32] again for that. It just doesn't seem basically fair to me. That's all. [01:33:37] Is your church the one that's just south of the empty lot, just south of Indiana, right [01:33:43] on Congress? [01:33:44] No, we're right across from the school. [01:33:46] Ritchie Elementary, correct? [01:33:47] Ritchie Elementary. Okay. [01:33:48] We own the property in Congress in Indiana there, too. [01:33:51] You do own that? [01:33:53] Which that's a sizable amount of tax we're getting hit with. We're going to be looking [01:33:58] at $4,400 a year, roughly, for the next five years. That's not chump change, which creates [01:34:06] a burden on the church. We want to pay our fair share. I love the city. I love being [01:34:11] here, working here. I'm for progress, but it costs money. We do a lot for the community. [01:34:21] We just gave away a lot of back-to-school backpacks, and we spent several thousand [01:34:25] dollars on that. To divert it to the roads, that's fine, but we only have so much money [01:34:30] we can budget. We're going to be eliminating some things we could do to help in different [01:34:35] areas because, obviously, you just have so much money you can work with. [01:34:40] The reason I asked the question I did, one of the, I think, first roads that is on the [01:34:47] list to be done is Congress. If this does not pass, then the church and all of the property [01:34:57] owners along Congress are going to get tagged with one of the monster assessments that some [01:35:02] of us have been paying years on. [01:35:05] I know they redid that back in the 80s. They ran sewer and stuff. I was here when they [01:35:10] did that. When they did Adams years ago, they designated a minor artery. They used [01:35:21] funds to alleviate the burden for those that were on the street. Because it was a traveled [01:35:28] road and it was designated, I would say Congress would be a major artery for the city. [01:35:36] To ask property owners to afford in that area, like I said, we want to do our fair [01:35:42] share, but I don't think it would be fair for anybody on Congress to go ahead and be [01:35:49] assessed the full value being it's a major artery. [01:35:52] I understand what you're trying to do here. We're just looking at major arteries in this [01:35:57] first phase. [01:35:58] No, not in the first five years. [01:36:00] It's a mix. [01:36:02] It seems to me, and now I'm told that this isn't really going to be the assessment. It's [01:36:07] less, but I don't know what it's going to be. I think it would be prudent to get all [01:36:12] the facts together. I don't know what the time frame is. Like I said, I'm a late comer [01:36:16] into this discussion. It is a sizable amount of investment for us as a church every year [01:36:23] for the next five years to do, which we're willing to do if that's what we've got to [01:36:27] do, but it's going to be very hard. It's a burden, and I know a lot of these people [01:36:32] are facing the same burden. It's easy for us to just say, well, we need it done, but [01:36:36] maybe there's a better way, and maybe we're just rushing into it too soon. [01:36:40] I thank you for your time, and I got some clarity on it. [01:36:43] One question that I do have is along our vacant land on Florida, you can distinctly see where [01:36:52] the pavement stops and the Baja starts. Is that a difference between county and city? [01:36:58] Robert? [01:36:59] I'm not sure. Where were you talking? [01:37:02] On Florida Avenue? If you go just about two-thirds past down that long side of our property, [01:37:10] it turns into Baja. [01:37:12] That's the county portion. The county portion is east of Conger Street. [01:37:19] We're just a nub into the county, so we're surrounded by county there. Does any of those [01:37:26] properties that are in county have any kind of assessment put on them, or is it just the [01:37:30] burden of the church there? [01:37:32] The county typically does assessment for their road improvement projects as well. I'm not [01:37:38] sure on that one. I'd have to take a look at it. [01:37:42] We've got 2,600 feet of road frontage, over 14 acres of vacant land, which we're just [01:37:54] like a nub of the city into the county. I understand nobody's going to be happy with [01:38:00] any situation where you've got to spend money, but there's a lot of, my understanding, what [01:38:06] I've looked over the years, there's a lot of pockets of county in the city. [01:38:10] How do we address that for those people traveling in the city, and yet they're using it, and [01:38:16] we're all paying for it, but they're not? It just seems like there needs to be, I haven't [01:38:20] heard any discussion on it. Maybe you've done it in private, but it doesn't seem equitable [01:38:24] for the citizens that... [01:38:26] Nothing happens in private. [01:38:27] Nothing in private, let's be clear. Nothing's not in the sunshine. [01:38:33] We get held to a higher standard than our state legislators do. They put it on us, so [01:38:38] please, we don't do anything until we get, I understand, and we get fired up because [01:38:43] we get in a lot of trouble. [01:38:44] I'm not adversarial, I'm just getting information. [01:38:45] We get in a lot of trouble. [01:38:46] That's fine. [01:38:47] I'm all for progress. I love the city, and we'll do what we have to do. [01:38:50] Thank you for being positive. [01:38:51] Since we've got a new city manager, she is looking into some of those pockets that you're [01:38:58] talking about. [01:39:00] And certainly, Mr. Rivera can help you figure out exactly where the city stops and the county [01:39:05] starts. [01:39:06] And what they use as far as frontage, if they went through the county side or, I don't know, [01:39:11] I have no... [01:39:12] I'm sure Mr. Rivera can get you exactly that info. [01:39:16] Thank you. [01:39:17] Anyone else? [01:39:24] My name's Mitch Jackson. I live at 5611 George Avenue. I won't be long here. Everything has [01:39:31] already been said, basically. The taxes are just getting outrageous. The fees. Look at [01:39:37] cell phone bills. I paid for my road about 10 years ago. Now I'm finding out that, hey, [01:39:45] we're going to do this all over again. [01:39:47] I see that there are... When I first read about this thing a few days ago, it was like [01:39:53] a 10-year thing, and there was a term in there, a sustainable progress or something like that, [01:39:59] which to me is a code word for, this is never going to go away. This is just going to go [01:40:04] up. [01:40:05] You know, like, mine is $107. Five years from now, that'll be double. Ten years from now, [01:40:11] it'll be 500 bucks. And it'll be like, well, if you can't afford to live in the city, then [01:40:15] move out. [01:40:16] So, you know, let's revisit this. Let's look at this real close. And, you know, we're getting [01:40:21] monies from everywhere. I understand we even got some BP money someplace. I don't know [01:40:26] about that, but I've heard that. I don't know if it's for sure, but at any rate, I wish [01:40:32] y'all would just readdress this and look at it a little closer and don't do anything too [01:40:38] knee-jerky, you know what I mean? [01:40:40] Thank you very much. [01:40:41] Thank you. [01:40:42] Thank you. [01:40:43] Anyone else? [01:40:44] Yes, my name is Steve Halkius. I live at 5522 Illinois Avenue. I've heard a lot of [01:41:07] comments, and I'm one of those that I'm proud to live in the city. You guys are doing what [01:41:14] you did in the park is great. And it's an ongoing thing here. I think you're doing a [01:41:19] good job. [01:41:20] But, with that said, this thing with the taxes, I don't think it's fair to everyone. First [01:41:28] of all, the people that have already paid are being asked to pay again. That's number [01:41:34] one. Number two, I don't see my street up there, but that's neither here nor there. [01:41:41] I'm paying for somebody else paving. If you came to me and said, Steve, we're doing your [01:41:48] house and you need to pay X amount of dollars, we can't have you paying it over ten years. [01:41:55] We're changing it, and now it's five years. Or three years. Or, you know what, you got [01:42:00] to pay up. I can live with that. And I think, from what I read in the papers, it's part [01:42:07] of the problem, that people are choosing to pay it over ten years. Is that correct? [01:42:14] I think that's what needs to be looked at. Nobody in this room has a problem paying their [01:42:20] share. I didn't hear that from anyone. But the way you're going about it, I really feel [01:42:26] it's unfair. And I'd just like you to take a look at it, and to take what I've said in [01:42:32] consideration. Thank you. [01:42:34] Thank you, sir. [01:42:35] Thank you very much. [01:42:36] My name is Mr. Dale Bapti, and I live at 6432 Cabbage Lane in Briar Patch. Briar Patch got [01:42:53] re-road done, and it took a long time for them to get where they got around it. People [01:43:01] came over here en masse, and finally they finally went ahead and did it. But anyway, [01:43:08] we paid for our streets half, and the city paid the other half. My personal, we don't [01:43:15] have any roads that are going to need to be redone in our particular, in Briar Patch. [01:43:26] The thing I want to make sure is, and I think most people in here are saying this, they're [01:43:33] on fixed incomes. Majority of them. I'd like to see people's hands that are retired, they're [01:43:39] on fixed incomes. And where are they going to get the money? Are they going to have to [01:43:45] do something, don't eat as much, or whatever, to keep up their houses? I just think it's [01:43:52] a bad tax, and people are getting a little bit tired of having to make more taxes. And [01:43:58] I think that's the bottom line. I would love for you folks to rethink this, and I think [01:44:04] you're all doing a good job. And the gentleman that came up here and said, sorry, personal [01:44:11] tax, I don't know why he doesn't just run for city council. And then he can take the [01:44:15] abuse on the other side. Thank you. [01:44:19] Thank you. [01:44:28] Hi guys. My name is Bob Carroll. I'm a local property owner and contractor. Moved here [01:44:37] in August of 1970. Fell in love with the place, and now you're stuck with me. I figured out [01:44:45] how to invest in property, and somehow I talked Walt Kasten out of the old fire station, [01:44:52] police station, library. Absolutely love the building. Unfortunately, it's a [01:45:00] only one-third occupied. So my question to Mr. Rivera would be, when you have a vacant [01:45:10] structure that's not capable of being occupied, as two-thirds of my building is, am I being [01:45:23] able to adjust the count for that empty space? That would be question number one. And if [01:45:34] that's the case, then obviously there's going to have to be some re-figuring because it [01:45:41] cannot house anyone at this point, which brings us to number two, which is it's really hard [01:45:51] to rent space. I've got some in New Port Richey and some in New Port Richey and other places, [01:46:00] and I can tell you with 100% certainty that adding these burdens on people who are investing [01:46:12] long-term for profit, I'm not afraid to say it, I'd like to profit from this city, but I can't because I can't [01:46:25] put tenants in and ask them to absorb these costs. So please consider the, I would say, poor investors, [01:46:37] but I don't think that's appropriate. Have a heart for the investors might be more appropriate. And rethink this [01:46:48] action to bring more folks into downtown that want to invest in the city as well as the county. [01:47:05] Also consider that anything close to 19 generally carries, as you would know, Mr. Starkey, we have flood plain insurance [01:47:20] and all kinds of additional expenses for investors that all comes into play. Somehow we have to try to get it back. [01:47:34] And when you can't rent it, then the pot's still empty. Thank you very much for your time. [01:47:41] Thank you, Mr. Carroll. [01:47:52] Hi, my name is Barbara Cook. I live at 7026 Grand Boulevard, and I have a question. On my plot of land, it says it's a state road, 595. [01:48:05] It was at one time. Robert? [01:48:07] Grand Boulevard? Yes, it was. It's ours. It was deeded over back in 1983, I think it was, from DOT over to the city. [01:48:16] So the city maintains it? [01:48:17] Yes, ma'am. [01:48:18] Okay. I just want to clarify that. I also have a comment on the city. You could take a lesson from like Dunedin, Mount Dora, Helen, Georgia. [01:48:28] If you want people to come, you have to have places for them to eat and shop. You got all the lawyers, the doctors, the dentists, [01:48:34] everybody's on Main Street, and the little kitschy shops that people want to shop at are back in little corners where you can't find them. [01:48:42] So you might want to think about, you know, getting all the cute stuff downtown to get the people to come in. [01:48:49] Thank you. [01:48:50] Thank you. [01:48:51] Get the second bite of the apple there. [01:48:58] I'm James Schieffer. I spoke a little earlier, and then I had to leave because I had to reassess what I'm looking at here. [01:49:05] And, you know, one of the statements that was made was this is the max tax you're going to be charged. [01:49:12] This is the assessment. It does not say max. It does not say min. It says proposed. [01:49:18] Between this and everything else, you've demonstrated as a city manager that you did not present the materials necessary for us to adequately assess this. [01:49:27] You presented material that says certain things that are not written down anywhere, [01:49:33] and I believe that you're actually really in violation of the very statutes that you say you're doing this under. [01:49:40] And you really need to sit back, reassess, and actually put out a proper proposal that actually tells people what you're going to do, how much you're going to spend. [01:49:51] Do you have firm fixed price estimates for doing this work over the next five years? [01:49:56] Yes, sir. They were attached to the agenda packet. [01:49:59] Which packet? [01:50:01] To the agenda packet that Council has. I believe they were online. [01:50:04] Which I downloaded off the web. [01:50:06] I couldn't find it. I don't know where you're hiding it at, but I couldn't find it. [01:50:10] I'm looking all over the place for it. [01:50:12] For the benefit of anybody, the city agendas are on the city website, and they're under the section that's marked agendas. [01:50:21] Okay, so do you not have a search routine that helps you get through this stuff? [01:50:26] There is a search if you had searched for agendas. [01:50:29] When I went and searched on what you call it here, it did not bring this up. [01:50:34] So I'm sorry, but I believe you have not met your obligations under the Florida statute. [01:50:40] And you need to sit back and think about this. [01:50:43] In response to Mr. Schaffer's concern, I'd be glad to provide him with any detail that he's interested in. [01:50:51] And for purposes of the assessment, the new proposed assessments will all be in the finance department in the city manager's office tomorrow. [01:51:02] And the final assessments are not due to the county until September 19th, so there is time to make adjustments. [01:51:09] And I'd like to point out that this is a home rule assessment. [01:51:14] This is not an assessment under the Florida statute that deals with assessments. [01:51:20] This is a home rule assessment. [01:51:21] You have authority as a home rule municipality to set up your own procedure, which you did in 2012. [01:51:28] And that's what you're following. [01:51:31] Thank you. [01:51:32] Anyone else? [01:51:33] I'm sorry. [01:51:34] Mr. Schaffer, you've had two times up here. [01:51:39] Does anyone else wish to address council? [01:51:41] Mr. Langford. [01:51:43] Bob Langford, Wellman Avenue. [01:51:45] Appreciate the opportunity to speak. [01:51:49] Some of the folks, I think, have a very valid point, and the ones that's been assessed already, that they're going to be reassessed again. [01:51:59] I question the fairness of this as well, and I hope that you consider all of the points that's been made. [01:52:10] And number three in the engineering study, it refers to Dunwoody, Georgia. [01:52:16] Comparing us to Dunwoody, Georgia is like comparing us kind of to Beverly Hills, California. [01:52:26] The median income is maybe four or five times what we have here, and the housing stock there, it's comparable to what we have along the river. [01:52:39] That's not the cheapest house there is in Dunwoody, Georgia, so I question the overall fairness of this, [01:52:47] and I hope you consider all the factors that you've heard tonight. [01:52:51] Thanks. [01:52:52] Thank you, Bob. [01:52:53] Thank you. [01:52:57] Good evening. [01:52:58] My name is Kevin Vance Ray. [01:52:59] I live at 5326 Dartmouth, and I'm probably going to kill my aspiring political career, but I'm about 95% on board with this program. [01:53:12] I like the idea that I'll be charged $0.22 a day, opposed to maybe getting a bill someday for 10 years for $8,000 or $10,000. [01:53:24] I would be paying $83 a year to have maybe not my road, but maybe my neighbor's road that really needs repairing repaired. [01:53:32] I think it's a good idea. [01:53:34] I think there's some things that have to be looked at, such as rebating people that have already paid their assessment, [01:53:41] but I think this is the right way to go. [01:53:44] I do think that it could be tweaked a little bit, and I'm sure you'll do a good job doing that, but I kind of like this program. [01:53:52] Thank you. [01:53:53] I think one of the problems, though, with our town here is I think we have too many landlords [01:53:59] and not enough homesteaders like myself in this town. [01:54:03] That's our trouble that we're having here. [01:54:05] Thank you very much. [01:54:06] Thank you. [01:54:10] Yeah, we will. [01:54:11] We'll take a break at 8. [01:54:15] Good evening. [01:54:18] My name's Michael Beam, and between my law partner and I and our wives, we own nine parcels within the city. [01:54:25] They're going to be impacted by this assessment. [01:54:28] I apologize. [01:54:29] I came in a few minutes late, so I didn't hear the reasoning that Mr. Rivera gave for the reduction in the proposed assessment, [01:54:36] and I was curious whether it was impacted by an adjustment to the EAU or the ERU. [01:54:43] The original assessment called out for $1,275,000. [01:54:51] That was reduced to $800,000 after we took and transferred [01:54:57] or proposed to transfer the existing solid waste franchise fee, added penny-for-PASCO money, [01:55:04] the general fund transfers that are already used for the street maintenance program, [01:55:10] and we kept the local option gas tax the same. [01:55:13] So basically we were a little bit over 50% of the city's share, [01:55:18] and a couple of the funds that were in there, like local option gas tax, [01:55:22] is collected by everyone that fills up gas. [01:55:26] So if somebody is a visitor out of state, comes in, fills up, they're paying the tax for gas. [01:55:31] If somebody lives in PASCO County, comes over and a New Port Richey fills up, [01:55:36] they're paying as well, contributing to the system. [01:55:39] So that's why it changed. [01:55:41] Okay. [01:55:43] In the report that Mr. Rivera prepared, there's a reference in there on page 8 of the report [01:55:52] saying based on the analysis performed by the property appraiser's office, [01:55:55] the value enhancement to a single family residence resulting from newly repaved roads in 2002 was $5,000 to $6,000. [01:56:04] And as I read this, initially I thought, wow, that's not a bad return, [01:56:11] depending on how long the roads last. [01:56:14] But then I got to thinking about what the relevance was of a 2002 study on property values [01:56:20] when we've had such a horrible reduction in property values since this was done. [01:56:26] And trust me, some of the properties that we purchased around 2002, [01:56:30] if I could ask those prices today, I'd be happy. [01:56:34] And I was wondering what impact if any that reference had on any decision that the council might make [01:56:43] and if it's not possible in today's world 14 years later to get an updated report from the property appraiser, [01:56:51] seeing as how this was prepared, this was a two-page letter, basically, [01:56:56] that was prepared by the chief deputy property appraiser. [01:56:59] So it would be a simple thing to do a quick analysis and get a real-time assessment of what impact, [01:57:07] positive or negative, that such an assessment might have. [01:57:11] And those are the extent of my comments. [01:57:13] I appreciate your time. [01:57:14] Thank you. [01:57:22] Good evening. [01:57:23] My name is Bruce Waters. [01:57:25] And I have a lot and a half wide and two lots deep. [01:57:29] So I'm okay with the assessment that's coming on my property from my home. [01:57:32] But I'm going to stir up a whole big old can of worms right now. [01:57:36] My office is over at 6335 Massachusetts Avenue. [01:57:40] My wife's family came down here in 1938 when the old city hall library was an elementary school. [01:57:47] That's where Ray Roush, a lot of you guys know him before he passed away, where he went to elementary school. [01:57:53] And he had Ray's cabinet and hardware over in Massachusetts right across from the shopping center. [01:57:59] A long time ago, the county and the city, both of them, approached him and said, [01:58:03] Hey, Ray, listen, you know, if you'll pay a little assessment, we'll be glad to get out there [01:58:07] and we'll put some storm drainage in, we'll run some pipes down the river, take that water off of Massachusetts Avenue. [01:58:13] I've had my office over there for 36 years. [01:58:17] And every time it rains, and I know people here in New Port Richey, [01:58:21] if you go down Massachusetts Avenue from Congress heading towards the river, [01:58:25] we've had water that's been knee deep in the Massachusetts Avenue center line, [01:58:29] cars actually floating into the retention ponds on the side by the strip center next to us. [01:58:35] Now, it's funny. [01:58:36] Now, the county says, Hey, man, you know, whenever you guys get your road paved, [01:58:39] it's going to have to be through the city because we're right at Lenape Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue. [01:58:45] And then the city says, We're not going to touch that because that's the county's property. [01:58:48] Well, it's kind of like you guys are married. [01:58:50] You've got all of Massachusetts you're going to pave except for that one block from Lenape Avenue over to Congress. [01:58:56] And having a lot of road and bridge design in my career in the past [01:59:00] and knowing about retention and drainage in this area, [01:59:04] unless you're going to fix the drainage system going down the road [01:59:08] and you can have some pipes and get some water, don't waste the city's money to pave that road [01:59:12] because every time you pave it and you don't get the water off of it, it's going to dig potholes. [01:59:17] And at that point, they're going to come back and patch it. [01:59:19] And you're going to end up with the same crap you got over there right now. [01:59:22] Is there any plans whenever you pave Massachusetts to do any storm drainage on that street? [01:59:28] Mr. Rivera. [01:59:30] The plans are regrading. [01:59:32] What is it? [01:59:35] The plans are preliminary grading to take a look at that area. [01:59:40] I think you're talking about right where Van Buren is at, [01:59:44] where the north side is Pasco County and everything over on the south side is New Port Richey? [01:59:52] Correct. [01:59:53] Right by that convenience, those offices? [01:59:56] Okay, no, we're a little bit farther east. [02:00:00] or east of that. If you come off of Congress, you're going to go one block. There's the [02:00:04] strip center on the north side. You've got the big shopping center with the grocery store, [02:00:09] which is on the south side. We're right next to that. We're right across the street. We're [02:00:13] at Lenape Circle in Massachusetts. If you look at the map, you're going to pave from [02:00:19] the river all the way up to Lenape, to Lenape Circle, which is one block west of Congress. [02:00:27] That's where, any time it rains, you can walk out there and be six and eight inches [02:00:31] deep all the way across the road. If you go a little bit past that going towards the east, [02:00:36] you're going to be knee deep in a bad storm. The house on the south side has a no wake [02:00:39] sign up when it rains. It's that bad in their yard. Get out there and get a hold of cars [02:00:45] and pull them to the side of the road by hand because they're floating across the road. [02:00:51] I believe the limits call for us to stop right up there where the median starts by Davis [02:00:58] Street or something like that, where the new pavement is at. [02:01:02] If you're looking at the blue on the map, it says Lenape Circle in Massachusetts, which [02:01:06] is right across Caddy Corner to the shopping center. If that blue is right there, it's [02:01:11] right in the center of my parking lot. [02:01:13] We would go to Davis Street and tie into the new section. Then, like we always do before [02:01:18] we started any kind of construction, we would do design work and identify those deficiencies. [02:01:25] There would probably be some storm water utility funds that would go to any kind of drainage [02:01:29] improvements that we would do. [02:01:31] Is there any way that the city can work with the county and one more piece and get a drainage [02:01:36] pipeline? [02:01:36] I was going to say there are a couple of examples of that in recent memory. Main Street between [02:01:42] Congress and Rowan Road was a joint project and there were some severe drainage issues [02:01:48] there at the bottom of the hill. That was all addressed when that was done as a joint [02:01:52] project between the city and the county. [02:01:55] More recently, we did Plath Road west of Rowan to Baker Road, and that is actually supposed [02:02:03] to be county, but the city actually went in and did the paving on that so you could get [02:02:16] into the Great Preserve without a 4x4. [02:02:19] Is there any way that the city, before they start any pavement on Massachusetts, can see [02:02:25] if they can work with the county on some storm drainage? [02:02:27] Absolutely. [02:02:27] Because it's been promised for 30 years. [02:02:29] Sure. [02:02:31] I sure appreciate it. [02:02:32] Thank you, sir. [02:02:33] Thank you. [02:02:34] We're at a good breaking point. If we can take about 10 minutes and we'll reconvene. [02:02:41] If there's anybody else that still wants to address us, make sure you put your name on [02:02:47] the sign-in sheet. [02:03:01] I don't want to cut anybody off who wants to address us. Please, if it's the same thing [02:03:06] that everybody else has said, keep it short, but I do want to hear and give you the opportunity [02:03:11] to speak. If you have signed in, whoever's next on the list, come on down. [02:03:19] Hi. My name is Jamie. I live at 5886 High Street. [02:03:27] My question is, on my street, it floods very, very bad, to the point where sometimes you [02:03:32] can't even get in and out of my driveway. The houses across the street from me have [02:03:36] actually flooded, had 12 inches of water in their houses. So I'm paying an assessment [02:03:41] on something that is actually not going to benefit me and my home because of the flooding [02:03:46] water. And people use the road as a raceway. And I've reported it to the New Port Richey [02:03:51] Police and nothing is being done. [02:03:53] Can you provide your address on High Street? [02:03:55] It's 5886. [02:03:56] I believe she lives in the area we just talked about at the last meeting, which is Stormwater [02:04:00] Improvement. Isn't that the area? [02:04:02] I bought my home two years ago through a program through Pasco County as a single mom. And [02:04:06] my tax is already $1,800 a year. [02:04:09] Mr. Rivera, is that one of the areas that's on the stormwater list? [02:04:14] What is the street? [02:04:15] High Street. [02:04:16] High Street. We have High and Maple. We have a stormwater project that's actually going [02:04:21] out to bid after October. [02:04:22] Do you know why all of my grass is all spray painted and everything? [02:04:26] We've been doing utility locates so we can get some surveys of existing utilities. [02:04:31] I was just wondering because it's just bad because sometimes when it rains it's hard [02:04:34] to get even. I've had to call into work because I can't get out of my driveway. [02:04:37] In that case, orange paint on your grass is actually a good thing. [02:04:41] I was wondering. I was going to call because I was wondering why it's spray painted all [02:04:44] over the place. But that was all I had to say. [02:04:46] Just give your address to Madam Hickman. [02:04:48] I got it. [02:04:49] Okay. [02:04:50] And we'll follow up. [02:04:51] Thank you. [02:04:52] Yes, ma'am. [02:04:53] Hello again. Lisa Virgilio with a fire of Pasco County, 6121 and 6131 Ohio Avenue. [02:05:04] We're concerned about stormwater drainage. Obviously the city needs to be paved. It's [02:05:08] a beautiful city. [02:05:10] The Ohio Forest Avenue intersection literally turns into the Ohio River when it rains. [02:05:16] We're standing knee deep. [02:05:18] Are there any plans to address that before pavement comes this way, Mr. Rivera? [02:05:25] Not immediately, but as I had mentioned before, any time we do any kind of street projects [02:05:30] we will take into consideration the historical drainage problems. [02:05:35] And during our engineering phase, we will take a look at that and see if we can remediate [02:05:39] it. [02:05:40] Very well. [02:05:41] Thank you very much. [02:05:42] Thank you. [02:05:49] Hi. My name is April Hanley. I live at 5932 Tennessee Avenue. I have two lots. One is [02:05:55] empty, one we live on. Is there still the full price for all of that? Or do you get [02:06:02] – it's sort of like what the guy was talking about before is vacant buildings. But I have, [02:06:08] you know, nothing on there. There's no house. [02:06:10] If it's a vacant property, it doesn't get charged a trip-generated charge, whether [02:06:15] it's commercial or residential. [02:06:18] You're just – [02:06:19] And one would be less than the other lot? [02:06:20] Correct. [02:06:21] Or I get – [02:06:22] Correct. [02:06:23] Not like double of my neighbor, I'd get some off. [02:06:25] It would be less. [02:06:26] Okay. The other question I have is my street is on the blue. And I'm wondering – I [02:06:32] know that that's a five-year. I'm wondering if there's any way that you know when that [02:06:37] will be happening? [02:06:40] If this plan was approved, we're calling for proposed paving every year. And the sunshine [02:06:47] clause would actually motivate us to be able to get everything done like we're supposed [02:06:54] to because if council and the public elected to continue the program, then we would have [02:07:02] to verify with the public that we got everything that we said we were going to do and that [02:07:07] we utilized the funds that we collected from you. [02:07:11] So within five years, all of those blue lines will be done. There's no telling when anything [02:07:16] will be done? [02:07:17] There's – again, if you can go on – if you go on the website – [02:07:20] Right now, you're scheduled for year two. [02:07:22] Okay. [02:07:23] You're in what they call cycle two, which is, from my understanding, the way that they've [02:07:27] generically laid the report out, that that would be year two of the program. [02:07:33] Okay. [02:07:34] Right now, I don't have it in a bibliography that gives me that other name. [02:07:39] No, I understand. [02:07:40] But right now, from Grant to Monroe on Tennessee, it's scheduled for cycle two. I think that's [02:07:46] where Robert was going to ask you to go to look at the report. [02:07:48] Okay. [02:07:49] But we ought to be able to – [02:07:50] Thank you for your time. [02:07:51] Thank you. [02:07:52] Thank you. [02:07:53] My name is David Mort. I live at 5802 Georgia Avenue. [02:08:05] And I've got to tell you, I'm nervous as a cat in a creek right here, right now. [02:08:10] But I'd like to ask you a few things, you know. [02:08:13] Have you exhausted all other sources for money to do these rows? [02:08:18] Because it seems like it always comes to the property owner. [02:08:22] I mean, the property owner's got limited pockets, you know. [02:08:25] I mean, we don't have your blank checkbook, you know. [02:08:29] So, exhaust all of the sources before you tap us for this road fee. [02:08:35] And do we really have to put up with golf drive for another five years before that gets [02:08:41] on to the books to be repaired? [02:08:44] I mean, because if we're going to wait until somebody gets killed out there dodging potholes [02:08:48] in the traffic before we fix anything out there, that's a serious problem out there [02:08:54] for sure. [02:08:56] Another pet peeve that I have, I think the city needs to get out of the real estate business [02:09:03] because you're not very good at it, you know. [02:09:07] I hate to step on anybody's toes there, you know. [02:09:09] You're not stepping on any of our toes. [02:09:12] I don't know why we're buying property around town, you know, and then selling it at a loss. [02:09:16] I mean, somebody's getting rich off of the city, and we don't need to be doing that. [02:09:21] We wish you had appeared 10 years ago, 15 years ago. [02:09:24] And they were on a buying spree. [02:09:26] Well, I understand the prices were all going up then, you know, and everybody thought that [02:09:29] was never going to end, you know, but all balloons bust. [02:09:36] Is Main Street Landing ever going to get on the tax books? [02:09:42] I think it's ready, it's time to put a bulldozer to that place out there. [02:09:45] I wish Lisa were here tonight. [02:09:48] That's back under construction October? [02:09:51] We do have construction plans in the development department for review that include completion [02:09:59] of the Shell building and the additional two buildings on the property. [02:10:06] The most recent information I have from the developer, Mr. Ken McGurn, is that the construction [02:10:13] will be initiated in October of this year. [02:10:17] I wish I had the leniency that that guy does. [02:10:19] I don't know whose pocket he's in, but we need to get that place done, up and running. [02:10:27] He's under a fairly tight timeline at this point. [02:10:31] Part of the problem is, because he started this in the early 2000s, he had to go back [02:10:35] and get the engineering all redone, because all the things have changed, but it should [02:10:40] be under construction here in a couple months. [02:10:42] All right, folks, that's all I have to say, so I appreciate the time. [02:10:46] Thank you very much. [02:10:47] Thank you. [02:10:48] I don't want to leave anybody out that wants to have their say. [02:10:58] Seeing no one come forward, I will bring this back to council for discussion. [02:11:06] Who wants to go first? [02:11:07] I feel like I've been going first a lot lately, so thank you, Judy. [02:11:12] You're very welcome. [02:11:13] Well, first of all, I want to thank everybody for coming, because this is so, you know, [02:11:17] this is democracy in action. [02:11:21] I also want to explain, for those who don't quite understand that, we don't get to talk [02:11:28] about this unless we are here. [02:11:30] So the sense that this is a done deal and we're just coming in to vote, it couldn't [02:11:36] be farther from the truth. [02:11:37] I'm here, as my constituents are here, to gain as much information as we can. [02:11:44] We've read letters, heard your conversations. [02:11:47] The beautiful thing about being in local government is, you know, you can snag me at Publix and [02:11:51] say what you need. [02:11:53] You know, we're not far afield from where you are. [02:11:56] So it's important that you came tonight. [02:12:01] I'm very pleased to see you, and it's great to know that you are so involved with us. [02:12:12] And we do appreciate your input, because it is very helpful. [02:12:16] You know, we're not wizards, we're not magicians, we're not scoundrels. [02:12:20] You know, we are residents just like you, and it's important that we get this right [02:12:24] as much for us as for you. [02:12:27] Some of us are homeowners, some of us are homeowners and landlords, and some of us are [02:12:30] just renters. [02:12:31] So any way we look at it, we are going to be impacted with what we decide, whether it's [02:12:37] tonight or if we are able to regroup and address this another evening now that we've [02:12:43] gotten more information. [02:12:46] But you know, I think that is probably one of the most important things, that we gather [02:12:52] the information and then you help us make the right choices. [02:12:58] I don't know that there's a best solution. [02:13:02] As I said, you know, we don't have a crystal ball to know what's going to happen. [02:13:07] But we also are trying our best to make this be fair and equitable for all parties involved. [02:13:15] We don't have a blank check, by the way. [02:13:17] You know, we are very prudent and very specific. [02:13:23] You know, we have a budget that we have to balance each year. [02:13:27] We are very aware of what our constraints are. [02:13:30] And I don't think that any of us have ever made decisions either frivolously or not with [02:13:37] frugality in mind. [02:13:38] So I just appreciate that. [02:13:42] My thought is, and I too had some of the questions about specifically some of the folks that [02:13:51] contacted me during this week were folks that are still either just finishing paying or [02:13:56] have paid assessments and were concerned about that. [02:14:00] How are we going to address that? [02:14:01] So that is one of the things I'd like to discuss. [02:14:07] And also, taking in the information that we took in tonight, there are questions, there [02:14:13] are concerns, and there are considerations that we have to make. [02:14:16] Obviously, there are things that we need to do. [02:14:20] I am glad that you all allowed me to speak first. [02:14:24] I too am interested now in hearing what my colleagues have to say, because as I said, [02:14:28] we have not been able to discuss this prior to tonight. [02:14:31] Thanks. [02:14:32] You're welcome. [02:14:33] If you would like to comment. [02:14:34] Thank you, Commissioner. [02:14:35] Well, it seems like I've been saying this a lot lately, but Debbie and I were talking [02:14:37] about this at a meeting last week, but presentation is everything, isn't it? [02:14:41] Whether it's how you present yourself when you come and address council, whether you're [02:14:44] respectful about it, or if you come up here and persecute us and make personal attacks, [02:14:50] says a lot about your character and who you are, and it goes a long way. [02:14:54] We've been attacked up here for purchases that the city made. [02:14:57] Well, I don't think anybody up here was on [02:15:00] Council at the time. [02:15:01] And we could be negative. [02:15:02] We could sit here and talk about how [02:15:03] dumb the prior council members were, [02:15:05] which I don't think they were dumb. [02:15:06] I think at the time, they were trying [02:15:07] to make good decisions for the city. [02:15:09] Or we could be positive and try to move on, [02:15:11] which I think every one of my colleagues [02:15:13] up here has been doing since we've been on council. [02:15:16] Presentation of how we rolled this out to you [02:15:19] as residents of the city was done very, very poorly, [02:15:23] as Ms. Manns admitted to earlier, very, very poorly. [02:15:27] It could have been it's a form letter that went out. [02:15:29] It wasn't very personable, didn't show you [02:15:31] how to go to a link to learn more [02:15:32] about the concept of how this would work. [02:15:36] As we've determined, I think everybody agrees, [02:15:39] the current system is not working. [02:15:41] It's just not working. [02:15:43] We don't have the money and the allotted funds [02:15:45] to fix the roads at the pace that we need to fix them [02:15:48] and maintain them. [02:15:49] And we're going to end up spending a lot more money [02:15:51] down the road. [02:15:52] I personally am in favor of the concept of this. [02:15:55] It kind of reminds me of what I do for a living. [02:15:57] And I said that when I was first brought up. [02:16:00] I'm a property and casualty insurance agent. [02:16:02] The idea behind insurance is you spread the risk. [02:16:05] You pull the risk. [02:16:06] Everybody pays a little bit. [02:16:08] So if something happens to your house, [02:16:09] like the house on Burns Point Circle that burned down, [02:16:11] you get paid enough to replace your house or car, [02:16:15] whether it be liability or casualty. [02:16:16] That's how insurance works. [02:16:17] And I kind of correlate this system. [02:16:20] It's very similar to insurance. [02:16:21] You're spreading the cost around all city residents. [02:16:24] Is it ever going to be 100% fair to every resident? [02:16:27] Absolutely not. [02:16:28] That's absolutely impossible. [02:16:31] But I personally, I have some problems with it. [02:16:33] Just to tell you up front where I'm at with this, [02:16:37] I'm not opposed to it. [02:16:38] I think it's a good system, [02:16:40] but I think it needs some tweaking. [02:16:41] For instance, the ERU unit measurement [02:16:44] based on the number of vehicular trips [02:16:46] generated by each tax parcel. [02:16:48] I mean, unless you have a progressive insurance snapshot, [02:16:51] little box in your car, that's impossible to do. [02:16:54] You know, it reminds me of the Bigger Waters [02:16:55] Flood Insurance Act, [02:16:56] trying to determine the new flood rates. [02:16:57] We asked FEMA, how'd you come up with those rates? [02:16:59] And no one could tell us, you know? [02:17:01] So we were able to fight that. [02:17:02] I don't think this system is going to be a bad system. [02:17:06] I really don't. [02:17:06] I think it needs tweaking. [02:17:08] I think it needs more discussion. [02:17:09] I think we should have a workshop on it. [02:17:11] I personally am not ready to rush this through [02:17:14] so we can get it on next year's tax base [02:17:16] so people have to pay this [02:17:17] when they get their tax bill at the end of the year. [02:17:18] I think that's too soon. [02:17:19] I think there's improvements that need to be made. [02:17:22] But the bottom line is the current system is not working. [02:17:26] One of the main issues that I have with this is, [02:17:28] I agree, I mean, this is a list of people. [02:17:30] There's a lot of people in the room [02:17:31] that have paid these large assessments [02:17:32] already for their street. [02:17:33] I don't believe those people [02:17:35] should have to pay nearly as much. [02:17:36] And these aren't huge assessments. [02:17:38] If you're a commercial business, [02:17:39] I can see how the assessments are. [02:17:41] And I want to talk to Debbie [02:17:42] and I want to talk to my colleagues in a work session [02:17:44] and kind of dive deeper into how we're coming up [02:17:46] with these figures for the commercial properties. [02:17:48] And I understand you guys are being squeezed [02:17:51] pretty tight right now. [02:17:51] And I want to go in a little further [02:17:54] so I can educate myself [02:17:55] on how we're coming up with these figures. [02:17:57] But I don't believe that someone, [02:17:59] these fees right here range from, [02:18:01] per household, $525 to $1,365. [02:18:05] I don't think it's fair [02:18:06] that someone sitting in the front row [02:18:08] that paid $800 six years ago [02:18:10] should pay as much as someone [02:18:11] that hasn't paid a penny into street assessments. [02:18:13] I just don't think it's fair or equitable. [02:18:15] So I'm with you all on that. [02:18:17] However, several people spoke out about that point. [02:18:20] And I'll probably have more to say after my colleagues. [02:18:22] But where I'm at is I think it could be a good system. [02:18:24] I think it spreads the cost citywide. [02:18:26] You have to remember, like I said, [02:18:27] it's never going to be 100% fair. [02:18:29] We're not just a city. [02:18:30] We're not just a municipality, but we're a community. [02:18:33] You can come up here and be negative [02:18:35] and yell at us because we're government that you elected, [02:18:38] or you can try to be part of the solution. [02:18:40] When Heather came up and spoke, she did a phenomenal job. [02:18:42] She brought up great points, both pro and con, [02:18:44] and was very respectful about how she did it. [02:18:46] So I appreciate that very much, Heather. [02:18:49] I think it could be a good system. [02:18:50] I think we're trying to push this through. [02:18:52] I don't think we should be even voting on this tonight. [02:18:54] I want to talk about it in much greater detail [02:18:57] with my colleagues and get more input from the public. [02:18:59] But instead of just shooting it down, [02:19:00] we have to acknowledge that the current system is not working. [02:19:03] And we have to come up with something [02:19:04] that works a little better. [02:19:06] And I think this could be a good avenue to go down, [02:19:08] but I'm just not ready to vote on it. [02:19:10] And I think I just need to educate myself more. [02:19:12] But once again, I want to apologize to the residents [02:19:15] the way this was presented to you. [02:19:17] You really didn't know anything until you got here tonight. [02:19:20] Debbie did a good job, and Robert did a good job [02:19:21] starting off the meeting. [02:19:22] But that's a lot to soak in, just sitting here and listening [02:19:28] to people speak about an assessment that's [02:19:30] going to affect every household and every business [02:19:32] in the city. [02:19:32] So shame on us. [02:19:34] We should have done a better job educating you [02:19:36] and telling you a little bit more [02:19:37] about how this proposed assessment would work [02:19:39] and give you links to our website, [02:19:41] easy, quick to find links, where you all could [02:19:44] read a little bit more about it. [02:19:45] So I'm not opposed to it. [02:19:46] I think it has a lot of potential, [02:19:48] but I'm not ready to vote on it tonight, personally. [02:19:50] Thank you. [02:19:51] I'll take it from there. [02:19:53] We got assessed, and I'm trying to remember now [02:19:57] how long ago it was. [02:19:59] It seems like yesterday, but I'm sure it was longer ago [02:20:02] when our street was paved. [02:20:05] And we got tagged with the full assessment. [02:20:08] That may have been 10 or 15 years ago, [02:20:10] but the road's in great shape. [02:20:12] Well, mostly great shape, because somebody [02:20:17] that was a predecessor for Mr. Revere [02:20:19] decided right after they paved our street [02:20:21] to go through and do a stormwater job. [02:20:25] And then for good measure, somebody [02:20:27] who was the predecessor of the chief back there [02:20:31] decided, because our corner is one [02:20:33] of the tightest ones in the entire city, [02:20:35] they would practice going around it in their big fire trucks. [02:20:38] And they busted up the brand new sidewalks, which [02:20:41] are to this day still cracked. [02:20:45] But we paid it, and we got tagged, [02:20:48] because I'm on a corner a lot. [02:20:49] I'm thinking we got tagged for something like $2,000. [02:20:52] It was a lot of money. [02:20:54] So when I looked at the original version of this assessment, [02:20:58] they were going to charge me $188 or $189, [02:21:05] which I thought, wow, that's a bargain compared [02:21:07] to what I got tagged for when they paved the street before. [02:21:10] The problem for me, and I don't plan [02:21:15] on checking out anytime soon, but let's just [02:21:17] say genetics are not in my favor for living long enough [02:21:22] to see the city come around to repave my street again. [02:21:29] So I'd probably pay into it for the rest of my life [02:21:32] and then actually never see new asphalt go down on my street. [02:21:37] I've got a real problem, as Mr. Starkey also indicated, [02:21:43] with folks that are still paying off an assessment. [02:21:48] Being asked to start paying on a new assessment, [02:21:51] that just doesn't strike me as fair or equitable at all. [02:21:59] And I've talked with a number of folks who are business owners. [02:22:05] And I understand the residential side [02:22:09] and what we're doing there, but there's [02:22:13] something wrong with the way the commercial stuff was done. [02:22:16] It just doesn't make a lot of sense. [02:22:23] And as a result, I think there are enough questions on this [02:22:27] that I'd rather us work through this a little better [02:22:34] and make sure we've got it right before we put it into effect. [02:22:39] And if that means we miss this year, we miss this year. [02:22:43] So anyway, that's where I'm at. [02:22:46] Deputy Mayor or Mr. Davis? [02:22:50] I think, Matt, three that have already spoken [02:22:54] are pretty much going down the same line, [02:22:56] no sense in me reiterating it. [02:22:58] I think there's something that Bill uses all the time [02:23:01] is do it right. [02:23:02] And I think trying to plug this in a month or three weeks [02:23:06] is not right. [02:23:08] I think there's a lot of questions. [02:23:11] I'm really happy that we had a full house [02:23:13] and brought all these questions to us. [02:23:16] I don't have the answers. [02:23:17] I think we have to do a lot more research [02:23:19] before we go any further. [02:23:20] I like the program, basically, after they redid the numbers. [02:23:26] I think the average household is pretty much a Starbucks coffee [02:23:29] a month. [02:23:30] So it's really not a lot when you look at it that way. [02:23:34] But we've got to do something to get the. [02:23:37] We're doing a lot through trying to bring businesses [02:23:40] down here and trying to bring people in. [02:23:42] We're trying to bring something into the Marine Parkway area, [02:23:46] business down there and stuff. [02:23:47] We're just trying to do a lot. [02:23:49] But if we're going to bring the traffic, [02:23:50] we've got to put the roads back in the shape, [02:23:52] the arteries back in the shape that they need to be. [02:23:55] So there is an answer, but it's not the answer [02:23:59] that we've been using in the past years. [02:24:00] And I think we're on the path. [02:24:01] We've just got to tweak it. [02:24:03] And it'll probably take a couple of months, [02:24:05] and it'll probably be in next year's budget, not this year's. [02:24:10] Thank you. [02:24:11] Deputy Mayor. [02:24:12] Yeah, thanks, Mr. Mayor. [02:24:15] In looking at everything, and again, I want to thank staff. [02:24:18] Staff allotted me some time on Friday. [02:24:22] By the way, Mr. Mayor, I used your office for a few hours. [02:24:25] I'm sure I have to pay rent on that at some point. [02:24:28] But I had an opportunity to meet with staff [02:24:31] and kind of drill down through everything. [02:24:35] But my position tonight is I can't support the assessment [02:24:38] fee in its present form. [02:24:41] I agree that we need a designated funding [02:24:44] source for the street paving. [02:24:46] Because if we allow it to go back and be strictly [02:24:49] on ad valorem, then the residents and the businesses [02:24:53] pay, but the other entities in the city, [02:24:57] and I'm going to identify a few of them, [02:24:59] North Bay Hospital and a number of the churches [02:25:03] do not pay ad valorem taxes. [02:25:07] Because they're nonprofit, but they [02:25:09] do generate a number of trips and eligibility like that. [02:25:15] Again, as I mentioned earlier, I feel like I'm back in class [02:25:17] or I'm taking school because my former government teacher [02:25:20] is here. [02:25:21] And the reason I'm up here is because when [02:25:23] I was in high school, I got extra credit for coming [02:25:26] to city council meetings. [02:25:27] And as unfortunately the category was back then, [02:25:30] I was a jock and I needed all the points [02:25:32] I could get to pass. [02:25:34] And his class was mandatory. [02:25:36] But it set the stage for understanding [02:25:40] where we are tonight. [02:25:41] And Ms. Farentino and I, when we walked in tonight, [02:25:45] she goes, boy, do you think this is [02:25:46] going to be like it was in 1993 or 94? [02:25:49] And I go, I don't think so. [02:25:51] Because we took a public hearing to the recreation center. [02:25:57] And I can tell you in my lifetime, [02:25:59] because my family's been here since 1962 [02:26:01] and I live in the footprint of the house I grew up in, [02:26:05] that meeting that night was by far the most intense [02:26:10] public hearing that I have ever been at, [02:26:13] either in a business setting or in a public service setting. [02:26:21] So with that, I also understood tonight that in my home, [02:26:25] we've got a slogan that we use. [02:26:27] We call it squirrel. [02:26:29] And what happens is you're talking about something [02:26:31] and then another idea comes up or somebody [02:26:34] wants to throw in something. [02:26:35] So all of a sudden, you're darting off somewhere else. [02:26:38] I think tonight we pretty much stayed on point, [02:26:40] which was really good. [02:26:42] Because I had visions of us all being all over the place [02:26:46] and where we're at. [02:26:49] Over and above that, I have some basic disagreements [02:26:53] with the way that the funding elements have been [02:26:56] put in place or the report. [02:26:59] I, on one hand, think trip generations [02:27:02] ought to be looked at in a harder fashion [02:27:08] than it is on land size, even when you back out everything. [02:27:13] Staff has heard a number of these things. [02:27:15] I also, in my mind, thought that they'd [02:27:19] missed a few things in the ordinance, the new one, [02:27:23] when they talked about giving credit for dollars [02:27:27] that we've already collected. [02:27:29] And Mr. Nuremberg, who has extensive government [02:27:34] experience, when he came up and threw out [02:27:36] a number of the items, if you weren't paying attention, [02:27:39] those things are questions that have to be answered. [02:27:42] Those are dollars that have been identified [02:27:48] in previous budgets. [02:27:50] And if you can't explain where that money is, [02:27:52] you sure in the heck don't have any way [02:27:54] to go ask for anything else. [02:27:56] And I will tell you that I thought about this [02:27:59] in going through the process. [02:28:02] On the funding side, on the allocations, [02:28:05] I thought we missed because we didn't allocate dollars [02:28:08] from our already stormwater fees into this calculation. [02:28:14] Because if you're going to do a road project, [02:28:16] you're going to do stormwater along with it. [02:28:19] At least that's how we're going to work. [02:28:20] I can't defend past activities, but we own them. [02:28:26] They're ours. [02:28:27] And we did a poor job in rolling this out. [02:28:30] The other that I had, and I pointed out to staff on Friday, [02:28:34] is I needed to understand how we were [02:28:36] going to recognize the outstanding assessment fees [02:28:40] that were already there. [02:28:42] If we don't address those, we don't address [02:28:44] people that have already paid. [02:28:46] We don't address people that are already in the pool. [02:28:49] So once again, you feel as though, and rightfully so, [02:28:51] you're being double dipped. [02:28:53] You're being hit twice. [02:28:55] The other thing that I brought back from this [02:28:57] is this reminds me when I was involved [02:29:01] in the penny for PASCO. [02:29:03] And that was a year and a half of an eclectic group of people [02:29:07] coming together to identify needs, [02:29:11] appropriately identify those, go out to the public, [02:29:15] and get them to come on board. [02:29:18] And when those monies were received, [02:29:20] they went to about 95% of everything [02:29:23] that was identified in that first penny for PASCO. [02:29:26] That's the reason we came back, or they came back [02:29:28] to ask you for the second time. [02:29:30] It was approved at a higher margin, [02:29:33] because they proved what they did. [02:29:36] Staff came aboard from what we talked about [02:29:39] with the appeal process, which needs to be better defined. [02:29:43] The sun setting of it, and making sure [02:29:45] that the resolution says the dollars that are collected [02:29:48] cannot be spent on any other form [02:29:51] except for those things that tie back [02:29:53] to the impavement assessment. [02:29:55] And that's a resurfacing project. [02:29:58] Please do not confuse it with what the [02:30:00] done about repositioning their streetways to make a majority of theirs [02:30:05] parkways. Please, we co-mingle those. The other thing, and Ms. Farentino brought it [02:30:11] out, you need you need community participation, either from your LDRB [02:30:17] board or from the citizens participation, because you need their buy-in all the [02:30:23] way through the process. And then finally, when we look at the first penny for [02:30:27] Pasco, the county was not in a position to where they could do anything from [02:30:32] their tax base, meaning they couldn't give you a rollback on your ad valorem. [02:30:38] Luckily, we were able to get the school board to come along and give a quarter [02:30:43] percent rollback on their assessment for the 10-year period. They took it on the [02:30:49] front end, and that's what made it happen. One of my prerequisites at doing this [02:30:54] plan is, if the assessment was going to move forward as a designated fund, I was [02:31:01] looking to make sure that the program had an ad valorem rollback out of the [02:31:06] gate, so that money that you're paying on ad valorem would now be assessed on the [02:31:12] on the direct funding side. That goes to more of our work session time to talk [02:31:17] about that, because I don't believe you have an ad valorem and then you add a [02:31:21] fee and you don't give any credit for what dollars people have paid previously [02:31:26] are in that ad valorem, and that deals with a number of things. So with that, you [02:31:33] know, and the other thing, the last thing I did, is I went out and tried to [02:31:38] look at how this would impact people in present-day time with the ad valorem [02:31:44] staying where it's at. Now we've already had a partial rollback for the last two [02:31:49] years on our ad valorem, so there's been a little bit of a net savings, but to me, [02:31:53] before they gave us our new numbers tonight, it appeared to me that on my [02:31:59] property, I would be paying an additional $43 a year after those savings. And then [02:32:06] I wildly, because I knew people were going to be here, I said let me go look [02:32:10] at one of the most interesting areas, which would be our [02:32:15] river property. And most people that have owned their property for quite a [02:32:19] while have Save Our Homes, they have double exemptions, 25 depending on [02:32:26] where you, as you calculate it. And on a river property, depending on how you put [02:32:31] it in place, they were actually going to get a little, on an ad valorem rollback, [02:32:35] they were going to get a little better positioning, because they have a bigger [02:32:40] amount that they pay. But again, I'm always about, and unfortunately for us [02:32:47] this time, it was ready, fire, aim, instead of ready, aim, fire. I apologize from my [02:32:55] standpoint, not being able to quarterback some of that along with my colleagues, [02:33:00] but at the same token, we really do need to put all the information on the table, [02:33:06] and I don't think we're at that point tonight, and that's the reason I was not [02:33:11] going to be able to support the assessments and the way that they're [02:33:15] being positioned at this point, at this meeting. Appreciate you coming out. It's [02:33:20] the only time we get to hear your voice, and a lot of times we appear to be [02:33:26] doing a number of great, great things, or we think we're moving in a right path, [02:33:30] but I've already learned after my two times up here, I can only maybe hit 650, [02:33:38] and if I was playing baseball, I'd take it to the bank, but if I'm not hitting [02:33:42] 750 or 800, we're still not getting it done on a regular basis. But I know that [02:33:48] my colleagues that I'm with here, that there won't be a change for at least on [02:33:55] the council side, the mayor's up for re-election, we have two years out before [02:33:59] we're coming up. So once again, I wanted to speak last because I usually speak [02:34:03] the longest, and I have quite a bit of information, but again, every step gets [02:34:09] us further there, and all I want is the trust of the people. Thank you, Deputy [02:34:14] Mayor. I am hearing a consensus. If I might suggest, I would entertain a motion [02:34:23] that we... Refer to a workshop? Well, let me put it a little further. I propose, [02:34:30] would suggest, I would entertain a motion that we reject this resolution, and that [02:34:37] we workshop it after the start of the fiscal year with the idea of looking at [02:34:41] it for the next fiscal year, which will be 2018. I'll make that proposal in [02:34:48] according to you. Yeah, and I'll second the motion. Thank you, since I can't make a motion. Mr. [02:34:54] Davis, anything? No, I think we'll set it. Thank you. Councilman Starkey? Not until the work session, thank you. [02:35:03] Thank you. I appreciate you guys hanging in there for us. This has been a [02:35:09] fairly long meeting. As was mentioned before, none of the five of us can talk [02:35:16] to each other unless we are sitting up here, and the camera is running, and our [02:35:21] friend from the Tampa Bay Times is back there taking notes to make sure that [02:35:27] it's all totally done. So this is how government is done in a [02:35:35] small town. And with that, I will ask all those in favor, please signify by saying [02:35:41] aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Is there any other business to come before the [02:35:49] body tonight? Just one more comment. Thank you all for coming out. I don't know if I [02:35:57] thanked everybody and the people left early. I hope you're watching [02:36:00] at home. And just remember that people get mad at government, and we have to [02:36:04] have thick skin up here. We're easy targets. We, you know, we hear the negativity over [02:36:08] and over and over again. But as a community, like I said, if we work [02:36:12] together rather than just pointing blame at people, I think we'll get things done [02:36:15] much quicker in a much more efficient way. So if you have a problem with [02:36:19] decisions that we made or things coming up, my cell number is on the [02:36:22] website. All of our phone numbers are on the city website. You can email us. We [02:36:26] will answer your calls. I'm speaking for all of us. None of us up here [02:36:30] have a power trip. We have the same goal as you do, which is to make New [02:36:35] Perch a better place to live, work, and play. I mean, it sounds cheesy, but it's [02:36:39] the truth. We're residents just like you are. We're not up here just because we [02:36:42] like making decisions that are hard to make because it's not easy to do. But if [02:36:46] y'all can help support us and be more, I guess, a little more positive and reach [02:36:52] out to us, I think it would go a long way as building our community and we can do [02:36:56] this together because we're not the only decision makers. Y'all are the decision [02:36:59] makers as well. We proved that tonight. So just keep that in mind moving forward. [02:37:03] Thank you. Please come to the work session. Yeah, just a reminder, we're [02:37:08] usually here every Tuesday night at 7 o'clock or sometimes at 6, and it's [02:37:13] wonderful to see you all here tonight and really engaging in Democracy at Work. [02:37:18] I just came back from a conference. It's good news to say that across the [02:37:23] board in the state of Florida, municipality population has increased by [02:37:28] 2%, and we just welcomed the newest city to the state of Florida, the city of [02:37:32] Westlake. So we have 412 municipalities. 82% of them are cities of 5,000 [02:37:40] population or less. That's pretty awesome. So we are sharing similar [02:37:45] problems across the state, and we're so pleased that we're able to share with [02:37:50] our fellow other cities how they do it, how we need to do it, and it's input [02:37:56] from you folks that really help make the difference. So thanks for [02:38:00] coming out tonight, and thank you for your input. Deputy Mayor. Yeah, I'm [02:38:05] looking forward to the weekend events at Sims Park. We ask you to come out. The [02:38:10] other thing is, 34 years today, today at 1234 a.m., my oldest son Billy was [02:38:21] born, and I just wanted to say happy birthday. Yeah, I don't get this [02:38:28] very often, and I want to say thank you to him, my wife Joy, and Matt for letting [02:38:33] me give back to my city, which is now approaching about 15% of my adult life. [02:38:39] Councilman Davis. And again, thank you, and as some of you have already [02:38:45] discovered, I have an office downtown, and people can and do walk in the door to [02:38:50] talk to me about city business, and I've got a phone number. Please don't leave [02:38:55] voicemail for me on my city phone. You can get my office number, and if I am [02:39:01] reachable, somebody will get me on the phone for you. So with that, thank you, and [02:39:07] good evening. [02:39:10] It was mentioned earlier about, you know, being picked on and attacked for things

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5. 5Communications▶ 2:39:15
6. 6Adjournment