On the agenda

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

   Approval of June 18, 2019 CRA Meeting Minutes

   approved

   The CRA Board approved the minutes from the June 18, 2019 CRA meeting.

   • motion:Approve the June 18, 2019 CRA meeting minutes. (passed)

   #June 18, 2019 CRA Meeting Minutes

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   [00:00:24] Very good. [00:00:25] Next item on the agenda is approval of the June 18th CRA meeting minutes. [00:00:27] Move for approval. [00:00:28] Second. [00:00:29] Any discussion? [00:00:31] Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. [00:00:34] Aye. [00:00:35] Opposed? [00:00:36] Like sign. [00:00:37] Motion passes.

   This text was generated automatically from the meeting video. It is not a verbatim or official record. For exact wording, consult the video or the city clerk.

3. 3

   ↳You arrived here from a search for “Heather Fiorentino” — transcript expanded below

   Review of Proposed FY2019-2020 CRA Budget

   discussed

   CRA Executive Director Debbie Manz and Finance Director Mrs. Feast presented the proposed FY2019-2020 CRA budget of $4,638,270, including a $1.475 million final payment to Main Street Landings, capital projects, incentive programs, and a recommended one-year deferral of a $600,000 payback to the City's General Fund. The board discussed the budget at length including parking lot improvements, property assemblage, the Hacienda Hotel area, and a new neighborhood revitalization program; the item was a review/discussion with no formal vote recorded in the transcript provided.

   • direction:Executive Director recommended deferring the $600,000 CRA payback to the General Fund for one year; City Attorney indicated no separate motion required. (none)

   📍Central Avenue📍Gloria Swanson Park📍Nebraska Avenue📍U.S. Highway 19 Main Street Gateway📍Wyoming Avenue🏢Business Incubator🏢Gatsby's🏢Hacienda Hotel🏢Kimley Horn🏢Main Street Landings🏢Pasco County Department of Health👤Bill Altman👤Charles Rudd👤Debbie Manz👤George Romanoli👤Heather Fiorentino👤Joe DeLuca👤Mr. Pridgen👤Mrs. Feast👤Starkey#Bicycle Trail Improvements#Boat Ramp Expansion#CRA Plan Update#Cody River Underpass Project#FY2019-2020 CRA Budget#Main Street Landings Project#Nebraska Avenue Parking Lot Improvements#Neighborhood Alley Improvements#Neighborhood Revitalization Program#Property Assemblage#Railroad Square Improvements#Redevelopment Incentives Program#Residential Incentive Program#Streetscape Enhancements#Tax Increment Financing

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   [00:00:38] Any communication? [00:00:39] I'm sorry, I almost skipped the most important part, the review of the proposed 2019-2020 [00:00:45] CRA budget. [00:00:46] Ms. Manz? [00:00:47] Thank you, Mr. Mayor. [00:00:48] The budget for the Community Redevelopment Agency for the 2019-2020 budget has been crafted, [00:01:03] in large part, by the City's Finance Director, with assistance from Charles Rudd and I, and [00:01:13] We put a replacement budget for you at your places this evening, which reflect our most [00:01:22] current work, and we'll talk about what differences there are in what we're presenting to you [00:01:31] this evening versus what was sent out to you in your packet. [00:01:38] In short, we have a $4,638,270 budget. [00:01:45] That is due to the fact that we have a good amount of tax increment coming from the taxing [00:01:55] jurisdictions, including the County and, of course, the City, who is the major contributor [00:02:00] to the fund. [00:02:03] As you can see from the first page, the transfer from the General Fund to the tax increment [00:02:12] is $1,710,070. [00:02:19] With that being said, I would like to tell you that as part of this recommendation, I [00:02:25] am recommending to you that we defer a $600,000 payment to the City's General Fund, which [00:02:32] is due to start in the upcoming fiscal year. [00:02:38] My request is that we defer that payment for one year. [00:02:43] In large part, the reason that I would like to defer the request is because we are due [00:02:51] to pay on the Main Street Landings Project their final payment in the amount of $1,475,000. [00:03:02] With that, it would cut us very short of being able to implement projects that are important [00:03:08] to us without deferring the payment. [00:03:12] I'm not certain if the City Attorney is going to ask you for a separate motion for that [00:03:18] or not. [00:03:20] He is saying no, not necessary, but I want to let you know that the budget is built without [00:03:27] that payment included. [00:03:31] Mrs. Feast will present the budget as it is proposed to you for your consideration this evening. [00:03:41] Good evening. [00:03:44] What I'll do is first go over the revenues that are going to fund the CRA for next fiscal year. [00:03:52] That's the page with the green column. [00:03:56] The first revenue source comes from the county, and it's a tax increment. [00:04:02] This dollar amount is a calculation using the county's administrative millage rate of [00:04:07] 7.6076 and the CRA's property values. [00:04:12] With that calculation, the total estimated is $1,486,800. [00:04:20] The next funding source comes from a lease agreement with the business incubator. [00:04:25] We expect around $42,000 from that lease. [00:04:31] Next is other miscellaneous revenue of $25,000. [00:04:35] This represents reimbursements of utilities and electricity from the incubator and then [00:04:40] other very small miscellaneous income that comes in. [00:04:45] The next item is what Executive Director Manns discussed, the transfer from the general fund of $1,710,070, [00:04:55] which is calculated using the established millage rate of 8.75. [00:05:04] And then finally, a carryover of fund balance is budgeted to be used. [00:05:09] The breakdown of that number, the $1.3 million, is $774,400 from prior year transfer from [00:05:18] the Capital Improvement Fund to help fund the Main Street Landings developer payment, [00:05:26] and then an estimate of $600,000 of fund balance to be used to balance next year's budget. [00:05:36] So that gets us to the $4,638,270. [00:05:43] Next, I'll go over the estimated or proposed expenditures for next year, [00:05:48] the first category being the personnel services. [00:05:52] We're proposing $111,180. [00:05:58] The staff or the personnel that are included in this amount includes 30% of the city manager's salary, [00:06:07] a full-time marketing coordinator or position, and then the benefits that are included in those positions. [00:06:17] That gets us to the $111,000. [00:06:21] Next are our operating expenditures. [00:06:25] And I'll only go through the significant changes at this point. [00:06:30] So the first item, number 43111, city attorney services. [00:06:37] This year we're planning to pay 30% of the city attorney fees out of CRA. [00:06:44] That's the $39,600. [00:06:48] The next line item that increased significantly from last year is advertising and marketing, number 43422. [00:06:56] That increased to $25,000. [00:06:59] And the plan for that is now that we've proposed a marketing coordinator or position, [00:07:04] they will need some advertising dollars to work with. [00:07:07] So that amount is what's budgeted. [00:07:10] We've also included travel and training of $6,000 that hasn't been proposed in the past. [00:07:17] And that is for the new marketing person and also the economic director. [00:07:25] Postage, if you go down two lines, number 44211, increased to $4,000. [00:07:33] And this is in order to allow the marketing person to do marketing brochures [00:07:42] and send out mailing to our businesses throughout the city. [00:07:48] The next line item that increased, if you go down to printing and binding, number 44799, [00:07:54] we also increased that to $4,000 for the same reason. [00:08:00] The next line item right underneath that is redevelopment incentives. [00:08:05] We've budgeted $150,000 for this category. [00:08:09] And what this incentive program is is just grant money [00:08:14] and incentive dollars to be distributed to businesses going through an application process. [00:08:24] We're reserving our programming $150,000 for our incentive program targeting businesses. [00:08:32] Underneath is a residential incentive program where we've programmed $75,000. [00:08:38] And this is more of a homeowner rehab program where the intention is to loan out money for residents [00:08:46] who are in need of home rehab. [00:08:49] The plan is to have a new program in place before we were granting the money. [00:08:55] The new program being proposed is more of a loan-based program. [00:09:03] So we have a $75,000 program there. [00:09:06] So the total operating dollars being proposed is $435,840. [00:09:16] The next category is capital, but I'll skip that so that we can go over the more detailed items on the next page. [00:09:24] And I'll go down to the last category, which is transfers. [00:09:29] There's a budgeted transfer to the General Fund for Administrative Services of $375,620. [00:09:36] That's the line item at the bottom of this page. [00:09:40] And then if you turn the page, the next budgeted transfer is to the General Debt Service Fund of $890,630. [00:09:54] So that gets us to our total of $4,638,270. [00:10:02] On the next page are our capital projects that we can go over in more detail. [00:10:10] So the plan for fiscal year 19-20 is to reserve our program some building improvement funds [00:10:16] for the Hacienda Hotel of $20,000 and then also building improvements for the business incubator of $30,000. [00:10:25] We have neighborhood improvement funds programmed at $100,000 for fiscal year 19-20 [00:10:32] and then over the next four years as well. [00:10:39] The next project or program is the Neighborhood Revitalization Program, [00:10:44] where we've programmed $150,000. [00:10:47] And this program is also a new program where the intention is to purchase bank-owned properties within the city limits, [00:10:55] renovate them, and then sell them to residents within the city. [00:10:59] And it would be a program with revolving funds. [00:11:02] So as those monies are made back, it would go back into this program and be revolving. [00:11:11] We've also programmed $150,000 over the next four years to help fund that program. [00:11:19] The next program or project are our parking lot improvements, [00:11:24] the first being Nebraska Avenue, where we've programmed $600,000 for next year. [00:11:30] And then we have another parking lot improvements where, in the future years, [00:11:35] we've programmed $300,000 each of the four years for other types of parking lot improvements. [00:11:43] Next are our redevelopment projects, where you'll see we have property assemblage of $150,000 programmed for next year [00:11:51] and then $100,000 programmed out for the next four years, streetscape enhancements of $50,000 [00:11:58] and then $200,000 programmed out over the next four years. [00:12:05] The Cody River underpass project, we don't have any funds programmed for next fiscal year, [00:12:12] but in future years we do have some reserved for that project. [00:12:16] The same for the network upgrades in downtown area and the U.S. Highway 19 Main Street Gateway project. [00:12:23] Those are future year projects. [00:12:27] Next is the Railroad Square improvements, where we have $75,000 and $100,000 programmed out for fiscal year 2021. [00:12:35] Boat ramp expansion project, $75,000 budgeted for next year with $100,000 programmed out for the next four years. [00:12:44] Neighborhood alley improvements, the same. [00:12:47] And the bicycle trail improvements, $25,000 budgeted for next year with $150,000 intended for the next four years. [00:12:54] And the final is our Main Street landings incentive payment of $1.475 million planned to be paid out next fiscal year. [00:13:05] So in total we have $2,825,000 of capital projects budgeted for next fiscal year being paid for with CRA funds. [00:13:15] And that is all I have as far as the budget goes. [00:13:18] I'll take any questions. [00:13:20] Do you want to open it up for any public comment? [00:13:31] Heather Fiorentino, Wyoming Avenue. [00:13:34] And I'm ten years behind on the questions, so I'll just say it that way. [00:13:38] When I'm looking at the Main Street landing, you're going to pay out $1.4 million? [00:13:43] That's the last part of the incentive program that went back years and years and years and years. [00:13:50] Did we ever collect any fines for the years and years and years that they have broken their contract and not built it within their time? [00:13:58] I don't believe so. [00:14:00] No, we haven't collected any fines for them for noncompliance with any previous agreement that they have had with the city. [00:14:09] The agreement was renegotiated a few years ago, and then that was when they actually started working on it again. [00:14:15] I know, and that's part of my problem. [00:14:17] When you're paying $1.4 million plus, I don't know how much you've paid over the last several years, [00:14:21] but this project was supposed to be done within years, not decades. [00:14:26] And it's rather disappointing that we're paying that $1.4 million for this. [00:14:30] Just my thoughts. [00:14:34] Anyone else? [00:14:36] Seeing none, bring it back to the CRA Board. [00:14:39] Just two quick questions. [00:14:41] The Glorious Watson Park line, is that funded already? [00:14:43] Is that why it's not on here? [00:14:44] Yes, it is. [00:14:45] I'm sorry, it's in the current fiscal year. [00:14:47] And then what about the Central Avenue streetscaping? [00:14:49] Is that what you referred to here in the streetscaping? [00:14:53] Enhancements of $50,000? [00:14:55] No, it's not. [00:14:56] The Central is also already budgeted. [00:15:00] Right. This is for other streetscape enhancements that might be warranted. We [00:15:06] don't have any specific project in mind, but it'll likely involve some [00:15:11] hardscape in the downtown area. Mr. Altman. A couple things. One, first to the comment [00:15:19] related to the revenue, I'm sorry, to the deferral of the payment for the payback [00:15:28] to the general fund of the six million or whatever that balance is right now. [00:15:32] Well, the total of the amount due from the CRA to the general fund is, I [00:15:40] believe, over six million by now because interest is accruing. Some of y'all will [00:15:45] recall there was a request to lower the interest rate to the CRA. I think what [00:15:49] the city manager is doing is deferring the payment to still allow for, you know, [00:15:54] the momentum to be carried into the next year. When we did the [00:16:02] update of the CRA plan, at the back end was a projection of future revenues by [00:16:07] the consultant that worked for Kimley Horn, kind of showing how much money was [00:16:11] going to come in the future. And to that point, I would like to encourage us to [00:16:20] bring that consultant back in and help us to design a payback schedule [00:16:26] considering we've now gone out 30 years that would allow us to [00:16:31] have some consistent revenue begin to be generated into the general fund, which is [00:16:37] suffering, and to get some kind of a strategic plan how much that might be in [00:16:40] the next years rather than waiting for the budget season to say, okay, we [00:16:45] defer a year, but let's take a good look at what we're expecting to happen and [00:16:50] how we're going to get that money back to the general fund. It will surely need [00:16:53] the money over time as the revenue doesn't grow and the city does. [00:17:01] The second part of that is that the CRA plan acknowledged that the sales [00:17:08] taxes, the economic activity, the business activity of the downtown has become a [00:17:14] pretty substantial portion of our revenue stream. And for a city of our [00:17:20] size, it's larger, I think, was recognized because we do have this large group of [00:17:25] people around us that are now coming into the city that the economic, you know, [00:17:29] engine of sales taxes, you know, is critical. So I'm anxious to begin [00:17:38] to get financial information we haven't had for a couple of years. It's no blame [00:17:42] to attach, but, you know, having a career as an accountant and having experience [00:17:47] here, you feel a lot more comfortable when you know how many miles you got to [00:17:51] go and how fast you're going and how much gas you've got. And I think that to [00:17:57] paraphrase how the interaction between the two funds work, I think the more we [00:18:02] understand how that worked, the easier it will be for us to explain to folks who [00:18:07] don't know how this CRA money is sort of set aside for all these purposes. [00:18:14] Because there's no doubt that someone will see some of these projects as being [00:18:18] not must-do projects and see some of the, you know, the general fund operations, [00:18:25] particularly with health and safety, that always gets attention that, to be told, [00:18:29] you know, those departments have done a good job of keeping their budgets [00:18:33] pretty stable this year. That can't happen for 30 years going at some point. [00:18:38] You know, cost of living and everything else is going to put those pressures on. [00:18:41] So if we have a plan and we know what we're expecting to happen and it happens, [00:18:45] then I think I will be more comfortable. So my request is to use that same [00:18:50] consultant, perhaps, over the course of time to help us to identify revenue streams. [00:18:57] If I can then segue over to the capital improvement projects there and notice, [00:19:03] just for example, property assemblage, it's got every year 100,000, 100,000, [00:19:07] 100,000. With property assemblage, if you have a project or a few projects, [00:19:12] the assemblage comes out early. But they don't have the revenue stream [00:19:16] in the budget to show it. And, Mayor, I'm just going to say it again [00:19:21] to get it on the record, but for us to embark upon an aggressive, [00:19:27] you know, redevelopment, for example, of the gateway area and some of the people [00:19:31] that I know have expressed interest in some of the decisions that are pending, [00:19:36] the boat ramp is another one. It would be nice to just do the boat ramp [00:19:41] and solve the problem by getting some additional land for trailers to park on [00:19:46] or whatever is happening there. All of these projects, it seems to me, [00:19:50] could find not all...you know, some are public-private, some are public, [00:19:56] but they all have a...they're all projecting a regular revenue stream [00:20:01] in the future that is committed to that purpose. And so I'm expecting that [00:20:07] over the next months when we have either proposals coming into us or we start [00:20:12] looking at the design of the boat ramp and we find, for example, [00:20:15] we could pick up a little more property, that we should have a discussion [00:20:20] about changing the redevelopment capital plan to amend it to put more [00:20:26] in whatever project is ripe and ready to go and find that we will be recommitting [00:20:32] those future year dollars to pay off that investment. You don't see the benefit [00:20:39] of more taxes until you build what you're going to build, and some of the things [00:20:43] that we need to do, I think, to accommodate that are going to require us [00:20:49] to look at some financing, which is not in this budget. So I'm fine with the [00:20:55] budget the way it is. I just wanted to point out it looks like they've presented [00:20:58] a revenue streams and identified some priorities. And I just wanted to insert [00:21:07] from my standpoint, I'm expecting to see some projects come before us that will [00:21:12] cost more than we can afford in this budget, will cause us to have to determine [00:21:16] what to do next. Excellent points, Director Murphy. For the parking lot [00:21:23] improvements for Nebraska, do we have a timetable for that one? At this point we [00:21:28] are in the design stage of the project planning. Our expectation is that that [00:21:38] will be concluded within the next three weeks or so, at which time we'll go to [00:21:43] construction documents. We're hopeful that we secure a very good bid [00:21:51] for the improvements at Gloria Swanson, and maybe we can have the same [00:21:55] contractor do a change order for the second parking lot, because it will [00:22:00] require the same scope of work, and they will be bidding it on a unit price basis. [00:22:08] With that being said, we could actually be complete by the end of the year. [00:22:15] Both of them and Gloria Swanson too? Yes, Gloria Swanson's first, yes. Okay, all right. [00:22:20] Thank you. Mr. Mack, can I reply on that topic? Absolutely. Just, it seems to me [00:22:29] we've been overdue to hear back from Mr. Pridgen, who owns the property across [00:22:33] from the Hacienda, and we've also had discussion over the months of the [00:22:38] willingness of the county to talk to us about trading a baseball field for that [00:22:43] building and that parking lot straight out. I'm not sure where that's going or [00:22:48] if that's still underway, but I would like to get some indication from [00:22:53] Mr. Pridgen and from the county as to their willingness. When we do the design, [00:22:58] it would be nice to know where the footprints of all the other development [00:23:02] is going to go on in that area, particularly if it's going to cost a [00:23:06] whole lot of money. Temporary and quick parking is probably a good idea, so from [00:23:14] your standpoint, Director, I'm with you. I'm not sure how much money we invest in [00:23:20] the long-term infrastructure, if in fact someday a parking garage really does [00:23:25] happen. I know Joe DeLuca still has it in his head that he's going to build some [00:23:31] kind of commercial property behind the Gatsby's there, or he would like to, so I [00:23:37] think as our redevelopment director gets up and running and we get an idea of [00:23:40] what's going to happen in that zone, I even like the idea that our chairman [00:23:47] had of extending the Nebraska Avenue run all the way across at some point to [00:23:53] square it off and reach the river and go on beyond. I don't know the [00:23:57] practicality of all that, but it seems there's a lot of infrastructure and [00:24:01] potential development that, if I'm wrong, we're overdue hearing back from Mr. [00:24:07] Pridgen as he had indicated he was going to contact us about six weeks ago. Yeah. [00:24:13] And I have communicated with Mr. Pridgen twice and have not received your [00:24:19] response from him. I thought of a question earlier today that I think will [00:24:25] prompt his attention, so I plan to shoot him another communication tomorrow to [00:24:31] see if I can garner some interest from him to discuss further the development [00:24:38] of his property. In respect to the county project, you talked about the exchange [00:24:47] for the building. My most recent information from the county [00:24:51] administrator is that they would support that deal. Their reluctance to go forward, [00:24:58] though, is based on the fact that the Department of Health is currently housed [00:25:03] in their facility and does not have a place to move. And when I had discussion [00:25:10] with the county administrator, I did indicate we're not interested in getting [00:25:15] rid of them as a tenant necessarily in the short term, and so we would be [00:25:21] prepared to go forward with the trade. In respect to the parking lot, they have [00:25:26] granted us authority to make improvements there already, so we can go [00:25:31] forward with the project with the intent only of reorienting in large part the [00:25:37] parking area so that we can create additional parking spaces through the [00:25:44] efficiencies of fewer means of ingress and egress in a different orientation of [00:25:50] the layout of the parking. Great answer. Thank you. Mr. Starkey. Just two things. [00:25:55] Before we talk about some current commercial business owners at [00:25:59] building new buildings, I would ask them to focus on the buildings [00:26:05] they have and renovation of the current historic buildings that they own and [00:26:08] also what tenants they rent to because both of those with some of our [00:26:13] commercial business owners or property owners downtown, in my opinion, could [00:26:17] definitely improve on both of those items, number one. Number two, my question [00:26:21] is regarding this implementation of this program, we're going to be buying and [00:26:25] selling, buying and renovating bank-owned properties. We're obviously competing [00:26:29] with quite a few people in the private sector to do that currently, so who on [00:26:34] staff could be in charge of determining what we offer, what homes or properties [00:26:40] we're interested in, number one. Number two, if we get into that, I want to be [00:26:45] sure we're running, this is our chance to take over these problem properties, so [00:26:49] if we're going to renovate them, let's make sure we're doing it properly, [00:26:52] landscaping, making them look good, and we're very, very careful as to who we're [00:26:56] selling to. I don't know if we can do this legally, but I would entertain, if [00:27:01] we're going to do that, that we look into selling to, not investors, but [00:27:08] owner-occupied purchasers and maybe tie something in where you have to own the [00:27:13] property for five years, because I don't want to just flip these homes and put [00:27:16] them in the hands of an irresponsible landlord and have them [00:27:20] deteriorate once again. So I think we have to be very, very careful there, but [00:27:24] to answer my question, if you could, who's going to be in charge of that program? [00:27:27] It's a pretty full-time job, I would imagine. The program will be administered [00:27:33] by George Romanoli in the Development Department, and I think that we may have [00:27:39] overexpressed the bank sale properties. It's actually properties that we acquire [00:27:46] through foreclosure, and it's the demolition of slum and blighted [00:27:52] properties that the funds will more directly be used to support. And we're [00:27:58] very much interested in increasing the curb appeal of properties, and it's [00:28:07] really the primary reason that we've advanced these redevelopment projects [00:28:13] for your consideration. It's the first time in the history of the city that we [00:28:17] really have hit so hard the neighborhoods with funding opportunities. [00:28:22] Anything else? Next item is communications once again. Any happy, are we, that has to [00:28:36] be approved in that case? If you want to approve it in the form that it's in now. [00:28:41] Yeah, there wasn't a particular thing for approval on that recommendation, but that's fine. [00:28:47] Let me make a motion to approve the proposed budget for purposes of [00:28:54] advertisement and request that the city's general fund, or the City Council, acts [00:29:01] favorably on our request to defer the payment for a year, because it is [00:29:06] actually the city government that has the right to receive that. We're asking [00:29:12] for it, so my motion is to ask the city for that. [00:29:18] Second. Okay, discussion? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, like sign.

   This text was generated automatically from the meeting video. It is not a verbatim or official record. For exact wording, consult the video or the city clerk.

4. 4Communications▶ 29:23
5. 5Adjournment▶ 29:37