On the agenda

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

   Pledge of Allegiance

   The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.

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   [00:00:23] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for [00:00:24] which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

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3. 3.a

   Second Reading, Ordinance No. 2025-2331: Increase in Council Salaries

   approved

   Council held second reading of Ordinance 2025-2331, providing a 3% annual increase in council salaries beginning with terms of councilmembers elected at the April 14, 2026 election. The City Attorney noted revised wording to clarify the annual nature and effective date. The motion to approve passed on a voice vote.

   Ord. Ordinance No. 2025-2331

   • motion:Motion to approve Ordinance No. 2025-2331 providing a 3% annual increase in council salaries. (passed)

   👤Matt#April 14, 2026 election#Councilmember monthly salary $643.75#Mayor monthly salary#Ordinance No. 2025-2331

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   [00:00:52] Thank you. [00:00:53] Reading of Ordinance Number 2025-2331, Increased Council Salaries. [00:00:58] This is Ordinance Number 2025-2331, an ordinance of the City of New Port Richey, Florida, providing [00:01:03] for an increase in the amount of 3% in the annual salary of City Councilmembers beginning [00:01:07] on the date of commencement of the terms of Councilmembers elected at the election to [00:01:12] be conducted on April 14, 2026, providing for a monthly salary for the Mayor and Councilmember [00:01:17] of A&R in $24, providing for a monthly salary for all other Councilmembers of $643.75, providing [00:01:25] for conflict, separability, and effective date. [00:01:28] And Mr. Mayor, I'd like to point out for the record that you have a revised version of [00:01:32] this from the first reading that was included in the agenda that went out. [00:01:36] And I just changed the wording to make it clear that this was an annual increase and [00:01:41] that it would go into effect on the date that each election, the new members elected [00:01:48] are put into office, but for everyone that's elected and that's serving at that time. [00:01:53] So I just wanted to clarify that. [00:01:55] I thought it needed a little bit of clarification. [00:01:56] Do we have any public comment? [00:01:58] I'm seeing a crowd rush down. [00:02:01] Bring it back for discussion of votes. [00:02:04] I'll make the motion to approve. [00:02:06] I'll second. [00:02:08] Yeah, I know that some folks always make hay out of any time that the elected body votes [00:02:14] to raise its own fees, but we could just make a listing of all the elected officials in [00:02:20] Florida and see that we're probably still behind the mosquito control, I'm not sure, [00:02:24] but possibly. [00:02:25] And we've got, you know, a substantial budget and responsibility, so I think it's appropriate. [00:02:35] I just think that it'll kind of help out moving forward, getting some, you know, quality [00:02:39] candidates running for office. [00:02:42] Obviously, it's still not up to part of a full-time job, but at least we'll give a big [00:02:48] enough stipend to help people out with, you know, the responsibilities that come along [00:02:52] with it. [00:02:53] So thank you. [00:02:54] Matt. [00:02:55] No, it, yeah, I just think it'll kind of keep it where, you know, have the big lapses on [00:03:03] what the salary is, and it's really, when you look at it, it's $18 maybe a month or [00:03:09] something like that, so it's very minimal. [00:03:13] I think it was approached as a cost of living, and I think that's what, instead of doing [00:03:18] that, we just decided 3%, so same idea. [00:03:21] All those in favor, signify by aye. [00:03:24] Aye.

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4. 4.a

   ↳You arrived here from a search for “Matt Murphy” — transcript expanded below

   Final Public Hearing - Resolution No. 2025-39 Adopting Final Millage Rate & Resolution No. 2025-40 Operating Budget & Capital Improvement Program

   approved

   Council held the final public hearing and adopted Resolution 2025-39 setting the final millage rate at 8.2000 mills (0.33% less than the rollback rate of 8.2268) and Resolution 2025-40 adopting the final FY2025-2026 operating budget ($104,754,700 total) and five-year Capital Improvement Program. Both resolutions passed 4-0 after presentation by Finance staff and discussion regarding recreation department cost recovery, county negotiations, and personnel restructuring.

   Ord. Resolution No. 2025-39; Resolution No. 2025-40

   • motion:Motion to approve Resolution 2025-39 adopting the final millage rate of 8.2000 mills. (passed)4–0
   • motion:Motion to approve Resolution 2025-40 adopting the final FY2025-2026 operating budget and Capital Improvement Program. (passed)4–0
   • direction:Council direction to the City Manager to prepare materials for a workshop/work session on negotiating with Pasco County regarding recreation service area cost-sharing. (none)

   🏢American Red Cross🏢FEMA🏢Gravity🏢Pasco County Property Appraiser's Office🏢Trinity Rotary👤Councilman Altman👤Matt👤Ms. Dunn👤Peter👤Tarni#2025A Revenue Note#2025B Revenue Note#CRA (Community Redevelopment Agency)#FY2025-2026 Operating Budget#Five-Year Capital Improvement Program#Florida Statute 200.065#Penny for Pasco#Resolution 2025-39#Resolution 2025-40#Schweppman School#Strategic Plan#Truth in Millage (TRIM) Notice#Wayfinding signs project

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   [00:03:25] Four nothing. [00:03:26] Moving on to business items. [00:03:28] General reading, hearing of resolution number 2025-39, adoption of the final million-25-24 [00:03:38] operating budget and capital improvement program. [00:03:40] Is this all at once? [00:03:41] I'm sorry. [00:03:42] Is this all at once? [00:03:43] No, there'll be two separate votes on these. [00:03:44] Okay, that's all at once. [00:03:45] Yeah. [00:03:46] This is resolution number 2025-39, a resolution of the City of New Port Richey of Pasco County, [00:03:52] Florida, adopting the final levying of ad valorem taxes for all non-exempt real and [00:03:56] personal property in New Port Richey, Pasco County, Florida, for fiscal year 10-1-2025 [00:04:03] to 9-30-2026, providing for an effective date. [00:04:09] Florida Statute 200.065, Section 2C1 prescribes that Council adopt the millage rate prior [00:04:19] to adopting the 2025-2026 budget. [00:04:24] A notification regarding the public hearing has been provided to every property owner [00:04:30] in the City by Pasco County Property Appraiser's Office. [00:04:36] This notification, in the form of the Truth in Millage Trim Notice, was mailed on August [00:04:43] 20, 2025. [00:04:46] The resolution requested is to adopt Resolution 2025-39. [00:04:52] The name of the taxing authority is the City of New Port Richey. [00:04:56] The tentative millage rate of 8.000 mills is .33% less than the rollback rate of 8.2268 [00:05:10] mills. [00:05:12] Total ad valorem revenues that will be generated are estimated to be $8,900,240, that is approximately [00:05:23] $568,220 more than what was generated in ad valorem in fiscal year 2024-25 due to the [00:05:36] increase of property values. [00:05:38] The millage rate of 8.2000 mills less than the prior year's millage, although the statute [00:05:53] requires discussion regarding the percent increase over the rollback rate and the specific [00:06:00] purposes for which ad valorem is being increased, for the record, in our case, neither apply. [00:06:07] At this time, an overview will be provided of the proposed budget. [00:06:12] After the close of the presentation, it is requested that the Mayor invite public comment [00:06:18] on the millage, then the governing body must adopt the final millage rate before adopting [00:06:24] the budget. [00:06:25] Do we have any public comment? [00:06:29] Seeing no one come forward, bring it back for discussion and vote. [00:06:34] I'll make the motion to approve the resolution as read. [00:06:38] No, I'm happy to see us use the rollback rate, the whole purpose of our city's strategy to [00:06:47] increase property values will one day benefit the ability to lower those rates potentially. [00:06:55] We're in the growth mode right now, and so this tightening of the millage rate tightens [00:07:05] the city's budget, and I appreciate the effort that's made to make sure that that happens. [00:07:11] I'm in favor of it. [00:07:15] Keep bringing it down for the citizens. [00:07:18] Right. [00:07:19] I'm good. [00:07:20] Thank you. [00:07:21] All those in favor say goodbye. [00:07:22] Aye. [00:07:23] Aye. [00:07:24] Those opposed, 4-0. [00:07:25] This is resolution number 2025-40, a resolution of the City of New Port Richey of Pasco County, [00:07:32] Florida, adopting the final operating budget for fiscal year 2025-2026 and the capital [00:07:37] improvement program for fiscal year 2025-2026, providing for an effective date. [00:07:44] Okay, Mr. Mayor, members of the Council, we have provided for you copies of the proposed [00:07:54] operating budget and the capital improvement program for fiscal year 2025, I'm sorry, yeah, [00:08:04] for our five-year capital improvement program, which spans, and the budget, as we've indicated [00:08:17] to you in our previous presentations, truly does represent the strategic direction of [00:08:25] the city as set forward by you in our strategic plan. [00:08:30] We do have a PowerPoint presentation for you this evening, which was prepared by Ms. Dunn [00:08:39] and contains the highlights of our budget, and with that, I'd like to ask her to present [00:08:45] the staff PowerPoint to you this evening. [00:08:47] Thank you, City Manager. [00:08:49] Good evening, Council. [00:08:52] So this is a re-presentation of the initial budget that we presented to you on September [00:08:57] 4th. [00:08:59] As an overview, I provided a budget timeline to outline the meetings that we've met to [00:09:07] discuss the departmental budgets and the first proposed budget. [00:09:13] We began back on July 25th with the first draft of the five-year capital improvement [00:09:19] plan and reviewed it again on July 9th. [00:09:22] On July 16th, we began our department budget presentations to you and met again also on [00:09:27] July 29th, and then on August 20th, we reviewed all departmental budgets again and presented [00:09:34] the first proposed budget to you two weeks ago on September 4th. [00:09:42] Presenting to you this evening is the citywide budget by fund. [00:09:45] Our total budget for fiscal year 2025-2026 totals $104,754,700. [00:09:55] As you see here, it's broken out by fund. [00:09:57] Our general fund totals $35,038,000, and the water and sewer also totals $28,487,560. [00:10:09] These are the largest funds that we have within the city. [00:10:13] The breakout of the other, I have a pie chart on the next page that will show you a better [00:10:19] visual of the breakouts of each fund. [00:10:23] I do want to note that we did have some changes from the proposed budget that I'd like to [00:10:27] outline those for you. [00:10:30] The net decrease from the proposed, the first proposed budget to the second proposed budget [00:10:35] was $70,300. [00:10:41] Those changes were, we decreased the merit increase line item. [00:10:46] The merit increases was a line item that we presented in the past for salary adjustments. [00:10:53] However, with the new budget program that we used, Gravity, the salary increases and [00:11:01] COLA increases are included in each line item of the budget for personnel salaries, [00:11:07] personnel expenses. [00:11:09] The other item, workers' compensation rates decreased by 1% in fiscal year 2025, or actually [00:11:15] calendar year 2025, so that's also reflected in the budget. [00:11:19] The line item, which is reserved for in-kind special event expenditures, has been allocated [00:11:24] throughout the relative departments, which includes the police department, fire department, [00:11:29] and the public works department. [00:11:32] The city offers a medical incentive leave buyback program. [00:11:37] This line item is presented in the non, I'm sorry, the non-expenditure disbursements portion [00:11:47] of the budget. [00:11:48] Those items were, those line items were increased for both the general fund and the public works [00:11:53] fund. [00:11:54] The general fund increased from $50,000 to $95,000, and public works actually decreased [00:11:59] from $45,000 to $35,000, and those amounts were estimated based on last year's buyout. [00:12:06] The city elected to use credits on contributions to the police and fire pension programs, so [00:12:14] you'll see a decrease in those line items in the budget that's presented to you. [00:12:18] The debt service fund payments were adjusted. [00:12:22] We, in the initial budget we presented to you, the total debt service payments for the [00:12:27] general fund totaled $3.5 million, however, those payments were adjusted to include the [00:12:36] recent note, or two notes, the 2025A and 2025B revenue notes that the city recently obtained, [00:12:48] so the total increase in the debt service fund was $4.1 million, so the net changes [00:12:53] between those, again, did decrease the overall budget $70,000, but I did want to note that [00:12:58] those are the major line items of the changes that you'll see in the budget this evening. [00:13:03] This is the visual of the total breakout by fund, and again, the general fund is 37 percent [00:13:13] of the, I'm sorry, the water and sewer fund is 37 percent of the total budget, general [00:13:17] fund is 35 percent of the total budget, and the CRA represents, I believe, 6 percent of [00:13:24] the budget, it's hard to see the colors up there, and the capital improvement plan, or [00:13:27] capital improvement budget represents 12 percent of the total budget. [00:13:32] The other funds are broken up, as you can see, and they're a smaller percentage there [00:13:38] on the screen. [00:13:43] So by department, we presented to you the total for each department here at the city, [00:13:51] city council represents $265,950 of the budget, city manager is $334,560, the human resource [00:14:01] department is $1.5 million of the budget, city clerk's office is approximately $83,000, [00:14:09] energy solutions is $1,580,000, administrative services is approximately $175,000, the finance [00:14:18] department is approximately $1,600,000, the library makes up $1.5 million of the budget, [00:14:26] police department makes up $10.4 million of the budget, the fire department is $3.6 million [00:14:35] of the budget, our economic development department makes up $300,000 of the budget, and our development [00:14:41] department is $1.3 million of the budget, recreation and aquatics is approximately $3 [00:14:46] million of the budget, our public works supervision, and the departments within the general fund [00:14:53] total $3.8 million, and the total transfers from the general fund [00:15:00] other funds total $5.3 million. Capital Improvement Program that's presented to you in the separate [00:15:08] book that was provided to you last week. The general fund expenditures total $451,310. [00:15:18] Stormwater is $3,790,000. The Capital Improvement Fund is broken up into four categories, which [00:15:26] is Parks and Recreation, Public Facilities, Public Safety, and Transportation. The totals [00:15:31] of the Capital Improvement Fund is $4,825,000. The Water and Sewer Fund totals $4,981,000 [00:15:40] in projects. The Redevelopment Fund is $5,990,000, and the Street Improvement Fund is $4,235,000. [00:15:48] So our Capital Improvement Program makes up $25,546,310 for this coming fiscal year. [00:16:00] Again the proposed millage rate this evening is 8.2 mills. This is also less than the rollback [00:16:05] rate of 8.2268 mills, which is 5.33%. The city's revenue, state revenues did decrease [00:16:13] 7.2% from last fiscal year, and our state revenues are made up of our revenue sharing, [00:16:19] the half-cent sales tax, the local discretionary sales tax, which we commonly refer to as penny [00:16:24] for pasco, the local option gas tax, and there's two, and the communications service tax. Some [00:16:33] key highlights to note that did play a role into this year's budget, the demographics, [00:16:43] for the property taxable values for the year are $1,125,021,565. This is up 6.8% from last [00:16:54] year. The population estimate increased 0.3%. This is consistent with last year's growth [00:17:00] rate. Operating costs that were taken into account in this budget were the increased [00:17:08] fuel and chemical costs. We had escalated costs that are associated with construction [00:17:13] projects, and we did note a significant increase in disaster recovery costs. The city currently [00:17:22] has several FEMA, open FEMA projects that we're pursuing reimbursement for, as well [00:17:27] as open insurance claims that we're still working with the insurance company to recover [00:17:35] those expenditures. Personnel, the retirement contribution rates did increase this year. [00:17:44] Fire and police pension credits, again, as I noted before, we did apply those credits [00:17:48] in the fiscal year 26 budget, which would reduce the city's contribution, and the budget [00:17:54] does include a proposed salary adjustment for general employees of 4% and coal adjustments [00:18:00] for the union employees. Another note to discuss, to speak again about our staff, the personnel [00:18:11] changes that we made within the budget this year, these personnel adjustments did result [00:18:16] from an organizational restructuring of positions, which better align with the city's resources, [00:18:21] with the city's operational priorities, and I will outline those changes for you. You [00:18:28] also note these that are, these are listed also in the city manager's budget message, [00:18:33] so you could follow along if it's easier. In the general fund, we did add one full-time [00:18:41] development clerk, and the general fund, we eliminated a full-time assistant parks and [00:18:48] recreation director, a grounds maintenance field supervisor, the grant specialist and [00:18:53] billing specialist positions, a help desk technician, the planning intern, and the financial [00:19:00] procurement analyst that was budgeted for one half of the fiscal year 25 year. The other [00:19:07] staffing changes for the organizational realignment, the human resource business manager position [00:19:13] was eliminated and replaced with a human resource business partner. The recreation events coordinator [00:19:19] position was eliminated and replaced with the cultural program coordinator, which supports [00:19:24] the citywide programs. The administrative office manager position in the police department [00:19:30] was replaced with a police senior administrative office manager to align with the needs of the [00:19:36] police department. The restructuring of the economic development position was the elimination [00:19:43] of the assistant city manager and economic development position, and the creation of [00:19:49] two full-time positions, which is the economic development director and an assistant city [00:19:55] manager. That covers the changes that were presented to you from the first budget, and [00:20:05] the, encompasses the full budget that we have here. If you have any questions, I'm prepared [00:20:10] to answer them. [00:20:11] Any public comment? Seeing none, we'll come forward and bring it back for discussion and [00:20:17] vote. [00:20:18] I do have a couple of questions or items of the budget to point out. I think first I'd [00:20:25] like to just talk for a moment about the recreation department, and mention that when we look [00:20:32] at the operational costs of the recreation department on page 122, that that adds up [00:20:39] just in operation and expenditures with some minor capital of about $1.5 million. Twenty-five [00:20:50] and budgeted now at $1.8 million. And then if you move to the aquatics and you add to [00:20:58] that, you've got $1.1 million in aquatics expenditures, not counting some of the improvements. [00:21:06] So when you have $2.5 million coming in, and then go back and look at the fees being collected [00:21:21] from revenue from the school, I mean from the recreation. I'm looking at the, I had [00:21:29] it here circled a minute ago, the revenue for the recreation is a total of memberships [00:21:42] $245,000 and daily fees of about $230,000. So just to point of reference, about $500,000 [00:21:50] coming in from memberships and daily fees, and $2.5 million in expenditures. So the city's [00:22:02] general fund or other resources have to pay the difference. There are rentals and there [00:22:07] are great things happening in recreation and we all love it. But the point once again is [00:22:13] when we look at the memberships and the breakdown of the city residents and the county residents, [00:22:20] I've said this for eight years now, over half of the people that come in are paying as non-city [00:22:27] residents. And we say, oh, but they pay an extra. So when you take that extra amount [00:22:33] over what the regular residents are paying, and you look at that compared to $2.5 million, [00:22:40] those two numbers are not really related to the amount of effort and services that the city provides. And so we want it to grow. [00:22:50] And we're about to get the Schweppman School and that's going to be potentially able to be funded from another source. But the [00:22:58] recreation service area, just like our water and sewer service area, is a clear argument for us to make. And we've got a [00:23:10] lot of work to do. We talked about it. We said we want to have it back up here. I asked today, Tarni said he's working on it. So we've [00:23:16] been working on it for over a year now. So it's time for us to get to the county and say, here's our evidence, here's how much we're [00:23:25] doing, look at our facilities, and let's come up with a way in which we can lower the cost to everybody. So we take great pride in [00:23:31] bragging about having a program to allow for folks. The money we got from the Trinity Rotary, I think, was about $5,000 or whatever they gave [00:23:49] us, was helpful for kids who needed the help so that they could get their fees paid. And that's a great thing. But again, there's a much [00:23:55] greater potential for us as a city of recreation and tourism to really focus in and carry that farther. And I think it's a worthy effort. I [00:24:11] think it's one we can defend. And the statutes call for us as a city council to be the negotiators with the county commission. And so that's [00:24:17] going to be a face-to-face discussion that we will all have to have. So I think, A, even before I just say jump the gun and file it, I [00:24:30] think we need to have a good analysis and a good understanding of the five of us of what it is we're about to ask for, because each one of us [00:24:38] will have to individually be able to say that you'd like to go that route. [00:24:43] I think that's a work session, not a budget session. And so, yes, I've been around the eight years you've talked about this, and I agree, but we've [00:24:51] never had a sit-down discussion on how to approach all five of us on the same page. So we can ask the city manager to put something [00:24:59] together so we can have that discussion. [00:25:04] I know it's been on the list. Someone mentioned lists. Things have been on the list for a while. That leads me to the next item, which was [00:25:09] discussed, which is the addition of some more administrative support for the city manager. So by going from two individuals that are [00:25:18] professionals in economic development with CRA tasks as well as management tasks to having a third, as I understand it, individual to be an [00:25:26] assistant city manager, I think that's a smart move, and I'm fully supportive of it, and I'm glad that you put that in there. It's a reflection [00:25:32] of we all talk about how much work is on everybody's plate, and if we want to get things done, we have to give the tools to the administration to do it. [00:25:42] So I segue to that as well. [00:25:47] And there is one other item that's in here that I can talk about at another time, but it causes me to say, to your point, Mr. Mayor, we have a good [00:25:53] budget. We've worked on it. We've all approved it. It's in front of us. There are a lot of capital improvements that are in here, and as an example, some of [00:26:10] them will be under the CRA, and I can maybe bring it up. But the budget is something we have to approve. We can amend it. We want to stick to it. [00:26:16] Staff sticks to it. We get reports and we modify it. [00:26:23] As an example, the budget only has, I think, $25,000 or whatever to buy the old Red Cross, former West Pasco Press. We know that's not enough. [00:26:34] There's a lot of money in there for wayfinding signs, that sort of thing. [00:26:39] So when we do get down into it, I hope that this budget discussion leads us to a template for us to look at. [00:26:45] And have a chance to talk about it without anyone saying, that's in the budget and we can't do it. Because we're the ones that get to look at these allocations. [00:26:55] But I think overall, it's a good document. I appreciate it and thank you for presenting it. [00:27:00] Are you making a move? [00:27:05] Well, if nobody has any more questions, if there are questions, yeah. If not, I'll move to approve the resolution. [00:27:10] Second. [00:27:15] Yeah, I've done my thing. [00:27:20] Just to briefly mention that not eight years ago, but recently when Councilman Altman again raised the points of the rec center, I did also express interest in doing a workshop or something of that effect. [00:27:31] Whatever is necessary to get us in a room to have that conversation among each other. [00:27:36] Especially with the county. [00:27:41] I know I've been having some conversations offline with some former parks employees over at the county in addition to with the city. [00:27:47] Just to get some background and the topic of the master plan they did for that recreation parks green space project over across from the, just down the street from the fire station. [00:27:52] I can't think of the name. [00:27:57] Yeah, thank you. [00:28:02] That came up and some of the thoughts were that they they pumped the brakes on that for the reason that we have a rec center so close. [00:28:07] And so to Councilman Altman's point, if they are out of city limits, residents are benefiting from that. [00:28:12] Then we serve to be some way in a conversation to reasonably be compensated for that. [00:28:30] From a taxpayer standpoint. [00:28:35] The remainder of my questions are for the redevelopment funds. [00:28:40] I just want to thank everybody for their hard work on this. [00:28:47] Appreciate it. [00:28:52] Well, under the same sentiments as Matt, you know, this is a lot of work, you know, obviously this is my first budget. [00:28:57] So it was a learning curve for myself. [00:29:02] And I appreciate a lot of Peter's insight on this.

   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.

5. 6Adjournment▶ 29:05
6. 5Communications