october 6 meeting the order uh first item on the is to approve the agenda so moved yeah motion a couple seconds hey mary um to approve the agenda any discussion any public discussion back to the board all those in favor say aye aye all opposed that motion is unanimous i see we've got a number of our constitutionals here thank you all for being here i really appreciate it um tommy i think before we get started you said we had a couple folks who want to i think the manager had uh something you wanted to yeah comments you wanted to make early on as we get started okay mr lieberman you are recognized and i promised i would stay on the script so i didn't get to myself all right so before um tommy and staff begin today i wanted to provide some context about what you are going to see today so we're not asking the board to make decisions this is the beginning of a discussion the purpose is to help the board and the public understand the potential revenue loss projected if the homestead exemption increases staff will explain what that property tax revenue currently supports and the range of options the board may need to consider if property tax revenue is reduced i also want the board to know that i sent a message to employees a little bit earlier today and provided them a copy of the presentation some of these options could ultimately affect programs services and positions i did not want employees to learn that without hearing directly from me first i told them that these are contingency options they are not decisions and they are not recommendations i also told them that their work is valued and that reducing services or positions is not what we want to do but i cannot make promises about outcomes we do not yet know or cannot guarantee our commitment is to keep employees informed throughout the process and to be clear about the difference between options being considered a recommendation from staff and any final decisions by board that distinction is also important for the board and for the public because what you will see today is an initial list of options that staff has identified including an option in the presentation does not mean that staff is recommending that the board select that option it is also important to understand why the county's total budget cannot simply absorb the loss this presentation focuses on programs and services paid for in whole or in part through the general fund which relies mainly on property tax the county's total total budget is not one large pot of money that can be used for any purpose much of the rest of the county budget is restricted to specific purposes fee supported operations reserves capital projects those funds cannot simply be moved to replace lost property tax revenue as a result property taxes are the county's most flexible source of funding and for many of the programs and services presented today the only lawful funding source available to the county that includes a significant share of law enforcement and other services our residents depend on some of those same programs and services have revenue from other sources but still need property tax support operator current levels or in some cases to operate at all if that funding is reduced the county must reduce the service identify another lawful and sustainable funding source or decide that it can no longer provide that service so today we're asking you to listen to ask questions and to begin thinking about the framework you will use to evaluate these options if property tax revenue is reduced okay thank you mr lieberman all right tommy before we get started yeah yes sir so um as we have went through this process and talked about all of the issues that we will be facing um post amendment three also our constitutional officers and some of our public safety personnel have recognized the long-term ramifications that could happen so there are a few others here that had a few words to say and we'll start with uh john costable deputy tax collector um mr powers couldn't be here today but he had sent mr costable to speak on his behalf john thanks for being here appreciate you uh being on on behalf of the tax collector you are recognized thank you mr chair commissioners uh as tommy mentioned uh mr power couldn't make today's that way uh out of town on business so but he did have a written statement i'm just going to read from it and then i'll be happy to answer any questions afterwards if you have any so uh good afternoon i'm sorry i cannot be with you today but i felt it was important that you hear directly from me about amendment three and what it would mean for your tax collector's office before anything else let me be clear i'm not here to tell anyone how to vote that is entirely your choice my responsibility as your elected tax collector is to explain the real world impact this amendment would have on our office and on the services we provide to you if amendment three is approved approximately one and a half million dollars will be reduced from our budgeted revenues more than 80 percent of our budget is personnel most of what remains is made up of fixed costs that we cannot eliminate so when one and a half million dollars is reduced from our budget there really is only one place to make those reductions staffing but while staffing would decrease our workload would not we do not have optional programs that i can simply discontinue we provide services that are mandated by state law about 90 percent of the people who walk through our doors are there for driver's licenses and motor vehicle services today we provide those services very efficiently on average someone can come into our office renew a vehicle registration or obtain a driver's license and be on their way in about 20 minutes i am proud of that and i'm proud of the employees who make that possible but they're simple but they're a simple reality that i want every voter to understand if amendment three passes we will be serving the same number of people providing the same services but doing it significantly fewer employees something has to give and what we'll give is service time lines will be longer waits will be longer the level of service you receive today will be much more difficult for us to maintain in many parts of florida waiting for an hour or two of dmv services is not unusual i do not want to become that normal in alachua county but with a million one one and a half million dollar impact i cannot tell you that we'll be able to continue providing the same level of service with substantially fewer people that is the consequence i believe you deserve to know before you vote again i'm not telling you how to vote on amendment three i'm telling you as your tax collector what its approval would mean for this office and for the service we provide to you thank you thank you mr council any questions for our tax collector i will say that when i first got my driver's license we typically waited we would schedule three to four hours to be at the driver's license office back in the 80s it was common spend a whole afternoon getting a driver's license from there and so i really appreciate the effort that you've made to change that we've we've put a lot of efficiencies within our office we've developed the processes uh we maximize the efficiency we have and you know with less people it just become more difficult to provide the same level of service and that's just the reality of it so we would make adjustments you know we'd have to become more efficient we're trying to implement more technology to make that happen but there's simply no way we can absorb at a million dollar a million and a half dollar impact on our budget without having some level of service impacts how would you determine how to cut staff do you have a process in mind that you would use yeah mr power and i have discussed that um obviously we would not want to just uh yeah we would have you know through attrition we would have to do it uh we've already started looking at uh instead of a phone step right now we we uh answer the phones with a live person we'd be looking at maybe technology to help assist us with that ai technology to help us answer phones that could uh possibly help us with that but uh there's a lot of different avenues we we would try to do with that but we do have several retirements coming up and we would just not fill those um but it would just be a level of service that would have to be reduced um i can tell you right now our wait times of six and a half to seven minutes would not be maintained or at least double from that point we would expect um it would just be you know the the citizens would wait a little bit longer to be served um we'd still serve them uh accurately and and as promptly as possible but it would not be able to maintain the current level of service that we have uh one point i would like to make um and about 90 of our revenues come through property taxes but that represents only about 10 percent of our transactions the other flip side of that about 10 of our revenue comes from uh from state services driver's licenses and tag and title uh transactions that we do but that represents about 90 of our business so all of that is going to stay the same we're not we're not losing any of those services that we have to provide all of that will be maintained and even that tax bill we will still whether it's a two thousand dollar tax bill or a fifteen hundred dollar tax bill we're still collecting it we're still mailing it we're still distributing it we're still balancing it we're still doing the same thing we would be doing today just on a lesser dollar amount mr president is there any consideration of increasing the fees associated with some of the services that you provide as a way of making up revenue is that a possibility for you unfortunately um we don't have that ability to do that all of our fees are state mandated um all the services we provide and the fees that we are able to collect are state mandated uh so it would take the legislature action to make that happen thank you okay thank you thank you tell me next yes sir and uh we unfortunately we have some public safety representation as well so i think ryan lowry with the local iff union president is here as well mr lowry welcome thank you for being here ryan lowry i'm president local 3052 uh mr chair we represent as you know about 330 uh firefighters within elastro county in the city of newberry um and amendment three um as we all know is going to we understand it's going to create a very big challenge for y'all as a board uh if this thing passes and some budgetary concerns and uh challenges and decisions you're gonna have to make uh going forward um while 3852 we we recognize and support property tax reform we also support and recognize the need that a permanent change to our constitution requires adequate uh safeguarding of funding for public safety um and without that uh we can't support the amendment as written um so going forward we want to be a partner uh with y'all in helping identifying efficiencies and uh savings that we can look at and try to fund or find outside of uh uh our operations um and i think you could use us we we're on the ground and we know uh some of those things um that can be accomplished um but but that being said i think we would be very vocal and resistant to any cuts to personnel staffing or um equipment that would directly affect the citizens that we serve um they're used to a uh a uh line that we've been providing and uh and we don't think it's fair uh to make them wait longer response times or cut those services uh directly just to our our budget and we have to prioritize public safety as a top top factor we already run lean as it is uh nfpa 1710 recommends four man engine staffing on all our trucks we run three so we're already running lead especially on the east side of the county um cutting positions uh does more than reduce today's staffing increases overtime pressure makes leave harder to accommodates uh to accommodate it contributes to burnout um we have a big problem on top of the cost already we're gonna be uh in order to retain and recruit people to do the job we have to stay competitive around our surrounding counties and cities as a whole and that's just compla complicates the problem of amendment three as well um personnel are not the only cost um fire engines ambulances protective equipment medical equipment and other necessary uh items continue to to rise every year and become more more expensive and delaying uh the replacement or maintenance to help today might end up costing more in the future um and and just in closing again we we support the uh meaningful property tax reform with protections for funding for public safety and uh we're ready to work with y'all and the commission to uh help identify ways that we can make this work um outside of our direct uh responsibilities and uh i do believe there's a difference between finding efficiencies and reducing capabilities um our citizens deserve the best protection that we can provide and we can't balance this budget by giving them fewer firefighters fewer resources and longer response times when they call 9-1-1 i appreciate y'all's time thank you mr albert um i've had several citizens ask me about what the possibilities would be to combine the city of gainsville and alachua county fire services for efficiency for efficiency what's your feeling on how much money that could possibly save or would it save any at all um i i do think that there there is some duplication of services uh i definitely uh think that that's a multi-focal question and uh definitely a board level manager level uh discussion um that i know has been attempted uh years past and never successful um i think it's more than just uh combining there's a lot that goes into that oh absolutely yes but i think we can accomplish some of that with with some good agreements and interagency uh workability together that we can and we do some of that now so okay so there is maybe an opportunity there for increased efficiency yes ma'am i think we can we can help tighten that up a little bit and make it i mean i mean i i would say on that you know why do we think that one larger organization would be more efficient than two smaller organizations it doesn't always work out that way and so no that's why i asked the question and so i know um it's definitely got its ups and downs yeah there's there's there's a lot in that question it's a good question but there's a lot to whether this passes or not um commissioner wheeler quick question we're looking at the the impacts that this would have on our rural counties adjoining counties have you all been discussing any of this with any of the the agencies across county say like in gilbert or levy county with mutual aid yes ma'am um i i i don't know so much from a mutual aid that'd be a fire chief question on what kind of agreements and i do know we're currently providing mutual aid to them when they need it um under certain circumstances um they are uh they are the surrounding counties right now from what we've talked to and seen they're bolstering their um abilities to retain their people going forward they're implementing some schedule changes and some contracts that are uh tightening things up for them and making things look attractive so they can keep their people uh and that's what they're doing okay good okay thank you thank you thank you ryan thank you and uh we also have today sheriff scott is here and i believe you have a few things yeah scott welcome and i will remind the board that sheriff comes up we're not asking for any direction today we're not really bringing any recommendations we're just it's more of awareness and the potential of things that are to come yeah those discussions that we're talking will be had in january will be a lot lot more difficult and a lot more broad chef scott welcome thank you for being here i just want to make a statement today um right problem wrong solution florida homeowners are feeling real pressure from rising costs insurance groceries everything the desire for meaningful property tax relief is understandable and sheriffs agree it's needed but this amendment solves it in a way that puts public safety and other vulnerable resources at risk and will likely result in higher rents and a tax shift that will result in more fees assessments and separate taxes this would be a tax shift not a tax savings the numbers florida revenue estimating conference projects the amendments quantifiable self-executing provisions will reduce non-school local tax revenue by 4.6 4.96 4.96 billion in fiscal year 27 28 8.78 billion in fiscal year 28 29 11.8 billion annually and reoccurring these figures cover county municipal municipal and special district non-school levy statewide and don't account for further costs if non-school homestead property taxes eventually eliminated entirely in 2027 florida's taxation and budget reform commission is set to meet this gives subject matter experts a venue to find the best of both worlds meaning for tax relief while protecting the critical service florida floridians depend on rather than locking an unfunded cut into the state constitution i sheriff chad scott support the florida self-association by saying no to amendment three thank you sheriff any questions for our sheriff we appreciate you being here and your men and women here oh i'm sorry i just wanted to comment on you know one of the things that that i keep thinking about is the cost of keeping an individual in a jail and i know that you're not responsible for the jail numbers that that comes from uh court courts and judges and and other places but i think that one of the things that's going to be very helpful as we make these decisions going forward if we have to make them is going to be getting data from the jail and from court services about um the different kinds of people that are in our jail and and and how the that affects our numbers and how that overall cost you know i the last number i think i heard is 124 per person per day something like that and i think it might be more uh these days because we have so many more people with uh mental health issues which increases the cost i believe but i i feel like um that's a that's another conversation and i've been talking to some of your employees about that but i i feel like we we're going to have to go to our judges and talk to them about how we move forward better and i'm not talking about putting criminals on the street but i i do think that we we're going to have to figure out how to save money um there because it's one of our biggest expenses mr president yeah i just i wanted to since you brought that up i just wanted to share with the sheriff who this morning i did ask that we have um court services work with the court administration to try to kind of put together a study that would help us have better information and understanding about the population of our jail and what's driving up the numbers in our jail um and ways in which we might be able to address some of those issues i know that you all have been really proactive and already having those conversations with the courts and i wanted to thank you for that bringing the stakeholders together to sort of look at what are all the things that we could do pushing on doc to take the people that are sitting in our jail that belong correct in the doc to the appropriate locations um and just overall thinking strategically about this so there is now standing direction to get that report and kind of think about those numbers and really dive into them in a deeper way so we can do that analysis um and i also think there was a request today which um commissioner cornell and i and i think commissioner wheeler supported but we haven't made a motion on yet to look at the way in which we might be able to do first response for mental health and substance abuse first response that would be social services response that might reduce the cost of first response and reduce the numbers in our jail as well by providing that you know even kind of a step above the co-responder team being able to have some sort of a response longer term it might be an initial cost out the gate but i think long term it may create efficiencies and cost reductions overall um both for your team and for ours so anyway i just wanted to bring that up because it was a relevant conversation from this morning that i think is bears into what you're talking about right now so okay sheriff thank you thank you thank you mr chair okay mr cosby and we do appreciate them for coming and sharing their thoughts on the matter um it is a pressing issue happening november 3rd so i want to walk through a brief presentation just to kind of lay the conceptual framework of what will have to be considered and the three-hour conversation that we had this morning will be upended and resources will become a dominant conversation of how the strategic guide and what happens in the future so things will definitely dramatically change so what this presentation is today it's an early communication of potential fiscal year 28 and fiscal year 29 budget impacts it's a discussion of revenue and policy options for future consideration it's identification of potential impacts to partnerships and level of service what it is not is providing any recommendation list of funding cuts or revenue reductions it's not requesting decisions on programs or policy changes it's communicating it's not communicating a final budgetary deficit amount just building a framework one amendment three would change a homestead exemption would increase it would currently at fifty thousand dollars for county government would increase to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars beginning of fiscal year 28 would increase to two hundred fifty thousand dollars beginning of fiscal year 29 but then change every year by cost of living non-homestead property would also be have a cap reduced it is currently capped ten percent growth it would be reduced to five percent for non-homestead property also in the language is what is allowable expenditures the estimated we've been using uh 43 million dollars in 28 and 64 and 29 are based on 25 property tax roll and we are currently working on getting updated information now that we put the budget together for 26 and it's been over 27 it's been approved so 26 tax rolls will be considered the numbers you've seen statewide are much larger and they're basing it on more estimates and more futuristic estimates so we're working on more current numbers and if it passes we'll come back with more information options to close the gap obviously there will not be a silver bullet there'll be not one size fits all be a multi-faceted approach that we will have to take we'll look at millage rates current fund uh just keeping general fund county-wide millage rates the sheriff's law enforcement mstu we currently have two mstu's that have a zero millage on them that still exist the fire mstu and the unincorporated operating mstu assessment of these will have to be considered whether they are going to the full amount of the fire assessment study stormwater assessment solid waste assessment any consideration for new assessments anything we can identify with a benefit unit for parks or roads who would consider more entry fees rental rates of parks conservation lands those will have to be considered we will have to address our partnership agreements and a lot of policy decisions will have to be made we have a lot of agreements with municipalities for cost sharing and grants infrastructure surtax allocations where those dollars go to internally what we have provided to other municipalities and pass surtax formulas outside agency support gcra and cras and the comp plan elements that drive up costs service level impacts you heard some of that today from the tax collector you also heard from the fire union concerns over call response times service frequency satellite offices hours of operations facility closures delayed maintenance of improvements of infrastructure and program closures that's a broad list of things we're going to look at in detail but as you can tell that's a daunting task the first slide we're going to show and again we're not recommending anything we're just letting you know where how things stand at the current levels that we were looking at we can have no reductions in service route no reductions in costs and fill the gap with nothing but millage and tax increases which i believe sheriff scott mentioned would be a tax shift and so what you're looking at as in fiscal year 27 general county government village is 7.2 mills that we just passed 10 years in a row in reduction of millage the mst for law enforcement has been stable at 3.5679 the fire mstu again at zero to absorb this completely through millage tax increases in fiscal year 28 we would increase to 8.4 mills and millage for fiscal year 29 would report uh approach 9.4 mills in millage rates the mstu law would have to increase to 5.5 mills and we would have to reestablish the fire mstu to almost a mill so you're very close to your cap in your general county millage and you're back over six mills in your mstu for unincorporated residents that don't have homestead protection and the cap is 10 for the general and 10 for the mstus correct so also will greatly impact our municipalities who participate in our mstu for law and historically have been part of our fire so they have 10 mill cap as well so that mstu if they participate includes their city millage are capped at 10. so now those that are at seven or eight mills can no longer participate in mstus as you can see on the right the assessed values we just showed the change in taxes from the different levels of assessed value what is interesting is we'll look at 29 just for time purposes but at 29 if you have an assessed value of a home of 150 000 and you have homestead you're going to save twelve hundred dollars but when you get to 500 000 you're going to still save that same twelve hundred dollars and when you get to 750 000 you're actually still going to pay more in millage rate because the village rate is going to have to increase faster than your homestead protection will cover you so that's important to see and that's homestead property and non-homestead property you see the results for those that will be impacted by rent by rent or lack of rent control uh 755 dollars if they live in a house value if they rent a house value to 150 000 up to 3 700 a year for 750 000 so on the service side what does your property tax help support potential impact areas that we will be considering obviously you've heard today public safety and justice is a concern and a lot of touting of it being protected at the end of the day long-term financial resources are long-term financial resources they are what they are these things include fire rescue ems ambulance services eoc emergency management court services judicial services the jail and law enforcement community and human services that's our social service programs veterans housing programs community partnerships equal opportunity supervisor of election and animal resources our infrastructure and land our roads which we know the condition of roads and what we're trying to do parks land environmental protection and our facilities management then you have government operations the attorney's office budget fiscal service commission support communications county manager human resources information technology procurement property appraiser and the tax collector all those we were talking about today in the earlier meeting about the importance of those functions to make the programs in the public safety community health services within the individual areas fire rescue ems and emergency management services things that the board would have to consider we kind of category categorize into three areas one is revenue and reallocation of resources one is how we deal with partnerships and policy decisions and the last one is service level level so in the fire area in the ems area we're looking at possibly increasing the mstu to replace general fund subsidy a lot of what you're going to see is the general fund currently i believe the manager when she laid out about what the flexibility of the general fund dollars we use those to subsidize a lot of other areas that can't fully support themselves for different reasons so fire right now receive sales tax pst cst to support its functions that'll be come back to the general fund help offset those operations which means we have to replace it with something so we'll be looking at increasing possibly the mstu allocating to the maximum amount of the fire assessment which we haven't done raising assessment we can't do a new study and then we have to look at reallocation of ist funds and how we use our infrastructure surtax partnership of policy agreements we would have to revisit possibly cancel partnership agreements with the municipalities one of the big ones is our agreement city of gainesville in fire rescue response versus first people respond they support us in the county we were supporting them in the city we would have to look at those we look at our agreements with our small municipalities and how we provide support fire services and ems services of those communities and then our radio agreement which we took over a few years back and how we allocate those costs and making sure everyone pays their share and technology may get older before it gets repurposed service level impact again you heard the union president talk about concerns over ratios staffing ratios staffing deployments those are things we're going to be looking at restructure fire rescue staffing deployments ratios response times will suffer iso for homeowners could suffer on the insurance bills could have to close stations look at delay in opening new stations the critical care transport we started a few years back most of that has been migrated to peak load give relief in town for those peak load times for rescue they may have to go back to revenue generating out of county transport used to do a few years back integrate emergency management of the uc into the fire rescue operations all that's required by statute is have an emergency manager which can be your fire chief and have an erc plan of action and you're ready to operate that may have to be looked at court services and judicial programs over the years this board of passports have worked to reduce the cost of fees for those in the system we understand most of them already under financial constraints and things like incarceration probation have added costs that they weren't prepared for a lot of those fees we've rolled back we would have to look at reinstating those things that we could we also have fines for tickets we are not in the maximum we could charge more somebody gives us a speeding ticket those dollars go into programs such as the facilities program and port technology programs so we can maximize those partnership and policy agreements that we work with we provide staffing support in terms of resources for all the judicial offices law the law library guardian line of state attorney public defender court admin that will have to be reconsidered service level impacts we may consider outsourcing probation there are areas that that look at probation um outsource it for the amount that they can collect in fees we have a lot of discretionary programs that we use that i know is critical to this commit this commission and trying to prevent recidivism and getting people re-enter but they are discretionary nature treatment courts mental health training free trial programs community service programs and day reporting are a few of those examples sheriff county contracts have been touted that public safety goes untouched and there's just no way that can happen over time one of the things it make phone calls as a revenue generator that used to exist that we have now had a policy that those are free that'll have to be reconsidered our partnership of policy agreements we've always funded school resource officers at least 50 percent past it was more those are not required for us to fund that at that level so those agreements would have to be addressed we would have to work with the sheriff on how those agreements work ccc subsidies to other agencies we currently subsidize uh small municipalities the county does we readdress that the replacement the capital replacement fund of the ccc is built into the contract to fund it every year so they have costs for future replacement equipment have to have that discussion service level impacts things of the jail like the food choice enhancement that this board has been committed to enhance inmate medical care what that means is we are required to a certain standard of care but we do a lot of other things that we put money towards in terms of mental health and mental and treatment and counseling and things that we try to work with the sheriff on at the jail and then deferred facility maintenance we offer the condition of the jail it's not something we're all excited about but deferred maintenance is always something you have to consider we currently this year we've started putting five million dollars a year to handle large projects of refurbishment at the jail it's something we would have to take a look at community support services again our housing program is a part of the ist we'd have to look at what level of service we provide their allocations we provide their advice our best properties that we have on the roll we just opened a couple of different facilities to house help people with housing permanent supportive and rapid rehousing look at how those are funded long term partnership and policy meridian we've always funded a very high level community grant outside agency funding health department after hours programs assessment waivers grant matches subsidy reconsideration medical examiner so we some of our grants we match at a higher level than is required by the grant something such as ship assessment waivers we've done that through ordinance health department after hours you just received a report about its success that's something we started post-covid that we are and he showed you how it diverts people from emergency rooms and how it helps so there's a longer cost a higher cost of society necessarily whenever you cut some of these programs service level impacts the reentry program that we began two years ago some of the programs that we have a community services that are discretionary nature that help our citizens permanent supportive housing rapid rehousing social services community stabilization veteran services crisis all those are things that will be on the table to talk about policy decisions on animal resources so one of the things we look at is increasing fees where we could and charge people more which is going to hurt things like adoptions and people coming getting their animals etc so increasing fees fundraisers grant opportunities we'd have to look for more of those partnership of policies do we outsource the operations of animal services do we reevaluate partnership agreements with our shelters or how we're handling things with vets review our policies and we have a lot of policies we have in place that have costs attached to them require animals to stay longer in the shelter could be financial barriers for adoptions things like that we would have to consider new partnership opportunities of student organizations the jail you have vet school other ways that we could reduce cost service level impacts we would look at laying or canceling the new building that we have on the books we have not issued that debt yet or started construction that was not too far down the road or do we close operate shelter operations all together and just do statutory required dangerous health management economic development revenue and reallocation new costs of service study to increase fees so we do charge i know the 410 fund which is our our permitting fund it is sustainable but what do we do with the general fund that we can be charging for do we adopt additional impact fees and for developers do we look around we have some fire we have some for parks do we look at other impact fees that we should be leveraging against developers partnerships and policy rts agreements we renegotiate contracts of gcra mou and step down program you know that's only a couple of years away but those have substantial dollars going through specific areas reconsider cra extensions new cras and do we outsource technical assistance within growth management those are all things we will consider service level impacts the commission has provided additional bus services outside the city boundaries for fare free reduced headways unincorporated routes those would have to be reconsider our forward focus plan for east gamesville airport gateway project all those would be again on the table to discuss uf ipas aquaculture extension um we've always had a very positive relationship obviously we are the county that the main uf campus is in but we could charge rent to the uf for the active site to revisit the cost share with uf or cancel the agreement altogether there's nothing that says we have to have to have this this program service level impacts community outreach and educational programs would suffer operating hours and staff that could suffer so there's nothing in state statute that says ifas extension is required because the fact i talked to a number of counties who said that this passes the extension office will be closed yes and some have already notified the university of florida that they would no longer be continuing with the partnership and if they wish to stay rent would be required understood and i can just shoot knowing what i know about extension like this doesn't have funding to cover the cost of that so extension would effectively go away and the state did something to allocate additional resources to the university yeah it currently is 60 40 it's a 60 40 split they cover 60 we cover 40. but they're currently in every county that i correct 67 counties yeah okay i think based on the discussion this morning about a lot of food programs and agricultural community that's kind of a scary thought some other third largest economic drivers commissioner said after tourism and uh health care and education health care and education in our county public works um revenue and reallocation uh over the last several years we've obviously made a huge commitment to our pavement management program we would have to look at increasing the mstu for possibly increasing the mstu operating millage to help cover the general fund subsidy we do transfer almost seven billion dollars a year the general fund tax dollars to help support the pavement infrastructure in addition to the gas tax the infrastructure surtax reallocation of the ist and one of the things the board has always done is is tried to work with neighborhoods on the special assessment districts when they wanted them that is not required you can't impose them so that's something when people talk about how bad their roads are if their county maintain roads and neighborhoods they provide a benefit to the value of that property and they can be an sad partnerships and policies we would need to look at the comp plan requirements what are the things that drive up cost of the transportation system that aren't necessary aren't necessary sidewalks pedestrian crossing trees some of those things that are community driven that we would take a look at service level impacts again eliminate the general fund subsidy for roads reduce frequency of mowing grading tree trimming extend the life of our vehicles and response times meaning tree falls flooding happens it's going to take longer to get there to fix the situation environmental protection of lands look at increasing the stormwater assessment for clean water reallocate maximum cost to tree mitigation increase fees reallocate the ist to move away from buying new land into more maintaining lands that we have that we've purchased with the ist conservation land entrance fees something we don't currently do at the county partnerships and policies our tree mitigation program constraints we would look at our policies around that clean water partnerships and the mpd es program that we work with the city of gainsborough service level impacts things that environmentally friendly sustainability program resiliency program tree planting program and reduced subsidies in stormwater irrigation and landscape landscaping codes parks really look possibly to establish and increase fees for all parks and boat ramps increased rental fees for our pavilions in our in our facilities our partnership and policies modify partnership agreements for active rec and county parks to increase revenues and their responsibilities to maintain those facilities service level impacts could result in closed or reduced operation for parks reconsider summer camp reduce mowing and maintenance frequency county governance and administration a lot of these are one-time impacts sell future surplus buildings the indirect cost allocation while we do an indirect cost allocation we do subsidize some of the small funds and some of those that can't really take the hit we would have to every fund would have to stand on its own pay its full cost share we would fully chart we could look at fully charging or reducing support in a career source ppo children's trust reevaluate our membership in the rpc regional planning council look at our green procurement the cost of our green program look at equal equal opportunity public support programs and integrate eo into hr those are those ordinances service level impacts program manage uh performance management we went over this morning safety programs citizens academy community outreach broadcast frequency and communications operating hours custodial frequency of our facilities i.t projects enhancements and cyber security constitutional officers we've heard from a couple today we'd have to coordinate efforts to maximize fees and look for future grants and have more grants help us partnership and policy elections and statutory requirements currently elections elections office that allows for more early voting days than are required by statute we have to talk about those number of polling locations would have to be discussed what would be affordable municipal agreements for the sheriff's coverage sheriff has some uh agreements that we also subsidize that they'll pay full share service level impacts satellite office substation closures we would have to talk with the different constitutional officers about remote locations outside of downtown and then all that's going to end up resulting in longer responses or wait times here are some of those discussions today revisit our capital another one-time funding we have several projects slated that may have to be reconsidered our animal service building we've already discussed our acfr fire tower our acfr station 25 the renovation of the old courthouse phase two and our facility preservation program will be become more repair fix and less refurbished and renovate ahead of schedule we would have to reconsider our best practice policies on reserve budget reserves and fund balance reserves and what we maintain those will have to be a lot tighter and our grant matches then our current we have currently several funds that we've built up over time that may need to go back into the general fund one time the excess funds we still have for revenue cost recovery initiatives that we haven't spent tree mitigation funds and we would look at the ordinance that those apply to housing trust fund transportation trust fund and the energy cip program where we take savings and do future energy saving projects so all of those are the things that's a lot um again that that list is more than satisfies the need but not by much it would take a combination of those things of raising other revenues as well as considering level of service to get to the balanced budget so what's the next steps so again we wanted to bring this today the budget was you just passed a budget last month and the vote is november 3rd so we felt it was an appropriate time for the board to start thinking about what things look like in january which is when we would come back so monitor the election results we get updates from the property tax revenue estimates our estimates are much more conservative and less than what you're seeing at the state level they're building in more current tax year as well as growth models we're working with the property appraisers office to get more up-to-date information and we'll roll that out to the commission so that you can see it between now and november 3rd better estimates um now that we have a new budget and a new tax year we would update provide those tax revenue estimates and exemptions for the property appraiser we would analyze continue refining scenarios funding alternatives partnerships service level changes and other opportunities like it was mentioned this morning i thought it was very appropriate and appreciated to understand that the people in the fiscal office are looking at all the programs and it's passing through and they're taking a critical line they're not pushing paper they're looking at hey what do we have to do different here what can we do different here refine after the vote any subsequent legislative changes there is a thought that there may be a special legislative session if it passes to implement more implementation language that we would have to then figure out how to absorb during a budget update revenue estimates refine budget options and recommendations and that is when we would return to the board that's when staff would work with the manager and she would be preparing a lot of recommendations and what would work and what wouldn't work and we would come back at that time probably in january start this process in january return to the board with recommendations on both those revenue alternatives as well as service level impact so not great news but that is uh we believe it is needs to be out in front of you and the public to understand budgetary implications long term yes ma'am okay thank you mr crosby all right we got um some questions and comments yeah i did have some closing comments but i can wait oh go ahead okay yeah let's hear them um so i wanted to just emphasize uh a few points that i know you've heard today um but um also some of the the things we'll be looking at if we have to come back for recommendations so first um no single option presented today is going to solve the problem any workable response will require a combination of the approaches that you've seen that could include continuing some programs and services without change reducing levels of service increasing taxes taxes within the county's available millage authority increasing or adding fees and assessments where legally permissible identifying other lawful revenues delaying projects and reducing or eliminating programs services contracts or other expenditures the county could replace much of the loss as you saw by using its remaining countywide millage capacity but that is not a sustainable long-term solution once that capacity is exhausted there would be no remaining millage flexibility to address inflation or the continuing increases in fuel insurance personnel equipment and other operating costs it would delay the difficult decisions and leave a future commission with fewer options across the board reductions are also not a viable solution one department may be able to absorb a 15 reduction with limited effect on its core functions a 5 reduction to a smaller program and make that program unable to function equal percentages do not produce equal impact we also need to recognize that these choices may require the board to revisit commitments previously made to the community about how certain revenues would be used where the law allows the board may need to ask the community which is more important under these circumstances keeping that earlier commitment or preserving another program or service that residents also value those will be difficult policy decisions that require the board to weigh competing community priorities to make those decisions we need more than a list of programs and dollar amounts that's why we will need our department directors and subject matter experts to explain what each option would mean in practice they will need to tell us what is sustainable what makes operational sense and what the full consequences of each choice would be a reduction that appears manageable on a spreadsheet may affect response times operating hours public safety regulatory obligations infrastructure maintenance outside funding or the county's ability to provide another service although the revenue changes would not affect the current budget immediately we cannot wait until the next budget cycle to begin planning if we are aware they will occur and if it becomes necessary we will need direction because some decisions require time to implement responsibly if a program may be eliminated we should not continue filling its vacant positions as though nothing is changing we also need to provide reasonable notice to contractors vendors grant recipients and community partners if their funding may be reduced or discontinued as an initial step we have prepared a written notice that will be sent i believe this week we're working to get that sent out to all the affected parties with whom we are have agreements with that are impacted by property taxes it explains that agreements funded in whole or part by property tax revenue may be reviewed for continuation reduction restructuring consolidation or elimination it is intended to be informational only and does not change or terminate any current agreement no final decisions there have been made it is important to note however that county's agreements including multi-year agreements are subject to appropriation so nothing presented here today is a final decision it's not a final list or or as i said earlier what we would ultimately recommend today gives us a starting point if property tax revenue is reduced we will return with further analysis of the available options and may recommend certain actions for the board's consideration and then the board with input from the community would then need to re-establish its priorities as we mentioned from the strategic plan today would need to re-establish its priorities based on the resources available and weigh the trade-offs involved and that may be the difficult work that lies ahead of you okay thank you miss Lieberman all right we've got some questions and comments uh commissioner albert uh thank you um commissioner wheeler there there was a lot of discussion about um fees tommy in terms of you know increasing fees here and there and everywhere um is there is there a preemption that would keep us from offering fees on some sort of a sliding scale with discounts for seniors or folks on public assistance there no ma'am aware of there's no preemption from being able to just like we have waivers for um solid waste fees and those so i think um and we also have exemptions and even the property tax for seniors i bet so i don't think there's any preemption and considering that during a piece structure okay all right thank you and then um you know i really appreciate this emphasis on creating sort of a framework for determining what we decide to change how we fund i think that having some sort of a a um thought process as to you know prioritizing whether it's public safety or whether it's um you know infrastructure or how how we you know rate each thing going forward having kind of a you know something that this this board has a lot of feelings that we put into the decisions that we make and i think that in order to make some of these decisions we're going to have to be a lot more dispassionate about how we think about certain things and having a rating process that helps us do that is you know might be really useful and really hard to address but i i feel like you know it's the engineering part of my brain just goes there um i think that the other thing i think is going to be critical is contract management getting exactly what we pay for i mean looking at things like cutting some of the the jail contracts that you know we've made for enhanced medical care and enhanced food service but then you know i've been questioning whether or not we've been getting some of those things in a cost effective way to begin with because of um you know contract management so i feel like having an emphasis on you know making sure that the money that we are spending is getting you know fully uh getting what we what we think we're supposed to get on those things important i also have a question with regard to lessons learned from like 2008 to 2011 is what can you say about that i mean you were here for that right i wasn't here but i was in government yes ma'am the one difference is that was a national not just government issue that was home values plummeted um through foreclosures so that would just say you know unemployment was skyrocketing it was it was a economic disaster for everyone um which collectively people understood the pain to help each of the get out of it this one is more focused on the services we provide and the in the efforts that we're making to help the people we're helping there are some fundamental things in any time you so for example i was at the school board we had to cut 34 million dollars during that crisis and back then 34 million dollars was like 70 million dollars is to us today and so there were a lot of things that happened level of service and that's mainly what you will look at and that's probably the main concerns you've heard today is what is that response time what is the wait time in the tax collector's office what is the response time for someone from the road department to cut a tree out of a road what is the response time for fire rescue to get it get somewhere to take care of someone so those are what you're going to see also your infrastructure it always takes a hit in a budget world we always acknowledge that infrastructure can't speak and therefore its voice isn't heard and so deferred maintenance happens almost automatically reissue refinancing all of our debt extending our debt out to lower front end cash payments cash needs there'll be structural things that we set up financially to try to relieve it but at the end of the day there'll be some policy decisions that will be uncomfortable that will end up that the board will have to talk about and those will be the difficult decisions because of the quality of life issues and how this board has approached and the community wants a quality of life here so some of those things that are we would take as second nature here of course we have an animal shelter here we've always handed animals that's the type of community we have and the type of community we want now all of a sudden we're thinking about what that means so those are the things that it will mean hi um you know a lot of the citizens that i talked to seem to that are in support of amendment three and again i'm not telling people one way or another which way they should vote but there seems to be this perception that we could manage all of this by cutting all of our pet projects whatever those are which um you know as i read this list i don't see pet projects and uh you know while yeah there are a few things that um i know you know i've worked on commissioner prisley's we've all worked on some project um you know we don't ever work on a project unless we feel like there's a significant payback to the community in some way but in terms of um looking at discretionary dollars i mean we're way beyond that so i would encourage and and i almost thought about putting it here again um you know mark has posted what we did at the the budget meeting and i think that's critical piece that you know you we do hear that you have a 970 million dollar budget surely you can find this you know 50 million dollars 70 million dollars well when you take away the things in that we talked about the reduction of just accounting transfers thing that have no financial impact at all they're just moving money around fund because how we account for it or mandatory things that the state tells you you will spend money on or restricted sources of funding that only require these things then you get into that discretionary list which is much smaller and it's that it's more like 150 million or 200 million dollars it's much much smaller then it becomes 25 percent of your discretionary of your ability to spend money and so i think that is important that we continue to let people see that budgetary presentation to understand where that discretion is and like you said some of this goes beyond discretionary this goes beyond how we even provide mandatory services anymore and what that impacts so we're going to still provide them but it may be a much lower service level so i think that's a great point that you brought out and i would encourage everyone to kind of share that that presentation to share that and and the last thing i want to say is this something that i learned in fact that i i don't think is being talked about very much but that the every 20 years there is a committee that comes together that looks at our property taxes and makes recommendations for changes like increasing the homestead exemption and interestingly enough that committee that meets every 20 years was scheduled to meet in 2027 next year to share yeah and i i just i want the public to hear that because change was coming there was an expectation that the um the exemption would be increased and it would be increased carefully by a committee that was going to look at all the different impacts and options as it does every 20 years and i think that you know allowing the process that the state has put into place to um you know to self-correct and time makes so much more sense than than this you know referendum which is um really really i think really really frightening so um i you know again um i'm not telling anybody which way to vote because everybody has their own take on this but i feel like people understanding that there was something else that was about to happen and you know i guess it will happen at some level is um you know there was change cut thank you commissioner uh mr lieberman before we get to commission yeah i just wanted to um to build on what tommy had said is what we really wanted to um impress through this you know upon um the public through this presentation is lawfully available funding sources so regardless of what that headline budget number is we have lawfully available funding sources for certain things what you saw today is funded in whole or in part by property tax as the predominantly lawful available funding source law enforcement public safety in general is a huge one of those um ems fire services um a portion of fire and all of ems they can't be funded out of the fire assessment and they are subsidized um to a cost of about 75 million dollars out of the general fund law enforcement is about 130 million plus the subsidy for our fire ems and emergency management we're over 200 million we're only collecting about 220 million in property tax so in order to fund all of those other things that are required to be funded lawfully out of a flexible funding source not the restricted funding sources we're already down to you know 100 million dollars to fund everything else that the county does social services parks um yeah environmental protection um animal services uh roads um that are not covered by grants right so it's already but there is no other available source is the point that we're trying to make these that is why these are on the list is they're funded in whole or in part by property tax and are we're limited in the options of finding other ways to fund thank you i may have delivered commissioner wheeler just a quick question about uh municipalities that are going to be affected by this yes you know we had um we we've had heard talk about the smaller counties throughout the northern particularly areas that may actually really disappear you know in terms of not having the resources that they need but our local municipalities you know at one point archer was even looking at the possibility of having to become a part of the county do we see this as the potential for the outlying municipalities being affected by this to the point where they then become part of the county and no more longer their own i would never want to speak anything into existence i i will say that i believe that they will have a very difficult time okay addressing it um things such as participating in the mstu for law enforcement so they may have to go back to base services for law enforcement or in the fire well fire assessment is an assessment but anything they participate in that we have an mstu they they're gonna have to reconsider that because they're going to be pushing up their top mills the things that we do to help the very small communities the lacoste contracts the making up your contracts and in those areas and they're going to have even harder times so um yes i believe they're financially going to be constrained and things that make cities identifiable in their community they identify themselves with their police departments and we've seen that the high springs discussions they they like their fire department they want to have their own fire department their own police force they really they don't want to be a part of a different system because that's their community those are going to be very much more difficult for them to maintain right the cra's i mean the other partnerships you're talking about partnerships with exactly communities that will no longer help them be a community right or their own town right and i didn't know how that's going to impact in the county then financially if we have to absorb or do we have to absorb well that would be a yeah that would be a very broad conversation but yes there will be certain obviously those services will have to be passed on if if they do discontinue existence then we are responsible they're counting now okay all right thank you thank you do you have anything before i make my comments i do have a few things i just i first want to say thank you to staff i know this is not an easy presentation to put together i really appreciate that you communicated to our whole entire team and to all of our con or we're going to communicate to our contractors what this means and what this doesn't mean and i want our staff to know that we're committed to really working hard to make sure that we protect all as many jobs as we possibly can in this process like we recognize you all have been public servants working hard with less and less every year we've cut our budget every year since i've been on this dais and we've worked really hard to continue to drive better and better services in this county with less and less millage and you know and i think we're a testament to what's possible when you put your mind to it in that regard so this is extra frustrating for me as somebody who feels really committed to a lot of the hard work we've done and it feels a little bit like double cost double accounting because now we've done all this work to build these programs to build all these services and to provide the support while also cutting our village and now we might have to cut all those programs that we spent all that money tax dollars and time and energy and resources to build it's a waste of time it's a waste of money it's very frustrating however i will say that mary i'm not sure that i agree with you about the idea of sort of an engineering and dispassionate look at our budget i feel like i feel like if we're going to do this and this if this if this comes to fruition we need a public budgeting process like we need to involve the community and the conversation about what this looks like and really hear from them about you know here's the services that we provide here's the public safety services and the level of service impacts that we could be facing um in the sheriff's office and the fire rescue in community support services in parks and rec environmental protection and hear from them um and try to get as much of a public budgeting process as we can i think both can happen yeah yeah i mean i do think at some point we do have to have some set of criteria it can't just be you know everybody fighting for the thing they think is the most important thing or we'll never get anywhere but i do think we need to be i think we need to be thoughtful and passionate because at the end of the day what i do see in this commission and in this community is that the work that we've done with our tax dollars has been to focus on building a community that has a safety net that has a thoughtful approach to public safety that's not just about like being there when phone call comes for an emergency but focusing on prevention focusing on the ways in which we can reduce recidivism focusing on the ways that we can have better supports for fire rescue so that we don't have so many crises and emergencies out of the gate and now we're talking about ungraveling all of that and creating situations where we just have to kind of wait for the other shoe to drop you know this is all under the context of also seeing that fema cuts are coming snap cuts are coming housing cuts are coming or have come and we're going to see more people needing local government services than ever before with less federal funding available for it and now potentially less local funding available for it so i don't have anything specific to say except for venting about my frustration to say thank you to our staff and to our constitutional officers for being here and for being part of the conversation and to say to the community we're going to need your help prioritizing what we do with the resources we have left because this isn't going to be an easy process can i respond um i i want to say that i i i when i say dispassionate i don't i don't want to think people i don't want people to think that that means that i'm not thinking about people or people people caring i'm talking about more of kind of a a rating structural system where we you know look at the impacts and and and rate what does our community get out of this right and so when i thinking when i'm thinking about it dispassionately it's more about looking at it from that analysis side not more of a process oriented thing um you know there's there's a practicality there's a practicality to that that i think that it would give us a starting point when we have those conversations with the public because we can say you know we we believe that this affects three percent of the people in our county but this affects 27 right right those kinds of thoughts so that's that's where i was coming from i just wanted to make sure that i didn't come across as um thinking that anybody thinking that we were just going to look at you know only roads and not um but but we can get very passionate about a few people in our community because those people are important and i'm not saying that they're not but when we get down to brass tacks we're going to have to figure all that out yeah that makes a lot of sense yeah thank you for clarifying yeah when you said the engineering comment i i just have the cpa mind kind of comment so i i understood what you were saying um with the idea that people are first so right i don't have any prepared comments but i have a bunch of notes from what i heard and so you know i just want to say a few things yesterday i saw you know the governor did a press conference about the new law that requires local governments to have a public uh process for 10 percent reduction in their annualized budget and i had someone come up to me and say you know what do you think about that and i said that's government efficiency we literally do that every year yeah so i think that's great and i i don't really think much about um about that because it's something that we have asked our budget office and they go through the process along with the manager of figuring out how can we do more with less they do that every single year that's not what amendment three is amendment three is actually changing the way our constitution is written and the grand bargain where the state has sales taxes and they have things that they do and local government has property taxes and they're responsible for public safety and local services and that's what they do that's what this is it's a change in how local government is funded so before i say the next few things i want to reiterate what my colleagues have said what anna has said specifically to our staff they are and i hope they're all watching they are our most important expenditure because they are on the front lines serving our constituents every single day we have asked our staff to let us know what the potential impact if this passes is and to create a framework and i think you guys have done with all of the departments just an amazing job uh and i and i i and i really appreciate it because if the state passes this and that's a point right it's it's not a last word county is not going to decide this last word county has a 2.3 percent percentage stake in what the state require uh decides and this is really a one-size-fits-all we have 67 counties that are as uniquely different as anywhere else but we're going to have something on the ballot where seven or eight counties miami-dade palm beach brevard broward hillsborough pinellas duval a couple of others are going to essentially say to the state this is how local government either should be funded or should not be changed and i think that's an important point because we commissioners will be able to look at our county and see how our county voted have public dialogue if it does pass and then and then create using this framework a plan i really also want to say how much i appreciate our constitutional officers you know to have the tax collector to have our sheriff to have um all the constitutionals kind of go through this with us and to be here today to speak to the public um i i want to thank you all i want to thank our union rep who spoke on behalf of our fire safety representatives um you know public safety is 56 60 percent of our budget it is what this board has prioritized with regards to how the taxpayers funds are spent they're not our money that's their money and and you know and i agree with what the sheriff said right problem maybe i don't know if it's a problem statewide it's probably a problem i don't feel like it's a problem in elastricht county but right problem wrong solution and we all want lower taxes um and and this elastricht county commission has recognized and acted on that for more than 10 years we've lowered the mills rate and this year knowing how important it is we actually did the did the rollback rate so you know i was listening to this i was thinking about all the things i've been hearing um you know i'm on the i'm talking to voters every day and commissioners i have to say you know we are elected and and we are expected to by our constituents to speak truth to power and so in my opinion from my perspective in my opinion i think amendment three is a scam and i think that the legislatures that passed it know it and i'm sorry that um they did that some of them i've talked to that said i don't know why we did it because we don't know what we're going to do if it passes um but you all will figure it out and that's just in my opinion not the right way to govern um the great state of florida i've heard other people say why are they trying to make us i'm not even going to say another state but we are the great state of florida for a reason because our constituents we provide services to them that are important not the least of which is public safety and if this is passed it's not going to result in a tax reduction the sheriff said it it's going to be a tax shift to the people that can least afford it like renters it's going to be a service reduction to the people people that most need it that's just not um in my opinion good government 64 million in the last four county mstu is 13 million that's those are deputies on the road 13 million children's trust three million library district six million the league of cities has said there's over 400 cities in five years half of them are gone they're just going to be gone and so i think voters though i trust them and i think they're getting educated and they're learning about what this means um and and they understand that just because you remove a revenue stream that the costs don't go away the cost to provide a deputy with the equipment that he needs to be safe and keep our community safe it continues to go up the cost for a fire truck it's double what it was four years ago those costs aren't going to go up just because the revenues go away so um you know i'm just going to kind of in conclusion say uh like uh like many of what i've heard today and what i heard our sheriff say today that i think you guys can tell i i just don't think it's a good idea and um i trust the voters and if it passes statewide we now i think have a framework from which we will work from listening first of all to our community about what's important how do we continue to provide services to the people that um need it and we're going to be okay i i i am nervous about our fiscally constrained counties 29 in the state five of them around us you know union bradford gilchrist levy putnam these are fiscally constrained counties um and many of their citizens work in our county and so it's going to have an impact in north central florida for sure the city of gainesville's impact is 12 million they're going to be okay too you know but um those are my thoughts uh the those are my personal opinions i just want to make that clear and i want to again thanks that so there's no action that we're doing but i do there's a lot of folks here and i want to provide an opportunity for the folks that have come and spend the time to give us their thoughts and so is it okay if we open it up yeah so we're going to go ahead and open up a public comment if you want to come speak to us come up to this podium um or this podium you'll have three minutes we got a clock introduce yourself uh i see nancy darren back there you're ready to jump up so nancy come on up you can start us off and uh and then we'll hear from whoever wants to speak to us i see um miss solomon's here too i didn't know i can i do thank you for being a property present darren i'm going to try not to cry for the presence of all you incredible commissioners staff constitutional officers all the ones we don't see here you folks have given us so much i tried to watch a lot of the strategic plan meeting this morning and the contrast is just it's it's so excruciating it's so wrong all the work all the quality of life and everything you've done i just we are the luckiest county in this whole state and probably in most of the states of the country so to start with gratitude and i think engaging the public because it's so stupid with this commission for you know it's happening next year and people are confusing that housing has gone up so much most people can't even afford it anymore and you cut your rates and your prices go up you know when the crash happens then what happens it's the insurance which now is really going to be jeopardized in this state and it already is and they i i think we're going to have an even worse insurance crisis than we do now um i took the community conversations course that donna bradbrook started years ago and we did a uh we were all at lofton and we all got cards about here's the budget we had a presentation and here are the options and how are you going to prioritize how we spend the money so much of this is you folks work so hard to engage the public and we have a responsibility to learn how to be citizens again we've been told for decades now we're consumers we aren't even customers and i want we have to become citizens again and stand up for you and with you and and make this all work together because how we're going to get through i think is with the circular economy that you all have made efforts despite the institutional preemptions and inertia and so looking at how do we come together in mutual aid and public service and we we stretch every dollar and we keep it local because the more we keep it local we get four bucks for every dollar that we put in and so if anybody can do it we're going to do it um i'm trying to educate get my neighborhood excited four of them took citizens academy and it's really changing my neighborhood to understand so i hope we can do that all over thank you thank you okay appreciate it thank you all right next speaker please come on up anyone else don't want that's what merrily are you going to say you're here well you come say it then yeah people probably want to hear more from you than me merrily malwitz gibson uh i am a candidate for state house of representatives so uh thank you for allowing me to speak today and uh the constitution uh what uh ken was speaking about that is where our campaign is interested in this uh particular issue it shouldn't be a constitutional amendment it should be something local rule a home rule and that's how i think our taxes should always be handled um even though we have appropriations of course in tallahassee that provide us all kinds of wonderful things in our communities ultimately i don't think this type of referendum is something that florida needs especially because of the constitutional moment uh and that's really all i wanted to say um my campaign is not in favor of it um we don't need to also be raising our taxes either uh i also see that there's a lot we can learn from these exercises because that's about what we're experiencing going over all of this ad nauseum in every different community for probably the past at least 10 months i've been to so many different counties even counties that are not in my district because i attend meetings outside of my i live in fort white i attend meetings outside of where i live because of my business i own and operate room 138 and so uh even in gilchrist county which you touched upon uh they were struggling last year even trying to understand um the type of deficit they're going to be experiencing which is at that time they were talking about seven million dollars of a deficit i don't know if they've figured out a different way again it's an exercise right where can we shift our monies around and that's kind of our priority is what is our priority um so i really appreciate uh latching county always i just uh left bradford county this morning and they're going through the same prop everybody's going through the same processes oh and i did want to touch upon since aisha is here uh heirs property uh i've attended her seminars uh for heirs property or at least one of them and in high springs we see that as uh not only high springs but we're seeing heritage families and people who have generational wealth associated with their real property uh something in this space uh should also be talking about those uh challenges in terms of when you when you inherit a property or when you you know sell it for a hundred dollars or whatever that is to your next family member as it goes in our in our way of doing um our sales or our our gifting to our family members uh that tax is hurting people uh the tax that comes from now the new ownership the next generation owning this property they can't afford these taxes a lot of them uh in my community anyway and they are losing their properties on the courthouse steps and if there is any moment in this space that we can um dig into that after november 3rd uh that tax relief is necessary um some sort of way to uh uh uh some sort of way to to deal with that uh because that's really important where we are thank you thank you marilee that's a really good point anyone else yeah um really appreciate um the salomon property appraisal and work that she's doing on haired property it's really making an impact on a number of family lives so thank you all right anyone else all right we're going to close public comments mr uh tommy before you start mr chair um i do want to take the opportunity i did a little bit at the last budget meeting but when you're preparing a budget with this looming the entire fiscal year 27 budget then the preparation of this effort and the time and effort i do you know a lot of proper praise has been presented to the uh the constitutionals and directors and all but mo and alex and alex and stephanie have done a yo miss task in the budget they need more recognition than i have given them so anyway i just wanted to mention that thank you thank you for mentioning that thank you you guys are amazing yeah you really are amazing fine copies for a dollar i'm very lucky to have you all right anything else on this item commissioners i i just also want to to tommy's point i also wanted to say he said this earlier about the budget book being big and i would just say you know i get praise from people all the time about the transparency of our budget and how much information we give the public and i have been to other municipalities and to other institutions where they get a 30 page budget summary book and it doesn't have any of the information and as somebody who came into office not being someone who was like digging into budgets necessarily like it that our budget book was so important to me really understanding the operations and and being able to actually have the conversation we're having today about difficulties and how we're going to make those kinds of decisions so i would just encourage you keep that budget book big keep the transparency there keep giving us all the information we i'm working on the font right now yes but the font could be adjusted we're all literally all going blind but other than that me too you're a budget person okay all right so next up we've got commission comment any we covered some of them this morning you heard what we did this morning do you have anything no i just want to apologize for not being here this morning sorry got anything new okay anything come up in the last hour mary hill no but i didn't want to say that i went to the uh ribbon ribbon cutting of uh jesse's village that the hutchinson group put together oh great i'm really sorry i missed that oh it was amazing yeah and i'm real excited to see what they're going to do with our property too yeah i am too you got the right working on the people yeah okay we will meet again i guess on tuesday for our first meeting in october and if there's nothing else we are adjourned