good afternoon everyone welcome to our workshop meeting this monday september the 15th the clerk would kindly call the roll commissioner marker here vice mayor long is not here commissioner cassell here deputy vice mayor burns here mayor carney here thank you very much uh we have our item of today which is the finalization of our fiscal year uh 25 26 proposed operating budget um we want to do public comment first in case anybody wants to comment on the budget and then okay so we will we will do that prior to our discussion um so everybody indulges we're going to start off with public comments so ladies and gentlemen this is time for public comment and if you're wishing to address this matter of the budget please come to the lectern give your name and address for the uh for the record you will each have three minutes this is it if you're anyone who wants this is it this is the moment that you'll pass this out to locate a diagram but i think if you dwell on it for three seconds you'll understand my name is mark ronald i'm a resident of the town uh 722 second street and uh i believe that you've got the process upside down most businesses i've been on run a 15 billion dollar business been on the board of a hospital universe nyu notable universities guest lectured at business schools and most families decide what they can afford and they live within what they can afford because they don't have the luxury of saying let's come up with some extra money and the second point i would make is there are very few things that are fixed costs your mortgage may be a fixed course but if you're out of money you've got to sell your house concept of fixed costs is not fixed and there's a lot you can do over time and sometimes instantly when you just don't have the money this town is raising the cost to the citizens eleven percent there's been a lot of debate about little numbers but it's eleven percent how do i get eleven percent the millage rate is going up four point four percent i'm rounding it's actually four point four one eight percent the values of the properties and i'm now excluding any new properties the value of existing properties from 24 to 25 2024 to 2025 are going up by the assessed values are going up by 6.556 percent if you add 6.6 roughly and 4.4 you get 11 so the taxes are going up from the town of 11 if you take the total amount of money collected in taxes and divide it by the number of properties that are taxed the average number is going up by 11 if i convert that to dollars easier and i know i'm i don't know if i'm under roast or not but i'm prepared to go under oath you're not under oath okay these numbers come from the taxing authority these are public numbers the average tax bill is going up 320 that's an average admittedly the mean may be different 320 dollars from the town in addition to that all the other millages the largest of which is of course the county that base property value even though they're not planning to change the millage rate that tax is also going up 6.55 percent because the assessed values of the properties are going up if you add that to the average property value within delray beach the average taxpayer is paying going to be paying 490 dollars more we are not talking about small sums i need you to wrap up yeah i think i have wrapped up okay thank you very much i gave you a little leeway because there's nobody in line thank you so is there anybody else wishing to uh for public comment seeing none then public comment is closed we now go to item number one which is the finalization of the fiscal year 25 26 proposed operating budget consideration i turn it over to mr moore thank you mr mayor good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and we are simply here this afternoon in response to direction and guidance offered during the september 3rd regular meeting relative to any opportunities to identify ancillary efficiencies prior to the city of delray beach considering considering the final adoption of the fiscal year 2025 2026 proposed budget this also takes under consideration the requests coming from the delray beach public library of an additional 55 000 contribution to assist them with the operations as they discussed in previous engagements including their july presentation to the commission having taken place july 15 2025. the office of the city manager along with the office of chief financial officer henry daco has spent the previous days working closely with all departments that are heavily dependent on general fund resources to do what we can to identify our respective efficiencies and operations and we are pleased to share that we've come up with about 507 000 or a little over half million dollars in additional efficiencies that you've all been provided a copy of this past thursday and that's been uploaded as part of the presentation so for purposes of this dialogue further i've asked chief financial officer henry dacoist to offer a brief presentation to summarize how we got to that place so that of course dawson considerations can be offered by the city commission as we prepare for the regular meeting opportunity later this evening mr dacoist if you would please thank you we were tasked with trying to find additional efficiencies we went to all the departments and this is a summary you'll note the largest efficiencies are found in the departments with the largest budgets at least 100 000 fires 79 000 public works parks then we had other items the gross amount was almost 586 000 but we did have the requirement of additional expenditure of 55 000 for the library and some other adjustments so the net effect is a positive to the budget of 507 000 going into the detail it's in front of you that's how the police got their 100 000 and fire got their 79 000 and so on so each department is a summary of all the details so we went through each department had went through their department in great detail and the total comes up to 507 000 may i mayor i'm sorry yes are we uh this pressure cleaning of the downtown sidewalks how do we take that out all we get complaints about is how our downtown isn't clean there's gum on the streets 75 000 we're taking that out of the budget to clean the sidewalks planning professional services i'm assuming that's training right obviously the american legion that's a good one because that one i pulled out i mean i the list i provided and you and i sat and i appreciate you addressing those things some of this training do you have training and then where's the neighborhood and community services are you taking out training in that department this was the list that we had summarized for the for the efficiencies okay i just think that in some instances i'd be concerned about taking out training in departments where we're complaining that we have issues with people following policies not understanding and knowing policies and the like i i'm trying to understand you needed to find the 55 the last time we all sat here the budget looked good i brought that list and i appreciate you addressing that but we weren't what what what is the impetus for you to go have to find another 500 000 if we were above our reserves number what is the what we were a balanced budget the last time we met right so now i understand you're adding 55 so presumably you need to find 55 but what's the difference what are we getting and what you're showing us what we're losing here what you're taking out what are you doing with that additional money so that's an opportunity for us to consider so with the identification of a net 507 000 an opportunity does exist for the commission as we prepare for the upcoming regular meeting session in terms of what can be utilized in that regard as far as training opportunities there are a number of abilities that department directors enjoy as far as electronic medium other resources to efficiently expand and engage training so opportunities will continue in that regard we just made a commitment as we discussed during the september 3rd meeting to take one final attempt at identifying efficiencies and operations and i believe that was the consensus at the time so this is what we've come back with it is pretty efficient but again we don't see fit to do to make any additional adjustments in this regard so the commission will have an opportunity at the workshop meeting today to discuss what can be done in this regard or are there any specific questions or concerns i'll ask specific department directors to come up and address that so where is that five hundred and seven thousand dollars that we now have come upon going in within our current budget under what line item are you putting that well commission contingency because you just said that's going to be for the commission to use do you have specific ideas in mind not a contingency of course there's an opportunity to tweak the fund balance for example i mean that's a good approach i'm always good about tweaking the fund balance but not i feel like i did not want to go down to 21 but we agreed and i don't want to take training away bless you from a department if it's going to impact our policies and procedures i don't believe it will i don't believe it will and that was part of the criteria to evaluate opportunities in that regard and working closely with the directors to get to that place however the five hundred seven thousand dollars that has been identified including the opportunity for the library for the consensus of the commission for example the fund balance adjustment will bring it from 20 the current position based on what we discussed september 5th placed us at 21.1 this will bring it to 21.4 so it moves the needle in that regard so that would be a cogent opportunity in terms of what makes sense given the interest on part of the commission in terms of what can be done with the resources and again any opportunity to expand our savings account has merit so in response to the thoughts and observations you've just shared miss casal as well as previous one-on-one conversations i would make that opportunity available if the city commission so sees fit to do so and can i ask you a question with the with the cuts that you're contemplating in training does that mean less certification no certain so so police and fire will still be able to meet their certifications or other departments yes they will training yes they will still meet all the state requirements yes we did again working closely with the department directors leadership of each department we simply identified hey efficient opportunities in which we can get to this place a function of scheduling making obligations happen before the close of the fiscal year there immediate a myriad of opportunities to to get to that place so that we can be whole in that regard so this is by no means an attempt on part of us to curtail or compromise ourselves in this regard whatever we can do to achieve ancillary efficiencies prior to the the adoption of the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year half million dollars is nothing to sneeze at and again i just presented a fairly cogent opportunity in terms of what can be what what how that can benefit the city in terms of fund balance and and when what what was your thinking around general inflation going forward next year i mean we've we've been hit pretty good so far this year yes we have go to the grocery store yes sir are we planning on our our ability to acquire products and services not going up are we we not planning to see a three or four or five percent increase i mean and we yes sir we would have to take that under consideration so i would like to briefly but is that part of the is that been considered in this budget or are we just operating on hope hoping things will will stay flat which no hope is not a strategy no no so that's a separate process for 2026 2027 however for 2025 2026 for which we are contemplating the expenditure recommendations take that under consideration so there's been a number of editorial comments about increases price increases etc as you just articulated mr market that's across the board so every municipality is hit in that regard we talked about this months ago and therefore our recommendations to to take under consideration inflationary pressures as well as identifying efficiencies and operations above and beyond what we just talked about here today was all taken under consideration so what we've achieved is a balanced budget recommendation it did necessitate a slight tweak in the military given the complexities that were experienced in last year's budget direction or military direction it's all encompassed in this consideration so to answer your question yes as far as the upcoming fiscal year we'll have to follow a similar approach as we monitor inflationary pressures cost of living adjustments capital not so much cost of living adjustments but consumer price index considerations in terms of the aggregate to to the consumer so that's all taken under consideration anytime a proposed a balanced budget proposal is made available and we've been speaking about this since back in march we talked about that clearly the specific example or the specific task that we addressed is what we defined as the municipal rate of inflation the municipal rate of inflation being somewhat greater but typically greater than revenues coming in not to mention the aggregate economic state of affairs relative to inflationary repression so all of that is taken under consideration and thus the recommendation to move forward we just again identify some additional no efficiencies and operations based on the commitment we made back during the september 3rd public hearing and the basis for this workshop so that we can consider what this can achieve or contribute so yes it does please forgive me for being loquacious i'm just a little excited i've been known to be loquacious too long-winded by the way ladies and gentlemen i do that a lot are you you're only on p i'm seeing page one of two so you're are you went to two and you already went to two and back i know i know you went to two but i'm just saying is your presentation complete yes it is okay um i just want to take a quick quick couple uh words um respectfully you don't look at your regular inflation rate when you judge what your inflation rate of the city is we don't cities don't go out and buy bread we don't buy milk we don't buy this we don't buy that so trying to compare it to but i already disagree with you i see a little category here called office supplies right i understand i mean we do we do buy all sorts of stuff around the city mayor i don't know where you're coming up with that statement but that's not true okay well but it's not true the operative word you use is a little no no no i take little back and that was meant to be humorous which you're not the city mr dakowitz would like to answer could i just make a point one way of thinking about increasing costs sixty percent of our expenses are payroll exactly right most people get five percent increases at least plus this coming year is the implementation of fire going from 2448 to 2472 plus we just signed the police contract so i just i hear you i hear you but like it's real but the point is you're not real sometimes and you're not being real right now payroll oh you don't want to get it you know you don't want to you you don't want to debate me on it oh bring it on oh bring it on i mean i really would rather not i would just say any day the way we finance good bring it on the way we construct the budget we start with payroll because it's the most important piece but it basically goes up five percent a year then we have contracts that are renewing every year with an escalation i was just i was just making the comment that um uh i guess everywhere else other than delray operates on the municipal cost index because when a city buys insurance it's not the same as a house buying insurance because it's an average rate down when the city buys anything equipment leases everything is a different kind of standard of inflation understanding that for the employee out there there's still going to be an increase i don't know where you work sir that's not the case okay i've worked in fortune 5000 companies and that is not the case okay it just isn't you're making it up mayor you can't make it up you can't okay i'm not going to argue with you i see that so and um so so the point is so let's let's just make a let's do what you want let's just slash the budgets we'll slash the people we'll slash all of our programs our our property rates are going to drop like a stone in the city because we don't attract and do the right things that we've been doing for years and years and years i don't see i i mean i i'm i'm probably the most fiscally conservative person sitting on this dais and if i thought we could slash and burn taxes down to zero i'd be the first guy doing it well but i'm not ready to risk my town and the city that i love and the residents that i love on on a whim it's just not factually true man i i well i i'm not going to again i'm not going to i'm not going to argue with you because it really isn't worth it um well it is worth it to me and i well i understand i take that and i take that as an insult and i why i'm not because it's not worth it i'm not i'm not worth it no i'm just not i'm just saying we're not debating the mayor debating this point is not is not is not but we are going to have and i think that uh that was brought up that it's just understand that what the mill is just being proposed it's an 11 tax increase for everybody in the city so we can pretend that it's not because you've got your rate going up the the average rate that we have if we keep the millage it which is still going to be six point something six point five percent and when you take your revised millage against what the it was it's a point two seven percent which we when you when you factor that in that's a four point four four point three percent increase so the total tax increase that the pay taxpayers going to pay is 11 more next year of which only 4.4 is controllable by this dais ladies and gentlemen i don't think it's fair i don't think it's fair for you to throw numbers around when the group of people up here do not control that that's the county we don't control that mr mayor ladies and gentlemen i don't control it you're making i see what you're doing you're trying to fool the people and make a bigger number of 11 we don't control that boss we don't ours is 4.4 are you honestly telling me that it's not a 4.4 increase from 5.902 to 6.16 get out your calculator mr mayor ladies and gentlemen if i may if i may mr deck was it's basic math so it is basic math the increase between do with the county's portion it says nothing but it's four why did you bring it up because you brought it up you brought it out to these people and most of the people that are out there aren't like us keep opening your mouth if i may can i jump in the mayor for once you're supposed to be the neutral political person i'm there oh bold you're out of order yeah aren't we you're out of order you just have to be mayor i would say to you because i brought up the municipal cost index about six months ago and you're right if you look at it nationally we are higher right because it it's um in fact if you look at it nationally you'd say i'm concerned what is what is delray doing but i also went and looked at all the surrounding cities some are increasing by 12 percent some are increasing by 13 percent some nine and some eight we're not out of you know the average in terms and it does consider a lot of things the consumer price index the producer price index the construction cost absolutely and there are costs have increased and our insurance component is certainly larger our insurance component if you look up every department the cost of insurance increase was something like 35 percent it's a monumental factor and i don't know that that's something that we i i mean yes you could argue are we doing a good job of cultivating a good price for ourselves but we are here now with the current insurance and we it's about cost and and mr um ronald made a comment i live well beneath my means at home because i like the comfort of not worrying about finances that's and i treat this job very seriously and anyone who comes to these meetings knows i come prepared i'm well read i study this and i don't say things that i that i don't believe but are based in fact i want to just finish my statement if you don't mind mr docowitz one moment we have commitments that are not flexible in the city contractual commitments 90 percent of our allocated expenses are locked in by commitment now you could argue hey you have a union contract that says 24 72 defund it and and take one guy off the ambulance and we actually talked about that for about five minutes five minutes until residents responded there isn't the level of flexibility in the budget that the people think because if you look at the cost of safety police and fire present moment in this budget budget is over 108 million dollars and our ad valorem tax revenue property tax revenue is 118 million dollars that's a difference of less than nine million dollars to be flexible with now my argument has been consistently we need more revenues we need better earnings on our investments we need impact fees on our development we need revenues because i don't disagree with the mayor i don't want to tax the heck out of our residents they're getting hit with increased sanitation fees they're getting hit with increased utility fees but we have to deal in the reality that we're in you didn't create this problem and i didn't create this problem but we're the responsible people that have to fix it mayor and i don't know that we do that by slashing more out of a budget when the big things that we need aren't flexible i don't disagree let's go figure out why aren't i'm saying that we should be digging deeper into our own books before we we try to increase it went line by line over 500 pages at the last meeting and you all tolerated that and i appreciate down to 50 extra for steel toe boots in one department than the other i did my very very best to find cuts we can look we we can disagree on this and that's fine i i my point is that um we are we're putting our uh residents to an 11 tax increase for the city portion the city portion city portion the county we can't control no mr moore would like to explain that may i please explain that yes thank you the difference between the current fiscal year military operating military of 5.9063 and what's been directed at 6.1611 is 4.18 correct that's it it's not 11 it's not 10 it's not money people are going to be paying i'm not talking rate i'm talking about the amount of money people money are going to be paying out of their pocket because even at the old millage with the property values going up that was going to be a six point one nine or eight depending on how you calculate the increase so they're already going to be paying just if we kept the millage the same an additional over six percent so by doing this millage change to make it a higher millage rate that's an additional four percent so your your people the people out there are going to be paying eleven percent more out of pocket next year than they're paying this year if we made no changes at all they'd be paying six point five we made no change at all they're still going to be paying six point five but in order to do that we have a 26 million dollar deficit mr moore put it up 23.9 plus the one on the truck which was 1.4 million plus the 900 000 to the non-profits i'm not suggesting we don't have to dig deeper to try to find cuts and i'm not suggesting that a lot of the stuff on that initial list were really more wish list items than non-wish well they took four million out of the wish list items i mean when i speak to neighborhood services their budget has been cut twice twice they've been that's fine may i make a point please yes it's your turn last year we had a rollback which means last year we had a rollback which means there was no increase correct so realistically you could look at that 11 percent and say it's five and a half percent per year we talk about payroll alone that's just not that you know sir thank you very much i i mean i'm just gonna i'm gonna let you finish but i mean when you look at a 45 increase over five years when you look at or even 35 if you want to take it from the time we got elected um and you you suggest that there is that there's no room for budget cutting or that there's no room for um uh you know cost savings that internally which is how you achieve the rollback because they had been people have been taxed so thoroughly for the for the prior years um and then you discount what the the we had insurance we have property values going up which they did we had everything else going up which it did and so we we matched an even tax rate that they had the prior year but that prior year they'd already been they'd already paid some 40 percent more than they paid five years before so yeah that's true but you got to take it over over uh the trailing average of three to five years and they were paying a lot a lot more money so yes they did get a tax break last year you can say we didn't do it last year i could argue that the tax increases were a lot higher and on a faster pace than they should have been based on your total population growth your total growth in your staff as opposed to your ad valorem taxes if could i mayor i gotta i want to say one thing that i know i would argue that we don't really have the best sense of what our population growth is and i only say that with no disrespect there was only one person during the census who was actually trying to get people to participate i would argue with you that we have a lot of community members who did not participate in the census and the numbers could be slightly different i don't like to base determinations on that because i don't think that number when you're saying well this is growing but that's not growing i would say i would argue that but i want to just say this to you going back to day one when you you you put out that email about how if we stay where we are at the at the rate the at the rollback rate we keep that current rate we can still afford the cost of our increases that was inaccurate it was a mistake on your part because you got information that was not complete oh i anticipated more cuts you're right no that wasn't it you said the cost it's it's it's 11.5 million dollars to just stay where we are in our if we stayed in our current year's budget with the rollback rate just the cost of increases in health insurance and in and the uh required salary increases due to contracts put us at 11.5 million dollars now i understand you said hey well we can get rid of the one person in education get rid of the education department we can get rid of the sustainability no you said grant writing i'm not going to argue the point okay but but my point is those or we can get rid of um economic development but if you go back to our original goal setting those are three areas noted in the report that were of importance to us again i'm not going to i don't want to i don't i'm not going to argue the point with you my point was we've had a a relatively aggressive series of tax increases over the citizens delray beach actually our tax rate i i understand what you're saying you're saying the values are going up well the rates were dropping every year and that's why we that's like saying you have a 10 percent increase okay so how do you find yourself going from five years ago having 35 percent reserves healthy reserves the reserves that got us our triple a bond ratings and what part of it correct and you have least you're buying vehicles outright you're not leasing them that things have changed and you have there's a you know our long-term financial health should be our number one priority well i i will say i mean i don't want to get into the bond rating either i mean 30 percent of the or 32 percent of the bond rating is based on what your reserves are the others are a lot of other factors and the reserves were fudged to get us that rating which is really but the point is scary it's also there's also a lot of other factors going into what gets you a bond rating understood my point is our financial situation it was better five years ago well i i acknowledge that we certainly had a lot of expenses that came our way as related with various uh you put out 500 000 for the teen center and that can't even be done you put that out in an email you put that out and i'm going to say this to you really because you know i respect you and i like you but i don't like these emails that went out causing people to get angry with us saying you know look at accountability and transparency do you think i'm not accountable do you think i'm not transparent are you saying that henry isn't or my colleagues aren't you're getting people angry with us in an environment where it's not good to be getting people angry at your commissioners it could turn into something bad i have a child we make 20 something thousand dollars a year and you know very well if i got paid by the hour i'm getting sweatshop wages because i work hard i think we i think all of us don't put us in a bad situation by calling us out as not being accountable to the taxpayers and not being transparent and in your first email every number you gave was wrong well we could talk about you know we can we can go through that as well but i'm not going to argue those points and it does i just want to chime in it goes against our charter mayor i mean we're not supposed to be behaving that way um we had it's our rules of conduct we had a resident get up last week who was right saying these newsletters that are going out are confusing the public and they are and you know i did one or two but they're not newsletters there's point of view letters and everybody that's out there ought to know that that what you're reading it's not sanitized news it's news based on the beliefs of the person that's that's writing the letter and if you're only reading one or two of those letters you're getting information that may or may not be quite correct quite correct it may be my opinion which i'm right some of the time maybe the mayor's opinion he's right some of the time but if you're believing that all the time you're you're in a bad place believe me and we had a resident that brought it up i don't know what the future of newsletters is or should be but um i thought mr cannon that brought it up was was spot on it's it's it's providing information that may or may not be correct out there and i i don't like the fact mayor that newsletters are calling out colleagues that sit up on this dais i don't think that's fair i i wouldn't do that and i would hope that no one else would do that um i don't think that's the way that the voters wanted us to behave or want us to behave um we're put up here to have differing opinions that's healthy but we're meant to respect one another all the way down the line and i think we've lost some of that in my opinion do you agree mayor i would i i agree that these these i don't like all these anonymous stuff going around that i see and because i'd be and and the one that's purported to be friendly to me is riddled with mistakes and the one that's friendly to you i guess is you're riddled with mistakes so i mean i i just prefer that there's no at least when i send something out you may agree or disagree or think of doing this or that but i always put my name on it because i'm really not i just don't like you calling out your colleagues in an environment where i look i think i look i i don't i don't see how there's a lacking i don't think enough work has been done i'm i've done my part i'm not i'm saying this is a general statement i don't think enough work has been done and i don't believe it is our job i don't think enough work has been done to really dig into the budget and big dig into the stuff to find a way because you can't have that kind of increases over a period of years and tell me that there's not fluff in this in the system you just can't say that now whether or not which whatever index you want to use and i mean we can we can argue that point too but whatever index you want to use there is no question that we we had since 2020 to 2025 there was a 32 percent increase in our budget revenues and our revenues coming in okay and and uh and uh and amount of our budget compared to a seven percent increase in uh population and again i'm not going to argue the census period because in every single town they're always saying they're under underrepresented so it's really kind of to say well delray's like a like a look at myopathy saying delray's got the issue there's always people that don't answer the census though i don't know whether it's a greater percentage here or new york city or chicago or boca or john i have no idea the point is i'm going off of national statistics statistics on which revenue dollars from this from the federal government and the state are based because you know part of the whole revenue sharing is based on whatever that census says i'm only going on what the established numbers are with respect to getting money right but if you go to our budget books through the course of the last five years and i did it last night you know you go back to 2021 police is three million fires is is 38 i i acknowledge that the police and fire each 10 million more look we all know why police and fire is where it is that's my point you there are some things that you don't have control over that are real expenses that you can't change so you're arguing the budget is fluff that's 20 million dollars in a couple of years of increases that's not fluff that's contracts being approved that you and i probably wouldn't i i'm just acknowledging i mean i'm not going to i'm not going to ask you a favor to think about because we're not voting on this this is a discussion and i would like as a curtain we're going to have to be we're not voting it's a workshop we we vote on it in the next meeting later sure right so here's what i would ask could you consider this for me as a thought to the next meeting and maybe we can close on this i do have some really good ideas about ways we can get revenue we cannot calculate that into the current equation our reserves are at 21 i would like them to be greater i agree there is a burden on the taxpayers well can we just agree on this budget together and then work to building up our reserves we can do mid-year budget amendments we can put money into different funds and then reduce costs to residents there's ways we can the residents can benefit if we can be successful in creating revenues and we can do this during the course of this fiscal year but as we stand here today it's truly irresponsible to to vote for your 5.9 leaving us with that 26 million dollar hole to fill because we can't fill it and mr moore's ideas of filling it i don't agree with just slash this slash that get rid of the vacancies don't fill them attrition it's not we're here to provide a service to the residents we can't do that without money that's the bottom line and when you take out all of the things that we're obligated to like the union contracts and all that we're we're left with very little so i'm asking you to consider agreeing to this rate and then i will work side by side with you to get money in short order as it relates to things such as vacancies you know when we looked at the when i started to look at the vacancies in delray i found we had jobs that were being offered and it will eclipsed over a year or two years things like that palm beach county by way of example if that job has been advertised for more than a year and not filled they drop it that's we don't we keep it right there so when we talk about how do you deal with vacancies you deal with vacancies by getting rid of the the the the the if the job wasn't filled and then you do your budget adjustment if you have to fill it and you you understand that there is a uh a the hiring process isn't all in day one the hiring process and the retirement process and the nutrition process yeah or over the course of a year because people don't retire just all retire on december 31 they may do in march they may do april they may do october whenever so some of those adjustments a lot of those are planned which is what they did that is correct thank you commissioner that is part of the process right that is part of the angle process that's part of the administration and some of that was contributory sources that's exactly right i'm saying it was the proper it was the proper way to it's very proper and that's appropriate um so that that was don't so i understand i understand all that right i'm saying though you've done that job you've gone in you've found the things i mean if you think about the budget from the first day we looked at it to now they've made a lot of reductions um to get us to this point with that ladies and gentlemen i'd like to have your action to the final opportunity for efficiencies and operations i've discussed an idea in terms of the fund balance position the fund balance ratio would go from 21.1 to 21.4 and again the course of administering of fiscal year does take into consideration all the points you've all raised in your commentary we've executed that we complete that but go back to the last six months we spent a lot of time speaking about the econometrics relative to public safety the econometrics relative to aggregate operations the municipal rate of inflation etc a lot has been accomplished a lot was presented in terms of initial considerations and adjustments were made downward to help achieve a balanced budget recommendation and again the military position we go back to the bar graph presentation over the past ten years it's been a downward trend quite frankly and commissioner casalla actually appreciate a point you raised earlier in comparing ourselves to the south florida market rate it's all consistent across the board in that regard nevertheless we do what we can to achieve efficiencies and operations we took the past several days leading up into this weekend to demonstrate an additional opportunity and again an opportunity for the fund balance position would be helpful in this regard and that would be the recommendation what's also nice about that approach ladies and gentlemen is that it ties in with the aggregate revenue and expenditure budget for which we've evaluated leading up to september 3rd your second public hearing this evening we'll take that under account the simple adjustment will be the fund balance ratio from 21.1 to 21.4 so we'll be prepared in that regard and that is sensible because we're seeing budget amendments on every single agenda now some are not impactful they're just transitioning money most are not correct and that's an opportunity to manage the process as we continue each respective fiscal year so that's part of the mix given our policies and it's an opportunity to achieve transparency at the public meetings so that the commission will have an opportunity to offer their guidance and thoughts nevertheless any adjustments we bring before the commission that is a function of our policies here in darei beach quite frankly not the case in many other municipalities right thank you so let me uh just just so i understand you're not interested in looking at any of these savings in terms of developing these savings no that would that would adjust to the millage rate that we discussed last time it would adjust the millage rate slightly downward i would go from 6.16 to what 6.12 maybe give or take 6.13 about that yes if can i ask a question so this is this five five hundred seven thousand dollars that's going to change the fund balance of point three percent it would should the commission offer direction to do so would go from 21.1 percent fund balance ratio to 21.4 percent fund balance ratio because you know i i am too concerned about the training i mean for you know like the code department our code officers needing training um i think we have that covered just for a point three percent to add to the fund balance but if we have it in the fund and they need it we can move it but i agree with you however part of our process of administering the budget during the course of fiscal year will include identification of ancillary revenues because we're conservative on that side as well in addition to other efficiencies and operations that may be revealed during the course of the fiscal year that may address some gaps that may possibly come up however via this approach that's quite frankly not anticipated again we're taking more efficient ways in which to maintain training advance whatever needs to be accomplished in that regard we we just took another step at it to bring us to this place well i guess i'm curious so are you going to make changes now and then how we can't accept a budget in the next meeting that you're changing right now because i don't think it's on the agenda well i guess what we're talking about would be adopting a revised budget tonight which would have this number in it i mean this these these efficiencies built into the new budget what's the budget that you put up on our agenda for people to see is it this one it's the same presentation that you experienced during the september 3rd meeting because that's what was advertised however during the course of the public engagement process september 15th this evening you can acknowledge what we presented here in workshop meeting and take appropriate action at that time and it's simply a matter of the fund balance ratio from 21.1 to 21.4 that's the if that consideration were to be supported that would be the way to go and that can happen during the adoption process during the regular meeting this evening you're allowed to revise downwards you just can't go up right um but i but i thought there was some requirement that the public saw i mean i guess we could do it as a budget okay i'm going to say thankfully there's no such requirement but thankfully there's no such requirement um i don't i don't uh like taking out the street cleaning i think i already said that i am concerned about the training in uh neighborhood services if we're talking about code i don't want to take out that training and i don't know what um the training in anthia's department is she's not here actually i have amy alvarez on behalf of the development services here today to respond and director of neighborhood and community services jerry prior is here to talk a little bit about the concerns you've just raised if that will be helpful i would appreciate that if they were okay so miss amy alvarez if you would be so can and miss prior if you would please come forward because this is a consideration we actually fairly well scrutinized during our discussion and i will be happy to state that publicly could you put that other page up where you had all the the breakdown page two miss alvarez if you would please i'm gonna say we need the it department so you're wanting to understand specifically about training and development services thank you wasn't sure if it related to anything on the screen oh for professional services so that's the account that we use for um different studies or when we hire consultants like to do the atlantic avenue um historic resource survey or we we had a study done on the golf course um pretty much directives of the commission different projects and then other things that might come up as well excuse me i didn't have my microphone is there additional money in that account is that taking a portion of it or is that taking the balance of that account i imagine you have more than that professional services correct is just the 200 000. okay could you go back to that slide please uh mr dagwitz so you have uh well is there training in your department i thought your department had training too we do we also have training we have um planners who are certified that require i mean is there training being reduced down is what i'm asking here i think it may have been slightly reduced very slightly reduced but again in the evaluation process we've been able to determine that that would actually work in terms of the upcoming fiscal year not to mention to what's been accomplished the current fiscal year so it actually works well and getting back to the point you just offered regarding professional services much of the work happens squared away during the current fiscal year so there was an opportunity to get to a an efficient place in comparison for the upcoming fiscal year so a lot of that was taken under the account when we proceeded with considerations before you thank you thank you questions answered uh yes i think miss prior is going to speak to the training in her department that will not only the training but the the pressure pressure washing program if you could sure so where is the training number i don't why isn't doesn't it say training in here oh because that came out before because i was in the beginning it was that 40 cut across all the departments uh 30 percent it was a 40 percent no it wasn't across departments we actually made adjustments but focus on neighborhood and community services so for neighborhood and community services so the training the training budget was cut um slightly so what we have done in our office is you know we have to pivot right so we have to do what we need to do one of the questions that commissioner markert had asked previously is can we do trainings online can we do trainings that are free currently right now through the florida association of code enforcement that is not possible to be certified through the organization online or through any kind of um free training currently it's about eight hundred dollars to send a person a code officer to class to get certified so we have made great strides this year there's been several code officers that have now received some type of certifications however that's not the whole staff um so we're pivoting a little bit we're finding other organizations that possibly could certify you don't have to say anymore we you're we're not certifying we're not paying to have our code officers certified after yes we are yeah we're saying that we don't have the funding required for all i'm not saying that at all no well the cut in the budget is is leaving us where we're trying to figure out how to balance that's my takeaway from this conversation am i misunderstanding that so this year this fiscal year that was part of the task that i was asked to do when i first got hired was to get certifications for code officers currently we have nine code officers that have certifications now so for those new code officers that come in it's a very tight budget and we have to select as to who are we going to send for those certifications for new code officers and then also mind that there's four levels of state certifications to the florida association of code enforcement nine of them has been certified in one level or another so i mean there's a balance and it's choosing they can move up those they can move up those slots as long as we have funding okay so i would be very honest with you i do not want to be in a situation where we don't have the money to get a code officer certified or if we have a sort of certified officer who would like additional certifications that they can't get it i want that money back in her budget for training that's to me absolutely so as part of the efficiencies identified here this evening we do not target the neighborhood and communities the department of neighborhood community services that was much earlier in that regard and we're talking about a fairly small amount to get that all squared away so via adjustments and some of the other opportunities we discussed i think we can make that happen without compromising the focus this evening i don't know what you mean without compromising the focus you have to make it happen this evening in other words and you're keeping the pressure cleaning right because we don't want to stop the pressure cleaning so so for the pressure cleaning so one of the things that we evaluated in in our office was what can we do less right so with the pressure cleaning right now it's currently twice a month through the whole district in the cra district um under clean and safe and so that 75 000 reduction would just mean a slight reduction in those services so maybe it's one and a half times in the district and not a full two times as i was walking up here i spoke with miss laura simon and she had reached out and asked you know what could dda do to help and assist with that so that would be a discussion we'd have to follow up but currently it's going from 215 000 minus the 75 000 which would be a slight reduction in services on the city side i would not like to see this is the kind of stuff we're doing because we're trying to i mean this is this is nutty we're supposed to provide these services to the residents we should want all code officers all to have the full all four certifications and more if they can at 800 a class i can't even believe we're having this discussion ladies and gentlemen how about this as we prepare for the regular meeting so as opposed to 507 000 just to cut to the quick if there's an interest or consensus at this time to make that hole in terms of the pressure cleaning we can reduce the efficiencies from 507 minus the 75 and another seven thousand dollars for those opportunities that's more than enough to get us squared away for the upcoming fiscal year without questioning without adjustments thereby the new efficiency structure would be 425 000 even but what is the central square software i mean it never asks for anything they don't need in our discussion with the leadership of the department of information technology it was determined that that was that was an opportunity that can be adjusted at this time because much was accomplished this year okay it was best firm i just have to be honest mr moore i you know i i don't come out of the government at all i come out of big companies big companies i get very worried when i look at the cuts that we're dialing back here i mean i see an office supply cut we can't use less paper and less ink and toner i don't think we will well but it says we are you guys can if you give up your binders i just look at all these cuts these are all very small cuts and when i said in ceo roles i hated when people came in with budgets like this if somebody could actually cut bigger things and maybe this central square software budget of 75 000 qualifies i don't know i don't know what it is it does i i got less worried than when people were coming in with you know building maintenance at the american we're cutting by seven thousand dollars that that doesn't feel like a cut to me that it just doesn't so i get really worried with all we've got hardly any significant cuts here what we have are uh you know annual post charter with gulfstream council bsa two thousand dollars okay it was a legit i mean i just i'm not trying to be i'm not trying to be a pain in the butt i'm just saying in my experience all these little cuts are not real cuts to a budget these are the remaining opportunities for the past week since we met september 3rd all the major significant adjustments had been experienced over the previous few months we've accomplished all that so that's why there's not much here this is just the final step to get to that place and from the standpoint of municipal budgeting we take a look at any and every amount that's available in that regard and several of you all have pointed that out to me in my individual engagements so whenever there was an opportunity to get a great example seven thousand dollars and change based on the american legion because that transaction took place seven thousand and change may not seem like a lot but is it necessary no so the specific references that you've mentioned in your example are also not necessary so we factor them into the process so i think that's totally okay and productive okay i would just like to say i i i appreciate all of the efforts that you've made but i i don't i'm not supporting any of these uh changes and you know it needs a consensus and i understand that because to make these cuts to to increase the fund balance by 0.3 percent it's just not worth it to me to cut these um these services that we're having for that our fund balance is at 21.1 percent which is meets the requirement and to just raise it to 21.4 cutting these things i i i i'm not in support of that but as i said we need a consensus on it but that's just my feeling on it the problem is you do need to have some padding in there because there are instances where say now i didn't ask for anything in the last budget year because we cut down to that millage i asked for nothing because i know anything you ask for up here becomes an added expense to the various departments i don't think we can ask everybody to cut and then be asking them to do things for us um but you do need extra money in your in your uh fund balance for something like it's called a rainy day fund well no but to keep it above the 21 percent a little bit is very a good idea even a small thing that wasn't considered community greening isn't in our budget if we decide to do something with them where does that money come from it's coming from that area so however which is why we set the set the required um percentage and we're there so but to see them cut these items listen i don't appreciate many of these cuts either i i think so ladies and gentlemen if i may the specific coaching concerns haven't just been addressed a little while ago relates to the pressure washing seventy five thousand dollars relates to ancillary training for cold the seven thousand dollar difference is well of more than enough to take care of that it's a fairly small amount and it alleviates any concerns haven't been expressed in this regard that leaves an opportunity at four hundred twenty five thousand dollars to establish a tweak to the fund balance position should there become opportunities to consider moving forward that will not be my first approach in terms of identifying opportunities to get to that place however we can be prepared for the upcoming regular meetings so that we can factor that into could i ask one more question before we conclude what is the twenty three thousand uh last minute adjustment needed those are some calculations in one particular department for particular department it was actually the office of the city attorney i believe yep it had to do with calculations relative to to sick adjust sick leave adjustments and calculations to that effect so it was a calculation that needed to be factored into the mix okay thank you so that was really simple yeah she does a good job and not to mention that so everything is well in that regard what's going on i'm waving at lynn oh okay so where do or do you have do you need consensus what do we need given the feedback on part of all of you all what i'm hearing from everyone instead of a five hundred seven thousand dollar efficiency operation position it would actually go down to four hundred twenty five thousand dollar efficiency operations position efficiency and operation position so the fund balance ratio would increase from twenty one point one to approximately twenty one point three and change so we'll finalize those calculations as we conclude the proposed budget process during the regular meeting thank you i appreciate all so if you all can but but but in addition it also it's it's slightly because i it slightly reduces the millage as well that you're doing it does not not in that realm it does not it would be six point one six one one under that round just checking just checking thank you so if there's a comfort level in that regard we'll be prepared for the regular meeting i'm comfortable with that thank you ms burns said she's okay with that that concludes our presentation so the final process will ensue during the regular meeting so thank you for your time and your indulgence thank you mr jacowicz for all your hard work we're going to take a five minute break then we have a photo op two photo ops we are adjourned we're going to be we're going to recon