Good evening. The City Council workshop on the budget is called to order. Ms. Beggarrow, would you please call the roll? Council Member Anderson. Here. Council Member Andreu. Here. Council Member Fajan. Here. Council Member Horland. Here. Council Member Reinstein. Here. Mayor Sortle. Here. Assistant City Attorney Morgan. Here. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good evening. Ms. Oteano. Good evening, Mayor. Good evening, Council President. Good evening, Council Members. City Attorney Morgan. Welcome to the City of Plantation Fiscal Year 27 Budget Workshop. This evening, our larger departments are going to come up and give you a presentation of some of their significant requests that they have for their fiscal year 2027 budget. They'll be discussing capital, any personnel needs, and any other significant priorities that they have for fiscal year 27. First department note that I will call is the police department. They're stealth like that. Good evening, Chief. Good evening, Madam President, Council Members, Mayor, Mr. Morgan. So, I'll begin with saying we recognize the, you know, budgetary unknowns that we all face. But with that, our asks for fiscal year 27 are as follows. First, with sworn personnel, it's, we've long stated that it is our endeavor to reach two officers per thousand residents, and, which would put us at 200. Currently, we have 183 sworn positions. And, you know, knowing that in any given year, right, we can't ask for 10 or, you know, we can't sustain that kind of a hit. So, looking at at least a five-year period going forward and incrementally implementing positions to get there, our ask this year is for four total sworn positions, two of them being officers and two being supervisory positions, one being a sergeant and the other one being a lieutenant. As far as the sergeant goes, since, I want to say, 2019, so for the past seven years, we've added a total of 11 sworn positions without any supervisor positions, and that obviously negatively impacts our span of control. And then the other position, being a lieutenant, it has been my position now for a while that I would endeavor to have one lieutenant in every division. So we have five divisions and then two lieutenants in our patrol division, which we currently have there now. One is the, basically, executive officer of the day shift and one executive officer for the night shift. So, personnel-wise, that covers the sworn stuff. The other major one, I would say, is a civilian position of a digital records technician, which would assist in all of the body-worn camera, everything processing, the transmittal of body-worn camera footage to the state attorney's office, and obviously public records requests. Moving on to capital. The major ask for the PD, I think probably as every year, is going to be vehicles. I think we're looking at the addition of, or the request for, 24 vehicles. We have 24 scheduled for fleet reduction as well. And then the other major things that you're going to see with the capital is probably mostly technology-related, right? Technology for the digital forensics unit, technology for the crime scene unit, and we also have some, like, building upgrade stuff in there. One of them being lead mining for the range facility, and the other one being some flooring and some cubicles for the PD building itself, which is the renovation now is 20 years old. So, and then moving on to the remainder of the budget, I think the biggest increase there you're going to see is probably in our RM maintenance contract, and the bulk of that is going to be body-worn camera and taser annual maintenance. We also will have a decent increase in the crossing guard, the school crossing guard contract. So, any questions? Council members, any questions for the chief? Council member Andrea? Thank you, President Horland. Chief, did you say you were going to have a decrease in the crossing guards? Is that because of the- No, no, ma'am. It will be an increase. Why will there be an increase when we have one school closure? Probably because of their pay structure. Right. Their pay rate, the vendor's pay rate. But the reduction in personnel should offset that, should it not? There should be a reduction, obviously, with Plantation Middle scheduled to close. I don't know, and I can look at it, I don't know, like, how many positions that's going to impact because, yeah, I don't know. And I don't know the routes, like, you know, if they're going to overlap anything with Plantation High School because those times are going to be the same. The start times, those are going to be the same. But either way, definitively, the rate from the vendor is going up. Okay. I would just think that the reduction in staff should offset that. We might be approving tonight, right, some vehicles for your department? Correct. And other departments, I believe, yes, collectively. And how many have been approved this fiscal year? Do you have that number? I don't, but I want to say that we're right around the same. For fiscal year 26, it was a similar ask of 24. Okay. And this might be, my last question might be for Ms. Otteniano or Mr. Neumaker, I'm not sure. But have we all gone, I know we spoke briefly about it earlier, but has each department gone through the exercise of what a 10% reduction would look like? And are they going to present that piece to us? No, not at this point. If you look at that bill, those, that bill is effective January 1st, 27. So we would anticipate that that will be the subsequent budget year. Now, depending on what happens more globally, we might be visiting with you all more quickly. But at this point, we don't anticipate doing that as part of this budget process. But that will absolutely be baked in the cake for next year. And as you're probably aware, that that will not apply as we understand it to public safety. Although we might have them go through the exercise just to share the joy with the rest of us. Exactly. Thank you. Councilmember Reinstein? Yes, thank you, Chief. Just to follow up on Councilmember Andreu's comment, is that despite the closing of Plantation Middle School, right now, in terms of what you are putting before us, you're mentioning an increase in the school crossing guard rate, but you're not telling us that there will necessarily be a reduction in staff. Is that accurate? Well, my assumption is that there's going to be a slight reduction in staff. I just, I don't know how much. But we know definitively that their price rate has gone up. Right. And that's what I just wanted to make sure is that I understood that the price rate was what you were here to tell us about because I'm not sure and I hope that we'll hear more about whether, in fact, there will be a reduction of whether it's school crossing guards or SROs. I hope, on the other hand, is that there won't be a reduction, that instead those resources will just be moved because I think there will be a greater need for those resources and those personnel. So I hope that that will be looked at as well when you start analyzing the need for the coming year. Of course. Thank you. Okay. Anybody else? All right. Thank you, Chief. Thank you. Up next. Yep. Good evening, Chief Todd. Good evening, Council President, Council, Mayor, City Attorney. How are you guys doing tonight? Wonderful. So I'm going to talk about our budget a little bit. And with the rescue budget, it's pretty much staying the same. We order the same stuff every year, like stretchers and lifts and other rescue equipment that's normally ordered, like the extrication equipment, which is battery-powered. We ordered that. It's usually the same order. The only thing new on the rescue side is an extractor, which is a PPE washer-dryer type thing. It's for protective equipment, the gear we wear. And that's the only thing on the rescue that's new. Any questions on the rescue budget? Wonderful. Now, on the fire budget, we are looking at – we're asking for a training tower. And it's going in stages. And the first part of it is planning and the planning part, right, where they're going to do design and plan. And then it will follow up in a year, I think, in the second year with bringing in the equipment, which is containers. Have you ever seen those containers they've got on ships? They build training towers out of them. So by the time we're finished with it, it'll be – over the next couple years, it's almost a $2 million project. But it benefits us with the training. We're asking for that, to start on that. We also have – asking something new is a skid steer, which is kind of like a forklift. So we can do our training by lifting cars and when we're working with impact windows and things like the heavy equipment. So we got – we'll have our own piece of equipment there that can do the lifting for us. And what else? I'm sorry. Got to put these on. And then we got – talk about training centers, skid steer. The only position we got is we got a grant-funded position for a community paramedic, which we're doing interviews for tomorrow. And that's the newest employee we're going to have. Can you define a community paramedic, Chief? Yes, the community paramedic is – they go out and do, like, when there's opiate situations, they're out there to work with them and to work with frequent flyers, to work with – eventually they'll be doing, like – Are they equipped with Narcan? Well, yeah, we're all equipped with Narcan. Everybody has, right. But they'll be doing, like, your flu shots and things like that. They'll go out to the vulnerable population and take care of those people with any needs they might have. It's mostly BLS operations. It won't be ALS operations. But if – the reason we want paramedics is in case they have to – they go out there and they have a situation and they can perform what they have – you know, ALS. And how long is that grant funding for, for that position? Ten years. That's fabulous. Yeah. Like any other grant, we hope we get the ten years out of it, right? So it is funded for ten years. Thank you. Is that it for fire? I think so, yeah. Wow, that was quick. Not that much. Like the Chief said, we understand the – Sure. – our responsibility with the budget. So – Any questions for the Chief, Councilmembers? All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next up, Public Works. Good evening, Ms. Thompson. Good evening, Council President, Councilmembers, Mayor, City Attorney. Matt Thompson, Public Works Director. As I mentioned in the strategic planning, we're going to have a conservative approach with not knowing what's going on up in Tallahassee and everything else. So we really went through the budget with a fine-toothed comb and got it down to just our standard, some vehicles and some maintenance equipment. There's some equipment in road and traffic that wasn't approved last year, so we've asked again for this year. But our main thing is to stay on track with the paving program contributions. So other than that, we don't have any new added positions. We've done some reclassifications. Other than that, we're good to go. Really tight? Yes, ma'am. Any questions for Public Works? Yes. Do you have a schedule of the paving projects? Well, we're working on Plantation Point. There's a portion of that that's on the agenda for tonight. So that's going to be a large undertaking. But just like over the next year or two? Well, we're going to get through that project, and then we're going to do another road, the CPI study. And then that will lay out the foundation as long as we stay on track with the contributions. Okay. So we hope to have that coming to you next year. We didn't want to do a study with no large improvements. We wanted to get one done and then see what the status was. Okay. I had a couple of questions, but I can email them to you offline. Okay. About some specific roads. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Thompson, do you anticipate any increased cost? I know that you and Ms. Morris have been doing the sidewalk tour. When do you think that you'll have all that data back? We have a lot of data now. I know we've been working with administration to try to offset some of those out of general fund with other means. Okay. So we're going to tackle them that way. Perfect. And then hopefully by next year, if everything goes well, we'll be able to allocate a certain amount of funds to get those directed spending on repairs. And while we have you up here quickly, because it is part of the budget, how are we doing with the replacement tree program? Good. We're getting some good traction. It's just – it's a process. You know, they make the call. We have to go out and do the locates and everything like that. But my staff is doing a great job with keeping everybody informed on the steps and the processes going forward. Okay, great. Mayor, you wanted a comment? A couple things. Number one, during all our budget talks, we're also talking about gasoline because with political turmoil, the cost could go every which way. And that's a concern. And I think you meant Plantation Park, not Plantation Point. I thought I said Plantation Park, but yes, you're correct. And that's the thing we've been working on. Plantation Park, Point Park. Right. There's so many plantations, I know. So that's number one on our list. And I forgot what's number two. Country Club, Jacaranda? We haven't got there yet. Let's be grateful we get to one. All right, let's focus on Plantation Park. We'll be grateful we got to one. Yep. Okay. Anything else, Mayor? Anyone else? All right. Thank you, Mr. Thompson. You're welcome. All right. Next up, Parks and Recreation. Pardon me? Moving right along. Oh, let's bring in the smaller departments just for fun. Good evening, Council. Good evening, Ms. O'Toole. So the 27 budget that you're going to see really works in harmony with some of the objectives we talked about at Strategic Planning. And one of the overarching themes you'll see are our capital projects. We've been working closely with city administration and the capital projects team to ensure that we are planning and budgeting accordingly for just really aging infrastructure and facilities that we've seen in the last few years. So some of the projects you're familiar with and some might be a little bit new, but overall, there's nothing huge, nothing major coming your way in parks. Obviously, you're aware of the improved drainage at Pine Island Park with the potential for some artificial turf fields. Looking at repairing some old irrigation systems at Central Park and Sunset Park and increased ask for walkway and sidewalk repairs throughout our parks. In the Recreation Division, the biggest project that I'm sure you're also aware of is Dyke Auditorium. As you know, we're working on the roof and structural repairs now, as well as windows and doors. Once that is complete, we'll be looking to paint, repair any stucco on the exterior of the building, do interior paint and new flooring so we can get that facility open to the public. We are also looking to replace the LED monument sign at Volunteer Park. You may have noticed when you drive by, it's very old, doesn't work half the time, and the parts are becoming hard to find. So we're proposing that we purchase a new sign there. On the Tennis Division, nothing really stands out. Of course, we're working on our court resurfacing, as we do every year, buying the clay to ensure that the courts are in good shape. I believe they have asked for a new maintenance cart to assist with that court maintenance. And reconfiguring of the Pro Shop. There's been some safety concerns brought up by staff, just the layout of the Pro Shop, so we'd like to do some minor reconfiguration there. Aquatics, you're very familiar with the pump room. We're continuing to work on Pool 1's pump room and restroom renovations. And as we are working on that, we've noticed there are some issues with the pool deck itself. We're actually repairing the northwest corner of the pool deck any week now. We've been working on doing that. So we are planning for next year all the way through 2030 to do bigger repairs on the pool deck and then work on Pool 2's restrooms. So not all next year, but we're slowly laying the groundwork to do that over the next four or five years. The equestrian center, nothing big there. However, we are going to be adding some temporary stalls. As you know, we've added the programming there with the horses, and we need some more room when we have horse shows and everything. So that's not a capital project. That's R&M structures that will just help with increasing the capacity at the equestrian center. And then, of course, the plantation preserve. You all are very much aware. We're working on not just the golf course itself, but the clubhouse. So you'll see some funding put in there for the clubhouse improvements themselves, and then as well as working towards the renovation as a whole for the golf course, which I know will obviously come back to you all for additional workshops to get some direction there. One of our other strategic objectives is, again, planning for a sustainable future, not just structures, but financial sustainability. So the leadership team in the department has been working on, I think I mentioned that, strategic planning, some of our key performance indicators, trends, attendance at all of our events, what are the actual costs of the events. So we're kind of taking a closer look at those, as well as doing a fee study, and we'll be coming back to you to approve new fees for 27. And we're comparing ourselves to other cities to see where we may have opportunity to increase participation fees so some programs and events are more self-sustaining. We also know we're continuing to work with PAL, coming up with fees for the travel programs. Those will also be presented to you along with the other fee package. And there are no new positions that we're adding. There's a couple of minor reclassifications. For example, part-time maintenance worker, we might be reclassifying to a part-time front desk attendant, vice versa. But we are adding, as again, we spoke about strategic planning, the two assistant director models. So you'll see the one additional assistant director position under the recreation division. And that's it. Okay. Before I get Councilmember Fadgen here, let's go back to turf fields quickly. Yes, ma'am. So what are you planning for this year? So this current year, as you all know, you approved, I think, the last meeting, just the engineering and all of that work. We were, again, we're going to come back to you all because I know there was some discussion on whether or not. Yeah, so I believe initial discussions, we looked at what would it cost to just do natural turf versus artificial. And I don't think there was a huge difference. So, again, that might be something we come back to you on to discuss as we move forward. I'd like to maybe even have a conversation with you prior to that, just talking about the environmental benefits, the heat index, seeing as it is South Florida, and just kind of look at the long range on that, you know, and how many turf fields we end up committing to. My other question is about aquatics with that restroom. What about the changing room there that had been a problem for a little while so far as condition? Is that being remodeled at all, or was it just a matter of cleaning it up? I know there have been some concerns. The structural issues would be repaired and fixed, and then a little bit of a facelift, of course, for the interior of it, yes. And that's part of this as well? Okay, perfect. All right, Council Member Fadgen. Thank you, Council President. I question how effective the LED sign would be at Volunteer Park. Here's a couple things I'm thinking about. If a business requested an LED sign or a sign that we approved several years ago at Pine Island Field, we wouldn't allow it. And I didn't think about it at the time when I was part of the vote to approve that signage. I don't think that sign on Pine Island met up to maybe our expectations based on the presentation. It's unreadable. So I'm not really – I think this is an easy cut. I think we should just – I don't know how great of a benefit it is. I don't think the cost of it justifies the benefit of replacing that sign just because the example of a modern sign that we put at Pine Island Field that – and like I said, we would never allow a business to put either one of those signs up. I know St. Gregory's wanted to put up some kind of digital board, and they were declined. Okay. And I agree with that. So I would say this is an easy – let's not do it, in my opinion. Regarding the clubhouse at the preserve, and I was going to mention this at the council meeting. You know, I appreciate our time together. On Friday, we took a tour of the course. And I was pointing out some things that I observed at the golf tournament, and I'll make some comments about that later. But are we considering the actual maintenance of the building itself? Because as I pointed out to you with together, it's dirty. So it's whether Parks and Rec is going to take care of it or is it a public works responsibility. I would really like to make sure that it gets resolved so that there's a maintenance that's going on either by your department or Matt's department, and there's that tree growing out of the roof. And by the way, code enforcement, there's a tree growing out of the Sears building, so if we can take care of that. But I would like to make sure that we're making sure that we take care of that under whoever's budget that is, because the building is absolutely filthy. And as we talked about, we want to be careful because if we, you know, beyond my expertise, we don't want to pressure clean it and blast the paint off the building. But it can't stand the way it is. It's not to the level that we're trying to provide at the preserve. Well, I know when we were there, Ms. Marlow mentioned she had somebody that was going to be pressure washing some of those areas that we talked about. So is that part of their responsibility or is it our responsibility? I cannot answer that right now. I'd have to go back and look at their scope of services. And if it's their responsibility, shame on them for letting it get to that condition. If it's not their responsibility, I want to make sure that we're taking care of it properly. It's not up to the level of our other buildings in the city. That's it. Thank you. Okay. Yep. And I'd like to have a further discussion about the LED sign. You brought up Pine Island. We didn't actually approve what was going to be put there, and I don't even think that went through DRC. It went through us for procurement. But we didn't really see the sign. And I agree that that was probably less than. What I would point out is every public school in the city does have an electric sign. Do we have any say over that, though? We do not. But my point is I think you're seeing more cities doing that, especially for announcing events. We're not every other city. We're plantation. No, but I think that we do a lot of event programs, so I think I'd like to have a further discussion on that and see what's going to be presented. And, you know, I think it's an important point you bring up, but I'd like to see us discuss that. I'm bringing it up so we have a discussion. We have a discussion at budget time, so I think that would be good. But I think that it would be important that we see, because I think many of us were disappointed at what went up in Pine Island. Okay. Anything else? Nope. All right. Thanks, Mr. Atul. Thank you. Mayor, go ahead. I suggest drive by the sign on Pine Island now. We've improved the typography, gotten rid of some of the flowery stuff. Reverse type is not readable when you go at 35 miles per hour. Now it's like a five-word limit on the sign, which is what it should have been to start with. Yeah, a little bit better. So I think it looks better now, and it's more readable. Okay. All right. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Atul. All right. Mr. Montefusco, IT. Good evening. Good evening, Council President, Council Mayor, City Attorney. I'm just going to point out some highlights. This budget year will be asking for an additional AV support specialist. We have 23 locations throughout the city and counting that require some type of AV intervention. Current staff handles that, but it is stretched thin. We're going to be continuing our ERP implementation. As you know, it's underway as we speak, working on the finance. We're going to continue to configure and support that project throughout the year. It's a three-year project to begin with, and we're going to continue with making enhancements to our Acela product. One of the things we're looking at is AI, as you know. It is out there. It's becoming more prevalent each day. We just want to make sure it's done in a safe way to protect the city's data. So we're going to lean on our vendors to see what they have to offer, and one of their products is Open Counter, which makes the permitting process a lot easier from the public understanding, the price structure, what permits they need, how much they cost. You get a lot of the information up front. It helps develop the package for you for submittal. So we'll be looking at that product to try to make that more efficient, and that's the major things we'll be focusing on. I think that we all agree anything to make the permitting process easier for the public. Absolutely, and that's why we're going to lean on our vendors that we already engage with. They do have the funds to advance some of the AI's offerings and work within, like I said, a safe environment. We don't want to put the city's data at risk, so we have to weigh convenience over security, as we always do. But we understand the need. We understand it's out there, so we're going to use it to our advantage. What about security, Mr. Montefiuzco? Do you see that you'll be needing any enhancements this year? Staff-wise, we're fine. Last year we had an assistant security administrator. I'm happy to say she'll be starting next week. And we will – we always – it is always on the forefront of what we do. So we'll be enhancing some of our networking and switching equipment, some of it's end-of-life. But – and we – as a result, we will increase our bandwidth and our capacity to move data, which is important with our transition to the cloud. You know, traditionally we're on-prem. It's a lot easier to manage, but now we're relying on data outside of our network, and speed always comes into play. And security. And I know this week the federal government was starting to take a look a little more closely as attacks are ramping up with local governments and utilities. So I don't know if we'll see any potential legislation, but it would be nice if there was funding attached. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Any questions for Mr. Montefiuzco? Nope. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. Mr. Polio, you're up. Don't get comfortable in that back row. No. You always have the biggest ass, so you're last. Well, I figured either the best or the worst for last. I haven't figured that one out yet. The most expensive. Good evening, Council President, Council Members, Mayor, City Attorney. As in previous years, utility management, budgeting, operation, and forecasting have all become more challenging. We discussed a lot of this during strategic planning, and a lot of what you're going to hear me discuss tonight is a repeat of that, where we're going. There is going to be an increase over last year's budget, and a vast majority of those increases are planned and needed capital. If you recall, a lot of these capital projects were delayed in previous years, which I think we've been doing a pretty good job keeping up and moving them forward. Most of our projects are multi-year and straddled over multiple-year budget cycles, so in order to fund these large projects, it does take multiple budget cycles to design them and get them to completion. Many of the capital projects that we currently have were already approved last year. You're going to see them in the budget this year again, and probably half of what you're going to see are pre-approved projects. A little more than half of these projects that were from last year are already in process in procurement, so they're already moving forward. They should be landing as the year comes up. We only have a really, on our line-item portion of the budget, it's a minimal, it's a really minimal increase is what we're expecting, and it's actually below the CPI. It's a direct result of the sound management, the team that's doing this. We continuously look at where our spending is, and we're always trying to find the next dollar to move towards the next capital project. Some of those projects, central build-out, not everyone has seen in the coming weeks, and I probably should have led with this, utilities will be reaching out to council and bringing you out to the central site and trying to set meetings with you to show you where these deficiencies are and to the investments that have to be made out there. Administration's been great. They've given us the green light to reach out and set up some of these meetings to where you can really see where we need to build. Central build-out, central utilities operations center, those are two really big projects that are going to be in the budget this year. They'll be spread out over multiple cycles. It'll probably take us three years to complete those buildings as we go out there. Some of the other projects are tank inspections. They're recurring. Five-year MIT. They're recurring. We are purchasing, or we're asking to purchase a new LIMS system, and this is a system that tracks all of the testing that we perform in our laboratory. Last year, we performed over 24,000 tests. We need a program where we can pull specific information out because the reporting needs that we're being asked are much more detailed this year. We have to create new reports, but we're doing it manually, or our consultants are doing it, and they're driving up the cost of these reports. This system will help us in the future reduce those overall costs. We are putting in a tractor trailer, the one we have in there that we use to jockey. We jockey our sludge trailers around, which we haul the biosolids with, in the yard, but we also use it for emergency hauling when we're in flooding events and or pumping out lift stations. The biosolids, the design commitment, that's a large one you're going to see in here. We approved, or you approved the ILA. On the OM side, we're going to be taking a hit this year in our hauling. We're looking at a million-dollar increase just in our hauling costs above what we paid last year. Now, this has to do with the limitations of farms that we're able to bring it to, and the mayor sent me an article this weekend, and it's the argument that's out there. Now, even the northern counties are pushing back about why are they receiving southern biosolids. So this isn't going to get any better, and then as the PFAS component comes in, that's a different conversation. We have SCADA planned for both water plants, and as we're doing the evaluation of the wastewater treatment plant, that will be added into that, what we're doing the master plan now. Water main projects, lift station rehabilitations. We are adding some more projects to the list this year, and many of the projects, we've pushed them out as far as we can push them. Those are the projects you're going to see that are coming back in now because we had to take care of the priorities first. Positions. There's a lot of work going on in utilities. We're going to be requesting four new positions. The positions are required due to the growth and the demand of a large utility. Plantation is sitting at almost 100,000 residents. 100,000 is what's considered a large utility, 100,000 customers. We exceed that on a daily basis with daytime hours. And think back to when Motorola, American Express, and all these places were going three shifts seven days a week. So we've really been a larger utility with aging infrastructure, and I think Plantation has done a great job with maintaining that. The volume of work and the operational oversight needed, it's exceeded the abilities of any single individual in those positions that are currently seeing them. We've looked at other cities, we've looked at other models, many cities, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Boca, the list could go on of different models we've looked at. And the positions that we are going to be asking for, we're an assistant utilities director, an assistant contract budget administrator, a field services superintendent, and an additional customer service assistant manager, the amounts of calls and things that are increasing, they're going up. More people are calling, we're readily available. It's a big part to do with our customer service, how we're trying to really push that. And then with the new systems that will be coming on board, it's just going to increase calls for probably the first few years. These positions, they're going to strengthen leadership, they're going to improve staff, oversight, and operational continuity, going to optimize span of control, improve resource allocation, provide adequate succession planning in areas where there are concerns. And yes, we do have a couple areas that we're concerned with. We discussed that at strategic planning. We discussed that at strategic planning, improve customer service, and it's going to strengthen internal controls. Our funding sources that we'll be using as our capacity for this year's budget is our capacity charge funds and our fund balance. We will continue to work with our grant coordinator and our consultants to identify and obtain any outside funding sources. They're slim, as you all know, but we're looking every day. We are continuing to meet the requirements of our financial plan. The financial plan that you all approved several years ago, we have met every year, and we're continuing to meet it. That is going to benefit us as we go into the future, should we require going out for bonds or loans. And again, I just want to caution you that when this master sewer plan does come in, and we're looking at a heavy lift over the next 10 to 15 years, it's going to be substantial. That, I think, in the next few years as we identify them, we'll be coming back and having further discussions. This is another extremely busy year we have planned. The good news is plantation utilities is in financial good shape. Well, according to the boss, Anna, sorry, Mayor and Jason, but we're in pretty good shape. I believe this is due to the responsible spending along with Sound Fiscal Management and our amazing utility team who operate the day-to-day and manage the organization. It's a solid team that's keeping an eye on every dollar that we spend. Part of that group effort that we all have, it's finance, administrations. I'm a very lucky utilities director to have a council that supports what they're doing and they're aware of what we're doing. So we appreciate everyone's support, and we look forward to another successful year. Any questions? Just one, but to your point, I think that as we go through this exercise, budget season every year, that's something that I want the public to know that we are financially sound and there is responsible management of their tax dollars because of the team that we have in place and chiefly because of the boss sitting there in finance. And I know that she doesn't let a lot get by her when you guys come in with your budgets. But I just had a quick call, a quick question, Mr. Polio, about the calls that are coming in to customer service. Are they varied? What are the nature of those calls? Are they billing questions? They're not all billing questions. We're getting some regulatory questions. Every time something comes out on the news, whether it be Forever Chemicals or biosolids, there's more and more articles that are coming out. We do receive a lot of those calls. We get calls regarding questions on their bills. We put out a leak detection. With this new AMI program, an elite notice goes out. We're trying to get more and more people signed up for those. We have people that, as their plumbing is aging, asking for credits. We do have a credit process that we have. Part of that process is that they need to come in. They need to sign up for Ion Water. So in the future, we'll work with them. We're able to still maintain – we work with every customer. So we have a system in place that does help them, and it still maintains our integrity as far as our costs go. Okay, and I know we can't avoid all of those calls, but what I'm hoping is once we get everything online, which is the intention, that we will have a robust landing page where a lot of that information and those questions can be answered for residents. Thank you, Mr. Polio. I've got Council Member Einstein and then Council Member Andreu. Yes, thank you very much. My question goes towards what you've just put forth in talking about some aging infrastructure and plans for our growing population and so forth. I know over time, whenever we've had discussions about potential new redevelopment projects, it always involves what that development may need to contribute or what we'd like to discuss with them in terms of, you know, their contributions to assist with the growing population and the needs. So my question for you is that in what you're looking at in terms of budget needs, does that take into consideration that there may be continued development where there will be no assistance, no contribution, and we may be in on it all on our own? Does that make sense? So every utility that or city or municipality that grows out, you're always going to have the redevelopment component, which is where we are now. When I started working for the city a million years ago, you know, we were close to build out then. What we're seeing today is all redevelopment of that infrastructure. You're going to see that again in maybe 20 or 30 years for the stuff that has been built in the last 20 or 30. As far as the cost of our costs when development occurs, the off-site costs are put onto the developer. When a developer comes in to build, they pay capacity charges. And what they're doing, it's not an impact fee. And there's a big confusion. It's a different term, you know, in that terminology. They pay a fee which guarantees them water and wastewater services. That's the plant capacity that they are purchasing. The infrastructure is a different animal. So maybe just let me clarify. I feel like normally we hear some voluntary commitments from developers in terms of things that would assist in our utilities, would assist in the increased population. They're not voluntary, trust me. Well, I'm saying voluntary. We're not making them in certain respect. And I want to be careful with how we describe what their obligations are versus what's voluntary. And, you know, if there are certain projects that go forward that are not done with as much compromise or voluntary commitments, again, I'm using that term. I just want to make sure that we're budgeting for the ability to take on what's needed. I think our forecasting is pretty good, but at the end of the day, when a development comes in, we do have to look at those on-site and off-site needs that they have. And if the needs don't have it, they've always been put on the developers to build those needs. So whether it's today or 20 years from now, I believe you're going to have a similar situation. It won't and should never be put on the backs of the rate payers. They should not pay for development. And plantations always had that sound philosophy, and they've exercised it as long as I've been here, and it's been a successful plan. Okay. Thank you. Member Andreu? Thank you, President Hortland. You mentioned the Ion Water. Council Member Fadgen and I were at an HOA, the Park East HOA meeting, a few weeks ago, and I brought up the Ion Water, and I know when we first launched it, there was a big kind of push on social media. But how are we still informing people? Because when I discussed it there, I felt like nobody there knew about it. And I don't know if it's also, you know, the demographic, it was most of the people, you know, were in the over-50 category. So the over-50 category still read their bills, you know? I mean, more of them than the younger generation. We continue to put notices out on bills. We continue to have any interaction we can. And we've made more of a presence at the events that the cities are having. We're offering credits for people to win credits or raffles. We're getting the word out. We're currently looking at our webpage to see where we can make improvements. And working with Michelle, we've got a couple people in our department that are putting some things together to continue to get the message out. So how many – I know you gave us an initial number. I'd have to go back in my notes because I did write that down. Where are we now, if you know? I don't have that number. I don't want to give you a number, but I can get it to you. I do know that the number does increase regularly because, again, as new customers come in, it's a requirement to set up a water bill or set up a water account. We've been trying to – I don't want to call it force feed, but we're trying to get – it's a benefit for them. If they're out of town and they've got a leak, they get a phone call or they get a text, it's definitely beneficial. Okay. And where are we with opting out of a paper bill? It's in process. We are – the design team with Paymentus is working. We've already been in touch. IT is working with Paymentus. So the implementation – we had estimated about a four-month process for this to happen. I think we're in month one. So I haven't heard we're not on, you know, on track. No news is good news. Do you know on average, like monthly, what your budget is to mail out these paper bills? There are several different components to it. You have a printing component, you have a mailing component, 16,000. I can get a more accurate number. That may not include postage. I'll verify those numbers. I was – my guesstimate was closer to 30, but whatever you tell me. Well, again, it's in a couple of different places. We have a printing component and then we have a postage component. And right now, part of what we're doing is we're bringing all this together. We've had – there were two vendors. Actually, a while back it was three vendors. We got it down to two. Now we're going to have a single vendor that we're going to be working with. So it's going to be much easier and cleaner to look at. Again, just looking for cost savings. Absolutely. Every day we're doing it because I'm not kidding when I tell you the amount of projects that are going to be coming through in the next 10 years. And I think we're going to be in good shape. Thank you, Mr. Polio. Thank you, Mr. Polio. And, Council Member Andreu, I think that Park East and maybe a few of the other HOAs, perhaps we need to do a little training on ion water because I know we're going to have to do freebie training as well, you know, to get everybody on the app now that we're expanding that. So, okay. Thank you, everybody. Ms. Otaniano? So we did end a little early. I don't know if you have any questions for any other department. Anybody have any other questions? Yeah, that would be. We don't want to call people up when they weren't scheduled, so. All right. But thank you. We've got 10 minutes, so I think we'll go ahead and take a 10-minute break before the City Council meeting. So thank you so much. Thank you very much. All right. All right. The Budget Workshop is adjourned. We'll be back at 6.