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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-19-2024 CC Budget WKSPSEBASTIAN CITY COUNCIL FY 2024-2025 BUDGET WORKSHOP MINUTES FRIDAY, JULY 199 2024 — 9:00 A.M. CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS 1225 MAIN STREET, SEBASTIAN, FLORIDA Mayor Dodd called the FY 2024-2025 Budget Workshop to order at 9:00 a.m. 2. A moment of silence was held. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. 4. Roll Call: Mayor Ed Dodd Vice Mayor Kelly Dixon Council Member Fred Jones Council Member Bob McPartlan Council Member Chris Nunn Staff Present: City Manager Brian Benton City Clerk Jeanette Williams 5. BUDGET OVERVIEW BY CITY MANAGER The City Manager welcomed everyone and thanked the Finance Department for all of their hard work on this budget especially Jen Smith and Ken Killgore. He said the budget is balanced with a millage rate of 3.1955 and will show as a 7.02% increase due to anticipated property value increases. He also mentioned that the budget included a $4 increase in the stormwater fee and staff has made it a priority to apply for as much grant funding as much as possible so that projects can continue to move forward. 6. DEPARTMENT PRESENTATIONS A. Non -departmental / City Manager The City Manager said his budget did have the largest increase due to two new positions: a Special Projects Director/City Engineer and a Social Media Communications Coordinator. He also said that he plans to purchase a drone to help with the social media communications. FY 2024-2025 Budget Workshop July 19, 2024 Page 2 He plans to have Karen Miller come to City Hall in August as the Special Projects Director/City Engineer. He said Margarita Macias will stay as the Public Information Officer and Avery Joens will start training to take over the Public Information Officer position. He said Ms. Macias is currently helping with the natural disaster announcements, the stormwater improvements, and information on the replacement of the Sebastian Inlet Bridge. A considerable expense in the non -departmental line item is the conversion of the employee HRA to the HSA account. Council Member Jones asked if the City could be a sponsor of the Chamber of Commerce's Roaring Twenties Event. The City Manager advised if it was the consensus of Council at a regular meeting, it would come out of this year's budget. B. Community Develonment / CRA 9:22 am The Community Development Director, Alix Bernard, said they are currently renewing the Community Development Block Grant process and plan to start the next funding cycle from the Capital Outlay line item. She said they are also working to continue the promotion of the Working Waterfront. They plan to strategically install pedestrian crossings on Indian River Drive. The City Manager said the Working Waterfront expansion design will be finalized by the end of the calendar year and he confirmed that there haven't been any dollars budgeted because a decision hasn't been made on the building. The Community Development Director said they are hoping to receive funding from the Division of Historic Resources. The City Manager offered to separate out the Working Waterfront building and the Working Waterfront dockage in the budget document. The Community Development Director said they were currently in the last few months of the Sustainable Sebastian program and they plan to discuss the future of the program. Mayor Dodd called for a break from 9:43 a.m. until 9:47 a.m. C. City Clerk / City Council The City Clerk, Jeanette Williams, said she was going to include new chairs for the dais but they were purchased this fiscal year. There weren't any other capital improvement changes. The City Manager said the only difference in the budget was the position change; employee pay increase; and insurance increases. The City Clerk said for now, she was only considering an administrative assistant position. Discussion followed on succession planning. The City Clerk noted for the City Council budget, there weren't any capital purchases to budget for but she did include training money for any possible new Council Members that FY 2024-2025 Budget Workshop July 19, 2024 Page 3 10:23 am 10:37 may come in as well their attendance to a Community Redevelopment Agency class scheduled for October. Council asked that their promotional line be increased to allow the purchase of sustainable and eco-friendly items to give away at conferences to advertise the City. The City Manager has offered to increase the line item by $1,000. D. Human Resources The Human Resources Director, Cindy Watson, said this year she has added some employee training to assist with succession planning within the departments. There will be 25 slots for year -long training to help employees move up within the City. The City Manager said this acknowledgement of completing this program would provide a future pathway for the employee to move up. The City Manager said the Human Resources Director has completed many city-wide policy changes as well as the employee handbook which is currently on his desk for review and should be done by the end of the year. The city-wide policy manual will be done in Fiscal Year 2025. E. Finance The City Manager said the Finance Department's budget includes Mr. Killgore's payout, salary, and his part-time role with consulting for FY2023-2024. He said there is an amount budgeted in Reserves each year for employees that are expected to leave. There is one open position for a financial assistant that we are waiting for the new director to fill. The department does not have any capital expenses. He said the operating budget increased by $15,000 for audit fees and membership to the Florida Government Finance Officer Association. Mayor Dodd said we have a $9M reserve with a $275,000 R&R Fund, and $565,000 Assigned Fund Balance that brings the Reserves down to $7.7M. If we had a bad year and a large number of employees left, is there a number we need to approve against the reserve. Mayor Dodd said the reserve number is not true number if you consider the potential liabilities against that. The City Manager said given inflation he didn't know if $5M is a safe number at this point. He said he would look at a percentage of the work force that may leave. F. Buildin¢ Department The Building Official/Fire Marshal, Wayne Eseltine, said they plan to attend more continuing education courses for the inspectors and hire another part-time scanner to continue scanning the paper files. He said all permit applications can now be done on-line. FY 2024-2025 Budget Workshop July 19, 2024 Page 4 The City Manager explained that the cost of the Building Department's operating personnel is higher than the anticipated revenues and given that they have such a high reserve account, they have to use those funds per State Statute since they are an enterprise fund. Mayor Dodd called for a break at 10:52 a.m. and upon return at 10:58 a.m. all members were present. 11:23 am G. Sebastian Municipal Aimort The Airport Manager, Jeff Sabo, advised that some lease opportunities are coming up in the new fiscal year. There are a couple of projects that he has spaced out to use the matching funds for other projects in the City. With regard to capital purchases, he said the diesel zero turn mower has reached its life expectancy and they have a need for a used pickup truck to transport fuel to the equipment. He said the design of Taxiway Golf is underway and, on that footprint, a new taxiway will be designed to connect the middle of the field up to the northwest field. The rest of the footprint will include an apron for hangars to be built followed by the infrastructure to feed it. He said he is also looking to expand the apron in front of the terminal building to provide more parking spaces. He said the flight school uses one wing of the terminal building and the rest of the building is used by Whelan Lighting. He said he would like to change the land use to refine the way the terminal building is being used with the goal of making the airport a destination airport with a focus on maintenance, parking and fuel. They could make revisions to the master plan in two or three years and then submit it to FDOT for approval. The Airport Manager noted a lot of the existing airport tenants are hobby driven but there is a desperate need for pilot training. They could consider bringing in the smaller jets because it has become so expensive to operate south of here. The City Manager pointed out that if DST funds are used to match grants for profit generating endeavors the airport has a debt service to pay that back; otherwise, they wouldn't have to pay that money back. The Airport Manager said there will be an increase in contractual services for security, gate systems and automated weather system. H. MIS Dept. The MIS Department Manager, Barbara Brooke -Reese said there is an increase in operations to consolidate equipment purchases out of the MIS Department instead of individual departments. The department is moving a part-time position to full-time to supplement the new social media efforts. FY 2024-2025 Budget Workshop July 19, 2024 Page 5 She said they are working to upgrade the cameras for City Hall and the Police Department as well as increasing the number of cameras. Mayor Dodd called for a lunch break at 11:38 a.m. and upon return at 12:45 p.m., all members were present. I. Police Dent. The City Manager said the overall department has an increase of 15.10% due to personnel costs; there is a deficit in operating expenses due to the sergeant's exam, a completed flooring project; and a capital outlay decrease to replace some vehicles in the prior year. Police Capt. Tim Wood reported that most of the administrative positions are filled and they weren't planning any capital projects. He said there are seven vacant positions but they are accounted for by individuals who are either in the academy or in the background process; for a total of 31 officers. They hope to be fully staffed by the end of next fiscal year. They are pulling employees from other divisions to staff the patrol division. The City Manager said in last year's cycle they planned to add two officers and then request two officers this year but it was decided that continuing to add two would askew the number of vacancies to nine. He said what is happening is that the extra coverage is taking a toll on officers. They will need to add officers in the future as the population increases. Mayor Dodd suggested the active officers be listed separately from those in the process. The City Manager offered to add a narrative that separates the total active officers and the ones that are In-Training/Hiring Process. Council Member Nunn noted the City has a lot of growth and asked why we don't have two new officers coming in when it takes an academy officer a year to be ready. He noted if they put this out for next year's budget it will take two years to have a new academy officer especially when the current officers are struggling. Capt. Wood said he didn't disagree but even with the people waiting for background checks, it will be difficult to get them on the road by the end of next fiscal year. By putting in two officers for next year, it will give them time to field train two officers for the year after that. Council Member Nunn asked if there could be two "certified" officers in the next budget. Capt. Wood said if they could project forward on how many officers, they will need that would help. The City Manager said a new officer will cost the City approximately $150,000. Putting two officers in the range of approximately $300,000-$320,000. Capt. Wood said four officers are scheduled to be finished with the field training in September/October which will provide one more officer per shift. FY 2024-2025 Budget Workshop July 19, 2024 Page 6 The City Manager said even though the expense for the officers in the academy is less, consideration should be given that there will be overtime to cover the shifts of those positions. The City Manager requested consensus on where they would like to pull money to from for two more officers or what kind of millage rate they would like to consider. It was the consensus to have the City Manager provide more information for two officers at the next City Council meeting. The City Manager said the City could advertise for a mid -year position. Mayor Dodd asked if the appropriate staffing level was 31 or 33 because staffing is different than budgeting. It was the consensus of Council to provide more information. For operations, Capt. Wood said they plan to purchase five tasers; 20 ballistic shields; SRT bullet accompaniments; a night vision binocular; and flock cameras. For investigations, the City Manager said the CAD/RMS system will be upgraded; and advised there will be a 50% match for the requested patrol boat. Lt. Dino Savvidis said for the Investigations Division, they are down two detectives and one civilian position and they will be posting for the evidence technician that is currently vacant. They don't have any capital outlay projects. Capt. Wood said there are nine dispatchers and they have one in the pipeline. They don't have any capital outlay projects. On Monday, a new Code Enforcement employee will be starting and then the division will be fully staffed. The City Manager advised that they did an evaluation and found there are areas that can be adjusted so they don't need to increase with any code enforcement officers. J. City Attornev 1:55 pm The City Attorney, Jennifer Cockcroft, said she didn't have any capital outlay expenses. In response to Mayor Dodd, the City Attorney said under Other Contractual, there is $5,000 to cover the special magistrate and $25,000 for outside counsel when needed. Discussion followed on hiring a lobbyist in the future. Mayor Dodd called for a break at 2:04 p.m. and upon return at 2:11 p.m., all members were present. K. Parks / Facilities / Cemetery The Parks and Recreations Director, Richard Blankenship, said he was renewing the janitorial and pest control contracts. He also said two additional positions have been FY 2024-2025 Budget Workshop July 19, 2024 Page 7 2:31 pm requested for the Parks Division, and one for the Recreation Division. The (Parks Division) recreational employee will create, manage and advertise special events and programs. He advised that the maintenance landscaping contract for the CRA ends in January and he is proposing to have staff take that over. The Parks Director said the playground improvements will continue with an allocation of $20,000 for general park improvements as recommended by the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee. He advised that we did receive $1.5M for Land and Water Conservation Grant for Riverview Park improvements. The City Manager said the recreation impact fee line has slowed down and he had to move a couple projects out to stabilize the fund until the building of new homes picks up. The Parks Director said the increases for the Cemetery are related to water. The Cemetery's office building has been hooked up to the County's utility and he is receiving proposals to build a new office building that will be funded by the trust fund. He is also planning to install smart irrigation to irrigate the gravesites. L. Golf Course The City Manager distributed a report outlining the rounds played at the golf course, the number of memberships, the number of discount cards and number of walk-in players to show the revenues for FY2022/2023 and 2023 up to present (July 2024), which shows the golf course is bringing in revenue. He proposed to increase the membership rates to make up the deficient that is showing on the proposed 2024-2025 budget. The Golf Pro, Greg Gardner, said he estimated conservatively with the revenue projections because there could always be a severe weather event which will always affect the bottom line. He said there is a State of Florida Public Golf Event scheduled for September 11`h where other golf pros will be discussing where their rates are going. He said he has been proactive with the club rentals and bag storage rate. The City Manager offered to look at raising the individual rates by $1.00, an increase for memberships and locker rates to bring back the rates to Council. Council Member Jones said they should watch what they are doing until they get things back to full function. Mayor Dodd said if the feeling is that they should minimize the impact on the cost to play the course, then the other option would be to underwrite the $150,000 out of the reserves. The City Manager offered to look at the locker rentals, the benefit of raising the cart fee by a dollar and keep general play rates the same as 2023-2024 and see how that affects the deficit. Vice Mayor Dixon said that they shouldn't be raising anything with play. The City Manager said he was concerned with not raising rates due to the fact that the golf course is FY 2024-2025 Budget Workshop July 19, 2024 Page 8 showing too many rounds of golf annually, noting the golf course can only handle so many players per day. Mayor Dodd said if they want the golf course to recover, the course should be closed or raise the rates so people don't want to play it. Council Member Jones suggested raising the locker rental and membership fees and then have another look at it in a year. The Golf Pro added that he expects the rates to increase for all of the courses. Council Member Nunn said he agreed with Mayor Dodd that what people are coming to play should pay for itself. The consensus of Council was to have the City Manager and Golf Pro meet to work on the loss. Mayor Dodd said he didn't see how the loan can be reduced during the upcoming year. The City Manager said green renovations will be coming soon too. Vice Mayor Dixon suggested closing the gap for couples' memberships. The Golf Pro said they have really tried to keep the expenses as low as possible. The City Manager said at some point the capital improvement line will have to be increased. Mayor Dodd suggested putting together a plan for an engineering estimate on everything that needs to be done at the golf course. Council Member Jones noted the cart barn is dilapidated. Mayor Dodd called for a break at 3:28 p.m. and upon return at 3:35 p.m., all members were present. K. Public Works / Roads / Fleet The City Manager said the division is requesting an increase to cover personnel costs. In the operating line there is an increase road paving, inspections and sidewalk repairs and a reduction due to the pavement grinder purchased in prior year. The Public Works Director said they are requesting a Maintenance Worker II and a GIS Technician (GIS position is a transfer from Community Development not a new position). He took out a tire lube technician position from the Fleet Division and moved it to Public Works to get some concrete services completed with the Maintenance Worker II position. He said road preservation, reconstruction and repaving are scheduled for next year. He distributed projected breakdowns for years 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029 (See attached) The City Manager said FY2025 is actually the 2024 road plan project because everything in the road plan is pushed back a year because we are now finishing 2012 & 2023 projects. They are starting to realign the projections with what is actually happening. The City Manager offered to clean up the schedule at the end of this fiscal year which wouldn't impact the budget. FY 2024-2025 Budget Workshop July 19,2024 Page 9 The Public Works Director said 2024 will be completed in Sept 2025. They can combine 2024 and 2025 by putting out more bids for concrete to make a net savings of $880,000 and will eliminate the need for work in 2029. The City Engineer said we are behind because of COVID and we didn't have a swale contractor and, in the meanwhile, our concrete contract expired leading to the bid process. The City Manager said road preservation comes out of local option gas tax which we only bring in approximately $800,000.00 so there wouldn't be an opportunity to raise the needed $3M. 4:17 pm The City Engineer pointed out that as they proceed, they are finding roads in worse condition where they can't be preserved but must be overlayed so she cautioned that there will adjustments as conditions change. Mayor Dodd asked if they tripled the number of roads they want to do, are there enough contractors and materials available to do that. The Public Works Director said those identified roads could be expedited. The City Manager noted that they requested the electric sweeper truck as a future year CIP request to boost their NPDES credits. The Public Works Director said there is an increase to cover additional staff, clothing allowance, and group insurance. He said there is an increase in engineering services to cover roadway inspections, project designs, and design as required by FDOT. He said they are evaluating the sidewalks and repairing them as necessary. He said environmental services went up to cover the used oil from preventative maintenance services. L. Stormwater The City Manager said this budget is based on a $4.00 monthly stormwater fee increase that he plans to bring to Council in late August. The Public Works Director said the budget includes the request for five additional staff members next year. The City Engineer said the capital improvement projects they are requesting include a replacement backhoe, a replacement excavator as well as revamping the fleet. They are planning to do a canal study to compare the depth to the design depth in the master plan. They are looking to design the Stonecrop upstream drainage area so there is more capacity in the ditch running to the Stonecrop drainage area. They will be replacing the pipe structure in the Schumann Drive box culvert to allow more capacity in the canal. FY 2024-2025 Budget Workshop July 19, 2024 Page 10 The Public Works Director said the existing vacuum truck is at its end of life. They are receiving quotes to replace it. He said the life expectancy for the excavator is 4,000 hours but its usage has doubled since it's being used in the canal. The City Engineer explained that if they increase capacity in the canal, they would be eligible for more hazardous mitigation/FEMA grant money however the seawall replacement isn't eligible because the walls are on private property. The City would have to take on the maintenance cost of the earthen embankment if that is what is decided to replace the seawalls. The City Manager said the stormwater increase will generate almost $772,000 a year. He thanked Council for the information provided during the workshop. Mayor Dodd asked that if anyone in the public had any questions about the workshop to please email the City Manager at bbentona.citvofsebastian.ora. 7. Being no further business, Mayor Dodd adjourned the workshop at 4:49 p.m. Approved at the August 28, 2024 Regular City Council meeting. 11 Mayor Ed Dodd ATTEST.• anette Williams, City Clerk