Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCBC Minutes 10_21_2022 APPROVED CITIZENS’ BUDGET COMMITTEE ST. LUCIE COUNTY, FLORIDA Regular Meeting October 21, 2022 Convened: 7:36 AM Adjourned: 9:16 AM 1. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 7:36 AM by Vice Chair, Mr. Hector Rodriguez. MEMBERS PRESENT: Hector Rodriguez, Vice Chair Jeff Emmeluth Richard Pancoast Carl Hensley Tavaris Williams Ron Parrish Harvey Alligood Ed Lounds Gwen Morris MEMBERS ABSENT: Jake Sanders John Culverhouse, Chair Barry Mucklow OTHERS PRESENT: Jennifer Hill Mark Lauzier Brandon Felder 2. PUBLIC COMMENT No member of the public spoke. 3. APPROVAL OF AUGUST 19, 2022 MINUTES A motion was made, seconded and all being in favor, the Committee approved the August 19, 2022 minutes. Regular Meeting Friday, October 21, 2022 7:30 AM 2 | Page 4. AGENDA ITEMS A. FY23 BUDGET UPDATE OMB Director, Mrs. Jennifer Hill, gave a presentation that provided an update on the FY23 Budget. The budget was adopted by the Board on September 22, 2022. The total adopted budget is $706.4 million dollars and includes 882 full time equivalent positions under the Board of County Commissioners. The aggregate millage rate is 8.2110 mills which includes a decrease of .3499 mills. When we talked about this year’s budget process, we had a lot of focus on how to prepare for the long-term future. The State of Florida Business and Economic and Business Research had done projections at the end of the census that indicate where they think the population of St. Lucie County will be in the future. The high- end estimate is 600,000 residents in 2050. Looking back at levels of growth that we’ve had over the years, that is a little lower rate than we’ve experienced over the last 20 years. We are gearing towards decisions we can make today that make sure we are ready if that higher level of growth does occur. The other area we have had a lot of conversations on is Public Works and all the things that we have done with the Infrastructure Surtax, and with the Impact Fees for road widening. The Midway Road project was something we were programming out for 2026. We had the money to do our share of the project, however, grant funding won’t be available until 2026. We worked with the State on advancing the project, so what we are doing is upfronting the project, but with the commitment that when the time comes, the State will pay their share and reimburse us. That allows us to speed that project up by about three years. That’s been the crux of this year’s budget discussions, not just what we plan to spend between now and September, but what we need to do to prepare ourselves for that eventuality. Part of the conversation at the last meeting was how Property taxes are calculated, which is multiplying the millage rate by the property value and then dividing that by $1,000. Two things that can change the amount of property taxes that someone pays are a change in the rate, or a change in the property value. St. Lucie County, on average, is about 38% of the average tax bill. The rest is made up of the school board, the cities, the independent special districts such as the Fire District, and the South Florida Water Management District. When we look at last year’s budget, St. Lucie County was about 27% below average on property values. When you look at the millage rates, the County is just slightly over statewide average, but when you take those two factors together, the dollar amount of taxes collected is just slightly below statewide average. When it comes to the millage rates for this coming year, the individual rates were adjusted. There were adjustments made in countywide millage rates of 0.3030 mills and another 0.1213 mills for the South Hutchinson beach millage rate which only affects people who live on South Hutchinson Island. For anyone that lives anywhere but on Hutchinson Island, the change in that millage rate resulted in a $30.30 reduction per $100,000 of taxable value. If you take the median average of $370,000 home, that equates to $96.96 in savings related to the millage rate being reduced. In South Hutchinson, because there was an additional millage rate reduction, that reduction ended up being $42.43 per $100,000 of taxable value, or $135.78 for a $370,000 home. When we look at the values we had this year, countywide, the increase was 17.8% in property value, the highest we’ve seen since before the great recession. Back in the early 2000’s we had numbers higher than that, but since 2009 it’s the highest we’ve seen. The largest growth in the value coming from the City of Port Saint Lucie at 23.3%, the City of Fort Pierce had just over 15%, and the Unincorporated area had 10%. As we went through this budget, one of the things we tried to make sure the Commission and Public understood is Regular Meeting Friday, October 21, 2022 7:30 AM 3 | Page the property tax process in the State of Florida is very complex. Florida law favors permanent Florida residents and particularly ones that are long-term. Because of the Save Our Homes amendment, if someone homesteads a property and lives in there for a long time, then every year their property value increase is capped at either 3% or the cost of living, whichever is lower. This year that ended up being 3% because cost of living was much higher. Mr. Ed Lounds asked Mrs. Hill how the new homestead exemption ruling on the ballot affects our situation. She explained it is a proposal of an additional $50,000 exemption for specific workers such as teachers, that would reduce the County’s tax base. It would put more pressure on the non-homesteaded properties. Mr. Lounds pointed out that the proposed exemption for teachers, EMT’s, military and such would encompass a lot of folks. Mrs. Hill agreed, it would. Mr. Lounds asked if the jail and its medical center received any attention during the budgeting process. Mrs. Hill explained that the inmate medical center is under contract now for an original assessment of needs a survey. She also explained that there was some money in the general fund that was moved over to the capital projects funding source. This will give a recurring source of money to address some capital needs. There is a plan in the budget to take that recurring revenue being put into a capital project fund and allocate it. Mrs. Hill confirmed there is $1,000,000 for this year, and $2.2 million next year towards that project for inmate medical. Mr. Lounds next question was if we are still working on a 5, 10, 15-year road improvement plan for the County. Mr. Tipton explained there is a long-range transportation plan that goes out to 2045. He further explained that the County has been a “pay as you go” organization and we cannot keep up with the growth demands. So, we are going to need to use debt, and debt used responsibly is actually a very good thing. With the pay as you go basis, all the people here today are paying 100% of it, but the thing that you’re building, whether it’s a building or a road will be used for 30 to 50 years. If we use debt right, then we have people coming into our community contributing to that project over the course of time. Mr. Carl Hensley asked what would be happening with the Midway Road project in 2023. Howard explained that mobilization will begin in the 1st quarter of 2023. All the design is done for Selvitz Road to Jenkins on Midway and it should be about a 2-year project beginning in the 1st quarter of 2023. This doesn’t deal with the bridge, which was about 90% designed when the Turnpike said it needed to be raised. The County had to go back and redesign it, but the good news is that the timing of that conversation with the Turnpike Authority and DOT is leading to the interchange. So now the design is with 2 southbound lanes of an interchange and then programming 2 northbound lanes. Harvey Alligood felt obligated to acknowledge and thank the Staff and Commissioners for seeing their way to reassess the South Beach project. There was a reduction in the South Hutchinson Island millage rate and almost one half of that is due to the action on the part of the budget workshop process and Howard and Staff reassess the County’s commitment to that project. It represents a 13% commitment towards the local share in broad terms. B. APPROVE 2023 MEETING DATES Mrs. Hill asked the Committee to look at the proposed meeting dates for 2023. She asked if everyone wanted to continue to hold the meetings on the 3rd Friday of each month. Ed Lounds moved that the proposed dates be adopted. Mr. Pancoast seconded. Mr. Hensley mentioned that if the group is to make recommendations Regular Meeting Friday, October 21, 2022 7:30 AM 4 | Page in May or June, then they will need to come back in January with ideas on what those recommendations should be. He suggested bringing back old topics. Mr. Alligood requested the minutes reflect the Committee’s thanks to Mr. Tipton for his always even-keeled professional manner, dedicated service, and thoughtful guidance. He expressed that it has always been a pleasure to interface with him and his staff, and he wishes him the best. All being in favor, the Committee voted on, and approved the 2023 meeting dates. C. OTHER ISSUES Mr. Tipton stated that Mr. Lounds recently asked him what it would look like if we went into a recession. Mr. Tipton stated he thought Florida would fare better than the rest of the country if there was a recession, and St. Lucie County would fare better than Florida. He explained that recently at the Treasure Coast Builders Association, an economist said they’re currently handling about 6,000 single and multifamily permits a year countywide, and forecasts by 2028-2029 we would be 12,000. Mr. Tipton stressed that the County must change its mindset and start thinking and acting in terms of a community of 1 million residents so it can control its future. As an example, he remarked how we need to start thinking about what the 4,000-acre airport needs to look like to serve a million people. He explained that first, you’d have to change the front entrance, which needs to come off King’s Highway. We have to rethink and reimagine that space so we have a terminal that looks like it can handle 5, 6, and 7 jets at a time. Mr. Tipton explained we have been in discussion with the City of Fort Pierce to take over the roads at the Port, which are in terrible shape. The good news is, through the Port Authority, FSTED (Florida Seaport Transportation and Economic Development) Council, and the State, we have money we can get for that infrastructure so it’s not going to be a heavy burden on the entire county. We have been working with the Bell family, who is the largest private property owner at the Port on a property swap. Key to that is moving Avenue M, which is the road right now out into Harbour Point, that bisects their 67 acres right through the middle. We’re going to move the road to the north and have a northern entrance straight in to Harbour Point. The road swap and the property swap will both be on the agenda for the 15th of November. As we’re coming out of the pandemic, we recognize that our ability to attract talent is a challenge. We have to start thinking differently about the workforce of tomorrow, because the workforce is thinking differently. Prior to the pandemic we started thinking about remote work because we wanted to reduce the size of our physical footprint by 25%. It was our Facilities Director’s goal because we didn’t have the budget to support the square footage we have to maintain, which meant some people had to go virtual. Facilities Admin, Tourism, Government Relations, and ERD’s Admin section are virtual now. During the pandemic we realized we had to change some of our infrastructure to accommodate virtual, and now we have more meetings virtually than in person still today because it’s more efficient. We are having an impossible time attracting Planners, and we are as busy as we can be. If we can start pulling in people virtually as Planners, it’s going to be a huge benefit to us. Whether 100% virtual or a hybrid program, it’s what the workers are looking at. It’s got to be a part of our future because it meets the needs of the workforce and the future needs of the organization. Mr. Thom Epsky gave an update on the search for a new County Administrator to replace Mr. Tipton who has given his notice. In September the Board asked HR to send out an RFP for a search firm that will help guide the Board. They sent out 26 RFP’s and the contract was awarded to Colin Baenziger, who was also responsible Regular Meeting Friday, October 21, 2022 7:30 AM 5 | Page for the last County Administrator search. They are now finalizing the contract and Colin will be in touch with the Board to set up meetings to solicit information on what the ideal candidate would be. We use our enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for a number of parts of the organization such as financial records, payroll, and human resources. It has been used since the 90’s and it is way beyond time to get it replaced. A lot of background work has been done to lay out the needs of the County. An RFP went out last week and they are due back to the County in January. As we work on that, we are simultaneously looking at an intensive process review for all departments in preparation of getting new software. We want to make sure that our processes are changed to be best practices and to be things that work well with the system. Ms. Gwenn Morris asked how much was saved with remote work. Howard said that he does not have a quantity to give but explained that space was able to be repurposed and so we did not have to build out any space and reduced our footprint by 25%. Mr. Tavaris Williams offered his personal experiences when his employer began working remotely. He explained that money was saved because they were able to downsize their older facilities. With the savings experienced on office supplies alone, allowed them to generate new sustainable programming for the families that they serve. Mr. Williams echoed the sentiments of Mr. Tipton and Mr. Lounds regarding growth and the concerns that Mr. Alligood and Mr. Emmeluth has brought about responsible and purposeful growth. He emphasized that growth comes from new ideas, and we want to bring in new ideas. He remarked that we want this to be an attractive place where children could put roots. Mr. Pancoast declared that he would be in support of Harvey’s earlier suggestion of thanking Howard in the form of a resolution. Mr. Pancoast made a motion to have a statement written in appreciation. Mr. Carl Hensley seconded the motion. All were in favor. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to be brought before the Board, Mr. Rodriguez thanked the staff and Committee, and adjourned the meeting at 9:16AM. The next CBC meeting is scheduled for January 20, 2023 at 7:30AM, in Conference Room 3, of the St. Lucie County Roger Poitras Administration Annex. Respectfully submitted by: Lenita Evans