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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCBC Minutes 01_20_2023 APPROVED CITIZENS’ BUDGET COMMITTEE ST. LUCIE COUNTY, FLORIDA Regular Meeting January 20, 2023 Convened: 7:28 AM Adjourned: 9:35 AM 1. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 7:28 AM by Chair, Mr. John Culverhouse. He welcomed new committee member, Chris Cicio who has been appointed by Sheriff Ken Mascara. Mr. Culverhouse mentioned the Committee passed a resolution thanking Howard Tipton at the previous meeting. He informed everyone it was presented at the December Board meeting. MEMBERS PRESENT: John Culverhouse, Chair Barry Mucklow Hector Rodriguez, Vice Chair Jeff Emmeluth Richard Pancoast Carl Hensley Tavaris Williams Ed Lounds Gwen Morris Chris Cicio MEMBERS ABSENT: Jake Sanders Harvey Alligood Ron Parrish OTHERS PRESENT: Jennifer Hill Mark Lauzier Brandon Felder Tracy Bryant Michelle Peterson Scotty Beaulieu Jeffrey Dougherty Michelle Franklin Jennifer Krause George Landry 2. ELECTION OF CHAIR & VICE CHAIR Mr. Culverhouse turned the meeting over to OMB Director Mrs. Jennifer Hill, who asked for nominations for the annual election of Chair. Mr. Richard Pancoast nominated Mr. Culverhouse, and Mr. Barry Mucklow seconded. All being in favor, Mr. Culverhouse remained the Chair. Regular Meeting Friday, January 20, 2023 7:30 AM 2 | Page Chair Culverhouse asked for nominations for Vice Chair. Mr. Carl Hensley nominated Mr. Hector Rodriguez, and Mr. Pancoast seconded. All being in favor, Mr. Rodriguez remained Vice Chair. 3. PUBLIC COMMENT No member of the public spoke. 4. APPROVAL OF OCTOBER 21, 2022 MINUTES A motion was made by Mr. Ed Lounds to approve the minutes and seconded by Mr. Hensley. All being in favor, the Committee unanimously approved the October 21, 2022 minutes. 5. AGENDA ITEMS A. FACILITIES MASTER PLAN PRESENTATION Mrs. Hill introduced Facilities Director Mr. Jeff Dougherty. Mr. Scotty Beaulieu introduced himself as the Assistant Director of Facilities. Ms. Jennifer Krause introduced herself as the Facilities Administrative Manager. Mr. Dougherty explained they would give a brief presentation on the overview of the Master Plan. Mr. Beaulieu explained the purpose of the Master Plan is to plan for the future to successfully serve the needs of the residents of St. Lucie County and government entities. The County owns and operate 1.6 million square feet of facilities ranging from the design stage to 80-year-old facilities. Florida building code has only been around for 21 years, so the fixes for the 80-year-old buildings are costly. Other Master Plans that the Board has in place are currently Ports, Parks, Strategic Plan Adoption, Stormwater, and Infrastructure Surtax. These plans provide the staff the directions they need to move to implement the BOCC’s vision for the future. Facilities needs to go in this direction to know what is needed to keep up with services in the future. Mr. Beaulieu further explained that we need to know how to prepare for the expected population of 600,000 in the year 2050. The 2018 space/needs study for the Downtown Court Complex Court system found that it is sized for a 300,000 population. Some short-term recommendations were given that we’ve acted on, which have streamlined some of the operations. That brings us as effective and as efficient as we possibly can on that campus, which again, is sized for a population of 300,000. The inmate medical study is in progress. We are getting a lot of data now and going to get on site and do some walk throughs for that particular project. The Medical Examiner is currently working out of a small, antiquated building at IRSC. There is an interlocal in place and an RFP for design of a new facility. As part of the Facilities Assessment the 1.6 million square feet we have is being inventoried. We will learn what is needed to maintain these facilities in the future, and we might find that the cost of upkeep is more than the worth of having a facility. Regular Meeting Friday, January 20, 2023 7:30 AM 3 | Page Mr. Beaulieu stated that preparing for the future is expensive, but not preparing for the future is also expensive. The short-term fixes that we have in place are very pricy. If we do several million-dollar renovations just to try and keep up and then in the end we still end up lacking the space we need, or lacking the proper buildings we need, then that’s expensive as well. Facilities Master Plan will look at space utilization. Facilities is going to ask the Board to reallocate some funding and to get an RFQ proposal. Mr. Lounds asked how much more money would be put into the stadium. Mr. Beaulieu answered that they are doing a study on the stadium and the infrastructure there and the findings will be presented to the Board to decide how to move forward. Mr. Lounds also inquired about the sewer and water treatment plant being built out by the fairgrounds. Utilities Director George Landry replied there is a location south of the fairgrounds being considered for a water treatment facility and a wastewater treatment facility. The sewer would be a water reclamation facility because the purpose is to do a 100% reclaim facility. The anticipated cost of the two facilities is somewhere between $60-$80 million dollars, it all depends on the grants and the funding. The good news is that it’s development driven, so as the development comes, they will help pay for their portion of capacity which funds the majority of that plant. In regard to the landfill, Mr. Landry said it is forecasted to reach capacity by the year 2065, or possibly even sooner. There are three, and possibly four different strategies that will be brought in front of the CBC and the Board to discuss handling the situation of the landfill running out of space. Mrs. Hill circled back and specified that there are significant challenges that prevent the County to privatize and sell the stadium. We have an agreement with the Mets for the next 20 years, agreements with the State of Florida where they are providing $20 million dollars of funding for it, and we have outstanding bonds related to it. There would be significant hurdles if the Board were to explore selling the stadium. Mr. Tavaris Williams asked if there was a study in place on our six high schools regarding the vocational offerings that would lend to the target incentive industries of what we are proposing as our current and future economic development at the Port. Mrs. Hill said she will speak with our Port and Airport Director about coming to speak to the CBC in a future meeting so we can get into some of those conversations. Ms. Gwenn Morris wanted to know how the projections of populations are made and how accurate they have been in the past. Mrs. Hill stated the Census data is used and analyzed. The 600,000 population is the University of Florida’s high projection, however, if we grow as fast as we have been, it will be higher than that. B. FY24 BUDGET PROCESS Mrs. Hill began an overview of the budget topics she, and Budget Manager Mark Lauzier would be presenting. Mrs. Hill stressed the importance of aligning the budget to the County’s strategic Plan. Innovation and Performance Department had a company perform a Citizens’ Survey which she said the Board would use to decide if there is any need to change the Strategic Plan’s objectives. Regular Meeting Friday, January 20, 2023 7:30 AM 4 | Page Mrs. Hill described the significant property value growth in our area. Property Appraiser Mrs. Michelle Franklin reminded everyone that the assessments which begun January 1, 2023 are based on things that happened in 2022. Budget Manager, Mr. Mark Lauzier informed the Committee the budget preparation season has begun and the CIP kickoff meeting was the day before. This begins the point in time when we begin to look at FY 2022 results and start our preliminary FY 2024 Economic Outlook. He provided a review of the FY 2022 revenue results which provided some promising trends. He summarized key economic and demographic indicators related to the Florida and St. Lucie County economy. He also discussed some areas of concern to consider as we begin to formulate our FY 2024 budget. Mr. Lauzier pointed out that we have experienced growth in both general and restricted revenue. General sales tax revenues increased over $3.5 million from FY 21 to FY 22 as Florida became a post- pandemic hotspot. For FY 2023, OMB budgeted at the FY 2021 Actuals level of $12.2 million. The FY 2022 actuals continued their climb after the budget adoption. Yet to be seen is the impact of inflationary pressures, but OMB anticipates a lowering of FY 2024 revenues from the hot performance in 2022. Given the growth rates in 2022 and the impact of prices on restricted revenue, OMB will be recommending increasing the Discretionary Sales Tax revenues budget. Using an FY 2022 actual revenues less 10% target would increase the budget for this restricted revenue by another $1.3 million dollars. Mr. Lauzier clarified that unlike sales tax, gas is taxed per gallon. As the price of gas increases, we don’t get more money. He explained we are currently budgeted at about $8.9 million while FY 22 came in at about $9.8 million. Mr. Lauzier continued by explaining the Tourist Development restricted tax revenues increased by about $2.7 million dollars from FY20 to FY22 as Florida recovered from the initial pandemic impact. He explained that even if this were budgeted at 90% of the FY22 revenue actuals, it would yield still an increase of about $800, 000 from the anticipated FY23 budget. OMB has analyzed revenue trends related to non-ad valorem State and local resources resulting in POTENTIAL recurring revenue increases of around $8.7 million. Approximately $2.4 million in sales taxes will benefit the General Fund if current trends continue. This is 28% of the projected new revenues (exclusive of real estate taxes). Approximately $1.4 million are restricted revenues that are specifically discretionary sales taxes that are dedicated to the Infrastructure Surtax capital program. Approximately $2.6 million of the increase would benefit the General Capital program if the current revenue streams that have been budgeted to support infrastructure needs are continued for that purpose. The remaining $2.3 million are restricted revenues that have specific uses such as Transportation Trust Fund, Tourist Development and Building Permit Fees. Additional ad valorem revenues could come from tax base growth, however, that all depends on tax rate policy. Mr. Lauzier referenced forecasts from UCF economist Sean Snaith who predicts a “pasta bowl” recession for 2023 and 2024. Some key takeaways of this forecast include a drop in job growth, high gasoline and energy prices, and high food and housing costs which erode consumer purchasing power. Mr. Lauzier stated that what is going on in the world and in our nation is the greatest risk to Florida’s economy. This Regular Meeting Friday, January 20, 2023 7:30 AM 5 | Page could undo the post-pandemic gains pretty quickly. The economic demons are inflation, lower productivity, and declining GDP as well as the heavy reliance of Florida’s economy on tourism and housing construction. Mrs. Hill highlighted some challenges and considerations for FY 2024. Because values are determined by estimates on January 1st, we feel that our tax base will grow again this year in both new construction and existing tax base, however, the real estate market has softened significantly. It is highly unlikely that the total tax base growth would be anywhere near the level in 2022 which provided a tax base increase of 17.8% above the prior year. She explained the new County Commission has expressed a desire to implement additional property tax relief. An informal meeting to get further direction is planned for February. Budget/OMB overview briefings with the new BOCC members have been conducted by the OMB Director. Should the BOCC or County Administrator desire a substantial tax cut, budget policy related to the Capital Improvement Program and the revenue streams for infrastructure investments made during FY 2023 would probably need to be revisited. Mr. Lauzier gave some examples of where we have planned for the County’s future. Some examples of this are the Port Master Plan, the Parks Master Plan, the County’s first comprehensive strategic plan, the Stormwater Master Plan, and the Infrastructure Surtax Process. 6. OTHER ISSUES No other issues were brought forth. 7. ADJOURNMENT Mr. Culverhouse welcomed the new Budget Analysts and adjourned the meeting at 9:35AM. The next CBC meeting is scheduled for February 17, 2023 at 7:30AM, in Conference Room 3, of the St. Lucie County Roger Poitras Administration Annex. Respectfully submitted by: Lenita Evans