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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-29-12 Budget Workshop Budget Workshop OCOEE CITY COMMISSION Ocoee Commission Chambers 150 North Lakeshore Drive, Ocoee, FL August 29, 2012 MINUTES 6:00 p.m. I. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Vandergrift called the meeting to order and said we will have a briefing from the City Manager and Finance Director. Roll Call: Commissioner Hood, Commissioner Wilsen, Mayor Vandergrift, Commissioner Johnson, and Commissioner Keller. Also Present: City Manager Frank, City Clerk Eikenberry, Finance Director Horton, Finance Manager Brosonski, Chief Accountant Briggs II. Discussion (PAGE BY PAGE — CONTINUED from Page 6 -9 Sanitation) 6 -9 5230 Small Equipment - Mayor Vandergrift inquired as to what small equipment was being purchased for $26,000. Public Works Director Krug advised that the sanitation team does not us cellphones to communicate; they have radio systems which were hand me downs by the emergency departments. Just as the emergency departments have switched to digital the sanitation team needs to the same so that they have a working system. It will be a one -time cost. ayor Vandergrift inquired as to how well the system is working for the reporting of potholes. ( Public Works Director Krug advised it is much better and they have done some reorganization in the department to help with that system. 7 -7 Public Works — Solid Waste - Mayor Vandergrift inquired about the '/2 person Operations Manager. Public Works Director Krug advised the Operations Manager for that division also handles the Fleet Department. City Manager Frank advised that the funds for that position are split between internal service funds and enterprise funds. 8 -1 Mayor Vandergrift inquired about the loan for the Police Station and the property at A.D. Mims Road and Clarke Road. He further inquired if the property was something they could try and sale to recovery from it. Mayor Vandergrift inquired about 6401 — Vehicle Delivery Van replacements. Public Works Director Krug said they are looking into purchasing smaller vans that will be very economical for the custodial team to get around town. A brief discussion ensued regarding hybrid vans. 8 -1 521 -00 Police Vehicles — Commissioner Johnson inquired if they were going to hold off purchasing these vehicles until they get through the impasse hearing. City Manager Frank said they would not be making this purchase until around January and they will know at that point whether they need any new vehicles or not. 8 -3 5400 Security Camera for Parks -- Mayor Vandergrift inquired which parks they are looking at. City Manager Frank advised the cameras will be portable and they can be moved from location to location. Included in the cost are extra containment devices for mounting. Mayor Vandergrift inquired if these cameras would be interfaced with the police cameras. Police Chief Brown advised the proposed parks cameras are different than the ones that PD uses to view remotely. Parks will be using a flash cam that will not only take a photo but will make a voice announcement that will inform violators that they have been seen in a restricted area. Utilities Director Smith briefly explained how the camera operates. August 29, 2012 Page 2 of 10 City Commission Budget Workshop 8 -4 Wekiva Basin Project - Mayor Vandergrift inquired as to what can the city do to get out of the Wekiva Basin Project ($250,000) and Small Projects ($250,000). Commissioner Hood said he hopes the small projects are for resurfacing the streets out at Peach Lake. Public Works Director Krug advised Commissioner Hood the $240,000 for that project is covered on page 8- 2. The Mayor advised that the city has a quarter of a million dollars per year over the next four years for the Wekiva Basin Project. City Planner Rumer said they negotiated with the state and part of that negotiation was committing $250,000 to the Wekiva Project with some of the funds going toward streetscaping and some funds going toward the large drainage projects. Further discussion ensued as to whether the city was in the Oklawaha Basin or Wekiva Basin. Public Work Director Krug clarified that a lot of the basin projects are part of their stormwater programs and city staff would be addressing them. He advised they do not send payment to the Wekiva Program but instead dedicate funds for projects within the city that affect the Wekiva River Basin. City Engineer Wheeler briefly explained some of the projects that were done under the Wekiva Basin. 8 -4 6401 - Vehicles - Pick -up Trucks (2) (replacements) $40,000 - Mayor Vandergrift inquired if they could get the same trucks as the Police Department since they are only $36,000. Public Works Director Krug said they should be able to do a little better on that budget. Commissioner Johnson advised that he would recommend that they go to wholesalers because they can get the vehicles for a lot less and especially if they are paying cash. Public Works Director Krug explained that they use the sheriff's bid as a bench mark and then try to see if they can get a better deal. He further explained that also included in the $40,000 are any upgrades. A brief discussion ensued regarding financing of vehicles. Page 8 -5 6302 Capital Improvements - Arden Park South (8 " -16 ") - Commissioner Johnson inquired if the money for Arden Park South comes out of impact fees. City Manager Frank explained this is an upgrade that the city is paying for. The developers are required to put an 8" line but we know for future growth that we need a 16" line so we are just paying the material cost to put the bigger lines in. 8 -6 6400 Vac Master Vehicle (new) (1/2 cost) - Mayor Vandergrift inquired if we were financing this. Finance Director Horton said that cost is being financed between two departments, 533 -10 Water Field Operations and 535 -10 Wastewater Field Operations. 8 -7 Solid Waste - Side Load Garbage Truck - Mayor Vandergrift inquired if there were any hybrids for this type of vehicle. Public Works Director Krug said they do have electric and hydraulic hybrids and the city would love to buy a hydraulic hybrid; however, the $100,000 additional cost is not justifiable in the budget. They have looked at the basis of fuel savings for this type of truck but it would take more than 10 years to break even. Page 2 Capital Program FY 2012 -2013 - Maine Street - Commissioner Johnson said if you take the intersection of Maine Street that goes over to Maguire Road ($350,000) and take it off the wish list and put it into the budget, they can use impact fees to cover that cost. City Manager Frank explained he did have a discussion with Commissioner Johnson regarding taking this off the wish list because there was not enough dollars in the general fund or the impact fee funds. He suggested they could put it into the budget and designate the impact fees to pay for it. All the money is not there now but they do have a couple of large checks that should be coming in or if nothing changes and they only have half the money in impact fees than they can find the additional money in the general funds as the year goes on. Mayor Vandergrift inquired as to what the expected impact fees are for the Maine Street development. CIP Manager Butler August 29, 2012 Page 3 of 10 City Commission Budget Workshop explained that impact fee credits are being utilized to pay for relocated Maine Street and as additional lots sell in that area than the city will recoup that money. Discussion ensued regarding the impact fee credits. Mayor Vandergrift said his concern is that they are committing impact fees today when they do not know when they are expected. City Manager Frank said they do not necessarily know when they will come in and pay their impact fees but if they put this in the budget then they will have to have monies in impact fees to go forth with it and the commission would approve that. If the money is not in the budget than they would have to sit down and figure out how to fund that. Commissioner Wilsen said the area is torn up and a mess so if they have the opportunity to put it in the budget now, than they need too. Commission agreed to pull the $350,000 off the wish list to be put back into the budget. Page 4 Capital Program — Street Resurfacing Program -- Mayor Vandergrift inquired if there is some kind of committee that decides what streets need repaving. Public Works Director Krug said his team drives the roads every year and analysis the worst ones. Commissioner Johnson inquired is there was any way they could create a turn lane on Bluford to get into the Middle School. Public Works Director Krug advised that they are currently working on alleviating drainage issues in that area and will incorporate a right turn stacking lane; however, they are still working out the details. CIP Manager Butler advised this project is included in the Capital Program on page 10. Page 5 — Roadway Lighting Program — Mayor Vandergrift commented that $30,000 is set aside for Ingram Road and it is a forest right now. Commissioner Hood said that area is growing and they needed the lights a long time ago. Commissioner Wilsen said she is going to ask for Jay Street and Cardinal Street lighting which is on the wish list. Commissioner Johnson commented they need to do repaving on Bay, Floral and Ohio Street. Commissioner Hood and Commissioner Wilsen said they thought this was taken care of last year. Public Works Director Krug advised it was discussed last year but was not put into the budget. He further commented that some repairs were done on Bay Street. Further discussion ensued regarding Ohio Street and the need of sidewalks in that area for the kids who walk to school. Public Comments - Lester Dabbs, 619 Caborca Court, apologized for coming late into the budget process. He briefly gave the Commission a history of the West Orange Reconciliation Task Force and advised that currently only he and Brian Stanford are the two remaining on that committee. He raised $5,000 ten year ago and contributed $2,000 of his own money and what is currently left is $2,900 (it was later clarified that the funds Mr. Dabbs had remaining was $2,900) which he and Mr. Stanford have decided to give to the HRDB Board. Mr. Dabbs explained where the Task Force had spent their money and shared that one of the board's major efforts was to restore the African American Cemetery that was abandoned by the city in the 50's. He is before the commission tonight to request financial assistance for the renovation of the cemetery. He has promises from several citizens that they would provide free labor to fence the cemetery to the city specifications which he claimed the city was provided estimates and specs several years ago. Parks and Recreation Director Hayes said he does believe they still have the estimates and specs but they do go back a few years. Mr. Dabbs said he thought it was roughly $11,000 for the fence which included labor and material. He advised he can continue to lend his efforts and maybe some money but is respectfully asking if the city could budget $10,000 for the fence. Commissioner Johnson inquired if they would be able to take the cost of the fence out of the $29,000 (it was later clarified that the funds Mr. Dabbs had remaining was $2,900) left in the budget that is being turned over to the HRDB since the city will be budgeting funds for that board. Mr. Dabbs said earlier today he gave that check to Chairman Maxwell. Commissioner August 29, 2012 Page 4 of 10 City Commission Budget Workshop Johnson said he agrees that the project needs to be finished since there is a housing development around it. He further commented that his thought was to ask Public Works, Parks and Recreation, and the City Manager if there was a way to come up with funds to do that fencing. Mr. Dabbs said that area needs to be fenced to keep people out from cutting through and abusing that property since they only have one headstone left out of the 65 burials. Commissioner Wilsen commented that it would be nice if they could go back to the HRDB Board since he is requesting $10,000 and he just gave them $29,000 (it was later clarified that the funds Mr. Dabbs had remaining was $2,900). She further inquired if there was a way the HRDB could put money toward this project. Commissioner Hood inquired if there is money that they can take out of contingency. City Manager Frank said they have roughly $50,000 but will be asking at the next commission meeting to take $35,000 for legal fees that they are still trying to settle so that will leave them with about $15,000. Commissioner Wilsen inquired if the city could bring back an estimate for the fence. Mayor Vandergrift said he would like to clarify if it was $29,000 or $2900 that was left in the Task Force funds. Mr. Dabbs said it was $2900 and change. Consensus, without objection, Mayor Vandergrift to direct staff to come back to the next commission meeting and make a suggestion on what they can come up with and where they can get the funds to do this in the current budget. City Manager Frank said they could certainly do that and if the commission would like to give them a number so he knows how much money to look for. Mr. Dabbs commented that if Parks and Recreation Director Hayes cannot locate the estimates they received than he will be more than happy to go and get another estimate. Commissioner Wilsen inquired if this was something they could do in house. City Manager Frank advised they do not have staff with fencing experience but he can bring an agenda item back with project estimates and a funding mechanism. Mayor Vandergrift asked City Manager Frank if he had any comments; to which he stated he had none at this time. Commissioner Johnson said he would like to vote on the 2% at mid -year for employees. Commissioner Wilsen said she had a problem giving employees a raise when we have an economy as it is and residents that are struggling and out of work. Many who are working have not seen a raise in several years. She stated she is in favor of giving them a few extra days off. Commissioner Johnson stated he believes the general employees should get the same raise as the police and fire received. Commissioner Wilsen said it has to stop somewhere and she wants to stop it now. Commissioner Keller said our roll back rate is 6.1 mils and right now we are at 5.8 mils. We could still give this raise and come in under the roll back rate and be fair to all of our employees. He added they do not want employees to think that getting a union is the only way they will be treated fairly. Commissioner Hood discussed the wishlist and that approving all items would take us over the rolled back rate, in which case we would have to notice the residents. The consensus was that they will not be approving ALL items on the wish list, so that will not be an issue. Mayor Vandergrift noted that at the public hearing they will approve the budget as recommended by staff, and then Commissioners can make motions to amend the budget if there are items on the wish list they want added in or deleted. Commissioner Keller added that the $350,000 for the Maine Street extension will be removed from the wish list to another funding source, so that will bring it back down slightly under the rolled back rate. There are still other items on the wishlist that we have not discussed, though. August 29, 2012 Page 5 of 10 City Commission Budget Workshop Mayor Vandergrift said first, there is the 2% raise at mid -year for employees. if everyone approves. He asked commissioners for their other choices. Commissioner Hood asked about Page 8 -2, 541 -10; he does not see anything for the Lady Avenue corridor or Peach Lake. Public Works Director Krug said those are budgeted in the current fiscal year. Commissioner Hood said in the CIP Program, Page 4, he sees five of the streets in that area, but he does not see Sal Street. Mr. Krug advised Sal Street is part of the first phase of the Stormwater outfall for Peach Lake Manor; there is a stonnwater pipe going up the east side of the houses on Leslie Ann Lane to Sal Street. Commissioner Hood said that school will be opening on 2014 and they will use those streets a lot; at this time they are in no condition to be used by cars and buses. Mr. Krug said we will be tearing up a portion of Leslie Ann and all of Sal Street for this project; it is ready to go to bid. It will hopefully be done in the next year, but definitely before the school is built. Mayor Vandergrift asked if that is part of the Wekiva basin $250,000 projects. Mr. Krug said we have other money designated, but we may claim this project as part of it. He added Sal Street will be finished but there is no plan to resurface all of Leslie Ann right now because of the repairs that were done should make it last a few more years. Commissioner Hood asked if we could take more money out of reserves to cover some of these resurfacing items. City Manager Frank said he would not be comfortable taking from reserves since we will not know until March where we ended up for this year, but Finance director Horton feels that we may have to hit the reserves for about $800,000. We know for certain there is about 1.2 million we are taking out of reserves next year. Commissioner Hood said while he still supports the new community center and Rogers Park, he doesn't know how we can spend that kind of money on capital projects and leave some of these streets in such poor condition. B said keep in mind the Rogers Park project will come out of Recreation Impact Fees. There was discussion regarding which streets are in the worst condition. Public Works Director Krug said many of the streets listed are there because they patches are thicker than the existing asphalt; he added they are holding off on Leslie Ann Lane because of the construction in that area, but he can put together an estimate of the area outside that. Commissioner Hood said Sal Street, Ohio Street, and Leslie Ann all need to be done. Mr. Krug said he will come up with figures. Commissioner Johnson asked about the $70,000 worth of items on the wishlist relating to the Police Software Script logic police explorers 2,000 police department. Asked why some of Police WiFi protection 3,000 those items can be taken from the impact General Government mobile device management 3,400 fees or forfeiture money. He noted that Replace fingerprint machine 10,000 there was an item for $30,000 for a police Police Security - OPDHQ security expansion 9,000 training room. Police Chief Brown Police Software log manager 12,000 advised that forfeiture money cannot be Police Building - training room modifications 30,000 used on building improvements, but the other items on the list can be looked at for using those funds. At this time, he said the forfeiture funds are a little low; they are trying to build them back up. There was discussion about the capacity of the training rooms being too small, the want to combine the two smaller rooms into one. Chief Brown said that $30,000 cost is to do in -house modifications. City Manager Frank said these items are not in the regular budget because they are wish list items; there may be alternative ways to fund them. Commissioner Johnson said he does not need money in his district for traffic calming devices; he would rather but the $50,000 into repaving. Commissioner Hood said they will need two speed tables on Leslie Ann once it is repaved. Public Works director Krug said there is approximately $50,000 left in this year's budget, enough to do about 9 tables. There was August 29, 2012 Page 6 of 10 City Commission Budget Workshop discussion about speed tables, and who wants them. Consensus was that most gated communities do not want them. Commissioner Wilsen said the only think she is asking for in District 2 from the wishlist is the lighting, she can hold off on traffic calming devices. Commissioner Keller said he cannot push speed tables off any longer; he only has two in his entire district that were placed in Sawmill last year after he had to get the money out of contingency because the fund was already used up. Commission agreed that some money needs to be left in speed tables for District 4. Commissioner Wilsen said she has had very few people ask for them, and when they are told to file the appropriate paperwork they do not follow up. Commissioner Wilsen asked if there is a savings to place speed tables into the proposed road resurfacing projects. Mr. Krug stated there is not, because it is a separate project and separate crew that does it after the resurfacing is complete. Commissioner Hood said 80% of the streets around Lady Avenue and Peach Lake Manor have been resurfaced in the last few years. Mayor Vandergrift noted that the consensus of the commission earlier was to approve the 2% mid -year pay increase for general employees ($131,000) from the wishlist; he would like to poll other commissioners as to which items they want. Commissioner Wilsen: Jay Street and Cardinal Street Lighting ($6300 + $1030 annually), Withers Maguire House Modifications ($50,000), HRDB Board ($5000) Commissioner Hood: Traffic Calming (partial $30,000), Ingram Road lighting ($32,345 + $2345 annually), Jay Street and Cardinal Street Lighting ($6300 + $1030 annually), Withers Maguire House Modifications ($50,000), West side of Bluford lighting SR50 to Maine Street ($23,270 + $7270 annually), Police Fingerprinting Machine ($10,000) There was discussion about the Maine Street Project, City Engineer Wheeler explained. Commissioner Wilsen asked if the Commuter Rail is money that we pledged already. City Manager Frank said no, it may not even be needed this year. Finance Director Horton stated it is in the regular budget, it should come off of the wish list. Ms. Horton added that if the money was not used this year, it will have to be re- budgeted next year. There was discussion about the fingerprint machine. Commissioner Johnson asked why the money can't be taken out of the red light cameras. City Manager Frank stated that money is listed as revenue in the general revenue; it helps to pay for everything. Chief Brown said the original fingerprint machine was purchased with forfeiture money, but the replacement one cannot use those funds. Commissioner Johnson confirmed that the money made from doing Police Software - Script logic police explorers 2,000 public fingerprinting goes into the general Police WiFi protection 3,000 fund. There was discussion with Chief General Government mobile device management 3,400 Brown about prioritizing his items; Replace fingerprint machine 10,000 consensus was to keep the four Police Security OPDHQ security expansion 9899 compliance items and do away with the a -2488 security and software items. Commissioner Keller asked about the Ajax Tool ($1700). Deputy Fire Chief Hoover explained that it is an air chisel they use to cut the cars up or anything in the way. He also explained the Piston Intake ($1600). City Manager Frank said these budgets were prepared back in June; now 17600 that they are closer to the end of the budget year, they may be Fire Ajax - tool 1,700 able to find money to fund the smaller items. August 29, 2012 Page 7 of 10 City Commission Budget Workshop There was discussion about why such items were on the wishlist. City Manager Frank said some items are on the line whether to purchase it this year or next year, so we allow the departments to put them on the wishlist. Mr. Hoover said if it does not make it through the year we would have to find money to fund it. Commissioner Johnson said you can come to the commission if an emergency purchase is needed. City Manager Frank said for items this low in cost, we can probably find funding for it somewhere else, if needed. Commissioner Johnson asked if they could squeeze $3000 out of this year's budget to purchase these two items. Chief McNeil said they created a budget as tight as possible, so there is not much money left over, but they will see if it can be done. He added that he will find money this year or next year to cover it if the Commission does not approve it on the wish list. Mayor Vandergrift discussed the Fire Assessment Fee vs. Municipal Services Taxing Unit (MSTU). He said he would like for staff to look at MSTUs. City Manager Frank said it can only be used for the function it is set up for. The Mayor stated if we can continue to adopt budgets under the roll back rate, we should consider an MSTU to designate .5 mil to support the fire department and we would not have to go through all the steps to get a fire assessment fee in place. City Manager Frank said an MSTU is an ad valorem tax and a fire fee would be a non -ad valorem flat fee. He advised they will research the options of MSTU and Fire Assessment Fees. City Manager Frank said there had been no discussion regarding the Federal lobbyists, so he wanted to note that we took $60,000 out of the budget for the Federal lobbyists this year; at this point the Federal goverment is getting rid of earmarks so we are best suited to get rid of the lobbyists at the Federal level. WISHLIST ITEM AMOUNT CONSENSUS Police Software - Script logic police explorers 2,000 YES Police WiFi protection 3,000 YES General Government mobile device management 3,400 YES Replace fingerprint machine 10,000 YES Police Security OPDHQ security expansion 8080 NO Police Software log manager 400 NO Planning - Commuter Rail Already in Budget 35,000 IN BUDGET Fire Piston - intake 4 -00 NO Fire Ajax tool 4 NO Withers- Maguire House - modifications kitchen, lighting, and back porch 50,000 YES Police B.. e _ _ • _ es ••- modifications 38,080 NO Maine - -St extension (Maguire to Bluford) Pay with Impact Fees 350-,000 IMPACT FEES Jay St and Cardinal St lighting (annual operations $1,030) 6,330 YES Ingram Rd lighting (annual operations $2,345) 32,345 YES West side of Bluford lighting (50 to old Maine St) (annual operations $7,270) 23,270 YES HRDB Advisory Board 5,000 YES Traffic Calming Devices ( per district) changed to $30.,000 50-30,000 YES 2% at mid -year for General Employees 131,000 YES The millage rate as presented, with the above wishlist items accepted /deleted would be 6.0324. August 29, 2012 Page 8 of 10 City Commission Budget Workshop Mayor Vandergrift asked for priority of the items. Commissioner Wilsen asked if it would be possible to poll the general employees to see if they prefer a raise or two days off. Commissioner Johnson said it is a waste of time to poll them. Mayor Vandergrift said he proposes that employees making over $100,000 should get a bonus and not a raise and would like to see figures on that. He would like to have salary information available at the next meeting. Mayor Vandergrift said he would still like to have the information on facility rentals and income in the city, including who we are donating use of facilities to. Finance Manager Brosonski said the millage rate would be 6.0324 with the wishlist items as discussed. Mayor Vandergrift asked what the dollar amount difference between this millage rate and the roll back rate of 6,1 304. Ms. Brosonski advised approximately $156,000. Mayor Vandergrift asked HRDB Board Chair Maxwell if he just arrived because there was something he wanted to speak about. Mr. Maxwell asked if the HRDB budget had been approved, stating that in June he submitted a request for a program of events for FY 2012 -2013. He was advised that the Commission approved an additional $5000 for the HRDB board. Mr. Maxwell asked for direction from the Commission, because the amount of money they are proposing is not enough to do the events that they had planned and been asked to do. There was some discussion about combining some of the various events. Consensus of the Commission is that it is not possible to provide the HRDB Board with $62,000 as they had requested for the seven events. Commissioner Johnson said they should continue to do the MLK Parade and ceremony as they have been and use the remainder of the funds to do one combined event. Mr. Maxwell reviewed the proposed events and noted that if the Women's Day event and the International Exposition were excluded, the budget would be back down to approximately $35,000. Commissioner Keller explained the commission had just rejected many items on the city department's wishlist, it would be impossible to justify $62,000 or even $35,000 for additional city events. He said we have to do with what we have. The HRDB Board has $7,000 from the City which is more than any other board. He added that the HRDB does more in the way of events than any other board; however this is not a year when we can add events. We may need to cut back, stay where we are, or look at outside sources of funding. Commissioner Hood asked what the funding what to the other boards. City Manager Frank said they are funded at $1000 or $2000, according to the direction of the Commission a few years back. Commissioner Hood said they could consider bringing the MLK parade back into the City budget. It is seen as a City of Ocoee event, so he believes it should be funded that way. Mayor Vandergrift suggested that International Day could be something that is joined with Founders' Day as one event, since Founders' Day has nothing to do with the founding of the City anymore. Commissioner Johnson said when this board was created years ago; it was not intended for them create a budget for the City to fund. If we are going to fund such events, it should be a department in the city that has the staff to do that. He added that volunteer boards are created to support the city and raise money if they want to have events. There was discussion with regard to the MLK Day event, and if they would want to scale it back to cut cost or keep the parade and ceremony the way they are. Commissioner Wilson said she would like to keep the parade and the ceremony with the keynote speaker as is. Commissioner Hood agreed, but said he thinks they could cut out the social event on Sunday evening to help cut some of the costs. Commissioner Keller said this is not a budget year where we can increase the budget from $7000 to $62,000. He added that August 29, 2012 Page 9 of 10 City Commission Budget Workshop he would agree with placing $10,000 in the city budget each year and handling the parade through the City staff. Chairman Maxwell said that you can turn your computer on right now and the reputation from 95 years ago of the city is one click away from worldwide publication. He stated he has 13 volunteers trying to conduct a race relations program for the city and thinks they have done a reasonable job on that. He asked the commission to give him guidance for what the board should do. Do they want to go to one event, two events, or what should they be doing? Finance Manager Brosonski stated increasing the HRDB budget an additional $10,000 ($5000 on current wishlist + $5000 more) would push the millage rate to 6.0355. HRDB Advisory Board 5 000 New millage rate would be 6.0355 Commissioner Hood confirmed that would leave $151,000 more to spend to get to the roll back rate, instead of having $156,000. Commissioner Hood said he wished we had the money to do everything, but he agrees with Commissioner Johnson that the focus should be on MLK Day and the rest of the events should be combined into one event and the board could use all their funding resources into that combined event. Mr. Maxwell said when he asks volunteers, working mothers, etc. to go out and knock on doors and ask for money, the membership on the board will diminish. He questioned whether some of the people on the board have the integrity to go out and solicit funds. Commissioner Hood said most of the other organizations in the city such as the Lions Club, the Women's Club, etc. get a little financial assistance from the City and then raise the rest themselves. Commissioner Keller said there are only 13 people on the HRDB Board; it would be hard for them to raise $62,000. Mr. Maxwell said he has $3500 that he has raised himself, which includes the $2900 check from Lester Dabbs on behalf of the Reconciliation Task Force, but he cannot count on the other 12 members to do the same. Commissioner Johnson said the Reconciliation Task Force came before us asking tonight for $11,000 after giving $2,900 to the HRDB. He added that he believes it is a worthy thing that needs to be done, but the $11,000 that we are spending on the fencing of the black cemetery decreases our available budget by that much. Commissioner Wilsen said that is a very hard working board and she does realize how hard it is to raise money, especially in this economy. Mr. Maxwell said the commitment that they have made to carry out the charter that the board was created under is within the scope of everything they have asked for; all they have to do is let the board know what level you want us to do what. Commissioner Hood said he thinks he speaks for everyone when he says the Martin Luther King Parade is 100% the number 1 priority to the Commission. The Commission consented. Chairman Maxwell said then that is where they will concentrate their efforts. Mayor Vandergrift announced the first Public Budget Hearing is scheduled for September 12, 2012, at 6:00 p.m. The meeting adjourned at 8:17 p.m. APPROVED: _Attest: City of Ocoee A It A A L. _ . B •t • '.ikenberry, City Cle S. Scott Vandergrift, Mayor