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Minutes 09-24-85SECOND CITY COUNCIL PUBLIC HEARING OF CITY COUNCIL ON 1985/86 BUDGET HELD IN CHAMBERS, CITY HALL, BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA, ON TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1985 AT 7:30 P. M. PRESENT Nick Cassandra, Mayor Robert Ferrell, Vice Mayor James Warnke, Councilman Carl Zimmerman, Councilman ABSENT Ezell Hester, Councilman Peter L. Cheney, City Manager Betty Boroni, City Clerk James W. Vance, City Attorney Mayor Cassandra called the meeting to order at 7:30 P. M. ANNOUNCEMENTS Mayor Cassandra read a memorandum from Grady Swann, Finance Director, to Peter L. Cheney, City Manager, informing him that the City has been awarded the coveted Certificate of Conformance in Financial Reporting for the September 30, 1984 Annual Financial Report. This is the sixth consecutive year the City has received this award, and it is the highest form of recognition in governmental financial reporting. Only 72 out of 30,000 eligible governmental units in the State of Florida have received this award. PUBLIC HEARING TO MAKE FINAL DECISION ON THE MILLAGE RATE AND BUDGET - 1985-86 BUDGET At the first Public Hearing, Mayor Cassandra said the Council voted to have a maximum millage rate of 8.1116, which consisted of a General Fund of 7.1306, Publicity Fund of .0665, Beach Debt Service of .1775, and .7370 for Building Improvements, which was passed by the citizens at Boynton Beach at referendum. This meant the Council could not go higher than that maximum rate tonight but could go lower. Mayor Cassandra announced t~hat it was a public hearing, and anyone who wished to speak could. He had received only one request. Forest Hill Park William R. Cwynar, 2701 S. W. 8th Street, called Charles Frederick, Director of Recreation and Parks, and asked him what had happened at the first meeting in regard to Forest Hill Park. Ne had appeared before the Council in August asking that the grass be cut at the park, which was done. Mr. Frederick advised him that the original request of - 1 - MINUTES - CITY COUNCIL BUDGET HEARING BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA SEPTEMBER 24, 1985 $6,000 for Forest Hill Park was cut in half. Mr. Cwynar asked that the $6,000 be left in the budget and not be cut. Fire Inspectors Mayor Cassandra read a letter dated September 23, 1985 from Morton Goldstein, 130 N. E. 26th Avenue, saying he appeared at last year's hearing and read a 1975 Grand Jury report which recommended that the City hire more Fire Inspectors. At that time, the City had three, including a Fire Marshall. One year later there is only one full time Fire Inspector. Mr. Goldstein felt that City Manager Cheney and the Council (exCluding Vice Mayor Ferrell and Councilman Hester, who were not on the Council at that time) appear to be apathetic concerning the safety of the citizens. Based on the National Fire Protection Association guidelines, Mr. Goldstein said the City should have at least five Fire Inspectors right now and, at the City's present rate of growth, there really should be seven. Mr. Goldstein also put the Council and City Manager Cheney on notice that if this situation is not remedied quickly, they will be leaving the City open to totally unnecessary litigation should fires occur in buildings that have not been inspected in many years when the City Codes call for yearly inspections. Mayor Cassandra thought City Manager Cheney should respond to Mr. Goldstein's allegations in the minutes and follow up with a letter. City Manager Cheney advised that the City has had two full time Fire Inspectors most of this year. One was lost because he was a Fire Fighter and Certified Inspector, and he chose to go back to shift work instead of working forty hours a week. City Manager Cheney said Mr. Goldstein probably does not realize that fire inspection now requires a special training, certification course for Fire Inspectors. A number of Firefighters have gone to the course and have become Certified Inspectors. City Manager Cheney informed everyone that the City is try- ing to do its fire inspections with on duty Fire Fighters, which is a much better program, because it gets the Fire Fighters going into buildings and gives the opportunity for evening and weekend inspections. Fire Fighters who are Certified Inspectors have the opportunity to move over into the forty hour week program and be full time Fire Inspectors - 2 - MINUTES - CITY COUNCIL BUDGET HEARING BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA SEPTEMBER 24, 1985 but they prefer not to. A number of them are glad to be Fire Inspectors because they get an extra 5% for it. City Manager Cheney stated that the City needs Fire Inspectors on a forty hour week. The most efficient way is to have Fire Fighters who are also Inspectors. Firemen should go into buildings periodically and know the "lay of the land." In the last month, a tremendous amount of Fire Inspectors have been going on a regular basis to Motorola, and a lot of them have been involved in the Mall, as it is being developed. Fire inspection programs have changed in the State because of the new laws. City Manager Cheney believed the program for training Fire Inspectors takes five weeks. He is on the Steering Committee for Palm Beach Junior College, and they have developed a fire inspection program. Two people from the Building Department and two from the Fire Department attended the last course, and all four passed. A Building Inspector doing building inspections will obviously be effi- cient if he can also be a Certified Fire Fighter and cite Fire Code violations. There will be another fire inspection course within a few more weeks, which will be done by Palm Beach County Fire Rescue. Another Fire Fighter will be taking a course at Deerfield Beach. City Manager Cheney thought it was unfortunate that it was suggested that the City have five to seven Fire Inspectors. He did not think there were very many, if any, cities in the country that have seven Fire Inspectors working full time. City Manager Cheney expressed that from the point of view of fire prevention, the most important thing the City does is its careful work during building construction. Mr. Goldstein had referred to fires an Tamarac and Wilton Manor with similar roofs to the complex he lives in and said seven of the buildings in the complex have not had their fire breaks inspected since 1978. City Manager Cheney said those fires were because there were no stops in the attic. That could not happen here because the Code requires that the stops be there. Once the stops are in, there is not a great need to go around and inspect them. City Manager Cheney hoped people would not get overly xcited or scared by Mr. Goldstein's letter because, in his udgment, there was no basis for it. He said he would put all of that together in a report for the Council. Mayor Cassandra requested that a copy be sent to Mr. Goldstein. - 3 - MINUTES - CITY COUNCIL BUDGET HEARING BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA SEPTEMBER 24, 1985 For edification purposes, Mayor Cassandra asked that the record show that Vice Mayor Ferrell was on the Council last year. Sanitation Rate Increase City Manager Cheney announced that this will be on the agenda for final approval Tuesday, October 1, 1985. The current rate for single family homes on regular twice a week collection programs is $6.25, which includes $1.20 for tipping fee and $5.05 for the operating cost. The operating cost is going up by 80~ a month. The tipping fee is going from $1.20 to $1.65, and the landfill closure (which was $180,000 in the Sanitation budget) will be 509 a month. This makes a total of $8.00, which is the rate the City is proposing. The current residential dumpster rate per unit for condominiums and apartments in $5.75, and the City is proposing a rate of $7.45. Mayor Cassandra explained that the sanitation rate is going up for two reasons. One is because of the tipping fee (charge to dump the waste products), and the second is because the City has to close the landfill that it used before. Water and sewer will not be going up this year and will stay the same. Mayor Cassandra asked if anyone else wished to comment on the budget or had a question. There was no response. THE PUBLIC HEARING WAS CLOSED. LEGAL A. Resolution Discussion re Proposed Resolution 85-III and Pay Plan City Manager Cheney informed the Members that included in this Resolution is the change in the Utility Department. There was one amendment to the pay plan, which included the position which is the current Fire Fighter Driver, who is now a Grade 26. If he passes the Fire Fighter I exam, he will become a Grade 27 and, if he passes the Fire Fighter II exam, he will become a Grade 28. The Fire Fighter Driver/ Fire Fighter I at Grade 27 was considered to be in the budget by substitute pages. City Manager Cheney passed out a copy of the management package to the Council Members and said, in earlier - 4 - MINUTES - CITY COUNCIL BUDGET HEARING BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA SEPTEMBER 24, 1985 sessions, they indicated they would increase each item a little bit in Categories I, II, and III. The main change they had talked about was adding a Special Non-Management Category IV. City Manager Cheney explained that this applies to those people who are classified as Administrative or Executive under the Fair Labor Standards Act that now applies to them and who, therefore, are exempt from the opportunity to earn overtime. In fairness, City Manager Cheney suggested that this group should have some special treatment. City Manager Cheney said the Council would notice there are two pay plans. One is for exempt people, and one is for non, exempt. The one for exempt people had an A or E attached to the category number in the lefthand column, which was an indication of which positions were Administrative and which were Executive. Obviously, the department heads are Execu- tive. All of the Administrative Assistants are considered Administrative, and they will not be paid overtime. The fourth category is a way of responding in some small way to that situation. All of the other employees will get over- time if they work. City Manager Cheney said there were a lot of job descriptions which were not typed yet. They are not significant changes, but the City is doing a lot of job descriptions over again and putting a reference about the Fair Labor Standards Act in them to indicate that they are non-exempt employees, so the City will not have any problems in the future with the Labor Department. The grades and basic job descriptions will not be changed, and City Manager Cheney said the Council can adopt them at a Council meeting after they are typed. B. Other: .1. Discussion re Fire Union Contract City Manager Cheney said the Fire Union Contract was rati- fied by the Union a week or so ago and recognized a cost of living pay adjustment now of 5%. It also recognized that the City has instituted a Fire Fighter I, II, and III program. Hopefully, training on that will be started the end of October when the appropriate manual material is here. It gives the Fire Fighters the chance to probably get from Grade 24 or 26 to Grade 28 as they fulfill the additional requirements of professionalism for Fire Fighter I, II, and III. One significant thing in the Fire Union Contract is that neither they nor the City will expect an adjustment in their - 5 - MINUTES - CITY COUNCIL BUDGET HEARING BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA SEPTEMBER 24, 1985 working hours for the next three years. Three years ago, City Manager Cheney was trying to convince the Fire Union to work a 40 hour or 42 hour week and give up the 24 hour shift business because he thought it was more efficient. Many of them would like not to do that because of the advantages in the 24 hour system. At that time, the City said to leave it where it was, and they spent three years studying it. The Fire Union agreed to not ask for a reduction in hours on the 24 hour basis, and City Manager Cheney agreed he would not push the 40 hOurs again for three years. Councilman Warnke asked if this question had been resolved with the new Federal laws. City Manager Cheney answered affirmatively and said it is very clear in the Fire Union contract that they will get time and a half if they work overtime.. It is very clear that they cannot be at their work station more than seven minutes before their shift begins nor more than seven minutes after their shift ends. If they are there, they must have permission from their Supervisor to get time and a half. City Manager Cheney told the Council that there was never any compensatory time in the Fire Union contract, but it is clear that they will get paid time and a half if they work overtime. In many ways, the Fair Labor Standards Act does not bother the City as much as some other cities, because the City has paid time and a half for many things. City Manager Cheney said it affects the City the most in the clerical area because the clerical staff has been allowed to work overtime and not get paid for it, partly because they wanted to. The City cannot let them stay and work overtime gratis but has to pay them fOr it. 2. Discussion re Police Union Contract City Manager Cheney said the Police Union ratified their contract. The significant thing in their contract on wages was when they looked at the base starting pay for Policemen for other cities, they knew they were falling behind. As of October 1, Policemen will be reclassified by two grades, which will put Boynton Beach up high in the County, and the City will be in a competitive position. In addition, half- way through the year, City Manager Cheney said the Policemen will get a 5% adjustment for the last six months of the year. The City used to give annual physicals and now, City Manager Cheney 'said they will give physicals every three years, as requested by the Policemen. Other changes in the contract were insignificant. - 6 - MINUTES - CITY COUNCIL BUDGET HEARING BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA SEPTEMBER 24, 1985 City Manager Cheney recommended that both contracts be ratified. 3. Discussion re List of Possible Adjustments to Budget Th list acknowledged the millage rate the Council set at the first public hearing. As always happens between the time they p~t the budget together, the public hearings, and the time it is adopted, City Manager Cheney said they get more information about things. For example, the City will get an additional $259,000 in revenue that was not anticipated. Also, some additional expenditures can be addressed. City Manager Cheney explained the minus figures on the list and said the net effect of the changes in expenditures is $106,000. $152,000 is the net change from the expenditures in revenue, and City Manager Cheney recommended this be included in the 1985/1986 budget as a reserve for the City insurance program of either self-insurance or an increase in deductibles. The City received a premium for the year, but it was only guaranteed for three months. That was the reason City Manager Cheney thought the City needed a reserve to relate to a premium adjustment if there is any. As the insurance situ- ation is getting to be very serious, City Attorney Vance totally concurred with the City Manager in keeping that money in reserve, possibly for insurance premiums. He added that it may not be enough. Councilman Warnke questioned whether it should be in a reserve or contingency. City Manager recommended that they identify it as a reserve for insurance. 4. Recording Secretary Due to the number of meetings and Boards and the length of the meetings and the minutes, City Manager Cheney thought there was a need for an additional Recording Secretary. The reason the budget was for nine months was because he thought it would take awhile to find somebody. 5. Quality Improvement Program City Manager Cheney said $27,500 was in the first budget for a Quality Improvement Program, and they were hoping to tie into a joint program between the Florida Information Group and Florida Power and Light Company. The City continued to research that program, George Hunt went to workshops, and City Manager Cheney stated they concluded this was not the - 7 - MINUTES - CITY COUNCIL BUDGET HEARING BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA SEPTEMBER 24, 1985 year to do that. That program requires a tremendous amount of administrative staff involvement and support to make it work. Palm Beach County hired another person for the pro- gram, and City Manager Cheney said this is happening throughout the State. He reduced the $27,500 down to $22,500 and left $5,000 there, hoping that the City can move in the direction of those kinds of programs that sometimes are called quality improvement. He proposed that the City not do the Florida Power and Light program. 6. Plans A, B and C Councilman Warnke noted that Plan C did not list the people involved and it went all the way up to Step 41. City Manager Cheney adVised'that Plan C will only be in the Police Depart- ment. It is the existing pay scale for 1984/1985, which the Police will be paid under for six months in 1985/1986, except that they will all be two grades higher. As of April 1, 1986, Plan C will become useless. 7. Utili,t¥ Budget Mayor Cassandra noticed that City Manager Cheney also requested that the Utility budget, as far as the breakdown and organization, should also be considered, but it was not on the agenda. City Manager Cheney said the positions are incorporated in the proposed pay plan. A report on the justification of this was given to the Council last night (September 23, 1985), and City Manager Cheney gave them a longer report tonight that basically said the same thing in more detail. City Manager Cheney said it will move some things around, combine some activities, take all of the mechanical kinds of maintenance and preventive maintenance activities, and put them into one place instead of two or three. He informed Mayor Cassandra that when the City hires these people, it will decrease the need for Consultants in that particular area and, hopefully, some routine engineering and drawings. It will also enable the City to improve what has been a good program and to do better maintenance. All of the mechanical kinds of people will be put into one division. With regard to the $152,000 that City Manager Cheney recommended be set aside for the insurance reserve, Council- man Warnke said if it was used to reduce the millage, a reduction of a little over 16/100tbs of a mill would be possible. City Manager Cheney agreed, saying it would be about 1/10th of a mill per $100,000. - 8 - MINUTES - CITY COUNCIL BUDGET HEARING BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA SEPTEMBER 24, 1985 LEGAL A. Resolutions: Proposed Resolution 85-III Re: Adopting Pay Plan for 1985/86 Fiscal Year and Adopting New Job Descriptions City Attorney Vance read proposed Resolution No. 85-III by title only: "A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA, ADOPTING PAY PLAN FOR FISCAL YEAR 1985/86 AND ADOPT- ING JOB DESCRIPTIONS FOR NEW POSITIONS WITHIN THIS PAY PLAN" Councilman Warnke moved to adopt Resolution No. 85-III, seconded by Vice Mayor Ferrell. Motion carried 4-0. B. Other 1. Ratify Fire Union Contract Vice Mayor Ferrell moved to ratify the Fire Union Contract, seconded by Councilman Zimmerman. Motion carried 4-0. 2. Ratify Police Union Contract Vice Mayor Ferrell moved, seconded by Councilman Warnke, to ratify the Police Union Contract. Motion carried 4-0. C. Ordinances - Second Readinq 1. Proposed Ordinance No. 85-47 Re: Millage City Attorney Vance read proposed Ordinance No. 85-47 in its entirety: "AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA, STATING THE AGGREGATE MILLAGE RATE TO BE LEVIED AGAINST PROPERTY OWNERS WITHIN THE CITY FOR THE 1985-1986 FISCAL YEAR; PROVIDING THAT THE CITY MANAGER SHALL HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO ADJUST THE AGGREGATE MILLAGE RATE UPON RECEIPT OF THE FINAL TAX ROLL; PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES." Section 1 reflected that the Proposed Tentative Aggregate Millage Rate for the 1985/86 Fiscal Year shall be 7.1971 (7.1306 for the General Fund and .0665 for the Publicity - 9 - MINUTES - CITY COUNCIL BUDGET HEARING BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA SEPTEMBER 24, 1985 Fund), plus .9145 for Voted Debt Service for a total Proposed Tentative Millage Levy of 8.1116 for the 1985/86 Fiscal Year. Section 2 read that said Millage Rate exceeds the computed rolled back rate by 16.46 per cent. Mayor Cassandra thought they should have a discussion in case there may be a split vote. Councilman Warnke had no comments. Vice Mayor Ferrell moved to adopt Ordinance No. 85-47 on second reading, seconded by Councilman Warnke. Councilman Zimmerman thought the record should show that the Council Members received a letter dated August 6, 1985 from William Cartwright, 122 Leisureville Boulevard, (which is in Councilman Zimmerman's district) asking the Council to cut back the millage rate and budget. Fifteen people had signed the letter, including Mr. Cartwright. Mayor Cassandra wanted to maintain the present millage, which would be 6.5264. Doing that would require the City to have an expenditure of $15,019,000. Mayor Cassandra said he made recommendations of where he thought cuts could be made and subsequent to that, City Manager Cheney gave them added information as far as revenue and certain needs that could be accomplished this year, such as Forest Hill Park. Mayor Cassandra still thought they could cut approximately $500,000 from the expenditure to meet the $15,019,000 and felt the $350,000 for capital improvements that was being allocated was not necessary at this time because they went to referendum and got Capital Improvements to take care of a problem that was perpetuated through the years because of no action taken by other Councils. Also, Mayor Cassandra said the utility tax was raised from 61/2% to 10%. The 31/2% increase was allocated to Capital Improvements. Hopefully, the projected numbers would go into $1,000,000 a year from this area of revenue. Based upon that projection plus the $350,000 City Manager Cheney recommended be put into the budget every year, Mayor Cassandra said the five year forecast to take care of all other improvements that the City might have such as Wilson Park etc., plus the radio and communication systems that would be required, would be done in five years. Looking at that, Mayor Cassandra felt the $350,000 they were going to increase the taxes to get this year would not hurt the five year forecast because 1) assessments will be going up next year because of the Mall, and 2) they have to - 10 - MINUTES - CITY COUNCIL BUDGET HEARING BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA SEPTEMBER 24, 1985 contemplate the increase of taxes next year because they may not get Federal Revenue Sharing, and the City has depended on that $400,000.plus to maintain the tax low it has now. Mayor Cassandra said the $159,000 City Manager Cheney referred to, plus the $350,000 referred to, would have given $500,000. Based upon the information City Manager Cheney gave tonight as far as possible insurance of the City, Mayor Cassandra was going to recommend that they go back at 6.52 as the tax but not subtract the $159,000 from the budget and leave it as recommended by the City Manager. This would mean a reduction of approximately 3/10 of a mill. Mayor Cassandra stated that he would like to see the millage dropped down 3/10 of a mill to take care of that $350,000 in the budget. Vice Mayor Ferrell did not agree with making the needs of the City fit a predetermined millage rate but thought it should be done the other way around. He thought the Council had identified the needs and picked the millage rate that fitted those needs. Vice Mayor Ferrell read an article which had appeared in the Sun Sentinel weeks ago about a County in Georgia that is growing at an extremely high rate, and the government has been unable or unwilling to provide an adequate level of essential services. They were forced to raise their property taxes this year six times higher than the taxes charged in Broward or Palm Beach Counties and are still short of meeting the needs. The Commissioners themselves placed much of the blame on previous administra- tions that were slow to recognize and deal with growth. Vice Mayor Ferrell read that the lesson was government offi- cials who see their job responsibilities as holding down taxes and spending while neglecting essential services to keep pace with growth are not doing their constituents any favors and are doing their government and community a lot of harm. The cost of playing catch up is a lot harder than playing keep up. Vice Mayor Ferrell pointed out that the issues they addressed for $350,000 was not something they agreed on and implemented as a plan as part of the overall capital improve- ments project. If they were going to advertise all of the capital improvements projects for a vote by the people as substitutes to the other plan that took place, they should have discussed that. They did not discuss it as alternatives or substitutes. It was one large program. If they cut it ~ut this year to be popular, Vice Mayor Ferrell said next - 11 - MINUTES - CITY COUNCIL BUDGET HEARING BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA SEPTEMBER 24, 1985 year someone will want to cut it again, and the next thing you know the capital improvements project that took a lot of work in putting it together will be gone. Vice Mayor Ferrell did not want to be put in the position of not having foresight. Based on the unbelievable large amount of concern of the citizens of the community, he thought they understood what was going on with the growth the City is experiencing and the things needed to handle it. He hoped they could bring the millage down as tax monies come up over the next couple of years. Councilman Warnke commented that it has been proven that growth does not pay for itself as it goes along, and he felt the City was pretty much on a "bare bone type budget" and for years has been ridiculously low on contingencies. Councilman Warnke felt they would be tying the hands of the City depart- ment heads if they did not adequately address the issue now, as the department heads looked ahead, and this is what they will need to take care of the growth that is coming. He stated he would not be a bit surprised if the department heads were estimating low, and they may need more as next year progresses. As mentioned, the Federal Revenue Sharing could be cut out, and Councilman Warnke said he would hate to have the millage jump way up next year to take care of Federal Revenue Sharing growth they did not anticipate and contingencies that may not be able to be covered with the small amount the City has. He pointed out that not one person came forward to object. Councilman Zimmerman drew attention to the additional funds they are receiving from the public in utility taxes this year. Even though some people did not totally agree with the tax, some remarked they would feel better if the property millage would be lowered to compensate for that. He did not know if they could cut out the $350,000 altogether but thought a little concession would be appreciated by the tax paying public. Councilman Zimmerman asked Mayor Cassandra what his final figures were. Mayor Cassandra's final figures came out to around $505,000, but based upon the insurance, he was figuring to go only for $350,000. Mayor Cassandra agreed with Vice Mayor Ferrell that the Capital Improvements program had to be taken care of. With reference to the article read by Vice Mayor Ferrell, he did not know if it was necessarily true. Mayor Cassandra~ recalled that last year they made a recommendation to cut - 12 - MINUTES - CITY COUNCIL BUDGET HEARING BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA SEPTEMBER 24, 1985 the budget, and City Manager Cheney came back with 6.02 as proposal %1, and then he came with proposal %2, and then proposal %3, which carried all of the concerns that the Council had for the City. At that time, there was a very small concern about the $350,000 concept being incorporated, and the need presented at that time was the Boat Ramp Park property. At that time, the stipulation was that the increase would only be used for that type of money. At that time, City Manager Cheney said $324,000 was put in. At the same time, the City had to vote a bond issue, which was Obviously taxes. That was so they could do some things they need to do right now and get them done in a couple of years. The larger burden for things supported by taxes currently will continue to go on businesses, industrial, and commercial. When they were going around with the bond issue, City Manager Cheney said they had a list of all of these projects, talked about them, and sent out reports as to what the money would be used for. When they told people they wouldi raise the utilities tax and put money in the General Fund each for Capital Improvements, they had the bond issue s ically identify what the projects were. Those were projects that basically are in the Capital budget now for the next four or five years. City Manager Cheney thought the significant thing about the program last year was ithey had sums coming immediately from ~he bond issue and sUms coming from the utilities fee Increase. With the $25,000 homestead exemption, he pointed out that some folks i~ Leisureville do not pay very much to thle City. Also, they ~are not going to pay very much of the $3i50,000 because of their high homestead exemption. By paying a~utilities fee, they were paying towards the growth of the city. Those in houses of between $30,000 and $150,000 with $25,000 exemptions are not paying much taxes. The richer homes and commercial and industrial are the ones that really get hit on taxes. Theresidences' got hit the most by the increase in the utlilities tax, which went up by 1/3 from 61/2 to 10. City Manager Cheney thought they had to talk about the pack- age of proposals that were made. He understood what Mayor Cassandra was saying but said the problem was if they did ~ot put the $350,000 in this year and try to make it up and try to make up the $400,000 in Federal Revenue Sharing next year, the Council will be faced with making up 3/4 of 1,000,000 next year. City Manager Cheney suspected that he Capital Improvements Program may have to suffer next ear. - 13 - MINUTES - CITY COUNCIL BUDGET HEARING BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA SEPTEMBER 24, 1985 Mayor Cassandra was originally looking for 6/10 of a mill but, based upon the argument tonight, he was looking for 3/10 of a mill. He was not necessarily against the 8.1116 budget but had to voice his concern about it. Mayor Cassandra did not wish it to be deadlocked, which was why he brought it up. When you look at the figures, Vice Mayor Ferrell thought what they were talking about was somewhere in the area of 8~ to 9~ a week for the average homeowner in Boynton Beach, and he did not think too many people were going to complain about that for the improvements they obviously know that the City needs. Mayor Cassandra thought they all agreed the capital improve- ments are needed but wondered if the City would be hurt that much if they did not have them. The five year projection was based upon possible incomes which could go up or down. Councilman Zimmerman wondered what the raise in the utilities tax meant over a year's period. City Manager Cheney answered that it was estimated that it would bring in $720,000 in 1985/1986 at the designated 3~%. Mayor Cassandra misplaced the figures he had made but said taking the five year cost at that time, adding the $350,000 x 5, you were talking about $1,750,000 subtracted from that total figure. Based on concerns of years to come, taxes that must go up for obvious reasons be it the way City Manager Cheney said, Mayor Cassandra did not know if that was the way to go. He stated he would hate to be in the red because the City Manager approximated his numbers too high. About three years ago, Councilman Warnke recalled they were hit with a huge utility increase because previous Councils had let it go over the years. All of a sudden they had to recover, and Councilman Warnke said he would hate to see that happen to future Councils two or three years from now because this Council did not have foresight. He added that they could always lower it next year. There was more discussion. - 14 - MINUTES - CITY COUNCIL BUDGET HEARING BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA SEPTEMBER 24, 1985 Vote on Ordinance No. 85-47 At the request of Mayor Cassandra, Mrs. Boroni took a roll call vote on the motion, as follows: Councilman Warnke Councilman Zimmerman Mayor Cassandra Vice Mayor Ferrell Motion carried 3-1. Aye Aye Nay Aye 2. Proposed Ordinance No. 85-48 Re: Budget Before City Attorney Vance read proposed Ordinance No. 85-48 in its entirety, changing the blanks corrected by Grady Swann, Finance Director. "AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA, ADOPTING A FINAL BUDGET FOR THE FISCAL YEAR BEGINNING OCTOBER 1, 1985 AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 1986; PRO- VIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES." The blanks that were changed were as f611ows: $15,711,479, and Section 7, $2,898,872. Section 2, Councilman Warnke moved to adopt Ordinance No. 85-48 on second and final reading, seconded by Vice Mayor Ferrell. A roll call vote on the motion was taken by Mrs. Boroni, as follows: Councilman Warnke Councilman Zimmerman Mayor Cassandra Vice Mayor Ferrell Motion carried 3-1. Aye Aye Nay Aye Mayor Cassandra again gave the breakdown of the millage rate of 8.1116 and informed the audience that they would be paying approximately $8.11 per $1,000 to the City. City Manager Cheney added that the people would be paying what was shown as the taxes for the City on the notices they received around October 15 from the County. Pensions The Civil Service Board had a question about pensions and Mayor Cassandra asked if the Council wanted it on the agenda for their next meeting. The Council agreed it should be discussed at their next meeting. - 15 - MINUTES - CITY COUNCIL BUDGET HEARING BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA SEPTEMBER 24, 1985 ADJOURNMENT The meeting properly adjourned at 8:45 P. M. CITY OF BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA ATTEST: Mayor Councilman City Clerk Recording Secretly~-~ (Two Tapes) ~