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Minutes 05-24-00MINUTES OF CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS PLANNING (CIP) TOWN MEETING WITH VICE MAYOR RONALD WEILAND, BETHESDA HOSPITAL CLAYTON CONFERENCE CENTER AT BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA, ON WEDNESDAY, MAY 24, 2000, AT 6:30 P.M. CALL TO ORDER Vice Mayor Weiland called the meeting to order at 6:45 P.M. and introduced himself, recognizing the presence in the audience of Mayor Gerald Broening and his wife, Mr. Quintus Greene, the Director of Development/CRA, City Engineer Larry Roberts, and City Planner Dick Hudson. Vice Mayor Weiland warmly welcomed the 20 - 25 citizens and staff who had come out to the meeting and proceeded to explain the purpose of the meeting in general terms. II. PRESENTATION BY STAFF Vice Mayor Weiland introduced the Director of Development, Quintus Greene, who explained the CIP program in greater detail. Mr. Greene stated that capital improvement projects could be either renovation of existing public properties, new buildings, expensive pieces of equipment, major repairs to City facilities, streets in need of re-surfacing, new police sub-stations, drainage improvements, clubhouses for housing developments, and a myriad of potential projects. Mr. Greene gave the following examples of the ranking criteria: Availability of Grant Funds - If a project comes with its own money, it gets big points because it is like free money to the City. Public Sentiment - This is always considered in the point system. This is an area where the Public Comment cards filled out at City Commission meetings are noted. Ongoing Operating Costs - If a project rates high in other areas but has significant ongoing operating expenses, it loses some points for that reason. Public Health, Safety and Welfare Impact - For example, a fire station would have significant impact on public health, safety and welfare and would get plus points for that (but minus for ongoing operating expenses). Federal and State Mandates - The Federal and State government might require the City to do certain projects. These projects get a high priority. Revenue Generation Potential - A golf course would be a good example. Quality of Life - A public park would demonstrate this. Consistency with Emphasis Areas - For example, Vision 20/20: Quality of Life/Image and Character; Commercial Revitalization; Economic Development; Neighborhood Revitalization; Public Safety/Crime Prevention; City Government; and Education/Youth Involvement. MEETING MINUTES CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA May 24,2000 Economic Impact - Jobs and contribution to tax base Continuation of Prior Funding - For example, a project that extends over a five- year period. Intergovernmental Cooperation - For example, water facilities, fire stations, and mutual assistance with adjacent communities. Public/Private Venture Potential Historic Preservation Disaster Prevention - The building of hurricane shelters would be an example. Environmental Impact - The project will protect or enhance the environment. Mr. Greene added that if a project had economic impact, i.e. would generate income for the City, this would give the project a higher score in the ranking. If it had economic impact and also met one of the Vision 20/20 criteria, it would enhance its acceptability even further. Conversely, if a project had economic impact but had ongoing operating expenses that would offset the income generated, this would give a lower score in the ranking for that project Mr. Greene stated that the residents' proposals were to be considered and ranked on the same scale as the staff-submitted proposals for capital spending. Mr. Greene assured the residents that if their projects were not selected due to the final ranking score, that their suggestions would be re-considered for the following year's budget. Mr. Greene explained that the dollar cut-off for a major capital improvement project was $50,000, and that projects with leSser dollar values would be considered under the individual department's operating budgets. Staff would make the decision as to whether a particular project met the $50,000 and above criteria so residents were encouraged to bring any and all ideas to the table via the forms provided. Mr. Greene explained the forms that the residents would be using to register their proposals and asked that they print and be specific as to location, i.e. give cross streets. Mr. Greene said that Development staff would collect the forms and speak to the residents at the end of the meeting to answer any questions or clarify anything still in question. III. PUBLIC DISCUSSION Vice Mayor Weiland encouraged residents to speak on any concerns they might have but to recognize that the focus of the meeting was to gather input from the citizenry on capital improvement projects. It was suggested that residents could add a "By the way" to the forms, mentioning any items of concern. They were promised that all inquiries would receive a response from an appropriate staff representative of the City regardless of the nature of the concern being addressed. A member of the audience asked if expanding the senior center would be considered a capital improvement? Mr. Greene said that it would. 2 MEETING MINUTES CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA May 24,2000 Ms. Anne Centi of Hunter's Run brought up the severe drainage problems at Hunter's Run during the storms last October. Many vehicles were unable to get in and out of the complex and people had to leave their vehicles out on the roadways. Vice Mayor Weiland asked her to list the exact location of the drainage problem so the Engineering Department could look into the situation. Another member of the audience asked about the increase in the water/sewer bill from $1.00 to $6.00 and asked if some of the capital funds couldn't be used to lower this amount? Vice Mayor Weiland said that the necessary sewer improvements would require much more money than could be achieved through a capital improvement project and would not even be a "Band-Aid" on the problem. Someone asked when a decision would be made as to which projects would be done? Mr. Greene said that he expected the City Commission to act on the capital improvement requests around October of this year when the City budget is done. Another person asked if the projects would be done with money that was left over from the budget and Mr. Greene responded, "Not exactly". He went on to say the City can issue bonds but the question is how big the capacity for a bond issue would be at this time. He said there were some projects that the City would probably have to issue bonds to cover. There are other projects that may not require a bond issue and the private sector could help with leaseback arrangements and so forth. He said the Finance Department was looking at this kind of thing right now. Someone asked if the City had a lot of bonds in comparison to other cities? Mr. Greene said that the City's bonding capability was not too groat right now and that thero was a maximum of $10.00/$1,000 and the City was at $8.26/$1,000 right now. One of the things the City is concerned about is economic development. The roason is that if the City's tax base is increased, it gives the City resources that it doesn't currently have without having to go to the bond market. · Some people, he said, feel that all this economic activity is going to cost us money. Boca Raton has one of the lowest tax rates and their bonding capacity is tremendously high. This is because they have had a lot of economic development that has contributed to the City's tax base. The City's lack of a broad tax base is the roason behind the push for economic development. Mr. Greene said that expanding the tax base and economic development related to his other "hat", his job as Community Redevelopment Agency Director. He said one of the things the CRA was concerned about was increasing the increment on assessed values. Right now property is assessed at a particular level. The difference between what the property was assessed at and its new assessment would be captured in the district and those "captured" monies could be recycled and used for further development. Mr. Greene went on to say that the City knew it needed a great deal of revitalization and redevelopment in the downtown aroa. Mr. Miriana asked if anyone was working on Federal grants, because he knew it could not be done through ordinary taxation. Mr. Greene responded that the City was looking at grants and money through the Florida Office of Economic Development Administration but that he thought it was a mistake to think that grants were a cure-all for the City's problems. Grants do not "make it happen", he said, but, instead, provide an assist to programs that are already healthy. He said 3 MEETING MINUTES CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA May 24, 2000 that the Economic Development Administration was interested in jobs, so in order to get a grant, a certain number of jobs must be generated by the project. Ms. Anne Centi asked which district was going to contain the foreign trade zone? Mr. Greene did not think this had been definitely decided at this time. Another person asked what this was about? Mr. Greene responded that the concept behind a foreign trade zone was that goods entering a country could be processed and then, essentially, re-exported without paying any duty. Normally certain duties are imposed on raw materials. Every time you buy a Japanese car you are paying the price of the car plus the duty on the car. If you can import certain raw materials and process them in a foreign trade zone and export them, there is no duty because, technically, they did not come into the country. Mayor Broening stated that Motorola had eleven plants in China where they do research and development in communication equipment. Materials that could come from China for instance, could come into Boynton Beach, be processed, leave and go to another country and not have the duties that would normally be associated with the finished product. Mayor Broening said the City was in an excellent position to do this. Another question from the audience was "Are there any big companies coming to Boynton?" Mr. Greene said yes and that the City and the Chamber of Commerce were working on this issue. Vice Mayor Weiland thanked everyone again for coming to the meeting and encouraged them to attend the Mayor's meeting on the 31st, along with all their friends. IV. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m. Respectfully submi~ed, Susan Collins Recording Secretary 4