Transcript

Event transcript
Take it, take care of it. All right? It was 5-10 that we were supposed to get back in. So it's 510 now and we'll get started with 00:00:00
our. 00:00:05
Budget Workshop. 00:00:09
Budget Workshop. 00:00:11
Is that correct? 00:00:14
Are you prepared to take us into that? 00:00:16
So this was kind of our final. 00:00:23
Public opportunity to. 00:00:26
Talk about few remaining. 00:00:28
Items that we had. 00:00:30
Some back and forth and some public input on and different things that. 00:00:32
Before we propose the. 00:00:36
The final budget and we'll be voting on that at the June 2nd. 00:00:38
Regularly scheduled City Council meeting next Monday, so. 00:00:43
I know there was some conversation amongst council on several issues. 00:00:47
I think the first one was in legislative looking at the. 00:00:52
Health benefits. 00:00:57
That were identified. 00:00:59
Yes, Sir, so. 00:01:03
We had had some funds in there. 00:01:05
Potential funds in there for. 00:01:07
These are very big books and I just I'll take you back through it. We had. 00:01:11
You do have in legislative, you do have Mr. Ever, Miss Joya. 00:01:16
Their insurance cost for. 00:01:21
Figured into that number as well, so it's not all. 00:01:24
But we had calculated because I wasn't able to get hold of them. 00:01:27
One of I knew where one council member stood. 00:01:30
And I didn't know where the other councilmember stood, so we had. 00:01:34
Put in for. 00:01:38
And from what I'm gathering now we're we're pulling out one and then there's a decision as far as. 00:01:40
The the last one goes that needs to be discussed. 00:01:46
We'll pull funds out of. 00:01:51
One will delete one. 00:01:54
But when they decide, we need to know what we're going to do with that other. 00:01:56
I'm just making it easy for you. Mind if I say something? Sure, go ahead. So I stand by what I said in the last council meeting. I 00:02:00
was talking about the the benefits. 00:02:04
Of having benefits for council, I believe personally it's the right thing to do for now and for the future. 00:02:09
People that come on board, however. 00:02:15
I would be relinquishing. I'm the only one that would be taking part of it. The rest of them either don't need it or wouldn't opt 00:02:17
into it or would just keep your stipend. I would be giving up all of my stipend. 00:02:21
In exchange for benefits, and as I understand it, that would lower it down to 17,000. 00:02:26
As a burden to the taxpayer. So if council doesn't support it and the taxpayers who are our boss don't want it. 00:02:31
Then I think we should just mix it so. 00:02:38
That should. That's me if nobody supports it and they don't want it, but it would be. 00:02:41
I mean correct me if I'm wrong, would be a $17,000. 00:02:48
If I was giving up my stipend in exchange for health benefits. 00:02:51
2017 and 18. 00:02:55
OK. So I guess that's completely up to you, but. 00:02:57
You know, we work for the people. Listen, I'm happy to serve in any capacity. 00:03:02
I'm here if I get no money, so I just, I love what I do. 00:03:05
It would be a big help to me and my family but it is something that is added to the budget and 17,000 may be small comparatively 00:03:09
to the rest of the budget but it still it's still $17,000 even with giving up my stipend. So I leave it to you guys. 00:03:16
Just wanted to kind of kick that off and make that a little easier for you guys. 00:03:22
If there was anyone to chime in on that. 00:03:27
So. 00:03:33
Just to make a misunderstood. 00:03:34
What you're saying is it would be 24. 00:03:36
But since you're getting paid each and every month from the city, it knocks it down to 17, Is that correct? Well, I'd be giving 00:03:39
that up in exchange for health benefits. Right? But it's still 17 total experience for family healthcare. So it's still 17 more 00:03:44
1000 the taxpayers would have to pay. 00:03:50
Thank you. 00:03:57
You know my my. 00:03:58
Based off of. 00:04:02
Personal opinion and also just, you know, obviously feedback we've gotten, um. 00:04:04
I would say that. 00:04:11
I would be open to a council member purchasing benefits. 00:04:12
Where their stipend goes, you know, towards that, but then the additional. 00:04:15
Is 100% paid for by the council member. 00:04:20
So there is no city contribution. 00:04:23
So it wouldn't be a budget item, just something we could amend that they would have access to the benefit if that is a benefit to 00:04:25
them that's better than the. 00:04:29
Open market. So I did the math on that. Even with my stipend putting it, if it was no burden to the budget whatsoever, it would 00:04:34
still be more than I'm paying now, so it wouldn't be. 00:04:39
And it's just so expensive. 00:04:44
Coverage even with. 00:04:47
Yeah, something to look into. It would have to be significant, but even with that, it would still be. 00:04:50
Huge. 00:04:55
It's just so expensive so. 00:04:55
Yeah, I'd like to add that based on the feedback that I've gotten from the citizens, I think we should. 00:04:59
Remove it. 00:05:06
From the budget. 00:05:07
Let's do it so. 00:05:10
So we'll go ahead and remove that and. 00:05:13
You know, I think. 00:05:16
Maybe there is a? 00:05:18
Filling a willingness. 00:05:19
Council McCain and I discussed, you know, as we add people to the policy that it potentially increases the risk exposure to the 00:05:21
city if there's some kind of catastrophic medical benefit, you know, so there. 00:05:27
You don't do it lightly necessarily, but that. 00:05:34
4/4 council members potentially, that might be something we would look at if they wanted to. 00:05:38
To come in down the road and. 00:05:45
And pay the full 100% portion. 00:05:46
That we might allow that. 00:05:49
To go under the city policy and accept that. 00:05:51
That additional risk as it may be that you know, if we get to a situation where. 00:05:54
Anyones interested in that we we could certainly take it up at that point in time as a policy change. But for now we'll go ahead 00:05:59
and. 00:06:03
And remove that. 00:06:06
But that could also be a problem too, Greg, because if they didn't get reelected, I mean, what are we going to do in that 00:06:07
situation? Well, they would be. They would be able to be eligible to continue under COBRA for a period of time, you know, but it 00:06:13
would cost the city either way. It wouldn't cost the city. 00:06:18
Anything other than once they're on Cobra. 00:06:23
I would assume that. 00:06:27
I don't know. I will not assume whether or not that would. 00:06:28
Increase our risk exposure or something that happened after they were not currently employed. 00:06:31
But we have to talk to an agent about that. 00:06:37
OK, Were there any other? 00:06:41
Issues, you know, we had some parking lot issues and things that we had discussed, but I think we've kind of worked through most 00:06:44
of those. Was there any other issues that anybody wanted to address or amend at this point in time, I'd like to ask. 00:06:50
What the plan is for the Marina at. 00:06:57
One point during the budget session we were talking about. 00:07:00
Three full time employees. 00:07:06
And I don't think our. 00:07:08
Umm, activity. 00:07:10
Supports that. 00:07:15
So what is 2 and one? 00:07:16
Well, we currently have two people and one, well, we have two people. 00:07:19
Right, So what? What is the currently reflects 2 full time and one part time? 00:07:26
Yeah, right. That is correct. 00:07:32
That's that's kind of where we left it. 00:07:35
It's spoken for conversations. 00:07:40
I believe that that's still too many people, especially when we're losing money and I. 00:07:44
I'm wondering if anyone has done a calculation to determine whether or not? 00:07:50
We have, we even have the capacity in terms of dock space footage. 00:07:57
To even break even. 00:08:03
Has a break even calculation been done? 00:08:05
I don't. I would have to go back in the documents and see in the history. 00:08:11
We could calculate it and see. 00:08:16
I'm not in favor of putting. 00:08:20
Salary for two people in there, I think it's overkill and. 00:08:22
You know, since we are not involved in hiring decisions at that level. 00:08:28
I think budgeting for it implies. 00:08:33
That we concur. 00:08:37
And you're, you're right, it does it, it tells that you do concur. 00:08:40
I guess one of the things that. 00:08:46
We're just what, a little over? 00:08:49
131415 months into. 00:08:51
Into operations there. 00:08:54
And the data that we looked at last week at Council meeting. 00:08:57
Showed basically that the. 00:09:02
The only two. 00:09:05
Annual months we had to compare were April 24 and April 25. We didn't have many numbers yet. 00:09:06
And that April. 00:09:13
Amount was 70% larger than the April 24 amount, but. 00:09:16
That's one month. 00:09:20
Snapshot. We don't know whether that's a trend of. 00:09:22
Increased use or not, this is hard to tell yet, you know, until we have a little bit more data where we're going. 00:09:25
We did. We did have more data at the last meeting. 00:09:31
No, that last meeting showed April. 00:09:35
Of 25. 00:09:38
And we had an April 24th. 00:09:39
We didn't have many numbers yet made correct. 00:09:41
But we had some pretty consistent data about the. 00:09:44
The. 00:09:49
Usage. 00:09:51
And it ran around in the mid 2022. 00:09:53
Between 20 and 25% capacity, which is, you know, 2 point. 00:09:57
You know private boat use or whatever and we have no idea how that. 00:10:05
You know, operations either, but. 00:10:10
So we have. 00:10:13
2.9 or three, just call it 3 buds talking a day. 00:10:15
And you know, most of the private individual uses that were opening up to the public, those folks ought to be able to adopt their 00:10:21
own vote. 00:10:26
You know you're just going to have to. 00:10:31
Check in with the dock master. 00:10:34
And not to argue. 00:10:37
Please understand that. 00:10:40
But. 00:10:41
Having a seven day a week operation. 00:10:43
And some of it being later in the evening. 00:10:48
You know you really need to have. 00:10:51
At least two full time people there not at the same time. 00:10:54
Staggering schedule and everything else, and I would say that is mental. 00:10:58
But you get some of these larger boats and you do need assistance with. 00:11:02
With tying up or stuff of that nature. 00:11:06
And you also have the the clean out situation. 00:11:09
Our folks need to operate. 00:11:13
Right, that would all be scheduled. 00:11:15
I mean, I'm not. I listen. I think we ought to be adequately staffed. 00:11:17
But full time employees are more expensive than part time employees. 00:11:22
And we're losing money and we have clearly heard from the public that they don't like losing money on enterprise. 00:11:27
Activities and so I'm just trying to think that that one line item might get us real close to breaking even. 00:11:36
That's all I'm saying. 00:11:45
How would it workout to have? 00:11:47
One full time and two-part time. 00:11:50
That way you could stagger the times like you want to just have. 00:11:53
Somebody they're responsible for. 00:11:58
The basics are. 00:12:01
I would like to see, you know, not now, I know we're not going to get that number now, but. 00:12:10
What based off the budget we have, what the percentage of occupancy of our dock space we need to be to break either? 00:12:16
What based off the budget we have. 00:12:24
What the occupancy? 00:12:27
Based off the docks basically have what the occupancy would have to be to break even. 00:12:30
Yeah, that's like a that's what. 00:12:34
Right. But if we can get that? 00:12:37
At a later time, that would be a good number to have. 00:12:39
Help us for that are they're working? 00:12:42
I didn't mean to cut in and you're good. I work in the Marina environment and down for operations and. 00:12:45
Our schedules are as affluent as anything. 00:12:53
And I'm sure that the dot master. 00:12:57
And the people working down there, their schedules are flexible based off traffic patterns, right? 00:13:00
Right. 00:13:06
I'd give them some latitude because if they're working, their tail ends off and they may end up working at 1012 hour day. 00:13:10
Based off travel pattern. 00:13:17
When the sunrise sun comes. 00:13:19
They're both. 00:13:22
They leave at night. 00:13:24
Earlier on the water. 00:13:26
And I just, I don't envy. 00:13:28
The people who are working those jobs, because that's. 00:13:31
There's a long ruling schedule. 00:13:34
And on the 4th of July. 00:13:38
We'll find that out. 00:13:40
And. 00:13:42
So I just. 00:13:44
And I. 00:13:46
Really. 00:13:48
Think that. 00:13:49
This is a ruling job and I would not want to work that. 00:13:52
When I was young, I would. 00:13:56
Not now. 00:13:57
And and I just don't think that we all see. 00:13:59
What the actual hour says people are working. 00:14:05
And and that's why I said it would be better to have one full time and two-part time because. 00:14:09
You could, kind of. 00:14:15
Rotate. 00:14:17
We've had Marsha say several times that the budget is a living, breathing document, can be changed, adapted. Could we go with 00:14:19
something like that? 00:14:24
Or we have one full time and two-part time. 00:14:28
As Mr. Jones suggested, and then we look at it, we say hey, this isn't working out, we have to do what we originally planned for 00:14:31
the two full timers. 00:14:34
Is that something we can do, Charlie? 00:14:38
Of course we can do what Council says, but I will just say that we started out with one full time, two-part time and we had to 00:14:50
increase it to a second full time person. 00:14:54
It depends the quality of service you're looking to provide for that help. 00:15:00
That's really what the bottom line is going to come to be. 00:15:03
I mean y'all, I'm pretty sure you know where I stand on it. 00:15:06
You know, we were put to test to make sure that not only do we have it working. 00:15:09
Stock with Marina. 00:15:13
But a doctor Marina that was drawing positive traffic to downtown Saint Mary's, and I feel like that's what we've been 00:15:14
accomplishing. 00:15:17
You can see it in our remarks. 00:15:20
Like I said, we're about 4.9 stars. We have high ratings. We're going to lose that if we lose some of our staff members out there. 00:15:22
That's just the way it's going to happen. 00:15:26
Is there an increased traffic? Of course there is. And I think we're going to see that there's other things we can do. We talked 00:15:31
about charging for power. 00:15:35
Charging other things to help bring in the revenue. 00:15:38
And I would like to try that if it was. 00:15:41
Since we had April of last year in April this year for, you know, to show the increase and you know, May is near the end, do we 00:15:45
have a projection of like where we're at this May compared to last May? I'll get those numbers for you, but I'll tell you the docs 00:15:51
for right now. And the doc was full. Yeah, last week. I put the last boat in yesterday. That's full. 00:15:57
So Charlie, when you have a big, a nice sized boat come inside 3040 feet or whatever. 00:16:03
Can one person actually dock that boat? 00:16:09
And, and yes, with the help of the captain, they can. With the help of the captain, does it put us in any type of liability 00:16:14
whatsoever? The larger the boat might be? 00:16:18
If we've only got one person course, there's various. 00:16:24
I said I, you know. 00:16:30
One of the things we don't know, I said. This is a. 00:16:32
A new operation that's still growing and. 00:16:34
Word of mouth, you know, is has been very good I've been Privy to. 00:16:38
See some of the comments that have been shared, you know, from some of the voters and. 00:16:43
And then actually the very, very flattering nice things you're saying about the Marina operations and. 00:16:46
You know that that stuff gets out in the voter world and, you know, I think we'll have more traffic. 00:16:52
Just too early to know yet, and it's kind of why I'm. 00:16:56
I don't know anything about Marina operations. I don't own a boat, 40 foot boat. 00:17:00
You know so. 00:17:07
Makes me a little leery to try to. 00:17:09
Stipulate what? 00:17:12
What's really required down there on a day-to-day basis in order to? 00:17:13
You know, to provide what we're looking for and to get people to come and. 00:17:17
Stay in downtown and. 00:17:21
And to visit and shop and and eat and those those kinds of things. 00:17:22
And we're building something towards the future, you know? 00:17:27
Hopefully we'll have an additional hotel down there. 00:17:32
At some point in the future, but. 00:17:35
You know, so like, you know, I guess I'm trying to lean a little bit more on what y'all are. 00:17:38
Telus is required in order to provide the level of service that we want throughout St. Mary's. 00:17:43
With all of our operations, you know and. 00:17:48
That's why I kind of. 00:17:50
I kind of feel like for this next year until we have a little more time under our belt, you know? 00:17:52
For me. 00:17:59
I'm willing to invest this this amount of money to see. 00:18:01
See where it goes and how it grows. 00:18:04
And you know if we continue to have low utilization rates and we don't. 00:18:07
Get up or whatever then you know, then I think there's, there's some cost justification to say. 00:18:12
We make cuts here and we can do that in a couple of months. You know, we don't have to wait for a full year. 00:18:17
But I think we need to get a little more data. 00:18:21
To see how it's growing or not growing, you know, before we can really make an educated. 00:18:24
Decision and kind of what's hanging me right now so. 00:18:30
And we are in current peak both season. 00:18:33
It so when the new budget starts, if we could have positioned, you know, we're in the middle of what could be our peak season and 00:18:36
it is a well that the budget is a growing. It's it's it's kind of a peak season from what I saw in the numbers for local boaters 00:18:42
and and smaller boats, but the bigger boats that are coming from up north. 00:18:47
It's December. Yeah, in November, December. You know, January, but. 00:18:54
But you know, maybe we give it a few months to see how. 00:18:59
This motor. 00:19:03
Policy that we input you know how that affects cash flow and. 00:19:04
If we can get that cash flow projection? 00:19:08
You know, Lynn has spoken about what's it going to take to actually be, you know, profitable and at what level and. 00:19:11
And look at gasoline sales and some other things that you know might generate some additional revenue. 00:19:18
And then? 00:19:24
You know, we go there. I mean, I know it. 00:19:26
A truck shots overnight. 00:19:28
Uncertainty. They charged for showers and baths and stuff like that, you know, and. 00:19:29
You know, I don't think we're doing that. We just have a facility there, you know, for use. 00:19:34
You know, but maybe a usage fee to come in and use those facilities would. 00:19:38
Would offset the cost of cleaning and everything else so. 00:19:43
Right, I agree. I mean. 00:19:48
I would be comfortable with leaving the two full time people that we have right now. 00:19:52
If we had a. 00:19:57
You know, moratorium on hiring any additional people until we talked about it because. 00:19:59
That and I don't disagree with it a little more time to get more information, but I think what we're hearing clearly from. 00:20:05
People, is that they? 00:20:13
Don't want us to quote Invest? 00:20:15
Their tax dollars and enterprises and I understand that there's some, there are some soft benefits to the community. 00:20:18
Having the Marina. 00:20:27
But I think we need to. 00:20:29
You know, we have some core services. 00:20:32
That we need to have funding for so. 00:20:35
Charlie, you said that. 00:20:38
The fee that the voters pay. 00:20:42
It doesn't cover electricity. 00:20:46
No, Sir, if you remember a year and a half ago. 00:20:49
When we started this the whole port. 00:20:52
This is state. This is phase one of three phases of the doc. The doc could be expanded out. 00:20:54
And we wanted to see how the first phase went. And that's not just Saint Mary's opinion, but that was also. 00:20:59
DNR, who helped fund the grant money. 00:21:04
We had to see if there was really a usage for these dots, so we're in phase one. 00:21:07
And when we put that together. 00:21:12
It was built on. 00:21:14
The system that it wasn't necessarily. Yes, it's an enterprise. 00:21:15
But the initial concept of this was not in an enterprise mindset. It was to draw traffic to our to Saint Mary's. 00:21:19
And that's why they did the transient dockets. They can only beat the voters, can only be there for 14 days if we were looking to 00:21:26
make money. 00:21:29
We would have a dry storage, we would be a full time operational Marina, but we're not where transient docks. 00:21:32
We're just here to bring people into our house, is what I understand. But the question that I asked is. 00:21:37
They don't have to pay power. I mean, they don't. 00:21:45
So that goes back to what I was saying. So the original idea was? 00:21:48
To just get them here. So no for that. 00:21:52
That one price covers power pump out. 00:21:54
They can use our facilities and that's why I'm very open. 00:21:57
To trying to make it. 00:22:00
You know. 00:22:02
Bring in more revenue to help us balance out and that could be charging power and that's something me and Colin talked about this 00:22:03
week. 00:22:06
Restroom services, laundry facility, We're already doing golf cart rentals, bicycles. We can pretty much put a dollar. 00:22:10
Amount on any services if that's what the council wishes and that would bring revenue in. 00:22:16
I think the hospitality and not losing any staff though. 00:22:21
Can help balance that out though, just to be honest, because we still want to give great service. You know, I think we need to 00:22:24
take a look at other marinas and see what they're charging. 00:22:29
You know, for those same amenities, I mean, if they're, if they're not charging them as well. 00:22:33
Then OK, but if they're charging them, then we might need to be charging them. 00:22:39
Here as well. 00:22:43
Yes, Sir. We've, we've looked at that and so we have undercut a little bit, but that's because there's certain things we can't 00:22:45
offer, we don't have. 00:22:48
Right, you know we don't have a. 00:22:51
Gift shop or a hardware shop that a lot of marinas will have. 00:22:54
There's little things we don't. We're just more of the cute bed breakfast. 00:22:58
And that's what we are so. 00:23:01
Yeah, I'm not familiar with it like a Marina, because I haven't had to. 00:23:03
I don't have a boat the side that needs power hookups that Adam Marina. I've knocked at marinas before but never had the need for 00:23:07
power. But I know a campground. You know you have a. 00:23:10
A fee for a campsite space that doesn't have power, sewer, and then there's a different cost for one that does so. 00:23:15
Be an extra charge and I'm really on board with trying it. You know, we undercut it in the beginning because you're our 00:23:21
competition's Brunswick and Fernandina. 00:23:25
And they actually have to come in five miles off the ICW to come to us. 00:23:29
When they have everything that those two marinas and they're right there off of the ICW. So we're trying to. 00:23:34
Essentially. 00:23:39
Cash online to get them in here. 00:23:40
I think the goal should just be to break even. I don't think we. 00:23:43
Are ever going to make money? 00:23:47
That dog with it? 00:23:49
You know, but we should try to get it where we're not using. 00:23:51
The taxpayers. 00:23:55
Tax dollars. 00:23:57
To offer Marina services. 00:23:59
To the public. 00:24:02
Because all the taxpayers don't use that. 00:24:03
So, you know, I think if we can make it break even, we're good. 00:24:07
Yes, ma'am, and we sure will try. 00:24:14
I got ancillary duties that my crews down do down for operations. 00:24:19
Additional stuff on top of their daily regime. 00:24:24
You know, are there other ancillary? 00:24:28
Other things that need to be done tasking wise and otherwise we've actually had them fresh washing the. 00:24:32
Good, the launch is. 00:24:39
Winter St. boat ramp. 00:24:41
Yeah, getting the Seagull stuff off of the. 00:24:43
Half of them fresh washing. 00:24:46
Attending to some of the things along, all those are upkeeping, there's there. 00:24:48
When there's two of them there, they're both busy, especially during the growth season between February and November. 00:24:54
That's when the grocery works. 00:25:01
Yes, Sir, and. 00:25:02
It's not a. 00:25:05
Sit down. Yeah. 00:25:07
And nowhere in that area. 00:25:09
So just keeping the area up nice. So that's important. 00:25:13
So don't repeat it the same. 00:25:17
Right. So is. 00:25:19
Is there any? 00:25:22
Motion or anything to try to. 00:25:24
Amend what we have here. 00:25:26
Motion, but I mean. 00:25:29
Recommendation at this point and we're obviously voting on it. 00:25:32
Monday but. 00:25:36
How many people you say you have down there now? 00:25:38
2/2 full time, one party, one part time, Yeah. 00:25:41
Let's just keep it at 22 full time. 00:25:46
Go with it. 00:25:50
And try the other revenue. 00:25:51
Producing ideas and then if we need to. 00:25:53
We address it. We will. 00:25:57
The goal being to break, I'd like for you to come back in the middle of the. 00:25:59
US. But she's gonna say hey. 00:26:03
We're busting at the scenes out there. We need somebody else. 00:26:07
Maintenance is a constant challenge down there. Period. 00:26:13
And just for the environment they're in. So we're going to leave it like it is and adjust down if we need to. 00:26:17
Again, that's up to. 00:26:23
Council. 00:26:26
Planet budget is 2 full. 00:26:29
And one part time. 00:26:31
But what we have currently employed is 2 full time of people. 00:26:33
Because we're looking at bringing on a part time person on the budget we don't have, I'm sorry. So we're looking at bringing on a 00:26:37
part time person we don't currently have. 00:26:40
Well, it's it's recently been vacated as needed. 00:26:43
Right, the last day. 00:26:50
Two full time and. 00:26:52
See what happens. 00:26:53
So are we asking them to amend the budget? You lower it down? 00:26:55
That, that what I'm hearing everybody's. 00:27:00
Buy one part time and then as Artie says. 00:27:03
You know, come, come a couple months and there. 00:27:07
You know they will if we have to go back and amend and add back to it to allow that part time. 00:27:10
Back in at that point. 00:27:15
Yes, as long as our data comes in from you guys about the need. 00:27:17
And the need validates it then. 00:27:23
And they press on and get, you know, make it happen. 00:27:25
'Cause I'm guaranteeing this growth pattern right now. 00:27:28
We're working hard down. 00:27:31
Yeah, they're spending it. Is the request for the part time employee like at, I mean, is that something from our two full time 00:27:34
employees, they feel they're not handling everything. We had two full time and a part time as of yesterday. We just recently made 00:27:38
a decision. 00:27:43
With our staff yesterday, so as of today we only have two full time members. 00:27:47
So just we can try the two full time. 00:27:52
Council wishes, but we haven't. 00:27:55
It's kind of brand new right now for us to go to that number. 00:27:57
I guess and and you're going to come back to us and say, hey, this isn't working. We need to look at it differently or. 00:28:00
Adding somebody half time or whatever. 00:28:07
Yes, Sir. Yeah, OK. 00:28:09
I think that's OK. 00:28:11
Make that change. 00:28:13
That do a full tackle. 00:28:15
Got it. 00:28:18
All right. 00:28:20
I know we had a. 00:28:22
Bid opening today for City Hall and the numbers were. 00:28:25
Larger than expected. 00:28:30
No 10 million. 00:28:32
Yes, so. 00:28:35
Current discussion is that you know to relook at it and. 00:28:39
And to go back out, forbid. 00:28:44
Stephanie's time to evaluate what was presented. 00:28:47
Umm, and but more than likely we will be coming to council. 00:28:50
Very near future. 00:28:57
And action and the base bid for this particular, we're just getting in with not finishing some of the things like. 00:28:59
The courthouse. 00:29:06
And some of the office space, those kinds of things. 00:29:08
7.2. 00:29:11
Something like that around that range, so still. 00:29:13
Higher than the six that we currently have budgeted. 00:29:16
Are these bids? Is including the roof these bids? No, no. 00:29:20
So do we have a bit on the roof? 00:29:26
Yep, we have. We received one. 00:29:28
Some time ago, so we'd have to have a more recent bid. 00:29:33
Yeah. So based on that, you know. 00:29:36
You know, knowing that even the base amount at that point was over what we have budgeted, you know, I, I would. 00:29:44
I would move to leave what we've got where it is since. 00:29:51
Covered in the budget and now 6,000,000 sounds good, right? 00:29:54
I think we. 00:29:58
Feel differently about this issue. 00:29:59
You know we're talking about. 00:30:02
Putting in a lot of individual offices. 00:30:06
And that building that. 00:30:10
Was a call center before. 00:30:13
If we do that, it's going to require redoing the air handling system. 00:30:15
All the lighting. 00:30:21
And I think that we probably need to take a look at an alternative way to use that space. 00:30:22
And see make it more open so that we can use the current air handling system and do some other things. And I understand that you 00:30:30
went to bid. 00:30:35
With a council approved plan from last year so. 00:30:40
While this is a tedious process, I think when we're talking about spending $6 million. 00:30:45
And I'd like to point out that there's some money. 00:30:53
Budgeted for that. 00:30:56
That we do not have in our hands yet. 00:30:58
There it's based on real estate sales that we think are going to happen. 00:31:01
But I think we all know that. 00:31:07
Sometimes those things don't come to fruition. 00:31:09
I think it would be really important for us to try and go. 00:31:14
Back to the drawing board and see what we can do with the ARPA money and maybe a couple of $1,000,000 from Fund Equity with that 00:31:20
space. 00:31:25
Instead of counting on money that we don't have. 00:31:31
That's my position. 00:31:37
So the fund source for the total 6,000,000, it is included in which she describes. Obviously we don't have it unless we have it. 00:31:42
I mean, I would say we leave it penciled in the budget for having it there, but we're, you know, still have to. 00:31:52
Get the right bid to fit within that budget, but it should still be earmarked in there. 00:31:59
Right. Well, in one of the additional potential sales. 00:32:04
That is, not included in that budget is potential sale of this property. 00:32:07
Once it's, you know, once it's vacated or whatever, so. 00:32:12
There's there are a couple of different. 00:32:15
Potential real estate sales that. 00:32:17
Good impact and obviously we're not going to spend the money if we don't get the sales, we're not not able to do the you know, do 00:32:20
the things or whatever, but. 00:32:23
You know we're. 00:32:28
Projecting out, playing for a year, you know, things we think are going to happen. I mean, that's. 00:32:29
The whole point of the process, but. 00:32:34
Given given the high cost of. 00:32:37
What this came in to get? 00:32:40
What we planned. 00:32:43
You know, even scaling back to some other things that Councilman talked about. 00:32:45
You know, we may still be in the range of. 00:32:49
Of what's in the budget right now, so that I say without. 00:32:52
You know, I, I just feel like. 00:32:56
It's there. We have a way right now that we see that it's going to be covered. 00:32:58
It may not be enough, you know, ultimately, but you know, and maybe there's some other. 00:33:03
Income sources that we'll be able to utilize, but. 00:33:08
Right now, given the cost of what's. 00:33:14
What the was? 00:33:16
I feel more comfortable leaving that in there than I do taking it out and. 00:33:18
And then not having it, you know, when it comes time to just, you know, work. 00:33:23
The cost to operate that building, an air conditioned that building right now every every month and keep electricity on. 00:33:27
And this facility too is costing us money every month that we delay. 00:33:33
Is wasting money, you know, in that process. And so we need to move on and and try to get in that building. 00:33:37
As soon as cop you know to cut the expenses that we have, you know the dual, dual expenses, so. 00:33:43
I agree with that. 00:33:50
But that error handling system was put in. 00:33:53
During COVID. 00:33:56
You know the whole area. 00:33:59
Right, I'm writing that assessment. 00:34:01
Bobby. 00:34:04
Yeah, they didn't upgrade. 00:34:07
Not long before, yeah, yeah. So it's not hardly been efficiently used until we started firing it up and getting going again. 00:34:11
That buildings had empty for a long time. 00:34:20
OK, so. 00:34:27
Were there any other? 00:34:30
Items we wanted to discuss here, we're kind of. 00:34:32
Getting up against the time, but. 00:34:34
We can go longer if we have to, but. 00:34:36
I'm sure you gotta stop. 00:34:39
Yeah, we got one. 00:34:41
One minute. 00:34:45
So we're good. 00:34:47
So to have a. 00:34:50
Never. You're not supporting me. 00:34:51
Motion to adjourn. 00:34:57
Is there a second to adjourn? Second. Second? 00:34:59
I was on a roll. I'm so glad we have you here to keep us straight. I can just hit the gavel this time. 00:35:05
Budget work session is closed. Thank you. 00:35:13
No right hand. 00:35:15
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Transcript

Event transcript
Take it, take care of it. All right? It was 5-10 that we were supposed to get back in. So it's 510 now and we'll get started with 00:00:00
our. 00:00:05
Budget Workshop. 00:00:09
Budget Workshop. 00:00:11
Is that correct? 00:00:14
Are you prepared to take us into that? 00:00:16
So this was kind of our final. 00:00:23
Public opportunity to. 00:00:26
Talk about few remaining. 00:00:28
Items that we had. 00:00:30
Some back and forth and some public input on and different things that. 00:00:32
Before we propose the. 00:00:36
The final budget and we'll be voting on that at the June 2nd. 00:00:38
Regularly scheduled City Council meeting next Monday, so. 00:00:43
I know there was some conversation amongst council on several issues. 00:00:47
I think the first one was in legislative looking at the. 00:00:52
Health benefits. 00:00:57
That were identified. 00:00:59
Yes, Sir, so. 00:01:03
We had had some funds in there. 00:01:05
Potential funds in there for. 00:01:07
These are very big books and I just I'll take you back through it. We had. 00:01:11
You do have in legislative, you do have Mr. Ever, Miss Joya. 00:01:16
Their insurance cost for. 00:01:21
Figured into that number as well, so it's not all. 00:01:24
But we had calculated because I wasn't able to get hold of them. 00:01:27
One of I knew where one council member stood. 00:01:30
And I didn't know where the other councilmember stood, so we had. 00:01:34
Put in for. 00:01:38
And from what I'm gathering now we're we're pulling out one and then there's a decision as far as. 00:01:40
The the last one goes that needs to be discussed. 00:01:46
We'll pull funds out of. 00:01:51
One will delete one. 00:01:54
But when they decide, we need to know what we're going to do with that other. 00:01:56
I'm just making it easy for you. Mind if I say something? Sure, go ahead. So I stand by what I said in the last council meeting. I 00:02:00
was talking about the the benefits. 00:02:04
Of having benefits for council, I believe personally it's the right thing to do for now and for the future. 00:02:09
People that come on board, however. 00:02:15
I would be relinquishing. I'm the only one that would be taking part of it. The rest of them either don't need it or wouldn't opt 00:02:17
into it or would just keep your stipend. I would be giving up all of my stipend. 00:02:21
In exchange for benefits, and as I understand it, that would lower it down to 17,000. 00:02:26
As a burden to the taxpayer. So if council doesn't support it and the taxpayers who are our boss don't want it. 00:02:31
Then I think we should just mix it so. 00:02:38
That should. That's me if nobody supports it and they don't want it, but it would be. 00:02:41
I mean correct me if I'm wrong, would be a $17,000. 00:02:48
If I was giving up my stipend in exchange for health benefits. 00:02:51
2017 and 18. 00:02:55
OK. So I guess that's completely up to you, but. 00:02:57
You know, we work for the people. Listen, I'm happy to serve in any capacity. 00:03:02
I'm here if I get no money, so I just, I love what I do. 00:03:05
It would be a big help to me and my family but it is something that is added to the budget and 17,000 may be small comparatively 00:03:09
to the rest of the budget but it still it's still $17,000 even with giving up my stipend. So I leave it to you guys. 00:03:16
Just wanted to kind of kick that off and make that a little easier for you guys. 00:03:22
If there was anyone to chime in on that. 00:03:27
So. 00:03:33
Just to make a misunderstood. 00:03:34
What you're saying is it would be 24. 00:03:36
But since you're getting paid each and every month from the city, it knocks it down to 17, Is that correct? Well, I'd be giving 00:03:39
that up in exchange for health benefits. Right? But it's still 17 total experience for family healthcare. So it's still 17 more 00:03:44
1000 the taxpayers would have to pay. 00:03:50
Thank you. 00:03:57
You know my my. 00:03:58
Based off of. 00:04:02
Personal opinion and also just, you know, obviously feedback we've gotten, um. 00:04:04
I would say that. 00:04:11
I would be open to a council member purchasing benefits. 00:04:12
Where their stipend goes, you know, towards that, but then the additional. 00:04:15
Is 100% paid for by the council member. 00:04:20
So there is no city contribution. 00:04:23
So it wouldn't be a budget item, just something we could amend that they would have access to the benefit if that is a benefit to 00:04:25
them that's better than the. 00:04:29
Open market. So I did the math on that. Even with my stipend putting it, if it was no burden to the budget whatsoever, it would 00:04:34
still be more than I'm paying now, so it wouldn't be. 00:04:39
And it's just so expensive. 00:04:44
Coverage even with. 00:04:47
Yeah, something to look into. It would have to be significant, but even with that, it would still be. 00:04:50
Huge. 00:04:55
It's just so expensive so. 00:04:55
Yeah, I'd like to add that based on the feedback that I've gotten from the citizens, I think we should. 00:04:59
Remove it. 00:05:06
From the budget. 00:05:07
Let's do it so. 00:05:10
So we'll go ahead and remove that and. 00:05:13
You know, I think. 00:05:16
Maybe there is a? 00:05:18
Filling a willingness. 00:05:19
Council McCain and I discussed, you know, as we add people to the policy that it potentially increases the risk exposure to the 00:05:21
city if there's some kind of catastrophic medical benefit, you know, so there. 00:05:27
You don't do it lightly necessarily, but that. 00:05:34
4/4 council members potentially, that might be something we would look at if they wanted to. 00:05:38
To come in down the road and. 00:05:45
And pay the full 100% portion. 00:05:46
That we might allow that. 00:05:49
To go under the city policy and accept that. 00:05:51
That additional risk as it may be that you know, if we get to a situation where. 00:05:54
Anyones interested in that we we could certainly take it up at that point in time as a policy change. But for now we'll go ahead 00:05:59
and. 00:06:03
And remove that. 00:06:06
But that could also be a problem too, Greg, because if they didn't get reelected, I mean, what are we going to do in that 00:06:07
situation? Well, they would be. They would be able to be eligible to continue under COBRA for a period of time, you know, but it 00:06:13
would cost the city either way. It wouldn't cost the city. 00:06:18
Anything other than once they're on Cobra. 00:06:23
I would assume that. 00:06:27
I don't know. I will not assume whether or not that would. 00:06:28
Increase our risk exposure or something that happened after they were not currently employed. 00:06:31
But we have to talk to an agent about that. 00:06:37
OK, Were there any other? 00:06:41
Issues, you know, we had some parking lot issues and things that we had discussed, but I think we've kind of worked through most 00:06:44
of those. Was there any other issues that anybody wanted to address or amend at this point in time, I'd like to ask. 00:06:50
What the plan is for the Marina at. 00:06:57
One point during the budget session we were talking about. 00:07:00
Three full time employees. 00:07:06
And I don't think our. 00:07:08
Umm, activity. 00:07:10
Supports that. 00:07:15
So what is 2 and one? 00:07:16
Well, we currently have two people and one, well, we have two people. 00:07:19
Right, So what? What is the currently reflects 2 full time and one part time? 00:07:26
Yeah, right. That is correct. 00:07:32
That's that's kind of where we left it. 00:07:35
It's spoken for conversations. 00:07:40
I believe that that's still too many people, especially when we're losing money and I. 00:07:44
I'm wondering if anyone has done a calculation to determine whether or not? 00:07:50
We have, we even have the capacity in terms of dock space footage. 00:07:57
To even break even. 00:08:03
Has a break even calculation been done? 00:08:05
I don't. I would have to go back in the documents and see in the history. 00:08:11
We could calculate it and see. 00:08:16
I'm not in favor of putting. 00:08:20
Salary for two people in there, I think it's overkill and. 00:08:22
You know, since we are not involved in hiring decisions at that level. 00:08:28
I think budgeting for it implies. 00:08:33
That we concur. 00:08:37
And you're, you're right, it does it, it tells that you do concur. 00:08:40
I guess one of the things that. 00:08:46
We're just what, a little over? 00:08:49
131415 months into. 00:08:51
Into operations there. 00:08:54
And the data that we looked at last week at Council meeting. 00:08:57
Showed basically that the. 00:09:02
The only two. 00:09:05
Annual months we had to compare were April 24 and April 25. We didn't have many numbers yet. 00:09:06
And that April. 00:09:13
Amount was 70% larger than the April 24 amount, but. 00:09:16
That's one month. 00:09:20
Snapshot. We don't know whether that's a trend of. 00:09:22
Increased use or not, this is hard to tell yet, you know, until we have a little bit more data where we're going. 00:09:25
We did. We did have more data at the last meeting. 00:09:31
No, that last meeting showed April. 00:09:35
Of 25. 00:09:38
And we had an April 24th. 00:09:39
We didn't have many numbers yet made correct. 00:09:41
But we had some pretty consistent data about the. 00:09:44
The. 00:09:49
Usage. 00:09:51
And it ran around in the mid 2022. 00:09:53
Between 20 and 25% capacity, which is, you know, 2 point. 00:09:57
You know private boat use or whatever and we have no idea how that. 00:10:05
You know, operations either, but. 00:10:10
So we have. 00:10:13
2.9 or three, just call it 3 buds talking a day. 00:10:15
And you know, most of the private individual uses that were opening up to the public, those folks ought to be able to adopt their 00:10:21
own vote. 00:10:26
You know you're just going to have to. 00:10:31
Check in with the dock master. 00:10:34
And not to argue. 00:10:37
Please understand that. 00:10:40
But. 00:10:41
Having a seven day a week operation. 00:10:43
And some of it being later in the evening. 00:10:48
You know you really need to have. 00:10:51
At least two full time people there not at the same time. 00:10:54
Staggering schedule and everything else, and I would say that is mental. 00:10:58
But you get some of these larger boats and you do need assistance with. 00:11:02
With tying up or stuff of that nature. 00:11:06
And you also have the the clean out situation. 00:11:09
Our folks need to operate. 00:11:13
Right, that would all be scheduled. 00:11:15
I mean, I'm not. I listen. I think we ought to be adequately staffed. 00:11:17
But full time employees are more expensive than part time employees. 00:11:22
And we're losing money and we have clearly heard from the public that they don't like losing money on enterprise. 00:11:27
Activities and so I'm just trying to think that that one line item might get us real close to breaking even. 00:11:36
That's all I'm saying. 00:11:45
How would it workout to have? 00:11:47
One full time and two-part time. 00:11:50
That way you could stagger the times like you want to just have. 00:11:53
Somebody they're responsible for. 00:11:58
The basics are. 00:12:01
I would like to see, you know, not now, I know we're not going to get that number now, but. 00:12:10
What based off the budget we have, what the percentage of occupancy of our dock space we need to be to break either? 00:12:16
What based off the budget we have. 00:12:24
What the occupancy? 00:12:27
Based off the docks basically have what the occupancy would have to be to break even. 00:12:30
Yeah, that's like a that's what. 00:12:34
Right. But if we can get that? 00:12:37
At a later time, that would be a good number to have. 00:12:39
Help us for that are they're working? 00:12:42
I didn't mean to cut in and you're good. I work in the Marina environment and down for operations and. 00:12:45
Our schedules are as affluent as anything. 00:12:53
And I'm sure that the dot master. 00:12:57
And the people working down there, their schedules are flexible based off traffic patterns, right? 00:13:00
Right. 00:13:06
I'd give them some latitude because if they're working, their tail ends off and they may end up working at 1012 hour day. 00:13:10
Based off travel pattern. 00:13:17
When the sunrise sun comes. 00:13:19
They're both. 00:13:22
They leave at night. 00:13:24
Earlier on the water. 00:13:26
And I just, I don't envy. 00:13:28
The people who are working those jobs, because that's. 00:13:31
There's a long ruling schedule. 00:13:34
And on the 4th of July. 00:13:38
We'll find that out. 00:13:40
And. 00:13:42
So I just. 00:13:44
And I. 00:13:46
Really. 00:13:48
Think that. 00:13:49
This is a ruling job and I would not want to work that. 00:13:52
When I was young, I would. 00:13:56
Not now. 00:13:57
And and I just don't think that we all see. 00:13:59
What the actual hour says people are working. 00:14:05
And and that's why I said it would be better to have one full time and two-part time because. 00:14:09
You could, kind of. 00:14:15
Rotate. 00:14:17
We've had Marsha say several times that the budget is a living, breathing document, can be changed, adapted. Could we go with 00:14:19
something like that? 00:14:24
Or we have one full time and two-part time. 00:14:28
As Mr. Jones suggested, and then we look at it, we say hey, this isn't working out, we have to do what we originally planned for 00:14:31
the two full timers. 00:14:34
Is that something we can do, Charlie? 00:14:38
Of course we can do what Council says, but I will just say that we started out with one full time, two-part time and we had to 00:14:50
increase it to a second full time person. 00:14:54
It depends the quality of service you're looking to provide for that help. 00:15:00
That's really what the bottom line is going to come to be. 00:15:03
I mean y'all, I'm pretty sure you know where I stand on it. 00:15:06
You know, we were put to test to make sure that not only do we have it working. 00:15:09
Stock with Marina. 00:15:13
But a doctor Marina that was drawing positive traffic to downtown Saint Mary's, and I feel like that's what we've been 00:15:14
accomplishing. 00:15:17
You can see it in our remarks. 00:15:20
Like I said, we're about 4.9 stars. We have high ratings. We're going to lose that if we lose some of our staff members out there. 00:15:22
That's just the way it's going to happen. 00:15:26
Is there an increased traffic? Of course there is. And I think we're going to see that there's other things we can do. We talked 00:15:31
about charging for power. 00:15:35
Charging other things to help bring in the revenue. 00:15:38
And I would like to try that if it was. 00:15:41
Since we had April of last year in April this year for, you know, to show the increase and you know, May is near the end, do we 00:15:45
have a projection of like where we're at this May compared to last May? I'll get those numbers for you, but I'll tell you the docs 00:15:51
for right now. And the doc was full. Yeah, last week. I put the last boat in yesterday. That's full. 00:15:57
So Charlie, when you have a big, a nice sized boat come inside 3040 feet or whatever. 00:16:03
Can one person actually dock that boat? 00:16:09
And, and yes, with the help of the captain, they can. With the help of the captain, does it put us in any type of liability 00:16:14
whatsoever? The larger the boat might be? 00:16:18
If we've only got one person course, there's various. 00:16:24
I said I, you know. 00:16:30
One of the things we don't know, I said. This is a. 00:16:32
A new operation that's still growing and. 00:16:34
Word of mouth, you know, is has been very good I've been Privy to. 00:16:38
See some of the comments that have been shared, you know, from some of the voters and. 00:16:43
And then actually the very, very flattering nice things you're saying about the Marina operations and. 00:16:46
You know that that stuff gets out in the voter world and, you know, I think we'll have more traffic. 00:16:52
Just too early to know yet, and it's kind of why I'm. 00:16:56
I don't know anything about Marina operations. I don't own a boat, 40 foot boat. 00:17:00
You know so. 00:17:07
Makes me a little leery to try to. 00:17:09
Stipulate what? 00:17:12
What's really required down there on a day-to-day basis in order to? 00:17:13
You know, to provide what we're looking for and to get people to come and. 00:17:17
Stay in downtown and. 00:17:21
And to visit and shop and and eat and those those kinds of things. 00:17:22
And we're building something towards the future, you know? 00:17:27
Hopefully we'll have an additional hotel down there. 00:17:32
At some point in the future, but. 00:17:35
You know, so like, you know, I guess I'm trying to lean a little bit more on what y'all are. 00:17:38
Telus is required in order to provide the level of service that we want throughout St. Mary's. 00:17:43
With all of our operations, you know and. 00:17:48
That's why I kind of. 00:17:50
I kind of feel like for this next year until we have a little more time under our belt, you know? 00:17:52
For me. 00:17:59
I'm willing to invest this this amount of money to see. 00:18:01
See where it goes and how it grows. 00:18:04
And you know if we continue to have low utilization rates and we don't. 00:18:07
Get up or whatever then you know, then I think there's, there's some cost justification to say. 00:18:12
We make cuts here and we can do that in a couple of months. You know, we don't have to wait for a full year. 00:18:17
But I think we need to get a little more data. 00:18:21
To see how it's growing or not growing, you know, before we can really make an educated. 00:18:24
Decision and kind of what's hanging me right now so. 00:18:30
And we are in current peak both season. 00:18:33
It so when the new budget starts, if we could have positioned, you know, we're in the middle of what could be our peak season and 00:18:36
it is a well that the budget is a growing. It's it's it's kind of a peak season from what I saw in the numbers for local boaters 00:18:42
and and smaller boats, but the bigger boats that are coming from up north. 00:18:47
It's December. Yeah, in November, December. You know, January, but. 00:18:54
But you know, maybe we give it a few months to see how. 00:18:59
This motor. 00:19:03
Policy that we input you know how that affects cash flow and. 00:19:04
If we can get that cash flow projection? 00:19:08
You know, Lynn has spoken about what's it going to take to actually be, you know, profitable and at what level and. 00:19:11
And look at gasoline sales and some other things that you know might generate some additional revenue. 00:19:18
And then? 00:19:24
You know, we go there. I mean, I know it. 00:19:26
A truck shots overnight. 00:19:28
Uncertainty. They charged for showers and baths and stuff like that, you know, and. 00:19:29
You know, I don't think we're doing that. We just have a facility there, you know, for use. 00:19:34
You know, but maybe a usage fee to come in and use those facilities would. 00:19:38
Would offset the cost of cleaning and everything else so. 00:19:43
Right, I agree. I mean. 00:19:48
I would be comfortable with leaving the two full time people that we have right now. 00:19:52
If we had a. 00:19:57
You know, moratorium on hiring any additional people until we talked about it because. 00:19:59
That and I don't disagree with it a little more time to get more information, but I think what we're hearing clearly from. 00:20:05
People, is that they? 00:20:13
Don't want us to quote Invest? 00:20:15
Their tax dollars and enterprises and I understand that there's some, there are some soft benefits to the community. 00:20:18
Having the Marina. 00:20:27
But I think we need to. 00:20:29
You know, we have some core services. 00:20:32
That we need to have funding for so. 00:20:35
Charlie, you said that. 00:20:38
The fee that the voters pay. 00:20:42
It doesn't cover electricity. 00:20:46
No, Sir, if you remember a year and a half ago. 00:20:49
When we started this the whole port. 00:20:52
This is state. This is phase one of three phases of the doc. The doc could be expanded out. 00:20:54
And we wanted to see how the first phase went. And that's not just Saint Mary's opinion, but that was also. 00:20:59
DNR, who helped fund the grant money. 00:21:04
We had to see if there was really a usage for these dots, so we're in phase one. 00:21:07
And when we put that together. 00:21:12
It was built on. 00:21:14
The system that it wasn't necessarily. Yes, it's an enterprise. 00:21:15
But the initial concept of this was not in an enterprise mindset. It was to draw traffic to our to Saint Mary's. 00:21:19
And that's why they did the transient dockets. They can only beat the voters, can only be there for 14 days if we were looking to 00:21:26
make money. 00:21:29
We would have a dry storage, we would be a full time operational Marina, but we're not where transient docks. 00:21:32
We're just here to bring people into our house, is what I understand. But the question that I asked is. 00:21:37
They don't have to pay power. I mean, they don't. 00:21:45
So that goes back to what I was saying. So the original idea was? 00:21:48
To just get them here. So no for that. 00:21:52
That one price covers power pump out. 00:21:54
They can use our facilities and that's why I'm very open. 00:21:57
To trying to make it. 00:22:00
You know. 00:22:02
Bring in more revenue to help us balance out and that could be charging power and that's something me and Colin talked about this 00:22:03
week. 00:22:06
Restroom services, laundry facility, We're already doing golf cart rentals, bicycles. We can pretty much put a dollar. 00:22:10
Amount on any services if that's what the council wishes and that would bring revenue in. 00:22:16
I think the hospitality and not losing any staff though. 00:22:21
Can help balance that out though, just to be honest, because we still want to give great service. You know, I think we need to 00:22:24
take a look at other marinas and see what they're charging. 00:22:29
You know, for those same amenities, I mean, if they're, if they're not charging them as well. 00:22:33
Then OK, but if they're charging them, then we might need to be charging them. 00:22:39
Here as well. 00:22:43
Yes, Sir. We've, we've looked at that and so we have undercut a little bit, but that's because there's certain things we can't 00:22:45
offer, we don't have. 00:22:48
Right, you know we don't have a. 00:22:51
Gift shop or a hardware shop that a lot of marinas will have. 00:22:54
There's little things we don't. We're just more of the cute bed breakfast. 00:22:58
And that's what we are so. 00:23:01
Yeah, I'm not familiar with it like a Marina, because I haven't had to. 00:23:03
I don't have a boat the side that needs power hookups that Adam Marina. I've knocked at marinas before but never had the need for 00:23:07
power. But I know a campground. You know you have a. 00:23:10
A fee for a campsite space that doesn't have power, sewer, and then there's a different cost for one that does so. 00:23:15
Be an extra charge and I'm really on board with trying it. You know, we undercut it in the beginning because you're our 00:23:21
competition's Brunswick and Fernandina. 00:23:25
And they actually have to come in five miles off the ICW to come to us. 00:23:29
When they have everything that those two marinas and they're right there off of the ICW. So we're trying to. 00:23:34
Essentially. 00:23:39
Cash online to get them in here. 00:23:40
I think the goal should just be to break even. I don't think we. 00:23:43
Are ever going to make money? 00:23:47
That dog with it? 00:23:49
You know, but we should try to get it where we're not using. 00:23:51
The taxpayers. 00:23:55
Tax dollars. 00:23:57
To offer Marina services. 00:23:59
To the public. 00:24:02
Because all the taxpayers don't use that. 00:24:03
So, you know, I think if we can make it break even, we're good. 00:24:07
Yes, ma'am, and we sure will try. 00:24:14
I got ancillary duties that my crews down do down for operations. 00:24:19
Additional stuff on top of their daily regime. 00:24:24
You know, are there other ancillary? 00:24:28
Other things that need to be done tasking wise and otherwise we've actually had them fresh washing the. 00:24:32
Good, the launch is. 00:24:39
Winter St. boat ramp. 00:24:41
Yeah, getting the Seagull stuff off of the. 00:24:43
Half of them fresh washing. 00:24:46
Attending to some of the things along, all those are upkeeping, there's there. 00:24:48
When there's two of them there, they're both busy, especially during the growth season between February and November. 00:24:54
That's when the grocery works. 00:25:01
Yes, Sir, and. 00:25:02
It's not a. 00:25:05
Sit down. Yeah. 00:25:07
And nowhere in that area. 00:25:09
So just keeping the area up nice. So that's important. 00:25:13
So don't repeat it the same. 00:25:17
Right. So is. 00:25:19
Is there any? 00:25:22
Motion or anything to try to. 00:25:24
Amend what we have here. 00:25:26
Motion, but I mean. 00:25:29
Recommendation at this point and we're obviously voting on it. 00:25:32
Monday but. 00:25:36
How many people you say you have down there now? 00:25:38
2/2 full time, one party, one part time, Yeah. 00:25:41
Let's just keep it at 22 full time. 00:25:46
Go with it. 00:25:50
And try the other revenue. 00:25:51
Producing ideas and then if we need to. 00:25:53
We address it. We will. 00:25:57
The goal being to break, I'd like for you to come back in the middle of the. 00:25:59
US. But she's gonna say hey. 00:26:03
We're busting at the scenes out there. We need somebody else. 00:26:07
Maintenance is a constant challenge down there. Period. 00:26:13
And just for the environment they're in. So we're going to leave it like it is and adjust down if we need to. 00:26:17
Again, that's up to. 00:26:23
Council. 00:26:26
Planet budget is 2 full. 00:26:29
And one part time. 00:26:31
But what we have currently employed is 2 full time of people. 00:26:33
Because we're looking at bringing on a part time person on the budget we don't have, I'm sorry. So we're looking at bringing on a 00:26:37
part time person we don't currently have. 00:26:40
Well, it's it's recently been vacated as needed. 00:26:43
Right, the last day. 00:26:50
Two full time and. 00:26:52
See what happens. 00:26:53
So are we asking them to amend the budget? You lower it down? 00:26:55
That, that what I'm hearing everybody's. 00:27:00
Buy one part time and then as Artie says. 00:27:03
You know, come, come a couple months and there. 00:27:07
You know they will if we have to go back and amend and add back to it to allow that part time. 00:27:10
Back in at that point. 00:27:15
Yes, as long as our data comes in from you guys about the need. 00:27:17
And the need validates it then. 00:27:23
And they press on and get, you know, make it happen. 00:27:25
'Cause I'm guaranteeing this growth pattern right now. 00:27:28
We're working hard down. 00:27:31
Yeah, they're spending it. Is the request for the part time employee like at, I mean, is that something from our two full time 00:27:34
employees, they feel they're not handling everything. We had two full time and a part time as of yesterday. We just recently made 00:27:38
a decision. 00:27:43
With our staff yesterday, so as of today we only have two full time members. 00:27:47
So just we can try the two full time. 00:27:52
Council wishes, but we haven't. 00:27:55
It's kind of brand new right now for us to go to that number. 00:27:57
I guess and and you're going to come back to us and say, hey, this isn't working. We need to look at it differently or. 00:28:00
Adding somebody half time or whatever. 00:28:07
Yes, Sir. Yeah, OK. 00:28:09
I think that's OK. 00:28:11
Make that change. 00:28:13
That do a full tackle. 00:28:15
Got it. 00:28:18
All right. 00:28:20
I know we had a. 00:28:22
Bid opening today for City Hall and the numbers were. 00:28:25
Larger than expected. 00:28:30
No 10 million. 00:28:32
Yes, so. 00:28:35
Current discussion is that you know to relook at it and. 00:28:39
And to go back out, forbid. 00:28:44
Stephanie's time to evaluate what was presented. 00:28:47
Umm, and but more than likely we will be coming to council. 00:28:50
Very near future. 00:28:57
And action and the base bid for this particular, we're just getting in with not finishing some of the things like. 00:28:59
The courthouse. 00:29:06
And some of the office space, those kinds of things. 00:29:08
7.2. 00:29:11
Something like that around that range, so still. 00:29:13
Higher than the six that we currently have budgeted. 00:29:16
Are these bids? Is including the roof these bids? No, no. 00:29:20
So do we have a bit on the roof? 00:29:26
Yep, we have. We received one. 00:29:28
Some time ago, so we'd have to have a more recent bid. 00:29:33
Yeah. So based on that, you know. 00:29:36
You know, knowing that even the base amount at that point was over what we have budgeted, you know, I, I would. 00:29:44
I would move to leave what we've got where it is since. 00:29:51
Covered in the budget and now 6,000,000 sounds good, right? 00:29:54
I think we. 00:29:58
Feel differently about this issue. 00:29:59
You know we're talking about. 00:30:02
Putting in a lot of individual offices. 00:30:06
And that building that. 00:30:10
Was a call center before. 00:30:13
If we do that, it's going to require redoing the air handling system. 00:30:15
All the lighting. 00:30:21
And I think that we probably need to take a look at an alternative way to use that space. 00:30:22
And see make it more open so that we can use the current air handling system and do some other things. And I understand that you 00:30:30
went to bid. 00:30:35
With a council approved plan from last year so. 00:30:40
While this is a tedious process, I think when we're talking about spending $6 million. 00:30:45
And I'd like to point out that there's some money. 00:30:53
Budgeted for that. 00:30:56
That we do not have in our hands yet. 00:30:58
There it's based on real estate sales that we think are going to happen. 00:31:01
But I think we all know that. 00:31:07
Sometimes those things don't come to fruition. 00:31:09
I think it would be really important for us to try and go. 00:31:14
Back to the drawing board and see what we can do with the ARPA money and maybe a couple of $1,000,000 from Fund Equity with that 00:31:20
space. 00:31:25
Instead of counting on money that we don't have. 00:31:31
That's my position. 00:31:37
So the fund source for the total 6,000,000, it is included in which she describes. Obviously we don't have it unless we have it. 00:31:42
I mean, I would say we leave it penciled in the budget for having it there, but we're, you know, still have to. 00:31:52
Get the right bid to fit within that budget, but it should still be earmarked in there. 00:31:59
Right. Well, in one of the additional potential sales. 00:32:04
That is, not included in that budget is potential sale of this property. 00:32:07
Once it's, you know, once it's vacated or whatever, so. 00:32:12
There's there are a couple of different. 00:32:15
Potential real estate sales that. 00:32:17
Good impact and obviously we're not going to spend the money if we don't get the sales, we're not not able to do the you know, do 00:32:20
the things or whatever, but. 00:32:23
You know we're. 00:32:28
Projecting out, playing for a year, you know, things we think are going to happen. I mean, that's. 00:32:29
The whole point of the process, but. 00:32:34
Given given the high cost of. 00:32:37
What this came in to get? 00:32:40
What we planned. 00:32:43
You know, even scaling back to some other things that Councilman talked about. 00:32:45
You know, we may still be in the range of. 00:32:49
Of what's in the budget right now, so that I say without. 00:32:52
You know, I, I just feel like. 00:32:56
It's there. We have a way right now that we see that it's going to be covered. 00:32:58
It may not be enough, you know, ultimately, but you know, and maybe there's some other. 00:33:03
Income sources that we'll be able to utilize, but. 00:33:08
Right now, given the cost of what's. 00:33:14
What the was? 00:33:16
I feel more comfortable leaving that in there than I do taking it out and. 00:33:18
And then not having it, you know, when it comes time to just, you know, work. 00:33:23
The cost to operate that building, an air conditioned that building right now every every month and keep electricity on. 00:33:27
And this facility too is costing us money every month that we delay. 00:33:33
Is wasting money, you know, in that process. And so we need to move on and and try to get in that building. 00:33:37
As soon as cop you know to cut the expenses that we have, you know the dual, dual expenses, so. 00:33:43
I agree with that. 00:33:50
But that error handling system was put in. 00:33:53
During COVID. 00:33:56
You know the whole area. 00:33:59
Right, I'm writing that assessment. 00:34:01
Bobby. 00:34:04
Yeah, they didn't upgrade. 00:34:07
Not long before, yeah, yeah. So it's not hardly been efficiently used until we started firing it up and getting going again. 00:34:11
That buildings had empty for a long time. 00:34:20
OK, so. 00:34:27
Were there any other? 00:34:30
Items we wanted to discuss here, we're kind of. 00:34:32
Getting up against the time, but. 00:34:34
We can go longer if we have to, but. 00:34:36
I'm sure you gotta stop. 00:34:39
Yeah, we got one. 00:34:41
One minute. 00:34:45
So we're good. 00:34:47
So to have a. 00:34:50
Never. You're not supporting me. 00:34:51
Motion to adjourn. 00:34:57
Is there a second to adjourn? Second. Second? 00:34:59
I was on a roll. I'm so glad we have you here to keep us straight. I can just hit the gavel this time. 00:35:05
Budget work session is closed. Thank you. 00:35:13
No right hand. 00:35:15