e e e e comes trickling back in I will call our budget work session to order is 1208 and turn it over to City Manager David Cook thank you David thank you I guess that means it's good afternoon now good afternoon everybody so uh this is our budget work session for August 27th we're going to tag team up here Christian and I um and we're going to start off by talking about what a revised budget would look like and again thank you for the letter from last week and we'll walk through what the implications are of keeping the tax rate the same some recommendations for reducing the budget to get to that number and we'll walk through some of that after that Christian will go through some of the fee adjustments that still need to be approved as part of the budget and then she'll end talking about the with some of the budget responses I'll also refer to some of the budget responses because they'll relate to some of the conversation about uh the revised budget let's see there we go so I wanted to just ground us back to the current tax rate so that's fisc year 24 at U 6725 again we break it down into operations pgo and then the ins or the amount that's set aside for debt and then the recommended from two week uh the recommended tax rate from two weeks ago had the increase showing up on the pay you go side and a minor reduction on the operation side so when we um received the letter and and it had the goal of achieving the uh keeping the tax rate the same at 67 and a quarter what we begin to do is we look at all the components of the tax rate and so we look at what are we dedicating to the operations because if we want to reduce that we're going to take money out of the general fund if we want to reduce the part that's going to pay as you go you get the idea we reduce pay as you go and then finally we look at the ins or the debt rate so this is to summarize in on one slide the letter that we received related to keeping the tax rate the same so that on its own roughly reduce we need to take out 5.4 million out of the general fund budget whether it comes out of pigo whether it comes out of the operations or out of debt service the keeping the tax rate the same holding everything else constant would be 5.4 million the letter also recommended though that we wanted to raise the entry wage to $18 an hour for employees and that uh estimate we had is 800,000 to do that that's just the first year cost of getting to $18 an hour and that is a February effective date for the increase because by then it would already account for the pay for performance that would occur in November okay so the increase would occur in February that way we' have already built into uh many people's wages that pay per pay for performance that would have already occurred so what we're going to talk about is how do you change the budget by 6.2 million to hit those goals all right I'll say this probably a couple times when you think about putting and I've shared this with you before when you put a budget together that when you think about it on just the general fund side is over a billion dollars you're making a lot of assumptions and you're employing a lot of strategies and what we're going to share with you is some of that thought process of balancing a budget that has Limitless needs in some ways ways right but limited resources so the first thing we do is we look at how we allocate the tax rate and where are we going to look at making the adjustments right are we going to adjust all components of the tax rate or are we going to focus on pay youo or the operations or debt so starting off we reviewed the allocation that we have set aside for debt the ins rate it's 14 and 3/4 you also have a budget response from uh Reggie and finance from the staff that talks about how we do debt capacity forecasting into the future and you've seen those before from our finance staff we are also looking out because not only are this year revenues lower than the past but what if they're like that over the next couple of years what if we see the same thing from the appraisal districts for the next few years to where we would lower our forecast and what does that mean for debt capacity that's included in that budget response so there's a Reggie identif ified the impact of going from a 4% short-term growth rate to a 3% short-term growth rate and it affects our debt capacity and the amount that we might be able to put before voters for a 2026 Bond so we reviewed the ins rate and the recommendation is to keep that the same that we don't recommend adjusting that part of the tax rate because of the long-term implications and the long-term need for more infrastructure and I think we all recognize the need for more infrastructure so we do not recommend reducing or tinkering with the ins part of the tax rate that's Again part of the property tax rate overall so that's what first thing we looked at second we looked at well where did we add resources and it's not just the last year not just fiscal year 24 but what was in the budget for fiscal year 25 right so we looked at where positions were added we looked last year at where we increased the neighborhood Improvement program we increased funding for the priority repair program we added a number of positions in throughout the organization in Fisco year 24 so part of that are we willing to change some of those things and we'll get into some of that conversation a minute we also looked at the easy thing is is just tell all departments to reduce how much money they having all their line items and and move on well we went into this year's budget telling departments they had to eat inflation and some of the increased costs along the way what anyway we didn't build inflation increases into the budget we didn't build um uh ways that you could increase line items so uh is that an easy strategy sometimes it is but it's a I call it a death by a thousand cut sometimes you don't really take anything strategic out of the budget you just um what feels like uh nickel and diming some of the Departments we also looked at the programs that were identified through the priority based budget but I think as you know I we're nine departments in so we're not even halfway through the city organization on party based budgeting so it only impact a number of departments um one of those that actually is the police department that went through the priority based budget we also Al looked at the the compensation and benefits and if you remember we presented this slide as part of the recommended budget the general fund was going up roughly I think it's 48 million right and we gave you the building blocks of the 48 million it was meet and confer it was pay for performance it was collective bargaining it was the 35 million for um the MedStar transition it was the four-year funding of police officers that were added in the prior year that in itself tolded nearly of the $48 million and it's the 48 million that we now have to bring down to 42 if we're going to take all the increase out of the general fund does that make sense sure the budget that we had presented before was growing by 48 million that was the increase year-over-year and remember it had a half cent increase for Street Maintenance in pay as you go but that flows through the general fund so that 48 million if we're going to take it down 6.2 it's going to go from a roughly 48 to $42 million increase but it's our recommendation that we're going to keep the amount of money in there for meet and confer for pay for performance for for collective bargaining for Ems for the full year funding of the police officers that were added last year so which means we're going to have to make the reductions on the other parts of the budget we always look at the pros and cons of hiring freezes and some of the things that we'll recommend uh in just a moment will keep that strategy close to mind as we talk about the upcoming fiscal years fiscal year 205 26 um and and more on that in a second we're also further looking at the vacancies right we eliminated and we'll show that chart again we eliminated a number of vacancies in the recommended budget that you saw two weeks ago and you're going to see another recommendation that we're going to evaluate vacancies and take out more we haven't identified all the positions yet but we're going to look at the ones that have been vacant more than six months we're going to look at ones that been vacant less than six months and make an assessment in order to reduce the overall headcount uh we're going to talk about salary savings and how we manage that as part of the budget uh and then this last one is spending on our vehicle and Equipment replacement fund all right let's jump into what we've identified is our look at how to reduce the budget to bring it down 6.2 million so we're going to recommend eliminating more vacancies I'll walk through that in a minute reducing the amount that's in our vehicle and Equipment replacement fund salary savings and then we're going to talk about adjusting pay as you go right that's where we are keeping the amount of money that was dedicated to Street Maintenance we want to keep that number up but part of the savings coming down will be reducing the neighborhood Improvement program from two neighbor neighborhoods of year to one let's walk through these so we currently have 21 positions full-time that have been vacant longer than six months we've had part-time positions that are 24 in total that have been vacant for six months or more or excuse me for six months and we've excluded departments that already gave up vacant positions and what we call the first round that we did is part of the recommended budget that you saw two weeks ago so our recommendation is we're going to take out another 10 to 15 positions in the city on the vacant position side that will contribute 1 million toward that 6.2 million total and this gives you uh an idea of where some of those positions are across the city these these are just the ones that are six months or more but we'll also look at other vacant positions in the city our goal is 10 to 15 that will contribute a million dollars to the bottom line this was already taken into account as part of the recommended budget you've already seen we reduced nine in the general fund 12 in ccpd and we took already about 2 million 1.9 million in the current budget already so we're going to add another million through eliminating vacancies the second recommendation comes when we talk about our vehicle and Equipment replacement funding and let me take a minute to describe how we replace Vehicles heavy equipment and the fleet in the city so we have a vehicle and replacement fund and when you think about it ccpd pays for all police so we're fairly current in replacing police cars because ccpd is paying for it so this doesn't affect police we use tax notes to essentially replace fire trucks right so tax notes are still going to be fine so this doesn't affect fire trucks Enterprise funds like water storm water they pay for their vehicle Replacements so they're not affected so the vehicle replacement fund an equipment replacement fund that is paying for all the other G general fund departments like Transportation Public Works Parks and Recreation code that's general fund money that's a contribution from the general fund to the vehicle and Equipment replacement fund okay so we're not talking about police cars not talking about fire trucks not talking about any of the Enterprise funds but we are talking about a substantial part of the fleet that is paid through the general Fund in order to replace those Vehicles now what has happened over the last few years is with supply chain issues we have not been able to replace vehicles that needed to be replaced right for that period for a number of reasons so we are actually behind in the replacement of vehicles funded through the general fund we increase the funding in this year's budget we annually put in about 3.5 we need to be putting in more but we generally put in three and a half million we added another two million this year to the vehicle and Equipment replacement fund taking it up to 5.5 it's still not enough to fund what we need but it's at the upper end of our capacity both in the marketplace and from a supply chain standpoint to accomplish is it what does that mean is if we put in $10 million there's no way they could spend $10 million because you can't buy the equipment you can't bid it and procure it and we were on the up I you know I'm going go ahead and say it I think we were on the upper End by giving him $2 million more than the prior year even though we know we have a backlog all right and Lauren can Lauren can tell you about the backlog but we put in an additional 2 million and we would tell you that was on the upper end of our ability to be able to move that money through the organization to get the 5.5 million even though they're all needed um in the year so what we're saying is we'll take we can take that down it doesn't eliminate the backlog actually might make the backlog um a little worse for future years so I also have this Bel I get I also have this belief that we're not it's like the doctor's oath right of Do no harm right and so I hate kicking the can down the road that all it does is make that a bigger issue for a futural future staff and counsel because we still have a big backlog on the vehicle and a equipment replacement fund we're suggesting they reducing this by a million because we're probably pushing the ability to fund it all in one fiscal year anyway back go ahead that makes yeah David thanks for that I just have a question what is you said we're behind on replacement of vehicles what is the average lifespan end of a vehicle reminder this comes from a guy driving a 2005 HRA Accord so thank you for that so each um use is going to have a different like police cars go every three to five years right because of the miles that are put on so it's the type of miles or the type of use we've got vehicles in the fleet that have probably been there 10 20 years so we look at Miles and condition every uh I think it's every year right MH so we're always looking at Miles and condition and when you think about maximizing a fleet you want to take it out before it breaks down completely and sell it at auction so we're always looking at what is the optimum life cycle of a fleet but it's different by every piece of equipment what obviously we're not touching police but you you have all other departments up here too I would just say police a little bit different than Park and wreck or I'm just saying out in the street every day that might be something we look at too of what is the average lifespan and how we're saving dollars there sure I think the one that gets our attention most is tpw and Parks and Recreation because some of That's Heavy Equipment specialized equipment bucket trucks and so again the strategy is we haven't fixed the pro we have a problem in the vehicle and Equipment replacement fund that needs more money in the future to solve it uh we're saying is we probably have the ability to take a million this year but all it does is adds to the problem that's got to be solved along the way any other questions Council on that one yeah go ahead Carlos David I don't know exactly how to articulate this to be clear enough but hopefully you can understand what I'm trying to ask supply chain issues It's probably hard to Quantified in terms of you know usable figure right but they continue are they reducing in effect or no the supply chain problems have gotten less okay so and it's a I I think it's just a matter of time of when it'll be like preco but we're not there yet and we have a pretty significant backlog and a lot of it is special equipment for tpw okay how much of the need to replace equipment is carryover from the prior year because we because of supply chain issues in other words we have a trun of money we're trying to spend to replace a certain amount of vehicles at a certain rate but then supply chain conspires I'm just curious to see if we're if there's any foreseeable savings we can do and and if we're considering cutting back on the amount of vehicle purchase is fine but what I'd like to know is if in cutting back does that fit within the reasonable availability given all these factors that you've talked about of being able to get them because it's nice to say hey I I've got money allocated I want to spend it I want to get new vehicles but if we can't get them fast enough what's the point in allocating that much money we might have to come back on details of that I think we're very confident we could spend the 4 and a half million yeah based on that list right there in the existing backlog I'm saying we're going to carry that backlog into fiscal year 25 okay now um if there's a piece of equipment that we need to get the work done there's still an opportunity in some areas to be able to lease it now leasing isn't always the most coste effective but it's like the street sweepers that we brought in until we could purchase the street sweepers that again are going to hit the streets uh next month but so there is still a leasing option for some of the equipment but it can be costly okay thank you thanks David all right the third recommendation I want to talk about salary savings because this is one of those areas that we spent a lot of time on this year so and I think we've talked it through with you a little bit every department has turnover right so there EV and every department has to manage turnovers so it is nice that everybody could be 100% staffed 100% of the time but that's just not the case and this year the lab worked with all departments to look at what their historical vacancy rate looked like and we've already budgeted that right so we don't budget 100% of all salaries all the time for any department and we're already using a vacancy rate that it some of it is different by Department based on historical turnover insurance we put in the non-departmental part of the budget a hedge number oh thank you very much in case we might miss it this year so what we're going to recommend is we're going to take out some of the Hedge and reduce what we set aside for the salary saving uh well call it risk and reduce that by a million dollars we also fund separation leave out of non-departmental tuition reimbursement and as you saw in today's windup ordinance we covered a lot of departments on tuition reimbursement and in the separation leave right so we normally do that as a case of business every year but in our recommendation if we want to take down the general fund by another million we're going to take down our hedge on the vacancy rate now what this means is that during fiscal year 25 is as departments get and are starting to fill positions we're going to work with the departments on how they manage that process and bringing people on and we might have to have some temporary freezes in order to make sure that that we hit the vacancy rates that are part of the budget does that make sense it does me ask a question and but maybe this is also pertinent for Christian as you now have your budget office where you want it to be in Fort Worth lab I would think this is something you would want to be more focused on than maybe we have in the past anyway especially now that you're going to be reduced by a million on that hedge money just kind of curious your perspective as you work with departments moving forward outside of this recommend a you're right um so we don't want to wait till the fiscal month five or fiscal month 8 forecast in order to take a first look at how departments are performing on filling their vacancies and so I think at the very earliest we would look at it quarterly so we would allow the first quarter to occur um and then work through the analysts with the Departments uh in order to project their hiring activity and how often they'll be onboarding people um and then look at uh any discretion Ary omm spending that could offset the cost of more aggressive or successful hiring efforts but we will have to watch it very closely by reducing this sort of unrealized salary savings Reserve thank you go ahead Carlos just a real quick question here Dave regarding the tuition reimbursement policy don't want to Deep dive but just specifically uh I'm assuming that there's a requirement uh for employees to stick around after they've gone through you know uh some cour work right so that we can at least realize a certain amount of return for our investment we don't educate them and they fly off the green years two years years two years okay and that's still applicable in and for us to realize again a return on our investment right we don't need to revisit that in your opinion uh in my personal no we encour we want people to continually get educated and train themselves we think that creates a more valuable employee even if they leave after two years but I think we want to create the environment where people think and believe they can advance in this organization part of that is tuition reimbursement okay thank you Janette please another program I've been cous about um Diana uh what about the CDL training the same two years they need to be employed before okay yes so we modeled the CDA program CDL program and and after the tuition reimbursement so that we don't train them and then they leave so there's a two-year retention rate where we Pro rate with they would owe the city and deduct it from their final check all right so these three recommendations the vehicle replacement fund going down by a million finding another million in savings from vacant positions and reducing the amount for the salary savings is three million that would roughly come out of the operation side of the tax rate and I'll talk about the tax rate just a minute so that's three million out of the general fund not pay you go so the next recommendation has to do with the allocation of the tax rate for pay as you go and what we're recommending is the reduction of one of the neighborhood Improvement programs I I'll show you some information in a second on that I want to talk about the tax rate impact one neighborhood in the fiscal year 25 budget is 4.2 million so we're going to reduce the pigo part of 4.2 million we're keeping all the funding on the on the Street Maintenance side we've created savings on the operation side that that 4.2 um is a little bit more than what is needed to reduce the pays you go by the 3.2 million to get a h a quarter Penny or roughly a quarter Penny right so what we're talking about is reducing pays you go from 7 and a half to 7 and A4 this again I think is consistent with Council priority of investing more in infrastructure and this is the maintenance of infrastructure so the tax rate going from s to S and a quarter is certainly consistent with Council priority about maintaining infrastructure and all the funding will stay for the Street Maintenance addition I conditions that we talked about the reducing the 4.2 out of the neighborhood Improvement program but adjusting the tax rate just by a quarter Cent leaves about a million dollars in the pigo side which also could go to the Street Maintenance and put it up to that 10 million number that had been talked about as well does that make sense let's talk about the neighborhood Improvement program and why we're recommending that we can move forward with that change this shows you the number of neighborhoods and the specific neighborhoods uh over the last number of years starting with stop six back in fiscal year 17 moving forward to this year where we identified two neighborhoods seminary in worth Heights and this is our spend to date right so in the current year we had Seminary worth Heights last year we had historic Marine Creek then you see Las Vegas Trail going back so we are at a point where uh I won't say we're challenged but we're challenged in our ability to spend that money on a faster Pace some of that's been turn over in Neighborhood Services um but what we're recommending is we still are going to catch up or have to catch up on these other neighborhoods as we talk about what neighborhood we add in the upcoming fiscal year just showing it a different way these again the neighborhoods the budget and the expenditures to date and so when you look at historic Marine Creek we're still at a under 20% spend and that was last year's neighborhood we have Seminary and worth Heights that were selected earlier this year and they're at a spend that's under 10% go ahead Jared excuse me good question um on the last two slides David if it's okay I think um I have a couple questions for Fernando because I know he was very involved with the nqrc with revamping the nip strategy Fernando if he'll come up sure thank you Fernando I know um as a committee with the neighborh quality rization team we were um we had discussed some of the challenges with the neighborhood Improvement program um being able to execute the Investments um in partnership with other department can you speak to some of that and what the recommendation was for project management especially well as uh city manager cook has explained uh we have been a little slower in expending the neighbor Improvement funds than uh we had expected for a variety of reasons and uh we're exploring options for accelerating those expenditures including the possibility of hiring a project management firm to treat those projects in the same way that tpw and parks and other departments uh use project managers uh to uh Advance their projects uh in a timely way uh one of the recommendations that the neighborhood quality and revitalization committee uh Advanced to the full Council in the neighborhood conservation plan was the idea of staging the proposed improvements for these target areas over a three-year period rather than trying to complete them in one or two years as we had been doing and that idea was to devote year one principally to planning and um uh initial uh uh improvements that would result in highly visible results uh cleaning up um parks and other public spaces for example uh uh intense uh code enforcement activity uh the kinds of uh efforts that would produce immediate results to uh improve the morale of neighborhood residents and set the stage uh for uh more detailed planning and Design on Capital Improvements year two will be devoted to U making most of the improvements Associated uh with the neighbor Improvement funding and year three and future years to be devoted to uh larger scale improvements possibly funded through a bond program or outside funding of one form or another so that was the the strategy that was recommended by uh uh interface Studio our Consultants uh for the neighborhood conservation plan thank you for that and just to add some comment for the council um uh this past fiscal year or this current fiscal year rather um was the first year that we began implementing that three-year strategy um or phased approach and that way we could um be more intentional about planning get neighborhoods more time and also City staff more time to execute um these Investments and then lastly to set the stage for these neighborhoods to Leverage other Investments within um the community from the city such as Bond program pgo Etc um so thank you for that context um that was one of the reasons why um we made that recommendation to try to um further build on the success that this program has had and so I would be a little I'd be very apprehensive on cutting the funding knowing that um that plan just got started and knowing that um you know we have a lot of good work especially when we can still accomplish fa is one of the program um this year with relatively modest Investments thank you I can tell Gina's about to jump out of her seat go ahead yeah I'm I'm just shocked you know to see money not spent and uh you I've gotten introduced to interface you know with the Wood Haven project and I'm sure they're going to be very impressive in the end but you know we we had a fantastic model when you first started out and that involved making sure you knew who the community stakeholders were it takes the community to drive this program uh staff cannot drive the program uh I see Carlos where you had 100% all of yours done it might be that you need to come back around Mr city manager you know because we we started out in fy17 but if you don't have that Community engaged in this program it's not going to go anywhere and I really I don't know that I like so much outside is coming in telling us how to do stuff I'm just being frank with you we didn't need that in stop six what we were able to do is find out what the detriments to development were we found out initially that one thing a and a consultant never would have told us you got to get rid of all of those concrete foundations that were left after demolitions and so there are just some best practices that evolve from this program there may be some areas where it just does not work I think Chris you have of of land issue you know and so it's not that it couldn't be spent but I'm I'm I'm I'm disappointed and I think we need to build on the history you know from those where it has really worked to see you know maybe Carinos we could go in as consultants who knows but uh you know I've I I really think you have to have this project driven by the people in the community who live where this is taking place and in stop 6 they told us everything we needed to know Las Vegas Trail told you what you needed to come on tell you we don't want cameras here District 5 and8 said oh yeah bring on the cameras let's stop the crime and we did and so don't don't ignore those success stories so that that's my input as we go around yeah sorry Co I was going to also ask Casey's perspective as our new neighborhood services director and I I appreciate Jared's knowledge on this going through the neighborhood committee I I do I separate from budget so if you can just look that lens for a second I have a lot of problem that we are in almost the end of the fiscal year and have expended none of the money on two neighborhoods that is not what we promise neighborhoods I don't care how much planning you want to do and it really creates a hole in our budget year over year and I feel strongly to Gina's point I mean I I would I worked here when we did stop six it was transformational within six months and then by the end of the year all that money expended now you had to spend a lot of time we all did but there was a sense of urgency around it that you know David this was his program coming in and this was something that he envisioned so I think separate from this budget conversation I'm encouraged by Casey's leadership to help us rally the troops differently in our departments to make sure however many neighborhoods we're doing that we're doing it really well in that fiscal year because otherwise neighborhoods are going to give up on the program they're going to feel like this is an unfulfilled promise and I'm sure that is incredibly frustrating to them and mayor one thing I just thought about it when you said it we did lose some continuity when Aubrey died yes we did and so that that that's again a people Factor yeah good point yeah absolutely so I would like to say I also share your concerns in terms of um the amount of funding that hasn't been spent when I saw those charts I was asking the same questions in terms of why are we not driving these projects more and so it is something that um we're working on um Pam Rambo ston who came in she has a capital background and so it's something that I've charged her with too as well in terms of making sure in three years we have that money spent um I will do want to clarify in terms of the Consultants so the purpose of the consultant is not to replace the community feedback um that is an integral piece of the neighborhood Improvement program and we're not intending to bypass that the way that we will be using the Consultants is to help more on the work for example that tpw or Park and Recreation staff would have been doing so for example once the community tells us what projects they want do the consultant will help scope out the project determine the budget develop the timeline they're more on the implementation but we are planning to continue having the community engagement piece as a big part of the project they're just helping with the implementation piece um I know there's two recommendations as far as how to handle the nip um the one that's presented here is to reduce it down to one project I will tell you there is um obviously I would want to keep funding for two but there is some value in reducing to one it would allow us to catch up on some of these projects that we still have funding outstanding um and to really just go hard in terms of getting those completed um it would allow us to with this proposal to bring in the implementation Consultants um it would allow us to get that program bided out in place and set up the program so that hopefully come fiscal year 2026 we can go back to funding two projects and we'll be ready to move quicker um in terms of the option to phase in the funding um that option is consistent with how we typically spend the funding we get um3 to four million do upfront but typically we only spend a portion of that in year one and so there is some value to that option as well so we um Neighborhood Services I came from the budget office so I understand that you can have a stream of very good quality projects and programs that you want to fund but when it comes to having limited resources I know that sometimes you have to make tough decisions and so we are willing and able to um support whatever option is selected Casey I want to jump in on this U on a couple of points one what I'm hearing a takeaway from you is of course you know having adequate funding to continue our efforts it's always desirable but in in light of you coming in you know to the position you're at at Neighborhood Services and trying to assess the status of your house right and doing whatever changes or tweaks that you need to do time is needed to do that right that's what I'm hearing that's one of the takeaways right so this is not an exercise and just racing racing to spend money we got to have a plan we have to know how to implement it now talking about Consultants well again like Jean I have mixed feelings about that uh what made the north side uh nip successful you know I think was from from the very start you know driving the message to the folks in the community as what was coming up and how we were going to ask for their participation and there was great participation right and another thing that I'm seeing right now and I'm talking with staff still you know on historic Marine I mean that just started we have you know a ways to go we have some identified path but there are some differences in how we're approaching that I think what I would like to say and I'm not going to do a deep dive here is better alignment you know with my office and what staff is doing I think there's been kind of a disconnect staff is doing what it can but Avail you know I ask they Avail themselves of coordination with my office please certainly you know on that so those are my comments right there yeah and I would um if we're not doing that already that is something that I would encourage our staff whatever um Council District that we're in that you all should be a big piece of that um whatever we decide to do um and I like I said in general we're moving slow compared to um in terms of my standards and I do want to see us be a little bit more aggressive in terms of pushing um not only our staff but then also the Departments that we work with making sure we're staying on top of what's on um we do monthly meetings and so my um request is that our assistant directors and whenever I can attend as well that we're a part of those meetings and that we're not waiting to escalate issues that we're doing those as soon as possible I just have just one more comment to share with you and I don't you've been here a long time so you knew Aubrey Aubrey thard I I can show you pictures of standing room only meetings because the community knew this was their project now I'm seeing what happens when you bring in Consultants right now with interface in terms of Wood Haven I can tell you the heartbeat has to be those Community drivers and so if if they have not been identified and empowered with influence you know then you're going to lag but what happened is that we were able to make sure these Community leaders knew that we respected their input we knew what they wanted to see done and we put the muscle behind it happening same thing Las Vegas Trail and so I am I am really really skeptical about and I'll use the term Outsiders coming in to facilitate people know how to facilitate if you just give them the tools they need and we were able to prove that and to this day you we continue to see rooftops coming to the stop six area and so please don't let this project get tainted with the need for so-called professionals coming in because the professionals do not and will not live there so that that's my concern council member CR Crane and then Council M Hill thanks mayor protim I'll Echo what you just said I think there was a distinct difference between the way we approached KO at the time and LBT rise LBT rise if you remember we had already done a transformation plan and had a plan on paper so you already had some Community identified but I I think as you look at this there's value in a process and that looking at the process itself you either already have some sort of road map that you want to put together or you have a community you know that can rally very quickly because if you do not have that it will take a lot as we're seeing to expend some of these funds and I won't speak to the other neighborhoods because I don't know them exactly but there may be a way that we with the budget have depending on the neighborhood some uh funds to uh put it together but they're not necessarily committed in that that year so maybe a look ahead give you a chance to catch up on some of these neighborhoods but then a look ahead um where you're not trying I do feel you said something also that there was a race to spend the funds race to spend the funds and it may not even have been prudent but it was someone just said oh we should do that let's put trash cans all the way down the street well who's going to actually service those trash cans what's that going to look like later where do the funds come from later so I think there there may be some value in just putting a process together and then secondarily I'd like to know because I've heard under previous leadership that the money for LBT rid was already spent or was maybe 200,000 there's almost still a million dollars sitting there um so I'd like to someone to follow up with me just to know where that sits yeah Michael just for clarity I was the one who said reference a race but I said the opposite I said there should not be a race SP and one thing I philosophically this is maybe a question for everyone around the table but in listening to kind of how we've done this before there is carryover money year-over-year in this neighborhood plan that's sort of the opposite of what we do let's take that street fee for instance maintenance fee when we talked about this we asked tbw specifically how much money can you spend in this fiscal year and that's the amount we want to fund and that's how we arrived at $9.1 million if we're going to use that budgeting Philosophy for different programs that's new to me and I just don't know how you budget that way frankly now that's different I don't at all to Michael's point I'm not at all opposed to planning dollars so that you're ready for that next neighborhood or to really execute the plan well but I don't like the idea of holding $4 million in an account that you're never going to touch or here we are with worth Heights no wonder they're frustrated right and that's a great example of a neighborhood um that that Council Martinez is working with so anyway I just think that's that's one thing and then last thing I'll mention having worked with this program for a while it also a lot of this burden does lie with your council districts and your District directors and your staff and because they oftentimes have the best connections and so just making sure as you build your team Casey and work with departments that they really lean on those District directors and your council members because otherwise there's going to be a huge disconnect I'm sure council member crane has some thoughts on how he'd spend almost a million dollars in Las Vegas Trail right now um or you know even you know Jared with Como that's that's a lot of money $300,000 to to spend in that neighborhood so those are my thoughts Council nles I want to um ask a couple of questions here um the the $4.2 million we're talking about is what we're planning to do in the next physical year for two neighborhoods it's 4.2 million for each neighbor correct yeah and so and the 4.2 million is to be spent over a one physical year or two physical years the four let me do go back originally when we started the this program off we set it up and it wasn't 4 million back then but it was equal to I think a half of Penny on the tax rate and we said we're going to go into neighborhood we're going to let the neighborhoods pick and our time frame was no more than two years okay we were going to get in make all the improvements and measure success from that point forward right so the idea was two years but the reason we put the money up front is so the neighborhood knew we were committed to that level of investment for the neighborhood fair so okay thank you so um of course I do have a a little hard of moving away from two neighborhoods to one and I I see why um cuz I think we also and I know this is budget we also have made a commitment to invest back into our neighborhoods and make sure we have strong neighborhoods and strong areas and so um but it I mean you laid out a a a place here that says we haven't been spending the money and so my question is even on slide 10 I don't think none of the jobs affect you don't have you can go back to it I don't think none of the jobs are affected to what you're trying to do in the neighborhood Improvement uh but I'm seeing here we're we're going to be eliminated five jobs from your area and I know you kind of articulated a few minutes ago that you have somebody in place that is going to oversee the nip moving forward correct so um Pam Rambo ston she came over as a interim assistant director and so she will be sorry she'll be managing that group and so she'll be providing more oversight over that program is that completely different from what we had in the in the prior years I would say the attention to it will be a little bit stronger than what we've had in Prior years um I don't know that it necessarily was as much of a priority as we're making it now okay um so asking about those jobs I am curious go back to those Neighborhood Services jobs what's the story there so um on the community so we have Community Center Aid and Recreation programmer those are Community Center positions are typically High turnover positions and so that's what um why those have been held vacant on the senior contract compliance specialist if I had to put in a request those are two that I would recommend to um that not be eliminated um we had a um compliance and planning manager in 2022 who retired and so those positions were were not um filled after she left we now have somebody in place over our compliance team and she's building out her team and getting us um training and more stronger review of how we're doing our grant programs and so that those two I would request to keep um we have a senior accountant and the administrative technician I don't have good reasons as to why those haven't been filled that is something um particularly coming back from HR when I saw the list of vacant positions have been working with our folks to make sure those are getting filled as quickly as possible okay thank you sorry to interrupt you no I'm glad you brought that up and I'm glad you said what you just said a lot of times we have staff come here and they see that on there and they just say I'm okay with losing it but the fact that you say no I don't want to lose that that shows me that you're really interested in making sure you make your department work uh to the full capacity I heard you say you know this year we can eliminate to one but hopefully next year we can go back to two and so I want to make sure that we don't do not take employees away from uh from you able to do the job because if we're going to eliminate and hopefully get back or catch up but if we start continue to cut down your department it's not going to help you in the long run correct yeah um these positions that are listed for Neighborhood Services aren't directly involved in the neighborhood Improvement program and so those wouldn't affect the progress that we make there but somebody got to do it yes exactly uh but I I'm not going to die on a heel of eliminating one because I know we haven't been able to do it but I I do want to make sure that we challenge this Council that this is something that needs to be put back into the budget for next year so how we're moving forward looking for the next as you articulated David not just this year but what's going to happen if the tax rate um or if the the uh sales taxes come in as Low Mo consecutive years so I do want to make sure that we're looking ahead of how we in put that money back in the budget for next year Jared Macy sorry I lost track of all my people thank you mayor um just to add to that um the neighborhood conservation plan is very instructive to this um when we talk about $8 million a year for the budget um you know it still follows the same philosophy as uh David just mentioned about trying to spend the funds in two years um the thing that we really talked a lot about um after we talked um did a study on how many neighborhoods were distressed in the city we were very concerned about um not investing um to the scale needed to ultimately get our neighborhoods that are severely distressed the resources they need um and the other thing I think that's important is when we talk about the planning phase of this project you know I think we still should support the planning phase this year whatever dollar amount that is but when you look at the $8 million a two neighborhoods that in this plan will be ready for implementation in year two so when you talk about 8 million over a year here not all of that's going to the first two neighborhoods that are I don't disagree I think my concern is the plan says that but right now we're not on track because of the where things are and I know Casey's on it total faith that in you know a few months she's to come back to us and have a better idea of where we're going to head but concern yeah that's why we tackled this cuz we we had the same discussion you know a year ago knowing that that was a challenge and we wanted to do something to help so agree um I I do want to see them get to implementing these better and I know that there's been some challenges with capacity in other departments to be able to honor the to commitments yeah so it's a lot more nuanced than just saying Neighborhood Services isn't spending the money they have to coordinate with other departments as well as neighborhoods to get this done in a timely manner and I don't want to undercut them by not giving them the resources to keep moving forward improving this program Macy I think I just need some clarification so are we funding the programs without a plan one and then two I mean I think as mayor pointed out there's 6% 5% spent and we're at the end of 2024 do we have a lead time on I mean from your estimation I know you're new to the rool but when we can get caught up are we talking two or three or four years um I would think so but yeah so part of the um I'll start with your first question first um are we funding projects without a plan so part of the reason why um it may seem that way is we do involve the community and so we don't want to go into it with a cookie cut approach and so with each project we seek input from the residents in the community on what activities what projects they want in that area so to a certain extent we are starting from scratch a little bit um for each single neighborhood because we want to make sure we're customizing the activities to what the neighborhood want um some of the projects that we do are consistent across all the neighborhoods so for example most of our projects will have liter abatement they will have some component of um security cameras and so we're looking at how do we start off with the things that we know we're going to do consistently and then add in that Community approach to customize it so that we're not starting from scratch every single time um and I would think if if we are truly focused on it and we do have some um outside support to help with zoning issues or budget issues then I think we could complete those projects within the two to three year timeline that we have set out okay I I'm just trying to understand we arbitrarily assign a number to each neighborhood without really understanding what the neighborhood wants number need to go up or down correct I mean that's kind of where we're in the predicament we are we may not have assessed those needs properly in the beginning and then we're able to implement within that time frame correct and then there are some instan like for instance some of these projects that do have um savings left over they actually completed what the initial list of projects was but it came in under budget and so we do have some additional funds that we have to spend and so one of the things that we want to look at is instead of identifying those projects needed for this excess fund at the time we identify what what it is let's have a running list of projects so that if we have extra money we can already Implement and we're not having a way to collect you back okay thank you anyone else yes Janette um Casey will you clarify so last year it was 4 million per neighborhood and then I see 4.2 in one of the slides is that point to for the possibility of bringing in a contractor no it was for kind of like a cost of living adjustment it was um I believe it was previously 4% adjustment is what was applied to pigo um and so it's just everything in pigo receives a 4 per increase and so that's what that um what that amount references and so to my colleagues on Council I do want to say that um you know not every neighborhood is the same and I have seen that staff has is trying to work with the different uh groups at least in District 11 and so some are not as responsive or as organized and so they have to find the good balance to where they're not pushy right because we want to expend these dollars but we also want to provide the best service so I really am okay with cutting one neighborhood I know we need to catch up and that's what like with the addition of the one next year that's seven or I don't know Ash Crescent I think that's going to park so that would be seven neighborhoods that we would still need to expend funds for but you know with a commitment that we will bring it back to two in the next next fiscal year any other questions go ahead jar U not a question I think it would be helpful for this Council to get a update on the neighbor conservation plan separate of this session there's a lot of assumptions that were made Fairly but I think a lot of those will be answered if we had a presentation on this and we um we actually actually t to Fernando about that so I think the year um the year from adoption will be in October it was approved in October of 2023 and we did talk about doing kind of an annual update in terms of what we've done related to the um the housing affordability and the conservation plan and so that is something we are planning to do um towards the end of this year okay good thank you David thank you Casey I am glad to see that you all are excited in our neighborhoods though thank you yeah go ahead Charlie soor I didn't know if I should have wait uh but looks like we're about to be off of the neighborhood Improvement program but I just wanted to add I think I mentioned this last budget cycle too and some of these programs that you know are good for our neighborhoods good for the city we let our our communities know we care about them but just maybe funding them in AAR you know like the end of the year whenever we got that hey here's unexpected tax revenue we got um here's a project we're want to spend it on I'd be complete favor of you know adding this additional neighborhood and um program neighborhood neighborhood to that for some reason we have revenues we didn't anticipate exactly so the unexpected revenues okay we have this extra money so you know the first thing that's going to get funded would be one of the neighborhoods that basically gets removed and then that way we tell our communities hey we're still going to do it and we're going to do it as soon as we can and this may be the best way we can fund that based on David's depressing forecast I don't think that's going to happen but I actually really appreciate that idea I I mean I do too I almost threw my handkerchief at you that means preon that's what that means I appreciate that appr that's pretty good but because I think that'd be just one way we could do it because I think what I what we've seen before and I hope you are wrong the one time I hope you're wrong about the the forecast is it seems that there always is some of that extra money at the end the year and I think this should be good use for that um I mean and looking at just the $1 million and the jobs that uh have been vacant for over 365 days that's a million dollars right there so that pays for the their their the wage increase so uh I'm I'm with everyone else on the neighborhood Improvement thing but even though one of those aren't mine so it's easy for me to say so I just want to make sure we know that I'm fine with one neighborhood just so you know council member Williams one thing I would offer um since we know neighborhoods have challenge spending four million in one year it might be more suitable and Casey mentioned this but it kind of got glazed over to invest in two neighborhoods but do them at a lower amount with that 4 million so because they're not going to spend 4 million in the first year so we can still keep the momentum a lot of to do planning at whatever rate we set and then next year you know reev evaluate their needs and what level of investment we need I I'm comfortable allowing Neighborhood Services to work with your committee and others if you know we need to arrive on numbers because that's what with this budget workshop's about but to your point as she's assumed leadership there to make some decisions on behalf of her Department in the city about what really is best to go forward strategy around these neighborhoods I think that would make sense if that's um something that she wanted to work with the committee on and come back to council ultimately does that help David that was a long conversation yeah I didn't want to temper council member lorf enthusiasm but part of the CH we'll be back on we still have capital projects that voters have approved that also need funding right so we we'll have some challenges on Capital project side too all right so if we we reduce the pigo tax levy from 7 and a half to 7 and A4 and we reduce the one neighborhood we have recommended here the allocation of the re additional Revenue just over a million to the Street Maintenance component of pay you go raising that from 9 to 10 million which was I I think the original number was 10.4 million I think in their ask so just to bring that back in a summary eliminating some vacancies and it's not just from the list that you saw those are six months or more we're going to look at all vacancies and bring back a list uh that will total at least a million we'll reduce the funding to the vehicle and Equipment replacement fund we'll reduce the funding in non- departmental by 1 million which reduces that hedge on the salary savings and then we'll reduce the property tax rate on pigo from 7 and a half to 7 and a quarter taking you back to the original tax rate that means we'll be reducing the operations component of the tax rate also by a quarter Cent does that make sense let me take this back there so if you look at the fiscal year 24 tax rate the new tax rate for 2025 it'll be let me start with bottom up ins will stay at 14.75 pay as you go will go from seven to seven and a quarter and the operations what will that come down 45 25 right 4525 7 and A4 14.75 this was the I don't want to end on a downer uh but part of thinking about uh some of the things we're talking about keeping the debt rate the same because we have big infrastructure needs out there we're planning the 20226 bond program so that allows us the capacity that we get to take to voters in really less than two years the pay you go is going to increase from s to seven and a quarter and I think it's the goal policy of council to invest more in the maintenance of our infrastructure so we will accomplish Lish that as well and then we're reducing the tax rate for the operations we will still have a challenge when you think about the next couple of years and all we were trying to show here is the decisions that we make this year have a lasting effect to carry into future fiscal Years and we're going to have some challenges both in fiscal year 26 and all all and that's still a growth scenario so th this budget is still growing look at the revenue side the general fund budget after the changes we have now made will be a million excuse me a billion 57 million it will still grow to a billion 93 million under those assumptions right we're still going to grow in property tax revenue is still growing we're that's a healthy sales tax growth based on what we've seen so far but just that there's still challenges out there that will require fiscal discipline fiscal stewardship as we talk about not only just this year's budget but the budgets into the future with that I'm gonna turn this over to Christian to talk about fee changes thank you I got one question I'm sorry it's okay uh so David um the change that we made today um from what you proposed couple of weeks ago with the Street Maintenance and uh Street repairs or the money next goes at to pay and go Remains the Same in fact it increases by a million okay yeah thank you but other than that it stays the same okay as requested by Council right by Chris all right I just I'll just stay here because I only have one slide for you so you received a budget you you emailed all that stuff last night I see at 11 so you should know what it's at 11: p.m no no you did you received a budget response on fee changes I think that one came over the weekend actually um that's okay um you check your emails on the weekend too from me right um it's quite a long budget response on fee changes it's 80 Pages or 100 it's long the large majority of those tables have to do with development services they have many fees that are subject to their proposed 12 and a half% across the board increase so if you can Wade through that you can see the detail but I want to highlight for you here just a couple of things that you will see in the fee ordinance that typically comes with the budget in September so the first is that development services across the board 12 a half% fee increase um this is a group of uh development fees that have been sort of vetted through the Real Estate Council and through the development advisory Council um and and those groups are on board with this 12 and a half% increase in order to help development pay for the cost of development and I believe we have staff or maybe Dana here if we have any specific questions on that I think some of you are already familiar with that fee change um a a small part of your budget response has to do with the municipal golf fund um they are proposing an increase to their annual Golf Pass fees uh that is a result of much benchmarking and Analysis by the parks department uh Park and Recreation about uh comparable golf courses and fees across uh our our competitors and across the the state and so um I believe that you have been briefed separately on those but if for any of these if we have questions we can delve in uh the storm water fund is recommending a 5% increase of that storm water U fee we've been briefing the residents in budget meetings on on what that means uh and that 5% increase is part of their uh continue phasing of capital delivery Environmental Services fund we didn't an increase last year to GOP and non-op those are the grant of privileged haulers the landfill search charge um and they're recommending another increase to those hauler fees this year and then finally Water and Wastewater a 3.3 and 2.3% increase to the retail rates that's water and waste water um those are not considered fees those get adopted separately from the fee ordinance and you actually adopted those this morning I think on the consent agenda um but they're here for your reference anyway uh and we've been answering some questions out in the community on those fees as well as the storm water fee particularly um are there any of these fees that you'd like the department to come and talk about or anything else in your budget response perhaps Alan so uh just real quick I had some conversation with the with the DC related to that 12 and a half% across the board and they they did confirm that they were in agreement with uh those increases but they kind of put a caveat around it and it was along the lines of is that get if that gets us to the service level we should have uh can y'all speak to that for a moment I'm looking for anyone from development services oh looks like Dana's coming DJ might still be broken [Laughter] yes thank you yeah that was a request from the development advisory committee and Real Estate Council folks that we maintain the emphasis on continuous Improvement streamlining uh and our hopes that now that we have folks all together uh at our new city hall that we'll be able to provide that level of customer service um but yes it's something that we're monitoring all the time uh I feel pretty good though that DJ's been able to get some positions filled and so that's been really uh a challenge as you may know with hiring Engineers uh in in some point they were having some challenges with hiring building inspectors um and so as they get those positions filled then that's where we see the service level um do well the other piece that uh HR has been helping uh DJ and team with is looking at those hardto fill positions adjusting salaries um and we're looking at a uh couple of reclassifications for customer service reps uh to potentially be permit techs which then should help us with some of that turnover at that level as well so a lot of it is just that training and communication and making sure that folks can really know their jobs well and and um you know not not give a certain answer and then and then have to be corrected so yeah we appreciate that we appreciate that emphasis okay and then my second comment is related to the water and wastewater um and and the comment you made that it was on the consent agenda I think things like this really deserve a specific vote by Council and and so I would encourage that process not to happen again I I thought this one was a separate MC for the water rates and and Wastewater rates Harrison's nodding his head so he's he's telling me that that's but I thought it wasn't apologize I'll confirm that for you yeahor Fernando's giving me the thumbs up yes yes thank you it's like that satday Night Live it's always fun yeah any other questions on fees any other questions about the responses what have you yes that's the yeah that that's the right segue because we do you do have a number of budget responses oh go ahead Chris no I I mean I just have a question for Dave are we done with all of this we're talking about today we can be done you be done oh want to keep us no I'm ready to go um you kind of kept alluding to um the next couple of years uh before budget is over will you be able to give us some kind of projection of what could happen the next so um this half per that we was going to raise and we're choosing not to raise essentially cost us what around $10 million to uh have about five and a half and about5 and a half million move around yeah do you you don't have to give an answer now is that something that you propose that may go up in the next year and maybe in the next two years each time or well thanks for the question uh yes we would be happy to give a more detailed projection we do that at least once a year with the city council one of the questions that we have been Fielding not just around the table here but at some of the meetings is is really the values the change in the I'm looking at the council member block of change in values and what the terent appraisal district decisions might mean on future values for the city so part of that is we're trying to understand what that impact may be um because if it affects the taxable values you know that's a half of the formula for how much property tax revenue we will be bringing in so we're going to try to get a better understanding of what that also means for the future any other questions for David yes councilor Williams uh this this is for Christian thank youall for providing a budget response on compression costs for police um also want to commend y'all um in budget response number 25-5 you did it for General employees and that format was so much easier to understand okay is there a way that you can do the same thing that you did in that budget response for the police one so that way we can get um the job classifications number of police officers compression costs um broken down in the same way that y'all did in that response you like 25005 format yes because it it gave a better picture on compression by job grades or jobs okay I'm looking at di said that she and I can work together on changing the formatting of the police sure thing any other questions from Council comments no okay um okay we're gonna close this budget hearing I know there's some scheduling probably questions from Council we'll work with you and your offices to let you know what those next sessions what they're if they're needed how many will be so you can start working on your schedule if that sounds good okay meeting adjourned