BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

“fee officer” whose charges are set by Florida Statutes. The Property Appraiser and Tax Collector budgets are reviewed and approved by the State Department of Revenue. The Sheriff has the right to appeal any decision regarding his budget to the Governor and Cabinet. She stated the purpose of this public hearing is to take public comment and this is the first of two public hearings. She asked the County Manager and staff to discuss the proposed budget for FY 2008/09.

Cindy Coto, County Manager, addressed the Board to state this is the first public hearing relating to the 2008/2009 budget. The second public hearing will be held on September 23, 2008. She stated through the months, a number of difficult decisions have been made to minimize the impact of services delivered to the community, in light of extreme financial constraints the County faces due to property tax reform and declining economic conditions. She briefly discussed some of the actions that were taken to date as well as the results of those. She said she believes they have taken the appropriate long-term approach well into the future as they continue to face some of the financial conditions.

Lisa Spriggs, Fiscal Services Director, addressed the Board to refer to the detailed fund summary shown on pages 8 and 9 of the FY 2008/2009 Budget Proposal booklet. She stated these pages show a total of $714,306,370 and the total budget is inclusive of the proposed General Fund budget totaling $257, 881,663. The adjustments column total $23,075,118 and it represents certain adjustments to fund revenues and are detailed on pages 10 thru 13. She reviewed the adjustments relating to the Jetta Point Park project, consolidation of the EMS/Fire/Rescue services, the Infrastructure Sales Tax project, and net adjustments to modify various revenue sources. She read into the Record the proposed certified rolled-back millage rates, tentative millage rates and percentage increase/decrease over rolled-back millage rates for each millage levy of Seminole County as outlined on page 5. A sheet showing the Property Tax Comparison 2008 Tax Roll Single-Family Residential was received and filed.

Jay Alpert, 1151 Audubon Way, addressed the Board to discuss the fire tax they have in Winter Springs. He stated the residents were told by the city of Winter Springs that the rates would be the same and they would not pay more for fire. He said he attended the city of Winter Springs budget hearing to see why they made this change and everyone was told to go to the County to see why there is an increase.

At the request of Chairman Carey, Ms. Coto explained how and why the City’s fire service was acquired by the County.

Ms. Spriggs explained the financial implication of the fire service acquisition.

At the request of Chairman Carey, Ms. Spriggs displayed and reviewed the millage summary (received and filed) for the city of Winter Springs.

Chairman Carey stated it sounds as though the city of Winter Springs adopted a higher millage rate than what was discussed. She stated the County does not have any control over the city’s millage rate and she feels that Mr. Alpert’s issue is with the city of Winter Springs.

John Horvath, 1004 Bradford Dr., addressed the Board to state he is a native of the area and he can remember when there was a population of 25,000 and the population is 425,000. About ten years ago the budget was about $333 million and now it is around $750 million. Everyone has to be reminded that the cost of equipment and supplies have gone up versus five or ten years ago and that is why the budget is going up. He noticed that the just value and taxable value are about $15 billion, and he is wondering if the millage could be lowered all around if they didn’t have that fluctuation. He displayed an article (received and filed) written by Orange County Property Appraiser Bill Donnegan relating to reasons why property taxes might not drop like a rock.

Attorney Avery Smith, 2859 Willow Bay Terrace, addressed the Board to state she is an attorney representing several members of the Arrowhead Homeowners Association. She stated she feels the information given on the fire assessment is not accurate because the city of Winter Springs, in prior years, used monies from reserves and transferred it over. She reviewed the inaccurate way of levying the fire assessments. She said she feels the city of Winter Springs did an inadequate job of notifying people of the fire assessment.

Commissioner Henley stated some of the BCC members attended the city’s public hearing and the room was crowded and there was no effort by them to hide anything.

Ms. Coto stated the city of Winter Springs actually charged the residents a millage rate to fund their fire services up until last year when they passed their fire service fee. She stated at the time they passed the fire service fee, they only passed 50% of the cost and it was only for the Fire/Rescue portion. The EMS was still being funded under their General Fund millage.

Stuart Knoll, 201 Arrowhead Ct., addressed the Board to discuss the Winter Springs fire assessment being 10 times more than the previous year.

Chairman Carey recommended that they take the information that was just presented to the Winter Springs hearing. She stated if the City would have adjusted their millage as they said in the beginning, it wouldn’t have been such a big difference.

Commissioner Henley stated the City indicated at their public hearing that if Winter Springs continued operating the fire service, there would be significant increases in the future because of the need for improvements. There would be better fire services under the County, and the future taxes would be spread over the entire county and not confined to the Winter Springs district only.

Robert McMillan, County Attorney, addressed the Board to state if the Board is going to do an apples to oranges comparison, the assessment in Winter Springs only covered 25% of the fire cost and you would pay, by millage, the other three-quarters of the cost of the fire department. The other 75% would be somewhere in the millage.

Arsenio Calle, 110 Arrowhead Ct., addressed the Board to state he is here for the same reasons as everyone else. He stated he cannot comprehend how a city can send a tax bill that has gone up more than three times and the timing of when it was sent out.

Ms. Spriggs explained the taxing system in Florida.

Chairman Carey stated what adds to the confusion of this is the County thought the city of Winter Springs would adopt a millage of 2.226 and it should have made it relatively neutral to the citizens of Winter Springs.

No one else spoke in support or in opposition.

Upon inquiry by Chairman Carey, Ms. Coto advised the Regional Homeless Coalition is not presently within the budget and the Board would have to amend it to include it. Staff has contacted all the partners within the coalition to determine what funding level they are providing. The information that was submitted is the city of Orlando was providing $100,000 in cash and diverting some of their CDBG dollars for homeless prevention. Osceola County was providing $25,000 cash to the homeless coalition. Orange County would not be providing any cash, but had identified within their federal funds additional monies for homeless prevention as it relates to rental assistance and down payment assistance. Within the region there is a variety of ways in which the other partners have decided to address this issue. Staff would need direction to see if the Board wants them to try to find ways to divert some CDBG funds or to fund it from the General Fund.

Chairman Carey stated the Board supported starting this effort with $25,000 and she would like to see monies diverted from CDBG funds to try to assist in this. In addition, she asked the Board to consider a $25,000 contribution to the Regional Homeless Coalition and to look at diverting some of the funds in helping the homeless.

Commissioner Van Der Weide asked if this is something staff could work on with the Board between now and the final Budget public hearing.

Chairman Carey stated she feels Ms. Coto would need consensus from the Board so she would know what direction to take.

Ms. Coto stated if the Board directed staff to fund the $25,000, that money would come out of the Reserves and it would be $25,000 less.

Chairman Carey stated the Reserves would be less but the millage would not change.

Commissioner Henley stated he feels the Board needs to follow through on what was started last year.

Commissioner Dallari stated he would like to see what their expenditures are and what their plan is for the next two to three years.

Chairman Carey stated the organization went to the private sector and raised money for staffing for the first several years. These funds will be used directly for homeless prevention.

The Chairman announced the consensus of the Board is to fund $25,000 for the Homeless Coalition.

Chairman Carey stated she made several suggestions during the budget work sessions and one was how they pay County employees. She stated the majority of the Board did not agree with her with regard to the salaries. She said she asked staff to review and it would save them over $229 million over 20 years. She added she will not be supporting the tentative millage rate of 4.5153 but would support the current rate of 4.3578.

Commissioner Henley stated traditionally the Board has gone forward with the recommended millage and not make any adjustments until the final hearing. Once the Board cuts it and something happens between now and then, they cannot raise it but they can lower it at that time. He suggested moving forward with what was advertised because that is a tentative adoption and any adjustments can be made at the final hearing.

Ms. Spriggs reviewed for Commissioner Henley what the intent was with regard to the COLA and merit pay.

Commissioner Henley stated it bothers him that they do not know who is getting what and they cannot change the system. He stated he would like to know who got a merit, a bonus and a cost-of-living raise and it looks as though every employee got it.

Ms. Spriggs stated the actual budget software applies it by individual position and that is a program package and it cannot be modified.

At the request of Chairman Carey, Ms. Spriggs reviewed what percentage the County employees received in COLA, merit and cost-of-living increases.

Commissioner Henley stated he would like a meeting scheduled with Ms. Spriggs to discuss this more in detail.

Ms. Coto advised staff does have the figures as to what the breakdown was.

Commissioner Van Der Weide stated his understanding is the actual cost of living in Seminole County is about 5% increase. He stated he is not in favor of putting their most valuable employees in a position where they will be homeless by only giving a 2½% COLA; therefore, he is not in favor of changing the pay program.

Commissioner McLean stated the Board needs to discuss the cost and not having the employees being competitive in the market place as they are a valuable resource. He said he is in favor of keeping the pay plan they already have in place.

Commissioner Dallari asked if staff could contact the software company to see if there is a possibility of changing the program.

Chairman Carey stated her concern is government is going have to change the way they do business as there is going to be problem as long as they are spending more revenue than they are taking in.

Commissioner Henley asked if they have had a recent indication from the State as to the status of the sales tax collections and any impact the County may have on their budget.

Ms. Spriggs advised the County received a revised estimate from the State and it was in line with what staff had projected. Staff is making a decrease within this budget adjustment of $250,000 for next year.

At the request of Commissioner Henley, Ms. Spriggs enumerated what the projected 5-year update forecast will be.

Commissioner Henley stated he feels the Board has a responsibility to consider that forecast as they cannot keep growing government and government costs when revenue is declining. At some point and time this Board will have to make a decision to continue cutting services or increase taxes.

Chairman Carey stated she spoke to a member of the Legislature and they will be considering another special session for this year because they have about a $1 billion shortfall due to the sales tax revenue being off.

At the request of Chairman Carey, Ms. Spriggs announced the proposed millage rates as outlined on page 5 of the Budget Proposal Book. She stated the proposed “aggregate” millage rate, exclusive of voted debt service millage is 6.1401 which represents a 3.75% decrease from the “aggregate” rolled-back millage rate of 6.3792.

Motion by Commissioner McLean, seconded by Commissioner Henley to adopt the tentative millage rates for FY 2008/09.

Districts 1, 2, 3 and 4 voted AYE.

Commissioner Carey voted NAY

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Motion by Commissioner Henley, seconded by Commissioner Dallari to adopt the tentative budget for all funds for FY 2008/09 as originally presented to the BCC by the County Manager in her official capacity as Budget Officer (per Florida Statutes 129.025) and subsequently amended as the proposed budget of the BCC.

Districts 1, 2, 3 and 4 voted AYE.

Commissioner Carey voted NAY.

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Chairman Carey announced that the second public hearing to take final action on the millage rates and budget for FY 2008/09 is scheduled for September 23, 2008 at 7:00 p.m.

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There being no further business to come before the Board, the Chairman declared the meeting adjourned at 8:10 p.m., this same date.

ATTEST______________________Clerk_____________________Chairman