BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
SEMINOLE COUNTY, FLORIDA
SEPTEMBER 15, 2010
The following is a non-verbatim transcript of the BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS MEETING OF
SEMINOLE COUNTY, FLORIDA, held at 7:00 p.m., on Wednesday, September 15,
2010, in Room 2018 of the SEMINOLE
COUNTY SERVICES BUILDING at SANFORD,
FLORIDA, the usual place of meeting of said Board.
Present:
Chairman
Bob Dallari (District 1)
Vice
Chairman Brenda Carey (District 5)
Commissioner
Mike McLean (District 2)
Commissioner
Dick Van Der Weide (District 3)
Commissioner
Carlton Henley (District 4)
Acting
County Manager Joe Forte
County
Attorney Robert McMillan
Deputy
Clerk Eva Roach
Commissioner Van Der Weide gave the Invocation.
Commissioner McLean led the Pledge of Allegiance.
PUBLIC HEARING
TENTATIVE FY 2010/2011 BUDGET
Chairman Dallari announced that the Board does not have any
control over the tax levies and budgets of the School Board, the Water
Management District, or any of the seven cities. Questions regarding property assessments
should be addressed to the Property Appraiser.
The Board of County Commissioners (BCC) has limited authority over the
budgets of the Constitutional Officers of the Clerk of Court, Property
Appraiser, Sheriff, Supervisor of Elections and Tax Collector. 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. He stated the purpose of this public hearing
is to take public comment regarding the proposed millage rates and budget,
amend the budget as desired by the Board and tentatively adopt the millage rates
and budget of the County for FY 2010/11.
He asked the County Manager and staff to discuss the proposed budget for
FY 2010/11.
Lisa
Springs, Fiscal Services Director, addressed the Board to state the proposed
budget for FY 2010/2011 can be reviewed on the County’s website
(www.seminolecountyfl.gov). She stated
she will be outlining what they have done as far as developing this
budget. She displayed and reviewed a
PowerPoint Presentation (not received and filed) showing the dates the
preliminary budget work sessions, County Manager’s budget and budget work
sessions were held. She said staff is
asking the Board to approve the tentative budget and millage rates for FY
2010/2011. She advised that the total proposed
budget is $755,783,991. She reviewed the
following budget summary as outlined:
General Fund - $271,417,554; Restricted Governmental Service Funds -
$299,302,321; Enterprise Funds - $146,869,698; and Internal Services Funds -
$38,194,418. She displayed and reviewed
a graph showing the Appropriations by Activity and a breakdown of Appropriations
by Classification. She outlined the
certified rolled-back millage rates, proposed millage rates and percentage
increase/decrease over rolled-back for each millage levy as summarized on page
7 of the Budget Proposal Book (received and filed). She concluded by reviewing the decrease in
taxable valuation, and property tax revenue impact from the decrease in
valuation.
John
Horvath, 1004 Bradford Dr., addressed the Board to state he has watched the
County grow to nearly 425,000 residents since 1974. He stated he has been following the County’s
budget for many years and a lot of things in this budget are unfunded mandates
from the State. He spoke in regard to
the State “taking up the cross” to support what they passed down to the
counties; the level of services that have grown over the years; elimination of staff;
and that the County needs to provide the services that taxpayers need.
No one else spoke in support or in
opposition.
Speaker Request
Form was received and filed.
Commissioner
McLean stated the County is currently dealing with a 4.9 millage rate and in
that budget they are looking at nearly $82 million worth of reserves. He stated the County will go through those
reserves by 2014/2015 if they keep going down the path they are using the
projections. He said during the budget
work sessions he discussed lowering the millage to 4.4 which would result in
$12 million being turned back to the citizens of Seminole County. He added when they look at the reserves, they
look at them to say they can use them for a rainy day. He discussed the issues of future revenue
options, unemployment, changes for appraised values, being sensitive to the
taxpayers who are struggling, and being realistic about maintaining the basic
government structure. He suggested that
because the debt service rate has gone up a little, perhaps they can consider
reducing the millage to 4.8.
Mr. Forte
left the meeting at this time.
At the
request of Commissioner Henley, Ms. Spriggs advised the additional .1 mill drop
would result in an additional drop in revenue of $2,440,000 and the reduction
in revenue would total $15,153,000.
Upon
inquiry by Commissioner McLean, Ms. Spriggs advised if they would go to 4.8, from
a forecasting view, they would exhaust their reserves during the year 2013/2014. She said as opposed to where they are at today,
they would not completely exhaust the reserves until 2014/2015.
Mr. Forte
reentered the meeting at this time.
Ms.
Spriggs displayed and reviewed for Commissioner Carey a graph showing the 5-year
forecast of General Revenue funds, operating expenditures, loss in property tax
revenue, operating revenues, projected deficits, operating balances and reserves
levels.
Commissioner
Carey stated if there was some way to make other changes aside from what they
have done, she is for that. But in light
of where they are and the predictions they have had, there are a lot of things
going on that need to be considered. She
stated with the slight savings ($7.50 annually) that they would generate for
the homeowner, she is not sure a long-term result would be worth it.
Commissioner
Henley stated it is nice to cut taxes, but he doesn’t feel that $7.50 will
affect the living standards of anybody living in this County. He said the Board is elected to act
responsibly and he doesn’t think they will be responsible by cutting taxes,
knowing they are facing some serious situations in the near future. He stated in his opinion, it is not good for
the County to make these changes at this time.
The County is “down to the bone” with their services now and we cut employees
and have not bought new rolling stock as well.
If the Board doesn’t keep the reserves at the appropriate level, then they
are not protecting this County.
Commissioner
Carey stated the County’s rating for bonding capacity is an important part of
the infrastructure of their ability to do things that makes this County
better. When the County did the bond
rating last year, they had to do a lot of talking to show that they are still
strong. Many of the counties in the
State have been downgraded on their ratings and that affects their financial
ability to operate and go forward. This
forecast is already in the red prior to 2014 and future Boards will have to
look at significant increases to be able to balance the budget.
Commissioner
Van Der Weide stated he doesn’t think there is any doubt that they cannot lower
the millage to lee than what it is now because it will put the County in
jeopardy. He said he is happy with what
they have here tonight, and they can be proud as everyone around them is raising
their millages.
Commissioner
McLean stated his intent is to have the philosophical discussion to be sure
that there are avenues that they can look at to be able to benefit the citizens.
Commissioner
Henley stated he feels the public needs to understand that they have been able
to do what they have done to keep this budget because the employees and firefighters
have had to forego their raises that were due.
Commissioner
Carey stated she would like to see what plan Commissioner McLean has where they
can go to find $2.5 million without going into the reserves.
Commissioner
Van Der Weide stated the Interim County Manager, Ms. Spriggs and her staff have
done a great job on this budget. He
stated one of issue that needs to be addressed is raises for the employees.
Chairman
Dallari stated Seminole County has one of the lowest utility taxes in Central
Florida. He stated staff has worked as a
team in getting the budget to where it is, and it is not an easy task.
At the
request of Chairman Dallari, Ms. Spriggs read the proposed tentative millage
rates as follows: General Countywide
Millage 4.9000 (9.49% decrease from Rolled-Back rate of 5.4136 mills); County
Debt Service Millage .1700; Fire/Rescue MSTU 2.3299 (9.14% decrease from
Rolled-Back rate of 2.5642 mills); and Unincorporated Road MSTU .1107 (8.21%
decrease from Rolled Back rate of .1206 mills).
The proposed “aggregate” millage rate (exclusive of voted debt service
millage) is 6.5365, which represents a 10% decrease from the current year “aggregate”
rolled-back millage rate of 7.2632.
Motion by Commissioner Henley,
seconded by Commissioner Van Der Weide to adopt the Countywide tentative
millage rate as read for FY 2010/2011.
Districts
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 voted AYE.
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Motion by Commissioner Van Der
Weide, seconded by Commissioner McLean to adopt the Fire MSTU tentative millage
rate as read for FY 2010/2011.
Districts
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 voted AYE.
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Motion by Commissioner Carey,
seconded by Commissioner Henley to adopt the Unincorporated Road MSTU tentative
millage rate as read for FY 2010/2011.
Districts
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 voted AYE.
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Motion by Commissioner Henley,
seconded by Commissioner McLean to adopt the Voted Debt Service tentative
millage rate as read for FY 2010/2011.
Districts
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 voted AYE.
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Motion by Commissioner Van Der
Weide, seconded by Commissioner Henley to adopt the tentative budget for all
funds for FY 2010/2011 as originally presented to the BCC by the County Manager
in official capacity as Budget Officer and subsequently adjusted as the
proposed budget of the BCC.
Districts
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 voted AYE.
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Motion by Commissioner Van Der Weide, seconded by
Commissioner McLean to authorize the scheduling of the second public
hearing to take final action on the millage rates and budget for FY 2010/11,
scheduled for September 28, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. in Room 1028 of the BCC Chambers,
and authorize staff to advertise the public hearing pursuant
to Florida Statutes.
Districts
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 voted AYE.
COUNTY
ATTORNEY’S REPORT (Continued)
Mr.
McMillan stated he submitted information (not received and filed) to the Board
relating to Sun State Trees. He stated a
partial summary judgment will be addressed on the grinding on the site (and not
the storage) on Monday, September 20, 2010.
The storage issue will be addressed in November. He asked the Board to delegate authority for the
County Manager to approve the final agreement.
Motion by Commissioner Van Der Weide, seconded by
Commissioner McLean to delegate the County Manager to have final authority relating
to the partial summary judgment on Sun State Trees on Monday, September 20,
2010.
Districts
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 voted AYE.
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There being no further business to come
before the Board, the Chairman declared the meeting adjourned at 7:40 p.m., this
same date.
ATTEST:______________________Clerk_____________________Chairman
er