Okaloosa County BOCC — September 2, 2014 — July22,2014 budgetworkshop — reading text

he would like clarification from Mr. Hofstad regarding the Unincorporated County Parks Reserve. Public Works Director John Hofstad stated the number being used for this Reserve fund is $2.6 Million. He said a key point during the presentation last year was negative numbers. Mr. Harris stated we will eventually work ourselves right of any reserves, Mr. Hofstad told the Board they have no dedicated revenue source for stormwater. Mr. Amunds pointed to the use of the allocation from the Unincorporated County Parks MSTU. Mr. Hofstad replied that is a policy decision by this Board which could change. Mr. Harris said it is his opinion a zero based budget would clarify a number of these issues. Mr. Windes agreed. STATE ATTORNEY Mr. Chris Plum stated he has no presentation but the budget request is for standard operating costs. Mr. Parisot referred to the line item for building rental in the amount of $9,264 which is for records storage space. He said when the State Attorney moves into the new Shalimar building, we could probably get rid of that cost next year. Upon inquiry by Mr. Amunds about where the increases are, Mr. Plum said they are not significant. He then stated there should be a reduction in salaries from $93,000 to $57,500. PUBLIC DEFENDER Mr. David Lambert, IT Department, stated he is present to answer any questions. There were no questions. CLERK OF COURTS Mr. Don Howard, Clerk of Circuit Court, stated the proposed budget is the same format as past years. He noted there is a slight increase due to retirement costs, a slight increase in office rental costs for the Contracts & Grants Department which is paid to the county, and a slight increase in risk assessment paid to the county. Mr. Howard stated the bottom line is an July 22, 2014 -6- Minute Book 71, Page 162 Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners increase of $26,900 or 1.91% over last year's budget. He advised there are no new positions. Upon inquiry by Mr. Parisot, Mr. Howard stated he programed in a 3% cost of living adjustment for employees. Mr. Parisot commented if he agrees to pay $500 per employee, his proposed budget will be less. Mr. Howard replied no direction was given on employee increases at the time he submitted his budget. He stated this particular budget covers only 14 out of his 110 employees. Mr. Parisot said he does not believe the Property Appraiser included any COLA. Mr. Howard said a 3% adjustment for those 14 employees is about $21,000. Upon inquiry by Mr. Boyles, Mr. Howard said if the County Administrator is using the budget he presented to him, it includes the 3% cost of living adjustment. Continuing, Mr. Howard stated the reason he did that is because in the past number of weeks, four senior level people in the Finance Department have left. He explained the Internal Auditor retired, the Grant Manager left to work with her husband, a Senior Accountant took a job in Santa Rosa County, and the Payroll Clerk left. Those long-term, higher-salaried employees will be replaced with individuals at lower salaries. Mr. Boyles questioned Mr. Howard's philosophy on the issue of Constitutional Officers following the Board's lead on increases. Mr, Amunds pointed out the Tax Collector’s and Property Appraiser’s budgets are approved by the Department of Revenue and the Board has very little say in those budgets. He felt the Tax Collector and Property Appraiser get larger increases than the Sheriff or Clerk of Courts. Mr. Padgett concurred, saying he has seen it both ways with the Constitutional Officers doing the same as the Board and others not following that path. SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS Mr. Paul Lux, Supervisor of Elections, stated his submitted budget does not include any increases because there was no direction from the Board at time of submission. He advised his overall budget reflects a slight increase of just over $30,000. Mr, Lux said there is no money for voting equipment in this budget because it is the Board who purchases the voting equipment and not him. He spoke about various voting machine vendors, associated costs, and certifications of the equipment. July 22, 2014 -7- Minute Book 71, Page 163 Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners Continuing, Mr. Lux stated he has requested replacement of a vehicle for the Fort Walton Beach office. He stated the current vehicle was purchased in 1997. Mr. Lux said the vehicle is not dependable and the two fleet vehicles he has borrowed are no better than what he has. Questions were posed about the purchase of new voting equipment. Upon inquiry by Mr. Boyles, Mr. Stewart said he believes purchasing new voting equipment may qualify for sales tax referendum but he will verify that answer. VISITOR - CHRIS HOLLEY, FLORIDA ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES Mr. Chris Holley, Director of the Florida Association of Counties (FAC), stated he was in the area and thanked the Board for interrupting its workshop to give him a moment to speak. He stated he was in Shalimar earlier to present Sheriff Ashley with a Partnership Award for his work on issues they are dealing with in Tallahassee. Mr. Holley thanked Mr. Boyles for his attendance at the National Association of Counties (NACo) meeting. He added that Bryan Desloge was successful in his election bid for the Second Vice President position in NACo, noting it has been twenty years since our area was represented. He then briefly reviewed issues/concerns before FAC both at the state and national levels. RECESS - The meeting was recessed at 2:35 p.m. and reconvened at 2:43 p.m. PROPERTY APPRAISER Mr. Pete Smith, Property Appraiser, stated the Board has a copy of his DOR approved budget and asked if there are any questions. Upon inquiry by Mr. Boyles, Mr. Smith answered this budget has nothing programed in for employee raises. Upon further inquiry by Mr. Boyles, Mr. Smith said he is proposing replacing three old vehicles which are “on their last leg.” He stated DOR is allowing him to move some money around and he will be able to purchase one vehicle in the current fiscal year and the request will be to purchase two vehicles in FY 2015. Mr. Smith stated his budget reflects an 8.8% increase. Mr. Smith introduced Mr. Walt Whittier with Cell Tower Solutions. He explained that Mr. Whittier’s company obtains July 22, 2014 -8- Minute Book 71, Page 164 Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners complete, accurate information on cell towers which allows for proper assessment for Tangible Personal Property. Mr. Whittier made a brief presentation. Upon inquiry, he said they will begin their research work in the November/December 2014 timeframe and information they obtain will impact assessment at the end of 2015. At Mr. Parisot’s request, Mr. Smith explained the impact and positive return the work of the Property Appraiser's fraud unit has made. Upon further inquiry by Mr. Parisot, Mr. Smith stated they are auditing the non-profits this year. SHERIFF Sheriff Larry Ashley stated his proposed budget for FY 2014-15 is $2.9 Million above the current budget. He said the budget he presented to Mr. Padgett represented a 7% increase but Mr. Padgett recommended only a 3.3% increase. Sheriff Ashley then provided a history of the Sheriff’s budget from 2006 to 2014. He listed ten factors which must be considered in preparation of his budget. At the top of the list were resident and tourist populations. He noted the tourist population has increased by 30%. Those ten factors are: e Resident and tourist populations e Number of calls for service ® Crime rates and crime prevention programs e Emergency response times and citizen safety ® CPI - personnel, fleet, fuel, energy, communications, technology, ammunition, and equipment costs e Officers per one-thousand citizens ratio e Per capita costs e Turnover ratio ® Officer training and safety e Ability to respond and solve crimes against our citizens Sheriff Ashley detailed each of these factors. Some of his Major points were: ® Our per capita costs are 43% less than the national average for agencies serving a similar population size e The Administrator's recommendation would only provide for 1.35 sworn officers per thousand citizens, well below the South Atlantic Region average of 3.12 sworn officers * Since 2007, the call volume has increased 31.4% July 22, 2014 -9- Minute Book 71, Page 165 Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners e The OCSO is 5.6% above the national average for injured officers as a result of assault ® OCSO deputies are dealing with 74.59% more violent encounters than two years ago e® ocSO is currently 155 vehicles behind the 5-year replacement schedule going into 2015 e There is a 43% failure rate in current in-car video systems ® Okaloosa County is one of the top auto visitors destinations in Florida ® 5,757 traffic crashes were reported in 2013 in this county Sheriff Ashley also discussed the number of service calls in the bed tax jurisdiction. Mr. Boyles noted there is a $2 Million gap between the Sheriff’s proposed budget and what the County Administrator is recommending. He asked the Sheriff what will go away if the gap remains. Sheriff Ashley replied he will have to make reductions in personnel and capital purchases. Mr. Boyles referred to the Sheriff's presentation and request to the Tourist Development Council (TDC) for use of bed taxes to enhance law enforcement in the bed tax district. He said the TDC rejected the request but noted the BCC makes the decision. Mr. Boyles remarked TDC’s emphasis is on marketing. He asked the Sheriff to give his perspective and if a legal opinion supported bed tax dollars for this use. Sheriff Ashley said he feels it is clear if you just look at the statutes. He also referred to the use of bed taxes throughout the State, Sheriff Ashley said public safety is public safety whether it is firefighters or lifeguards on the beach, He stated he does not know where the legal issue is but also said he thinks the Attorney General’s Opinion is clear and the auditor is wrong. The Sheriff added if it is wrong, there are many counties in violation. Mr. Stewart said it is our opinion (Nabors, Giblin & Nickerson law firm) that law enforcement is different. He referred to the Attorney General’s Opinion and said TDC dollars cannot be used for general government services. With regard to lifeguard services, Mr. Stewart stated the statutes were changed to allow for that use. July 22, 2014 -10- Minute Book 71, Page 166 Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners Mr. Boyles stated there is a risk using TD taxes to fund these services over the County Attorney’s recommendation. He said there is a risk of a lawsuit and findings not in the Board’s favor which would require repayment from the General Fund, which is where these services would be paid from anyway. Mr. Parisot noted work is being done to change the uses of bed tax revenue and suggested pursuing this through FAC. Mr. Parisot then brought up the subject of School Resource Officers (SROs) . Sheriff Ashley said he is not certain why the difficulty exists with the state but they cannot get permission to go to referendum to ask the citizens if they would support a Sales tax to fund SROs. Mr. Windes posed questions about use of TDC revenues. Upon inquiry by Mr. Harris, Mr. Stewart stated if you fund it and you have a (TDC) recommendation against it, you must pass it by a 4/5 vote. It would also require the TDC ordinance to be amended to authorize the use of those funds and to include them in the budget. Mr. Stewart said he recognizes people have differing opinions on the law. He stated that he is not saying the Board will be challenged if it does this but if it is challenged, the Board may have a tough row to hoe. Mr. Windes asked how many counties are doing this, to which Mr. Stewart replied “Bay County.” He added Bay County did it over the objection of its attorney. Sheriff Ashley stated Flagler County uses law enforcement