FIRST BUDGET HEARING - CONTINUATION (2025-09-08)

HISTORIC TOWN OF EATONVILLE, FLORIDA $ 1^{\\mathrm{ST}} $ BUDGET HEARING CONTINUATION

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MEETING MINUTES

Monday, September 8, 2025, at 5:15 PM

Town Hall-307 E. Kennedy Blvd., Eatonville, FL 32751

SPECIAL NOTICE: These meeting minutes are presented in an abbreviated format intended as a public record discussion of stated meeting according to the Florida's Government-in-the-Sunshine law. Meetings are opened to the public, noticed within reasonable advance notice, and transcribed into minutes for public record. \*Audio Recording are available through the Town's website on the Council Agenda Page.

CALL TO ORDER AND VERIFICATION OF QUORUM

Vice Mayor Washington called the meeting to order at 5:15 p.m. and a quorum was established by Veronica King, Town Clerk

PRESENT: (5), Councilwoman Wanda Randolph, Councilman Tarus Mack (Arrived after roll call), Councilman Rodney Daniels, Vice Mayor Theo Washington, Mayor Angie Gardner (Arrived after roll call)

STAFF: (8) Demetrius Pressley, Chief Administrator Officer, Marlin Daniels, Interim Chief Administrator Officer Veronica King, Town Clerk, Clifford Shepard, Town Attorney, Katrina Gibson, Finance Director, Chief Stanley Murray, EPD, Valerie Mundy, Public Works Director, Darius Washington, Recreation Director, Nichole Washington, Human Resource

INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE:

Invocation through a moment of silence led by Mayor Gardner followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

PUBLIC HEARING

(Presentation Added to Agenda) Tyler Denahan, Account Executive for the Florida League of Cities, Inc. gave a brief overview of the town's renewal of insurance and available to answer questions as needed; the rating last year was a 1.19. A number above one is negative and a number below one is positive, one is neutral, this year the rating is 0.94 a huge improvement, changes every single year, based on the claims experience, it may go up or down, if you have no claims, that number goes down and you save money, a lot of claims causes the number to go up (losing money and paying more for the insurance), the town is getting a 6% credit now (last year the town was charged 20% extra), workers' compensation for the town is $72,000 in total (inclusive of the 6% credit), increases in the insurance was the results of increase staff/increase and submitted claims; (Councilman Daniels) requested five years of information on the rear end settlements, the claims experience for the 24/25 fiscal year has been good and would go into the following year's rating period, there is suit, the goal is to keep costs low, sometimes the litigation cost might be a $100,000 but the settlement is a nuisance claim of $10,000; the town has had a very much improved loss experience, which is a heavy portion of insurance rate making, next year the number will probably come down as long as improvements continues and there is no type of storm activity that rolls through Central Florida, hoping to see property and liability premiums continue to fall due to the changes in legislation.

RESUME BUDGET DISCUSSIONS (From previous Budget Hearing as part of the Budget continuation):

(Councilman Mack) restated his motion for Code Enforcement to return to the CRA or Planning requesting response from legal, in response, Code Enforcement cannot be in CRA, there are some exceptions to try and work through what is called community policing innovations, cannot pay for general government expense with CRA money, Code Enforcement is typically a general government expense, it can be an adjunct to law enforcement, sometimes code enforcement officers are trained police people; Code Enforcement reports to a sergeant, managerially under a lieutenant, Chief Murray is getting more involved to get him to a level where he can work effectively at a high level, (Pressley) another challenge has been with having a board with community connection, talked about having a magistrate, there is an ordinance that allows use of a magistrate, (Councilman Mack) want to hire another code officer and consider a magistrate, to disband the Code Enforcement board, it would need to come before the town council at a council meeting. Can adjust the mileage to balance the budget. (Councilwoman Randolph) expressed concerns about the part-time Code Enforcement position making more money ($23/h

Mayor Gardner MOTIONS to create a part-time experienced Code Enforcement Officer with a salary up to $24,000 up to 25 hours contracted; moved by Vice Mayor Washington, second by Councilman Mack; YAYE:, Councilman Tarus Mack, Councilman Rodney Daniels, Vice Mayor Theo Washington, Mayor Angie Gardner; NAYE: Councilwoman Wanda Randolph; (4/1) MOTION PASSES.

(550-POST OFFICE) Councilwoman Randolph expressed concerns with paying $14,000 for a contracted employee to include salary, benefits, retirement, not earning money from the post office, there is wasted funds when the person does not have an adequate workload in the postal service, absorbing $30,000 of tax payers money, rent is $17,400 (revenue) for almost 20 years, need to negotiate having a credit card system, increase the rent (negotiate), consider post office functioning as self-serve, utilizing staff time to assist with work at town hall, post office get zero revenue, discussed part-time (no benefits), the pay was increased in order to accommodate minimum wage of $15.00; need to find a solution; there are other departments that do not make money for the town,

Councilwoman Randolph MOTIONS to increase to minimum wage without the 5% increase on a raise; second by Councilman Daniels (RESCINDED), second by Councilwoman Randolph (RESCINDED); Comments: Cannot pay under $15.00 minimum wage (New labor law); Actions were rescinded to ensure proper motion has been clarified.

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Councilwoman Randolph MOTIONS/MOVED to increase to minimum wage without any percentage of increase on a raise until the contract with the postal service and the town has been resolved; second by Councilman Daniels (RESCINDED); Questions/Comments: Are we cutting a person's salary individually, should not signal a person out; YAYE: Councilwoman Wanda Randolph, Councilman Rodney Daniels.; NAYE: Councilman Tarus Mack, Vice Mayor Theo Washington, Mayor Angie Gardner; (2/3) MOTION FAILS.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: (Veronica King, Town Clerk) inquired to Katrina Gibson as to where in the budget is the capital improvement submitted by the Clerk's Office, items are included under Finance (513) in the line item Equipment-All Departments Except PW/EPD, include the tablets, writing tablets, does not include the diocese (not approved). Docusign is approved for this year (FY24/25), each department will pay a portion, the advanced microphone technology discussed in the budget workshop should be added to the budget, will get with Katrina with the amount to be added; (Katrina Gibson) there was a motion put on the floor that all departments heads receive 10% plus the clerk, had to find additional funds, $15,476 will be removed from contingency (Current Contingency is $158,517); (Attorney Shepard) there are ways to do a magistrate, can put out an RFP and have various attorneys to respond, an attorney can only do one local government as a magistrate, the pay for magist

Restatement of the Budget Amendments by the Town Clerk:

Amendment #1 (AYE/ALL) - PASSED

5% - Regular Administrative Staff (Across Board)

7% - Public Works Field Workers

10% - EPD Sworn Officers

Amendment #2 (AYE-3 /NAYE-2) - PASSED 10% - All Directors including Town Clerk

Amendment #3 (AYE-4 /NAYE-1) - PASSED

Budget for another Code Enforcement officer contracted at P/T up to $24,000 and up to 25 hours

HANDOUTS PROVIDED: Agenda, Budget Package

Respectfully Submitted by:

(Continuation of Motion) Mayor Gardner restate MOTIONS for Approval of First Reading of Ordinance 2025-5 Approving Fiscal Year 2025-2026 Town Budget with the stated amendments: AYE: ALL, MOTION PASSES (5/0). NOTES: Motion was moved by Councilwoman Randolph and second by Councilman Daniels during the previous Budget Hearing.

(2) $> 0, c < - 4$

APPROVED

LmOn

Veronica L King, Town Clerk

Angie Gardner, Mayor

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