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08/07/2023 - Budget Council Work Session Meeting Minutes August 7, 2023 City of Clearwater Main Library- Council Chambers 100 N. Osceola Avenue Clearwater, FL 33755 m ap ® e Meeting Minutes Monday, August 7, 2023 1 :30 PM Special Budget Work Session Main Library - Council Chambers Council Work Session Page 1 City of Clearwater Council Work Session Meeting Minutes August 7, 2023 Roll Call Present 5 - Mayor Brian Aungst Sr., Councilmember Mark Bunker, Councilmember David Allbritton, Councilmember Kathleen Beckman, and Councilmember Lina Teixeira Also Present: Jennifer Poirrier— City Manager, Michael Delk—Assistant City Manager, David Margolis — City Attorney, Rosemarie Call — City Clerk and Nicole Sprague — Deputy City Clerk. To provide continuity for research, items are listed in agenda order although not necessarily discussed in that order. 1. Call to Order— Mayor Aungst, Sr. 2. City Manager Verbal Reports 2.1 City of Clearwater Staffing Update for FY2023-24 Budget Human Resources Director Billie Kirkpatrick provided a PowerPoint presentation. In response to questions, Ms. Kirkpatrick said adopting a 4-day work week depends on the department. A smaller department may not be able to accommodate a request for Mondays and Fridays off due to lack of staff coverage. Staff did not include municipalities near Clearwater as comparable cities because they may not offer the same services. She said the consultants look at the cost-of-living index in each county and adjusts the index so it relates better to Clearwater. The City Manager said the consultants do consider local cities, such as Tampa and St. Petersburg, as comparatives. The consultants are also determining if the municipal comparatives need to be updated. She said the cities of Largo, St. Petersburg, and Tampa are included in the current classification study. Budget Director Kayleen Kastel said the proposed budget included the job classification/wage study and an increase for employee appreciation. Ms. Kirkpatrick said the next job classification/compensation study will include 20 comparative cities, Dunedin, Largo and Safety Harbor were added to the list. All benefits provided to employees, such as health and dental, will be articulated in the study. The City Manager said the scope for the study included traditional benefits offered to employees,- work-from-home mployees,work-from-home would not be considered a traditional benefit. Human Page 2 City of Clearwater Council Work Session Meeting Minutes August 7, 2023 Resources staff surveyed comparative cities offering remote work and has shared the information with the consultants. Ms. Kirkpatrick said a majority of the comparative cities offer a remote work option. The City this year began offering a remote work option to SAMP employees with serious health conditions. She said there are some city employees participating in a pilot program. 3. City Attorney Verbal Reports — None. 4. Council Discussion Item 4.1 Discuss proposed budget. Discussion ensued regarding the allocation for memberships. It was suggested that conference updates or news articles be shared with Council. It was stated that the U.S. Conference of Mayors (Conference) is better suited for bigger municipalities. The City Clerk said the benefit to join the Conference depends on the participation of the sitting mayor. It does not provide more access to our legislators because the City has a federal lobbyist. She said the membership dues for 2024 are $10,099, plus conference and travel fees. Staff was directed to confirm the membership cost for the coming year and discuss at the next budget meeting. In response to questions, Budget Director Kayleen Kastel said the allocation for the Clearwater Historical Society(CHS) began approximately six years ago as a council initiative. It is housed in the council budget because Council directed staff to provide CHS with $12,000 annually for five years. She said earlier this year the agreement was revised to provide $20,000 annually. The allocation is funded by the general fund. Office of Innovation Director Micah Maxwell said the current agreement runs through the current fiscal year, staff is currently working with CHS on a new agreement. There was council consensus to leave the CHS allocation as is and consider moving the allocation to a city department. In response to questions, Ms. Kastel said she had one-one-ones with Council earlier this year to go over Council's line-item budget and provided documentation and historical information. From those Page 3 City of Clearwater Council Work Session Meeting Minutes August 7, 2023 meetings, an allocation was added for the Homeless Leadership Alliance. She said in May council discussed the proposed budget, the new $70,000 allocation for grants, and changes to travel, Council provided no comments or direction to amend the proposed budget during worksession discussion. Ms. Kastel said a pro-rated adjustment for the recently approved council salary increases will be included in the final budget. The proposed budget included an 8.7% wage increase based on the COLA. In response to a suggestion regarding increasing funding for homeless initiatives, the City Manager said staff is looking at hosting an event with United Way that will educate staff and the community of the homeless resources and service providers in the county. In response to questions, Ms. Kastel said the allocation for the We Care Fund included in the proposed budget is the City's contribution. All city residents are able to contribute to the fund. She said if there was a need to increase the City's contribution, it would be addressed in the budget. Finance Director Jay Ravins said staff has not seen the demand to increase the City's We Care Fund contribution. Staff is pursuing a state grant program that could provide additional funding to assist residents with utility bill payments. It was stated that Salvation Army may be using their own funds to assist with utility payments. Clearwater as System Director Brian Langille said staff will be scheduling one-on-ones with Council to discuss the potential sale of the propane division this month. Fuel supply costs have decreased, the cost for natural gas has lowered. He said Clearwater Gas has plenty of vacant positions to absorb the employees impacted with the sale of the propane division. Ms. Kastel said the non-department transfers included in the proposed budget are related to ARPA revenues; as part of the accounting process, the funds deposited must be transferred out. Parks and Recreation Director Art Kader said the Department partners with mostly non-profits. Staff monitors the reporting requirements and milestones included in the agreements will all partners. The current funding agreement with Ruth Eckerd Hall was renewed in 2019. There are 1.7 FTEs for Moccasin Lake Nature Park, part-time staffing supplement the employee at a 2-FTE level. The organizations that use the facility outside of operating hours supplement staffing efforts. In response to a suggestion that an additional FTE be added to Page 4 City of Clearwater Council Work Session Meeting Minutes August 7, 2023 Moccasin Lake Nature Park, the City Manager said funds will need to be shifted to accommodate the request. The feedback given to staff at the strategic planning session was to maintain what we have. That is why many programs are not being enhanced. She said many municipalities in the area are considering implementing an $18 minimum wage. In response to questions, Planning and Development Director Gina Clayton said the development review staff is tasked with reviewing all site plan applications, flexible standard, flexible development, building permits, sign permits and business tax receipts. The Development Review Committee meeting is not a public hearing, but an internal technical review committee. Inspections can be scheduled up to midnight before; individuals are given a 2-hour window. The Business Tax Receipt revenue is consistently approximately$2 million. She said an allocation for software associated with short term rentals will identify the websites being used to post the rentals and generate evidence consistent with city code. Ms. Kastel said using the parking fund to finance the beach officers is a creative way to assist the general fund. In the current budget, there are ten new officers due to the growth of the beach and assets assigned to the beach. She said the majority of the parking fund revenues are from beach meters. Mr. Ravins said parking revenues can be accounted for in the general fund, since the City does not have any outstanding revenue bonds, the parking fund could be closed out and moved to the general fund. The City chooses to have a parking enterprise fund to monitor the revenues to ensure that they are covering the costs for operations and construction of parking garages. He said the City has used some of these revenues to subsidize activities in the general fund that are related to the beach and have a logical connection to the parking revenues. Public Communications Director Joelle Castelli said the department typically conducts a resident satisfaction survey every two to three years, which is standardized and nationally benchmarked and compares Clearwater to other similarly sized cities. The survey includes a set of standard questions and a set of personalized questions. The company also provides an employee satisfaction survey that the city has never participated in. The allocation for the public relations firm was originally owned by Economic Development and used for marketing outside of Clearwater and Tampa Bay. Former City Manager Jon Jennings decided that the city no longer needed tourism marketing as the City was holding its place and Visit St. Pete Clearwater is the tourism marketing destination for Pinellas County. Mr. Jennings thought it was better to market Clearwater as a place to relocate your business or home. Since he is no longer with the organization, staff has worked with the city manager to use some of those funds to market Coachman Park's grand Page 5 City of Clearwater Council Work Session Meeting Minutes August 7, 2023 opening and beyond the opening. She said$25,000 of the funds will be used for media training and the remaining $25,000 for issues management. City Engineer Tara Kivett said there are a handful of lights on the Sand Key bridge that are not LED, staff is working with Duke Energy to get the lights switched out. 5. Adjourn The meeting adjourned at 3:06 p.m. Page 6 City of Clearwater