Link to Back-up for CRA Budget Workshop - 6 p.m. 7/14 - City Hall Conference Room

E-mail to Joan Oliva re initial comments and questions upon review of the proposed budget:

Joan:

Thank you for a very professional presentation of the proposed 08/09 CRA budget for our workshop tomorrow. I do have a couple of questions from my initial review.

• Any idea to what degree the taxable value numbers will change from those presented here? I noticed that the date of the memo is from June 14 - any updates since then?
• What is the current staffing by position, including the interim position? Timeline for filling that position?
  
• How are professional service fees negotiated and approved? How is the legal professional contract approved - annually? Is it reviewed by the board?
• How are the City Administration charges calculated and what is the reason for the increase? Is the City providing additional services now that it did not in the current fiscal year? Or have costs increased from the City's point of view?
• Has the CRA ever asked the City to cover electric and other utility charges? Why no increase budgeted here?
• Promotional activities: Where would a broader marketing campaign for Lake Worth as retail location and development opportunity be found - if we had it? Where would a market research effort targeting the development community and corporate location decision makers? Can we get estimates for either of these prior to finalization of the budget?
• Can we require that any code enforcement officer funded by the CRA be certified through the state of Florida program? That was the flier that I forwarded to you earlier.
• What is the current status of the CAT program? I thought it had been discontinued, or at least greatly scaled back.
• Why the decrease in the professional services (streetscape) item?
• How are we planning to expend the brownfield grant funds prior to the end of the current fiscal year? Is there an opportunity to apply for an extension?
• The "Land" line item - is this potential money available for land acquisition?
• Under maintenance of 6th Avenue improvements, I have noticed some of the cap stone on the knee walls to be missing. Do we have replacement materials in storage so that matching is not a problem? Do we contract with the City to do this work, or is it through an outside contractor?

Thanks - that's all for now.

Wes Blackman