Live from City Commission Meeting 12/20

McVoy not present.  No presentations.Many people here publicizing the Haitian Tree Walkathon this coming 14th of January.  Proceeds will be used to plant 300,000 fruit trees in honor of those that died in Haiti during the January 2010 earthquake.  Charlotte Taylor is here indoctrinating the new Commission and reminding them of her lawsuits against the city.  Lynn Anderson and Lawrence McNamara ask that the minutes reflect public comment where they currently aren't now.  Clerk Pam Lopez says that the minutes changed a few years ago to the "industry standard" and that the audio from the City Commission is available on line from 2006 forward.  They are considering "tagging" the audio to mark different sections for easier reference.

Public hearings re fire assessment and street light assessment.  Carr is introducing the item - staff checked to see if it is possible to extend the date to February 21st.  Staff continues to meet with the Commission on varius budget reduction suggestions.  These will come before the Commission - the reductions - will be on the January 24th Commission agenda.  The items tonight are to approve the continuation of the item to 2/21 date certain.  Maxwell points out that advertising for this item took place under the previous City Commission and this keeps every option open in case they are unable to find items to cut that would counter-balance the lack of these assessments.  Motion passes unanimously - 4-0 (McVoy not present).  The second item is the same only relates to the street light assessment.  Motion on the street lights also passed 4-0.

Beach casino finance discussion.  This lays out the full and entire project cost - including the casino, the beach improvement project and utilities related to each.  There is a full presentation and then they will take questions.  This presentation consists of slides of what is in the agenda packet.  Carr - beach project has different meanings for different people and now we are looking at it in its entirety.  Ms. Mattey is talking about the utilities while the projection and computer system boots up for the presentation.  She says that the upgrade for the electric necessary is considered a cost of business and what the city is doing there is the same as it would be for any other business.  Sewer and lift station is out-of-date and will cost just over half a million and the city will be self-sufficient with sewer.  Water to the beach is provided by the City of West Palm Beach - not the city.  It will be metered - the utility will assume the charges from West Palm and act as a pass through from the tenants to the city.  They will need to create a water supply district to cover all of the costs at the beach.  There are capital improvements for water at the beach - they can be capitalized or included in the special overlay charge.  Their recommendation is go blend the cost into the overlay district.  Rate consultants will be called in early in January.

The projection system and computer are not working and they are reading from the back-up item.  Beach redevelopment is 5.8 million  and the casino  building is 6,5 million dollars.  Total cost is $13.5 million.  Still estimated costs are the lighting - they are assuming $800,000 for lighting.  The remainder are utility costs that would be capital costs.  $5 million from the County, $ 6 million as a loan from the city for the casino construction.  $1.2 million in cash contribution came from the city initially to front end some of the expenses which would be reimbursed by the County.  $450,000 or so was appropriated to REG Architects for architectural services for the casino building.  I will pull out these numbers from the back-up and double check them tomorrow.  Carr is going over the sources of money for all aspects, including the infrastructure improvements.  This is not an action item - for discussion only.

Maxwell asks about the utility upgrades.  He asks if the casino building could be able to open without them.  Mattey says that the water and sewer would be a problem and the electric would require underground service.  He points out that it was always represented as a $6 million building costs when it is more in the range of $8 million.   The cash portfolio would be recovered but there was lost interest - cost of the internal borrowing - was the equivalent of the the interest that the city would have made had it not been used for the beach project.  Carr says that is included in the casino business plan.  There is another number of around $200,000 that should be included in the total cost which represents lost interest.  He asks about tenant improvements - and if the city is on the line for any of those - Margoles says no, they are getting a vanilla box.  The broker cost is part of the beach business plan - and is an expense of around $200,000.  Carr says that they are operating costs.  Maxwell says that the Commission and the administration billed this as a $6 million project and he sees it as another $2.5 million plus - and we need to include that in the discussion regarding the tenant leases.  He says that these costs need to be included otherwise the city would end up subsidizing the businesses up there - he doesn't want it swept under the rug.  Mulvehill asks how much we saved over a construction loan - Carr says it is in the range of $400 to $500,000 more expensive with a construction loan.  She thinks that is great.  She asks how much we spent for Publix for infrastructure - Mattey says that is processed through their regular accounts for electric.  For sewer, it is part of the long term capital plan for the utility and when you are re-doing the parking lot, that would be the ideal time to do it.

Amoroso asks about the situation with West Palm Beach - is there a reason they are not willing to  give us a bulk rate?  Mattey says it really a situation where we are a retail customer with a meter - they are not willing to do it another way.  Each tenant will pay their own water - and they will pay a special "beach" rate.  Agrees that infrastructure needs to be done now and it has to be coordinated..  Carr says that the short period of time for the internal borrowing was minimal for the city - if it were a longer term, it would have been inadvisable and would be a risk that the city couldn't take - like for 20 years.  Mulvehill reminds everyone that the city is reimbursing the cost of the lost interest and that it is part of the business operating plan for the beach.  Maxwell points out that the infrastructure cost is taking away from other projects that could be done in the city.  Carr says we are entering a new era where staff will be much more forthcoming with information.   They are talking about what is and what was not included in the capital improvements
projects.

FYI - I left the meeting around 8:45 p.m.