FLORIDA KEYS MOSQUITO CONTROL DISTRICT
FINAL BUDGET HEARING SEPTEMBER 20, 2010
MARATHON
The Board of Commissioners of the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District held the
Final Budget Hearing on Monday, September 20, 2010 at 5:30 P.M. at the Marathon
Facility.
PRESENT WERE: Steve Smith, Chairman; Bill Langstaff, Vice-Chairman; Joan LordPapy, Secretary-Treasurer; Bill Shaw, Commissioner; Dick Rudell, Commissioner; Ed
Fussell, Director; and Dirk Smits, Board Attorney.
EMPLOYEES PRESENT: Bill Southcott, Comptroller; Andrea Leal, Deputy Director;
Steve Bradshaw, Supervisor of Aerial Operations; James Zdan, Director of Aerial
Maintenance; Mary Victores, Executive Assistant; Yvonne Wielhouwer, Gary Schwartz,
Brad Merkey, Entomological Inspectors; Ralph DePalma, Information Systems
Coordinator; Coleen Fitzsimmons, Biologist/Public Relations; Catherine Pruszynski,
Biologist; and Keith Mearns, Helicopter Pilot.
GUESTS PRESENT: Howard Hubbard, Bob Thomas, Chris Pederson, Ryan McCarthy,
Jack Bridges, Denise Rohrer, Virginia Panico, Buzz Wagner, Marilyn Tempest, Dan
Dombroski and Jose Peixoto.
BILL SOUTHCOTT led the Invocation.
CHAIRMAN SMITH called the Meeting to Order and led the Pledge of Allegiance to
the Flag.
ON ROLL CALL all Commissioners were present.
CHAIRMAN SMITH announced that this meeting has been called to the purpose of
holding our “Final Public Hearing of the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District’s
Proposed Millage and Tentative Budget for the 2010-2011 Fiscal Year.”
“At our First Public Hearing held September 10, 2010 the Board set at proposed millage
rate of .4596. This millage rate is 5.57% below the roll back rate necessary to generate
the $8,997,000.00 of ad valorem taxes to be received by the district during the current
fiscal year.”
BILL SOUTHCOTT then read a recap of the revised tentative budget for the 2010-2011
fiscal year as follows:
Total Budgetary Receipts and Balances: $16,911,750.00; $16,685,000.00 from the Local
Account and $226,750.00 from the State Account. Total Budgetary Expenditures and
Balances: $16,911,750.00; $16,685,000.00 from the Local Account and $226,750.00
from the State Account.
CHAIRMAN SMITH called for comments from the public.
Howard Hubbard stated that he was very pleasantly surprised to see the budget go down
$2.1 million dollars under the leadership of Chairman Smith and he wished the Citizen
would have been there and reported on that instead of the sale of gold to a commercial
firm down in Key West, so the people down in Key West did not get the benefit of
knowing about the $2.1 million dollar cut. He continued he is hoping tonight to see some
more changes that need to be done and not see any political grand standing as frequently
happens in budget meetings.
Virginia Panico addressed the Board stating she agrees with what Mr. Hubbard said, but
all of it was taken from the reserves and suggested taking some from the operating cost.
She continued there is a lot more to be cut and operating expenses are budgeted at almost
$14 million and are highly overstated, reserves level at $1.5 million at the year end are
unrealistic low following $7.5 million expected for the year ending in ten days. She
continued setting a high budget for operating expenses and not spending it grows
reserves, let the numbers stay where they are as budget expensing high is bad
management. She then questioned the amount being budgeted for life and health
insurance, state retirement contributions, maintenance repairs and housing allowance; in
summary we need to have budget cuts measured in the millions, not thousands.
Jose Peixoto addressed the board stating he has respect for the board, but at this time the
board is doing a very poor job in convincing each other to do the best job for the
taxpayers and are not spending our money very wisely. He continued the board is being
paid to do the best job for the taxpayers and every meeting the board members are
picking little fights with each other which is not what you are suppose to be doing. He
further continued that during these touch time the housing allowance should be cut out
for the 88 employees and also mentioned the amount of pilots the district is paying.
COMMISSIONER LANGSTAFF stated he was very annoyed that his comments were
not cared to be heard, so he hung on the phone for over two hours to listen in. He
continued he does not want to see the building for Key West taken out of the budget
because until the City of Key West decides what they are going to do we need to keep
that money in there. Basically juggling the money around a little bit might save a few
dollars, and he would like to see the reserves increased.
COMMISSIONER LORD-PAPY stated she would like to see some changes made, but
she would like to see that the employees do get a merit raise and suggested that anyone
making over $75,000.00 not be eligible and felt it should also be approved by the board.
Chairman Smith handed out what the City of Key West is proposing which stated 3.75%
for people making $20,000 to $30,000; 2.75% for $30,000 to $40,000; and 2% for
$40,000 to $50,000. Commissioner Lord-Papy stated that may be something we can
consider. She then continued we need to look at the ground and maintenance service;
administrative IT consulting as well as other IT costs; and trucks. Chairman Smith stated
the trucks have been reduced to two. Ralph DePalma explained the IT costs to the board.
COMMISSIONER SHAW addressed the board stating this board has lowered the
millage rate 43% in the last six years and if you look at some of the other taxing bodies in
the Florida Keys you will not find that. He also explained how the board came up with
the housing allowance and he also agrees with some of the speakers where we have not
taken things out of this budget that really need to be taken out as only about $75,000.00
has really been taken out of the budget and he felt we are wasting a lot of money on items
that we do not need and personnel that we do not need. He further continued that the
money we had set aside for our retiree’s health insurance has already been taxed and it is
money that was set aside for another purpose and by doing this it is creating another
larger unfunded liability for the future. He then suggested that we cut the Marathon
Receptionist position, two Biologist positions; the eight new domestic inspectors; District
Superintendent and cut the Director’s salary to $120,000.00, which would save
$793,200.00 a year. He further continued that he would still like to see the merit increases
kept in the budget, but no increases for anyone making $50,000.00 or above, which
would save $93,000.00; take the study grants out; employee travel outside the district is
way too high; take out the Marathon grounds maintenance; do away with the television
show and use part of that money to buy extra ads on the radio and in the newspaper;
continued bidding out chemicals; take the Key West Building out completely; these
savings would total $2,169,200.00 and then we have several small items also that need to
be looked at. Commissioner Shaw stated that at the last meeting the board approved a
.4596 millage rate and he would like to keep that.
Commissioner Shaw then made a motion to keep the .4596 millage rate and place his
recommended savings back into the reserve to pay for OPEB benefits that it was set aside
for from the beginning. Commissioner Lord-Papy seconded the motion for discussion.
Chairman Smith stated he felt we need to lump a few items together to see who agrees
with what. Commissioner Shaw withdrew his motion and and made another motion to
adopt a millage rate of .4596. Commissioner Lord-Papy withdrew her second and then
seconded the millage to adopt a millage rate of .4596. Following no further discussion the
roll was call and the motion carried unanimously.
MARY VICTORES then read Resolution No. 2010-01 adopting a millage rate of .4596
for the Fiscal Year 2010-2011 for the record.
A MOTION WAS MADE BY Commissioner Langstaff and seconded Commissioner
Lord-Papy to adopt Resolution No. 2010-01 as read. The motion carried unanimously.
Virginia Panico addressed the board stating you already adopted the millage rate which is
the same as adopted at the First Budget Hearing and now you are going to shuffle a lot of
money around within this budget and she hoped that money will be taken out of the
operating budget as there is a lot of money in there.
Bob Thomas addressed the board stating the millage rate has been accepted, so any
further cost cutting he suggested line item votes on deleting the jobs that Commissioner
Shaw pointed out and the television show and the Key West Building. He continued he
felt that setting the millage already has put the cart before the horse. He then reminded
the board that at the last meeting he pointed out that the district’s 2009-2010 budget was
$9.4 plus million dollars, yet the district spent $12 million.
Jack Bridges addressed the board stating that he is speaking this evening as a taxpayer
and is speaking in favor of the recommendations of Commissioner Shaw. He continued
recently by voting to remove $2.1 million out of reserves is simply to gather a headline
that says “Bug Board cuts $2.1 million dollars out of Budget”. This is a smoking mirror
game. He continued the reserves are money for liability that will come into play one day,
we are basically punishing future generations forcing them to bear those liabilities. He
continued he felt we need real budget cuts, many of which Commissioner Shaw has
suggested and that is when we will actually see some cost savings.
Howard Hubbard addressed the board concerning the hiring of part-time inspectors,
stating they will need to be hired in the December so that they can go to the Dodd Course
in January, and both the training and travel budget would need to be increase to offset
those costs and then you have to hope they show up in June when they are needed, so
there is an offset that may not be able to be covered in just reduction of wages or benefits.
He continued if VCMS is going away, then that money should be coming available for
development of a new program, not duplications of developing a new program and
paying for VCMS.
Jose Peixoto addressed the board stating there is over $500,000.00 in salaries for the
pilots in the aerial program and asked if we need all these pilots on full time.
A MOTION WAS MADE BY Commissioner Langstaff to adopt the Revised Tentative
Budget for the 2010-2011 Fiscal Year as is. Commissioner Lord-Papy seconded the
motion for discussion.
Commissioner Rudell stated he is tired of hearing about the million dollars being held for
the Key West property and the City has told us that they have no interest in that piece of
property and he felt we should remove that money. Chairman Smith stated that is where
our headquarters is and that is where most of the people live and at the last meeting
Commissioner Rossi stated he would be happy to act as a liaison between us and the City
Managers Office and he would get back to us with some information. He said he has sent
two emails and has faxed a letter to his office and has heard nothing. He further stated
that he had suggested to Billy that we take $500,000.00 of that money and put it into the
future capital outlay account and leave the other $500,000.00 in there for a building,
because one way or another we have to have a home and we can not wait until 2014 to do
something. He said we are also going to be dropping the vehicles down to two which will
save $60,000.00 and as far cutting out eight new domestic people he can not support
doing that right now because we do not know when we will have a handle on the Dengue
issueand he is not in favor of chopping the Director’s salary down either.
Following a roll call vote on the motion to adopt the Revised Tentative Budget as is, it
failed to carry with Commissioner Langstaff being the only yes vote.
Commissioner Shaw then made a motion to cut the $75,000.00 for Study Grants from the
budget. Commissioner Rudell seconded the motion for discussion. Bill Southcott stated
the Study Grants were reduced to $50,000.00. He then amended his motion to cut
$50,000.00 from the budget and Commissioner Rudell amended his second. Director
Fussell stated this has saved us a lot of legal expenses. Following a roll call vote the
motion failed to carry with Commissioners Langstaff, Lord-Papy and Chairman Smith
voting no.
Commissioner Shaw then made a motion to cut the employees travel outside the district
from $65,000.00 to $25,000.00. Commissioner Rudell seconded the motion. Following a
roll call vote the motion failed to carry with Commissioner’s Langstaff and Lord-Papy
and Chairman Smith voting no.
Chairman Smith passed the gavel and made a motion to reduce the employee travel out of
district to $45,000.00. Commissioner Lord-Papy seconded the motion. Following a roll
call vote the motion carried unanimously.
Commissioner Shaw then made a motion to take the million dollars out of the budget for
the Key West Building. Commissioner Rudell seconded the motion. Following a roll call
vote the motion failed to carry with Commissioner’s Langstaff and Lord-Papy and
Chairman Smith voting no.
Commissioner Lord-Papy made a motion to take $500,000.00 from the million dollars
and put it into the future capital outlay account and leave the other $500,000.00 in there
for the property. Commissioner Langstaff seconded the motion. Following a roll call
vote the motion carried with both Commissioner’s Shaw and Rudell voting no.
Commissioner Shaw then made a motion to reduce the Biomist chemical budget by
$90,000.00 which is the savings for the Biomist that went out for bid last week and that
$90,000.00 is still reflected in our chemical budget. Commissioner Rudell seconded the
motion. Bill Southcott stated if the board does approve that bid tonight it will save the
district approximately $90,000.00 over the course of the year. Following a roll call vote
the motion carried unanimously.
Commissioner Shaw then made a motion to do away with the Television Show costing
$30,000.00 and take $12,000.00 of that money to advertise more on the radio and in the
newspapers which would still save $18,000.00. Commissioner Rudell seconded the
motion for discussion. Coleen Fitzsimmons explained to the board the various costs for
advertising and handled out a hand out explaining where the money actually goes. She
also spoke in favor of keeping the television show, but if the board votes to get rid of it
she gave the board other opinions for 2011 during the summer months for additional
advertising. Several members from the public commented on various ways of advertising.
Commissioner Lord-Papy stated she felt we need to research this a little more. Director
Fussell commented that he felt it is kind of odd that we have had that television show for
almost 12 years and not a single negative comment has been heard by him about the
effectiveness of the show and all of a sudden it is no good and nobody is watching it. He
said the KeyNoter has a show that follows ours and he has not seen any evidence that
they are planning to cancel theirs. Chairman Smith stated if we are going to do away with
this we should already have a plan in place to replace it. Following no further discussion
the roll was called and the motion failed to carry with Commissioner’s Langstaff and
Lord-Papy and Chairman Smith voting no.
Commissioner Shaw then made a motion to cut Computer Supplies from $44,750.00
down to $24,750.00. Ralph DePalma explained the computer supply cost in detail and
answered questions from the board. Commissioner Rudell seconded the motion.
Following a roll call vote the motion carried with Commissioner Langstaff voting no.
Commissioner Shaw then made a motion to reduce our truck purchase expenditure from
$100,000.00 to $60,000.00. Commissioner Langstaff seconded the motion. Following a
roll call vote the motion carried unanimously.
Commissioner Shaw then made a motion to give raises in two categories, from
$30,000.00 to $40,000.00 a 2.75% increase and $40,000.00 to $50,000.00 a 2% increase
and no increases for anyone making over $50,000.00. He continued if he figured this
correctly it will save $93,000.00. Commissioner Rudell seconded the motion for
discussion. Chairman Smith asked if this is merit raises or automatic raises, because we
need to specify that. Commissioner Shaw and Lord-Papy stated it is merit raises.
Commissioner Lord-Papy stated she would like to see it increased to $60,000.00 instead
of $50,000.00. Bill Southcott stated we have already given some customary raises such as
probationary increases and passing of exams for certifications. Mary Victores commented
on the proposed increases. Commissioner Shaw amended his motion to include
$40,000.00 to $62,000.00 a 2% increase, which would save approximately $82,535.00
and he would like to leave the percentages in there. Commissioner Rudell amended his
motion. Following a roll call vote the motion carried unanimously.
Bill Southcott stated he could not hear the net amount available for raises. Commissioner
Shaw stated we would have $55,000.00 available for increases; this is by taking
$137,535.00 that we have now in the budget and subtract $82,000.00 which leaves
$55,000.00.
Commissioner Shaw then made a motion to cut the Marathon Ground Maintenance which
would save $30,000.00 a year. Commissioner Rudell pointed out we have $49,000.00
budgeted. Steve Bradshaw explained that the Ground Maintenance cost $20,000.00 and
there may be a little extra for fertilizing and mulching, etc. He continued we have a
building maintenance also that cost $1,250.00 per month and there is also a janitorial
service that costs $900.00 a month. Commissioner Shaw then amended his motion to cut
the Marathon Ground Maintenance saving $20,000.00. The motion was seconded by
Chairman Smith. Following a roll call vote the motion carried with Commissioner
Langstaff voting no.
Commissioner Shaw then made a motion to make the eight new domestic inspectors as
part-time employees saving approximately $99,000.00 on benefits alone. Commissioner
Rudell seconded the motion for discussion. He then asked if all of our inspectors have to
become certified. Andrea Leal commented yes, they all are required to become certified.
She also explained that the domestic mosquitoes are found year around and the domestic
inspectors always have things to do. Commissioner Lord-Papy agreed with Andrea.
Several comments were heard from the public concerning making these inspectors parttime. Following no further comments, the roll was called on the motion which failed to
carry with Commissioner Shaw and Rudell being the only yes votes.
Commissioner Shaw then made a motion to eliminate the following positions;
Biologist/PR Specialist; District Superintendent; reduce the Director’s salary to
$120,000.00; and the PCR Biologist. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Rudell.
Following a roll call vote the motion failed to carry with Commissioners Shaw and
Rudell being the only yes votes.
Commissioner Shaw then made a motion to move the $55,000.00 budgeted for MAP
Vision out of the capital outlay account and move it into the contingency account.
Chairman Smith seconded the motion. Following a roll call vote the motion carried
unanimously.
Commissioner Shaw then made a motion to take the money that we have cut and add that
money to the half million dollars that Chairman Smith set aside last meeting to be put
into the Trust for the retirees benefits. Commissioner Langstaff stated the cuts totaled
$292,535.00. Bill Southcott responded that is correct. Commissioner Langstaff seconded
the motion. Following a roll call vote the motion carried unanimously.
A MOTION WAS THEN MADE BY Commissioner Lord-Papy and seconded by
Commissioner Shaw to approve the revised tentative budget as amended for the 20102010 fiscal year. Following a roll call vote the motion carried unanimously.
MARY VICTORES then read Resolution No. 2010-02 adopting the revised tentative
budget as amended for the 2010-2011 fiscal year.
A MOTION WAS THEN MADE BY Commissioner Lord-Papy and seconded by
Commissioner Langstaff to approve Resolution No. 2010-02 as read adopting the revised
tentative budget for the 2010-2011 fiscal year. Following a roll call vote the motion
carried unanimously.
CHAIRMAN SMITH called for the Final Budget Hearing to be adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
_________________________
Edsel M. Fussell, Director
Board of Commissioners
Florida Keys Mosquito Control District
______________________
Steve Smith, Chairman
______________________
Joan Lord-Papy, Secretary-Treasurer
For more specific information of detail of the meeting, please refer to the tape recording
of the meeting.