SEBASTIAN — The Budget Review Advisory Board on Aug. 4 voted to return to City Council with the same recommended budget additions and the same increased millage rate but, at the urging of Council, will provide more specifics about how the additional funding would be used.
At the July 23 City Council meeting, Board Chairman Ed Herlihy had presented the Board’s recommendation for an additional $265,000 for the budget to be split among various issues:
- $100,000 for unspecified lagoon issues,
- $100,000 for street projects,
- $50,000 for All Aboard Florida contingencies
- and $15,000 to match a COPS grant for the Sebastian Police Department.
Councilman Jerome Adams and Vice-Mayor Jim Hill, both of whom are up for election, voted against the motion.
Hill called much of the funding requested “just in case funds” and “slush funds du jour,” criticizing the lack of specific line item expenditures.
The Council voted 3-2 to use the higher, recommended 3.8556 millage rate for purposes of the property tax notices (TRIM notices), after making certain that the vote was not a commitment to the higher rate, but simply allowed maximum flexibility during the budget process.
At the Aug. 4 meeting, the Board, agreed the property owners should know how the Board was recommending the City spend property owners’ taxes and arrived at specifics they felt the Council might deem more appropriate.
The $15,000 in matching funds for the COPS grant was sufficiently specific, the Board felt.
Since the necessary road projects throughout the city will likely cost more than $1 million, the $100,000 for current road work, the Board felt, was also acceptable.
Breaking down the $100,000 for the lagoon was more problematic. Board member Bill Flaherty said that, unless someone has a crystal ball, it isn’t realistic to expect a line item list at this point. “We know there are problems, but I am troubled that we are being asked how to spend (the funds). To ignore the issue would not be a good thing. We should try to be prepared. There needs to be something.”
Board Chairman Ed Herlihy, who has pre-qualified to run in the Sebastian City Council municipal election, agreed and suggested the baffle boxes that are being placed at the city’s outfalls as a possible specific lagoon expenditures.
Two have currently been placed, with seven remaining within the next few years. The Board agreed the $100,000 for the lagoon would be specified as “seed money for grants” to help fund the remaining baffle boxes.
As to All Aboard Florida, the Board identified crossing safety issues and quiet zones as the two areas that will require significant funding. Currently it appears AAF will be responsible for the required crossing safety measures, and the municipalities would shoulder the cost of the Quiet Zones, should they decide to create them.
But questions remain and the Environmental Impact Statement that AAf was to provide in July, then August has now bumped to Fall.
In view of all the unknowns, the Board will recommend the $50,000 be designated for engaging “additional consultants” should the need arise.
City Engineer Frank Watanabe, who has experience in this area himself, told the Board that the City might still need advice from outside professionals in the field and should be prepared for such an eventuality.
The Board will also recommend that $57,000 the City is expected to save by switching its health insurance provider from Florida Blue to United Health be designated to go toward road improvements.