 Hello everybody in the room and hello everybody Who's watching this from somewhere else if you don't mind I'm going to take off my mask But I promise to use proper social distancing if that's all right so what we have up on the board here the goals that we've set for today's meeting And broadly that's the share information about the city of Fort Worth Discuss the budget policies financial management policies philosophies The budget process and give some context For the upcoming fiscal year budget that we'll talk about the capital budget next week on tuesday And then we'll present the recommended operating budget the following tuesday on august 11 It's also a forum to be able to answer questions You might have about any of those things that we covered today about the budget process of the budget And there's other folks here in the room to help me they're from the manager's office the finance office And the department that we call planning and data analytics that Helps put together the city's budget What I'll try to do as we go through some of these slides is break At certain points just to see if there's questions on the material that we covered Up to that point in time And again, I think I could say that there'll be a phone number where people can text in questions They can call in questions email in questions And if you're in the room, I think you could write them down and Michelle is collecting those right all right Ready to get started Oh, I didn't even introduce myself. I'm sorry david cook city manager And this will be I think the sixth or seventh budget that I'll present to the city council next week So the first thing I wanted to do is Put the city in the context of all the different things we do I think there are some specific things we'll want to talk about today And there's some things that we don't usually talk about because They're either not in the news I don't want to say people take it for granted But there are things that we go about our daily lives and we Count on these things happening, but we don't think about the financial Let's say the business of these things. So let's start out with Many of the things that the city does the first thing I put up there is we run a regional water and sewer utility So we provide water and sewer to not only the city of Fort Worth But to many other municipalities in the area Both on the water side and on the sewer side And when you think about that business If you're paying for water and sewer you do that through water and sewer rates, right? You get a monthly bill on water and sewer You generally know What you use But it's a big operation It's hundreds of millions of dollars a year in capital infrastructure And to take that a little bit farther if you think about a regional water and sewer utility most of it is under the ground Right, it's water lines and sewer lines Probably literally hundreds or thousands of miles Of that infrastructure. And so when we also talk about budgeting And the financial stuff that the city has to think about I want you to think about the infrastructure that the city has to provide to Right, so the infrastructure that we not only have to build As we're expanding but the infrastructure That we have to maintain After it is built All right, next up Is we are responsible for three general aviation airports We have everybody knows where Meachem is of North Main Street We have Spinks Down in the far south And then we have Alliance Airport, which is up in the far north side Of of the city And so these three airports also run like a business right the revenue streams for the airports are paid for by the people that are leasing hangers Or leasing space at those airports Buying gas at the airport Landing fees that they have to pay for to take off and land at the airport And so those businesses and they have to maintain that infrastructure too, which could be taxiways Or runways or hangers and other facilities We have a convention center that we operate in the Will Rogers complex That primarily is funded from hotel tax All right, so it's not property tax. It's not sales tax This predominantly paid for by hotel taxes and other what I'd call tourism related revenues We'll get into this a little bit later But I want you to think about COVID and what hotels did after We shut down the economy most of the hotels closed So think about the hotel revenue that doesn't exist to go toward the convention center in the Will Rogers complex Again the infrastructure for both of those you think about the convention center. It's a big building Not only to maintain but we were in the process of talking about expanding it At the time that the economy Took a little hit Next is golf. We have golf courses We operate three Free golf courses rockwood just got an upgrade I knew if I started doing this, I'd forget them rockwood Meadowbrook The con valley Same thing if you use the golf courses, you're paying for those But I will tell you that the general fund does subsidize the golf courses because they Don't run on a break-even basis Next up is a stormwater utility Again, that's to prevent flooding to mitigate flooding That's been in place for the utility's been in place for a number of years and we just increased the Stormwater utility fee this past january The reason that we increased the fee for the stormwater Was we believe we need to spend more money on capital infrastructure to mitigate flooding In the city and so that rate increase was primarily attributed to paying for future bonds To build infrastructure to mitigate the flooding in the city We run parking facilities Some by the convention center some by dickies arena and the wool rogers complex Again users pay for the use of the parking And then finally I showed up there we have a solid waste collection system and a landfill that we operate The solid waste collection is essentially every resident Our household in the city pays a monthly fee For garbage collection And the landfill Again, that's there to take care of the waste For many many years The other thing I would want to stress on some of these when we think about these other businesses Many of these departments that run these businesses have long-term financial plans master plans It takes decades To site and build a landfill It takes decades to site and build a wastewater treatment plant Or a water treatment plant and we're in the process of a wastewater treatment plant right on the Western side of the city and we've been at that for almost 20 years if I remember correctly And so one of the reasons to saying that we'll talk about the budget The budget is not just a one-year incident The budget is about thinking about How the city ought to run and what services we ought to provide Over a long period of time Right so as we talk about and we'll get more into the budgets Just the different things that the city do it does Many of these things take years of planning Years of financing in order to get them in place Now let's turn to the general fund because this is what most people think about When they think about the city this is where your property tax money is And this is where the sales tax money is primarily And we'll use some charts in a second So when you think about the services that we provide that come out of the general fund We got parks. We got libraries. We have municipal court. I won't read them all but please fire A diversity inclusion neighborhood service development services transportation and public works We have some of the same issues that we showed you in Those other businesses Right except these businesses All compete for the same dollars Right the water and sewer utility kind of operates independently right so it charges water and sewer revenues But it's got to pay for its infrastructure. It's got to pay for its services The stormwater utilities a separate fee that's put on businesses and homeowners Right it doesn't compete against the water department and it doesn't compete against these businesses right here But each of these businesses compete For the same resources that come out of the general fund. Does that make sense? all right And again these departments many of these departments will have multi-year master plans because again think about how you cite and build a park or how you Build roads new roads in the city which is transportation and public works Some of that takes years to plan design acquire property and build that infrastructure I thought I'd show you this is the current year budget This is pre-covid So and this is just operating dollars not capital. So we spend Approximately 1.8 billion dollars and all those different businesses That we just talked about and so when you think about the general fund Remember all those departments that compete for the same resources That's roughly 707 million of the 1.8 billion dollars Now if we go to the general fund and in the general fund, I'll show you both The revenues and expenditures So when we think about the general fund The property tax makes up about 55% And sales tax makes up another 24.4. So if you put those together, what do we got? 79 All right, so nearly 80 Of the general fund is from two sources property tax And sales tax and that's the when you think about that's the tax that most Homeowners and most businesses think about How much am I going to have to pay in property taxes for all those things that I want? or need from the city of full worth We've shown what some of the other revenue streams are But I just show this to Give you the magnitude of what the property tax and the sales tax make up So here's the expenditure side And I previously showed you some of those departments or businesses that compete for that money And clearly the largest two departments For property tax and sales tax Is police and fire police being clearly the largest at About 38 of the general fund And then the fire department, which is another 23 And these slides and everything will be available on the website, right? Michelle so If you want to how about it's just you were taking pictures and I'm okay with that too But I want you to know you can have all this stuff um Now the police department just a little Tangent here the police department also has the ccpd budget, which is not part of the general fund right, so there is another part of the Police budget that comes out of ccpd that is not shown in this chart Okay This might be a good time to stop real quick just to see if there are any questions on the stuff that we've covered so far There's more that i'm going to jump into that i'm sure will generate questions, but I just think this might be a good time Michelle's going to give me the go ahead or Good go ahead So let me let me help describe it So we run those three golf courses And I would tell you that we get enough revenue from those golf courses generally to cover operating expenses But if you had to say can I generate enough money to Pay for the capital and some of the capital maintenance Then the answer is no and that's where the subsidy comes from I'll also take you back to the um in 2014 the city had a bond referendum and parks included the improvements to rockwood golf course Right, so that got paid out of a bond program Which is I'll talk in a few minutes about how that's supported But yes, so there's still a subsidy going to And the thought process is could we charge more? Yeah, we could probably charge more But then the thought is then we price people out Right, so if we want to make Golf available to more people Then some of the reason that's why you price it that way Yes And they also have the ccpd fund why is there so much money in that those particular budgets For police you have two budgets for police So I'm going to answer that and as we go forward if you don't mind i'm going to hold off on that one I'll make sure I cover that yes So I know you said all departments compete for the same funds will you be talking about how what that process looks like? So let me uh The question is what happens if there's a surplus and so we track budgets throughout the year Um, and I'll just use this past year as an example right our fiscal year is october to september So we're doing the budget now for the year that's going to begin october 1 And so when the fiscal year ends then we look at how all departments have spent their money during the year And It's a no-no to overspend Right, so We're okay that you under spend Right, and we look at there's two things we look at How did we estimate revenues? So going back to this slide Did we hit our revenue estimates because we might have a surplus because we collect more revenue than we estimated right We want to end the year with either excess revenues Our unspent expenditures are both Right, so we we want that to occur And what happens is it goes to our total reserves or what we call fund balance And what i'm going to tell you is i'll do it now and talk about a little bit more later As the city grows It's likely that our budget's going to grow As our budget grows We need our reserves to grow as a proportion of the total That makes sense So we need that to occur year over year So that we don't have to try to create reserves through some other method That we wanted to occur By either underestimating revenues or saving on the expenditure side Okay All right, we'll come back to the police in a little bit on the process So just from a policy or a Philosophy standpoint Here are some things that we keep in mind is we prepare a recommended budget as we work with departments throughout the year On the other thing I should have covered Most those businesses that you saw the regional water and sewer utilities storm water utility They all have citizens advisory committees the library parks and recreation A diversity inclusion And so there are citizen groups That work in an advisory capacity with these departments throughout the year And normally what we've done over the last five years Is we convene The advised citizen reps from the advisory committees as part of a stakeholder process to walk through the budget process And admittingly we didn't do that this year with the co vid and the Shutdown of the everybody stayed home and do those things So we didn't do that stakeholder process this year, but we normally engage The citizens from those different advisory committees in that process And usually what they're giving advice on is the stuff that they're related to so you'll hear the library commission Talk about the importance of libraries. You'll hear the Parks and Rec advisory board talk about the importance of parks and rec and open space And so there is some citizen participation is that occurs Because of all the different advisory committees that are on there But going back to the long-term perspective the other thing That we try to keep in mind By having a long-term perspective is the city is growing By about 15 to 20,000 people each year All right So at the end of five years We might be adding nearly a hundred thousand people And I have you think about what does the infrastructure look like For a town of a hundred thousand people and we do that every five years And so if we wait to do things I argue it's going to be too late Right and some people will argue that we're too late on some of the road infrastructure We're too late on some of the affordable housing. We're too late on And so that's again why I think we have to have that long-term perspective and to be looking out Because if we're not planning for that infrastructure and 15 to 20,000 people are coming every year We're going to be behind the eight ball On particular on an infrastructure side The second one up there is maintaining the property tax rate or reducing the property tax rate And we've had a policy and a philosophy for a number of years That if growth Could accommodate it meaning this that's how you're going up that we're going to Meet the needs as we see them and drop the tax rate And I'll show you there's some slides as we move forward that we've dropped the tax rate And it is my belief our belief That at one time our tax rate was too high We had the highest property tax rate Of any major city in texas Now we don't get to say that anymore Partly because we brought the tax rate down But some would say it's still too high to be competitive Particularly on a business front if you're trying to attract or recruit businesses And if cost of business is an important issue The third bullet Again we've talked about we're Trying to and have been for a number of years emphasizing infrastructure And maintenance of the infrastructure that we build And no use of reserves for operation that should be opposite. I mean obvious if we do that Again, we're just it's a short term fix to a long term problem This phrase that we use capital plan drives the operating budget if we Put before the voters that we're going to build a library Then we're going to build a library And if we build a library we're going to staff it And we're going to maintain it From that point forward So we know that if we build a fire station or we build a library or we build a rec center Or we build a neighborhood center That creates operating costs that we have to Be able to put into the budget Without raising the tax rate and doing those things. So the idea is In many ways and you'll see that the capital budget Sometimes drives the operating budget because it creates things that have to be put into the budget Data driven decisions That's clearly a focus What is it that we're trying to achieve? Why is it important? What are the outcomes? And so focusing on Not just that we're spending 1.8 billion dollars But what are we getting from the 8 point 1.8 billion? Is it the things that we Are wanting to Get from that expenditure money You know to me the budget is a big deal because it shows how you spend money Not just how you spend money, but how you allocate resources that are finite Because we can't It's not unlimited Sometimes this is when I make fun of the federal government, you know, we don't get to print money We actually have to balance the revenues with the expenditures And those you've heard me say the last two are just in the general fund Everything's competing. It's everything. So if I spend a dollar in parks and rec It's a dollar that I cannot spend In libraries or if I spend a dollar in police, that's a dollar We can't spend in neighborhood services, right? That's why choices have to be made trade Have to be made as part of that budget process Now part of our process in the city And we do this every february Is we have a city council planning retreat Again every february And the purpose There's several purposes in it and we'll usually have a key topic, but we do these same things all the time We're going to forecast what the next year's budget's going to look like We're going to telegraph what we think the revenues are going to be We're going to telegraph what we know our expenditures and our commitments to be And then we're going to give, you know, some telegraphing of, you know, how we might prioritize if there's some money available For other initiatives So we do the general fund forecast. We do the ccpd forecast This last year we have to talk about our solid waste fund because our solid waste fund is not sustainable over the long term Meaning the current fee structure that we charge for households And the money we collected the landfill is not sufficient to pay for the expenditures that are Being spent out of that fund So it's one of the things That we've talked about with the city council with some of the advisory committees of what we've got to fix And so that's something we have to fix in the upcoming fiscal year The other thing we got to talk about is you may know that a new state law was put into place That caps the city's revenue Right, so the state decided That I guess local governments were spending too much property tax money So they put into place a property tax revenue cap That allows us to capture any new development That occurs from one year to the next so that doesn't count against us But the rest of the properties can only go up three and a half percent All right, so essentially it's a three and a half percent cap But we'll get new growth Uh, I'll talk about the 21 budget and if we get toward the end We're the cap's not gonna Uh hit us this year Because the economy tanked It's not the right reason But that cap won't impact us this year So this again is to give a historical perspective on the property tax rate And so let me walk you through it goes back to 2011 And then it goes through the current fiscal year The o and m is operation and maintenance We break the tax rate up into o and m And debt Now we break it up into three categories o and m what we call pay as you go, which is simply cash funding capital Right, so it's funding capital But using cash So back in 2011 a citizens advisory group got put together And it was related to transportation infrastructure and they said to the city council you're not spending enough money on capital the roads think You're not spending enough money on maintaining we're not keeping up with the growth And so you'll see back then that the city put more money each year of this same tax rate The tax rate didn't change But the amount that went to debt to pay for capital went up each of those years you see that and then the city had a bond referendum in 2014 And the city was able to say we can do this bond program without raising property taxes because Essentially they had already shifted Some of the tax rate from operating to debt Now what we've been trying to do over the last five years Is Because of the policy we need to be spending more on infrastructure and maintenance We've been trying to put more into debt and pay as you go And my goal our goal is that 30 percent of our tax rate should go to capital If you're a growing city if you're a stagnant city that doesn't grow You don't need to allocate that much of the tax rate for infrastructure But if you're a growing city of 15 to 20 thousand people a year You need to allocate a portion of that tax rate For that infrastructure. So our goal and we're pretty close I mean, I think we're satisfied with Being where we are now. So 30 percent of the tax rate goes to capital either debt or cash Now the other goal is if you just look at your capital side How much should be debt? And how much should be cash? We believe cash should make up 30 percent of that pie So we want the pay as you go or the cash portion to be 30 percent of that total And we want the two of them together debt and cash To make up 30 percent of the total tax rate That make sense? All right, so if you look at the current tax rate It's 74 74 and three-quarter cents And that's how it breaks up between debt and capital Let me go back to this So then we had a bond program in 2018 And we've been working on the next bond program That we had planned to do in 2022 We've got to reevaluate that as we come out of this COVID thing But we're working internally on what the next bond program is And again, to me that's important if we're growing We'll probably have a bond referendum every four years Because the infrastructure will be needed for that growth And the most cost-effective way to pay for that infrastructure Much of this infrastructure will last longer than 20 and 30 years Is to debt finance it over time The other thing to our favor right now is I think I don't believe interest rates have ever been this low In my entire career in local government And Reggie, right there, our finance guy You'd agree, right? All right So the other thing that we do is we simply forecast that with the city council And all I'm sharing with you is historical property tax Revenue growth And you can see what it's been doing the last few years It's very strong And we've, at that time, projected 4% going forward But the other reason to go back in time is to look There are times when that property tax revenue went backwards The 10-11 recession So values actually declined From one year to the next To where the city collected less property tax in that year That may be our near future Because of this COVID And I'll talk more about that Sales tax Same thing, we use 4% That's been a safe bet For a number of years But the same thing can happen with sales tax And it did It happened this year again We will collect $11 million dollars less Currently projecting In sales tax and what we thought we would collect at the beginning of this year So it can back up This is hard to read I'm not going to go through every line But what we do at the city council Is we identify all those things we know about for multiple years Right? So you'll see in a line up there that had the race and culture implementation There was a lot of money we put into the current year Budget Regarding the race and culture implementation We know that pension is still a problem And part of our fix that we approved Two years ago Includes more contributions from the city Or taxpayers And more contribution for employees that kick in in 2022 and 2023 So some of that money if it's there Has already been obligated You'll see toward the bottom fire station 45 The north animal shelter The far southwest library Those are in the process of being built When we finish that animal shelter That requires 29 employees to operate the north animal shelter once it's open Similar to the fire station that's being built Station 45 which is in north Fort Worth off of Harman Road somewhere I think All this is intended to show is we try to telegraph The commitments that have already been made Right? And how that will stack up against the revenue that we think might be out there in the future And so we simply then look at that over a period of time Now you can disregard this slide because none of this stuff is going to come true anymore And before I get into that Why don't I stop there and just see if there's If anybody has a question just raise your hand and we'll give you the microphone So people can hear it on the TV Hi, I have a question on going back to budget policies and philosophies I saw maintain or reduce property tax rate I think there was some criticism in the past because Although we reduced the tax rate property values increased pretty significantly And so overall property tax collection Also increased so just curious Is that being adjusted to account for what has happened in the past or Just to give us a more holistic view I guess So let's go here on the property tax revenue So let's take 19 because 20 is not going to come true So let's take last year the revenue grew 7.7 percent So we dropped the tax rate a certain amount But if your value went up more than the tax rate got adjusted down You ended up paying more in property tax revenue There's nothing no getting around that If your value went down and the tax rate went down You pay less in property tax revenue Right And it's a law of averages right so it simply was in Tarrant County The average was maybe seven percent So if you went up eight percent you're paying more in taxes If your value only went up five you might have got to break a little bit And I don't have the easy way to sugarcoat that So yes in many cases when you think about it we brought in 7.7 percent more tax revenue Like that year even though the tax rate got adjusted down Does you and your staff when you're planning and forecasting the budget Do you plan for different scenarios like a downturn in the economy Or a high case or obviously the current case So we're going to talk about this year because it's a real life example But one of the reasons of doing history like that and through a business cycle Or a couple of business cycles is to teach yourself That seven percent growth year over year It's not sustainable forever right things are going to happen That you've got to then plan for what happens if that doesn't happen And unfortunately we have a real life example right now And I'll talk a little bit more about that It's a real I mean it's a real kick in the gut on some of these things So when you go back to those obligations that we made we have to think about Well, maybe we don't maybe we designed the southwest library. We don't build it Right or too far along on the animal shelter. So that is going to be finished And we're going to have to operate it But maybe we slow some other things down so we don't incur the operating expenses When we're not going to be able to That thing in the context of today's time right We went I go back to January or February The economy couldn't have been stronger in Fort Worth Right the development is going strong unemployment's at three percent In Fort Worth Right so development is strong business is strong Stock market was almost at 30,000 if I remember And then we have a pandemic unemployment goes from three percent to 15 percent Businesses shut down some will never reopen I have you think about value of retail Will those property values go up or down next year Office space Will office space property values go up or down next year What would you bet on Right what does that do to the property tax revenue then Right and so that's what we've got to prepare for now Right I think those values are going to be stagnant or go down Right you can go in as a property owner now you own The building that has burnt in it is vacant You think that value went up or down it went down Right just like the office towers that their vacancy went from 30 percent vacancy to 70 percent vacancy those values are going to go down And so we're going to have to adjust to that in the budget That's not any fun by the way I know we touched on surplus is getting moved to a reserve I was just curious I know you said that Departments overspending is not appreciated But do departments have an incentive to underspend so that that money can be Reallocated and dollars are efficiently spent Why I'd like to think compliments from the city manager are incentives for the department heads Because it is something we encourage we don't want you to spend just because it's in your budget Right so we do try to watch those things that And we watch patterns and do those things and I'll talk about what we've had to do this year Right because that'll give a real Example of what we had to put together to bring the budget in so All right So a little bit on process before we get to the current year and what next year looks like And you heard me say a little bit to me the budget is not an event Right yeah, we got to do it every year The council has to approve it. They got to set the property tax rates illegally. They got to do all those things But financial management has to occur all the time Right. You just don't show up and say let's put a budget together And hope it's the right amount of money in the right places so you deliver the Right results. There's usually a little bit more to that Right, it's what are outcomes. We're going to try to achieve what project schedule So we do a capital project right you build a scope You have a schedule you have a budget and we evaluate scope budget schedule Well, it's similar to other things in the operating side of the budget, right How many people does it take a staff of fire station? It's not rocket science How many people cruise do we need to maintain the city streets at the level that we're shooting for? How many street lights what's our replacement Level or maintenance level for street lights across the city and are we hitting it? What's our pavement marking schedule so We could drive around the city safely because all the strypings are accurate in their Visible and we have enough that aren't visible, right? So all those things get factored into A process of a budget and accountability Because it's in both delivering services delivering infrastructure And trying to do that for 900,000 people and growing So when we think about budget, I don't think about it as an event Right, we do things throughout the year with the people in this room to Okay, the year just ended what did spending look like how good at were we at estimating the revenues Where can we improve on both of those things? right and then reggie puts together Certified annual report that goes to the city council and also importantly the rating agencies who are going to rate the city's financial management ability So when we go to the market and sell bonds we can get them at the Lowest interest rates and that benefits everybody in this room and all the citizens Right, so to me budgeting and financial management is not about an event It's an ongoing process that occurs throughout the year And it's got to have some accountability with it We've just put some of this Up there to show you, you know, we start working with departments You know as soon as the fiscal year encloses to see what we learned from the prior fiscal year Then a couple months later we're going to get with the departments because they're going to start building their budgets for the upcoming year And then we work with the stakeholders groups and then we Ultimately it's my responsibility to recommend the budget to the city council in august In a few years ago. We broke that up. So we do the capital budget first And we talk about the tax rate and then we follow up the following week and we talk about the operating budget The council always has budget work sessions that are open to the public Uh, we always have public hearings that are part of council meetings that are related to the budget and there's three with the upcoming Uh budget This year we're talking about doing some virtual meetings that the council wants to have virtual meetings in some of their district To talk about what's in the recommended budget. We're We're going to do those So there'll be more information on that as we step through the budget But essentially when you think about it, we're at the point Where I have a pretty good idea what's in the budget that's going to land on the council's table next Tuesday And pretty good idea of what's in the budget what's going to be on the table the following Tuesday when we talk about the operating budget And then we it's when the public input process Even though I would argue that it's going on throughout the year But then there's mechanisms for input feedback as part of that Then the council before the end of september Has to approve the budget and tax rate So we've currently got that scheduled for 22nd september 22nd So that's a high level of the budget But another thing just to point out it's also up there as we do that planning retreat also every February with the council so we could Kind of telegraph some of the stuff that we are thinking about and know about So let's talk about if you It's not a lot of fun, but we'll talk about it The things have changed I described what january felt like when the stock market was at 30 000 on plunge was at three percent all that um When the economy shut down in mid-march Right the stay-at-home order Restaurants had to close bars had to close many Businesses Either had employees working from home or not coming into the office so The two revenues hardest hit by That happening with sales tax and hotel Tax and the hotel tax didn't affect the general fund Right, but it did affect the convention center and the will rogers And we had to furlough from the 78 employees because there was no business At the convention center and there was no business at will rogers You've now seen some of the hotels come back kind of Right they actually shut down omni shut down. I don't think they reopened until the golf tournament In june right and they're back at some capacity now, but a lot of the hotels never reopened So the hotel revenue is really impacting the convention center And the will rogers complex now the will rogers complex is having some events If they're at low numbers Uh, but there hadn't been an event at the convention center since march So when you think about the businesses downtown that also depended on the convention center business All that went away as well So then that takes us to the sales tax revenue So and as I mentioned we will collect At least 11 million less this year than we thought about so now And property tax I kind of foreshadowed what property tax is not going to affect us in the upcoming budget Maybe a little bit My concern is the year after When building owners will be able to I think have data to support values going in the other direction And that will mean property tax revenues will be less than what we expected So this is just to give you a visual of sales tax The forecast that we use in february is the blue line But the red line is we know we've lost At least 11 million for the year Let's assume we might come back at 4 growth We're still Created a gap between what we thought we would have and what we will have Property tax a little more Troubling the blue line again is the february forecast And the red line is well We think that might look like And again, we'll test that again throughout all the fiscal years is moving forward So we put a higher and let me give you the numbers in the general fund so the general fund budget was roughly And this includes pay as you go money. So this includes cash funding of the capital It was at 773 at the beginning of the year We believe now that the number we have to hit is 750 So we had to take 23 million out of the expenditure side That makes sense for the current year One positive thing we got 158 million dollars From the federal government and the cares act But it could only be used it can't be used for lost revenue So it could only be used for expenditure stuff. You have spent money on Right in response to coveted So the city has a workforce of almost 7 000 people So during coveted some employees got shifted from their job Right, which might let's take bren and bennett who is the head of our code compliance department And he becomes the public health official during coveted His salary now is eligible for the cares act funding That makes sense Right, so before His expenditure came out of the general fund now it comes out of the cares fund So we're able to offset some of our costs With the cares money So that helps with this 23 million gap that we've created But they got created from the revenues The other thing we did and this is a short term one-year strategy We shifted some of the stuff that we were going to use cash for And did short term tax notes The debt financing scheme In order to pay for those projects through tax notes As opposed to cash so it spreads out the payments over a longer period of time Reducing the amount of money that we have to come up in the current fiscal year And then departments identified 4 to 6 million of savings Did I get that number right? In the current year and we've had a hiring freeze In place since March Right now we're allowing some positions to get filled Right they'll get evaluated by the city manager's office that they fill We're allowing almost entirely only internal recruiting Because it'll create a vacancy somewhere else Right which I think we're going to need over a longer period of time to reduce the size of the workforce to bring The expenditures in line of what the future revenues are going to look like So the conversation we've been having internally in the city is This isn't just about the fiscal year 21 budget This is about the fiscal year 21 budget and what it needs to do to set up the fiscal year 22 budget Which I think will be harder Right and if you saw the numbers fiscal year 23 May even be harder unless there's a much faster rebound on the economy so as we've said earlier on the The budget's not a one-year event You got to think about this over a longer period of time And so we're trying to set up the budget in 21 Right not just for 21, but for 22 and 23 so The budget you'll see Next we've both on the capital side Our assess value Is only growing it's growing less than four So even our forecast numbers would have been off And that's not even adjusting for the what might be the decline in values Right new growth is still pretty strong, but the The tax tax district numbers for current values and appreciating or not appreciating. They were essentially flat Year over year they didn't decline so I'm not complaining, but they'll essentially stay flat Um And the 21 budget just looking forward if you think back to that forecast we gave just back in February So wasn't that long ago? We've got to take 18 million out of what we thought was going to be available So some of those commitments get pushed off We're going to keep the hiring freeze in place probably across The next fiscal year as well Because we got to be able to generate some of those vacancies that'll occur at the time Here again is A little more detail on this point forward The same conversation that we're having tonight We're replicating on Friday Um We'll present the capital budget on the fourth The operating budget on the 11th In august and september we'll be Working with council members that want to have virtual meetings different parts around the city. We'll do those By the work session scheduled on those dates that you see there And then we have the public hearings which are part of the city council meetings on september 1st 15th and the 22nd questions You have someone Um Oh now it's on we have um quite a few that have come in through email and text messages and phone calls So um, we're gonna get through those as quickly as we can um The police and fire departments use about 60 of the general fund with the remaining 40 for all other services How does that proportion stack up against other cities our size? I'd say it's pretty similar based on what I have seen, you know You know, I've heard some elected officials say do you know where all the property tax revenue goes? That goes to police and fire in fact If you look at the property tax revenue slice of the pie It's smaller than the amount of money That goes to police and fire But I do think it is we can get that data too because we do that as part of the annual budget will Have some of our peer cities, which will show you san Antonio, austin, dallas, houston And by my memory, I think we're fairly similar to most of those cities Why is the budget increased every year? Is it solely based on growth and what economic indicators go into that decision? I think we covered some of that it it's not this year Right and so when you think about We've had strong property tax revenue growth over the last four years four or five years And I think the economy reflected that too and so did the tax bills that got sent to folks But each of those years the last four years the tax rate also came down Maybe not Not down enough to offset the entire increase But the budget has been growing you over year But we've seen in the current year is the budget actually went down by 23 million And we expect property tax revenues to be relatively flat over the next two years So that's not always a given What role does do the council members play in the budget process or is it left up to the budget office and staff? Well, I think whoever asked that question got a better feel Uh because I think it's a participatory process throughout the year I mean, I think I get feedback from citizens all the time Right, I would imagine so do the other people in the manager's office and I imagine the council members Do as well and I I don't I would say the council members wait for the budget to Express where they think Needs are or where we got to allocate more resources And I think it still comes back to it's a budget process that Uh Like I said in the general fund if you spend a dollar in neighborhood services, it's not a dollar that's now available for something else Right, so that's all about choices and trade-offs Did I did I get it that question? That kind of leads into the next question Which is how are city services prioritized for funding? Is it based on programs and the most residents served? That's a that's a great question because we wrestle with that all the time Well, we we do it at a couple different levels. We do a citizen survey every two years Right and citizen survey will identify In broad categories how they feel about the delivery of city services and if I remember Usually the stuff that comes out on top from it has to do with the level of our street maintenance Does anybody else remember what's in the some of those top things? street maintenance, I think comes out traffic But we one way is to do the citizen survey We also ask departments to prioritize their services because In reality not everything is equally important Right and everybody can kind of prioritize their level of services and so when you think about If you had to look at where you're going to reduce things in a department you look at what those low priority items I'm not a believer in across-the-board Cuts because that cuts important stuff the same as unimportant stuff So I believe we ought to prioritize stuff and look at the stuff that's at the Lowest priority and see if we could just stop doing that entirely As opposed to across-the-board Again, which I think Effect services, which are important just as much as those that we might not think are as important When will a draft copy of the budget be available online for our review? The capital will be online on tuesday august 4th and the operating tuesday august 11th right post out both Or the recommendation on the capital will be out there on the fourth Okay When the budget is to be considered by the city council Will there be agenda items on the various sections to facilitate consolidated presentations and comments? So usually what we'll do Is we will try to identify what we think the issues are in the upcoming budget so we don't I don't want to say this and we don't parade every department in to make their pitch Right. It's the manager's responsibility To take what all the departments bring to the table How you balance the tax rate with infrastructure with operating with You know, is there a pay increase in there for employees and all those things that you have to do the choices and trade-offs So what I would say is we then identify the issues in the upcoming Budget that we believe have some interest And then try to have those as an agenda at some of the work sessions I can guess on some of these things. I think we'll talk about transit Because I think transit's had a 10 million dollar request out there to the city Right. I don't think that's a secret and they've tried to mobilize people to comment to the Manager's office comment to city council members. So I'm just guessing transit might be one of those issues And I think police funding both in the general fund and the ccpd fund Will will be an item for discussion Uh And they'll be I'm just using those as an example. So what we'll try to do is identify the issues that we're aware of and that the council wants to have some dialogue and the conversation about and then we talk about Does that change what's in the recommended budget? What do we trade off? We want to do more in a certain area So that's kind of I think how we'll handle that as we go forward How much of the funding will be allocated to grassroots community organizations? I'm assuming that is related to ccpd funding and so When you think ccpd funding question Uh, so I think we'll cover that on the operating budget Presentation on the 11th and I imagine that will have a lot of conversation around that after Well, that's right. What is the uh, right? So we're having a special workshop related to several Areas around police reform and diversity and inclusion On the 14th of august in the afternoon It'll be both you can attend virtually or in the work session For the city council and it'll include the proposed ccpd budget Including a breakout of how much will be available for community partners It'll also include an update from the police monitor's office On their schedule for that going forward It'll include an update on the racing culture task force initiatives Um, that have been ongoing it'll include a presentation on the city's Diversity procurement or What we call the mwb ordinance for procurement Now it's a diversity and inclusion business ordinance And it will also include the Presentation on It's the last one Fernando let me see That's right the municipal equity plan. So with the creation of the diversity and inclusion department We're going through a process where every department in the city Ultimately is going to have a diversity and equity plan tied to that department The first department to start that process will be our transportation public works department It's being led in cooperation in cooperation with the diversity inclusion office So there'll be a presentation on how that's going to roll forward and how that that'll move forward So all those items will be in the afternoon of the 14th. I believe it's a one from one 12 30 to 4 30 Yeah, we need to include that on our slide too. We'll have that Um, I think this next question also probably falls in line with that ccpd budget information that'll be shared on the 14th But it's will there be more funding allocated to mental health training for the police and community The short answer. Yes, the details will be And I think this has been covered but maybe just to expand on it How are you implementing and soliciting community involvement and input into the budget? Oh, this may be repetitive Again, what I'd say is we want to encourage that throughout the year And one way we get that is also through the multiple advisory committees that work with the different departments And that stakeholder process that we had it wasn't just the advisory committees We're also working with neighborhood groups and whoever wanted to participate And so we'll probably try to reinvigorate that stakeholder process Just because it is a form that allows us to do just what we're doing right now And I get to share information I get to hear questions And that's all part of the budget process as well How does the city justify the golf courses and Spinks Airport? Is there really enough use of either to truly justify spending dollars to maintain or enhance them? So I've learned in a few years in the business that Try to close a golf course Try to close a library Try to close a rec center So where we can think oh that can't be that important it is important somebody Spinks Airport there are a lot of hangers a lot of people that fly out of Spinks Uh Spinks actually doesn't it doesn't lose money. I won't say it's a money winner But but the city property tax payers sales tax is not going into Spinks Airport So the revenue they're able to get from the users of Spinks is covering the cost of Spinks We have close to actually the sycamore The eight nine hole who's it was it was he both? Yeah Can line item but can line item budgets be published along with the pdf On the website So I'll we'll put anything on the website I don't know how a line item budget will help somebody Because it doesn't tell you what that department is trying to accomplish It'll tell you what they're spending Line items, but it won't tell you what programs and services they're doing Or what they're trying to accomplish, but yes, we can put line item budgets on the website And then the next question also has to do with I'm sharing information can budget versus actuals be shared on a quarterly basis potentially Through open data and I would say the answers No reason that can't happen Um, I didn't make I didn't make eye contact with regi and terry Of course that could happen How much of a variance is deemed material? With quotation marks for example fort Worth PD 2020 budget is 267 million Line item budget shows 270 million That's we'll have to follow up on that one. We'll follow up on that one Let's take one in here. We'll come back here. Okay. Just want to say thank you. It was an excellent presentation um I wanted to ask With public safety getting a huge portion of the city's budget Do we ever consider Using those funds, I mean, I don't know if any of the organizations I've ever thought about community policing You know, I'm thinking that you know, a lot of the citizens seem to be unsatisfied with the services and with so much money going to that I'm thinking that there may be better outcomes Using folks right from the community who could Possibly assist or almost even better police People in those communities. I also wanted to ask how much Uh Funding is in the cc PD because if those are the funds that we're looking at using for Community projects That's still a whole lot of uh funding in the general fund for public safety that you know, that's We need to kind of consider and also my last question is properties that the city may own that are maybe just breaking even or Not getting the maximum Bang does the city ever consider selling any of those properties? So let me do the last one first. Yes So we're not going to keep that property for a public use park open space or a facility that we plan to build We want it back on the tax roll Right because otherwise it's simply a maintenance cost for us and it's not generating any revenue So it's in our best interest to put that property on the tax roll eliminate our maintenance costs and generate some revenue The other two questions that I think are about At cc PD one is the amount in the even though the sales tax has gone down. It's still about 70 million And so that's cc PD. So it's another 70 say 79 million Um, and I think what the question we had about The community other ways of spending that money. I think that's what you'll be hearing about partly on august 11th when we talk about the cc PD budget and then also on the august 14th piece Because I do think there is a lot of Interest in the community of can we spend more money on community programs? Are there are we going to do more in the mental health area or the crisis intervention team? So I think some of that will be addressed when we deal with the cc PD budget Out of the 59 positions to be eliminated for 2021 How many of those are coming from full-time positions rather than part-time or entry-level positions? Here's what I love about that question I don't even know what the number is Right, which means Somebody's got some information here So see there are no secrets in uh in government Ask me the question again. Say I lost track since Out of the 59 positions to be eliminated for 2021 How many of those are coming from full-time positions rather than part-time or entry-level positions? I don't know. I didn't know the number was 59 But it's a mix of Full-time and part-time we can we'll have that out When we present the budget on the 11th Again part the other one message I would want to share is right the positions were eliminating We're trying to do it entirely through creating vacancies So we don't put people on the street Right And so if we've identified a position I'm assuming that most if not all those 59 are vacant But if they are occupied Right, we made a commitment to work with those employees and looking at other vacancies that exist In the city So that we can put them in those positions if they have the qualifications in that job Why does Fort Worth have the fourth lowest total budget per capita of any major U.S. City, especially if we have been continuously lowering our property taxes because they were too high This includes having a lower tax budget per capita than texas cities like houston dallas and austin Let's see. I mean so that's new data for me too. I'd like to see that data I think that would be a great story If that's true to be able to share Again, the tax rate going down didn't mean that our property tax revenues went down In fact, our property tax revenues went up by those Percentage amounts. So we were getting healthy increases In property tax revenue even as we reduced the property tax rate So it's hard to correlate tax rate all the time with property tax revenue growth How has the city budget decided among the other city departments? What or who determines who gets what and how much? um No, I'd like to say it's a participatory process But in the end it's my responsibility to present the recommended budget and The way the question was implied um There really wasn't a lot of money to allocate to the different departments And I will say this There isn't a department that thinks they need less money to do what they've been asked to do Like every department in the city. I'm pretty confident Fernando Val everybody that they would want more money But there isn't more money Right, so we've got to then prioritize how we're going to spend that money and That list that you saw the telegraphed where we've made our commitments already Is the first place we're going to look because those are commitments. We've made to the public That we've got these things to do and so We try to involve the department heads and all those conversations because we don't want anything to sneak up on them We share with them and in this room often Right. Here's where we are on the budget. So we had a conversation in this room last week You know was a pay increase even possible So we could get some feedback from the department heads and and we talked in here last week about What vacancies are we willing? We collectively your department and we collectively that we're willing to put on the table to uh reduce The expenditure side of the city So we try to do that in participatory way But in the end of the day, we try to figure out what the right balance is That we're going to recommend to the city council Is it possible to implement a tiered property tax where residential properties valued above 250,000 pay a higher property tax rate I don't think that's legal, but we can follow up on that Now there are homestead exemptions right and some are based on percentages and some are based on total value Right. So if you have a lower valued house and you have a total value exemption, that's a bigger proportional decrease So sometimes it could be handled on the homestead exemption side as opposed to a tiered property tax rate senior freeze over 65 freeze So there are ways I think that's been accommodated but not through a tiered property tax great Has the city ever considered zero based budgeting rather than base budget the base budget approach Uh Yes, I mean, I think we There are many Opposed ways to do budget. There's party based budgeting. There's performance based budgeting. There's zero based budgeting Uh, and I would like to think we incorporate all the best of those Different ways of looking at it and every now and then you do have to look at it from the zero base Where you start from scratch and see if you built it back up whether you continue to do All those things that you've historically done Howard decisions made during the year to transfer money from one program or department to another Um Ask that again. I want to make sure I get there Howard decisions made during the year to transfer money from one program or department to another Uh, well, nobody has the authority to do that except me with notification to the city council Or if it's a project and we're going to change an appropriation only the city council can approve that So it would come as a recommendation from the staff Uh, but cross departmental Allocations I I have the authority to do that but only with notification to the council Reggie, I get that right Um, does the hiring freeze across the next year include police? Uh, so yes, it'll include police civilian positions Uh, not civil service Those recruiting classes take six months 12 months to put into place And the same would be on the fire side. Although I think fire has a current recruitment class in But it would apply to civilian positions in both police and fire Follow-up question to an earlier question if a line item budget isn't helpful in Understanding what initiatives are being funded. What's the best approach for the public to to get that understanding? uh, I would like to think that the The budget we prepare that has programmatic descriptions of what the department's trying to do is a better high level description Of again what the department is trying to achieve and perhaps how they're organized in order to get that function done To me a line item budget is simply going to show you how much money we spend on salaries and benefits office supplies training So I don't know that gives you a sense of how the department is organized I don't think it gives you a sense but it tells you it's a very finite number And we use line items simply to control how money is allocated and spent From an accounting system standpoint What will we do with the 2021 budget if we are still in a pandemic? Will we have to cut back on city services? Yes There's some of these who are they're very very specific and I think like We'll get the information, but um, I don't know that it's Yeah, I should have said that whatever questions come in that if they're tied to specific We're gonna put the question in the answer everything online on the on our website online So that people can see what the questions are and just the ones that have asked here too that That have more detail to it. We'll put that information online Hypothetically, let's say I had a great idea for a transportation project What would you say is the most productive use of my time to? Maybe get that project, you know pitch to somebody who can get on the budget or how can I get more involved? So it's a transit project Is it something that the city said I'm just this is part of what we'd explore Is it something that trinity metro is responsible for so is it a bus route or is it related to What we're calling these zip zone services, which is like an uber type thing in a certain area Uh, we're trying to do as many of those pilot programs with trinity metro So we have somebody that works with trinity metro And they put forward as you know a 10 million dollar request to the city Some of that stuff that I I look at that and I say, uh Like sidewalks Right that we should have sidewalks to bus stops. Let's make so that's obvious Right city is responsible for sidewalks. So You know, maybe we ought to add more money to the budget so we're able to complete more sidewalks to bus stops And that might be our contribution because we don't run the bus system We don't run the train system, but one of the things that we are responsible for sidewalks So I would try to figure out who's responsible for that and then try to steer you in that direction So You talked about Citizens advisory committee So and the stakeholder process and all that stuff. So what what does that look like? I mean, what has that looked like in the past, you know, you talked about neighborhoods being involved in this like What, you know, because obviously right now we're having meetings like this um, and there's more You know more is coming more questions are being asked. So I'm just like What citizens are on the advisory committee? What neighborhoods are being involved in that kind of stuff? So I'm just so not this past year because we didn't do it But in the years before so we tried to identify all the advisory committees that work with city departments And give them the opportunity to participate in the budget process From really the february timeframe through September when the council approved it Over time there were more than advisory committees. There are other groups that found out their meetings So some that represented neighborhoods some that represented the realtors association Some that maybe represented the real estate council or the home builders And you know, we didn't turn anybody away That wanted to participate The way I described it was simply sharing information in real time Right, so in february I'd say here's what we're sharing with the city council related in the forecast. Here's our obligations Here's what we're thinking about the ccpd. Here's what we're thinking about the general fund So we're simply doing it in real time Right and people got to participate and ask questions and And so at this point in time in the year, right? I'd meet with the stakeholder group And essentially telegraph what I'm going to talk about next Tuesday and the following Tuesday Right, so they had a chance to hear about it to give some feedback to Share that they think certain things are important to that group And so I What I'm I guess trying to share is you know, I want to get back to that Conversation to it's more ongoing and it's not exclusive right it's intended to be inclusive whoever wants to participate I will say like from the neighborhood representatives We had a lot of the alliances The the presidents from the different alliances were on that last stakeholder's group that we did last year So just to follow up just because I am a president of a neighborhood association And so that's that's why I asked that question and so because my neighborhood, you know Is is a large area Um, you know, I know the city doesn't exclude anybody. Uh, I would hope not but like The the amount of information and the you know, the swimming that you got to do through the information and stuff like that Like obviously, you know, we're getting people asking questions now about stuff that you know, we get the response that it's always been public You know, there's been meetings and stuff like that so if The process like is there is there something that you are looking to To get those neighborhoods that you know, if there is development in that certain kind of area You know that I reach out of Brenda and Ruth and Catherine Huckabee are amazing at what they do, but like you know It the way that things have been obviously has led us to the point where we are now where people are asking so many questions So is the city seeing on different ways of engaging neighborhoods that maybe probably possibly haven't been as engaged in the past And I know the community engagement office does a good job again. They do a good job at but just you know, because we have you know, these citizen advisory committees in the stakeholder meetings and stuff like that. So Be more even more inclusive than we have been in the past So that's I think I think that's our takeaway too that we've got to figure out how to do more of that There's no reason for us to keep this information to ourselves. I mean, that's And so creating these forums where we could say hey, here's what it looks like done. It's not that pretty Right and here's what we're struggling with. There's no reason to keep that to ourselves And I think we'd be better off with more people participating that conversation I'm just piggybacking off the gentleman's question when the information is put out More inclusive to the underserved populations and just like this 14th of august Meeting it wasn't publicized and the times are not conducive for working population to Be in attendance to participate So you have a 12 30 to 4 30 on the 14th of august Which we're just made abreast of but how do you expect regular citizens working day citizens to participate In these when you set them at those specific times They need to be more inclusive to the working populations or time sets and to be more inclusive for those populations I'll take that feedback Did you have any others? We were scheduled to go to eight. There is no reason We have to stay too late unless you want to And I'll stay here the whole time Um, are there any plans to host more? I guess what I would call educational sessions I think there are many members of the public who don't even understand What a bond program is How credit rating agencies affect that? Um, do you guys have any intentions of helping uh citizens to better understand all the impacts that go That affect your budget? We'd be happy to do that So the answer is yes How we incorporate that into I think you have an idea what it looks like over the next few months But then we need to figure out a way to do that throughout the year as well And I will say that like we're always especially through Catherine's group and the community engagement team we're always looking for ways to engage all of the residents and That could be a challenge sometimes because obviously we go to the electronic because that's free And when we start to do mailings and outreach which could reach a larger audience It gets very very expensive But if you all have ideas or groups that we can partner with to get the information out Definitely, I mean let myself know you can come and give me your email address Or reach out to Catherine and her team because they already do such a great job of working with neighborhoods But um, we're always looking for different ways to not just push out information But also have that two-way conversation so that we can get the input and find out where we need to do a better job This is my last question. So, um Is this presentation? I don't know how the broadcast is broadcasted. Um, but he's just gonna be in spanish We are adding spanish subtitles to the video and it will be posted on youtube. Thank you So just to clarify on the 14th So that that is a council work session So if anybody's free to attend and watch it there's not gonna if when you have a work session The city council meetings either at city council meeting We have public comment available or a work session where it's just a city council that speaks It will be televised and it will be recorded So if you can't be there to watch what goes on the city council's presentations that are done in the city council discussion And that kind of thing it'll be online available, you know on the city's website to be able to watch it later, you know that evening or the next day The idea is that the city council Is going to be seeing this information for the first time then also they're going to have questions they're going to have Have their ideas of of what's being presented and recommended by by city staff And those decisions will be part of the budget process, right? So during the budget process where we have the different dates that were shown for citizen input the budget hearings That's where you can come and make comment directly in public or you can contact your council member directly or the mayor's office or Whomever between then and the 22nd of september to give your feedback Based on what you saw just for that meeting for instance or any of the meetings as you go along So I just wanted to clarify that that it is It is a work session It is during the day But it's a work session for the city council to have the discussion and it will be available online For you to watch it whenever you're you can To discuss it afterwards I think the 11th is the overall budget operating budget It'd be it'd just be a presentation on the overall budget kind of big picture On the 14th will be those specific items that I mentioned That will be presented and then the council will have ongoing As david said different meetings throughout august When they have their meetings, they're going to get different pieces of the budget because it's too much to take in Right those things with the highest Most interest will be presented as you go along Yes, those are public hearings those are council meetings And they'll have we'll have a budget hearing where anybody can talk about any items in the budget at the time they can sign up You can also come during the regular council meetings in august and make comments about what you've seen in those presentations Just kind of to reiterate what her question was Um At those meetings, is it going to have the same rules as the city council? Like if I ask the question Are they going to actually be able to answer me? But so city council meetings, that's where we take citizen input the work session does not have citizen input Right. Well, my question is this um as city council meeting traditionally They have items on the agenda and the only times that the city council is supposed to be able to respond to you Is with items on that agenda and then you have general comments that the city council's Not allowed to respond to so are those questions going to be treated as general comments where the city council won't respond or Will they be treated as agenda items? Where where the city council will respond can actually get some some actual collaboration In these sessions going typically if you're asking a specific question about the budget that's being recommended during the budget hearing our budget Officer will answer the question on that budget question if you're soliciting An opinion from a council member that's there right whether or not they're going to answer you or not Well, I'm just asking the decision makers are going to be able to answer us if We ask them If I mean if they if they'd like to again There's a difference in the questions, right? If you're asking a question about the budget issue Specific budget item that you put the budget officer. Well the staff will answer that question I so I've seen all sorts of questions, right? Of city council members whether or not they'll answer that question or not. It'll be up to that individual Yeah, there's no reason. Yeah, okay. Thank you More citizen input in those decision-making processes not once it's done but in between so what I Right, so you can come to the budget meeting and and sign up and provide your input on what what changes you'd like to see on the budget And that's the first the 15th and the 22nd of september are the budget hearings Where we'll be able to ask questions in regards to what's being proposed and make comments of or recommendations On what's being proposed or any council meeting you could you could sign up in the citizen comments and provide your comments on What you'd like during the month of august in september Okay, that's my clarification so that will be for the citizen input and I'm sorry. I'm jeno with the NAACP Any final questions? michelle We're good on those I mean, there are some that are very specific and we'll like but like I said all the questions And the answers will be posting those online so everybody can see them So we're gonna do this again on Friday at 10 Is that right is that time right? So if you want to encourage others to be able to participate in that time or watch it we'll be doing Something very similar that we did here I want to thank you for taking your time this evening both those that are here in the room with us and those that are watching it From somewhere else I do appreciate you taking the time out and and joining us for the conversation on the budget But that I'll say we're through for the evening everybody. Have a good night You