In that case, please go ahead and start, Elda.

Thank you.

Um, good evening, um, co-chairmen of fiscal committee, members of the board.

If anyone is present, and uh the administration team there.

My name is Elda Sinani.

Um, I'm the director of Office of Policy and Management.

This evening I'll present the 2627 budget overview for office of policy and management, including um some uh departments responsibilities.

Uh, I'll talk just a high level, some accomplishment.

And uh also I'll discuss the revenue projection and assumption um that are included in our proposed in mayor's proposed budget for 2627.

So go ahead.

Um so the role of Office of Policy and Management is to develop operating and capital budget, financial forecasting analysis, revenue and expenditure monitoring, and policy and fiscal guidance for city employees and elected officials.

Our goal is to ensure that um the city's budget is fiscally responsible, transparent and aligned with priorities of mayor, administration, and the community.

Go slide.

Um this is a department overview, which is our org chart.

Um, we have a total staff of um 10 people, seven are full-time position, one part-time, and one permanent part-time.

Now, under OPM, it's also the mail and duplicating center, which is um with two staff members, it uh are in the mail and duplicating center.

So um I will uh go ahead in the next slide.

So OPM operating budget uh for it's only an increase of 2.7 percent or 38,170.

Uh the drivers are salary adjustment and contractual obligation for our employees.

And um the next slide.

Uh okay.

This is what OPM's budget is.

Um, I will talk about uh just a couple accomplishments uh and probably just a quick overview of the department.

So may I I could you point to which page in the budget so we can follow along with your analysis?

The uh org chart, it's uh in page I believe 38 of the book, a budget book, proposed budget book.

Great, thank you.

And page 39.

Thank you.

Sorry.

Welcome, no, no problem.

So as you see, it's 2.7 percent uh compared to the current fiscal year.

And um our focus is uh to remain on operating efficiently while supporting the city board, uh cities board of finance and uh financial and fiscal management responsibilities.

Even though, as um, we are a small team.

We are um our responsibilities are to prepare uh capital budget and uh operating budget.

Uh, we help also with WPCA budget as well.

So um, in addition to preparing just the budget, uh OPM plays a central uh role in fiscal management throughout the year the year.

This includes such as managing requests for additional appropriation, monitoring the city's contingency funds, coordinating the with the controller's office, grants office and auditors on year-end requirements and compliance with the city PCART policy.

We manage employee salaries uh and benefit allocations, working closely with uh HR department.

Um all these responsibilities help to ensure that the city maintains accurate financial um reporting.

Um looking ahead for fiscal 2627, I just want to uh mention uh a couple uh strategic initiatives that we have.

One of the most significant initiatives is the implementation of a new budget software um database, and we are in the process, which will modernize our budget development and reporting system by incorporating uh key performance indicators, which never done before for the city of Stanford, and strategic initiatives for each department.

We'll update as well the fiscal policies.

We are in the process of that, which would be included in the budget book.

So you'll see not only this budget book the next year, but you'll see a comprehensive budget book when they include you know, charts and uh analysis, fiscal policies, and uh key performance and indicators.

And uh, we have our goal is for the next um probably spring.

We have will be certified by GFOA or uh government financial officers.

So that is about uh OPM.

Um the next slide.

I'm just going to provide you an overview of revenues, uh total proposed revenue with 74.74 million, like number increase from prior year is 1.69 million or 200 uh or 2.32 percent.

Um this represent a moderate growth of approximately 2.3 percent, reflecting a conservative revenue assumptions and responsible fiscal planning uh by uh administration and our office.

So I'll go on the next slide.

Uh you can go on the book revenue projection.

Um, in the page.

Let me see.

I cannot open all the books.

Tony, are you on uh on a call or Bill?

So if you can help me with the page number for the board members because I'm sharing the screen here.

Yeah, the revenue the the revenue details starts on page 15.

You can kind of see all of the revenues by by department.

So just to give you a summary, revenue composition is made by property taxes, which is 90 91.7 percent, departmental revenue 3.9 percent, intergovernmental revenue 3%, use of money 0.8%, and interfund transfer 0.3 percent, and other revenues uh are 0.2 percent.

While the sources provide important support, property taxes, uh please know remain the foundation of the city revenue base.

Now, key revenue changes.

Um, you're going to see here there are several uh changes in revenue projection this year.

The most significant increase comes from departmental revenue, which are projected to an increase by 1.9 million, reflecting high services activity and based on actuals.

Uh property taxes are projected to increase by 467,000, consistent with the adopted grant lease and middle rate assumption.

Interfund transfers also increase approximately 473,000.

One um on the other hand, interest income is projected to decrease 500,000, reflecting more conservative expectations regarding investment return funds as we see the interest rate might be lower.

Additionally, in government intergovernmental revenues are projected to decline slightly due to anticipated changes in grant funding and tax levy.

Um we are you know, the tax levy net of reserve is projected at approximately 672.6 million.

This represents an increase of 42.8 million or 6.79% compared to the prior year.

The increase is driven primarily by education funding requirements, labor agreements, operational growth across departments.

Um please know that these are structural drivers that many municipalities across the state are currently experiencing, and we are seeing that in a city of Stanford as well.

Now reserves, I want to just uh give you on a quick reverse um overview of reserves as well.

The city's total reserves are projected uh at approximately 30 point 35.38 million.

The largest reserve uh category includes Harbor Point TIF Reserve, Capital Reserve Funds, uncollected taxes, elderly tax credit.

Umtaining appropriate reserves is critical uh for financial stability for city of Stanford for risk management and long-term planning.

Oh, and with this uh uh this proposed budget reflect we reflect a balanced and responsible uh fiscal plan.

Please know that proposed budget is not only a like financial plan, but it's a public policy book.

It maintains the city's ability to provide essential services while we continue to strengthen fiscal uh oversight and transparency.

I would like to thank OPM team uh for a great job and dedicated service and all the departments for their collaboration and cooperation in developing this proposed budget, not operate not only operating but capital budget as well.

And I would like to thank you all for your time, and I will be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you.

I don't see any hands.

Are there any questions?

Uh virtual.

I don't see virtual.

Do you see virtual?

Yeah, you can call our deal of cruise.

Representative, is your hand up?

Okay.

I was having trouble on muting, but I guess you can hear me now.

Yes, yeah.

Yes, okay.

Good evening, Elda.

Good evening.

Hi.

A couple of questions.

Going back to the first slide.

You want me to put the presentation back?

Yes, it will refresh my memory.

I was trying to take notes of perhaps we should have asked questions after each slide.

No, the next one, please.

Okay.

The next one.

Okay.

Next one.

This one?

The next one, no, I'm sorry.

It's okay.

Revenues.

Next one.

Increase.

Oh, yes, the uh no, the the the revenue increase.

Perhaps a prior slide.

This one.

Uh no, the one that had the taxes, that increasing taxes.

Oh, yes.

Uh I have two questions there.

Yes.

Uh the property tax increase of 467,000.

Uh, what was the driver for that increase?

Let me just not here.

Does the property taxes in general the collection?

Uh notes.

Let me go to my notes now because I'm stuck sharing, just if you can give me a moment.

Yeah, it was basically just a higher conduct to collections, just kind of looking at the details and looking at the overall percentages.

It was just the collections brought up.

Oh, I I see.

Uh, because the mayor's presentation projected 5.1%.

And I was wondering if that correlates with that projected five point five point one percent.

Oh, you mean uh in the tax revenue increase?

Yeah, the the city's budget is a ball.

No, that's okay.

I'll I'll refer to that, but offhand, uh, you don't know.

Uh okay, we will I can look it up later then.

Uh I would just like to let you know that the mayor um budget presentation was based on the numbers that we have in the budget book.

So if you'd like me to go over the summary page and all the increases or decreases with you, I'll be able to do that.

No, no, that is okay.

Okay, Elda.

Uh but this 467 is consistent with the 5.1 that the mayor on the city side.

Yeah, this is the same numbers.

Yeah, it's inclusive.

These are the same.

This is just uh yeah, one of the line items within the total.

So, yes, it's all all inclusive.

I see.

Okay.

And uh just for my own education.

Interfund transfers.

What is that?

How is that a revenue?

If it is a transfer between funds, it's mostly due to some of the other like between, like as an example, like the EG Brennan or uh the ice rank, the these are as they're putting together their budgets and there if they're over um particular items, yeah, because that those are going to be self-sufficient.

So if they're over on revenues or whatnot, then that would be incorporated into the general fund.

Well, if if it is a transfer from one fund to another, how does it generate revenue?

Because it's it's funds back into the general fund.

They're coming into the general fund from some of these other uh like parking funds, E.G.

Brennan, ice rink.

It wouldn't be an expense, right?

So it'd be revenue.

Yeah, it's coming into the general fund.

Yeah.

I see.

Oh, you see, so these are funds that are kept within the account of those entities, which then are transferred to the general fund.

Correct.

Oh, you see, okay.

Now I understand that better.

Uh on the reserves uh slide.

There was a refer a reserve for the harbor point increment this uh TIFF uh the TIFF district.

Why is a reserve needed uh for essentially a BLT uh you kind of broke up?

Um I mean this is this reserve's been going on for multiple years.

I mean, I don't have the institutional now, it's going back you know eight or nine years, but this has been consistent with previous uh reserve for the tax increment finance for harbor point, yeah.

And this goes back multiple years.

Yeah, so given the magnitude of BLT.

Um just remotely have a reserve for for the obligations.

Uh okay, thank you so much, Bill.

Thank you, Elda.

Uh thank you.

I yield uh Chair.

Thank you, Representative Cruz.

Uh, do I see any other hands?

I don't see the others.

All right.

Well, with that, thank you very much.

Um I don't see any other questions.

So then we will move on to our next speaker.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

Uh the next speaker is Leah Kagan.

So hi everyone.

I am here.

Sorry, there's a slight echo.

I am here tonight.

Um, I do not believe that we have presented on in the past on the items specifically that were listed on the uh schedule.

I did reach out to Barbara earlier.

I'm also happy to be corrected if I'm wrong, but based on my understanding of last year's presentation, that is my understanding.

Yes.

And we just projected we just uh presented the projection revenues, but we never had uh anything to do with the colleges or hospitals that was put in the agenda there.

Oh, I see.

Okay, so that that's a mistake.

So we removed that.

Yes, and I did communicate that with Barbara, but it was it was uh a little bit earlier today.

Oh, all right, great.

Well, thank you.

That's that's of course thank you.

Uh uh I so I guess you're done.

All right, and then that case we have grants office Anita.

Who's here?

So I am Anita Carpenter, I'm the grants officer.

Good evening, everyone.

Nice to meet you all.

And uh Danesha Brown is here, she's with the early childhood, and we usually present together, so we'll uh continue that trend if that's agreeable with you.

So, first off, let me say thank you for allowing us the opportunity.

I have a really great team.

So um we do uh we're responsible for identifying securing and administering the external funding across the city.

We work with the departments to develop the grant applications, establish project budgets, and monitor compliance requirements.

I'm on page uh 76.

Sorry about that.

So um, so our job is to ensure proper financial reporting for federal, state, and foundation funding.

And the office is organized as you can see on the chart across three functional areas.

We have the community development program, which oversees C D BG funding, home funding, um, and uh old loans from previously uh HUD funded programs, and um we have a special investment fund as well that we oversee.

Then we oversee the um state and federal funding for the city.

So we have a financial management team and a program administrative support.

We also house the project accountant for school construction in our department.

So that's the that's the grants team for you.

Next slide, please.

So the FY27 personnel budget reflects an increase of approximately 31,812.

It's about a 4.2% increase, primarily rating relating to staff adjustments, alignment of responsibilities.

We went through a step increases last year, and so that's reflected in this year's budget.

Operating expenses for us remain modest.

We focus primarily on maintaining compliance capacity and operational efficiency.

Our operating requests include our standard operating costs for office space and supplies, small professional development requests.

I have a staff member who wants to attend the grants management training in March of 2027.

And we had a request for digital archiving services, as you can see, but that did not make the mayor's proposed budget.

It does remain an important operational need for the office.

But it is not in your proposed budget from the mayor.

Next slide, please.

So when we talk about our new or expanded services, over the past several years, the grants office has continued to take on expanded role related to the financial management, and now even more so within Oracle.

This includes establishing projects and awards and the project portfolio, setting up, modifying grant budgets, managing the reimbursement based invoicing.

In addition, we also support oversight of several special revenue activities across the city.

We support the tax collector with the tax abatement invoicing and payments, support the town clerk with their oversight of the fee-based revenue collections, monitoring those.

We monitor settlement related funding streams like the opioid settlement and NIPS related revenue.

So as you can see, this is a this reflects an evolving role for the office as a centralized resource for external funding oversight and financial compliance.

So within our key challenges and changes, I mean, I think the biggest key challenge that we have is the scale of the grant portfolio we manage.

Currently, the office supports approximately 300 active awards, and in the proposed budget for FY27, these are multiple year awards, and in the FY27 budget, there's anticipated additional grant funding to support the city, which we welcome, but we do have an active portfolio that we manage across multiple city departments.

So these awards are focused on capital infrastructure, federal entitlement programs with our CDBG and home competitive state and external funded initiatives.

So at the same time, compliance requirements associated with federal and state funding continue to increase.

This creates extensive documentation, monitoring of sub-recipients, reporting and audit preparation.

So the operational challenge for us is really records management.

We are moving to a very digitized management system, however, because of federal retention requirements.

We do have extensive documentation related to the grants awards, monitoring activities, project closeouts.

So this represents on the slide our office space with all of our files that have to be maintained for the retention period for projects.

We still are maintaining files from like Hurricane Sandy because it's still open and active, and we're still working on all of those some of those projects, etc.

So we have to maintain those.

So as a result, we've got a significant volume of records and physical files, and they're stored in boxes within the office space.

So we had requested $50,000 for digital archiving services to convert these files into secured archivable electronic searchable records.

So that that still continues to be a request that's out there for us, but we do understand the need to tighten budgets and cut where you need to.

So the next slide, please.

With regard to performance improvements and efficiencies, the office continues to focus on improving our internal processes and our financial reporting.

This reporting framework is going to continue to improve our reconciliation of our grant expenditures, increase transparency and strengthen the city, the city's ability to respond efficiently to audit and federal monitoring requests.

The office has also centralized grants administration processes across departments, standardizing our compliance monitoring, improving tracking of reimbursements to ensure timely recovery of our grant funds.

And then in summary, the grants office, as we said, maintains an active portfolio of around 300 active awards currently in external funding.

And in addition to managing the grants, the office supports the oversight of all the special revenue and uh provides financial administration and compliance oversight for the externally funded programs.

So our FY27 request is focused on maintaining compliance capacity and operational efficiency while continuing to support the growing portfolio of the city.

So just kind of my final point is for approximately every dollar invested in the grants office administrative budget, the city manages about 475 dollars in external grant funding that supports the infrastructure, community programs, and capital projects.

So I'm happy to answer any questions.

I had a few, but I don't see any up here, so I just want to make sure.

Oh, uh Representative Morrison has his hand up.

Representative Morrison, go ahead.

Um thank you, co-chair.

Uh through you to um our distinguished guest.

Um is there a normal routine uh uh through which you and your department are always looking for new grants?

Uh are they always are they always governmental grants?

Are they public grants?

Are they are they corporate grants?

Give me a little insight if you wouldn't mind on on uh how you source various grants.

Sure, it's a great question.

So our grants office is constantly on the hunt for dollars.

We're signed up for uh EE announcements, we're looking at the uh federal register, we're looking at the grants.gov for the federal portfolio.

We have a lot of connections with all the different funding agencies that we're routinely work with, and they will release those announcements to us.

But I can't say that we operate alone because the departments are also very aggressively looking for funding, and when they come across funding sources, they will connect with the grants office and identify opportunities that we can support them on.

Sometimes with departments will write their own grant proposals and then just loop us in as they're putting those packages together.

Um, but largely we are at least in the loop in the in the no on the grants that are being submitted if they're by the departments or they're reaching out to us to have help with writing those.

We do work um, I think with almost every department that has some sort of grant-related funding to help them find those grant dollars and apply for them.

And Anita, is there what's your sense of uh grant availability or grants that have been uh granted but pulled back?

Uh, you know, how has what's happening in Washington directly affected the city through your department?

We've been really fortunate, Representative Morrison.

I think that you know, when we saw when we've experienced the federal shutdowns, when we saw the executive orders coming out, we had a really keen eye on the potential impact.

We identified and targeted those grants that could be impacted by that funding because they were trying desperately to pull money away from uh various uh universities and funded organizations, municipalities alike, and we kind of came out um unscathed.

So, and I'm not gonna say that that's um a guarantee still down the road, uh, in the especially in this current administration, there's always the risk that those executive orders, because they're still there, could be put into practice and we could potentially lose some funding.

But things like FEMA BRIC, where we've seen funding in the past, and they took that funding away on a national scale.

We are starting to see that come back, and so those applications are opening back up, and we're gonna continue to try to take advantage of them as much as possible.

But for our current portfolio, um, thankfully, we were not significantly impacted.

I will say, and I don't manage any of the BOE portfolio, they did not come out, they did not fare as well.

They were impacted.

Okay.

And I look, I've I've heard you speak of countless meetings over the years, and I see the impact of your work, and I just want to thank you for what you do.

So thanks, Anita.

I couldn't do it without my team.

They're a fantastic.

Thank you to all of you.

Thank you.

I yield, co-chair.

Thank you, Coach Morrison.

Um, I had just a few questions.

I don't see the other hands up here.

Yeah, thanks.

We're still playing around.

I'm still mastering this.

I'm glad you're running it.

Okay.

Go ahead, Representative Wapine.

Thank you, Chair.

And thank you as well for all the work you do, Anita.

Um, regarding the the uh archiving space, uh aside from being antiquated, is there a direct storage cost that we would be offsetting if we went digital?

Uh no, I mean, everything is uh currently sitting in the boxes in our office.

So there's no offset cost.

There's no offset cost.

Um, we're just looking to streamline efficiency and get that out of our space.

Great, thank you.

And you mentioned that I think our 300 plus grant applications.

What's like the three-year trend of that number?

Has it always been in that Hubbard and that range?

So we've seen um an increase over the last few years, and and I'll take ARPA, the ARP funding kind of out of that mix.

Um, but we've seen an increase, probably five to six percent over the last three or four years where you know the departments are aggressive in searching out funding, and we've tried to be more aggressive as well to be proactive in helping them search out funding.

We set up a practice now where we meet with the departments, uh, we try to meet with them prior to the beginning of the fiscal year or prior to the beginning of that grant cycle, which starts to come out in the spring and see what their priorities are so that we know what to look for and what to give them interest on.

So that's um that's been a change over the last few years.

Okay, from where we start.

So about a five to six percent speakers over time.

Roughly.

Okay, and then just my last question is uh in the whether it's for profit RFPs or nonprofit grants, one of the biggest areas of efficiency that AI is delivering is in the application process.

Like, you know, I think the numbers range widely, but like 20 to 40 percent efficiency in identifying evaluating the early analysis that I had read through 90 pages, getting the data.

How is that impacting the team size or what's what work are you doing or not doing now with the use of AI that you had to do with the team a year ago?

So I think for us, where we're seeing the benefits of AI is really in reviewing our our narratives for you know, like uh strategic language content compared to the NOFOs and the notice of funding opportunities.

We're still doing all that research and still writing all of that content.

Um, we're still doing all the data collection, but then AI becomes a great resource for us in saying, okay, look at this NOFO and look at our narrative that we've prepared, and you know, how do you how do you make it more efficient, or can you identify where we maybe could improve our language to align more closely with the narrative or with the NOFO guidelines?

And so it has helped us in terms of being probably more proficient in aligning with those app with those application guidelines.

So proficiency but not efficiency.

Um I think I I would say efficiency probably factors in there as well because certainly when you've got um that opportunity instead of another set of eyes that would take hours to review and give feedback when AI is giving us feedback, it's almost instantaneous, you know.

But but you have to be guarded because AI has to be checked and verified, so we're still um cautious about the use of AI in that capacity.

Thank you, I yield me.

Right, we got phone, sorry.

So thank you.

I was about to ask the same question, so excellent.

Um thank you very much.

Yes, thank you.

Are there any other questions from the floor?

Seeing none.

You're up.

All right.

Um is the um presentation being shared with everyone?

Uh she's right at the slide in the line.

Yeah, okay, perfect.

Hello everyone, I'm Panesha Brown, the early childhood coordinator for the city.

And next slide, please.

I on page 387.

So the early child, I'm the early childhood coordinator and actually the global governance partner liaison, and I serve all the children and families in this and the state and non-state funded preschools, infant and tolerant centers in the city.

Um early childhood field.

I also complete invoices and reports that I have to send to the Office of Early Childhood.

I also make sure that teaching staff, program providers, and families have access to professional development support and resources.

And then the data that we get from that assessment, we have to create a Stanford community plan.

After that, I have to monitor and track the deliverables on that plan, and I oversee and support the subcontractors that help under the local governance partner, which um is currently cradled to career.

Next slide, please.

The early childhood budget summary.

Um the early childhood program under the LGP and early start CT covers about 95% of my budget, I would say.

Um and this includes uh my salary and benefits, the subcontractors funds, professional development um opportunities for childhood early childhood providers, early childhood families, and early childhood educators.

Um so when I say providers, I mean the owners and directors of these early childhood programs and educators meaning the teaching staff.

Um, and also I have to provide or um I like to use the budget to provide curriculum support and resources for these programs.

Um 22,424 that you'll see um on the budget page from the city funding covers salary and benefits that are not funded under the grant, and then also and my good friend here Anita will add in if needed.

Um there is a required $50,000 match that is uh required from the state every fiscal year for the development of non-state funded programs in the city.

Next slide, please.

Some key changes and performance improvements and efficiencies include that um the Office of Early Childhood has merged school readiness, child daycare, and local head start, early head start programs into one, which is now um early start CT, and under Early Start CT, we have the local governance partner community table where we bring um community members, including program providers, teachers, parents, um other ECE experts in the field, um some health representatives, um workforce or representatives, as many uh people who uh can benefit from an improved early child early childhood community.

I will say they're all a part of the community table, and we host regular technical assistance and professional development sessions for everyone involved, and once we do get the results from the local meets assessment, um it will identify systematic gaps to be addressed, and then uh we create those improvement plans that may actually present additional funding from the state.

And uh to close, I will say um the Stanford Early Childhood Coordinator and LGP liaison schools, which is me, is to ensure all children, regardless of program type, benefit from high quality early learning opportunities that foster healthy development, support families, and prepare every child for a successful transition to kindergarten.

Thank you.

Any questions?

I don't see any hands.

Thank you, everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Okay.

Next we have purchasing.

ACRI, if we may.

Yes.

We should we should announce which members of the committee and members of the board are currently with us on the meeting.

Okay.

So far as I can tell, the following members of the committee are here.

Representative Dodo Cruz, Representative Dorsey, Representative Graham, Representative O'Pine, Representative Co-Chair Morrison, and obviously representative co-chair Zachary, and then representative front of the board itself.

We have President Shaw, Representative Sylvester, and Representative Walston.

That's everybody.

Yep, that looks like it.

Thank you, sir.

You are now giving you sign it back.

Sorry?

Can you just usually you'll give you just the sign back or no?

No, okay, okay.

Thank you.

And now purchasing will be discussed by Eric Larson, who's the purchasing manager.

Okay.

All right.

Well, thank you very much.

Um in the budget book, it's about page 34.

Um, good evening.

Thank you for the opportunity to present uh tonight.

So purchasing the work chart is the same as what you find in the budget book or a small department for full-time staff and one uh procurement clerk 19 and a half hours per week.

Uh next slide, please.

So our change this year is modest.

We're a little under $5,000.

Uh significantly uh the in the change is driven primarily by uh salary, and then there are some minor increases in the software maintenance and our subscription lines.

Um next slide, please.

So year over year, our numbers are are there are some increases and decreases, but it tends to be cyclical.

Uh you can see where we are in terms of uh our prior year numbers, we're on track.

We've issued as of as of uh March, we've issued 33 bids and 49 RFPs.

Um we and in terms of things that we do, we review and generate all of the purchase orders.

We're involved in the issuance of all formal competitive solicitations, whether they bid be bids, RFQs, or RFPs.

We assist in the process of piggybacking on uh various state or co op state or uh other cooperatives, and then also we're involved in the contract extension and waiver process.

Next slide, please.

In terms of uh challenges, we uh the Oracle system is uh we continue to to work within that system.

Oracle has changed, they're introducing the sort of uh what they're calling the Redwood model or the Redwood platform.

So as these new modules are rolling out, we are needing to kind of reconfigure.

We did uh receipts, self-service procurement, supplier registration, requisition entry.

Uh I believe next year we'll probably see changes to the purchase agreement and the purchase order module, so that kind of takes some time in terms of any changes that have to be made, but also retraining any of the uh the city users that are working within that system.

Uh the ongoing challenge.

I mean, Anita and I and our friends in OPM certainly work together frequently, and um you know, certainly monitoring and dealing with changes on the uh state and federal level to ensure that we are continuing to comply in a kind of a ever-evolving environment, and then at sort of our core, we are always looking to use the tools that we have to their full potential.

So, for example, we uh created a SharePoint site, and we've continued to use that to create a common platform for folks to be able to access uh various purchasing forms and solicitation materials.

We use an e-procurement tool called Procureware, and within that there's a feature that was called clarifications.

We've started to use that to consolidate where all of our um RFIs can be uh gathered, and then we use that to respond when we're we have an active solicitation, and then finally just continuing to poke and prod and learn how we can continue to use Oracle better.

So for example, we are starting to see if we have uh specific bids that have unit priced items, if we can create blanket agreements that folks can kind of using departments that if they've issued a bid on use traffic, for example, they will, if they have a bid for a uh traffic control cabinet as opposed to having to enter an amount-based requisition, they can simply go into Oracle, select the item that they want, and that item will be tied to the bid, the bid price that will then route through for approval and the purchase order will go directly to the supplier without us having to manually review it.

So little things like that.

And next slide, please.

Any questions?

Thank you for the opportunity.

Are there any questions from the floor?

I don't either.

Representative will buy.

Thank you, exactly.

Um so thank you for that explanation.

And the I the numbers again of how many RFPs a year and how many contracts here was it?

Did you say 30 roughly?

Or did I get it?

Yeah, well, so if you can go back, we've got a oh yeah, you're sort of to do an annual analysis, which we then put into their report and so forth.

But as of March, as of this as of now, in this fiscal year, we've already issued 33 bids and 49 um RFPs.

Okay.

33 bids and 49 for this for this for the current fiscal year.

Okay.

So we're we're on track to be about where we probably were last year.

Maybe a few fewer bids and a few more RFPs.

Okay.

And of those combined.

Is it like do the top five in terms of scale represent 80% of the spend, or is it spread pretty evenly?

What are like the the top five RFPs make up of total spend of the that you have and the total now?

Good question.

And I so we put out for special professional services, are anything over anything over 50,000 bids or anything over 25,000.

Um certainly the big hitter, the heavy hitters in the last year or so have had to do with school construction, certainly.

Um you've got your and that process follows what's set forth in the Connecticut General Statutes 10287.

So there's a kind of a combined request for qualification.

We we you're required to do a request for qualifications followed by a request for proposals.

The way Stanford has approached this is to issue a combined RFQR fee.

And I would say those certainly for uh West Hill, you've got your, you know, you've got the representative, you've got the construction manager at risk.

Uh same for Roxbury for the South Schools, those have certainly been the big hitters over the last year.

So probably like the top top five have to represent 80%, maybe as much as that number?

More than 50%.

Do you think with the total total amount or no?

And I'm I'm not sure I'm following your quick.

How much of the top five RFPs are representing the total amount?

Yeah.

So that total amount, I apologize, is not connected to the bid or RFP.

That's just total purchase.

That is the total purchases, the total total.

So if you're yeah, that's just looking at purchase orders issued and total amount.

Okay.

Sorry.

Okay.

Okay.

So be curious to know what okay, but that's simple.

Thank you.

All right.

Are there any other questions from the cloud?

All right.

With that, thank you very much, Eric.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Uh next we have assessments with finance controller from Teresa.

Are you ready?

Hi, I'm ready.

Thank you.

Uh thank you, board for having me.

Uh just want to introduce myself.

Uh I'm Teresa Viscarillo.

I'm the controller for the city of Stanford.

And uh I report to the director of um administration, uh Leia Gagan.

And she um, you know, she's been on great support uh for me and my team.

Um so if you can uh I'm actually if you'd like to go to the budget book, uh I'm listed on page 28.

Okay.

Uh so here is um the controller's office department of um reorganization uh that I've been working on for the last two years.

Uh I came on as controller uh back in May of 2024.

I came on as controller uh back in May of 2024, and um this was the reorganization plan that uh I presented to you uh the last fiscal year, but I've have if you turn to the next slide, page 31.

Uh one uh major change in program expansion uh for this fiscal year, which is uh the addition of a payroll accountant, uh which is part of the controller's office reorg, and it's needed to support the timely audits and prevent disruption in payroll continuity.

Um just to give a little background for the the new board members as well.

Um the controller's office pretty much uh maintains the financial transactions and records for the city, Stampered, various agencies and departments uh by supporting the general ledger, uh purchasing card administration, accounts payable, treasury, pension plans, OPEP trust, and payroll functions.

Um as part of that, uh in addition, we oversee the annual external audit of the city's uh annual comprehensive financial statement uh by the city's independent auditors.

Um the budget impact over the prior adopted budget is approximately 113,529.

It's a 5.5% increase, uh, which is primarily due to contractual increases.

Um that is it.

I am open to any questions the board has for me.

Uh Coach Morrison Um Thank you for your uh presentation.

How much of the increase is due to contractual?

Is it nearly all of it?

Uh not uh all of it, it's a good chunk of it though.

It's you know, about probably like four percent.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Are there any other questions?

Uh Representative.

Representative, thank you.

Uh thank you, good chair.

Uh hi, Teresa.

Hello.

Hi.

Uh, what is the status of the audits?

Okay, well, I'm happy to report that uh as of two weeks ago, we published the fiscal 24 audit, and we are in the next probably till the end of this month, we're gonna begin the fiscal 25 audit.

And we're anticipating unwrapping that up mid-July of this year.

So we'll be back on track um hopefully for the 26 audit.

Well that's yeah, that's the plan.

I see.

Has any thought been given to having an actual internal auditor call for in the charter?

Oh, I I believe there is a position that already exists in the charter, and I believe it's also uh rolls up under the director of administration in their um chart, organizational chart, representative de la cruz.

There is an internal auditor, but not in your department.

That's correct.

Okay, uh I guess I'll have to review that organization for okay, but as far as not in your department, but there is an internal auditor.

Uh there is there is yes.

Okay.

All right.

Uh I'll follow up.

Last time I asked the question back when the audits were so far behind.

Yeah.

Uh there was no such person.

Uh but I'll update myself myself on that.

Okay, uh, no problem.

If you'd like to refer it to it in the budget book, a representative de la cruz, I believe it starts on page 23.

Or even 21, it's under the director administration.

You could actually refer there.

It reports that position reports directly directly into the director of administration.

So if you look at 21 and the actual cost program costs, um are on page 26, uh, beginning there.

Beginning there.

Okay, sorry, Teresa.

I would have expected that position to report through you.

It's um uh that's the way it is.

Uh thank you, Theresa.

Thank you so much.

You're well.

I yield.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Uh Representative Doa Cruz, just on that point.

If you turn to the budget book, page 23, it shows clearly that the internal audits and internal auditor report directly to the director of administration.

So that's that's what uh Ray's uh said.

Yes.

I just wanted to give you a reference point, yes.

Yes, okay.

Thank you much, Larissa.

You're welcome, thank you.

Uh yeah, thank you.

If there are any other questions, and thank you very much, Teresa.

Thank you.

Have a good evening.

Next up is assessments, tax and collection.

Uh I see.

Who's going to be presenting?

Is that uh Greg Stackpole or Bill DePolitano?

Uh yes, uh, this is Greg Stackpole, City of Stanford assessor.

Uh let me just get my video in here.

Looks like my video is uh trying to start, but I will I will begin anyway.

Uh as mentioned, I'm the assessor for the city of Stanford, and our um primary function is in establishing the annual grant list, which consists of all real estate, personal property business assets, and more vehicle accounts in uh our jurisdiction this year for the assessment year.

The grant list uh grew to 27.4 billion dollars.

A represents 106 million dollar increase over prior year.

Uh the you could go to page 53 in order to uh view the um in the budget book if you want to go through, but this uh here uh shows the uh department organizational chart of the various divisions within our department, which consists of the assessor's office board of assessment appeals, uh which is a separate dominance body uh that we help administer for uh the board and our property reevaluation uh division.

Uh we are fully staffed this year.

There are no uh MOUs or other increases or changes to our staffing.

Uh you can go to the next page.

Uh as a budget overview, uh slight changes over prior year.

Uh the most important aspect is that overall our budget has decreased year over year uh within the assessor division.

We had some slight increases with conference and training uh following the um uh filling up a vacancy of uh our staff and in the department and uh for training for this year, and uh there were no changes with the um board of assessment appeals, and um we've experienced uh a decrease or anticipated decrease in contracted services for next year following kind of a wrapping up of our uh tax appeals uh since the 22 reevaluation.

Um we've also seen a slight increase uh with um um overtime for property reval as a result of implementing uh a couple of more um veterans programs uh for the citizens here in Stanford, which I'll go into more detail uh in next pages.

You can hit the next uh screen, please.

Okay, so this is the uh I believe on page 56 or 57 of the budget book for assessors, uh you can see here uh the overall budget increase 1.1 percent with salary increases.

Um there's a slight increase uh uh that pertains to software maintenance for our vendors, which are uh and also a slight increase with the conference and training.

Everything else was no change.

Next page, please.

Board of assessment appeals.

Uh we just completed uh or just finalizing the completion of their um appeals for this year, and uh but we anticipate that there's going to be no change uh from uh the current uh budget year into next year, so that will remain flat.

Next change next page, please.

Okay, with property reevaluation.

Again, we had some mandatory increases due to salaries and and such.

However, uh we anticipate a decrease in contracted services uh due to a slowing down and closing out of tax appeals from the 22 revaluation.

And uh so overall uh this represents a 4.4% reduction over prior year, and when you uh combine the all three together, um you do see a decrease overall.

Next page.

So when I I touched spaces a little bit about before uh regarding the requested overtime increase as a result of two programs that we've expanded this year and into next year uh for the veterans, and uh this is local ordinance 1323 that was enacted back in November 5th of the boards and uh signed by the mayor, um, which uh exempt the uh dwelling for those uh veterans who have been um determined to have a total disability uh that's service connected and based on their individual unemployability rating as determined by the VA.

And we have also another program coming on next year for the 10126 grant list, which will provide a five thousand dollar assessment exemption for any eligible qualifying veteran who doesn't already qualify for an exemption under the normal 12-81 benefits for veterans.

So typically what this means is that uh those veterans who had served not during a time of war, but during a time of peace.

Next page.

One of the key challenges we see in the upcoming year is for the 2027 property reevaluation.

As you know, every five years we require to perform a citywide reval.

Uh and the last one was in 22.

We just uh posted with the assistance of purchasing an RFP to procure a certified reevaluation company uh for this task, and uh we had currently uh just recently mailed out income and expense letters to income producing property owners in effort to obtain market-related data that's current uh that shows expenses, rents, and vacancies throughout the various commercial properties within the city.

Next page.

One of the efficient um improvements that we've seen uh in this last year is the development of a commercial lease database, and this was an effort in anticipation of the upcoming reevaluation.

We wanted to get uh a different perspective and um what's on the trends that's going on within the market.

So we're compiling all this the INEs that we're receiving uh from the property owners, uh putting them into uh another database that we're creating to uh look at the the various buildings within this city, not only by class, but by stabilization, right?

perspective and um on what's on the trends that's going on within the market so we're compiling all this the I and E's that we're receiving uh from the property owners uh putting them into uh another database that we're creating to uh look at the the various buildings within this city not only by class um but by stabilization right it's to to see you know in the future you know are these buildings gonna be uh more occupied or are they gonna or are they gonna see uh more vacancies as these leases expire this will help us predict market trends uh based on the upcoming vacancy rates uh that have not yet been reflected so we're we uh we're looking forward to utilizing this this tool for the upcoming reval next page so this is the grandlist breakdown where we have the real estate uh last year through uh as a result of the board assessment appeals um it was at 24.4 billion uh personal property was at 1.7 and motor vehicles 1.193 total last year was 27.327 uh billion dollars we're now up to 27.433 billion uh which uh shows a hundred and six million dollar increase uh the majority of the increase uh in for real estate was attributed to uh the completion of new apartments uh coming online we had uh considerable increase in uh motor vehicles uh as a result of increased number of vehicles within the city but also uh reflective of uh more expensive vehicles uh that were being registered as well and personal property it more or less is a stabilized increase um from prior year next screen well that that's the end of the presentation if you have any questions regarding any of this any of the screens or I'm here to answer for you uh I see a hand up from representative walston hi can I see the second to the last screen again okay can you go back to uh the previous screens it's right before the thank you Christina so the this one yes so we've increased with the apartments in the real estate I think that's what you said that's where the increase that's what I mean yeah the majority of that 50 million right okay and I'm just going down here and we have an increase in vehicles in town correct that's generating a lot of money yes we did see an increase yes okay I just want to not you I just want to say this for the record I thought our vision was to get the people out of cars and to start using the public transit more but we're still generating so much money so it's just like to me it's a class right there might I'm a little confused either you want us to take the public transit or or the motor vehicles because definitely it's a lot a lot of money um in this town by having a car and that's all I wanted to say thanks.

Thank you representative Walson are there any other hands of representative Coachair Morris.

Thank you Coach Zachary um what when is the next um when is the next reval scheduled to begin it would uh effectively begin uh I would say uh in near the second quarter of um next year okay 2Q27 and the results of that would be effective for uh the beginning of the fiscal year what 2829 at that point the results of um would the results of the reval will be baked in the results of the reval how how that would work is that um as of october one uh 2027 uh the vendor would have uh established preliminary values for all the real estate uh we would then um review them uh with the vendor send out notices to the property owners uh probably uh within December or November of 27 in anticipation for informal hearings to be held somewhere in the city of Stanford uh government center which would offer an opportunity for the taxpayer to discuss the assessment or the proposed assessment uh with the representative and

We would then review them with the vendor, send out notices to the property owners probably within December or November of 27 in anticipation for informal hearings to be held somewhere in the city of Stanford government center, which would offer an opportunity for the taxpayer to discuss the assessment or the proposed assessment with the representative and to bring forward any kind of any of the information to come to light that they may have feel that is not been representative in that number.

And so they may take that into consideration.

Once the grand list is signed, typically by the end of January, then the taxpayer would have an opportunity to go and file with the Board of Assessment Appeals if they uh further want to uh dispute that.

However, the actual tax bill wouldn't get um billed out until uh end of June of 2028.

Okay, so that means that when we uh are working on the budget for the 28-29 uh fiscal year, uh the results and uh implementation of the reval, that's when it would be in place and reflects okay.

Right okay.

Thanks, Bill.

I pre I uh Bill or Greg, I can't it's Greg, sorry.

Thank you, Greg.

Appreciate it.

Sure.

I yield so thank you, co-chair.

Are there any other hands?

All right.

Uh with that, thank you very much, Greg.

Um you're welcome.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Uh next we have revenue services and Megan Benjamin.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Hi, thank you for having me.

My name is Meg Benjamin, the director of revenue services.

I joined the city and the revenue services department about three months ago.

So I just wanted to share a little bit of about my role and um what we're focusing on.

So my role focuses on strengthening revenue controls, improving reconciliation processes, and helping modernize our financial systems to better the service of the city and its residents.

So tonight I will briefly share some of the initiatives we are currently working on to improve efficiency, transparency, and financial oversight.

So here you will see this is the revenue services org chart.

We have a revenue services manager who focuses on the financial functions of the department.

We have the cashiers, accounting specialists, and permit clerk who focuses more on the day-to-day functions.

This structure ensures there's clear lines of responsibilities for both functions.

Next slide, please.

Cashier and permitting serves as the city's primary in-person payment center, collecting payments for a city fees, fines, taxes, and permits.

The cashiers also ensure all revenues are collected, processed accurately, deposited and recorded into the appropriate city funds, and the team manages any parking citation appeals and also provides day-to-day customer service to the residents seeking assistance.

Revenue services, excuse me, provide centralized oversight of the city revenue collection, excluding property taxes to ensure deposits, reconciliations and financial records are accurate, timely, and compliant with city financial policies.

And that is due to the separation of both programs.

For all non-salary budget items in revenue services and cashiering, those items have not changed.

Next slide.

So currently, revenue services supports revenue collection for several departments, including parks and transportation.

Our NF initiative is to expand that model.

So revenue collection across city departments is more centralized.

This will help ensure revenue is recorded consistently, strengthen financial oversight, and improve how we track and report incoming funds.

Another key focus is strengthening how our revenue systems integrate with one another.

So our goal is to integrate these systems so that the revenue data flows more consistently into our general ledger.

And finally, we are updating the department's cashiering policies and procedures, which have not been revised since 1997.

And since then, as you can imagine, the department has adopted many new technologies and revenue systems.

Although this slide is for key challenges and changes, um, as someone who recently joined the department, I look at system integration and financial reporting as opportunities on how we can manage revenue collection.

One key operational focus is ensuring that our cashiering system and Oracle, our ERP system, remains properly integrated as revenue collection expands.

Maintaining that integration is critical to ensure revenue is posted accurately and reported correctly.

And we are also going to explore new functionalities within Oracle, including potential AI supported tools that could assist with our business practices.

Next slide, please.

We'll work together to strengthen the city's revenue operations, and it will position the department to operate more effectively and enhance service to residents and provide more accurate, reliable financial reporting.

And that concludes my presentation.

Any questions?

Do I see a hand?

I do not.

Oh Chair Morrison.

Thank you, co-chair.

Uh my question is with how much cashier and permitting activity with the public, uh, what percentage of it is done online versus in person at this point.

So a lot is done online, but for example, for beach permits, there is a processing fee.

So a lot of our residents just prefer to come in person, um, just so that they can pay with cash or a check to avoid the processing fee.

Would you say it's roughly how I mean is a general idea, you know, with the number of people who need service, how much is done online, how much is done in person.

I don't have the like a good estimate, and I don't want to No, no, that's okay.

I'm not trying to stump you.

No, no, no, it's fine.

But I would say uh we do get a lot of in-person transactions for, for example, beach permits, marina permits, you know, a lot of that is done in person.

And for, for example, any of our residential parking or parking garages, a lot of those are done online.

So sometimes it depends on the type of the permit that the resident is looking for, but we do have a big population that comes in person.

I wish I had a better um.

No, no, that's okay.

But yeah.

Okay, I appreciate it.

Thank you.

I yield, Chair.

Uh thank you, Coach Morrison.

Any other questions?

Uh uh share.

I just uh I believe uh you uh might have skipped over me some if we can uh tax collection.

If we can uh tax collection, I was with Greg.

So I just want to make sure before that you we don't miss it.

Uh oh okay, I'm sorry, I apologize profusely.

I guess that's no worries at all.

No worries at all.

Just want to make sure that I'm able to present because I don't want you to think to end the meeting and say this guy never talked.

Uh it's a little unclear because they're conjoined, and I couldn't tell that they're on this.

Yes, I understand.

I I I did uh they they are conjoined, and and unfortunately they are two separate uh departments.

Okay.

Well, uh let's let Ms.

Benjamin finish, and then you're welcome to jump in.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh are there any other questions?

Great.

Uh thank you very much.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me, and thank you for your time as well.

Have a good night.

Good night.

All right.

Uh Bill Napolitano from Tax.

Great.

I'm sure everybody's favorite.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I appreciate it.

If uh I believe my slides could come up.

It should be relatively quick.

Are your slides um in with um the assessment?

No, they are not, they are separate.

I sent a tax collection slide.

Let me check.

If you want, I can share.

There we go.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Um we can move on.

I'm I'm Bill Napolitano, the tax collector for the city of Stanford.

Um there is my org chart.

Uh, it's a relatively small department.

Uh that org chart will appear on page 63 of the budget book.

Uh we are part of uh a division of the uh the revenue services.

So uh uh revenue services encompasses several several different uh uh set uh plus irons.

Um my the rest of my information is on uh pages 69 to 71.

Uh next slide, please.

So the overall uh mission statement of the tax collection department is to establish and implement effective policy procedure and controls for tax collection, monitor compliance with the same and as well as compliance with city state policies, uh statutes and ordinances, and to provide a state mandatory mandated reports and other revenue analysis as requested by elected city officials and other municipal departments.

Its goal is to ensure the division provides accurate information and effective service to the public.

Tax collection is a program or cost center of the revenue services department division.

Next slide, please.

Okay, with um in the past years, and I think uh really not much need to go over this uh all of it because this was part of what Meg discussed just before me, where we were one department, now we are split tax collection department.

So in the budget, you will see items for salaries, advertising, postage, contracted services, which uh have increased the tax collection budget, but I've re been reduced on the uh revenue services side.

So it's really a net uh wash.

Um there were three tax collection budget increases from the previous year.

They're minimal.

Uh again, it's software maintenance and it's typical contracted services and postage.

Uh, all of our other non-salary budget items have not changed.

Um next slide, please.

The current um uh revenue summary uh and actually a lot of this was uh uh discussed with Elda when she went over these tax revenues.

Uh but this is maybe uh more of a drill down.

Uh the there's been uh an increase.

We're expecting an increase in the MTS revenues for which is the program that uh uh gets uh out of state out of uh city registered vehicles that are housed in Stanford.

Um the pilot center was another increase in revenues.

Uh they for a long time did not have uh we're not paying, and and uh we've come up with a a pilot agreement with them, so that uh we've seen a little bit of an increase with the payments from the Italian center, uh slight decrease in the supplemental auto tax uh revenue uh because of there's a new uh um depreciation schedule last year that they've uh uh the state has initiated and the depreciation is different on the motor vehicles now, and we saw a slight decrease in there.

Um there are some other revenue items that uh that show on the tax collection uh uh system, but but uh not system, but under the tax collection department, uh, but we don't control those.

So those are the the pilots of state tiered reimbursement in the private and parochial schools, which I believe that was also discussed in uh elders of private parochial schools and that that that information.

The next next slide, please.

The expanded programs for 2627.

Uh we've we've uh engaged in a collection agency for delinquent personal property accounts.

We're expanding that a little bit more and giving them some additional accounts.

Uh and then as last year, the partnered with our own legal department, and we are expanding use of outside attorneys for collection efforts, and we're seeing a good return on that.

Uh that it seems to be working well.

Uh we don't anticipate any uh abandoned or curtailed services or programs in next next fiscal year.

Next slide, please.

Key challenges, obviously the maximized collection efforts.

That's what we do.

We're all about the revenue.

So we gotta bring the revenue in the door, and and we do everything we can to maximize that, uh, keeping somehow keeping the residents happy and and streamline the process for internal controls.

Next slide, please.

We are looking to increase the use of online systems if we can.

Uh we are working with our online payment systems to provide multiple ways, uh, Apple Pay, anything that they can come up with.

We're working with them to come up with new programs uh to to get people using online payments.

Um and and at that rate to decross decrease the cost of that online transaction for credit cards and stuff like that.

Bill, may I stop you for a moment?

I see a hand up from Representative Walston.

Sure.

All right, I was just thinking uh have you guys considered like uh maybe we should have like a satellite office also everybody going to um to the government center and like maybe um like opening on like uh Saturday.

Um we have not discussed that.

That's an uh uh uh rep Representator Walsing.

That that would be actually something for me to discuss with Megan simply because uh they've separated collection the the collection process from the the actual payment process, I should say, from the collection activities.

So that's more of uh, you know, and you're talking about a center for people to pay to make it more uh uh easier available.

Yeah, like uh remember we used to have the DMV, like instead of we didn't have to go back to Norwalk anymore.

So but we're here now, the government center.

And you know, like we have a lot of commuters, and uh I was just thinking, you know, they want to come in, and I know it's kind of difficult for some people Monday through Friday, then they have to do the online thing.

Um as opposed to like maybe some we can have like an office that's open from like nine to two, like maybe one Saturday of the month or something.

Yeah, that that that certainly uh is something that can be discussed uh with with Megan and myself, and and you know, there's some concerns with with having satellite offices and cash controls and and and things of that nature, but it's certainly something that can be discussed.

Yeah.

Okay, thanks.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

And I see a hand up from Representative Delacruz.

Uh thank you, Chair.

Uh hello, Bill.

Uh Virgin Cruz.

Uh Bill, uh, what is the convenience fee uh today for paying things like taxes using the credit card?

It it the so for a credit card.

Um I believe we're at 3.9% uh let me see.

I think it's it was a little over three percent.

I mean, just uh hold on one second, I get that for you.

Um there are there are a lot of options to pay, or three options to pay online.

Um the the best option, which some people don't want to use, is a uh um e-check.

Uh that's 95 cents.

Um, but but the percentage for a um hold on one second.

Right.

Four nine uh we are at 2.99% on a credit card charge.

Um if you use a an e-check, it's 95 cents.

Um, and there's a minimum fee of three dollars and ninety-five cents.

Okay, that's more reasonable.

The last time go ahead, I'm sorry.

Yeah, the last time I tried to pay taxes uh by credit card, the convenience fee was astronomical.

Uh so this sounds a little more reasonable.

It is coming down, and and we are also in in some negotiations with other uh online payment systems where we might even be able to get that reduced further.

So we'll we're working on that.

Okay, I'll encourage you uh to pursue that.

Thank you so much, Bill.

Thank you all.

Okay.

Next slide.

I think that's it for my slides.

Next slide, please.

I think, yeah, there it is.

Excellent timing.

Yes.

Uh so I did have a question, if I may.

Uh, and thank you very much, Bill.

Uh the question was you mentioned going after delinquent tax accounts at personal property.

Roughly what percentage of accounts are currently delinquent or severely delinquent.

And what was the total amount, again, roughly speaking, of uncollected revenue lineups.

Um, I would have to run some numbers.

I can certainly email them to you.

Um, I don't have them offhand, but I could certainly let you know that.

Typically, personal property and Motor V are the uh higher percentages of delinquencies and and and uncollectibles, uh, simply because businesses go out uh they and they don't get their last bill and and they're gone.

And motor vehicles, people move out of state.

Um the the highest rate of return, the highest uh collection rate is always uh real estate because it doesn't move.

And we always we'll get 100% of real estate.

We won't get 100% of Motor V or personal property typically.

Uh thank you.

I would actually like to see those numbers if you can run them without too much trouble.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Uh are there any other hands or questions?

With that, uh I believe you, Bill, we're the last speaker.

I'm sorry for taking you out of order.

No, not at all.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Uh that concludes our meeting for tonight.

Uh, we are adjourned.

Thank you all.

Uh glad you could all make it.

Good night, everyone.

All right, everyone.

Good night, everyone.