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List of Strategic Planning Issues - 1-14-09.do City of Atlantic Beach List of Issues to Consider for Strategic Planning Sessions February 2009 Budget In recent years, the strategic planning process has been the kick-off to the annual budget preparation. Priorities set during strategic workshops have been used to establish budget recommendations. For several years, the City has been in very good financial condition, especially since the City started receiving funds from the Better Jacksonville Half Cent Sales Tax Fund in 2001. Prior to that time, money for most general capital projects came from the General Fund. With the Half Cent Sales Tax money, revenues for capital projects were available from multiple sources. Atlantic Beach has been able to fund many major capital projects in recent years. Several projects from the August 2002 Stormwater Master Plan have including the core city work (largely paid by the 1996 bond issue), construction of the Hopkins Creek Regional Retention Pond, the Ocean Boulevard drainage projects, reconstruction of drainage to serve Selva Marina Circle and the Dudley/George Street improvements. Parks acquisition and development projects have included the redesign of Bull Park, the reconstruction of the Adele Grage Center, acquisition and construction of Rose Park, adding a new skate park and tennis restrooms in Russell Park, and several new beach access ramps. Major street projects have included the Mayport Median Project and the redesign of the Five Points Intersection. Operating costs increases have also been absorbed into the budget during these years, mostly for salary and benefit increases to remain competitive with other area employers and for increasing health insurance and pension costs. In the last two years, the Florida Legislature has mandated restrictions on property tax collections and economic conditions have reduced sales, gas and bed taxes as well as other funds. These have dramatically reduced the funding available for capital projects. While the budget has been balanced largely by eliminating or reducing new projects, the City is quickly approaching the point where there are not many new projects to cut. If there is good news in these economic times for Atlantic Beach, it is that we have been able to cut new projects and not service levels. Also, projects to improve the stormwater system have mostly been completed with the exception of the Royal Palms reconstruction for which most of the funding is in place. Consequently, major storm water projects are not anticipated in the next few years. The Commission will need to consider the effects of the economic conditions on the city’s long-term financial plans. Without new revenues, it may be difficult to pay for future operating costs without service level reductions. The Police Building is the remaining major general type capital project in need of funding. Money is available in the Half Cent Sales Tax Fund to pay for the debt retirement, but using those funds would limit the available money for other future projects. Revised long-term projections will be discussed in the strategic planning workshops. Mayport Corridor Project Crime, traffic and pedestrian safety, a blighted appearance and other factors along the Mayport Corridor have caused this area to be in the City’s strategic plans in one form or another over many years. The first major effort to improve the area after the Flyover Project was the installation of landscaped medians. In February of 2008, a comprehensive approach to improvements became the highest priority in the City’s strategic plan. It has evolved into the most complex issue that city staff has ever taken on. Efforts in the last year have involved multiple departments in projects to improve the conditions in the area over an expected two to three year project commitment. The City established a position for a Community Coordinator to work with the businesses, citizens and volunteers. A Community Oriented Policing Team has been dedicated to work full time on crime, homeless issues and code enforcement in the Mayport Corridor. The Building Official has addressed housing problems including demolitions of several dilapidated structures, and the Code Enforcement Officer has addressed numerous code violations. Parks and Recreation as well as Community Development staff are utilizing grant funds to enhance recreational opportunities at the parks and the announcement of a new carrier coming to the Mayport Naval Station has provided good news for area businesses. Additionally, Jacksonville has dedicated both code enforcement and law enforcement resources to the Mayport Corridor and positive results are being seen. What’s next? How long should and can Atlantic Beach continue providing additional manpower and resources to this area? Are the improvements made in the last year sustainable if these resources are reduced? Do long term commitments from citizen and business groups exist to support the area into the future? What additional steps should be taken in the next year to accomplish the commission’s vision for the area? These questions will be a major discussion topic during the strategic planning workshops. In th preparation, a bus tour of the area has been scheduled for January 20 to get a first-hand view of the area and issues. Police Building The City’s Police Building was built many years ago when the police force was much smaller and Dispatch Office “electronics” included a phone and a radio console. With the growth of the City has come a demand for more officers and the building has become more cramped and inefficient. Funding to remodel and expand the Police Building first appeared in the budget in 2005. By the time of the strategic planning workshops in February of 2006, a specialty architect had been hired per the commission’s request who then recommended instead of remodeling and expansion that the City build a much larger new building on as yet an undetermined site. Three City-owned parcels were evaluated and re-evaluated the next two and a half years. In August of 2008, the City Hall site was chosen during the budget workshops and a detailed design budget for the building was established at $660,000. Proposals from specialty architects have been solicited by the staff, reviewed and a recommendation is now ready. However, some Commissioners have expressed reluctance to move ahead with the design before an agreement can be reached on the size of the building, and until the City can assure that funds are available to build it. The City should be responsible and sensitive to the economic conditions that we are currently encountering, and therefore should be cautious about committing to construction of anything at this time. However, there is the possibility of obtaining federal stimulus money for this project and construction costs are very low right now offering the opportunity of saving considerable money. The question to be discussed during the strategic planning workshops is what steps if any, should be taken in the next few months. Wastewater Projects The City has anticipated for some time the adoption of new standards for the discharge of pollutants into the St. Johns River and the cost to upgrade the wastewater plants to meet those standards. This has been included in the strategic plan for several years. The new nitrogen limit has now been adopted and deadlines have been set for Atlantic Beach to come into compliance. A preliminary design to determine the best way to meet the standards has been completed. Options studied included upgrading one or both of the city’s wastewater plants, reuse, elimination of one of the two wastewater plants and sending wastewater to JEA for treatment,. During this study, a new option has been added to consider treating wastewater for the City of Neptune Beach which could be economically advantageous to both cities. A report was made in December 2008 recommending the elimination of the Buccaneer Wastewater Plant, piping to and upgrading of the main wastewater plant to handle all of the wastewater, and related work with estimated capital costs of slightly over ten million dollars. The evaluation of the Neptune Beach alternative will take another couple of months to complete. If determined to be in the best interest of both cities, Atlantic Beach will need to accelerate plans for an expansion of capacity at the main wastewater plant. The City will have to borrow money to pay for the work which will increase the annual costs for the next 20 years. This comes at a time when sales volumes have decreased for several reasons. Like all systems in the country, the City has a continuing need for regular maintenance projects to keep the infrastructure in good condition. All these factors have led to significant rate increases which will continue at least over the next couple of years. Fortunately, every other water and sewer system in Northeast Florida has encountered the same issues and their rates have also increased. Atlantic Beach’s rates are not out of line with other systems. Projects for the wastewater upgrades and expansions are expected to take at least until the year 2013 to complete. Retirement Plans The City’s share of the cost for employee pension plans has increased significantly in recent years. Because of the high cost, and the fact that the plans were somewhat more generous than those offered in other cities, the City made several amendments to lower the plan benefits for new employees in the General Employees Plan. Decisions were also made over several years and after consultation with union representatives for employees to pay an increased portion of the cost. Due to the economic situation and investment losses, costs are now expected to increase dramatically for the next few years. Based upon actuarial guidelines, these losses will be spread across several years in the future. There is no question that the cost will go up. The only question is by how much. In recent months, City Commissioners have asked for a report of the options, costs and related pros and cons of either amending the current pension plans or changing to new types of plans. A report will be presented at the strategic planning workshops. However, don’t expect great savings in the short term. Pension obligations have been incurred through a long history of past decisions and payment for those promises is spread over 30 years. It is generally accepted that you can’t take back retirement benefits from current employees, so most plan changes can only affect employees hired after the date of the change. However, prudent and sustainable decisions made with a long term view are what build a bright future for any community. Seminole Road Streetscape Project The Mayport Road resurfacing and medians project resulted in a major beautification of one primary entrance to the City of Atlantic Beach. A follow-on project to beautify the Seminole Road entrance from Atlantic Boulevard to the Five Points Intersection should be considered. This project may consist of any or all of the following improvements, which could be phased over multiple years; - Widen travel lanes; Currently lanes are ten feet wide and should be widened to 12 feet. This is a safety improvement more than an esthetics one. - Decorative crosswalks can be added to match the walkways at the Five Points Intersection - Bike Paths should be considered to construct either an eight foot concrete or multi-purpose path or add four foot asphalt lanes on either side of the travel lanes. - Curb and gutter should be added to both sides of the road. This would require retention swales or similar methods to handle the storm water. - Decorative streetlamps to tie into the Five Points Intersection may improve the project. - Upgrading landscaping with additional trees, shrubs and low maintenance ground cover would add much. - Remove or underground overhead service line crossings. The resulting streetscape would be a fitting entrance to the municipal complex at the Five Points Intersection with the civic plaza recommended for the space left when the new Public Safety Building is constructed. Pedpath Plan In 2002 the three beach cities came up with a pedpath plan to install multi-use pedestrian/bike paths. Atlantic Beach has installed several of these over the last six years which have been well used and are a positive enhancement to the neighborhoods they serve. Further expansion of the pedpath system continues to be a priority for most of the community and discussions for planning of sidewalks, hiking and biking trails have come up related to several issues by the Commission in the last year. The Planning and Public Works staffs were tasked with updating the 2002 plan to take a new look at where the next investments should be made. A copy of this proposed plan will be distributed to the Commission with this strategic issues report. IT System Upgrades to the City’s IT system were included in last year’s strategic plan, but did not get funded in the budget. However, that may be a good thing. Before last year’s strategic planning work sessions, staff completed an evaluation of options to convert to a different vendor for its mainframe software. The conclusion of that effort was that it was best to stay with the current mainframe software vendor, THE. Converting to another vendor’s software would be extremely difficult because of problems in transferring data from one system to another. Consequently, plans were proposed for a three phase upgrade to newer versions of the HTE software. However, two things have changed recently that may cause for a change in direction. First, HTE announced that the company was planning for a complete rewrite of the software programs that Atlantic Beach presently uses. The three phase upgrade would have been to expanded versions of the same programs. The purchase of these upgrades may have resulted in Atlantic Beach utilizing “old” or obsolete technology in the very near future. If the City is going to stay with HTE, it may be best to wait until the newer versions are available. Second, because many other HTE customers have recently switched to new vendors, some of those vendors have improved their ability to convert historical data to the new systems. As a result of these two factors, it may be best to wait on any major improvements in the mainframe software for at least a year and reassess the situation then. Buckman Property Atlantic Beach has been trying to acquire approximately 350 acres of saltwater marshes (including a small amount of uplands) on the west side of the City adjacent to the Intracoastal waterway for over three years. A grant from the Florida Communities Trust was awarded to pay 75 percent of the cost, but appraisals did not support the owner’s asking price and the grant lapsed. More recently, negotiations have been underway to buy the property using other funding sources and an announcement is anticipated prior to the strategic planning workshops. Assuming that the acquisition can be completed within the next couple of months, the City Commission should provide direction as to what to do with the property. We have discussed opening it up for public usage, particularly for non-motorized canoes and kayaks. Once a vision for the future use of the property is outlined, the staff will need to come up with a plan on making it a reality. That plan should include what improvements are to be made, the estimated cost, phasing and how to fund it. There is a strong possibility that funds from multiple grant sources may be available for this type of public recreation improvements. Royal Palms Infrastructure Reconstruction Royal Palms is an older subdivision in Atlantic Beach with deteriorating sewer and stormwater lines. Planning for the reconstruction and relocation of these lines has been ongoing for several years. The sewer system has been rehabilitated through a series of annual projects. Preliminary stormwater plans are now complete that estimate the remaining costs for the project to be 3.4 million dollars done in four phases. Money has been transferred to the Storm Water Fund over several years anticipating this work and there is approximately 2.8 million dollars in that fund balance to cover the first three phases. Staff had anticipated the need to wait at least a couple of years before the fourth phase could be funded. However, with the economic downturn, construction prices have fallen dramatically and it may be possible to get all four phases constructed now. Another option may be to obtain federal economic stimulus funding. It is estimated that the engineers can have this project ready to bid this spring. This should be the last of the major storm water projects needed in Atlantic Beach for several years.