Commission Meeting Agenda Item

At the special meeting on January 20, 2021, the Town Commission granted approval to use funds received from Lake County as part of reimbursement for COVID-19 related expenses. The Town received $300,545, of which $58,500 was approved to make improvements at the Lady Lake Library for the relocation of the Human Resources Department (or other department) in the months ahead. At that same meeting, under the Town Manager’s Report, the Interim Town Manager disclosed that there was a balance of $242, 045 of the funds still available should the Commission want to consider purchasing items that were eliminated from the proposed budget of Fiscal Year 2021.

The Police Chief requested five vehicles within his proposed budget with a total cost of $260,000. So not as to encumber the remainder of the funds entirely for his department, he has requested two vehicles at a cost of $50,000 and $55,000 at this time, for a total of $105,000.

The Public Works Director has requested to purchase an F350 V8 Turbo Diesel truck that was eliminated from his proposed budget in the amount of $62,439.

The Parks and Recreation Director has requested $16,000 for the purchase of sunshades at the dog park which were eliminated from the budget.

The Information Technology Director had items amounting to $163,434 eliminated from his budget. Of that amount, he is requesting $20,465 at this time to install fiberoptic conduit to complete the segment to the Public Works Facility. Although not budgeted last year, if the Town Commission is considering the purchase of items not proposed in last year’s budget, he would like to add an additional $70, 162.95 to his request for additional I.T. upgrades and consulting services.

If the items eliminated from the budget were to be considered at this time, the total cost would be $203,904. If the additional items as proposed by I.T. were acquired as well, the total cost would be $274,066.95, which exceeds the amount of the balance of the COVID-19 funds available.

At the special meeting of January 20, 2021, there was discussion of potentially using reserves to make additional purchases, such as purchasing all five police vehicles at this time. The Town currently has a balance of $3,137,652 in the Capital Asset Fund which could be utilized to make purchases in excess of the $242,045.00; however, we are estimating $750,000 of the Capital Asset Fund will be needed for the remaining ERP Software project to be implemented later this year.