Latest / Rick Outzen: (we don’t) color on the dog / Kohler on the Budget
Transcript
- Rick Outzen: is Rick's Vlog Live. Thank you for watching. Thank you for making us a part of your day. This is a show that we try to bring the newsmakers to you. You you read about them, you may get clips from him ⁓ here there, but I want you to listen to a full conversation. ⁓ With right now is Scambe County Commissioner for District 2, Mike Kohler. thank you for joining me. ⁓ Good. You ⁓ you've got budget hearing coming up on September 8th on Tuesday night. Commissioner Mike Kohler: Good afternoon, it's Rick Outzen: what can we expect to happen? What what are you what are you gonna focus on? Commissioner Mike Kohler: It's great question. I'll tell you why. With ballot three the ⁓ you know it's kind of gun shy. Cause you know, if we were to do anything really robust in that past, we're gonna lose forty three million dollars the following year. ⁓ Right. ⁓ I we'll have a minor rollback, and I think it's important ⁓ for your viewers know the county has not raised the millage since two thousand six. Was it eight point three? Last year we had minor rollback at six point six. Rick Outzen: Yeah, mimicry, yeah. Commissioner Mike Kohler: 6-1. It went it's been going down for 20 years. So county has not raised the millage. I think I believe have a minor rollback. Hopefully we'll ⁓ look some the constitutionals a little bit closer with what's going on with ballot three. I know I will at least and hopefully we'll you we'll see what the public input is as well. But I think it'll be a little a rollback and wait and see happens in November what I think is more likely going to happen. Rick Outzen: Where do you know, ⁓ you've looked at the budget sum, is any particular area that you're gonna look at as a possibility of cutting besides looking at the constitutionals is is Commissioner Mike Kohler: Well, y okay. So when you look at the budget as a whole, we're don't have a lot of fat in the county. People say we do, but really isn't a whole lot. Ki if you were to say, ⁓ I tell people this when I talk to neighborhood groups about ballot three, they say, Well, I think we should roll that back. And I said, Okay, ⁓ I'll what the voters want. But you to tell me what you wanna cut. Do you want park cut or your library cut? Or would you like, know, less animal services? ⁓ or no more code officers, or how much staff do you want not to service in the county? a it's a challenging question because everyone wants cuts until cut in their backyard. Right, right. And then like, ⁓ I believe you're doing this to me. And so you say what we're gonna cut, that's a collective decision across the board. I know for me now, to maintain the basic services we have in the county at the level that we're at. with what the legislature's done to us, I'm to do a minor rollback, you know, be with the trim line and then wait see what's happening ⁓ and ⁓ with ballot three. And I think that's the most strategic approach with what have ⁓ what we'll be dealing in the next few weeks. Rick Outzen: Yeah, when you I tell people when they go into office and I've held, you know, city council and Gulf Breeze, but you have to go through an entire budget cycle to understand because you don't the numbers are just numbers until gone through budget and then you see how the budget that you've given staff to run, ⁓ how that implemented. ⁓ gone through several times now, you've done it as chair. w what's what lessons you learned going through the process? Well Commissioner Mike Kohler: before you know just before I've got here I had to do budgets in the Navy and healthcare and director it's always it's the same thing in a county budget. Every director's lobbying for them, just like the constitutionals are lobbying. The sheriff wants his people to get raises, the clerk does, the you know everyone, ⁓ it's just that push and pull to protect your people. But the commission has the responsibility with fair for everybody. ⁓ And you know and we have to push back sometimes and you know that's complicated. It's hard to do that. And so Rick Outzen: Right. Commissioner Mike Kohler: it just it just takes being fair and having the world to do the right thing. But ⁓ answer is I sit down with Stefan and go through I've gone through all the budgets. So I of know where I think we can, you know, ⁓ cut and we need some help. Public works, for example, we're desperate for more people. know, correctional officers, we d we're we're desperate for people. We actually have enough firefighters. People like to be firefighters. We need firefighters, that's a good thing. But we don't have a shortage of firefighters right now. You know, sheriff's doing good with his staff. We've ⁓ well, I when I was chair we would did a three year budget. ⁓ He's added ⁓ eight more deputies each year and I'm gonna honor that. I think the board will do. but you know ⁓ When you look at the FTs per directorate, the county as a whole doesn't have a lot of fluff. It just doesn't. I mean, yes, will never say any organization can't lose something. They can and we could still function. But when you're looking at a nine hundred million dollar budget and what we're tethered to with the state. We really only manage about three hundred forty million dollars. Right. And that that's what people don't understand when you take the grants into it. So after we have all the state legislature requirements that we have to do, the grants that come in, we really only manage about a little three hundred and forty million dollars. Rick Outzen: Yeah, you've got you're bringing to the board a unique background, you know, you're over three decades in the Navy as a you know, three year you know, th over three decades as as a nurse. when you look at emergency EMS, public safety, how do think th your background gives you a unique perspective maybe your commissioners don't have? Commissioner Mike Kohler: You know, that was one of the things that I think the board deserves quite a bit of credit. You know, know Commissioner Hofberger ran on that before I you know, I was that was always part of my life, honestly, healthcare and emergency ⁓ But think the board made a couple tough decisions and I it'll benefit the county down the road. You look at MSBU that we're behind on fire, you know, that we're get four new fire stations. It's gonna help us for another six to eight years, depending on the growth in the county. that's a that's a change that's gonna help the whole county for years to come. On ambulance side, we brought in 26 new, 26 or 27 new ambulances. we're increasing the training out there. ⁓ That increases if if you may be on the road someday with someone and we're trying to help with that and some of the bonuses. you can't underestimate that. The one of the most important things that you can do is time to treat. i time to treat's what saves lives. Right, right. No matter how much you talk about it, if don't treat people an amount of time to save their lives, they die. And that's And so ⁓ my whole is to have people trained to get ⁓ in a timely manner so that we can save lives and I think we're in that direction, and the board as a whole deserves a lot of credit for that. Rick Outzen: Yeah, what's the issue that district two residents bring to you the most? Commissioner Mike Kohler: ⁓ gosh. So i if if knew when when I ran that homelessness and blight and feral were gonna be the big issues, it would have but I would say blight something that I ran on and it it's an issue for a lot of people. Protecting the bases are important. everyone always wants lower taxes. mean that's just that's common anywhere. Roads When I explain to people what we've done on roads, you know, everyone says, Hey, we what the roads and I explained to them well we have surface we have a program that looks at all the roads. We do about five to eight million dollars in road resurfacing. I give them a list of all the roads, it's like, ⁓ I didn't realize that. So a lot of times it's just an education. but homelessness has been a big issue in the county for a while. I'm sure we've handled it the best we could. ⁓ It's bigger problem than I think just the county can take on. It it requires a lot of different resources and I'm not sure we're doing the Rick Outzen: Yeah, district two is is is pretty the gambit because you've got ⁓ fairly well off people and you've got people that are living paycheck or paycheck or l or even in poverty. Commissioner Mike Kohler: Rick, I got the most diverse district. No, I do. You can look at ⁓ surprise elections. When you had the MPA and Democrats get me, I'm negative twenty eight hundred. So, and you're absolutely right. You look at Aragon or some of the places on South Rankus, and you look at Mayfair or parts of Brownsville or Beachhaven. Right. And then you got the Gulf Beach was more of the middle class. It's a very diverse got a of Filipinos that live in there, some Vietnamese. People don't realize I go to all these different events. Rick Outzen: I think so too. I think Commissioner Mike Kohler: The Hispanic community's not as organized, but we have quite a bit of that in there as well. As well as Warrington has a very historic black ⁓ history. So then the veterans. I mean you look at the veteran presence over there, I think that's a b ⁓ probably the biggest presence that people would recognize just the bases and the history there. But yeah, it's very diverse, I say. Rick Outzen: You know, looking ahead, what's one big project you'd one thing you'd like to fix or one big project you'd like to take on? Commissioner Mike Kohler: Well, I definitely am looking forward to the two new firehouses because those were that we've already voted on in there in design. South Navy Boulevard is moving along. I've dealt with FDO T three. That is that's gonna be a legacy project. one of the ⁓ of the ⁓ things I'm super proud of, which three could affect across the state, is the CRAs. See we always about affordability. One of the most things that we can do is having CRAs where you Houses that are below level you revitalize those areas where people that can buy into them. And hardly ever talk about that. We talk other things, but CRAs are a wonderful opportunity for affordability for first-time home builders. And so I'm huge proponent of that. Lumen and I I think have the CRAs across the county. We share a couple, but two big projects, and I'd love to see the library. that w we would like to build over on fifty seventh and lily and where YMC is. But on what happens with ballot three. I we have the money now, but if we were to lose that forty three seventy and potentially ⁓ hundred forty if we don't get the penny for progress, that will I just gotta be honest, that won't Rick Outzen: Yeah, that'll be definitely be a challenge. know, we we've got a minute but yeah. ⁓ What I'd ⁓ is there I always like to ask, is there a vote you took that you did that you wish you hadn't made? Is there a vote you would have done different? Commissioner Mike Kohler: Well I'll tell you the vote I'm glad I did was a library vote. Let's start there. Rick Outzen: I'm glad too. Commissioner Mike Kohler: Is there a vote I t actually I voted a few times no and I've always been very after the research went done. ⁓ I think of a vote yet, but I've been on the on the other side as a lone soldier and it's worked out pretty good most of time, you know, and so I don't feel had a vote yet that I really regret, but it's been some I'm a after afterthought, I'm I I made that decision. Rick Outzen: we're good. Well Mike, thank you so much for coming on. You it is you know goal is to get the newsmakers in front of you. Mike is definitely one of them. I do my best to try to r you know develop relationships with as many as possible. and Mike is definitely one I have a relationship with. We're gonna go ahead and take a break. We'll be right back. I'm Rick Alton. This is Rick's Blog Live. Commissioner Mike Kohler: Yeah.