St. Augustine Beach has adopted a budget of $15,542,456 for the year that began Oct. 1. The tax rate did not move.

That is the city’s own account, in a release it posted to its News Flash on Oct. 6. The rate stays at 2.5000 mills, where it has been.

What the city’s documents do not agree on is which night the commission adopted it.

The release is headed “Budget & Regular Commission Meeting Highlights - October 5, 2026,” and its first sentence says the commission held its final budget meeting and regular meeting on Oct. 5. The summary the city attached to that same release, on the News Flash index and on the release’s own page, says the meeting was Sept. 8.

The Oct. 5 agenda carries no budget item at all. Pages 1 through 3 list two proclamations, a presentation on city manager applications, two budget resolutions on consent, the manager’s salary, 4th Street, the cash reserve and the November meeting date. There is no ordinance anywhere on it.

The Sept. 24 agenda does. Page 2 puts the final reading of Ordinance 26-09, to adopt the millage, and the final reading of Ordinance 26-10, to adopt the budget, under a heading reading fiscal year 2027 budget. Both ordinances are printed in that packet. Both end “DULY ADOPTED at a public hearing this 24th day of September 2026,” with the time left blank for somebody to fill in.

The minutes of the Sept. 8 budget meeting, which are attached to the Oct. 5 packet, say the commission confirmed the final hearing would be Sept. 24 at 5:01 p.m.

A press release is not a record, which is fine until you need the date. The record is the minutes. They are not posted. The Agenda Center carries an agenda link and no minutes link for Sept. 24 and for Oct. 5. The most recent meetings with minutes attached to them are the two held Sept. 8.

The figure moved between the hearings. On Sept. 8 the city announced a tentative budget of $15,555,894 at the same rate. The adopted total is $15,542,456, about $13,000 lower, which is the difference between the two numbers the city printed.

Ordinance 26-09 records the rest of it. The certified gross taxable value inside the city is $2,348,752,957. The rate of 2.5000 mills is greater than the rolled-back rate of 2.4273 mills by 3 percent, in the ordinance’s own words.

The commission also changed how much cash the city keeps.

Finance Director Patty Douylliez wrote to the city manager on Sept. 1 recommending a floor of four months of reserves, which she put at 33.33 percent of unassigned fund balance. The memo is page 34 of the Oct. 5 packet, stamped agenda item 5. It records that the city fell below a 20 percent policy threshold in fiscal 2020 for the second year running, and that the unassigned general fund balance is now 61.9 percent. It does not say what that 61.9 percent is measured against. The memo also records that the city’s auditing firm told her it typically sees three to four months of reserves and as much as twelve depending on the frequency of storms, and that the city’s accounting consultant suggested a 30 to 40 percent target was reasonable for smaller coastal cities because of the additional risks.

The commission approved a range of 30 percent to 60 percent of operating expenditures. The floor it adopted is lower than the one the memo asked for.

Then the manager’s job.

The commission narrowed the field to seven candidates, who go to background checks, and the release says the results come back at the next regular meeting. Two consultants from the Florida City/County Management Association presented the applications.

Item 3 that night, under old business, was the salary for that job, with the outgoing city manager as the presenter. Two weeks ago this paper reported the memo he filed for it, which gives his own fiscal 2026 salary as $154,271 and argues the position is worth less than the $160,000 to $200,000 range the commission set in August.

The release says nothing about what the commission did with that. It gives a field of seven. No number.

Then 4th Street.

Public Works Director Russell Adams brought two paving options for opening the stretch between A1A Beach Boulevard and 2nd Avenue, which the release says could let the owners there develop their lots. The commission asked staff for a firm cost first.

The November meeting has moved. It would ordinarily sit on the first Monday, which is Nov. 2. It will be Monday, Nov. 9, at 5:30 p.m.

The reason is printed on page 3 of the same packet. City Hall at 2200 A1A South is the polling place. Early voting runs in the commission meeting room from Oct. 21 through Oct. 31, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and the general election is in that room Nov. 3, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The Tattler will publish what the minutes say when the city posts them.