City Council - Regular Meeting

Well, good evening everyone and welcome and thank you all for being here this afternoon. I'd like to convene the City of Homestead monthly City Council presentation agenda. The entire Council is present with the exception of Councilwoman Avila, who I understand will be here very shortly. Our first item tonight is a recognition of Troop 69 Cub Scouts and Vice Mayor Bailey. Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to our meeting. I am Vice Mayor Bailey, and I am very proud to present three of the local amazing troops and PACs that are serving our youth here in Homestead. We have the pleasure of having PAC 69, Troop 69, and Troop 78 with us tonight. So scouts, parents, leaders, if you can come join me up here, please. So I have been a big supporter of scouting for a very long time and served on their recruitment board. I think that a lot of these these things that they're instilling in our youth are just so incredibly important. So we wanted to give each one of these groups a moment to talk a little bit about the ages they serve, where they meet. So we will start with PAC-69, and I want to introduce their scout leader.

Hello, everyone. Thank you for having us. We are very proud of representing our community.

Ms. Bailey, she's been a huge supporter of the PAC and troops and scouting in general for a really long time, as she said, and we couldn't be happier to be representing a better community.

Where do you meet?

Oh, we meet in Silver Palms, Methodist, on 248, right across the old Knott's Berry Farms.

Oh, Wednesday the 7th.

So Silver Palm on Wednesdays, they're starting hopefully Chipmunks soon, which I think is the most adorable name ever. And that would be for Kinder, no for VPK. And then they have already Kinder through fifth grade. So come check them out, they have a lot of fun. Would any of the scouts like to say something? What's your favorite thing about scouting?

When we went camping. That we get to sleep in the tent and have fun and make a fire.

Were you on screens all the time? Were you on screens all the time? No, right? We were out enjoying nature.

We get to stay up later.

Okay.

Anything you want to share?

No.

Who can do the Scout Oath for me? You want to do it together? Okay, maybe in a couple minutes after some of the adults talk. All right, so we also have with us Troop 69.

Pac-69 and Troop 69 have been around for a very long time.

You might know a little history. Can you share a little history with us? And let us know also where you meet.

very much troop 69 has been around and the pack has been around for 80 years now and we meet at silver palm united methodist as well on tuesday nights from 7 to 8 30. we have the older boys 10 and a half on up i'd like to say 17 but we do have an 18 year old who just finished his eagle scout and got awarded last week julian panetta and we have uh four yeah And we have four life scouts working on their Eagle project as well. Lincoln Hamilton is just about done with his. They both did projects for the VFW here in Homestead. And we do outdoor activities. We go out on monthly campouts, work on merit badges, and really teach the boys how to become the next these young men of our future.

And we also have Troop 78, who is going to be leading our opening ceremony. So they're still getting ready for that, but we'll give them a chance to say a little something in a few. I was going to ask my older scouts if you can help me. These scouting packs and troops would not be possible without the amazing leaders, right? Do we have the best leaders helping us do all these fun things? Yes, we do.

So we have a little certificate of appreciation.

If you guys can help me, you can read off names and help give them out to all of our amazing volunteers. We can start a line here. Miss Delgado for 78. All right, sorry, we're starting with 69. Here we go. I'm gonna make it with great names. That doesn't make sense. Cesar Carabantes. Thank you for all you do. Ms. Stephanie Diaz. So, Jonathan Diaz, JD Diaz. We did do a little something for him, 4th of July. He was awarded Scoutmaster of the Year this past year. So super proud and excited to have you in our hometown. We have Jeff Gonzalez. Okay.

Kevin Hutchinson.

Ms. Sharkevia Hutchinson.

The German. Tara. That's a fancy T.

Rogelio Vega. Thank you.

Andwari. Okay.

So, we have our ones for 78, which will be up with us soon. And 69. You're holding these and getting your official one very soon because we weren't sure everybody who could join us. So can 78 come down for a moment? You guys can hold on if you don't mind. Welcome. Thank you guys for joining us. Come on in. You can come over here. We'll take a quick picture afterwards. Do any of our scouts want to say anything? Say anything about what you love about scouts? Right? All right.

Well, thank you, amazing volunteers. You guys do so much for our kids.

Now we can all squeeze in here. Will you tell us a little bit about your troop, where you meet, your days, ages, all that good stuff?

Hi, I'm Crystal Lydon, the Scoutmaster of Troop 78. We are a family troop. That means boys and girls are welcome in our troop. We do from 11 to 18 years old. We meet at Silver Palm United Methodist Church once a week. Every Tuesday we'll be there unless we're here. Ms. Bailey, thank you for inviting us. We enjoy teaching these kids independent skills, life skills that we hope they'll take on for the rest of their lives and teach them community service, how to be polite, kind, responsible citizens of tomorrow.

Do you want to say anything? She's there.

We know middle school students are very shy right now, much shyer than little ones actually. Okay, ready? Here we go. A scout is trustworthy.

courteous, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent too. And how about the oath? I pledge allegiance to the flag. On my honor, I'll do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the scout law, to help other people at all times, keep myself ready, strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.

How beautiful is that? Good job, guys. Thank you again to all you amazing volunteers and Scoutmasters and parents making the drive out there for your kids. We appreciate you tremendously. And thank you all very much. Thank you, Mayor.

Okay, ready?

All right, .

Well, thank you, Vice Mayor Bailey, and certainly to all the parents and scouting leaders who do this every day and on a weekly basis. Councilwoman Avila, are you ready?

Good evening, everybody. It's my honor, my pleasure to recognize September as Hunger Action Month.

The representative was not able to join us today, but I am still honored to read the proclamation.

This proclamation is presented in recognition of Hunger Action Month to raise awareness about food insecurity and to encourage community action in the fight against hunger. The City of Homestead recognizes the importance of ensuring that every individual and family has access to nutritious food and applauds the dedicated efforts of local food banks, nonprofit organizations, volunteers, businesses, and community partners who work tirelessly to provide meals and support to those in need. Together we can inspire compassion, strengthen our community, and take meaningful action toward ending hunger for all. And whereas since 1981, Feeding South Florida has worked to address hunger and food insecurity in the city of Homestead by providing our community immediate access to nutritious food and other vital resources and support for individuals and families in need. And whereas hunger does not discriminate, it affects individuals of every age, race, ethnicity, and background. Nearly 1M people across South Florida experience food insecurity, including hardworking families, children, seniors, veterans, and individuals facing unexpected hardships. And whereas access to nutritious food is a basic human necessity, and members of our community should not have to choose between purchasing food, paying rent, obtaining health care, or meeting other essential needs, And whereas Feeding South Florida serves as a leader in hunger relief and advocacy by partnering with community organizations, volunteers, and local governments to provide food assistance, nutrition education, disaster response, and innovative programs that empower individuals and strengthen communities, And whereas the City of Homestead recognizes the importance of raising awareness about hunger and encouraging residents, businesses, civic organizations, and community leaders to support efforts that combat food insecurity through volunteering, donating, and advocating for those in need. And whereas the City of Homestead is proud to partner with Feeding South Florida in the shared mission of creating a healthier, stronger, and hunger-free community in which every resident has access to nutritious food and the opportunity to thrive. Therefore, Stephen D. Lossner, by virtue of the authority vested in him as the Mayor of the City of Homestead, hereby proclaims September 2026 as Hunger Action Month in the City of Homestead.

So if my colleagues can come join me and we'll take a picture together.

Thank you.

Now can you hear me?

Good evening, everyone.

It's my pleasure to read this proclamation this evening in honor of our national prostate cancer awareness month. I'm not going to read the exact words of the proclamation because I think it becomes monotonous and boring, but I have some other numbers I'm going to share. And we do have some folks here that will be accepting this proclamation on behalf of the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. If you would like to come and join me, please. Alicia Diaz-Orea, the director of the Sylvester Office of Outreach and Engagement. Cassandra White, the administration's operations manager. Lisa, oh, I'm going to blow this name up. We don't. OK, gotcha. She's a research support manager, Dr. Sanoj Poonen. He's the professor and vice chair of research. Dr. Brandon Mahal, not here today, and Tamara Belliard Rodriguez. Thank you very much for coming. As a prostate cancer survivor, it's always my honor to read this. I was diagnosed in 2021, and minus a few little hiccups here and there, I'm on the right side of the grass enjoying this evening with you all. And I'm going to have to rewrite this proclamation, so I appreciate you coming, but there's a small mistake on it that I just found. It talks about the number of people that would be diagnosed this year with prostate cancer, and that number is roughly 335,000, and this says 180, so we're going to get that fixed. And of that 335,000, approximately 14% of those will die of cancer. But since 2026 in February, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, through its game-changing vehicle initiative, has partnered with the City of Homestead and the Homestead Police Athletic League to provide free monthly cancer and health screenings to Homestead residents. Screenings include prostate, colorectal, and cervical cancer, as well as glucose and cholesterol screenings at no cost to the community. Early detection is critical. Regular screenings can help identify cancer at an earlier stage when treatment options may be more effective and outcomes can be improved. Providing these services directly to the community is especially important for underserved communities and populations that may face barriers to accessing preventative healthcare, helping to connect residents with screenings, education, and resources at no cost to them. Partnerships like this reflect the city's commitment to taking care of our community and advancing quality of life by bringing meaningful health and wellness resources directly to our residents and encouraging everyone to be proactive about their health. As part of this, tomorrow at noon, the city is going to be hosting a prostate cancer awareness lunch and learn here at City Hall, featuring Sylvester experts who will discuss prostate cancer awareness, screening, early detection, and prevention. And I will be the moderator of that event, and hopefully we will have some good interaction and we can save some people's lives. Again, the President has recognized September as the National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, but the Mayor also has.

And I'd love for you all to take this, and I'm going to take it back from you, and I'll send it back to you as soon as we get it fixed.

But thank you very much for coming.

Thank you very much, Councilman. So my name is Sanaj Poonen. I'm one of the cancer surgeons and prostate cancer providers at Sylvester and I can honestly tell you this is a tremendous honour for Sylvester.

One of the things that we try to do as one of our missions is to do whatever we can to reduce the burdens that cancer has on people. That includes our patients and their loved ones. But we can't do that ourselves. The only way we do that is through partnerships with the city of Homestead, through the Police Athletic League. And the way we do that is through our Game Changer, which is a vehicle that we send that allows Sylvester to get into communities that we otherwise can't really reach. And this is the amazing team that really puts this on. They've been there the first Monday of every month. They're going to be putting on the forum tomorrow, and I encourage everybody that can get out to go. It's going to be about free cancer screenings, health education, and tomorrow's forum is going to specifically be about prostate cancer and really what we can do to move the needle in that place. So I just thank the city for all we've done, and we will continue to be there as long as the city will have us. Okay.

Thank you, Councilman Fletcher, appreciate that.

So last on our presentation agenda tonight is a proclamation recognizing Florida Redevelopment Week. It's probably appropriate that I have both our community redevelopment, excuse me, community redevelopment agency director as well as our building department official come up because it takes, Deborah, come on up. Anyone else who needs to be here from among our staff, because it. I hate to use this phrase, but it takes a village to do development and. And redevelopment and counsel, if you would, you would join me in this recognition. So, whereas community redevelopment agencies and redevelopment programs, that's where you come in. play a vital role in revitalizing neighborhoods, addressing areas of slum and blight, strengthening local economies, and revitalizing downtowns to improve the quality of life for residences and businesses throughout the state of Florida. And whereas redevelopment initiatives encourage private investments, support small business, improve infrastructure, enhance public spaces, expand housing opportunities, thereby fostering vibrant and resilient communities. Whereas the Florida Redevelopment Association, in partnership with municipalities, counties, and community stakeholders, promotes best practices, financial education, and collaboration to advance community redevelopment efforts throughout Florida. And Redevelopment Week serves as an opportunity to recognize redevelopment achievements, highlight transformational projects, engage residents and stakeholders, and celebrate all of the benefits of community revitalization. Now, therefore, I, Stephen Lawson, by virtue of the authority vested in me as the mayor of the city of Homestead, do hereby proclaim September 14th through 18th, 2026 as Florida Redevelopment Week in the city of Homestead.

Well, thank you, Mayor. And on behalf of our community redevelopment agency and the Florida Redevelopment Association, we appreciate our city council taking a few moments to recognize the work that CRA is doing in our state. So thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? So let's move this.

By the way, all right.

We have a couple other meetings ahead of that.

As soon as someone can let me know that the master is here to do the invocations tonight, we'll go ahead and stop over there and go ahead and do the invocation and the flag ceremony so that you have to sit here as a plenum and listen to our board of directors. Absolutely necessary. Thank you all for being here for the meeting.

Our next meeting is just a couple minutes.

We'll give those of you who don't want to hang it out on time to leave the chamber first. And I appreciate, again, for being here and participating in the

Thank you. Yes.

Yeah, that's the trick. Thank you.

Well, good evening, everyone, and welcome. If I could get you all to take your seats. We are going to deviate a little bit from our normal routine, but for city staff and council, we have a very long night ahead of us, not by choice, but by necessity. It's what we do once a year. So having said that, we are going to go ahead and deviate and have the Invocation this evening will be given by Pastor Rich Witter, a senior pastor of LifePoint Church, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance with Councilman Roth and Boy Scout Troop 78 Cub Scouts. Would everyone please rise? Welcome, Pastor.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. We all bow our heads together. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your grace over our lives, over our city. It's a wonderful city. It's a wonderful state and a wonderful country that we live in. We thank you for that. We thank you for the opportunity that you've given us tonight to gather here to make decisions. Lord, we lift up our leaders, our leadership, the Mayor and the Council. as they listen and they think about things and make decisions that will lead Homestead into the near future. We pray that they would have an abundance of wisdom, an abundance of strength and courage to do what is right for all of us and all the good people of Homestead. We also ask for unity in the city, specifically in this room. We need your help, Lord. If a bird cannot fall to the ground without your knowledge, then Homestead certainly can't advance without your help. Help this council to do what is right for the whole of the city. We again thank you for the opportunity together. We lift up this specific group of people in this room, help them to understand policy and decisions that need to be made. And all of the city staff, we are thankful for all of our first responders. Hospital staff, everybody firefighters, police and everybody involved in in such a wonderful place that we call home here in Homestead. We thank you for the chance to live for you and to stand out. I believe that you've called Homestead to stand out. We're not made to fit in and just with any. Simple scenario. We're made to stand out. This is a city with a great history and a great future in front of it. We know that you have your hand upon us, Lord. Continue to guide, direct, and again, we pray for this council. Help them to make the wisest decisions, Lord, with your help. We ask all of this in your wonderful, powerful name. The name of Jesus. The name above every other name. We pray all this. Amen and amen. Thank you, council.

Scouts?

Halt. Left face. Colors. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Colors. Dismissed.

Left face. Dismissed. Forward march.

Thank you, Troop 78. All right, thank you all. Please be seated. So with that, I will now call to order the City of Homestead Community Redevelopment Agency budget meeting. For the record, today is September 8th, 2026, and it is now 5.48 p.m. Roll call, please.

Board member Avila? Here. Board member Roth? Here. Board member Fletcher? Here. Board member Calabong? Here. Board member Karnski? Here. Vice Chairwoman Bailey? Here. Chairman Lossner?

Here. All right. Mr. Director, do we have any additions, deletions, or deferrals this evening?

No, Chairman, we do not.

Thank you. Next item is tab one, car number 5183. A discussion regarding West Homestead by Integral Florida.

they're represented here tonight they are board board chair and board I would like to invite Adele Valencia as well as if he would like Kareem Brantley to provide a brief presentation on the West homestead project that seeks to formulate a partnership with the CRA for the development of for sale workforce housing units and with that I will turn it over to Adele

Adel Valencia, we really appreciate the opportunity to come back before you. And before I begin, I would just like to acknowledge that we were here on July twenty second, and we didn't provide you nearly enough context or background to make an informed decision. So tonight, rather than jumping into individual parcels, what I'd like to do is quickly take a step back and explain why Integral is here, what problem we're trying to solve, and what we believe can actually be accomplished through this very productive collaborative partnership between the City, the County, the CRA, and Integral. At the end, I'm going to make two specific commitments that I hope will address some concerns that came up previously. But at the beginning, The starting point of this approach to the city of Homestead in the CRA is a redevelopment project that was procured competitively through Miami Dade County. Sorry, thank you. For West Homestead Gardens and Homestead Village. In June of 2025, the county awarded integral development rights and site control through WOPR 0129503. The purpose of this program, which is called Rental Assistance Demonstration, is to help the county redevelop all of its aging public housing units. As elected officials, you know all too well some of the squalid and undignified conditions in which many of our communities most vulnerable have been living for far too long. And through these public-private partnerships, the purpose is to create new, higher-quality, mixed-income housing to overcome funding shortfalls that the county is facing at the federal level, And stabilize housing subsidies while fixing deteriorated housing stock and creating mixed income housing that does not concentrate poverty, but instead creates a range of housing opportunity for residents from across income levels. That county award. For to integral is fundamentally a housing redevelopment project. Integral is also responsible for redeveloping attainable or for developing attainable townhomes. That's the piece I think got conflated on July 22nd. In addition to the award to redevelop the public housing piece, Integral was awarded county-owned parcels in the City of Homestead that are adjacent to the site for the purpose of creating attainable housing. Okay, so at the end right we're coming to you, having been awarded a project from the county that mandates integral to redevelop this multifamily component and also to create attainable townhomes nearby. The background on integral before I talk about our specific request, I want to briefly talk about who is sitting in front of you. integral is a mission driven real estate development company with more than 30 years of experience. The series mission is literally the kind of work integral does public private partnerships mixed income housing workforce housing and neighborhood redevelopment. nationally integral has been developed been involved in more than 65 public private partnerships and has developed more than 10,000 units. Importantly, for this conversation, this isn't a national company looking at homestead from thousands of miles away i'm joined by my friend and colleague Korean brantley. kareem is integral florida's local principal he spent his career doing development and redevelopment work in south florida including the liberty square redevelopment in miami and importantly from my point of view kareem is not only a dear friend of many years but he's born and raised in miami-dade county and he's a civically engaged husband and father who's raising his own family here integral possesses both the institutional experience and the local accountability behind this proposal Okay, so what's the opportunity to partner with the Homestead CRA? The question for us became, how do you take this county mandate and do it in a way that makes sense for Homestead? This was the question that made Integral originally approach the city in the first place. And we know that the CRA is a natural mission aligned entity. And thanks to the very professional staff leadership and Jared Beck, who's been nothing short of helpful all the while. So just for context, integral could have simply proceeded with the county mandate. We thought that'd be wrong. And we're so grateful to have had the opportunity to meet with almost all of you and get your perspective. Moreover, this development is going to require years of partnership with the city. We're going to be working with your staff and being here, and we'd all like to have a really productive, cordial relationship that we all feel great about. In addition to the things that I've shared so far about the county project, there was a procurement challenge. What was that? The county procured and gave a parcel to Integral that the city procured and gave through the Triangle project, right, unwittingly. So there was just a parcel level conflict. Let me say clearly on the record here, because I think this didn't come across clearly that last time. Integral will not be the impediment to holding up the city's vision for Triangle. You have our word to work with you to resolve that. The last thing that we want to do is stand in the way of that. And I think we have a very clever, creative, mutually beneficial proposal. But irrespective of your decision today, please know we remain available to support you and the CRA in approaching the county to make sure that the triangle project is originally contemplated can go forth without trouble. So count on that. OK. What's our proposal? Let's see. Given what Integral Florida is already mandated to do, and after having received feedback from briefings with you, we'd like to propose the following. Integral Florida will begin the attainable homeownership construction part of their project on Southwest Fourth Court. After receiving some feedback from you all, we would like to begin there, in part to give the City Council and CRA time to contemplate plans for Southwest Fourth Street, which we understand to be important. As I've said on the record, we will work with you city staff, the city attorney to ensure that the appropriate mechanism happens so that the parcel that is involved in triangle is not tangled up in this project. You have our word on that. We would also like to deliver additional home ownership. We'd like to make some of these townhomes really make sense. I'll give you one example and I showed this to those of you who were in the briefing. There's a rectangle and the majority of that rectangle has been awarded to my client integral. there is a 25-foot parcel that perforates that award. So if you picture what this looks like, if we had just gone ahead and built it, there would be a 25-foot piece of grass in between townhomes, which does not make sense for any neighborhood. It just would be spiteful. So that's one of the parcels that we're requesting your consideration on, disposing of us to. So I just want to be very clear also about my ask the request that i'm making today is that you initiate a notice process not actually convey any property to us, but that gives us more time to kind of have more briefings and have more conversations. So who is affordable workforce housing for my colleague cream is much more versed in this and I am and he can answer any questions you all may have, but. When we really break down how much money it takes to live in Miami today live in homestead today I think we all understand that the fortunate few were able to purchase their homes decades ago. And many people are in a position where they either can't purchase a home today or couldn't purchase their very own home if they had to do it today. And so we believe that this home ownership piece is attainable is going to be a table for more homestead residents and going to give people who otherwise would not have the opportunity, the chance to have townhomes that are dignified high quality and that would round out this neighborhood. We have a two phase proposed delivery, so the first phase of the project is the home ownership piece.

And from an elected official point of view, I think one of the tangible benefits is that you would see very quickly.

That integral is a company of its word developing high quality projects that you would see materialize in a very quick amount of time. The multi family phase is next. And this is some of what the town homes that are contemplated look like if you'll notice right they don't look institutional at all, they have architectural features that are thoughtful well designed. That fit in with overall pattern of development, we would obviously be working with your staff through this, but from my point of view, these are really beautiful, this is a three story, the last one was a two story. Okay. So, what are we requesting today? We have gone back with the feedback and thoughtful conversations we've had, and we are requesting that the City, the CRA initiate the process of required notice for potential disposition of CRA-owned lots that are numbered in my slide above 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 along Southwest Fourth Court. Before I conclude, I want to make clear that we think there are at least three significant public benefits here. First, we're helping the CRA fulfill its mission of investing in a neighborhood that richly deserves attention and development, including the West Homestead Gardens and Homestead Village piece, but additionally creating additional attainable homeownership opportunities. By delivering the townhome piece of this, we would deliver a more diverse mixed income neighborhood that includes both subsidized properties through the multifamily redevelopment of the county owned public housing and also homeownership opportunities with homeowners who have a lasting stake in and commitment to the city of homestead while paying into the tax base. Third, as I mentioned previously, we want to be part of the solution to resolve the parcel level conflict, because from our point of view, we shouldn't have competing projects. We want to see the best and highest neighborhood redevelopment happen for everyone here. And we're willing to put some meaningful commitments behind those proposals. The 8 CRA parcels would be restricted to fee, simple, attainable homeownership development, and Integral is willing to support the City in seeking the release of the Triangle parcel to the County through Council so it can be used in Eurovision. We believe this is a respectful and productive partnership. We're asking the CRA, in effect, to turn vacant and underutilized property into homeownership opportunities for residents. So we hope that you will consider endorsing this concept and authorize staff to work with Integral on the appropriate legal and transactional documents necessary to bring it back for formal consideration. I really thank you for your attention and I'm available for any questions you may have.

Thank you, and I'll turn to my board and open it up for any questions. Vice Chair Bailey?

Thank you, Chairman. So last time it was 15 lots. We're down to eight now. Can you give us a ballpark from those eight lots? How many additional homeownership opportunities do you see happening for those eight lots?

I'm going to invite my colleague Corrine Brantley up because this is his area of expertise. Thank you. So the question is, how many additional town homes will we deliver?

There will be eight. So there will be a town home for every lot that the CRA is considering.

And each of those from the eight lots potentially being passed your way, those would all be homeownership opportunities?

Correct.

Not any part of the multifamily?

This is all fee simple.

Let's go back to the slide that shows those lots. Please.

No, sorry.

There we go.

Okay, so even though they're also disproportionate, it still is equal to 8.

Yes, because you, you, these are plotted lots. So if you wanted to subdivide the lots, you have to go back and reply. So the idea is not to be in a 2 year process of replying, but to actually develop it the way the plot is originated.

So just to get a better understanding, would 11, for example, be a two bedroom and 13 could potentially be something bigger.

It will depend on if it's a three or two story. It doesn't have to be exactly in the rendering. You can have a three story volume and come down to a two story volume and go back up. So it'll be depending. But we anticipate the roof line will be the same.

So we would try to, you know,

fashion it based on the amount of housing that we think a family needs. So in the smaller lots, we would probably have a three story because we don't want to build something that's not market competitive, something that, you know, people would get in and say, I can raise a family and we don't want it to be like we're small.

Okay. I appreciate the time you took with explaining the process a little more. I apologize because I also felt caught off guard last time that there were certain questions that should have come up for me to understand better. I would support this, seeing that these lots for us would not make sense to develop on without having that bigger picture, and then also keeping in mind that these were not lots that we ever purchased, so it's not a dollar amount. That's a lot, so thank you. I'll rest for there, thank you.

Thank you. So let me real quick, well, in that same vein, let me piggyback on the vice chair's comments, and then I have a question. So then I guess this would go to our development services people, or CRA. Lots 4, 9, 10, and 11 appear to be very narrow. Under our current ordinances, overlays, whatever would be applicable, are those narrower lots now buildable? Or are we going to need, would you need to come forward and, for lack of better expression, some sort of variance to make those lots legally buildable?

I'll defer to Matt Pearl, your city attorney, on that, but I have an idea.

Go ahead.

I have to say, I haven't done the evaluation on the built-in building, any of the lots.

And I'll ask Deborah to opine if necessary. I think that given the dimensions, they make sense and they would fit within a townhome development. Where we've had the challenge and where we've had some of the other discussion, I believe, with the board members is that given those lots and the narrowness of them, stand alone they're very difficult to develop with setbacks and the actual marketability desirability of those but they can work within this broader townhome series i think one of the points i want to make as well that perhaps was not expressed is that these are also in proximity and or adjacent to the other lots that have been acquired by the county so it's important to know that this would not necessarily be a 12 and 13 as a development site that would be contiguous to other properties I'll rest with that.

Just for frame of reference then, is the other lot that's at issue that is below and to the right of lot 11? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Just for frame of reference. I know that's not what we're directly talking about now, but just so that we have

a frame of reference there if i made just a point of clarification that jared well made um so if you look at 11 right on the slide the parcels adjacent to it are the ones awarded already to integral so that lot 11 represents that 25-foot hole that would otherwise be there sorry if i didn't make that clear before and those the three to the left of 11 are also 25 feet in width

They're actually a little bit larger than 25 feet in some cases. However, you, 25 wide in some cases, but however, you wouldn't be able to build, as CRA director said, you wouldn't be able to build unless you did it in a townhome configuration. That's what the code allows. Single family because of the setbacks, you wouldn't be able to do it.

Okay, I believe Board Member Roth has a question.

Just to follow up on your question about the legalities of the sizes of the lots, Just for clarity, I thought we had passed an ordinance where you couldn't build on less than 7,500 square feet.

There's a, lay terms, I believe there is a subset of rules with respect to the southwest area.

So they have a different set of rules for the southwest?

In some cases.

For townhouses, each of the townhouse need to be on a plotted lot and the lot has to be, well, the minimum is 25 feet. So in that case, we have looked at what they are proposing for 11, for that whole block, and that will make sense because they will have plotted lots of 25 feet and we'll have the townhouses attach one to each other. And I think that the example that they showed is that, but they will need some variances. because the way that they are showing the parking does not comply with the code. And also I see there are only one parking space and for more than two bedrooms, you need two parking spaces. So they will need variances.

Right. So I think that's kind of what you're leading towards. And I don't think I got the clear answer from what I heard over there. So, I mean, obviously, we'll help along that process, right? I mean, we want to see things happen. Do you happen to have a slide that shows all of the lots that will be used for townhouses in total?

I don't, but I'm happy to transmit that to you. And I apologize, I don't have one with me.

I thought I saw one somewhere else, but with all the lots that you guys had as well.

We can get that to you, Councilman.

Yeah, it'd be interesting to see because when you got 12 and 13, there's no lots to the, let's say the east or the west of those that are gonna be developed as townhomes.

Yeah, so, um, to the east and west of twelve and thirteen, our county on lots that have already been committed by the county. So what we would do is. Create that rural town houses there on that.

Got it. So, I mean, that's kind of where I think the, to me, the visual missing component is. What is it going to look like at the end of the day? Right? Not just the lots that are being asked to be conveyed to. You know, the developer for the project, I mean, obviously these lots are. for the most part, useless to the city at this point. But I think the overall picture would be kind of cool to see. And even if you get some conceptuals with the rebuilding of the Miami-Dade housing project that's there as well, so we have a real idea of what it's gonna look like when it's completed.

the street view.

The entire project, right? Because not only are lots are going to be used for townhouse development and sold off, but they're also redeveloping A bunch of parcels to the E to the West of all the public housing that's already there. That's going to be redone some of what we did out. Out West off of 187th Avenue, so I just think it'd be a cool concept to see all of that. You know, then everybody can imagine what it's going to look like versus trying to figure out what it is. We're really talking about. So that's all.

Thanks. Thank you. Remember, remember.

Thank you, Chair. I did have a question. First of all, thank you for reaching out and trying to schedule a meeting with me. I appreciate those attempts. And this is definitely a much better position in being able to approve this with the, and what we're approving is the 163, right? So we're not approving any conveyances at this time. But with the changes, I'm much more amenable. My question is with regards to the phasing. You said phasing phase one was going to be for homeownership. Do you have to build a certain amount of the town of the rental multifamily in conjunction and sell a certain amount before you occupy or is there any phasing to that effect?

City Council Chambers. Thank you, Councilman Avila. I'll let my colleagues speak to the granular, but from the meta point of view, right? The county is under tremendous pressure to make sure that it is expending right their resources correctly and wisely through these federal partnerships and the rental assistance demonstration projects. One of those. That's the award that my client has been given. My understanding is that there is a deadline and that we would prefer to begin on the southwest fourth court at that where 11 is in that area to quickly turn dirt right as soon as possible and ideally no later than the end of the year but i'll let karim speak to your particular question sure the question is is one contingent on the other the multi-family contingent on the home ownership

No, because they will have different financing obligations and, you know, just requirements. I think the demand of single-family or, let's say, in this case, townhomes, because single-family could mean detached home as well. But in this case, with attached single-family residences, there's not a lot of extra demand on the system, where I think multifamilies are different.

conversation so they will develop at different times and they're not tied together at all so but the county does want me to get started right so then let's say we go through our process and we convey the lots how do we how do we know that you're going to develop ultimately the town homes In a timely manner is just as quickly as the, the, uh, the rental.

Uh, we're, uh, I think we've demonstrated here, you know, on the record that we're anticipating to get started by December. So if, you know, obviously we have to go through a process, but once that process concludes, um, and if there's a way for us to concurrently submit for, you know, contingent building plans and permits, uh, we will do so as well. That is my hope that we can do that. I don't see any harm in doing that, but that would be up to the building department to allow that concurrent status and activity to proceed.

Okay. I definitely would like to see the whole project get done, not just a piece and not just half of what we're being told here today. I guess my last question would be with regards to the lot that Or when you come back with a, when you send us the visual of the whole design and all the extra puzzle pieces that you're not developing but we would like to see all together, could we maybe also give them some renderings of the triangle property to kind of see how it all looks together? Just work together as a team on that. So I'll rest for now, but I'd like to hear my other colleagues. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Over to Fletcher. Thank you, and thank you, Adele and Karim, for your time. As we noted during your first presentation, I was pretty well turned off almost from the get-go, but appreciating the time we spent together, and you enlightened me on a few things that truly opened my eyes, especially when it comes to affordability and what programs they have that will assist in that, because we all struggle with that word. But through Kareem and his knowledge was able to truly guide me in the right direction, understanding how those homes do actually become affordable for those homeowners. So I was really, really thankful for that. I too, I remember seeing a drawing, I believe it was one of your photos that had everything on it at one point. I think it was in your first presentation that evening. That's where we got that from. So to see that again would be great to see all that work together again. I'm happy to move forward with the RFP portion tonight, and then we can work through the conveyance at that point.

Thank you, Board Member Fletcher.

Thank you all.

Question for staff. In a normal situation, this would be getting a little ahead of ourselves, but here I don't think it is. Let's assume in a perfect world this goes forward, we have a successful bidder. I don't know that just with the time constraints that we have that December is reasonable, maybe February, March, I'm okay with that. Is there that wall out there of wastewater issues that these new units would encounter? Where are we with that?

That would be a question for Kyra.

So, Mr. Mayor and Council, while we're waiting for Public Works Director, we are currently in construction phase of the enforcement with Pump Station 11, which will create a relief for Pump Station 15. This project, as well as the Triangle project, are all tied together with Pump Station 15, so we don't anticipate any challenges.

Okay. So the upgrades of record in process to 11 will relieve 15, which serves this.

The fourth time we will bypass it. So as it bypasses 15, the hours on 15 will fall below the 10 hours, which would make 15 be out of moratorium after that by next year, early next year.

Very good. Thank you. So again, to summarize the request, from our agency is to authorize the publication of a 163 notice for these, whatever it is, nine lots, eight lots, whatever it may be, for construction of townhomes for ownership.

In a nutshell? Correct, it would be for the disposition of these for the construction of for sale workforce housing townhomes. That would be what the 163 notice is. Okay, yes.

Thank you chair and just as a an additional comment, um, and you don't have to make any commitments now, but I would really like to see how integral plans to remain a, you know, a good corporate citizen with the city of homestead and perhaps beef up the proposal with some community benefits or. improvements to some common areas because you're not creating a community in a sense where there's parks and open space. In fact, we're going to be eliminating some open space with this request. So if you can keep that in mind and maybe include that in your upcoming messages to us, I would appreciate it. Thank you.

And then what I would request as a part of the process then is that you refrain at this point from sending any additional graphics or other items. We will publish the 163 as soon as it has been proofed and finalized by legal, which it has been sent to. So we will assume to do that here within the next two or three days. That will run for a 30-day period. And then I would encourage everything that the board has been asked for to be a part of the submittal that they will make to our office at the end of that time.

That's implicit in our ask. So do we have a motion to approve the request of the agency? It's been moved by Board Member Canabal, seconded by the Vice Chair. Any further? Okay. Mr. Perl, do we need public comment? Do we need to ask? Okay. So there's nothing further from Council. Let's have a roll call vote on the motion.

Board Member Fletcher? Yes. Board Member Roth? Yes. Board Member Cannavale?

Yes.

Board Member Avila?

Yes.

Board Member Konski? Yes. Vice Chairwoman Bailey?

Yes.

Chairman Lawsman? Yes. The motion carries.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. Good evening.

We'll see you.

Thank you.

All right, we have before us on tabs 3A and 3B, the minutes from July 7th and July 22nd. Do we have a motion to approve? It's been moved and seconded for approval. All in favor? Any opposed? Next item is tab four, car number 5150, adoption of the fiscal year 2027 budget. Mr. Pearl.

This is a resolution of the Board of the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Homestead, Florida, adopting the Community Redevelopment Agency budget for fiscal year 26-27, directing the City Manager and his designee to submit the budget to Miami-Dade County and the City Council for their respective approval and providing for an effective date.

Mr. Director? I will be very brief, as I know you all have seen this numerous times. What I will just share with you are sort of the final budget numbers that we had identified and allocated through our previous workshops. As you know, we've had an increase in our tax increment revenue this year over prior years. What we have had a reduction in is the carryover of capital funds as we have begun to draw those projects down. Looking ahead towards the upcoming year, our largest single expenditure will be the capital improvement projects that we are undertaking. And breaking out our biggest initiatives outside of just our fixed costs that we generally have within the CRA are capital projects. We have budgeted a little bit over $5 million in these projects. Two of the items to note, or a couple of the items to note, rather, based on our first and second workshop, is that we have pulled back in some of the dollars that have been allocated towards some of the beautification aesthetic projects. A specific example of that would be the Gateway Beautification. We've reallocated those funds into either the business attraction, business growth incentives, or other capital elements. We've talked at length in our prior two workshops on the potential program changes we may have in the upcoming year particularly as it relates to the investment that will make in potential business attraction the investment will make as a part of potential grease traps or other development construction impacts as we move into the year so the way that we would like to generally propose that the board look at these two big budget items being our capital projects as well as our grants and incentive programs is generally as two distinct buckets we know we'll be making some some likely changes throughout the year with your approval so I would look at it in that context. And then our grant and incentive programs, this, I believe, generally reflects what we've discussed in the prior workshops with the understanding that these can be merged together should the right opportunities come forward. And with that, that is the summary of the budget. I'm glad to go into more detail if you'd like, Chair, but I also know you've seen this many times.

I just say I challenge Carlos to be as succinct and fast as you are.

One hundred percent.

Yes.

And let me just say before we go forward to the scouts that are still here, if you're here watching this to get a merit badge, you have earned it and you're going to earn it today. Board members? Council, Board Member Avila.

Thank you, Chair. I just want to thank staff, CRA staff, all the staff. As up to now, we've had multiple, multiple budget workshops, meetings, conversations, briefings, and it takes a lot of work and effort to be this prepared. And I believe that this budget does encapsulate the various initiatives that we've discussed and wanted to have over the years, at least during my tenure. I do appreciate the gateway beautification efforts as well as the business grants and the first-time homebuyer program staying in the budget. I really also appreciate staff's hard work this last year to push the businesses to apply, to execute, and to open up. At the end of the day, we can approve grants all day long, but if they don't get to open their doors and and be you know be open to the public it's it's all in vain so kudos to staff to keeping those lines of communication open with our development services department and making sure that the that our efforts at the end of the day open doors thank you thank you thank you board member avala

yes vice chair thank you chair just to piggyback on that um a lot of these capital improvements and a lot of these big ideas triangle for example they are also wonderful ideas unless we don't have the right partners so i wanted to commend you on the invite to visit some of these cra related um trainings and such because i think that is where we can do the biggest benefit for our cra this coming year is to really understand what those pieces are that we can also help with thank you thank you all right would anyone like to move this item move by the vice chair second by board member cannibal

Is there anything further from council? Is there anyone in the public wishing to speak on the CRA budget? Seeing none, I'll close the public hearing and ask for a roll call vote to approve the, on first reading, the CRA budget.

Board Member Fletcher. Yes. Board Member Rohn. Yes. Board Member Cannavale.

Yes.

Board Member Avila. Yes. Board Member Konski. Yes. Vice Chairwoman Bailey. Yes. Chairman Lozano. Yes. The motion carries.

Our next item is card number 5178, a potential commercial enhancement grant for Homestead Growth Holding LLC at 507 North Chrome Avenue. Mr.

Chair, I'll read this into the record, but we skipped over tab two inadvertently. So I don't know if you'd like to take tab, okay, go back to tab two.

Oh, okay, we sure did. All right. So we'll do tab five and then jump back to tab two? Yeah. All right, so let's do tab five on this and we'll go back to tab two.

And five is a resolution of the board of the community redevelopment agency of the city of homestead florida approving the allocation of commercial enhancement grant program funds approving grant agreement providing for implementation and providing for an effective date.

Thank you.

Mr director thing is the applicant present the applicant is present and has a brief presentation that she would like to share with the board as I have shared with you all in our briefings this is for the commercial enhancement granite five zero seven north chrome avenue. We've been really pleased with the level of investment that this property owner is interested in making in this property as well as continuing to invest further in Homestead. So I'd like to go ahead and invite the property owner and applicant of Barbara to come forward and she will give you a brief overview on the project that she is currently underway with and the vision that she has for this.

Tap five and then back to two. So if you could pull the mic down a little bit. There we go. There.

Good evening, everyone. Good evening, board. My name is Barbara San Giorgio. I am an attorney, as Mia Glossner is. Basically, when I came to Homestead, I've been living in South Dade for over 30 years. not yet in homestead i am in your neighboring city cutler bay but i decided to make our new um office in homestead because i saw the prosperity and i saw the the reason uh to be in homestead was to grow and not just to grow as an attorney because that's not what i wanted to bring here i wanted to branch out so what i wanted to bring and i wanted and what i saw in the area in you know immediately um next to downtown homestead was a next extension of downtown homestead i wanted that to feel like homey i wanted it to be someplace where everyone continued walking had coffee had maybe tapas had wine that's what i want to bring here but Probably the law firm may not stay there. I may move it somewhere else because it's such a nice location that it makes sense to put another retail slash, you know, restaurant there in the future, especially because we're going to have some music like music in the back. We already have our barbershop in place. We want to make it completely different in and out. completely different feel than what it was before. You're gonna have some live music in the back, some seating in the back, where the barbershop's gonna go to the back, also the coffee and wine and tapas, and eventually I wanted to make it a place where it's a corridor where everybody wants to come in, sit down, have coffee, come through their daily routine. So this will not be our first acquisition homestead and I'm looking forward to other projects because I love creating and that's exactly why I'm before the board. And I wanted to thank you all for taking this project into consideration. Honestly, it's. my life laundering, aside from being a lawyer.

That's on the side. But this one is something I've worked for very hard.

And we're here today because I wanted to thank Jared. I wanted to thank the CRT team. They've been completely amazing. They've walked us through the process. And... We've had quite a bit of initial setbacks. Right now we're dealing with a minor issue, which is our hydraulic testing fee.

It's costing us approximately $16,000, I believe.

We put in the project, I believe, in February. We're seven months in. I haven't been able to get a permit, and now we're hit with a small hydraulic test fee. And I'm hoping the board will take that into consideration as well.

And I thank you all. Thank you. Board members? Questions, comment? Member Avila?

Thank you, Chair. This is a beautiful rendering. It reminds me very much of a trip I took up to Fifth Avenue, Naples, and this is something that I think many, many people will be able to enjoy, and I appreciate your investment in this city. Thank you so much. You're welcome. And, you know, the hydraulic analysis, while very much essential to our departments in the way that we are moving forward, I do support any relief that we can offer, especially during this time where we're trying to activate business development and increase, you know, business. I'm looking to bring more business.

thank you and you certainly hit the nail on the head where you say old homestead meets the florida keys because i'll tell you the first thing i thought of when i saw your rendering of the three storefronts is what downtown chrome avenue looked on the west side from mowry all the way up to what is now um christy house yes that really triggers my memories of what once was and Florida Keys in the back where you may step out and have a cocktail or a cigar or whatever it may be on the back patio. And I certainly appreciate your commitment and your enthusiasm and your imagination in putting this together. I understand that your presentation to internally was one of the most comprehensive and well done that we've seen in a very very long time and we're glad to have you here thank you so much thank you thank you all i hope to be in front of you again because this is not going to be the first time

Thank you, Chair. I'll echo the same incredibly charming renderings. I'm very, very happy that you are working with the current barber there. My son's been going there for a little while. They are always very, very nice and go out of their way. It's not typically the fun is sitting on that bench in the front. So I would gladly welcome a coffee while I drop him off for his his haircut. But thank you for

thinking of homestead thank you for thinking of our downtown and for that vision to continue that walk through love it thank you so much thank you all thank you and just one more thing that comes to mind if there are any um open vacancies on our uh preservation committees and our i was just going to ask if you need me i'm here thank you certainly would love to be part of thank you so let's make sure we keep her number thanks

Board, do we have a motion on the request?

I'm just going to add a closing on this. So this is a commercial enhancement grant request. It is in the amount of $25,000. The applicant is, based on the time of the staff report, projected a potential investment of upwards of $540,000.

So let's say we get beyond the current hydraulic issue. When are we going to start to see dust flying?

As soon as I'm issued my three permits. I have been seven months waiting. I've been paying for two offices at the same time. So I've been paying the mortgage on this one. I'm paying for the main office as well. So it's taking a toll.

Okay. Thank you. Yes, Councillor.

Just real quick. This is beautiful. I love it. Thank you. The grease trap... portion of this. Have you explored that? Are you going to need it? You're selling tapas. Yes, it's in our plans. It is in your plans? Yes, sir. Did you get an estimate for the grease trap installation?

We have an estimate for the grease trap, but if we have... No, no, I'm just curious.

18,000 all right so it's a minor size grease cap it's not for like a full-blown restaurant for now yes in this case yes okay because you know we talk about that all the time and for restaurants to come into the area the expense of a full-blown grease trap is not only costly, but you have to go through so many hoops with the county. It's not just the city of Homestead, it's the county and Durham. So I just want to make sure that when we talk about these with new people that are coming in and investing, that they're aware of that too, just like the hydraulic thing is costing you $18,000. make sure you explore that grease trap even further just to make sure it's not going to cost you any additional money on top of that because um we've seen people come and go because of that so just be weary well i'm not going anywhere no no i get it but you know i just don't want you to come across an obstacle that becomes overwhelming so i'll check into that all right thank you so much

Well, this is a real world example of what this kind of grease trap cost. We've kind of hit around it and talked about it in formulating grants, but it's a hard and fast number for a less than full scale restaurant. So it's really good information to have. If that changes upwards, obviously, Just for all our own academic yes, and my own edification and amazement. I would love to know that as well, but I share.

Sorry, real quick, just on the grease trap piece where we've been in discussions with this food hall concept and that was 1 of their design pieces of how they could maximize the use of their grief strap for different. Kitchens, per se. So just to take into consideration, if you are considering potentially that law office instead being a restaurant, where would that grease chip fall within the footprint? Does it make sense to carve out a little piece in the back of the barbershop that both could share? Just some food for thoughts.

Yes, we'll look into it for sure.

And there's no variances required for the back, for the seating area?

Lovely. Yeah, we did it right.

So I think we have a motion and a second to approve. So, yeah, piece by piece. Love it when the puzzle comes together. Madam Clerk, let's have a roll call.

Board Member Roth? Yes. Board Member Konski? Yes. Board Member Cannavale? Yes. Board Member Avila? Yes. Board Member Fletcher? Yes. Vice Chairwoman Bailey? Yes. Chairman Lozano? Yes. The motion carries.

Thank you.

Look forward to it.

Thank you. All right. Let's go back to tab two, car number four.

51 51 another issuance of a 163 notice of this was a disposal for homestead live so board in june you all heard a presentation on a proposal for an operating agreement activation operating agreement on homestead live the direction from the board at the time was to proceed with developing or further refining an operating agreement in that process and given that there was an allocation of funding from the CRA towards that, our legal team had recommended that, or after further review, determined that it would be a more effective process, approach for us to bifurcate that agreement, and rather than having all-in-one of the operating as well as the build out of it, that the CRA would do its own build out of the amount of funds that this board allocated. We would go through the procurement process ourself and any of those funds, and we would manage in terms of that construction or implementation. That in itself is going to extend our process now as we will need to go through the city's procurement process. There's been some additional items that we have requested from the proposer at the time. While we do not need to go out necessarily for a 163 or an RFP on this, we do know there's been some desire to have this more publicly and so what this ask is is to go ahead and issue a 163 now send it out broadly so that we we have done that process we'll continue to better understand and outline how we potentially invest the board's uh allocation into this project in a way that makes sense for us and then bring this back to you all okay thank you board any questions all right so do we have a motion to move forward move by board member cannibal second

And second by Board Member Avila. Is there any further questions or comments from the Board? None appearing, let's have a roll call vote.

Board Member Avila? Yes. Board Member Roth? Yes. Board Member Canabal? Yes. Board Member Fletcher?

Yes.

Board Member Koski? Vice Chair Wimby-Bailey? Yes. Chairman Lozano?

Yes.

The motion carries.

And that takes us to tab six, card number 5190, Mr. Pearl.

tab six is a resolution on the board of the community redevelopment agency of the city of homestead florida establishing the hgra utility analysis and compliance grant program approving the program guidelines attached here to his exhibit a authorizing the use of the community redevelopment agency funds for qualifying reimbursement grants consistent with the hgra redevelopment plan authorizing the cra director or does he need to implement and administer the program providing for implementation and providing for an effective date thank you mr beck

As we in plain language in plain language, you know we are wanting to be business friendly for those just as you heard investors or existing businesses that seek to expand our open new business opportunities in the city that may have to go through this this process to find the potentially up to $16,000 water and sewer hydraulic analysis. So this is a new grant program that we are proposing. Barbara was one of two businesses within the downtown area that came to us three weeks ago, and we're not aware that this was an expense that we're going to have to incur. The other one is an existing business that is seeking to do some expansion improvements to a restroom that by that virtue, it is increasing their requirement. And so we are effectively modeling this program after the commercial enhancement grant and requesting that this board approve the creation of this program that would allow us to provide grant funds towards these businesses that do trigger this requirement. The program is intended to be tied only to businesses that do proceed with a project. This is not exploratory, so you need to be in the permitting process. You need to be moving forward through the actual construction, but it is meant to defray that cost, and again, help us be more business friendly to folks that are coming in. We did set the number 10,000. just a number we set uh knowing that this is a new program that was the aim is for you all to to see if you would support this program and then finalize the number okay it's been moved you say it sure councilman cannibal let's say that that we approved this today can we make it retroactive to help them with the heroic process Well, I don't think that we would make it retroactive, but I could tell you that there will be two of these coming forward to you in in October, I believe, probably the first meeting in October okay. Yes.

Thank you i'm i'm in support of this item, I wanted to know and unless there's a requirement for us to actually hear the item could it be administered administratively could we avoid if it's just that particular grant for the hydraulic it's not tied to an additional business grant could it just be approved administratively. How much time would that save an applicant, for example?

It would give them the assurance that it is approved, right? We would be able to do that administratively at the staff level. Now, one point that the board should know is that, again, modeling this after the commercial enhancement grant, it is not a we cut you a check and you do it. You would have to go through your process and get to a completion point, in which case then we would release the funds.

So it's reimbursement.

It's a reimbursement grant, but they would know that they're going to get those funds to go through with their project, their process.

And at that point, it's an applicant with a permit with everything in place to move forward.

Mr. Curl, did you have something to add? You look like you did.

If the maker of the motion could include that, I would.

Yeah, real quick. Also, so... I know it's maxed out at 10, right? We know it's going to cost that applicant $18,000 or $16,000. Can it be, instead of just a maximum award of 10, make it a maximum of the $16,000 we know it's already going to be for this particular property? And also, I thought we talked about this before, where if an applicant doesn't have the funds to do this in advance that we were able to pay the contractor or whomever directly so they don't have to come out of pocket for that expense if it's a hardship for them.

But doesn't that trigger our procurement and more delay?

I don't know that we've had in my time that discussion. I think we've had it for homeowners. I don't know that we've had the discussion for the commercial properties.

We've done it. I recall at least one case where it was a direct payment to the vendor. But they would have to be in agreement to complete paperwork and the vendor would have to be in agreement.

What we would have to explore in this scenario because the fee is paid to the city is if we potentially paid.

Can I come in as Mr.

I just want to clarify a couple of things about the reason that some of those programs have operated the way that they have. When we have paid direct, those have been tri-party agreements, and the property owner, whether it was residential in the one instance that you're referring to, the commercial property owner, that process still comes back to you because that tri-party agreement provides for their responsibilities, their indemnity of the city, they're providing access to the property, and that has actually taken a little bit longer. I think that the process is being laid out here with the caveat that you want

the staff to be able to approve it administratively and then award the funds provided they complete the permitting process and reach the threshold would probably be faster i agree but in the event that the applicant really has no other option it is an option albeit would be longer i think the only question to that would be you know and in that case it would come to us for review and approval but i think to councilman roth's point is that That is a it is a it's a vehicle that's already been used to try party agreement. It's not one that we typically suggest or want, but it's an option.

So if I'm hearing you correctly, we would have a staff administrative approval, in which case they would be able to be reimbursed at the end. Or if they have a hardship, then we would consider a tri party agreement that would come to this board.

And I think the distinction between what the situation here and there is. The tri party agreement was there to ensure that the work was actually completed. And at that point you were at a construction phase where you were, we were assisting helping them navigate. you know, a relationship with a contractor to contract for work to be completed. In this case, when you're talking about a study which is a prerequisite to the issuance of the permit, the reason that the program guidelines were established as they were was to ensure that the applicant actually follows through with the permitting and moves forward, and that's why it was established as a reimbursement of the concern, and it's a policy decision. is if you go ahead and pay for the hydraulic analysis and you've done that, and the applicant falls short in the permitting in some other way, then you've expended that money and that money is now effectively lost. So I just want to explain to you.

I SEE YOUR POINT BECAUSE IN THE COMMERCIAL SCENARIO THAT I'M REFERRING TO IT WAS LIKE A WINDOWS. IT WASN'T DEPENDENT ON ANY OTHER PROJECTS OR A CO OR A FINAL COMPANY. CORRECT. CORRECT. SO WE MAY WANT TO.

CAN SOMEBODY TELL ME WHAT THE HYDRAULIC THING IS?

YES. I'M GOING TO ASK OUR PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR TO COME ON DOWN AGAIN.

AND WHILE HE IS ON HIS WAY DOWN, CAN THAT TEST NOT BE DONE AT THE VERY END? Is that a possibility? As far as is that a Cairo question?

I'm thinking that's no, but we're gonna we're gonna turn it all to him.

And who's requiring that test? And the question was, what was the question? What is this hydro thing? Hydraulic analysis? Yes.

So the hydraulic analysis, let's take it back.

Before council decided to implement it for the city in order for us to be able to approve new projects connecting to our infrastructure, that analysis has always been a requirement of DERM for large projects. Because, as you're probably aware is concerned with. Pumping capacities, the pump stations and whatnot. Prior to this administration, the city was paying for that out of our own pocket for larger developments.

So, by way of passing the code amendment, the council passed. what we're doing now is transferring that cost to the applicants so what does that hydraulic analysis do it um analyzes the not only the demand for water specifically how it relates to um fire flows during a fire event that is the key aspect of the calculation when we are focusing on water it also we have a second one and that one is for sewer that one is um calculating

what that hydraulic basically means flow.

So it's calculating what the flow does from the point of discharge all the way to when it gets to our secondary plan, which would be over at Miami-Dade, WASDE's district south-ish plans.

So what happens is when you have sewer going through a pipe, especially gravity, the more you have, especially during peak time, and when you apply the peaking factors of I and I, as you're all aware, we have here when it rains and whatnot, the pipe fills up. And you have certain criteria that you have to meet also by DERM. If a pipe gets full past the crown, it cannot exceed, the hydraulic grade line cannot exceed closer than two feet from the surface of the ground.

So imagine, obviously the pipe is not going to allow that, but when it gets into each manhole, it does fill it up. if you ever go if you exceed that and for whatever reason sewage comes out of that manhole the basin essentially goes into moratorium the entire basin so the reason why we um recommended for council to approve this is so that that wouldn't happen again and we wouldn't have to go back into moratorium status by way of doing this analysis we have found many many deficiencies in the system

to some extent as not even having water, as you guys are aware, that expedited the need for us to do well number seven, as well as the improvements that we're currently doing in Coral and Flagler.

For example, the Flanagan's project would not have been able to be done unless we upgraded the system.

You can only find out that that is required if you do a hydraulic analysis.

THAT WAS A LONG ANSWER, TOO TECHNICAL FOR ME. THIS BUILDING IS ALREADY THERE, THOUGH.

THE BUILDING IS THERE. SO THE CODE ALLOWS FOR YOU TO HAVE TWO EXCEPTIONS. ONE IS FILL IN. WE DIDN'T THINK THAT IT WAS FAIR TO ASK FOR SOMEONE TO DO THAT. IF YOU'RE IN FILL IN STATUS, WHICH MEANS YOU'RE IN A CONDITIONAL MORATORIUM BASIN,

um we have some of those that are not absolute moratorium absolute like basin 22 and those that were upstream you couldn't do any part of the process you couldn't file for building permit you can do anything that's absolute moratorium conditional moratorium allows you to proceed with most of your processes

up until you get to the connection point.

At that point, if the improvements that needed to be done in the basin were not done, then Durham wouldn't give you the approval to connect. So those are the two different types. Why is it? That's one of the exceptions that we have. If you're in fill-in status, which means that Durham has the station in conditional moratorium, maybe the hours are, let's say, 11.5 hours.

Nominal per month per day per month. So let's say it's at 11 and you're coming in with a development.

The development only adds either new construction or change reviews. It only adds less than 0.5 hours a month.

The calculation shows that it keeps the pump below 12 hours and there's like three other criteria.

If you meet all those, we didn't think that it was fair to ask for hydraulic analysis because we already know what's happening with that basin, at least in the sewer aspect. The other exemption that we have is the no net increase. So assuming that you have an office building that sells it to another office building and they have the same square footage,

then that demand is calculated equally, so they don't have to do a hydraulic analysis. If you go from an office building, typically, we'll have about a demand, and this is in the code, the county code. The demand says five gallons per day per 100 square feet, and you're going to a restaurant, you're now increasing it by fourfolds. You're going to 20 gallons a day per 100 square feet. And that is why we do the hydraulic analysis, to see if you need to do any additional outside improvements.

If allowed. So what you're saying is once you do this testing, if there's a deficiency, who makes those corrections?

So in the case of an applicant that wants to build immediately, it is incumbent on them to make the correction that is required. They're not mandated to make the connection if they cannot afford it.

And that is a project that the city would eventually be able to do. But unfortunately, our funds are limited and we have to prioritize. The larger projects that serves the city as a whole. So that would be a project that would eventually be done.

But it's not one that we would do in the timeline that that development. Asking for it, which is typically within a couple of months.

Right. So this is like 1800 square foot building that a third of that is being converted into a coffee shop. So you're talking about 600 square feet. So you're adding 24 gallons per day? Is that what you're saying? And you got a test to see if our system can handle that?

So what we're trying to see is that building that is existing has been grandfathered in. We do not know if the water system there would be able to meet fire flows. So I'll give you another example, the hospital. The hospital has been there for, what, 20 years?

We did the hydraulic analysis and we clearly found that the water was not adequate. You wouldn't meet fire flows. Had we not done that, we wouldn't have met that.

So, you know, that reasoning is good for existing buildings.

When something is grandfathered in, the city itself doesn't have the liability either because it is an existing condition. If you approve, so I get a certificate of adequate capacity.

And Kimora has asked me what that meant.

It means that we have adequate capacity.

The way that we know whether we have adequate capacity is by doing a hydraulic analysis. So, Cairo, you're going too far. In simple terms, there are standardized pipe sizes for water and for sewer, depending whether you are commercial or you're industrial or you're residential. Homestead doesn't have that type of system. The system we have in place with the infrastructure is not adequate to meet the needs of homestead, which is exactly why you are doing all the upgrades in the system. There comes a time in the near future when homestead would have elevated itself to a level where in residential areas your minimum pipe size is eight inches, rather than what you have today. and commercial and industrial have 12 inches pipe sizes, which is standard, then you will not have any need for this hydraulic analysis. So the time is coming, but it's not today.

But the pipe size is only for drainage. It's only for sewer side.

Pipe size for water main, portable water.

Yeah, but the water main doesn't affect the customer. You have to deliver the water to their meter. It does.

If you go to Durham today and you're an existing restaurant and you want to add just one sink, So the kitchen, they will make you do a lot of improvements.

Again, it comes down to mainly fire flows. So, of course, the water demand of 24 gallons, that's nothing. We all know that it is fire.

The code also for fire has a very high value, which means, as an example, when you model it, it has to discharge a fire hose, 3,000 gallons of water per minute for 60 minutes without it decreasing the pressure of the system In a nearby facility for, uh, area for less than 22 less than 20 PSI.

If you do that, that triggers automatic water notice.

Can I just jump in real quick all this analysis and all the studies these are things that we were already doing and getting done before. That's nothing new. Those were all requirements from Durham. The difference here is that we're now passing the fee on to the applicant.

And we made it slightly more strict because they're only required for very large developments. Not required. It does require it. We did it for all the elements as the city manager mentioned.

Our pipe sizes are in an area where you have restaurants that you could have a pipe size that's 4 inches in diameter.

Got it. So so while at the end of the day, you might have an applicant and let's talk about the little guys. You might have an applicant that. Pays for this analysis and decides I can't afford to build if I can't connect right away. So I'm going to abandon the application. But meanwhile, we are left with a report and analysis that we benefit from, because eventually we'll build it into our plans. And I think in those cases, that's where I'm finding that there's some unfairness. to that process. So perhaps we can add it to a future discussion to analyze, you know, how our policy is on these for those projects that are smaller and that are affecting the mom and pop businesses, because Councilman Roth brings up a good point. And while we want to be, you know, fiscally responsible and make sure we're not paying for other people's developments, there's that, you know, burden, I think, that we did not intend to create.

So I hear you and I hear you well. The CRA director will tell you that that was the premise for my recommendation to create this program, to create a relief to our businesses. And the next step, like I mentioned in council briefings, is to extend the program citywide, not just in the CRA area. So any individual that has this challenge, the city will assist them to kind of come into compliance. Because this is what happens when you have deferred maintenance, when you don't do the infrastructure upgrades when you need them. City has not done tremendous amount of infrastructure enhancements for at least 25 to 30 years. For you to have in downtown Homestead, pipe sizes that are like four to six inches, it does not meet fire flow. We've been actually very lucky. We've been very lucky.

And let me ask another question. If let's say there's a bay of 10 units, or development with 10 bays rather, and one applicant is doing the analysis now and another one won't do it for another six months, is there a certain time period where you can use the same application to use for a couple?

So what we like to do, we like to work with everyone.

We like to help everyone.

So as soon as someone comes in that is in one bay of a building, what we try to initiate is contact with the building owner and explain to them that the best approach is for them to proceed with a hydraulic analysis that incorporates the building as a whole to the best use that it's sown for. So if they came in and they build it saying that it's all going to be office space, because everyone loves to build that. I've noticed that they put in for office space every single day and then they want to convert one into a restaurant.

We approached the owner of the, and so far this approach has been successful because they understand that this is going to be less headache for everyone, not just for that one that's coming in, but for all of them in the future. And we can establish a bank for them and tell them if we do the hydraulic analysis, we see if there's any deficiencies, if those deficiencies are fixed and you're able to connect, then for the future, anyone that comes in can go up to that demand.

So you can have all restaurants if, I mean, if the Sony most allows.

And the thing is, you said, if you're able to connect. And so I think part of the problem is, is we'll use them as an example. They've made a $550,000 investment in purchasing this property. Now it's going to cost them another half a million dollars to renovate it. And now it may cost them another $200,000 to be able to hook up. That's quite troublesome. If they've got to do enhancements to hook up to our system. So, how do we, how do we either. We can do it in the by adding more grants to help them with that process, but that could be she, she may be running up against a block that she won't have the money to complete what we just saw. And that's 1 thing I want to try to avoid happening is. They come in here, they make that investment and then all of a sudden. the obstacles start to mount and then you get stuck with a building that doesn't do anything and we've seen that time and time and time again on chrome avenue from fourth street down to maury and i think that's part of the reason we have these meetings with the cra is we we have to make sure that if we're inviting these people to come and invest in our city that they don't get turned off four, five, six months later because of all the hoops they've gotta go through to get it built. It's a major challenge. And that's why I said, let's bring it up to the 16, a maximum of 16. But now you're telling me, even with that process, there's nothing we're gonna do to help them to connect to our system.

so there's a failure somewhere i'm not too sure about this extrapolation of the discussion now we have a major project on chrome avenue coming up i don't see how this in the individual that just left the chambers will be required to build additional infrastructure right now you're putting in 24 inch pipe sizes on chrome avenue So I don't think this individual will have any obligation to build additional infrastructure on Chrome Avenue. Remember the statement we made when we came for that project is to ensure that in the next 25 years, properties along Chrome Avenue and Flagler Avenue will have adequate water supply and sewer. As we build, we also have pump station 11 coming on now with a lot of developments, blueness and the rest, waiting on that project as well. because they didn't want to go the route of spending their own money. So again, I think Cairo, the Public Works Director made mention of that. If you are able to exercise patience, the city will get to it. But if you want to do it today, it's outside the capability of the city's CIP plan to divert funds and prioritize your project. You got to wait for a CIP plan to get to you. Right now, there's a tremendous amount of improvements going on. Chrome Avenue, Flagler, Pump Station 11, Pump Station 15, Pump Station 22. We have the cardiologists that rented a space for more than three years and they were paying rents. and the city never gave them permission to connect until we're able to address BOM Station 22. So I think the phased implementation of capital improvement is doing the city of Homestead a lot of justice. We have the Flanagan coming in. They will also benefit from the project on Flagler. SPH is coming in. They are doing a hydraulic analysis. For such large developments, will be required to do some improvements they will want to take advantage of that and add additional money to make the sizes bigger so that subsequent customers that come on board would not need to do any of this hydraulic analysis sandero project is also building additional infrastructure for the city So this is a much more comprehensive, intentional and strategic approach to address our infrastructure challenges. Thanks.

Okay, that clears up a little bit of it. I just want to make sure that the mom and pops of the world that come in, not the SPHs, not Blue Nests, not the big guys who can afford to do these things, you know, Because the ultimate goal is to revitalize Chrome Avenue. And I think this is a big shot in the arm if we can get it done. Even if we can just get them to make the facade look like there's something going on there, it's a huge improvement. So I just want to make sure that they have the opportunity to realize their goal and their dreams of doing this project. It's a small building. I can't imagine it's going to affect that much. But to do an eighteen thousand or sixteen thousand dollars study, and then say, well, gee, there's just nothing there right now. You're gonna have to wait a year and a half for the city to get there is a challenge also.

So, well, I think I would add to that to board member Roth, and I appreciate the concern on local business, which is what we want. You know, three weeks ago, this was not a concept or a program we had, but it's one that came to us as a problem. Right. And so I think, you know, the general spirit we have in our offices is anything can be on the table. So I think if in this case, this would be an example where if there is an instance that there is an issue and we find out what this is a problem, our aim will be then to to figure out how we can how we can figure it out. Right. And that may mean we need to come back and say, board, We approved an initiative or a program, now we need to look at something else. But I do very much appreciate what you're saying with that, and I will commit that our office is going to be open to seeing how we can work with folks if we do find ourselves in that place where, using that as an example, there is an issue with the upsizing until such time we're prepared from the CIP.

And not to mention that, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but there will have to be a change of use on that building as well. So that takes some time too. You're aware of that, right? All right. So I just want to make sure that they know that no matter who comes into the CRA or into the city, they're thoroughly educated on what they may be facing so that we get successful businesses to open up and operate. That's what we want in the city. So thank you for all the time that you guys gave me for this particular issue, because I think it's extremely important that we focus on those types of things. Thank you, Mayor.

So am I reframing and retracting the motion? I guess one quick question, though, that came up from this. Why the 10,000? What's the...

It was a starting place. This was first bringing an item to first, are you interested in supporting this initiative? And if you want to adjust the numbers was suggested that that's your decision to make.

So before you guys move forward, the hydraulic analysis has two steps. It has for sewer, which is $8,000. It has for water, which is $8,000. That's how the $16,000 came. There might be applicants that are doing only water. So I would highly recommend you put $8,000 per each of those aspects. If you are doing both, it could be up to $16,000. If you are doing only one, it's up to $8,000.

And to clarify, the analysis is being done by their vendor of choice, or we have someone that we require the study to be done. We know their pricing. It's consistent.

Yeah.

Until this code amendment sunsets, because I'm assuming we'll no longer require this at some point in the future. Correct. That's the number the CRA board will rely on, the 18, 8 and 8. 16. 16, 8 and 8. Yeah.

if you're doing both yeah and that doesn't matter about the size of the building or size of the lot or anything like that that fees the same it's the same and the only reason why it is is because as as i mentioned if if you take water as an example we need to see whether or not that property for that use that is new that we're certifying is able to meet fire flows we cannot certify it at the moment because we don't have eight inches along residential we don't have 12 inches along commercial like many places in the county has in new areas the old areas not as much so forgive me for being so carrying this on for so long so like if town if if uh homestead town square

a new a new occupant takes over space they require to do the same thing if they're changing the use and they're increasing demand yes if they are decreasing demand or staying the same and they're not changing use then no okay so i would be i would be supportive if we can identify a criteria for a small business that we would give a grant for the full amount up to the 16 up to the eight on each for small businesses and even if we wanted to like your market during you know certain corridors say that again matt you're up to eight for water up to eight for sewer with

in identified corridors.

Okay.

Starting with the CRA one. Yeah.

Well, I want to be clear. Remember, this is in the CRA. So in terms of the money, it needs to stay within the boundaries of the CRA. This is not a citywide program. So I don't know if you feel the need to identify a particular street or roadway as long as we stay within the

Anywhere in the city. We intend to come back for a supplemental program that will be citywide. For this?

Yes.

However, the corridors of the CRA, Chrome Avenue, and Flagler that will see this improvement that is ongoing may not have a need for this by sometime in the early year.

So the motion is to approve up to 16 if they're doing both, but how many businesses are we approving?

So I think the way we'd like to do it is to have it be for commercial properties. I think we may have articulated even the various types within the CRA. Let's see how many of these come forward. We can give you an update as we proceed through the year, but I don't know that we'd necessarily put a cap on it.

You can let us know when you run out of money and we can do budget amendments.

Yes, yes.

And we can also then, as these come forward, provide you, as we have our routine board meetings, you know, almost the application, letting you all know this one is approved, this is where we're at, and you'll be able to stay up to date on those.

And I'm sure this is something that you all do in the office, but as you're seeing that there are certain things that are not helping certain businesses open, this, for example, then that's obviously something that comes into plan, right, to see how we can help that. All right, so we're moving up to 16 if they're doing both eight, if only one, and just to bring it back to the beginning of the discussion to keep it administrative.

Did you want to delegate authority for the city for a series staff to. Grant these war approvals without coming back to the board provided they meet the criteria in the guidelines.

I'm okay with that as long as we've got the criteria in place. But I don't need to be clear that it's up to eight for water analysis and up to eight for sewer. And approved by the CRA director, right? Approved by the director.

Okay.

And the criteria in this case is CRA. If you're within the CRA, you're going to get it. But when we come back for future discussion on citywide, it'll be different. Could be different.

So moved.

Thank you.

Second. All right. It's been moved and seconded. Is there any further discussion? Yes, Mr. Proctor. Sure. I just thought you were tired of sitting.

Excuse me, Jerry Proctor, attorney. I hope you've all had a good summer. I represent La Cruzada Restaurant, which is right across the street. We're encouraged by the resolution and the comments of the council, the comments of the manager, and we want to participate. Um, we have. My client has installed a sewer extension. Which is the reason that there's been some disruption. Out between here and the restaurant in the last. 12 or more months she has spent well into the 6 figures. On that I was required by the county that we went to the environmental board of county several years ago. We are encouraged to hear about the program. We want to work with the city. We, we're not adding any customer area. to the restaurant. And so we want to work with the city.

We're encouraged to hear that you have something called construction mitigation in the budget.

I'm not sure what that means, but we're going to find out. And we appreciate the help of the CRA staff and hope we can work with the city and not have any more disruption on the street there between here and the restaurant.

And I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Fronker. Okay. So we have a motion and a second on this otherwise seemingly innocuous item. Have a roll call.

Board Member Roth. Yes. Board Member Fletcher. Yes. Board Member Campbell. Yes. Board Member Konski. Yes. Board Member Avila.

Yes.

Vice Chairwoman Bailey. Yes. Chairman Lawson. Yes. The motion carries.

All right. That brings us to the end of the formal agenda. Anything further, Mr. Director? Mr. Attorney? Board members, anything further for the board? No, sir. All right. So with that, I'll need a motion to adjourn the CRA meeting. So moved and seconded. All in favor? Any opposed? All right. I have been reminded that we are required to start our budget meeting not later than 7.30 this evening. If anyone needs a break before we do that, speak now or forever hold your peace. Break, five minute, we're good? All right, let's take five and we will convene the budget meeting at, let's say 7.20.

We've got to go. Yeah.

Alright. Good evening everyone and welcome. I'd like to call the city of Homestead special call first budget meeting to order. Today is September 8th, 2026 and is now 721 PM. Madam Clerk, could you call the roll please?

Councilman Fletcher here. Councilman cannibal. Councilman Roth. Here. Councilwoman Konski. Here. Councilwoman Avila. Here. Vice Mayor Bailey. Here. Mayor Lawson. Here.

All right. Mr. Farrell.

Yes, Mr. Mayor. Pursuant to Florida statute, I'm going to read the following statement into the record. The city of Homestead's proposed operating millage rate is 6.0567 mills, and the proposed voted debt millage rate is 0.2316 mills. The rollback... Millage rate is 5.8156 mils. The proposed operating millage rate of 6.0567 mils is 4.15% above the rollback rate of 5.8156 mils.

Thank you, Mr. Pearl. Now that we have that out of the way, we'll have fresh hot coffee. Our budget and finance director, Carlos Perez. You've got the floor.

So Mayor and Council, it's been a great busy year for our great city of Homestead. Over this concluding fiscal year, the city has worked diligently on several critical initiatives. This afternoon, it gives me and my colleagues in the administration great pleasure to provide a brief recap of several accomplishments we made with the support of Mayor and Council. Earlier last year, Mayor and Council adopted a strategic plan with five strategic priority areas. We promised and we have now aligned those accomplishments in accordance with the approved strategic priority areas. The budget you are about to hear now from the finance and budget director, Mr. Carlos Perez, is proposed and organized with a focus to deliver essential services amidst potential property tax impact, cultivate a citizen-first innovation and accountable workforce, infrastructure upgrades and improvements, economic mobility and downtown revitalization, as well as service delivery modernization. We promise that with that being our focus and our grand norm, this budget is going to be streamlined and effective according to the wish of mayor and council. With that, I'm asking the finance director, Mr. Carlos Perez, to give us a short version of his presentation. Thank you, Carlos.

I hate to disappoint, but there is no short version to this one. There is a prerecorded 56-minute presentation, but it'll be very thorough. And again, it's not just for the mayor and council. This is for the public as well, so there is more educational material in there. Thank you, and we can let it roll.

Good evening, mayor and council, members of the public, and the city administration. Tonight, I have the privilege of presenting an overview of the city's proposed fiscal year 2027 budget, highlighting our key priorities, major investments, and the financial plan for the year ahead. THE PRESENTATION WILL PROVIDE OVERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS ON THE FOLLOWING AREAS OF THE BUDGET. BUDGET DEVELOPMENT, GENERAL FUND OVERVIEW FOCUSING ON THE BUDGET INCREASES AND RESOURCES USED TO COVER THEM, THE GENERAL FUND DEPARTMENT'S CAPITAL REQUESTS, ANALYSIS OF GENERAL FUNDS FUND BALANCE, LISTING OF PROPOSED SIGNATURE EVENTS, SPONSORSHIPS, AND COUNCIL COMMITTEES, CITYWIDE OVERVIEW PROVIDING HIGHLIGHTS OF SIGNIFICANCE PERTAINING TO ALL OTHER BUDGETED FUNDS, CITYWIDE CIP PROJECTS OVERVIEW, STAFFING ENHANCEMENTS, the proposed millage rates, looking beyond 2027, a look at Amendment 3, and a recap. The development of the annual budget is a comprehensive process that takes place over many months and begins each year with the establishment of a budget calendar that establishes the key milestones and deadlines. As departments develop their proposed operating budgets and capital improvement requests, Finance and Budget and City Manager's Office meet individually with each council member to obtain their input and better understand their priorities for the upcoming fiscal year. This year, for the first time, the City also launched a Community Budget Survey, providing residents with an additional opportunity to share their priorities, participate in the budget process, and help generate greater public interest in how City resources are allocated. At the same time, staff evaluates the City's available resources EXISTING FINANCIAL COMMITMENTS AND PROJECTED REVENUES FOR THE COMING YEAR. THOSE RESOURCES ARE THEN CAREFULLY BALANCED AGAINST DEPARTMENTAL NEEDS, CAPITAL PRIORITIES, COUNCIL DIRECTION AND WHAT THE CITY CAN RESPONSIBLY AFFORD. THIS YEAR THE CITY ALSO HELD TWO BUDGET WORKSHOPS PROVIDING ADDITIONAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR COUNCIL DISCUSSION, PUBLIC INPUT AND REFINEMENT ON THE PROPOSED BUDGET. THE PROCESS CONCLUDES WITH TWO FORMAL PUBLIC HEARINGS. Tonight represents the first budget hearing with a final hearing scheduled for September 23rd. Ultimately, the annual budget is a result of months of collaboration involving every city department, the city manager's office, finance and budget, the mayor and council, and our community, all working together to establish the city's financial plan for the coming year. As mentioned earlier, this year, for the first time, the City launched a community budget survey to obtain public input, encourage greater participation, and generate interest in the budget process. We received 240 completed responses, providing valuable insight into the priorities of our residents. We plan to continue using the survey in future years and to expand our outreach efforts so that even more residents have an opportunity to participate in the budget process. The survey results provided a clear message. Infrastructure was identified as the top funding priority while roads and infrastructure was the service residents most wanted to see increased. Across the survey responses, investment in infrastructure remained the strongest and most consistent priority expressed by residents. Another important takeaway was that 52% of the respondents indicated they would be willing to support an increase in taxes or fees depending on the specific service or improvement being funded. Overall, the survey provided useful insight into what our residents value most and give us another tool to consider as we establish priorities and make funding decisions during the budget process. In 2025, the city began the process of developing a new strategic plan to help establish a clear vision and priorities for the future. The process took place over several months and included opportunities for public input through the city's social pinpoint platform, as well as participation in community forums. The final strategic plan was adopted in August of 2025. The fiscal year 2027 proposed budget represents an important step in putting that plan into action by aligning the city's financial resources with the priorities identified in the strategic plan. This slide and the next will illustrate how the fiscal year 2027 budget aligns with those strategic priorities. For the general fund, quality of life represents the largest allocation at approximately 68% of the budget, primarily reflecting the significant resources dedicated to public safety and other services that directly support the quality of life of our residents. This alignment helps demonstrate the connection between the priorities established through the strategic planning process and how the City is allocating its resources in the fiscal year 2027 budget. Looking at the budget from a citywide perspective, the alignment with the strategic plan shifts somewhat because it includes all funds and all city operations. At citywide level, infrastructure represents the largest strategic priority at approximately 53% of the total budget. followed by quality of life at about 25% and internal operations at approximately 17%. This reflects a significant level of investment the city makes in its infrastructure, including the utility systems, capital projects, and other major improvements that support the community. It also reflects the cost of the city's internal operations, including the internal service funds that support departments across the organization. Taken together, These allocations demonstrate how the fiscal year 2027 budget is structured to support both the services residents rely on today and the infrastructure internal capacity needed to sustain the city into the future. Now that we have reviewed the overall framework used to develop the fiscal year 2027 budget, including the city's priorities, public input, and resources available to support them, we will shift our focus to the general fund. This next section provides an overview of the general fund budget, including its major revenues, expenditures, and key funding priorities for 2027. Property tax revenues are driven by two primary factors, property values and the millage rate or tax rate. Property values are established by the Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser's Office, not by the City. The City is responsible for setting the millage rate, which determines the amount of property tax assessed for every $1,000 of taxable property value. It is also important to note that the City is operating millage primarily supports the General Fund and the Community Redevelopment Agency, also known as the CRA. Fiscal year 2027, taxable property values increased by approximately 5.6% over the prior year. In addition, the proposed budget includes .0963 mill increase, bringing the millage rate to 6.0567 mills. Based on the current taxable values of approximately $6.75 billion, these changes are projected to generate approximately $2.2 million in additional property tax revenues. Of that amount, approximately $1.65 million is attributable to growth in property values, while approximately $550,000 is attributable to proposed millage rate increase. The additional revenues generated by the millage increase is intended to fund the Council's TO HAVE THE FIVE POLICE OFFICER POSITIONS IN FISCAL YEAR 2027. ON THE PREVIOUS SLIDE, WE DISCUSSED THAT THE PROPOSED .0963 MILL INCREASE IS EXPECTED TO GENERATE APPROXIMATELY $550,000 IN RECURRING REVENUE, WHICH WILL SUPPORT THE FIVE ADDITIONAL POLICE OFFICER POSITIONS REQUESTED BY MAYOR AND COUNCIL. THIS SLIDE PUT THAT INCREASE INTO PERSPECTIVE FROM THE INDIVIDUAL TAXPAYER'S POINT OF VIEW. The additional .0963 mills equates to approximately 10 cents for every $1,000 of taxable value. For a property with $100,000 in taxable value, the additional annual property tax would be approximately $9.63. At $300,000 in taxable value, the additional annual impact would be approximately $28.89. And based on the property appraiser's reported average homestead taxable value in the City of Homestead of approximately $180,670, the estimated additional annual property tax would be approximately $17.40. So while the millage adjustment provides the recurring funding needed for the five additional police officers, this slide also shows what the investment translates to at the individual taxpayer level. This chart illustrates the growth in the city's taxable values since 2016. Over the past several years, the city benefited from very strong growth in property values, including double-digit increases in many years. That growth generated additional property tax revenues that helped support increasing service demands and operating costs. For 2027, however, that trend changed significantly. Property values increased by only 5.6%, representing a substantial slowdown from the growth rates experienced in recent years. As a result, one of the general fund's primary sources of recurring revenue growth provided considerably less additional funding than in prior years, adding to the challenge of balancing the fiscal year 2027 budget. This pie chart illustrates the major revenue sources supporting the fiscal year 2027 general fund budget and importantly, the degree to which city can influence those revenues. General fund relies heavily on three major sources, ad valorem property taxes, state shared revenues, and pilots and cost allocations. Added on taxes remain the general fund's largest single source at approximately $34.6 million. While property values are established by the Miami-Dade County Property Appraisers Office, the city does control the millage rate applied to those values. State-shared revenues represent another significant portion of this budget, but these revenues are largely outside the city's control because they are collected and distributed by the state. Pilots and cost allocations are largely determined internally, giving the city more influence over this funding source. However, increasing those charges places additional costs on the city's utilities and other enterprise funds. Approximately 10% of the general fund budget is supported through an appropriation of fund balance. As we will discuss, this is a one-time resource and is used primarily for capital projects, and other non-recurring needs. The remaining revenue categories, franchise fees, licenses and permits, fines and forfeitures, charges for services, and other revenues make up a relatively smaller share of the overall budget. Overall, this chart demonstrates a significant portion of the general fund revenues is either outside the city's direct control, dependent on other city funds, or non-recurring in nature, which limits the flexibility available when balancing the budget. THE PREVIOUS SLIDE SHOWED GENERAL FUND REVENUES BY PERCENTAGE. THIS SLIDE PROVIDES ADDITIONAL DETAIL BY SHOWING THE ACTUAL AMOUNT, DOLLAR AMOUNTS BEHIND THOSE REVENUE SOURCES. BEGINNING WITH THAT WITH LAW AND TAXES, THE FISCAL YEAR 2027 BUDGET IS BASED ON THE PROPOSED MILLAGE RATE OF 6.0567 MILLS CONSISTING OF 5.7727 MILLS FOR GENERAL OPERATIONS AND .2840 MILLS FOR LIBRARY SERVICES. WE WILL DISCUSS THE MILLAGE RATE IN GREATER DETAIL LATER IN THE PRESENTATION. Other taxes include revenues such as the local option gas tax as well as insurance premium taxes that help fund the police and firefighter pension plans. Those pension related revenues have corresponding expenditures and therefore do not represent additional discretionary general fund resources. As discussed on the previous slide, state-shared revenues are largely outside the city's control. For fiscal year, 2027, the state estimates included approximately 5Million dollars in municipal revenue sharing 2Million dollars in communication service tax 8.3Million dollars and a half cent sales tax and 265,000 other state shared revenues licenses and permits no longer include building permit revenues. which are now accounted for within the Building Services Enterprise Fund. This category does include other permits, including right-of-way permits, as well as approximately $450,000 in business tax receipt revenues. Finally, the appropriation of fund balance is being used primarily for one-time capital expenditures and other non-recurring needs. Rather than go through these here, we will review them in greater detail in the upcoming fund balance and capital improvement sections. The important point is that fund balance is a finite, one-time resource and is not being relied upon to support ongoing, recurring operational costs. Now that we have reviewed the revenues supporting the general fund, we will shift to how those resources are allocated. THIS CHART PROVIDES AN OVERVIEW OF THE FISCAL YEAR 2027 GENERAL FUND BUDGET BY MAJOR GOVERNMENTAL FUNCTION. PUBLIC SAFETY IS THE CITY'S LARGEST DIRECT SERVICE COMMITMENT WITHIN THE GENERAL FUND REPRESENTING JUST OVER 46% OF THE TOTAL BUDGET. Parks, Recreation, and Open Spaces represents approximately 8.5%, while Planning and Zoning and Public Works account for approximately 2.8% and 2.5% respectively. Code Compliance represents another 2.5%. The City's General Government Functions, which provide administrative and organizational support to City operations, collectively represent 28.3% of the budget. Finally, approximately 9% of the general fund budget consists of transfers to other city funds. We will discuss those transfers in greater detail on the next slide. The previous slide shows general fund expenditures by function. This slide looks at the same expenditures from a different perspective by expenditure type and compares the proposed budget to the fiscal year 26 adopted budget. The largest expenditure categories personnel costs representing approximately 56% of the entire general fund budget. This reflects a significant staffing component associated with providing city services. Capital outlay within the general fund is relatively limited because most general fund capital projects are accounted for separately in the capital improvement fund. The capital expenditures remaining directly in the general fund are primarily local option gas tax funded improvements within Public Works. Debt service represents the annual debt payments associated with a new city hall. Another significant category is the transfers to other funds. These transfers include approximately $400,000 toward the P2P bond debt service, $1 million transfer to the electric utility, approximately $904,000 to the building services fund, and approximately $6.2 million transfer to the capital improvement fund. A significant portion of these transfers is supported by the general fund fund balance, and it's being used primarily for 1 time purposes. This includes approximately 4M dollars to the police radio replacement. Approximately 1.2M dollars for parks capital projects, approximately 715,000 dollars for other general fund department capital projects and 300,000 for non specific grant matching requirements. In addition fund balance supports approximately 1.26Million dollars for the capital portion of the general funds, innovation and technology allocation. We will look more closely at the city's fund balance and the impact of these appropriations later in the presentation. Finally, contingency has been reduced to approximately 291,000 dollars for fiscal year 2027, reflecting a return to more typical level rather than the additional red speed related contingency included in fiscal year 2026. THE PROPOSED GENERAL FUND BUDGET REPRESENTS AN INCREASE OF APPROXIMATELY $5.4 MILLION OVER THE FISCAL YEAR 2026 ADOPTED BUDGET. THESE NEXT TWO SLIDES HIGHLIGHT THE MOST SIGNIFICANT CHANGES CONTRIBUTING TO THAT INCREASE. PERSONNEL RELATED INCREASES INCLUDE APPROXIMATELY $929,000 IN ADDITIONAL PENSION PLAN CONTRIBUTIONS, $728,000 ASSOCIATED WITH THE 2.5% COST OF LIVING ADJUSTMENT, $676,000 IN HIGHER HEALTH INSURANCE COSTS 584,000 dollars in other personnel costs, including step and merit increases, longevity and the reallocation of certain compensation costs among funds. The most significant citywide operational increase is approximately 950,000 dollars in higher cost allocations to the innovation technology department. OTHER NOTABLE DEPARTMENTAL CHANGES INCLUDE APPROXIMATELY $550,000 FOR FIVE ADDITIONAL POLICE OFFICERS FOR THE POLICE DEPARTMENT. THE CITY ATTORNEY'S OFFICE INCREASES BY APPROXIMATELY $500,000, PRIMARILY TO FUND THE CITY'S CODE REWRITE AND FOR THE INCREASE IN LEGAL RATES APPROVED EARLIER THIS YEAR. GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION INCLUDES APPROXIMATELY $55,000 FOR THE ANNUAL ADJUSTMENT TO THE SIBERIAN OPERATORS CONTRACT AND $60,000 IN ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR THE HISTORICAL MUSEUM. Changes requested by the Mayor and Council resulted in an increase of approximately $147,000 for special events, sponsorships, and committees, which we will review in greater detail later in the presentation. Continuing the notable changes contributing to the approximately $5.4M increase in the general fund budget, we have Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces includes two new program initiatives, $30,000 for an hour per day event and $40,000 for a zero drowning program. Transfers to other funds increased by approximately $1.5M overall, although that increase reflects several significant changes. The transfer to the capital improvement fund increased by approximately 3Million dollars primarily to support general fund department capital projects. We will review those individual projects as well as other funding within the capital improvement fund later during the capital improvement program section, the transfer to the building services fund decreased by approximately 474,000 dollars. REFLECTING THE LOWER AMOUNT OF NET ACTIVITY GENERATED BY THE BUILDING SERVICES IN FISCAL YEAR 2025 COMPARED WITH FISCAL YEAR 2024 PRIOR TO ITS TRANSITION FROM THE GENERAL FUND TO AN ENTERPRISE FUND. IN ADDITION, THE FISCAL YEAR 2026 BUDGET INCLUDED A ONE-TIME TRANSFER OF APPROXIMATELY $1,037,000 TO WATER AND SEWER FUND TO PROVIDE PARTIAL FUNDING FOR PUMP STATION 11. BECAUSE THAT WAS A ONE-TIME TRANSFER, IT DOES NOT RECUR IN 2027. There are also several notable reductions in the fiscal year 2007 general fund budget. The City Manager's Office decreases by approximately $105,000, primarily from reallocating a portion of the ACM and DCM personnel costs to non-general fund departments within their respective areas of responsibility. The City Clerk's Office decreased by approximately $166,000 because the fiscal year 2026 included general election costs that do not reoccur in fiscal year 2027. PLANNING AND ZONING PROFESSIONAL SERVICES DECREASES BY APPROXIMATELY $175,000 BASED ON PRIOR YEAR ACTUAL EXPENDITURES. AND CONTINGENCY DECREASES BY APPROXIMATELY $550,000 PRIMARILY BECAUSE THE ADDITIONAL RED SPEED RELATED CONTINGENCY INCLUDED IN FISCAL YEAR 2026 IS NO LONGER BUDGETED AT THAT LEVEL. FINALLY, OUR REMAINING CHANGES ACROSS GENERAL FUND DEPARTMENTS RESULT IN A NET REDUCTION OF APPROXIMATELY $270,000. COLLECTIVELY, Those other changes represent only about 5% of the overall year-to-year change, meaning that the vast majority of the $5.4 million increase is explained by the specific items highlighted on these two slides. Comparing the Fiscal Year 27 proposed general fund budget to the Fiscal Year 26 adopted budget, expenditures increased by approximately $5.4 million. To maintain a balanced budget, that increase must be matched by an equivalent increase in available resources and other funding sources. This slide highlights the most significant changes that make up those additional resources. The largest recurring increase comes from ad valorem property taxes, which are projected to increase by approximately 2.2M, based on the property value growth, new construction, and the proposed millage rate. As discussed earlier, approximately 550,000 of that increase is attributed to the proposed adjustment supporting the five additional police officers. Not all revenue sources increased. Fines and forfeiture related to Red Speed declined by approximately 1.2 million from the fiscal year 26 budget because actual collections have been substantially below the amount originally projected. For fiscal year 2027, we have therefore taken a more conservative approach and budgeted only $500,000. Based on estimates provided by the state, state-shared revenues are also projected to decline by more than $300,000, primarily within the half-cent sales tax and communication services tax. The most significant increase in overall funding comes from the appropriation of fund balance. As we discussed when reviewing the general fund of revenues, THESE RESERVES ARE BEING USED PRIMARILY FOR ONE-TIME CAPITAL EXPENDITURES AND OTHER NON-RECURRING NEEDS. WE WILL TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT THE CITY'S FUND BALANCE INCLUDING THE AMOUNT AVAILABLE AND THE IMPACT OF THE PROPOSED FISCAL YEAR 27 APPROPRIATIONS IN THE UPCOMING FUND BALANCE SECTION. FINALLY, THE REMAINING REVENUE AND FUNDING SOURCE CHANGES SHOWN ON THIS SLIDE PROVIDE APPROXIMATELY $1.9 MILLION IN NET ADDITIONAL RESOURCES. TOGETHER, THE CHANGES RECONCILE TO THE APPROXIMATE $5.4 MILLION NEEDED TO SUPPORT THE INCREASE IN THE FISCAL YEAR 27 PROPOSED GENERAL FUND BUDGET. THESE NEXT TWO SLIDES PROVIDE A DEPARTMENT BY DEPARTMENT COMPARISON OF THE FISCAL YEAR 26 ADOPTED GENERAL FUND BUDGET TO THE FISCAL YEAR 27 PROPOSED BUDGET. As you review the changes by department, keep in mind that many of the increases reflect the citywide personnel cost changes discussed earlier, including pensions, health insurance, COLA, and other compensation related adjustments. Beyond the citywide impacts, the most notable departmental variances were highlighted on the previous two slides. So rather than repeat those explanations, these charts are intended to provide the full department by department comparison. Continuing with the department by department comparison, the most notable increase on this slide is within the police department. This is not unexpected as the police department has the largest number of employees within the general fund. So citywide personnel cost increases have a greater impact on its budget than on most other departments. Those personnel related increases included the 2.5% COLA, the additional five police officers, along with other compensation and benefit increases discussed earlier. The changes reflected in the transfers to other funds were discussed in an earlier slide. As noted earlier, one of the significant uses of general fund fund balance in the fiscal year 27 proposed budget is approximately 5.9Million dollars in transfers to the capital improvement fund to support capital needs requested by general fund departments. These next few slides provide the detail behind these capital investments. On this slide, General Services Administration includes roof replacement and restoration projects for four city facilities, replacement of laptops with a subprime, and funding to create additional storage space at City Hall. Also shown to the public work streets division, annual roadway and sidewalk improvements. These projects are funded separately through the local option gas tax revenues rather than general fund fund balance. The next slide continues with the larger capital investments proposed for police and parks. Continuing with the general fund capital projects, the most significant investment on this slide is for the police department approximately 4.9Million dollars is proposed for the replacement of police radios of that amount approximately 4Million will be funded from the general fund fund balance with the remaining 950,000 funded from confiscated property fund. Parks, recreation, and open spaces includes approximately $1.2 million in capital projects. These investments include renovations and equipment replacements at several city parks and community centers, including Robie George Park, William F. Dickinson Community Center, Roscoe Warren Park, And JD red park, as well as upgrades to the city's lighting prediction, lightning prediction system at 5 parks together. These projects represent significant 1 time investments in public safety, recreational facilities and park infrastructure for 2027. As mentioned earlier, the proposed budget includes $9.37 million in the use of general fund balance, primarily to support one-time expenditures and transfer to other funds. We'll now take a closer look at the City's fund balance, including the required reserve, available fund balance, and the impact of the proposed Fiscal Year 27 appropriations. This first slide focuses on the City's required general fund reserve. Pursuant to city ordinance and city code sections, the city is required to maintain a reserve equal to 10% of the adopted general fund budget. Based on the fiscal year 27 proposed general fund budget of approximately 94.6Million, the required reserve would increase to 9.46Million dollars. That represents an increase of approximately 538,000 in the city's required general fund reserve. The previous slide addressed the city's required 10% general fund reserve. In addition to that requirement, the Government Finance Officers Association, or GFOA, provides a separate best practice guideline for general fund reserves. GFOA recommends that the general purpose governments maintain an unrestricted fund balance equal to at least two months of operating expenditures, or approximately 17% of the general fund budget. GFOA also recommends that these reserves not be used to support ongoing recurring expenditures. However, the use of fund balance for one-time non-recurring needs, such as capital projects, is considered appropriate. We will use the 17% benchmark on the upcoming slides as we evaluate the City's projected fund balance after the proposed Fiscal Year 2027 appropriations. Now that we have established both the City's required reserve and the GFOA recommended benchmark, this slide shows the actual unrestricted general fund balance available to the City. As of September 30th, 2025, according to the City's audited financial statements, the general fund had approximately $45 million in unrestricted fund balance. that amount included the fiscal year 2025 reserve required reserve of approximately 8.7 million dollars during 2026 a portion of that fund balance was utilized through council approved budget amendments and other authorized uses these included in 2026 budgeted transfers from fund balance, approximately $2.7M in prior year purchase order rollovers and a $50,000 grant match. The applicable Council approved ordinances authorizing those uses are identified in the slide for reference. This provides a starting point for the next slide where we've showed the projected remaining unrestricted fund balance after the proposed fiscal year 2027 appropriations. For the proposed budget staff is recommending the use of approximately 9.37Million dollars in general fund fund balance primarily for the 1 time expenditures and transfers discussed earlier. After those proposed uses, the general fund is projected to maintain approximately 27.2Million in unrestricted fund balance that represents approximately 29% of the fiscal year 2027 proposed general fund budget. Importantly, that level remains well above the 17% minimum reserve benchmark recommended by. So, even after the proposed fiscal year, 2027 appropriations, the city would continue to maintain a strong and restricted general fund balance above both the city's required reserve and the recommended minimum. THESE NEXT FEW SLIDES SUMMARIZE THE PROPOSED CHANGES FOR SPECIAL EVENTS, CERTAIN SPONSORSHIPS, AND MAYOR AND COUNCIL COMMITTEES FOR 2027. WE'VE ALSO INCLUDED THE FISCAL YEAR 26 EXPENDITURES TO DATE ON THESE SLIDES AS ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR MAYOR AND COUNCIL. BEGINNING WITH THE STAFF-RECOMMENDED BASELINE CHANGES, THESE INCLUDE ART IN THE PARK INCREASES $3,000. BLACK HISTORY MONTH DECREASES BY $10,000. HOLIDAY AND HOMESTEAD INCREASES BY $115,000. INCLUDING APPROXIMATELY $90,000 FOR STAFFING ASSOCIATED WITH THE EVENT. THE 4TH OF JULY EVENT DECREASED BY $150,000 AS THE FISCAL YEAR 26 BUDGET REFLECTED AN ELEVATED LEVEL OF FUNDING ASSOCIATED WITH THE SEMI-QUINCENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. The ice skating rink includes a second-year contractual payment, including the rental of equipment such as a chiller and operational support staff. It also includes $200,000 for a deck. The MLK Breakfast increases by $10,000, funded through a reduction in the MLK Parade sponsorship. Finally, the NASCAR race has decreased by $75,000 as the fiscal year 2026 included a higher level of funding associated with the 30th anniversary of the race. Continuing with the Special Events section, the additional staff baseline changes include a $5,000 reduction to the National Day of Prayer, reflecting a reduced event format focused on refreshments in the lobby, a $5,000 increase to the Veterans Day event, Pictures with Santa is no longer budgeted as a separate event, AND HAS INSTEAD BEEN INCORPORATED INTO THE HOLIDAY AND HOMESTEAD. AND THE SPECIAL EVENTS OTHER LINE IS REDUCED BY APPROXIMATELY $52,000 AS PART OF BALANCING THE PROPOSED BUDGET. MAYOR AND COUNCIL SUBSEQUENTLY RECOMMENDED SEVERAL CHANGES TO THE BASELINE. $5,000 WAS RESTORED TO THE NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER, BRINGING THE TOTAL BACK TO $10,000 AND ALLOWING FOR THE RETURN OF THE CONCERT COMPONENT. $10,000 WAS ADDED FOR A FARMER'S MARKET, FUNDED THROUGH A REDUCTION TO THE SPECIAL EVENTS OTHER LINE ITEM. AND AN ADDITIONAL $2500 REDUCTION TO THE OTHER LINE ITEM WAS MADE TO PROVIDE FUNDING FOR A 7TH DISTRICT SPECIFIC INITIATIVE UNDER SPONSORSHIPS. MOVING TO SPONSORSHIPS, THE STAFF RECOMMEND THAT BASELINE INCLUDED A REDUCTION TO THE MLK PARADE SPONSORSHIP WITH THOSE FUNDS REDIRECTED TO INCREASE THE MLK BREAKFAST SPECIAL EVENT. MAYOR AND COUNCIL SUBSEQUENTLY RECOMMENDED ELIMINATING THE REMAINING $5000 MLK PARADE SPONSORSHIP and reallocating those funds to increase the Community Relations Board budget. Additional Council recommendations include an increase of approximately $4,200 to the Rodeo Parade sponsorship, a new $5,000 education initiative scholarship, $2,500 for district-specific community initiatives for the six other districts to align with the existing Waterstone sponsorship, and $5,000 for health and wellness initiatives. a final recommendation was then made to increase the district specific community initiative funding to include all seven districts adding funding for the one remaining district funding for that additional amount is being provided through a reduction to the special events other line item Finally, with respect to the Mayor and Council committees, the proposed changes include an increase to the Community Relations Board funded through a reduction of the MLK Parade sponsorship discussed on the previous slide. In addition, funding of $10,000 each is proposed for two new committees, Agricultural and Interfaith. We've completed a review of the general fund. We'll now broaden the discussion and look at the Citywide Fiscal Year 2027 proposed budget, including all other budgeted funds and the major items affecting the City as a whole. This slide provides a summary of the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget by fund type compared with the fiscal year 2026 adopted budget. Rather than review each variance here, the purpose of the slide is to provide the overall citywide comparison. We will highlight the more significant changes within the individual funds on coming slides. This pie chart shows a citywide proposed budget by fund type. The general fund represents just over 26% of the citywide budget, while the enterprise funds account for approximately 50%. It is important to note that this proposed budget does not include CDBG home or other grant funded programs. as those budgets are established separately by resolution when the grants are accepted. ARPA funding, which must be fully expended by December 31st of 2026, is also being treated as a grant and not included here. The Transportation Proportion of Fair Share Fund established during Fiscal Year 26 to account for developer contributions under individual proportioned share agreements is also excluded from this annual proposed budget because each agreement is budgeted as a separate project. Finally, certain unused balances associated with previously approved capital projects will be brought back to Mayor and Council for reappropriation and amendment of the fiscal year 27 budget anticipated to occur in the November 2026 Council meeting. This project illustrates the composition of the City's Enterprise Funds. Unlike the General Fund, Enterprise Funds are intended to be self-sufficient, relying primarily on user fees and charges for services to support their operations. The electric utility is by far the largest enterprise fund representing more than 57% of the total enterprise fund budget. We will highlight the more significant changes affecting the individual enterprise funds on upcoming slides. Before we read the individual funds, there are several citywide items that affect multiple funds and help explain many of the year over year changes you will see. The fiscal year 27 proposed budget includes approximately $32.5 million in capital improvement projects citywide. The 2.5% cost of living adjustment represents approximately $1.3M in additional personnel costs citywide. The full year impact of the City's conversion to the Florida Retirement System, or FRS, adds approximately $302,000 to the prior year. The purpose of the conversion was not cost savings, but rather to provide greater portability of retirement benefits and strengthen employee recruitment. With respect to staffing, the only new positions proposed citywide are the 5 additional police officers at a net cost of approximately 550,000 dollars after the grant offset. Contribution to the city's general and police defined benefit pension plans increased by approximately 1.2Million dollars citywide, while health insurance premiums increased by 9%, consistent with a cap under the current agreement. Other personnel costs also include step increases for bargaining unit employees based on their applicable pay pounds and years of service. These citywide impacts help explain many of the expenditure changes that will appear as we review the individual funds. These next three slides provide a side-by-side comparison of the fiscal year 26 adopted budget to the fiscal year 27 proposed budget by fund. The general fund has already been discussed in details, so the focus here will be on the other funds. Beginning with the electric utility, the 27 budget includes approximately $12.9 million in unused loan proceeds being reappropriated for debt-funded projects that remain underway, including the new substation and the FPNL interconnect. These projects are intended to increase system capacity, resiliency, and redundancy. For solid waste and stormwater, both budgets have been balanced using the proposed 4.71% CPI index rate adjustment. stormwater also includes the reappropriation of more than two million dollars in carryover funds which will be placing contingency for future projects while the stormwater master plan and survey help identify future needs the water and sewer budget has been balanced using the 4.71 cpi adjustment along with the miami-dade county pass through adjustments of two percent for water consumption and ten percent for wastewater treatment those rate adjustments will be considered separately by council later in tonight's meeting THE FISCAL YEAR 27 WATER AND SEWER BUDGET ALSO INCLUDES A REAPPROPRIATION OF APPROXIMATELY $5.6 MILLION IN UNUSED LOAN PROCEEDS, PRIMARILY FOR THE WATER WALL NUMBER 7 AND PUMP STATION 11, ALONG WITH $1 MILLION FOR DURHAM REQUIRED RESERVE ASSOCIATED WITH THE BASIN ACTION PLAN. BUILDING SERVICE IS ENTERING ITS SECOND YEAR AS AN ENTERPRISE FUND AND IS EXPECTED TO REMAIN SELF-SUFFICIENT THROUGH PERMIT REVENUES. THE 27 BUDGET INCLUDES A PREVIOUSLY DISCUSSED $904,000 TRANSFER FROM THE GENERAL FUND, representing the fiscal year 25 net activity generated while building services was still accounted for within the general fund. CRA budget was addressed in an earlier presentation, so I will not repeat the discussion here. Finally, for People's Transportation Plan Fund, also known as PTP, it includes approximately $5.5 million in carryover funds projected fiscal year 27 surtax revenues of approximately 5.1Million and funding for debt service, capital projects, trolley and freebie operations, personnel and future transportation needs. Continuing with the citywide fund overview, this slide highlights several of the city's special revenue, capital and debt service funds. The impact fee funds providing funding for eligible capital projects associated with growth. These include public works, police, and parks impact fees, as well as the yard and public places. Where revenues have not yet been assigned to a specific eligible project, those amounts are budgeted as contingency until a project is identified. THE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT FUND INCLUDES APPROXIMATELY $6.8 MILLION IN CAPITAL PROJECTS FUNDED PRIMARILY THROUGH A TRANSFER FROM THE GENERAL FUND FUND BALANCE. AS MENTIONED EARLIER, THE FUND ALSO INCLUDES $300,000 FOR NON-SPECIFIC GRANT MATCHING REQUIREMENTS, PROVIDING FLEXIBILITY AS GRANT OPPORTUNITIES BECOME AVAILABLE. THE SIBERIAN CAPITAL PROJECT FUND INCLUDES FUNDING AIRMARKED FOR THE IMPROVEMENTS TO THE THIRD AND FOURTH FLOORS OF SIBERIAN. FOR FISCAL YEAR 27, APPROXIMATELY $51,000 IS BUDGETED FOR ROOF INNOVATION. while the remaining available funds are held in contingency for future improvements to those floors. The Parks and Rotary Trust Fund had significant non-recurring activity in FY26 related to the sale of fill proceeds. Those funds are transferred to Water and Sewer to support the Chrome-Flagler improvements and Pump Station 11. There are no funds budgeted in this fund for 2027. Finally, the City's debt service funds have little or no significant change from the prior year. This slide highlights the City's Internal Service Funds. The Innovation and Technology Fund includes approximately $2 million in capital improvement projects, About 400,000 dollars more than the prior year, along with higher operating costs for items such as telecommunications and contractual services. The health insurance fund also reflects an increase with premiums rising by 9%, consistent with a cap established under the current agreement. It is important to distinguish internal service funds from the city's other operating funds because they create a degree of duplication in the total city budget. Using health insurance as an example, the internal service fund pays for the actual insurance premiums while each city department is charged its share of costs through an internal allocation. As a result, the same cost appears twice in the city's wide budget. Once in the internal service fund, then again within the budgets of the departments being charged. For that reason, the subtotals on this slide separate the internal service funds from all other funds, providing a clear picture of the city's budget before and after those internal transactions. Now that we have completed the citywide budget overview, we will shift our focus to the capital improvement projects or CIPs proposed for fiscal year 27. The next several slides highlight the major new capital investments included in the proposed budget. These following slides provide a recap of the City's fiscal year 2027 capital improvement projects. These are projects requiring new funding in fiscal year 2027 and do not include projects that were funded in prior years. A complete listing of all the fiscal year 2027 projects is included in the proposed budget book. Water and sewer includes approximately $5.5 million in capital projects with about $1.5 million funded by the utility and $4 million from grants. The grant funded projects include potable water storage and capacity improvements, as well as the septic to sewer conversion program. The electric utility includes approximately $4.7 million in capital projects, including new construction, electrical infrastructure, and recurring annual capital improvements. The includes approximately 5Million dollars in economic development projects, including funding for the triangle redevelopment project and improvements to Washington Avenue. Continuing the fiscal year 27 CIPs, this slide highlights additional investments in city equipment, facilities, technology, transportation, and roadway infrastructure. General government equipment and facility improvements include approximately $715,000 for general services administration projects, as discussed earlier, along with approximately $51,000 for the Siberian roof renovation. Fleet management includes approximately 125,000 for restroom remodeling at the fleet facility. The Innovation Technology Fund includes approximately $2 million in capital projects, including the continued phase replacement of citywide computers, network switches, storage systems, and other technology infrastructure. IN ADDITION, APPROXIMATELY $337,000 IN CDBG FUNDING IS INCLUDED IN THE UPCOMING ACTION PLAN FOR IMPROVEMENTS TO THE PAL GYM. FINALLY, TRANSPORTATION, TRANSIT EQUIPMENT, STREETS, SIDEWALK IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS ARE FUNDED PRIMARILY THROUGH THE LOCAL OPTION GAS TAX AND PTP REVENUES. THESE INCLUDE APPROXIMATELY $960,000 IN RECURRING ANNUAL PROJECTS along with funding for roadway improvements, a multi-use path at Redondo Elementary and a pedestrian crossing improvement at City Court and Parkway Avenue. This slide continues with the fiscal year 27 CIPs and highlights projects for the police, PROS, solid waste, and stormwater. For the police department, total CIPs are approximately $6.3 million, including the $4.9 million for the police radio replacements discussed earlier. Police impact V funding supports vehicles associated with recently added and proposed police positions. As well as public safety equipment, storage facility, parks, recreation, open spaces includes approximately 640,000 dollars in parks, impact the projects, including an inclusive sensory playground at Roscoe Warren Park, rubber walkways at laws and park and design funding for a future park on the East side. The additional 1.2Million dollars in parks equipment and facility improvements was discussed earlier. Solid waste includes funding for building renovations, a new crane, and the annual container replacement program. Stormwater includes roadway widening, drainage and parking improvements at Redondo Elementary, and recurring annual stormwater projects. Overall, the fiscal year 27 capital improvement program totals approximately $32.5M. Of that amount, more than $3.5 million represents recurring annual projects, approximately $4 million is grant funded, and approximately $337,000 is funded through CDBG. These next 3 slides highlights the top 5 priority capital projects identified within each fund for the electric utility. The approximately 2.4Million dollar infrastructure project will expand the city's 13.2KV distribution system to support new commercial residential development. The project includes the design and installation of both overhead and underground electrical infrastructure. The CRA capital projects were addressed as part of the earlier CRA budget presentation. Innovation technology is an internal service fund supported by all city funds. The general fund share includes approximately 1.2Million dollars funded from the general fund fund balance for the capital projects identified on this slide. Continuing with the top priority capital projects by fund this slide highlights projects for solid waste, the Siberian capital project fund confiscated property fund and PTP for solid waste, the priority project is the annual $400,000 container replacement Program. which provides for the ongoing replacement of commercial residential containers, including roll off and dumpster containers for the Siberian funding is included for the roof renovation project, which will be funded through the Siberian capital project fund. The confiscated property fund includes 250,000 dollars for a police parking lot fence as well as a 950,000 dollar transfer to the capital improvement fund. TO HELP FUND THE POLICE RADIO REPLACEMENT PROJECT DISCUSSED EARLIER. FINALLY, THE PTP FUND INCLUDES FUNDING FOR BRIDGE EXPANSION PROJECT ON SOUTHWEST 152ND AVENUE ALONG WITH OTHER PRIORITIZED TRANSPORTATION PROJECTS INCLUDED IN THE FISCAL YEAR 2027 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM. THIS FINAL TOP FIVE BY FUND SLIDE HIGHLIGHTS PRIORITY PROJECTS FOR STORM WATER, IMPACT EASE, WATER AND SEWER, AND FLEET MANAGEMENT. stormwater and ptp funding is included for the widening of approximately one mile of southwest 167th avenue from southwest 344th street to southwest 328th street the project will expand the roadway from two lanes to four lanes and includes related drainage pedestrian and multi-use path improvements projects funded with police and parks impact fees were discussed earlier for water and sewer the priority projects include a rapid infiltration exfiltration trench at jd red park as well as water main replacement along southwest 192nd avenue from maury drive to lucy street Finally, fleet management includes funding for the restroom remodeling at the fleet facility. This concludes our review of the fiscal year 2027 capital improvement program and the top priority projects by fund. As noted earlier, the complete 2027 project listing and the fiscal year 2027 through fiscal year 2031 five-year capital improvement plan are included at the end of the proposed budget book for fiscal year 27. The originally devolved fiscal year 2027 budget included no additional staffing positions and no COLA. As the budget process progressed, staff was able to balance the budget at the existing millage rate while incorporating a 2.5% COLA for employees citywide. During the subsequent budget workshops, Mayor and Council requested that five additional police officer positions be added to the budget. Because these positions represent a recurring personnel cost, funding them required a modest increase in the proposed millage rate to provide the recurring revenue necessary to support those officers. As just discussed, the only additional staffing proposed citywide for 2027 is the 5 new police officers. To put that investment into perspective during fiscal year 2026, the City also added 4 unbudgeted police officer positions through the COPS grant, in addition to the 8 police officer positions already included in the fiscal year 2026 adopted budget. With the five new police officers proposed for 27, the City will have added a total of 17 police officer positions between 2026 and 2027. This represents a significant two-year investment in strengthening the City's police force and supporting public safety services. With a review of the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget now complete, we will move into the millage rate portion of the presentation. The proposed millage rate is one of the key actions Mayor and Council will consider following this presentation. As discussed earlier, the City's millage rate directly impacts the General Fund and the CRA. The next few slides provide the statutory reference points, the rate advertised under term notices, the staff recommended rate, and the historical context for the City's millage. Under Florida law, the maximum allowable operating millage rate is 10 mills. The rollback rate for 2027 is 5.8156 mills. For comparison, the City's current fiscal year 2026 operating millage rate is 5.9604 mills. The tentatively established millage rate reflected on property owners' trend notices is 6.3945 mills. On the next slide, we will compare that advertised rate to the lower rate staff is recommending for the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget. As reflected on the term notices mailed to property owners, the City's tentatively established millage rate was 6.3945 mills. Staff is now recommending a lower rate of 6.0567 mills for the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget. While this recommended rate is below the rate advertised on the term notices, it still represents an increase of approximately 1.6% over the current fiscal year 2026 millage rate of 5.9604 mills. As discussed earlier, that increase provides a recurring revenue necessary to support the five additional police officer positions. This slide provides a historical look at the city's millage rate and how it has changed over time. The last time the City increased its underlying operating millage rate was in 2010, in response to a significant decline in property values associated with the 2008 housing market collapse. You will notice an increase in the City's total millage rate beginning in fiscal year 2021. However, that increase was not the result of a change in the underlying operating millage rate. Instead, it reflects the library millage shifting from Miami-Dade County to the City when the City assumed responsibility for funding the operations of the Siberian. For that reason, the graph separately identifies the operating millage and the library millage, allowing us to distinguish changes in the city's underlying operating rate from the library component that was transferred to the city.

So let's briefly recap the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget.

The citywide proposed budget is approximately $363 million. with the General Fund proposed budget at approximately $94.6 million. The proposed budget is based on an operating millage rate of 6.0567 mills, which affects both the General Fund and the CRA. The budget also includes a 4.71% CPI rate adjustment for water and sewer, stormwater, and solid waste. For water and sewer, there are additional Miami-Dade County pass-through adjustments of approximately 2% for water consumption and 10% for wastewater treatment, reflecting county rate increases and related true-up costs. As a reminder, state law requires a public hearing for the water and sewer rate adjustments, which will take place later this evening. All utility customers were notified of the proposed water and sewer rate adjustments and tonight's hearing through notices included on their utility bills. At tonight's hearing, Mayor and Council will be asked to take the following actions. Adopt by resolution an operating millage rate of 6.0567 mills and a debt service millage rate of 0.2316 mills. Adopt by ordinance the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget and the fiscal year 2027 through fiscal year 2031 capital improvement plan. And approved by resolution, the proposed water and sewer rate adjustments consisting of a 4.71% CPI adjustment and the Miami-Dade County WASA pass-through adjustments of 2% for water consumption and 10% for sewer treatment. These are the principal actions required of Mayor and Council as part of tonight's budget hearing. Now turning to what may be one of the most significant financial challenges beyond 2027, the potential impact of Amendment 3 on the City's future property tax revenues. The next several slides are based on information previously provided to Mayor and Council in July and are intended to provide a high level overview of the proposed constitutional amendment and its potential financial implications for the City. This first slide provides a brief overview of Amendment 3 and the proposal that voters will consider in November. The measure was approved for placement on the ballot by the Florida legislature and proposed significant changes to the homestead property tax exemption and other property tax provisions affecting local governments. Because this is a constitutional amendment, it will require 60% voter approval to pass. Rather than review every provision here, the next slide will focus on the specific changes that would have the greatest potential financial impact on the City. In simple terms, the proposal would increase the homestead exemption to $150,000 effective January 1st of 2027, which would begin affecting the City's fiscal year 2028 property tax revenues. The exemption would then increase again to 250,000 effective January 1st of 2028 with additional impact reflected in the city's fiscal year 2029 budget. The proposal also includes several other changes, including annual inflation adjustments to the exemption beginning in 2029 and changes affecting non homesteaded property assessments. The key point for tonight's discussion is that there is no direct impact on the fiscal year 2027 budget before you, but the potential revenue effects begins immediately thereafter and become significantly larger in the following fiscal year. THIS SLIDE BEGINS TO QUANTIFY THE POTENTIAL FINANCIAL IMPACT OF AMENDMENT 3 ON THE CITY OF HOMESTEAD. BASED ON THE ASSUMPTIONS AND INFORMATION AVAILABLE AT THE TIME OF THIS ANALYSIS, THE INCREASED HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION IS PROJECTED TO REDUCE THE CITY'S PROPERTY TAX REVENUES BY APPROXIMATELY $5.6 MILLION IN FISCAL YEAR 2028. AS EXEMPTION INCREASES FURTHER, THE PROJECTED REVENUE LOSS GROWS TO APPROXIMATELY $9.4 MILLION IN FISCAL YEAR 2029. Using the fiscal year 2026 adopted budget as a baseline, the projected A projected $5.6 million revenue loss would equate to approximately a 6.8% reduction in the general fund operating budget. However, that percentage changes significantly if we make the reasonable assumption that public safety would not be reduced as part of the budget balancing strategy. UNDER THAT ASSUMPTION, THE BURDEN OF THE REDUCTION WOULD FALL ON THE REMAINING GENERAL FUND DEPARTMENTS, INCREASING THE REQUIRED REDUCTION TO APPROXIMATELY 13% OF THEIR COMBINED OPERATING BUDGETS. THE CALCULATIONS SOWN ON THIS SLIDE ARE INTENDED TO ILLUSTRATE THE MAGNITUDE OF THE POTENTIAL IMPACT BASED ON THE ASSUMPTIONS AVAILABLE AT THE TIME. THAT 13% FIGURE IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT BECAUSE IT PROVIDES THE CONTEXT FOR THE NEXT SLIDE WHERE WE TAKE A LOOK AT POTENTIAL OPTIONS A CITY MAY NEED TO CONSIDER IF AMENDMENT 3 IS APPROVED. This slide is probably the most important part of this discussion because it begins to put the projected revenue loss into perspective. The question becomes, if Amendment 3 passes, how would the City address a loss of this magnitude? If we attempted to absorb the projected loss entirely through expenditure reductions while protecting public safety, the remaining general fund departments could be facing reductions of approximately 13%. For many departments, personnel represents the largest share of their budgets. Reductions at that level could therefore affect not only operating expenses, but also positions, programs, and ultimately the level of services provided to our residents. Another option would be to consider an adjustment to the millage rate to replace some or all of the lost property tax revenue. More realistically, the City may need to consider a combination of strategy, expenditure reductions, potential millage adjustments, and the identification of new alternative revenues. That is why staff is already working toward a revenue generating workshop in October, where we can begin discussing potential revenue alternatives with Mayor and Council well in advance of the fiscal year 2028 budget process. The important point tonight is that no decision needs to be made now, and Amendment 3 has not yet been approved by voters. However, given the magnitude of the potential impact, staff believes it is prudent to begin planning now rather than waiting until we are developing the fiscal year 2028 budget. This is potentially serious, but we see it coming and we are preparing for it. As we wrap up, this is a reminder that the final budget hearing will be held on Wednesday, September 23, 2026 at 501 PM. At that hearing, Mayor and Council consider adoption of the final millage rate and the fiscal year 2027 budget. At this time, staff would like to thank the Mayor and Council for your valuable input, guidance, and support throughout this year's budget process. I will now turn the presentation over to the City Manager for his final remarks. Following those remarks, we will proceed with tonight's budget hearing in the order outlined on the agenda, beginning with the consideration of the millage rate.

So thank you so much, Mr. Finance and Budget Director. Now we turn it over to Mayor and Council. for discussion and guidance.

Who would like to kick off the conversation? Councilwoman.

Thank you, Mayor. Just thank you again to staff for working diligently and meeting with each and every one of us and hosting multiple workshops to get feedback. And I think somebody's mic is on. It's giving feedback. giving us the opportunity to express our goals for this coming year. Your work and your effort really shined this past year with a great 250th event, a lot of improvement, a lot of policy making that we've done. Um, I think there's always room for improvement, but in general, I think it was a very productive year and I, I do want to take a moment to thank you. Oftentimes we spend a lot of time and addressing our concerns and our issues and where we want to see the improvement. But I do think that, um. This is a good time of year to reflect on all the hard work that you do. So thank you for for that. Um, in general, I, I want to also think the, um, the finance director for getting the five officers that I asked for into the budget. Um, I think that's everyone's goal appears to continue to, um, support, um, our public safety and to stay on the pattern of positive, um, proactive safety efforts in our community as we continue to, to grow and I'll rest there for now. But in general, I am I am supportive of the the budget as a as a whole. Thank you.

Okay, Council.

Council Fletcher. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Carlos, for your input, the management staff, and everybody for their hard work. I did, however, provide a letter to all of the council members through the manager's office in regards to areas that I believe that still need to be looked at. I agree that we need to continue our hiring process when it comes to the police department because we still don't have the number of officers we need but there are other items that i think we really need to address as well before we increase the millage rate and some of those potential cuts come on our side of the house specifically in special events and again i've provided that through the manager's office to each of you i've gotten no feedback from anyone through the manager at all I know we can't talk about it one-on-one, but I would appreciate some feedback as to some of the things that I posed. Again, that comes from me doing budgets over a period of 30 years with operating costs at somewhere around $300 million and working on some $500 million projects. I'm by no means an expert, but I know how to cut and find savings. And I think we do a lot of things for a select few people. When I say that some of our public events are not attended as well as they should be, therefore our cost basis is really, it's kind of like the trolley system to me. You know, we spend $27 per rider basically on the trolley costs. 19 to 27, somewhere in that range. I just think we need to really take a really hard look at each of these items. And I would offer the same to each one of the directors in here. There are certain things we have to do and there are some things that are nice to do. And with what's potentially going to happen to us In the out years and we all know it may be one thing next year, but then something else is going to come along the following year. So at some point we're really going to be impacted by by state tax reform and we need to have the fiduciary responsibility to take the actions now. Because if some of these things go through, there's a potential for us to be laying people off in the future. And I think that is a place we don't want to go to. I hope we have some additional discussions coming up in regards to budget revenue possibilities. But that's in the future. This is in the now. I'm willing to support moving forward with this tonight with the thought process that each of us really again take a hard look at these numbers and try to bring that millage rate back down to where it was last year. And I'm open for any discussion and any feedback through the manager's office you'd like to give me. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Councilman Fletcher, and appreciate your deep analysis of the budget through thousands of lines of information. Very helpful and insightful. Vice Mayor?

Thank you, Mayor. So, Councilman, to your point, obviously, I think we would all want to stay there. Is tonight the night to discuss some potential ways? Because for a second hearing, then we would be approving this total, if I'm not mistaken.

We're going to establish a baseline tonight, and there could be changes depending upon...

other discussion between now and then okay i'm just curious are there any larger ticket items you want to discuss now that could i mean again i would offer that we have a workshop between now and the next budget meeting to discuss these items again specifically and other items that you all might have come up with again it's i think it's extremely important for us to take our responsibility up here you know to the letter There's one item in here, we've created a new line item, $15,000, you know, $2,500 for each of the districts now. I don't want it. Keep the $2,500, I'll say seven cents, roughly seven cents a household, keep it. If we all did it, that would be a little more. There's just small things like that that I think we need to get into the fine details of in order to ensure we're doing the right thing with other people's money. We spend this money sometimes like it's not ours. And I believe it's incumbent upon us. We all have a PR account. That's where we're supposed to support the community from. All these additional line items, I think, create just another way to create smoke and mirrors. That's in my personal opinion. I'm a conservative. I think we need to be more conservative with the taxpayer dollar. So again, I'd offer you to take a look at what I sent and provide feedback. And we could have a workshop. We can then discuss those items. I don't think we need to belabor this tonight. I really think we need to move forward and move with this proposal, but with the thought process that we could still find additional cuts before we get there. you know and I don't know if I didn't ask the question correctly initially you know when it comes to the repayment of the million dollars to the HPS does it affect this budget year operations

If we did not repay that this year. It's not a repayment. It's a contribution to the electric utility. But without that million dollars, the electric utility would be out of balance. There would be two choices to make. Either they would have to raise their rates in order to cover the million dollars, or we could reduce their contributions to the general fund, but that would put the general fund back in a hole by a million dollars.

That's not what was said in our previous meetings, though.

I basically said that it was a transfer to the electric utility. And I basically said that it was not an obligation. So again, you don't have to do it. It's the right thing to do. But this year, if you don't do it, they're out of balance.

I get that. But the question I asked during our one-on-ones was specifically, if we didn't do it this year, and again, it's the right thing to do.

If you didn't do it this year, the utility would have a problem.

And I'm sorry if I didn't make that clear before. I apologize.

It's crystal clear right now. And why did we pick one fund over the other? Because there's two funds that we borrowed from over the years.

You're right. There's a lot more money that's not owed, but the solid waste contributed a lot more. We could give back to that one as well. That one's currently doesn't have an issue this year with operations, but the million dollars was used to balance the electric utility.

Remember, solid waste had the ability of increasing their rates about two years ago by 33%. And ever since then, we've been increasing it by the CPI.

Electric utility has not raised the rates since 2008, and they're not included in the CPI, something that we need to change.

Absolutely, I agree. So again, I just think it's something to discuss over the next, put that in your thought caps and think on it. Put your head on the pillow tonight and think about what you got to do. Because I'll go to bed with a clear conscience knowing I'm doing what I need to do. Thank you.

Mayor Manning? Just to follow up on Councilman Fletcher's comments. When it comes to the million dollars, we have reserves, right? And our reserves are far over what we need to have as far as I guess what they're telling us we need to have as far as reserves. I mean, is there a potential to use that million to take it out of there so we don't mess with the general fund at all?

You're talking electric utility reserves?

Whatever reserves the city has.

No, no. The reserves that we're talking about are the general fund reserves. That's where the million dollars is being taken out of to get back to electric utility.

Sure. So that doesn't affect the general fund?

it it doesn't affect their operations it's taking it out of fund balance and we're using it as a transfer over to electric utility but but what i'm saying is it's reserved it's not you don't use any of that money for operations you shouldn't correct right so the purpose the purpose of but you can use reserves in the case of an emergency yes sir is this an emergency

It's not an emergency, but if we don't give it to utilities, it becomes an emergency.

Well, I wouldn't say an emergency, but you'd have to find an alternative ways of balancing their budget. Yes.

So that million dollars, if we take that out of reserves. Doesn't affect our operating general fund budget. So that doesn't affect. raising the millage rate no no no not at all that's not impacting so we're clear you're taking it out of reserve so it's not affecting the amount of the military correct right so that's not going to help us to get to a point where we are not asked to raise the millage rate to cover whatever expenses that we're we're short of is that right no yeah maybe without that transfer

I heard an explanation a few moments ago that either we would have to cover a shortfall in the general fund because the general fund would have to cover the operational shortfall in electric utility or we would have to raise electric rates that have not been raised since 2008.

My again, if I made my recommendation is the plan that we had last year when we first introduced this is that we would be giving back a 1Million dollars, probably at least for the next 3 years. This would be the 2nd phase of that, even though technically it was 9Million dollars. That they contributed over those years, but the plan was to do this over the next 3 years, giving back a 1Million. That was the basis of this budget. Had we known that there was going to be any consideration of not doing this, then we would have started early in the process. And I would have told Barbara, we need to do a rate study, or we need to increase the rates to figure out another way of balancing your budget. That was not something that early on when we met with any of you was a discussion that was on the table. So that's why. We considered that to be something that was going to be approved without an issue. Hearing what I'm hearing now, that's why I've spoken to the director. and say for next year, we need to do a rate study. We need to consider increasing the rates, which hasn't been done in a long time, but I wouldn't consider doing that now. We're taking it out of fund balance. Fund balance in the general fund is still healthy, even with all the amounts that we're taking out of there for the different reasons that have been explained.

Okay, so I don't want to get into the millage rate conversation yet, because that's going to come next, right? Right, we're going to talk about that. Do we want to debate some of these changes that have occurred in, I guess what Councilman Fletcher was talking about, special events, and trimming out what, $30,000, $40,000 out of a $340 million budget? that really those are quality of life issues that we give back to the community. We take their tax dollars and reinvest it into some quality of life things. And I'm looking at a couple of items on page 28, if y'all wanna reference the page that I don't remember seeing before that I guess we would be called, these are sponsorships that are proposed. The Economic Development Council of South Miami the PBA annual gala and the Miami-Dade County League of Cities annual gala. I don't remember those being a part of these sponsored programs. That doesn't mean they weren't. I just don't remember those. And I would make this point that we're taking taxpayer dollars and sending them outside the city and not making any of that money available for

citizens to participate in these programs and councilman you're correct that you didn't see them before in the earlier slides they weren't on there those were items that were budgeted but you're right i don't think council had had any input on those the reason they ended up appearing now on the slides is because when a request was made for us to put the actual expenditures the support that we provided to you showed paying these, so we thought it prudent to add them to the list. But you're correct, that's why you had not seen them in the past on the list, but it was something that I don't believe council had been participated in or made recommendations on those, so.

So council member, just for clarification, the economic development of South Miami is just a shortened form. It's of South Miami dead. It's not South Miami.

When's the last time we made a contribution to them?

We do that every year.

Well, it says in 2026. We haven't.

Yeah.

The line is blank.

I believe that's accurate. I believe that we did during the last budget we did during the Estrada years, which would have been 23-24. Okay. We ought to hire a collection. And quite frankly, I don't support.

Yeah, I mean, that's why I'm saying that $10,000 is going to what?

Nor do I support a lot of this other BS that's in here, but that's neither here nor there. I get it, I get it.

And then the PBA gala. I don't know when their gala is, but it says the money hasn't been dispersed. I've never seen the PBA gala on here at all. and the Miami-Dade County League of Cities annual gala. I've never seen that in any of our proposed budgets. And all of a sudden it's showing up here. That's $34,500 that's leaving the city. So, I just, you know, when you start looking at some of these, these things, I look at. The, and this is minor stuff, but this is, I guess what people like to talk about. The rodeo parade, we finally got it back. We gave him $3,300. We proposed 7,500. And now it looks like they're going to cancel 4,200 of that and take it back down to 3,300. I mean, if we're going to support homestead events. Let's support homestead events and not send that money away to outside. venues there's plenty of stuff we can talk about right but i just don't you're saying yeah they haven't been on the slide and then you show up tonight and they're on the slide it just it's not to me it's not a good thing i mean i'd rather support the rodeo parade than south miami economic development for sure that's all for now thanks man thank you

response council just just quickly i know in our initial one-on-one meetings at least through the manager maybe mr perez was not there but i did discuss about the one million dollars not being paid back this year even though it was the right thing to do long term we still need to do it whether you call it a transfer, it's still a payback of something that was borrowed at one point or another. And I will point out that also on my list that I provide to every, it wasn't $30,000 I was proposing to cut, it's 350. So, and I'm cutting from, I didn't pick anybody out specifically. It was across the board. We all need to look at tightening our budgets. When your wallet's empty, what do you do? You don't reach for plastic, you stop spending. So there's a lot of things on that list. I don't think we need to belabor them tonight, but I believe everybody needs to take a close look at them. That's all. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman. Councilwoman? Oh, I'm sorry, Vice Mayor. Go ahead, spit it out.

So definitely, I agree, of course, those three items just brought up now, those were a few things that we brought up at the at the sunshine meeting, or was it a sunshine budget, whatever it was, where these things came up. You know, I can only speak very specifically to the ones that I've kind of helped grow and get to where they are. For me, that's my favorite part of what we do. I feel like that is our personal kind of touch as a city of a give back to the residents. Now, of course, depending on what that means for how it affects our taxpayers, then 100% I want to take that into consideration. But if we can have those discussions then of why should the money stay at what was proposed for me there's there are reasons. Prices are going up across the board, keeping it the same would not even ensure the same type of quality of an event that we had last year. so can we cut something this year of course do we want to try to keep providing because for me the last two three years of events in the city we have really been out doing myself ourselves myself i did not mean to say that ourselves i swear that was not um i have told staff it's just it's been on another level um And I guess as a mom with a young family, those are the things that I you know I want to make sure that our electrics work in those are the things that impact me, we have good schools and we have fun events that we can go out and enjoy so. to talk about cutting here and there, most definitely. We can have another discussion on it, but this was not just fling off increase when there was an increase, because some didn't increase. Mayor's Youth Council, do we not want that small additional amount? Because flights and hotels and everything's going up. The goal with extending it last year was so that we could have a few more of our youth be part of the program. So those are just things to take into account is even keeping it at where it was today is not gonna mean the same type of events that we had last year. Not only do we have the races, not only did we have the 250, this is gonna be one of our bigger art years where we have some things to show finally, where we are getting some wonderful artists that have to do with our basil and it's our chance to do a homestead basil type thing. So all of those things come into play, all of those things I'm willing to discuss and have that discussion with everyone. Does this make sense for us or not? But just don't think that any of the events I didn't think through and wouldn't consider lowering. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. Councilwoman?

Thank you, Mayor. You know, I really always appreciate having the extra perspectives and the opportunity to look in. And I didn't realize that the budget did not have the before and after that Councilman Roth was mentioning with reflecting the EDC PBA and the Gala MDC. Gala on their specific to the PBA one. I do support that particular item because we are celebrating our officers when we purchase that table and make that recognition. And hopefully we'll have an officer recognized every year, if not, if not just having a good presence for the PBA, but. Like the gala, the MDC gala. that should be something where if the council member wants to go they can go it's not like going to the parks conference or the fmea conference where we are learning and receiving feedback on how to you know manage our utility or and and improve our parks there's always valuable information of course with the miami-dade league of cities but $20,000. I guess that did come as a surprise to me. With a almost $400 million budget. I mean, 363, right? Million dollar budget. cutting quality of life, cutting experiences. When we don't have attractions, we should have major tourism having in the city. We should have something booming in terms of commercial and things to do to supplement what our residents are doing. But if we're gonna have another workshop where we're gonna have the room full of all of our department heads and all of our leadership and staff, We're going to spend $15,000 just sitting in that room for 2 hours. With what we're paying in salaries, and if we're going to have that discussion, I would want to side by side with what we spent on consultants on professional services, outside contracts. And let's look at administrative efficiencies altogether. There's always room for. improvement and this budget is a guide it's not a guarantee that we're going to spend every dollar, as you can see, on the side by side. We budgeted it and it went to fund balance and it's what's helping us pay back the utilities and still have you know, healthy reserves, so I think that we all have. expressed our commitment to be fiscally responsible to try to lean into sponsorships and and that's what we should do we should be making every event create a return on our investment to hire locally how many times are we having special events and the event person is from outside of the city of homestead let's try to hire local infuse these businesses with with economic development and continue to to leverage these events to make homestead shine. I don't think cutting into these events is going to make the impact that you're looking for. In fact, I think it will have the opposite I mean, there is a lot more to be said on it. But again, if we're going to do a whole workshop, I would want there to be a much thorough discussion on many other areas of the budget that we could cut. And I do believe that our administration really is leveraging relationships, contracts, I'm sorry, contacts and elevating our experiences so that we can have more reach when it comes to serving the public at these events. But, you know, let's use our parks, for example. We love our parks. We're not going to not have a park because when you go there, only one family is present. These events serve a multitude of people throughout the year. Different cultures experience them. Different sides of our city get celebrated. And even the little one that you mentioned, Councilman, the $2,500 for the district, it's about trying to create and infuse business development opportunities within the districts. So if you don't do it, that's fine. No problem with that. But it's not to take away from, let's say, for example, Councilwoman Konski, who's new to her position in the city, and maybe she wants to do something in her district, I fully support. Each and every 1 of us being able to impact our communities in a positive way. And and bring that value to our to our city and to the residents. Um, so I'll rest there for now. Thank you.

If I can just clarify 1 thing on the, on the PBA. Um, because it's not just a gala, so last year was pretty unique. The, the PBA gala is where they recognize the officer of the year for all of Miami Dade County. And we had a nomination and that was 1 of our officers who actually ended up winning the officer of the year among all the other agencies in the county. So, when we heard of the nomination, we, I usually pay for that out of my own pocket. Just for clarity, most cities will pay. It's actually the council people and commissioners that will buy the tables for the PD. What happened on this one was we knew that we wanted our command staff and we obviously knew that we wanted the nominee to go. And I had to beg and plead for other people to donate a table for you guys to go. So being that we're out there and, and, you know, I, I have the expectation that our officers are going to keep doing the right thing. We decided that it would be a good idea to put the PBA gala in there in the case that we have another nomination, but, but know that that was for you all. That was not for the PD. Thank you.

Thank you chief. Okay. Where do I start? The issue of the utility transfer is a real catch-22 for me. I think it points out where I was trying to go a few weeks ago where I was roundly shot down. If we are not meeting our operational needs in the Electric Utility Department, without dipping into our savings account, or their savings account. Our general fund was holding their million dollars plus for a while. Then, shame on us. We're kicking the can down the road on a rate increase that has not been made in 18 years. So is it efficiency? Or is it just sticking our head in the sand and not having the guts to do what's necessary? Because remember, we all got the explanation that the $15 million that was swept from the Electric Utility Fund, and was it solid waste or water? some combination water was 1.8 solid waste i think was maybe 13 and electric was nine okay so the 21 plus million dollars 22 plus million dollars that was swept from those enterprises between 2013 and 2017 was to prevent one penny of increase of fees, rates, or millage rate. And now that administration has left us holding that bag. That was really disingenuous. I call it gutless. You know, it's funny. And he did the Scouts motto tonight. Thrifty and brave stood out to me. And this budget, boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, is neither. And the relative amount, Councilwoman Avila, matters not to me. I view most of these committees and many of these events as racial and ethnic political slush funds. I'm not even sure that the Community Relations Board will pass legal muster under the statute that was passed that will go into effect January 1. So to talk about we're putting back into the community, again, I've used the phrase, I'll use it again, these are political fairy dust. They are slush funds. But when we had our sunshine meeting the other day, Even the vice mayor signed off on these reductions across the board to some events and some committees just to, you know, it's symbolism is important. Whether it's $10 or $10 million, I think it's very important. One of the captains the other day at your presentation, Chief, talked about that he thought that the count was nearly 30 new officers since my first budget year, which have been 2021. And we need to continue that. And I'm really kind of disappointed that we're not having any discussions on how to increase revenue until after This budget is is passed, we are in an untenable situation we can't really in good conscience raise the millage rate to cover the operational shortfall that the million dollar transfer is going to cover because that then means our taxpayers. are covering operational costs that extend outside our city limits to our customers. But it's kind of funny, isn't it? That it was okay that we were taking money that people outside the city helped us generate for all of those years. in all of those funds or a couple of those funds. And it was okay to put back into the general fund. So I guess what's good for the goose wasn't good for the gander under that philosophy. So I think that at this point in time, we're gonna have to live with that transfer. But philosophically, I view it this way. That's drawing from a savings account. And in the municipal arena, The savings account is usually reserved for capital projects, something you can put your hands on that's a community benefit that repairs or replaces or adds something. When that million dollars out of the savings account subsidizes operations in the coming year, it's gone. is vaporized and if we do the same thing next year it's gone again and sooner or later that savings account is gone and what is a future council going to look to when they want to do more capital improvements but they can't because the reserves are are too low so i'm going to be here for one more budget cycle after this one And we're gonna have to, I think we've been boxed into a corner on this one with respect to the million dollar transfer and the philosophy of why we shouldn't raise the millage rate to cover that. I'm okay covering the police officers, but we've really got to do well with revenue enhancement and more efficiencies next year. One question I asked several weeks ago in writing and never got an answer. until tonight was how much is the 9% premium increase for health premiums? $675,000 I think the number was. But nobody is proposing that staff help share that pain. They are in effect getting a 9% raise because the people of Homestead are absorbing that increase. And as far as I'm concerned, contrary to what our labor attorney says, who I think really comes down on the side of labor way too often, we don't have a general employees union. They are all at-will employees as far as I'm concerned. And why aren't we asking them to at least bear part of that burden? We cannot continue to absorb that kind of money for a pool of just 500 people year after year after a year. There's so much more that could be done with the 11th hour here. I tend to agree with Councilman Fletcher and a lot of his numbers, but I know that that's not political reality. I finally learned that after 25 years that what you want and what you get are two different things. But I believe that the discussions and reductions that are memorialized in Mr. Perez's memorandum dated September 4th regarding the Sunshine Meeting are very accurate. If we don't adopt those tonight, I do want to have workshop and again as I said the other day in the sunshine it's not the play let's make a deal but let's have some real conversations but clearly wings over homestead can go away that's not going to happen according to layer of insurance two days ago it will not happen in this coming budget year so we do not need to budget that this year yes yeah

OK, on that item, it's going to be in October twenty twenty seven. So it'll be the next next budget, but leading just like Speedway, NASCAR leading up to the event, you would be using this fiscal year's dollars to promote, engage, attract tourism. It's the base is not in our city, but it's our city hosting this air show. you would want to at least have something reserved for public relations to promote.

And I get where you're coming from, but why do we need to supplement the Department of Defense budget? I don't get that.

I mean, if the conversation is about how are we helping our local businesses and promoting tourism and economic development within our city and generating revenue, I mean, that could all be part of the conversation. So I just wanted to question you on that.

As I understand, that was a booth in the event. Didn't like that approach. So the tourists are already there.

Yeah, didn't like that approach.

And I'm not down with that at all.

$20,000 for a booth at the event, I agree.

Thank you. I agree. So, you know, and that's something we're going to need to look at. I'll rest for there. So somebody needs to make a motion or make some more comments or proffer some changes. I would like to see us adopt at least this memorandum. It's not set in stone. That's the request and we have one more final hearing that can incorporate those conversations if there's a consensus of of adjustment.

You know where I find some disappointment is in.

We have a contract with Business Flair, not to single out them specifically and only them.

Do we? I don't know that we do.

Business Flair?

I don't know that we do.

There is a contract with Business Flair with the CRA, but not with the city. okay okay okay good point and by the way that's by choice he made a request to for him to change his business model because he's now increasingly representing private developers that come before this council say that one more time he's been representing business and developers that come before you so you couldn't be a consultant and be a consultant for them like general cities

Got it. So I mean, using that concept of that business relationship, I would have liked to have seen that we have a robust plan approach for generating business revenue, having sponsorships at our events. So for budgeting $20,000 for something in Lawson Park, Where are the numbers? Where are the where is the business connections? We've talked about cell phone pinging to see who shows up and how many people are coming and where's the data? So that we can go back and say, how do we tweak these events to make them more impactful? I cutting these events when we have yet to. Have that that source and that information and I know stuff can get it for us. So we can just give them and charge them with. Okay. We want this information. We want to gear our events to produce these kinds of results and this type of impact. Let's charge them with that initiative. And. get back to the drawing board for next fiscal year. I want to make sure that I'm putting my name on events that achieve those goals, but I don't want to cut out the opportunity to do so just in the namesake of saying we cut $100,000 from our events budget.

Councilman, if I may, in the information that was provided to you with the actual expenses of support, there was the activity for some of the sponsorship that was received for some of the events. So what you're seeing on the slide is the actual expense without the. The impact of the sponsorships, but in the detail, you'll see the dollar amounts of some of those events, what those sponsorships were. Thank you.

And so, and that doesn't, um, right. I don't want to foreclose the fact that staff has received sponsorships. They have been making that effort because that's been echoed over the year event after event. And we've always wanted to do more with less. And that's where they come in, supplement those, those figures. Um. I think staff is just getting their feet wet with a lot of this stuff and now they're getting a really good handle on how to make these things happen and engaging those sponsors and growing that sphere of influence in our relationships more and more by providing these sponsors with excellent high-level quality events that they want to have their names on. Pulling the rug out from under stuff now and saying, okay, do even more with even less or even keep status quo with even less. It's just putting them in a position where they're going to have to say, we just can't do it. So, I really don't want to waste time with another workshop on this. Unless we're really going to dig deep down into all of those professional contracts, non employee contracts. And you know what, if we hire local. Encourage home ownership instead of hiring from outside and having people renting all the time. You know, they'll be impacted too. When we make these increases, they'll be impacted too. When insurance rates rise and they have to pay it because they'll be paying the taxes just like us. So that's why it's even more important to hire local, improve the personnel we have, give them the training so that they can qualify to get the higher positions and keep working in the city of Homestead. Let's maintain our employees so we're not always having to backfill. I think we're all saying the same thing, but there's a philosophical difference on how we achieve the goal. And that's okay. That's what we're here to have is seven different mindsets on how we achieve hopefully the same goal. But I'll rest there. Thank you.

Thank you. Vice Mayor, did you have something?

I'm not good at all.

Thank you, Mary. I think that last piece that you just said is what I'm trying to kind of form in words. I think that we are all here for a reason. I think that there are a lot of pieces of us that go into the whole thing. Councilman with the Reese's, you, I know, were instrumental in helping with that. For me, that's not at the top of my personal list, right? But all of us coming together to to make this all possible, I think, is the big picture. Can we cut a few of these things? Definitely. I was clear with CRB, for example, and I will stand behind the things that those committees do. I do enjoy those committees working with these volunteers that are really trying to look out for the best interests of the city. I wasn't happy with How CRB went this last year, but obviously there was an entire new administration that just got voted in. So, to cut that budget by 5,000, when now potentially is the best opportunity that we've had to form stronger bonds with Florida city. We all know it from the breakfast and parade. It's just always been disorganized and we have not had that opportunity. So I would like another crack at it and I'm happy to report back. I think that we should have different, you know, just like we asked some of the businesses to come back with their metrics and how did they do? We do the same for the committees and see what was, what did it, how did it enhance the life of our residents and that we can make those calls then when we see that. I understand that you're not all part of all the pieces that go into it. But I personally would not like to see that change this year. That's all I have again. Thank you.

Yeah, unfortunately, when we had a meeting the other day, some of the sponsors of items were not able to attend. And that's not a criticism, it's an observation. And I think it would be important for me to know what is envisioned for these activities. You know, a lot of these committees are supposed to be advisory only. And I see them sponsoring events. I see proposals for putting on events. And again, and in this example, it's not the amount, it's the philosophy. So what's gonna happen next year when every pod in OASIS shows up and the Villages of Homestead shows up and the keys gate folks show up all wanting their twenty five hundred dollars for their holiday events that is specifically called out at your request in a budget and really some of the philosophy of that moving money around was is to provide extra discretionary funds to fund those eventualities. Because once something is a specific line item in the budget, it's probably going to have a hard time going away.

Mayor, just to clarify, that's an in-kind donation, in-kind sponsorship, not dollar for dollar, the 25 to Waterstone.

Right, and the in-kind is?

Garbage, lighting, off the top of my head, I don't have the itemization here on what was donated, but there's no dollar transfer from the city to Waterstone CDD for that public.

I appreciate that, and that would have been helpful, and I understand we all have outside lives. That would have been helpful, and that may be helpful to have And at this point in the game, we're probably not going to be able to do a deep dive into all of these other professional contracts and issues that we have. You know, to me, these special events and committees and sponsorships That's what folks look at. Yes. Councilwoman.

Sorry, I was going to say that I did, I did review the minutes from that meeting, um, or not the minutes, but the director's, um. Summary and 1 of the questions I think you have was with regards to the agricultural committee, right? Just for. the public and whoever else we did have at least two meetings i believe um of the for for discussion on that and trying to formulate and get a plan in action and and that's where we're at we're in the planning stages we did discuss having a um a farmer's market which i have received a lot of positive feedback for from from community colleagues and support and very much anticipating for that to get kicked off. And the goal is for that kind of event to bring in, bring the Redlands into the city and to That's what I'm looking for. Connecting the dots, right? We have been an agricultural city and for all the reasons why the committee was formed, that type of event would support the initiatives. Now, these committees are advisory in nature at a minimum, but if there is an event that we want to have to execute the goals of the committee and have the impact we're seeking to have, the committee members would be the worker bees. the volunteers and god bless them they're doing it for free they're not paid staff at least most part so you know it's we if we're cutting out the committees you're cutting out public engagement you're disconnecting the community from their city to to get these uh these events and these things done so but to answer the question you were sitting in those agricultural um at least one so um

And the idea was to have private groups take that on, that the committee could help with guidance.

But we are not done with the planning, so this is a placeholder, and it's expected for volunteers to work and to have something to be able to rely on and leverage in the event we have to do some initial program announcements, some invitationals, some intermediate hostings of networking. Those things do cost money and it's hard to put $1 amount on something that's a little unprecedented right so. In if I think we could all celebrate staffs efforts and trying to be as frugal as possible in executing these events and celebrating when they do come in under budget. But not with retaliating with cutting their budgets it's it's just a plan it's a budget it's an opportunity to. to make things happen. If we can, let's move forward with this tonight. I'll make the motion so we can at least get to a second hearing. And let's work through staff to try to bring anything really impactful with changes in the next hearing. I mean, I don't I don't mind keeping the Miami Dade County League of Cities Gala in there because I do think it's important for us to have presence at these tables and that it does give us an opportunity to exchange ideas, share how problems are being solved in other areas. And that doesn't matter on this level. The PBA gala, absolutely. I mean, we should be there as elected officials encouraging our police department and celebrating along with them. We have our own police department. We have our own utilities. We have our own CRA. So we should be involved in those types of conferences and events.

I would agree with you on the League of Cities gala. I think maybe you touched on it, someone touched on it tonight. As I recall, it was 10 to be a sponsor to help the League of Cities put it on and it was another 10 for the table. I think with the funds that were provided, We can be a sponsor and out of our own accounts, if we wish to go, we go, rather than have that come out of the general fund with that extra 10, for example. Now, given what's going on in our city now in a positive way, and what we all believe and hope beyond our wildest imaginations is coming, it's important that we be at these events. The standing and stature of this city has grown exponentially among all the other mayors and managers that I come in contact with, and that is due to our staff and the elected officials. we've gone from something that's just off the radar to everybody knows we're doing it mostly right and we're the up and coming place to be. So while I understand Councilman Ross' perspective of it's going outside the city, I think that sometimes we need to look at expenditures as what will they bring in to the city. So I agree with you on that line item.

And, Mayor, I think just to Councilman Ross' defense, and I don't want to speak for him, but I think my impression was that if we're going to nitpick line items on special events, that's just a perspective for consideration. Sure. Not that that particular line item in and of itself is a point of contention. Okay.

So the budget as proposed.

Yes, but I do want to make a comment. On the EDC donation here. Yeah. I recall when we did it that first time, I wasn't aware that we weren't doing it regularly since this is something that might be coming back. I also thought we were giving a contribution to the South day chamber of commerce and not that I'm asking to add it, but I think we could split that 10,000 into 5,000 for EDC and 5,000 for South day chamber of commerce. If we're trying to engage our business community as much as possible in these events, We need to be investing in them as well and their efforts into nurturing those businesses, being at our events, making sure that they are as engaged a partner as they should be. And the EDC, I thought we had them to thank for the connection with SPH. in conjunction with that's their story that's their story that's their story i think they played a good positive role and i won't correct them in public i do know that keys gate had a keys gate board members had a major part of that as well but i thought they were also instrumental so

Council woman for the South day chamber of commerce, we do pay them 8,000 dollars. The reason you don't see it here. It's paid as dues. That's the minimum amount. I don't think I don't know that you can choose.

Well, then then. Then fine, but I, I really would like to make sure that we are charging them with being at every event, having a table, pushing promotions, pushing our events as much as we're sponsoring your liaison. Yes, I agree. But before next year's approved.

right and i mean this will all do compliment you're the pushy one go push them into those events so i mean but that's something that we need to don't keep on pushing this let's just okay all right okay so wait so the first item yes would be adopting tab one which is the adoption of the proposed operating millage rate and voted debt military so allow me to read that into the record we'll take a vote on tab one first it's the resolution of the city council

The city of homestead, Florida, establishing a proposed operating military of ad valorem taxation and establishing a proposed military for debt service on the general obligation bonds for the fiscal year beginning October 1st, 2026, and ending September 30th, 2027.

Okay, we have, we have a motion in a 2nd. To adopt the millage rate, is there any further discussion from council?

Is there any public comment? What's the millage rate going to go? Is it going up? That's.

The sir it's it's set the 6.0567 which includes so we're voting to raise the military, yes, Sir, I just want make sure everybody understands that you're going to raise it and and the amount that is produced by the raise will cover 5 new officers correct and our package indicates that a. property with a $300,000 taxable value will have a tax increase of just a little more than $28 a year.

And for the average taxpayer whose home is about $180,000 in taxable value, it's $17.40 for the year. Okay, so is there anyone online?

No. All right. So let's close the public hearing. Are there any final questions or comments from council before we vote on the adoption of the millage rate?

I'm going to say that I do love and support our police department, but I don't support raising the millage rate. I think we can find the monies elsewhere. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you.

All right. Let's have a roll call that Madam clerk.

Yes. Councilman Fletcher.

Yes.

Councilman Roth?

No.

Councilwoman Konski?

Yes.

Councilwoman Avila? Yes. Vice Mayor Bailey? Yes. Mayor Lozano?

Yes. The motion carries. And not that it justifies it, but an observation that this is the first time since at least when we did the budget in 2020 that the millage rate has been increased. Is that correct?

Yeah, I think the only time that it increased was when we had the shift of the library tax. Prior years. Yeah.

all right so mr pearl if you'd read car number 5157 under tab 2 please mr mayor tab 2 is the first reading of an ordinance of the city of homestead florida adopting the budget for each of the several funds and departments of the city for fiscal year beginning october 1 2026 and ending september 30th 2027 proving capital improvement plan providing for a repealer severability and an effective date all right do we have a motion on tab two

Moved by Councilwoman Avila. Second. Second by Vice Mayor Bailey. Is there any public comment? Hearing none, I'll close the public hearing and ask for a roll call vote for the adoption of the proposed budget.

Councilman Fletcher. Yes. Councilman Cannavale. Councilman Roth.

No.

Councilwoman Avila. Yes. Councilwoman Kansky? Yes. Vice Mayor Bailey? Yes. Mayor Lawson? No. The motion carries.

And that takes us into tab.

three mr furrow if you'd read car number 5159 please yes mr mayor tab 3 is a resolution of the city council of the city of homestead florida adopting the fiscal year 2027 consumer price index adjustment to applicable water and sanitary sewer rates charges and fees pursuant to ordinance number 2020-0804 approving a 4.71 rate adjustment and the rate schedule attached as exhibit a providing for implementation providing for an effective date

Do we have a motion? Move by the Vice Mayor, seconded by Councilman Fletcher. Any further questions or comments from Council? Is there any public comment? I'll close the public, Councilman Fletcher.

The current CPI is 4.71.

The CPI is 4.71, and that's already been for the solid waste and for stormwater. That's been in their budget too. That's been balanced with that rate.

I saw a different number on the news. Not saying you're wrong. I saw a different number.

Yeah, it might be.

Councilman, the CPI that we use, it's not the normal CPI. It's a CPI that's specific for trash and water and sewer.

It's been moved and seconded. We've had a public hearing. Let's have a roll call vote.

Councilman Roth? No. Councilwoman Avila? Yes. Councilwoman Konski? Yes. Councilman Fletcher?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Bailey? Yes. Mayor Lawsner? Yes. The motion carries.

Mr. Perl, if you'd read tab 4 into the record, please.

tab four is a resolution of the city council of the city of homestead florida adopting fiscal year 2027 water and sanitary sewer rate adjustments authorizing a two percent increase in water consumption rates and a ten percent increase in sanitary sewer usage rates to defray increased costs imposed on the city by miami-dade county approving the rate schedule attached as exhibit a providing for implementation and providing for an effective date

Okay, it's been moved by the Vice Mayor. Do we have a second on the pass-through for what the county imposes upon us? Second by Councilman Fletcher. Any further questions or comments from Council? Any public comment? Seeing none, I'll close the public hearing and ask for a roll call vote.

Councilwoman Konski? Yes. Councilwoman Aguilar? Yes. Councilman Fletcher? Yes. Houseman Ross. Yes. Vice Mayor Bailey. Yes. Mayor Lawson. Yes. The motion carries.

Okay. That concludes the business before us on the special call first budget meeting. Do we have a motion and a second to adjourn the budget meeting? Moved and seconded. All in favor? Aye. Before we leave, It's almost 930 already. Council meetings are supposed to end by 830 unless extended. Is there anything that is time sensitive or that we need to move forward on? Or is there a will to roll this over to perhaps another agenda? That's right, we do have the LPA. Okay, so you know what? Let's take five and we'll reconvene. Well, good evening everyone. It is still Tuesday, September 8th, 2026 and is now 933 PM and I'd like to call the City of Homestead Local Planning Agency meeting to order. Roll call please, Madam Clerk.

Councilman Fletcher. Here. Councilman Canabal.

Here.

Councilwoman Avila. Here. Councilman Roth. Here.

Enthusiastically, he said.

Councilwoman Kosky? Here. Vice Chairman Bailey?

Here.

Chairman Mossman?

I'm here, too. Madam Director, are there any additions, deletions, or deferrals this evening? None. None. All right, we have before us the minutes of July 22nd, 2026. Been moved and seconded. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, Mr. Pearl.

And tab two is actually a legislative item, so we can skip over the quasi judicial hearing procedures. And tab two is an ordinance of the city of homestead Florida amending the city code of ordinances by amending chapter 30 zoning article for supplemental district regulations division two off street parking. To modify regulations and standards related to the parking and storage of recreational vehicles, providing for separate ability, providing for inclusion in the code, providing for conflicts and providing for an effective date.

Thank you, Sir. So everyone okay with waving the staff report on this? We'll see it again in a few minutes. It's been moved by Council, by Board Member Roth. Do we have a second? Second by Board Member Avila. Any final comments? Roll call, please, Madam Clerk.

Board Member Roth? Yes. Board Member Konski? Yes. Board Member Avila?

Yes.

Board Member Canabone? Yes. Board Member Fletcher?

Yes.

Vice Chairwoman Bailey? Yes. Chairman Lawson? Yes. The motion carries.

Very good. Okay. Any further business from the Development Services Director or the City Attorney? Our ex-officio member is not here. I'll entertain a motion to adjourn this meeting. Moved and seconded. All in favor? Any opposed? Moving right along. Are you ready Madam Clerk? One minute. Good evening everyone and welcome. I'd like to call the City of Homestead regular City Council meeting to order. For the record, today is Tuesday, September 8th, 2026 and it is now 936 p.m. We have already had the invocation and the presentation of the colors. Madam Clerk, roll call please.

Councilman Cannibal? Here. Councilwoman Aguilar? Here. Councilman Roth? Here. Councilman Fletcher? Here. Councilwoman Konski? Here. Vice Mayor Bailey? Here. Mayor Lozner? Here.

All right, is there anyone wishing to make a public comment, either in person or is there anyone online? Any public comments? If you have a public comment, please come to the podium, give us your name and address for the record, and you have three minutes. Okay, I will close the public comment section of the agenda. Mr. Manager, are there any additions, deletions, or deferrals?

None, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. All right, we have before us the consent agenda. Tabs 1A, 1B, 1C, D, E, and F. Entertain a motion to approve. It's been moved by Councilman Fletcher. Seconded by Councilman Canabal. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right, next is a discussion on car number 5108 under tab two. Mr. Manager.

5109.

Tab two, the Homestead Miami Speedway Water Tower.

Okay, that's car number 5109? Yes, tab two. So this is an item for the city of Homestead to approve a support being rendered to Homestead Miami Speedway as part of the championship event coming up in November 6th to 8th, 2026. Currently, the budget has allocation of $100,000 to support this effort. the america 250 logo has been placed on the water tower by the speedway and in support of the nascar championship they're asking for us to place an additional logo so the current cost estimate is about 46 663 dollars uh we came before council last time with a i believe on january sorry july 14th or thereabouts with a discussion item on this and Council had directed that we reach out to the Speedway for cost sharing ability. The feedback we received from the Speedway is that they are not able, based on current budget considerations, to split and support this cost. So it's in our opinion and in the spirit of cooperation and collaboration, It's our recommendation to move forward with this $46,683 allocation to support the championship.

okay discussion item council fletcher yes thank you mr mayor i know we all discussed about them going 50 50 with us during this uh initial uh placement for the championship logo and we were talking about it for being a single year since then we've been awarded a second race and i have asked the speedway for an updated economic benefit study to the city of homestead they haven't done one in like six years so mr santa cruz has promised me they will get us updated numbers on what the true benefit is to the city of homestead i've asked specifically for the city of homestead restaurants heads and beds that type of thing so we know what the true economic impact is to the city we know it's a 250 000 impact to the police department not all homestead because you utilize other outside agencies but there's there's true economic benefit to our to our city employees as well as to some of the residents i would offer that we move forward with this again i'm open to looking for additional sponsors for this and in in out years as well i had also offered that at the same time that we go up there we go ahead and place the new city logo up there because it would be saving a little bit money at the same time but i also understand that i think we also have a resolution that says it has to be up there at least for a period a certain period of time as well

So this would be two championship, what's before us is a placement of two championship logos on one tower or just one logo?

It's one on each side. One on each side. And then the two, right now the 250 is on the other side.

Well, together with our 250th logo. Yes.

it brings the national spotlight on the city of homestead even does it's one of those it's one of those good feeling things but again i know it's a lot of money i think we need to also look for additional sponsorships as well and i will take that on to help do that council

Thank me i'm full support one thing I would offer for your consideration is if we are all in consensus with the water tower, as well as potentially helping with this mural. proposal which we're also still waiting on details the mural itself is not able to be part of art in public places, but the water tower might be so if we can maybe task. staff with flipping those two amounts if both are approved and going through i think that would help us achieve both without changing the budget we did do a call to artist at one point right so we were thinking the mural could potentially go through aipp and it cannot so if we're okay with switching that budget amount once the mural is presented to us and we do want to go forth with that just something for consideration since there are two other water towers that are going through that process already if there's a possibility for that that we consider that that's all i have thank you mayor thank you vice mayor baylor councilman

I just want to talk about if we see it from the advertising point of view, this is a bargain. The whole United States is going to see our name up there in that towel.

Our name's already there.

Well, it's going to be bigger now. We're going to have it from every site to everybody to see. So that's what I think.

Thank you.

Councilman Roth. I feel like the guy tonight is just agitated about all this stuff. We just spent an hour. talking about cutting nickels, $40,000 out of our budget. And here we're going to put up something that says Homestead Miami Speedway national championship weekend for $46,000. We're advertising. for somebody else's event. And I just can't comprehend spending an hour talking about cutting $5,000 out of this thing and $2,000 out of that thing and just giving them $46,000 to advertise something. Our logo's up there. Every time they go around that racetrack, they see Homestead-Miami Speedway, zoop, zoop, zoop, every time on national television. Ain't nobody gonna look up at that water tower and see, Homestead Miami Speedway National Championship. I just think that what we did last, an hour ago, we just wasted a lot of time if we approved this.

That's all, thank you. Thank you, Councilman Roth. Further comments from my left. Further comments from my right.

Thank you, Mayor. Listen, we budgeted 100,000 for NASCAR support. This is 46. If this is how they want us to spend those dollars, fine. That was something that I had asked Staff to me just make sure and they did give me reassurance that that there's been a series of meetings and conversations on this. I just don't want this to be like. The banners on the street polls, like, I can't see it.

Can't really execute it.

Let's. Is this going to make it onto the water tower before the October races this year? Is that the plan or are we're not going to make it in time for this year? And it's going to be for next year. if that's the case it'll be a whole year pretty much of it saying nascar weekend when it's not nascar weekend yet it's coming maybe the design should be bigger it should say home of nascar it can incorporate the nascar logos and additions but but maybe something bigger better that is brighter and more attractive that'll really do us well for the year but if it's going to be up Before this race and changing the design is going to jeopardize that from happening, then this is the design. We're stuck with it. But that was my main concern is just making sure that this is how they want us to invest into the championship weekend. And if that's the case, this is something we've already budgeted. And for next year, we did... have in this budget year how much in there 25 25 and we would have left over from this unfunded amount so hopefully that'll also help curb the mural expenses etc and provide for banners and things so i'll rest there i'd like to hear anybody else thanks thank you councilwoman i i cannot support this

It's a lot of money for two decals for somebody else. Think about the philosophy and the attitude there. It's taxpayers' money. And they are asking us to spend taxpayer money which in the big scheme of things of the multibillion-dollar NASCAR empire, they don't have $46,000 to put the logo on the tower. Somebody used the term the spirit of cooperation and partnership. From where I sit, that has been a one-way street for 30 years, and I cannot support one penny if they're not going to contribute. Even if it's two years, the $23,000 a year. I find it really hard to believe. Those boys in Daytona think they're dealing with a bunch of idiots and gullible hillbillies. And 30 years ago, by God, they were. They're not today. Let's just say no. That's where I am. I'm a hard no. But I'm just one.