Regular City Commission Meeting - workshop

Welcome, everyone. I'm going to call this meeting to order. This is the City Commission Budget Workshop, July 15, 2026, 10.02 AM. If there's a roll call, please call it.

Commissioner Schwartz? Here. Commissioner Simone?

Here.

Commissioner Rosano? Here. Vice Mayor Caggiano? Present. Mayor Serrio?

I am here. I'm going to turn it over to the city manager. Oh, sorry, yep, my mistake. Let's stand for a moment of silence and then the pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Presentation city manager.

All right. Thank you, Mayor. And good morning, everybody. Thanks for making yourselves available. This is our first budget workshop for the fiscal year 2027 budget preparations. And I just want to thank finance department, budget manager, our finance director, assistant director, all the directors that are in here today and their support staff for the work that they've put into the budget so far. It is a months long process starts in January. requests that come in and you know the finance department and myself and we review those requests and what ultimately becomes before you today is is the you know initial proposed budget requests and millage rates that are before you and as we have in the past our budget manager Dacia will give us a budget presentation to walk us through highlights of the budget and I'll give us a brief overview on tax reform outlook, what that could potentially look like in the upcoming years based on some November ballot language. And then we will close it out with getting a support for setting the tentative maximum millage rate that we need to certify to the county. And with that, I'd like to turn it over to Ishmael and Dacia.

All right, so good morning, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, residents, and staff. Welcome to the fiscal year 2027 budget workshop. And thank you for having me back for an encore performance. So we do this presentation every year at relatively the same time, same information. But this year, Let's look at it from a different perspective. I'd like to call it the good, the bad, and the ugly. And no, I'm not aging myself. That was way before my time, obviously. So go with me here. As we go through these slides, we're going to do a mental exercise. Is this good for Margate? Is this bad for Margate, and does this make me feel ugly for thinking that? Next slide, please. Okay, so the budget purpose. So the budget isn't just a spreadsheet. It's our guidebook, our playbook, essentially our megaphone. It sets policy, it lays out operations, plans or finances, and lets us communicate with clarity. In addition to being awarded the Distinguished Budget Award for the ninth time for our fiscal year 2026 budget book, we were also awarded a special recognition for strategic goals and priorities, which means that all three independent reviewers awarded us a score of four as in outstanding in that category. Next slide, please. That's it. So this is a snapshot of our millage rates for the past 10 years. The proposed millage rate for fiscal year 2027 is 7.5185, which includes operating millage rate and the debt service millage rates. So the operating millage rate is proposed to remain at 7.1171. And our debt service millage rate went down slightly by 0.0193, which is approximately a little over $100,000. Next slide, please. All right. So this shows a decade of our tax revenue. So the taxable values and the millage rates are used to calculate the tax revenue, which essentially is column two over there, that $5.5 billion, which we multiply by our operating millage rate of 7.1171. We divide it by 1,000, and at 95%, which is what we budget, we'll get our revenues of $37,792,820. That's proposed based on the June values that we've gotten so far. Obviously, that will be updated for July. So for FY2027, it includes an increase to the estimated revenue of 5%. And once again, this is based on the property appraiser's June values. So although the city is budgeting approximately $1.8 million in additional ad valorem revenue, the change in property values also result in an increase in the payment to the CRA. For FY2027, the increase is over $467,000, which means the net change to the general fund budget property tax revenue is $1.3 million. So once again, although the values increased this year, the overall property tax values in Margate are much lower than the average in the county. In fact, 7%, which is approximately 1,500 Margate residents pay no ad valorem taxes as shown by that top number on the chart. And resulting in over 6,000 properties which is 29.4%, paying less than $500 for a year's worth of services. And those rates are calculated before any early payment discounts. So this chart shows the average homesteaded single family home values. And once again, this is based on 2026 June average values and the fiscal year 2026 adopted operating millage rates for comparative cities. So market is the third lowest in dollar amount of city tax. Obviously sunrise is lower and Their residential is supplemented by their vast commercial area. This year, Lauderhill is a little lower because their values are lower than ours, and their millage rate is a little higher. So they're coming in second this year at $1,495. So essentially, Margaret comparatively has one of the more reasonable tax burdens with surrounding cities. So this chart. I have a little larger version for the visually challenged as myself. So here it is presented so you can see it a little clearer. So based on the fiscal year 2026 data from Broward County Property Appraiser and BBER, the Bureau of Economic and Business Research Population Data, the Margate Revenue per capita is $645, which essentially means what does it cost to live in Margate on average? And this is showing that Margate is the sixth lowest cost city to live in for the value that is provided.

So in, I like to just point out after these last two slides, as I do every year, this is this is something to be proud of, you know, as a full service city that I think arguably, you know, delivers, you know, service equal to any one of these cities on here, we're doing it at a much lower tax burden to our residents than than some of the cities around us. So it's, I think it's important to point that out. It's important to always remind everybody of that, that our taxes and revenue per capita here in the city is is one of the lowest while we deliver the same level of service as Some of the larger cities around us Anything else okay next slide

So this slide graphically shows that the average single family home, the taxable value in Margate is 56% of the countywide average. Essentially lower property values can mean opportunity and also a reminder that affordability is part of our mission for our residents and stakeholders. So over the years, we've gotten calls because people believe that the entire property tax bill or the proceeds go to the city of Margate. However, this slide shows that the city only receives one-third of a property bill. So for instance, if you have a $4,000 property bill, the city of Margate will only get $1,500 of that. The county or rather the school board, roughly the same. The county at 26% would get 1,200, and other tax authorities including the North Broward Hospital District, the Children Services Council, South Florida Water Management District, and Florida Inland Navigation District would get approximately 9%, which makes up the full property tax bill. And that does not include any debt service payments. This is just operating millage for all these tax and authorities. So for the next few slides, I will address the FY2027 proposed budget, showing proposed funding requests, adjustment that came out of the budget meeting sessions with the city manager, the departments, and finance staff. So the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget totals $250,489,444, which is a 7.9% decrease from the fiscal year 2026 amended budget. And this is primarily due to reduction in capital budget dollars being budgeted in the DCIP funds, which went down by roughly 38%. And we'll get into some of that later. And also, the next biggest increase is in the D's bonds projects at roughly 15% respectively. The next few slides will focus on the all important general funds. The fiscal year 27 proposed general fund budget is approximately $90 million. which is a 3% increase from a fiscal year 2026 amended budget. One of the biggest projected revenue adjustment is in fines and forfeitures. You could see there on the top portion of the chart that includes some court fines. and traffic fees and special magistrate code violations, and we budget according to historical numbers, and so those are budgeted to go up. In addition, the ad valorem taxes, as we've been talking about, has gone up 5%, and once again, that's based on our June numbers, and those are pending our July 1st valuation from the property appraiser. As for expenditures, overall expenditures have increased slightly by 3%. That's attributed to personal services increasing roughly 9% as a result of anticipated contractual obligations, health insurance, and FRS rate changes that are varied. Our operating costs is also increasing by 2.1 or 2.2% annual costs, which is a result of annual costs for our ERP software, vehicle and equipment lease, and other technology license and maintenance costs across the general fund departments. So revenues are up slightly as well, and we're matching the growth in revenue with thoughtful spending, especially on personnel and operating needs. We've decreased some capital expenses this year, or one-time capital expenses, but only where it makes sense.

Not yet, goodbye.

So the AdverLearn. Revenue or tax revenue accounts for 42 percent of our total general fund income. And that's primarily due to increase in the taxable value. As I said earlier. So expenditures for public safety continue to make up the majority which is 57 percent of the general fund budget budget. However 2 percent it's 2% more than 2026 budget. So the police budget is 33% and the fire budget is 23%. Non-departmental comes in next at roughly 14%. And there's a next larger because it includes a transfer to the CRA and the insurance fund. Another thing to note is that because the city of Marga is a full-service city, the personnel services account for 73% of the general fund budget. So these are some general fund proposed capital items by department. I won't read them all to you. But our very capable directors are here to provide details on their necessary Requests with the passion it deserves so if there is any questions that I'll give you details on those This continuation of some of the capital requests in the general fund Okay, so now we're going on to our capital improvement program. These are our larger capital program, our five-year capital program, essentially. In our NUN-D's capital fund, the 334 fund, general capital projects fund, we have rebudgeted for the building department expansion at $2.2 million. And in public works, manage projects, the neighborhood ID signs, which is a recurring capital item and or commission chambers. City Hall first floor refurbishment at four hundred and thirty nine thousand. In our capital improvement parks bond projects we've re budgeted for Oriole Park at six hundred and thirty eight thousand and Any remaining money is in the $10,000 in is in contingency and that can be used for the Oriel project or any other project that was approved in the original bond resolution. For infrastructure improvements and the stormwater fund, we budgeted 2.1.28 million for annual ongoing infrastructure improvements. NRD's capital project fund, 461, we've budgeted. Well, one highlighted project is the lift station. And that's ongoing for rehab and upgrade and replacement of all lift stations. That's $138 million over the five-year budget. That's what's been submitted. And for FY2027, we budgeted $21.6 million. for these projects. And these bond projects, we've budgeted four major projects at $68 million each. And once again, the director is here to get into any details you may need. So that was a summary of the state of the city and some of the highlights in the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget. Once again, we're proposing the millage to go down based on debt service reducing from 7.5378 in fiscal year 26 to 7.5185. So what we're requesting tonight is that we reach consensus on the millage rate ceiling for fiscal year 27, which means that whatever rate set tonight cannot be cannot be exceeded. It can go down, but it cannot go up. And with that, we go to the city manager.

Thanks, Stacia. And so in the presentation, these are a couple of new slides that we've added in just to give the commission and public kind of an outlook on what tax reform may look like for us should it pass in November. And so first, I want to give a timeline of what's going to happen. So November 2026, there's going to be a ballot question that voters will vote on. And if they vote in the affirmative of that ballot question, It will increase the homestead exemption for residential homesteaded properties from $50,000 to $150,000. And that will go into effect January of 2027. That homestead exemption of $150,000 would then be applied to the November 27 tax bills, which is actually our fiscal year 28. If this passes in November there's there's no impact to the fiscal year 27 budget, the first impact would be in in fiscal year 28. Then in January of 28 the second phase of that homestead exemption would would apply in in the new homestead exemption would be 250,000 that would go on to the November 28 tax bill which is fiscal year 29 impact for the city. The financial reality of that is, again, there's no impact of fiscal year 27. Fiscal year 28, we're looking at around an $8 million reduction in ad valorem revenue. And then fiscal year 29, a $12.1 million reduction in revenue. These are based off of assessed values from this current year's assessment. So those numbers will go up. Another component of this tax bill is that non-residential valuations will be capped year-over-year at 5%, where right now they're at 10%. So there were protections put in this bill so that a large shift of the tax burden would not go on to non-residential, non-homesteaded property, although that does impact us as well. Go to the next slide, please. And so when the legislature passed this at their last session, we took some immediate actions. We implemented a hiring freeze, a travel freeze, and we've gone through a 10% general fund budget reduction exercise. It's an internal exercise that we've done. And it is it is not easy to cut 10% from our budget as we've seen in slides earlier we Already run a very efficient City here. We are we are lean in our departments. We are lean in our staffing and so cutting 10% from the general fund Equates to you know service level reductions next slide, please So these are You know, actions that we will need to take in fiscal year 27 should the ballot question pass in November. And these are just these are a number of options. These are, you know, kind of all cards on the deck and what we need to be looking at. We would have to evaluate our staffing levels, our operating capital expenditures. Um, offering, you know, early retirement programs, spending city and CRA events, outsourcing or eliminating programs altogether, suspending grant funding. Next slide please. Um, and then on the revenue side, um, you know, we should, we would look to, you know, adopt fee schedules that provide full cost recovery. Um, you know, we, we offer programs here in the city that are, are subsidized by tax dollars, um, across, uh, uh, variety of programs. And so if we intend to maintain service levels, we will have to make up revenue somewhere if ad valorem tax revenue is reduced. And that could be anywhere from starting to charge for EMS transport billing, increasing fire assessments, increases in our registration fees for athletics and camps, and facility rentals. There's revenue streams that we can consider. Some are popular, some are not. School zone speed cameras, millage rate adjustments, development impact fees. And then there is some new revenue on the horizon with development that's going on in the city. Residential development of Marquesa Apartments, which is now legacy of Margate, the Forest Apartments in the South End, and the townhome projects on Margate Executive. So there is some relief, although it will not be the equivalent of $12 million.

And on the development impact fees, we're pretty limited by the state as to what we can charge developers to. There's a lot of protections in these new laws that they pass protecting the amount that they have to pay as well.

So again, we don't have any of these initiatives incorporated into this budget. This is really kind of a roadmap, should November pass, these are the activities that we're gonna start having to look at and take action on.

We do have a hiring freeze though, currently.

We do have a hiring freeze. And there's exceptions to all of those. If we have operation minimum staffing and whatnot, we take care of that, but yes, we do. So, again, I just wanted to provide a kind of a brief outlook to the commission, answer any questions on any of those items as we continue to look forward into fiscal year 27.

I mean, having conversations with you, I think we're taking the right approach here. I do see some type of tax reform happening, even if there's a delay because of lawsuits and stuff. At some point, it's going to make it there. But at the same time, until we find out what is going to exactly happen, as you mentioned, it's not going to affect us until 2028 if it passes this time around. And so we're being responsible. We do have certain freezes in place. We're running through exercises, but we're not making any knee-jerk reactions. At the same time, we're not, you know, increasing our budget either. I think it was a healthy 2% increase, 2.2% it looked like. The total, if I saw correctly, the total millage rate went down slightly?

Yes, total operating millage rate is recommended to stay the same. Debt service millage rate goes down. So the total millage rate is a reduction.

Okay.

So because people might see on their tax bill that it goes up, that's either because their home values went up or other districts raised their taxes. But I believe last budget year, our total budget also went down. Our total budget has gone down at least that I can remember the last two years.

Our total millage rate.

Total millage, correct. Oh, sorry. I thought you were finished.

I am. I just want to lead us into the next conversation. So ultimately here today, we are... We need to set the tentative maximum millage rate. But this is also the opportunity for the commission to get into the budget and ask any questions that you have. If you need clarification, provide direction to us so that we can bring back a proposed formal budget to you in September.

I have a couple lights lit. I just have one more thing for now. So, last year we did, um, median enhancements. I believe it was 750,000, which was budgeted. Um, we did the whole stretch of rock island road. And certain entry points going in and out of there, like, for example, um. From rock island in the holiday springs, there were some palms added at the intersection there. 31st, there were some landscaping added. Irrigation irrigation on rock island irrigation on 31st. I believe we're getting ready to irrigate Banks Road. Also, Mike Jones' department did a great job, Parks and Rec, getting grants, which we already got the money back for that, for the landscaping. Now, this year, the city manager doesn't have any funding going towards that. Um, I would like to see I don't think we need 750,000. I think that was a nice, you know, jump start. Um, and the city shown an ability to get grant funding, but I would like to see at least 250,000 go to that. It doesn't make sense. This is a couple year project. This isn't, you know, you just do it. And then forget about it the other thing to consider, and I don't want to get into. Too much specifics on it, but a lot of the money of the initial 750,000. has gone towards irrigation, which is one of the most important things, but you don't see it.

So we've irrigated all these medians in the city.

Now we've got to plant stuff there. So I would ask if the commission would consider funding it at $250,000, which is considerably less than we did last year, but continuing to beautify our city.

Is that enough? Anyone have any opposition to that?

Anyone? Are you okay with doing 250 towards the median enhancements?

I guess that all depends on what 250,000 gets you right now. If that's three trees, no.

I think it's a lot. Cale or Mike wants to come up and- So I don't think Mike needs to come up.

We're fortunate enough to have a very good landscape supervisor in the department who is doing a lot of the design and management of the working house. We're not outsourcing, you know, a lot of the design and engineering of it. So we're able to stretch these funds pretty significantly. You know, for Rock Island Road and Perimeter Road that we've done, we still have half of the money that we've budgeted this year for it. So I think 250,000 goes a long way, especially getting irrigation done and getting those medians and the sod and those back up to an acceptable condition.

And last year we did 750, so I'm asking significantly less, but still enough that's meaningful.

Where are you taking it from?

Well, we had it in the budget last year, so I don't know.

That's not the question. But you don't now, so we're going to find out.

Right. So it would be coming from unassigned fund balance. As our budget is balanced right now, we have an allocation from unassigned fund balance to balance the budget, as we do every year. And remember conversations. We budget conservatively on the revenue side and conservatively on the expenditure side, meaning we budget for full cost expenses and we budget for a discount on the revenue side. And between personnel vacancies throughout the year, between projects coming in under budget or projects being deferred, we end up finishing with more revenues than we have on expenses. So rather than taking money out of fund balance, we end up putting money back in. for the purposes of budget planning program we're just taking it from a fund that allows for this you know i mean that's up to the commission if you wanted to reduce funding from another program to do that you could if you wanted to keep all the programming in there that we have and add medians on there then it would be just another allocation from the unassigned fund balance

Well, I think beautification is important. I would not be in favor of spending $250,000 to do this. I think that we should look for other grants to make up the cost and seek grants to do this.

So many times with the grants, they require matching dollars. It's matching. That's one of the reasons why I said $250,000 so that we can at least match the grants.

But we're still putting in $250,000.

Up to.

Up to.

We could also, we could budget for it and wait and see what happens in November as well. You know, because if November happens, you know, I'm probably going to come back to you guys and say there's going to be a freeze on a lot of stuff.

You know, I would also argue that curb appeal is one of the fastest ways to increase property values, which does increase revenue.

I agree with you. Thank you. would I would I would I would say it's important if we're gonna make more get a piece we invested in the irrigation yeah I'll go I'll go with you I'll go with you on that I'll give you a second for that Tommy although last that's fine with me as long as I don't keep looking at palm trees yeah we actually put in a lot of live oaks and other

shade trees there were some palms that went in but only in certain areas however if we're going to look about curb pill then we need to look at more than just rock island road because half of the city doesn't go through rock island no three quarters of the city doesn't go through rock island that's that's where they started but we've done banks we're about to do banks road and we did 31st from lexus all the way to 441. how about southgate Right, absolutely. About 50 seconds. I want to beautify the whole city, but you need money to do it, right?

Yeah, but I'm just saying then shift your priorities.

I don't think that's fair. You're making it sound like we're just going to do this. I didn't mention Rock Island once other than the fact that that's where we started. I want to beautify the entire city. You want to start on the south then? Let's do it. Yes, ma'am.

I'm just simply saying spread it out. Yes. 100%. I'm not being unfair. I'm just simply saying spread it out.

Every neighborhood.

No problem with that.

just just to ask a question 750 was done on rock island no no no so we've done rock island we've done perimeter road from sample road to 441. And I think between those two, what was the other one, Mike? We've spent about half the money. Rock Island's been done from Royal Palm down to Southgate. Southgate? Yeah. Rock Island is done? Rock Island Road from Southgate to Royal Palm Boulevard.

Seems like they stopped at Royal Palm.

Yeah. Carolina picks it up. Right.

No, I'm talking about going south.

No, no.

All the way, it's the whole stretch.

Well, I got to say, I'll be honest, it looks horrible down in the south until you get to Sample Road, it looks better. I'll be honest. I got to say this, I would love to see contour in the medians. If you look over by McDivitt's, there's contour, and I stress that all the time, and it seems to never get done. But I'll be honest. If the median across from Oriel, if you're telling me that's done and looks good, I can't agree with that. I don't know what was done, to be honest. Grass?

Yes, we've irrigated, we've planted trees, and we've re-sodded the medians. I want to be careful that we don't get into doing extravagant type of medians. They require an incredible amount of maintenance throughout the year that's going to increase cost. So the idea is to have a very clean, very refreshed type of median that is sodded and manicured with some trees that are thoughtfully designed in there. But to get into a median design of like Firefighters Park North that has a lot of different contour, a lot of different heights of hedges and bushes, our maintenance costs are going to go significantly.

I'm just asking for contour and color.

that's all I do agree though around the fire station it seemed like there could have put a few more trees in that area and I have highlighted that but I think Commissioner Schwartz had a good point that you know you don't want to overdo one focus area but I think if we continue to fund this we can go back over time and and continue to add things but I would like to see more of the city beautified

i think you got i think you have it i think that we need to apply for grants and really watch how we spend that and make sure that we apply it evenly there's other lights lit so i think commissioner kajiana yeah i just want to yeah i just want to say thank you because um most of this most salaries went up three four percent and that's 73 of the budget and yet we've only gone up about 2.2 percent in total budgets which means that you were able to run a tight budget in all these other places to be able to make up for that. And I appreciate that tremendously. I do agree with you in that when people come into the city, it's gonna see how it looks and then go, oh, okay. And the thing is with the stuff that has been planted, over time that stuff's gonna grow and it's gonna fill in. It may not look filled in now, but over time that stuff's gonna get big. speaking about getting big are we putting stuff in there that aren't going to that's not 20 years from now going to be ripping up the streets that we're going to have to yeah so we you know right tree right place you know that that's important to the forefront of our mind and our landscape um supervisors is well aware of that okay cool um other than that we do run a tight show i mean you see where we stand with what our spending is compared to others of the cities as a full-service city and um Thank you. I'm thrilled.

Commissioner Rosano, your light.

If you go back in the slide, I think there was a capital improvement project for $498,000 for the chamber improvements. I don't know. I don't think we need that. half a million dollars I think we could save.

Yeah, that's an item that's been budgeted and rebudgeted for the last few years. And, you know, there's, as we've had discussions with City Center, there's been talks about City Hall being incorporated into that. You know, It's really up to this board if they feel that this chambers needs a, you know, a refresher of, you know, new chairs. We do, I would request keeping some money in there for any audio visual upgrades that, you know, we need to do. But, you know, as far as, you know, doing a full scale.

Do I think it could use a facelift? Yes. Does the taxpayers need to pay for that right now? Probably not. I know at one point we're going to do it, but also with the downtown and I know that's not finalized yet and there's really just finalizing phase one. So we don't know in future phases of what will happen with city hall. I don't believe that's in the plan to get a new city hall, but you just never know. So, yeah, I'm fine with holding off on doing any type of major renovations. But certainly, I would keep stuff in there for, like, we upgraded the computers. Who knows if we need to add some other type of device? I've always said that the streaming, sometimes the quality could be better. So if it has to do with better sound or cameras or things like that. But as far as making the chambers of Taj Mahal, I'm fine with holding off on that.

We could reduce that down to $150,000. How about going to- And then that will cover the increase for the median enhancement.

All right, Cash. I didn't see any vehicles on the capital improvements. It's just the pro.

You missed all of them.

I was going to ask.

I was going to ask, are they no more listed and they're listed under leases?

They're listed in operating expenses under rentals and leases. Okay. There are a few specialty type vehicles, large trucks that we buy that have the cranes on them, that we've gotten away from leasing. It doesn't make sense to transfer equipment off of those and upfit them and downfit them.

Okay. I remember when Mark Collins presented that program. Is it a promising program? It is.

we're in year five of the program, which is where we're going to see how beneficial it is on the police side as we start flipping the first round of police vehicles that we got. As we're seeing it now, we're getting about $25,000 per vehicle of the Tahoe's that we bought.

And that equity is going back into... I'm sorry? We didn't buy those Tahoe's.

No, but they're capital leases. So we lease them throughout the year. When the lease term is up, we end up selling them and we gain the equity.

We get the equity on the lease, but we didn't own the car.

We don't own the car. So that equity then rolls into the new lease period for it.

So the new lease period would be significantly less if you're rolling in $25,000 down.

Correct. Cost of vehicles go up, though, so we're not comparing.

So we're leasing a car but still making $25,000 per vehicle. Right. We're also...

It's probably washing all the time with the increasing cost of cars plus the money that we're getting.

Like you said, you just apply it into the... Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

It's like a wash.

There's a reduction in maintenance on the vehicle.

I did that for, what, four or five years? I kept turning in leases.

All right. I'd like to see the canals cleaned. I know there's videos of the canals, but there's certain areas that are horrible and still can't get through them. If you go, Cale, to the second to last page you had. I think it was the possible revenue. Yeah, that one right there. You know, the LBTRs, I'm not a big fan of that because it seems like that if we're going to be losing money from the residents, we're going to go after the businesses. I don't think it's a bad idea, but just the Impression of it that hey, we need to make up money. So we're gonna go after the businesses. I normally think is is it the best idea? Now you look over to new revenue streams. I've always said that those cameras were money grabs and If you read it it basically new revenue streams to consider school zone speed cameras. It's basically saying money grabs That was presented as a safety for the residents and but now it's being presented as a revenue stream. I don't think that's a good idea. And again, we're going to tell the residents that, you know what, there's a possibility where your taxes could get cut. So instead of us receiving it, we're going to try to go after you guys to try to get it. So I'm not a big fan of that one either. The new revenue on the horizon, um, Marquesa, do we know what that revenue is going to bring it in 2028? I'm sure we have some sort of an idea.

I would say around $200,000.

For the year? That seems very low. It does seem very low.

That would be the city's portion.

OK. How about the forest departments, which I've never heard of, to be honest with you? Around the same. Is that the south one?

That's the south one, yeah.

In the of Margate? I would think that's going to bring in a lot more because...

Potentially. It all depends on what happens with homesteads.

Well, I know that after I talked to... I forgot which company it was. There was a way that they can sell homes but still make them non-tax. I forgot the exact word, but they would fall under the category where they would have to pay the taxes. Sort of like Aztec. I don't know how that's created, but Who would ever know that aspect?

Townhomes, but run them as a condo.

Is that what it is? I'm not sure of the verbiage of it, but it's definitely probably something to consider if it passes. And I never think I would say, you know, I don't want people to live in our city that aren't homesteaded. But it seems like the state's kind of pushing us to do that, which I don't understand why. Oh, another revenue stream, I think, and we just hand them out willy-nilly, it's liquor licenses. You know, we give them out to four in the morning. And I don't even remember the last time we even considered or it was even brought up. But other cities, I think they're 10 o'clock, 12 o'clock. Margate weekends are up to four in the morning. And to me, that's a premium. You know, a liquor license in itself is a premium. So if everybody's just going to apply for it and there's no fee on it, maybe look at that for some sort of a,

There's a, there's a fee for that. Um, and I think we generate around 15,000 a year for, for those liquor licenses. And I want to say we, there may be a thousand a piece for that liquor license or the after hours, you know, sale license.

And the last thing I have first of all, I want to say you guys did a great job with this. I know it's tough, especially now what possibly could happen. So I give staff and everybody, you know, great, great props for that. Um, the downtown guys, I've always said it, it's going to make or break the city. Developer's deal, we're giving the developer $35 million. Why? I don't know why. Half a billion dollar project, we got to give them $35 million? Look at the developer's agreement, go over it again. It's something that is going to make or break the city, I'm telling you right now. When I was running, I thought that this would be property where we could develop. City would make the money, not be a partner with it, so... downtown development guys it's really going to help the residents if it's done right correctly that's all i got i think it's a it's a good budget um i like when arlene enlightens me on a lot of stuff so i'm wait all right all right guys thank you and um have a great one thank you commissioner schwartz so for those of you who know me

Those were all the tabs we sat down and talked about yesterday so that you wouldn't have to listen to it today. However, you're going to talk about curb appeal. Take a good look at this rug. I'm looking at, I think it's from 1991. I think it would be really nice. When people walked in here besides us, they didn't look at what can't be cleaned. So if you can leave a little money for here, please change the rug because the curb appeal of people walking in here speaks volumes about how we think about this building and our city. Why not? Sure.

I just want to ask why a rug at all?

I don't care.

No, no, no, no. But you're sharing about rugs. And I'm thinking that rugs are just always dirty. And then the moment you pull up a rug and you see what's been underneath it, it's just like, ugh, it's the most disgusting thing.

I would tend to think... What we have to consider is the sound and echoing in here as we have microphones and sound. So I think a rug works better in here. There's things that we can do. But I think just to the point of... being cleaned or carpet being cleaned or being replaced.

I love hearing men talk about the dirt they're going to see when they pull up the rug. Thank you.

I've pulled up a number of rugs and then tiled and saw what was underneath them that you've been laying on on those rugs and you're like, oh my god.

That speaks volumes about what we think about this chamber, this building, the people who walk into it. No, that means that I'm... If I have to be the first one to say it in 40 years, I'll say it.

That's why I was saying let's go with something that's not a carpet.

Okay. I would also suggest that we take a look at the fact that only 33% of our residents use Calypso Cove. That means the other 67% are getting one heck of a bargain, so maybe it's time to raise those fees. Even though we lose money there, that at least all the other people who think it's a great place to have fun actually pay a little bit for it. But what we ask for, and the fact that only 33% of Margate residents use it, it's time to revisit that. Then I'm gonna say something to all of you, because while you don't all work for me, you work for him, he makes us look good, we make the city look good. You don't wake up in the morning and decide you're only gonna get dressed 85% of the time. Goals and objectives are for the, you reach for the sky. You don't look year after year for some departments where 85% of their performance measures is considered a great deal. I don't come in and do 85%. You don't get paid 85%. The residents don't give us 85%. So you reach for the sky. If you don't reach it, you don't reach it. But you don't, year after year, think 85% of returning phone calls or fixing things. is a good standard, nor is 99%. And I'm hoping that the department heads who aren't here get to hear that, because you go for 100%. If you don't reach it, you don't reach it. But you don't, year after year, accept less as being more. And that to me is far more important than anything else because it's how we tell people we value the work we do. Your people come to work with 100% of the intention of doing their best job. The thought that we tell them that 85% is good enough just doesn't work for me. Didn't work for me in the school system for 17 years in administration. Doesn't work for me as a taxpaying resident. So I would... Ask each of you to go back to your departments, take a good look at what you call your performance measures and change the percentage. And then actually put down how you get to where you get. Because otherwise it's a number that means nothing to most people. It means something to me because I did it for so many years. And I wrote books like things like that for my departments and my schools. But if we don't set the bar higher, then we just accept mediocrity, and that's not what this city is about, considering we do so much with so very little. Other than that, thank you for the budget and what you came up with, because that for me is not about the numbers of what we're spending. And by the way, we didn't go up 2%. We went down $22 million. Vice Mayor.

Total budget, yes.

Well, because the comment made sent a false narrative out. It didn't go up. It went down millions. It moved around in different ways, but it went down millions. And while we do less, we do more with less, people have to understand that if we finally get, we wind up getting less, we're gonna have to, we're gonna offer less. There's gonna be less great musical things that go up on weekends. People will, as I say, will vote against their own self-interest because they think it looks good. Wait till your tax bill comes. I'm about to pay $7,989 to insure my house. There's nothing left to do on it. I even have fire hydrant on my property. So thank you for what you did, for coming up with your budget, and for the rest of you. Really, aim for 100%. It doesn't hurt if you don't hit it, but if you don't even put it down to start with, it just doesn't look good. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Well, there's no other lights lit. Anything else, city manager?

No. If there's no other comments or questions, I'm just looking for an affirmative on setting the tentative maximum millage rate at 7.1171.

I'll go for that. Yes. It's a reduction, so I'm thrilled that we've been able to reduce it and still offer the same services. So I'm game for that. Commissioner Simone?

And that's the same rate as it was the prior year.

yes thank the departments uh for putting together this budget uh you've done a fantastic job i agree with some of the things set up here uh especially the school zone speed cameras i not in favor of those never have been in favor of those and i agree with commissioner rosano that those are a catch me all a grab fast easy money for the city I know that everything in the budget I don't get exercise over the budget anymore because I know everything in here is a placeholder and I just hope that future commissioners will look at some of the feel-good things that are in the budget and Not approve them especially if this homestead bill goes through so I'm just asking I know they're in the budget and you know, but the money doesn't have to be spent. And I'm hoping that some of these things that I see that are what I consider feel good will not be approved, that they are just strictly placeholders and the money will not be spent on some of these things. You know how I feel about some of these I've talked to, I've talked about them for years and years. I'm not going to reiterate them, but everybody knows how I feel about spending taxpayer money on things that I don't think taxpayer money should be spent on. Thank the departments and the department heads for what you've done for the city, for our budget. Thank you for working hard, always putting forth your best efforts, and doing what you can to make our city look good. We value all of you. And you're very much appreciated by me.

All right. Thank you. And I think you have direction. And with that, we'll say meeting adjourned. All right. Thank you.