Council - Regular Meeting

All righty. We're going to go ahead and call this uh workshop to order. It is April 7th, 2026. The time is 6:33 uh p.m. and we are here for our town council strategic planning uh budget workshop. Uh, as you guys will recall, this is an item that I raised uh a couple a couple weeks or or a couple months ago. Um, basically what I did here was I I kind of took a page out of the city of Dorado's playbook. Um, they have their council have a strategic planning workshop like this one right before the start of the proper uh budget period. Obviously, we have our budget director and our and our manager here, and we can they're here to listen uh and and provide, I guess, any feedback. Um, but the the main goal with this uh workshop is to make sure that we don't have any surprises. I think some some myself included on this council complained of some uh surprises on uh the the initial proposed budget that that was uh shown to us last year. And I guess the the point of this meeting is to at least put our input on the record to the staff um beforehand so so that either the amount of um shock or or surprise later on is reduced or uh that we understand where it's coming from because it was something that was discussed up here. Obviously no votes are taking place today. This is kind of just each person um saying, "Hey, here's how I feel." And we can indicate support or or opposition to it. So that but but but such opposition and

support is not for the purpose of voting, but rather for the purpose of informing staff as to kind of which way this council is leaning as they go ahead and prepare this first version of the budget. Um, that being said, again, part of this is kind of just setting priorities. What do we want to see from a budget? Does anyone want to go first? Go ahead. Uh, Councilman Cla Garcia, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. Basically, I would just like to um um ask the manager and yourself, Mr. Vice Mayor, if um the uh contracts that we that have been talked about, especially um Councilman uh Ray Garcia spoke about last year uh about the police contract and several other contracts. Have they been negotiated? Especially the one with uh the police contract. Mr. manager.

We're under contract with the uh police I believe through 2029. So my question is so it that that means that we cannot financially negotiate nothing. It just is it it's written in stone? I I've never heard of nothing written in stone.

Yeah. I I I guess I I want to explain exactly how the police contract is structured so that we understand exactly what it is. The police contract is not just some arbitrary number that that we agree to with the uh with the police department. The what we do is we pay for the actuals of what the police department charges. So if we have officer John Doe and Officer John Doe's hourly rate is $20 an hour, we pay $20 an hour for Officer John Doe. What the department does do is they add on an administrative percentage, right? And that administrative percentage is for all of the support divisions that we benefit from. for instance training for instance uh all of the uh internal affairs uh they call it professional compliance those kinds of departments we pay our fair share so what they do is they let's say for instance the training there's about I think about seven categories uh for just as an example if they take training and the training maybe it cost the sheriff's office a million dollars to operate They take a million dollars divided by all of the deputies in the county and we have 40 some odd deputies. We pay 40 divided by the total number. So we pay our fair share and the same thing happens with each of those support divisions. So, in other words, if we were to negotiate a lower amount from the sheriff's office, the sheriff's office would be subsidizing the town of Miami Lakes.

So, I don't know if I'm making myself uh clear. So, subsidizing meaning they're going to reduce our personnel. No, no, no, no. It it they would be

they would be paying us to have their their deputies, right? And And I want to make sure I leave something clear. I am not trying to do uh be against police or not bring down your amount of um I'm all for police, but not only am I going to ask you only not police, every single contract, lawnmower, uh mowing, every single contract needs to be uh looked at from now till the end of our um you know when we get into the the hardcore numbers of the um of the budget. every single contract that we have, we go through a competitive uh bid process, right? And that bid process, we normally secure agreements for three years. That's our standard is three years with two one-year renewals at our discretion. Right? So what we normally do when we get near the end of that fiveyear mark, we're benefiting from numbers that were competitively bid four or five years prior. So we according to our procurement ordinance, we have a standard and depending on the size of the contract, there's different processes that we go through, but we competitively bid everything that we buy. Every single thing is competitively bid. you know, larger ones go through a more extensive process. The smaller ones, uh, we get, you know, multiple bids and we and it's competitive in that way. So, everything that we, um, you keep using the the term negotiate. It's a form of ne negotiation. We put it out and we say we need whatever some widgets and then they, you know, anybody who manufactures widgets bids on it and we get the lowest

price and if we if it they build the widgets that we need, then we buy and we pay uh the lowest price. Correct me if I'm wrong. It used to be called the Miami Dade Police Department. Now it's called the Sheriff's Department.

I'm going to go ahead and just interrupt quickly. Look, the issue of contracts is a procurement issue. We're here primarily discussing budget. So, we set our budget for how much we're willing to pay for police services, for park services, for everything. The contract itself, that that's not part of necessarily budget, that's more procurement. So, if you have more budget related uh discussion, I'd welcome it. But, I don't want to continue having a back and forth about a single subject, and it's not even about budget. Uh, so if you want to go ahead and wrap up, um, that'll be welcome at this time.

I'm I'm confused, but um I'll hold on to the thought. Hold on to that and I'll give it to you when uh when I digest it. One second. One second. Um, so before I continue, um, Alexis, is there anyone online? I There is not. There's none. Okay. Yeah. I just wanted to make sure to give the opportunity for public comment had anyone been present. um before you uh Councilman Sanchez um Councilman Hsburg had requested so Councilman Herszburg and then Councilman Sanchez.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Um you know the I think the most important thing for this workshop is that the manager gets direction from us and the way I see it I I don't want to go through the little bit of fiasco we went through last year. Uh we increased the millillage last year. I would expect that uh revenue will increase this year uh based off you know the franchise fee and and property values. Maybe it'll be around flatten the properties but ultimately I expect that we should get a budget from the town manager of a flat rate. I think that's where we should be starting because we increased the millillage last year. So for me I'm not looking at any increase whatsoever. If we can decrease it great. I'm not saying I have to decrease. I'm not saying we have to go to a roll back rate. What I'm saying is I think our opening budget, which I I believe the funds are there, uh should be based off a flat rate. So I I don't want to I think it's a waste of time and effort if we go through the which we've done in the past, not we did it once and and other councils have done in the past and getting this fully funded budget and discussing you know what the fully funded budget looks like. I you guys tell me if you're tell the manager. But for me, I think I expect we should be working on a flat rate and see where we can go down from there. I'm not saying we have to go down. I'm saying we have to make all these amazing cuts. I think we're in a good position where we are. Uh but I'm not going to move the rate unless there's some unprecedented event. What do we got? Like

Councilman Sanchez. So that's that's why I feel like on that

I have uh two things to touch upon. One of the things is one of the things that uh Councilman Um, Guada Garcia brought up, if you remember last year, I did a resolution that forces the town staff whenever a renewal of a contract is 3.01% the rate, the new rate is 3.01% higher than the original rate, the staff is forced to go out to put in a procurement process, invitation to bid, request for proposal, request for bids in order to make sure that the costs stay down. So, with regards to the police contract, that's something that would fall into place in order to keep the budget down. So whenever renewal comes in, so yes, contracts are technically in stone until the renewal period comes comes to play. On as a side note, I think something that is the overall encompassing of what this meeting is meant to be is things that we have brought up over the council meetings over the year of things that we'd like to see in town that would come as an expenditure. I'm going to use myself as an example. One of the first things that I did last year, uh, one of the first items was creating an extension to that median on Miami Lakes Drive, just east of La Palmetto, coming out of 77th Avenue, I believe it is, where all the urgent cares are. Um, where cars would have no choice but to make a rightand turn. That comes as an as an expense. It wasn't on the budget. and never came back up, but it's something that I would like to see on the budget to see if we can fund the study, the design, and the implementation of that addition. So, things that we want to see as priorities on the budget along with tree canopy, along with police services, every other service, but priorities that we want to see in the budget. I do believe that that is the sole purpose or the foundational purpose of this meeting to see the things that we'd like to see as priorities in this town be a part of the budget so that we can discuss them when budget season does arrive. Am I correct in that assumption, Mr. Mr. Vice Mayor.

Yes, sir. Is that all? So that is So those are the two things. The resolution I did last year, Councilman Cuadra Garcia about the 3.01% RFP and what we want to see in the town that would eventually cost money for us to implement around the town of Miami Lake. So for example, an idea for you would be how much would it cost to repair the the canal embankment um along a Royal Oaks? That would be something that that could be part of this discussion. Councilman Fernandez.

Thank you, Chair. Um, I I want to make a com Well, I I want to remind us that if I'm not mistaken, I believe that our last payment to the for the PZY settlement was last year. So, we do have that. And I agree with Councilman Herzburg. I think that a good starting point is to keep it flat. And I do expect us to probably keep it flat. Um, I think that we can get if not all of our our needs fit into that, but but certainly most of them and I think that that the residents would would appreciate that. But, you know, I you guys know how I stand on things. I'm not going to go line by line, but I do think that you have an idea of what I think is important for the town, including parks and medians and and, you know, beautifification. But I'll hear more as we discuss um our priorities specifically.

Garcia. Yeah. Through the chair. Um thank you. Um just a couple things to make it easier for us and for the staff because the staff sometimes we ask them things last minute. We you know I mean they they do a great job and and we want to make it as easy for them. So I guess setting the priorities um just simple paperwork whenever print outs come out you know anything to do with with printouts or anything like that just for my sake since I'm 53 years old I need bigger font and just little things like that that I I would ask if you guys can do that. I know it sounds silly guys but it helps when we look at that. Council member I ex I I understand exactly how you feel

exactly. Um, in addition, I do agree that um we caused uh there there was some drama and and and and residents were were clearly upset about um you know the the millillage the initial millillage that came out the high millillage and we ended up almost getting to the flat rate right because all of us along with the staff got together line by line and we prioritize and move money around. Uh so I I like to see us start with the flat rate and and also focus on priorities. And I think our priorities should be existing infrastructure uh our parks what we need to do to get them up you know up to the level that residents deserve and you know put aside anything you know any future parks or any future things or any projects we want to do. I think we should put those, not prioritize those, prioritize the the what we have currently, our roads, our parks, our sidewalks. We really got to get to where they're at because honestly, we don't know what's going to happen uh next year. I mean, honestly, the what would happen, sir, if u as far do you feel how would it affect us? This is the budget if if if um the Florida uh residents decide to vote yes on the the amendments that are coming up. Um what percentage of our budget for 2027 do you feel is effective or is that going to start in 2028?

Yeah, I the the way is being proposed is that the if something passes the legislature and gets signed into law by the governor, it would go before the people to be voted on in November. November and it would take effect for the following fiscal year. So for 28, it would be not November of 26. It'd be starting November the budget for the fiscal year 2728, which we're talking about right now. Basically, no, we're talking about 26 27. Okay. I'm sorry.

Yeah. You're you're about we're about to embark on developing is the 26 27 budget. The one that this would probably affect would start with the 2728 budget.

Okay. So, keeping that in mind, um, focusing on I know the mayor has has initiatives on making sure we have, you know, savings, right? And we're we're preparing for the worst. I think we need to start preparing for the worst now in this budget. Just make, you know, to see what happens because we're, you know, we don't know exactly how that's going to affect the next budget. Uh, and we we might have to go into our savings. So, I think we should keep that in mind u when we come up with these numbers as well. Um, but I'd also like to see a focus based on, you know, what we asked for last year. Any initiatives, any any line items that could be moved around, any any like like we did before, we kind of had to ask you, hey, can we move this around? You looked into it. Some some some we could move around, some we couldn't. Be a little more proactive in that and say, hey, we found some areas that we can move money around for you guys to make it easier for you ahead of time. Right. I think just things that'll make it easier for us ahead of time. I don't mind the exercise of going line by line. That's why we were elected, right? But it would be easier for us if you if for people propose, hey, there's some areas here that you you could move money around. Uh instead of us having to, you know, go, you know, go up to you every single can we do this, can we do that? Uh if you have some ideas on how we can move money around or if there's areas we can let us know ahead of time. We'd love to see a report on that so we can make decisions based on that ahead of time. We don't have to go through the whole rigomearroll of of going line by line. Um and as far as um again budget concerns, you know, every every year we seem to have that million-doll surplus and we're moving some to say, but uh I also I'm going to bring this up again. I I I still think that depending on what happens with the state and and what what the what what people uh vote for, I still think there's an opportunity to add police officers to our budget to to have more police officers. I I still think we need

two more. So, I'm I'm going to push that. And the last thing I'm going to push is, you know, a solid plan B for for Optimus Park seems to be very difficult to do. So, instead of trying to uh make perfection the enemy of the good, I think we need to start peacemealing this, and I asked my colleagues, instead of $200,000, and and I know the vice mayor brought that up for tennis courts, well, we should spend that $200,000 on the back stops that are pretty much falling apart. Let's start doing it little by little. Let's start getting it done. And in fact, I'm going to blame myself. If we if I would have said to myself, maybe we should do a little by little instead of trying to do one big thing, we probably would have had all the back stops done. We probably would have replaced those wooden poles by now. So, I think I asked my colleagues to just be open to that. Little by little, let's get Optimus Park to the level at least minimum standards. You know, uh I think too much time was spent and I'll admit it's spent by me trying to fix things in one shot. I think we need to infrastructure is a daily a daily exercise that we need to do and I think we need to focus on what we need to do every day instead of waiting for one big one big project. We should just start doing it peace meal and get it done. I think the residents deserve that. Um so those are my thoughts on the budget. Um again thank you so much for being here and every year you guys step up and and prove that we have the best uh best staff and and the best finance department and budget department uh in the county. So, thank you.

Thank you, M. Thank you, Councilman Garcia. I'll I'll say I definitely agree with the peace milling the MLP. You know, I I also know we have quite a bit of funds uh for the MLP that have just been waiting around and like I'd love to see plans for what we have, right? Um Councilman Guad Garcia, did you want to make a comment or suggestion? Uh because I I want to get I want I have some comments that I want to make, but I just want to save myself for last. I'm going to make it quick and I'm going to make it quick. Um I'm going to echo uh some words that Councilman uh Herzburg said. We are doing very well. Uh we have a surplus almost every year of a million dollars. My goal is going to be uh looking at doing a roll back. That's going to be my goal. So, if we're doing so well, let's set our standards high and let's try to go and shoot to to do a roll back. We're going to make a lot of residents very very happy. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Qual Garcia. I'm going to go ahead and get some of my thoughts on the record. Um, first and foremost, I I will actually echo the sentiments of Councilman Ka Garcia. I do think that the flat rate is a good starting point. Uh and and it should be as uh Councilman Herszburg uh mentioned where we start from. It will be my goal to reach the roll back. The the housing market hasn't exactly been uh on fire lately. So, it shouldn't be a gigantic difference between the roll back and and the flat. Um and and that's what I'd like to see the the the roll back. Um, on a on another housekeeping matter, um, I I want everyone on this council, let's just let's just say everyone on this council should have the Excel file um, from day one. If they choose to use it, good. If they don't, if they prefer the PDFs, that's fine with them. They can do it. They they can use whichever one they prefer. um for for me and I know Councilman Sanchez and I know Councilman uh Hersburg uh we were deep diving into that budget and it becomes incredibly difficult when we do not have the Excel. So um and I know that um there were issues with that last year because it was the first time anyone had really ever asked for it on the council. Um so that caused some issues with the formatting. Um so I would say plan accordingly this year knowing that we're going to be asking for it.

Yeah. Go ahead. If I if you don't mind, let me just interject one one little thing regarding that is that document is a dynamic document. Yep. So we can give you a snapshot at any given moment and almost from the moment we give it to you probably the following day it's going to be abs you know stale and that's completely understood. So I I think as long as we everybody understands that that's the scenario. So

you know look every council's different um and has different compositions. One one of the things that this council does have, frankly, going for it is it is a particularly young council. Uh and and I think it it's the the coming in of Yeah, I I include Councilman Fernandez and Quad Garcia in that. Um but but the use of technology and and incorporating it, we understand it's a dynamic document. We're not saying, you know, once you s send it to us and say, "Hey, here it is as of x date." you know. Yeah, you can you can link it to access. Sorry. Do do a link to access, you know, uh what it looks like. Except the only problem with that is we have to be able to view, not edit.

Yeah. You you you'll be

but we would be able to download a copy. Yeah. Download our own personal copy. Yes, I understood what he meant. And and yeah, we're not asking to be able to edit the official version at all. Um, it could be a link to access and and and view and then download it at any time or it could be at predetermined moments throughout the budget period. Uh, hey, after the finalization of uh, departmental budget requests, uh, after, you know, we receive certain numbers from the state and whatnot. As we hit these thresholds and you guys are producing new budgets, hey guys, here here's the fresh one. Uh or I actually really like uh Councilman uh Garcia's idea of just provide a link to the access and we can pull it any day we want without even having to ask for it and said all we're doing is downloading a copy on hey I know that this is the budget as of April 7th. I get it. It's not a complete budget, but hey, here's what we're working on. And then in my head, I could start moving around because realistically speaking, I'm not trying to move around. Even though, yes, last year we went so deep that we were cutting thousand and $500 items. Uh that's not what I'm trying to do early on in the process. Early on in the process, I'm looking at more big picture items, which I don't necessarily think we'll be moving that much late just because it's a non-final budget. Uh so in anyways uh the XL we want that as soon as possible. Uh I forgot who mentioned it but uh great mentioning I think it was Councilman Fernandez. Uh I do think Can we confirm we're done with the Pizzy settlement right?

That that's no longer Yeah. So so so that gives further credence to not only being able to hit the flat rate but actually being able to go to to the roll back rate. Uh and and we're all very happy that that's finally over. Um, in terms of uh, aside from that, I'm going to bring up, you know, what was my big item from from last year's budget cycle, which is I'm imparting on the staff. I would love to see as much to the fullest extent possible the use of recurring special revenue funds such as PTP such as those things which I don't even know if you can call them recurring right now with the budget amendments that he mentioned because I assume CITT would also collapse if those amendments went through because they're all funded based on property taxes as well or no actually that's

CITT should be still there.

That one should still be there. So, um, to the fullest extent possible, whether it's, uh, the the CITT or any of our other special revenue funds that we regularly receive it, as I pointed out with the PTP, right, it's based on a on our population, the number of cars. There's like a formula involved. We're always going to get that money that should go toward to the fullest extent possible to uh fund uh ongoing operating expenses and relieve the general fund of of pressure. Obviously, we have projects that are already underway and there's obligations to fund them year after year. I understand that. I'm not saying to defund those. Okay. Uh that that's not

it's always a zero sum game, right? Correct. Because if we use some of those funds for general operating expenses that that qualify, right? Obviously, every single one of those pots have different set of rules. If we do that, that means that something else will not be getting done. So, correct. That's obviously we have to make sure that we understand.

Correct. It's just nine nine times out of 10 what's on the special revenue funds is stuff that half this council looks at and says, "Why are we paying for that?" Um, and I I get it. some of those stuff is important. Um, but all I'm saying is you're absolutely right. It is a zero- sum game. When when we're looking at funding things, if we're staring at this item, whatever it is, right? And I'm just using the gavl as as an illustrative point. You're looking at funding this item, just ask yourself, is there a way that this can be funded from a special revenue fund? And even if you decide I in the staff's discretion, in the manager's discretion to not fund it from the special revenue fund, but you thought, hey, this might be able to be funded from somewhere, I would like to see that in the in the budget comments in the notes column uh to say, hey, potentially can be funded from this account. That that's something that would really help our analysis because then we can say, hey, you know what? Maybe I want to deprioritize something that's getting funded in that special revenue fund. Uh, aside from that, um, the the police is always going to be my number one funding priority. Um, the the the safety of our residents is our one and only real obligation in this town. Um, and along with that, the protection of our children, I would like to see the crossing guards once again being funded from the special revenue fund. I believe it was uh PTP. Um, I would like to see that again. And then aside from the police, uh a big big priority is uh parks and and the conditions of athletic fields as well as the the conditions of just green spaces that are not considered athletic fields. Just, you know, our our our general parks that they look lush and and nice. um as we approach and I'm letting my council members kind of like in on this is um as we approach this amended budget um

process now for the current fiscal year uh one of the things I'm going to be doing is uh asking our our parks director, you know, we've we gave you what you asked for. We we fully funded the the pretty much everything other than mulch. Yes. Thank you for pointing that out. Uh so hey, are we seeing a tangible benefit from that or was this just extra money and really a marginal improvement? And then if so, what caused the marginal? Was it all of these things we did? Or maybe was it one of these and then we can one of these things and then we can continue funding that as opposed to the rest of it. Uh just kind of getting into, pun intended, the weeds of it. Um, aside from that, um, you know, I I do look forward to seeing the the proposed budget, uh, and and I do look forward to, uh, the staff's recommendations and I and I do also look forward to hopefully uh, on the amended budget that's coming up, I think, Councilman Garcia pointed that out, uh, creating a little bit of savings uh, for tax relief. we might see a a significant roll back if if if we're if we're responsible up here.

Well, if you may, Vice Mayor, I I think maybe it's important for the manager hear this from us now because of the amendment coming up. I don't remember the number. I don't know if you have it off hand, how much money we took out of the carry forward and like put it in a contingency about half about half so around 500,000. I think right around 500 maybe a hair below or a hair above,

right? So to me, I would like to see that money just sit there in the savings. I would like to see a budget that doesn't even take that money into corporation because my understanding of the item we passed that the mayor brought forward was this is a savings, not a let's give the taxpayers a break one year. That's not good accounting. It should be a savings for when we need the money, here's the money. I mean, I know there's other municipalities that have tens of millions of dollars sitting in a bank. They have much larger tax bases, don't get me wrong, but there are municipalities that have tens of millions of dollars sitting in a bank in a reserve. We don't have anything like that. This is how we can start it. We have 5 million.

Well, we always have I know I'm talking about outside of general fund reserve. Yeah. I'm talking about just a reserve account, right? But regardless, my my my position on the what I would like to see obviously we'll have to we we have the the choice to use that money sort of like we've used Optimus Park like seven times now. So we'll have the choice to use that money, but I would love to see the first budget not incorporate any savings we take from this ordinance from the second reading and then we can make the decision to use that or not.

I I I now understand what you're saying and I agree 100%. Yes. I'm saying that the the the budget that's presented should be flat rate, but not say, "Oh, here's a flat rate and here's an extra 500,000 we saved from the carry forward." It should be flat rate. And by the way, guys, we also have 500,000 here. If there's something that we need it for, if you want to lower the rate more, we can take money from there. But not just let's use this extra money towards the budget so we can add $500,000 in in expenses. You know what I mean?

And I don't want to speak for the mayor. He can speak for himself, but I believe his intent was exactly that, which was to create a uh a fund where you can go to in extraordinary circumstances, and I don't want to use the word extraordinary because it seems like we'll never use it, but in special circumstances, right? It's not just an every every year that you go to to lower the millillage for, you know, whatever purposes. It's it would be something where there's some extraordinary thing that happens probably outside of our control like the year that we had the transition in the FPNL franchise fee or if there is something to happen with property taxes those kinds of years for that to be a source of revenue for uh to minimize or limit the the impact on that one year to taxpayers.

Exactly. If I remember we've been working with internally and with the mayor on developing the specifics of it to bring to the council. If I remember his item, he wanted to say that it required a super majority or something. All I'm saying is that $500,000 to me does not exist. Whatever savings we do on next in two weeks, that money doesn't exist to me. I don't want to see it. I don't want to think about it. Just, you know, we're not we're not voting up here. But but in general, I think he's just saying it should not be counted as revenue in any fund. Uh in the first proposal, we concur and I believe the mayor concurs and I think that was his objective and we've been working on on doing that. Councilman Sanchez.

So to reflect on the on the Calary Forward, um I'm a big believer of not of not living paycheck to paycheck and I don't want to see this town leaving living in the proverbial paycheck to paycheck year to year. I think that carry forward that we have halfway through the year is a big benefit as a rainy day fund because if we see an issue that we need to fix and it needs to be fixed in the next two to three months and we have to wait an entire year for the next budget cycle to happen like for example the whole traffic mitigation that I brought up at Bob at Bob Graham Educational Center. If we had to wait another year for the funds that I requested to be able to complete the traffic study and defenses now we're shooting into summer of next year. So it's just kicking the can down the road. So having those funds, yes, putting half of it into a savings account, but keeping that other half. So if I feel like if we go to the roll back rate, we're going to hinder ourselves by not being able to do that. And instead of having progress in a in a three, four or four to six month interval, if we're going to delay progress by a year, that can extend to a year and a half, two years down the line, I think that's going to hinder the progress of safety and traffic and public safety in the town. So yes, I agree with the with the 100% of of putting some money into savings, 50% into savings, but not hindering ourselves to not have somewhat of a carry forward for those little projects that happen throughout the year. You know,

I I mean I I agree with you and I'm I'm not tied to a roll back. We have a low tax rate. Right. Right. But Oh, yeah. But um what I'm trying to say is even we're we at the minimum our budgets go have an additional 500,000 less. Now obviously I know contracts go up and things like that. So if if we're at a a low tax rate and we see a little bit of a surplus, you know, we can say let's put some more money away in this fund because I agree it's important to have that and we don't know what's going to happen with the state,

right? We don't know what's going to happen with property taxes the following year. So we might have some shortfall very soon. So we have to think I agree with you 100%. We have to think that way. Another discussion is how much year after year after year we've had a surplus. The surplus was as the vice mayor pointed out last budget season was in the budget. So are we going to start using that surplus or we just going to continue to ignore it and then voila we have money again like in in March? That's another discussion that we have to determine because I think last budget season we could have said there's $700,000 surplus. We're comfortable with saying we know that there's going to be at least 300. So let's apply 300 and we would have been almost at a flat rate at that point.

So that's another discussion we should think about as well. So,

oh just to make one final comment about going to roll back a councilman Garcia, let's say for example, you you have been harpening on for for a while now on the on the Brazilian red pepper trees and removing them from the canal embankment, but that costs money. If we would have to wait for the budget cycle, you would have those red pepper trees for another year there. If we go to the roll back and we don't have that extra money. So my recommendation is if I would recom work with a with staff to see how much it would cost to remove those red pepper trees and bring it up at a council meeting that we can include it. We can vote and include it as part of that rate that that that carry forward that we have to remove those Brazilian red pepper trees that you that you bring up during meetings is because no one's going to do that at no cost. It's going to have a cost associated with it.

I'm just using that as an example. So I I just want to point out though uh as far as the rollback is concerned I I did say right I think we should start at flat that that I think that that is the general consensus on this DAS and and and what the staff should take away from here in reference to whether or not we can arrive at a rollback. That is completely not a question for today. That is a question for future workshops once we have budgets in front of us. we need to understand what we have uh in front of us uh you know and have again today is just to give our input to the staff as they go to prepare that initial budget but absolutely yeah I I'm not going to shy away from it when we do get that budget it will be my goal to reduce the tax burden on the residents to the highest degree pos to to the lowest degree possible um so that uh you know people keep talking about the amendment and what what may happen. I I ultimately think that this is a tax increase on our residents what the state is doing. Uh because they're going to end up paying more in taxes at the stores and that's what people don't understand. Yes. Uh it frees up the houses and and I'm happy for for that part. Uh but there was definitely a way to accomplish the relief in a different manner. Um but that's also not a subject for today. Uh, in in so far as the surplus goes, uh, uh, Councilman Herszburg, I will say, um, you know, I I've kind of looked at this issue obviously the same way that you have and and I was the one that brought it up. Um, I don't necessarily think that there's a arbitrary number that that we can say, hey, there's the number shows 700,000. We can pretty safely assume that 300,000 is going to be an actual surplus. and then we go ahead and allocate that. I

think that that is to a degree dangerous. I I understand where the staff comes from that it could be dangerous. So, I have a you know, I'm not going to say something like that without having a backup. Um I think that what we can do is maybe conditional allocations. Uh I need to work on it a little bit and I need to massage it in my head, but you know what I mean? We're going to we it's we use that money to fund things that we know don't need funding immediately at the beginning of the fiscal year that we have time to wait for a confirmation and then it is properly and fully allocated once the audit has been completed.

I I like that. That's still sort of a carry forward, but I like I like the way it is. I will say though, we have five years of data. Yeah. She knows what she's doing. Yeah. If she says there's going to be a $700,000 carry forward, I am 100% convinced and certain that we will have $200 to $300,000 safe. So, and it's five years now. It's not a year here, a year here. Her numbers are right. It's five years now. So, which is a testament to our phenomenal budget,

right? Exactly. I mean, staff knows their numbers. So, if a carry forward is predicted at some number, I am It's up to us. Do we like having that carry forward? Sure. It it gives us money. All right, I get it. It gives us options. I'm not saying if she if it says 700, we should use 700 towards the general fund. That's a bad idea. But if there if it says 700, I have zero issues saying, "All right, let's apply 20%." Because I am 100% confident that if our staff says there's going to be 700, that 20% of that money is safe and we'll be there. Or we can conditionally allocate whatever we want. I'm just saying it's something to think about for the budget season, especially if we're close. Last year we were close. We could have used that money, right? So, let's just think about it. That's all.

Council Garcia. Um, yeah. I I think honestly we need to have an open mind. uh the last it's my fourth budget cycle and um yeah I'm getting old but this you know kind of like the sky is falling mentality in a sense where we've noticed we've noticed we do have options and the money the carry forward and what we can do with carry forward and what we're going to we actually have those options and before even talking about flat rate or or roll back rate was like the end of the world it's going to be the end of the It's proven it has not been the end of the world. Are we getting everything we want? Absolutely not. But I think as this is your second or third as your second budget third.

Mine is the third. Okay. Third. And those who are are newer. Yeah. It's it's not a sky is falling kind of mentality. We have options and we can consider the roll back rate. We can consider saving money but also adding uh for example I'm going to harp on the police officers. I think we could have afford if we would have added police office three years ago. We we we we would have been able to afford it with no problem. So, uh let's keep that in mind, guys. In this budget cycle, we we don't have to freak out. The sky is not going to fall. We're going to make it work for the residents. So, that's just my two cents on that. Any other comments or Yes. Let me can I Garcia?

Um and and don't forget our sidewalk uh money and our swale money. So, don't forget about those. So, so for you a priority in this budget is ensuring that prepared just like safety is um I'm that's that's my main logo name. Safety is you know as they say in every department safety first. So sidewalks let's consider that sidewalk and those swailes. Um uh mostly Mr. You got that right? Okay. Was that all? That's it.

All righty. Any other uh comments or feedback uh to Yeah. Yeah. I was actually going to hand the floor uh for them. Uh anyone else here? All right. So, we're done on our side. Uh Mr. Manager or Madame Budget Director, if you have any questions or any feedback to us, uh it's welcome now.

No, we appreciate the feedback or the guidance because that that makes our job a little bit easier. We don't have to do any uh guessing. But I just wanted to kind of point out some things. And I know that council member Herszburg says, "Oh, last year we were close." But I I I want to make sure that we keep in perspective that last year we balanced the budget with multiple multiple one-time um transfers. That's not the proper way that one should develop at le goal should be that we should strive to have matching uh recurring revenues match recurring expenses, right? We shouldn't every year be nickel and dimming from different places that are one-time shots because at some point at some point we will exhaust those one-time opportunities. They're not infinite. They have a there's an end to them and then we won't have that. But yet we have now built a revenue uh system that's built on hoping that we have these one-time transfers to help augment our budget. So we just need to keep that in perspective. the um percentage of variance that we saw in last year's budget at the end of the experience was within 3 to 5%. Right? And it is a very acceptable in in probably almost any organization. Forget about public organizations, probably any organization, a 3 to 5% variance from what you budget to what the experience proves out is very very good uh deviation. Very good variance. So what we need to keep in mind is that while the numbers seem high, the numbers could either in any given year could be in either direction, right? Because if we're talking about a 3 to 5% variance and I'm talking more about the carry forward, right? the dynamics that

happened with the or going on with the carry for um as far as relying on it for actual budgeting and the vice mayor I think uh you know was was thinking about this that the size of our budget the size of the general fund just because the dynamics of our general fund is growing our general fund and that 3 to 5% variance of a bigger number because our general fund is growing our variance is going to be bigger so the variance could have could be 1.8 this direction like it was this past year and it could be negative. It could be the other way. So that's that's the challenge of trying to rely on it year after year uh for actual budgeting. what council member Sanchez uh preferred or profered I think I don't again I don't want to put words in his mouth but I think that his idea was using the carry forward for one-time things and that's probably a more appropriate way of doing it as opposed to something that's going to be a recurring expense using the opportunity whether it be half of it or a quarter of it or all of it whatever decision sorry during the uh carry forward discussion the the opportunity for those one-time uh expenses is probably a more appropriate consideration with the uh carry forward with the mid-year budget amendment because it is an unknown, right? It's such a big question mark for us to rely on even a portion of it because even if we were to rely on 20% or 50% you know based on a on a track record in any given year it could be in the opposite direction because a variance you know could be a positive variance which it has been lately uh most recently and but it also could be a negative variance. That's the only thing that I wanted just to for all of us to keep in mind when we start uh developing the budget and and again I just want to re re you know repeat that the goal

should be when we start to develop the budget that we try and mirror recurring expenses with recurring revenue and and try to steer away from uh I guess in Spanish we would say tapando right covering covering all these the whole you know in the dyke with our finger because eventually it's going to blow and then we're going to be, you know, we'll catch ourselves in a difficult position. The practice should be trying to mirror uh revenues to expenses on a recurring basis on a year-to-year basis.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. Any other comments? Uh Madame Director, any comments or questions? No. All righty. Uh and still, um Mr. Deputy Clerk, still no one online. Just to give a final check, no one is online. Great. Uh then at this time I'll call this meeting adjourned. The time is 7:20