City Commission - public_hearing

Of his little friends?

Amen.

That's not what happened. I remember him saying that. Like, if you look at the tape, unless he's someone different, but I remember that being on the... No, we opened up for the pop, because that was the agenda that we were speaking. Oh. Low, low. Commissioners?

I just need three more.

That's...

But those are good burgers. They're, like, well-known. Very well-known. So I just...

All right, we'll start the commission meeting at 6.10 to give everybody additional time. Thank you. Special budget, first budget hearing, thank you.

You're right. No one's arguing. You're right. Second page. It's the second page. I don't know.

Yeah, go ahead, open it. Yeah, but if you open it, somebody else will come.

I need two more, though.

I understand, but if he opens it, they'll come.

Okay, so... But I did say I was going to start at 610.

Okay, because you said come outside, but come inside for the meeting, please. You said outside.

Correct. Stand. Correct.

Tell him once.

There's one. Okay, one more inside and we have a quorum and we can start the meeting.

All right, we got number five. I think we're going to have a pretty speedy meeting, so let's start off. Madam Clerk, can you please do the roll call for our special budget hearing, first budget hearing for Thursday the 10th?

The time is now 6.09. Commissioner Chernoff? Here. Commissioner Floriman?

Here.

Commissioner Jean? Commissioner Smuckler? Present. Commissioner Hsu? Here. Vice Mayor Smith? Here. Mayor Michael Joseph. I am here. You have quorum.

Next is Pledge of Allegiance. 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.

All right.

First piece of legislation we have is action item number three. Can I have a motion to introduce? PRODUCE. CITY ATTORNEY, CAN YOU READ THAT IN?

THANK YOU. ITEM 3.1, RESOLUTION R2026-122, CONSIDERATION OF ADOPTION OF THE MILLAGE, SPONSORED BY CITY MANAGER DARVIN WILLIAMS. A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF NORTH MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA, ESTABLISHING AND ADOPTING THE TENTATIVE LEVYING OF ADVALORUM TAXES FOR THE CITY OF NORTH MIAMI BEACH FOR FISCAL YEAR 2026-2027 IN THE AMOUNT OF 6.1000 MILLS WHICH IS 5.61 PERCENT HIGHER THAN THE ROLLED BACK RATE TO BALANCE THE GENERAL FUND, ESTABLISHING THE ROLLBACK RATE TO BE 5.7759 MILLS, ESTABLISHING THE DEBT SERVICE MILLAGE RATE AT 0.1926 MILLS, PROVIDING FOR IMPLEMENTATION AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE.

ALL RIGHT. AT THIS TIME, I'M GOING TO OPEN UP FOR PUBLIC COMMENT.

Good evening, everyone. The Mayor and Commissioner of the City of North Miami Beach has opened a meeting for public comment at this time. There is a three-minute time limit for each speaker. Speaker, when you're called to the podium, please state your name or the name of the organization which you are representing. Please speak only on the subject matter that is being Please speak only on the subject matter that is being heard by the Commission. The Mayor and Commissioner of City of North High Beach recognizes the importance of civility. The City of North High Beach requests that all in attendance to exercise civility. We do not have any signed speakers. If you'd like to speak, please come forward.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is... Mr. Kazan, before you start, can you give him an additional two minutes? Because it was a request.

All right.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Mubarak Kazan. In 2018, the former city manager, he did not allow or he did not invite people for public comment when he had a budget. I told him after the meeting, and he had... The attorney at that time advised him, bring back the entire meeting for that, 2018, 2019, somewhere around there. And that is what happened this afternoon. You had a CRA budget, and the public was not invited to speak on that budget. But what I want to say, with this CRA, Our CRA is not impressing me. It's not impressing many other people. They want to close it down. We feel disenchanted after 20 years. And then we have the Economic Development Department. Now, what is going to be the difference between that department and the CRA? People just come to the city, they collect a cheque, and they go home. And then they leave us in this mess for 20 years. I'm not talking about one person. That was the norm. We're just spending money. Look, I see tonight TIFF for Lazul. Lazul, they could afford to do without that $600,000 that we're giving them. The mom and pop stores that have been contributing for 20 years, they need that money. I come now with DeSantis bill. DeSantis claim how he did not formulate this. That was not his wording or whatever. But we can end up losing the homesteaded exemption from taxes. And I asked the last city manager that last year, which was interim and the one before, how are we going to manage when we'd been doing reckless spending? Like, for instance, you want to make money, bring back sanitation in-house. We can make money with sanitation instead of the vendor. I think he's going to make $17 million this year. When we were doing it, it was $3.5 million it cost us to do. Now he's charging us $17 million. And then he's going to give us a $50,000 scholarship, and we come and we clap, and he's going to give us a franchise fee. All his franchise fee, he collected like $6 or $7 million right in the franchise fees, like about $7 million. We need to generate money, serious. If that taxes, we can't collect from that taxes, we need to sit down and know how to generate money. We have water bill delinquents. Last year, January, it was six and a half million. Last night I heard it's nine million now in delinquent billing. You want to collect money, collect from there as well too. Then you have the attorney. We are paying, according to Commissioner Linsu, we are paying $83,000 for an attorney every month. And we do not get the service that we should be getting. We're losing money, helter-skelter. Things are not being done in time, on time. Look, we did a chart review. Poorly done when it comes to the question part. Poorly done. I can go on and on. When the taxpayers see, what, $3,000 a month you are paying for an attorney, and the people don't come four days a week as how it was in their... Think people, you know what? I'm going to hold on to my tax dollars. I'm going to vote for this bill. And then we lose that money. There's a lot of... wasteful spending that we are doing. And tonight, with this budget, you guys are going to spend like almost half hour to an hour arguing over $10,000. And when it comes to the millions, you're going to zip through it. I know because I came to these meetings before. You argue over petty, small things. Argue. And the time goes, and when the million dollar stuff comes, you don't even pay attention, and you make a joke, and then it passes by. But I'm looking at you tonight. Some of you are up for office. Some of you we want to keep back in here. Others want to come in. I think the candidates are going to be showing their colors tonight. We want to hear their words of wisdom. How are they going to be when they're sitting up there? Not surprises. We don't want surprises anymore. We want to see, are these the competent people that we're going to hire, elect? So for now, this is all I have. Mind you, with your wasteful spending, and bring the sanitation back in house. Commissioner Floremon, Commissioner Michael Joseph, when they were candidates running for office in 2024, they said they did not know why we outsourced it in the first place. and it should be brought back. Guess what? The experts told you not to bring it back, but the experts also told us not to bring back the water plant. And we brought it back, and luckily we brought it back in time because Miami Gardens is now making a mint on us because when you outsource, you're not supposed to be charging The surcharges, you're not supposed to be charging for surcharges and all the while that money keep piling up. Millions we spend. So the experts advise you always incorrectly. None of the experts bring back the water plant. But you guys, you did it. You brought it back. You make sure that you brought it back. And now we're making some money in that. Hopefully we continue along that line and not be losing more and outsource and everything bring back the things in house And let's serve money.

Thank you very much for having me Let's come forward Public comment is closed Close we could be brief on this because I know this sets up everything else so you can

Absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I'm going to provide this opening remarks for tonight. This is our budget hearing number one. Very excited to present this budget to the Mayor Commission and our residents. A couple key items that the City Attorney has already stated, but I need to restate them for the record. The taxing authority is the city of North Miami Beach. The rollback millage rate for fiscal year 27 is 5.7759 mils. The tentative millage rate is the same as previous years at 6.1 mils. The tentative millage rate of 6.1 mils to be levied is a 5.61% increase over the rollback rate.

All right. Do I have a motion? I have a motion and a second. All in favor of that?

Second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye. Let's do a roll call.

Oh, yeah. Let's do a roll call. Go ahead. Sorry.

Commissioner Chernoff.

Yes.

Commissioner Floriman.

Yes.

Commissioner Jean.

Yes.

Commissioner Smuckler. Yes. Commissioner Hsu. Yes. Vice Mayor Smith. Yes. Mayor Michael Joseph. Yes. It passes.

Next item.

Move to introduce resolution number R2026-123.

Did we acknowledge Commissioner Jean arrived?

No, we just noted. Thank you. I got it. No, he's saying.

Oh, I'm sorry. He's correct. Thank you, Commissioner. All right. Yes. If you can, we have a motion to introduce.

Move to introduce Resolution R-2026-123. Second. Second. Mr. City Attorney.

AGENDA ITEM 3.2, RESOLUTION R2026-123, CONSIDERATION OF ADOPTION OF THE ANNUAL BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2027, SPONSORED BY CITY MANAGER DARVIN WILLIAMS. A RESOLUTION OF THE COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF NORTH MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA, ADOPTING THE TENTATIVE ANNUAL BUDGET FOR THE FISCAL YEAR COMMENCING OCTOBER 1, 2026, AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2027, AUTHORIZING THE EXPENDITURE OF FUNDS APPROPRIATED IN THE BUDGET acknowledging the levy and collection of taxes on real and personal property and other revenues necessary to meet the expenditures provided in the budget providing for a transmittal by the city clerk confirming additional powers and conditions authorizing encumbrances and carry forward providing for implementation and providing for an effective date all right we're gonna open up for public comment

Good evening, the Mayor and Commissioner of the City of North Ryan Beach has opened the meeting for public comment at this time. There is a three minute time limit for each speaker. Speaker, when you're called to the podium, please state your name or the name of the organization which you are representing. The Mayor and Commissioner of the City of North Ryan Beach recognizes the importance of civility. The City of North Ryan Beach requests that all the attendants to exercise civility towards each other. Do we have any speakers for this item? Please come forward, sir.

Good evening once again. My name is Mubarak Ozan. My mother raised me the Christian way as well, with the Bible. And we learned from the Bible that there was like a dream of seven fat cows and seven starving cows. And then it was translated that you get seven good years and you're supposed to save for this famine that is going to be coming ahead. Seven lean years with all of these wars that we're getting in around the world. The Bible. You're going to know which book when it hits you. I said my mother. Yeah. Okay, good for you. Your father was a preacher. My mother was not. But however... They had this Miami-Dade school board superintendent, Carveo or Carbeo or however you want to pronounce his name at that time. And the year came when he gave no raises. Oh, they wanted to kill him. Oh, he's such a bad man, he needs to go. He was the only people, he was the only county that did not give raises to the teachers. But the next year they were laying off. The other counties, they were laying off. Him, he did not lay off one person because he was planning for the future. He knew that the years ahead was going to be lean. Those same people that were castigating him, lambasting him, and telling him all sorts of things, they came up to the podium and they thanked him. That was a wise guy at that time when he was there. He saved every job. I can see lean years coming up ahead for this city, starting with the DeSantis proposition that they have there. If that pass, all these raises and all these things that you all want to do with the matching price, every manager that we had from since Like seven years now coming back, every one of them did a price check, a paycheck, and they give raises, they give whatever, whatever. The union person would come up here, yes, they're very thankful, they're grateful, and so forth, okay? They're going to be lean years ahead. And you now have to plan for those lean years because we had seven good years just passed. Refer to the Bible. Refer to, okay, whatever. And prepare for those lean years because you give raises now, you're going to have to lay off next year. And they're not going to like you too much. So be prepared for that. That is going to be my speech for tonight. And thank you very much for having me.

NEXT SPEAKER? AND IT WAS THE BOOK OF GENESIS LEADING OUT TO EXODUS. SO GO AHEAD.

JOSEPH. GOOD EVENING. I'M FIRST TIME ATTENDING A BUDGET HEARING IN ALMOST 20 YEARS MYSELF. I DO HOPE THAT YOU ARE REVIEWING EVERYTHING CAREFULLY, THAT THERE ARE THINGS THAT NEED TO BE FIXED IN THE COMMUNITY. They put money back into their specific area. There's a lot of blights in that CRA, so I follow Mubarak in saying that we need to look at that a little more carefully. I'm hoping that in this budget, which I have not got a chance to review, but there is some money in there to do some fixing of our sidewalks, our streets that needs to get done within the next year because some of it's getting to a point that is dangerous to the city. And if it becomes dangerous to the city, it becomes a lawsuit to the city and it's gonna cost us even more money. We need to look at everything. In our last meeting, the last regular commission meeting, there was a budget, to me it was part of a budget problem. They were looking to terminate the city attorney's office and bring it in-house, at least temporarily. That is a high budget item, as Mubarak mentioned earlier, millions, not thousands. So it's something that you guys need to be aware of. Okay, I appreciate the time tonight. You have a good evening.

No one has come forward. Public comment is closed.

Mr. City Attorney, this is your time to shine. CITY MANAGER. CITY MANAGER, SORRY. CITY MANAGER, SORRY. IT'S YOUR TIME TO SIGN. IT'S YOUR TIME TO SIGN. PLEASE BE AS CONCISE AND BRIEF PLEASE BE AS CONCISE AND BRIEF AS YOU CAN.

AS YOU CAN. It won't be the last. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I will be brief today because we will have the virgin voyage of our newly appointed CFO, Avril Smith, CPA, who will be leading today's budget hearing. We've had two budget workshops. I'll be providing opening remarks for our budget hearing number one. And we have our second budget hearing scheduled for March. Thursday, September 24th of this month. A couple things that I want to address for the residents' comments. This budget indeed prepares us for a very lean year. We anticipated that, given two of our internal challenges and two of our legislative challenges coming out of Tallahassee. Next. um i always also want to address our second resident comment uh this budget does cover uh cip capital improvement projects for our sidewalks approximately four hundred thousand dollars and it does do something at the request of one of our commissioners uh something for the first time we established a set-aside fund just for building improvements that also helps us prepare for lean years i'm also anticipating despite having for the first time a budget improvement fund looking at doing some building repairs with the efficiency contract, which looks at saving, taking money from savings and putting it forward for building improvement. So very excited to address both of those resident comments. Now let's get right into it. We were, presented with a $12 million deficit going into this fiscal year. So that is something we immediately had to address, particularly since some of those funds were being used for recurring expenses, which provides us with an additional challenge. Next, we identified approximately $5 million of ARPA funds that were not appropriately allocated And accordingly so, the US Treasury has demanded some of those funds back. Additionally, as some of our residents are aware, and we do appreciate you for helping us solicit the governor's office, but House Bill 1451 passed. That puts approximately $9 million of our surcharge revenue on the chopping block. Finally, our residents, you're going to be presented with a referendum this fall that will ask you for APPROVING OR DENYING AN INCREASE IN THE PROPERTY TAX EXEMPTION. IF THAT PASSES WITH 60% OF THE VOTE, WE'RE LOOKING AT LOSS OF $2.3 MILLION FROM OUR FIRST YEAR AND APPROXIMATELY approximately $3.4 million loss in the subsequent year. So not only did we have to address the $12 million, we had to address all of those potentials that are out there should they occur. Now we intend to fight returning the $5 million in ARPA funds, with the U.S. Treasury. And we also want to get creative about recouping some of our dollars for some of our expenditures for our residents, water resident, water customers that reside outside of our city limits. However, we have to be prepared that should those plans not move the way we want them to move, that we have the money on hand to pay those expenses. And I'm happy to say that with this budget, we do. We were replacing our $12 million deficit with about $20 million of revenue that will move forward that we will have available in compliance with our own city's reserve policy should those expenses come to fruition. I'm also happy to say that we'll be submitting, like many cities, we'll be submitting our budget for review by the state. and giving some of the exceptional work that we've done this year, we do anticipate hearing, being identified as one of those cities and getting some recognition from the state level. So very, very excited for the work that my office and the finance department has done presenting this budget to our mayor and commission, and also fulfilling some of those desires. We're increasing our police department by 22 officers, which is the largest one-year increase in our city's history of our police department, Commissioner Schmuckler. And we're increasing our library hours and adding nine additional programs to our library. We're increasing our parks. Our parks and our libraries will now be open over the weekend. And we're adding code enforcement officers so that we can provide code compliance coverage at night and on weekends. So yes, it is a leaner budget, but we are actually expanding our services. So very, very excited to go through this presentation for our budget hearing. Appreciative to our residents that are here physically and that are watching online. And we look forward to having your additional feedback and comments. And at this time, I'll turn it over to Avril Smith, CPA, our Chief Financial Officer.

thank you city manager appreciate it good evening mayor and commissioners abel smith can you hear me abel smith chief financial officer today today we will review thank you Today we will review the city's fiscal 2027 budget process so far, and then move to looking at the budgets by fund. Starting with the general fund, internal service, debt service, capital funds, special revenue, and finally... Are we required to have five?

Is this a workshop or is this an actual committee meeting? Okay then we have to bring somebody back please. Thank you, Commissioner. I'm sorry I interrupted. Please proceed.

Thank you. The city's fiscal 2027 budget process began in April with the budget guidance from city manager Williams to directors. Key among the directional guidance was to maintain service levels and propose budgets with reductions. In May, the department submitted their budgets. In June, the property values were received. In July, the budget team did its compilation, collaborating closely with the departments and the city manager's office. Workshops were held in August. Department's summaries were presented. which discuss details of their achievements, their goals, and their mission. The proposed budget was posted on the city website last Tuesday, and tonight is the first of two public hearings. Beginning with the general fund. The city's proposed general fund budget is balanced. There is $79,022,400 of proposed spending funded by $72,409 of proposed revenues. All services that was provided in the fiscal 2026 adopted budget will be maintained and funded by the proposed 2027 budget. The proposed budget also reflects funding for additional weekend services, specifically for code of compliance, the library and parks and rec. One best practice that the fiscal 2027 proposed budget introduces is setting up a reserve to fund the upkeep of city owned buildings. As stated before, the general fund proposed budget is balanced at just over $79 million. The change compared to fiscal 2026 comprises of additional revenues of $3.2 million and reduction in expenses of just under $9 million. The combination of these changes accounts for the balanced 2027 proposed budget. With its optimization efforts, the city is on pace to use around half of the planned 12 million fund balance appropriated in the fiscal 2026 adopted budget. This would result in an expected fund balance of $26.4 million higher than the fund balance policy requirement of 19.7, which is 25%. Looking at the composition of revenues, general fund revenues, ad valorem taxes at 34.8 million is 44% of the proposed general fund revenues, with utilities surcharge, which the city manager spoke about, of $8.5 million, making up 11%. Noteworthy is that this revenue category is reduced in the fiscal year 2027 budget in anticipation of HB 1451 taking effect in July 2027. The general fund is expected to lose this revenue category in future years. All other revenue categories are pretty flat when compared to This slide shows our property values for the budget years 2024 through 2027. It is noteworthy that the primary driver for increases to the tax base is new construction. For the year 2026 and 2027, there was just around 40 million in new construction. Now for the expense side. This slide shows the proposed general fund expenses by category. As a municipality, the city's product is service to its residents. Accordingly, salaries and benefits make up 60% of the general fund expenses. When compared to the adopted fiscal year 2026 budget, there's a reduction of just around $5 million for compensation, taxes, and benefits. The compensation line reflects workforce optimization efforts, and the related benefit reduction is shown in the benefits line. One additional item leading the benefits reduction is the catch-up payment for the police pension, which is not expected to recur. In 2027, the contingency budget was increased by $280,000, making it just over 1% of the budgeted expenses. This chart tells the story of the general fund spending by departments. As the chart shows, the city is committed to the safety of its residents. The police department represents 40% of the general fund expenses, with public works and parks and recreation making up another 20%. The next few slides will Look at these departments in detail, beginning with the police department. This slide shows the breakdown of the police department by expense categories. As the spending by department slide indicated, the police department represents 40% of the general fund budget. salaries, overtime, and benefits make up just around 85% of our police department's budget. Public works. The public works budget is just over $8 million, which represents 10% of the general fund budget. The utility services for public works includes the city streetlights. Parks and Recreation. I promised to take a break after this slide to answer any questions that may have arisen. Parks and Recreation, the proposed budget is $8.6 million, which represents 9% of the general fund budget. Salaries and benefits are just around 70% of the Parks and Recreation budget. That's the end of the look at the general fund. If there's any questions, I'm happy to.

Are there? May I continue? One quick question. Through the Vice Mayor?

Yes.

Thank you. What's the operating budget and also the all funds? I think you said $79?

$79 million is the general fund. I have a slide towards the end that summarizes all of the budget, if that's okay. I could tell you the page if you need that. You're fine? Okay.

Anyone else? You can continue, thank you.

The next category of funds are internal service. These are paid for by other funds. The Information Technology Fund has a proposed budget of $6.7 million with no use of fund balance. Liability Insurance has a proposed budget of $3.3 million with no use of fund balance. The same no use of fund balance with workers' compensation and that budget is $800,000. The next category of funds are our debt service funds. The city's governmental debt in the proposed budget totals $3.7 million as listed here. There's a general obligation fund bond. There is a litigation settlement and Washington debt. The next category of funds are our capital funds. The proposed 2027 budget reflects capital spending of 2.2 million for Washington Park and 750 for other projects. In other projects, there's 250,000 for Highland Village Traffic Calming, and that's a grant-funded project. And there is a library expansion 500,000, which is a 50-50 matching grant. Special revenue funds. Now for the special revenue funds. The special revenue category of funds, as the name implies, are for special purposes. and have restrictions on the permitted use. The fiscal year 2027 proposed special revenue fund budgets are impact fees, local gas tax, CITT, and the two guard gates. There is 300,000 in the proposed budget for impact fees for the parks generators. The local gas tax fund captures revenues which are earmarked for road maintenance. The proposed budget for 2027 is $1.6 million. CITT Special Revenue Fund has a proposed budget of $3.4 million with a planned use of fund balance of just around 141,000. For fiscal year 2027 is the last year that we're able to use the freebie grant that's listed here in the revenues. the matching grant, which is a 50-50 matching grant. The proposed budget for the 164th Street Guard Station is $279,474. This special assessment budget has been approved previously by the Board. The proposed budget for the 35th Street Guard House is $927,864. This special assessment budget has been previously approved by the board. The final category tonight is the, sorry. The final category tonight is the enterprise funds. I'll pause here in case there's any questions for the funds that I went over. Thank you. Now we would look at the city's enterprise funds. Building, sewer, solid waste, storm water, and water. The proposed budget for the building slash permit fund is $5.2 million with a planned use of fund balance of $1 million. It is a documented fact that the city's reserves in this fund exceeds the acceptable balance per state statute. The city manager is formulating a plan to spend down the excess balance. Sewer fund. The sewer funds proposed budget for fiscal 2027 is $17.4 million with a proposed use of fund balance of $3.3 million. The increase reflected in the operating expense line is in anticipation of the expected county increase. This slide shows related capital and debt service fund for the sewer fund. The operating fund is sewer, and here capital and debt associated with that. Capital anticipates 500,000 in spending in this budget, and sewer debt has a commitment of $501,000. Stormwater. The Stormwater Fund has been operating at a deficit for several years. And while there is a year-over-year reduction in expenses, the 2027 proposed budget of $2.6 million requires the use of just over $197,000. There's an EPA grant included in the revenues and the efforts this year would be to secure other grants to bring this fund into a structurally balanced place. Solid waste. The solid waste fund has also been operating at a deficit for the last few years. This fund this year, The spending of 6.3 is against revenues of 6.5. So we're expected to help to reduce the deficit in this fund. The Water Fund. The Water Fund has a proposed budget of $47.5 million funded by Fees for Water Service with a planned use of fund balance of $2.1 million. As is to be expected, non-salaries represent 82% of the expenses in this fund. Transfer out, transfers out accounts for payments for IT, workers comp, and the other internal services that was previously discussed. There's several other funds that support the water operations. As listed here, WIFIA has a budget of $7.2 million for water infrastructure. There's a debt service associated with the water fund, $1.7 million. Fire flow, $500,000. And finally, customer service at $3.2 So to recap, the city's fiscal year 2027 budget is $195,727,318. Apologies. which is just below 50 million lower than the 2026 budget. Washington Park, year over year, has a spending reduction of 25 million. What's the word I'm looking for? Accounting for most of that reduction, staffing. The staffing comparison reflects the workforce optimization efforts which continues in fiscal year 2027. When compared with the adopted budget, there is 23 positions that are lower in the 2027 budget. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

That was a beautiful presentation and we can follow it. Thank you for the handout. Anybody have questions, please? All right.

Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor. Thank you for the presentation. You know, it was a really good presentation. I will say that. And it reminds me of, you know, when you're taking a course and you're learning about accounting and all of that, that's usually the voice that you hear in the background telling you how to follow the screens and everything. So it's a really good presentation and very clear. So just a little bit of, you know, But anyways, I just want to focus specifically on some of what I saw in the budget book about positions. And I just kind of want to go through page 29 and 30. And then I'll go to what I've been consistently talking about regarding the COPS grant. And yeah, I think we talked about, Mr. Manager, we talked about the COPS grant. We talked about economic development. And, you know, I think there was something else I was specifically referencing the last time we met, but maybe I'll be able to, it'll come to me in a minute. But either way, I wanted to focus specifically on page, I'm sorry, page 30 and 31. So I see here staffing modifications. These are new positions being added, right? So if you could just, Mr. Manager and CFO, go into a little bit about what we're doing here. And then I see page 31. These are also staff modifications, but they're eliminations of positions. I know how important economic development is for our city and I know that Vice Mayor Smith also seconds that opinion because she spoke more specifically about it. So can you go into that please?

So you want us to go line by line on page 30? Is that what I'm hearing? Okay, so city manager's office. We have administrative services officer. If you recall, the chief of staff position was eliminated. Co-compliance officers, that's coming over from the CRA. Executive assistant position, a co-compliance officer, executive position was added. Chief communications officer, this was a combat position that was combined from several communications positions from across several departments. An executive assistant position was added to that new division. Community development, we did a reorg of that department. So we have posted the positions for planner. An executive assistant position was added. Payroll coordinator was transferred from library to finance. Staff accountant position was added. Budget analyst position was added. Executive assistant position was added to human resource. Executive assistant position was added to the library. Recreational specialist so that we could have the parks open over the weekend was added. Executive position was added but will also be removed and we're going to keep the current administrative structure there which would be an office manager and admin assistant too. Executive position was already existing for police department. Executive position was being added and will be subsequently removed from procurement. Public works executive position was added. CRA executive position was added as actually a conversion from Mrs. De La Cruz's current position as office admin. she was approaching a cap under that position, so by transferring her to the new title with the similar roles, it increases the cap of her salary opportunity. IT manager position, that should be IT director position, I believe, that position was combined from the previous chief Chief Information Officer and Assistant Chief Information Officer, and some of the IT admin positions were also added to the new director position. Executive position was added, which is actually a conversion of the IT office manager position, and for public utilities, executive position was added. Okay.

Page 31.

All right, so as page 31, as I discussed, the chief of staff position was eliminated, and the senior management analyst, which was a position that was created and did not priorly exist, was eliminated. Three legislative aid positions, this says these positions were, oh, the part-time positions were added. uh were eliminated and converted to full-time positions for three of members of the commissions that requested it uh the content writing our production specialist position that was a vacant was eliminated library outreach library outreach specialist that position was converted to a position in our parks department the community development assistant director position as most or all assistant director positions was eliminated. The director of finance position was eliminated when we hired the chief financial officer. The special projects manager position in the finance department was eliminated. administrative assistant position under Housing Economic Development Department was eliminated. That, at the request of Commissioner Zahn, those monies are now being put into the Housing Improvement Program. It says here the executive development coordinator position was eliminated. That was a request that I did not approve.

Okay, slow down there. So we're on housing and economic development, right? Correct. You said the admin assistant was eliminated and the coordinator was eliminated?

I said the executive is listed here as elimination, and I stated that that was not something that I had approved and should not be here.

So the economic development coordinator position remains? Correct. So we're going to make that adjustment.

Yes.

Okay, so that's noted. Okay. All right, continue.

All right, the assistant, as I said, all assistant director positions, or most all assistant director positions was eliminated. In HR, that title was assistant risk management director. That position was eliminated. In library, deputy director, it was instead of assistant director, it was titled deputy director. That position was eliminated. Administrative assistant at the request of the new library director, that position was eliminated. The staff accountant position under the library was transferred to finance, which is a part-time position. At the request of the new library director, the library two positions were eliminated. at the request of the director of library the library outreach service specialist the library media position was eliminated the media project specialist that position was transferred to communications library assistant at the position at the request of the new library director was eliminated. As I stated, the most deputy director and assistant director positions have been eliminated. That was actually a policy decision that was made back in February, as many cities are looking at that, seeing as the job description for director and assistant director is generally the same. One actually plays as a backup, and considering some of our financial constraints, having backups right now for such a high level executive position is just not something that we're looking to afford. um okay that takes us to uh communications uh communication captain uh under the police department was eliminated um the staff uh as the communications development excuse me the communications and event management division was created the staff accounting position on the police department that position is actually still there but it's been transferred to finance department The contract specialist position, not that it's vacant.

Is that, I'm sorry, Mr. Manager. Yes. For the contract specialists under procurement. Yes. Was that within the procurement department or was that separate? Was that within PD? It was actually on procurement. It was actually procurement. Now, let's go back here. You said the communications captain position was eliminated. Is that an actual position with someone in it? No, sir. So I guess what I'm trying to get to is, Currently, there's not a communications captain in PD? No, sir. That occupies this position? Well, let me explain how it works.

Police officers aren't actually assigned to marketing and communications. For those that serve those roles, if they're going to be taking care of our photographs for the police department, they actually get a boost in their current salary. So there's no reason to have a full-time position there to do that.

um um that service just for the police department okay i just want some clarity there um because i'm certain i'm just the way i'm reading is that is is that it's a position that's held by a captain and that eliminating that position would probably mean someone would be losing their job is that not what's happening i'll ask the uh chief of police to come up but my understanding is this is not a position that was being held by a person And then he can also address the staff accountant as well, Mr. Manager?

Absolutely.

Okay.

That's it.

All right. Thank you.

You want to hear it from him?

Yes. Good evening, Vice Mayor, Commissioner, City Manager. So we, currently we have a police commander, not a civilian commander, that oversees our communications department. A captain oversees in administration. There's a captain at assigned to administration that oversees the communications division. And we do currently have a captain there. but we don't have a position for captain communications and communications. So in other words, for the computer, I think it's just the wording.

The question is, is there a person with a name that had a position in the city that has lost their job as a result of this elimination?

No. Okay, is there a reduction in any person's salary, or is there a reduction in salary for a particular position as a result of this? Because I'm seeing one FTE person And I need to understand fully what that means.

So to answer your question, no, because we do have a captain that is assigned to administrative division. That captain has several responsibilities to include communications. But to my knowledge, that captain is still employed, is still here, is not going anywhere.

OK, but and, you know, I obviously don't want to make this specific to a person, but I'm just talking about the position and what I wanted to know is, so this doesn't change because the budget allocation was going somewhere, right? BEFORE, RIGHT, MR. MANAGER? OR BOTH OF YOU, MANAGER IN CHIEF? THE BUDGET ALLOCATION WAS GOING SOMEWHERE. THE BUDGET ALLOCATION? THE ALLOCATION FOR THIS FTE, RIGHT? WE'VE ACTUALLY INCREASED OUR FTEs UNDER THE POLICE. NO, I UNDERSTAND THAT. BUT WHAT I'M SAYING IS THIS PARTICULAR FTE WAS TIED TO A CERTAIN AMOUNT, RIGHT? YES. OKAY. SO THAT AMOUNT IN PRIOR YEARS WAS BEING SPENT. Are you aware if it was?

Even if there wasn't a person in this position. So even if it was budgeted for, that means that that left the police department with a surplus in salaries to spend however they chose to spend it in the previous years. Yes. OK. Just the same as if like Public Works had vacancies and they instead of filling those vacancies in previous years, what they did was hire a contractor.

Got you. Okay. So, all right. So some of these FTEs represent actual positions that are filled. Some of them don't. Correct. Okay. And what about the staff accountant?

I tried to identify those as I went along.

Right, right. What kind of, talk about the staff accountant. Is that filled or is that not filled?

That was, as I stated, that was transferred from the police department to the finance department.

To finance. All right. Very good. All right. All right, thank you, Chief. And you can continue, Mr. Manager.

Okay. I think we left off at the Assistant Director for Public Works. That position was eliminated. There was a position that was created under Public Works, so it never priorly existed, called Strategy and Innovation Manager. that position was and it was just done just for the public works department that position was eliminated municipal there were five municipal service worker positions that were vacant for over 24 months those positions were eliminated capital improvement project manager It's here as elimination, but I did not authorize that elimination.

We're at the Capital Improvements Manager?

Yes, I did not authorize that elimination, so we're going to get that corrected.

So we're going to make a note of that?

Yes, we'll get that corrected. Thank you. The Operations Manager, that position was being held by a retiree that did not live... within two hours of the city, that position was eliminated. There was three auto mechanic positions at the request of the fleet manager was eliminated. Irrigation specialist, that position was eliminated. Municipal service operations foreman, that position was eliminated. Utility worker one, so those previous three positions were all vacancies and they were eliminated. The CRA specialist position was eliminated, but it was actually being converted to a CRA manager position. The chief information officer and the assistant chief information officer, as I stated previously, those positions were actually combined and we utilized those funds to create a IT director position. The deputy director position for public utilities, that position was eliminated, as most deputy director and assistant director positions have been eliminated. Construction manager, which was a duplicative of the CIP manager position, and probably that's where the mix-up happened. This position was actually eliminated, but the intention was to keep the CIP manager since those roles are very similar.

Okay.

The public affairs manager, that position was eliminated, but actually that salary was utilized to create the chief communications officer position. Assistant director of operations under public utilities was eliminated at the request of the director. Water and Service Design Manager. I believe those services were contracted out. Purchasing Agent, that position was eliminated, and the Utilities Department now utilizes our Procurement Department 100% for its procurement services, and the Engineering II position, which has been vacant for five years, was eliminated.

All right, so that was page 30 and 31. So the positions that you mentioned that we took note of that were not supposed to be part of the eliminations, were those positions only in error on page 30 and 31, or were they reflected actually in the budget?

They may be reflected actually in the budget, but they'll have to be corrected because we actually have one of those positions posted.

Okay, so I'd like to see, I'd like to... get a report of you guys seeing it all the way through and seeing those adjustments when we get our next budget book, right? Absolutely. And back to economic development, that administrator assistant position, is that currently filled? Administrator Assistant. I see it says Administrator Assistant in Housing and Economic Development.

No.

So that's an empty position? Correct. Okay. All right. Thank you. Yes. And then I'll, at a certain point, we'll talk about the COPS grant. Yes.

Just to give you a heads up on the COPS grant, I'm still waiting for a report from the Chief of Police. He's working with the Budget Administrator to determine how many additional COPS we can bring on under the COPS grant.

All right. Thank you.

Yeah.

Yes, thank you. Through the manager, I have a question for the CFO. Have you worked in another municipality before, right? You have? I have, yeah. Do you experience that procurement is part of finance?

So procurement has been part of... Sorry, procurement in my... I have... I have supervised procurement before, but I've also seen procurement reporting to legal, to the city attorney's office.

Oh, I see.

I've also seen that.

I'd like to ask the manager to consider perhaps combining procurement with finance maybe. Done. That was easy. It didn't take any convincing. Yeah, yeah, sure.

No, I just want to know what does that mean numbers-wise? Or is it just combining efforts?

So, yes, there is some. So where we find duplication of administrative services by bringing procurement under finance, there may be some adjustments made and can count, yes.

And also, you know how we always have procurement do fiscal impacts in the staff reports and whatnot? It's a lot easier when they're together. So that's what I have been told about this in other cities. The next question is, I requested that under the city clerk previously when our BTR team was working, the clerk had two BTR clerks. I was wondering if you had considered my request to reduce the four and then perhaps repurpose the other two from community development to do other things in the economic and housing.

Yes, a couple things I'd like to address with that request. That is something that we're reviewing. Right now, our BTRs aren't digital. So we are digitizing our systems. And once we have, so there is an intention to review our head count for our BTRs with the hopes of looking at perhaps a reduction. At this time, given that we're still relying on paper records, We do want to keep all of our hands on deck, particularly since even with paper, that system is moving not at the speed that we would prefer. So given the number of complaints that we're getting from our community, both our residents and our commercial community, We want to try to keep it as fast as possible as we make this transition to digital. So that would be something that we'd be looking at in the future. And I said, I have two comments on that. My second comment is we are really, I have been really as your city manager, been evaluating the housing economic development ordinance that you passed in January. And it is very difficult operating BTRs under this new system. So I would, likely bring forward an amendment to that ordinance to put BTRs back under building while we're transitioning and building this department up so that we can keep the fluidity, the speed, and the digitalization moving forward as we grow our housing economic development department and they can really focus on uh bringing uh supporting small businesses going out and getting grants engaging our commercial uh community uh and and not be um in the day-to-day operations of btrs which is actually half of their apartment right now okay um let's see okay great i

I lost my train of thought. I'm good for now. Thank you.

Just quickly, I'd like to thank all the departments and the department heads for all they did for this budget to come in under what the manager had asked, and let's move it forward. Yes. Okay.

Commissioner smuggler go ahead.

Can I can I make a quick comment. It was a hallway outside painted. Yes, yes, yes, good job looks so much brighter, but very nice. Thank you very much to the facilities team.

Thank you. Thank you.

We're going to paint the staircase, too, that beautiful four floors of stairware that we have.

The mayor and I had seen some, I think it was in Tallahassee,

In the Capitol building, it was the steps. Remember they had something on it, some protective?

Yeah, yeah, there was a filming. It has a gripper on it. Yeah, you're right, we don't have that on our stairs.

Do you still have those?

Like a strip, because sometimes.

Do you still have those pictures? I think you had taken pictures.

I have a new phone, so I don't.

Oh, well, if you find those pictures, or if you know who you sent it to, email it to, because I know you did send it to someone. All right, thank you. All right, so the economic development economic that that still is that a million dollars.

No we've actually well yes and no what we did was we took there was a vacant position for a 6 figure vacant position for administrative support and we eliminated that position and put those funds into one of the grants.

And he said now what is it out.

It's still at the same number, but we've reduced the headcount in the department.

All right, because I would, obviously I don't want to eliminate it, but I would like to see those Those numbers go into other departments as well, especially while we're trying to develop and.

Yes, so I will be bringing an amendment to that ordinance for your consideration and votes to return the BTR employees to building, which will reduce that department headcount by four.

All right. Also, you know, this is Mr. Kazan mentioned this, and this is something that I wish we would have done years ago is to bring the garbage back in house. And actually, a few years ago, when we voted on the coastal contract, I voted against it, but not because I was against coastal, but because I was against the fact that it was being outsourced. And I know we've done studies in the past, and I'm not sure we really looked into those studies, but that is something that I really believe that we can save money. I know people are saying it's gonna cost money, because we have to buy the trucks, and we have to do this, and we have to do that, and I get it, but I think in the long term, we will be actually saving money. Because I just can't imagine that it would cost any more than what it's costing us now. The other thing I wanted to talk about is the COPS grant, which, and I appreciate the fact that you are bringing extra officers, and I wish you would double it and triple it. That would be the ideal dream of mine. But I just want to make it clear, you know, these officers are here for the safety of our residents, businesses, and everybody. This is not for, you know, overtime for parties and special events or Sergeant at Arms. And, you know, I'll be gone, but I'll still be here, and I will be, you know, I will be, you know, I will be calling you out if you all start with Sergeant at Arms and we continue the overtime and so on and so forth. And I know I have one more thing and I forgot what it was. So if I remember it, I ask that I can have it back. So thank you.

Yeah. Okay.

I'll close out with Commissioner Jean, and go ahead.

Thank you. I wanted to also thank the staff, Mr. Manager, and your team for the diligence in putting this budget together. There's a lot of graphics in it, which I love, so that's great. Um, the btr. So if the btr brought back into the enterprise fund, right, it would be an enterprise fund. Yes. So I think that's smarter as well from a fiscal perspective that frees up more. Um, the C. I. P. Page. Which one is that? Please.

The projects of the presentation.

Yes. You know, it's kind of disappointed in Commissioner Florman. You know, you're the beautification guy, you know? We want more money in beautification. No, every year you always champion that effort of putting more... Oh, because I was going to say, isn't that Commissioner Chernoff? Both of you. Both of you. It's a tax team effort, you know? But that's... I want to... To the CIP, if you can give me the page, and also... I think, Mr. Manager, you mentioned $400,000 for potholes, and we need a little bit more...

Well, if we spend it all, then we will absolutely come back with a budget amendment.

There was a study done, I believe the study was done, right, that told us where we had cracked sidewalks. Did we do that study? Was that study done, that assessment done?

Possibly, I'd have to, I don't know.

There was a study done that did a citywide, or we were talking about it, doing a citywide sweep of potholes, cracked sidewalks. Me too. I'm not sure if that was done. I would love to find, I think it was, we talked about it. There was some conversation about it at a point. It was a company that was gonna come in and do a sweep of all of our, I mean, it could be done in geofencing and GIS. It could be done in that way too, but We have to have an assessment of where the most troubled areas are. It can't just be through risk management when a claim comes in. It has to be more proactive. So I would want to see how can we decipher what areas, what parts of the city have that have those troubled areas because 400,000 to do either patchwork internally or to get a, I'm just saying, it's an important conversation to have. No, it's an important conversation to have because if you look at, if anyone comes and say, okay, there's a crack sidewalk and we have a report, it could be internally done in the way that it's proactively done is what I'm saying. So potholes, cracked sidewalks, the tree trimming that we do every year for the hurricane, all those things I'm assuming are already embedded into the budget already, but I wanna see more than 400,000 put in for that.

so if you first of all i'd like to say done uh thank you for bringing up this very important point that is actually a project that's being pushed out um citywide through my office and it's actually being led uh by the assistant city manager which is why we were grinning because okay actually describing to the t uh the project that we're just putting together and um um we're unclear about what we're going to face out there but we don't want to over budget either considering we want to keep it tight but i guarantee you uh that if four hundred thousand dollars enough this is going to be a city-wide project we will go community community starting october or november okay oh i thought it was starting october This is the city of Andrews since November. I'm saying October. All right. Starting October, where we will be going community to community. If we run out of money, we will absolutely do a budget amendment because this is such an important program.

Thank you. So the second thing was about sanitation. I know there's conversation about the in-house. When we initially got the... the studies it talked about the upfront cost for the upfront cost for either refurbished vehicles or used vehicles or also the areas because some of the areas where we actually had the areas for the fleet and also for like you know the cleaning of those cars we we kind of got rid of that those areas within the city um properties so if that conversation is coming back i would want to know how much upfront do we have to okay and also a piggyback to that question is the the current contract what are the options for renewal or um when is that contract up for renewal or termination or whatever

Yes, that contract has a set date for termination with some serious, which limits my office's ability for termination. That contract does not expire until 2028. Oh, 2028? Excuse me, 2029, I believe, Commissioner Seuss. 2029? No more options for me, right?

No. Are you sure it's 2029? I'm sure. I read it. Where's public? Mr. Williams here? The Postal?

Yeah. Yeah, it's 2029.

That's with all the options to renew already exhausted, right? Maybe. Well, I mean, we can always renew, but we won't be able to terminate earlier than that. Because I know sometimes there's like a baked in option to renew within.

Even if it's not there, we could still renew. Because renewing is, yeah. But termination, like the way that contract is written, you can only terminate with cause. And even with cause, they have to have an opportunity to cure.

I think that's very important in the insourcing conversation because HOW THE CAUSES WITHIN THAT CONTRACT, WE NEED TO BE AWARE OF THOSE CAUSES, RIGHT? AND THEN, YOU KNOW, WHAT'S THE UPFRONT COST OF PURCHASING THOSE VEHICLES? I THINK THAT'S AN EASY THING TO FIND OUT, RIGHT? YES.

IF I MAY, THEY'RE GOING TO TELL US IT'S A LOT OF MONEY, BUT I JUST THINK THAT AT THE END OF THE NIGHT, WHAT it's gonna be more just by having it outsourced than it will be insourced. Right.

So I mean, if that's an upfront investment that we wanna make, I think we have to consider what the current contract allows for in that conversation. That's just a thought. And then the second thing is, if you can bring forward a list of grants, So grants that we were awarded because I heard about what happened with the freebie grant and our option to actually be able to reapply for it through the FDOT conversation that we've been having via email. So if you can provide a list of grants that either we were awarded so that we can kind of stay on top of what we're actually able to reapply for.

All right, I have a motion in a second. Madam Clerk, please do a roll call.

Wait, wait, do you remember?

I'll remember tomorrow morning.

Go ahead, Madam Clerk.

Commissioner Florian.

I know we got some changes that we have to put in here, but I'm going to say yes for now.

Commissioner Jean? Yes. Commissioner Smuggler? Yes. Commissioner Hsu? Yes. Commission sure not yes, vice mayor Smith may Michael Joseph, yes, the next item motion to a motion to adjourn.

So move like to wish most of the community.

Yes, it's on to Nova and all that happy new year be safe sweet sweet new year commission smuggler.

Happy sweet new year and healthy most importantly to everyone not just to those who observe it to everybody and the easy fast next week are.

Thank you very much.