Village Commission - Regular Meeting

Let's try to get this show on the road. Sorry for my delay. I had a Wi-Fi issue, and then I didn't have the Zoom link in my calendar, but here we are. All I can see is... Hang on a second.

It's a little better. Is everyone in the chamber but me?

That's great. Thanks for being there, everybody. I'm sorry that I'm not with you all. Johnny, is there a way for me to look at the days so I can see my colleagues' faces? I mean, it's nice to see an empty room, but for our deputy chief and our chief of police, thank you, gentlemen, for your service.

There we go. Look at that empty chair right in the middle. Let's call the budget workshop to order, shall we? That's me calling it to order. Okay. I don't have a flag here, so... Would everyone be offended terribly if we skipped the Pledge of Allegiance and moved right on to the mayor's or to the manager's introduction of the budget?

Why don't you guys all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and I'll be joining you in spirit. How about that?

Madam Clerk, do you want to call the roll, please?

Thank you. Mr. Manager, the floor is yours.

I actually think... Because I feel like once we start asking questions on the slides that you've all, I mean, I know that I have a lot of questions and I assume my colleagues do as well. Why don't we allow Sandra to move forward? And by the way, welcome back, Sandra. Thank you, Mary. If folks are in agreement, why don't we allow Sandra to move forward with the presentation and then we can dive in?

Okay, yeah, I'd love to hear this sort of big picture millage assessment.

Does anyone on the dais have questions about the millage summary?

I believe that there's something in the law, and I'm going to ask legal to explain that one for us, that next year we're going back to the, potentially, we're going back to the rollback rate of whatever we decide this year. Could you do a brief explanation on that one?

Was the summary from Commissioner Trevone generally, is that what you understand, Madam Attorney, to be the case? Generally...

Okay. So this is tied to property tax reform. So it's a voter decision in November and then a legislative interpretation authorization in the following session if it's passed by voters.

Basically, my question, and it's really for the second budget workshop meeting, is the following. If potentially in November the voters approve the bill, In other words, they get the 60%. And we must use the rollback rate of whatever we approved this year. We have to be totally aware that what our rate based on this year's taxes are to cover our basic next year.

So for the next workshop, hopefully we have... A clear understanding of what that figure is and how it affects us, because we may have to juggle, because that's the meeting where we have to officially set the millage rate, correct?

Yeah, let's go back to the beginning of the slide presentation. And I want to ask my colleagues, I want to open up the floor to the dais who has questions on these summary slides, department by department. Who wants to go first?

Our budget, for whatever reason, is divided into the general budget and debt service, which is all tied into our ad valorem taxes. But there's another tax that all residents receive, which is a monthly utility bill that includes irrigation, water, sewer, stormwater, sanitation, and germ fee. That's also another tax, except it's done... 12 months out of the year instead of being a lump sum in November when we get the tax bill. And we differentiate our union members as to where the funding comes from. Basically, all this is a tax and we should not differentiate and all departments are equal and

I believe that everybody at Village Hall should be treated equal. My personal recommendation is a 3% COLA increase across the board to all employees because all employees deserve a raise. All employees have been for a year without the raise. And we had spoken also about giving the police back their full shift hours, a four-hour differential. So I'd like to see the reworking of all the sheets. where the police have the extra four hours and everybody gets a 3% COLA increase, which I understand that 3% COLA increase will have an effect on FRS withholding and FICA. So I don't know if we're ready t

I have a question. Is that the four hours that Commissioner Chivoni is talking about? Is that this option number two here where it says cost to restore police, patrol officers to 2184 hours, that's it? Okay.

It's there, but what's not there is the utility employees or the enterprise employees are all scheduled to get merit, COLA, and longevity. While other non-union, I mean, union members, but non-sworn officers would only get the COLA. And that's where the difference is. We need to either agree everybody gets longevity, merit, and COLA, or everybody just gets COLA, or everybody, you know, we have to agree on what the figures are.

Yeah, it's on the screen right here. Remove the utility here. The merit and longevity on all enterprise employees. It comes from the utility payments. which I am in favor of removing and just leaving it at the 3% COLA, is not shown in any of these figures.

I understand, but I need the commission to be acutely aware that, for instance, when we're saying the cost to restore the police patrol officers to the right hours and the 3% COLA to all, will be offset tremendously by the merit and longevity that's being offered to the utility employees.

This increase that we're talking about... I understand. ...will be offset by the...

because they're paying i don't disagree but what i'm saying is when you start looking at what the impact is on the millage

I will have maybe a little bit higher tax bill in November, but I will have a lower tax bill on a monthly basis, which equals out. It's still taxes are paying.

Our utility is our cash cow. Our cash cow has fleas. we have to disinfect the cow. Let's be realistic. The last budget amendment that was done to water, sewer, and et cetera, et cetera, was done in 2021. For the last five years, we have been paying from general fund, the revolving loan payments that we need to adjust whatever, whatever.

If we have the revolving loan payments reimbursed to the general fund from the utility reserves, our cash cow is no longer a cash cow. And we should get it back. And that will be also a lowering of the general fund budget. And we have to increase it whether we privatize garbage, whether we do not privatize garbage. I mean, that utility bill is gonna fluctuate as well. I mean, it's all part of our budget. The way we're departmentalizing the budget has to be done, but I want everybody to have a clear picture of the budget.

If we refund the roughly $100,000 to $200,000 a year for five years that we've paid for the revolving loans. It's a million dollars towards the general fund. So it does affect the millage. We decided to do it that way. There's big ifs. That's for us to decide here.

I'm using the utility fund for something that should have been used originally since 2021 that has not been done.

So it is a factual use of the utility fund that we're going to do from this point forward. If we paid it from the general fund, we should be allowed to repay the general fund for what we did.

Because we have PFM here, why don't we go back to the subject matter where their expertise is needed and have that discussion?

Can I clarify really quickly? The increase in the debt millage to 2.7767 mils, that is just to cover our 25-26 expenses, right?

No, that's okay. The manager walked us through this slide. The manager can answer. Right, Frank? The increase to 2.77, that's just to cover our 25-26 expenses, or that's what's anticipated for 26-27? Right. That knowledge...

But it's not going to cover the next $10 million tranche.

As we attach it to a capital improvement project.

We've already started that process. So we should have an expectation of that line of what the expense is and what it is.

Whether we do it or not, we should have an expectation of how much that is going to be.

Well, I know we've got a project for $12 million. You have right now the value of what $10 million has cost in debt pillage that you have to pay in interest. So you base another $10 million on the same amount. That would be a logical way of calculating it. If you get it at the same interest rate or a better interest rate, it lowers it a little bit, but it's not going to lower it that much. No.

I'm paying the interest that we've been paying with the same loan money on top of that. That's an added expense on top of the capital improvement. We're going to continue to do it, but that's what we've been doing when you talk about calculating.

I just want to share a point of information for everyone. North Bay Village at our debt millage of 1.66 mills is by far the highest debt millage in Miami-Dade County, by far. Just a point of information.

Is there any way that we can convert the $20 million borrowed or credit line or call it whatever you want to call it, because it's a credit line, it's not a geobond right now, into a geobond to be paid off in 20 years at a lower rate?

That's a great suggestion, Commissioner Trevone. The useful life of these projects is probably 50 years. Yeah.

The first $10 million, we borrowed it when? Roughly. Two years ago? Two years ago. And we borrowed it for three years. So we have one year longevity on that one. We're borrowing another $10 million. So we're going to have $20 million that we owe next year, depending for how long you get the $10 million for. If you get it for five years, we have next year one that's due the $10 million, one One year and the new 10 million, the interest on that one. I would suggest that we look into creating the geo bond for whatever amount that we borrow. You know, break up the bond in two.

Mr. PFM, is approximately a month, which is our next workshop, enough time for you to give us some valid suggestions?

Same time and we're supposed to bring up the water and sewer bills as well at that meeting.

Yeah. Should we continue with general comments from the Commission?

Okay. I'll go next. First of all, I want to say great to see you, Sandra, and it's even better to have you back.

Welcome back. Welcome back. First of all, I want to thank all the staff on the work on this year's budget. I was in the office today for a few hours talking with a couple of the department heads and so this is really great work so thank you to the village manager to the cfo to the whole finance team all the department heads all the staff uh this is really really good i'm really impressed by uh all the work that's gone into keeping the millage at the same level um all the cuts that have been made uh and um i really appreciate everyone's uh sacrifices everyone's commitments and um and hard work

about 10 000 a piece right yeah i i really think i think each developer should sponsor one of these events that's that's my stance uh they have extended hours over the weekends to work to finish their projects and i understand when these these projects finished as fast as possible for our tax base but that's also a benefit for them to get these projects completed as fast as possible. We're not charging them for those extended hours right now, for working after hours or working weekends. And I think it's a great opportunity for the developers to be able to sponsor one event each. It's great for

I want to hone in on this very specific issue and pull the commission so that we can get answers and move things along. So if you are in favor of keeping the events as a Village General Fund expense, indicate so now.

My question is with the staff that we have, the fundraising aspect of it, the timing to fundraise is also not...

staff cannot fundraise the fundraising component the same way that the fundraising component fell on us for the community center grand opening staff cannot fundraise we have to go out and fundraise and direct those funds to 501c3 okay so that will go into the what is that the fund that we have that we use Miami a day whatever it's called It's the Miami Foundation, which is the sponsor of the North Bay Village Foundation. Fundraise.

Right. And we make about someplace between $2,500 and $5,000 at the Miami Foundation Day.

Yeah, but let me clarify something. The North Bay Village Foundation is not on its own a 501c3 foundation. We have a space sponsored by the Miami Foundation. So on Give Miami Day, we participate in that. But all of the funds that were raised for the community center grand opening Those funds were raised by us, the elected officials going out to the community. We obviously had materials prepared so that we could fundraise and there was a mechanism established on the back end so that people can make those contributions and that they would be directed to the right place, right? But we raised that

I know. I want to make it clear to the rest of the day that it would be our obligation and that staff would not be responsible for that.

We also have the Chamber of Commerce we can now leverage and I believe that there's enough substantial business interest in the leverage to be able to fundraise for these events.

I'm not arguing with you, Vice Mayor. I'm just clarifying the situation for everyone.

Sure. But I'm seeing this as an ongoing process. because I agree the following year is going to be even tougher.

You know, they're going to get tired of it, and they're going to finish building their buildings eventually, and they're going to say, why me?

Yeah. Well, we'll have until they finish the buildings. And then you have the new tax base to replace those costs, to put it back into the budget.

There is one item that's bothering me on this fund balance. and it has a TBD next door, which is the emergency fund. That is a 20% of the general fund budget for emergencies. If we leave it blank as it is right now, and we have a hurricane, we're up to crap without a battle.

and it is a required 20% of our general fund budget.

Yes. I also think everyone needs to keep in mind that we are in an extraordinarily precarious position as we discuss this year's budget because we don't know what we will be able to do next year. There very well may be a reality where we cannot increase our budget. So if we go bare, bare, bare, bare bones on expenses this year, that is the level that we are setting for subsequent years. We cannot increase. And so I want everyone to think deeply about what that would mean for us in the coming years. If we're going to set the bar very, very, very, very high, modestly this year.

Madam Mayor, I agree wholeheartedly with what you're saying. That's what I said originally. We have to also figure out what our rollback rate would be, would be if the law passes based on what we decide is our final figure to make sure that we're covered next year in our bare bones minimum. And let's be realistic. The highest we can go with four out of five commissioners is 6.3 mils, which is only 3.6 mils higher than what it is right now.

But you can go over that. We can go over that unanimously. Unanimous, yes, unanimous.

So we have to keep that in mind as well, that we need a full commission vote to bring it higher than the 6.3 mil. But there's also a debt, a debt mill to add to this. And we're talking about another 10 million being borrowed and we're at the highest city with the highest millage. If we do the 6.3 and the 1.66 and add a little bit more to it, say two mils in debt service, we're already at eight mils.

Well, it's, it's, But it's not that simple. It's six mils on one bucket of money and 2.7 on a second bucket of money.

Right? And then we have the monthly tax of sewer, water, garbage, et cetera, et cetera.

What I think... we all need to do is a very deliberate and concerted series of conversations with our neighbors about taxes and how they feel about increases in taxes. You know, last year's budget season was also difficult. I know many of you were talking to your neighbors about what they were willing to pay for. I certainly was. And I got a lot of feedback that people were willing to pay more in taxes to, you know, continue supporting businesses the police department at the staffing levels that we have today. And so as we're in this workshop period over the summer, the next couple of weeks, I

Let me be very truthful. We have stayed at a minimum increase, if any, for the last four years. I believe we have been at the same level for the last four years in general fund millage. And debt millage has gone up because of the borrowing of the $10 million. We really haven't. We have increased taxes because of increased property values, not because of increase in millage.

Yeah, and I will also add, sorry to interrupt you, Commissioner, but the increase in the debt millage is not, I mean, obviously the 10 million in stormwater funds is a significant expense, but it's also, we have many, many, many state revolving loans that we are spending that money to upgrade our infrastructure, including getting the village out of a full building moratorium, right? Remember, we were in a building moratorium because our wastewater infrastructure was so leaky. And we got out of that in two years and that cost a lot of money. And so putting perspective, this is not money that's

So we have our work cut out for us for our next budget meeting to finish hashing out our differences, unless anybody else has anything else to add to what we've discussed. Basically, it's one-on-ones with different staff departments explaining our positions. But I'd like to see at the next one, we need to have the emergency fund included in there and hopefully we'll have an answer from pfm and hopefully we'll have answers as to what's our what are we looking at as far as what have we paid from utilities in the past from the general fund that has to be reimbursed to the general fund to try to b

What do you guys think? Do you want to keep talking about any of these things? Are there questions that you want to ask now? Or do we want to wrap this up and just consider this the introductory workshop and we'll drill down more into the weeds in July? I'm happy to do whatever the will of the commission is. It is excruciatingly difficult for me to not be in the room with you all, especially because I'm at this inn on a couch, and it's incredibly uncomfortable, and my entire family is at dinner. But I'm happy to keep going through these questions. What do you guys think?

You just received a lot of information that was broken down, I think, at the higher level. It's about time for us to digest this information, come back individually with questions. And then when we have our meeting, Then I think we can really dive in page by page once again, like we did last year. I appreciated the breakdown and the presentation today. I think it was on the higher level, very clear and easy to digest. I also appreciate, of course, like always, having these reports and paperwork printed and ready to call for us. And that's pretty much it. I think the information was provided to

They have given us what the millage impact is for the four community events, for the circulator, for the addition.

I mean, I see it on the slide. I have my book, right? But I see the slide.

We can add what our millage is right now and basically add the impact of what we want to see to see how high we need to bring up the millage roughly, right? Because we need to see the other figures thrown in here as well that we've discussed.

I mean, I'm not particularly worried about setting the millage at the end of July because whatever we set the millage at, we can reduce it. We can't increase, but we can reduce what we spend.

Right. I mean, I personally want to see the millage with item one and two, potentially three, if possible. Potentially. We can give that to you right now. Huh? We can give that to you right now. No, because you cannot give, well, the millage, yes, because it's not the utilities involved, but we don't know what funds are being refunded from the utility overpayment by general fund that's going to make up the $2 million plus that we need for the emergency.

It's going to be over a period of time. We have a large utility reserve. That's our cash cow We may have to drain our reserve from the utility department to pay the, what we should have paid originally. We may have to. I don't know the figures. I mean, for me to say that I know where the, I mean, I can go up to my books and look at 21, 22, 23, 24, 25. Yes, I can do that.

We need time to look into that one. Okay.

Okay. I've heard for the last 12 years that that's our cash cow.

So we now have to leave and we've got to take care of it.

Frank, the 3% increase would be for all, everyone in staff or just people who have been with us or not changed positions within a year. Or is it equal whether you just got hired or not?

Right. Sandra, supposing we have the 5.7 millage. And we add one and two, because you have here three and four together. I mean, two and three together, not one and two.

Excuse me, guys. I have to join over Zoom. I have a work event after this, so I'm going to go home and take the rest over Zoom.

What about 1, 2, and 3? We're going up to 6, I think, yeah?

I'm saying that's without adding the emergency fund of $2 million.

We have to add at least $2 million for emergency funding.

But the exact figure of the emergency fund is based on 20% of the general fund. So we don't know what the figure is, so we can't add the exact amount. So for argument's sake, add $2 million. Correct.

Now, let me ask you a shabony question. We currently have in 25 budget $2,342,000 plus. Do we have those funds or those funds don't exist? They only exist on paper?

Emergency fund balance for 2526. It shows here $2,342,910. Does that exist or is that only on paper? It shouldn't exist.

But if we had these funds available and we could just push them over for the next year, the emergency funds, but if they're just on paper, I don't want to push numbers just on paper over. That's why I said I don't want to just push numbers on paper. I want the money.

We need, and I hate to bring it up again, we need to restrict our funds that we need to restrict.

And, Frank, we talked last year briefly during the budget season about financing parts of the cost for City Hall, for example. Is that something that this financial advisor could also give us?

We don't have a chance to pass another bond until next month. No, but we can get a mortgage. We can do a special election, but that would cost us $20,000.

We can get a mortgage. And I think it'd be worth it to figure out what options we have with that too.

Soon, right? We have like another two weeks until it's done. I know we had a lot of questions and we're maybe extending the response times.

Right. And just so you guys know, Commissioner Trevone and I had an in-person conversation with Miami-Dade County Fire Chief Ray Jadalla on Wednesday. We didn't really get into the weeds, but we assured him that we were breaking ground by August 30th and we will be.

Anything else that staff needs us to rehash regarding the budget? I'm looking at staff now. So you're clear on what we have expressed, the five of us, which each one of us has expressed a different opinion, but they're all more or less gelling together.

Yeah. Yeah, I think there's trending unanimity. Wow. I've been awake since 3.30. Yeah. in terms of where we're going to go.

And Chief, you feel comfortable with the budget presented? Yes, sir. Thank you. Unless you have, would you like anything to add or ask to consider also for our officers?

I'm sorry. Microphone is off. Thank you. I can hear him without the mic for the record. Hey, Chief.

I'm really happy to see you here. Of course, like usual, you're always representing really well. But I'm also happy to hear you say that and confirm that because I remember how tough last year was for all our officers. So to have your confidence makes me feel so much better as we work into 2020. the more detailed parts of the budget, especially for our police force. So I really thank you for that.

I can imagine the hours are very important. We've all heard cases already where our officers have needed backup while responding to emergencies. And that affects us directly as residents. So hours are important for that kind of backup. But I also wanted to ask you about our Marine Patrol unit. I know we covered a little bit of the Marine Patrol. Can you just remind me again, what would be the operational hours? What are the operational hours for the Marine Patrol and what they are standing now with this budget that needs to be presented?

I like what you brought up, Stephen. Sorry. I like what you brought up with the conversation because I personally find it that when we talk about taxes and utility bills, I 100% agree with Commissioner Schiavone. The way we perceive it is the way it is. It's still an expense, whether it comes out on a monthly basis or once a year, but understanding what the money is being used for, because I don't believe that that is common knowledge per se, that it's not just paying your water and your sewer expense, but it's paying for this massive repairs. It may be something to consider for us to be very

The problem with that, Doris, is that there's only 500 homes that received that bill. The other bills are a conglomerate to the multifamily residences and it's passed down to them. They don't get a detailed bill. So to tax communications with putting out a statement for 500 homes, it's easier to put it in their monthly bill.

Well, again, we're talking about these things are luckily not happening every weekend. We're talking about three, maybe two to three times.

Can I ask you guys something? I appreciate this conversation, but I don't want to spend more time during a budget workshop. talking about a communication strategy per se. I think it's a very worthwhile conversation, but Commissioner Acosta, you made a really good point earlier when we were talking about the length of the meeting and whether or not residents can digest it. Let's not veer off into subjects that are not immediately relevant to the budget workshop.

We don't have to dive into the weeds, but that's why we're having these conversations. Is there anybody else with questions or something?

I think it's a worthwhile conversation, but I want to... We're not hearing you.

So you're going to be sleeping there? So it can be open 24 hours a day? Exactly.

She's at the door. I don't know if anybody else, any other department or legal team, anything from the budget. You're good? Everybody good? Wink once if you're in trouble. Thank you.

I mean, I have not said my personal thanks, but at least four of you deserve specific thanks, and it's the three young ladies that are sitting there and you. who have really worked hard, and all department heads, actually, by bringing it to you and you fighting with them, to create what we have today. You have five commissioners. All five are willing to sit down with anyone, any person within City Hall, and explain our ideas, why we stayed where we stayed, anything you need from us, we're available to you as well. Some of us have a little bit more experience with budget. Some of us have a litt

Now, Sandra does not have an open door. She cannot leave.

Well, it takes a village, and we really appreciate it. It's a great start, I feel.

I want to also express my gratitude to the staff, to the directors. But frankly, in this moment, I'm feeling especially grateful to the four of you on the dais for being there, for being so attentive. for being so cautious and such good stewards of the village and for helping carry this workshop this evening it really is a pleasure to work with all four of you and i'm really grateful for for everyone this evening thank you likewise enjoy your time there and hurry back okay thank you um Yeah, I don't have family in Miami anymore, so it's really important for me to be present on weekends like th