City Council - Regular Meeting

Monday, September 16, 2024Official site

The Doral City Council's budget workshop lacked a quorum, preventing consensus on proposed FY 2024-2025 budget adjustments. Discussions covered employee cost of living adjustments, departmental reductions, and funding for new initiatives, with the Mayor expressing disappointment over the lack of agreement ahead of the final budget hearing.

About this meeting

Government Body
City Council
Meeting Type
City Council
Location
Doral, FL
Meeting Date
September 16, 2024

Published excerpts

Only published remarks appear here. The full transcript is not published.

13 sections

0:00•Christi Fraga

into order. It is our second budget workshop on Monday, September 16, 2024. The time is now 10 11 a.m. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

0:39 – 1:11•Christi Fraga

Okay, so very quickly, clearly there's not a quorum to be able to come to some type of consensus over the budget. But I did have some questions for staff And I want to see if there's anything any new information that can be given to us And Mr.. Manager if you have had time to meet with the council members I know that I had an opportunity to meet with you since the last budget hearing I

3:38•Christi Fraga

Okay. Would we have a line item list of these requests by tomorrow, Fernando? Do we have anything?

4:07 – 4:26•Christi Fraga

which is supposed to be our budget hearing the idea of calling a workshop today was to try and get all these things and agreed upon so that staff could provide us a balanced budget tomorrow. Can you please run us through how this would work tomorrow at 6 o'clock? Because we do have to leave here with a balanced, approved budget tomorrow.

5:18 – 5:34•Christi Fraga

Okay, is there any way we could get this preliminary list so that we can start reviewing some of these items, even if there's no dollar figure attached to them? Because from what I'm understanding that you're saying is in the meetings that you've had, there has not been a clear indication of what those cuts would be.

5:55 – 6:09•Christi Fraga

Okay. I did receive the updates to the budget based on the decision that was made at the last budget hearing which was to cut the COLAs to 3.5%. Those we do have and the budget that will be presented tomorrow will reflect those cuts across the board.

6:14 – 6:33•Christi Fraga

Okay. And in respect to the discussion regarding the COLA for law enforcement that was negotiated with the bargaining unit, if we can't take that item up tomorrow, however, it will impact the budget. Will it be discussed tomorrow to put that in contingency?

6:54•Christi Fraga

OK. And to my understanding, we have one member of the council that's actually out of the country.

7:01•Christi Fraga

I got an email from Vice Mayor Oscar Corbett that he's in Japan, so he won't be here tomorrow and supposedly will be participating virtually.

7:34 – 9:15•Christi Fraga

Okay. Well, I want to thank you all for being here today. My hope was that we would be able to have already by this time a list of the requested adjustments so that we could have a discussion, come to a consensus, and you all could present us tomorrow with a balanced budget that we could vote upon with adequate time and responsibly putting it before the public as well to opine and participate obviously that's not what's taken place and that is not the will of this council or at least the ones that are not here today, which is absolutely, you know, it's discouraging and disappointing to me beca

12:18 – 12:33•Christi Fraga

THANK YOU, COUNCILMAN. WITH THAT BEING SAID, LORENZO, CAN YOU WALK US THROUGH THE PROCESS TOMORROW, THE OPTIONS WE HAVE TOMORROW SHOULD THERE NOT BE A CONSENSUS OR, YOU KNOW, THERE'S SOME REASON THAT THE VICE MAYOR CAN'T PARTICIPATE?

14:14•Christi Fraga

Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Mr. Manager, do you have any other recommendations or

14:23•Christi Fraga

Okay. Thank you very much. All right. We'll see you all tomorrow at 6 o'clock.

These excerpts are remarks by officials whose identity a person confirmed, from a transcript generated automatically from the official public meeting video and presented unedited. Accuracy may vary; view the original recording for reference.