Village Commission - Regular Meeting

Rachel Streit- happening okay. Rachel Streit- evening i'm a Rachel stripe bells, and this is the July 2026 regular village Commission meeting of the North Bay village Commission, we are going to call the role, Madam clerk.

I'm also here. To lead us this evening in the Pledge of Allegiance is the President of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 81, Lieutenant Cesar Costa. Cesar, thanks for leading us.

God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

For order of business, I'm going to recommend that we take our land use and zoning items at the top of the agenda. So that would be 13A, which is a variance application, and then 14C and 14D. These are our fee discussions and a proposal to issue an RFP, I believe, or to have several TDRs. I'm proposing that we do that after the consent agenda, 13A followed by 14C and D. Does anyone have any objection to that?

Well, if we're doing consent and then 13A, which is the only quasi, and then 14C and D, the next thing I think after that would be 14A and B, right? Okay.

So budget less. Motion to approve budget as proposed. Second.

Wait, budget as proposed, Commissioner, or agenda? Agenda. Agenda as proposed. Thank you. And we have a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, fantastic. Okay, we have an order of business established. We do not have any presentations, proclamations, or awards this evening. Although I will say I would like, and I hope the commission supports this effort, but there was an extraordinary focus philanthropic effort that happened at the community center last week with a number of community sponsors, we were able to give away over 300, 400, higher, lower, okay, hundreds of backp

Okay, this is the opportunity for open forum. And unfortunately, if you miss it, you miss it. And we would encourage you to come back in September. We just want to keep things on a tight ship. So does anyone else have any interest in speaking?

Okay, fantastic. Mr. Martin, your address for the record. Your address is fine.

Mr. Martin, thank you. Thank you for coming to speak to us. We appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Okay, if there's nothing further from the gallery, which is the room you're all in, and there's nothing further on Zoom? No. Okay, we're going to close the open forum, and we're going to move on to the approval of the minutes. We have the minutes from our June 23rd budget workshop and our May commission meeting. Commissioner Trevone, how did she do with the minutes?

And I'll second the motion to approve the minutes. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Okay, we've approved the minutes. Do we have any advisory board reports this evening?

Okay, that's fine with me. Let's move on to commission reports. Commissioner Darrow, do you want to go first?

Sure. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. As far as community engagements and events, I was part of hosting for the North Village Chamber of Commerce the World Cup final watch party here at Rosso Indian Restaurant and happy stork lunch. I want to congratulate Spain for a wonderful game. and a fantastic victory. And thank you for the host for a successful community event featuring a fun trivia competition that brought residents together. I also attended the Holiday of Miracles summer kickoff and proudly represented Northside Village. I encourage everyone to mark your calendars for the December 5

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Treboni. No report. Vice Mayor Cook. Okay. I do have a report, but I'm going to start by asking the village manager for a couple of updates on two key items related to the community center. The first is, where do things stand on operational hours for the fields, if you could share with the community? And the second is, when will the community center be fully open to the public so that they can use it? Thank you.

Thank you. I have some follow-up questions. We have our consent agenda tonight is the approval, essentially, of the vendor who's going to operate, maintain the cafe for this community center. But we don't have a finalized agreement with that vendor. We're selecting, approving the vendor so that we can move forward with an actual contract. And then they can start Building out the space? That is correct. Okay. And so the timeline for a cafe, what do you think we're talking about here? Eight months, 10 months?

Okay. Have they presented any lease to you yet? We have a draft lease.

Okay. Thank you, Madam Village Attorney. Mr. Manager? Well, I guess with the consultation of the Village Attorney. The cafe, eight months, ten months? Are you hesitant to answer my question at all?

Okay, well, that's helpful to at least manage our expectations as we head into the fall and school opening again. What can residents expect when school starts again in terms of the use of that community center? We have an after-school program.

Okay, I'd love to provide a comprehensive update to the public as soon as we can in a Friday email. If it's too late for this Friday, Mr. Manager, let's do it for next Friday. Let's give everybody a good update as far as where things are on the community center.

Okay, but let me follow up on the question that I asked because the first one was the operational, the hours I meant in terms of the fields. How's that conversation going? When you say the fields, we're talking about the soccer fields? Yes. There's been a discussion about revisions to that exhibit, right? And the exhibit, yes, includes the pickleball and the pedal courts. And I think having an update on that is fine, but what I'm specifically curious about is the fields. Yeah, the fields, the use of the fields.

Can I clarify? The board members have to vote to approve this agreement or a school board representative can sign off on the changes?

I want to use this opportunity during my report to share some feedback. So I've been knocking on doors. That's actually not exactly what I've been doing. I've been very specifically reaching out to neighbors who live around the community center, many of whom have lived in North Bay Village for decades. Okay. There is a very real and justified sense of disappointment among our residents. And I don't mean to take anything away from the extraordinary celebration that we had to open that community center. To see a thousand neighbors come out in the rain and dance with us was just an unbelievably j

They're reserving the field just like everyone else, because this is my understanding. My understanding is that anyone who wants to get out on any of the fields will be, unless you're with our North Bay Village recreational soccer program or with a club, right? The field space that is available for general use by the public. Right. You're booking a field on an app. Yep. And my understanding is if you are a North Bay Village resident, you are in a system and you are not paying to book that field.

The village attorney is looking at you with like a whole lot of side eye. I think what the kids say.

That leads me to believe that the village attorney wasn't aware of this gray area slash dispute. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay.

Okay. I mean, I don't want us to dilly-dally here. You know, Ms. Sarah and Mr. Powell are reasonable adults, I think, who, you know, and I have a little bit of faith in Mr. Powell's client as well.

The app that is supposed to come out where residents can book the fields, that's going to be available by the start of school as well? Do we know what this app is called?

It's apparently a very common app that people generally use to play soccer.

Or pick up games. Football. Football, yeah. And for the courts as well.

It's actually a separate app, very inconveniently. And then there will be a third platform for our actual community center program. It's not ideal, folks. We've asked them. We asked for integration. It's on the horizon. we hope we hope but yeah that's the reality okay all right so we've beat this course a little bit you're going to communicate um and give us an update and give one to the residents about the hours and that kind of thing i appreciate it okay um i want to piggyback on something that commissioner costa said in her report which was i don't know what specifically you're talking abou

Thanks. All right. Let's move on now to the village attorney's report.

Thank you, Madam Attorney. In the interest of transparency, I wanna once again mention why I changed my vote on this issue and why I voted last month to file these lawsuits. Reading the actual complaint against the 360 reaffirmed my support for this lawsuit because we need to answer the question of whether the conditions that this village places on approval continue to be enforceable. And we have a village attorney and I think they did a great job drafting this complaint, but being an attorney who practices in the land use space myself, I wasn't going to allow our village to file suit against

Then the sprinklers work. One step at a time. Yes.

I heard through the grapevine, which is basically I ran into their arborist, the Anson's arborist, and they are evaluating the trees over at Grove by the Bay. And I mentioned to their arborist, if they're looking for somewhere to relocate trees, you know, Anson Memorial, Anson Family Park? Anson, I don't know. I don't know if there's that.

Okay. So the Anson Family Park would be a really great place since there's obviously no trees there.

The park could be used for consideration, too, where the ones were removed. It was mostly the invasive species, but we've heard that.

Mr. Manager, do you have anything else as part of your report this evening? No, I'm good. Okay. Thank you.

Yes. I don't know if you mentioned it earlier and I missed it, but when I met with our principal last week and I invited her to come over and I missed to tell her to speak during open forum or were you planning to have a special section for her to introduce herself?

No, it's my apologies. That's okay. Please. Yes. Let's welcome our new Treasure Island Elementary School principal. Go ahead.

She's also a past resident of North Village. She still owns property here in Harbor Island. Her family still resides here. We had a lovely meeting. We spoke about some of the things that we see in the future of our school and how we can work together. So I asked her to come to our meeting because school, as you all know, starts in August. And I wanted our residents to be aware that we have a new principal in town. And yes, with that, please welcome.

Right. So we'll see you on Saturday and Sunday morning for the exercise. It's so, so wonderful to meet you. Let's take a picture welcoming you to the village. Is that, are you with that? Yes. Okay.

Yes, you are going to grow. Okay. Thank you so much.

Okay, do we have a motion on the consent agenda? And is there a second? Second. All right, perfect. Madam Clerk, will you call the roll on consent? Commissioner Cervantes.

Excellent. Thank you, everyone. Let's take 13A. This is a quasi-judicial variance hearing. Yes. Madam Clerk, will you read the resolution and then we'll turn it over to our village attorneys to introduce the quasi-judicial hearing?

Let's go down the dais, starting with Commissioner Darrow. Did you speak to any?

I have spoke to the applicant. He reached out to me about this and I took a look at what's being discussed.

All I did was drive by the property and see the area itself. But no, nothing else to disclose. Read all the information, went through the presentations too.

I walked around the block with Mr. Offerman. I walked past his house every day. I told him how I felt about his application and specifically told him how important it was to articulate his hardship. So pretty thorough conversation, not gonna lie.

I spoke to the applicant directly over the phone twice and I drove by the property.

I had no conversations with anybody about this.

Okay. Let's have staff's presentation and then we'll turn it over to the applicant.

Okay, so we're going to go ahead and everyone on the dais is going to have the opportunity to ask questions of staff. And then Mr. Offerman will allow you to give your presentation. So let's just have the commissioners ask questions of staff, starting with Commissioner Darrell.

Yeah, just clarifying. It says planning and zoning board voted 3-1 in favor with conditions. What are the conditions?

No, that's clear. I mean, I did drive by. It looked fairly minimal to me. I have no other question.

After much review and the same not finding any complaints from the neighbors and driving by the property, I actually moved to go ahead and approve the conditions. But if there's any other questions. Okay.

Well, there's a motion to approve with conditions on the table. Why don't we get some questions from the rest of the dais and then see if there's a, if there's a motion, I'll go last. You don't have questions for staff? Okay. Vice Mayor?

I agree with my colleagues, so I'll second the motion.

Okay. There's a motion and a second to approve with conditions. Commissioner Ciarpone.

I want to thank you for your transparency as stating that you have emphasized the hardship that he sees, but I'd like to hear the hardship from the

Understood. I think that's very important to have that on the record. Why don't we go ahead and hear from Mr. Offerman before we take a vote on this motion?

Okay. Before we take a vote, I think there are persuasive arguments that the property does meet the criteria, one, as far as uniqueness, two, as far as it not being created by the applicant. I mean, I understand that he put up a carport without a permit, and obviously that was his fault. But he is living in a pre-existing home. He's not redeveloping. The driveway is located where the driveway is. is located it's the only place for a car to be parked on that property and if anyone which I think it's completely reasonable would want to cover their car we live in a very hot place and the property

No, but it's important when we vote on a variance for there to be competent substantial evidence on the record. So I just want to be clear about how I perceive this case and the facts.

It's kind of strange having a landowning attorney on the dais to begin with, but also being so vocal about a land joining issue. Sorry, that's my opinion.

You're entitled to your opinion. I think the residents generally appreciate having a mayor that's also a lawyer. I think it's probably in the best interest of the community. So with that, let's go ahead and take the vote. Madam Clerk, you want to call the roll?

Thank you. Yeah, I think our residents want us to stand up for their ability to shelter their cars and keep them cool in the summer. So let's hear 14C. Yes. This is a resolution of the mayor and commission of North Bay Village, Florida, approving an updated fee schedule for administrative services, building fees and zoning fees, providing for implementation, providing for an effective date. So this is an effort that was started by Commissioner Trevone and myself. I think we agreed several months ago that we needed to update and modify the village's fee schedule for things like TDRs, density, a

Okay, well, I really appreciate that presentation. Let's take questions and comments from the dais, starting with Commissioner Darrow and working our way down toward Commissioner Trevoni, and then I'll reserve myself to go last. Commissioner Darrow.

I think this is a good balance of what we were looking to do to continue to encourage investment in North Bay Village with a reasonable increase for the projects to come.

So you would support staff's recommendations across the board?

Yes, I'm supportive of what's being proposed.

Okay. Commissioner Acosta? I believe because it's a limited resource, we actually should consider going higher. I would go over the 200,000 at this point. A lot of these developments may not even come about for now. They will benefit from the next units as they close. Prices, as you see, keep going higher. Miami-Dade County land waterfront property is getting more and more reduced. I would like to see these fees actually go higher to encourage people to really not just invest, but build here instead of flipping properties. Okay, so you want to increase these across the board? I want the water,

I want it to go, instead of $200,000, I would like that to go as high as $300,000.

I can meet you halfway at $250,000. Well, you can propose it.

Okay. So you're proposing 300. I understand your concern. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. And then on the additional height for RM70, staff is recommending $10,000 per vertical foot. It needs to go higher, too.

We're talking about a million dollars to go from 150 to 240. I mean, that's a lot of money.

A million dollars from the time they're actually going to be doing construction and selling those units. That's also a different price point for those units.

Yeah, and additional to what are these, you know.

I appreciate you guys want to go back and forth. And I think at some point we will. Let's sort of just see where folks are. You want to go up, not dramatically, but dramatically. Oh, yes. Okay. Vice Mayor.

I mean, I'd like to see some comparables if there are from Miami Beach and nearby communities to understand what what's what are some of the averages around around the area. But I do feel like the numbers need to go higher.

The only comment I have to the proposal, I'm fine with the proposal, is the time schedule. I believe that we should receive our deposit or 50% deposit within 90 days of approval and the remainder within another 120 days from that. And if you do not pay it by then, Use them or lose them. Goes back into the pool. Okay.

Both in height and TDRs. So when you said use them or lose them, you're speaking with respect to the TDRs that you purchased or the entitlements that you paid for, the height and the density? Basically, your site plan would no longer be valid.

They have to submit a site plan. Within 120 days, 120 days plus 90 days, we're talking about 210 days, almost seven months, eight months. I want buildings to go up. So I want it done. I need to entice them to present the plans for the buildings to go up and for them to have paid the bonus and both for density and height. And if they shell out the money for density and height and they have presented plans, it's going up. You know, we have all these buildings that are approved. None of them, there's only three that are going up.

Hang on, just one second. Totally agree with you. we want to have a scheme that incentivizes people to build and to build relatively quickly. And we also don't want to be in a position where we're fighting with someone over money and they're holding it over our head, but they're not going to pull a building permit until we resolve the fight over the money. Right? That's the situation you're trying to avoid as well? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So... I think the proposal is 50% within 90 days, as is stated on our code today, but the remaining 50%, 120 or 180 days after that. And once you've paid those fee

I'd like to see them build. Yeah. You know, and let's be realistic. We have all the projects that we have approved, and we have approved quite a few. I'm not going to go through the line of them. The only two that are going, Tula, which was approved in 2018, is finally going to be completed. Shoma is going up and Continuum West is going up. Nothing else. There's promises. I expect them to go up.

Yeah, no, I agree. I mean, can we add a provision that site plan approvals expire after two years unless a master building permit is pulled?

Emergency declarations are beyond our control, unfortunately, and we understand those now that they get thrown at us constantly. but that is a larger body that oversees us. But the locals, let's be realistic. Right now we're being, all these projects that I'm talking about were approved locally. There's no real emergencies, declarations that Tallahassee has called since. Shoma was the only one involved with that one, but not Tula.

The last threat we got was Hurricane Irene. That was over seven years ago.

It's actually a total of up to 48 months. You can extend up to 48 months under this.

We've got to understand we're prone to hurricanes. This is something that we should be aware of when we approve a project of when we see it going up. This dais has approved numerous projects. I'd like to say close to seven or eight. And only two are going up.

Yeah, no, the frustration about that is very real. And I think we all want to make sure that we're incentivizing serious developers, not people who are going to destabilize a condominium association just to get a cheap entitlement and flip the property. That's really not what we're trying to do here. So we already agreed that there needs to be ordinances, right? Is it one ordinance or do we need multiple to really bring everything, to update everything? Like, I think we can agree on prices for things tonight. And I think we definitely wanna give you clear direction in terms of what we wanna se

Well, that's that's another they should that sale or you know from the from the sale of the from the from the site plan approval from the site plan approval. That's long period of time. They can take the years of submitting a site plan approval.

No, the site plan approval is the thing that's going to come before us, where we either give them the height and the density, or we don't. they pay for it.

Some people can request the TDRs before or even they can- Well, the TDR is different.

The TDR is different, right? You asked me not to lawyer from the dais, so I'm going to defer these questions to staff.

Got it. When when you mentioned the 90 days, is that a competitive idea? Because I'm worried about a lot of these people basing their payments on construction loans.

If you're... If the density and the height that you need to realize your project on paper costs $2 million, what this would do is it basically would mean that the developer needs to raise that $2 million, knowing that they're going to have to pay it to the village more than likely before they have construction financing. And we're going to be clear about when we expect the money. We're also going to be clear about the fact that like the money comes as soon as the site plan is approved and if it's not a matter of whether or not you actually build the thing you owe the money you have to pay the

Yes. And as you all know, resources are very minimum out there and Harbor Island is already taking the biggest brunt of all of this high density.

All that is understandable, but there's a but. And the but is what has lit a fire under us is a need that the village has for funding of a village hall. As of today, we have approximately, I'm going to say 42 million, 38 million, whatever it was that we approved. I'm on the mic.

Okay. We have about $42 million for a project.

or the 9th, we'll open up the bids and find out what the real cost of City Hall is. In a safe manner, I have been saying here we're $10 million short. I hope we're $10 million short, but the way pricing keeps going up, not only for us, for all construction, all these people that are putting plans in for buildings as well, all these costs are going way up If it comes in at $58 million, we're $14 million short. We got to make the money available towards the end of 2028 when City Hall is through. So we also have a deadline to raise $14 million. This is what I'm looking at. I'm not looking at so m

Thank you. Here's what I see. There's about 150 projects in Miami-Dade County right now. I believe about half of them will be successful. I mean, the competition is difficult. Market conditions are not as easy. And if they realize it on a paper is one thing, then realizing it in the actual market when you have to go out and achieve these prices for these condos. So My fear is that by making things too difficult for our projects to succeed is short-sighted. We want these projects here to give us not $90,000 now or even a million dollars now. We want these projects here so that we can have a suc

Let me take a stab at this because I think I've been, I initially was pushing for very high fees that elicited a very strong reaction from several of you. And since staff's presentation and walking through it in great detail and sharing the the sense of urgency that you have um in terms of having clarity so that we can have real conversations and so that we can continue to accept applications and live in a world where everyone knows what things cost and what the rules are i think it's very important because as you said We have an obligation to build this building, and we need to be able to pay

That is my motion. Before we vote on that, I just want to refer back to Commissioner Darrow's comment about short-sightedness and thinking of the values of the properties. I can tell you this. We're building City Hall on the back of Harbor Island residents and all of us in North Village. We received this study that mentioned how other municipalities are handling all of these monies that they're receiving, whether they're going into their infrastructure, schools, streets. This is also for our public benefit because we do need a police station. We do need a fire station. My ask here is that we g

First of all, Harbor Island is the last island we built. Geologically, studies have proven that Harbor Island has the best base of all our three islands. It is also our newest island with the best infrastructure of all. I'm not saying it's good.

No, I know where you're going with that.

But it's the best infrastructure of all three islands. Harbor Island is the one that we have proposed related, Urbanica, Alani, Elad, Gran Vida. And now there is two other properties that have been purchased recently that have to come here. Oh, Tula, let me not forget Tula. Of all those properties that I mentioned, because Showman Continuum is on the causeway, only Tula is being built at 1.950 starting price. I asked at the topping, a side question, how many units have been sold? Less than 10.

People are not lining down the street to buy units.

So they got construction loans. They're building. Pagani is breaking ground in December. Related is opening up their sales center in December. Doesn't mean they're opening right away. So there's not this piling that's going on in Harbor Island. We have a gentleman that's interested in building in Harbor Island here tonight that's coming to speak to us. I haven't had the opportunity to sit down and speak to them, so I don't. Because, again, I was muted until, and I hopefully will reach a decision. I don't agree with the prices you're going, Doris. I think you're going way too high. I mean, you'

Can we, I don't mean to interrupt you. I want to try to advance the item. There's, I think the timing question and then there's the actual fee amounts, right? So how, I'm trying to see whether or not I have three votes for my middle of the road proposal.

I like the one that Tony presented with the 10,000 per linear foot and 25 of you deemed to go higher because of the TDRs. That's up to you. It's up to you, developer, not you, commissioner. We're giving them the option. This is what it costs per linear foot. If your budget allows to go higher and pay the price, you go higher. If your budget doesn't allow you, you stop at the 212 mark.

And those are the incentives we're already working with.

So don't, you know, by... Raising TDRs to a 300,000?

I don't think so. We're going from 150 to 250. Let the seller suggest. We have 47 TDRs left as of today. On my count, there's 48 based on planning's count. By one TDR. We may have an extra TDR floating because we offered... somebody to borrow their land for two years for two tdrs depends how long they feed their land uh once those 48 tdrs are gone and i know of now three properties interested in tdrs i don't know how much longer those cdrs are going to last Well, I mean, I think you're sort of making the argument for us to charge more.

Yes. So can we meet halfway at 250? She's at 300. Staff is at 200.

Again, this is something sellers could adjust to. Commissioner Darrow, Vice Mayor Cook, 250. And I appreciate your kind explanation, by the way.

You know, I don't think it's in the best interest of the village to do anything more than the proposed schedule. That would be my take on it.

I just would like to understand what the comps are. It's like 60,000 per TDR, I think.

Edgewood was selling them for 30 and they got slapped.

If we go from $250,000 to $312,000, I believe it is, or $240,000 to $312,000.

That's $1.8 million? Yeah. How many TBRs, increasing TBRs by $25,000? By $50,000. I think it's between the $200,000 and $250,000.

You're leaving money on the table. All right.

I'm willing to accept staff's recommendation on this.

I'm not. I think we definitely should go higher. My biggest concern over the past couple of developments has been that we've been leaving money on the table. And I know that we've been leaving money on the table for the last couple of developments. So I'd rather go high. And if there's a compelling reason to negotiate a little lower, maybe we do. But I'd rather go high. If it doesn't sell, then we can revisit and readjust as needed. But these are our last few TDRs. So I want to go high.

I agree with you. Let the sellers adjust.

When you say higher, are you at 250 or 300? Well, I don't have a comp, but I'm at 300.

So I'm in line with Doris's, Commissioner Acosta's recommendation. No, nobody will buy them.

So we've got two votes for 200 and two votes for 300. And the mayor in the middle is proposing 250.

I mean, it's better to sell for, keep them out where they are so that they'll actually sell and we can raise money.

I have to say face with- You'll continue to see that nobody will pay $300,000 starting now.

Let me remind you, the last time that we cut a deal to lower prices to incentivize a building going up, being very polite, it bit us in the ass. Shoma.

I'm really not inclined to allow it just because you have an item that's coming up. You have like a vested interest in what these things cost. And I want to make sure that the conversation on the dais is a little bit more pure than having a stakeholder have the opportunity to weigh in when other stakeholders don't. You know, there are other property owners in the village who I think might want to have an opportunity to weigh in. So I'm not going to allow you to speak on this item. I think we need to figure this out amongst ourselves. We're arguing over $40,000 at this point.

As a last comment on the TDR, right? So this gives you an extra density unit to sell. It doesn't actually give you more square footage to sell unless you go from the 240 to the 312, which the TDRs allows. So at some point, it's going to say, I'm not going to pay $300,000 for another unit. I'll just build bigger units and not pay anything. Yeah, I mean, we're not stopping progress.

It's just to me, it's again, we're putting the burden on us and not the other way around.

I can't keep having this conversation. We just need to make a decision.

Ending the conversation means that we're going to 200 instead of two people coming up to 250 with me. That's going to be on you guys. That's going to be on you guys.

I'm here on the community, not on you or anybody else.

She's giving you the opportunity to raise it $100,000 tonight.

Yeah, I mean, if it's going to end up being $200,000 as the cost of the TDR, then yes, I want to have the second tier...

it would get you to $2.7 million to get the entire- Yeah, but my proposal at 250 doesn't have the second tier. No, look, I take this very seriously, which is why I've forced us to have this conversation so many times. I don't want to get it wrong. I also don't want to sell out residents of Harbor Island. Look, I was on the losing end of vote after vote after vote after vote. But there's something about being in this position. You realize you have to make compromises on these things. And you've got to be able to talk to people about it. So the point that he's making, where we have a sense of ur

Okay. You got me. So we're moving staff's recommendation. I want to do the 250 like you're saying. You got me. Because I'm not going to go under. If it's going to be that, if you draw the line on the sand that way, you're forcing my hand, I'm going to go 250.

Are you coming down to 250 also? No. without the $25,000 square foot?

Because we do need to make a decision and we can always come back for whatever is left. Okay, fine.

$250 is fine, but can we keep the $25,000?

It's a very real cost. And I think, and again, this is just like me from a policy standpoint and someone who understands zoning. We weren't charging for the 240 to 312 because it's in our interest for people to provide the parking that they're going to need to provide so that people want to buy the units. And so that's what we were doing. We were making it a little bit easier. So that's my thought is that the TDRs are finite. There's only so many of them. They should cost more. And if you want to provide parking on your site, we're going to give you the benefit of the doubt.

I can see that vision. So I will second your motion.

I don't know that I have a third vote yet. And we're still talking this through.

We do have to move forward. I think that we are going higher than was presented, which makes me feel better about our community with Harbor Island.

So it's 80,000 per units on the T6. RM70 RTDRs are 250K. There is a $10,000 per vertical foot of additional height to go from 150 to 240. And then your additional height from 240 to 312 comes with...

your site plan approval essentially okay it's ten thousand or twenty for the original year ten was there right but so that's what i'm asking oh no i want clarification now would you support 20. i would support 20 no and i won't support the 250 either okay so that's what i thought you said here so you're a no i'm gonna yeah i know i'm sticking with what was proposed tonight by for the fourth time in a row by legal.

Okay. Will you, a UAS vote for $20,000 for a linear foot of- I'd like to hear from Commissioner Adaro.

I like the proposed schedule. I think it's a high increase. I think we're asking our developers a lot. And we often in North Bay Village listen to our residents make them out to be the billion of our community. But they're literally investing a lot of money with a lot of risk into extremely difficult conditions. So...

How more difficult do we make it? They're going to have to hold property.

What do you mean the sellers are going to have to adjust?

I want to make sure that the dialogue that we have on the day, especially amongst ourselves, is productive. We know where you are.

But there's now a compromise on the table to increase the TDRs to 250.

Right. And to increase TDRs to 250 to not to continue not charging for height between 240 and 312. So just we're charging for the height increase from 150 to 240. Right. Which is the day you're going to invest in additional density. You're certainly going to meet additional height. This is the total of what that level of development is going to cost you. Right. And I'm proposing I'm trying to get clarity on whether or not I have three votes for a ten thousand dollar for linear foot. vertical foot versus $20,000 for vertical foot, knowing that we're not doing this $25,000 second tier? I mean, i

Yeah, I think you guys, the three of you in the middle, have the ability to move that forward. I mean, I like the proposed schedule.

I don't know where he got. He wanted to hear from you.

Yeah, so that's what I mean. I like the proposed schedule, Vice Mayor. You know, so I think if you want some increase to take the mayor's lead would be what I think is something you guys can do. Okay, all right, I'll support the compromise.

Okay, thank you. All right, so the motion is T6 units are $80,000 a piece. Our height bonuses in RM70, it costs $20,000 per vertical foot of additional height from 150 to 240. And if you would have purchased TDRs, which costs $250,000 a piece as a base, you do not pay for the additional height to go from 240 to 312. correct okay those are answers to all of the questions that have been on the table is that correct yes okay yes and there's no that's what the price is

And then I think we should have a second discussion about timing and consequences so that we can get that right. Okay. All right. So that's the motion. Who would like to second? Thank you, Commissioner Acosta. Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Absolutely. We voted on it. I don't think we can change our minds. We accepted that.

All right. I want to thank everyone for their sincere efforts on this. And I think if we can continue to revisit this. I think trying to incentivize behavior is always an experiment and trying to incentivize behavior in one of the most unpredictable, wild real estate markets in the world is also an experiment. And I know everybody comes to this conversation with the best interests of the village in mind.

yeah let's let's see how that goes we can we can revisit that conversation well and frankly right now we have another item where we're going to have this conversation and this is where we're going to hear from you ethan yeah that's okay right um so the terms um you've heard what we are trying to do and what we are trying to not do what do you recommend

That's where I feel more comfortable too.

We ran into trouble where we gave a discount to a developer and the exchange was pull your building permit by November 15th and you'll get 50% off your community contribution fees. And then we had a litigator in here trying to tell us what a building permit was, what the definition of the building permit was. And I sure as hell did not appreciate that. I would like to never be in that situation ever again. So what do you recommend?

I do. I do like the idea of milestones. You know, your meetings are milestones. I don't know about 50%, but you know, some smaller much smaller 90 days seems a little tight a lot tight actually not a little tight a lot tight you're trying to put monies together get construction loans together that that's that takes time and now we're asking a lot more of previous investment to come in i mean i i know i'm coming in with higher fees but i also very I think we need to consider the time. And that's what we can justify some of that adjustment.

The last TDRs that we placed via RFP were paid in 90 days, the first payment, and in 120 days, the second payment.

How much was that? You remember? $2.4 million. Which project was it? If you don't mind me asking. Tony, what would be a more flexible timeline that you could suggest?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, the conversation that we need to have now in terms of how we are paid for TDRs and what the deal is when we sell TDRs, that's... its own negotiation in and of itself, right?

Right, so this is like a real estate closing situation. I mean, it's development rights that are being sold, not actual dirt, but it's like a real estate transaction. And so the terms can be extended.

But if you do an RFP now, with the actual terms that we have there, we can literally sell out our RTDRs in this RFP.

Yeah, in theory. Why not? In theory, we could. In theory, we could.

Yeah. Okay, so what did you say? Okay. Oh, okay. I heard something else.

You said we could sell out our TDRs in this RFP?

With an RFP out now, we can get enough people that are interested in buying TDRs. We can sell out our 47, 46 TDRs a week?

Yeah, no, it's a very optimistic outlook. I appreciate that. But what we're talking about now is how people pay, the timeline that people pay for density and height after they get their site plan approval, not when people purchase TDRs. When they come to us, we have a presentation, neighbors come and they yell, and then the applicant presents their project and it's, you know,

via site plan, purchase of TDRs via site plan approval. She's discussing that.

No, no, no. This is separate from the TDR conversation at all. This is just like, you know, let's say this is typically what has happened is that we've issued an RFP and somebody has purchased the TDRs and then they've come to us with a site plan already having the TDRs. And so the TDR payment has been negotiated separately and now we're just talking about the community contribution fees and maybe in some cases workforce housing fees, but when those fees are going to be paid and whether or not a discount is going to be offered if they pull a building permit in a certain period of time.

So you have any other flexible time suggestions?

I would love to see more time than 90 days, but it's... Well, so my gut is to say... Giving a discount, if someone... is sort of expediting their building permit process and isn't just kind of waiting and seeing what it looks like. Like we wanna see that, right? But we also don't want projects to fail. So I don't want to now insert the real estate market expertise of the commission in the place of the developer, who's the professional, who's invested the money in the project and the land and the entitlements. I would like the fees to be what the fees are. And you pay them... you know, 50% with

Yeah. Yeah, I think the discount gets us into hot water.

I think it should just be a matter of extending a little more time. 90 days seems a little short for me to pull all that money together. Soon after you barely bought a property, barely put all of this. Permit could be way too long because now they can hold up forever until they're ready to.

I think if you've invested in land in North Bay Village and you've hired an architect and a land use attorney and you're coming to get an entitlement, you know, you've got your investors. They know you're going to have to pay for these things. The cost of what they are is very clear.

That's not necessarily true. All of this investment is done and ahead as far as just getting pre-approvals, and we've seen it. They come here with, how many drawings have this village seen of a building with architectural designs?

And then they flip them. I understand the scenario that you're articulating. I think... When the fees are clear, as they are here, right? If you want this amount of height, this is how much it's going to cost you. If you want this density, this is how much it's going to cost you. Someone can literally particular the pro forma based on those costs. They can go to their architect based on those costs. And they can say, this is the project that we want to build. This is the money, right? Got it. And so if those costs are built in to the project at the beginning and the architect knows what they'r

I like to give them more time, but I also want you to consider that it's not just a $2.whatever million. It's the cost of the land that is part of the whole investment that they're already putting up front. So that's why I think flexibility in time helps with that. Sure. Yes. I like more time. That's my petition.

How do you feel about discounts for building permits?

What I am looking at is that we are scaring our investors, not only those that are potentially future investors, but those that have already invested, delaying their projects even more because the market right now, you don't have to be in real estate to know that the market, pardon the French, sucks. Things are not selling.

especially i mean these are pricey items we're getting all the new yorkers and californians in into south florida no i i hear you they're not coming here they're going to the islands so so what is the proposal on timing i don't want to make the second half do it building permit because that's the wrong marker they could they can take however long they want before they permit and and we're going to lose out on on money so i would i would prefer the bread from the 50 remaining to be paid at a date certain as opposed to an event. How about a year later? I think six months and a year. 90 days is..

We need to give them time to put all this money together. We're asking for a lot of money. At least we need to provide flexibility for them to put their investment together. Again, people are not lining down the street to buy. They're going to have to hold these properties for a while. We are going to make money out of the taxes a year later anyway from that property.

You're going to make money once the property is completed. No, of course. That is the thing. A year after that. You're talking about 10 years down the road. Probably. Let's be realistic. No, it's true. You're not seeing that immediately.

No, I'm not talking about the property. I'm talking about the sale.

The only person that I know that has the pockets to have been able to pay in that manner was related, which is Perez, who has the money. When you're talking about a smaller developer.

So we want to table this conversation in here 14D.

Okay, that's three votes for tabling this conversation and moving to 14D. Let's do that. We did approve a motion to update the fee schedule. We did. We have updated our fee schedule, so Everybody can feel, well, feel however you want to feel about that, but I'm going to feel good about it. All right, 14D, I'm going to go ahead and read this. This is a discussion and direction on issuing a request for proposals for the sale of village-owned density rights, transfer of density rights. This is Mr. Village Manager, Frank Willis, and this is your item.

Yeah. Well, does staff have anything to say about this item, or should I allow the applicant or the proposal?

One time we got no bids. Got it. Put it out again. Okay.

Why wouldn't we just keep out an open RFP for invitations to purchase these TDRs?

I mean, I don't see a negative of just inviting them to push. I mean, we want to sell the TDRs. We could, whenever anybody wants to buy them, I mean,

When we talk about the schedule and the timing, is there a way, let's say, to incentivize people to actually bill when we're talking about timing? Can people be charged, companies be charged? After two years, if they have not pulled a permit, can they receive a charge for their TDRs? Same other words.

But they will come to us for an extension if they want to.

We don't have a mechanism for conveying.

Let's hear from the applicant on 14D. Good evening. Your name and address for the record, please.

In terms of the increase from 150 to 250 on the TDR costs?

Have you considered building by right? Under the RM70?

No, I understand. I also know you're an extraordinarily highly reputable land use attorney, and we've been having these conversations in the public for five months now. And so it's not like the fact that we have been re-evaluating our fees was quiet. I think when you and I spoke over the phone, I gave you the heads up that we were increasing our fees. Yes. And so... Look, I appreciate what you're saying. I appreciate what you're saying. I just... It's hard to process unbiased information without knowing... HAB-Juliette Boone, The developer without knowing what the plans are for the site withou

We did it when someone had already purchased TDRs, which felt more reasonable to me. Something to think about. So how many units exist on the site today? 30. There are 30 units. Okay. And just out of curiosity, what happened with the owners in the building or buildings that were there?

If not mistaken, that's the one that I read on Facebook. They were all given a date, a very close date for them to leave. I'm not sure if it's your building or another building. They were given 45 days and they were paid a month and a half of the rent.

Yeah, I'm just, did you get 100% of the unit owners to sell or did you get 75% of the unit owners and then you took over the board?

Okay, this is helpful. Madam Attorney, Mr. Attorney, explain to us the scope of, what is the scope of authorized responses from us? What can we do here to respond to everything we've heard tonight?

Can I first say, so the height increase is going to cost you an additional 1.5, about 1.5 million, right? Right. And the TDRs are going to cost you an extra 1.25 million. So it's the same. I mean, it's similar when you're saying the height is detrimental to your project, but you can absorb the TDR costs. I don't understand that because that's an equivalent value to me. What am I missing?

I just wanted to make sure I understood it right. Because I'm like, these costs are the same. Yeah.

So we just voted to increase the cost of TDRs from $150 to $250. We could now issue an RFP to sell TDRs at a discounted rate before that $250 goes into effect. And that would net, hopefully... you know, more TDR sales, we would, you know, and if we do it at the $200,000 rate, which is what staff was recommending, and then we go out with an RP at staff's recommendation, I think that might possibly address the concerns of our applicants here, and also might be a smart thing to do, to say we're going to raise the cost to $250,000, but we're going to basically have a I think we should try a fire s

I think that's a good idea to raise money. If you want them, here's your chance. If not, they're going up. I disagree.

We just went through a huge conversation of fees.

That negates the whole thing that we just did.

Let's be flexible with payments so that they have more assistance.

We've already had a fire sale for the last couple years. So now we're going to raise them and we think it's going to happen.

I'm interested to hear from you, actually.

i'm uncomfortable with vesting i don't agree with you from a reliant standpoint at all um and and i'm very hesitant to imply that that there's any merit there because again the conversations that have been happening on this day is for the last five months if not not to mention the last six years since we approved nbb 100. i mean i would like to do something

in favor of them. I don't know what, but I'm torn because I know of three other projects that are interested as well. And because we have been discussing it, maybe they have not submitted. Correct. a piece of paper saying, hey, we're interested in whatever.

Right. Again, that's why I'm sort of, I know that I'm only one vote, but I'm just sort of dismissing out of hand the idea that we would vest a party tonight.

Yeah. I find it, I don't want to say funny because it's not funny, but I find it very interesting that I have been mentioning all along. I have three people. I have three people. A fourth one just came up tonight that I met here at the meeting. And our planner is saying that he has heard of three as well.

So what do you think of this issuing in the RFP at the discounted rate of 200, which is what staff was recommending initially?

Basically, I was accepting of staff's recommendation of 200,000 and 100,000 for, I mean, 10,000 for linear foot. That is something that was a middle point of where we ended up being that maybe they could accept because it would not be such a steep TDR increase or such a steep linear foot increase either. Those are calculations that have to be made by the individuals. Yes, we were cheap. We're the last waterfront city selling properties basically. that are being developed, hopefully being developed. So we have the possibility of raising it a bit, but I think, and I was beaten fairly three to tw

I feel for you. But I have to think of the entire community at hand. And because we don't have a plan, what you're planning to do, I've had developers come here, say themselves that they're small developers. And I'm not saying you are that person. I'm just telling you what I've seen, not as a commissioner, as a resident. Developers stand right there and say, we're not going to build nothing bigger. I don't really need that height. I'm not going to go that high. And then they come back and they purchase all these other properties. And next thing you know, it's one of the largest developments.

So it's a horrible experience. One of the things that we eliminated from staff's recommendation was this sort of second tier of $25,000 per additional vertical I mean, that was in staff's recommendation, and we just wiped it off the table. We're not charging for that. I mean, that's a significant expense that you all could have contemplated that you're not going to be paying, right? And so to get from $150,000 to $240,000,

We actually reduced our parking requirements on Harbor Island. So do you need the height to meet parking requirements or do you need the height to meet market requirements? requirements.

No, you're probably right. You're probably right. We need to figure out what we're going to do about this unsolicited proposal. I mean, we have an unsolicited proposal But now there's an issue because we've changed our fees and we don't know if the proposer is going to move forward with their proposal.

I would like to hear a little bit more about the flexibility in time, which is something we tabled before.

No, I don't think I want to do that. I think I want the commission. I appreciate where you guys are coming from, but I think hearing from you, the time has concluded. I think we need to discuss amongst ourselves what we want to do. Does somebody who voted for the last motion want to move to reconsider their vote?

Well, I have a question. I have a question. I have a question in reference to RSV. I think this is an opportunity for you to give us a final offer of what you would do, and then we can consider that sale as an individual sale. It's been presented to us tonight. And that's what I talked about timelines and things like that, because they are presented as an offer to buy TDRs. I think that it's only fair that they give us, they heard our numbers, they know what we want.

Can you respond, Madam Attorney? I really want to make sure that we don't turn this into a little bit of a free throw.

I think tonight we made the decision to raise our fees. So unless somebody would like to reconsider, we should stick by the fees. Unfortunately, they're the first ones that come across these fees. But everybody is going to have to face the same decision. And it wasn't unsolicited. I don't think we should be. No, we don't negotiate our fees. They're 250. We set the minimum. That's what you just did. So it's no longer negotiable. We set a height fee. It's not negotiable.

Unless we decide to issue an RFP. If we wanted to, we could vote tonight to issue an RFP for TDRs at a discounted rate of $150,000 per unit or $200,000 per unit. We could set the floor lower. in this RFP issuance than what we set it at per ordinance. And that would be, again, kind of like the splash sale idea.

And I will question, is it fair to the other three individuals that are also interested?

They could bid. Now that they've had the benefit of hearing our discussion on what the fees are going to be, if we issue an RFP for TDRs at this discounted rate, wouldn't they all be incentivized to come in and purchase them at the discounted rate?

But if we limit the number of TDRs that we're selling.

I wouldn't do that. I don't support doing that. I would say let's just put them all up for sale.

When we do call it a discounted rate, it is the highest in Miami-Dade County. It is the highest, I think, in Broward and up to Palm Beach. I don't think anybody charges this much for TPR. It's not a discount.

Well, I appreciate that. But given the base density of this community and where we're located and so many, I mean, I don't want to really get into the merits of the fees since we already approved them. What I'm proposing is actually that we vote to issue an RFP to sell the remaining TDRs at the discounted rate of... I don't know, $150, $200. And for me, that solves a number of issues. It gets us a lot of the money that we need for Village Hall, and it does so quickly. It allows people who have been sort of exploring investing in North Bay Village for a while, who have met with our planning sta

Mr. Chair, when we talk about selling, let's say we do this and most of our TDRs get sold, if not all of the TDRs get sold. For the residents in Harbor Island to understand what percentage of their island would not be able to ever have TDRs purchased, What would that be? Do you know more or less based on our current sales, what we've done, what's been approved?

So let's say we sell all the TDRs. OK. For our residents in Harbor Island to understand that once they're gone, they're gone. And there's still many buildings that don't have any other TDRs that they will most likely remain the size that they could be permitted to be, right? Because a lot of them feel like they have a target on their back that they're going to be on their side. What would be that percentage of property still left that will not be able to do TDR purchases?

I would picture less than half of the properties in Harbor Island would remain as data.

Any of the TDRs that we sell tonight, for argument's sake, I'm saying tonight, I'm talking about the RFP, which is, for argument's sake, 50. Plus those that we sold to Related, Grand Vita, and Urbanica. can be re-conveyed to somebody else. They can be sold to somebody else.

We're still talking about the same numbers within. Yeah, because if they don't do it and somebody else does, then their building will still be small.

But you're still talking about the same number of TDRs that are still rotating that are still in the mix.

I just want the residents to picture that we're not building every building. It's not going to be able to be a tall tower full of people. I'm just trying to give that image to the public out there to understand that whatever we're negotiating, which I do agree with the mayor, I think that it is falling there. I think it will give us a little more perspective.

I would love to have three votes for my proposal on this RFP. I'd like us to move on.

The proposal is to issue an RFP to sell the remaining TDRs at a discounted rate of $200,000.

Is there a deadline to that? For how long?

Does that proposal stay open? I can support it. Does it have a finite period?

Do we make it a three-month proposal? You still have the height.

Correct. The height chart. Yeah. You're only removing a quarter of the cost. But it's a discount. That's nothing. When you talk about these projects... Does it make sense?

I appreciate very much. I'm not trying to be rude, but we've given you guys, I think, a generous amount of time.

I can agree with that. It's kind of... with a limited amount of time.

Going from 250 to 200 on the units, and again, keeping the height increase where it is, but not charging for that second tier of height bonus reduces their costs. I mean, did I write down the math somewhere? What would that mean? If we were at $200,000? Yes.

To the village. The TDR costs at $250,000 are $2.75 million. And the TDR costs at $200,000 is $2.2 million, which reduces their costs by half a million dollars.

It's a significant amount. And I think compensating in that height is... to me, reduces significantly the blow in terms of what may or may not need to change on this project. I mean, it's a reduction in $500,000, essentially.

Can this expire in three months, this offer? Yeah. Three months? Does that seem fair? No, three months is as long as we're going to have this offer available.

So have the RFP open. How long will the RFP be open?

I think there needs to be a finite period and then it has to default to what's been decided tonight for sure.

I can do that. And we're losing two and a half million dollars.

Why are we losing 2 1⁄2 million? You were willing to lose more than that because you were going to vote for the 200 to begin with.

If we sell 50 TDRs, we lost 2 1⁄2 million.

You were going to vote for the 200, right?

Yeah, you're supporting the 200 from the beginning. So how are you losing it? How are we losing it? You voted on something. You right now have $12 1⁄2 million worth of TDRs. By you lowering it, you are risking $2 1⁄2 million. Not me. You. You voted for it. Not me. I voted against it.

But you've been so persuasive. I'm being realistic. And that's why I'm trying to be flexible.

Because of you. And if you go ahead and lower it, trust me, tomorrow morning I'll be calling the other three, advising them also, hey, this is the price that we have. There is a bargain going on. You better jump on it or else you lose it. Of course. You were going to jump in.

And I think it will be a great money raise for the city and it will be successful.

60 days? 60 days going once, twice, I'm in.

Vice Mayor, you haven't really said much. I'm staying by what I said previously. I still think that we're selling ourselves short and we're kind of going back on what we voted for previously.

Okay. So you're going to be a no? I'm a no. Okay. Well, let's try this. I'm going to move to open an RFP for 60 days to sell all remaining TDRs or what we have available at the cost of $200,000 for 60 days. I second it.

Maybe we'll get a frenzy and we'll get more money than we've expected.

There's a motion and a second. Does anyone have any final comments on this before we call the question? Okay.

And that's, I think, the best that we can do. Because I am concerned.

Yeah, well, you just heard that we have three other developers who are interested and who have been waiting for us to sort of make up our minds. And so I'm sorry. I'm just not going to agree to the vesting. Madam Clerk.

Staff, are you clear on what we're doing?

Yes. Okay. 60 days at 200 and then it goes to 250.

Okay. All right. Or they can be 201,000. I mean...

And Vita gave us a boat tour of the island anytime we wanted, once a year.

Okay, so we have to come back to the question that we called or that we didn't call, the question that we tabled, which is what are the timelines on the payments now? You know, I'm happy to give people a year to make the second half of the payment.

I also can second that. And the other half at receivable when it's been awarded.

I mean, you get site plan approval and then you have 90 days to pay us 50%. And then a year from site plan approval, you have to pay us the remaining 50%. That allows you time to do a little bit of marketing. You know, you've got a better sense of what the market looks like. You can fully, you know, really get your concepts fleshed out more. The architect is going to give you their actual cost to build the project as opposed to what it costs them to design it, right?

Yep. Schedule's good. I second the schedule.

I need one of you, unless you have a proposal alternative. I'll support it as well. Okay, all right. So the motion is 90 days, 50%, and then one year from site plan approval, the second half.

That's clear. Okay, so that's my motion. You're seconding. Commissioner Darrell seconds. Madam Clerk, will you call the roll?

90 days for first half, one year from site plan approval second half and failure to make a payment, your site plan approval goes away. Okay, all right. Let's take a very quick bathroom break before we talk about the budget, okay? So let's recess for five minutes and then come back and do the budget. We're good. Thank you for your service this evening.

Yeah. Oh, but it's just two items. Okay. Not a lot of test reviews here, right? Okay. Feel better yes.

All right, Commissioner Acosta, this is your 30-second warning. Everyone, this is your 30-second warning. We're going to get back to business.

He went to the bathroom. OK, Commissioner Trevone. You all set? OK, alright, we're gonna. We're gonna start again. We are gonna bring back the meeting and go ahead and move on with item 14A. This is the discussion of the village's proposed budget for the 2026, 2027 fiscal year. This is the village manager's item. And then 14B is a very similar issue. This is a resolution of the mayor and village commission of North Bay Village, Florida, declaring as required by section 200.065 Florida statutes, the villages proposed millage rate and rollback rate computed pursuant to section 200.065 sub one fo

Sandra, just before that, just wanted to clarify something. I don't know if you mentioned when you said the medium house price was at $500,000, correct? Yes, $526,073.

Another thing, as we were working on these figures, you were updating them with me at the same time, you notice how many of these fees were actually reduced from, I think, 2020, from when you were looking at this, like, what was it, like the Everglades Construction Project, the Children's Trust, there was a few, not huge numbers, but there were some reductions from where we were in 2020 to where we are today. tax-wise. Thank you. I just wanted to clarify those things.

Commissioner Acosta, just sorry. I'm not trying to cut you off.

I just want to- I have the same question you have.

Yeah, I do want to exercise the privilege of the chair. Let me ask the question. Why was that not done?

Even though we had taken out that loan and we were paying interest on that loan?

So let's say the project broke ground in 2021 and we finished in 2023, okay? Correct. Our village manager was Ralph Rosado and our finance director was Angela. Whose job would it have been to request those funds from the state? Would that have been the Public Works Department or would that have been the Finance Department?

Okay, I'm... I am not trying to call out individual members of our staff. I don't ever want to be in a position to do that. But there is an administrative support staff person in the public works department who has been in that position since 2020, probably before then. What happened? Why did we not of course, we obviously would have had a different public works director, but there is someone in the public works department who handles PW documents and these types of requests in terms of getting reimbursed for public works projects.

We're not making these same mistakes anymore, right?

How much money are we owed or entitled to, however you want to phrase it?

I'm looking at you like, can you believe the number that just came out of their mouth, $6 million?

Okay, if we encounter any questions or pushback from the state of Florida, please notify us immediately so that we can figure out a way to navigate state leadership in what is a very tumultuous time for our state leadership. But yeah.

I was just going to ask you, how did we come about this?

Let me put it in a very easy way. Your microphone.

The month that Sandra has been here, she has found about the $8 million that we were always hoping there were in reserves and that disappeared. They were in the wrong accounts. Now you have a telling of what is in the proper accounts, who owes who money. proper recalculations. Grants are going out on a timely basis. Thank you to Lakeisha, who was by Ralph, Ralph and Angela and company. And I'll say it straight to their face, they did not do their job properly. And this is why we are in the mess we're in. My answer is until I see this $5.9 million, In our hands, I'm not claiming victory.

And we agree with that. I think that's wise.

That is wise. We have to do a budget without that 5.9. Correct. Once we get the 5.9, we can discuss how to spend it, misspend it.

Okay. This is very illuminating and helpful. I want to allow staff to continue moving through their presentation. And then we're going to do this in as much of an orderly way as possible. I'm going to let everybody ask their questions and make their statements starting tomorrow. We're going to start on your end of the day. I kind of want to start with you, if that's OK.

Right. Commissioner Trevone is right. There are still things in there that we can cut. I have a couple of ideas myself.

We, my, my, my, The first thing that comes to the top of my head in terms of where we can make savings from things that are in the general fund that I am assuming that you put in the general fund again from last year is our $50,000 annual. I think it's $50,000 or $55,000 annually we pay to Ron Book PA. No disrespect to Ron or his staff. um i'm particularly deflated by the appropriations process this year i don't feel particularly excited about going to tallahassee in the coming year and while it is true that we will have a new governor I don't want to hold out any hope, and I certainly don't w

um if there's an appetite to cut the budget from the lobbyist and to go this next year without making a concerted effort in tallahassee i have a question to frank about that based on the conversation that i had with you for that revenue source that i discussed with you that i'm going to be bringing up in september would that be a huge problem not having a lobbyist well you're going to have to legislation is going to have to be

It's a big endeavor, but it could be a huge win for us. Obviously, you haven't heard nothing about it.

No, yeah, I don't. And I'm sure it's a great idea. And in theory, I love the idea of being able to go to the state capitol and make change.

No, no, no, no. It's not about an idea of going to state capitol and make change. That's not at all why I was asking this to Frank. It's because a very specific plan to provide a significant amount of annual revenue to the city of Northwood Village would need somebody to lobby for us to make that happen. And of course, you don't know nothing about this, and this is why I'm asking you. The state for the proposal that I was going to make in September.

There's no new salaries you can put in September, though. There's no new salaries you're going to be able to put in September unless you take from one pot and switch the pots around. We're going to vote on a millage today. A maximum millage, for instance. And if we remove Ron Book's $50,000, And we lower the millage to a 6.5. For argument's sake. I'm using easy numbers. You cannot come back in September and say, I want to hire this individual that's going to lobby on our behalf for $50,000.

Correct. And that's the only reason why I'm not.

Okay, so let me get a sense from the commission. I don't know how people are feeling about staff's recommendation of a 7.0 millage. The millage that we set tonight is what's going to be sent to our neighbors on their term notices as the proposed millage. Yes. Then we're going to come back in September. We can cut the budget in September, but we can't add to the budget. We cannot exceed that 7-0 millage. If we decide to pass a higher millage tonight, let's say a 7.2, a 7.5, an 8, right? we can make cuts to the budget in September and actually tax our residents at a seven, a 6.5, a 7.2, or whate

You're the right person for it. You have been on this dais for years and years and years. You know exactly what's happening and even the real talk, people need to hear what you have to say.

And I said this last year. Unfortunately, I was voted down. This is an election year. This is not the year where you play with the budget, where you increase the budget now to later be the heroes and cut it down. That's next year's budget that's an off-election year. In regards to what you said about Tallahassee, totally disagree with you. We have a new governor. We're going to have a new president. senators and representatives. We don't know where they stand. We need to meet them. We need to greet them and we need to start molding them as to our needs and our requests for future generations.

I do. And I was going to cut my own budget anyway and pay for things like Miami-Dade League of Cities dinners out of my own pocket. And if I do, for whatever reason, need to raise money this cycle, I can obviously transition that money into an office account too. But I don't think I'm going to be raising any money this cycle.

So there's ways of working this budget whereby... I'm not saying to bring it to the minimum level of what, you know, the bare bones minimum to say now that we are going to bring it up to an eight and 8.5. And then at the next meeting, we're coming down to a seven. It's a portion to me. It's a portion. We don't need in my calculations. I don't need seven. I still have a 0.21 margin. In my personal calculations, I even have a little bit more than 0.21. And I asked Frank to add coffee and tea back for the employees, which is a minimal amount, but at least, hey, you've got to give them coffee and

I agree with that. So you're definitely not going above seven. Is that what I'm hearing?

I will vote against anything above seven.

Yeah, well, we have to be unanimous this evening. And so that's why I'm having this conversation to get a sense of where people are.

But when we're talking about the seven, and we choose the items that we're going to include in the seven, I'm going to be talking not only about this year's budget. I'm talking about next year's budget as well, where we will all be involved in because we are not only losing $150,000 in homestead exemption this year. I got to think that we're losing 250 the following year. That's right. Which is going to bring us down to over a million and a half in our budget. It brings us down 700,000 this year. It's going to be a million and a half next year. They were short. So I got to look at not only wha

Okay. So let me just ask, Richard says he's going to vote against anything over seven. Do we have anyone that will vote against anything over 6.5? I mean, it depends. Do we need five votes for seven? So I'm trying to get a sense of where we are. I'm prepared to vote for seven right now.

Right. But we saw from the first slide that Sandra presented that maybe it wasn't the first slide, but at 5.42, We cannot accomplish the mandatory cost allocation recalculation. But to do the mandatory required cost allocation recalculation, we have to be unanimous for 6.1698. So in my view, tonight's vote has to be unanimous.

Let me go one step further. I'm going to give you some other information that you people might be aware of, might not be aware of. Our charter requires us to have a 20% general fund slash utility emergency fund. It comes out to $2.9 million. This year, 2025, 26, it's in there, in paper. That fund does not exist. So if we would have had the emergency, a hurricane hit us, we would be shit out of luck. in conversations with Frank. He says, what do we do in case of emergency? I said, we have $30 million for City Hall. So if we need $2 million to cover the emergency, you borrow it from City Hall, w

That's how sad it is. And we have upped our debt millage to 3.49. Which increased our taxes, God knows what. It's spelled out here. So Sandra provided us with this case study of a home worth $526,000.

I believe your home is worth... more than $526,000. But for that average home, my property is only worth about $240,000. So I'm half of that, right? Well, you get the extra $150,000 homeset exception that you're going to get.

$45,000 in my condominium this year alone. And that was just to pay the required special assessment on my condominium so that it could be recertified after 60 years. And I appreciate how fortunate and privileged I am to have been able to shell out that money on an expedited timeline, right? The board of directors at Island Place set an extraordinarily unreasonable timeline whereby everyone was required to pay their full special assessment amount in something like six months, right? So some people were given different timelines, some people were not, but this was a very real expense that our ne

Add to that for the single family homeowners, an extra $125 a year more. that utilities are going up on a monthly basis, which is another tax that we pay.

These are very real expenses. And you're right to point them out. And it's important for us to be calling them out in public meetings. And we're all going to need to be having honest conversations with our neighbors about what this means. When I, you know, I've been knocking, not knocking on doors, like I said, I specifically reached out to about 50 homeowners across the village over the last three weeks and had very painful conversations with many people. In fact, I'll just say that I've been in public service in North Bay Village for over six years, and this is actually the most unhappy expe

Also, mind you, and I want people to realize this, within my 7% millage increase, there is an even 3% COLA increase for all employees Because let's be realistic. When I said some employees earn bupkis, utilities are the ones that have the lowest pay scale. They're all getting a 3% recognition. I can't offer them more because we don't have it. If we get the 5.9, I'm willing to sit down and see how we spread the wealth across all borders. But That 5.9 is not guaranteed. And I'm not making that promise. If we get it, yes, I will sit down and figure out a plan for everybody to be happy.

I keep talking about Village Hall. I still have another vision, which I've discussed with you, and I'll make it public today. There's another property that I would like to purchase. for an aquatic park for North Bay Village with what funds? You know, I don't have funds. So I'm not using the 5.9 for that. I'm using the 5.9 to reimburse the 20% that my charter has to be there, 10 and 10 of whatever figure comes out to be. I don't know the 2.9 is accurate or not because you have to add whatever. And if we pass hurricane season and we can only put in 2.1, we only put in 2.1. Sure. There's no real

Okay, so I'm hearing you on the Tallahassee strategy, and I certainly don't need to draw a line in the sand on that this evening. I mean, no, I don't. I'd rather we agree on a millage. So... I think it would be useful to accept we're going to be unanimous tonight and to start our millage calculations. What do we, you know, our base at the... No, to start... at the required cost allocation recalculation, the mandatory thing that we need to do, which is the 6.1698. I mean, I certainly would like to fund the community center. So I would prefer to begin at 6.4873. Okay. All right. So Andy and Gora

All right. So that's where we're starting. is 6.4873. Okay.

So going through items five through 12, you know, let's start on the opposite side of the dais and have, you know, each of you. I want to know what is non-negotiable for each of you, things that you absolutely believe we must include so that we can calculate the millage.

All right. Okay. Number five seems like the one thing to me. Also, we only have one person in our IT department, and I think it's mandatory that we pass on this in the past.

Speaking of how just indispensable he is, right?

Yeah. I think having a second person in our IT department is...

Who would remind us to use our microphones?

Yep. I'm keeping track of what people are prioritizing now. No, I know, but everybody's going to go down the list so that we can see where the priorities are. And if we have five unanimous on a certain priority, then we know we're going to add it. That's kind of what I'm trying to do here. So keep going on. What's your absolute priorities?

After that, I'd like to see the 3% COLA across the board.

to police department sworn as well as general fund?

That would be- I'd call it, I'll start with that. That's my priorities.

Okay. All right. Are you sure you're done? Yes. Make a note that Andy doesn't care if you guys have coffee in the morning. Commissioner Acosta?

Come on. Save space here. Save space. Okay. Question, Sandra. I would like to know how much would it be with all of these added?

And when you're doing that Doris, I'm going to ask you to ask what is, The estimated cost. Correct. That move.

Oh, what do you mean? Oh, like, what would that be?

Just making sure we know. Okay. So, and again, next year.

What is it going to cost next year if you decide to give a 3% COLA at a new rate? Correct.

Yes, because now the pay scale goes differently.

Pay scale goes differently. Do you have that estimate?

Sandra, could I have that estimate, if you don't mind?

You have to figure out what the police salary is for this year.

right no i i understand add to that 275 000 okay i want to give actually our chief of police and our launch president the opportunity to speak about this um i would hate to have this conversation without you all weighing in so chief noriega uh lieutenant costa

Well, I mean, the chief can delegate to the deputy chief. I'm not going to tell him what to do, but he is the chief of police. Okay, great. We love the Carlos and Sam show, Susan. It's a good team.

Microphone, Chief, please. Turn the mic on. Thank you.

There's a discussion about how we are taxing the public. You may have followed. I have. Okay. Um, there is, there are a number of proposed corrections, um, for us to consider this evening. Um, I think the 3% cost of living adjustment is something that everyone here understands. Um, I would love for you to give a little bit more color to, A, the four-hour fix. What is the need for that? What does it mean? How have your operations been impacted by the lack of those four hours? That's the first thing I'd like you to touch on. And the second is this pay scale implementation. What does it mean for

Thank you, Chief Noriega. Mr. President.

I do have a question. Earlier, I spoke to you and I asked you about the increase in calls from our dispatcher. You gave me some figures, which blew my mind. Last year, you mentioned we received a total of 48,631 calls for service. That was last year. Yes. July 2020. The first time months earlier. This year? Yes. We are higher than that at 52,356, which makes it almost 4,300 calls a month for service. Opening, it was last year, it was 48,000 for the first seven months of the year. And what is it now? 48,631. And now it's 52,356, which is an average of 4,333 per month. Now we are going to be ope

It's another open space, active space that we would imagine is going to create even more calls, events, attention. It already has in this short period of activity that it has.

We've got those kids trespassing on the roof, man.

Well, we had, for example, when we did the opening, right, for not our opening, but like the ribbon cutting, I think it was for AFA, right? We had high-profile politicians coming into town. You all received calls to say, hey, what are you doing to secure our people? And that now took the attention that would have gone to our normal residents into this new activity last minute. And it's going to continue to be like that. It's not going to stop. So what do you predict that happens?

And this also extended to Johnny, correct? Because he's your forensic person for the video reviews and all of that.

So he has to witness all of these things, just the opposite of him.

And that doesn't include cases like the one we had here on the causeway where we had, remember the gentleman coming out on North Bay Island and you had to physically restrain him and some of our officers were hurt. So now you're losing that person. So the reason why I bring this up so that the public can hear real life examples of officers have to endure and what they're at risk by not paying a little bit more in taxes to help us with this. So is there anything else that you would like to add to this?

Thank you, Chief Noriega. Thank you, Lieutenant Costa. Does anyone have follow-up questions or comments for our police leadership?

Thank you. Thank you. This side of the dais.

This side of the dais. I'll be the big mouth again. I want each one of us So look at the book and compare the increases of each individual position. Thankfully, they're not by names, they're by positions. You will notice that there is a compression issue, but some people are up to make $30,000 more. Some people are not going to make the $30,000. They're not going to make $2,000. Not even $5,000 because they're coming in now and they're coming in at the level that they have to come in. There is a real compression issue, but this is not the time that we can solve it. If we get the monies that ar

I wanna make sure I understand where you stand for the purposes of the broader discussion. So you do not want to- At this time, give any compression. So seven and eight are off the table for you completely. Correct. Okay, so I want the police department to understand we have to be unanimous tonight. So if one of my colleagues says something is a deal breaker for them, I'm going to move on from that issue so that we can achieve unanimity here tonight on the overall issue, which is the millage.

And for the record, I had a conversation with Cesar for four hours one night, and we discussed all this quite open, and he knows exactly where I stand.

Now, if I may say, Richard, what you were saying about the compression, of course, is a reality, right? My thought with that is there is a reason why these people are getting such an increase of 30,000 versus some that may not get none of that. It's because of also loyalty of years of working here.

It's just now. If you look at this, not even a point. not even a tenth of this, it's those increases. And, and, If we're going to make heavy decisions today of increasing taxes, you really should try to resolve heavy problems and not just lightly. So at least we'll be moving on to something that really makes a difference and an impact rather than for small reductions.

Can we change that later? We do go higher and change this later.

I will not go higher. That's the whole thing.

You said you're caught up with seven. And the total of all of this is 6.8. If you're going to go, look. If he's saying he's going to go to seven, we really don't need to have the conversation about the pay scale implementation costs because we can afford the pay scale implementation cost at 6.87.

Correct. Then you're removing from me the other items that I want to say.

No. No, this is including all of it. No. There's other items. That's why I started with give me the total points so that I would start with.

6.8729 gets us a backup for Johnny, a third person in Alba's department, the PS scale implementation, 3% COLA across the board, 9 and 10, community events and coffee. 6.8729 achieves that. So seven achieves that as well. I mean, I think we can get into the weeds on what we want to do and we can do that in September, but if we have five votes for seven, we can be done.

I have even a 0.2126 in play where I can bring it up again in September once I have a better idea of where our 5.9 is.

If I'm going to give them their boost, I'm going to force the 20% charter mandated emergency funds. In September. You know, what's fair is fair. And I agree with you in September. Because that is an emergency fund for the whole city. If a building falls, if there's a hurricane, whatever. We still have a fallback. We still have a fallback.

And I understand that next year I'm going to run into a problem of a high percentage of Their salaries are not coming back down. They stay at that level. And they're going to want to, those that increase a step go up higher. FRS goes higher. And a 3% COLA goes higher. Where? We're a million and a half under already next year. Let's see what happens in November 3rd. We cannot be blinded by that. I agree.

But this still puts us at those numbers.

I don't mind coming back and discussing it when I have the funds, but I don't have the funds right now. For the future. We don't have the funds for nothing. Exactly. We are pulling here teeth. It's either norm or, you know. We have given everything that they have needed for accreditation. They have the best equipment that they have. We have never said no to the increase of staff.

Yeah, but the equipment doesn't get on the street. It doesn't work for us. It doesn't stay. We need them over equipment.

Again, again, again, we don't need to make a decision on pay scale implementation if we're agreeing to set it at seven and come back in September.

Where are you getting the 3% for utilities? Which comes out to $119,536.

You will have the money in utilities for them to get a 3%, because we had, when we talked, we were going to do a line item here and transfer it from general funds to utilities.

That's what- That's our change from the original one that you gave.

So I can take the 0.0662 of utilities 3% column. Correct.

And that was something I was gonna talk to you about too, about hours of operation, because there are cities that don't necessarily have it. I mean, for now we can start with two.

But we obviously established that we cannot make everybody happy. Just so we realize that. That has everybody covered in the best way possible.

Let me just speak to that and then I want to move on. Okay. We have grown the community engagement department by two staff in the last six months. We have Shanika now, who's helping with events, and we have Christina, who was hired on communications.

Yeah, that's not the point that I was making. Okay. The point that I'm making is that we do have someone within the community engagement department who is responsible for communications. Does she report to a director? Yes. But we have someone whose sole job it is, is to produce communication to the residents. And I think that that job could be maximized to be more productive, to have more output, more communication, for our Friday emails to be less just a dump of the flyers for all of the events that we have going on, and more substantive communication. Our residents open those emails. They re

But being fair, also, that department has just been taxed with a community center ordering equipment, assembling equipment, getting staff, planning meetings with PFL, AFL, Indira, Brent, my aunt, my grandmother, come on. She cannot do anything else. So Christina has to come in and do the job that normally Lilly was doing. We don't have the extra help. We have taxed that department to such a level until they get their part-time employees to work funding in October, you're not gonna see a change in that department.

I remember when the chief was the lowest paid chief in all of the county. because he kept on promoting his staff and not giving himself a raise.

You have always said that we're not taking the furniture that is in existence at the City Hall for the new City Hall. No, we're not. We're getting the money for the new furniture.

Wait till you open the bids on the... Oh, listen.

And then we get an order from the Senate of Florida saying, hey, you can no longer have your millage that you had last year. You have to go to rollback. No. And the mayor doesn't want to go to Tallahassee. No.

Well, I don't think that's what she was saying.

We need to go to Tallahassee. We need to see how we can turn this around.

We're all just trying. Again, space here. We're all just trying. Can we just go back to this?

I wonder if we have five votes for seven. Not seven. Five votes for seven.

Well, we still haven't even shown each other's priorities here.

Yeah. Should I go next? Go ahead. Who else is next?

Well, we were going to go down the list and say what everybody's priorities were. But then Commissioner Acosta asked, what would it cost to get 5 through 12, all of them, including, you know, if we start at 6.4873, right? And Sandra, if we're starting at 6.4873. 6.873. No, no, no, we're starting at 6.4873, which is one through four, okay? If we're starting at 6.4873 and we want to include five through 12 at the cost of seven, not eight, right? Five through 12 is everything except for eight because we're looking at, right? That total, that millage is 6.8729, correct? Okay. It's almost half a po

No, I wasn't. I had just started with asking what all of them are. But I actually am very curious to hear Commissioner Cook's priorities. Vice Mayor, go ahead. Oh, Vice Mayor, sorry.

Six, I've spoken with Alba. I understand how important the records clerk is for her, how much she needs help. Yeah. Seven, nine, and 10. Those are my big ones. Community events. I just think that we can all challenge each other to fundraise the amounts to fund these events. Coffee, tea, those things, they're extras. Cola is important to me for all employees across the board. Police pay scale starting in October and records clerk. That's fine.

And could we get what that would be then, Sandra?

No, no, don't worry about that. That's approximately 6.7.

I'm trying to understand where everybody's priorities are.

So commissioner, the reason why I asked that is because it's what you were saying, uh, vice mayor. It's so you took the big hits. Okay. From here, which is great, but the difference is so minimum that I believe is worth seeing, but whatever, uh, my priorities are, uh, definitely, I would like to see pretty much everything here. The only one that I'm also, I agree with the vice mayor is number 11. Other than that, and again, it's not even a 10th of a point. So these are just so small. It just doesn't make any sense and not make a jump for what makes our community whole rather than Big point, ju

But that's my thought behind it. Nick picking tiny little pieces. It's not going to make anybody a hero here tonight. That's for sure.

Okay, so I'm putting a D for Doris. Thank you, ma'am. Next to everything except community events?

No, I'm going to go for everything. I'm just saying, I understand, but I want to go for everything. I feel like if anybody, the neighbors need to get something that makes them happy during the holidays. And again, it's a minimum amount. It's not even a tenth of a point. Okay.

Right, but we have to make choices around things. Like we cut our own commission budgets. We have to have all these little things.

This is an issue that we can cover up. Hey, bring it back. We can make cuts and choices in September. What we're doing tonight is setting a ceiling. And so far I have three votes for seven. Do I have four votes for seven? Do I have five votes for seven? Wait, you said yes. You were the one that started us off with the seven. You said that seven was your limit.

for seven. Okay, great. So I'm going to move that we set the millage at seven. Do I have a second? I have a second. Madam Clerk, will you call the roll?

My motion needs to include both. Is that what you're saying? Yes. Oh, because of the debt. Okay. So the motion is the millage is seven and the debt millage is, the staff recommended 3.4? 098, yes. 3.409. I have to split the debt since it's two different dates.

The proposed, the motion, do you want to revise it? The motion is a proposed millage for FY27 at 7.0000. Proposed FY27 debt millage 3.4098. That is the motion. And I'll second that. Okay. Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Very well done, Mayor. Now we need to realize, well, we need to discuss the two dates.

Anything above the 5.9. You're going to need 7.

And we need to look at the book and see what pennies we can cut here, there, and everywhere. Because they all add up.

Frank, I'll be honest. Because this has been such an iterative process and we've learned all of these things that seemingly were groundbreaking every five days and the numbers were changing, I have not chosen to spend my very valuable time going through the itemized line by line of our budget, right? I mean, I wanted us to get... through tonight to set a millage and provide direction to staff knowing full well that I have the month of August to run through line by line everything that we are spending money on and not spending money on so that when we come together in September, we can have a m

And we have a CIT budget that we haven't even looked at.

Would you like to do that to me? Or would you like to adjourn and go to Happies?

I moved to adjourn. Wait, sorry. I moved to adjourn.

Amazing. All right. That was great. I was ready. Good evening, everyone. We're adjourned at 10.48 PM. Congratulations.