Council - Special Meeting

I call to order the special city council meeting first budget hearing. It's September 8th, approximately 5-12. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. Councilwoman Baskin.

I'm present. You have a quorum. Please stand for the invocation and pledge of allegiance.

God, our Father, we thank you for your grace. We thank you for your mercy. We thank you for the opportunity to gather collectively as a community. It is in this moment, God, I pray that you give my colleagues and I your wisdom, your knowledge, and your understanding as we prepare to deliberate business that ultimately affect our people. It is in this moment we pray that you continue to bless the city of Miami Gardens, bless the residents, stakeholders, everyone that has something to do with this city being home. Father, if you give us all these blessings, we promise we'll give you all the prai

All right, this is the first of two public hearings for the adoption of the operating millage rate, the voted debt service millage rate, and the budget for the City of Miami Gardens for fiscal year 26-27. Mr. Clerk, can you read the title of the millage resolution?

The proposed millage rate for the city for fiscal year 2026-2027 is 6.9363, which is 6.69% over the rollback rate, and the voted debt service millage rate is 0.4137. The aggregate millage rate for fiscal year 2026-2027 is 7.3500. Mr. Manager.

Any questions for Mr. Clay at this time council?

2041 2041 and we're in 2026 okay and that's all the questions i have thank you yes mr clay what are some examples of the dei items that may have to be cut on the list uh you would have the women's event

Mr. Mayor? Yes. I have a few questions. Clay, thank you for your presentation. I know we have met time and time again as we prepared the budget. My question is centered around infrastructure. Yes, sir. I want to go directly to the infrastructure line items in the budget. So if you can do me a favor and highlight the projects that we've been able to complete in this current budget cycle and what that project projection for the new budget cycle looks like as well.

That's the projects that we've completed, or that's projected?

Did we increase the amount of funding? And here's why I asked, did we increase? With the uncertainty surrounding property tax revenue at the state level, and the critical infrastructure investments that we have, especially centered around seawalls, I wonder if there's a way that we can prioritize and accelerate in this budget, the current budget, while we still have the financial capacity to be able to do so. So if there's a certain amount of projects that is centered, I mean, that's scheduled for years to come, How can we accelerate it so that we can take care of those things? Because I know,

Okay so I guess I just want to know how can we Outside of the grant funds, right? Because that subject, that can stop. The grant funds can stop. The federal government can decide, we don't want to put money towards that anymore. We don't want to give municipalities money towards that anymore. How can we ensure that these projects won't stop with this budget?

I got you. And I guess this is also a conversation that my colleagues and I, we would need to start having when it comes down to the legislative priorities and seeing how we can direct our lobbyists and our team of legislators, our state reps and our state senators on the major infrastructure projects that we can essentially secure from the state level as well. In our federal, just to ensure that these projects don't go down the drain. I am concerned. Oh, I know, right? I am a little concerned that with the reduction of the budget, how we will ensure that these infrastructure projects won't ju

I got you. Let me ask you, the 15% for local non-for-profit organizations, do you see if we were to allocate the funding and drop that percentage to maybe 12% and reallocate or redirect those funds to more of assistance would that what of a difference would that look like because and the reason why i'm asking that is because i believe we get more requests from residents for assistance than we do through our local non-for-profits not to say that they don't need it because i'm a huge huge supporter of non-for-profit organizations. I believe in the work that our non-for-profits are doing. But if

I don't do math. I don't want to pull so much from the none-for-profits that we do annually. I don't want to pull so much from it, but I do want to increase the number of assistance to the different programs that we have in our community development fund right so that is home renovation seniors assistance all of that i do want to increase that number but i don't want to pull tremendously from our local non-for-profit so you guys know the budget better so if there's an area where you identify that we can redirect or reallocate versus pulling from the local non-for-profit percentage, then I'm co

You'll bring that to the attention of all of us, right?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Clay, thank you so much for the presentation. Coming into this, you know, kind of walking into this fairly new and not privy to some of the conversations that may have taken place prior to me taking that seat, I want to ask a couple questions and also request some information, if possible. Yes, sir. First off, so you noted in here that the city's taxable value has increased tremendously since 2014. yes right from about 3.5 to what is it now like 10 10.1 billion okay so i would imagine that that growth kind of put us in a better position to absorb some of the financial

Thank you. You talked about the potential amount of savings from Cutting the special events and it was really about six million. Yes, sir. That was correct Is that gross spending or true net? That's your appropriated number. That's the appropriated number. OK. Would it be possible to provide to the council the last three years of P&L statements for those major events that you have listed on the cut? Yes.

Yes. OK. And additionally to that, the 81 eliminated position, or the 81 positions that are being proposed to be eliminated. Yes. Could we get a list of those with their departments and salaries or hourly rate or whatever it is, and then let the vacancy and any service impact that you may anticipate for those as well, please? OK. That's it. That's it? Yeah.

Any other questions? Thank you, Mr. Clay. We appreciate you.

Mayor, I just want to highlight that, I want to put emphasis on this proposed budget that we have here is preparing us should this tax elimination bill pass in November. um and then we will be able to if it don't pass we'll be able to have conversation as it relates to amending the budget and moving forward with those things right i just want to put that out there i want everyone to understand that that's what we're we're basically being proactive right yes okay so i just want to make sure we're indicating that And that necessarily, and I know Councilman Wilson just spoke about the special eve

All right. Thank you, Mr. Clay. We're on public comments. I have one public comment card for the millage and that is Ms. Rhea Hughes.

Ms. Cunningham, you had a card here, but you didn't have a... It's general. It's general? You can come on up now then.

Thank you. All right, I need a motion to adopt the proposed millage rate and the voted debt service millage rate. It's been moved and seconded.

Showing none, we're going to defer the millage rate item until after discussion on the budget. I need a motion on that. Second. It's been moved and seconded. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposition? Showing none. All right, Mr. Clerk, please read the budget ordinance.

Thank you. I Got public comments on this item on the budget Public comment card that I have is miss Rhea Hughes. I

Thank you. Mr. Clay, you and your classmates back there, or your students back there, y'all having a little conversation back there? All right, I need a motion to adopt the proposed budget for 2026-2027. Motion? Second. It's been moved and seconded. It's open for discussion by the council. Any discussion from the council? All right now I need a motion to defer the budget ordinance until after approval of the millage item. So moved.

It's been moved and seconded. All in favor signify by saying aye. Any opposition? Showing none. Now I need a motion to recall the millage rate resolution. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Mr. Clerk, you want to call the roll? In favor of the recall motion. All those in favor of the recall motion?

Any opposition? Showing none. Show the recall motion pass. All right. You want me to go ahead and call the roll on the millage resolution adoption? Yes. All right.

I vote yes. Motion passes 7-0. All right. We need to do the budget too, right? We need a motion to recall. I need a motion to recall the budget ordinance. It's been moved and seconded. I need a vote on the proposed budget ordinance.

All those in favor of the motion to recall the budget ordinance, say it by saying aye. Aye. Any opposition? Showing none. All right. Now we need a vote on the proposed budget. I'll go ahead and call the roll. Go ahead.

Mayor Harris? I vote yes. Motion passes 7-0. All right. The next public hearing will be held on September 23, 2026 at 5.01 PM. at the city hall. And at that time we'll consider the final millage rate and budget for fiscal year 2026-2027. And it will include all of the things we discussed this evening as well. Need a motion to adjourn this meeting? GREG BRUDNICKI Motion. GREG BRUDNICKI It's been moved and seconded. So this meeting adjourned.