City Commission - Regular Meeting

My head hit the pillow and I was out. I eat leftovers.

Are we on? Ready to go. Now we are. First and foremost, good morning, and I welcome everyone to the Wednesday, July 8th budget estimate review, our first opportunity to really get an understanding of what next year is going to look like. I want to thank the manager off the bat and his incredible staff for working on this over the last few months. I know it's been a roller coaster as a result of what we're potentially seeing in Tallahassee over the next year and a half, but I want to thank you and your staff and everyone who's here today who played an integral part in preparing this today. This

Thank you very much. My pleasure. I'd just like to reiterate it and memorialize. I know that people don't like to go in the past, but I think it's important to understand what we did in the past so we don't make those mistakes moving forward. 2028, I'm pretty certain that this referendum will pass and you'll see many cities be in significant trouble. One of the things that we did here that I completely and utterly disagreed with, and I know the Vice Mayor also disagreed with, was in one year I think we brought in about 20 or so employees. Again, with all due respect to our employees, thank you

My understanding was it's about 20 or so.

In that budget, in that budget, in that budget, in that budget, we advocated to be very fiscally sound, to not make that mistake. Besides the COLA, besides the raises through the commission, We're very clear. We're going to be paying for this for the next years because employees are here for 30 years, 25 years. These are positions that we are not eliminating. But as we now foresee what's going to happen in 2028, we have two albatrosses around our neck that would have given us a lot more, a lot more wiggle room in regards to how we're going to deal with this with a short with a short six or sev

Okay. I just want to make sure because I'm going to say that I don't get my facts correct. So all of this has a compounding effect, especially when you're talking about union negotiations. I hate to sound like Jim Kaysen and Raul Valdez-Fauli and people who came before me, but they were very adamant about us being very careful and very thoughtful in how we conducted ourselves during budget season. This is an example of me sitting down with a manager and the DCM and the ACM and telling them, we have needs in certain areas, but we're not going to hire people. We're not going to do what we want t

Mayor, I'm going to add another piece to that because this was part of the presentation that was done, what was it, two years ago now?

In addition to the tail that you have as far as long-term expenses for moving part-time employees to full-time employees, you also lose out on the capital improvements. one-time expenditures that we could have done that would have paved more roads or fixed more potholes or fixed more drainage issues that we could have fixed with one-time expenditures move forward more historic preservation things of those nature because the more you increase your general budget with employees the less you're going to have to put into one-time expenditures of that nature so that is why i was you know preaching

And if you may, just before the end of the meeting, if you would clarify in the 2024 numbers, because I know that we also have police and fire increases, but I'm not adding those to that. Obviously, I'm talking about outside of those. I think if you include those, it was over 40 employees that we added in one year.

So if you look at the last 13, 14 years that I've been here, we've never had a massive number like that. Again, I want to put it on the record because hopefully one day the future elected officials will call Billy and ask for a public records request from the clerk. And they'll say, hey, how did this happen? How did we make a $2 million COLA payment for the next 10 years, $20 million? How did we increase all these employees in one year? And the reason why I say that is because the manager will probably get a good laugh out of this because we've had many conversations about this. We always go b

Okay. So what I'm seeing here, difference from 2023 to 2024 is 22 employees. And from 2024 to 2025 is 46 employees. Can we shine a little more light on that?

Okay, because that's a significant difference. Even if you tell me we hired 20 more employees, In the development services department, 20 employees, no matter what department it is or if it's restricted funds, it's 20 employees. So going back to what the mayor is saying, we're going to have to buckle our belts. But some of these decisions we made were not who you're blaming. I think it was partly you.

OK, so let's talk about that. But before you got here, we hadn't raised the amount of the firefighters advocated every month, every day for new positions. And we hired 15 new firefighters and 15 new police officers. What you see is an increase in those positions in regards to public safety, number one. Number two, in an effort to confuse You may not have your facts tree, but let me educate you and I'll have stuff and I'll have stuff education when you talk about the employees talk about the employees that were brought in in regards to the permitting department. Those employees are paid for fro

So at the end of the day, what I'm talking about is if we're making decisions outside of public safety and we're making decisions where there's an enterprise fund, I don't have a problem spending that money on those issues because you have a dedicated revenue stream. Just like, for example, you're spending money on a bond issuance or the mobility hub and you have a dedicated revenue stream, which is the money that's coming from parking revenue. But the problem here is the amount of employees that were brought in during Amos Rojas, which everyone has to admit was a catastrophe. And if you don't

Through the mayor? Yeah. Yeah, I don't, I don't think you're understanding what's in front of your eyes right now. Let's go ahead and review the math a little bit just so you understand it, okay? There's a difference. In 2024, 22 employees. 2025, 46 extra employees. Explain that. Madam Director.

My point is that you increase employees by 16 that don't have a dedicated revenue source. If you look at the years prior, increase those two employees, three employees, one employee, it was never 16 in one year. At the end of the day, very simple. It's right there. The numbers are there. The director just explained it. Mr. Manager, you wanted to say something.

Who dictates what it can be used for? The state. The state of Florida, correct? The state statute. And that is as a result of permit revenue, correct? That is correct, Mayor. I just want to be clear. This is what I'm telling you. There has to be a dedicated revenue source. If it's outside of public safety, I'd like to see a dedicated revenue source, which is something that I've always said. Case in point, the mobility hub, I think, is something important. So you have 16 employees that were added in one year. That will have an impact on the budget because again, additional salaries, additional

Okay, so it's very clear, very clear. I don't want to have this back and forth game anymore. That's the type of decisions that are detrimental to our budget. If you keep adding every single year 16 positions, 16 positions, 16 positions, you're going to hurt yourself because eventually you're going to have to, guess what, let go of positions if there's a downturn in revenue. That's what I've been telling you. Let's be very careful and be very thoughtful and not put ourselves behind the eight ball, okay?

Through the mayor. Paula, I want to go ahead and put this very clear, OK? 2024, it says 22. But let's go ahead and remove the five firefighters and the five police officers. And let's go ahead and remove the five firefighters for the following year and the firefighters. So let's subtract both of them by 10, because they seem to be the same, because that's what we're increasing, correct? If we remove 10 from 22, that's 12 employees, correct? Correct me if I'm wrong. I'm sorry, I'm not following your you're looking at 2022 2024 2024. I'm sorry, 2023 to 2024. From 2023 to 2024. You can simply loo

I think we understand that that means both years, we have to subtract 10 from each year. Correct. Okay, so if it's 22 employees, in reality, it's 12, subtracting police and fire. And then in 2025, subtracting 10 is 16 employees, if you're subtracting the 20 you contracted for development services, am I correct? Okay, so that would equal 16. Is my math wrong Paula?

So who pays for code enforcement? Where does it come from?

That's my point. So we can keep going in circles and trying to one-up each other, but at the end of the day, I just want you to take ownership of last year's budget, which you voted in favor of. The Vice Mayor and I voted against it. So... You followed the recommendations of Amos Rojas, a person who led the city for one year and had never had the experience of leading this many amount of people that you see in this room. Imagine leading a thousand people in a city. So my point is that, This city, once I'm gone and whoever's left up here, will pay the consequences for adding 16 positions becaus

So to make a long story short, she's mentioned about nine out of the 12. The two that were police, obviously, are public safety. They have to get funded. And there were requests, obviously, from the police chief. We can, in regards to public safety, we prioritize public safety. But as you can see, a majority of the positions, I would say 80% of the positions, probably led us to maybe two or three new positions were all from an enterprise fund. So, thank you very much for clarifying that. Commissioner.

I don't want to continue this conversation. We've been on this for 20 minutes, and we haven't made any progress. But an additional point of clarification, there were also parking-related positions, which are revenue-generating positions. The other issue we had was we were dealing with major issues in Public Works where trash pickup was not taking place because of lack of personnel in that department. Those issues have since been addressed. They're positions that at the time were deemed necessary. We can go back and forth on whether the city manager was a good city manager or not. He was the U.

First and foremost, I think putting it on the record and being very clear on the record, even though I know maybe someone like yourself doesn't want to put things on the record, I understand that and I agree because decisions were made that embarrass the city. By the end of the day, we're having a constructive conversation to be very clear. Outside of Steve Marin, who was the person that recommended this position to Ariel Fernandez, I don't know of anybody that called me and said that the smartest thing that we did was in the middle of a commission meeting, basically was hire a manager without

If I may, maybe I misheard, the mayor doesn't have veto power here in the city of Coral Gables?

That'll make it onto the blogs tomorrow. But by the way, like I mentioned yesterday at the end of the meeting, you know, we hit the highest numbers we've hit in three years, so that's a good point. And I want to congratulate our staff, like I said yesterday. Well done.

Through the mayor. Would it be possible when you bring this slide back up in September, could you break those, those columns up into what's municipal? What is a school board? And what is a county? I think it's important for residents to realize that's not just us, and how much the schools and the county get from their taxes. And what a small portion really, the municipal tax levy is on on the residents.

there the same value would pay two thousand nine hundred dollars just under three thousand dollars for a difference of two thousand seven hundred and eight dollars less than the city of coral gables to the mayor um question of these other cities that you're doing a comparative do any of them um i'm going to use the word subsidize although it's probably not correct the garbage fee or is it billed separately total

But if you were going to actually compare apples to apples, you would have to have an effective millage rate based upon the amount of subsidy that we do provide for residential properties here. Right, so 5.5590 is not actually what they're charged based upon the amount of subsidy.

Yes, I think it's important because sometimes residents don't understand that some of the fees that are charged by other cities explain why their millage rate is lower.

Mr. Manager, I know this may not be the right or appropriate time to discuss this, but I'm going to take the opportunity that we're in the sunshine here with my colleagues. I'm going to be calling for in the next commission meeting, I'm going to be requesting to put it on the agenda. After I speak with you, I haven't had a chance to even speak to you with it and get your guidance on it. I'd like to build a blue ribbon panel with each member of the commission, along with the manager, city attorney, city clerk, having a member who is well versed in finance, person who represents the community, t

32 million dollars. Again, I know that we can't use that money because it's an enterprise fund, correct? But maybe we don't fund that anymore, and that gets us by 70% of the way.

Of course, there's going to be a lot of diversity of opinion. There's going to be a lot of diversity of opinion on all these issues. So the membership on this particular committee might need to be a lot broader than just, you know, you might want to take your current folks that are serving on the budget board and have additional folks appointed or from each discipline. so that it can have a robust discussion on, yeah, where do we make these cuts?

And I welcome that feedback. Again, at the end of the day, it's going to be something that's going to be this commission's responsibility. And if you read that Wall Street Journal article that came out, you can see that people are bracing. And we're blessed, like the vice mayor said, of our central business district. But if we didn't have a central business district, you have some cities that, in that article, they're talking about 30%, 40% cuts in their budget. And that would be a tsunami in this community.

Manager, on that point. I have full faith and confidence in our finance team. I tell them every single day, I'm with your office. But I think this is an opportunity just to get people to really understand, to really engage, because they're going to go out and vote. Maybe we use it as a tool to explain, hey, where are you going to cast that vote? I'm not saying you to vote one way or another. I believe there should be tax cuts, especially for those who have been retired and been paying their homes for so many years. Retirees in this community deserve a tax cut. We'll firmly say that over and ov

One of the purposes of the reduction in the garbage fee was to help those out who needed help the most. It was a way of giving a reduction in taxes that didn't help the wealthy the most, but helped those who were struggling the most. So one of the things I'd like the committee to look at and I'd like our staff to look at is, is there a way to gear the garbage fee to where there's an application process or we mirror what the county's doing to give a reduction to those who need it the most, those who are struggling, those who are under a certain income level, whether it's $50,000 or another numb

Mr. Mayor? Yes, sir. Yeah, so I love this idea, you know, as a general concept. I'm not just, we're not going to have the conversation or the debate today regarding it, but I'm not particularly in favor of a Blue Ribbon Committee for the sake of just being inclusive and larger, right? you know, then I think we're yielding too much to potentially too many differing voices, right? What I liked is the way that the mayor had teed it up first, right? He first made a reference to the Charter Review Committee. Now you're referring to a form of like a blue ribbon committee akin to the Charter Review C

Yes, sir. I actually, I think there could be a fusion between both ideas. I do like the vice mayor's concept of having different opinions on specific areas, because there are projects that maybe those who are in finance don't really understand. But maybe there's a way to have a specific meeting where you can have a representative of each of our advisory boards that would have an area of expertise and they can be present for any questions that this blue ribbon panel would have. And you're right, I think if you expand it too much, it becomes extremely difficult for it to accomplish its goal. And

Like Commissioner Lata said, again, we're not going to figure this out today. I just brought it up for my colleagues to think about it. The clerk reminded me correctly that we have a budget review committee, which at the end of the day, we could use those individuals who, again, give up their time already in regards to the city. But the intent of whatever is the will of the commission, I'm more than willing to do. I just think that everyone should have person named to that committee, that it should be based around again, budget and the forthcoming tax implications. My only intent, we'll bring

SO THIS IS WHY I WOULD LIKE TO SEE IT ON THE OTHER ONE SO IT CAN BE COMPARED AND PERHAPS ON THAT ONE, THE VICE MAYOR WAS MENTIONING ABOUT THE GARBAGE FEE, MAYBE YOU CAN, MAYBE AN INTERN CAN TAKE ON THIS PROJECT, BUT ADDING revenue from different fees in other municipalities as well, because we may end up being number one for all we know, because others may have additional fees that are making up the difference of what they're not collecting on the millage. So we can have a real accurate example of how much revenue is coming in from those additional fees that in our case, as the Vice Mayor was

Make it top 15. We don't have to go all the municipalities, but it'll show us where we are in those top ones.

I'm sorry, Paula. Would you mind, if you can recall, go back to the previous slide, the funding of the pension plan, the annual pension contributions? A couple of slides back.

Where it goes through 2027, right? Yes. So based on what our investment managers are predicting and projecting, and given if we maintain contributions where we're making the extra payment, can you tell us a couple of things, like number one, when is it estimated then there will be fully funding?

Okay, so that's if everything holds, right? We certainly can't predict with a crystal ball, but these are some of the smartest people in the room. That's what they're giving us, as I would say, a reasonable or conservative estimate, right? So towards the end of 2031, right? Correct. So what impact would that have then on our available funds, having been relieved of having to make the extra payment, can you just kind of, this is for, you know, the residents to get a sense of like, when you tighten your belt, you make those extra payments, you hope for the best, you plan for the worst. What is t

Almost $25 million. Yes. That we don't have now, but we will have available if we maintain the sort of fiscal responsible way of handling the unfunded liability. Am I right? So, think about it. You know, think about what we can do for the city with that additional money that we don't have now. and in light of the rather drastic and material changes that are going to be coming our way with respect to revenue we depend on based on property taxes. Thank you.

Mr. Manager, do you have any further comments or anything you'd like to address in regards to the estimated budget?

Great, thank you. Through the Mayor. Madam Vice Mayor. My trip's this year and I made, I think, three? Chelsea would remember better than I would how many troops we made in Tallahassee. What I heard from our elected leaders in Tallahassee is they were very pleased with the city of Coral Gables. They were not upset by our millage rate. What they were upset at were other cities that raised their millage rate, other cities that were doing things like had happened in our city in the past where there's raises for elected officials where there's, you know, our allowances and other expenditures that

It was the 0.25 for consecutive years. I'm not going to be proposing that this year, but I am going to be proposing at least some reduction. Something that's not going to affect the budget much, but showing a point that, hey, we care, okay? This homestead exemption, it's not going to take effect right now. It's going to take time. And I think right now, We can share or show the people that we actually care now. We increased by 46 employees compared to last year. And the numbers don't lie. They're here. My question is, who pays the pension fund for the building employees?

OK. And then the other thing that I also want to mention, the mayor keeps on talking about this COLA and keeps on pointing fingers. But from what I can remember, to accept this COLA, we needed four votes, didn't we? We did, right? Correct? Yes. OK. And who are the four people that voted for this COLA?

So you're trying to tell me the Vice Mayor Anderson voted for this COLA? I voted for this COLA. I voted for this COLA. Commissioner Menendez voted for this COLA. And Commissioner Ariel Fernandez voted for this COLA.

You're also talking about the vice mayor and it's not to say anything negative because I stand by our decision. Some people here don't run businesses, even though they say they run businesses or they say they are, and they actually get fired embarrassing. Okay. But for a person that does run a business, retention is very important. especially for public safety. So when you raise a COLA, it was a very smart decision at that point when we had more than 30 vacancies in public safety. That's taking care of the safety of this community. So when you keep on bringing COLA and COLA and trying to point

Madam finance director, may I ask you a quick question? What was the recommendation?

What was the recommendation through the manager in regards to the COLA?

Thank you very much. Second, I did not vote for that column. I stand and I vote for that column. It was the smartest move, and now you're seeing the repercussions. It only hurt the employees, the current employees. Let me explain to you why, because the commissioner fails to either understand or he prefers to, I hope she understands it, but she maybe prefers to not say the whole truth. instead of attacking me about some ridiculousness, which is true. Really quick. In regards to the cola, when we granted that cola, who benefited from that cola? Did the current employees benefit from that cola?

I'm getting there. I'm getting there. You're jumping the gun. Sorry, Mayor. You're stealing my thunder. Let's just pump the brakes. Not attack people personally. Let's attack the issues. Right? I'm not here attacking anybody personally. Again, We're talking issues here. Very proud to have voted for that COLA. It was a huge mistake that staff even said not to vote for. But all of you that are employees did not benefit from that COLA. Am I correct? Yes or no?

Now, let's say, hey, maybe all our past employees benefit from that COLA. Is that true? All our past employees benefit from that COLA? If I may recall, it was about 700 or so individuals, correct?

That word, that this was derived from a settlement proceeding, correct?

This code is going to cost the city $20 million for the next 10 years. Let me be clear. These are individuals that I'm grateful that they work for the city. but they're receiving their retirement, and many of them are also receiving Social Security. And many of them receive 175 money and 185 money and drop money to the tune of millions of dollars. Some firefighters, as I wrote in my letter, as Mr. David Perez, who's sitting in the back, can tell you, leave the city with $1.5 million in cash and their average of $77,000 a year. So we pay our employees handsomely for the work that they do. If yo

What I won't do is jeopardize the future of the city by granting exorbitant COLAs or granting exorbitant pension contracts, which we've done in the past. So at the end of the day, the reason why I select to point the finger at Commissioner Castro is she's running for reelection. And I'm being very candid. And the people who are voting in this community need to understand. She didn't support an IG. She voted for a $2 million cola. She gave herself a personal 101% raise. She gave herself a car allowance. She gave herself an expense account. She voted in opposition of a November election. Over an

So if we're going to recount what happened during that COLA meeting accurately. Commissioner Castro was pushing for an 8% COLA. How much was that stripped from our budget?

It would have been devastating, wouldn't it? Okay. Mr. Castro, I'm going to give you the following suggestion. Reducing the millage rate helps the rich the most. Working out something with staff to where there can be an application procedure for reduction in garbage fees going forward, because it's not going to be this year, is the best way to help those who are struggling. And that's ultimately what we're trying to do, is help those who are struggling, who have difficulty paying. for these fees. It's going to give more tax relief to those who are struggling than any tweaking of the military e

Well, since we are talking about running for reelection, yes, I am running for reelection, but that's not something we should be talking about. But let's go ahead and talk about it just a tad bit. Are you not running for reelection? You don't have to answer. Of course he is. So let's be a little transparent here. Yesterday, we were voting on a development. We'll be voting on a UN. Let me just tell you, UN, gave the mayor's PAC $25,000. That crystal development project, which is the crystal developer, gave the mayor $10,000 the day after qualification. Let's go a little further. There's a proje

Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Would my colleagues in the commission like to say anything else that is good for the order here?

Yes, Mr. Mayor. I actually have a question. So we take three votes on the millage rate, correct? We take one today, and then we take two in September. Is that how it is?

And then we vote on the budget In September, in the two readings? Yes. All right, perfect. All right, thank you.

Commissioner Lala, anything for the good of the order before we take on this resolution? I also have a question for the city attorney. Is it a quasi-judicial proceeding when we're convening to discuss matters involving, for example, Crystal Project?

So I don't know if... And the zoning changes. If you as the city attorney should caution anybody on the dais when they're expressing a personal opinion, prejudging, I would say, the issue by saying that if entities associated with the Crystal Project are making donations to a PAC that that is considered by that commissioner to be an expression of prejudging issues sitting in a quasi-judicial capacity that could give rise to recusal. I don't know if that's something that you think you would need to caution people from revealing that you consider making a contribution, a material, having a mater

No, I could not agree with you more. That's why I'm mentioning that there may be cause to caution It's the city attorney. Maybe even to caution Commissioners from expressing a clear bias from my cheap seats here Clear bias that the Commissioner Castro is against the crystal project For the reason she just stated here on the record For the mayor, I think the honey, but if you may I'd like to hear from the city attorney I

For the mayor, yes, commissioner ladder. If there was any bias here, it would be through the mayor that's getting funded by developers, not by the person that is reading something that is a public record. It's information that everybody has access to. So if there's a bias here, number one, you get to decide for yourself if it's a bias. But if there was a bias, I would say it would be the mayor's bias. He would be biased.

Through the mayor? Yes. I disagree. It's not for you to decide or any one of us decide whether or not a bias exists. The record speaks for itself. And I would not want you and my recommendation to the city attorney is to avoid leading you into clear error before the next meeting. Because to me, when you said what you said clearly on the record, expresses clear bias. If it were up to me, I would say you need to recuse yourself. I don't even know how you could possibly walk back your statements unless you're not being honest or genuine. So anyway, just trying to keep an eye out for you and for t

Thank you. So just two quick points. Number one, the reason why I didn't respond to the commissioner is because, again, You're treading on some very thin ice there, and I want to avoid that conversation here in the public because I think there's no place for that, number one. Number two, Madam City Attorney, does accepting any contribution admit a bias?

I bring that up because I always like to hear from the professionals in regards to these matters. Because at the end of the day, it's been the same tactics for the last three and a half years. Slander, destroy, and a lacking zero facts issues not leading. But at the end of the day, we have a resolution here of the City Commission that, Madam City Attorney, will you read into the record, please, so we can vote?

I'll move it. May I have a second, please? I'll second. Mr. Clerk, do we have any public comment?

We'll close with public comment. I was hoping that, if I may, before we take a vote on this, I was hoping that our next meetings that we could have some public comment. I'd like to see the public, especially the residential and commercial areas, especially the commercial areas, because we always have the residents who come here, but we don't really have commercial areas. They're gonna play such a major role in how our budget develops, especially with these tax, Referendums that are forthcoming. I'd like to see the downtown especially as we embark on certain pieces of legislation and Projects t

Vice Mayor Anderson? Yes. Commissioner Castro?

I'll be voting yes, but I'm also putting on the record my plan is to make this a little lower.

I echo the Mayor's observations of the importance and the need, I would say, to have not only more residents come speak during the budget meeting, but we really need to see the commercial Business operators in the city appear because not only are they important in any given year since they are vital to the tax base and the continued Success of the city whether you live or you work or both here or you visit Now, given the changes that we think are going to be coming down from Tallahassee affecting our property tax revenue, they are most important during these conversations involving the budget.

And at that point, something that we mentioned, uh, yesterday in the commission meeting, I brought up to the manager this morning. I went early in the morning around 5 o'clock. I took those pictures for you. Laura in my office is working on putting together the memo. I'm gonna send it to the commissioner. So you can see, and I got actually, it was very fortunate to actually see waste management. in the process of opening the door so i took pictures as they were rolling out the can so you can see how the actual structures look inside and again i bring that up now because these are simple things

OK, well, I'd like to thank staff for this first of three meetings. Thank you for your hard work. Thank you for putting together this budget estimate. We're beyond grateful for all your hard work. And we're looking forward to the next few months. And hopefully, in the next meeting, we'll have a better turnout in regards to the public. And maybe, Mr. Manager, through your leadership, we can work with Martha Pantin to maybe put something out there so we can engage more of the community. May I have a motion to adjourn? I have a motion we have a second. All in favor aye. Meeting adjourned.