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.

Present.

Councilman Wilson. Present. Councilwoman Powell. Present. Councilwoman Porter.

Present.

Councilwoman Julian.

Here.

Vice President Stevens. Here. Mayor Harris.

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 praise, honor, and glory that your precious name deserves. It is in your son's name I do pray. Amen. Amen.

Amen.

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?

Item four, resolutions public hearing. Item 4.1, a resolution of City of Miami Gardens, Florida, adopting a proposed millage rate at a public hearing to be levied for fiscal year commencing October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027 for operating purposes, establishing a rollback rate, establishing a debt millage rate approved by the electorate, setting a date and time for a final public hearing to adopt the final millage rate, providing for directions to the city clerk, and providing for an effective date. This is sponsored by the city manager.

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.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council Members. I want to take this opportunity, Mr. Mayor, just to talk about a few things before we get into actual presentation regarding the proposed budget moving forward. Over the last several months, we've been dealing with an issue, or issues, I should say, that have come about via state recommendations from our governor and the state legislature regarding property tax. And that issue has been an issue that's been a driving force, not only for the City of Miami-Garza, but a driving force throughout the state of Florida. And how will we, and how do we, and how can we deal with the property tax issues that may be coming our way starting in November? It's one area. The other area that we've been dealing with is DEI. And that is something that has passed and that will be effective January 1st, 2027. So in preparing for this year's budget, we've tried to look at every scenario possible to address how we can move forward with a budget that makes sense for the City of Miami Gardens and its residents and the business owners. We've had workshops, we've had meetings, we've had other meetings. I know some of the council members have been in the community going over the property tax issues. It is a big issue. And no one today knows if that property tax issue will pass. There's speculation it will pass, speculation that it won't pass. But it really doesn't matter which way it goes. What we've tried to do is put together a budget in anticipating that something may happen and how will we move forward if this piece of legislation passes by the voters. And so we've looked at the property tax issue, we've looked at the DEI issue, we've looked at the fact that if we do certain things, will that impact our employees? Loss of jobs. We've looked at other things where we've tried to be prepared for moving forward in a different way. A lot of people have mentioned the word reset, and that's probably the best word for us today. is that as a city, it's time for us to relook and reset where we're heading in the future financially. These types of issues that come about, property tax, DEI and others, cause those issues to happen. And I believe what we have done is we have taken those issues, looked at them and tried to maneuver through the whole process ensuring that we give you a balanced budget that makes sense moving forward for next fiscal year knowing that potentially we could be right back at where we are today dealing with another issue regarding property taxes And so we've met with you and I wanna take this opportunity to thank the mayor and council members for the number of meetings that we've had regarding this issue. We've been back and forth, back and forth. We've put together what I believe is a budget that protects us moving forward from a fiscal standpoint, from an operational standpoint, from implementing things that we need to implement in our communities. I wanna thank the department heads because they had to become very creative through these steps some of them had to be forced to do things out of the ordinary in order to make sure that we meet the requirement if the property tax issue is voted upon by the residents in the state of Florida. If not, VOTED UPON AND IT FAILS, THEN THERE ARE OTHER AVENUES TO ADDRESS THE BUDGET GOING FORWARD. SO WE DO HAVE THOSE AVENUES AVAILABLE TO US WHICH WILL REQUIRE ADDITIONAL MEETINGS DOWN THE ROAD. SO I WANT TO THANK THE DEPARTMENT HEADS AND THEM FOR THEIR ASSISTANCE AND EVERYTHING. This is not new to the state of Florida, it's not new to municipalities. Back in the early 2000s, cities and counties dealt with these types of issues and for whatever reason, those folks came through and they're still operating as cities and counties. Certainly, when you look at it from my perspective, we wanted to make sure that we're doing things in the proper manner. We did a hiring freeze. That does not include the police officers and things of that nature. We're not stopping that. We've tried to do things on a very conservative basis so that if and when we're ready, if not, we're ready, and then in the future, we'll be prepared to be ready for the next go-round. So having said that, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council Members, I'd like to turn it over to Deputy City Manager Craig Clay to do a brief presentation on some of the numbers, some of the things that we're doing, and some of those adjustments that we are planning to make going forward with this year's budget. With that, thank you. Mr. Clay.

Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council. To our new members, welcome. As Cam mentioned, we started this process back in February. Actually, we started a month early. Generally, we start our process in February. And we started because of all the things that Cam just mentioned that were happening at the state level that will certainly affect us in one way or another. So we set out and prepared ourselves for both scenarios. And so I'll go through some of these quickly and kind of get to the details of why our budget looks the way it looks today. So the preliminary property tax value for 2027 is a little over $10 billion. That's an increase of approximately $464 million above fiscal year 2026. Amendment 3 would not pass, that would result in an increase of about $3 million in additional property tax revenue in our general fund. Right now, our estimated budget is approximately $128 million, which is a little over $6 million higher than the fiscal year 2026 budget. Historically, since 2015, we have seen steady growth in our tax base. In 2015 is when we started to see the climb up to where we are today. Most of that was simply due to general increases in our tax base up until about 2023, 24, and 25, when we started to experience large gains because of new construction, whether that be commercial and some residential. But those big bumps that you see on that slide from 23, 24, and 25 mostly related to new construction. 2026 and again in 2027, we're still growing at that more incremental pace that we actually would prefer. It's a lot easier for us to forecast and figure out what we need to do when we have consistent, constant growth. The millage rate, as Mayor Harris read to you, is the same millage rate that we have proposed for the last 14 budgets, 6.9363 mills for operating millage. Our debt service millage rate, 0.4137 mills. You will note that that continues to go down. And as our property values go up, that debt service millage rate will continue to go down. Remembering again that that debt service millage rate is solely for the purpose of our general obligation bond. This slide is a graphical depiction of the previous slide. We want to continue to see those blue bars continue to rise the way they are, and our orange line coming down, which represents a reduction in our total millage rate every year. The blue bars represent the continued growth that we had talked about on the previous slides. What is the impact to our homeowners? Again, Absent Amendment 3, what it would mean is an additional $3.50 on average monthly for our homeowners. I want you to keep this in mind as we get a little further down in the presentation. Keep those numbers in mind and why Amendment 3 is so significant to us particularly. A few highlights on the personnel side. This is the first year of our new FOP contract. Our police officers used to be represented by PBA, the Police Benevolent Association. They're now represented by the Federation of Police. This budget incorporates the first year of that new contract. Pension rates, which is certainly another big expense on the personnel side. Previously, there's actually an error here. Last year, pension rates increased by about an average of 7%, which is significant. This year, that estimate is 0.28%, so a little over a quarter of a percent. That's good news for us because over the last several years since COVID, those contributions to the Florida retirement system have continued to increase somewhere between 4% and 7%. We understand that because there were a lot of retirements post COVID that were relatively unexpected. People who were retirement eligible, who had plans to continue to work, decided that that may be something that they didn't want to do anymore after COVID. The third bullet is also significant from a personnel expense standpoint. We do anticipate an increase in health insurance premiums of about 22%. If you remember when we talked last year, we talked a lot about our medical cost ratio. Our medical cost ratio determines what we will pay in health insurance premiums. Those ratios should be somewhere around 80%. So for every dollar that we pay in premium, the health insurance company should be spending about 80 cents. For us right now, those ratios are 141. So we're working. There were some circumstances that sort of required that spend to be there. There were some long-term cases on our health insurance plan. We can't really do much about those. Also on the operating expense side, there is an increase in the cost of our transfer to the CRA. Every year, that increase continues to happen because in that particular area of our city, we know that there's going to be continued growth again because of the new construction in that area. Additionally, on the operating side, another big nugget is property insurance. We've added new buildings over the last several years, new park structures that we have to insure. Because of that, we did anticipate an increase of about 20% in those rates. Because we have not had a significant event, a weather event over the last several years, we do believe that this estimate will be around 10 to 15 percent. So that's great for us on the operating side. On the revenue side, when we talked last time, we talked about our state revenue sharing estimates. So one of those is municipal revenue sharing. That estimate came in at about the same as it was last year. Half cent sales tax, a second revenue source that comes from the state, came in about half a million dollars less than the previous year. And then one outstanding one, communications taxes. We have not received our estimates for that yet. However, we do expect them very shortly because every jurisdiction is waiting for it and all of us have to have a balanced budget to the state by September 30th. Let me talk a little bit about the two pieces of legislation that Cam mentioned. SB 1134, that is the DEI bill that is effective as of January 1, 2027. And I refer to it as Amendment 3, but it is also known as House Joint Resolution 1F. This is the property tax bill. The DEI bill, HB 1001 and SB 1134, prohibits counties and municipalities from using public funds to support staff or promote DEI offices, officers, or programs. In addition, it bans, repeals, and defunds any local government programming that is considered to be DEI or providing preferential treatment or special benefits to any group. If it's designed or implemented based on race, color, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender identity, those things have been banned. Local governments are not permitted to spend funds from any source on those types of activities. There is an exception if something is recognized as a federal or state holiday. If we have to do something that complies with federal law, then we are permitted to do those things. It does not exclude equal opportunity type things. We still must comply with federal EEOC laws. So those things are still in place. Again, this is a little bit more detail here about the particular legislation. It requires grant recipients to certify that public funds will not be used for DEI. So those federal grants that we receive, we must certify that. And there are also enforcement mechanisms. including penalties that could include removal from office for elected officials if a violation of this statute were to take place. Property taxes. So this is not unique to Florida. 12 states during this particular electoral season considered proposals for property tax reform, of course, including Florida. Legislation has already passed in three states, in Montana, Kentucky, and Idaho, as of this writing. Why is this significant for us? In the city, there are approximately 36,000 plus units of housing. 67% of those are owner occupied. That number is higher than the national average. The other thing that is very significant for us is the fact that 76% of our homeowners have been in their homes for more than 20, close to 25 years. If you look at the bar graph right in the middle, you'll see that 76% of our homeowners have been in their homes since 2000. And so when we look at that, what we're seeing is if you go back to the slide where I talked to you about the average taxable value, this is why an increase in the homestead exemption for us is significant in year one of this legislation. And I'll show you a little bit of that in an upcoming slide. So this, coupled with a couple things that are already present in our city, is important. Currently, there are about 1,400 of those properties that pay zero taxes. This could be because the individual is a disabled veteran. It could be a senior that has exemptions in addition to the standard or base homestead exemption of $50,000. Nevertheless, those properties have a total assessed value of a little over or a little close to $135 million. If those properties were taxable, you would generate another close to $1 million in ad valorem revenue. This is the proposal that voters will decide in November. To increase the homestead exemption from the current $50,000 up to $150,000 beginning January 1, 2027 and then to $250,000 beginning January 1, 2028. Remember what our average taxable value was. Forget about the market value of our homes, which is close to somewhere around $600,000 on average. The average taxable value sits a little below this $150,000. So what that means is that the average home, if this were to pass, property taxes would be eliminated for those homesteaded properties in year one of the legislation. The other thing that is very crucial in this piece of legislation that is not talked about a lot is that the legislation requires the legislature to establish a schedule for full elimination of homestead property taxes. There has been some discussion about the timeline, but it hasn't been voted on yet. The discussion has been that this full elimination would occur somewhere around 2030 or 2031. If it is approved, school district levies are excluded. So a homeowner would still pay a property tax bill to the school district. In addition, for non-homesteaded properties and for commercial properties, the legislation reduces the annual assessment cap from 10% to 5%. So what does that mean? We save our homes, which is for homesteaded property. That's the other piece of legislation that Cam was referring to that happened back in 2008. That particular piece of legislation says that a homesteaded property, its average taxable value cannot increase more than 3% or the consumer price index, whichever is greater, in any one year. For non-homesteaded properties or commercial properties, the current legislation is it cannot increase more than 10% in any given year. This piece of legislation reduces that cap from 10 to 5. So not only will we be affected with homesteaded properties, we would also be affected with commercial properties and non-homesteaded properties. There is also a provision that the homesteaded property has to be owned prior to january 1st of 2027 in order to take advantage of this benefit if it is not the homeowner would still get the regular or the current 50 000 homestead exemption and they would have to wait five years before they would qualify for the increased exemption As we talked about, these proposals would be presented to voters in November 2026, and if approved, the amendment takes effect on January 1st of 2027. What does it cost to local governments? The estimate is a little over $14 billion in fiscal year 28 and about $18 billion in future years. That again is very difficult to determine because we don't know what the future legislation is going to be after year two.

What does it impact?

Obviously, it reduces the greatest revenue source for local governments. I'm going to show you a slide in a little bit that shows you what that means for our city. It impacts our bond ratings, making it more expensive to borrow money if we so chose to do so. There are three rating agencies that are out there for governments, very similar to your credit rating bureaus. Standard & Poor's, Fitch, and Moody's. Each of them have issued letters already letting local governments know it will be more expensive for you to borrow because if this happens, your bond ratings will be impacted regardless. Higher user fees. The revenue source has to be made up somewhere. So that could be an impact. Past proposals like this have relied on budget cuts or sales tax increases. The estimate that's out there is that sales tax would have to be raised to approximately 10% statewide. Sales tax in the state now is 6%. There are here, you may say, wait a minute, we paid seven when I go buy something. So don't jump on the people. There are two additional half cent sales tax in Miami-Dade County that pay for certain things like transportation and other things that were enacted several years ago. So that 10% would be almost 3% higher than California's rate, which is 7.25%. With our local option sales tax, which is the two half cents that gets you to the seven in Miami-Dade County, you would see sales tax at about 11% is the estimate. Here's the slide that I was telling you about. You see here on the left, these are the revenue sources, the nine revenue sources that are in our general fund. Property taxes by far is the largest source of revenue. The next largest source is intergovernmental revenue, which are those revenue sources that I talked to you a little bit about. They come from the state. That number is about four times less than property tax revenue. Over to the right, we have the departmental budgets for police parks and all the other departments and operations that we have in the general fund. So that adds up to about $126 million in total general fund revenue. If Amendment 3HJR1F were to pass, you would then be looking at a reduction in property tax revenue of somewhere around $10 million in year one. Year two, which is the only other year that we can calculate now, you would be looking at a potential loss of around $14 million. Obviously, with that type of impact, we have to make adjustments. And so the first is to eliminate vacancies that we have in our general fund. That savings would be budgetary savings of a little over $4.5 million. Second is a reduction in special events. That would be a budgetary reduction of somewhere around $6.3 million. Here are the specific cuts and some other adjustments that we have made there. Next for us is our final budget hearing on September the 23rd. at 5 0 1 PM with that mayor, we'll be happy to address, take any questions that you and the council members may have. Thank you very much.

Any questions for Mr. Clay at this time council?

Yes, Mr. Mayor.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

Mr. Clay, thank you very much for that presentation and thank you to you, your staff, Mr. Manager, the entire administration. I know you all have been working really hard on this budget, especially with this new amendment that's going to be on the ballot in November. We want to encourage folks to make sure that you understand what that amendment means to you and how it will affect you. And so for those who may not have been present in the room, Mr. Clay, can you tell us when the DEI bill goes into effect?

January 1st, 2027.

All right. And then for just for my clarification, when does the how much more life do we have on the debt service?

We have 20.

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

It would be the Black History Celebration. And if there are other ancillary events that are not a part of the budget, anything that is related to anything that would have a preference for any type of any of those protected classes there.

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.

Yes, sir.

So we would I would actually have to I'm going to refer to our big board. that we have right outside the chambers, Vice Mayor, where we kind of highlight all of the different projects that we have out there. Some of the big projects that we have in our current budget is the Leslie Estates project. Leslie Estates 4, I believe it is. Where's Carrie?

2? 2? Say again? two, three and four.

OK, I'm sorry, Leslie states two, three and four are some of the major roadway infrastructure projects that we have planned. Currently, we have a project going on in the annexed area taking care of the roadways and the drainage over there. We have a number of traffic mitigation projects where whether it be adding speed bumps or whether it be the traffic signals, things of that nature, and seawalls, which is one that has been a long time coming, and that is in the Bunch Park area and in the Andover area, where you'll see some work there in the coming year.

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

They're ongoing. So most of those infrastructure projects multi-year projects. I would say the one that we've been working on for a while that we completed was over in Vista Verde. The roads in that area, we did those. That was about a four-year project over there. That was one of the big ones that we had completed this year. There were several drainage projects which were pretty large-scale projects that we did in different areas throughout the city. There are several roadway projects where we've done some milling and resurfacing in various areas around.

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, which you know, seawalls is a big issue for me right now. And I'm glad that we've made progress, but there's still so much work to do when you talk about the Coconut Cay area, and even just improving in the Bunch Park and around the city. So I just want to know, how can we accelerate that within the budget to increase the funding around infrastructure in its entirety.

The good thing about those projects, Vice Mayor, is that those projects are paid for outside of the general fund. Most of those projects, if not all of them, actually are either in our transportation fund, our stormwater fund, or we've been fortunate enough to receive grant funding to do them. So we moved about three to $4 million worth of projects that were scheduled for future years into this budget. We did that with a combination of spending down some money that was in our transportation fund and in our stormwater fund and we obtained two grants that would help us get through the Leslie Estates project that we talked about.

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?

So far, this piece of legislation will not affect the transportation fund and stormwater. There's been no talk of those funding sources being affected by this legislation. This is strictly our general fund budget. Having said that, we did, though, try to accelerate at least those $3 to $4 million worth of projects in this budget. And I suspect we will be able to do more. We were not expecting to bring Leslie Estates 2 and 3 into this budget, but we did that, along with number 4, which had already been planned. And we continue working the drainage projects, because those are big in the city. And we continue to mill and resurface again using transportation funding, stormwater funding outside of our general fund.

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 just stop. But I'm sure our great manager will let me know ahead of time. Oh, when we have to when we need to look at these things as it relates to the infrastructure. Oh, my next question is around our community development funds. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, our community development funds. I want to see. Where exactly are we, how much are we allocating directly towards residential assistance, particularly for our seniors and homeowners who need critical home repairs, rehabilitations or improvements? I know we use a lot of grant funding for that as well. And then if I'm not mistaken, if you all can remember, I asked last budget cycle, how can we explore programs that not only just help our seniors, but individuals who are in need as well? Because you have a lot of young people that needs assistance as well, that, you know, just income is just not meeting that. So I want to know how is this budget addressing our community development funding as well?

Okay. So in our community development, there are two major funding sources. There's the CDBG, the Community Development Block Grant, which was funded this year at about $970,000. That comes directly from the federal government. Say that again, I'm sorry. About $970,000. So as of right now, that's CDBG. So as of right now, that's not being affected by any of the legislation that we talked about because that's something that federal government is dealing with. Fifteen percent of that is allocated to what we call public services. So if you remember every year, vice mayor, we bring an item where we have nonprofits compete for some of that funding to do social services and things like that. The balance of that is allocated to operating expenses, which could be housing rehabilitation. We do have a rental assistance program and other programs that will assist individuals in need. Also in community development, there is SHIP funding, which comes from the state. It's called the State Housing Initiatives Partnership Program. That funding source is primarily what we use for our housing rehab program, also for rental assistance and for those other types of things that we run into, homeless assistance, things of that nature. Last year, for the first time, I excluded one. Last year, for the first time, we received home program money from the federal government, the Home Investment Partnership Program. That was $396,000. Those pots together is what we use to do housing, rehab work, rental assistance, and provide those other social services that are necessary for us to maintain community.

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 we can take some of that funding and put it more towards assisting our seniors and just residents as a whole collectively for rental assistance, mortgage assistance, because it's rough times now. So I'm trying to figure out how we can take some of that funding and increase what we budget for already.

Does that make sense? We can do that, Vice Mayor, because the 15% is the federal government's cap. So it's up to 15%. So if we decided that we wanted to do less, we could certainly do that. Is 12 your number? Well, I just, I'm not a math.

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 cool with that as well. Does that make sense?

Yes, sir.

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

Yes, sir. What we'll do, Mayor, is between this meeting and the September 23rd meeting, we'll issue our change memo that will highlight some of the things that we'll be changing.

Mr. Mayor? Yes.

I have a follow-up question to Vice Mayor's request. Do we have a lot of excess funds in the pot for residents that ask for rental assistance?

Excess funds? Is there money left in the pot? Yes, there is funding available still for that.

So do we need to add additional funds to that pot?

Yes. If you added funds to that pot, you would be taking away some from the housing rehab pot. Although it's the same funding source and we take care of them as needed, it would be the same pot. Because in that pot, we also do down payment assistance as well for those people who are interested in home ownership and can meet the requirements for that. But with rental assistance cases, those cases are a little different, obviously, than housing rehab because we have to react very quickly with those. So in those cases and what we've seen over this past year, we saw a spike in rental assistance cases when there were some things happening at the federal government level and we were able to react to those pretty quickly. But the housing rehab requests are probably more prevalent than the rental assistance requests that we have.

And do you think that is a result of people maybe not knowing that we have that program available? Or do we have applicants that it's a little bit more difficult for us to assist them? What do you think could be some of the reason for that?

The biggest issue that we have is individuals not being able to produce the appropriate paperwork. One of the things that we have to make sure of is we have to stay in compliance with federal requirements with these funding sources, because if not, they will take them away. So we have to make sure and be very careful that we are getting the appropriate paperwork in these programs. That's probably the biggest issue that we have in those programs.

Yeah, I'm done for now. Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation. It was excellent seeing it again. I have piggybacking on the conversation we're currently having and I'm not asking for the information now, but hopefully by the next budget meeting. Speaking on housing assistance, what was in the pot last year for 2025-26, I'd like to know how many people we've assisted, what is outstanding from those who actually requested assistance, what is actually the most common problem or delay in getting assistance to these individuals and having some alternative solution so that, as you said, if their documentation that they're missing so they have that information. Now going into 27, so I'd like to see the numbers of who was served, what is left of funding, if any, for 25, 26, And going forward into 27, what do we anticipate will be our potential to serve the community in those areas, looking back on what we've done as we go forward? Because as you've said, we're now looking at individuals who are going to be in places where they may be losing jobs. Across the board, people's raises are probably gonna be at a standstill for a little while. We already see gasoline prices going up. So I anticipate, speculate, that the needs in our community will still be present, and if not more. And it would be nice to know what realistically we have available to us to provide services to the community. In addition, how many of the nonprofits that we have serviced in the 26, 25, 26? um when will the applications be out for 27 so that those businesses can get or non-profits get started on preparing for the assistance and so that's just an axe for our next budget if you will sir thank you so much we'll include all of that in the memo

You got a question? Go ahead.

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 challenges that that we had been seeing yes it begs the question for me though if the if the tax base had nearly tripled what are some of the things that we did to try to diversify the city's recurring revenue to kind of prepare for something like this, not knowing that this was particularly becoming, but over those years, or did we move into a place where we just kind of depended on that increased tax base?

No, what we've done, Councilman, is we have attempted to, I'll call it control the things that we can control. What we've attempted to do is, I'm going to go back to that slide so that I can kind of talk through it from here. The ones that we can really control is miscellaneous revenue and other sources. And of course, charges for services. The intergovernmental revenue, that's an estimate from the state. We have no control over that. What those estimates are, are what they are. A few years ago, maybe 2018, 2019, we were able to negotiate a new franchise agreement with Florida Power and Light. So a franchise, a utility pays a franchise fee to local governments in order to use our right of ways for their polls, for their undergrounding, et cetera, et cetera. Prior to that, the franchise agreement was a tri-party agreement between the utility, Miami-Dade County, and the city. The county, there was a portion of it that they would take and then a portion of it that we would take. So when we got out of that arrangement, we almost doubled what we were able to collect in franchise fees on an annual basis. So that money, instead of going to the county, then to us, came directly to us. So that's one source up there that we were able to increase over time. In terms of miscellaneous revenue, we've entered into some billboard agreements. You'll note that the billboards that you see around, they also pay a fee in order to use either right of way or other pieces of land. But our goal has always been to increase those revenue sources that we can control as much as we possibly can. Of course, there are some limitations within that, but that's what we've done in addition to that. So in addition to the growth in our tax base. Our expenses also continue to increase because personnel and contractually every year, some of those contracts are going up. So. With those two things coupled together, we have been able to take care of that. When there have been sort of financial disasters, we would call them COVID as one, we were fortunate enough to not have to furlough anyone and fortunate enough not to have to lay off anyone. That was both full-time and part-time. In addition, something that's very important to us, we've been able to fortify our reserves in doing this. And that's very important for any local jurisdiction in Florida. We're right in the middle of Hurricane Alley. A small hurricane could cost you somewhere between $20 to $25 million to recover. A large hurricane would be somewhere around $50 to $60 million to do an initial recovery. We also know that FEMA has been cut by 50% in the federal budget. So it's very important for us that we continue to fortify our reserves as best we can so that we can address those situations. But we have worked very hard to try to take care of those revenue sources that we can control in addition to the growth that we've experienced.

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.

Chopping block?

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 events, but it's also good to know as well that although the events are being eliminated from the special events budget, some of the events will still move forward because individuals can either fundraise or some of us have partnered with outside organizations and just providing municipal in-kind services for that matter, where it won't necessarily be in the budget, but it'd be paid for on the outside. And I think the reason why I'm mentioning that is because when the community see an event being promoted or advertised, it would become confusing to them if they see that it's been eliminated. So I just wanted us to, I wanted to touch on that very briefly.

Okay.

All right, so all hearts and minds are clear here now?

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.

Marie Hughes, 3335 Northwest 180th Street, Miami Gardens, Florida 33056. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. The proposed FY2027 operating millage rate is 6.9363 mills, the same rate the city has maintained since FY2014. At the same time, the city's certified taxable property value increased 4.82% to approximately 10.08 billion. Based on today, can the city explain how much additional general fund property tax revenue the city expects to receive from the higher taxable values while maintaining the same 6.9363 millage rate and why the city is not considering a lower millage rate. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. 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.

Good evening everyone, today is Gale Cunningham, 19001 Northwest 14th Avenue Road, Miami Gardens, Florida 33169. I noticed on the agenda there isn't a place for public comments and that may be the reason that we don't have as many residents that we would normally all expect to have because they don't see that listed as an opportunity for them to speak. I don't know if that's something that can be adjusted or could be on the next hearing, because I know we have to pass this budget by September the 30th. It must be done. So in order to get more people involved, if possible, please make sure that public comments is on the agenda so they don't know on the outside that they can't speak. Also, I know that each and every one of you, inclusive of now our new council person, Dr. Porter, has or will have an opportunity to speak with your constituents regarding especially the property taxes and how it can impact what we're doing here in Miami Gardens and everywhere. If you have not, and I'm sure that you have because I've been fortunate enough to be at a lot of those meetings, whatever information you brought from your constituents as to what their concerns were, your collaboration, your communication via email, print media, social media, whatever, if you could please get a listing or send us or send them associations, organizations within your particular area what you actually brought to the table with the city manager's office, so they could see that whatever was said at that time, you brought it from that meeting, you saw what would actually be beneficial for your particular area, and you brought it to the city manager, and you all collaborated as what would be best for the city, inclusive of the vice mayor and the mayor, and this is what you brought, and now they will know. We had the conversation, it was brought there, we're looking at it now, I'm hearing the questions that you're asking, I'm hearing a lot of people in the questions that you're asking, But if each and every one of you will send us a list of those meetings that you had with the city manager and his staff, we would appreciate it. We'll know our voices were heard. Thank you.

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.

Any discussion from the council on the millage rate?

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.

Item five, ordinances on first reading public hearing, item 5.1, an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Miami Garden, Florida, approving and adopting the city's budget for the 2026-2027 fiscal year, providing for expenditures of funds, authorizing the city manager to take certain actions, providing for carryover of funds, providing for inter-fund transfers, providing for automatic amendments, providing for adoption and representation, repealing all ordinances in conflict, providing for a vulnerability clause, providing for inclusion Provided for an effective day and this is sponsored by city manager mr.

Manager mr. Mayor and vice mayor council members We've already provided a presentation. So we're still Available for any additional comments questions from the council public.

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

Oh, good evening again. Section three of the proposed budget ordinance authorizes the city manager to allocate city resources as deemed necessary. And section four authorizes certain budgetary transfers within a single fund. Can the city explain what safeguards and limitations apply to this authority and which types of budget changes would still require city council approval? Thank you.

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.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded. All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposition? Showing none. Now I need a motion to recall the millage rate resolution.

Motion.

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?

Aye.

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.

Councilwoman Baskin?

Yes.

Councilman Wilson? Yes. Councilwoman Powell? Yes. Councilwoman Porter?

Yes.

Councilwoman Julian?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Stephens? Yes. Mayor Harris?

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.

Motion. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. I need a vote on the proposed budget ordinance.

No, you need a vote on the motion to recall.

OK, I need a vote.

All those in favor?

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.

Councilman Wilson? Yes. Councilwoman Powell? Yes. Councilwoman Porter?

Yes.

Councilwoman Julian? Yes. Vice Mayor Stephens? Yes. Councilwoman Baskin? Yes.

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.