City Council - Regular Meeting

It's late over there. It's late over there.

I'm so bad. That's so mean.

Hey George, I took a beauty nap.

And tonight I'm going to get another eight hours of beauty stuff. Keep trying, brother.

Someday you'll get it right.

George, just to let you know, Manny's back to work. I think he's crazy. I think he's crazy. And I reach out to Nelson Gonzalez. You know he had a heart attack. Where? Oh, he was there? How does he look?

I told Joseph he needed to take a nap so he can look beautiful. Good. Sound interesting. Think about this.

We're not doing any...

No, we can get started.

All right, we call this meeting to order at 7.01 PM. 5.01, sorry. Yeah.

Mayor Fahad. Here. Vice Mayor Llamas.

Here.

Councilman Santin. Here. Councilman Dion.

Here.

Councilman Perez-Crespo. Here. There is a quorum present.

Please rise for the invocation and . We pray for the agenda set forth before us this evening and ask that we be granted the ability to work together in harmony when there's honest disagreement and dissent. We ask for the strength to speak up when given the opportunity to speak. and the patients to listen receptively and empathically when it's time to listen. We ask for the wisdom of the governor and the conflicting interests and issues that we encounter, and a keen sense of the welfare and needs of our residents. May we be reminded that we're not only leaders, but also servants, and that it is our responsibility to serve the common good of all the residents of Lines Springs. Amen. And then please allow me to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

We don't have the list out but we can open up for

Okay, all right, so we'll move on to public hearings, which is 5A, and it is our only order of business really this evening.

A resolution of the Mayor and City Council of the City of Miami Springs, Florida, declaring as required by Section 200.065 Florida Statutes, the city's proposed millage rate, rolled back rate computed pursuant to Section 200.065 , Florida Statutes and the date, time, and place at which the first and second public budget hearings will be held to consider the proposed millage rate and the tentative budget, for fiscal year 2026 to 2027 directing the city clerk and the city manager to file the resolution with the miami-dade county property appraiser authorizing the city manager to change budget hearing dates if needed and providing for an effective date thank you mr city manager would you like to kick it off

sure what we're doing here tonight is establishing the millage rate cap um and we're the proposal is to keep the millage rate the same right now i know mayor earlier you were asking me about you know if we set a little higher last year we didn't set it higher two years ago we did because the previous year the city borrowed from reserves to balance the budget and i wasn't sure how that was going to affect this so i set it up a little higher initially and then we lowered it down and was able to even lower it even further so uh this one i don't think there's a need and that's why i was setting it at 6.81 okay so our current millage rate is uh 6.81 your mic your microphone

MY APOLOGIES. THE CURRENT MILLAGE RATE IS 6.81. SO BY VIRTUE OF SETTING THE CAP FOR THIS COMING YEAR'S BUDGET, IF WE SET THE CAP AT OUR CURRENT MILLAGE RATE, THAT GUARANTEES THAT THE TAX RATE WILL REMAIN THE SAME. IT WON'T INCREASE FOR THE RESIDENTS. SO THAT'S THE CAP. How much wiggle room do we have to go down from there is probably debatable. We have a lot of things as we start the budget process. There's a lot of things that we have to prepare for, but the fact that we're guaranteeing residents that the tax rate won't increase, and that's our starting point. That's our starting point. We have our work cut out for us. Okay.

With the tax policy? Whether or not it passes or not, I'm taking this year as this year, and then next year, I mean, obviously behind the scenes we're planning a lot of things. Right. But we're just taking as it is this year as if next year hasn't happened yet.

I got you. OK. All right. I'll open it up for discussion.

Well, I think it's been said enough today that we're just kind of setting the maximum. We know it can go higher. And we're also meeting the deadline we have for the trim notice. We have the budget process, of course, so we can work on seeing if there's a possibility of lowering. But basically, we're preserving our flexibility at this point.

I mean, we know what the future might be, maybe, in November, and that's going to be pretty impactful.

But to tie our hands right now, without knowing a little bit more... I just think this is a good thing that we're doing we're in the right place to be able to even have flexibility maybe of considering even lowering it but it can't be obviously we're not saying that the taxes are going to go lower we leave it like this it's just the minutes rate will be the same obviously we had an increase in taxes revenue so Somehow you will the rate stays the same you're gonna get a little bit more So there's no here or no You know Bag of tricks or anything. I'm just we're just for right now preserving our flexibility. I Thank you.

Through the chair. So just to remind me, so if we keep the rate the same come September, we can't raise it. Correct. Right. And so we have to either stay the same or lower it. Correct. But we have the ability to raise it today and give us that wiggle room?

Yes. Today would be the day that you would set it at whatever you need to set it.

And we can always lower it.

Yes. But I'm saying We don't necessarily need the wiggle room. We can just set it right now the way it is right now based on the budget we've been working on. And we'll make it work. I didn't see a need to raise it higher.

Because my concern is Amendment 3. All our concerns is Amendment 3.

Amendment 3, yes, it's in the back of my mind. And I'm going to address that at the budget workshop August 17, is it? I'm going to address what's to come, right, if that were to pass. And there's going to be a discussion about that. But for now, I can't budget today assuming yes or no. I don't know. I'm just going to take it day by day right now. Obviously, planning behind the scenes as to what if it does pass.

The real impact will be FY. Yes.

27 28 27 28 the first round then 28 29 is the second hit and then 28 29 30 and on it would go up based on the cpi index now the millage conversation gets really interesting okay i i i think that every that there's a need for property tax relief

WHAT'S COMING OUT OF THE BALLOT IN NOVEMBER IS A PROPOSAL, BUT I CAN TELL EVERYBODY THAT WE, JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER MUNICIPALITY, IS HUNKERING DOWN, AS THEY SAY. SOME MUNICIPALITIES HAVE STARTED HUNKERING DOWN BY, LIKE, TRIMMING FAT EVERYWHERE POSSIBLE, GETTING READY BECAUSE THIS COULD PASS, AND EVEN IF IT DOESN'T, I THINK THEY'RE KIND OF SIGNALING THAT THEY'LL GET A SECOND CRACK AT IT, WHICH MIGHT EVEN BE BETTER. But part of the ways that you can hunker down is to raise the millage rate now in anticipation, and we're not doing that. What you're telling me is that you're anticipating that in our hunkering down, we're going to cut so much that we don't have to raise the millage rate now. So there's no point in setting the cap higher.

You know, it's kind of moot because if it doesn't pass, then we did something that we didn't need to necessarily do. If it does pass, I'm going to have to, you know, and I don't want to get into this right now, but the numbers that are coming up from the state, there's not city numbers. These aren't numbers that I calculated. These are from the state. There's going to be... A combination of cutting, cutting a lot, and adjusting millage rate upward. So it's in order to continue maintaining at least the quality of life. So yeah, that's a discussion for a little later on. And that's why I just didn't want to jump the gun, raise the millage rate, and upset the residents. Why would I do that? I didn't want to do that for something that may not pass. So I didn't want to react, overreact, if you will.

Right. I think it's noteworthy that we're tightening our own belts rather than raising the millage rate in anticipation for the kind of funding cuts that would be coming. So I think that it's noteworthy that we're trying to do. That's where we're starting. Did you have a comment?

Through the chair?

Go ahead.

Can you hear me good?

Yeah, we can. Perfect.

All right. Awesome. Just want to say thank you for allowing me to participate via Zoom. I'm on a family vacation. I want to thank JC and the city staff in general, right? We're taking a hit with what's coming. And it's obvious JC put the management's office, put the residents first by keeping the military at the same rate. You know, I know that he's having a hard time right now trying to figure things out. And when it came down to it, In this moment where he could set a higher millage rate, he's thinking about the residents and keeping it at the same rate. We do have like a big elderly population that live in Miami Springs, and they will be highly affected by any amount that goes up in the taxes. So I want to thank them and our city employees as well for getting through these times with us. I'm happy with the 6.81. Thank you.

Does the Vice Mayor have anything to chime in if he's on?

Yes. Go ahead. Can you guys hear me okay?

Yep.

Yeah, I'm in agreement with JC. It's, you know, our property values are skyrocketing. So the most we can help this year, the better. I know if we pass that in November, we're going to have to make some hard decisions. But for now, I agree, this is the best course.

Okay. Okay. If there's no further discussion, I'd like to entertain a motion to approve 5A.

And Mr. Mayor, members of the council, just want to clarify for the record that there is an amended resolution that I've placed on your dais just to reflect a change in the scrivener's error to the rollback rate. It said 5.8, and it should be 6.2. Nothing further is needed.

Just wanted to put that for the record Yes, yes, it's a public hearing opening for public comment, okay.

All right, so at this time I'd like to open up for public comment Anybody wishing to speak on 5a All right close that All right, so like to entertain a motion

I'll make a motion to keep the military 6.81.

Okay. So we have a motion. Do we have a second?

Second.

Okay. We have a motion and a second. Call the vote.

Vice Mayor Llamas?

Yes.

Councilman Santine? Yes. Councilman Dionne?

Yes.

Councilman Perez-Crespo? Yes. Mayor Fahat? Yes. The motion carries.

Okay.

All right. And then we move on. 6A was deferred to the August 10th council meeting. So then that brings us to the end of our agenda. Did you want to chime in and make a comment on anything?

No. The resolution is being deferred. The second one, item A, is just being deferred to August 10th officially.

Yeah, if we could have an affirmative motion deferring item 6A to the city council meeting scheduled for August 10, 2026 at 7 PM at City Hall Council Chambers. OK.

I'll make a motion to defer 6A to the August 10 council meeting.

I'll second that.

Call the vote.

Vice Mayor Llamas? Yes. Councilman Santin? Yes. Councilman DeJuan?

Yes.

Councilman Perez-Crespo? Yes. Mayor Fahed? Yes. The motion carries.

Okay. All right. With that in the books, enjoy the rest of summer. We'll be back on our busy schedule starting in August. This meeting is adjourned at 516. Thank you, guys.

Amen, son.