Remarks by Christi Fraga
2,372 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 46 of 95
“Thank you. All right. Any questions on items from the budget, things you want to add, delete, recommendations? If I may? Yes, Councilwoman Cabrera.”
“All right. Anything else? Yes. Councillor Empinero.”
“Also looking for private funding to be able to increase that amount.”
“Thank you, Councilman. So I'm going to do a couple of things very quickly. I have comments to answer some of his questions. Well, I would like to do my presentation.”
“So first, a couple of things. All of our city directors are here and present. And so I'm going to go ahead and ask for some of my questioning and have them come up and and answer if finance feels that they are not prepared to answer it directly. I also want to make a comment that that is exactly what strategic planning was. Every department presented, correct? And I'm sorry you couldn't join us, Councilwoman Cabral. I sent my excuse. Yeah, so you weren't there for that, but we spent an entire day of listening to each department director come up and tell us what they need. And their vision for…”
“So that's the large significant increase from previous years. Obviously, also the increases of COLA over the years make up for some of the increases that we've seen year over year in public affairs.”
“Is there any other significant costs in public affairs? Have any more positions been added this year in public affairs?”
“Okay. And is there any other significant changes?”
“I believe last year there was, and maybe Maggie can come and help with this, but do believe last year there was one position created or two positions created in public affairs? Okay, the year before that, which was the marketing? And the sponsorship coordinator's position is to what's the what is the why? What is the reason?”
“Perfect. Okay. And Maggie, I'm sorry. So this year, is there any additional increase? I know that one of our strategic goals is communication. It's one of our biggest ones because one of the complaints we get is that people don't know They don't hear about events, they find out later. So we strive to continue to improve on that. And one of our strategic goals was to enhance communication. Can you give me a couple of examples of what we're doing to enhance that communication and new implementations that are budgeted for this year that could affect the budget?”
“Yes. And also, I believe that we added, and it wasn't this year, but we also are doing more. We started doing mail again. homes, the draw.”
“Okay. And anything else significantly that you feel has been increased or has a significant change or that we are pushing for? I think we also, I asked you about ads. We're going to start doing ads to push City events and so people get more information.”
“Okay, so that's what's reflected in your budget.”
“Anybody have any questions on that? Maggie's up here. Yes, I think Sol has a.”
“Okay. Great. Thank you, Maggie. All right. Another department that I believe was discussed, and I want to point out that in this budget, Again, I'm going to say it again. Our operating is 98 million. Plus there's also 3 million that is capital outlay within each department, which is like computers and things like that. And then there's our OPEC fund, which is 400,000. And then the rest, the additional 15 million is capital improvements, like, you know, which was outlined in the presentation. the police building, the garage we're looking to build, the retail to generate revenue. So I think we…”
“I'm sorry, 140 new employees in parks? Around Central Park. Oh, wow. That's right. It's open now.”
“I will tell you when I sat with the administration, I raised a flag on how many positions were being added. However, I heard our directors when they said, and I complained about it a bit, you know, that I felt it took a really long time to onboard people and get employees, you know, in the process. And so I heard the rest of our directors saying, you want us to provide service, we need to have the capacity. And so I think that, and I asked at my meeting, and I was told that since 2022 personnel in police and parks has increased 27%, that's significant. And obviously your department is the one…”
“You're welcome. All right, another area that was significantly increased, according to the mention, is information technology. And to my understanding, in this budget, two positions are being added to information technology, IT. Hi, Gladys. Happy birthday today, by the way. Thank you. It was put incorrectly in my thing, so we're going to sing to you later. Thank you. Okay, so you do have an increase in, you have two positions that are being requested here. Can you tell me those two positions? What's your why? Why are you asking for these two positions?”
“Okay, so your department was also impacted by the opening of Doral Central Park, and it's reflected here.”
“Any other significant changes, programs, or that you have planned for implementation this year?”
“All right. Thank you. Okay. Okay. General government. Now if we want to cover a little bit of general government, I think the biggest change in general government or increase in general government and if you compare from the year that was compared earlier of 2022-23 to this year's proposed I think the biggest increases there have been insurance, right? Sol, Fernando.”
“Okay. We'd have to cut because you have to have a balance. So you would have to find, so what we need is, if that's the case, we need to find where to cut. So we're going through that now.”
“So we'll move on to police, because I think this is one of the most impactful changes. I'm looking at the 2022-2023 fiscal year. It was actual, which means what it closed at was $29,407,000. To my understanding, in that year, there was, in an effort to reduce and roll back the rate at that time, an election year, There was 20 positions frozen, I believe, in police. Yes, I'm seeing nodding heads. Somebody come up and confirm this, please. Thanks.”
“And I believe that there was a question about vacancies asked. I did not print that out. information, but I believe there was vacancies, but it's really trainees that we have in, they're not really vacancies because we expect our 17 trainees to fill those positions. Right. We hold the position and when they graduate, they fill those positions.”
“And again, that's why you see that the actual may be different than the adopted because some of those positions are funded, may not actually be expended. This year, I know we're adding the police parks unit. So we're adding positions there that requires vehicles. And when you add these positions, it's not just the body and the officer, unless you want to put them on a scooter or a bike in that case. So you have to have all the equipment and everything that goes with it. I don't know if the chief wants to come and address this or anybody else, but is there any other significant changes in your…”