Remarks by Christi Fraga
2,372 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 86 of 95
“Yes, I would also offer one thing that maybe is a viable option assuming we get some type of appraisal. One of the recommendations that came out of my town hall from a resident was maybe they're willing to sell us the land. So maybe there's an opportunity if they want a more amount that with an appraisal we can buy that land from them.”
“Where it currently is. Just if everyone's OK with them offering that.”
“At least see if the option is available, if it's something they're open to. It doesn't hurt to ask. Yeah, it doesn't hurt to ask.”
“All right. I think there's a motion. I need a second.”
“Second by Vice Mayor Puig Corbett. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.”
“Okay, thank you very much. We're going to immediately go into the next item.”
“Okay, should we take a quick break? Councilman, I mean, Vice Mayor Puig, we're going to wait for you, so go to the restroom and come back. Five minutes.”
“Yes, but let's try and stay in our seats. Okay.”
“All right, Councilwoman Forrest, this is your item. Thank you, Mayor.”
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
“I don't know if anybody else has any comments.”
“We will have to take a vote on the date of your resignation.”
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
“Meeting is adjourned. We're going to start our budget hearing in five minutes. Thank you.”
“into order. It is our second budget workshop on Monday, September 16, 2024. The time is now 10 11 a.m. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.”
“Okay, so very quickly, clearly there's not a quorum to be able to come to some type of consensus over the budget. But I did have some questions for staff And I want to see if there's anything any new information that can be given to us And Mr.. Manager if you have had time to meet with the council members I know that I had an opportunity to meet with you since the last budget hearing I”
“Okay. Would we have a line item list of these requests by tomorrow, Fernando? Do we have anything?”
“which is supposed to be our budget hearing the idea of calling a workshop today was to try and get all these things and agreed upon so that staff could provide us a balanced budget tomorrow. Can you please run us through how this would work tomorrow at 6 o'clock? Because we do have to leave here with a balanced, approved budget tomorrow.”
“Okay, is there any way we could get this preliminary list so that we can start reviewing some of these items, even if there's no dollar figure attached to them? Because from what I'm understanding that you're saying is in the meetings that you've had, there has not been a clear indication of what those cuts would be.”
“Okay. I did receive the updates to the budget based on the decision that was made at the last budget hearing which was to cut the COLAs to 3.5%. Those we do have and the budget that will be presented tomorrow will reflect those cuts across the board.”
“Okay. And in respect to the discussion regarding the COLA for law enforcement that was negotiated with the bargaining unit, if we can't take that item up tomorrow, however, it will impact the budget. Will it be discussed tomorrow to put that in contingency?”
“OK. And to my understanding, we have one member of the council that's actually out of the country.”
“I got an email from Vice Mayor Oscar Corbett that he's in Japan, so he won't be here tomorrow and supposedly will be participating virtually.”
“Okay. Well, I want to thank you all for being here today. My hope was that we would be able to have already by this time a list of the requested adjustments so that we could have a discussion, come to a consensus, and you all could present us tomorrow with a balanced budget that we could vote upon with adequate time and responsibly putting it before the public as well to opine and participate obviously that's not what's taken place and that is not the will of this council or at least the ones that are not here today, which is absolutely, you know, it's discouraging and disappointing to me…”