Remarks by Joseph Magazine
62 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 3
- Play at 3:58:24
“We can't pare down this list because we're gonna start FDOT Alton Road Utilities in 2033. That was the best argument you've made. Anybody, if Calshi is offering betting odds of us starting an FDOT utility on Alton Road by 2033 when the Venetian Road bridges are going to be shut down, I will take those odds all day long. There's zero chance. There's zero chance. Right, so we're sitting here saying, no, we can't reduce the amount that we're going to authorize borrowing, because we're doing all of these. We're not. If anybody thinks this list is all going to get completed in the next 10 years,…”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 4:00:16
“And I'm just throwing out these examples of projects that are eight years, ten years down the road where we're authorizing now. If we take on all of these projects, our city will be in construction paralysis. All I'm suggesting we do is thread a needle where we're realistic about the mission-critical ones as we define, right? So that can be our neighborhood improvement projects. And the ones that are not unimportant, but just not realistic. over the next, I don't know, six years, seven years. We can revisit that in a couple of years from now. And if affordability pressures have abated, then…”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 4:18:05
“I'm not having my . We'll go, how did you put it eloquently, Eric? Option three. It was having a revised aggregate total that Public Works has to fit their needed.”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 4:22:21
“Before we break, one thing to consider is maybe the first motion should be whether to lift the rate moratorium. That's what we're about to do? But we're going to keep this rate moratorium in place.”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 4:22:47
“That's what I'm saying. Right. So I think we do that. Maybe we do that now. Let's break for lunch.”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 5:37:26
“Mr. Mayor, I'll echo that in short order. That is my hierarchy. I will say my reasoning for not having the geobond only at the top of my priority list and actually having the hybrid below just the utility rate only, is just the tremendous amount of uncertainty that I think this referendum in Tallahassee is going to represent. If it does pass, going to market in short order thereafter with the GEO bond that is predicated on ad valorem property taxes, I think there's going to be tremendous caution in the bond market about how these things are going to be viewed and funded and things like that.…”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 5:46:47
“So I'll make a motion. I don't know what order you want to call it. I'll move it.”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 5:46:51
“Yes. No. It's four-sevens. No. No, because we have a moratorium.”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 5:47:18
“It is. What's the item number? Okay. There's no item on the agenda. The motion is the amount that we're going to borrow under the rate increase under the hybrid method, $450 million. Make that the entirety that we're going to borrow. a rate increase, no geo bond component, and reconfigure the important NIP projects within that $450 million. So essentially we're shifting outwards to longer dated projects that aren't going to be undertaken. And that needs five seconds, correct?”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 6:00:49
“Maybe, Eric, I'll turn that to you about, I took what you said to heart about why we would fund projects like these not via geobond, but in the typical utility rate infrastructure. And in terms of why we passed the moratorium, I think what we essentially achieved in that time is scaling this amount that we're borrowing down by 300, 400 million dollars.”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 6:01:22
“And that's what I said walking in here. I wish several months ago, I wish what I would have done is just take a step, a breath, and say, you know what, we're trying to achieve a significant amount of infrastructure and utility projects, but we also need to do so in a way that is more affordable to our residents. And what was being proposed several years ago was this very robust bells and whistles package that maybe from an affordability standpoint, we're just not in a position to do today. So we do the things that are mission critical and essentially we're providing cost savings to our…”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 6:15:12
“Can we lay out the next steps? It is exactly what they would have been under the hybrid methodology, where, John, you come back for essentially the first reading of that in September, and then we take a final vote on that in October.”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 6:15:48
“And Mr. Mayor, one last thought. It looks like we're going to have some cost savings because we've been so fine-tuning our budget. We will have cost savings where last year we sent a stipend check to our residents. Perhaps if we have excess cost savings because of the extensive measures that we're taking through a more efficient government, we can put that towards some of this infrastructure funding to even lessen the burden. We don't have to vote on that now, but as we go through the budget process, that's something that we could all keep in mind that essentially the excess savings that we…”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 6:23:04
“So what I can tell you is you have my wholehearted support that that's always how I entered this budget process, that I wanted to give our residents a further rollback in the millage rate. I think it is slightly premature today to set exactly what that is. I feel comfortable if we set a ceiling and we say we are 100% confident our millage rate will not be going up. As we saw on Friday, we are already, if we would set the budget, at a millage rate that's rolled back. And in July, or I'm sorry, in September, I want to go through defining the more cost savings. I just don't know what rate we're…”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 6:25:03
“WHAT DOES THAT TRANSLATE TO TOTAL AGGREGATE IN THE BUDGET?”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 6:28:12
“Two point, so essentially we came in, you said to balance our budget and keep our millage rate flat, we had to essentially come up with cost savings of $6.9 million, correct? And we found further reductions Several million dollars. You're saying to reduce our millage? Three million. It would be $6.9 million deficit that we have, plus $3 million, was it?”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 6:29:07
“So we have $4 million in additional savings that we realized. And if we cut our millage rate by 0.05, that would be an incremental what?”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 6:29:18
“So I'll pose it to you, Commissioner. I'll either support you in this methodology now or if you would like to keep our maximum millage rate where it's at and we have that discussion to say we either reduce our millage further or we keep it the same and essentially pay for further infrastructure funding with that. I'm fine wherever you want to take that.”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 6:30:03
“And to remind the group one step further, we actually now have a line item by line item budget. So there's nothing preventing us from all individually going through there and saying, you know what, I think that can be cut. I think that can be cut and I plan on doing so. So I don't think that that $4 million is going to be the maximum amount of cost efficiencies that I'm going to be looking to save. So I'm fine backing into that lower millage rate because that's well within the absolute floor what I'm looking to save. In fact, my goal over the next month, even if it's individually, is just…”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 6:38:39
“And if I could clarify, right now, to balance our budget at this millage rate, we're facing a deficit of $6.9 million, correct? Correct. So if we would roll back our millage rate by .05, which Commissioner Suarez suggested I'm on the cusp of supporting, it would translate, we had to find an excess cost savings of what? 2.6. 2.6. We found through our budget process Friday above and beyond the $6.9 million in excess cost savings of what? 4.2. 4.2, right? So we are well past there. Okay, well past there. In fact, we'd be able to add things back into the budget and still have room. My goal is…”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 6:42:06
“And how I'll respond, Commissioner Fernandez, is I think that's an... By the way, I know there's a lot going on.”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 6:42:17
“That's our aspirational goal for September, when that number is refined and they have the correct analysis. I think where I'll go and support Commissioner Suarez is it gets us on that path there, right? And we'll give the administration time to say, okay, what is the millage rate that would correspond with an offset of what we just passed? And we can discuss that in September. This gets us at least moving in that direction because we just don't have that analysis ready.”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 6:53:09
“Commissioner Magazine. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor. What I think here is a tremendous opportunity that we have in front of us for our city. We have a office property that's owned by a private individual on city-owned land with a land lease. This individual has already put in $50 million of capital improvements that has significantly benefited our city through further economic development, but perhaps just as importantly, we actually get a gross percentage of revenue of this project. So the more this project earns, the more the city earns. That is increasingly important with all the things that…”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 7:03:20
“Yeah. Thank you, Ozzie, for the suggestion, Commissioner Suarez for bringing that up. I agree how important infrastructure is, and I think we're able to achieve multiple goals, right? These public benefits, my colleagues thought out and discussed that length for several months. totaling a million dollars, what the administration is suggesting will essentially bring two and a half times that for infrastructure funding. Is that correct? So if we do five years of $500,000 per year, that's bringing two and a half million dollars to infrastructure funding. One of the things that I think also is…”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 7:46:06
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026