Remarks by Mark Merwitzer
132 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 3 of 6
- Play at 24:56
“Yeah, and I'm just wondering how that compares. So essentially you took the numbers that we're spending now on our current crew and then essentially made some estimates as to what we would need for future work on our canopy?”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 32:05
“To start, I want to start by thanking Nick, Mary Ellis, Dio, and the team. We've had several meetings about this in the last, I would say, four or five months, and this is something that I've been eyeing since I took office back in December of last year. So before I get into the actual policy, Two things. One, it would be great to have the PowerPoint brought up. I can't screen share, and I unfortunately don't have it downloaded on my computer properly. I'm trying to get this set up. So I'm wondering if the village clerk could actually be the one to go ahead and share the PowerPoint…”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 33:59
“I'm just hoping I can go into presenter mode and I can begin.”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 34:34
“So, Before I get into the actual policy, I want to explain why I was bringing this forward in the first place, because I feel like policy can only make sense if you understand the full premise. So Palmetto Bay exists because we reclaimed the land from water and the whole part of Florida was wetland before it was a village. We drained it, we built on it, and we've been managing that decision ever since. And the water has never really stopped trying to come back. Every time we have a king tide, an afternoon storm, Every flooded road on a normal Tuesday is that same process still running that we…”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 39:00
“That works for me. So on slide two, I'll go ahead and give you all a roadmap as to the thought process that I had in working with administration and developing this, which includes the philosophy. which is moving from a pipes-only program to a full-on program where we manage rain where it falls and what our own data shows about that. The package is broken up into three separate policies, which I'll get into soon. They're still a work in progress and they're under staff review. So once that's ready, I'll be happy to share with you all what those look like. And I want to go into what each one…”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 48:38
“Perfect. So the land development code is a major update to our... And a lot of what's actually in this land development code was actually taken directly from policies that are in our comprehensive plan. And also some of the recommendations that we have in our own resiliency action plan. So that includes things like our green infrastructure requirements. It includes things like the tree property. All those things are rolled into this land development code update. So essentially we're taking our existing plans and actually putting them into our land development code. So the philosophy behind it…”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 1:01:37
“That's going to be worked on by the ambition of whatever we decide to fund the stormwater program with. Palmetto Bay Beautiful would be partly funded by our existing funds from our business improvement program. And then lastly, the land development code side. I'm still waiting to actually get a final answer on that, but my assumption is it would probably require one additional staffer that would be essentially discussed and funded not this... ongoing year, and it would be up to the new council to fund that.”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 1:02:15
“Yes, a lot of it, except for the actual stormwater rate, which the idea, again, for the canopy trees and some of the grant programs behind the green infrastructure, that would be funded hopefully by the stormwater program, and whatever that rate is, I've been working with the administration on getting that rate to fund that. But that's the hope, is that if we're doing an adjustment for our rate, we can also throw in some incentives for private property owners and also funding for our tree canopy.”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 1:06:56
“I would also just emphasize as well that the program would really kick in in fiscal year 27-28 and not this following or this coming one. So this would be a discussion for the next, the best way to execute this.”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 1:10:50
“Yeah, so to answer your question and to carry off of what Nick said as well, a large part of it too is in the previous presentation, we mentioned hiring some arborists. The hope is that those arborists would support some of the aspects of this program. And a lot of this as well are some of the existing grant funding that we have for the business improvement grant program. that would go into this. So essentially it's merging the stormwater program and the existing grant program for the business improvement grant into one program as a whole. And on the backend, that's where we would decide the…”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 1:12:11
“No, but I mean, To be blunt, I'm open to whatever it needs to be is what it needs to be because to me, and I mentioned this earlier, the cost of doing nothing here is significant.”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 1:13:14
“My understanding, and Nick, feel free to jump in, but my understanding is this would be within that range of 10 to 13 or 11 to 13?”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 1:23:03
“Yeah, a couple of things. The first is that this has been a several months long process to this point where we are now. Again, as I mentioned, this involved several meetings with staff to get their input. It involved meetings with our stormwater crew, along with the resiliency staff, along with Dio and the rest of the public works team, and also Nick as well. The whole plan from the beginning was to have the conversation about funding these new programs for our residents, which I think will be incredibly beneficial as part of our discussion for what our stormwater fee should look like. And…”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 1:28:01
“Just to jump in one more time to respond to your comments.”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 1:28:13
“Yeah, I mean, the challenge is part of to update the stormwater fee and the actual rate itself. And this was a conversation I had with our village attorney, and feel free to jump in. Part of the discussion is you can't just set an arbitrary number for the stormwater rate. It has to be backed by a rate study. And some of the things that went into determining that rate and that stormwater include some of these programs that we're mentioning. So essentially some of that work that goes into building that rate and that fee that you're discussing comes from what we actually want that program to…”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 1:31:46
“Of course, same thing as last time, to just go through the presentation on our own, or would the clerk be able to put it up on the screen?”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 1:32:26
“So Palmetto Bay is safe because we pay for it to be safe. And that's a choice that we make and decide to fund as a council every single year. And right now that funding sits in the same pot as it does for parks, for roads, for building and permitting department, for all of our other functions that we do as a village and spend our money on. And that public safety has to compete for that. So this proposal on its own does not change directly how much anyone pays, but it changes how our police funding would work, how it sits. So it can essentially never quietly lose ground or be up for…”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 1:40:27
“And just to jump in with the current process, I wanted to just address as well that if we wanted to adopt this on first reading, the correct approach would be...”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 1:40:52
“Yeah, so the approach that I was told would work for us directly is that we could adopt it on first reading in July if the council chooses to. And the appropriate thing would be to change the effective date to essentially allow when this ordinance comes back for us to propose that secondary resolution as well and then work through the county process and allow it to take effect once we complete the Chapter 18 of the county process. The other part of it as well, and this is my own thinking, is that I don't personally, the attorney, in her opinion or whoever that person was, his or her opinion,…”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 1:44:22
“So in a situation where we have these two rates and our entire ad valorem tax would be the police cost, that would be essentially up to the rest of the budget to fulfill, including the stormwater fund, including the transportation fund that we get from the half penny surtax, fuel taxes, and all of our other sources of revenue would essentially fund those other items, which I believe is actually in part what we do today because we have a situation where the entire police contract cost is higher than our millage as it is. So it would also be discretionary up to the next council as to how they…”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 1:46:07
“So essentially the rule is whatever our combined millage is between the blue line police district and our operating budget, that combined rate is where the rules are. So if we want to split it up between, like right now for hypothetical, we want to have a situation where revenues fell from our operating properties and we need to essentially recover some of that cost from a higher rate we could as a council set whatever that district is to fund police at that higher rate or we could essentially find a way to have the general fund cover some of that shortfall one way the only thing is the…”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 1:48:01
“That would be up to the contract costs and what the council between 2027 and 2031 decide to fund it as. Ideally, in an ideal world, you would fund it . Okay.”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 1:49:44
“The way I would respond is historically with how these dependent districts have worked, it that especially with the fire district, you don't see a situation where you're defunding or lowering that fire district because you'd essentially be defunding the fire district. In this case, you'd be lowering the funding of the police. Those have structurally been essentially insulated from the rest of the general budget fights. Like for example, right now, the county is in significant financial situation. they're not having the same overall conversation about the fire district. They had some last year…”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 1:51:15
“And... That would be the hope. And I would just jump in, like, the fire district is set separately every budget session by the county. It's not like the agency, like the fire district can wake up tomorrow and set the millage rate. The county commission has to approve it separately. And that's how it works, just like how it would work here in Palmetto Bay.”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 1:51:43
“Correct, but it would be a special fund separate from everything else, and that's the same protection that the firefighters have at the county level. I mean, there's everything. I mean, even with our own general fund. So this at least insulates them from the separate fights that the county has with their own budget, for example. And with the onslaught coming in November, potentially, with removing homesteaded property tax exemptions, in my view, I think we have to send a very clear message that public safety funded no matter what. And whatever that budget has to be should be set by council,…”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026