Remarks by Mark Merwitzer
132 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 4 of 6
- Play at 2:07:40
“Yeah, I'll just say that not everything is a con and that the PBA was supportive of this last meeting because they were concerned and so am I. Major storm coming after the November election related to how we're going to be funding our government and to provide them that long-term structural insulation for the rest of our budget, I think, is very much wanted by at least a bit David Greenwell. And also it was supported by the sheriff's office as well. Because again, this is not a new idea. This is not anything other than giving our law enforcement the same exact structural protection as the…”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 2:11:31
“Go ahead. So two things. One, if it's legally possible, I'm completely on board with guaranteeing that funding. Um, I'll defer to Laurie and John as to the mechanisms there. I'm wondering if it's possibility to add some procedural requirements then to our code of ordinances long term. Um, adopting that funding would look like and how we can actually get there. I don't know what that would look like because my understanding is saying the tax rate and the funding comes from Florida statute. But if there's a way we can procedurally guarantee that or”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 2:21:06
“Yeah, two things to that. On the obligation front, John, feel free to jump in and also if you're able to answer this as well, but in our actual interlocal agreement with the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office, section 7.5 of that agreement says that the village is required to pay for the actual cost of the local patrol services. So regardless of what we put in to the ordinance itself, We still carry that obligation to pay for the actual cost of local patrol services. And that's a separate agreement that we have with the sheriff's office as a requirement for them to provide the public safety that…”
Village Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 15:58
“So first of all, thank you to all the family members who came out tonight to recognize these amazing staffers here. Round of applause, yes. I will say, I really do appreciate each and every single one of you. A lot of you I've actually known since I was about this tall and about 14 years old. Parks Director Carmona, back when I was on the youth board, our village clerk, Messia Rocha as well. I've known both of you for a very long time, and it really speaks to your dedication to this community to be here for over 10 years, actually at least 12 years now, because I was elected or not elected,…”
Village Council · Jul 6, 2026
- Play at 58:07
“Yeah, Madam Mayor, if I can be added as a co-sponsor to the EDC item that you brought along with the cystic fibrosis item, I'd like to be added as a co-sponsor for that, please.”
Village Council · Jul 6, 2026
- Play at 58:56
“And I'm also wondering, right after the millage, if we could also bring up the dependent district, because it's also linked with that. So I'm wondering, right after the millage rate discussion, we can bring the ordinance related to the dependent district.”
Village Council · Jul 6, 2026
- Play at 1:19:11
“Yeah, so first of all, I appreciate you taking time to put this together. My core concern is this. I think with something as delicate as the budget, so many of you have told me your priorities over the last couple of years since I took office. Things like traffic, things like our parks, and a whole slew of other priorities that you have. I think that conversation that we need to have with residents actually belongs in person, in people's homes, at our parks, at our village hall, as frequently as we can. And I actually remember Councilman Madsen, Mayor Cunningham, and myself, we all traveled…”
Village Council · Jul 6, 2026
- Play at 1:23:03
“Yeah, can you mention maybe just really quickly The core concern I have with the survey as well is it's trying to do two things at once. If we're trying to get feedback, I think that's a valid thing to do. But as someone said, it's essentially a talking point or a tool. If you want to get a message out to residents and explain what's actually happening, which I think is part of the intent of the survey, I think the explaining and trying to get feedback should be two separate vehicles instead of having it all in one piece of survey. Because I think if you want genuine responses from people…”
Village Council · Jul 6, 2026
- Play at 1:51:24
“yeah so a couple things um i really wrestled back and forth with where to land on this and this is an incredibly difficult decision tonight so many people have told me and this is something that i genuinely mean the budget that we're going to adopt as a council is the biggest statement of priorities that we can have as a community It's not found in our comp plan. It's not found in our zoning code. It's not found in anything other than our budget and what we spend our money on. So this is something that I take incredibly seriously. And tonight we're talking about setting potentially the…”
Village Council · Jul 6, 2026
- Play at 2:03:49
“Yeah, a couple things. The first is that our legal budget... is enormous. I mentioned that during my comments. It's over $1.5 million. I am hoping that we have a more prudent council after November where some of those legal costs can be resolved and also we're not, for lack of a better term, spending time summing each other four different ways to Sunday, which is a literal statement, by the way, four different times since the last year. And maybe some of those savings from our legal budget can go into a capital investment fund to fund things like parks and other things. So I won't be…”
Village Council · Jul 6, 2026
- Play at 2:10:35
“thank you and i'm really excited to present this item tonight because i think it's one of the most important things that this council will hopefully be doing this meeting there's many other things on the agenda but this is something that's super important because public safety is the most important thing to our residents here in the village of palmetto bay without public safety nothing else follows whether it be opening up a business here going to work you name it our police are the backbone of our community and this item specifically gives them the ability to have, just like the fire…”
Village Council · Jul 6, 2026
- Play at 2:15:52
“don't know if the vice mayor wanted to jump in first I'll be happy to answer that yes yes so a couple of things so all this does is so in Florida law there's two ways of essentially creating a new line item in a tax bill all this does is essentially have us separate out from a budgetary perspective completely the police from the rest of our budget so essentially what will happen during the budget process is we'll sit as a village Palmetto Bay Council like we do now and And then during that same meeting, we'll essentially adopt and approve both the millage rate and also budget for the police…”
Village Council · Jul 6, 2026
- Play at 2:19:31
“So that would actually be up to the determination of the future council. So this item before us tonight does not decide what the tax rate is or how we're going to make that split between our operations side and the police side. All this does is create that second line item. How we as a council decide to allocate that is gonna be up to the determination of next year because this cannot legally take effect and appear on someone's property tax bill until the following year. So essentially, if you wanna have a structure that you're mentioning, that's certainly a possibility where the public…”
Village Council · Jul 6, 2026
- Play at 2:26:55
“essentially what would happen is the tax rolls and the assessed value would go down. That would essentially actually put us in a situation where I believe the majority rate for our millage would be actually the same rate as last year because you're in a situation where your assessed valuation has gone down. The only reason why we're in a situation like this year where the rollback rate is lower than the actual rate we adopted last year is because property values went up. So I don't think that would be a situation um in reality the other side of it as well and this is the important point…”
Village Council · Jul 6, 2026
- Play at 2:32:21
“Yeah, two things. One, I totally agree. I'm happy to bring this to a cow. I think it's an important conversation to have. And I appreciate the willingness to engage with this on good faith. And again, I thank Sheriff Rosie for her support with this. I thank our local sheriff's unit here for working with me on this and also to our manager. So”
Village Council · Jul 6, 2026
- Play at 2:32:43
“I wanted to get to, I want to answer your question first. Yes, we'll do a CAL. Yes, I'll put something together. And yes, I will have some conversations to make that happen. The second part to Councilwoman Madsen's question about the five-year projections or rates, this does not change the process under which we adopt a millage for the combined rate at the end. So essentially the projection is going to be entirely up to the future council. This doesn't bind us to any future tax rate. This doesn't bind us to anything other than separating out our police costs with the rest of our budget.…”
Village Council · Jul 6, 2026
- Play at 2:35:05
“So the reason why this has to be brought this year is that if we want to have this in place for next year, we have to undergo the process that our village attorney mentioned, which is get approval from the county and also work with our property appraiser and other county staff to make this actually appear. And also there's a provision under state law that says that whatever district we adopt this year cannot levy or do anything in terms of separating out that millage until the following year. So essentially what would happen is if we postpone this to next year, this won't come back until…”
Village Council · Jul 6, 2026
- Play at 2:37:33
“Just a question for legal. My understanding is if we adopt this by October, we're still on track to levy this and go through this process for fiscal year 27?”
Village Council · Jul 6, 2026
- Play at 3:01:07
“Yeah, okay. Vice Mayor. Yeah, I have a comment. This is for both items, so I'll just give them all in one. My core concern is this. We literally started our meeting with a prayer. I mean, that's part of our meeting process. So to say that religion is separate from our governmental function is just antithetical to what our government is right now. And what I would also point out is our village and our government should be a reflection of our residents and the people that we serve. So I thank you for bringing this because that's what I think this is trying to do. And that's what I think we…”
Village Council · Jul 6, 2026
- Play at 3:06:30
“I was actually going to say something very similar, which is, like, if the attorney and councilman work together on this, then I'm open to supporting whatever comes out of it. And to me... whatever is in here is has to be the process. So I am grateful for it seems like there's going to be support tonight. And I'm really glad we can get over this hump as a village and reflect the values of who we are as a village. So thank you.”
Village Council · Jul 6, 2026
- Play at 3:18:30
“Yeah, has any other community in Miami-Dade County or the state of Florida adopted a similar policy?”
Village Council · Jul 6, 2026
- Play at 3:19:32
“Yeah, I'll just add one other thing. I mean, the reason why I asked that question is I don't see any other community having this challenge that's in front of us. I'll also point out, however your political leanings are, one of the most conservative sheriffs in all the state of Florida, Sheriff Rosie, who I think has done a great job here in Palmetto Bay with crime, But nonetheless, her personal account a couple of weeks ago even wished Happy Eid. So this is something that people across the political spectrum recognize. And I feel like we're the first and also I feel like the only community…”
Village Council · Jul 6, 2026
- Play at 3:22:22
“Second. I'd also move to extend the meeting until 10-30. Okay.”
Village Council · Jul 6, 2026
- Play at 3:25:40
“I remember your comments, and I'm actually inclined to agree with you and vote for you this time around.”
Village Council · Jul 6, 2026
- Play at 3:25:57
“Yeah, I mean, I'm inclined to agree with Commissioner Fiore on his comments last time. I mean, I agree with all of their items. I think we should make one or two changes. I know there's an amendment that Councilman Fiore does not want. I share that position, and I'm happy to push this through and get this process done because the CRC deserves to have finality on this. And I'm hoping with the next item that I'm sponsoring, we can get this taken care of. And we don't have to be here past 1030. Thank you.”
Village Council · Jul 6, 2026