Village Council - Regular Meeting

H.A. Florentine, Palmetto Bay Academy is joining me today as mayor for the day.

Good evening everyone. Welcome to the hybrid first budget hearing on Monday, September 14th, 2026 at 7 p.m. I'd like to call this meeting to order. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Mayor Karen Cunningham. Present. Vice Mayor Mark Meritor. Present. Council Member Patrick Fiore. Present. Council Member Steve Cody. Here. Council Member Marsha Madsen. Here. Quorum is met.

Council Member Fiore, please lead us in invocation.

Thank you. If we could all bow our heads in prayer to Tonight's reading is from Deuteronomy 31.8. The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid and do not be discouraged. Amen.

I will now lead in the Pledge of Allegiance. Please rise and face the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Let's give a big round of applause to AJ. Good job today. All right, he caught me. I'm a teacher, and sometimes I walk off with people's pens. All right, good evening, everybody. At this time, we'll take request petitions and public comments. These are request petitions and public comments that have nothing to do with tonight's agenda. Actually, since this is our budget hearing, yes, since this is our budget hearing, we'll take comments on the budget in just a couple minutes, but this will be for anything not on tonight's agenda for the budget.

Madam Mayor, before we get into that, a couple of residents are here specifically for one item on our regular council meeting agenda. I'm wondering if after the request petitions and public comments, we can recess this meeting, call a regular meeting to order, and call the item that the residents who are here for out of order and address it then.

Yeah, as much as I understand what you're saying, we actually have quite a few people here that are here to speak on different things for the regular council meeting. I have no problem when we get to that portion. If you want to pull that item, let's bring it up a little bit closer to the front. That's right. Thank you. Yes, sir.

My name is Tyler Parkowitz, United 280 Southwest 167 Terrace. Number one, I want to thank this administration. I know some of you guys are going to leave. at the end of November, and I want to thank you for an amazing job that you guys did for the last four to eight years. And one of the things I asked that, when you guys approved the budget, that police department get enough money to be able to have safety because of them, our crimes are one of the lowest crimes that we've seen around, I'll say, South Dade. And the only way that happens is when they have enough tools and enough manpower to do that, and I appreciate that. Thank you.

Thank you.

David Singer, 8360 Southwest 154th Terrace. For the last six months, there's been one council member that has sent out weekly emails attacking me, which is fine since I have very thick skin, and when this individual starts attacking my children, it really crosses the line. I have three great kids. One works in a medical school at University of Miami. One just passed two of the three parts of his GC license. and one I just dropped off in Tallahassee to study finance and real estate. The reason why this individual council member is publicly attacking me, as he has for over six years, is he's now a month away from losing a multi-million dollar lawsuit I have filed against him for defamation and tortious interference with my last job. The trial date is set for October 23rd. He's going to lose, and I will lean everything he owns in the future. including his Palmetto Bay payroll. Even if he attempts to declare bankruptcy, these liens will not go away. By the way, this continued harassment would not have continued without the village turning a blind eye to his behavior for over the six years. I have not been the only village resident that he has harassed. There are numerous residents. You guys know who they are. Not only, by the way, residents, but people on the council. This behavior could have been stopped by the village manager and a former village attorney. I personally like Nick as a village manager. And I respect Nick as a village manager. And I think he does a good job. But he's permitted this behavior and worse.

Excuse me. I'm sorry, Mr. Singer. I really take offense to calling out individual folks.

Okay. I'll just say village manager. It's fine. I like Nick. What's worse is the ex-village attorney said, was just a waste of a village paycheck when it came to controlling the village. This behavior more will not be permitted if I'm elected as mayor. We will have decorum and respect for our individual council members and certainly our fellow residents. We are here to serve our village residents. One minute. Our village residents are not here to serve you. I will be the first one to go to the ethics board to discuss behavior unbecoming of the council member if it can't be handled in-house. By the way, we still have the wild, wild west in Palmetto Bay with election signs. I've never seen anything like it before. I guess we have no code enforcement anymore. I miss the days when Alan White was allowed to do his job. Thank you.

Thank you. Madam Mayor, very briefly.

The clerk informs me that the countdown clock is not working. If... If it's okay with you, she'll give a one-minute warning and then a 30-second, if that's okay.

Yes, that's perfect. I was also going to mention I just opened up the GoToWebinar, and it's saying that it'll allow me to enter when the meeting starts. I just want to make sure that that got started. I think I have the right link. I'm pretty sure, but I just want to make sure. um next speaker and I don't for those of you that are getting up to speak whether it's this or late into the evening uh the timer's not working so you'll just hear the one minute we hate to interrupt you but that's your cue that you've got one minute and she'll let you know the clerk will let us know when your time is up sorry about that for this evening thank you go ahead sir just a quick point of order I I came because there's supposed to be something about Palmetto Bay taxes is that on the agenda Yes, we are in the budget hearing.

We can discuss that at a different time, not right now.

In just a few minutes, I'll have people come up to talk about the budget items.

public input at that time there'll be public input at that time okay then just one more thing uh 87th avenue north of 144th is still part of the palmetto bay community road system it is not county please address maybe reducing traffic on that 144th forward to 141 is still part of palmetto bay it is not part of the county road system so please try to reduce traffic on that thank you

That's correct. Joe, would you give us your name? Did you give name and address? I'm so sorry.

Joseph Miarelli, 8481 Southwest 142nd Street. Great.

We'll see you in a few minutes. Next speaker, please. I'm going to open public hearing for both budget items. We have two items on tonight's agenda. Yes, one is the millage rate, and the other is the actual budget. And I will open public hearing for each one of those.

one dealing with the proposed budget.

Why don't you give your, I know your address is protected, but give your name so that we can.

James Water. I'm just trying to find out whether the time that I need to speak is now because I want to speak on budget items, but that's not now. Is that correct?

Three or four more minutes and we'll be ready to roll. Madam Clerk, did you say we have two items by form for this? Can you read those for me?

The village clerk's office received two public comments submitted by form. The first one was submitted by Thomas Emerson at 7421 Southwest 148th Street, and each form is read into the record for a time allotment of one minute, and the forms remain part of the record. Thomas Emerson, 7421 Southwest 148th Street. I am very concerned with the budget increase being proposed for 2027. As a retiree, we are on a fixed budget. The increase to 2.35 mils does not appear to be much due to the way the numbers are being presented. I paid almost $1,200 in property taxes to Palmetto Bay last year at a millage rate of 2.30. Not only will my millage rate increase, but the county will also increase my assessed value, which is a double whammy. Along with increases in insurance and other taxes, the village needs to look at ways to reel in the expenditures for 2027 and spend within our budget. During my business career, we challenge ourselves every year to find ways to reduce next year's budget or at a minimum do not increase it. The next public comment was submitted by Eric Tolberg, residing at 7884 Southwest 179 Terrace. If the sidewalk on the south side of the woods is not completed in fiscal year 2026, it must be completed in fiscal year 27. The bike lanes on Southwest 82nd Avenue from Southwest 160th Street to Southwest 152nd Street should be completed in fiscal year 27. About $50,000 in sidewalk repairs are needed to fix angerous places. We should have sidewalks on Southwest 98th Avenue to complete the downtown network. We need sidewalks on the west side of Old Colour Road where people live. That concludes the public comment section.

Very good. With that, we move into our ordinances for first reading with public comment. Would somebody move item 3A?

Move it.

Is there a second? Thank you. I wasn't sure if it was coming from the public or... Thank you. All right, Madam Clerk, would you read item 3A?

In ordinance of the Mayor and Village Council of the Village of Palmetto Bay, Florida, adopting the millage rate of 2.3500, which is 8.19% higher than the rollback rate of 2.1722, for the village for the fiscal year commencing October 1, 2026, through September 30, 2027, pursuant to Section 200.065 of the Florida Statutes, providing for notice, conflicts, severability, and an effective date. This ordinance is being heard on first reading and was prepared by Finance Director Desmond Chin.

Thank you. At this time, I'll take public comment for item 3A, millage rate.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Peter England 7620 Southwest 171st Street in Palmetto Bay, as it has been for the last 40 years. I'm here tonight on behalf of the Deering Estate Foundation. Wanted to thank the Village for its new, or rather improved, collaboration with the estate. We had an excellent meeting last week with Village staff, with the estate staff, foundation staff. I'm really thrilled with the prospects of some of the items that we discussed, what we looked at. The issue for the Deering estate is and has always been the fact that it's one block removed from Old Cutler Road, whereas Fairchild benefits from the fact that it's right on Old Cutler Road. We are one block removed, and there are people literally every year that come to our seafood festival that have lived in Miami-Dade County all their lives and said, I had no idea this was back here. So anything that can be done by the village in terms of developing this Deering Estate neighborhood, if you will, that will let good folks in the community know that there is a Deering estate back there, that we are a unique asset to this village, would be very much appreciated. And the idea of you commencing a feasibility study is very much welcome. We thank you for your interest.

Thank you, Peter. Next speaker, please.

Joseph Miarelli, 8481 Southwest 142nd Street, Palmetto Bay, Florida. I received my, I believe it's called a trim notice of proposed taxes. I'm looking at it and I'm recognizing that my assessed value went up 12%. My assessed non-school levy went up 10%. The proposed budget millage increase goes up 16.9%, 16.9%. So I have a 10%, 12 to 10% increase in the value of my property, which is then taxed with another 16.9% increase in millage rate, which leads to a total of 28% increase in taxes over one year. So tax revenue is, I'm gonna pay 28% more in one year. Now, if you go to column 4, if no budget change is adopted, because the assessed value went up, and even though the millage went down, I still pay a net increase of 3.8%. Now, last time I checked, general inflation rate is somewhere around 3%, 3.5%, etc. So, if the column 4, if no budget change is adopted, is well adopted, your budget will remain neutral with relationship to inflation. And that should be acceptable to the village council. So please, I propose that you do not make any changes and the budget change, and I propose that no budget change is adopted. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good evening, Linda Robinson, 15605 Southwest 77th Court. Good evening, mayor, council, manager, clerk, and attorney. Since I've been asked to come here, I'm here. As a last ditch effort to please, please, find the funds to install electric to our fourth quadrant of Coral Reef Park so we can upgrade the Ken Robinson Meditation Garden and more. Thanks, manager. Thanks, park director, for trying. Installing electric would allow our sprinklers to work, bring a water element to the garden, and save plants and trees from dying. This upgrade would bring revenue to our village in the future. This is an item that needs to be done just like you're replacing the fence, and you fix the flood areas in the park with drains. First, we must take care of what we have before tackling something new. Please, please, please, budget for the electric at this time to complete the coral reef park. And to all, since it's the start of the Jewish New Year, May all of you have a good, healthy, prosperous new year. Lashana Tova.

Lashana Tova. Next speaker.

David Singer, 8360 Southwest 154th Terrace. At this point, I don't necessarily have an opinion on the millage rate. What I do... What I am up here is to remind you guys that Amendment 3, which reduces or increases the homestead over next year and the year after, is going from $150,000 to $250,000. I have talked to the village manager, and he's agreed that is going to cut down our taxes, our real estate taxes, by 10% to 25% of the income that's coming into the village. You guys should not be increasing the budget this year You should be decreasing it. You have really, really, really difficult decisions to make in what's important to the residents and what's not important. And that should be addressed this year so next year and the year after it's not as drastic. You need to sit there and cut expenses that do not directly benefit the village as a whole. You need to cut some of the parties that we have people from other municipalities coming to. You need to cut some of the marketing because this village doesn't need marketing. We really need to take a huge look at what money we're spending and start from zero in each department and say, is this going to help the residents? If it is, we keep it. If it doesn't directly benefit the residents, we cut it. And that goes with everything. every single department, every single employee, because in two years, we are gonna be running in the red. And it's nothing we can do about it. The poll was taken, 65% of the voters in the state of Florida are gonna vote for Amendment 3. And luckily, some of you won't be here to have to tackle this issue, but it is gonna be an issue in the near future. Thank you.

Thank you, anybody else? All right, very good. I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing portion for item 3A, and I'm going to turn it over to the village manager.

Okay. Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the village council, residents of Palmetto Bay. We've got two items under the budget hearing. I'm going to run through the first item, which will be setting the millage rate. I have a short PowerPoint, and at the conclusion of that, Madam Mayor, I'll be happy to answer any questions from the Village Council. Following that item, we will then bring up a much more detailed presentation on the fiscal 2027 budget. So Olga, if you could please put my computer up here, let me start the presentation. Okay, so as we look forward to fiscal 2027, in the general fund, and when we talk about the millage rate, the millage rate only is relevant to the general fund. When we get into the broader budget, we have several other special revenue funds, but when we're talking about property taxes and the millage rate, we're only talking about the general fund, which funds the core list of government services. The sheriff, the parks department, all the general government here in Village Hall, planning and zoning, and so on. So when you look at the general fund, if you look at my left graph, if you look at the left side here, these are all the revenues. Ad valorem taxes are property taxes. We're projecting at the millage that I'm proposing about $11.6 million in revenue for property or ad valorem taxes. The next biggest category, utility taxes, 3.7 million. Intergovernmental revenue is mainly sales tax. A few other associated taxes are included in there, such as alcohol and one or two others. That's also projected to be 3.7 million. Franchise fees, 2.3 million. Charges for services at just over a million. and then the other sources of income round out the total picture for the general fund. If you look at expenditures, where is the money going? Mainly it's going to public safety. The Palmetto Bay Municipal District of the Miami-Dade County Sheriff's Office, we're projecting $12.6 million in expenses. Parks and Recreation, the next highest use of the general fund, just under $4 million. General government, what's general government? These are all the contracts that support two or more departments in the village. So everything from the village's electric bills, our internet bills, copier contracts, fuel maintenance, all of those type of contracts come in under general government. And then you get into each one in descending order of the village departments. Planning and zoning, we have brought that back in-house. HR, here's our debt service. We took advantage a few years ago, if you remember, and refinanced the debt at very favorable interest rates. The village has one of the lowest debt to revenue ratios of any of the municipalities in the state of Florida. We are also proudly one of only 12 other municipalities in the state of over 360 that have a AAA bond rating, partly due to a very low debt rating and also partly due to a very robust fund balance that I'll get into when we talk about the budget in the next presentation. facilities maintenance, and then all the remaining village departments from finance down to the village council. So let's look at the picture here of general fund revenue starting on my left side here, 2008, just over 15 million in real dollars. Here we are at our 2027 proposed rate or our proposed budget. of just under $24 million in revenue, so you can see in real dollars the growth in revenue to the village. That paints a certain picture, but now let's factor in inflation. And this is what's important for not only the residents here this evening, but also as you talk it over with your family, with friends about Amendment 3, this is an important graph to keep in mind. This graph tracks constant dollars. So in this case, I've pegged it at 2008, just under $16 million in total revenue. The dark blue represents property taxes. The light blue represents all the other revenue sources, sales tax, utility taxes, and so on to the village. So again, in 2008, just under $16 million. the CPI rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers for each year, you'll see the effect of inflation on revenues for the village as I'm going from left to right. Here we are in 2023. You see a big jump post-COVID in revenue. And then we've basically flattened out. Here's 2027. We're just slightly above constant dollars where we were in 2008. This is assuming a 3% consumer price index for fiscal year 2027. So again, a good graph to keep in mind when you look at not only the total dollars that flow into not only this local government, but local governments across the state as you weigh where you may vote on Amendment 3. I think this is a very relevant slide. So let's talk about millage rates. The village calculates on an annual basis what's known as our rollback rate. And there's a couple of things that go into that very simply. here where my laser pointer is, is the total taxable value of all the property in the Village of Palmetto Bay. That's for budget year 2026, 4.8 billion. For fiscal year 2027, it is estimated to be 5.16 billion. So in order to generate the same amount of revenue the same amount of revenue for fiscal 27, the millage rate would be 2.1722. 2.1722. It's currently 2.30. Again, if you think about this slide, that puts keeping it the same in context, I think. How does the village of Palmetto Bay millage rate relate to an individual property owner and what he or she actually pays total in property taxes for the year? Well, this light blue slice at the top of the pie here, that represents the recommended millage of 2.35%. That is 13 cents out of every dollar that a property owner in the village pays in property taxes. 13 cents goes to the village of Palmetto Bay. Where does the rest of it go? Miami-Dade County School District, Miami-Dade County itself, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue actually has a larger millage than the village of Palmetto Bay. Again, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue charges a higher millage than the Village of Palmetto Bay, which includes all of the government services to include police. And then there's smaller, the Children's Trust, and the state gets a very small slice also of every property tax value. How does the Village of Palmetto Bay shake out against the other 27 municipalities in Miami-Dade County? This scale indicates the total millage rate. On the bottom here are all the municipalities in Miami-Dade County. Here's Village of Palmetto Bay at, again, 2.35, lower than the Village of Pinecrest at 2.5, and the town of Cutler Bay at 2.84. If you look historically, The Village of Palmetto Bay basically built its service delivery model on about a 2.44 millage rate. That's what this level that I'm now indicating with my laser pointer is. That was the service model that the village built its delivery system on. If you picture the graph that I showed, where we factor in the rate of inflation, as the village over a few years decreased its millage rate, it still had this same service level it was trying to keep up to. And the village was able to keep it going by drawing down on reserves. But in fiscal year 23, the village council increased the millage back to 2.4 It then dropped down to 2.35, where it remained for a couple of years. Last year, the council dropped it to 2.3018. This year, I'm recommending to bring it back to 2.35. With that, Madam Mayor, I'm happy to answer any questions, either from you or the village council.

Sure thing. Questions for the manager? I actually have a question. I know you sent us an email, and I think, Vice Mayor, you had some initiatives that you wanted to see about adding to the budget.

Yes, ma'am. I have that, however you choose. I have it in the next presentation if you want.

I know, but we're setting the millage rate.

Oh, yes, ma'am.

And I can wait. We can set it, but I don't want to try and change it before second reading. I want to just have a conversation about... So if I'm remembering correctly... there were and maybe you could just give a little bit of a rundown of the items because I think some of my colleagues added other items so if you could give a quick rundown yes ma'am just for the record the question is to say what I heard today when I met with the manager was all good stuff it's all of the initiatives good stuff but I'm also concerned about money

Okay, I'm ready, Madam Mayor, whenever you are.

Just the additional projects that... Olga, could you please put my computer back up, please?

Okay, in front of you are the proposed additions from several members of the Village Council. Most are for the general fund, although there is one that I would recommend from the transportation fund. Starting with a visioning plan for the Deering Estate neighborhood, so it would be the Deering Estate neighborhood visioning plan. Funding source would be the general fund capital fund. That would be $50,000. Another would be for the Richmond Drive neighborhood visioning plan, that section of 168th Street, east from US 1 to about like 93rd Court, I think, and then south and then back west towards US 1. That would also be $50,000 with, I'll leave the transportation fund for a moment, just stick to the general fund. There is a proposal for additional benches on the walking path at Palmetto Bay Park for $10,000. There's a solar electrical solution for the meditation garden at $10,000. There's an increase in spending per employee for $100 a month for health care. That works out to $24,000 a year. And then finally, design and permitting for the for paving the village hall parking lot and that's 50 000. those added together are 194 000 the transportation plan or i'm sorry the transportation fund item would be a village-wide neighborhood greenway if you remember back from the presentation on our safe streets for all plan that we did that was one of the components of it so it would bring that forward from the Safe Streets for All plan. We would do the design and permitting, and then we would seek to get different grant and other revenue sources to actually make that happen. And actually, that would be similar, the strategy for both of these neighborhood visioning plans. I know the council members who are the proponents may have much more detail for you, Madam Mayor, but that's the total value number.

Thank you. I don't need detail on each one of the projects. Actually, from our conversation and just looking at them, I think the projects themselves are very good. My question and what we had discussed today was you're proposing a 2.35 budget, and then we talked about we add another $194,000 in projects, all good projects, love them all, great thinking outside the box, great bringing them to you to talk about them during the budget cycle rather than waiting and then we're down the road six months and folks are making decisions based on the budget that we already passed but adding new expenses to it. So when we spoke, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but With the projects, not the transportation piece, what was the number? Well, I wrote down the number. It was 2.389. And so I guess what I'm asking of my colleagues when we're looking at the millage rate, would there be any temperature to move it up, to bump it up from 2.35 to 2.389 I won't even count the CITT, because that would be an additional, that would bring it over 2.4, I think, if I wrote that correctly. I think it was 2.4095. So maybe a conversation for us. I asked the question. I'm happy to make a motion, which I will, but in order to capture everybody's projects, And actually, let me just do it, and then we can vote on it. Can I pass that down?

Is there a second?

Yeah. The motion is, just so everyone's clear, is to increase from the manager's proposal of 2.35 to 2.389, which would give $194. I wish it was $194. $194,000 in projects that we're adding to the budget. So that is my motion.

Are there any questions for the maker of the motion? Seeing none, discussion.

Needs a second.

I heard Steve second. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't hear you. Thanks. We're already there. So any questions for the sponsor one more time of the amendment? Seeing none, discussion. I'll start. Anyone else want to speak right after me? I'll let Steve go right after me. I'll start by answering your first question as to the 2.3, whatever it was, to raise the millage rate to cover the cost of these projects. Looking at our budget, we actually have a little bit of capacity in our unassigned fund balance to fund these projects. And the reason why these projects are critical to fund this year is that whatever we get done this year, we're going to be able to turn around and apply for local, state, and national grant funding after we do these studies and after we do the engagement and put these plans together so that we can attract future dollars. The challenge that I have with going up to that millage rate is that that's an operational millage rate. That's not for our capital plan. So that's essentially going to be something that residents will pay year over year. And it's not something that's going to be essentially a one time thing. These capital projects here are going to be a one time thing that will eventually pay for themselves in the long term through grant funding, grant matching and also other organizational involvement. So that's the funding source and that's a strategy here that we have and we have the money in our account to ready to be appropriated. And I'd also point out as well that last year I also supported the vast majority of all of our capital proposals that came from both administration and also my colleagues. So I would just ask that we have whatever conversation that we have about these projects that are up there, that we at least consider support for these. So I'll just leave it at that. Thank you.

May I respond? One of my fears, and I don't know if the manager can attest to it, but as we start looking at now the potential for reduction in savings to the residents through the reform for homestead exemption from $50,000 to $150,000 to $250,000, twofold. One, next year alone, it's a $2-point-something million reduction, should it pass, in our budget, because our budget is... largely based on ad valorem and then the following year I don't know the exact number it's over three million dollars right for the 22 yeah it's okay the exact I mean if I'm wrong if I'm way off yeah please share I don't think that there's going to be a lot of local state and national funding with as it relates to grants moving forward I think a lot of the money, I don't think there's going to be a lot of money coming from the state because I think some of these projects that we have successfully gotten in the budget, whether or not they got vetoed at some point, you know, that happens. But projects that our senator and state rep have championed for us to get into the budget, maybe later vetoed, I don't think there's going to be a lot of those project money I don't think there's going to be a lot of money in the way of grants moving forward. Again, this is just my humble observations and years of experience lobbying in Tallahassee. So that's why, respectfully, I think if we're going to be adding projects, we should make a small increase. I understand what you're saying as it relates to the projects themselves will not be reoccurring, but expenses will always be reoccurring. If we are able to plug in one of the projects for planning for something, we're going to be wanting to put money away to be able to implement that at some point in the future. So thank you for listening. Appreciate it. Sure.

Any other comments? Go ahead.

Well, first a question. Mr. Manager, taking our median valued home that you put up on one of your slides, and applying the additional amount that the mayor has suggested, what would that amount be? And I know I'm asking you to do long division.

You're asking a Marine to do division? No, give me one minute. One minute. So if you remember the slide I put up, the median taxable residential property in the village is $394,000, according to the property appraiser. At 2.35 mils, that property would be assessed $926 in property taxes. At 2.3982, which is what I think I counted. 2.389. Okay, let me recalculate that. Sorry.

Marine and an attorney were walking down the street.

Okay, so it goes from $926 a year to $941 a year, an increase of about $15. Again, for the median, if If you have a million dollars of taxable value, obviously, your increase is going to be more like $45 or $50 a year.

So work out over a 12-month period of about a dollar extra a month, a dollar and change a month.

Yes, sir, give or take.

All right. My comment is that with all due respect to Mark, We did this before when I first got on the council. As a stunt, the then mayor decided he wanted to lower our military rate because that would be good for the prospects of his getting elected, reelected. And consequently, we ate into our reserves. And we not just ate, we kind of gorged ourselves on the money that we had set aside. And we were slowly spending ourselves into an old-fashioned word that a friend of mine was very fond of saying, into penury. When I got here, one of the things that I did, and I do not mind admitting it, is to say we're not going to sunset the tax that we had on our utilities. and that did not sunset, and that allowed us to take in an extra $600,000 to $800,000 a year, as I recall. That helped us balance our books. I am reluctant to, and I put two of those items up there, $10,000 for the benches, and I want the pavement of our parking lot to extend all the way back because With the rains that we've been having, that area has become a big muddy mess. When we didn't have that many people coming to Village Hall on a consistent basis, that as an overflow area wasn't really used that much. Now it's filled consistently and nearly daily. So I support this item because I wanna make sure that we do not dip into our reserves like we did before, and then have to come back after these three people are gone, and it's just you, me, and three more people, to have to figure this problem out. So I'm going to support this item. It's, as you've seen, a minor raise in the amount that a person would pay on their property, and it would allow us to fund all of those add-ons that the manager put up on the screen. So thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, Mark.

Thank you. Any other comments? Patrick, go ahead.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yeah, Mr. Manager, so the items that were put up there, do they already fit into the 2.35 millage rate? Is it already factored in?

They do not. No, sir. No, they came in after we'd already prepared the budget. It was in then

the detailed budget conversations that we had with each one of the council members well i i don't think we should go by hypotheticals what if what's going to happen never mind i was going to say um mr cody's right three new people here their issue so um If it means, I know the Deering estate thing is a priority for the vice mayor, as I think the Greenbelt, Greenway. So if it's just a few, I can go with that then. I think I want to continue the services that the residents are used to having here. I got 47 days left and, you know, I'm going to have to leave it up to the new people to deal with the what-ifs and the who, where, why, when, you know, where I'll be. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Any other comments at this time? Go ahead. Are you closing or is this...

I actually just have a quick question for the attorney. If indeed we were to... I'm not 100% sure where Patrick stands because I couldn't... It's not your fault. It's my fault. I couldn't quite hear everything he was saying, but How many votes are needed to make the change to 2.389?

Well, for the motion to amend, it's a majority. But ultimately, for 2.389, you would need four-fifths vote to approve that millage rate. The maximum you can go up to for four-fifths is 2.3894, and this would be 2.3890.

So four votes?

Four votes, yeah. That's what you'd ultimately need.

Thank you.

Councilwoman, you're recognized.

I think these are all really good ideas. However, I have to say this is my eighth year on council, and this will be my sixth year in opposing the proposed millage rate. And the reason for that is I have a different view I've discovered than other members of the council about how to budget. I budget kind of like I budget my own money. And that is I look at what basic services, what basic things I need, and then I plan for that. And if I have anything over, then I add things that are good and fun and that I would like to do. I don't feel that we should raise taxes on people. If we keep taxes the same, that's still an increase because of the assessments getting higher. So people are paying more taxes. Now we're talking about paying even more taxes. I don't think we should do that. This is a tough year for everybody. Prices are going up. We all go in the grocery store often enough to know that the prices are really high. Now there's certain basic, functions of government that I absolutely believe in. For example, I'm very much in favor of stormwater ideas because these are stormwater ideas like preventing flooding. This protects our property and this protects our lives. So we really need to do that. But there are a number of things that the village does that I don't think are necessary and we shouldn't be raising taxes in order to do it. So I'm not going to vote for this. I'm not going to vote for any tax increase. I think we should do rollback, which is keeping taxes, the millage rate, the same as it was last year. I appreciate the residents getting up and talking about how there shouldn't be a tax increase. I have felt that way for a long time. I think we just have to We should have, and this is what I have a couple months left to go myself, just like the commissioner and the mayor. So I've been saying this for years, that we really have to examine how we spend money every year and not raise taxes to meet what we're spending, but really to meet what residents basically need. So that's what I have to say. Thank you.

Very quick question for the manager. Last year's rate was 2.3018 and this budget is going to be 2.35. Can you mention the difference in revenue that it will bring to the village to go from 2.3018 to 2.35, please? For fiscal year 2027? Correct. I could. And the difference in revenue if we adopt the 2.35 from last year to this year, please?

So if we adopt or if we maintain the 2.30 millage rate, you're looking at ad valorem revenue about $500,000 less than 2.35. Roughly, it's roughly $100,000 for each hundredth of a percentage, if that makes sense. What was the second question, Vice Mayor?

The difference in revenue from last year and then to this year.

The difference from last year to this year. At 2.30?

Yes. And then this year's revenue total.

So this year in 2026, you're looking at, I'm sorry, just under $11 million, $10.8 million, in ad valorem revenue for 2026. And I'm sorry, you want me to compare that to 2.35? Yes, please. Which is 11.6 million.

Perfect. Thank you. So what I would just say is I'm willing to support the 2.35. That's going to go up another $500,000 for us. I'm only asking for $100,000 of that from the general fund to go to capital. So obviously I don't want to go to the rollback. I know the financial picture. I don't want the next council to inherit something where they're going to be in a situation where it's not going to be an easy discussion to have. But I feel like at least allocating just 20% of that, $1 out of every $5 that's coming from that $500,000 to neighborhood investments that will be able to attract grant funding is totally, I think, an appropriate use of that money. So I'm willing to work with everyone here. I'm willing to find that money. To the mayor's previous point as well about the concern about the lack of capital availability from Tallahassee or Washington, I know that part of this budget is that we're going to be hiring lobbyists, which are going to be to the tune of actually a little bit more than what I'm proposing here as well. So if there's a feeling that we're not gonna be able to get money this year, maybe we can reallocate that budget instead if that's the genuine feeling. I don't know, but I would just put that out there as well of another way to pay for this. But again, I am willing to work with this council on the rate. I think the 2.38 is a little bit too high for our residents to stomach at this point, especially because of the situation that many households are in. But again, I will support the 2.35 and I will. I am just hoping that we get one fifth of that allocated to capital projects that I think will significantly benefit our community. So thank you.

Thank you. Just as a follow up, I know you mentioned you're only asking for 100,000, but then there's another 94,000 that's great projects. I would support them. They're great projects. So it's $194,000 in projects. Actually, $294,000 if we count the CITT money, the Transportation Fund money. So the total number is a little bit bigger than just your projects. I appreciate the fact that you're willing to work with us on the millage rate 2.35 is what's on here. Is there any number that you're willing to go up? I would be happy if we captured $50,000 of this money or $60,000 in millage to add the additional projects.

It's the rate that's been discussed extensively with the administration since at least July. So, I mean, that's what I'm willing to proffer, and that's something that I think the administration and I have had long conversations about since July when this is being formulated. So it's the rate that I'm willing to support and I think has been built.

And if I could, with all due respect, yes, the rate was discussed since July. We all went through the budget workshops with the 2.35%. but the projects were just, the email came on last week, maybe on Thursday or Friday. So while the rate was discussed, the projects were a part of the budget. These projects were not a part of the budget. So I don't know why they weren't discussed in July when we were talking 2.35, but they weren't and that's okay. Here we are, we came up with some really good ideas. So how, I mean, I don't know if I can support the ideas. Frankly, I may be joining you for the first time and not voting for the budget. I don't know if I can support adding more projects that potentially down the road, you know, we are going to have financial issues down the road if the Homestead exemption ballot amendment passes, period, the end of story. They may tweak it down the road a little bit, but, and I know we had one of our former elected officials speak this evening. You know, you built this budget on 2.447. I think 2.4, yeah, 447. So, you know, we've diverted from that a little bit. Things are more expensive. Anyway, that's just my thought, and I appreciate Council Member Fiore being so pragmatic, and thank you for supporting and seconding the motion.

Mr. Chairman, go ahead. Okay, so I actually like your idea, so why don't we just take out the lobbyists, leave it for the next council to decide. There's nothing going on in Tallahassee until January anyway, or until March. I'm not going to be here, going once, going twice.

I mean, I'll make the motion, but I think that would be appropriate for the budget, not for the military.

That'll free up a lot of the money for these projects, right, Mr. Manager?

To our attorney, yes. I would just say if you're going to make a motion to add or take anything out of the budget, we'll wait until item 3B. Okay, yeah.

All right, any more discussion on this motion? No. Seeing none, Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

We are calling the roll on the motion that was made on the floor for 2.389. Mayor Karen Cunningham? Yes. Council Member Patrick Fiore?

Yes.

Council Member Steve Cody?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Mark Meritor. No. Council Member Marsha Matten.

No. All right, motion passes three to two.

Motion actually failed because it needed four votes. Okay.

Correct me if I'm wrong. Actually, the motion passed.

Okay.

The ultimate resolution is going to need four votes. I understand. Okay, thank you. I'm sorry.

Thank you. Thank you for that. All right, we are back on the item as it has been amended. for 2.389.

Madam Mayor, can I ask a question of the village attorney?

Yes, of course.

What is the, if you could refresh my recollection, the highest rate that we could go to with three votes?

Is that just the rollback rate? Yeah, that would be 2.1722. Okay.

All right, thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

You're welcome. All right, is there anything else? Discussion on the millage rate? Anything else? Okay. I guess with that, Madam Clerk, we'll call the roll on the amended item.

Also, Member Marsha Madsen?

No.

Vice Mayor Mark Meritor.

I'm sorry, just to be clear, this is on the amended item for 2.318, and if there's two votes against it, the item will fail, correct?

Tonight, no. It's only the final budget that requires the four-fifths vote. But ultimately, if you don't have four votes tonight, unless you're picking up a fourth vote for the final hearing, we're going to be doing this again in a week and a half. No.

That is your vote, Vice Mayor. Council Member Steve Cody?

Yes.

Council Member Patrick Fiore? Yes. Mayor Karen Cunningham. Yes.

So the item passes tonight. Is that correct?

Correct, because it's just a tentative still. The final isn't until the 23rd.

For those of you that are following along, we have our next budget. The second budget hearing will be on September 23rd, where we will review everything one more time and vote on the ordinances. These ordinances both need two hearings. So that'll be September 23rd. All right. Very good. Could I get somebody to move item 3B? Is there a second? Second. It's been moved and double seconded by Council Member Fiore and Vice Mayor Merwitzer. Madam Clerk, can you please read the item?

Item 3B, an ordinance of the Mayor and Village Council of the Village of Palmetto Bay of Miami-Dade County, Florida, approving and adopting the budget for the village for the fiscal year commencing October 1st, 2026 through September 30th, 2027, providing for expenditure of funds, conflicts, severability, and an effective date. This ordinance is being heard on first reading and was prepared by Finance Director Desmond Chin.

thank you with that I open to public comment on the budget see none madam clerk do we have any comments by form for no okay I'll go ahead and close the public hearing and I'll turn it over to the village manager and thank you madam mayor Olga if you could put my presentation up let me get right into it okay we're gonna start this is a summary slide of all the different funds in the village

The leftmost column are all the revenue sources. This is where all of the dollars coming into the village come from. First column, general fund, transportation fund, transit fund, stormwater, building fund, other special revenues. These are mainly our impact fee funds. And then finally, our capital and maintenance fund. If you look at the total budget, you're looking at total revenues projected for all of those funds at 29 million. Go to the next slide here. This is the same format, only this is where all of the money is going. The first column here on the left, everything from general government, which is on this particular slide, just so I can get everything to fit, these are all the village staff departments, village manager, village council, and so on. You've got the sheriff, building and permitting, public works, parks and rec, debt service, total expenditures. Here in the general fund, total expenditures of $24.5 million. transportation, transit, stormwater, building, our other special revenue funds, and finally capital and maintenance. Of particular note, here in the general fund column, we're looking at a projected fund balance at over $11 million for the year. I'll get more into fund balance in a couple of slides. So if you look at the budget overview, just right off the top, this budget has been prepared using a 2.35 millage. Total revenues, again, for the general fund are up 5.6% total, 5.6% increase in revenues, bringing total revenues to 23.6 million. If you look at expenditures for the general fund, You're looking at about 24.5 million in expenditures. The growth in expenditures is 8.3%, about 3%, about 2.7% or 2.6%, 2.7% more than the revenue sources. The beginning fund balance, and this gets to the direct management of the village budget by your department director's and by the finance director and the Palmetto Bay Municipal District Major who take an extremely conservative view on budget execution. We projected in our budget for this year that our fund balance would come in on September 30th at about $10.4 million. Your general fund balance is going to come in about 1.78 million dollars more at 12.2 million. That indicates a very frugal approach to budget execution by your department directors, by the finance director, and by our major. That is an indication of stewardship of the taxpayer dollars and I want to point that out. We have to budget for the worst case and but we're gonna execute in the most frugal way possible. I've heard a couple of council members and residents talk about, you should treat the village budget like you do your own budget. And I believe we do. And I think the numbers do bear that out. So let's start breaking down a little bit more detail. We're gonna go into every budget here. We're gonna start with the general fund. You've already seen this slide, 11.6 in property taxes. Utility taxes and sales taxes, about 3.7 each. Franchise fees, 2.3. Charges for service, about a million dollars. We talked about Amendment 3. If that homestead exemption increases and Palmetto Bay has the highest percentage of homesteaded properties of any municipality in Miami-Dade County, so if it does pass in year one, you're looking at about roughly a 10% reduction in general fund revenues or about $1.2 million. The increase in year two when that homestead exemption goes to $250,000 is just under a 20% reduction in revenue to the general fund. Here are the expenditures already went into it. The sheriff's office has the highest percentage about $12.6 million in budgeted revenue or budgeted expenditures. Just under that, parks and rec, general government at just over $2 million. And then here are all the remaining departments in the village. Debt service comes in at $751,000. So let's talk about the general fund. We've already talked about the revenues. This leftmost slide is what we actually ended up with in fiscal year 25. My next column is what we adopted for budget year 2026. But this is actually where we think we're going to end the year. So the most important numbers are right here, bottom line, all of the revenue coming in to the village. This year we budgeted $22.6 million. the revenues came in a bit higher at $23.2 million. So about $600,000 in additional revenue came in that we budgeted for. At the beginning of last year, and this is very significant, in order to make the numbers balance, we forecast that we would have had to have taken $260,000 from our reserves, from our savings account, so to speak, to meet our annual expenses. Well, due to both an increase in revenue and a much larger decrease in expenditures, we did not have to take that $260,000 from our reserves to cover operating expenses. For our proposed budget year, my final slide here, we are projecting that instead of that $260,000 transfer, in order to balance everything, we need to transfer $871,000 from reserves to our operating expenses. Here's our expenditure, same format, fiscal year 25 actual, fiscal year 26 adopted budget, Fiscal 26 estimate, this is where we think we're going to end up in another two weeks. And then here's what we're proposing for fiscal 27. Again, the most important line is this bottom line here. Here are the totals. About $21.5 million in actual expenditures in fiscal 25. And we're projecting about a $550,000 increase in expenses from fiscal 25 to fiscal 26. We are budgeting a $24.5 million expenditure for fiscal 2027. So we talked about fund balance. Let's get into the details here. Again, same format, fiscal 25 actual numbers. Fiscal 26, the adopted budget. Fiscal 26, where we expect to be in about two weeks here. And then finally, what we're proposing here for fiscal 27. The most important bit of news I have to report to you is we budgeted our ending general fund balance this year to be 10.484 million. We are forecasting our ending fund balance for this year to be $12.26 million. And that is largely due to under execution of the budget and an increase in revenue. So that puts the village in a position where you can take that $870,000 out of this projected surplus and budget it to cover your operating expenses. As a person who lives and dies with these numbers, is that the best way for you to do it? I would not be telling you the truth if I said that's the best way to budget. But fortunately for the village council, you have that option here that you can in fact take some of this surplus and transfer transfer about $871,000 to cover your expected expenditures for the year. Again, we budget worst case and very often the revenues come in higher than forecast and our expenditures, you know, barring a name storm or some type of circumstance out of our control, you can count on your department directors are going to do their very best to under-execute on a daily basis. The single largest by far expense the village has is people. We're a government entity. We employ people and we provide services. It doesn't matter if it's a deputy enforcing traffic laws, if it is an assistant to the clerk who's processing a passport application, or if it's a parks employee maintaining the gazebo at Coral Reef Park. we employ people and we provide services. So my left column here is fiscal 22 to 23, here's 23-24, 24-25, 25-26, and then finally here's our projected budget that we're talking about here this evening. This light blue This represents full-time employees. This tannish color represents part-time employees. And this dark blue column represents our contract employees. That is all of our sheriff's deputies, and that is all of our building department plans reviewers and inspectors. So if you look at fiscal 22 to 23, Village had 71 full-time employees. I'll cut right to what we're proposing here for fiscal 27. We're proposing 63, so a reduction over this timeframe of eight full-time employees. The part-time employees have remained relatively constant at either 26 or 27. The contract employees have also remained fairly in a tight band between 57 here and we're proposing 55 total contract employees. The large or the vast majority of those are our deputy sheriffs. Here are the proposed positions by department. You can see there's really only one change or actually just a couple of changes, I'm sorry. Village Attorney, not that we got rid of Village Attorney, but we went from a full-time employee to a contract employee. Human Resources, we're proposing to combine two part-time employees into one full-time employee. So the total headcount really doesn't change. We're just taking two part-timers and making one full-time employee. You can see the other changes here. Total reduction in village headcount of five. When you add in the contract positions, we're adding one back in. That's my village attorney here to my right. So a total of minus four total employees. Moving on, I'm gonna hit each department in sequence here. I'm also gonna work in if there is a special revenue fund that supports that particular department. I will also cover that, starting with the Palmetto Bay Municipal District. This is by far the village's largest single item. We're budgeting $12.6 million. That is an increase of 7.3% from the fiscal year 26 budget. A big percentage of that is really for what you would call traditional police services and all of the support that goes along with patrol services. We also pay for our school crossing guards out of that particular budget, and we're keeping that number flat for fiscal 2027. Here you see the details. All of the slides I put up this evening are going to have the same format. You're going to have the category of the expenditure. You're going to have fiscal year 25, the actual numbers. In this case, 10.5 million for our sheriff's municipal district. Our fiscal year 26 adopted budget, 11.6 million. And like with everything, you're going to see we actually think we're going to come in, thanks to the major, thanks to sergeant chang thanks to sergeant fernandez we're going to come in at about a million dollars under budget for fiscal year 26. fiscal year 27 the proposed budget is 12.6 again by contract the village does not control that number we get a projected budget in detail i know i've shared it with you back at the july workshop We get that from the sheriff, and that number for fiscal 27 is $12.6 million. The sheriff also benefits from the police impact fee. This current year, we're not budgeting any new projects for this year, no new projects. However, we still have one project that we're very shortly going to execute, and that's going to be an expansion of the boat ramp at Coral Reef Park. It'll allow our sheriff's deputies to directly launch and recover our police boat directly at Coral Reef Park. It'll save them time. It's much more efficient. Coral Reef Park is kind of center mass, so to speak, of the C-100 canal system in the village. will also include a dock area. So if they do have anyone that they have apprehended or they have some type of equipment that they need to either load or unload from their boat, they'll be able to do it in a much safer manner from a dock. So no new spending this year out of the police impact fee budget. Let me go to capital and maintenance. The budget highlights here. These are fiscal 27 expenditures. Most of these projects are carryovers. The total amount is greater for Veterans Park than what we are projecting to spend in fiscal 27. The total amount for Veterans Park is about 3.8 million. We've already started on it, and we're projecting just under 2.5 million additional capital spending in fiscal 27. Pickleball, same thing. We're looking at about $1.89 million in additional spending in fiscal 27. Palmetto Bay Park, I'll go into a little bit more detail on some of the projects that we have planned. $663,000 in carryover. Public Works has a number of different projects. to include their parking lot. Again, for Public Works, these are general fund capital and maintenance projects, not covered by other funds like stormwater, which we do have several stormwater projects that are in progress right now. And then finally, Coral Reef Park, an additional $445,000. So if you're looking at total capital projects for fiscal year 27, it's about $6.2 million However, not including the projects that we spoke about, the additional $294,000 in the millage presentation, this budget originally envisioned only $250,000 in new capital spending for fiscal 27. The capital projects fund balance at the end of the year is projected to have a $966,000 fund balance. Here's a little more details on those projects. Top line, I talked about Veterans Park, Pickleball, Public Works parking lot. I think today, although Director Torres is unavailable, I believe he gave the notice to proceed to the contractor for that project. So it's been a long time coming. and we're going to have a very professional public works, really a very nicely done yard for the public works department. Palmetto Bay Park, we have a number of projects in store for fiscal 27. The skate park under construction right now, that's going to continue. We're looking to be completed no later than December. Hopefully, it'll be complete before that. We've got a major irrigation program as well as all of the asphalt trails at Palmetto Bay Park. Carr Reef Park, similar to Palmetto Bay Park, we have the remaining asphalt trails that have not recently been refurbished and repaved. They'll be repaved. This budget also proposes new spending, that $250,000 that I spoke about, That's $250,000 in new spending. We're proposing to do a non-wood fence similar to what we've done on part of the exterior fencing around Coral Reef Park. The wood fencing just does not stand up to the sun and the weather here. We also have additional irrigation as well as additional work on the pine rockland at Coral Reef Park. The woods, we're finishing up all of the phase one restoration goals. Things like the southern trail that cuts across, that should get poured and paved this week. The park benches, the trash cans, the signs, that's all going to be in place this week and will continue into the new fiscal year in terms of maintenance and keeping the plants that we have planted going and continuing to cull the invasives. We do have a modest amount of money set aside for both IT and economic development studies or things like that that may come up. Again, total capital projects, about 6.2 million. Ending fund balance for the capital budget, about 966,000. Here are the additions that we've already talked about in the millage discussion, taking out the transportation fund, about $194,000 that would come from the general fund or from the capital maintenance budget, and the $100,000 would come from the transportation fund. Moving on to park impact fee, some of the things that we have recently funded from it, A million dollars went to the Pickleball Center. We're not proposing any new fiscal year 27 capital projects. And I'll just remind the village council that we do have a, our impact fee study is in progress here. Finally, projecting about an $845,000 ending fund balance. That may go down a little bit more. I'm anticipating about another $245,000 expenditure that could be required as we have collected too many fees and we may need to refund some of those. But I'll provide more information to the Village Council if that refund is required. Again, here's the details on the park impact fee, beginning fund balance, total revenues expected for the year, total capital outlay, I'm gonna go right to fiscal 27. We're not projecting any revenues that could change. We do have a number of commercial product or projects that could be pulling, and we do expect that they will pull building permits. We will have a new fee schedule. This number could very likely change in terms of revenue, but we're not projecting any capital outlay for fiscal 27. Public services is kind of unique in terms of village departments. It's not completely unique. We also have the building department. But public services is funded almost exclusively from a special revenue fund. The source of this and most of their funding are the transportation, basically the gas taxes that residents pay when they fill up their vehicles. So again, it funds all of our street crews, It funds basically all of the annual operations, with the exception of stormwater, of the public services department. We run a pretty tight ship here. We usually do not end with a huge fund balance, although this year it is down more than it has been most years. We normally end up somewhere around a $300,000 fund balance for the year. It's going to be about $39,000 for this year, and I'll explain why in a second here. So again, here's all the expenditure categories, the revenues, I'm sorry, and the expenditures. 25 actual, 26 adopted, 26 estimated, and here's our proposed number. I'll cut right to the chase. In order to run the Public Works Department, the village has typically transferred about 200 to 250,000 a year from the general fund in order to augment this fund. We provide, in other words, we provide more street crews that are out there on a daily basis than purely that special revenue fund would allow. This coming budget year, we're reducing that from the general fund to 100,000. So this current budget year, We're transferring about $250,000 from the general fund to run all of our public works, with the exception of stormwater. This coming fiscal year, we're proposing that number will be about $100,000. CITT transportation. This is the main budget that the village uses to do things like repave roads, repave sidewalks, build new sidewalks, street signs, street lights, maintenance of all of those type of requirements. Everything that has to do with the physical infrastructure of roads and sidewalks, with the exception of stormwater. So here are the highlights of where we're planning to spend that money. $850,000 in road construction and paving. Their capital expenditures, these are normally complete street projects, similar to what we did on 148th Street, 174th Street. Those type of complete street projects where we go in, we either add traffic chicanes or we add parking and additional drainage and things like that. So there's your main road paving budget. Traffic calming, we stay steady at about $275,000 a year, just to refresh everyone's memory. That includes an annual traffic study. We take nominations from residents, obviously village council members provide their own locations. We then have an engineering consultant goes out, does a very detailed traffic study, comes back with a bunch of different recommendations, everything from traffic tables to chicanes. And then we budget usually around $225,000 to actually do all of that construction. Sidewalks, talked about that. We have both sidewalk maintenance as well as capital expenditures to build new sidewalks. I would point out the vast majority of sidewalk complaints that the village gets are not on village roads. These are mainly on county-owned sidewalks. If you ever see a sidewalk in the village that's been repaired with asphalt, you know that Miami-Dade County did that. The village would never do that. We cut it out. and we repave in new concrete. And then finally, repairs and maintenance. I will bring up one item to you that I hoped to have had a really tight number on for the first hearing. I don't have it, but I will have it for the second hearing. If you drive around the village, you'll notice that all of our blue street signs are faded. Director Torres and I have been replacing depending on the year, anywhere from $35,000 to about $50,000 worth of street signs. And we have not kept up with demand. Pretty much, I can say, every sign in the village that is not in the shade that we have not recently replaced in the last year or two needs to be replaced. They look beautiful. However, they're very expensive. If you look at our village signs, first of all, they're very large, and there are four blades, so to speak, per intersection. Most municipalities, even ones that have premium signage like Pinecrest, they only have two blades per intersection, and they're far smaller. So I hope to have, I will have, prior to the second hearing, a very detailed proposal over probably a three-year period where we will unfortunately have to draw down some of this CITT, some of this transportation fund here. But we need to replace basically every sign in the village. And there's about 2,500 of them. So it's not going to be inexpensive, but it's something that we have to do. And I'm surprised I've never gotten a complaint from it, and I've been waiting. But as I drive around, I think you all know when you drive around, they're all looking pretty humble. Okay, here are the actual numbers here, right? Same format. Let's go right to fiscal year 27. We're looking at bringing in a fund balance of about $1.4 million, about $1.2 million, in new funding, total expenditures of about 1.9 million, or I'm sorry, about 2 million, leaving us a fund balance of about 345,000. Transportation fuel taxes, another special revenue fund. We use it to augment. Director Torres, when he's putting projects together, he's got a couple of different funds where he he's authorized to draw some. So in other words, some of the sidewalk maintenance that we do on an annual basis comes from this fund. Some of the traffic calming, Director Torres is able to draw from, as well as road paving and professional services, mainly engineering design of different projects. That's really what the professional services here is for. Here are the details, starting off with a fund balance of about $286,000. Additional revenue is about $153,000. Total expenditures, about $290,000. And that leaves just under $150,000 for the ending fund balance for that particular fund. Transit, we take a percentage of that much larger transportation budget that I just briefed about four slides ago. We take a percentage of that, about 20% of it, and that provides the village transit highlights. We're going to talk about freebie a little bit later today, but the transit budget funds two primary services for the village. It funds the I-Bus and it funds freebie. We're going to talk more about freebie. So with that, I'll... Unless... If the village council wants to, I can talk about it now. Oh, okay.

My apologies.

You can see the beginning fund balance, $58,000. Revenues of $500,000. Total expenditure was about $491,000. Again, these particular funds... We're running pretty lean. We don't leave a big fund balance in any of them. Stormwater, going to talk a great deal about stormwater. This particular budget is built, I have to build it on the current stormwater rate. If the village council passes on first reading, the stormwater rate or whatever rate the village council passes, if any, tonight, we'll modify this before second reading, but Just to give you what it would look like, we're going to bring in about $647,000 in fund balance. We do quite a lot with this stormwater budget. This stormwater budget funds not only all of our drain clearing work, all of the local drainage improvement projects, all of those French drains and things like that that we put in, aren't part of the much larger subbasins, but it also funds our complete tree program as well. So stormwater is a massively important program for the village. Total expenditures this year, you can see 1.4 million, way beyond, I'm sorry, way beyond what our revenues are of 860. So we've been drawing down our fund balance. And if the village council does nothing, and we do adopt the budget this year, we will end up with a fund balance of about 950, or I'm sorry, about 95,000. So next year, we would have quite a bit, quite a reckoning in the stormwater fund. Building fund, we look at about a $2 million budgeted revenue for the year. Expenditures, looking at, to come in a little bit above what we forecast for fiscal 26 at 2.3 million. We do outsource all of our building and plans inspectors and plans reviewers. So if you look at where we began the year with about just under a $500,000 fund balance, we're projecting $2 million In revenues, you look at expenses about 2.38, and we're going to draw down our fund balance from 478 to 96. For next year in the building fund, this is a worst case scenario. I actually think with a number of projects that we've already, a number of large commercial projects that we do expect are going to pull permits I think this number is going to look a lot different a year from now than where we are. But if none of those large commercial projects that we're actively reviewing their plans right now, if none of them pull permits, this is where we're projecting we will end up with a fund balance with building fund. With that, I'm happy to answer. I have the department directors here and the finance director, and I'm happy answer any questions that you may have thank you do we have questions for the manager vice mayor yes thank you um my first question is that i noticed that with the parks impact fee we had a fund balance of approximately 800 something thousand is that correct that's correct although i i do believe we're gonna we're gonna have to refund part of that and i can get you that number but yes There will still be, Mr. Chin, do you have that number? The refund for park impact fee that we made. Okay.

Regardless, I'm wondering, would the woods and also the coral reef park improvements that are proposed for this fiscal year be able to come from that park impact fee fund instead of our general fund?

I don't think. It has to be new capacity, right? You have to be adding a new capacity.

Got it. So even with the woods, even though it's a new park, that wouldn't qualify as new capacity?

You need to come up to the mic. Thank you.

This might be a question for the attorney, actually.

Desmond Chinfanister. Could you repeat the question?

The question is I'm trying to figure out if any of the capital projects that are coming from our general fund can be instead allocated from our park impact fee fund. And I'm specifically asking about the woods because to me that seems like it's a new park that's adding capacity to our park system. So I'm wondering if that could also come from our park impact fee instead of our general fund.

Some portions of it, yes, it could. right now is any of our allocation for the woods coming from that or is it all coming from general I think it all came from our capital and maintenance fund yeah nothing for the woods the pickleball Center has reserved most of that funding

thank you yeah i mean my only question that like where i was going with this is that my hope is that whatever we can free up from that general fund and i know that you you already try and do your best with that but i was just noticing that we're investing in our parks a lot with our capital project which is a good thing but whatever can come from that impact fee fund and not impact the general fund for that would be great because that's a restricted use fund and whatever we can free up would be great so i'm just wondering if yeah we take priority on any new we look on that but as we have a pending item up for a refund we don't know the total dollars yet so we're not touching what's available for attorney i guess then if we budget it from the general fund this year and after the after the refund and after staff determines that it's a possibility that we could allocate some of this parking back to be dollars instead of from capital or general capital budget is that something that can be done mid-year without an amendment or that require an amendment to go through council

I think you'd have to do a budget amendment for that, too, because you're reallocating from one fund to the other. But we can work, because there might be some things, like maybe the PATH. We'd have to see if there's anything that could come. But there's definitely some that could not, but there's a possibility that some of it could come from the Parks Fund. I'd appreciate that. Thank you.

Thank you. Other questions? Council Member Cody.

Thank you. Mr. Manager, I have been inspired this evening by the discussion that the councilwoman brought forward about how we need to be responsible in terms of how we budget. Since I've been here, we have, as she indicated, she's never voted for a budget. And yet, during the years we have been here, we have passed a number of resolutions where we have, through those funded things like reimbursement for pet adoptions, reimbursement for pet emergency fees, wrap bars in the showers. Well, are any of those items, because they were adopted by resolution, still being carried forward into this budget, those programs?

I don't think so. I'll have to verify that before the second hearing. But I'm also looking at the finance director. He's also shaking his head no. I don't think they are. But I'll verify that before.

If they are, I'm going to ask that we remove them. Because if money is so tight, we cannot put things in the budget. We certainly can't spend money outside the budget. So I would appreciate your finding that out. and identifying any of those programs so that we can take a sharp red pen to them as we finalize the budget. Thank you.

Thank you. Other questions, Councilwoman? I'd like to respond to that, please.

Go ahead. All right, those are wonderful programs that have amounted to probably no more than $20,000 over many years. I would say that the person who should be pointed at in terms of voting for increases hasn't really covered his legal expenses for the village, either suing the village, which is you, Councilman Cody, or being a defendant of somebody suing you as a council member in the village. So this is the pot calling the kettle black. I don't appreciate it. My programs are positive programs. They're not lawsuits. Everybody's program is a positive program. Excuse me.

They're not lawsuits that are requiring the taxpayers to pay for your litigation. Point of order. Point of order. And for both of you, please. It's 9 o'clock. We've got a full-on regular council meeting after the budget hearing. People are waiting to be heard, so thank you.

He started it, and I'm only responding to that.

I heard you, and I said, for both of you, please.

It would be good if you stopped him instead of me having to respond to ridiculous arguments on his part.

Many more days? All good. All right. Are there other real questions or any other discussion?

So I'm going to go back to what Vice Mayor Merwitzer stated before, and I'll make this motion if we have to, which was to take out the lobbyist money for now, let the new council, your three new colleagues, Mr. Merwitzer, decide what they want to do after the first of the year. They can always do adjustments. And i know you asked for 25 for 50 000 for deering and the green way right is that is that so the ask was for two neighborhoods with a hundred thousand dollars total from the general fund and then a separate hundred thousand dollars from our transportation fund which is totally separate okay so i'll leave the yeah the transportation fund no maybe for right now you can take that hundred thousand just down to fifty thousand so we can get this would enable the rest of those uh things to get done if that's okay. What am I looking over here for?

Well, the attorney has something he wants to say.

Just because I felt like there was a motion coming, and there's two different lobbyists, so I just wanted when the, just when the motion's being, if a motion is being made and if a motion is being seconded, just to make sure we give guidance of whether that includes both lobbyists or just one, because we have a federal and a state lobbyist.

Oh, it's just discussion right now, Mr. Attorney. So, yeah, I mean, there's a way right there, I believe, to, if my colleagues agree, that would free up the money to do those other things that the manager stated. The other thing, Madam Mayor, and I had forgotten about it, I was at a Parks Committee meeting last week. As you know, I'm the liaison for parks. They did request some shade trees on the west perimeter side of Palmetto Bay Park. I leave that up to the manager. I don't know how much that would be, but perhaps we could use $10,000 just as a start to get some trees in there. I'm just picking out a random number. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

You're welcome. Anything else? Go ahead, Councilwoman.

Yes, I'd like to bring up the two biggest expenses in terms of increases in the budget, and that is the police budget and the legal budget. So what are we doing about the police budget? That would be my first question. And the second question is, what are we going to do about the exploding fees or the exploding costs of our legal budget?

Let me handle the... sheriff budget up front. Major Rodriguez can join in if he wants. By the contract we have with the sheriff, they go through their budget planning for the year. We get the budget from them. We have very limited ability. In fact, all three, there are three contract cities that use that contract with Miami-Dade County Sheriff. Miami Lakes, Cutler Bay, and Palmetto Bay. We're getting together between the first reading and the second reading. There's a couple of points that we want to contest with the sheriff, but at the end of the day, the sheriff, by the contract, does have the ability to provide the annual budget to us. So the number we receive is, again, the the worst case number, thanks to the major who's standing right here, we're projecting to come in literally a million dollars under budget for the year. That's what's in our control. And that's where we benefit from having a proactive leadership team in the Palmetto Bay Municipal District that can deliver those type of savings. Now, something like a major storm could wipe all of that out, and I'm very mindful of that, but I also recognize that we have very limited ability to affect the budgeting side of the ledger. We have great flexibility, as the Major demonstrates, to affect the expenditure side, and we do that on an annual basis. Before I get to your second question, Major, is there anything you want to add?

Can you hear me?

Good evening, Councilwoman, Madam Mayor, members of the council. Mr. Manager, I think you hit the nail on the head. It all has to do with how we execute the funds that are budgeted on a yearly basis. What I am able to really take a look at and be able to be very conservative with is that overtime expenditure. In addition to... ensuring that our vacancies are filled within our contractually allotted time limits so that we don't impact that overtime budget in an adverse way and that those overtime funds are utilized for special projects, for investigations which luckily we haven't had any long-term investigations we haven't really had to utilize a great amount of overtime with any long-term investigations as you'll see if we get to our crime report tonight we've had one residential burglary in in 2026 and and i mean i am i just can't explain it i cannot explain why we've only had one residential burglary We have about 8,500 residential dwelling units in the village, nearly 25,000 residents, and we've only had one burglary. Those are incredible numbers, incredible numbers.

I'm knocking on wood right now. Let's keep it that way. That's great.

All right, I do have a follow-up question about overtime and then about the legal expenses. Yes, ma'am. All right, overtime, does overtime come from additional... police enforcement in terms of problem areas in the village, for example, school, school zones, school times. So if there are more units, because this is what I get many complaints about, more than anything, actually. People don't complain about the crime, that's good, because there's not much. But they do complain about traffic enforcement, especially around school zones and during rush hour. Is that part of overtime, is assigning more patrols

So there's some assignment of those special details that does impact the overtime budget. However, there's monies that come back to the village through revenues generated from the income stream as a result of the issuance of citations. How much money comes back to the village? I don't have that figure with me right now. I can look it up and certainly have that information by the next budget hearing, unless the manager has it as his fingertips.

What was the question, ma'am? Fines?

How much money comes back to the village from citations?

That would be... We are budgeting $175,000 for fiscal 27. It's not a whole lot. Actual numbers... vary from 394,000 in fiscal year 25 to 250,000 we're estimating by the end of this fiscal year. So you're looking at a reduction. I guess it kind of falls in line with kind of overall seems like crime to include fines and forfeitures are down.

One more question about this since we're getting into this that has always interested me. What percentage of a traffic citation comes back to the village? What percentage of a particular citation comes back to the village?

Good afternoon, Mayor, Council. New legislation was just passed. We used to get 54%. It's dropped to 28%. We're getting a half of what we used to.

We're good?

Legal issue, please. Oh, the legal question.

Yeah.

So, okay, legal is an important topic to bring up. Last year, if you remember, we basically took all the litigation expenses off the books, and we determined that we were going to pay as we go, and if at the midyear we needed to augment the budget, we would do that. so that the numbers that i'm showing you tonight also includes the fact that the village has paid about 875 000 or so i think is that correct that we forecast in litigation for fiscal 26 about 875 000 and we still are generating that surplus on top of it same for this budget that i've put in front of you there's no litigation that is budgeted. For the village attorney, for what you would consider kind of the blocking and tackling, so to speak, of municipal attorney costs, we went back and we looked over the years, what's a good number? We had budgeted about $350,000, I think, last year for legal. And let me get you... We're going to spend this year, we forecast 494,000 for, I'm sorry, that's the wrong one, village attorney taking the litigation out of it. My apologies. But taking litigation out, we estimate it'll be over 500,000 in what you would consider general municipal costs. We did have kind of two attorneys for part of the year, for some of the year. So I think $450,000, which is what I think we budgeted for this coming year, is a realistic number. Again, it doesn't include the litigation costs, but I think that's a realistic number that we won't exceed for municipal attorney costs.

I do have one more question. Okay. Thank you. All right, so you did have a chart. I don't see it in this particular booklet, but you did have a chart that I thought was interesting in your last budget presentation that you had, which was where our legal expenses are coming from. And I would appreciate if you would let everybody know where our legal expenses are coming from. I believe you listed the four top ones. Would you mind listing those?

Give me one moment. I know I have that. Give me one moment. I may have to pull up another presentation.

Let me say while you're looking is some of these actually have, could be taken care of. I mean, I think people do not understand that one of the big expenses, a huge expense, is Luxcom. And there's a lot of debate about it, and I'm not going to go into it, except that I think that people should know that On this chart, it was half a million dollars. Half a million dollars just in one year for that. So I think people should know about that.

Mr. Attorney?

I just wanted to chime in on the blocking and tackling, so to speak, that Nick had talked about. And the $450,000 that is budgeted is roughly consistent with what has been the actual cost in previous years because You had both an in-house attorney, but you also had a professional services general legal where there would be outside attorneys that were hired at, frankly, a higher hourly rate than what you're paying us now. And so when you look at those together, it actually, from two years ago, it's actually slightly higher than what we're budgeting for now. blocking and tackling, you know, we, we will work with Nick and we can work within a budget, but we feel like that's, you know, consistent with, um, you know, how we, how the village has been, um, using that, those services over the years.

Thank you. So I, the numbers I have, Dr. Madison are from our, our July workshop. So these numbers are certainly higher now, but litigation, Fiscal year to date, again, this is the end of July. Luxcom, 540,961. Wenlu, a very long-running and very painful code enforcement case, 27,841. The pickleball lawsuit from Mr. Farquharson, is $28,122, and Councilmember Cody, I think there's maybe one or two in here, is $17,579. Again, the total at the end of July, $614,000. We're projecting by the end of this fiscal year, it'll be somewhere around $875,000, I believe. Yes, I'm getting a head nod in the affirmative. Okay. Yes, ma'am.

Thank you. Any other questions? Discussion? Go ahead, Vice Mayor.

I'd like to do this. I'd actually like to make a couple of amendments and then I have some broader remarks about the budget as a whole. So the first amendment I'll make is I'd like to move to approve all of the council proposed capital improvement projects that were listed by the manager during the millage presentation and add them to the capital projects for this year.

That's your motion. Is there a second? That the projects that we discussed earlier, vice mayors, yours, council project. Second. Thank you. Discussion on that? Any discussion? I'm going to support it tonight. It'll depend on the millage rate for the next vote. So thank you. Anything else? Okay. Do we need to call the roll on that?

You can do it two ways. You can call the roll. You can also ask if there's any opposition. If you hear none, then it would pass by unanimous consent.

Is there any opposition to including all of the items that we discussed? Okay. So hearing none, they are included. Next. What else?

Thank you. That's actually it.

Okay. Great. Anything else? Any discussion?

Much as a whole?

Yeah. Let's roll through it. Sure.

So thank you, Mayor. I want to start by saying thank you to the people who built this because this budget did not assemble itself. The manager and the finance team have obviously been assembling these numbers since the spring. And also thank you to the Parks and Recreation Department, the Public Services Department, the Building and Permitting Department, the Clerk's Office, and our policing unit as well. And before we go further as well, I wanted to also have everyone in this room here just one number. The budget gets delivered on 63 full-time employees. That's five fewer than last year and eight fewer than four years ago. We're the same village with the same expectations and fewer people carrying it. So to all of our employees, thank you. And to the residents here tonight, and to the ones watching at home, thank you as well. A budget hearing is nobody's idea of a good Monday, but you're here anyways, so thank you again. So here's the lens that I'm bringing to this budget. This is a $24.5 million general fund, and more than half of it, $12.6 million, is for police services. And add parks and recreation, and you're at 70% of everything we spend. And I'm not going to argue with that. Safety and parks are a lot of the reason why we're here and part of the reason why our homes are so valuable. But it also means that the people in this room have very little to work with. Almost everything that we're debating tonight lives in that other 30%. And I'm not going to walk past the millage. This budget is built around 2.35 mils. And there's no way to say that because anything that sounds like anything else is just not what it is. So to the senior at home who opens up her trim notice and has to sit down for a minute, I hear you. Balancing this budget is one obligation this council has that isn't optional. We'll meet it tonight the way we do every year. A balanced budget is the minimum this job asks of us. The question tonight is what else are we willing to do? And I want to spend one minute on the thing that concerns me the most because it isn't any one single line in this budget. It's what comes after it. And if we're looking at how we're doing capital this year, last year we transferred $3.35 million into our capital program. This year we're transferring $250,000 before council amendments. And we are finishing projects that were funded by decisions that came before us last year and the years prior. Veterans Park, Coral Reef Park improvements, those are real and they're all good. And the residents will use them. But when the dust settles at the end of fiscal year 27, the committed capital balance we hand the next village council is under a million dollars for an entire village of 25,000 people. Every number in this book is going to land on someone. The $663,000 at Pummel Bay Park is a kid at our skate park. And the $300,000 in drainage improvements is a family on 176th Street or elsewhere in the village that takes on water every time it rains. And the park impact fee has $845,000 in it with no new projects budgeted against it. Traffic calming out of our fuel tax fund drops from $220,000 last year to $50,000 at the end of this coming fiscal year. And our stormwater, if we do nothing tonight, ends at $96,000. And none of that is anyone's fault in this room, but put it together and something needs to be said plainly. we need to have a plan. And we should also add the fact that our expenses are growing faster than our revenue that pays for them, and that gap will not close on our own. Our structural problem does not fix itself by getting through one more September, so the next council will have to work together to figure this out for our residents. And we are here as a village with a triple A credit rating. That rating is a real asset. But a triple A rating tells you what our balance sheet looks like and it doesn't say whether we have a plan. A rating like ours is also borrowing capacity. It's the ability to finance something this community could use for 40 years on terms that most places would envy. That decision belongs to the next council, and they should make it deliberately with the residents at the table. But they will have to make that choice. And at what point does the village decide whether our credit rating is something that we earned to be used or something that just sits there to be admired? Meanwhile, here are what the residents are actually asking me about. Finishing the woods, which has $42,000 in this budget for restoration, management, and pre-design. Not $1 this year goes to the work itself. Traffic relief on streets that people have been asking for years. bathrooms at core reef park is something i hear about as well and ask anyone who has taken a kid to on a saturday game and they can describe to you in detail the conditions of our bathrooms at core reef park i'm not going to sit here and pretend that there's money for those tonight because there isn't but but not this year has been the answer for a while now and at some point that stops being a budget decision and start and starts becoming a choice we have to do something even if it starts small and that's why i have the three proposals before you tonight and i'm grateful for your support Again, there are the visioning plans for during a Richmond drive and the designs for a village wide neighborhood greenway that builds on the safe streets for all plan that we have already paid and finished. So with that, I'll just say thank you to the administration. Thank you to the residents who are here tonight. And thank you to all those who are watching at home. That's all. Thank you.

Thank you for that. Other comments, Council Member Fiore?

Yeah, so just to add, and I'd like to see if my colleagues will support this. I will get with the manager on the lobbyist money issues sometime this week, so I don't want to make a motion now because it's late. So I'd just like to add $5,000 for more shade trees on the west perimeter of Palmetto Bay Park. I'll just use that as a start for now. That's my motion.

madam mayor i'll i'll second it um and i have a question for our manager if you don't mind madam mayor go ahead um can we take that from stormwater we can i no we can't no we can't okay no we can't that was a very definitive no i got a very hard no uh okay there's a motion and we're discussing the motion Any further discussion? Okay. Does anyone object to placing $5,000 for additional shade trees? All right.

I don't object. I'm sorry? I don't object.

Okay. No one objected. So is that okay to do it that way? Yes, we pass it by unanimous consent. All right. Anything else? Very good. One quick comment. Mr. Manager, job well done. As usual, I look forward to our second budget workshop. I know that most of you in the room did not come for the budget workshop. You actually came to hear the items in the regular council meeting, so we are going to jettison over into that meeting hopefully in just a few moments. If there's no further discussion, we're on item 3B. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Vice Mayor Mark Meritzer?

Yes.

Council Member Steve Cody?

Yes.

Council Member Patrick Fiord? Yes. Mayor Karen Cunningham? Yes. Council Member Marsha Madsen?

No. Okay. Budget passes 4-0, or 4-1. Yep, sorry. Oh, goodness. Is there anything else for this meeting? No. All right. Then I'm going to go ahead and can we get a motion to adjourn?

Motion to adjourn. Is there a second?

Second. Second. All those in favor?

Aye.

All right. Anyone opposed? How long do we need? We can continue. We can continue. Beautiful. All right. We're going to go ahead and open our regular council meeting for Monday, September 14th. We're beginning at 9.30 p.m. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Mayor Karen Cunningham. Present. Vice Mayor Mark Meritzer. Present. Council Member Patrick Fiore. Present. Council Member Steve Cody. Here. Council Member Marsha Madsen.

Here.

Quorum is met.

Thank you. We had invocation for our budget hearing, so I'm going to move.

My apologies, Madam Mayor. We do need to reset. All right.

It'll just take a minute. They have to... I really don't know what it is they have to do, but they have to flip some buttons and switch some switches.

I thought we had combined everything into one meeting.

So I know we have, while we're not actually in the meeting...