We want to have to not go around that. We haven't put that rest to the city of North Miami Beach. Budget hearing of Tuesday, September 10th, 2024. Can we get a roll call, please, Madam Clerk? Commissioner Scharnoff? Here. Commissioner Florian One is running late. Commissioner Jean? Commissioner Joseph? Commissioner Smuggler? President? Vice Mayor Phyllis Smith, Mayor Evan Piper. Here. Corm has been established. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So I need a motion and second to introduce 2.1. So moved. Second. Okay. Now we need the city attorney to read the title unless someone else can do it. Okay. All right. Finish up that egg roll. Come on. Take your time. No one wants to see the debates tonight. All right. You probably want to see the debate more than anyone. Yeah. Sure. But, uh, and by the way, um, just one thing in the meantime, I wanted to just, um, uh, with us up here, do we have any time frames that we want to try to work with in? Yeah. I'm about. I would a bill. Commissioner, would you say? I mean, I know we've had like, like, a re-budget workshop, something. Right. I'm just saying, like, a third in the most. Yeah, yeah, just to clarify, Mr. Mayor, we've had multiple workshops. I think the most we've had in a very long time when it comes to budget. We've had individuals conversation. So I would hope that we could speed this through. And because this is our first one, we have another one, right? And if there's any issues, we can also have discussions or make any changes in the meantime, or make suggestions. We just have to, this is the initial first step, just like how we do with the millenge, just, and then we move forward. So. All right. Thank you. Yeah, so I guess if we can target no later than 830, I think that would make everybody happy here. So we just need to all work together to want to keep looking at you. We all need to work together to make sure that that happens. 2.1, resolution number R, 2024-97, tentative millage rate for fiscal year 2025. Sheriff Stewart budget administrator resolution of the Mary Commission of the City of North Miami Beach for establishing and adopting the tentative loving of Avila, and taxes for the City of North Miami Beach for fiscal year, 2024, 25 in the amount of 6.100 mils, which is 9.62% higher than the road back rate to balance the general fund establishing the road back rate to be 5.5647 mills establishing the debt service milled rate at 0.2232 mills providing for implementation and providing for an effective date. Hey commotion and proof Okay, all right hang on I think we have a couple things to do here first. So before we do it May I for the record just before you even do just Just for the record because we are required by law. Even though it's in the title, the record should reflect the proposed milled rate of 6.1 0000 is higher than the roll back rate which is established to be 5.5647 mills by 9.62%. Okay. Who's going to be speaking on behalf of this city on this item? I will, sir. I'll be doing the only presentation. Scheduled presentation. All those staff is here to answer any questions. So typically the budget determines the millage, but the millage determines the budget determines the millage, but the millage determines the budget. And so up to the commission, there's a couple different ways that we can move forward. Sometimes what is preferred is to table the millage and then go into the budget and then table the budget, go back to the millage or just do the straight millage as a vote. I think that's how we did it last time and then just go into the budget. the street millage as a vote I think that's how we did it last time and then just go into the budget but again it's up to the commission as a whole. I know we did it last time just to prove I guess move forward approving the millage and or having a public comment prior to and then moving on to the budget. Right okay I'm in favor of that. Okay. All right. Good. So we, City Madam Clerk, public comment, please. Good evening. The Mayor's Commission of the City of North-East has opened a meeting for public comment at this time. There is a three-minute time limit for each speaker. Speaker, you will be called to the podium. I would like to give you a moment to Good evening. Amy Salzman. This is Devor Salzman. I brought her up because we're friends and uses of the NNB library and we want to speak on their behalf for the budget. So the community really wants. We could close you the microphone. Thank you. Better? Much better. Great. The community wants a completely functional library, including weekends, with enough staff to support families and much needed programs. The library's been waiting for repairs, just like many of the other city buildings have already gotten. Including hurricane proof windows, doors to protect the building and all the treasures inside, and including bathrooms also, please. Repairing and maintaining our building is only a fraction of the cost to build a whole new building. Also keeping in mind that building a modern library takes a specialized architect, which would also cost a lot of money and difficult to find. So, in short, what we would like is a budget so that we could have better programming, opening on the weekends with staff for that and to have more programming. It will help the city of North Miami Beach. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. She was singing my song. Jose DS. Good evening. My name is Jose DS. I'm just a regular citizen from 11.199.30. Northeast.6. Court. I'm just a regular citizen from I live in 16930, Northeast, 6th Court. There's a small house right there, that's been right there. This has been kind of like in my case, been increasing on their property taxes. Am I in the situation about more than 27% to almost 35%? It's like really high for me. I really don't see how you're increasing our property taxes can really benefit for the city. I mean, to be, for be honest, 2024 has been kind of hard for today's citizens where we just really, really trying to do best to survive. The cost and everything is a little bit too much and then the people who are not here to represent themselves because they're all busy probably working two or three jobs is a little bit too much for then the people who are not here to represent themselves because they're all busy probably working two or three jobs is a little bit too much for any bus to handle. You know, in my case, I inherited a house from my mother, you know, passed away in 2020 and my property taxes rose from from that to to very high from what she was paying during that time she was paying like a thousand $200 a year, but then when I took over the house it was up to like $5,000 and then it just Every year just keeps on increasing increasing increasing and this year is a lot worse because it's more than then what you're asking for for me You guys are for for tax right here for comb for you're asking for. For me, you guys, for tax right here, for Cone IV, you're asking about $8,821.89. While Cone V, you're asking for $9,676.28. $9.29. You know, I really try my best to really, really, you know. He's looking at his trim. We need to explain. That needs to be explained right playing again But regardless in in general, you know I don't see us you know spending more money to the city I Feel we should be more focusing on Trying to maintain what we have for now for this year, after the election year, maybe we could see maybe progress to this city. Because as of right now, everybody who lives in my neighborhood right now is trying to either move out or leave and leaving their homes to just developers and trying to overstack their properties to like, you're expecting somebody to come in to spend about $700,000 for a three bedroom and two bathroom house. I don't see any potential citizens, regular citizens, who could benefit the city itself to actually maintain what we have. Because as of right now, a lot of us are going to be moving out to an area that is going to be to pay more for wages and stability right there. And then you only have to get out of this mostly because empty homes for vacation homes and nothing more. So without the proper people to able to maintain the city, you guys are going to be just have a bunch of rich people who doesn't want to do anything. So, you know, this talk about you guys want to do a garage thing on time. I'm sorry, thank you. Thank you very much. That's a county issue. The taxes is county. Go to your taxes, sir. Yes, I. Day county. We don't we don't set this up. No, but I just some of some of those taxes are Us but most of it is the county the school board We actually lowered our mileage But it's also possible that that difference that you said after your mother died that that it went up It's because of the homestead or because of the name change that may have raised it because triggered it. I guess in my case is when I tried to get homestead exemption, there was some difficulties for me to earn it. And the problem is I was able to earn it at 2023 when the market value as its highest peak. So when I received the home sex exemption, they reassessed my house to the highest can be right now. So I'm trying to do what I can to, to able to stay here and be part of the community. But it's been very, very difficult for me as someone who's lived here for almost 20 years, they're saying, maybe it's time for me to leave, because the city itself doesn't want us, people that live down here to do more to the city. Madam Clerk, what was the address? What was the address? My address is 16930, North East, Six Court, North Fountain Beach, Florida, 33162. 159. 169. 169. 169. Thank you. By 170, then, between 6 and 6. 6 core. It is 6-F. I'm a corn house. It's basically, I'm near, say, a palm animal, an elementary school. No, that's 171. It's a couple blocks back. It's basically the first right, and then you make a left and you make an left to the school. Yeah. No, he lost his tax 3% because he they turned over the data. Well, you don't have home state exemption either, right? I have it now. Oh. Because I was forced to because there were going to recess my value regardless. So I had a safeguard for the future. If I actually still wanted to stay within the city and a safeguard me for not paying, because I don't know what's gonna happen next year. Who knows, gonna happen. Maybe you guys want to increase 50%, who knows? But regardless is the budget itself. And we have, I feel like we need to be more stable of what we're spending. You may even have an appeal case possibly. I have and I already about to do that. I'll be more proactive this year of what I can do. But I still like to give an opinion of the city itself. Since it's not, I know this is a terminus just for me, but as I'm, I took it in what's going on in the city itself, it's a pretty clear indication that not a much people or citizens are coming here to give concerns and the people who are here are the ones who have money and power and willing to do things behind the citizens back or people are not aware of. It's more ignorant and downfunded that people can try to take adventures of this city and not to improve it. Well, I'm really glad that you're setting the right example and there should be more people coming out. So I thank you very much. Thanks sir. OK. All right. So now anybody else will call the comment? Did you have any doubt? Now anybody else repel the comment? Good evening, everyone. My name is my barricazan. You know, I listened to that gentleman. And you multiply his story by 5,000 or even if it's 500. That is what is going through with the city, not only this city but many other cities. And we need to live within our budget. We need to try to help the homeowners and the renters because even if you rent out a property, that property owner is not going to swallow the expenses that the city imposed upon him or her. They're going to pass it on to the renters. Everybody is railing. You guys raised it up to 6.7 milledrate. We call up several of you spoke, we wrote, and you kept it at a 6.1 instead of the 6.7. I thank you guys very much for that. The city manager wanted to know how he would have lived without the 6.7. Well, we're living quite okay without the 6.7. We're down to 6.1. And we could even lower it further. I also want to make a side comment. I think you you have a gentleman as a city manager, a gentleman. And I'm grateful for having a city manager like that, being a gentleman. And I'm grateful for having a city manager like that being a gentleman. But somehow he needs to move a little faster. That is all. And you seven people up there have to move your city manager faster. This honeymoon thing that we run year after year and it's been going on for even before he came. You know, you're trying to know where the washrooms are in the city. You should know where the washrooms are in the city within the first month. Yes, Commissioner Smith? I want to see here every word. I don't want to miss the word, Mr. Cousin. Yes, so we could even lower it more. You just have to spend better. I know that the CIT funds are like different from here, but that is another bit of money that is not spent properly. Half of you know the freebie guy and the other half know the trolley guy. And so you come together and you spend 96% of the CIT funding. 96% when you only suppose to be spending 20%. You spend 96% and the other 4% is left back for the road markings, tremendous trees, all the safety issues fill in the potholes. It doesn't work like that. Where are your longest friends here? None of them are here. and the public comment. And the public comment. The public comment. The public comment. The public comment. The public comment. The public comment. The public comment. The public comment. The public comment. The public comment. The public comment. The public comment. The public comment. The public comment. The public comment. The public comment. The public comment. The public comment. The public comment? Good evening, Mayor and Commissioner. My name is Ketli Juansche. And I'm a long time member in the city of Notmemi Beach. One of the reasons I'm here tonight is because of this budget. One of the things we wanna ask as a member of the Commission of Status of Women, I know there's a lot of cuts, a lot of events have been cut, but we would like to keep the heart health walk. It is something that we have done for years and it is not just the commission. It is everyone because this thing impact women, impact adult children and everyone else. So as much as if you balance it, there are two events in the city that's well attended. That is a domestic violence walk, which the police department always put together. And then the commission of status of women with this hot health walk. No matter what you cut tonight, we would vary the resident of the city asking to keep the hot health walk in the budget. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, anyone else for public comment? All right, let the record reflect that no one came forward and public comment is closed. And anything from the commissioners? No, no, no. Okay, then we'll need a motion. And the second and a roll call. Commission turn off. Commissioner Jean. Yes. Commissioner Joseph. Commission Smuggler. Yes. Vice Mayor Phil Smith. Yes. Mayor Piper. Yes. Motion passes. It. Yes. Mayor Piper. Yes. Motion passes. It's here. Okay. Thank you. All right. I need a motion in second to introduce 2.2. Motion. Let the motion. Need a second, please. Second. Okay. All right. And Mr. Attorney, making your second debut. Yes, sir. This is top speed. Resolution number 2.2 resolution number R 2024-98 adopting the tentative fiscal year 2025 budget Sharon Stewart budget administrator Resolution of the Commission of the city of North Miami Beach for adopting the tentative annual budget for the fiscal year commencing October 1st 2024 and ending September 30 2025 Whilst they're authorizing the expenditure funds appropriated in the budget. Acknowledging the levy and collection of taxes on real and personal property and other revenues necessary to meet the expenditures provided in the budget. Providing for transmittal by the city clerk, confirming additional powers and conditions, authorizing incumbrances and carry forward, providing for implementation and providing for an effective date. Okay. Now we, you're going to be speaking on this, and then I guess at that point we'll do public comment after you speak. So. Okay. If I can get the PowerPoint up. Some of these slides are informational, but I thought it was worth having on there, so I'll speed through some of these. As we know, North Miami Beach provides almost all services and amenities to residents, businesses and visitors depending, that visitors depend on every single day, which includes safe roads, police, parks, recreational activity, water and sewer services, library services, and so much more. On a yearly basis, the City Commission adopts the city budget by statue. The budget runs from October 1st to September 30th. Essentially, what the city budget is, it's an annual plan for how much revenues the city anticipates to receive, where those revenues will come from and how those revenues will be spent during the fiscal year. State law requires that the city adopt a balanced budget so revenues must equal expenditures, and we cannot appropriate more money than it plans to receive. The budget is based on the city administration's assessment of the needs of the city direction from the city commission best practice master plans legislative matters and input from our residents and constituents. We strive to develop a budget that will aid in the achievement in the long terms. We have several goals that we've been working on in this budget cycle we're looking at and have kind of listed those groupings here, a strategic plan for a thriving community, a long-term vision for what this community would look like and we're currently in that process with FIU and both an economic impact and feasibility as well as a strategic vision plan in which recently finished a focus group sessions and we'll be going into a town hall on phase next. Community communications for an engaged community, something that we've been working on and you will be receiving a updated strategic communications plan soon. I know our new communications manager has been reaching out to you all for discussion on it as well. Economic development for resiliency and growth. Again, part of the FIU studies that we've got going on, it's really important, the better that we can have an economic basis on the commercial side that loosens up the pressure of what's needed from ad valourum and for our residents. So having a strong economic impact will be, it is important for the city. Data-driven performance management, we want to use data analytics to make important decisions, be able to take a look at assessments and areas that we need to improve on in an objective fashion instead of just relying subjectively on gut feeling. And also trying to make sure that we have financial sustainability for a healthy and thriving community. Sorry about that. So typically what this slide shows is the process in which budgets are typically done. You have departments that begin the planning for the upcoming fiscal year early in the calendar year. They then submit that to the finance department which then meets with the city manager's office and various department heads. We then propose that to the city commission. We hold our workshops. We hold our first hearing like we are today. Those revisions are made throughout that process. Once you adopt it, we begin the implementation. We monitor throughout the area and if there's any budget amendments that are needed, we do that throughout the year. Basically, a budget is structured. The city budget is separated into distinctive categories, what is typically called funds. These funds are operating funds, capital improvement. They have, they track, they help track the balances and the cash roll that comes into the city and out of the city. There are three distinct type of funds that we look at, governmental funds, proprietary funds and fiduciary funds. Here I just kind of break down what the definitions of those type of funds are. General special revenue debt, capital projects, permanent enterprise, inter service funds, and fiduciiary funds, things of those nature. So essentially how are tax dollars calculated per property? Essentially the county does a evaluation of all the properties and a milledrate represents the amount tax per thousand dollars of that taxable value of the property. In North Miami Beach, excuse me, the current proposed milled rate is 6.1, which is a flat rate year over year. That means for every thousand dollars, for every hundred thousand dollars, the property taxes 610,000. So here and there is is a small error, but I'll correct it. As you'll see, the operating millage has remained flat for the past three fiscal years. Debt millage has been going down over the past three years from 0.47 to 0.41 last year to this year as a 0.22. The overall millage is a reduction from 0. 6.5 down to a 6.3. The rollback rate, which is where we see the area. I apologize this is a slide. I thought I updated all the numbers, but I didn't. The current rollback rate is 5.5647, not 5.53. This slide you've all seen in the workshops as well. This is just a quick example of what a different property assess values are, what the increase from one year to the next. Again, even though the operating mileage remains flat, it's the value of the property that determines how much actual taxes are done to the gentleman's point earlier. For every dollar that is paid in property taxes, 35 cents of that dollar or 35% of what you pay in property taxes goes to the county, 31% goes to the school board. So that's already 66% of the property taxes goes to County and School Board. The city's based on our proposed budget is 28 cents or 28%. Other fine grants and other state required taxes that are on There accounts for about 4% or 4 cents of the dollar and our debt is 2 cents of the dollar and our debt is 2 cents of the dollar. Some key accomplishments. I want to be able to kind of list this is in no way everything that we've been doing over the past year but I think some very noteworthy building department we've already made good headway on the digital transformation getting our e ePermitting and ePlan review system up and running internally. We have some permits that we're able to do electronically and we should be hopefully by the end of this fiscal year, having several more applications up and running digitally. File modernization, we're transitioning into a paperless system for the department. Community development, We were able to achieve a lower ranking in the CRS, which is a state system that looks at flood vulnerability within the city. A lower ranking is good, kind of like golf. The lower the score, the better. And so we moved from a class eight to a class seven, which increases the amount of discount home insurance gives within the state and floor to four for that rank and we continue to try to move into lower ranks year over year. They have passed an urban tree canopy plan for flood mitigation and walkability throughout the city and code enforcement has also begun night sweeps to enhance safety and various code violations throughout the city. Parks and Recreation, of course, in the MISKON field, we all enjoyed the new artificial turf on the ribbon cutting and our youth are using the field and everybody's having a great time being able to use that. After school program, we have on a weekly basis about 280 children that are part of our after school program throughout the city. And so that continues to be a viable program for the city and the community. Library again continues the community and literacy programs for all ages from small children all the way to our vintage citizens digital service innovations that the library has been doing to modernize its services and the programs it has, as well as looking for citizen classes and partnering with other organizations to be able to provide different programming. Finance, we finally were able to provide real-time finance transparency on our website, so you can go on our website and take a look at all of our processing, our accounts, where all the expenditures are, you no longer need to ask for reports or call the clerk, although that's still always a viable option, but the program allows you to see where all the expenses are in per category. We again won the Distinguished Awards as I announced earlier this year for our budget book. We've adopted several new financial policies as well as overcoming several audits that we've had more than usual. We've had about five this year and we've been able to get through them all. HR, we've been implementing the Evergreen PACE study, which improved plans for not only for our bargaining units, but also our non-barganing units. We had a 98-0 vote for the CBA on the collective bargaining agreement for the general employees, as well as begun leadership development from the directors starting all the way down to front line something that the city hasn't been doing in sometimes Looking for that succession planning N&B water We've we've done several subject to sewer conversions throughout the city, particularly Corona the Mar where we're improving public health and safety. We won the best-tacing regional water and just recently with the charity golf classic, the Water Department was able to raise $30,000 for the We Care to Share program. Economic development, home rehab, business grants, and N&B scholarships. We've expanded various public services and have maximized the opportunity that we had in processing those. Police, we've hired eight new police officers with ongoing recruitment efforts. We've graduated for cadets from the academy with three currently attending and those numbers continue to increase as people graduate, come on board and move forward received and outfitted over 33 new vehicles. In the year, police has responded to over 86,000 calls for service. We've apprehended various individuals that we believe were responsible for various burglaries in the business sector. We achieve coverage of 5 out of 6 zones within our community partnership detectives. We have over 300 children enrolled in our police, athletic lead and police explorers program and all of our community patrol and crime prevention officers obtain their crime prevention certifications. And those are just some. This year, let me once second. This year some of the additional pressures in the budget apart from just regular inflation or anything like that. We have the overall cost of living and merit increases. We have an estimated interfund transfer as well. We have a additional police pension contribution of a million dollars to smooth over the shortfall over three years. We have the lawsuit settlement that the commission approved recently. General liability insurance premiums have increased by approximately 500,000 and we have the Washington Park project which is also inclusive of the water and sewer portion of it as well. From the revenue side, we did see an increase in the taxable value of properties throughout the city from 4.7 billion to 5.3, which is approximately 12%. The unassigned fund balance, we believe that there's the increase to approximately 27 due to fiscal year 23 carryover. Of that, approximately 4 million is needed for budget amendments throughout fiscal year 24, particularly due to overtime with the international incidents that we've experienced this year as well as other legal items that we've discussed. The increase in advalorem revenue totals from one year to the next is about $3.1 million. With regards to grants and aids, we're receiving over $4 million from Congresswoman Federico Wilson's advocacy of North Miami Beach for Washington Park and traffic calming. Miami-Dade County. We have approximately 1.25 million for Washington Park, Florida Department Environmental Protection 200,000, as well as the FDLT Transit service grant for on-demand services. So this slide basically shows we have a balance budget, right? This shows all the expenses and where the revenue comes from for all that. That goes from the general fund liability, workman's comp, governmental impact, the CITT, money, transit, tax, local option, the guard houses, our debt service, capital projects, stormwater, all of those type of revenue that the city has. So the total budget, including all inclusive of all revenue and expenses is $212,369,646 dollars. So we do have a balanced budget as proposed. On the general fund, essentially what you're looking at, this is the, how much each the department has, which is part of your budget book and we can get into events, which is something that was brought in. Based on the conversation that the commissions had on several instances, although we haven't gotten, it is on your agenda for further consideration is talking about putting a moratorium on events. In that, we've kept certain events in, within parks and recreation. The overall conversation is having a moratorium on everything except like Monster Bash and Snow Fest. An association with Snow Fest is a tree lighting and an over lighting. The Veterans Day ceremony and Memorial Day ceremony combined is maybe $3,000. So I've kept that in there. Summer camp, of course, we're keeping that in there. But we do have a line item within that Parks and Recreation events for police presence, with the over time that that police has needed at all the events. Police and Powell events come, so in Parks and Recreation, only those events, it's 275,500. For police and Powell events is $27,000. That goes for the domestic violence awareness 5K run, golden ticket toy drive, teen summit on gun violence, national night out, the Powell dance Thanksgiving giveaway holiday party, shop with a cop, Powell, Nathaniel, golf tournament, which actually raises money for Powell. Coffee with a cop meetings, these are more just general like town hall meetings, opportunities for people to speak with our officers. Pact meetings which are throughout the city, as well as club lawn order, which is having several members of the community coming to our police department to discuss various trends or issues throughout the community. Library has certain events. I like to call them more programming than events, but these are used as part of to meet not only our requirements with grants, but also how we count various numbers as well, and it's part of our overall learning programming. So that accounts for 71,000. And we have very specific topics throughout the year that we end up doing. Mayor Commission, this is the category that basically had every other type of event that we had going on. The advisory groups would be part of that as well. Again, based on the requests of putting a moratorium except for a couple of those which are in parks and recreation. Farbshare and the Thanksgiving food drive are left in there. Those are funded through Arbus, since it's the actual food part of the distribution on that. There is capacity for the commission to put back into the budget. Should you wish I was just following the overall discussion that the commission was having so I was presenting that to you. The capital improvement projects, the total city wide project for all funds comes out to $73 million. Here we start going through a list of all the projects and this was presented at the last budget workshop And it's also in your your presentation and in your budget book as well We have from the building department the CRA IT library parks police department We have sewer water As as a list as well in total it comes out to and public works. I'm sorry, which public works. You'll see has various different funds. It's from CITT, local gas tax, the general fund which helps support several of it, as well as various ARPA projects. So total citywide project values is 73,206 and 333,000. Just wanted to highlight Washington Park. Washington Park total project cost is about $25 million, $25.4. This is inclusive of the water and sewer portion of the project as well. The building construction is about $21.8 million. The pump station in force of Maine is about $3.5 million. We're anticipating a groundbreaking in force of Maine is about 3.5 million. We're anticipating a groundbreaking in October of 2024 for the pump station in the force main, which is the first part of the Washington Park project. So please stay tuned for that. I believe it's currently, it's about to be advertised. It is advertised. And again, highlighting the various funding sources that we've received outside of the general funds and or the loan that will be coming before you. Arbor projects. So you all have this list as well. This is all the phase two. Again, these are recommendations. There is capacity within here to reallocate funds based on staff recommendation, which again is in front of you for September as well. And we did briefly talk about it in the budget workshop in the last one in August, the second budget workshop in August. With staff reallocation, we anticipate that there would be 973,000 available for reallocation of that. There were two items that the commission kind of said that they would consider. One is the purchase of the rescue vehicle for police, which is about 380 to 400,000. And also the state mandated comp plan amendment. That would be required for us to fulfill as well. So with the subtraction of those two line items, we would have 262,335 from face to alone that be able to be reallocated into other areas should the commission want. The other aspect of ARPA is in phase one. There are some allocation opportunities, and again, in front of the commission next Tuesday as part of the ARPA is a discussion for the reallocation of funds. Part of that is the singer building. The CRA has brought a recommendation to purchase the building at about $1.5 million. I think the actual value of the property is maybe closer to $2 to $3 million, but it's up to the commissioners to if they want to sell it to the CRA that would allocate more funds within ARPA that can be used an additional whatever that sales price of the CRA would be so an additional one and a half million dollars within ARPA would be freed up for reallocation to other projects and then finally This is our projected unassigned fund balance We have estimated for fiscal year 23, 24 was 19 million. We're seeing a carryover of about 8 million from fiscal year 23. 14 million is to hit the minimum 20% requirement. We believe that we'll have about $4 million in budget amendments throughout the area. Again, police overtime overtime legal costs so and so we have so we're looking at about seven point six million dollars that we're reallocating from the unassigned fund balance that is over the minimum threshold of the 20% into CIP. Now the majority of that capacity above the 20% I just want to put it in is being used for CIP projects, which is aligning with our commitment for sustainable infrastructure development. Once the CIP passes, those funds are dedicated whether there's a PO for that project or not to that project and cannot be moved from the CIP without commission vote for a court occurring. That's going to ensure that these projects that we're voting on actually get done and that they have the proper funding for. It is recommended that we try to maintain levels above the minimum in case there are various overruns or anything that happened throughout the year that we would have to do so that we don't cross the 20%. So there is a little bit of money above the 20, but really there's not that much into there as well. We've taken a look, we have a balanced budget, we have taken all the suggestions from the commission over the last various workshops, and we've been able to address it within the capacities of ARPA as well as the CIP program. And I think that is a budget that we can be proud of. It's been a very long process, but I'm very proud of the team and I wanna thank them so much for really sticking through it. We really took this as an opportunity to grow and to really position the city and an opportunity to not only make the adjustments that we need to make realizing but also looking for ways to move what is important for the commission and the community move it forward. Are we doing everything we absolutely want? No, but we are living within our means and to clarify. Earlier in the year, the staff recommended 6.7 cap, not a 6.7 millage, just so that you all had that opportunity to have the conversation. You had that opportunity to have the conversation and you all decided to keep it flat. And that is what we're presenting for you. An operating budget that is flat 6.1, a debt reduction which is lower than what it was. So your overall mileage for the city is a reduction from one year over the next, from 6.5 to 6.3 overall. And that's inclusive of operating and debt mileage. Mary, did that as quickly as possible. You did a great job. We really appreciate it every single one of us. Okay, before we move on to Commissioner Comet, we need to do public comment, Madam Clerk. Good evening. The Mayor and Commissioner of the City of North of Ambeach has opened a meeting for public comment at this time. There is a three minute time limit for each speaker. Speaking when you're called to the podium, please state your name. The Mayor Commissioner of the City of the Frank Beach recognizes the importance of civility. The City of the Frank Beach requests that all the attendance exercise civility at all times. If you wish to speak on this item, please come forward. Mr. Kazan. Good evening, everyone again. My name is Mabarakazan. Tonight we will be having a debate between the presidential candidates of the United States of America and the polls showed that 30% of the people would decide their mind then. Who they're going to vote for. 30%. If you look in the audience, I'm only seeing two candidates here. We've had almost like a dozen candidates signed up. So I would like to hear what the candidates have to see as well so that I can make my judgment. I would be remiss if I continue without saying why the delays. And the delays I'm speaking about is a $6.5 million delinquent bill in the water plant. We've had for more than three years now. And that was brought in attention of your city manager. Nothing was done then. That is six and a half million dollars at least three million. We could have gotten extra for the budget if we had moved on that. The multi-story parking, which is very important. We talked about the high rises are going to be a benefit for our city, bringing in more revenues. But if you build buildings with inadequate parkings, et cetera, et cetera, you're not going to be fully news buildings. They're going to be mostly empty or half empty. The singer building, we fought many years to get at building, many, many years. And finally, the manager before sorry, he negotiated with the owner, and we finally got that building. If we use CRF funds or we use the ARPA funds, that building needs to be kept because when we look back five years from now, when we can see that the ARPA funding has been squandered at least we can look back and say, you know what? At least we got that building. You should be taking some money from the ARPA funding as well to purchase a piece of land over it. Eastern shores for the people to have a relaxation park over there. Not a basket ball or a football, it's screaming and balling and shouting. But a nice recreational park for Eastern shores. Not because it coming from me or you're going to don it. But it's for the people over at Eastern shores. Last year we heard about the deficit of $10 million. I'm not hard how we addressed that at this public hearing. How we address it? And million dollar deficit. And thank you very much. And now we open the floor to our candidates. Let's me hear how I can decide my mind on how I vote and the other people too. Third of all, third of all. All right, thank you. Any other speakers? No. Okay. All right. Let's reflect the ones who came came forward. Paul the comment is closed and it's time to who wants to speak for anything first from the commissioners. Okay. I'll start with Commissioner Joseph. So just to clarify, this is the first hearing. We have another hearing. It's going to happen after the holidays, right? Right? Okay. Before, before, before, before Russia, sorry. I just don't know. Yeah, so we're going to have a between now and then we're going to have another hearing. And you know, I guess they can be discussions and relate in relation to the budget in either with the We now and then we're going to have another hearing. And I guess they can be discussions and relate in relation to the budget, either with the manager directly or amongst ourselves currently. But I just know this is the first step, this is not the last step. I'm just glad that we got past the millage aspect of it all. And I'm looking to delve even further. But I've had plenty of meetings. I mean, I've gone to at least two of the three workshops and had updates with chief of staff as well as the mayor on various aspects of this budget. I saw a lot of manager. Manager, sorry. And there might be a little bit of wiggle room, but if I'm not trying to blow the budget outside of what has been something that you'm not trying to blow the budget outside or what has been something that you guys have worked down for the past, I don't know, like three, four months, if not more. So those are just my thoughts. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Mr. Trump. I too have had many, many meetings with the manager and with all of us and I may reserve comments for next meeting. Thank you. Okay. Commissioner Smokler. All right, so I'm going to make my comments now. So I'm pretty sure when we were discussing getting rid of many of the events, I'm pretty sure we said that we would keep the back to school. Because we were supplying school supplies for the children to back to school. We absolutely did. I think commissioner, we could definitely look if that's the will of the commission to bring in back to school or the heart, help walk or bike 305. I think a lot of it as well has also been, you all have done an amazing job for the city and finding sponsorships that also buys and provides backpacks even through the legal cities and so forth. So that has been a big help as well. I know it's not set in stone. I did that looking at based on the conversation and knowing that you all have that on the agenda as well for discussion and approval through a formal vote. But if there is any particular type of event depending on how much you would want, whether it's an event or anything else in the budget, there's a couple different options that can be done. You can direct staff to, hey, let's allocate xyz towards it. In that case, we would look at where that money can come from, elsewhere within the budget, and we would present that of, hey, we're reducing this line item to fund XYZ or if it's coming from ARP or whatever the case may be, you all can make that recommendation if you had something where I don't want to fund this line item to that level, I'd rather use that for something else. So those are options as well that are before you. Because we did get school supplies to 450 NMB only residents. So and I was able to get some additional funding for that out of sponsorship. But so I think this, you know, we need to look out for the children. And in fact, I had from Parks and Rec, Jason called me one day saying, because there's a few school supplies left over that were going to be giving out in a few months when the kids start running out of school supplies. And Jason called me and said there's a student that's dropping out of school because he doesn't have school supplies. Is it okay if I go to your office and take one of the packages of school supplies and said no, not one, two. But the point is that here's a kid that was not going to go back to school because he didn't have school supplies So we we we think of children, you know, they need food and eat the need clothes Yes, they do but they also need school supplies. So that's something that's important to me that I'd like to see on there and then the other thing is I'm not gonna push it for all of you to reconsider what Miss Washing brought up. Ketley, the hard health walk has been a staple event of ours for about what 12 years now more or less, but that's something I want you all to think about and maybe bring back next week whether it's a yes or no. And then there's two items that I want to have just maybe to be able to move around a little bit. There's, I know that years and years and years ago that the commission used to be big time participants in the special Olympics. And I know that in the budget there's $10,000 for them this year. And I'm just wondering if maybe again, something we can all reconsider is maybe not giving $10,000, maybe giving a little bit less and giving that other money somewhere else to some other organization just so that we can spread it out a little bit more. Spread the wealth, let's say, to some other organizations that need us to help as well. And then the last thing I want to bring up and I'm not picking on you, Mr. Mayor. But the Chamber, we are giving them $30,000 a year. Plus we're giving them the space that they have here next to City Hall by the Police, at the Police Department or by the Police Department. And plus we pay for the lunches. So I was wondering, do you need that space? I mean, is it something that Leslie can work remotely that we can give the space back to the city? The space is currently being used by the tension board department. Oh, is it? Yeah, and we don't really, we don't use the space at all. We do have a sign on the door Because we feel it's a good presence for the city So but as far as utilizing the space we don't utilize the space I didn't know that though and that team is in there Okay, and I just want to see if anybody wants to I know that the chamber needs the money, but $30,000 to be giving to one organization a year is a lot of money. So that's something else I'd like everyone to think about as well. And that's all I have to say. Thank you. Okay. Mr. Smith. Okay, I'll talk real fast and I want to bring up a few points as well. Number one, Mr. Manager, thank you for this presentation. I think it's the best one you've done a year. I'm going to utilize this line by line before next meeting. It's excellent. Number two, I think that the budget is a fluid piece of work. We've talked many times about the garbage coming back in house. We have a lot of work to do with the work. We have talked many times about the garbage coming back in house. If that would happen, there might be huge adjustments to the budget. That would happen hopefully in this coming year. I know it's something that we have to consider when we're voting, that we're voting on something that is not written in stone. Number three, I concur. But the only thing about back to school is I like to coordinate it with everybody else is giving backpacks. Pau gives backpacks. The library gives backpacks. We have to coordinate it so we don't duplicate. I concur completely with the chamber, nothing against the mayor who's wears two hats. Sometimes three when we have a CRI meeting. But when I was on board, we gave 10, we increased it to 20. Now it's 30, and there seems to be a lot of social activities that are contributed from the city to supplement. And I think when we don't have money for the residents, we don't have money for the city, we should consider cutting that back as far as the funds go, especially being as they are supplemented in other ways. The building, for instance, the cleaning of the building, et cetera. My last point, just so that everybody says that I worked very quickly, was the library. So, a million dollars for the library is so inefficient. I get so many calls that the library needs to be open on the weekend. And to me, when you, those that didn't have an opportunity to go here, the world renowned bishop on Sunday, which we had the blessing to go, I have to tell you, I have to not stop talking about the sermon. We gave them a key to the city and I understand why. But the key element was education. And one hour the man stood up there and explained that the education turns into wisdom and how you use the education. And the other day, I and explained that the education turns into wisdom and how you use the education. If we don't open those doors of our library for every resident to get an opportunity for education, an opportunity for the rest of their life to take that education and apply it to wisdom and a better life for them and their families and their communities shame on all of us. So that's it. Let's talk about it again, but a million dollars is inefficient because we need more staff. We need this whole thing about renovating these properties. And I just am speaking to the public that came up before us. The thing about renovating is there's going to be some big changes. There has to be municipalities can't carry it themselves. We're an older city. We need to collaborate. We need to have partnerships we need to have partnerships. And when the partnerships come, the library will change. It will become a community center. The tennis court will change. It will become a destination for families in a community. But it can't be done on your dime, your tax dime. It's not enough money. We need to have partnerships. So let's stop thinking about changing a paint color about renovating a floor and let's think the bigger picture to put out the opportunities for people to give us back there when I say people, entities that want to have a partnership with us, for their community to have a bigger chance and for our community to thrive. That's the goal. So we have things to think about for the next meeting. And I agree about cutting down on the chamber. I agree about coordinating the backpacks, but I certainly want to make sure that that library becomes a priority for the weekends for our community. Thank you very much. And I'd like to do the library. Okay, Mr. John. Thank you so much. I agree with everything that was said. I have a question about how did you decide for which events were cut, which initiatives were cut. I was surprised to hear about the heart health walk being one of the things that was actually eliminated. I think also we do need to focus on services as many services as we can allow our residents to have an enhancement of services. So when your team goes back with all the feedback that was giving seeing how we can enhance more service based To our community would be my ask also wanted to reiterate the comment that was made about the Outstanding bills can you speak to some of the initiatives that you have done or what's happening in the next fiscal year to help recover some of those funds? Sure commissioner. So with regards to the events, again, it was just taking off of various comments throughout the various months with regards to establishing a moratorium on all events except at the time, I think, the only thing that was really mentioned was monster bash and snow and snowfests. And so taking a look at what parks and recreation actually puts together and all the events that we're doing, we took a look and we said, okay, Montserr-Bash, snowfests, what's related to the holiday season with the tree lighting, the manure lighting. Again, Veterans Day and Memorial Day, both of those events combined is, I think, about $3,000 or less. It's not much at all. The summer camp, nobody here wants to do anything that would eliminate or jeopardize the summer camp, so we kept that. And we kept the police presence for those various events that we had there. When you look at the police and the power events that they put on, it's 27,000 for everything that they end up putting on. They get a lot of donations through power as well. And the library again is 71 and that goes into the actual programming that they do. So everything else we essentially took out. It is an agenda item. Yes, it was an assumption, but it was for you all because it's coming up with the calendar of all the events that were separated between what the city, departments put on what the police and library puts on and what the advisory boards or commissioners put on. That's how we separated that. With regards to the potential collections, we've been going through and looking, and it's part of that lean program that we've been taking a look at. A lot of the data that we've received, and we're still trying to kind of filter out, is very, very old. And so some of those, there's a statute of limitation on how long a leaner or those codes can live. And so we have to kind of filter out everything that's beyond that statute of limitation. What we've done is we've spoken to, I've sat on calls with two companies that do collections nationwide. We've been reaching out to attorneys as well. Recently, a resident has provided several local lawyers who do it. Our procurement department is reaching out to the lawyers to get somewhat of a seeing what their capacity would be for that. Once we have a viable option, then we'll be bringing it to the commission, but we are working to do that so that we can do that. Usually, state statutes, I think, 20 years, but we do have many that are older than the 20 years. So we have to kind of allocate that. And I'm sorry, what was the third? I think those were the two, but here's my question as well. Last year we approved a budget, a large portion of the projects that we wanted to see. I think there was a percentage that you gave that most of those things were not done. So with the instance of what you just explained, we've been asking for this for some time and we haven't seen a timeline of your execution of that particular initiative. So my ask is also moving forward. Once the budget has actually passed that we're actually seeing incremental progress of what you're doing. I also wanted to ask about the senior luncheon. Was that also taken out? I don't believe so. The senior luncheon is usually donated. Maybe Mr. Plotkin come up. Commissioners, here we go. Good evening Mayor Commissioners. meeting, Mayor. Commissioners, here we go. Good evening, Mayor Commissioners, manager, everyone. So the senior programming budget, which has money for senior lunchens, was nothing was touched for the senior budget. But like the commissioner said, most of it is sponsored by either Mount Sinai or another medical profession. But the budget for seniors was not touched. Okay, so there is still a budget. Yep. Okay, thank you. Yes, to your point, we kept the budget just in case there wasn't a sponsorship, which we take care of during the summer. We don't have any sponsorships, but we wanted to make sure that if something fell through that we were able to handle that. Okay, all right, that's all I have. Thank you so much. Okay, you want to say something before? Yeah, because, you know, staff has been... He doesn't mind you. I can't understand this. There's a lot of that cut. No, I'm going to like back up. So thank you, Mayor Commission. So I've noted we'll definitely be reaching out to everyone. Two Commissioner Johns point and we heard you loud and clear at the last budget workshop. So we are developing a dashboard with all of the projects both ARPA and CIP related. And so you're getting an initial draft of what a report, the data that would be coming out of that as part of the manager's report in your September agenda. But until that's just us currently building it, once we pass the CIP and are the ARPA reallocations, that all starts getting fed into that system. And then that report will be part of the monthly managers report on the agenda. So we'll always have and it has not only from a budget where the project stands on the budgets but also timelines because sometimes you might use 50% of the budget but you're 60% of the way through it's just how the invoice has come. But we've heard you loud and clear, man. Okay, so I'll make my round one comments and I know you want to know you want to second round. Oh Commissioner, if you do want to say anything or not yet, be brief. About the budget. Yes, okay. Well, I just wanted to ask about transportation. You know, within the city, I just want to make sure that we are not pulling from any of our routes as it relates to our trolley. And also, I want to make sure that when it comes to freebie as well, that we are maintaining that. So can you let us know what your thoughts are? Where were we located? Our contract for the trawlies continues through April of 2025 and then as of right now the intent is to re-precure depending on the direction that the commission wants so the full funding for the year is available through CITT. We also received a grant from the state to double our fleet size for free, or on-demand transit service. So we're budgeted to be able to double our fleet size in next fiscal year as well. We've already reached out to the state and we're in queue for the contract. We have to wait until the state signs off on the contract before we can do that. We can't just start immediately because then they won't. They won't find. So if they don't sign the contract until December. If we moved in October, they won't, they won't reimburse us for October on November. They only start from the moment that they sign. So that's kind of the hold up there, but we are in queue. We keep asking to kind of move up as quickly as possible, but we're fully funded to double our transit service size on freebie. Okay, I'm definitely happy to hear that. When it comes to transportation, I think we just have to take a holistic look at it. But I don't want to see it piecemilled, whether it's adding or removing anything from our routes. I definitely prefer a holistic approach. And so for now we're good with that. And I'm happy to hear about what's happening with Freebie as well. So that's it for my comments at this time. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so first of all, I wanted to just say to the manager, great job putting everything together. I wanted to commend you. Made it very easy to deal with everything and I know it was not easy to make it all happen. So I just wanted to give you a couple of kudos on that. The chamber was brought up. I was going to talk to you about the committee. I'm going to talk to you about the committee. I'm going to talk to you about the committee. I'm going to talk to you about the committee. I'm going to talk to you about the committee. I'm going to talk the president of the Chamber. And the only, the only monies that come my way or indirectly my way is that in my own businesses, my CFO and bookkeeper do spend some time working on the chamber books and there's a reimbursement that's paid from the chamber to one of my companies to reimburse for the payroll expense that's being used by my internal employees. That keeps it less expensive than if we were to have to hire other accounting staff. So I just wanted to, first of all, be clear for disclosure purposes, for voting on budgets, et cetera, et cetera. And oh, and by the way, the funds that we use for that reimbursement are not city funds. So Mr. Attorney, I just want to make sure if it's anything I need to do. I want to keep it out in the open. Well, you've made the disclosure mayor, my understanding from what you've said, is you don't receive a salary or other compensation for the work you put in, and there is a small reimbursement for some expenses, but that is not done with the funds that the city gives to the chambers. In view of those facts, I would find that it's not a conflict of interest for you to vote on funds to go as they have traditionally gone to the North Miami Beach. So excuse me, so what funds is it done with? I'm sorry. What funds is he, does the reimbursement come from? My understanding from having spoken to the mayor is that other funds are raised by the Chamber in addition to the money that we get through. So you have separate accounts? Like one bank account for the funds from the U-rays and one, I mean at the end of the night if it's all going to one pot, it's still, yeah, it's still one, it's still coming out of that one pot. It's not coming out of that one pot. It's not coming out of. Well, but my understanding is that for accounting purposes that the Chamber keeps those, keeps separate records of what other funds it receives and the reimbursements are, I believe from what I understand, are credited and paid for with funds that are not the funds that are coming from the city. Right, the reimbursement. The reimbursement. Is it one bank account? It's all in one bank account. with funds that are not the funds that are coming from the city. Right. The reimbursement. The reimbursement. The reimbursement. The reimbursement. The reimbursement. The reimbursements are easily paid for by the dues and other income that the chamber brings in other than the city funds. So however you chop it up, that's fine. But again, if there's any question about anything, then let me know. I certainly want it to be completely out in the open. So. Well, in view of the question, I do think it would be, as I believe you're doing, but in case you're not, you should, even though it goes into one account, you should keep books that demonstrate that there are different funds and which source of funds is used for the reimbursement that should be kept on the books. Like the city keeps different funds. We don't necessarily have a different bank account for each fund, but there is a separate record for each fund, and certainly that should be done to show that it's not any city monies that are used even for that very small reimbursement. Okay, I will definitely speak to our accounting team to make sure that they make those changes but in the respect let's just say worst case scenario that there was not any specific showing of the different funds would there be anything that we would need to do in the overabundance of caution to make sure that there's no appearances of any kind of issues. The issue would be if city funds were being used to fund a reimbursement that went to your company, that would be something that would possibly be viewed as a conflict and an abundance of caution at that point, I would say you should recuse yourself from voting on that issue. It's not that easy to do as a recusal when you have an overall budget. It's not like there's a single item coming in front of you. So considering the Microphone One question and I don't know we need to get an official opinion to put certain things about I don't know if you do But I just want to know how has this always been the case like yeah Yeah, yeah, nothing. I mean this has been you know that we've been operating this way for years Okay, so nothing has changed since I was elected. Well, it has changed though, it's now you're the mayor. Right, so I'd like. But also, even if he didn't have this position, right? The president of, even if he wasn't the mayor and he was the president of the chamber, he was, as company, was receiving indirectly for accounting purposes, right? Funding, right, in that capacity, right? And it's not the mayor, it's not an issue. No, no, I'm, no, I'm, no, I agree. I'm just like I said, I don't know if there's something that needs to be officially done or if you can do it or what have you Joe? I mean city attorney But just I would say this I understand the question The question is is there a conflict of interest the standard for that is is there a Benefit to an individual on the day is From funds to an individual on the day is from funds that are city funds that are being funded to an organization. It's kind of a yes or no question. There either is a benefit to the individual from the city funds where there isn't. In this case, it appears to me that provided that the accounting records of the organization demonstrate that small reimbursement, it's not the amount of the reimbursement that's at issue here, it either is or isn't. Again, it's yes or no. And if the accounting records that are maintained demonstrate that that small reimbursement is being funded by sources that are other than the funds that are coming from the city. I believe it's not a conflict of interest because the city funds are not going to the benefit of an individual on the day. Okay, so here's the situation I don't want to get into is where, of course, for the most part I've been in office for 2024. So I don't want to get into a situation where I go and ask our accounting team to go ahead and create that pie for occasion as you were talking about, and then come to find out there's some reason that that was not doable. And so in that particular case, and out of the abundance of caution, I just would wanna make sure that there is no way, no howl. Listen, I pour my heart and soul into that chamber of commerce, the amount of hours that I spend every week at that chamber of commerce is something that is a labor of love because if I was to get paid for that, it would be way, way, way more than what the numbers in question are here. However, I don't want to have a, the last thing I want to do is put myself into a no good deed goes on Pynch scenario. Okay. So based on that, whatever we need to do out of an abundance of caution, I'm willing to do it because I don't want to hear about this again. So Mayor, I can't tell you that no one will question it. I can give my opinion. That's all we have as attorneys is our opinion. I'm not a judge. I'm not an ethics commission. I'm just an attorney. And I have an opinion that's based on close to 45 years of practicing law. My opinion is that if you are not benefiting directly or indirectly through corporation from funds of the city that are being paid by the city for marketing to the North Island would be Chamber of Commerce as they have been for many years. There's going to be a Joseph points out. but what's changed is now the person who's the president is also the mayor. That's the thing that's new. It does not appear to me to constitute a conflict of interest or even an appearance of a conflict, because if the funding, if the accounting records, demonstrate that the funds given by the city are not in any way benefiting your corporation, which would be otherwise an indirect benefit to you. I don't see it as a conflict or an appearance of conflict. You are privileged. If you view it as an appearance of a conflict, you could abstain, which is normally not permitted, but it is something that is permitted where there is an appearance of conflict in the eye of the elected official. And if you saw that, I could not contradict you if you felt that it was that. But normally if something were to come up that was a resolution to, you know, just make a donation or accept something, you could simply refrain from that resolution. But this is embedded in your budget. And if you felt it was an appearance of a conflict, notwithstanding your disclosure and statement that the small reimbursement does not come from city funds The only thing you could do would be to Therefore abstain from voting on the entire city budget You're privileged to do that but in my view Which I's a good faith view. I don't believe that you have a conflict. And it's not such an appearance of conflict as I think that's necessary, but I couldn't stop you from abstaining and recusing yourself on the entire city budget. But under the circumstances, I don't see that as necessary. Okay. Yeah, the only issue of any concern is there's one bank account. So all the funds go into one bank account. So who is to say which dollar went to which? Anybody can question anything as far as that's concerned. So... Under the... Under the... What's that line? He gave it an opinion. He gave an opinion. So I understand what you're saying, Mr. Mayor. So he gave you options. Now, I want you to understand you have options. and it's good as a as a as a as a train attorney and also someone that wants to give good advice and you have to understand what your options are and not opening yourself to anything further depending on how you're explaining yourself. Right. Because you've already explained. Okay. How much money is involved? No, it doesn't matter. Well, I'm not sure what you're doing. It's a little bit of a question, but is that... No, it's not. It's not that it's positive, but what is... It may vary the question. Yeah, the reimbursement amount is usually in the three to 500 a month range. Up to a lot less than we pay a bookkeeper and then the accountant. So, I mean, I don't really see the issue and actually the amount is undervalued. Mr. Mayor, when it comes up again in the next budget, you can also put your, how however you say what your feelings are and vote on the budget, but let it be known that about your position. And if you wanna abstain from this, because of, but not completely. Because of this particular issue up until the next meeting, you can, you have that option as you pointed out. Right. Because there's enough of us to have a quorum and we have a vice mayor right there that can take the lead and move us forward. Right. Okay. That would probably be the safe vicinity to do for tonight. Be the safe. Yes, Mr. Mayor. Okay. If you decide to do that in the interim between now and final budget hearing, I will try to inquire of the commission on ethics. However, they're currently without an executive director. I haven't heard that they've hired the former crime director. Yeah. Who they have. From the, from the, you know, it's attorney's office. They had it from a good turn though. And they hired the government. I'm going to go to the office. I'm going to go to the office. I'm going to go to the office. I'm going to go to the office. I'm going to go to the office. I'm going to go to the office. I'm going to go to the office. I'm going to go to the office. I'm going to go to the office. I'm going to go to the office. that. Right. Then at this point having declared that and your entitled to if you view it as an appearance, but for the remainder of the discussion you should absent yourself from the day. Okay. All right. So the, so before I do that I wanted to just finish Christian with some confusion regarding the chamber and I wanted to just kind of clear those things up, that first of all, the chamber does the office that the chamber once did occupy. I swear it's now being occupied. If you're recusing himself a reference to this kind of element, why is he continuing with that conversation? Yes, no, you've already stated. I think I would ask the best course would be to recuse himself. Well, I mean, if he was going to be. Sorry, sorry, CDT. If speaking to the Mike Lee's Mr. Attorney. I'm trying to start. If the mayor views it as a conflict, as an appearance of conflict, excuse me. Before leaving the day, he's entitled to explain the circumstances relating to his decision to recuse. If it was any other discussion item, I would say no. But since it goes directly to the circumstances of the recusal to justify the decision to recuse because of a possible appearance, I believe he's entitled to finish making his statement for the record before he recuses himself. Right. Okay. All right. So anyway, the first thing that I wanted to just clarify is that what was once the Chamber of Commerce office has not been used by the Chamber of Commerce for probably four years or so now. And several years ago, the pension department, Renaldo and that team have been occupying that office and we have not used that office in any real way maybe to receive mail or something like that but and the name is on the door which is a benefit to the city but for the purposes of the chamber we're not receiving any use from that we're not receiving cleaning services, we're not receiving electrical, we're not receiving anything from the city in respect to the use of the building. So that's the first thing. The second thing I want to clarify, vice mayor, is that you've mentioned that it was once $10,000 and it hasn't been $10,000. Before I can say anything, I can't ever remember. I voted on the 20s, so I know. All right, well. It hasn't been that long, then it hasn't been 20. All right. Even back in the days of Ray Marin, it was $20,000. But I will tell you this, the amount was $24,000 up till about three years ago or so. At that point, I know that Commissioner Joseph made a motion and seized the value in the chamber, seized the value of valuing the businesses that are in this community, and he's the one who made this suggestion to move it from 24,000 to 30,000 a year. Now, other cities surrounding us are getting a subsidy from the city between 50 and 100,000 years, a matter of fact, North Miami even pays for the employee that is the chamber executive assistant or what have you. So $30,000 is really a pittance compared to what other cities are getting now. What the real thing is is that the Chamber of Commerce is the greatest asset that this city delivers to the businesses in the city. And I know that a lot of the things that we do as commissioners are very resident centric. But we can never forget the fact that a large part of our tax space is the businesses. And if we don't take care of our businesses and try to help our businesses and move them forward in power and helping them to the next level, like the Chamber of Commerce specifically does, then we're not doing our job as commissioners by just ignoring these businesses. So I really would. You get it. You get it. Does that conclude your statement? I was just getting warmed up a little bit. Well, but I have a question. So you don't have the chamber doesn't keep any stuff in the office that's supposedly now the pensions office? We don't use it for anything. Is there, could there be a file box left in there or something? Maybe but I don't think so. Because I was under the impression that there was still stuff in there. There may be an old computer sitting under a desk somewhere but for for all practical purposes, it's never used. So, all your files and mail gets delivered there. All your files. All the files are at my offices. All right. So, guys. All right. All right. No, no, no. He's going to work. He's going to work. He's going to work. He's going to work. He's going to work. He's going to use them. Right. I'll request that. Go home or you need me. No, we may have other other business other than the budget. It's OK. So I just need to refuse myself from the vote this vote. Yes. OK. All right. So I don't know. So that by stepping into the all my anti-room. I can go in the audience. Yeah. I'll go in the audience. OK. I think going the audience. Yeah. I'll go in the audience too. Okay. That's not a problem. And then just let me know when it's time to come back. It'll be right after the vote. So let me correct myself, man. No. You should not be in this room. I will leave the room. Okay. And then just make sure someone calls me when it's time to come back. that if you went into the anteroom where the TV is on, you can't, you're out to watch, you're out to monitor, you should be beyond the door to this chamber. Wait, wait, wait, before that happens, I question that, he is gonna vote on the budget. No, he was your cruising himself from the whole budget? Yes, because of this particular issue, because it's inextricable. It's a yes. If it was just the single item to the chamber, that would be very easy. But that is not the case here. This is inextricably in the budget. So for at least for tonight, for first reading, till we can get a more formal ruling. City Attorney, could I ask you, for the budget actual voting of the budget the next time. Can we remove just the chamber issue and make that a separate vote? Sure. You could do that. So could we do that tonight if I made a motion? Ma'am. I make a motion that we remove the chamber issue from the budget and vote on that separately. Do I get a second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. So that's what we're going to do. Mayor impresses me or. I think it didn't. Aren't you so thoughtful? I don't think you were supposed to vote on me. Okay. So now that the mayor is back, I would like. You did vote on that motion. Right, right. So when we come to that. The record, the motion by the vice mayor, just for the record, it would be better if there was a roll call. Okay, through the roll call. So, well, before you call the roll, is there any discussion? No Go ahead Madame clerk Commissioner Florian one Yes, Commissioner Jean yes, Commissioner Joseph. Yes, Commissioner Smuggler. Yes Commissioner Sherner. Yes, Vice-Midd. Absolutely And the mayor is recusing I'm I'm Recusing right yeah, yeah, it passes six. Yeah, okay now. Okay now we can continue right the mayor's request. I'm not going to be Yeah, we'll come right back to the one second. So anyway, I just want to make sure that there were no other chamber commerce questions in any way shape or form. So we know we're clear. Well, I have a comment on the change. I have a comment, but I'll save it for my time. Okay, all right. So it would be out of order to consider. Right now. Okay, I got it. Because that's not even part of this right at the moment. Okay, all right. So anybody else have second round of comments? I do. Go ahead. Okay, so Mr. Manager, I made four points about the Baptist School, about the Art Health Walk, about the Chamber and about the Special Olympics, and then I wanna, I did a Commissioner Smith who's point about the library. Are you gonna be taking a consensus and on what everybody would like to do about this or is this something? Commissioner, I'm not allowed to take a poll on where we want. Well, maybe not a poll, maybe that's not the right word, but we can be speaking. What we can do if you have or if any commissioner has a budgetary amount that they have in their mind for an independent event, then that can be done if not what we can look at what was budgeted last year and try to find that within the budget that we would reallocate within the budget for the same that was budgeted in fiscal year 24. And propose that at the second hearing and then you all can decide whether that's enough or if you want to allocate more and then we would have to find where the additional would be. Let me make a quick comment to commissioners smuck this point. Give us a courtesy update of what you're removing because we had an initial meeting with you individually about just a collective and gave us the binder But then we didn't know what you extracted so Commissioner as as I mentioned Essentially the only thing within the budget that we have budgeted for events based on the comments that were made over the past several months with a moratorium on all events was keeping monster bash, snowfest, and that's on in your presentation as well. So monster bash, snowfest, veterans day ceremony, memorial day ceremony, the summer school program, and the police presence at the events. The police department has various events as well that cover not only their community meetups but also Powell. It has the domestic violence awareness of 5K run golden ticket toy giveaway teen summit of gun violence national night out. Powell dance recital. Powell thanks giving turkey giveaway. pal holiday party, shop with a cop, pal, eighth annual golf tournament, coffee with a cop, pack meetings and club law in order for total in of 27,000 for the entire year. Library has various programs. Sorry to interrupt, but that was not the question. For example, the commission for women, heart health walk, how do we know that you remove that? MAM, the only ones that are budgeted right now that it's proposed are the ones that we've identified. So the ask is if you can give us a list of those that were actually on the books prior, so we can have a comparison. Yes, MAM, it's on the agenda for next week and has been part of the agenda for the past couple of months as well. Okay. You have a calendar for that's been separated by department events, library programming and events that fall under Mayor Commission and Advisory Board. And Commissioner Smith, I just want to say for the back to school what we've done for the last few years is we are not giving backpacks because so many other organizations are giving backpacks we've been giving school supplies. So just want to let you know. Okay, commission's buckle you're good. Yes. Okay, so I'm going to make my four points under one umbrella because I'm gonna be accused of keeping everybody because I always get to talk last. So let me just say a few things that are very important to get out. I wish there was $50,000 to get to the chamber. This has nothing to do with the chamber. I can tell you 100% that I am in total disagreement about the trolley. I've watched that trolley from 3rd Avenue, 163rd Street, I've watched that trolley. The trolley is imperative, but North Miami Beach owns the trolley and for $600,000 a year, we put people on the trolley during the day. There are a few trolley that are well it, and that they should be fully funded. But when I see that trolley empty and I see it empty and I see one person riding it in a cost of so much money, we're better off to hand them the $25 and tell them to call the cab to go the four or six bucks in North Miami Beach. So I think that the trawling needs an adjustment. Our manager said he could do without one trolley, and he did not get a consensus, he said, to eliminate it. I said put it on the agenda, and let's vote on eliminating one trolley, because that money could be well used when you have sat up here with me, and the people that listen to this have listened to five months of we have no money. We have no money. Well if we have no money the manager said to me quite clearly what do you want me to do this week when I said to him we need to do this he said should we cut CIP? Could we cut what we're planning on improving our city and my answer was if we have no money, we have no choice. If you need to fix your bathroom and you have no money, you can't fix your bathroom. So I just say that I got a message today from a resident that said 50% of any new, new tax money from new projects should go back to the residents in the tax cut. And I said no. And he said why? Why can't you support this? Why can't you put it on the agenda for next year for your taxes? Any new money with new development, 50% of it goes back to the residents with tax cut. I said no, it's too much because we have no money. We have to build back up the reserves, build back up the CIP, build back up what we need to build back up. So, and that comes under the chamber. It's not the value, the chamber, the value, the businesses. It's the value of the fact that we have no money. We have to spread this money the best way we can sitting up here and I agree the businesses. But don't forget the businesses have small business things from the city, businesses have CRA, the businesses even have county. We want to give back to the business. We want to do that. But the most important thing is we want to balance a budget without going in debt and we want the residents to have the best quality of life that they can have. So I bring this back up before we close this conversation because remember something. We're not trying to hurt anybody up here that has an you. I have a question for you. I have a question for you. I have a question for you. I have a question for you. I have a question for you. I have a question for you. I have a question for you. I have a question for you. I have a question for you. I have a question for you. I have a question for you. I have a question for you. I don't know where we're getting the money but I do know that our residents have a right to have their library open on the weekend and I wish everybody a good I will have a side year on I wish you a good debate. Motion to move it. Sorry sorry sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. second. All right. All right. I like to call. So we need a now just to be clear on what we're voting on here. We're voting on this item without the chamber. It's back and do the chamber. Exactly. Okay. You'll get an opinion. Roll call, please. Commission Jean. Yes. Commission Joseph. Yes. Commission Smucker. Yes. Commission Schenor. Yes, Commissioner Flory want. Yes, vice mayor Smith. No Mayor Piper. Yes, it passes six one. Okay, motion to adjourn. I'm going to leave it with the vice mayor and then I'll be back for the adjournment. And is the proposal for the chamber 30,000, Mr. Manager? Yeah, well, how much is it? It's remaining flat from year over year at 30. Thank you. I think I can start with the clerk to ask the clerk to please if there's anybody from the audience who wants to speak on this subject of the chamber I see no one anybody up here wanted to have a discussion on the motion of the chamber I'm not going to get the meal. I'm going to get the meal. I'm going to get the meal. I'm going to get the meal. I'm going to get the meal. I'm going to the chamber several times. I think it's a very beneficial environment for all the businesses in North Miami Beach. I'll be it like there are some very educational and like business building exercises and lunches with great speakers there. I wouldn't consider it like completely cutting it out, but maybe if you wanted to reduce it or within reason or you'd like to pass it for another year and revise the actual spend expenditures because I understand that there was some non splitting accounts, everything is kind of intermingled. So maybe that might be an option for you. That's just my comment on the Chamber of Commerce. I'd still like to keep it because I think that Aventura has one sunny isles. I mean, Aentura has one sunny isles, I mean Aventura's two. So with that said, I think that if we don't have anything to bring our businesses together, they will not have a place to congregate and actually feed off each other and help each other out. Or even pass on great advice on grants or loans or, you know, discussions with that sort. Remember that our economic development only meant for the first time with our business owners like this month or last month. That is, you know, that's very few and far between. With the Chamber, they have that access to access other business owners. So I hope you'll consider keeping it for this year and maybe revising it for next year. Thank you. Anybody else from the public? Marbarra Kazan, I'm glad commissioner for Tunis Smoklo brought it up. And we clarified it, the mayor clarified that they were not taken a free ride. There's another building that we rented, renting out $10 a year for. Is that fully utilized? Is the building fully utilized? It's behind the fire station. I suppose we help in those that is ill, that do not have insurance. Are we fully utilizing that scene that you were progen. Progen and the Chamber of Commerce. You can also look into that. Because we have several buildings around the city that has not been used. We were promised this in your center and that fell flat in its face. I heard it is going to be sold. We have the other building of the road that we bought from that lawyer that was once a commissioner over a council member of at North Miami. We bought that building. What happened with that building? What are we using it for? I mean, we're talking about business. We're talking about commerce. We have buildings just laying there, rotting away, not doing anything. And I do not know if it's a personal thing with the commissioner and the mayor for her to bring that up. But I'm glad it was brought up because I'm bringing up also the two dormant buildings. I'm already a senior. I need to exercise and use the senior facilities that we have here. Not sell it, buy it, pay for it, pay off more of whatever you have because all of us seem to be seniors up here. And we need to speak out more for those that don't have a voice. The kids and the seniors. Thank you very much for the library, but I also believe that we can't spend $2 million in the library and then give it away after like how we did the water plant. And this annotation, we give you a lot of free equipment to that vendor. So thank you for having me. Any more? Yes. Discussion from the public? The next kind of thing. Okay, the public discussion is closed. Motion to? No, we didn't. Anybody have a comment to make about this? So we're voting to approve 30,000. Whatever you want to say you could make a motion to make it less you could whatever you want to say. I'll make a motion to make it 20,000. Is there a second to that? I'll second it for discussion. Why is the motion to decrease it again? From 30 to 20. I'm sorry. Why is the suggestion to decrease it? He's asking you why you're reducing the amount because that's a lot of money to be giving we're trying to cut the budget not spend I'm not going to cut the budget not spend, you know, we're trying to cut budget. No, I was just asking your logic. That's all. I just wanted to know what your logic was behind the 20. Thank you. I mean, I just threw 20 out there. I'm open for other numbers more or less. Well, excuse me, Commissioner Scherner, I've asked to speak for a minute for Mr. Okay, I'm not for the motion. I think we should leave it at the 30,000. The reason for it is that how do we know what that 30,000 represents to that chamber right now? We're voting to, we could be job voting for the demise of the chamber by reducing it by $10,000. We don't know that. So I think it's only fair to keep it what it is and have a discussion with the Chamber and find out what they really need. But I wouldn't make any motion to defeat anything right now. Commissioner Johnson? I concur. I don't know if Commissioner Smucker could reconsider and have I guess leave it up to next meeting to have more information on actually coming to an exact amount as opposed to, as you pointed out, you said it could be up or it could be down, you just mentioned that just now. So it's proposed that this amount, it could change, depending on whatever information you get between now and two weeks from now. Well, it would be nice to see what money's that they have. How they spend it and what they need. I would like to get it on it. I have no problem with that just to get clarification. Okay. I so did I make a motion? So you just read. I just, okay, so then I don't have to. And then you can make a motion to. No. Are you removing your motion? I'll remove my second. I'm removing my motion, but I'm making a motion that we need to get some type of an audit to be able to vote on this in the first place. Second. Mr. Attorney, we have a motion on the table that they want more information about how the chamber spends the money and what the money would mean to the chamber in reference to them continuing with their programs. Does that come under now? Does the manager get that information for us? Because the chamber head is also the mayor. You don't need a motion to ask for more information. You simply ask for more information. The motion is to set an amount to assist the body in voting on that at final hearing. Not tonight because you're obviously not going to have the info tonight. But to assist the body tonight, but to assist the body in voting on that at final hearing, you can simply request that more information be furnished. The manager can certainly get that since it's part of the budget, although it's severed from it, but it is still an expenditure of city funds, and the manager certainly can hear and request of the chamber. And I suspect that the chamber's president is also hearing the request. And that information can be furnished. And when it comes before you at final budget hearing, you then get to determine whether or not you've gotten enough information and you're satisfied with it. So you don't need a motion to request. You've just requested the information. And if the justification is given and you find it's sufficient, then you can vote for whatever amount you then deemed appropriate at your next year. So you withdraw your motion that's not necessary and you withdraw yourself? No, no, no. What I'm asking is for her to amend her motion. Prop as what you just presented, right? We're agreeing to the amount, but we're requesting additional information in the form of an audit in regards to the chamber just to justify the budget. Just to clarify. The voting or more or last or more. I'm sorry. Mr. Attorney just to clarify and commissioner. I don't think we can force the chambers of providing an audit. I'll know what we're going to do. But a rationale for the amount being requested and how they use your funds I think is inappropriate. But the word audit is very specific to meeting certain financial criteria. I didn't. And I don't know that we The best form of information to justify and I know the audience because because you could I know the intent I just want to clarify because of the word audit is very quick A few weeks anyway, right. I'm not asking for the accounting practice So I'm just I'm just trying to satisfy my colleagues on standpoint and for us to get the show on route I Understand you I'm going to recognize Commissioner Forman. Go ahead. Thank you. This item doesn't need two votes, right? Being that we're voting on it separately from the budget. Is it requiring two votes or only one vote? To be consistent, I would take the two votes, but candidly, you could not vote on it yet. Excuse me, sir. I'm not hearing anything your sins are. Sorry about that, sir, but I think I'm being loud. I'm not why it is I. I'm not arguing anymore. Is this better, sir? Is your sound level okay? Much better. Thank you. Is this better, sir? Is your sound level okay? Much better. Thank you. You wouldn't have to vote on this as part of your budget at all. You could leave it out of your budget. You could come to your first October meeting and you could vote to amend your budget to have an allocation to the chamber. So is it absolutely required that you take two votes on this? It's a little bit of an unusual circumstance. I would say in an abundance of caution that you would, you're here. It's in front of you. Vote on it and ratify it at your next meeting as if it were part of the budget. And better to take an unnecessary step than to skip what someone might later determine to be a necessary step. Okay, thank you, Mr. Attorney. All right. Anybody else have any more statements to make? Let's call the way. Okay, now let's hear what the motion is, please. Mr. Attorney, the motion on the table. As I understood it, the motion was to fix an amount to vote to the Chamber of Commerce. And I'm not sure if I heard the last number, the only number I heard was 20 at the number. No. We're agreeing to the, what was the problem? We're agreeing to 30 for now. Yes. We're agreeing to 30, but we also need some type of financial statements from the Chamber to see where the money's going. What they're receiving and what the money's going on. And what I don't know. You've read the additional information. The point is that if you vote now, since this is still first reading, and again, as I said to be consistent because it is if not a Technical part of the budget having been severed. I think it may still be a technical part of the budget But at least it is in the nature of budget. You have None less it is going to come before you at final hearing is a separate item By which time hopefully we'll have a at least some kind of a ruling if not a formal, or at least an informal F-exponient. And at that time, you can amend the amount that you choose to vote based on anything including the degree and the satisfactoryness, I'm not sure that's a word, of the information that you receive and you can determine whether it is sufficient and you may vote at final hearing. Any amount provided that if you voted to increase the amount, there would have to be either a separate cut or some additional revenue source because you still have to have a balance. Right, thank you. Mr. Manager, could you please see that we have that information when we get our prior to the budget so we can study it? We'll make the request tomorrow morning. Thank you. Anybody have anything else or I would like the clerk to give a roll call for the vote. We are voting on $30,000 for the chamber with the understanding that prior to the second vote, they will bring us a financial analysis of how the city money is spent. And an ethics opinion in formal otherwise? Yes. I don't want to use the word at all. Is that what you say? No, no, no, I didn't say I don't say I said informal ethics opinion or otherwise. That was a roll call, please. Commissioner Joseph. Commissioner Smuggler. Yes. Commissioner Scharnoff. Yes. Commissioner Floyd. Yes. Commissioner Jean. Yes. Vice Mayor Smith. Yes. Passes 60. Motion to do. Mr. Mayor, please come back in. I'm Madam Vice Mayor. I just want to be recorded on 2.1 as a yes if possible. On 2.1. I just wanted to put that on the record. Yes. Okay. You're for your privilege to do that. Thank you. All right. So we can move. Yes. the clerk. But you have to tell the clerk how you wish to be recorded. Wish to be recorded as a yes, 2.1. Thank you. Motion to adjourn? Second. All in favor? Well, sorry. Sorry. All right, motion to adjourn. He made the motion. Second. Second, we all wait. OK, Perfect. We're adjourned. Thank you guys. And we're early.