All right. Good evening. Welcome to the city in North Mammy Beach budget hearing of Wednesday September 25th, 2024. And can we get a roll call The time is now 628 commissioner Scharnoff here commission floor one here commissioner Jean Commissioner Joseph Commissioner smuggler president vice mayor Smith president mayor Piper Here quorum has been established. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So our item for this evening Well first item 2.1 any emotion in second move to, 2.1, any motion in second. Move to introduce, 2.1, resolution number R, 2024-108, final millage. Okay. Now we need the attorney to read the title. And here he is. I have a napkin. Thank you. 2.1, resolution number R, 2024-108, final milled rate for fiscal year 2025. Sharon Stewart budget administrator. Resolution of the mayor and commission in the city of North Miami Beach, Florida. Establishing and adopting the final levying of Admiral Arm Taxis for the city of North Miami Beach for the fiscal year, 2024, 2025, year commencing October 1, 2024, and ending September 30th, 2025, 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 of 0.2232 mills. Providing for implementation. Providing for conflicts. Providing for scrivener's errors. Providing for severability. providing for implementation, providing for conflicts, providing for scrivener's errors, providing for severability, and providing for an effective date. The motion to approve. Okay. I think we need to have the manager speak. Anything to say on this? No commission. This is a 6.1 millage, which is what has been flat year over year for the past several years Total millage is actually a reduction from one year to the next and we'll go into I'll be able to showcase that on on the PowerPoint over the budget, but this is consistent With what we've been talking about and where the commission has requested us to stay. Great. Thank you. All right, so public comment, Madam Clerk. Good evening, everyone. The Mayor and Commissioners of the State of North Rhine Beach has opened the meeting for public comment at this time. There's a three minute time limit for each speaker. Speaker, when you're called to the podium, please state your name or the name of the organization which you are representing. The Mayor Commissioner of the City of North-Eight Beach recognizes the importance of civility. The City of North-Eight request that all in attendance to exercise civility towards each other. The first sign speaker is Mr. Roland VAU. I'm the goals. I have to come here for 50 years and I stop. You know what? When you get older, you don't get better. You get worse. Okay, the first thing before I start to talk about. And say your name, Roland. OK, the first thing I would like to talk about, and about eating dogs, eating cats, eating a legator, eating white elephant, I got them all in my shed tonight. Speak there. Nobody. They eat them. Say your name, please. My name? Oh, no, I got them all in my shed tonight. Speak there. They eat them. If you say your name, please. My name? Oh, no, I'm not an educator, eat that yet. Roland, they are you. Oh, 137, 30, island drive, not my MA Beach. I'll speak this trick, not island village, I'll speak. OK, come back to you heard that on TV, that comes from somebody who wants to be president of the United States, claimed that somebody eat cat and dog, but I don't know that you get her in the elephant to be so stupid, you cannot add anything for those guys there. Then you know to vote when comes the election in November, please I shouldn't make up your mind and get that sucker out of there. He's going to destroy the whole United States and not only the United States, the whole world. People hate him. OK, come back to this. The taxes. If somebody knows up no what you mean in here, the way I saw it, it says 20% 19.4% raise on taxes. The only thing that comes to my mind if a house is at a house just as 200,000 bucks right away. I said 200,000 time, 20%, which to me, it did not make sense at all. But that's why I see what I think we should do here. The next time I knew you have to put a three-fold time on the paper for the people to see it. Put an example on it on the paper, for example. If a house worth 200,000 bucks, the taxid would come from whatever you got the number in here, that would come just like the young lady told me, I asked her before I come to you, and she'd explain it to me exactly the way it is, I trust you. And she told me that a $200,000 house would go for about $35, $36 a year, which makes sense. Right there, I said, that's okay. I feel not better now because the only thing I was going to talk to something about, I did not know the only thing I was going about this paper in here, 20% raised in property taxes. Then that's what my problem is. The next time if you do have anything else, I will recommend you know, then put an example on the paper to so people know what they're going to have. The taxes are going to pay. How much more they're going to pay? That's it. Okay. Thank you. All right, thank you. All right. Well, I know it's nice to see you again. I used to come here many, many moon before you came here. For about 50 years, I'd be coming here. I know it. I know it. You used to bring... I'm here to bring you... You used to bring mangoes too. I met Snohoney. Yeah, we're here. We got less and less. Now we got something. Bring us a jar of honey on every commissioners desk. Yeah. You catch more bees with honey, then vinegar, right? So, good move. All right, next speaker, please. Okay, guys, then we're going to see for the next election. Some of you, the coming up? Some as? Do not end. No, I won't spend no money on you this year. I'm not kidding. All right, guys. Thank you for coming, Roland. You're very, very welcome young lady. Next speaker. Thank you young girl. It's the time. Every time I see you, you look like a young girl. Mr. Ellis Keeter. Yeah. Good evening. Mayor members of the commission. My name is Ellis Keeter. I am a long time resident of North Miami Beach. I've been here since 2010. Been a resident in eastern shore since 2016. I'm an immigration attorney. I've lived here with my wife for the same wife for the entire time that I've been in NNB. I want to use my time tonight, hopefully to help educate and inspire my neighbors in NNB. Over the summer, I watched or attended. I can't remember. I know I watched one of the budget workshops that was posted online. And in the first one, the city manager came and he asked you guys to raise the ceiling, the milled rate ceiling, I think from like 6.1 to 6.7 or something like that. To your credit, this commission pushed back really hard against that because they did not want even the appearance of a raising in taxes for property. To his credit to the city managers credit, he came back the next budget workshop with a balanced budget keeping the milledrate flat at 6.1. And so I commend him for his work, him and him and the staff. Tonight we're here to presumably approve this resolution that's going to set the milledrate at 6.1, keeping it flat as he mentioned earlier. But as I was looking at the agenda, I saw some terminology there that I didn't know anything about, so I did what attorneys do. And I educated myself, I went and looked up the term. It was the rollback rate. I had no idea what that was. I looked it up. And what it actually means is, although our milligrate is staying flat at 6.1, because overall property values have gone up, keeping that milligrate the same, it's a multiplication, it's a factor of multiplication, that actually means that our property taxes are going up, because the overall taxes or the overall property values are higher. I'm not saying anything negative about anything that's been done in that regard. What I am trying to say though, is that I think that we as residents should educate ourselves and become more engaged in matters like this because I think it's important that we all understand how these things work. So I want to encourage my fellow residents, the ones who are here, the ones who are watching online to please get involved to please be more educated about these things because the more involved we are as residents the better our city will be. It's up to us as residents. We can't leave it all up to the commission. We can't leave it all up to the mayor. The only way that we can make this city, the city that we want it to be, is for all of us to be educated and engaged on these matters that affect our daily lives. That's all I have to say. I'm going to start with myself. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you very much. Okay, thank you. Any other speakers? Good evening, everyone. My name is Moabirakazan. When you advertise, a meeting starts at a certain time. I would hope that you come to the meeting at that time. And not half an hour late, like how you did today. And strolling, you take a time and you gaff with everybody. It's kind of showed this respect or this respect to whom you serve. You come to office to serve, not to be served. You run into the lunch kitchen, you do whatever you want to do, walk with your own food. Let's start with this military. Okay, so I've been looking at the budget and I noticed that the last budget last year was $177 million. And this year's budget $213 million, $212 million. Yet the city manager wanted to raise the military from 6.1 to 6.7. To do what? This is over $3.5 million. We're here spending. Is there accountability? How this money is being spent? It's no use you bringing in tons of money, and we don't have any accountability. I heard up there, you do not know the city manager. The city manager, the city manager, the city manager, the city manager, the city manager, the city manager, the city manager, the city manager, the city manager, the city manager, the city manager, the city manager, the city manager, the city manager, the city manager, the city manager, the city manager, the city manager, the city manager, the city manager, Etollis last year that we got $23 million so far from 2018 to 2023 for the Washington Park project, $23 million. And of that money being voted for and passed, maybe just a million could be accounted for. And for that last fiscal year to now, not a shovel was turned the first city manager that promised that. And for that last fiscal year to now, not a shovel was turned over at Washington Park. Again, we promised every year the turn shovel over at Washington Park. And you're not the first city manager that promised that. But I would have liked that had been changed. You say you're gonna turn the shovel over next month, but next month is a new fiscal year. We need to be more responsive and responsible to the community that you serve. Show us how this money is being spent on with for a quarterly report on the CIP projects. Let us know about it by monthly monthly by monthly every two months and you know why why why why why give more money to the UN when we don't have a accountability you know thank you very much for having me. Thank you and the other speakers. Okay, let the record reflect. No one's come forward. Public comment is closed. Anything from the commissioners before we go to vote. No, no, no. All right. We need a motion in a second. Okay. We need a roll call please. Commission Shown-Off. Yes. Commission Flowing-One. Yes. Commission Jean. Yes. Commission Joseph. Commission Smokler. Yes. Vice Mayor Smith. Yes. Mayor Piper. Yes. Passed 7-0. Okay. Thank you. All right. We have motion in second for 2.2. That's the motion. 24-109. Got second. Okay, Mr. Attorney. Resolution item 2.2 resolution number are 2024-109. Adopting the final fiscal year 2025 budget. Sharon Stewart budget administrator. A resolution of the commission of the city of North Miami Beach, Florida, adopting the final annual budget for the fiscal year commencing October 1st, 2024, and ending September 30th, 2025. Authorizing the expenditure of funds appropriated in the final budget, acknowledging the levy and collection of taxes, unreal and personal property and other revenues necessary to meet the expenditures provided in the final budget. Providing for the authorization to reappropriate capital outlay line items and encumbered purchases in the 2023-2024 fiscal year, to the 2024-2025 fiscal year. Providing for transmittal by the city clerk, confirming additional powers and conditions, authorizing encumbrances and carry forward, providing for implementation and providing for an effective date. Okay. Thank you. Before we go to the manager question for the attorney, I think we know that on this item as a definite ponderance of caution, we're going to sort of split the vote up. So I just want you to make sure that if there's, and I'm the reason why at this particular time. So I just want to make sure that you police us in the respect of making sure if there's anything that I need to be off the day is for, that you make sure that I please leave. Well, let's do this if we might then Mayor. need to be off the day is for that you make sure that I please leave. Well let's do this if we might then Mayor. What was done on first reading was a motion and second to separate the $30,000 allocation to the North Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce out from the rest of the budget. That is actually how it passed on first reading, but even though that's already voted in an abundance of caution, I would recommend that someone bring the same motion forward to separate out the $30,000 to the North Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce from the remaining items in the budget. You can then proceed to adopt the rest of the budget, and it will be my recommendation based on the information we've received from you and from the Commission on Ethics that you then recuse yourself from that $30,000 item and that you leave the day as in the chamber when that item is voted on. I'll leave the motion and send the chamber when that item is voted on. I make the motion. Second. Okay. And that's to separate the chamber money that is given. Yes, ma'am. I make a motion to separate the money that the city gives to the chamber to a separate vote. Am I a second? Did it? Okay. All right. So then we can just proceed normally and then it'll just be on that vote on that. I'm going to vote. Am I a second? Did it? Okay. All right. So then we can just proceed normally and then it'll just be at vote on that. There's a motion on the table. Okay. So we want to vote on. Okay. All right. So and it's not going to be a roll calls. I can be voices fine. Voice is fine. Okay. All in favor say aye. Aye. I don't think there's public comment on that. Would there be? As far as the budget? Or should we just allow it? Mayor, I don't believe it's required, but that doesn't mean it's prohibited in an abundance of caution. Let's do it. You can allow public comment to take place. I want to be clear, not because it's required, but because you choose to make sure that the public. Let's, Mr. Attorney, We want to hear the public. Madam clerk. I'm sorry mayor just for clarification. The motion was not to approve the line item just to separate it from the budget. Correct. Thank you. And city attorney more separate consideration. Mr. Mayor through the chair. Does he have to recuse does a mayor have to recuse himself from voting on that motion? No, I don't believe that separating it requires recusal. Separating it out is so that the mayor will not be voting on it. And taking action to avoid a conflict does not constitute a conflict. Okay, and the second part of that question is, did you have an opportunity to find out if somebody's out of the room and we take a vote that they must vote? Oh, I can just, I hope. I'm fine with that, I had a call. I did have a question. Was there an ethics opinion given or an? On yes, on the refusal there was. No, so it was because and. Okay. On the day of. I mean, I just if you could send a copy to. No, just said I don't need you can send the copy to the commission. I'm happy to do that, but the short summary is it may not be required. It is a diminimus amount compared to the entire budget. If it was not possible to separate, it could be voted on. Nonetheless, in an abundance of caution and to avoid the slings and arrows of outrageous comment, the recommendation was that it might be better to separate it out and allow the mayor to recuse himself if not Strictly required and because there could be at least an appearance of a conflict If he voted on the separate item once it's separated out and the I remember a promise up to the manager of the past information I requested from Chamber. Do you get anything? I think there was a memo circulator. I'm sorry. You have a tuition answer right now. No, no, I'm not an answer. I'm an answer to answer. Now I just, I was trying to get a memo issued today by the chief of staff that answered some of those questions. Yeah, came in late. I didn't check. I'll have some printed and bring it to you. Okay. That was the came in date from you this morning. Oh, it was late to me when I read it. 1040. 10 times the 104. All right. So public comment. The floor is open for public comment. The floor is open for public comment. You have three minutes. Any speakers? Yes. Thank you. This is the money on. Chainbers, $1,000. Cardi. Actually, that right now is just all we did was separate it so we can open the hearing on it. There'll be an opportunity for public comment on that particular item later on when I'm out of the room. So this comment is for what? The bifurrating, but separate that item out from the rest. Yeah, it's separate. Okay. That said, Mayor, I would recommend you take your voice vote again on motion to separate Okay, I thought we just did that but because I will okay back and did public comment all right So we have the additional all right, so we have we have the motion the second we just need all in favor say I again Hi, and you pose I pass unanimously record your show show. Okay, perfect. All right. Okay, so that item that I'm close now we can move back to the manager to deal with 2024-19. Thank you. Mayor, right, Mayor and commission. I will be giving the presentation as I did last time. Some of the slides are repetitive, but I did that on purpose in case we had anybody watching tonight that didn't watch prior meetings, but I will go through, because I know you've seen this information in the public several times. So how are the tax dollars calculated? There's a formula basically looking at taxable value of the property times the millage rate. So you have for example, 100,000 divided by 1000 times 6.1 that gives you the tax rate of $610 for the year. Going into what does this look like over years, the operating millage has been 6.1, at least since 2023 that has stayed flat. Debit Milligrate has gone progressively down. The overall millage is a reduction from 6.51 to 6.32. And the rollback rate for fiscal year 25 is 5.5647. You have some examples. This is the same chart that we have shown since the first workshop, giving you different taxable values for properties, $150,000. We'll see essentially a yearly increase of $27.45. A $5 million property will see an increase of $915 a year over a year. These are the various accomplishments that we've noted. These are just a few of many. We have gone over this extensively, so to save time we'll keep going. Again, the various additional pressures above normal operating that we're seeing increase in labor and benefits, costs and medical, estimated interfund transfers. The police additional pension shortfall is a total of 4.3 million to meet the required 70%. We have the lawsuit settlement of 9 million. The increase of, I think it's just north of 500K for general liability insurance premiums and the Washington Park project, which we have always communicated that In fiscal year 24 we would be having the design and permitting completed with shovel happening at the end of 2024 in the ground and that timeline has not changed and we are committed to that you have a ground breaking at the end of October. The tax. I'm sorry. It will be towards the end of October not not on Tuesday. The Washington, Washington Park. Oh, it's next one. Yeah. There's another groundbreaking. For Washington Park, there'll be an initial groundbreaking. Ground. I thought we did. Am I wrong? Yeah. Wait, I thought we had a groundbreaking. No. No. I don't. For construction, we haven't started. We cut a ribbon or something. Yeah, we cut a ribbon. Well, it was for different things. So we'll be having an actual construction groundbreaking at the end of October. No, I didn't. Okay. We'll keep moving on. Taxable value has increased between 4.7 to 5.3 or 12% year over year. Unassigned fund balance between fiscal year 23 and 24 is approximately increase from 19 to 27 million. Approximately four of that is going into the budget amendment in fiscal year 24. Increasing ad valorum revenue is 3.1 million. Increasing grants were seeing 4 million for Washington Park and traffic calming from Congresswoman Federico Wilson. Miami-Dade County is 1.25, FDOT. I mean, I'm sorry, Department of Environmental Protection is 200K and FDOT Transit Service Grant is on demand service for 600. I apologize I wasn't able to update the slide, but we were just informed that for this upcoming year, North Miami Beach will be receiving a $1 million grant from COPS, Department of Justice, for the hiring of additional police officers for community policing. So that's a million dollars, I'm sure that will have for additional hiring of additional police officers for community policing. So that's a million dollars extra that we'll have for additional hiring. This shows the various revenues that we're receiving and all the different type of funds and the expenses. You'll notice that at the end of the day the difference between revenue and expenses is zero. So we have a balanced budget. This slide is showing you the various budget per department as it affects the general fund. It shows you the difference between fiscal year 2324 and 2425 and what those changes are between the departments. Here we have the various events that are proposed for next year. You'll see remain consistent with the addition of the heart health walk, bike 305 back to school and small business expo as requested by the commission. Yes sir. Yes we do have the heritage day in the budget. No, only reason because there are some concerns, but I'm glad it's there. Yeah, no, it's there. Thank you for pointing that out. The projected fund balance for the general fund, again, in 23, 24, it was 19. We're seeing the carryover bring that up. The unassigned fund balance target of 20% is 14 million with additional, for the budget of amendment of four, bringing down the estimated unassigned fund balance for CIP and other commission assigned expenses with the 6.1 mill of 7.6. Again, just note the majority of the excess funding within the fund balance is allocated to fund the capital projects aligning with the commitment to sustain infrastructure development and long-term community benefits although we are maintaining slightly above 20 percent I think maybe up to like 20 point something or 21 percent in case there are any overruns within fiscal year 24, 25, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Madam manager, did you want us to wait until the end of the presentation for questions, right? Is that what you prefer? I would probably recommend it as your question may be answered in the slides and the subsequent slides. I think it'd be better that way. So essentially what does the 2425 budget accomplish? It enhances public safety. We're increasing for overtime, we're dispatchers, record clerks, and officers. Not only have we applied for the COP grants for eight officers, we've also just received that award notification of a million dollars. We're increasing the investment and equipment, the rescue vehicle and the marine patrol boat, as well as software and other resources. We're going to be awaiting the CBA, the collective bargaining agreement with Ayupa, as well as additional training and implementing more of data-driven type of policing. We're investing in our employees and positions. Again, continuing to match market conditions for pay ranges and reclassifications. We've implemented various training opportunities, not only from regulatory training, but also knowledge and leadership development within our departments. And we've begun moving into more of using the technology within our tool set to make our processes streamlined better. We're investing in the community. We'll get into the CIP and the ARPA community programs that we have listed. Our infrastructure projects touches all of our departments as well as the public spaces, and we're kicking off the state mandated comprehensive study. The investment in technology goes into again, maintaining our systems, our fleet operations, CIP programs software, and to streamline those management of projects. We're updating our hardware hardware or phone systems, enhancing our cybersecurity and by consolidating the IT operations and developing various digital tools, like the dashboards as we talked about for the CIP in which you'll be getting a monthly CIP update on your agenda, but our website will have those dashboards where people can go in and take a look independently at any time with updated information. With regards to community aesthetics and functionality we've included in our CIP additional beautification projects to improve the right-away will be also looking to develop and implement a swell ordinance as well as going into adding additional code compliance officer positions and actively completing citywide pavement and sidewalk condition assessments. That's moving into the next phases soon. Increase focus in economic development by finalizing the FIU economic competitive analysis and plan that involves the community stakeholders and updates the priorities We're adding a new grant coordinator position within within city staff as well as customer service positions for Business tax receipts planning and zoning and code and adding a new inspector for the BTRs With regards to transparency and relevance and relevance to the community, we continue to streamline our call centers and getting better tracking within that. We're adding key performance indicators and dashboards to be able to track operations and investments to be able to show the community how those are operating on a department level. We're implementing the strategic plan on Monday. Thank you for participating. We had a town hall to conclude our FIU strategic plan community outreach. We'll be seeing on the December agenda a finalized presentation from FIU and plan with recommendations on that. In that, our current budget is also aligning with a lot of the information that we receive from the community as what are priorities, which is police, library, code, and parks and so forth. And we're again finalizing the online dashboard for CIP. We continue to look to in-source several in-house positions that will help add additional revenue while improving services and finalizing the solid waste in-sourcing study. We believe you'll have that. David, I think it's November or December. You'll have that in hand and I believe there's a community component that goes into that study as well that should be hitting the public requesting information soon and we're creating the risk manager position for for in-house as well to help find to better reduce our risk and find more cost effective options hopefully going more into the, I apologize, it escapes my mind, the technical terminology, the self-service, I believe it's called, improvement of self-service revenues and confidence levels with contingencies increases. One thing that I wanted to point out and I worked on the next several slides with, Edenia is on the the library the commission and residents were wanted to get a little bit better feel of what the department budget looked like. In fiscal year 24 the department budget for the library was 1.9, 8 million dollars in fiscal year 25. It's 2.5 and that's not accounting for a $1 million plus CIP program. The total FTE that we're putting in fiscal year 25 is 15 where in fiscal year 24 is 12, so we're adding an additional 3. The additional positions are library trainees, media coordinator to expand the media lab and increase the job opportunities administrative aid to provide clerical assistance as well as assist with Saturday schedules will be filling the deputy library director position we anticipate by April 2025 25 as well as the librarian two these are positions that we have been trying to fill for the past year. It's a very competitive market. Very few are in the Liberian industry and the counties and some of the bigger Liberian sectors are hiring quite a lot. So we're hoping to move this up as quickly as possible, but we put a timeline that we felt that we can meet. We're also hiring additional part timers and interns to help support the specialized skills, such as finance, technology, graphics, web design, things like that, as needed for programming. The KPIs at the library tracks, not only is service delivery hours, but we have a number of holdings per capita, circulation, programming, visitors, books, website visitors, video created and several other which are listed here. With the anticipated fiscal year 25 budget, we're looking to provide additional two evenings a week for passport services as well as Saturday services when the library opens on Saturdays. It's increasing that staffing to increase the revenue as that's a revenue generating service. We look to increase the team program participation through the after school as well as reestablish homebound senior service delivery. We hope to continue to open the teen area in November with more programming implement lightberry app in the December of 2024. The archive digitization that we have with a grant is in our budget as well as well as Fintech implementation and anti-bullying and cyberbullying prevention technology and training for not only staff, but also for the community. We have additional leadership training to help further develop a pipeline. Oh my goodness, I'm Tung Tied, right? A succession plan within the department. I apologize. And again, we are hoping to once we're able to hire a couple of those key positions We should be able to open again conservative April May of 2025. We think we can accomplish this sooner But we wanted to give you a conservative date. And so some of those CIP projects, and again, I've updated this slide to bring some up, but we'll be providing hotspots for circulation purposes that provide someone to take out one of those cell boxes that they can connect their phones or their computers or anything. I believe Commissioner Foreman you had asked in the past how the system would work. Essentially someone checks it out like they would a book and they have about 28 days and then they bring it back and they can check it back out. So it's just like a book to be able to do so. Some of the enhanced and of the facility use and CIP projects, it's a total of 1,073,400. It goes into the asset purchase of the library exterior lighting, the construction of impact windows, the air conditioning units, generator project, parking lot plaza, restroom remodel, book scanners for historical records, laptop, self checkout, and RFID, implement self checkout as well. The library department opportunities and challenges, again, it's not a very populated industry with professional staff and it's a very competitive market in which a lot of the regional libraries are not only hiring, but they have more resources and they tend to hire at a higher rate for lower class positions. So what we would be topping out on our assistant director positions usually would be their number three or four within their structure. So it's pretty competitive for us. But we are streamlining the educational services and we're conducting research on as part of the impact fees to have more of a sustainable growth when it comes to community growth and density. And again, we are looking forward to growing into Saturday hours and trying to do that as quickly as possible, but estimated time conservatively is April May. So the big changes in the general fund and what that looks like at the request of the commission is bring back several of the events that we have. There were a couple of things that we ended up doing. The back to school event is budgeted at 18,000. The bike 305 is 18,000. Heartwalk is 18,000. The heritage day is 8,000. Small business expo is 18,000. Library educational program. We're increasing 18,000 as well. We reduce the communication contract services from 324 to 224 or 325 to 225, that's 100,000 where the majority of these increases were being funded through. The big change is we had been anticipating that to smooth over the shortfall of 4.3 in the police pension by doing an additional $1 million contribution. The pension board had a special meeting this past week. Or was it last week? Last week. It was last week. Thank you. I apologize. Yes, it was on a Friday. It's been a long month. And so they obviously they had various concerns in making sure that the 70% requirement is there. And so they're willing to work with the city. But instead of moving the majority over to next year, which would require the full payment, they said that they would split the difference. So of the 4.3 that the pension fund is short to be at a 70% threshold this year, we would do an additional 2.15. The additional money that we would need to reach that is being done through the budget amendment and the carryover from fiscal year 23 into 24. It does not impact the budget and it does not impact any of, but again, it's within our range that we have and it is a within our policy. It is an allowed use. Overall, the total citywide CIP, you've seen these slides before. Some adjustments were made based on the information we have. Slight adjustment is 73 million.1. It goes into the following sides. I have all of the various projects that are listed from each of the departments, investing again not only in community, but in the buildings and infrastructure as well as the police department as well. The total 73 also includes the various N&B sewer and water projects. This includes the Washington Park, Forest Main and Pump Station as well as the building of the beginning of the renovation, which is as advertised design and permitting is being completed in fiscal year 24, which shall go underground at the end of calendar year 24. The public works has from traffic calming to construction here, even on the first floor as requested, and the add-on of the Texas U-turn and various equipment updates on beautification and in the various fleet shop upgrades that are needed and beautification projects as well. Breakdown of Washington Park, total project is 25.4 that includes the water and sewer portion of it. We've gone out. You'll be getting the loan similar to the settlement coming before you. We're looking at an impact of about a million dollars per year over the next 15, 15 years. From even though that's the the loan, again we do have several grants, and we continue to look for additional money to offset what we would end up doing. With regards to our projects, this is the phase two, what was discussed, not only in the first hearing, but also at the commission meeting. The list has been updated. I think the major changes are on this slide in which we've kind of separated. We've been able to build it in with the reallocations throughout ARPA, the police vehicles, the portable misting fans for parks for the events, the street paving on 165th Street around the library and and Michigan Park, the new park signs throughout the city, upkeep on the basketball courts behind city hall, increased beautification near Washington Park and Highland Village, the Marine Vessel and police as well, are the facade's grants match that we would need are in public places as well as economic development programming. The water fund has an increase, fund balance in additional contribution of 400. There is no fee increase proposed in fiscal year 25. We are still finalizing that study. Once we have that, then that will be coming before the commission for implementation in the next fiscal year. Increases in IT and next fiscal year. Increases in there's increases in IT and other insurance costs. We're going into various AI and looking at other industry standards that are going to help. I apologize. In order to make certain processes more operational and streamline digital transformation of other areas, we continue to look for also long-term investments as to some federal monies to increase. There's new regulations coming out for PFAS mitigations. And so we are working with our partners, both at the state and federal level to help mitigate that as well. We'll also be bringing to you, I believe, by December, our efforts and contracts for approval with regards to collection, not only in the water, but for sanitation and within code, the commercial and multifamily encode as well for collections. Mr. Manager. Yes, sir. Real quick, I know we discussed the radars. That's not an art for we're finding that somewhere else. There's so much to remember. So I just want to make sure that that's being addressed either somewhere in our budget for the radars. It's my understanding that it was. The neighborhood signs of the speedometers. Yes, sir. That is under one of the categories I'll have our chief of staff identify it and then come back to you. And then also if she can also identify the retro bonuses, the retro bonuses, the retro bonuses for new police officers prior to new fiscal year. So the bonuses are part of the policy when when police officers if they're going through the economy the city as a bonus will pay the cost of the academy for that if it's someone that's signing on that comes out that's part of our general fund and we have allocated actually I think it's either 50 or 75,000 within our general fund budget. But there were also and I know we spoke about this. I just want to make sure that it's here before I forget. Are we waiting for questions or remarks? But we all have to answer them too. Well, the commissioners don't want it to wait. Because, you know, I think it would. I think it's better to let the questions at the end. Let the manager finish his. No, I'm just looking. Before I forget, I'm just letting them know to look for the everybody. Everybody's writing notes for all their questions. Okay, so those. You're drafted in any way. We're listening to the presentation. Those two items. So I just want to make sure that at the end, we can address it. Into the other meeting that we were required at 515, you would have had that question answered. About which one? It doesn't matter, it was a shade meeting, but we would like to hear the rest of your presentation. Thank you. That was very bad. We all stopped forward. All right, guys, let the manager continue. I think the term is executive section. It seems exactly the session. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, Dose, to ask the question. I'm not going to ask the question. Yeah. Yeah. I say the title. But commissioners Smith that was addressing a separate issue from what you're talking about. Can we let them manage that? Give me a second. It's only 20 seconds. Guys. Guys, I'm. Before I forget. Okay, you can ask the question before you forget but we're not going to answer it until late. Thank that's all I'm saying. I'm just asking the question so they can look for the. I only have 10 seconds. All right. So the question is very simply, there's a separate item for police officers who were hired prior to the new fiscal year. If they can look forward to see if it's in the budget and answer that question at a later time. All right, questions noted. Mr. Mayor, would you please thank you. Thank you. The sewer fund fiscal year 25 is 15.9. There's capital expenditures over the five year plan and projects of forest main replacements and master pump stations for pump pump station four, throughout solid waste remains consistent with $6 million essentially, a coastal collection contract is budgeted at five, so we do have, we do have that gap, which helps reduce the overall debt that we have within the department. The stormwater fund is 3.3 million. That was changed. We brought an ink up to date last year. This is funding 24.5 full-time employees within the department. The CATT fund, again, it's 4.3. That has a freebie, $600,000 grant which will double the size of freebie. We have the trolley operations and lease, salaries, optimization study, bus shelter installation repairs and maintenance of bus shelters, wrapping of the donated buses that we're working with Miami Lakes on, as well as matching funds for other grants, and various traffic calming projects that are listed here, 160 to 163rd, 163rd Street, to 165th, 180th, North East Second, over by New Leader, various other engineering services that we need in calming studies to continue moving if forward local gas tax as additional traffic comming projects citywide Striping and resurfacing again. We had the city-wide assessment We have their report. They're building the GIS on it for the ranking of the streets streets as to what is What condition all the streets are in, what is failing, what needs immediate attention and what doesn't. And so that ranking is being done and then coming over, then we'll be moving on projects forward. The debt service, no, we have the loan payment for the Miami Gardens litigation. It's approximately 800,000, which you all voted for recently, as well as the special obligation to fund over on Washington Park, which we're assessing at about a million dollars. We're waiting on the final documentation to bring that forward. The CRA's budget is $12 million. They have several projects that are listed with regards to the singer building, the Snake Creek Canal, the library art plaza, Taylor Park, and the Ten of Center enhancement on various designs. Building fun has a current fiscal year 25 of 5.8 million. We're adding new building and code compliance manager. That's a portion of a full time of .7 into that budget that helps alleviate over on the general fund, a new permanent aid. We also have the continuation of the digitalization project and the capital improvement of the PSA building of 416,000. So various disclosures as to what the budget is the water fund is using the water share tarage transfer from the general fund to balance their budget. Police pension is short 4.3. The city is moving over by a contribution of additional 2.15 over the regular contribution of 7. The new evaluation will be conducted in late October as regular by the pension fund. And the city will have a better view of next year's fund requirement. The city must ensure that the state is not going to be able to do that. the new evaluation will be conducted in late October as regular by the pension fund and the city will have a better view of next year's fund requirement. The city must ensure that the fund is funded at 70% with a total budget impact of approximately 9.15. That's the 7 million of regular contribution and the additional 2.15 if that shortfall doesn't shorten or potentially increase it all depends on what happens in October. Washington Park again is being financed. Miami Garden settlement is being financed as well and the various excess and fund balance is going into CIP to address and continue projects to move forward. So again, in summary, we have enhancement in public safety. We're adding an additional 13.5 new positions throughout the city. That means additional code, officers, BTR inspectors, urban forester, grant coordinator, community development clerk, three library positions, one shared position between finance and HR, an additional IT and three parks department. We're increasing training for safety, regulatory and career development. One key thing that I wanted to point out in the mayor and commission, the AIDs are funded part time and the differences they will be direct hires from you all. We've tried to hire one person that can satisfy everybody but that system has not been working as optimally as we like. And so having you all have the ability to identify the candidate that would better suit you is the recommendation. The investment investing into the community. Again, we have the state mandated comprehensive plan. We're moving with the various community projects from ARPA, as well as the infrastructure projects for the Parks library, public police, citywide traffic calming, safes, streets and beautification. Our technology, our aesthetics and functionality, our focus on economic development, as well as the various reports that we've been implemented in making it data-driven decisions to improve our transparency and accountability. That is the presentation. Thank you for the time. Okay, thank you. Madam Clerk, public comment. Public comment is open. If you'd like to speak, please step forward. Okay. Oh, yeah, how can we always wait till I'm ready to close it? Good evening once again, my barykazan. I'm going to go to the other side of the road. Good evening once again, my barykazan. You know, I looked at your the CIT funding and the CIT funding and I'm going to explain it to the residents at home. 20% of it is allowed to go to the actual transportation, those buses, those freebies, whatever. Instead, what this city has been doing was taking 95% of the budget and putting it towards those trolleys and those freebies. Last year, we did not have the mayor here, Evan Piper. We had six commissioners up there. GHR now was the acting mayor. Three was for the freebies and three was for the trawlies. So how do they pass it? Both, they help each other. And while they help each other, you help in the lobbyists. You help in the special interest groups. Yes, I know them, I know them by name too. And you're not helping the residents because when we have to go down roads with potholes and very little infrastructure and no wrong the bouts to slow down this speed and traffic on 12th Avenue where I live or even a four-way stop sign. People ask for speed bumps. Mackenzie Florman, Commissioner, you said that you listened to residents come here year after year talking about speed and we do absolutely nothing with a long-term gain. And what do you do? You take 1.92 million dollars and you give it to the trolley guy. The freebie people, they took $600,000 and give it to the freebie guy. Maybe Uber and Lyft vouchers or something can help because I remember Commissioner Smith, you call for a freebie. You have to end up dropping them and take a ride elsewhere, because it took so long. And what we're doing, we're pouring money away to help friends and family. And you're not helping it when you do not stand up to this and take our 20 percent, 20 percent I equate maybe to two trawlies, which people say really two trawlies are really busy. The rest of the four, you look at them mostly empty. Run Commissioner Smatchy was right. Every time we look at these trawlies, they run empty. What are we doing? Then we have the vendors. We hire our workers through vendors instead of hiring them directly. Commissioners met you talked about head hunter for the water plant. Nothing has been done as yet. The PUC director left. But the PR guys and his company that he runs is more important for the attention of some of you up there and the manager you should be hiring the PR That runs our water plant that actually brings in the bread and butter for the city, but you're not doing that please Time is running out on us and we've gotten very impatient with How how you're behaving with our funds. Thank you. Thank you Anybody else want to speak on this? Okay, let the record reflect no one else came forward and public comments now closed. All right, anything from the commissioners? I guess we'll start with you, Commissioner. If anything, when you're in or you're good. Not currently, I will wait to see my colleague. I've said, I'll just clarify, did you chance to get the budget I had conversations with the Chief of Staff as well as some conversations with the manager? One of the concerns I had was how I walked the event. I'm glad that we were able to have some type of agreement on keeping those events. Because I was a major concern. And I think that was a bite. Like it was a unified type of outrage on that issue. Outside of that, we're trying to do the best what we got. And I think this is a budget that puts a lot of different opinions into one vehicle to make sure that the residents are taken care of. Thank you. Right, thank you. Mr. Trump. I just would like to thank the manager and the whole staff and everybody who's here from the city who works in a city. We do appreciate all that you do, and we do try to compensate you the best that we can. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Smokler. So I wanted to know Commissioner Trinoss words, thank you to staff and to the manager, his team, and the finance department, and all the directors for helping this budget get along and get going. And also, yes, thank you to all of you for agreeing to get the hard health walk. This is something that the committee, the commissionist, as the woman really wanted to do. So yeah, exactly. And also, I did see that the library will not be able to open until April is that correct? Correct. We need to do various hiring to be able to have the sufficient staffing to be able to open on Saturdays and so we conservatively, conservatively are projecting April May time frame. We're hoping to get that earlier than that. We do have the positions open, but for example, there's been at least and I believe the doctors with us, she might be out in the lobby. There's a couple of positions that we've had open for a year trying to find someone to be able to hire but she hasn't been able to find the right person. You know it is you you were correct it's not it's not everybody who has gone to school to be the library business or has worked in a library that can just come in and be an employee of the library. But do we need her? I mean, we always need her, but we don't need her now. We definitely need her, but she's available and she could talk about the industry and the difficulties in hiring if you all like. I mean, I'm okay with it. I understand it. So I don't want to prolong the meeting anymore. So thank you very much. Okay. Thanks for the brevity. Everybody so far and continuing the brevity will be Commissioner Smith. Wrong. Okay. There's a few things on my mind. A reference to the budget and why I voted no when I'm going to have to, I appreciate staff so much. I appreciate the guidelines you have to work in. But I also was it that we paid for strategic planning session. We paid for professionals. They said things that are have to be implemented now. I don't want to wait. The library was number one. So whatever it takes, if we could ask the librarian to tell me what it would take to open the library before the holidays so that people have their children with a place to go, I would like to know how much and I'd like it to be implemented in the budget. And I'd like to know your difficulties in hiring. Can you open on a Saturday with what you have now? Can we get it? I don't want to wait another seven months. Because why? Because we hired professionals and they told us this week, two days ago, that the library is number one. Number two is code. So I get a lot of phone calls. I'm sure I'm not the only one. I had a phone call yesterday that I turned over to Mr. Scott about a woman that's been here since 1990. She loved her neighborhood and how disappointed she is now. That boils down to sidewalks, roads, to trimming of the property, to garbage pickups, and to code. So I want to make sure that's there. Unlike my colleague I made notes. So the like I could ask questions now. It's okay. It's okay. I'm going to wait my turn commissioner. Thank you. Thank you, Ma'Barrick. I understand that we have in the budget. That we have in the budget about the traffic calming. But I also wanna make sure whether it's us chasing them or us paying for them, that we implement stop signs. Where again today, I heard the man that saw a second crash this week. If that's the county and not us, then we have to chase it. I also have questions about the water plant. We were moving the money out of the general fund back into the water plant. Does this reflect that because that's $3 million that I saw? Yes, yes, ma'am it does. Okay, I want to make sure that we do that so we don't get in a crunch. I also want to know on the project of $25,450,000 for Washington Park and we received grants of $4,450,000. Why are we taking a $25,000, $25,000 loan? We're taking the entirety, the grants are reimbursables. Right, so what we're doing is we first have to spend the money before we get that money back. We end up on the tail end of the project, we'll be able to kind of pay that off and it won't impact, we won't be using the full 25, but we've gone out for the full amount to be able to finance it. I also, I thought a lot about it. We voted for it because we had no choice, but that alone that goes 10 years and it's only a three year or four year obligation. We need to check into that. It may be too late, but we need to check into that because if the penalty is going to be huge, maybe they'll work with us on that. One of the other things I want to just mention, then I'll pass out. One of the other things I want to mention is we're conducting research again for impact fees. You know, I can tell you one thing. When we go into the building department and we start making plans for the building department and we bring forth which is a part of the budget even though it's a separate entity that we're going to have four parking places for a four unit. People aren't going to build here. So we have to stop and really pay attention to what we want in revenue, what we want to increase our city, and when we get the revenue, how we're gonna spend it. So, I also have to spend more money for what was a priority of the entire conversation of the strategic plan, economics. Economics. He clearly stated that you cannot build a city. You cannot have a good city. You can't have a clean city. If people ride through your city and they have no reason to stop, they have to have a reason. And how that comes under an umbrella of economic development. So I need more money in here for economic development. We are working very diligently to meet key players to build that whole economic department. We need more money for economic development. We certainly need that library open on Saturday. And we need to make sure our city is clean. Our city is taken care of with code. And I came to all this this week. Thank you, Mr. Manager, with my strategic plan. Because I was here Tuesday night night and I heard every word they said and those are the three key elements that maybe the budget doesn't address enough but certainly for me to have a yes vote I need those three things to be increased. I love that we're getting the heart walk. I love that we have in Heritage Day. I really think that we have to let the public enjoy their city as well, but one of the key elements is you've got to give them a reason to stop in your city. And then if they stop here and enjoy it, they want to live here. If they stop here and enjoy it, they want to eat here. So we definitely have to increase that. We're working very hard. Ms. Monestine has been on the phone and emails. If you could see the copies of the emails she sent into the businesses we met. And the people that she is extending invitations to join us to help us build our economics. So I think I made a pretty brief compared to what I am capable of. Those are very key elements and if I could also ask if we can find out what we need in reference to having the library open. Because if she can have the staff that she has now start the library to be open, I'd like it to be open starting Saturday. Come and show I'll let the doctor come up and talk in the meantime. We the budget is already including additional code officers and various beautification not only from the staffing level but actual projects as well So we're looking to to adopt that staff is also working on various code I don't want to call it upgrades, but upgrades but stronger code language with regards to how the swales and the sidewalks and everything are maintained, part of the economic development, it's twofold. Once we have more of the study finalized with FIU, which should be coming to you, we know various ways to start looking at what policies and how, and part of that plan is how to invest in the economic development for the city and what direction we will, we can, is advise to go in. But we're also looking at having the grant coordinator, which is a position that's new in the budget, assists us with economic development as well, from grant that are going to help throughout the budget process projects. Being able to tap into all of those different opportunities from the economic development as well. So we're addressing these not only on short term, but we're also addressing it long term look ahead. As I've indicated in a couple of emails, we have also recently just hired a director for community development, in which he has a long history of economic development as well as an assistant director of community development, which also has history. So we are focusing on that so that that component We have better direction the more that we can get people to come and spend their Harder and dollars within the city that sales tax comes back into the city, which helps offset some of those costs from the ad valorum side, right? So it gives us more tools and flexibility. We also have, excuse me, as part of the process is the comprehensive plan as well. That's the state requirement that we gotta do. We gotta do a big update this upcoming plan update. We'll have not only staff but the new people coming on board, there's going to be surets that come as part of this plan update. It's not just a paper that signs up. We got to do something a little bit bigger than that. So we'll be having surets. All of that starts playing into the economic because it'll start identifying what these areas are going to look like, what we can invest, what we can rezone, what we can do to help bring in more of the businesses to update some of the areas that look like we're still in 1990, right, with the way that the strip malls are kind of allocated and look like there are other things that we can do to encourage Complete streets people walking being able to have not only walkable space, but also having enough within the buildings to have outdoor entertainment or dining and then have the so there's a lot of those type of components that's going to help spur that kind of movement forward as well. So we are paying close attention to that to bring that over. Okay, the doctors here, if you break your wrist, she's not going to take care of you, but our librarian has her doctor's degree, and she doesn't share that with anybody, anybody was so proud of her. So if we do you have staff? Now there's a difference between opening on Saturdays and opening on Saturdays with programs. But do you have staff and how much would it take and how long would it take for us to really implement a Saturday opening? the staff. We are in the process of hiring librarian too, which that position has been open for over a year. We are just finding someone that will come and work with us. We are processing her. We are in the process of hiring librarian too, which that position has been open for a year and we are just finding someone that will come and work with us. So we're processing her. We would need one more person so that they could rotate having weekends off and so right now that would not be possible. When that person comes on, that will help, and that's how we're planning to open the teen area. So the soonest you think you could do it would be, I would have to wait till I have one more person besides this one that's on the works to come on right now. So Mr. Manager, I'd like for you to work with the librarian to see what it would take to make sure she has that staff. Because as everybody says, we have to give the police to keep them and to hire them. And we have to do the same thing in every car. But like the manager said, it's complicated and the fact that it took a year to hire this one. So now the one that left to go to the county. But we don't want to wait enough. Yeah, we don't, so we, but at least one position, no, we don't want to wait. We don't, we don't, we don't want to wait because our professionals told us that's a key important part of our city. So we're gonna listen to them. I do wanna take another couple minutes and tell you one thing that's a tease to the public. I went to a meeting this morning that was beyond anything and I go to a lot of meetings that was so amazing about branding, which is gonna be a key element of economics. I've asked to put it on the agenda for the workshop. And when you hear what the possibilities are and what we can do, we are going to have such a good punch if we implement it. But everything costs money. So I'll be the bad guy and I'll mention how we always don't have money, but we're paying for the employees' additional costs for their health. We're paying for the employees to have additional days off. We're paying for a trolley that has two or three people. But the big thing about the trolley that's disappointing is it goes from county to a different city and we pay. If anybody would ever be able to make sense out of that, not only does it go to a different city, I found out they have one of the lowest tax bases in Dave County. And we pay. So all these things shows me that we need to get back to the mindset of taking care of the residents and taking care of our city to build our city back to where people want to stop and enjoy our city which once they enjoy it they want to live here. They just tried through and that was verbatim from the strategic plan professionals that we need to implement and spend money on ways to make it so that they will want to stop. And I'd like to see it in the budget. Thank you very much. Okay, you complimented yourself on your brevity about halfway through. Again. Commissioner Foreman in the spirit of brevity. Thank you. I just wanted to know if we got that information that I requested. Yes, Commissioner. It will be covered under the line that's in base 2, called licensing or license readers. Okay, so just for the edification of the public, what this is addressing, their police officers that are being onboarded prior to the start of the new fiscal year that don't particularly meet that same, explain in more detail. Pardon me? The signage with the radar on it? Oh, you're talking about the signage. So the signage is what you just addressed. Yeah. All right, that's the radar science for traffic comment. Correct. Okay. Commissioner, the second question was the PD bonuses? Right. So we have a line item within the police department for sign-on bonuses, even in the current fiscal year. So that has already been established on there, and there's a policy in which PD follows for sign-on bonuses, whether it's Academy or someone transferring from another department. Lately, what we've been successful at is attracting new hires that are going through the Academy, and then they go through our field training in our program. So that's where the majority of that recruitment money has been going to because that's where we've found the biggest success in hiring. Can major niggles speak a little bit more in depth? Yeah, I just want to make sure that because I know I believe if I recall correctly that I spoke with the chief of staff as well about certain officers that might not fall into receiving a bonus prior to this next fiscal year. And I wanted to make sure that it's addressed, you know, particular to those officers. Is the question clear enough, Major? Yes, Commissioner. Good evening, Major. Mayor and Commissioner, Manager Nichols and PD. So I believe what you're addressing is if the prior to the fiscal year, we hire an officer that's not a cadet, it's a certified officer that they would have the bonus, correct? Correct. Yes, they would get the bonus correct? Correct. Yes. They would get the bonus. It's in our current budget and still going to be in next year's budget as the manager was stating. We do have a line item, I believe it's $50,000 in there for the police recruiting that is used for the budget and it can get you about 10 officers in a year with that for the $10,000 bonus. Okay, so how many have you onboarded thus far? You said you can get about 10 officers. Are you, do you have sufficient amount for this fiscal year? I do. OK, so I just wanted to make sure that was good. And the traffic calming with the radars were good with that. Do we know how many of them that we're bringing in for the new fiscal year? It's going to be 10. And we're talking about the stationary signs that was brought up. Right, 10. The solar powered stationary signs. Correct. All righty. That's it. Well, that's it on those two items. Since you've inspired me, Commissioner Smith. I'm glad I get it. Yes, you inspired me. Because you'll make me look good. OK. So we received a couple of emails from residents over the past couple of days. And I've gotten emails from former Commissioner Barbara Gramer, Barcazon. I've got emails from also Bruce Lemberto from also Ms. Pillinger and those are the names that come to mind at this time. And you know, some of these issues are concerning. Obviously, we need to expand on these conversations because one of the emails is pretty lengthy. But the water utility always seems to be the fund that really we need to be looking at with the fine-toothed comb, but I feel that during the budget cycle, it's kind of tucked in and we don't really do a deep dive into the water utility. Now, we have a lot of consultants that we've been before you during your tenure. I mean, this has been a constant issue with Black and Veatch and other consultants that we have, that we really need to get a handle on when it comes to our water utility. We did take over the, we did bring back the water utility. We just had a $9 million settlement. During the time, Jacobs was responsible. There was a lot of money in reserves that was expended. And I still feel like the water utility is not where it needs to be. It's far from where it needs to be. When it comes to CIP, when it comes to consistent leadership. And also when it comes to our dependence on consultants. I think that's something Mr. Manager that I'm looking from my seat to you to really get a handle on this because passing the budget is not the end of the conversation. Obviously you have to take it and make it a reality. We've seen that there's certain things that get done, certain things that don't get done. And I think as a commission up here, we need to look at it from the perspective that this is a working document. This is the reason why I can vote on something, even if I'm not completely satisfied with it, because I know that I can have an influence on perhaps budget amendments and things moving forward. That can possibly change. And I'm looking to see that in the award of utility, specifically more so than any other area because the award of utility is our cash cow for lack of a better word. Aside from that, I'm glad to see that we did address to Miss Pelinger's email, a lot of the library concerns. So I'm appreciative of that that we're addressing some of those concerns when it comes to the library. And we also have been discussing the communications contract. I know that you were given an assignment to come back in 60 days with what that's going to look like and how we're going to harness that. You had that before. Well, we said 60, right? Yeah. Okay. So, you know, I'm looking forward to reviewing that in a workshop setting or something like that that we can really do a deep dive and figure out what we're gonna do communications-wise. But the water utility, back to the water utility, that has been consistently where there's money leaking you know, pun intended. And we need to get a handle on this especially when it comes to consultants. And I wanna know what you have to say in response to that. And I'll forward you the email from Bruce Lembert or if you weren't attached to it, so that you can see some of those concerns that- I'm sure. I've received emails as well. So with regards to the water utility, we have over 110 employees that overseas the utility for that. The only in-house consultant or day-to-day consultant that the utility has is the black and beach which oversees the CIP component of the water utility on the project management other than that it's whenever we hire a company to do a project itself whether it's a design or or actual construction. But Black and Veatch is the only day-to-day component. Last year, the commission, we approved the contract or a task authorization number four, which was even though hourly rates went up, the department director was able to put the budget in any way in which the actual task order was less than the prior task authorization. That came to the commission, the commission asked again, hey go back to the table and reduce it further. And staff did that. We were able to talk to back and each we negotiated that and we reduced that further before you all approve that. They are at the tail end of the CIP. We've got I think over the next fiscal year is the final projects that we have identified. It's not everything because I believe several years ago the initial CIP was a $200 plus million program. What was approved was only a hundred and so this next round the project is what's allowed completes that 100 million CIP. We'll need to kind of reevaluate what additional projects need to come on in this next phase. We'll never be at a point where there's nothing left to do, right? We're always going to have to be not only making improvements, but repairs and new filtration, whatever the case may be. The, with regards to to the rate because it was also mentioned earlier, that study continues to look at where we are. One of the components that we look at is, for example, you mentioned the leakage. So we're looking at short-term and long-term solutions to that. And that's something that we've discussed at a prior commission meeting as well. One of the things that we're looking at, one component was the WeCare program which we modified at the last commission meeting. The additional component to that is changing our code directly right now and based on my recommendation. Right now the code allows for essentially anybody to open up an account, whether they're a property owner or not. What we are recommending and we have to do, we're looking at the entire code because it's not just one sentence of the code, we have to look at the entire section of requiring the property owner be the one that opens the account. That allows us to maintain the any type of delinquency on payments or going after directly tied to the property owner, not a tenant who make who's transient and may come and come out. Not every tenant becomes transient but more likelihood of the link with the account happening in that kind of aspect, right? So that's a long-term look and fix to that type of problem, additional assistance on the week here. We're also, as I mentioned earlier, in December, you'll have before you recommendation for collection of the various accounts. I know that our staff has been working over the past year in tracking where those delinquent accounts are. What is pending on leans, for example? So we'll be moving forward with that and bringing you maybe not just one firm, but maybe more than one. One of the things that we were doing and I was working with the former director, we had various meetings with collection agencies. We realized that's not the direction that's gonna best suit and we started interviewing various law firms to see how they can or not support the initiatives. Our procurement director has been working with that. Several of our conversations, and I think we got another one next week, several of our conversations with the law firms are also asking us for certain information to see how it fits on their process. So there's a back and forth of sharing data so that when we do come to the commission, hey, this is what the expectation is with the information that we have. Remember, we went through multiple legacy systems. So some of these are older and some of the data is in as much as what we've been collecting now, right? So it's piecing all of this together, looking at the contract terms, negotiating those terms and negotiating those terms and bringing that to the commission. So again, as with everything that we've discussed over the last year, it's looking at short term solution to what can we do right now while also looking at what we can change for the long term so that we're not back in the same positions that we are now. It's not, I don't think it's good news, but it's better news than where we've been, is we're back on at least what customer service would call the link accounts, not necessarily those in leans or in collections, but that are late or have some kind of issue on their current. We've cut that rate down back to pre-COVID levels, right? So the things that we are doing internally and in house, there are starting to make some some differences. So we're taking that kind of approach with the utility. There's always improvements to be made. There's always going to be projects. We now have to start looking at the next phase for CIP projects. And that's also part of even citywide, what that looks like. One of the things that we're looking at is reorganizing the entire CIP process because it's not just water who's with regards to CIP has probably been the most active and accomplished within the city, but it's also bringing all the other CIP projects up to par as well. And so being able to move in that direction reorganize the functionality and the SOPs as that works with the additional reporting that we do, those are all aspects that we're moving on. And closing, can you speak to the cola on the consulting contract and why we didn't try to remove the cola with black and beach? Can you talk about that? So those are already terms that are baked into the contracts when they were first awarded. They have essentially by right to be able to increase the contract for COLA. They asked for a much higher COLA than what was originally, what was ultimately passed. We negotiated that down as to being able to say, okay, this is fair or not. I know one of the questions as well, they come and they work in our plant, they use our internet, they use this, they use that. They also pay for those services, as part of their contract, right? So it's not just a straight, here are the hours and here. They put money set aside of what charges are paid. Oftentimes some of those things are, they bring from their own. So it's not just as simple as showing up up looking at a piece of paper than going home. Um, $212 million that we are voting on. I would say I mean it's probably my fifth budget. So I'm more than likely about over a billion dollars of our residents money that I have had the opportunity to vote on. And I just wanna say that like I said, this is a working document. We as a commission, whatever happens with this budget, we just need to make sure that we stay on top of it because there's 365 days between now and when we approve our next one. And the truth is they're going to start working on it ASAP and we can't afford to jump on that train, you know, in July, August and think that we're really going to have a handle on the fullness of what we are approving. $212 million. And if you hear some of our conversation, it's really surrounded, yes, with ARPA. And certain dollars when we come to, when we're talking about events and things of that sort, which pills in comparison to the number that we're actually voting on, right? And so I just look forward to this really being a working document and that we really focus on the water utility and see where we can, you know, make a difference for our residents moving forward. I will be voting for this budget, but I will be also in your ear, Mr. Manager and ACM, Deputy City Manager and your team because the potential of our city is great. We really do have to realize it and Commissioner Smith was saying it's something that I've been saying for a long time is that worth our fair. And you know when you really know if your city is doing well is if you want to stay and eat here or if you want to go to the stores here and if you use the you know if you support the businesses and if you understand what I'm saying It's like if I have to go out of my city to find, you know, certain things then that's when I know we have work to do We commissioner if I may I've been I've been writing notes as well So I want to be able to jump in as well. Yes, a couple of things and you and I thank you for your comments and Commissioner Smith as well Economic development is not just the businesses. Of course, local hires local, so your business is higher local residents, so that's one of the strategies. But economic development means, beautification of parks. Why would I want to live here? Why would I want to stop here? So you will see baked into this budget, all of the things the library becomes a community center, right? You've heard that. So the library is a community center. Your parks are beautified. You're beautifying some of your thoroughfare. So baked in here, I think you asked for that as well. Neighborhood level, beautification. So all of that is economic development to me. So when we started this initiative between a strategic plan and economic development, it is what is driving residents, new residents to our city, what is driving new businesses to our city, what are driving tourism to our city. So people want to stay here, live here, play here, and work here. So all of the things that you all are talking about are baked into this budget. Going forward, as you mentioned, you're not going to get involved in July. Because as the strategic plan rolls out in December, we immediately start working with the departments and the commission to reaffirm the priorities that are coming out of that strategic plan and start to bake those into the 27 budget. So you have early conversations, not at the end, but all along to say, these are the priorities. This is what the plan says. This is what our residents are saying, and then 27 is so much, the conversation is so much easier because you've had that. And then each year just continues to have that partnership as we go forward. Regarding the water plan, as you know, I have a water engineering background, right? Water is critically important. You cannot afford to make a mistake in water or else you have people getting sick, boil water advisory, people, you know, it really is a health issue. So as we look at the processes that we're putting forward after we're watching future regulation that's coming down the pike, it's important for us to line the CIP not just to providing water to our customers, but also clean high quality water to those customers. So the right filtration plants have to be in place. The right transmission lines have to be in place. The flushing of the lines have to be done. The upgrading that's happening right now in across the city, and specifically in eastern shores, has to be done to seal the system. So we're looking at not only water quality, but the quantity side is as you identify leaking meters. How do we seal the system? So you don't have leaks out of the system. That goes to ensuring that your rates stay reasonable. So we're looking across the board at how do we approach that? Paying attention to the utility department, and we will continue to do so and make it a priority. Policies are a priority, parks for quality of life, and water for health. So we look at all of them and that doesn't negate any of the other important departments within the city. Thank you so much Deputy and Mr. Manager as we close out this budget cycle I'm looking forward to you and your team having a city wide employee. how can I call this launch for the new fiscal year? I think they need to hear from you. I think that's part of taking ownership of this budget. Is that we launch it, we bring everyone into the litmet theater, employees, residents, et cetera, and stakeholders, and we launch this budget, because look at this room. Right? We have two or three residents in here. And so we need to make this exciting. We need to make this something that people can attach to themselves to and really, really hold on to and feel like they not only belong, but that it's their budget as well, from residents to employees. So I'm looking forward to seeing that within the next few weeks that we launch this the right way and we get moving on our new fiscal year. Thank you so much. Okay, Commissioner John. Thank you. I wanted to piggyback on that and mention about Moral. I think one of our residents mentioned the more spoke to the Moral and our police department. So I'm hoping that whatever gaps within that department is also filled as well. So I know the administration is looking to do that. Commissioner Fleurman mentioned the water plant. I wanted to ask from an operational standpoint, what's the ratio of NNB water versus black and beach hires? And the reason I'm asking this, initially when we first saw the contract, we had a full breakdown of every area within the water plant, but also every area that needed specialized help because we couldn't hire from, we couldn't find anyone. So I want to know what the ratio is there because I think that would kind of help us have a better picture of what a head hunter eventually will be able to do. I'm not sure if you're ready to answer that now or Commissioner we have over 111 NMB staff over at the water department. We have seven engineers that we've been recently hired and that breaks down in five civil one one electrical, one plumbing, I believe. And we continue to advertise not only for on the engineering side, to help further reduce any of the consulting, but also out in the field, which is where the most turnover will end up occurring within the water. Black and Veatch is used mainly on project management for the CIP. I don't have the exact number because it really depends on the projects that we have at any given time. So that expands and contracts regularly, just like you would in a design, right? So for example, in a design project, whether it's water or anybody else, you might have at the beginning, you might have 10 people from a consultant working on the project, but then it's like, okay, I've already done all my plumbing, I've done my electrical, so now you have two people off the project while the others keep going. So by using consultants here, it's almost like an accordion effect. You do have some- So the question was mostly for operational versus projects, right? So I'm not sure if there's a distinction there or if you can let us know. If you can give it. From my understanding, there's no consultants on the operation side. We manage the operations all in-house. Black and Veatch is strictly on the capital improvement projects. Okay, awesome. That's correct. They're on projects. They don't have anything to do with the other. Thanks. I see this here, usually we have an itemized budget where we can see line by line. I know last year you kind of move into a more enterprise kind of budget. How can the public or even residents or the public or staff see a more itemized budget. So our budget books are put on the website as well as all of our audits and that's the easiest way to do that for any of the departments and everything that we put on. Sharon is there anywhere else that we put that? No, just on the website. Where is it on the website? It's under Finance and then... And then it would be under the proposed budget section. But that one we don't actually have, like if you're looking for the itemize where it lists like employee names and so forth. No, that's not on the website. It's just basically going to summarize what the budget is in terms of. So we don't have that function that future anymore per se. We don't put that on the website, but we can provide the commission with that. Okay. Yeah. Awesome. I know with parks, I wanted to talk about the theater. Can you highlight some of the theater improvements that we might be seeing in the upcoming fiscal year? And if you're addressing any of the staff, short falls there? Commissioner, I know that we're hiring an additional three employees within parks. Part of the theater upgrades, I know we're adding a new system for the McDonald Center as well as that room divider. That is part of the theater because usually it's used as a component when it's rented out. The theater itself, we invested in lights and sound system that we go ahead. Commissioner, I just had to pull it up. The manager mentioned the lighting and equipment replacement that's happening in the theater. We're also looking at the McDonald's and if you were interested in that as well, we're looking at the room. I know there was an increase in rentals within the theater, but I wanted to know what was being done to supplement that increase as it relates to staff. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and commissioners. In the budget was approved in an additional theater technician. So that's gonna help staff and help with the volume that we are having. And also as part of our plan, we're merging our events slash marketing team with the theater, so that's one division. We feel that that's more efficient and they work kind of side by side. So those particular employees will also be assisting in the theater as well because they'll become one division. So between the theater technician and merging, we feel that we're not, we're improving. We're helping in that area. Is that going to be some sort of hierarchy there? You're just going to pull the... But we're improving. We're helping in that area. Is that going to be some sort of hierarchy there? You're just going to pull the... The hierarchy there is... You have a theater supervisor that's technical part of the theater, but we do have a division director that oversees that particular division. Thank you. I wanted to talk about transportation. I know we have an in-house person that works with transportation. What does that person do? How was lookabers Sam to answer that question? Here he is. Good new mayor commissioner, staff. the same to answer the question. Good new mayor commissioner staff. The transportation and transit manager oversees the operations and the contractors that service the transit system. We have a freebie which is one contract provider. They provide the on-demand services. We also have a Proquel, which is the operator of or freebie, of our transit system. And there are monthly, quarterly and annual reports that we have to show every penny that we spend. There's planning that needs to be done. There's advertisements, notifications that must be done and or transit analysts and managers are one that's performing this task. Is there anything that we're doing for like a strategic transportation plan? Like for instance, if someone wants to use the trolley, I know we have the app, freebie has an app, but do we have plans to do something more strategic as a related to transportation? We presented to the commission in February the transit update study, which would incorporate the demand, it would analyze the demand on the writers, it would analyze the bus stop locations of the system, and would incorporate a service into the analysis to be able to optimize the service that we provide to our customers, to our citizens. Similar to what the better bus network did, what the county, Miami transit and transportation and public works performed. That is how you optimize your transit system. Because I know we have a marketing line item within that division, but I don't feel like we're using it enough. So like for example, at the library or at City Hall, there should be places where if people are using our transportation system that they should be able to know. This is a good hub for them to get a map or what have you. So I would love to see something in house done to kind of enhance that that feature within the division. Flowers and maps understood. Thank you. Let me see what else I had. The Dero's Park, I know when we talk about speed bumps, Mr. Manager, can you talk more about, I know you have the traffic stuff, is there any talks about mitigating some of the speeding around the city? Can you speak to that? Commissioner, yes, we have several traffic calming projects throughout the city funded I think that's a good question. Is there any other comments from the committee? Any comments from the committee? Commissioner, yes. We have several traffic calming projects throughout the city funded through various different means. We took a look at traffic calming citywide. We wanted to take an approach that it's not just one neighborhood or the other we're looking at what we can equitably distribute throughout the entire city. David and Sam have been a little bit more hands-on on the Rose Park and some of the other ones. So if you can maybe give a little bit more detail from those. I'll have Sam going to a little bit more detail about commission to your point. You mentioned the Rose Park. That is a traffic calming project. But we also hired a firm with a grant to look at citywide traffic calming. So we're in the process of that. I don't say I'm to have a hand on when that should be coming in. Yes. Do you know GIs or consultant that's performing or citywide traffic calming and traffic safety study. This is a program funded by the Safe Treats for All, which is a US DOT grant that we were awarded. And the study will analyze the volumes, the speeding, and it will provide by neighborhoods the proposed traffic calming measures that are needed. Not only will it incorporate traffic circles, race intersections, stop signs or yield signs, but it will also incorporate bicycle into their review, pedestrian safety into their review. Thank you. What was the carryover from last year, Mr. Manager? The carryovers estimated about $8 million and that we have allocated within the budget amendments as well as money going into CIP projects. Okay, and the last thing I wanted to piggyback off what Commissioner Fernand mentioned about taking off the year with, you know, the new vision and the new motion. The dashboard that you mentioned, the dashboard that you mentioned about keeping track of the projects and I think that's very important because we don't wanna go into the next year without seeing the progress that has been done. For example, the library had $100,000 allocated for the bathroom. But when you did the deeper dive, you realized there were no plans for that. So then the question is, will the bathrooms be done this year? Did we allocate something for the plans? We did this time. So we wanted to see that if there's an allocation for the design and for the actual work, that third quarter we see the bathroom actually is done. You see what I'm saying? So I'm hoping that the $12 million that you have increased for personnel were equate into us seeing actual more work done citywide. Because when you, Mr. Cousin mentioned that there was like the $35 billion increase from the operating budget last year to this year. But we want to know that, okay, first second quarter, they were seeing these, this, you know, 20 page document actually in motion. So that would be my ask that we hold you accountable and the two-hole is accountable. And we actually see this budget, not just kill trees with 1,000 pages, but that we're actually seeing these things come to life. So thank you so much to you and your team. Thank you for the comments. All right, thank you, Commissioner John. Yeah, so as far far as before I'll give everyone a second chance in a second. I think I wanted to commend the staff manager for putting together this budget. I know there was a lot of challenges and I think that we've addressed most things and really addressed most of the concerns of all the commissioners also. So I'm really happy for that. Anybody else have anything else to say? No one? I just want to say quickly that although I appreciate that we all have opinions and we all have an opportunity to do so tonight that the wind speed is picking up and the schools have been closed for Broward. It's closed for Broward so it's going to happen for days. Yes, so if we could move to approve Red revolution number. Okay, all right. R, 2024, dash 109. All right, hang on one second. It's one second. Mr. Attorney. All right, so I'm going to get my motion in second now for this budget. Do we need to do anything with, do I need to do any disclosures or? After you take this vote, before you move on to the one separate matter that we've carved out, you can put your disclosure in the record. And then depart the. So this motion is going to be for the budget minus the chamber. Correct, the budget is. Correct. Okay, we need a motion and a second. We did. the budget minus the chamber. Correct. Correct. Correct. Okay. We need a motion and a second. We did. We got it. We need a roll call. Commissioner Floyd-Mont. Yes. Commissioner Jean. Yes. Commissioner Joseph. Yes. Commissioner Smokler. Yes. Commissioner Chernoff. Yes. Vice-Mayor Smith. No. Mayor Piper. Yes. Vice mayor Smith? No. Mayor Piper? Yes. As the 6-1. Okay. Thank you. Okay. It's time. Okay. You should state on the record. And for the record mayor, it's not clear that it's an actual conflict. It may be an appearance of conflict, but you are permitted to recuse yourself even on an appearance. Okay. Correct. recuse yourself even on an appearance. Okay, correct. So there is a potential conflict even though it's been determined by ethics that it really probably isn't a conflict regarding the fact that I'm the president of the Chamber of Commerce and it's one of the items that's in the budget. So we've moved that item out of the budget for a separate vote. And then I will be leaving the day as I'm in a turn it over to the vice mayor. And she's going to handle that piece of it and then I'll be back for her to hopefully adjourn. So. So. Should the part the chambers, you can be in the break room certainly. Yeah, I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving the building. I'll just be at it. Just the chambers. You can be in the break room, sir. Yeah, yeah, I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving the building. I'll just be at the chambers. Yep, and I'll be waiting. So. Okay, we were passed out the answers to the questions that we had questions last week and reference to the expenditures of the money for the chambers. Did everybody get an opportunity to look at it? It's very short and it was passed out tonight. Anybody have any questions? I need a motion. Second. Public comment. Not yet. We have to have the motion in a second. Did you public comment. Not yet. We have to have the motion in second. Did you get that matter first? She did not. I can't say. I was first. I was second. Garbage. Did you want to help me? No, no. She didn't get who made the motion. Thank you. Oh, whatever. I'm first and she's. Okay. Okay. I'm first and she's okay. Okay, now we're open for public comment, and this is in reference to the $30,000 approval or non-approval for the city to give to the Chamber, the North and the Beach Chamber. Anybody want to speak? Good evening once again. My name is Mambarra Kazan. You know this this item came up because the particular commissioner accustomed to arguing over minutia things. We've had so much important things to be discussing. And I want to thank Commissioner Phyllis Smith, Commissioner Flaramann and Commissioner Daniela Shaw. You raised important topics. Those are the things that we should be arguing about. Are discussing water, sanitation. These are the things that brings money in house. Not this $10,000 at you. You wanted to take away $10,000 from it from the 30. The city manager said early this year January 16th that his assessment on the sanitation would have taken eight months. Now he's talking about the end and of this year, November. A hippopotamus, baby can born in eight and a half months. A human child, nine months. We could end up at elephant two years. This year you have to be willing to bring money into the city. Sanitation is a thing that brings money into the city. And if you're not willing to do it, tell us and we'll get somebody else who's willing to actually bring the sanitation back into the city. Arguing over minutia things that, you know, the personality things should not be up in the day as they're. The city attorney says it may not be a contention, but for argument's sake, let a mayor move on. And it behoves me that $212 million in in a budget and it wouldn't budge you over a $50,000 more than $50,000 and and and and $50. It's crazy and then you know, I'm so fed up with some of the people that I actually supported and to come up on that day. Thank you very much for having me. Thank you. Anybody else who likes to speak from the public? All right, anybody from the day us have anything to discuss about this? Madam Vice Mayor, I don't had a quick comment if I can. Of course. So I have two things I wanted to put on the record. Mr. Managers is different from this particular item, but I wanted to ask about the utilities director. I know you have an intern. I haven't met him yet, but I know you sent a memo about it. Is your hope to put this position out I know the deputy mentioned his the credentials and so on and so forth If you can indulge this maybe at the next commission meeting with those details If you like commissioner. We've we've been recruiting for Since since we got the notification We are wrapping up a 30-day window. We have about four candidates that we believe are valid candidates to move into interviews, and HR is scheduling those as we speak. Okay. Anybody have anything else they'd like to say? Motion. Second. All right, we're gonna take a vote. Is it a voice vote? You can Roll call yeah, just because of the okay, let's have a roll call please Commissioner Jean yes Commissioner Joseph yes, Commissioner Smokler yes Commissioner Sherner yes, Commissioner Florian one yes vice-minister Smith yes passes Xero Madam chair one? Yes. Vice-Mainst Smith? Yes. Passes, Excero. Madam Chair. Well, just one minute, sir. While we're waiting for the mayor to come back, one of the things I've been hearing while I'm up here tonight for this budget hearing is this speed in which we operate. And I too would like to voice that if there's anything that we can do to expedite when we have an idea to make the idea come to fruition. I think that that's one of the biggest things I've heard tonight here and I would like to bring that forth to the manager. Thank you. Motion to it. Second. motion to second. All in favor. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. you you you you you you you you you I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. We're here to help you. Our team is always helping customers save money on their monthly bills. Through our tools, and our knowledge, and our programs. 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Budget billing is something that we're basically going to avoid those high peaks in the summer months by levelizing your payments throughout the year so you'll know what you'll have to pay You can learn more at fpl.com slash ways to save For those in need of extra assistance the Salvation Army and FPL also work together to administer funds through the care to share program Which provides customers in crisis situations with up to $750 in bill assistance if they're behind on their energy bill. It also provides up to $2,000 for qualifying customers who need to make electric repairs to damaged meter cans and weather heads following a hurricane or other disaster. Why not customers to know that we are here to help them through these tough times? For more information on FPL programs, tips, and access to the energy manager, visit the webpage FPL.com. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. 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The I'm going to be a little bit more careful. Thank you.