2014-0911 Special City Commission Meeting (2)

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Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting September 11, 2014 Sunny Isles Beath, Florida First Budget Hearing very well thought out and above balance, performance and function of this City. Commissioner Gatto said she would also like to thank staff, City Manager Russo, Finance Director and her group for making this not only the least possible painful way of going through the process but really beautifully and professionally presented. She also noted regarding former Commissioner Goodman that for two (2) years behind the scenes she has been pestering Chris, Stan and Bill to get the improvements done on 174th Street, and she is pleased to announce that the puddle work should start next year as well as some other enhancements on 174th Street and so she is glad Commissioner Goodman is here tonight. Commissioner Scholl said what is interesting is that we have a page in our book, it is called a millage rate comparison which lines us up with all the other cities in the County and shows us how our millage compares to the other cities. As Vice Mayor Aelion pointed out we are the 7`h lowest, but what is really interesting is; and he is not picking on Golden Beach, but if you live one mile north of here you would pay 3% times the amount of property tax on the City portion than you would pay in Sunny Isles Beach. He thinks that is a testament to a great staff and the fact that, as it was pointed out, the City has been managed very prudently from the beginning and so hats off to everybody, and he thanked Finance Director Audra Curts- Whann. Mayor Edelcup asked City Manager Russo to elaborate a little bit about Gateway Park and Capital Improvements that you are going to be needing for the new Park, the equipment. City Manager Russo said he has a memo he wants to hand out to the Commission. This is equipment for several reasons that we omitted from the budget document that we caught at the last minute that we are going to need with the increase of Gateway Park coming on. It is one truck and some equipment for approximately $55,000. Between now and second reading he wants to incorporate in $55,000 for this equipment. Mayor Edelcup said one other interesting thing is the reason for our millage rate reduction has been the increase in value of the existing property and he went back to look and during the years 2008, 2009, and 2010 which were the recession years, we lost property value of One Billion Eight Hundred Million Dollars (S 1,800,000,000) in assessments that accumulated over those three (3) years. The next four (4) years, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 we have added 52.5 Million in existing property values so that at the end of this year, we have more than made up all the breakdowns that took place during the recession. The evaluations of property here in Sunny Isles Beach are at their highest values ever on existing properties. He said he thinks a lot of that, again, goes to the fact that we are a world class City, and people do want to live in Sunny Isles Beach. Our property values reflect that access demand over supply that has pushed our property values up to the point where we are again able to lower our millage rates. He believes this Commission has always had a philosophy of sharing the increase that we would see each year. Approximately a third of the increase has generally gone into Reserves, a part of it has gone to cover increased costs of operating the City, and the final third generally has resulted in a property millage rate reduction. He sincerely hopes in the future the next Commission and the people that will be deciding that will try to live by that same philosophy to be able to return money to our residents rather than leave it in government's hands because if it is left sometimes in government's hands too long people find reasons to spend money that otherwise would not be necessarily needed to be spent. That 5