Ordinance 2001-137 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Budget Message ~ ~ It has been a year since my last budget message as your new city manager. During this time period, many of my initial goals have been accomplished and some have presented challenges I did not anticipate. The good news, however, is that these challenges have been identified prior to becoming crises. These challenges have fundamentally come in two areas - financial stability and understanding of future financial needs, and especially, the city hall issue. Developing a city hall should be important to the taxpayer since land will only become more expensive in the future. It does not make sense for a government to continue renting space when they can borrow funds at a low interest rate, own property and build equity in that property. My initial goals included issues beyond the budget that are important in considering the formulation of the budget. They include: (1) restoring a sense of enthusiasm and confidence in the city management; (2) gaining an understanding of the city's finances and formulating an appropriate budget process; (3) identifying and assessing long-term financial needs; (4) creating an on-going formal pending agenda of projects for the comnusslon and each department, and developing a five-year capital budget plan; (5) ensuring the completion of current projects including parks, and storm water drainage; (6) fostering teamwork and a clear sense of responsibility within the city administrative staff; and Cl) welcoming input from and getting to know the residents and business owners of Sunny Isles Beach. Some of these goals require constant effort for they are dynamic, while others such as the creation of a formal five-year capital budget plan and the completion of park and storm water projects require more work, and will be dealt with in future budgets. The amount of attention spent moving forward towards the completion of current projects such as parks and storm water improvements, has been slowed by the financial planning necessary to assure our ability to pay for such improvements. However, the detailed specifications for both major storm water projects, in the passive park area from 174th Street north to 183rd Street and in the Golden Shores area, are well under way. The development of the active park at North Bay Road and 181st Street has been slowed. One of the reasons for the slower movement has been a change in the thinking of the administration, from "immediate" to "long-range" planning. We will start to move forward on the Active Park plans in the 2001-2002 fiscal year. However, it must be considered in light of the drainage project for this area. I would not want to start developing the Active Park and then need to destroy part of it to put in drainpipes. In preparation for this budget a few months ago, we identified that certain operating expenses were funded with one-time revenues in order to balance the current budget. Standard budgeting practices require that your operating fund have a continuing revenue source - meaning the funding is there from year to year, such as franchise fees, sales taxes, utility taxes and our real property tax. Our current budget has over $500,000 worth of one-time revenues appropriated to balance it. Conversely, on the expenditure side, the city's debt service (all the wonderful park improvements and property purchases that were made) was being funded with monies left over from previous years within the capital fund. This arrangement did not anticipate a source of funding for future years to Budget Message