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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-0917 Special City Commission Meeting - 1st Budget Hrg SUMMARY MINUTES Special City Commission Meeting 1st Budget Hearing Fiscal Year 2013/2014 Tuesday, September 17, 2013, 5:01 p.m. City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida ATTENTION ALL LOBBYISTS: CITY LAW REQUIRES YOUR REGISTRATION PRIOR TO ENGAGING IN LOBBYING ACTIVITIES BEFORE CITY STAFF, BOARDS,COMMITTEES OR THE CITY COMMISSION. PLEASE CONTACT THE CITY CLERK FOR FORMS AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION. AGENDA 1. CALL TO ORDER/ ROLL CALL OF MEMBERS The meeting was called to order by Mayor Edelcup at 5:01 p.m., with the following officials present: Mayor Norman S. Edelcup City Manager Christopher J. Russo Vice Mayor Isaac Aelion City Attorney Hans Ottinot Commissioner Jeanette Gatto City Clerk Jane A. Hines, MMC Commissioner Jennifer Levin Deputy City Manager Stan Morris Commissioner George "Bud" Scholl Deputy City Attorney Fernando Amuchastegui 2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Action: Deputy City Attorney Fernando Amuchastegui led the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. Mayor Edelcup gave opening remarks noting that tonight is our first budget hearing, and our second and final budget hearing will be held on Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. 3. PUBLIC HEARING ON THE PROPOSED MILLAGE RATE AND TENTATIVE BUDGET 3A. Millage Resolution (Public Hearing) A Resolution of the City Commission of the City of Sunny Isles Beach of Miami-Dade, County, Florida, Adopting the City of Sunny Isles Beach Tentative Ad Valorem Tax Millage Levy Rate at 2.7000 Mills per One Thousand Dollars($1,000)of Taxable Assessed Value Which is 8.9281%More than the"Rolled Back" Rate of 2.4787 Mills,for Fiscal Year 2013/2014; Providing for an Effective Date. Action: City Clerk Hines read the title, and City Manager Russo reported. Public Speakers: None Commissioner Scholl moved and Commissioner Gatto seconded a motion to approve the resolution. Resolution No. 2013-2097 was adopted by a voice vote of 5-0 in favor. Summary Minutes:Special City Commission Meeting September 17,2013 Sunny Isles Beach,Florida First Budget Hearing 3B. Budget Ordinance (Public Hearing) An Ordinance of the City Commission of the City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida,Adopting an Operating and Capital Improvement Budget for the Fiscal Year Commencing October 1,2013 through September 30,2014,Pursuant to Section 200.65, Florida Statutes; Authorizing Expenditures of Funds Established by the Budget;Authorizing Encumbrances; Authorizing Issuance of Checks; Providing for Grants and Gifts; Providing for Local and Federal Law Enforcement Trust Funds;Providing for Post Audit; Providing for Severability and Providing for an Effective Date. Action: City Clerk Hines read the title, and City Manager Russo presented a balanced Fiscal Year 2013/2014 Operating Budget and the five-year Capital Improvement Program. He highlighted a few of the activities we had in putting together this budget since the July Workshops. First of all and foremost the Commission took a step in July and this budget reflects a reduction in the Millage rate for the City from 2.8000 to 2.7000. That reduction coincidently was just about 30% of the revenue from the increase in property values that generated a certain increase in tax revenue. We took 30% of that and gave it back to the taxpayers as generally directed at the July Workshops. That is one of the most significant things we did here, and we were able to accomplish a lot with the remaining revenue. City Manager Russo said that it has been quite an experience getting through this budget since June when we lost our Finance Director,Controller and Senior Accountant during the budget process. In addition to the reorganization of the management team that is outlined in the budget which he thought was going to be one of the more significant leadership changes that we have had going into this new fiscal year, and he has to say that the change in the finance team has been a tremendous success so far. He gives a lot of credit to the remaining staff of the Finance Department during the period before we hired Finance Director Audra Curts- Whann and Assistant Finance Director Tiffany Neely-Jean, and to Cheryl Williams of his office and the Department Heads and their key staff people who had really pulled together. Even going through the budget workshops was a very difficult process because we still had a significant number of unknowns,unknowns that we were fairly confident that the revenues or the income or the expenditures either would be less than projected, all the factors that would lead us to believe that we are in good shape. However, it took until now in cleaning up this budget to confirm a lot of the assumptions that we had to make in not having full access to all of our information back then. But we have come through it very well. City Manager Russo noted that there are no major changes to this budget from what we determined at the workshops, he just wanted to reiterate a few things and highlight a few things. We had some significant changes to our management team most of which was covered by the elimination of positions, we created a Deputy City Manager position, we eliminated an Assistant City Manager position, we created an Assistant City Manager for Capital Projects and Public Works, we eliminated a Public Works Director position, we eliminated a Human Resource Director position, we elevated the IT Director to Chief Information Officer,and so we have had a number of changes that have been offset. We also had in this proposed budget the full implementation of the increase in Ocean Rescue staffing, and the additional Police Officers primarily for community policing in our parks. We have the full staffing increases to the Building Department as approved by the City Commission. We also budgeted for,which was started in the last year,for at least two-thirds of what will be 2 Summary Minutes:Special City Commission Meeting September 17,2013 Sunny Isles Beach,Florida First Budget Hearing our third facility operation worker team that will be covering and fully implemented with the completion of Gateway Park. City Manager Russo said that leads him to our Capital Projects of which the main point he wanted to make is as you well know, many of our Capital Projects are multi-year projects. The most significant one is Gateway Park that needs to be and hopefully will be substantially completed and funded during this next Fiscal Year. We think some of that will lead over into the following Fiscal Year 2014/2015. We hope to complete a number of projects that have been in the budget for multiple years now, especially Intracoastal Park, the Emergency Pedestrian Bridge,the Pedestrian Overpass for Gateway Park,the Utility Undergrounding,the Arlen House Streetscape Plan, and several others. City Manager Russo said that we did hit a milestone this past week,we did get an approval by the South Florida Water Management Board of our Wetlands Mitigation Plan for the Emergency Bridge. This is a big step towards completing the environmental permitting process and that is moving forward. As far as new projects in the Capital Projects, there are only a few. The significant project is the Drainage Project for 174th Street, and again not major projects in light of what we have already budgeted, improvements to this building [Government Center] in multiple ways as we have discussed in terms of space,repairs that are needed, and an upgrade of our emergency generator. Also he wanted to mention one other point and this probably is not significant in terms of the budget but it is in the terms of our operations and some of the recent issues we have had. He has budgeted,since the Workshops, for some contractual funding which he has already started to implement for a weekend and holiday parking attendant at Pier Park. This has made, as far as he can see and the feedback that he has gotten from the management of LaPerla, a significant improvement to alleviate some of the issues over there. He asked Finance Director Audra Curts-Whann to give the Commission a better overview of the changes that we have made to this budget from the Workshops to now. Finance Director Audra Curts-Whann said she will be primarily looking at page 27 which is the Budget Summary. This is where she wants to point out the main difference that you will see between your July workshops and this publication. She said after discussion with the City Manager and the Mayor, we re-worked the presentation to include Fund Balances, and that was your City Reserve. In the original presentation, only the portion of the Reserve that was planned to be used was shown instead of the entire Reserve. We felt it was proper especially given the size of those Reserves that the Commission is trying to adhere to and carry forward. We wanted to make sure that the total Reserve in estimate for the tentative budget but estimated where we think we are going to be on October 1, 2013 is shown as the Fund Balance on page 27. Those are estimates and are subject to when the Accounting Department closes the books but now you can see what we think your Fund Balance will be. The very first line in that Summary for the General Fund for the various Special Revenue Funds,our Capital Projects Funds which is the carry forward budgets primarily of all of the projects that are multi-year projects as the City Manager has mentioned. She wanted to point that out because that has not been presented that way in the past in any of your past publications and we did decide to make that change as those numbers were material and they affected the readers' judgment as to how the City and their budget looked. Anything after page 27, 28, 29, 30 etc. 3 Summary Minutes:Special City Commission Meeting September 17.2013 Sunny Isles Beach.Florida First Budget Hearing are pictures to show us the primary increases and decreases in the various budgets from year to year, and they don't vary from what was discussed in your workshops and what the City Manager has highlighted today. Finance Director Curts-Whann said starting on page 40 is a Summary of all of the revenues and there are no significant changes in the revenue projections that were made between the workshops and now except in one fund and that was in the Capital Projects Fund. We felt one of the revenue estimates was slightly optimistic and we brought it down a little bit, and if it does better we will make an amendment during the year and put it back at those levels. Finance Director Curts-Whann said the other thing that she wanted to point out is at the very back of the book in the Capital Projects Section on page C4. This also gives you a much better picture of what the current budgeted projects are being added to the budget versus carry forwards from past years. So again, this is a different presentation then you have seen in the past. If you look in the second section which is the Appropriation section,the projects that are listed in a row up top or first, are the newly budgeted for additional amounts given to those projects for the year. The second to the last line says "Estimated Project Carryovers from Prior Year". Those are the multi-year projects where in the past you have appropriated for all of the various parks and things that are going on right now and those dollar amounts are the amounts that we expect to carry forward that we think will not be expended by September 30, 2014. It gives the reader a picture of our carry forwards which again we have never had in the past because we have never shown the carry forward projects this way before. Public Speakers: None Mayor Edelcup asked the Finance Director to enlighten the Commission on the Accrual Process for next year. Finance Director Curts-Whann said that currently the City for many years have operated completely on a cash basis,cash basis meaning the only thing that shows in your Quarterly Financials is the money that came in and the money that went out. Expected revenues are not shown, or what we call accrual, expected expenditures are not shown. We are hoping, effective October 1, 2013, to modify the way we do that and the things that are known or can be reasonably estimated, we are going to move to what we call a Modified Accrual Basis. We are going to try to show you more rounded, so that you have apples to apples from year to year where you are going to end up. There are big swings,ups and downs, where certain revenues only come in once a year so you will have this big huge hit in one or two months and then nothing the rest of the year. Sometimes those are the same from year to year and sometimes they are not. So we are going to smooth it out for you and show you over the course of a year based on accrual accounting where you really are. You are going to see some visual changes because we are upgrading New World or working toward different financial reporting the way it comes out of your accounting system. Assistant Finance Director Tiffany Neely-Jean is here as well and she is the one that is doing the technical side of getting these reports put together. We are going to make some changes and we hope they will be pleasing changes to the Commission, things that will give you more information. things that will help you understand what is happening throughout the year better. Commissioner Scholl asked how do cities report, cash or accrual? Finance Director Curts- Whann said they are mixed, and City Manager Russo said he can answer that from his 4 Summary Minutes:Special City Commission Meeting September 17.2013 Sunny Isles Beach,Florida First Budget Hearing experience, modify the accrual definitely. What he realized with a strictly cash basis is the next day it could be way out of whack, at least if it is modified accrual we are going to anticipate someone coming in and reporting it in that quarterly report. Commissioner Scholl said no argument on the revenue side, it is pretty consistent, we kind of know what we are getting. The expense side is where it gets funky because you are paying for stuff, and City Manager Russo said yes but he doesn't think he has ever worked at a place where they didn't do some form of modified accrual. Finance Director Curts-Whann said that we believe it will provide you with some good information especially on the expenditure side. People don't mean to but a lot of times they will hold things for payment later and so lots of expenses all of a sudden hit near the end of the year because things need to be paid before the end of the year and they should have been recognized evenly throughout. We are encouraging just a little bit more leveling of your revenues and expenses. Commissioner Levin said with regards to the City Commission budget, there is an item in here for the Special Program Manager for$72,844.00 on page 71. She believes this has to do with the hiring of Lynn Dannheisser to come in and do a special project for the City with regards to grants for a proposed 501(c)(3) and the City Attorney has obtained some ethics opinions. City Attorney Ottinot said as you may recall that issue was brought up at the Workshop in June, and he advised the Commission that he would obtain a page file to the Ethics Commission that governs the City of Sunny Isles Beach. One is Miami-Dade County, and the State of Florida Ethics Commission both have issued an informal opinion leading to Ms. Dannheisser and her ability to work as an employee and basically both opinions indicated that if she intends to represent a developer in this City or outside the City that would impose a conflict of interest. In his opinion, and the opinion that was issued by the State Ethics Commission recommends that she be hired as a Consultant. Commissioner Levin said that she would request that the budget be amended to remove her as an employee and to put in an item for a Consultant. Mayor Edelcup said why don't we have the City Manager and City Attorney investigate this between now and the final reading of the budget because there seems to be a difference of opinion from what the City Attorney has issued to us and what Joe Centorino has written and what we have from the State. So, it is still not clear at least in his mind that the opinion that our City Attorney has given is in parallel with what we have gotten from the County because it appears that there are steps that can be taken by Ms. Dannheisser to rectify her position. So that depending upon if she takes those steps she would be able to be an employee and there still seems to be some confusion on it, and so he would recommend that between now and final reading that it be resolved. City Manager Russo said this is one minor part of the entire budget and we are here on a budget hearing. Since he is the one that does the hiring, this is an item that is budgeted in a department that happens to be the City Commission, and the funding is there. When this budget is approved and we deal with that issue he will do what he would do for the department head as to whether or not if we have the choice of hiring someone as a Consultant or a part-time employee, he will make that decision based on what that department head, in this case it will be the majority of the Commission. Therefore as far as he is concerned this is nothing but a place holder in terms of the funding. 5 Summary Minutes:Special City Commission Meeting September 17,2013 Sunny Isles Beach,Florida First Budget Hearing Mayor Edelcup said all we want to make sure is whatever we finally do meets the Ethics requirements and so he will leave it with the City Manager and City Attorney to work out the specifics. Either way when you reach your conclusion, she will be hired as either a Consultant or as an employee depending upon how everything plays itself out. Commissioner Scholl said he doesn't even know why the Commission is getting involved in this because the bottom line is we agree that this is what we wanted,whatever this mechanism is, to potentially get grants for us in the future, etc. He doesn't agree with what the City Attorney just said because he read Joe Centorino's letter and he just doesn't agree with the City Attorney's interpretation. We have money appropriated in the budget and it is up to the City Manager to prosecute the mechanism of how that is going to come about. Mayor Edelcup said the money is being provided for and the City Manager makes the decision. We don't normally make the decisions as to whether or not people are hired as employees or contracted since that is something that the City Manager usually handles. Vice Mayor Aelion said with that being said,cities have a City Attorney for a purpose and this is to guide the City in its legal affairs, and if a City Attorney has an opinion about a certain issue, not only do they have to be heard, they have to be weighed and weighed seriously. Mayor Edelcup said there is a difference of opinion here. Each one of us has read all the opinions that have been sent to us, and we do not all necessarily agree with our City Attorney's decision. Based on that he is asking the City Manager and the City Attorney,who should be the people that are working this out and not the Commission,to make sure however this person is hired conforms to any ethics requirements that are there, and that they both be satisfied in the end that we are doing the right thing and report back to the Commission. But he thinks the Commission should not be stepping into this segment of how people are hired within the City's organization. Commissioner Levin said she thinks there are special circumstances here, she did not ask for the item to be removed from the budget,she asked that it be reclassified. She would like to see either a complete job description or a Scope of Services to justify the amount of money that will ultimately be paid, and Vice Mayor Aelion agreed. City Attorney Ottinot clarified for the record that his opinion is basically consistent with the Ethics Commission, and Mayor Edelcup disagreed. City Attorney Ottinot said when he received the letter from the State Commission and the County, he called Mr. Centorino and Ms. Frigo and asked them to explain paragraph 3 in the opinion a person can be hired as an employee if he or she basically terminates an employment, and in the bottom paragraph they indicated that person cannot be representing a developer outside the community if he or she believes the developer has an item before the City. I called him and asked him to clarify that because there is clearly a conflict here. The City Manager came to him yesterday with an issue of a part-time employee who has been asked by a developer to work outside the City. The City Manager asked him to call the employee and both of us agreed that the employee had a choice to either become a Consultant and work with anyone he wants to or a City employee and he decided to stay with the City and not to have that conflict. And so we had a similar issue yesterday and the City Manager did not disagree with that. Mayor Edelcup said he has read the opinions and he does not get the same interpretation after reading Joe Centorino's memo that the City Attorney interprets it to be. We are talking about 6 Summary Minutes:Special City Commission Meeting September 17,2013 Sunny Isles Beach.Florida First Budget Hearing a work product by a person that is going to do the work, and now we are getting caught in the detail as to whether that person is an"employee" or an "outside Consultant". The same end product is going to be delivered to us by that same person, and so we are already walking a fine line because we are using that person either way. It is the City Attorney's opinion that person should be an independent contractor and the City Attorney is certainly entitled to his opinion. However,the way he reads the memo from Joe Centorino is if Ms. Dannheisser goes through the steps of resigning from her position and her current developer,and acknowledges that she has no more representation for them from that day forward that also fell under the scope of where Mr. Centorino said then she could be an employee. I do not like the fact that we are debating this here and that is why he keeps suggesting that the City Attorney and City Manager needs to work this out. But at the same time he thinks they are getting the flavor that maybe we have a divided opinion on the Commission as to which way it should go. Commissioner Gatto said her feeling is our intent today is to approve the dollars,however it is carved up later on,and Mayor Edelcup said he agrees,the dollars are not going to change and the person is not going to change. It is the label that person winds up with that is up to debate and that is not really our debate. Mayor Edelcup said to Commissioner Levin if she wants to keep it on the floor, she is entitled to make that motion. Commissioner Levin said she thinks it should be reclassified if necessary at the appropriate time. She said this is her first budget meeting and she looked at this and raised the issue because she thought it was appropriate because of the way it is shown in the budget. Mayor Edelcup said let's see if we can draft a solution to this that depending upon the final outcome of how this person is hired,that we will classify the dollars to match the form of employment that is offered this person. Finance Director Curts-Whann said the second hearing is on September 26,2013 and she does not believe this will be resolved by then and so she thinks the budget should stand and an amendment should be processed if the decision changes. City Manager Russo said he doesn't think the money will make a bit of difference because he just said here on record that we will do it either way. Mayor Edelcup said the only thing the Commission is asking for is if at the end she gets hired as a Consultant instead of being in 5120 regular salaries, it will go to the outside Consultant account. City Manager Russo said we will do whatever the proper technical way is. Vice Mayor Aelion moved and Commissioner Levin seconded a motion to approve the proposed ordinance on first reading. The motion was approved by a roll call vote of 5-0 in favor. Second reading,public hearing will be held on Thursday,September 26,2013, at 7:00 p.m. Vote: Commissioner Gatto yes Commissioner Levin yes Commissioner Scholl yes Vice Mayor Aelion yes Mayor Edelcup yes 7 Summary Minutes:Special City Commission Meeting September 17,2013 Sunny Isles Beach.Florida First Budget Hearing 4. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Edelcup adjourned the meeting at 5:31 p.m. Respectfully submitted by: Approved by the City Commission on Oct. 17, 2013 Jane Hines, MMC, City Clerk Nor n S. Edelcup, Mayor 8 • so NY Ist, d : .: s City of Sunny Isles Beach Aare_:- eF = 18070 Collins Avenue '? . Sunny Isles Beach, Florida 33160 144 ,-`4,,, °9 F ° y4.r (305)947-0606 City Hall ``T ga •o F 5 u t4 A (305)949-3113 Fax MEMORANDUM - TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Commission VIA: Christopher J. Russo, City Manager FROM: Jane A. Hines, MMC, City Clerk DATE: 10/17/2013 RE: Summary Minutes for the September 17, 2013 City Commission Meeting IIRECOMMENDATION: . - Attached for your consideration are the Summary Minutes for the September 17, 2013 Special City Commission Meeting for Fiscal Year 2013/2014 First Budget Hearing. REASONS: N/A ATTACHMENTS: • Summary Minutes III Agenda Item No 3.A Date 10/17/20 1 3 10