Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-0906 Special City Commission Meeting SUMMARY MINUTES Special City Commission Meeting 1st Budget Hearing Fiscal Year 2016/2017 Tuesday, September 6, 2016, 5:30 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 Scholl at 5:30 p.m., with the following officials present: Mayor George "Bud" Scholl City Manager Christopher J. Russo Vice Mayor Jeanette Gatto City Attorney Hans Ottinot Commissioner Isaac Aelion City Clerk Jane A. Hines, MMC Commissioner Dana Goldman Deputy City Manager Stan Morris Commissioner Jennifer Levin Deputy City Attorney Fernando Amuchastegui 2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Action: Mayor Scholl gave opening remarks noting that tonight is our first budget hearing for Fiscal Year 2016/2017. Our second and final budget hearing will be held on Thursday, September 15, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. Mayor Scholl noted an Add-On Item 4A. A Resolution approving a request from Ritz Construction Offices for a Temporary Construction Office and Fence Structure. Commissioner Aelion moved and Commissioner Levin seconded a motion to approve the above change to the agenda. The motion was approved by a voice vote of 5-0 in favor. 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 2.4000 Mills per One Thousand Dollars(51,000)of Taxable Assessed Value Which is 5.06% More than the "Rolled Back" Rate of 2.2844 Mills, for Fiscal Year 2016/2017; Providing for an Effective Date. Action: [City Clerk's Note: Items 3A and 3B were heard together.] City Clerk Hines read the title, and City Manager Russo reported. Summary Minutes:Special City Commission Meeting_ September 6.2016 Sunny Isles Beach,Florida First Budget Hearing Public Speakers: None Commissioner Aelion moved and Vice Mayor Gatto seconded a motion to approve the resolution. Resolution No. 2016-2576 was adopted by a voice vote of 5-0 in favor. 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 1,2016 through September 30,2017,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's Note: Items 3A and 3B were heard together]City Clerk Hines read the title, and City Manager Russo reported, noting that his Budget Message is on the City's Website, and it has been put out through social media. This is a milestone and we are going to be into a few of them coming into our next calendar year. This is the 20th Anniversary of the budget process here in the City. The first budget process took effect the year that the City was incorporated in 1997, and that very first year was really more of a transfer of revenues from the County to the City because they really hadn't geared up for operating yet, and next June will be the 20th actual anniversary of the City. In the first year of the City our assessed value was approximately$1.2 Billion. This year we just broke$10 Billion,our assessed value is approximately$10.1 Billion, and so that is a significant milestone for us. It is also the fifth year in a row that the City has reduced its Millage Rate. The Millage Rate has been reduced to 2.4000 this year in keeping with the pattern that has been set the four(4) previous years. Our General Fund Revenue increased this year by almost $1 Million. We have a General Fund of about $35.5 Million on the revenue side. On the expenditure side of the General Fund, we went up the lowest percentage we have in many years, 2.1% and as he said at the Budget Work Sessions, that is a factor of reaching a plateau in terms of growth, in terms of staffing, and getting to levels of service that we feel we can achieve that goal of world class service and maintenance. We are still working on that, there may be adjustments over the next few years but we feel we have reached a good point there. The General Fund is approximately just under$34 Million, and in 1997 our General Fund was about $9 Million, just to give you an idea of where we come from. City Manager Russo said that probably one of the biggest changes from the Budget Work Sessions we had to the Budget that is before the Commission tonight is the fact that we held off on going forward with the Government Center Expansion. That made a major change to our Capital Budget where we would have had significant discussions from now to then on the funding mechanism to start that process. We avoided that for this year but in the meantime to balance the remaining Capital Budget we made a transfer from our General Fund which had excessive revenues projected. We made a $2 Million transfer from the General Fund to Capital, to fund our Capital this year. Other than that, some minor changes adjusting the Budget by about $41,000.00, and that is the highlights. Summary Minutes:Special City Commission Meeting September 6,2016 Sunny Isles Beach,Florida First Budget Hearing Mayor Scholl said for the public, over the summer we had Budget Workshops and so these meetings are pretty perfunctory because we get into the details at the public meetings over the summer. Very few people seemed to be interested in the public meetings. He doesn't blame them because we tend to dig into a lot more detail but we go over the budget,department by department. We all kind of dig in and make sure that staffs assumptions are reasonable,and they typically are, and he thinks the most important thing to note this year is that, as the City Manager pointed out, we lowered the Millage Rate again for the fifth year in a row. He doesn't think we will always be lowering the Millage so eventually we are going to have to stop but again, we have the growth in the tax base where we feel comfortable lowering the Millage. But as the City Manager also pointed out,we have been talking about this for two or three years now, the City and the City staff will transition from being in kind of a growth mode which has been a lot of Capital projects and a lot of construction, into more of a maintenance mode. We are building out our Parks system,and we are probably getting close to the last few projects on that, and it will be important for the staff to, what we call create a world class maintenance organization to where we maintain the things that we built out. He would imagine over time that is when the tax rate will probably start to plateau because we will be just collecting the revenues that we need to run the affairs of the City, maintain what we have, maintain our infrastructure, and go from there. He is proud of the staff, and of the Commission,we continue to see the growth that we have,and he thinks a little bit of it is luck but a lot of it is good management. Obviously we have been blessed with a great location and some great markets but at the same time, it would be easy to screw them up if our staff didn't stay diligent and didn't keep their eye on the ball. Commissioner Levin said she is happy with the budget, and is glad we were able to lower the Millage Rate again. Commissioner Goldman said she is very pleased with the conservative approach that we take and that we act with prudence,that is what it is all about and that is why this Commission has been very effective. Commissioner Aelion said soon it is going to be zero lots to build on for public purposes and maintenance is going to become the leading implementing effort by the City going forward. Vice Mayor Gatto said she is very pleased that we were able to lower the Millage Rate again, and the job that staff is doing, and of course the Mayor's leadership as well as the Commission. Mayor Scholl said that the City Manager mentioned one thing, and collectively we had a Workshop and talked about the Government Center Expansion and the School Expansion. Again he is proud of his colleagues because we had kind of looked each other in the eye and said are we really hearing from the School Board the commitment regarding the District Jumper Program, what we call the Address Verification Program,and we had not felt that we had been getting the type of feedback that we feel comfortable with. That program would get implemented with a level of voracity to be effective, and for as difficult as it is we decided to put that project off. We are not saying we are canceling it but we are going to postpone it for a while until we see the level of commitment toward the Address Verification Program. He and the City Manager have some meetings with the School Board toward the end of the month that hopefully we can get that program back on track, we will see how that goes,and then we will make a decision. Again,he applauds his colleagues for taking the conservative approach, especially in an Election year. It would be politically popular to say we are charging forward Summary Minutes:Special City Commission Meeting September 6,2016 Sunny Isles Beach,Florida First Budget Hearing with this project but the fact is, without the right underpinning, it doesn't make sense for us. Commissioner Aelion moved and Vice Mayor Gatto 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 15,2016, at 6:00 p.m. Vote: Commissioner Aelion ves Commissioner Goldman ves Commissioner Levin ves Vice Mayor Gatto ves Mayor Scholl ves City Manager Russo said he would like to thank the Finance Department,all the Department Heads did a good job, but Finance Director Audra Curts-Whann and her staff worked very hard on this. It has gotten so much more complicated then what it was years ago. The budget about 18 or 19 years ago is just one part of the budget today,and so it is a much more complicated, involved process then it ever was, and Finance did a really good job on it. Mayor Scholl said he is kind of a ratio guy,you mentioned our General Fund went up about four-fold, we started at $9 Million and now we are at about $34 Million and our tax base went up ten-fold. So the good news is, we are taking in more but we are not spending it all. That ratio is very telling as we continue to keep our Millage under control. Our staff does more with less which is a good thing. 4. RESOLUTIONS 4A. Add-On: A Resolution of the City Commission of the City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida,Approving the Request Submitted by Suffolk Construction a/k/a"Ritz Construction Offices"for a Temporary Construction Office and Fence Structure to be Located at 100 Bayview Drive North Parking Lot, Subject to Certain Conditions;Authorizing the City Manager to Do All Things Necessary to Effectuate this Resolution; Providing for an Effective Date. Action: City Clerk Hines read the title, and Planning and Zoning Administrator Claudia Hasbun reported that Suffolk Construction is going to be the Contractor for the Ritz Project, and the Ritz Project needs a construction company and an owner's rep office and they are going to be using this lot that they are leasing from the Arlen House. Mayor Scholl said it will be behind the Sales Center, and when he first saw this, he was thinking there would not be enough room behind the Sales Center, but you got space from the Arlen House. Ms. Hasbun said they have room for the trailers but the parking is going to be off-site in the Arlen House parking lot. Mayor Scholl asked if that lot is on that corner on the right side as you come onto Bayview Drive, and Commissioner Aelion said that the egress and ingress is going to be from the main entrance to the sales office, and Ms. Hasbun said that is correct. Public Speakers: None Commissioner Aelion moved and Vice Mayor Gatto seconded a motion to approve the resolution. Resolution No. 2016-2577 was adopted by a voice vote of 5-0 in favor. 4 Summary Minutes:Special City Commission Meeting September 6,2016 Sunny Isles Beach,Florida First Budget Hearing 5. ADJOURNMENT Commissioner Aelion moved to adjourn the meeting, and Mayor Scholl adjourned it at 5:45 p.m. Respectfully submitted by: , Approved by the City Commission on Oct. 20, 2016 cA. HILMMC, City Clerk Y Georp holl, May oE% • 5 Item Coversheet Page 1 of I m ,�"""r<, City of Sunny Isles Beach ot,:Iwil \;. 18070 Collins Avenue • Sunny Isles Beach,Florida 33160 • (305)947-0606 City Hall c#<'o.„ (305)969-3113 Fax MEMORANDUM TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Commission VIA: Christopher J. Russo,City Manager FROM: Jane A. Hines, MMC,City Clerk DATE: 10/20/2016 RE: Summary Minutes for the September 6, 2016 Special City Commission Meeting RECOMMENDATION: Attached for your consideration are the Summary Minutes for the September 6, 2016 Special City Commission Meeting pertaining to Fiscal Year 2016/2017 First Budget Hearing. REASONS: N/A ATTACHMENTS: Description Summary Minutes Item Number:3.A. http://sunnyisles.novusagenda.com/Agenda Web/CoverSheet.aspx?ItemI D=1999 10/14/2016