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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-0906 Special City Commission Meeting SUMMARY MINUTES Special City Commission Meeting 1st Budget Hearing Fiscal Year 2011/2012 Tuesday, September 6, 2011, 6:00 p.m. City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida ATTENTION ALL LOBBYISTS: CITY LAW REOUIRES 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 6:00 p.m., with the following officials present: Mayor Norman S. Edelcup Vice Mayor Lewis J. Thaler Commissioner Isaac Aelion Commissioner Jeanette Gatto Commissioner George "Bud" Scholl City Manager Alan J. Cohen City Attorney Hans Ottinot City Clerk Jane A. Hines, CMC Assistant City Manager/Services Jorge Vera Assistant City Attorney Fernando Amuchastegui 2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Action: Former Commissioner Gerry Goodman led the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, and the Commission wished him a Happy Birthday on September 11, 2011. Mayor Edelcup gave opening remarks noting that tonight is our first budget hearing, and our second and final budget hearing will be held on Tuesday, September 20,2011 at 6:00 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 2.8860 Mills per One Thousand Dollars ($1,000) of Taxable Assessed Value Which is 4.17% More than the "Rolled Back" Rate of 2.7706 Mills, for Fiscal Year 2011/2012; Providing for an Effective Date. Action: City Manager Alan Cohen reported noting that the millage rate has not changed from the prior year, and out of 34 municipalities in Miami-Dade County, we are ranked the 8th lowest in millage rate. Mayor Ede1cup said that is about where we have been throughout the life of our City. Public Speakers: none Commissioner Scholl moved and Vice Mayor Thaler seconded a motion to approve the resolution. Resolution No. 2011-1753 was adopted by a roll call vote of 5-0 in favor. Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting September 6, 20 II First Budget Hearing Sunny Isles Beach, Florida 38. Budget Ordinance (Public Hearing) An Ordinance of the City Commission of the City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, Adopting an Operating and Capital Outlay Budget for the Fiscal Year Commencing October 1, 2011 through September 30, 2012, 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 Cohen reported and presented a power-point of major changes from last year's budget to this year's budget. The changes included a decrease in utility franchise fees, primarily from FPL resulting from a one-time rebate ($400,000), and an increase in property tax revenues of $597,000 due primarily to new construction and some base value increases. We are anticipating a decrease in Code Enforcement fines based on actuals from previous years and the activity we are seeing now. It is the Commission's intent to cancel the Red Light Program and so we are taking $30,000 out of the budget for that. Weare anticipating based on our latest reports, an increase in intergovernmental revenues of $163,000, which includes approximately $100,000 for our share of the sales tax, and $50,000 of transportation monies that we get on an annual basis. We have three parking items: Marco Polo Parking Contract for Heritage Park garage which is a $44,000 increase; we are anticipating a decrease in Pier Park parking due to staging that will occur for the Pier Project, but we are anticipating an increase in parking revenues in other lots including an offset due to the Pier Park closure. We have $75,000 for naming rights of the Gym at Pelican Community Park for Raanan and Phyllis Katz, they had given us in-kind contributions for the past two years, now we will see an actual increase in our cash. City Manager Cohen said that we are projecting sending $510,000 in surplus monies from this year's budget to next year's budget. An increase of $9,000 for Building Permitting fees, $50,000 for Code Enforcement revenues, and an increase in associated revenues of about $10,000. We are anticipating a savings in our FRS costs of approximately $257,000. Additionally, a $50,000 savings from the elimination of one vacant permit clerk position in the Building Department, and a $61,000 savings for switching our dental insurance plan. We will see a $145,000 increase due to the cost of step increases in the Police Department, and a change in how we are computing reimbursement for Forfeiture Funds for the positions that are attached to the task force that generate the forfeiture income but it is still a net positive for us and we expect it to grow over time. There is a decrease in Worker's Compensation expense due to our insurance rates dropping slightly. A decrease in overtime and comp time budget in the Police Department based on actual prior years expenditures, we have not spent as much as we budgeted and so we are presenting more accurate figures this year. Weare adding one intermediate life guard position and related supplies ($25,000), and we were able to switch a surplus vehicle from the Police Department to Ocean Rescue. The addition of Heritage Park and garage expenses including one position, which is $211,000, for maintenance. Other expenses are related to the parking garage including electricity for lighting the garage. City Manager Cohen reported that we entered into a new lease agreement with FDOT under the Lehman Causeway, we are now going to be sharing parking revenues with them which 2 Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting September 6, 2011 First Budget Hearing Sunny Isles Beach, Florida will result in a $75,000 decrease. We are contracting with outside counsel to assist us with Police Union negotiations which is $50,000. We are anticipating fuel increases over this year's budgeted amount of $68,000 based on cost of fuel going up. We have an additional $145,000 item for a variety of small maintenance projects, which we expect to be recurring because other items will be coming up in years ahead. The $105,000 is for the in-house construction of three (3) lifeguard towers representing a $345,000 savings not including in- house labor. The installation and rental of the Public Works trailer under the Lehman Causeway is $25,000, a lot of that is for set-up and break-down, this is a significant change from the original $150,000 Capital Projects item presented to the Commission. We will also develop a plan for development of a Public Works compound in that area. We are seeing an increase in expenses of $139,000 for water, as a result of some water meters that were installed by North Miami but for some reason we were not billed in a timely manner and they have realized their mistake and we are paying the back bills now. Based on those bills this is the increase in water expenditure that we expect, and Gwen Margolis Park was the big one. City Manager Cohen said there is a $150,000 increase in insurance cost due to the addition of City assets, Heritage Park being the biggest one. He looked into the concept of self-insurance and asked our provider for a list of all the items with a value of $50,000 or less to see whether or not it was worth self-insuring those items. It was approximately 40 items and the total premium was less than $3,900, and so the big ticketed items are really parks and structures. City Manager Cohen said we will see on the positive of $120,000 due to a decrease in property taxes that the City is paying to other taxing authorities due to the conversion of City property that is currently income generating property that will revert to non-income generating City parks. Weare converting a commercial property to a park and it is coming off the tax rolls, we no longer pay taxes on it to the other jurisdictions. We are seeing a $19,000 reduction in cost for the off-year in the election cycle. We have an increase of$45,000 for the addition of a variety of special events. A lot of this is due to new programs that we are going to be running at Heritage Park, and we will have at least one large event each month. This includes our piano series which was added mid-year last year after the budget was approved. City Manager Cohen said we have an increase of $700,000 over last year's budget that moves over to the Capital Projects Fund. We have a decrease in funding of Capital Outlay Requests so these are Capital items that are funded in the budget and the $163,000 that you see means that this year's budget has $163,000 less in it for Capital items than last year's budget did. Lastly, $163,000 for a variety of savings that had been experienced to date from last year's budget to this year's budget due to the efforts of our Procurement Department. Vice Mayor Thaler asked about the FRS savings, and City Manager Cohen said when employees State-wide were required to contribute to the fund for the first time, the State also decreased the amount that all municipalities had to contribute to the fund, and so there was an offset there. We anticipate that number going up and we will probably, within 2 or 3 years, be back where we were paying this year. They projected that next year is a lower number but the following year will be a significant increase for the municipalities and their contributions. Vice Mayor Thaler asked if the additional lifeguard is a part-time position, and City Manager Cohen said yes. Vice Mayor Thaler asked where we are putting him, is it for after we get the 3 Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting September 6, 2011 First Budget Hearing Sunny Isles Beach, Florida new lifeguard stand up and so it is not for the full year, and City Manager Cohen said we had started construction but then we had to resubmit plans because the plans did not fully comply with the new Code. One of our employees is going to construct that tower, and when it is constructed and placed on the beach, this is the estimate that it will cost us for the rest of the year. The long term redistribution will be when we have ten (10) stations next year. Vice Mayor Thaler asked about the $211,000 for Heritage Park, item 21, is it possible that we can turn out some of those lights during the day in Heritage Park, they are on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is it a legal requirement? City Attorney Ottinot said he will research it. Vice Mayor Thaler asked about the Public Works trailer, we had $150,000 that was not recommended, and now you are asking for $25,000. Public Works Director Gio Batista said the difference is that the $25,000 is a lease, whereas the $150,000 was an outright purchase. The $25,000 includes the monthly lease, delivery, tie-down, plumbing, a temporary holding tank, and the electrical hook-ups. City Manager Cohen said it is for 12 months, and the monthly rental is about $800, and a lot of that infrastructure we will be able to use when we transition to a different type of setup there. Commissioner Aelion asked about item 33, the increase and transfer out of Capital Projects Fund, and City Manager Cohen said you will not see it as a separate number, Line 33 represents the differential between what we transferred last year to the Capital Projects Fund, and what we are going to transfer next year. Mayor Edelcup said that last year we transferred out less because we had a payment to make on the building, the Malibu Plaza, and Assistant City Manager/Finance Minai Shah said we took on additional debt, $15 Million at service because in past years we transferred about $2 Million, and because we took on that additional debt, we had to bring down the transfer out for $600,000 in order to balance it. Right now we are working to build that transfer out back to $2 Million. City Manager Cohen said on page C-5 at the back of the budget book, is the CIP account, the 4th item down is transferring from the General Fund $1.3820 Million, and so last year that number was $700,000 less, and that is where the $700,000 is in that $1.3 Million. Mayor Edelcup asked to go into more detail in the separate funding, and City Manager Cohen said in the Capital Projects Budget, one of the structural changes is that they created two new budgets to separate some items specifically our streets budget and the Building Department. In the Building Department we want to keep better track of our revenues and expenses to make sure there is a more of a matching between those two, so we can better comply with regulations. It is a similar situation for Transportation Funds, the funds we receive are to be used for transportation purposes and so we are separating them to keep better track of them and for auditing purposes to make it easier to show that we are using the funds properly. City Manager Cohen said the Capital Improvement Projects budget on page C-7, are the main projects that are being funded under the General Funds and he made that distinction because there are some other funds after that, we have the large outlay for the Newport Pier Park of$l ,009,000 and that is our big project for the year; and Collins Avenue Improvements is a continuation ofthe project that has been ongoing. We have monies for looking at studies on how we can best mitigate concerns that are being generated by the recreation area at Town 4 Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting September 6, 2011 First Budget Hearing Sunny Isles Beach, Florida Center. We have some initial monies to do some studies for the Pedestrian & Emergency Vehicular Bridge but the bulk of that is going to be in 2013-2014. The FPL Undergrounding Project will be continuing and he clarified that the $429,000 is gross, not a credit, we have over a $300,000 credit with FPL which will be applying to this $429,000 and so the net will be in the neighborhood of $120,000. Mayor Edelcup said we should address the fact that these are showing red negatives in cash flow, and for the record, these numbers do not give any credit for the possibility of six or seven other items that could balance that budget. Weare talking about perhaps debt refinancing that would bring in $2 Million, we are talking about selling the Alamo property which could bring immediate cash or immediate in the next couple of years of$3 Million and another $4.5 Million thereafter. Additional property taxes that would come in from increased assessments if we had to go that route, additional revenues from grants, and it doesn't consider any sales of TDRs which may come about as a result of new construction in those future years. And so, there are ways to mitigate the red numbers. City Manager Cohen said he was initially focusing on FY 2012, and explained that the Commission has in front of them a Five- Year Capital Budget and we are showing, starting in FY 2013 a deficit in the Capital Budget. That is based on current conditions, and as the Mayor pointed out, it is not reflective of a variety of different actions that are available in the Commission's arsenal of different decisions or actions that they can take to reduce and eliminate the deficit that is shown here. He said it is only there as a place holder for discussion purposes next year, and he pointed out that the Commission is not voting on any of the projects in years 2013 through 2016. Public Speakers: Gerry Goodman Former Commissioner Gerry Goodman asked about flooding on 174th Street and landscaping the center island on I 74th Street, and City Manager Cohen said in the Streets Construction & Maintenance Fund we have $140,000 for Capital Projects that is primarily for improvements at 182nd and 183rd Streets and Collins, and the Heritage Garage. We also have $440,000 which is being funded out of the Stormwater Capital Funds, and in that fund is the 174th Street Drainage Project. Commissioner Goodman asked if there is any landscaping on the center island of 174th Street in the Capital Projects, and City Manager Cohen said no, we are first focused on making the existing landscaping look better, and we are going to make sure that median is well taken care of. City Manager Cohen reported in the Stormwater Capital Fund on page C-1 0, we have $150,000 for the completion of Bella Vista Bay Park Project, and for some drainage issues at Heritage Park. Mayor Ede1cup said on the presentation of the Newport Fishing Pier on page C-11, one of the problems he is having with this presentation is that it really never shows the total expenditure anticipated for that project, and he would hope that on each ofthese pages there is a total cost of that particular project. City Manager Cohen said that the information is there but it is in small type under the project components box on the right hand side. We will do a better job of presenting it so that it is clearer to the Commission and the general public. Mayor Edelcup said then right now you are adding those three columns and coming to that number on the Pier, and City Manager Cohen said yes, that is the worst case scenario number. Mayor Edelcup said to pay $5,823,436 for the Pier, he does not accept that as a budget figure, 5 Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting September 6, 20 II First Budget Hearing Sunny Isles Beach, Florida and Commissioner Scholl agreed. Mayor Edelcup said he has a problem with these numbers and he would rather not see a number like that because if we set a number like that, somehow it winds up getting spent. Commissioner Scholl said he was confused as to why we are adding the expenditure through 9/30 to the budget, and Assistant City Manager/Finance Minai Shah said it is the expenditures through last fiscal year 9/30/2010, and Commissioner Scholl said he understands that but wasn't that part of the original budget of the project because we were at $4 Million and we were adding about $1.1 Million based on the current discussions regarding the additional expenses that we needed, he thought that the $500,000 that we already spent was out of the original budget. Assistant City Manager Shah said that was the understanding but when we actually did fund the account for professional engineering services a few years ago, it was her understanding that when the City went back out to get the construction company it was $3.7 Million and change, the original adopted budget was $3.5 Million, $4 Million minus the half a million, but because the contract came in over, plus there were components of the services that were not included in the contract such as special inspections, etc., that is what brought this number back up to $4 Million. Commissioner Scholl said we will go back over that because he was under the impression that we had about $3.7 Million and then we appropriated an extra $.5 Million which brought our appropriation up to $4 Million. We had the additional expense with Calvin Giordano and Associates, and we have a pretty good number on that now but that didn't add up to $5.8 Million, it added up to about $5.2 Million plus change, but we will discuss it. Mayor Edelcup said he wants somebody to come back in the next couple of weeks with the numbers. Commissioner Scholl said the goal is to present a hard budget. Vice Mayor Thaler said what you are saying now is that the Pier is up to $5.2 Million, and Commissioner Scholl said based on the last time that they spoke about this, we are getting our final numbers for all of those additional costs that we didn't put in the original budget, and we are up to $5 Million and change but he believes that the numbers we have are manageable, before a lot of those numbers were estimates. But this extra half a million is new to him because he thought that was in the original budget, and Assistant City Manager Shah said that half a million dollars was for past costs to Marlin Engineering, and Commissioner Scholl said the money we spent on Marlin was part of the original scope of the project. City Manager Cohen said when we first put these numbers together we were under a different working assumption, we have since changed our working assumption and our numbers, and we neglected to go back in and adjust the numbers that you are seeing on this page. Mayor Edelcup said that the completion date is wrong as well. Commissioner Scholl said the point is that we are getting close to getting our arms around it, we are getting close to the timeline but we are not there yet. City Manager Cohen said what we are bringing forward to the September meeting are all the elements related to the Calvin Giordano contract including GeoTech Special Inspection, etc. He said we are not bringing forward at that meeting, the additional insurance which is another item, should we be bringing that forward, and Commissioner Scholl said no, he wants to scope the whole thing at the meeting, basically we are just about there on the numbers based on their conversations and our meetings with Calvin Giordano and Associates. We should bring clarity on the half of a million dollars, and there is a dependency on the timeline based on the final permitting but we should have a reasonably 6 Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting September 6,2011 First Budget Hearing Sunny Isles Beach, Florida accurate timeline by then as well. He said it is also part improvements on the restaurant. Mayor Edelcup said in going through some of these, Collins Avenue Sidewalk Improvements on page C-13, in the description area you have four different phases, can you put timelines on each of those phases because he wants to start holding people accountable for when they are going to deliver something. On Atlantic Isle, this relates to putting in the streetscape, it looks like there is four different areas of Collins Avenue on the west side, and if you could just break out separate times, estimates when each of those are going to be complete. Another area he would like to talk about is Pedestrian and Emergency Vehicular Bridge on page C-15, is $4.7 Million a good number or is it a conservative number, for the same reasons he spoke of about the Pier he mentions this one that we don't want to have an open invitation to spend up to $4.7 Million. City Manager Cohen said this is probably a very conservative number right now, it has not been subjected to the level of scrutiny that it will be. Mayor Edelcup said on page C-18 Heritage Park and Parking Garage Improvements, as a comment it shows a completion date of August 2012, is that true, and City Manager Cohen said no, and then he asked how long before we expect the shade structured canopies to go up, and Public Works Director Gio Batista said the schedule produced by the contractor for the stage canopy had a date of about when the Jazz Fest was going to take place, and so we are currently looking at mid-November for that canopy to be up on the stage. Assuming we go to RFP in October for the play structure we can assume it will be three months. Mayor Edelcup said that the report says we are not going to do anything in Heritage Park until March 2012 and we won't have anything finished until August which is conflicting, and he asked to change the dates to reality. Vice Mayor Thaler said this is the first time he is hearing that it is beyond 120 days, and Public Works Director Batista said for the canopy on the stage, we received a construction schedule from the vendor in accordance with the contract. When we reviewed it we noticed that it was going to be a very tight fit, we did not want to implicate the Jazz Fest with construction material laying around, sod being in disrepair, and leaving it to the contractor's ability to make adjustments, and so we decided at stafflevel to take the control in our hands and say, if there is no assurance that we are going to have the canopy up by Jazz Fest we would rather pull it back a little to make sure that they are able to get that structure in. Mayor Edelcup said that the Commission set a date, why didn't you come back to the Commission, and City Manager Cohen said we were presented with an initial design by the contractor, we were not happy with it because we felt there were some deficiencies in it, we went back and forth with the contractor until we were able to resolve those design deficiencies which were just resolved last week. Vice Mayor Thaler said you are now talking about a year, from three months to a year, and Mayor Edelcup said the canopy for the stage was supposed to have been before the Jazz Fest this year, and as it relates to the playground equipment, that will be in before next August. Public Works Director Batista said the Stage Canopy will be in by mid-November, and that we have to do what we mentioned with the streetscape, we have to split these up to make sure the dates are understood for each particular event. Mayor Edelcup asked if these are the same people that put in the canopy at PCP, and Mr. Batista said they are the same people who are fabricating the canopy, and Mayor Edelcup said we had trouble with them, and yet you decided to use the same people. Mr. Batista said no, 7 Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting September 6, 2011 First Budget Hearing Sunny Isles Beach, Florida the vendor we contracted with is Castle USA, and Castle USA produced a contract with Awnings of Hollywood for the preparation and creation of the canvas. They were notified of the situation we have had with Awnings of Hollywood, and have been put on notice. Mayor Edelcup asked if there was a penalty in the contract if the stage canopy was not in by the due date, and Mr. Batista said we received a construction schedule in accordance with the contract, we reviewed it and requested a concept drawing from the contractor, the concept drawing was not what we had envisioned it to be in accordance with the RFP. There were some major adjustments that had to be made, which adjustments were made however it was outside the construction schedule. In the time it took for us to approve and come to resolution with the canvass, it pushed that construction schedule just a little bit further. Mayor Edelcup asked if the penalty clause is ready to hook in on a specific date now, and Mr. Batista said no, we have a different process to follow up with the contractor in this particular case, we do have paperwork to back it up, we have the email and we let him know that he has to hit his milestones. Mayor Ede1cup said since the Commission approved the contract which you unilaterally changed which we weren't aware of, how do we know when the penalty kicks in because you didn't come back to the Commission with it, how do we monitor this. City Manager Cohen said the penalty clause is based on a period of time, not a date specific, and so once we give a Notice to Proceed they have a certain period oftime within which to produce the product after which the penalty kicks in. The other part of your question on how are we going to follow through on that, very specifically the other situation that you referenced where we did have a problem we just came to settlement with the contractor and we recovered 30% of the cost of the project because the penalty was placed on him due to the failure to produce in a timely manner, and so we do take performance very seriously and we are executing these performance clauses in the contract. City Manager Cohen asked CHS Director Simpson if the Logistics contract that we have for this year is in the same amount as last year, and Ms. Simpson said no, the increase was due to using a national act as opposed to local entertainment that we had last year. She said the increase is also due to the fact that they can't use the stage, they can't put a cover directly over the stage, so they are going to come in and build a stage similar to what they built last year but rather than a mobile stage, they are building it from the ground up to meet Code. On page C-21, Intracoastal Park, the Commission asked why it states five months to demolish the property, and Assistant City Manager Shah said these are place holder dates, when we prepared the preliminary budget in June and July, it was the estimate at that time. The most important thing to note is that funding is available in the fiscal year and based on when we come to Commission for approval, we can get them done. Mayor Edelcup asked to get these down to real dates, and City Manager Cohen said that we will come back with more accurate dates, and Vice Mayor Thaler said this has been going on a long time before you came on the scene, and Commissioner Aelion said it is the issue of creditability because the Commissioners are out there meeting with residents, and they give them the tentative dates. Mayor Edelcup said one thing he needs to caution about is on the annual operating expenses on 3 or 4 pieces of the Intracoastal Park, each one is showing $60,000 and he has a hard time believing it costs $240,000 a year to water the lawn. City Manager Cohen said those numbers 8 Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting September 6, 2011 First Budget Hearing Sunny Isles Beach, Florida were generated based on actuals from the other parks. We will be adjusting those numbers as we experience actual expenses but given that we have a lot of grass to water and based on the cost of water that we have seen in Margolis Park and Town Center, and elsewhere, that was an educated guess. Ms. Shah said that we received a bill this past month for water consumption for Gwen Margolis Park in the amount of$7,000 for the month. Intracoastal Park on pages C-21, C-22, C-23 and the Arlen House on page C-26. Commissioner Scholl said to look at the operating budget, the operating impact for Fiscal Year 2013, it is just about $5,000 per park and they are little swatches ofland. City Manager Cohen said the operating cost is not just for watering the grass, it is also for maintenance, the actual labor. Commissioner Scholl said he understands but it is $180,000 for a small swatch ofland along Collins A venue, it needs to be reviewed. Commissioner Gatto asked about page C-14, Town Center Skateboard Park, ifthere was any way we can shorten the completion date. City Manager Cohen said he would try to accomplish that in a shorter period of time. Commissioner Aelion asked if this budget will be revised and presented to them prior to the next meeting, and City Manager Cohen said yes, we will take a hard look at the dates and will look at the softer numbers for the total project costs. Commissioner Scholl said that we all like the format but when you have this ancillary data in there, it has to be accurate. What is nice is the format and we kind of want to get our own expectation and manage by that format, we know the finances are reasonably accurate but when the ancillary data is not accurate it becomes problematic and so whatever goes into the book, we have got to be careful. Mayor Ede1cup said one last thing, and again it is not something that we need to get resolved for this budget but within a month or two, we need to have a workshop with the Commission on what finally is going to be Gateway Park, what is and is not going to be in it, and we need to move that along so we don't lose steam on getting that park started. Vice Mayor Thaler said in going through all the Departments, how do we have a huge variance in the health and dental in each and every Department. In some Departments it is as much as 40% of the payroll, and in others it is 15% of the payroll. He took the regular salaries plus the overtime against the health and dental and the variance is huge. Assistant City Manager Shah said you are right, there are some Departments that are showing significant differences and she was concerned, and so she went back to her numbers from last year and this year and the differences are two-fold. One has to do with dental, in the current year's budget, the City was paying the PPO which is higher than the HMO, and we also pay 50% of the dependent's cost. That was a much larger number compared to now where we are paying for HMO Dental. The other is when we changed our Insurance program, in the past if an employee opted not to elect insurance coverage they would get approximately $270 a month as a cash siphon, that amount has changed to $500 a month. There have been a lot of individuals that are family, that have reevaluated and some have now separated off the City insurance and are covered by their spouses. And so when she had estimated a $9,000 a year expense for that employee, now that has become a $5,000 expense for the employee. Vice Mayor Thaler said don't we give them the difference if they don't take it, where does that show up, and Ms. Shah said it is in the health and dental line. City Manager Cohen explained that if an employee was on our insurance for family, they were eligible for up to $750 a month 9 Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting September 6,2011 First Budget Hearing Sunny Isles Beach, Florida which would be approximately $9,000 for the year, and that would be in the health insurance line. Now their spouse has family coverage through their employment and so they would rather take the cash and we show a $4,000 reduction for those employees and it is all in that line. Vice Mayor Thaler said to go to page 57, your health insurance against your salary is 20%, then on page 63, you have $144,460 against $686,760. Ms. Shah said on page 57, overall health, dental and vision insurance went down $6,000 which is 10%, but all that takes is 1 ~ up to go from family coverage to opt out. Mayor Edelcup said on page 57 you have total salaries of$257,720 and $54,140 for health insurance, but then you go to page 63 and you got 2~ times salary $686,760 and only $144,460 in health insurance, the relationship of salary to health is questionable. Ms. Shah said the health insurance is not a percentage of salary, it is actually a fixed amount based on the coverage that they are requesting, and so if an employee is asking for family coverage they can make $20,000 a year but we are paying $9,000 in insurance for them vs. a $60,000 employee getting $9,000 in coverage. Commissioner Scholl said he had asked this question in the budget workshop, and so what Ms. Shah is saying is that it is not proportionate based on who opts in and who opts out, and it can vary widely amongst the Departments because some Departments may have more spouses that have coverage that basically causes somebody to opt out and take the money, and other Departments they had to pay but we reallocated all of this because it was grossly unfair, two years ago we did this. The single coverage folks were massively subsidizing the family coverage folks and we were trying to create some equilibrium. Mayor Edelcup said if they have opted out of the insurance and they are taking the extra cash, it is still appearing on the budget as health insurance, and Ms. Shah said yes because that is where it comes from. Vice Mayor Thaler said we went up 1/3 in water for Public Works, is that all Heritage Park, and Commissioner Scholl said no, that is part of the recapture, the meters were not being read. Assistant City Manager Shah said this is for Margolis Park, Heritage Park, Intracoastal Park, and Bella Vista Bay Park because they are coming on line throughout the year. Commissioner Scholl moved and Commissioner Aelion seconded a motion to approve the proposed ordinance on first reading, with the recommended changes which will be presented in the second reading. The motion was approved by a roll call vote of 5-0 in favor. Second reading, public hearing will be held on Tuesday, September 20,2011, at 6:00 p.m. Vote: Commissioner Aelion Commissioner Gatto Commissioner Scholl Vice Mayor Thaler Mayor Ede1cup yes yes m m yes Mayor Edelcup asked about maintenance landscaping and what we are doing about it in the median and on Collins Avenue. City Manager Cohen said the general appearance of the median is not as good as it was a year or two ago. In large part that is due to the Crown of Thorns which were placed there to add more color as opposed to the hedges which were uniform in color but are more consistent in appearance. The reasons for the Crown of Thorns having an inconsistent look is perhaps due to watering/irrigation issues, and replacing dead 10 Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting September 6, 2011 First Budget Hearing Sunny Isles Beach, Florida plants with a smaller one. Vice Mayor Thaler said the City doesn't look nearly the way it did a year ago, even the area by Golden Shores, he has received calls from residents saying how bad it looks. The Lehman Causeway entrance is overgrown, the lights don't reflect on our sign, and he knows we changed companies but somebody has to sit down with them. City Manager Cohen said we have changed companies and we are still trying to get them to get with the program, and if they don't we will go out again to bid. It is a learning curve that we have in some areas, the drainage swale area by Golden Shores is a good example. That area is a unique one to take care of because often times it is underwater designed as a drainage retention area, and there are rocks there preventing us from going in with certain types of equipment. He and Public Works Director Batista went down there the other day while it was raining, and were looking at now we can make it easier to maintain. The entranceway at Lehman Causeway should look great now as Commissioner Aelion first brought it to his attention about a month ago, and Commissioner Aelion said yes, it was cut and the sign can now be seen. City Manager Cohen said we are trying to be more mindful, just this morning we did a review on our signage, and one of the things we looked at was lighting for our signage. Weare trying to introduce a different work philosophy to staff, and it takes time but we are moving in a positive direction. Commissioner Aelion said when you enter the City from the Lehman Causeway on your right is a line of Palm Trees lit up at night, and in contrast to that the light that reflects on the Palm Trees along Sunny Isles Boulevard are very impressive, and he had asked staff that the angle of the light reflects not up but to the immediate bark of the tree and that was never addressed. City Manager Cohen said that is actually on his To-Do List, during the first week on the job, he and the Mayor took a tour of the City, and that is one of the specific things he had addressed during that tour. However that has not been as much of a priority as some of the other items that he pointed out, and he is knocking items off from the List one by one. Vice Mayor Thaler said that it was corrected once but not properly as they put in the wrong lights, they tried to manipulate the lights that were put in, and they did raise it about halfway up the tree. City Manager Cohen said what he gave the Commission was a whole bunch of reasons why everything isn't being done at once, the bottom line is that we will get to a point where you won't have a thing to complain about, but there is a learning curve that we are all mounting, and we are trying to get to a point where we can be proactive and not reactive. Vice Mayor Thaler said new signs were put on the beach telling people what they can't do, but there still are no dog signs. City Manager Cohen said we are reserving those dog signs for the new garbage bins coming in, we have 80 new bins that the Commission will be considering for approval, and the dog signs are going on them. 4. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Edelcup adjourned the meeting at 7:27 p.m. Respectfully submitted by:' . Approved by the City Commission on Oct. 20f20 11 ~~~" A Jane A. Hines, CMC, City Clerk 11 Preview Page 1 of 1 City of Sunny Isles Beach 18070 Collins Avenue Sunny Isles Beach, Florida 33160 (305) 947-0606 City Hall (305) 949-3113 Fax MEMORANDUM ---- _._._--~---- TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Commission FROM: Jane A. Hines, CMC, City Clerk DATE: 10/20/2011 RE: Summary Minutes for the September 6, 2011 Special City Commission Meeting RECOMMENDATION: Attached for your consideration are the Summary Minutes for the September 6, 2011 Special City Commission Meeting pertaining to Fiscal Year 2011/2012 First Budget Hearing. REASONS: N/A A TT ACHMENTS: . Summary Minutes http://sibagenda.sibfl.net/agenda/Preview.aspx?ItemID=606&MeetingID=O&MeetingDat... I O/ll /20 II