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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008 0925 Special City Commission Meeting SUMMARY MINUTES Special City Commission Meeting 2nd Budget Hearing Fiscal Year 2008/2009 Thursday, September 25, 2008, 6:30 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 Edelcup at 6:30 p.m., with the following officials present: Mayor Norman S. Edelcup City Manager A. John Szerlag Vice Mayor Lewis J. Thaler City Attorney Hans Ottinot Commissioner Roslyn Brezin City Clerk Jane A. Hines, CMC Commissioner Gerry Goodman Assistant City Attorney Fernando Amuchastegui Commissioner George "Bud" Scholl 2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Action: Arthur Forman led the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. Mayor Edelcup gave opening remarks noting that tonight is our second budget hearing. 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, Florida, Establishing the City of Sunny Isles Beach Proposed Ad Valorem Tax Millage Levy Rate at 2.4842 Mills per One Thousand Dollars ($1,000) of Taxable Assessed Value Which is 0% Less than the "Rolled Back" Rate of 2.4842 Mills, for Fiscal Year 2008/2009; Providing for an Effective Date. (First Hearing 09/11/08) Action: City Clerk Hines read the title, and City Manager Szerlag reported noting at the First Budget Hearing on September 11, 2008, he was tasked with a challenge to come up with savings in the personnel portion ofthe Budget that would offset an additional 1 % increase for employees making less than $50,000 with an estimated cost of$35,000, and there would be a general 4% for all employees based on merit. The City Manager's Office under the Human Resources (HR) function, is looking at all the policies that are in place in the HR Department and found that we want to incorporate all employees, including intermittent and part-timers, in our general pay plan. This meant about an extra $7,000, but again based on merit, so the $35,000 became $42,000. The savings that we have by taking competitive bids for Workers' Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting September 25,2008 Second Budget Hearing Sunny Isles Beach, Florida Compensation, and also having a reduction in an Experience Modification Factor was about $120,000, and so the annual personnel savings of $120,000 a year in Workers' Compensation, more than offset the extra $40,000 cost for the increase in salaries. Doing so resulted in a net reduction of about $78,000 in the surplus that we have to use to balance the budget which is reflected in the memorandum from Assistant City Manager/Finance Douglas Haag, dated today. Everything else remained the same, there are a couple of errata sheets as we are always proof reading the Budget. He thanked the Commission for their time, patience, and direction. Public Speakers: Harvey Busch Vice Mayor Thaler said he wants to go on record that he has no objection on the 4% to 5%, but he does have an objection on the way the City Manager went about it. If you have a set amount of dollars that you come out to that set amount and not add on top of the monies that we have appropriated to increase salaries. We were talking about $35,000 and you now have $40,000 _ $45,000 based on what you just said. He believes it was the wrong way to do it by adding on to the number, yes the Mayor gave you a challenge, and yes we accepted that challenge but he won't do it again. Harvey Busch was concerned about the budget because of what he read in the newspaper and saw that it will cause an additional tax burden for the people in the City, and he also objects to giving employees a blanket increase of 4%. Mayor Edelcup said the actual amount of taxes that we are collecting from existing units that were on the tax rolls in the prior year is unchanged, so we are collecting the same amount of dollars from our existing base before new construction. He said the only increase that the City has in tax revenues coming in is as a result of the roughly $300 Million of new construction that came on the tax rolls last year, if there was no new construction the taxes would have remained the same. The way the newspaper picked it up was that it was a tax increase and that is the problem. There are 35 cities in Miami-Dade County, and there are only five (5) cities below us in tax millage rate, and 29 cities above us in the County, and so we have always been at the very low spectrum, and as a Commission we try to never climb above that 6th lowest rate in the County, and when the economy improves, maybe we can make strides to get even below being the 6th from the very bottom. Vice Mayor Thaler said that there were some homes and apartments that were valued higher this year than they were last year because of the timing involved, and so you will find some people in the City that will pay a few more dollars this year but that was based on the value of the apartment not the mill rate. City Manager Szerlag explained that we have a merit based system for performance evaluations, when he asked for 4% of payroll for raises for this coming Fiscal Year, it doesn't mean that everybody is going to get 4%. Mayor Edelcup said what we tried to do last year was to put everything on a merit system rather than an automatic increase. We changed the philosophy that you have to earn your increases, which can be as low as 2% up to 6% or 7%, but the overall average is 4% plus the $40,000 that got added afterwards. Commissioner Goodman pointed out that the people that are not homesteaded are getting hurt more than the people that are homesteaded. The value of the apartment went up, and the 2 Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting September 25, 2008 Second Budget Hearing Sunny Isles Beach, Florida people that are not homesteaded, the snow birds, they got hurt the worst, and we have no way to correct that, the tax structure of Florida needs a little adjustment in reference to that. Commissioner Scholl said that he felt the Herald article was very misleading, and he thinks we are going to have to put something out to make people understand. The article said the City raised taxes, it didn't say how much, it didn't make a comparison of the two years, the headline was "City Raises Taxes", and we know that most people only read the headline. The article was not clear about the fact that we kept the roll back rate, the actual taxes are not going up. He also clarified that the City itself is only 11 % of the tax bill. Vice Mayor Thaler moved and Commissioner Brezin seconded a motion to approve the resolution. Resolution No. 2008-1332 was adopted by a roll call vote of5-0 in favor, at 6:47 p.m. 3B. 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, 2008 through September 30,2009, Pursuant to Section 200.65, Florida Statutes (Trim Bill); Authorizing Expenditures of Funds Established by the Budget; Authorizing Encumbrances; Authorizing Issuance of Checks; Providing for Grants and Gifts; Providing for Post Audit; Providing for Severability and Providing for an Effective Date. (First HearinglReading 09/11108) Action: City Clerk Hines read the title, and City Manager Szerlag reported. Vice Mayor Thaler moved and Commissioner Scholl seconded a motion to adopt the ordinance, as amended. Ordinance No. 2008-311 was adopted by a roll call vote of5-0 in favor, at 6:48 p.m. V ote: Commissioner Brezin yes Commissioner Goodman yes Commissioner Scholl yes Vice Mayor Thaler yes Mayor Edelcup m 4. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Edelcup adjourned the meeting at 6:49 p.m. d:u:rL Jane A. J:Iines, CMC;;- City Clerk, Approved by the City Commission on Oct. 16, 2008 { . " . ~ ., . ' 3