Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC 2013-09-26 MinutesCity of Miami City Hall 3500 Pan American Drive Miami, FL 33133 www.miamigov.com Meeting Minutes Thursday, September 26, 2013 5:05 PM SECOND BUDGET HEARING City Hall Commission Chambers City Commission Tomas Regalado, Mayor Marc David Sarnoff, Chair Wifredo (Willy) Gort, Vice Chair Frank Carollo, Commissioner District Three Francis Suarez, Commissioner District Four Michelle Spence -Jones, Commissioner District Five Johnny Martinez, P.E., City Manager Julie O. Bru, City Attorney Todd B. Hannon, City Clerk City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 5:05 P.M. CONTENTS BH-SECOND BUDGET HEARING TO DISCUSS FISCAL YEAR 2013-2014 FINAL BUDGET BEGINNING AT 5:05 P.M. BH.1 THROUGH BH. 11 SECOND BUDGET HEARING Present: Vice Chair Gort, Chair Sarnoff, Commissioner Carollo, Commissioner Suarez and Commissioner Spence -Jones On the 26th day of September 2013, the City Commission of the City ofMiami, Florida, met at its regular meeting place in City Hall, 3500 Pan American Drive, Miami, Florida, for its second budget hearing session. The meeting was called to order by Chair Sarnoff at 5: 50 p.m., recessed at 7: 37 p.m., reconvened at 7: 53 p. m., and adjourned at 10:14 p.m. Chair Sarnoff All right, I want to welcome everybody to the second budget hearing of Thursday, September 26, 2013. We're going to dispense with some of what we ordinarily do, and what I'm going to do is go directly to the City Manager, who will present his tentative budget address to the City Commission. City ofMiami Page 2 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 BH.1 DISCUSSION ITEM 13-00944a Office of Management FINAL PUBLIC HEARING TO DISCUSS THE PROPOSED MILLAGE AND and Budget TENTATIVE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2013-14. THE PROPOSED GENERAL OPERATING MILLAGE RATE OF 7.6148 FOR THE CITY OF MIAMI FOR THE FISCAL YEAR BEGINNING OCTOBER 1, 2013 AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2014 IS 9.69 PERCENT HIGHER THAN THE STATE -DEFINED ROLLED -BACK RATE OF 6.9420. CITY COMMISSION LISTENS AND RESPONDS TO CITIZENS' COMMENTS REGARDING THE PROPOSED MILLAGE RATE AND THE PROPOSED BUDGET. ACTION RELATED TO THIS DISCUSSION ITEM OCCURS BY ENACTMENT OF BH.10 AND BH.11. 13-00944a Proposed Millage & Final Budget.pdf 13-00944a-Submittal-Legal Opinion from Chief Negotiator regarding Collective bargaining Obligati 13-00944a-Submittal-Commissioner Sarnoff-Letters in Support of Hiring 100 Police Officers.pdf DISCUSSED Chair Sarnoff Mr. Manager, you're recognized for the record. Daniel J. Alfonso (Acting City Manager): Thank you. Good evening, Commissioners. Last year, when we stood in the chambers -- I think tomorrow will be actually one year from that date -- there were some concerns in the budget because we were getting into a labor agreement that was a two-year agreement. Andl remember being asked, Are we going to be able to sign a two-year agreement and pass this budget and next year we'll be able to absorb whatever contractual obligations we have?'AndI remember responding that we would, with the caveat that we would maintain the same level of services. We have done better than that in this proposed budget. The proposal, with the changes that we have put forth, adds 35 new officers in the Police Department, starts to tackle the issues of long-term temporary employees and providing full-time positions for them; adds resources to Human Resources, Planning & Zoning, Building, Public Works to address some of the greater needs of that community of building. In the Human Resources, we restored some positions so that we can make happen some of the recruitment challenges that we face. This proposal, we believe, is sustainable, and it will go a long way to ensuring that we continue to meet our contractual obligations without the need for declaring urgencies. As we stand here today, the City is definitely better off than it was in 2010, 2011, 2012. However, as I pointed out in the last Commission meeting, our property taxes are still $50 million below where they were in 2009. So, yes, we're doing better; we're not quite where we were some years ago. I caution that we face some challenges in the year to come. We have issues with the Department of Justice that may require significant funding. We have concerns about costs ofAffordable Health Care Act, the living wage, cost increases in pension. Our current contract for public safety, in particular, calls for the reduction of the contribution from our public safety groups by 3 percent at the end of the contract, so automatically the City's contribution will increase. This proposal allows the flexibility so that when we sit here in the coming years and look at negotiating four labor contracts that will cover over 3,000 employees in the City ofMiami and we look at these other challenges that we face, we can, again, as I said, meet those obligations; 2014/15 is likely to be better. I suggest that we move forward with this proposal that is sustainable and sensible. Thank you. I'm going to introduce the Budget director because we have to read into the record a specific statutory requirement on BH.1. Christopher Rose (Director): Good evening, Commissioners. Chris Rose, Office ofManagement & Budget. This is pursuant to Chapter 200 of Florida Statutes. The proposed general operating City ofMiami Page 3 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 millage rate of 7.6148 mills for the City ofMiami for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2013 and ending September 30, 2014 is 9.69 percent higher than the state -defined rollback rate of 6.9420 mills. Thank you. Commissioner Suarez: Mr. Chairman. Chair Sarnoff All right. At this time, ifI can open up and will open up a public hearing on all issues. So instead of making the public wait on us, what I'm going to do is have people come up and you tell us what you'd like to see in any of the budgets. I know most of you have been here before. Andl have a list of people who've signed up to speak. Has everybody had the opportunity to sign this? Raise your hand if you haven't and you want to speak. Okay, just go see the Clerk right there. And what I'm going to do -- there's no particular order -- I'm going to take them in the order in which they're presented to me, and we'll start the public hearing right now. William Armbrister: Commissioner Sarnoff (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Chair Sarnoff No, you don't address me from there. Mr. Armbrister: Well -- Chair Sarnoff And don't address -- you're not addressed right now. Mr. Armbrister: Well, (UNINTET,TIGIBT,F). Chair Sarnoff Do not speak from there. Mr. Armbrister: If this is open for a public hearing, it's not a PZ (Planning & Zoning) item, I'm not a lobbyist; I'm a tax -paying resident of the City ofMiami, and those forms are not required for -- to be filled out for public hearings, and I'm trying to understand why is it being stated as if it is. I'm not a lobbyist. It's not a PZ item. I speak perfect queen's English, and ifI need to spell my name for the record, I can do that. And I'd like to state my position on the -- on this item that we're addressing now. Would you -- Chair Sarnoff Oh, I -- Mr. Armbrister: -- like to hear me now or would you --? Chair Sarnoff Actually, no, I will not. Mr. Armbrister: Right. Chair Sarnoff I've heard you. And after all these people speak, I will see if there's anyone left that has not filled out one of these who would like to speak, put on the record why they believe they don't have to do it. I will not count that towards their time. And then they will speak about the budget. So thank you for coming up. Mr. Armbrister: Andl will patiently wait. Thank you. Chair Sarnoff Albio L. Castillo. Albio L. Castillo. Oh, there you go. Albio Castillo: Good evening, gentlemen and ladies [sic]. My name is Albio Castillo. I live at 2235 Southwest 16 Terrace. I'd like to ask this: I'm having a problem with my neighborhood with the Baker Acts, and since I have come here for many years and I'm beginning to be the spokesperson, Commissioners -- Commissioner 3 has passed an ordinance and it's reflecting to City ofMiami Page 4 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 that, and Commissioner 4 has tried to do that in Tallahassee. If there's any way, can we do this - - I live at the address, and this is going on, on Southwest 16th Street all the way up to llth Street. They panhandle, and they disrupt the business area and the residential area. Since I have come here for many, many years, I have decided to -- the neighbors have asked me to come here and say what I have to say. That's what I'm doing. I also like to know is the issue of the parks, in light of the problems that we're having recently. Is the park is going to be funded? I also like to know the yard sales. I have proposed instead of the two years, six -- instead of two, six times a year, because there's no yard sales ordinance currently in the City ofMiami. Because what have done is to transfer the 11000 over to 21, andl believe that we need an ordinance to modify it, because all you have done is transferred one code to the other, and then I believe that's - - in my opinion, it is illegal, because you don't have a code. All you did, just transferred from one code to the other one. I also like to thank the Commissioners and the City Managers, and all of the department from the Mayor all the way down for the jobs they have done -- thank you -- under stressful condition. I also like to know if is the City ofMiami going to do the Solid Waste calendar for recyclable in the 2015 -- Chair Sarnoff Albio, in con -- Mr. Castillo: -- 2014. Chair Sarnoff -- in conclusion. Mr. Castillo: Yeah, that's it. Any questions from the Commissioner? Any question from the Administration? Chair Sarnoff Thank you, Albio. Always a pleasure. Mr. Castillo: Likewise. Chair Sarnoff Ben Thacker, and on deck Al Crespo. Ben Thacker. Al Crespo. Al Crespo: Good afternoon. Al Crespo. There's been a lot of talk at recent meetings about best practices. I don't believe it's best practices when the Police Department has a Deputy Chief of Police that it pays for who does not do the job of Deputy Chief of Police. That $163 that's going to the Deputy Chief of Police could go and cover the salaries for two officers. I don't think it's best practices when you have overtime and police provide new services that have not been approved by this Commission in excess of $25, 000. I don't think it's best practices when the Chief of Police doesn't seem to want to provide you with the kind of documentation that all of you need in order to make legitimate and rational decisions, like what happened last week about the -- at the last Commission meeting about the staffing for street patrols. I think these are a lot of problems that you have. You have a lot of problems also with other people in other parts of the City. It turns out that -- I understand that an authorization was given to people who aren't on salaried positions don't have to come in and clock. They can come in and leave at whatever time they want to. I think you need to look at that, how City employees could come to work whenever they want to and leave without -- whenever they want to without having to clock in. In closing, I think the Justice Department needs to come in and look at the Police Department really seriously, more seriously than they're looking at them now. And you might want to impanel your grand jury thought that you had and bring everybody up here and put them under oath, make them swear, and find out what the hell's going on with the Police Department. Thank you. Chair Sarnoff All right. FernandAmandi. On deck is Javier -- you didn't write your name -- but I think it's Javier Ortiz. FernandAmandi: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Fifteen months ago, in response to a crime spike in my neighborhood, a group of residents organized an emergency town hall where we convened City ofMiami Page 5 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 the Mayor, representatives of the Commission, representatives of the Police Department to ask for solutions on what was going to be done for the crime problem then. The takeaway from that meeting was very clear: The City cannot adequately protect you because we don't have the sufficient amount of police officers to do the job to protect the City. We gave the City the benefit of the doubt. What ended up happening were cosmetic changes that were done to, in a short-term sense, tackle the problem. Two months ago, when three burglaries occurred within a ten-day span in my neighborhood, I asked other residents, "Hey, was this an isolated incident or is it a problem? You saw the 246 folks that came out and said, "No, it's a continuing problem." You can imagine our frustration when we were told again by the City, "Guess what? We still don't have the officers. Still have a deficit." So the question for this Commission is: What are we going to do about it, not in the short-term, but what is going to be the systematic change to address this long-term? There is no more important responsibility for the government of this City or any government, for the matter, than to protect its residents. Now, what we've identified is that while there is an officer shortage, there is also a problem with retention and recruitment of officers. We cannot hire officers or keep them because our Police Department in the City, the compensation levels are not nearly what they need to be. And I'm not talking about in comparison to New York City or Los Angeles. I'm talking about in comparison to other neighboring departments in Miami -Dade County. So the problem is clear, and it's not a choice. It's a two -edge problem that has to be tackled at the same time. Hire the officers and raise their salaries so that we can keep them and attract the new ones to hire the ones in the deficit. Last -- two weeks ago this Commission asked the Manager to set aside -- or see if he could find the $9 million necessary to do those two things at the same time. The idea that two things cannot be done at once is a false choice. You cannot solve this problem without doing both at the same time. So the question for Commissioner Suarez, the question for Commissioner Carollo, the question for Commissioner Sarnoff, Commissioner Gort, and Commissioner Spence -Jones is: Do you have the political will to do what it takes today to hire additional officers and to raise their benefits and salaries to the point where we're going to be able to hire, retain, and keep them to address this crime problem so I don't have to come back here and the residents of this community don't have to come back here and we did go back to our lives and our jobs, pay our taxes, follow the law, and make this the City we want it to be? Chair Sarnoff Does anybody want to give Mr. Amandi a time? Applause. Chair Sarnoff What's your name? Nathan Kurland. Go ahead. Mr. Amandi: So in that spirit, the question is: How are we going to resolve this issue today? It's not by a quick cosmetic fix of 10 additional officers. That's great. That's a step in the right direction and it's a positive one, one that you should be applauded for considering, but it's not nearly enough, andl know Commissioner Suarez is very well aware of this, as is Commissioner Sarnoff. You've expressed support, Commissioner Carollo; as have you, Commissioner Spence -Jones; as have you, Commissioner Gort, but what are we going to do to address this? It's not a quick fix. This is the most important priority. Every element of this City breaks down if there is a security concern and a security consideration. So again, I will close by asking this Commission, are you prepared to do what it takes today -- not two years from now, not a year from now -- to do today what it takes to solve the short- and long-term problems with our police offer deficit, which is hiring more of them and bringing their salaries to a competitive level? Thank you very much. Applause. Chair Sarnoff Javier Ortiz and then Robert Steinberg. Javier Ortiz: In order for this to go smooth, who will waive their time just so I make sure I have City ofMiami Page 6 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 enough time? Thank you. Chair Sarnoff Wait, wait. I want to take Cruz'. Mr. Ortiz: Sergeant Javier Ortiz, Miami Fraternal Order of Police, 710 Southwest 12 Avenue. If you closed your eyes right now, imagine it being 2 o'clock in the morning, and you hear this (banging on podium), and you call the police because someone's trying to break in, just like a resident told me in the Roads yesterday, and the police took 10 to 15 minutes to get there. That is the reality of what's going on, on our streets here in the City ofMiami. Last budget hearing, our Manager was given a direction, the acting Manager, Danny Alfonso, on how to allocate $9 million for police. I've seen the proposal and it's not one that's very feasible, and l frankly feel that it was a stonewall approach. It was getting rid of employees, temporary employees. That is not what the directive, in my opinion, was, or at least, that's how I understood it. It was also a two prong approach. It was to hire more police officers as well as retain the ones that we have. This month alone we've lost seven. We lost three yesterday. No longer want to work here. They were not scheduled retirements. They just left. The City ofMiami Police Chief is under an immense amount of pressure to produce police officers, and he can't get them on fast enough. He's got a large recruitment drive going on. They did this window dressing thing two days ago and said we got 25 cops, 25 police recruits, those police recruits will not start for a year. We got another 10 that will start in about six months, police officers. And out of those 10, we've already lost seven, so that's not the solution. Overtime is not the solution. We have our police staff members coming out and promising overtime in any area that complains. We'll put three in the Roads. We'll put two here. We'll put two there. That's not the answer. That's putting a Band-Aid on a sucking chest wound. So I came together with my FOP (Fraternal Order of Police), andl came out with my own proposal in which I, hypothetically, told you what could possibly be something that could fix things here in the City ofMiami, not only retain the police officers that we have now, but make it a lot more motivating to apply to the Police Department for those that aren't here, so I'm going to go over that real quick. By the way, I am not negotiating. Negotiations will take place tomorrow at 2 p.m. I have a letter here saying that, Please be advised that the labor negotiations between FOP 20 and the City are scheduled for tomorrow. "So this is just my plan, my proposal and how we can get to that number. Our solution to restore benefits is to do the following. For us to forego the 3 percent that we gave up -- in order to get that 3 percent, we gave up uniforms and physicals, which comes out to $1.2 million. That's a $2.4 million (UNINTELLIGIBLE) after that, because we're only getting it for six months. Forego the 3 percent bonus, which is 2.1 million. That money would go in a special revenue, and we could use it for -- tomorrow with this other money. Revenue from the CFO (Chief Financial Officer), that's through his recommendation of the $2 million in which he's recommending; 800,000 would come from that. Mayor Regalado supports this plan and stated that the runoff money that was not utilized -- since he does not have a runoff -- would go towards this plan. That's another half a million. And a newly created VIP plan, which I gave the idea and created with Chief Orosa, which was another 400,000 -- that comes up to 5 million. Do I have more time? Chair Sarnoff Just need a name. Thomas Reyes: Tom Reyes. Chair Sarnoff What is it? Mr. Ortiz: Thomas Reyes. Chair Sarnoff Thomas Reyes. Okay. Mr. Ortiz: That's 2.1 million, 1.2 million, 800, 000, 500, 000, 400, 000. That is a total of five million real dollars today. What would we get for that? Well, we should be parallel with the City ofMiami Page 7 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Fire Department. They are our public safety brothers and sisters. We got guns. We got hoses. But we both risk our lives. And what they did in their contract was they gave up 185 monies -- 175 monies in order to raise their step raises and then freeze them. I'm asking just for the same thing, and we're giving up things in order to get that done. That will help police officers that haven't gotten raises in four years. It will motivate our officers that are on the street. And we're different from other employees, because we also gave up, you know, specialty pays and things like that. It will also allow us to have an education incentive, two -prong approach. It's going to motivate officers that aren't working here to come here, because it will be paid for education; associates, they would get a $1,200 that's not pensional [sic]; 2,400 for a bachelor's, and so on, that will be added to their pay, which makes it more of an incentive to come and work here. And then for 80 -- approximately 80 people, which would cost 125, 000, they would get a 3 percent in April, because they're not going to -- since they -- some officers, they maxed out on their step raises back in 2004. They took 9 percent cuts because of their pay, so they would get 3 percent. That comes out to 5, 425, 000. So out of the plan and how I'd restore benefits, what I would ask is for the Commission to identify $425, 000. So in summary, what I'm requesting is for someone to make a motion for them to allocate the 3 percent bonus today and place in a special revenue, as well, it would be $2,125, 000, which would be allocated for union negotiations, which are going to happen tomorrow. If and I'm sure management is going to say -- I need one more person. Tom Vokaty, Tom Vokaty. Let's talk about other places where we can find money. Last year we said we were going to hire 40 officers. We didn't hire any of them; was a $4 million surplus for this year. You can add 65. You can add 100 cops. You're not going to be able to hire them enough -- fast enough. I would think you maybe would be able to fill at least 50. I do congratulate the Chief on being motivated to find people in administrative positions to put them on the street. I think that's a step in the right direction. But there is also one other thing, and that is the appointment of 12 temporary lieutenants. For those that don't know, we haven't had a lieutenant's exam since 2006. The Department of Justice has authorized up to 12. These officers have to -- these sergeants must be in the position for two years. They must be senior and they must be in the DROP (Deferred Retirement Option Plans). So they're in the high -- they're obviously maxed out when it comes to their pay. By doing -- by moving those sergeants in these temporary spots, which can be there for up to two years, that's 12 positions. They're going to promote, I think, 15 or 17 police officers to sergeant, but that -- there is a fiscal financial impact there of about $1.2 million. So if we did not utilize those positions and we waited for the exam, which will be in June, and by the time that the exam results come out and they certify the list, it would be for the next year, which would also be another 1.2 million. And by the way, when it comes to that $1.2 million in negotiations for this current contract, the City was not going to fund those positions. So in closing, I'm asking for your help, not only to be able to hire police officers, which I'm a City resident too. I want my car to be safe. I want my home to be safe. I want that when I (banging on podium) call the police, they're going to show up on time. With that said, I will be here all night. I'll be here to answer any questions. And hope that we're going to be able to fix what's going on here in the Police Department. Thank you. Applause. Chair Sarnoff After Mr. Steinberg is -- I think it's William Scarola. Robert Steinberg: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I spoke last week. My name is Robert Steinberg. The Miami Herald reported me as Richard Steinberg. I want to say to Armand -- FernandAmandi, I salute you, sir, because you have stepped out. This is a private individual. He's been victimized seven times. I was victimized once. I received an e-mail (electronic) from Fernand. You have courage, sir. And more people like you need to stand up -- Applause. Mr. Steinberg: -- like he has done. He's a man of passion and conviction. Commissioners, that's what we ask from you tonight, passion, conviction, and courage. You have to have the City ofMiami Page 8 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 courage to stand up. I know some of you are going to vote for it. Some of you are not. Everybody has an agenda. I got it. But we also -- everybody in this room, ladies and gentlemen, has an agenda to be safe; public safety. I'm a taxpayer. Years ago in Texas, the first thingl did was, I was an ad valorem tax lawyer. I know about ad valorem taxes. I know the reason that they're collected, in part, and at the very top, guys, is public safety. That's what we are owed as citizens. And if we're not, there's a breach there. The breach is filled with lawsuits. We don't want to do that. I want to crawl back under my rock and never speak in public again. This is not my thing. I was called by friends, people. I had e-mails and texts telling me I should run for public office. I'm not a politician. I'm a private lawyer. I handle mesothelioma lung cancer cases. That's all do. Andl don't want to be here. But the big thing, Commissioner Carollo, you -- I could see by your body language about the public housing. No taxes. That's not good. Maybe crime, I don't know. I haven't studied it either. But guess what, folks? Here's the big picture. I said it last time and -- William Scarola: Scarola. He can have my two minutes. Chair Sarnoff What's your name? Mr. Scarola: Scarola. Mr. Steinberg: Thank you, sir. Mr. Scarola: Scarola. Chair Sarnoff Gotcha. Mr. Steinberg: What we have, we have bad headlines. Andl started Googling crime in Miami. It's a bad picture, you know. It really is. And so what we want to do, we want to change these headlines. You guys have to feel some pain as far as maybe there's a project, Commissioner Gort, that you might have, or Spence -Jones, Commissioner, maybe there's something, but everybody's got to pull a little bit, 'cause we're all in pain here when it comes to lack of our safety. I'm standing here because I was a victim a couple weeks ago or else, I would not have come down here. I bought a home in Coconut Grove. It was very expensive. I thought I was moving into a safe neighborhood, and turns out, there's alligators running around biting people. We need some more alligator catchers. So what we have is this. The headlines are bad. We all know what they are. It's the elephant in the room. And if we can reverse them -- you guys have the magic pen. You have the ability, with the stroke of a pen, if you're going to say no and you say yes, the headlines, Commissioner, are going to change over time and they'll start saying, Miami is open for business. It's safe here. We have the highest paid Police Department here. They're happy. "People will come. People will come back. They'll tell their friends. You know what's happening. I read a statistic that's kind of scary; should be scary for you guys. People are moving. Fernand told me that his neighbor put a sign up two weeks ago and says he's moving. Well, we're going to have a slow erosion of the tax base. There's a book written by Malcolm Gladwell called the Tipping Point. That's the beginning. We don't want it. I don't want it. I said last weekend, I want to live in rest of my life here. I do. I don't want to be the one that moves. I have the ability; I could move tomorrow. I don't want to do that. You don't want people moving. And so if you stand up, have the courage and the conviction to put more police on the force, raise their salaries. Let's have the headline that says Miami has the highest paid police in all of Florida. "That would be a good thing. If we don't do this, you guys -- you all are going to do what you're going to do, but if we don't, I can tell you, in the next few years you're going to see the gradual erosion. And I'm here. I want to stay here. Andl hope that you guys make the right decision. We have a world -class city, but we don't have the world -class police department to back it up, and we need that. Thank you. Chair Sarnoff In conclusion. Thank you. City ofMiami Page 9 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Applause. Chair Sarnoff RichardMure, M-U-R-E, RichardMure, Robert Loupo. Robert Loupo: Hi. Good evening. Chair Sarnoff After Robert Loupo is Fernando Gonzalez. Mr. Loupo: Good evening, Commissioners, Mayor, and everyone in attendance. Robert Loupo. I reside at 3229 Gifford Lane. I've been a resident of Coconut Grove in the City ofMiami for approximately 35 years. I'm here speaking as a resident of the City and of Coconut Grove and also as our chair of the All Grove Crime Watch, which is working to, and has been for 12 years, working to reduce crime for residents and visitors. I urge you to find the funds within the budget to make our police stay with our city, supporting them with their benefits, with their salaries, and also finding the money to hire additional police, whatever you need to do, please. As everyone has said before here, public safety is, needs to be our number one priority, not only for our residents, but as was said, we are a destination, a world destination. To invite people to be here and to have them victims of crime, this is not good. Please, make public safety your priority, find the money, hire and support the police. Thank you. Applause. Chair Sarnoff Thank you. Fernando Gonzalez: Good evening. My name is Fernando Gonzalez. I am from Little Havana, 128 Northwest 18 Avenue. I'm also (UNINTELLIGIBLE) director of community organization in Little Havana. We, in our neighborhood, support to hire additional police officers, and we need more safety in our neighborhood, definitely, but also, we want to speak something that doesn't speak yet in here, and this is to training the police to have a very good communication with the neighborhood. We are victim of sometimes police officers that talk to us offending, insulting, and -- because we are Spanish or because we are from another country or because we have a lot of people from -- Spanish people from our neighborhood. The police has -- need a better training, Chief please, better education. Not all the police. I don't say all the police; some police officers. But I know even the name, the police officer that -- I went to the Internal Affairs, but Internal Affairs is also by the police, so who you going to complain? And you cannot say anything to the police because you going to arrest him, you know. Because at this time, when somebody call you corrupted and thief or whatever, what they deserve is a punch, but you cannot punch a police officer because you going to jail. So, please, more police officers. We want the police. All the City need police. What -- how a city is going to be run without a police officer? We need as much police officer as we -- as you can hire. But given a good training, a good education told -- tell them how to communicate the Spanish people. The police is to arrest, not to punish. To punish is the court of law. The judge is supposed to sentence the person, but sometimes with some police officers beating and offending, and -- not even the men; even the women. So, please, Chief we are all with you. We need the police. Chair Sarnoff And in conclusion. Mr. Gonzalez: Yeah. But do something to have a better understanding. That happen also in Overtown long time ago. Chair Sarnoff All right. Thank you. Mr. Gonzalez: That's right. City ofMiami Page 10 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Chair Sarnoff Thank you. Mr. Gonzalez: Okay, thank you. Chair Sarnoff All right. Applause. Chair Sarnoff Stacy Blau, Stacy Blau, and then Israel Sands. Stacy Blau: Hello. My name is Stacy Blau, and I'm a resident of the West Grove, and I'm here as a resident of the Grove and a resident of the City ofMiami to voice my support, as several have before me, for more money for the Police Department, andl implore everyone on this Commission to, please, make it your priority to find the money within the budget to fund the Police Department. I couldn't agree more that we need more police officers. I remember the statistics that Commissioner Sarnoff cited at the meeting we had here about a month ago about the crime spike in the Grove. It's truly deplorable that the City has such a poor ratio compared to other large cities of police to residents, so we definitely do need more police officers. But I feel equally strongly that we need to take care of the police officers who are currently employed by the Police Department. I have a personal friend who is a police officer, and know that he had to make a decision to enter the DROP program a few years, simply to be able to afford the same standard of living that he was enjoying before, which is not a particularly high standard of living; just to support his family. Andl think it's a real pity that somebody like him with his level of experience, know-how, and professionalism had to make a decision like that. We shouldn't be putting our most experienced and valuable officers in that position. So I couldn't agree more with the men and women who are wearing these yellow shirts. And really hope that the Commission decides to fund the Police Department in a way that's going to be truly adequate for the future. Thank you very much. Chair Sarnoff Thank you. Applause. Chair Sarnoff Israel Sands and then Dan Kern [sic], Dan Kern [sic] on deck. Israel Sands: Good afternoon. I'm Israel Sands. I live at 3520 East Fairview Street. I've been living in Coconut Grove for about five years now. Last week my neighbor, Robin Alvarez, saw a guy come in in surgical scrubs. Came in the side gate, hands in his pockets like -- he's dressed like a tourist, and he was scoping out our houses to see if he could come in to rob. We were robbed at our previous house in Coconut Grove. We've been -- our cars have been robbed about three times where we are now. Any time that we leave it open at night, they come in and they take what's in the car. I mean, we live in a nice neighborhood. This should not be happening. And as a Coconut Grove resident, I have to say -- I know this sound elitist, but everyone loves the tree canopy, everybody loves the quirky side of Coconut Grove. That quirky side of Coconut Grove makes us more -- a better target for people who are going to -- who are coming in to steal because they can hide behind bushes, and this -- I think this requires more police protection, just -- and you should listen to Coconut Grove. We're in Coconut Grove. Just like you were ready to tear down Monty's -- not Monty's -- Scotty's Landing without anybody on that committee living in Coconut Grove, what about us? What if we do want a nice, comfortable old dump to go there and have a nice, affordable meal with our family with a nice view of the water and not some airport -looking structure? Please talk to us. Please respond to us. And please support the police. Chair Sarnoff Thank you. City ofMiami Page 11 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Applause. Dan Kerr: Hi. My name is Lieutenant -- Chair Sarnoff Dan Kern [sic] and Thomas Reyes. Mr. Kerr: -- Dan Kerr. I've been with the department for 15 years. I have about 20 more to go. I have the distinct pleasure of being the commander of a midnight shift of officers, so when the president mentions that (banging on podium) bump, that's my officers coming to your house that night. I want to give you guys a little outlook as to what their financial situations are when we hear these exorbitant pay and pension packages. That's not the reality for that newly hired officer. That officer's hired at $ 46,000 a year. The reality of what he's looking at is doing 25 years here at a 3 percent multiplier with no step raises, no plus items that are included into his pension, and leaving with a 75 percent pension after 25 years; looking at around $31, 000. How can I articulate to that officer when I counsel them throughout my shift that night, when they come to me and say, The Beach is paying this and the County's paying this, 'and they want to talk about finances, and pensions and retirement? It's tough because I can't tell them, "Listen, this will probably change. This will probably get better. I think it's going to improve 'cause I've seen ups and downs over the 15 years that I've been here." When he tells me, Yes, sir, but the reality is it's -- this is my pension. My pension is a 25 -- do 20 -- hired at 25 at 46,000, retire at 50 with 31, 000. " That is their reality. So what I'm asking is to restore those benefits to those officers so when I can talk to them and say, Listen, I've been here 15 years. I got 20 more to go. I love the City. I love policing. This is what I intend to do. This is the only career I ever intend to have." Let me impart that onto that young officer also, when he's coming to your house (banging on podium) because they're banging on the door like that. Thankyou. Applause. Chair Sarnoff Thank you. After Thomas Reyes is Seth Sklarey. Tom Vokaty: Tom Vokaty, on behalf of Thomas Reyes. Gentlemen, I've been a policeman here for 29 years. Chair Sarnoff Can somebody give you your time? 'Cause you gave up your time. Mr. Vokaty: But I'm talking for Thomas Reyes. Chair Sarnoff Thomas Reyes gave up his time. So who are you? RichardMure: RichardMure. Chair Sarnoff He's not Richard Mure. Unidentified Speaker: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Chair Sarnoff I gotcha. Okay. That's fine. Mr. Vokaty: Thank you. I've been a policeman here for 29 years. First of all, thank you for the 22.5 percent pay cut that I received a few years ago. I'm a father. I have three daughters. My wife stays at home; takes care of my girls. I work here in Coconut Grove. I work here in the midnight shift. I sit there at 37 and Grand virtually every night to make sure our residents are safe. I ask that you restore our benefits before you even hire one policeman. We've worked so hard to keep the City safe. We work hard for our families. And this is the thanks that we've gotten. We haven't even received any benefits since those three years. I ask that you take care of us. Do what's right. Thankyou. City ofMiami Page 12 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Chair Sarnoff Thank you. Applause. Seth Sklarey: My name is Seth Sklarey. I'm a 47-year resident of Coconut Grove. My heart goes out to the officers I've heard tonight. My father was a cop for 30 years, and what he retired on, his pension was about a tenth of what they're getting now, so I really know what they're going through. Now, I've been trying to come up with some kind of compromise, and) applaud Javier and the Chief. You've come up with some -- you pulled some rabbits out of the hat, but you need a few more, and here's a couple that I propose. And I don't know if this is legal and if it could be done this way, but one of the things that I'd like to see is to somehow raise a few thousand dollars the beginning salary, 'cause that would incentivize people to come and people who go through the academy and then they decide, "Hey, I don't want to be here because I can go get more someplace else. "So try and look for that in your budget. Number two, you -- from what I understand -- and) haven't been able to see the budget -- but you're scheduled for 1,144 officers, which you never get to somehow, and this has been going on for years. So toward the end of the budget year, why don't you have some of that money come back into the department and to bring it to the officers in the form of incentives, incentives for education, incentives for -- And one thing that hasn't been talked about: I'd like to see some incentives for good, physical condition. I see some of these officers, and I'd hate to have to see them run after somebody because they're overweight or they're just not in good shape. And I'm concerned because by sitting in a car a lot, they don't get out and they don't get the exercise and you're just setting up for a physical situation that's going to be a problem down the line, and the City's going to pay for it. Chair Sarnoff And in conclusion. Mr. Sklarey: In conclusion, try and find a few extra bucks. And the money that you have left over from not hiring -- getting up to capacity, have that money come back in to fund some of these incentives. Thank you. Chair Sarnoff Thank you. Pernerva Curry and then Tom Vokatny [sic], Vokaty. Unidentified Speaker: Vokaty already spoke. Chair Sarnoff He what? Unidentified Speaker: (UNINTET,TIGIBT,F). Chair Sarnoff He spoke already? Unidentified Speaker: Yes, for Tomas Reyes. Chair Sarnoff Oh, sorry. Pernerva Curry: Good afternoon. My name is Pernerva Curry. I live in the Model City area. Andl looked in the Miami Herald on Sunday and) saw where you having a meeting tonight for taxes increase, and I've never been to one of these meetings. But came tonight because I'm concerned. I heard on the news about the Police Department salary increase and a lot of firefighters, everybody. And, you know, it's something) don't understand. It seems like it's not enough money. I'm a senior citizen. I'm not rich. I'm not wealthy. But in the last four or five years, my property value has decreased, and) -- and if everybody experiencing this, I could see why, you know, the Police Department and Fire Department, everybody salary being cut, you know. My property value was valued at like 170-some-odd thousand and now it down to 37. So some people -- I was talking to -- I'm here representing Model City area, and everybody I was City ofMiami Page 13 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 talking with complained about it. Some people say, Well, don't worry about it; you'll have less tax to pay, 'but I am concerned. Because suppose you come in and say, Well, we need this area here,'and then we have to give it up and you pay us a little or nothing for it. Andl think this is the problem, you know. Why -- everybody getting salary decrease and you guys need a lift too, you know, and I'm concerned about this. But whenever you pass your budget, I hope you'll think about the Police Department, because I need them. And before I leave here tonight, I would like to see someone in charge I can talk with. And when you get this budget, I hope you use it for the right thing. Don't forget about Model City, because we need help in Model City. Chair Sarnoff And in conclusion. Ms. Curry: Thank you. Chair Sarnoff Thank you. Applause. Chair Sarnoff Anthony Hatten and Roberto Destephan. Anthony Hatten: Good afternoon. Anthony Hatten, union president, Local 1907. The general employees were the only group that got -- that endured layoffs. I just hope that doesn't happen again. We've been through enough. And I'd just like to say I have no problem with the City Manager's budget. Andl do live in the City ofMiami, so thank you very much. Chair Sarnoff Thank you. Roberto Destephan. Unidentified Speaker: He was here. Chair Sarnoff All right. Eduardo Lugo. Joe Simmons. Joe Simmons: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Joe Simmons, Jr., president of the sanitation workers, City ofMiami. We asking that the Commission oppose the -- actually support the Administration's second amendment to not impose those cuts with the closure of the mini dump and the layoff of the temps. Currently, we're understaffed about 30 plus people, and we really need the help. Have nothing against police officers. That's not my fight. We support them 100 percent. However, the garbage man is just as important as the policemen, because when you want crime fought, the police officers are there, but we need garbage to be picked up on a regular basis, so we want to make sure that we support, that we have adequate staffing that we need. Thank you. Chair Sarnoff Thank you. Applause. Chair Sarnoff Javier Fernandez, Robert Suarez on deck. Javier Fernandez: Good evening, Commissioners. Javier Fernandez, with Akerman Senterfitt. I'm here this evening on behalf of a number of commercial property owners, Dacra Development, the design district, as well as 200 South Biscayne, and been authorized to speak on behalf of One Biscayne Tower, three very large commercial properties that remit significant amount of ad valorem revenues to the City on a recurring basis. I want to start off by recognizing the Chief and his command staff. In working with our clients, they provide them tremendous support, are incredibly responsive, and that's even in the face of the recent manpower challenges, and we appreciate their support both in the design district and downtown, specifically Commander Ferro, Commander Papier (phonetic), and Commander Morales. Both communities in the last City ofMiami Page 14 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 decade have changed dramatically. They've grown, and they continue to grow under the precipice of even greater change, but the biggest threat to that continued prosperity and change is a perception or even the reality of a decrease in public safety, whether it's perceived or real, that -- the thought or the uncertainty created by a lack of public safety is a threat to that continued growth. Our clients are making significant investments in the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars in new development and reinvesting in existing assets that will accrue to the benefit of the City. We'd ask the City to invest along with us; invest in their officers that are on force today and invest in additional resources to service the demands created not only by the residential communities, but also by your very important commercial properties. And in conclusion, I would note that today's choice is not one of -- it's not -- it shouldn't be a false choice. It should be a choice about priorities. There are adequate resources in your budget today in the form of budgeted reserves that have been carried over the last three years and not been utilized. Those resources were prudently budgeted over the last two years to offset the potential decreases in revenues. I think we need to revisit that policy and see whether those resources could best be deployed in investing in officers and services that'll provide you continued dividends in years to come. Thank you. Chair Sarnoff How much -- what do you think that number is? Mr. Fernandez: Sony? Chair Sarnoff That recurring number that has been -- Mr. Fernandez: Commissioner, you know, we've -- there's been the suggestion of 100 officers. Frankly, I think, if there's -- Chair Sarnoff No, no, no, that's not my question. Mr. Fernandez: Yes. Chair Sarnoff You talked about recurring -- I'm -- he's not talking about reserves. He's talking about the money that we budget, correct me if I'm wrong, for -- Mr. Fernandez: Between 10 and $12 million, I think, in uncollectable reserves have been budgeted, on top of the $5 million that are required under financial integrity principles. Chair Sarnoff Correct. And you're saying, historically, we've been collecting that? Mr. Fernandez: Well, I think you've had significant budget surpluses in the last three years, because that reserve -- those reserves have remained untapped. Chair Sarnoff Okay. Thank you. Mr. Fernandez: Thank you for your time. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Mr. Chairman, I -- and Javier, thank you for coming and representing those two groups, but I think it's also important -- because you also sit on another board where you had someone from Model City just also speak about the -- Mr. Fernandez: Absolutely. I'd love to, Commissioner. Commissioner Spence -Jones: I understand, and I'm very supportive of all the areas getting support, but I know you know -- you live it 'cause you're on that board -- of what's happening also in the Model City/Liberty City area. So I think it's important for you to speak to the importance of that, as well. City ofMiami Page 15 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Mr. Fernandez: Most definitely. Andl want to clam. We have tendered a letter on behalf of Dacra, but it's not just Dacra by itself. It's Dacra in conjunction with four area associations that surround it. We recognize it's not just a problem for our commercial client, but also the surrounding neighborhoods that face significant crime challenges as well. And as a board member of the Liberty City Trust, I can say that while I respect the issues that the Grove faces, which are not insignificant and no one should have to deal with the property crime -- you have people crime, loss of -- significant losses of life that need to be addressed in the form of increased manpower. Andl think that, you know, the staff has done a commendable job working with you and others to try to address those issues. But at the end of the day, it's a numbers game, and the police need additional resources in terms of investments in the officers that are here today and additional officers to kind of get the job done. Thank you. Chair Sarnoff Thank you. All right, Robert Suarez, Hamilet [sic] Moreno. Just can't read your first -- Moreno. Is it Hamilet, Yamilet? Okay. Mr. Suarez. Robert Suarez: Good evening, Commissioners. Robert Suarez, Miami Association of Firefighters and Paramedics. You know very well the cuts that your firefighters and paramedics have taken the past four years; 20 to 30 percent in regular salary reductions. In the last contract, we paid the City to be able to pay us our anniversaries and longevities for two years. They'd been frozen for the past year. I echo the sentiments of what -- of freeze and anniversaries and longevities does, and it's a very demoralizing thing to your employees to not have that very modest increment in your salary every few years. And in terms of our capital in the Fire Department's budget, I know on paper, it might seem like the Fire Department's budget is going up by 1.8 million, but I'll tell you that it's actually not. We received a grant to be able to pay for some of the firefighter/paramedics that we've cut off the street. Commissioner Sarnoff, in your neighborhood, we've had less paramedics than we had before. This grant is allowing us to pay for those. And the money for those positions is just being moved over to be able to repair some of our stations. We have over $50 million in repairs and renovations and capital investments that are needed in the Fire Department. Commissioner Gort, Commissioner Carollo, and Commissioner Sarnoff and others, you've helped us in -- get some money for that, but we have a very long list of -- in addition to the employee investment that we need into our equipment and our stations. It's a catastrophic need we have. The 1.8 million you're seeing in the budget is of a list of $60 million in needs that we have. It's just a drop in the bucket. It was Administration's compromise on what could be budgeted, but it is only a piece of what we need. So we ask you, any scenario that you're contemplating that would threaten that small investment from the large amount of investment we need in our capital, that that not be undertaken. Andl echo the sentiments when it comes to what's happened with our salary in the past couple years. You know very well how catastrophic that's been and how important it is to improve the morale of your paramedic/fire fighters on the street. Thank you. Chair Sarnoff Thank you. Applause. Chair Sarnoff All right. Mr. -- andl think it's a mister. I just can't get the first letter 'cause it's -- I think it's Hamilet, Yamilet. Okay. And then Freddy Delgado is on deck. Yamilet Moreno (as translated by Official Spanish interpreter Debra Spector): Good afternoon. My name is Yamilet Moreno. I'm here to see if you will take up again the living wage. I've been working here in the City since '97 and, supposedly, all positions are frozen because of the budget, but there are budgets for some people. My question is why Ms. Cabrera's brother-in-law is -- has come into the City Recreation III, the only position he could come to, and my position is frozen. The brother-in-law also has a position in the City of -- a position that was opened when our positions are frozen, and there are no positions. I had a meeting with Regalado, with Luis City ofMiami Page 16 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Cabrera, with Pascual; no one gives me an answer. No one was designated. And I'm tired. They've given positions to certain people. I'm not worried about reprisals. I'm going to take this to wherever I have to take it, because I'm tired of this. There are budgets for some people and the rest of us, it's been years. It's been years. I'm an example, and there are many people who are afraid. They're in worst positions than I am, more than 10 years, and their positions are frozen. People come in from the street to higher positions. I have 20 hours and those people have 29 hours and more. How do you explain that? I intend to raise that, andl will take it to wherever I have to take it, and that's all. Thank you very much. Applause. Chair Sarnoff Freddy Delgado. Commissioner Spence -Jones: I was just -- sorry. I just was curious, andl wanted to -- Chair Sarnoff Go ahead. Commissioner Spence -Jones: -- ask Danny like where she worked, andl guess you say she worked in the -- Chair Sarnoff Parks Department, right? Commissioner Spence -Jones: Oh, you know already where she works? Chair Sarnoff No, I assumed -- she said Juan Pascual, that she went -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: Oh. Chair Sarnoff -- to meet with him. Mr. Alfonso: I assume you work in the Parks Department, ma'am? COMMENTS IN SPANISH NOT TRANSLATED. Ms. Moreno (as interpreted by official Spanish interpreter Debra Spector): Yes, Parks & Recreation. What is that problem? I could go on until tomorrow. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Can you translate, 'cause I have no idea what she said? Commissioner Suarez: She said she could talk until tomorrow if she -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: Huh? Commissioner Suarez: She said she can talk until tomorrow if you let her. Ms. Moreno (as interpreted by official Spanish interpreter Debra Spector): I'll continue, if you like. I have many -- a lot of time. Chair Sarnoff All right. Ms. Moreno (as interpreted by official Spanish interpreter Debra Spector): This is an abuse. Chair Sarnoff Mr. Alfonso, why don't you get back to Commissioner Spence -Jones on the questions that she has? All right, Freddy Delgado. City ofMiami Page 17 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Unidentified Speaker: He waived his time. Chair Sarnoff He waived his time? Okay. And then I -- is anyone else? Because I have no more papers. Mr. Armbrister, you're addressing us. Mr. Armbrister: Good evening, wonderful people. My name is Williams Armbrister. I reside at 3260 Thomas Avenue. That's in Coconut Grove, Florida. And my family's been paying taxes in this City for three generations, and how we have managed to come where we are now is beyond comprehension. You got a bigger problem than you initially may have thought to address with the police officers and additional police officers. But from what I'm hearing, there is compensation. There is -- the salaries should be $48, 000 to start. The officers we need -- if you average the officers for the municipalities in South Florida, there should be right now 3.5 officers per thousand. Now, I don't know how you all managed to get us where we are, but I want to sit here and listen what proposals have been made to you by our Mayor, who is the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of the City at this time, and our City Manager, who answers to the Mayor. And l just want to know what proposals, other than laying off employees and taking away from Peter to pay Paul. You can't do that. You can't -- not run this City like this, you know. And we're going to have to be working together shortly, so I'd like for you to know that love you. I'm coming in with open arms, andl want us to work together as a team. And I'm not here to -- for politic reasons -- political reasons, because I just want you to know that I need you to punch 70 on -- Chair Sarnoff No, no, no, no, no. Mr. Armbrister: -- November 5. Chair Sarnoff No, no, no, no, no. Mr. Armbrister: Okay? Chair Sarnoff No, no, no, no, no. Step back. All right, anyone else want to speak? This is on BH.1, BH.10 and -- no, you gave up your time. Commissioner Spence -Jones: No, no, you gave up their time. Mariano Cruz: No (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Chair Sarnoff I wrote you down first thing. Mr. Cruz: No. Chair Sarnoff I wrote you down, Cruz. No, no, no, no, you're not renting out your space. Mr. Cruz: My name is there. I told them (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Chair Sarnoff Your name is there and you gave up your time to Mr. Or -- Mr. Cruz: No. I (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Chair Sarnoff Yes, you did. Mr. Cruz: No. Chair Sarnoff Go ahead, I'm going to give you a minute, one minute, and you've got to save us that you don't pay taxes. City ofMiami Page 18 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 BH.2 13-00914a Downtown Development Authority Mr. Cruz: No. Whatl got to say -- Mariano Cruz, 1227 26th Street. My daughter, happen to be a robbery detective, is watching me and my granddaughter too on the Internet. But, you know, one thing, I am -- even if I'm not -- I am a taxpayer. I pay the storm water. I pay Comcast. I get a franchise bill. I know, I pay taxes too, even ifI (UNINTET,T IGIBT ,F). But got to say one thing. My daughter show me (UNINTELLIGIBLE) recruit here (UNINTELLIGIBLE), and they took away her bachelor's money. And they say look at Atlanta, say, I cannot go to Atlanta, but, you know, they pay -- they hiring people here. But -- now, I'm going to tell you about hiring more police. I am going to talk to you. Remember what Santayana say, GeorgeSantayana: "People that don't remember history are condemned to repeat the mistake of the past." I've been coming here. I came here when CAC (Citizens Against Crime) came here. You know what CAC was? Citizens Against Crime, the non -group, Alba Chapman, Bishop McCarthy. Everybody were here, you know. Chair Sarnoff And in conclusion. Mr. Cruz: You know, and -- no. What happened -- Chair Sarnoff And in conclusion. Mr. Cruz: -- they produce the River Cops. The River Cops were produced at the time, because they were hiding people, cannibalizing departments. Chair Sarnoff And in conclusion. Mr. Cruz: In conclusion, yes. Remember, really watch me -- they have to give you back your -- the money for your bachelor's, okay. Thank you. Chair Sarnoff Thank you. All right, the public hearing is now closed on BH.1, BH.10, and BH.11. DISCUSSION ITEM DISCUSSION OF PROPOSED MILLAGE RATE AND FINAL BUDGET FOR THE MIAMI DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY. PERCENTAGE INCREASE IN MILLAGE OVER ROLLED -BACK RATE. RESPONSE: 13.03% (0.478 IS THE PROPOSED RATE, 0.4229 IS THE ROLLED -BACK RATE) CITY COMMISSION LISTENS AND RESPONDS TO CITIZENS' COMMENTS REGARDING THE PROPOSED MILLAGE AND EXPLAINS THE REASONS FOR THE INCREASE OVER THE ROLLED -BACK RATE. 13-00914a Proposed Millage & Final Budget - DDA.pdf DISCUSSED Chair Sarnoff So now we move on to BH.2. The BH.2 is the discussion of the millage for the Downtown Development Authority. It's just a discussion item. Does anybody wish to speak on BH.2, BH.3, andBH.4? BH.3 is the millage rate for the DDA (Downtown Development Authority). BH.4 is the budget of the DDA. And BH.2, 3, and 4, that's it. You're recognized for the record, Ms. Robertson. City ofMiami Page 19 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Alyce Robertson: Alyce Robertson, executive director of the Miami Downtown Development Authority. This discussion item is for the proposed millage rate and final budget for the Miami Downtown Development Authority for the fiscal year '13/14. The percentage -- there is a percentage increase over the rollback rate and that percentage is 13.03 percent and the rollback rate is .4229. Chair Sarnoff All right. BH.3 ORDINANCE Second Reading 13-00915 Downtown AN ORDINANCE OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH Development ATTACHMENT(S), RELATED TO TAXATION, DEFINING AND DESIGNATING Authority THE TERRITORIAL LIMITS OF THE DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT DISTRICT OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA; FIXING THE MILLAGE AND LEVYING TAXES IN SAID DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT DISTRICT FOR THE FISCAL YEAR BEGINNING OCTOBER 1, 2013 AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2014, AT .478 MILLS ON THE DOLLAR OF NONEXEMPT ASSESSED VALUE OF ALL REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY IN SAID DISTRICT; PROVIDING THAT SAID MILLAGE AND THE LEVYING OF TAXES WITHIN THE TERRITORIAL LIMITS OF THE CITY OF MIAMI ("CITY") AS REFLECTED IN THE CITY'S MILLAGE LEVY ORDINANCE FOR THE AFORESAID FISCAL YEAR WHICH IS REQUIRED BY CITY CHARTER SECTION 27; PROVIDING THAT THE FIXING OF THE MILLAGE AND THE LEVYING OF TAXES HEREIN SHALL BE IN ADDITION TO SPECIAL ASSESSMENTS; PROVIDING THAT THIS ORDINANCE SHALL NOT BE DEEMED AS REPEALING FOR AMENDING ANY OTHER ORDINANCE FIXING MILLAGE OR LEVYING TAXES, BUT SHALL BE DEEMED SUPPLEMENTAL AND IN ADDITION THERETO; CONTAINING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE. 13-00915 Memo - DDA SR. pdf 13-00915 Legislation - DDA FR.pdf 13-00915 Pre -Legislation FR.pdf 13-00915 Legislation FR.pdf 13-00915 Exhibit A FR. pdf ACTIONS BY THE CITY COMMISSION: 1. RECOMPUTE THE PROPOSED MILLAGE RATE, IF NECESSARY 2. ADOPT THE FINAL MILLAGE RATE Motion by Vice Chair Gort, seconded by Commissioner Spence -Jones, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 4 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo and Spence -Jones Absent: 1 - Commissioner(s) Suarez 13409 Note for the Record: Please see Item BH.2 for minutes referencing Item BH.3. Chair Sarnoff Now BH.3. Does anybody wish to discuss BH.3, the mill rate? BH.4 is the budget. So the budget requires a motion. Is there a motion? Commissioner Spence -Jones: So moved. City ofMiami Page 20 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Vice Chair Gort: Move it. Chair Sarnoff Motion by Commissioner Spence -Jones; second by Commissioner Gort. Commissioner Carollo: I thought her budget was already approved the last time. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Yeah, but it was -- Vice Chair Gort: Yeah. Alyce Robertson: It was the -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: -- the second -- Ms. Robertson: -- preliminary budget. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Second it. Chair Sarnoff Right. Vice Chair Gort: Is it a resolution or an ordinance? Chair Sarnoff It is a resolution. Commissioner Carollo: I thought her budget was approved. What we needed two votes on was the millage. Chair Sarnoff All right. Veronica Xiques (Assistant City Attorney): Commissioner, the first meeting you set the tentative budget just like the City. So this budget, you adopt the final budget and you do the same thing for the millage. The first meeting you set the tentative millage and now you're going to adopt the final millage today. Commissioner Carollo: What -- so why does the DDA have two readings of their budget and all the other agencies have one, which is a resolution? Ms. Xiques: Because they are setting a millage just as the City is. Commissioner Carollo: And we have to vote on their budget twice? Ms. Xiques: Correct. They are levying a millage. Chair Sarnoff All right, so we have a motion; we have a second. ToddB. Hannon (City Clerk): Chair, my apologies. Just for clarification, we're on BH.3, correct, sir, which is a second reading ordinance. The mover was? My apologies. Chair Sarnoff BH.3 -- right, I apologize -- is the mill rate, which was done by Commissioner Gort, seconded by Commissioner Spence -Jones. So, Madam City Attorney, it is an ordinance. The ordinance was read by title into the public record by Assistant City Attorney Veronica Xiques. Mr. Hannon: Roll call on item BH.3. City ofMiami Page 21 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 A roll call was taken, the result of which is stated above. Mr. Hannon: The ordinance passes on second reading, 4-0. Chair Sarnoff All right. BH.4 RESOLUTION 13-00916a Downtown A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION ADOPTING A BUDGET Development AND MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FROM THE DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT Authority DISTRICT AD VALOREM TAX LEVY AND OTHER MISCELLANEOUS INCOME FOR THE DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY ("DDA") OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA ("CITY"), FOR THE FISCAL YEAR BEGINNING OCTOBER 1, 2013 AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2014; AUTHORIZING THE DDA TO INVITE AND ADVERTISE REQUIRED BIDS; PROVIDING FOR BUDGETARY FLEXIBILITY; PROVIDING THAT THIS RESOLUTION BE DEEMED SUPPLEMENTAL AND IN ADDITION TO THE RESOLUTION MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR BEGINNING OCTOBER 1, 2013 AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2014, FOR THE OPERATIONS OF THE CITY. 13-00916a Memo - DDA.pdf 13-00916a Resolution - DDA.pdf 13-00916a Pre-Legislation.pdf 13-00916a Sec. 14-27 Boundaries Designated.pdf 13-00916a Legislation.pdf ACTIONS BY THE CITY COMMISSION: 1. AMEND THE TENTATIVE BUDGET, IF NECESSARY 2. ADOPT THE FINAL BUDGET Motion by Vice Chair Gort, seconded by Commissioner Spence -Jones, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 4 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Suarez and Spence -Jones Noes: 1 - Commissioner(s) Carollo R-13-0387 Note for the Record: Please see Item BH.2 for minutes referencing Item BH.4. Chair Sarnoff BH.4 is the budget of the DDA (Downtown Development Authority). Is there a motion? Vice Chair Gort: Move it. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Second. Chair Sarnoff Motion by Commissioner Gort; second by Commissioner Spence -Jones. Anybody wishing to discuss? All right, then all in favor, please say aye." Vice Chair Gort: Aye. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Aye. City ofMiami Page 22 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 BH.5 13-00941 SEOPW Community Redevelopment Agency Chair Sarnoff Aye. Commissioner Carollo: No. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Only thingl want to just say, I want to commend the DDA. Once again, you guys are a star organization. I mean, just everything -from presentation to delivery to professionalism to what you guys are doing or what you have done in a very short period of time. You have to acknowledge people when they do a great job. So I just really wanted to make sure I said that. And -- Chair Sarnoff And I'd like to say -- 'cause I don't toot their horn very much, and Alyce will point that out to me. She is the award -winning agency in the State of Florida. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Wow. Chair Sarnoff Nobody was higher acknowledged than DDA in the state of Florida. So from amongst her peers -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: Well done. Chair Sarnoff -- she is recognized as the best in the state of Florida for agencies. Okay, Alyce, you may take a bow or a curtsy; however you'd like. You're done. Alyce Robertson: A curtsy. Thank you very much. Chair Sarnoff All right. Vice Chair Gort: Great presentation RESOLUTION A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH ATTACHMENT(S), ACCEPTING THE BUDGET OF THE SOUTHEAST OVERTOWN/PARK WEST COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY ("SEOPW CRA"), ATTACHED AND INCORPORATED, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR COMMENCING OCTOBER 1, 2013 AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2014, AS APPROVED BY THE SEOPW CRA'S BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS. 13-00941 Memo - SEOPWCRA.pdf 13-00941 Legislation.pdf 13-00941 Exhibit 1.pdf Motion by Commissioner Spence -Jones, seconded by Vice Chair Gort, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 4 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Suarez and Spence -Jones Absent: 1 - Commissioner(s) Carollo R-13-0388 Chair Sarnoff Now we move on to BH. 5. Commissioner Spence -Jones: BH.5. City ofMiami Page 23 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Chair Sarnoff BH.5 is the Southeast/Overtown Park West CRA (Community Redevelopment Agency) budget. Commissioner Spence -Jones: So moved. Vice Chair Gort: Second. Chair Sarnoff We have a motion by Commissioner Spence -Jones; second -- Commissioner Carollo: Second. Chair Sarnoff -- by Commissioner Gort. Any discussion? Hearing no discussion, all in favor, please say iiye. " The Commission (Collectively): Aye. Clarence Woods (Executive Director, Community Redevelopment Agency): Thank you. BH.6 RESOLUTION 13-00902 Civilian Investigative A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH Panel ATTACHMENT(S), APPROVING THE ANNUAL BUDGET FOR THE CIVILIAN INVESTIGATIVE PANEL, IN THE AMOUNT OF $743,100 FOR THE FISCAL YEAR COMMENCING OCTOBER 1, 2013 AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2014. 13-00902 Memos - CIP.pdf 13-00902 Resolution - CIP.pdf 13-00902 Legislation.pdf 13-00902 Exhibit 1.pdf 13-00902-Submittal-Commissioner Sarnoff-Summary of requested Increases for CIP Budget.pdf Motion by Commissioner Carollo, seconded by Commissioner Spence -Jones, that this matter be ADOPTED WITH MODIFICATIONS PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence -Jones R-13-0391 Chair Sarnoff BH.6 is the Civilian Investigative Panel. Commissioner Suarez: Move it. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Second. Chair Sarnoff Motion by Commissioner Suarez; second by Commissioner Spence -Jones. Any discussion? Commissioner Carollo: Yes. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Nope. Oh, okay. Chair Sarnoff You're recognized for the record. Commissioner Carollo: Yes. Mr. Alfonso, in the City budget, do we have the extra amount City ofMiami Page 24 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 allocated? Daniell Alfonso (Acting City Manager): Commissioner, we have a portion of those funds that are related to the changes that we made due to the allocation of pension and whatnot, but there is approximately $100, 000 that it's not. Commissioner Carollo: Exactly. So that's $100, 000 that is not in our City budget that, if we approve it as is, will now -- we need to look for an additional $100, 000, so I want to point this out, because if we're discussing police salaries and benefits and -- the bottom line is, we just -- we're going to hit a $100, 000 hole that's not in our budget right now, so we need to find these $100, 000 first, if this is approved. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Okay, I -- I'm assuming -- the chairman just passed out something. You want to kind of explain it? Chair Sarnoff Do you want to discuss this with us so we understand it? Horacio Stuart Aguirre: I would be pleased. Horacio Stuart Aguirre, as chairman of the Civilian Investigative Panel, of the Budget and Finance Committee, on behalf of Tom Cobitz, chairman. With me is Mr. Charles Mays, Esquire, former City Deputy Attorney and, fortunately for us, acting as independent counsel. Our position is that the way you're presenting the budget today is wonderful. It's the way it should have been done for the last 20 years. It's the way the rest of industry does it. But you weren't doing it this way for the last 20 years. Matter offact, you didn't do it this way last year, so consequently, when you compare last year's budget with this year's budget, you're not comparing apples with apples. In reality, the way we see it, you're only increasing our budget, as per the request of today, by just about $71, 000. Everything else is the same. Now, today you're charging us, rightfully so, for the total cost of an operation; same way Department of Defense budgets the cost of a battleship or an airplane; same way American Airlines charges the cost of an airliner throughout its life; all costs. So you're doing it right today You weren't doing it right last year, but you can't charge that against us. This year you're including cost allocations, you're including budgets for pensions, for taxes, for insurance, overhead, for breathing the air in the office building, United Nations contributions. We understand that, and that's the way it is. But the real increases today is just $71, 000. That's a 39,000 increase so that we can hire a market rate executive director, which we don't have right now. As a matter offact, you all were severely criticized, me included, all of us included collectively, by the Department of Justice claiming that we're not providing sufficient oversight guidance for the Miami Police Department, and this very same agency is operating without an executive director. We'd like to hire an executive director. I can't be doing this part time. Mr. Tom Cobitz can't be doing this part time. And right now we're asking our independent counsel to add additional time to his load to carry the administrative work of the agency that is so needed, so critical. So what we want to do is we want to hire a market rate executive director with knowledge, experience, and expertise in civilian oversight of law enforcement, a woman that has a law degree with more years of experience than politeness would prohibit me from stating, given that she's a proper lady. We'd also like to hire an administrative clerk; in other words, somebody to help us do the photocopying. We don't have anybody like that in the office. If we could have this budget approved, you're only adding $71, 000 to last year's budget on an apples -to -apples basis. There may be another $500 for color paper, something like that. But it's basically $71, 000 so that we can have an executive director at $125, 000, a woman with more than 30 years expertise in law enforcement oversight, with a law degree, and an administrative clerk to handle with the paperwork in the office. That's all, nothing else. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Danny -- Mr. Manager, do you have any comments on this? Mr. Alfonso: Commissioner, I'm going to ask the Budget director, Chris Rose, to give the detail. The conversation is correct in that the decrease from 460 to 700 and something is not all what City ofMiami Page 25 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 they're asking. A lot of that is because of the allocation. But we have a slight difference in the 70 versus 100, soI want Chris Rose to go ahead and address that issue. Christopher Rose (Director, Office of Management and Budget): Good evening, Commissioners. We are -- we have the growth from 464 to 743. There's 178,000 of cost allocation. We have set that aside. We're putting that towards them, so their -- that is not part of the increase. We have that. There is another 100,000 that's made up of 39,000, plus some Social Security for the executive director, just as we've discussed, and a clerical position, which is 31,000, plus some Social Security. On top of that, there's a few other things, as he said. There's other contractual going up. There is another $4, 500 of travel. There's enclosing the director's office. There's another -- a new laptop. There are some things in there that all total up to about $100,000. Commissioner Carollo: Mr. Chairman. Mr. Aguirre: Let me answer one question. One word came up that I know our listeners on TV (Television) were going to pick up on, travel, $4,500. Yes, we do travel; not all of us. Out of the entire Civilian Investigative Panel, four members, including staff will go to one conference every year called the NACOLE (National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement) Conference, National Association of Civilian Law Enforcement. This is a four -day seminar taught by psychologists, psychiatrists, and police officers, and speakers from Department of Justice that train people, such as myself, that come from the public sector. I'm a management finance guy. I'm not a police officer. Without this type of training, people on this panel would not know what to do. So we do have travel once a year and that is 4,500. That's correct. So it's not Disney World. It's not Carnival Cruise Lines. It's not Moscow or Paris. Commissioner Spence -Jones: So let -- resolution. So what -- I guess Commissioner Carollo is the one that has the -- Commissioner Carollo: Yeah. I mean, if we approve this budget -- before we approve this budget, if we're going to approve this budget, I'm going to ask our CFO (Chief Financial Officer), our Budget director, where's the $100, 000 comingfrom then for our City budget? Because this -- the money they're asking is comingfrom our City budget. In our City budget, we don't have those $100,000 budgeted for, so if we're actually thinking of -- debating whether we're giving or we're setting money aside for additional police officers or not, the bottom line is, we just went $100,000 backwards in our budget because -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: Do you want to table this until we have a whole entire budget conversation then? Commissioner Carollo: Yes. Commissioner Spence -Jones: And then come back and plug in? That would be this recommendation, 'cause if not, we're going to go back and forth. So, Horacio, at this point, just to make sure that we're all on the same page, I think probably the best thing to do is allow for us to get to the point where we're talking about the whole issues around the budget and then we'll see where we can plug in. I know that means you have to sit here a little longer, but you may have to. Okay. Mr. Aguirre: Thank you. Commissioner Spence -Jones: All right, so we're tabling that. Is that okay, Mr. Chair? Chair Sarnoff Table that. Later... City ofMiami Page 26 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Chair Sarnoff BH.6. Commissioner Suarez: Go ahead, Commissioner. Chair Sarnoff I think Carollo's making a motion to increase BH. 6's budget -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: Second. Chair Sarnoff -- by $100, 000. Commissioner Carollo: That is correct. Commissioner Suarez: You beat me to it, Commissioner. Chair Sarnoff So we have a motion -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: So Horac -- Chair Sarnoff -- by Carollo, second by Spence -Jones. Commissioner Suarez: Yes. Commissioner Spence -Jones: See, Horacio, see? Worked out. Chair Sarnoff Any further discussion? Horacio, I'm going to give you a piece of advice. Commissioner Spence -Jones: He just come to say thank you. He's not saying anything else. Just thank you. Chair Sarnoff And I -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: Thank you. Chair Sarnoff -- got to tell you, I wouldn't have done it. I just wouldn't have crossed that threshold. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Say thank you. Mr. Aguirre: Listen, before we leave, the CIP (Civilian Investigative Panel) has asked us to do something, and that's to say that there has been a big change with ChiefManny Orosa. It's a refreshing change. We're seeing improvements, and the recognition has to be voiced. Thank you. Commissioner Spence -Jones: You're welcome. I don't know if he's here. Chair Sarnoff Good (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Commissioner Spence -Jones: I don't know if he's here. Is he still here? Chair Sarnoff All in favor, please say aye." The Commission (Collectively): Aye. BH.7 RESOLUTION 13-00876 City ofMiami Page 27 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 General Employees and Sanitation Employees Retirement Trust A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MIAMI COMMISSION, WITH ATTACHMENT(S), APPROVING AND ADOPTING THE ANNUAL BUDGET OF THE CITY OF MIAMI GENERAL EMPLOYEES' & SANITATION EMPLOYEES' RETIREMENT TRUST ("GESE RETIREMENT TRUST FUND") FOR THE FISCAL YEAR COMMENCING OCTOBER 1, 2013 AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2014, IN THE AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $2,994,169, EXCLUDING NORMAL COST, TO PROVIDE FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE GESE RETIREMENT TRUST FUND. 13-00876 Memos - GESE Retirement Trust.pdf 13-00876 Legislati on. pdf 13-00876 Exhibit 1.pdf Motion by Commissioner Carollo, seconded by Commissioner Suarez, that this matter be ADOPTED WITH MODIFICATIONS PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence -Jones R-13-0392 Chair Sarnoff And now we'll move on to BH 7, which is GESE (General Employees and Sanitation Employees). Ron Silver: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the Commission. I am Ron Silver, attorney for the City of Miami General Employee and Sanitation Employees Retirement Trust, 2031 Northeast 209th Street, Miami, Florida. We're here to present the budget for the year 2013/2014, not to exceed the sum of $2,994,169. Chair Sarnoff All right, is there a motion? Commissioner Carollo: Mr. Chairman. Chair Sarnoff You're recognized. Commissioner Carollo: Thank you. Good evening, senator. Mr. Silver: How are you? Good to see you. Commissioner Carollo: Good. What was your budget last year? Mr. Silver: Can I call somebody up to be able to answer that question? Sandra Elenberg: Good evening. Sandra Elenberg, pension administrator for the GESE pension office. Commissioner Carollo: And let me rephrase the question. What was your total budget last year? Ms. Elenberg: Right, $2, 849, 700. Commissioner Carollo: So in other words, you're increasing your budget by roughly 145,000? Ms. Elenberg: Yes. Commissioner Carollo: So if we bring them back closer to where they were last year, you may just have the $100, 000 for CIP (Civilian Investigative Panel), but again, I'm just saying because -- they're increasing their budget by 145, 000. I don't know if that increase is definitely City ofMiami Page 28 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 necessary, but it's definitely open for discussion. If we bring them back closer to where they were last year, you just -- we just found 100,000 for CIP and to hire Civilian Investigative Panel. But again, that's up for discussion. Ms. Elenberg: May I say something? Commissioner Carollo: Sure, go ahead. Ms. Elenberg: Okay, $50, 000 of it was for insurance. We increased our insurance limits and we also added Cyber Liability Insurance that we did not have before. So this is, you know, fiduciary insurance and, you know, we increased the limits 'cause they were kind of low. Commissioner Spence -Jones: The 95? Ms. Elenberg: The rest? Commissioner Spence -Jones: Yeah. Ms. Elenberg: Okay, 20,000 was for office supplies that we do need. Commissioner Carollo: By the way, an additional 20,000. I think they were -- and I'm going on memory -- but I think they were at 40,000? Ms. Elenberg: Yes. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Yes. Commissioner Carollo: It's an additional, so they want 60,000 of office supplies. Commissioner Spence -Jones: I gotcha. Commissioner Carollo: So it's an additional 20,000. Commissioner Spence -Jones: I gotcha. But I also remember you saying that now because there's been some changes in the law and you have to do more mailers and -- I don't know if it's going to be that amount, but I do remember you explaining why the increase. Ms. Elenberg: Right, right. Commissioner Spence -Jones: But let's continue. What else? Ms. Elenberg: Okay, let's see. Okay, well, health insurance, 5 percent. That's an annual increase. The retirement contributions, that's actuarially required and that went up from 219,000 to 291, 000. And then I did give -- there's only -- out of a staff of ten, only one of us is getting a raise, and that's because it was a promotion to my assistant, because I have retired and I'm in the DROP (Deferred Retirement Option Plans), andl will be leaving in two years, so somebody has to take my place. Commissioner Spence -Jones: So that 95 seems like it's a little flexible. Commissioner Carollo: Yes. Ms. Elenberg: Not really. Commissioner Carollo: Yes. City ofMiami Page 29 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Commissioner Spence -Jones: We can table it -- Commissioner Carollo: Yes. Commissioner Spence -Jones: -- until after we get to the budget. Ms. Elenberg: Excuse me? Commissioner Spence -Jones: We can table it until -- Commissioner Carollo: I see where Spence -Jones -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: We talk -- Chair Sarnoff -- is going with this, but that's good. Commissioner Carollo: Yes. Chair Sarnoff So we have 145,000 increase, right? Commissioner Carollo: Exactly. Ms. Elenberg: Yes. Chair Sarnoff And we have $100,000 need for CIP. Commissioner Carollo: Yes. Chair Sarnoff Okay. Commissioner Carollo: So right there I think -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: That's not my idea. That's Carollo's idea. Chair Sarnoff I agree. You should bring it down. Vice Chair Gort: Yeah. Chair Sarnoff Look at it. We'll table it. All right, let's go to BH.8. Commissioner Spence -Jones: We saved you 50,000. You almost lost all of it. Commissioner Carollo: We're not big -- well, at least, I'm not big on increases, so this is somewhat of a compromise where you still are getting an increase. I'm not big on increases. I think, realistically, if you compare it to the FIPO (Firefighters and Police Officers) Board, you're a lot higher with regards to your expenses, but we'll leave it at that. I'm just trying to compromise here and move it along. But I think right there -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: Let's table it and we'll -- when we talk about the overall budget, if we see there's some room, then -- but just know that that 145 is going to be probably dealt with. Commissioner Carollo: Yeah. I still think your overall budget is way high, but -- Mr. Silver: Okay. City ofMiami Page 30 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Commissioner Carollo: -- that's beside the point. Mr. Silver: Let me just make one statement. I'm not going to engage in a back and forth with you, but happy -- Commissioner Carollo: I understand. Mr. Silver: You know, the bottom line is we have significant more members in our plan than FIPO has, all right, and quite frankly, they need a lot more attention, okay. So I mean, I'm just -- you know, we go through the whole process of sitting down with these people when they come in wanting to retire and explaining everything to them so there's not a problem at the end. Fortunately, we haven't had very many problems over the 35 years that I've been there because we do, I think, an excellent job of that. But I just wanted to point out to you again we have significant amount of more members than FIPO does. Chair Sarnoff All right, is there any point to going to the excess plan or you want to just table that as well? What's the delta between your excess plan and last year? Mr. Silver: Is there a difference? Ms. Robertson: No. Mr. Silver: No. Commissioner Carollo: No. Mr. Silver: No difference. Commissioner Carollo: The same. Chair Sarnoff The same, okay. Commissioner Spence -Jones: No increase. Commissioner Carollo: About the same. Mr. Silver: Yes. Chair Sarnoff You want to take a vote on that just to clear it out? Commissioner Carollo: Sure. Later... Chair Sarnoff Now here comes BH.11, which we also have to take BH.5 and BH.6 up. This is it, the budget for the City ofMiami. Commissioner Suarez: Why -- Mr. Chair, why don't we get rid of -- I'm sorry, not get rid of. I -- my -- I apologize for the -- Chair Sarnoff I like the -- Commissioner Suarez: -- phraseology. Why don't we finish the other ones and then -- I don't know. City ofMiami Page 31 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Commissioner Spence -Jones: Because they were -- I don't know if you were up here when the -- I think -- Commissioner Suarez: I was listening. Commissioner Spence -Jones: -- you might have stepped out. Commissioner Suarez: I was eating and listening. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Oh, you were eating, okay. Commissioner Suarez: Sorry. Commissioner Spence -Jones: But I don't think we could really discuss that till -- I think Carollo wants to discuss the budget to see what needs to be -- Commissioner Suarez: My Apologies. Commissioner Carollo: Hey, I'm fine. I gave a good suggestion that I might be willing to go for, and that's for them to reduce their budget by $100, 000 -- their proposed budget by $100, 000. If you -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: It's 95. Commissioner Carollo: -- transfer that -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: It's 95. Commissioner Suarez: By the way -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: Ninety-five. Commissioner Suarez: -- Mr. Chair, it takes guts to propose an increase in insurance for Cyber Insurance. I've never heard of that one before. That takes guts. Chair Sarnoff All right. So here's -- so I think Carollo's making a motion. His motion is to reduce BH.7 by $100, 000 and make sure that that $100, 000 is special -revenues, held onto, and then when we vote on BH.6, it would go to BH.6. Commissioner Spence -Jones: I would second his motion only if -- Chair Sarnoff Is that right? Commissioner Carollo: I will yield to our acting City Manager/CFO (Chief Financial Officer). He knows what I'm trying to do, butt will yield to how we should do it. Daniell Alfonso (Acting City Manager): Commissioners, ifI understand correctly, you want to Commissioner Spence -Jones: Swap it. Mr. Alfonso: -- basically amend the budget proposal of GESE by reducing it by $100, 000. Commissioner Carollo: Right. City ofMiami Page 32 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Chair Sarnoff Correct. He wants to pull that money -- Mr. Alfonso: That would have to pass. Chair Sarnoff Okay. And then there's going to be -- Mr. Alfonso: Then there would be $100, 000 that is currently in the existing City budget that would be available. Then you can take up the other item separately and allocate that money for that. Commissioner Carollo: Yes. Chair Sarnoff Fair enough. All right, so we'll take it as a motion by Commissioner Carollo -- Commissioner Suarez: Second. Chair Sarnoff -- to reduce by $100, 000 -- Commissioner Suarez: Second. Chair Sarnoff --BH.7. Commissioner Carollo: Yes. Chair Sarnoff We have -- so a motion by Carollo, second by Suarez. Any further discussion? Commissioner Spence -Jones: Well, I mean, I have the people standing at the podium. Can you just allow for them to say what they were going to say? Commissioner Carollo: Senator, take it. Mr. Silver: No, I mean -- you know, we'll -- Commissioner Carollo: You're ahead. Mr. Silver: -- do -- you know, we'll go along with that. I just want to point out one thing: $45, 000 is in the budget for hurricane insurance for the deductible. So if we don't have a hurricane, that, you know, makes it even more palatable, but we got to pray. We got to pray. Commissioner Carollo: That's the $50, 000 increase. Mr. Silver: Yeah. Commissioner Suarez: Right. Commissioner Carollo: You have it. Mr. Silver: Okay. Commissioner Carollo: You have a $50, 000 increase -- Vice Chair Gort: We're not going to (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Commissioner Carollo: -- or 45 or whatever it is from last year's budget. City ofMiami Page 33 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 BH.8 13-00877 General Employees and Sanitation Employees Retirement Trust Mr. Silver: Okay. Commissioner Carollo: So it's in there. Mr. Silver: Okay. Chair Sarnoff All in favor -- Commissioner Carollo: I'm looking out for you. Chair Sarnoff -- please say aye. The Commission (Collectively): Aye. RESOLUTION A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MIAMI COMMISSION, WITH ATTACHMENT(S), APPROVING AND ADOPTING THE ANNUAL BUDGET OF THE CITY OF MIAMI GENERAL EMPLOYEES' & SANITATION EMPLOYEES' EXCESS BENEFIT PLAN ("GESE EXCESS BENEFIT PLAN") FOR THE FISCAL YEAR COMMENCING OCTOBER 1, 2013 AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2014, IN THE AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $109,307, EXCLUDING THE ACTUARIALLY DETERMINED ANNUAL BENEFIT PAYMENT, TO PROVIDE FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE GESE EXCESS BENEFIT PLAN. 13-00877 Memos - GESE Excess Benefit Plan.pdf 13-00877 Legislati on. pdf 13-00877 Exhibit 1.pdf Motion by Commissioner Carollo, seconded by Commissioner Suarez, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence -Jones R-13-0389 Chair Sarnoff All right, so BH.8 is the General Employees, Sanitation Employees Retirement Trust Excess Plan. Is there a motion? Commissioner Carollo: Move it. Commissioner Suarez: Second. Chair Sarnoff Motion by Commissioner Carollo. Commissioner Suarez: Second. Chair Sarnoff Second by Commissioner Suarez. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor, please say iiye. " The Commission (Collectively): Aye. Chair Sarnoff Okay. City ofMiami Page 34 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 BH.9 13-00942 Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) Ron Silver: Thank you. RESOLUTION A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH ATTACHMENT(S), ACCEPTING THE BUDGETS OF THE OMNI REDEVELOPMENT DISTRICT, AND MIDTOWN COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCIES, ATTACHED AND INCORPORATED, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR COMMENCING OCTOBER 1, 2013 AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2014, AS APPROVED BY THE COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS. 13-00942 Summary Form.pdf 13-00942 Memo - Omni CRA & Midtown CRA Budgets FY'14. pdf 13-00942 Legislation. pdf 13-00942 Exhibit 1.pdf Motion by Commissioner Spence -Jones, seconded by Vice Chair Gort, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 4 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Suarez and Spence -Jones Noes: 1 - Commissioner(s) Carollo R-13-0390 Chair Sarnoff Omni CRA (Community Redevelopment Agency) -- Omni/Midtown CRA. Commissioner Spence -Jones: I thought we did -- we did that today. Chair Sarnoff I think it's got to be voted on, I think. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Oh, it has to be voted on twice? Pieter Bockweg (Executive Director, Midtown/Omni Community Redevelopment Agencies): Yes. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Oh, okay. Mr. Bockweg: Peter Bockweg, executive director of the Midtown and Omni CRA. Before you is accepting the budget for the CRA, which was approved by the board this afternoon. Chair Sarnoff Is there a motion? Commissioner Spence -Jones: So moved. Chair Sarnoff Motion by Commissioner Spence -Jones. Is there a second? Vice Chair Gort: Second. Chair Sarnoff Second by Commissioner Gort. Commissioner Carollo: Discussion. Chair Sarnoff Go ahead. Commissioner Carollo: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm not going to go into great details. I'm going to be brief about it. A lot of this I've said in the past, and even then when I said it in the City ofMiami Page 35 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 past, I haven't gone into great details. But I do not believe in all the legal counsels that we're hiring, all the various lobbyists, federal lobbyists, state lobbyists that we're spending a lot of money on. But that aside, I think we need to discuss the MEC and -- Media Entertainment Center. I mean, we're allocating $6.3 million to that. I truly believe we could spend that money in better places, and I'm going to say my two ideas. Number one, a promise that was made a long time ago, which is Museum Park. I think, you know, there's adequate funding here to start getting into the level that originally was promised, so I truly believe this money should either be going to Museum Park. And the second thing that I'm going to probably discuss a little further on down when we discuss the budget is that, listen, we need police officers on the street and right here we have $6.3 million for a movie studio. Commissioner Spence -Jones: So you want me to withdraw it? I'll withdraw and we can table it and then discuss it as well. You want to do that, leave that open like we done the other one? Commissioner Carollo: Sure. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Just so we can have -- Commissioner Carollo: But in all fairness, I don't think we could really do anything today, but I do think -- and where I'm going with this, in the future, I think we should do some type of percentage or diminish the percentage of the amount of money that's going actually to the CRA, andl think we -- it's a fair discussion that needs to be an open discussion, because I think that if less money goes into the CRA, then more money goes into the general fund. In all fairness, it could be a way of funding some of these officers that I think is very much needed. I think, if we had a discussion of should money go to police officers to patrol our streets or should it go to a media and entertainment center, I think the majority of the people are going to choose the police officers so -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: But let me ask you something, Commissioner Carollo. I thought we already have money -- did you -- don't you have money in for police? Mr. Bockweg: Yes, ma'am. We put in our budget $350, 000 for the Police Visibility grant. Commissioner Carollo: But the difference is that that money has to be to enhance police, so we are paying a premium for every officer that patrols that area. Commissioner Spence -Jones: But I think that -- I think the Chairman said in our last meeting that he didn't have a issue with looking at the Omni CRA as an option. Chair Sarnoff I don't, and -- you know, let me pipe in, because I happen to believe profoundly in the movie studio itself. Commissioner Carollo: I understand. Chair Sarnoff I think it's -- let me just say it -- going to bring a resource to this City that we've never had before; that will bring an industry to this City that we never had before, and that will actually bring jobs to the City. Now, the Omni CRA and any CRA can do enhanced services. The Omni CRA, unlike most CRAs, is pretty heavily indebted to pay for the County's PAC (Performing Arts Center) payment, if you will, and so the Omni CRA can't go away. The Omni CRA has to continue to do that. Commissioner Carollo: Understood. Chair Sarnoff I am more than willing, in the next budget year, to actually create the Omni Police Department, creating its own police department. We'll put between 6 and 12 officers on City ofMiami Page 36 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 the street, and that probably is the most legal way of doing it, because as soon as we substitute a service -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: Yeah, you can't do -- Chair Sarnoff I think you know this. Commissioner Spence -Jones: -- that. Yeah. Chair Sarnoff You can't do that. I am absolutely committed. I -- the only philosophical discussion or difference you andl have is putting that money towards the park versus putting it towards a new industry. Commissioner Spence -Jones: But you know -- but let me say. But one of the creative things we can do -- andl think you did it earlier this year -- is you could -- I believe with the Fire Department, for instance -- I know you guys brought [sic] equipment, right? Those dollars that we would -- that would -- that's already in the Police budget or in the Fire budget that we're using towards equipment or another item, then that could be balanced off to do increases for the -- so that's another creative way of doing it. Chair Sarnoff And we're -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: Because you can't do it -- like you said, we'd have to create a whole new police department. That, to me, I think we're asking for headaches doing that. But what we can do is offset -- if -- as Robert was mentioning earlier, the issue of not having the adequate equipment and items that are needed, but that would give them some additional, you know, revenue to take care of you know, the firefighters or the officers that might need the additional dollars. So that's another way of doing it without actually having to pay for police themselves. Commissioner Carollo: Mr. Chairman. Commissioner Spence -Jones: So that's a creative way of doing it. Chair Sarnoff You're recognized. Commissioner Carollo: Thank you. And -- right. You know, and you and I may never agree on this because you believe the money should go to the MEC; I believe it should go to Bicentennial Park, Museum Park, so -- and, you know, that's a difference that you andl have, but, you know, I think we're professional about it and we have a difference of opinion. Now, what I'm more -- what I'm talking more in reference to is lowering the percentage of TIF (Tax Increment Fund) for the CRA, so actually, less revenues goes into the CRA and that revenue goes back into the City general fund and, in reality, to the County general fund So, realistically, what I'm talking more about is lowering the TIF revenue or the percentage of TIF revenue that goes into the CRA. Chair Sarnoff But can I tell you why that's not a wise idea or at least --? Commissioner Carollo: I know where you're going with it. Chair Sarnoff Right. At least why for the City -- might be good for the County. Those monies stay within the City ofMiami. So you're taking County tax dollars; keeping them in the City. You're actually better suited, in my opinion -- and I've not done the full analysis, Commissioner, so I -- and I wish I had, and we started going through the analysis. The actual most productivity you can get for the police might be a CRA police force where the CRA actually hires police for enhanced police safety in the downtown area. That means you'd be paying that police officer City ofMiami Page 37 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 with County and City dollars, and that might by the best avenue. And l just want to tell you a little bit why I depart from you, because I'm a parks guy, and I think you know, and I love parks, and actually have a different plan to bring in 20 million private sector dollars for this park. Commissioner Carollo: You still can. Chair Sarnoff Under my plan, I can. Under your plan -- Commissioner Carollo: You still can. Chair Sarnoff -- I can't. Well, I could never get a guy or a girl to hand me $20 million without knowing where that is going, without having some sort of governance to do that. It's just not human nature. People won't hand money to the City ofMiami. Commissioner Carollo: You have an organization that has a proven record of doing that. Chair Sarnoff You can't give money to your organization 'cause it's not a 501(c)3. Commissioner Carollo: We have a proven record of doing that. Commissioner Spence -Jones: We went off -- Vice Chair Gort: Question. Commissioner Spence -Jones: I'm lost. What --? Commissioner Suarez: Yeah. It's okay. Commissioner Spence -Jones: That's a separate subject? Vice Chair Gort: Yes. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Is that a different subject? Commissioner Carollo: It's a separate subject that I'm sure, in the future, we'll have -- Vice Chair Gort: It'll be -- Commissioner Carollo: -- time to discuss and debate. Vice Chair Gort: -- coming around. Let me ask a question. My understanding is money was set aside for this film industry. Mr. Bockweg: That's correct. Vice Chair Gort: Am I correct? This is not reoccurring revenue that's going to happen in next years. Mr. Bockweg: Well -- Vice Chair Gort: I mean, that -- Mr. Bockweg: -- next year we'll get additional TIF revenue in our budget. Vice Chair Gort: No, I understand. But will not affect -- City ofMiami Page 38 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Chair Sarnoff No, you're right. We'll -- Vice Chair Gort: It will not affect the S10 million, the S6 million committed to create this facility. Mr. Bockweg: No. Vice Chair Gort: The reason I'm asking this question, because it's very important to understand, what is the impact on the future of -- andl agree, I think we can reduce some of the millage in some of this if we agree to. But I am a great believer, because I've been there; I've seen it. The film industry -- people, when we closed Burnt [sic] Notice over here, started getting a lot of calls, because a lot of the people, the vendors and the people that work here, even the police, and everyone got jobs out of the film industry. Every time they have a film and they do something in the street, they use our police officers, they use our Code Enforcement, they use our parks, and they pay for it. I'm a great believer that the film industry can produce revenues for the City of Miami. Commissioner Suarez: Can I --? Commissioner Spence -Jones: Can I --? I just want to -- I'm sorry. I just want to add -- I think it's important, if there's a question around -- and we finally got on the same page about the MEC, okay, but I do think it's important, just for those folks that are listening, Pieter, for people to understand what is the endgame once the facility is built, right, which will be built soon. What -- who's going to run it? Who's going to manage it? Who's going to operate it? And maybe answering those questions will also give comfort to Commissioner Carollo. Is it going out to bid to see if somebody can run it? You know, is it going to be a charter school? I mean, 'cause I'm hearing like a lot of -- and don't really get involved with the Omni portion anymore at all, quite frankly, 'cause I have a million and one things -- Chair Sarnoff Just -- the only thing want to warn him about is just be careful; there's a Cone of Silence. So you can talk esoterically -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: Yeah. I'm not talking about -- Chair Sarnoff -- about conceptually what she's asking you, but be careful. Do not cross the line. Commissioner Suarez: Is there a Cone (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in CRAs? Mr. Bockweg: And that was the first thing -- thank you, Mr. Chair -- I was going to mention. Chair Sarnoff The RFP is (Request for Proposals) out. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Oh. Mr. Bockweg: Yes. Commissioner Spence -Jones: RFP out for construction, though, I thought. Mr. Bockweg: For design, build, and operate. It's a RFP for all three. Commissioner Carollo: Mr. Chairman. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Wow. City ofMiami Page 39 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Commissioner Carollo: Total -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: I mean, I didn't -- Commissioner Carollo: -- cost? Approximately total cost? Mr. Bockweg: In the RFP, it is recommended the total cost to be $10.5 million. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Explain to me. You said -- so -- I thought it was only -- I'm just trying is to get clear. I thought it was just for to design it, to build it, but I -- so the same person that's going to design it, build it is also going to operate or that's three different proposals? Mr. Bockweg: It's -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: And why did we do them all together? Why don't we get it built first? Mr. Bockweg: The proposal is one, so it will be a team of people hopefully coming in to provide a bid response to design, build, and then also as part of that team, to operate the facility. One of the biggest reasons why we did -- or well -- I don't know, Veronica, how far I can go into the details 'cause we are in a cone of silence as far as the reason behind it so. Chair Sarnoff So let me try. So theoretically, you want a person who wants to design it the way they want to it to be so that they don't say, Oh, Peter, you put the studio on the left side. I would have put it on the right side. You put the dressing room on the south section. I would have put it in the west section. "So design it. They get a local probably builder to build it, but the operator's the key in this. Who is going to operate this? Who is going to rent this facility? Who is going to be the operator of a movie studio? So you've had three people team up. You have an architect, you have a builder, and you have an operator. Andl don't want to give you scenarios 'cause I'll probably hit one of the scenarios and be unlucky and say something, but that's -- it was actually a very wise way of doing it. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Oh, okay. I didn't -- Mr. Bockweg: Traditionally, from the research that we've done, Commissioner, is that the operator has always been in tandem with the developer so that they can talk through development phases in case changes or whatever need to be made to suit the operator. So that's one of the reasons why we chose to have all three as in one bid. Commissioner Spence -Jones: And when does it close? When does the --? Chair Sarnoff The RFP time period is when? Mr. Bockweg: Bid proposals are due October 9 and then we'll have two rounds of selection committee, and I'm hoping to bring it before the board in a meeting in November. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Wow. I knew it went out. I mean, but didn't know that it was all connected. I mean, maybe everybody else got briefed, but I didn't, so I didn't know. Vice Chair Gort: It works a lot better. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Okay. It makes sense, but I just didn't know it was being done that way. City ofMiami Page 40 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Chair Sarnoff All right, so -- Commissioner Carollo: And again, two separate issues. That's one issue. The other part is lowering the percentage of TIF. We're not going through that right now, but I -- Chair Sarnoff And -- Commissioner Carollo: -- would think for the next year -- because -- Chair Sarnoff -- I'm committed to that, so you know. I think you and I should do a financial analysis, because remember, when we lower that thing -- when we lower the TIF -- Commissioner Carollo: Understood. Chair Sarnoff -- which I'm committed to looking at and maybe even doing, but we're going to lose the County portion. Commissioner Carollo: Right. But at the same time, if we're looking at police services -- when you say you're committed to the police, you're going to be paying them at ten and a half, so realistically, -- Chair Sarnoff No, no, no, no, no. And I don't mean to interrupt you. No. If you had your own police force, like for instance -- Commissioner Carollo: CRA -- Chair Sarnoff -- Boynton Beach has their own -- Boynton CRA has their own police force. So if you wanted to really -- and think about what the Omni CRA is. It's probably one of the most walkable parts of the City. So if you actually had a CRA force out there, it's a force multiplier right there and you're paying those police officers with some County dollars. It makes a lot of sense. I don't deny your plan works, but you're going to lose 30 percent of your revenue, 33 percent of your revenue. Commissioner Carollo: We'll have time. IfI have your commitment in the future -- Chair Sarnoff You do. Commissioner Carollo: -- I -- let's study it. Vice Chair Gort: We all agree to that. Chair Sarnoff Exactly. Vice Chair Gort: To all of them. Commissioner Carollo: Let's study it, because it's a way that we could actually bring dollars -- Chair Sarnoff I agree with you. I agree. I just want you to do -- I want you to look at the delta Commissioner Carollo: Understood. Chair Sarnoff -- of -- in the event we give back the money and if we could legally, andl think you can -- City ofMiami Page 41 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Commissioner Carollo: Right. Chair Sarnoff -- but I want to make sure you're looking at the County dollars we're giving back. Commissioner Carollo: I gotcha. And haven't done a full analysis. Chair Sarnoff And haven't either. Commissioner Carollo: Okay. We're okay. Chair Sarnoff All right. So we have a motion. We have a second. All in favor, please say aye." Vice Chair Gort: Aye. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Aye. Chair Sarnoff Aye. Commissioner Carollo: No. Chair Sarnoff Okay. BH.10 ORDINANCE Second Reading 13-00945 Office of Management AN ORDINANCE OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION DEFINING AND and Budget DESIGNATING THE TERRITORIAL LIMITS FOR THE CITY OF MIAMI FOR THE PURPOSE OF TAXATION; ADOPTING THE FINAL MILLAGE RATE AND LEVYING AD VALOREM TAXES IN THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR BEGINNING OCTOBER 1, 2013 AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2014; CONTAINING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE, AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE. 13-00945 Summary Form SR.pdf 13-00945 Legislation (Version 2) SR.pdf ACTIONS BY THE CITY COMMISSION: 1. RECOMPUTE THE PROPOSED MILLAGE RATE, IF NECESSARY 2. ADOPT THE FINAL MILLAGE RATE Motion by Vice Chair Gort, seconded by Commissioner Carollo, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 3 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Carollo and Spence -Jones Noes: 2 - Commissioner(s) Sarnoff and Suarez 13410 Note for the Record: Please see Item BH.1 for minutes referencing Item BH.10. Chair Sarnoff All right, so now we are on -- this is it. Well, no. I guess we move for the millage now, andl guess we should discuss the associated issues with the millage. Mr. Alfonso. Daniell Alfonso (Acting City Manager): BH.10 is an ordinance. It is to set the millage for the City ofMiami. It has been established already in the preliminary budget meeting of two weeks ago at 7.6148 for every $1, 000 of assessed value for the general operating budget and a debt service millage of.8162. City ofMiami Page 42 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Chair Sarnoff All right, you want to just see if there's a motion to adopt? Vice Chair Gort: Move it. Chair Sarnoff We have a motion by Commissioner Gort. Commissioner Carollo: Second. Chair Sarnoff Second by Commissioner Carollo. Any discussion? I'll say something. This mill rate -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: Why? Chair Sarnoff 'Cause I'm going to go down saying this. Had we special-revenued a higher mill rate for police, which I think we could and should have done, we would not be struggling with what we're about to struggle with tonight. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Agreed. Chair Sarnoff And -- Commissioner Suarez: Now I got to -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: But we don't have the votes. Chair Sarnoff I hear you. But that's what I'm going to say. So that's why -- that's my resistance to this mill rate. Commissioner Spence -Jones: But I think you -- Commissioner Suarez: Mr. Chair. Commissioner Spence -Jones: -- could be persuasive if you keep trying. Chair Sarnoff It would -- I hear you. Let me go to Suarez. Commissioner Suarez: No. I'm just going to say -- I feel compelled to now say -- if you would not have said anything; you just voted, I wouldn't have said anything, but I feel now compelled to say that that's not necessary, so that's it. That's all wanted to say. That is not necessary. Commissioner Carollo: Vote. Commissioner Suarez: Thank you. Commissioner Carollo: Call the question. Chair Sarnoff All right, we'll call the question. Commissioner Suarez: Yes. Chair Sarnoff All in favor -- Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): Excuse me, Chair. Madam City Attorney. City ofMiami Page 43 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Chair Sarnoff But it's an ordinance, isn't it? I apologize. The Ordinance was read by title into the public record by Assistant City Attorney Veronica Xiques. Mr. Hannon: Roll call on item BH.10. Commissioner Suarez? Commissioner Suarez: Nope. Mr. Hannon: Commissioner Spence -Jones? Commissioner Spence -Jones: Can we talk about it one more time? Chair Sarnoff I'm -- the floor is all yours. Commissioner Spence -Jones: I just want to know if I'm going to be whistling in the wind. Chair Sarnoff You got my second; don't worry about it. The problem is we cost ourselves a lot of money by not doing this in July. Commissioner Spence -Jones: I see Danny over there so -- Vice Chair Gort: People, we've gone through this all the time. Commissioner Spence -Jones: I know. Vice Chair Gort: We pass this, the Mayor will veto tomorrow -- Chair Sarnoff Right. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Oh, yeah, that's true. Vice Chair Gort: -- and there's no four fifths vote (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Commissioner Spence -Jones: But the Mayor wouldn't veto -- Vice Chair Gort: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) right. Commissioner Spence -Jones: -- it in the morning. He doesn't want us to not have the money we need for police officers. Commissioner Suarez: Just go. Commissioner Spence -Jones: I guess that means yes, he would. No. You voted 'Yes, " right? Commissioner Suarez: I voted no. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Oh, I vote no. I vote yes. Mr. Hannon: Continuing with the roll call for -- Commissioner Carollo: Don't start that again. Commissioner Suarez: I thought it was pretty clear. City ofMiami Page 44 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Commissioner Carollo: Don't start -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: I'm voting for anything that you and I are voting for, so yes. Commissioner Carollo: Don't start that again. Commissioner Suarez: Sorry. Mr. Hannon: Just to ensure that the record is clear, when I started the roll call for item BH.10, I have Commissioner Suarez as no, Commissioner -- Commissioner Suarez: No. Mr. Hannon: -- Spence -Jones? Commissioner Spence -Jones: Absolutely, positively yes. Mr. Hannon: Commissioner Carollo? Commissioner Carollo: Yes. Mr. Hannon: Vice Chair Gort? Vice Chair Gort: Yes. Mr. Hannon: Chair Sarnoff? Chair Sarnoff I'm always nervous when I vote with Suarez on things like this, because we're actually at diametrically opposed -- Commissioner Suarez: Exactly. Chair Sarnoff -- positions, but it's ironic. Commissioner Suarez: We're voting -- Chair Sarnoff I'm going to -- I have to vote no, andl want to say, categorically, I would have increased the mill rates to increase our mill -- to increase us with $3 million would have cost to average Miamian $34. I would have special-revenued that and put it to Police Department and we would not be struggling here today. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Agreed. Commissioner Suarez: Andl would say that -- andl would say, Mr. Chairman, that we can do that without having to struggle. Chair Sarnoff And -- and you know what? I look so forward to the debate right now. Commissioner Suarez: Oh, listen, I welcome it. Vice Chair Gort: Yes. Chair Sarnoff All right, so you have -- Mr. Hannon: Excuse me, Chair. I'm sorry, just for clarification for the record. The ordinance City ofMiami Page 45 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 passes on second reading, 3-2. Chair Sarnoff -- your mill rate. BH.11 RESOLUTION 13-00946a Office of Management A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION ADOPTING A FINAL and Budget BUDGET AND MAKING APPROPRIATIONS RELATING TO OPERATIONAL AND BUDGETARY REQUIREMENTS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2014. 13-00946a Summary Form.pdf 13-00946a Legislation.pdf 13-00946a-City Manager Second Budget Hearing Changes Memo-FY 2013-14 Budget.pdf 13-00946a-Revised Attachment 6 to Second Budget Hearing Changes Memo-FY 2013-14 Budget. 13-00946a-Submittal-Legal Opinion from Chief Negotiator regarding Collective bargaining Obligati 13-00946a-Submittal-Commissioner Sarnoff-Letters in Support of Hiring 100 Police Officers.pdf ACTIONS BY THE CITY COMMISSION: 1. AMEND THE TENTATIVE BUDGET, IF NECESSARY 2. ADOPT THE FINAL BUDGET Motion by Commissioner Suarez, seconded by Commissioner Carollo, that this matter be ADOPTED WITH MODIFICATIONS PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Suarez, Carollo and Spence -Jones R-13-0393 Direction by Commissioner Carollo to the City Manager to have a discussion item placed on every City Commission meeting agenda regarding an update on the hiring status of police officers. Note for the Record: Please see Item BH.1 for minutes referencing Item BH.11. Chair Sarnoff Okay, guys, this is why we get paid the really big bucks right now. Commissioner Suarez: Or enchilada. Chair Sarnoff BH.11, the City budget. Daniell Alfonso (Acting City Manager): Commissioners, before we start the discussion, ifI may, I want to respond to some questions andl want to ask our Police Chief to come up and make some statements in reference to some of the statements that have been made, andl also would ask the Budget director -- I'm going to ask the Budget director to present -- because there was a question as to what is in the proposed changes -- andl know we shared those memorandums with you, and those memorandums I have given to the Clerk, but want to go ahead and show it so that the audience that perhaps hasn't read those can see what it is that we're proposing. Chair Sarnoff Can we do --? I know a couple of us have to use the restroom. Can we just take a quick and a real five-minute break? Mr. Alfonso: Absolutely. I'm one of those too. Chair Sarnoff Okay, thank you. City ofMiami Page 46 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Commissioner Carollo: Thank you. Chair Sarnoff We're in recess. Later... Chair Sarnoff All right, here we go. So we are on BH.11, which is the budget for the City of Miami, and we have to take a vote on that budget. We have approved the mill rate, so the pizza has been created; now we decide how to cut the pie. Mr. Alfonso: Commissioners, as -- Mr. Chairman, as I said earlier, ifI may, I'd like to answer some of the questions that were asked and some of the statements that were made, so I'm going to ask the Police Chief to come up and talk about what are some of the things that we're doing to alleviate some of the crime issues and how is the recruitment going and what would he do with the additional officers that are being proposed. Chief. Chief ManuelOrosa (Police): Questions? Mr. Alfonso: No, can you please go ahead and explain those issues that I've just asked? Chief Orosa: Sure. Let me start by saying that crime overall in the City as of today is down 7 percent; all the traditional neighborhoods are down, except for two, which is downtown's up 6 percent and Wynwood is up, I think, 3 or 4 percent and that could be attributed to many factors, including the increased population of those areas. Everywhere else crime is down, even in the Grove. There's one zone where particular type of crime, burglaries are up, and we're addressing that with having more officers there. We have allocated from our budget savings overtime to provide more officers for different areas, and as soon as the New Year starts from salary savings we'll provide even more overtime until we can get our full strength of the Police Department within the next couple of months. Right now we're at 30 short. We were 40 last Commission meeting. We have 12 in the FTO (Field Training Officer) program that should be 10 -- I'm sorry -- that should be out in the next three months. They're right now -- starting Monday, they'll be traveling around with the officers being trained, so that leaves us at 30. Thirty is a long way from when I first started that Commissioner Sarnoff said "90 is unacceptable; that your level was 50." We're at 30, so we're even above your level. What was the other question? Commissioner Suarez: Mr. Chair, a quick question? Chair Sarnoff Sure, you're recognized. Commissioner Suarez: Chief the union representative said that we lost seven this month. Is that accurate and is that computed in the 30? 'Cause if we gained 10 but lost 7, then that would be a net gain of 3. Chief Orosa: By retirements, I can remember three, but I'm not sure. He may be right. I'm not sure with those numbers. Commissioner Suarez: Okay. 'Cause the reason why I say that is 'cause if -- you said -- 40 less 10 is 30 -- Chief Orosa: Correct. Commissioner Suarez: -- which is the 10 new ones. But if we lost 7 in the last month, then that really means we're only at 37. City ofMiami Page 47 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Chief Orosa: I know that -- of four that left, and that's including the calculations of the vacancies. Commissioner Suarez: So even -- okay, so you're saying then we're at 34, 'cause we gained 10, but we lost 4, you're saying? Chief Orosa: Yeah, we're at 34. The thing is that when they retire, it takes a little bit of time to come into the vacancy slots. So we're around 30, 34. Chair Sarnoff So we're at, Chief 1,065? Chief Orosa: No. We're about 10 -- 1,110; 1,114. Chair Sarnoff Oh, I'm sorry, you're right. I apologize. You're right. I did the opposite calculation. So we're at 1,110 or 1,114? Chief Orosa: Correct. Chair Sarnoff Okay. Commissioner Carollo: Mr. Chairman. Chair Sarnoff You're recognized. Commissioner Carollo: Thank you. Chief and what I'm seeking is the facts in order to make an educated and prudent decision, andl'm seeing just a lot of discrepancies, andl'm also seeing that -- and again, I'm looking for the facts -- the City ofMiami is starting to obtain a perception that we are the lowest or one of the lowest paid police departments. Again, I just want the facts okay? There's even a discrepancy whether we are higher paid than Miami -Dade Police Department or that they're higher paid than us. Again, I'm just looking for the facts to make comparables and see exactly where are we. Are we one of the lowest? Because I'm seeing some news reports that pretty much are depicting that, yeah, we are one of the lowest paying police departments. Is that true? And is there any numbers that could show us and we could actually, you know, digest to see if that is true or not? Mr. Alfonso: Commissioners, I'll answer that question. We are not the lowest paid Police Department in the County, okay? Are we one of the highest? No, we're not one of the highest. We're not -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: Who's low -- just give me an idea of who's the lowest. Mr. Alfonso: I'll give you an idea. The City of Hialeah, with over 200,000 residents, is recruiting certified police officers at $42, 000. I shared that information with you a few weeks ago. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Give me another one, though, outside of Hialeah. Mr. Alfonso: The Miami -Dade County step 1 is lower than the City ofMiami step 1. A lot of times when we make these comparisons, you know, we confuse things by saying, "Well, we get paid less than they do. " We're talking about whether they're certified or noncertified. So we also provided the Commission a few weeks ago with about, I think, four or five different police departments and the full cost of an entry-level position. We verified those numbers with their pay tables. We provided that backup information. We called those departments and verified those numbers. So are we near the top? No, we're not near the top. City ofMiami Page 48 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Chair Sarnoff Well, here's what happens, 'cause Miami -Dade is a nice comparator -- Commissioner Carollo: Yes. Chair Sarnoff -- andl think him being -- I didn't mean to say "him" -- Commissioner Carollo being a former City -- Miami -Dade -- Commissioner Carollo: The County. Chair Sarnoff -- County police officer, right, is a good comparator. The problem is day one, the County may start 1 or 2,000 below the City ofMiami, but their steps are not frozen; so year two, they're above us; year three, they're above us; year four, they're above us. I think what we've all come to realize is our cops, one to five years out, are leaving us. They have no vested interest in staying here 'cause, essentially, for four solid years they have stayed at entry-level pay. Commissioner Carollo: And with that said, Mr. Chairman -- and, again, all seeking is the facts. Chair Sarnoff Yeah. Commissioner Carollo: Is that a true statement, that police officers, one to five years, are leaving? And someone from HR (Human Resources) -- I'm not sure who to ask -- director of HR, could they actually vernj, that or not, give us some numbers? Mr. Alfonso: All right, the Chief can answer the question. Chief Orosa: We haven't experienced young people leaving in droves. Some people decide "This is not for me." Give you an example: Out of the 25 that we had in the academy, today one left. He was 49 years old. He had a bad knee from a previous injury, and he decided "This is too rigorous for me. My knee is hurting. This is not for me." So he decided to quit. When you join the DROP (Deferred Retirement Option Plan), some people decide to wait the entire time in the DROP; others decide to leave -- and that's their choice -- before the DROP ends. Particular numbers I don't have with me, but I -- Chair Sarnoff His question's a little different. His question -- Mr. Alfonso: Commissioner, I'm sorry. I apologize. Let me interrupt. We do actually have from HR information on how many resignations we've had in the last 12 months. I want to caution, though, that not all those resignations were due to other employment. Some of those resignations were due to "I'll take a resignation in lieu of other action." But the number thatl was told is 17 resignations. Commissioner Carollo: For the whole year? Mr. Alfonso: For the entire fiscal year '12/13, the last 12 months. Commissioner Carollo: And could you tell us how many years of service they had with the City? Mr. Alfonso: I do not have the detail with me Commissioner. Commissioner Carollo: To see -- could those have been from DROP retirements also? No. Mr. Alfonso: No, Commissioner, that is resignations. You know, you hear that people are leaving. Now, in some of those cases, it was resignation in lieu of other action, so it wasn't just City ofMiami Page 49 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 that those people were leaving for higher paying jobs. Chief Orosa: Between last year and this year, there has been, I want to say, about 19 people that knew they were going to get fired and they ran to resign before. Commissioner Carollo: Right, so that's not even a fair assessment. I'm -- and, again, what I'm seeking is the facts. I -- you know, there's a lot of information that's been put out, and what I'm seeking is the facts in order to make an educated and prudent decision, so that's why -- and that's really what I'm striving for, regardless of what it is. I'll be honest with you; I do have some experience going through the police academy. I mean, when I entered the police academy, the TAs, Training -- what are they called? They're TAs, but -- Chief Orosa: Yeah, TAs. Commissioner Carollo: -- I don't know what it stands for. But anyhow, the officers -- or the sergeants in charge let us know: "You see this whole class? By the time it's done, you're going to lose one or two. So look at everybody. Look at all their faces. By the time this class is over, you will lose one or two." Chief Orosa: Your class was lucky. When I went in, it was 48. When we graduated, we graduated 28. Commissioner Carollo: So -- yeah. So we have a loss. But Commissioner -- I'm sorry. Chairman Sarnoff was correct; my question was a little bit different. As a matter of fact, my class, as soon as we all graduated and got our badge, one of them left to the FBI (Federal Bureau oflnvestigations), andl guess it happens. Anyways, my question was I wanted to see the officers that have been already, they've gone through their FTO assignments, they're actually full-blown officers patrolling our streets or in specialized units or wherever they are, but are sworn law enforcement officers. How many have left and with how many years of service to the City ofMiami without one of those --? And what I'm trying to see, how many have really resigned without it being something that is disciplinary, that either you resign or we're going to fire you. Christopher Rose (Director, Office ofManagement & Budget): Commissioner -- Commissioner Carollo: So it's -- so we could pretty much get a grasp of really how many officers are leaving. Mr. Rose: The 17 that resigned, the average was 6.7 years. Chair Sarnoff Six point three. Commissioner Carollo: So it's somewhat what you're saying. Mr. Alfonso: But, Commissioner, I want to point out that they didn't leave for higher paying jobs. A number of those left because they might have been fired. In other words, they were about to be fired Chair Sarnoff Those are -- what you're saying, those are part of the 17 --? Mr. Alfonso: Yes, correct, Commissioner. Within those 17, a fair number were facing significant repercussions. Commissioner Carollo: Do we have a number, more or less, Mr. Manager or Chief? City ofMiami Page 50 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Chief Orosa: I know that within the last two years, 19 of the total were because they were going to get fired and they decided to resign, but I don't know -- that's 19. I don't know, out of the 17, how many is the 19 -- Mr. Alfonso: He is referring to the last two years; I'm referring to the last 12 months. So we can get that information for you, Commissioner, but I think it's fair to say that a fair number of those will be in that number. Commissioner Carollo: Fair enough. Mr. Alfonso: Okay, Chief -- Commissioner Carollo: Back to pay scales. I think we verified that we start out higher than the County, but you're saying because of the pay steps, then they surpass us. Mr. Alfonso: Correct. Commissioner Carollo: Understood. Okay. Chair Sarnoff And I think this is a true statement, Danny Alfonso, 'cause I think you and I have talked about this. If we were to break all the police departments down, all municipalities in South Florida, the City ofMiami would be in the bottom of the second quarantile, so about the 50 percent mark in terms of pay. Commissioner Suarez: Huh? Chair Sarnoff That's right, isn't it, Chief? Commissioner Carollo: Somewhere in the middle? Chair Sarnoff Yeah, exactly. Chief Orosa: We are somewhere in the middle towards -- Chair Sarnoff The bottom. Chief Orosa: -- going down. Right. Chair Sarnoff Of the midpoint. Chief Orosa: Correct. Chair Sarnoff Right. Whereas -- that's a fact. And then what I would (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to that -- Commissioner Carollo: But -- Chair Sarnoff -- with the highest volume police department in all of Florida. Commissioner Carollo: -- in all fairness, you have -- you know, those include, you know, some of these towns, like Key Biscayne -- Chair Sarnoff Oh, yeah, yeah. Commissioner Carollo: -- andDoral and so forth that when you look at their police City ofMiami Page 51 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 departments, I think the majority is patrol. I don't think they have homicide units, SRT (Special Response Team) or SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team and K-9 and -- all right. Chief Orosa: A lot of those smaller departments, their specialized units are -- is handled by Miami -Dade County. Commissioner Carollo: Is there any other -- other than Miami -Dade Police Department, is there any other police department that has aviation? Chief Orosa: No, I think it's -- oh, yes. Commissioner Carollo: We have aviation. Chief Orosa: Believe it or not, Sweet Water. Commissioner Carollo: Sweet Water has aviation? Chief Orosa: They got a couple of helicopters from the military and they got a couple of our retirees that used to fly for us that are over there now. Commissioner Carollo: Oh. So as far as you know, only three departments have aviation, which is Miami -Dade County, Miami, and -- Chief Orosa: And us. Commissioner Carollo: -- Sweet Water. Which -- at the same time, I don't know if it's a fair comparison is what I'm saying, because a lot of these towns, they -- you know, there's a lot of revenues coming in and, really, the majority of the police officers just do patrol. We have a full-fledged police department where -- Chief Orosa: We're a full -service police department. Commissioner Carollo: Yes. So -- and, again, just to be fair, I just want to know the facts so we could vote and probably get it right. Chair Sarnoff You know, here's a proposition to us all. Whenever we talk about us as a city, you know, we're always talking about like -- for instance, when I was going to be a cop, the two departments that we studied were Detroit and Miami 'cause at that time, Miami had an off -the -grid crime rate. It was the '80s. And Detroit continues to have an off -the -grid crime rate. But we've never gotten out of that top 10 or 12 or 15 of terms of being a city that has a rate of crime. And to me, it's time for us to change that dynamic and get rid of what I call the `Miami callus." You know, the Miami callus is -- you know, Fernand, what do you got to complain about? So they tookyour bike. You're okay. He wakes up the next week; so they tookyour lawnmower. You're okay. Or you say to Robert Steinberg, they took your four tires. You're okay. Insurance'll pay for it. And you develop what is known as what I call the Miami callus, which is like, hey, my wife's okay, my kids are okay; I just lost something. But that tears at why you want to be here, and that tears at those that can choose to be here won't want to be here, and those that are choosing to maybe come here don't come here. Andl've always wondered; all this economic development money and, you know, let's do a facade program and let's fix this. What if the delta was changed? What if the whole system were changed and Miami became a top 10 city for safety? Would people want to come here more? Would suddenly areas that don't have great development suddenly become more palatable to private sector that they'd want to develop those areas? Andl've always thought we've looked at it from the wrong end, the glass is half empty, 'cause we're always saying, "Well, it's okay." 'Cause when I lived in Louisiana, we used to say, "Thank God for Mississippi," because when I lived in New Orleans, we had the worst City ofMiami Page 52 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 school system in the United States, except for Mississippi. And when we looked at our police department, we used to say, you know, "Thank God for Memphis," because at that time, it was worse than New Orleans, 'cause we were always in the very, very bottom. You know, andl remember coming to Miami. Miami was never really -- by the time I got here -- at the bottom, but it was certainly in the top 10 of problems. And what if we were to change that paradigm? What if we put enough police officers on the street so that -- and we paid them adequately -- and maybe the pay is not the issue, but I'm just throwing it out there -- so that we become a top-10 police -- not-10 police department -- top-10 city that people actually -- crime is no longer a real issue in Miami. And as you would say, "Well, you don't need a facade program. You don't need to throw money at people because the streets are safe and people want to be here more so than they do now. And I think that's a paradigm that I've always wanted to change and get rid of this Miami callus of so you're okay, but -- so you lost your lawnmower or -- so somebody came in your backyard. They didn't get in, did they? Or they just got your wife's necklace; you're okay. And that's -- I don't know about you, and you just walked -- you know, I've actually been walking a little bit too, and the thing that everybody talks about is crime, either it's real crime or the perception of crime. Andl share a neighborhood with him. The first thing whenever we get there is crime. "Commissioner, when are you going to fix this?" "Commissioner, when are you going to stop these boys from doing this?" You know, "somebody came by my house," andl call that the Miami callus because -- Commissioner Suarez: Mr. Chair. Chair Sarnoff Go ahead. Chair Sarnoff Not only is it a crime, but it's residents saying We don't see enough police officers." Chair Sarnoff Right. Commissioner Suarez: Police visibility. We don't see enough police officers going door to door, when I ran in 2009, every single time I've gone to a homeowner association, a crime watch meeting, which I've been to hundreds of them, hundreds of them, it's always -- it always comes down to the same thing. And what I've experienced is that we have great PSTs (Problem Solving Teams), great, great PSTs. They work hard, they work off hours, and when the PSTs come into an area where there's high crime, they're able to reduce the crime or basically solve the problem, but then, guess what? We get the call somewhere else. "Commissioner, crime is no longer in Shenandoah, now it's in" -- you know -- "West Flagami." And then, you know, when the PSTs go to West Flagami, and so on and so forth, so what I conclude -- what I've concluded, and it's in part based on your argument, is we're just understaffed. If we had the adequate number of police officers, if they had -- promoting the presence that we can promote citywide, then we wouldn't -- there wouldn't always be a continual battle between marshaling our limited resources from one part of the City to the other. Chair Sarnoff Andl have a proposition for you. My theory is if you remember the last mayoral election in Coral Gables -- Commissioner Suarez: I'm trying to forget it. Chair Sarnoff Well, in Coral Gables; not -- Coral Gables. And they were going through a crime spike, andl actually think the Gables cops were able to push that crime towards the Grove, andl think recently, Commander Morales has been able to push that crime back to the Gables. So it's kind of like -- I don't want to say it's a game, Commissioner, but it's called "displacement of crime" -- Commissioner Suarez: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). City ofMiami Page 53 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Vice Chair Gort: Yes. Chair Sarnoff -- and it's a surge. Vice Chair Gort: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) happen. Commissioner Suarez: Right. Chair Sarnoff Right. You go in, you set -- he's right -- problem -solving team, you surge in there, you fix it for three weeks, everybody calms down -- or three months -- everybody calms down until the next problem happens. Andl don't profess to know that if we throw 300 cops, which is what I intend to do before I leave here, on the streets, that that solves the issue, but ) know I've done everything I can do to make that happen, and if it turns out the judges are letting them out or if it turns out the prisons are letting them out or if it turns out the jailers are letting them out, then we have to approach it from a different angle. But we do know something. There's two things we know sitting up here, Commissioner Carollo. We know that the number of police officers to the percentage of residents is incredibly low. I don't know how the Herald came up with 2.6 'cause the numbers I've seen are 2.3, regular day -- non -daytime hours. And we do know this: We dedicate 25.2 percent of our budget to police, and other cities budget much higher than we do. And all they're asking for is like a 2 or 3 percent increase. Commissioner Suarez: You know, to me, you can get really bogged down in all the minutia of all this. I think at the end of the day, when I first started this process, I was very adamant about the increase in number of police officers; that that was, you know, kind of the necessary step. I've come to see it in a more broad context; that it's not only having, you know, the increase in number of police officers, but it's also motivating the ones that we have, and that's important because they're human beings, like everyone else, and they're motivated by rewards, like everyone else. So, you know, I'm interested in hearing what we can come up with in terms of mixture, but I -- you know, I'm very motivated by a meeting that I had with Fernand, the first meeting that I had with him, and I had exchanged e-mails with him a couple times, but I actually met with him, and I still remember like it was yesterday. He said, "Listen, this is not my problem. This is your problem. You have to solve it." So, again, I'll reiterate, I think there's multiple problems. The first problem is hiring, which seems like, again, we're not 100 percent -- Vice Chair Gort: Takes forever. Commissioner Suarez: We're not 100 percent in agreement on the numbers, but it seems like it's getting better, even though not at the pace at which it needs to get better, so that's really the number one problem. Then it's budgeting the number of police officers, and then, to the extent that we restore a step or whatever, however we end up doing it without getting into bargaining and all that, just talking about what we allocate as a Commission. But I've offered in the past, and I will continue to offer myself to co -committee with you and do -- take all our available powers under the charter to make sure that what we do is -- doesn't just -- it's not just an allocation, because too oftentimes, that's what it's been, an allocation. We allocate, we allocate, we set it. But we've come pretty far from putting it on as a discussion item, from allocating and doing all those things, and maybe now it's time to take the next step. That's it. I'm done. Thank you. Commissioner Spence -Jones: You were going to -- Vice Chair Gort: Let me ask a question. Andl stated the last time I think we need to do something for the existing police officers that are there. I understand there's a lot of things we need to do, but I think that's something that the Manager and the FOP (Fraternal Order of Police) will have to do, and at the same time, we keep asking and we keep talking about 100 City ofMiami Page 54 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 police officers. How long has it taken you to get -- suppose to get 100 police officers right now, qualify them -- how long is it going to take you to take you through the whole process to get them here? Chief Orosa: A hundred more? Vice Chair Gort: Yeah. Chief Orosa: Probably -- now that we're going full speed, probably a year. This year alone, we've hired 76. Vice Chair Gort: Excuse me? Chief Orosa: This year we've hired 76. Vice Chair Gort: Seventy-six. Commissioner Suarez: How about the ones you've lost? Significant amount. Chief Orosa: Excuse me? Commissioner Suarez: We've also lost. ChiefOrosa: Yes, we (UNINTET,TIGIBT,F) lost, yes. Vice Chair Gort: Just food for -- Commissioner Suarez: The net, we've got to talk about the net. Vice Chair Gort: Look, just food for thought, because it's not only the police officers, but it's how is it going to affect the budget; how it going to affect the other negotiations and all that. So additional police officers can take place next year's budget. We can talk about it now, project it for next year's budget, and we have to look at it. The -- my problem is the existing officer that we have today, and that's something, my understanding, the FOP had come up with some plans, I understand. You should sit down with the Manager. I understand they're going to have a meeting tomorrow at 2 o'clock where we can arrange some of that to take place. Chair Sarnoff And you know what, Commissioner? I'm sorry. I actually think it's a compromise. Look, I'd love to say 100 officers, andl do want to say it, andl got news for you. Come mid-term, we're getting 50 new -- net new officers under this budget. Well -- Chief Orosa: Thirty-five. Chair Sarnoff -- 35 net new officers and 15 -- Chief Orosa: And reallocation of 15. Chair Sarnoff Andl give you two credit for this. Are you sure you got all the cops on the street you can? Are you sure you got all -- Commissioner Carollo: I think the Chief might say that -- Chief Orosa: Well -- Commissioner Carollo: -- there's some additionals that will probably patrol our streets; higher City ofMiami Page 55 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 than 15. Chair Sarnoff Fifty? Higher than 50? Commissioner Carollo: Fifteen. Chair Sarnoff The 15, right. Commissioner Carollo: Right. Chief Orosa: That they're going to be -- Chair Sarnoff Which is what you two were saying all along. Commissioner Carollo: Right, yeah, because it's not just -- and this is what I'm getting at -- about hiring police officers. Let's look at our efficiency, you know. Commissioner Suarez: Of course. Commissioner Carollo: Where are these police officers? Are they behind a desk? Are they doing something that, let's say, a civilian can do, and put them out on patrol? Because what I've said, you know, a lot of these small municipalities, they don't have all these departments and they're in patrol. They're in a police car, and they're out patrolling. And believe when we first started, it was at 5. I think now -- andl don't want to speak for the Chief. I'll let him say it, but it seems like we're at 20, but I'll let him say it and so forth, that it's not waiting six months, it's not waiting a year. This is now, you'll get an additional 20 patrol officers, cops out there in the street. And then it's my understanding, the vacancies we have, the Police Chief have said that by the end of the year, he could fill those 40. Now, I don't want to put words in his mouth, but, you know, I think that needs to be addressed, because by the end of the year, we could possibly have from 60 to 50 officers on the street that right now are not patrolling our streets, and I'll yield to the Chief butl think that's very doable. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Mr. Chairman. Chair Sarnoff Wait, wait, let -- I'm going to -- let me just tell you the order. I want his question answered by the Chief as clearly as you can to get the 1,144, then I'm going to Suarez, then Gort, and then you. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Gort? Uh-uh, please. I haven't opened my mouth. Uh-uh, I'm going next, after the Chief please. Chair Sarnoff No, no, no, he's been -- Commissioner Suarez: I will yield. Commissioner Spence -Jones: I haven't said not one word. Commissioner Suarez: I will yield, I will yield. Commissioner Spence -Jones: That's -- I let you guys -- Chair Sarnoff All right. Commissioner Spence -Jones: -- do the boys' club thing -- City ofMiami Page 56 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Chair Sarnoff Let's get the answer from the Chief. Commissioner Spence -Jones: -- for the last hour. Chair Sarnoff Let's get the answer from the Chief, then I'll go to you. Chief Orosa: All right, as I said earlier, we're at 30 positions vacancy right now. Commissioner Suarez says that we had like 4 because the union president said that 4 to 7 that left. I was just told that we have 6 certified officers in orientation that will balance out what -- the people that left. Commissioner Suarez: The seven that left. Chief Orosa: On top of that, I -- the Manager asked me to find people to go back to patrol. I told the Manager I could find -- I found 5 that can go immediately to patrol, and I can find another 15 ifI have civilians to replace them. Let me give you a little history. Chair Sarnoff How do I get different numbers? Mr. Alfonso: Commissioner -- Chief Orosa: Wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait, wait; little history. Commissioner Carollo: We're still working. Chief Orosa: From the 1990s to now, we've lost over 100 civilian positions. The job is still there; somebody has to do it. So eventually, the department, through the years, has allocated officers to do certain jobs that could be done by a civilian, but in the name of economic problems, those civilians positions were lost. Now, I have told the Manager that if he gives me civilian personnel, I can replace those officers and put them out on the street. I found 15 that we can do that. I mean, I'm sorry, 10 that we can do that, plus the 5 is 15. Commissioner Carollo and sat, and there's probably another 5 that we can do the same thing if we can find the civilians to replace them. Ten I'm not sure we can reach, but five extra we can probably reach. Chair Sarnoff So total, 15. But -- Chief Orosa: No, total 20. Commissioner Carollo: No. Commissioner Suarez: Twenty. Chair Sarnoff Twenty. Vice Chair Gort: Twenty. Chief Orosa: Twenty. Chair Sarnoff But, you know, I remember nine months ago him asking you that very question: "Have you put every police officer on the street that you possibly can?" And you came up with a number. It was 33. Chief Orosa: Thirty-three. Chair Sarnoff Yeah, 33. City ofMiami Page 57 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Chief Orosa: Thirty-three, 33. Chair Sarnoff So I don't know. Now I want to ask you, Chief can you find another 100? Chief Orosa: No, because back then, I put everybody that I could back on the street, that 33, without any allocation of civilian personnel -- Commissioner Suarez: To replace them. Chief Orosa: -- so that I could do more. Chair Sarnoff But that's -- Chief Orosa: There was no money for civilian personnel to do more. Chair Sarnoff -- not really a fair statement because you had a $4 million savings the year before in your budget. Chief Orosa: The $4 million savings was from certain different things, and ifI save the money, I really can't hire civilians to be able to do that. Now, if you return the money andl can now use that money, we can hire people. Chair Sarnoff So you will raise your right hand and you will tell us right now you have put as many people on the street as you possibly can as long as you have civilian replacements; there's no one left? Commissioner Spence -Jones: Don't raise your hand. Chief Orosa: Don't do what? Commissioner Spence -Jones: It'll come back and bite you. Commissioner Suarez: Don't do it. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Don't do it. Chief Orosa: Put it this way, I -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: 'Cause he will find -- he will remind you. Chief Orosa: -- have done what I think can do for now, but next week, I am being joined by the Manager and Commissioner Carollo. We're going to go to our staffing office where we have everybody up on the wall, and we can go through each position, and they can ask me questions, andl can tell them why or why not they cannot go to the street. Chair Sarnoff All right, let me go to Spence [sic]. I apologize, Spence [sic]. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Wow. Chair Sarnoff Got to treat you right on the way out. Commissioner Spence -Jones: That's okay. I'm not over yet. But let me just say this. First of all, the public citizen -- what's your name again? Everybody seems to know your name so. City ofMiami Page 58 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Commissioner Suarez: Fernand. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Fernand. First of all, I want to commend you for shaking things up. I mean, literally, everybody on this Commission and in City Hall have heard me scream and yell for the last two or three years about how important it has been for us to address, you know, more police officers, taking -- first of all, taking care of the officers we have first -- but having more police officers may -- and again, I want to be clear -- not making light of what Commissioner Sarnoff has said, because I do believe those crimes of properties are really important, too. But as the young man stated earlier, you know, when you're dealing with people losing their lives, it's on a whole nother level. It took you as a private citizen to come shake up things to get people to realize that we need more police. And I'm saying everything north of Flagler. I'm not even necessarily saying my district, but anything north of Flagler, you know, it's just been difficult, you know, dealing with just the violence, the -- all of that and not nearly having enough police. Andl support my police 100 percent, because at the end of the day, you know, while we may have property crimes in certain neighborhoods, you know, the reality is in some of the neighborhoods in which I represent, they're going into situations where they don't know what the outcome is going to be, meaning whether or not they're going to even have their lives when they're done. So it's two very different scenarios, both of them are very important, but clearly, you know, having more officers and having officers that are happy has always been a big push from the D5 (District 5) perspective. I'm just glad that you shuck things up to get people moving on this issue because it wasn't moving until you started communicating. And sometimes it takes somebody from a whole nother perspective to get people to realize it's an issue. So I want to commend you on that, andl didn't get a chance to do that the last time. Same thing we talked about earlier, andl just want us to get to a resolution, andl think we have a resolution, but I'm assuming we're just trying to flush this stuff out. Same thing in the last budget hearing; I mean, last time, we had this whole discussion about Admin. (Administration), andl know you guys recall me sitting up here, saying, "Chief I got complaints from people that are on the force that have given" -- andl said "Chief I'm being told that there are officers that are, you know, on the Admin. side that are sworn officers that are not on the streets that can be out there working, andl -- it was then communicated to me on the dais, "Well, we've done all we can do," you know, and "these are the officers that are available, " right; remember that conversation, went back and forth on that issue? And then now to hear -- and not taking anything away from you. I'm just simply saying it's amazing how when certain trees are shaken, then we get a different result. The same exact thing -- we had the same exact conversation, and now, now we're in a different place, and it's okay, it doesn't matter, 'cause as long as something is getting done, that's the most important thing. I don't care who's getting it done, at least there's going to be a change. So I want to mention that, because that was one of the main issues that I was pushing before. The other thing that I wanted to definitely mention, which I think is really important, I don't want us to lose sight -- I think it's extremely important to get the other officers on board, andl think that we have a resolution, or at least want to talk about the resolution or at least a -- an idea of a resolution. We asked Javi them to come back and bring some possible solutions, to get with the Administration. I want to talk about that particular solution and not go back and forth about how many people can be hired, how many people were hired. I mean, it just becomes, to me, a whole bunch of confusion when we may have a possible solution. Let's talk about what that possible solution is. Let's hear from Danny to see if that makes any sense, and then we take it from there. I just want to be clear on the $9 million, 'cause I think once that $9 million number came out, everybody start freaking out, at least from the D5 side, and I'm assuming some -- from some of the other administrators and Commissioners as well, because we're talking about $9 million, shaking things up and parks being -- pools being closed and people being fired and Solid Waste workers, part timers not being -- I mean -- Chair Sarnoff Michelle? Chair Sarnoff -- we can't have all of that happen. So I just want to be very clear, that whole $9 million conversation is not in this equation right now because we're looking at the resources that City ofMiami Page 59 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 we have right now to try to figure out how we can make this situation work. You know, my number one priority -- I think our number one priority, andl just -- I feel wholeheartedly about this -- you have to take care of the people that take care of you. You got to do that first before you can even remotely consider what else you're going to do after that. That has to be a part of this discussion and that should be -- that sends a message to these same officers that are sitting out here, and our Fire Rescue, 'cause guess what? When somebody gets shot and killed, guess who shows up to the scene? They do. So my point is we need to focus on taking care of them first and then we figure out what we can actually do from that point. So if you don't mind, I just want -- I would like for Javi for at least a few seconds to at least discuss resolution on this issue, andl would like for Danny to respond to the recommendation around the resolution. Mr. Alfonso: Commissioners -- Commissioner Suarez: Yeah, I -- you know, I would just -- and I'm sorry for interrupting, but kind of wanted to help -- hopefully help a little bit in this situation. I think the Manager is very concerned -- rightfully so -- with some of the discussions of the back and forth on this issue, and he's -- we've got a letter from counsel to that effect. And Mr. Manager, if I'm overstepping or if you thinkl need to stop, just tell me. I think it's in our power and our purview to say we can allocate "X" number of dollars to be negotiated by the Manager at his discretion. We can come up with how to pay for that "X" number of dollars that we want to utilize, and then the Manager can go from there, I think. Commissioner Spence -Jones: I understand that we cannot -- we understand the fact of negotiation. This conversation is not, to my understanding -- from our discussion with Danny, this possible solution or resolution does not really deal with those issues. We askedJavi to come back with some possible recommendations, and he's identified some funding sources that don't have anything to do with their negotiations, so let's have a discussion about it; that's what we're here for. Commissioner Carollo: Mr. Chairman. Commissioner Spence -Jones: I mean -- Commissioner Carollo: I think our acting City Manager -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: He said it was fine before I came out here, so why is he saying something different now? Commissioner Carollo: Okay. Commissioner Spence -Jones: To Neil? You didn't say that to Neil, that you didn't have an issue with it or have a --? So you don't have an issue -- you do have an issue with it? Mr. Alfonso: Commissioner, I did not speak to Neil about whether I had an issue about this discussion prior to coming out here. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Okay, do you -- Mr. Alfonso: I think you -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: -- know what I'm speaking of? Mr. Alfonso: Commissioner, I know what you're speaking of andl want to go ahead and let the City Attorney explain what are the things that you can do today, and then I will -- can chime in. City ofMiami Page 60 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Veronica Xiques (Assistant City Attorney): Based on the letter that we received from our outside counsel today, I think that it's safe for you to say, as you just stated, that you would like to have a particular number allocated to the police force, and that you would like to see that amount negotiated tomorrow and whatever future negotiations you have. What you cannot do today is say, you know, each cop will have 3 percent, each -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: But that's what -- Ms. Xiques: -- cop will have this. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Yeah, but -- Ms. Xiques: You can provide Danny directions as to what you may want to see negotiated into these labor contracts, but that is something that has to be done during the negotiations. You cannot do it today from the dais. Mr. Alfonso: IfI may, I'm sorry -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: I wasn't going to do that from the dais. I was looking at items like funds for the Mayor's runoff. That don't have anything to do with it. That doesn't have anything to do with it at all. Vice Chair Gort: Yes, it does. Commissioner Spence -Jones: The funds from the runoff? Unidentified Speaker: Yes. Unidentified Speaker: No, it doesn't. Chair Sarnoff I think what we can do is -- Commissioner Suarez: Budget a pot of money. Chair Sarnoff Right, right -- Commissioner Suarez: And we can -- Chair Sarnoff -- right. Commissioner Suarez: -- say well, we're going to allocate from -- money that was budgeted for the runoff, we're going to put it in a special revenue account for -- Mr. Alfonso: Commissioners, it wouldn't necessarily be a special revenue account. Commissioner Suarez: Doesn't have to be a special revenue account. Mr. Alfonso: We have a budget. If this Commission wants to give direction of take a pot of money from our existing budget and allocate it for future use to be determined and direct the Administration to negotiate with labor, you know, I guess we could do that. My concern is -- We have to negotiate in good faith. So when we sit in labor negotiations, we want to have an open mind and have all things on the table, so that if we get a clear direction from this Board right here, right now, `7 want you to negotiate this benefit," then if we end up at an impasse, how can you be an unbiased jury for that impasse when you have already negotiated what is to be given? How can the union and us have a fair discussion when, if we end up at an impasse, you already City ofMiami Page 61 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 know what's going to happen? So it's not a -- Commissioner Suarez: I hear what you -- Mr. Alfonso: -- an open discussion in negotiation. Commissioner Suarez: I hear what you're saying, Mr. Manager. It's an odd situation for us to be the body that actually makes a decision on terms and then becomes like this other -- the impasse jury, as you said. So I just think they're two different roles. You know what I mean? I mean, I think in one role, we're acting as, you know, a juror -- Just like Commissioner Gort and I, when we had to preside over the suspension of the Chief we had opinions that we expressed before that suspension, because, you know, as Commissioners, we have the right to express our opinion, and yet, we could be unbiased when it came to analyzing facts and analyzing evidence and making a decision based on the facts and evidence and whether that applied to the law. And so I think they're two different things, but I think the safest route is if we feel -- I think the safest route is to allocate the funds. Vice Chair Gort: That's it; negotiate. Mr. Alfonso: Okay. Now, having said that, Commissioners, we haven't really had an airing of what it is, the proposal that we had. We had identified $2.4 million, and we had talked about how we would allocate those funds. If this Commission wishes to reallocate those funds in a different manner -- Chair Sarnoff I don't -- Can I tell you something, Danny? Mr. Alfonso: Yes, sir. Chair Sarnoff I got to tell you, I find myself in an unusual position. I said this to you and the Mayor. I could probably support this budget, andl had no intentions of supporting this budget, but to me, only half the task has been performed, andl hear, hypothetically, somebody willing to forego something and willing to forego something else, hypothetically. And then, can we match that with some volume of dollars so that we could create, for instance, a $5 million pool of money that you can then negotiate, hypothetically? Mr. Alfonso: Commissioners, I don't want to get into hypothetical situations. Chair Sarnoff He'd never go to law school. Mr. Alfonso: I -- yes, I'm more of a financial person. Vice Chair Gort: He's an accountant. Mr. Alfonso: I will say this: Please understand that we currently have three labor agreements that have wage reopeners, and we are talking to those labor groups. The current labor group that you're referring to has a contract that expires on September 30. There is a 3 percent wage increase in April; we already know that. Also, at the end of that contract, on the last day of that contract, the contribution for pension for that wage group, for that group goes down by 3 percent. So in the current contract, that group will receive, in effect, 6 percent more in their pocket, something that is not on the other groups, but that's what was negotiated. Now, I am willing and able to start negotiations with any and all labor groups if this is the direction of this Commission. We can have an executive session with this Commission so that this Commission can give direction to the Administration as to what terms you would like to see negotiated, and as the statutory requirements are, I will negotiate and put into that labor negotiation that which you direct me to do. But I don't think that this forum is the forum for that discussion, or I'm being City ofMiami Page 62 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 advised -- it's not my thinking -- that this is not the forum for that discussion. Chair Sarnoff Are you negotiating tomorrow with him on labor? Mr. Alfonso: We have a meeting scheduled for tomorrow, because as this Commission passed a resolution granting a one-time 3 percent nonrecurring payment to all City employees, it was required that the labor groups ratify that agreement so that tomorrow, because the Fraternal Order of Police has refused to meet with us on this issue prior to tomorrow, they -- we're talking about that issue, and that is something that we need to finalize. Chair Sarnoff And that's because Florida Statute 215.425 requires that? Mr. Alfonso: I'm sorry? Chair Sarnoff Is that because Florida Statute 215.425 requires it? Mr. Alfonso: It is required for us to have an agreement with them -- Chair Sarnoff 'Cause it's got to be part of the contract? Mr. Alfonso: Correct. Chair Sarnoff So if you're reopening a contract with him on whether he takes 3 percent, why couldn't that 3 percent be put towards another element of -- Commissioner Suarez: Of course it can. Chair Sarnoff -- of compensation? If you are taking the initiative of following an edictl didn't support, but, hey, this Commission did, why can't you then take that volume of dollars and do something different with it? Mr. Alfonso: Okay, Commissioners, that 3 percent was passed in a specific resolution to be used in a specific manner. We're not mixing that with the labor negotiations that would be for the next contract. Now, if this Commission -- Chair Sarnoff So you're saying he has a contract, and I'm not reopening the contract, but, Mr. Ortiz, if you want this 3 percent, I got to open that contract because I think there's a law that says it's got to be a part of your contract, and this Commission has issued its edict, so I'm going to stay within the edict? Mr. Alfonso: I want to point out that that 3 percent was a one-time nonrecurring expense, so that is what we're trying to finalize with the FOP. Commissioner Suarez: Mr. Chair. Chair Sarnoff Okay, don't deviate from the script on that one. Go ahead. Mr. Alfonso: No, I'm trying -- I'd like to see if maybe we can put some order to this discussion. I think they're -- the public is crying out for two different things. They're crying out for more officers and it seems like they're pretty unanimously crying out for making sure that we retain and have motivated police officers. I think that's a pretty fair concept. I think -- I feel confident that can find or --I shouldn't say `I" because it's not an `I" thing; it's about this body and us making collaborative decisions. But I feel confident that we can, based on what know of our budget, the one we're currently in and the one we're voting on, allocate $5 million to empower the Manager to negotiate with, okay? City ofMiami Page 63 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Commissioner Spence -Jones: Without affecting anything else? Commissioner Suarez: Correct. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Okay. Commissioner Suarez: The second component is -- and that's -- that would be a wage -based negotiation, wage -- that's on the Manager to negotiate, to bargain for. The other question is what about the additional police officers? What are we doing there? What is this Commission going to be satisfied with? What is the public going to be satisfied with? And then the last question I think that we should determine before we leave here today is what are we -- how are we going to make sure that those officers are hired? Because it's a great thing for us to -- whatever we end up doing, it's a great thing; but if, at the end of the day, we don't have one more police officer on our street, it means absolutely nothing. So to bring order to it, I thinkl -- from what I sense, there seems to be a majority of Commissioners that are willing to allocate funds to empower the Manager to negotiate with to the tune of let's say -- I'm looking for it here -- $5.3 million. Does that number sound good to you guys, 5.3? Chair Sarnoff That's -- I mean, 5 million. Commissioner Suarez: Okay, 5 flat. So -- Commissioner Carollo: Can we discuss the -- Commissioner Suarez: How to pay for it? Commissioner Carollo: -- how we're coming with the 5 million? Commissioner Suarez: Sure. Commissioner Carollo: Because even from my discussion with Mr. Ortiz, we hadn't reached the 5 million, unless you're talking about them giving back the 3 percent one-time -- Commissioner Suarez: I am. Commissioner Carollo: -- the 3 percent bonus. Commissioner Suarez: I am. Commissioner Spence -Jones: They're saying you can't talk about that. Mr. Ortiz: When I can speak, I'll be -- Vice Chair Gort: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Mr. Ortiz: -- able to address it. Commissioner Suarez: But we can talk about that, because that's how we're going to budget it. We have to be able to talk about that. We have to be able to budget it. In other words, if we're going to budget 55 million, we got to be able to take it from one line item to another. Mr. Alfonso: I understand that, Commissioner, but you have an existing contract. If you say, "We're going to allocate monies that are in the contract and use it for something else," we're -- City ofMiami Page 64 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Commissioner Suarez: I'm not telling you how you spend it. Mr. Alfonso: -- changing the contract then. Commissioner Suarez: No, I'm not telling you how you're going to spend it. I'm telling you -- just hear me out -- I'm telling you where we're going to get it from, and I'm telling you what we're going to give you, and you're going to tell us how you're going to spend it. Right? 'Cause you're going to negotiate that. Mr. Alfonso: Incorrect, Commissioner, because you are hereby changing the terms of an existing agreement. Commissioner Suarez: No, I'm -- no, not at all. I'm not changing the terms of the contract. I'm telling you we're going to allocate an additional $5 million, let's say, to the Police Department, its budget, next year, okay? And you're going to use that $5 million to negotiate. We can give you instructions, can we not? Didn't you say that we could --? We can't tell you what to do, we can't tell you how to do it, but we can tell you -- and we can tell you in executive session, by the way. Mr. Alfonso: Correct. Commissioner Suarez: We can tell you in executive session exactly how we think you should pay for it. Mr. Alfonso: Correct. Commissioner Suarez: But from a budgetary -- we're doing a budget now, so from a budgetary perspective, we want to allocate the resources, make them available for you to begin the negotiation and the negotiation's tomorrow. Mr. Alfonso: Correct, except that when you say "allocating an additional $5 million" -- Commissioner Suarez: Right. Mr. Alfonso: -- part of that, as you stated, is the 3 percent that's already in the contract -- Commissioner Suarez: Correct. Mr. Alfonso: -- so it's already in the budget. You're not going to, in that case, add an additional $5 million. Commissioner Suarez: It is in the budget, I agree, but that -- but -- it's in the budget, you're right, so we don't have to allocate -- you're right. He's right, we don't have to allocate that additional 1.2. Mr. Alfonso: Correct. Commissioner Suarez: But we can direct you to take that $5 million into negotiations, because you can -- you, in negotiations, have the ability, ratified by us and ratified by the members, of deciding how to apportion that money, which has already been budgeted, correct? Commissioner Spence -Jones: No. Vice Chair Gort: I'd like to bring a point which is very important. We had to make some very tough decisions in 2010 creating the budget, 2010, 2011. In that, everybody was hit very hard, City ofMiami Page 65 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 and we have asked the Administration to be very conservative, 'cause whatever we give today and we passed it, when we talked about last year, we told him make sure that if we increase something, we can maintain it, 'cause I don't want to pass something and then later on go to them and say, "Hey, I'm sorry, we got to take it back." So I want to make sure -- that's why the Administration has got to work with the FOP and with the unions and make sure that whatever contract we sign, whatever we agree to is something that we can continue to do so and we don't have to take it in the future. Take that in mind, please. Commissioner Carollo: Mr. Chairman. Chair Sarnoff Commissioner Carollo. Commissioner Carollo: I think Commissioner Gort brings a good point, and l don't think Danny has mentioned that yet, butl think besides the issue of whether we're negotiating up here on the dais and whether we can or not, that aside, yes, the 4.5 million or 4.9 million, a lot of that is one time, a one-time expense or a one-time revenue; like the 3 percent was supposed to be a one-time supplement pay. When he negotiates, I have a feeling that what he's going to be negotiating for is a step increase and then a freeze again. That would be some recurring revenues. Those will be recurring revenues. So I think it would be a recurring revenue of 2.1 additional monies per year, starting next year. So that -- andl think that's what Commissioner Gort is speaking about, because I remember, and you and were adamant about it, when we gave them the 3 percent raise, we said "We need to make sure that they -- that we don't break the contract and we pay the 3 percent." So I think what Commissioner Gort is alluding to -- and again, I don't want to put words into Danny's mouth or Mr. Alfonso, but I think what he's concerned about is that we -- yes, they're going to be giving back one-time things and they're going to be getting recurring expenses in the future. Commissioner Suarez: And I didn't want to get into that because I think that's the details that he wants me to avoid. Mr. Alfonso: Yeah. Commissioner Suarez: And that's why I didn't want to get into recurring, not recurring, all that stuff because I think that's the bargaining stuff,. that's what you're going to be bargaining for. Mr. Alfonso: Well, actually, Commissioner, again, I've seen the proposal. There is a significant amount of money in that proposal that is not recurring revenue; therefore, it would be a recurring expense. And as I said earlier to this Commission, next year this City Commission will be facing four labor contracts. We currently have three wage reopeners. We have environmental issues at our parks that we don't know what it's going to cost us. We have a Department of Justice issue that may be coming down in the next six months or whatever that's going to cost us 2 to $4 million a year, from what I've heard, as possible costs. We have affordable health care costs that are not yet in this budget. We have living wage impacts in the following years. This City wants a sustainable budget for the long term. We have made a recommendation that think is sustainable. Commissioner Suarez: Look, I think there -- I think this is a lot simpler than we're making it. There's two components here. How many more officers are we going to add in this budget? How many are we going to put on the streets? Is it going to satisfy the public? Are we going to be satisfied with ourselves, not only with this group, but with all the other citizens? And what are we going to do to increase the morale in the Police Department? For those Commissioners who feel that that's necessary, we just need to know how to do it. And we'll tell you how much money we want to allocate towards the morale fund, whatever you want to call it, and then you can distribute it however you think is in the best interest of the City, whether it's recurring, nonrecurring, et cetera. I'll give you an example: We came out of negotiations, this two-year City ofMiami Page 66 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 contract, and we made a variety of different pension -related modifications. Guess what? They didn't pan out the way we budgeted them to pan out, recurring expenses, okay, major recurring expenses. So when it came back to me that we had $16 million in revenue -- this is a city that grew by 4 and a half percent, one of the fastest growing cities in Dade County and the largest city in Dade County, which are two almost inconsistent things, andl was told by the Administration, "Well, Commissioner, 13 million of the 16 million is pension increase." Igo, "How is that possible? That's 17 percent return on our investment in our pension fund. How could we possibly have to pay 75 percent or more of our new revenue in increased pension cost?" That really wasn't the correct answer. FIPO's (Firefighters and Police Officers) increase was 1.7 million. I'm not saying that's right, and I'm not saying we shouldn't analyze that, and we shouldn't figure that out, because that, to me, doesn't sound right either, but it's not -- you know, it's not half -- or 60 percent of 13 million. What it was, was we had -- in our labor negotiations, we had agreed to certain reforms, and we thought actuarially we were going to get "X" number of dollars in savings, and we did not get them, and those were recurring expenses, and that ate up 75 percent of our new revenue, which, by the way, could have paid for 100 police officers. This isn't rocket science, guys. We need to figure out how many police officers we want to put on our streets, and we need to figure out how much we want to dedicate to morale; that's it, simple. Chair Sarnoff You want to speak? Javier Ortiz: Yes. Thank you. First and foremost, I want to thank the Commission for being open to these ideas. We are not negotiating. I was asked to put a plan together, a feasible, a reasonable plan, and that's what I'm going to go into very, very quickly. The $9 million that, you know, we -- I guess the Manager came up with, that was not reasonable. We're not going to be firing people, we're not going to close parks; those are all important functions. We need sanitation. We need it. Regarding tomorrow's meeting -- this is signed by Amy Klose, the director -- it says: "Please be advised that labor negotiations between the FOP and the City of Miami are scheduled for Friday." It doesn't just say -- it doesn't say anything about 3 percent. Under our contract, if we mutually agree to meet, we can meet, and that's what we're doing tomorrow. And tomorrow, we are going to negotiate; we are going to negotiate. But we all know -- andl was telling Commissioner Spence -Jones -- today is the most important day of the year. It's on how you cut the pie. And you all decide on how you're going to cut that pie and how you're going to allocate those monies. Some of it isn't recurring, you're correct. Some of the things that I have put in my proposal, which we'll discuss tomorrow, are things that are recurring. There's other ideas that I've said. Don't put the 12 lieutenants; that's 1.2 million. That is a fiscal financial impact that -- by the way, in this contract year, that money was supposed to be frozen so it'd lower our concessions. And haven't refused to meet. That was the best time for me to meet, because last year, we found about 40 million afterwards. So I'm not saying that to be sarcastic. It's in the past. But I got to do what's the best for my members. One other thing: Miami -Dade Police, they start at 44 when you're in the academy. They're at 50.490 as of September 6. That's what a certified police officer starts. And when they talk about hiring and how well hiring is going, there's a couple of things you got to remember. We have 15 people that are in the DROP that must leave. We lose about 20 people due to resignations; either they're going to other departments 'cause they were going to get fired. Andl can't get into specifics, but there's plenty of corruption going on within the Miami Police Department, and there's going to be more people getting fired. So with that said, we might be able to hire those that are right at the minimum standards. We need to raise those standards, 'cause we all know that at the end of the day, you get what you pay for. Regarding the proposal, again, hypothetically -- and we will negotiate this tomorrow -- the FOP has a 3 percent in April; that's 1.2 million. It's $2.4 million recurring; already has it in the budget. The lieutenants, that's another 1.2 million. You got the 3 percent bonus; the 2.1 million. Special -- I'm sorry -- the revenue that put for the CFO (Chief Financial Officer), he's recommending 2 million, and 800,000 would come to the FOP. The Mayor's runoff that was half a million dollars; I spoke to the Mayor. And then the VIP (Very Important Person) Program -- City ofMiami Page 67 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Commissioner Suarez: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) spoke to the Mayor. I get half the credit for that. Mr. Ortiz: Huh? Commissioner Suarez: I get half the credit for that (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Mr. Ortiz: What do you mean? Commissioner Suarez: I get half the credit for that. He doesn't get -- take full credit for that. Mr. Ortiz: Well, you know what? I do thank you for getting out of the race, 'cause you gave me half a million dollars. I do appreciate that. Commissioner Suarez: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) credit for (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Mr. Ortiz: Thank you. Anyway, I'm going to get beaten up for that. We don't have parity with the other unions. I know that somebody was saying that. We don't have parity. And I'm just trying to come in line with the Fire Department. That's all I'm trying to do. This plan is feasible, but the only way it's feasible, Commissioner Gort, is by allocating the money today. We allocate the money today. I can meet with Mr. Manager tomorrow. Next week you have your executive session, andl think it's a no-brainer. This is totally doable. But just remember, when you're looking at hiring, you're going to hire, but you're -- I just -- off the bat, I just told you you're going to lose at least 35 people between DROP and resignations, and there's more corruption coming, unfortunately. We got to clean that up, and we got to hire better applicants. Fifty thousand is what the County makes, not 44; 57 when you look at the add-ons in Miami Beach; they're hiring. My plan asks for 5.4 million. It's not all coming from the City. It's things that we would give up. Yes, it is -- some of it is one-time money, Mr. Manager. We are all going to have to negotiate new contracts. When it comes to Fire, their step raises are frozen. That's going to be recurring also. We've spoken about -- informally about, you know, we have to put the City back on track, meaning the Police Department, when it comes to step raises and all that. So you're going to have a recurring expense, but revenues will continue to go up. I totally understand what Commissioner Suarez is saying when it comes to pension cost. The FOP was right; the City was wrong. This is the second time this happened. We said how much it was going to be, and what did the City do? Instead of just keeping the budget high for that issue, for that item, they said, "Nah, we'll be all right, " and they lowered it. And now, it's eaten up a lot of our new revenue. So I'm ready to work with you guys. I'm willing to work with you guys. I'm willing to work with the Manager. I'm not going to take this personal. You want to say thatl refused to meet with you. I haven't refused, but guess what? I'm not going to meet until the money is allocated, because that's when we do business, and that will be tomorrow at 2 p.m. Thank you. Commissioner Suarez: So how many police officers are we going to have and how are we going to pay for it? Chair Sarnoff So under the -- Commissioner Carollo: Well, my count right now, it's not -- we have -- we're going to have 95 patrol officers on the street. That's my count. And the way I get to that count is 20 -- Commissioner Suarez: I gotcha. Commissioner Carollo: -- that are in different -- Commissioner Suarez: They're assigned. City ofMiami Page 68 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Commissioner Carollo: -- positions right now or different non patrolling assignments which will be now assigned to go to the streets and patrol. There is, last heard, 40 vacancies, which the Chief said by the end of the year will be filled. There's an additional 35 in the proposal from the Manager and the Mayor. And if my math is correct, 40 plus 20 plus 35 is 95 officers that will be patrolling the streets that right now are not patrolling the streets. Commissioner Suarez: And just to be clear -- That's how many; 95, you said? Commissioner Carollo: Ninety-five additional patrol officers. Commissioner Suarez: And just to be clear, a portion of that, 12 or so, is predicated on a COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services) grant. Commissioner Carollo: I'm sorry? Commissioner Suarez: Twelve -- half, approximately, of the 25 that were budgeted -- Commissioner Carollo: Thirty-five. Commissioner Suarez: No, no, 25. The original 25 -- before we came up with the new 10, the original 25, approximately half -- Mr. Manager, go ahead. Mr. Alfonso: Okay. Commissioners, in the original budget proposal -- Commissioner Suarez: Right. Mr. Alfonso: -- there were 25 police officers in addition. The revised proposal added 10 new officers, so that's a total of 35 new officers. In discussion with the Police Chief we agreed that if we could backfill with civilians, which cost money -- and in fairness to the Chief when these issues were discussed in the past, he was asked "How many folks can you move out there?" And he did 33. It wasn't taken into account, `7 could do more if you give me civilians." We weren't discussing doing civilians at the time. Commissioner Carollo: Right. Mr. Alfonso: So right now we have said that if we add now -- and in our proposal, we had 10 civilians and he had identified 15 officers that could move out. So you have the net 35 new, and you have 15 that are currently in the department that would move out; 5 of them immediately; the other 10 as we backfill with civilians. And today, the Chief has said that if he's given more civilians, he can identify another 5 positions. However, that would also require funding for those 5 civilians. Chief Orosa: And just to reiterate what the Manager says, what I said before still stands today. Before, I wasn't given the leeway of backfilling with civilians. That's why I did the 33, andl said, "7 can't do anymore." Now we have the leeway of filling with civilians, andl can fill the 10 the Manager has said he can give me; any more, which I think is maybe 5 more, it would necessitate more civilians. Commissioner Suarez: Can I -- Vice Chair Gort: Total numbers, total numbers. Commissioner Spence -Jones: So we're at 95, no? Mr. Alfonso: But that would be -- City ofMiami Page 69 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Commissioner Carollo: Ninety-five. Mr. Alfonso: Ninety-five if you include the 40 vacancies that were in the budget -- Commissioner Carollo: That right now -- Mr. Alfonso: -- or in the -- Commissioner Carollo: -- are not patrolling our streets. Mr. Alfonso: Correct. Commissioner Suarez: Now, what's the expected attrition next year? Mr. Alfonso: There are, I believe, around 19 or 17 people that are expected to leave due to the DROP. Mr. Ortiz: It's 15. Chair Sarnoff So that you net 75. Commissioner Carollo: Seventy-eight. Mr. Alfonso: And Commissioners, I want to say it is -- Commissioner Carollo: Gives me 17. Mr. Alfonso: -- almost a virtual impossibility for any -- Chair Sarnoff You're right, you're right. Mr. Alfonso: -- department ever to be at 100 percent staffing. If you have a three person department, yes. If you have a 1,500-person organization, to have zero attrition, it's almost impossible. Commissioner Suarez: No, not that you have zero attrition, but you have people queued up so that when you lose somebody, you're able to replace them immediately, like, you know, within a week. Chief Orosa: And Commissioner, that's part of what I have -- I don't want to say "created;" but what we've started; that we are in a constant hiring mode, no matter what the numbers are, no matter if the money is budgeted or not. I know that I'm going to be losing 17 next year. I'll probably lose another 15 because they decide to leave early or we -- Commissioner Suarez: Right. Chief Orosa: -- they get fired or whatever the reason is, so I always want to be in a constant hiring mode. Commissioner Suarez: That's business experience. That's business experience. Chief Orosa: No matter whether the money is there or not, we have to be in that mode. We cannot stop the machinery, wait for the money, and then hire. City ofMiami Page 70 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Commissioner Suarez: Andl think, philosophically, we've come a long way, a long way in the last two years since Commissioner Sarnoff brought this to our collective attention and then brought the whole issue of understaffing to our attention. I think, again, we've come a long way. I think you're right. I think you're realistic about what attrition you're going to have next year. What you're saying is probably going to be close to 30, somewhere in that vicinity, you know what I'm saying? So the net add is like 65 -- Chief Orosa: Yes. Commissioner Suarez: -- assuming we fill those positions, which is the other worry that I have, which is really the worry that I have. Chief Orosa: I don't -- I really don't worry that, because every time we open an application process, we open it for about a week and we get about 1,000 candidates. Out of that, we get, like I said -- Commissioner Suarez: Fifty. You said 50 last time. Chief Orosa: -- 50, 60. Commissioner Suarez: Right. Chief Orosa: But now we're in the situation where we're not going to wait. We're going to continue to do a list. As soon as we think that list is going to expire, we're going to start with a new one. And the same way, we're not going to wait for money to continue the hiring process, because we know that attrition, it's going to kill it. Chair Sarnoff But here's what we have: We have ostensibly a budget that will get us about 95 officers. Commissioner Carollo: Yes. Chair Sarnoff So from the standpoint of getting more cops on the street, most of us are feeling pretty good, right? Commissioner Carollo: Yes. Commissioner Suarez: If you guys say so. Is the public feeling good? That's really what matters here. Commissioner Spence -Jones: They're probably confused. Chair Sarnoff If they want to get up and say something -- Commissioner Suarez: You're the collective soul here of the public, so let's hear how the public feels. Fernand Amandi: President of the citizens collective bargaining unit. Just first and foremost, I'm in the business of doing research and studying statistical trends and then making, on the basis of those trends, decisions, strategic recommendations that end up changing things. Now, as a homeowner, I've seen three summers in a row where a crime spike seems to flare up in the summer; happened in the summer of 2010, summer of 2011, summer of 2012. We just went through one in summer 2013. Now -- Vice Chair Gort: School is out. City ofMiami Page 71 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Mr. Amandi: I'm sorry? Commissioner Spence -Jones: School is out. Vice Chair Gort: School is out. Mr. Amandi: School's out, whatever. The point is, there's a clear trend line there. Now, we're talking about 95 new officers that will not be on the streets, in the Chiefs own words, for another year. Chair Sarnoff No, no, no. Commissioner Carollo: No, no, no. Commissioner Spence -Jones: But some of them are already in the pipeline. Vice Chair Gort: No, no, no. Commissioner Carollo: No, no. Chief Orosa: If we hire 100 more officers -- Mr. Amandi: Right. Chief Orosa: -- you're right. But by -- Commissioner Suarez: We budgeted 100 more officers, it would take us a year -- Mr. Amandi: I'm talking about the budgeting of 100 more officers. So in the short term -- first off you mentioned 15 that are going to be assigned from desk jobs -- Chief Orosa: Yes. Mr. Amandi: -- that are going to be -- What is the date certain for when that will happen? Chief Orosa: We have 5 next week and then the other 10 as soon as I can get civilians to backfill what they do right now. Mr. Amandi: Give me a sense. I'm not in the department, so I need to understand by your terms. What are those? Is that a matter of days? It should be days, right, a function of days? Chief Orosa: I'm going to refer to the Manager, because these people do not work for me right now. Mr. Amandi: Okay. Chief Orosa: They're not in my department. Mr. Alfonso: Okay, you asked how long will it take to get the civilians to backfill the officers? Mr. Amandi: The 15 officers -- Vice Chair Gort: The 95 officers, new officers, how long it will be before they'll be in the street? City ofMiami Page 72 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Mr. Alfonso: Well, the answer is that there is recruitment that has to go on. The 10 civilians, the 15 civilians, they have to be recruited as well. So there are 5 that are immediately going out, because he doesn't need back for those, but the additional 15, we have to recruit for those positions. Mr. Amandi: So in other words, for the past four summers where we've experienced this, we still can't give a date certain to me, the residents, and the other residents who are here, who I'd like to think in this case, we're representing in a unified voice, you can't give us a date certain, simple as that. Here's the other question: In my education, if you could, please, how many -- there's 1,140 budgeted for; 1,144 for the City; is that right? Chair Sarnoff Forty-four. Chief Orosa: Eleven forty-four. Commissioner Carollo: Eleven forty-four. Mr. Amandi: How many today are on patrol right now? Like how many are on patrol as we speak? Commissioner Suarez: And that was the question that I asked the last -- Mr. Amandi: Yeah, I remember you asked that last week, Commissioner Suarez. I ask the Chief how many are on patrol today? Commissioner Suarez: Andl didn't get an answer. Mr. Amandi: Of the 1,144, how many are on patrol, and specifically, those that answer call for service and participate in the roll call? Commissioner Suarez: Answer calls for service, I think, is the most important. Mr. Amandi: Is the designation, correct? Yeah. The answering calls for service, how many? Chief Orosa: Okay -- Commissioner Suarez: Versus uniformed officers, 'cause that's a different -- Chief Orosa: Well -- but, see, here's the little -- the fallacy around that: We have a lot of uniformed officers that are patrolling every single day, like the PSTs that they don't go to roll call Commissioner Suarez: But they take the calls? Chief Orosa: -- like the sergeants, like the lieutenants, like mounted, like motorcycle -- Commissioner Suarez: NROs. Chief Orosa: -- they patrol, as well. Commissioner Suarez: NROs. Chief Orosa: And we are at 656. I was wrong about the 620; it's 656. In patrol right now, the optimum number was 400 to avoid overtime. When I started, we were at 340. We're at -- City ofMiami Page 73 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Commissioner Suarez: Right. I was -- that's the 350 number that I was told. Chief Orosa: -- three -eighty right now. Commissioner Suarez: Okay, I think what the Chair's argument had always centered around, which is what recall, was that we wanted to be at 700 in patrol; in other words, double our patrolling force. That was the end goal from when we started this conversation, from my perspective. Chief Orosa: Well, if you want to double the patrol, not the uniform services, the patrol -- Commissioner Suarez: Correct. Chief Orosa: -- that means that we have to empty out a lot of places; investigations, internal affairs -- Commissioner Suarez: No, I don't think -- no, no. Wait, wait. Listen. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Games. Chief Orosa: -- or hire a lot more. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Games. Commissioner Suarez: That -- Listen, that's not necessarily where I'm going with it. I think we were talking about hiring 300 more officers, but -- Chief Orosa: Oh, okay. Commissioner Suarez: -- and that's where, I think, the hundred, plus hundred, plus hundred came into discussion. But let me just say this, 'cause Commissioner Carollo did make a good point, and we did talk a little bit about efficiency, andl did -- and, you know, and Fernand is into research, and we did -- you know, we try to pride ourselves on doing research as well and coming up with equivalent measurements. And these are reports that are published by the U.S. (United States) Bureau of Justice Statistics. When -- in a survey of local police departments in 2007, they surveyed 12,000 local law enforcement agencies with approximately 430,000 sworn officers. Overall, approximately 67 percent of local police officers had regular duties that included responding to calls for services, okay? Sixty-seven percent. In jurisdictions with 250,000 to 500,000 residents, which is the category that we happen to fall into, 59 percent of local officers had duties that included responding to calls for service; 59 percent of the department. So we do have to look closely at what percentage of our actual officers are responding to calls for service. It appears to me that it's closer to 40 percent, which is 20 percent less efficient than other equivalent -- Chief Orosa: But, Commissioner, what you fail to realize, calls for service are answered by motorcycles; they go by calls for service, they respond to calls for service -- Commissioner Suarez: No, I -- Chief Orosa: -- mounted does that, the PSTs always patrolling out there. Commissioner Suarez: Listen -- Chief Orosa: You know, but let's compare apples to apples. City ofMiami Page 74 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Commissioner Suarez: -- we've been trying to compare apples to apples here all day, okay? It's become a lot harder. It's like apples and kiwis, okay? I mean, you know, we can't even figure out how much we get paid in comparison with other jurisdictions. I mean, nobody can even agree on that much. We can't agree on how many officers are -- you know, I asked the question last Commission meeting andl never got a detailed breakdown on your number, which kind of happens to be a floating number. I mean, by your own admission, you said it was higher today than it was two weeks ago. Chief Orosa: Yes. Commissioner Suarez: So, you know, my point is that we need to look at things like efficiency. How efficient are we being within our own department? Butl think at the beginning of this discussion, when we started this discussion, after first identiing the problem that we have, a hiring problem, which we are now starting to make progress on, the second issue was understaffing. And he brought -- and you did as well. You wrote a memo saying -- comparing our understaffing issues to other cities. Chief Orosa: Yes, sir. Commissioner Suarez: And he called it the best memo thatArmando's ever written. Chief Orosa: Well, I'll take a little bit of credit for that too. Unidentified Speaker: He signed it. Commissioner Suarez: So -- I'm just giving you a hard time there, Chief. The point being that we all agreed that the -- and -- that the real challenge was we needed to get from 350, which was the magic number in my mind, to somewhere between 600 to 700 -- okay? -- which is 250 to 350 new officers. The fact that there's this entire other category of officers that, in effect, can respond to calls for services, are on the streets, are visible, are present, I think that's reassuring and comforting, because I know how hard the NROs (Neighborhood Resource Officers) work. I know how hard the commanders work, you know. They're out -- they have -- sometimes they have unmarked cars, but they're pulling people over. Chief Orosa: Correct. Commissioner Suarez: So, you know, they're working. It's not like they're not working. So -- but that also implies with the crime issue that there's a morale problem, and there clearly is. I mean, I don't think you have to go very far to see that there is; whether that means we rank number 15, whether we rank 16, when you throw in a variety of different -- and making it very difficult to compare apples to apples, 'cause it really is, 'cause we do -- every jurisdiction does things differently. The contracts are different. You know, the Manager andl have talked about the minutias [sic] in the con -- you just can't -- it's very hard to do that. The point is, what's indisputable is that there is a morale problem. Do you dispute that? Chief Orosa: I do not dispute that. I believe, just like you do and Javi, that there are individual officers that would like their benefits back, yes. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Yes. Commissioner Suarez: And I think it's -- Chief Orosa: Not individual; all officers would like their benefits back. City ofMiami Page 75 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Commissioner Suarez: Andl think it's indisputable that what we've been doing very efficiently since we got here is taking them away. Chief Orosa: Yes. Commissioner Suarez: So maybe it's time to give a little bit back. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Of course. Commissioner Suarez: Okay. So we're all in agreement there. So now all we need to do is get an agreement on how many police officers we need and we're going to budget for today, and then lastly, how we're going to make sure that they get hired. Chair Sarnoff And that's why I thought it was a little bit simpler, because, like I said, I wasn't in favor of this budget, really, until about three or four days ago. He took $2.44 million and essentially got us now 95 police officers. Commissioner Carollo: Yes. Chair Sarnoff I'm -- that's a good spot, and I'm telling the Grove community which has turned out, that's a good spot. Doesn't mean 95 hit the street tomorrow, I candidly agree, but it does mean 25 should hit the street by Christmas, 'cause if this team can't hire civilians to do typing and stuff like that by Christmas, then we have the wrong team in place. Chief Orosa: But 25 or more. Chair Sarnoff No, I -- candidly, great. Commissioner Suarez: I would not want to leave this meeting today ifI were them without knowing exactly when those 95 officers are going to be on the street. Chair Sarnoff Well -- Commissioner Suarez: And maybe you can't know exactly. Maybe that -- Mr. -- wait, wait, wait. Maybe you can't know exactly, Commissioner, but you can say no later than, like you just said, 25 by Christmas; no later than -- why is that an unreasonable thing to ask? Chair Sarnoff No, I think you're right. I don't think you're wrong. I think -- because -- Commissioner Suarez: I'm not going to be satisfied. Chair Sarnoff -- Danny's going to say, "How am I going to know who's going to fill that position that's going to do like" -- Commissioner Suarez: We're going to make reasonable assumptions based on our past -- Chair Sarnoff Yeah, we do. You're right. Commissioner Suarez: -- history. Commissioner Carollo: Hold on, hold on. I'm in agreement that they should have at least 25 additional patrol officers by Christmas. I think it's very doable, because it's not only the officers that are going to be hitting the streets that are already employed by us. At the same time, they're going to be the vacancies, they're going to be working it, and the Chief has mentioned that he plans on filling the 30, 40 positions by the end of the year. So in combination with that, with the City ofMiami Page 76 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 officers that we're looking at for efficiency and being able to put them out on the streets patrolling, I think it should be rather easy to have an additional 25 patrol officers on the street by Christmas. And let me just add, I want to make sure it's additional. In other words, I don't want 25 officers to go patrol and then, somehow, 25 officers be taking off to go work some detail or get attached or detached somewhere else or investigative unit. I want -- I think what we're all asking for is additional patrol officers. Mr. Amandi: On the street. Commissioner Carollo: On the streets. So we should have -- at the very least, I think it's very doable. I think it's extremely doable. Chair Sarnoff Schedule our 95, walk them out right now. Chief Orosa: Excuse me? Chair Sarnoff Schedule our 95; dress rehearsal; tell us right now. Chief Orosa: Well, the 25 is doable, like -- Chair Sarnoff By Christmas? Chief Orosa: -- the Commissioner says; probably at the end of the year, like I've always said. Chair Sarnoff Okay. Chief Orosa: But keep in mind, this is -- this always is a constant change, because who knows? Commissioner Suarez: But we're going to get there, Chief. Chair Sarnoff So, all right, 25 by Christmas. Chief Orosa: Okay. Chair Sarnoff That leaves us 70. When will those 70 be hired? Chief Orosa: You're going to -- Chair Sarnoff Ten, you said, were already hired? Chief Orosa: You're going to get five probably next week. Commissioner Carollo: Yeah, but those are included in the 25 by Christmas. I think what he's trying to see is -- Chief Orosa: Oh, I thought you meant -- Chair Sarnoff I want to give them some -- Chief Orosa: I thought you meant the 25 as the new on top of whatever we have now. Vice Chair Gort: No, no. Commissioner Carollo: No, no. City ofMiami Page 77 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Vice Chair Gort: The 95 that we have been discussing -- Chief Orosa: Yes. Vice Chair Gort: -- how long do you think will be before the 95 will be aboard? And give us a scenario; the 10, 20, 40, 50. Chief Orosa: It means hiring around 60, which that could be probably achieved sometime in March. Chair Sarnoff Okay. Chief Orosa: And it means putting the rest of that -- the other 20 or so as soon as I get the civilians to backfill -- Commissioner Carollo: Right. Chief Orosa: -- which that could be -- I don't know how long it takes to hire civilians. Chair Sarnoff Wait. Right (UNINTELLIGIBLE) just so we're clear, 'cause I don't think you said it right, but hey. Twenty five in December, sixty -- an additional sixty by March -- Chief Orosa: No, no, no. Commissioner Carollo: No, no, no. Chair Sarnoff Sixty total. Chief Orosa: No, no. Listen, out of the 95 -- okay? Chair Sarnoff Okay, here we go. Chief Orosa: Out of the 95, you're going to have 60 that are new hires that will probably be somewhere in March of next year, April. Chair Sarnoff On the street patrolling. Chief Orosa: Hired. Chair Sarnoff On the street patrolling. Chief Orosa: Hired. Mr. Amandi: The 25 from April -- Chief Orosa: On the street -- okay, on the street patrolling -- Mr. Amandi: Commissioner -- Chief Orosa: -- you got the 10 that were recently graduated; you have another 6 that is in orientation; you have the 5I'm putting out immediately. Chair Sarnoff Good; (UNINTELLIGIBLE) now. Chief Orosa: You have 15 and maybe 5 more ifI can get backfilled, so that's the match. City ofMiami Page 78 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Chair Sarnoff Fifteen by December, right, hopefully? Chief Orosa: Yeah, yeah. Chair Sarnoff And six -- five -- 15 by December. Chief Orosa: All those that l just mentioned by December, yes. Chair Sarnoff Okay, so that adds up to --16, 21 and 15 is 36. Chief Orosa: Correct. Commissioner Carollo: That's right. That's why I believe thatl think 25 is very doable; the minimum of additional patrol officers on the streets -- Chair Sarnoff Right. Commissioner Carollo: -- in the streets. Chair Sarnoff So 36, and that still leaves you with about 60. I know I'm 1 over. Chief Orosa: Yes. Chair Sarnoff When would those 60 hit the street? Chief Orosa: It all depends. Chair Sarnoff Right. Are you going to hire certified officers? Chief Orosa: Well, we -- Commissioner Carollo: And that deals with DOJ (Department of Justice) also. Chair Sarnoff But that's what I'm asking, Danny. Chief Orosa: But -- Commissioner Suarez: Give us an outside date. Chief Orosa: --let me -- Commissioner Suarez: Give us a deadline. Chief Orosa: -- clarify the point. Commissioner Suarez: Go ahead. Chief Orosa: We have to hire everything, certifieds and non-certifieds. Commissioner Suarez: Okay. Chief Orosa: I don't know how the list is going to turn out with certifieds or not certifieds. I cannot, you know, tell the future -- City ofMiami Page 79 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Chair Sarnoff That's fair. Chief Orosa: -- that out of the thousand, how many are going to be certified and how many are not going to be certified and then who passes the background and who doesn't pass the background. So that's why I'm saying it's difficult to tell you how many are we going to hire that we can put from that list certified on the road quickly and how many have to go to the academy. Chair Sarnoff And so they understand it, does DOJ play a role in how many certfeds you can hire? Chief Orosa: Yes. DOJ has to give us permission to hire certifieds. Chair Sarnoff Explain to them why. Vice Chair Gort: It's important for them to understand the process. Chair Sarnoff 'Cause they need to hear it. Chief Orosa: All right, long story short. Back in 1977 somebody complained to the Department ofJustice that the entire City ofMiami was discriminatory against Hispanics, entire; not the Police Department; every single position in the -- from the Parks Department to Sanitation to everybody. They came in here. They gave us a consent decree, which is an order that we got to do things their way. From that time till now, every single position in the City ofMiami has been lifted with approval of the Department of Justice, except two: police officers and lieutenants. That -- and we have to do it their way. Their way sometimes takes a little bit longer. We would like to be in a position where we say we only want to hire officers that have their certification already, but we can't do that. Now, going back, we have to open it to everybody. You asked me to go to them and ask them for -- allowing us to hire just a list of certified. I did that, and they said "This is the last time. Don't come back." I haven't been back. I'm not going to go back. Now, when we open it up, we open it up to anybody, whether you're certified or not. Anything else? Chair Sarnoff No. I think he needs to know, Fernan -- Vice Chair Gort: Yeah. Chair Sarnoff -- that crew needs to know why it's taken so long. Mr. Amandi: And Chief I say this with all due respect, because you have made some clearly -- some clear steps to address the problem. But let me just give you an example, andl say this as a layman to the inner workings of the Police Department. When we had our emergency meeting a little over three weeks ago, you said that we were going to have two full-time officers assigned to the Grove. You followed it up by saying it was three. Chief Orosa: And I even sent you the names. Mr. Amandi: You did. But in my understanding now, it's three additional shifts. It's not three permanent officers, which I asked you several times in that meeting, and you said, `It's going to be permanent, yes; two permanent officers. " You ended up three. But, you see, it's -- that's not even a real representation of what ended up happening. So I understand that they're additional shift. That's great. That's a wonderful thing, but it's not the reality of what me, as a resident, can walk away and say "we have three permanent officers at all shifts, seven days a week. That's not the reality, which is what you've led us to believe. Chief Orosa: No, no, no, no, no, no, no. City ofMiami Page 80 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Mr. Amandi: So -- andl say this with all due respect, but -- Chief Orosa: I -- Mr. Amandi: I feel like in some respects -- I'm not saying you're doing this -- Chief Orosa: Let -- Mr. Amandi: -- but I feel like there's a shell game going on here in some respects. Chief Orosa: -- me clam, okay? I told you that I was going to give you three officers fulltime, and that's what you got. Mr. Amandi: Three permanent officers. Chief Orosa: Three permanent officers full time. If your desire was to get three permanent officers in every shift, then we're talking about 18. I don't have 18 to give you. Commissioner Suarez: Nine. Chief Orosa: Eighteen. Commissioner Carollo: Why? Chief Orosa: Opposite days off. Commissioner Carollo: Days off? Commissioner Suarez: Agreed. Chief Orosa: I don't have 18 to give you. Mr. Amandi: Recognizing that we were already at a deficit for -- we didn't have an officer per zone of the five zones. We had four beforehand. Chief Orosa: Well -- Mr. Amandi: So we still don't even have an officer, full time, permanent, seven days a week for each zone in the Grove. Chief Orosa: You had five; except in the midnight shift, you had four. Mr. Amandi: You mean when my house was broken into at midnight, on Friday, October 24 -- August 24. Chief Orosa: Probably. Mr. Amandi: Right, yeah There you go. So you understand the position that I'm coming at now. Chief Orosa: Mm-hmm. Mr. Amandi: When you play these number games -- and I'm not saying you're playing them, but when I hear them, on the one hand, I like to say, "Okay, well, that makes sense." But then we're talking about 95 officers that may not come onto the street until post summer of 2014, which is City ofMiami Page 81 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 when, in the last four years, we've seen very clearly is when the crime (UNINTELLIGIBLE) takes place. And this is not just for the Grove; it's for the entire City ofMiami. I'm sensitive to it because we're having a property crime situation, but across the board, there are other areas that have this same need. So how do we reconcile that so that -- Vice Chair Gort: Year-round (INAUDIBT,F). Mr. Amandi: -- when I could report back to the 3,000 people on my e-mail list tomorrow, and they say, "What happened?"I could tell them, "This is clearly what happened"? And there is none of this back and forth confusion, which, frankly, I am suffering through right now. Commissioner Suarez: It's -- I agree. Chair Sarnoff So -- but to move the needle forward, I think we could agree, as a Commission, that this budget gives us the movement we're looking for, this budget. Wait, wait, I'm not done. I -- 'cause I don't know how to get any more, because I think Carollo would say, and I'd have to agree with him -- you know Carollo andl very rarely agree on anything, but -- Commissioner Suarez: You guys agree on stuff. What is that? Come on. Chair Sarnoff We -- I tease him. We do. But even if we -- Commissioner Suarez: Stick it on your (UNINTELLIGIBLE), Comish. Commissioner Carollo: You're getting better. Chair Sarnoff I know. Commissioner Carollo: You're seeing my ways. You're getting better. Chair Sarnoff Thanks. Even if we allocated 70 more officers, it almost wouldn't even matter. Commissioner Carollo: And that's why I thought we needed to see within our own department for efficiencies, because these would be officers that will be going on patrol rather soon. Chair Sarnoff But here's what we could do. Commissioner Carollo: You understand what I'm saying? Chair Sarnoff Right. Commissioner Carollo: These are not going through the hiring process, no. They're already here, they're certified Mr. Amandi: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) minimum 25 by Christmas -- Commissioner Carollo: Right, right. Mr. Amandi: -- Which is encouraging to hear. Commissioner Carollo: Right. Mr. Amandi: But when you talk about 95 extra officers on the streets, okay, well, that -- Chair Sarnoff But here's -- City ofMiami Page 82 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Mr. Amandi: -- by the end of next year. Commissioner Suarez: Exactly. Chair Sarnoff -- what think is encouraging. You know, the needle starts to move, and we know that we could do this, andl think it's important to some of the Commissioners, without de -allocating other departments. So let's just use a place holder for a moment. Let's just say, all right, net new officers, that's our new budget. Now we have to decide how do we -- let's call it the morale issue. How do we fix the morale issue? And that's where you need to come in. Vice Chair Gort: That's what we talked about. Chair Sarnoff Let's deal with morale. Vice Chair Gort: Yeah. Commissioner Suarez: I put it at -- okay, okay. You said five flat? Chair Sarnoff Well -- Commissioner Carollo: No, it's not five flat, but anyways, okay, let me not speak. Chair Sarnoff Yeah, it's just an -- Commissioner Carollo: And I think our acting City Manager/ CFO would like to speak. Mr. Alfonso: I have severe disagreement with the numbers that the president of FOP is presenting. If you agree on the proposal, then two and a half million -- or 2.4 million is allocated in your proposal, so, you know, we can't use an additional two and a half million and get to five because we've already spent that money in the proposal. The issue of lieutenants, 1.2 million, you know, there is no 1.2 million for lieutenants. Some of the money that he's alluding to, it's already in the 2.4 discussion that we've been having, the recurring issue. We would have to, if the City wants to take that position, amend the budget, do a ordinance -- I mean, those things take time. Commissioner Suarez: Can I rattle off some numbers and you can tell me if they are accurate or inaccurate? Would that be helpful? Mr. Alfonso: Yes. Commissioner Suarez: Okay. The 3 percent bonus, one-time bonus, is equivalent to $2.1 million for police officers. Mr. Alfonso: Correct. Commissioner Suarez: Okay. The 3 percent raise in this budget, '13/14, which is really one and a half 'cause it's for half a year, is equivalent to $1.2 million; is that correct or incorrect? Mr. Alfonso: It is correct. Commissioner Suarez: Okay, that's 3.3 added together. This is the one I don't know about, but you kind of just said it isn't, so I'm a little concerned. Have we or have we not budgeted $1.2 million for lieutenants in this budget? City ofMiami Page 83 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Mr. Alfonso: We have not. It is actually in the budget book. It's actually a very clear bullet that says this budget includes attrition of roughly $1.2 million, 1.1 and change, because there was no expectation of having those lieutenants filled, and it was as per the bargaining agreement that we had. Commissioner Suarez: So that does not exist? Mr. Alfonso: That is correct, that does not exist. Commissioner Suarez: Okay. Mr. Amandi: But we're trying to fill them now. That's what I'm -- Mr. Alfonso: There is no such agreement, per se, yet, sir. Mr. Amandi: But it's being planned on, correct? Commissioner Suarez: And you're -- no, but you're saying the budget -- it's not been budgeted is what you're saying. It's not in -- Mr. Alfonso: That is correct. There is no budget for the 1.2 -- Commissioner Suarez: That doesn't exist. Mr. Alfonso: -- (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that's correct. Commissioner Carollo: No. Chair Sarnoff Right. So that's fair; it's not in there. Commissioner Suarez: Doesn't exist. Chair Sarnoff Right. Commissioner Suarez: Okay, 800, 000, which you had kind of discovered, that does exist? Commissioner Carollo: Yes. Mr. Alfonso: It's part of the current proposal of 2.44. Commissioner Suarez: Right. I'm just citing -- I'm just putting out numbers -- Mr. Alfonso: Yes, correct. Commissioner Suarez: -- and I'm asking you to verin, them. So 800,000 does exist. That puts us at 4.1. Chair Sarnoff Wait, wait, wait. But that was in the 2.44 million addition -- Mr. Alfonso: That is correct. Commissioner Suarez: Doesn't matter. Chair Sarnoff No, it does -- City ofMiami Page 84 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Commissioner Suarez: I'm just -- Chair Sarnoff -- because you've allocated that for the new police. Mr. Alfonso: You have allocated some of that to the new five officers that you want to backfill. Chair Sarnoff You want to retract so -- Commissioner Suarez: Yeah. Well, I can tell you how to pay for that separately, but, yeah. Chair Sarnoff Well, I'm all ears then. Commissioner Suarez: Well, I mean, then we're going to get -- I don't want to confuse the situation, but the way I looked at it was I -- okay, so we're to 4.1, right? So 2.1, 3 percent one-time bonus; 1.2, 3 percent half -a -year increase, right? Mr. Alfonso: Yes. Commissioner Suarez: Okay, that's 3.3. Eight hundred thousand, that's 4.1. Mr. Alfonso: Again, I argue that the 800,000 is in the proposal that we have presented. Commissioner Spence -Jones: But Commissioner Suarez, I got to say this to you. This is just like -- I mean, the same thing that I talked about almost an hour ago of doing, which is the proposal that he's presented, we went back and forth about we can't do this, we can't do that, and you're doing the same thing -- Commissioner Suarez: No, I'm doing it differently. Commissioner Spence -Jones: How are you doing it differently? You're saying the same things. Commissioner Suarez: No, I'm not. I'm not saying how we're going to spend the money. I'm saying how we're going to allocate the money. He is going to have to negotiate how we're going to spend the money. In other words, are we going to -- just to give examples --I know you don't like hypotheticals, Mr. Manager, but -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: That is the same thing. Mr. Alfonso: Correct. I want to point out also that the $2.1 million is in the '12/13 budget; it is not in the '13/14 budget, so to allocate it in '13/14, we would have to bring that back as an ordinance waiving our financial integrity principles, allocating the carryover, undo the resolution that we did, et cetera, et cetera. Commissioner Suarez: But when we negotiated contracts, we had to do a variety of things to implement the things that we negotiated. I mean, that's just part of life. That's part of government bureaucracy and government in the big city. Mr. Alfonso: Correct. And I want to also point out that that is nonrecurring. Commissioner Suarez: Understood, and that's why we're in the budget -- I mean, we are in contract negotiations for the ensuing year where we can negotiate all these factors, which we will not be doing from here. Mr. Alfonso: Excuse me, Commissioner. You said for the ensuing year. I would agree that I would start labor negotiations for the ensuing year; that is the '14/15 contract. City ofMiami Page 85 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Commissioner Suarez: Correct. Vice Chair Gort: Right. Commissioner Suarez: So going back to my original numbers. So we're at 4.1 and then the runoff is 4.6, right? So that leaves us a $400, 000 deficiency, which is usually not that hard to find in a $500 million budget, I would argue. So -- okay? Now, in the budget -- wait. Let me -- just hear me out now, 'cause I'm -- I got a head of steam going here, okay? In the budget, before we tinkered with it, before you came up with the $2.4 million, we had budgeted 25 additional officers, correct? Mr. Alfonso: That is correct, Commissioner. Commissioner Suarez: Okay. We had 40 vacancies, that's 65. Mr. Alfonso: That's correct. Commissioner Suarez: So -- Mr. Alfonso: That doesn't change. Commissioner Suarez: Correct. So the only thing we're adding here is another 30 officers. Not even, because 10 are being -- 15 are being reassigned. Mr. Alfonso: But they are being backfilled by civilians, and that cost money. Commissioner Suarez: Okay, forget about it. Thirty of them, just to make the math simple, okay? Thirty five, thirty-five. Thirty-five officers cost somewhere between three and a half million, five million, roughly? Commissioner Carollo: Thirty-five officers? Commissioner Suarez: Yeah, 35 officers cost three and a half million to five million, depending on what numbers you want to believe since we're -- let's call it five million. We have a projected Commissioner Carollo: Four and a half. Commissioner Suarez: -- surplus of 16 million, so we take 5 million of the 16 million and we have 11 million, so we got to tighten up. Mr. Alfonso: I'm sorry, Commissioner, what 16 million surplus are you referring to now? Commissioner Suarez: The pie -- Commissioner Carollo: He's into our -- he's saying -- he's talking about the reserves. Mr. Alfonso: Oh, okay. The reserves that are in the existing budget? Commissioner Suarez: Correct. Mr. Alfonso: For '13/14? Commissioner Suarez: Correct. City ofMiami Page 86 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Mr. Alfonso: Okay. Commissioner Suarez: So we take -- so we have 16 -- whatever you want to call them; my apologies for not using the proper nomenclature. Okay, we have 16 million. We use 5. We have 11 million. That's still very healthy for an annual -- that's double what we're required by law, double. Mr. Alfonso: Okay, so let's -- you're right, that is double what our own financial integrity principles require. I want to point out that in 2010, the City ended in a $26 million deficit. In 2011, if it were not for that $10 million unallocated reserve, we would have ended in a deficit, because that year, we only ended with $6 million -- Commissioner Suarez: Right. Mr. Alfonso: -- of additional fund balance. Commissioner Suarez: Correct. Mr. Alfonso: So if it had not been for that -- Commissioner Suarez: Right. Mr. Alfonso: -- we would have definitely -- Commissioner Suarez: Right. Mr. Alfonso: In '12 we had a significant surplus of $37 million. Commissioner Suarez: Right. Mr. Alfonso: In the current year, given the way -- Commissioner Suarez: We're at eight. Mr. Alfonso: -- things are going, seven, eight, in that range. Commissioner Suarez: Yes. Mr. Alfonso: Which means that some of the -- Commissioner Suarez: So what does that make -- Mr. Alfonso: -- allocation has been used. Commissioner Suarez: As you would say, so what does that make us overall to the good? Mr. Alfonso: I'm not sure I follow. Commissioner Suarez: Okay, when you put all those numbers together, the negative 25, the positive, that puts us at what? Mr. Alfonso: We are projecting to end with a fund balance of roughly $65 million. Commissioner Suarez: Right. Correct. City ofMiami Page 87 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Mr. Alfonso: So that is still 30-plus million dollars below what is required by financial integrity. Commissioner Suarez: Agreed. And we've talked ad nauseum on how to get the $95 million. It involves none of the decisions that we're making here today, okay? But what we can say is that we, as a Commission, have been extremely fiscally responsible since we arrived. When we arrived, we were confronting $115 million deficit. The year after, it was a $65 million deficit. We made cuts. We continue to make cuts. We've backed up the Administration. We -- there was blood, sweat, and tears. And now what we're asking is to give back -- we've already given to all our employees $6 million, okay? So what we're asking for here is about an 800 -- a million dollar additional amount of money allocated to the Police Department for morale, because we've already given them 2.1. They already have in their contract 1.2, so that's 3.3. So the difference between 3.3 and let's say, 5, let's call it 1.7, right? So that's the difference. That's what we're talking about here. That's the morale boost at the end of the day. You know, I just -- and we know how to pay for it mostly, because 800,000 can come from the money you found; 500 from the runoff, you're welcome, in part, 50 percent. Unidentified Speaker: Thank you. Commissioner Suarez: Okay, that's 1.3. So the difference is $400, 000. We can't find $400, 000? Come on, guys. Commissioner Carollo: Yep, but I think what the Manager may say is that next year, it recurs again. Commissioner Suarez: But we're -- we are in contract negotiations for next year. We -- you know what I'm saying? That's how -- look, we ended contract negotiations. We signed contracts. In our negotiations, we were told we're going to get this amount of savings from the pension reform. Guess what? They didn't turn out to be that way. That was a bad budget. We were told at the eleventh month of the last fiscal year we're at a projected surplus of $8 million. Guess what we closed the twelfth month at? Thirty-seven million after reconciliation. Chair Sarnoff So take for instance your concern is -- 'cause your concern is we'll have a $2 million shortfall with police. Let's just -- Mr. Alfonso: Two point one. Chair Sarnoff Two point one. So we go to Javi next year. He goes, "Ah, forget it, you're not getting 2 million bucks from me, " you know, which is what he's going to say. And, look -- Commissioner Carollo: Right. Chair Sarnoff All right. So we turn around and we say, "Look, the man giveth, the man taketh away, because we didn't have -- let's -- we didn't have a good ad valorem year. We didn't go up Mr. Alfonso: That's what we've done in the past. Commissioner Suarez: But guys, we had -- we went up four and a half percent. We had $16 million. Chair Sarnoff No, I agree. I don't think -- Commissioner Suarez: What do you think we're going to be at next year? City ofMiami Page 88 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Chair Sarnoff I'm not just -- but I'm going worst -case scenario. So the worst -case scenario that he's concerned about is that we will have a $2.1 million shortfall when we go to the next contractual year with him, right? Commissioner Carollo: Right. And then, at the same time, we're in contractual with three other unions. Chair Sarnoff With the other unions. Commissioner Suarez: But I don't want to bargain that issue. Let him bargain that. He knows what he's doing. He knows what he's doing, let me tell you. I could say that about the Manager. He knows what he's doing. Commissioner Carollo: Manager, are you in agreement with this? Unidentified Speaker: He knows what he's doing. Commissioner Carollo: Since you know what -- Mr. Alfonso: I agree that know what I'm doing. Commissioner Carollo: Since you know what you're doing, are you in agreement with this? Mr. Alfonso: I agree that know what I'm doing. I believe that, you know -- Commissioner Suarez: Let me just say this. Mr. Alfonso: Thank you. Commissioner Suarez: I'm telling you, he knows what he's doing. Listen, I'm very impressed with the Manager. I haven't agreed with him on a lot of things in the last few -- like month and a half or two since he's been there, but he has handled himself with professionalism, with dignity. He thinks well on his feet. He keeps us in line, you know. He smacks us around, which is good. That's a quality that's good in a manager, okay? So I don't think this -- Chair Sarnoff I haven't enjoyed any of those slaps. Commissioner Suarez: Well, whatever. Listen, so -- guys, I think we have a way to move forward. I think what -- we go into the end of this year with a projected $11 million surplus, if we do the police officers we're talking about, the moral boos that we're talking about; we give all our employees a 3 percent one-time bonus, that's what we're looking at right now going into next year with, okay, 11. That puts us at $76 million in our fund balance, exclusive of any other things that we do, like selling a non -core asset that could put us at 95 overnight. Unidentified Speaker: Agree. Commissioner Suarez: Okay? So -- Chair Sarnoff So what you're saying essentially is vote for the budget, require an additional $5 million, but that 3.3 million must come from FOP's existing contract or existing rights. Commissioner Suarez: I don't -- Vice Chair Gort: No, no, no. City ofMiami Page 89 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Commissioner Suarez: I don't think you can say that. Vice Chair Gort: No, no. Commissioner Suarez: That's -- Chair Sarnoff Just hypothetically. Vice Chair Gort: No, no. Chair Sarnoff I don't think you can say that. Mr. Alfonso: Commissioners, may I offer something? I'm -- sometimes the light bulb goes off you know? Commissioner Suarez: Off or on? Mr. Alfonso: Goes off. The light -- on, I'm sorry. It's getting late. The light bulb goes on. We need to pass a budget. We need to pass a budget. If this Commission gives the direction that we need to start negotiating our next contract, then we will go there. If that negotiation ultimately yields some result that requires changes to the budget, like ordinance to bring forward money; like use of reserves, which is being recommended, then we can come back when the appropriate time comes as a result of labor negotiations that have taken place, we need to reallocate the funding within the budget. Because I sort of hear that we're okay with the additional officers that are being proposed. What we're talking about is morale boost. Vice Chair Gort: Right. Mr. Alfonso: Andl have wage reopeners for all the other bargaining units, which will all be in front of you at some point, either negotiated or at impasse. And then we will decide how that budget pie will need to be reallocated. Commissioner Suarez: But if you recall, when we started this discussion -- I remember it very clearly, talking about educational pay for police officers and trying to incentivize our officers, because we had a crime problem and we wanted our officers to have the maximum amount of incentives. And we correlated -- and it was actually right around the time of the Department of Justice letter, and we were correlating conduct issues with education. That's how we started this discussion. And we ended the discussion giving all our employees, thanks to some of our Commissioners' advocacy here, a 3 percent one-time bonus. So we've been fair. We did it extra -- that's an extra contractual bonus. And now what we're talking about is when you consider what's already been bargained for, it's a very marginal difference. Mr. Alfonso: Again -- and my point is, I don't know what we're going to bargain in the end; in other words, what give -backs, what additions will be given. You know, as I have stated when conversing with the FOP president, I agree that not only in his contract; in the labor contracts for all employees, there are significant issues with our wages tables, because when the City took tier cuts in 2009 for unclassified and in 2010 for everybody, so that the unclassfeds got back-to-back cuts, those issues created tremendous compaction problems. The differences between ranks is not the same. For people above a certain level, the steps are completely different than people below a certain level. There are issues of benefits or, you know, that definitely need to be negotiated. So I don't know what the impact of all that will be. If we agree that we want to start labor negotiations for our next round and finish those negotiations in the coming 12 months or prior and then it will require some changes to the '13/14 budget, then we will come back to this Commission with changes to that budget and say, "We have reached some agreement; here it is." City ofMiami Page 90 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Commissioner Carollo: That won't happen. Commissioner Suarez: Wait, wait, wait. Commissioner Carollo: That won't happen. Commissioner Suarez: I hear what you're saying. I hear what you're saying. I feel like this is almost like the conversation Commissioner Carollo andl were having earlier today on a different issue. I felt like we were agreeing in a way, but we were kind of talking almost past each other, okay? I hear what you're saying. I think the only difference in my position and -- than in yours is that you want to come back to us with that, and what I'm saying is I want to give it -- I want to allocate the money now. Mr. Alfonso: The issue with allocating the money now that have is that don't agree with the numbers that the FOP is presenting, to a certain degree, andl don't know what the negotiation will yield, so I don't know how much of it. Now we have, as you stated, 10 and a half million dollars in reserves. If it is the will of this Commission to allocate those reserves at some point because of the result of labor negotiations, then I -- you know, we'll do that. Commissioner Suarez: But again, I don't see the harm as a gesture of good faith, when they could argue that we may have acted in bad faith when they negotiated a contract where we had a projected surplus in that given year of $8 million and it turned out to be 37 after the contract negotiations concluded and they ratified a contract. And they didn't -- they never claimed bad faith, and you andl talked about that, and, you know, it is what it is. That was their decision. They, you know, didn't do that, and I'm actually happy that they didn't do that. Butl think, from my perspective, as a gesture of good faith, and I think you know -- it seems to me where we all line up on this issue, it seems to me that we all -- the majority of the Commission agrees that we should set aside `X" number of dollars to be negotiated at your discretion -- you may go the route you were just talking about and fixing some of those discrepancies that you have found. You may find some other things. You may trade one thing for another. I mean, that's up to you. And then you come back to us, or we can go in executive session and we can talk about the particulars. But I think -- as a gesture of good faith, I think right now we should -- we've already basically resolved the police officer, number of police officer thing. I still think there's a second part to it, which is creating a committee where we actually -- I'm going to keep saying it -- on a weekly basis, monitor the progress, every single thing, what is done this week, what was -- I think that's necessary, unfortunately. I really would love to be doing other things, but -- Vice Chair Gort: Mr. Chairman. Chair Sarnoff I'll do it with you, but let's -- Vice Chair Gort: Let me just -- to make it clear, 'cause I'm in the private sector, the people in the private sector, for them it's very difficult to understand the hiring process within the government, andl think it's very important to the -- whoever from the employment side can come up and explain the system that it has to be used to employ people, why it takes so long. And this is something that we've been discussing now for two years; how do we improve the human resources, and we working on that to expedite the hiring of people. So can somebody -- like you say, you have a list of 1,000. Now, my understanding is you cannot open another list until you go through all that list. If that is true -- and I've been asking for a long time now -- come up with suggestions so we can make those changes so we don't have to wait for the whole list to go through and we can continue to hire people. Unidentified Speaker: Commissioner Gort, they -- I'm -- City ofMiami Page 91 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Vice Chair Gort: Excuse me, I'm not talking to you. I'm asking a question over here, please, okay? Mr. Alfonso: Yeah. Commissioner, we have made changes in our own policies. We have created alternate positions, allowed recruitment to take place when there was, in fact, no position there to recruit. We've allowed for recruitment for positions to begin before the position becoming vacant. We have added four positions to the Human Resources Department, which had been cut by 50 percent since 2009, so we put some positions back. We've now allocated two additional positions in the Human Resources Department that will be solely dedicated to the Police Department for their recruitment needs. So the Chief allocated 20 officers to background investigations when there used to be only four. So we have made the efforts to expedite the recruitment process of police officers as much as we can. Vice Chair Gort: But I want them to understand that the process is not like in the private sector. You said -- you put a sign out, you interview quite -- three or four people, and you hire them, and that's it. But it takes us a little longer to hire the individual. Then when you need to train people, like in the police, they have to go to academy, they have to go through a process that they have to go through. Because we're talking about corruption -- I mean, we can hear from the FOP about the corruption, then I'd like to know what the corruption is. Commissioner Spence -Jones: I just want -- this is my last statement on this overall issue, andl do understand why we're here pushing for police, 'cause we do know that safety is probably -- definitely our number one priority. Andl understand what Commissioner Suarez has said regarding, you know, this is really a morale booster for the existing police officers that we have here; not only that, the mere fact that last year we went into this thing pushing and pulling, only to find out, you know, not even 24, 48 hours later, that we had an, you know, issue of a surplus. So I understand why we're doing this and why he has to push to make this happen. But I also want to be sensitive to the fact that it's -- not saying anything negative about police -- but, you know, other departments were affected, too, you know. Other unions were affected. We're not getting into that tonight, butt just think that for us to have two-hour or three-hour debates and not really even acknowledge the fact that it wasn't just police that -- well, I'm -- I just want to be clear. You know, the Solid Waste workers, Fire, you know, the General Service employees, you know, they were all told the same thing, you know? So I just -- if we're going to make a decision, let's just go ahead and make the decision about what we need to do. Ultimately, it's our decision as a body to kind of let Danny know what we'd like to see happen, andl think that he's debated us or we've debated with him long enough. We just need to make a decision. If this is something we're going to do, it's something we're going to do. Chair Sarnoff I'm going to suggest a motion. Commissioner Suarez: Sure. Chair Sarnoff I'm going to suggest a motion to approve the budget with an additional $2 million for Danny to direct -- to commence negotiations with the FOP. Commissioner Suarez: Two only? Chair Sarnoff Two million, because you can't -- you determined it was 1.7 million. Commissioner Suarez: Right. Chair Sarnoff IfDanny's good, he might even be able to get education incentives in there. Commissioner Suarez: Okay. City ofMiami Page 92 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Chair Sarnoff So if you take the 1.2, the 2.1 -- just forget the nonrecurring/recurring issue. And if you require him to find $2 million, I think he could do that in a budget. Commissioner Suarez: I don't think that number is the right number. Commissioner Carollo: Well, here -- but here's the thing: Those numbers is if FOP gives that back to us. Chair Sarnoff Agreed. I'd love to throw that in there, but he doesn't want me to cross that threshold -- Commissioner Suarez: Right. Chair Sarnoff -- providing -- Commissioner Suarez: Agreed. Chair Sarnoff -- they put the 3.3 in there, but I can't say that because -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: You're not supposed to be talking about it. Chair Sarnoff Right. So all I'm saying is all I can do is create a volume and him understanding what we're going to do. If Mr. Ortiz decides tomorrow, "Hey, you know what? I'm not giving them the 3 percent andl'm not giving them the other 3 percent, " then Danny should stop conversation. Commissioner Suarez: Yeah. Chair Sarnoff If we were talking about that, hypothetically. Commissioner Suarez: Right. But let's be clear on -- Mr. Manager, can you guide us a little bit here? Can we be clear? Do you understand what we want? Mr. Alfonso: I believe I do. I will say that from the discussion that we had, we currently have from our proposal roughly 600,000 yet to be allocated of the 2.4 that we had identified, okay? That is if we follow the plan that is proposed. Chair Sarnoff Right. Mr. Alfonso: So there's about 600,000 that is yet unallocated, which means that would thentake from reserve another $1.4 million, andl'm going to reduce the allocated reserve, as directed by this Commission, by $1.4 million and allocate it to be determined based on some labor negotiations. Commissioner Suarez: And that gets us -- just to be clear -- can I --? Mr. Alfonso: I can't guarantee what that's going to yield because we haven't sat and negotiated. Commissioner Suarez: I'm not saying what it's going to yield in terms of the exact pay. I'm talking about like macro parameters, okay? Vice Chair Gort: How much do you have to deal with? Commissioner Suarez: My macro parameters are two numbers: Number of police officers and amount of money that's available for negotiations for morale boost; that's all want to know, in City ofMiami Page 93 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 the budget for next year. Mr. Alfonso: Okay. That is $2 million for available for negotiations. Commissioner Suarez: That's not what we're asking for. I was asking for five. Mr. Alfonso: But then I have -- Commissioner Suarez: Okay, so -- but -- okay, but -- so explain the five. They're all there, you're saying? Is the five all there? Mr. Alfonso: No, the five is not all there. So here's what would have to happen. Commissioner Carollo: That's because FOP -- Mr. Alfonso: That would have to -- this is what would have to happen. We would have to have $2 million, roughly. Commissioner Suarez: Okay. Mr. Alfonso: We would have to negotiate some things that are already in the contract -- Commissioner Suarez: Gotcha. Mr. Alfonso: -- to be changed. Commissioner Suarez: I'm with you. Mr. Alfonso: And we would have to then come back with an ordinance to allocate the carryover from this year into next year. Commissioner Suarez: Got it. Mr. Alfonso: The nonrecurring portion of that. Commissioner Suarez: And how many officers would we also have under that? Mr. Alfonso: The ones that we have proposed. Commissioner Carollo: Which is 95. Commissioner Suarez: Right. Chair Sarnoff Right. Commissioner Suarez: Okay, fine. So I'll second that motion. Chair Sarnoff Well, you have to be the maker. It's tough to be -- Commissioner Suarez: Okay, I'll make the motion. Chair Sarnoff So we have a motion. Commissioner Carollo: Second. City ofMiami Page 94 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Chair Sarnoff We're going to have discussion. Commissioner Carollo: Second for discussion. Chair Sarnoff Second for discussion. Commissioner Carollo: I want to know with regards to the reserves, what's the maximum that will come out of the reserves and what's -- twofold question: What is the maximum that will be allocated from our current reserves and then that will leave us at what amount; what would be the total amount? Mr. Alfonso: From the current budget, it was -- the current budget, ifI remember correctly, is about $10.6 million of unallocated reserve. Commissioner Carollo: However -- Mr. Alfonso: So it would go down to about 9 million. Commissioner Suarez: Okay, so -- Mr. Alfonso: Excluding the required reserve of 5 million then. I'm not even -- Chair Sarnoff Excluding that. Mr. Alfonso: Yeah, excluding that. Commissioner Suarez: Excluding, right. Chair Sarnoff So that at the end of the day -- Commissioner Suarez: Exactly. Chair Sarnoff -- you could be at $14 million. Commissioner Suarez: That's what I've been saying, guys, all day, all along. Commissioner Carollo: Right, right, right, right. Yes, yes, yes, but let's -- Listen, let's not make the mistake of previous Administrations, previous Commissions. You know, every time -- you know, andl have a problem with this, and here is where, yeah, I become very fiscal conservative, because the bottom line is, you know, and I've always said it, government cannot hold onto money. And, you know, we got into the issue with the pensions a while back because, guess what? You know, the economy was great. You know, the stock market was yielding "X" number of percentage and so forth, and we weren't putting enough to our reserves, so at the same time, you know, I think at the very least, until we reach our minimum required by our financial integrity ordinance, fund balance, I think we need to be cautious with that, you know? I really do. Commissioner Suarez: Andl think we are being cautious. Commissioner Carollo: Well -- Commissioner Suarez: I think we've being overly cautious, but that's just my personal perspective. I think we could hire another 50 officers ifI really want to get the ball rolling and the discussion rolling for tonight, but that's a whole nother issue. Let's not go there. Let -- we're making progress. We're almost done. City ofMiami Page 95 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Commissioner Carollo: Yeah, we're making progress, but that's why, you know, I'm asking, because, you know, I don't want to raid our reserves all of a sudden and then have issues in the future and, you know, have -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) one lawsuit away. Commissioner Carollo: I'm sorry? Commissioner Spence -Jones: One lawsuit away. Commissioner Carollo: Yeah. And the Manager mentioned it, you know. There's pressing issues we all saw in the news now. Commissioner Spence -Jones: See, I mean, we know we have a lot of issues out there floating. Commissioner Carollo: Right. Commissioner Spence -Jones: So you're right. Commissioner Carollo: You know, so that's why I -- you know, I want to move cautiously with this, because, yeah, one lawsuit away, and guess what? It wasn't enough, and then what? And remember what we said, because we have a binding contract with FOP. Remember what we said. We want to make sure that we'll be able to pay that 3 percent. And we're not only in a position where we are going to pay that 3 percent. In addition to, we were mentioning that a one-time supplement of another 3 percent, but now we're giving them additional. So I -- that's why I'm asking the question, what will be the maximum coming from the reserves? Or are we doing -- reducing the reserves for next year by 1 million, one point something million? I want to be straight with that. I want -- Commissioner Suarez: Yeah. Commissioner Carollo: You know, I want clarity. Mr. Alfonso: We're going to go into the budget that has been proposed and reduce the budgeted, unallocated, you know, revenue shortfall or reserve by $1.6 million. Commissioner Suarez: Now, can I -- Mr. Alfonso: I'm sorry, $1.4 million. Commissioner Suarez: -- ask a question? Chair Sarnoff Who's ever stopped you? Commissioner Suarez: No, it's not, you're right. I'm sorry, I shouldn't even ask. I'm just going to just jump in there. Part of what we were allocating to pay the bonus or what -- I'm sorry, I shouldn't use that word. Part of what we were allocating for the -- for morale negotiations was 2.1 million from this current budget year. Mr. Alfonso: Correct. Commissioner Suarez: So is that factored into -- Mr. Alfonso: That will have to come back to this Commission in the form of an ordinance, City ofMiami Page 96 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 because I will not be able to make the payment because we don't have an agreement on that. Commissioner Suarez: Got it. Mr. Alfonso: So it will become part of fund balance. Commissioner Suarez: Got it. Mr. Alfonso: Then it will be brought back as an ordinance -- Commissioner Suarez: Got it. Mr. Alfonso: -- waiving the financial integrity principle -- Commissioner Suarez: Got it. Mr. Alfonso: -- to allocate the funds -- Commissioner Suarez: I got it. Mr. Alfonso: -- to amend the budget for '13/14 -- Commissioner Suarez: Got it. Mr. Alfonso: -- with that additional money. Commissioner Suarez: I got it. Thank you. Now, I'll just conclude by saying I feel like this is like "he who has the last word," butl think we've been extremely fiscally prudent Commission. Again, when we arrived here, we had $13 million fund balance. We're up to mid-60s, and we could very easily be at our minimum threshold. I think we could have been at our minimum threshold a lot faster. I was -- I believe I was the first Commissioner or at least one of the first Commissioners screaming about the fact that we were under -reserved and that we needed to do it within two years, and we totally ignored that, and the Administration asked us to expand it to five years without a plan. That never happened. So I think, again, based on this budget, we are doubly -- 100 percent more reserved, so that's why I don't even like saying, oh, we're taking from the reserves, 'cause we're not really taking from the reserves. We're making a budget. We're making a budget that is 200 percent reserved over what is allowed by law, so we're being extremely conservative, okay? That's in budgetary reserves above and beyond what we have as a statutory reserve, okay? So we're almost 300 percent, the budgeted reserve level, so I don't like to say we're taking from -- we're not taking from -- we're creating our budget right now, and we're creating a budget that is almost 300 percent over -reserved, okay? That's what we're doing. And we have a fund balance that has grown by about 13 to 60, to keep it simple. It's grown by 300 percent since we got here, okay? It's grown by 300 percent since we got here, and it still has more ways to -- you know, moreway to go, but we're being extremely fiscally prudent. I'll leave it at that. I'll leave it at that. Commissioner Carollo: Mr. Chairman, and my point was we've been extremely fiscally prudent. Let's not stop now. Let's continue to be extremely fiscally prudent, because we're one lawsuit away where all those percentages, poof they're gone. Commissioner Suarez: But the reverse is also true, Commissioner. We have a budgeted -- right now we have a budgeted surplus of $11 million if we do what we're talking about now, okay? The year where we had $37 million that appeared out of the sky, guess where we were at? The eleventh -month closeout. We were at a projected surplus of $8 million, and then all of a sudden, in the twelfth month -- City ofMiami Page 97 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Commissioner Spence -Jones: I think that the Chairman has already proffered something, and think that if we can agree to that -- Commissioner Suarez: Let's move. Commissioner Spence -Jones: But let me just say this: I mean, Danny sat not even 45 minutes ago and gave you a list of liabilities that he knows we're getting ready to deal with. He listed them out, not even addressing the so-called surplus and everything else you're discussing. He just listed four or five items that we know are coming down the pipe, but it's okay, because I think it's -- if we're willing to make -- take the courage and make the decision to do this because it's the right thing to do, let's just do that. We don't have to keep beating the same horse over and over again. Commissioner Suarez: I agree, I agree. Commissioner Spence -Jones: So, you know, if that's what we want to do, then we should make that decision. But I understand the position that Danny's in, you know, and as -- and that is he sat here and told you all these different things. DOJ -- he listed them, four or five things that we're not accounting in -- let me finish, 'cause I let you all night. Commissioner Suarez: No. Commissioner Spence -Jones: I've been very quiet, which is unusual, okay? Vice Chair Gort: She's been very good. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Unusual, okay? But -- Commissioner Suarez: Pretty good. Commissioner Spence -Jones: So he has sat there 45 minutes ago and told you what his concerns were. He listed those items out, you know, and then not only that, this is a reality, like I said, support the police 100 percent. We do need more police, not taking away, but you do have other groups they have to negotiate with as well. So it's -- you know, and -- you know, so I could say the same thing about Fire. I could say the same thing about Solid Waste. I could say the same thing -- they're sitting here quietly, listening, being respectful, but, you know, they saw that we had a 37 million surplus as well, so they felt the same thing that they're feeling as well. So I'm just saying, I think the Chairman has proffered something that we can all live with. I don't think Danny wants to go higher than 2 million. I don't know how many different ways he needs to say that, but -- and he's already struggling with the 2 million to say "yes" to it, andl don't ever want him to be in a position where he's making a decision because he's feeling like we're not supporting what he feels on an issue. Commissioner Suarez: Okay, but -- I'm confused, okay. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Yeah. Well, I understand why you're confused. Commissioner Suarez: His -- sum of all his fears -- the sum of all his fears are the sum of all my fears. We're going into a contract negotiation year for the future, so if any of those fears are realized, you can incorporate that into the negotiations. By the way, we didn't even talk about -- we very, very barely talked about new revenue. We didn't talk about that. So we're not -- we're talking about the downside, but we're not talking about the upside at all. Commissioner Spence -Jones: And Francis, this is what I'm telling you, Francis. Listen, we let City ofMiami Page 98 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 you rampage and didn't say anything. Come on now, be respectful, okay? Commissioner Suarez: I'm being respectful. Commissioner Spence -Jones: No, you're not being respectful. Commissioner Suarez: I am being -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: You're not. We sit and let you go on and on and on and on. We're finally at a point, you know, that we're about to make a decision, and that's all good, and I'm just simply saying there's other factors in this as well. Let's be respectful to the fact -- Commissioner Suarez: I'm being respectful. Commissioner Spence -Jones: He's the City Manager. He's telling you what his concerns are. And guess what? No, we can't go out and have a big celebration, because you always talk about the past Administration and what happened when they -- well, yes. Guess what? They were feeling really good and we were feeling really high -- Marc was here -- and we made decisions. And guess what? Look what we had to deal with in the end when you got here. Commissioner Suarez: Then we -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: So I am in agreement with Commissioner Carollo; let's walk softly as we go down this path. Let's not begin celebrating. I can't talk about or you can't talk about what we think is coming down the line. Let's deal with what we have right now. We have a situation where we want to support police. Let's support them and let's make that happen. We have other unions that, quite frankly, have the same issue that we need to respect as well, and Danny still has to go into negotiation with them on that. You know, let's not put him behind the 8 ball. Commissioner Suarez: I don't -- I -- Chair Sarnoff Is -- Commissioner Suarez: No, I need to jump to jump in, I'm sorry. Chair Sarnoff Go ahead. Commissioner Suarez: Okay. First of all, I've been very respectful of everyone here tonight. I've let everyone speak. I have had a lot of things to say, you're absolutely right, but I've been respectful. I call everyone by their name, by their title -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: Francis, that's not what I'm talking about. That's not what I'm talking about. Commissioner Suarez: I didn't interrupt you. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Yeah -- Commissioner Suarez: I'm just now -- now I want to speak, andl want to know -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: You've been speaking, andl bet you if we look at the time frame in which everyone's talking, Francis, I was not talk -- I haven't said -- everybody sitting in this chamber know I might have said -- out of all this whole discussion, I might have talked 20 minutes -- not even 20 minutes, 'cause every time I get ready to say something, you're jumping in City ofMiami Page 99 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 when I'm saying something. Commissioner Suarez: No, I'm not. Can I just finish my freaking point? Commissioner Spence -Jones: Finish it. Commissioner Suarez: Thank you. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Finish it. Commissioner Suarez: I just want to know what we're voting on. Commissioner Spence -Jones: We just -- he just told you. He just -- Commissioner Suarez: No. Commissioner Suarez: -- (UNINTELLIGIBLE) you -- Commissioner Suarez: I want clarity. I'm sorry, I want clarity. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Danny, give him clarity, please. Commissioner Suarez: Okay? My apologies for asking for clarity. I want to know the budget we're voting on is going to provide 95, if we fill all the positions -- Commissioner Carollo: Yes. Commissioner Suarez: -- 95 new officers plus -- Mr. Alfonso: Okay, it's going to provide 35 new officers. It's going to take 20 officers -- Commissioner Suarez: Okay, 55. Mr. Alfonso: -- from administrative positions. Those are not new; those are existing. Commissioner Carollo: Right. Mr. Alfonso: From administrative positions reassigned. We're going to have to backfill those with 15 additional positions that are civilians. Commissioner Carollo: Right. Commissioner Suarez: Agree. Mr. Alfonso: And we're counting on the existing vacancies to state the number 95, but those are existing, so I want to be careful and say not 95 new officers, but the aggregate of what exists will be 95 new people, bodies in the street when it's all implemented. Yes. Commissioner Suarez: I agree 100 percent with that. Mr. Alfonso: Thank you. Commissioner Suarez: So we're clear on the one part. On the second part is the money that think is necessary andl think a majority of the Commissioners believe is necessary to boost the morale in the Police Department. We have stated that number should be $5 million, okay? So City ofMiami Page 100 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 the 2 million that we're budgeting additionally will take into account what you've already discovered, that you've already kind of put in your proposals, plus whatever you bargain for, possibly even from this budget year that could constitute the $5 million, correct? Mr. Alfonso: Correct. Commissioner Suarez: That's it. That's all wanted. I just wanted some clarity on that. I'm sorry if that was -- Chair Sarnoff No, you're right. And just so it's clear, if you don't think you can arrive at an agreement that hasn't been sort of broached here, then walk away, because if somebody didn't come here in good faith, walk away. Commissioner Carollo: And we could always do a mid year adjustment. Mr. Alfonso: Exactly. Commissioner Suarez: Absolutely. You're absolutely right. Commissioner Carollo: We can always do a mid -year adjust. Commissioner Suarez: Absolutely. Commissioner Carollo: And by the way, in the mid -year adjustment, we will also see where we are with the new hires. Chair Sarnoff Right. Commissioner Carollo: So the possibility of -- Chair Sarnoff Maybe we can even go more. Commissioner Carollo: Maybe (UNINTELLIGIBLE) go more, yes, and that's where I was going. Chair Sarnoff No, you're right. Commissioner Carollo: But the truth of the matter is mid -year, we will see exactly where we are, we'll see what was stated on the record. And, you know, I think the Chief did a very good job, because, listen, I know all of us want the additional officers on the street, but the Chief I believe, was very good at being fair in saying, "Hey, listen, some of this, I don't what I could promise and I don't want to promise because I know ifI promise, you're going to grill me up here and say, 'Why didn't you do this?'" But I think he gave a reasonable amount of 25, at least 25 on patrol by Christmas, andl think -- Chair Sarnoff At a very important time of year. Commissioner Carollo: Yes. Andl think it's very doable, because most of them or a lot of them will come from already our own Police Department. We're just being more efficient, and instead of being behind the desk, they're going to go out into the streets and patrol. So that's where I -- I feel very assured that we'll reach that number. And then mid -year, after January, we will see where we are, and I'm sure we're going to have a lot of this discussion again, and see, Chief okay, how's the hiring? Where are you with the hiring? How many have you hired? We'll ask, "Has any officers left?" And we'll take it from there. Vice Chair Gort: We've been doing that. City ofMiami Page 101 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Chair Sarnoff And Commissioner Suarez, I will start that process that you talked about. Commissioner Suarez: Please. Chair Sarnoff 'Cause I think it'd be -- maybe we don't need to do it once a week. We could do it twice a month. Commissioner Suarez: We can do it during our Commission meetings. You were doing it during our Commission meetings, and l just think -- you know, I think the citizens need to be a part of it 'cause they need to see -- Chair Sarnoff Right. Commissioner Suarez: -- what's going on. You know what I'm saying? I think it's a little bit more involved than just -- 'cause we -- look, there are issues we talk about here, we talked about for years, and then all of a sudden, it becomes a new issue. It's not a new issue. We've been talking about it for two years, okay? The question is why it didn't get solved in the last two years, andl think the fear -- ifI were them, my fear would be, okay, great, you guys did a lot of great things here today, okay? Is it going to happen? Chair Sarnoff Right. Commissioner Carollo: Can I suggest -- if you're doing it twice a month, can I suggest that in every Commission meeting it comes as a discussion item for the City as a whole? Commissioner Suarez: Absolutely. Chair Sarnoff Shouldn't be on my blue pages, you're right. Commissioner Suarez: Right, absolutely. Chair Sarnoff It shouldn't be on my blue pages. Commissioner Carollo: You know, it should be a discussion item for every Commission meeting to see a follow-up on where we are with the hiring -- Commissioner Suarez: Absolutely, absolutely. Commissioner Carollo: -- in the Police Department. In that way, every Commission meeting, we know that it's there, we know that we're expecting to talk about it, and we've expecting an update at every Commission meeting. Chair Sarnoff I agree. Commissioner Suarez: And we can also make questions, you know, every Commission meeting, like where are we here or there, 'cause we all have different ideas as to where this should go so. Chair Sarnoff Agreed. All right. Vice Chair Gort: Okay. Chair Sarnoff Call the question. Commissioner Suarez: Yeah. City ofMiami Page 102 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Commissioner Spence -Jones: This is regarding the whole entire budget, right? Chair Sarnoff Yeah. Commissioner Suarez: Yes, yes. Commissioner Spence -Jones: So did you -- Carollo, you don't have any other questions? Commissioner Carollo: Oh, yes, I have another one. Commissioner Spence -Jones: That's my point. Commissioner Carollo: I have -- listen -- no, I'm -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: I mean -- Commissioner Carollo: -- not going to drag this all out. Commissioner Spence -Jones: No, but I'm saying we may have other questions on the budget. Commissioner Carollo: Yes. Commissioner Spence -Jones: We spent all the time talking about -- Commissioner Carollo: And by the way -- no, let me not even say it, but, yeah, I -- I'm okay with the police; just again, the reserves, we need to move forward very cautiously. Now, with that said, yes, Mr. Manager, let's talk about Communications. In Communications, you want to -- you're recommending to transfer -- Vice Chair Gort: Protocol. Commissioner Carollo: -- the print shop from the GSA (General Services Administration) to Communications, and when we spoke, you mentioned that GSA has a print shop, and so does Communications, so you wanted to consolidate it, and realistically, all of the print shops should go to Communications. Usually -- and you andl know this -- there's an economy of scales, but here, we're seeing no savings, so I have a problem moving something that I know works already at GSA to Communications for no savings, so I do not want to see that happening. I prefer it to stay the same. Have the print shop in GSA, and if Communications has another print shop, that's fine. But if there's no savings, I don't see why do it. So I don't know how my colleagues feel about that, but I think it should stay the way it is and not have this -- Vice Chair Gort: What are the difference in the needs of the different printing shops and -- because most of the time, when we merge different departments, it's to save money. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Yeah. Commissioner Carollo: Right, but there is no savings here, so if -- and if it's not broken, why fix it? And you're not giving me something, like saying, "But Commissioner, we're going to save X' amount, " no, I'm not going for this. Mr. Alfonso: Commissioner -- Commissioner Carollo: You know, andl understand. I understand the reasoning, but you understand my reasonings also, andl think the print shop should stay where it is. I think it City ofMiami Page 103 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 should stay where it is. I don't think -- you know, I don't think we should make this adjustment that's -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: 'Cause financially, it doesn't have an impact. Mr. Alfonso: Commissioners, ifI may -- Commissioner Carollo: But actually, it doesn't have an impact. Mr. Alfonso: -- I'm sorry. Let me interrupt here for a second. The Commission, the Mayor directly hires an administrator to administer the City. In my view, in my professional view, the Communications Department, which does graphics, printing, graphic design, et cetera, is a better fit to have the print and the graphics design -- andl know at this point, at this initial point of merging those two functions into one department is not yielding a savings right now, but in my view, it is a better fit, and that is -- you know, I don't want to say it's -- I just want to say I -- it's under the purview of the Manager to assign people in different areas, so I feel that it is a good fit in the organization to have all graphics, design, printing, et cetera in one area. There are other areas thatl have of concern that will probably be coming in the future if we get to put more of a footprint of some of the things that would recommend. You know, we have lot clearing in different departments. We have -- there's different things that we would like to clear. Commissioner Carollo: Understood, but you're asking us to make those changes, and what you're saying sounds good; maybe on paper, it looks good; but pragmatically, I think there's a potential of issues, and we're going to fix something that's not broken, 'cause right now, I don't think we have any issues with the printing in GSA, and graphics with Communications, I don't know. We still haven't discussed our web page and so forth, andl know that deals somewhat with graphic designs, but, you know, I don't see the reason for that change. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Can I just be -- can you just provide me with clarity, Commissioner Carollo? You're saying the print shop is now merging with Communications? Commissioner Carollo: Danny wants to put the print shop under Communications as opposed to where it is right now, which is in GSA, so it's going to change -- Vice Chair Gort: The department to GSA. Commissioner Carollo: -- to a new director. It's going to be under, you know, the director of Communications, Angel Zayon, so he wants to change -- he wants to move all the print to there, andl don't see the reason for doing that when, in all fairness -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: I agree. Commissioner Carollo: -- it's working now. I mean, if you're telling me, "Commissioner, you understand economies of scales," and I'll say, "absolutely." It's going to -- since we're going to merge, it's going to have a savings of "X" amount, okay, then I could go for it. But that's not what this is doing; therefore, why fix something that's not broken? Commissioner Spence -Jones: I don't think that's a big issue, Danny. I mean, if it's -- Commissioner Carollo: I don't think it is. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Yeah. I mean -- Mr. Alfonso: You know, Commissioners, it's 10:15. We can change that back and leave it the way it was. City ofMiami Page 104 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 Commissioner Carollo: Thank you. And -- Commissioner Spence -Jones: And can I -- I'm sorry. Commissioner Carollo: Yeah. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Can I -- I just wanted to mention, 'cause you're also merging Protocol, which means moving Protocol out of City Hall to -- no, that's not happening now? Mr. Alfonso: No. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Okay. Mr. Alfonso: We're agreeing to leave it here in this building, just in a different office. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Oh, so it will stay here? Mr. Alfonso: Yes. Commissioner Spence -Jones: 'Cause it didn't make sense to be over in MRC (Miami Riverside Center). That's where -- okay, so -- okay, good. Commissioner Carollo: You know I could go on, but I'm good, I'm good. Chair Sarnoff All right, so everybody ready? Mr. Hannon: Chair, will the maker -- Chair Sarnoff Amend the motion, Mr. Clerk, because Commissioner Carollo has de -moved or whatever you want to call it. Commissioner Suarez: I amend to accept Commissioner Carollo's listed -- Chair Sarnoff There you go. Seconder, accept? Commissioner Spence -Jones: Yes. Chair Sarnoff All right, we're ready, this is it. Commissioner Spence -Jones: Was I -- Commissioner Carollo: I thinkl was the seconder, so. Commissioner Spence -Jones: I don't know. At this point -- Chair Sarnoff Everybody on this dais (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Commissioner Spence -Jones: Danny was the seconder. Commissioner Suarez: You're tired. Mr. Hannon: Commissioner Carollo did second the motion. Chair Sarnoff All right. City ofMiami Page 105 Printed on 10/21/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes September 26, 2013 ADJOURNMENT Commissioner Carollo: Yeah. Chair Sarnoff Ready? All in favor, please say "aye." The Commission (Collectively): Aye. Mr. Hannon: As amended. Chair Sarnoff A man and his budget, look at that. We are adjourned. Thank you. The meeting adjourned at 10:14 p.m. City ofMiami Page 106 Printed on 10/21/2013