HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC 2019-09-12 MinutesCity of Miami
City Hall
3500 Pan American Drive
Miami, FL 33133
www.miamigov.com
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Meeting Minutes
Thursday, September 12, 2019
5:05 PM
First Budget Hearing
City Hall
City Commission
Francis Suarez, Mayor
Ken Russell, Chair
Wifredo (Willy) Gort, Vice Chair
Joe Carollo, Commissioner, District Three
Manolo Reyes, Commissioner, District Four
Keon Hardemon, Commissioner, District Five
Emilio T. Gonzalez, City Manager
Victoria Mendez, City Attorney
Todd B. Hannon, City Clerk
City Commission Meeting Minutes September 12, 2019
FIRST BUDGET HEARING
NOTE: FIRST BUDGET HEARING TO DISCUSS FISCAL YEAR 2019-2020 PROPOSED MILLAGE
RATE AND TENTATIVE BUDGET.
5:05 PM CALL TO ORDER
Present. Chair Russell, Vice Chair Gort, Commissioner Hardemon, Commissioner Reyes
and Commissioner Carollo.
On the 12th day of September 2019, the City Commission of the City of Miami, Florida, met
at its regular meeting place in City Hall, 3500 Pan American Drive, Miami, Florida, for
its first budget hearing session. The meeting was called to order by Chair Russell at
6.07p.m., and adjourned at 10:18 p.m.
Note for the Record. Commissioner Hardemon entered the Commission chambers at
6.25 p.m.
ALSO PRESENT.
Emilio T. Gonzalez, Ph.D., City Manager
Victoria Mendez, City Attorney
Todd B. Hannon, City Clerk
Chair Russell: Good evening, and welcome to our Miami time 5:05 p.m. budget hearing; only
one hour late.
Commissioner Carollo: Excuse me. Mr. Manager --
Chair Russell: Commissioner.
Commissioner Carollo: -- something very, very important. Are you paying for all the food?
Your -- is the food coming from your budget or the Mayor's office?
Mayor Francis Suarez: (UNINTELLIGENT) coming from my budget, I'm sorry.
Commissioner Carollo: Coming from your budget?
Mayor Suarez: I said, "It's not coming from my budget."
Commissioner Carollo: Not coming from yours. Then it's --
Mayor Suarez: No.
Commissioner Carollo: -- coming from yours?
Emilio T. Gonzalez (City Manager): Which food are you talking about, sir?
Commissioner Carollo: The food, the Chinese food.
Mr. Gonzalez: Oh, that's coming out of my office.
Commissioner Carollo: Oh, okay. All right.
Commissioner Reyes: Yeah, but you take -- I mean, you don't leave anything --
(UNINTELLIGIBLE).
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Mayor Suarez: I know, but it looks good; smells good, too.
Mr. Gonzalez: And everybody's welcome.
Mayor Suarez: Smells delicious.
Chair Russell: Welcome to the first budget hearing of the City of Miami City Commission --
Commissioner Carollo: I thought you were upset when I took (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Chair Russell: -- for fiscal year 2018/2019 in these historic chambers. The members of the
City Commission are Joe Carollo, Manolo Reyes, Keon Hardemon; Vice Chairman Wifredo
"Willy" Gort; and myself, Ken Russell, the Chair. Also on the dais are Emilio Gonzalez, the
City Manager; Victoria M6ndez, the City Attorney; and Todd Hannon, the City Clerk. The
City Attorney will now state the procedures to be followed during this budget hearing.
Barnaby Min (Deputy City Attorney): Thank you, Mr. Chair. This evening is -- the City is
holding its first budget meeting and related hearings for the purpose of fixing the proposed
millage rate, adopting a tentative budget, and approving various agency budgets. There will be
a final public hearing on Thursday, September 26, 2019, at 5:05 p.m. Any person who is a
lobbyist, including all paid persons or firms retained by a principal to advocate for a particular
decision by the City Commission must register with the City Clerk and comply with the latest
City requirements for lobbyists before appearing before the City Commission. A person may
not lobby a City official, board member, or staff member until registering. A copy of the City
Code section about lobbyists is available at the City Clerk's Office, or online at municode.com.
Any person making a presentation, formal request, or petition to the City Commission
concerning real property must make the disclosure required by the City Code in writing. A
copy of this Code section is available in the City Clerk's Office, or online at municode.com.
The material for each item on the agenda is available during business hours at the City Clerk's
Office and online 24 hours a day at miamigov.com. Any person may be heard by the City
Commission through the Chair for not more than two minutes on any proposition before the
City Commission unless such time limit is modified by the Chair. If the proposition is to be
continued or rescheduled, the opportunity to be heard may be at such later date before the City
Commission takes action on such proposition. The Chairman will advise the public when the
public may have the opportunity to address the City Commission during the public comment
period. When addressing the City Commission, the member of the public must first state his or
her name, his or her address, and what agenda item he or she will speak about. A copy of the
agenda item titles is available at the City Clerk's Office and at the podium for the public's
reference. Pursuant to Florida Administrative Code Rule 12D-17.005, anyone wishing to
appeal any decision made by the City Commission for any matter considered at this first
budget meeting does not need a verbatim record of the item. A video of this meeting may be
requested by the Office of Communications, or viewed online at miamigov.com. No cell
phones or other noise -making devices are permitted in the City Commission chambers; please
silence those devices now. No clapping, applauding, heckling, or verbal outburst in support or
opposition to a speaker or his or her remarks shall be permitted. Any person making offensive
remarks or becomes unruly in the City Commission chambers will be barred from further
attending Commission meetings, and may be subject to arrest.
Commissioner Carollo: Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me. What's that part about any person
making offensive remarks? Because I want the Chairman to hear that one again; especially
when they make them to me that he forgets.
Mayor Francis Suarez: But -- wait. Are we going to apply it to you, the making offensive
remarks or --?
Commissioner Carollo: No, no, no.
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Mayor Suarez: Because --
Commissioner Carollo: When they make them to me, the Chairman forgets --
Mayor Suarez: Oh, just when they make them to you; not when you make them to everybody
else?
Commissioner Carollo: Like who?
Mayor Suarez: Like me and like everybody else here.
Commissioner Carollo: Like you?
Mayor Suarez: And like the people in the public that --
Commissioner Carollo: Or the people in the public. Yeah, I'm a bully. The guys that you
bring in to bully me, and I'm the bully.
Mayor Suarez: There's always --
Commissioner Carollo: In fact, you --
Mayor Suarez: -- someone else that's responsible. It's always somebody else's fault.
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah, this -- excuse me.
Mayor Suarez: It's always someone else's conspiracy.
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah, that --
Mayor Suarez: It's never your fault.
Commissioner Carollo: Of course. But --
Mayor Suarez: It's never your responsibility.
Commissioner Carollo: But listen, this --
Mayor Suarez: You never take ownership for anything.
Commissioner Carollo: -- since we have you here on that subject, you made a statement
yesterday on TV (television) that I lied; that your law firm did not represent --
Mayor Suarez: Ball and Chain.
Commissioner Carollo: -- Mr. -- no, that's not what I said.
Mayor Suarez: That's what you said.
Commissioner Carollo: Bill Fuller and his business. That's what you said. Your law firm
does not represent them?
Mayor Suarez: They don't.
Commissioner Carollo: They don't? Are you sure on that?
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Mayor Suarez: I don't know who every -- you know -- client that my law firm has.
Commissioner Carollo: Well, you brought him to the law firm, so you should know.
Mayor Suarez: I did not bring him to the law firm; that's false.
Commissioner Carollo: Well, you just said you didn't know, neither --
Mayor Suarez: I don't know who all my clients are of the law firm, but I did not -- I can tell
you categorically that I did not bring --
Commissioner Carollo: Well --
Mayor Suarez: -- Bill Fuller to my law firm.
Commissioner Carollo: -- do you want me to show you --
Mayor Suarez: Yes.
Commissioner Carollo: -- they represent you?
Mayor Suarez: Yes.
Commissioner Carollo: You do?
Mayor Suarez: Yes.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. Well, let me come right back. I'll be right back. Go ahead and
finish it.
Mayor Suarez: Thank you.
Chair Russell: Gentlemen, this is an embarrassing beginning to our budget hearing, but maybe
a very fitting beginning, as I hope it's not going to be like this for the entire hearing. We are
trying to conduct the business of the City to set the budget and the millage for the coming year,
as well as the budget of several agencies that serve this City. We are merely reading at this
point the legal preamble to the meeting. Mr. City Attorney, please continue.
Mr. Min: Thank you. Any person with a disability requiring assistance, auxiliary aids and
services for this meeting may notify the City Clerk. The meeting will end at the conclusion of
the first budget meeting agenda. Please note that Commissioners have generally been briefed
by City staff and the City Attorney on items on the agenda today. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chair Russell: Thank you.
101N91AMe] aI:IADEV1
PUBLIC COMMENT FOR BUDGET ITEM(S)
Chair Russell: I believe the Mayor has a statement to read with regard to this year's proposed
budget.
Mayor Francis Suarez: Thank you, Mr. Chair. As a City we have worked diligently to address
some of our most pressing issues, including safety, transportation, and innovation. Now with
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this budget proposal, it is time that we recommit ourselves to these efforts by focusing on
creating a pathway to prosperity, improving quality of life for our residents, and becoming
even a more resilient city. Every resident deserves the opportunity to succeed. To solidify our
City's identity as a beacon of hope, we must continue to remove barriers that obstruct anyone
from pursuing a pathway to prosperity; that is why our proposed budget recommends lowering
the property tax millage rate. If adopted, our residents will see the second lowest property tax
rate in the last 55 years; in fact, that is the ceiling, so they will definitely see the second lowest
tax rate in the last 55 years. The budget also continues the Anti -Poverty Initiative that was
championed by Commissioner Hardemon, and has been reinstituted by this Commission year
in and year out for the sixth year in a row, as well as supporting the pivotal Child Savings
Account Program that we began this year. In addition, I am introducing a one -million -dollar
Elderly Rent Subsidy Program to bridge the gap between yearly rent spikes and the diminished
growth of Social Security benefits. Aside from creating economic opportunities, resilience is
about investing in our future to address anything that affects our quality of life. This includes
environmental and social resilience. Consistent with our mission to become the most resilient
city on the planet, we are well equipped to tackle our resilience on all levels from flooding and
sea level rise to affordable housing and trajfic. The Resilient 305 Plan provides a
collaborative framework to confront these challenges head on, and with this proposed budget,
we can put that framework to action by pushing forward on the projects contained in the
Miami Forever Bond. Also included is an innovative exchange of funding to ensure that our
trolley system remains the largest municipal trolley system in Miami -Dade County and that it
continues to grow. Through this strategic series of actions, we can continue to exercise a
comprehensive, collaborative, and proactive approach to resilience that will ensure our
incredible city is here to stay. A world -class -- all world -class cities are defined by their public
spaces; that is why we are doubling the amount of funding for graffiti abatement, an action I
have continuously advocated for in an effort to beautify our existing public areas as places
every Miamian can take pride in. As someone who grew up in City of Miami parks, I
understand firsthand the role that quality parks play in fostering a high quality of life. Parks
build community, develop a city's identity, and even save lives. Our residents deserve to have
the very best parks, recreational spaces, and cultural facilities. With that in mind, we're
allocating additional resources, including staff and funding to maintain and enhance the 137
beautiful parks that we have in the City of Miami. These are just some of the steps we are
taking through this proposed budget to improve our residents' lives and ensure Miami remains
a vibrant epicenter of opportunity and hope for generations to come. I would like to add, also
that we have increased our police force to the highest level of police officers in the history of
the City of Miami with this budget, and we have the second lowest homicide rate as of last year
in 51 years in the City of Miami. That is part of the promises that I've made as Mayor of the
City of Miami, and that is what we, as a Commission, as an Administration, and as a
Mayoralty are accomplishing together. Thankyou, Mr. Chairman.
Chair Russell: Thank you, Mr. Mayor and the Budget Director.
Later
Chair Russell: I'll now open the public comment period for our budget, as well as the various
boards whose budgets are being presented today. If you would like to address this body with
regard to the budget, the millage, any of the items on today's budget hearing agenda, please
approach either of the two lecterns here, anyone who'd like to speak on the budget. Please
come forward if you're hereto speak on the budget. Thank you very much. You'll be given two
minutes to speak. You'll hear a tone at the 30-second mark; that's your time to start wrapping
it up. Just give us your name, which item on the budget hearing you're speaking on, and then
we'll --you'll have your time. Mr. Cruz, good evening.
Elvis Cruz: Thank you, Commissioner Russell, Chairman. Elvis Cruz, 631 Northeast 57th
Street. Just wanted to say I was very pleased to hear the Mayor say that there's an increase for
parks maintenance. As you know, if Morningside Pool had been maintained properly all
along, we wouldn't have that enormous controversy. Commissioner, you were at the meeting
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at Morningside when Bob Powers stated that he was on the Bond Oversight Committee about
10 years ago, when the money was approved to fix up that pool, and it never happened. So,
hopefully, this is a new era, and that parks maintenance will kick into high gear. Thank you.
Chair Russell: Thank you, Mr. Cruz. Good evening.
Guy Forchion: Hello, Mr. Chairman, Commissioners. Guy Forchion, Executive Director of
Virginia Key Beach Park Trust. Just wanted to touch base on our budget. The number that
we're asking for approval of is 3,247, 000. Yes, Mr. Chairman.
Chair Russell: I -- actually, for each board that'll be presenting their budget, I was going to
let them present at the time of each item. So this would be the moment for the public to
comment in -- on the various proposed budgets, so you don't need to present the budget for it at
this point.
Mr. Forchion: I'm just -- understood.
Chair Russell: Thank you very much. This is the time for anyone from the public from the half
million residents in the City of Miami who'd like to address us with regard to how we spend
our money. This is your moment. Hello.
Constance Collins: Hello. My name is Constance Collins. I'm the Executive Director of the
Lotus House Women's Shelter. The statistics are sobering. One in three women in the United
States is a victim of physical violence by an intimate partner during her lifetime. One in five
women will be raped. One in three female murder victims are killed by intimate partners. 72
percent of all murder suicides involve an intimate partner, and 94 percent of the victims are
women. A national survey by the Center for Disease Control call sexual violence, stalking,
and intimate partner violence a major public health issue in the U.S. (United States). Our
community is no exception. From 2008 to 2018, there were over 100,000 reported domestic
violence offenses in Miami -Dade County. In the same period, there were over 27, 500 domestic
violence offenses in the City of Miami, including 49 murders. Though staggering, those
numbers grossly understate the magnitude of domestic and intimate partner violence in our
community, because according to the research, just a little over half of all domestic violence
reported -- related crimes are actually reported. Take, for example, the City of Miami Police
Department reported only one or no rapes in eight of the years I just mentioned. Women know
the truth. We know domestic and intimate partner violence is deadly. Without access to
shelter and supportive services, women stay in abusive relationships in order to keep a roof
over the heads of their children, and they face deadly consequences. From 1999 to 2017, at
least 1,028 domestic violence -related deaths occurred in Miami -Dade County. In 2017, over
10 percent of all homicides in Miami -Dade County were domestic violence related. Domestic
and intimate partner violence is a lead cause of homelessness for women and children, and
ready access to shelter with a comprehensive array of services is nothing short of life-saving.
Miami -Dade County has only three certified domestic violence centers, with a total countywide
capacity of 164 adult beds, and 28 cribs, for a population of over 2.7 million people. Lotus
House has 490 beds for women and children, offering a safe haven for victims fleeing intimate
partner violence who do not need an undisclosed location. Virtually all, 99 percent of the
women we shelter have trauma histories; domestic or intimate partner violence, violent crime,
sex trafficking. Many have known the meaning of violence since their childhoods, with a full
46 percent or 331 of the 724 women we sheltered over the last 18 months having been sexually
abused as children themselves. We launched a change.org petition, addressed to this
Commission, which now has over 8,140 supporters, and counting -- hundreds in just the last
few weeks -- asking you to provide more funding for shelter and supportive services for women
and children at Lotus House. We're asking for $450,000 in the budget to support at least 50
beds in our shelter to address the urgent shortage of services for victims. This is $23. SO a day.
It's half our actual cost of providing shelter; substantially less than the cost of hospital bills,
social services, public health costs, lost work and productivity, not to mention the value of a
life lost to violence. It will provide 19,000 shelter beds for women and children in our
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community who want to be more than victims and survivors. They want to blossom into who
they're meant to be. The truth is this is not about homelessness. This is about justice and real
prosperity for all. Women and children need safe havens with enriched therapeutic support
and resources to heal, reclaim their lives, and build the foundation for safer, brighter futures
for all. We ask that you amend this budget to find the resources needed to provide that safe
shelter and supportive services for women and children in our community so that we all thrive,
so that we all prosper. Thank you.
Chair Russell: Constance, thank you very much. Is there a specific amendment you're
seeking?
Ms. Collins: We're seeking an amendment to include $450,000 worth of funding for shelter
beds and supportive services for women and children who are victims of violence; whether
that's domestic violence, intimate partner violence, violent crime, other abuse, or human
trafficking.
Chair Russell: Thank you very much.
Ms. Collins: Thank you.
Chair Russell: Madam Holmes.
Renita Holmes: Thank you for hearing me this morning, and I want to thank you again. You
heard me mention Lotus House and a few other shelters. This community lost quite a bit of
emergency shelter properties, and those with the County. Although we have joint
conversations, down at the County we hardly ever hear it said. But as you can see, there's
nothing like being homeless, being a mother, and then being with children, but my concern is
for those who are even more disparate; those homeless youth, those who have been in the
system. I have even more concern and more direct services for over several years to those
girls. The number of juvenile girls incarcerated over --have been 300 percent increase in the
last two years. And, you know, those now are even more affected by sexual assault. We are
quick to talk about human trafficking and sexual assault, as this is something that people
import people, but we have thousands of kids and girls that are dealing with this on a day-to-
day basis. Our youth in our area need some type of property and safe spaces apart from where
they're residential. When we talk about the County, I hope that the City will approach them
about the lack of wraparound and social services that go -- and I'm going to leave you with
this, because you took your time, and it requires a lot more than two minutes, and you know
I'm not a two -minute -- I just can't be that for nothing in the world. But there are kids dying.
In the time that we have spoken, every 30 seconds, there has been a gunshot. If you go over to
the morgue, there are bodies there of young folks that have not yet to be identified. For this to
be a Sister City, I don't see how a little sister is surviving, but overall, again, when we do --
and I'm closing, sir -- our population and we ask HUD (Department of Housing and Urban
Development) for CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) monies, we say we want to
help in this order: People in public housing, homeless, veterans, and youth. Now, try being a
youth after all that. Try being a youth that's been assaulted. Try being a youth, a 16 year -old
boy that's gay, walking around Overtown. So while that property in Overtown -- Lotus House
is Overtown -- we got them throughout the City of Miami. Liberty City has nothing for kids
that are LGBQT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, questionable, transgender), but we have thousands of
them, and we have a lot of them dying. Please, somebody needs to take up this subject when
we talk about priority funding, with CBOs (community -based organizations), what they're
performing, and what are the measures. And if you're a CBO leader and you have a mission
statement, it's not inclusive of young folks like they're out here, all they're doing is talking
about what you want to talk about. The truth is I would have another meeting. I would ask
each young person out here, "How you living?" Thank you so much.
Chair Russell: Thank you very much for your comments. Good evening, sir.
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Sam Latimore: Good afternoon. My name is Sam Latimore, President of the Charles Hadley
Neighborhood Association; resident, City of Miami, 937 Northwest 55th Street for a number of
years; family grew up here. Since this is the public comment part, I just want to highlight a
couple of things. First of all, I want to thank Chris Rose for what he has done in terms of
informed our community about the budgetary issue. Part of being a informed community is to
get information, and each year, Mr. Rose and his staff have made their way to Hadley Park to
get us involved in the process. So we now understand what happens, and we now understand
the process. Thanks, Chris. I want to thank the Commission for their approval of the
allocation for the Liberty City Community Revitalization Trust. Your decision to approve that
will enable us to assist a lot of people who find themselves homeless, find themselves with
housing that is inadequate, and will continue our relationship. I'm grateful to the Parks
Department for the enhancements -- and Lara, if you're here, and her staff. They made a
number of security issues covering the park; some that's slated for this coming year, and we
want to thank you for that. We're very grateful. And the last thing that we want to do is to
thank you for the Liberty City trolley routes. We've seen an improvement in that. People are
beginning to ride the trolley, and it looks like a city. Every time we see the orange and green
roll down Liberty City, it looks more and more like a city. Thank you so much. We're very
grateful.
Chair Russell: Thank you for your comments. Good evening.
Courtney Omega: Good evening, Commissioners. I want to --
Chair Russell: Courtney Omega for the record.
Ms. Omega: Courtney Omega from the Coconut Grove area, and a proud fourth generation
Bahamian, standing before you in her own proud Bahama strong stature. I would like to
address a specific need; not just independently in Coconut Grove, but beyond Coconut Grove,
and also to economically challenged communities that I've had the distinct honor of working in
during my time of being a resident herein Miami over the past 10 years. Though I have come
to a few budget meetings over the course of the past three, four months, it does surprise me
that there is not a more aggressive plan for affordable housing being included in this budget,
gentlemen. It may sound a little selfish. As someone that has worked in youth program and
curriculum development, also over the past 10 years that I am saying that affordable housing
is what is crippling a lot of our families, struggling to make ends meet. I'm looking beyond
myself,• a single mother, who, when moving to Coconut Grove, was saying in a one -bedroom,
one -bath home for $450 a month. It was a godsend following the divorce. I now, same single
mom, same two beautiful children, am paying nearly $2, 000 a month. Now, yes, I've been here
for about a decade. Yes, I can understand inflation. Of course, things go up. However, you're
asking a community -- or several communities to keep up with inflation, but not giving proper
job opportunities to mirror that inflation. I also challenge the Commissioners to please look a
little deeper in our budgets into programs that can support our youth and our families in ways
of job development, skilled training, and equal opportunity grants; not things that we have got
to feel that we've got to payback. I think you're already looking at communities that have paid
so much. Thank you.
Chair Russell: Thank you very much. Is there anyone else here who'd like to speak on the City
budget or any of the board budgets? Seeing none, we'll close public comment.
BH - BUDGET HEARING
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131-1.1 DISCUSSION ITEM
�3► I� 9]1,Y01W1-A to] 0rri7_1IXi1TJI1l1lI[OZK6]JIJIA01Mi]0r9a:8=d0]lilyA91120
Office of 2019-20 MILLAGE RATE, TENTATIVE BUDGET AND ALL OTHER BUDGET
Management and ITEMS ON THE AGENDA.
Budget
RESULT: DISCUSSED
Chair Russell: I'd like to recognize you, Mr. Rose.
Christopher Rose (Director): Good evening, Commissioners. Chris Rose, Office of
Management and Budget. I have some words that I need to read into the record
pursuant to State law. So the proposed general operating millage rate is 7.5665
mills for the City of Miami for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2019 and ending
in September 30 -- on September 30, 2020. That operating millage is 4.59 percent
higher than the State -defined rollback rate of 7.2341 mills. Thank you,
Commissioners.
Chair Russell: Thank you very much.
131-1.2 DISCUSSION ITEM
6314 DISCUSSION OF PROPOSED MILLAGE RATE AND TENTATIVE BUDGET
Downtown FOR THE MIAMI DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY.
Development
Authority
RESULT: DISCUSSED
L
Chair Russell: And move on to the first item, which is BH.2, a discussion of the
DDA (Downtown Development Authority) proposed millage and tentative budget.
Oh, I'm sorry; that was the public comment, sure, so BH.3 is actually approving the
tentative millage for the DDA. Is there a motion for BH3? Alyce, would you like to
present?
Alyce Robertson: Alyce Robertson, Executive Director of the Miami Downtown
Development Authority. BH3 is the item on our millage, which is a flat millage from
the current year rate of .4681, and it is a 4.23 increase over the rollback rate.
Chair Russell: Keeping it flat requires what level of vote, Mr. Clerk?
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): Just a simple majority.
Chair Russell: Simple majority. Is there a motion on BH.3? It's been moved by
Commissioner Gort; seconded by the Chair. Any further discussion? All in favor,
say "aye. "
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Russell: Any opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. That's BH.3.
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BH.3
RESOLUTION
6315
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
Downtown
ATTACHMENT(S), PROPOSING AN ADDITIONAL TENTATIVE MILLAGE
Development
RATE FOR AD VALOREM TAXATION PURSUANT TO SECTION 200.065,
Authority
FLORIDA STATUTES; DEFINING AND DESIGNATING THE TERRITORIAL
LIMITS OF THE DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT DISTRICT ("DISTRICT") OF
THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA ("CITY') AS DESCRIBED IN EXHIBIT "A"
ATTACHED AND INCORPORATED; LEVYING AN ADDITIONAL AD
VALOREM TAX ON ALL REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY IN THE
DISTRICT AT THE RATE OF 0.4681 MILLS ON THE DOLLAR OF TAXABLE
VALUE OF SUCH PROPERTY IN SAID DISTRICT FOR THE PURPOSE OF
FINANCING THE OPERATION OF THE MIAMI DOWNTOWN
DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA ("MIAMI
DDA") FOR THE FISCAL YEAR BEGINNING OCTOBER 1, 2019 AND
ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2020; PROVIDING THAT SAID MIAMI DDA
MILLAGE SHALL BE IN ADDITION TO THE MILLAGE ADOPTED BY THE
CITY COMMISSION PURSUANT TO ARTICLE VII, SECTION 9 OF THE
FLORIDA CONSTITUTION AND SECTION 166.211, FLORIDA STATUTES,
AS WELL AS ANY SPECIAL ASSESSMENTS IMPOSED BY THE SAME;
PROVIDING THAT THIS RESOLUTION SHALL NOT BE DEEMED AS
REPEALING OR AMENDING ANY OTHER RESOLUTION OR ANY
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.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-19-0353
MOTION TO:
Adopt
RESULT:
ADOPTED
MOVER:
Wifredo (Willy) Gort, Commissioner
SECONDER:
Ken Russell, Commissioner
AYES:
Russell, Gort, Hardemon
ABSENT:
Carollo, Reyes
Note for the Record. For minutes referencing Item BK3, please see Item BK2.
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City Commission Meeting Minutes September 12, 2019
BHA
RESOLUTION
6316
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
Downtown
ATTACHMENT(S), APPROVING AND ADOPTING THE TENTATIVE
Development
ANNUAL BUDGET OF THE DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
Authority
("MIAMI DDA") OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA ("CITY") ATTACHED
"A",
AND INCORPORATED AS COMPOSITE EXHIBIT IN THE TOTAL
AMOUNT OF $12,698,087.00, AND MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FROM
THE DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT DISTRICT AD VALOREM TAX LEVY
AND OTHER MISCELLANEOUS INCOME FOR THE MIAMI DDA, FOR THE
FISCAL YEAR BEGINNING OCTOBER 1, 2019 AND ENDING SEPTEMBER
30, 2020; AUTHORIZING THE MIAMI DDA TO MAKE TRANSFERS
BETWEEN ACCOUNTS FOR NECESSARY AND PROPER PURPOSES;
AUTHORIZING THE MIAMI DDA TO INVITE AND ADVERTISE REQUIRED
BIDS; PROVIDING THAT THIS RESOLUTION BE DEEMED
SUPPLEMENTAL AND IN ADDITION TO THE RESOLUTION MAKING
APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR BEGINNING OCTOBER 1,
2019, AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2020, FOR THE OPERATIONS OF
THE CITY.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-19-0354
MOTION TO:
Adopt with Modification(s)
RESULT:
ADOPTED WITH MODIFICATION(S)
MOVER:
Wifredo (Willy) Gort, Commissioner
SECONDER:
Ken Russell, Commissioner
AYES:
Russell, Gort, Hardemon
ABSENT:
Carollo, Reyes
Chair Russell: BHA the actual annual budget for the DDA (Downtown
Development Authority).
Alyce Robertson: This is the annual budget, which is based on an ad valorem of
$9.9 million, and going forward, the details of which are in your package. If you
have any questions, I'm here to answer them.
Chair Russell: Thank you very much. Is there a motion on BH 4?
Mr. Robertson: Oh, I would like to enter in for the record, on this item we have the
chart that was requested by the City Budget Office. It is amended just to show our
cash carryover; because the form didn't have a space, so we've given the Clerk the
copy of the report.
Chair Russell: Thank you very much. Is there a motion on BH 4?
Vice Chair Gort: Move it.
Chair Russell: It's been moved by the Vice Chairman; seconded by the Chair. Any
further discussion?
Vice Chair Gort: Discussion.
Chair Russell: Yes.
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Vice Chair Gort: I'd like for individuals to understand the DDA is an additional tax
imposed by the owners, the property owners, the ones that volunteer to pay for the
taxes. This money doesn't come from the regular funds from the City of Miami.
Chair Russell: Very good point. Thank you. Hearing no further discussion, all in
favor, say "aye. "
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Russell: Any opposed? Motion passes for BH 4.
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): As amended.
Chair Russell: As amended Thank you.
BH.5 RESOLUTION
6252 A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
Off -Street Parking ATTACHMENT(S), APPROVING AND ADOPTING THE ANNUAL BUDGET
Board/Miami OF THE DEPARTMENT OF OFF-STREET PARKING FOR THE FISCAL
Parking Authority YEAR COMMENCING OCTOBER 1, 2019 AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30,
2020, IN THE AMOUNT OF $21,982,965.00 EXCLUDING DEPRECIATION,
AND OTHER NON OPERATING EXPENSES OF $21,331,014.00
ATTACHED AND INCORPORATED AS COMPOSITE EXHIBIT "A".
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-19-0355
MOTION TO:
Adopt
RESULT:
ADOPTED
MOVER:
Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
SECONDER:
Joe Carollo, Commissioner
AYES:
Russell, Gort, Carollo, Reyes, Hardemon
Chair Russell: BH 5, the annual --
Alyce Robertson: Thank you very much.
Chair Russell: Thank you, Alyce. Miami Parking Authority; Mr. Noriega.
Arthur Noriega: Good evening. Art Noriega, Miami Parking Authority. Any
questions on the proposed budget? The proposed budget for 2019-2020 basically
derives a net contribution to the City at the end of the next fiscal year of a little over
$17 million.
Chair Russell: Thank you very much. Is there a motion on BH5, the MPA (Miami
Parking Authority)? Moved by Commissioner Reyes.
Vice Chair Gort: Second.
Chair Russell: Seconded by Commissioner Carollo [sic]. Any questions? Any
discussion from the dais? Being none, all in favor; say "aye. "
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The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Russell: Any opposed? Motion passes. That's BH 5.
BH.6
RESOLUTION
6297
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
General
ATTACHMENT(S), APPROVING AND ADOPTING THE ANNUAL BUDGET
Employees'and
OF THE CITY OF MIAMI GENERAL EMPLOYEES' & SANITATION
Sanitation
EMPLOYEES' RETIREMENT TRUST ("GESE RETIREMENT TRUST
Employees'
FUND"), ATTACHED AND INCORPORATED AS COMPOSITE EXHIBIT "A",
Retirement Trust
IN THE AMOUNT OF $3,051,580.00, EXCLUDING NORMAL COSTS OF
$51,506,047.00 AS ACTUARIALLY DETERMINED FOR THE PENSION
FUNDING REQUIREMENT, TO PROVIDE FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF
THE GESE RETIREMENT TRUST FUND FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
COMMENCING OCTOBER 1, 2019 AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2020.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-19-0356
MOTION TO: Adopt
RESULT: ADOPTED
MOVER: Wifredo (Willy) Gort, Commissioner
SECONDER: Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
AYES: Russell, Gort, Carollo, Reyes, Hardemon
Chair Russell: BH 6, please; the GESE (General Employees and Sanitation
Employees) Retirement Trust Fund.
Edgard Hernandez: Good evening, Commissioners. This is Edgard Hernandez for
the record, for the City of Miami Retirement -- General Employees' and Sanitation
Employees' Retirement Trust. This is a resolution of the City of Miami, with an
attachment, providing for adopting the annual budget of the City of Miami General
Employees' and Sanitation Employees' Retirement Trust in the amount of
$3,051,580, excluding the normal cost of $51,506,447.
Chair Russell: Thank you very much. Is there a motion on BH. 6?
Vice Chair Gort: Move it.
Chair Russell: It's been moved by the Vice Chairman; seconded by Commissioner
Reyes. Any further discussion? All in favor; say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Russell: Any opposed? Motion passes on BH 6. Thank you very much.
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BH.7
RESOLUTION
6296
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
General
ATTACHMENT(S), APPROVING AND ADOPTING THE ANNUAL BUDGET
Employees'and
OF THE CITY OF MIAMI GENERAL EMPLOYEES' & SANITATION
Sanitation
EMPLOYEES' EXCESS BENEFIT PLAN ("GESE EXCESS BENEFIT PLAN"),
Employees'
ATTACHED AND INCORPORATED AS COMPOSITE EXHIBIT "A":, IN THE
AMOUNT OF $113,712.00, TO PROVIDE FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF
Retirement Trust
THE GESE EXCESS BENEFIT PLAN FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
COMMENCING OCTOBER 1, 2019 AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2020.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-19-0357
MOTION TO:
Adopt
RESULT:
ADOPTED
MOVER:
Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
SECONDER:
Wifredo (Willy) Gort, Commissioner
AYES:
Russell, Gort, Carollo, Reyes, Hardemon
Chair Russell: BH 7 is the GESE (General Employees and Sanitation Employees)
Trust Excess Benefit Plan.
Edgard Hernandez: The Excess Benefit Plan is a resolution of the City of Miami
Commission, with attachment, approving and adopting the annual budget for the
City of Miami General Employees' and Sanitation Employees' Excess Benefit Plan.
Attached and incorporated as composite exhibit is $113, 712, for the record.
Chair Russell: Thank you very much. Is there a motion --
Commissioner Reyes: Move it.
Chair Russell: -- on BH 7?
Vice Chair Gort: Move it.
Chair Russell: It's been moved by Commissioner Reyes; second by the Vice Chair.
Any further discussion or questions?
Commissioner Hardemon: Are you sure you don't want any help; don't want anyone
to stand up with you during this time?
Mr. Hernandez: Not this year, thank you.
Commissioner Hardemon: This is the simplest process you've ever gone through.
Mr. Hernandez: It's been three years. It's been a rough three years, but thank you.
Vice Chair Gort: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) every year.
Commissioner Hardemon: You sure? You sure? Okay?
Mr. Hernandez: Okay.
Chair Russell: Thank you. Any further discussion?
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Commissioner Hardemon: He's learned.
Chair Russell: All in favor; say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Russell: Motion passes; BH 7.
Mr. Hernandez: Thank you, Commissioners.
Chair Russell: Thank you very much.
BH.8
RESOLUTION
6306
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
Firefighters' and
ATTACHMENT(S), APPROVING AND ADOPTING THE ANNUAL BUDGET
Police Officers'
OF THE CITY OF MIAMI FIRE FIGHTERS' AND POLICE OFFICERS'
Retirement Trust
RETIREMENT TRUST FUND (FIPO RETIREMENT TRUST FUND"),
ATTACHED AND INCORPORATED AS COMPOSITE EXHIBIT "A", IN THE
AMOUNT OF $2,210,096.00 TO PROVIDE FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF
THE FIPO RETIREMENT TRUST FUND FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
COMMENCING OCTOBER 1, 2019, AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2020.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-19-0358
MOTION TO:
Adopt
RESULT:
ADOPTED
MOVER:
Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
SECONDER:
Wifredo (Willy) Gort, Commissioner
AYES:
Russell, Gort, Carollo, Reyes, Hardemon
Chair Russell: BH8 the annual budget for the Firefighters' and Police Officers'
Retirement Trust.
Monica Fernandez: Good evening, Commissioners. I'm here to ask you to pass a
resolution to approve the annual budget for City of Miami Firefighters' and Police
Officers' Retirement Trust in the amount of 2.210, 096 -- 2,210,096 -- to provide for
the administration of the FIPO (Firefighters and Police Officers) Fund.
Chair Russell: Thank you. Your name for the record, please?
Ms. Fernandez: Oh, I'm sorry. Monica Fernandez. I'm the Vice Chair of the fund.
Chair Russell: Thank you very much. Is there a motion on BH 8?
Vice Chair Gort: Move it.
Chair Russell: Moved by Commissioner Reyes [sic]; second by the Vice Chairman.
Any further discussion? All in favor; say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Russell: Any opposed? Motion passes on BH 8.
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Ms. Fernandez: Thank you.
Chair Russell: Thank you.
BH.9 RESOLUTION
6304 A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
Civilian ATTACHMENT(S), APPROVING AND ADOPTING THE ANNUAL BUDGET
Investigative OF THE CIVILIAN INVESTIGATIVE PANEL, ATTACHED AND
Panel INCORPORATED AS COMPOSITE EXHIBIT "A", IN THE TOTAL AMOUNT
OF $1,174,000.00 FOR THE FISCAL YEAR COMMENCING OCTOBER 1,
2019 AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2020.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-19-0359
MOTION TO
RESULT:
MOVER:
SECONDER
AYES:
Adopt
ADOPTED
Joe Carollo, Commissioner
Wifredo (Willy) Gort, Commissioner
Russell, Gort, Carollo, Reyes, Hardemon
Chair Russell: BH.9 is the budget for the Civilian Investigative Panel.
Cristina Beamud: Good evening, Commissioners. Cristina Beamud. I'm the
Executive Director for the Civilian Investigative Panel; accompanied by --
Eileen Damaso: Eileen Damaso, the Chairperson of the Civilian Investigative
Panel.
Ms. Beamud: And this is a resolution with our proposed budget, asking for your
approval and adoption. It's a budget of 1.174 million, and that is set by a previous
ordinance that was passed by this body in 2017.
Chair Russell: Thank you very much. Is there a motion on BH.9, the Civilian
Investigative Panel budget?
Commissioner Carollo: So move.
Chair Russell: Moved by Commissioner Carollo.
Vice Chair Gort: Second.
Chair Russell: Seconded by the Vice Chairman. Any further discussion? All in
favor, say "aye. "
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Russell: Any opposed? Motion passes. Thank you very much.
Ms. Beamud.• Thank you.
Ms. Damaso: Thank you very much.
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BH.10
RESOLUTION
6327
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
Coconut Grove
ATTACHMENT(S), APPROVING AND ADOPTING THE ANNUAL BUDGET
Business
OF THE COCONUT GROVE BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT ("BID"),
Improvement
ATTACHED AND INCORPORATED AS COMPOSITE EXHIBIT "A", IN THE
District Board
AMOUNT OF $5,248,219.00 TO PROVIDE FOR THE MANAGEMENT,
OPERATION, AND MAINTENANCE OF THE BID FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
COMMENCING OCTOBER 1, 2019, AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2020.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-19-0360
MOTION TO:
Adopt
RESULT:
ADOPTED
MOVER:
Joe Carollo, Commissioner
SECONDER:
Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
AYES:
Russell, Gort, Carollo, Reyes, Hardemon
Chair Russell: BH 10, the annual budget of the Coconut Grove Business
Improvement District.
Abigael Mahoney: Good evening. Abigael Mahoney. Honorable Commissioners,
thank you for having me. I'm the acting Executive Director of the Coconut Grove
Business Improvement District. I'm hereto respectfully request that you approve the
proposed budget for the Coconut Grove Business Improvement District in the
amount of $5, 248, 219.
Chair Russell: Thank you very much. Is there a motion on BH 10? Moved by
Commissioner Carollo; seconded by Commissioner Reyes. Any questions or further
discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say "aye. "
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Russell: Any opposed? Motion passes. Thank you very much.
Ms. Mahoney: Thank you.
Chair Russell: And thank you.
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BH.11
RESOLUTION
6326
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
Wynwood
ATTACHMENT(S), APPROVING AND ADOPTING THE ANNUAL BUDGET
Business
OF THE WYNWOOD BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT ("BID")
Improvement
ATTACHED AND INCORPORATED AS COMPOSITE EXHIBIT "A", IN THE
District Board
AMOUNT OF $1,292,495.00 TO PROVIDE FOR THE MANAGEMENT,
OPERATION, AND MAINTENANCE OF THE BID FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
COMMENCING OCTOBER 1, 2019 AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2020.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-19-0361
MOTION TO:
Adopt
RESULT:
ADOPTED
MOVER:
Keon Hardemon, Commissioner
SECONDER:
Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
AYES:
Russell, Gort, Carollo, Reyes, Hardemon
Chair Russell: The Wynwood BID (Business Improvement District) budget, please,
BH 11. Is there anyone here to represent the Wynwood Business Improvement
District?
Vice Chair Gort: They can't; it's theirs.
Chair Russell: Manny's not here? All right. Is there a motion for the Wynwood
BID, BH 11 ?
Commissioner Hardemon: I'll move to approve the budget.
Chair Russell: Moved by Commissioner Hardemon.
Commissioner Reyes: Second.
Chair Russell: Seconded by Commissioner Reyes. Any further discussion? All in
favor, say "aye. "
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Russell: Any opposed? Motion passes on the Wynwood BID.
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BH.12 RESOLUTION
6328 A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
Liberty City ATTACHMENT(S), APPROVING AND ADOPTING THE ANNUAL BUDGET
Community OF THE LIBERTY CITY COMMUNITY REVITALIZATION TRUST, ATTACHED
Revitalization AND INCORPORATED IN COMPOSITE EXHIBIT A, IN THE AMOUNT OF
Trust $785,525.00 FOR THE FISCAL YEAR COMMENCING OCTOBER 1, 2019,
AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2020.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-19-0362
MOTION TO:
Adopt with Modification(s)
RESULT:
ADOPTED WITH MODIFICATION(S)
MOVER:
Keon Hardemon, Commissioner
SECONDER:
Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
AYES:
Russell, Gort, Carollo, Reyes, Hardemon
Note for the Record. For additional minutes referencing Item BH.12, please see
"Public Comment Period for Budget Items. "
Chair Russell: BH.12, the Liberty City Community Revitalization Trust budget for
fiscal year '20.
Elaine Black: Hello. My name is Elaine Black of the Liberty City Community
Revitalization Trust. We would like the approval of our budget of $785, 525 for fiscal
year '19120.
Chair Russell: Thank you very much.
Commissioner Hardemon: I move to approve BH 12.
Chair Russell: Moved by Commissioner Hardemon.
Commissioner Reyes: Second.
Chair Russell: Seconded by Commissioner Reyes. Any further discussion or
questions?
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): Chair, my apologies. Mr. Budget Director, does this
item need to be amended?
Christopher Rose (Director, Office of Management and Budget): Yes, sir.
Commissioner Hardemon: With amendments.
Chair Russell: It's in there, yeah. Thank you.
Ms. Black: Thank you.
Chair Russell: Any further discussion? All in favor; say "aye. "
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Russell: Any opposed? Motion passes, as amended.
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Ms. Black: Thank you.
Chair Russell: Thank you.
BH.13
RESOLUTION
6329
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
OMNI Community
ATTACHMENT(S), ACCEPTING AND APPROVING THE ANNUAL
Redevelopment
GENERAL OPERATING AND TAX INCREMENT FUND BUDGET OF THE
Agency
OMNI REDEVELOPMENT DISTRICT COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT
AGENCY ("OMNI CRA"), ATTACHED AND INCORPORATED AS
COMPOSITE EXHIBIT "A," IN THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF $54,045,391.00
FOR THE FISCAL YEAR COMMENCING OCTOBER 1, 2019 AND ENDING
SEPTEMBER 30, 2020, AS APPROVED BY THE OMNI CRA'S BOARD OF
COMMISSIONERS.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-19-0363
MOTION TO:
Adopt with Modification(s)
RESULT:
ADOPTED WITH MODIFICATION(S)
MOVER:
Wifredo (Willy) Gort, Commissioner
SECONDER:
Ken Russell, Commissioner
AYES:
Russell, Gort, Carollo, Reyes, Hardemon
Chair Russell: BH 13, the annual budget of the Omni Community Redevelopment
Agency.
Jason Walker (Executive Director): Good afternoon. Jason Walker, Omni
Redevelopment -- Community Redevelopment Agency. We're here to present our
budget for '19-20, with a TIE ('Tax Increment Fund) revenue of 28,300, 000; a total
budget revenue of $54, 045, 391. Would you like me to go on?
Chair Russell: Anything you'd like to present, you're fine.
Mr. Walker: All right. This budget includes the $9.9 million -- 35 percent payment -
- to the County for the Performing Arts Center; $4.2 million for the Miami Tunnel.
We also put aside to beef up our (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Program, which hires
homeless people to clean the streets of the Omni CRA (Community Redevelopment
Agency) for $370, 000. We have $500, 000 in business improvement grants for new
businesses opened up in that area. We've also committed $15.2 million for
affordable housing this year in the Omni area, and 500, 000 for vacant lot activation.
Those are some of the highlights of the budget.
Chair Russell: What is -- question for you: What is the current expenditure for the
Homeless Employment Program, and what is it going to?
Mr. Walker: The current expenditure is 120, 000 for this year, and we're taking it to
370, 000 to make the total amount of people to 20 individuals.
Chair Russell: You're doubling it. And the current pool of employees comes from
the Chapman Center at this point?
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Mr. Walker: The current pool of employees comes from the Chapman Center,
correct.
Chair Russell: Would we be able to also work with Lotus House in terms of
homeless employment?
Mr. Walker: You brought that up in our briefing two days ago, and we will reach
out to the Lotus Center to include them in this program.
Chair Russell: Thank you very much.
Commissioner Reyes: You work with Camillus House, right?
Mr. Walker: I'm sorry?
Commissioner Reyes: Do you work with Camillus House?
Mr. Walker: We don't directly work with Camillus House. On our next item we will
have a budget, which is also in this budget, for 175 for the City of Miami beds at
Camillus House. So we have been -- I think, over the past three years, been giving
175,000 to Camillus House.
Commissioner Reyes: Camillus House has a program of training --
Mr. Walker: Yes.
Commissioner Reyes: --for employment; not --it's not that they hire them. They're
not -- they train them and they place them; it's a training and placing.
Mr. Walker: And actually --
Commissioner Reyes: And I visit them, and they need to enhance -- increase that
program, and I think it will be good for you guys, too.
Mr. Walker: Yes, sir. Thank you.
Commissioner Hardemon: Mr. Chairman?
Vice Chair Gort: Move it.
Chair Russell: It's been moved by Commissioner Gort.
Robin Jones -Jackson (Assistant City Attorney, Supervisor): Mr. Chair, there's --
Mr. Walker: Sub --yeah.
Ms. Jones -Jackson: -- a substitution --
Mr. Walker: Sorry I forgot that.
Ms. Jones -Jackson: --just to clam the record.
Mr. Walker: Well, the substitution, in the budget book that was submitted to you, the
pages that were put together were out of order. We submitted the pages correctly,
the pages that you saw out of order, so these are the pages that are corrected.
Chair Russell: There's no substantive change? Just the pages were --?
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Mr. Walker: No substantive change at all; just the pages were out of order.
Chair Russell: Got it. Commissioner Hardemon, did you have a question?
Commissioner Hardemon: Yes.
Ms. Jones -Jackson: Mr. Chair?
Chair Russell: Yes.
Ms. Jones -Jackson: There's also just the timing, so it would need to go back to their
board, so we would just put that in the record, the history of the approval. Thank
you.
Chair Russell: Thank you very much; noted. Commissioner Hardemon.
Commissioner Hardemon: Now the area that the Omni CRA serves is the Omni
area, but also includes some Overtown area, correct?
Mr. Walker: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Hardemon: I do realize that we have an abundance of homeless
assistance facilities in the Overtown area, and -- but we also have a -- an issue with
the lack of jobs for residents in the -- in that area, as well. And so, I know that the
City of Miami has done a tremendous job in assisting homeless people who find
themselves seeking services in the Overtown area who come from all over the place;
all over the County, all over the State, all over the nation, and they settle in this
space. However, is there a priority placed to residents of the Overtown area when
you're considering jobs --
Mr. Walker: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Hardemon: -- which is those who are necessarily in a facility for a
short amount of time to get themselves together and to move out of the area?
Mr. Walker: Yes, sir. So apart of our Business Improvement Program -- last year,
we budgeted -- I think it was 750,000. This year, it's 500,000. For every $30,000
that we give to owner -- to a business owner that's going to open up, they're required
to create one job, and that job has to be either from the Omni CRA or from the
Overtown CRA. We've probably created 18 businesses; given out probably $1.8
million over the past three years. You could do the math on how many jobs were
created. We have a report that we're developing right now for the independent
auditor that will show exactly who got those jobs and how many were hired.
Commissioner Hardemon: But y'all put -- you are confident that -- though that it's
residents of the Overtown and the Omni area; they get an opportunity to get those
jobs --
Mr. Walker: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Hardemon: --first?
Mr. Walker: Yes, sir.
Chair Russell: Thank you very much. And while we're on the subject of jobs in the
area and homeless employment, I do have a concern, because this program, which
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originally started with the DDA (Downtown Development Authority), which utilized
Camillus House employ -- residents to become employees of -- they were employees
of the Camillus House, but they were servicing the DDA area. We expanded that
program to the Omni; very successful. The gold -- the yellow shirts in the DDA; the
purple shirts now in the Omni. Now we're growing that beyond. We had allocated
City budget to grow the Homeless Employment Program -- I don't know if it was last
year or even a year and a half ago -- to the City, as well, and we allocated budget,
but I don't know that a dollar of that has actually been effectuated and activated, and
if any of the homeless have actually been servicing now the City, because my goal
was to take this exact program and start scaling it to the various Commission
districts, so they get familiar with the program, and we start growing it citywide.
Has that budget been used?
Christopher Rose (Director): Good evening. Chris Rose, Office of Management and
Budget. There was $63, 000 in last year's --this year's budget. It is in the process of
being spent. They have a couple of job training programs that they're working in
both Public Works and in the Department of Human Services, so it's in progress
right now.
Chair Russell: But none have been hired yet?
Mr. Rose: I don't believe so, sir.
Chair Russell: So those funds will roll over to this year?
Mr. Rose: They don't. They're in the general fund, but there is a new allocation for
the same program in the new year, sir.
Chair Russell: In this one that will --
Mr. Rose: Included in the Public Works budget.
Commissioner Reyes: Mr. Chair?
Chair Russell: Yes, Commissioner.
Commissioner Reyes: The problem that I was referring, not --it's not the --
Chair Russell: Not the Homeless Employment Program?
Commissioner Reyes: No, no, no; it's the --
Chair Russell: It's a job training for placement after homelessness.
Commissioner Reyes: Absolutely. That is in conjunction with the school system and
with Miami Dade Community College, and they have been very successful. I was
there the other day and I was looking into it, and I know that they need more help in
order to increase the number of people that want -- they want -- be trained, and then
they will be placed in their jobs. And as they start earning enough, they will move
out (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and then they will restart their productive life.
Chair Russell: I'd love to work with you on that and learn more about it, and lets --
Commissioner Reyes: Oh, good, good. Let's take -- let's --
Chair Russell: And find a way to fund it.
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Commissioner Reyes: That's right. Let's take a -- let's do a visit at Camillus House.
Chair Russell: I'd like to.
Vice Chair Gort: It's very important.
Commissioner Reyes: Yeah.
Chair Russell: No, thank you very much. Is there a motion on BH 13?
Commissioner Reyes: Move it.
Chair Russell: Or do we already have it on the floor?
Vice Chair Gort: We already.
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): There was -- it was moved by Commissioner Gort --
Chair Russell: That's correct.
Mr. Hannon: --and no seconder.
Chair Russell: Oh. Second by the Chair, please. And any further questions or
discussion on the CRA budget? Hearing none, all in favor; say "aye. "
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Russell: Any opposed? Motion passes.
Mr. Hannon: As amended.
Chair Russell: As amended Thank you very much.
BH.14
RESOLUTION
6325
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
ATTACHMENT(S), ACCEPTING AND ADOPTING THE ANNUAL GENERAL
Southeast
OPERATING AND TAX INCREMENT FUND BUDGET OF THE SOUTHEAST
Overtown/Park
OVERTOWN/PARK WEST COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY
West CRA
("SEOPW CRA"), ATTACHED AND INCORPORATED AS COMPOSITE
EXHIBIT "A", IN THE AMOUNT OF $66,273,241.00, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
COMMENCING OCTOBER 1, 2019 AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2020,
AS APPROVED BY THE SEOPW CRA'S BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS.
MOTION TO:
Defer
RESULT:
DEFERRED
MOVER:
Keon Hardemon, Commissioner
SECONDER:
Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
AYES:
Russell, Gort, Carollo, Reyes, Hardemon
Note for the Record. Item BH.14 was deferred to the September 26, 2019, Second
Budget Hearing.
Chair Russell: BH 14, the Southeast Overtown/Park West annual budget.
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Cornelius Shiver: Good evening. Neil Shiver, Executive Director of the Southeast
Overtown/Park West CRA (Community Redevelopment Agency). I have the good
fortune of presenting at our budget -- our annual budget -- 201912020 budget -- an
amount of $66,000,273 [sic] and 241 for your acceptance and adoption.
Commissioner Hardemon: Mr. Chairman?
Chair Russell: Yes, Commissioner Hardemon.
Commissioner Hardemon: Unfortunately, in our budget handbooks today, we didn't
have the Overtown/Southwest [sic] Community Redevelopment Agency's budget.
Chair Russell: I didn't see that it was missing.
Commissioner Hardemon: If you look at the item that you have in your book and
you also look online --
Unidentified Speaker: Yeah.
Commissioner Hardemon: -- when you click on the Overtown CRA's budget, you see
a copy of a budget from the Omni CRA. So I don't know how that happened or why
it happened, but today was the day that the CRA came and made that
acknowledgement to us, so we haven't had an opportunity to actually look at that
budget and go through that budget to determine whether or not this should be
approved at this meeting. So what I'm going to ask this body to do is to continue this
to the next budget hearing. So that's a motion to defer to the next budget hearing.
Commissioner Reyes: Second.
Chair Russell: Motion to defer and a second.
Mr. Shiver: Thank you.
Chair Russell: Is there any further discussion from the dais? Being none, all in
favor, say "aye. "
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Russell: Any opposed? Deferral to the next hearing for BH.14, please.
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BH.15
RESOLUTION
6303
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
Midtown
ATTACHMENT(S), ACCEPTING AND APPROVING THE PROPOSED
Community
BUDGET OF THE MIDTOWN COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY,
"A,"
Redevelopment
ATTACHED AND INCORPORATED AS COMPOSITE EXHIBIT IN THE
AMOUNT OF $8,883,704.00, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR COMMENCING
Agency
OCTOBER 1, 2019 AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2020, AS APPROVED
BY THE MIDTOWN CRA'S BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-19-0364
MOTION TO
RESULT:
MOVER:
SECONDER
AYES:
Adopt with Modification(s)
ADOPTED WITH MODIFICATION(S)
Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
Wifredo (Willy) Gort, Commissioner
Russell, Gort, Carollo, Reyes, Hardemon
Chair Russell: BK 1 S, the annual budget of the Midtown CRA (Community
Redevelopment Agency).
Commissioner Reyes: I think we already took care of it.
Chair Russell: Yet we need to approve it here at this body.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay, I'll move it.
Chair Russell: Is there anyone presenting that item? No.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay.
Chair Russell: It's been moved by Commissioner Reyes.
Vice Chair Gort: Second.
Chair Russell: Seconded by the Vice Chairman.
Commissioner Reyes: And can I --? Chris, while you were in my o ice, we talked
about the day-to-day and the management of this budget, and remember that we
talked that -- I mean, I suggested that we will transfer the -- I mean, the accounting
of this budget to you and --
Christopher Rose (Director, Office of Management and Budget): Yes, sir.
Commissioner Reyes: -- would you look --
Mr. Rose: To the City.
Commissioner Reyes: -- to -- I mean to the City, but under your watch. Could you
please look into it and report if it is feasible and how it will be done?
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
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Commissioner Reyes: Okay. So we just get that thing straightened out.
Mr. Rose: We'll -- we will research it.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay. Thankyou, sir.
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): Chair, I have just two amendments to be made. On
Page 1, I simply need to include the date of September 12, 2019. And on Page 2, I
need to include the following resolution number -- oh, I'm sorry -- in the Composite
Exhibit "A, " I need to include the following resolution number: MCRA-R-19-0001,
adopted on September 12, 2019.
Chair Russell: Thank you. And those are amendments to BH 15. There is a motion;
there was a second already. Any further discussion? All in favor; say "aye. "
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Russell: Any opposed? Motion passes, as amended, and that's BH 15.
BH.16
RESOLUTION
6302
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
Virginia Key
ATTACHMENT(S), APPROVING AND ADOPTING THE ANNUAL BUDGET
Beach Park Trust
OF THE VIRGINIA KEY BEACH PARK TRUST ("TRUST") ATTACHED AND
INCORPORATED AS COMPOSITE EXHIBIT "A," IN THE AMOUNT OF
$300,000.00 FROM CITY OF MIAMI OPERATING FUNDS, $25,000.00
FROM TRUST CARRYOVER FUNDS, $25,000.00 FROM TRUST CASH
WITH THE FISCAL AGENT, AND $716,800.00 IN ANTICIPATED REVENUE,
FOR A TOTAL AMOUNT OF $1,066,800.00, TO PROVIDE FOR THE
MANAGEMENT, OPERATION, MAINTENANCE, AND CAPITAL
EXPENDITURES FOR THE FISCAL YEAR COMMENCING OCTOBER 1,
2017 AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2018.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-19-0365
MOTION TO:
Adopt with Modification(s)
RESULT:
ADOPTED WITH MODIFICATION(S)
MOVER:
Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
SECONDER:
Keon Hardemon, Commissioner
AYES:
Russell, Gort, Carollo, Reyes, Hardemon
Note for the Record. For additional minutes referencing Item BH.16, please see
"Public Comment Period for Budget Items. "
Chair Russell: Moving on to BH 16, the Virginia Key Beach Park Trust.
Guy Eorchion: Good evening again, Commissioners, Chairman. Guy Eorchion,
Virginia Key Beach Park Trust. I ask for your adoption and approval of our fiscal
year budget, 2019-2020, $3, 247, 000.
Commissioner Hardemon: I have a question.
Chair Russell: Commissioner Hardemon.
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Commissioner Hardemon: Mr. Forchion, does that include the money that the City
of Miami took away from you in the late hours of the last -- well, the adoption of
their change memo?
Mr. Forchion: It does include the $300,000 contribution from the City of Miami,
and we were asked also to add the $1 million of anticipated funds from the 2020
Ultra Music Festival.
Commissioner Hardemon: So help me understand. They said that it includes it;
meaning that they have that money (UNINTELLIGIBLE) spent -- they have that
money that the City would normally give for carrying on their activities at this time?
Christopher Rose (Director, Office of Management and Budget): So the two budgets
disagree right now, Commissioner.
Commissioner Hardemon: Okay.
Mr. Rose: So the City's budget --
Commissioner Hardemon: So we adopted theirs, it would include the $300,000 or
so?
Mr. Rose: One or the other would have to change, sir, yes.
Commissioner Hardemon: Got it. Okay. Sothis would be premature to kind of get
into it; maybe, maybe not?
Mr. Rose: Well, if you --
Commissioner Hardemon: If we adopted theirs -- if we amended theirs, then it
would -- it could be aligned with yours in the future?
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Hardemon: If we adopt yours, then we have to come back and amend
theirs?
Mr. Rose: It would be tantamount to saying, "Go look for it by the next meeting, "
sir.
Commissioner Hardemon: Mr. Forchion, I'm going to say this on the record. I don't
think it's ever been said on the record before. I know that there are issues with -- we
have a lot of space, if you will, at Virginia Key Beach, right?
Mr. Forchion: Correct.
Commissioner Hardemon: To do lots of different things. There's remediation that
needs to be done; a number of things. We know that we're trying to build a museum
there, a civil rights museum. Museums are hard to pay for -- right? -- which is why
the City of Miami committed with you all to give a million dollars towards the
operation of that museum. So now by the end of this year, hopefully, we have -- or
going to next year, $2 million towards this operation. So am I correct in that?
Mr. Rose: Correct.
Commissioner Hardemon: Okay. The -- I personally believe that there's going to be
a need of more to keep that museum going, because there may not always be an
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entity that could provide the million dollars moving forward. Now I know this: I
know that organizations such as yours are often mistreated by the governments that
oversee them. And what I mean by that is that there are other entities in the City of
Miami and maybe even Miami -Dade County -- well, especially in Miami -Dade
County -- that are types of venues that need seed funding, so like need -- they need
Friends of the Arsht -- right? -- things of that nature. And they always make their
way to finding the shortfalls to keep those entities open. I don't know why entities
such as yours get short-changed. I can guess a few reasons, but then I don't want to
be the guy -- you know -- making the guess and be wrong -- right? -- although I've
been wrong many times over. So what I'm saying to you is that I think there needs to
be something that we have to do in order to make people want to come to Virginia
Key Beach, like they used to in the past. In the past, it was pretty simple; it was
called segregation, right?
Mr. Rose: Correct.
Commissioner Hardemon: So that was a big enough reason for people like you, like
me, and others that believe in the sort of spirit that, you know, we had, to come to
Virginia Key Beach and have a good time; baby showers, concerts. James is
probably one of the oldest guys in the building, and he was there all the time, right?
That's my Chief of Staff. And so, what I want to consider is -- and maybe this is
something that you all can start to really think about, because on this dais, I know
we should talk about it. I think -- and I think ownership is key. So whoever is the
owner of this sort of venue or major partners in this venue to make it something
that's very special, but a luxury beach hotel would be a wonderful asset there, as
well as with the museum. Now, I know that there's some people who are anti -
development. There's already development that's coming there. And I'm not saying
develop the entire facility. I would never -- I mean, the entire land piece; one, you
can't do that, and I would never recommend that. However, I think that that space
was thrown away, and people of color made it something that people wanted to come
to and enjoy. And nowadays that it's become another coveted space in the City of
Miami, other individuals are saying, "You can't do anything to make improvements
to it that are worthwhile of people to come and travel to that space. " As we speak,
Miami Beach chooses to make it more and more difficult to enjoy their beaches.
They're raising parking values upward of $50 a day. Who are they trying to keep
from coming? Certainly, people of color; and certainly, those who don't have the
means to pay $50 an hour, because those -- $SO a day -- because those who can will.
When we create traffic plans, when we have events that come into this City, our
traffic plans are created to ease people in and out of different spaces. When they
create traffic plans in Miami Beach, it's created to keep people out of Miami Beach.
So Miami -Dade County and this area where we have these beaches that includes the
City of Miami is facing a real difficult time where the Miami that we know of --
especially in a place like Miami Beach -- is starting to tell us once again -- because I
believe history repeats itself -- that, "You are not welcome. " And so, I think it's
incumbent on the City of Miami to be on the right side of history and create a space
that's welcoming to people from all over the place, and show people that we can
create a space, that they can enjoy a beach, that they can have a hotel room, that
they can have special events, et cetera, and still have the same sort of natural habitat
that we have there to enjoy, as well. I think that we have a lot of space there that we
could make some wonderful things happen, and I think we should start to really
consider that. And so, that's just my kind of two cents on it.
Commissioner Reyes: Sir?
Chair Russell: Yes, Commissioner Reyes.
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Commissioner Reyes: I think it's a good idea; I really do. I think that we can
provide a destination point there. The beach is beautiful. We have marinas and
restaurants, and all the amenities on the -- near it. We have the Key Biscayne close
to it, and it could be a source of revenue. It is worth investigating. It's worth
analyzing and studying. I think it's a good idea.
Commissioner Carollo: Why don't they name it "Hardemon" (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?
Commissioner Hardemon: Don't name anything after me; someone might spit on it.
Usually, they spit on me everywhere.
Commissioner Reyes: Hardemon, Inc. I would love --
Commissioner Carollo: By the way, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that you guys brought
back to Bayfront Park.
Commissioner Hardemon: That -- we did it.
Commissioner Carollo: It's -- that's why I said, 'you guys. "
Commissioner Hardemon: You --
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah.
Commissioner Hardemon: -- and me together.
Commissioner Carollo: No, no, no. You and you and you; not you and us. It's $2
million, right?
Commissioner Hardemon: Thus far.
Commissioner Carollo: It was 2 million.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Hardemon: Thus far.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. My only concern with the museum at Virginia Key is
the water rise that we're having, so it's going to be a lot more expensive than
anything planned, and it has to be looked carefully. Hotel component, well, maybe
now you could do something. But Little Havana, we're planning for the Brigade
2506 to be moving into the prime tourist area, and bringing the Cuban Museum
there; at least 40, 000 square feet. And this is going to resolve the problem for the
County and, you know, all that that you know about. I'd like to see the other million
dollars go to a Cuban museum in Little Havana that we're going to get hundred
times over by tourists going there our money back out of it. So just like you stepped
up to the plate for a museum in the Beach Trust that was created when I was Mayor,
and you've been advancing it very well since then, I'd like to get your assistance and
my colleagues' assistance to put the other million dollars for a Cuban museum in
Little Havana. What we're trying to do there, it's got the potential to become even a
bigger tourist attraction than even Bayside. And certainly, it would make Ybor City
seem very small. But for the museums, we could start using the help now. I'm going
to bring something else for the budget in a little bit that's going to be a pilot
program. You told mein one Commission meeting you couldn't wait to hear my plan
on housing, but my plan -- we need a mixture of everything -- is ownership at half the
market rate. So if we could begin with this little one of getting all your support for
the other million dollars to go into Little Havana for a Cuban museum.
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Commissioner Hardemon: So if I may?
Commissioner Reyes: May I?
Chair Russell: Commissioner Hardemon; then Commissioner Reyes.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Hardemon: Just quickly, quickly. In regards to affordable housing
and ownership, I'm there with you.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Hardemon: I believe that we have to be able to provide people
permanent housing --
Commissioner Reyes: Yep.
Commissioner Hardemon: -- at a reasonable rate in order for our communities to
be stable. And if people believe that rent to affordable housing means affordability
forever, they're disillusioned, because what's going to happen is -- as it is today --
the rates for affordable housing are depending -- dependent upon the area median
income. People of means will buy the homes in the area. Their salaries are going to
raise the area median income, and the housing is going to (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
upon their salaries. And so, whereas you have an area where the area median
income may be $30,000 today, tomorrow it's not going to be that. Liberty City, Little
Haiti, and Allapattah, all these spaces where people are moving to have front lawns
and backyards, the area median income will increase, and the affordability of that
housing that's for rent will increase, as well. Today we know that people who are
renting in these spaces complain about the rents; the rate of the rents going up. And
so, the only way that you combat that is by making housing that is ownership for that
area, instill pride and ownership, and ensure that those people pay stable mortgages
moving forward. I think that is going to increase their net worth. It's going to
provide opportunities for their children to go to college. They can take out dollars
and values out of that mortgage, et cetera. It's just -- I think it'll be a huge thing.
And so, I think that, you know, we, as elected officials all over this nation have to
start acting smart about this and not making these temporary patches to affordability
for people. We're going to consider -- we're going to continue building, of course,
rental housing, because, I mean, it's a product that's needed. But we need to be
smart about the new products, also, that we put out in these neighborhoods, where
people are living there, and they need an opportunity to stay there in those
neighborhoods. Second, when it comes to a Cuban American museum, the -- there
are two talks of things. There's a lot of things going on in Miami right now in
regards to museums. The one that's -- that we're discussing now is a civil rights
museum. In the future, there's also some discussion that's around about some very
important people who want to bring a modern arts sort of museum, which I think is
incredible, as well, because when you look at the Perez Art Museum, they have a
small endowment that's used to fund a new piece or two of art every year. And I
think what they're doing over there with Mr. Sermons (phonetic) is incredible.
However, there's a real thirst for more art to serve that community. And so, what
you're seeing is all over this nation, there are museums that are dedicated to
creating this modern art by people of the diaspora -- those are people of color --
which includes places like Cuba, because -- you know -- the dark-skinned Cubans,
too.
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Commissioner Reyes: Yes.
Commissioner Hardemon: Now --
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah.
Commissioner Hardemon: -- I'm supportive of you the way that you would be -- of
course, that you're supportive of me. So there are things that each of us want to be
able to do on this dais, and I think that all of us should be able to get those things
done before we're out of office, because it's the right thing to do, because if I help
you and I help you, you, and you, that means I help people who live in your districts.
We help people who live in your districts, that means we help the City of Miami. And
so, there shouldn't be that combat on this dais that leads to the issue where you're
not getting what you need to get done, so I'm with you there.
Commissioner Carollo: I appreciate it.
Commissioner Hardemon: Where I am not, though, is taking from someone who
expected to get something. I think if we're going to the millions -- the $2 million
that's there, I think we keep it there. I think that we go and find the next million
dollars for the next thing somewhere else, even if it is special events, or a couple --
or whatever it may be, but I think we find that money elsewhere. I think it's wrong to
take it from somewhere.
Commissioner Carollo: Yes, but you're -- if I've heard you correctly, you're saying
you're with me on the housing.
Commissioner Hardemon: Oh, yeah. I like the idea of that.
Commissioner Carollo: Well --
Commissioner Hardemon: You're right. That's where we just -- that's -- all --
Commissioner Carollo: -- for this budget, I'm going to present something very
revolutionary changing for homeownership that we're going to be a revolving door
for the dollars that we get. People are going to be able to have their own home for
about half of market rate. They will be able to come in at 3 percent down with some
additional smaller dollars to be able to get at 3 percent. Those that are in real dire
situations, we could help with that down payment that's relatively low, and we could
get this done once we get it going every two years at most. We build, we sell, people
get their mortgage, we get our money back, we build more.
Commissioner Hardemon: The --
Commissioner Carollo: And we could use that money then floating into different
parts of the City. But in Little Havana, there's a key opportunity now for us to make
that into our Ybor City, except a thousand times better, where it will be a magnet
that will attract people that come to Miami, like Little Italy used to be for New York;
Chinatown for San Francisco. And the housing will be all on top; homeownership,
where people aren't going to have to leave the neighborhood, because they could go
down and have all the stores they need in the neighborhood.
Commissioner Hardemon: So, Commissioner Carollo, the idea -- the way that
you're explaining it, as well -- is -- it is exactly the type of thing that I thought about
when we created the Little Haiti Revitalization Trust, because the talk was that we're
going to put apartment rentals that are affordable in the complex, and we have
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enough of that product in these certain spaces. We have enough rental spaces,
because everyone -- 80 percent of the community is being rented in that space. And
so, the idea was to take the money instead and build housing that people can actually
buy and live in the spaces in Little Haiti and remain there. And so, I'm supportive of
ideas like that.
Commissioner Carollo: Well --
Commissioner Hardemon: And so, to see it replicated on a City level would be
awesome.
Commissioner Carollo: -- before tonight's over --
Commissioner Hardemon: At least let us see it, because I don't know if I can eat all
of that at one time, you know.
Commissioner Carollo: Well, I'm going to --
Commissioner Hardemon: We got two meetings, so.
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah. I'm going to give it to you easy. But this Commission
will control that money; as I t flows, because it's not like we're going to take it all at
one time. It's like a construction loan, which is what it is. As we start building is
when we take it and use it. And the minute we build, sell, people move into their
homes, we get that money and we start all over again in different parts.
Chair Russell: So this --just to bring it back to the Virginia Key Beach Park Trust,
this will come up in the City budget discussion. You're going to make a proposal.
Commissioner Carollo: I am, yes. It's not going to affect the budget in the sense
that this is going to be monies that we could pull out as loans to do this, so it's not
going to affect us in that fashion. It'll be sort of better than the bonds for the
stadium, because this you take out piecemeal as you construct it, and then you get it
back.
Chair Russell: Thank you. Commissioner Reyes.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay. I agree a hundred percent with ownership;
homeownership has been one of my main concern -- and we have stated it here a lot,
and I think that we should try to by all means, try to increase homeownership. Now,
in regard to the museums, you see, I know that there is not a single museum in the
United States that it is not subsidized; all museums are subsidized. But also, I will
not like to place the burden -- the whole burden of the museum on City of Miami, be
it a Cuban museum or Afro-American museum. And what I am saying is that as I
spoke with the gentleman that we have to strive in order to get endowments all over
the United States; endowments for the museum, and the idea that you had that make
it more attractive for selling that beautiful place; be more aggressive in how we sell
it for the activities that you are saying. Now, in regard to the $2 million of -- from
Ultra, I don't have any problem of taking the one million from last year, which is
included in your budget, and another million this year. But one thing that I want to
make sure is that it is not earmarked for specific purposes that every year it's going
to go for the same source, you see? You have to be revisiting those things, because
as you well know, everybody in this district -- you have needs, he has needs, you
have needs, and I have needs. Okay? That's my only comment. But I agree and I
think that we have to build the Cuban museum where they have to go out and try to
get as many -- (UNINTELLIGIBLE) many contributions as possible so we don't
place so much burden in a subsidy of the City of Miami.
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Commissioner Hardemon: Do you think that we can get some art right from Cuba?
Commissioner Reyes: The -- what?
Commissioner Hardemon: Can we get art straight from Cuba?
Commissioner Reyes: From Cuba? Art from Cuba?
Commissioner Hardemon: I just -- I was just playing.
Commissioner Reyes: Let me tell you --
Commissioner Hardemon: No, really, that's a joke. I want to be clear on that.
Commissioner Reyes: -- I'm going to be very honest, very honest with you, you see?
Vice Chair Gort: Why you had to (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?
Commissioner Reyes: No. I'm going to be very honest with you.
Commissioner Hardemon: Yeah.
Commissioner Reyes: If the art -- if a piece comes from an anti -Castro artist that
has been -- because in Cuba, in order for you to go into an exposition or to perform,
you have to be part of the government. You have to be approved by the government.
But if it is one of those artists that they don't have any way of getting their pieces and
getting money for them, you see, I wouldn't mind that; just like I wouldn't mind that a
person that it is ostracized by the government comes and performs, you see? What I
don't want is anything that deals with the government.
Chair Russell: Vice Chairman.
Vice Chair Gort: Look, I think the homeownership is number one, because that's
what maintains neighborhoods. But we also have to make sure that the
homeownerships is maintained for years.
Commissioner Reyes: Yeah.
Vice Chair Gort: Let me give you a couple examples. There's a couple of places
that we built before I was a Commissioner. I'm going to give you one in specific. It's
right across from Domino Park on 8th Street; those two -bedroom apartments that
with assistance from the City of Miami, a mortgage that wentfor $95,000.
Commissioner Reyes: Yeah.
Vice Chair Gort: Today, they're 300 and something. But we have to make sure that
we put the regulations that they have to maintain it for 'Y' amount of years, and if
they sell it, the profit part of it's got to go back to the fund.
Commissioner Reyes: Back to the City.
Commissioner Hardemon: Mr. Chairman?
Vice Chair Gort: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
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Commissioner Reyes: Back to the City. It is -- let me tell you -- listen. There is
something that we should have a seminar on it, because in order to have
homeownership -- and Commissioner Gort knows more than I do, because he have
done it before -- but it is a combination of things, you know. People, how we qualms
them, their ability to pay, because we don't want to get somebody in a home that they
will not be able to pay, and they will be foreclosed in a couple of months, and the
assistance that we can -- even if the price is low, see? I mean, it is a process that I
think that we have to work on it and implement it --
Chair Russell: Right.
Commissioner Reyes: -- before we --
Chair Russell: I'd like to bring it back to the Virginia Key Beach Park Trust.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes. Move it.
Chair Russell: Just a moment. So we have a motion, but let me just get some
questions I have answered, please.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes.
Chair Russell: Mr. Forchion, so from the County's perspective, in order to release
the funds for the museum construction, what sort of subsidy -- operating subsidy on
an annual basis were they seeking from the City to come up with?
Mr. Forchion: Well, I think what answered a lot of their questions and expectations
was the legislation that this body passed that covering any shortfalls that the Trust,
the museum may have for 10 years following the opening of the doors. That's a
powerful statement to the County; that is one of the expectations they were asking
for. I think the other is the -- and the greatly appreciated second million dollars
from the Ultra Music Festival for 2020, that also goes to show that there are
operating dollars going forward. We look to try to match those and entice other
investment.
Chair Russell: I don't mean to be rude, but the specific question was, "What was the
County asking for in order to release the funds?" They had a dollar amount if I
recall.
Mr. Forchion: They did not represent a direct dollar amount to us.
Chair Russell: Okay. I'm mistaken then.
Mr. Forchion: They did not.
Chair Russell: Because I thought that was the goal we were working toward in
order to get the funds released.
Mr. Forchion: What they were after is insurances that what is constructed there,
one, attracts the attention needed for it to be as self -sustainable as possible, but
really, that legislation, the dollars that the Trust is getting from the show has really
satisfied what is necessary to release those funds.
Chair Russell: What do you see as the operating subsidy necessary on an annual
basis to operate the museum?
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Mr. Forchion: With our projections now from our two -year -old business plan, right
around $750, 000 a year.
Chair Russell: Per year. And the agreement with Ultra at this point would be
toward a million a year to go toward that if I'm not mistaken.
Mr. Forchion: As the legislation read, it spoke to the 2020 show.
Chair Russell: So in your mind, the first million that came from 2019 show does not
go toward that museum subsidy, annual museum subsidy?
Mr. Forchion: Some of those funds are necessary for the Trust just for the fact --
that was a fee to the Trust for the show being on Virginia Key. Some of those funds
are needed for the 35 days that we were closed this fiscal year, so some of it is pure
operations, and necessary. The bulk of it and the future 2020 show dollars, we
would look to leverage that in any way we could.
Chair Russell: I think we need to set some ground rules as the budgets are approved
for the Trust with regard to making sure it gets set aside, and also making sure what
gets spent for ongoing maintenance and capital improvements that are needed on a
regular basis, because if not -- it's going to take a few years to build the museum.
Mr. Forchion: Yes, it will.
Chair Russell: We want to make sure that if it's possible that there's a financial
method to take the money that's being built up now into a sort of endowment --
Vice Chair Gort: Yes.
Chair Russell: -- into a sort of --
Vice Chair Gort: Trust account.
Chair Russell: -- Trust account that's going to ensure that it doesn't fall short and
gets spent too early, because if suddenly you got a bird in the hand and you could do
a lot of good improvements right now, which is great, but who knows what might
happen to Ultra? Who knows -- as you can see in this moment -- what might happen
to that fund?
Mr. Forchion: Most definitely.
Chair Russell: So we need to be very careful. It was my understanding originally
that the million was going toward those future -- and that was going to help us
release the funds from the County.
Mr. Forchion: Well, the million dollars in the legislated piece that just passed in the
resolution bringing Ultra to Bayfront Park --
Chair Russell: Yes.
Mr. Forchion: -- does speak to a special account --
Chair Russell: Yes.
Mr. Forchion: --for the creation and establishment of the museum, so.
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Chair Russell: And did we word it in a way that the Ultra -- that one million a year
from the Ultra is ongoing into the future?
Commissioner Reyes: No, no.
Chair Russell: It was a one time --
Commissioner Reyes: One time.
Chair Russell: -- for 2019 and 2020?
Vice Chair Gort: Right.
Commissioner Reyes: That's right. And—
Chair Russell: So it is not allocated beyond that?
Commissioner Reyes: That's right. It --
Mr. Forchion: Not going by the language in that resolution.
Commissioner Reyes: It will be revisit; that's what I just said.
Chair Russell: Understood.
Commissioner Reyes: It will be revisit every year.
Chair Russell: In that case, you do not have a guaranteed stream of funding at this
point. You have a --
Mr. Forchion: We do now.
Chair Russell: -- blank resolution -- or a filled resolution, which is a blank check
from the City if there's a shortfall, and --
Mr. Forchion: Correct.
Chair Russell: -- that's a concern for us to be careful about, very careful about. The
Ultra has been a windfall for the Trust, and Commissioner Hardemon fought very
hard to make sure that they were able to come back and secure those funds on the
side. But that's only half of the revenue that we received from Ultra; am I correct?
Mr. Forchion: That's correct, Commissioner --
Chair Russell: All right. So --
Mr. Forchion: --Mr. Chairman.
Chair Russell: -- we don't have to start divvying and separating and taking, and --
but I think we can look at the bigger picture here of the potential shortfalls that we
need to make sure we take care of,• not only from shoring up that museum and its
operating funds, but your existing annual budget, capital and improvements, and
improvements are necessary. Someone came to me --
Mr. Forchion: Correct.
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Chair Russell: -- who couldn't even have a birthday party, because the merry-go-
round is not functioning.
Mr. Forchion: This is true.
Chair Russell: Right? So now that you've got cash in hand to make some of these
improvements, I would like to study that with you, and work together with
Commissioner Hardemon, as well --
Mr. Forchion: We look forward to it.
Chair Russell: -- on a sunshine meeting for the bomb that was dropped a few
moments ago regarding the hotel; that, I had never even contemplated or heard of.
Commissioner Hardemon: It's like a water balloon. It's not a bomb; it's a water
balloon. Everybody likes water balloons.
Chair Russell: This is the most ecologically sensitive island -- I mean, this is our
only blue water beachfront in the entire City, and the thought of developing that must
be taken -- let's just say I'm not in favor of it. As --
(Applause)
Chair Russell: I am very concerned. And a luxury hotel, I'm having to jump in my
mind how that actually helps with access to that beach for the average Miami
resident, much less an underprivileged resident. I'm -- it worries me that it would
create more barriers to the beach than it would to -- it's just -- it's the -- we have to
be very careful with that one.
Commissioner Carollo: The only way I would agree --
Chair Russell: I'm open to a sunshine meeting on the issue. I'd love to even do it at
the park, but I --
Mr. Forchion: You're welcome in.
Chair Russell: -- want to at least put my line in the sand on that beach where -- how
I feel about that at this point, so --
Commissioner Carollo: Well, Commissioner, I do need to say this to you: The only
way that you lose me a hundred percent is if you're going to have hostels there, you
know, where you have bunkbeds and all that. That's illegal in the City of Miami,
except in the 8th Street area. There's a 50-room, I understand, hotel there that can't
open up, and they're advertising they're going to have 220 beds in 50, and bunkbeds
will go for 25 bucks.
Commissioner Reyes: Administration should look into it.
Chair Russell: So --
Commissioner Carollo: But you know what? I'm waiting for the Mayor to come
back, because his firm is the one that represents those people, so --
Commissioner Reyes: Okay.
Commissioner Carollo: -- you know, I want to let him know.
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Chair Russell: So just my two cents to close out, and I'm sorry for talking long-
windedly.
Commissioner Reyes: Yeah, (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Chair Russell: I'm not in favor of a hotel, but I am in favor of securing a constant
revenue stream that will ensure we're not creating an annual hole in the budget for
the museum that we have to go looking for every year. And at the moment, we seem
to have that with Ultra. I don't want to mess with it.
Commissioner Hardemon: Right. So --
Commissioner Reyes: And I totally disagree with it --
Chair Russell: Understood.
Commissioner Reyes: -- with placing your marking on revenues for one thing. I
know that once you do that, it's very difficult to get rid of it, even if it is not needed. I
-- we have to commit our self that every year, we are going to revisit, and their
shortage is going to be covered, and it doesn't have to be (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Commissioner Hardemon: And Mr. Chairman, I'll tell you -- and this is not an
affront to you, but I will tell you that I'm quite used to people of means in areas that
are sparsely developed, they have large plots of land for their residential houses, you
know; whereas, in the City of Miami -- say, for instance, in Overtown, you know, you
had 2,500 square foot lots, right? And so, the major -- the average house in the City
of Miami is probably a 5,000-square foot lot area, etcetera. There's places even in
the Grove -- right? -- where people are developing on these lots large parcels -- I
mean, large properties, et cetera. There are areas where, on this dais, we've said,
"No, you can't split the lots," where you had 30,000-square foot lots, because they
didn't want new people to move in. There-- so there's spaces like that. And I would
dare to say that this space is like that, because it's like, "No more; we have enough.
It's ours. Don't touch it." But in areas like Liberty City, Little Haiti, you know,
Overtown, spaces where the land is cheaper for people to actually get the land, what
I'm seeing is that there's an overdevelopment of structures; large structures, rental
structures, structures where you are putting all people of low-income means, et
cetera, in one space. And so, you know, whereas these other areas are improving in
value, these spaces are not doing so at the same rate. So I'm used to someone
saying, "Well, we don't want to develop there, because that's a nice space; that's our
space. " And over here, "You should do it over there, because that's where it matters"
-- right? -- which is why we have an abundance of certain types of products in
spaces that are within District 5 in the City of Miami, and District 3 in Miami -Dade
County. But that's a tale for another day. So all I'm saying is that if we need to
attract more tourism into the City of Miami, we need to protect the beach, yes, but
let's not forget that -- I mean, this place isn't all pristine beachfront, waterfront
property. I mean, part of it is a dump, right? So, I mean, there's a lot to look at and
a lot to consider in order to make improvements to that space that's worthy of the
City of Miami, where we can enjoy all types of lifestyles here.
Chair Russell: So you're -- actually, you're speaking more about the hundred acres -
Mr. Forchion: The other, yes.
Chair Russell: -- (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?
Commissioner Hardemon: I'm talking about we should look at everything.
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Mr. Forchion: Right.
Commissioner Hardemon: We should look at everything.
Commissioner Carollo: Well, then --
Commissioner Reyes: Let's look --
Commissioner Carollo: -- if you want to look at everything, you must have looked at
the plans that I left when I left the mayoralship [sic]. I left a whole blueprint --
really, citywide -- but in Virginia Key, we had a really good one with hotels and
soccer and baseball fields, and other water amenities. So you should look at that,
because —
Chair Russell: There is --
Commissioner Carollo: -- there's a lot of good properties.
Chair Russell: I didn't mean to interrupt. There is a Virginia Key Master Plan,
which has been approved and vetted by the public, over and over again, and it does
not contemplate a hotel.
Commissioner Hardemon: I know, but it's -- I know these are old, but like I said,
these are -- you know, there are certain --
Chair Russell: You're thinking outside the box. I get it.
Commissioner Hardemon: -- and there are certain people that are always interested
in these matters that --
Commissioner Carollo: But --
Commissioner Hardemon: -- and they vote on these things and it's
(UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Commissioner Carollo: -- by the way, when I was here before, the Commission
approved a master plan that contemplated hotels, so let's look at both and see. You
know, times change.
Commissioner Reyes: The thing is it's worth looking, but this is not time to decide if
it's going to be done or -- let's look into it, that's all.
Chair Russell: It's -- right. You've put it out there. I (UNINTELLIGIBLE) --
Commissioner Hardemon: Do we have a motion to approve BH 16?
Chair Russell: Yes, there was a motion from Commissioner Reyes.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes.
Chair Russell: Is there a second?
Commissioner Hardemon: I'll second it.
Chair Russell: Seconded by Commissioner Hardemon.
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Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): And --
Chair Russell: Any further discussion or questions?
Mr. Hannon: Chair, just to make sure, that motion and the second is on the
resolution that was distributed on September 10, 2019, so this will be as amended.
Chair Russell: It'll -- it would be as amended, okay. Understood. That's BH 16, as
amended. There's been a motion and a second.
Commissioner Hardemon: Correct.
Chair Russell: Any further questions or discussion?
Commissioner Reyes: No.
Chair Russell: All in favor say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Russell: Any opposed? Motion passes. Thank you.
Mr. Forchion: Thankyou, Commissioners.
Chair Russell: Vigorous discussion.
BH.17 RESOLUTION
6313 A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
Bayfront Park ATTACHMENT(S), APPROVING AND ADOPTING THE ANNUAL BUDGET
Management OF THE BAYFRONT PARK MANAGEMENT TRUST, IN THE AMOUNT OF
Trust $3,804,318.00, ATTACHED AND INCORPORATED AS COMPOSITE
EXHIBIT "A", TO PROVIDE FOR THE MANAGEMENT, OPERATIONS,
MAINTENANCE, AND CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS OF THE MILDRED AND
CLAUDE PEPPER BAYFRONT PARK AND MAURICE A. FERRE PARK,
FOR THE FISCAL YEAR COMMENCING OCTOBER 1, 2019 AND ENDING
SEPTEMBER 30, 2020.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-19-0366
MOTION TO:
Adopt with Modification(s)
RESULT:
ADOPTED WITH MODIFICATION(S)
MOVER:
Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
SECONDER:
Joe Carollo, Commissioner
AYES:
Russell, Gort, Carollo, Reyes
ABSENT:
Hardemon
Chair Russell: BH 17, the Bayfront Park Trust Management Trust -- Bayfront Park
Management Trust budget.
Jose Solano: Good evening, Commissioners. My name is Jose Solano, from the
Bayfront Park Management Trust. I'm here to submit our 201912020 budget to you
all.
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Chair Russell: This is a substitute. Is this substitute substantively different than the
-- what we have?
Mr. Solano: Yes. We had to make some changes to our budget. We are asking the
approval of the -- our operating budget of 3, 804, 318.
Chair Russell: Just a moment. All right. Are you going to walk us through the
changes?
Raul Rodriguez: Yes. Hello. My name's Raul Rodriguez. The main change really is
the reserve fund transfer, so additional capital or cash that was in the Trust at the
beginning of the year, so they will be able to proceed with enough funds to operate;
as well, the budget now is balanced, and it's zero dollars. That was the biggest
change.
Chair Russell: Now what was in the original that we have in our record?
Mr. Rodriguez: In the original one, there was a small deficit; however, after
revision, there's some additional funds -- or additional funds that was available or
anticipated for revenues, and the budget now has been balanced.
Chair Russell: What was the deficit that you made up for the--?
Mr. Rodriguez: It was about 15 to $20, 000.
Chair Russell: And that's the only difference substantively that we're looking at?
Mr. Rodriguez: Yes, correct.
Chair Russell: And the reserve transfer you mentioned?
Mr. Rodriguez: The reserve transfer was the cash available at the beginning of the
year to bring it into the budget as additional revenues.
Chair Russell: But that was reflected in the current one that was --
Mr. Rodriguez: No, it was not. Sorry. It wasn't reflected in the original one.
Chair Russell: Got it. So this updates that?
Mr. Rodriguez: So this one -- correct; actually includes it.
Chair Russell: I'm just studying the changes. All right. Is there a motion on BH --
Commissioner Reyes: Move it.
Chair Russell: -- 17? Moved by Commissioner Reyes; seconded by Commissioner
Carollo on the Bayfront Park Management Trust budget. We have a motion and a
second. Is there any questions? And this would be amended, obviously, with the
substitution. All right. Moved and seconded. Is there any further question? All in
favor of the item, say "aye. "
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Russell: Any opposed? Motion passes.
Mr. Solano: Thank you.
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Chair Russell: Thank you very much.
BH.18
RESOLUTION
6305
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
Office of
ATTACHMENT(S), AFTER A DULY NOTICED PUBLIC HEARING,
Management and
RELATING TO THE PROVISION OF SOLID WASTE SERVICES,
Budget
FACILITIES, AND PROGRAMS IN THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA ("CITY");
IMPOSING SOLID WASTE ASSESSMENTS AGAINST ASSESSED
PROPERTIES LOCATED WITHIN THE CITY FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
BEGINNING OCTOBER 1, 2019 AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30,2020;
APPROVING THE RATE OF ASSESSMENT; APPROVING THE
ASSESSMENT ROLL; AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-19-0367
MOTION TO:
Adopt with Modification(s)
RESULT:
ADOPTED WITH MODIFICATION(S)
MOVER:
Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
SECONDER:
Joe Carollo, Commissioner
AYES:
Russell, Gort, Carollo, Reyes
ABSENT:
Hardemon
Chair Russell: BH 17 has passed. Moving on, we are almost there. BH 18, assess
the Solid Waste fee, FY -- Fiscal Year '20.
Christopher Rose (Director): Good evening, Commissioners. Chris Rose, Office of
Management and Budget. This is the loth year in a row that the solid waste fee will
be $380 per household per year. It is remaining the same. I have two amendments
that I would like to make. They are not substantive amendments; they're just
informational amendments. I'd like to put into the record the -- let me get it right.
This is the copy of it being advertised in the Miami Herald, and I'm going to hand it
to the Clerk in a moment. And this is the full cost of solid waste. Neither one were
ready when we went to print; they're ready now, so if -- with your permission, I'll
give it to the Clerk, and --
Commissioner Carollo: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: What is the yearly amount that solid waste is costing its in
the City?
Mr. Rose: 36,888 --
Commissioner Carollo: No, no, no; not 36, 000.
Mr. Rose: 36 million -- excuse me -- $36,888,561, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: And how much are we bringing in at these rates?
Mr. Rose: I'm going to have to do a little math to get there, but 67,830 households
times $380 is 25, 775, 400, and we discount that. Pursuant to State law, we don't
budget all of it to be safe, so we've got --
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Commissioner Carollo: We've got a --
Mr. Rose: -- 24 million -- 24 and a half million budgeted.
Commissioner Carollo: So we got a shortfall of maybe 12 million or less.
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: Have we looked on the accounts that we've given to
commercial haulers that are -- what? --four units or a little more? I mean, where is
the breakdown that we have now?
Mr. Rose: We do have that. It's three units or less. We still pick up some of them.
Commissioner Carollo: Three or less; that's why I said four.
Mr. Rose: And it's not mandatory. It is -- certainly, it's been entered in the system
effectively.
Commissioner Carollo: Well, I think we need to make it mandatory, because we
could bring more than we're getting from the haulers than what they pay us, and
maybe we got to look at bringing it a little higher. You know, I don't know what the
Solid Waste Director would recommend, how high we go; if it's five, six units, maybe
eight. I don't know. But we could make additional dollars that way.
Mr. Rose: Very good. So it sounds like a directive to research that?
Commissioner Reyes: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: Yes. I'd rather go that route than to increase it.
Mr. Rose: Very good. Thank you, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: Even though for bonding purpose, they could see that we
got a lot of room if we ever have any problems in the future. I think you know where
I'm going on that.
Mr. Rose: May I put these in the record, Mr. Chair?
Chair Russell: Yes, please.
Mr. Rose: Thank you.
Commissioner Carollo: Thank you, Chris.
Mr. Rose: No other amendments, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay.
Commissioner Reyes: Move it.
Chair Russell: Thank you.
Commissioner Carollo: Now --
Chair Russell: There's a motion on BH.18.
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Commissioner Carollo: -- if I can, on Solid Waste, Chris, I'd like to add some
additional dollars to the Solid Waste budget.
Mr. Rose: May I?
Commissioner Carollo: Would you prefer for me to wait until we get in the full
budget?
Mr. Rose: There's a reason for -- this is just the revenue side, assessing the solid
waste fee. The Solid Waste budget is actually in BH.21.
Commissioner Carollo: We'll wait to get to there --
Mr. Rose: Thank you.
Commissioner Carollo: -- since this is not going to be income. This is going to be
paying additional dollars where I think we'll save even more. We'll wait for that.
Chair Russell: Thank you, sir. There's a motion on BH.18 by Commissioner Reyes.
Is there a second?
Commissioner Carollo: Second.
Chair Russell: Second by Commissioner Carollo. Any further questions?
Commissioner Reyes: Nope.
Chair Russell: All in favor, say "aye. "
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Russell: Any opposed? Motion passes, as amended.
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BH.19
RESOLUTION
6292
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
Office of
ATTACHMENT(S), APPROVING THE CITY OF MIAMI'S ("CITY") FISCAL
Management and
YEAR 2019-20 MULTI -YEAR CAPITAL PLAN TOTALING $654,242,000
Budget
WITH $25,418,000 NEWLY APPROPRIATED, ATTACHED AND
"A"
INCORPORATED AS COMPOSITE EXHIBIT ("PLAN"), AS REQUIRED
PURSUANT TO THE COMMUNITY PLANNING ACT, SPECIFICALLY
SECTIONS 163.3161 AND 163.3177, FLORIDA STATUTES (2019), AND
CHAPTER 18/ ARTICLE IX/ DIVISIONS 1 AND 2 OF THE CODE OF THE
CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS AMENDED, TITLED "FINANCIAL/
FINANCIAL POLICIES/ ANTI -DEFICIENCY ACT/ FINANCIAL INTEGRITY
PRINCIPLES," TO SET FORTH THE CITY'S FISCAL NEEDS FOR CAPITAL
IMPROVEMENTS, SUBJECT TO AN ANNUAL PLAN REVIEW, TO
DETERMINE PROJECT PRIORITIES, TO ADD NEW CAPITAL PROJECTS,
TO CLOSE OUT COMPLETED PROJECTS, AND TO APPROPRIATE, RE -
APPROPRIATE, AND MODIFY FUNDING ALLOCATIONS AS NECESSARY;
RATIFYING, APPROVING, AND CONFIRMING CERTAIN NECESSARY
ACTIONS OF THE CITY MANAGER AND DESIGNATED CITY OFFICIALS
IN ORDER TO UPDATE THE RELEVANT CAPITAL PROJECTS, FINANCIAL
CONTROLS, PROJECT CLOSE-OUTS, COMPLETED PROJECTS,
ACCOUNTING ENTRIES, AND COMPUTER SYSTEMS IN CONNECTION
THEREWITH AND FOR GRANTS IN PROGRESS; PROVIDING FOR
INCORPORATION OF SUBSEQUENT AMENDMENTS TO THE PLAN; AND
PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
MOTION TO: Defer
RESULT: DEFERRED
MOVER: Wifredo (Willy) Gort, Commissioner
SECONDER: Ken Russell, Commissioner
AYES: Russell, Gort, Carollo, Reyes, Hardemon
Note for the Record. Item BH.19 was deferred to the September 26, 2019, Second
Budget Hearing.
Chair Russell: BH. 19.
Christopher Rose (Director): Good evening, Commissioners. Chris Rose, Office of
Management and Budget. BFL 19 is the Annual Capital Plan and -- the Multi -Year
Capital Plan and Annual Capital Budget for the City of Miami. It is as presented,
300 and -- $3,242, 000, 000 of need, actually -- got it here -- $25.418 million of new
revenue being appropriated in this proposed budget. And ifI may, I'd like to put into
the record the change memo, the information for first budget hearing memorandum
that your office and all the offices received this past Friday, September 6, because
the Capital budget is amended by that. Yes, sir.
Commissioner Reyes: If I may, I would -- you see, I will like to make some
amendments to the City of Miami parking --park impact fee funding.
Mr. Rose: Sorry; could you say which fund again?
Commissioner Reyes: The park impact fee funding category for citywide park
expansions and land acquisition, Capital Project Number 40-B40507, and I would
like it to be reduced and amended as follows: I'm requesting this, and this is -- have
to be -- go to -- I mean, if my colleagues agree with it. I want 300 -- amend
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$350,000 for park expansions for (UNINTELLIGIBLE) mini park master planning
and design. The Administration should create a "B" -- specific "B" number,
specifically for (UNINTELLIGIBLE) mini park; $450,000 for Project Number 40-
B193522, Silver Bluff Mini Park and dog run park construction and expansion; and
300 --and $500, 000 for Project Number 40-B183505, West End Park Enhancement
General Plan. And that will be a total reduction of $1,300,000. And I'd rather
propose that Lines 2 and 3 of the change memo submitted by the Administration be
stricken; specifically, $11,899 should be taken from 40-B309575 and 10,000 should
be taken from 40-B50512, for a total of $21,899, and be reallocated back into
Project 40-B50413 to cover (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Commissioner Carollo: What --
Chair Russell: Is your mike on?
Mr. Rose: I apologize. I didn't hear the last thing you said; that 21,000 be
reallocated to where?
Commissioner Reyes: Reallocated to Project 40-B50413; that it is my amendments
and I propose it.
Mr. Rose: And what is that last project? The "B" number I heard, but --
Commissioner Reyes: That project is -- what's the project, the -- that's all the Pines
Road road construction that -- we are -- we have a certain shortage there, and we
want to see if we can gather the funds and finish the project.
Commissioner Carollo: What is the amount that you have left (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
plan; about 2.8 million -something?
Commissioner Reyes: You mean after --finish with me, right?
Commissioner Carollo: No, no, no.
Mr. Rose: So -- through the Chair.
Commissioner Carollo: What do you have left there now; about 2.8 million plus?
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir. Before this amendment, the land -- Citywide Land Acquisition
Project that Commissioner Reyes was talking about had 2.89 million. If you were to
accept that amendment the Commissioner just made, there would still be 1.59 million
left.
Commissioner Carollo: About 9?
Mr. Rose: 1.59.
Commissioner Reyes: I'll move it.
Commissioner Carollo: Do you think we could have enough for the new park behind
Simpson with that?
Chair Russell: Commissioner Carollo and I had a sunshine meeting with regard to a
park that saddles both of our districts, so we're interested in -- if I'm not mistaken,
the budget on that was just over I million.
Commissioner Carollo: No; it was about
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Chair Russell: 1. --
Commissioner Carollo: -- 1.5 or something like that.
Chair Russell: Okay. I thought it was in the 1.2, 1.3 area left.
Mr. Rose: Commissioners, Chris Rose. I -- there have been some subsequent
meetings with the County about that same park, and they are -- they have indicated
to us that they will fund the park as part of phase two of the Underline, with the
amenities, if we just give them the design that we have already.
Commissioner Carollo: Then if we could shift these dollars to District 3, where we
still need to finish another park that's in District 3, but it's going between the
Commissioner and myself, the Southside Park. There's an additional small kids
playground that's going to be there, dog parks, fields, amenities for all the people
that live in the high-rises. At least we could do that with that.
Mr. Rose: If it's the will of the body.
Chair Russell: So I'd like us to be -- this is first reading, so I'd like us to make sure
we're careful with all of this, and that we're all within consensus, because what
happens here is each of us starts working for our own districts or each other, but we
want to make sure we work with everybody and have a consensus before we lock
down an amendment, I think.
Commissioner Hardemon: Well, I'll tell you I can't follow the recommendation that
was made by Commissioner Reyes. I couldn't follow what you were actually saying,
so I don't know if there's a --
Chair Russell: It was --
Commissioner Hardemon: -- there's a document that can help me with that so that
we can make that change maybe on the next hearing, or -- because, you know, when
I think about the -- what? -- I heard "MPA (Miami Parking Authority)," I heard,
"impact fees, " et cetera. I heard a number of different things. And I feel like the last
time that we were here, I don't remember the amount, but -- was it like $4 million or
so that we gave to the district?
Chair Russell: Between the two.
Commissioner Carollo: There was a lot, but then the district ended up being short-
changed by a tremendous amount compared to everybody else.
Commissioner Hardemon: Well, I don't know what that means.
Commissioner Reyes: You're talking about District --?
Commissioner Carollo: On the bonds.
Commissioner Reyes: -- 4, right?
Commissioner Hardemon: Oh, no, the bond was -- I mean --
Commissioner Reyes: The bonds --
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Commissioner Hardemon: -- no. I wouldn't categorize it that way. But I will say
that I find -- it's very difficult for me to follow the sort of change that you just
recommended; and so, that kind of makes me a little bit uncomfortable with agreeing
to it, because I can't follow (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Chair Russell: Well, and that's why I'm -- what I'm -- my recommendation will be.
Let's all start sort of laying out the concepts that we're trying to find funding for.
Give Budget Director Rose a chance between first and second to work with each
office once we've started to lay these concepts out. So he's very creative, and I
believe he'll come back with something for us on second reading to help work with
you --
Commissioner Reyes: Wait, wait, wait.
Chair Russell: -- give comfort to others, as well, so we can understand
(UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Commissioner Reyes: I'm asking this because some of my funds have been taken,
and you know that some of my funds from my district have been taken for other
projects, so --
Chair Russell: They have?
Commissioner Reyes: -- I want to bring it back.
Chair Russell: I'd like to understand that fully, because --
Commissioner Reyes: That's right.
Chair Russell: -- yeah.
Mr. Rose: The Commissioner -- the two lines that the Commissioner struck were
Lines 2 and 3 on Attachment "C" to the Capital Plan in the change memo.
Commissioner Reyes: That's right.
Mr. Rose: That was 21, 000 that were going to be taken out of his district, so he's --
his motion would be to direct us to keep it in his district, and move it to another road
project in his district.
Chair Russell: Right.
Commissioner Hardemon: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Chair Russell: That's 21, 000, but --
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Chair Russell: -- I believe he had 1.5 million in --
Commissioner Reyes: No, no, 1.3.
Chair Russell: 1.3. Sorry.
Commissioner Reyes: If you want to give me 1.5, I'll take it.
Commissioner Hardemon: Did you pass out another--?
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Commissioner Reyes: I mean, I'm open.
Commissioner Hardemon: Did you pass that out? I heard you said you had it, but
do you have it printed again?
Mr. Rose: The --
Commissioner Hardemon: I want to make sure we're working from the same --
Mr. Rose: It was handed to me while I stood here, sir.
Commissioner Hardemon: No, no, not that, not that. I'm talking about the --
Mr. Rose: Oh, the change memo.
Commissioner Hardemon: -- change memo --
Mr. Rose: Sure.
Commissioner Hardemon: -- because I didn't get another copy of the change memo.
Eric Zichella: May I be heard, sir?
Chair Russell: You'd like to -- as a representative of the Underline, I'm assuming?
Mr. Zichella: Correct. Eric Zichella, 2100 Coral Way. I represent the Underline.
And first of all, I want to thank, Mr. Chair, yourself and especially Commissioner
Carollo, as well, for your leadership on this issue, for advocating for the Underline
and the parks abutting the Underline and around the Underline. I've not been privy
to the meeting that Mr. Rose is telling us occurred with the County, and I wasn't
aware of that funding commitment, but I just want to make sure that I understand
and clarify. What the discussion was, and the request was is that there are certain
park improvements that the Commission would like to see funded at Southside Park
and Simpson Park, and those funding -- the funding that you're moving would fund
those improvements, and to the extent that the County is going to contribute any
money toward those projects, it would offset those or pull it back into some other
fund that you guys could then reallocate later, but those are the two projects that'll
be funded. And to the extent that the money doesn't come from the County, that
funding would then cover it for both of those parks, correct?
Chair Russell: Mr. Rose.
Mr. Rose: So two days ago, there was a meeting with the County, with Irene
Hegedus and others. They said that if we come up with money to refresh the design
that we have and we give them the design, then they could build what was in that
design in the existing money that the City is already giving them for the Underline.
Mr. Zichella: I think she may have -- and it may have been the way it came off, but I
think that part of the conversation with the City is also related to the timing of when
or -- excuse me -- with the County -- is related to the timing of when they get impact
fee contributions from the City, which I know they're clamoring for more, so I'm not
so sure that they have necessarily a bunch of extra money to put into --
Mr. Rose: It would be in phase two.
Mr. Zichella: Right.
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Mr. Rose: They said it would be in phase two.
Mr. Zichella: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) so -- yeah.
Mr. Rose: So far, the City has actually given $2 million to the County. That is what
the County has asked for. I'm sure if they would ask for more, there is more in the
catchment area that would be available to be given.
Mayor Francis Suarez: Mr. Chair?
Mr. Rose: It's already there.
Mayor Suarez: If I may, Mr. Chair?
Chair Russell: Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Suarez: My understanding of the catchment area is it's already generated
very close to 7, if not more than 7 million, so I think there's a lot more there, as well.
Mr. Zichella: And that's up to the County, obviously, to ask for it --
Mayor Suarez: Sure.
Mr. Zichella: -- from you.
Mayor Suarez: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Mr. Zichella: They would have to request it, and then you release it. But I just -- I'm
not aware -- not understanding the budget in pretty firm detail for the Underline.
I'm not aware of additional extra monies that the Underline has or that are available
in funds -- that are available at the County to pay for additional parks, and that's
why I think the Commissioners were exercising such tremendous leadership to find it
in other dollars in the City's budget today.
Chair Russell: You have a guarantee from the County that this park is covered if we
provide the plans?
Nzerie Ihekwaba (Chief of Operations): Good afternoon. Zerry Ihekwaba, Assistant
City Manager. We met with the County on Tuesday and also with the Friends of the
Underline, and we were assured that there is a provision in the Underline Project --
Chair Russell: For phase two?
Mr. Ihekwaba: --for an amenity at this same location under phase two, which will
commence in September of 2020.
Chair Russell: So a year from now, which isn't that far off. And
(UNINTELLIGIBLE) they have the funding to start this section a year from now?
Mr. Ihekwaba: What they have actually asked us is to transfer the already designed
plans --
Chair Russell: Yes.
Mr. Ihekwaba: -- which is at 90 percent --
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Chair Russell: Yes.
Mr. Ihekwaba: -- and they will take it from there.
Chair Russell: So if that's the case, I would suggest we don't allocate it toward that
park, because if we do, they may change their mind --
Commissioner Carollo: Well --
Chair Russell: -- and that we look at Southside.
Commissioner Carollo: -- Southside, yeah; that's why I said that.
Commissioner Reyes: That's right. Now, Chris, do I need a vote on this?
Chair Russell: Well, my recommendation -- and it'll be the will of this body -- is to
consider that, but bring it for the solid vote on the amendments in second reading,
but it's up to this body.
Commissioner Reyes: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Chair Russell: We want to help you build park -- if there's anything, it's good that
we're fighting over building more parks.
Commissioner Reyes: Absolutely, absolutely. And --
Chair Russell: I think it's a great thing to (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Commissioner Reyes: -- in some cases, I've been short-changed, and these are parks
that they're in dire need.
Chair Russell: Yeah.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay? And I move for those amendments. You see, this is --
Mr.Ihekwaba: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Vice Chair Gort: What amendment?
Chair Russell: The amendment is a $1.5 million allocation for park impact --
Commissioner Reyes: 1.3. You want to put --
Chair Russell: I'm sorry. .
Commissioner Reyes: -- more than that?
Mayor Suarez: Mr. Chair, if I may?
Chair Russell: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Just a moment.
Vice Chair Gort: He wants to give you 200, 000.
Commissioner Reyes: Now you're going to give me $200, 000 more.
Commissioner Carollo: 1.59 is for Southside.
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Chair Russell: I have a clarification. This is actually not a two -reading ordinance;
this is a resolution.
Mr. Rose: Correct.
Chair Russell: All right. Sothis is it.
Mr. Rose: This is it.
Chair Russell: For the capital --
Mayor Suarez: Oh, for capital.
Mr. Rose: If I may --
Commissioner Reyes: I know the Mayor agrees with me in this part, so.
Mr. Rose: -- the Capital budget is potentially amended next meeting in the changes
that we make, as well, but that would be a different amendment to the Capital
budget. So the Capital budget would pass, and it could have even more amendments
at the next meeting. We've done that in past meetings, as well. If I may, the $21,000
amendment that the Commissioner spoke about is money in his district that we had
proposed to go out of his district and he does not want that, and he wants it to stay in
another project in his district. That would be something that the Administration
could handle right away tonight. The others are in that realm that it would be better
if we took it in and tried to figure out between the two hearings what we can and
cannot do, because I'm confident by the end of the night, all of the requests will total
more than what we have available, so I'm quite confident of that.
Chair Russell: So just so I understand --
Commissioner Reyes: And listen, I also --
Chair Russell: -- before I hand over the mike.
Mr. Rose: But it is the will of the body.
Chair Russell: Just to clarify, you're saying if we pass RE -- I mean BH 19 as is that
we would still be able to make capital changes on second reading for BH.217
Commissioner Reyes: I already asked for an amendment --
Chair Russell: I'm just asking a question --
Commissioner Reyes: Okay.
Chair Russell: -- of the Director to understand.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes.
Mr. Rose: So even though the Capital budget is not on the agenda at the second
budget hearing in two weeks, it -- there is the ability to amend the Capital budget,
nonetheless, as part of the overall budget amendment that the body would vote upon.
Chair Russell: Got it. So Commissioner Reyes would have a bite at the apple at that
point, as well, along with any other Capital changes.
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Commissioner Reyes: No, no, no. Sir --
Chair Russell: I understand what you're asking. You do have a motion, so I want to
entertain it.
Commissioner Reyes: I have a motion to amend the Capital budget.
Mr. Rose: Yes.
Commissioner Reyes: When it comes out, it will come amended with these
amendments, okay? That's what I'm asking.
Chair Russell: We'll see --
Unidentified Speaker: That's a tough one.
Chair Russell: You're speaking on a different item then. You're not talking about
BH 19.
Commissioner Reyes: No, because I don't want --
Mr. Rose: No. No, sir. He's speaking on the correct item; the item before you right
now.
Chair Russell: Okay.
Commissioner Reyes: That's right.
Mr. Rose: BH 19.
Commissioner Carollo: Now, what -- I'd like to make a substitute motion to his
amendment that would include the 1,590,000 for Southside Park. This will be one
joint one that we have.
Mr. Rose: I --
Chair Russell: How much is it?
Commissioner Carollo: 1,590,000.
Chair Russell: 1.5.
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah. 1.590.
Mr. Rose: That is, of course -- there are now two motions on the floor, I suppose.
Commissioner Carollo: No, no, no. There's only one motion. We're including that
into this one.
Mr. Rose: Okay.
Chair Russell: So --
Mr. Rose: I will point out, as well, that we still need 350,000 to design the park that
was spoken of at the sunshine meeting that is not included in any of these
amendments that you've just discussed.
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Commissioner Carollo: Well --
Chair Russell: We're at a 350 shortfall in the 90 percent design?
Mr. Rose: Yeah. The design has been on the shelf for awhile; it needs to be update.
Chair Russell: It needs 350.
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Chair Russell: That, we should definitely make sure (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Commissioner Carollo: Can we take 350 out of the 1-5-9, and the rest, we'd leave it
at Southside?
Mr. Rose: And if it pleases the body, I'll read all that back, but --
Chair Russell: So this is an amendment to your motion.
Commissioner Reyes: Absolutely.
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah.
Commissioner Reyes: I don't mind. (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Commissioner Carollo: And leaving his motion intact; we're just adding this to it.
Chair Russell: 1.3, and what -- the exact numbers as added up by --
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah.
Chair Russell: -- Commissioner Reyes. And then Commissioner Carollo is making
an amendment.
Commissioner Carollo: Yes. And then you're going to have 350,000 for the
Underline new park behind Simpson, and that's to go for the --
Mr. Rose: Design.
Commissioner Carollo: --design and drawings.
Mr. Rose: Yes.
Commissioner Carollo: And then 1,240,000 --
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: -- toward Southside Park.
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay.
Commissioner Hardemon: All I know is that I've been making a lot of concessions
for parks --
Commissioner Carollo: I'll second that motion.
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Commissioner Hardemon: --on that side of the dais over the past couple years.
Commissioner Reyes: Now there's a motion and there's a second.
Chair Russell: Yes; there's a motion and a second. So that's all contained in the one
emotion -- one motion; it's not a motion with an amendment; it's one motion.
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah, one motion.
Commissioner Reyes: One motion.
Mr. Rose: And if I may remind Commissioners, there will be zero dollars for land
acquisition in the upcoming budget once this -- if this occurs.
Commissioner Reyes: Until the next (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that we will have -- when
we (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the next funds.
Mr. Rose: Until money falls from the skies, sir. Yes.
Mayor Suarez: Mr. Chair?
Commissioner Reyes: Well, you know, sometimes, they fall from the sky.
Chair Russell: Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Suarez: No, that's -- I think that's cash in the account, correct? That's cash
that's in the account as of right now.
Mr. Rose: That is cash in the account and what's budgeted. This is -- the proposed
budget anticipates what's coming in the new year, as well.
Mayor Suarez: Okay. In terms of what will be generated through impact fees?
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir
Mayor Suarez: Got it.
Mr. Zichella: Mr. Chair?
Mayor Suarez: So unless it's more than anticipated?
Mr. Rose: Conservatively.
Mayor Suarez: Thank you.
Chair Russell: Yes.
Mr. Zichella: Mr. Chair, Eric Zichella, 2100 Coral Way, representing the
Underline. I spoke to Meg Daley five minutes ago and I spoke to Irene Hegedus post
this conversation. There may be a misunderstanding, because Irene Hegedus at the
County, in my conversation with her 30 seconds ago, claims that she has a different
understanding of what the conversation was.
Chair Russell: And what is that understanding?
Mr. Zichella: That she didn't commit to fund Simpson Park.
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Chair Russell: So the County has not committed to funding it? Where are we --
Mr. Zichella: So just so that we're clear, we will --
Commissioner Carollo: Well, congratulations.
Mr. Zichella: -- advocate for the County to fund as much of Simpson Park as
possible. We will advocate for that; the Underline will, and we've already made that
commitment to you guys in the sunshine meeting. But I want to make sure that you
guys understand that there's no commitment for that from the County. So to the
extent that your motion might be for both projects and then we can try to offset it
with County funding --
Chair Russell: Just -- we need to work this out. You're working on a little bit of
hearsay; whereas, we've got members of our Administration who were in the meeting
where there was a commitment from the County --
Unidentified Speaker: Yes.
Chair Russell: What was the substance of this -- what was the agenda of this
meeting? Was it specifically for this park?
Mr. Ihekwaba: Yes.
Chair Russell: For this -- a discussion about this park?
Mr. Ihekwaba: That's correct.
Chair Russell: Got it.
Mr. Ihekwaba: And then we had the CFO (Chief Financial Officer) for the City in
that meeting --
Chair Russell: Yes.
Mr. Ihekwaba: -- the Public Works Director, the Parks Director, the Planning
Director, and that statement was made to us.
Mr. Zichella: We want to help, you know, get as much funding for this as possible.
I'd just like to see that your motion be flexible enough that you could encapsulate the
original intent that Commissioner Carollo stated.
Commissioner Carollo: Well --
Chair Russell: The priority would be the one behind Simpson. As it doesn't yet exist,
Southside Park. Both of these parks are in Commissioner Carollo's district.
Southside Park went through a recent remediation and improvements of a kids' park
and -- as well as other --
Mr.Ihekwaba: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Mr. Zichella: They're both really important to the Underline; both of them.
Mr. Ihekwaba: Mr. Chair, may I?
Chair Russell: Yes, Mr. Ihekwaba.
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Mr. Ihekwaba: Based on the County's schedule, this project is not even going to be
advanced before September of 2020. If we meet subsequent to today with the County
and their position changes, we still have the immediate budget amendment to come
back. But I don't think we should be advancing funds today for a project that is not
going anywhere in the next six to nine months.
Mr. Zichella: May I on that? Because the County's very close to awarding phase
two design/build project. So just because construction won't commence until
September of 2020 does not mean they will not award the project and design will not
commence.
Mr. Ihekwaba: If I may --
Mr. Zichella: So --
Mr. Ihekwaba: -- the City is actually handling the design; not the County for the --
Mr. Zichella: For Simpson Park.
Mr. Ihekwaba: --for Simpson Park, yes.
Mr. Zichella: Not for the Underline.
Mr. Ihekwaba: We're not talking about the Underline. We're talking about the park,
which is the new Brickell Simpson Park, which is behind Simpson.
Chair Russell: Correct.
Mr. Ihekwaba: Because City of Miami is handling the design aspect of this park. So
Chair Russell: Yes. And then the idea was that we were going to invest in the design
Mr. Ihekwaba: Yes, sir.
Chair Russell: -- hand over to the County --
Mr. Ihekwaba: We handle the construction.
Chair Russell: -- and the County is going to fund it one year from now, and they'll
handle the construction.
Mr. Ihekwaba: But based on what he's just telling us now --
Chair Russell: It's not funded.
Mr. Ihekwaba: -- if the County has changed their position, we still have to meet with
them.
Chair Russell: Yes.
Mr. Ihekwaba: It's not the representative of the City to talk to the County.
Chair Russell: Correct.
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Mr. Zichella: And we're with you. We want to help Zerry to --just to be totally
clear, we don't -- our intention is not to suggest that you're wrong or they're wrong.
Chair Russell: You're identifying the potential (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Mr. Zichella: It just seems to me that there's a miscommunication, and we need to --
I would like to make sure that your motion allows for the funding of both to the
extent that you want to do that later.
Chair Russell: Well, is there a more generic way to allocate the funding that
Commissioner Carollo's talking about so that it has flexibility as we move forward
between these two parks?
Commissioner Carollo: All we have to do, Commissioner, is to leave then the full
amount of 1,590,000 to be used as needed between these two parks. Okay? And that
would take care of it.
Commissioner Reyes: Absolutely.
Chair Russell: And so, between those two amendments, what does that do to the
park impact fee reserve?
Mr. Rose: That zeroes it out. That's it.
Commissioner Carollo: But you'll have more buildings coming in that'll bring more.
Mr. Rose: It will. Well, if I may, as Zerry -- as Dr. Ihekwaba said, there's more
discussion to be had. When you put two parks on a "B" number, it does present some
trouble for the Administration what we're going to work on. But at some point, we're
going to need to come back on this anyway, so --
Chair Russell: Of course.
Mr. Rose: -- I think that's the most elegant solution we can come up with at this
time.
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah. And if we're short, we'll find the funds in different
ways that we can.
Chair Russell: So when it comes to parks capital -- and I'm sorry Commissioner
Hardemon is not here, because I know he's concerned about depleting the fund at
this point in this moment, with a -- before second read -- oh, we don't have a second
reading on this -- before we contemplate the entire budget. There are other parks
that are -- they're on their way, planning is done, we're ready to break ground on
some things, but we do have shortfalls. There's the pool in Virrick Park, which has
got significant funding, and was meant to break ground in this coming season, but
it's -- it has a shortfall. There has been a lot of discussion from Mr. Cruz about the
Morningside Pool, which will need some design dollars very soon. And we're very
close to a consensus on that issue that I think we should be able to allocate some
funds toward that and not create an entire hole here that we have no ability to fund
beyond that. There's impact fees, and then there's also other capital budgets to work
with, and that's why I want to give you that flexibility. So it'll be up to this body. I'm
absolutely in support of helping all of the parks that have been brought up so far,
and I want to make sure we're in consensus and that it's not --
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Commissioner Reyes: I just want to remind you that by April, we're going to have
Tranche 2 of the bonds; Tranche 2 that we're going to have additional funds for
parks, you see?
Mr. Rose: There will be a Tranche 2. When did you say it was going to be,
Commissioner?
Commissioner Reyes: I don't know.
Mr. Rose: Okay.
Commissioner Reyes: Maybe by April. That's what I heard you guys say.
Mr. Rose: There will be a Tranche 2.
Commissioner Reyes: You see? That's what I heard. So we're going to have --
Commissioner Carollo: By when?
Commissioner Reyes: -- additional funds.
Commissioner Carollo: By when?
Mr. Rose: It is -- we're working on design criteria for projects right now, so we're
not ready to give you a timeframe, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: Well, I'm the only guy left with a (UNINTELLIGENT) --
Commissioner Reyes: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) nothing.
Chair Russell: Commissioner Hardemon, Vice Chairman, how do you feel on where
we're moving with this amendments and this motion?
Vice Chair Gort: I want to make sure we have enough funding. At this time, I'd like
the -- in my district, we have $1.7 million coming to three different parks, but I know
we have made some commitment before in Curtis Park, the community center, and
my understanding, that allocation has been from last year's budget.
Chair Russell: Commissioner Hardemon. Oh, I'm sorry; you're responding to him.
Commissioner Hardemon: Yeah.
Chair Russell. I apologize.
Mr. Rose: Would you ask me the question again one more time, Commissioner?
Make sure I'm answering it right.
Vice Chair Gort: Well, the -- if you recall, we had a lot of conversations last year
when we put the budget together. My community was asking, and some other people
in the City of Miami -- Moore Park. We had allocated in this document that I'm
looking at now $1.7 million for some of the requests that we had, what we had
requested from last year's budget, and my understanding is some of the allocation is
going to come from the bond funds for Parks; especially the community center in
Curtis Park.
Mr. Rose: There is 1.5 -- 1.57 -- 1,570,000 new appropriations --
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Vice Chair Gort: Right.
Mr. Rose: -- of park impact fees --
Vice Chair Gort: Right.
Mr. Rose: -- in your district in the proposed budget.
Vice Chair Gort: I understand that, but one has been allocated before.
Mr. Rose: Right.
Vice Chair Gort: I want to make sure they're there.
Mr. Rose: I'm going to have to research that. I don't -- I have this year's -- the new
one in front of me right now.
Vice Chair Gort: Okay, I understand. But the commitment was made, so I avant to
make sure it stays there.
Mr. Rose: Okay. We have not removed anything; I can say that for certain.
Commissioner Hardemon: All right. So I know that over the past -- it feels like two -
- going on three years -- probably two or three years, and we've been quite -- I think
graceful in how we've been allocating the land acquisition funds and basically funds
to improve parks to District 3 and to District 4, because there was a need. It was
articulated on the record. I think the board agreed with it, and at junctures like this,
we made that decision. And so, where I am today is I'm just -- I don't know if I'm
ready to make another decision like that today on this. I want to at least be able to
see what other -- at least see these amendments that want to be made so that we can
weigh them all correctly by the next budget meeting. I think, of course, there's some
adjustments that all of us want to make, but there's certainly a need for park
improvements and enhancements in other spaces, as well, so I don't want to deplete
the funds just like that. Also, a quick question: We talked about -- what was it? I
think it was Belle Meade Island, right? Remember, there was a -- the -- there was a
"B" number that was created for funding for the design of the roundabout. They
created the design, and then the community thought that -- over many years -- that it
was supposed to have been fully funded. We talked about funding for it.
Mr. Rose: Yes.
Commissioner Hardemon: We didn't include any of the -- that funding in any --
Mr. Rose: Correct.
Commissioner Hardemon: Minutia of any documents, so that's also funding that we
have to find.
Mr. Rose: That is a shortfall as well, yes.
Commissioner Hardemon: Right. But in the -- and that would be to the Capital
Improvements budget, as well, correct?
Mr. Rose: Yes.
Commissioner Hardemon: All right. So --
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Mr. Rose: There is in District 5 $1.1 million across three parks of new park impact
fees in this budget.
Commissioner Hardemon: Right.
Chair Russell: Commissioner Hardemon, would it be your request then -- because
this is a one -reading item -- to take these items under consideration, but defer this
item to the second reading so that it's taken up with that budget as a whole? That
way, you've got time to soak up what motion and amendment was made here, and
any potential shortfalls that that creates elsewhere in the City.
Commissioner Reyes: I was --
Commissioner Hardemon: It's not necessary, but that's what I'm thinking.
Chair Russell: It's certainly not in opposition to what's being proposed here, but it's
meant to create a congeniality amongst how we divvy up this budget.
Commissioner Reyes: I just came -- I was talking to the Administration, and I don't
know -- Steve, Mr. Williamson, when -- if, in your best guess -- we have about how
many million dollars in Tranche 2?
Steve Williamson: Steve Williamson, Director, Capital Improvements. Could you
repeat your question, Commissioner?
Commissioner Reyes: Now, in the next tranche, the -- how much is dedicated for
Parks and Recreation activity?
Mr. Williamson: I can't say exactly how much will be dedicated for Parks, but what
I can say, you have approximately $SO million left under the total allocation of $78
million for Parks and cultural facilities.
Commissioner Reyes: That's right. So what it mean -- that means that we are not
going to run out of money just like that, you know. We're going to have additional
funds for parks to keep on creating parks and to keep on re -- yeah -- redoing the
parks, right?
Mr. Williamson: Yes. The bond authorization is there, but it also comes down to the
bonding capacity of the City.
Commissioner Reyes: Absolutely, absolutely. So your fear that we're going to be --
pass out, I mean, is unfounded, because we are going to have something.
Mayor Suarez: Mr. Chair, if I may?
Chair Russell: Yes. Who may? Oh, Mr. Mayor, sorry.
Mayor Suarez: No --
Chair Russell: The speakers are interesting. Its hard to tell the direction of where it
was now.
Mayor Suarez: Just to be clear, I just want to clarify for the record. I think what
you're saying is that the ability to continue to bunch in tranches is -- to bond in
tranches -- is dependent on the debt service.
Commissioner Reyes: Yeah.
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Mayor Suarez: So -- because we -- well, one of the promises made was that it was
not going to increase the debt service beyond -- right. Okay. So that's what the main
Commissioner Reyes: Okay.
Mayor Suarez: -- hold back is.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay.
Mayor Suarez: But it -- but we're looking like it's potentially going to be April of
nextyear?
Mr. Rose: That's what Commissioner Reyes said, yes. I -- we don't know, sir.
Mayor Suarez: Okay, got it. Okay.
Chair Russell: Vice Chairman.
Mayor Suarez: Good job, Commissioner. (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Vice Chair Gort: You know, I apologize. I was not here when Commissioner Reyes
-- my understanding, Commissioner Reyes will be moving from some of his own
dedicated funds in here 500 -- 350,000; 450,000; 500, which is a total of 1.3 hundred
thousand dollars.
Chair Russell: No.
Vice Chair Gort: And he wants to allocate it to something else.
Chair Russell: I believe that's incorrect.
Commissioner Reyes: It is --
Chair Russell: This is new unallocated impact fees, you know.
Unidentified Speaker: Closer.
Commissioner Reyes: -- they are being allocated to different projects.
Vice Chair Gort: Right. And you're take -- you're removing it from different
projects --
Mr. Rose: If I may?
Commissioner Reyes: From an impact from those projects.
Chair Russell: Mr. Rose will clarify.
Mr. Rose: The "B" number that Commissioner Reyes is referencing is the citywide
land acquisition --
Commissioner Reyes: That's right.
Mr. Rose: -- "B" number. Its the project that we buy new parkland out of. It is
available for new parkland or enhancing current parkland. So it has right now
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$2.89 million in it, available, unallocated, but ready to be spent on purchasing land
or enhancing parks. To do that, we need to move it to specific projects. We don't
normally buy just directly out of that project. We move it to specific projects. But,
no, that is not District 4-specific.
Commissioner Reyes: Yeah. Now, what I'm doing is --
Mr. Rose: The 21, 000 is District 4-specific.
Commissioner Reyes: Yeah, that's right; that 21, 000. This is specific. This is for
specific projects within District 4.
Mr. Rose: From citywide --
Commissioner Reyes: From citywide impact fee.
Mr. Rose: --for District 4, yes.
Commissioner Reyes: That's right. Okay.
Chair Russell: Right. So let's just table the motion for a moment, because there are
other capital issues to discuss beyond Parks and park impact fees allocations.
Commissioner Carollo: I'll just make one last statement and leave it at that. Out of
all the districts in the City of Miami, the one by far that has the least amount of parks
is District 3. And in the last tranche, we got short-cutted [sic] tremendously and we
still have to acquire additional parks, and we're still going to be under the rest of the
districts.
Mr. Rose: With your direction, the body moved a significant amount of money into
District 3 land acquisition, which is what Real Estate and Asset Management has
been using to purchase land --
Chair Russell: Last year.
Mr. Rose: -- recently, yes, so.
Commissioner Carollo: Wasn't anywhere near enough, Chris.
Mr. Rose: Understood. There's about $5 million in that project right now.
Commissioner Carollo: No; there's 4 million. 2 million was for District 4, and I
think I million went to District 5.
Commissioner Hardemon: For what?
Mayor Suarez: There may have been a balance in the account.
Commissioner Carollo: You forgot about that, huh?
Commissioner Hardemon: I didn't forget about anything. Stop counting my money.
I'm just joking; got to put that on the record, too.
Mr. Rose: You're right; 4 million went in. There was already a million of other
money that you had moved in there, as well, so there's a little more than 5 million.
Commissioner Carollo: No, no, no. Let me correct you again.
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Mr. Rose: Please.
Commissioner Carollo: The million of other monies was within the district parks
that we just moved around from the district, so that money was there --
Mr. Rose: Yes.
Commissioner Carollo: --from the district. It was not new money that we took from
anywhere else --
Mr. Rose: Agreed.
Commissioner Carollo: -- into the district.
Commissioner Reyes: That's it.
Mr. Rose: The project --
Commissioner Carollo: So, please, Chris, stop the Administration propaganda. You
know, stop with the fake news.
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: Thank you.
Mr. Rose: The only statement I make is that the project titled "District 3 Land
Acquisition" has $5, 022, 000 in it available right now.
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah, but we got more money than that, I think, for some of
the additional stuff that needs to be done, because it's just not getting land
acquisition; it's also putting the actual playgrounds and more stuff that we need.
Now how much have we spent up to now?
Mr. Rose: A lot. I don't know a district that doesn't have needs in it, though.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. So you don't have the figure for me --
Mr. Rose: I don't.
Commissioner Carollo: -- so you gave me a quick out answer. That's fine. Better
find out the rest of the money I got left there, Chris.
Chair Russell: So with -- the only capital item that I really want to bring up to try to
find the funding for before we get to the next meeting is the "B" number having to do
with North Bay Homes Drive. This project, since before I came into oj�ce, has been
a priority that I've pushed. It hasn't been designed or funded, and it's com -- we've
let down this entire neighborhood, about 50 -- almost 50 homes in this neighborhood
have lived in a very poor -conditioned street with very poor -condition drainage, and
I've been asking every year to find a solution. I need this project funded in this
coming year. We're very close on the design. We're working on the rights -of -way
and different things, but we cannot let funding be our excuse for not moving forward
for these residents, but --
Commissioner Reyes: Where is that at?
Commissioner Hardemon: Which neighborhood is that?
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Chair Russell: This is called Bay Homes Drive. I don't know how many community
meetings I've had down there with Capital, with Public Works.
Commissioner Carollo: What's the address?
Chair Russell: Bay Homes Drive; it's a street. It's the entire street. It's a road
project, "B" Number 40-B30846. It's got a --
Commissioner Carollo: But what part of your district is it in?
Chair Russell: It's in the south end of Coconut Grove. It goes down to the water;
extreme flooding there. Every high -- king tide, the lower part of the street's
completed flooded.
Commissioner Reyes: Yeah.
Chair Russell: We've had several different project concepts, plans, meetings, but it
really --
Commissioner Carollo: Is that near --
Mr. Rose: No, it's not a street.
Chair Russell: It's a -- but it's the same problem that we have on every single
waterfront street that goes down toward the Grove, but this one in particular is very
acute. So I'd like you to work on that with mein this budget cycle, please.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes.
Commissioner Carollo: Send us a map so we could see exactly where it's at, okay?
Chair Russell: So with that in mind --
Mr. Rose: Understood.
Chair Russell: -- there -- Commissioner Hardemon, is that a subsidiary motion to
defer this item with those -- with that motion still alive so that we can consider those
items, but really study it carefully, study the amendment requested?
Commissioner Reyes: Well, I'm still --I'm pressing forward.
Chair Russell: I know you want to move it today.
Commissioner Reyes: I want to move it.
Chair Russell: I want to find consensus of the body.
Commissioner Reyes: I -- the rest of the money, you see, you can do whatever, but I
need this. I need this, too, yeah.
Chair Russell: Right. But between that and the project I'm trying to help
Commissioner Carollo with --
Commissioner Reyes: Okay; well, that is fine.
Chair Russell: -- it's all gone.
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Commissioner Reyes: That is fine.
Chair Russell: I just want to be very clear on that.
Commissioner Carollo: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Commissioner Reyes: You want a list from the projects? Here they are.
Chair Russell: So what is the will of this body?
Commissioner Hardemon: So, you know, look, I don't want to do anything that's
contrary to any of my Commissioners; that's why I'm asking all of us to kind of look
at this at another day where we can -- because I guarantee you, at the next meeting,
there'll be things that we want to consider, and it doesn't preclude us from going
back to take the money that we originally did at this meeting. So, you know, I just
want us to just -- let's think about it in totality here --
Commissioner Reyes: You see --
Commissioner Hardemon: -- because there -- let me -- When we talk about the
money for parks -- right? -- I know that that million dollars that I received last year
to --for the district, that money was used to make an improvement at Hadley Park on
their field, so now they have a turf field to play on. That field was one of the worst
fields for football since I was a child, right? And we still have worse fields than that
now that we're making that improvement.
Commissioner Reyes: I don't even have a football field.
Commissioner Hardemon: What you --? I don't want -- you almost made me say
something, but the point is, is that that money is spent.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Hardemon: There are other monies that we have in your districts that
we put -- were set aside for park acquisition and making improvements on parks, and
that money is not spent, so the money is actually being held.
Commissioner Reyes: It's being spent.
Commissioner Hardemon: And so, what I'm saying is that now -- you know, we're
talking about going out and getting some more. Well, maybe there's somethings that
we should consider for some more immediate projects; that's all I'm saying.
Commissioner Reyes: Well, I've been asking for this for a while, and I need it,
because I am -- there is -- and you know, Chris, the project that we have Fairlawn,
the mini park, and that is going to go beyond mini park. We're going to do still
something else. And we have a couple of projects, that people are waiting for it,
have been promised, they've been told that we have everything, and they are ready to
go, you see. And what I'm asking only -- I mean, what I'm asking is for projects that
they will be completed, you see, that will be done, and been asking for that
(UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Commissioner Hardemon: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Commissioner Reyes: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) $1.3 million, and not depleting the fund.
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Commissioner Hardemon: I think we just give each other a shot to take a look at it.
It's just a lot. It's a lot to take in; that's all that I'm saying.
Chair Russell: Commissioner Carollo --
Commissioner Reyes: But think what we --
Commissioner Hardemon: And even with Commissioner Carollo, I mean --
Commissioner Reyes: Something that really bothers me a lot, man --
Commissioner Hardemon: Mr. Chairman --
Commissioner Reyes: Excuse me.
Commissioner Hardemon: -- is Bay Homes Drive -- is that where LeBron James
lives?
Chair Russell: No, no. He --
Commissioner Hardemon: I just can't read it.
Chair Russell: No. North Bay Homes Drive.
Commissioner Carollo: No, no, no.
Chair Russell: No.
Commissioner Carollo: It's South Grove.
Commissioner Reyes: Point of order, I want to say something. You see, something
that really has irked me a lot, and when it come with parks, I have been fighting for
money for parks since the first day that I got here. Every time that they come with
the distribution, you see, we are not -- I mean, there are other -- most of the districts,
like your district, for example, you get most of the money for parks. We need parks.
We need to fix more parks. Those parks, I know that they're very -- a real need for
the mini parks that we are doing, and fixing the parks that we have started --
Chair Russell: Agreed.
Commissioner Reyes: -- and that's it.
Chair Russell: And I don't think anyone's speaking in opposition to that. I think it's
just a moment to take a breath and --
Commissioner Reyes: Take a breath.
Chair Russell: -- some Commissioners are a little quieter than others about these
asks.
Commissioner Reyes: But you -- always when I ask, you take a breath. I mean, you
keep on breathing and breathing when everybody is asking for money. But when
here comes Manolo asking for his part, and Commissioner Russell immediately,
"Let's take a breath. Let's think about this. " Come on, man. Stop thinking; take it,
start breathing.
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Commissioner Carollo: Well, you didn't want to think so much on that million
dollars you got from Ultra, right?
Commissioner Reyes: Yeah. I mean, every time it's -- every time there is impact fees
that I'm asking for --
Commissioner Carollo: I --
Commissioner Reyes: --I have to fight tooth and nail for it. What's going on?
Chair Russell: Commissioner Reyes, I think you've heard nothing but love and
support for these concepts.
Commissioner Carollo: -- the money --
Commissioner Reyes: Hell, yes. You are a sweet -talker.
Commissioner Carollo: -- I just want to lay it on the line. The money that
Commissioner Russell and I have asked for, while the park is in my district by
inches, 90 percent of the people that'll be going to that park are from District 2. So,
in essence, the money's for District 2.
Commissioner Reyes: Yeah.
Commissioner Carollo: Just the land is in District 3. And I'm being gracious with
him, so I just want to point it out. Now the Administration doesn't want to tell us --
which is unreal that they don't know by now -- when is the next amount that they're we could put out for bond money. I think that's one of the areas that we should be
pushing for, Commissioners, to get a straight answer; when we could put out that
next bond money. Is anybody listening?
Chair Russell: Is that --? Well, that has to do with capacity; not only of millage,
debt millage, but also capacity of the Capital Department to manage the projects, if
I'm not mistaken.
Mr. Rose: Yes.
Chair Russell: So do we even have a guess as to when we'll be issuing the next
tranche?
Mr. Rose: No. We're not prepared to make that --
Chair Russell: All right.
Mr. Rose: --today.
Chair Russell: We don't.
Commissioner Reyes: Do we have a guess when this -- we are going to address this
again? Now that (UNINTELLIGIBLE), when are we going to take a breath?
Chair Russell: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Commissioner Carollo: We have a motion and a second that's still --
Vice Chair Gort: Right. Let me ask a question.
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Chair Russell: Vice Chairman's been quiet. Let's listen to him.
Vice Chair Gort: My understanding, if we approve this today, there'll be --
Commissioner Carollo: A second reading.
Vice Chair Gort: -- a second -- no, there's no second reading. But my question is,
are these projects ready to go?
Commissioner Reyes: Mine is ready
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah.
Vice Chair Gort: They're ready to go?
Commissioner Carollo: This one that we presented is ready to go.
Commissioner Reyes: Yeah; mine is ready.
Mr. Rose: I also need to add into the record West -End Park was one of the projects
that Commissioner Reyes wanted to move funding into. You wanted to move 500, 000
into it. There is already a million dollars of new funding from parkland acquisition -
-for park impact fees proposed in the budget for West -End Park
Commissioner Reyes: It's going to cost about $10 million to rebuild; no, really.
Mr. Rose: I understand. It --
Commissioner Reyes: And this is --
Chair Russell: I think we'd all like to study this.
Commissioner Reyes: -- it is enhancement, the general -- I mean
(UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Mr. Rose: So you could, of course, table the item, Mr. Chair. You could pass it with
the one amendment. You could pass it with the knowledge that you can amend it
again at the second meeting.
Chair Russell: Commissioner Hardemon, is that a motion -- is that a subsidiary
motion to defer BH 19?
Commissioner Hardemon: Why you guys making me do this?
Commissioner Reyes: We have a motion on --
Commissioner Hardemon: Why are you making me do this? Don't make me do this.
Don't put us in this position.
Commissioner Reyes: Sir, there is a motion on the floor.
Vice Chair Gort: There's a motion and a second.
Commissioner Reyes: And a second, and we have to do thatfirst; and then, we'll go
in whatever you want.
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Chair Russell: We're talking about two weeks here, right? I don't think any of these
parks are going to get held up for this issue for us to be able to study, because I've
never even seen it on a map, the parks that you're talking about, and the plans that
they have. I'd love to support you on it, honestly.
Commissioner Reyes: Honestly?
Chair Russell: Yes.
Commissioner Reyes: They have to be designed, sir.
Chair Russell: And I'd love to learn what the plan is. I'd love to support you in that.
Commissioner Reyes: Yeah.
Chair Russell: But I want us to have a consensus amongst here -- among here so
that there's not a feeling that because someone didn't jump in this moment or wasn't
prepared today to make this specific ask, and the entire park impact fee is depleted.
Commissioner Reyes: Yeah. Don't jump the gun, right?
Chair Russell: And so, I would be supportive of a deferral if it is requested.
Commissioner Hardemon: I mean, I --
Chair Russell: I don't think it's a big deal. I don't think it slows anything down. It
would just give us a moment to study what's been asked; that's all.
Commissioner Hardemon: So at least we can think about being fair; not like, you
know, that you pay, F-A-R-E, but like E A --
Commissioner Reyes: There is a motion. Vote on the motion and then you make
another motion (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?
Commissioner Hardemon: No, we don't want to vote your motion down.
Chair Russell: No. We don't want to vote you down, not at all, not at all. But if this
Commissioner Hardemon: That would send the wrong message.
Chair Russell: Yeah.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay. But just in the spirit of being controversial, and I know
that I -- okay?
Chair Russell. Appreciate it.
Commissioner Reyes: That I know that I might lose this, you see? If we don't vote it
now, I will never see a penny of this, which is needed for my parks. You see, that's
why I'm making -- I am being so adamant about this, you see, because I don't want --
it will be diluted. I know how it is in here. You see, it was going to go so much for
here, so much over there, and it's going to be diluted.
Commissioner Hardemon: We see you again in two weeks.
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Commissioner Reyes: You see me again, and then two weeks, I'm going to be asking
for this again.
Vice Chair Gort: I promise I'll be there.
Commissioner Reyes: Huh?
Vice Chair Gort: I promise I'll be there.
Commissioner Hardemon: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Commissioner Reyes: Okay. I will do that. I -- you want to defer it, you defer it.
But I'm going to be asking for it.
Vice Chair Gort: You got to take your motions.
Commissioner Reyes: And I'm going to take your word for it.
Commissioner Carollo: You have to withdraw so I could withdraw my second.
Commissioner Reyes: I withdraw the motion.
Commissioner Carollo: I withdraw my second.
Commissioner Hardemon: And now I make a motion for all the money; give it all to
me.
Chair Russell: All right. Is there a motion to defer BH.19 to the next meeting?
Vice Chair Gort: Move it.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay.
Mr. Rose: 19.
Chair Russell: Yes; 19.
Commissioner Reyes: I'm going to reconsider that Omni vote.
Commissioner Carollo: So much for the Hardemon Grand Hotel.
Chair Russell: Commissioner --
Commissioner Reyes: That's right, Grand Hotel Hardemon, yeah.
Chair Russell: All right.
Commissioner Reyes: Do I have a --?
Chair Russell: We have a motion by Commissioner Gort to defer BH19; seconded
by the Chair. Any further discussion? All in favor, say "aye. "
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Russell: Any opposed? Motion passes.
Vice Chair Gort: The millage.
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Chair Russell: Thank you very much. Working together, feel the love.
Commissioner Reyes: Yeah.
Chair Russell: B1120.
Commissioner Reyes: Hey, I can picture you jumping on that money next time that
we're here.
BH.20
ORDINANCE
6293
AN ORDINANCE OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION RELATED TO
Office of
TAXATION, DEFINING AND DESIGNATING THE TERRITORIAL LIMITS
Management and
FOR THE CITY OF MIAMI ("CITY"); LEVYING AN AD VALOREM TAX ON
Budget
ALL REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY IN THE CITY AT A TOTAL
TENTATIVE RATE OF 7.99000 MILLS ON THE DOLLAR OF THE TAXABLE
VALUE OF SUCH PROPERTY, FOR THE PURPOSES OF FUNDING THE
GENERAL OPERATING BUDGET AND PAYMENT OF DEBT SERVICE,
FOR THE FISCAL YEAR BEGINNING OCTOBER 1, 2019 AND ENDING
SEPTEMBER 30, 2020; CONTAINING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE, AND
PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
MOTION TO: Pass on First Reading
RESULT: PASSED ON FIRST READING
MOVER: Wifredo (Willy) Gort, Commissioner
SECONDER: Ken Russell, Commissioner
AYES: Russell, Gort, Carollo, Reyes, Hardemon
Chair Russell: BH 20.
Christopher Rose: (Director): Good evening -- goof afternoon -- evening,
Commissioners. Chris Rose, Office of Management and Budget. BH2O is the
millage rate for the City of Miami. It is a total combined millage rate of 7.9900; as
the Mayor said -- I don't want to steal your thunder -- but the second lowest in the
last 50 year -- 55 years, and it is before you as an ordinance, so this does have a
second reading.
Chair Russell: Is there a motion on BH 20?
Vice Chair Gort: Move it.
Chair Russell: Moved by Commissioner Gort.
Commissioner Reyes: I want to revisit the -- BH 19, and I definitely will like that the
Lines 2 and 3 that were taken from my district come back to my district.
Chair Russell: I'm sorry. We have a motion on BH 20 right now.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes, but I'm just saying it.
Commissioner Hardemon: We don't have to revisit that. That's going to happen.
Are you talking about that swap that you have?
Chair Russell: Yeah, that -- yeah.
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Commissioner Hardemon: Yeah. The --
Mr. Rose: I understand.
Commissioner Carollo: He's giving up 13,000 for a million -three.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes, sir. Yes; a million -three.
Chair Russell: All right. Second from the Chair on BH20. Is there any further
discussion on the millage? 7.99.
Commissioner Carollo: I think it needs to go down a little more.
Chair Russell: What's your recommendation?
Commissioner Carollo: Chris, one/tenth millage rate, how much does that bring in?
Mr. Rose: 5.11 million. So if you were to reduce it by a 10th of a mill, I would need
to go back and find $S million of cuts in this proposed budget.
Chair Russell: I'm --
Commissioner Carollo: Well --
Mr. Rose: That is not the Administration's recommendation.
Chair Russell: For my part, I'm very proud of us being able to offer this millage, but
we need to be careful. If we cut more, we're going to have to start cutting --
Vice Chair Gort: Yeah.
Chair Russell: -- in places we don't want to cut. We need to keep providing services
to our residents. As much as they like a tight millage, they really do like good
services from their City.
Mayor Francis Suarez: Mr. Chair, if I may?
Chair Russell: Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Suarez: Listen, this is a significant reduction for this year, and it puts us at a
level that we haven't been at -- only one other time in 55 years. Obviously, as the
City, hopefully, continues to grow, we'll, hopefully, continue to come back to this
Commission with a lower and lower millage rate until we become the lowest rate in
55 years. So we think this is something that we can afford this year, as you
mentioned, and I think that it's a good --
Commissioner Carollo: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Mr. Rose: I apologize; I don't understand the question, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) as it stands versus last fiscal year's?
Mr. Rose: So if we had kept the operating millage flat?
Commissioner Carollo: Yes.
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Mr. Rose: I understand.
Mayor Suarez: At least a couple million dollars.
Mr. Rose: Let me check with my Deputy Director. Give me just one second. I have
the number in mind, but I want to be --
Mayor Suarez: It's at least a couple million dollars; yeah, I think it's 2 million.
Mr. Rose: My apologies; we don't have it right on the tip of my tongue. So my
recollection is $2 million, sir, but I don't want to be held to that until I make the
calculation real quick.
Chair Russell: We do have two readings on this item, so this is the first reading --
Mr. Rose: We do.
Chair Russell: -- of the millage at 7.99.
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah, the --
Mr. Rose: Okay. If I --
Commissioner Carollo: Are you telling us that you could go higher on the millage,
but you can't go any lower of what you approve today?
Mr. Rose: The --
Chair Russell: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Mr. Rose: -- Commissioner, the opposite; this is the ceiling.
Vice Chair Gort: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Mr. Rose: You can never go higher than what you last proposed, so.
Commissioner Carollo: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) safe.
Mr. Rose: Yeah.
Chair Russell: All right. So we could amend lower if it makes sense in the second
reading.
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah, but --
Mr. Rose: Yes.
Commissioner Carollo: -- you can't go higher with it.
Mr. Rose: But you cannot go higher.
Vice Chair Gort: Right.
Chair Russell: So we have a motion and a second on 7.99. Is there any further
discussion on that for this reading? Hearing none --
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): Chair, title.
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Chair Russell: Yes, please. It is an ordinance.
Robin Jones -Jackson (Assistant City Attorney, Supervisor): Mr. Chair, it's an
ordinance. Thank you.
The Ordinance was read by title into the public record by Assistant City Attorney
Robin Jones -Jackson.
Chair Russell: Thank you very much. All in favor of the item, say "aye. "
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Russell: Any opposed? Motion passes.
BH.21
ORDINANCE
6294
AN ORDINANCE OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
Office of
ATTACHMENT(S), ADOPTING A TENTATIVE BUDGET AND MAKING
Management and
APPROPRIATIONS RELATING TO OPERATIONAL AND BUDGETARY
Budget
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR BEGINNING OCTOBER 1, 2019
AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2020; RATIFYING, APPROVING, AND
CONFIRMING CERTAIN NECESSARY ACTIONS OF THE CITY MANAGER
AND DESIGNATED CITY OFFICIALS IN ORDER TO UPDATE THE
RELEVANT DEPARTMENTS, FINANCIAL CONTROLS, PROJECT CLOSE-
OUTS, COMPLETED PROJECTS, ACCOUNTING ENTRIES, AND
COMPUTER SYSTEMS IN CONNECTION THEREWITH AND FOR GRANTS
IN PROGRESS; PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
MOTION TO: Pass on First Reading with Modification(s)
RESULT: PASSED ON FIRST READING WITH MODIFICATION(S)
MOVER: Wifredo (Willy) Gort, Commissioner
SECONDER: Ken Russell, Commissioner
AYES: Russell, Gort, Reyes, Hardemon
NAYS: Carollo
Note for the Record. For additional minutes referencing Item B1121, please see
"Public Comment Period for Budget Items. "
Chair Russell: And the final item on the budget, please.
Christopher Rose (Director): Good evening, Commissioners. Chris Rose, Office of
Management and Budget. The BH 21 is before you; an ordinance approving the
City's annual budget, all funds totaling 1.129811 million dollars -- billion dollars --
forgive me. The general fund is 807.463 million; and the other three funds, the
special revenue, the internal service, and the debt service funds. This is the
proposed budget for the City of Miami.
Chair Russell: Thank you very much. Is there a motion on BH 21 ?
Commissioner Carollo: Chris --
Mr. Rose: Forgive me, Mr. Chair; as amended by the change memo.
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Commissioner Carollo: -- I want to start asking questions in different areas; even
though at the end, I know that most of this --
Vice Chair Gort: Second.
Commissioner Carollo: -- might stay. I'll deal with it for a budget amendment in
January. But in the meantime --
Chair Russell: That's a motion and a second, correct?
Commissioner Carollo: No --
Chair Russell: Oh, I thought -- I'm sorry. I thought you said you --
Commissioner Carollo: -- no, no, no.
Chair Russell: -- I thought you moved.
Commissioner Carollo: No, I did not move, but I want to get into the budget. Let me
get into an easy area; Solid Waste. Solid Waste is costing us a tremendous amount,
because either people are coming into the City of Miami and dumping everything
into our City from outside, or we have in different parts of our districts, our different
districts -- I know in mine, I have one area that you have people that are constantly
moving in and out, and they leave a lot of the furniture out. So what is happening is
that we don't have the people to be on top of that, like Code Ojficers from Solid
Waste, but more so, we need cameras. We need cameras that are going to be live
and a certain percentage will be dummied, but those out there that are dumping
won't know. And I submit to you that whatever we spend, we're going to pick up not
only in savings from less garbage that's thrown into our streets that we don't have to
pay to haul away, but in the fines that people are going to catch for doing it. So
what is the cost right now, Chris, for a live camera and what is the cost for a dummy
camera?
Mr. Rose: I don't have a number on the dummy camera. I know the live cameras
are just short of $5,000 each. I will also point out that we are going from 35
cameras at the beginning of this year to 53 cameras at the end of this year, so we're
procuring and installing 18 more in the current year. And in the change memo,
you'll see there are three additional Code -- Solid Waste Code Enforcement Officers
that the City has proposed --the Administration has proposed. That'll bring us from
nine to 12 Solid Waste Enforcement Officers.
Commissioner Carollo: Well, I'd like to -- do we have any idea what the dummy
cameras could cost?
Mr. Rose: I don't. Dummy cameras (UNINTELLIGIBLE). We do not have that
number for you, sir.
Chair Russell: Commissioner -- Vice Chairman.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. Any estimate?
Vice Chair Gort: Let me add that I get some funds though, from some additional -- I
think 15 to 20 cameras.
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
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Vice Chair Gort: And Solid Waste knows -- because they are the one that pick up all
this illegal dumping -- where they should be located. I'd like to see them all live.
Right now, there's --
Unidentified Speaker: Yes.
Commissioner Carollo: Well, then, my amendment here would be for 50 additional
live cameras that will require $250,000.
Mr. Rose: So the City would go from 53 to 103 cameras.
Commissioner Reyes: I second it.
Commissioner Carollo: Correct.
Chair Russell: Specifically for Solid Waste illegal dumping?
Commissioner Reyes: Yes.
Commissioner Carollo: Specifically for that.
Vice Chair Gort: You know, illegal dumping is about $4 million a year.
Unidentified Speaker: Yeah.
Vice Chair Gort: I think that's the figure that was given to me; about $4 million a
year.
Chair Russell: That's what it cost us?
Vice Chair Gort: Yes.
Mr. Rose: Yes.
Commissioner Hardemon: No, illegal dumping is a really big issue. The -- I have a
question regarding -- I've been thinking about different ways besides, of course,
trying to catch them and deter them. When we do catch them, at times, it can be a
felony; at times, it's a misdemeanor; at times, it's an arrestable offense, depending
on if the person has a business and the tonnage is over a certain amount, et cetera.
But I'm not sure if the -- You have two things that happen. Sometimes you get police
that get there that may not be able to weigh the facts that they're looking at; and so,
you end up with an undercharge from the police perspective. Of course, it eventually
gets to the prosecutor's office, but the prosecutor doesn't have the benefit of actually
weighing then the amount of trash that was dumped. So there's a lot of issues that I
think that Solid Waste needs to -- and Code Enforcement and the Police Department
need to come together and really streamline how you effectively handle this issue.
And second, the question is whether or not the City of Miami can greatly increase
the fees in order to discourage the illegal dumping, because if we greatly increase
the fees -- not necessarily the punishment, because that's tied to Florida Statutes, but
-- and we have the community members involved, where they're saying, you know,
"This person did it. " They write down the tag number and maybe have picture
evidence, et cetera, and we can start really drilling down on this, maybe we can
make a dent on this dumping, because I'll tell you, I know in the City of Miami, we
have the great benefit that we pick up every week. Sometimes, people abuse it and
the -- who are residents -- and many times, people outside of the community come,
and also abuse it. And for instance, on my block, just recently, we had one -- a
resident dump some things out that they should not have dumped out at a certain
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time -- right? -- so it's out therefor days. And then, of course, and then it flies
across the street into our neighbor -- into our yards, et cetera. But then, we had an
illegal dumping at the edge of the street, at the -- right by a main avenue, right? And
so, when they came to pick it up, they picked it up, but unfortunately -- and this is a
service issue. This does not always happen, for some -- but for some reason, this
happened this time -- the -- they usually have the grabber and they have someone
outside, kind of guiding it, and picking up little extra things. They left all the extra
stuff, right? So then, you know, whose responsibility is that to pick it up, right? So,
you know, these issues are kind of lingering, and they become more and more
problematic. And so, when you see more and more trash, even after a pickup, then it
encourages someone else to come and dump. And so, you know, we're really just
trying to put an end to this, because this -- it's troublesome, and our neighborhoods
don't have the opportunity to improve. And it doesn't happen in every neighborhood,
and that's the tough part about it. They go to certain neighborhoods where they feel
like they can do it, no one's going to complain, and the neighborhoods just continue
to look like places that you don't want to live, raise kids.
Chair Russell: Question.
Commissioner Reyes: Commissioner, I want to add to that that I don't think that we
have a set policy of what are going to be the penalties, you see? We don't --because
sometimes, like you just said, somebody comes -- is caught in the act and nothing
happens. So you tell them, "Pick up and leave." Sometimes they -- I mean, nothing
happens. And sometimes, they just go because they got -- bring their trash out in
dates that -- let's say on a Friday when they -- it's going to be picked up on a
Wednesday. I think that we have to set some rules and regulations. And besides
that, we also have to demand from the -- what you said -- the truck that is picking up
the garbage -- I mean the street garbage -- that they will have to come and pick up
everything that falls from the crane, you see, because they leave it there, so -- most of
the times, you know, that there's only one person working -- two persons; one is
driving the truck, and the other one is driving the --
Commissioner Hardemon: So --
Commissioner Reyes: -- and I hope that we start doing it. Yes, sir.
Vice Chair Gort: My understanding is the vehicles gets impounded, and they'll get a
fine, also.
Commissioner Reyes: We should do that.
Commissioner Hardemon: I think that's --
Commissioner Reyes: That is --
Commissioner Hardemon: -- the commercial.
Vice Chair Gort: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Commissioner Reyes: But we should enforce it, because if we have it and there is
not enforcement, you see --
Vice Chair Gort: The problem --
Commissioner Reyes: -- they keep on coming and coming and coming.
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Vice Chair Gort: -- is, from what I understand, the police has to have proof of the
individual that did the dumping.
Commissioner Hardemon: So -- but --
Commissioner Reyes: Well, that's why we need the cameras there.
Commissioner Hardemon: -- and that's why I'm saying. So, for instance -- I'll give
you an example. If they come upon a commercial truck, so it -- and when I mean a
commercial truck, a business. It could be a small 1974 pickup truck, but that has a
bunch of trash on it, and it has a sign on it that says, "ABC, Inc., " right? And that
person dumps a bunch of trash in a community. For some reason, they sweep a little
better in nicer neighborhoods than they do in neighborhoods that they don't perceive
to be nicer when the City picks up. But that's -- I digress. So when you -- when they
dump into the -- and the police officer approaches. What I'm saying is that I don't
believe in my experience that police officers have -- they have the entirety of the
Florida Statutes to really learn as it pertains to crimes. And so, you don't really
become too good at things that you don't pay a lot of attention to. And so, when the
Vice Chairman says they don't have the tools, what I'm seeing is that someone
dumped something. If the police officer believes that that weighs more than a certain
pound -- certain pounds -- it can be upgraded to a felony, right? And then you have
the impound of the truck and arrest, et cetera. It becomes very problematic. That
person is probably not going to reoffend, because you towed their truck, you arrested
them. I mean, that's pretty serious. But what happens is that the minute --
sometimes police officers don't believe that -- "Oh, well, I can't weigh it. I don't
know how much it weighs. " So I don't know how much it weighs, so then it's not a
felony, because if it's not over a certain amount, then, you know, we don't -- we can't
make the determination. But we know that to make an arrest, you don't need to know
the exact tonnage to make the arrest, right? I mean, you don't necessarily need that
information. So there's just a lot of information that --
Commissioner Carollo: Well, if I may --
Commissioner Hardemon: --from the top down, it needs to really be explained --
Commissioner Reyes: Yes.
Commissioner Hardemon: -- so that we can tackle the issue.
Chair Russell: Right, right. But ours is not to solve the issue from a logistic
perspective tonight, but rather to allocate the budget to empower the Administration
to solve the issue.
Commissioner Hardemon: Because all I'm saying -- because, look, in this, if -- the
same way we have someone over homelessness and they had all these people that
were designated to address the Pottinger issue, because it was such a serious thing,
this is a very serious thing for residents in the City of Miami.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes.
Commissioner Hardemon: We need to understand how we can tackle these most
troublesome issues in our neighborhoods, because people are consistently dumping
in these neighborhoods --
Chair Russell: Yeah.
Commissioner Hardemon: -- and it's not right.
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Commissioner Carollo: Well, let me tell you what one of our problems is. Since
approximately two and a halfyears back, we've only made 36 arrests; only 36 --
Chair Russell: For solid waste.
Commissioner Carollo: -- for people that are dumping illegal --
Vice Chair Gort: Illegal dumping.
Commissioner Carollo: -- illegally in our City.
Chair Russell: Yeah.
Commissioner Carollo: That's nothing. That's less than one a month. Well, one a
month.
Chair Russell: What I'd like to see is an analysis, much like with Code Enforcement,
where the more you spend, you actually create revenues, so it's not just a hole of
spending, but if you spend smartly, it'll create the revenue to offset the spend, and it
should work in your favor if you do it right. And this seems to be one of those cases -
- as Commissioner Carollo said -- if we invest in the cameras, is there a return on
that investment? If we're not enforcing, certainly not.
Commissioner Carollo: Well, it's a twofold return: One, the money we're going to
be starting to save, because they're going to dump less, that we have to pay less to
get rid of that trash; secondly, the fines that will be collected. So I think that this will
more than pay for itself. It'll be a generating proposal. While initially, it'll cost us
250, before the end of the fiscal year, I think it would have more than have paid for
itself.
Mr. Rose: I understand.
Chair Russell: All right. So there's been a recommendation to increase the cameras
by double, pretty much, yeah. Other discussions on --
Commissioner Carollo: I'm still on solid waste.
Chair Russell: Got it.
Commissioner Carollo: Code Enforcement Officers for solid waste, how many did
we increase it by?
Mr. Rose: We have nine; we're moving to 12, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: Excuse me?
Mr. Rose: We have nine right now --
Commissioner Carollo: Three.
Mr. Rose: -- three more to 12.
Commissioner Carollo: 12. What does it cost us for each officer -- new officer?
Mr. Rose: The nine -month number -- because it will take us some time to hire --for
the three ojfcers is $110,000. So divide that by three; roughly 36, $37,000per.
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Commissioner Carollo: Okay.
Mr. Rose: That's a -- again, a nine -month number.
Commissioner Carollo: I would like to see that brought up to 15; instead of three,
six; whereas you're going to have on an average of at least three per district, which
is still very little. Okay?
Mr. Rose: See what we can do, sir.
Vice Chair Gort: Now --
Commissioner Carollo: Well, it's -- now you're up to about 360, 000 on Solid Waste.
If we could go over to the Commission's budget, why haven't we broken down each
Commissioner's district individually, and we just dump it all in one, Chris?
Mr. Rose: The Commissioners, we passed as a whole, so.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. So let's go into Number 2, the Commission budget.
Chair Russell: Commissioner, before you go there, because we were talking about
Code --
Commissioner Carollo: Okay.
Chair Russell: -- are you satisfied? Because Code has been one of the biggest
recurring discussions we've had on this dais in the last year, the issues with Code.
We have a task force working. We've got all sorts of things going, and you've
identified a lot of problems. "Are we investing enough in our Code Enforcement
Department?" is the question.
Commissioner Carollo: Well, that's a good question, and one that I'd like to take up
after we get done with some of these other issues, because I don't know if we're ready
to increase by a lot more in that department and be able to take the people in, and
train them appropriately. Have we increased the budget this year by a little bit
more? I think we have.
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Chair Russell: A little bit.
Mr. Rose: The change memo includes four additional positions on top of the four
that were in the midyear last year.
Commissioner Carollo: If they're going to be working with handcuffs behind their
back, or being trained by maybe some of the old blind supervisors to not to see
things, then I don't want to throw money at the drain, you know. But at the same
time, you have a lot of new people there that I will tell you I think are good. And
some of the problems that I thought was coming directly from Code, I found out it
wasn't Code; it was another department that was preventing Code to act. Like, in
your district, Commissioner Hardemon, that all of us -- I certainly am getting all
kinds of complaints from condominium owners, even from the head of your BID
(Business Improvement District), because you have bars and lounges that have
music until all hours of the night, and people can't sleep. Code comes, but the
problem is that you have a off -duty police officer over there that are the ones that get
the calls most of the time, and they're a private police force. They work for the club
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owners that pays them. And in many of these places, they're getting paid cash every
night. So if there's a complaint, the dispatcher doesn't send a unit over that's on
duty. They send it to the off -duty officer that's there, and they're not going to go
against their bread and butter that they're getting off duty, so they don't do anything.
And Code has been getting the blame in your district; in many of our districts. But I
think right now, the biggest problem area is your district in Wynwood, where I see
the bulk of the complaints that have come through in the last months.
Commissioner Hardemon: Wynwood is a strange place, though, because when you
look at -- remember, theirs is a --
Commissioner Carollo: Yes; I'll agree with you.
Commissioner Hardemon: -- because there are many outdoor areas that are there
that were abutting housing. The housing is no longer there, and most of the housing
that's there is public housing, especially of the area that's east of 2nd Avenue, if you
will, right? And so, you tend not to get a lot of complaints from people who live in
public housing. And so, you know, I've found that the businesses can be a bit shrewd
in a place like Wynwood and other places where areas are growing, and everyone's
not on the same page at all times, especially when you have BID members and those
who are not BID members. And so, you know, I -- it's all worth investigating, but I
try to be very careful and objective in how I go about listening to the facts.
Commissioner Carollo: Well, this is your district; that's why I haven't gotten
involved, and even though I'm getting a tremendous -- a lot of complaints that are
coming to me, also. I've been respectful of each individual's district. Here is the
biggest problem that I see with Code, and if it could be fixed with more people, that's
fine: The Code Enforcement Officers, for the bulk, are all working banker's hours,
Monday through Friday. Saturdays, whether it's in daytime or nighttime; when you
need them the most, on Sunday, you got a skeleton crew, and I think there's a couple
of people working; a couple of people, if that, sometimes. So everybody knows that
Saturday and Sunday is a free-for-all. Now, does that mean that with the manpower
they have, they could stop the banking hours and they shift so that people are going
to have to work weekends, too, at least one day out of the week, and it could be
handled that way? Or are they going to need some additional people to make that
happen? I can't answer that. I don't know if the Code Enforcement Director is here
to get her input, if that would help her with more additional people or not; if it
would, I'll be more than happy to put a motion for more personnel. But we need
additional people -- let me put it this way: You need at the very least the same
amount of people that you have Monday through Friday that work on Saturday and
Sundays, and particularly Friday nights, too; between Friday nights to Saturday and
Sunday, till Monday morning. You need the same amount that works every day; not
just Monday through Friday.
Commissioner Reyes: That goes to part -- illegal building, you see. Many --
everybody knows that you go -- wherever you go on a Saturday, whatever
neighborhood you're driving on a Saturday and a Sunday, you see people working
and building or doing driveways and all of that, because they know that we don't
have Code Enforcement there.
Commissioner Carollo: Well --
Commissioner Reyes: And that is also a problem itself. We don't --
Chair Russell: My -- yeah. So my blanket recommendation was going to be a 10
percent increase in the Code budget from last year.
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Commissioner Reyes: I --
Chair Russell: I really think as we work forward and figure out the exact smart way
to allocate and spend it --
Commissioner Carollo: I do --
Chair Russell: -- because that's the least we could be considering.
Commissioner Carollo: -- I would support that. I think it's a fair amount. I don't
know how many people they could get out of that. Maybe Chris could give us a
quick overall on that, but I think it'll get them at least six people
(UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Chair Russell: This is a -- I think the direction here is to come back on second
reading with that concept in mind, work together with the Code Director to see if
that makes sense. But I think from what we've understood in studies so far and the
shortfalls we see within the Code Department, we know we're going to need to throw
money at this problem. We just want to make sure we do it smart. But I think 10
percent -- we -- to say that there's not a 10 percent deficiency in the Code
Enforcement Department is an understatement.
Commissioner Reyes: I think we need more than that.
Chair Russell: So I'd like to close this part of the discussion and continue to move
on to other sections that you'd like to work on.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. All right.
Chair Russell: That's an idea.
Commissioner Carollo: So figure out what 10 percent comes to, Chris, if you would
(UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Mr. Rose: Well, that's $821, 000, and I should point out the change memo is already
adding --
Commissioner Carollo: 350 and 110 --
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: -- 460.
Mr. Rose: Right. So we're halfway there already.
Commissioner Carollo: And how much is the additional 800?
Mr. Rose: 821 --
Commissioner Carollo: 821.
Mr. Rose: -- minus 450, roughly.
Commissioner Carollo: 821.
Chair Russell: About a half million shortfall.
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Commissioner Carollo: 821.
Mr. Rose: 350 or so more.
Commissioner Carollo: Excuse me?
lui.�tli7��:3.1e
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah.
Mr. Rose: -- is the 10 percent number. And right now --
Commissioner Carollo: A million, 281.
Mr. Rose: Yeah.
Chair Russell: No, no, no. Don't --
Mr. Rose: Oh.
Chair Russell: -- add them together.
Mr. Rose: No, sir.
Chair Russell: You're already ha Way there, so we're only -- we would -- he would
only have to find -- what? -- 400, 000?
Commissioner Carollo: 400,000 additionally. Okay, I thought the 821 was the
additional 10 percent. I'm sorry --
Chair Russell: But that would be a 10 percent increase over last year.
Mr. Rose: That's the proposed budget. The Code budget is already going up 207, so
there's still another 614, 15, 000 more if we were to be able to do -- yeah, if we were
to be able to do the whole 10 percent.
Commissioner Carollo: --10 percent. So what does that come to? 600 --?
Mr. Rose: $615, 000 more to the Code Enforcement budget.
Commissioner Carollo: A million -seventy-five, approximately.
Mr. Rose: I will say again I'm pretty confident that all of the requests the
Commissioners will add up tonight will be more than we can afford, so we will do
the best we can.
Commissioner Carollo: Well, then we'll start seeing where we could cut that we
don't need as much.
Commissioner Reyes: Yeah.
Commissioner Carollo: The areas that we're mentioning are vital for the public
safety and growth of the City, and the peace of mind in many of our residents.
Mr. Rose: I certainly appreciate the direction, Commissioner. I'll just point out
again that we're at the lowest millage rate -- second lowest in 55 years, and we have
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just closed a number of labor contracts in the last year. So we will do the best we
can in the next two weeks, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: And let me say this for those that are at home listening: I
don't think any of us are aiming at -- the residential side; we're looking at the areas
that are more problematic, and particularly in areas that have to do with public
safety or the peace and tranquility of a community.
Mr. Rose: Thank you. Okay, so I understand the request. Thank you.
Chair Russell: Thank you very much.
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah.
Chair Russell: Is there further discussion on BH.21 ?
Commissioner Carollo: Yes; a lot more. The Communications budget, what was it
last year, Chris? What is the proposed one for this year? What increases or
decreases have we had in the budget?
Mr. Rose: Last year, Communications' budget was 2.149. This year it is 2.329. It
was 17 positions last year. It is 16 positions this year, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: But we're paying more?
Mr. Rose: We're paying more mainly because of labor contract costs.
Commissioner Carollo: We're paying about 178 more. If -- we'll come back to this
one. On the Commission's budget as a whole --
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: How much has it increased from last fiscal year's budget --
the proposed budget?
Mr. Rose: It has increased from 3.912 to 4.086.
Commissioner Carollo: A difference of 13,000?
Mr. Rose: No. 86 plus -- it's about 160, 000, total.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. Then the numbers that I added up here are on
different lines.
Commissioner Reyes: Chris, is that due to salary increases?
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes, sir.
Mr. Rose: We -- as you know, we take the Commission district that has the highest
salary, and we put in 5 percent more on that one, and then we give that to each
Commission district; that way, everyone stays the same.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. Chris, then walk me through it, because the numbers
that I was going through here, I think are different than what you were giving to me.
What is the total amount for this year's proposed budget for the Commission?
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Mr. Rose: So the City Commission budget is on page --
Commissioner Carollo: 105, I believe.
Mr. Rose: -- 105 and 106 of the proposed operating budget, the blue book. So the
total general fund for the Commission budget is 4.086; that's the number I said a
moment ago, and it was 3.912; also the number I said a moment ago.
Commissioner Carollo: Where is the 4.086, Chris, in Page 106?
Mr. Rose: At the bottom of Page 106, it's the third number from the right.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay, 4.086.
Mr. Rose: Page 106.
Commissioner Carollo: Proposed budget 1920, right?
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: And the adopted budget that we're finishing this year?
Mr. Rose: 3.912. It's the far left column of that same page.
Commissioner Carollo: I see that.
Mr. Rose: Its a $174, 000 increase --
Commissioner Carollo: Now --
Mr. Rose: -- total across all five districts.
Commissioner Carollo: -- the difference is you got the special revenue funds --
Mr. Rose: Yes.
Commissioner Carollo: -- the 4.366.
Mr. Rose: Yes.
Commissioner Carollo: What does that all include, Chris?
Mr. Rose: The special revenue includes -- switch over here. So it includes the
events fund, the Anti -Poverty Initiative, and the rollover funds for each district.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. Let's go now to the Mayor's fund.
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: We'll skip the City Manager; somehow, he's in the middle.
Mr. Rose: Go the other direction. Page 103 is what you're looking for, sir. Page
103, at the bottom, the current proposed general fund budget is 1-6-8-7.
Commissioner Carollo: Hold on for a second --
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Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: -- I'm not quite there.
Mr. Rose: So for those looking at the budget book at home, it's on Page 103 of the
blue book --
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. I had it on top for --
Mr. Rose: -- at the very bottom.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. I got it now. I had it in a different tab; it was in the
back. Okay. What is the -- it will be on Page 103 --
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: -- the 1920 proposed budget is I million, 6-8-7?
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: And --
Mr. Rose: General fund.
Commissioner Carollo: -- yeah, general fund, of course. And the adopted one that
we're working on is -- what? -- 1-4-54?
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir; 1-4-5-4. So --
Commissioner Carollo: So we have an increase of --
Mr. Rose: $233,000, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: -- 232 -- 33. How many positions were there before; how
many are now?
Mr. Rose: 13 in the current year budget; 13 in the next year's budget, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. So where is the increase in the budget? Point it out
to me, because I don't want to strain my eyes.
Mr. Rose: It's a number of different places. The most significant one, though -- let's
see. We've got salaries going up, 90,000 or so; we have, of course FICA (Federal
Insurance Contributions Act) and MICA (Medical Insurance and Care for All) taxes,
Federal taxes going up.
Commissioner Carollo: On the salaries.
Mr. Rose: Okay; on the salaries, okay.
Commissioner Carollo: On the additional salaries.
Mr. Rose: Retirement contributions going up another 44,000. Life and health
insurance is going up 20 -- 38 -- 42,000. Other contractual is going up 50,000.
Vehicle insurance is going up 7,000 -- no, forgive me -- 4,000. IT (Information
Technology) repair and maintenance is 7,000. And that concludes it, sir.
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Commissioner Carollo: Let me go back to the Commission's budget.
Mr. Rose: Page 106.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. In the old budget, for five of us, 3,920,000 this fiscal
year ending.
Mr. Rose: 912, yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: Now, where is this I million-4-54 for the Mayor? Ours, as
a whole, only goes up 174 --
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: -- with 3 million-9-12. His, with a million-454, is going up
233.
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: This is a huge increase in comparison to the Commission.
That, I have a problem with, because we're the ones that set budget. Let me go
further into the Manager's budget. You go back. City Manager. He's got 14
positions this fiscal year. He'll have 14 next fiscal year.
Mr. Rose: That's correct; yes, sir. Page 1-1-1 -- 111. It's going from 2-8-5-0 to 3-
0- 7-2.
Commissioner Carollo: So we got 22Z 000 increase; am I correct?
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir, 2-2-2.
Commissioner Carollo: The -- let me go look at the Mayor's budget again. Even the
Manager, with a million -- with 2,850,000, he's only going up 2-22, which is
significant, but it's 2 million-8-50. The Mayor's budget, with 1,450,000, is going up
233,000; even more than the Manager's increase, which is more than the
Commission's increase. I suggest that we put it at par in the Mayor's budget.
Mayor Francis Suarez: Mr. Chair, if I may?
Chair Russell: Mr. Mayor.
Commissioner Carollo: Let -- I'll listen.
Mayor Suarez: Thank you. And, you know, maybe Chris can break it down. My
understanding is that the salary and FICA is on par with what all the Commissioners
have received, if I'm not mistaken, in terms of what salary increases and FICA have
been given to employees of all the Commission.
Mr. Rose: The salary increases are the same percentage across.
Mayor Suarez: Correct.
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Mayor Suarez: Right.
Commissioner Carollo: But where does the huge increase compared to us --
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Mayor Suarez: He can break it down for you.
Commissioner Carollo: -- where is it coming from?
Mayor Suarez: He can break it down for you, but I can tell you that the salary and
the FICA is the same as the salary and FICA as -- which is what the -- I believe it's a
meld --
Commissioner Carollo: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Mayor Suarez: -- of what the general employees or something like that. I forget how
he came up with it.
Mr. Rose: 5 percent.
Commissioner Carollo: The other thing, Mayor --
Mayor Suarez: 5 percent.
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah. The other thing, Mayor, you have one individual that
you hired as -- he introduced himself here one day as a legal counsel.
Mayor Suarez: Yeah.
Commissioner Carollo: You never have come to us, as the Charter states, for
Commission approval for that.
Mayor Suarez: It's not outside counsel. It's not someone that's special counsel or
outside counsel.
Commissioner Carollo: Well --
Mayor Suarez: He's an employee of my office.
Commissioner Carollo: -- no. He's an employee of your office; I understand that.
Mayor Suarez: Yeah.
Commissioner Carollo: He's not taking the place of the City Attorney --
Mayor Suarez: Exactly.
Commissioner Carollo: -- which he cannot, and I understand that. But as I have
read the City Charter, you still -- if you're going to give him that title, you still have
to askpermission from this Commission.
Mayor Suarez: We have not given the title that is listed in the Charter, which is
"Sspecial Counsel to the Mayor. " We have not given that title to that person, that
individual; he does not have that title.
Commissioner Carollo: Well, I'll revisit that with you --
Mayor Suarez: Sure.
Commissioner Carollo: -- bring the Charter out so we could discuss it.
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Mayor Suarez: No problem.
Commissioner Carollo: But what I don't want to do, either, if you're not bringing to
us --
Mayor Suarez: And by the way, let me just -- if I may interrupt you for a second.
Commissioner Carollo: Sure.
Mayor Suarez: That person was hired within our budgetary constraints. We had
two people who left, and the two people who left, we hired that person, so it was
basically our head count.
Commissioner Carollo: Look, I'm not questioning that --
Mayor Suarez: Yeah.
Commissioner Carollo: -- because I really don't know --
Mayor Suarez: No, I'm just explaining it to you --
Commissioner Carollo: -- I really don't know --
Mayor Suarez: --since you're asking about my budget.
Commissioner Carollo: -- and, you know, once you have a budget, you do with that
what you see fit. If you want to hire more people or less people and pay them more,
it's up to you. What I'm trying to do is keep the dollars down, and keep them in a
way that is fair, because you have a lot more advantages than we do as far as
additional help that will be available to you that we don't have.
Mayor Suarez: Well, I have to cover the whole City, sir. I have to cover all five
districts.
Commissioner Carollo: Well, we all represent with our vote the whole City, also.
Mayor Suarez: I understand, but I have to cover the entirety. I got elected by the
entire City, so.
Commissioner Carollo: But that I understand.
Mayor Suarez: Yeah.
Commissioner Carollo: I understand that it's not the same as moving into one
district or another. I had the advantage that mine is the more compact of the
districts; some through the gerrymandering are very long, very long, so it takes a lot
more time. But --
Mr. Rose: If I may, Commissioner? I misspoke a moment ago. It was not S percent;
it's 7 percent of the salaries, and 7 percent in the Mayor's Office; 7 percent, which
comes from our labor contracts. It matches that growth.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. Well, we'll break that down and see that. Now,
outside of the -- those questions that I'm asking, in the Manager's Office, where is the
increase -- besides salaries and FICA -- where is the increase coming from?
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Mr. Rose: One of the largest increases in the Manager's Office is actually the
retirement contributions. It's going up I10, 000. Life and health is actually going up
44,000.
Commissioner Carollo: How is that? Is it because of people's ages, or just the
overall increase in cost?
Mr. Rose: It's the overall. We base it on head count, and we prorate it across.
There's a nut that we have to cover for the whole City, and then we spread it across.
So if you have more employees, you're going to pay more for health and for
retirement.
Commissioner Carollo: How have we been ending up -- for instance, this fiscal
year, in doing it the way you explained to me, citywide --
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: -- how are we going to end up; with some savings?
Mr. Rose: No, sir. No.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay.
Mr. Rose: The pensions are going to go up this year.
Commissioner Carollo: I'm not talking about the pensions. When you break it up
per head, for health cost, like you were saying.
Mr. Rose: Right. No. Health care is also going up this year. So, no, it --
Commissioner Carollo: It goes up every year.
Mr. Rose: It does. And frankly, health and retirement have both been growing
faster than other inflation that we're seeing in the area, so, no; they're both
significant pieces of the City's budget. For instance, pension in the current year is
budgeted at 110.978, so $111 million; one out of every $8 in the general fund goes
towards pension. Next year, it's actually going up to 125 million; again, a function
of some of the things that we've negotiated in the labor contracts, so keeping pace,
actually, a little more than one out of every $8 going towards pension in the general
fund budget.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. Let's go to the two biggest nuts that we have in the
City, Police and Fire.
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: What are the increases from this fiscal year to the proposed
fiscal year, Police and Fire?
Mr. Rose: The head counts in those two departments are the largest growth head
counts in the proposed budget. So the Police budget is going from 1, 785 total
positions to 1,805.
Commissioner Carollo: 1, 000?
Mr. Rose: I thousand-785 up to --
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Commissioner Carollo: But that's overall positions?
Mr. Rose: Overall positions.
Commissioner Carollo: Sworn personnel?
Mr. Rose: I can give you the sworn personnel in the proposed budget.
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah.
Mr. Rose: I apologize; I don't have it in the adopted budget. But the sworn number
is listed on Page 302; that's 1,329 regular sworn police officers and 42 sworn
executives, for a total of 1,371 sworn personnel. There's also 434 civilian positions
in the Police Department. Fire -Rescue --
Commissioner Carollo: Hold on.
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: The 1,371 --
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: -- is that the same as this fiscal year?
Mr. Rose: I apologize; I don't have the current fiscal year's number. Give me just a
moment. Same number, sir, yes.
Commissioner Carollo: That's what I remember, but --
Mr. Rose: Yeah.
Commissioner Carollo: -- I want to be sure of that. So you're at an even I
thousand-3-71.
Mr. Rose: You will recall that the proposed budget has 19 civilian positions --
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah, that --
Mr. Rose: -- that are going to free up officers.
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah. I understand that, but sworn officers -wise, you're the
same?
Mr. Rose: No change.
Commissioner Carollo: Our population now is -- the best estimate we have?
Mr. Rose: The 2018 number that we have from the US (United States) Bureau of the
Census -- actually, 2017 number -- is 4 70,000-9-14.
Commissioner Carollo: 400?
Mr. Rose: 70; 4-7-0-9-1-4.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. So I'll round it out to 4-71, and I'll show you in a
minute what I'm trying to do here. 4-71 --
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Mr. Rose: The population number is on 481 of the proposed budget.
Commissioner Carollo: -- we're close to three per thousand, which is real good for
a city this size; usually, two and a half, you're good, but with all the additional
tourists that come here, and people that come to work in the City Monday through
Friday, you have an increase in population, so having it on your normal population
to just a hair below three is a good number to have.
Mr. Rose: Glad to hear it. Thank you.
Commissioner Carollo: It's a -- What is the total increase in dollars in the budget
for the Police?
Mr. Rose: Police budget is going from 245 million-1-92 to 264 million-3-58, so
roughly 20 --
Commissioner Carollo: 20 million.
Mr. Rose: --million, 200, 000, yeah.
Commissioner Carollo: Just a hair under 20 million.
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: That's because in a great part of it, the new contracts that
we made with the unions, correct?
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. Anything else that we should know on this particular
budget; whether it's additional police cars, additional equipment that's required,
additional training?
Mr. Rose: We are at a -- no; just the 19 civilian positions. 18 of them are going to
be freeing up officers, which --
Commissioner Carollo: I think that's great, and that's something that needs to be
done. Training, for instance, on specialized weapons, like AR-15s, are our officers
all certified with AR-15s?
Mr. Rose: I don't know the answer to that.
Commissioner Carollo: And do we need any extra dollars to do that? This is your
opportunity, Chief. If you need dollars, let's hear it.
Jorge Colina (Chief of Police): We don't -- not all the officers are qualified to carry
that weapon; it's a 40-hour course. We would not have the ability right now with the
current budget to put everyone through. We would have to alter the way that we
deploy our officers to be able to put everyone through that course and supply
everyone with those weapons, so we would not -- the short answer is we would not
have the budget for that. We would need an -- a budget increase to be able to do
that.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. Well, that's what I want to talk about. How many
officers out of the ones that you have are certified with the AR-15?
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Chief Colina: I'd have to get you the specifics.
Commissioner Carollo: Well --
Chief Colina: I really don't have -- I don't want to speculate, sir, but I'm --
Commissioner Carollo: All right. Are those officers that are not qualified and
certified with the AR-15, do they carry them in the trunk of their cars?
Chief Colina: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. What potential liability does that cause us if they're
not certified if they have to use them? And I hope they all --
Chief Colina: Oh, I'm sorry; I misunderstood your question. You're saying, do I
have officers that have not qualified that carry an AR?
Commissioner Carollo: Right, the AR-1 Ss, right.
Chief Colina: If they do, sir, they would be violating our policy.
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah.
Chief Colina: They're not allowed to use the AR if they have not qualified with it.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. Can you get back to all of us and let us know how
many of your officers are qualified on the AR-15s? And then on the remaining
amounts that are not, how much additional dollars do you need per head to get them
qualified?
Chief Colina: A budget for that?
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah.
Chief Colina: Yes, sir; we can do that.
Commissioner Carollo: I'm looking to increase your budget in areas that might be
of a vital need for public safety.
Chief Colina: Thank you, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: The shotguns; what is your present policy with shotguns for
officers ?
Chief Colina: Officers would have to qualify with a shotgun. They qualms with a
shotgun when they go through the academy. I couldn't -- I can find out how many
carry shotguns. It's not a requirement to carry a shotgun, although they do qualify.
I can get you that number, as well.
Commissioner Carollo: If that's something that you need the officers to be qualified
on, also, additional off cers, let us know.
Chief Colina: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: What other areas of equipment, specialized training do you
-- or would like additional budget for?
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Chief Colina: Sir, I'd like to sit down with the Chiefs to discuss priority, and I can
certainly provide that. There's some -- there are some areas in training where we
would absolutely benefit, where we don't have the ability, because the training
budget is limited, so that is something that we can look at; I certainly will, and we
can put a priority list of the things that we think are most important.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. Motorcycle ojficers --
Chief Colina: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: -- the last I remember -- and we had this conversation quite
some time ago -- I think it might have been the last fiscal budget -- we were real
short, ifl remember. What are we up to today in motorcycle officers?
Chief Colina: I believe we have 16.
Unidentified Speaker: 15.
Chief Colina: 15; 15 ojficers.
Commissioner Carollo: That's way low, even though that's an extra liability for the
City, as we all know. And particularly, you just get a little drain and you got to take
them out, and you got to put them in a patrol car. For a city this size and with the
traffic that we have, you know, you probably could use SO instead of 15. Would you
like to increase that area of your department to additional motormen?
Chief Colina: Ideally, ideally, we would like to have 24 motormen, because that
would give us at least two motormen in every NET (Neighborhood Enhancement
Team) area; the idea before, as you recall, when we discussed it in the past, to be
able to have motormen that would be assigned to the specific NET area, where the
Commander has the ability to use them. So one motorman in one NET area,
depending how busy they are, we can get away with it, but ideally, it would be two.
Commissioner Carollo: And if we put into the budget the additional equipment --
Chief Colina: I'm sorry, sir?
Commissioner Carollo: If we give you additional funds to put into the budget the
additional equipment, can you, with the personnel that you have now, the sworn
personnel, can you transfer the additional people into that unit?
Chief Colina: We have --
Commissioner Carollo: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) we would have to pay, also, for
additional training.
Chief Colina: We would have to pay for the training. The training --
Vice Chair Gort: Pay for the training.
Chief Colina: -- wouldn't be that expensive. We would just have to figure out where
we have the ability to remove an officer. Obviously, if we take from somewhere,
that's one less off cer, whether it's investigation, or whatever the case might be.
Commissioner Carollo: Could you work on that and get it back to us?
Chief Colina: Yes, sir.
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Commissioner Carollo: This is your opportunity to come and try to get as much as
you can.
Chief Colina: Yes, sir. I appreciate it.
Commissioner Carollo: And I would hope that in the future, this is what your
department does; meets with each and every one of us, and let us know what you
need, what you require, what your wish list is. What other areas in particular do you
feel that you would like to have additional funding for?
Chief Colina: Sir, I can meet as early as tomorrow with my executive staff, so we
can put together a priority list, and that way, I don't speak here without already
having it in my mind of what is priority, and I can certainly provide that to you and
the other Commissioners, along with what we believe the impact on the budget
would be, and I'd be more than happy to do that.
Commissioner Carollo: Very good. If you could do that, we would appreciate it, so
we could try to work together on that.
Chief Colina: Thank you, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: One area that I'd like for you to look at are the rolling
cameras that you have. I think that citywide, we could use a heck of a lot more than
the ones we have. Chris, the cameras they have on the poles --
Chief Colina: The mobile ones?
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah, the mobile; the mobile cameras, yeah. All right.
Anything else you'd like to give us your input on, Chief?
Chief Colina: That's it, sir. Thank you.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. Thank you.
Commissioner Reyes: Chief, if I may? We lost -- and -- well, in my district, we lost
two motorcycles, Garrido lost one; Commander Garrido lost one, and Commander
Castellano lost one, you see. And we have areas that are -- they are very heavy on
cut -through traffic, and they were doing a fantastic job. I just want to know if it is
possible to add more motorcyclists; particularly in those two neighborhoods that
have been plagued by accidents and by people speeding, and it's a life safety issue,
because we need to try to -- at least try to scare people from -- or try --fine them, or
do something. But -- and the -- losing two motorcyclists in -- I don't think it is -- it
helps our district at all. I don't --
Chief Colina: We can put that down in that proposal, as well. In the same proposal
that we're preparing for Commissioner Carollo, we can add whatever that would be,
sir.
Commissioner Reyes: Another thing is that sometimes in -- what it is --for example,
a sector, you see, we have only three or four police officers. If there is an accident,
then we don't have any other police officers, you see.
Chief Colina: We -- in terms of minimum staffing, most of our areas, most of the
zones --
Commissioner Reyes: That's right.
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Chief Colina: -- are going to have a minimum of four to five officers. We have what
we call support officers that will also work in the area, so if there's PST officers,
those will be in the area. Of course, the Public Service Aides will be in the area; it
just depends on the NET area and the time of day.
Commissioner Reyes: But what does that do is that increases the response time.
Chief Colina: Yes.
Commissioner Reyes: I had -- I mean, you cannot come in; you cannot come in,
because you are tied in another place. But I had complaints that an incident had
happened and -- let's say at 9 o'clock in the morning, and the -- well, it was -- what?
-- breaking in a car. They broke in, and they stole a purse. I know it is not a life -
and -death incident, but police didn't show up until 3 o'clock in the afternoon. And I
know that is not because of lack of -- that the police wanted to be there, because I
know that they -- I have to commend you -- they're doing a great job in my district --
but it is because they were tied someplace else.
Chief Colina: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Reyes: And our -- we needed more details for prostitution on 8th
Street.
Chief Colina: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: One last area, Chief, that I'd like to inquire about. I know
back when I was here previously, we -- unlike the County, because we're a smaller
police force, about a third the size of the County -- did not have people assigned
strictly to the SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) Unit. They would be working in
different units, and if we needed, we'd call them; they would go out. Is that still the
case?
Chief Colina: You mean like detached to task forces?
Commissioner Carollo: Well, what I'm saying is, who -- our SWAT Units, are they
strictly SWAT,- that that's all that they're therefor?
Chief Colina: So we do have a SWAT Team now that is a full-time SWAT Team.
Commissioner Carollo: Yes.
Chief Colina: We also have officers that are collateral that we can also bring in that
are SWAT -trained, but we do have a SWAT --
Commissioner Carollo: Do you have at least one unit that's all they do is SWAT?
Chief Colina: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay, good.
Chief Colina: We started that, I think, about a year and a half -- two years ago,
maybe.
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah. That's a change that should have been done a long
time ago. I'm glad that it was done.
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Chief Colina: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: But it wasn't around when we were here last. So that's the
last question that I have, because that's something that's vital.
Chief Colina: Thank you.
Commissioner Reyes: I want to ask you that if you --when you prepare that --those
-- that list of needs that you prefer to have, I want a copy of it, because anything that
I can do to help the police, like increase the force or provide additional equipment,
or whatever, I'm willing to help.
Chief Colina: Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. Thank you.
Commissioner Carollo: Well, and the size of the force, Commissioner, but right
now, we're not doing bad. We're in pretty good shape, as I pointed out. You know,
as Miami grows more, we have to --
Commissioner Reyes: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: -- grow the Police Department with it. I'm more concerned
now is for them to have the equipment they need and the training that they need.
Chief Colina: Thank you, sir.
Chair Russell: Thank you. Gentlemen, is there a motion on BH21, please?
Commissioner Carollo: No. I'm not even done with Fire and a few other
departments.
Vice Chair Gort: I need a -- question. Chief, don't go away. Mr. Chairman?
Chair Russell: Of course, Vice Chairman. Thank you.
Vice Chair Gort: The -- I experienced the -- couple of days ago the -- an
enforcement off 27th Avenue; that people were not supposed to turn into the
residential neighborhood between "A" amount of hours; I think it was 4 to 8, 8
o'clock. The enforcement was a very good enforcement. Now, the question -- this is
for CIP (Capital Improvements Program) or Public Works. Hello? Administration,
got a question. We talked about people traveling through our neighborhoods, and
one of the ways I seen that it's being stopped quite a bit is when you have signs
telling the people, "You cannot turn left, or right during peak hours" -- that's when
you get more people going into the neighborhoods -- and the police had a good
enforcement, and it worked. They had a lot of cars step aside, and they were
ticketed. I'm sure once those people get a ticket, they will not do it again. So what
I'd like to get is certain areas -- you know, in Grapeland, in Allapattah, 17th Avenue,
27th Avenue, 11 th Street, and 14th Street -- I'd like to know what's the procedure to
set up those signs to make sure we can start implementing that, too.
Unidentified Speaker: Yes, sir; we'll do that.
Vice Chair Gort: And we'll get you -- all the corners.
Unidentified Speaker: Yeah. I'll need the information, but we'll get that.
Vice Chair Gort: Chief, they were very good.
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Chief Colina: Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner.
Chair Russell: Thank you, Vice Chairman. Is there a motion on BH.21 ?
Vice Chair Gort: Move it.
Chair Russell: Moved by Commissioner --
Commissioner Carollo: I need --
Chair Russell: Moved by the Vice Chair. We can continue discussion.
Vice Chair Gort: Yeah.
Chair Russell: But we just want to get something on the floor here that we're going
to take action on.
Vice Chair Gort: Move it.
Chair Russell: Been moved by Vice Chairman; seconded by the Chair. We'll
continue discussion.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. Thank you. Chris, Fire.
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: Give me personnel, sworn firefighters, non -sworn; what
increases, if any, we had from this fiscal year to the next fiscal year. And then give
me the changes in dollars.
Mr. Rose: Okay. So let's start with personnel. On Page 292 of the proposed
operating budget, 773 regular sworn Fire officers; 16 sworn executives; for a total
of 789 sworn positions. And the department also has 95 civilians.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. Any increase in sworn officers from this fiscal year
to next year?
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir, yeah. We are increasing 17; for the Heavy Rescue, six; and then
there are two civilian positions, as well.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay; 17 plus two?
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay.
Joseph Zahralban (Chief of Fire): Five; five in total. Five.
Mr. Rose: Oh, yes. And then three additional in the change memo, as well. So it's
five civilians being added. Thank you, Chief.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. I'll ask what that's for in a minute. The dollars from
this fiscal year to the next.
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir. So 143 million to 161 million.
Commissioner Carollo: 143 even?
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Mr. Rose: No. 143,167.
Commissioner Carollo: 167.
Mr. Rose: And it's moving up to 161,121.
Commissioner Carollo: 161,121.
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. We got an increase of about --just a hair under $17
million.
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. And that's --again, a big chunk of that is because of
the contract negotiations that we had.
Mr. Rose: The largest share of it is; yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. All right. Is the Fire Chief around or --? I saw him
over here a little while ago.
Mr. Rose: I can answer what the five civilians are if that's the question, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: Well, I'd like to get the Fire Chief here; it's the Deputy
Chief.
Eloy Garcia (Deputy Fire Chief): Good evening, Commissioner.
Commissioner Carollo: Here comes the Fire Chief.
Chief Garcia: Deputy Fire Chief, Eloy Garcia, if I can assist you.
Commissioner Carollo: Well, the Fire Chief is here, so --
Chief Garcia: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: -- I'll hear from him. Thank you. Chief, good evening.
Thank you for your time. Can you describe tome the additional 17 sworn positions
or firefighters that you are getting in this next budget, plus the additional five
civilians --
Chief Zahralban: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: -- why you need them?
Chief Zahralban: Yes, sir. Chairman, Commissioners, Joseph Zahralban, Fire
Chief, Department of Fire -Rescue. I'll begin with the 17 positions. That is, as the
Budget Director indicated, the staffing for Heavy Rescue 6. Heavy Rescue 6 is part
of our Technical Rescue Team. It is the truck that specializes in -- very similar to
what you've seen going on TV (television) as of late. It's a specialized Rescue unit
that responds to anything from a building collapse to a car accident to someone
stuck in a trench from -- on a construction site; very specialized rescue. What we
currently do with our Technical Rescue Team is that truck remains unmanned,
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unstaffed, and we share it with another truck. So what it does is, if a technical
rescue call comes in, our firefighters have to move from one truck to another --
Commissioner Carollo: I know what it is.
Chief Zahralban: -- put the truck they were on out of service. So our long-term plan
through our strategic planning process has always been to staff that truck as a full-
time unit so that we didn't run the risk of the existing truck being out on a call and
nobody in the station in order to staff that unit. That current -- that composes the 17
firefighters.
Commissioner Carollo: And that will cover, 2417, the time --
Chief Zahralban: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: -- on the clock?
Chief Zahralban: Yes, sir; 2417.
Commissioner Carollo: The five additional civilians?
Chief Zahralban: The --three of the additional civilian positions are Fire Protection
Engineers. Those Fire Protection Engineers are an enhancement to our Fire
Prevention Division, and the purpose is, because of all of the high-rises that we see
going up in the City of Miami, because of the more complex engineering that we see
going into these high-rise structures, it requires a level of skill that surpasses that of
the average firefighter; even the average firefighter in Fire Prevention. So we
wanted to bring an engineering level of expertise into the Fire Prevention Bureau so
that when we deal with these developers and we deal with these contractors and
engineers, we have somebody with a skill set that is on par with the individuals we
are dealing with.
Commissioner Carollo: That's very good, and I'm glad that you're doing that.
Chief Zahralban: The two remaining positions are grant funded, and they are an
Administrative Assistant position and a Special Projects Coordinator, and those
would be in our -- under our special revenue funds, and they would operate within
our Division of Emergency Management. Emergency Management, as you know, is
what operates our Emergency Operations Center.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. Well, you've done pretty good this coming fiscal year
in your wish list. What else do you have out there that you feel that you might need
or that you would like?
Chief Zahralban: Well, we have a strategic plan, as I indicated, and that strategic
plan basically is a roadmap for us, and it tells us exactly what we need in priority
order. So right now, we asked for and are receiving Heavy Rescue 6 throughout this
budget cycle. After Heavy Rescue 6, beyond that comes an aerial in the south end,
as well as a request for Battalion Chiefs, which are the highest level Chief on the
street in the City. So as far as order of priority, after Heavy Rescue 6 comes a south
end aerial, and then Battalion Chiefs.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. Thank you very much. If you have anything else that
is not as expensive that you can come up with, let us know; see if we could work it
out. But I think you've done quite well for this next fiscal year.
Chief Zahralban: Yes, sir. Thank you.
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Commissioner Carollo: Thank you.
Vice Chair Gort: Chief --
Commissioner Carollo: And part of this exercise that I'm doing, not just for us to get
information; sometimes we know it, sometimes we don't. It's also for the public to
hear where our monies are going to. You know, sometimes, they have a wrong
impression of where we're putting monies into.
Chief Zahralban: Understood, sir. Transparency is as important to us as it is to
you.
Commissioner Carollo: Thank you.
Chief Zahralban: Thank you, sir.
Commissioner Reyes: Chief -- excuse me.
Chief Zahralban: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Reyes: You see, I'm glad that you are addressing the concern that I
always had about the high-rises, and I gather that you have the pumps that'll be able
to pump water all -- I mean into -- in case that we have afire in high-rises, and we
are glad about that. But I'm -- I -- I'm just wondering, and I have talked about this
before. Do we need another Rescue truck on the -- on Flagami, on 59th Avenue and
Flagler Street? Because that area around there is -- we have a lot of elders. It's --
the elderly population there is substantial. And have you done any analysis if we are
covered or if we need additional equipment there?
Chief Zahralban: Yes, sir. That -- the -- well, first, let me speak to the pumps that
you had mentioned. And I know that you and I had a very deliberate conversation
with regard to the ability to pump high-rise structures. And you'll be happy to know
that we have already received and placed in service our first vehicle that we actually
retrofitted --
Commissioner Reyes: Exactly.
Chief Zahralban: -- and that is in the Brickell Fire Station right now as we speak,
and it is a dual -stage pump that is more than capable of pumping the highest levels
of these ultra -high-rises. And in addition to that, we have another vehicle that we
again retrofitted, and I say "retrofit" because we needed to get them as quickly as
possible, so we retrofitted a second vehicle that should be arriving within the next 30
days. And then beyond that, we are looking at purchasing our -- every pumper
moving forward as a dual -stage pump. So ultimately, our goal is every pumper in
the City will have that capability, but we've prioritized the specific areas that have
these ultra -high-rises. Now, with regard to Rescue trucks in the Flagami area, yes,
you are correct in that as we go further west, we do see a need for additional
resources. But again, those resources are prioritized. In our strategic plan, a -- an
additional Rescue is identified within the strategic plan; it just falls just below the
aerial on the south end and the Battalion Chiefs. I'd be happy to place all three in
service if you guys give me the say-so.
Commissioner Reyes: Well, I -- anything that I can do, I will try to help you. It's
about -- it's a matter of convincing Chris to find the money.
Commissioner Carollo: Well, that, I don't think we could do this fiscal year.
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Chief Zahralban: I do many things, sir.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes.
Chief Zahralban: As you know, I just came from the Bahamas. But convincing
Chris is not one of them.
Commissioner Reyes: No, and -- but I'm glad that that is taken into consideration. I
don't know that -- you know -- how do you measure the priorities, what type of
rationale do you use to measure the priorities, but I think that it is a high priority of
the residents of Flagami to have an additional Rescue.
Chief Zahralban: Yes, sir; I do agree with you.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you, sir.
Vice Chair Gort: Chief --
Chief Zahralban: Thank you.
Vice Chair Gort: -- one question. Chief, over here.
Chief Zahralban: Yes, sir.
Vice Chair Gort: What's your respond time?
Chief Zahralban: Response time? Our average response time is between three and
six minutes; it varies. We do our very best -- as we begin to exceed four minutes, we
do our very best to look at allocating resources within that area to keep that within a
manageable time set.
Vice Chair Gort: Thank you.
Commissioner Carollo: Is the Building Director available or Parks Director;
whichever one --?
Mr. Rose: Building and Parks, I guess, are the next two. If I may, Commissioner,
also comment on the Vehicle Lease Program that the Commission voted on about
four months ago, all departments have benefited from that; Fire may have benefited
the most. We have really gone back and made sure that the vehicle fleet and
apparatus fleet are up to date, and that has been a concern that both this Chief and
the previous Fire Chief spent a great deal of time convincing me on.
Commissioner Carollo: Did they leave anything for the rest of us? Anyway, how
many employees, Chris, do we have in this fiscal year? How many are we going to
have in the next cycle?
Mr. Rose: All right. So let's turn to the Parks Department. You'll recall that we're -
Commissioner Carollo: Let Building; Building is --
Mr. Rose: You want Building? Okay.
Commissioner Carollo: -- he's the Director of (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
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Mr. Rose: Building Department. And we have two additional positions in the
change memo, so Building is going from 104 to -- the proposed is 105. It's going to
be 107, so three additional positions in the Building Department.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. I'll ask --from 104 to 107, three. What is the amount
for this fiscal year overall in their budget versus next fiscal year's?
Mr. Rose: Sure. So 1-4-2-8-5 is the current year budget.
Commissioner Carollo: 14?
Mr. Rose: 14, 285, 000.
Commissioner Carollo: 14 million (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Mr. Rose: Next year's budget is 16 million-4-61.
Commissioner Carollo: 4-61, okay.
Mr. Rose: One of the largest increases is consulting services that they use, as well,
for plans review.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. Mr. Director, thank you. You got a new look, too.
What --?
Jose Camero (Director of Building): I'm sorry, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: You look different. What happened? What did you change?
Mr. Camero: Glasses.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. I knew there was something there. Thank you, sir.
The three additional new positions that you have, what are they for exactly?
Mr. Camero: One is the Communication Engineer. That is for the BDAs (Bi-
Directional Amplifiers), the microwave to be able to measure and make sure that no
-- nothing is being obstructed with the communication of the microwave on the
radios; and also, for the BDA in the communication on the radios inside buildings;
all of that, it's going to be handled by a Communication Engineer.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. And you're getting three new ones?
Mr. Camero: No; that's one person.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. That's --
Mr. Camero: The -- Chris -- the Chief of Inspection is the other one. We're going to
take all the inspections and put it under one Chief- that way, he will be responsible
for all outside inspections. And right now, each discipline -- like Building has a --
inspections with the same Chief that's doing the checking on plans --
Commissioner Carollo: Right.
Mr. Camero: And electrical the same way, so we'll take all of them and put them
together.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. What --
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Mr. Camero: There's another one, sir, for customer service that -- that will be when
you first arrive at the floor, somebody that would greet you, somebody that would
direct you where to go and try to solve problems, or at least point you to the right
direction.
Commissioner Carollo: If we would ask you to give us a wish list in how we could
help the department to be more efficient and give you some additional dollars this
budget, if we could -- not saying that we would be able to. For instance, in one of
the areas that I see that we really need to put the most emphasis and effort on is on
the -- helping the residential areas. You have many, many elderly; some not that
elderly --
Mr. Camero: Right.
Commissioner Carollo: -- that buy homes. They inherit problems within the homes
that were there from before. They get cited. They have no idea what to do. And --
Mr. Camero: I understand, sir, and -- I'm sorry.
Commissioner Carollo: -- to a lot of these people, it's really a major crisis, because,
you know, they're law-abiding, and when they get some of the notices they get, they
freak out. At the same time, sometimes the notice get there after the 30 days is over,
and, you know, some, as you know, have language problems. So how -- what can we
do to help many of these people, for instance, if they need -- I don't know what you
call it -- where they have to comply and put something -- I don't know -- if they get
an inspection -- so they comply with whatever they had that was not permitted
originally or whatever? What is that called, that process, the application process
you have?
Mr. Camero: Thee plan?
Commissioner Carollo: No, no. I mean the --
Mr. Camero: The concierge?
Commissioner Carollo: What is the kind of application that they fill out when
they're trying to permit something that wasn't permitted in their property before?
Mr. Camero: There's a --
Commissioner Carollo: After the fact.
Mr. Camero: After the fact?
Commissioner Carollo: Yes.
Mr. Camero: Oh. Legalization.
Commissioner Carollo: Its called--?
Mr. Camero: In other words, somebody did an addition --
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah, and --
Mr. Camero: -- to the house without a permit.
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Commissioner Carollo: -- they didn't know that. They bought it in whatever --
What is it called; legalization?
Mr. Camero: Legalization of a unit. In other words, legalization of a construction
that is after the fact.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. So it's called an after -the fact permit?
Mr. Camero: After -the fact permit, correct.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. And that's for that or for anything else that --you
know -- a shed or anything of that sort, like a --
Mr. Camero: That is --
Commissioner Carollo: What can we do to help people in these after -the fact
permits so that we don't have residents going through pure hell; and particularly,
elderly residents? What would you recommend that we could do?
Mr. Camero: Right now, what we're doing is, we have for the elderly, the veterans,
and the disabled, we have the concierge service, where they will call the phone
number that we have, and we will make an appointment. We will go with a laptop to
their home. We will take the application. They could pay online. We will assist
them on everything. If they have the drawings, we will pick up the drawings, bring
them over, scan them, review them; and when they're done, we go back, we give them
the permit. And from there on, you know, we'll help them out as much as we can.
Commissioner Carollo: What usually is the process that you have when you do
something like this? How many days does it take before you're able to get them
permits? Does it take a long time or not or --?
Mr. Camero: To get a permit?
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah, and
Mr. Camero: It's taking about -- for residential on e plan, it's taking around 75
days, okay? 75 days for a new home, residential, review time. There's a lot of factor
that goes on.
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah, but what you're talking is a brand-new home that's
never been inspected. I'm talking about some of the stuff that we're talking about
here. If someone gets one of these after -the fact permits or they get a permit for
demolition or whatever --
Mr. Camero: It could be --
Commissioner Carollo: -- that don't take 75 days, does it?
Mr. Camero: It also depends on the documents that they're submitted. But, for
example, I have had permits that are being done two, three days. I have had permits
that have taken a little longer, because it -- again, it depends that the information is
there. If you are demolishing, for example, make sure you have the terms, asbestos
or whatever is required. It depends on the documents that are given to us.
Commissioner Carollo: Sure; electricity, plumbing; you know, depends if it has it or
not, or whatever.
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Mr. Camero: Correct.
Commissioner Carollo: But do you feel that this process you have now is going
through in a major way in helping more than before, or what else can we do to help
people?
Mr. Camero: Totally. In my opinion, the new plan has been a success, and the
concierge has been incredibly helpful for the elderlies.
Commissioner Carollo: Is that -- what age do people have to be to use the
concierge?
Mr. Camero: I'm sorry?
Commissioner Carollo: What age do they have to be to use it?
Mr. Camero: Is there -- I mean, there's not a set -- if somebody's elderly and cannot
make it to the office, we'll be there.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. So I just -- a couple more real quick
(UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Vice Chair Gort: No, no; just to add to what you're doing. (UNINTELLIGIBLE), go
ahead. Finish.
Commissioner Carollo: Anything else that you feel that you could use additional
funding for to help you in your department to make sure that you inspect buildings
better, and particularly, on the commercial side, and some of the elder -- older
buildings; and at the same time that can move things quicker and you don't have a
huge backlog?
Mr. Camero: If I -- the biggest -- the way e plan works is that all -- everything
comes to --
Commissioner Carollo: I'm beyond e plan now. I'm talking about --
Mr. Camero: Beyond e plan; anything that I need.
Commissioner Carollo: -- yeah; commercial, et cetera, the tall buildings that are
challenged
Mr. Camero: Something that I would need. I'm -- that's what I was going to explain
to you. Everything comes to an area called the -- where the -- all the documents are
coming to this group of people. This group of people get anywhere between 400 to
500 applications a day -- or submittals, we should say. Right now, we have five or
six. We're going to get a -- part-timers, temps that'll be working after hours; in other
words, they'll be working from 4 to 9, Monday through Thursday; and Saturday, all
day, to be able to move those drawings. Remember, these are the people that hold
the key who distributes the plan to all of the other disciplines and departments.
Commissioner Carollo: Right.
Mr. Camero: So we're going to be getting those five units -- those five persons, and
that would help us tremendously.
Commissioner Carollo: So now, anything else that you think that will help you cut
the lines that you have of people and expedite things for individuals; not just our
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residents, but businesspeople don't have to wait forever to get inspections, et cetera,
let us know --
Mr. Camero: Okay.
Commissioner Carollo: -- to see how we could fund it for you.
Mr. Camero: Right. Thank you, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: Thank you, sir.
Chair Russell: Thank you very much. Commissioner Gort.
Vice Chair Gort: Commissioner Carollo, we began a plan called the Amnesty Plan;
that anybody has done any work after the fact, they have the ability to go and they
will help them to get the settlement of the whole claim. At the same time, one of the
things that I did, I put $500, 000 to help those individuals, especially the senior
citizens. They have -- they own their home, but they have Code Enforcement and
court violations -- I mean Code violations -- which they need help and they don't
have the funds to do so. This plan is going to help these individuals to go ahead, and
I think it goes up to $30, 000 per homeowners, where we can help them to comply
with the requirements by the Administration. The other problem that we have within
the Building Department and you get a lot of complaints is everything is blamed on
the Building Department, but they depend on -- what do you call them? -- Zoning,
they depend on Zoning and they depend on other departments, which they're held
therefor a long time, but they always blame the other department. I think at one
time, if you recall, back in the '90s, we had the Building Departments in charge of
the whole thing; Code and everything. So --
Commissioner Carollo: That's right.
Vice Chair Gort. -- he was responsible -- that person would be responsible that
everyone -- that every discipline would be doing the job according -- on time. The
other thing I asked from the Building Department is to -- the biggest problem that we
have, people after the fact, they try to contract the engineers, they try to contract
architects and they're taken for a ride, because (UNINTELLIGIBLE). I asked them
to please qualify the -- a group of people -- architects and engineers qualified by the
City; that they're responsible, and those people can be tapped, and we can give them
a list of those individuals that qualify, and let them select who they want. I think this
is another way that we can help them to go ahead and build.
Mayor Suarez: Mr. Chair?
Chair Russell: Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Suarez: Thank you.
Vice Chair Gort: Yeah, expedite it.
Mayor Suarez: I think Commissioner Gort's program is fantastic. I co -sponsored it.
I think it's a great program, and I think all the Commissioners should consider it for
their districts. One of the things that we also see oftentimes in the Building
Department, particularly now that we have the electronic plan system, so we have a
much better ability to track things in our system is, oftentimes, the engineers and the
architects themselves will blame the City -- or like to blame the City, because it's a
convenient thing for them to manage their workflow on the back of the City, and it's
easy to say, "Oh, the City's taking forever, " when the truth of the matter is that they
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may not have processed --or put a revision in. There are things that we're working
on, you know, multiple revisions and things of that nature that do happen, but you do
-- we do see scenarios where -- for example, we did a single-family home under the
electronic system in 96 days, I believe; it was 96 or 92. I think it was 92. I think it
was 92. It was 46 days with the City -- maybe it was 96 -- and 52 days with the
owner. In other words, the City -- it took 96 days to process the permit for a single-
family residential home, but it was only with the City for 46 of those 90 -- sorry -- 42
of those 96 days. It was with the owner for 54 of the 96 days. So we're looking at
potentially creating a more transparent system so that owners can themselves go
online, and see who is telling the truth, because oftentimes, the City gets blamed for
things that are not the -- when it's not in the City's hands.
Commissioner Reyes: I would like to ask you something. You see, the -- your budget
is -- I would say mostly it is -- it comes from the fees that --
Mr. Camero: Correct.
Commissioner Reyes: -- and those fees can only be used in Building Department,
right?
Mr. Camero: That's correct.
Commissioner Reyes: That means that if you have to -- I mean, if you have problem
hiring capable architects and plan readers, because you can -- you are not
competing with the private sector, you can raise the salaries in order to be at par
with the private sector and attract qualified productive individuals, because what is
the -- I mean, how much money do they have now, Chris?
Mr. Rose: It's about $73 million.
Commissioner Reyes: About $73 million that is sitting there. And if you could use
some of those funds to try to expedite the amount of time -- I mean, shorten the
amount of time that people have to wait for -- to get a permit. For example -- and
I'm not talking about one of those major development permits. I have a lot of
complaints and people that call my office because they are -- want to get a roofing
permit, and it's taking them four months, three months, see? And those are the type
of things that really irks people -- the residents a lot. If you can hire more people in
order to take care of those type of permit -- or specialize in small permits. You have
the funds. You do have the funds. Okay?
Mr. Rose: You're right on track, sir. We are actually undertaking a review of all the
engineering positions in the City led by HR (Human Resources) and Dr. Ihekwaba,
and we are looking at all of those to see if the pace --pay currently is in line with the
industry.
Commissioner Reyes: With the private sector, with the industry. Another thing that
-- I remember that once we had like a -- it's like a satellite offices in the NET. Well,
that office is -- they could have -- now that we have e permitting, you know, permits
that they are not so complicated, like a driveway or other type -- a roof, roofing
permit -- that they can go to a NET office, yeah. You could get the right personnel
there and work from the NET offices, and that will also expedite and would be
additional service for our residents.
Mr. Camero: Yes, sir. We have looked at that possibility of sending somebody to a
NET office today and try to process that. We're not there yet, but we're looking into
that possibility.
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Commissioner Reyes: But we have to use that ability that we have not, now that we
have NET permitting, you see. You just try to expedite those permits. Okay?
Mr. Camero: Yes, sir.
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Reyes: Thankyou, sir.
Chair Russell: Thank you very much.
Mr. Camero: Thank you.
Chair Russell: Gentlemen, I'd like to remind you that we do have two readings for
the budget, so there are items if we'd like to take up on the budget side on the second
reading, as well, we can definitely discuss --
Commissioner Carollo: Could we do at least one more?
Chair Russell: Of course.
Commissioner Carollo: Parks.
Mr. Rose: So I'll also, while I'm turning to the page, Commissioner, just point out
that we start the process back in January, several meetings with the departments
between the Budget Office and the department and Manager's office and the
department. And we nail down the numbers pretty well along the way, and we know
what the next needs are that we can't fund. Now, Parks is going from 294 positions
to 299 positions; that's four new positions in the new year for Park maintenance, and
one position in the midyear, and I can't recall what that was, but I'll figure it out in a
minute. The budget is going from $47.754 million to $51.777 million.
Chair Russell: Director, the Parks Department, if I'm not mistaken, is the only
department we have where we employ people and pay under $15 an hour. And if I'm
not mistaken, that's only limited to those who are part-time Parks employees. Have
you done an analysis of what it would cost us to bring those employees up to a $15
an hour?
Mr. Rose: We're in progress; we have not completed the analysis, so I don't have an
answer for you yet.
Chair Russell: Okay; for second reading, though?
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
Chair Russell: Thank you.
Commissioner Reyes: I have another question on that. And I had a lot of
complaints, and I think -- don't think that is fair that the Parks Department, we had
part-timers that had been -- they had been part-timers for 30 years, 20-some years,
and every time that a full-time position, it comes along, it's not -- that person that
has been a part-timer, it is not -- that person is not placed as a full-timer. I can take
you to bunch of them that they have been part-timers that working less than 30
hours, and they have been working 27, 30 hours of many, many, many years. And
when there is a -- I mean a full-time position comes along that they are not promoted
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Unidentified Speaker: They're not.
Commissioner Reyes: -- from part-time and into full-time. I wonder if that is not a
disincentive for people to come and work in the Park Department, because -- as a
matter of fact, I don't think it's right. I don't think it's right. That has been a policy
that had been established long time before you were the Park Director.
Lara Hemway: Good evening. Lara Hemway, Parks Director. So with all of our
classified positions, which is what we have within Parks, we follow the classified
procedures, which is a competitive process. Wherever it's possible for us to
interview our part-timers, we do.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes. I had that argument before, and I think that is something
that have to be revisit with the union and everything else, because it is -- if you are
going to follow the requirements, and it said one of the requirements is that they are
-- well, that they are employee in the -- of the City, and another one that is that they
are part of the department. But a part-timer is part of the -- is an employee of the
City, and is part of the requirements. Another thing is that I have seen that maybe
we're trying to -- I don't know why that was before. I don't know what the rationale
is -- that there are requirements, educational requirements that are made that those
part-timers, they have the experience, they have the expertise, they've been working
on the parks, but a person that comes with a degree or with -- whatever -- college
degree -- then that person has priority of the other -- over the other. And many
people move around, because they are part of the union, you see? And that's
something that should be revisit. That's something that have to be revisit, and we
have to work with the union, because if -- and also, experience should be taken into
consideration in lieu of education. That is something that -- the person that have
been for 20 year -- thir -- 10 years have been working on as a park tender, you see?
And a full-time position comes in, maybe that person doesn't have -- meets all the
educational requirements, but he has 10, 20 years of experience, and that should be
taken into consideration in lieu -- as a matter of fact, when you hire somebody that
have never done that, you see, the learning curve is going to cost you a lot of money.
And when you have somebody that have the experience, that expertise, there is no
learning curve.
Chair Russell: Thank you. Vice Chairman Gort.
Ms. Hemway: But the only feedback I wanted to give is that all positions that are
posted, they have the minimum requirements, which deals a lot with the education --
Commissioner Reyes: Yes.
Ms. Hemway: -- experience, and there's the equivalency clause, and that's where
someone with a lot of years of experience can overcome the education requirement.
Chair Russell: Thank you.
Commissioner Reyes: Well, I know, and I can take you now to about three or four
parks that there are individuals, very hard working --
Ms. Hemway: Mm-hmm.
Commissioner Reyes: -- that have been working for 30 years.
Chair Russell: Thank you. Vice Chairman Gort.
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Vice Chair Gort: Now, I don't know if you were aboard when we made the changes,
I think two or three years ago, but we have a lot of those part-timers going into full-
time.
Ms. Hemway: Yes.
Vice Chair Gort: And I think we -- how many people did we do that with?
Ms. Hemway: It was actually everybody who was temporary at the time, and I want
to say the final number was 69.
Vice Chair Gort: Yeah.
Ms. Hemway: I know one year, in fact, we did 69, and then the second year, we did
13.
Vice Chair Gort: Because I do get the same complaints; a lot of people that worked
part-time, and they been working for hours --
Ms. Hemway: Mm-hmm.
Vice Chair Gort: -- and the experience and the knowledge they have of the parks
and the process, it'd be very important if we could do that again. I know there was a
hit in the budget, and that's one of the reasons why they didn't do it, but we should
look into it; especially those people that have been more than 10 or 15 years.
Ms. Hemway: And I could definitely work with the Budget Director to look at that.
Vice Chair Gort: Thank you.
Commissioner Carollo: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) ask you a question. How many part -
times (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?
Ms. Hemway: In -- year-round, I probably run between 3 to 400 part-timers, and
then in the seasonal season --
Commissioner Carollo: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) permanent part-timers.
Ms. Hemway: Could you repeat the question?
Commissioner Carollo: The permanent part-timer.
Commissioner Reyes: Not seasonal.
Commissioner Carollo: Not seasonal; permanent.
Ms. Hemway: That would be between 300 and 400, and it flexes -- those based on
attrition, probably -- we're probably closer in the middle at 350.
Commissioner Carollo: What are your policies --because I've seen part-timers that
they're fixed at a location, and they've been therefor years.
Commissioner Reyes: 30 years (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Ms. Hemway: I'm not sure I understand what you're asking.
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Commissioner Carollo: Well what -- I'm not asking. I'm saying that I've seen part-
timers that have been in certain locations for many years.
Ms. Hemway: Correct.
Commissioner Carollo: Now, usually, how many hours do those part-timers work
like that; that they're in a set location? 30 hours a week?
Ms. Hemway: Part-time employees can work every pay period 59 hours, so 29.5 per
pay period --
Commissioner Reyes: About 30 hours.
Ms. Hemway: Yeah, per week.
Commissioner Carollo: Now, my next question is, those part-timers, do you allow
them to work in other places or not, or how does that work?
Ms. Hemway: A lot of where our part-time assignment is going to be is dependent
on operational need. I have locations where you can have a staff that is working two
sites.
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah, but I'm not referring to that. Outside of the City
employment that they have --
Ms. Hemway: Oh, okay.
Commissioner Carollo: -- are they allowed to have another employment somewhere
else?
Ms. Hemway: So the City does have an APM (Administrative Policy Manual) that
details outside employment restrictions. The only thing that we hold to in our
department, and remind our staff of is they can't have an outside employment that is
taking place on City property, and they cannot do that outside employment during
City time.
Commissioner Hardemon: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Ms. Hemway: So they could have another job; they just cannot be functioning on
City property.
Commissioner Hardemon: Are you saying, "Act on City property and on City time at
the same" -- I want to be clear. So if you had a part-time job outside of City time,
but it was on City property, like at a park, for instance --
Ms. Hemway: That's not allowed. The APM is very specific on that. It cannot be on
City property and it cannot be on City -- during City hours, and you cannot use City
resources, either, for the job.
Commissioner Carollo: Can they work in strip clubs, lounges, bars?
Ms. Hemway: They have to submit an outside employment request. The details are
individual to everybody, and is analyzed. It comes through me and then it goes
through the HR Department, and then to the City Manager's Office to approve. I do
not have the final approval.
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Commissioner Hardemon: Could I ask question, just to check for the moment,
Commissioner? Have you ever disapproved a request for outside employment?
Ms. Hemway: If it occurred on City time or City location -- I mean, if it met the
criteria that's not allowed, then I will give that feedback or the supervisor will give
the feedback, back to that employee that we can't move it forward.
Commissioner Hardemon: Right. So if an employee wants to do outside
employment and it's not violative [sic] of being on City property or during City time
-- and I'm assuming you mean during the hours of their employment, and that's --
Ms. Hemway: Correct.
Commissioner Hardemon: -- then it's generally okay?
Ms. Hemway: Yeah. I would -- then I would sign it, and it would go to HR. They
would sign it, and then it would go to the City Manager's Office to approve.
Commissioner Hardemon: So if there was an application that came in where
someone was disapproved and it was not on City property and it was not during City
time, that would be unusual?
Commissioner Reyes: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Ms. Hemway: If -- I would say, yes, it would be unusual, but if I have any questions,
I always talk with HR before providing any feedback.
Commissioner Hardemon: Because HR is the final okay?
Ms. Hemway: No. City Manager is the final, but we're -- we try to handle certain
things at our level first before then advancing.
Commissioner Hardemon: And the City Manager isn't norm -- he's not normally
making a decision that's outside of -- I guess the guidance of what his underling
says?
Joseph Napoli (Deputy City Manager): That's correct, Commissioner. It's a
several -stage process. First it goes to the Director; then it goes to HR, and HR is
really the test for all of those criteria to include conflict; and then, it goes to the
Assistant City Manager, and then the City Manager approval. So it goes through
several steps, and the final check is just from the City Manager's perspective to make
sure all those criteria -- all -- for number one, all those people checked; and then
number two, all the criteria looked at, and the form has all of those criteria on there.
Vice Chair Gort: But first it goes to Budget.
Mr. Napoli: I'm sorry?
Vice Chair Gort: First it goes to Budget, right?
Mr. Napoli: Not for outside employment.
Chair Russell: If I could, Commissioners, we have a lot of our residents who are
still waiting here for the morning's agenda and the PZ (Planning and Zoning)
agenda. I would just like to limit our discussion away from administrative policy.
It's very -- it's actually very interesting and informative, and a lot of good things
have come about, but I'd like to try to focus on Budget related -- it's very --
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specifically to Budget so that we can get through the Budget item. Is there any
further questions for Parks with regard to the budget?
Ms. Hemway: Our biggest priority this year was getting additional maintenance
staff to allow us to accommodate the additional parks that we've taken over the last
couple of years, and we got that. So I would say that we are comfortable at this
moment.
Chair Russell: Thank you very much.
Ms. Hemway: No problem.
Chair Russell: So my final comment on the budget: We had very few people come
here for public comment to talk to us about our budget and ask for amendments, and
one of them was Lotus House is requesting 450,000 a year for 53 shelter beds. The
homeless situation in our City is -- has not -- the needle has not moved enough over
the last 10 years. The same basic numbers in the streets and the shelter are there.
And I know that this is under the responsibility of the Homeless Trust and the
County, but we've always stepped in as a city; do what we can where we can, and
help fill those gaps. I would love to see an analysis of what we do spend with Lotus,
what we could spend with Lotus, and bring that back on second reading, please.
Mr. Rose: And if I could point out, that's exactly what the Anti -Poverty Initiative
funds are for.
Chair Russell: Yeah. Unfortunately, I have the smallest portion of Anti -Poverty
funds, and the greatest number of homeless in the District 2 area; and so, I'm ill
equipped to address that without the help of my fellow Commissioners from API
(Anti -Poverty Initiative), so I'm open to the CRA (Community Redevelopment
Agency). I've looked for an opinion that even though Lotus House, as a structure, is
outside of the Omni CRA, they certainly service a lot of the homeless individuals that
do exist within the CRA, and there may be help that we can bring there, but I wanted
to put it out here, and I knew you were going to go there with the API, but I wanted
to leave our Commission with that between first and second to see if there's some
solution or help we can find, if there's a will. Is there any further comment on
BH.21 ? Hearing none, we have a motion; we have a second. Is there anything else
you need to read?
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir. If --
Ms. Jones -Jackson: It's in the ordinance.
Mr. Rose: It is --
Chair Russell: Yes.
Mr. Rose: -- an ordinance, but it is as amended by the change memo, if I may.
Chair Russell: Yes.
Mr. Rose: And we know that all of these requests we're going to look at, and see
what we can do with them. And we'll be meeting with you quite a bit over the next
two weeks, Commissioners.
Chair Russell: Thank you very much.
Mr. Rose: Yes, sir.
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Chair Russell: And before you read that and we take the vote, I just want to -- we're
past the ]Op. in., which doesn't apply to budget, but as soon as the budget hearing is
done, the Clerk will have to read the 10 p. m. This is going to be my recommendation
to the body, but it's up to the will of this body: I would recommend at that point we
have the City Attorney read in the remaining three or four ordinances, and during
that time -- that's about -- that'll take about 10 minutes, so you've got a moment to
take a break. And then we can finish the morning's agenda as a block, or as you
wish, and then all we have is one PZ item. So I would ask -- because everyone has
come all this way and waited all this day -- that we do continue past 10, and if
anyone does want to leave that you allow us through unanimous consent to continue,
and then anyone who has to go, the remainder, as long as we have quorum, to
continue. That would be my goal.
Commissioner Carollo: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Chair Russell: Is your mike on?
Commissioner Carollo: Just about everybody here is for the PZ item; is that
correct? All the people that are here for the PZ item, can you raise your hand?
Okay. Is there anybody here for any other item in the morning agenda -- in the
morning agenda; not PZ -- that we hadn't taken care of?
Chair Russell: Yeah, there's a few.
Commissioner Carollo: And what item would that be? What item are you here for?
Huh?
Chair Russell: FR.1.
Commissioner Carollo: FR. 1 ?
Chair Russell: Which is time sensitive. We need to pass two readings of that --
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. Before I go --
Chair Russell: -- before October 1.
Commissioner Carollo: -- Chairman, what I would suggest at this late time --
Vice Chair Gort: Let's do FR.1.
Commissioner Carollo: -- we do FR.1. Commissioner, do you want to bring
something back or not?
Commissioner Hardemon: I want to make a comment on the record about it.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. Well --
Commissioner Hardemon: And then (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Chair Russell: And it looks like we'd be --
Commissioner Carollo: All right. So --
Chair Russell: -- we'll at least be getting a unanimous consent to move
(UNINTELLIGIBLE).
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Commissioner Carollo: -- he'll make a comment on the record on whatever he wants
to, we do FR.1, and then we go ahead and do the PZ agenda. And all the other items
that we have, we bring them back for the next meeting. And I would like the items
that I didn't have to be time certain the next meeting.
Chair Russell: Thank you. Ms. Jones -Jackson, if you could read the ordinance,
BH.21, please.
The Ordinance was read by title into the public record by Assistant City
Attorney/Supervisor Robin Jones -Jackson.
Chair Russell: Thank you. All in favor of the item, say "aye. "
Vice Chair Gort: Aye.
Commissioner Reyes: Aye.
Commissioner Hardemon: Aye.
Chair Russell: Any opposed? Motion passes. Thank you very much.
Commissioner Carollo: Nay, nay, nay.
Chair Russell: No; one "no. ".
Ms. Jones -Jackson: As amended.
Chair Russell: I apologize.
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): 4-1, as amended.
Chair Russell: 4-1. So that's a "no" on BH.21 ?
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah, on the budget --
Chair Russell: Okay. I'm sorry.
Commissioner Carollo: --for now.
Chair Russell: Got it.
Commissioner Carollo: I'll reserve my right to change my vote on the second
reading.
Chair Russell: Thank you; passes 4-1.
Mr. Rose: Thank you, Commissioners.
Chair Russell: The budget hearing is now closed. I will reopen the general meeting.
Mr. Hannon: Chair, we just need a couple of minutes.
Chair Russell: And the Chairman -- I mean, I'm sorry.
Eric Zichella: I have a point of order about the PZ meeting. I represent the Buena
Vista --
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ADJOURMENT
Chair Russell: Just a moment.
Mr. Hannon: Can we --
Chair Russell: Just a moment, please.
Mr. Hannon: We need to adjourn this meeting; no comments until we, you know,
basically flip the tape and we get back to the regular agenda.
Chair Russell: Okay. Thank you. Then the Clerk needs to read a statement.
END OF FIRST BUDGET HEARING
The meeting adjourned at 10:18 p.m.
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