##VIDEO ID:uROIz1TEZCw## 12 first budget hearing I apologize I running a little bit late but to get us started I'd like to welcome Paula from the finance department and in advance thank you to your staff all the city staff the residents who are here with us today thank you for your engagement uh and thank you for for really working hard throughout the budget process it's been truly a pleasure as always and we appreciate your leadership and your efforts thank you thank you um Paula Rodriguez assistant Finance director for management budget and compliance um as the mayor said I'd like to recognize my staff um this is the one time of the year that we make sure to recognize them so we have Pedro Sanchez who is a senior management and budget analyst um he primarily works on our capital budget so he's very um intimate with all of the projects that we discussed Chris Garcia also management and budget analyst and Ivan Bas an a management and budget analyst and then we also have an anami Garcia who was recently added to our team to work on grants and Elsie Fuentes Elsa Fuentes who has been on our team as the grants coordinator and internal auditor uh for several years now and so thank you all for all of the support throughout the year on our budget process um and that's what I have to say in advance thank [Applause] you so before we get started with the president presentation Mr clerk do we have any public comment that we' like to address uh Mr Mayor yes we have speakers uh first Speaker David Rena good evening sir good evening name is David Renshaw uh the business representative so uh hello to Mayor vice mayor Commissioners department heads and residents again my name is David Renshaw business business representative of Teamsters Local 769 proudly represents the general employees that work at the city they keep it safe they keep it clean and they maintain that City beautiful standards your residents strive for I'm here to outline a few compon components number one we do not need a push in an advocacy to reduce certain positions in certain departments I.E the sanitation I.E The Code Department these are departments that do not need a decrease they need an increase we hear object to any reduction of any proposed future full-time positions as would benefit from the Departments let's talk about the budget I understand the process of the budget I'm here to also let you know on behalf of the bargaining committee we are still in negotiations between the parties we have obtained some enhancements at the bargaining table but under the direction of the Union bargaining committee and this is a clear decisive direction to capture and obtain the standards that they deserve this is the moment this is the time and this is the opportunity to finally collect ly show the love admiration but more so the appreciation to the general employees that have spent years here this is no longer about retraction and attention this is about being back to being competitive we need to maintain that competitiveness we all talk about the money the budget yes everything has a cost to it but when you go back and do the rewind back in July 10th of 2024 we were told that that the that the uh the revenue from the homes and the taxes gone up 20% I quote we have a lot of money I continue to quote we have a significant amount of money just this Monday by only attending a meeting that I discovered this city several years ago received an approximate 271k in Surplus from the healthcare insurance where did that money go so again this is the opportunity the best opportunity that we collectively have to show what we can do for our general employees I encourage you to deeply consider that while we continue ongoing negotiations thank you for the extra time who are you quoting I'm sorry who are you quoting when are we voting who were you quoting qu oh who was I quoting I was quoting uh the mayor mayor Vince logo July 10th 2024 uh I don't know what particular the time it was but I went through it and uh I just go back and take a look at it and those were the actual quotes and when not just me but when your employees here the leadership as yourself saying we have a significant amount of money what is the interpretation of that to the general employees they're the ones that brought that to my attention David look at this look at this why can't we get this thank you sir you're welcome sir thank you thank you thank you m Mary Cruz Mrs Maria Cruz 1447 Miller Road I believe I've said this before every time we need to cut we cut the bottom people we don't cut benefits on the top we cut the little people the ones that do the jobs that nobody else wants to do those are the ones we cut I'm looking at the memo that came out September 9th with the changes from July 1st I do not believe there's one resident in this city that would think or say or be concerned about the St of the Court enforcement uh workers uh I have never in uh let's see from 76 to now 48 years that I've lived in this city have never seen the dad roofs the state of stuff that normally would have been picked up by the court Enforcement Officers going up and down the streets uh the violations let me tell you I'm very lucky because I live in in an area that has a an excellent cor enforcement officer but who's not full-time there but when you drive around the city is pitiful so I don't understand why we're cutting one Court enforcement officer then you have one solid waste employee that's going to be eliminated reduced from the previous I'm I'm talking about what was presented in July and what's being presented now so Solid Waste we don't have enough people there so we're going to reduce one more listen to the people that are being reduced not benefits from the top not executive benefits not extra whatevers we're cutting from the little people the little people are the ones that we caught in this city all the time okay if you walk if you drive around the city you see our monuments that we proudly call monuments our street numbers I mean I'm tired of seeing broken monuments dad monuments monuments that you cannot read and now we're going to cut one parttime sign shop person who's going to do that shall we get the kindergarten students from uh gab Academy to come and I have an idea the 18,000 that were that we're using for the art maybe this year we don't have to fix it maybe we can save that money that's 18 Grand right there okay we're also cutting we're moving one parking enforcement person to parttime I don't know about you but you need to look at the parking you need to look around my area I know that some people say that there's no issues around the university unless you live there and you see the cars parking all day long there this is ridiculous if you're going to if you need to cut money look at the top look at the executive benefits look at the things that we do not see because it's extra stuff that employees get and let's keep the the little money because those we need that's it Mr Mayor all right perfect thank you follow can we go ahead and share my screen go ahead and it's not being shared okay so as they as it's not it's not [Music] me so today is the first budget hearing for the fiscal 20242 budget um and today the objective is to adopt the First on first hearing the ordinance to set the millage rate of 5559 and to adopt the budget estimate we will hear this item again on September 24th at 50:1 p.m. will be our second reading of these ordinances um and just before we start I want to address just one of the comments of the positions and I'll get into it in my presentation of the positions that are being proposed to be reduced in this budget estimate today those are not not existing positions um that are in the budget today those were new positions that were being proposed for fiscal year 25 so just to make sure that that was clear the positions that were being referenced in the memo that was provided to each of you and so on your on the Das I provided you each a copy of the memo that I sent on Monday which provided the explanation of the change to to the budget estimate that was given to on July 1st um this explains the changes between July 1st and today's budget um and in that explanation I provided an explanation that in today's budget estimate we reduced four full-time positions which were previous new positions being proposed in the July 1 budget estimate and I'll go through each of those in a in a second so what you're saying is just briefly we're not reducing existing positions correct we're not reducing existing positions in the budget estimate from July 1st we proposed adding 23 full-time positions and two part-time positions and you'll see in the presentation today that we reduced the new positions that we're adding to 19 full-time positions so just to get started on the presentation so here we are today September 12th our first budget hearing and so um thank you to all of the staff and all of the directors who have worked very hard with us we start this budget process at the beginning of February um where we start meeting with the Departments and the Departments start providing us the estimates and on the screen you can see the schedule and all of the meetings and steps that we've gone through to get to today um and so today as I mentioned um we are we are required to set the millage rate and adopt the the budget on first reading so on the screen you'll see the same information that's provided to you in the packet that I provided this is um the first page of the supporting schedules which are the changes from July 1st budget estimate to today so the reeven the July 1st budget estimate was 283,000 289 um dollar today's budget estimate is 284 m746 n46 and the change between those two amounts is 1,200 I'm sorry 1,266 657 and so you'll see the first section of this um slide are the changes to revenue so the July 1 budget estimate included property tax revenue um based on the June 1 estimate that we received from the Property Appraiser's office on July one we received a revised uh property value estimate which resulted in approximately 30 $383,000 more and property tax revenue to the city in addition you'll see that there's been some other changes and revenue so the half cent ctax our CIT Revenue the estimate that we received from the county is 256,000 almost $257,000 less than the current Year's budget that um and I'll get down to the expenditures but we had to fill that gap of the reduced Revenue with a sub to our trolley and our freebie service by the parking division the half cent sales tax well we um as we talk about each year in the summer we receive our estimates from the state and so the half sensor tax is estimated to increase by 170,000 next year the revenue sharing is estimated to increase about 37,000 but you'll notice that the communication service tax is um estimated to be reduced by about a 100,000 so um between the sale the half cent and the revenue sharing it's about 200,000 offset by the reduction of about 100,000 for the Communication Service tax and those are the taxes that you see um on your cable uh bills on your phone bills um it had recently increased because they started um taxing streaming services um but now you're seeing that level out and actually go down a bit and so uh transfers from fund balance so an increase of 8 $18,000 um was made in this budget for the uh recent commission action to fund the Carlos Cruz da DA's artwork from the AI funds and so we brought in $188,000 from AI to offset the additional expense for that artwork uh transfer from fund balances from Impact fees so throughout the summer we did a Reconciliation of impact fees that we've received and so some of the amounts um went up and some of them went down um the parks impact fees for the purchase of land in our reconciliation we had an additional 1. almost $3 million of impact fees that we've collected those are restricted to be used towards the purchase of land and so you'll see in the next section that that then is offset by the expense of um of the contribution to capital for purchase of Land Park impact fees for Park enhancements so we had an additional 42,000 that we were able to allocate to Capital Mobility impact fees so in our reconciliation um Mobility impact fees was 250,000 less than we had originally estimated and so we had funded some capital projects with Mobility impact fees and we swapped out that that impact fee with general fund dollars so some of the increase of Revenue that we received for the general fund was swapped out to fund those Mobility projects with a with a with that 250,000 and then transfer for fund balance to the pension fund a very small amount of $38 and I'm sorry I skipped service fee and investment earnings um so these are um the least restrictive of our impact fee Revenue because it's based on service fees and impact um in investment earnings and we were able to and that also decreased by about 39,000 so that results in the increase a total increase of Revenue brought into this budget of almost $1.3 million 1 1,266 657 to get to that revised revenue of 84,7 46,9 46 so since we have to have a balanced budget our July 1 expenditure budget was 283,000 um 283 mil4 180 289 $ 48,287 the changes to expenditures are um are outlined below so the allocation of additional Capital we allocated uh an additional almost $ 1.7 million of capital that includes that allocation to purchase of land of $1.2 million from those restricted impact fees um we recently closed the bid for the U mayor Dorothy Thompson Park the Toledo no Lava Park um and the construction cost came in 14 $45,000 over the budget estimate so we allocated an additional $145,000 to that project to be able to complete it also considering that we have a grant on that project so um so we can continue to move it forward and then you see an allocation of 262,000 to City Hall and I'll explain um how we got to that 262,000 in a moment so just below that you see a decrease in the salary and benefits um from the July 1 budget of 246,000 and so this 246,000 is a result of the reduction of new positions that we were proposing in July 1 right so um on July 10th we met and on August 1st we met we heard the concerns of some of the Commissioners about the recurring increases to the operating budget and response to that um the city manager and staff got together and we relooked at the July 1 B budget estimate to see what areas we could um we could maybe pull back on even though we continue to recommend increases in these areas we believe that the operations of the Departments could use these positions um there was some positions that we um that we proposed not including in this budget while we continue to evaluate those um to those areas um I'll go through them in another slide but that is explained on the second page of the memo provided um and it you'll see it in future slide in a future slide here um but I'll go through that so that resulted in a decrease in salaries and benefits of 246,000 and that was um then moved to the City Hall project so that 246,000 plus a little bit of general fund Revenue comes to the 262 additional allocation to City Hall for next year um we already spoke about I already spoke about the Carlos Cruz Diaz artwork that's the contribution from AI so that's neutral and then interde departmental allocations was reduced by 141,000 transfers to the general fund city clerk special Revenue Reserve was reduced by $180 and transfers to general fund Building Division Reserve was reduced by $34,000 and that's simply um once when we reduce operating budget the transfers move around um and all um so they when the operating budget goes down the allocation of other the internal Services goes down and it results in a in a decrease um and then the interdepartmental allocation reduction is primarily due to the transfer of funds from parking to the trolley service um to to explain it quickly and that results in the $1.2 million increase of expense of the expenses for a total operating budget of $284,700 17 um the transfers to reserves are outlined here and so trans uh transfers of 5.1 almost 5.2 million to General Capital Improvement fund uh $4.5 million on the general fund $1.1 million from the general fund art and public places uh General Capital impact fee fund of $2.5 million Road Improvement fund of 231,000 um parking fund uh transfers from reserve of $4.1 million and that's primarily the fund capital N uh retirement system uh transfer of 99,000 storm water utility 1 m 1, 55,78825 18529 $29 for the total revenues that you saw on the previous page of $284,700 our operating expenses are $226 million4 9,724 our capital budget is 41,5 63,360 remains at 11,690 our transfers to reserve so our transfer to the city clerk special Revenue which is um which is restricted to his use are $87,500 [Music] [Music] in the parking fund for a total of $5.7 million of transfers to reserve for a total expenditure budget of$ 284 m746 n46 so this next couple of slides is the positions that we added to the budget and so um hopefully this is clear because um I wanted to be able to display to you the changes from July 1 to today and so this uh the positions that we were adding to the the positions that we are adding to the budget on July 1 are listed here the positions that we recommended to not include in this estimate are strike through and highlighted in green um so in the city manager's office we maintain the commission liaison position and development services we initially proposed a field supervisor and a code enforcement officer in this budget today we are reducing it by the code enforcement officer maintaining the additional Field Supervisor in finance we maintain converting the two part-time positions to one full-time that actually um results in a savings um in public works we um looked at initially proposed to add a maintenance worker a part-time maintenance worker for the sign shop this would have provided for a third crew in that area um by reducing this position they will be able to add a second crew with uh changes they've made in Staffing this year and they will evaluate a third crew in future years um so this would be removing that new position and solid waste go back to that last one so there is an increase in Staffing already proposed in addition to the parttime that was propos so in the current year Public Works identified A Part Timer within their Department that they could um shift to the sign shop they haven't filled that position that shift of a part-timer uh gives them the ability once they hire it to add a second crew right now they only have one crew so the shift that they did this year will allow them to go to a second crew adding this position would have allowed them to go to a third crew and so the reason that we that it was discussed that they could absorb this for now is let's get the second crew going see how that works out and evaluate the need for a third crew in the future in solid waste our July 1 budget estimate included one solid waste operator and two Solid Waste workers this budget estimate maintains the one operator but reduces the solid waste workers to adding one instead of two the Public Works inspector for RightWay and solid waste is a part-time position which is revenue neutral um because we anticipate that they will also they will increase the billing for um oversized trash piles and things of that nature so that position was maintained just just to be clear yes because because here it's showing originally and I and then it got to the budget and then it was one solid waste operator and then two Solid Waste workers but in actuality what we had discussed from the beginning was two Solid Waste operators and two Solid Waste workers and now you're reducing practically three of them basically right so the initial request from the Department Department well the initial request from the Department was 4 and4 the initial request was 44 it was evaluated with the ACM and the department and so they based on their staffing needs they they decided that two and two would be sufficient two operators and two Solid Waste workers when we um develop the July 1 budget estimate we did not I'm going to say we didn't have sufficient funds to do two operators and two Solid Waste workers at the time at the budget hearing at the July 10th meeting I did mention that because we knew we were getting additional property revenues that we were planning on going to the two operators and two Solid Waste workers but since then the conversations have evolved and so the July 1 estimate as it stands is one operator and two Solid Waste workers the revised budget estimate based on the conversations with the manager has changed has reduced that by one position so yes so not adding the operator an additional operator two and reducing by one solid waste worker that's what's here so we so their needs was really eight right to begin with and now we're down to two basically just two okay and so that's what we're presenting here we can always discuss it so in it we are um we were adding an IT customer support and GIS analyst to um and so we did not remove that position but the department um the department was willing to eliminate a part-time position to um reduce the the funding impact but still get the full-time position um so that is included here uh fire fire and police officers adding the five firefighters and fire police officers was not impacted um we also maintained the body warn camera analyst and and then in the technical services we reduced uh so originally we were converting two part-time to two full-time and so this budget revises that to only convert one part-time to full-time but maintaining the other part-time position so not eliminating the current part-time position but not converting it to a full-time position and in parking uh the same is true or our July 1 estimate converted two part-time to two fulltime and this revised estimate would only convert one part-time to one fulltime and maintain the part-time that exists today and so those are the position changes that resulted in the approximate $240,000 uh salary and benefit decrease which was then um that funding was then put towards the city hall project and the parking enforcement specialist this is a position that brings in Revenue these are the positions that would um enforce our parking yes enforce our parking but it brings Revenue to having having one it brings yes it's a revenue generating position okay so did we see if we would be making more by keeping this position we didn't do a revenue analysis but there's so one of the ways that I look at enforcement is really that our our goal is compliance so even though yes that would be a practical evaluation we did not look at the revenue that a part-timer versus a full-timer would generate okay um so I will continue with the presentation unless there's any other questions okay and so that would change our initial increase of uh full-time positions to 925 to 921 so now a little bit about capital and so you've seen this chart before this is a fiveyear priority Project funding um plan that we established in fiscal year 23 um and so this slide um outlines what the uh fiscal year 23 plan was and so Firehouse 4 Phillips Park Pon Circle Park City Hall the gondola building the Venetian pool and the Alahambra water tower were the projects that were identified as as the priority projects for this plan um and so at the time we committed to in uh to using our increased revenues in that year towards funding fing um these projects dedicated towards funding these projects and so you'll see that it's been a fairly successful and um any projects that are highlighted in green that the totals are highlighted in green are projects that we were able to fully Fund in any given year and so this was the schedule for fiscal year 23 in fiscal year 24 we funded we fully funded Fire House 4 also with the assistance of the grants and the state Appropriations that we received we put $1.5 million towards Philip Park we put $4.1 million towards City Hall and the majority of that went to the windows um we put um2 almost $4 million towards the Venetian pool and almost $2.1 million to the Alahambra water tower fully funding those projects in fiscal year 24 and so the initial plan um for the funding for um this year was to put uh 4 point 4.7 almost $4.8 million towards Philip Park to fully fund that project in this fiscal year and so you'll see that that's broken out by almost $4.4 million of General capital for 4,388 543 from General capital and the remaining 398,000 or so comes from Impact fees eligible impact fees and then you'll see City Hall so the original estimate for City Hall was to fund a million dollars uh just over a million dollars the majority of that going towards the windows um and so the windows instead of 2.5 we we would fund a total of 3.5 sorry um and then so you'll see here that that's highlighted in blue and that funding towards City Hall is $1.3 million that accounts for the additional $246,000 different color you can barely see it oh okay well you can't really tell what the numbers are almost well this this is your eye exam to see if you can tell the difference between black and blue yeah I see green I think in a public meeting somebody let me their glasses but you maybe if we switch maybe a lighter blue next time yeah I can't you know they're hard um so the 1.3 accounts for the additional 262,000 that was put to City Hall in the revised budget estimate follow on let me ask you a quick question I noticed that in fiscal year 23 a shortfall for City Hall was1 13 [Music] million but the total uh project shortfall between 23 and 24 is about $3 million 3.3 is that because of construction cost or so initial so when this plan was put together the initial estimate um that we used for this plan for City Hall you can see in that first column to the uh left was $15 million um and so that was the original estimate for the city hall project obviously since then we know that things have changed and so you'll see on the next page that City Hall's amount um is up to $18.3 million and really that accounts mostly for the uh the additional money we put in for the windows um and so we accounted for that but the reality is is that and so you'll see that at the end of fiscal year 25 the unfunded would be about 12.9 million and that's really we don't right now City Hall is a moving Target so although we knew we had we had an estimate we had to come up with a number in 23 it was about $15 million um but as as things have changed we increase each year the the to the project cost yeah as it as we examine the building more we and and we can't get off the shelf windows and I imagine that this 12 9 might change next year as well right so I think it will yes it will I I there's a question mark there anymore I I would if I was a doesn't work with the question mark or or not available so we assign it a number um and then you'll see here the um the plan for the next two years fiscal year 26 and 27 was to continue committing to this um to this plan and so originally we committed $5 million Our intention was to increase that at $5 million incrementally each year and so that's why in fiscal year 26 you see $6.5 million and of course that would be based on Revenue availability in that year right so um the plan would be that if if available we would do 6.5 at a minimum we would commit the 5 million that we talk about each year and then in fiscal year 27 we would also commit the uh remaining amount for City Hall to fully funded in fiscal year 27 under this plan and then we can continue the plan for other projects okay okay and so this um you've seen this slide before this is the list of capital projects that we are funding this year and the amounts new new funding providing new funding to this year and the amounts by uh by project Cate uh by project type and so total Capital Equipment we're funding just under $3.2 million F facility repairs and improvements we're funding just over $3.5 million um historic facility projects were funding 2.6 million and you may or may not see it by highlighted in green is City Hall and that's because that amount changed from the July one budget estimate in motorpool we're funding three just over $3.6 million for the replacement of vehicles and equipment in parking repairs and Improvement we're funding just over $2.8 million in Parks and Recreation we're in projects we're funding uh just over $9.6 million and again you'll see highlighted in green the purchase of lands which indicates the additional contribution of impact fees and uh mayor Dorothy Thompson Park which we increase the funding uh to 145,000 we were not providing funding this year so this is uh new funding for this year will that fully fund that that will F fully fund that yes um and then Public Safety improvements we are funding almost $3.5 million in projects that includes a replacement and Matrix for equipment and um transportation and roadway we are funding just over $6 million in projects utility repairs we're funding just over $10 million and projects and this also includes the additional funding to our sea level rise mitigation program which will receive just o uh just over $4.5 million this year and the um but those are restricted funds that are from that are uh built for that purpose for a total Capital Project funding of 45,1 191,0 15 including the motor pool projects so this budget is based on the uh maintaining the 5559 millage rate and so this will be the um the same millage rate that we have maintained since 2016 so the 10th consecutive year this slide uh breaks out your tax dollars so this is always an interesting slide to see that our 5559 millage rate uh represents 30 cents per tax dollar that our residents pay Dade County um receives 32 cents per tax dollar from our residents tax bill the school board receives 36 cents per tax dollar uh Bill to our residents and the regional is just about two cents per tax dollar so it's always interesting to see that the majority of services Come From the City of Coral Gables but um our residents actually pay more to other areas um than than the city taxes and that is all I have for my presentation today the first order that we will take is to adopt the millage so I'll read it into the um record and if they'll be bear with me there's some additional required language I need to read um so the first one is an ordinance providing for the levy of taxes for the fiscal year beginning October 1 2024 and ending September 30th 2025 fixing the rate of such Levy providing for the segregation and the application of the proceeds of such Levy providing for the separability of the provisions hereof and providing that this ordinance shall become effective October 1st 2024 be it ordained by the commission of the City of Coral Gables that in comp section one that in compliance with the Constitution and laws of the State of Florida as now written taxation is hereby levied upon all real and personal property within the present corporate limits of the City of Coral Gables for tax year 2024 a tax of 5559 Ms which is an 88.4% increase over the roll back rate of 5128 one all proceeds the collection of this Levy to be recorded into the general fund of the city and shall be reserved therein and dispersed transferred there from for the sole and express purpose of paying the necessary operating and capital expenditures of the City of Coral Gables its departments offices and properties for the fiscal year ending September 30th 2025 this ordinance does require um a forfeits vote for approval I'll move it I'll second is the mayor here did he leave he he's he stepped off he didn't give me a chance to S pro we can proce we can proceed he's probably at the clock right okay we have a motion so we all have to vote together practically we know that yes sir we have a motion a second commissioner Castro yes commissioner Fernandez yes commissioner Mendez yes vice mayor Anderson yes okay and then the second item and please if you'll bear with me because this one will be a little lengthier is an ordinance adopting the annual budget budget of estimated revenues and expenditures for the fiscal year beginning October 1st 2024 and ending September 30th 2025 providing for the separability of the provisions hereof and providing that this ordinance shall become effective October 1st 2024 whereas the city manager prepared and on July 1st 2024 submitted to the commission a budget estimate of the revenues and expenditures of a city departments divisions offices and properties for the fiscal year commencing October 1st 2024 and copies of such estimate have been made available for public viewing at the cor GES library and the office of the city clerk an where the budget estimate submitted to the commission on July 1st 2024 in the amount of $283,400 289 has been revised by the city manager to include revenue and expenditure increases in the amount of 1,266 657 bringing the total budget amount to $284,700 and that the following summary of estimated revenues and expenditures for the fiscal year commencing October 1st 2024 and ending September 30th 2025 is hereby agreed upon and adopted along with the supporting data Rel relating their two on file with the finance department of the City of Coral Gables as the official 2024 2025 budget of the City of Coral Gables total operating revenues $265,800 revenues $284,700 46 total debt service appropriation $1,690 total expenditures $284 million [Music] $46,988 positions uh as well as the code enforcement position and I would like to see what the uh part-time parking position uh can bring in as far as Revenue uh because it might offset its own costs um I'm okay with cutting positions as I had said before um but those are positions that I think they services that residents have really been looking um to enhance we get code enforcement complaints all the time I mean um some here on the days have to be doing code enforcement um and submitting code enforcement complaints because of the issues that we have in the community uh and as far as parking I know we are adding a position but I want to see how we can uh alleviate some of the concerns that residents have uh in some of the outlying areas because most of our concentration right now of our parking team is in the the central business district which is where most of the violations are uh but I've had complaints from residents near schools or other areas where we perhaps haven't been able to alleviate that concern um so that's what I would like to see between first and second reading um finding ways to still focus on on City Hall and adding the funding to City Hall but maybe there's other places that we can uh move the money from well I'm going um you know I have no problem U having this discussion between uh first and second I I have discussed and and spent extensive time with directors as well as other individuals and the manager and our our staff um because we are adding a lot of positions this year more so than we've ever added before to this budget and I do think that there's there are some efficiencies that we can provide to make the job easier for our Solid Waste workers if we add some additional Tools in a toolbox which you know I've shared some ideas with the manager but you know the ultimate decision has to be made by the solid waste director by the employees themselves to consider those things it would take a lot of stress and strain I think off of the um you know the difficulty of of the job especially in the heat uh and fewer injuries and less heat stroke Etc so this is you know I want to be cautious about what we're doing because the last thing I want to do is have a situation where you know we're reducing positions because we don't need them I want to take a step at a time and yes we're increasing positions and yes we're increasing Solid Waste workers and uh based upon the discussions that I had the positions that are needed the most are being absolutely filled and the ones that are you know less certain um let's take let's take a test drive between first and second and get the feedback from um staff and from the director as to how we can be more efficient and make theot the job easier for our employees and if I can request the the manager maybe we can uh individually meet with our Solid Waste uh director um so that we can discuss these these cuts uh as well as with the parking director um and um code enforcement so that we can each kind of get a grasp on on these positions um yeah I change might change our minds uh so you know I think that it would be good to have those conversations with the the folks on the ground uh who could really tell us what the impact of those positions might be I'll have a I'll have a renewed you know discussion I did I did have a discussion before I even suggested the modifications I feel I sorry I feel that there's a disconnect and maybe I'm understanding things differently and you're understanding or maybe they're telling us different things is there any way possible that maybe both of us can have a meeting a join meeting with the assistant director of solid wasses we we could have a sunshine meeting it could be noticed for Sunshine purposes like that I don't no I have no problem doing a sunshine meeting you know because perhaps that's where the communication I think that might be a good idea so I don't know if the I don't know if the assistant Public Works director will be available in the next couple of weeks to meet so um but I can speak to a little bit of not only not only with assistant um director her and maybe some other workers or supervisors I think that I've been talking to in that department which have been very very insightful for me to understand how how they they work how they process if I may absolutely absolutely we can set up individual meetings uh with the Commissioners and and the staff you you want there also keep in mind I think there's another we always have the other option of coming back to commission after this budget is passed and request an additional headcount or increase in the headcount for one specific position or another so it doesn't have to be the whole year that we're without we can come back uh in three months 6 months and say look we've done this is what we have and it's really not working we have some ideas as the vice mayor mentioned to try to alleviate a lot of the the work for our Workforce but we have the option of coming back and saying it didn't work we need to increase a headcount by one or two I I I appreciate that and you know because we like to make Intelligent Decisions commissioner mandez I just um in total agreement with my colleagues uh but for me I want to make sure that the first decision is the right decision and I think what's being proposed is the right way to do it a lot of times um let's put it this way initially those positions were proposed at some point there was it was identified as a need and I don't think anything's really happened in the world to change the fact that at some point a need was realized or recognized so I want to do what's right the first time and yes and I agree we can make adjustments as the year goes by but this is an opportunity I think the commission and the administration have done a great job working together going through the budget and focusing on the millit rate and the way it can be used for the good of the community so this is a great opportunity to really work together and find answers and find Solutions but I we are a growing city and I don't mean from a development standpoint we're an active City more than ever and there's need for sanitation there's need for code enforcement because we're not shrinking as a city we are growing growing in terms of activity so I want to make sure we have enough people so that we could provide the best Services is it possible this is for the City attorney is it possible or is there a will from the commission to do a second Workshop so the way that it's in the sunshine and everybody can work out the and and leave it specific to the head count so legally it can be done it's just just you know and and even if just two Commissioners wanted to meet that happens sometimes and we would just notice it as a as a you know Sunshine meeting um it doesn't necessarily have to be a formal meeting well it's always of course complies with law with a Sunshine Law which is it must be noticed open to the public minutes are kept but it doesn't necessarily need to require um you know a big Forum necessarily I would do it in a more like you're describing an formal way but obviously we follow through R procedures because perhaps um myself and the vice mayor are available particular day we can have that meeting and our other colleagues can do it another day the matter the the point is gathering the information and having that one-on-one conversation so whatever flexibility is required let's be flexible about what we can do okay yeah and I and I appreciate the manager bringing up you know six months months from now after test driving basically what we're adding in a way of positions we'll have a better idea what the you know is this working you know uh or the additional ideas that I've shared with you and each one of my colleagues may have some ideas is that making the the work easier and less strenuous in covering uh the bases that we need to cover so we have a motion do I hear a second just one second here I I just want to clarify that the initial need was eight right and I think what commissioner Fernand is asking for us to go ahead and well I want to have the conversation with with staff to see exactly where you know we add one position does that mean that we just have one person that's off team or is this team based I want to have a conversation to see exactly what the need is and then if there is a need then we got to figure it out from the budget but I agree with the vice mayor I don't think we should take it from City Hall I think we we need to find another place to to find the money or maybe there's positions that have been open for a year that have not been filled and may not be necessary at this point I want to I want to do a deep dive into into into that portion just to make sure that we're not robbing Peter to pay Paul you know these are Services garbage is one of the most important Services police fire and garbage are the three services that every resident touches on a weekly basis so I think those are the three that are that are most important and revenue generating positions I think that's something we should contemplate whether the generation of the revenue offsets the cost of the position you know there there are factors that need to be factored in I just want to now that we kind of have a framework of of what this budget is going to be it's easier and knowing what the millage is going to be we can really hone down and say this is what we want to do going forward there could be changes in the future but let's sit down have a fruitful conversation on with with solid waste to see what those positions are like the code enforcement how that position is going to be implemented and you know we can we can work from there I think I'm sorry vice mayor I think I understand what you're asking commissioner so we will our will work a schedule with each of the Commissioners to meet uh so we can meet with uh sanitation uh parking and code enforcement and go over whatever questions and so on uh in the next week or so so I just want to be clear from a from a budget process perspective um so if you approve the ordinance as it reads today I have a very short timeline to so there's very very strict guidelines on Advertising so the advertisement for the second hearing will include the budget that we are proposing at the second hearing will be exactly the same as I am proposing today if there's any changes to that budget it will need to be done on the floor at the second hearing correct and so just so I the expectations are clear I'm going to come back with exactly the same budget whatever conversations you have those decisions will be made at the second hearing and that'll be part of your final adopted budget at that point but I won't make any changes at that point right and and many of the questions that I have and position positional differences I think we need to do in that Workshop because it's we really need the director there we really need or or someone with that capacity there to do that type of reasoning on you know why is there that need given that the actual number of homes that are being serviced has actually decreased so we need to answer answers to some of these these questions and we we'll cover it in a workshop so we have a we have a motion do we have a second I am sorry who second it uh I motioned who second I'll second it commissioner Fernandez yes commissioner Menendez yes commissioner Castro yes vice mayor Anderson yes I want to thank everybody who worked making this possible this is I've sat through a few of these this is one of the best we've had in a while thanks to everybody's contribution and involvement including my colleagues and thank you for taking the time to go through all the different positions and the presentation that you offered I know we didn't vote on it uh during the commission meeting and I I had said I wanted to wait until the actual budget to to have that discussion um but I appreciate the work you put in my my yeah no I I felt it was I didn't want to wait till the last minute I'm not one of those last minute people my my vote was yes but I'm I'm very very I feel very very strong that the minimum I will accept is the tutu for solid waste I mean I've been in communication with them we're all the same page that we want to review that and we're all willing to sit down and and look into that and I think that's well that's that's something that's necessary and then the one last important news that I have is that today is commissioner Fernandez's birthday so if we can all please can we you want to sing sing along can we I don't think a fan as a whole