##VIDEO ID:Y4qgh4RoMLA## [Music] the broadcast is now starting all attendees are in listen only mode good afternoon everyone today is Wednesday August 20 uh sorry August 14th 2024 the time is 2:09 p.m. and we're here for our first Council budget Workshop Madam clerk please call the role councilwoman morinas councilman Rafael Pino present councilwoman dinal pres vice mayor Oscar corve here mayor chrisy Fraga present mayor you have cor thank you please rise for the pledge of allegion led by councilman Beno aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay Mr city manager turn it over for discussion items good afternoon mayor city councilman members I am pleased to present the city of dalal's proposed operating and capital budget for fiscal year 2025 beginning October 1st 2024 and concluding on September 30th 2025 the proposed fiscal year 2025 budget is Guided by and is consistent with the vision mission core values and goals and objectives of the city of derell the overall budget is prepared to meet the criteria of the council's Strategic priorities it also reflects administration's Comm commitment to sound financial and operational practices that realizes our growing community's needs and expectations of exceptional Services during the July 29th special hearing with Council the proposed millage rates for fiscal year 2025 were approved and the dates for the first and second budget public hearing dates were announced the fiscal year 2025 proposed budget presented on August 1st to council was based on a proposed millage rate of 17166 Mills which is $1.71 per 1,000 of excess property within the city this is the city's current millage rate this proposed budget is a balanced budget with the use of reserves only for Capital Outlet totaling 12,1 191,50 while maintaining the 15% required Reserve amount the fiscal year 2025 proposed budget contains funding for ongoing services to the community the following are the highlights a 7.5% Cola for all employees a 3% Merit increase for non-bargaining unit employees all positions are fully funded with certain positions staggered depending on the starting date for example the anticipated opening date for Central Park is summer 2024 fully opened December 2024 fiscal year 2025 total full-time proposed headcount 523 employees a vacancy Trend adjustment savings has been applied to certain departments as not all positions will be filled 52 weeks of the year the percentage ranges from 0 to 8% depending on historical trends for each department economic development is being reinstated it own into its own division under the city manager's office as your city manager I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the members of the city council for their continued guidance and support throughout the development of this proposed budget this is a budget that will deliver the quality of services that our residents expect while retaining the city's strong financial position the fiscal year 2025 proposed budget will be formally presented to city council at the first public hearing on September 3rd and again on September 17 2024 at City Hall council chambers I look forward to working with you our neighbors and our team of public servants as we move forward as a city into our next fiscal year thank you thank you Mr city [Music] manager will we hear now from Finance for the presentations uh yes madame mayor and uh good afternoon again uh Council we have all the Departments are going to be presenting a you know a a a summary of their budget proposal for the 2425 fiscal year and we're going to have the finance department uh not only Present Finance but present a few of the other uh Charter offices as well so with that if you don't mind uh we can start calling up the finance department good afternoon mayor City Council Members city manager City attorney Madam city clerk I will be presenting an overview of the general fund budget as well as the finance department General government mayor and councel and Charter enforcement budgets the general fund budget was prepared using a millage rate of 1.71 66 Mills it's a little bit hard to see on the screen but this slide shows the 2024 proposed milit rates by municipality as certified on August 4th at . 7166 deral has the lowest millage rate in Miami date County in summary for every $100 paid to the county in ADV valorum taxes $2.90 goes towards children's trust $445 goes towards Miami day County $38.30 towards Miami dat schools $1.50 towards Regional millages and $12.75 towards the city of Dalal these rates reflect the proposed 2024 Mill rates recently released general fund revenues total proposed revenues for fiscal year 2025 are approximately $ 87.5 million 68% of the revenues are from taxes ad valorum taxes proposed with a millage rate of 17166 per 1,000 of taxable value represents 32,9 42,8 54 and comprises 38% of total general fund revenues licenses and permits make up 2% of the city's total revenues with local business taxes making up 67% of this total intergovernmental revenues are 12% of the city's total revenues the remaining sources make up 18% of total revenues this proposed budget remains a balanced budget with the use of reserves only for Capital outlay the budget is balanced with an inuse of reserves in the amount of 12 million 191,0 456 which equals a total proposed capital outlay for fiscal year 2025 the total proposed operating expenditures for fiscal year 2025 are 87.5 million this is an overall 15% increase over the adopted budget for the current fiscal year 24 there is a 16.56% increase in Personnel expenses from prior year Personnel expenditures include a 7.5% cost of living adjustment increase and up to a 3% Merit increase for non-bargaining employees Capital outlay expenditures across departments total 12.2 million and transfers out to Capital outlay funds 827,000 $200 operating budget transfers totaling 400 to other post-employment benefit fund and Debt Service Debt Service payments of approximately 1.8 million in summary for every dollar paid to the city in adorm taxes 41 cents goes towards funding police 20 cents towards Parks 8 cents to Public Works and two cents for Debt Service Planning and Zoning Code Compliance and 25 cents for General government which includes all other departments next presentation will will be the finance department the finance department is the central fiscal control and accounting body for the city currently the department has a headcount of 10 with no new positions being proposed for 2025 accomplishments some of the Department's accomplishments included in for 2024 assisted the team from Cayo fman yenan Garcia the city independent Auditors with the audit and preparation of the annual comprehensive financial report for fiscal year 2223 review and update the city's investment policy to enhance fiscal sustainability as well as maintain A+ Bond ratings with standard import and Fitch ratings the department continues to be awarded the three government Finance Officers Association awards which include the popular annual financial report reporting award for fiscal year 20223 the distinguished budget presentation award for fiscal year 2324 and the certif and the certificate of achievement of excellence in financial reporting for the city's 2223 annual comprehensive financial report some of the department objectives for fiscal year 2025 include oversee the use of the general obligation bond funds to ensure compliance with all requirements and transparency in reporting manage an account for the city's Investments and assist the city manager in the preparation of the annual operating and capital budget the finance proposed budget has increased by 3.8% compared to the fiscal year 24 adopted budget this increase is primarily due to the proposed cost of living adjustment and up to 3% merit award next I will be discussing the general government budget this classification of the city's budget covers a variety of items of General nature which are not applicable to any one specific department for example operating transfers out refer to funds that are transferred from General funds to other funds and Debt Service which encompasses payments of principle and interest of City's obligations the general government proposed budget has increased by 99.5% compared to fiscal year 2024 adopted budget this increase is primarily due to the insurance market rate increases operating transfers out are also included within General government to the other post-employment benefit funds the capital Improvement fund the capital asset Reserve funds and the vehicle replacement fund fund moving on to Mayor and Council budget the mayor and Council proposed budget has increased by 13.2% compared to fiscal year 2024 adopted budget this increase is primarily due to the proposed cost of living adjustment for all department personnel and up to a 3% merit award for the chief of staffs and community outreach coordinator based on the individual performance evaluation the mayor and Council operating budget remain the same as in the current fiscal year 2324 budget last but not least Charter enforcement budget the office of Charter enforcement was created to investigate violations of federal state county city laws Charter Provisions ordinances and other regulatory provisions in accordance with the city's Municipal Charter the office of Charter enforcement shall be independent from the city council department and employees as such the proposed budget includes funding for a charter enforcement official thank you any question on these presentations comments being none okay we'll move on to the next ones then it good afternoon mayor conso city manager Office legal city clar office aen Fernandez acting IT director it mission is to provide Innovative secure Technology Solutions that enhance City operations promote transparency and Empower our city to thrive in a digital world it is increasing from 20 to 22 full-time employees for the next fiscal year one position was transferred from PD to us and it's being reclassified and that is a public safety technology manager that is being reclassified to it security analyst and the second position is for an AB system technician which is to cover all the parks needs in the ab room especially theal Central Park our new proposed structure aims to enhance operational efficiency while fostering Talent Development by creating a division like a struct structure as you can see on the screen we are separating the key areas of our department one area is for security network and infrastructure another area is for applications including database another area for support which is our Health Des team and lastly one for the ab needs it currently has three vacant positions which is IT director the nwor administrator which who was just recently promoting and one system analyst which is being reclassified the total proposed it budget for the fiscal year 2425 is 8.4 million which is a 10% increase from 2324 the operating and capital budget which is what you can see on the screen it's 5.4 million the majority of it budget consist of Citywide expenses for operational and capital budget line items we will review the breakdown in the next um few slides our operating budget is 4.8 million which is attributed to funding for the repair and maintenance of systems network communication expenses and it equipment needs for replacement or additions 85% of the it operating budget or the equivalent to 4.1 million as you can see is attributed to cityy expenses this slide provid provides the breakdown of the percentage of the cost attributed to each department the CW that you can see on the top is the Citywide line items which are system subscription and services expenses used by all the Departments and examples of these are computer operating system licenses antivirus the network the communications just to name a few our operating budget will increase by 11% for the next year which is the total that you can see at the bottom and here is a breakdown of all the accounts that are increasing Professional Services will increase 59% and this is to cover for the it audit and policy review the second phase of the current audit that we are conducting right now communication and fright it will increase 5% and this is due to higher service cost and increased usage this will cover all the communication phone lines streaming services and vehicle locators rental and leases will increase 30% and this is mainly to cover for the new multifunction printers that we're going to need at Dalal Central Park repair and maintenance it's increasing 10% this is due to annual maintenance increases a system migration from on premises to the cloud as well as the need for additional backup storage capacity to cover for the city growth also additional licenses are needed for additions to personnel and Equipment the second repair and maintenance account is increasing 3% and this is mainly due to annual maintenance increases for system utiliz C wide historically maintenance costs have increased about 7% each year in the last year or so vendors has been predicted and a 10 or 15% increase in maintenance and renewals to get reduced prices on some of these items um we have negotiated contracts and sometimes commit to threeyear renewals instead of yearly so we'll get a better a better deal and save some money the operating supplies account is increasing 65% and this is mainly to the increasing technology request to accommodate the opening of the new facility and lastly the due subscription and membership account is increasing 43% this is due to an increase in city-wise subscriptions and growing demand for emerging technology and staff training and certifications moving to our capital budget um the total proposed funding for technology Capital project is 61,500 the Citywide Capital account is 295,000 you can see it on the right every year All City directors present their technology requests for projects during the budget cycle the city manager um office along with it and the finance director meet to review and prioritize all the proposed it initiative and enhancement for this upcoming year we have five technology projects shown on the right side and as you can see they are mainly upgrades or system refreshes for the it capital account the amount is 31,500 as every year infrastructure upgrades will be made to the city end of life equipment additionally enhancements will be elemented to improve our Network on our security ensuring that we stay updated with the latest industry best practices a strategic project some of our strategic project from this year will carry over to the next year for the public safety strategic goal we are currently working with the police department and procurement to increase our intersection license plate readers to achieve 100% City perimeter visibility along with some other intersection of interest for the police department along that same um goal we have been working on the camera upgrade for the police department aligning with exceptional service goal we will continue with the conference room it equipment upgrade we will Implement a system upgrade and a migration to the cloud for our Erp system the finance and procurement system and this is imperative to have both our Erp and our eppl which is um the permitting and Licensing system to have both systems align and avoid any compatibility issues on that same path we will continue working with the development service department to continue with the EPL system enhancement lastly for Park and Recreation we will continue working um to provide all the Dalal Central Park technology infrastructure and lastly year this year we're conducting an Audi visual equipment refresh for Doral Legacy Park and next year we're going to move to conduct the CCTV system upgrade for the same park um I want to thank you all for the continuous support to our department and all our it initiatives and I'll be happy to answer any question thank you thank you any questions for it okay thank you very much Eileen thank you we'll hear next from planning and zoning good afternoon mayor and City Council Members Mr manager Mr assistant city manager Madam clerk esteemed colleagues my name is Michelle Lopez with the planning and zoning department I'm your interim Planning and Zoning director and I'm pleased to present next year's uh Department budget our mission statement is to be a solution oriented organization that provides quality Municipal planning services in an efficient and cost-effective manner consistent with the requirements of the city's comprehensive plan the Land Development regulations uh and with the utmost respect for the residents that we represent and serve we have four critical functions in the department the oversight of our comprehensive plan pursuant to Florida statute 163 the oversight of the Land Development code our business tax receipt program and our public art program we have 10 positions in the department there is no headcount in change proposed for f school year 2425 uh during the current fiscal year we process 1,410 uh permits we Pro we assisted a total of 1,800 walk-in customers we processed 443 zoning inspections 53 public hearing items uh 21 special event permits and we collected 9,492 um uh dollars in public art fees and we issued 7,725 business tax receipts which um is incredibly impressive for a city uh this size and uh this age it's a it's a fairly new city when you look at the cities throughout the county so uh here's uh more of a of a breakdown um in what we do in the department we issued 119 zoning letters 21 special events uh nine window sign applications nine outdoor dining applications and 21 site plans um the business tax receipt um graphic that I show shows you a three-year uh projection and an upward in business tax receipts issued in 23 we issued 7,338 in 24 there was a slight uptick to 7,722 25 and then we have a projected 8200 for fiscal year 25 our operating budget does reflect a 27% increase uh while we have a negative % uh 7% decrease in Personnel uh we do have increases in our operating for some of the Strategic goals that I'm going to further talk about um mainly we have to do an update to our comprehensive plan next year your year uh evalu evaluation and appraisal report which is part of the comp plan is due in junee of 25 um and we're going to combine that with an overhaul to your comprehensive plan uh also your water supply plan is about 25 years old and so we're also going to um update that as needed uh pursuant to Florida Statutes uh as part of the comp plan update we're also going to insert the economic development element which uh your Economic Development Department last year worked with a consultant FIU and uh created a draft policy which we're going to look at and uh incorporate that into the comp plan and addition to adding some additional policies that are required by the state as I mentioned we have the update to the water supply plan that's needed um and then we're in the process of completing phase one of the Dal Boulevard master plan and then we will initiate phase two of The deral Bard master plan your sign code also needs um some attention and then our our staff um when I looked at last year's budget I realized that really only two people could uh could Avail themselves to training every year and so worked closely with the manager's office to ensure that all of our staff can benefit from Technical Training uh and accreditation which is vital to a planning and zoning department thank you so much any questions for Planning and Zoning okay thank you Michelle we will move on now to the police budget good afternoon everyone good afternoon mayor vice mayor council city manager office and Madam clerk the D Police Department is the majority of department is divided into two main areas we have the administrative Division and uh Patrol operations administrative division houses Support Services uh our school safety initiative and the uh special project section and our operations compris of Patrol our criminal investigation section and our training section major highlights for the upcoming year involve technology pertaining to radios police vehicles and body armor budget highlights in terms of personel operations uh for Staffing 15 new uh police training positions are anticipated for next year for a total of $847,000 and body armor 19 replacement kits are on order based on the replacement schedule a ballistic vests uh generally have about a fiveyear um expiration time frame so we order those on a as needed basis every year in terms of vehicle um we lean on the fleet manager that works out of Public Works and his replacement schedule um projections and this year or I'm sorry next year we anticipate 28 uh high mileage Vehicles being replaced um in addition to 13 of our police motorcycles that are all due uh to wear and tear or excessive mileage based on the fleet manager's replacement schedule for a total of just north of $2 million in terms of Grants and awards um we are anticipating a $2 million technology Grant uh for communication and police radio modernization um initiatives this is a uh this is a award that will allow us to have a secure investment on Police radios with improved uh technology uh for the future communication is critical for law enforcement officers they lifeline and uh we rely heavily on it and we're looking forward to be able to improve on our current Communication System some of the features uh involve uh improved connectivity and a built-in GPS so that in the event our officers actually exit the vehicles our vehicles are um obviously uh have GPS capabilities but in the event that our officers exit the vehicles um and they communicating on the radio we'll know exactly their locations through the uh through their handheld uh police radio and that will allow us to in the an emergency be able to send additional officers to to assist in addition to that some of the highlights involve the Wi-Fi connectivity capabilities there are many dead zones in the buildings or in schools and these op these Police radios will be able to uh switch on and off from the Wi-Fi systems uh in place once they uh once the radio is uh deemed inoperable due to connectivity issues so that is critical for officers to be able to Main main contact and lastly these radios also have a map on them as well so for example if an officer needs to exit the vehicle and call off perimeter points and things of that nature uh the radio is equipped with a map and supervisors will know in real time where their officers are by simply looking at their the backside of their handheld radios in terms of creating uh continued training initiatives and projects uh we are uh anticipating having more officers uh be bicycle certified in a city like ours that's that's heavily populated and our initiative involved community policing we're able to uh connect more with communities and and different uh home associations when our when our officers are in bicycles uh it makes us more approachable and more accessible and we're looking forward to that we've more than doubled the amount of bike certified officers in the last year and we're looking to uh improve capabilities on that front um Mass caly training is also something that's critically important our officers are receiving 16 hours of mass caly training as well with improved and upto-date uh active shooter uh response mechanisms um specialized units ranging from uh tactical response team um and the aggressive driving unit um which will be highlighted in the future slide um also improves our capabilities to to render first aid uh to our community um additional training involves firearms training rifle certification courses for officers leadership Symposium for supervisors and and prospective supervisors Advanced report writing so officers know how to document incidents um in a in a in a more clear and concise manner if needed Crisis Intervention training so our officers know how to conduct themselves when dealing with the some of the most vulnerable population in our community students and adults uh with special needs autism awareness training so our officers have the Keen skill set to be able to uh know how to handle those uh very sensitive matters and um leadership training in terms of the Southern Police institute which is a very prestigious leadership course that uh we have sent four officers to this year for last year as well of our supervisory staff so the next slide depicts our proposed budget for fiscal year 2024 and 20 2025 just north of $40 million 15% increase due to um the majority of the items that I mentioned mentioned before including uh 15 new police officer trainees our current Staffing uh we have 164 total which is comprised of 15 trainees in the academy and 149 full-time projected next year will be 179 15 of those being trainees that will graduate at some point in the police academy during FIS schal year 2425 initiatives that we have going into next year um the reorganization and Staffing of the department it's critical that we continuously look at the organization and as we augment in terms of Staffing and Personnel that we allocate and reallocate resources um having additional staff in our department is going allow us to increase the amount of uniform Personnel that we have in the community um and increased the amount of Patrol personnel as I mentioned which contributes to our overall crime reduction and high visibility campaign um year to date we are experiencing a 32% reduction in crime which is is uh one of the largest crime deductions in the State of Florida for any municipality right now so we're very fortunate and blessed to have our men and women in Blue on the front lines uh detering crime or we've created like I mentioned multiple specialized units who one highlight that we've been able to make a huge impact in terms of the amount of vehicle involved crimes is a create the creation of uh of our vice unit which is a vehicle vehicle involves crime enforcement team which is a team of individuals that focuses on on crimes that um involve Vehicles primarily vehicle burglaries and vehicle thefts and we're seeing about a 50% reduction in vehicle thefts in our community so when I when I became Chief as one of the main complaints that we had was the amount of vehicles that were getting broken into or stolen uh very hard to avoid that with the advancements of some of these CRI criminals using key fobs and other things uh but we've been able to stay on The Cutting Edge and have a team um in our department that become the local experts in uh in this area we also created a Fraud Unit to combat White color crime in our community it's one of the complaints that that we were really getting a lot with a lot of victims uh to white collar crimes uh primarily fraud and identity theft uh so we created a unit and we've been able to put uh a dent on that as well and I've seen uh large reductions in the amount of uh of white collar crimes including fraud and and other sorts our aggressive driving unit um is uh is out and about deployed uh right now with the start of school tomorrow um our entire department will be out and about uh directing traffic and and assisting uh and deployed to the to the schools in the morning so we're uh anticipating um a smooth start to the school year as as smooth as possible for D standards a social media campaign as well has really assisted us highlighting some of the arrests that our officers and our detectives have made on the community um engaging with the social media with with the community via social media has given us um another medium to really connect and receive information and tips uh as to things that are going on in our community so we're very grateful to have that platform we've more than doubled the amount of followers through our social media platforms as well so it's increased the amount of Engagement that we've had with our community so we credit that uh with our with being a a major part of our ability to reduce crime our technology um in terms of the connectow program has also increased the amount of uh businesses and residential communities that are partnering with us giving us access via our realtime operations center to common areas has has provided us another opportunity to God forbid we have a critical incident in an area we'll be able to remotely Monitor and visualize our officer response as well Recruitment and Retention initiatives has been key we've been able to hire um about 30 officers over the last year and a half um partnering with uh local businesses conducting uh you know job fairs visiting the policey um in the Tri County Area visiting colleges and universities trying to attract folks to uh to this profession and in our city of dado has been very fruitful uh in comparison to to other agency we've been able to recruit and and retain our officers our physical jity test has also been implemented as part of our hiring on boarding U the police academy is and the job in general is very high demand in terms of the the physical requirements so we've Incorporated this and it's been able to to uh to prepare officers for the job that concludes uh the police department's presentations and thank you for your time any questions for the police department no question I do have a question Chief um I'm very interested in the Fraud Unit so that's something uh new that that you have how many detectives do you have on the Fraud Unit right now we have three okay and and they are primarily working in the afternoon hours uh with when the most of the residents get home from work we we've seen that that's the amount of the key times that we get complaints I mean we have Texas that work throughout the day as well but uh that that unit has been very very uh fruitful for our city and we've been visiting associations as well um we've been visiting businesses and bringing victims uh in because many times these victims are are scared to contact law enforcement because they're investors from other countries as well um so it's it's part of a a uh an education campaign that we're doing but we're also um conducting enforcement efforts very aggressively okay um um particularly for me one of the things that I wanted to see if we could focus on or create a specialization in is the HOA fraud um it's something that's been a big issue in the city but I think there needs to be almost an understanding or someone with u a background a history of either having investigated those types of crimes in the past I know that we don't necessarily go out and like prosecute and and look for it but rather if someone brings forward a case that's pretty um you know evident that there's some Mal fence going on how far does the department actually get involved in if the case is already created if they can actually go after them our relationship with uh State Attorney's office and the prosecution I mean I think that what I've gotten is I see residents coming forward with a lot of evidence that looks pretty damaging um and then they say that they either go to law enforcement and they're not getting a response there's no closure they don't the person doesn't get arrested and so that's a concern to me and why I wanted to focus in on if there was something additional the city could do understanding we don't have oversight and enforcement of HOA and condo statute however we do have oversight of Fraud and crime and you know if you have someone right you know write out stealing from these people then I think we should be able to do something and so the the response I had always gotten in the past we don't have the resources we don't have the detectives we don't have we have to refer it out so that's why for me it's to think it's important because of our the type of city that we are knowing that this is a crime that continues to happen and the victims are our residents and many times Elders in our community I think it's time that we take responsibility and try and and and and bring these people you know to Justice yeah great Point uh earlier this year we stopped farming out um fraud cases we developed our inter Jal team to be able to tackle them we we quite frankly feel that our detectives have the skill set and the training to be able to to to really investigate these types of crimes we work hand inand obviously with with our surrounding municipalities as well and we also run every case by the state attorney's office in terms of uh statute limitations and other and other items that are governed uh by State Statute I spoke to the city manager this week about um bringing on a detective that's been working for us on a part-time basis has retired from homeland security has a a special a specialization in fraud um and we're in the process of bringing bringing this detective on full-time with us uh to be part of that unit on a full-time basis that's really going to even amplify our current effort as well so the city managers and I spoke this week and we think that uh we're on Good Grounds moving forward so you feel you have the the resources to be able to get that done so we can see more results yes if I may add uh Madame mayor council members uh just this week I had the uh the the pleasure of signing the promotion papers for Jack dainy Jack dainy as the chief pointed out is a uh he's been with us probably for about five or six years as a Reserve officer however he comes from a a uh a unique background uh he has a unique skill set in that he spent over 30 years uh with the Department of Justice specifically the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the IRS investigating with the unique skill set that he has and the knowledge that he has in attacking uh um Financial crimes that said I'm sure the chief is going to put him to good use now I I do want to stress something as somebody who investigated Financial crimes a long time ago but I have knowledge there's a fine line between a financial crime and a civil matter and a lot of the times the challenges the detectives and the officers face is getting the state attorney's office to prosecute uh because a lot of the times they'll tell you it doesn't meet the threshold you don't have enough evidence where malfeasance or misfeasance turns into a crime is a very fine line that is somewhat ambiguous and subject to interpretations and sometimes as you look as as you know it's subjective and that you'll have a prosecutor who will tell you we have enough here to go but then you'll meet another prosecutor who tells you I don't have enough to go and proceed and prosecute it's not cut and dry as it is with say an assault or a homicide or a robbery um there's a very very fine line where a financial matter turns from a civil matter into a crime uh so I appreciate your concern as yourself I also live in an an HOA uh and I've seen the um the special the weights I've seen the crime let let me call it what it is I've seen the crime that's occurred in my HOA uh that's gone un addressed because frankly there just wasn't enough evidence so I do share your concerns um that's I wanted to address those two concerns with regards to Mr Deany uh now being a full-time employee and the challenge that the officers face um in investigating uh what is a crime but you don't have the evidence and getting the state attorney's office to prosecute it is a big challenge thank you thank you yeah I think the state attorney's office now more than ever is taking taking these much more seriously I think she's made a commitment to because we've seen so much um you know unfortunate situations of of of these HOA crimes so for me it was just important that we had the resources here and we stopped farming it out so that we are able to see them come to closure whereas before it just seemed like we were cleaning our hands with oh we just we don't have the resources to oversee this so it's important for me to make sure that you are equipped with the resources needed and I think that the answer was sufficient um to see uh us take on that you know uh take on that challenge and and hopefully bring some of these uh these cases to closure for these people right thank you in in closing I wanted to to also highlight the fact of of that I want to look into in the very near future of creating a task force just we have we're part of the human trafficking task force where traditionally there was the gang Strike Force you know where a multitude of police agencies uh dedicate a detective or detectives together um and they have they go countywide tackling different issues well I think we may be uh in the right situation to create a task force led by theal police department for a uh for a fraud um you know crime H yeah I think I think it's right for it there's an appetite I agree I think that I mean our City's 90% um you know create um is 90% associations or condos um so it's made up of that so I think it's an important thing to look at I have a second question um and that's regarding traffic enforcement so we do have a traffic enforcement unit separate from what is our Patrol unit correct correct even though our Patrol unit does quite a quite a bit of uh traffic enforcement we do have a team of dedicated folks that primarily focus on traffic okay and how often are they out and how many at a time are they out actually doing tra not patrolling but traffic enforcement so our Motors unit is part of our of our traffic section and they work in two shifts they the first shift comes in at 6:00 in the morning the second shift comes in at 2: p.m. and uh they focus I mean uh they're on the road daily where they focus everything from school safety initiatives to Commercial Vehicle Enforcement to to disabled parking infractions and they also respond to cost for service needed especially in the event of a critical incident but the majority of their workload is is on traffic enforcement aside from that we created an aggressive driving unit that targets a multitude of infractions as well that unit is it's it's recently created a few months ago we're going to expand that unit um it also fluctuates different hours of the day for example starting tomorrow they'll be assisting during school hours obviously with school's own enforcement uh but that that's a hybrid team that works tackling different issues that we have an example of a work week on Monday they could be focused on Commercial Vehicle Enforcement on Tuesday they could be focused on School Zone infractions on Wednesday they could be handling uh you know in commercial areas disabled parking I've getting calls from almost every Council here council person here about Vehicles parked illegally or disabled parking spaces that's something that we have obviously Zero Tolerance on so we focus on that certain days of the week or certain hours of the day uh and that's kind of a typical schedule that these individuals they do a remarkable job uh doing it and but I also bring in Patrol Personnel to assist them as well because our number one complaint in the city of throughout is traffic so we're we're we're keen on that right and how many officers do we have right now on that unit on on our Traffic Unit but we have eight uh motormen and we have two as part of the aggressive driving unit and we current currently have a vacancy because one of our mmen uh after many years elected to be a school resource officer so many of you have seen him officer Cooper yeah um so he he's now a school resource officer after after getting beat up by the Sun for many many years uh so we have a we're currently in the interview process to add an additional person to our Motors unit so um it's an exciting time it's it's a it's one of our um highlights for our department okay great I asked because I think that that's one of the concerns and one of the things that our residents um look to is you know is um orderly conduct right and making sure that yes that there's enforcement in our roads obviously that police presence part of that is seeing that there's enforcement on the orderly conduct aggressive driving um so our City's grown tremendously and with that also have some of these challenges so I just again want to make sure that you have the resources you feel are necessary to meet the growth that the city has had in the pace that it's had it um and that we're keeping up with the the expectations of the community absolutely I mean I was you know uh brag about how fortunate I am to work for for an elected body in general that that really supports law enforcement a community that supports law enforcement the last term that we hear is you know defund the police here and I'm I'm very grateful go to work every day knowing the the support I have from from our entire team here so thank you okay Madam mayor uh if I could add uh with respect to uh the phone calls that you get and that I also get him with regards to disabled parking that is something that I've had that conversation with the chief uh it's become a challenge to inform that because unfortunately and this is something that has to be addressed uh by your colleagues at the state level the the justification for getting a disabled parking has become very very easy and then the problem that our officers encounter is that they'll see somebody and I see it I saw a guy the other day park in a handicap and get off and walk to the Pizza Hut with his two children the the problem our officers have they are I don't want to say afraid but they are apprehensive about approaching this individual because they are concerned about getting a complaint because again it used to be we used to look at a disabled parking and we used to think of somebody missing a limb or perhaps in a wheelchair now anyone somebody who looks seemingly able-bodied and healthy qualifies for a parking so you really can't you you really can't uh enforce it it's enforce it I'm not saying you can't enforce it it just becomes a challenge you also have other people who for example will use the parking uh pass for a relative um and unless you have a microscope and you can focus in on the ticket that's on the parking which has the driver's license of the individual to which that parking pass is assigned to it's impossible to discern whether that parking ticket that parking disabled parking permit is of the individual that's using it or of his or her mother or of his of her father and it becomes a challenge and quite frankly I've talked to officers who have told me you know it's kind of difficult to approach somebody because you don't know if they're legitimately handicapped or if they're not because you see them walking some of them do qualify for it frankly and I'm sorry A lot of them don't I think the majority of them don't but just that the state legislature has draw has lowered the threshold for acquiring one of these disabled parking space is so low that anybody can get it it's very very easy to where it used to be you literally had to be in a wheelchair had to missing a limb you don't and that that's a challenge for our officers to be able to enforce yep okay thank you very much Chief thank you okay we'll move on now to building day Miss Zer lucky you if it could put up the building presentation I don't want to make people guess so good after afternoon mayor council colleagues um the building department uh what we do and who we are is on the screen if you visited our department our mission statement is on our Walls by our coffee bar visit for coffee anytime you like uh we are flexible customer oriented um obviously focused on health safety and Welfare if we do our job right people don't die um so what we do is oversee the permitting inspections and recordkeeping of all new construction renov ations additions uh repairs for commercial and residential work and most importantly is to provide consistent and fair interpretation of codes and ordinances it's very exciting work uh no changes this year for our organizational chart uh we have our technical side our plans reviewers and inspectors our operation side the glue that keeps the department together we can't survive without them that's our permit clerks our records manager um and Claudia or CIP Lea is on so um that really holds everything together we also uh support a system analyst uh that helps with all of development services and our uh budget coordinator so what did we do last year um with the help of public affairs they put out an aggressive uh public information campaign we recorded videos put some information out about that and shared that across all social platforms um we are the place the Premier Place not only to live work learn and play but to share um our professional associations so we've really taken advantage of using the um both the city facility the cultural art center deral Glades to host trainings for um flood conferences we did the hurricane kickoff with SFA we've done some roof trainings post- disaster operations we've did Crisis track um so it's it's fun to show off the city for sure um other things in communication and Outreach uh obviously we last year we expanded the chatbot we're getting some good traction on that um Maggie and I are also looking at some other vendors possibly to expand that capability um and we also rolled out scribe which was a a a tool for the Departments to use it came in very handy when we had a system upgrade um to put out information quickly on how to how to get back into the permitting system uh credentials and training um we have a very robust training program so we like to train people and hopefully not lose them and I'm excited to see the budget changes for next year um that's going to help support that um so we do offer plans examining training inspectors Etc uh wanted to brag a little bit about Vince he was nominated by his peers locally and he was the building official of the Year locally and then he was also awarded it at the state level uh you've heard me talk about IAS accreditation happy to report um we had a 100% submitt um a couple weeks ago we've gotten our first review and so now we're responding to those comments and we'll be pending a site visit so I hope to come back to you in about 60 days or so um with that designation really proud of that for Regulatory Compliance uh we just completed the fee schedule study uh you guys approved our fee schedule permit or permit fee utilization report and the fee schedule update um this morning uh we also had a 96% success rate on our elevation certificate review uh you might remember we had 100% on that a few years ago the drop was unfortunately due to some uh elevation certificates at the mazums we did not correctly uh catch an item on equipment you know people are dying to get in there so it was we had trouble there um thank you for laughing uh we also um uh talked about this morning the the um class rating for CRS so we have to go through our 5year review and hopefully if we get to the class 4 that'll be um uh good for our residents and as well as for the city Staffing and Equipment um we're in year two of our incentive plan uh which has helped us drop our attrition rate significantly um not just because we have coffee and and pastelitos I think you know staff's relatively happy uh we just completed some technology replace placements thanks to it and their help um just keeping our our inspectors happy out in the field and obviously uh if any pandemic World War III anything like that happens we can work from anywhere and some new vehicles so we put three into service this year um some high level highlights uh Dollar in dollar out that's pretty much how a building fund Works uh we're in year three of of being our our own uh fund so just Florida statute says every dollar that comes in we have to spend on ourselves so we're allowed to be selfish um some overall performance uh basic numbers we're seeing a little bit of a recovery from from the pandemic um number of customers in the solution Center go down because everything's online so they can do a lot of stuff online with the bot um you know and getting questions answered and the de um development services technology fund is there at the bottom we are in year five of seven um with two possible extensions of the EPL um software so discussions have begun on what's next I don't have an answer for you on that yet some highlights in of our strategic objectives um for Public Safety and just Revenue growth uh we've got 2.6 million square fet coming online um permitting is going well I think the the client overall happy at bridg Point uh we still have to deal with the Milestone program that's the building recertification program uh we have some inventory that's going to mature over the next two to three years um so that means permitting will stay pretty consistent uh challenges obviously inflation uh stuff costs more interest rates are higher so people pull back um but that also means that they might move to smaller spaces so they're still needing permits um we also have the potential of the uh class 4 um so that does affect development just a little bit uh exceptional service opportunities once again we approved the uh fee schedule today very excited about that it's going to simplify a lot of processes for our customers hopefully incentivize them to pull permits and also as part of IAS accreditation we're doing a complete overhaul of our documents making them easier making it easier to navigate and so that way we stop the turnover and the back and forth just trying to submit for a permit and then Fleet replacement with uh our fleet manager recommendations and hopefully getting in early and often um we'll continue to replace our vehicles with vehicles that can handle floods or anything that they need to um and that is it so I appreciate your time if you have any questions happy to answer thank you very much any questions for the building department I do sorry Jane it's okay not getting away that quickly okay I have a question uh couple questions real quick first um I know that no one's going to be very happy with with my comment or my question but you know even with everything that we've tried to do and I know that there's been issues with systems and kind of getting accustomed to new processes and but I feel like we never come we never come over the hurdle of the problems with the building department right people just find themselves struggling a business take a really long time to open everywhere I go it's like many people compliment but it's always this question of you know the building department is horrible or it takes really long to get permits and and and I I I do my best to um defend our department in the sense that I know a lot of times contractors can have fault and even um business owners can have fault in not being as engaged or understanding of the process however how do we overcome that hurdle on our end because there have been times where I feel like maybe it's it it does seem like the process is cumbersome um I would love and I had said this when I first got elected I didn't pursue it don't necessarily know if it's a budget issue that we can fit in but I would really think I think that the the city would really benefit from us having at least one Saturday a month that we would open and be available to the public whether that is um residents in our community that work and can't get here from 7 to 4: that we're open or 7 to 2 or you know these times I or it's just business owners that can't get out here during the week and want to come and educate themselves on what is happening through their process so I really want us to look at these options and see if there's a way that we can make our elves more accessible um and flexible to understanding the needs of the community and the development and Investments that people have made in the community um and find a way to be a little more amable to that exceptional Services which is one of our strategic goals um I know everybody works very diligently um but I think that we need to Triangle that extra mile and we need to give it a we need to give it a run so I'm been kind of toying with this idea I haven't brought it forward in an item yet um but it was one of the things I wanted to look at and I was going to touch on during this budget process because whether whether we hire or we bring in an outsourced service to provide those expedited opportunities through a Saturday process or we use our own staff I think that we need to we cannot say it doesn't work without without trying it and I I don't think it's fair to say that we've tried everything if we haven't tried this um in in trying to make our services better when it comes to the building department so I would love for us to try and explore something like this um because I just find myself still you know there's a couple departments that I visit quite often and you guys are one of them and it's not because you're you're all not awesome and want to help but rather I don't feel like people are necessarily always getting the answer ERS um as quickly as they should sure um if I may yes so I started off the presentation by saying that our charge is to provide fair and consistent um interpretation of the codes and so we do that whether it's a realtor that has known the process or um Joe Smith who you know is doing shutters for the first time or Windows or the related and the codas of the world um consistency and and and fairness so so we we've we have an ongoing initiative to update our website with information the bot the the document control all of that is Progressive Improvement you know over time um we did my predecessor Renee if you remember we did uh a an Initiative for a couple of months it was like one Saturday a month for four or five months where we were there staff was there um and we didn't get anybody um with the bot they can get the the questions answered um I have a a zero inbox policy um every day uh so if customers needed to see me at 6 o'clock or somebody at 7 o'clock we would obviously make those accommodations we can try again to see if a Saturday work Works um rolling schedules or um you know a hybrid schedule for some people uh the Expediting of plans uh if you look at our internal dashboard we're staying under the at 10 days um so I don't want to charge customers for something that we're already doing um and obviously we're mandated by the state statute comes down and says you have to review you have to provide comments in a certain time frame and we're meeting those time frames um but if that's if that's something we want to do as well we're we're happy to look at it thank you I appreciate it I know you like I said I know you guys are always um willing to to to do what it takes to make sure that that um perception of the department is there of what you want to offer and and the services that that are provided I just don't know how we curve that um you know that that that stereotype and that opinion that is out there as much as maybe we've tried and um and it seems like I still run into those people that are having the difficulties so um you know I think we need to explore it more and find ways that we can continue to invest in education and in um resources that will be tools that guide people to the solutions they need to get quicker turnarounds on their investment sure absolutely okay thank you anything else any other questions no I am actually reserving all my questions and comments for all the departments on the hearing okay thank you okay uh code science thank you Jane good afternoon uh mayor and Council Mr manager assistant city manager Madam clerk my fellow colleagues uh Edgar drr code compliance director here to present the budget for the Code Compliance 2024 2025 fiscal year budget so a quick reminder our uh department is a almost 365 day a year operation uh we have officers that work Monday through Sunday from 7:30 a.m. to 11: p.m. so we are tasked with uh protecting and preserving the health safety and Welfare of the community all of our residents all of our businesses and we enforce uh pretty much everything from Property Maintenance to construction permitting uh business licensing a little bit of everything uh so our philosophy statement similar to uh what Jane had mentioned we have our philosophy statement plastered on our uh on our department wall we are the stewards of the we are a resourceful team dedicated to service honesty resilience and professionalism and um I do take uh great pride in in ensuring that our officers uh carry that with them uh every day day in and day out and that that's how they uh provide their service to the public so our organizational chart uh is staying the same uh this upcoming fiscal year we are not proposing any changes in headcount so we have 15 full-time positions uh for myself our assistant director administrative coordinator and clerk on the administrative side down to our uh field personnel which consists of two supervisors nine code uh eight code enforcement officers and a uh training and Outreach officer which was implemented for the first time uh this fiscal year some highlights and stats that we wanted to point out uh since October of this year we've opened approximately uh 3200 cases Code Compliance cases where violations were found and have uh closed 3100 uh just uh short of 3200 for people that have resolved their Code Compliance violations uh and some of the more common violations uh that we have encountered this year uh it's a range of different violations anything from U signs that we have removed from the right of way which have been at least 557 uh businesses without uh businesses found to be operating without a certificate of use and business tax receipt Property Maintenance work without permits uh just to name a few complaints is a receiving complaints from the public is a big component of what we do uh every single day so to date we've received approximately 340 uh complaints from the public where the majority come in Via letters if you believe it or not people still write letters uh email and uh people do use the 311 system very heavily and and phone calls as well uh I also did want to point out our average complaint response time is uh in my opinion and I think if you survey many other code enforcement uh departments throughout the state uh it's it's exceptional we have an average uh complaint response time of an hour and 34 minutes uh if you if you live anywhere else the standard many other code enforcement agencies their standard response time is one to two uh days business days but like I mentioned we work seven days a week so if a complaint comes in Friday night we will most likely get to it in an hour or less unless it comes in after hours uh but it'll be responded to on Saturday uh if needed um so I'm very proud of that uh We've uh presented 245 cases before the special magistrate thus far uh have completed uh just under 1,600 lean searches uh and the default mortgage properties we've registered uh about 79 so far since October uh one thing to mention there this is the first uh year that we have uh transitioned into an in-house process for our uh registration of of foreclosed properties uh about this time last year the vendor that we had that many other agencies throughout the state had uh went bankrupt so many uh agencies had to scramble to find out what to do uh so we looked at the process pretty carefully and decided that it was in the city's best interest to just do it in-house we were able to do that with the help of the system analyst from uh building through energov so that is an energov process that works uh very well um and now rather than giving 50% of the proceeds to a an outside vendor now we collect 100 % of those proceeds uh now for the budget uh quick little comparison uh our Personnel uh from last year to this year the cost has gone up 6.2% uh but that is mainly due to the proposed Cola and Merit our operating costs uh will be increasing by 3.4% but we are a very lean department when it comes to numbers that doesn't translate to to much uh to be quite honest so uh our our budget from last year to this year is changing uh by 4.5% in an amount that's uh $71,000 so like I mentioned we are a a Personnel heavy department so our operating costs in capital we're not uh requesting any capital for next year either and that's a snapshot of our uh Revenue projections compared from our uh year-end estimates for this year we are proposing a slight increase for for next year in our revenues and this year no uh operating line items will be changing or increasing by 5% or more this year some strategic goals um and uh goals that we have listed for next year uh we are going to continue our quarterly beautification detail along some of the major corridors that we uh have not hit this year uh it's it's been a pretty successful campaign thus far uh each quarter we are selecting the more uh busy thorough fars in our city and addressing every single property along that Corridor uh and addressing anything from really Property Maintenance things that the community uh sees as they drive in and out of the city every single day um our we have be uh begun our accreditation process uh for code enforcement through the American Association of Code Enforcement so this year we do plan on finishing that uh in next fiscal year we want to continue creating content uh through social media just making the community more aware of what code enforcement does on a day-to-day basis uh this year we did create a video uh to so so one thing that that I kind of identified in um the hiring process of of Code Enforcement Officers this job is not for everyone uh it it can be a pretty tough job dealing with uh the public telling them what you can and can't do so uh we took uh the decision and work with public affairs to create a video to effectively inform the public what it is that you're getting into if you're going to be a code enforcement officer what to expect uh what we do on a day-to-day basis because what I have found is that some people come into the job thinking it's one thing because they read a description on paper but it's completely different than what they expected so rather than um you know have people surprised once they actually start I we went the route of informing them informing them via a video what it is that we do each day uh and people have responded very well to that uh we're going to keep chipping away at our uh leans that we have in our in our department that are are still um existing and we want to continue amending and creating different ordinances with a focus on quality of life one of them that I I wish to identify is uh creating an ordinance with stronger and more clear language when it comes to multif family housing because right now I do believe that that ordinance um it's kind of weak so we can put some uh some more teeth to it and an increased focus on short-term rentals but short-term rentals that is something that we rely a lot uh on the community on on our property managers on our residents uh but definitely uh creating a little bit more presence on that and some accomplishments that are not listed on there um our enforcement efforts as per our Licensing Division and planning and zoning they have informed us that because we have taken a a more heavy focus on addressing business licensing they do have the lowest number of expired business tax receipts that they've ever had on record uh and that is a lot of that has to do with the work that our officers are doing um day in and day out uh and in response to the amended alcohol ordinance our team in less than a week was able to visit over 330 different establishments that serve alcohol uh and provided education and just letting them know of the of the new requirements in the alcohol ordinance so in closing I just want to thank the the council or city manager's office for all this continued support and I also want to thank my team uh like I mentioned the work that they do it's a tireless job sometimes it's not too appreciated by the public since we are telling them what they can and can't do um but they do a great job uh customer service oriented very professional so I do want to thank them because they make my job a lot easier thank you thank you Mr Estrada any questions for Code Compliance good thank you very much thank you okay let's move on to Public Works so good afternoon major Vice major council members city manager Office City attorney city clerk Carlos Arya po director before I start I want to thank you all for your support it's critical for the function of our department also want to thank our staff and Rita for the commitment and effort so here we have the department organizational chart uh we currently have a headcount of 51 positions for this new fiscal year we're requesting three new positions two laborers and uh one out on maintenance technician these two lbers are going to concentrate on liter and the re removal through our public RightWay and we're going into the MGR now so comparison between the the I'm sorry this is a new uh fiscal uh year uh total for the each of the four main funds the polyworks fund the transportation fund the stat fund and the C fund uh the pow work funds uh total 7.9 million dollar Transportation fund 5.4 the storm water uh 3.9 the CIT 6.3 for a total 23 million. 7 um below you can see a rateof bin graph this uh graph depicts the percentage per cost for the four main funds as you can see on the one on the left you can see that 21% is personal cost 47% is uh operating cost ER 30% is capital cost and 2% is depth service on the right hand side from the over all uh budget right uh 34% is for the general fund 23% for transportation 27 CIT and uh 17 for the stone water so now here we can see a comparison between the current fiscal year and what's proposed for the next fiscal year there's some increases uh for example Vol works is a the 12% increase so transportation is a 94% increase uh storm water is a 3.7 increase CIT 27% increase and uh there is also a general government CIP fund it's a significant increase we're including the the um Car Wash completion on on this uh budget so for the polyworks fund it increases as a result of RightWay maintenance cost increases utility cost increases for a transportation fund it increas es due to trolley operation and maintenance as new troles are being procured and capital related cost and the CIT fund increases due to the purchase of the proposed purchase of five new troles and trolley onm uh funds the new uh parking program we can see here the the cost of the program and uh the revenue that we've had uh since June 2023 this number doesn't include a citations I will provide that uh related date so completed infrastructure projects um the slide has an mistake on that first one at the government center we we actually uh replace the coils for the AC unit for the third floor um uh we also completed some uh elevator Access Control installation we upgraded the electrical service Transformers at the Government Center parking garage and at the poly facility at the police facility we completed approximately 15,000 square feet of carpet replacement with vinyl flooring uh the training center we completed the new Cher installation and we also completed the Northwest 58 Street Alpha uh along the Eastern portion of the city as part of the milling and resurfacing program we spent uh this current fiscal year $1.2 million you can see here the list of uh work orders and the locations sidewalk and concrete repairs we've spent up to date uh 547 th000 also you can see the list of work orders that we've uh procured and miscellaneous storm water repairs we've completed $150,000 with uh three work orders where working now on additional uh five work quarters for milling and resurfacing um other projects that within the area that had have been ongoing or completed are the North 97th Avenue uh roadway Improvement between 58 and 70 70th Street which was completed recently by the county uh we have the 97th Avenue between 52nd Street and the 58th Street which the design was completed the count is in the process of procuring the the construction phase we have the 58 Street improvements between 97 and the Palmetto Expressway which was cancel uh it was recently uh put out to beat again and they're expecting to start construction by summer uh next week uh and then we have 84th Avenue between 58 and 74 Street which is a design build process project and it's uh ongoing and then we have the Northwest 1177 Avenue uh sleep rampo where the D Boulevard as part of the turnpike that was recently completed City projects which are in the in bid phas we have uh the Dalal boulevar entry feature at uh D boul and the paletto expressway we have a new 10 bus shelters we have the section 7 traffic comaling we have the landmark traffic caling and storm water improvements at sub basing D31 which has a state Grant of $250,000 other project in design phase uh Northwest 66 Street one of Second Avenue on 8 Avenue that is south of the Kant facility the design and permitting was completed so we're going to move now into the procurement process we're also designing 117 Avenue between 25th and 34th Street this one includes uh the traffic signal at 117 Avenue and 34 Street it has a state Grant of $152,000 we're also working on the Citywide sidewalks Improvement phase three this one has a top Grand of a million dollars and we're doing a Calk visibility report on the we completed actually on 82nd Avenue between 41st and 36th Street there's one that we're going to work on which is 104 Avenue between 3 33rd Street and 40 41st Street that's going to be another sidewalk visibility report west of uh the community there a transportation it's ongoing the process to procure the city trolle onm services and the on demand Transit service um we're also uh working on the transit plan which will provide ER routes vehicle type and fuel alternative recommendations H we're also working on the traffic signal cor retiring project um this is supposed to start implementation by September this year uh we're going to prioritize D Boulevard uh 107 Avenue and 87th Avenue and it's an ongoing process we will recommend improvements we'll analyze and then go on again H we recently competed also the uh School uh top plans analysis phase two which we have the schools there we analyze we completed the Section 8 traffic coming study the transportation master plan we're going to be presenting it at the October council meeting and we also purchase a neutralist which will be delivered by September this year we continue with our Fleet Maintenance services with in-house Personnel we're adding one staff member on this new fiscal year to help us out with the workload um as of uh Public Communication culture we we continue with the Signature Events and the programs our bir day adop the street Earth Day adop three theal uh try marketing and volunteering events grants this current fiscal year we've applied to $2.7 million of which we've been short listed for uh the ond demand Service uh for8 $836,000 we hope that we're going to get that funding and where the total uh funds that we've requested is 2.7 we're currently working with uh a $130,000 in Grant uh for a total of $3.6 million here we have some of the grants that we've applied on the previous fiscal years and the ones we've been working on or completed and that's it any questions any questions for Public Works no thank you thank you all right we move on to Parks and Recreation good afternoon Lazaro will be joining me for Old Time sake no he'll be presenting after me just as a quick Bond recap perfect so good afternoon mayor vice mayor council City attorney city manager assistant city manager city clerk Aaron Sullivan Parks and Recreation Department director so our mission and vision continues to remain the same we strive to provide worldclass facilities programs sports events for people of all ages and abilities our strategic goal that you all helped instrument from last year again Remains the Same very similar tying into our mission our Parks and Recreation Department as you all are well aware is made up of multiple different divisions within the department and different facets so we have our park operations we have our maintenance and capital projects our senior citizens Youth and adult sports community events Cultural Arts Special Needs recreational programs and this year we will be adding Aquatics which we're all very excited about this is just a visual representation of how we divide our Recreation um our facility region map internally we divide our department into three regions this is how we staff and provide services to make sure that we're covering all of our facilities efficiently our organizational chart the structure Remains the Same um and really the only additions is adding in the additional positions for D Central Park um for the community center as well as the Aquatic Facility at Dalal Central Park we will also be having a maintenance facility so we've also added a warehouse man manager which would be managing that warehouse within the facility filling orders placing orders as well as you know inventory and making sure everything is secure just a quick budget comparison from last year to this uh this next proposed year um just a note the budget did change as it was amended throughout the year to add in the general funding for the bond so that's why you see such a huge increase so we wanted to make sure that was reflected even though that's really not included in our operation this just shows how internally our operating budget for fiscal year 2425 is allocated the majority of our budget does go to our maintenance and the facility um operation followed behind is special and cultural events which has increased this year due to the events being moved back to D Central Park we will be needing additional funding to bring back um the scale of the events as they used to be we've also allocated the funding for cultural um to increase the activities as we have been doing this year Sports senior special needs and Community programs make up the additional um percentage as well as administrative um costs and then sponsor was removed out of our budget this year and moved into public affairs with the sponsorship coordinator so that was removed just a quick comparison so that you can see special events and Cultural Arts um again that reflects the increase mostly tied to moving back our events Fourth of July our holiday lights and um our holiday celebration at the Park camping in order to accommodate the larger space and the larger increase of people maintenance has well as increased this reflects 100% for Dra Central Park um as well as what we are expecting the increase in landscaping costs to be um not just for Dra Central Park but Park wide we are bringing forth a new RFP to Award right now we're working off a 2018 pricing so we do anticipate those to increase this also reflects some cost for for The Aquatic Facility as well programming not a huge significant increase again making sure that our seniors in Special Needs are taken care of with increased programming we were able to increase the capacity for our trips and our socials this year for our seniors we also want to maintain that moving into next year um so we've continued that forward and again providing additional programming and socials for our special needs population as well Community programming has increased with the addition of the community center at draw Central Park um however we are looking to contract some of those Services um and we are working on the bids to award those and then Sports slight increase again just for additional programming and we have seen an increase in our youth sports so wanting to make sure that we can accommodate all of those that want to participate special needs and seniors again um volunteer opportunities is something that we really want to strongly Implement um we are working with HR on the ARP program um and then the special needs programming we've added the summer camp back in again this year um as it was last year again really successful they just finished their summer um we are looking to expand that um The Adult Day training program um and again additional senior programming and the continuing the increase capacity you can see the seniors having fun on their trip on the bus and then just a snapshot at our projected Revenue we did work with our finance department and the CFO um to determine some of our projected Revenue that we anticipate to see through D Central Park and the Aquatic Facility um which you reflect the the 2 million um there for the projected Revenue as well is our Revenue that was projected for this year capital projects we have um a whole list of projects that we have included in our budget some are included in the park general fund some are included in the park impact fund um minor projects but again really important to make sure that our facilities continue looking um as they were built yesterday our facilities are starting to age um you know that we want to make sure that we are taking care of them so they that they look just as nice as our new parks um so you can see some of them are replacing the backboards um at the basball courts at Morgan leevy Park as well as resurfacing those courts and the tennis courts um reeing and painting of the of the ramp at dra Legacy Park our bike trails we want to continue finishing some of those bike trails as well as working with the the capital team for the lighting project which is part of the bond um new exercise equipment at and Tails park again those are starting to wear and we want to make sure that they're safe and that people can use them and then draw Legacy Park the soccer field um the small soccer field is in need of replacing the turf due to increased wear and tear we will be purchasing an electrical stacker forklift so for our new Warehouse to help our maintenance team move the items in and out of the the racks that will be in that warehouse and then additional funding for the parks bus that is included in this year's budget however due to costs the pricing that we're receiving now exceeds what was budgeted so we are requesting additional funding to complete that so that we could purchase a new bus and then there is again um CIP money included in our budget public art fund also falls under our department we work very closely with Planning and Zoning you all um earlier today approved the cult to artists so those projects are things that we want to continue doing into this next fiscal year um you all also approved the Mikasa 2A or masasa your casa 2.0 this year um so we will work with the um outdoor art installations um you know commissioning art as the council sees fit as well as um with the cultural policy plan that um we are wrapping up this year putting that into place to make sure that our Cultural Arts and our cultural program um continues and then any questions or we can wait till the end and I'll turn it over to Lazo I have a question but we'll wait till after you want me to ask now it doesn't matter okay ask ask real quick um the 375,000 for special needs programs does that include the subsidy for the ad the um ADT program no it does not okay so so we would need to add that in if that's something the URL would want to do okay so do you want me to discuss it now yes okay um so with our ADT program um for those who have not been fully informed the adult day training program um there has been discussions by the community that the program is very expensive for families who have cd CDC plus um and so I have actually the letter in my office I can get it in circulated to everybody the community has come together and asked um if the city would help in subsidizing for those families that have the CDC plus so I met with Aaron um and with the manager a couple times about it and the community and what we determined was that we could we could possibly subsidize um a certain amount of students not all of them have CDC plus some of them have medical waiver where they can play pay for the program completely but the ones that have CDC Plus if we would be willing to to uh subsidize 50% of the program then they can pay the other 50% and it would be for 3 Days of service four days of service for these young adults um the the price tag on that could vary a little bit because it depends if that uh if that uh adult has a 1 to five a 1 to 10 1 to six um that we could pay a little more in subsidy or a little less so what I suggested to staff was that they create almost like a budget on assuming the middle ground uh 1 to five up to 20 students or up to 20 young adults that we would subsidize it may not get to the 20 it may be less we may subsidize five we may subsidize 10 but maximum 20 young adults um and then at their at the scale that they need and the amount that we came up with that we would need to put in the budget it was again not all of it may be expended but the amount to be able to cover 20 students up to the the the maximum would be Marin I don't remember the number um the the estimate that we have put together was 4 days at 50% is $313,900 which would make the monthly cost approximately 26 a little less than a little more than 26,000 26,988 assuming we subsidize all 20 students and that's a full-blown yes everybody's being subsidized at the max um finding the middle ring but again might be less might be more depending on the number of people that register as well as their approved ratios by the state and we right now have um space for 30 students correct we have only 30 that we would subsidize are those who have CDC plus we wouldn't subsidize those who are medical weiv and they would have to be Dal residents yes they would need to be Dalal residents um we discussed only for those that do not have the Medicaid waiver where they are being requested to come out of pocket for some of that are using the CDC plus funds that don't necessarily cover the entire program or um not if they don't have insurance at all which is typically not the case they usually have the CDC plus waiver okay so we need to we would need to this would be the time to direct staff to add that to the budget if we want to approve it in the first readings um the idea is for them for this to become active as of October 1st a lot of the parents are waiting to enroll their students um or their young adults until that time because they just can't afford what the provider is charging with the CDC plus it it just eats into the the stien that they're given um to provide their their their young adults with um the therapies and the things they need so excuse me how much is it's 300 it would be 313 sorry go ahead 13,180 yeah but again it depends it may not be that full amount because that would be the max would be the max that right May right yes if you can share more information I'm not sure what program it is or you know what it until how we would qualify who's qualified for how would we would select like the the individuals if you could share more information M so the program is currently operating um and sorry not you can share it now but i' like something in writing for you to share yeah that's fine we could definitely put together an overview of the program currently as it's running um it is worth a contracted provider and we could circulate that to you all thank you they they there they will share all the information but again we need to be able we need to direct them to us to allocate the funding if we want to approve it when the budget comes back for first reading so I guess you guys will circulate everything I'll circulate the letter I have from the community um there's over 100 families that signed it um I have it I did I forgot to bring bring in today but I will get copies to everybody today and it was also discussed um twice at or twice most recently but previously as well at the special needs Advisory board meetings um where a lot of the parents came forth um I myself went to um the meeting not recent but the meeting before and our staff went to the last meeting as well to discuss and the mayor was there as well to discuss the concerns of the cost and that they want to participate but there it's just cost prohibitive for for a lot of them right now okay anybody else have any questions yes councilman Bator thank you mayor Erin um I have a quick question you might recall last year speaking about the silver club and special needs uh operating cost or budget uh we spoke about and I believe it was approved the amount of $68,000 to subsidize some of the programs for special needs I believe it's for for registration and some of the fees correct yes so currently we are subsidizing both special needs um and Senior programming um those are typically exercise classes um or different recreational programs and those are subsidized currently including yes That Remains the Same okay thank you and secondly when we speak about the cultural events during the current fiscal year we have had twice the Miami Symphony we did it in December of last year and I believe it was in March April this year February March and December yes so but we did it twice during the fiscal year as my understanding it was last fiscal year it was budgeted just for one time and thanks to a sponsor we made it happen in December can we consider are we including to do it twice during this phical year or just once we I know um operationally our events team is planning to do it again um I believe that was included in the budget um I can double check I will have to firm um I know that there is funding in here for the Miami Symphony Orchestra and yes it was it was included so we will be doing it twice twice thank you thank you anybody else have any questions comments so just very quickly and I know we're going to look at the budget a lot um closer but I'm thinking that the budget is going to want to be you're going to have certain a certain allocation for programming right including for example like the symphony and all that I mean personally I would like to see a a diversification in the programming the um the talent that we bring so personally I don't know if I want to allocate and dedicate a specific amount for a specific um you know uh performer as opposed to having kind of like a pool of funds that you can spend on that type of programming so just as an FYI that's something that I'm looking at as opposed to approving allocating it specifically for one Talent one specific Talent OR performance if that makes sense yes absolutely and we definitely agree that we want to diversify um the programs the events the artists the talent um to give everybody that open opportunity def absolutely um you will see that in um specifically in our cultural budget it is its own account um where is just dedicated to cultural so it is line items however we can use those funding for other things even you know if it's not tied to that Lineum that's just how we've broken it out um in terms of our Signature Events um but there is a lot of flexibility in that that if you know for example we don't do we don't spend you know everything on the women's Art Exhibit bit we can use those funding to put them towards something else so it definitely has that flexibility okay any additional questions comments I'll turn it over to LEL thank you right good afternoon aroor vice mayor city council members city manager assistant city manager City attorney and city clerk laar Kino uh Capital approvement division Chief uh here to present a brief update on the status of the parks spawn projects so with respect to the overall program budget um and expenditures um the program has expended approximately 74 74% of the program total with um 26% remaining um between encumbered and available funds here is a high level breakdown of costs um throughout the program uh Broken Out by project um and their expenditures um there today there is been no changes to the uh project to any of the project budgets as you're aware today the program has successfully completed five projects um which include D white course D Cultural Arts Center D metal Park trails and tals park and Morgan leevy Park um with Dalal Central Park and phase two of the trails Network um the remaining uh in progress projects so updates uh for Dalal Central Park uh phase one um first L first lift of asphalt um has been placed on the west parking area uh which serves the aqua Aquatic Center and Community Center in addition light pole installations um along with concrete sidewalk and curbing um installation has begun um and is ongoing throughout that West portion of the site at phase two and three um substantial completion was achieved um and temporary certificate of occupancy was obtained um punch list items uh final punch list items are being finalized um and City staff is preparing for the grand grand opening of this phase to the public and this initial opening will include amenities uh such as the amphitheater skate park punt track playgrounds uh Pavilions sand volleyball court uh Boardwalk kayak launch um and the multi-purpose fields at phase four there's been uh notable progress uh made um particularly in the last few months um at the community center um the startup of the hva system um has allowed for a lot of the Interior work to ramp up so tile installation has begun in the corridors along with the installation of the ceiling grid and light fixtures um as you you see from the photos installation of the gym equipment such as the basketball hoops and the scoreboard are ongoing um and preparations have begun for the installation of the gym W gym uh wood flooring system uh the community center interior spaces are approximately 85% complete uh with the exterior being about uh 88% complete at the Aquatic Center um grading of the pool deck um has begun with the contract coordinating the pouring of the uh concrete pool deck in the coming weeks installation of the grand stand um roof structure is ongoing along with the scoreboard at the competition side um installation of The Pavilions on the recreation side of the Aquatic Center uh has been substantially completed um the Aquatic Center uh currently is approximately 74% complete and then for for phase two of the trails Network um the project design is is approximately 76% complete with final designs for the turnpike Trail Beacon Trail and drussel dairy Trail pending uh we expect to have those final designs um this month um upon completion of those final designs um for those particular segments Turnpike Trail Beacon Trail and dressol dairy Trail um we will make be making a submission to miamu day County for a a class 3 permit um as d Trails fall within their Canal maintenance easement and uh portions of their RightWay for the greenway Trail which is the portion along 50th Street from 114th Avenue to 107th Avenue um that permit has been approved and the draft solicitation for Construction Services um has been completed uh we're currently working with procurement on the final solicitation uh version um I'm looking to advertise that solicitation in within the next month or so and that's it any questions no good job thank you guys thank you all right Mr city manager that's the end of my list unless we're doing the back okay we're going to keep going e okay economic development good afternoon mayor vice mayor council members administration of course City Clerk and businesses and residents and colleagues thank you very much for this opportunity The Economic Development Division uh this year as you know will be uh under the direction of the city manager's uh office reinstated as a division on its own as you know U the economic development division's mission is to plan organize and Implement an economic development plan to promote the growth and development of the city's economic base really promote the city as a great place to do business to assist in the retention and expansion of the businesses seek out new businesses for the city you know some of our key functions to implement Economic Development strategies to assist and attract new to Market businesses promote private investment for existing businesses sponsor business education workshops and grants coordinate Economic Development Partnerships administer business assistance grants programs external programs or uh outward facing programs to administer the sister cities program and coordinate with foreign agencies and con cons and trade agencies uh the division consists of uh the economic developer and business Outreach coordinator our financials this year are essentially flat um as the division has not been um in this particular account for for several years uh it's been planning and zoning but there's been very very little change in uh in the items um there is some increase in office supplies and operating supplies due subscriptions and memberships uh for conferences and registrations and some decrease uh in promotional activities particularly in advertising but essentially a very similar uh budget to the last few years at a very busy year a lot of activities this year administered 210,000 uh in Grant from the general fund for the CBO grants the facade grants and the PTSA grants um this year we implemented a new online Grant application and final report portal using open forms for the CBO Grant and the facade approvement grants has been very successful it made it an easier process we are now you know paying people through that process as well and uh intend to do that with the PTSA grants as well we supported over 500 companies participated in over 80 Business Outreach events uh some of them including the business Forum uh the vendor and business uh event that we had emerge Americas the select USA 2024 Miami spin-off and many others and assisted with over 400 info der information requests a big one this year is that we published and promoted the city of Durell economic analysis report the 2024 the collaboration with FIU Metropolitan Center actually we've gotten some very good press from that as well as well as a great response from several other cities here in miam media County that have come to us uh to ask about um that report and how they can do something like that as well we published two biannual economic reports that we've produced in house and participated in the Aspen Institute steering Comm comm's successful proposal to the Miami Foundation to implement the Miami small business Collective a One-Stop shop uh a group of about 12 organizations here Miami de county that got together as part of a national uh program with six cities around the United States with big Hispanic uh business populations to find ways to help those populations in each of those markets and in this market we put together together the proposal and the platform for the Miami small business Collective which will now be housed under the Miami Foundation this is a project that's been going on for a couple of years we're very happy that we've brought this to fruition this year we participated in business education activities with many organizations just some of them are Google the ideas Center at miate College myi Bayside Foundation prospera spdc at FIU and and quite a few more and we supported publication of some Dural business special sections in USA Today a global Miami magazine in the arasa medas which will be that one will be coming out soon and of course administered the spend local program we now have about 230 spend local discounts on there and supported the best of the best campaign the monthly campaign some of our objectives for this upcoming year will be to complete the Dural comprehensive plan the economic sement subelement with that Planning and Zoning uh discussed as part of the comprehensive Plan update to implement an online Grant application portal for the PTSA grants for this year and to implement an online Economic Development post-event report portal for each event we'll be able to just uh put in the information and uh and create a report automate a multilingual rapid response portal for foreign direct investment inquiries uh in English and Spanish and Portugues Portuguese so we'll just be able to update it quickly with any specific information and be able to crank out a great uh response portal for any uh foreign direct investment uh investment inquiries that we receive from the beacon Council or select Florida or any organization like that reactivate the dur Hotel Group ACC accordingly meetings with the local hospitality industry and the Greater Miami Convention of visitors bureau on board uh to expand and amplify info Dural Outreach to the Dural community and uh to as as as was discussed in strategic planning to determine some P3 opportunities with the revenue committee and stakeholder feedback those are main objectives for this upcoming year and that's uh what we look to do thank you Mr paa through the mayor yes are there any discussions on any new like sister cities no ma'am not at this moment okay thank you thank you okay uh we're moving on to the next one then we will go to HR hello let me see if I can read all this good afternoon honorable mayor vice mayor council members city clerk City attorney city manager assistant city manager CFO I'm Maria Jose the HR Director and um I'm going to have a quick presentation for you all about us um the human resources remains with the same objectives we are um the human resources department functions as a strategic partner to all department and serves to provide a full range of services that assist in achieving organizational objectives as they relate to employees culture and productivity our mission is focused on developing and managing value added Human Resources policies and programs and provide expert consultation services and solutions in an efficient and customer focused manner to provide our employees with the tools necessary to meet our customers needs we are committed to the fair selection and development of our diverse Workforce our services include Talent acquisition talent management employee relations Employee Engagement Labor Relations health and wellness employee benefits Administration workers compensation and safety classification and compensation management recers management organizational development and learning and learning and legal compliance and litigation avoidance that's a mouthful but our organizational chart currently we have 11 positions we're not acquiring any new positions and we have three vacancies um our financials our budget increase and that's due to um the increase in the cola and uh the cost of living proposed and the increase in rates for testing um in acquiring new employees and that's um related to the number of positions and vacancies so it rotates uh some of the accomplishments for 2024 uh we completed the Frontline customer service um training for all departments the human resources partner with the police training Personnel for CPR training and we train 42 employees Citywide we also partner with the city manager's office and the police department and schedule 218 employees for the active tutor training during the month of April of this year we also managed several Wellness initiatives the initiatives included the annual health fair which we had the highest amount of employees participating with over 175 employees lunch and learn programs on Wellness Financial and Professional developments eyes on the job and Flo which is the Florida licensing on Wheel which I am glad to say that they're back and they were here last week or they're here tomorrow I'm sorry um the city also we became the host for Miami day Public School summer youth internship program and last summer we hosted six interns and this year we hosted 10 interns which has been a great success it's been a great opportunity for both the students the teachers and the employees and those departments that also participated we also um completed the compensation study for the non-bargaining personnel with Evergreen Solutions and I have Mr M comari from Evergreen here if you have any questions I believe that the draft report was disseminated to all of you on Monday so he's available if you have any questions on the actual study and the imple or how we're going to implement it the goals for 2025 is basically a restructure of current Recruitment and Retention plan by the third quarter of the fiscal year we um initiating the attract software through neogov which is the government jobs and that's actually a candidate engagement software that um attracts application or accesses applications to other government agencies for similar jobs that we have so we can engage employees and um try to entice them to apply for the city of D we also um increase the current Wellness um status by expanding the wellness program to Public Safety participation and to increase engagement and participation of the public safety employees with all the initiatives that initiatives that we have and wellness develop a formal Ren standard operating procedure manual for um various human resources department functions and also to make modifications to our current modif um accommodation policy and provide supervisory training to all um firstline supervisors for the next coming year and another thing that we have is to enhance the current benefits plan by promoting flexible schedules within the second quarter of fiscal year that could be either a 410 schedule or um a hybrid schedule for employees that are able to work from home that is all I have and I'd like to take the opportunity to thank my team because truly they are the spokes in the wheel that keeps this place running so without the girls uh I wouldn't be here so do you have any questions from me or from Evergreen on the study I have a couple questions okay Evergreen yes okay Michael I'll let him speak since there just very quick and I just want to confirm that according to the study you found that the city's current salary ranges are slightly above the market average right correct so in aggregate we looked at two things with that so one was the market average which is what most organizations will look at as the first view of where our standard view of how do we compare to other organizations but then the secondary look that we did was uh comparing you against the 75th percentile of the market so taking basically an elevated look where you looked and that's not something we have done traditionally in past studies that was a new initiative that the city's looked at in this goor round for this uh for this compensation study right so but currently the ranges are above the market average by about 1% so we we would we would say in that Vector you guys are really at Market average right now with when you know you're about plus or minus 2% you're really hovering around the average yeah okay and the second question about actually on Exhibit 2 the survey results I think there's some um positions missing right so the that's a good question for good chance for clarification so not every position in the city is benchmarked as part of this process we use a subset or a benchmarking process so to speak and what that's intended to do is be a representative sampling of the job classification that you have here at the city that should represent all the various departments job families and levels that you have um but it's not going to be the comprehensive list of every single one and that's a standard practice there's diminishing returns on adding additional positions especially as you get into say uh subsequent levels of a job series or some unique positions because the comparability of those jobs is a lot lower than staple jobs are in every government organization okay and then my last question on exhibit five the pay grade assignment changes is that a a recommended it is okay so those are evergreen recommended back to the city yes got it thank you okay thank you so much thank you so much all right I think our final one is public affairs no procur oh procurement that's right good afternoon mayor vice mayor council members my name is jacn Lorenzo can we oh there we go my name is jacn Lorenzo I'm the procurement and asset management director and I'll be brief in my presentation so the mission of procurement and asset management is to ensure that the city has the resources that it needs to provide high quality services to its residents so we managed the process by which each of the Departments obtains goods and services necessary to perform their respective functions and we do that in a transparent fair and ethical manner this includes issuing solicitations conducting market research reviewing accessible contracts approving agreements purchase orders agenda items um and facilitating negotiations among other things um the accomplishments we have listed here in fiscal year 24 essentially revolve around establishing this as a new Department um we've updated various um procedures to make sure that it's consistent with best procurement practices and is transparent um that includes our operating procedures application forms for vendors affidavit quotes tabulation forms purchase order maintenance forms different forms and standard terms and conditions um we've created policies such as the donation acceptance policy um and Incorporated additional forms to ensure transparency um we've done vendor Outreach uh with uh public affairs for example um who organized the city of Dalal vendor fair um and have also participated in Vendor fairs hosted by other local agencies to increase South Florida vendor registration and competition um we've conducted internal trainings um with different departments um to ex explain you know our procurement process contract management um and those different processes we've processed nearly 1,200 purchase orders to date valued over $49 million and um we've expanded the use of our munus contract modules and started the process to um engage or improve vendor access through munus as well so this is just a snapshot of our requested budget for fiscal year 25 we are requesting two additional Personnel to properly support the user departments and and then we have two line items for uh one for Professional Services to um request support for property acquisition services in line with our strategic plan to acquire affordable land and then the other is contractual Services we're requesting $60,000 for procurement support services this amount is likely to increase prior to the uh first budget hearing since additional procur procurement support will be required due to my upcoming departure um and we are working with I'm working very closely with the city manager to ensure that there's uh support and you will be seeing an item coming in September for that so this is the organizational chart on the left is what is currently um in place we have the myself the director and then two procurement Specialists what we're proposing is to add a senior procurement specialist and a procurement manager for a total of five um in the in the department So currently we have entry level roles for procurement The Specialist positions and we're request we're requesting more senior roles to provide additional expertise and support and a path as well for internal growth opportunities for staff so for next fiscal year strategic goals and objectives um under exceptional Service uh we're you know continuing to have courteous and Professional Services for our departments businesses and residents timely and efficient procurement support for all the Departments um continuing the procurement training programs and as we improve those processes continue to train staff so that they're up toate um and also vender Outreach and training opportunities um for organizational efficiency and Effectiveness we're going to have continuous Improvement in procurement process um the munis vendor access implementation so we've already started but once we get everything on board and have uploaded all the information that needs to be uploaded then we'll have um the capacity to have vendors actually go on there and start the process themselves as well and then Implement further the contract management um uh module on munes and then on Revenue growth cost-saving opportunities through strategic sourcing and procurement activities continuing to Foster competition to promote Innovation and cost savings and then developing and implementing strategies that promote Revenue growth and that's it are there any questions thank you Jackie mayor um before you move on just uh I don't know if you caught it she said it really fast Jackie this is her last council meeting she is leaving us uh and one of the one of the reasons why we're increasing a line item is because we anticipated we anticipate having a difficult time finding a replacement um procurement professionals are a very limited field so we've already started to try to find uh individuals that may be interested in joining our team but we're hoping that uh we can cover ourselves at least with some Professional Services while we try to find a replacement for Jackie but Jackie it's been awesome thank you very much and I kind of hate you because you're leaving through the mayor uh if I may I want to thank you uh I think I speak on behalf of all departments uh I don't believe that there's a department uh that hasn't dealt with you in one function or another uh I wish you uh much luck and success and your new role with the city of Miami and I'm sure you're going to you're going to do a phenomenal job over there and I wish you the best thank you thank you so much just also want to add you know the minute I got here you were one of the first persons inside my office you are uh not only reactive you're proactive and that's an awesome quality and and I thank you for for all your help and best of luck in the city of Miami thank you very kindly the line oh I I actually did miss that so thanks Fernando for mentioning it thank you and for all the great work that you've been doing and you know I'm sad to see you leave but thank you for your professionalism and best of luck thank you I'm not going to stay out of this one you've been great the short time that you've been here um but uh we'll miss you and you are always welcome to come back on in my watch thank you for being here thank you it's been an honor to work for all of you I have nothing to say to you that I haven't already said I'm not happy but as good as people as we were gaining we're losing so thank you for your hard work and for everything that you've done for our city I will miss you dearly but I'll still hang out with you thank you thank you all I truly appreciate the kind words and it's been a pleasure working for all of you final public affairs okay good afternoon honorable mayor vice mayor council members city clerk city manager office and City attorney Maggie Forester Communications Department okay so here we have our proposed organizational chart for this upcoming fiscal year as it's been mentioned Economic Development will be moving back under the city manager's office so we're back to a headcount of nine full-time positions this team works with um overseeing The Branding social media events film permits community outreach marketing media relations sponsorship protocol video production and the website I'm going to go into some of the highlights of this current year that we're ready to close out our website continues to be the main portal for information for our city in the past 12 months we've had approximately 1.5 million views our top visited Pages as always building department deral trolley and job opportunities this is really useful information for us as we design our new website I know all of you have had an opportunity to look at the new design um the goal is really a a userfriendly experience with this new website that is accessible informative engaging and service-based so we're currently working on the training and configuration portion of the project we're expecting to launch beta testing in October with full launch by the end of this calendar year so we'll keep everyone a breast of those updates our social media continues to grow steadily our social media following is now at 85,000 plus it's up approximately 12% from last year to achieve increase in followers reach and engagement we focused on creating fun and relatable reels and post to inform our community and and keep them in the know we continue to leverage marketing and advertising opportunities not only digital but print as well as mentioned social media campaigns are very key to us it's a great way to engage a community and have a really two-way kind of um conversation with our residents regularly the inside Dural monthly newsletter is a newsletter that we just launched in July um this came from our past strategic planning last year the goal was to engage more with our email database and inform more about Council initiatives employee Spotlight events City improvements Etc so this is in addition to the already existing Weekly Newsletter that goes out through through emails which is basically just now a calendar for the upcoming week printwise we've been working to um keep our cholly stop posters up those will be updated regularly with different campaigns we have also worked on publication ads and mailers and flyers some of those mailers includes the quarterly one that goes out to all homes inviting everyone to tune in and um read our quarterly magazine special events this year several events have brought our leadership and Community together to commemorate momentous occasions some examples include the state of the city annual event the vendor and business Fair which is also it was a first time event went very well was part of one of the initiatives from strategic planning last year um we got great feedback from all the businesses and vendors and all departments really enjoyed interacting with everyone additionally we hosted the women of focus event National Day of Prayer freebie senior program ribbon cutting and the counselor and sister City's reception which was a partnership with economic development and was a very fun and colorful celebration in the past 12 months we've produced over 180 videos to highlight and inform our community and all its stakeholders as Edgard mentioned Code Compliance recruitment video is one of our key projects that we worked on with them very closely they came to us with a clear idea of what they needed to accomplish with this product and we worked very closely and we achieved it with a video that was well very well received and I think yielded the results they were looking for we also worked with Jane and her team for the building department educational series which was uh a monthly video addressing different questions and and processes in the building department to continue informing on their functions other videos included Dural Park Bond updates the best of the best winter highlights event Recaps and special initiative PR most this was the first year of centralizing sponsorship through public affairs um by the end of this calendar year we anticipate adoption and implementation of the new policy code and the creation of the new sponsorship book um these are some numbers from last fiscal year to this fiscal year divided among cash and kind and naming rights just a quick note this fiscal year isn't over yet we still have a couple events in the Pipelines so we can anticipate that will grow some and then we are projecting um for the incoming fiscal year hopefully leveraging those naming rights opportunities at Dell Central Park strategic goals for fiscal year 2425 as far as Revenue we've continued with the same one from last fiscal year which is increased city-wide sponsorship Revenue by 25% again leveraging new assets tox maximize income from naming rights opportunities in regards to exceptional service we'll be focusing on educational and informative videos on Department functions continue standardization of processes and efficiencies continual annual Department vendor fair for businesses and residents continue with the mailing of quarterly postcard to Dural homes with QR code for the full newsletter and continue informing and educating through unified and accurate messaging and of course exceptional service okay some key operating budget highlights for the upcoming proposed budget our contractual Services um object code did decrease by 49,000 as a Communications master plan and social media training was a one-time budget item for that budget year Printing and binding went up um by 9,850 this is mostly the funds for sponsorship print materials that was migrated from the parks um Department into public affairs for other current charges account increase by $221,900 this is to include all event expenses associated with the state of the city event um this includes entertainment audio visual things like that and then operating supplies had a decrease of 1,600 as again it was a one-time per purchase for a camera um for the department so overall we're proposing a budget in the amount of 1,348 65 that's an overall 11% increase proposed okay thank you for your time I'm happy to take any questions okay thank you any additional comments questions concerns Madame mayor council members uh in add addition to the workshop changes uh that were discussed today the first budget hearing change memo will also include housekeeping items with fiscal Revenue estimates finalized insurance cost estimates and Personnel budget updates to reflect the latest payroll I want to thank everyone who assisted in the development of this year's budget proposal including the department directors and All City departments special recognition is extended to the finance department for their outstanding efforts in the development of this budget as well as managing the public dollars entr trusted to be used in a prudent manner thank you thank you very much all right if that's all then we canj the workshop motion to adjourn Workshop motion to adjourn by vice mayor P corvy second by councilman Beno in favor say I hi okay see you back in little while