##VIDEO ID:FLR2Ku6UEL8## calling to order the second and final budget hearing for fiscal year 2024 2025 for Tuesday September 24th 2024 the meeting is called to order at 7:00 p.m. we've already had a moment side of meditation we've already had the Pledge of Allegiance M cck my pce I have a roll call pleas roll call Mayor Nickerson here vice mayor Pella here council person BB council person Ward yes council person Martin pres also presid for the record Janisha Village clerk Village manager and um attorney G thank you very much appreciate that do you have a motion to approve the agenda so moved thank you very much moveed by council person Martin do you have a second I will second second by council person bbon all in favor say I I hold on minute is that resolution number uh is that the resolution on the tell me which looking at we're doing the second budget hearing it's resolutions F1 and F2 It's the final adoption of the aor and then the final adoption of the budget for second give me a second all right do I have a motion to to approve the or I have a motion do I have a um all in favor say I I I all oppos say nay hearing none motion the agenda is approved next is good in welfare um any Resident uh you guys have a chance right now to come up and talk about anything um about the budget in particular uh through good and Welfare I will actually also uh give you guys a chance to talk a little bit later if you want to but if anybody has any questions about the budget you guys can come up right now say your name and address for the the record you have three minutes to speak mayor uh if I may yes um I had um had a not a question about the budget but I um I had a motion to make okay you want you want to get out of good and Welfare first and then we get to the um oh okay to resolutions no no problem no problem vice mayor all right seeing none all right so we're going to go to the resolutions you guys um as we're entering the resolutions uh vice mayor Pella you had something you wanted to say yes um uh looking at the budget the final um uh budget um I noticed um the CFO actually included the lines that were requested for vacation PTO um and all of that so my motion will actually be to um instruct the manager to instruct the CFO to um include the the the actuals the the the year to-day vacation time um overtime PTO and days um for the clerk and the village manager okay I'm going turn that over to um attorney Geller attorney Geller if I and uh the CFO and that's an appropriate motion it should be directed to resolution F2 the budget resolution uh which is the second one we'll get to so when that resolution is read and introduce you then is the time to make the motion and then the mayor will you know ask for for the second then you guys can consider the motion but that's an appropriate motion to make on the budget item okay sounds great thank you very much all right so let's get through F1 we'll come right back to that during F2 um F1 uhy yell you can read that resolution number 202 24-20 final adoption of ADV Orum uh second reading uh the tax rate for 20242 a resolution of the mayor and Village Council of the village of elel Florida of Miami D County Florida adopting the final leving of of Adan taxes of 83000 Ms which is more than the rolled back rate of 73290 Ms by 13.25% for the village of eleral Miami Dade County for fiscal year 20242 providing for incorporation of recitals providing for an effective date all right so this is just adoption of the Aur you guys the budget is uh the next agenda item um do have a motion to adopt avalor um yes before I make the motion I just again especially with the size of the audience we have I want to take this opportunity to be very clear that the millage rate has not gone up um the language that was just used in terms of uh beyond the roll back rate and things of things of this nature the 8.3 is what it has been for many years what it continues to be the overall tax rate on property in the village is not increasing that's all want say and I will make the motion absolutely thank you very much coun iron we have not raised taxes we never have um do I have a second a second uh second who was that multiple seconds M Martin council person Martin was the second um do I have any questions for anyone out there in the audience about the mil you have to formally open it as a public hearing you have to gabble it so 706 do I have any questions from um anybody from the audience about the millage rate we have the budget in the next agenda item guys record the public hearing public hearing was open was closed at 7:06 again um we do have a motion we do have a second do I have any last questions or comments from the council yes council person life for the the budget everybody knows what the budget is raise your hand if you know what the budget is okay I'm G to tell you what it is the budget is for 4,877 215 for 54 of the fiscal year 2425 I had enough phone calls to ask me what in the world does a village have to do with 4, 87121 15 for fiscal year because you all pay your taxes because we have professionals that that that know how to um how to manage this type of thing I have other questions but I want to know if anybody even concerned even looked at it when I came on the council we didn't have close to this at all so we must be doing a real good job keeping up our financial wherewithal in this Village not withstanding we're going to get into some other stuff in a few minutes then we're going to see how you feel about it all right because we do study to show ourselves approved um what's going on and to me this budget is going to pass tonight but that's not the end of the story thank you very much council person like foot Ward um do I have any other questions or comments from the council hearing on M CL please have roll call pleas roll call council person life reward yes council person Martin yes council person urbam yes vice mayor Pella yes mayor May nerson yes motion passes 529 thank you very much attorney Gill can you please read F2 the yes sir yes sir resolution number 2024 21 final adoption of the budget for uh fiscal year 20242 second reading a resolution of the mayor and Village Council of the village of elpel Florida of Miami dat County Florida adopting and approving the annual operating budget of 4,877 215 for fiscal year 20242 providing for incorporation of recitals Prov in for an effective date vice mayor this would be the time for your motion perfect thank you uh Mr gerer um well you already heard the motion let me say it again the motion is to um instruct the manager to instruct the CFO to uh include the actuals year today uh vacation overtime PTO and um SE days uh for the village Clerk and the manager Village manager yeah let's it from the um for the record mayor let me just say that in reference to the motion this is not amending the budget in any way because the numbers are the same numbers they're all there so this is what we would call directory it's asking that this information be broken down and displayed in a somewhat different fashion than it is now to fill in what uh the vice mayor has referred to as those actual numbers and uh that's appropriate for the council to direct so that it's apparent when you look at it such as was discussed but I want to be clear it is not an amendment to the budget because no numbers are changing but let me let me ask a question though attorney G CFO uh to Tom you can answer this also if you want um as far as the breakdown of the salary yes but if we're talking about PTO that's not part of the actual salary um so that would be adding so let's say if the PTO is 5,000 that's adding to the budget money that's not add that's not in the budget the currently correct no sir it's not changing the budget the numbers that are being allocated are the same numbers that are being allocated without the change there is no change in the amount of money that's being uh put into the budget there's no change into the amount of money that the village pays it just reflects an acral that exists under our person rules so it's appropriate to ask that that be displayed so you know kind of what is owed if it ever came to that but you're not changing the amount of money coming in and you're not changing the amount of money going out it doesn't change the salary it doesn't change anything so that's why it's not a a budget amendment it's just asking for certain information that already exist to be displayed in a fashion that it's more readable I understand what you're saying um um if we were talking about though having those numbers if we're trying to find pass the final budget hearing now if we're talking about adding those numbers is just to this current year budget then it doesn't change as you're saying but if we're talking about projecting those numbers to next year then it's going to change what's in the budget right now it really doesn't because you're you're already by contract those are two contract employees they both have contracts with the village and it says that for each dollar of salary they get like a minute of vacation or something like that maybe not for each dollar maybe it's for you know they get a second to vac whatever the numbers work out but that's already specified that's added automatically but it does not change what the village is paying it's already contracted that they receive certain benefits it's the same really as if you voted that um from now on you want to take um Arbor Day and add it as a holiday you you're not changing anybody's salary you're not changing anything you might change some benefit if you you know voted that you were going to increase the health insurance to you know a higher percentage or something that would be a change in your budget but things that you're already doing that are already fixed by their contract and they just acrew that doesn't change in my opinion at least I I'll certainly yield to the CFO but in my opinion from the legal end of it it does not change the budget in any way because you're not paying anything that's not already encompassed in the budget it's just be making it easier to read and understand what the implications are so if I might mayor I me yield to to yeah let me jump in real quick I understand what you're saying like the the money is the money as a whole I understand what you're saying but what I'm saying is if if in the budget that we're have that we're trying to adopt right now if we have $220,000 as a line item for tree trimming and we have a certain amount of money as a line item for something else now we're going to say okay let's put the PTO in here okay the PTO is $10,000 okay well one of those line items has to be changed we have to take $10,000 away from this line item or $10,000 away from that line item because we're putting something in there that doesn't that's not doesn't show per line item because right now if you add up all the line items you know along with the reserve general fund it all adds up to whatever the whole of the budget is the things you're talking about though this isn't the kind of change that you said where with a vendor or something this is just what the contracts come to but it's not money that the village owes today it's not money that the village is called upon to pay at this time it's not like if you have a bank loan and you have to put in the bank loans due on the 1 of every month because it's due but these numbers are not owed at this time they're just an acral of benefits but the village isn't called upon to be paying them unless some contingent circumstances we're talking about I think we're talking about two different things because you're talking about the current fiscal year right 2023 2024 I'm talking about the adoption of the budget for next fiscal year 2024 2025 all of those line items have already been done so what I'm saying is it's like if we have now new line items that and one's going to say PTO if we're showing these line items unless they're coming out of the salary itself like the salary line item is there right now okay now we can deduct from the salary line item to create these other line items vacation line item holiday pay line item but the PTO line item that's not part of Sal of of of regular salary but it's not oh but if we're going to make a line item for it for projection for the new budget that line the money from that line item for PTO has to come from another line item I have to defer to the CFO in this um what the mayor is suggesting is for future if we create a a a line item for the PTO well let me back my understanding is with the the the PTO that it creates a liability but the manager and or clerk can catch the PTO at any point in time so you could budget for it so this is what the mayor suest is saying we if we budget for it yes it doesn't necessarily guarantee that the the employee is going to cash out their PTO um but they do have that option to cash out that PTO so if that's the POS if we do have that Poss possibility then we create a new line item we budget for it and then at that point you're creating an imbalanced budget because like you said PTO is not something that could happen so it's not you know it's it's not something that's currently in the budget to me it is what's class what's called a contingent liability it's a liability that is not it's not budgeted for because it's not expected to rise during the year only if some other act occurs does it become a liability it's not a present liability it is only a contingent liability and until and unless the contingency happens if you budgeted for it you would be budgeting a surplus I mean both of these employees have been here for quite a number of years if You' budgeted for that every year you'd be essentially budgeting for a Surplus every year because the contingency has not Arisen and there's no telling when the contingency might arise and whether they end up cashing it out or go some other route or or whatever happens you don't know in next year's budget or the following Year's budget or the following Year's budget that it's going to arise so to the extent that the village wants to be aware that there is this Poss possible contingent liability and to have that displayed which I think is the vice mayor's motion uh that's certainly proper but if you budget it for it next year and then budget it for it the year after and then the year after that and the clerk and the manager are still here you would have been budgeting money for an expense that didn't exist but listen I maybe it's a matter and if I may uh Mr Mayor um yeah my thing is like for example um just for you know uh as far as like the clerk's uh salary that it went up but it went up because they it was included overtime and vacation and everything that was owed to her right for what we just or some of the hours that were you know included in there it's salary and the increase and I think also the the days the holidays the holidays you see so it's uh thank you madam cler so I just want to see it forecast and see how many hours are here how many hours are there last year after the Mee the budget was passed then we started discussing the manager PTO it was uh if I remember correctly it was over 35 $45,000 something like that so I don't know how much it was it was I don't know if it was last year or the year before but it was after that so where did that money came from if it we didn't put it on the budget as a line item to um you know like a future but let me try and answer that Vice man the answer is this let's say you have I don't know what the actual numbers are and how much but suppose you have 10 days of of personal time off 10 days of qu vacation although it's not it's used for other things it can be used to to go to the doctor or whatever if you have 10 days if you have 10 days of vacation and you go on vacation for 10 days which you kept getting your salary even though you weren't working that day because that's your vacation and if you use it at the end of the year it doesn't get cashed out and at the end of the year it doesn't get carried over neither you just had 10 days of PTO and you used it and there is no additional cost of any kind to the Village because you just took your vacation so maybe you will cash some of it out at the end of the year or maybe you'll carry it over for a year another year another year another year but if you took if you use your vacation there's no cost because you just get to have those days off so that's why I say it's it's a contingent liability that may never arise and if you want to keep track of how much the acral might be in case somebody left that's a perfectly logical thing to ask but it won't change your if if somebody just use their vacation it won't change your budget next year by a nickel and if I may add just that's the point that I was going to make it's the fact that the assumption that you the attorney's making is that the uh the sick and the vacation time are being used right if they are being used what the the attorney suggested is correct there's no effect whatsoever it's when they're not if it's not being used and you know it's not being used um so that's where the issue arises yeah so I mean you know I'm not against the the line items per se the transparency I just want to make sure we're doing it the right way I just want to make sure that you know we don't have an imbalanced budget um moving forward and that all the line items equal out to what the budget is as a whole and so I just want to make sure we're doing that because if not then we're going to run into other problems later on um um with an imbalanced budget that's all all right so we have a motion um from vice mayor Pella uh did I get a did we get a second on your motion vice mayor P did we get a motion in a second I'll second okay so who who was the motion by vice mayor Pell did the motion and then the second was council person bbom correct um before we get to the resolution itself let's vote on this motion uh Madam clerk roll call uh the motion is to instruct the village uh manager instruct the CFO to uh include the actuals here today um vacation time overtime PTO and SE days for the village Clerk and manager let's go ahead with the roll call roll call council person Martin yes council person lifeford Ward yes council person irban yes vice mayor Pella yes mayor Nickerson yes motion passes 5 to n all right thank you than very much and we've read the resolution to the record do we have any comments or or questions about the the budget as a whole from the council the annual second hearing you're talking about for the yes for the final adoption of the second reading I I do have some comments i' I've had very I've had as much as I can tolerate from the from the village um citizenry first of all they got to see some of the information too and we're a little bitty city they complained about salary increases they complained about the village is not uh manded every every day you complained about where are you all did you say you could work from home the two people that's at the front desk I I had to go and find out for myself they're always at the front desk but there's a lot of contention in terms terms of what we pay what we are paid and the projections of pay when you see the variances in the budget you wonder to yourself are we doing the right thing the employ the salary of the staff is is open to the public you should know what your taxpayers money are doing and I dare say that those that did ask for the information said what you're making what in a city that's less than 2700 those are things that we have overlooked there was a time people that we didn't have a good budget we did not have what we needed but I have to I have to add that question too why are we doing executive pay in a little bitty city that sidewalks streets and roadways are still in need of repair why are we adopting a budget total cost so you all didn't get a copy of it Village Council proposed 3,7 78,3 65 from the general fund Revenue you all don't know that we have the whole thing why do we still have potholes why do we still have no sidewalks where we need it why don't we have good drainage but yet we are we are giving forth a lot of money nothing wrong with our staff they didn't all come in knowing what they want to do but all these years they've learned that's not the whole point the point is we need to look at this differently I got bombarded Mr Mayor with complaints about what they were able to see it's not it's not a secret you want to know what Planning and Zoning have you want to know what the salaries are you want to know all you had to do is ask and now we're in this situation where it looks like we're a Millionaire City we are not I don't know when the last time this room was painted I can go on and on I have a real serious problem with the people telling us this is not fair and I believe they're right this is not fair if I said to everyone did everybody get a copy of this did you even look for it and you see the salaries themselves it'll blow you away it will blow you away from a city this small so I'm very concerned about this and if they got to quit they got to quit I did it I was them I was the people once upon a time and I did quit don't want to pay me I go where people can pay me what I want but it's always a bigger city it's a tiny little city and I still don't have streets I still don't have sidewalks my compa here she doesn't have sidewalks and yet we can sit here and give out variant of raises that far exceed what we do here in the city and I still say this room needs painting I'll still still tell you we don't have enough parking space I can still tell you there are things in this Village that people need and we're not talking about giving away um free food which is what we do every now and then we get free food and we open it up to the public we're not talking about that I'm talking about people having a tax rate we're not seeing much improvements but we seeing a lot of improvement with salaries to our small staff and I'm not beating up on that I'm just making it real for everybody and the realness is we can't do be doing 15% 20% 30% increases or variances of of um bu budget information that's my if I had my brothers I'd vote everything no let's look at this again but since we are at the stage where we have to have the budget after a certain time ladies and gentlemen I appreciate the full quality of you all and those of you that called to say hey this is ridiculous I appreciate that much uh but um keep keep an eye keep coming maybe we'll get something that all of us can have because we didn't get a raise we didn't get a if we did it was a penni's raise 26 some dollars to be on this Council so I'm not talking about us it's 260 some oddd dollars right that's what it is that's what we get each one of us but you see what's in this budget you see what the staff is getting paid exception is the attorney so think about that and please please continue to come to the council and have it foled out just like it is today because you didn't get you didn't get a chance CU you probably didn't know the fiscal annual is not a private Zone it is a public taxpayers money you could have asked for a fiscal year 2025 annual budget second hearing you could have asked for that keep that in mind thank you mayor yes I'm upset yes I'm not satisfied or no I am not satisfied but the day is the day thank you who whose uh items are you talking about in particular whose salaries are you referring to if I gave this thing out to everybody today you go what for real but they didn't have that benefit from now on the public needs to know what we voting on cuz this is this is real money I came in a place where they didn't have anything they didn't even know how to do anything then attorney Geller comes along and says you can't do that you shouldn't be doing that then we get a manager who told us from the start she was no city managers attorney but she learned quick she learned quick but it still does not justify some of these numbers in here when half our people are now elderly and they can't hardly s sustain themselves what did we give back to the taxes to the taxpayers don't tell me about this this free food don't tell me about that tell me about how they get the you you you've heard them everybody over here probably has heard I can't pay my water bill today I can't pay my electric bill I can't I can't I can't I'm retired now and the and we're sitting here with over a million dollar worth of Revenue on a city that's what 2600 at best okay see see you didn't even know it was that tiny I'm through whose salaries are you referring to it doesn't matter which one who one anybody that reads this will see just what everything is in here everybody would see it when I saw it I was totally appla appalled but the phone calls oh my God I don't know how they saw the they saw this information when I thought it was just ours but it is public knowledge you want to know what the budget is next year ask for it ask for it so you don't have to worry are we doing the right thing you can question is this the right thing thank you mayor so um well not yet I do have a comment whenever that rolls around yeah well go ahead uh council person okay uh so it's a a nuanced feeling that I have about the salary uh increases I do think everything is more expensive so to remain competitive and uh retain the staff that you are uh pleased with or to attract new Talent you need to make sure those those salaries are competitive and I do think that um the professionals that work in elport are in the unique position that they are multiple department heads in one so we don't have a a marketing department we have the clerk that we send things to and she send things things out we don't necessarily have the typical departments that you would see so you have a city manager and a city clerk that wear multiple different hats and I think that is a drain on any professional and you do need to incentivize them and people by and large they come to work to get paid so the salaries need to be commensurate with what we're asking them to do uh so when I look at the increase I look at other municipalities some similarly sized and I don't think that ours is outsized but I also think that we are in a very unique position where we ask a lot of the staff that we do have in house uh but also with that being said I do think that when you do have a salary that is attractive um and you are competitive with other municipalities you also look to those professionals to give you the results that you want so I think that it is appropriate for residents for council members to say well hey now that we have brought the salary up to the level of like a an established city manager an established city clerk what are we getting what are the results that we want and if those are subpar um we need to hear that from the residents we need to speak about that amongst the council as far as whether or not we're getting what we're paying for it is no secret that I believe believe the legal services is one of the areas that we are getting um much less than we are paying for and although that expenditure Remains the Same I feel that the quality we receive continues to be subpar um and I think that that's something we can talk about fairly if someone wants to talk about City management city clerk that's something we can speak about fairly but I think those two issues should be bifurcated we do need to pay people enough to keep talented people and attract talent in addition to that we need to evaluate that Talent fairly so I'm fine with the budget but I do believe that some of the efforts that were started last budget cycle where we were going to effectively evaluate and discuss the performance or lack thereof in certain departments I think that is the conversation that we need to Keen in on at this point the right staff will get you all of the results that you seek so social programming a better run City a better experience for the residents when they come into our our city hall if we have the right staff they can do it we need to talk about who we have and if that's what we need for where we see the village going so that's my comment on the budget thank you very much I appreciate that um council person Martin well said uh I'll wait because I know that uh I'll get into when we get into the meeting I guess guess but um I can break down the potholes where we've filled potholes this year I can break down um our plans for Street repair I can break down how Street repair when we did the study for it in 2019 for the streets of elportal it was two21 million and I manage it was it 2.1 or 21 $2.1 million um that's why I was asking what salaries were particularly uh referring to um for the simple fact that from whatever salaries referring to I was going to look at you know how much those salaries are compared to how much it would take to you know fix our particular streets and then we'd be able to see uh that being said when it comes to sidewalks um there's a lot into it there's a lot into it when it comes to cold dealing with the sidewalks and our code isn't written correctly um because in our code it says sidewalks that the residents should be the ones to fix the sidewalks if they're broken I don't believe that that should be what it is so that's something that I think that should be addressed when it comes to uh sidewalk extension um I mentioned last time that uh we were getting 800,000 um to extend the 877 Street sidewalk West from North M Northeast 2 Avenue going west and then um it was pulled in the last minute from congresswoman uh Fredrico Wilson uh when it comes to other Street repair we have the plans myself and man maner we have the plans as a matter of fact we have the areas that we already have um kind of been discussing to where we're going to attack first we know that Sherwood Forest for example has terrible streets we know there's other streets in eleral um that are terrible so there's a lot with past money also that has to do with that that's coming in so there's a lot to that um we can get to that another time I know I don't want our residents to be here for a long time because I know they're waiting for the next meeting but uh but if I knew what particular salaries we're talking about then I can address how you know those particular salaries or the reduction of those particular salaries can you know how much percentage wise they would lead into uh correcting or preparing what streets so that being said uh I'm going to close this and open the public hearing to the public you guys anybody has anything they want to say in the public any questions or comments about the budget now your chance to come up first and last name for the record three minutes is how much you have but you know I always extended for you guys 7:30 Pascal theol 177 Northwest 90th Street uh we do get the budget in an email we do see see that as residents and if we agree or disagree on whatever line items are in there it's our fault that this is not being addressed until now so it's not just like this gets jumped on us if we're interested in it I think that it's up to us to look through it and be interested enough to call you guys and come up and talk to you before the second reading thank you Mr dup anyone El come on um Janice 25 Northwest 89th Street um yeah right like we all needed to be more involved earlier I sat today and watched past meetings and you guys did question a lot of things and I it it at first I thought oh how is no one saying anything and you guys did you talked about it now did it go that far I don't think so but um what I was going to what I found out was that you had the meeting a workshop meeting on a Tuesday night and I was wondering if those could be back on Saturdays because Saturdays I don't know the weekend is a little bit easier for me I don't know about other people but it used to be on Saturdays and I think maybe I don't know for sure if there were more people who attended I can't imagine after Co I mean things I haven't been around either I've been away um and then back again but so I don't know like the participation level the days that things are being held at but when you said at another at one of the meetings you said um listen this is usually held on a Saturday and for me I was like yeah it used to be and I remember being there so maybe that would help us and having more time I don't know I don't know that I haven't had the time I was really busy watching those meetings and trying and looking at the budget and trying to figure out things and it is a little shocking to see the percentages of the salaries and I think we know what salaries are upsetting people I don't know if it's Justified or not I can't speak to that um whether it's comparing to another um municipality or not um what's being done um I was just wondering too I remember when Janice was first hired and the salary was really low and we were all fighting for her and what I'm thinking though is is her position still part-time and why isn't it a fulltime if she's putting in all these hours and I don't know about overtime and you know isn't it better to have a 40-hour work week I don't know what the 30 hours is and then what how much overtime she's putting in for us but maybe she should be a full-time employee I don't know I just wanted to stay that no thank you very much um the reason why I remember so you know when I came in uh as mayor thank you very much Miss when I came in as mayor uh we did have the first budget hearing um on Saturday we had a couple budget hearings on the Saturday um but if you guys remember especially the ones we had on Zoom at first it was just us like we didn't have one attendee on a Saturday the reason why um Tuesday nights is kind of like something that we always try to gear towards is because Tuesday nights is something that you guys are used to as far as our meetings are always on Tuesday nights so it's like okay Tuesday it's kind of like government night it's kind like our meetings are always on Tuesdays even our our committee meetings are on Tuesdays our Council meetings are on Tuesdays if using have a special meeting it's usually a Tuesday so I was like okay maybe Tuesdays if they see Tuesday they're like okay well I know that's like you know our Elbert has meetings on Tuesdays so uh that's kind of a reason why we kind of put it on Tuesdays but we consider that for next year M Mr Mayor I think the uh uh the resident was talking about uh the workshops and it's no that's what I'm talking about yeah so so so the workshop it's always good to have two like one on a weekday and one on Saturday when you get more participation of all their parents or or their you know residents yeah no I hear you I hear you thank you Mr Vice man what my point is though is that when we did have the meetings on The Saturdays not one person showed up and so my point is is that my idea was on Tuesdays even a workshop it's kind of like the idea of like eler to handles its government meetings on Tuesdays because they're all on Tuesdays so I maybe I was trying to like you know kind of spark in everybody's mind like okay Tuesday oh yeah yeah Elbert to does do their thing things on Tuesdays type of thing or whatever so that's all Mr Mayor if I may yes I'm intrigued by that thought of like frequency right but also maybe the mode is there a way that we can just kind of have people chime in almost like a a virtual focus group where they can just kind of drop a quick line about what it is they are concerned about if they do look at this budget item and maybe during the meeting those people that can't attend in person at least can have those thoughts kind of read out into the record so we know what it is that people are thinking about absolutely what so what we can do is for next year what we can do is we can do one of two things um we can either go fully back to zoom where people can just join from their homes right and see if this time you know we get participation or we can do um which is more expensive we can do the um hybrid meeting which is where we come here we meet here um but we have uh our friends at full moon have a separate camera that live streams also and then we can turn a TV on and if anybody wants to come in you know through Zoom um they can just come in on the screen and ask their questions in real time we can that's another option that we can consider that's a little more time consuming and and monetary as well as well but I um agree with uh councilwoman um Martin um I've seen it in all the municipalities where they send the agenda um a week before and then people or a few days before and people just have the option to drop in those questions and then you know read them here and then answer those questions that'll be a great idea or no they don't do both they either do it that everybody participates that way or they come in person and speak they don't do both because I have inquired about that before that uh the residents uh dropping uh questions come they drop questions and then but they don't do both so the resident once they speak on that topic and on that question they don't come to this meeting right once they send the submit the question that's their question and that's it yes yeah but my idea is so you know somebody might have a question prior to the meeting starting but once they hear or speak they might get another question or once they hear us speak they might say oh they answer my question okay I don't need to answer so that's why I think more in real time is more the way to do it um so I think that what we should do is either you know um next year go straight strictly back to Pure virtual just all on Zoom um and people can join from their homes or we do some type of hybrid where we're here but we have them um be able to chime in on zoom and that way people that want to show up they can be so we have people that can want to show up they can be here we have people that want to be here through Zoom they can be here through zoom and everybody can talk in real time um so that they can get their questions answered their questions might be answered when we speak start speaking they might have new questions once we start speaking and and then everything could be handled in real time thank you very much appreciate I I think we should do all of the above you want to avoid the feeling that something is being like forced down absolutely someone's throat so if it's just a matter of like us collecting that feedback and then also the spend for the hybrid meeting I think that that's a good spend to make sure everyone's comfortable with what's happening absolutely yeah I agree may or may I yes to answer Janice um I don't know if you were aware I left for 6 months my position was open for 6 months to due to Unfortunate Events here but um you can ask the mayor and the mayor can answer it was open for six months I even facilitated for the for the president of the clerks of day County to send it around for any Clerk and how many people applied for the job we got the only yeah six months and and I and it was got so bad that I reached out to clerk jacobe even though she wasn't working here anymore um to help us out and she went through the the uh the president of the Mii day uh clerks to help us out and try to find us somebody and because of our because Elbert still plays the lowest and because we were lowest paid and like that um the what we were getting Madam manager when they heard clerk Target individ oh what's there Target oh I used to work I work at Target Walmart I work at Walmart go that's all we were getting all the all every single um resume we were getting were all like oh like oh I used to be a man assistant manager at Kmart oh it was all of that and then we were finally fortuned to bring her back so not only that when I got back I had to keep those six months cuz nothing was done for six months so I had to bring it back to speed and keep current yeah absolutely thank you very much anybody else from the audience okay oh yeah come come on uh Charles winter 377 Northeast 85th Street um I just wanted to pull up a few things on what Mr Pella said um with the uh budget and having clear view of what was going on um in our government we need full transparency right so we need to have the breakdown and of course we were all a little confused when we had everything 0% on there we know you get it and you deserve it um so everything I'm saying by the way is nothing against you guys I like you guys you're doing great um but uh they what after doing a lot of research they are actually the some of the lowest paid in Miami Dade um at uh West Miami makes manager makes 137,000 uh bisc Park 103 Miami Springs 155,000 North Miami 246,000 all the way to uh 245 340 350,000 in Mii Beach there's managers out there that are making three times what our manager makes and they are larger cities but we do have um we're getting kind of a deal for what we're paying um now when you look in terms of actually population to the price are paying we are spending a little bit more but we also have them running the entire things with two people and every other municipality has dozens of people or more trying to run them um so I just wanted to say that uh there are numbers out there that are being thrown around and I want everyone to know that yes they're being paid a lot but they also be paying the least amount in actual Miami Dade uh County um the second thing I want to say while I was up here um council person Martin made a comment ment and I don't want to step on any CHS here but as she was saying the legal services were paying we getting much less than we're paying for I looked over Mr Geller and he was sleeping got to stay awake for the meetings all right all right that's it thank you thank you very much Mr Winters I appreciate that also wanted to say just kind of pigy back on what Mr Winters is saying um as far as uh the manager salaries and clerk salaries from other places not only are we one of the like we're you know amongst the lowest paid but those other places Madam clerk Madam manager they have Deputy clerks and they have Deputy managers and they have assistant managers so for those other places you have to take the managers pay and the assistant managers pay and add those up because it's basically two managers that they have you know I see you my brother you're so so we have uh uh kis Kan commissioner and he's been here he's been waiting for the regular meeting start because his your budget meeting is currently going on right now correct there you go do you have a a deputy clerk a deputy manager assistant manager no we have a chief of staff you have a chief of staff also so there you go so they have other individuals and your manager gets paid how much 210 so yeah and your Chief of Staff 13 for your chief of staff and 210 for your there you go so um how big city yeah like like I was saying um that's not all also what you have to look at is you have to look at and and let me just say this a lot of people look at it like this where the size of a city kind of matches to where you're not doing as much work that's not true because I'm here on a daily basis you guys can come here and see me pretty much every day the size of the city the stuff when I go to other municipalities meetings which I do all the time when I go to when I go to other meetings for the state mayor associations and National mayor associations the Mayors think I am insane that I do my own Flyers walking around hang them door too on every door handle they think I have lost my mind that I give up my real number I'm always here working always available they're like no other mayor does this stuff but in eler toow you have to work put in more work so our clerk does things other clerks don't even do right clerk jacobe that they don't even do none of them are going to come in on Saturday forget about it just because somebody else you know they don't our manager does work the other managers don't even do don't even come close to doing so because it's like oh we're small then you know they should get paid like it's the 19 like it's 1989 but our residents still want us to run like a professional government even though we're small so we had to do things like change the whole way we do the front desk when I came in as mayor because before we would just we would hire people but because we pay so such a small amount we would hire people at the front desk they find a job at city of Miami or they find a job at Miami Gardens or they find a job in hiia they we hire them we would train them they'd be working the front desk for three months they find a better job paying more money then manager Al then has to get resumés again so now we used to have residents being like like man I put my permit in like 6 months ago I haven't heard nothing back yet oh that's my bad because we we lost our person we've been doing we've been looking at resumes for the for the past month none of those people are qualified so we're still looking for resumés but we gave now but we outsourced now our front desk that was my idea manager or lose now we have a professional front desk to where it's outsourced so now if we if somebody's missing or somebody calls out or something like that is up to the company and they replace the person right then and there the same day we Outsource our Public Works it's not a surprise that our Police Department is completely revamped safer than ever we were talking about somebody was saying what are we giving back to the community we are safer than ever before we used to have one police officer at nighttime for decades until I became mayor one now we have three up to four sometimes at night time most of the stuff you see from the police department it wasn't taxpayer dollars so we've given a lot back to our community now we do have to fix other things streets and stuff like that like I said it's been a long time me try to get to the next meeting I know y'all are like itch I know how how's your how's your budget meeting going over there how's it you got any Texas or everything everything's all right over there in keas Kane all right um Mr Dreer I think you stood up also you wanted to come up say something hi my name is Warner Dreer 486 Northeast 87 Street uh so kind of the background that I share here it's a a little bit very maybe unique uh I've been attending here been emailing you guys the council for the last maybe three years um I'm probably one of the ones that I can raise my hand and I am definitely concerned on the percent increase on salary and this is not just our budget but it for this year has been going on from 2021 I have even here the percentages the 2022 23 23 24 while I believe in Fair increases right which when I was part of the council I did fight for the fair increase for that position that was not being given but I think it's fair and fair no um based on I'm not sure if everybody has gotten a print out uh but based on what we're we're projecting for the upcoming year it's a 15% salary increase and this is not just to P pinpoint at a person or their performance but when you see a a specific spefic part-time position the salary including the F FRS is higher than the position of the CFO I'm sorry the the the legal the that puts us a question also when you see that part-time position and this again I'm not picking on the person nothing to do with the performance but when you see the budget the increase in the salary and the current pay the proposed pay is in addition higher than the chief of police including the F FRS and the overtime that puts me a a a little bit uneasy so my motion here is that and I would like for one of the council members if somebody can bring up this motion and I've reached out to you guys I even reached out to you Council Martin I was here in the first budget the second budget I texted you I emailed you and there has been no response as of today I understand we all are busy here I I made my time to come out here right all and I we all have lies but my motion is and I thank you very much for the rest who who answered those calls right made themselves available but my motion here which I I think it's a fair promotion here it's give a 5% increase to the to the uh to the Mana manager and to the clerk be fair enough for us the residents based on the consumer price index report that inflation already has been already mitigated to 2% also the residents the income here in elportal does not compare to the I'm so sorry to the KB ske and also to the tax aluren that kib receives based on the property our property right now our tax adval laoren is 2.4 million dollar I don't know if that and that's what we pay for our staff here I know our staff does a great job I know I bug him a lot with the street light repairs but I and and I thank you for that I thank that I I thank to the clerk as well I appreciate you guys but I think fair is fair I haven't seen a job where you're getting here uh year after year one example a 20% increase that was another year another 15% increase and this year another 15% increase which I was in the last me meeting and I it was very exhausting here because I was requesting for the breakdown of that overtime position to see what is the PTO the overtime and and it was such a hard issue here to get that to to reflect on the budget and here on the budget that we have it's still at least for the residents there's no values entered so I feel there needs to be some Fair transparency and for that reason I think I'm going to ask again one of the council members raised their hands who believes that there will be a 5% increase on to the position of the uh Clerk and the manager that's that's all I have to say here thank if somebody can raise their hand if thank you it's been great what you guys all said but again everything stays in in in fluid air if there's not a motion made in place here you can say anything to everybody here but you all know the moot is the key power you guys have as Council people let me let me jump in real quick thank you very much and I'm a little bit frustrated as you can see with this process as far as the increase yeah thank you very much counc person Dre all right so um let me just give an example here really quickly you guys so right here I have part of the clerk's contract and I think this is this may be where the situation is for what people are are discussing because I think under the impression that was given before um from council person life forward is that we're just deciding to give people raises at a certain percentage or something like that I'll explain the clerks in a second um separately but let me just say this real quick so for the clerk and for the manager in their contract they have a 5% and 3% increase okay the man the manager has the um 5% Merit 3% Cola the clerk's is reversed the clerk has the uh 5% Cola 3% marit let me just give an example straight from the clerk's contract and this may be where the issue lies you guys should the council fail to annually evaluate the clerk's performance this is kind speaking to you council person Martin should the Council failed to annually evaluate the clerk's performance within the two months prior to September of each year it shall be interpreted to mean that the council is satisfied with her performance immediately thereafter the Kirk shall be given the Merit incre increase at the beginning of October 1st now I take that on myself I already gave myself a a calendar to where we'll have her um evaluated next year way prior to September 1st but that's in the contract and that's for her Merit increase now her Cola your cost of living you get automatically and her Cola is 5% so she's going to get 5% off top and in her contracts maybe the contract's the problem that you guys have so don't think like oh you guys are just giving this stuff why are you giving 8% this is from these individuals contracts you guys these contracts are legally binding you right so maybe the contracts need to be the things that we look at in the next fiscal year so don't think that we're just giving people money no why the 15% the almost 15% for the clerk this year it's bad but in a way it's good you know why because this is what I said when I look at the budget because the clerk is part-time because she gets overtime because there's holiday pay we weren't budgeting that in other years so then when I started to look at it with the CFO I said well the budget that we're budgeting her for for you know this upcoming fiscal year it's not going to be the actual so we're talking about transparency let's at least write down actually what she's making per year because if we write the salary but don't include the projected overtime that she that she that she gets every year and don't include the projected holiday pay that she gets every year well then every year you guys think that salary that salary looks much better than it really is because at the end of the day we're still having to take from the general fund or wherever or another line item in her budget for the overtime for the holiday pay so I said okay well let's just show everything then and that's why the large jump because it's the most transparent that her budget is right so that jump won't be there next year a 15% jum because now at least we're up to par where these are the actual numbers now if the second part of the conversation is you know you all don't want those actual numbers then you want to might maybe like we adjust this or look at this or look at that but we also have the contract so that that's another thing to look at but what I always wanted to show in eleral was exactly what things were remember I came in with a crazy financial situation if y'all remember that I had to fix so all right and that's what it is so there's conversations moving forward about contracts maybe about other things maybe but understand the reason why we gave them the this this time is because for two reasons contractually we had to and the second reason was because we were showing the actuals of what it was okay anybody else man yes um I hear a lot the word part-time being thrown out and it's unfair for somebody who I speak to and called me at midnight no other municipality is going to have any Resident call them and ask them questions about what goes on I'm open I'm always open you can call me any day anytime I'm here I'm around I help the front I do so part-time is unrealistic I just don't build for hours and people never leave money on the table but I've left money on the table I think it's unfair thank you CL jov is there anybody else from the audience guys M mayor yes counc person for if we sat down with everybody and they looked at this budget and they looked at last year's budget and they looked at the budget before nobody would be able to dispute that the village hasn't been Fair since the day I moved here in 1991 nobody can dispute that but what they can dispute is what we haven't done for the village what they can dispute is the time that we've given people off and able to work at home there's a lot to look at but a little bitty city like this who doesn't have even the a third of the equivalency of uh residential property such as s walks and a lot of other things you can't tell me people if you didn't see this budget you don't know what I'm talking about but if you saw this budget and you see what the percentages are in terms of the variances you would be sitting there saying I don't even get this and I worked 20 years there's nothing wrong with the the professionalism of the staff what is wrong with where my my concern say with everything that's why we live in America say whatever you want but the reality is at the end of the day have we taken care of Village Hall have we provided for the streets and and Roads and sidewalks have we kept our promise when people are ill and we know they're sick and able to help them get to where they need to be are we a counsel of people just s up here every two times a month and not concerned about where everybody else is in this Village we pay heavy property taxes we pay I can't even talk about what the salaries are I can't minimize people like that but I can say at some point stuff has got to stop we have lots in this Village you look around I don't get the phone calls for nothing I don't get them for nothing people call my my my my my driveway is flooded because of the sidewalk my my sewer line is is is told to be have been placed in in irregular we don't have anything for the public to come back and say hey we making all this money can you help me can you do you have a subsidy here that I can get this done we all live here and I can tell you right now my sewer system been fixed three times not because of something I did but because it wasn't done the first time it wasn't right the first time okay so when you're looking at this budget at some point I've been here a long time 1991 is a long time I've been here a long time and I've been on the council a long time when you look at this budget and then you look at your own self what you make and what kind of job you have and what they're paying you especially if you working for government which I did most of my life then you tell me why we don't have a resour resource fund for instance $190,000 you know what that $190,000 is still waiting out there for what we haven't done with the CIT it's just sitting out there so I got a phone call because I used to be a member of the CIT the Citizens Independent Transportation trust so people look at it I I I would expect that one day you all come in because like like uh Warner you have a copy in your hand you saying what the NOP no none of that no profanity what is this you're talking you didn't get to see it but once you get to see it then you'll question what are we doing if the clerk the manager the attorney want to resign that's up to them but we have to do things in this Village to change what I've seen since I've been here since 19 as I said 1991 and it still ain't changed and where do you live Dr War 415 Northwest 88 Terrace on the corner no sidewalks no drainage no no proficiency drainage so think about that people and next year don't you wait until the council meeting you get you a copy of this this is public knowledge this is your taxpaying money then you will see what we're talking about some of us agree and the five of us we we don't because we don't sit down and talk to each other it's not supposed to be that way but we can come in here and say what salary is this 300% for promotional activity that's the variance if you saw it in writing you sit here and say what and how much of it have we giving back to the city and don't tell me about no Maro around don't tell me about no no no no thing that you do on what's that with the the the the the bus runs through the neighborhoods Halloween I don't know which one it is don't don't tell me about that little bit of stuff tell me about how we're keeping the infrastructure tell me why this this room is not painted tell me why the floor itself hasn't been cleaned tell me why they it took time for us to get that desk that nice desk that they now have in the in the area because we were thinking about stuff tell me why we don't have a better parking situation around here tell me that then then you will see your money as opposed to your money going to salaries you will see what we're doing and that's why they're getting the salaries I rest um Mr may we can move forward can I just I saw it I didn't think about it the residents called me and I had to look at it in a different way and I agree we got to be more transparent in terms of you all coming and getting a copy of what you see so that you won't have to sit there and think we must be a rich City City no we're an elderly City very much so an elderly City and these are the people that I'm I'm most concerned about in terms of taxes and whatnot I'm 71 years old I started when I was 50ish Look at me now can I say something go ahead coun this will be so quick I think I think what we have here is an expectation problem that is easily cured we can't just look historically back at previous budget cycles and see how much the manager was paid what we need to do is look out uh look at other municipalities similar to what Mr Winters was suggesting look at other municipalities and see how much their city managers and City Clerks are being paid I know these are somewhat obscure jobs that people don't quite know what a city manager or a city clerk does but these are highly specialized positions um and I know you might see the salary and think to yourself well wow but it's because the manager is an attorney and the manager also has gone to countless courses on how to be a city manager and the manager is responsible for $4 million budget and um there's a lot that goes into that and if you look at other city managers this is the equivalent of being a CEO there is a lot that goes into it and what you don't want is a budget city manager you want somebody that is able to do the job and the job here in the village of elportal is quite encompassing there is no chief of staff there is the manager and she is responsible of keeping this thing going so what you don't want is a manager that is willing to take $75,000 and this is the first time they've done it and they don't quite know what this is that would be problematic for the village in a whole different way um we can engage in the conversation about whether this manager is doing what we want her to do but like I said before that is an evaluation issue that I think we should Embark upon not necessarily an issue with the salaries if everyone would just go home and Google other City's budgets you can pick small ones or big ones look at the number as to how much the city manager and the city clerk is being paid um then you would get an idea of really what we're talking about I think what we've been doing in the past budget Cycles is kind of curing the issue which the issue was we had a woefully underpaid city manager and we didn't want her to up and leave um and for us to have to onboard someone else because I tell you what no good city manager would take that job paying what was it $775,000 no one was signing up for that not a single one not one that you would want um so the end of what I'm trying to say is a lot of the things we say that we want are definitely manager driven in this Village of elportal the manager is going to have to look into those programs organize how we're fixing the streets talk about how we're managing staff at the front desk all of those things you cannot want more from your city manager and pay them less the question is is this the right city manager is this the right Village clerk the question is not whether or not we are just kind of throwing money at them because it's easily verifiable and you can do it yourself to just go and look at other budgets and see that we are at the low end of this spectrum even when we consider the size this is not just the city manager is not a position you just stumble into it is highly specialized the city clerk has a lot of responsibilities and when we hear clerk it is a misnomer she's doing a lot of things to make sure that we stay compliant and we can do what we need to do things that we don't understand I'm an attorney as well I used to be a chief of staff I'm telling you there is nobody that is going to sign up for these types of positions and doing it in this environment at the salary we had them at before we are curing an issue for you that you are going to have if one of these pivotal positions leaves and we are going to have to try to recruit someone at that salary level listen to what the clerk said about the six-month period where no one was signing up this is fact these are facts that we are telling you so you can let somebody kind of put you in the mixer and like stir you up because you're looking at the the past budget Cycles but what we really need to be look doing is looking out in the current climate as to what makes us competitive we say we want development we say we want all of these things we want to revitalize Northeast Second Avenue we need somebody who knows how to do these things these things are very very specialized I'm going to finish um in addition to that I lost my train of thought yes I was absent for the budget where's Mr Dreer the budget Workshop in the first budget meeting I had a family emergency these things happen however I stay apprised of the budget I'm in constant contact with the manager um and yeah and if you want to reach out to me again you'll have more luck this time that's the end of my comments thank you very much council person Martin um the only thing I'll say is there anybody else from the audience you guys come on come on up and while he's coming up the only thing I'll say and I might address it after that um I do want to move on to the next meeting uh but let me just say that there was a slew of misinformation from council person like foot W um some of the stuff that she brought up I had already addressed like I already went through the whole clerk thing right like I went through the whole situation and she's still asking why are they getting the biggest that that big percentage the only person who's getting the big percentage is the clerk the manager's percentage is eight is her is her five and her three so the only the only person who who's getting the big percentage is the clerk and I already addressed it and she still keeps bringing up the same thing over and over and she keeps bring the streets and and I've addressed it already I can address it again but I'd be wasting everybody's time but maybe I should I don't know go ahead hi Omar how you doing I'm I'm NL Pace 206 Northwest 91st Street but more importantly I'm a proprietor one of the Proprietors of Miss Claudia's Village Academy at 8661 Northeast 2 Avenue you know I he the commentary tonight and I mean I know that uh resources are tight okay but we want to retain Quality Personnel one of the areas that I think probably could have we talk about opportunity that's a big topic right now even in the National media elportal has some great real estate and has an opportunity to have some businesses like revitalizing Northeast Second Avenue like the new project that are being done on the river and so on a lot of these communities we're you know we're trying to compare apples and pineapples right a lot of the communities we're comparing ourselves to in terms of the scale and scope and remember there's a certain you know sub you know basically necessary things that have to happen with any government doesn't matter if it's 100 people a thousand people or 10,000 people there's that relevant range that has to be met one of those areas that we should really look at more is is you know creating some sort of process or incentives or maybe loosening some regulation or whatever you want to call it to encourage more business here in elportal why because those businesses generate tax dollars those tax dollars can then be used to retain Quality Personnel to help run the tax sound better um you know I mean I you know I I we're we're unfortunate I mean I attended a special Master hearing this morning okay our business was cited for a noise noise violation in the middle of the work day uh at a nursery school okay for music being played somehow disturbing the peace of a neighbor that I guess is now working from home or something to that effect I mean I don't know if that they actually have a register of business or what they're doing but in the end like that is isn't probably the best way to to encourage business especially when they're on main street according to the Dade County code and trying to you know take care of the community's kids so their parents can work and earn money to pay all these taxes that we're constantly doing so I just think it's something that you know we need to balance it yes maybe the community is getting older sure but but that's that's a choice right I think we probably need to do to really look at how we're looking at businesses what are code is and how we can encourage I mean hey there's a reason why that church hasn't been developed okay I mean for whatever reason the numbers the facts the situation just haven't been you know robust enough to say hey this is worth a good return on investment and people are going to put their you know investment Capital into doing something there right I mean in the past that I that that facility was a nonprofit so they didn't pay taxes but now there's a big plan to develop it but hey that's going to require probably some changes to the code okay there's going to be entertainment there's going to be music there's going to be people uh but that's what development you know requires so hopefully it's something you guys can look at that's all thank you thank you very much absolutely that's something that um I know uh uh council president bbom is looking into and uh something that we'll be looking into going forward I think that um and let me just say you know our our community is well diverse um age- wise well diverse as matter of fact the the newest and fastest growing demographic of our community are is is young families so um and they're growing really really fast throughout our community um that demographic so that being said is there anyone else and I hear what you're saying uh Colonel Pace um and there needs to be you know realistic conversations about what we deem our business corridors and should our business corridors be held at the same standard of our residential I mean do we not want businesses so something how you doing Scott it's all good you know I love you my brother all right so um anybody else from the audience Scott is like no noise ever I don't care who it is all right yeah I'm about to seeing none you guys um close the public hearing 824 all right do we already we already have the motion and second from the council for the um budget I know well I know we did the the the the amendment for vice mayor Pella there's no motion on the table right now okay I do have a three minute comment if I could real quick go ahead go ahead uh okay I'll start a timer all right so um I want to go back to uh Dr Life at Ward's original comments and see if I can get down to the heart of what the issue is um it seems to me that her primary concern is that uh we do have an aging population and that aging population has a right to live in the property that they've been living in for as long as they've been living in it um and not be forced out through taxation or increased utilities so you're dealing with a population of people who are on a fixed income I think this is the entire Crux of how we went down the last hour of conversation to be perfectly honest I think so my suggestion which I will be making in October as we get into the new fiscal year but I I I think by bringing back the admin and finance committee by bringing back the admin and finance committee we can accomplish uh Council reviews of the three chartered positions attorney manager and clerk so that by the time budget season rolls around each year those reviews would be complete and on file um and I think that could come out of the admin and finance committee meeting seeing as those reviews are attached to salary increases or whatnot right um back to Dr Lightfoot Ward's point which I think the point is uh it's frustrating to see allocation of resources uh when there is a population in need and so I think that this goes to our Reserve balance among other things but I do believe that we should have some manner because we are a small village uh we should have some manner of a subsidy program for uh fixed income residents who've been in their residence you know we can talk about all the details of of qualifications of anyone who would qualify for these subsidies but uh I do think that without mitigation we are going to lose a lot of older residents who have absolutely every right to live in their home until it is their time uh and so um I'm a little I don't want to go down this rabbit hole but I'm a little bit curious about Colonel Pace's common in terms of it's a choice having an older population so it sounds to me like like the choice would be I don't see that there's a choice between either commercial development and younger families coming in or facilitating elderly residents to be able to stay in their homes I don't think that it's I don't think that's an neither or I believe and Dr Ward will correct me if I'm wrong but I do believe that what her point was is we're looking at all this money that's coming you know 14% overall increase of the budget um where is anything to help specifically our elderly residents on fixed incomes stay in their homes it's a I think I think it's a dignity issue that Dr Ward is getting to I think that it is a a cultural and societal issue of of it is a choice we have a choice we do have the ability to allow our aging residents to stay in the village and uh and and live with dignity all the way to the end Dr Ward will correct me if I'm off base here yeah call on up um while he's coming up let me just say this though are we talking about social welfare we're talking about fixed income residents who are facing a situation where even a modest increase in taxes is a significant uh you know percentage of what their fixed income is but I think that the utilities is probably the larger issue even beyond the even beyond the annual taxes um and so uh I do think that I I would agree that we should have something something in place even if it is nominal it doesn't do have to be a huge program but there should be something in place to provide some manner of assistance specifically for any Economist can tell you that there's a strategy here to to increase the tax base by driving elderly residents out so you can get the new properties purchased at a higher price to get a higher tax rate it's an absolute strategy to drive elderly citizens out of a neighborhood to increase a tax base okay Miss some words on that at all so no Pace we'll say my corporate address 8661 Northeast 2 Avenue that's not the choice I was referring to um you know my my L father um he's going to be 86 years old in November okay um so definitely don't want to drive elderly out of the community what I'm saying is we have choices to make of how we can help them okay how we can help our staff how we can help the community all right there's only a fixed amount of Revenue that comes in through through property tax there are other ways of raising revenue to help the community one is obviously through capitalism and Entrepreneurship and through businesses we have zoned areas I think that we probably need to relook you know how accessible those areas are and what we can do to help you know uh encourage business at them uh to help the community which will give us more ends and more resources to help the people that you're talking about because hey those elderly people they they did their thing they paid in okay they worked all right society's obviously changed you know but but now now I mean you know we do respect those people we respect the young we respect the old I mean those are our most vulnerable population but we have the ability as a collective here to make choices to gain more resources it comes down to doing the hard work and and looking at all the facts and that's my point thank you very much all right um I hear you council person IR I have some push but I'll save that for another time we we can debate this another time I think that um I think there's a there's a there's different ways of looking at what are you doing for your community right there's the way of like you know giving back in as far as social programs or social welfare like we subsidize individuals in a way but there's other ways of improving the community and getting the community where it needs to be and giving them what they need and those things I I'll touch on it another time all right any last questions comments from the council about this hearing none do I have a motion to approve resolution um F2 so move move by I think life ward council person bbom and second was council person life foot Ward uh Madam CL he have a roll call please roll call council person Martin yes council person lifefood Ward yes council person erong yes vice mayor Pella yes mayor Nickerson yes motion passes by toight thank you very much I appre appreciate that do you have a motion to adjourn move by council person bbom second by council person who's a second vice mayor vice mayor Pella all in favor say I I all oppos say nay hearing none the um Second and final budget hearing for eleral for Tuesday September 24th 2024 is adjourned at 8:32 p.m. we're going right --------- ##VIDEO ID:U3sUzbgNkq4## the regular council meeting for Tuesday September 24th 2024 is called to order at 8:32 p.m. we've already had the moment side of meditation we've already had the Pledge of Allegiance Madam clerk for the council meeting May I please have a roll call please roll call Mayor Nickerson here vice mayor Pella council person herb present council person life Ward here council person Martin present also present for the rec Jobe village cler Village manager Joseph G Village attorney you have a for thank you very much should reflect the vice mayor is present but it's just stepped away from the day thank you very much attorney Geller um approval of the agenda do I have a motion to well first of all I want to make one change I want to move G4 to G1 I wanted to move G4 to G1 and everything else just drops up under it but that's my only change and yes the address there's an address for G5 is should say uh 9001 Northeast 1 Avenue for G5 it should say 9001 Northeast 1 Avenue not first street thank you Jr do I have a with those changes do I have a motion to approve the agenda yes second motion to approve by council person Martin second by council person bbom all in favor say I I I all post say nay hearing none this first good in welfare you all can come up from the audience and say anything you want to say but every agenda item I allow you to speak anyway so and there's another one at the end so you guys have that chance also um moving on to the consent agenda do I have a motion to approve consent agenda so moved moved by council person lifeward like foot Ward second by council person herbon correct all in favor say I well Madam might p a roll call for the cons roll call council person like for Ward yes council person Martin yes council person um urbam yes vice mayor Pella yes mayor Nickerson yes motion passy to none thank you very much moving on to the resolutions we're looking at at G1 which is G4 G4 is the new G1 uh attorney Geller this is we're getting ready this is uh 355 Northeast 86 Street yes sir G item G4 which is being heard as G1 new site plan for 355 Northeast 86 Street a resolution of the Village Council of alal Florida granting site plan approval as well as variance approval for lot coverage for a for a new construction of a twostory residence at 355 Northeast 86 Street in Zone 3 Suburban residence in the village of eleral an application by Sherwood 355 LLC providing for findings providing for conditions providing for appeal providing for violations of conditions providing for an effective date thank you very much and I appreciate the uh client being here appreciate you being here my brother we're going to try to get you out of here um this is a a beautiful site we've gone through this you guys and planning and zoning um the first thing I'm going to ask um and it's it's it's uh vice mayor Linda Marcus's old house and uh and you have the pictures there I see so it's going to be beautiful were there any adjustments were there any things that um we had to look out for from the Planning and Zoning to this meeting any special conditions that he had to fulfill or anything like that there no changes okay do I have any questions or comments from the counil you guys hearing none do I have any questions or comments from the audience hearing none there's been no changes since the planning and zoning committee you guys um where's the cler do I have a I need to CL we need to swear Witnesses yeah oh everyone who's going to uh speak or make speak or not sure but will speak at one of these uh site plans please stand up raise your right hand and repeat after attorney Geller yeah everybody everybody not not just for this one everyone y stand up raise your right hand I am state your name hi Catherine lion to hereby solemnly swear to hereby solemly swear that's the testimony I will give tonight the testimony I'll give tonight will be the truth be the truth the whole truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth nothing but and so help me God or you may take an affirmation all right thank you very much um that being the case do have a motion to approve where's my cler do you have a motion to approve resolution G4 the new G1 site plan 355 Northeast 86 Street and variance do you have a motion to approve so move move by counc person lifeward do you have a second second second by council person Martin Madam clerk may I please have a roll call on this pleas roll call um council person life board yes council person Martin yes council person bbom yes vice mayor Pella yes mayor nerson yes motion passes 5 thank you very much appreciate that take care good luck and Kus Kane tell them I said hello um next one is uh next one is uh 301 Northeast 89th Street that's the uh the old G1 yes mayor item G1 new site plan 301 Northeast 9th Street of resolution of the Village Council of elow Florida granting site plan approval for new construction of a two-story Residence at 301 Northeast 89th Street in Zone 3 Suburban residence in the village of el Pau an application by portal Development Group LLC providing for findings providing for conditions providing for appeal providing for violation of conditions providing for an effective date thank you very much I appreciate that um for this particular property were there any uh conditions or anything that had changes no changes at all do I have any questions or comments from the um Council hearing none do you have any questions this is I'm sorry go ahead and this is the two-story house in the corner right of Northeast uh 3rd and 89th Street correct yeah okay okay is it the one that's um already already going up or is it the one that it's a vacant lot or is it the one that I'm seeing that's torn it's um yes the one that torn yes thank you very much do have a qu any further questions or comments from the council all right any questions or comments from the audience hearing none back to the council um do I have a motion to approve so move move by council person like foot Ward do I have a second I'll second second by council person bbom Madam clerk uh 301 Northeast 89th Street may I please have a roll call roll call council person life for award yes council person Martin yes council person herbal yes vice mayor Pella no mayor Nickerson yes four to one thank you very much appreciate it the next one attorney Geller thank you good thank you the next one attorney Geller um is the garage enclosure 61 Northeast 86 Street item G2 garage enclosure 61 Northeast 86th Street a resolution of the Village Council of el pel Florida granting site plan approval for an addition as well as variance approval for a garage enclosure to a residence at 61 Northeast 86 Street in Zone 3 Suburban residence in the village of el pel an application by Caroline Carolina Mano providing for findings providing for conditions providing for appeal providing for violation of conditions providing for an effective date thank you very much appreciate that um any conditions anything no changes changes do I have any questions that comments from the council hearing none do I have any questions that comments from the audience hearing none uh do I have a motion to approve you guys move move by council person light foot Ward do I have a second second second by vice mayor Pella this is for 61 Northeast 86 Street M clerk may I please have a roll call roll call council person like fo Ward yes council person Martin yes council person bbom yes can't hear you vice vice mayor Pella yes mayor Nickerson yes motion passes 5 to9 thank you I appreciate that next one 2011 Northwest 86 Street item G3 front Hedges fences 2011 Northwest 86 Street a resolution of the Village Council of alart Florida authorizing the approval of a variance to front yard setbacks at 21 Northwest 86 Street as requested by zv and Christina p petrich is that right petrich uh providing for incorporation of recitals providing for an effective date thank you very much any uh changes on this conditions the only item on this that was changed was at the Planning and Zoning Board they were unsure of whether they were going to do a fence or a hedge it's been decided that they're going to do a fence okay correct it was a hedge I believe yeah a hedge okay I believe it was a hedge oh you're hedging on yeah he's hedging yeah I believe it was a hedge and this was for particularly the safety and you had the school kids and stuff like that and I've been by that property um any questions or comments from the council I have a comment yes council person forward thank you so much for your understanding and why we had uh addressed it before it's going to be really nice no matter what it's going to be nice thank you so much thank you very much council person life for award any other questions or comments from the council yes just to confirm uh the height of the Hedge that was agreed upon at the Planning and Zoning was three feet is that right no I think it was a little bit taller than that 6t 6t on the on the side and it's not interrupted the triangle no exactly yeah that's what was said but it is pretty hard to see beyond that hedge so um I would hopefully hope that Fitz is prepared to ensure that this thing gets no higher than uh six feet well the the shop St were in the the front I already cut down I passed by and I saw it I'm we're going to make it even better yeah I hope so yeah looks very nice yeah it's very nice thank you very any other questions or comments from the council okay anybody from the audience hearing none do I have a motion to approve so move move by council person lifeo Ward do you have a second I second second by council person bbom this is for 2011 Northwest Northwest 86 Street Madam clerk may I please have a roll call please roll call council person life foot Ward yes council person Martin no council person um urbon yes vice mayor Pella yes mayor nerson yes four to one motion passes very much appreciate that next one we're doing is uh G 9001 nor East First Street item G5 resolution front Hedges after the fact 9001 Northeast First Street EXC me First Avenue the correction oh First Avenue that was the correction yeah absolutely uh a resolution of the Village Council of up Florida authorizing the approval of a variance to front yard setbacks at 9001 Northeast 1 Avenue sorry as requested by Alberto Falcone providing for incorporation of recitals providing for an effective date thank you very much I appreciate that anything that was uh the recommendation is approval with the condition that the hedges be maintained at 3 ft yeah I remember that um question or comments from the council you agree on the three feet yes that's all took a picture on today Yeah Yeah by every thank you very much uh any other questions or comments from the council seeing hearing none any from the audience seeing hearing none um do I have a motion to approve so so be move by council person life for Ward who was the second I have a second second was council person IRB yep second was council person bbom this is for 900 Northeast 1 Avenue M clerk might P roll call please roll call council person life reward yes council person Martin no council person bbom no vice mayor Pella I mean the H looks beautiful but FR Hedges is a it's been a been issue for um all of us uh no mayor nerson yes motion fails 3 to two there nothing else to say no sorry sorry my brother didn't pass um so does that mean he didn't has the I guess Fitz will we can f will reach out guess he has to he remove the hedges then yeah sorry about that sorry are you addressing that to me mayor yeah well you and and and the manager I was was the question sir it was because it failed um this after effect so the hedges have to be removed that's that's if it's in place the only other possibility is uh certainly as we've seen at the next meeting there is a privilege if a member of council who voted no wants to bring a reconsideration their privilege to do so but um if it's done without uh per permission at the time and it doesn't currently have a permit then they have to comply with the code if there's not a variance gr yeah well well hold on mayor yes I didn't remember them saying that when he when he said what he wanted he only got on the list because we we acquiesced we approved in the Planning and Zoning yeah but you can you can pass in planning and zoning and then you can you know you can fail in in counsel so so what what what do we what's the signal we given to this gentlemen what's the signal exactly that's exactly what was going to happen the signal has been extremely clear from the beginning I don't know that there's any miscommunication here or ambiguity it's been unbelievably clear from the outset uh I think so why the gentleman before me was approve a six feet hedge and have a three feet hedge because every single situation is unique so it's not very clear then there's great area you just approve another hedge 6 feet double the size of the one that I recommend it every single lot has its own issues and that is the purpose of the variance process so I will disagree fundamentally with that thinking it's not it's not it it's not anything personal at all not even remotely um it's just about the charter and the code that's that's it so it's not it's it's and I think I mean I think it what I want there's nothing else to say so yeah no no I guess the the the misleading happens when zoning is recommended to be approved so if recommended to be approv we were all at that meeting and it was was not enthusiastic uh it was to it was to give the opportunity it was to give the full opportunity to get it to the full Council for consideration um so let me ask you you personally I remember you voted yes the first time what changed your mind and what made a resident that I'm already paying I and in in my particular case all the Landscaping that right away when I move into that City and I think Mr pra uh he passed by bu very often there it was literally dust I invested thousands of dollars putting a brand new sprinkle can I speak or you going to interrupt me may I so I put a brand new sprinkle system a brand new grass not all over not only on in front of my house but the side of my house and that's really the municipality uh responsibility I invested in that now I'm asking you what what make you change your mind and why I made a resident spend extra money on a variance that you already know you're going to say no and when the first time it was approved 3 to2 I had to pay an extra fee of $400 to just have um an ad so why not say no the first time and save me the money am I going to get a refund now and what changed your mind well so uh I have been on the fence up until I voted no this time around I gave you the yes vote at the Planning and Zoning as I said to give you the full consideration uh of having the opportunity in front of the council um I can't say it any more clearly than that you haven't said anything so do you said it's an after the fact it's an excuse me it's an after Thea variance it's an after Thea variance what does that mean that I don't have the right to be asking you mayor listen I list listen if if I'm going to if I'm going to Le hold on mayor yeah I I want to just clarify for the record the gentleman you know has some rights he has the right to speak but I want to be clear that uh it's entirely voluntary for council members to make comments that they want to make a council member is not required to explain their vote I just want the record to show that uh the gentleman can ask he can say what he has to say but um if a member chooses to answer that's their privilege we've had this come up before as I know councilwoman Martin will recall uh you're not required as a member of council to explain your answer but you're not you know prohibited from doing so either thank you mayor thank you I'm always happy to try and articulate how I've arrived at a decision and so these next comments will be for the council guys this is tip of the iceberg tip of the iceberg we are about to be inundated with new residents who have never heard the word no before and don't know what it sounds like and so caution to all of us um mayor just close point of order uh go ahead council person or um like for one second now I'm going to give you a chance to respond we is this with the gentleman is asking compliant with our code he's requesting and after the fact of variance and after the fact correct and so knowing what wasn't going to knowing what we said the first time wasn't going to change anything we voting on the same position that you brought am I getting this right yes so he didn't make any changes no that's why enough said yeah thank you very much and you want to say something before yeah no I was going to and and again it's nothing personal against you um it's I'm just curious to to see how is this process is is handled again it's a little bit misleading um um um like cons M she's saying that the first time you pass 32 and then is denied the gentleman before me um got approve for six feet hedge mine is only 3 feet I think I gave really good reasons solid reasons why I should be allowed to do that and one of that is to have a little bit of pro pro protection into my property I have a lot of I I live on a no Outlet street so a lot of people take their pets into that sidewalk and they tend to come inside my property and I decided to put a a little small hedge of of three feet um but I think uh moving forward uh the conso should really considered not even allowing variances for Hedges if if that's a code we as Citizens you know we need to comply with the court but I think the the issue comes when this misleading process of yes and then no and you know people get frustrated you know especially that it it doesn't com for free I spend money doing that I don't think this was a I mean I'll just finally say there this was not a misleading process at all you have fought very hard to get to this meeting tonight tonight you know that this has not been just me convincing the council to vote no um I articulated my reasoning for voting yes in the Planning and Zoning was because I could see that I did I did not want to I did not want to block you from having your full opportunity of taking the variance process as far as it could go that's my reasoning that's my reasoning no no and and again is it are you're the only one so the only uh vote no it wasn't you that were know to that they say no as well so I'm I'm addressing the whole concept that maybe it should be look this is a code and uh and that's it you know maybe a very specific exception will be granted and that way people they don't get frustrated and they don't try to uh beautify their property if it is now within the code understood and so where we um have come as this particular Council these five members who've been together now what it four years um so um so the idea is that there's two competing perceptions the resident perception is I applied for a variance why didn't I get it the council's perception is you applied for a variance articulate the extreme circumstances that require a variance so um so uh I won't speak for the entire Council I'll just speak for myself but I'll say that the variance process from from this side is is um the the strategy is to not have an environment where it's just payto play well I paid my fees to variance why don't I get why don't I get it% so that's what I mean by the charter and the code is what I personally used to arrive at my decision um and it is a separate circumstance from the previous applicant at another property that's all yeah I appreciate this and I did take it I did take the attorney's note that any one of us who did vote no would have an opportunity to put this back in front of the council again um I'm not dismissing that uh thank you at the next meeting and not indefinitely but it can can be reconsidered at the same or the immediately following my position is pretty consistent I always say no for front hedge variances so I mean I think it's pretty clear where I stand um and I think this was the vote tonight so Council in herbal has been really generous in answering your supplementary questions I'm sure the planing and Zoning representative will be available if you have additional questions and and maybe next meeting uh there might be some luck but thank you so much for your comment I appreciate the explanation thank you good evening thank you very much I excuse me mayor I'd like to State my name for the record I never Katherine lion uh planning consultant for the village with the cordino group thank you appreciate that yeah all right um next one you guys we moving on to the next uh ordinance we're back to the first reading of the speed zone schools on speed detection uh something we went through previously and we're doing the first again G uh 6 first reading of the school's own speed detection ordinance an ordinance of the village of eleral Florida enacting sections 23 I'm sorry 22-5 through 22-10 school Z speed detection systems of chapter 22 Article 1 of the village of Al protal code providing for purpose intent and definitions authorizing the use of and providing for implementation of school's Z speed limit detection systems designating a local hearing officer determining a height determining a heightened safety risk and providing for designation of school zones providing for severability providing for scrier errors providing for conflict providing for inclusion into the code providing for filing with the Department of State providing for an effective date thank you very much um this is something that you guys that we we've done already and been through before um we have to do the first reading again any questions or comments from the council yes M goad person may thought we already have schools on speed detections we're only talking about one school right when we talking about the the the private school too I thought we already did this we did this yes we did do this I I could add a little Clarity mayor um well I could do I could ask about the timing but you want to talk about the actual thing the timing the reason why we're doing the first reading again is because after doing the first reading we didn't do the second reading in time so we have to redo the first reading but we've already passed the first reading before I don't know if manager wants to add no that was exactly but was very good thank you anybody any other questions or comments hearing seeing none um any questions of comments from the audience hearing seeing none do have a motion to approve the re first reading of the school zone speed detection move by counc life for award you have a second second by vice mayor parella Madam clerk may I please have a roll call please roll call council person Martin yes council person life ward council person urbal yes vice mayor Pella yes mayor Nickerson yes motion passes 5 thank you very much next thing is the agenda item this is the village manager PTO um payout discussion um we kind of address this yearly try to um there certain things that I've put on my calendar as far as Administration stuff goes to where we'll address it earlier in the upcoming uh budget um PTO is something that we have to address per contract the manager and the clerk both have PTO in their contract uh at their rates any questions or comments from the AUD from the council PTO excuse me it's a PTO what's what's the it it's paid time off yes it's which one are we looking at H1 agenda item F1 H1 H1 M it I must be missing something did we see the resolutions yet or no we doing talking about right here thank you sir hearing none um do you have any questions or comments from the audience hearing none do I have a motion to approve item H1 so move move by council person like forward do have a second second second by council person bbom Madam clerk may please have a roll call please roll call council person like Ward yes council person Martin yes council person bbom yes vice mayor Pella yes mayor Nickerson yes motion passes by thank you very much appreciate that um moving on to the reports Madam maor you want to give a quick report I'm going to be extremely brief I know um we haven't met in in two months but you know we've been so busy here in um the village with um uh human resource matters and building department or developing departments um in terms of uh Public Works and uh code enforcement and what have you but we've been um very busy and we've been uh making our marks I wanted to just touch briefly on a feather in the cap of eleral police Police Department our uh very own detective uh gutier Renee Gutierrez was uh featured on the news yesterday News Channel 10 for um his uh involvement and uh in solving the case of the porch pirates from El pel there's a whole system of stolen packages from front porches and uh we had an incident at um Third Avenue and Northeast 88 Street where packages were reported stolen on a couple of occasions and so with through the use of Home Videos and also the ring cameras um detective Gutierrez was able to investigate and then Link in with um a city of Miami and a city of North Miami um to um to to work on that case so they were featured yesterday and are um pursuing um um you know resolution but we're really happy to have that kind of um that kind of experience and and dedication and and a detective at the level of of detective gueras where a case can be solved so that is one way we're doing giving back and doing something for our residents is is solving these cases and and really doing that community policing as we we've always wanted but detective Gutierrez is no stranger to uh good police work because he was featured about a year ago uh with another case that he uh solved here in alel so we're happy to have him and uh the the um alel Police Department is extremely um uh pleased with his work and learning uh quite a bit about detective work so we're happy for that um other thank you thank you we're very pleased with that so if you get an opportunity to check them out um from Channel 10 that's on their um website I'm going to um just defer the rest of my report um to uh next time but also know that um I'm here for any questions that you may have directly uh contact me and we can uh go over those items I'm also placing my manager's report on the Village website as I always do um for you uh and the residents to uh look at and again I'm always open for any questions or concerns that concludes my report thank you thank you very much you guys see my report there if you have any questions feel free to contact me everybody has my contact number uh attorney Geller attorney Geller do we have any uh attorney reports or are you good at Le lately we haven't been sued by anybody and we're not suing anyone for right now so that concludes my report I'm be happy to answer any questions sounds good how's your how's your school board uh thing run I saw you on uh Glendon milberg on Sunday morning man you did really good I'm in the runoff uh November 5th we finished first going in we're uh got our fingers crossed how many people was involved with when you when with the first time when you um to get to the runoff how many candidates were involved five originally including one of your colleagues mayor North B Village so we're down to two of us and uh we'll see up to the voters okay well well so with five you were still in first place with five okay well that's pretty good you should be in first place all right good luck with that um this is next is good in welfare if anybody from the audience has anything that they want to talk about on anything at all um now is your time to come up first and last name and you can uh have three minutes seeing hearing none um do I have a motion to adjourn so move move by counc person life reward do you have a second second second by council person Martin all in favor say I I all opposed say nay hearing none the um council meeting for Tuesday September 24th is adjourned at 9:05 p.m. still