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Please take your seats. The meeting is about to begin. Remember to speak into the microphone as this meeting is being recorded for public record. Please stand by. We are going on air in 5 4 3 2 1.
Good morning and welcome to our finance and economic resiliency committee budget meeting. Thank you to my colleagues who are here. I understand some of our colleagues are on Zoom. Thank you to Chair Magazine for uh steadfastly holding our finance and of
course uh Eric, Jason, Tamika. This is obviously a committee meeting, but I think it still behooves us to uh appreciate our country. And uh Tamika, why don't you lead us in the pledge of allegiance? Sure. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, I'll turn it over to you guys. Well, actually, I'll I'll turn it over to Commissioner Magazine, our chair of
the And I use the M1 for brevity, but I do have a few prepared uh statements because I just want to lay this out what we're here, um the consequences, uh the gravity of this. Uh today, despite it being a committee meeting, I think is perhaps one of our most important
meetings of the year. We really lay the foundation for what the city of Miami Beach budget will be for 2026. Being responsible stewards of taxpayer money is perhaps our most important duty as elected officials. City's budget, it truly defines what is important to a city and the direction which we're
going. This budget shows public safety, thank you, Mr. Mayor, continues to be amongst our highest priorities and I believe those efforts have started to pay off. We are fundamentally a different city than we were just several years ago where chaos and mayhem began to define our brand and identity. Given
the focus on public safety and quality of life, Miami Beach remains a vibrant city. The president of Grand Hyatt just publicly stated, "Miami Beach has become one of the most important and attractive markets in the entire world. For the first time, we're truly diversifying our
economy. We have two class A office buildings ready to open their doors, bringing high-paying jobs and attracting some of the most prestigious companies in the entire world to now have an office presence in Miami Beach. In a recent report, Miami Beach now has the highest office rent in all of Miami
Dade, showing the demand and desire to live, work, and play in our city. And this budget shows our priorities moving from trying to ensure that we safeguard our city from being what we do not want it to be. And now we're moving forward declaring who we do want to be. Under
the leadership of this mayor and commission, we've enhanced our focus on education, economic development, resiliency, transportation with money allocated towards a water taxi system to help mitigate our traffic and remaining the epicenter of global events such as the World Cup and health and wellness
activations that elevate our brand experiences for both residents and visitors alike. If you indulge me for just two more minutes, since last year, we've been preparing for 2026 to be a challenging budget year. As we're facing a deceleration in the increase in
property values, we renegotiated multiple union contracts and several big ticket capital projects, most notably relocating plans that were in place for a new fire station. But I'm proud to stand here and say we are well on our way to delivering a budget that keeps our tax and millage rates at a flat
level for now three years in a row. Our reserves remain at the highest levels on record with our general general fund having over three months of reserves and our resort tax fund exceeding six months in reserves. It's not an easy task getting here. Unfortunately, there's a
lot of initiatives my colleagues and I have worked on all year, things that would surely be attributes to our city that we simply do not have funding to include. And that's always a tough message to deliver. But because of our preparation for what we knew would be a challenging year, we aren't faced with
the problems of sitting here talking about how much we're going to cut services and the type of impact that we that will have in our city. Those are the exact conversations right now happening at the county level as evidenced by an article just today in the Miami Herald about $500 million that
the county needs to achieve through deep deep cuts to things like service funding for charities, their parks program. And multiple communities around South Florida are having those same conversations. But we must continue to prepare for when times could be even
more challenging. and we must do so as an elected body in both leading by example in demanding a more efficient, cost-effective, lean government. So, I'll turn it over to you, Jason Tamika. Mr. City Manager, thank you for all your work that you've done leading up to this. Yeah, thank you, Commissioner Magazine.
You summarized it well. A little mini state of the city there uh which uh which well which I think and highlighting that we have focused on residents uh quality of life. Obviously, at the forefront is public safety. why everyone keeps looking over there.
But, uh, at the forefront, public safety and resident quality of life, and we're going to continue doing that, and that's I think you're going to hear some of that. I have some suggestions today that I'm going to make, and that's the that's what's going to keep driving us. And I've always I've always maintained I believe this commission wholeheartedly
uh, believes it as well. When we take when we do things that we call our quality of life for residents, it helps everyone. It helps our businesses. And that's why we're seeing this. We're seeing and and I think implied in what you were saying you you mentioned the uh the Hyatt president mentioned about
Miami Beach. We are hearing I hear it all the time from people from all over the country all over the world. Miami Beach is the place to be. I mean we are at the if you list cities that people want to be in. I mean we're often number one and that's uh it's a great feeling and I think it's a lot of credit to our
our commission and and our and our and our city staff. So thank you. I I think uh the city attorney needed to make an announcement for the manager. Hi, good morning. Today's meeting of the finance and economic resiliency committee has been scheduled in a hybrid format with a quorum of the committee physically present and remaining
members, staff and members of the public appearing either in person or virtually via Zoom. In order to participate in today's meeting virtually, members of the public may dial 1888-475-4499 and enter the webinar ID which is 8636059-5462
pound or log into the Zoom app and enter the webinar ID which again is 8636059-5462. Any individual wishing to speak on an item must click the raise hand icon if they are using the Zoom app or dial star 9 if you are participating participating
by phone. So good morning everyone. Um thank you for joining us for this budget workshop discussion. The budget document that we spend close to 12 months preparing uh
actually is the most important document that the city prepares on an annual basis. This clearly highlights the priorities. It clearly highlights the services that we want to deliver for our residents, for our businesses, for our
visitors. Um and it clearly highlights the priorities of the organization. Uh I'm extremely proud to present this balanced budget at this moment in time. Um and I'm grateful for all the efforts of our finance and budget teams that
have worked tirelessly on this as well as all of the departments that have participated in the delivery of this document. So uh I would look forward to some healthy conversation, some probably some spirited debate today. Um but
ultimately this is all in furtherance of good governance and delivering the best value to our taxpayers for the dollars that they entrust us with. So thank you. Okay. So thank you. Let's uh you bring up the presentation. We'll get started.
Okay. So we're going to start with the operating budget and we did present an update back in June when we had our first uh budget briefing. So, back in June, our property value increase was 6.9%.
And uh we said we'd come back in July to tell you what it is now, and it actually is the same number. So, this is the first year since I've been here that our number didn't go up slightly. Uh we stayed flat. Our new construction number went up by 122 million. Our existing
property values went down by 122 million. Uh the upside though is that when we did our estimates in June, we estimated that the CRA and the RDA would increase at the same rate as the city. They actually increased at a lower rate and because of that, we picked up an
additional $1.6 million in the general fund. So this just shows our history of our mill increase our property value increases and it shows that we're increasing at a decreasing rate. Uh the next slide shows our existing
property values. This is the only difference between this and the June version was that our existing property values increased by 5.3 before because of the slight reduction that went went down to 5.1 and then new construction went from 900 million to a billion.
So we didn't so if I could just emphasize uh what we saw there and just set anti expectations for next year because next year when we're planning for 2027 I would expect even more challenges that than we've had this year. So that 6.9 number in
increased taxable value that we all referenced um a not so insignificant component of that was new construction. So 1.8% of that was actually new construction. So we see a deceleration of uh property values overall and who
knows what could happen next year but it feels like that's going to continue. Uh but then also we're going to be confronted with likely significantly less of new construction value that's going on. So even if property values would flatline, we shouldn't expect that 6.9%.
We should expect a smaller amount just because of the new construction which we won't have next year. Correct. Right. So we did also talk about the millage rates when we met in June and we recommended that we keep the millage rate flat. Uh no changes until we had
the July 1st values. So next we go to recommendation. So uh now we have the July 1st values and what the administration's recommendation is to continue along with the uh policy direction that was given during the 25 budget which was as the voter debt service uh millage uh requirement is
decreasing because it is we have the 6.9% increase in our property values we have an opportunity to increase the amount set aside for our capital program and I know that was a very uh uh good point discussed during our June capital budget workshop the commission's
interest in prioritizing additional dollars towards our capital program. So again, we have a recommended uh total combined millillage staying flat. Uh but it does dedicate more additional dollars towards uh capital projects and we will
get into discussion detailing exactly which capital projects those that change would fund. And just very high level, but it's an important takeaway for the third straight year. I believe that it is this mayor and commission is delivering a budget that's going to keep our millage rates flat.
Correct. So what we have representative here is uh about 15 years worth of combined millage uh the trend. So as our chair uh chair had said we have 3 years of continuing flat combined millage five continuous years of flat uh operating
millage and what I want to highlight there is that light blue color that.2066 2066 mills in 26. That's the highest we have it going back on capital millage. And I think that that really shows this commission's direction to prioritize our
capital ruin replacement program and our capital infrastructure. So we're pretty excited about that. 2 mills. As you can see, it's increased dramatically. Um it's more than doubled over the past four years. So again, very excited about that concept.
So, we're going to talk a little bit about our general fund resort tax uh reserves as the chair had mentioned. So, when we closed our closed our books for the 2024 year and reconciled all of our revenues and all our expenditures, we actually ended up both in the resort tax
and the general fund having a surplus above the required uh reserve amounts of 3 months and 6 months respectively. Now Jason, when you say required, required is actually lower. Correct. Required is actually only uh two months
and three months. It's actually a commission uh goal to have 3 months and 6 months. So we're actually going well above and beyond where the requirement is. We're actually even exceeding where our top tier topline goal is.
Correct. Yes. the the commission's goal is to have the six and the three months and we are able to continue having a budget that does present that. So when we closed our books we were able to to to have those reserves fully funded and we're again very excited about that concept. During the fiscal year there's
been a number of commission uh priorities midyear where we've had some uh adjustments and utilizing some of those reserves. But even after all of those uh amendments were taken into account, including the amendment that you'll be approving at the July meeting in a week or so, we still have about
$5.6 million available. And we're we are presenting a budget that would utilize those funds. They are not to be utilized for recurring services. So this would not be a available to add, let's say, staff as an example, which would be a recurring expenditure. These are dollars
that we will be directing towards one-time or capital type uh projects and we'll we will detail exactly what we're recommending on that. So the next five or so slides and I won't dwell individually on so many of them is the
commission enhancement requests and I think the chair had mentioned kind of alluded to that that going through the commission priorities that went through the finance committee and back up to the commission to endorse were a long list of of priorities that the commission was hoping to have funding that was available. And as the chair mentioned
this obviously was a difficult funding year and many many things were not able to be funded. And over these next number of slides is is ordinated uh from uh top dollars down is all of the commission priorities. This is not just general fund. This is across all of the funds of
our budget. The items that have a check mark specifically show the ones that the administration is recommending. And again, I won't dwell on these because we are going to highlight the ones that we're funding in the further slides per fund. But what I wanted to point out
here is really the last slide which we're getting to. Here we go. So that totals around $22 million in commission endorsed priorities that were discussed at committee or commission during the year that the commission was
hoping to be able to fund. We were able to allocate and find around $5.2 million worth. So around 25% of those commission priorities we were able to fund. Again, this is on the operating not on the capital. There were more capital items that we were able to locate funding for.
Jason, and and and if I may through the chair, so later on in the slides, you're going to discuss the items we are funding. Correct. Okay. But I think it's also important for the public to understand what we are not funding because by by resolution, we've adopted a number of things that is
that we've adopted these resolutions because they're important to the public. And so always what we fund is the good news but the it's also important for transparency that we show the public what we are not able to fund. Correct. Correct commissioner. So we do
have a number of items that were endorsed to be considered during the 26 budget process as the commissioner said and it would have been you know obviously we would try to fund as many as as possible which is what we had done but yes many things did not make it across the finish line at the end of the day and the total amount of of of
enhancements because there are policy directed ones from prior policy commission or ones from the administration were over uh 55 million yeah 55 so the total enhancements that were considered were over $55 million um so that is correct commissioner uh again in a difficult budget year kind of as
the as the chair had said we you know had limited dollars and we tried to follow those priorities. So we're going to go through where uh those priorities were and where those dollars are recommended and Mr. CFO and we'll get into this further but I know you and I had uh a little bit back and forth as
Mr. City Manager as did we. So trying to simplify things here, we had we're the elected body that drives policy and the direction for the city. And over the year, we have worked on different initiatives, many of which carry a financial impact.
And that totaled about $25 million for things we put forward. And we're saying, okay, we have $5 million given everything that we talked about keeping our millage rates flat. um where the budget came in last. I I feel as if that's somewhat of a
false choice, right? Um because that's 5% of our total operating budget, right? We have a $475 million other bucket that's not 95% of our operating budget. And for the first time, which I'm actually very proud of.
And I applaud the city manager and his team and each department, we actually gave direction and you went out and found reductions in efficiencies that actually allowed us to have more enhancements. But I think we need more granularity
so we can have more discretion over truly setting a proper budget into that $475 million because right now we're saying, "Okay, you have $25 million of requests, fit it into $5 million." Now, it's actually fitted into $490 million.
So to the extent where some of that $475 may not be prioritized anymore, we should be reviewing that as well. And we did some of that and for the first time, Mr. City Manager, I applaud you and I think we saw what about $2 million of proposed uh cost efficiencies and
savings. Uh we the list that was compiled after the discussion we had at the retreat where the commission uh had spoken about trying to identify non-core municipal services and then other any other cuts. Uh I think the list of cuts was around 8 8 million or so that was
considered in the general fund and we will get into that detail about 1.4 4 million there. I think another 800 or something in the resort tax 2.2 million and another $600,000 in other funds. So for the first time, yes, we did identify we did above and above and beyond that
and I applaud I know those are very very tough decisions and Mr. CF I applaud you for showing leadership through your division because a number of significant hard discussions uh had to come from there and that is true leadership. Um, but we're looking at the county that's
facing deep, deep cuts, right, through staffing, through park levels and things like that. And my message from the beginning is let's operate leaner so we don't have to talk about how deep those cuts are going to be or how much impact
services are going to be impacted. The county is literally sitting there talking about how much can we cut our sanitation before the residents rebel, right? and I refuse to allow us not to prepare adequately ahead of time where we're one day in those discussions. So,
we're starting that we have the ball rolling in the right direction, but I think we could do more analysis there. So, but to your point, Mr. Chair, for example, we have funding that's been, you know, prioritized for storm water rental of bypass pumps and and
vector trucks. that's not being recommended for funding. To me, that goes to the basic functions of government and and it's if it's been requested uh by resolution is because we've seen
during high rain periods situations where the neighborhoods of the residents who we serve whose taxpayers dollars we are allocating are getting flooded. Their homes have water going into them. their streets become dangerous to
navigate. They end up with feces in the water in their streets and and these and equipment like this is necessary. But to preserve the bureaucracy of the $475 million, we're not able to prioritize
and allocate the funding for needs of neighborhood of our residents, of our taxpayers, of the people whose dollars we are allocating. And so and so I thank you because you've you've driven a very important conversation
of identifying initiatives but you've been very bold in initiating that conversation but that conversation needs to grow. This isn't about preserving the government. It is about delivering services to the people. And when we say
we need to we need to, you know, not fund storm water rental pumps and we can't fund additional freebies so that so that so that our residents have access to good public transportation and these are decisions
that that we shouldn't have to make. These are in my opinion these go to the basic function of government. Mr. Mayor, no. Thank you. And to to add to that, I'm I'm curious and I'll throw this to Eric and and Jason, how some of the decisions were made. I'll give you a
specific example. U Commissioner Friend just gave one. There's a couple of Some of my items are in here. I appreciate it. Some of them are small. Everything adds up. I get it. But some of them are like 20,000. It's not in here. Um but then we have 1.5 million for FIFA, which by the way, FIFA is a game changer for
our city of South Florida. I am not discounting that. But 1.5 million to me seems high. I'd like to understand how we got to that number. That's in and then there's another 500,000 in fee waver. So it's actually a $ 1.5 million stipen that we'd be giving them. But our
commission hasn't even approved that yet. Yet items that our commission has approved, like Commissioner Fernandez mentioned, are not recommended. So how are we recommending an item that our commission hasn't even voted on? Well, I can uh speak uh a little bit to to that item. So that item uh was uh heard
at FK unanimously uh recommended at that funding level. I know that development order that order has been under negotiation and my understanding is will be coming to commission uh shortly. Uh and what we identified is you see the and we're getting ahead of ourselves but the the funding source is the resort
taxes as there was an excess amount available for in resort taxes and that was one we're putting forward related to that. And if I get back on the storm water, uh, you know, some of these elements, you know, they have different funding sources at the end of the day. So, you know, whether it's the storm water pumps and things like that, we did not recommend anything in our storm
water or water and sewer operating areas until such time as we deal with kind of the structural issue related to I know utility rates we'll talk about in the future. So, to preserve the the the funding sources that we have, we just wanted to take a pause on on those kind of areas until we really had a more holistic discussion on those funds. But
if you let us to go through, we'll kind of discuss those priorities and what the few dollars that we did have and what and many of these uh items that you're going to see here were only funded because we did make cuts in other areas. But as we go through, we'll explain everything if we could, but I want to make and I'll turn it over to you, but
to piggy back on what both of my colleagues have said, um I don't want to leave anybody Yeah. One second, Commissioner, and then I'll turn it to you. Um I don't want to leave anybody in uh anticipation. I think one of the takeaways that I'm going to be looking for is there are a number of things and
it is a very tough message for me to go back to my constituents and say I'm sorry we don't have money for a park. We don't have money for a crosswalk. Right? So, one of my directives coming out of here is going to be to seek the city
manager. You've done a fabulous job of finding some initial cuts. Let's see if we can find a million dollars more, $2 million more by the time between now and September. Understanding that there's merit for everything. If you go line item by line item through a billion
dollar budget, you can find good things to say about everything, right? But it becomes what is prioritized. And uh I think I don't know if I'll have support from my colleagues, but that's one of the takeaways that I'm going to put up for I don't know if I can, Mr. uh
attorney, but for a resolution to task the city manager with going and finding incremental savings. And I applaud everybody that participate in those discussions. I know they're tough to have, uh but I think we do so um at a lower level now before we're forced to do so at a deeper level later. And I'll
join you uh Commissioner Magazine because even you know North Beach yesterday we had such a passionate discussion in the land use committee about North Beach about the infrastructure issues in North Beach and here we have funding requests um for the hydraulics for the evaluation of the of
the h of the hydraulics for the for for our system up in North Beach and we can't fund it. And so I I I again I commend the fact that you're driving this conversation uh of finding efficiencies within our government. Our government is not to preserve the
funding that is allocated to departments on a year after year basis. Is to see how can we more efficiently use those tax dollars. Can the department do more with less and how can we more efficiently operate? And so I 100% back
you and support that effort. Thank you, Commissioner Bot. Uh go ahead and then we'll pass it over to the CFO. Thank you. Um I also would um be very eager to support you on that um that notion of going back and finding more cuts because I am sure we can. Um one of
the things that we had that I had brought forward and requested from the administration was to go through the impact fees and look at where they are compared to um where they should be um across the board. Now, I don't expect that we're going to find millions of
dollars there. Um, but that should be done and it was it was scheduled to have been done before the budget meeting, this budget meeting. um it hasn't yet, but I would highly encourage um the staff to have that as part of the conversation for us as well when we come
back in September because that might, you know, cough up a few hundred,000 that we, you know, we haven't been paying attention to, like with the um the water and sewer um impact fees that hadn't been addressed in 30 years. So, I'm I not only would I support going
back um in general looking for cuts, but also looking for um things that haven't been appropriately kept up with the cost of of uh the CPI and and making sure that we are in line with what we should be so that we can um um make sure that
that we are maximizing the res the revenue that we can turn back for resident requested um and benefiting programs. My question, I have a question uh kind of on on process. Um so given
that there is currently, you know, $15 million of unfunded projects that that our residents have requested that will benefit them will that will add to their um their safety, to their um being able to be more resilient during weather
events, etc. What's the process? Do we just roll those over to the 27 um operate uh budget process as priority items so that they get funded first? Do we start from scratch and put together a whole different list? Like how does this
work? Because they're not going to stop being things that we think we need. We've spent in some cases a great deal of time um getting the data and making the argument and and um making sure that we had the the votes to support and to
move forward. So I guess Jason, that's a question for you and and Eric for you. Yeah, if I could answer related to so your question related to capital projects and priorities. any of the projects, capital projects that were not funded would then be rolled into the 27
budget uh for consideration if the commission wanted to because parties change all the time. Uh so if it was one again that they wanted to prioritize for the next year's budget, then yes, that would go through that same process where it would be directed down to to the finance committee to discuss uh whether
an item is a priority or not for the 2027 uh budget. On the operating side though, on the operating side again it would it would be something that would uh yeah it would be a clean slate because priorities again change every single year. Um so it would be something that would go as a referral down to finance.
Finance will obviously I think look very closely with I think chair as you had mentioned the 27 might be more likely could be even more difficult. So I assume the finance committee will look very closely at you know recommending any additional uh for the 27 but that's really the process. Yeah. Yeah. And I'll tell you, uh, I'll let
you move on, but, uh, I'm going to look to get support for our finance committee. We're always focused on where we're spending, uh, to really drill down on further efficiencies. Um, let me turn it over to you. Okay. Thank you. So, we'll bring it back up and we'll talk about where we were.
Yeah. Okay. So, this is where we were back in June. We actually had a deficit of 771,000. And, uh, we have an update. So based on the July 1st values, we actually picked up $1.6 million. So as a result, we have
a surplus of uh just under $900,000. So this shows how we're recommending to balance the budget with the $854,000. So as was mentioned a few times already, we have recommended $1.3 million of reductions and efficiencies in the
general fund. And you'll see we have several other slides that talk about the resort tax fund and also the other funds where we have reductions recommended. And now we're also recommending one-time and recurring enhancements that actually increase the budget. And then we did do
some refinements to the revenue and that's primarily from the year-end surplus from 24 that Jason talked about recently. And then we are bringing in some additional well additional expenditures that are increased in the budget but those are actually transfers
to capital that entire 2.4 million. So what I'm going to go through over the next two slides as the chair had mentioned was in our general fund we have a list of reductions efficiencies that the administration is recommending. So, some of those recommendations uh go
are as much as cutting positions to transferring over to a more appropriate uh funding sources such as the first one where staff in a customer service center that are more appropriately funded from parking. But the next several ones are elimination of positions uh some of which are filled with employees, some of
which are open, some of which are filled with temporary staff. Which departments are these from? So, the first one is uh from one of my departments, the finance department. So, we are recommending the elimination of the cashiering window here at city hall. We have a cashiering window right next
door at the 1755 customer service center and that would continue. Uh, next in the city manager's office is uh right sizing the geo bond team from a four-person team to a twoperson team. Uh, next is the public works department, a senior GIS analyst position, which is currently
vacant. Uh next is a vacant position in the customer service center uh for a CSR. Uh the next are a few professional services. They uh recommended from the asset management division was a recommendation to cut $100,000 from the miscellaneous professional services
related to appraisals, assessments, audits, and market studies. Uh we're going to cut in h we're recommending to cut in half uh grant consulting services for the grants management division. I'm comfortable with this recommending it based on the state of the grants that are coming out of the federal government which are very limited at this time. Uh
and then you're going to see the next one you're going to see on several different areas and slides related to our assessment program. We looked at uh that assessment program and we're going to really prioritize what we believe are the highest and best uses some of those dollars. We're going to continue along with our cleanliness program uh
assessments. Uh the three garage related related to cleanliness, the the condition of the restrooms, the attendant, and our trolley secret shopper. But the other ones, the secret general secret shopper, sidewalk, cafe, restroom, uh and beachfront concessionaire, we're going to eliminate
and that would save recurring dollars. We have a small reduction recommended by the economic development department related to funding on the commercial lease subsidy program, but still would leave some dollars. And then next we have a few programs in education. These were uh ones from a prior commission
that were approved. These programs actually have been run at our public schools for in a couple of years. So we're comfortable uh eliminating the funding for that. Uh our resident guide, we're going to move uh we're going to print up a number of copies during for this budget cycle to have them available, but we're going to continue
to push our online one and and stop further printing of that. We're do about a 10% cut in our paid college internship program for save $20,000. Uh next is Can I ask about that? Yeah. Um and sorry to catch you off guard. I tried preparing a list of questions uh
last evening, but only so many hours in the day. Um what is our penetration rate for the number of people that are hired full-time out of the uh college intern program? Any idea? I don't know if the top of head of HR has that. I know we looked at that recently. I can speak anecdotally. um
budget hired recently their most recent intern. Yeah. Two off the maybe three that we've ever Okay. Right. And and finance we've had ours. I've hired one of our interns. We tried to hire just a feel good program. This is actually a No, it it is a development. It is a tunnel to that.
Hi Dr. Good morning. How are you? Uh in the last I'd say uh 18 months we've hired about 14. Out of how many do we have? We do we hire approximately 13 to 15 paid interns each semester. Yeah. So um I always say to the students in
the departments all the stars need to align meaning the student is graduating position is open. So I'd say we are doing very well. Okay. I I just wanted to be sure that if we're still going to keep this in place at such a high level that it is a pipeline for talent coming into our city.
Yes. Yes it is. So, uh, the next item is, uh, recommendation to remove one of the four, uh, senior programs in the convention center. That would save $18,000 on a recurring basis. Uh, next is more about the excellent assessor program. Uh, $13,000 in the general fund
related to the OM department moving their cost allocation plan from an annual analysis to a three-year cycle. We're comfortable with that. I have a question. Yep. the the senior programming at the convention center that comes from the general fund. Correct.
Okay. So, I just I want to say I appreciate the program. I don't know that it is the best use of our taxpayers dollars. Uh and perhaps it's not a very
politically popular thing to say. Um, but I really I I just I feel that there are other ways to find people to sponsor this, to support this, to encourage them to do stuff for seniors that is not
using our taxpayers dollars for it. And I'll tell you, I just I don't like how this program has evolved. I remember when when this was initiated uh years ago, it was really something that was for the good of the seniors
that needed socializing. Now if it almost feels like it's people wanting to benefit from the seniors, people who who just like overwhelm the seniors, suffocate the seniors, like trying to just get in their face and
just just overwhelm them with materials and stuff. And it's not in the spirit of what I want to see the taxpayers dollars being used. And it's not how I feel the seniors should be treated. They should be treated with respect, but they
shouldn't be treated, I feel, like as as a tool. And unfortunately, that's I'm concerned that our that that these events created with good intentions with staff that really dedicate themselves to organize these events because they really do care about
the seniors. There are people who then use it for the wrong purposes. And I would say I would not be opposed with doing away with the funding for the four events. And commissioner, I I echo your sentiments. I can remember as a
candidate walking into my first one and I grabbed the mayor at the time and our assistant city manager. I said, "What the f is this?" I I this is exploitation. And full disclosure, I I was at a senior event last evening. Um
and it did take a different feel. You know, I was handing out cards. I'm not up for re-election, but saying what we're up to and it is it is about striking the right balance. I think we're in the right direction of still providing that social socialization
aspect um and still having three events. We found some cost uh efficiencies there. Uh but I'd be supportive that you know we did roll back in a costefficient manner. If you want to work to put some parameters in place so we can get back
to the true spirit, intent and nature of what this event should be, I'd be all for supporting. And I I I have to tell you, yesterday I was intending on going there. And the more I thought about it, I was thinking this is an event used created with the taxpayers dollars.
And I thought to myself and it's like I I feel I am a candidate seeking reelection. I feel uncomfortable going there and creating a perception that while I'm there as a commissioner that I am there
to benefit my reelection efforts using the taxpayers's resources. An event organized by city staff using the public's dollars. And it's why I didn't go there last night because I
did not want to create that perception that I am going there to to benefit from an event that should be for the enjoyment of the seniors, not for the politics of the city. And so and so I
just I just have my own views on it and I appreciate that we're that we're you know cutting back a little bit on it. I think that there are still ways for us to provide great valuable programming to the seniors that perhaps they will enjoy even more because they're not being
swamped and overwhelmed by people that want something from them. We do things we do things for for the good of the community expecting nothing back in return from them and and I think that that ultimately we can give them a setting that's a little
bit more insulated from that. Uh, Commissioner Dominguez, then Commissioner Bach, thank you. Thank you for bringing that up, Commissioner Fernandez and, uh, Commissioner Magazine. Uh, those events are very overwhelming. And, um, I can
only imagine how the seniors feel as well, um, having all of that going on. Um, one thing I w I do want to clarify is that while we're saving taxpayer dollars, the cost of these events are within the
Sedexo and Convention Center contract. And the monies that we're seeing on the budget are for the buses and additional items if I'm not mistaken. Um, but I am all for uh revamping this
to getting back to the true spirit of what this was meant to be. And since co, we've also had the opportunity to return to the senior buildings. Uh, and they're having parties in their buildings again. Uh, so there's less reliance on these
huge massive convention center events as opposed to the intimate ones. Commissioner, M. Yeah, if I if I can speak. So last night we had a great event. Um first of all I I'm actually kind of surprised at at at this whole conversation. Literally I had
senior I walked around not only did did I I stayed for two hours last night walked around to every single table. I can't even tell you the number of seniors who said mayor and obviously our commissioners our city but they were talking to me. Thank you for doing this. It's literally the highlight of our year
to come together. It's very lonely for the seniors. And we're talking $18,000. When I first heard that it was pulled, I figured, you know, you do a wedding for 700 people, it cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. $18,000 and we are providing something that is
literally the highlight for the year. That's what I heard last night. So, this is something that we've continuously done four times a year. I think it's it's it's it's meaningful. It's well spent. And uh I I really I I I will push to the mat on this one.
Yeah. And I Mr. Chair. Yeah. Go ahead, Commissioner Bot. Thank you. Um so as as I'm sure you all recall, I sponsored legislation um shortly after being elected to really cut back uh the egregious political
activities. So, we have seen the the the um the offensive level of gladhanding um and and people rolling in with hand trucks full of cases of things to give away in some cases quite expensive. Um
that has gone away and that is that is definitely better. Um, I think actually reducing it from four to to three makes them even more special. And I will say that given the small amount of money that they that the um that comes out of
our budget and the big amount of joy that it spreads, especially in the senior population where we know loneliness and lack of community is um, you know, the beginning of can be the beginning of of a really unfortunate chain of events. I mean, our prior um
surgeon general wrote extensively about the the de bit the debilitating health effects of loneliness and that it is an epidemic rampant in our country and this is a very small cost to help um stave
off some of that. I'm I'm very okay with going down to three. I think it makes them even more special. But I would be happy to lead the charge on putting forth legislation that basically says if you're not a senior um or a current elected official, meaning, you know, representing in uh the city and going
out to hang out with your constituents, you have no business being there. I think the the thing that is so wildly offensive is having people and not just people running for commission. We had people, you know, running for state and county offices showing up um as if it
was their their right to impinge on what should be a really fun um event for people and their in their community and not a a political mastrom. So, I'm I'm very comfortable with keeping it at three. I'm not so keen on cutting it. I
mean, for the 60 grand that we'd be saving, I think we could easily find that plenty of other places and and we'll look forward to doing that between now and September. Um, but I think um, you know, with the support of my colleagues, I will continue to shut down
political uh, electioneering um, aspects of it even tighter than we have already. Okay. By the way, I I I have to say the city has done a very good job and obviously September could be a a different uh a different issue as
we get closer, but last night there were several candidates. Um and the city has made it a point that you cannot bring the materials in that it stays outside. Um I I I actually I'm sorry to say I don't think this has anything to do with the election. Nothing to do with the
election. And I and anyone who votes against this, I would I would tell you, you go look at the seniors in the face and tell them that they're not going to have this event in September. Yeah. You know what? I I I do think we're I don't want to say conflating uh several issues, but I agree that this is
a very meaningful event. In fact, it is the true reason why I bring my daughter is because when I go and visit Rebecca Tower after these events, they don't ask about me, they ask about her. They remembered her from from these events. But I think we're somewhat sullied on it because we see some of this
electioneering that goes on. Um so perhaps the path is perhaps we keep it in place but we really put these parameters around what is allowed and is not allowed and what is appropriate and what is not. Yeah. And I think the last two times uh
obviously as we get because we had one in uh what do we have in June? Um no a little earlier. I think it was May. May. But this obviously we get a little closer. It was It was smooth. There were several candidates. They were walking around. They didn't have their materials with them. It was all done outside.
People I I think you did a good job. It used to get uh a little bit, but I I just find it hard to believe we're taking something away that is so meaningful to seniors because we're worried about candidates. And I think the city again will can, has, and will continue to control it.
So just to I guess to to close out on this item, I I just wanted to make sure that we have a consensus because it was a bit back and forth. I I think there was a consensus to continue with the recommendation as is. Obviously, we will be more debate in September uh to resolve that if there is any more, but if I can I think by consensus it was to
continue leaving the recommendation from the administration as is. Is that correct? The recommendation of three. Yeah, I'm supportive of that. Yes. I know that it's not unanimous uh but I think that there's an overall consensus that and again there will be I don't know what I want to hear everyone give an answer let's put put
everyone on the right well I mean I I mean I I stated what I what I believe I don't like the the perception that it creates the perception that it creates in the in the community is that an event is being created for political purposes which is not the reason why this event is created
but that is the perception that is created uh and we just have to be mindful of that perception and more importantly I think the experience that that our seniors are are having uh and I do think that that seniors do get
overwhelmed when when when there are so many people that show up because not us I think we all generally care about the seniors uh and we go historically whether we're up for re-election or not but then people who show up only when
they're up for elections and then they disappear and and and that's not how you treat seniors. And I and so and so I have I have an issue with that. If we can continue doing stuff for seniors, taking them on field trips, taking them
to shows, taking them to activities where they are insulated from people overwhelming them from their enjoyment. It can't be. It can't be in they they can't enjoy the fact that there are people that they don't know, you know,
looking to shake their hands, looking to snap a selfie with them, looking to use them for political purposes. And that's that's what I don't like. I want this I want us to have the activities for the seniors, but I want them to be insulated from from from this overwhelming
political activity. Uh, and and that's and and that's that's ultimately what I want. I want them to continue having their activities. Um, I want I want them to be able to continue having access to us because we find out about things that they need, whether it be transportation issues, whether it be housing issues
that they have, whether it be food insecurity issues that they have. We find out a lot by having that personal engagement with the seniors. But then there's a separate part to it which are people who just show up to take advantage of the seniors in a very
political way which I don't think is right. It's not worthy of the seniors who we serve. So I I guess the problem I'm sorry I guess the the problem I have is the seniors if that's the case by the way I I I never looked at it quite that way.
Um, and you're right, I was I was a candidate two years ago and and there were things being done inside there by other candidates that were like just shocking. And what's funny is it cost them thousands of dollars to do what they did. Tens of thousands of dollars.
I won't mention a name. And the seniors were turned off. You're right. That being said, that is now prohibited. You couldn't do that under the current rules. And also, people talk with their feet. the seniors didn't want to show up. They don't have to show up. It's a
voluntary dinner and we get 7800 people coming to the dinner. So, it means they want to be there. I I just don't know why we would take this uh at at a at a really in my opinion demon of his cause. I mean, I can tell you I can't promise I'll do it. If this if this gets if this
gets cut by our commission, I'm going to work with you, Eric. And I don't want it to be through me. I don't want it to be through of anybody who's a vendor. No conflicts. But I think we need to raise this money privately and make sure this dinner happens no matter what. This is something I'm telling you I heard over and over last night. You talk about
people in their 80s and 90s who are telling me, "Mayor, this is so meaningful to me. I don't get her out that much. I don't get to see I get to see my friends. I get a bus that picks me up and takes me there for $18,000. We're depriving them of that. I will this event will take place no matter what." Okay. And I agree with that, Mr. Mayor.
So, I don't know if we make a motion or something along those lines. I'll throw it out there to see my colleagues would support this, but well actually I would there's no Okay. So, informally make a motion uh to remove that from the recommendation list of cost efficiencies with the caveat
that we will find ways to further insulate them from uh electionally free zone. There should be no politics going on. This is for the enjoyment of the seniors, not for the benefit of
political campaigns. Period. End of story. This is good for seniors. I fully support that 100%. I have a comment to make as well. Last night I thought worked well. The one before was a disaster. There were candidates in there that hadn't even
filed yet and were running around with videographer and it it was a disaster. It really left a bad taste in the senior's mouth. I didn't like any bit of it. And when we are talking about moving this from four to three, I'm very supportive of that because one of the
things that wasn't recommended by the city was something that you sponsored and I co-sponsored to expand the freebie for the senior buildings. I'd rather that $18,000 go to expand giving them access to Walmart and going to Publix and going to the doctor and things of
that nature. The shuttle bus. The shuttle bus. No, that's I'm going to bring that up next uh soon, too. Mr. Chair, yes. Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez request to speak. Go ahead, Commissioner. Hi. I would just agree. I I second Joe's
motion if I were there. Um I don't think we need to cut it. You know, they get dressed up in like fullblown Galloway. It's some place that they have to go. They get dressed up. It's a I don't know. It's an event that everybody looks forward to. I don't mind the democratic,
you know, campaigning port aspect of it either. I mean, it's part of our culture. Uh, since I started in politics and we used to have massive, uh, bingo nights all the time. So, we've always had these huge senior events. Um, I know that it's overwhelming and it's a lot of work and there's 700 people and you
know, it's but but I agree I tend to agree with the mayor and uh, Commissioner Magazine. I don't I don't mind if we do it quarterly. Um, and even I in addition to that, if we fund uh any bus that they need. I mean, I think it's a great place to retire. And I love our
vibrant senior community. And by the way, it's not just seniors living in public housing. I see seniors from across Miami Beach of every demographic and every socioeconomic status attending these events. And they really do look forward to it. So, um, I'm in favor of
keeping them, but I understand everybody else's concerns. You know, it is overwhelming. It's a lot of people. Yeah. I I asked my I asked my parents if they were going to come. They said, "Come with you or come to sit there, you know, and enjoy the event as seniors." They kind of got a little offended by
that. Um but uh so if I if I can share, so I think hearing it seems the consensus is to not accept that recommendation and we'll find that $18,000. The caveat I have with that is opening Pandora's box for then not accepting the other recommendations because I came in here
when it'll accept all your recommendations and and push forward for even more. Uh so I'm really going to try and uh draw that line that this doesn't open Pandora's box because like I said, we could go line item by line item through every enhancement, every
efficiency reduction and find mer in all of them. Uh so we're going to try and stick the course here because I I know you and your teams have done such hard work in identifying some of these. So let's go ahead with uh further ways how we're going to save our taxpayers money. Okay. And and with that being a recurring cost, we're going to do
identify, you know, one of the other elements to to find some recurring dollars. So we can bring the presentation back up so we can continue. So uh just to continue on, we're kind of at the end of this slide. Uh miscellaneous parks program. That's just kind of a a right sizing a little bit of that budget. We'll see if we can
identify perhaps other savings to cover the eight. John, thank you for the work you did, right? That is how a budget analysis should work. So, you laid out line item by line item. Here is the specifics of each program, and here's the cost. You
decide what is important, what is not, and where the bang for the buck is. I I thought you did fantastic. So, if there's other department heads, I appreciate all of your work, but really look to what the parks and wreck did. um it it put forward the full menu and you just said here you decide here's just
kind of in very vanilla terms. Um so thank you for the work on that. And then the last one here in the general fund recommended reductions and deficiencies is from economic development. Uh still continuing with the school graduation program but they can rightsize that budget a little bit. So what that if you add all of that up
it adds around $1.34 million in 26 and almost 1.5 million uh recurring in 27. that's helping towards the 27 number chair I know as we had spoke about uh significantly Mr. CFO. Um, but in uh in
attachment A, we had the recommended recurring expenditure reductions efficiencies. Uh, the police also put forward a reduction possibility that I believe the staff adopted. I didn't see on there. We haven't gotten to that yet. I'm sorry. That'll be coming up in the
resort tax area. So to finish out uh the general fund, so now that we've talked about we had about uh $9 $850,000 in recurring money that uh we had as a surplus and then after we made these cuts, uh now we're repurposing those dollars. So we feel our, you know,
commission uh commission priorities and and important things that the commission has already approved. Uh first is is a one-time item related to the high visibility detail that we've done for the past couple of years. We're recommending funding that at a $1.8 $8 million one-time uh uh level and we'll
have that discussion obviously again in 27. The next are a number of recurring items, some of which were already under contract for. The first one is that big item related to the property evidence off-site storage facility for our police department. That was a mid-year uh contract execution that that uh we
needed to fund. Next was a uh So, Mr. CO, and apologies. Um I could get into this further offline. So, that's a contract we've already committed to. Correct. That's And that'll be $500,000 per year for increase. Correct. That was approved several months ago related to the
off-site U storage. And if you need more information on that, yeah, you can speak with uh with the chief and he can he can detail out the what they do at that facility. Uh so next is the uh was I think the number one priority of the police department was also recommended by the commission just recently related
to the uh fus realtime operations platform that'll integrate a lot of different technologies. Uh, next, I know this was an item we spoke about in in several of the briefings. Uh, we have almost I think it's almost a thousand cameras uh throughout the city, the LPRs that they have, but we didn't actually
fund operation the maintenance, repairs, and replacement for those cameras. And to make sure that we have some kind of funding source in there, uh, you know, we're we're kind of estimating maybe about $150,000 a year. That may be an area we can look at if if we have to. Uh the next um it has a slide coming up
further is a fire protection radio system administrator. And what I want to highlight on this is a little bit is that this is a a requirement based on this an unfunded mandate from the state. So the state has new laws that are in place that requires that highrises and new buildings get this uh annual
certification and review by the fire department. So this position would actually go through and do all of this work. It's already happening. uh we what we're recommending to offset this so that we don't have a deficit is to impose a new uh inspection fee. It would
be the same exact rate that the Miami date county is already charging for this exact same service. So it would be offset. So this would be coming back from the fire department be bringing forth uh an ordinance in the next couple months to get that thing uh implemented and operational for the new fiscal year.
Uh the next one, though it's listed in recurring, we're only having found one-time dollars for. And this is the fire department mental health and wellness coordinator services at a rate of $80,000. And the last one was a commission uh resolution priority was
the the purchase and keep up of 10 advanced mobile LPRs uh for car video uh in the car video contract. So that's around uh $3 million in total public safety funding of which 1.1 1.2 is on a
recurring basis. You can see the second year is only about a million dollar impact on public safety. And then I want to continue on in cleanliness. I want to just dwell a little bit on that very first line item related to sidewalk and asphalt room replacement. And again, we talked very much at our briefings about
this and and I think it really got highlighted at the June uh budget workshop related to capital about the the need of the commission and the administration to put aside dollars for capital replacement of our assets. We are currently funding our sidewalks and asphalt replacement through the geo bond
that was approved by voters back in 2018. in the next 10 years or so those funds will run out and then we will have another kind of trunch that will be added onto our already existing facilities to fund. So what we're recommending is is kind of twofold. One
we're going to be discussing chair you know you and I had talked about we have a comprehensive set of financial policies that's been referred to the budget advisory committee. I'm already in touch with the chair of that committee. We'll be disc having some discussions on some policy recommendations in August, BEAC in September, and then we'll return to FIRK
to unveil some of those possible funding uh sources in the future. But for right now, we're recommending to kind of have a little seed money and have recurring dollars of $360,000 set aside in a new uh sidewalk and asphalt ruin replacement fund. We think that this is important on a recurring basis to really get us ready
for the future. Uh the next is to continue the pilot project that was restarted, pardon me, related to the Unidad uh bathrooms to start that janitorial service. So we're recommending that that uh service continue. Uh next in education, uh this
is a one-time is to continue which we started this year was put $30,000 towards the resident MD college scholarship program. That's kind of a bang for your buck on 3:1. We get matched at the chamber level and at the foundation level. So that brings in almost I think around $100,000 in total
scholarships to the uh to the residents. So we're we're recommending that on a onetime basis and we can revisit that again uh next year. And then next we have a list of other enhancements. One is the item that was discussed in May during a capital budget amendment where there was a request to set aside that
$35,000 specifically for the Park View Island Garden project one time through parks. So we did that. Uh next is related to the planning department record storage. This is actually self-funded through their technology fund. So, this will be covered in there. Another one is a commission of priority
was a just a onetime $5,000 grant to for the open heart uh incorporated. So, we have that funded there. And then recurring all and I think important, you know, to the chair's perspective that he had stated at the beginning is a lot of these things are com this commission's
priorities, but we're only be able to be funded by the efficiencies and cuts that we just talked about. And we wouldn't be able to do these things without those cuts. So, I think that was important to highlight. So, this uh involves the Southshore Community Center. The first two items, those are the majority of those dollars. So, though we had funded
on a one-time basis summer camp and the senior meal program for this year, these are identifying recurring dollars so that these operations can continue going forward. So, this would uh supplement the parks department budget to continue having the summer camp at the Southshore Community Center and including the
$175,000 a year for the continuation of the senior meals program at the Southshore Community Center. Next, uh was a commission priority. I know chair of yours, we had a lot of discussion related to this. Uh it was hoped to have up to $400,000 recurring basis, a very tight budget, but we did identify
$120,000 one time and we will revisit this again in the future to see to add on to the 80,000 that is already recurring. Uh next was also a commission item that was approved by commission a month or so ago was to increase the funding for the Rhythm Foundation up at the north uh the band shell. So we're
able to fulfill that contractual obligation. Uh, also another contractual obligation out of the development order from the Collins Park Art Force Housing was for us to cover the ground floor rent so that a um cultural anchor could be in there. I believe it's Miami New Drama. And then the last one is another
one uh related to commission was the style saves which has been a priority for the past couple of years. Um, so this one is something that again we found recurring dollars for. And then kind of wrap this up. Uh the living wage ordinance is an ordinance
set by the commission that allows uh the contracts to follow up by CPI. So we have that in here. Uh the chess program uh this was a program that was funded with some one-time dollars from several years ago that have run out. So the commission needs to reauthorize the dollars. We did identify recurring dollars. We feel that's a good uh
program for our kids. So we're going to recommend $20,000 a year recurring on that. uh a digital media specialist out of uh the communications group is only very slightly funded in the general fund mostly being supported by our enterprise funds and that is the end of our general fund enhancement. So that totals $4.4
millionish of which about 1.9 million is one time and around 2.5 million is in the recurring category. And when we talk about our priorities of the city in terms of enhancements 4.24.3 million and $3 million of that goes
towards public safety. Correct. Correct. So this slide just kind of highlights what Jason mentioned before that position that we're recommending adding in fire is going to be supported by an additional fee. So the fire department, if this position is approved, we'll bring an ordinance later on to add this
fee. And as Jason mentioned, this would just mirror what the Miami date county is already charging. And it's uh $265 per hour for inspections. That's the main fee. Um, so just going on to our revenue refinements. As I mentioned earlier, we did bring in some more
revenues on the general fund side, 3.96 of that is from the FY24 year end surplus over and above our reserves. And then we also are recommending transferring 607,000 from the resor tax fund to the general fund. So that helped us to bring in some
more money. And then what are we doing with the additional funds that we have in the general fund? So we are transferring 2.39 over to capital. There were several projects in the capital budget that were unfunded when we met back in June. And so what we did is went
back and looked at all the critical projects, the the big projects and also the capital renewal and replacement projects that were prioritized first. So uh one of the first ones we funded was the West a phase three. It's the above ground portion that is from PGO. So we
really just needed that portion to fully fund the above ground portion. The storm water section is already funded. So the only um unfunded section is the water and sewer which we'll discuss later on in the year. Um Alton Court Alley was a priority of the commission. So was the
Marine Park design and the Meridian Avenue traffic common. So we took some of the funds we had available and funded those. Um the Miami Beach Piring range filtration system, that's the HVAC system in their firing range uh broom had some funding, but we weren't able to
fully fund it. So, this would fully fund that project. And then the roof replacement at fire station 4. We were able to fully fund it. The the last one is the Miami Beach Police Department training unit. That's going to be done over at the Southshore Community Center.
We had funded 400,000 of the 600,000 budget. We had requested a state appropriation and that got vetoed. So, that 200,000 we recommended funding so that it could move forward. And this is actually a repeat of the slide that you saw at the top of the
general fund balancing. So if everything we had recommended was was accepted, we would have had a balanced budget. Um we now have a deficit of 18,000, but I am sure we'll be able to um make that whole before we come back in September. I I have some.
Okay. So well, where we are right now, well, balanced budget less 18,000. Uh the overall budget that we're recommending has an overall increase of 5.9%. Uh if we had not done any enhancements,
we would have been at 4.8%. When if we hadn't done enhancements, do you mean uh efficiencies? Uh no. If we just did the efficiencies and no enhancements, we would be at 4.8. I got you. Okay. Mr. Commissioner,
um just a a question procedurally about um how when during this meeting um may I raise um some questions about funding things that aren't currently funded and finding solutions for problems that haven't been addressed here. I guess
that's probably a question for Jason and Eric. If I can if now if it's something related to general fund at the end of the operating it might be best maybe at the very end of operating because we're going to go through resort tax. We're going to go through all the other funds to see where those are and then we'll kind of have an end and end there and
then maybe that's maybe the best time to talk about elements. And here's where I'm thinking and you know it's fluid. We we all can weigh in on this. Uh but there's I have some things I want to highlight as further efficiencies that were raised in the presentations that I think would be
advantageous that we can take advantage of and then again task the city manager and the CFO with finding further um when we get into other enhancements we need to find money before we start
talking about you know what some of those are right we all have things that are very important um we can discuss how to rank those in order of what's prioritized if we would like but before we find new money for those right that they're seemingly not on the table. Um
but we do have another chance at this. Yes. Uh if there is any additions, you know, let's say we ended up and there's, you know, a need for something in the general fund or the resort tax or some other fund, we would should have a debate and discussion about where those uh funding sources would be. And I know
Chery and I discussed if it's recurring, it's going to be very very difficult. 18,000 we can we can make something out. We'll probably cut a little something else elsewhere. One-time dollars might be a little bit more possible. So, if there was any discussions related to adding something that is on the
recommendations, the hope would be that it would be some kind of one-time uh element. And what I don't want to get into is sitting here jockeying about well this enhancement uh should come at the expense of that. We're so lean already in terms of, you know, 20ome million
dollars of requests, $5 million funded to the extent where we want to have more. We need to find further reductions because I don't want to start trading uh this enhancement for that one because we're already uh so bare bone there. Yeah, that's correct, Commissioner. There's not a lot of um there's not a lot of
I don't have I don't have much to trade you. There's not as you saw those lists were pretty short uh at the end of the day. There wasn't a lot lot there. But let's uh go through resort tax. All right. So, we'll start with where we were back in June on the resort tax. So, we were balanced. The resort tax
revenues have been trending uh pretty close to last year's revenues. And so, we were be very judicious on what we recommended on the resort tax fund. And then here we are with what we're recommending on how to balance. So, we did go through the resort tax budget and
did recommend just under 900,000 of reductions. And then we have a few recommended one-time a few enhancements that are recurring, literally one or two in each category. And then we have additional revenues and that's primarily from the year-end surplus of $24. And
then that 600,000 is what you saw over in the general fund side where we recommended transferring more from resort tax over to the general fund. And if you accept our recommendation, we have a balanced budget. So, I'm going to walk you through some
recommended reductions, efficiencies, and cuts in the resort tax. We had identified uh approximately $880,000 uh recurring uh on there. And the the first one is the big one is $600,000 reduction in the police high impact overtime for Memorial Day. This will
kind of rightize the budget based on the expenditure level of this of this year. We're comfortable with that. Uh next is a $100,000 reduction in holiday lighting and decorations. Uh the commission approved an adjustment from 500,000 to 700,000 about two years ago. There was a
recommendation for facilities that we could save money um to to adjust that down by $100,000 to $600,000 per year. Next is also related to high impact. This is co- compliance uh overtime for Halloween, Memorial Day, and Fourth of July. This would maintain the funding
that they have for spring break and for New Year's Eve at this time. Uh again the sidewalk uh cafe index as we had spoken about eliminating that funding uh parks reduction on Lumis Park activations. This kind of rightsiz of the budget this should not impact any ongoing park activations in Lumis Park.
Uh again a little more savings on the cost allocation plan moving to three years from uh OM and a small reduction offered up by the inspector general on some of their operating expenses. All these recommendations are accepted. That would save $880,000 per year. And then
what I want to show is the recommend enhancements, which is a very short list. Uh again, we talked about what are used in those dollars. I know that first item we kind of touched on a little bit earlier today. Those dollars are coming from one-time resort tax available
dollars that have to be used for resort tax eligible expenditures. So there is the $1.5 million for FIFA. This is just from the budgetary perspective. I know the commission will have I guess a debate and discussion I believe at the July commission meeting and that you know we could see how that turns out and
then you know we could deal with it. Again we have the September 1st and second budget hearings if there's any adjustments in there. The next one we're excited about is to complete the $1.4 million allocation for the counterprogramming at the March spring break. This is the last $400,000 to set
aside to the million, the half a million from this year's budget and a half a million on the large scale community events in for next year's budget. So, this will complete the $1.4 million for that those large scale uh fitness festivals we're going to run during that uh year. Uh and then women's history
month. This was a commission also a commission uh approved resolution uh priority. It's only one time. We'll have to revisit that again in the future if this is a successful event. Uh the next one, the list is recurring is technically only coming from one time.
This is $25,000. This is a five-year contract that the commission approved related to the South Beach Sue Food Festival. Uh my understanding there is an opt out on that. That's why we have it listed as an enhancement uh for discussion. So if this was all accepted, it's all really one-time dollars at the
end of the day. It's approximately $1.9 million. Mr. chair, you know, we have a number of projects that we haven't been able to fund. Um, like for example, we have um I think
it was the the freebie we haven't been able to fund and a number of other stuff. Okay. The seafood festival. We're putting $25,000 towards the seafood festival.
How is that a benefit to the residents of the city of Miami Beach to get their taxpayers dollars and allocate it towards a a private entity that I don't know what they're doing back to our city. Meanwhile, you know, we're going
to have to talk at some point about Clean Miami Beach. Clean Miami Beach has funding. They're out there actually cleaning our beaches and engaging with with with people. They need our support. We have the mammogram truck that provides services to our residents who
are poor so that they can detect breast cancer that, you know, we haven't been able to find funding for. I'd rather see that money split into other services that are actually providing services for
our residents. Clean Miami Beach that is asking us for support that they're there keeping our beaches clean. the mammogram services for people who don't have insurance and then live in the shadows of our community, but they need that early detection for for life-saving
treatment as opposed to putting $25,000 towards an entity that I feel they probably have other sources from which to find that money. Can I just say something because I sponsored that item. Um, Commissioner
Fernandez, I don't know if you know this, but most uh restaurants and hotels are dying in October when that event takes place and um that puts heads in beds. I went last year and there were people from all over the country that
come here to attend that festival. I don't care. You can, you know, cut it. You can you can wait just let me finish. I mean, if you want, we can cut it. But I would tell you that that kind of economic incentive given when I look at all of the other events that we do, I
can guarantee you that a lot of our workers and our hospitality industry um they really appreciate that at a time when our tourism tax is at like the lowest possible. So I mean if you know you can cut it but you know is that kind
of economic incentive worth it? Does it actually help the working people of Miami Beach? Absolutely 100%. I I I honestly I actually think when we have activities like the seafood festival, it actually competes with our local businesses. I get so many complaints
from the local businesses when we have these activities that that this takes away from people actually going to their restaurants. It's competition. People travel from all over the country. So even if they go to the festival,
they're still staying at our hotels. They are eating at our local restaurants. They're not eating at the place the entire time. I mean, if you look at it from a bird's eye view and holistic economic perspective, it's actually a very small impact to the city of Miami Beach for what we get out of it.
I I'll just say I've I've only received complaints about it. It's the only reason why I bring it up. I get complaints from the local restaurants. Uh, and I get and I get complaints from residents that it's a chainlink fence that they put on on on our park pretty
much. Uh, that it doesn't look aesthetic for our city that visually doesn't look good for our city. Uh, and I get more complaints about this event than anything else. And I rather see my taxpayers dollars going back to keeping
the sand clean. The other day Sophie Ringle went to went to the beach and in one hour collected over 2,200 cigarette butts from our sand. I rather see a portion of those dollars go towards
that. I'd rather say a portion of those taxpayers dollars support the residents of our cities who don't have access to medical treatment for early detection of breast cancer. But for an entity that is competing with our businesses, I don't believe that
this entity is a true economic driver for our state. I don't believe that it's really putting uh heads in beds. Um and so I this is this is the purpose of this conversation. Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez, I appreciate your position uh
regarding this, but I see it a little bit differently and that's and that's okay. Commissioner Dominguez, say something real quickly. Um the seafood festival has been happening for many years and it does bring excitement and uh joy to the community. But for the
economic impact, I know that local restaurants have the opportunity to participate in contests and different events within the seafood festival. So, I don't think that they look at it the the local businesses look at it as a deterrent. They were excited to
participate uh with their chefs. And while uh go ahead, Commissioner Bot. Thank you. Um look, I I think um it's great. The South Beach Seafood Festival is terrific. Um I think the sponsorships are um as we are moving towards
legislatively on on other matters um concerning sponsorships for signature events. It's intended to help get somebody established um you know first three years of their event here in Miami Beach, help them sort it out the economics, etc. The South Beach Seafood
Festival is a terrific event. I I would love to see them or the GMCVB do an economic impact study so we have actual data to determine how much revenue it actually does bring to the city because I think that would be a useful conversation. But, you know, they are
established. They do attract people from all over the place and it is a super high-end event. They could raise that $25,000 by charging $1 extra for their tickets. just $1, which the the the
attendees wouldn't even notice, but would cover that. Um, or they could they could bring on another sponsor. I, you know, I don't want to see them go anywhere. South Beach is literally in their name, and I think it's a really great event for the city, but I I think, you know, they are not a struggling
neoight um event. They are wellestablished and well-loved, and I think it's time to cut the cord on that funding. We cannot continue to subsidize every event. And I've been saying it publicly. I I hope people realize, and I'm not picking on this event. I've been saying
it publicly. We cannot continue to be the lifeline for every event that comes to this city. And Commissioner Ba, you you brought legislation recently to make sure that we get to that point where they can graduate and not depend on our
taxpayers resources. These events should come to contribute to the taxpayers, not to use the taxpayers resources. And it's part of the reason why we find ourselves in the situation that we're in because we've accumulated so many of these events that year after year come back
and not only stay in our budget, but then ask for more of our budget that that that then, you know, they depend on us. And then we don't want to uh cut the funding um you know the the funding
source. I this should be on its own private sponsorships you know contribute to the city not the city contribute to them. I I agree with that. Um I I'd be fine to support uh where you're going Commissioner Fernandez. Although taking it another route and this is more for
process and also I think bang for the buck. Um, swimweek came and gave a presentation to us at FK and then it was approved by the full commission and they essentially said if you agree for this funding we can provide this other aspect to our
show and that is a week where the economic impact is unquestionable, right? And and we have our residents that are out there at shows. The Little Lighthouse Foundation does shows um and it's during a dead time of the year and I'm fine to have
this as nonrecurring and one time. What troubles me is just the process that was went through where they came in front of FK, they came in front of commission and said we can do this additional component of of our show if we're approved for this uh excess grant and we approved it and now we're saying well it actually
didn't get funded. I'm not asking for us to find dollars for it today, but I'm asking for it to be prioritized if our resort taxes come in above and beyond for June or July or something like that before the budget is finalized. And I'm fine with sending that message loud and
clear. This will not be recurring. But the way the process went about, I I think is just a bad way of doing business. Yeah. And to uh sort of add on to what you were saying, Commissioner Fernandez, we do get a lot of requests. Actually, I've been I've been on a number of calls
with our city manager, Eric, where we've gotten requests and Eric has basically told them, "Sorry, uh, we can't do it. Great event, but we can't give you the the the dollars and the monetary incentive that you're asking." I guess what ultimately comes down to is whether
these programs and entities are still going to come here. The proof will be in the pudding. I think they will. I think Miami Beach is an absolute economic driver for them. So obviously every every situation is different but ultimately I think we uh we have a lot
of leverage that we're probably not uh not fully negotiating right now. Yeah. If I can chair I think to to wrap this up I think you're hearing a consensus that we will remove this uh line item from the budget. We're okay with that. So if PJ and I will I will add to it. It is a phenomenal event. This is not picking on
the seafood festival. They do a great job but uh yeah this is a good call. big shrimp that since since No lobster either. So I just I just want to know since you know can we get some of this these dollars since we're talking about you
know this is resort dollars to support tourism. Can we use some of these dollars to support clean Miami Beach who is out there keeping our major economic engine which is our beaches clean and they and they need funding and so and so
I don't I don't know if we have that ability to so Jason you could look into that and get and get back to us u because it is a request that we have um but that delivers back directly to our city to the cleanliness of our city
if I could speak to that I I don't we don't have an enhancement specifically to this year that exists for that, but I know that in this year uh the commission added uh a significant amount um 40,000 or so there was a I think a recurring grant.
Yeah. So there was a recurring grant for that particular uh service in there, but we can uh make sure to get that information back to you on what is the current funding level for that service. Okay. So what we're going to go here, Mr. Rarity, did you want to talk about FIFA
or Let's do it. No, I I Well, I Well, first I I'd like to hear I mean, I know it was discussed at FK. I I guess I'd like to hear how we ultimately came out to this number. It's interesting. I mean, this is a again put
it out. I'm stating the obvious worldass event. I mean, we're so fortunate to have FIFA. I understand the county is giving I don't know if it's public yet. the amount they're giving about $40 million. Um I just this is a multibillion dollar
enterprise. I'd like to see for example what the comparison is to what we give the Super Bowl when they when they come here. It just it just seems like a lot of money and I'd like to know how we negotiated it. And again there's a risk. Could they say okay we're not coming to
Miami Beach if we don't? I'm not saying we don't give anything. I just that's just seems like a high number to me. In addition to the 1.5 million, we're waving $500,000 in in fees. So now we're talking $2 million. And uh again, ultimately, we're we're we're a prime
destination. I I I I'd like to believe they'd want to be here. Uh anyway, maybe we could invite Lette uh because I know I wasn't privy to the conversations. I I think we're actually in a cone of silence where we couldn't have talks, correct?
So, I think that we have been having multiple conversations with the host committee. Um, I think that there's a method to the madness and I'd love to have Lette kind of talk us through what some of the things are that are being discussed and are on the table that we
believe would bring return on investment to the city of Miami Beach. Thank you, Mr. Manager. Good afternoon. Lisa Troante, director of tourism and culture. Uh, good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Chair. Uh so the 1.5 was the amount that uh the host committee requested. We
have been negotiating with them um in alignment with what they presented at FK uh in December 2020. Sorry to interject. Was was the initial request 1.5 million? That's correct. Okay. So we haven't we haven't knocked that down at all. We have not. Uh it's based on some
milestones that they presented uh in December which included a possible kickoff concert, a possible legacy project, uh watch parties in North Beach, and a media row in Lumis Park. So we've been negotiating with them uh for
the past few months. We negotiating on what they would provide, not on the monetary amount. I mean it just seems like usually I mean the way negotiations work, right? You get a number and then you come back with another number. like sounds like here we were like okay thank you very much if I could also answer you asked how
much in 2020 for Super Bowl the city gave um to NFL and it was 1.935 million uh what that included was special event fee waivers cash sponsorship um city services uh waiver of the convention
center uh and we did a matching contribution for the turf field at Miami Beach High School for 1.935 and what could a legacy project consist stuff. Uh they and also when they presented the details of the legacy project which was
uh doing pitches uh in city parks, they did say that that was contingent upon them fundraising for that project. So that was something that was discussed at FK. It's it's on the table, but it's contingent on them being able to fund raise to provide that. Okay. And when does that contract have to be finalized?
Well, you know, it's uh being discussed now. We hope to have it in July, but September possibly if we don't make it to the July agenda. Okay. And are we able to talk to you or the city manager about this? Are we in a cone of silence of some sort?
No. Unless there's something that I'm not aware of. No. Are we in it with a World Cup host committee or things like that? Um there is a certain individual who works for the FIFA host committee who is currently unable to communicate. I was
going to maybe she just did that because she didn't want to talk to me. She's like, "I can't talk. We're in the criminal side." No, she she has a two-year. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Ju just to let you know uh
literally in the last 24 hours I had conversations with the host committee expressing the concerns I had. Obviously, I cannot speak for the entire body. My impression is that they would be amendable to bringing that number down. That's my impression. I don't want to speak for for them or because I was speaking to one person, but I expressed
my concerns that I had. Mr. Chair, Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez is requesting. Commissioner, go ahead, please. Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez, I guess not. Yeah, chair, if maybe to help um facilitate um since we're still
several months away from when the budget will be closed out, uh perhaps the best thing is to keep this as a placeholder until the commission fully vets and approve the commission. And if it ends up being a lower number, then we're in the good graces of having to be able to lower that that budget allocation, but at least we have that cap. And I think
that that would work on a process. And when we say lower that and if the representatives from the World Cup are watching, it's not because we're sitting here and trying to be uh dollar cheap pound foolish or whatever they're saying. Um there's critical things in our city that are not getting funded. So
this doesn't just uh go back into frivolous spending or and our coffers. These are things that are going to also be economic drivers for our city. Obviously, nothing is on a parallel level with the World Cup, but if we can
sit here and find that parties are amendable, maybe they bring down what they're offering something for $1.25 million, right? Those are $250,000 to go to things that actually are going to make our city much more presentable
for when FIFA comes here. Mr. Chairman, I'm sorry. I couldn't mute myself earlier and I I really didn't have anything to say about this item except for that I'm fully supportive of of funding it because I think it's a community effort to have any World Cup games here. I think across Miami date
county the economic impact is going to be massive and to not understand that is somewhat narrow-minded of us. Um but I suppose that we could enter into some sort of negotiation. Mr. Chair, so I just have a question. So
this is one-time funding, correct? Okay. And so you a number of activities were just mentioned. If we do, do do we get these activities regardless of our funding or no?
So that's what we're negotiating right now is what can they commit to versus what would we like to see? Um let me ask you what what is the because I people tell say and I'm not a
sports guy so I need guidance on this. People tell me that this is that the impact of this is bigger than a Super Bowl. Is is that true? That's my understanding just from the fact of the sheer numbers. I mean there
are what six six or seven events that are here in Miami Date County alone as well as the many other events that are happening nationwide. So, I mean, it's it's it's a major economic driver and from what we're seeing from the Club
Cup, um there is there is a huge amount of folks that are using Miami as their jump off point for all of the events that are happening around the country. So, I it sounds to me that, you know, this is like the Art Basle of the sports
world. That's a fair way to look at it. Art Basle is the World Cup of the art world. I love it. I love it. I you know the one thing I would I I would say you know for as long as it's not recurring funds what
I don't want us to happen is that we say okay well and we're not going to you know put dollars on the table you know Dural you know Dural has you know a large Venezuelan community you know where where where soccer is very much
ingrained in in in the in the culture or they go to other areas of Miami date county where there's a large Colombian population where again um you know soccer is a big part of the culture and then we miss out of that opportunity and that we not only miss out of the
opportunity but the greater ripple effect of this which is what has been my understanding of Super Bowl kind of like Art Basel oh there is the media impressions that
generate from it there's a generation there so That's that's what I want to make sure that we don't lose that we don't lose the opportunity not just for the events but for the bigger ripple effect that this has in our economy which is the media
impacts that having these events um uh happening in Miami Beach having Miami Beach uh be be the backdrop uh do are are there any media staging areas that that that could potentially come out of this
because that's that that to me is like if there if there are media staging opportunities that to me in other words is advertising for Miami Beach not just you know locally in the domestic market but that's the international market and that's what I would like to see so do we have anything like that
absolutely that is actually one of our biggest discussion points because that's where we believe that we see the greatest return on investment is if people are looking at Miami Beach on national international television
stations and seeing how beautiful that we are and all of a sudden they're saying, "You know what? I really would like to go check out Miami Beach if I haven't been there before or man, I really need to go back." Yeah. And that's where I think that we really
are are getting, like I said, return on investment. And so that's where that's why I would support this. That is invaluable. That that right there is invaluable. and why I would absolutely support this because the return on the investment is just it
would be just so much bigger and I'll further that. I agree wholeheartedly. In fact, we had a one-year at a World Cup kickoff event in Miami Beach and it was broadcast live on Fox Sports across the
globe from Lumis Park and they had a world-renowned artist in there. The one thing I I was very unhappy about though is that wasn't properly noticed to our residents. Here I'm sitting here in this great outdoor park, a concert.
I showed up in my soccer jersey and shorts and here's the delegates from FIFA, the president of FIFA in Lumis Park in a suit. None of us knew right what this was going to be and our residents didn't know. So, here we have
a world-renowned artist and we didn't even post it on our Facebook, right? I couldn't even go out and tell my daughter's schoolmates, "Hey kids, FIFA is having a great World Cup concert here." So, while this is out of resort taxes to promote tourism, this is
something that our residents, this event is something our residents should find the most enjoyment out of. And that's how I'm comfortable spending such a large amount of money going forward. But it has to come with better planning and preparation for what the people here are
going to get in return. Most notably our residents. I think we should knock it down to a million, Mr. Chair. I think we should knock it down to a million right now. Commissioner Bot. Yeah, I you know, we we discussed this at at some great length. Um and for
contact context, um this is like hosting the Olympics without having to build an infrastructure to do so. It is infinitely bigger than the Super Bowl. I mean, half the country doesn't even care about the Super Bowl, let alone the rest of the world. One of the when we first discussed it, I think it was at FK, um,
one of the most compelling arguments is that for a a an investment of up to $1.5 million, um, hopefully we can get that down a little bit. Um, we are getting untold millions, but a huge multiplier
of that in in branding and media. Um that is going to be exactly the story we are trying to tell of a safe, fun, diverse, familyfriendly um sports and wellness
capital of the world. I mean I I can't even imagine a better bang for the buck. Um I I am I'm I'm looking very hard at things that we can cut, but I think if we are going to be pennywise and pound foolish on this, it is it's going to be a huge missed opportunity. It only ever
comes around once every four years anywhere in the world and you know if it's here this time it's not going to be back even for consideration for for years uh more than four years because they need to spread the wealth. I think um the city staff has the direction to
look at the negotiations and see, you know, maybe there's stuff that we care a little bit less about that we can shave off a little bit, but it's comparable to what we spend on Super Bowl. And it is infinitely more impactful, especially now given the direction the city's
moving in, um than any Super Bowl has ever been or could ever be. And so, um, you know, I I support going forward earmarking 1.5 and, um, hoping to get it down a little bit and and, um, but really embracing
embracing it in its fullest and making sure, as Joe pointed out, um, that our communication teams treats this as our event as much as FIFA's event, so that our residents are notified for the less than ideal things like, hey, this road
might be closed. for this weekend to the great things like make sure you're out in Lima's Park for the kickoff concert. Um, you know, there should not be a missed opportunity here because they come along so rarely and we should really, you know, the way Jason was talking about, you know, this is a great opportunity because we're paying $30,000
to get $100,000 worth of scholarship funds. This is that to the nth degree. Yeah. and and see but I looked at it as for example Art Basle a signature event for our city on an annual basis and that contract this is the last year uh our
city administration Eric and his team have been in extensive negotiations um and I believe close to uh an agreement I I understand I see Eric is uh holding up his fingers crossing his fingers but either way extensive
negotiations here I feel We're being told they asked for 1.5 million and we kind of just nodded and moved on. Uh I'm sorry. That's the way that's what I'm hearing. That's and I I I think we're not I'm not trying to FIFA is great. It's it's a great event, but I I think
they'll accept less. Um again, going back to what we talked about the FIFA festival. We're a prime destination. I think we should allocate less. It puts us in a better leveraging negotiating position as well to say, "Hey, we don't have it allocated right now. We only have 1 million allocated." That's the way these things work. We got
to negotiate. So I think chair um I think hearing that but I think overall there's a consensus at least for now until the commission takes its final action on the contract. we can leave the budget allocation as is and again we have time uh in at the September 1st or second budget hearing
to ratchet down the which I think and I'm supportive of that uh for the only reason because I don't want for us to sit there and start allocating other things saying oh we have an extra $250 or $500,000 um but by having this earmarked by no
means means that's what we're ultimately committing to right we want to see ultimate bang for the buck And I'm really doing this just so nothing else gets earmarked right away in its place because the second this opens up. Uh there's seven things that are going to go in for that funding.
Yes. Um so this is the absolute maximum amount that could be earmarked but that doesn't mean that's ultimately what we commit to. Um you know we we see the tough conversations that we're having all across the board and all across the board means all across the board.
Thank thank you chair. Uh PJ we can bring the presentation back up. We'll continue. Okay. So, here we were at the beginning of resort tax where we had a balanced budget. We actually now have a surplus of 25,000. So, between the general fund and the resort tax, we have a net
surplus of $7,000. Uh this would have been the resort tax budget if everything stayed as is. Uh it's slightly lower than last year's budget, but pretty close. And then what we're going to go through is now other funds and we want to talk
about reductions and efficiencies in other funds. So we've went through and identified numerous other funds that have some opportunities for some savings. Uh the first one is in the facility management fund is to uh reduce slightly the amount uh related to iguana
remediation control. This would still have an annual $250,000 uh towards that effort. Uh next in the information technology is the cancellation of an outsource contract uh and bringing that as an in-house position. It is estimated to save
$100,000 from it. Um this is the other portion in the convention center of the two positions being eliminated in the city manager's office with the geo bond team. Uh and parking is and I know there's an item uh with William our new director and commissioner Fernandez that'll be at FK related to a couple of
different things uh related to our parking system. But, you know, getting away to making us being able to move to the CPI increases and eliminating cash at garages will will go towards that effect. Uh, the next one we talked again is more savings related to to uh the
reduction on some of our indexes. The transportation fund saving $43,000. Uh, this just right sizes the transit subsidy program for city employees and board committee members. This shouldn't impact any ongoing operations. The next one is the city is a from the city clerk
is a recommendation that we move forward with in the central services department was the complete elimination of printing of the agendas uh for commission and for committees. Uh and then the next is the other side of that education one which is a transfer from the general fund and
the same thing on the sanitation fund. So if you add all of that up, that's an additional $600,000 worth of cuts and savings that we have in our If we did not accept these, we would not be able to go forward with some of the enhancements that we had. Correct. Correct. These are helping. Remember,
sanitation fund is structurally has a deficit. So that's helping towards that. And in transportation, uh though it it will have a structural deficit when the new trolley contracts comes in, which is why we're so hesitant to to add any of those new enhancement. I know we talk about freebies, we talk about senior bus
rides and things like that. Those are all wonderful ideas, but we don't So, I'll just say one thing, then hand it over to my colleagues. I'm going to accept these in whole. Uh, if you went line item by line item, there's good things you could say about all of these, but that's how we get to a billion dollar budget is by saying, "Ah, this is
nice to have. Just put it in." Right? So, I'm going to accept these inhole and I have a list of my own that I'm going to propose to my colleagues. And I'll tell you, um, Mr. Chair, and you're so right because we have to do this if we were to go line by line. And I'll tell you the iguana control like
yeah I don't want to take money away from that but to your point that's how we end up with the billion dollar budget and we need we need residents to also participate. The city is has the basic the basis for the program but we need
residents and private property owners and commercial property owners to also do their own uh part in their own properties uh so that this could be totally successful. So I back you 100% in these efficiencies. I don't recall a budget process where we have spoken as
much about efficiencies in recent years. This is really good work, Mr. Chairman. I I really thank you for doing this. Thank Commissioner B had something. Commissioner B. Yeah. Um I would I I agree with you about everything. Although I would suggest on item number 59, instead of
eliminating it entirely, could we do an assessment of what gets printed for whom and let those of us who might want a couple of the agendas printed and not need almost all of the others? Can we cut it down to, you know, like $3,000 in
the budget if needed and then, you know, but but do it based on feedback from who's getting what versus who actually needs what. Mr. CFO, uh, I think you're out ahead of this and one thing I'd actually like to examine a little further is actually the land development
boards and committees. so much. You know, I can pull up the agenda online before it ever gets brought to my house, but being on the planning board and Commissioner Bottle uh be able to echo as can you uh Commissioner Fernandez, we're actually mailing out these huge agendas and then also if a developer has
his plans, the city of Miami Beach is printing them out, mailing them out to every single uh member. Um, so perhaps we can uh talk with the land use board members and say, do you truly need these handd delivered to your homes or are you
okay with a digital agenda? Um, and finding the even further cost savings there. Uh, but Mr. CFO to Commissioner Bot's point. Yes, if I can. And I know this came up in several of the briefings. What I think we can do because I think there's a consensus in discussing this in the
briefings is we could could uh put this back into the budget but then the clerk could then interface with the liaison and the the commissioners about for them an opt-in situation where the where things would not be automatically printed where you go back to confirm to a commissioner because some of you have
expressed that I no longer need the hard copies I can save money there but some expressed they would that's what we have now so the people have opted in Uh we re we could go we could do that again. But what we had done in the past is the administration
side was a no except for the clerk's office who had one copy for the public. So we can and I'm talking for Eric and I apologize but we can take the cut and that would eliminate. So so why why don't we keep that cut in
except for a very dimminimous amount 2500 bucks or something like that. And if there's a commissioner that comes and says, I need uh th this May agenda meeting, right? I I have something very important. I need this. This gives a little bit of flexibility in order to do
so there. And the prior city I was in, what we did was newly elected commissioners was a no. So they never got in the habit. Yeah. So the new ones the new ones were young were, you know, so that's something we could also consider. Yeah. So we can ask the clerk maybe to
go through the reconfirm the the opt-in on that and then for the committee lison like you know I work with FK is you know I have Natalie reach out and just confirm because maybe we just do is printing for the actual committee members and then for the other ones that they can use the digital copy. So why don't we keep this uh efficiency in and
then have talks with each individual commissioner and say what are your true needs here? Where are you going with this? And you know if we need to added the minimous amount in 3,000 or $5,000 uh in September, we can do that. And and just so you know, we would still
print what I call the the 30 pages of the agenda and the list. So you wouldn't be going in blind anywhere. You would have at least the titles and everything else. So yeah, and this is encouraging people to go online, right? Life is about incentives. So we'll we'll uh and then from the committee from the committee side we'll
we'll reach out to the actual members of it but we can maybe not print the copies for those members that are not so that that we can go through that process. We'll confirm each layison will confirm with the actual three committee members that they want it but not uh uh request it for the non-committee members. And
then uh to the other point you mentioned on planning the budget has reached out uh to planning to compile some of that information. and they'll be looking into that and we think we heard some of that recommendation to see if that's something where we can ask those members if they could opt into that and perhaps some have some savings that we can
recommend numbers this morning on that and it was approximately 3,000 to $4,000 on the land use u the planning board items so it wasn't a huge amount but so we can maybe leave the budget the way it is but we can actually actuality actually move forward on some of those
process and see if it actually saves money. Okay. All right. And then we can bring the presentation back up. And this is just the other side of some of those efficiencies where we talked about transferring from their general fund over to really where some of those uh services belong in transportation and
parking. So those are some of the reallocations and then enhancements, right? And these are enhancements for all the other funds outside of general fund and the resort tax. So building is probably the only department that we
were um positive about making recommendations for enhancements. They do need some right sizing. They need to be more efficient and they asked for upgrades on their technology. So the first two items are one time and that's going to give them upgraded laptops and computers. And then the second item is
to get some help on their Energ system. They are requested additional positions. We recommended most of what was requested. The first set is actually five positions to create a private provider inspector division and that's supposed to help with inspections and
help um the reprocess to be expedited. And then they're adding other positions for roofing and there are some other positions for flood mitigation, flood plan manager and there are two positions that environmental environment and sustainability will be working with
building on some specific plan reviews. So next we have um Mr. Chair, I'm sorry. I have I have a couple questions on um some of the building services enhancements. Can I ask them here? You may. And Vince, um as Vince is
walking up, Tanya, let him get to the podium. But um like we said, show us your budget. I'll show you our priorities. Public safety, but then also we've we've all sat up here and focused on really revamping the building department, the permitting process, helping small businesses. I I I
I'm sure you take notice that you had cart blanch to revamp your department as needed. First time we met the thing I said I want to hear anything from you but never tell me this is the way things have always been done. So you your department has really been prioritized
for a total revamping. Uh Commissioner Bach go ahead. Uh uh Vince is at the podium. Great. Thank you. Vince, can you help me understand just um like I I love having flood mitigation specialists and flood plane manager. What do they do when
we're not in rainy season? I'm sure that's a stupid question, but that never stops me. No, there's there's no such thing as a as a silly question, ma'am. Uh and again, the flood mitigation is to improve and maintain what we currently have as a CRS rating. Okay. We're right
now a level five. that gets everybody in the city of Miami Beach a 25% discount on their flood insurance policies. Uh we're always pushing the envelope to try and improve and raise that CRS level uh to further gain discounts uh with FEMA.
Uh also we are a very intense uh floodprone city. So the review, the planning and the implementation of those programs are crucial uh for the further of of that endeavor and that goal. So I think um in the description I think
it was for the specialist position it was talking about communications. So is that um you know like more than hey we're expecting a huge storm here preventive actions. What what would they what kinds of things would they be working on in the non-rainy season?
Would it be helping people understand how to maximize their insurance savings or like just can you walk me through that a little bit? that that's a public outreach component of the CRS program uh commissioner and uh Amy Nolles is here that she could further expand on some of
those items but again those are points that we pick up that get us to that next level uh and it's it's a heavy lift and basically a very uh very busy job. So, by funding this, would we um potentially get a better flood uh insurance rating
and thereby benefit our residents? Ultimately, that is the goal. Absolutely. And that's always the goal. Okay. Um I do have Amy, before you jump in, I do have a second question. So, maybe Amy um if you want to talk about these points and then I'll come back with another question.
Okay. Thank you. And very briefly, Amy Nolles, chief resilience officer. Um, once a year the city commission approves something called a program for public information. It gets us a huge amount of points for our CRS rating and it also has tons of activities to make people
aware of of flooding. You know, 93% of our of our buildings are actually within a special flood hazard area and we have lots of different activities. Um, and so it would help definitely support that in the overall program. Okay, great. And then the other question
for you, Vince, um we are all extremely eager to see the new building department lay out its changes and its improvements. I mean, we've all heard it for years. This commission and um with your guidance um and those who came before you have finally done something
about it. So, we're all on pins and needles with anticipation and excitement. I do have a question though about um given that it's the first year, might there be an opportunity to hire
two um private provider um positions plus the the staff support rather than four for the first year and then when it ramps up then go to four um and we could plan accordingly so that it's fully staffed in its second year.
All things are possible. Commissioner. Uh this is a direct recommendation from the ad hoc committee that was convened prior to my arrival. And the reason why we arrived at the number of four uh is one reviewer, one senior inspector that does plan review and inspection uh per discipline. And that would be building,
electrical, mechanical, and plumbing. Uh if if you like, I could share some of the numbers uh of all the inspections that we have on our daily routes. They're they're pretty substantial. And this would be a dedicated um group for to prioritize all the private provider
work that's currently going on and then ramp over uh into any overflow with the regular workflow that we have day-to-day. Uh just for reference, the uh members that promoted this and and requested this were referencing the city of Miami's program which is far larger
than just four people with the support personnel. They're at, I believe, 14 staff members currently uh at the city of Miami. And how do you imagine what what do you foresee being the impact on um improving
outcomes and time um and headache by having four versus or having this program versus not having this program? Well, one thing is it would help us definitely comply with the current legislation that was uh passed in Tallahassee, reducing the time that we
have to actually review plans uh and put them out uh in a faster turntable. Right now, we have 20 days to review these these uh plan submissions and it's been reduced uh as of July 1st to 5 days. So, additional staff is going to be required to be able to meet that goal. uh this
helps us achieve that basically what boils down to an unfunded mandate from Tallahassee. So there were compliant with uh those provisions and and the House bill for construction regulation. Uh and again faster turnaround time and uh quicker service is the is the
ultimate goal. Okay. Thank you for explaining all that. I appreciate it. Okay. Yes, ma'am. So we'll bring the presentation back up and we're going to move on to uh parking. Uh so these two uh enhancements are are being funded through the parking
fund which has sufficient funds to do this. This is adding to uh you know initiatives that our new parking director is working towards which is our cleanliness and uh odor control issues that we have at our garage and we think that this will be successful uh towards that endeavor. And then we have a list
of some other enhancements through some other different funds. Uh the transportation fund, you know, we did the spotlight at the retreat. So we uh again, we have sufficient reserves to fund on some one-time basis, but we're very concerned on a long-term structural basis. So anything recurring transportation, I know there's a lot of
interest in transportation, but we're not able to recommend recurring, but this is the $600,000 match to the $600,000 grant we've already been awarded by the state for the water taxi. So we're excited about that. That's, you know, 50 cents in the dollar in services for our residents. Uh, next is $258,000
for additional funding for the annual art week multimodal transportation. This brings it up to the level that the commission approved again as a one time during this current fiscal year. So, we're we're recommending that. Again, we have a living wage across all of the other different funds. Convention center uh has requested a few different
positions. The one we're recommending is an HVAC mechanic position. Uh next is the other side of the digital media specialist for the communications area across multiple different funds. And then last is the administration is recommending to continue with the north beach restricted residential parking
zone uh to continue along with that that includes a CSR position. And the next is refilling back an over uh an overfill position for the customer service rep and the C and the customer service center that was eliminated during CO and we wanted to return that back. So that's
an additional $3.4 million across a bunch of different uh funds. So, we're going to wrap up the operational part and I think we'll get debate, but I want Tamika to just walk through the next steps and just before when she ends, we do have another PowerPoint presentation where we're
going to talk about an update for the capital because we're pretty excited about some projects. But, all right, so we're coming to the end of the budget process almost. Uh, next week, uh, Wednesday, two Wednesdays from now, we're going to have the commission meeting to adopt the maximum millage rate and we will be recommending a flat
millage rate as discussed earlier. Once we adopt that millage rate, that will be sent on to the property appraisers office and then the property appraiser will send out a notice to all property owners on the proposed uh tax bill. In September, we'll have two public hearings. One on the 17th, which is a
regular commission meeting, and then we'll have a special commission meeting on the 30th to adopt the final budget, and then we start the whole process again in October. Thank you. I I I I don't know what direction uh we'll take this, but may maybe as the chair I'll take the
privilege to start going through some of these. Um there were other efficiencies that were put forward that didn't necessarily become recommended. Uh I'm just going to kind of go line item by line item and highlight some of those and see if we're going to have support
uh from our colleagues. There were efficiencies um that department heads put forward or or line items that weren't necessarily recommended or adopted by the commission and I'd like to engage the temperature of my colleagues to explore these
further. Um the college intern program, I I think I got an adequate answer there, so I'm going to take that off the table. uh the daily media clip. Um Melissa, I don't know if you want to speak to this, but I I gathered that that's just kind of the email that we get in the morning saying, "Here's all
the areas where Miami Beach is kind of mentioned and things like that." Again, nice to have. Yes, of course. But we all live and breathe this city. We all live and breathe. So, we're all ver very well aware of how Miami Beach is mentioned in
the media. I think at a time like this, we can use that $15,000 savings uh from our budget. I have a question on that. Is that something that perhaps, you know, we have a contract with the Greater Miami Conventions Officitors Bureau. Is that something that maybe we can get these
clips through them or through some other way? Oh, sorry. Hi, good afternoon everyone. Melissa Britier. Um, I can ask them. I'm not sure if they do daily ones. I don't receive them. The VCA does do some daily clips. It's not nearly as comprehensive as ours, but we can certainly ask them, you know, and make that reduction.
And so, who had recommended this reduction? That was a possible record uh reduction from our team. Okay. So, you guys, it was something you guys were profering, correct? Okay. All right. Can I ask a question about this? Sure. Yes.
Um, if the VCA is also doing one, but it's not as good, could we not cut the VCA one and keep this? I mean, I I find it incredibly useful actually because yes, I get a bunch of information just from living in Miami Beach, but this captures stuff that I would never see
and is is useful for for marketing the city, making our positions known, get supporting our positions. I don't think we need two, but if we're going to cut one, I would rather cut the lesser of the two. Well, just I I'm going to I'm going to
turn to Eric and Melissa. I'm not sure. We have a contract with the VC. I don't think we first of all I think they only I get those emails there like three clips in them. I I again I don't need them either but I don't think we pay specifically for those clips as opposed to what Commissioner Magazine is saying about
subscription service right because it just goes to the elected body and senior administration. Correct. Through Meltwater. But we we certainly do do a lot of work. It's not just a plugandplay. Okay. I mean I really enjoy those updates. It gives me a pulse on where
Miami Beach is and international media, national media, even locally. Um, I find them very useful. I think not having that information would be would put us at a detriment in some way. Yeah, I hear that. I I guess I I'm actually in agreement with you, Commissioner Magazine, because I often
Google Miami Beach Reach and I get the same articles that come up. Sometimes I don't. Some of them are a little more uh Okay. tougher to find, but for the most part, if you just Google M Beach, I feel you get the articles. But I think it's I I'm I'm in agreement with you, Commissioner Magazine. So, how would you all like to approach
this? I'm open. Do Do we take a vote? Uh what's the recommendation of the administration? I I want to know what the recommendation not to include it as an uh efficiency reduction. So, what I can tell you is that this was one of the ones that was right on the
border when we were drawing the line. Uh I think there were maybe this one and one other one that we were we were debating internally whether they were worth including or not. It was really it was the dollar figure from my perspective
um that from I I felt like there was a value there. But that being said, it was close enough that I wouldn't be disappointed if you all decided that you wanted it to go away. Let me ask you this. How do how does how does I know how we use it. I know how I
use it. How do you guys use this? So, what I can tell you is that I go into it every day and look and see is there anything that I may have missed in the news cycle that is important as it
relates to the city. so that if there's something that we need to be getting out in front of um I'm having conversations with my senior leadership to make sure that they're you know following up on specific issues. So this can help us like crisis
management type of a way get ahead of things that we might not realize. This is I want to understand again because I don't want to take away something that might be a valuable tool for the administration and I tend to agree with with the mayor and with my colleague
commissioner magazine that you know I can set up a Google alert and get some of these same articles but you know I just want to better understand I know how the manager uses it and Melissa how do you use this and I'll say if you're in crisis management mode you're probably hearing from us before you're looking in this
email very soon. So, you have a safeguard and hearing from us very loudly at that. It's really more a tool for you all. Um because I'm reading these articles before, you know, I'm pressing send. Um and so sometimes you'll notice in those articles the other day there was
Good Morning America. They had published a piece um about beaches that were closed over the holiday weekend. And in my little notes, I don't know if you guys read it, I said they used a photo of Miami Beach um inadvertently. So I was able to say, you know, we contacted Good Morning America and that was changed. Um, so it's just really a tool
for you all. I see. But you know, but you wouldn't have needed this for you to go out and do that. No. So I would say I I would go along with the efficiency. The only thing that I do fear is that sometimes we think unless things are presented to us,
we think it's not happening. We think, oh, people are not writing about Miami Beach. People are not covering Miami Beach. the national media is not talking about our restaurants or about our night life or about our wellness initiatives or about the beaches. And sometimes I think for us
it's good for it to be presented to us. But I think that there's still ways to be able to do it without a contract that's costing us $15,000. But I do know what what does happen is like unless we get these emails, we're going to think we're not being covered. And that's my
only concern. I would also add it does provide an you know powerful analytics in terms of like the reach of articles. Um so for us when it comes to our marketing campaigns we can we can look at you know and like I said yeah all these have merit but go ahead miss sorry no I'm sorry everything has merit
it just becomes what's the exactly you know I'll support you. Is there some you have a a good team? Uh is that something you can do internally? I mean you may miss one or two that maybe a service could do and then just send so everyone gets it because like I I could do it. I Google I get my 10 15 articles or whatever.
Maybe you can distribute that. Yeah. In the past we did do that via Google alerts and that's something that I that I have I have automatic Google Google alerts. No, but not every time but No. Right. Right. So they can compile it and and do that. Um, I can certainly have staff uh do that, but I will say we
do lose the powerful ability to pull impressions, to pull reach. Um, but you know, but we did profer it. So, yeah, we're Can I make a suggestion? Commissioner, can I Yeah. Can I make a suggestion that we leave it here for now and between now
and September have a conversation with the GMCVB and look at what the VCA is doing and see if we instead of cutting it entirely can find a different way to get the information that's delivered um either at a lower cost or at a cost absorbed by somebody else. I find it
very useful and from my background in branding and marketing I will say that the analytics are very important and that's not something that can be compiled easily. It is a, you know, Melissa's team is is pulled in a million directions and this is a timeconsuming
um task to do daily and I speak from experience. It's even with Google alerts, it takes a long time. I used to spend a good hour every morning at least doing it for um companies that were far smaller and less interesting with no global coverage um unlike Miami Beach.
So I I would say before it's only 15,000 and so before we kill it, let's give it another month to see if we can find a different way to fund it and keep it going or find something close to it and keep it going. I agree with Commissioner B at bot that
uh knowledge is power and this is very powerful information that we get every single morning and I do think it shapes the way that I look at different issues that come before us. I read that email religiously every single day and I can see here's what you know here's what the
trend is in hospitality here's what the national conversation is and I do think it informs my policym um commissioner botcha said that it informs hers and communication said that it's a valuable analytical tool so for the for the amount of money that we're spending on
it I I think the information is invaluable oh and the city manager said that he also uses it every day that's very powerful guys So I I'm I would recommend uh against but I'm fine to leave it in for a further reanalysis. Listen, I and
Melissa I I think the world of you so this isn't you know you or your team uh I get what is it X or Twitter now and you that's the most powerful tool that there is right you look at that um you can fine-tune it you get things for all
of Miami Dade uh when we talk about doing more with the same or more with less you know we got to lead by example too but I'm I'm fine to leave this in uh until a further point is made and we top of the list to reevaluate in September.
So, I'll go to the next one. And again, these aren't that there's no merit in it, right? Of course, I don't want to sound sit up here and sound like the Grinch, but going through these, we have a $300,000 employee wellness program. And the
description was Zumba, yoga classes, and things like that. I am hardpressed to go to my residents and say I can't deliver an elevated crosswalk into a park for kids to walk across to keep them safe
and it comes at the expense of wellness for employees. I want our employees to be vested in our community. Go out and do yoga that there's so many free fitness classes and wellness classes. That's why I live in Miami Beach. Be more a part of our community. I don't
think we need this fine-tuned. Is it a program that we could add further in the future? Sure. But this is a huge ticket item, $300,000. Think about the things that we're essentially forgoing for our residents for this. So again, it's not without merit. Um but when I think of a
$300,000 employee yoga and Zumba program, uh I I just think that money can be better allocated elsewhere. I'm the Grinch. I I I know. How how well used are these uh programs?
Good afternoon, commissioners. Um uh my understanding is is we do have a contract with a platform provider called Personify Health. The contract um is running close to $250,000 a year. Uh we have about 1,600
benefit we have about 1,600 total employees um on our health plan 1,200 of uh whom are active. Um there's only a approximate 50% uh participation of enrollment in the program. So there's
about 750 or so employees um enrolled um in this platform. However, engagement um is is um great. I mean there's um it's well uh perceived by the employees. There's um
uh you know in the participation is incentivized through a reward system. It's connected to um enrollment in our um health plan. And so um we think that this um is uh it motivates our employee,
it creates cohesion and it also keeps our employee healthy. I'm going to pro offer Ernie doing Zumba classes in the park out in Pride Park and we just saved $300,000 and made employees happier. Who was that Billy Blanks with the uh the
kickboxing? That is you. Okay. And you just saved our taxpayers $300,000, increased employee engagement, and made us a healthier city. Ernie, thank you. Do we have any feedback? Have we seen any survey? When we did the employee
survey that we I asked earlier this year, I asked for a survey to be done of our employees regarding the benefits. Was there any any feedback relating to this service? No, it was specifically targeted with respect to the benefits and our plan,
not with respect to um the separate wellness program. Does their participation in this create any cost savings for us in our insurance? I'm trying to understand better. So anecdotally I can mention that for
many years I felt like we were going in a negative trend in costs on our insurance and then we implemented the wellness program and it felt like all of a sudden that was ramping back
significantly. I can't swear that one is directly relational to the other, but maybe Lorena, you have some additional information. I I don't have the data at hand. I do I can tell you though that our plan costs
have remained essentially flat. Um and so there is um um a reflection I think in um the um participation of employees in the wellness program and uh their
overall uh well-being. Are the these are the classes in the garage, right? That's part of the wellness program. Now, mind you, uh the classes in the garage right now, I think are $67,000 is the cost of the contract at the rate
at which we're pl pay paying uh the provider. Um those classes are funded through a wellness fund. It's an allowance that's already baked into the cost um uh with Sigma. So, Sigma allocates $100,000
that we um allocate part of this um to pay wellness class. Okay. Let me ask you a different way. Is the classes in the garage separate from this? Yes, sir. So, in addition to the $67,000, we have these $300,000 for this other program.
That's correct. That's it. Yeah. Okay. I'm I'm fine getting rid of this. I do I the one thing I do know is that our residents our residents our employees do appreciate the class that they have here in in in the garage because it's
accessible and they can participate. It's a group activity. There's encouragement. It's even great for team building and all that. I have heard good reviews about that. About this other program that we're paying $300,000 for.
I really haven't heard anything about. So, um, from what I'm gathering, I feel free foregoing that. And I said the Ernie thing in Jest, but we have the South Beach Track Club that has engaged all of us. Those are free classes for everybody. For everybody,
whether you're a resident, whether you're employee, there are so many ample opportunities to get out there in the park. Uh, Mr. City Manager, if you have a picture of you doing the City of Miami Beach Zumba classes, I'll double the funding here. Yeah. All right. So, we're all in line.
Uh, Commissioner. Um, Lorena, could you help me understand what this program does? I I thought it covered the classes, but you're saying that's a separate fund. So, what does this program do specifically? Um, we have um a mandatory Well, it's
voluntary for all benefit eligible employees to register in uh the wellness program ran by Personify Health. Um, this is a platform-driven uh program that um provides a slew of uh wellness
related programming for employees. Um, it tracks platform driven. Well, it's it's um on your on your app. Yes, there's an app for it, but it could also be accessed on I have it's silly on the on the internet. So, what does it do? Well, it mo it it
provides employees a plethora of um content uh focused on that tailored to their specific interest. And so um there's uh content in there that will um track their activity uh based on their interest. So, if they're interested on
um nutritional content, well, then there's um content geared for them, whether it's video, whether it's uh they access coaching, um whether they track their uh activity. If it's focused on um exercise and losing weight, well then
they're going to go in there, create their profile, and identify their not without merit, but these are all things that an individual can do and coming at the expense of $300,000 to the taxpayers just isn't worth it. I completely agree. Okay. Excellent. Y
thank you. I think if I can on that one. So I think there is a consensus to remove that that that allocation. Okay. So, we'll add that as a um as an additional uh reduction enhancement to that internal service fund. Um also, and this is could I just add um just to be clear,
this is not going to impact the general fund 100%. This is in a risk management fund. So, a portion of it will go down in the general fund, but not 100%. Will come back. Yeah. So, okay. And this is more questioning um the composting hubs. We we
do we know the utilization. We have one in Mid Beach, one in North Beach. I saw we don't have one in South Beach. So I said, "Okay, is this centralized?" Amy, are people walking to these or do they drive to those? And if they're driving, do we need to uh This is more exploratory.
Yes. Um and it's a great question. So we have one established compost hub in North Beach and that's at 85th and Collins and it's been there for a few years. I think it opened in around 2020. It has really high utilization rates. I was just out there this past week. The food bins were almost full. um it is
managed by the botanical gardens and we you know we fund them for that. So that is that's an established one. The item in here that we're you know we were asked as directors to put forth potential you know reductions. This is one um we have been exploring a mid beach compost hub. Honestly we've had a
very hard time finding a location. You really need a lot of space um and you need to have a really good design. So we have been working with botanical gardens on that but they've had a lot of you know transition and staff turnover as well. So, this is one, you know, that I did profer that it's it's not a a necessary and it's a great thing to
have. Um, but if if we're doing cuts that So, it's not even existing at this point. It was just something we're exploring. Um, I I would recommend that, you know, we're fine maintaining the status quo and we can at least temporarily shelf those efforts. Okay. Thank you. Yeah.
And what was the cost associated with that? It was so that was going to be 75,000 to set it up and then around 50,000 a year operationally. I think it I think it would be prudent to wait to to to do what you're saying because you know even right now the regulations aren't there yet to
Yes. to really do this well and I think we can have a conversation once all the regulations are properly aligned for expansion but not until you know properly there's a proper regulatory framework. M
uh should we be putting money towards the expansion now once Durham or RER and the county adopt everything else at that point you know maybe then we can put aside you know the dollars for the expansion. Yeah you're correct and I do want to clarify we are operating under an
exemption because they're small community hubs but the broader issue you're right is very regulatory. Yeah. So if we can So I believe there's a consensus around that. That's through the sustainability fund and that would be $125,000 annual recurring allocation.
So we'll mark that. Now I'm really going to be the Grinch. I'm really going to be the Grinch. The $9,000 Halloween party. Let's do potluck. Okay. Every It doesn't cost anything to dress up. We could all bring in our stuff. We can all bring in our
own individual decorations. Just to show that it's not unique to the employees. All right, everyone, bring out your tomatoes. Point them over there. To show I'm an equal opportunity Grinch. Commissioner Fernandez's age asked to sing happy birthday to him before the meeting. I said no. Okay.
So, it is not just I mean, I say it in justest. Uh I'm not going to like die on this hill, but we can still have Halloween parties, right? We can still have it. But just like when I shop for my daughter's picnic, we all bring stuff into camp. Let's have a collaborative
effort. Am am I am I awful? Did I just kill employee morale? Like tell me here the goodwill I got from Ernie doing Zumba. Did I just lose? You got the You got the um I I think that you know the Halloween
party is is really the one time a year that the administration and all the departments come together and I think that it's really appreciated. But I'll be honest with you, it will live on even if we do away with the funding. It's
just it'll be a different version of itself. And but I do think that it is a a very important piece of the morale for the employees. I I want a Halloween party, right? I I want one. I I will come this year. I I don't know. Can we not just kind of do
it amongst ourselves? Commissioner, I I will say this. Um perhaps it is a good opportunity to thank the employees and the and the workforce of this city for the dedication that they make because we do demand a lot of our employees even through this budget
process. We're saying we want you guys to come back at the next opportunity that we meet to discuss the budget with even more efficiencies driven from each one of the departments. But it's also an opportunity to say, but we also value you and we also respect the work that
you do and we are one team, one city. And having those opportunities to come together to have just camaraderie and to support each other and be able to have these interpersonal
um, you know, activities. I think it's good. It's good for the morale. It makes the city of Miami Beach a fun place for people to work at. We just don't want people to come and work, but we know if you love the place that you work, you're going to do even more for your for your
employer. And so, and so because of that, you know, I think, you know, we should keep it there. I think we we we do want our employees to leave this meeting knowing, you know, we do have to drive efficiencies, but we also value you. We respect you. We love the work
that you do, and we want you to enjoy coming to work in the city of Miami Beach. Commissioner, I just want to echo the comments that were said. Um, the Halloween party is a highlight. I was a judge this year. I've attended the last few years. It's fun. The employees love it. And to the extent
that we can keep it, I think it's important. Okay. Okay. Well, we'll make sure you're a judge this year. Um, there was uh a CAT program coordinator and CAT pro uh trapper coordinator. I know not to go against the cat lady lobbyist group. Um, but this comes at an
expense of $180,000 and next year 230. Are these not positions better suited for contractors? Those seem like incredibly high numbers. 72. I'd like an answer right now. 72.
We're happy to explore how best to deliver the services. I mean, at the end of the day, we do think that this program is a is a beneficial part of the Miami Beach community. Um, but we're always looking for ways to deliver more
efficiently and and better service. Yeah. And it's obviously important, but those numbers were eyepopping where next year just for those two positions. I I was thinking about resigning and applying for those, you know, two of them for $230,000
are uh a lot of cats. Um uh so that I'm sorry I may have missed that. They're going to re-evaluate if perhaps those uh positions are better suited for contractors. Excellent. All right. For budgetary perspective, we'll leave that.
Thank you. Um, Chief Digna, uh, love you. We'll need some recommendations for fire if if we can all participate in some efficiencies and things like that. We'll leave that between now and September, but would love just some ideas about how we can all, you know, kind of chip in and do
things here. Uh, we'll make Yeah, we'll make a note of that to bring back something. Yeah. Um, IG conferences and training that that is probably a blast. I I'll tell you the Inspector General Conference uh in uh Sou Falls, Iowa. That talk about what
sounds like a good time. I kid, Joe. Uh I kid. Um and I I think listen, we we found sitting here going through this over $500,000 in further efficiencies that
we're putting forward. uh and my takeaway and I I'll turn it to the team to see um talk more but continue on these themes uh I would like to make an informal recommendation but of course I'd want it back or not by my colleagues
uh to the city manager to see put in front of us for September if we could cut our budget our operating budget by 1% right I'd be hardressed to go to any department and say can you tell me if we can't be just 1% more efficient or 1% %
more lean that there aren't some suitable suggestions for that. We'd be looking at savings of $5 million, right? $5 million to go out and do some of these capital projects. If those savings and efficiencies don't exist, they don't exist. But let's do the exercise and see
how we can become an even leaner, more efficient government. And chair, if I may, that exercise has already happened and that was the document that we're going through. So that there's actually $8 million that are listed there. So those are already there. So if there we want to continue along with that list and identify I
think you list identified around a half a million. But if we want to continue and find another $3.5 million from that list, we're here and we're ready to continue. You know, perhaps it's also just about how we go out and task it. And it's probably why uh Chief DNA um didn't put
anything forward because I think how we task it was anything that's noncore or essential. Of course, anything the fire department does is core and essential. Anything the police do is not core and essential. But if we're going out, tell me how your department can be 1% more efficient and lean. I think we can all
come back with more responses. Whether that's subscriptions you have, if you know your entire department, that's one of the primary things in any corporation, the amount of subscriptions that are assigned to but aren't used. Things like this. Let's continue the academic exercise about how to make this
an even leaner, more efficient government. Absolutely, Commissioner. I mean, you you have my commitment that I want to deliver the best possible service for the lowest possible price. Um, and so we will continue to have those
conversations. We will continue to challenge our teams to look for efficiencies. Um, and you know, we will bring back, you know, what we find between now and September. Excellent. Um, Mr. Chair. Yes, Commissioner.
Um, thanks. I so I I had mentioned earlier that I had a couple of items that I wanted to talk about funding sources for and um I think this is the right time. Why did you do that? But it sounds like we're getting ready to wrap this this section up. No, go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah,
Commissioner Buck, go ahead. Just be really Yeah. So, there are two things. One um item that was not funded is the North Beach hydraulic um infrastructure pro uh survey. Yeah. Um, we have $400,000 coming from the
Doville development agreement that will be available to cover the full amount um as soon as they get their approval from HPB, which hopefully will be somewhere in November. Um, we have more heavyduty
construction going on in North Beach between private property projects, the 13 buildings or now 12 that are are yet to be built in the town center area, the 72nd Street um, uh, community complex,
which goes over huge numbers of of really important sewer pipes um, and a host of other things. And we have never had this done in the history if I remember correctly in the history but certainly not in
recent history. I think talking about being pennywise and pound foolish it would be an absolute abdication of responsibility if we do not proceed with that. So, I know we don't have the money in our hands this minute, but how do we
allocate for it so that going forward, as soon as we get the money, that money goes specifically to that project and that project is not delayed for one second longer? Commissioner, I can answer that. What we can do is we can show the four $400,000 provisional revenue coming in from that
development order with it tied to a $400,000 expenditure. the expenditure would not be able to move forward until such time as receipt of that that amount, but we can add that to the budget. Not a problem. Can you Okay. So, can you do that with all the the the money that is tied to
that DA? There's money for um Pocket Park. There's money for um Allison Park something or other. There's money for something for Parkview Island. Can we show those as coming in over the course of next year for those which have those
um those deadlines? Some of them might be in the future. I don't know because I I was not privy to that, nor do I want to be. That is not my my uh my wheelhouse. But anything that is scheduled to hit within fiscal year 26, can we show as coming in to fiscal year
26 with the projects allocated to it so that the second it hits, we start working on those projects? Uh yes, Commissioner. Uh OM can work with David Martinez, the ACM that was in charge of that uh negotiating development order. we can identify items that uh he believes will be uh something
that will be met in FY26 and we'll show that uh revenue offsetting the expenditure. We'll do that. Okay, that that would be great. The second thing I'd like to propose um is that the commission allocated additional funds so that every commissioner who chose to could avail themselves of the
opportunity to hire a second aid. Sarah and I are doing just fine. Um we have the money allocated towards my office for a second aid. I would like to reallocate that money to go to cleaning the 200 and 300 blocks of Lincoln Road.
They have been disgusting and disastrous for years. Um they are the access point from Lincoln Road to the beach, one of the most traveled areas of our city and they are covered on a daily basis with human feces and urine. Um, I know our
police department, our homeless outreach team is working towards um, helping ameliorate with the homeless issue, but uh, currently, if I'm not mistaken, it is is slated to be cleaned only twice a week, and that is wholly insufficient. Um, when we met, um, with a bunch of
department heads and um, residents from from those blocks a couple of months ago, um, I think the estimate was approximately $180,000 for daily cleaning. um first thing in the morning and so I would like to um
reallocate my second aid budget to that purpose effective immediately. Yes, commissioner. So what we can do for the 26th budget is we can show the removal of that funded position. I believe it was about it was a $120,000 annual uh allocation and we'll show that
as a transfer from the general fund to the sanitation fund for 120 and that will give uh the public works department sanitation division $120,000 uh for contracted uh pressure washing services specific to that uh endeavor. We can do that. Thank you.
Okay, chair. I think that was it from commission. Yeah, I have two items I wanted to bring up uh for potential looking at adding funding. We're looking to cut. So, two things that uh one is 129,000, the other is is 80,000. Uh they've been approved by the commission,
I guess. One of them is talking about North Beach and um I had brought several years ago. We had lit about Normandy fountain, the blocks surrounding that uh with palm tree lighting. I really believe it's helped the uh the area including the businesses and obviously the residents. So, there was an item I
brought that our commission actually there are six um there are six sponsors. Well, I'm the sponsor. Commissioner Fernandez is a sponsor. Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez is a sponsor. Commissioner Bot, Commissioner Dominguez, and Commissioner Suarez. I could have just left the one person
who didn't sponsor, but I know you voted for it, so you're we're it passed unanimously. Uh but it's not in the budget. Uh, and I think that's uh, North Beach does tell us uh, from time to time and at sometimes I think they're right that we don't extend the loving to them.
And uh, I think this is a good way to uh to really help our businesses and our residents. So that's an item again that pass 706. Uh, in addition to me, there are six sponsors. Um, so that's that's one you want to discuss that before I go to my next item that I want.
Chair, I'm sorry. Uh, mayor, which item number was that? I'm I apologize. It's the extension of wraparound palm tree lighting on 71st Street. Yeah, I'd support that. Mayor, I know that's probably shocking to Yes. I was going to say Miss North
Beach, by the way, your your offer before uh to to use that that monies is very generous of you and I think uh it's it's a very nice very nice of you. Thanks. Yeah. Sorry. So that was 129,000 for wrapping
North Beach 1297. [Applause] Beach. Um it's on page 17 of the slides. Yes. I know that would be item 77 for those following at home.
We'll put it on the bucket just in case. And Mr. Chair must general fund, right? It's general. It's okay. That's that's recurring general fund money. Okay. Is if just to close that out, is there a consensus to add that in?
I'm not sure if the mayor was adding it in. Right. We're talking when we can find efficiencies for September. That's top of the priority list, right? is that we're going with this. Well, let me be clear, Jason. You say add it in there. If it's currently not in the budget, right? And we have direction. It seems we have
direction commission to find another $4.5 million in cuts. So, just is this $4.5 million of cuts and then adding this back in. That's what I just need to get direction. I I guess you're assuming you could find those 4.5 million in cuts. Oh, we already Yeah. Yes. Well, and that's how I'm envisioning this in
September where it's like, okay, if you want to add, where's it come from? Right. And if you want to put this at the top of the priority list, you have my full support for that. If maybe just I appreciate it uh just for process-wise. So what we do is we'll have this preliminary budget. We already have some cuts that we've identified
here and that will be the preliminary budget. When we come in September, we'll present our preliminary budget numbers and we'll say go through the exercise. Here's an additional 4.5 millionish amount uh of potential cuts that we've identified and whether the commission wants to move forward on them or not.
And then also uh you know at that time if there might be you know if there's a cut then say okay we can add oh I'm going to take this $129,000 cut so I can fund this $129,000 uh item and we can make sure these two items if that's the the will of the body
is that we can have these highlighted specifically on a slide for you know potential top top priority consideration if there's a cut. Yeah, with your Okay, I I think that's how I I'd like to proceed is we come to September and we
essentially order in priority of our order uh or prioritization we have, you know, what we could add to the budget uh given that we find uh efficiencies that we're able to reduce by.
Jason, is there a distinction with what chair magazine is saying as opposed to what you're saying to just add it in now? No, I mean I'm absolutely fine either way. No, I know you're fine with but is there a distinction? Well, the distinction I think is if there's a direction to put it in right now, then we would add it directly into
the into this preliminary budget now versus I think what the chair is saying is that um it would be considered in September that it would only be added if there was an additional cut off of the $4.5 million. Push the envelope here to add it. Now, do we have means to do so? There were some additional cuts that
were uh profered up here. we already had, you know, find $18,000 uh by adding in the addition of the four back in the fourth uh item. Uh but when we cut some of these other the the composting won't won't will not assist. The wellness program cut could uh bring
some dollars into the general fund to cover it. Um yeah, about 50% of the 50%. So it would probably take up all of the general fund cuts that you just did. Okay. So, we just need Well, let me discuss my other item first and then we can uh we'll see which
direction we go. So, the other one was uh another item that I had brought that um that passed our commission recently and with several co-sponsors. I'm highlighting the co-sponsors today, Commissioner Rosa Gonzalez, Commissioner Fernandez, and Commissioner Dominguez. This was the um the senior midsize bus.
It's really one of the things that I've heard um over and over again for several years is that the difficulty uh that we have in some of our senior housing uh to get to grocery shopping. Um obviously uh these are not these are
they they live on on their own. They're they're they're they may be seniors, but they're they're they're not assisted. People do not deliver the food to them. Uh they go out and get their their own shopping. They're they're self-sufficient. Anyway, so the bus actually great. I'll
give the administration uh kudos. The the this bus to would it would there's five different senior centers. One day a week it would go to another and the entire cost that I'm being told is $39,000. I mean that is that is a uh sounds like
a bargain to me in in the scheme of things and the quality that we're reaching hundreds and hundreds of seniors to assist them with their their grocery shopping. I will want to add and they brought it to my attention a couple couple of couple of months ago. Um I I did this has not been brought to commission but I'm going to throw out
the request as well. The Jewish community services which um has daily um events for seniors. And by the way for anyone who not familiar with the Jewish community services obviously its origins and why uh Jewish but it serves our entire community. There's there there
many many different uh backgrounds and ethnic groups participate uh every single day from our senior from our senior um population does a great job. And and what essentially they're saying is they do 80 uh 80 different rides a day, I guess 80 seniors uh to do grocery
shopping, appointments, go to the bank, doctor's appointments. um and they are funding part of it and they've also asked for $41,000 on an annual basis to be able to do those 80 rides per day. So that would be $80,000 if you combine the
39,000 for the bus and 41,000 for for here. So just everyone I'm I'm rounding off. It could be 41,000 and change. So the the just you for everyone following home, this is item 137 on the recurring uh enhancements. It's $39,000
for the senior midsize bus program. And I think that the mayor's it's it's actually an additional one which is not currently under the the mayor's bringing up now is not only enhancements which is a $41,000 really it's I think you said the JCC also JCF sorry JCF's um
Jewish community services on uh Espanol Way got uh senior um transportation program. So those there's three that the mayor is profering. They're all recurring. uh 129 on the North Beach wrapping is the first year, then it goes down because the maintenance and then
$39,000 for the senior midsize bus and then $41,000 for the GCS uh senior bus. Uh those are all recurring uh dollars and as I know chair, you know, we talked recurring is very difficult to find by, but there were some cuts that were uh just made here. So, we just need to know
under consensuses, are any of these to be considered to be added into the budget? Now, this would be a a general this would have to be a general fund because the transportation has issues to transfer to the general, I'm sorry, to the transportation fund if they were going to be covered. Um, or they're going to be considered in September if there are additional cuts. That's what
we need to uh chair. We need to get some consensus from the uh the body. And listen, just because I'm chair, I'm just one vote on these. Um, part of it comes with just wanting to marinate for the next month and finding some cost savings. And uh that's why when I kick
these off, but the other is to kind of go in I'm just one person, but to say, okay, here here's the items that I'd like prioritized. Um I haven't done that academic exercise. Uh but I'll defer to my colleagues about what direction you all want to take. Well, and I just mentioned it earlier. I
mentioned clean Miami Beach, which is out in the sands cleaning our beaches. Um, you know, I don't know if it's going to be exactly the amount that they're asking for. Um, but I do think it's something that is important that that if
we do have efficiencies that we should incorporate it and um and the uh breast cancer screening for early detection for our residents. Those two I mentioned them earlier. Uh, Mr. Manager, I think you told me you have them in your notes.
I absolutely do. Okay. So, I just uh mentioned it earlier. So, we can Yeah, the clean if we can find the funding for it. Uh that'd be great. So, it was the 40 It's a $45,000 onetime grant uh for the for the Clean Miami that the commission approved as a one
time this year. You're requesting to see if we can identify onetime dollars again. And I'm happy to meet with you guys because if we if we can't fund the full amount, it I don't mind s sitting down and seeing what can we what can we fit into our budget. It's not always going
to be the full amount that the applicant is is asking for, but what we can do within our means. And I'm happy to sit down with with you and figure out what can we do within our means. And commissioner, I think that goes perhaps to the I think the concept that the the chair has profered is that, you
know, we'll go back uh we have our existing set of cuts. We'll revisit and see if there's sharpen the pencil if there's additional cuts to identify several million dollars in general fund cuts. and we'll make sure to identify um you know some of these other priorities that were brought up here today to see if those are dollars that could be
allocated through a cuts because we also need to reconcile some of the on the floor cuts that were just made today to see what those impacts on the general fund so we can come back to show okay this is where we were on a balanced budget as of now but actually after some of these cuts we ended up having a general fund surplus of $150,000 because
there was some you know adjustments we need to to work out my preference would be for the items I mentioned to put it I think I'm confident you're going to find the cuts. Uh because you're talking literally a multiple of 20 that you're trying to find cuts as opposed to So I I'd be I'd be comfortable putting it in now.
Commissioner Fernandez, did you have two items or just one? Two. The the mamogram. Okay. Uh testing uh for the uninsured in our city and the cleaning of our beaches. It's uh with clean Miami Beach.
I'm reporting that now. Got it. So yeah, so we're making motion to add items to the budget. Now there's this is a workshop. So there's no motions effectively. Um so we're just I think just to close out chair not close out symbolic motion. We have just we still
have a whole presentation on the capital update. So again there may be things in the capital that people want uh or cut to fund some of the things that you want here. Uh but we just I just need I need to get a consensus on what we're doing with I think Commissioner Fernandez was good with us trying to find identify
cuts in September to come back to say this is how we funded this, but I think the mayor is interested in trying to get his um uh about $210,000 worth of items uh recurring in the budget right now. So, I just need to get a consensus from the body about 210 if I'm adding it all
up. 129 it's not mine, it's our residents, Mr. Chair. Yes. Um there was an item in the budget. Um so we are as everyone knows working very hard on making our community safer for
micromobility. Um part of that is letting cars know where they should not be hitting people on bikes because they are the people in bikes are in bike lanes. Um we allocated for this year 25 as a budget amendment several hundred,000 to um repair restore um the
bike lanes that exist and make sure they're repainted and clear. Um there was a budget item that was for about $100,000 ongoing um for 26 um to make sure that we don't find ourselves in a situation where in a few years we need to spend multiple hundreds of thousands
um keeping this up and expanding um what we're doing. So I would like to add that to the list of um priority things to be funded when we come back in in September, please. Okay. Mr. CFO, you're kind of keeping this running list of uh uh and listen, we don't need to do it
here in public as well. We we can go to you on a one-off and say to the extent where this amount is found, this is my highest priority. Yes. Um so, yes. So, right now I have um the 100,000 for the
green bike lanes, Commissioner Bot, um Commissioner Fernandez related to the beaches grant, a mammogram program, and then three items from the mayor. uh the North Beach uh wrap lighting, the senior midsize bus, and then the sen JCS uh senior bus program, all to be
considered. Um and Jason, um given the mayor mentioned he had six sponsors and I voted for it for the tree uh tree lighting and we've already identified those cost savings here. Now, you know, even if it's just half from the employee wellness, uh I
think given his direction, I'd be fine adding that to the budget here given we've already found offsets. Okay. And we're are the commissioners okay with that? What's that? Utilize the savings that we just had to go towards the the north $129,000
towards the North Beach lights. Okay. I'm sorry. Just to be clear, 129, right? Correct. $129,000 towards wrapping trees in North Beach. that would that would take up most of the savings that we've identified in the general fund on a recurring basis now. So if hearing that
we would add that in now all of all it's going to take up all of the savings we found on the general fund most of it. We have to reconcile. You're going to find you're going to go back and find We've been direct. We've been 1%.
We've been directed. Yeah. Around $4.5 million. It'll be a menu. I think that's in in talking with the the chair. That would be the ideas. Here's a bunch of them. Many will be difficult. Very many of them will be difficult because they will involve obviously cutting programs and cutting employees. Uh but there'll be programs, you know, trying to trim uh
some pieces, trying to rightsize some budgets, you know. So we'll we'll have some healthy exercise because government knows how to grow but government never knows how to right and so that'll be the menu where if someone says I want to do this then they can add it to there. So, if we're good, I think we're able to wrap this up
is we will show the 129, which is item number 77 on the enhancement list to be added into the recurring general fund budget, but the other 1, two, three, four, five items we will put up on a slide to be considered uh against any cuts that we may propose.
Perfect. Okay, we're good. We says we're good, so we're good. So, we're going to go to the next presentation. Uh this is an update on the capital. So PJ, if you could bring up the bring up the presentation. All right.
So this just shows where we are right now. When we met back in June, we had a little more asked for on the requested side. We actually eliminated some of the requests and we'll go through the details soon. Um on the recommended side, we actually recommended over $4
million more and we talked about funds that we transferred from the general fund over to Funmore Capital Project. So we're actually funding 45% of what was requested and we have a lot still unfunded but we did our best with the funds that we had a available
fund. So the next slide just shows the increase in the revenues that we transferred over from uh the operating budget over to capital. So we went from 4.9 to 8.4 and that's what helped us to fund additional projects.
So, I'm going to just talk through some of the additional capital projects we identified through some of the efficiencies and cuts that we have plus some one-time dollars related to our uh reserves. So, we just kind of went down our capital replacement program uh priorities as provided by the facilities
department. You know, this was a direction of the commission uh back at the June capital update. So, we got a city hall jockey pump. We have a ocean rescue headquarter standby generator. Uh plumbing re renovations at fire station two, roof replacement at fire station
number four. Uh this is the UNIDA building, the North Beach uh building shoring and structural repairs. A little more dollars towards that endeavor. Uh fire station number two, the vehicle uh awning replacement. Uh the Miami Day uh Miami Day Miami Beach Police Department firing range, air filtration system, and
HVAC improvements of $300,000. Uh a little bit more towards that training unit as we talked about because it's got two pieces. And then the Unidad elevator uh new vestibule area renovation out of PGO. And then this one's got some very exciting things on here. I think as Tamika had mentioned earlier is we
originally had identified the West Avenue phase 3 is only having around a half a million of the of the dollars that were needed to uh fund the above ground. Uh we actually identified all of the funding needed to get West Avenue phase 3 above ground portion funded. And as to be mentioned previously, we have
now fully funded this budget will fully fund the storm water side, fully fund the above ground portion, but we're um about $15 million or so short on the water and sewer. And we will uh work through that exercise related to utility rate increase uh ordinance in the new
fiscal year. Uh we were able to partially fund this uh West Avenue phase 3 by the reallocation of the Baywalk phase 2 funding which was dealt with in the 1250 West development uh uh West Avenue development order. So we're excited about that. Again, the M the
training unit renovations. And then the next three were commission uh capital priorities that we were not able to originally fund in June but are able to fund now. That's $250,000 towards the marine park. The design and permitting phases only, not the construction. Uh
Alton Alton Court Alley, a $400,000 allocation to do those improvements, and $90,000 for the Meridian Avenue traffic coming. Also, we're just kind of reversing what we're kind of planning related to 17th Street. We are going to keep the dollars in the RDA bonds of the
$1.9 million to resurface uh 17th Street which will be Alton up through the hotel which would commence uh when the hotel is completed but we can get that design done early and then comparison huh I've heard I've heard such yes we we and
that we'll we'll have that uh dealt with and we'll be that under design so we can get that moving forward uh upon hotel completion and then these other couple ones are a couple reductions actually from a capital program. First one's very exciting is we received an allocation from the state through our appropriations process and we we were
able to reduce the amount of water and sewer capital coming for our ruin replacement of $900,000 related to the payment we need to make to the Florida Department of Transportation for the Alton Road project. Um again, the Bay the Baywalk phase 2 and that Bass Museum retunda roof facilities determined that
they could actually move that project out one year. The roof got enough life on it. So that's an additional 4.1 1 4.2 2 million. Again, very excited that we were able to identify through efficiencies more dollars towards capital because we know that that's very important to everyone. And then just
again, I just want to wrap up uh the process. We are going to set on July 23rd the maximum millage which will be the or the resolution you'll see. Uh we will all work together to now finalize our our now revised preliminary budget. Uh and then in September 17th we will
have our first public hearing, second public hearing. On the 30th and on the 17th we will return with a set of general fund uh uh rec uh possible cuts that equal out to one you know approximately 1% of that budget which will be kind of used as a menu and then
we'll have the slide with the other elements that were not funded which are will consider top top priorities that if we want to add one we got to subtract one and that would be it. So, while we still have an audience, I want to say thank you to everybody. Commissioner Fernandez, happy birthday. Um, these are tough discussions, but it's prudent on
us to have this. We are stewards of taxpayer money. Um, I applaud staff led by at the top our city manager and each department head that participated in this process of finding these efficiencies. And I believe it's one of the first times I've seen this brought
up when it wasn't completely necessary through events like COVID or or uh things like that where we're getting out in front of this. I want this to be a new day in Miami Beach, a new way that we're essentially operating with an efficient, lean government. Um and I
think that's something that we can all take pride in. So, thank you for everybody's work in this. to my colleagues. Uh it's an ongoing process, but um it's a day that I I think we can all be proud to stand in front of our taxpayers and say we're being responsible stewards of your dollars.
Yeah. And I hope uh the residents who are watching and following um appreciate what you just said and and see the work that we're trying to do, not only to enhance our residents quality of life, but the process that we go through to uh to allocate that funding and make it happen. And yes, happy birthday,
Commissioner Alex Hernandez. I appreciate it and thank you staff. I I hope that when we come back we can find that extra efficiency. Commissioner Magazine, you have been leading with that message of making our government more efficient. How can we deliver the
same services improve in our in prioritizing what we really need um while at the same time, you know, cutting back redundancies that we've just baked into the budget that we don't need anymore. So I am so excited what the next meeting will bring and
hopefully the extra efficiencies don't limit yourself to 1% but seriously don't limit yourself. I'm sure if we go back as well. So thank you Mr. Chair for your amazing work and I and and just a shout out to Commissioner Magazine after you were
elected and I was elected mayor I appointed you as chair of the finance committee which is usually not the direction. and you usually have somebody who's been a commissioner for a number of years, but that's how much faith that I had in your in your abilities. And I'll tell you, you have shined and and I think you're doing a fantastic job. So,
thank you for leading us and and getting us to the point where we're at right now. Thank you. Thank you all.