[Music] That's California vibe. You want to hear it? Got to go back to California. Good evening everyone. We're about to start our first budget hearing for 2025 2026 for and today is September
9th, 2025. The time is 5 6:01. Uh madame uh clerk, can you please do the roll call? Commissioner Shaw here. Commissioner Florian here. Commissioner Smith. Commissioner Smuckler.
Commissioner Sue. I'll do my best. Commissioner Sue got Oh, no. She's not. She's not actually can't see her. I'm I'm in line. Vice Mayor Danielle Ojan here. Mayor Michael Joseph,
I am here. Thank you. I'm here. I know even though we don't have the pledge of allegiance, I'm going to just do the pledge of allegiance real quick. It's It's not on here, but we're going to do it anyways. All right. I think you should do it anyway. Yes. I pledge algiance 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. Next item is item 2.1. It's a resolution adopting a tentative fiscal
2026 mill rate. Give um just hold on one second. Madam clerk, you want Okay. He's coming. We looking to pass it first or we
looking to get a motion to introduce. Motion to. So moved. All right. I got a motion to introduce. Do I have a second? Phyllis is a second. Um, Mr. City attorney right there. I'm here.
I'm here, by the way. No, you were young from there. Resolution number R22025-142 to adopt the tenative fiscal 2026 millage rate sponsored by Chiron Stewart, budget administrator.
A resolution of the mayor and commission of the city of North Miami Beach, Florida, establishing and adopting the tenative levying of advelum taxes for the city of North Miami Beach for fiscal year 2025 2026 in the amount of 6.10
mills which is 7.18% higher than the road back rate to balance the general fund. Establishing the road back rate to be 5.6914 6914 mills establishing the debt service millage rate at 0.2000
mills providing for implementation and providing for an effective date. Okay, before we start I have to do a uh call the clerk for open up for public comment. Good evening everyone. The mayor and commissioner of the city of North Miami Beach has opened the meeting for public comment at this time. There is a
threeminut time limit for each speaker. Speaker, when you're called to the podium, please state your name or the name of the organization which you are representing. Please speak only on this subject matter that is being presented before the commission. The mayor and commissioner of the city of North R Beach recognizes the importance of
civility. The city of North R Beach requests that all in attendance to exercise civility towards each other. Do we have any speakers for this item? Mr. Kazan. Good evening everyone. My name is Mabar
Kazan. So let me have it straight. Mr. Mayor, when it comes to these items, we would be given a chance to have your public comment. It says right. Yes. Please. This is your time. This is my own did not say public comment.
I'm Yes, it's I called for it. Go ahead. It's okay. Okay. So um so I don't I do not have to comment on these particular items. No on this it's germaine to the to the agenda. Your time is running Mr. Kazan.
I know my time is running. Some other people would be running just now too. However, um I will just the governor says that he's going to or
he's planning to remove property taxes. I do not know if anyone if you're thinking about that, if you're thinking that that far ahead because because when he removed the property taxes, um do you know how we're going to be
getting monies? I mean, it's real. that is what he claims that he's going to be doing and he's the governor. Um, also we have $8 million in reserves in the building fund
and we were told that it was in a enterprise fund but when I checked the PowerPoint for the budget that was not mentioned in the enterprise fund. So, are we being misled or not?
And um if so, we also need to pay the pensions that we have for the police department where they claim that they not the the last um gentleman that made
a presentation, Alan Cohen, in 2023 says that the police department is $8 million in deficit for the pension. And I know Mario the last city manager took a 2 million and another 2 million
from the general fund and he put it into that thing and it was still not enough. So this $8 million in reserves that we have in the building department that is
if the budget is correct that is not in the enterprise fund that could be put towards that as well. I I had a discrepancy with your reserves unrestricted reserves. I
mentioned that I hope that in the presentation tonight that can be clarified is not $18.5 million. It's not $18.5 million as you're trying to lead us to believe. It's not. And um
thank you very much for having me. But before I go, I notice um Commissioner J. Charnoff, you you were mayor for several months, acting mayor time, but none of your picture is up there on that wall. It's right there.
Back there. That's where right behind Yeah. What are you talking about? Right behind where? Right next to the chief. No, no, we never took a group. We never took a group. We took a group photo. We never took a group photo. No. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Kazan. Thank you very much for having me.
You know for you, right? You know, I'll speak up for you. So this is for you. All right. Anyone else for public comment? None has come forward. All right. Seeing no more for public comment, we are going to go to the
presentation. Um public comment is closed. Mr. uh deputy assist the city manager. We might there's a couple of us have to step out early so we can be brief on the presentation regarding the millillage. So go ahead. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Mayor.
Uh Mr. Mayor. Uh yes. No no but we made weed first. Um you have a you have a pres? I do. Okay.
Yes, I do. Uh, the title is for the entire budget presentation, but I have a slide for the millage. Sounds good. Uh, uh, Mr. Mayor, commissioners, um, slide don't work. Hold on.
Sorry about that. It doesn't look like Thank you. Thanks, Ricardo. Uh today we are going to start with the first action as the mayor dict stated uh is for the commission to adopt the
fiscal year 2026 millage rate at 6.1 which will allow the city to uh recover a revenue in the property tax of $34.8 million. Uh again uh the second slide just shows the contribution to the general fund. Uh
uh with that $34 million, the city is projected to have a general fund revenue of $75.8 million. Thank you. I'm going to go before the colleagues. Do I have a motion? Oh, do you have any thoughts on this or
do I have a motion? You don't need I don't need a motion right now. You want to? Yeah, let's do it. No. I have a motion. I have a motion. Second. Is it a roll call, Madam Clerk? Yes. All right. Please for the call. Commissioner Shoff, yes. Commissioner Florimmon,
yes. Commissioner Smith, no. Commissioner Smuckler, yes. Commissioner Sue. Commissioner Sue, can you hear me? Yes. I am Am I allowed to vote? I thought she wasn't.
Yes. Mr. City Attorney, this is a question. I thought that we I thought we can't even see her. We we need we need to be able to see everyone needs to be able to see and hear her. In which case, if there is a quorum, she is able to vote.
But we can't see her. Is that they uh the cuz they're showing the she's there. The IT people had had it hooked up before. Can Can you please can you vote? Where where is she going to vote on this? Well, we need to be able to see there.
Okay. It's up to you to vote, Miss uh Commissioner S. Thank you. It's for mayor. Um, yes, it's 12. Okay. Vice Mayor Jean. Yes. Mayor Michael Joseph. Yes. It passes 70. All right. Next item is
No. Oh, no. I have a No, I stand correctly. 61. 61. 61. All right. Next item is 2.2. Can I have a mo a motion to introduce? So moved. Introduce. Second. All right. M um city attorney
resolution number R2025-143 adopting the tenative annual budget for fiscal year 2026 sponsored by Chiron Stewart budget administrator a resolution of the commission of the city of North Miami Beach Florida adopting the tenative annual budget for the
fiscal year commencing October 1st 2025 and ending September 30th 2026 authorizing the expediture of funds appropriated in the budget acknowledging the levy and collection of taxes on real and personal property and other revenues necessary to meet the expenditures
provided in the budget. Providing for transmitt by the city clerk, confirming additional powers and conditions, authorizing incumbrances and carry forward, providing for implementation, and providing for an effective date. Thank you so very much. Madam clerk, can you open up the item for public comment?
If you'd like to speak on this item, please come forward. You have three minutes to do so. Good evening everyone. My name is Mabarak Kazan. I'm thinking we would get a presentation. Okay. But I have not seen the
presentation of the budget for me to make a sensible comment. I told you before that we've had a false false um unrestricted reserve. When you're unrestricted, there's nothing holding
you back. And you said 18.5 million is not to make you look good that you have this high reserves. It is what is factual. Now the gentleman was saying that at the last workshop if you attended a workshop that if you did not
hire many employees and did not do certain CIP projects capital improvement projects then you would get us 18.5 million reserves. Was that corrected?
And you know I I can tell you in 2023 I did not come to any of the workshops but when Alan Cohen the assistant city manager at that time under Mario Dez he
did these presentations and we were able to simply get a good understanding of the budget. You did not have to come to three workshops. We know that staff, you had the the beckon call. All seven
of you up there, sorry. All seven of you up there had a beck and call of staff coming and explaining everything to you. The residents, the 42,000 residents does not have that. If you look back in the records, nobody
would be able to know what is going on here. And I remember Commissioner Fortuna Smuckley, you running a ticket of transparency, above board, open government. What is this we running? Is this a cook shop, a
chop shop? You supposed to have the presentation first and then the residents can make their comments after on what was presented to them. I come here
And there is no presentation. You know, you cannot be acting the way you're acting, Mr. Mayor. And just remember this, God gave you that power to see how you would operate. Amen. And when you operate, otherwise he
removes that power from you. Thank you very much for having me. Mr. Deputy City attorney, please. I mean, city manager. Public comment is closed. Thank you for closing. Please move forward with your presentation. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh commissioners, uh today I will be presenting a brief uh
couple of slides about the fiscal year 26 uh budget. Um first I want to thank the staff, the directors, the city manager, assistant city manager of for their time, attention to details and all the time they allocated for the finance team to go through the numbers with
them. Uh I also want to thank the team uh specifically Seth and Sharon. They have made the NMBB's budget open and accessible uh to the community. And I also want to commend Sharon for the incredible job she's done to put
together the proposed budget book. Um I think we're going to go through the slide of uh the millillage as I mentioned is $34 million. The the revenue for uh general fund is forecasted at 75.8. Now moving into the expenditures. So the general fund, where
does the uh the the general fund money go? As you can see here is 60% of the city's general fund expenditures is personnel and benefits. Um um the what we are seeing is that the
$75.8 million revenues would not be able to recover the cost projected in the general fund which is 87.8. So we have to tap into the fund balance to make that uh uh budget balance for the fiscal year. Uh and that the gap is about 11
or 12 million. Uh in the general fund uh we have a a deficit of $5.7 million. Also that's because the operating uh expenditures are 81.3. The general fund revenue 75.8
and and the shortfall is $5.7 million. uh coming in from the unrestricted fund balance. Uh so why are we using the $1.9 million to fill in the gap? A couple of things. So we have two portions to this. We have the CIP, the onetime money that was
allocated to the certain projects uh which is about $6.2 million and also $5.7 million to fill in the gap in the operating uh budget. mainly is $2.5 million is the pension that was required to bring in the uh the pension in the
police department to 75 to 70%. Uh again, we're not at 100% uh of the unfunded liability. Uh we're also moving uh the beautifification uh staff to general fund. And for this line item, I really want to thank the public works director, Karolina, and her attention to
details. I mean, she really did an incredible job to carry on the CIP analysis, but she was also able to work in with us to find uh like this uh allocation of staff that was not supposed to be in the storm water storm water fund uh had a negative balance of
about $800,000. So, that's why we moved that $1.5 million to the general fund. And of course, we have an expansion of the economic development division as well as an increase in the debt service by the issuance of the bond last year. Can I ask a question? Yes.
Those employees, couldn't they have been used? Couldn't we have paid it from that 8 million? Uh $8 million. That's the four that we transferred into the general fund. Couldn't we have used that $8 million to
cover that? It was not in the building fund. They were in the uh storm water fund. So, they weren't in the building. They were not in the building. Yeah. And the storm water bond is also is fee based and the revenue generated from the fee from the storm water was not sustaining the $2 million in the operating cost. So
we have to move it to the jump fund. Uh now we're going to move into the commission uh driven requests. These are requests that happened during the budget workshops. uh department head directors when they presented they came back with
additional requests and as you can see here the the total is about almost a million dollar and we're going to go through each one of them because this will require the city commission to approve each line item. Uh the first one is uh the procurement department uh with the procurement uh staff as well as a
data analyst in the information technology department and uh these position were not request were requested after the workshop and required the commission's approval just I don't want to these were requested uh through you you all requesting speaking to the staff and
asking them what more did they need and also some of these were suggestions by by you all. So, I would love if I can have the commission. You want me to wrap them all and then vote at the end? Sure. Uh, the second one is the police department. Uh, $144,000.
We also have Mr. Mayor, if I may. Wait, I just want to finish the presentation. Thank you. Go on. No, I understand. I just want to say that I think each item should be cleared, explained what the increase is,
what's the reason for it before we decide on it. Okay. And I know that a lot of the my colleagues up here have requested an increase and yet may also vote no on certain things which makes no sense to me but that's um I I would like to hear
the explanation behind it. No. Um continue on please deputies please continue on with the presentation. I need the slides on the Okay. Put back. Thank you. The library request uh most of it is staffing with capital as well as bookmobile the total
is about $535,000. Uh uh public works $158,000. Human resources $75,000 for pay and classification study. Uh so that's the total new request from the department
after the commission's uh uh presentations uh of uh August 26th. So I can either pause or you can continue. Okay. Um this slide shows the total CIP project. U I think about 73% of this is
$4.6 million. We are able to give you a list of all the CIP but this is just shows you the top dollar amount for the top projects. Uh this is the general fund balance. U one moment Mr. Mayor if I may. So, just just so we
can be clear, you you have the um on uh well, it doesn't have the pages numbered, but you have the commission-driven department requests um alto together at 886,598,
but you're also uh detailing them on the subsequent pages. Is that is that what I'm seeing here? Yes. Okay. So, all the information is in fact in the presentation. Correct. Okay. Just wanted to make sure. Thank you, please. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Uh so the fund balance uh as I mentioned is $18 million. We are using uh almost $12 million for it to fund uh to balance the budget. What we project to be remaining is $5 million. Um that is going to make us whole this year. I think we as a staff and uh and
leadership we have to work toward the next year. The $5 million may not be enough to uh balance the budget next year and we should not be able uh to be getting into the reserve restricted reserve as uh it was presented the prior
uh presentations and that conclude my presentation. One second. We have u can you go see where commissioners because we uh we have one commissioner that stepped out and we need quorum. Yes. So we have corn. Thank you so very
much. So I'm going to go to each one of my colleagues given the opportunity to opine on this and All right. Thank you, Commissioner Turnoff. Uh Commissioner Sue, it is uh your turn. Please go. Thank you.
So, I wanted to ask through the mayor ask that the colleagues agree every department is not equally as important. Uh, if we're going to vote either yes or no on 886,000,
it should actually be split up and we should weigh out certain things and agree on them per line item as it is important to the operations of our city. I don't believe in completely cutting 886. I believe that your request in with
respect that you had requested that for a reason, but we need to actually split those up, cut them down and see if there's anything else that we could do and what is the reason behind it. That's my comment on that. I hope that
we could vote on each individual item and go from there. Thank you for your comment, Commissioner Jean. Thank you so much. Um through the manag to the manager, when was this present when when was this updated uh
presentation given to us? Which one? The uh the requests this this updated this condensed request. Yeah. Do we know when is it just now? It's just now. I'm sorry. I guess that just now for the uh for the budget hearing we
for the first hearing. So I think I was back there listening as you were going through it and I wish we had a chance to I know this is the first hearing but I think ideally it would be good to have this prior so that we can since you consolidated it for us to be able to you
know digest it a little bit more to Commissioner Sue's point. Um the library I did have a question about that. because I know they've been having a tough time with um filling the positions, right? So, all of these are
new. Is it a total new request or when am I missing? These are new requests. So, it's a total of half a million, right? Increase. Uh $535,000. Correct. And um how many pe how many individuals
does the library currently have working? Did you know FTEEs? They have 14 full time and they have a number of um Can you come up to the mic? So they currently are budgeted for 14 full-time employees and then a number of
part-time employees. Here's our our library director. Mayor Commission. Yes. The library is currently budgeted for 14 full-time employees and we have several part- timerrs, which
is the majority of our staff. Um, in order for us to be able to open on Saturdays and Sundays, we need to give people time off. So we need to be able to rotate them during the week and uh
so the number one request that's more of the centennial items. The number two is so that we would be able to open more steadily on Saturday and be able to rotate the employees. The
intern social worker would be for increased services for the community. And the library request number three would be in order to operate the bookmobile on 24 hours a week. So that would be
what that fund is for. It's up to you. You know, anything that the library presents, I'm always going to be a champion for it. Well, I just want to explain why my concern really is, you know, sustainability long term because I know that one of them is a one-time thing,
per se. But the others, since we're looking at maybe, you know, the forecast for next year, you know, you don't want to hire the folks and then a year later tell them, hey, you know, we don't have we can't sustain it. So even from the library's operation, I think this was something
that we spoke about during the retreat outside of the general fund, what are other ways that we can help supplement some of this some of these costs? Because when you're looking at any department that's bringing in additional staffers, you're asking yourself long-term the projection, how do we maintain that? So I guess that would be
a question for you. So I would say the that's the the funding for the two staff members that would be you could say that that could be funded with the funds that we are bringing so through passports. So that is already funded through the funds
we're bringing in. The additional staff for the bookmobile would be so that we would be able to increase services and go to the neighborhoods. That is a level of service that you would have to decide whether you would like to have that or
not. It's something that was requested and there are you know there are grants and different things but until you apply you have to have the service to apply. So if you don't have it then you don't
qualify and that is why that's there just so that you know and you can make a decision. Thank you for that. All right. And the other question I had was for public works. I know we we've talked a lot about having more beautifification
around the city. Uh I know um the director explained the storm water issues for the cleaning of the drains. Um how do these additional um ask sustain that vision of beautifification? Oh good good evening commission. Um so
the overall beautifification aspect is um not really a siloed approach. It's more of a combined approach to ensure that our drainage, litter picking um uh our turf, irrigation, all of it is really addressed um holistically um as a
um a unification for beautifification aspect of the city. So how is that ago? If the if you're not necessarily adding more folks that are cleaning it, how is it going to be general? because then that's adding more task to their existing workforce. So,
so, so you actually approved um an increase in beautifification. Um if you recall uh fiscal year 24 um the ramping up of recruiting those positions were the challenge. Um we have since ramped up on that. Um and so that's why you're
beginning to see those thresholds. So, when you see the KPIs for this fiscal year, you'll see that you've pushed and picked up way more trash than you've ever picked up in this city. Um, you'll see that we've serviced more drainage um because we worked as a team to do that, not necessarily because you've increased the capacity of your uh storm drain
operation. What we're asking this year is to u is to effectively staff now your storm water and streets operation as you've done with beautifification. Um and um obviously it's going to take us some time to ramp up like it did with beautifification. Um but we we are there
and we're seeing the fruits of those labors and we're working operationally to put together plans, strategic plans and SOPs, right? That really says here's your area, here's how frequently you service them and here's how we hold ourselves accountable to those um and to ensure that they're done. And that's what they're doing with the um
integrated new work order system and with the staff up um and that's why the KPIs are looking the way that they are looking. So the only addon I have is um like you mentioned, okay, the positions were there. There was a hard time getting people in in the in those seats. Now we're adding more.
Now we're also increasing the load for others to have more holistic approach. But then the city still looks the same. So from someone who's actually living here, it's not what you're telling me is not translating to the actual what I'm seeing. Yeah. What's Yeah. So some of what
you're seeing also is is county. So, if you recall, um I'd say a large percentage of the communication that has come through my email and to the I'm talking about areas throughout the city, not all these areas are siloed into um uninccorporated county. I'm
talking about areas that are actually North Miami Beach. Yeah. Yeah. So, um so we we're welcome to feedback and we're welcome for the community to provide those specific locations so that we can address them appropriately. Now, some of the challenges that we do know we're faced
is with illegal dumping. We have created and we have started about two months ago the illegal dumping task force. And what that means is um we're coming to commission in the next month in November actually um to beef up the ordinance for illegal dumping and also um take a more
um um a more robust approach um as other municipalities, which means including um um enforcement with police. So, we've we've met with police. Uh we've purchased cameras. Um we have already identified the locations where those cameras are going. We're going to work
with our local news uh channel. You'll see a lot more of that and we'll talk a little bit more about that in November. But we've been putting that plan into motion um as a team for that illegal dance um task force in the past uh two months. And so we're coming to you to commission uh to talk a little bit about that. So a lot of what you're seeing
unfortunately is those illegal dumping activities. And that's what we want to get technically. what you're well versed. So whatever response I'm giving you, you're going to have something back, but it's not showing. That's I think that's the part that I really want staff to understand that when a commissioner
says, "Go through the city, see what's what needs are." If I ask any of your staff, what's that list of areas? Probably no one can actually, you know, verbatim or give us um an actual listing of what those areas are. That's the issue that no one can identify them. So
when you're telling us this is not translating well. I just wanted to put that on the record and hopefully you guys can come up with a better solution. That's all I have. Thank you. U Commissioner Commissioner Smucker. I'm good. Thank you. Commissioner Flormont.
Uh thank you Mr. Mayor. No, as it relates to library. I just wanted to um ask um our library director if she can just reiterate on the weekend plans for opening the library uh as well as um the
difference just wanted to know about the difference between um the bookmobile and what it's doing now versus uh what your plans are moving forward. Okay. So, the bookmobile right now does go to community to the
community centers for specific events. Um, we go to career day in the schools when the city has an event. Um, we use it, but it's not going out continuously. We don't have the manpower for
saying that it's going to go out here and there. Um, it takes the maintenance. Mhm. the purchasing of the books, loading them, unloading them depending on where you're going so that you're taking the collection for that area. So, we don't
have the capacity for that. We use it once in a while. Okay. And um I guess do you have any um like concept uh that you that you've seen where the these bookmobiles are going into neighborhoods and how you're able to bring um users to the
bookmobile? Yes. So, so you're you're picking particular areas where people might see the bookmobile more or are you Right. So, um, for example, for coming up with this, I use what Miami Dade uh county does. They bought the bookmobile
at the same time as we did. They actually staff it with two more people besides this and um it keeps rotating um three and a half days a week. So they are able to go. So you know it's going
to be here on this date and here in another date so people can count on it. Gotcha. Okay. That's that's the difference on why you are doing it. Thank you so much. Okay. That's it. Mr. Mayor. Yes. Mr. Sue, please. Okay.
Thank you. I have I haven't recognized you, Commissioner Sue. I'm I haven't even spoken. Oh, no problem. I haven't spoken. I I can't even see. I don't think it seems like you're frozen, by the way. Yeah, she's frozen. Commissioner Sue, can you wave your Oh,
wave your hand, please. There you go. Okay. All right. All right. That being said, um, I think she she left. So, um, look, this is first budget
hearing. Everyone had an opportunity to speak. gave everyone an opportunity to speak. Yeah, I I made my comments clear on on the workshops, attended almost all of them except for the last one, but I was able to talk to staff and this is uh
the first step in moving forward for another year and um providing the best quality service that I can that we can as commission for the city. So, do I have a motion? Do you have I still have one more qu one more question for public works.
Okay. Uh okay, I'll give you that one. What what is that question for public works? So we can um land at you. Okay. So was so director Mckenry. Yes. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Thank you. Like where is she? I don't know where to look.
All right. So I know that there was a whole asphalt conversation last night. I didn't have a chance to listen to it thoroughly and understand it. Um, but my question is we do have a lot of flooding and I would like to know how you are
budgeting and planning for all these expenses that are happening inside of um storm water management and drainage and whatnot. So, we we did budget for a um obviously a refresh of our stormwater master plan
because everything starts with a condition assessment. Those things change over time obviously. Um so that is budgeted for. Um we do have a condition assessment um specifically for Eastern Shores um that um the city manager has asked that I um begin. So,
and you also approved a truck. We did. Yeah, we did it yesterday. Yeah. You're talking about the back truck? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's already been in operation. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Mhm.
Yeah. Because like even light rain Highland Village. Go ahead. Sorry. Sorry. Thank you. So with even with light rain, I see that there's like flooding and when there's severe, you know, I mean like I think we really have to crack down on that
because that is some the thing that directly affects all the residents. Yeah. And then there's updates to our some of our infrastructure like our underground pipes in some areas that are a little bit in in worse condition than than others. So we're we're focusing on on those as well. Now, we are limited
obviously to our budget capacity um as you know and and doing two large projects such as Northeast 10th Avenue and Highland Village kind of limits what else we can do um in in the city. So, right. Okay. Thank you so very much. I'll I had
a motion and I'm seconding it. Madame Clerk, can you please do a roll call? Commissioner Florimmon. Yes. Commissioner Smith. Commissioner Smarkler. Yes. Commissioner Sue, yes.
Commissioner Shernoff, yes. Vice Mayor Jean, yes. Mayor Michael Joseph, yes. It passes. All right. Next is, do I have a motion for a German? So moved. Second. All in favor say I.
Thank you so very much. Hi. I can't believe I