2006 0914 Special City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting September 14,2006 First Budget Hearing Sunny Isles Beach, Florida Department reporting to Assistant City Manager Vera. He said that the plan is to hire Colin Baenziger to recruit nationally a Civil Engineer, and use HR Director Acquaro and Assistant City Manager Vera and perhaps the Florida League of Cities to recruit in-State, for the Assistant Code Enforcement and Licensing Director as well as the Assistant Public Works Director. He noted that the Engineering Department is a new Department. Mayor Ede1cup asked if in the Cultural and Human Services Department this would cover all the staffing that would be at the new Active Park when that building is complete, and City Manager Szerlag said no. Mayor Edelcup asked if that building would be completed before the end of Fiscal Year 2006/2007 and City Manager Szerlag said he did not think it would be. Assistant City Manager Vera said it will be July/September 2007 but by that time we will be in Fiscal Year 2007/2008 because we still have a lot of things to work out with the School Board. City Manager Szerlag finished the presentation with the Capital Budget. City Manager Szerlag then went through the dollars of each Department, and began with page 40 through 42, the General Fund Revenues. Mayor Edelcup asked about the Parking Revenue Sheet on page 41 mid-page, the 210 will actually grow to 254 parking meters, so why are we dropping down to 200 parking meters for the current year. City Manager Szerlag said he would have it modified. Finance Director Jean Watson said at the time they did this in July, the revenue wasn't recorded in there, since we recorded the revenue it looks like it will be what we projected or more, and the $200,000 can be adjusted to at least $250,000 - $275,000. Mayor Ede1cup said he didn't want to anticipate it to be any less than last year. Finance Director Jean Watson said she upped the franchise fees to $1.1 Million, and the Gas Tax for Transit Tax which are already reflected. Commissioner Thaler noted that Code Enforcement was down as well, we already received 54 and it is down to 40 on page 42. City Manager Szerlag said as we educate property owners our objective is to get compliance instead of conviction, so we want it to go down. Mayor Edelcup said that there are a lot of figures that have gone down on page 42. City Manager Szerlag said that they like to estimate revenues on the low side and the expenditures on the high side. Mayor Edelcup said he likes it to be conservative but there must be justification so that the facts are not distorted. He said if the County Courts are $270,000 or $250,000 is there a reason to believe it is only $200,000 or are we just being ultra conservative in saying it is $200,000. City Manager Szerlag said that these revenues are predicated on someone's behavior and it is hard to estimate what it will be. Mayor Edelcup said there is a trend line of actuals for the previous two years that should give some guidance as to what you can expect it to be. Mayor Ede1cup said where there is a substantial change there should be a reason for the substantial change. Mayor Edelcup noted that the Alamo is also going down and Finance Director Watson said it is because we took over half of that property so they have to rent, and City Attorney Ottinot said we are collecting from them about $6,000 a month. Mayor Edelcup said for second reading he would like these adjusted and to get the budget documents to them well in advance of the meeting so they will have time to review it and if they have questions they can ask the City Manager separately and independently and so when we get together for the final budget reading most of these questions will be out of the way. 3