2009-0910 Special City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting September 10, 2009 Sunny Isles Beach, Florida First Budget Hearing projects this past year, and are about to wrap up the Drainage Infrastructure Projects in Central Island 172nd Street, and he also noted several projects for the coming year. He stated that a Capital Replacement Program was established starting off with $400,000, and most importantly the City has continued financial stability with an estimated General Fund unreserved and undesignated surplus of $7.6 Million plus additional emergency funds. We are not planning on using any surplus funds in next year's budget for FY 2009/2010, and we have accomplished all of this with an overall reduction of almost $1.7 Million in our General Fund Expenses. Overall City budgets have been reduced by $7.4 Million almost 12% and that is due to completion of some of those major projects. The City was notified in July that property values overall decreased by 17.6% however, the City had $946 Million of new development and construction, and our new construction accounted for 11 % of the total Miami -Dade County new construction, but as far as area -wise we are only about 1 /10 of a percent of the total area and population of the County. The overall net reduction then for the City in property values is 2.6% and our new value was a little over $6.1 Billion. The tax rate we are proposing with the budget is 2.65 Mills, ranking us 30 out of 35 municipalities in the County, it is also 9.74% below the allowable roll -back rate of 2.9361 Mills. As a reminder, the City's portion of the tax bill is only about 13% of the total, 81% of the tax bill for our residents is comprised of the County and schools, and the rest in special agencies. The bottom line is that a majority of our residents will see a reduction in the City portion of the tax bill and that is primarily due to a large number of non - homesteaded properties within the City. General Fund Revenues: Assistant City Manager Haag went over some highlights, of the General Fund Revenues reporting that our property taxes increased by about $600,000 primarily due to the new development and construction, utility taxes and franchise fees also increased by about $365,000 also because of that new development as we are adding new units and more people are coming in. On the down side, Building Permits have decreased by about $341,000 or by 17% due to economic conditions. Likewise, our State share of revenues will decline by about 15% for the same reasons. Miscellaneous revenues actually declined by about $2.3 Million, this is one of those odd instances where a declining revenue is good because it means we are not using our surplus this year. Cultural and Human Services Department revenues increased by about $400,000 or 64% due to new afterschool program and facility naming rights fees. General Fund Expenses: Assistant City Manager Haag stated that overall expenses are down by about $1.7 Million or 6 %, operating expenses alone comprised about $707,000 that decreased with 3.4 %. The Building Department expenses decreased by about $500,000 or 33% due to staffing reductions to align that Department with the decrease in revenues. The Administrative Services budget decreased by $108,000 as we cut out some overhead costs for marketing and other areas. Police /Schools budget decreased by about $350,000 or 5% through the use of small alternative funding. Public Works and Property Management also decreased by almost $900,000 through cost reallocations, and renegotiating property tax fees. IT and Wireless Island is down by $71,000 or 7% where we renegotiated some significant vendor contracts. Transfers and Debt Service also decreased by almost $1.5 Million or by 22% by reducing our transfer to Capital Improvement Projects Funds. Public Speakers: none 4