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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1992-09-22 - City Commission Special Meeting MinutesCity Council Special Meeting 9/22/92/KJ Page 1 CITY OF TAMARAC CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1992 CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Bender called this meeting to order on Tuesday, September 22, 1992, at 7:00 p.m. in Council Chambers of Tamarac City Hall, 7525 Northwest 88 Avenue, Tamarac, Florida. PLEDGE OF ALAXQjANQj: Mayor Bender called for the Pledge of Allegiance. PRESENT: Mayor H. Larry Bender Vice Mayor Henry Schumann Councilman Joseph Schreiber Councilman Norman Abramowitz Councilman Irving Katz ALSO PRESENT: John P. Kelly, City Manager Mitchell S. Kraft, City Attorney Carol A. Evans, City Clerk Mary Blasi, Finance Director Karen Jackson, Secretary 1. ANOUNPEMFNT of the percentage increase in the proposed millage rate over the rolled -back rate necessary to fund the General Budget for Fiscal Year 1992/93. 4XNPR S I A,. QF, A�QT T�QN Announcement was made'. The tentative General Fund budget of $17,300,367 is greater than the current Budget. Council has proposed to increase the current millage rate of 4.4603 mils to 4.8293 mils which is a 3.08% increase in the rolled -back rate of 4.6851 mils. Mr. Kelly announced the percentage increase in the proposed millage rate as indicated above. 2. PUBLIC HEARING on the final millage rate for Fiscal Year 1992/93. SYNOPSIS OF ACTION` Public Hearing was held. Mayor Bender OPENED the Public Hearing. Irving Hoffman, resident of Kings Point, asked if the millage rate being discussed is the total millage rate with the County and Mr. Kelly said this is the millage rate for Tamarac only. Mr. Hoffman asked what the County increase will be and C/M Abramowitz said the County is proposing an 11% increase. Mr. Kelly said in Tamarac, if a person owns a $60,000 unit, the net increase to that person would be $11.72 per year. He said a $100,000 unit would pay approximately $25.00 per year. C/M Abramowitz said in the total millage rate, the following are included: Hospital district, School district, Broward County, Special Assessment district, Port Authority and the South Florida Water Management district. He said the"City of Tamarac has no control over these districts. Mr. Kelly suggested Mr. Hoffman attend the Public Hearings for the City Council Special Meeting 9/22/92/KJ Page 2 various entities which dates appeared on the tax bills. Walter Rekuc, resident, said there is a need for an internal audit. Mr. Kelly said these comments would be more appropriately addressed to the budget, which is Item U. Mr. Rekuc asked how the millage rate can be discussed prior to the budget and Mr. Kelly stated that the Trim Bill outlines it this way. Mayor Bender CLOSED the Public Hearing with no further response. 3. PVBLTC,,--ARING on the final Budget for Fiscal Year 1992/93. SYNQR,A;S OF ACTION_ Public Hearing was held.i Mayor Bender OPENED the Public Hearing. Walter Rekuc, resident, expressed his concern regarding the need for an internal audit. He requested that the City Council reconsider the organization in the Public Works Department. He said the budget includes;18 additional employees at a cost of $500,000 to $520,000. He said the City taxes are increasing $534,000, which is about 5.5% over the prior year. He said the City had a cost reduction of an ambulance service of $100,000, a reduction of Bond costs.of $38,000. He asked where the reduction is for the Woodlands Country Club takeover of maintenance of their property. He said the City has a refund due from the ambulance contract of $43,000, a reduction in the Sewer and Water Bond Interest of $200,000 and the City has over $1,000,000 there. He said the City had a surplus of $793,000 at the end of the year. He asked why the City is gong up to $1,500,000. He said there is no reason to have a tax increase at this time. C/M Katz said Council held a workshop meeting for a presentation by Kathy Dearon from the Broward Homebound Program. He said she identified that there is a service from this Organization tD the City where they aid a certain amount of people. He said this is the only Organization that services people from 18 to 59 and the Area Agency for the Aging that this City contributes to services only seniors. He said the only other Agency that does come in and service people younger than seniors is the Broward Homebound Program. He said they have a Matching Fund Grant available -o them and for every dollar that the City may contribute, the Broward Homebound Program will get $9 in -kind from other organizations. C/M Katz MOVED to APPROVE that the City of Tamarac contribute to the Broward Homebound Program $1,000, taken from General Fund, Non -Departmental Contingency and transfered to Social Services Division Operating Budget, SECONDED by C/M Abramowitz. C/M Schreiber said this Motion is Out of Order and C/M Abramowitz said this item should be placed on the Regular Council agenda for September 23, 1992 for consideration based on recalculation of the budget. C/M Katz stated that this would not affect the budget in any way. He said the millage rate does not change, the ad valorem does not change and, while the residents are present, these people most likely would not be here for the meeting of September 23, 1992, due to different interests. C/M Schreiber said during the last meeting he had stated his opposition to the increase to the millage and stated that he must take the City, the Mayor, and the City Manager to task for misleading the public. He said he has a Public Notice that talks City Council Special Meeting 9/22/92/KJ Page 3 about the City of Tamarac tentatively adopting a measure to increase its property tax levy by 3%. He said the actual increase of the property tax is 8.03%. He said the City is misleading the public by talking about the rolled -back rate when the actual rate is 4.4603, but is actually 8.03 not 3.08%. He requested that the City inform the public of what is going on. C/M Schreiber said there is no real reason for the City to raise the tax millage rate and increase the taxes. He said the City will have a surplus of over $2,000,000 in this existing 91/92 budget which will be more than enough to cover any anticipated shortfall in the tax revenue and any increase in the budget itself. He said in the budget, Council raised two Departments over $52,000 each - the City Attorney and the City Clerk. He said the City changed and got rid of a $100 an hour Attorney for a $32 an hour Attorney and yet the budget in that Department goes up over $52,000. C/M Schreiber said during the last meeting, one of the Councilmen made a comment regarding having enough surplus in the event that a hurricane hits Tamarac. He requested that Council review the Investment Report by Karen Willard dated September 9th, which shows in Long -Term Investments alone the City has over $10,900,000. He said there is more than enough money there to cover any emergency. He requested that Council not raise the taxes. V/M Schumann said to follow that philosophy would be like a battle commander going in and committing his reserves, who would be sure to lose. He said everyone saw what happened in Dade County and the slowness in which F.,E.M.A. is trying to pay these claims. He said one insurance company has already gone belly -up. He said no one knows when something like this is going to happen. He said the City has to maintain a certain reserve, which is called a carry- over. He said the City cannot go into a budget with no reserve. He said this would leave the City wide open in the event of a catastrophe. Mayor Bender asked if a good portion of the $10,900,000 is obligated and Ms. Blasi said, yes, the majority of those funds are reserve or customer deposits or impact fees paid by developers that are earmarked for certain Parks and Recreation Trafficway improvements. Ms. Blasi said in the General Fund the tax is basically revenue and she is estimating that the City will have $2,000,000 in carry - forward as the Vice Mayor said and the City is budgeting $1,500,000 of that $2,000,000 leaving only $500,000 in an over $17,000,000 budget as reserve funding. She said as a Finance Director, she needs that money for cash flow because the City does not receive its taxes, until the end of November through March, which represent 36% of total revenue in the General Fund. She said the City would run into significant cash flow problems in September and October if the City did not have that funding available. C/M Schreiber asked what that has to do with long-term. He said the City has short-term for cash flow. He said he is talking about long-term. He said the City has investments from one year to 20 years in strip notes, zero bonds, in CD's and Ms. Blasi is stating that the majority of those funds are restricted funds that cannot be used. He asked how the City can use this from year-to- year. Ms. Blasi said the City does not use that. She said the money he is discussing is regarding the longer -term Treasury Bonds, which are for the Water and Sewer Obligation Reserve Funds that the City needs to have in place, which are required by the City's Bond Covenants and will be able to be used once those Bonds are expired. City Council Special Meeting 9/22/92/KJ Page 4 C/M Abramowitz said Mr. Rekuc made a statement regarding the additional personnel in the budget. He said the City is inundated with complaints from people with infestation of Hydrilla and algae in all the waterways in Tamarac. C/M Abramowitz said Tamarac is one of the very few cities that takes care of the waterways in the City. He said last year Sunrise turned the maintenance of their waterways to their residents. He said the City is inundated with complaints about beautification, cutting the grass and keeping the City clean. He said most of the people who were put on were working people to take care of the beautification, the health and welfare of the City. C/M Abramowitz said the Trim Law prescribes how the City advertises the increase in the rates. C/M Abramowitz said during the first budget meeting, C/M Schreiber said he had reviewed the budget and saw where he could save $1,000,000. He said Council unanimously agreed to have a Wcrkshop whereby C/M Schreiber would explain to Council how to save $1,000,000, at which time, nothing was gained. C/M Abramowitz said it is easy to state, "we don't want a raise in taxes". He said this City Council and the Staff were able to keep the City in the shape that its in by raising their taxes 1.5%, which is the total raise,,,He suggested that the residents look at the other cities - 11%, 16%, 18%. He said there are things that the public generally demands, which includes the garbage pick up and a clean City. He said he is proud that this City was able to do what it could to go with the small increase in taxes. Mr. Kraft referred to the advertisement that was in the newspaper and said that this advertisement is statutory, prescribed by Florida Statute 200.065, He read from Florida Statute 200.065, Sub -Section 3(a). He said the advertisement was run on Saturday, September 19, 1992 in the Sun Sentinel. He said Florida Statute 200.065 is also known as the Trim Law. C/M Katz said he was appointed to the Florida League of Cities, Municipal Taxation and Finance Committee. He said one of the priorities of this Committee is to propose legislation and one of the items of priority is to remove this Trim Law from the Statutes so that, hopefully, next year during Budget Review, there will be no misunderstanding. C/M Katz said if the Council does not wish to act on the proposal to Broward Homebound Program at this time, it will be represented during the Regular Council meeting on September 23, 1992. Mr. Rekuc said he visited Sunrise and spoke to the man who maintains the canals. He said the Sunrise canals are perfec_ and they get a response in 24 hours. He asked why the City is adding a Developmental Review Planner to the Staff when there are no new projects being discussed. Mayor Bender said Mr. Rekuc was getting off the subject and requested that he sit down. Mayor Bender asked if C/M Katz would like to withdraw his Motion' or have Council act on it. C/M Katz withdrew his Motion and C/M Abramowitz withdrew his Second. C/M Katz said there will be no change in the budget with this proposal. Mr. Kelly said he would like to clarify a point because a lot of the public here is not familiar and did not participate in the City Council Special Meeting' 9/22/92/KJ Page 5 budget review process.` "fie said there are not 18 new positions in this budget. He said the Council did not approve the Developmental Review Planner position. He said the positions that were approved were as follows: four maintenance workers in Grounds maintenance in Public Works Department, a Field Superintendent, a Crew Leader in City Hall operationv and a Senior Tradesman. He said the City did not hire Administrative personnel and Council eliminated one position. Mr. Rekuc asked about the Field Superintendent position and Mr. Kelly said that position was approved. Anthony Grimaldi, resident of Heathgate Sunflower, expressed his concerns and oppositions to the ongoing increases to the residents. ti .. M yor Bender CLOSED the Public Hearing with no further response. ��. $Q N TO ADOPT Temp. RgjQ. #,43C7 adopting a final -mi3Aage rate for Fiscal Year 1992/93. X W QX ACTI�p*: RESOLUTION R-92-148-PASSED APPROVED the final millage rate for Fiscal Year 1992/93 of 4.8293 which is a 3.08% increase over the current rolled -back rate of 4.6851 mils and the overall millage rate increase including the debt service is 1.5%. C/M Katz MOVED to APPROVE Temp. Reso..#6367. Mayor Bender requested that the City Attorney read the Resolution in its entirety. Mr. Kraft read Temp. Reso. #6367 in its entirety. SECONDED by V/M Schumann. VOTE; C/M Schreiber - NAY V/M Schumann - AYE C/M Katz - AYE C/M Abramowitz - AYE Mayor Bender - AYE 5. MOTION TO ADOPT Tegp. Reap. #6368 adopting a final Budget for Fiscal Year 1992/93. SYNOPSIS OF ACTION: RESOLUTION R-92-149--PASSED APPROVED the final Budget for Fiscal Year 1992/93 of $36,667,223. Mr. Kraft read Temp. Reso. #6368 in its entirety. C/M Katz said during the budget process regarding the Fleet Services Fund, he had concerns about the amount of money devoted to fleet maintenance. He said the item was reduced by $65,000.00. He requested the opportunity for Council to review this item and possibly put the money into Contingency at the end of the six months. C/M Katz MOVED to APPROVE a review by Council of Fleet Services after six months, SECONDED by C/M Abramowitz. VOTE: ALL VOTED AYE City Council. Special. Meeting 9/22/92/KJ Page 6 C/M Abramowitz MOVED to APPROVE Temp. Reao. #6368, SE,CONDXD by V/M Schumann. VOTE: C/M Abramowitz - AYE C/M Schreiber - NAY V/M Schumann - AYE C/M Katz - AYE Mayor Bender - AYE With no further business, Mayor Bender ADJOURNED this meeting at 7:41 p.m. oel L BENDER MAYOR := -f CAROL A. EVANS CITY CLERK UTY OF "rAAjARA(: APPROVED AT MEETING OF 11