HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-04-23 - City Commission Budget Workshop Meeting Minutes CITY OF TAMARAC
SPECIAL CITY COMMISSION WORKSHOP
FINANCIAL QUARTERLY UPDATE
TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 2019
CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Michelle J. Gomez called the Workshop of the City Commission to
order at 8:50 a.m. on Tuesday, April 23, 2019 in the Mango Room at the Tamarac Recreation
Center, 7501 N. University Drive, Tamarac, FL 33321.
ROLL CALL: Mayor Michelle J. Gomez, Vice Mayor Debra Placko, Commissioner Marlon
Bolton and Commissioner Julie Fishman and were in attendance. Commissioner Mike Gelin
arrived at 9:30 a.m.
Also in attendance were City Manager Michael Cernech, City Attorney Samuel S. Goren,
Assistant City Manager Kathleen Gunn, City Clerk Patricia Teufel, Information Technology
Director Levent Sucuoglu, Public Services Director Jack Strain, Human Resources Director
Lerenzo Calhoun, Financial Services Director Mark Mason, Parks & Recreation Director Greg
Warner, Fire Chief Percy Sayles, Chief Building Official Claudio Grande, Community
Development Director Maxine Calloway, BSO Chief Neal Glassman, Sr. Strategic
Communications Officer Elise Boston, Assistant to the City Manager Laura Karpaviciute and
Economic Development Manager Lori Funderwhite.
City Manager Cernech said he did a follow up yesterday about what happened at McDonald's
last week. He and Mayor Gomez met with the Principal and Vice Principal at Taravella and
the request from Taravella and the School Board was to stay in our lane relative to students
and parents. We were asked to let them deal with students and families and Tamarac should
stay out of it. City Manager Cernech said the Commission asked staff to work with T.J.
Reddick and there are a number of people offering to help with a community conversation.
City Manager Cernech asked the Commission if they receive anything to share it with the City
Manager's Office. City Manager Cernech noted that Mayor Gomez also had a conversation
with Dr. Osgood. City Manager Cernech said the problem is the large number of kids that
congregate at that shopping plaza and we need to figure out a way to deal with that. This has
been going on for some time and we need to do a better job of managing the situation. City
Manager Cernech said the School Board has asked us not to do a Town Hall meeting.
Captain Glassman said he spoke with the SRO at the school and fight clubs have scheduled
fights going on at the center. Commissioner Fishman said Dr. Osgood is trying to keep a lid
on protests, there are two scheduled for Saturday one in Tamarac and one in North
Lauderdale.
City Manager Cernech thanked everyone for taking time out of their schedules to do this
meeting. Finance Director Mason will take us through the financial update and where we are
based on our current financials and expectations over the next few years. City Manager
Cernech talked about the budget and budget development and said we will talk more about
initiatives.
Finance Director Mason talked about the purpose of today's meeting and said we will be
discussing the second quarter FY 2019 financial update and we will be talking about budget
development for FY 2020/FY2021 and FY2022.
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Finance Director Mason went over the 2nd Quarter Financial Activity for all funds: Summary of
Revenues and Expenditures for all funds; General Fund Revenues and Expenditures; Special
Revenue Operating Fund Revenues and Expenditures; Enterprise Fund Revenues and
Expenditures and Internal Service Fund Revenues and Expenditures.
Finance Director Mason went over the Budget Development for FY 2020, FY2021 and FY
2022 for the General Fund; Historical Millage Rates, Taxable Value and Tax Revenue;
Budgeted Property Tax Revenue at various taxable value growth rates; Taxes per Capita
Comparison; Special Revenue Funds for Fire and Building; Enterprise Funds for Stormwater
and Utilities; Fund transfers from General Fund to Fund 303 and Capital Improvement
Projects.
There was a discussion about alternative revenue sources and Finance Director Mason said
Tamarac has all the assessments allowed by law and predicted a recession for 2020. City
Manager Cernech said there are several things we are considering for the next fiscal year.
We have talked about partnerships with residents and private HOA's to expand our green
space and parks. We have had a dialog with Tamarac Lakes 1 & 2 to partner with them to
improve that property. We have talked about improvements to Caporella Park and the
acquisition of property across from Caporella Park. There are two lots with two owners. We
have had contact with one owner, who recently advised that they are not interested in selling
their property, and have not been able to get a hold of the other owner. Staff has been talking
about eminent domain and City Manager Cernech said he will come back to the Commission
for authorization to move forward.
City Manager Cernech said monies that have been budgeted will not be adequate to get the
Commission through the year for all of your initiatives but noted that he is not asking the
Commission to dial back on things they are involved in. City Manager Cernech reminded the
Commission that there is still an OIG investigation going on and thinks the OIG will see we
have gone by the book with regards to our Travel Policy. City Manager Cernech said the
things the Commission has gone to, were all valuable. He has asked for an accounting of the
money spent to date and will get back to the Commission and give them a report. City
Manager Cernech said he will work with Finance Director Mason to make sure they have
resources to finish the year.
Commissioner Gelin asked if we had compared our budgets to other cities budgets and noted
that other cities take travel for Broward League of Cities, Florida League of Cities and
National League of Cities out of their General Fund. Vice Mayor Placko said the courses that
are mandatory should not be charged against their individual travel budgets. Commissioner
Gelin said he will not have a problem defending the need for an assistant or more travel
funds. City Manager Cernech said staff is not looking for suggestions from the Commission
as we will work internally to fix this. Finance Director Mason said one revenue source is
development impact fees. Mayor Gomez said this is one of our top priorities to capture funds.
Mayor Gomez recessed the meeting at 10:17 a.m. and reconvened the meeting at 10:49 a.m.
with all present as before.
Assistant City Manager Gunn talked about bridging the gap between Budget Development
and Strategic Planning. Assistant City Manager Gunn talked about the differences of
Strategic Goals and Initiatives. Today's objective is to identify five high priority and five
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medium priority items for the 2020. Assistant to the City Manager Karpaviciute walked the
Commission thru the process and exercise for prioritizing and how to determine high and
medium priorities and achieve a consensus.
Mayor Gomez recessed the meeting for lunch at 11:32 a.m. and reconvened the meeting at
12:00 p.m. with all present as before.
Assistant City Manager Gunn and Assistant to the City Manager Karpaviciute tallied up the
priorities and there was a discussion on rating the priorities, Board & Committee Structure
and the Neighborhood Signage Program. There was a discussion on what can be addressed
now vs. later. There was a consensus reached on bringing back more information on
Tamarac Fire Rescue response times.
It was agreed that the following would be put on a workshop for further discussion: Expansion
of the Civility Policy; Disparity Study; Commission Initiative Budget and Light up the East for
the Holiday season. Commissioner Gelin suggested hiring an event company to handle this.
There were discussions on the redevelopment of City Hall property; an Economic
Development Plan: a Resiliency Plan and doing a feasibility study for a Community Center
and Dog Park on the East side of Tamarac as well as community meetings to find out what
the residents want. Information Technology Director Sucuoglu talked about being a Smart &
Connected City and noted that Smart means different things for different cities. Captain
Glassman talked about hopefully getting more candidates to fill vacant positions in BSO.
City Manager Cernech said we need to go through the budget process in order to make some
financial decisions. Items that did not get prioritized we will keep and we will put them in a
"parking lot" for now and as we work through things that are a higher priority we will move
these up for discussion.
Commissioner Gelin said he has a right to make his appointment to the Boards &
Committees and City Manager Cernech said he can put his appointments forward during his
report at the Regular Commission meeting.
There being no further business to come before the City Commission, Mayor Gomez
adjourned the meeting at 1:08 p.m.
Patricia Teufel, CMC
City Clerk
I
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