 |
| Miami Beach City Manager
Jorge Gonzalez |
Elected officials affiliated with
the Miami Beach Finance and Citywide Projects Committee
will be presented with a “menu of options” today
(Thursday) to address a gap in the city’s budget.
The sore point, albeit expertly euphemized, is clear:
Around $2 million in “service reductions” are so far
forecast to balance the budget for the next fiscal year.
Translation: There will be some layoffs.
City officials blame the belt-tightening on
state-ordered rollbacks affecting many municipalities
across Florida. According to city documents, “…the
remaining difference between projected revenues and
expenditures being essentially the additional 9 percent
reduction in revenues from the new legislation.”
That 9 percent translates into around $14 million that
Miami Beach City Manager Jorge Gonzalez has to find, or
cut, from the budget.
“$237 million is essentially this year’s budget,”
Gonzalez said at the last Finance and Citywide Projects
Committee meeting, held on June 29.
Some of that $14 million was found in Redevelopment
Agency funds (property taxes collected in the City
Center redevelopment district) and other “savings that
we’ve already identified,” Gonzalez said, leaving a gap
of around $11 million.
Preliminary budget figures predict around $231 million
in revenue for the city.
“What’s left now basically is find that 9 percent (or
$11.3 million). So what we’re going through are those
things that we do in addition to what’s listed here to
get to that $11 million number,” Gonzalez told the
committee.
Gonzalez said he has now had to identify another $2
million worth of cuts that in addition to what’s listed
in the budget items, “are in the nature of minimal, if
any, evident service reductions.”
Staff analysis has determined that the city will have to
reorganize certain departments, collapse certain
positions together and take other measures that, the
city hopes, will not result in Beach taxpayers seeing a
reduction in the services they have grown accustomed to.
“It’s positions — it’s people,” Gonzalez said.
One of the favorite measures in regard to a loss of city
employees: eliminating unfilled positions, which
Gonzalez has already estimated to be around 40 of the
city’s 2000 positions.
“Some are filled, some vacant, but are considered to be
positions without any service impact,” Gonzalez said.
“If we did away with those, restructured how we did
things, for those positions that are filled, we then go
through a layoff process and [employees laid off] might
fill other vacant positions — they get reassigned.”
Gonzalez said he has held two public meetings with city
employees and told them his goal is that no current
employee will be unemployed, but that he can’t guarantee
it.
Commissioner Saul Gross interpreted the data to result
in “maybe 2 percent attrition in the labor force,” he
said.
“To get to the $11 million, I’m looking at $2 million in
savings in stuff that is not service evident,” Gonzalez
clarified. “There’s probably another $2 million that are
some modest service reductions.” He mentioned services
like the city’s police contacts program as one example
where layoffs or restructuring could occur, adding that
the list was long.
Other positions seemed to make the safe list. The city’s
bicycle coordinator would stay. But the city would
“perhaps lose some street lighting people,” Gonzalez
said, with the visible result being that “instead of a
seven-day wait to get something done it’s a 10-day
wait.”
Gonzalez expects there is another $1 million of
opportunities for “revenue enhancements” that can be
figured into the budget to make up for the gap. A raise
in fire rescue fees (often paid by patients’ insurance)
could drum up around $720,000. The Miami Beach Golf
Course could raise residents’ fees, bringing in
$177,700. The elimination of special event permit fee
waivers will add $177,485. Increased film and print
permit fees could produce $139,000. Increased sidewalk
café revenues will gather $372,000; increased
right-of-way permit fees, another $56,000.
“We’re not touching parks, building fees,” Gonzalez
said.
But Gonzalez remained tight-lipped about which employee
positions are at risk for a pink slip or restructuring.
“I’d prefer not to [speak about the department
consolidations] — I'd rather talk to [the employees]
first,” Gonzalez said. “People are very edgy.”
Gross prompted Gonzalez for a date certain when
officials would get to see the “menu” for the tough
choices they would face in a relatively short amount of
time. The city’s budget comes up for approval in
September.
Miami Beach Hotel and Restaurant Association President
David Kelsey says there is focus on the positions
themselves, but not much attention is being given to how
much city employees are paid.
“One thing people want to see is the size and cost of
government reduced,” Kelsey said. “People who work for
the city are paid much more than people who work in the
private sector; that’s a big difference there.”
Other sources of revenue have also been ruminated about.
One example is the city’s now-vacant Byron Carlyle
Theater, which has been though the ringer of stalled
price negotiations but meanwhile sits empty. According
to Gonzalez, there are still options open with prospects
such as Live Nation.
“If we’re going to lose a couple hundred thousand
dollars on it, we may as well lose a couple hundred
thousand and have it used,” Commissioner Richard
Steinberg said.
There has also been talk of privatizing that theater, as
well as privatizing the city’s parking enforcement to
save some budget cash, and looking at the city’s police
force to eliminate or consolidate “less important”
positions like public service contacts.
“We’ll see a lot of further cuts, rather than revenue
increases, phasing out vacant positions,” Gross told the
SunPost. “Some of the internal reorganization is
a good idea.” Gross said the City Commission has already
eliminated a vacant secretarial position — one intended
to be shared by Gross himself and Commissioner Simon
Cruz. Each city commissioner is currently allotted one
aide and half a secretary.
Thursday’s meeting will include discussion of the
proposed operating budget, including the potential
service reductions under consideration.
Gonzalez is expected to release information about whose
position is on the chopping block, referring to the list
in a memo as “highly sensitive information impacting
departmental morale.”
“The one thing I’m cautious about is the impact on the
human capital,” Gonzalez said at the committee’s last
meeting. “There are people on those lists that may or
may not survive.”
The finance committee meeting takes place at 2:30 p.m.
in the city manager’s large conference room at Miami
Beach City Hall, located at 1700 Convention Center
Drive.
Patrick Jordan
contributed to this story.
Comments?
E-mail
angie@miamisunpost.com.
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Aventura
City to Discuss Tax Rate, Budget, Today
Rollback Will Spell Tax Relief for Homestead Property,
Manager Says
By Randy
Abraham
The Aventura City Commission will
set its maximum property tax rate for the coming fiscal
year and discuss a proposed $42.7 million general budget
— $11 million less than last year’s budget — for fiscal
year 2007-2008, at its July 19 budget workshop.
Although
the city of Aventura already boasts the lowest municipal
tax rate in the county — $2.27 per $1,000 of assessed
property value — the Florida Legislature in a special
session last month passed a statute that requires cities
to adopt the rollback rate (the tax rate that would
generate the same revenues as the previous year) and
then further reduce that amount by up to an additional 9
percent, noted City Manager Eric Soroka in a memo to
elected officials.
Based on
that formula, Soroka prepared a budget that would set
municipal property tax at $1.7261 per $1,000 of assessed
property value, a figure that would raise almost $15.76
million in revenues compared to last year’s $17.26
million. The tax rate is about 22 percent lower than the
current rate. Offsetting that decrease, the city’s tax
base jumped from $7.97 billion to $9.36 billion, of
which almost $250 million is from new construction.
Operating
costs were reduced 4 percent without lowering current
service levels, including police protection, noted
Soroka. The budget will also fund construction of the
new Waterways Dog Park, Veterans Park restroom
facilities and renovation of the Country Club Drive
tennis courts. Ongoing traffic intersection improvements
and a video camera traffic monitoring system will
receive almost $2.39 million in funding. Other capital
improvement projects will get an additional $4.95
million. Police will receive almost $1 million for
equipment under the proposed budget.
In
addition, the budget provides for a Parks and
Recreations activities manager, a full-time and two
part-time park attendant positions to staff the
soon-to-be-expanded Waterways Park and to supervise the
new restrooms at Veterans Park.
If the
budget is adopted, the owner of a home valued at
$400,000 for tax purposes who takes the $25,000 Florida
Homestead Tax Exemption would save about $188, said
Soroka.
Besides
municipal property taxes, Aventura property owners also
pay taxes to the county, the public health district and
other tax-levying agencies.
And
although the rate of growth in value for much of South
Florida real estate has slowed to single digits during
the current industry doldrums, according to the
Miami-Dade Property Appraiser’s Office, Aventura’s
existing property rose 17 percent in value, a statistic
Soroka said is “indicative of Aventura’s quality of life
and the strength of its economic base.”
The
proposed budget, if approved in public hearings
scheduled for Sept. 10 and 19, would leave the city with
$16 million in reserve funds to pay for future capital
improvement projects. The tax rate will go into effect
on Oct. 1, the beginning of the city’s 2007-2008 fiscal
year.
A number
of capital projects are under way. At last week’s City
Commission meeting, Soroka briefed elected officials on
various projects. The Miami Gardens Drive project, which
will extend the thoroughfare east of Biscayne Boulevard,
is expected to be completed by the end of September. The
Waterways Park expansion project is slated to be
finished in December. The Splash Pad water play feature
at Founders Park was recently completed, as were
improvements to the Yacht Club Drive seawall, Aventura
Boulevard overlay and a drainage project in the
northwest section. Various walkway, median landscaping
and road improvement projects are under way.
Soroka
said the city’s progress in completing capital
improvement projects in recent years leaves it in good
position for the tax cuts. “The city has completed over
$100 million in capital improvement projects since its
inception, so a lot of the work has already been
completed.”
Soroka
said that although the various plans presented during
the spring legislative session presented a “moving
target,” city department heads were told to plan to make
cuts. “We started this early on with a goal to cutting
each department budget by 4 percent without cutting
services,” said Soroka. He added that no cuts would be
made to Police Department operations. However, special
event funding would be cut, he added, noting that future
new programs would not be considered unless they were
either self-supporting or already budgeted for.
Also cut
was a $500,000 reserve fund established in recent years
to respond to hurricanes and other natural disasters.
Instead, the city would tap into an unreserved fund
should such needs arise.
In the
special session on property tax reform, legislators
agreed to require that local governments adopt one of
three scenarios. First, they could adopt the rollback
rate plus up to 9 percent, depending on a city’s growth
since the 2000-2001 fiscal year, in additional cuts.
Such a budget, which Soroka is recommending, requires
approval by a commission majority.
A second
prescribed scenario, adopting the rollback rate, would
result in a tax rate of $1.8968 per $1,000 in taxable
value in the city of Aventura’s case, and would require
a super-majority, or five affirmative votes out of
seven. A third scenario, adopting last year’s tax rate
of $2.27 per $1000 of taxable value, would require a
unanimous commission vote.
Also
looming for municipal governments, said Soroka, is the
possibility that voters will approve a homestead
“super-exemption that could cost the city an additional
$2 [million] – $2.5 million in tax revenues.”
Since
Aventura incorporated in 1995, local taxes have been
held at the same rate of $2.227 per $1,000, which at
that time was the rate levied on property owners in the
unincorporated areas of the county.
Aventura’s
City Commission budget workshop is being held today at 9
a.m. at the Government Center, 19200 W. Country Club
Drive.
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Miami
Examining the Nightlife
Do
5 A.M. Liquor Establishments Make Sense in Coconut
Grove? Village Council to Discuss Topic
By Erik Bojnansky
 |
| Cocowalk
has more than its fair share of nightlife
establishments—something that frustrates many
Coconut Grove residents. |
The Coconut Grove Village Council
opted not to back an appeal against the granting of a 5
a.m. liquor license, during a meeting Monday.
However, members said they would hold a meeting on Sept.
4 to discuss whether or not 5 a.m. clubs should be
allowed in Coconut Grove. The Village Council also said
it would discuss enforcement issues. Among the ideas
suggested: hiring an off-duty code enforcement officer
to clamp down on clubs disobeying city laws.
Kathy Komis, a Center Grove resident, said she has filed
an appeal of the Miami Zoning Board’s decision to grant
Vision and Apple Martini Bar licenses that enable them
to stay open until 5 a.m. Komis, who said her appeal
will be supported by several other Center Grove
residents, said the Miami City Commission will now
decide the clubs’ ultimate fate.
Last week Komis and several other residents begged the
Zoning Board not to approve the 5 a.m. license for
Vision and Apple Martini Bar, arguing that Cocowalk was
already saturated with late-night clubs and complained
of chaos caused by intoxicated club patrons. Miami
Police Officer Tom Braga also asked that the application
be delayed. However, it was narrowly approved by a vote
of 4-3.
But council members were not ready to give official
support to Komis’ appeal, nor were they ready to say if
5 a.m. licenses should be forbidden in Cocowalk. Council
member David Collins, who owns a store called Out of
Africa, said residents, don’t usually frequent Coconut
Grove businesses, and the clubs and bars do bring in
tourists. At the same time, during a recent Sunday
morning “fact-finding” exhibition at Cocowalk, Collins
saw minimal police enforcement on the street. And while
he didn’t find people “defecating, fornicating or
urinating on the street,” he did see young teenagers
drinking beer in bars and smoking joints outside.
Gary Hecht, chairman of the Grove Village Council, said
the group as a whole should consider what sort of
environment was best for the area. His colleagues
agreed. “What do we … want to be when we grow up?” asked
Michelle Niemeyer, secretary for the Village Council.
Felice Dubin, the council’s treasurer, emphasized that
whether establishments should be required to close at 3
a.m. or at 5 a.m. must be determined by Coconut Grove
residents, and if club owners don’t like it, “let them
open up in downtown.”
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On the
Waterfront
Miami City Commission to Decide on Coconut Grove
Waterfront Plan
By Erik Bojnansky
Plans for the Coconut Grove
Waterfront Master Plan will be submitted to city boards,
including the Miami City Commission, for approval next
week, according to a Village Council member.
Created by Sasaki, a Boston-based consulting firm, the
proposed Coconut Grove Master Plan calls for the
creation of 24 acres of public green space along the
public waterfront around Dinner Key. It also calls for
the destruction of the Coconut Grove Convention Center
and the current facilities of the Coconut Grove Sailing
Club and Shake-a-Leg. Although the plan includes
reconstruction of a facility for both organizations,
some members of the Sailing Club are skeptical and have
voiced opinions against the plan. On the other hand,
many Coconut Grove residents have expressed support for
the plan, including Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff.
Council member Michelle Niemeyer said the Coconut Grove
Waterfront Plan will be presented to the Planning
Advisory Board on July 23, the Waterfront Advisory Board
on July 24 and the Miami City Commission on July 26.
“It’s a really big deal,” she said.
However, Niemeyer said the city is slow with noticing
these meetings and has not created a timeline. Niemeyer
felt that if members of the Sailing Club and
Shake-a-Leg, which teaches those with physical and
mental disabilities how to sail, knew when their new
facility would be constructed and their old facilities
demolished, it would lessen their opposition. “It needs
to be there so we don’t have 100 people from Shake-a-Leg
with T-shirts [campaigning against the plan],” she said.
Comments?
E-mail
letters@miamisunpost.com.
