[3:30] Good evening, everyone. Please turn off your phones or put them on silent.

[3:35] And I will start the budget meeting at 6.30. Please stand for the pledge.

[3:51] Thank

[4:03] you.

[4:08] Roll call, please.

[4:09] Commissioner Brocky.

[4:10] Here.

[4:11] Commissioner Dharminio.

[4:12] Here.

[4:12] Commissioner Roli.

[4:13] Here.

[4:14] Vice Mayor Caputo.

[4:15] Here.

[4:15] Mayor Newton.

[4:16] Here.

[4:17] City manager.

[4:30] Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of the commission. This is a follow-up to the last budget workshop

[4:37] where the commission thoroughly reviewed all of the funds in the city budget as well as

[4:43] gave direction on the tentative milligrate. At that commission meeting, the proposed operating

[4:48] milligrate was flat from the current fiscal year at 6.2270. The commission authorized

[4:54] tentative millidrate of $6.000 resulting in an overall budget reduction of $500 and about

[5:06] $542,000. Within the backup of this evening's agenda is a summary of the budget changes

[5:13] that were made to balance that the primarily were I'm sorry it's about

[5:20] five hundred and sixty thousand. There was a negotiation of our fire

[5:26] agreement and we were able to lower the cost of the general fund portion of that

[5:30] agreement by one hundred thirty two thousand as well as reduce the city's

[5:36] contribution for exempt organizations for fire services of about seven thousand

[5:41] and other operational reductions were made.

[5:45] The city commission provided direction

[5:47] to reduce capital expenditure by $100,000,

[5:52] and that was related specifically to one project.

[5:55] There's also an appropriation of fund balance.

[5:57] There was a discussion about that at the budget workshop

[6:00] and trying to bring that down

[6:02] as an overall percentage of the general fund operating.

[6:06] So at this meeting, our intention is to

[6:11] see if there's consensus on the recommended changes and to understand your direction on the final millage rate because we have our

[6:20] public hearings and

[6:22] Need to publish our advertisements in September

[6:28] All right. Thank you now. We'll ask anybody from the public like to speak to

[6:32] Come up. You get three minutes. Just state your name

[6:35] If you would and address

[6:47] Mary all two eight one nine Northwest 12th Avenue. Good evening

[6:53] Last week you were emailed a petition from 75 Wilton Manors residents who are seniors

[7:00] in response to Mayor Newton's request for input into the 26-27 budget.

[7:07] Programs offered through leisure services such as brains and balance, chair volleyball, library

[7:14] activities, music, and movie events in our parks play a vital role in supporting the health

[7:21] and well-being of older residents.

[7:24] These activities help us stay socially connected,

[7:27] physically engaged, and mentally stimulated.

[7:34] Social isolation among seniors is a huge issue

[7:39] as supported by scientific research.

[7:42] It is particularly damning for older adults who are less able

[7:47] to cope with its negative effects

[7:50] and it significantly increases the risk of death, heart disease, stroke, and dementia.

[7:56] As of June 2025, residents of Wilton Manors age 65 and older comprise 23% of the population.

[8:08] As you consider budget priorities, we respectfully ask that you recognize the importance of

[8:15] programs to maintaining a healthy, connected, and thriving senior community and ensure that

[8:22] they remain supportive and accessible. Thank you.

[8:25] Thank you. Anyone else like to come up?

[8:31] Come on up.

[8:38] Somebody can't hear? What?

[8:40] You can come up. Okay. That's okay. Anybody else for budget? Seeing none. I'll close

[8:50] the public hearing, and if we could turn up when we have ComMess during the

[8:56] River City Commission meeting so people can hear. And if you just pull the

[8:58] microphone closer to your to your mouth it's better so you can hear more. You

[9:03] are talking about there whoever said they couldn't hear, right? It's everything.

[9:08] Sit closer.

[9:11] All right there's only one comment and I'd just like to make

[9:15] comment for it not a comment but City Manager, has there any of those

[9:20] progress been cut from our budget?

[9:24] No was the answer just so you I don't think any

[9:28] of us here wanted to cut that part of our budget. No. All right let's start

[9:32] anybody want to have any comments on tonight? Go ahead Don. Sure so at the

[9:39] last budget workshop we reduced the we agreed to reduce the millage rate from

[9:46] from 6.2270 to 6.0.

[9:50] We are almost at the rollback rate, which is 5.9835.

[9:57] And we've cut the taxes for next year by $542,000 already.

[10:04] It's only an additional $40,000 or so

[10:07] to adopt the rollback rate, which would mean no new taxes.

[10:12] is it would be the same taxes last year.

[10:16] So I really think I don't ever recall our city adopting

[10:20] the rollback rate.

[10:21] And I think that we have an opportunity to do that.

[10:25] So I would like to recommend that we

[10:28] adopt the rollback millage rate of 5.9835.

[10:33] Where would you suggest you take it from?

[10:35] It would come out of the unassigned balance.

[10:37] OK.

[10:39] anybody has any comments about that so I got my my trim notice and it was based

[10:45] on though what we had set here the highest limit and my taxes only went up

[10:49] $8 which I was pretty excited because that was the lowest increase of any of

[10:52] the things on that bill and that was knowing that we were still going to

[10:54] take it down lower from there so as much as all the taxes are all too high

[10:58] everywhere it was encouraging that ours were sort of the the lowest of

[11:02] them in that way as far as supporting the world-back rate for

[11:05] $42,000 I I mean I think it's a it shows good financial stewardship to do that

[11:10] and it doesn't matter to me if it comes from the fund balance or I continue to

[11:13] argue that some of our stress revenue like the fine revenue is a little bit

[11:19] low if we took $42,000 under that that's fine too it doesn't matter to

[11:23] me which where you want to play with it from okay anybody down here yeah I

[11:28] would support the rollback rate I would support the rollback rate but I

[11:31] I wouldn't take it out of the fund balance.

[11:34] I would suggest that we raise our revenue estimate for code

[11:38] fines.

[11:44] I do.

[11:45] Thank you.

[11:48] Mr. Terminio, I appreciate you coming back

[11:51] and proposing that I've been talking

[11:53] about the rollback rating since the first budget meeting

[11:56] that we've had.

[11:57] So I appreciate, finally, somebody

[11:58] or more people now agreeing with me.

[12:00] I don't necessarily agree where we get those funds from.

[12:04] I believe we should be pulling these from recurring costs.

[12:07] I don't believe we should be using the unassigned balance fund to pay for that.

[12:12] Nor do I think we should just artificially raise revenue to make up for that.

[12:19] In that 542,000, there's already 194,000 from the fund balance.

[12:25] Correct.

[12:27] And again, I don't think that's the right way to do it, right?

[12:29] When we talked about going back to the rollback rate of previous meetings,

[12:33] that 542,000, it's about a 2% reduction in the general fund.

[12:37] That's, again, two pennies people.

[12:39] We're talking about two cents in efficiencies.

[12:41] And it's up to the city manager to find them.

[12:44] I had conversations with her.

[12:45] She said we may need to discuss potential services

[12:48] that may need to be adjusted.

[12:50] Times, I think that's the way to go.

[12:52] I don't think it should be increasing

[12:55] a revenue artificially or from the unassigned balance

[12:59] fund.

[12:59] And then I also just want to make a comment.

[13:03] Again, people will not be paying the same taxes as last year.

[13:06] Although we are reducing the millitrate,

[13:10] all the other fees, except for the fire fee, are going up.

[13:14] So city manager, what was the average cost increase?

[13:18] I think it was $230 or $230 from the fees.

[13:25] Yes and for anybody that would like to see a reference to the numbers that you're

[13:31] speaking about we do have in the backup an overall household change to fees and

[13:40] taxes for an average taxpayer and an average utility rate customer for I

[13:47] I think our house would save our homes

[13:51] with a taxable value of 400,000.

[13:54] We'll have a reduction in taxes of 27 per year

[13:57] and the fire assessment of 19 per year.

[13:59] However, utility rates will be increasing.

[14:03] And so for a typical single family household

[14:05] with an average consumption,

[14:07] they will see a $264 per year increase

[14:12] in water, stormwater, sewer, garbage, fees.

[14:17] And so again, can you say that number again?

[14:20] Just so everyone can increase.

[14:29] 264.

[14:30] So although, Commissioner, I appreciate your bill going

[14:33] down $8, just specifically based on the millage rate.

[14:40] With this budget, everyone's taxes are going up.

[14:44] And that's an average.

[14:45] Europe is an average of people who would save our homes.

[14:48] Do we have an estimate of what the change in the millage

[14:52] rate will do to people without saving our homes. You may be saving $1 and people

[14:56] always say $40 depending on the value of your house if you're homesteaded.

[15:01] No, that actually was difficult to calculate. A house would save our homes. It's based upon

[15:08] the taxable value of the property. A property would save our homes taxable value increased

[15:13] across the board uniformly 2.7%. And that's based on a state statute formula. For a property

[15:20] that doesn't have save our homes, and we're talking about commercial and residential properties,

[15:25] properties, it's not uniform. There are properties that decreased in taxable value and some properties

[15:32] that increased as much as 10%. The average taxable value of a non-homesteaded property

[15:39] between 26 and 25 actually decreased when we look at just the averages. And I don't

[15:47] think that that's, it's not consistent for every property. So looking at overall

[15:53] It's a decrease in Avalorum, but we know that's not the case for many non-homestead properties.

[16:00] So for a non-homestead second homeowner that has a million-dollar house here supporting

[16:05] our community coming down during the winter, potentially their taxes are going up 10%.

[16:09] If their taxable value increased by 10%.

[16:12] So potentially their taxes are going up $1,000 while yours may be going down $8.

[16:16] In addition to the $265 that's going up.

[16:21] So it's hard for me to talk about here

[16:26] how we're reducing, reducing the budget, reducing the budget.

[16:28] Folks, just be clear, this budget

[16:30] raises every single one of your taxes, OK?

[16:34] I'm not a mathematician.

[16:35] I'm not an accountant.

[16:36] All I know is if I'm paying more next year

[16:39] than I'm paying more this year, it's a tax increase.

[16:42] Ultimately, that's what it comes down to.

[16:44] And I struggle because people on this commission

[16:47] will talk about, we need workforce housing.

[16:49] people on bartenders should be able to live on Bolton Drive right close to

[16:54] where they work. It's already unaffordable they can't do that and by

[16:58] increasing taxes on non homesteaded properties you think landlords are going

[17:02] to eat that cost? No they're gonna pass that cost right off to the tenants just

[17:06] to make the city more and more unaffordable. Again my point is with

[17:10] this budget your taxes are going up no matter how much you hear the word

[17:13] reduce reduction rollback rate. Your taxes are going up unless we continue to

[17:18] fine recurrent savings and it may be a form of another $500,000. I don't think

[17:23] the city manager we talked about it yesterday was able to get to a number

[17:27] of where your taxes will be zero increase with those assessments.

[17:32] Ultimately that's where I want to be. We all shop in publics, we know how

[17:37] things cost and I think it's our duty to the public to try to help just a

[17:42] little bit with this affordability crisis.

[17:46] Well you're right about one thing everybody's water bill and electric bill

[17:50] or water bill and screw bills going up. Check every city in Broward County.

[17:54] They all have the same problem. Pipes are getting old. They have to redo their

[17:59] pipes, stations, everything that we do they're doing. So it's not uncommon right

[18:03] now to do that. I think we're ahead of the curve compared of a lot of cities

[18:08] in Broward County on doing that. It's going to cost a lot of other cities a

[18:11] lot more money is costing us because we've been doing it for quite a few years now.

[18:17] But get down brass tax. If the city has not charged you any more money in taxes this year,

[18:23] the city of Wilton Manors and the city commission up here is doing a good service done. It's

[18:27] just for ourselves because we all live here, of course, but for all of you. How many of

[18:30] your homesteaded homes? Just curious. How many live in Wilton Manors? I'm just curious

[18:36] because I mean there aren't people I know come in not from Wilton Manors. So most

[18:39] Most of you are home-setted, so most of you will not see an increase in the city part

[18:43] of the taxes.

[18:45] And yes, the rest will be school board and others that are going to be raised.

[18:49] But I think we've done a really good job here this year, especially when we don't know what's

[18:55] going to happen because of Amendment 3 coming up.

[18:58] Sorry, you pushed the button.

[18:59] Go ahead and turn it.

[19:00] I think it's the red one.

[19:01] No?

[19:02] No?

[19:04] No?

[19:04] All right.

[19:05] Meeting's over.

[19:06] No.

[19:07] It's alright. It's alright. It didn't hurt anything. You're okay. But we can take it

[19:17] out of the, you know, add fines for code and put it in there. If we come up short, it's

[19:22] going to come out of unfunded balance. We can take it out of unfunded balance and,

[19:27] you know, if it doesn't meet, we can average that way. So it doesn't really matter where

[19:30] we take it out of. So I don't care. Whoever wants to make a motion and put in either

[19:34] one let's do that but I think we're on the same page here. There's additional points I just wanted to

[19:39] finish this conversation. Yeah no I wanted to finish up this part of the conversation so

[19:43] I don't know if you all want to come to an agreement on where the money's going to come from

[19:47] or well first of all are we agreeing upon the fact that we're going to lower it down to the

[19:51] rollback rate? I am. Everybody in favor say aye. Yeah I am. All right now. Can we just can

[19:58] can we just ask the city manager to explain to everyone what that means the rollback rate?

[20:03] The rollback rate? Sure. The rollback rate is the millage rate that would need to be assessed

[20:09] for the city to receive, collect the exact same dollars from property taxes as the prior fiscal

[20:16] year. It doesn't translate to each property paying the same amount because there's changes

[20:21] individually from property sales and homestead versus non-homestead, but it's the rate that

[20:26] would result in the city collecting the exact same amount.

[20:30] So from property taxes, it would be no, a zero tax increase to the city from the property

[20:38] tax perspective.

[20:38] From a collection, yes.

[20:40] From a property tax collection.

[20:41] And the aggregate.

[20:42] Okay.

[20:43] Thank you.

[20:44] So you, anybody want to make a motion to, I will make a motion that we.

[20:50] This is workshop.

[20:52] Oh, that's right.

[20:53] That's right.

[20:54] We're just giving you direction.

[20:55] That's right.

[20:55] Thank you.

[20:56] All right.

[20:57] I have additional questions for that for this part not for necessarily for this

[21:02] part now okay I mean it's about where I couldn't take it from oh yeah no you

[21:06] could all decide that where the money's gonna come from yeah well we got to get

[21:10] the city manager direction or you come from recurring some type of recurring

[21:14] cost otherwise next year we're in the same position of here we are now we

[21:18] need to find additional dollars because we took it from the unassigned balance

[21:21] balance funds from the revenue perspective.

[21:25] On a recurring basis, we have understated some revenues,

[21:29] including code, which is why the fund balance continues to grow.

[21:33] Let's not make up revenue and just say arbitrarily it's going to come from there, but consistently

[21:37] we have understated the code compliance revenue over the last three years

[21:41] and we have pending foreclosures, a growing list of pending foreclosures.

[21:47] I'm confident that we can get from the

[21:48] one million to the one million forty thousand.

[21:52] I just I think it doesn't make

[21:53] sense to do that otherwise. I agree with that. Can the city managers just

[22:00] remind us of what the current code revenue is in the budget? I know for the

[22:05] last three years we've had a million dollars or so of money coming in

[22:10] consistently every year for the last three years. I just don't recall what

[22:14] we budgeted for code fines. The proposed budget includes one million

[22:18] dollars in revenue okay all right so I'm for taking it out of a fun balance yeah

[22:27] so or we can increase it by the forty thousand dollars and if we don't meet

[22:31] that target to your point mayor it would come out of the unassigned fund

[22:34] balance that's fine for me I didn't understand how you I suggested that we

[22:47] Let me increase the code, find revenue, but I think it's $40,902 is the amount.

[22:53] And I said, if we don't meet that target, it would ultimately come out of the undersigned fund balance.

[22:58] Just like any other expense.

[23:00] Right, I agree.

[23:01] All right, so you have place four, I don't know where you're at.

[23:04] It's just bad accounting for us.

[23:06] It's four.

[23:08] Okay, anything else for the budget?

[23:10] Yeah, so I talked to the city manager.

[23:12] We have two years left on the city hall bond.

[23:15] we have payments paying interest on and you know there's a debt millage rate that

[23:21] we have here. The interest that we collect on that is variable and it's

[23:29] extremely small so I want to just have the conversation maybe City Manager you

[23:33] could provide more edification to the residents of what I'm talking about

[23:39] here. This city hall construction was funded through a voter approved debt

[23:48] service millage rate meaning the city put on a referendum for voters to approve

[23:55] an additional millage rate which shows up on your tax bill each year that

[24:01] provides the exact amount of revenue to the city that's needed to make the

[24:05] annual debt service payment on the 2008 City Hall bond. Once that bond is paid off, that

[24:13] debt service millage rate would go away. We have two years left to pay for that. So for

[24:20] the next two tax years, our voters would be paying .1598 mills. The total amount that

[24:29] the city owes is $780,736 with an interest rate of 1.46%.

[24:39] There is no prepayment penalty if we make the payment in full.

[24:46] So I'm making the recommendation that we take the 740 to something

[24:50] thousand from the unassigned balance fund,

[24:52] pay down that loan, and then we

[24:55] could take that debt millage rate off of the books.

[24:58] Do we make any interest on our money?

[25:03] Yes.

[25:03] Our cash is part of a state investment pool called Florida Prime.

[25:08] The interest rate that we receive on those investments is 3.83%.

[25:14] There's a, obviously if we pre-pay the loan, there's an opportunity cost of revenue loss.

[25:20] $13,588 is the difference between estimated interest received versus the interest that

[25:28] would be paid. So just to be clear what would we save by paying this off instead

[25:34] of just leaving it alone and paying the two years like it is now since we're

[25:38] getting pay or getting interest on our money as it is now. Assuming the interest

[25:42] rate doesn't change over that period of time we would receive $13,588.

[25:48] That's what we would lose by pre-paying. So it would be that plus

[25:54] Because the interest paid 24,000, about 25,000 is the interest we would earn.

[26:02] Just want to make both sides of it, because we're earning money on that money, so.

[26:06] Anybody else have a feeling about this?

[26:09] You know, just with the interest that we're earning being higher than what we're saving,

[26:14] it's like, it's the opportunity cost, it doesn't make sense for me to do that.

[26:17] Because then it really means we need to figure out where that 25,000 revenue ultimately

[26:21] is going to come from because that is certainly playing into our overall budget as it is.

[26:24] It's a variable interest rate.

[26:27] Interest rates may not stay the same,

[26:28] and then you get to reduce the debt billage rate

[26:30] and just take it off the books.

[26:31] The money's sitting in the unassigned balance fund.

[26:35] Just an idea?

[26:36] Don?

[26:37] Yeah, no, no, I appreciate the thought.

[26:42] My only concern, of course, is that we have tax reform looming,

[26:46] and we will know the results of that November 3.

[26:50] But if we've already agreed to reduce the rollback

[26:55] to adopt the rollback rate, which reduces our taxes by $600,000 or so.

[27:01] We may need, part of that unassigned balance, if tax reform passes.

[27:07] This city will need to cut $4 million a year, it's a lot of money.

[27:12] And we do need some money to survive in the interim.

[27:15] So, while I would tend to agree with Commissioner Brocky just because of tax reform looming and

[27:26] the low interest rate, I'm just not sure that now is the time to do that.

[27:31] If tax reform doesn't pass, I would tend to agree with you to get rid of that portion

[27:36] of the debt-militrate.

[27:37] That's not through votes, we can move on.

[27:40] The other thing I wanted to bring up, I talked to the city manager, we have some

[27:44] line items in the budget for contractual services and professional fees. They're just

[27:49] listed. And the actual detail is not in the budget book. I would like for transparency

[27:54] purposes to the residents. I would like that to be published before part of the backup

[27:59] before the next meeting. This way everyone could see what those expenditures are.

[28:04] We'll do.

[28:04] Make sense.

[28:05] Thank you.

[28:06] Sounds good.

[28:07] Anything for the good of the budget? All right. There's a meeting at adjourn. We'll

[28:12] Well, it started at 7 o'clock for the regular sleeper.

Budget Workshop #3

Transcript