Millage Rate & Budget Workshop

Dear Mayor & Commissioners, 

I seriously hope the Commission will consider lowering the millage rate this year.  Our property values had one of the county's highest increases last year and despite the Corona Virus we shouldn't have a major loss in revenue.  Our residents on the other hand have had a much harder time.  I realize there's an argument for increasing the reserves but we have a healthy reserve now.   

If you look at the crude chart I've attached, you can see what we look like compared to the rest of the county.  We have to start lowering our taxes.  Even if we brought the millage down three or four tenths we would still be much higher than other areas but residents deserve some financial relief and the perception that the Village is making an effort.  

 

The housing market projection, in our new reality, is very strong for single family homes.  People are leaving condos and buying houses.  You would be making our Village more competitive by lowering the rate also.   

Our budget needs trimming.  Every year I speak at budget workshops about the escalating Parks and Recreation budget.  Parks & Rec., 260K, is almost half of our Public Works budget!  It has a 7% increase in its budget.  Almost all of the few programs we have are outsourced.  We've been living in a "shut down" state and probably will continue for a long time and yet the part-time salaries are projected to increase 26% in 2021!  The possible lease of a van is absurd.  I'm not going to bring up every line item but you have a responsibility to take a critical look at a department that may have a budget of 260K.

Reducing Parks & Rec. and increasing Code & Public Works would be a much better investment and improve the quality of life for residents.  Few people use the recreation center but everyday we see an escalation in code issues that could be addressed by better education and community awareness.  Public Works needs another qualified manager with experience relevant to our community.  

 

One of our biggest and most valuable assets in our Village is our urban forest.  We should be improving our medians by nurturing and maintaining them and for that you need to have someone on staff that has the experience to do this.  We have a Public Works staff that basically works on Village maintenance.  We need someone who can work on our trees.  It will be money well spent. 

Just a few comments about the Interim Manager contract - it hasn't been provided so I'm just commenting on what was or wasn't discussed.  You said part-time but there was no discussion of how many hours a week will be provided for $2K weekly.  Since he's already our Finance Manager and things like CITT, FEMA, etc. are already being addressed by him are we paying to have him oversee himself?  He mentioned the RFP for waste management being done by a professional.  That's something our Village Manager has always done.  Are we now going to have to pay extra because he can't do it? 

No one brought hiring and firing.  I don't think he should be doing this.  It wasn't clear exactly what he was going to be doing as Interim Manager.  If duties aren't listed in a contract then he's not responsible.  $2K seems like a lot for really overseeing something he's already paid to do.  Is he going to be providing extra clerical help or using our staff?  There were a lot of unanswered questions.  You need to clarify some of these issues. 

Thanks for listening, 

Barbara

 

FEMA Update and Wrap Up

The Village received notice on Friday 7/17/2020 from FEMA regarding the outstanding appeals on Hurricane Irma denied claims.

Before I get into that language, we need to backtrack a moment and follow the timeline due to the devil is in the details.

The amount the Village submitted to FEMA for reimbursement was $1,077,470.70 with the amount denied= $748,567.66. The 3 part work order breakdown is as follows:

1)      Grants Manager Project (GMP) 5511= $28,140.75

2)      GMP 5517= $540,335.00

3)      GMP 12857= $180,091.91   

Total $748,567.66

The initial response from FEMA in their letters dated 2/13/2019 - 2/22/2019 stated: “"FEMA determines that the procurement contract and documentation for Grubbs and BCPeabody (debris monitoring) for the Village of Biscayne Park violates Federal law, regulations and policy in multiple ways. “

1)  Regarding the Grubbs "piggyback" contract: "The contract was a contract onto an existing contract between Hernando County, FL. and Grubbs. In the case of Hernando County, no such documentation was provided beyond that showing Grubbs as the selectee. A FEMA procurement checklist for the County debris contractors indicates "no respondents were rejected" further indicating Grubbs was the only respondent to the solicitation." Therefore, the County and the Village failed to substantiate the original contract was competitively procured.”

2)   Regarding the monitoring contract: “The original BCPeabody contract was not properly procured, and the contracts omitted provisions required by Federal standards, the Village did not comply with Federal regulations for use of existing contracts and the adequate documentation was not provided."

Due to that the Villages reimbursement submittal “violated Federal law, regulations and policy in multiple ways” the previous Village attorney (Rebecca Rodriguez) was tasked to file appeals on April 2019. The gist of the explanation she gave was (paraphrased from memory) “we believe we were correct, but if not, you should reconsider payment due to the high amount of Hurricane activity that year, etc.”

OK… seems superficial to me, but let’s move on.

Also, “in support of its appeal, the Subrecipient (Village) provided additional procurement documentation,” which included the complete Grubbs contract from Hernando County, FL. demonstrating that the original contract holder procured the contract competitively.” (By the way, the Grubbs contract was in the Village’s possession… but not originally submitted) So, this is a mistake that was corrected… but at a cost to taxpayers by way of the appeal.

Based on the Project Status Report, the initial obligated amount for reimbursement was $115,269.98 with another $234,650.83 in the queue for possible payment “pending tipping fee receipts.” This amount equals $349,920.81 total. There were no other entries. However, in order to secure this money in the queue, the tipping fees needed to be produced and presented to FEMA. Important point: Neither H20 Partners nor BCPeabody had them. These receipts were not included in the appeals or during the first submittal by the Village.

It was David Hernandez who finally tracked them down on or about July 5^th 2020. He realized through his investigation that there was no contract with Waste Management, but did find money paid out to Waste Management. He then followed the money trail to discover and secure the tipping fee receipts that were then submitting for consideration.

That was the missing key towards our further reimbursement.

Once again, as some here aren’t clear on the timeline, Tracy, Krishan or the previous law firm had absolutely nothing to do with these tipping fee receipts as they were discovered after they were all gone, terminated or otherwise out of the picture. The same can be same for the current Commission. All of this was being dealt with by the Manager alone.

Now, in closing the letter from FEMA on Friday stated that the obligated reimbursement is $666,259.76 (to include the $234,650.83 in the queue). The adjusted work order breakdown is as follows:

1)      Grants Manager Project (GMP) 5511= $28,140.75

2)      GMP 5517= $524,678.75

3)      GMP 12857= $113,440.26   

Total $666,259.76

However; I am still unclear on 2 points:

1)      Their denial letter from 2/13/2019 clearly stated that the original BCPeabody contract was not properly procured, and the contract omitted provisions required by Federal standards, Federal law, regulations and policy in multiple ways. Meaning that FEMA then did not find the reason/excuse given for non-competitive bidding was valid.  

In the FEMA letter from 7/17/2020, it appears they have now changed their previous position- although deducting -$15,656.25 for what I can conclude were time delays. “Debris monitoring services were properly procured.” Their reasoning, “debris removal necessary to protect the lives, safety and health of the general public would have been delayed if the Subrecipient meets the requirements for noncompetitive procurement of debris monitoring services,” So, this additional mistake is now being overlooked as other cities also had issues with the monitoring procedures. But, let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth… I’m happy to report we got a far better outcome than I expected. We got lucky on this one.

2)      The difference between the current reimbursement of $666,259.76 and the previous anticipated amount of $349,920.81 remains unclear to me. As mentioned above, there were no other payment amount entries listed in the queue. I can only assume that the tipping fee receipts also helped towards the higher amount. Perhaps not, and I will edit this post if and when more information becomes available on this point.

So, this hopefully concludes our Hurricane Irma experience and explanation.

This was a horribly mismanaged operation, top to bottom that we have somehow now fiscally survived. The lesson learned should be we can never again enter into Hurricane season as unprepared as we were then.  

But, that’s not the only point; the point is also to give credit where credit is due- setting politics aside.  

And the credit for this more than expected favorable outcome goes to David Hernandez.

Standing Watch,

Milton Hunter

The Biscayne Parker