3 Comments

"Assign personal police details to each member of the commission in the wake of the failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump."

Unbelievable, are they DIPLOMATS in the City Commission, I believed we had commissioners, now they are ranking City Diplomats who think someone will harm them.

How delusional and immature, games people play... and a City Manager, that only responds to Ariel Fernandez....and... making too much money without having any knowledge or experience as to what a City Manger should be and or do. He needs to go, get City Manager Peter Iglesias back to fix all that is wrong with Budget , etc....This new commission has a lot to learn and grow up.(KFC)

They should cut their raises and perks, that they gave themselves, hire 4 to 6 , either full time or Part-time employees with that money. The money they gave away to the so called disability ramp, one year salary to a full time employees

Expand full comment

Florida law requires all City budgets to have revenue equal to expenses - Section 166.241(2), Florida Statutes. We all have the last proposed City Budget from the Second Budget Workshop held on July 10. That was prepared before 2 commissioners surprised staff with a requested tax cut that primarily (56%) benefits non-homestead owners, commercial property owners and owners of other property - Slide 24 of the budget. Please explain why we need to give $1.4M of this benefit to people and companies that do not reside in Coral Gables. I know that these non-residents make political and PAC contributions to local politicians, but those contributions (and this $2.6M tax cut) does not put Coral Gables residents first.

We are in the bottom 1/3rd of cities in Miami-Dade as to taxation (12 out of 35 which is Slide 27 of the budget). Why do 2 of our commissioners need to go lower? The permit fees are estimated to grow 36% ($9.7M to $13.2M on Slide 4). That is one example of the increase in Coral Gables development. The cost of services is not solely based on the number of increased residents. And the "residents" number as used by the U.S. census does not include unoccupied real estate developments like the Village at Coral Gables or Life Time Living at Gables Station.

We could use the $2.6M to fund the 25% reserve ($650,000 which is Slide 31 of the budget which I thought was important to certain commissioners) and the remainder to address the needs set forth in the budget. To me as a full-time resident, the cost of this tax cut far outweighs any small savings.

Expand full comment

I get the point you are making. And based on the numbers, without context, I raise eyebrows as well.

Take a look back a bit further. Look back to the layoffs that occurred some time before 2012.

Since 2016, I believe the headcount converted contract garbage collection workers to full time employees (FTEs). That was a big deal and necessary because the City had high turnover. The idea was the residents wanted city garbage staff they could trust. Employees that were invested. There were likely FD and PD added. There were commission aides added.

CG residents have very high expectations of a very high level of service. During my time there, staff were run ragged, in certain departments, trying to maintain a very high level of service. It makes sense that there would be an increase in headcount to rebound from staff cuts prior to 2012. 96? Not sure if that’s the number or not.

Now let’s laugh at the police detail. Absolutely absurd. It’s so absurd, I’m going to fact check it. Assuming true, that’s some serious OT we need account for, before considering a millage reduction 😉

Expand full comment