All right, all right.

Good evening, everyone.

Good.

Think everyone's in place.

Good evening.

The first public hearing on millage and budget for the twenty twenty six fiscal year is now called to order.

An opportunity was given to the public to email the city clerk prior to the public hearing with any questions, comments, concerns on items we will hear on this evening's agenda.

Any person may be heard by the city commission through the chair and upon registering pursuant to the published notice for not more than three minutes on any proposition before the hearing, unless modified by the chair.

The public hearing is being streamed live at Miramar FL dot gov slash commission meeting and televised on Comcast Channel 78 and ATT Uverse Channel 99 for City of Miramar subscribers.

As of September 15th at four thirty PM, no members from the public have registered to participate virtually in this meeting.

Chapter 200 0.652E1, Florida statutes requires that the governing body of the city shall adopt its proposed millage rate prior to adopting its tentative budget.

The establishment of a millage rate is necessary to generate ad valorum tax revenues, which are in part necessary to fund the general budget.

The city has proposed a millage rate of 7.1121172 mills.

This rate constitutes a 6.41% increase compared to the rolled back rate of 6.6885 mills.

The rolled back rate is the rate that would be needed to bring in the same ad valorum tax revenue as last year.

In addition, Section 200.0652D Florida statutes requires that prior to the adoption of the millage levy, the mayor make the following public announcement.

The city has adopted a millage rate of 7.1172 mills.

This would constitute a millage rate that is a 6.41%.

Percentage above the rollback rate of 6.6885 mills and is necessary to fund the budget.

City manager will now explain the specific purposes for which advalorum tax revenues are being used, and we will then hear a presentation from staff regarding the proposed village rate.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um Madam Vice Mayor Commissioner.

Um each time this year we come to you to present a balanced budget.

I I believe it is one of the most important things that this elected body can do or elected to do is to pass a balanced budget.

We have prepared this budget, making sure that all these services, the central services that we're able to provide those services with a budget of 422.7 million dollars.

And at this juncture, I'll ask our director for management and budget, Mr.

Raphael, to make a presentation, Mr.

Raff.

Thank you, City Manager.

And good evening, uh Mr.

Mayor, Madam Vice Mayor, Commissioner, City Manager, City Attorney, City Clerk, Members of the Public.

My name is Rafael San Miguel.

And I serve as a director of the Management and Budget Department on the team that leads the city of beauty and progress.

The adoption of temporary resolution number 8482 for the proposed fire assessment fee for fiscal year 26, and the first reading of temporary ordinance number 1851, which is the tentative operating budget for fiscal year 2026.

The city manager brings to you a budget that emphasizes fiscal responsibility, investment in our most important resource, the human resource and investment in community well-being.

These right here frame the priorities for fiscal year 2026 budget philosophy, which is simply to maintain a healthy level of fund balance reserves, in addition to our practice of five-year forecasting, which helps us develop and implement strategies that ensure transparency and accountability in the allocation of funds.

Maintain and enhance the quality of life for residents and businesses.

Here we align the budget with the city's goals of sustainability and innovation by supporting investment in essential public services and infrastructure programs, including public safety, transportation utilities that support long-term growth and community well-being.

Also to maintain or enhance service levels and build efficiencies into service delivery, minimizing costs where possible without negative service impacts to the community, and last but not least, fiscal transparency and information.

This goal entails constant stakeholder engagement in the budget process, beginning with this QR code that's on your screen right now, can be scanned so that viewers can go to our budget website where they can see the budget documents and get involved with the over 150 viewers that have already interacted with our OpenGov website since the start of the fiscal year.

Working closely with the executive team and all of the city departments, we in the Office of Management and Budget.

We have prepared today's fiscal year 2026 budget summary.

Before we delve into the budget, however, I would like to highlight some of the initiatives that the city champions to directly or indirectly generate revenue and reduce expenditures and improve overall quality of life of an ongoing basis.

This year's budget reflects our continued commitment to strong financial stewardship, strategic investment, and delivering high quality services to our residents.

We're making major strides in public safety and emergency response with the delivery of five new fire suppression vehicles, including our first ever 100 foot aerial platform truck and the expansion of life-saving field technology through the Epoch Blood Analyzer.

Our police department continues to deepen community relationships with multilingual citizen academies and youth mentorship programs that build trust and engagement.

We're also investing in resilience and infrastructure.

Public works is on track for natural accreditation and is developing a comprehensive stormwater master plan to improve flood protection.

At the same time, the utilities department is undertaking a major expansion of the wastewater treatment plan to meet the demands of our growing population.

Inclusion and access remain at the heart of our parks and recreation efforts with 88 compliant playground upgrades and sensory friendly trails.

On the economic front, the Myanmar Business Academy is helping entrepreneurs launch and scale their businesses, while our aggressive grant seeking strategy has brought in over $93 million in external funding.

Across every department, we're not only delivering services, but we're also raising the bar.

From technology upgrades in zoning and permitting to expanding social services and community events, this budget positions us to continue building safe, vibrant, and resilient Miramar for years to come.

With that, we'd like to delve into the fiscal year 2026 budget summary.

Total fiscal year 26 tentative budget for all funds is 423 million dollars.

The general fund accounts for 57% of that, or 241 million.

Enterprise funds, which include utilities and stormwater account for 23% or 97 million.

Internal service funds, which include health, risk, fleet and IT account for 12% or $53 million.

Capital Projects Funds and Special Revenue Funds stand at 4% and 1% respectively for a total of $18.5 million.