Call to Action – County Budget Meeting, 9/13

This is a call to action for next week’s county budget hearing, Tuesday evening, 9/13/11 at 6:00pm. The meeting is in the county government center, 301 North Olive in West Palm Beach. Come early as the meeting is expected to be crowded.

As you prepare for the meeting, here are some resources that may be useful:

• September Talking Points
• Sample email and 3 minute remarks
• The 2012 TAB Proposal – September Update
• September Budget Hearings – Some Background

Also check the “News Articles” tab on the TAB website for the latest budget stories from the Palm Beach Post, Sun Sentinel, and others.

Those on the “receiving” side of the budget will be out in force. Those of us on the “paying” side must also have their voices heard. If you can’t attend, send an email. Addresses for the commissioners and administrator can be found on right side of the TAB website, or you can email all at once at: BCC-AllCommissioners@pbcgov.org.

For some specific details about this meeting, see the 9/9 TAB email.

PBC Charter Review – Call to Action – Deadline August 26th

Back in June, the County began public meetings about its ongoing Charter Review.  If you recall – the County Charter is its ‘constitution’ and describes Home Rule. There are 20 Home Rule or Charter Counties in Florida. Palm Beach County does not have a formalized Charter Review process, and this is the first comprehensive review to have taken place.

The Charter and the county’s charter review website can be found here. While there are a few changes that the Commissioners would like, citizens can input their own suggestions via the County Website. Suggestions are limited to 300 words per suggestion. Here is a link to the survey page. You can make as many submissions as you like.

Personally, I am not in favor of a few changes favored by several of the Commissioners – a) changing the county commission makeup to include a few at-large commission districts, and b) to have non-partisan elections for County Commissioners.

I have a few changes that I am submitting in order to make for better governance without bogging down the document or specifying so much detail that the slim charter becomes unmanageable. You may have others. If you would like to submit any of the ones listed below, just click on the [copy] to the right of the suggestion you would like to copy, and then cut/paste from the text that comes up and submit that to the survey link above. Each of my submissions are shorter than the 300-word limit per submission.

Friday, August 26, is the last date on which submissions will be accepted on the county website.

Volunteers Needed

The Palm Beach County Tea Party is seeking volunteers to join our grassroots action team.

During the elections next year, this team will use a variety of tools to educate the public on the candidates and their positions. Methods will include making phone calls, walking neighborhoods, attending candidate rallies, and generally spreading the word about candidates who espouse our core principles of Fiscal Responsibility, Limited Government and Free Markets.

In August and September, we are starting a pilot project to hone our skills, debug our tools, and work to prevent another increase in our county tax rates. Participants who complete an assignment on this project will receive formal recognition as a Palm Beach County Tea Party Grassroots Activist, and be included in future team activities and events.

Projects will be starting the first week in August, so sign-up now! Given the August heat, most activities will involve making local calls from the air-conditioned comfort of your home, and attending several public meetings. If you can join us, please send a note to action@palmbeachcountyteaparty.org and someone will contact you shortly.

Thank you,
The PBCTP Action Team

A Night in the Gardens

We DO mean night – as it was 11:15pm when we left the Palm Beach Gardens City Council chamber and there were items yet to be discussed on the agenda,with a hard stop at 11:30 pm.

Our call to action  covered two 2012 budget related items and one regarding the Inspector General.  Although separated on the agenda, the council decided to take up Ordinance 13, 2011 and Resolution 33, 2011 in sequence.

Ordinance 13, 2011 was a proposal to raise the Local Communications Services Tax from it’s current 1.5% on all telephone, cellphone, cable and internet services, residential and commercial, to 5.22%.  The rationale was 3-fold:

1) use this ‘new’ source of revenue in lieu of increasing the millage or taking out of reserves
2) improve the city’s bond rating from AA+ to AAA – as they have been advised a more diversified revenue stream would be advisable.
3) All the other cities do it – so Palm Beach Gardens should too!

Public comment was predominately against raising this tax;  about 7 folks – all ‘regulars’ (including Mel Grossman, Fred Scheibl and Iris Scheibl) made it clear that we weren’t impressed by the ‘all the other cities do it’ argument!  Only one spoke on behalf of the tax and he was on the Budget Advisory Committee that came up with the solution in the first place.

Vice Mayor Bert Premuroso spoke first and surprised the council by saying that he changed his mind, based on resident comment, and was now against raising the tax at all and wanted to hold millage flat and take the balance from reserves.  Council members had expected him to be for the tax and the implication was that he had originally been an advocate for it.  The other 4 were strongly for the tax increase.  After lengthy debate, the ‘compromise’ was to raise the tax to 3.5%  (a 133% increase instead of 248%), hold millage flat and take the remainder from reserves.  That was going to mean an extra $800,000 on top of the $1.2 million targetted for capital expenditures or $2 million out of $20 million+ in reserves.  The council vote was unanimous in favor of the new proposal.  NOTE: while millage rates go up and down – what they voted for was a permanent increase in your communications bills. You still have a chance to overturn this on 2nd reading!  We will have another call to action prior to the 2nd reading on August 11th.

Resolution 33, 2011: Discussion was brief since the debate had occurred on the prior item.  The resolution was passed 5:0 and the first budget hearing was scheduled for September 8th, 2011.

Ordinance 14, 2011 was to insert definitions of Waste, Fraud, Abuse, Mismanagement and Misconduct into city ordinances.  As was described in the call to action – to those involved in the development of the county Inspector General Ordinance – this was the subject of very complex and detailed and arduous debate for the 5 month life of the IG Ordinance Drafting Committee.  By now it was after 11pm and very few people remained in the room. 

Speaking strongly against the insertion of the definitions were Iris Scheibl, Fred Scheibl, Kevin Easton and Joe Doucette of the Office of the Inspector General.  Sheryl Steckler, IG, was in the audience and the Council knew it. Both Iris and Fred referenced the Palm Beach Post editorial in that morning’s paper entitled  Cities Committing a Fraud.  Andrew Marra, Editor, got the issue exactly in his editorial.  Ms. Steckler had also sent a letter to the City Council earlier in the day.  While superficially – one can say ‘what is the matter with definitions?’ – those definitions can indeed limit either the Inspector General’s ability to investigate or can hinder the need for any action by those receiving her reports.  The reaction to the comment by the Council and staff was enlightening.  The Council chose to take the ‘innocent’ stance – definitions can only improve things.  City Attorney Lohman was incensed at the public comment and the Inspector General’s letter and called her a liar.  City Manager Ferris was spitting mad at the editorial and bashed the Palm Beach Post (which others have been wont to do on occasion ;-)).  He said that he’d been managing for over 30 years and that these definitions would help him in implementing improvements and educating the employees.  Which begs the question – what did he use for the last 30 years?  The council vote 5:0 for passage on first reading.

So – did the public win or lose Tuesday evening.  I’d say – we lost.  We get the government we deserve.  Think about it and next time – ACT!

Redistricting affects you – come to the sole PBC legislative redistricting mtg

As a result of the census, reformulation of voting districts are underway from the municipality level up to Congressional districts.  Various criteria are used to determine the size and makeup of all of those districts and readjust them based on the changes that occurred in population and demographics over the last 10 years.

This may mean that your current Congressional Representative no longer has a district, or you no longer live in his/her district.  It may mean the same for your state Senator or Representative.   There are redistricting public hearings in process throughout the state.  The sole redistricting meeting for Palm Beach County Citizens will be at FAU Boca Raton on August 16 at 10am.

For the latest information check the calendar with meeting details at on the public hearing schedule.  You can RSVP on their calendar, but it isn’t required.

You can use a tool on the same website to create your own districts and see how difficult it is to do at: the Florida Redistricting main website.

Here’s a Post on Politics  article on potential impacts locally – both Allen West’s Congressional District 22 and Lizbeth Benacquisto’s Fl Senate District 27 are at risk. (note that the article says the meeting begins at 8am, however the Redistricting website says 10am).  Check the redistricting website prior to going for schedule changes.

Palm Beach Gardens City Council Mtg 7/19 – a Call to Action

Palm Beach Gardens residents should be aware of several items on the Agenda (and one that no longer is):

Ordinance 11, 2011 – not on Agenda:

Second reading of Ordinance 11, 2011 was removed from the agenda.  This was the ordinance that made the change, among other things, to the election run-off process – essentially eliminating run-off except in the case of a tie.  Purportedly this would save between $10000 and $40000 or so per run-off.  Changes to the charter require a referendum – and so too would this change.  According to Max Lohman, City Attorney – this change will be considered for the upcoming charter review, changes to which will require citizen votes.  Had it been on the agenda – it would have passed and parts of it would have not have been valid without referendum.  What would that have cost the city?

Ordinance 13, 2011, Increasing the Local Communications Service Tax Rate – First Reading:

This 2012 budget related item would increase the Local Communications Service Tax from its current rate of 1.5% to the maximum allowed by state statutes to 5.22%  effective January 1, 2012, “on all sales of communications services within the City. These services include telephone (including cellular), cable TV, and internet fees, both residential and commercial.”  This is technically a 248% increase!  But it will probably be described as ‘pennies a day’!

The effects of the proposed change on two sample residents with annual communication charges of $2,400 and $3,600 are illustrated in the table below:  

Average Annual Bill	Increase in Rate	Annual Increase	Monthly Increase
$2400	3.72%	$90	$7.50
$3600	3.72%	$135	$11.25

The adoption of the 5.22% Local Communications Services Tax is an integral component of the fiscal year 2012 budget plan, and, if approved, will allow the City to maintain the same operating ad valorem tax rate of 5.7404 mills.

This TAX is expected to bring in $1.8 million in the next budget cycle and $2.4 million thereafter.  Note that if your phone, cellular, internet and cable charges go up – so too will the city’s revenue be enhanced.

While I have not reviewed the proposed 2012 budget in detail, “The total budget for all funds of $108,580,228 is $3,140,160, or 3% more than the current year’s total of $105,440,068.”

Ordinance 14, 2011 -Amending Chapter 1, General Provisions, Section 1-2, Definitions of the City Code of Ordinances to Add Five (5) Definitions to be Compatible with the New Inspector General (IG) Ordinance. – First Reading

“The drafting committee failed to include certain crucial definitions within the IG ordinance. The City Attorney has advised that without defining the following terms it will be impossible to properly evaluate any potential findings of an Inspector General investigation. Accordingly, the City Attorney has drafted Ordinance 14,201 1 in order to adopt definitions for “abuse”, “fraud”, “misconduct”, “mismanagement”, and “waste” into the City’s Code of Ordinances. Clear and unambiguous definitions are an absolute necessity in order to preserve an objective standard for evaluating any potential wrongdoing. These definitions are being recommended to each of the other 38 municipalities in the county.”

Having attended each of the drafting committee meetings – these so called ‘crucial’ definitions were intentionally left out and the subject of several months of intense debate.  I consulted with the Inspector General, Sheryl Steckler about the attempt by municipalities to insert these definitions into their city codes.  She replied that it has no impact or relevance on her activities as Inspector General.

Why are we adding irrelevant definitions to our ordinance and what is it costing the taxpayer in staff time and effort if it is for nothing?

Resolution 33, 2011 Adopting a Proposed Maximum Millage Rate for Fiscal Year 2011/2012 and Setting the Date, Time, and Place for the First Budget Hearing.

I read this resolution first and was going to praise the City Council on holding the millage rate flat at 5.7404, 2.719% below the roll-back rate of 5.9008 mills.  NOT.  They should be holding the millage flat, cut spending and NOT implement the increase in the Communications TAX.

I have not studied the 2012 budget in detail yet – however:

“Please note the following significant items related to the use of reserves:
• The planned use of $1.1 million is less than total General Fund capital expenditures of $1.2 million, and adheres to the City’s policy of using reserves for one-time expenditures.
• The planned use of $1.1 million is predicated on the increase in the Local Communications Services Tax from 1.5% to 5.22%. This will generate approximately $1.9 million next fiscal year. Without this alternative revenue, or an equivalent tax increase, the reduction in reserves would be approximately $3 million.”

We are in bad economic times – this is the time for using reserves and NOT increasing a tax (the Communications tax) that will never go down.  Hold the millage flat, do NOT approve Ordinance 13,2011 and cut spending further to minimize the hits to reserves!

 Additional materials can be found:

7/19 Agenda Overview/Handout

Complete 7/19 Agenda with backup documents

Cover Letter to 2012 Proposed Budget

Call to Action – PBC 2012 maximum tax rate to be set on July 11th.

The newly formed Palm Beach County Tea Party has become a coalition partner with Palm Beach County Taxpayer Action Board. Now it’s time to act. Read the details about the budget and background here, and then go to the Tips and Talking Points for details on emails and speaking up at Commission meeting.

Time: 9:30 on July 11th with public comment to begin around 10am.

Place: 301 N. Olive, West Palm Beach Fl – County Commission Chambers

It’s time to act!

(note: the entire budget details can be found on the county site here.)

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