State Of The City Of Hallandale Beach Part 4

There is good news! An Emergency Manager Coordinator was hired last year. The entire staff has been hard at work over the past months. We revamped our disaster planning. Not just for Hurricanes but all disasters; flooding, cybersecurity, facility security and other major events.

There have been multiple table top exercises and investments in various response equipment. Specialized emergency trucks, high water rescue vehicles, barricades, emergency notification technology and other equipment.

We hosted a Preparedness Class again this year for residents and businesses. Sadly, they were not well attended this year. We are concerned that this is a sign of complacency. Our goal is to beef up our website to include training videos for individuals that are unable to attend in person. I encourage all our stakeholders to visit our website that is full of useful information and links to a wide array of outside resources.

We are doing our part. As a City, we cannot do everything. Private property owners need to plan, be prepared and have recovery plans as well. The reality is we cannot engineer our way out of every storm event.

The year of the shovel began. And like I said this year, “Dig Baby Dig!” We planned for a major overhaul of our aged Infrastructure. We dusted off the Basis Of Design Report and prioritized projects. We set up a list of 10 criteria. Public Health and Safety first, Infrastructure Investment Protection and Regulatory Requirements as the top three.

These projects are all sizes and are all vital to our sustainability. They take planning, design and then are constructed. Timelines can range from a year to well over three or more depending on the scope. And yes, like all construction, they are disruptive, messy and do not always go as exactly planned.

Last September, we updated our 5 year Capital Improvement Plan for 25-29. It included over 70 projects with projected costs of $207 Million Dollars. These range from public safety, sidewalks, road paving, street lighting, facility upgrades and the biggest utility improvements citywide.

The projects are funded through multiple sources. General fund, shared Sales Tax, Gas Taxes, Broward County Transportation's Penny Tax, CRA and Utility Fees. I need to note this does not include “all” of our projects. We have over $320 Million Dollars in needs, not wants.

Many of our road projects are city, county and state roadways. These are estimated at $57 Million and are not fully funded. Utility projects are critical and we did not wait to start digging.

We utilize our robust reserves to kick start over $63 Million Dollars in vital needs while we set up our Utility Revenue Bond. The bond process is both financially and legally complex. We have a team of special counsel and consultants that have worked with our Finance Director. To bond, we needed to go through new credit ratings.

We received news in October that Moody had given us an Aa1 and S&P gave us an A +. Now, I know that those of you that are financial wonks are thinking that is not a Triple A. In this case, it is not just the “city” Debt Capacity it is based on a citywide Debt Capacity including our taxpayers.

So with all that is going on in our South Florida housing market and global markets this is really great news. The real win is the rating helped to save money and we closed on our Bonds. Now we have to pay it back?

These are revenue bonds that can be paid back from Utility Fees.

I must assure our stakeholders, we remain very sensitive to the current financial reality but still we must make these upgrades. We adopted a phase in annual rate increase rather than front loading a large rate hike of 63%. That percentage sounds really big. Without getting too much in the weeds, I need to explain it.

We have set up a structure that includes a 10% increase in Water, 7% increase in wastewater and a flat increase in stormwater rates based on the Equivalent Residential Unit over the next five years. The average residential utility bill will increase by $10 dollars.

The full utility bill for all services including sanitation runs on average $146. It will now run on average $156 depending on usage. There are plenty of other programmatic changes taking place. This is not a big dive, but I will touch on some highlights.

For years we have not designated a fund for repairs and replacement of our over $82 Million in Capital Assets. This is like many condominiums that did not budget reserves knowing they had to replace their roofs, perform concrete restorations, replace HVAC systems and not have any funds set specifically for the projects. We budgeted costs as the needs came up. This meant we had to dip into departmental budget contingencies or dip into general fund reserves.

Remember the mess we had 5 years ago, our reserves were going to be at $8 Million Dollars. In January, we adopted for the very first time a formal policy and law directly establishing a Repair and Replacement Ordinance and fund.

Like a reserve fund, the fund was established at first with a $1.5 Million Budget and now with ongoing planning has grown to $3.5 Million. We established a direct policy that includes a 25-year schedule of assets including repairs and replacement at end of life. The fund schedule cannot be changed or amended without direct Commission Approval.

It creates Stability. It ensures technology will be maintained, facilities will be repaired, vehicles will be replaced, Fire and Police Equipment replaced, Parks and open spaces will be maintained and it is a Government Finance Best Practice.

As always, I am available anytime for your questions, concerns, and ideas to make our City a better place on my Phone/Text at: (954) 632-5700. Or you can email me at: jcooper@cohb.org. Please visit me on my Facebook page at: Mayor Joy Cooper. Like! Follow! And share!