I hope you are enjoying your summer. We are having a good summer in City Government. We recently had our first budget workshop and it went very smoothly. Hopefully, the lack of public participation in the workshop itself is a sign of your confidence in us. Unlike many other cities, we will not resort to layoffs to accommodate your desire to reduce property taxes. While we will lose approximately 30 positions through attrition throughout the organization, our 900 plus employees remain committed to serving you while striving for continuous improvement, including your City Commission. In order to accommodate your voices for lower taxes and achieve round one of property tax reform as mandated by the state Legislature, we are cutting approximately $5 million from our $93 million general fund. We will not close any parks, reduce our public safety commitment nor will we make any severe cuts to our programming. For complete details on our current proposals and the dates of our two budget meetings in September, please look at our website at www.coralsprings.org.
I want to thank everyone at the City who worked so hard to come up with a sound, cooperative budget proposal. I am also extending my appreciation to my Commission colleagues for making some tough, but wise decisions in our dialogue on fine-tuning Management’s fiscally prudent budget details.
Congratulations to Vice Mayor Roy Gold for your appointment as Secretary to the Broward League of Cities. Commissioner Mena, thank you for all of your efforts with the recent Sister Cities’ conference recently held in the County. I also want to thank Commissioner Boccard for your efforts to improve the business processes at the Building Department.
I recently toured the building department and I am proud of the advances we have made and the dedication of our employees. If you have recently done business or pulled a permit here, I hope you found the process satisfactory. If you have any plans to sell your home in the next five years I suggest that you check with any of our personal call-takers at the Building Department for an open permit. Please call 954-344-1025.
If you would like to make an appointment to see me, please call Catia at 954-344-5906. I am usually available for a meeting three or four times a month at various locations, including Whole Foods, PJ’s Coffee, Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts. While an appointment is not necessary, it is often helpful. Please also feel free to email me your questions at SBrook@Coralsprings.org or input your comment or complaint at www.coralsprings.org/servicerequest/ and you will assuredly get a response within two business days.
Thank you Neighborhood News for allowing me the privilege to communicate with our appreciative residents as you do.