The City Commission Meeting scheduled for Tuesday, March 31 @ 9:00am will be held as a VIRTUAL MEETING with elected officials and City staff participating through video conferencing.
This virtual meeting will be held on the Zoom platform used by the City Clerk for live remote comments. Members of the public may join the meeting via Zoom at (https://zoom.us/j/3054466800).
In addition, a dedicated phone line will be available so that any individual who does not wish (or is unable) to use Zoom may listen to and participate in the meeting by dialing: (305) 461-6769 Meeting ID: 3054466800.
Also, the public may comment on an item on the agenda using the City’s already-established e-comment function which may be found on the City’s website at: (www.coralgables.com\commissionmeetings) once the meeting’s agenda is published or by sending an email to [email protected] prior to the start of the meeting.
The $9 million shortfall in the budget can best be addressed by doing something about the runaway pension costs. Despite the city’s contribution of taxpayer money of $29 million in 2018, ( on a payroll of $68 million, so an additional cost of 42%) the unfunded deficit was $219 million. The total liability to the employees for pensions is now $600 million. Now, with the decrease in the value of the fund assets likely to be substantially, it will increase exponentially and will have to be extorted from the taxpayers. It is long past time to move the “general employees” ( 61 % of employees) to a 401K plan and the police and fire to the Florida Retirement System plan. Pinecrest and Palmetto Bay, both high end cities with responsive employees, have 401Ks in place rather than the unsustainable, huge defined benefits that CG employees are guaranteed. The taxpayers are also on the hook for $26 million in post retirement health care that is unfunded. The time to act is now. It isi unfair that the taxpayers take the entire brunt of this, while the city employees are protected finiancially for life at our expense. All of these numbers can be verified in teh CG budget.