C I T Y O F TA M A R A C
ANNUAL REPORT 2009
INFORMATION YOU CAN USE: In this year’s Annual Report, we’ve paid special attention to the City’s five goals: an inclusive community; a vibrant community; a strong economy; a healthy environment; a dynamic organizational culture; and clear communication.
INCLUSIVE: The City of Tamarac is committed to providing programs and services that meet the needs of an increasingly diverse community. Did you know? Approximately 360 Tamarac employees provide municipal services to almost 60,000 residents and businesses. Services such as: fire and medical rescue services, water and sewer, street and median maintenance, stormwater drainage, parks maintenance, recreation programs, social services, canal maintenance, code enforcement, permitting, inspections, communication… and the list goes on. Like the branches of a tree, the scope of the services we provide the community is far reaching. Speaking of branches, like any family
tree, as our community grows and expands, so too do the demographics of our community. As the Baby Boomer generation ages, the average age of Americans is increasing; however, in Tamarac, our average age continues to decrease. If this trend continues, within the next few years the average age of Tamarac residents will be in their early forties. Continued: Page 2
Our vision in the City of Tamarac is to lead the nation in quality of life through safe neighborhoods, a vibrant economy, exceptional customer service, and recognized excellence. Our motto is “Committed to Excellence…Always” – and as you will see in this annual report, the City of Tamarac is committed to providing the highest level of service possible, with customer satisfaction rates that often exceed the national average. How do we do this? Through a comprehensive strategic planning process that uses data from our resident surveys, business surveys, focus groups, and everyday interactions with you, our customer. Using this information, the City has identified several goals to focus on over the next few years... you might compare this to choosing the right soil.
Dear residents, Smart Growth is the theme of this years’ Annual Report, and the imagery on the cover of a seedling maturing into a stable sapling captures the essence of the City of Tamarac very well. Even as we approach our fiftieth anniversary in 2013, Tamarac is still quite a young City with an interesting history and a bright future. We’re all very aware of the difficult economic situation of the past couple years. Housing values have tumbled, stock prices have risen and fallen, and the unemployment rate seems to be on a perpetual incline. Yet, there have been recent glimmers of hope that the economy may at last be experiencing a rebound — new home sales figures have recently seen an increase in year-over-year sales, that, coupled with other indicators, has caused many economists to declare the recession over. In the City of Tamarac, despite the recent positive news coming from the financial sectors, we still expect to endure another year, or more, of reduced revenues. As you may be aware, the City of Tamarac receives revenue based on tax rates that are tied to property values; as property values have declined, so to have the City’s tax revenues. Property values are assessed a year in arrears — the Broward County Property Appraiser has said that we can expect to see further decreases in 2010 assessed values... meaning another year of reduced revenues. Of course, it will take a couple of years for the values to balance out and become stable, until that time we must be ever vigilant of where we can make expense reductions while minimizing the impact on the services and programs we provide our residents. This Annual Report will provide you lots of valuable information about where we stand, and where we’re headed. These are difficult times, but our roots run deep and we will weather the storm... smartly. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist the pun.)
Sincerely,
Jeffrey L. Miller City Manager
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This continued shift in our age demographics had a profound effect on helping to create a wonderfully diverse population. Like most of South Florida, Tamarac has benefited from the increase in the number of nationalities, religions, and cultures our area attracts. Like a modern day “melting pot”, South Florida has become one of the most diverse metropolitan areas in the Country. To serve our expanding community, and their varied needs, we are continually expanding the programs and services we provide our residents: from Middle Eastern Dance, to Mah Jong, our goal is to embrace our diversity and build upon it. In order to know what our residents want, we
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Figure: 1 WHAT THE ABOVE CHART MEANS: According to our most recent resident survey, Tamarac scores above the national average in the following categories #1: Overall image of the City; #2: Overall quality of services provided by the City; #3: Overall quality of life in the City; #4: How well the City is planning for growth; and #5: Overall appearance of the City.
reach out to them in a variety of ways, such as: resident and business surveys, focus groups, and customer interaction. According to our latest survey, Tamarac’s residents, on average, are more satisfied with the quality of services and programs they receive than state or national averages (Figure: 1)! These results are based on our biennial resident survey conducted by ETC Institute where the respondents selected “satisfied” or “very satisfied” on a variety of questions. Look for more survey results throughout this Annual Report and see how Tamarac compares against other cities and the national average. We think you’ll agree, Tamarac is The City for Your Life! An Inclusive Community… the roots of a thriving city.
DID YOU KNOW? Tamarac contracts with the Broward Sheriff’s Office (BSO) for police services for our City. BSO is the nation’s largest accredited law enforcement agency and, in response to community feedback, continues to increase their outreach efforts — in fact, representatives from BSO have increased their attendance at neighborhood and association meetings by more than 50%*. (*Data based on 2007/2008 yearover-year figures).
VIBRANT: The City of Tamarac will continually revitalize our neighborhood and business districts. Tamarac’s vibrant community is more than just beautiful trees lining our roadways, open green spaces, parks and other amenities. Tamarac is vibrant because of our people, our diverse population and business community. The City’s job is to maintain our infrastructure and to improve where possible, or necessary. In order to respond to the wants of the community, we need to know what’s on the minds of our residents; what they want, what they like, and where they’d like to see improvements. To do so, the Mayor, Commissioners, City Manager, and Department Directors regularly holding neighborhood meetings throughout the City to present new initiatives to the public, provide updates on new or existing projects and to get their feedback. By holding two District meetings in each of Tamarac’s four Commission Districts per year, our residents get to meet with City staff in their communities. One program which City staff regularly promotes at community meetings is the Neighborhood Beautification Program (NBP). In 2009, 15 Homeowner Associations/Neighborhood Associations took advantage of this 50/50 matching grant program by which associations may receive funds to help improve the appearance of their communities along public road-ways. The NBP allows communities to make improvements to public areas and have a portion of the cost offset by the community grants. For 2010, $50,000 has been allocated for this beautification program. In addition, we’re pleased to take part in the federal government’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program which provides assistance towards purchasing assis-
tance towards the purchase and rehabilitation of abandoned and foreclosed properties. Tamarac has been awarded over $4.7 million of federal money and, as of this writing, over 20 households have benefitted from this amazing program — more than any other City in South Florida! In addition to city and federal grants that help associations and individuals keep our community looking great, City staff maintain over 136 miles of roadway, 150 acres of parks, over 300,000 square feet of City facilities, and so much more. For instance, did you know that during 2009, over 4,500 linear feet of new sidewalks were installed or repaired in our City? That’s not only great for the look of Tamarac, but also for the safety of our residents which further contributes to the overall livability in our City. That vibrancy, and livability, is key to helping to maintain an active, engaged and thriving business community as well. A well maintained City helps attract new business. This past year saw the opening a large new hotel, the
Hampton Inn on Commercial Blvd. (adjacent to the Sawgrass Expressway), as well as the relocation of the corporate offices and a manufacturing facility for KSM Electronics, Inc. KSM relocated to Tamarac, occupying 40,000 square feet in our Commerce Park and bringing 150 new jobs to our City. New businesses have a ripple effect throughout the City, providing an increase in spending at other local businesses, additional job opportunities and a host of other other benefits. The results of our 2007 and 2009 Business Survey’s further illustrate Tamarac’s commitment to the business community: the top three reasons businesses choose to remain in Tamarac are: #1: low crime; #2: the tax rate; and #3: the attitude of local government towards business. A Vibrant Community… you could say we take our job of nurturing the community very seriously.
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BECAUSE OF YOU, WE GROW: Based on our resident’s feedback regarding the usefulness and accessibility of the City’s website, over the past two years we’ve made improvements that resulted in a 10% increase in the number of residents responding that they are “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the City’s website.
STRONG: The City of Tamarac will utilize innovative management to develop and maintain a strong financial base. Despite the economic challenges of the past couple of years, Tamarac continues to stand on solid financial ground. A solid base does not necessarily translate into a surplus of funding — as you may be aware, like most municipalities throughout the country, Tamarac has been dealing with a reduction in revenues for the past several years. In fact, since 2008, Tamarac’s budget has been decreased by a staggering $11 million. Through aggressive restructuring of both our debt and workforce productivity, we have been able to absorb two consecutive years of millions of dollars in cuts. Traditionally Tamarac has offered some of the most affordable housing in Broward County, however that fact has put the City at a disadvantage as the financial and housing markets continue to correct themselves. Tamarac’s property value assessments have decreased 11.5% and 16.4% for the 2008 and 2009 tax years respectively. This continued decrease in assessed value has dealt the biggest blow to the city’s financial structure and, since prop-
erty values are assessed a year in arrears, we expect to continue to deal with decreases for the foreseeable future. The good news? Your City government is fiscally conservative. During the housing boom years, which created new found wealth for many government coffers, Tamarac did not expand its workforce, increase facilities beyond what was planned, or otherwise go on a spending spree. In fact, we saved for a rainy day. Although our revenues have decreased, our credit rating remains very strong. To help reduce our budget over the past two years, we have: reduced our workforce, frozen all job openings (except for critical positions), put on hold large capital projects, and restructured our workforce for greater efficiency, while at the same time continuing to provide Customer Service… Second to None. A Strong Economy… like the roots of a tree that search for water deep underground, we continue to prepare for the current economic drought.
2% General Capital
22% Utilities
Figure: 3
5% Stormwater 2% Risk Management
17% Fire Rescue
8% Public Works
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Figure: 2 WHAT THE ABOVE CHART MEANS: Quite simply, value for your money! In our most recent resident survey, when asked “How satisfied are you with the overall value you receive for your tax dollars and fees?”, 55% of respondents said that they were “Satisfied” or “Very Satisfied” with Tamarac. That’s 40% above the national average! DID YOU KNOW? Tamarac maintains an extraordinarily high rating Bond Rating, despite the recent economic turmoil that has had an adverse effect on revenues. Currently Tamarac has the following Bond Ratings: Fitch Ratings Limited = A+; Moody’s Investor Services = A2; and S&P Investment Advisory = A+.
1% Grants
3% Bonds
2% Building 1% Community Development 2% Finance 4% General Government 1% Information Technology 12% Non-Departmental
4% Parks & Recreation
Figures: 3 WHAT THESE CHARTS MEAN: Figure: 3: This chart shows a breakdown, by department, of the City of Tamarac’s 2010 budget. The percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number for easier viewing. Tamarac’s budget for Fiscal Year 2010 is $94,585,850, of which only a small portion comes from taxes paid directly to the City by property owners. In fact, less than 20% of the City’s total budget comes from ad valorem (property taxes). The remaining balance of revenue comes from fees for services provided by the City (water for instance) and revenue sharing from the State of Florida. Figures: 4
1% Human Resources
WHAT THESE CHARTS MEAN: Figure 4: This chart provides a detailed breakdown of where your tax dollars go in Broward County. As you can see, less than one-third of every dollar you pay in property taxes is allocated to Tamarac.
13% Police Services 6.55% N. Broward Hospital
32.51% Tamarac
20.33% County Commission
Figure: 4
1.50% Children’s Council 2.21% So.FL. Water Management
36.88% County Schools
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BECAUSE OF YOU, WE GROW: One of the top priorities for our residents is good customer service. In Tamarac we are continually reviewing and streamlining our customer interactions based on your feedback with great results! In fact, our customer satisfaction rate is 24 percentage points above the national average.
HEALTHY: While balancing the financial needs of the City, the City of Tamarac is also committed to the preservation of a healthy environment. Perhaps the theme of our Annual Report gives it away, but just in case you didn’t notice… we take our commitment to the environment very seriously in Tamarac. Tamarac has been a leader in recycling for several years now, in fact, in Fiscal Year 2009 we collected over 2,370 tons of newspaper and over 1,040 tons of other recyclable materials. Although traditionally recycling programs tend to wane during economic downturns, Tamarac saw an increase of just over 1% in the amount of recycling collected – in comparison, Broward County saw a 3% decrease. Per capita, Tamarac residents recycled over 110 pounds of material, nearly double the Broward County average, and our most recent survey shows that they’re satisfied with both, our recycling and trash removal programs (Figure: 5). In addition to recycling, the City offers free water saving devices, as well as rebates on select low-flow water saving fixtures, to its residents. With the help of an aggressive conservation campaign, Tamarac residents have helped the City
save over a million gallons of water each month! And, not only have they saved water, but they’ve saved themselves some green as well... because of our water conservation efforts, the City was able to eliminate the 18% Utility Surcharge. This past year also saw the creation of Tamarac’s first Community Garden – a partnership with the Kiwanis Club of Tamarac.
The garden, located adjacent to the City’s Caporella Aquatic Center, includes butterfly attracting plants as well as vegetables. To further help in our conservation efforts, the City promotes Florida Friendly Landscapes (Xeriscape), most City facilities feature waterless urinals, newer buildings include motion sensitive lighting fixtures, and, pending final approval, we will receive over $1.3 million in grants in the coming months to help fund new solar powered lighting fixtures at both the Tamarac Sports Complex and the Tamarac Community Center, helping to further our green initiatives. A Healthy Environment… the key to sustainable growth.
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Figure: 5 WHAT THE ABOVE CHART MEANS: According to our most recent survey, Tamarac residents rate our trash collection and recycling programs above the national and state averages in the following categories #1: Residential trash collection service; #2: Curb-side recycling service; #3: Yard waste service; and #4: Bulk trash pickup service. DID YOU KNOW? Tamarac was the first city in South Florida to obtain Silver Certification from the Florida Green Building Coalition. This award was given to the City in recognition of our environmental initiatives.
BECAUSE OF YOU, WE GROW: In our most recent survey results, residents have expressed that additional safe walking and bike paths are a priority. In response, the design of one of the city’s newest parks, Tephford Park, includes extensive paths of both varieties. In addition, the City has secured grant funding for more projects throughout Tamarac to further expand our network of walking and biking facilities.
DYNAMIC: The City of Tamarac will create and sustain a culture conducive to development and retention of skilled employees. Customer Service… Second to None. The words our workforce lives by in order to provide the highest quality customer service possible. A talented, committed, empowered, and compassionate workforce available to serve the needs of our residents is the City’s best asset. From medians to mainframes, maintaining the City and ensuring that everything performs properly is the top priority of our highly trained employees. As you’ve seen throughout this annual report, our residents continue to rate their satisfaction with Tamarac above the national average. We continuously strive for improvement through the feedback of
our residents, customers, and business community. The information we’ve gained in the past helped us to develop a set of customer service standards we call “Play Your PART.” Every Tamarac employee is trained in how to play their PART to provide you Professional, Accurate, Responsive, and Timely service. A Dynamic Workforce… well trained, well prepared — at your service.
DID YOU KNOW? We strive to provide clear, consistent, and accessible communication to our residents through a variety of means, like this Annual Report. In fact, our residents rank our efforts to keep them informed 28 percentage points above the national average!
CLEAR: The City of Tamarac will increase communication within the organization and throughout the City. We will increase both awareness of and participation in city government. Communication is the key to any great relationship, and in Tamarac we’re continually expanding our network of outreach. Through the use of neighborhood and community meetings; focus groups; surveys; our website; our popular quarterly magazine, the Tam-A-Gram; and of course additional publications such as this Annual Report, we strive to educate our residents about the latest happenings in the city — whether that be a new program offered at the recreation center, a recap of one of our most recent events, or a utility maintenance notice. Our job is to provide you the best possible balance of the information you need in order to stay abreast of the latest happenings, make informed choices, and to be able to take advantage of the best your City has to offer.
Our latest resident survey tells us that a majority of our residents, over 84% of you, utilize the TamA-Gram as their primary source of information for City related information. That is an amazing number... and we’re thrilled you like it, but we’re never ones to rest on our laurels. Over the past year we’ve expanded our communication network to include social media networks, specifically Twitter (twitter.com/CityofTamarac and, for emergency communication only, twitter. comCOTemergency) and
Facebook (search Tamarac, Florida). In fact, when we officially launched our Twitter account in February 2009, the City of Tamarac was the first City in Broward County to begin tweeting! Another way in which we communicate with our residents, and promote involvement and participation in city government is through our citizen academy, Tamarac University (TU). 2010 will mark the fourth year for this eight week interactive course that offers participants a behind-the-scenes and in-depth look at the inner workings of their city. After graduation, many TU alumni become actively involved in Tamarac through volunteering or serving on boards and committees. Clear Communication… the way we learn, the way we educate, and the way we continue to thrive.
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BECAUSE OF YOU, WE GROW: Survey results show that Tamarac’s residents like the types of communication they receive from their City, but want more. In response the Tam-A-Gram received a major re-design in 2008 to accommodate more information, our website was freshened to provide a cleaner user experience, Neighborhood Meetings are held twice a year in each Commission District to bring your City government to you, and we continue to explore new methods of communication, such as Twitter!
GOVERNMENT Beth Flansbaum-Talabisco Mayor Harry Dressler Vice Mayor, District 4 The City of Tamarac consists of four separate Commission Districts. Each District elects a City Commissioner to serve a four year term on the City’s legislative branch of government, the City Commission. A Mayor is elected city-wide for a four-year term to serve as the head of the Commission. The role of the Mayor and City Commission is to set policy and the direction of the City. Tamarac’s City Manager runs the dayto-day operations of the City and makes recommendations to the Commission regarding policy and procedures.
Pamela Bushnell Commissioner, District 1 Patricia Atkins-Grad Commissioner, District 2 Diane Glasser Commissioner, District 3 Jeffrey L. Miller City Manager Samuel S. Goren City Attorney
ANNUAL REPORT 2009
WHO WE ARE: From the distinctive and vibrant entrance signs which welcome residents and visitors alike, to our amazing array of programs and services that offer something for everyone, young and old, it’s easy to see why we say Tamarac is... The City for Your Life! Located in the heart of beautiful Broward County Florida, Tamarac is ideally located near major highways, tourist attractions, shopping, and recreational activities. Originally founded as an active retirement community by developer Kenneth E. Behring in 1963, Tamarac has grown into one of the most culturally diverse cities in South Florida and boasts a diverse community, amazing amenities, award winning programs and services, and some of the most affordable housing in the area.