Fiscal Cliffs, Trash Contracts, and a Website Overhaul: City Manager Talks 2025 Priorities

Residents press for better communication on everything from sober homes to bus stops, while the City prepares for 20% departmental cuts.

Nov 25, 2025

Palm Bay, FL – With Thanksgiving approaching, this morning’s “Coffee with the City Manager” session at City Hall focused heavily on the growing disconnect between city operations and the public’s ability to see and understand them.

While the opening tone was cordial—with one resident expressing gratitude for the completion of the Wing Road paving project—the conversation quickly pivoted to the City’s internal management, specifically regarding financial tracking, vendor contract enforcement, and the looming budget cycle.

The Looming Fiscal Cliff and Internal Cuts

In response to a citizen question about “what keeps you up at night,” City Manager Mathew Morton pointed directly to the City’s current financial reality, citing a need to bridge the gap between service demands and available resources.

The City has recently undertaken a large cleanup, closing out over 230 lingering, inactive projects and returning approximately $53 million back into fund balances.

However, the Manager revealed that all departments have been issued a major internal mandate: to model a 20% budget cut without reducing service levels. This challenge is driven by the City Council’s apparent expectation to cut the millage rate by at least 1.5 to 2 points this year.

The City Manager acknowledged the difficult truth behind this mandate. While citizens often request that taxes never increase, the reality is that without budget increases to match rising expenses, service levels will eventually degrade.

Contract Management and Accountability

A significant portion of the meeting was devoted to the challenges of vendor accountability, triggered by a resident’s complaint about inconsistent trash pickup.

The City Manager admitted that previously, the City “was not policing” the contract with Republic Services effectively. The Manager estimated this lack of enforcement may have cost the City between $1 million and $1.5 million a year in potential liquidated damages that were never collected.

New Oversight: The City is now actively monitoring the contract and enforcing penalties for non-performance.
Safety and Federal Law: Following a near-miss accident, the City was forced to enforce compliance by requiring Republic Services to certify that all drivers could read and understand English traffic signs, a necessary requirement under state and federal law.

Another citizen raised the separate issue of construction contractors repeatedly requesting change orders that inflate project costs. The City Manager stated that the long-term fix for this is the development of a true, high-level, end-to-end Project Management Office (PMO) to oversee all projects across all departments—a key role that was intended for the recently hired Assistant City Manager.

Mandates and Transparency

The meeting’s formal theme was transparency, leading to several key exchanges regarding how the City communicates critical changes to residents.

State Mandate on Reasonable Accommodations:
One resident asked how the City intends to handle the state’s new “Reasonable Accommodation” mandate, which removes City Council oversight and shifts the approval for facilities like recovery residences (sober homes) to the City Manager’s office. The core question was whether the City would post a live log of incoming applications on the website so neighbors would know they had been filed.

City Manager’s Response: The City Manager acknowledged that the process “definitely curtails” local power but deferred to the City Attorney’s office regarding what information can legally be published, stating he did not have an answer on the public log request at this time.

Comp Plan Compliance and Multimodal Transit:
The consistency of new development was challenged, with a resident noting that the newly opened Publix/McDonald’s complex in the Heritage area does not meet the goals of the 2045 Comprehensive Plan. Specifically, the development features only one bike rack for three bicycles and lacks designed accommodations for bus stops, despite the Comp Plan’s emphasis on sustainability and multimodal transportation. The City Manager agreed to raise the bus stop issue with the Transportation Planning Organization (TPO).

Website Accessibility:
Multiple citizens expressed frustration with the City’s current website, citing difficulty finding crucial information like citizen workshops and project tracking reports. The City Manager acknowledged this as a critical area for improvement and committed to opening a 30-day public comment period in early January 2026 to gather direct user feedback on how to redesign the website for simpler navigation and information retrieval.