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Palm Bay, FL -- Thursday’s Regular Council Meeting carries the most significant administrative restructuring City Manager Matthew Morton has proposed since taking office in spring 2025. Three ordinances on final reading would rename the Community and Economic Development Department, strip it of its housing functions, and hand those programs to Growth Management. The same agenda includes a $2 million payment to the IRS, an urgent upgrade to the city’s 911 dispatch consoles, and the schedule for FY2027 budget workshops.
The meeting begins Thursday, April 2, 2026 at 6:00 PM.
📍 Where: Council Chambers, 120 Malabar Road SE, Palm Bay
🕕 When: 6:00 PM
📺 Watch live: palmbayfl.gov or Swagit stream
🗣️ Public comment: In-person at the meeting
What the Three Ordinances Do
Morton’s reorganization spans three separate ordinances, each touching a different chapter of the city code. Together, they redraw the administrative map in ways that will affect how the city handles everything from housing assistance programs to business tax receipts.
Ordinance 2026-06 amends Chapter 31, the foundational list of departments that report to the City Manager. It formally adds Parks and Facilities as its own department, codifies Procurement as standalone, and changes the name “Community and Economic Development” to “Economic Development” in the city’s official department roster. This is a final reading with public hearing.
Ordinance 2026-07 amends Chapter 37, the Growth Management chapter, expanding the department’s composition. The new text adds a Long-Range Planning Section, updates the Land Development and Code Compliance division descriptions, and formally adds the Housing and Community Improvement Division under Growth Management’s umbrella. Under the ordinance, Growth Management Director Althea Jefferson will oversee a department that now covers planning, zoning, code enforcement, and federal housing programs.
Ordinance 2026-08 amends Chapter 39 to complete the other side of the transfer. It renames the department from “Community and Economic Development” to simply “Economic Development” and strips out the Housing and Community Development division language. What remains: business attraction and retention programs, economic development incentives, business tax receipts, lien searches, and tax deed sales.
All three take effect immediately upon enactment. The housing budget does not move until October 1, 2027, so the current fiscal year is unaffected.
Why the Reorg Matters Now
Morton’s legislative memo, identical across all three ordinances, is direct about the intent: “This proposed reorganization is a proactive step to position the City as a favorable environment for economic development. By seizing economic development opportunities, the City can strengthen its commercial tax base, attract greater capital investment, and foster job creation.”
The practical meaning: Housing programs are being separated from the economic development brand. The programs themselves are not eliminated. The Housing and Community Improvement Division will continue administering federal Community Development Block Grant funding, affordable housing programs, fair housing compliance, and the Community Development Advisory Board liaison function. It will just do so from inside Growth Management instead of inside CED.
The timing is notable. Jefferson was confirmed as Growth Management Director just weeks before these ordinances come to a final vote. Her department is also the one currently processing several of the largest development applications in the city’s recent history, including Palm Vista Everlands West (the 2,360-unit Millrose/Lennar project headed for a Council vote after last night’s P&Z hearing on April 1), and multiple rounds of the Eden at Bayside Lakes proposal. The LDC Workshop series, with Workshop 3 scheduled for April 8, falls directly in Jefferson’s expanded portfolio.
The reorganization also signals a priority shift at a moment when Growth Management is being asked to do more with those development applications. The department that now holds housing assistance programs is the same department managing concurrency determinations and land use reviews for projects adding thousands of homes to the St. Johns Heritage Parkway corridor and Malabar Road areas.
The $2 Million IRS Payment: Not What It Sounds Like
The most eye-catching dollar figure on Thursday’s agenda is not a loss or an overpayment. It is federal compliance, and it reflects the city’s investment managers doing their jobs well at a time when bond rates were near historic lows.
Palm Bay voters approved a $50 million General Obligation Bond in November 2020 for road improvement projects. The city issued those bonds on February 4, 2021. Federal tax law, specifically Internal Revenue Code Section 148, requires municipalities that issue tax-exempt bonds to “rebate” to the IRS any investment earnings on bond proceeds that exceed the bond’s own interest rate. The bonds were issued at a low 1.406202% allowable yield. The city’s financial managers, through PFM Asset Management, earned an average yield of 2.515870% on the bond proceeds over the five-year period from February 2021 to February 2026.
The math: the city earned $4,484,421.34 in interest on those bond proceeds. At the allowable yield, it would have earned $2,430,023.41. The $2,054,397.93 difference goes to the IRS on Form 8038-T. This calculation is required every five years during the life of the bonds, and again within 60 days of full retirement.
For readers who followed The Palm Bayer’s July 2025 coverage of the road bond debate or the Port Malabar Boulevard paving project update from March 2023: those bonds are still at work. Paying this rebate keeps the bonds’ tax-exempt status intact. That status matters because it is what allowed the city to borrow at low rates in the first place. Finance Director Larry Wojciechowski is authorized to execute all required documentation and submit the payment.
Consent Agenda: 911 Consoles and Police HQ Hardening
Two consent items deserve attention before the gavel comes down.
The Palm Bay Police Department’s 911 Communications Center runs on L3Harris Symphony SDP-1 dispatch console platforms. Communications International notified the department that support for the SDP-1 hardware ends May 31, 2026. That is 59 days from Thursday’s meeting. Council is being asked to approve $115,000 from FY26 budget savings to purchase six L3Harris Symphony SDP-3 units. The quoted cost from Communications International is $104,575.50. The additional $10,424.50 is contingency for anything that arises during installation.
The upgrade is straightforward: existing software licenses transfer to the new hardware, and all peripherals -- monitors, speakers, keyboards -- can be reused. But the context is worth noting. The department’s dispatch center supports officers responding to a city of roughly 150,000 residents while carrying significant sworn officer vacancies. Upgrading end-of-support hardware is the right call; it does not resolve the larger staffing picture.
The second consent item is administrative but worth noting. The city was awarded federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) funding in 2019 and CDBG-Mitigation funding in 2022 for building hardening improvements at police headquarters. Both grants addressed hurricane shutters and exterior protection. This request aligns the scope of the two grants so that impact-resistant glass qualifies as an equivalent protective measure under both. No additional money is involved. Chief of Police Mariano Augello and Parks and Facilities Director Greg Minor are both listed as routing officials on this memo.
Also on consent: Budget Amendment #2 (Ordinance 2026-09) gets its first reading. The amendment covers 15 departmental requests including CDBG allocations totaling approximately $1.69 million for housing programs, the $2 million arbitrage rebate appropriation, a fleet replacement fund setup, and several grant amendments for road, stormwater, and police programs. The second reading and final vote come at a future meeting.
New Business: FY27 Budget Season Opens
City Clerk Terese Jones is requesting Council consensus on three FY2027 budget workshop dates. If approved, residents will have three opportunities to engage the process before the formal budget ordinance adoption in September:
May 12, 2026, 6:00 PM -- FY27 departmental budget request discussion
July 7, 2026, 6:00 PM -- FY26 mid-year review and FY27 proposed budget data
August 4, 2026, 6:00 PM -- FY27 proposed budget review (optional, if Council requests it at the July meeting)
All three workshops will be held at Council Chambers, 120 Malabar Road SE. Budget workshops are public meetings. Residents who want to weigh in on priorities before the budget is set have a narrow window to do it. The May 12 date is six weeks out.
Sources
City of Palm Bay Regular Council Meeting Agenda, Meeting 2026-11, April 2, 2026 -- PrimeGov
Ordinance 2026-06, Legislative Memorandum from Matthew Morton, February 2, 2026, pp. 99-102 of 202, RCM Packet April 2, 2026
Ordinance 2026-07, Legislative Memorandum from Matthew Morton, April 2, 2026, pp. 103-106 of 202, RCM Packet April 2, 2026
Ordinance 2026-08, Legislative Memorandum from Matthew Morton, April 2, 2026, pp. 107-110 of 202, RCM Packet April 2, 2026
Arbitrage Rebate Legislative Memorandum, Matthew Morton / Larry Wojciechowski, April 2, 2026, pp. 164-165 of 202, RCM Packet April 2, 2026
PFM Asset Management, Arbitrage Rebate & Yield Restriction Compliance Analysis, February 4, 2021 to February 4, 2026, pp. 166+, RCM Packet April 2, 2026
Symphony Consoles Legislative Memorandum, Mariano Augello / Larry Wojciechowski, April 2, 2026, pp. 43-44 of 202, RCM Packet April 2, 2026
Building Hardening Legislative Memorandum, Mariano Augello / Greg Minor, April 2, 2026, pp. 41-42 of 202, RCM Packet April 2, 2026
Budget Workshop Scheduling Memo, Terese Jones, April 2, 2026, p. 163 of 202, RCM Packet April 2, 2026
Ordinance 2026-09 Legislative Memorandum, Matthew Morton / Larry Wojciechowski, April 2, 2026, pp. 16-17 of 202, RCM Packet April 2, 2026
Palm Bay Debates Future of $50 Million Road Bond Funds, The Palm Bayer, July 21, 2025
Road Bond Paving Project Update - Port Malabar Blvd., The Palm Bayer, March 30, 2023
