Community Redevelopment Agency Board - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the city commission meeting this 03/19/2026. We're we're filming a movie here today, I guess. These lights are so bright, but if you

see It's a weird color, Mayor. Is this like turtle lighting?

Yeah. Not turtle lighting. I don't know. I'd run out to the sea too. Anyway, thank you all for being here today. We have a number of items to discuss this afternoon. And but with every meeting, we begin now with our city commission reports. Did you say something, David?

Mayor? Yes. We would typically begin with the CRA meeting.

I can't hear you.

We would typically begin with the CRA meeting and then go into the conference meeting now.

You want to do the CRA meeting first? Okay.

That one's noticed for 01:30.

All right, folks. We will jump into the CRA meeting. Community Redevelopment Agency Board. Mr. Clerk, would you please call the roll?

Vice Chair Herbst? Present. Commissioner Glassman? Here. Commissioner Beasley Pittman? Here. Commissioner Sorenson? Here. Chair Trentiles?

Here. So for those of you who are seeing us on the Internet, I just want to announce that the Vice Mayor was not able to attend in person for personal reasons, and Commissioner Beasley Pittman is not able to be here in person for personal reasons. So the remaining commissioners, myself, the Commissioner Glassman and Commissioner Sorenson, will be able to conduct the meeting according to city charter as long as there's a majority that are present, we can continue with the meeting. Nonetheless, they the Vice Mayor and Commissioner Beasley Pittman will be allowed to vote, and we'll be able to conduct our business in the normal course. Okay.

So we have our first motion and one, the motion approving minutes of the 02/17/2026 Community Redevelopment Agency Board meeting. Would someone like to move the item?

Move. Second. They're moved and seconded. Please call the roll. Commissioner Beasley Pittman? Yes. Commissioner Sorenson? Yes. Vice Chair Herbst? Yes. Commissioner Glassman? Yes. Chair Trentals?

Yes. And M1 is now approved. M2, motion approving a services agreement between the City of Fort Lauderdale and the Fort Lauderdale Community Redevelopment Agency. Anyone have any questions with regard to this item? There being none, would someone like to move the item?

So moved.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman moved. Commissioner Glassman seconded. Please call the roll.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman? Yes. Commissioner Sorenson? Yes. Vice Chair Herbst?

Yes.

Commissioner Glassman? Yes. Chair Trentellis?

Yes. And M2 is now approved. M3, motion accepting the Fort Lauderdale Community Development Agency annual report and audit report and authorizing to transmit to the taxing districts. Anyone have any questions with regard to M3? There being none, someone like to move the item? Move. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Please call

the roll. Commissioner Beasley Pittman?

Yes.

Commissioner Sorenson? Yes. Vice Chair Herbs?

Yes.

Commissioner Glassman? Yes. Chair Turntellis?

Yes. And M3 is now approved. Is there any further business of the CRA agency board? None, Mayor. There is none. This meeting is now concluded. We'll now go back to the conference meeting And we'll begin with commission reports. Vice Mayor, do you have any reports?

Yes, I do. This is actually more of a question. So I understand that a follow-up meeting was had with Inter Miami regarding Lockhart Park design, just like a status update on that?

During my report, I'll be giving that.

Okay. Well, all right, I'll address my comments and questions then at that time. So in that case, I've got nothing further at this point.

Okay. Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

I'm going to pass today.

Thank you.

Okay. Did you have fun in Washington?

Oh, very busy. Very productive. I will be sharing that a little at another point. I'm gonna give something in writing for everyone.

Okay. Very good.

Thank you.

Commissioner Glassman. Yes. Thank you, mayor. March 4, very interesting meeting at the, convention center, Broward Workshop putting on the eighteenth annual state of the county. It's always, reassuring to hear, what's happening in our positivity especially as it centers around our city, Fort Lauderdale.

Later that day, I did join you, mayor and commissioner Sorensen, at the ribbon cutting for Thrive Art District in Progresso Village. Again, I've mentioned this several times. I would just tell folks if you haven't been there, you should get there. What the gentlemen have done there, the Fish Brothers in terms of turning a very, very desolate area of not just my district, but for the entire city into exactly what the name is, Thrive, Thrive Art District. The the hundreds and hundreds of people that are coming there for all of the activities, they're about 80%, rented now.

It's really quite an accomplishment and I'm still going to push that the city does more in terms of, sidewalks, connectivity, lighting, parking. We need to just tie that ribbon, and make it really a complete area, because what has happened there from the developer side has been really incredible. When you look at that arts district and you connect that with the Mass District and Flagler Village and Fat Village, we've really and including even the downtown where we are, the Arts And Entertainment District. We've created a really nice corridor of arts and cultural activities, really uplifting the entire city and congratulations to those folks. March 5, I had the pleasure of speaking at the Marine Advisory Board, Quite an engaged group.

It's always great to see the work that goes on there, and it's always really a very positive experience and thank them for their service as well. March 7, mayor, we were at the human rights campaign dinner held at Fort Lauderdale, Harbor Beach Marriott, very well attended, dealing with many current events of the day. Unfortunately, most of them are not positive when it comes to the LGBTQ community, but it was a really a good gathering there. A lot of issues aired and very important. March 10, I had the pleasure of meeting with about 30 business leaders downtown to discuss what's happening in our city as it relates to business, how far we've come, more importantly, where we are going as a city and has how that affects business in our city.

Thank you to the folks that showed up at that meeting as well. March 11, I had the pleasure of speaking at the Sailboat Bend Civic Association meeting. Again, our city's only only residential historic district. And it's always a pleasure to be there in the incredible historic fire museum. What a what a great location that is. March 13, the distinct pleasure of touring our brand new police headquarters. I wanna thank the chief and everyone on that tour. It was really an excellent excellent tour. I'm very impressed with that facility. So state of the art, so incredibly encompassing for every need that you can think.

And it really is a facility that our police deserve and our city deserves at the same exact time. That afternoon, a very important meeting and joined commissioner Sorensen at that meeting with the chief and and many other officers. We had a meeting with our city's local rabbis in the aftermath of the Michigan synagogue tragedy and so many others that are happening around not just our state country but the world. It was a good meeting. It was a good meeting to reassure the Jewish community and the rabbis from Fort Lauderdale that we have their back and that we will do what we need to do to make sure that that community feels safe and that those synagogues feel safe.

Again, thank you to the chief for that meeting and for the tour. I really appreciate it. March 14, we had such a good time at the city of Fort Lauderdale, our Saint Patrick's Day Parade. It was great to be there, always the energy. You know, the next day we also actually, we had the street striping on the thirteenth, the parade on the fourteenth, and the Emerald Society breakfast was out in Coral Springs on the fifteenth that I attended as well.

So three days jam packed of of celebrating Saint Patrick's Day. The spirit is always great. And the Emerald Society breakfast again, they must get about a thousand people at that breakfast. The scholarships that they provide for the young students. It's really a great group and so deserving of what comes their way and I wanted to say thank you to them for the work that they do as well. I would like

to ask actually a question

while I'm talking about Saint Patrick's Day for the city attorney. Have we determined or are we still trying to clarify what our role will be in the future with regards to St. Patrick's Day? I know that it's not an official holiday. It's not on the state list of holidays. It's not a federal holiday. Would that entire celebration be in jeopardy next year?

Commissioner, we're working to provide a more comprehensive analysis of all of it. In the most conservative view, you're absolutely correct. It's those items that are both federal holidays and state holidays and many things that you would expect our holidays are not. So we'll be providing that to you along with guidance going forward.

Okay. Thank you. It'll be interesting to see how that all plays out in the future. March 17, again, this was a distinct honor. I served as a presenter and also I installed the brand new 2026 Broward Chapter of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association Board of Directors at the beautiful Sonesta Hotel. And I wanted to thank all of those people for their service. Obviously, the hospitality industry is vital to the success of our economy. That's a great group. I think it's the largest membership of any of the chapters of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association. So congratulations to them for their work.

It was a pleasure to be with them. Yesterday, two events in the evening, shop for a cause at the Lilly Pulitzer store in Los Olas Boulevard was excellent because of the fact that the people were in such great spirit and Lily Pulitzer was donating 10% of all the sales that day to the Pink Angels Memorial Foundation, which is basically in support of breast cancer patients and their families at Memorial Cancer Institute, a great cause. And I would thank everyone involved for that. That was also done in conjunction with Los Olas Boulevard and Isles Magazine. And then in the evening, I had the pleasure of meeting with the Flagler Village Civic Association.

We had talked as a commission about what our next steps were going to be with the one stop shop site. And I was asked to convene and contact the DDA which I did. The Downtown Development Authority came together with the Flagler Village Civic Association last night. We had a great meeting. It was an excellent presentation by the Downtown Development Authority. Basically going through the history of what it took to get to where we are with Hisinga Park and then what the possibilities were and then what the next steps are. It was well attended and everyone there was very supportive of moving forward. I

couldn't bring up the.

What's what's what's that Pam?

She's I'm

sorry. It was didn't mean to interrupt.

Go ahead. No problem. Okay. So what I would I would just ask city staff if we can just keep moving along that path and figure out what we're going to do. So time just doesn't pass us by.

The neighborhood had a lot of good ideas and I think that we can certainly continue to move forward with that. I know that they would appreciate that as well. I would also just mention and I'm going to actually talk a little bit briefly about an item that I've been reading about all over social media and but before I get to that, although it does sort of sort of connect, I did want us to congratulate the retirement for Ford. I don't know if Ford will be on your list when you announce the retirees this evening, mayor, but that's a 17 year old American Mustang who's part of our mounted unit and is retiring. Hope he has a wonderful retirement.

And hopefully, we'll mention him when we mention the retirees this evening. That's quite a horse and it's really, really nice. I wanted to just discuss quickly if I might ask the the chief of police to come to the podium. So chief, I've been reading a lot about. I heard a lot about that night. We had a little bit of an incident on the beach.

I'm gonna I'm gonna bring I'm gonna bring up the one on Himershey Street. I wanted to show the video so

This is the beach one.

The beach one. Okay. Go

ahead. You take Himershey. I'll take the beach. Okay. Although they're both in District 2, but it's okay. I'm gonna pass

We won't hold you to that.

Thank you

very much. So chief, I was made aware of what was happening, when it was happening, and I've heard I know a lot of social media carried it. I've been seeing videos and people just posting all over the place. If you could just very succinctly tell us what happened, what you were aware of, how it was handled as easily as possible.

Absolutely. Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commission, Bill Schultz, Chief of Police. So reference the incident on March 17. We were made aware of this potential gathering prior to the event. Thankfully, thanks to our very positive interaction and relationships with our local youth in middle and high schools, they actually brought it to our attention that this event may occur.

After that, as soon as we got the notice, we planned and that planning mattered. We increased the staffing on the Barrier Island. We deployed a wide range of resources to include additional patrol officers, additional motors, additional mounted, our quick response investigations, so on and so forth. We also coordinated and this is important, we coordinated with the Broward County School Board, their police department and their security department and we actually crafted a message that we sent in advance via the normal means of communication to the students, parents and we sent that message three days in advance, four days in advance of that potential gathering advising parents. This has been advertised to your children.

Please have a conversation with your children about attending or not attending. While the crowd was large, the event itself lasted approximately five hours ended around 10PM. We most importantly had no major incidents. There were pm. A number of small skirmishes and fights which were immediately brought broke up by officers.

There were three arrests during the time. One was an adult resident arrested for battery law enforcement officer and had narcotics on him. Another was a notice to appear of a local adult for disorderly conduct. And the last was a juvenile resident who was arrested for theft. The broader point here is we cannot stop people from coming to the beach, we know that. But what we can do is prepare, we can surge our resources just as we did and we can respond effectively. It's exactly what we did in that situation. Now, I will tell you that night I was out there the entire night. I was actually on-site mostly up in the Beach Place area. The weather did end up playing a factor.

It became very cold and very rainy. So I think a number of the individuals in attendance left due to the weather. But I will absolutely say when this occurred, our officers responded in such a noble and commendable way. I could not be more proud of how they handled the situation that night. And we did work very closely with our city manager and other officials throughout the night to make sure that this was handled as specifically as it was and in correct fashion. So that was the summary of that night and I'll open it up if you have any questions.

No, thank you for that. And I'm glad you mentioned the notice that went out and how we were anticipating. It always boggles my mind that all of the that a lot of kids were actually middle school.

Correct? Yeah. There were some very young middle school children.

Middle school and high school, I don't know where the parents are. I'm glad there were notices that went out but maybe we can work even closer with the school board because there has to get a message out to the parents. I I can't even imagine that that's okay that all of these kids, you know, on a that's a school night, right? Tuesday night?

Yeah. Well, was Are they off

are they off? They're out spring break this So

what what exactly describe to us what this event was publicized

as being?

So there was a obviously an unofficial unsanctioned event. So someone made a graphic and advertisement that ultimately went out on at least Instagram. I'm told it probably went out on snap and other means as well. It was just a one page graphic that had the logos of all the county schools and invited everyone to come to the beach at the same day on the same time. The time was incorrect.

It was at first it was noon, then it was changed to 10AM and the majority did not show until starting at 4PM. But that's what garnered the attention of individuals. On the advertisement, there were various things mentioned, but it was primarily to advise the local youth to all come to the beach on that day at some time.

So just to show up?

Just to show up.

Yep.

It wasn't in protest of anything. It wasn't to confront other groups. It wasn't meant to be a staging area for any kind of conflict resolution. It was just simply to show up.

As far as I know, yes.

Any estimate of the number that showed up today? So I'm

still working on the a more official approximate count, but it was certainly many hundreds. If I were just to guess by what I saw closer to 800 to a 1,000 throughout the five hour span.

Okay. Excellent. Well, I want to thank you and I want to thank the entire department because I have heard nothing but praise from the beach community, from that whole Central Beach area, the neighborhoods, all of those streets. And actually I've heard it from people that typically are not so complimentary. So I will say say thank you because it's an outstanding job that was done. The anticipation is so important. So we didn't have a repeat of what we saw last year. And I just want to say thank you because again, great job, job well done and it's really greatly appreciated not District 2, but for the entire city.

Thank you, commissioner. And I I wanna say that that thanks truly belongs to the women and the men of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department. We are truly blessed blessed to have one of the absolute finest forces in this nation and I could not be more proud of them. Thank you. Thank you.

I agree. Mayor, that's it for me. I I was gonna talk about him, Michelle. I'll let you have it. You got the videos. I'll chime in when you do your thing. But I I I know that that was also on my list, but I wanted to make sure. I wanted to also find out city manager, the IPW conference for those of you that don't know, the largest tourist conference in the world is coming to Fort Lauderdale in May. I just want to make sure because I've been hearing about this from people. What are we doing? Are we gonna do banners? How's the beach gonna be affected? Are we gonna, you know, play this conference up to welcome these? I guess we're expecting like 6,000 delegates to this conference. It's that big. Are we working towards

So the city manager has something to say on that.

I did just ask her. Yes. Thank Thank

you, commissioner and mayor. Yes. We are coordinating on the IPW conference that's coming to the Broward County Convention Center. We want to make sure that Fort Lauderdale is as beautiful, safe and inviting as possible when those event goers come to our city. We're going to be working on banners with the Beach Improvement District. We also want to work on a closing reception activation with Visit Lauderdale. We are going to enhance our major corridors. So think on the beach, Los Soles, we want to make sure that they're as beautiful as possible during that time period.

Excellent. I just want to make sure because I'm getting asked a lot about that. So I really really appreciate that. Just very briefly, I know that March 23 which is this coming Monday, we're all gonna gather and celebrate what has been accomplished at the Hyzinga Park. March 24, the three hundred and seventy second Police Academy Graduate Swearing in Ceremony at the new police station. And on March 26, I'll be hosting for District 2, our Neighborhood Association President's Roundtable. That's it for me, mayor. Thank you.

Okay. Commissioner Kussorinski. Thanks, Mayor. Appreciate it. City manager for IPW, are we is is the mayor or the commissioners playing any role in welcoming the the conference to our city?

We can certainly coordinate that with the Visit Lauderdale team. There are several moments of engagement and interaction that can be scheduled around your availability. So we'll work with Visit Lauderdale on that aspect.

That'd be great. Thanks. I'd like to be part of that and defer to the mayor on that, but I think that'd be great. Okay. You very much. Just some additional comments on some of what we've already talked about. Fantastic St. Patrick's Day parade, striping and parade. Thank you parks and rec staff. Thank you police, fire, fantastic job, making sure that was safe and fun time. We had a We're going to

put your sport jacket in the St. Patrick's Hall of Fame. That'd be I'd appreciate that. Will that be next to your Speedo?

That's at the Swimming Hall of Fame.

Right. We could maybe it could be a moving gallery where

we just

bring it to different parts of the city. So fantastic. I'll look forward to that. I'll make sure to dry clean it in advance, get it ready. Went to the Edgewood Civic Association and we they honored Allied Kitchen and Bath and especially for the just their great volunteerism, they've Allied Kitchen and Bath have contributed to the Edgewood Clubhouse and just doing such a great job in supporting our neighborhood.

So I wanted to thank Bill Feinberg and the whole Allied team. So that was great. I was honored to participate in the Witton Rogers Educational Center's Annual Women in Action Seminar and I was there with Commissioner Beasley Pittman, which was just great celebrating the students and all the folks that came to be there. That was wonderful. I want to also thank our and maybe we've already done this, but our Chief Waterway Officer, Marco Aguilera has left for bluer pastures, let's say.

He's He just

done a great job and thank you for those who have supported him and worked with him and the Marine Advisory Board and much more work to do, but we've really set the standard for having Fort Lauderdale lead in terms of waterway quality initiatives, living seawalls, mangroves, lowering the speed on the ICW. I mean it just pump out boat, it just goes on and on what the city commission with Marco's leadership has done. So very, very grateful for that. Also, City Manager, just wanted to touch on, if it's possible, with Milosch and our continued good work in partnering with the county, the port on 17th Street, port traffic and just the challenges. We have a working group that I know Milos is helping lead.

Love to hear just a little update how that's going, how we're trying to address the bottleneck that is created in large part by the significant number of cruise ships, conventions that are coming in now.

Absolutely. Thank

you very much. Good afternoon. Milos Mesdaurovy, Director for the City's Transportation and Mobility Department. So there are a lot of traffic challenges around the port and, conversion center. We recognize those concerns.

We, create a task force meeting around monitoring traffic and managing traffic, and we hold monthly meetings with representatives from the our police department, Broward Sheriff's Office, Florida Department of Transportation, Miami Dade County Board Division who does roadway design and those who operate signals, our strategic communication, the port, Convention center, including their supporting staff. So there were a number of things that have been done so far. So on our end, I think most impactful is what our city's police department is doing, which is helping manage the traffic on Eisenhower and Southeast 17th Street as well as US 1 and State Road 84. I think that's the most impactful. Broward Sheriff's office also is helping manage traffic inside of the Port And Convention Center area.

I think that they have realigned resources in order to do that job a bit better. There is also effort that the county is helping with, which is revising some of the signage and payment markings along State Road 84, approaching the security gate for the bypass road as well, also making some roadway improvements by Eisenhower And Southeast 20th Street as well in order just to enable traffic to flow a little better. So those are some of the short term improvements that have already been done. We will continue our discussions with the entire group. But in terms of some of the longer term improvements, one of the most impactful would be improvement or increase in parking capacity at the port and other convention centers.

So based on the feedback that we're getting from those two entities, are planned improvements within the next five year capital plan for either one of the two. So there is very limited parking capacity right now, and I think that that is what's creating some challenges. Additionally, I think that improvement in transit service would also be beneficial and we will be participating in review of Broward County's comprehensive operational plan, which looks at how their transit service operates currently and what would be most beneficial change in the way that they operate transit service. So that will be happening within the next couple of weeks. And our goal is to see what kind of interim service as part of that effort could be provided between the airport, the seaport and convention center in advance of larger premium mobility plan, which is in a process of development, I would say, but it wouldn't be delivered before 2032.

So we have to make sure that we do something and do it quicker, even if that means that bus rapid transit service or similar is implemented between these main points of interest or destinations.

All right, thanks. And yes, I think you hit on the importance of sooner matters and the parking solutions are years off, right, for the port. The transportation, if there's ways we can expedite that sooner, think it'd be great city manager to move people. Another factor and it's tied into parking, but it's just the traffic stacking that happens on seventeenth and going into the port. Is there anything in your view that the Port Of The County could do to improve that traffic stacking that's happening right now?

So what we have done, we have installed some of the variable message signs in order to give drivers far in advance information as to which travel lane they should really be taking in order to get to the port depending whether they're coming from the East or the West. So our police department, I think, is doing a fantastic job in managing demand because before our police was out there, the box or the intersection entirely would And be completely that is unfortunately cause of both demand supply and also behavior of the drivers. So I think that what we can do is very limited. And I think that we will have to focus on our solution really on increasing capacity within the port and reducing demand somehow, some ways. One of the solutions that I would like to focus also on is potentially working with the port and commercial center to enable for some type of park and ride opportunities, right?

So not everyone who is trying to go for a cruise has to park at the port, right? Maybe there are facilities that are a little further away that and that clients could use some type of bus service to get from those parking facilities to the port because ultimately every vehicle matters when we are trying to manage over the saturated roadway network.

Okay.

Thank you. Appreciate it. And City Manager, this is as we've talked about a top concern, so we can continue to support. Thank you. Milos, can

I I'm sorry, go ahead? But Ben, to your point though, there is a significant amount of new passenger service at the cruise And that's great. Think it's a vibrant cruise port and more and more people are finding Fort Lauderdale as the departure destination, departure point and destination point. And you're a member of the MPO and you hear at our meetings county talking about their Primo plan. And Milos, you referenced the port the airport, seaport transportation systems.

They are out in the future. I mean, we've been talking about this for the last twenty five years here in Broward County. And luckily now we have a $01 sales tax, which is dedicated for transportation purposes, and we'll be able to tap into that money to be able to design and build it. But it is a ways off. And so a lot of people are concerned that trying to get to the hospital, which is really what the email was about, is the ambulances are choked in traffic.

So Chief Golan, Chief Golan, can can you come up here for a second with Milos? And I think there's a little bit of a misnomer into thinking that when you call for 911 emergency help that all they do is show up in

a car and throw you

in the back seat and you're on your way to the I think that science and technology has improved significantly. And chief, you had once explained to us what happens in an ambulance that in terms of trying to deal with trauma and trying to deal with emergencies emergency situation. You once described that these ambulances have almost the same level of of service as one would see in an emergency room. Could you explain to us a little bit about what your EMS trucks do contain?

Absolutely, Mayor. Commissioners, thank you for the opportunity. Stephen Golan, your fire chief. So great question. Over the years, rescue units or ambulances have evolved well past just a taxi or Uber to the hospital.

They've honestly become almost many emergency rooms that are out in the field. We now carry over 40 medications including just as early as last week whole blood and able to do surgical type procedures even on scene such as finger thoracostomy, crike's and things of that nature should they be needed. When talking about the traffic and the challenge that we have getting to them, we also have devices in our truck that are preemptive devices that actually change the lights and signal ahead on major thoroughfares so that we're able to change those lights. Sometimes you will see our units taking the path of least resistance and going against traffic so they can navigate around. But they're all trained to do that.

Ultimately, once we get on scene, we're able to render that care and to be in direct contact with the hospital should we need orders from the physician at the hospital. Most recently in the last couple months, we've actually gone to what we refer to as stay on scene and treat the patient or stay in play where we'll work a say cardiac event such as a code for sometimes twenty to thirty minutes on scene before we'll move that patient. What clinical studies have shown is that staying on scene and providing that life saving treatment on scene is far better than trying to load the patient and navigate them to the closest hospital. We are blessed here in Fort Lauderdale having transport times that are normally less than thirty minutes. When you look across the country, transport times to facilities that have stroke centers or cardiac catheterizations or trauma centers are sometimes well over an hour.

Here in Fort Lauderdale, we're blessed with that thirty minute time and also having all of that equipment on the trucks to begin that treatment. Just to give some numbers with the whole blood that went into effect last week, last Tuesday, We partnered with the local trauma center, Broward Health. So we did it a little differently than other municipalities have done. There's only two fifty municipalities or fire departments in the country that are currently offering the whole blood program, the ability to administer. All of the other programs throughout the country haven't paired up with their emergency rooms.

And we took a different route here with Broward Health being that that's the only trauma center that we primarily transport to. It's afforded us the ability to get the blood in an exchange program from Broward Health at no cost to the taxpayers. The other side of that is also blood is one of the most invaluable commodities that we have here on the face of the earth because it's harvested from other individuals. It only has a lifespan of twenty one days and we don't ever want to waste something so precious. So we also are in exchange with Broward Health where we exchange up blood every fourteen days. The blood that we don't use in the field is then taken into surgeries and utilized so there's zero waste and zero cost to the taxpayers of Fort Lauderdale.

All right, great. Thank you so much. I appreciate you're helping us out and understanding what facilities and opportunities we have here in our city. So thank you. I hope that's helpful to the people that have expressed concern about that. Certainly getting to the getting to the emergency is one thing, but leaving from it is also part of it. We're growing city, obviously, we're going to have growing pains. The bypass road, the connector certainly has helped to some degree. We're in the height of season. So everyone wants to leave out of Fort Lauderdale and go to the Caribbean Islands.

So and then people just come here as the destination in and of itself. Pier 66 being popular now is also another destination and choke point that adds to the traffic. But and then certainly the convention center activity itself. We boast about how we're getting these great conventions, but then we tremble when they come because of the impact that they have. So but your concern, commissioner, is well taken and hopefully our staff can continue to work with the county to try to mitigate these difficult situations. So thank you, Milos.

Milos, I just have one question. Thank you. Has there ever been any discussion at any of these meetings about staggering the arrival and departure time of when we have seven or eight ships in the port? To me, when you have 30,000 people coming and going at the exact same times, why can't they look at ways to make those ships come in at different times of the day and depart different times of the day?

Yeah, that is a good point. I think that what has happened over the last couple of years is that it looks like that in terms of capacity of a number of ships at the port is accommodating, they have kept that number to the same number, which is eight ships maximum in the port per day, right? What has happened over the last couple of years is that ships became much larger and also frequency of their arrival and departure has increased, right? So with the frequency, I think it looks like that it's much harder to manage the arrival and departure

times.

But just to maybe cover one more topic. Through these discussions over the last couple of months, we're trying also to focus on understanding a little more in real time what's happening along the corridors and approaching the port and US One. So we have been talking with the Florida Department of Transportation, who has a regional transportation management center that they operate, which is their command center from which they operate or oversee operation of the highways and arterials. Our Southeast 17th Street was not part of that effort, but we're discussing with them, they're willing to help us monitor traffic conditions on Southeast 17. So within the next couple of weeks, we will hope to have a plan for that.

Typically, they do it from six a. M. To six p. M, Monday through Friday, but they're willing to expand that on the weekends as well as we see it beneficial. And as part of the one of the recent projects, there is technology or there was a technology that was installed to help us monitor those metrics. We will absolutely explore, to your point, whether there is any way to stagger them. But again, initial feedback that we got is what I have explained.

Okay. Thanks. If you could bring it up just to see what they say. Absolutely. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you. Thanks, Commissioner Mayer for your support on this. Milos, another project that you've been helping lead, has been great is working with FDOT on traffic signalization along 17th and the Barrier Island. Just if you could give us just a quick update on that as well, how that's progressing?

Absolutely. So as part of the recent project, all along Sunrise Boulevard, East Of U. S. 1 to A1A, A1A to Southeast 17 and Southeast 17 to U. S.

1, there were smart signals that were installed, what we call adaptive traffic signal technology, including some of the components of technology that allow us to track the performance of the traffic and speeds and travel times and stuff. So the project was completed by FDOT since those are FDOT owned and operated roadways and Broward County Traffic Engineering is taking over the operation as they normally operate and maintain traffic signals. So the project was completed. There was a period of time during which Broward County was conducting some field observations. What they call optimal traffic timing patterns should be in place.

Right now, they're still conducting reviews, making certain tweaks. But again, demand and supply and also bridge operation is really affecting our ability to coordinate well signals along the corridor, right? So anytime bridge goes up, it affects really ability of traffic to move and ability of the signals to properly correspond or respond to demand.

Thank you. Thanks for your work. That's going to help make a difference. So thank you on that. Two other quick points. This is a minor mayor just kind of configuration and talking with a couple of charter officers. An idea just for configuration of our room until we get to the police station hopefully soon is possibly moving just an idea is moving the tables where the two charter officers sit, maybe kind of perpendicular with our dais to allow them a little bit more visibility to see the public and kind of engage a little bit more than how they're currently configured, if that's something we could explore?

That's up to them. Certainly, when we move over to the police station, we could certainly set that up perhaps in a curvilinear fashion so that we can all see each other up on the desk because in the year old city hall, all sat up there scrunched up But there, but we're all up certainly, it makes a lot of sense. I know they'll feel more comfortable too.

Yes. Okay. Great. Thanks, Mayor. And last one, and Commissioner Glassman, know you're on the solid waste.

I was going to bring that up.

Are you

going bring that Yes, I'll defer

to you because they just asked me about their meeting Friday. So I'll defer to you on that, Mayor. That's it, Mayor. Thanks.

Okay, great. All right. I have a few things to go over. Just in terms of events, everyone has pretty much mentioned a lot of the things that we all participated in. A couple of things that were a little different though.

On March 5, I attended the NSU Museum Art Teen exhibit. This was really a great night. Commissioner Sorensen was there and saw hundreds of young kids who were displaying their artwork and it was a great program sponsored by the museum, which to me shows how important it is to bring young people into and expressing their artistic talents. And so it was great to see that it was sponsored by a couple of the big donors of the museum. Thankful to the sponsors who participated in that and made it happen.

So So and the next day was Ina Lee's birthday party. And we were all there and we're very appreciative of Ina. She was, I guess I shouldn't repeat her age, but it was a great birthday party.

Well, it's sitting on the banner.

I know, but 80. Great lady, has been unbelievable partner with the city and the community and making so much on the beach happen today. She's been on every committee, been a part of all the visioning that has taken place over the last thirty years. And much of the success of the beach is a result of her input and her collaborating with everybody and bringing people together. So it was a tribute well worth where she has taken our community forward.

With regard to the St. Patrick's Day festival and weekend, we were visited by the Earl Ivy, who is a member of the Guinness family, who helped march with us. Yes, you didn't mention that. So the Earl was there. I

saved the big news for you, man.

Okay. Thank

you. But

we were honored with having him here. He really loved our parade, thought it was one of the best parades he's ever been in. And certainly, we hold no candle to those in Ireland, but at the same time, we feel very proud of our parade. I know the new statute, if you read it strictly, prohibits us from having the parade because it refers to an ethnic organization, and there's no national or state holiday that's been made by any of the legislature. So we got to carefully navigate what we do going forward after January should this should the governor sign that law.

Let's see. On March 15, I presented two proclamations at Christchurch over in Coral Ridge. The Nova Singers were celebrating their fiftieth anniversary and also the Florida Singing Sons also celebrated anniversary. The church was completely packed, and they put on an amazing program and very proud to have them in our community and as part of the cultural enrichment in which we all get to share. Last night, I attended at the Tower Club an event that was sponsored by the Hungarian Economic Attache from New York.

He came down from New York City to host a group of folks mostly of Hungarian American origin. And it was really great. It was the first time we did this. And what? No, that's okay. Okay. And a lot of good Hungary. Hungary. Okay.

Yes. Okay. Anyway,

so Hungary, did I mispronounce it? No. Okay. Okay. Anyway, it was great. I got to see a lot of new faces and some of the familiar faces as well. I want to thank the Tower Club for participating and allowing that to happen. And it was just a great event to meet some new people and to invite them into our community. So next week is going to be exciting for a number of us who are going to join the Greater Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce in the Washington Summit fly in. That's going to start Monday and go through Thursday of next week.

I will be attending that. And, I don't think anyone else on the commission is going. So, but I'll be happy to share what results. We get to meet with a lot of congresspeople, members of the administration, and we certainly have the opportunity to get to meet and face to face with a lot of the folks that make decisions. So we're very happy to have this opportunity once again.

I want to thank Dan Lindblade and the chamber for putting this together once again. And I think it always reaps great dividends for our city as we get to learn more and more about what goes on in Washington and they get to know more and more what goes on here in our city. March 28, that's the following weekend, We have the city's family picnic at Snyder Park. So looking forward to seeing everybody there. It's always fun. I'll be serving beer from 11:00 to one. Yes. Some thirsty people. Let's see, also We have

a bartending license for that. Yeah.

Let's see, March 31 is going to be the VIP opening of the Lauderdale Tropical Bear Week at the Sonesta Hotel. I'll be presenting a proclamation and welcoming that group who will be vacationing here and celebrating their communities event here in our city. And then April 2, we have the Lexus corporate run at 06:30 p. M. That begins next to the Brower Center. So Commissioner Glassman, put on your running shoes and hopefully you'll be able to make it this year.

Thank you.

You're welcome. Okay. All right. Let's talk about a few issues. Solid waste. So yesterday, I got a call from Commissioner Beam Fuhr, who made me aware that there's a meeting tomorrow. Commissioner Glassman, do you want to talk a little bit about what's going on there and what this meeting is about and why they want us to participate?

Sure. Well, first of all, I do know that we've been trying to schedule a meeting to have an update on exactly what's been happening with county and the Solid Waste Authority. Do we have any idea when that's going to be happening, city manager? Because I know that we've been waiting for a while.

Sure. I'm going to invite Brad Kane, our public works director, to give an update.

Push your I always have a problem with Mike. Yes,

we're going to bring some items forward in May. The county, the SWA consultant is going to make a presentation on the future of what the SWA is to look like in participating cities. And then staff is going to

have another

presentation basically reviewing the Solid Waste Master Plan and the Facilities Amended Agreement. So those two items will be coming in A decision to join the SWA does not have to be formalized until July. That's when the county and the SWA are expecting a commitment from all the municipalities. So we have some time, but those items will come in May.

Thank you. So may that I'm glad you're giving me that debt and that information because that's very pertinent to tomorrow. So tomorrow, there is a meeting the governing, I guess, governing board you can call it. It's every single city in the county. They've been having I'm gonna be really honest about how I feel about what's going on with the solid waste authority and the work that's been happening. It's been seven years. Seven years that the county has been trying to put this together. You have three cities who have automatically said we're not participating. Pembroke Pines, which is one of our third largest cities in the county. Second. Second. Well, I said one of our third.

Yeah.

Oh, okay. But second is good. Hallandale Beach and Pompano Beach. They are not participating at all. And there are many more that are on the fence. So here's the issue. They want to have a quorum because they're nervous about not having a quorum to present this the master plan that

you said.

They need 19 votes to move the process.

The master plan. Right. I personally think it's premature to vote on the master plan until we actually have a discussion and we have a presentation. I think other cities are filling that as well because they're not able to gauge their commissions approval or non approval of this master plan. I will tell you that really what the master plan is basically saying is very very general and and not in my opinion comprehensive.

It's talking about just setting up a couple of drop off points and then pushing everything like ten years down the road if if I'm correct in my assessment of what that is. So that's difficult. That's not a lot. I don't even know why the county can't even do that on its own just set up those drop off points. As a city, we have to decide if this is a good deal for Fort Lauderdale, for our taxpayers, for our city.

Right now as presented, the rates are not better for us. If I'm if I'm remembering correctly, the tipping fees are maybe a little bit better but the recycling is not. We we do well on our own and we actually do more than any city in this county when it comes to everything that the Solid Waste Authority has been talking about. So they they want our participation now just to be to be part of a quorum. I will tell you that for more than two years I I was going religiously to every single meeting way out west.

I was participating as well as I could doing that job that this commission asked me to do. But then when it came time for the cities to get a little bit closer to forming a little bit more of a concrete organization, hiring a director, by the way, the first director has already resigned from the Solid Waste Authority. There is now an interim director. This is after seven years of this work. So when it came time to select the executive board for the Solid Waste Authority, each of the categories were small cities, medium cities, large cities. The large cities took it upon themselves to think that Fort Lauderdale did not deserve a seat on the executive board.

Did you ask for it?

Did you? Yes. We were yeah. Well, actually, yes. We were all there. We were all showing our willingness to serve on the board. They chose not to choose Fort Lauderdale to sit, which is amazing because obviously as the largest city in the county, we produce the most tonnage. So you would think that it would make sense that the city of Fort Lauderdale would be part of the executive board for this. Again, my concerns are, is this a good deal for the city of Fort Lauderdale? Is there even going to be participation that's going to be warranted or needed to make this successful.

I will tell you that we have had staff, the Solid Waste Authority also has a technical committee of the TAC, the Technical Advisory Committee. Melissa Doyle from our staff who I consider to be probably the most knowledgeable of that entire room whenever I've gone to any of the meetings. She's amazing in terms of knowing the issues.

Oh, Melissa?

Yes. Melissa, knowing everything. She has been attending every meeting because I was not going because I wasn't on the executive committee. There was no reason. And I I basically was relying on Melissa's input, Melissa's advice, and Melissa's incredible summaries of what was happening, keeping me abreast of what was happening.

And then we were going to plan a I thought it was gonna be April, but now I'm hearing it's May. We were gonna plan a very good presentation in terms of where are we, where is the county, where are all the cities on this after seven years, where are we going, and does this make sense for Fort Lauderdale. So that's basically what I know. Tomorrow is just the the vote on the master plan, but that's not even really, it's the facilities plan that's gonna be the real big vote and I don't know when that's going to come because that's gonna really decide if we are moving forward with whatever it is that that they're planning on doing. So again, I've had these discussions with city manager, have these discussions with Brad.

We have to just determine whether this makes sense for Fort Lauderdale or we actually gaining nothing or are we just gonna be paying. I I did look at some of the fees and I think hold on a second. I'm gonna pull this up really quickly for you. The latest that I saw for city of Fort Lauderdale, and I can't find oh, wait a second. I apologize. Anyway, it's a big number.

What would be the alternative if we don't participate? I mean, that part of the presentation? Was that what

we learned? Yes. All of that mean, but right now We got to dump our garbage somewhere.

So

Exactly. Well, we still have our well, again, we still have the rates that we're able to do because of the county. We still are going to be doing the same exact thing. Again, it's just a matter of are we gonna participate in something that hardly anybody else is participating in? Or again, what are the advantages to the city of Fort Lauderdale if if we participate?

So that was the discussion we were gonna have on, I thought April, but now May, and then we decide where we go from there. But, you know, tomorrow, I guess, they're nervous about a quorum. There are many cities that have just not been attending the meetings. And now they're, I guess, nervous about the quorum and moving forward with the the master plan for tomorrow. If there's anyone else that would like to go, I'm not going to go.

You're not going to go.

You would like to go and represent

I I can't go. I can't go.

If not, I don't really think it's a big deal, but we'll again, we're gonna have to decide what we think is the best for the city of Fort Lauderdale. And that's where we are in this.

Well, my understanding is that if we go if someone from the commission goes tomorrow and votes to move forward, it's not really committing the city to any one program or the other. It's just moving the process forward. And that's why they called me to see if I could go, but my I'm completely booked Well So

How we would be voting without discussing the master plan. I mean, is that okay? That we Tell would just

us what the consequences of voting.

I mean, there's really no consequences. It it doesn't affect whether we, as a city make a determination to whether we're going to opt in or opt out. It's just they're trying to move the process along. And as part of the governance of that particular system, they need to get the 19 votes to move the master plan forward. All it will really do is if they don't have quorum tomorrow, it'll just delay it, you know, be another month or two months and it may change their timelines going forward. That's really all it does.

All right.

And Brad, just for clarity again, the vote tomorrow would be on what?

Just the governing board accepting the master plan that Okay. The SWA is putting

And no there's no commitment Correct. Doesn't commit the city to That's any correct.

Do you find anything in the master plan objectionable? I mean, we're going

to when we make a presentation in May, you know, we'll have our comments on the master plan on the facilities amendment. There are some changes in the last four or five days that I think the new executive Director along with their consultant SCS has been making. So we'll have to evaluate those changes and how they look compared to the rates we're paying. So but again, once we bring forward the item in May, I mean, of that is going be comprehensively presented to the commission. So you guys will have a very clear understanding of what the benefits are versus what would be the other options if we don't decide to enter into the SWA.

And that would just be things that we can do on our own independently or in collaboration with other municipalities. Thank you, Brian.

So what are we going to do then? We're just not going to appear? Is that the idea? Well, if

someone would like to go, I think anyone can go from the commission. I don't think I think a couple of years ago, we did try to get an alternate, but no one wanted to do it.

I I think if if if anybody else is gonna go besides you, commissioner Glassman, you guys would have to probably just vote on picking an alternate member to go.

I think it also would be helpful if someone does want to do that that they get a copy of the master plan just because it makes sense to me to vote on something if you're familiar with the document, not just going to go.

Well, it's a thick document and I doubt anyone's going to be able to read it between now and then.

Well, how do we as a city just go and vote when we don't know what we're voting on?

Well, I'm not disagreeing with you. That's why we're having this discussion. Okay. Yes. All right. So it's the commission's decision then to not participate tomorrow and to wait until we have a presentation before we decide whether or not we're going to continue to involve ourselves with this program going forward. Is that kind of the way I'm understanding it? Okay.

Mayor. Yes, ma'am.

Is there a recommendation for, you know, someone going tomorrow from, mister Kane? Is there a recommendation, understanding that we haven't read this document, but understand we asked the question, what would be the how would it look when it's not showing up is where I'm going with this. Is there a recommendation from, Brad about which direction we could go we should go with this?

Brad? Nothing like being put on the spot, right?

Not putting you on the spot. No,

I mean, I think, you know, our staff is going to be there to listen into the discussions.

So But the question from the commission, the county commission was, you know, we need your help to move this forward. We're finding it difficult to get a quorum and we need this process all these years, seven years of effort. We don't want it to stop right now. So they want someone to at least vote yes to bring this continue with this process so that it doesn't just stall on track. So to answer your question, Pam, if you could go, at least

you could represent the city. No. She's shaking her head.

No. I I I wouldn't be available to go. I wasn't volleying I wasn't asking the question to be volleying told. Well,

this is the this is what happens when you ask questions. You get volunteering. I know

you ask the question and you end up in the position. But that wasn't the the reason I was asking. Wanting us, you know, of course, to be in position where we're not, in a sense, forced to show face and make a decision when we're not ready to. Even with that, my other question is, has there been, mayor, any indication of how close we are to a form? You know, is it are we like the the hold it out or the the one that they're waiting to make the

form? Uh-uh.

Do you know how close they are to

a form? I I don't know the answer to that. I'm sorry. Okay. I don't know the We already know the 31 cities, three are not participating.

Right.

Now you're down to 20 Down to 20. But

I don't think they're actually part of the vote because they never actually joined to begin with. So I don't think they're actually part of the cities Those cities are not are not Right.

That's why. 20 cities. Yeah.

28 cities. They need nineteen nineteen out of the 28. And this whole discussion actually begs the question after seven years, why is it so difficult to get a quorum? I don't know. I don't know.

Okay. Mayor, couple thoughts on this. So if it, you know, it pleases the commission, I'm willing to consider Going. Going. I'm willing to for the commission to consider making me an alternate if it wishes.

And if I'm some meetings tomorrow, but I might be able to move some things around. But if I get the material, if I'm able to digest it and Brad, I'm going to have to talk with you to get me up to speed. But if I'm able to receive it, able to study it and get in a place where I'm feel comfortable being there and discussing and voting, I'm happy to do it. But those are a lot of

And then that would be great. And I think we all appreciate it. But so long as we understand that should you vote to move forward with program that is not committing the city to anything because we need to still have our presentation in

May. That's absolutely correct.

Okay. As as we know that, then we appreciate your being able to do that.

Right. And just to understand any items as it relates to the SRE actually will have to come to the city commission to be voted on. So they can't, you know, not do it not by resolution. So there's no way that just a yes vote just to move that process forward bounds the city to being committed to the SWA going forward in '28.

So Brett, if the city participates tomorrow on the governing board with the other 28 cities or whoever shows up and votes to move forward with the master plan, are there any ramifications to that when it eventually comes back to us? In other words, it's okay to vote yes tomorrow and no in the future or vice versa or You you absolutely. You don't see that it's tying us to anything.

We we are not obligated.

That is correct. Alright.

And and mayor, if I could add another point, I and commissioner Glassman, it boggles my mind that Fort Lateral is not on the executive That does not make any sense to me. And anytime anyone has talked to me about this, that's the because that was my understanding that I've heard. That's the first thing I say. Right.

So why don't you bring that up? I absolutely will bring Yeah. That up if I If you go.

Because that's it it it doesn't make To me, that's that's priority number one.

They didn't feel it was a priority then, but it's a priority now to have us there to make a quorum. So it's interesting to me. That's just huge. Leverage.

That's just interesting. That needs to be corrected.

What we can do for you, Commissioner Sorenson, is we can try to prepare a, like a cheat sheet packet for you of the key things. You know, you have a little bit more understanding going into it for tomorrow. We can work on that today. Okay. Make sure you have that before tomorrow.

Okay. That'd be great. And then, Brad, if you can give me the logistics and I'll see if I I can make it

think it's I think it's 9AM at the County Center West. Okay.

It's at 1 University Drive, the the County Building, and I believe it's won't start until at least 09:30 because the executive committee meets at 9AM. So I think earliest is 09:30. Okay.

Alright. Mayor, I I just wanna clarify that there are two voting items on that agenda tomorrow. So one for the master plan and one for the facilities amendment. So I just want to make it clear that if Commissioner Sorensen does attend that his vote or participation might coincide with those two voting items that are on the agenda.

Okay. And Mayor, I know Commissioner B. Z. Pimon shared her availability. Vice Mayor, I want to defer to you if you'd like to be interested please, I will happily defer to you Vice Mayor. Unfortunately, am out

of town and unable to participate. I will be at my brother's memorial service up in St. Augustine this weekend, so unable to be there. Okay.

Sorry to hear that. So then, Mayor, I don't know the next steps. It sounds like this would have to be a vote for Well, I

think that there's consensus to allow you just to represent the city at the meeting and to vote to move it forward. And then we'll have our presentation in May. So and at that same time, you might want to bring up the subject of your of the city being on the executive committee.

Happily.

And Brad, you'll be able to get the commissioner also to facilities.

We'll get

him everything. Because I think that's even almost more important than the master plan. Okay.

Thanks, Brad. Yes. City Attorney, City Manager, is that is consensus fine for this or I just

Yes.

I think that's right, Commissioner. We have consensus here to send you as a delegate.

Think Okay. We may need a walk on resolution this evening.

Me

get Is that require a walk on? Okay, that's fine.

We'll get some clarification on that.

Okay. We can figure that out. Thanks.

Thanks, Ben. Thank you, Ben. I appreciate that. Yes. Welcome. Couple of other things. Every year, we have nominees for the Walk of Fame. And this year, we have, I believe, five. And I believe we may be running out of sidewalk. And we should think about reducing the number of Walk of Fame nominees each year from five to a lower number, whether it be two or three.

Honestly, over the I don't know how many years we've been doing this now, what, ten years maybe? And we've certainly been able to select the low hanging fruit, like the most prominent people over the years who have been significant contributors and who represent the values and the history of Fort Lauderdale. We've certainly have now recognized those people. And I just think that as you look at the length of this walk of fame, at some point we're going to run out of sidewalk and we don't want to end this program. I think that's a great program.

So something to think about. It's not really it's on it's on the consent agenda. I don't want to hold up the meeting discussing it, but I just wanted to us to think about it, the commission at some point, what we want to do on that because and you may disagree with me, which is also fine, but I'm just bringing it to our attention that we might want to consider reducing it from say five to three or something

I going thought we did discuss reducing already. And if I remember the minutes from that committee, they discussed it as well. Did they? Yes. I think they do four, and the discussion was about just doing two. But I I think that was because we brought it up up first as a commission.

I know I I know that I mentioned it to the committee.

Yes. So we agreed. Did we? As a commission.

I did. I do.

The commission discussed it at conference and staff shared that we would go to the committee and have that discussion discussion with them as well. So that message was relayed to them.

And they came and they had a discussion there?

I I believe so. I I defer to the Parks and Rec team. Who who? Enrique Sanchez.

Think they did.

Please push the button. Yeah. Great.

Hi. Hi. Good afternoon, mayor, commissioners. Enrique Sanchez, deputy parks director. That that is correct. So the committee did vote for this year, but they did speak about going to two.

In the future? Yeah.

In in the future, there's nothing holding them to that. If we do wanna hold them to that, it would require some action from commission saying future ones are limited to two.

Okay.

So it depends how strict you want to do if you want to keep it.

It's up to them. Okay. All right. Great. Thank you. I appreciate it. Okay. So now I'd like to talk about Him or She Street. Do we have the video in place? I want to okay, let's all look at this video.

Warning distressing content. Okay. Someone has to push the button. Okay, thank you.

So

obviously there are number of questions that I would like to ask. So let me begin by saying the following. A few weeks back we had a discussion here in the commission regarding the entertainment zone And we came up with a number of recommendations. We ended up, settling on one or two. And we felt that that was going to be the opportunity for us to tone down the the atmosphere, the culture that seems to be engendered on Him Or She Street.

We thought that the open containers were the were the answer to some of the the the violent activity there. It was supposedly bringing in the an unwanted element there. So we got rid of the open containers. We tried to reduce the hours of operation, but we were persuaded not to by a number of the bar owners and staff people who work there. So the reason why this video is important is because this is what was put on the New York Post website and Fox News.

So millions and millions of people have now seen this with the moniker of Fort Lauderdale, Spring Break. Now none of these none of these kids are Spring Breakers. Okay? These are not people that live outside that live outside the city. The spring break visitors have been amazing in terms of their coming to Fort Lauderdale, appreciating what we have to offer, having a good time and going home.

And we heard a little bit about that this morning earlier today. And and and I commend the police department and the fire department for and parks department for all the efforts that they have done to create an environment that is safe and that is welcoming and that sends a signal to the parents that send their kids here that we provide a safe and welcoming environment. This is not what we want people to to see, and we don't we don't want this to happen in Fort Lauderdale. Now I'll tell you some of the things that distressed me about this. We saw the perpetrators, but nothing was done to them.

They were just pushed aside and and police took the position of just defusing the situation. There should have been handcuffs on some of these guys. There's absolutely no retribution that was shown here against going And to to ir There's they're all they I saw the the guy that was slamming do everybody smiling as he was being pushed away like it was a joke. We have to give the authority to our police department to do more than just trying to defuse situations because there's absolutely no reason why these kids are not gonna come back and do the same because nothing was done to them to punish them for what they did. And with the kid laying on the ground, I mean, some have told me that, oh, he was just drunk.

But I heard people say, oh, he was slammed to the ground. He's out cold. No matter what, this is not Fort Lauderdale. We are making every effort to prevent this from happening again, and here it is happening again after the bar owners swore it wouldn't happen again. These bar owners I didn't see one bar owner out there.

The ones that came and appeared before us that night about the entertainment district, Not one of them was out there policing their own their own places of business. So I don't know what we need to do, but we're not doing anything near what we need to be doing. We need to be taking action. Another thing, I saw a video of, one of these status cars racing through the tunnel. Alright?

And police officers followed the the car. I think it was an Audi. Nice car, but it was it was just racing through the tunnel, backfiring its muffler system, its exhaust system. Police officers followed it, stopped it, and issued them a ticket. And the kid who was driving it had the nerve to say, oh, this is the second one I've gotten.

As far as I'm concerned, that car should have been impounded and let the guy come get it after he's been arraigned in court and has been and his case has been adjudicated. There was absolutely no reason why that person would not do it again. He did it once before, and all he got was a ticket. He did it again. All he got was a ticket.

When people drive, you know, cars that are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, these tickets for a couple $100 are nothing. It's a night out at, you know, at a bar. So unless we are willing to enforce our laws in a way that shows that we are we mean business, we are wasting our time. And this is going to kill our businesses if we do not do something to prevent what's going on Himanshu Street from happening again. And I and I and I at some point, we need to know what is what our our intentions are because we are hands off.

We just wanna keep things calm, and we wanna hopefully, everyone goes away and nothing happens again. In the meantime, I saw someone who's laying on the ground. Next time is gonna be a shooting. Next time is going to be someone who's gonna get more seriously hurt. And all we're gonna do is ring our hands and say, oh, you know, we have to do better.

We've got to prevent that from happening. And and I don't know, you know, I don't know how to save what just what we just saw. When you have a national newspaper like the New York Post putting it on their website, when you have Fox News redistributing it on their website, this does not look good for our city. And we don't deserve that kind of image when we're not that kind of people. So I I just I bring it to your attention, city manager, and I hope that we can find ways that we're going to do better. And I and we've got to figure a way to prevent this from happening again because unless there's retribution, unless there's consequences for this kind of behavior, it's gonna continue to happen again and again. Thank you. Well,

thank Mayor, may I?

Yes, please.

So on January 20, I believe the the second meeting Can

you speak up a little

On January 20, this commission had the conversation about the special entertainment districts and asked that staff come back within ninety days with an update to the ordinance to allow us to have an opportunity for those businesses that are operating under the privileges of the Special Entertainment District to become officially part of the district. We have been working on that. We have a public meeting, our final public meeting scheduled for March 30. We intend to come back to the commission with proposals that will assist in streamlining the behaviors and the obligations of the businesses in those special entertainment districts. Our police department has the authority to enforce in any manner that coincides with their training and their observations of the current situations, and they exercise judgment in doing so.

And so our teams are committed to ensuring that Hemershee and the conditions there improve and we're looking forward to having that future discussion with the commission.

Honestly, order manager, I don't see it improving. We just saw it happen again. So we we can't keep waiting. You know, the the business owners, you have to do what you have to do. You do that in the course of of time when you can organize them and and meet with them. I I think that was a complete dereliction of their responsibility to manage their own properties and to manage their customer base. But as far as we're concerned, we need to be more proactive. We need to be more, engaged and we need to show that we mean business. Because look, I've lived here for over forty years. I've seen spring break.

I've seen different levels of spring break. I see where where kids have been dragged into court because of their misbehavior. Okay? And we cannot allow us to fall into the trap that other cities have subjected themselves to, to the point where they no longer have spring break. And we've seen that happen.

And this is but we want spring break in Fort Lauderdale. The college kids are great. They provide great business to our business owners and also adds to the culture of who we are. Historically, this is in our DNA, but when you have mostly local kids who come here to act out, they probably don't even live in the city. But this is a staging area for them to just come there intending to get into a fight because that's what they do. And we can't have that. This is not we don't this is not

a place for them to to act them out there, Their conflicts and their disputes and their and their disagreements. So anyway. Mayor, I I agree with you completely. It's unacceptable. It's not who we are. And we've got to do better as a city. And when we last talked about this, we talked about eliminating open container, talked about eliminating on street alcohol sales, both of which we done, we did and are working on. And we talked about reducing the hours of this specific entertainment district. The majority did not want to change the operating hours of this entertainment district. I think we need to.

And let's have a discussion with this added what we're seeing. We've got to take proactive steps. And so are we willing as a commission to change the operating hours for this specific entertainment district? I think we need to do that. Mayor?

Well, they're going to have their meeting with the business owners. And when you report back but no one this could have happened at 11:00 at night. It could have happened at 12:00 at night. I'm not we don't know that reducing the the business hours is going to really change the conduct, but it certainly changes the atmosphere of what of entertainment zone this is. If we if it's 04:00 in the morning, it creates a sort of licentious atmosphere, right?

Like anything goes. So if we reduce that, yes, maybe it's not going to be as it's not going to be the kind of edgy environment that him or she has become. So I'm going to defer to the city manager. I agree with you. Let's we need to really rethink this because I think we just were too trusting that these business owners were going to be more responsible, but clearly they haven't been.

And

I do want to highlight that our police department implemented an operation specific to the Himershey District in terms of stepping up enforcement and patrols and that has carried over into the spring break period. So we have more police officers engaged in the special entertainment districts than we would normally have had prior to January. So We

saw the police there. I mean, they did a great job, you know, breaking it up, but there's we have

to go one step further. Well, that's because if you remember, all of the business owners at that meeting in January promised us that they were going to step it up in terms of their own security detail.

I

know. They were going to step it up in terms of improved funding to do all of those things, to clean up the street. Yeah. There were a lot of promises made

Remember?

At that meeting that we had and that's what I wanna see. I wanna see have they lived up to those promises. Because ninety days takes us to They haven't lived up there.

This just happened two

days ago. Look. I've I've seen worse than this. I've seen I've seen pictures of people passed out on the street, like on the sidewalk rather

even just We're not talking about the sapphire.

Thank you very much. Well, that was just for Saint Patrick's Day. But seriously, the ninety days that we said from the January brings us to when again?

It brings us to the April 21 meeting.

Okay. So At the Are we gonna be able to have some sort of assessment given to us in terms of the promises that were made with regards to increased funding, security detail, all of that that was promised that night, I mean, we seen a change? Is there anything that's happening that we've seen that's different?

So based on the feedback that we have received from the businesses thus continue with those outreach efforts, we will incorporate requirements in the ordinance that will speak to those promises and obligations.

And again, I also want to make sure that this is not just a blanket action for all entertainment districts because we're not having issues in all of the entertainment districts. So I I don't want

I don't want We're not having issues at all.

You're

right. I I wanna make sure we're not penalizing the good actors for, what's happening, you know, in just one area, really.

Mayor?

Who's talking? Yes.

Commissioner Pan. When we say the special details that the, business owners said that they would also, hire, I think our expectation and definition may is not coinciding. Because when I hear, hiring additional detail to patrol their businesses, to me, that's just the doors, the entry door and beyond. When we talk about the roadway, all of this that we witnessed on this video are individuals who are walking the street. We we didn't see one incident where they were actually, well, I didn't notice one incident where it was actually saturated around one business.

This is traffic that's moving, back and forth, along that on Hemistry Street. And we said no open containers. There was no one I didn't notice anyone walking with open open containers. So there's a there's we need to dig a little deeper with this. These are what I'm observing is that people just come into the area to do what they're doing.

So we do need to have that balance to also provide that opportunity for those business owners. I I before, I agreed that we needed to, specifically look at him or she and what was going on in that area, not affecting good actors versus bad actors. But, again, a lot of what was on that video was individuals that were walking that that corridor. It didn't seem to be specifically coming from one, business per se.

True. Alright. So city manager, you'll get back to us, after your meeting with the business owners and also work with the the police chief to come up with possible solutions as to how we're gonna better enforce that area?

Yes, mayor.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Bill. Okay. That's it for me.

Oh, wait. Wait. One more thing. With regard to an update on the mediation with Inter Miami, when we we last had this discussion at the city commission meeting, the vice mayor had said that he now want he his he went back to his community, and his community indicated to us that they did not want pickleball courts anymore and that they wanted more of an open field. And so we met with Inter Miami this week and we got yet another redraw of site. And when is it coming up, Raquel?

Mayor, could I weigh in on that for one second? So it's it's not that my let let

me finish. Let me finish. Vice mayor,

let

me I I just wanted I just wanted to if if I could, I just wanted to correct that slightly. It's not that they don't want pickleball. What they want are multipurpose playing fields for the kids. They don't want an open field. We already had an open field. What they want is a multipurpose playing field, soccer fields, football fields, things like that. Just want to clarify what the community is looking for is a multipurpose playing field.

Okay. Okay. And when do we decide we're going to come back to the commission on this?

The request was for April 7. I didn't hear you. April 7.

April, the first meeting in

April. Correct.

Right. So just to give you a little heads up, the redraw of the site does include a multipurpose playing field. In fact, it consists of a full regulation size soccer field. So I think everyone will be very happy to see the result. And I'm going to make a presentation of my most recent meeting at the first meeting in April, which is our next meeting. And hopefully we can move forward and finally get this park built. All righty?

So that's actually what I would like to weigh in on. So under Heather prior to me, there were many, many workshops and charrettes held with the community to talk about what this park was going to look like. And the design that went forward very much reflected all those meetings that she had prior to my coming on board. The only change I made was, like I said, the addition of just pickleball to what had been formerly an empty space. I would like to have an opportunity to socialize whatever the current drawings look like with the community.

I think my community needs to have a workshop and an opportunity to see what the current iteration looks like. And so, I know that there are plans out there, but I haven't seen them. So, as a district commissioner, I'm requesting an opportunity to circulate these and have a workshop with my community because again, they've invested years in the design of this park. And I think it would be premature to do much of anything, vote on anything until the communities at least had a chance to look at it.

Well, so again, we're trying to find ways to move this thing forward. Okay. And Understood. Okay. So here, you know, we're going on seven years now and and that many iterations of trying to redesign this. And each time we do a design, it costs the city money. Up till now, Inter Miami has been paying for the redesigns. In fact, they even paid for this redesign. So they've been very good partners in all this. They've been spending

hundreds of thousands dollars. Please

do not interrupt me. Let me finish. I don't interrupt you. Let me finish. They've been great partners in this and paying for the many hundreds of thousands of dollars of design fees that has taken to get us to this point. Also keep in mind that the this is part of the mediation and part of the dispute resolution. And so the design that we've come up with includes requests on their part as well as requests on our part. Now the last design that we came up with, which was presented to the commission, included modified parking area as well as the pickleball courts. And we were ready to move forward on that. I don't recall you're asking for a community outreach at that point, but we did it.

We changed nonetheless at your request and we took away the pickleball courts and we had a multipurpose field included. So I don't have a problem. You're seeing the proposed design between now and the next meeting. And if you want to circulate it around to the community before the next meeting, that's fine. But after next meeting this next meeting, we need to just vote and move forward on it. So I think we can all be cooperate in that regard. And I think that I think you'll be happy with what you're going to see. And I think the community will be happy knowing that we can move forward with their vision for that area. All right?

I don't think so. So I just I want to formally object to moving forward with anything until I've had a chance to workshop this with my community. There there's there's no instance where we do something that affects a park in any part of the city without involving the community. We were just talking a little bit earlier about one stop, and and what did commissioner Glassman say? We need to share this with the community. I'm simply asking for the same consideration for District 1.

That's what I just said. I said we

No.

I I wanna have

workshop before we before we before we vote on it. I'd like to have a workshop.

Well

I I don't

have time to organize a workshop between now and April.

Well, how many months

do you need? Realistic.

How many months do you need? How many months do you need?

Mayor, we've to your point, we've we said we're going on we're going on seven years on this. I don't think another month or two isn't gonna make any difference.

How many months do you need?

I I I don't know. I just learned about this literally today. So, you know, you're you're asking me to to to give you an answer on something when I have absolutely no information whatsoever. I don't know what the plans look You know, the one question I asked was whether or not Joe Webb, the engineer who's been working on this for the last five years, who's intimately familiar with the FAA's requirements was involved with this at all, and I was told no. So the person who knows the most about, like, you wanna put this in the middle of the field? Well, you know, lights don't go there because it's the landing path for the runways.

Right. So I mean, are things that that engineers How many months do you need to to go out and reach out to your community?

At least a month to organize a workshop, Mayor.

At least a month. So a month would be the second meeting in April?

At a bare minimum, yes.

So we're talking about the first meeting in May?

That would be fine, yes.

So you'd rather just come back in May? Yes. All right. So you realize you're just delaying this another two months after you have insisted that this whole process has delayed the the the creation of this park and that your community has continued to lambast the commission for its delays and its refusal to move forward on this. You want to when we can actually wrap this up at the next meeting based on all of your don't want to wrap up that of your you have requested the commission to come up with and we responded to all of your requirements.

But I haven't seen the plan yet. I don't even know what the plan looks like. I haven't seen the plan. I don't know what it looks like. I don't know how it reflects what we've asked for. So what I asked for so I'll be very clear. What I asked for was that we relocate parking and put the playing fields back to where they originally were and move the parking over to where pickleball is. And from what I've been given anecdotally, it does not sound like that's what you've done. So I don't believe you have in fact done what the community has asked for. So that's why I wanna see it, know what it is, take it to the community, show it to them, have them have an opportunity to weigh in.

Fine. So you want to come back in May, correct?

Yes, please.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay. Have no nothing further in my reports.

Just

City manager, do you have any reports?

Just to clarify, mayor, so we will share the You can

share the design you can share the design, the proposed design to the commission to all members of the commission and then we'll have it brought back in May.

Thank you, Mayor.

All right.

Mayor just had one other item whenever you're

going Go ahead. Okay.

I just wanted to I know we all got this email, but I just wanted to call out and celebrate some good news. Our Government Finance Officers Association awarded City of Fort Lauderdale distinguished budget presentation award for FY 2026 budget. I guess it's the forty second year Mayor that we've received this and then in addition

That was going to be in my report.

Sorry. Well, you'll say it much better and much more interesting way. So I'll defer to you. Thank you, Cityman.

I didn't know what you had next, but I do want to celebrate the team. We are an award winning team. So shout out to the Office of Management and Budget under the leadership of Director, Laura Rees. So congrats, Laura. It is the forty second year, but we got to keep it going, right?

I also want to congratulate Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue on achieving the Commission on Fire Accreditation International reaccreditation for the third consecutive time. So congratulations to Chief Golan and his entire team. The men and women of our fire service are matchless. Then we have our Parks and Recreation Department also award winning. Last weekend, they received a NatureScape Emerald Award in conjunction with Broward County for the work they did at Riverside Park in terms of the renovation and preserving existing trees and the way that we situated the playground was very much environmentally conscious.

So congratulations to Carl Williams and his team. He's out today, but Enrique is standing in his stead. Other than that, I do want to recognize several city departments, probably too many to name off the top of my head, but we just concluded our parade season. And I know you all mentioned the St. Patrick's Day Parade, but during this time of year, we had Martin Luther King Parade, we had the Sistranck Parade and Festival, and then we concluded with St.

Patrick's Day. And our Parks and Recreation Department, Fire Department, Police, Strategic Communications, Public Works, Transportation Mobility, and a host of team members from other departments assisted in making those events memorable, enjoyable, beautiful and safe for everyone to enjoy. So thank you to the entire team. We also want to recognize that we have various members of our team, our teams who have been participating in enhancement opportunities in terms of training, and we have a few members of our team who have received awards and we're putting those out via letter to the commission. But if you have an opportunity to give them a shout out or respond and share with them that you congratulate them, I think it's also very meaningful.

They don't all get recognized here at commission, but we try to communicate that very proactively. So thanks again to the commission for all the support and for our wonderful team for all their efforts in keeping us at the highest level of achievement. This weekend, we have the group violence intervention program. There's a walking one stop occurring at Provident Park under the leadership of commissioner Beasley Pittman and District 3. We're piloting this program in coordination with Fort Lauderdale Police Department.

Chief Schultz and Captain Will August have been very instrumental in seeing this program launch, and this is just the next iteration of community engagement and outreach events in support of reducing gun violence in our community. So I just wanted to put that out there. That's happening from twelve to three on Saturday at Providence Park. Thank you.

Does that conclude your report?

That concludes my report.

Okay. City attorney, do you have any report?

Thank you, mayor. I just want to, address the appointment of, commissioner Sarneson to this, for the meeting for tomorrow. The resolution appointing Commissioner Glassman appointed him as the primary, but didn't designate a process for an alternative. So we're going to prepare a walk on resolution for you for this evening and you could formally appoint Commissioner Sorenson to go tomorrow.

Okay. Great. Thank you, Ben, for doing that. Okay. There being no further reports, then we'll continue now with our business one. This is the A5 Sanitary Sewer Lift Station Presentation, Public Works Department.

Thank you, Mayor. I'll begin by sharing an update at the January Commission Prioritization Workshop. We had a brief discussion about the one stop site and there was a footnote to that discussion and it related to the A5 Lift Station, which is very much needed in order to promote development in our downtown. The city team has been expeditiously and diligently working toward advancing the City Hall project. And the City Hall project can only move forward with a new A5 Lift station.

And so our hope is that we can ensure that this project moves forward expeditiously so advance the City Hall project and meet the expectations of our commission and our neighbors and stakeholders. This time, I'm gonna turn it over to O'Neil Rodriguez, our assistant director of public works to walk through the presentation.

Good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor, and commissioners. As manager Williams mentioned, today we'll be presenting an overview of the proposed sanitary sewer lift station a five, including the need, a little bit of a background, some site considerations, and the next steps. And staff will be seeking commission direction on the preferred alternative or the preferred location so we can proceed with a final design and implementation. So to give a little bit of overview of the sanitary sewer lift stations, they are a critical component of our wastewater infrastructure. It allows sewage to be pumped from the lower points to higher elevations when the gravity sewer is not sufficient.

These stations, they move the wastewater through forest mains to our GTL wastewater treatment plant ensuring reliable and continuous service. Now a sewer basin is the defined geographical area where all the wastewater is collected and directed to the specific lift station. Everything within that boundary flows to the same point in the system. And the lift stations are typically located at the lowest points within a sewer basin. And as you can see in this picture, gives you a graphical representation of how they work.

They come in into the lift station. We have pumps that pump that sewage into our treatment plants. Now the city of Fort Lauderdale currently has approximately a 190 lift stations here. And our system capacity is measured using what is known as the nominal average pump operating time or NAPOD. And the industry standard, it is a maximum of ten hours of pump operating per day.

So when that threshold is exceeded, it indicates that the system is under stress which can reduce equipment lifespan and reliability. And in those cases, it is recommended approach is to split the sewer basin to redistribute the flows and restore capacity. Although our current lift station for A7, the NAPOD is approximately seven hours per day with the anticipated development that we have in this geographical area and the future development that we anticipate to come online. We already have commitments of approximately fifteen hours per day. What this means is if those developments were to come online, we will be above the industry standard of the ten hours of pump operating time per day.

Another way that we can see this or we can look at this is this particular lift station has three pumps. Right now one of those three pumps is operating 20 fourseven. The second pump it's operating more than half the time. And the third pump is there for reliability and redundancy in the event that one of those other two pumps fails. So the intent for that second pump is not to can to operate more than half the time.

It is intended for it to be to operate when we have high flows of sewage. Now to address this concern, staff is recommending splitting the a seven basin and creating a new basin that we would call a five. This will increase the operational capacity, improve system reliability, and extend the useful life of the existing infrastructure. And I want to highlight that the modern lift stations are designed with odor control units or systems that can reduce the odors by more than 99% and they operate at noise levels between forty and fifty decibels, which are lower than a normal conversation.

It's that 1% that's the killer, but go ahead.

You always have to leave that one person out. Now the A 7 Basin currently serves a large portion of our downtown regional activity center, which includes, portions of District 2 And 4, and it's experiencing significant growth. There are currently three seventy five hotel units, over 7,900 residential units and more than 200,000 square feet of commercial space proposed developments are either in review process, have either been approved or already under construction. In total, this includes two projects in review, 10 approved projects, four projects under construction and 15 that have completed that have been completed. So as we can see this level of growth, it's placing an increasing demand on the existing system.

Therefore, the creation of the A 5 Basin is necessary to support both the current and the future development. At this time, four development projects require the construction of the A 5 in order for them to receive their certificate of occupancy. In addition, future development in the area, including our new city hall project,

would also depend on this infrastructure. Doesn't don't we don't we require some of these developers to build lift stations in their own projects?

How does that work? So the city is required to treat the water that they that they that they produce. Right. So, yes, part of the process that they have to go through, sometimes they had to pay impact fees to the city that then is used for

projects like these.

Don't have don't they have lift stations within their own projects that process the effluent that's produced within the building?

It depends on the type of building that they're We're

looking at some big buildings now, right? Correct. So Chris, help us out here.

Sure. Chris Cooper, Deputy City Manager. So from a development services perspective, we have not had new developments build their own lift stations within the project itself. They have contributed to the creation of lift stations that will serve their project, but they're always on a piece of public property or a public utility easement outside of their project. There are some communities that do allow and do have developments create those lift stations within their development site, but we haven't done here in Fort Lauderdale.

Is that a practice we should consider?

I will leave that Is answer it big burden?

Is it a I mean, it only makes sense that if they're building a whole community of, you know, 300 or 400 units that, you know, they should they should be required to do to create their own lift station because these are expensive.

Yeah. Yeah.

Agree. Somebody to think about.

Sure. Yeah.

All right.

Thank you for that feedback, mayor. So the A 5 lift station, once implemented, will reduce the pump operating times of the A 7 pump station, lift station preserving its capacity and extending its life cycle. The estimated time line for design, permitting and construction of the A 5 Lift station is approximately two and a half years. However, the advancing of that design requires the selection of a site for this lift station. And this particular slide illustrates the existing boundary of A 7.

That's what you see in the shaded purple and also the proposed A 5 which is in the green, outline. So the proposed split will redistribute the flows and improve the overall system performance within the downtown area. So city staff evaluated potential locations for the A 5 and in evaluating these locations, staff considers several criteria. The current project budget of approximately $11,500,000 the site must accommodate a footprint of 50 by 50 or 2,500 square feet and allow for adequate access, adequate vertical clearance and proximity to the existing sewer system. Additional considerations that we're taking into account included constructability, the ability to be able to reverse the sewer flows, the traffic visibility and also opportunities for screening and landscaping.

So the four sites that staff evaluated were the City Hall site, the City Hall garage, the one stop shop site, and also the community court site. And now we're gonna go into a little bit into each one of these and present some of the advantages and disadvantages.

Neil, before you go further, I just want to clarify that in addition to the four sites being discussed today, staff looked at the entirety of the area of the basin and identified these four sites as potentially viable. We also in prior years looked at a privately owned site as an opportunity. And so I just want you to be aware that we have looked at many more potential opportunities, but these have presented as the most viable

Well, to I mean as far as the City Hall site is concerned, there isn't a huge area there that we can allow for a 50 by 50 block that this is going to create. I mean, the footprint of the new City Hall and its and the chambers is gonna take up, you know, most of the area as well as the plaza that was intended. So where were you thinking of putting this on the City Hall site?

I saw the backup. It wasn't terribly clear. So that's a very good question, mayor. So that would have to be discussed with in coordination with the city hall developer. However, the city hall developer has already said that indicated that there's not sufficient space at this site for the Right.

For that location. So why don't we move on then?

Understood. Yeah. Move on to the next one. So the City Hall, the second one would be the City Hall Garage site. It is a city owned facility and similar to the City Hall site.

It is located near the Force Main. However, it presents several constraints including the limited vertical clearance of approximately 16 feet. We would need a minimum of 20 feet vertically and this would restrict the maintenance access. Also as you can see there would be a loss of parking spaces, would be limited construction area and a need for a structural analysis. And as we mentioned before, in order for us to be able to accommodate that minimum 20 feet vertically, most likely a portion of the 2nd Floor would have to be removed, which is imperative for that structure analysis to see it as viable.

So considering everything you just said, why was this considered a viable site? So from Break up the break up the garage, lose 20 spaces. I mean, why was this even added to the as a viable site then?

So from a constructability perspective, any of these four sites can potentially work. However, as I mentioned, they all have their pros and cons. This being one of those negative, aspects of it, which is would be the structure analysis that we required having to retrofit in the existing structure and perhaps reinforcing it in order to be able to accommodate Okay.

A lift station. So let's move on there then.

The third site, is the one stop shop site, which this one offers several advantages from an engineering and constructability perspective. Since this particular site has not been developed, we don't have the restriction from a vertical clearance. It provides 2.75 acres. It allows for easier reversal of gravity sewer flows with fewer utility conflicts, and the lift station can be placed outside of the vehicular side triangle.

Well, one one moment. Mayor may I have been notified by, the district three commissioner that she is unable to hear the speaker? I I've shared with, the clerk's office. I'm still not sure if she's able to hear, and that's been going on for a few minutes now. So I just want to put that on the record. Thanks.

So something else to consider when with this particular site is the future impact of the site planning. This location provides the most flexibility. And also additionally, any concerns as I mentioned before related to noise and odor can be effectively mitigated through standard design features. And the last but not least, on the community court side, it is not a city owned property, so therefore, it would require acquisition. And the most recent appraisal was approximately $2,500,000 back in 2024 and with an asking price of $3,000,000 at that time, which exceeds the current project budget.

There would also be impacts related to relocating the community court and addressing the active lease on the property that extends beyond through extends through 2027. So here this is a matrix of the four alternatives. It summarizes how each site compares across the key criteria including the ownership, the cost, the constructability and also the operational feasibility. With this particular slide, I wanted to highlight examples that demonstrate how lift stations can be designed with appropriate screening and landscaping to minimize the visual impacts and integrated into the surrounding community and therefore make it more aesthetically pleasing. This is based on lessons learned from prior projects that we've had in our city.

So if we were to go back to the one stop shop site, where would you recommend that that go? On the Southern Port

part? So in theory, it can go anywhere within that particular site. We would also work and to see with the programming of of what the future site will look like. But primarily, we were looking at the Southern Southwestern Corner in the vicinity of that area.

What's Why?

Because that way is closest to Broward Boulevard, which is where those main sewer flow would be coming from, and therefore, the shorter distance for us to have to reverse the flow of the sewer.

So from a logistical point of view, that makes the most sense. And also from a practical point of view, it takes it away from the hotel and also the residential, which is on the north end, right? Correct. Isn't the building just on the north side of this site? I think it's the shooting range. Hasn't that building been for sale for a while? You know which building I'm talking about? Yes. I don't know about the thought that that building has been for sale for a while. But you're saying this it it makes more sense anyway to closer to Broward Boulevard of all the pipes going in that direction.

Correct.

So you don't happen to have a rendering of what it would look like if you were to put something on the southern part of that site, do you?

Not not at this time. We're still in very early stages of the preliminary design. What I can say is, from a screening perspective, we will work with our internal departments, particular our development services department, go through the DRC process to make sure that we have the adequate screening and make sure that this feature it gets incorporated into the community.

Okay. There are several people who have come to us who have indicated an interest in developing this site for a park and activating it as a park. So as you go forward, you collaborate with them to be able to integrate something like this into whatever design they have anticipated. I like the next slide that you have, which is the next one after that, the decorative features of how these can be integrated into a cityscape instead of just what you did at Peter Feldman Park. Hopefully we could do something a little bit nicer. We still don't have that painted, do we?

So we have two opportunities to beautify that lift station. We will be doing some landscaping and we also have the artistic mural that is going to be implemented. Is he back from vacation yet? Spring twenty twenty six.

We're we're seeing that that

site.

Okay. So the last slide, these are the next steps. We're requesting commission feedback and direction on the preferred site location. And once a site is selected, staff will then proceed with the final design, the permitting and construction. And just to close, this is a a very important project for the city in order for us to be able to maintain a reliable wastewater service. Our continue to support our growth within the downtown area, and also, protecting our infrastructure. So staff is ready to move forward once we receive direction from the city commission, and I'm here to answer any additional questions that you guys may have.

Any questions for the commission? I do. Go ahead.

Thank you. So in terms of what you've seen recently in these kinds of lift stations anywhere really in the country, my concern with One Stop and I understand the benefits, but can we guarantee if you go back to that screening that slide, I want to make sure that if we do something like this and we choose one stop that we are going to do something artistic and we are gonna do something in terms of mitigation of any odors. Is that even an issue anymore with these lift The I know. But I just wanna make sure.

The older stations, yes. Especially, they don't have an odor control unit. The new ones, now it's it's standard practice to install these odor control units. And from personal experience and the ones that I've been part of, it does reduce the smell significantly. And you can hardly smell. And as the mayor pointed out, that 99% of the odors get rid

I just wanna make sure I saw that and I heard the 1% comment. I just wanna make sure that that really is just 11%. Correct. Okay. And then so I'm looking at the one with the landscaping. Where exact is the lift station behind all of that landscaping or enclosed by all of that landscaping?

So that particular the the larger picture, it has a fence around it, and then within that fence is the lift station. And then beyond outside of the fence, you have the landscaping to to

shade it. Is this part of this is part of the Los Oles Marina?

Yeah. I just wanna make sure if that's

what we're

talking Yeah.

Because that's Beach

Place. Okay. Good. I so you feel confident that if we were able to put it in that open space that we would be able to mitigate any of those concerns?

We do and then we'll work very very closely. Okay. Like I said, from the lessons learned to make sure that we have a product that the community enjoys and

it's So not let's a talk about chicken and the egg. So we are in the process of hopefully going to be reimagining the One Stop Shop site. I had a good meeting last night. Do you think that moving forward, the timeline for the lift station is going to come way before we ever do anything in terms of that site redeveloping it? Or what's what's the timeline here?

I'll I'll begin by sharing that we've done some preliminary design work already that would be conducive to the one stop site. And it is anticipated that we would need to move forward with the lift station likely in advance of the reimagination of 1 Stop and however it will be implemented. As you know, we have to do a lot of outreach, planning, design, permitting, identifying the funding. So those things do take some time even if we expedite that. We feel that if we don't move forward with the lift station quickly, it will put the City Hall timeline in jeopardy.

And so just we're thinking from that standpoint, if the City Hall project wasn't a factor, certainly we could wait a little longer and maybe have more of an opportunity to wait to see how the reimagination of One Stop proceeds and then tie in the lift station. But I think there's opportunity for collaboration to identify a location that would work best.

From start to finish, what is the timeline for constructing the station?

So we're estimating somewhere between two and a half years and three years from finalizing the design. Right now, we're at 30% design, so which is very critical for in order for us to continue that we finalize the site, and then we'll go through the procurement process and construction. So we're estimating between two and a half and three years.

So actual construction is how long? Actual construction is how long?

That could go between a year and a half and two depending on unforeseen conditions that we might find Really? And with the underground. Once you're once you're working with underground, it's you you can hardly ever know what you might find. Alright.

Estimate. So we're well, I know you've mentioned City Hall several times. So we just heard it's three years for this to happen, the Lyft station?

That's worst case scenario.

Worst case.

We We think that we can get it done sooner, especially since we've done some preliminary design work related to this site.

So how does that factor in when we've been talking about opening at least the commission chambers of the city hall, not the tower by 2028?

Well, I know that the developer has proposed a timeline. We're still working through the specifics of that timeline and we have not yet come to a final determination as to what the project timeline will be. We do intend to share that with the commission as we continue to discuss with the developer and we'll be bringing forward the interim agreement in April. So we should have some more definition around the project schedule by that time. I know what is desired and I think we're trying to find the most practical and feasible way to get there. But again, no matter what the timeline is without this lift station, we won't be able to achieve.

But what about just the

Let me chime in on this. So if you look at the existing City Hall that we had, right, there were hundreds of people that worked there and the sewer systems were working fine. So what the new city hall contemplates is just the commission chambers. So it would be very, very little impact to the system over what was already being accommodated. So I think to your point, I don't think we have to worry too much about it because the system should already have the capacity to handle whatever we're going to do for commission chambers. Yes, it's going to be different when the tower is built, but that's not contemplated for less than three years anyway.

Well, was going be my next question. Are we planning to be able to just have the commission chambers open like we said in the 2028 even if this lift station is not completed by that date? And we could always make sure that everyone that goes to the commission meetings, no one can go to the bathroom.

Right. I do want to factor in that there are other projects that are contingent upon this lift station and have received approvals from the city in anticipation of this lift station being developed. So as private development progresses, we can't think of the area as being in a standstill and that City Hall is the only project that is going to be coming forward. So I just want to give you that context and I'll turn it over to Chris if he has anything else to add.

Yes. I'll just add that as far as development approval is concerned, when we have a project like this that's been programmed partially I think it's fully funded and then partially designed, we're able to condition occupancy on the achievement of this project being completed. So we could look at it from that perspective. So I think the development permit approval is not so much of a concern, but we will want to be very mindful of the timeline for CO of any of those facilities to make sure that we are able to open those when the time is

right. Okay.

Does that complete your presentation?

Yes, sir.

Any other questions? Do you have any other questions? Pan, John, any questions?

Pam, you have

any questions? No questions. Thank you. No, bless. Okay.

I don't have any questions. Just a comment. I've gone through the presentation. My takeaway from this is that really the City Hall Garage is the best location for it. I've never been a big fan of when it was located in Peter Feldman Park.

And I don't think putting it in one stop if that does become a park again, which I think, you know, the neighborhood would like to see makes any sense either. I think the least impactful area from a pedestrian user perspective is in the City Hall Garage. People park there once in the morning and they typically may go out to lunch. But other than that, they're not going to see it or walk past it again until the end of the day. So I think from that perspective, the least visible, least odor present place you could possibly put it is in the City Hall Garage.

There are some engineering challenges, but nothing that can't be overcome. So that would be my recommendation. I don't think the park is the right place to put a lift station where kids are going to be playing and people are going to be congregating and spending, hopefully hours of their time recreating. And there are odor control devices, but that doesn't mean that odor doesn't escape. And so I think that would just be the wrong location for this, my opinion. That's all.

So to that point, maybe if you can just address, if you look at that slide, the City Hall garage site, what are we talking about when that bullet point says requires structural analysis for viability? What are the concerns about viability and what are the concerns about structure?

So with with that particular site, first of all, the 1st Floor only has 16 feet of clearance. You you need a minimum of 20 feet of clearance, which means that from just from the get go, a portion of the 2nd Floor may have to be removed in order for us to be able to accommodate that clearance. Also from lessons learned from other another lift station a seven is also within a garage and from conversations with with our utilities department, there's some issues or concerns that we have with a particular one when it comes to the maintenance. It is a confined space. Also, the the type of equipment that would be required in order to main maintain a facility within a confined space would be different.

Also, it provides limited access for vac trucks and to clean the wet walls. So and also altogether increases the time, that staff has to spend in maintaining these structures. So from that perspective, that's some of the concerns that, the city staff would have.

What about the gravity sewer reversing will be challenging? What makes it challenging?

So you would have to cross so the in order right now, you would have to bring the gravity on 2nd Street, Northeast 2nd Street, bring it south along, Northeast 1st Avenue from Broward Boulevard. So from Broward Boulevard, North and then East on 2nd. So that's a much longer run. You would have to cross a lot of utilities on Andrew on Andrews Avenue, which at this point may be unknown. That in itself would create challenges that we perhaps may not know necessarily until we open up the road. Also the cost in order to do a longer gravity sewer rerouting, it's a lot more expensive. The longer you go, the more expensive it is.

So is there any standard with regards to building something like this facility? I would almost say indoors, a garage. I mean, it's an enclosed structure versus just outside.

So the standard primarily is to have an open space like the ones that we have throughout the city. On very rare occasions, we have them within enclosed areas.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor.

Can I ask I'm sorry? No. Go ahead, Mayor. I was gonna say, let's go back to the one stop shop building. Okay. There was a concern that because the current tenant has a long term lease, but the tenant doesn't occupy the whole building, correct?

I think you mean the community court?

You mean the community court.

Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, the community court. Yeah. I'm sorry.

So there are two portions of the building. One is what we use for the community court program, and then there is a convenience store operation on the western side of the building.

That's where the that's where the that's where the convenience store is.

Correct.

Right. But it doesn't take up the whole space.

The convenience store does not occupy the entirety of the building. There is a portion of the building that is utilized and leased by the city for the community core program.

Right. So if we were to buy the building and then cut the building off where the convenience store is, that way they can still live out their lease and the balance of the balance of the site can be used for a pump station, a lift station. Station?

I think it would be possible and require a renovation. I don't want to speak but I do think it is possible.

Well, I mean, we don't need I mean, it's much easier than thinking about we're gonna break up the parking garage, you know, that's that's not that doesn't even make sense because we would compromise the whole structure by trying to break through the 2nd Floor. So, you know, but looking again at the Community Court Building, it's a very long building. I know I've been in that convenience store. It doesn't take up maybe a third of the site and the rest of it would more than accommodate a footprint for the kind of lift station that we're contemplating. Trist, Chris, what do you think?

So I think we'd have to do some analysis and evaluation. There are some things that I would want to look at to consider which is are there shared mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems that would be disconnected should the eastern half be removed. Yes. Also structural components, roof components, with that portion of the building that remained, what would it take to short and keep that structurally sound. The other thing to keep in mind is there is a proposed development just to the east. So by using the community court side in that eastern portion of this, particularly we would be pushing that more towards that future development site. So again, just some considerations, things we'd have to evaluate to understand if that's a potential solution.

Okay. I'm just trying to think outside the box here of how we can best accommodate this lift station knowing that the further south we go the better. And also keep in mind, the county is now contemplating its government center just to the east here just to the west. And they too are going to need the underground systems that we create in order to accommodate this. I think they're talking about 700 employees in their building.

So just a thought as we move forward without having to write off the whole community court site as unavailable, when in fact we could certainly cut the building in half and still be able to use the site. And honestly, has anyone really approached the tenant? I mean, they really want to stay there. If they do, that's their prerogative, I guess, but it shouldn't interfere with the operations of the city because a small convenience store wants to stay there. That's their business, that's their livelihood.

I don't want to take that away from them. But at the same time, we have we're building a city and we can certainly consider buying that site to be able to accommodate the needs that we now have. So just a thought to keep it in mind.

Liability to tear it down.

Who's talking?

On record.

Commissioner Herbst. Vice mayor Herbst, we can't hear you.

I'll try this once again. So I just wanna go on record that I would be opposed to spending a couple million dollars simply to tear it down to build a golf station. I don't think that's a good use of of of our resources.

Okay. Commissioner Sorensen. Yeah. Thanks, mayor.