Community Redevelopment Agency - Special Meeting

Alright. We are on the air, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome, to those, who are just joining us to City Hall. It is Wednesday, 09/25/2025, a little bit past 06:30PM, a little bit past 7PM. But we're here for a CRA public budget hearing. As you might know, we had two recent budget hearings, including a few minutes ago with our second city budget hearing. And now we'll do the same for our community redevelopment agencies. Let's go ahead with the Pledge of Allegiance. Please rise.

Pledge allegiance to the flag of

The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Alright, ladies and gentlemen. Roll call, please.

Board member Shuham? Here. Board member Hernandez? Here. Board member Kalari? Here. Board Member Gruber?

Here.

Board Member Biedemann? Here. Vice Chair Quintana? Here. Chair Levy?

Here. Thank you so much. I'd like to please ask for a motion to accept board member Hernandez's virtual participation. Motion by Commissioner Clary, second by board member Biederman. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none. Peter, you are officially participating virtually.

Thank you, sir.

Although we hear

you By just way, I am working for the city. I am here with the Florida League of Cities in a meeting that we have. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. All right, Mr. Executive Director, I'd like to invite you to present the proposed budget for the Beach and Downtown Districts for the CRA for the fiscal year 'twenty five through 'twenty six.

J. Thank you, Mr. Chair, Vice Chair, and Board members, and to all the members of the public and staff who are in attendance tonight. I appreciate that. As you said, this is the one and only budget hearing for the CRA for both Downtown District and the beach.

I want to say thank you, first of all, to Susan Goldberg and the staff of the CRA for all their continued effort. The transition has gone quite well. We've been talking about it for years, and it's happened now. So we have only three full time and three part time positions remaining now on the operating side with the CRA budget. And Susan and the rest of the staff, much like Adam and Chris and Jovan and Ray Lynn, allow me to work with them every day.

So I appreciate that. And so it's been a good partnership. And it's gone well. Obviously, within days, the Downtown District becomes TIFFless. And then each year for five years successive, we will receive $3,000,000 a year of continuing funding there.

And then in less than two years, the Beach District goes tiflis and will receive $1,750,000 a year for ten years following to be used for affordable housing. So just in terms of where that leaves us so obviously, light on the operating expenses now. Much have been absorbed into the city, but heavy on a lot of capital projects that remain to be completed or obligated within the next less than two years to ensure that we are retaining and making use of that. So we'll go through that in detail tonight and then obviously room for questions and discussion on that. There were some issues that were sent in writing prior to the meeting from the Beach Civic Association, I believe it was.

I'm sorry, yes? Bob Blickman's originated with him, right? One of them, there were four points, one that had related to money being tied up with the funding of the executive director position for the CRA. I spoke directly to him. And he's cheap, so he's not taking any money.

So none of that's tied up there in the operating expenses. It is dispersed throughout the rest of the budget for use for other operations or for improvements there. Some of the other references were questions about flap gates and repairing broken pipes in the drainage system. And yes, we'll talk about the funding that's in the budget to continue those improvements as well. And then there was concern about raising electrical boxes because of concerns.

But there's a good deal of waterproofing that's been done there already. But we can talk about that as well. So I didn't want those to go unaddressed. We've also had discussion last time about a pilot project for 19th and 20th in the central part of the city concerning one way streets and parking. We have some information and some estimates for you on that and funding proposed for that as well. And with that, I'll let Adam get into the formal part of the presentation. And then we'll have plenty of time for discussion then. There it is.

Good evening. Evening, chair, vice chair, members of the board, Adam Reischbach, assistant city manager. Before you today, we will be going through the fiscal year twenty twenty six budget for both the downtown and the beach CRA districts. So at the conclusion of tonight's presentation, you will be asked to approve a series of resolutions that sets forth the fiscal year twenty twenty six beach CRA district budget as well as the downtown fiscal year twenty twenty six downtown district budget as well as establishing the position count for the CRA. So starting with the Beach District, the taxable value is just over $4,800,000,000 which is an increase of 3.78% above fiscal year twenty twenty five.

This means that the tax increment funding or the TIF as we like to call it is just over $55,000,000. And as a result of the historic county, city, CRA, ILA, the 25% refund to each of the taxing authorities is outlined on the screen on the right, with the city set to receive just under $8,000,000 and the county just over $6,000,000 which, as you know, is remitted back to the city in support for affordable housing related projects. Accordingly, the net TIF revenue for the Beach CRA is $40,800,000,000 million dollars, sorry, dollars 40,800,000.0. The chart on the left indicates the revenue sources for the Beach CRA TIF with the largest share set to come from the city. Additionally, you will notice on the right table that a significant driver of the Beach CRA budget is the carry forward, which is treated as fund balance and provides continued funding for capital projects within the Beach District.

The grand total of the Beach CRA budget is just over $107,000,000 So, how does the budget break down? The total operating budget of the Beach CRA district is $38,800,000 Personal services for those remaining CRA employees, which we'll outline in a few slides, is funded based on a split of 90% dedicated to the beach and 10% dedicated to downtown. And as such, the beach share of the personal services is $989,000 Operating expenditures represents about $5,600,000 and is largely comprised of contractual services for beach maintenance and the beach portion of the sun shuttle or the circuit, along with the property improvement program. Enhanced services in the amount of $12,300,000 is broken down to be $7,900,000 for community policing and then $4,400,000 for beach safety. Reimbursements to the city is comprised of staff costs for those CRA employees that have transferred to the city and as well as other administrative reimbursements.

And as previously mentioned, the refund to the taxing authorities in the amount of $14,600,000 is the totality of the refund that goes back to the three taxing authorities, City of Hollywood, Broward County and the Children's Services Council, which represents 25% as per the ILA. So the Beach CRA capital projects budget totals $68,300,000 The largest share is for the undergrounding related projects, including the undergrounding phase four making up the lion's share, plus the State Road A1A undergrounding complete streets project and the phase three undergrounding of overhead utilities. Resiliency projects includes the street raising project as part of phase four East West Streets under the coastal resiliency grant program and the resiliency green area on the West Side of A 1 A along the ICW. Pump stations, several pump projects are budgeted here including the cost participation for the FDOT pumps, the Daffodil to Iris Terrace pump and the Jackson To Jefferson pump. Included here are also security bollards at the identified street ends as well as the Charneau Park renovations, which does include a splash pad, a new splash pad.

The CRA allotted $955,000 in FY26 for additional valves and remediating basin deficiencies for reference. As the CRA director referenced, we are currently completing the installation of four Waypro valves on the street ends at Liberty, Scott, Buchanan, And Tyler Streets. And new Waypro valves have been installed on the 16th Street and South Of Hollywood Boulevard as part of the phase four project. Small capital projects includes the exclusion and marker buoys, gateway and way finding signage project, the lifeguard towers, turtle lighting and broad walk knee wall LED lighting replacements. Other funding is allocated in this budget for a study of the Hollywood Boulevard Bridge, various ADA ramps, restroom renovations along the beach at various locations, the Carolina Street pedestrian signal and dune restoration maintenance.

Switching gears to the downtown CRA. As you know, the Downtown CRA effectively becomes TIFF less in five days time, meaning that FY 2026 marks the first year that the Downtown CRA will be TIFF less. However, as part of, again, the historic County City CRA ILA, Broward County has committed an annual payment of $3,000,000 per year to the downtown CRA for the next five years. Per the ILA, the funding may only be utilized by the downtown CRA for purposes or projects that would otherwise be permitted uses under section one hundred sixty three thousand three and eighty seven subsection six of Florida statutes. Additionally, the downtown CRA has a carry forward of just under $20,000,000 which similarly to the beach can and should only be used for one time expenditures within the district.

So as mentioned, this means that the operating budget for the downtown CRA is $3,000,000. The personnel expense represents that 10% cost share of the CRA employees that are left in the CRA and that have not transferred to the city And then some of the operating costs highlights include the block by block, sun shuttle circuit, the mural art program, various other economic development activities, and then the property improvement program. Reimbursements represents the costs associated with the CRA staff that has already transferred to the city and the other administrative expenses that go along. So, as mentioned, the carry forward is what funds the downtown capital projects. And so going through this list, the Tyler Street sidewalk project is for the repair of sidewalk cracks and grinding down uneven sidewalks along that thoroughfare.

The downtown CRA portion of the wayfinding and neighborhood signage overall project is referenced on the screen. The alleyway drainage project includes repaving and grading of the north alleyway, north of the boulevard between 19th And 20th. The Tyler Street streetscape project from 21st To 20th Avenue is awaiting the estate group re striping of the adjacent parking spaces. Included here is also The US one Complete Streets landscaping irrigation project. The neighborhood avenues improvement in the amount of $1,700,000 includes $610,000 for 88 concrete sidewalk repairs, dollars 9 and 61,000 for parking and traffic reconfiguration pilot program, dollars 150,000 for the Van Buren drainage project.

The Harrison Street streetscape project has constructed has construction beginning actually on Monday and is in the amount of $6,500,000. The Hollywood Beach Golf Course Clubhouse, this represents the $4,800,000 represents the amount that is left to be paid out by the CRA as approved by the CRA board. The Boiler project for Hollywood Boulevard in the amounts of $595,000 is referenced here, as well as the Arts Park project, the fence for that. This is the CRA portion of the fence project. Also included here are funds for the Arts Park Splash Pad in the amount of $1,200,000 Funds have been put aside in the Tyler Street C slip project, which is slated for MPO funding in 2028.

And lastly, dollars 391,000 for the 20th Avenue Streetscape project, which is based on funding agreement with the estates group, work to commence in November 2025. So during fiscal year twenty twenty five, a total of 15 filled positions were transferred to the city. Those include 12 in beach maintenance, one to procurement, and two to development services. One position is shared fiftyfifty between the city and the CRA, and that is the development officer. So for FY 'twenty six, the vacant executive director position and four part time positions are proposed to be eliminated.

This leaves three full time positions, a deputy director, senior project manager, and an executive assistant. Two part time positions will continue into fiscal year twenty six. And those are a senior project manager and an engineering inspector. And with that, I will take any questions.

Thank you Adam maybe you can speak generally about the transition plan how that worked and how you concluded to propose the administrative organization, as you did, in terms of migrating the employees to the city, leaving those few at the CRA level, as we still have years with the beach TIF CRA and also, of course, five years at minimum with the downtown CRA.

Yes. So both in the beach and the downtown budget, you'll see a reimbursement to the city line. This is to account for the expenses that are to those individuals that are still being paid for by the CRA back to the city. They are still working on their CRA projects, but they have been moved physically over into the city budget or move into the city or under the city's control.

All right. Thank you so much. Let's go to board member Shuham.

Thanks, Adam. I guess my question about the Beach CRA is prospective. And that is, we have $12,000,000 of enhanced services, which is slightly more than last year. And just wanting to, again, get assurances on the record that, you know, going forward, as the CRA dollars are phased out, that these services are critical to maintaining this area that we've invested so much in, particularly HPD. And obviously, beach safety, that has to come back to the city. So just want your assurances how that's being transitioned, etcetera.

GREGORY I'll say on the record, as long as this holds up, as we've said before, continue to say, and we'll keep our commitment that for those enhanced services, we will continue to maintain them at that level, if not better. And for the improvements that have been made, we will continue those and continue to maintain those at the level that they are now and going forward too. So we make that commitment on the record. And that's where we're trying to be as open, as transparent as possible about the money and where it's going and what we're doing with it.

JOSEPH And then also maintenance has had a big transition in the past two years. Now everything, as I understand, all of it is under Joseph?

JOSEPH Under Public Works, correct.

JOSEPH Okay. And I just want to say that I think they're doing a great job. I was out there the other day. And the beach and the Broadwalk both looked really great. So I just want to say thank you to Joseph and his team. It is very hard to keep that area clean. Sometimes people come out at 06:30 in the morning before his crews have even gotten started, and I'll get complaints. And I'm like, please, come back in an hour and a half. People have very high expectations. But there is a lot of work going on out there. And it looked beautiful. So thank you.

Yep. And let's remember, once the Beach CRA sunsets, that $30,000,000 that the city currently contributes is going to be repatriated to the city coffers, in which case the $12,000,000 continues. And there is even more that will come to the city, even though when you look at the ILA refund, the county contribution and the $12,000,000 that amounts to close to the $30,000,000 give that the city gives and gets back now. So we're good shape to deliver even more. Let's go to Board Member Biederman.

So we don't have to dig into it now. I just have a couple of questions. Number one, on page six, the money for the utilities, does that include the vac truck that we talked about previously?

Line item for equipment, and it's in there.

Okay. I just want to double check because we did talk about it. And would have liked to see and it doesn't have to be today. But I would have liked to see, on the money that we're not going to be giving to the Downtown CRA, parts of the city I know that we're taking care of everything, right? But parts of the city have been overlooked per popular belief that the money is staying in the Downtown CRA and the beach CRA.

And finally, the Downtown CRA is going away. How are we distributing that money that previously would have gone to the Downtown CRA to other areas of the city? If we could touch on that at another time when you're more prepared. And I would have liked to see I was shocked at the $6,000,000 figure and the figure that's coming back to the city because I didn't fathom that it grew so much because it wasn't like 3,000,000 or $4,000,000 previously. If you could just get it to us after the difference between what was last year given to the or the percentage of increase.

We know that citywide it was like 7%. But I would like to see the increase in the beach and what that dollar amount equated to. You understand what I'm saying?

Yes. The property value, taxable property Yes.

That's it. Thank you.

Thank you, Board Member Biederman, Vice Chair Quintana.

Thank you, Chair. I think my comments like board member Biederman's, you don't have to answer right now. But I have been hearing about the downtown murals being some of them faded and some of them needing some attention. And we don't need to speak specifically about what to do about it, but I just want to make sure that it's on everyone's radar that we figure out a way to address that. Because it is a really special part of the downtown experience, the murals.

Susan's smiling. Susan, if you already know, had the pleasure of the executive director.

Yeah.

The refund to the city after the next couple of days will be actually $7,900,000

To the city?

Yes. Because that was the city's portion as part of what? From the downtown. Correct. So since there's no longer gonna be any TIF and no more contributions, so that's 7.985 7,985,924 thousand.

That's good news. Right? That's good news.

Yeah. Kevin wants that allocated straight to District five, please, capital improvement fund for the next twenty years.

I'll take some of that.

And District four wants to claim portion two. Go ahead.

So yes, so I don't need an answer right now, but I do hope that we'll develop a plan for how to make sure we don't lose that great asset and part of our identity as a downtown. Thank you.

Board member Kaleri?

Yes, I just, for clarification purposes, so once we talk about the

Peter Hernandez. Hello, I'm back.

Yes, you were on with us via phone. Excuse me, everybody. And we can hear you. So if you want to mute if you can and unmute when it's time to speak. Thank you.

So just for clarification purposes, in regards to the funding and the improvements that have been made throughout the downtown and the beach, am I to understand that a dedicated allotment is going to be to maintain that? Or is it throughout the entire city, with all the improvements we made as a whole, all of improvements will be made? I'm not sure if I understood the question earlier.

So what has been typically paid for by the city for the city's TIF payment to the downtown is now available for the general fund expenses. But we do have we have included everything that was in the downtown budget as part of the CRA in fiscal year twenty five has been has been factored into now the city's budget, if that makes sense.

So the services

and such.

Yeah, so for the services and the operations that was previously paid for by the CRA, downtown CRA, coming out of the city's dollars for the TIF has now been rolled into those same services. It has been rolled now into the city's budget.

Correct. So I think for years, and maybe you could just clarify it for me. For years, we always talked about the CRA having a lot of funding to be able to address the blight and make improvements. And that was the whole purpose of the CRA funding. But at the end, once the CRA was sunsetted and then the funding no longer was just directed to the area, we talked a lot years prior about maintaining maintenance upkeep, the police department, the pavers, the end caps, the downtown, all of those improvements that we put a lot of money into and being able to maintain that falling now on a, I guess, a different mechanism of funding, right?

Once those are sunsetted. But in addition to that, there are areas throughout the city that were not in the CRA. And we talked about them several times here as well. That those monies that were being tied up now could be dispersed throughout the entire city of areas that did not have the opportunity to have a CRA, did not have the opportunity to fix the blank and slum. So in one hand, I think it's really important that we see where that funding is gonna be allocated towards and then what additional funding is available to be able to spread throughout the city in addition to our capital improvement projects.

What I would not wanna see is that we're allocating just a certain amount of money while it's a tourism area and it's downtown, it's the beach. We need to maintain it, but I don't want it to become a burden because it's the entire city's taxpayers' dollars. So maybe there's some other way of revenue that we can help address it, whether it's a tourism type of redirection of funding or something of that nature because, I mean, let's be honest, there are areas throughout the city that need a lot of love still. We have areas that need a lot of attention that are growing. And so I just wanna make sure that we're not kind of holding ourselves with a tight rope and saying, oh, that this funding is only gonna stay on the beach.

And this funding is only gonna stay in the downtown when there's high demands for other areas that are going to need stuff and not tax our residents on it. That's all I would like to see, some type of breakdown And

let me try addressing it in this fashion, is that obviously before the downtown district and before the Beach District, the downtown and the beach were part of the city. And they're still part of the city. And they will always still be part of the city. And there were general fund dollars from the tax generation value on those properties that instead of going to the general fund of the city, were in the TIF diverted over to the district. Now as that money is not going to go to the downtown district, although that's the smaller amount of the money compared to the beach, especially, we will have that available.

Now, we can show you, as we did in the city's budget, where the money breaks out to different functions, whether they're maintenance or operating or capital or whatever. And we've made the commitment that whatever those enhanced levels of service are for the downtown or the beach district, we will continue to maintain those, at least at that level, if not higher. And improvements that are made, we will continue to service those improvements and maintain those going forward. And it's the general fund dollars that either went this way or it's the general fund dollars that went that way. But they're still serving the same things.

We can try to show some of the breakouts in detailed line items in the city's operating budget, for instance, that says what pieces go where and how much. Or now we share a service contract for pressure cleaning with not only the downtown and the beach, but elsewhere throughout the city. We can try to do that and do that.

Yeah, I think that that'll just be a little bit better to be understanding.

Then hear that. If we do our job well and do some of those efficiencies that we talked about before with technology and process improvement, that we net out on a positive after all those expenses, that we still net out on a plus that can be shared with all parts of the city so that it turns out and that's the whole point of having districts under the act, the state act, that you find that are distressed. You dedicate money to them for a long period of time. You raise the value, improve them. So now they're generating a lot more ad valorem property tax revenues that now benefits the entire community when they're no longer isolated as districts now.

Right. I know that it's our tourism draw. And we need to maintain that and keep it at a high functioning level. But what I think just from years, and as I expressed from years of being here and hearing about the divvying of funds. And I don't want to call it a slush fund, but it was an ability to have funds to do the enhancements, undergrounding, electric. You name it, it has happened. And so that funding has been available to improve that property value, which will improve the ad valorem taxes, which will generate more monies.

But

because of that investment that was throughout the entire city, the entire city needs to benefit overall. That's all I I just want to make sure because

think McClary is pointing out is that the cost to keep the beach, for example, at the same level post twenty twenty seven is not the full $30,000,000 TIF generated out of that area. There's an amount to $30,000,000 So there are excess dollars that are obviously part of the general fund, will be part of the general fund post the sunset. Plus the ILA includes, I think, 1,700,000.0 1,750,000.00 for

'20 That's five

another $17,500,000 that we'll get for those years. But the point is, I mean, if the city commission wanted to say, in 2027 or even with the downtown, if we wanted to say, Okay, there are $7,900,000 that are now coming back to the general fund, we want to take those $7,900,000 that were going to the downtown but now are at our disposal. We can designate those as capital slum and blight fighting funds for the rest of the city and only deploy those as a separate fund, I guess inheriting that final figure from the beach from the downtown CRA. Same with the beach. If the city commission so wanted to, we could take those equivalent dollars that are now in the general fund from the downtown, dollars 7,900,000.0, and say those are going to be to fight slime blight throughout the city and have that special fund for that purpose.

Or like the city manager has proposed in the budget, really, you're kind of including those dollar equivalents into the overall plan of the city, whether that's storm water, flooding, you name it. We didn't really designate a blight fighting fund, but would rather spread through everything getting lost in the general fund. I'll say it that way, but not really getting lost, but contributing toward the overall goals of a widespread number of priorities. It could be public safety. It could be everything. But we didn't designate it as a blight fighting fund. Nothing stops us from doing a budget amendment soon. But in the end, it's the same pocket. So it's really the priorities that we set.

Yep. And as the transition continues, this being the first year, but as we go forward and especially with the beach because there's more dollars involved, we can continue to do that kind of detailed breakout of where some of the dollars are going and how they're shared. And then how much is freed up if we're doing our job well as a net positive so that we can use it in other places. And we can go back into the operating budget of the city that we just adopted and show you, look, here's dollars for this, here's dollars for that, all those kind of things we're talking about elsewhere. And built into that is some of that net positive that came

from So I think the question that I originated was the assurance that Commissioner Shuhem had mentioned. So the assurance is, which I wholeheartedly agree, is public safety. We increased the officers to maintain the beach because we have tourism that's there. But what other assurances are we guaranteeing? Because we said yes. I want to know what those assurances

are. Well, if I could, just really quickly on it. And it works out really, frankly, to be about around the same numbers. If you look at the city's budget and what we've been able to put aside in terms of ongoing replacement and renewal schedule of around $8,000,000 every year that we're putting asides towards fire apparatus, rescue apparatus, parks improvements, the whole HVACs, roof repairs, city facility improvements, that's all in that's all included in the budget moving forward. And so roughly, it's about around the same amount that you're looking for that is in the city's budget every year in a replacement schedule for projects and initiatives that are citywide.

Citywide.

Correct.

I just want to make sure that we didn't set a bar so high that we can't maintain it and that we're taking away coffers from the rest of the city to keep that status quo. I'd like to just see it be universal throughout the city that what's good for the goose is good for the gander, and everybody benefits from all the work that's been placed into improving these Slum and Bly areas.

And again, because of the enhanced value and enhanced revenue generation now, again, do our job right and it's a net positive revenue stream to the city overall.

Okay, thank you.

Alright. Board member Hernandez.

Hi, mayor. I'm okay with the budget the way it is.

Okay. Thank you. So we'll go on to the resolution now adopting the fiscal year twenty six budget, operating budget for the Beach CRA district. Resolution of the Hollywood Florida Community Redevelopment Agency, the CRA, adopting a budget for the Hollywood Beach district of the CRA and making appropriations for the fiscal year 2026. I'll go ahead and open the public hearing. Are there any comments on the CRA budget? All right. Public hearing is now closed. Motion from board member Coleri to approve the beach budget. Second from board member Shuham. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Any opposed?

Aye.

Hearing none, the item carries unanimously. Next is the resolution of the city of Hollywood, Florida. The city of Hollywood, Florida Community Redevelopment Agency adopting a budget for the Hollywood Downtown District of the CRA and making appropriations for the fiscal year 2026. We'll go ahead and open the public hearing. Are there any speaker cards on the downtown budget?

No cards.

No cards. Public hearing is now closed. We have a motion from board member Kaleri and a second from board member Gruber to approve the downtown budget. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the item carries unanimously. Next, the resolution of the City of Hollywood, Florida Community Redevelopment Agency establishing the number and type of authorized positions for the fiscal year 2026, which the manager had presented early on with those three positions. I'll entertain a motion.

Motion to approve.

Motion from Board Member Kolari, second from Board Member Schuham to approve the position's authorization resolution. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none. The item carries unanimously. Thank you, executive director. Thank you to deputy director. And thank you to CRA team. I know it's been a transitional, I hate to use the word, a number of years.

But here we are, you know, at the tail end of things, think, with the ability to be really proud of the growth of these areas, their return that will come to the city in the years ahead, the return to the county, to the school district, and the continuing improvements that are still yet to yet to come but are massive, especially on on the beach side for resiliency. And so Susan and team, especially, thank you so much. You guys, like I've said in years past, you make it you make it easy for us and you do a lot of work. So thank you so much. Executive director, I don't see anything else, sir.

No, just I thank you for the the support and confidence. We appreciate it. And it's and again, Susan and the entire CRA staff have made it easy to do that transition and work together. We appreciate it. Because I've been in places before where there isn't always a lot of cooperation amongst different agencies, and we haven't had that problem. So thank you very much. Yeah. So

Alright, ladies and gentlemen. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. This meeting is adjourned.