Regular City Commission Meeting - Regular Meeting

Alright. Welcome, everyone. Welcome to City Hall here in the city of Hollywood. Today is Wednesday, 05/20/2026. We are here for a regular city commission meeting, but as I always mention, meetings are never regular.

It's always important and interesting substance on the agenda. And today is no different. Let's please rise for a moment of silence, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, and think about loved ones who we may have lost or people that are notable in our lives. I 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. Thank you.

Another important moment we take at each meeting is to recognize our veterans, active service personnel, and their families. So if you are a US veteran or a family member thereof or a service member, please rise. We'd love to recognize you. We do have some coasties here today, some guardsmen. Welcome. Roll call, please. Let me activate the mic real quick. I got to click six times. Go ahead.

Commissioner Schuham. Here. Commissioner Hernandez.

Here.

Vice Mayor Kalari? Here. Commissioner Gruber?

Here.

Commissioner Biederman?

Here.

Commissioner Cantana? Here. Mayor Levy?

Here. Thank you. Today's consent agenda includes items five through 15. If there these are items that don't usually require individual discussion. However, if there is a speaker card or a request from the dais to remove one for individual discussion, we're happy to do so. City clerk, are there any speaker cards on five through 15?

Item 10.

Item 10. Anything else from the body?

Motion to approve.

We have a motion from Vice Mayor Caleri and a second from Commissioner Quintana to approve DELL: the balance of the consent agenda, items five through 15, minus number 10. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, those items will carry unanimously. We'll get to item 10 as quick as we can on the agenda. I know James Quinlan is here with the Rhythm Foundation, so we'll hear from James. Onward to our 1PM presentations, proclamations, and awards. I'm gonna I see a lot of folks here from Hollywood Fire Rescue and Beach Safety. Welcome, everyone.

I'll take it out of order because you all are here. And let's go ahead and invite chief Levy and company to present the and recognize the recipients of the crew accommodation award. Chief?

Good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, city manager. I'd like to ask chief Devlin, please chief, come join me, please. Today's recognition is not only for the fire department, also for the Hollywood Police Department. This particular incident, chief Mosier's gonna read the narrative on, was a catastrophic accident that happened a few probably a few months ago now, where a pedestrian was involved in a serious incident. As you'll hear in a few minutes, Hollywood police arrived on scene, started life saving actions, which eventually caused this individual to have somewhat of

a full

recovery and was able to be discharged from the hospital. But they are alive today, which is the most important thing. This patient, you'll hear shortly, received over 100 units of blood while in the Operating Room. That's a lot. They received one unit of blood on scene by fire rescue. But also due to the heroic actions of our Hollywood Police Department that this patient is alive. And we want to recognize these police officers and these firefighters.

Very nice.

Good afternoon, commission and city staff. I'm Mike Moser, deputy fire chief with Hollywood Fire Rescue. I'd like to begin by calling up the recipients of this award as I read the commendation, Officer Palacios, Officer Pierce, Lieutenant Fernandez, Firefighter Robinson, and Firefighter Lopez Cuto to the podium, please. On 02/20/2026, Rescue five responded to a report of a pedestrian versus a vehicle collision at 901 North Federal Highway. Upon arrival, crews encountered an adult male who had been struck while seated at a bus stop bench, resulting in catastrophic lower extremity injuries.

Hollywood Police Department officers arrived and made initial patient contact and immediately applied tourniquets to both lower extremities prior to EMS arrival. The tourniquets were documented as very effective and remained in place upon transfer of care. Early bleeding control was crucial intervention in this case. EMS assessment revealed a complete traumatic amputation below the right knee and a partial traumatic amputation below the left knee. The patient was awake, but in significant distress with hypotension and sighs of respiratory distress.

A level one trauma alert, the most serious patient category was activated. Cruz initiated spinal immobilization, established IVs, began fluid replacement, and provided advanced airway support. Diminished breath sounds on the right prompted a decompression effort, which was performed without complication. During transport, one unit of blood was administered while continuous monitoring and supportive care was maintained. The patient was transported to Memorial Regional Hospital and transferred directly to the trauma team.

Upon arrival, the patient remained hypotensive, however responsive. With tourniquets intact and active transfusion ongoing, hospital staff continued their resuscitation efforts in the trauma bay. The patient was stabilized and admitted to the trauma intensive care unit. This incident reflects effective interagency coordination and decisive life saving actions under extreme circumstances. Early bleeding control by law enforcement, rapid trauma system activation, and comprehensive pre hospital care contributed to the patient surviving the initial injuries and reaching that definitive care at the hospital.

This nomination recognizes the responding personnel for their skill, perseverance, and lifesaving performance during a highly complex and time critical emergency. Congratulations.

I'll tell you what. Memorial Regional Hospital had their Survivors' Day recognition, recognizing the different EMS units that operate in South Broward County, also, of course, recognizing the trauma doctors, the nurses that attend to the patients coming in, and really celebrating and highlighting the successes when it's a fortunate situation to be able to have someone survive a trauma. It's always a very heartwarming thing to see the survivors come in and speak after they've gone through the most difficult life threatening injuries. So pretty amazing. We're fortunate to have Memorial Regional Hospital and the trauma team here in Hollywood.

And thanks, of course, to EMS in Hollywood and our firefighting crew and Hollywood police as well for providing people with that opportunity. In the end, that's the biggest sense of pride that I think we can have as a community that entrusts and invests in the city of Hollywood. And through that, the public safety services that we provide, really, it really goes the longest way to give that sense of how important the professionalism and the funding that we invest into Hollywood Fire Rescue and Hollywood Police goes such a long way in the most important times for all of us. So thank you so much. All right.

Well, I don't think there's anything else keeping all of these public safety professionals here, chief. So if you are interested, you can stay until 7PM or 8PM. But otherwise, free to go if you like. All right. Let's go ahead and start with our proclamations then. We'll take them in order. National Public Works Week is this upcoming week or this week. And presenting the proclamation will be Commissioner Biederman. Accepting it will be Joseph Kroll and public works and the public works staff. Commissioner Beeterman, public works week. Go ahead.

Thank you, mayor. First, I'll start by saying how lucky we are to have such a qualified and exemplary public works team that make us all look good on a daily basis, lifting all the heavy lifting for us and repairing all that above ground infrastructure when our residents are concerned about it. So it's meaningful to proclaim, in recognition of National Public Works Week, May 2026, whereas in 1960, the American Public Works Association launched a national initiative to raise public awareness of the vital role public works plays in community life by establishing National Public Works Week, And whereas special highlights of National Public Works Week include the United States Senate affirming a resolution, letters of acknowledgment from President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Lyndon B. Johnson, a proclamation presented by President John F.

Kennedy in 1962, and whereas public works professionals focus on city's infrastructure, facilities, and services that are vital to building sustainable and resilient communities. They work diligently each day to maintain safe streets, reliable water and sewer systems, effective storm water management, sanitary services, traffic operations, public facilities, parks and green spaces. These essential efforts are fundamental to public health and safety and whereas public services are made possible through public works professionals including engineers, managers and essential first responders who work to build, improve and protect our community and whereas this year's theme, Rooted in Service, Powered by Community, reflects the deep commitment of public works employees in serving residents with integrity, reliability and pride. It emphasizes that the strength of public works lies not only in infrastructure and operations but in the relationships built with the community they serve. And whereas support, patience and understanding of our community indicate a shared appreciation for essential services provided by public works personnel who make a meaningful impact on daily lives of our residents.

Now, therefore, Josh Levy, mayor of the city of Hollywood, Florida, and the Hollywood City Commission hereby recognize May 2026 as National Public Works Weeks in the City Of Hollywood. Thank you.

All right.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, I'm honored to stand here before you today as a representative recipient of this proclamation recognizing National Public Works Week. This acknowledgment highlights the essential role that public works professionals play in maintaining and improving our community's infrastructure and services. Our work ensures manicured landscaping, safe roads, clean beaches, vibrant public spaces, which enhance the quality of life for all of our residents. On behalf of myself and all the public works staff behind me and out there still working, we'd like to express our gratitude to you, mayor and commissioners, for this recognition. If not, it not only celebrates the dedication and hard work of our team, but also underscores the importance of continued investment in public works for a stronger, safer, and more resilient community.

Thank you for your support and partnership as we strive to serve the public with excellence.

Thank you, Joseph. Well, same same words of gratitude on the behalf of the city commission to everybody in public works. Your work is critical. It go it's far reaching, and it's so meaningful to keep a city that's clean and vibrant and functioning and resilient. So really, from all of us, thank you so much. In the same form, the investment in public works is a top priority, the same as others. And just as long as you guys tell Joseph what you need and he tells the city manager and she tells us, we got you. Let's come up for a photo, everybody.

Thank you so much, everybody.

All right. Next on our agenda is a proclamation recognizing safe boating week, which is this week, May 16 through the twenty second. I'll take the liberty and pleasure of presenting the proclamation. With us today is Neil Karitsky. He's the flotilla commander with the US Coast Guard Auxiliary.

From a flotilla, it says Dania Beach, but we all know it's in Hollywood. So let's go ahead then. A proclamation recognizing National Safe Boating Week, May 16 through the twenty second twenty twenty six, whereas Florida has 1,300 miles of coastline, 50,000 miles of rivers, streams, and canals, and 7,800 lakes for Florida residents and visitors to enjoy and for wildlife to inhabit. These areas are rated as best boating and the fishing capital of the world. And whereas millions of Americans take to the waterways enjoying time together, boating, sailing, paddle boarding, kayaking, and fishing, the city of Hollywood, Florida is fortunate to have the resources to accommodate these varieties of boating.

The US Coast Guard, the US Coast Guard Auxiliary, and its federal, state, and local partners encourage all boaters to explore and enjoy our beautiful waterways. And whereas Americans should take precautionary actions to ensure that everyone makes it home unharmed after a fun day on the water, inspecting your boat thoroughly, and participating in a free vessel safety check offered through the US Coast Guard can help ensure both you and your boat are ready for the water. And whereas boaters should also wear life jackets at all times and make sure there is always someone on board who is unimpaired and capable of operating the boat, the United States Coast Guard and its federal, state, and local partners estimate that avoiding alcohol and wearing a life jacket can prevent more than seventy five percent of boating fatalities. And whereas through basic safety procedures, such as carrying emergency distress and communication equipment, wearing life jackets, taking a safe boating class, getting a free boating safety check, getting an engine cutoff switch or lanyard, which is required for vessels under 26 feet, and staying sober while operating a vessel, we can ensure that boaters on our crowded inland and offshore waterways stay safe throughout the year.

And whereas knowledge and skills are important in reducing human error and improving judgment, that is why we must continue to pass the word about boating safety, not only during National Safe Boating Week, but throughout the entire year. Now therefore, Josh Levy, mayor of the city of Hollywood, Florida, and the Hollywood City Commission, do hereby proclaim May 16 through the twenty two, twenty twenty six as National Safe Boating Week in the city of Hollywood, Florida. Thank you. Thank you, Commander.

Thank you, Mayor and Commissioners. As we all know, this year alone, we've had a number of accidents and many more people injured for the same time last year. There's a common misconception that boat owners and people who live near the water are the ones most affected and that is not correct. If we look at these statistics, it can happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime. The City of Hollywood has a special relationship with the Coast Guard because we've had an office here in the city for many years for recruiting And we hope to continue our relationship. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Please come on up for a photo. We'd love to spread the word. If you want to give a shout out to our Hollywood Police Marine Unit, Chief Devlin Marine Unit, I know it's going to be busy. I saw some of the public messaging that went out on social media about safe boating, especially during the Memorial Day weekend coming up, a long weekend.

Hopefully, it'll be nice weather, and people will enjoy the waterways and be safe in Hollywood and beyond. All right. Let's go ahead now to a proclamation recognizing Building Safety Month, ladies and gentlemen, which is also May 2026. Presenting the proclamation will be commissioner Hernandez, and I'll invite the department of development services, the building division, Andrea Winjid, the director, is here, along with Russell Long, our chief building official. I see Dan Quintana and company, Jim, and all the folks here from development services.

Please join the crew up here. It's been a more popular topic in the past few years, building safety, of course, with the county inspection program and what have you. Yes. I know the team has kept busy. Commissioner Hernandez, go ahead.

Thank you, mayor. And I got to tell you, this group never stops working. Because at any given time, I actually get a hold of them. We have a great deal of questions. And I thank you all for the help and for the service that you provide to our residents. And particularly, a pain in the butt and the commissioner that I am, or can be. Anyway, thank you all.

He wasn't kidding about 20 either.

No, no, I'm not. They know it.

I thought it was the other one.

Oh, boy. Proclamation City Of Hollywood, Florida, in recognition of Building Safety Month, May 2026. Whereas the City of Hollywood recognizes that strong, safe, and resilient buildings are vital to the well-being of our community, both in everyday life and during times of disaster. And whereas confidence in the resiliency of these buildings depends on the work of dedicated professional building safety and fire prevention officials, architects, engineers, builders, trades people, and other who ensure that structures are safe, sustainable, and code compliant. And whereas, through the International Code Council, local, state, and federal officials work together to develop, implement, and uphold modern building codes and standards that safeguard the public from natural disasters such as hurricanes, fires, flood, and earthquakes.

And whereas Building Safety Month is sponsored by the International Code Council to highlight the essential role of unsung protectors of public safety. Our code officials who help ensure safe, resilient and sustainable buildings and recognize the many City of Hollywood employees, including police officers and first responders who put up their safety and their lives on the line in service to our residents. And whereas each year in observance of Building Safety Month, people all over the world are asked to consider the commitment to improve building safety, resiliency and economic investment at home and in the community, and to acknowledge the essential service provided in protecting lives and property of the City Of Hollywood. Now therefore, Josh Levy, Mayor of the City Of Hollywood, Florida, and the City of Hollywood Commission, do hereby proclaim the month of May 2026 of Building Safety Month in the City Of Hollywood, Florida.

Good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor, city commissioners, commissioner. Andrea Winget, the director of development Services. And I'm honored to be standing here today. And I'm only standing here today before you because of the team that's standing behind me. You've read several really important proclamations today, recognizing a lot of important topics and initiatives. But this group behind me really is the silent group that is working 20 fourseven, day in and day out, as well, silently. They may not have the fancy lights or the big trucks. But as you read in the proclamation

You might have to have a word

with her. They

do play an important role and work hand in hand with our other emergency personnel in keeping structures safe, to limit fires within the community, to ensure that our community, our residents, our business structures can withstand the elements of nature as we move forward. And it's their hard work and dedication that helps to keep the community safe. And we've had a few additions to our team over the year. So if you can just entertain me for one minute, I would like as we all know, our building official, Russell Long, is here. And we do have three assistant building officials, Jim McGinnis, who is over our large development construction projects.

So the projects that really catch your eye when you're out in our community and seeing them, he oversees and manages those projects and the safe construction of those buildings, including the staging of equipment and the resources that are brought in. We have Sheila Oliver who has rejoined the city. She was here previously. Unfortunately, is not able to be here with us today. But she is overseeing our day to day permitting to help mostly our residents and some of our smaller businesses within the city to get their permits through the process and help educate them on the best way to do that.

And then we have Dan Quintana. And Dan is our assistant building official who is over building safety for the city. And with that, he has a few words he would like to say for us.

Sure.

Good

afternoon,

Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, and City Manager, I'm Daniel Quintana, proud assistant building official of the City of Hollywood. Today, I wanted to speak briefly about a simple but powerful idea. Stronger codes create real impact, And that impact is what creates safer buildings. Codes are more than rules written on paper. There are standards that shape how we build, work, and live.

Whether we talk about building codes, safety codes, ethical codes, or digital security codes, strong standards protect people, improve quality, and create trust. When codes are weak or ignored, the consequences can be serious unsafe buildings, data breaches, accidents, and loss of confidence. But when codes are strong and properly followed, they save lives, strengthen communities, and support innovation. Real impact happens when responsibility meets action. Engineers design safety structures. Businesses protect customer information. Organizations create ethical workplaces. Governments establish standards that serve the public good. Every strong code becomes a foundation for progress. But stronger codes are not only about compliance.

They are about commitment, a commitment to excellence, accountability, and the well-being of others. In the end, stronger codes do more than prevent problems. They build confidence, create resilience and make a lasting difference in people's lives. At this time, I'd to introduce the driving force behind development services and that is the group of professionals standing with me and before you today. Our structural chief is Tim Jones, who oversees, obviously, our structural plan reviewers and inspectors.

He's had loads of experience. He's done a fantastic job for us. He steps up whenever we ask him to do anything out of the norm, is pretty often. He never says no. Our next chief is John Bessou, mechanical.

He oversees a group of gentlemen that help keep us cool when it's really, really hot outside. They do a fantastic job. Shout out to Norm MacKinnon, by the way. Our Chief Electrical Inspector, James Stewart. Together with the staff of inspectors and plan reviewers, they oversee our electrical department.

They make sure that electrical installations are to code and safe. Next is Mr. James West, our Chief Plumbing Inspector. Along with his staff, he ensures that our sanitation systems in our buildings and homes are up to code and keep us healthy and safe and help us have really hot showers. Our manager, Christina Gordon.

Along with assistant PSR manager is Marlon Bautista. And our PSR III, Jessica Mesadieu. With this staff, they are the front line to our department. We cannot function without the role that they play for us. And they are just completely essential, every day, every day. Some tips and takeaways. Building safety is everyone's responsibility. Sorry. Continuous education and awareness. That is one thing that we are proud of, and we're happy that the city does provide opportunities for us to further our careers and our education.

Embrace building codes for a safer future. And thank you for your commitment to safety. And last but not least, this is since Building Safety Month. We were at Home Depot not too long ago. And this is just a little blurb that we put together.

You look real happy there, Dan.

I can be a little animated.

A little candy store there, right?

Yeah, can you play it? Good morning, y'all. I'm Daniel Gutano, assistant building official here at the city of Hollywood. We're here at the Home Depot at Oakwood Plaza. We're promoting building safety month for

the board of rules and appeals.

And we have hard hats. We have pens, pencils. We have some shovel ducks, some cars. We have some pamphlets, and we have our staff here. We have a computer. We can help you with permits if you have any questions. But, also, please come down and see us. We'll be here till 02:00 today.

Go Hollywood. Alright.

And along with approximately 85 staff, we do this every day, all day long, and even on weekends sometimes. So we're proud to serve the residents and business owners of the City Of Hollywood.

How many permits do you guys do every year? Because I don't think the average resident has a clue of how much work you guys do.

What have had so far?

We, on high end, 18,000, but we average out pretty much around 16,000 to 17,000 a year.

Thank you.

Well, I'll tell you what, everyone. It's been really a pleasure for all of us to support our investments in the building division and development services, beginning with the new workspace that I hope you all love and enjoy compared to what was there before. The 2nd Floor is beautiful and really offers the most modern space that any department has right now in the city of Hollywood. So I hope you're proud of the investment in the workspace. I hope you're proud of the investment in technology and the Acela system.

I know it's hard to switch gears, but, ultimately, I hope we hit that high gear in August when we hopefully convert all the different building, permit types to Acela and give you all a more, you know, a more consistent system to to work together and to crank out those permits as quickly as possible. Of course, upholding all the safety rules that you're entrusted to uphold. But at the same time, as we've said for years, to help facilitate that quick issuance and inspection of the building permits because all the dreams that we have for the city of Hollywood in terms of its growth or the investment that the average resident wants to make in their house or a small business in their business to an investor and developer that wants to build a new multifamily building in the city. It all and even our public facilities, they all need to flow through your desks. And so thank you for being that critical and that indispensable conduit that everything that we hope for in the city has to flow through.

So your efficiency and your productivity is something that we rely on. And we hope we've given you the tools that you need to be as productive as you can be with using technology and facilities and additional personnel. And like I suggested to public works, if you need something more, tell Russell, tell Dan, tell Jim, tell your fellow team members. They'll tell the city manager, and she'll tell us, and we'll make it happen. So thank you all so much. I appreciate all that you do. Thank you.

Thank you.

Come on up for a photo. All right. Thank you all so much. Let's go ahead now and shift gears to recognize National Historic Preservation Month, which is, May 2026, of course. I'd like to invite commissioner Shuhan to present the proclamation.

Andy Ruffner, please come on up. He's the executive director of the Hollywood Historical Society. I think you have some other folks here from the Historical Society that'll join you in accepting the proclamation. And I'd like to recognize commissioner Shuham to present. Go ahead, commissioner.

Thank you, mayor. National Historic Preservation Month, May 2026. Whereas historic preservation is an effective tool for managing growth and sustainable development, revitalizing neighborhoods, fostering local pride, maintaining community character, and enhancing livability. And whereas the city of Hollywood's historic districts seek to preserve and maintain historically significant resources located within the city of Hollywood, keeping the city a unique and special place. Whereas historic preservation is relevant for communities across the nation, both urban and rural, and for Americans of all ages, all walks of life, and all ethnic backgrounds.

And whereas it's important to celebrate the role of history in our lives and the contributions made by dedicated individuals in helping to preserve the tangible aspects of the heritage that has shaped us as a people. And whereas the twenty twenty six National Historic Preservation Month theme is All People Are Created Equal, focusing on the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Organized by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the month emphasizes preserving diverse sites that tell the full American story, reflecting on founding ideals and promoting community revitalization. Now, therefore, Josh Levy, mayor of the city of Hollywood, Florida, and the Hollywood City Commission, hereby proclaim May 2026 as National Historic Preservation Month. Congratulations.

You might need to click the bottom of the mic. Activate the mic.

Thank you so much, mayor and commissioners, for the proclamation. This is Danny Gallup. He is our board president now. He just took over this January from Clive. And we just hope for ongoing partnership with the city in preserving our historic heritage. We have a lot of great things here. And I think it's one of the top three assets that we have here in the city is our historic stock of buildings. And that if we preserve them, we're going to remain a really unique and special city in everybody's hearts. So thank you so much.

Picture, Andy?

Andy, you want to do the picture together with everyone that will be following? Let's hold, then. Let's invite Terry Cantrell. He's chair of the Historic Preservation Board, and we'd like to recognize May 2026 as historic, of course, preservation month. Also, he's going introduce yeah, let's do it together. Let's do it together once Terry finishes. The award recipients will join us together for the photo. I think it'll be nice that way.

Okay. All right.

Yeah. We'll do a

great Thank you very much, Mayor. So should I go? Am I good?

Yes, please.

All right. Thank you, everybody. Terry Cantrell, chair of your Historic Preservation Board. And our favorite time of year, May, for Historic Preservation Month. We have a bevy of awards. We have more awards this year than we've ever had. So hang on your hats. Here we go. It's going be interesting here. We're going to have a slideshow in just a second.

I know it'll come up. There's a couple of words here that are, I think, very special. As soon as we get the slide show up here, we'll be ready to go here. The first one is for, of all things, the Block 40 Great Southern Hotel Food Hall. Now, you all may remember the saga of the Great Southern Hotel.

I was very much involved in that way back in 2022, 'three, and 'four. And I think only Commissioner Hernandez was around back then on the P and D board when we approved the 1818 project, which is Block 40. And the goal was to save and preserve the Great Southern Hotel. Unfortunately, as we all know, it wasn't possible. There was long delays in the construction of the project.

So as a result, the building itself had deteriorated. But happily, we had a very cooperative developer who was willing to replicate the old hotel. And that's what we have now. So realizing that it's been open for a couple years now, we never really recognized this work of replicating and semi restoring Great Southern Hotel, which is probably one of the oldest structures in Hollywood. So we thought it was very appropriate to do that today with month, with this awards for this year. So I'm not sure if anybody's here from Block 40. But what we're going to do, rather than have everybody come up individually, I'm going to ask all the awardees to line up behind me. We'll give them their plaque. And we'll take a photograph when we're done with that. So Block 40.

So the next one in line, this is the Art and Culture Center at 1650 Harrison Street. What a project. Of course, General Obligation Bond Project. As chair of GOB advisory group, we were monitoring this project a lot. I know it took a little bit more extra money, but look what we got for it. We got one of the most beautiful projects of all the GOB. And I'm sure most all of us have been in the building. We've already held events there for the local civic association. And it just came out spectacular. The architect went above and beyond.

And thanks to DCM, Jose Cortez, and his group, this project came to fruition. And look what we have now. So this is an award, too. So whoever is going to accept that award, hopefully somebody from DCM can line up behind me, too. And we'll give them their plaque. The next award is a very special award. It recognizes we thought it was very important to recognize the one hundred year anniversary party that we had last year. And what a great job that C Med did organizing that, culminating in the incredible weekend event, party that we all had in November. So we thought it was more than appropriate. Again, we don't necessarily concentrate on projects per se.

It's anything involved with historic preservation and the history of Hollywood. And this one is absolutely in that category, too. So if anybody from SEMA is going to line up here behind me or stand get close to me. We'll give you your plaque. And now, of course, headed up by Joanne Hussey, doing a wonderful job.

A part of that one hundred year celebration was an effort by the Historical Society and Steve Sarsfield, longtime member and videographer here in Hollywood, has done some really, really great projects, too. And he put together, again, something that was shown at the November weekend party. And it was a one hundred year celebration, a centennial celebration of Hollywood, one hundred years. And Steve is also here to accept his award as well. And that's the type of film or project that will live forever.

We'll be looking at that ten, twenty, thirty years from now. And there's only going to be one 100 year anniversary, folks. And that was last year. So we're going to be able to watch that film that Steve Sarisfield made, All right? So thank you again, Steve, that.

Next project that we're going to award is an actual building project, an actual construction project here in Hollywood. And it was very special to me because this is not far from where I live in the lakes. I spent a lot of time walking around. Every morning. Lynn and I take our two mile hike. And we've always watched this. We've always liked this house, 1949 House on Van Buren Street. And it had a canvas awning. You can see the photo in the above shows a before photograph. And it was this ordinary looking green canvas awning that was in need of replacement, I guess.

And so the applicant is here now. And Diane did a wonderful job. It came before the preservation board. And I thought it was particularly special because it shows that you can take a small scale project it doesn't have to be a major infill housing project or anything and do something so special to the house and bring it back. And it's kind of thing that we encourage those type of projects in the historic neighborhood.

So Diane is also here for that award. And she'll be up here in just a second, too. That's 1133 Van Buren Street, Diane Plunkett. We have another word that the board thought was important to recognize. And that is there's a series of small scale two door apartment buildings that have been along Hollywood Beach, along Ocean Drive for quite a while.

And we thought it was important to recognize those because as we look towards more development on the beach, and we think it's important to recognize this, most of them were designed by the same architect. They've been there for quite a while. But they've been maintained beautifully so. And I I think Diana Pitarelli is here, is a beach resident and a preservation board member along with me. And she's going to accept this award, too. So we thought that was a very significant award to recognize, too, as we look forward to potentially developing more along the beach. This is the type of thing that kind of works low scale, eight, nine, 10 story apartment buildings with, in this case, a two door type style.

I think it's Eugene Bold who's here on behalf of the Hollywood Beach Civic Association. So Eugene, come on up.

Yeah. Great.

Line up.

Yeah, line up here, please, by me, if you would. And we also have an award finally, an award that the Historical Society asked us to present, which is a very worthy award. It's to Robert McCarthy, a Lakes resident, longtime Lakes resident here yes, thank you who did a lot to preserve downtown, some of the older downtown structures. We all remember Club M. It's been plaqued by the Historical Society. And we agreed 100% with the Historical Society that this was a very worthy award to give to the late Robert McCarthy. So we thank everybody for that. All right. That is basically the awards this year, seven of them. We did that in record time.

Congratulations, everybody. And thank you so much for all your respective contributions to preserving, celebrating, and investing in the historical properties and occasions in the city of Hollywood. Thank you so much. The work goes a long way. We know the historical properties tell the story of the city, And we're really fortunate to have people like yourselves who help tell the story and celebrate it and invest in it. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much. Come up for a photo.

It's okay. Okay. Trust me.

Ready right here.

Thank you, Randy.

All right. Moving right along, everyone. We are not done yet.

Yes.

Because Terry is here to present the annual report for the Historic Preservation Board, followed by the Sustainability Advisory Committee, the artwork selection committee. And then we'll talk community development and talk about the task force for ending homelessness. So a lot of good substance. And we'll turn it over to Terry now for the Historic Preservation Board annual report.

Thank you very much, mayor. Again, Terry Cantrell, chair of your Historic Preservation Board. And this is, again, our favorite time of year. We appreciate the fact that the city and you folks recognize our work and our effort to preserve historic properties in the three districts. You know, we have three districts.

We are a CLG, a certified local government, created in 1995. There's only about 45 or 50 of those in the state of Florida that allows us to have a historic district and a historic ordinance. And we take it very, very seriously. Our mission statement is well known. And we are obligated to review and consider projects of any size within a certain financial parameter, of course.

In the three historic districts, we have, of course, the Lakes Historic District, Downtown, and then the Beach Historic District. An This eye chart, but it will give you an idea of some of the areas, the three historic districts, the overlay districts. And also, we do have what we call historic property overlay sites. And there's about 23 or 24 of these sites all over the city, not just on the East side of town, that are specially designated by the city over the course of the year so that we've had the preservation ordinance. Those listed there.

And all this is available on the website, by the way. It's a lot easier to read there. That's for sure. Here's a project that we approved last year at 1929 Hollywood Boulevard. Again, we approved projects that involve changes in facades in downtown, which is very, very important. This particular project I happen to like, because I happen to like art deco and mid century modern type designs. And this is a good example of that as well. Here, of course, is a project that you folks were intimately involved with at 1317 Harrison Street, coming along very nicely. If you go down Harrison Street, you see how much work they're doing right now. That'll be the end product.

And I guarantee you, next year, that'll be an award for sure. And right across the street is another project that I believe Commissioner Gruber's brother is doing that's restoring another very old just as old as his house, too, which would really be nice, too. Interesting project here that we approved last fall. It was a lot that was And two modern that's based This show that it's just all about older historic Mediterranean revival. We also encourage and support this type of design because, as we know, fifty years from now, that'll be historic.

That's how you look at it now. So fifty years is the National Park Service's guideline for historic properties. Again, on the beach, 501 South Surf Road, a very interesting project, actually a four story project built by Wright, no variances, very interesting project, just a little south of Hollywood Boulevard on Surf Road. That was one of our approvals. Here's just a sample of some of the other projects. Of course, the restaurant is going to find that's Florio's, by the way. I think they came before you folks for something, too. So that's going to be a very interesting project. And that could very well get into war, too. And they were able to do that without having to raze the building, which is even more so amazing.

Again, a lot of people think a lot of people are afraid to come before the preservation board or apply for a preservation application because they think it's going to fail. It's going to take too much time. We actually do not deny anything. We rarely, if ever, deny anything. If we issue a denial, it's usually because staff recommends it.

What we tend to do is we tend to spend time, if needed, to work with the applicant to get them to change their design, to tweak the design. And we have a couple of very good architects that are very knowledgeable in historic preservation. More is much better to try to work with the applicant to get them to maybe alter something to make it a little more acceptable to the board. Do that. Rarely do we ask an applicant to come back before us.

That's a radical change we're asking for. Then we might want to see it again. But for the most part, we will approve projects conditionally with the applicant going back, working with staff to make the changes that we had recommended. So I think that's a very important part. We're very interested in getting these projects through and not delaying the applicant any way we can, too. So I think that's all I have. Oh, yes. This is just a review of some of our board members. Again, I thank you very much.

Thank you. Vice Mayor Caleri.

Great job, Terry, on the presentation and capturing all of that. I know we've talked about it many other times before. Watching these pictures and listening to the discussion, I know that there is a historical board overlay an area. But just on my travels in District 3, for example, on Park Road, right at the Y, the old Butler House, they have a vintage signage now that says the old Butler House. You go down Fillmore Street, the Coral Rock Houses.

I mean, there's just all these niches everywhere. And I don't know. I know I brought it up in the past. I don't know if we've gotten any legwork. But trying to preserve some of those homes throughout the entire city of Hollywood and almost like a tour of history that is available, I think would be so beneficial, especially with the growth that we have. We are developing areas and it kind of puts that change, but then to also bring back that old school feeling and history notability throughout the entire city. I don't know if you guys have made any progress or any direction that is available, but there are some really quaint areas and homes throughout the entire city that have so much history that it would be beneficial.

Well, there's nothing that we would like better. I know a person would like better than to see the historic districts expanded or at least overlay areas. And I'm so glad that you mentioned it too. Because in District 3, Commissioner, you have some of the most original mid century modern homes Charles Reed Homes, Claus Moorburg Homes. And those are just they're gems. They're spectacular. Clara is here tonight. I can tell you that she lives in one of those houses right in the Park East. So yes, there are areas. Parkside south of downtown is full of older Bay R.

Lukens design homes, homes that should be saved. I know Lynn Smith will be here later. But she lives in a very old 1925 home that and again, there's no historic district. There's really no protection for them. It's just up to the applicant for the ownership. If they want to make improvements, there's nothing that the preservation board, because it's not part of our district.

But perhaps you could provide some type of direction. Direction. And then also just thinking ahead WONG: of the future, like even the home at was it 1912, right? I think it was at the

JULIE Yes.

JULIE Yeah.

No, it was nineteen twenty something.

There's just so much history that's And I think because you are the historical board preservation, and we've talked about this I know we have about preserving those homes.

There are

some people who have already done that, some of the names that you've mentioned. But also providing we're a touristy area, providing that historical tour type of map or travel that people can actually see the history of Hollywood, where it was, where it is, and where it's going to be. So just I don't know if you can take that and run with it and create something that I think would be so valuable.

I think I see Commissioner Schuhem has chimed in here. She's probably going to talk about the historical survey that we commissioned some time ago. But go ahead.

Well, that. But I wasn't. But yes, so we identified a lot of those houses. And I couldn't agree with you more, Vice Mayor Calhary. But I see Dana Gallup here. And Dana, I know it's premature, and I don't want to put you on the spot. But the historical society is trying to encourage historic homeowners to have their homes declared historic. And Dana's been working with staff to try to come up with like a program so people know there is a way for them to protect their own house from future demolition. So I don't know, like I don't want to put you on the spot, but if you want to update us on your ideas and the incentives and where you guys are hoping to go with this.

Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. Yeah, I'm trying to work with the city because, as you may know, there are state laws now that, in some instances, tie the city's hands in terms of what they can do to preserve historic structures. And one of them is a flood law that basically says that if you are a property in a flood zone, that the city is essentially powerless to stop the demolition of that property. And we've faced that with a number of homes last year and structures.

If you look at the law, the flood law, there's an exception. There's three exceptions, one of which is if a property already is on the national, state, or local designation prior to the passage of the law, 2022. That really only applies to very few properties here. The one that I'm focused on is that post 2022, even to today, this city can designate a property as historic. The catch is that unlike in the past, for that exception to apply, the property owner must consent or apply for historic designation.

So what we're trying to do with the Hollywood Historical Society in cooperation with the city, the city already has a historic designation program. It's already there. However, to my knowledge, it's not really publicized. It's not on the website conspicuously. And it's just not publicized. We want to get the word out with the city. Obviously, the Historic Society wants to do our part to let owners of historic properties know that they have an opportunity to protect their home from demolition in perpetuity in the future, right?

Are there property tax exemptions that they could be eligible for if they're designated historic? Are you aware?

I'm not aware, but that's something that should be talked about to It's not incentivize what because

already in

law. Yeah. Because one of the things

JOSHUA There should

JOSHUA

be. And there may be some hesitancy by certain owners. There's a perception I don't really agree with the perception that if you designate your home as historic and therefore exempt from demolition, that somehow that might reduce the property value. So it would be good to incentivize the current owners of those properties, give them something that runs with the home to pass on to future owners of that property. So I look forward to working with the city to try to publicize that program and get as many homes designated as possible within the historic district.

Because without that, as we've seen last year, properties have come before the Historic Preservation Board, in some instances, in front of the commission. And that's been the rub, that there's really no ability to stop demolition. The only thing really the historic preservation board can do and they've done a great job doing this, as Terry mentioned is once the home is demolished, seeing that the structure that replaces it is consistent with the neighborhood and so forth. But we would prefer to preserve the property in the first instance, especially when it is hopefully in relatively good shape and can be preserved.

I think we've been good stewards on making sure that that happens. History is, as we know, so important. So whatever we can do to help.

Yeah. And I'll just say that I think we had sent Andrea and I know, Danny, you've researched it. I've researched it like what other cities are doing as far as tax incentives or other incentives. So it's something we'll continue to work with planning and development on to see what we can come up with.

All right. Thank you all so much. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Thank you, everybody. And again, from your lips to staff's ears, that's what it's going take at this point. All All that right.

Sustainability Advisory Committee, ladies and gentlemen. Let's have Julia Politis come on up.

We're not taking a picture with him.

No. These are board reports. Julia, welcome.

Afternoon. Good afternoon, city mayor and commission. My name is Julia Polialis. I've served as chair for the last five years for the Sustainability Advisory Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to be here today, for your continued commitment to advancing sustainability within our city.

I would also like to recognize our staff liaisons, Elaine Franklin and Chris Roshchuk, along with our newest team member, Melissa Fostett, whose leadership and collaboration have been instrumental in moving our initiatives forward. Today I will be reviewing our accomplishments from the past year, as well as sharing the priorities and initiatives we will continue advancing moving forward. One of the key areas we focused on was micro transit connectivity. If you can go to the next slide, or is this, do I use this thing? Okay.

Wonderful. Oh, here's us at the appreciation evening. That was supposed to be there we go. These are some of the goals that we were working on for 2025, and this is what I'm going to be reviewing today. So moving on, one of the key areas we focused on was the micro transit connectivity referenced in the slide is the updated service area that has been implemented.

We had invited engineering staff to discuss gaps and east to west transportation access throughout the city. As a result, improvements were implemented to enhance connectivity for residents who need it most. Next, we invited public utility staff and representatives from CDM Smith to present the city's storm water management plan. The presentation was extremely comprehensive. I don't think, am I missing?

Oh, that's that one. My apologies. The presentation was extremely comprehensive and we were quite pleased to see the extensive planning and long term strategies being developed to address flooding and resiliency throughout the city. We have also been working with public works on the city community composting pilot program to increase participation and ensure long term success. After evaluating community feedback, we were able to update the program to ensure accessibility.

The staff is working on finalizing the adjustments and we are optimistic that these changes, combined with expanded outreach efforts, will lead to measurable increases in participation in waste diversion over the coming year. Moving on, our coalition has significantly expanded to include municipalities across both Broward and Miami Dade Counties, we are proud to share we have now evolved to the Sustainability Advisory Committee Coalition of South Florida, bringing together the cities of Coral Springs, Davie, Plantation, Fort Lauderdale, Key Biscayne, Miami Beach, and Miami Shores. This expansion strengthens our ability to align policies, share resources, and implement cohesive sustainability strategies across jurisdictions. One of our coalition members even suggested creating an official logo for the coalition, which I've been working on and is displayed on the screen today. Key topics we are actively collaborating on with our coalition partners include several regional sustainability initiatives that many of our cities are currently facing together.

One of our major topics is fertilizer ordinance alignment to help protect water quality. Earlier this year, we submitted this recommendation to the City of Hollywood Commission. Similar ordinances have been adopted in cities such as Fort Lauderdale and Miami. And by aligning with neighboring municipalities, we can help reduce nutrient pollution entering our waterways during the rainy season, reduce unnecessary fertilizer waste, and support long term environmental and public health goals across our waterways. Another major focus has been organic waste diversion and composting programs.

Many cities are actively exploring sustainable alternatives to landfill disposal, as South Florida is facing a waste crisis. We are happy that the City of Hollywood is already in motion with our current pilot program. We have also continued discussions surrounding plastics and polyestering reduction policies where Hollywood has taken a leadership role by providing tools, resources, and guidance to neighboring municipalities. Elaine recently met with Fort Lauderdale Sustainability Advisory Committee, which is now pursuing similar recommendations for their own commission. And lastly, we have noticed we all would like to strengthen our communication and collaboration between city and staff and sustainability advisory committees to ensure environmental considerations are included earlier in the planning and decision making processes, instead of when plans are in their final stages.

Through this coalition, we are building a connection that was missing and sharing resources that support sustainability efforts across South Florida. One of our discussions that has also expanded regionally is the issue of artificial turf. Fort Lauderdale Sustainability Advisory Committee recently invited experts to their meeting who provided a detailed presentation on the environmental and public health impacts associated with plastic grass. If you recall, this is an issue I raised in last year's presentation. And after further research, expert discussions, reviewing lifestyle impacts, it became clear that many of the common claims supporting artificial turf are not the best decision for our community.

This is a multi layered issue impacting public health, environmental sustainability, storm water management, and long term financial planning. When evaluated over the full life cycle of the product, natural grass, in many cases, can be more cost effective while also providing significantly greater environmental and public health benefits. Artificial grass does not align with our broader sustainability goals to reduce plastics throughout our community. While we simultaneously replace natural landscapes with synthetic plastic materials on athletic fields and public spaces, this creates a disconnect within our own ordinances. While artificial turf can be used in certain circumstances at a small scale, it should not be viewed as a long term replacement for natural grass, which plays an important role in cooling urban environments, absorbing storm water, supporting biodiversity and helping mitigate flood impacts.

Our role is not simply to oppose solutions, but to support informed and balanced decision making that aligns with the city's environmental, financial and public health priorities. We are continuing to work on this with city staff to present a complete package. In the meantime, we recommend prioritizing natural and sustainable solutions whenever feasible and continuing to lead by example as a city. The decisions made at the municipal level influence community behavior and it is important that our actions reflect the sustainability values we promote. As we move forward, our committee will continue to focus on relaunching the composting program, developing a protocol to address water quality issues, reviewing procurement practices and vendor contracts to encourage stronger sustainability commitments from the companies serving our city, and continuing to advance recommendations related to fertilizer ordinances and artificial turf policies aligned with neighboring municipalities.

As you can see, our committee is actively working across multiple fronts to implement practical, forward thinking solutions that benefit both our residents and our environment. The decisions we make today will shape the future resilience, health, and sustainability of our city for generations to come. We appreciate your continued support and collaboration as we work together to build a stronger, more sustainable Hollywood for the future. Thank you for your time.

Thank you so much to everybody who's volunteering on the board. You guys Thank helped take us further, and we thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for all your commitments and the staff that we continue to grow.

Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Commissioner Schuham, real quick, go ahead.

Yeah, of course. I want to say thank you, Julia. But I really just don't want it to be lost. This idea of creating a regional group of cities is really fantastic. It always helps to collaborate, share ideas. And it's just another way I know our staff does it with their relationships with their peers in other cities. But for you to have that volunteer connection is great. And just ask you to share with us any good stuff that you hear.

Yes. It's been very instrumental and very resourceful for everybody. I have such great feedback from

the

logo. Thank you.

All

right. Let's go ahead now to the artwork selection committee. Is John McMillan here? There he is, McMillian. Welcome. Welcome, John.

You, honorable mayor, vice mayor, and commissioners. John McMillian. I'm the chair for the art selection committee for the city of Hollywood. Our focus is on bringing art to the community. One of the things that we did this year that we're proud of is bringing back an official Hollywood art festival, which was held at the Young Circle Arts Park.

It was our first year. We learned a lot. We hope to grow and expand and ask for consideration for increased budget. One of the other things we're looking to do is bring art back to the Arts Park Building. June 11, we're going to be having a showcase of local artists. And we invite you all, please, to attend, six to nine. The city's been kind enough to sponsor the event. And one thing about Hollywood that I really love is I feel there's a great opportunity here. I've often gone to Fort Lauderdale and other cities for their art festivals. So I'm glad it's back, I guess, after an extended period of time.

And hopefully, one of the things I learned is to create a coalition with other interested minded people and organizations So it can be something premier to challenge that perhaps of Fort Lauderdale and other cities, because I believe there's a lot of talent here. And that's really all I have to say.

Thank you, John. Well, we love how art enriches our city and the downtown and even the halls here at City Hall. And so thank you for all your work of your committee. Looking forward to more. Commissioner Schuham?

Yes, sorry. John, I just want to say I was at this the art fest. And it didn't get a ton of publicity, but it was really beautiful. And the artwork there was great. And for the event that you're talking about on June 11, I don't know about the rest of the commission, but I don't see that on our calendar. So can you make sure that the details get sent to maybe Joanne Hussey or somebody that they can make sure we get it?

Yes, ma'am. And thank you.

Thank you. Thanks.

Thank you. All right, ladies and gentlemen. Let's invite Ryan Coot, Director of Housing and Community Development, to talk to us about the fiscal year twenty twenty five office overview. Your staff has been sitting here, I think, pretty patiently. Or is that financial services staff?

That's finance.

Good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, city manager, deputy city manager, city attorney, Ryan Coote, community development, sorry, housing and community development director. And I'm here to provide the commission with an overview of how we're leveraging not only the ILA, but our other dollars to make an impact in the city of Hollywood. So bear with me as I go through a few slides. I'll brief. I know we've a long day today, but I want to make sure you get to understand how your dollars are making an impact in this community.

So, our CDBG is the first one I want to talk about, and how we're leveraging those dollars to make improvements to city facilities, and also helping our non profit partners to be more impactful. One the things that we did this year, was provide the Boys and Girls Club at the Blvd Heights Center with $250,000 in CDBG dollars, to help them with their current expansion of the teen center. We're proud of this initiative because it provides teenagers with an access point where they can go learn, they can tutor and have different activities to help keep them engaged. We're also entertaining right now with them another offer because they've encountered some cost overruns that were unexpected in the construction and we do have additional CDBG dollars that we can help them to move this project forward, so they can complete their project in time. So, we'll be bringing that to the commission for consideration, as well, too.

We also supported initiative at Bob Butterworth Park, where we improved that park with CDBG dollars and also added a court memorial, as well, too. This is going to bring another level to the park, make it more a walking path, benches, a court memorial, make the park more conducive for people to use that park every day. We also work closely with Parks and Recreations and we provide them with over $400,000 to purchase much needed equipment, furniture and other resources for a lot of our LMI parks and community centers throughout the city Of Hollywood. And, we're currently working with our partners over at Public Works to do about 600,000 CDBG to purchase much needed street lights to replace broken street lights damaged, I'm sorry, damaged street lights and install new street lights in a lot of our LMI areas. So, you can see our CDBG dollars at work in this slide.

Now, I'm not going take too much time with this one, because you're going to be hearing from Mitch Anton in the next meeting, who is the chair of our CDAB board, really focused on our public services, but at a high level, we gave about $237,000 in public service dollars, a combination of CDBG and CD dollars, to various non profits in Hollywood that provide everything from food assistance, to essential services to people in need. But, you'll hear more from that when Mitch comes up next meeting, to discuss how they move those dollars forward and how we're impacting the city with those. Now, our rehab program. It's a pretty robust program. I'm proud to say that, with our neighborhood pride, and our federally funded and state funded rehab program, we accomplished 92 rehabs last year.

70% of which were ILA, at 64 of them. Eighty two were from the SHIP funded program. This year, we're in Right now, we're already at 49 this year. I don't think we're going quite get to 92, because we're way ahead by this We're about fifty six by this time last year, but we'll come very close to that number this year, which is a good, good thing for us, cause it shows that the program works and people are getting their houses repaired and we're doing what it's intended to do. We did about nine owner occup I'm sorry, nine first time home buyer purchases last year.

This year alone, we're already at eight. So, we definitely want to make sure we beat that goal, because that program is picking up steam once again. A lot of condos, we're going figure out some ways to get some more of these single family homes sold, we got to look at that a little bit deeper, but we are moving to beat that goal of nine last year and we will, because we already have three right now that are in the hopper. As they go through the process, hopefully, can be added to this list and we'll do a lot more with that program. Of course, our ILA, not only pays for affordable housing and rehab, but also infrastructure funding.

So, we work closely with engineering and public works to provide the dollars that they need to do sidewalk improvements, ADA, add ADA, accessible ramps within sidewalks, and also other things that are needed within our LMI communities to make sure people can traverse the communities safely. In addition to that, what you don't see here, is we also partner closely with C Med on the work skills portion. I'm proud to say that last cycle, they partnered with OIC, through the fiber optic program, and all residents that participated graduated with a certificate. And they're on pace this year. They've partnered with the Boys and Girls Club this year, they've partnered with OIC again, and they've also partnered with Junior Achievement to administer programs for people who want apprenticeships and job skill development.

So, that program is moving forward nicely as well. Of course, our affordable housing initiatives, this year, to date, we have approximately about eight sixty two affordable units that are coming, that are online or coming online for the city of Hollywood. We've expended about over $9,000,000 in gap financing to help bring much needed affordable housing to the city of Hollywood. And, of course, other things that you wouldn't know that we are doing in the city right now, with our home funding, we're actually partnered with planning right now and we're actually providing the resources for the housing needs assessment study. So, we're using home dollars to actually pay for that study, that will play a role in developing the comprehensive plan.

We also use our home dollars to provide tenant based rental assistance. That program is actually very important, because it's preventing people from becoming homeless, or entering into homelessness. So, we provide them with a subsidy for a couple months to get them situated. The nonprofit provides much more than just that, but wrap around services to make sure they're financially stable, where they have the skills and resources to become independent, once they're weaned off the program. In addition to that, we also have home ARP money, where we're partnering with the Task Force for Ending Homelessness, who are here right now, and they'll be presenting to you guys later on today, about an initiative that we had a couple weeks back, where we're on the street with Commissioner Hernandez, Gruber and Biederman, where you engage the population in Hollywood.

You'll hear more from Jacob on that in a few. But, what they do for us in a multi year contract, is they provide active street outreach. So, they're engaging people who are experienced, the unsheltered population, they're engaging them on the street to give them the resources and try to move them out of, try to effectively move them from homelessness to some kind of stable placement. So, we use home ARP money for that. We have a multi year agreement with them to provide these services. We also partner with the Broward Outreach Center, or the Care in Place, they're here, too, as well. I think Keith's back there right now. And we use home ARP dollars on a multi year contract, too, as well, for that. And we provide emergency shelter, case management, workforce development and housing placement. It's a full gamut of wrap around services.

On average, well, every quarter, they're providing about 30 households at that program with services. So, it's a lot going on with that program. And, that program, believe it or not, has both those programs have really organically worked to improve our community core initiative. You know, we received Department of Justice funding for our community core initiative. We're in the thirty year of a five year program and this program has really taken off and a lot of it has to do with the staff, Angela Blain, who works in the program.

As you can see, these numbers are very impressive, you know, 21 people have graduated and have attained some kind of housing. That's a big deal when it comes to somebody who's chronically homeless. You have over seven sixty two clients that are served in the program. So, why I say that is because the program is held in Broad Outreach Center right now. We have a natural relationship with them where somebody can go from community court into placement, but the task force is there as well, too, to connect them to all other services that are in the area.

If you've never been to the program, I urge you to come and take a look at the program. It's pretty dynamic how it works and you see where it's making an impact in the city. And, of course, everything we do here is these four pillars that we try to preserve and expand affordable housing, we want to improve neighborhood infrastructure, we want to support vulnerable populations. We want to enhance the overall community stability of community development. And with that, I know I was quick, but you've got long day today and these are just some highlights of what we've done last year. If there's any questions, I'm here to answer them.

So Ryan, thank you so much. We love the reach the number of programs that community development has been able to usher into the community. Just as it concerns us with regards to the Neighborhood Pride program and the ILA with the county, if there are categories of work or you think percentage thresholds that agreement might have not have contemplated when we first adopted it, I'd like to hear the feedback, really, of staff. If there are those areas where percentages, again, ought to be tweaked for the sake of maximizing the deployment of dollars without delay, let us know. We'd love to engage the county with that if necessary and help to keep things fluid if you find reason.

Absolutely. Well, the city manager's already asked us to look into these things, and we are actively working that with Deputy City Manager Reichbach and City Manager Stoehr. We can look at these things right now.

Right. Looking forward to hearing about that in the next meeting.

20%. Yes,

sir. You so much.

All right. Thank you, guys.

Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Let's go ahead. Thank you for your patience, Mr. Jacob Torner, Vice President of Programs for the Task Force Reigning Homelessness and Finance. You guys are up next.

I was going say, I'm not here to represent finance. Mayor, vice mayor, members of the commission, thank you. Jacob Torner, vice president of programs at the task force for ending homelessness. Before I get into the data that we're going to share with you, I just want to take a moment to congratulate this body and all of your charter officers. As someone who grew up here and spends lots of time in Hollywood, downtown and on the beach, it's no surprise to anyone that each year, each day, Hollywood becomes more beautiful and more invested in the residents and the community.

And we heard that from all the presentations this morning. So I just want to thank you all. Today, I'm going to inform you about the Voices of the Street activity, which took place here in Hollywood on March 10. It was done as a collaborative effort. Voices of the Street is performed on years where the county board votes to not conduct a federal point in time count.

And the purpose of the Voices of the Street survey is to serve in lieu of that point in time count and offer municipalities an opportunity to have data on the people on the streets, but more importantly, to be able to leverage that data to drive solutions and strategies that clean up our streets and get people the help they need. As you see on your screen, just a couple of pictures from those who are involved in Voices of the Street. Hollywood Police Department and Hollywood Fire Rescue, brave men and women who protect our communities every day, made it a point to very much participate in this activity. Officer Chung, who I am sure is no stranger to this city, works tirelessly every day and has I think he's the longest standing homeless outreach officer in the entire county because he is so committed to this work and made this event a success. Similarly, you see your Department of Housing and Community Development, Ryan, Angela, and Sabrina, who also were instrumental in this.

And of course, can't forget the commissioner who's on our screen today, Commissioner Gruber. Thank you for being there. Similarly, thank you Commissioner Hernandez and Commissioner Biederman. As Ryan said, these commissioners were not just at the event, they were on the ground. If they were wearing shoes with white soles that day, those shoes left dirty because they really got into the trenches and we appreciate them for that. So a couple of things before we get into the data. We mentioned on the ground support from this commission. We had over 72 volunteers from this county come into Hollywood and support this initiative. In addition to our public safety partners, we had corporations like City National Bank send their staff. We had educational institutions like Nova Southeastern University, both their medical school and their public health school.

All volunteers received training, was conducted with our friends at the county commission chambers. We partnered with, very importantly, the Caring Place, who provided us with a headquarter location perfectly situated right there on Scott Street. And as you know, the Caring Place does so much for this community and its residents. So I just want to extend an appreciation to you, Keith, and your team. Laundry Spot, which actually provides laundry services to those who are experiencing homelessness on a recurring schedule, and many, many others. More than 100 hygiene kits were prepared. Yes, ma'am. That's correct. Thank you, Vice Mayor. It is Ms.

Vesey Einhorn's laundry. Over 100 hygiene kits were prepared by our NSU students and passed out. And we had some unintended or unexpected successes where we were actually able to get people off the street same day during the activity. So getting into the data, why you all are here, we collected two thirty one surveys on March 10. The number I want you all to focus on is 198 which were collected here in the city limits within the jurisdiction of Hollywood.

We conducted 95 interviews, which are long form interviews, and 136 short term or short form interviews, also known as observations. 33 responses were collected outside of Hollywood. However, that is significant and should be to this commission because we examined where those individuals were identified and they were directly on on your border with your neighboring jurisdictions. Getting into demographics, we saw that demographics in Hollywood similarly reflect the county wide demographics for those who experience homelessness. In age, we noticed a significant population of individuals who are over the age of 55.

And so what I like to say when I see that is that we have a graying and aging crisis of homelessness. I'm sure you all see as you travel the communities, people who are out there on the streets are using walkers. They're being pushed by someone in a wheelchair. Some of those people are actually younger, but many of them are aging and they're aging on the streets. We also had six honorable veterans who served our country and our community who are still living out there on the streets.

That's unacceptable. Fortunately, with our close partners at the Department of Veterans Affairs who were on the ground with us that day, we were able to connect veterans to support services. It was also notable that over thirty two percent of the respondents reported that they're struggling with mental health issues. Over twenty one respondents reported an alcohol and substance use disorder. A fifth with a physical health condition, and a quarter of the respondents with other chronic health conditions.

All very significant when you think about the strategies that we need to use to address homelessness. And we're going to talk about a summary of our findings and recommendations at the end. Where people were sleeping was also significant because, as you all know, Section 125.0231 Florida Statues created Florida's public camping law, which resulted from a previous state legislative session. And this municipality, along with every other one in this state, has an obligation to not allow regular overnight public camping. And so when we looked at where people were sleeping on the night that we surveyed, we found a large portion of respondents are sleeping in public spaces.

People sleeping on streets and sidewalks, in parks, forming outdoor encampments, at our bus benches and train stations, under bridges, and even some who are in their vehicles or on a boat. We also looked at whether or not this was the first time that person had experienced homelessness. And what we saw shockingly was that forty percent of the respondents had become homeless for the first time during that occurrence. Similarly, how long people have been experiencing homelessness was very interesting to collect in this community. What we found was that while there is a large number of people who have been experiencing homelessness for greater than thirty six months, there is, consistent with that observation in the previous question, a good amount of folks who have just become homeless.

And that represents what we call a front end crisis. We also looked at how long the people that we were surveying stayed in a shelter or somewhere other than on the streets over the last three years. And we found that some of them, 32% in particular, stayed off the streets for zero to three months. Employment was only at eleven percent. And we know that for people to be successful, they need to have income.

There needs to be economic prosperity and opportunities for the people that we serve. And so this directs our energy and our resources to ensuring that people do become employed, not just housed. People in Hollywood and whether or not they've been in Hollywood for a significant period of time was also something we assessed. More than 45 of the respondents had been in Hollywood for greater than three years. Common misconception I hear, I deal with probably more than a dozen municipalities each and every week, is that people come to my city to be homeless or someone sends the homeless to our community because we have great resources or we have lax policing.

But the reality is, Mr. Mayor, commissioners, a large portion of the people on your streets are actually Hollywood residents. And as you saw on the previous slide, a large amount of them have just become homeless. We also looked at whether or not folks are receiving disability benefits and nearly 70% of the people Hollywood experiencing homelessness are not receiving mainstream benefits. So to wrap things up, what we're seeing, Mr.

Mayor, commissioners, 46% of people are visible in our community at a minimum, meaning that they're living on streets and sidewalks and public spaces, which impacts community safety and quality of life. As I had mentioned, there is a front end crisis. And I'll be fair, this is not limited to Hollywood nor Broward County, and I know you all know that. Forty percent of people were first time homeless, eighteen percent within zero to three months, and that tells us that economic instability and the rising cost of housing is driving this crisis. We also know that needs are very complex.

We're not talking about a single need when we're talking about helping someone get off the streets. We're talking about health. We're talking about job training. We're talking about family support. We're talking about transportation barriers. The list goes on. But what we know for sure, based on the data that we've collected, is that a housing only approach is not effective. The approach that is proven to be most successful is an approach that involves wraparound support addressing the complex layer of needs that folks have. And so what must happen next? What can this commission do?

And how can you direct staff to continue making the great impact that you all have done? We need to act early to prevent homelessness. Some of those programs you heard Mr. Koot talking about, you all could consider, or that advisory board could consider looking at preventing homelessness for residents of Hollywood, ensuring that if someone's receiving an eviction notice in the city of Hollywood, that there's support, that there's interventions to determine how they got there in the first place, address those issues that led them there, and keep them in their house so that Hollywood doesn't have more people hitting the streets. Similarly, on the unsheltered side, we need to keep outreach strong and visible.

As Mr. Koo mentioned, our task force teams work on the streets seven days a week, engaging with people, responding to calls from business owners, calls from the city that receive complaints. And that is critical because these are the folks who are engaging them on the front lines and they're the ones building the trust and rapport necessary to motivate them to take the help that's there for them. We also are recommending to you formally that you consider a co response model. Earlier this year, the town of Davie Town Council, co response model, yes, Vice Mayor.

Earlier this year, the town of Davie Town Council unanimously approved and implemented a new program that we launched in collaboration with them, which places a trained recovery and housing specialist from the task force in a marked police car 40 a week. They're responding to calls for service. They're intervening in crisis situations. And very importantly and significantly, they've gotten more than a dozen people off the streets in just their first few months. And that's the town of Davie, which is pretty small with respect to this large city we're in today. So we do see that as a model to replicate. We also need to swiftly resolve encampments. I want to appreciate Mr. Koot, Ms. Blaine from the community development team.

The moment that a resident or a business owner reports an encampment or concerns at a public park, they immediately notify us of that. And our response time has been maintained at an average of forty two minutes to resolve those, ensuring that we're responding in person, addressing the complaint, whether that's helping that individual get into treatment or shelter or just empowering them to find somewhere that's a little bit better than staying in one of our public parks while they make that decision themselves. Third, balancing immediate responses with long term stability. This is the challenge. We know that the science to ending homelessness is pretty simple.

We need to have a greater outflow rate than we do inflow rate to lower our population and get to a place where it's a little bit more manageable. And you do that by long term strategies, getting people out of the system. But at the same time, we need to keep our streets and public spaces safe and clear. So that's where you balance the great investments you make, like at the Caring Place to ensure that there's shelter beds available for someone that day when they need them. And fourth is scaling clinical services.

Back to our previous slide on findings, these are complex needs. We can't just address them with housing or with case management. So what we've done since this, on March 10, is we've directed our behavioral health department, which is comprised of several licensed mental health professionals, to surge in the city of Hollywood. And so they're now also working on the streets more frequently in this community, consistent with what they're doing countywide. So with that, happy to take any questions. And I appreciate you all for your leadership to this community.

Thank you. Madam Vice Mayor.

So thank you for the presentation. It's very eye opening, obviously, for those who aren't aware of the homelessness issue that's going on. We did have, though, an officer a while back that was geared only towards homelessness. Thank you, Officer Chung, for everything you do. You're amazing.

But I know that the burnout rate is particularly high in that position. And in addition to that, I remember, and I don't know if things have changed, but the resource officer would go and try to get them out of their cars or get them in shelter. And there were a lot of obstacles. A, availability. B, if they were a lot of homeless have a pet with them and these facilities don't accept that. The willing with children, some weren't accepted. So there were so many challenges. Have we made any progress with those challenges? And if so, what could those be if you could enlighten us?

Thank you for the question, Vice Mayor. Quite a large question. But I would say, generally speaking, there's still a number of challenges with, if we wanted to say, how do we end homelessness today in the city of Hollywood? Primarily, we have a higher number of people than we do capacity for emergency interventions, shelters and transitional housing and treatment beds. So it starts there. It starts with ensuring that there's an adequate supply of stock, housing stock, emergency housing stock, for people to get off the streets. I do think we've made progress. Just in 2025, we released our annual report last week. Over 4,000 people have been assisted countywide in getting into shelter. A large percentage of that's right here in the city.

It's also thanks to this commission for funding the Caring Place directly. For many years that I worked in this community, they did not receive support, I believe, in this capacity from the city. And that's critical because our teams work side by side with them to ensure that if we find someone on the streets, we can get them into shelter. If the bed's full, Keith and his team do a great job of letting us know as soon as that bed's available so we can make connection. We've also expanded partnerships on the treatment side.

So that's another way, I think, that we've made improvements in that area, vice mayor, ensuring that with relationships at the Broward Addiction Recovery Center and other short term and long term residential programs, we're able to get people off the street same day. And then last, I'll just say to your point, the officers are definitely challenged. They work so hard. Their primary responsibility is to protect the community and they do that so well. And that's one of the reasons why we're recommending this particular model is because they no longer have to call for someone to come out, wait thirty minutes, wait an hour, wait a day.

They have to go to another call for service in that time. This allows the intervention to occur right away And it allows that knowledge to be there for not just that individual officer, but for the department and public safety as a whole.

Awesome. Thank you.

Thank you. Well, thank you. And thank you, Commissioner Gruber, for your work on the COC and working hand in hand with everyone regarding homelessness. It was kind of surprising, but not surprising, to see what I thought I saw, which was a statistic that seventy nine percent of the homeless folks who you've encountered have a mental health or a substance abuse issue. So that goes a long way to discussing what we as a society and as a country need to help to overcome and help with the years ahead, because that seems to be beyond the financial aspect that can cause homelessness, part of the reason why there is an inability to get out of it for those who don't have the mental capacity or perhaps have the dependency issues and addictions that are a problem.

But thanks to you, the task force. Thanks to the police department for doing their part. We want to make sure the streets are safe and the laws are enforced here in the city and that people get the help they need at the same time. So thank you so much.

Thank you.

All right. And shout out to the Caring Place, of course, Kevin and team. Thank you so much. You guys are an indispensable partner. Thank you so much. All right, finance team. And Mr. Quinlan, you'll be next, James. But let's go ahead first to a presentation by Moises Arisa. He's the partner with Hermes also with Hermes Garzon, who's our director of CBIZ, Inc. And they'll present the fiscal year twenty twenty five annual comprehensive financial report and the fiscal year audit results. And we, of course, have Ms. Stephanie Tinsley, our financial director right here in the city at the podium. Thank you. Stephanie.

Thank you, mayor. Good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, city manager, and staff. My name is Stephanie Tinsley. I'm the city so I was going to say city manager. Sorry, forgot to promote myself. Director of Financial Services.

She's not ready to retire yet, but thanks for letting us know you're interested.

Director of Financial Services for the City of Hollywood. I am pleased to present the FY 2025 ACFR. I just wanted to make a few comments before I turn it over to Hermes Garzone for his official presentation of the ACFR. Again, this year, we received an unmodified or clean opinion with no repeat findings or no findings at all. So that was a big one.

All of our major governmental and enterprise funds are in really good shape, either meeting or exceeding our fund balance policy minimums. So that was really a positive thing as well. The city expended approximately $50,000,000 in grant financing. And that also requires additional audit procedures. And with that, there were no compliance issues and no internal deficiencies or anything as well.

So we did very well with our expenditures there. We met all of our debt and investment policy requirements. And the ACFR this year was issued on May 5, which was three weeks earlier than last year. And it's been ten years since the city of Hollywood had issued the act for this early. And so I just like to recognize the Department of Financial Services staff because without their commitment, their work ethic, and their strong dedication with all the competing initiatives and priorities that they had this year, that would definitely not have been possible.

And I'd like to acknowledge the team. I asked them to come up to be up here so that they can be acknowledged and recognized for the hard work that they did.

Come on up, finance team. You've been sitting for two hours. Come on up. Such a patient group.

They're a shy group, just like we all are.

Come on up, stretch your legs, Coffee outside. Compliments of city manager Stephanie Tinsley. And

so this

JAMES Where's the coffee, HR? Tammy, where's that Cuban coffee, Tammy?

And so this is your finance team.

Thank Take you for keeping us in check, everybody. And according to our auditors, you guys are doing a great job. And please, if you recognize opportunities for the city to any department to be smarter or see opportunity in dollars that might be, quote unquote, sitting there, please let Ms. Tinsley know. She'll tell the city manager, and the city manager will tell us.

And it's a theme here, because we want to take advantage of all the opportunities to help every department and every aspect of the city move forward. And you all kind of probably see the bigger picture when looking at numbers than people that are necessarily working in the department sometimes. So please report up. Stephanie, of course, as your director, communicates that. And we hope to, again, put all the dollars to good work and keep, of course, the city functioning and appropriate accounting principles and what have you. So I think that's a great layup to our auditor, who found nothing. Go ahead. Come on up, auditor. We try to give you an interesting job, and it's Okay if it's boring, you know, because no news is good news when it comes to you, right?

SPEAKER Stephanie made my job very, very easy this time around. So I think she had a great summary. Just a very quick introduction. My name is Hermes Garzone. I'm a director for CBIPS, is external auditor of the city. So the only thing I would actually add to that, she's absolutely correct. As far as the financial statement opinion, we received an unmodified clean opinion. There were

no And you can stay standing, if you like. I mean, you probably want to stretch your legs. But if you want to sit, go ahead.

There were no significant deficiencies or material weaknesses. The only thing I would highlight is there was a single audit that was performed. And the single audit is just triggered when the city expands more than $1,000,000 from federal awards or federal assistance and $750,000 on the state side. So we picked four programs in total. Those programs were the staffing for the Adequate Fire and Emergency Response, or SAFR grant, the ARPA funds,

so the

coronavirus state and local recovery funds. So those were the two federal. And then for the state side, we selected the drinking water facility construction program and the recently in Florida program. So nothing to report there as well, but just wanted to at least identify the actual programs that were tested. Okay. And that concludes my

whole Well, thank you so much. I know the ACFR is a full on book. And so this weekend, during Memorial Day, we know we're going to have nothing better to do but to read the financial report and ask Stephanie any questions we might have. Thank you all so much. All right. Appreciate it. All right. Thank you, finance team. Thank you. Let's get to item 10. Where's James Quinlan, another fellow who's been patiently waiting two hours? I see Adam here, folks from the Rhythm Foundation. Let's talk jazz. Item 10, I believe there was a speaker card the clerk had told me, and so that's what's kept us waiting. This, of course, is the resolution of the city commission authorizing the city to execute a concert agreement with Rhythm Foundation, Inc.

To provide producer services for the jazz festival concerts at the Arts Park in an amount up to $250,000 in accordance to the procurement court. COVID has the best interest. This will require a fiveseven vote, of course. And I know we've had a chance probably to talk about this item during our one on ones. Claire, come on up. Terry as well. They submitted the cards, but let's go ahead and have James present. But Claire and Terry and their desire to speak on this is what's kept you here for two hours. But that's Okay, because hopefully you've enjoyed sitting here and listening to the wheels of the city hall at play here at the city commission meeting. All right, James, Adam, take it away.

Thank you. Thank you very much, mayor and commission and esteemed administration here today. We are really, really proud to be in front of you today. This is the revival, if you would, of the historic jazz festival in Hollywood. A lot of people do remember that. That was the prior band shell to the amphitheater. And it ran for about twenty years, closed when the amphitheater was being built. And there's a groundswell that we've been feeling for bringing it back. And we've taken on the challenge. We have a new idea, though.

It's going to be a bit of a twist. It's going to be something that we think will really stand out in the marketplace and become not just a local and regional event, but something that is nationally recognized and celebrated. We're talking about the Hollywood Real Jazz Picnic. And that's the working title of the project that would have a culinary component. That's the picnic component.

We will be working with the local businesses to provide an opportunity to pre order a picnic that you will be able to pick up in the Arts Park on the day of the event, November 21 of this year. There will be a picnic provider, if you will, as well, helping with the setups and creating kind of a very interesting opportunity for people to be in the park in the afternoon and into the evening of Saturday. It's not going to be a late night show. It's not going be your typical concert. It's going to be a six hour presentation of six different groups, three from national and international recognition, and three local groups running continuously during that period, from 2PM to 8PM on the twenty first.

And one of the things we're really excited about that's going to make it a national project is the partnership affiliation that we have now verbally agreed with the SiriusXM satellite broadcaster, which is, as you know, not just The US, but it is all around the world, continuous signal that they provide. And through their real jazz channel, we'll have their personalities on-site, as well as a live transmission from Hollywood during the event, and use of the materials afterwards that they'll be recording. So that profile, we think, will really give us a great head start in establishing something that's new and special. It's going to be distinct, we think, from any other jazz offerings in the market. And we think it's going to have a really strong appeal to families and also be supporting the downtown businesses with the 8PM cutoff time.

We're going to encourage people to go into the downtown historic district and check out the fine dining opportunities. So we'll be interacting in a couple of ways with those businesses to try to also connect to this event. What else am I going to say? We really are very excited about the brand. We are bringing in people to support us, specific.

Once we get commitments here, we can go forward and really make it happen, we think, in a very established way and something that we can all celebrate and be proud of. My colleague Adam, the CEO of Rhythm Foundation. By the way, I'm James Quinlan. I don't think I introduced myself. For those of you that don't know me, I am the founder and now senior advisor of the Rhythm Foundation. We've been producing events in Florida since 1988.

JAMES And thank you, James. And again, thank you to our esteemed dais here. Two other things I'd like to add to James' statements. The jazz festival is actually a two day affair. It begins with the tree lighting ceremony on the Friday night.

So let's say, call it a day and a half. So we'll also have programming that is associated with the the tree lighting in the holiday market. And then Saturday is the is the two to six kind of full day experience. And by way of a proof of concept to gauge the local actual demand for jazz programming, we had a show on Saturday night at the Arts Park featuring kind of straight ahead real jazz talent. The vice mayor, we were happy to privileged to have her attendance to be able to oh, sorry, commissioner.

Excuse me. Pardon. Sorry. The commissioner was able to address the crowd. We had something like between 901,000 people there throughout the course of the night. The entire lawn was filled with lovely it was a very family friendly, a bit of an older, more mature crowd. So it was a lot of picnics and bottles of wine and little pieces of cheese. So it was a really lovely experience. I do want to give a chance for our other speakers to come up. Then I've got some other little notes.

All right. Let's go ahead and take public comment. Claire, come on up. Claire Garrett.

Thank you, mayor and commissioners. I'm here to speak in support of approval of the Jazz Festival agreement with the Rhythm Foundation. It was just a little over a year ago on 03/06/2025 that the PRCA Advisory Board sent you a letter recommending that the city bring back the beloved Hollywood Jazz Festival using new county grant funding available for cultural festivals. I'm also here to thank the mayor and thank the commissioners for giving serious consideration to the advisory board's recommendation and then for actually supporting it. This recommendation to bring back the Hollywood Jazz Festival met with strong support when it appeared for discussion two short weeks later on 03/19/2025 on the city commission agenda, which resulted in the city manager being given the direction to explore options and then to bring it back in a month to you for further discussion.

Parks director, Ricky Engel, and his city staff, they worked expeditiously to do that research in record time, gather the necessary information. And here we are, just one short year later, looking forward to the return of the Hollywood Jazz Festival. It is with great enthusiasm that I encourage approval today of the agreement with the Rhythm Foundation, which is is recognized as the foremost presenter of world music and cultural events in South Florida, with a long history of producing successful jazz concerts and festivals. Based on their extensive track record, I am confident that the Rhythm Foundation will produce a successful event that will not only be enjoyed by our local residents, but that will put Hollywood on the national map for jazz enthusiasts to come to visit Hollywood, specifically for the Jazz Festival. This type of marketing and economic benefit to the city is priceless.

In closing, I just want to also say how gratifying it is to me as an advisory board member to see that my service on an advisory board can result in something so positive for the city of Hollywood, such as the return of a festival like this. So thank you for the opportunity to serve on the PRCA advisory board.

Terry Cantrell.

Thank you very much, Mayor. Terry Cantrell. I'm an avid, avid jazz fan. I'm here to tell you I am proud to say that I attended every single Hollywood jazz festival in the '80s and the '90s. And even when they moved off-site to a different location, it was a partnership with the city. Parks and Rec and Doctor. Ron Weber formed a group called the South Florida Jazz Group. And he moved over to different areas when he left Hollywood. But I just returned from New York City over the weekend and went to two jazz shows, one at Disney's Jazz Club in Columbus Circle and then Birdland, famous Birdland in Broadway area. And they were jam packed both nights with that.

So I encourage and I'd also like to compliment Ricky Engel and his staff for including a couple of us residents in the early stages of the planning. Was happy to sit in and talk about the experiences that we had back in the '80s and '90s. I still have some brochures that I shared with them, some of the programs from back then, too. So this is an absolute home run for us. And there's nothing but positive that will come out of this show. I can't wait. Thank you.

Thank you. Adam, you're welcome to close out.

Thank you very much. And so we have really exciting opportunity here to help pick up the torch and revive a long time festival. We have the pieces in place to position this as a nationally recognized festival, for it to become a destination for folks. Part of this program is about supporting the local businesses and the broader brand of Hollywood as a center of art and culture and a place with a really high level of quality of life. I also look forward to sitting down with each of you independently over the course of the next few weeks to lay out the broader vision for the management of the Arch Park and what that future looks like.

By way of a preview, we are working on a mix of various types of programs ranging from performances of showcases of locally based talent to larger cultural festivals. Like for instance, in late August, early September, we want to do an autumnal Asian festival called the Mooncake Festival, which we were very excited about, as well as things like Record Fair, so on and so forth, mixed in with larger, larger kind of big ticket marquee names that would be those would be ticketed concerts, while many of the other programs will remain free and open to the community as a way to attract more traffic to downtown and encourage downtown as a place where people can really can live, work and play. So I'll be reaching out to you all over the coming days to set up these times and look forward to that opportunity to sit down with you all.

Thank you, Adam. Do you expect the same older demographic that you saw this weekend at the Jazz Festival?

I anticipate that it'll be very similar per but since it's a daytime, we're hoping to create programs that will encourage more families to come as well.

All right. Well, if we know there's going be an older demographic, maybe as we contemplate kind of corresponding opportunities, advertisements of downtown, we take into consideration what the demographic is and tailor the ancillary opportunities to sharing with that demographic the opportunities that exist downtown and what they might enjoy. If it's wine, then we've got the vintage on Harrison as an example and different things like that. So different things. So let's go to Commissioner Quintana.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to share my experience when I was there on Saturday. First of all, I haven't seen my husband that excited about singing live music since we moved to Florida twenty five years ago. He's a musician himself, and he was so very impressed with the quality of the performance. I mean, every time we've been down there, since Rhythm Foundation has been bringing acts, we've been very impressed.

All really great programs. And maybe because I'm an older demographic, but I didn't think it was really like that old. And one of the things my husband commented on was how wonderful it was that people brought children. Because otherwise, children might never be exposed to that kind of music. And to just see live music that's actually being played by people who have mastered their instrument is a special thing these days.

And then, to have I saw people of all ages there, but it was just such a great vibe. And then, the Dillard Center for the Arts Jazz Group. I mean, those kids, sophomores and juniors, totally blew everybody out. I mean, we were all so impressed. Amazing performances by local young people. I just and it was such a great feeling among the crowd. People were very friendly. And it's just like, I'm very excited about the jazz festival coming. I'm sorry, you called it the Jazz Picnic, was it?

That's correct, yes.

Yes. So looking forward to all the creative ideas that you guys have to really make sure that we involve the surrounding business community in this event. So just wanted to share that.

And thank you so much for joining us on Friday. Dillard is also slated to perform at the tree lighting ceremony as well.

So that should be really fun.

All right. Great segue to Vice Mayor Coleri. She's all about the tree lighting.

Yeah. Just out of curiosity, you said that you would, the timeframe would be closing early. Like what exactly timeframe is that?

Or for Saturday? So it'll run, the show is slated to run from two till 8PM.

So we talk about performances and how it benefits the downtown as well, brings up foot traffic in. So just out of thought, and you said you have Dillard Bands, and I know that probably the performers that are at the Jazz Festival are in high demand and costs. But perhaps coordinating with the Downtown Business Association, you could do jazz in the street that follows after the concert. And there could be performers in the street. And that way, it encourages that foot traffic to bleed into the downtown after dinner drinks and listen to some jazz so that many want to continue the excitement.

So jazz in the street, I think, would be something really exciting for the Downtown Business Association. So I don't know how we would coordinate that with the Rhythm Foundation just to kind of give them names or work together with them to promote that so that it just is a win win for everyone. Think it would be great.

That's fantastic idea. And I would love to be connected with them. And we have an associate producer that we've brought on to really help us with this. And they're the one that's out there pounding the pavement with those downtown Hollywood. Perfect. Fantastic. That's a great idea.

All right. Let's go to Commissioner Gruber. And at some point, let's make a motion to approve.

Thank you. And I reached out to James yesterday. Appreciate you talking to me. And I also I had reached out to Mark Rowe yesterday as well because I knew that we had done the jazz on Saturday night. And I'm all about activating the park. But one of the things I want to do, especially when we're using taxpayer dollars to up for our own shows, is make sure that there's an economic impact on the businesses downtown. And Marco did tell me there really wasn't much impact. It was a slow night. And James, you and I had a good conversation about it. And you told me what would be different with this jazz festival, the way you're going about it, engaging the business on a national scale, and that the music is is a little bit more mainstream, that type of thing.

So and everything you said, I I I appreciated it, you know, and I and I support it. So I appreciate that. Just to to go over Friday night and Saturday night. So Friday night so for our $250,000 does that include everything Friday night? Our tree lighting, our music? Is that maybe a Ricky question? Like, so

I mean, that's not the entire tree lighting event. But it is the music portion that will begin at, I think, 8PM. Right, Rick?

Mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, city manager, city attorney, Rick Engle, Parks and Recreation Cultural Arts director. Yes, Friday night, the music for the tree lighting will start around 08:00. We have Santa in the Park and Lighting of the Tree Pryor. The jazz musicians will be playing some Christmas music, holiday music, to tie into the tree lighting event. But the only portion GREEN: coming out of this funding is the band portion. The rest of it, the other funding from the city will handle the rest of the tree lighting event.

We're just doing the same things last year, the snow

and

all Similar, that yeah.

A lot of the similar things with the snow and, you know, the bounce houses. The the sledding. Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That was very, very popular. So yeah.

And I

think I choked on a lot of that snow. Right? Yeah. Well, I do like it. I like the effect.

Artificial snow has definitely gone into people's throats and kind of made them cough. So you might want to reconsider what you do.

Is that the

Soapy snow? Snow machine?

The soapy snow that was up on the plaza. Yeah, we were talking MACHT: more about the sleigh riding stuff.

Sleigh riding, yeah.

Let's keep If that's a problem, we can eliminate the snow slow the soap snow.

So I just as someone who does shows, not as much as I'd like to these days because I'm busy with this the the $250,000 budget, I mean, I I expect some major talent on Saturday, like, that that would that would normally fill up 5,000 seats when you're selling tickets. Like, like, that's the type of money you spend for someone. So I'm leaving it to you guys. You know, I trust you guys and all that you've done and will do. So looking forward to it. And that's a motion to approve. Just we

have a motion to approve. But just a quick note, I know we designated a cap of $250,000 but it doesn't mean that we need to spend it all if because those dollars can go towards future concerts as well. So Ricky, it seems like you

want JACK to mention

just want to clarify on the budget. Dollars 200,000 was approved by the commission from the city. We're anticipating receiving the other $50,000 from a grant. We also applied for two other grants, one that we did not receive and another one that's pending. But we anticipate having at least $50,000 from grants, which makes up to 250,000.

Alright. Well, the resolution is an amount up to, and so we'll leave you, Ricky, to the being a good steward of grants and to with the foundation for being good stewards of the continuing relationship with the Arts Park to, be as efficient as we can with every dollar as if it's your own, because it's all of ours collective dollars to use throughout the year. Commissioner Hernandez.

Thank you, mayor. As I tell my friends, we're not always going to agree. I cannot and wholeheartedly vote for this. The amount of money that we're spending in, quite frankly, you can't business. I appreciate that when you actually said that you have people come in the park and have their cheese and have their wine. Well, we have ordinances that people are not supposed to be bringing alcohol into park. Whenever we have other events, we actually check their bags to make sure that they don't bring any coolers or anything like that. Yes, we're tolerating this here. We're competing. Now you want to do picnics.

We're competing with the brick and mortar restaurants that we have in the downtown. Why are we doing this? Why are we doing this? Ladies and gentlemen, with all due respect, we spend millions of dollars to bring people to the downtown. Yet, we pay other entities to rob those brick and mortar businesses that we expect survival to come and do these things. And we do it time and time again. I respectfully disagree. I'm listening to the business people that are actually in the downtown and see that this happened. By their own admission, they brought in 900 to a thousand people to a venue. That's okay.

We have other venues that brings thousands of people. They grovel to get $25,000 from Parks and Recs to be able to do those events. They get sponsors from other people to do those events. I'm not going to belabor this. I'm just not going to vote for it because the businesses that I represent in the downtown area do not support the event because this is counterproductive for what we've been trying to do for years and we spend millions of dollars doing it. I get it that it may be very nice and everything and it's enjoyable by some. I don't take that away from them. But we're hurting our downtown businesses. So there's no way that I can support that.

I just want to, I completely respect your, you know, statement. I just want to make sure that it's clear that I believe that the idea behind this picnic concept is to engage the downtown businesses to provide this. And to have them be the ones that are charging for it and reaping the benefit of providing it.

I heard what they said. And they said local businesses. They didn't say downtown businesses. And we just got an email from one of the downtown businesses. They have not been addressed when it comes to these things. I get what the concept may be. But it's already happening where people are bringing wine and cheese and what have you. And then we have people from the Downtown Business Association and from the Downtown Businesses themselves saying that these events don't bring anyone to the area. And I can see the local residents coming by with their picnic baskets and their bottles of wine and their cheese actually coming to lay on the lawn and listen to a great jazz festival. There's nothing wrong with that.

If that's what we're doing, that's peachy king and hunky dory. But should we be spending $250,000 or $200,000 in order to get this done when we have other events? They only require $25,000 from us and they got to gravel from everything else and pay for police and what have you. And when they cannot bring alcohol into the park and they bring thousands of people into the neighborhood. This is what we're comparing and seeing and what you were alluding to Commissioner Gruber is, what are we getting for our dollar?

I don't begrudge the event. God bless you. But I think that we can spend our money wiser when it comes to bringing people to the downtown, if that's what we want. If we want to have a special jazz festival, which is a great event for some, so be it. But I'm looking for my I'm looking after my business residents.

Thank you, Commissioner Ernesto.

Thank you.

Commissioner Schuham, then Biederman.

Yes, I support this. I think that it's not cheap, but it's the beginning of something very large. And we already are moving towards national recognition, which we don't have on our typical concerts. The one thing I would ask, really, of Rick is to get with Jennifer Homan. When we first talked about this with Claire and Terry, we talked about also activating other venues in the city.

Not that the Rhythm Foundation has to oversee it. But certainly at Cinema Paradiso, we could have documentaries of jazz musicians. At the Performing Arts Center, we could have some more local jazz events happening simultaneously or through the rest of the weekend. So I just want to make sure that we are taking advantage of this opportunity to also engage the Art and Culture Center. So thank you. And I did second the motion.

All right. Commissioner Biederman. So pick and choose and, you know, like different things. I also had concerns about the activation of downtown. I mean, I love the idea if you're gonna include those businesses to provide picnic lunches, that's great. If you're going to bring it in from somewhere else where people are going to bring their own picnic basket and not support those businesses, that's not great. I do have a question, though. When is Art Walk that weekend? Is that Saturday night? Somebody?

Art Walk, Vicki?

Normally, Walk is the third Saturday of each month.

So it's to be that

same Yeah. And it was

So competing past with our own events also now. So I have some concerns about that. Somebody said it's two to 6PM. Somebody said it's two to 8PM. I'd like to know what it is. So

Friday night, the concert would start around 08:00. And on Saturday, it'll run from 2PM to 8PM.

Okay. Just wanted to clarify that.

The Art Walk would be sort of like an after party kind of opportunity to kind of help tell people leaving the Jazz Fest, Art Walk continues till 10PM, scroll your way over to downtown?

Well, the one thing to bring up with the Art Walk is the Art Walk current contract expires the end of September. We're in the process of preparing an RFP. So we're going back out. So depending on how that RFP and how that changed, we may change the date. We have to see what we get when we come back out. The

idea JASS WALKER: at this

The idea that was brought up about jazz after GREEN: downtown, I think we can make that

I love that idea. GREEN: Strolling jazz musicians, even if it's the kids from Dillard. You know, I think that would be great. And then that would bring those same jazz lovers into downtown to go to the restaurants and spend money because that's what this is all about. And maybe even have like the jazz musicians a week or two ahead of time on a Saturday night or Friday night strolling in downtown to bring some life and some exposure to what's gonna happen. You had mentioned that you are going to set up meetings with us.

Yes, sir.

I think the time to set up those meetings were prior to tonight so that this wouldn't have been such a heavy discussion because I can't support this. I mean, up to today, I couldn't support it. Hearing how we're going to include those businesses in downtown kind of makes it more palatable. Dollars 2 and 50,000 is a lot of money. 200,000. I mean, in my notes, I had what's the county contributing? We talked about cultural arts division in the county should be giving some money. We talked about the TDC should be giving some money. I think those are all important factors before we approve $250,000

So if I may, the $50,000 grant, the county offers up to $50,000 grant. We feel we have a good shot at that, but application goes in June. So that's where we're on. Yeah. We won't go until after.

So what happens if we don't get the 50,000? Do we cut their budget by 50,000?

If we don't get the 50,000 in the grants, then our budget is 200,000. That's what the

city's And we could portion still make it work for that?

This project is new. And we are working at reverse engineering, if you would. So we haven't made commitments until we have commitments, in terms of signing commitments, right? The budget is something that we have to control based on what we work with.

So what happens if we only have 200? Or what happens if we cut it We to 150?

Won't be spending money we don't have.

GREGORY But what happens to the draw? I mean, already have I'm sure you have a list of musicians that you're trying to lock in dates, what their costs are. So let's say it's only $150,000 What has to be cut if we cut that $50,000 Is that extra advertising? Is that extra talent? I mean, where is this $250,000 being spent?

So let's say the instance that it does get cut down to $150,000 for whatever reason. What that means in practical terms would mean less artists because that's driving the bulk of the budget. And then less ancillary activations at the event, and then less marketing. That's basically where the money would come up.

And how much of this $2.50 is the overhead or profit margin MARTINEZ: of the Rhythm Foundation?

Less than 10%.

Okay. I'm Okay with that. I have a question. So we're talking about activating the downtown. We're talking about historical stuff we've used to do to promote downtown.

City manager, at one time, Lisa's not here, But at one time, the city the CRA used to do like CRA tokens that were had a dollar amount value to them that people would get at the Jazz Fest or at other events that they would be able to go into a restaurant or participate in a restaurant downtown and use that kind of as a coupon that the city would re or the CRA would reimburse the business for in order to encourage people to go in. Is that something that we can do especially for just this weekend, make it time sensitive that they could use it that night or within thirty days or something like that?

So I mean, I recall that time frame. And that was a way to drive business into the downtown. And I think we did it with parking. And we did it with some other things. So I think we can look at those kinds of opportunities.

I know that there's already been some discussion about offering coupons for a two for one drink or free dessert, free entree, those kinds of things. I understand that the businesses don't necessarily want to bear that expense. They would like to figure out a way for some help in incentivizing that. And we can explore that. I think we need to make sure that it's kosher with the regulations governing how CRA funds are allowed to be used. And we can take a look at those kinds of opportunities.

Well, maybe economic development has some funds that we could use for that, too. Because for $200,000 or $250,000 it takes like pulling fingernails out in order for us to give the salsa fest more money, which brings in 5,000 people. Or St. Patrick's Day to give the Iberians money to promote that or to promote FIFA or whatever it is. But yet, we're going to like easily hand over $250,000 to bring in some jazz musicians that is a very small segment of our population also.

I mean, jazz listeners. I mean, everybody has their own taste of what music they listen to. And as Commissioner Hernandez said, it's a much older demographic that might not spend that much money in downtown that listen to jazz. I need

to say nothing about age.

Takes one to know one, right?

He said peachy keen and hunky dory to everybody who's running ahead of the jazz at the park.

And I'm going to throw this out there that I think that if we did an '80s or a '90s retro event in downtown, that would bring out a different demographic that might spend more money in downtown. And it would fill the restaurants probably, too. So I'd love to hear something about that. And back to the meeting with us should have been done earlier I look forward to seeing what we're going to do and how it's going to make things better. But this is kind of like a one shot deal, in my opinion.

I won't be here for the next vote on this. But I'll be out there talking about it like some of the other people. If this fails or this doesn't bring in the amount of people or it doesn't bring in the amount of money to our restaurants, it's not happening again. I mean, I don't think anyway. And it might jeopardize the other concerts that Rhythm Foundation does. I mean, that's just a shot over the bow kind

of thing.

God, Kevin. Listen, we love the Rhythm Foundation. They've been putting on amazing shows for like more than ten years here.

I agree.

And they do some

good shows.

It's been superstar work. Yeah.

And I know you know you I know

And it's a lot of people. I agree that we're putting in way more All due respect. We're putting in way more dollars to this. And obviously, we're a little apprehensive about putting that much into one event. I think, originally, James, you yourself had a reaction that said, hey, wait a second.

If we're going to enter into this management agreement for the stage, maybe those dollars would be wise to invest throughout the year. And let's have the jazz test concert and kinda see where it goes there. And I know the momentum has been building with people that are impassioned about the jazz festival. But what the commissioners here are saying about investing this much money in this genre in one event, let's just say nothing really against the genre where some of us are a little apprehensive about. So maybe I know that you obviously are ready to produce this. But if you can give an honest figure, putting aside everybody that is dying to have this and those that are apprehensive, I mean

I have another question.

We're to look to you to give us we're looking to you to manage the amphitheater and to give us good advice and to do things. And so are we in the right direction here? Or would you say, gee, these guys, let's have two events with these dollars, three events with these dollars, and over months, as opposed to one Saturday? To me

No, exactly. And I think you're right here, because this is a new day in the Arts Park. This is a new time. We have the gates are up. So this is going to be a free but gated event. We are going to control how people come in. And we're putting effort into the seating and the arrangement. And there will be infrastructure spend that will be reused in other parts of the season. So in a sense, we're launching the new Arts Park with this event. This is a gate opener, if you will, of the gates that we now have.

So we see this as something that is actually good with the market right now. We see a resurgence of interest in jazz. We think we can do something different than other people have in other communities. It's going to stand out. It's going to be a national event. And it's going to give us a good impetus to move forward into the season ahead. Because we're essentially developing a new gated, ticketed facility in South Florida. And it's a long road we're going into. We know it's a multi year effort to build this into where we see it going. But this is a great way to really open the door.

We think it is a fit, multigenerational fit. We think it is something that's going to get recognized critically and popular in a popular way. And we think it is going to have we're going to take particular interest in connecting to the business community. That's built right into the plan here. We're stopping at 08:00. We want you to go right into the historic district and have dinner. We're not serving dinner. We're serving picnics here. So this is a calculated project to kick off the new era in the Arts Park.

So two things, mayor, real quick. Number one, maybe we should wait on this till they have more solid agreements with our restaurants that are going to do something and provide those picnic lunches available.

And they have to book the talent ahead of time.

And there's time. Two more questions. One is, how much did Saturday night cost us for the 1,000 people that showed up?

That was the budget for that was $50,000

Okay. I wasn't expecting that answer, but I thought it was going be a lot less. And then finally, the other question was, I remember we had Expose here. Was that Rhythm Foundation that did that? Or was that another group that did that? It was a long time ago, Rick. Expose? Way before your time.

I don't remember that. Yes.

They were

at the arts. I think they were one of the first shows that opened at the new theater, right? Or were they the last one at

the More old than ten years ago.

That was probably before our time.

No. No. It was since I've been

involved. Fifteen

years ago?

I was trying to remember if it was when the Arts Park Amphitheater was dedicated or

Expose everybody. Can you hear it? All right.

Or if it was for the city's ninetieth, but I think it was for the Arts Park Amphitheater dedication.

All right.

All

right, I'm fine.

Thank you. Thank you.

And if I may, we fully recognize and respect the concerns that Commissioner Hernandez and Biederman have brought forth. This is big investment and as commissioners, fiscal stewardship of public dollars are our main concern of this board. And so I completely appreciate and respect that concern. And I'm going to focus on using, there are some really interesting data systems that are available to be able to track. It's going to basically track people's movements into and out of Arts Park And it will tell us specifically where did they come from and where did they go afterwards.

I'm sorry. I was looking up history there. Obsessed.

So I remember when Commissioner Shuhan brought this up and Claire in regards to it. And my suggestion was start small and go big. I've suggested many times to have jazz in the park, meaning our small parks throughout the entire city, just to create that synergy and then bring it to the forefront. But we also have to remember that everyone has different genre likes. And we're such a culturally diverse city.

Young, old, rock, you name it, whatever we have, we're just very diverse. I would like to know how many of those residents of Hollywood attended the jazz festival that you had put on the other week, which we can't track now, because it's something in hindsight.

Maybe they did track it.

Did you?

No, we did not use that particular system that I described.

So here is a couple of my concerns. I actually am in favor of this, surprisingly, because you have to start somewhere. And new brings new to the like, if we don't try it, we'll never know. Although the funding is really, I guess, the biggest concern. And that was my concern that I brought up the last time we talked about this. But we have to be visionaries. And we have to say, this was something that was very promotional back in the day, and we're bringing it back. We just had our historical preservation board showing us. We talked about history. It's important.

Commissioner Quintana mentioned about bringing children so that they can be exposed. Dillard High School being there, on and on and on. My couple of requests are, one, Commissioner Shand brought up Cultural Arts Center and the Downtown Businesses. Before I could approve this, and I don't know if we have to put it in the motion to approve, but one, very important that you reach out to the Downtown Business Associations to create that connectivity, whatever it may be. From my understanding, the downtown was the slowest it was in Saturday nights that it's been for a long time.

Why is that? The only thing I could think of is that the parking was taken up to attend the events, perhaps. And then everyone left after the concert was over. What time did it end at? 11:10 or eleven By then, you're ready to go home.

And so that synergy did not create. And then it ultimately affected the downtown because people probably couldn't find parking and they went somewhere else. And that's just my analogy of it. So what I think would make this definitely a bang for our buck is the coordination with the downtown business associations. They are in cultural center, creating even with having detail, I'm thinking of detail and policing, because this is the biggest concern that we hear is if we have a crowd, have to provide safety.

That's a cost. But making sure that we have that adequate safety net that's there, that has to be worked out. And that should circumference the entire amount of money that we're investing. In addition to that, I think promoting the downtown some way. I don't know if the picnic thing is really the way to go, although I'm not a vendor of that sort.

I just think that puts a little bit more taxing problems on the businesses. They'll sit down, come into the restaurant and have dinner, not pack up a lunch and send it to the park. I think that's going to be very, very challenging. Perhaps booths, maybe, that they can set up downtown at the concert itself. But really and truly, if we don't start somewhere, and my idea was not incorporated, so here we are today with having a jazz festival at the Arts Park.

Again, it is something creative. It's something bringing back from the past. And it could be a win win for everyone. As long as that communication is open and we have the ability to know that they're involved and that we can create some type of connectivity from the Arts Park to the downtown. Because that's the whole purpose of doing all of these, correct?

So I don't know. Can we amend the motion to include the downtown and the art and cultural center to be involved, and also to make sure that the coverage of funding is not just for the performers, but for the bleed into the downtown of security purposes? I don't know. Anybody can answer that, if I could do that? Or could it be solely rectified under your permission of city manager?

I think we have heard the direction from the commission that you want very much to make sure that the downtown businesses are engaged in this, that the art and culture center is engaged in this, and that staff administer the event in that way to make sure that we are doing that. So I think that certainly we will count on the Rhythm Foundation to work with us on that. And we will be limiting the outside involvement of other vendors that are not downtown. I think that that is appropriate as it relates to this. But I don't think that we need you to work that into the motion.

Does that make sense?

Yeah. I think the 50,000 that we're getting from the county, if we were to get that, is acceptable. I just am concerned about the amount of money that's being spent. That really is a concern as far as what benefits are we going to reap from it. But I understand the want and the desire. I just don't know if the pull is worth.

I'll just say that while Joanne is here with C Med, since this would be a big investment on part of the city, we have to make sure to help promote it and maybe even put some outdoor banners and kind of really promote the jazz for the whole month of November leading up to this to kind of put some pole banners up in and around the downtown with a saxophone and kind of whatever the brand design of the jazz festival. If what we're seeing on this graphic is the design, we can bring this to the outdoor spaces and banners and what have you and kind of help pump it up, give businesses a flyer or an 18 by 12 kind of poster to put at the front of their business. And really, for the whole month of November, plaster all of downtown with jazz jazz. And to everybody's point, try to make it something that could be recurring and regionally and even, let's just say, nationally recognized that would be worthy of the investment of trying to make it happen and hopefully get that return to businesses and to the community. All right.

We've got Commissioners Hernandez, Quintana, and Gruber. And then hopefully we'll take a vote. Go ahead, Commissioner Hernandez.

Thank you, mayor. If we invest this kind of money into the sports tourism for the upcoming events that are taking place, we will have a 100 times the amount of attendance and we're not doing it. Come on people, let's realize this, that we are our own worst enemy when it comes to the downtown. I can't say it enough, okay. So, and I just, and I believe everything that we're doing, we're doing for the right reasons.

So I'm going to make a motion to amend this motion to make sure that they have street performance in the middle of the downtown. But street corner performance in the middle of the downtown. And no picnic and no alcohol in the park. This is how they disguise bringing in their wine and their cheese from home. They ain't buying that because there ain't no businesses in downtown that is going to be making picnic baskets.

This is a story that they want to sell and I'm not buying it. But in order for that to take place, need somebody to second my motion. Oh, yeah. If they want to sell alcohol, then they can sell alcohol. But we make sure that we have police on the gates make sure that there's no You outside alcohol coming support that? I'm good with that. Because at the end of the day, we're not spending the money we're spending in the downtown to allow for this to happen right under our eyes. And then they come in front of us, and no disrespect. But our businesses need to survive.

We're the ones who pushed it and asked them to do it.

DANIEL Hang on. But I

was think there's a cost

share on it that the city gets, right?

DANIEL MARTINEZ: do sell alcohol. And we would have concessions on the event. And then the revenue share portion of the Hollywood Arts Park is off of ticket sales, where the city gets a surcharge off of everything.

And this is a free event.

And this was a

Yeah. So I think that the has

to include the city gets a portion GREENE: of the alcohol sales.

I

wanted to add something, though, Commissioner Hernandez, along the lines of what you were thinking. Because it's true, when it's an ungated event, people bring in whatever they want.

We have police officers for that. We managed to do it in other events, where we actually have officers on the gate and anybody

Right. That wants So now we're talking about a gated event, which has a food and beverage program as a main core of its component.

Not according to emotion, sir. I'm eliminating that. And that's part of

what doing. We're talking about not bringing in from the outside. Everything that you work with here will be either pre ordered and ready for you at the event, or we'll have packaged things that will be there inside the event, but not bringing in from public.

With all due respect, with all due respect, you're asking us to pay you to compete with our own restaurants in the downtown.

No, we're doing that in conjunction with the restaurants here. And the difference is, excuse me, the are not really

It is my time.

Let the commissioner move forward.

It is my time. I get what you're trying to say. I haven't heard that you got a commitment from any of the restaurants in the downtown to prepare those picnic baskets. You may very well have local businesses preparing those baskets. And that's great for Hollywood. But if we spend $200,000 and we give $200,000 to the businesses in the downtown without having any events.

We want downtown.

Let me finish. If we just give out the money, just like we were giving them out to you. Let's say, hey, you know downtown businesses, here's $200,000 Fill the downtown with people. I'm willing to bet you that we will fill that park. We will be able to do other things for the residents of the City Of Hollywood to do it.

There's a value to what you're doing. I just don't believe that $200,000 is that value when we're actually encouraging you to compete with the brick and mortar restaurants in the downtown. You're telling me that those people are going to be able to pre order those picnic baskets and then you're going to be provided because you're going to have them there. Sir, unless you tell me you're buying it from any of the restaurants in the downtown, you're competing with those people. That's not the purpose of my spending the money

for And we

That's feel all I see. So you will have the time to respond to me. Just like I sat here patiently and I waited for all my colleagues talk. I represent the businesses in the downtown. And I respect my colleagues that feel otherwise. I don't have a problem with that. But we also have, and I'm looking at the city manager with this in our parks and recs. We also have other events in the downtown. They come to us and gravel to us for money. And they bring thousands and thousands of people to the downtown.

They spend a great deal of money to support those businesses in the downtown. What message are we sending to our downtown businesses when we allow something like this to happen that brings nothing to the downtown except a good experience for some? And the businesses that are there are suffering. I'm not the one just saying that. There's an email that says that. Some of my colleagues have brought that to the attention. I'm sorry? Well, know, but my point is this is something that we need to bring under control. I voted for you guys, by the way. I don't have a problem with that.

But when I see that it's counterproductive to what we've been trying to do for years with the downtown businesses, you need to adjust your program. Because we're paying you to do this. So when you say that you're going to have picnic baskets, no. I have a motion and I got a second to eliminate that. Because I don't want you to have those picnic baskets. Because that takes food away from those restaurants. Unless you say, we're going to have a contract with those restaurants, they're going to provide that. That's not what he's saying. With all due respect Which is what I'm lowering my ears.

We're ready to say that, sir. We only want businesses from downtown. We haven't secured them and solicited them as yet. Are working closely with the Downtown Business Association in the city to Okay, identify those

postpone this. We've got time between now and November. You have time,

we have time to do it.

Okay, let's postpone this. And you come with the businesses in the downtown that you're going to use for this. And I will support it 100%. And you do that, this is just a story that I would just quite frankly don't believe. I don't know many other businesses in downtown that will create those business baskets. So, with all due respect, we have a motion

to continue I just want to add one thing. No, no. In the past, we have if

you could just hang

on. Sorry.

We have a motion to continue from Commissioner Hernandez. Is there a second on that right now?

I'll second it for discussion.

Okay. We have a motion to continue the item. But let's continue discussion.

I like look, if you're going to do this, you will prove me wrong and I will be the first one to say, I'm wrong. I made a mistake. It's a great event. But until that happens, the experiences that we have had in the past that we have your event competing with the downtown businesses. I don't want to see that. You want us to continue to bring up the Jazz Festival. We want to be part of it. I like the street vendor idea. I like all those other things. Sit with the business owners. Have a plan and come back to us so they can support it. And this way I can support it. Otherwise, I cannot. Because it was brought to the attention that some of the businesses this last Friday or Saturday was some of the worst weekend they had. Yet, we had an event where you had a thousand people.

So, if the people that are coming are not local people and they're coming from somewhere else, they got to park somewhere. Now we're competing for parking spot. Let's all work together. We have the ability to do it. We seem to have the money. We seem to be able to have the grant from there. So I like to postpone this for two weeks if possible so that we can come back. Can we do the time certain?

So if we do continue the item, we would need to choose a time certain.

Okay.

Two weeks from now, would that be all right?

It's not a cause of judicial hearing or like

Yeah, know.

Have an idea.

Go ahead, I'd like to

hear your idea. We already had discussion on it. Well, they I would support, we already had discussion on it. I would support approving this today.

I can't

Based do on discussion, parliamentary procedure, you could reconsider your vote in two weeks at the next meeting, providing that they don't deliver on securing deals with downtown. I prefer that they I would support reconsideration.

No, no, no, I understand that. But in two weeks, then we're going to have all this thing again. I would just rather postpone this, have them talk to the businesses in the downtown, come back to us with a plan, and have their businesses in downtown says, you know what? They've committed to this. And let's do that. Because this way, the businesses in the downtown will feel that they're part of this.

Peter, I think you made your point well loud and clear. We understand it. There is a motion to continue on the floor. It's being discussed right now. And so why don't we go ahead and run through the queue?

And then hopefully we'll take care of the item. I don't think that the issue on continuance is that much of a problem if it has staff and really the foundation come back with a plan after they've met with the business association, got some businesses to be on board, maybe better explain to us how the picnic basket works with procuring the let's just call it the picnic items from the downtown businesses, who is gonna package it, maybe their vendor in the park, not expecting the businesses to put picnic baskets together. So everybody does what they're good at, which is one cooks food, the other one puts it in a package, situates it at the park, give us an impression about what the investment you wanna make in the park is to kind of show us how the money is being well invested in a new novel way to use the new and improved Arts Park area with the with the fence and what have you. And so I think it could be you could impress us more, but right now, realize the ask, and it's not your fault because we, on a whim, said, hey, let's approve $200,000 for a jazz festival, and we asked you to do that.

And you guys are saying, okay, well, I can do it. So I I guess we're second guessing ourselves, some of us a little bit on the dollar figure because it is more than we've ever spent on a free show. And so maybe even when you look at this, you say, well, gee whiz, city city Hollywood, we we can do this with a 150 and I'll be happy and have the same impact. And let's reserve the extra 50,000 for, another jazz or another music festival in December or in January or whatever. So we don't have to blow it all on Saturday just because we gave you a budget.

Maybe you can say, we don't need to put it all on Saturday because we're all here to work and promote events throughout the year, not just this one day. It's not a goodbye Rhythm Foundation one time. Let's spend it all on one day and keep it, and that's it. So I'm Okay with the continuance and then coming back, being developed a little further and presented with a little more detail, if that makes the commissioners feel better about it. Let's go to Commissioner Quintana, then Gruber, then Caleri.

Thank you, Mary. Yeah. So I certainly am in agreement of giving it more time to give it a little bit more concreteness. When I was there on Saturday, both James and Adam were talking to me about exactly what you all are asking for. They had told me about working with the downtown businesses and having them be the one who provide the food.

They talked to me about involving the art and culture center. Like, it sounded like that was already part of their thought. The thing they said is they didn't want to move forward with that until they knew that we were all right with them doing that. Like, that's why they hadn't reached out yet to try to work something out with the downtown businesses. Because they wanted to get past today before they went and did that kind of work.

So just assuming goodwill, I'm going to assume that. And I guess I just want us to consider that it is a startup venture that could potentially bring people from all over the country to come here. And you're absolutely right about, you know, each, there's different people with different preferences in music. And maybe some of you are not jazz fans, but there are, I mean, there is a market nationally for something like that, if I may just say. And my, so my experience is that eighty's music is plentiful in South Florida.

That often the concerts that come here from other parts of the world is from the eighty's and the ninety's. And that this is something different and unusual that we usually don't get here. And so, it would be a way to offer something that's unique. So, for me, it just seems like it depends, right? So, like, yeah, 50,000 for Saturday, but that's because you may not have ever heard of Joe Lovano.

But Joe Lovano has, he's Grammy winning saxophonist. He's won a Grammy in 14 nominations. He's taught jazz. I mean, since the 1970s, that guy has released 40 albums So as a jazz it's not like Joe Schmo from down the street who's local. This is a big name nationally, internationally known performer.

So what I'm saying is, we could be attracting people from outside the area for this event. It was a one time event to see whether that just they didn't do the kind of promotion that will be done for the jazz festival for this, for the jazz picnic or whatever it ends up being. So I just would like for us to consider that and to not necessarily assume ill will. And it's just communicating what we want.

Thank you. Let's go to Commissioner Gruber.

Yeah, thank You know, I I did reach out to James yesterday just because I was concerned about this. And I definitely made my opinion known that with especially with this, but even the other shows that we need major economic impact on the downtown businesses. And I and and James and I were on the same page. So that's why I was comfortable today going forward. With regards to the street performers, listen, the goal of what we want to do when we bring people to Arts Park is then bring those boots into downtown. What's that? That's the goal. Right. So knowing that we have Art Walk on the same night, usually that's from six to ten, I would suggest I mean,

the street performers are good,

but maybe in that budget that we're giving you, we do one of the semi headliners in that time frame that's after the festival. So that brings those boots. Somebody says, hey. Here's whatever band. You know? That that and and and some of that budget goes to that. And that means they have to walk through downtown. And even if they weren't gonna do anything, they may get an ice cream at one of our places. They'll see what's going on. So I think when I first heard that was gonna be the same night, I thought that was one of the dumbest things I ever heard. But now that I've processed it, I think, you know, we can we can use it to our advantage. So I I would like that if we go forward with this, and I and I'd like to go forward with this, that that stage, which is going to be there anyway, is activated with one of the talents that we're purchasing in that budget.

20th Street.

Yep. And that brings those people right through downtown. We're putting it on 19th still, Art Block? Is that?

Right? It's in the downtown on 19th. I thought it was on 20th.

I missed it the last couple of days, but now it's facing south, the stage, right, on 19th. It's no longer at the end of Harrison Street.

It's about Morningstar's.

Right. Right. Right. So, yeah. So I would suggest that. Just, you know, I want to micromanage your production, but I think that's a way to bring them through. And it was very clear when we were on the phone that whatever food program you and I agree with you. These brick and mortar restaurants aren't set up to be vendors at festivals. So you can't ask them to do that. But you had said you had an idea that you would create something that people are ordering and whatever. So again, as long as we're on the same page that you say, hey, we've engaged with these downtown restaurants and using them and we do it that way, again, I'm in favor of this.

Aren't you Okay with continuing it for the

We can bring it back in two weeks. But I can just tell you that that's probably we're going to need to make a decision then, because they get a good talent already. Half of them are probably gone. You had to book them a year in advance, usually.

Vice Mayor Caleri?

Curiosity, why are we not charging? Since we put the gate, the whole understanding is that once we put up the fence

GREGORY Oh, go ahead. Easier ticketing. GREGORY

we would be able to start ticketing. And if these are world renowned and people from all over the nation are going to come to hear jazz, why wouldn't they pay? I pay money to go to the Hard Rock to listen to a band that's not even as well renowned as you're stating. So why wouldn't we charge for this?

So Vice Mayor, the reason that this event is coming forward about a little over a year ago, the commission directed us to put together a free jazz festival. And we set the budget at that time at $200,000 to

do So well, ask James if he thinks he can charge a ticket cover here.

That's why it was a

free But free? When you say free for the public, this isn't free. This is $100

No, but we were told to do it as a free event to the public, not

I don't remember that Thank you. James, I'd like your opinion on the ticketing, on if ticketing this makes sense, and if that's secure, it's just enough, you know, the same.

JOSHUA We want to preregister. We do want people to register to come in to the park that day. We want to know they're coming. We will not charge them to come in. We have an area where you could be general admission. But we want them to engage in the hospitality amenities of the event. And that's really the mission here. Ticket is not A culinary component to a music festival. So how do you do that? You do that through a pre ordering of the food will not be free. But we're not making money on it. It's just going to be a pass through to the restaurants that provide the food.

I think that we're setting a very challenging precedent. Because if one venue is going to charge for food and so forth, we're going have to continue that. I don't think that that's the proper I mean, personally, I think my understanding when we put the fence because I was against the fence because it is a public park. So now we're blocking it and we're charging for events. And I understood that it was a revenue generating type of service.

And that's why we had to have the fence. If we have the fence, we charge for the concert. That covers the costs of the bands that are coming in. And then there's other ways to go about bringing that foot traffic in, which I still think needs to be promoted. But to lay out that amount of money to bring a free and I don't remember a free festival. But I could be completely wrong. And please forgive me for not remembering that. But a free festival at this amount I know that I spoke about it, that it was very large. I think it was $350,000 was the original ask. But I think we need to charge.

If we have the fence, we have to start somewhere. And this is the way we start. And then that way, it covers the costs, and not on the Cindy. And this way, we can bleed it into the downtown and promotionize it.

This is the challenge that we're working with. And we're trying to find a way to use the park in an upgraded amenity sense. So you will have a pre reserved plan what you're going to do when you come in. You're going to have an area that's a side to side for you with a picnic blanket. You're going to have a program of food and beverage that goes with that. And so to come up with that amenity, yet doing it as a free show, is the challenge that we've been faced with. So we were tasked with a free show. And that's how we're coming up with the idea. And we have different tiers that we're looking at. Some of it just seated, not necessarily a picnic area.

We also intend to bring in some folding chairs to the area and use it as a seated venue, as well. Because this music doesn't lend itself to sitting and listening. It's not the standing and dancing type of show. So we're looking to upgrade that level of service in the park. So we welcome the opportunity to have these discussions, and come back, hospitality amenity plans in more detail. Because we didn't come prepared for that today. But we can do that. And we have to do that. That's the work we have to do. That's the challenge of working with the park now as a gated facility. Yet, we were told this is a free event. So that's how we're approaching it.

So if we didn't tell you this would be a free event, do you feel like this is an event that's appropriate to charge a ticket for? Is that maybe when you come back in two weeks, you can tell us if you've looked at an alternative direction for the event that it could be if it were to be ticketed, and if that's a successful direction, if that's what you prefer, and propose something different than the picnic idea, then by all means, propose it. Don't want to tie your hands because you all are the producers that are going to be evaluated on the success of the event. And if we've given you parameters that you're trying to work with but you don't think are ideal, then I want to hear that. I don't want you to just do what we said because we thought it was a good idea.

JOSHUA In fact, we want to know who's coming. We want to be able to communicate with them in advance. Is it going to be a different way of using the park? Don't come with all of your packages and chairs and everything. We're going to be providing those things. So we do want a way to know who's coming and to engage them beforehand. So it's not just a walk up free event. So these are the challenges that we're

It seems beautiful, except that if we spend this much money and we don't have thousands of people, plural, which there won't be room if everybody's got a picnic blanket set up, then I'm afraid about how many people we'll be able to accommodate and not have room. And then we've spent $200,000 to have 400 people have a beautiful night. I don't know.

We're looking at all of the capacities in the different tiers that we can do. We think we can still do a great number of people in the thousands, for sure. And it's not going to be your highest capacity number ever, because that's a different type of setup. But we think this is where the arts park should be going now. As its gated venue, we want to be able to provide this higher level of experience and bring in these other genres that are more, I guess, more sophisticated.

I gotcha. All right. So we do have a motion to continue on the floor. June 3 and June 17 are our upcoming city commission meetings. Before I go to Commissioner Hernandez, city manager, is June 3 or seventeenth preferred by you? That's two weeks versus one month, Rhythm Foundation. What do you prefer? Happy to come back. May 3. Pick the date.

PRESENTER June 3.