Regular City Commission Meeting - Special Meeting

Thank you. Welcome, everyone. Welcome to City Hall here in the City of Hollywood. It is September 14th, 2026, just after 6 p.m. We're here for our first public budget hearing for the fiscal year 27 budget. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. I'm going to activate the microphones, and we'll go for roll call, Pat.

Ready? Commissioner Hernandez?

Here.

Vice Mayor Clary? Here. Commissioner Gruber?

Here.

Commissioner Biederman?

Here.

Commissioner Quintana?

Here.

Commissioner Shuham? Here. Mayor Levy?

Here. All right, thank you all so much. Well, thank you for the whole city administration team who's here. Thank you from members of the public who are here. City manager, happy to have your presentation for the budget recommendation. We've certainly had an opportunity to look through and looking forward to the presentation tonight.

Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, City Commissioners, and welcome to everyone who is here this evening for the City of Hollywood's first public budget hearing for fiscal year 2027. We, of course, appreciate everyone's participation as we come together to discuss and adopt our operating budget, as well as set the fire inspection and fire assessment fees for the coming year. It's my pleasure to introduce Deputy City Manager Adam Reichbach, who's played a key role in guiding this process. I would also like to recognize our dedicated budget team, Duncan, Nisha, Evelyn, Anjani, Bobby, Tyrone, and Lisette, whose hard work and expertise have been essential in preparing our budget proposal for the next year. Of course, as we get to this stage in the financial planning process, it does take a lot of thought and a lot of care over a period of months. In addition to the day-to-day work that is underway in the city's 20 different departments and offices, We've spent a lot of time over the past several months planning and looking ahead and asking, what can we do better? Where do we need more resources? And is there anything that we're currently doing that isn't working as well as we'd hoped? All of that has gone into our budget planning to create a proposed budget that seeks to address how we can best allocate our resources to ensure that Hollywood is a great place to live. the kind of city that delivers strong quality of life today and plans for an economically resilient and sustainable future. And with that, I'll turn it over to Adam.

Thank you, City Manager. Adam Reichbeck, Deputy City Manager. Today is the first public hearing of the 2027 budget. And I wanted to share that, as I shared during our Behind the Budget presentations that we've had over the last several weeks, the budget process is a process that spans the entire year. As soon as we adopt the budget for fiscal year 2027, we'll be starting the fiscal year 2028 budget process. And so today, we are here for the first of two public hearings Of course, that will culminate on September 23rd with the final adoption of the fiscal year 2027 budget. So following today's presentation, you're going to be asked to approve a series of resolutions setting the stage for services and projects for the upcoming fiscal year. As a reminder, the non-advalorem fire rescue assessment is proposed to be set at $364 per dwelling unit. That is an increase of $10 from fiscal year 2026. And this will fund approximately 97.5% of the total accessible costs of providing fire rescue services here in Hollywood. For commercial properties, the per square footage amount is $0.49, industrial $0.07, institutional $0.67, all per square foot. The non-advalorem fire inspection assessment per qualifying residential unit is $17. This remains flat from fiscal year 2026. And this also will fund approximately 97.5% of the total accessible cost of providing fire inspection services here in Hollywood. The non-residential rate is tiered, depending on the square footage of each of those commercial units. The total budget net of transfers for all city funds is $1 billion. This represents an increase of 13.1% from fiscal year 2026. The largest share of this is the enterprise funds collectively, which includes the water and sewer fund, the stormwater fund, and the sanitation funds in the largest ones. And then, of course, we'll go into a little bit greater detail about the enterprise funds in a few slides. The general fund represents 40.7% of our overall citywide budget. which, again, as I shared during our Behind the Budget presentations, a general fund is the main checking account for the city to provide the essential services of police, fire, parks, public works, code and compliance, et cetera. And that amounts to over $436 million. So the proposed operating millage is flat at 7.4293. Also, we are proposing the reduction of the three voter-approved debt service millage rates. And that's because of reflecting the increase in property values. And so we've been able to reduce each of the debt service millage rates. And so the change from fiscal year 2026 to fiscal year 2027 is a decrease of 0.0238 mills to bring the total millage to 7.9368. Just wanted to provide to you a little history about our operating millage rate. This is dating back to 2012. And why this is important is because this year marks the second year in a row that we've had the lowest millage since 2011 at 7.4293. So one thing that we like to share every year is how the millage is actually computed for purposes of an average single family home here in Hollywood. With an operating millage of 7.4293 and a total debt service millage of 0.5075, that yields a total millage of 7.9368. And so when you take an average single family home that has an assessed value of just under $392,000, and the homestead exemption that applies to that property. The total that this property would pay is $2,703 to the city of Hollywood, of which about $2,500 goes to the general fund and $173 goes to the general obligation fund. I just also want to mention, just for the record, as you can see here, the homestead exemption this year is over $50,000. This is because this is year two. of the second $25,000 homestead exemption, which applies to every single taxing authority with the exception of schools, is allowed to increase by CPI each year. And so the total homestead exemption for this year is $51,411. The total general fund budget, as I discussed earlier, is $436.1 million. As you can see, and as a reminder to you all, the property taxes represents the single largest revenue stream here for the general fund at about 46.5%. On the expenditure side, police and fire continue to be our largest cost centers for the city. And I just want to point out, just for the record also, that, and this is something that's not unique to Hollywood, that our public safety budget exceeds the total amount that we collect in property taxes for the city. All other departments and offices are listed here as well. And I also just want to share, for purposes of transparency, other offices, just because we'd like to be able to fit as much as we can onto a slide and make it readable, that includes city clerk, human resources, CMED procurement, budget, emergency management, parking and code, and housing and community development all fall within the other offices And I also want to point out that we're also proposing to maintain our 17% fund balance reserve. So I want to take a little moment to just provide to you our general fund five-year forecast. Now, again, the forecast is only designed to be a snapshot in time based on certain Assumptions when it comes to both revenues and expenditures. And just something also important to point out is that, as you can see here, starting in fiscal year 29 in particular is when you start to see our expenditures outpacing our revenues. Also for note that this does not include the potential impact of Amendment 3. And for the record, that would result in an increase to the deficit of about $20 million in fiscal year 2028. and $33.9 million in fiscal year 2029, as you can see here. In terms of our enterprise funds, the largest single enterprise fund for the city is our water and sewer fund at $349 million. This also reflects the new rates for fiscal year 2027. Stormwater is at $34 million. And again, this also reflects our new rates that went into place last November. The sanitation fund is at $32 million, and the sanitation rate remains unchanged at $47 per month. We also have three other enterprise funds, parking, which is revenue generated by our parking fees and our permits. The golf fund and our records preservation fund also are generated by those respective revenue sources. From a staffing standpoint, I want to point out that for general fund positions, we made a very conscious decision this year in light of the fact that we may be subject to Amendment 3 starting in fiscal year 2028, that the positions that we're adding to the general fund must have a revenue source outside of property taxes or a reduction in an expenditure associated with it in order for it to be added to this year's budget. There are 75 new positions, of which 57 of those positions are in public utilities. Those are broken down by 44 in water and sewer and 13 in stormwater. And those are designed to assist with the rollout of those respective master plans. Outside of that, we are proposing to transfer the director of housing and community development to the general fund, as well as adding one housing and social services coordinator. These positions, of course, will be paid for in part by the ILA administration dollars that we'll be getting starting this year. We're also going to be converting one parking technology specialist from part-time to full-time in the parking fund. There are two planners in the general fund that are proposed for this year's budget, but that will be offset by a decrease in an operating expenditure, and one permit support coordinator in building paid for by the building fund. Five police positions in the police department, that's one sworn and four civilian positions, that will be funded by the school zone enforcement program. And that also will be designed to assist in our real-time information crime center. There are six positions that are being added to the budget in FHIR, and that is being paid for by the increase in our FHIR assessment fee. So I know this slide you've seen before, but just to go through again, as we go through the budget process each year, we have to look at all of our existing obligations and ensure that we cover them. That's our first and foremost obligation as we build a budget. So we've had a lot of contractual increases that we've had to contend with this year. It's not like anything new that we haven't had in the past few years. But just important to point out, for example, landscaping. Just for the record, our landscaping contracts over the last three years have increased by 25%. PC leases and software, over the same three-year period, we've been seeing an increase of over 50% for that. We also have increases in contractual increases for fire operations. Think of our medical supplies. Building maintenance costs, our enterprise leases for our vehicles have seen a significant increase, all vehicle purchases have, and other inflationary increases. So all that has been built into the budget for this year. We do have our collective bargaining agreements obligations as well with police and fire, our cost of living adjustments, as well as AFSCME and non-REP, as well as the longevity changes for AFSCME and the non-REP has been factored into this budget as well. And then in terms of benefits, our annual required contribution for our pension is proposed to have an increase of $2.4 million. We also have the introduction last year of our DC and our hybrid plan, or this year, I should say. And so there is some cost associated with that, which eventually will be a long-term savings for the city. But this year, the cost is $900,000 for that, as well as we've built in health insurance increases, which, of course, is shared by both the employee and the employer. But the increase to the employer is 8%. We've also made some new initiatives for this year in terms of programs and services. As I mentioned before, the real-time intelligence center to fund those additional positions in police being paid for by the school's own enforcement camera program is $1.1 million. Also, as I mentioned before, six certified firefighter positions paid for by the fire rescue assessment at $1.5 million, as well as our drone first responder program at $300,000. We've also made some website improvements this year that are federally required by ADA. We have our citywide call center, which we'll be bringing before you in the next few meetings for that contract. And this is some funding for that associated with that. That, of course, will be offset by the other call center funds that we already have in place with the other funds. This is not just a general fund. This will be citywide, as well as increased immediate buy is also factored into this budget this year. Also, state mandated House Bill 1329 has required us to do some financial transparency initiatives starting in January. And so this is the funding associated with getting that. We have some cybersecurity and other IT-related expenses in both cybersecurity and data governance that we've included in the budget, as well as our asset management system. The complete rollout of that, including all funds, is about $1.1 million. Other initiatives include in development services, as I referenced earlier, those two positions in planning and that one position in building. We also have our retail recruitment tool that will be very helpful for our downtown. Also referenced before, the 57 public utilities positions have been folded into this year's budget. And again, that's for both the stormwater and the water and sewer master plan rollout. We have some additional expenses associated with facility maintenance, especially with the rollout of our new police headquarters and some much needed facility maintenance enhancements. We have some technology upgrades at our parking garages. We have the rollout coming this year of our city to tech services to assist our code and public works with looking for infrastructure needs, as well as code enforcement violations, as well as some digital signage at our parking garages that will alert drivers about the number of parking spots available in each of the garages. A couple of years ago, we made a decision to ensure that we were being much more proactive about our ongoing capital needs for the city. These are projects and programs that are ongoing, such as playground equipment, fire rescue equipment, PARKS EQUIPMENT, POLICE VEHICLES THAT WE WANTED TO ENSURE THAT WE DEDICATED A RECURRING REVENUE STREAM AND A RECURRING FUNDING SOURCE FOR. AND SO EVERYTHING LISTED HERE ON THE SCREEN IS WHAT WE'RE PROPOSING FOR FISCAL YEAR 2027 AND THEN OF COURSE ONGOING. MOST OF THESE WERE FUNDED IN PRIOR FISCAL YEARS AS WELL AND AGAIN IT PROVIDES FOR US THAT WE'RE ABLE TO CONTINUE TO MAKE THESE UPGRADES WHEN NEEDED TO ENSURE THAT ALL OF OUR EQUIPMENT AND ALL OF OUR INFRASTRUCTURE STAYS AS OUR RESIDENTS AND OUR BUSINESSES WOULD EXPECT. So in terms of next steps, like I mentioned earlier, today does mark the first of two public hearings for the fiscal year 2027 budget. And as such, the final public hearing will be on September 23 at 6 o'clock here in this room in the commission chambers. At this meeting, we will also be presenting to you all an update on our CRA budget as the immediately following the adoption of the city's budget. We will be having a CRA budget adoption hearing as well. And so we'll be making that presentation to you at that meeting on September 23. And with that, I will take any questions you may have.

Thank you. Thank you, Adam, and thank you, city manager and budget team, for putting together this upcoming budget. Certainly, it is a work plan for all the departments of the city to execute on the priorities and the needs of the city of Hollywood. And thankfully, we're in a position where we have a record number of dollars to work with, although on slide slide 11 Adam obviously the existing obligations of are continuing to grow at a significant pace when you look at health insurance increase you know the pension arc the collective bargaining agreements these are all as you said existing obligations and I always reflect that the obligations of a city grow no matter what happens on the on the revenue side that we necessarily know can't control and so you know it just always reminds me about how the city needs to look at its growth and to continue to to pursue the revenue side because whether we like it or not market forces and other forces that be increase our operating cost as it might be if you could Adam On slide number eight, you're looking at, you presented the five-year projection, and you're projecting a deficit where, you know, revenues are not rising as quick as forecasted expenditures. Could you expand on what's driving this trend?

Well, again, we always try to be very conservative with our revenues and with our expenditures, and so we are projecting, our property taxes would increase, at least on this chart here, by 3% starting in fiscal year 2028. Property value, you mean? I'm sorry, property values would increase by 3% starting in fiscal year 2028. We have been fortunate over the past several years that that has been higher than 3%, although I would like just to reference that that trend continues to decline over the last five years. The property values have increased by 6.1% for fiscal year 2027. Without new construction, that value would be about 3%. So I think we're very fair to assume a 3% growth moving forward on our revenues, which, of course, that's our largest single revenue stream. And with our expenditures, as you correctly reference on slide 11, a lot of those expenditures continue to go to increase that are actually out of our control, that are just driven by the market conditions. And so this is not something that we always toy with showing this slide, because it's not necessarily I hate to show a doomsday scenario, but it really does provide a very conservative look at our forecast. Now, hopefully, this does not come to fruition. Hopefully, our revenues come in higher than this, and we're able to manage that. But it also is a tool for us to ensure that we keep our expenditures in check, because on the outward years, you do see that gap growing. If our revenues are significantly lower because of Amendment 3, that's going to create even greater pressure on administration and the commission to make some tough decisions if we need to. But ultimately, this is where we are at this point. And hopefully, we will be better equipped on the expenditure side. And hopefully, the revenues will come in as expected as well.

Are the expenditure chart Is that projected on more of a real world We're projecting the cost of our agreements and our obligations. Or is this like a smooth percentage increase like the revenues?

Well, I can run through some of the assumptions that we use on the expenditure side. We assumed for personnel costs that that would increase annually by 4%. That includes both wages, social security, et cetera. So that's combined. Our pension costs are projected to grow on average of 7% annually over the next five years. Health insurance is projected to grow 6% annually for fiscal year 28, and then 5% annually for 29 through 31. On the operating side, operating capital outlay and non-operating costs are projected to grow annually at a rate of 1%. And so that's just some examples of some of the things that we built into this.

So that sounds like it's based on actual projections based on our historic trends and anticipated growth. I got you. Can you talk a little bit about the beach CRA sunset and its impact? its impact on the net general fund. I know it's more on the fiscal year 28, but.

Yeah, so we will share, of course, in full detail, in greater detail, I should say, at the September 23 public hearing. But I will share. that we do anticipate with regards to the fact that we currently collect all the property taxes that go to the Beach CRA currently. So we will no longer have to make those payments to that TIF reimbursement to the CRA, which is about $29 million. But we will also be now taking on all the enhanced services and all the operating expenses for the CRA, which is about $23 million. plus the fact that we have some additional expenses as well, like for personnel. That's currently being paid for by the CRA at about $4 million. And so if you can do the work with me here on the map, your about $2 million would be what would potentially be the net savings or the net increase to our revenue. So for purposes of it's about a net wash when the CRA sunsets, because yes, we'll be transferring less in terms of our TIF revenue to the CRA, but also we'll be taking out all the expenses that are currently coming out of their budget.

Yeah, and really, just for the members of the public, what that indicates, and people who might know know, is that there are a lot of ways and agreements through which the city has been investing CRA dollars in agreements with the city and with the county that have already repatriated those dollars to the city. And so we did it years before the actual sunset. And so the actual net positive impact of the CRA dissolving on the beach is not that great because we've done a lot of work in years ahead to already reinvest those dollars elsewhere.

And not to mention that also will result in the reduction that we get for the ILA as well. We will still get some funds from the ILA for affordable housing, $1.75 million for the next 10 years. But that currently is a significantly higher amount that we're getting today.

All right. Thank you so much, Adam. Let's go to commissioners who have questions to you, beginning with Commissioner Shuham.

Thank you, Mayor. First, Adam, before I get into the slides, I just wanted to extend a thank you to you. I know you have devoted so much time to attempting to educate the public about the potential impact of Amendment 3. Everyone that I've spoken to including me who have seen it have just been incredibly impressed with your ability to explain and educate The public about what's going on. So just to thank you for all the time you've put into that On slide seven. I know you have explained this to me before but the fund balance reserve of 17 percent 17 percent of what to get to the 56 million and Because it's not the 43, 436. I know I've asked it before, but I can never figure it out.

Nisha Bajeri, Assistant Director, Office of Budget and Strategy. The fund balance reserve is supposed to be two months of operating expenditures. So we're going to back out any fund balance that we already have. We're going to back out any increments. So we're trying to stick to the main operations of the city. So operating, personnel, debt service payments that we need to make. But some of those larger, like the CRA increments, would have been taken out. And any fund balance that we already have would be taken out of that total before we come up to that 17%. And it's done on the prior year's basis also.

So 17% of what?

17% of operating, personnel costs, and debt service costs. That total? Less.

Yes. Less, which I already have. Got it. Correct. OK, thank you. You're welcome. And then? I mean, I think that you're right, of course, to be conservative on slide eight, but I would just say that putting aside Amendment 3, when we look back over the years, whether it's your magic touch or whatever it is, we always make it work.

And that's, I mean, just to answer that question, obviously we as budget folks like to be as conservative as possible because we just don't want to... assume that we're going to collect additional dollars and it not actually come. So it's something that we're trained to be very conservative for. It's an industry standard to do a 3% increase when it comes to revenues. So yes, I mean, that's our property value growth over the last several years has yielded some additional. And because of that, we've been able to remain structurally balanced budget now probably for the fourth or fifth year in a row.

Yep, and that's fantastic. And then on slide 12, there's just a fairly small amount here for cybersecurity updates. What is the total that we have in the budget for cybersecurity? And the reason I ask, and if it's something that we don't want to pull out, I understand that too.

I'm going to have Rahim come up and explain. Thank you.

So Rahim, while you're on the way up here, I'm just reading so many articles lately, and I'm sure you are even more so, about cybersecurity threats to water, wastewater, and things like that. So is this enough, I guess, is my question.

Rahim Sitran, IT director. And I hate to come up with a non-answer, but.

It's OK. It's all secret. Cyber.

Section 119 subsection 725 of state statutes prohibits us from providing the level of detail that you're asking for in public. I'm glad to have a meeting with everyone and discuss this in detail individually, but it's not something that the state allows us to provide that level of detail towards.

OK, fair enough.

To further answer your question on what's happening in the industry, especially with the AI nexus, and we're seeing that the tools that are available to both sides of the cities, the attackers and the attackees, We're seeing a lot of issues, and it's a very fast-moving pace. Whether it's the OT, operational technology for public utilities, or the IT, which is what the city utilizes, the landscape is changing as we speak, under our feet. Again, glad to have that conversation, and a timely conversation. October is cybersecurity month. A little plug. And by all means, we can have those conversations.

Okay, I would like that, only in the sense that there are moments throughout the year where we see monies that can be shifted to certain places, and without you telling us that you are concerned that you don't have enough, I'm concerned. And so, yes, I would like to have that conversation. Okay.

And to answer a little on that regard, the city benchmarks with National Institute of Standards and Technology, which is a requirement from the state cybersecurity framework. We measure against what other cities are doing, and we try to stay ahead of them, keeping in mind that the shifting landscape makes it very difficult. I don't want to get off topic, but within the last two months, we've seen AI tools break sand walls. If you've heard of Hugging Face, you can always Google it. We've had agents ignore instructions, actually physically hack other companies. And it keeps me up at night, for sure.

I don't know if you guys have read that, but when he uses the term agent, he's not talking about a human. He's talking about an AI agent hacking into, I mean, it's the matrix, honestly, hacking into other systems. So I'm sorry to not give you a heads up about it, but I knew you would know the answer, but I would love to talk about it some more. I'm losing sleep over these things as well, so...

And again, to reiterate, the city benchmarks yearly with the state and the federal government to ensure that we are doing what we need to do to stay ahead. But it's so fast-paced, it's very difficult for us to stay ahead of that.

Thank you. We're so grateful that you work for the city of Hollywood. Thanks, Mayor.

Thank you. Let's go to Commissioner Biederman.

Thank you. And Adam, thank you for taking your show on the road and educating, whether it was 1 or 10 or 20. I think that it shows a lot that we're trying to be transparent and that you're educating people. And I think that's something people have asked for over time. On the six firefighter positions that you said earlier were being funded through increased fire assessment, Is it not also true that it's going to be funded through overtime savings? Is that the purpose of hiring more is to kind of battle the overtime?

Good evening.

Chris O'Brien, Director of Public Safety. Commissioner, potentially, the anticipation is there will be some overtime savings there, but there's still a shortage of positions that's needed to completely eliminate overtime staffing. So there should be some savings there, but it won't cover the full costs. And let's just remember that even though these positions are budgeted in October, they're not going to be filled in October. So usually there's a process involved in actually getting somebody on the road, and then they got to go through training. So there's still going to be some vacancies

throughout the year so hopefully it catches up but it won't completely eliminate the overtime need no I get it and then any surplus goes rolls over to the next year where we used to do other things so I get it um the mayor brought up the sunsetting of the beach so when we're transferring dollars from the TIF they're only getting eight months of that or whatever it is of what they used to be getting is that how that's working so it is

Budgeted for the full year. CRA will sunset in June of 2027, but we are budgeting for the full year of those revenues. So how does that work? We are working through that now with legal to determine how best to handle, because it's a mid-year.

sun setting but we will ensure that we are we have to we may do some I have to do some budget cleanup at the end of the year to account for that so so just so I understand we give them the whole amount but then whatever is left of the in June they have to transfer back to the city so it'll give us a somewhat of a budget so yeah we may have we for purposes of the well let me let me say this way

Anything that's still within the CRA at the end of sunset, we have to ensure that is encumbered and is contractually obligated prior to the end of sunset in order for those projects to continue moving forward. If we need to reimburse a portion of that year for any of those taxing authorities, whether it be ourselves, the county, or the Children's Services Council, we can handle that as part of a cleanup. But just in general, any dollars that are still within the Beach CRA fund, At the end of the sunset on June 25th of 2027, we just need to make sure that those dollars are all encumbered, contractually obligated for, so that we can ensure that those projects can continue to go through those CRA funds. We're not closing the CRA fund at that point. We have three years after that to spend the dollars.

Okay, so we don't have to give money back to the Children's Services Council or the county or anybody? That's not our intention. They're pro-ratted.

Yeah, that's not our intention, but we will work through whatever we have to do for purposes of this mid-year sunsetting of the CRA.

Okay. And then my last question is in reference to the enhanced services. So several years ago, there was a big push by residents that wanted to eliminate the beach CRA because the rest of the city needed those funds also. So how is the enhanced services going to be – I would like to know how the enhanced services are going to be redistributed throughout the city at the end of – in June at the end of the CRA, i.e. police, i.e. public works, i.e. do we have enhanced fire services also on the beach? It's the total of police, beach maintenance, and fire rescue. Okay. So I would like to know how we plan on spreading that out throughout the city, because right now we have 14 NTLs in the city. Three or four of them are on the beach. One of them is in District 5. I don't know about the rest of the city. But the residents in District 5, we used to have two in District 5. Now we have one. So I'd like to know how those resources are going to be evenly distributed throughout the city.

I would say, if I could just interject, I would say keep in mind that the enhanced services are for enhanced services that the CRA procured for services on the beach. So to the extent that there's a personnel allocation change where maybe they can innovate ways to keep service levels on the beach where they are and still have funding left over to enhance NTL activity, for example, elsewhere, that might be the case. But you know, the enhanced services that we're procuring from the city are all, you know, going to the beach.

So I understand when we have outside sources that we have contractual obligations, that the companies that are pressure washing and the two times a day cleaning the bathrooms and all these things, but when you're talking about city resources, i.e. police, Those services need to be spread out throughout the city. Otherwise, you would have had an uproar. I would have supported it in 2018 when the residents in Hollywood wanted to get rid of the CRA. But I had the vision... And the understanding that the investment that we're making on the beach through the CRA is going to pay dividends in the future. That the investment was going to bring in development and bring in future dollars. And at the end of the CRA, those dollars that the CRA was keeping was going to go back into the city. But now we're talking about... Well, we still have to – we're still contractually obligated to maintain those services, and that's not what we signed up for 30 years ago, and it's not what we signed up in 2017 when we saw PBA signs that said no to the CRA. So it's time that we finally – Explain to the residents west of the Intracoastal how those resources that have been maintained on the beach are going to benefit the entire city.

I got you.

If we can't do that today, maybe we can.

Well, I will say this, that obviously we have one more year of the CRA. I think what you're asking for is something that's probably a fiscal year 2028 conversation, because that's the year that the CRA will no longer exist, at least the beach CRA. I understand that it's still, it does sunset this year, but effectively most of this year we will still be operating with a beach CRA. So the budget is built to continue those services and continue the enhanced services, which is about $12 million. If that is the policy decision of the commission at that point to make some adjustments to where those dollars go, that's ultimately a policy decision that the commission will have to make leading into the fiscal year 2028 budget. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Biederman. Down the queue, let's go to Vice Mayor Colleri.

So I just want to reiterate, thank you for all that you do and your staff. Everyone put this together. I know it's been a little tedious, and especially with all the challenges that we're facing or potentially facing. On slide 8, if you can go to slide 8, is there an approximate, I know you're on the conservative side, but an approximate deficit between your revenues and your expenditures? If you look at the screen, you would say possibly $50 million.

So for fiscal year 2020, fiscal year, is it fiscal year 29 or fiscal year 30, we're about $20 million. That does not include the impacts of Amendment 3. So if you add that in for fiscal year 29, a $20 million deficit, that would be figure $55 million as a deficit for fiscal year 2029.

And is that including our stormwater master plan This is just a general fund.

This is just general fund. This does not include stormwater or any of our enterprise funds.

And is that including the generated income that we potentially have coming towards the city with future development?

We factored into a flat 3% increase to property taxes or property values in order to build this. So certainly assuming that there's additional new development, just as an example this year. Without new development, our property value growth would be about 3.3%. With the new development we did receive, which is about $410 million that was added to our tax rolls, that brought the total amount to 6.1%. So anything above that would help to negate the difference. Correct.

And the yellow line is your potential if Amendment 3 passes? Correct.

Correct. And again, I hate to, you know, because when you throw out numbers, they kind of grow legs. Again, this is all based on certain assumptions.

Well, they're guesstimates.

But yes, they are conservative estimates of our potential deficit.

So if we were just to focus on the revenue and expenditures, let's say in fiscal year 2029, not including the $2 billion stormwater master plan, not including the septic to sewer, just based on our general fund, if I were to look at that, I would say guesstimate about $10 million from 2029 difference, correct? Correct. $14 million? Thank you.

$14 million.

And then as we move forward in fiscal year 30, it's about $25 million maybe, give or take? $22. Okay, $22. I'm pretty good. And then 31 looks like about $25. I mean $55 million. 37 37 well look at that so if we could put those numbers on for the next slide just I know you don't want them to have legs But you have to see it to understand it because some people we say oh, that's not that bad But I think that it's really important that people understand and our residents understand as well the difference and the gap and then if you go down to the revenue amendment 3 issue Oh we're in big trouble here buddies so um i do have a couple more questions then that relates to kind of what commissioner biederman um uh brought up regarding the cra funds so obviously there are a couple of us that are still here um not much longer but that um lived through the financial concerns back in 2011 and 2012 and moving forward. And it's kind of scary to see where we were then to where we are now as far as population. really hasn't grown that much which is concerning versus staff numbers because of the demands and the increased needs of our city and the infrastructure and so when I first started as Commissioner we had over 1,800 employees and looking at the current employee list we're at 1612 by 2027 so I guess the delta between the two is 200 employees, which is concerning. When you see 57 is $10 million, let's just round that up and then the gap. So it's concerning to see those numbers and how we're going to accommodate that. Because as we grow, we're going to need more staff to help meet those demands and needs to help keep up our infrastructure and our demands. But going back to the CRA comment, if you go to slide... And I really didn't want to talk today, because I need to go to work. But if you go to the pay-as-you-go recommendations, is the funding for, I see the dune master plan implementation. Now, when we talk about parks, equipment, and machinery, parks facility replacements and renovation, park restrooms, playground replacement, police equipment, public safety, all of those things. Is the $23 and $29 million dollars divvied up in that? Meaning, do we look at the whole picture and say, because when one word, we said, oh, we're going to keep the amenities, which obviously tourism is so important, we have to keep our beach pristine so that we can get the tourism to generate funding. But then we have another slide here, and I just want to know if that generated monies are evenly dispersed, even including the CRA area.

So unfortunately, what you're comparing are like apples and oranges. So I'm just saying that from the standpoint of what you see on the screen, this is already accounted for and budgeted accordingly for fiscal year 2027. And then, of course, in the out years, barring any revenue shortfalls like Amendment 3, this is what we plan to move forward with. This is where I was going back to the apples and oranges comment. The CRA conversation is separate because this This is already accounted for in the general fund budget. With the CRA, as I referenced, $29 million in expenditures, meaning dollars that leave the city to go to the CRA, that would be no longer potentially $23 million in lost revenue yields that delta and the $4 million that we would have to add as well. The total amount that we would potentially save would be about $2 million once the CRA sunsets. So there's not a windfall of dollars that would come once the CRA sunsets, assuming that all expenses remain the same.

I'm going to say we're going to have to work on that, because I clearly remember the discussion that we had. And the numbers obviously increased. Whether it was last year or the year before, we talked about $12 million with the beach CRA sunsetting. And the statement was made that the $12 million needs to stay in the beach.

That's for the enhanced services, I believe.

For the enhanced services. And there was a deep discussion about promising something that can't be kept. And I'm going to go back to the CRA originality of it, which was we sold our residents the fact that this funding was going to help generate, rebuild, and improve the beach, and that the entire city was going to benefit from that funding. And at the end of the CRA, the entire city was going to benefit from those proceeds. And at that discussion that we had, whether it was last year or the year before, in regards to this, the comment was made that the monies were going to stay for the enhanced services. And a couple of us up here wanted a depth Detail and we did not feel that that was right and so today I'm going to reiterate that 29 million dollar generated funds and 23 is going to remain on the beach I think we need to look that a little bit harder put a finer microscope to it And we have to divvy that out because I don't think that that's fair to what was promised to the entire city You're referring to a post sunset environment No, yes a post sunset environment. Yes So I think we just have to take a better look and kind of make it one which I have been a proponent over and over again regarding Condensing the CRA bringing in-house. Let's figure out how we're gonna make that happen because we knew this was coming and I This kind of like is very concerning for me. So I just want to make sure that we take a look at it. Obviously, if we build something, we need to maintain it. We hear about that in the city all the time. We don't upkeep our parks. Here we invest all this money in our parks, and it's still not good enough. So now the CRA is coming to an end, and we've enhanced these areas. How are we going to maintain them, but how are we also going to get back to the city? That has been the backbone. That's my concern.

And I will say that we do plan on doing a more in-depth presentation specifically as it relates to the CRA as part of the September 23 budget adoption for the CRA. So hopefully we'll get some of your questions answered as well.

Thank you. Thank you. I'm just giving you a heads up so we're prepared.

Appreciate it.

I'll be ready then. And then on page 12. real-time intelligence center sorry chief anymore public safety director with the new ruling from the governor to take off the CCTV or the cameras how is that going to affect this real-time intelligence center and how is it that we can enhance because we've asked for several areas to have LPR readings and CCTVs and I know there's been discussion up here as well as far as How people feel about that but the safer the city we are The better off I think we are so I just want to know your input on that should we have more money invested in this? What's our plan?

Thank you, Commissioner. Jeff Devlin, Chief of Police. So I think I heard a couple of questions in there. So how is the governor's decision affecting us right now? There is a small number of our LPR cameras that are affected by this ruling that we have 30 days to relocate or remove. And quite honestly, I am hopeful that there will be a reversal in that order, that decision. I know there's been talks going on right now. up there. But they are quite beneficial. The other night, we just picked up a murder suspect from another city traveling through Hollywood through the technology of these license plate readers. So they're quite effective. And the budget set aside is adequate to continue to enhance the safety of the citizens of Hollywood.

So as we talked about the cybersecurity, I feel like this is really one of the most important things to keep our residents safe. And we always hear about a safe environment, a safe community is what keeps people also in a city. If you had, I guess, a glass crystal ball, what would that look like in your opinion as far as LPR readers or CCTVs throughout the city?

To continue to, yeah, I'm sorry?

No, funding-wise. Like, if you have enough, do you have enough funding to make sure that there's adequate amount? And when you say to continue to grow, what's your ultimate, I guess, view of that?

Yeah, well, I think the ultimate view of that is to continue to leverage the technology that's out there, to act as a force multiplier with officers and technology, and continuing to work with the city's team and the budget staff to get that number where it needs to be. But I'm very comfortable with where we're at now and the path that we're on as far as continuing the enhancement of technology used to keep the citizens safe, yes.

Perfect. And the reason why I ask that is just so everyone knows, if it wasn't for, thank you, Chief. I don't think I have any more questions. But just so everyone knows how important it is to have these LPR readers and live TVs is, I mean, just one of our very own vice mayor, Nancy Mateo, her murderer was caught on an LPR. So I think that they're so beneficial. If you're doing something wrong and you're wanted or you're doing mischievous things, we want our city to be safe. And so whatever investment we can do with cybersecurity, as well as intelligence center, I think we should invest in just to keep our residents safe. And then the last thing that I have is the increase to media buy. What is our current cost for the media? Do we know?

One second.

Hi there, Joanne Hussey, Director of Communications, Marketing, and Economic Development. So for our city media buy, if that's what you're referring to, we have an event marketing buy that's $100,000, and we have a $50,000 destination buy. And then we, out of regular operating budget, we use $120,000 for economic development.

OK. I would like to just for, not now, but if you can get the information to us as far as what that revenue, what is the bang for our buck? I would like to see if we have any data collected on that. And where do we need to focus on more information? And I'll tell you why. As far as our Amendment 3 output, You know, I came to the meeting. There were three other individuals that were here. Adam, you did an amazing job here at City Hall. I don't know how many attended any of the other facilities, but my response was, why didn't you go to my residence? They said they didn't know anything about it. And I know that we put it on there. So what is it that we're missing? Somehow we've got to, I think, focus on greater outreach and trying to get that in. And I just wanted to know the value. So if we can get data on that so we can see how much we need to invest to make sure that we are really Getting the outreach that's needed because somehow I feel like we're missing a gap there or people are just too busy and they don't care And they follow the hype, but that's it. Okay. That's all I have. Thank you so much.

Great job I know this was a lot of work keep up the good work and Thank You vice mayor Commissioner Hernandez Thank You mayor Great presentation great work to answer a commission of Edelman's and the vice mayor Caleri's The $12 million in hand services that we have in the beach, right? How many properties or how many square miles does that cover? Do we know?

We can get back to you on the number of parcels that are within the beach CORA.

Because years back, we talked about this, and we talked about passing that expense to the property owners on the beach. And what I mean by that is a taxing district. The Emerald Hills decided that they wanted to have an enhanced district, and they were willing to pay. So that's something that we should be able to look at. Otherwise, no disrespect, and I know that there's a cost to doing business for tourism and what have you, but at the end of the day, the residents on the west side have the same level of expectations than anyone on the beach. I don't know how the commission feels about that, but that's the truth. The truth is, if we have an extra $12 million spent on a Three or four square miles. I don't remember exactly what it was. Can anybody remember what the beach CRA square miles were?

I believe it's roughly 200 acres.

I think yeah So at the end of the day we need if we if you figure out what the square footage is for something like that The rest of the city has the ability to do that and twelve million dollars Normally wouldn't sound like a lot of money, but I believe you said that we get twenty nine million dollars from TIFF, correct?

We contribute $29 million in TIF payments to the Beach CRA. Correct.

And that's aside from what Broward County gets. That's correct. So their sizable amount of income-producing if you would and it's fair to say that being the person that it was actually spearheaded the closing of the CRA back in the day because the rest of the city was not getting enough money so if you tell on me that by closing the CRA we're going to go back and play in the same game with that particular area gets all the money that it generates it defeats the purpose So I agree with Commissioner Biederman's statement that this is not what we were told. And quite frankly, we also floated the idea that if you want enhanced services, you need to be able to pay for them. And that's all there is to it. I mean, I don't want to hurt any one area, but at the end of the day, the residents that we represent in a different district, they're looking at us like, Are you serious? We might as well just get the CRA because then we were using Broward County dollars. Now we're not going to be using Broward County dollars. Now it is actually out of the pocket of the residents on the other parts of the city. So I would like for you guys to have some sort of plan as to what it would cost to the property owners of that particular area if they wanted to pay for the enhanced district. And that's just something that we need to be able to – we're not trying to segregate the city. We just need to be able to see what those numbers are so that whenever anybody lives on the beach and says, oh, yeah, I pay – no, you're getting extra money for your bank, for your buck. So we need to be able to do that. The media buy, I don't think that we are putting enough money when it comes to the advertising that we're doing, or we're not doing it well. Short of going out with a speaker vehicle at everybody's houses, you know, used to, it may sound, letting them know that there's a meeting at City Hall that they need to be there. A lot of the people do get the information. They don't open the email. They don't think it's valuable. I'm missing Annie here today, you know. Well, I understand.

She did call to let us know that she wasn't going to be able to make it.

She did tell us. At the end of the day, we look for people that actually gives us feedback as to what we should be doing. Even if it's their thoughts, but we miss those people. We want to see the individuals that are here. Bless you. But when it comes to that, we need to be able to look at that. Back in the day, in 2012, I don't know if we had 1,100 or 1,200 employees. Now we're going to have 1,600 employees. Can somebody remind me as to how many employees we had back there?

It's in the budget book, but there was a big dip at the time, yeah.

Prior to 2010, yes, but I'm talking about 2012. It wasn't 1800, I don't believe.

It was like 1200 or something.

1200, that's correct. And now we're going to have 1600, so that's 400 employees. So my point, and I'm not, you asked me not to say it, I'm not going to say it, but at the end of the day, we need to be able to rely on our employees for them to be able to deliver the services that our residents need. I'm grateful to Vint, by the way, thank you to the Department of Underground Utilities, because the other day there was an issue of an individual, they brought something up, and to me it was a health issue, which it was one of our other contractors picked up a sewer clean-out connection while they were picking up the trash, and that was exposed. That gentleman called for four months to different departments in different parts of the city. Nobody paid attention to him. He finally got a hold of me. I didn't understand him. And he was great. He would speak the language. But the action, I couldn't understand so well. So I said, let me go over there and take a look. And even while I was there, I actually physically had to look and see what was going on. So I'm grateful to the underground department that actually went out there. And it might have been something that If I wasn't there, probably wouldn't have been done because, and this is something that we go back to the ordinances that we talked about where it says from the middle of the sewer line inwards, it is the responsibility of the property owner. The main trunk line is ours. But at the end of the day, the fact that it's their responsibility, that doesn't mean that we can't do the work and back billing for it. But this is what was happening. It was right next to a similar corner from Ivan Garden. It was a sewer connection that had been detached. And whenever it flooded, everything came up.

If it's in the right-of-way, now we're on it.

That's why it was able to be fixed. So at the end of the day, all the changes that we're doing makes a difference for the quality of life of the residents that we have. But nonetheless, it doesn't mean anything if their employees are not aware of it or if we don't make sure that those things are coming to play. So I'm okay with the budget. I am not. On page, I believe it was eight, if I remember correctly, where you start differentiating one versus the other. Everybody likes that page for some reason. And your assumption of the green is 3%, correct? Correct. OK, what is your assumption?

And I want to make sure it's 3% on property values. I understand.

What is your blue one? What is that expense?

That's the expenditure. So our personnel, our operating expenses. I get it. What percentage is that? So we assumed a 4% increase to personnel expenses. That includes both wages as well as social security increases, et cetera. We also assumed our pension costs would grow an average of 7% annually over the next five years, and that our health insurance is projected to increase 6% annually.

Which is less than what it projected this year for 20. Correct. And 5% annually for 29 through 31.

That's just on the personnel side. On the operating side, we assume just a general 1% across the board. Operating capital outlay and non-operating costs increase estimated at 1% growth.

You managed to confuse me. And so my point is, your green one is at 3%. Where's your blue one at? What percentage is that?

Well, it's a conglomerate.

I know it's a compilation of those, but you need to make it simple for us if you can't. Because the residents are going to ask me, what percentage of growth is that expenditure going at? And they're going to turn around and say, that's what you need to tackle. They're not looking at the fact that we may be losing revenue. They're looking at the fact that our expenses are continuing to go up. And that's no different than when my mom was alive, may she rest in peace, she was on a fixed budget. And that's where the rest of the family stepped in and says, we need to fill in that gap. Because otherwise, somebody for $1,197 a month cannot live in today's world. And it's just not possible for somebody that has an income. And we have many of our residents, they're on a fixed income. So we need to be able to justify that. So at some point, if you don't have a number for that, could you please round off what that rise is? Because the other one is a 3%. We know that flat.

Well, 3% is based on, again, our largest revenue stream and property tax growth. But we also assumed other revenue projections at 2.5% are projected for franchise taxes, utility service taxes, intergovernmental revenues, user charges and fees outside of the FHIR assessment, and then 2% growth from 28 through 31 thereafter for those. So again, it's a blended rate for that as well as a blended rate on the expenditure side.

And I'm just looking for the percentage of the blended rate. It's like if it was scotch. It's not some single molten. What I mean by that is you made it clear that the green is 3%. I just want to know what the blue is.

And I think another good exercise, Adam, would be if we were to want to project a balance and we're equally conservative on both the expense or realistic on the expense and the revenue, where does it balance? Where does the revenue need to be in order to balance to the rise in expenditures? And that gives us our marching orders on the pace on which the city needs to grow its revenue, grow property value, et cetera.

I mean, obviously, for what it's worth, Amendment 3 is the big odd. And so obviously, just as I shared in the behind the budget presentation, at some point, if Amendment 3 does pass, the city is going to have to make some decisions as to raising additional revenue and or cutting services and programs. And so just that's really what it's going to come down to from an Amendment 3 standpoint because of the large nature of those potential deficits or those potential hits.

OK. So for an exercise, if you don't mind, I don't know if the rest of my colleagues would like to see it. I'd like to know how many square miles are on the beach CRA? how many properties there are. And if we were to maintain the level of enhanced services, how much it would cost each of those properties.

We will make sure to include that in the September 23 presentation.

Yeah, I figure those are just numbers that we can plug in. And I'm not trying to scare anybody. I'm just trying to see what the value of the CRA has been for those residents for so many years. Happy to. Thank you, sir.

All right, thank you. I see Commissioner Biederman for another round.

And the system is already activating your mic when you press it, so go ahead. I'll make it quick. It was brought up earlier about the marketing. Wasn't our marketing budget used to be like $3.25 million at one time or close to that? And now it's dropped to $150 million?

There was a period of time for the CRA that the destination marketing budget approached about a million dollars for just destination marketing.

OK. Thank you. Commissioner Shuham.

We can talk about this more on the 23rd, but clearly the CRA investments on the beach have generated, I think we're close to $5 billion worth of property values there that would not exist but for the investments that were made, the capital investments that were made. It wasn't just an idle promise that was made. The reason this city manager and the city manager before committed to a minimum level of security and public works activity at the beach to at least maintain where it is now is to protect our investment. And so as far as I know, we only have one NTL on the beach. It changes all the time. I don't even know who it is right now. In other parts of the city, we have consistent NTLs. But on the beach, it's always changing. We have one who reports to the civic association. So I'm not sure what that's about. But I would just simply say, I think it is critical for the financial well-being of this city to ensure that the broad walk is always a clean and safe place not only for the residents for the business owners but for visitors thank you thank you um all right so that concludes adam uh discussion about your budget recommendation uh at this time on to item four a resolution adopting uh

adoption of the resolution reimposing the fire rescue services assessment. Of course, this is a public hearing advertised in conformance with state statutes and city ordinances. I'm going to go ahead and open the public hearing. Are there any speaker cards on item four, the fire rescue services assessment?

No cards.

Public hearing is now closed. City Commission discussion. Motion to approve by Vice Mayor Kaleri. Second from Commissioner Gruber. All right. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the item carries unanimously. Item five is adoption of the resolution reimposing the fire inspection services assessment. Of course, again, public hearing advertising conformance to state statutes and city ordinances. Opening the public hearing for the fire inspection services assessment. Pat, are there speaker cards?

No cards.

The public hearing is now closed. We have a motion from Vice Mayor Kaleri to approve item five. A second from... Commissioner Gruber, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the item carries unanimously. Item 6 is adoption of the resolution tentatively fixing the millage rate for fiscal year 27. Resolution of the City Commission of the City of Hollywood, Florida tentatively fixing the amount and rate of taxation for the fiscal year commencing October 1, 2026 and making the tax levy for the year 2026. The proposed maximum millage rate set by the City Commission of the City of Hollywood on June 7, 2026 is seven point four two nine three mills at this time the city manager is proposing that the millage rate be tentatively set at seven point four two nine three which is estimated generate general fund net revenues of two hundred and two million five hundred ninety one thousand six hundred and thirty eight dollars This millage rate represents a 6.06% increase over the rollback rate of 7.0051 mills. This is a public hearing advertised in conformance with state statutes and city ordinances. Public hearing is now open on fixing the millage rate. Pat, item six. Bill cards.

Motion to approve.

Public hearing is now closed. I just wanted to... I know that with Amendment 3 looming, it's certainly important for us to protect every source of revenue that the city has, and in this case, the millage rate. Just to point out, we've been, the past two years, reducing the operating millage by .0186 mills. I asked Adam what that would translate to this year. I think it's roughly half a million dollars. Correct, Adam? To be exact, $533,000. $533,000. So I'm not really pushing, although I aspired, as we all did a number of years ago, to keep this super small incremental reduction. And as the years go on, it would grow. But I think with the Amendment 3 on the horizon and its everlasting impact, I don't know if the commission wants to entertain that. We can take that up at the next final budget hearing if you all want to talk about it.

I'll take it up at the next budget hearing.

All right. If you want to speak into the mic, go ahead, Commissioner Hernandez.

I believe if we pass the not to exceed, we're not going to be able to exceed that at the next budget hearing.

This would be reducing, not exceeding.

No, no. Right. So I mean, I will say that for purposes of procedure, if it's the will of the commission to make this decision, it would certainly be preferable that you do it now as opposed to waiting until the next public hearing, just from the standpoint of allow staff to rebalance the budget accordingly. Because it does have an impact on all of our central services funds, et cetera. That would just be my only ask. If that is something that the commission wants to consider, that happened not at the next commission meeting.

So being the motion maker, with being the motion maker, I would...

But it hasn't been seconded.

Yeah, it was. Adam Gruber seconded it.

No, you didn't second it. You didn't have it seconded, so without due respect, I just... Okay, go ahead. The question that I had was, Mayor, what would you suggest that half a million dollar go?

Well, this would be a half a million dollar reduction if we were to continue the reduction in the millage rate. Correct.

But you said if we don't decide to do the reduction, where would you put that money in the budget? I mean, would you?

It's already counted for in the budget that's proposed. So the $500,000 is not extra. It would be a reduction of the spending plan that's already been there. And so I would defer to the city management for that incremental reduction, basically half a million from roughly $436 million. The only thing I would say, and I'm sensitive to the impact of Amendment 3 on the city's budget, of course, it would be able to convey to the residents that should they decide not to support Amendment 3, that our commitment to very small, in a small fashion, incrementally continue reducing the millage rate as we said a number of years ago would continue. So for the residents that would know that in the third year in a row, we're taking a super small reduction, Maybe that would make them feel a little more secure in counting on us to continue that reduction and to forego the Amendment 3 opportunity. I'm just saying that could be the... And I get it.

I had a similar conversation with somebody else earlier today on the personal level, and... Here's what they said to me. Yeah, the city of Hollywood can make every effort to try to lower the expenses and everything else, but this amendment is going to be voted on by everyone in the state.

Right.

So the fact that we're doing something like this, it may show our residents what we're willing to do, but the impact of the vote is going to be statewide. Yeah. I support whatever you want to do. At the end of the day, we need to show our residents that we're being fiscal responsible.

So I'd like to hear from the rest of the commission. I'm willing to do it, but I get the amendment 3 on the horizon. It's a very small figure, but go ahead.

I'd make a motion to approve. And the reason being is I think I've been very vocal, I know, for political gain and stuff like that, that we've always tried to lower the millage rate for voting purposes and such. But I know a couple of us up here, including Commissioner Shulham and myself, you know, tried to look at the broader picture and at times we opposed reducing. You know, with all the increases, it's very scary what we're proposing to our residents. It's going to be very, very challenging as we move forward. So I think every little bit helps. I just don't know what would be the breakdown, what would be the savings of that, if there's any.

$533,000.

No, no, no, per resident.

Well, I mean, obviously it depends on the value of the property. But in the past, it's been about $3 for the year. That's an annual.

Yeah, I'd say let's just continue to move forward as we are and make a motion to approve as is.

All right, we have a motion and a second to approve the fixing of the millage rate as provided for in the resolution. Go ahead.

I just had a quick question, Adam. The actual rate that residents are paying is reduced because of the debt service reduction. What is the savings to each resident as a result of the actual savings that we are seeing? Minimum.

Pretty similar. It's 0.0238.

It's about $3 a year.

Sorry, bear with us one second. We use that average. Yes.

It's okay.

It's roughly $600,000 a total savings. Right.

So I think it's similar, and I hear what you're saying. But we have, despite ourselves, accomplished that small savings.

I will say, if Amendment 3 fails, then maybe the commission for fiscal year 28 can double the 0.0186 and make up for it and just protect ourselves this year because of the Amendment 3 looming.

And I think everybody would understand that.

We can approach it in that fashion. I'm fine with that.

Good job, Mary Jane.

I agree with that. But you know whose problem it's not going to be? Yeah, well.

I'm speaking to myself.

I'm going to get my three minutes.

Commissioner Quintana, Commissioner Gruber, and Commissioner Hernandez, maybe we can double it next year if Amendment 3. I'm good with that. If it fails, for sure. Yeah, I'll support that.

I'll support it from that podium right there. All right.

You get your three minutes.

Three minutes.

All right, we have a motion and a second. My queue is not working as needed, so did anyone else want to speak, or we'll go ahead and take a vote? We said open and close the public hearing. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the item carries 6-0 with Commissioner Hernandez not on the dais right now. He'll probably put in his vote when he comes back in. Item 7, then, is adoption of the resolution tentatively adopting the fiscal year 2027 budget, a resolution of the City Commission of the City of Hollywood, Florida, tentatively making appropriations for the fiscal year 2027 based on the operating and capital budget estimate of revenues and expenditures for each of the city's operating funds as submitted by the city manager. This is a public hearing. Advertising conformance is staged. statutes, and city ordinances. Madam Clerk, are there any speaker cards? All right. Let's go ahead and open the public hearing. Cristina Moinello. Buenos.

Good evening. Good evening, mayor and commissioners. I'm out here without my sidekick, so I'm a little nervous. So basically, I didn't want to take up a lot of time. I know that we've submitted to the mayor, commissioners, and the parks department a request for an increase in funding for the Hollywood Salsa Fest. I believe that I don't need to go into what Salsa Fest is and what it does and all the different details I gave you about who Latinos are in Broward County, et cetera. However, thinking outside the box and thinking about what's coming up with maybe Amendment 3, we're just thinking that maybe a different way to approach it other than asking for an increase in the budget is, We have our expenses have risen tremendously as everybody else and I would like to specifically point out that PD worked really hard with us to try to give us a really good detail at a very fair price. I would say that Chief Levy also went out of his way since it was a new different amount that we weren't used to and so everybody's working really hard to make this happen. So speaking to Mickey Burns, actually, maybe it was suggested that instead of an increase, maybe we could get a reimbursement for these fees. Because we're talking about between PD and fire and the workers at the arch park. I don't know how it was 101 hours. And the private security that we have to, with crowd control, that we have to hire, we're talking about $20,000. Now, we go out there and we find money. And we also get our grants from Broward. It's not like we're sitting here and saying, hey, Hollywood, give us money. We go out to the community. We involve the community, the hospital, and things like that. But we really need to be able to produce this event. God knows, maybe in 28 or 29, if Amendment 3 passes, the event won't even be here. But it is now. And we are faced with these challenges. So I just wanted to come in and, you know, publicly just give you these comments and hoping that maybe as you take into consideration the budget and some other possibilities that a reimbursement would be possible and that would be greatly appreciated by Salsa Festival International.

Thank you, Christina. Thank you. City Manager, any comments on this before we go ahead and vote on the budget on the pledge to work with Salsa Fest?

Yeah. I mean, I think that we will look at all of the resources and do our best to continue to fine-tune those numbers and see how we can accommodate. These are big expenses for all of our special events, and we really do try to look at that closely. So we'll continue to work with you on that.

Right, I'm sorry. I would like to say when you say all of your special events I don't really think you have any other event like ours And I would also like to say that the downtown business owners Which is unusual support us and that the night that we have salsa fest every single Place is filled to the brim and they do see a revenue so it's not like other events that they complain that don't spill out into the

Boulevard, so that's why I believe it's crucial to support it, and I think we love it It's been an amazing run and we want to continue and grow it and make it even better Thank you very much Commissioner Hernandez. Thank you.

I think you have friends from public hearing is now closed go ahead I think you have friends from to die as a support your event And we will work with the city managers to see how we can get you the extra funding well name Emily And I we really appreciate it.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you

Commissioner Hernandez You stepped out and we just when you step that are just regarding item six the fixing the millage rate We we said to ourselves that if a member three doesn't pass then maybe next year. We could double that incremental Absolutely, I'm good with that. It sounds like my vote is yes So if you could please just record commissioner and is this yes vote on item six nature called I? All right, so we close the public hearing on item seven. This is for adopting the fiscal year 2027 budget. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the item passes unanimously.

Excuse me, Mayor.

The date of the second budget hearing.

Excuse me, Mayor. Who made the motion? Because I don't have a motion.

You got that. Thank you, Pat. The date of the second budget hearing, everyone, will be Wednesday, September 23, 2026, at 6 p.m. That concludes our work for tonight. See you on Wednesday for the City Commission meeting.