City Commission - workshop

GOOD AFTERNOON. WELCOME. WELCOME. COMMISSIONER, COME ON UP. WELCOME. FOR THE MINUTE. FOR THE MINUTE. WELCOME. WELCOME. WELCOME, EVERYONE, TO THE JUNE 16, 2026 JOINT COMMISSION WORKSHOP WITH THE BUDGET ADVISORY BOARD. THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE. BEFORE I ASK THE CITY CLERK TO CALL THE ROLE OF THE BUDGET ADVISORY BOARD AND THE COMMISSION, JUST WANTED TO ANNOUNCE THE MAYOR IS AWAY ON BUSINESS AND WON'T BE PARTICIPATING IN THE MEETING TODAY. SO I'M FILLING IN FOR HIM. SO THANK YOU FOR YOUR INDULGENCE AND GRACE AS WE NAVIGATE IN HIS ABSENCE. MR. CLERK, IF YOU WOULD CALL THE ROLE OF THE BUDGET ADVISORY BOARD, PLEASE.

CHAIR BROW. Vice Chair Milroy. Melinda Boker. Olivier Collet. Rich DiGirolamo. Anid Metellus-Thompson. David Max Ortolani. Samantha Perryman-Jones. And Jason Jeffress. All right. Thank you, Mr. Clerk, if you'd call the roll for the commission. Commissioner Herbst? Here. Commissioner Glassman?

Here.

Commissioner Beasley-Pittman? Here. And Vice Mayor Sorensen?

Here.

Thank you very much. And now we'll move into the agenda for today's workshop. I'll turn the floor over to our city manager, Raquel Williams, for some initial comments.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Commissioners. I want to take this opportunity to highlight our Budget Advisory Board. This joint workshop couldn't have come together without all the diligence and hard work of each and every board member led by Chair Bill Brown. and they will go into a discussion about some of the work that they've been doing and focused on over the past several months. Then we will dive into a discussion of property taxes, as well as the preliminary budget. So at this time, I'd like to turn it over to Chair Brown.

Thank you very much, City Manager, Chair Brown.

David, is this for the slide? Okay. I have it here, but it's okay. Good afternoon, Vice Mayor Sorensen, Commissioners, Bill Brown, Chairman of the Budget Committee. Time-wise, I think our presentation, we're going to try to keep to about 15 minutes, then allow for about the City Manager and her staff to talk about the proposed preliminary budget. And then we'll have some time, about 15 minutes, hopefully, to address the property tax referendum issue and the educational and how the Budget Advisory Board, working with STRATCOM, can get engaged so that we can educate the public and the community and our residents on the pros and cons of the referendum. and keeping mindful of your time since you're starting a half hour early. We don't want to run in too late into the conference meeting, but in order to do due diligence to cover all that material, we're trying to keep it each segment to 15 minutes if agreeable. So let me just give you some highlights since what we've been doing as a board since this budget process back in March. We looked at all the accomplishments from 2026 FY budget. We met with all the directors and they came in and talked about their project and the projects that they would like to move forward with in 2027, what initiatives, what keeps them up at night, some of the challenges and opportunities that they're faced with. We spent about three hours THAT MEETING IN MARCH, HAD A VERY GOOD DISCUSSION WITH ALL DEPARTMENT HEADS. AND THEY BOTH RECOGNIZED GOING INTO THAT MEETING THAT WE HAD SOME CHALLENGES LOOKING AT FY27 AND 28 AND FEW YEARS OUT. SO THEY WERE MINDFUL OF THAT AND WE DID HAVE SOME HEALTHY DISCUSSIONS. AND THEN BACK IN MAY, STARTING ON MAY THE 6TH, TO THE 13TH AND THE 20TH IS WHERE WE BRING ALL THE DEPARTMENTS BACK IN INDIVIDUALLY. and they give their budget request presentations to us. We sit there, we have good dialogue about what they want to move forward with in more detail in the 2027 FYI budget, what their asks are, the reasoning why they need that. And then we ask for performance measures on some of the issues. Response time has always been a big one. RETURN ON INVESTMENT ON SOME OF THE DEPARTMENTS, HOW MANY, WHEN WE GET INTO DEVELOPMENTAL SERVICES, WHEN WE SEE A DECREASE IN PERMITS, WE ASK QUESTIONS, WHAT'S THE TREND? SO IT'S A VERY GOOD DIALOGUE OF QUESTIONS BACK AND FORTH OF THE BAB. AND THEN WE ASK THAT WHAT ARE SOME OF THE ENHANCED FUNDING THAT THEY'RE GOING TO NEED? And as I mentioned previously, they were very mindful going in with their budgets and with clear direction working with the city manager and OMB that they had to really come in very, very lean looking at not fluff into their budgets. And I'm happy to report, as you'll find out later today, they have done that. Another thing that we've talked as a board and I've brought this to the attention of the commission for about the last eight months, we focused on reviewing topics that would have impacts for FY27. Keeping in mind that we wanted to look at, we understand that affordability and cost of living is a big concern for the taxpayers, not only for the homeowners, but also the renters. and the people that live here in our community in a lot of the downtown rental units. We also dove into what AI, artificial intelligence, can hold for the future in efficiency opportunities. As you know, and Commissioner Herbst, we've had some good discussions about the future of AI. And yes, it will affect jobs, but there's more efficiency and there's a way to handle those job losses through attrition, not filling vacancies, perhaps buyouts. There's other opportunities as we move forward. But this is the trend in the nation of all municipalities as we move forward incorporating AI and especially the larger municipalities such as ours. We also recognize that there's revenue loss, but there's also with some revenue losses come opportunities for additional cost recovery and enhancements, which we've looked at and we are putting together a report in more detail that when we come back in August, we'll report back on some of our ideas. I'm pleased to report though that some of those, the city manager and OMB and department heads have already taken TAKING SOME OF THOSE COMMENTS AND THEY'RE LEANING FORWARD TO START WORKING TOWARDS WITH THIS COMMISSION TO TRY TO RECAPTURE SOME OF THOSE ENHANCEMENTS AND SOME OF THOSE ADDITIONAL REVENUE SOURCES. AND THEN OUR BUDGET APPROACH IS OBVIOUSLY TO WORK WITHIN OUR MEANS IN A BALANCED BUDGET WITH BALANCING STRATEGIES. AND THEN THE MILITARY AND BENCHMARKING ON THE MILITARY. As you know, we went 19 years up to this year with no millage increase. We've been fortunate enough to have assessed values increase. However, when you look historically now, those assessed values are trending downward. We're not in the double digits like we were three and four years ago. We're in 7%, 8%. And with the downturn of the housing, CONSTRUCTION MARKET AND COMMERCIAL, THERE'S A POSSIBILITY THAT FOR THE NEXT TWO TO THREE YEARS UNTIL THE INDUSTRY MAKES AN ADJUSTMENT, WE'RE GOING TO SEE THAT DOWNWARD TREND. SO THE BOARD HAS TAKEN ALL THESE PROJECTS AND BROKEN IT UP AS TEAM, INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS, AND DOVE IN, AND WE'LL COME BACK, AS I MENTIONED, IN AUGUST WITH A MORE DETAILED REPORT ON THAT. WE ARE FACING A TURNING POINT IN OUR BUDGET. THE EXPENSES ARE FAR OUTCEEDING THE REVENUES COMING IN. AS YOU KNOW, 61% OF OUR BUDGET IS PUBLIC SAFETY AND SALARIES AND BENEFITS. I THINK 63%, MAYBE SLIGHTLY HIGHER, IS THE REST OF ALL CITY EMPLOYEES. AND THAT'S OUT OF THE OPERATING BUDGET. SO WE'RE MINDFUL OF THE FACT THAT THE PIE IS ONLY SO BIG. AND IT CAN ONLY BE SLICED SO MANY WAYS, AND THOSE SLICES HAVE TO MEET THE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES SET OUT IN THE PRIORITIES OF THE CITY COMMISSION. AND AS I MENTIONED, THE DOWNTURN IN THE REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT AND THEN WITH THE MICROECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY OF THE COST OF GOODS. We're seeing an increase on projects that we had budgeted for in the CIP that are having to do change orders because of inflation and everything that weren't anticipated when they were designed and planned five years ago. So that puts a lot of strain on the budget as well as we move forward in 2027. Just some of the insights that I've talked about is on the THE OPERATING BUDGET AND PERSONNEL COST. CURRENTLY WE UNDERSTAND THAT THE CITY IS IN NEGOTIATIONS WITH PUBLIC SAFETY UNIONS, POLICE AND FIRE, FOR A CONTRACT. THAT'S GOING TO HAVE SOME IMPACT ON THE FY27 BUDGET AND FUTURE YEARS, DEPENDING ON THE LENGTH OF TERM OF THE THREE-YEAR BUDGET. So we have to have some budget reform and recalibration of salaries for other departments as well. Currently, we've been informed that there's a study being done by HR for salary alignments. One of the big concerns that I can tell you that we hear from the residents is there is a perception out there that the city's kind of bloated with the number of employees and our salaries. And so hopefully once we have the salary study done, we can take a good look at it, dive in with additional information. At the same time, we have to make sure that we're competitive in the workforce market so that we can attract young, bright, new employees that can also incorporate AI, but at the same time making affordability for the long-term financial stability of our city. As I mentioned, the budget, the millage rate, And we have to, you know, some, hopefully, if not hopefully, but if the tax reform homestead pass, if the referendum were to pass, that will give some relief. But then there's, as we'll talk about later today, there'll be some challenges involved with that as it pertains to our budget. And then looking at the new city hall, we have not actually had the opportunity to dive in. to that. We're waiting until your July meeting and then you have additional information as to the financial impact on a new city hall versus a retrofit building and the finances involved with that whole package. We will look forward to your direction on weighing in after that meeting as to what direction THE COMMISSION GOES WITH AND THE FUNDING MECHANISM. HISTORICALLY THAT HAS BEEN ON PROJECTS WHERE IT'S INVOLVED BOND MONEY, THAT'S THE POINT WHERE THE BUDGET ADVISORY BOARD HAS GOT ACTIVELY INVOLVED WORKING WITH OMB ON MOVING FORWARD WITH THOSE TYPES OF PROJECTS. SO IN THE INTEREST OF TIME, WE COME TO YOU TO COMMUNICATE THAT WE WOULD RECOMMEND THE FOLLOWING THAT HAS TO BE DETERMINED BY THE, OF JULY, I THINK IT'S JULY 1ST OR JULY 3RD, DON'T HOLD ME CORRECT TO THAT DATE, BUT YOU HAVE TO SET THE MAXIMUM MILLAGE RATE AND THEN ESTABLISH A FIRE ASSESSMENT FEE. WE ARE RECOMMENDING SUPPORT FOR THE FIRE ASSESSMENT FEE TO BE RAISED TO $444. THAT'S AN INCREASE OVER LAST YEAR. And then we recommend that we keep the millage rate the same for the 20th consecutive year. And with that, I'll entertain any questions.

Bill, maybe just one question on this slide, and then I have others, but later. The millage rate, that was a five to two vote as opposed to the seven to zero vote. What were the arguments, the negative arguments on that five to two vote?

One of the board members felt they wanted to see a decrease. And then one of the board members felt to help with rental costs, he thought the best would be an increase to help offset any property tax reform that could be coming. Okay, thank you.

Just to add to what Chair Brown mentioned, I believe the context around the board member maybe wanting a decrease was that perhaps there was a feeling that it was premature to make an evaluation and assessment of the military at this point.

Great. Thank you. Thank you, Chair Brown. Thank you for your work. Commissioner Hertz.

Sure. So when we're talking about the fire assessment fee going up to $444,000, again, I haven't seen the cost study that supports that. So assuming when we're looking at this, what portion of the new fire stations that are being constructed goes into that increase up to $444,000?

SO 444 REPRESENTS FULL COST RECOVERY FOR THE FIRE ASSESSMENT. IT WILL GENERATE ABOUT $8.4 MILLION IN REVENUE, OF WHICH WE ANTICIPATE NEEDING ABOUT 7.8 FOR THE HOLIDAY PARK FIRE STATION.

OKAY. SO I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE NOT CAPTURING ANY OF THE EMS COST IN THAT. THAT'S ALL.

NO. AND THE BOARD ALSO FELT THAT BY THE INCREASE, IT'S MORE TRANSPARENT TO THE TAXPAYER. ON THE FIRE ASSESSMENT AND FULL COST RECOVERY. AS YOU KNOW, THE OFFICIAL STUDY IS DONE EVERY THREE YEARS, BUT INTERNALLY THEY LOOK AT FULL COST RECOVERY EVERY YEAR.

UNDERSTOOD, BILL. MY ONLY QUESTION IS JUST TO STAFF, MAKING SURE THAT AS WE'RE LOOKING AT THIS, AS YOU PROBABLY ARE AWARE, WE CANNOT CAPTURE THE COST OF EMS IN THE FIRE ASSESSMENT FEE. WE CAN CAPTURE CERTAIN COSTS, IT HAS TO RELATE TO THE VALUE OF PROPERTY. AND SO AS WE'RE ADDING NEW FACILITIES, I WANT TO UNDERSTAND WHAT PORTION OF NEW FACILITIES IS BEING BAKED INTO THIS OR IS THIS STRICTLY OPERATIONAL COSTS? I WANT TO UNDERSTAND, IS THERE A CAPITAL OVERHEAD COST? I WANT TO, CURIOUS ABOUT, FOR EXAMPLE, THE FIRE BOAT, YOU KNOW, IS THAT BEING CAPTURED IN HERE? BECAUSE THAT'S REALLY DESIGNED TO PATROL THE WATERWAYS AND PROTECT BOATS AND NOT PROPERTY. I just want to understand what we're doing with this.

Yeah, and we're fully aware it has to add value to the delivery of service other than, as you mentioned, EMS. EMS cannot be a component of the delivery of service of this assessment fee.

It's not even just delivery of service. It has to relate to real property, a house. Correct. Okay. Okay.

So good afternoon, Laura Reese, Director of Office of Management and Budget. Good afternoon, Laura. So Stantec Consulting is our partner on the fire assessment fee. They did the full cost allocation last year, and then we updated the fee. We have index codes that are broken up in certain ways based on that analysis. So both operating and capital costs that are included are allowable. And it includes the operational costs, and for each new fire station, the capital costs over a three-year period, we recover those. Hold on, back up.

You recover the cost of a fire station in three years?

Yes.

That does not sound realistic to me. We have a 40-year lifespan on a fire station, and you're recovering the cost in three years?

Because the city chose to cash fund them versus financing them through debt, that's the mechanism that we have through the fire assessment to recover the cost.

I don't believe that's realistic. You have a weighted average cost of capital that you have to utilize when you have debt outstanding and you use... If you are using cash funding and you also have outstanding debt funding, you have to use a weighted average cost of capital methodology for determining that. Mr. Auditor, have you looked at this study and are you comfortable with this? Because I'm not.

I do not look at the specifics of that.

Would you please do so? Because I'm not comfortable with this. Okay. I do not believe this is GAAP accounting, so...

So this is the same study that we brought forward last year. It's just updated with new information.

Perhaps I should have looked at it a little bit more closely last year as it related to capital financing.

Yes, we're happy to share it with the auditor.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Commissioner Beasley-Pittman.

Good afternoon, everyone. To this board, thank you for what you have done, the time that you have put into this for us. I'm always amazed with the time and how you do your due diligence. You all really go in hard, and I appreciate it because some of this is, I don't want to use the word Greek, but yeah, it's kind of Greek to me at times, but I do follow dollars, so I understand that part of it. But one of the questions I have is about the conversation about the military. We have this conversation from the dais throughout the year, not just at this time. Yes, we've had that consistency of not changing the millage rate, but I would like to even have a conversation among us to see about changing it, elevating it to see what it would do. Also, because when I look at it overall, even though our millage rate is staying intact, the other items that are coming alongside it are being increased. And how do we make a balance out of this? Because what we do know, the increase overall affects everyone in the city. So are we really balancing this? Are we just kind of holding a placeholder? And are we able to do this where there is an increase that helps also offset what we're looking at?

We hear you. You know, it's a delicate balance, especially for some of your constituents when we raise the millage rate.

Right.

And, you know, the other thing is, depending on the outcome of the property tax reform, you know, the perception if you raise the millage rate, going into next year with that looming in the November election. What's the perception of that? However, I think everyone would support. We are, as I mentioned, we are at a turning point. And that turning point is our expenses are far exceeding our revenues. And you're going to hear about that later, I'm sure, in the Stantec report. So with that keeping in mind, you know, rather than to get hit a year or two years down the road with a larger percentage, sometimes it's a softer, gentler approach to the taxpayers to do it at small amounts versus one big percentage fee, whatever. The challenge here is for you as commissioners is you have to set, if I stand corrected, please, but that has to be set the maximum millage rate by, July 2nd, which is fastly approaching. So whatever decision the commission makes, it has to be done before July 2nd.

Right, understood. And with that, you know, being responsible commissioners also, I just always, when I think about these items that come before us, I always operate in the realm that how I survived in my home. because I'm from that class where I've worked all my life. My family's worked. We had to adjust to whatever is going on. So how I stretch those dollars, how I have to sit down and say, you know what, this has been nice for the last five years, but for me to survive the next five years, I need to cut back. There's some things that I need to approach and maybe eliminate or maybe shave back some. And I'M BELIEVING AS A COMMISSION THAT'S SOMETHING THAT WE NEED TO ALSO CONSIDER. SO THAT'S WHERE THIS THOUGHT IS COMING FROM. BECAUSE THAT DELICATE BALANCE, I BELIEVE, WILL MAKE WHATEVER WE NEED TO DO MOVING FORWARD A LITTLE MORE SOFTER TO EMBRACE.

CORRECT. I've always kept, and I think some of the fellow board members, when you look at the increase in assessed values, irregardless of what that percentage is, be it 7%, 8%, the first 5% every year in assessed value roughly covers salaries and benefits. If you give a 3% raise, then you have health insurance costs, you have increase in pension plans and everything. So that's why, as a rule of thumb, you use about 5%. So that just covers 5% of any assessed value. It's just for salaries and benefits going for future years. Thank you.

Thank you. Again, thank you to the board.

Thank you. Commissioner Glassman, and I shared initially.

No, I'm good. I also want to say thank you very much for the work, and I look forward to further discussions on this. So thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Great. I have some comments, but City Manager, did you have anything you wanted to share at this point? No.

I'LL RESERVE MY TIME FOR WHEN WE TALK ABOUT THE PRELIMINARY BUDGET PROPOSAL.

OKAY. GREAT. THANK YOU. AND CITY MANAGER, I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT SOME OF WHAT CHAIR BROWN MENTIONED IN TERMS OF SALARIES AND STAFFING. SHOULD I WAIT UNTIL WE GO INTO THE BUDGET PROPOSAL FOR THAT? AT YOUR DISCRETION. OKAY. I'LL WAIT UNTIL THEN. THANK YOU. For just for clarity around the fire assessment fee. So it sounds like Commissioner Herbst would like some further information, which is sounds good, makes sense. So city manager, I'm just thinking from a timing perspective, when we have to make that decision, that's also July 2nd. Is that our aim for fire assessment fee as well?

WE CAN HAVE THAT INFORMATION PROVIDED TO THE AUDITOR AND DO ANY FOLLOW-UP NECESSARY BEFORE OR ON THE JULY 2ND DATE. OKAY. COMMISSIONER, DO YOU THINK THAT'S OKAY? HE'S SAYING AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE.

EXPEDITIOUSLY. GREAT. OKAY. SO WE'LL ENGAGE IN THAT CONVERSATION THEN AS A BODY AT LEAST AND WE'LL ALL BE PROVIDED THAT INFORMATION. Fantastic. For the millage rate conversation, again, we have to make that decision by July 2nd. Commissioner Beasley, would you like us as a body to talk about that a little bit more now as a body?

Yes, because that's going to be my question. By July 2nd, that means that they need to know.

before we meet? We can make that decision on July 2nd. Oh, we can. But I think to your point, I think it'd be healthy for us to start that conversation now if you're interested.

Yes, I would love for us to have that conversation now.

Great. Commissioner Hertz, do you want to? Sure. So last year I advocated for a millage rate decrease. I would advocate for a millage rate decrease again this year. Holding it steady is... acceptable, but not as preferable to me. A millage rate increase would not be acceptable to me, and I'll tell you why. We're moving forward with a referendum that is designed to reduce property tax burden on our residents. It seems to me that it flies in the face of that referendum to go ahead then and increase our millage rate to offset what the taxpayers are trying to accomplish, assuming that that passes. So I would not be in favor of it for that reason. Thank you. Thank you. Go ahead, Commissioner.

Commissioner, if you could, we can have this conversation. In the direction of decrease, what amount and what would that balance, explain a little bit more for me so I can understand how the decrease would also get us to that point for a balance of keeping at a soft acceptance.

So what I would like to see is an attempt for us to reduce our millage rate Even if it's just a nominal amount, again, to show the taxpayers that we understand the economic stress that they're under. Again, this was done by the county last year. It should have been done by the city, I believe. We didn't do it. I think we missed an opportunity to show that we recognize the stress that our residents are under. I would like to see us do that. I think we can debate what that number ought to be. and what the impact of that might be. Again, I've always said I think there's rooms for reductions in our city budget, and I still believe that's the case. I'd be happy to go through the budget line by line. I've done it for the better part of 20 years and point out where I think those reductions should be, but I really think that's the responsibility of the city manager, not the city commission to micromanage the budget. I certainly don't want to do it from the dais.

Commissioner Herbst, when you think about possible millage decreases, what number, percentage, what comes to mind for you?

I think we can get away with at least a .1 decrease in the millage. Again, I'm not looking to slash and burn, but I think we can make a step in the right direction that, again, shows the taxpayers that we take the financial distress that they're experiencing seriously. Oil prices have battered our economy. Rising insurance rates have battered our homeowners, and I think moving in a direction of trying to reduce the impact of taxes on our residents just shows that we are empathetic and recognize the challenges that they're experiencing.

Thank you. City Manager, could we have a sense if just as we're contemplating possibilities of 0.1 decrease, what impact is that on the budget? Thank you. I see our budget director coming forward.

Let me just quickly flip to the page in the budget. So around $6 million based on the 2026 budget, so a little bit higher than that for 2027.

So point one would be $7 million.

A little north of six, yeah.

A little north of six, but no more than seven for a decrease in revenue. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Commissioner Glassman.

Yes, thanks. I don't think this is the right year to look at a millage rate decrease, so I'm not in favor of that at all. I think we have enough challenges that we need to face head on without also adding to those challenges. 19 years at 4-1-1-9-3, I think we can hit 20 years. I'm also not in favor of an increase. to the millage. But I think we should leave it alone and focus on how we can make cuts and how we could do things in a leaner way. I'm looking forward to that discussion. We have a lot of things on our plate right now. So I just think this is the wrong year. We had other years where we might have looked at a millage rate decrease and we did not. But I just think I'm very much opposed to a millage rate decrease heading into the next fiscal year. I don't think it makes any sense with everything else that we're facing, everything else that we need to do. It was my preference. I think the state legislature... should have not deflected with this bill. I think they should have taken the real challenges head-on, like property insurance premiums, things like that, auto insurance premiums. There are ways that people could have saved money without this drastic approach to what it will do to cities and counties. So, again, I just wanted to basically tell you that I don't think this is a good year to look at a millage rate decrease. Thank you.

Great. Thank you. I am... I definitely at minimum want to keep the millage rate exactly where it is. It's my view. I'm open to the idea of a decrease. So I think city manager, maybe for our next meeting, could that be that point one possibility be laid out a little bit for us with greater, maybe a little bit greater kind of depth to it?

Yes, we can do that, Vice Mayor. Would the Commission also want to see some variation to that reduction, some other points where we could look at some savings?

Sure. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman, I'll turn it over to you if that's how you feel.

Yes, I'm in agreement with that. I'm pondering what I'm hearing also, understanding that the majority is leaning in the way of either staying or a decrease. even though we've at that place, can we also look at what that one point increase would look like for the conversation for the increase? Are we okay with that? Sure. Because again, what I'm thinking of is even, you know, I know we don't want to see increases, but if it gets us to a point where we are a little bit more balanced, that's the whole goal. If there's decrease or increase wherever it is that we're being at the best, um, responsibility for our neighbors, I think we should look at both sides of it.

We can provide that information.

Thank you.

Great. So in other words, if I'm hearing the commission right, it's looking at 0.1 increase, staying the same 0.1 decrease.

Yes.

Thank you. Okay, great. Thank you. Um, for the fire assessment fee, we'll further that conversation with the additional detail provided. prior to our next meeting, but we'll have a discussion at the next meeting. Sure, yes.

I have a question. Commissioner Herbst, could you redefine what specifically you were looking for, the calculation or how we were doing?

So two things. One, I would like you just to look over their methodology and just opine as to whether you're comfortable with it. And then more specifically, the idea of recouping the costs of new facilities in three years. So typically, we look at a 30-year useful life of a building, and we would apportion that cost over the 30 years. The thing I'm trying to avoid here is the issue of intergenerational equity, where we're basically having the taxpayers of today pay for a structure that's going to benefit people for the next 30 years. I mean, we're passing the cost along, and that's unfair. It's inherently unfair to do that. And the idea that we're paying for it for cash and we're not bonding it is irrelevant from a financing perspective. So cash is fungible. Whether we use cash on hand or whether we use debt is irrelevant to the question of how we apportion costs from an equitable perspective. especially when you have existing debt. So when you look at, for example, how you capitalize the cost of a building under GAAP, if you pay cash for it, you still have to impute the value of interest if you have any outstanding debt. So that's GAAP accounting, right? So it's the same concept. You can't ignore the cost of financing just because you happen to have cash on hand if you have any outstanding debt, which we already do. So same concept applies. Thank you. Thank you.

Great. Thank you, Commissioner Herbs. If you're here for the 1 p.m. city conference meeting, we're just in the Budget Advisory Board joint workshop, so apologize for the delay to the start to the 1 p.m., but obviously our budget is a critical discussion point, so thank you for bearing with us. Okay. Thank you, Chair Brown. I'd now like to give the opportunity for individual members of the Budget Advisory Board. I want to give you a chance if you'd like to share feedback, ideas, any individual commentary you might have. I want to make sure you have the chance to do that. Yeah, please. Go ahead. Come on up. Yeah.

Can you hear me? Yes. Vice Mayor, commissioners, I bought a house 18 years ago, moved in with my husband. I'm invested in this city. We've been community leaders and working with the rest of the community. I joined the BAP to make a difference and in mind the interests of the residents, the voice of the residents, and I think it should be part of our focus at BAP. So I did a deep dive that I shared with some of you in terms of analytics and the diagnostic in which we are. The key is among some board members there are different views and as a single board member I'd like to come from my analytics background, professional and also what I did GOING BACK TO THREE YEARS BEHIND AND SEEING THE PROJECTION FROM STANTEC IS THAT WE'RE IN A CRISICAL SITUATION. AND I THINK THE IDEA THAT COST SAVING, OPTIMIZATION COULD LEAD ACCORDING TO AN APPROACH THAT I SHARED AND CHAMPIONED WITH MY COLLEAGUES FOR THE PAST SIX MONTHS COULD LEAD TO $60 MILLION SAVINGS AND I HAVE THE RECEIPT FOR THAT. IT CAN BE DISPUTED THAT IT WOULD BE 50 OR 30, BUT THAT WOULD PROBABLY ALLOW THE CITY TO CONTEMPLATE LOTS OF BUDGET CUTS THAT ARE DRASTIC, MAYBE COMING BACK TO A LEVEL OF GENERAL FUND THAT WE HAD IN FISCAL YEAR 2025. WHAT DO WE DO WITH THOSE SAVINGS? WE DON'T GO AHEAD AND SPEND IT AGAIN BECAUSE WE CONTINUE FEEDING THE BEAST. And we don't have the revenue to justify that anymore. We were at 11% a few years ago of growth in real estate development at Valorem. It's slowing down. Like the chairman shared, and there's more to it, $68 out of every $100 that we generate in revenue go to salaries and fridge benefits. And it's going to get bigger. WORSE AND WORSE SO I WAS TRYING TO HAVE A DYNAMIC PICTURE OF WHAT'S HAPPENING WHAT HAS HAPPENED IN THE PAST THREE YEARS SO THE NUMBERS ARE ALL. I JUST YOU KNOW EXCEL DOESN'T MAKE MISTAKES ONLY PEOPLE BUT JUST LOOKING AT THE DYNAMIC PICTURE I THINK IT'S TIME TO EMPOWER YOUR CITY MANAGER TO. do the dirty job that probably had or should have been done a few years ago, and stop the bloating and the growth of our city government. Make an effort. The city manager can do that. She has the talent. She's a lead transformation agent. She's not here to justify what's been in the past. I would actually empower her to say, let's be serious as heads of department. Let's do real budget cuts without reducing service level too significantly and being aware of that. And then with that, let's consider not what I heard 10 minutes ago, a decrease of 0.1. And I've got the receipt for that, too, if you look at my presentation. Let's take a look at what the Alvaloram loss is going to be for the next two years, about $44 million. Let's take a look at what City Hall knew or... EXISTING REFIT WOULD COST, AND LET'S MAKE A HOLISTIC DECISION AS TO WHAT MILLAGE RATE CHANGE WE SHOULD CONSIDER. AND ACCORDING TO MY CALCULATIONS, AND I'M SURE OMB CITY MANAGER STAFF WILL DO THAT MUCH BETTER THAN I DID, you can then make an informed decision and not do a knee-jerk reaction about, oh, let's do 0.1 relief, because you might need another 0.3 raise in three years, and we'll hear from Stantec soon. So let's do something that's sustainable, that leads to real savings and budget cut and optimization. Let's get on a diet. And let's provide a reasonable, possibly relief for the residents, even symbolic. Remember the school board, the Broad County School Board, Miami-Dade and Broad County have all considered that in the past two fiscal years. So if they can do it, and other municipalities in Broad County that are smaller than us have done it too. Let's take a hard look at that. So I would say empower your city manager to look into that holistically with those three parameters. Structural and sustainability of our budget that we were here last year already with. Second, the ad valorem loss. And third, city hall, whatever its impact is, existing or new. That's all I have to say. Great.

Thank you very much.

Olivier, by the way, I just want to thank you. So I did some light reading over the weekend. Thank you for sending that on a Friday.

It's really what the city does, so why not?

I appreciate it. But, no, it was incredibly valuable information. I want to just thank you. It was incredibly detailed. And I did get a lot of value out of it. Is there anything in particular out of that presentation that you would like to highlight or bring to our attention? There's a lot of dense information in there.

I think I gave you the overall thinking.

No, I'm thinking more for the audience. Is there anything out of that that you would like to highlight from that?

The idea is that our city government needs to be considerate of affordability for our residents. I think we... I LIVE IN DISTRICT ONE. I'M FORTUNATE, BUT I KNOW NEIGHBORS WHO ARE ACTUALLY CONSIDERING TO SELL THEIR HOUSE BECAUSE THEY CAN'T AFFORD IT ANYMORE. NOT BECAUSE ONLY OF THE MILLAGE RATE CONSTANT. BY THE WAY, THE MILLAGE RATE IS CONSTANT, BUT WE TAX PEOPLE ON FIRE ASSESSMENT INCREASE. THAT'S BEEN 30% IN THE PAST TWO YEARS. NOT THIS RECENT INCREASE ONLY. and the sanitation, stormwater. So if you look at holistically, the taxation from our city, it adds 1.43 to the 4.1193. And by the way, the 4.1193 has been constant while we increased the taxable value 245% since 2007, 120% since 2015, 16. So we get more and more revenue. We feed the beast. And I think we need to reverse that logic for the sake of residents. We need our residents to continue to be able to raise their children and grandchildren and still own their house, affording their mortgage, affording everything. I think the tax property reform can give some relief. It doesn't mean that we can't show as a city that we can do that a little bit too. And the taxation doesn't work the same way. The tax value relief will go to the modest people for whom the tax value 250K, lots of people, 46%, I think, in our county, I think. OF THE PROPERTIES ARE ABOUT THAT LEVEL, 250K. IT'S A HUGE RELIEF FOR THEM. SO CONSIDERING THAT RELIEF AND KEEP OUR CITY AFFORDABLE IS KEY AND I THINK SHOULD BE CENTRAL TO THE BAB, THAT'S OUR CORE MISSION, BUT ALSO TO THE CITY COMMISSION, WITH ALL YOUR RESPECT.

THANK YOU.

ANY OTHER QUESTIONS?

CITY MANAGER, ANY COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS ON HIS FEEDBACK OR SUGGESTIONS?

The feedback is appreciated. It reflects some of the conversations that the Budget Advisory Board has had over the past several months. So nothing that was shared is surprising to me or to the Office of Management and Budget. I do think that there are opportunities for additional strategic reductions, and I'd like to float those concepts to the Commission today and in advance of me bringing forward a proposed budget.

Great. And if I may, Vice Mayor, so I'm going to touch once more on AI. I'm an evangelist for this. So I have consulting clients that I work with. I just finished up a project that would normally have taken me about three months and produced a 38-page document, McKinsey-level work product, and I got it done in a week. This would have taken months to do, and I got it done in a week using a combination of Copilot and Claude and chat. That is the level of productivity that you can get through the utilization of LLMs. So if we're not incorporating this into everything that we're doing, we're missing a huge opportunity. I keep telling everybody I talk to, in five years, your job is going to be taken over, not by AI, by somebody that uses it. So every single department in this city has to find ways to incorporate these various LLMs into everything you do all day, every day. Just saying it. The productivity gains are astronomical.

Yep. Thank you. I agree. I think AI is amazing tool. So, and city manager, I'm assuming that how are you implementing that as commissioner Herbst mentioned into what staff members do day in and day out.

Thank you, vice mayor and commissioner Herbst. So in last year's budget, with the support of this commission, we incorporated resources to have training with co-pilot in a, pilot phase, and then we rolled it out to most of our employees. What we're going through right now is identifying specific use cases for AI in different departments. So it's not enough to just say we're using co-pilot or chat GPT, but how does that equate to efficiency or cost savings? So for each department, we're looking at what can AI be used for that is actually going to turn into savings for the taxpayers, residents, stakeholders, savings of time and effort. So while we know AI in general will allow increased productivity, it doesn't always equate to a financial gain or savings. So for example, in our DEVELOPMENT SERVICES DEPARTMENT, WE'RE LOOKING AT HOW TO INCORPORATE AI INTO OUR PLAN REVIEW PROCESS SO THAT WE CAN TURN OVER THOSE PLANS FASTER FOR OUR CUSTOMERS. IN HUMAN RESOURCES, WE'RE STARTING TO UTILIZE AI FOR screening for employees or those wanting to become an employee within our city. So every department is going to be a little bit different. Not every department is going to see a significant savings by the utilization of AI, but I think we have to approach it more strategically while we're also looking at the broad and general view of how we apply AI across the organization.

Could I flip that script? The best way you're going to do this is not a top-down approach. It's to give everybody the tool and tell them to go play in the sandbox. The ingenuity of the staff is going to be a lot more productive than having managers say, do this. I'm telling you, trust your staff and let it bubble up from the ground. Top-down never works when it comes to doing stuff like this. Again, it's a sandbox. Tell people to go play. They'll find out things that you never even imagined they could do.

I have a question with AI. How does that lie with the security of things that we're trying to do, privacy areas? I'm trying to think back when I went to National League of City, there was a conversation about AI, and there were some points, you know, that positive, negative, and how to balance it. But how do we approach research and reports that we're putting out and still have that level of security that we would need in our agency.

So Copilot is part of our MS365 platform, so it's an internal one. If you're using Claude or if you're using Grok or if you're using Chat, that's external. So it depends on what you're doing. So when I'm doing something for a client, I'm working usually on Copilot because that's within their platform, or we have our own in-house AGENTS THAT WE UTILIZE. SO ALL OF OUR DATA IS FENCED IN. SO WE'RE NOT PUTTING IT OUT THERE. IF YOU'RE USING CHAT AND YOU'RE TAKING PERSONAL INFORMATION, YOU'RE ESSENTIALLY MAKING IT AVAILABLE TO EVERYBODY. BUT IF WE'RE USING COPILOT, WHICH IS WHAT WE HAVE HERE, IT'S TIED INTO OUR MS365 PLATFORM, SO IT'S ESSENTIALLY FENCED OFF. SO IT KIND OF RESOLVES THAT TO A CERTAIN EXTENT.

And Commissioner, we have Ron McKenzie, our IT Director. He was actually instrumental in developing our AI policy, and so I'll turn it over to him at this time.

Good afternoon, Commissioner. Ron McKenzie, Chief Information Officer, IT Director. Much of what you're saying about the learning language modules that we have are important as we learn, but we have to do it safe, as you're also saying, Commissioner Beasley-Pittman. We definitely have to do it safe as we roll things out. Co-pilot, as he said, is both internal and external as we're looking. As we were rolling it out through the pilot, we learned some lessons to make sure that things are safeguarded. We're in the process now of reviewing how we're going to roll it out to PD to make sure that things are safe and to make sure that people do not have access to things that they should not have access to. So as we talk about AI, it's important, and it is a very, very, very important tool. But what's important even more so is that it can reach out. It has wings to reach out and to grow. And we have to make sure that as it reaches out, it reaches out very safely. Each tool that we have, we are rolling out to make sure that it's safe. Some of the things that we have that will be presented to you is our AI platforms. And some of those things are voice AI. We wanted to be able to that when you call the city of Fort Lauderdale, you say, hi, welcome to Fort Lauderdale. And it says, okay, when is the next commission meeting? It tells you that information and it tells you, okay, listen, the next thing is I'd like to make a, I want a permit. What type of permit would you like? So we have various tools that we're looking to, but we're looking to make it efficient and effective. So to make sure each and every person that's using it in each and every department has that tool and they're able to do what they do better. not as much as a reduction in staff, but to make sure the staff that we have are using it better. And I think that's how it makes a better Fort Lauderdale, because each way that we're able to do it, we provide a better asset to each one of the residents, the businesses, et cetera. That's the way we're trying to roll it out.

But there's other things. Let me give you a really good example, right? So on today's agenda, we've got a discussion about the federal courthouse. One of the questions that has come up in some of our conversations is about What's the GSA's requirements for consideration of historic properties as it relates to the disposal of properties within their portfolio? I don't need to worry about... whether that's private, confidential, or privileged information. I can go into chat or Claude and say, pull up the CFR, Code of Federal Regulations, and tell me what GSA's requirements are for historic properties. I could even list a specific property, and that is research that would have taken a staff member at least a day, if not more, to put together, and it's back in 10 seconds. And then I take that one, and I drop it in the chat, and I say, chat, please verify what Claude just told me. AND THEN I TAKE THAT AND I DROP IT INTO GROK AND I SAY, GROK, I DON'T TRUST EITHER ONE OF THESE TWO. TAKE A LOOK AT IT AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK. AND WITHIN FIVE MINUTES, I HAVE A COMPLETE ANALYSIS, AGAIN, THAT'S A CONSULTANT LEVEL REVIEW OF EVERYTHING THAT HAS TO DO WITH THE HISTORICAL REQUIREMENTS FOR GSA TO DISPOSE OF PROPERTY.

AND I GOT IT DONE.

AND THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN AT LEAST A DAY'S WORTH OF RESEARCH FOR SOMEBODY TO PUT TOGETHER AND TYPE UP A MEMO FOR DISTRIBUTION TO THE COMMISSION IF NOT A WEEK. AND I CAN DO THAT IN FIVE MINUTES. And I can even tell it by style of, I want you to write this as a city commissioner to my colleagues or to staff or something else, and it knows my voice and it writes it in that format. So these are the kinds of time-saving things that you can do that don't get into the security issues that you're talking about.

You are correct, Commissioner. One of the other things that we do as it relates to that, you're right, and that's why we teach co-pilot as we're rolling out co-pilot. We are telling them to do that, to roll it out to make things better. In co-pilot, you can literally say, I want a 10-page PowerPoint on this particular subject matter, and it will produce it. One of the things that I want to make people safe and sure about also is that hallucination aspect, to make sure that even though that document is produced, that we check that document over to make sure that it's right before we send it out. So I Again, AI is a very important tool. You can increase efficiency and effectiveness, but we have to do it properly. So safety must always be the first thing that we do because once you put it out with your name on it, it is yours. And so we own it and we're responsible for it.

That's why I told Claude, watch out because chat lies.

You don't start the war.

They go back and forth. And by the way, if you ever use grok, it is profane. So I don't even want to tell you what grok has to say.

You probably heard this, Ron, the term AI slop. It's one of the challenges we have to navigate and use effectively. So, yeah, I think all great points. City Auditor, yeah.

Yeah, I just wanted to say that, you know, we used to co-pilot all the time. The efficiency of things that you could do that take you, like Commissioner Herbst said, that take a lot more time to do is really good. But I think, like, as you say, playing in the sandbox, I think the most important thing is to really... for everyone out there is the prompt, getting the prompt right. That is like the key to getting the best information that you want. And I just, you know, wanted to reiterate that point.

Yep. Agreed. Thank you. Thank you, Ron. Appreciate it. Olivier, thank you for your comments. Thank you for what you've emailed us. Very helpful. I completely agree about the pushing for efficiencies, being aware of what's coming down the road. So thank you very much. Chair Brown, go ahead.

IN REGARDS TO THE REPORT THAT YOU RECEIVED THIS PAST WEEKEND, THE CONSENSUS WAS THE BAB NOT TO RELEASE THAT JUST YET, BUT IT WAS. WE WILL BE COMING BACK WITH A REPORT FROM THE BAB AT THE AUGUST MEETING BECAUSE THERE ARE SOME DISCREPANCIES IN THAT INFORMATION THAT YOU RECEIVED, AND WE WANTED TO MAKE SURE YOU HAD ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.

THANK YOU. NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU. OTHER MEMBERS OF THE BUDGET ADVISORY BOARD, ANYONE ELSE LIKE TO SPEAK? At this point, here's what I'd like to do, and commissioners, if this is all right, we have more to do in the budget advisory board because the city manager is going to present. Does that have that right? But we also, going into our conference meeting, we have many elected officials that have come here to share with us a legislative update that many of them have just some very tight deadlines where we can only hum just for a little bit. So, commission, what I'd like to do, if it's okay and okay with you all, Babs, is just pause our BAB meeting, allow that portion of our conference meeting to partake for our legislative update, and then we'll reconvene with the BAB meeting. Is that okay? How much more do we have to do with the BAB meeting today?

There's a discussion of the preliminary budget as well as property taxes.

So it's a healthy city manager's presentation. This might be a strange question. Why did we change the conference meeting to 1 o'clock and schedule the BAB at 1230 and think that everyone was going to be here and on time and that we were going to be efficient?

So we moved the conference meetings to 1 o'clock going forward.

So that was the resolution. That doesn't answer the question, though. Why did we think that that was going to work today, scheduling BAB at 1230? Then we were supposed to start at 1. We have everyone here. I'm just wondering why we did that today. I'm just curious. Maybe it's a rhetorical question.

We'll start. I think when we have a joint workshop, I think it's a good point. I think the joint workshop, maybe now we start. Yeah, I think 11 or 11.30 we should start early. So, yeah, I think earlier the better. We've got to do a better job of that. So, great. Thank you. So is that okay, BAB members, if we just, if you have to leave, I understand, please, but would love to continue our conversation. So city clerk, what I'd like to do now is recess, if that's the appropriate word, recess the BAB meeting, and we'll begin the city conference meeting, the 1 p.m. meeting. And let me just see, Daphne Sandville, just want to... MAKE SURE. DO YOU HAVE EVERYONE HERE TO BEGIN THE LEGISLATIVE UPDATE? YOU'RE GOOD? OKAY. GREAT. SO NOW IF YOU'RE FOLLOWING ALONG AT HOME OR IN PERSON, WE'RE GOING TO GO TO THE 1 P.M. CITY COMMISSION CONFERENCE MEETING. WE'RE GOING TO SKIP TO CF1, WHICH IS THE 2026 END OF SESSION REPORT CITY MANAGER'S OFFICE. City Manager.

Thank you, Vice Mayor, and you've already teed it up, so if Daphne St. Ville, our Division Manager for Intergovernmental Affairs, would come forward, and I know various members of our legislative delegation are here, as well as our contract lobbyists, so definitely a team effort. Thank you.

ALL RIGHT, IT'S ON. YOU CAN HEAR ME? GOOD AFTERNOON, MAYOR, COMMISSIONERS, AND CITY MANAGER, EXECUTIVE TEAM. THIS IS THE 2026 END OF SESSION REPORT WITH THE PRESENTATION. I HAVE OUR CONTRACT LOBBYISTS AS WELL AS OUR MEMBERS OF THE LEGISLATURE, SENATOR ROSLYN OSGOOD, REPRESENTATIVES CAMPBELL, REPRESENTATIVES CASEL, Representative Chip LaMarca, Representative Rosenwald, and Representative Dunkley. So as they make their way up to the front, I will just briefly recap what happened in the 2026 legislative session. So at a glance, the Session adjourned without a state budget, and therefore there was a special session. There was actually three special sessions, the first to address congressional redistricting, the second to address the state budget in which they passed a $114.5 billion budget, and the third session was to address the property tax amendment. In our city appropriations, we secured $3.7 million, and I would like to give a special thank you to our members of the legislature for working hard at the governor's office to do that. IN PARTICULAR, THE GALT MILE STREET SAFETY IMPROVEMENT PROJECT WAS FULLY FUNDED AT OUR REQUESTED AMOUNT OF $1.25 MILLION. FIRE RESCUE FIRE BOAT REPLACEMENT WAS FULLY FUNDED AT $643,000. SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND MENTAL HEALTH HOUSING TREATMENT PROGRAM WAS ALSO FULLY FUNDED AT THE REQUESTED AMOUNT OF $250,000. WE ALSO RECEIVED PARTIAL FUNDING FOR THE LA SOLIS MOBILITY PROJECT AT 500,000 AND OUR AVIATION TECHNICAL TRAINING PROGRAM AT 500,000 AS WELL AS OUR ROADWAY RESURFACING PROJECT AT 425,000. UNFORTUNATELY WE LOST THREE PROJECTS BUT WE WILL LOOK TOWARDS NEXT SESSION AS TO HOW TO STRATEGIZE TO GET THOSE INTO THE BUDGET. The next topic, which is our exciting topic, property tax. There was the special session F for property tax. 60% of the voters on November 3rd would have to vote whether or not to adopt this constitutional amendment. In essence, what it does is, it's very small, but it would raise the non-school homestead exemption $150,000 in the first year and subsequently in the second year, raise it to $250,000. The new Florida residents as of January 1st, 2027 would qualify for or be eligible for the 50,000 normal exemption. After five years of residency, they can increase that exemption to 250,000. It lowers the assessment cap on non-homestead residential and other non-homestead property from 10% to 5%. It restricts the county and municipal ad valorem revenue to specific uses, which is public safety, education, infrastructure, natural resources, debt services, retirement benefits, and core operations. It also allows local governments to increase the exemption further by general law up to all remaining assessed value. And finally, what it does is it has a working waterfront properties assessed at current use and our save our homes portability is also maintained. The city impact for fiscal year 2028 is estimated to be 17 million and for fiscal year 2029 is estimated to be 27.3 million. And the path to the ballot, what we are considering doing is having a robust education and communications plan in which the city will communicate with residents what property tax does for the residents all the way to the November 3rd election day. On January 1st, if the constitutional amendment does pass, it would be effective. And then we would look towards the fiscal year 2028 budget and making any type of modifications and confirming with the property appraiser's office as to what we need to do moving forward. There were some key enacted bills that affect the city out of the 250 that we followed this year. There were about 1800 bills that were filed. So it was a significant amount that we worked on. The first being the local government DEI ban in which cities are barred from FUNDING OR PROMOTING DEI INITIATIVES. THE SECOND IS THE LAND USE DEVELOPMENT REGULATIONS BILL. IT TIES DEVELOPMENT FEE FOR ACTUAL COSTS AND REQUIRES OBJECTIVE COMPILABILITY STANDARDS. THE THIRD ARE BUILDING PERMITS AND INSPECTIONS WHERE THERE'S UNIFORM STATE APPLICATION INSPECTION FEES TIED TO ACTUAL COSTS. NEXT IS THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT FINANCE WHICH IS THE FISCAL TRANSPARENCY ACT. THIS IS SOMETHING THAT WE ALREADY HAVE IMPLEMENTED AND ARE ALREADY DOING WHERE IT MANDATES EXPANDED ONLINE POSTING OF BUDGETS, QUARTERLY COMPENSATION REPORTS AND ANNUAL BUDGET REDUCTIONS, WORKSHOPS AND WHERE THERE ARE IMPACT FEE CHANGES. NEXT IS THE ELECTRONIC PAYMENTS FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS WHERE IT REQUIRES CITIES TO ACCEPT CREDIT CARD DEBIT, EFT AND ONLINE PAYMENTS, AND THE LAST ONE IS MICROMOBILITY DEVICES, SO THAT'S THE E-BIKES LEGISLATION HAD PASSED THIS YEAR WHICH CAPS E-BIKES AT 10 MILES PER HOUR, NEAR PEDESTRIANS ON SIDEWALKS AND SHARED PATHWAYS. IT ALSO CREATES A TASK FORCE FOR FUTURE RECOMMENDATIONS USING THE DATA. Next is VertiPorts. It authorizes 80% of FDOT funding for public VertiPort projects and up to 100% if there's no federal funds available. The Sovereign Immunity Bill, after many years of coming through, finally passed where it raises tort claim caps from $200,000 to $300,000 per person and $350,000 to $500,000 per incident. THE NEXT BILL WOULD PROHIBIT NET ZERO GOVERNMENTAL POLICIES. SO IT BARS GOVERNMENTS FROM ADOPTING AND ENFORCING NET ZERO POLICIES OR FUNDING House Bill 1451 is the utility services where any outside city customers eliminates the 25% outside city surcharge and caps outside rates at less than or equal to 25% above the city rates. And it is tied to bond covenants. And finally, what we were looking at that past are the local government cybersecurity protection programs. THIS PIGGYBACKS ON THE GRANT PROGRAM THAT THE FLORIDA DIGITAL SERVICES AND CYBER SECURITY OR CYBER FLORIDA AGENCIES ARE PROMOTING. THERE ARE SOME BILLS THAT FAILED. POST DISASTER LAND USE, WHICH IS THE SB 180 FIX, IT WOULD HAVE SOFTENED THE REGULATIONS IN 2025 THAT LIMITS LOCAL I always have trouble with that word and post storm regulations and the restrictions remain the local government enforcement actions would have created an exclusive exclusive judicial mechanism to challenge city code enforcement. Prohibited use of public funds would have barred most city funding for Florida nonprofits. HOA REFORM, THE FLORIDA STARTER HOMES ACT ALSO FAILED, THE DRINKING STRAW AND STIR PREEMPTION BILL FAILED, AS WELL AS THE PUBLIC RECORDS EXEMPTION FOR CITY MANAGERS. SO LOOKING AHEAD, WE ARE HOPING THAT WE, WELL, THE GOVERNOR HAS NOT YET SIGNED THE BUDGET INTO LAW, SO THAT 3.57 MILLION THAT WE DID GET FOR OUR SIX CITY PROJECT STILL REMAINS IN LIMBO UNTIL HE SIGNS THE BUDGET. WE'RE LOOKING AT THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT, WHAT WE'RE DOING AS WE MOVE FORWARD. IT'S THE LARGEST REVENUE RISK. HOME RULE HAS BEEN NARROWED WITH THE DEI BAN AND OTHER NET ZERO PROHIBITIONS. THERE ARE FURTHER PREEMPTION BILLS THAT WERE FILED, HOWEVER THEY FAILED. AND THEN THERE'S SOME COMPLIANCE WORK WITH ULDR UPDATES, E-PAYMENTS, BUDGET TRANSPARENCY AND UTILITY RATE CHANGES. And we're just going to watch for next session what to do. And with that, I would like to welcome our members of the delegation, beginning with Senator Osgood.

Thank you, Daphne. Appreciate it. Senator Osgood.

Thank you. Good evening, commissioners, vice mayor to my commissioner, Commissioner Pam Beasley-Pittman. Certainly want to say good day to our amazing city manager and all of you. It's good to be here today. So thank you, Daphne, for all the work that you continue to do. I'm going to talk about a couple of things that were not per se city of Fort Lauderdale, but I think that are important to this county. The one budget we did pass during the regular legislative session is we were able to get $30 million gap funding for the ADAP program. That's the AIDS Drug Assistance Program. I'm going to ask all the legislators to stand, all the members of the House of Representatives. You can just stand. Thank you so much for your work in Tallahassee. You may be seated. We can't do anything with them on the Senate side without them on the House side. And we work in a very bipartisan way to represent you very well in Tallahassee. So we were able to backfill the gap with the ADAPT funding to make sure that people that are HIV positive continue to get help for their medication. That's very critical to us all throughout Broward County. And in the budget that went to the governor, that program is funded all except for managed care assistance, which we should be able to manage. I'm very, very proud of that. Also want to say that the budget also contains $20 million to start the initial phase of tearing down the horrible, horrible detention center that we keep our youth in, that is right here off Broward and 595. So I'm very excited about that program and moving forward with tearing that facility down and bringing two facilities together to give us efficiencies. And finally, The homeless safe parking program, which is taking place at Mount Olivet Church on 15th Avenue, homeless families are able to go there and park overnight with security so that they are safe. We were able to get $300,000 in the budget for that program. And that's something that we need to pay close attention to. I was happy this legislative session that I ended up with about $32 million of budget appropriation. So it was a legislative session and six special sessions. It was a lot of back and forth, a lot of work. But you know what? I believe the residents of Broward County are worth it. So I am happy to be here today. I'm not going to go into detail. I'm going to kind of pull rank and let my house members do the heavy lifting today. But thank you guys for giving us this opportunity.

Thank you, Senator. Thank you for your work. Daphne, do you want me to introduce?

I have Representative Cassell.

Great. Thank you, Representative Cassell.

Hello, Mr. Mayor, commissioners, all city staff. Thank you so much for having me. So I always like to start with statistics. I think something that often gets lost in times is really how often we are working together in Tallahassee. So this year in particular, we had about 300 bills that passed. Let me just get it specifically. We had... 381 bills that actually passed this legislative session. 236 of those passed unanimously with support of all members of the Florida House. And overall, 84% of the bills passed with bipartisan support. So more often than not, we are all working together for the betterment of Florida to make sure that we are passing legislation that is beneficial to Floridians. So what you often hear sometimes in the news really isn't accurate. How often do they dedicate to state politics? So they're going to highlight the things that make it seem more divisive than it is. But 84% of the legislation that passed this year passed with bipartisan support. So I always think that's something great to highlight for members of the community to have a better understanding that we really are working together in Tallahassee for you. I think my job as a legislator, I have two main functions. First and foremost, it is providing constituent services, making sure that I'm there answering calls and being there for my community. And second, I think it's bringing home money because at the end of the day, so many of our cities and programs that are offered here specifically in Broward County need the help of the state. So I am honored and humbled to state that I secured $48 million in this year's budget. $30 million will go directly to House District 101 and various projects in Broward County from stormwater management, infrastructure, expanding Broward College, providing veterans assistance. So I am so pleased with that because at the end of the day that's really what matters to be able to impact my community the most by bringing back dollars that are going to continue to help the community grow whether it be from a city perspective or helping organizations that are in need that provide direct resources to the community. Obviously, we had six special sessions, so a lot of things occurred. As I walked in, you guys were talking about AI. I am the only person to pass any legislation related to AI. Unfortunately, it won't make it to the governor's desk. It did die in the Senate, but it's an AI bill that is to protect consumers. from the use of AI in denying insurance claims. We know that there are some pending civil action lawsuits where allegations have been raised that 90% of claim denials where AI is used had a 90% error rate. So those of you that know me know insurance is really my passion and really one of the things that I fight primarily for in Tallahassee. So I was proud that the House saw the significance and the need of that legislation. And I hope to bring it back next year. From another policy standpoint, I passed a bill that is gonna allow our micro schools to have more of an opportunity to use our commercial mixed use space. Obviously, we know since COVID, our businesses, our brick-and-mortar businesses are failing. We have all of these opportunities, and we have this need for micro-schools, schools that help children on the spectrum, children with disabilities, parents who want to place their children in more STEM-based programs as we increase our... ability to invite the tech space into the state of Florida, which is, I know, something that we want to grow here. So creating that bill and passing that, the governor did sign that. Mental health is also a priority of mine. In anticipation of the future Speaker of the House, Sam Garrison, mental health is a huge priority of his. I've had the honor of running two pieces of legislation that really focus on making sure that the dollars we're spending in the mental health space are actually getting people better. So last legislative session, not this past one, when the before we focused on our schools, we've spent almost a million dollars, a billion dollars since the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas. And we aren't actually tracking the metrics to make sure our students are getting healthier. We passed that two years ago this year. We, followed up with that and expanded it and are focusing on our community courts, our drug court, our juvenile courts, and our court system to make sure that the programs that we have in place are actually getting people the help they need. So that is my legislative update. I think overall it was a successful session and it's always an honor and privilege to be here.

Great. Thank you very much. Thank you for being here. Daphne.

Representative Chip LaMarca.

Great. Representative LaMarca.

THANK YOU, COMMISSIONERS, VICE MAYOR, CITY MANAGER, CITY ATTORNEY, EVERYBODY ELSE THAT'S HERE. I WOULD SAY WELCOME TO DISTRICT 100, BUT IT STARTS AT THE TRAIN BRIDGE OVER THERE. I BELIEVE WE'RE IN DARRELL CAMPBELL'S DISTRICT, GREAT DISTRICT 99. I, TOO, WANT TO SHARE A FEW THINGS. I THINK AS YOU WENT THROUGH SOME OF THE BILLS THAT DID NOT PASS, I DO BELIEVE THE BROWARD DELEGATION WAS ALL ON THE SAME SIDE OF ONE OF THOSE BILLS THAT WE GOT A LOT OF E-MAILS FROM NOT JUST THE COMMISSION BUT MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY HERE IN FORT LAUDERDALE. ON THE PROCESS THAT YOU'VE HEARD, I DON'T WANT TO BE REPETITIOUS, BUT THERE WERE SIX SPECIAL SESSIONS, AND SOMETIMES THOSE WERE WITHIN WHEN WE WERE ALREADY UP THERE, JUST KIND OF DIVERTED OUR NORMAL WEEKS WORK AND SOMETIMES THEY WEREN'T BECAUSE WE HAD TO GO BACK UP FOR THE BUDGET AND PROPERTY TAX WORK. BUT NONE OF THAT COULD HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE WITHOUT OUR STAFF. AND I WANT TO THANK JUSTIN, WHO IS SOMEWHERE HERE IN THE ROOM. AND I WANT TO THANK COMMISSIONER GLASSMAN'S NEW AID, KIARA COLEMAN, WHO WAS IN OUR OFFICE DURING THAT ENTIRE TIME AND TOOK ALL THE PHONE CALLS FROM OUR EAGER CONSTITUENTS ON SPECIFIC ISSUES THAT THEY HAD CONCERNS WITH. MOVING ON, WITH RESPECT TO THE PROCESS THERE, YOUR LOBBY CORE, YOUR LOBBY TEAM, YOUR CONTRACT LOBBYISTS, WE'RE IN THE HALLS VERY FREQUENTLY HELPING WITH A LOT OF THESE PROJECTS AND GETTING SOME OF THESE ACROSS THE FINISH LINE. I DO WANT TO TAKE A MOMENT TO TALK ABOUT TWO OF THEM THAT WERE VERY IMPORTANT TO ME. AND I KNOW THAT ONE OF OUR FAVORITE CONSTITUENTS, RICH WALTER, IS LISTENING. So I want to make sure he knows that over the last six years we've brought in $8.3 million for the city of Fort Lauderdale alone. So when he holds up his, as long as he gets those through the finish line, when he holds up his next check, I'll be right next to him. But look, it all benefits the city of Fort Lauderdale and constituents. In this year's budget, we're the final dollars of the Galt Mile Street Improvement Project, safety project, for $1.25 million, which would close that project out as the state is a partner of the city, which is very important. And something that was very important, I know the Senator didn't mention it, but she and I partner on a lot of projects over the years. One that holds a very special place in my heart was the Boys and Girls Club project in the townhomes that we just opened up, BBI Village. And this year it was the reserve fire boat that I know that Chief Golan is going to be very happy to see. And I was able to see him in the airport last week before I was heading off to a trade mission to Canada, and we talked a bit about that. But truly this process in Tallahassee is about working together. It's about working together across communities. different political parties, different neighborhoods, people that you've worked with over the years, and finding out what's important. And certainly we had community activists in Tallahassee this year on the ADAPT funding. It was a team effort. It was talking to the Health and Human Services Appropriations Chair who sits next to me on the floor. It was talking to the Governor's Office and things like that. So things like that that aren't necessarily on your radar when you fly up there to do your first meeting swearing in or, you know, start in the next legislative session are the things that we end up working on quite a bit. And some of these things are also stopping bad ideas, if you will, and don't believe for a second that something might seem partisan one way or the other, that we don't get together and try to work on those issues together because that's what we did on a couple things this year. As you know, this will be my last legislative update here. I do believe, I'll miss you too, I do believe I will have a big check here to bring here in a little bit after the governor signs the budget. I told them that these two new projects here in Fort Lauderdale are some of my top priorities, but I want to thank the folks that worked with us on those throughout the time I was there, and stay tuned for anything in the future, but certainly being here in Fort Lauderdale full-time now has been a blessing, and I look forward to working with you all in whatever capacity that is.

Thank you very much. Daphne.

Chip, just on behalf of District 1, I just want to say on the GALT, we really appreciate everything you've done for the GALT. You've been an incredible friend to all of us up there, and thank you so much for what you've been able to do.

Thank you, and I appreciate the AI lesson I learned on the way in listening to the YouTube.

Anytime you want to just stop by, we do private lessons as well.

Representative Lisa Dunkley.

Representative Dunkley, thank you.

I guess I have to do a whole setup. Good afternoon everyone to the commission, the Mayor and Commission and the team here at the City of Fort Lauderdale. It is a pleasure to stand before you today just to give my version of update. to what Senator said, we do have to work across the aisle. Try to adjust, because I feel like I'm taller today. I don't know why. We do have to work across the aisle to get anything done. And this legislative session, not to belabor how we've had to do various special sessions that I sometimes felt was quite taxing, to be honest. But it is always my pleasure to serve this community. And I just want to report this session, I was able to secure approximately $2.7 million in the budget. A lot of my project was with our senator. Also, outside of that I carried a project that is very dear and I know Senator is also championing a long way for that aviation project for Fort Lauderdale. It was a tremendous effort by both us and our lobby partners in order to see this to the finish line and so grateful for that along with another project that A bill that we carried together with myself and Senator Osgood is a home hardening bill that the bill died but ended up in the tax package. So we were able to get that to the tune of over $49 million, if I'm correct, over the next three years that we're going to be able to see. through that bill in the tax package. Also another of my bills that I have been championing for a few years through picking up from where our previous representative did in uterine fibroids for women because women's health is important. We did pass the bill for uterine fibroids DE-IDENTIFYING BILL CONTINUING FROM PIECE OF LEGISLATION THAT SHE CARRIED. BUT WHAT WAS ALSO SPECIAL WAS I WAS ABLE TO GET A $994,000 IN THE BUDGET FOR THE RESEARCH AND DATA FOR THAT PARTICULAR BILL. SO THOSE I'M JUST GOING TO BE BRIEF, JUST TO SHARE, THOSE WERE SOME OF THE HIGHLIGHTS FOR ME IN THE STAFF SESSION. I KNOW MY REPRESENTATIVE BEHIND ME WILL GIVE YOU ANOTHER DEEPER DIVE, BUT I JUST WANTED TO SHARE THAT AND THANK YOU AGAIN SO MUCH FOR ALWAYS THE SUPPORT THAT YOU GIVE TO ME AND FOR US CARRYING THE LOAD IN TALLAHASSEE. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

REPRESENTATIVE ROSENWALD.

REPRESENTATIVE ROSENWALD, THANK YOU.

Good afternoon, Vice Mayor and Commission. Great to see you all. And Daphne, you stole all our thunder. But Mitch Rosenwald, everyone, it's a pleasure to represent you all. You're so large city. You have five of us in the House and two in the Senate. But happy to be here for my second year and to carry, once again, the second piece of the Los Olos safety appropriation. So I know we have 500 with the governor right now. So we'll just continue to carry that forward. I want to just talk about a couple bills that I passed that I think have relevance to all of us, not just in Fort Lauderdale, but the state and then some other items. So I was able to get just signed by Governor DeSantis last week, I think, or a few days ago, whatever it was, a housing for veterans pilot program. One thing that I know there's great bipartisan support on, obviously in the House and the Senate. Some of you, I know Rep. Dunkley is a veteran and many of us, I'm a grandson of a veteran. There's so many connections to veterans. They're one group that they're hard to house. There's a shortage of landlords. And what I've discovered and what I'd like to continue in the Florida legislature is landlord incentive programs to house various populations. And we'll start with veterans. so what this is is it would be we're going to do the fiscal next year but this is the policy framework to provide incentives to landlords to hold their rental units for up to 45 days the state would pay them the prorated rent The person gets discharged from the military or they've been out for 20 years. They come and they rent, so it's held for them, paid by the state. And then when they leave, as I say discharge, when they leave, what have you, even evicted or just leave on their own, if there's damages, the security deposit is kept. But if there's damages up to another $2,000 with receipts, the state would pay. So this is a way to just... ADDRESS THE LANDLORD SHORTAGE FOR VETERANS, AND SO IT'S A PILOT PROGRAM INCLUDING OF COURSE BROWARD COUNTY, THE BEST COUNTY AROUND. bill that uh governor that uh passed uh unanimously with the governor's signature the other week or month is a very simple idea called the callback act and we're starting with unemployment and this is going to be an agenda i continue for the next my time in the legislature just like when we call american airlines or comcast cable for a service issue we're not want to be on hold for an hour they say do you want to provide your phone number we WE PUT OUR PHONE NUMBER IN, WE WAIT 30 MINUTES, THEY CALL US BACK, THAT'S GREAT. THE STATE DOESN'T HAVE THAT. BUT NOW IT DOES. AT LEAST FOR UNEMPLOYMENT CLAIMS. SO STARTING VERY SOON FOR UNEMPLOYMENT, PEOPLE NOT JUST IN FORT LAUDERDALE BUT AROUND THE STATE WHEN THEY'RE CALLING ABOUT AN UNEMPLOYMENT CLAIM, THEY CAN PUT THEIR PHONE NUMBER IN, HOW NOVEL AND THE STATE WILL CALL THEM BACK. I REALLY WANT TO GET THIS EXPANDED TO DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES FOR SNAP BENEFITS, VETERAN BENEFITS, ET CETERA. So just two items there. I wanted to just, again, follow up on what Senator Osgood and Rep. LaMarcus said with the ADAPT program. And Michael Rainier, who's a community activist who, while lives in Wilton Manors, is sort of known, I think, throughout Broward County. He and Senator Osgood and Senator Smith, and actually a bipartisan group of senators as well as a bipartisan... TRUMBLE AND OTHERS AS WELL AS IN THE HOUSE, A BIPARTISAN GROUP, WE GOT TOGETHER BECAUSE THE SURGEON GENERALS CUT ADAPT VERY QUICKLY. AND THIS IS WHAT REP LAMARCA WAS SAYING, HOW WE CAN PIVOT. NONE OF US THOUGHT ABOUT ADAPT IN JANUARY OR DECEMBER, BUT WE WERE ABLE TO PIVOT. So I think that's the nimbleness that I appreciate in my colleagues across the aisle and obviously in the Senate as well as in the House. So we're able to restore a good amount of funding. It's not perfect, but we were able to get $75 million for next year. Two items that we did not get to pass that were co-sponsored because affordability is an important issue for all of us, whether we're red, blue, or purple, is affordability. One of the bills I co-sponsored that was not passed was about property insurance. I'll leave property taxes alone because you're all going to discuss that, I think, later this afternoon. And there's a lot of conversation on that. But we didn't have any meaningful legislation passed on property insurance. One bill that I didn't sponsor but co-sponsored, Rep Skidmore sponsored it, was a bill to have Florida join A NATIONAL RISK POOL. THERE'S ALREADY A NUMBER OF STATES IN THIS, SO THE MORE PEOPLE THAT JOIN ACROSS THE STATES, WE HAVE OBVIOUSLY HURRICANES, BUT KENTUCKY HAS TORNADOES AND CALIFORNIA HAS EARTHQUAKES. SO IF WE CAN JOIN A NATIONAL RISK POOL, WE SPREAD THE RISK. I KNOW PROPERTY TAXES ARE CERTAINLY A CONCERN FOR FOLKS, BUT A LOT OF US, WHAT I HEAR CERTAINLY IS THAT PROPERTY INSURANCE IS EVEN MORE OF AN AFFORDABILITY ISSUE. So I'll just keep that brief for today. You've heard from all of us. I'll let Rep Campbell finish us, carry the end of the day, but I continue to be appreciative to serve everybody here in Fort Lauderdale. Brian Sievet is my district aide, and Joey Ippolite is my new legislative aide. So my office is right in Oakland Park, but, of course, we'll come and meet you wherever you are. Thank you, Commission. Thank you. Thank you very much, Rep.

Daphne. To round out our legislative members, I have Representative Campbell.

Thank you, Representative.

Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor, Commission. So let me go ahead and start out with my report. First, and starting out, WHEN WE STARTED THIS PROCESS OF APPROPRIATIONS, WE WERE ABLE TO GET ONE, WE APPLIED FOR $1.1 MILLION FOR THE BUDGET ON BEHALF OF THE CITY OF FORT LAUDERDALE. OVERALL, I WAS ABLE TO BRING FOR THE CITY ALONE SIX, SORRY, SORRY IF I WAS TRACKED, $675,000 FOR THE CITY OF FORT LAUDERDALE. where those appropriations would focus on our substance abuse housing. We got $250,000 towards that. For anybody who knows anything or has people that are dealing with substance abuse issues, this is strategically important for our community because uh you know mental health is is is a thing and substance abuse is a thing and uh we want to make sure that we have the the dollars in place to to continue to support those who may be suffering uh with substance use um as well as substance uh as well as mental health issues and this focuses on challenges challenges to getting housing And they're right. And so this was frankly important to me in looking at that. The other amount of money that we got in the appropriation was $425,000 for the Fort Lauderdale roadway resurface. resurfacing. And this fund helps for pre-existing roadway projects that we have here. Since my time in the legislature, it has been something that we have been working on and been fighting in year in and year out. And so I'm happy to have continued that fight and getting that appropriation in. As you heard my colleagues share, This process is an interesting process. You know, we we talk about the bipartisanship that that we work against. We work with to ensure that we get our our stuff done. And definitely that is something that we do day in and day out. You know, that's the moment that I was elected. I serve to help serve with the other 119 members in the House. But I stand here before you today frustrated at the process that we are in today. It's the second year that we passed the budget after the 60 days. For those who may not know, our main objective is to pass a balanced budget. That's all that we are set up to do. All the bills, all the infighting, those are extra things. We're there to ensure that we are passing a balanced budget. And the fact that we, for a second year in a row, haven't been able to complete that within the days that we're allowed in a part-time legislature is a waste of tax people's money. And I say that because we talk about affordability. Everything that we hear folks say in Tallahassee is about affordability. How are we helping Floridians? How is that looking for Floridians? And so I can't sit here with a straight face with you right now and tell you that I feel that the state is looking at things in an affordable way. As you saw, we went back up for redistricting. We went back up for redistricting. And redistricting, that particularly impacts my district. We see that while it is a target along party lines, it is also a target to silence black voters. And I represent a good chunk of those voters. And it is frustrating and it is maddening as a representative to have to have to show time and time again the numbers of how that impacts us as a city down here. And frankly, if I'm to be honest, I feel like my cities are being targeted. And so we had that bill. We had an election bill that we put through to make elections even more harder to vote for people that may be apathetic or have the ability to vote, but they're uncertain of where they stand. You know, we got We got an anti-DEI bill that impacts you all sitting here before us. There are certain things that you cannot even do now that help provide support. We are a diversity melting pot here in Fort Lauderdale. I love to see that I have white, black, Caribbean, Haitian, all the different diversities here in our community. And the fact that we're putting a bill through and people are supporting this type of bill It's shameful to say, you know, and so we talk about anti-DEI and how that impacts what you're able to do in supporting a lot of the events that go on in our beautiful city here. You know, property taxes. You all did such an amazing job in warning us about how this would affect us. Before we got there, while we were there, When we came back home, they warned us. I can honestly say this is the hardest working issue that you guys worked on in making sure that we stayed up to date on how this would impact us. And yet we still go up there and we know what this bill is going to do. We know the impact that it's going to make. And then we say we're going to let the voters make the decisions. Well, how do you let the voters make a decision when you're informed yourself? And so this is the frustration that I feel today standing up here and speaking out for my community because now my district, my community is at a loss because they think property taxes is going to be ended. They think they're going to be saving. Well, I'm sorry to let the voters know, like you will not be saving with this bill. You're going to be paying more. This is not a property tax cut. This is a property tax shift. And so, you know, it's frustrating. You know, it's also something that I try to let people know, recognize that when you hear that 80% of us are voting on bills that we all agree upon, that's by no surprise. Of course, we're going to agree on certain bills, but recognize who's pulling the levers here to make sure that certain bills get heard. When we talk about certain bills, we pass the bill for gold. When have you ever used gold to pay for anything? Tell me. So it's frustrating, but I'm still hopeful. I'm still prideful. The people elected me and they reelected me again to go ahead and speak out on their behalf. And I look forward to continuing to work with you here at the city commission. I look forward to working with my colleagues and all party stakeholders involved to ensure that we are continuing as a collective body representing our community in the means and the ways to ensure that it's affordable living here and not just affordable for some. Thank you.

Thank you, Representative Campbell. Appreciate it. Daphne.

I would like to say thank you to the members of our Fort Lauderdale legislative delegation again for their hard work this session in fighting for the policies and appropriations that we put forward. And to finish the presentation, I'd like our lobby team to stand up so they could be recognized for their hard work When we couldn't be in Tallahassee, they were in Tallahassee fighting the good fight. So thank you to Eric's Consultants. Eric's can't be here, but we have Lauren Jackson from Ruben Turnbull. We have Sharonda Wright-Placide from Capital City Consulting. We have Jared Rosenstein. And from Ron Book LPA, we have Ronna Brown and Ron Book. And in the essence of time, we will have one spokesperson to get the perspective from our lobby team, and that will be Mr. Book.

Thank you.

Mayor, commissioners, nice to see you all. Let me first of all start by thanking Daphne for all the leadership and driving the team, because the team as a whole is nowhere without a director, and you were that director. So thank you. And to the manager and the entire staff, the level of responsiveness this session was significant and substantial. I'm here to answer questions. Daphne asked me to make sure that if there were questions, I would answer. But I want to follow up. on the obvious elephant in the room, and that's the Agri-Law and Property Tax constitutional amendment on the ballot in November. I would simply say that, and I heard several of the lawmakers speak, sometimes folks do things just because they can. And while we started with an amendment six weeks into the regular session that would have repealed all ad valorem property taxes for residents, which did not get picked up by the Senate. Then the special session with the 150, 250, CPI, five-year residency to qualify. I think the damage is clear to all of us. And I think that if we don't begin to get creative at how you spend on parks, how you spend on libraries, the things that you can, if you will, fold into the things that are prohibited from being spent on from an after-war perspective, we have to just get creative. I'm one of those who believe that it's a long way between now and November, and I think the taxpayers are smarter than a lot of people may think they are. With that, Madam Manager, thank you for your leadership and for making certain that things we needed along the way were done. But I'm happy to take questions.

Great. Thank you, Ron. Thank you for your work up there. Let's see, questions from the Commission, Ron? Great. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Daphne?

All right. Seeing that there were no questions, that means this presentation was amazing. Yes, it was. And with that, I close the end of session report.

Great. Thank you very much, Daphne. I'd just like to thank all of you. Thank you, elected representatives, for the work you're doing in Tallahassee. Thank you for bringing home amazing projects, initiatives across the board. Also, just thank you for what also did not happen this session, which was continuing to fight to protect home rule. We appreciate that. Whether it's vacation rental or otherwise, that matters. So we think we can do a good job here in the city of Fort Lauderdale leading as our residents encourage us to lead. And so empowering us to do that really means a lot. So thank you very much. I also wanted to just recognize all of your staff members, legislative. Could they stand up for a moment and just give you a hand for the whole legislative team that's up there? Thank you to you all. And then representatives, if the representatives, electeds would stand so we can just thank you one more time. Elected, thank you very much for what you're doing. Thank you. And then Daphne, I know you're talking right now, but thank you, Daphne, for your work and your leadership. You can give Daphne a hand. Thank you. Thank you all. Keep it up. Thank you. Excellent. If no other comments from city commission, then we'll close that item if that's all right. So we'll close that item. We're going to recess the city conference meeting. We're going to now go back to the budget advisory board meeting. At this point, city manager, you are going to present your presentation in the budget advisory board meeting.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. I think we should start with the preliminary budget that has been shared. I know we talked a lot about property taxes and we can go into that, but I think we've covered a lot of the facts on property tax reform. I WANT TO REMIND THE COMMISSION THAT WE STARTED OFF THIS BUDGET YEAR WITH A MINDSET THAT OUR ENVIRONMENT MAY BE CHANGING SIGNIFICANTLY. AND AT OUR FEBRUARY BUDGET KICKOFF WITH STAFF, I SHARED WITH THEM SOME IDEAS AS TO HOW WE SHOULD APPROACH THIS BUDGET DEVELOPMENT PROCESS FOR THIS YEAR. I ASKED THE TEAM TO Think of fiscal prudence, resourcefulness, and innovation. I asked the team to think about investing rather than spending. How can we think about plans for the future? How can we set the tone for what we believe may be a challenging outlook? And although the team heard what I shared, I think shifting the mindset is probably something that we're a little bit challenged with. And so even this year with that guidance, our staff, our departments came in with requests to the tune of $22.8 million and 92 new positions. Thankfully, thankfully, I am presenting a preliminary budget WITH A NET OF ONE NEW POSITION. WE HAVE LOOKED AT STRATEGIC REDUCTIONS. THE BUDGET ADVISORY BOARD HAS SUPPORTED US OVER THE PAST YEAR WITH SOME REVENUE ENHANCEMENTS. SO VARIOUS PROJECTS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR WE'VE SHARED WITH THE BUDGET ADVISORY BOARD. AND THAT IS GOING TO YIELD US ABOUT $3.2 MILLION. WE'VE CUT POSITIONS SIX TO BE EXACT. WE ARE NOW BUDGETING FOR ATTRITION. across various departments that have some challenges with vacancies. And we're really looking at the bigger picture in terms of how we invest. This preliminary budget reflects prioritization and a focus on public safety, infrastructure and capital projects, and technology. We think these are the primary areas where investments need to be made, not just for fiscal year 2027, but beyond. We have a global conflict that is impacting inflation and the cost of goods and services. We have property tax reform that will be decided by the voters. WE HAVE UNION NEGOTIATIONS WITH POLICE AND FIRE, OUR TWO LARGEST PERSONNEL GROUPS. WE ALSO HAVE A CITY HALL PROJECT THAT THE COMMISSION IS CONTEMPLATING. SO ALL THESE FACTORS HAVE WEIGHED INTO OUR APPROACH IN WHAT WE'RE RECOMMENDING FOR THIS YEAR'S BUDGET. AS DISCUSSED EARLIER, WE HAVE SHARED THAT MAINTAINING THE MILLAGE RATE IS SOMETHING THAT IS VIABLE FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 2027 which has been fully supported by the BAB to go to full cost recovery for the fire assessment. We have also allocated some resources for the parks bond program that has been a topic of discussion amongst our team and the commission and residents for several years and months and we're taking the approach of identifying gap funding in a pot for parks bond PROJECTS THAT MAY NOT HAVE ENOUGH FUNDING BASED ON THE TIMING OF THE PROJECT AND THE PROGRESS ON THE OVERALL BOND PROGRAM. I WANT TO HIGHLIGHT THE OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET. THEY HAVE BEEN DILIGENT IN THEIR EFFORTS THIS YEAR AS IN OTHER YEARS BUT THIS YEAR WAS A LITTLE BIT DIFFERENT BECAUSE OF OUR REORGANIZATION IN FISCAL YEAR 2026 WE DO HAVE MORE DEPARTMENTS THAT the OMB team has to meet with and to do a deep dive on. In every meeting that I've participated in, our focus has not only been on the dollars, but also on the outcomes, the programs. What are we doing? Are we being intentional? What are the deliverables and how can we improve that? So along with looking at expenditures, revenues, how does our work add meaning and value to our community? And we've looked at every single department from that lens and perspective. This year's increase to taxable values is modest. As Chairman Brown mentioned before, we're not looking at double digits like we saw in 2022 and 2023. So our expectation from this point forward is that growth will continue to be modest. Although there are some things highlighted in terms of REVENUE EXPENDITURES AND STRATEGIC REDUCTIONS, THERE ARE SOME ADDITIONAL OPPORTUNITIES THAT WE CAN TAKE THIS YEAR TO START TO BECOME MORE LEAN AS A GOVERNMENT AND TO ALSO ANTICIPATE FUTURE ONE-TIME EXPENDITURES THAT THE COMMISSION MAY SEE FIT TO MOVE FORWARD WITH. SO WE HAVE ABOUT $6.2 MILLION IN CONCEPTS that we'd like to share with you and Laura will go through that toward the end of her presentation. But the commission could give us some feedback that would give us that guidance if there is a desire to do more strategic reductions in preparation for what we anticipate could be our new reality in fiscal year 2028. If we want to get more accustomed to having that level of decrease, fiscal year 2027 certainly provides us with that opportunity. So I'm going to turn it over at this point to Laura Reese, our director of OMB. We also have Parth Patel, assistant director, and Yvette Matthews as well is available, and she has been championing this group from the city manager's office. So thank you.

Thank you, city manager. And could the entire budget team just stand up and let us give you a hand? Thank you, budget team. Very nice. Thank you for your work. Thank you. Thank you, Laura. Go ahead.

Thank you, Manager Williams. Thank you, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, Laura Reese, Director of Office of Management and Budget. I'd also like to acknowledge the Budget Advisory Board for their partnership. And I always share that they're the hardest working board in the city. They met with us, I believe they're planning to meet with us 15 times this year. It's usually 14 times this year. We had one extra special meeting this year. So they're really hardworking and put in a lot of time. We spend time together every Wednesday night in May. So we, lots of together time recently. So thank you so much for your partnership. SO AS MANAGER WILLIAMS MENTIONED, SHE SPENT A LOT OF TIME IN BUDGET MEETINGS THIS YEAR AS WELL WITH THE EXPANDED PORTFOLIO OF DEPARTMENTS. I'D LIKE TO THANK HER FOR ALL THE TIME. WE CAN'T MOVE ON WITH THE BUDGET PROCESS WITHOUT THAT LEADERSHIP AND DIRECTION. AND THANKS TO EVETTE MATTHEWS FOR ALL OF HER DIRECTION AND LEADERSHIP. I'LL BE PRESENTING TODAY WITH MY CO-PRESENTER PARTH PATEL, ASSISTANT BUDGET MANAGER FOR OMB. We're going to be talking to you today about taxable value growth, fire assessment update, rate adjustments on the tax bill. And then I'm going to be turning it over to Parth, who's going to get into the details a little bit with you about key expenditure and revenue changes, homelessness response, sustainability and waterways changes. PROACTIVELY PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE, THE CIP AND REPLACEMENT PLANS AND THEN BASED ON THE MANAGER'S RECENT REQUEST, I'LL COME BACK AND SHARE SOME ADDITIONAL IDEAS THAT WE'VE DEVELOPED AS A MANAGEMENT TEAM. of additional reductions we may explore between preliminary and proposed to set us up for success in 2028 and beyond. So with that, just as a reminder, the reason this city does a preliminary budget, most cities do not do this. It's because this commission challenged us to provide a lot of detail, a lot of information before you set those millage rates in the month of July. The commission goes on a summer recess after your July 2nd meeting and we're required to have to the property tax the property appraiser all of the non ad valorem rates and the millage rate by August 4th. So that's the meeting where we make recommendations and you all set those rates together. And so we were challenged to provide a lot of information before you get the proposed budget with the agenda. So this memo was released on June 10th to share all of the information on the general fund preliminary budget ahead of that July 2nd meeting. So as of June 1st, the property appraiser gives us taxable value growth. They shared that the taxable values increased by 4.5 million or 7.16% above the final valuations for fiscal year 2026. In the adopted budget, we're going to need to use the July 1st values. And then there's a value adjustment board process. So the numbers you're seeing for the final 2025 are slightly below what we had adopted in the budget for fiscal year 2026. SO THE INCREASE IN REVENUE ABOVE 2026 IS 6.1% OR $15.2 MILLION BASED ON THOSE VALUES. AND AS WE'VE TALKED ABOUT WITH THE BUDGET ADVISORY BOARD AND THE MANAGER JUST SHARED, THE PRELIMINARY RESIDENTIAL RATE OF $444 IS WHAT THE FULL COST RECOVERY FOR THE FIRE ASSESSMENT FEE IS THIS YEAR, AND THAT'S A 10.17% INCREASE FROM LAST YEAR. One thing we'd like to point out, and we talk about it every year, is that having the diversified revenue base is important to the city, particularly as we approach property tax reform. If property taxes go down, this is one of those revenues that won't be impacted by that reform, and it can continue to be used to be dedicated to fire suppression activities in the city and to support those needs. So it'll continue to be important over the years. And when Stantec talks to you later about our long-term forecasting models, that's something they'll be talking about as well. With the fire assessment at full cost recovery for fiscal year 2027, it will generate $70 million in revenue, which is around 12% of our general fund budget. So with those rate increases and the stormwater assessment that is on the bill in voter approved debt, there would be $180 increase in a tax based upon a $640,000 taxable value. So that's the value of a single family home in fiscal year 2026. So the average taxable value of a single family home in Fort Lauderdale is $640,000. And so the total increase for that home would be $180 or 5.2%, which equates to $15 per month. And with that, I'll turn it over to Parth Patel.

Thank you, Laura. Afternoon, Vice Mayor and Commissioners. Now we'll kind of pivot and go over what's changed since the adoption of the FY2026 budget. And before we dive in, like the next few sections are data heavy. So I will be focusing on the key variances or new initiatives that are being proposed. But feel free to stop me at any point if you'd like to dig into something particular. All right, so starting off with the key general fund expense changes since 2026, we've seen an overall increase of $33.9 million, with salaries and wages being the largest component at $14.6 million, and a transfer out to support our capital projects at $6.9 million. Now, if we shift quickly our focus to the expense changes by function, our public safety is our largest governmental function, and that's seeing an increase for about $17 million. FOR REVENUES, WE'VE SEEN AN INCREASE OF $38.8 MILLION FROM FY2026, THE LARGEST INCREASE BEING IN REVENUE AT $15.2 MILLION. THE FIRE ASSESSMENT FEE AT $8.4 MILLION THAT LAURA SPOKE ABOUT EARLIER. AND THE OTHER NOTABLE INCREASE THAT OCCURRED WAS IN FRANCHISE FEES AND UTILITY SERVICES TAXES AT $7.9 MILLION. AND WITH THAT, WE'RE SEEING APPROXIMATELY $4.9 MILLION IN AVAILABLE FUNDS TO SUPPORT KEY CITY INITIATIVES FOR FY2027. AND THAT WILL BE TRANSITIONING TO SEE THE KEY AREAS OF INVESTMENT, WITH THE FIRST ONE BEING IN PUBLIC SAFETY AND ENFORCEMENT AT APPROXIMATELY $16 MILLION. $850,000 GEARED TOWARDS NEW COMMUNITY INITIATIVES FROM THE NEW HARM REDUCTION OPIOID OVERDOSE PREVENTION PROGRAM, WHICH PRIMARILY FOCUSES ON NARCAM PLACEMENT THROUGHOUT THE CITY, AS WELL AS AN EXTENDED GROUP VIOLENCE INTERVENTION PROGRAM, WHICH FOCUSES ON INDIVIDUALS AT THE HIGHEST RISK OF GUN VIOLENCE connecting them with targeted services to reduce harm and make neighborhoods safer, as well as increasing coverage at schools on a rotating basis through the new public safety aid traffic coverage program. Moving on to personnel, we're seeing an increase of about $1.1 million, which equates to about six FTEs. And this ranges from expanding the nighttime code enforcement services to providing additional oversight for beach operations, as well as additional resources for fire prevention services, AS WELL AS ADDITIONAL ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT STAFF FOR THE POLICE DEPARTMENT. AND LASTLY, I'M GOING TO QUICKLY TOUCH ON SOME OF THE KEY NOTABLE EQUIPMENTS HERE, AND WE'LL TALK ABOUT THE REPLACEMENT PLANS THAT ARE PART OF THIS TOWARDS THE END OF THE PRESENTATION. BUT OVERALL WE'RE SEEING A $13.9 MILLION INCREASE, $8.4 MILLION FOR FUNDING FOR 81 PUBLIC SAFETY VEHICLES, INCLUDING THREE FIRE PUMPERS. $1.3 MILLION FOR NEW MARINE RESPONSE VESSELS IN BOTH POLICE AND FIRE RESCUE, AS WELL AS AN EXPANSION OF THE LICENSE PLATE COVERAGE PROGRAM CITYWIDE AT $560,000. THE NEXT AREA OF INVESTMENT IS HOMELESSNESS RESPONSE AT ABOUT $14 MILLION. The general fund supported side is about $3.7 million with two key notable additions. One is an expansion for the shelter bed access program of an additional 15 shelter beds, and the second one is funding for an additional dedicated bus service in partnership with Rotary Connection, which provides transportation and relocation assistance to those experiencing homelessness. THE NEXT TRANCH IS THE GRANT SUPPORTED SIDE, WHICH IS ABOUT 10.5 MILLION, THE BULK OF THAT BEING HOPWA FUNDING OR HOUSING FOR OPPORTUNITIES FOR PERSONS WITH AIDS FOR FACILITY-BASED HOUSING, RENT PROGRAMS, MORTGAGE ASSISTANCE, AND THEN THE OTHER $2 MILLION REALLY FOCUSING ON OTHER GRANT INITIATIVES THROUGH OUR SHIP FUNDING, HOME INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIPS, AND OUR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT FUNDING. ANOTHER AREA OF INVESTMENT IS OUR SUSTAINABILITY AND WATERWAYS INITIATIVES. AT APPROXIMATELY $14 MILLION, $3 MILLION IN OUR SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVES, AGAIN HERE LIKE THE TWO KEY NOTABLE ONES ARE THE EXPANSION OF THE URBAN FORESTRY PROGRAM WITH AN ADDITIONAL $200,000 WHICH AIMS TO ENHANCE THE TREE COVERAGE CITYWIDE AND ACHIEVE 33% CANOPY COVERAGE BY 2040 AS WELL AS ADMINISTERING THE SUBTERRANEAN TURMINE TREATMENT PROGRAM WHICH IS A COMPREHENSIVE TERMITE TREATMENT PROGRAM AND FOREST PROTECTION PROGRAM AS WELL. THE NEXT LAUNCH IS THE PUBLIC ENJOYMENT OF OUR WATERWAYS AT APPROXIMATELY $11 MILLION. A FEW KEY NOTABLE ITEMS HERE ARE BOTH AGAIN THE MARINE VESSELS FOR BOTH POLICE AND FIRE AS WELL AS THE WAIVER OF LIVING SEAWALL PERMIT FEES WHICH IS A NEW INCENTIVE PROGRAM TO OFFSET PERMIT FEES FOR RESIDENTS AND BUSINESSES AND THEN A WATERWAY TRAFFIC SKIMMER TO ENHANCE CANAL CLEANLINESS AND IMPROVE WATER QUALITY.

Question on this. Thank you. Compare the dollar allocation FY27 versus 26 on this, please.

Sure.

We'll have to get back to you on that, Commissioner. That's fine. I'm guessing there is a delta there and a positive direction. Just these are, I think, some of the great initiatives that this commission has been driving towards. So I just want to highlight and appreciate that. Thanks. Thank you.

Next, a key theme in our budget process as well as the manager's message has been proactively preparing for the future. And below are some of the strategic budget balancing strategies that the manager HAS ALREADY HIGHLIGHTED FOR US $3.2 MILLION IN REVENUE ENHANCEMENTS, ABOUT $770,000 IN REDUCING SIX VACANCIES IN THE GENERAL FUND, AS WELL AS $650,000 IN PAYROLL ATTRITION IN THE AREAS THAT HAVE HAD A HISTORY OF VACANCIES, TOTALING ABOUT $4.6 MILLION IN EFFICIENCIES. Next, we're going to talk about some of our capital programming that we have in our capital improvement plan. In 2027, we're slated for about 36 projects, totaling $23.2 million. The more notable ones being $7.8 million towards the Holiday Park Fire Station, $3.4 million for the Parks Bond Project for funding gaps, and then a little north of $500 million for seawall replacements. THERE ARE NO QUESTIONS. WE'LL KIND OF MOVE ON TO WHAT'S ON THE HORIZON. ON AVERAGE THERE'S ABOUT $26 MILLION IN CAPITAL INVESTMENTS OVER THE FOUR YEARS WHICH SPANS FROM ABOUT $18.3 MILLION AT OUR LOWEST IN 2028 TO $31.7 MILLION IN 2020-30. AND THIS LARGELY FOCUSES ON THE LARGE FOCUS BEING ON BRIDGES AND SEAWALL REPLACEMENTS AND FOLLOWED BY MOBILITY AND PARKS PROJECTS. And then lastly, rounding us out is the replacement plans that I was talking about a little bit earlier, about $26.2 million, $21.3 million being for our fleet vehicles, $10.6 of that impacting the general fund, $1.9 million for our fire rescue equipment, $1.7 million for police equipment, and then about $1.2 million for all other equipment replacements. And if there are no questions, I'm going to turn it over to Laura Reese to round us out. Thank you.

ALL RIGHT. AS MANAGER WILLIAMS INDICATED, WE ARE CONTINUING TO LOOK AT ADDITIONAL WAYS TO SET OURSELVES UP FOR SUCCESS FOR FISCAL YEAR 28. UNDERSTANDING PROPERTY TAX REFORM, ADDITIONAL COSTS ARE COMING ONLINE. ONE OF THE THINGS WE'RE LOOKING AT IS WE'RE REALLY FOCUSING ON THINGS THAT DON'T IMPACT OPERATIONS TO OUR NEIGHBORS, BUT PERHAPS TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OUR CURRENT FUNDING AND DIFFERENT FUNDS in levers that we have to pull. One of the areas we identified was that our pension obligation bonds have six years of life left, and we currently keep a reserve for that payment because we pay monthly into that fund from the other funds. So by way of example, If the police department owes 10% of that, there'll be a budget in their budget that goes into the pension obligation fund 112th for cash flow purposes. Our cash flow is really strong now. We believe there's an opportunity to... spend down that reserve and transfer the full payment into the fund as of the beginning of the year to take advantage of the fund balance in that fund and to reduce the city's payment. That could result in $2.1 million in reduced contributions annually to smooth that over the years of life. The next item that we came up with was $2 million. I'm sorry, Laura, can I back you up?

So you're going to spread that over the remaining years of the outstanding bond issue? Correct.

To smooth, to take advantage of the reserve because our cash flow is very strong right now in all of our funds that can support that. So that would be something we could do to alleviate the burden on current taxpayers by taking advantage of a positive cash flow in our city funds and in the pension reserve. So we're kind of looking at each of the funds and what levers we can pull, that would be one of them. The other one is our CIP fund. As we've funded more and more cash-funded capital, we have additional interest that we continue to earn in that fund. By way of example, we got the PFAS money and we spent down fund balance to that 25% threshold. in the last year, that grows our fund balance and interest earnings have been increasing. We believe we can start budgeting for $2 million in interest to offset our capital costs each year. And we've seen that over the last three years, that's been a sustainable trend. So as long as market conditions hold, $2 million is a reasonable way. So we wouldn't have to tax taxpayers. We'll just take advantage of interest that we're now earning due to the higher balances in that fund. So that's the second option. The third item is, so we have a health administration fund. The city's self-funded for health insurance. And so it's funded through employee contributions and city contributions. And the unions have negotiated the city's contribution per employee. We call it a kicker. So it's based upon an actuary report and then we add a percent to that because our health fund was not well funded years ago. As that fund is performing better, the city historically has subsidized staff on the back end. So if there's, by way of example, I think it's $1.4 million in operating costs for that fund. THAT THE CITY WAS SUBSIDIZING BY CHARGING THE WATER SEWER FUND AND THE GENERAL FUND AND OTHER FUNDS. WE DON'T BELIEVE THAT'S NECESSARY ANYMORE. SO THE GENERAL FUND PORTION OF THAT, WITH KEEPING RATES THE SAME FOR EMPLOYEES, THE GENERAL FUND COULD CONTRIBUTE 850,000 LESS INTO THE FUND AND KEEP THAT FUND STILL HEALTHY. So that's another lever that we could pull without impacting any services to our community and without impacting employee rates because the fund is in a healthy position. The next item was, you know, Parth and Keith talked a little bit about fleet replacement. We each year, we have an internal service fund that's our fleet service fund. And each year, by way of example, if there's a Tahoe in the police department, if it has a useful life of six years, we're paying into that fund one-sixth of the amount we're going to need to replace that in six years. And what we found is that the trade-in value for the vehicles has been coming in higher, or the auction value has been coming in higher, and the interest earnings have been coming in higher. So we believe we can lower that value. amount to be 90% instead of 95% replacement that we're budgeting for. And that would save the city's general fund $700,000 per year by implementing that strategy. And the next, just two more options I'm going to throw out there.

So before you jump to that, so In the past, we had lengthened the length of time between replacements back in the 2010-2014 timeframe, and then we started replacing them more frequently again. Any look at that? Vehicles last a lot longer these days than they used to, so are we taking a hard look at the necessity of replacing them on a shortened timeframe as we've been doing?

That is a great idea. That's not one of the proposals that we've looked at now. We do look at every year when we go to replace vehicles and the actual cash goes out, we look at mileage and we look at vehicle use to see if we even need that vehicle and if it needs to be replaced based upon miles. But that's another option that we could pull in the fleet fund as well. We'll look at that as well, Commissioner.

Okay, because we've just gotten into a habit of replacing them just on a cycle, whether they need it or not. And so it's something we should take a look at. Again, we've done this in the past, and it was very effective at reducing our costs. We don't need things where the wheels are falling off. But again, vehicles today last a lot longer than they used to. The useful life has been greatly extended by virtue of improvements in technology. Thank you.

Thank you. And so the next item that we're sharing as a fire rescue has really been amazing at controlling overtime under Chief Golan's leadership. And we think that may be a lever we're also able to pull and, you know, discussion with the chief. We need to discuss that a little more, but we think maybe up to $350,000 in reduction there based upon the current year trend. But, you know, THAT WILL BE A DISCUSSION. THE NEXT ITEM IS 200,000 THAT WE'VE IDENTIFIED. WE BUDGET $250,000 SO THAT OUR DEPARTMENTS CAN PARTNER WITH TECHNICAL EXPERTS WHEN GRANT OPPORTUNITIES COME UP. BUT WHAT WE'VE FOUND IS THAT IN THE PAST YEAR WE HAVE ONLY REALLY USED ABOUT 50,000 OF THAT. SO WE THINK WE COULD REDUCE THAT BUDGET BY 200,000 AS the final solution we're going to share today. And all of those are strategic ways of looking at the city's finances and how we maybe do things a little bit different without impacting our community. And that totals $6.2 million. Great.

Thank you. I think those are all great ideas to pursue to continue to operate more efficiently. I definitely support that direction. Is that commission any feedback on those six? Okay, great.

I do want to add, Vice Mayor, that our recommendation would be to take those savings and look at one-time capital expenditures or put it into our capital fund as a set-aside for any major project that we could anticipate for a future year. So that's the recommendation as to what we do with those savings at this time.

Yeah, I think that makes sense, and that's basically reinvestment in our infrastructure, as I understand you articulating. RIGHT.

INFRASTRUCTURE, CAPITAL PROJECTS, ANY MAJOR INITIATIVE OF THE COMMISSION THAT REQUIRES A SIGNIFICANT REVENUE SOURCE.

EXCELLENT. I THINK THAT MAKES SENSE. THANK YOU. COMMISSIONER, YOU GOOD?

IN AGREEMENT, YES.

GREAT. THANK YOU. THANK YOU, LAURA. APPRECIATE IT. CITY MANAGER?

So if you still would like to, we can go into the property tax reform portion of the presentation. I think the only major new element is to talk about how we communicate with the community. I think Mayor Trantalis asked that we include that as part of this discussion with the BAB so that staff can have direction as to any outreach that we need to do going forward.

Great. So I think we're pretty well versed on the property tax and possible impact, but I think the communication could be helpful. Is that commission okay? We just talked about communication. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman.

Yes, the communication piece. As we move into that direction, WHEN I WAS AT OUR MEETING FOR THE BROWARD LEAGUE OF CITIES, THERE WAS A CONVERSATION ABOUT, IN A SENSE, A RESTRICTION AS TO WHAT WE AS CITY COMMISSIONERS OR ELECTIVES ARE ALLOWED TO SAY IN REGARDS TO THIS CONVERSATION. SO IF YOU WOULD ALSO BE ABLE TO INCLUDE THOSE LIMITATIONS, WHAT THAT LOOKS LIKE SO WE ARE NOT WRITTEN OFF FROM THIS COMMISSION.

THAT MAY BE FOR THE CITY ATTORNEY.

Thank you, ma'am. Yes, Commissioner, with regard to communication, the city and city representatives of all kinds, including yourselves, need to be very careful not to advocate a position. We may educate, we may lay out facts, we can do that in detail, but we need to be very careful not to advocate a position either way.

Vice Mayor, we have Kevin Polito, Director of Strategic Communications for any questions on our communications plan.

Yeah, thank you. And before we get to Kevin, City Attorney, just to kind of give us even more specific guidelines, if someone asks us at a neighborhood meeting, what do you think, Commissioner, Vice Mayor, Mayor, of the property tax reform, what are we able to share there?

Again, I think you need to be very careful when you're speaking in your official capacity.

Okay.

Acknowledging that, you need to realize that you're speaking... when you're out and about in the community as the vice mayor, and you need to be very circumspect about how you talk about your opinion and your position.

Okay. That's helpful. Thank you. Kevin.

Good afternoon. Kevin Polito, Director of Strategic Communications, Vice Mayor and City Commissioners. So we're going to quickly go over our property tax public education campaign. The purpose of this is to educate our residents on the different services that are funded through property tax revenues so that our residents throughout our community understand What is currently funded? Where are the levels we are today? This is a flyer that is going to be distributed through city facilities as well as email, social media, through our websites, newsletters. We'll be happy to share it with each of your offices if you would like to have it as well. On the back side of that, there is also going to be different diagrams for people to understand where their dollar goes. The idea is to have flyers at city facilities. We're going to have our next issue of FTL Connect coming soon in there as well. We're going to have some information on what property tax is, what it is to fund, where it is today. And then we're also going to have some self-identification language just for people to understand that when they're looking at their favorite program, it is funded in partially part by our property taxes. So the idea is for all the communication to really be transparent and to try to use all of the different means that the city has available to just educate on what your property tax is, what does it fund. So with that.

Excellent. Thank you, Kevin. Questions, comments from the commission on communication. Feel good about this. Great. Thank you, Kevin. City manager.

THAT'S ALL. WE WILL BEGIN TO DO THE OUTREACH. IF AT ANY POINT THE COMMISSION OR ANY INDIVIDUAL COMMISSIONER HAS ANY FEEDBACK AS TO HOW THE OUTREACH IS BEING ROLLED OUT, PLEASE LET US KNOW AS SOON AS POSSIBLE SO WE CAN MAKE ANY MODIFICATIONS NECESSARY.

OKAY. FANTASTIC. WE WILL DO THAT. SO MR. CHAIR, ANYTHING ELSE FROM A BUDGET ADVISORY BOARD STANDPOINT?

Just that we would look for some clarification and guidance as we work through this with strategic communications on the public outreach of the property tax. Is there any desire to hold webinars that people can call in other than just doing the mailings and the hands out so that the budget advisory board could facilitate some of that discussion with the community and to get some feedback on on questions that they might have. It's kind of hard once you hand out a flyer if you can't get questions answered.

Sure. I know for myself, and then I'll turn it over to you all, I know I'm going to be doing this on my agenda review meetings and neighborhood meetings and so forth, so I'm going to be doing a lot of this, but Commissioner Beasley-Pittman, any thoughts there?

Yes. I am concerned about the... restrictions that's been placed through the love of the government from the governor. I too can do this, but I believe it really has placed us in a position where we are at a stronghold where we cannot express just feeling reserved. I'll say it that way. I would appreciate if we could also include, if it's through a webinar, a recorded message that will give the facts as well that could also maybe even dive a little deeper since I cannot, what you said, advocate? Is that the word you used? I can only educate. So, but in those conversations, we all know those conversations begin to go deep and our neighbors want questions and I don't feel comfortable where I'm sitting before my neighbors and I have to say, well, I can't answer that because, but if we had a little bit more, something to back us up that could say it for us? Because I can't say it. Can the board say it? Is that my question? The board can't say it either. Okay. Whatever we can do that's within those guidelines, if we could also be a product that's produced through iStratCom. Okay. That's what I'm asking for.

Yeah. Great. City Manager, is that?

So we can develop multiple types of collateral, some that are more high level, some that do the deep dive, and then based on the medium, maybe we can determine, hey, which audience is this appropriate for? MAYBE WE HAND OUT SOMETHING AT EVENTS AND MAYBE WE HAVE SOMETHING DIFFERENT THAT'S ON OUR WEBSITE. SO I THINK WE CAN APPROACH THIS FROM MULTIPLE ANGLES AND HAVE THE LEVEL OF DEPTH THAT IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU'RE REQUESTING, COMMISSIONER, BUT NOT NECESSARILY HAVE THAT THROUGHOUT EVERY TYPE OF COLLATERAL THAT WE MIGHT WANT TO USE.

LET ME JUST COMMENT ON THIS. SO TO THE CITY ATTORNEY, JUST FOR CLARIFICATION, AND I THINK THIS IS TO WHAT COMMISSIONER BEASLEY-PITTMAN IS ASKING. I believe that there is an exception in state law where an elected official is allowed to give their personal opinion pro or con. So if asked a question, do I support this, I have a First Amendment right to say yes I do or no I don't. There's a difference between expressing my personal opinion and advocacy. So I think if I hear you correctly, you want to be able to express your opinion that you think this is a good idea or a bad idea. That's not necessarily the same as advocacy.

That is correct, but one needs to be careful in what capacity they're saying this. Right.

Okay. Thank you. Great. Because I know my opinion.

I think we all do too.

Yes, yes we do. All in favor say aye. And Vice Mayor, if I could just add, I think in the pros and cons of the education piece, you know, what departments are going to be most affected if they have to make some strategic cuts? YOU KNOW, ONE THOUGHT, AND I DON'T HAVE THE ANSWER, BUT WE'RE SPENDING $200 MILLION TO THE PARKS BOND REVENUE, BUT WHERE'S THE SUSTAINABILITY TO MAINTAIN THOSE NEW IMPROVEMENTS IN THE 200 MILLION FOR THE NEXT SEVERAL YEARS? THESE ARE ALL THINGS THAT WE HAVE TO INFORM THE PUBLIC ON THAT COULD BE IMPACTED. THANK YOU.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU. THANK YOU, CHAIR. Now I just want to open it up to the public for any comment in the Budget Advisory Board. We don't have comment cards in the Budget Advisory Board, so if you'd like to comment, you can please come up to the podium and stand in line at the podium and then introduce yourself.

City Manager, while they're doing that, can I just ask you a question? So Bill just brought up a point about cuts and how we're going to look at cuts. So anywhere in our EDUCATIONAL CAMPAIGN, ARE WE GOING TO BE LAYING OUT AS WE GO ALONG WHAT WE BELIEVE MIGHT ACTUALLY BE THOSE CUTS SO FOLKS KNOW WHAT IT IS WE'RE ACTUALLY LOOKING AT CUTTING IN TERMS OF IF THEY DO VOTE FOR PROPERTY TAX REFORM? ARE WE ALLOWED TO DO THAT? ARE WE PERMITTED TO DO THAT? ARE WE GOING TO SHARE AS WE GO ALONG WHAT WE'RE LOOKING TO CUT SO PEOPLE KNOW WHAT WE'RE THINKING ABOUT?

I WOULD HESITATE TO DO THAT WITHOUT HAVING THAT FULL DISCUSSION WITH THE CITY COMMISSION AND IDENTIFYING THOSE OPPORTUNITIES FOR STRATEGIC REDUCTIONS OR CUTS, BUT THAT'S SOMETHING THAT WE COULD CERTAINLY DO MAYBE AT THE AUGUST MEETING IF THE COMMISSION SAW FIT AND THEN WE COULD UPDATE OUR COLLABORAL TO SHOW, HEY, THESE ARE THE THOUGHTS IN TERMS OF WHAT COULD BE CUT IF THIS GETS APPROVED.

I MEAN, I THINK IT'S WORTH THINKING ABOUT. I THINK IT'S WORTH maybe going through that as an exercise because we'll be dealing with the budget by September, right? We'll be done. But we'll certainly be having extensive conversations at the August meeting. And then this will come before the voters in November. So there is time to at least say, you know, this is how we're preparing. At least let people know what it is we're going to be thinking about doing in terms of how we're going to cut and how that might impact services, how that might impact quality of life issues, how that might impact, you know, basically things that people take for granted at this point in time. Just thinking about what we might do.

I agree 100%. I would love the benefit of having the city hall discussion with the commission. One of the elements that we intend to bring forward in that discussion is a budget approach as was requested. And we've shared that we've been developing that. So I think once we have some feedback on that, we can fine tune our approach as it relates to property tax reform.

Okay, good. Because I think I'm already getting questions in terms of, well, what are the thoughts about cuts? How is that going to impact our parks? Are we going to have to pay every time we go to a park? How does it impact our libraries? Are we going to have to pay every time we go to a library? the county is saying that the average savings will be about two thousand something dollars on the property tax cut if this passes but you might make that up and fees and services of maybe having to go to some of these places and pay or but i just i really want to have an all-encompassing picture i'm not believe me i think that we can cut and i think we can find efficiencies but i still want to make sure that we're communicating with the public YOU KNOW, WHAT THAT LEVEL OF CUTS AND EFFICIENCIES IS AND HOW WE MIGHT HAVE TO GO DEEPER IF WE'RE FINDING IT TO BE AN ISSUE. THAT'S ALL. I WANT US TO BE VERY TRANSPARENT IN WHAT WE'RE THINKING ABOUT. I WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT THE PUBLIC KNOWS AS WE GO THROUGH THIS LITTLE JOURNEY EVERYTHING THAT WE'RE THINKING ABOUT AND ALSO HOW IT MIGHT IMPACT THEIR EVERYDAY LIFE. THAT'S ALL.

If you'd like, Commissioner, we can have a full list of opportunities for reductions at the July 2nd meeting. As you're contemplating the millage rate and the City Hall project, we can share with you some of our preliminary thoughts and ideas as it concerns both property tax reform and City Hall. AND THEN I THINK THAT WILL HELP EQUIP THE COMMISSION WITH GIVING US DIRECTION.

THAT WOULD BE VERY HELPFUL. I KNOW THAT MY OFFICE GETS LOTS OF CALLS AND COMMUNICATIONS, FOR INSTANCE, IF THERE IS A WATER BREAK, A LINE BREAKS OR WHATEVER, OUR STAFF HAS BEEN SO AMAZING, PUBLIC WORKS, UTILITIES GETTING OUT THERE LIKE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, FIXING THINGS. SO IF WE MAKE CUTS TO DEPARTMENTS LIKE THAT, WILL THAT IMPACT? WILL PEOPLE HAVE TO KNOW, you know, if there's an issue, we might just not be able to get there as quickly as we can. I just want us to be honest with people so that they know that there might be an impact in terms of service. That's all. Thanks.

Yeah, I agree. I think that's a great idea. I think having that on July 2nd is fantastic. That way we can make decisions holistically. And then as much of that information as we can get as soon as possible to share with others, I think it'd be fantastic. Thank you.

Great. Excellent.

All right. So now, and if you'd come up and if you'd just state your name, sir, you have two minutes to speak.

Go right ahead, Testa. Paul Renison, District 1, 3111 Northeast 57th Court. Just following on the commission's recommendations there that you just heard, I'd like to know, and I think the city manager can get this question, this answer prepared for in the future, how many... employees will be furloughed and how quickly will that furlough occur once that referendum, if it does pass, takes effect. So it's important to know that it's going to be a dramatic cut for this city. So I'd like to know the numbers, specific numbers, and how quickly those furloughs will occur because that will affect services throughout our city, especially in District 1. Thank you for your time. Yeah, thank you very much.

Great. All right. If you come on up and state your name, you have two minutes.

Hi. Douglas Meade, District 1. Thank you. And I wasn't planning on speaking, but I just want to respond to this, that most citizens don't know the difference. You all know what a general fund is or this is. All we know is we pay taxes, okay? And we know everything that comes out of the city comes from money we pay. So, sitting in big things saying 60.4% is almost fear-mongering, and what we should be sending out to the people is, yes, it's going to be this, you know, at whatever percent we think it's going to reduce, it means this amount of money, and maybe we can put it in relation to what's the budget for STRATCOM, or what's the budget for the mayor's office, or put it in context somewhere, not just... THROW OUT OUR BUDGET AND SAY, WELL, LOOK AT THIS IS WHAT WE PAY FOR AND WE'RE GOING TO HAVE NO PARKS AND HAVE NO THIS BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT PEOPLE THINK. SO I THINK WE SHOULD BE, YOU KNOW, TEMPERING DOWN PEOPLE'S FEAR AND NOT, YOU KNOW, ACTING IT FOR A REASON THAT WE WANT YOU, YOU KNOW, YOU'RE FEAR-MONGERING WITH THIS PARTICULAR THING. BUT WHAT I REALLY WANT TO SAY IS AS A CITIZEN, YOU WANT TO BELIEVE THAT THE COMMISSION IS ALWAYS LOOKING OUT FOR THE CITY IN THE FUTURE AND SOMETIMES YOU LEARN SOMETHING THAT'S A LITTLE DISHEARTENING THAT with the whole City Hall project, which I know has been discussed ad nauseam over and over again. And it's always been a question on why we can't get a developer to do a real P3 that puts up a huge building. It's profit-making to them with apartments. We get free office space. And why would someone say no to that if we made the right deal, only to find out a couple weeks ago that that question's never been asked? So I think before we go ahead, I know we spent money, but sometimes you just need to, you know, backtrack and start again for a good path forward. And if we can save 200 to $700 million, whatever the number is, I think we should at least investigate that because I have a hard time believing the developer will not say, Hey, this is a great piece of land. And with the right deal, I can put up 25 or 30 stories of apartments, give you 10 stories for office space, and we can do something that doesn't cost the future of the city a lot of money.

Great. Thank you. Good thinking. Thank you. Next up, if you state your name, you have two minutes.

I'm Barbie, and I just wanted to go as far as what Commissioner Glassman had said. Let the impact statement, you know, besides what's right here, make a general impact statement of how this is going to affect the taxpayers. in more defined terms, but a general newsletter to go out as well as this. And then the other thing I was thinking is the League of Women Voters, they always give both sides to the issue. Is there something that that could be... as an informational type thing that could be brought up beforehand, before November, before the election. So those are just some thoughts I was thinking of. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Yes, sir. Come on up. If you state your name, you have two minutes.

District 3, Ray Jordan, Dillard Park, Homeowner Association President. I just wanted to know the... process of the new property tax and in general, the education of how this is going to work. And, you know, we have a lot of things going on in the community and it takes a lot of time to get things done over the last 30 years. I see how long it takes things to get done. So I'm wondering, if they cut the property tax, how will we get these things done? If it takes so long to get them done now, if you cut it out, then how are we going to get things done? So I feel, I don't know how it's going to work. So I would like to know the education of how this is going to impact the community. Not only the community, but the city as a whole. You know, if they cut back this, cut back that. I just want to know. I know if you give me the... us. Email me what's going to happen or you can sit down and we have a talk about this, what's going to happen and how it's going to come out and how it's going to impact us as a whole and District 3 as well. You know, we have a hard time now getting things done. It's like, so if you cut the money out, where are we going to get the money from if we don't pay the property tax?

Yeah. Thank you. I think very good questions and spot on. And so that'll be part of what we'll be working together on your commissioner, all of us and education. And if you have questions that you feel are not getting answered, just please let your commissioner, let us know. And we'll work to the solution. Cause you may have questions that we haven't even thought about. Right. So great, great points. Thank you. Anyone else here to speak on budget advisory board? Okay, great. Well, Budget Advisory Board members, thank you so much for your time and your energy and really look forward to continued conversations. Just want to give you all a hand if I could. Again, thank you for what you've done. And anything else, commissioners, for the Budget Advisory Board? Okay, great. The Budget Advisory Board is now concluded. Thank you very much. That was a long one. Now I'll reconvene our city commission conference meeting. And commissioners, in the interest of time, we have one item that... Some of the participants have just a limitation due to travel. So it's okay with the commission. I'd like to move to business two, which is a presentation of the I am CIS trunk CIS trunk talk series. That's okay. And want to turn it over to our community service department.

GOOD AFTERNOON, VICE MAYOR, COMMISSIONERS, CITY MANAGER. I'M THE ECONOMIC RECOVERY FELLOW PLACED IN THE CITY OF FOR LOTTERDALE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DIVISION. AND I SPENT THE LAST TWO AND A HALF YEARS EMBEDDED IN THE ASSISTANT CORRIDOR IN THIS DISTRICT. AND TODAY I WANT TO SHARE JUST WHAT WAS ACCOMPLISHED IN THIS TIME AND WHAT WE'VE LEARNED AND WHAT WAS BUILT AND WHAT I BELIEVE IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THE CITIES NEXT. AND SO THE FELLOWSHIP WAS DESIGNED TO to bring in about 65 fellows across the United States. So the city of Fort Lauderdale had an opportunity to be a part of a nationwide initiative where we had over 65 fellows that were selected out of 1,500 applications across the United States and over 600 projects across the nation, which is significant to show that the city of Fort Lauderdale was selected. So inside the government support of this initiative was really around economic development. And I was placed here specifically in the Cistern Corridor, northwest quadrant of the city of Fort Lauderdale. My role was really initially to look at how the gaps can be closed between what the city is doing and what the community is actually seeing, have access to and connected to. And that mandate really shaped what you all are about to hear. So the charge here that we see was looking at some key things that before I came into this work, this particular area was a disinvested area of the city of Fort Lauderdale. We had CRA funding that was coming forward. It was actually approaching to be sunset and it was extended in 2025, December to 2035. But we also recognize that there was some needs for a stronger system within the corridor and UNIFICATION BETWEEN RESIDENTS AND BUSINESS OWNERS. SO THE ASSIGNMENT WAS TO LISTEN FIRST, TO BUILD COMMUNITY VOICE, THE STRATEGY TO STRENGTHEN THE ECOSYSTEM OVERALL AND TO EVALUATE WHAT WORKS AND THEN TO BRING THAT BACK HERE TO PRESENT TO COMMISSION. And so what we built started in, as we said, it's been a two-and-a-half-year journey. It started out in around February, March of 2024 with our listening tour going to key stakeholders across the corridor. And what began to develop during that time was this need for community identification, which is where the I Am CIS Trunk planning session started, where we met with the – homeowners association and businesses and continue to push forward an initiative that will resonate with the community itself. The idea here was to really center this work around community voice. As you can see, there were several initiatives that took place. We hosted a survey where we went out into the community as well as a summit and a series of community talks to hear from the community to advance this work overall. And so here's what the community told us. We got over 10,000 data points from the community and touch points, over 3,000 touch points, and heard from over 900 community responses. We had six different events, the summit, the talks. Two surveys, one done internally with myself in the Economic Development Division, as well as an external survey that had been done for 2024-2025 through a consulting agency, Dickey Consulting Agency, within the corridor. And in that, at the end of these talks, we had the community say their likelihood to further their participation went from a 2.5 to a 4.5 out of five, which is significant. And some of the key things that were raised was that we needed to understand how to navigate programs within the city, that there was a disconnect with how to navigate them. Obviously, access to capital is always going to be a number one concern with businesses, and it's no different in this particular corridor. ALSO TRUST AND FOLLOW THROUGH HOW INFORMATION IS COMMUNICATED AND THEN WHAT HAPPENED NEXT AND HOW IS THAT COMMUNICATED. INCREASING THE VISIBILITY OF DISTRICT THREE AND HELPING PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND THAT THERE'S VALUE THERE. AND THEN WORKFORCE ALIGNMENT AS WELL AS CULTURAL IDENTITY, WHICH I THINK YOU'LL KNOW THAT WE STARTED ADDRESSING WITH THE I AM CIS TRUNK CAMPAIGN ITSELF. And so now I have here a party from the National League of Cities to talk about this from a national perspective. They were one of our national partners. We actually had six national partners as a part of this work, and we have Tamika Lee here from the National League of Cities, and I'll give her an opportunity.

THANKS, EVERYONE. REALLY EXCITED TO BE HERE TO SUPPORT THE I AM CIS TRUNK PROJECT. LIKE SERVOLA MENTIONED, I SERVE AS ONE OF THE NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES SERVES AS ONE OF THE NATIONAL PARTNERS THAT SUPPORTS THIS. SO OVER THE LAST TWO AND A HALF YEARS, WE'VE BEEN REALLY EXCITED AND PROUD TO SUPPORT THE CITY OF FORT LAUDERDALE. We approach, well, I work for the entrepreneurship and economic development team for the Center of Municipal Strategies and Programs. And the way we approach our work is looking at quality of life. And what we've seen now is that economic development is evolving. So before it was how many jobs can you bring to your city? But now it's more about housing. It's about workforce. And also all of that leads in infrastructure to quality of life. So with this project, what we've seen is just the transformation, the outcomes, the community outreach. We've seen there's been a shift from top down to community up. SO REALLY CONNECTING WITH THE COMMUNITIES TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE IDENTIFYING AND CREATING SOLUTIONS THAT ARE RELEVANT TO OUR RESIDENTS. THROUGH THIS WORK WE WERE ABLE TO AWARD THE CITY OF FORT LAUDERDALE WITH AN ECONOMIC MOBILITY RAPID GRANT BECAUSE WE SWORE JUST HOW WELL THEY WERE DOING. We are, of course, sad to see that the program is sunsetting, but we want to continue our work with Fort Lauderdale with this project. We've utilized Cervola and the city for several things. She served as a program expert during our city summit conference, and then also recently she served as an informal program expert to really get city leaders to think about how they are shifting the narrative for economic development and focusing on their residents. So super excited. I wish I could stay longer, but really excited to support her in this. Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much. Thank you for your work and your support. I really appreciate it.

Also, if I could say, I really appreciate everything that's been done. We never had the opportunity to meet, but I'm Commissioner Beasley-Pittman, District 3, and this is the heartbeat of what we're desiring to see in the district as well. You know, it starts here and it spreads out. So thank you for everything. And Shavola, you know, I'm just so excited for what we have seen as an output. So thank you. And overall, I'm sorry, but I just couldn't let the moment pass.

Thank you. Thank you. And just to share the strategy that we use here within this particular corridor was community first, And we call this the Align Framework. So it's advancing local impact through growing neighborhoods. And so we looked at community first, and then based upon that community's voice, we then developed strategy, which provided us vision, priorities, as well as planning, and then turned that into programming initiatives and activations that we then utilized to create outcomes and impacts. And so this particular strategy helps us to have this, in a sense, downward upward reaction from the city's perspective. So in essence, the community is involved all the way through. And everything that you do within this type of an impact in economic development ensures that the community is always at the center of the work that you do. And so off of this particular piece, the community generated some key things that they wanted to see come forward where we generated a roadmap of some key strategic things in the near-term, mid-term, and long-term that they wanted to see to continue to stabilize as well as revitalize the Sistrunk Corridor. And these things were not necessarily things that I pushed. These were actually came organically out of the community voice, the community talks and the community summit that we actually pushed forward. And these were also anchored by the community. And you'll notice that we do have owners assigned to every single action that has been established. And these partners have also agreed to take ownership of this work and moving it forward. So I want to just commend those partners in this space, Invest Fort Lauderdale, the CRA, the Urban League, the Black Business Chamber, and so on. We've had a lot of partners throughout this work supporting this initiative. And then finally, the recommendation to the Commission as we look at actions authorizing the implementation of the phase advancement of this roadmap within itself to ensure sustainability across the Cistern corridor and revitalization efforts. implementing the ALIGN framework as a community-centered economic development approach for economically stagnant and emerging corridors, as well as directing staff to evaluate citywide activation or application form by upcoming studies. And so we've seen nationally that there are examples across North Carolina, Riley. There's also examples in California and other examples across our United States that helped to anchor what we've done here in the city of Fort Lauderdale, but they are continuing to lead the way in this effort. So thank you all so much for your time. Any questions?

Excellent. Thank you, Commissioner Glassman.

I do. Thank you. And first of all, thank you for your work. It's really important, and congratulations on what you've achieved here. My question is actually for city attorney and city manager. So when we see the proposed tax bill that folks are going to be voting on in November, correct me if I'm wrong, but the state has said that there are just very specific categories where you could spend ad valorem taxes. So my question to you is, will programs like this... or what we do as our next step, will they be impacted by what might be passed in November when you look at those very specific categories of how you can spend ad valorem tax dollars?

Sure.

So yes, there are specific categories or eligibility buckets for how we expend those dollars. But we do have other revenue sources that support other programs and services in our city. And so we would definitely weigh the priorities and get that feedback from the commission. And so I would consider that every existing or potential new program will be evaluated against the priorities of the commission.

And I think that goes back to my conversation earlier about how I want to be as transparent as possible with our residents about Possible impacts because I personally when I look at the buckets that the state is telling us in this legislation that folks are going to be voting on It's very specific and so as you said we might have to go back and look at other priorities that we've had or maybe we can't even make room for a Priority like this. I'm just concerned. That's all I'm saying, but I want to make sure that when we educate the public not advocate and But when we educate, we do such a good job of educating that people must understand what might happen to programs like this when we've already established a whole line of priorities that have been waiting now for years for us to plan. But I just want us to be able to explain this and make sure that people understand the consequences of how we might have to shift priorities or how we might not be able to do the necessary help that we see recommended here. That's all.

To add to this conversation, with this, yes, this is an initiative that started within District 3, but the overall goal is to expand it citywide. With that aspect of it, does that put us in a position where it would fall under a category where we would not be able to fund it? It's for the whole city, it's not specifically only for THE SIX TRUNK QUARTER, WHICH IS HISTORICALLY KNOWN TO BE A COMMUNITY OF PEOPLE OF COLOR. SO THAT WOULD BE MY QUESTION. THE WAY WE PROMOTE THIS AND MOVE IT FORWARD, WOULD THAT ELIMINATE THE OPPORTUNITY WHERE THIS WOULD HAVE TO BE STIFLED OR DEFUNDED? THAT'S THE QUESTION.

I think one of the benefits that we've seen from this program is the knowledge and the expertise that Ms. Frazier has shared with our existing economic development team. So there could be opportunities to implement some of these initiatives through staff members. We would definitely want to gauge any expansion of this framework throughout the city. We have lots of commercial corridors, and I think we would need to identify maybe what's the next appropriate area for a potential expansion before we talk about having a city-wide type of rollout. So I think that there are opportunities for us to leverage what has been gleaned and developed through the Align framework. AND THEN WE'RE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR GRANTS, WHICH IS HOW WE GOT HERE, AND SO MAYBE THERE'S AN OPPORTUNITY FOR EXTERNAL FUNDING THAT COULD HELP SUPPORT THIS INITIATIVE.

ALL RIGHT. AND WITH THIS, WE DO HAVE A BRAND-NEW DIRECTOR FOR THIS DEPARTMENT.

HEY, MAGGIE, HOW YOU DOING?

I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO OUR CONVERSATION, AND I'M SURE AS THE COMMISSION THAT'S HERE, TO BE ABLE TO MOVE THIS FORWARD AND FIGURE OUT A FRAMEWORK THAT MAKES THIS POSSIBLE. So I have a lot of confidence in the direction that we're moving, and I am very hopeful that this will grow and not fall into a crack where we can't move forward. And again, thank you, Cervola, the entire team. I see Vaughn back there, some of the others, yes. Thank you, my dear. Y'all know I get locked with names. I'm sorry. Amber, there we go. You know exactly who I'm speaking to. Everyone who knows me now, I'm not the best with names, but I'm the best hugger. I know who you are. So thank you for that. However, again, I want us to be able, city manager, to hold on to this, move it forward. There is true evidence that this is feasible it will work and we need to do what we can to make sure it moves forward and it will again be a beneficial be beneficial to um the city overall overall so thank you thank you

Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you all. Commissioner, a question for you. I think this is maybe best for you, but maybe City Manager can chime in too. In that vein of working together and realizing this is important for the entirety of the city, how can we on the commission best support you or support this effort? I don't know what that is, but just want to open that up and you don't have to tell us right now, but as this unfolds, how can we continue to support this? Maybe it's, I don't know if it's being at events or if it's shared, you know, so whatever is appropriate.

That's a, you said it, being involved, being also a part of this, because so many times what the interpretation is, events, initiatives, programs that are in a sense SCOPED AROUND DISTRICT THREE, IT BECOMES A SILO FOR ONLY DISTRICT THREE. AND ONE OF THE THINGS WE MUST KEEP IN MIND, EVERYTHING THAT WE DO, IT ENCOMPLISHES THE WHOLE CITY. SO WHAT BENEFITS DISTRICT THREE ALSO BENEFITS THE OTHER DISTRICTS. AND IF WE STAND TOGETHER IN A WHOLE, WE CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN. THERE'S THINGS THAT CAN BE BROUGHT IN FOR DIFFERENT PURVIEWS THAT THE TUNNEL VISION WE MAY HAVE CAN ALSO BE BROUGHT INTO THE CONVERSATION TO MAKE IT HEIGHTENED TO ANOTHER LEVEL.

THAT SOUNDS GREAT. THANK YOU. EXCELLENT. CITY MANAGER, GOOD ON THAT ONE?

I think that was perfect.

Yep. Okay. Fantastic. That was excellent. So commission, if you don't mind, let's just continue in this progression going next to business three, and then we'll come back to commissioner comments, business one, because we have some folks that are signed up for let me just make sure I cover everyone that signed up for business two. Then I'm going to go. We have folks signed up for some of the next items. So isn't too, let me just make sure I, I, you were included here. Tamika Lee, good. Okay, great. Jim, James, Harris, did you want to speak for Business 2, which we were just talking about? Okay, come on up if you'd like to come up, Jim. And then Bernadette Norris-Weeks. Is Bernadette here? Oh, there you are in the back. Okay, fantastic. You'll go after Jim if you like. Fantastic. Jim, thank you for being here. You have two minutes. Go right ahead.

GOOD AFTERNOON, VICE MAYOR AND COMMISSIONERS. FOR THE RECORD, I'M JAMES KARRAS, RECENTLY APPOINTED AS THE INTERIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF INVEST FORT LAUDERDALE INC. AND I'M HERE TO SUPPORT OF THE 2026 SYSTEM EMPOWERMENT ROAD MAP. FIRST I WANT TO RECOGNIZE THE FOCUS AND DILIGENT WORK OF THE CITY'S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT AND THE ECONOMIC RECOVERY FELLOW AS WELL AS THE SUPPORT OF THE NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES. THIS ROAD MAP REFLECTS MONTHS OF CAREFUL LISTENING and planning, and it shows. It sets out a clear, achievable ecosystem path, one that ties housing, small business, and community capacity building into a single coordinated strategy rather than treating them as separate efforts. We're proud, Invest Fort Lauderdale is proud to be recognized as a partner in implementing those housing, small business, and community capacity building goals and objectives. We're particularly interested in issues that were mentioned earlier about capital access. As you know, the Greater Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce had a capital access summit last fall, and there's a very specific roadmap in terms of more equitable capital access in our community. We long believe that access to capital is the foundation that everything is built on for housing and small business. The roadmap gives us a framework to address that directly, and Invest Fort Lauderdale is ready to put it to work. Quickly, today, Invest Fort Lauderdale is ready and prepared to play that role. Since we last came before you, we've made real progress. We were recently with our development partner at the ribbon cutting for the Sistrunk Apartments. We've seeded a new independent board, 11 member boards, drawn directly from the neighborhoods this work affects. And in closing, all of this is, and we've also created a strategic plan, and we expect to have our 501c3 within the next 30 to 60 days. We're ready to be a partner, and the board is enthusiastic and asked me to be here to share that with you.

Thank you, Jim. I really appreciate it. Thank you for your role. Yeah, feel free to give Jim a hand. For those of you who might not know, Jim is just an amazing guru around affordable and workforce housing and a host of other issues, and INVEST has languished a little bit, I think, to say the least, and so glad you're at the helm helping drive it forward. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Bernadette Norris Weeks.

Thank you, Vice Mayor, City Commissioners. First, I rise today in support of I Am Sistrunk and the initiatives that were gone over with you all by staff, the Economic Development Department. Let me first say as a longtime business owner in the area, a longtime resident of the city of Fort Lauderdale, a former Homeowners Association president for more than a decade, a former chair of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce. This speaks to me. And one of the things that Commissioner Beasley Pittman said a little bit earlier, when one part of the city rises, we all rise. And I see that happening right now. Mr. Karras is correct in his representation to you that we are humming. We have a fully... seated board now for the first time. We've adopted a strategic plan. We recently took a tour of the area where it was really beneficial. We recently, we had a meeting just yesterday. Pretty much all of our members were there. We're very, very engaged. And thanks to you all for seating the people that you appointed in addition to the folks that we were able to get on board. They're all very engaged people. in the community. And I am here to tell you that we're prepared in any way that we can be a great partner to you all to make sure that the recommendations are achieved. We're here. We're all here for it. And so thank you all for the support that you've been giving Invest Fort Lauderdale. We have some other requests that will be coming to you before you soon. And let's get this going. Thank you.

Excellent. Thank you, Bernadette. Thank you for your service. Excellent. No one else has signed up for business two. Now we'll move on to business three, proposed film permitting fee structure and public property use fee, community services department.

We have Josh Carden, Chief Cultural Affairs Officer.

Great. Thank you, City Manager. Josh.

Thank you, City Manager. Good afternoon, Vice Mayor and City Commission. Thank you for having me, Joshua Carden, the Cultural Affairs Officer for the City. I'm here today to present some information about our current film permitting in the City of Fort Lauderdale. So the City's film permitting process plays a critical role in attracting high-value productions that support local employment. enhances the city's national and international image, and drives economic growth across multiple sectors from hospitality to transportation. This presentation will provide a comprehensive overview of the county and city's current permitting process, highlight key achievements, summarize direct local economic impact, and present a proposal to introduce a modest film licensing fee aligned with national and state best practices. So the city of Fort Lauderdale collaborates closely with Broward County's Film Commission through Film Lauderdale to support and facilitate film, television, and commercial productions in the city. Film Lauderdale serves as the official film commission of Broward County and offers production companies location scouting, permitting assistance, logistical support, and they help to liaise with services and local agencies. While this has been a long-standing relationship, the City of Fort Lauderdale and the County's Film Commission entered into an official interlocal agreement in 2025. This allows the City Commission and City of Fort Lauderdale to apply for film permit applications for productions through a newly launched user-friendly film app system powered by ApplyFor. THE CITY OF FORT LAUDERDALE CONTINUES TO OVERSEE THE PERMITS WITHIN ITS JURISDICTION AND COLLABORATES WITH THE FILM COMMISSION TO FACILITATE THE PRODUCTIONS. WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO APPROVE OR EJECT APPLICATIONS FOR ANY REASON AND THE FEES AND COST OF CITY SERVICES ASSOCIATED WITH FILM PERMITS SUCH AS OFF-DUTY POLICE OFFICERS, TRANSPORTATION AND MOBILITY, for road closures and MOT, parks and recreation for facility rentals, and the fire department for off-duty fire services or required inspections. Productions are responsible for paying all of these departments directly. However, there is currently no film permit fee or film licensing fee, excuse me. So some of our key achievements, I've been overseeing our film permitting program for about three and a half years now, I believe. Fort Lauderdale this year was named the number two best place to live and work as a filmmaker by Movie Maker Magazine. And Movie Maker Magazine touts Fort Lauderdale as a booming film and TV scene with diverse and dynamic location, strong local support, and a thriving creative community that makes Fort Lauderdale a major hub for storytellers. We are also by far the most utilized municipality in Broward County when it comes to films. This slide gives you our achievements by the numbers over the last few years, but the main takeaway is just what an incredible economic engine the film production Film productions are for the city of Fort Lauderdale. Every year we have anywhere between 120 to 136 film permits issued, so about 10 or 15 per month, which also underscores tens of millions of dollars in direct local expenditures. And every year it supports thousands of local workers.

And so, Josh, and just on that, it looks like were projected to possibly have more this year than any other year prior. Is that right? Am I looking at that right?

It has been an incredibly busy year for film. The reason some of the permits issued is lower in numbers is that the new apply for system allows us to consolidate some permits, whereas before we would need to have a permit for each location of shooting. Now we're able to roll them all into one permit. So even though it's, you know, at 67 in reality, based on those other numbers, it's probably closer to about 100 right now.

Okay, great. Thanks.

These are just some examples of the productions that we do attract in the city of Fort Lauderdale. Everything from reality television series to major Sports brand commercials and photo shoots. We've also had several celebrity athletic campaigns shot here. FIFA just finished shooting a FIFA commercial for the World Cup with Lionel Messi. We also have had many documentaries as well as accessibility-focused productions, miniseries for television as well as film.

Hey, Josh, just a point on that last slide. If you look at that last category, I will tell you I hear it from a lot of people That RJ Decker series on ABC and Hulu has so many really nice images of Fort Lauderdale, in between scenes, before and after, even some of the locations. That one, I would love to know how much that one had in terms of an economic impact. Because I do hear from a lot of people that they really enjoyed just seeing that series just for the way Fort Lauderdale was portrayed. It was really nice. It did a good job.

Thank you. Yeah, I agree. There's some gorgeous beauty shots of Fort Lauderdale throughout the entire series. They were on site here for over a month. They worked with... Everyone from local homeowners that received funding or were paid to rent their properties through mods that was paid to use their facilities for equipment storage. So they really did impact the city on a very large scale. I believe the direct local spend for that was $4 million. I will get back to you on the actual thing.

No, thanks. No, they did a good job, and it was really nice to see throughout that series. It was great. Thanks. Thank you.

All right. And of course, productions, the direct local expenditure is not just what is actually used by the film. It's the employment of local cast and crew. It's the lodging that that requires so that they can be close to their base camp for filming. It's also the catering and dining. These productions spend thousands of dollars a day through local caterers or coffee shops or restaurants. They also try to rent as much equipment and vehicles here as possible to cut down on any sort of shipping costs. They also pay restaurants and facilities and all sorts of venues, including schools, parks, stores, private residences, and office spaces to use their facilities for filming and to generate revenue for them closing for the duration of the production. CITY SERVICES AND PERMITTING PRODUCTIONS ALSO PAY FOR OFF-DUTY POLICE OFFICERS, MOT SERVICES, METERED PARKING RESERVATIONS AND FACILITY RENTALS, WHICH PROVIDES DIRECT REVENUE TO MULTIPLE DEPARTMENTS IN THE CITY. AND THEN OF COURSE THE MARKETING AND LONG-TERM TOURISM IMPACT THAT COMES ALONG WITH OUR CITY BEING IN MAJOR MOVIES AND TELEVISION SHOWS. SO THE CURRENT PERMITTING FRAMEWORK, THEY'RE COORDINATED THROUGH THE CULTURAL AFFAIRS DIVISION IN COLLABORATION WITH FILM LAUDERDALE. So depending on the intensity of one of these productions, the permit itself will travel through cultural affairs, risk management, transportation and mobility, parks and recreation, the police department, and strategic communications. The three that are non-negotiable for every production are cultural affairs, risk management, and the police department. AS I MENTIONED EARLIER WE DO NOT CURRENTLY CHARGE A FEE FOR FILM PERMITS BUT PRODUCTIONS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL ASSOCIATED CITY COSTS. THEY MUST PROVIDE A CERTIFICATE OF INSURANCE NAMING THE CITY AS ADDITIONALLY INSURED. IN MOST MUNICIPALITIES PERMITS ARE PRODUCTION COMPANIES ARE REQUIRED TO GET AT LEAST FIVE DAYS NOTICE FOR A FILM PERMIT. ONE OF THE THINGS THAT IS MADE Fort Lauderdale, so film friendly, is our rapid turnaround time. We typically are able to turn them around for production starting the next day. We oftentimes even have productions requesting permits on the same day. And that's just the nature of the film industry I've come to find. We also occasionally have to coordinate with some of our external partners at the Florida Department of Transportation, the FDBC. If a production is within a residential area, we do always get approval from the HOA president so that their residents are notified ahead of time. We've also started notifying code compliance as well as parking enforcement just so that they're aware that there is a production going on within that area.

Josh, I need to know your contacts. If you can get in touch with those people in one day, you said most of it is a one-day turnaround? Yes. I need to know the secret, okay? I really do.

These are some comparisons for film permitting or licensing fees by municipalities throughout the state of Florida. We would IF GIVEN DIRECTION TODAY BE THE ONLY MUNICIPALITY IN BROWARD COUNTY THAT WOULD CHARGE A LICENSING FEE FOR OUR FILM PERMITTING. YOU CAN SEE IN MIAMI-DADE COUNTY THEY CHARGE A $150 PERMIT FEE BUT THAT PERMIT IS VALID FOR 28 DAYS SO THEY COULD SHOOT FOR 28 DAYS STRAIGHT. for $150. They of course charge for all city services, but then they also implemented park fees. So I would say probably at least half of the productions that shoot here in Fort Lauderdale do utilize one of our parks or our beach. And in Miami-Dade County, they would charge a fee of $300 for every single one of those assets that the production would like to utilize. Overall fees are pretty nominal statewide, anywhere from $2,500 all the way up to the town of Oakland in Central Florida, which is $500 a day to film. I will say that is an outlier. And typically these are what most municipalities would charge. The city of Hollywood is probably the most comparable to the city of Fort Lauderdale's film permitting program. They do not charge for a permit, but they do have hourly charges for any public asset used by production. So anywhere from $30 an hour to rent a gazebo, to $100 an hour for a gymnasium, all the way up to, I think, $3,000 an hour to rent their amphitheater. So today we have a film permitting fee consideration for you all. We are presenting a tiered licensing fee of $500 to $300 per production. This fee would help to offset staff time spent reviewing applications, coordinating interdepartmental approvals, and ensuring public safety. The estimated annual revenue based on the historic permit activity would be $15,000 to $21,000 annually. AND WE WOULD ALSO LIKE TO PROPOSE ALLOWING WAIVERS OR DISCOUNTS FOR NONPROFITS OR STUDENT PRODUCTIONS. WE DO HAVE LOTS OF THOSE. AS WELL AS CHARITABLE PSAs OR TOURISM PROMOTING SHOOTS DURING THE OFF SEASON. Again, city staff will also develop a fee structure based on site attributes, including location, local significance, interruption to use by the public, and the amount of time requested to be used for production. So while we do charge for some of our parks and gymnasiums and the aquatic center and things, now there are some parks and city properties that we do not currently charge anything for productions to utilize. This is just a closer look at this tiered system. I would say probably 75% of the productions in the city of Fort Lauderdale fall into tier two or tier three. So that would be a $1 to $200 administrative fee for the licensing to shoot in Fort Lauderdale. We probably only have a handful of tier one and four productions every single year. So it would average out to be about $150 per production. And this was a way to scale some of the staff time based on the production's needs. If it's a tier one, it could be as easy as a family's Christmas shoot. They still require permits for their photography sessions. Tier four, we again probably only have about two or three a year major productions that require major MOT plans and road closures. And I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Great.

Thank you, Josh. Commissioner Glassman.

Yes, thank you, Vice Mayor. So, Josh, thank you for your work on this. Those fees, though, they seem, considering budgets of a lot of these productions, I mean, does it just mean that those administrative fees seem really low? I mean, I don't know. It just seems low to me, considering the budgets that... that these productions have. I don't know, what are your thoughts on that?

Something we were very cautious of in working with Film Lauderdale is that we want to remain film friendly. We don't want to put productions off and have them go to Hollywood because there just is no permit fee. One of the first questions that productions ask or location scouts ask is, Is there a permit fee for your city? And if there is, a lot of times I think that kind of just puts the thought into their mind that it's not as film-friendly, and we may not be willing to work with them as much to get across the finish line.

Okay, well, that's fair enough, but maybe you could just quickly say there is, but it's only $50. It depends how quickly you give the rest of the information.

And that's why we're proposing a licensing fee instead of a permitting fee. So this will allow us to still market as Broward County having no film permitting fees. It's really just an administrative fee tacked on to offset staff.

I understand what you're saying. It just seems a little low, but that's just my opinion. Thanks. Thank you.

Josh, if you could, for Tier 1 still photography, small production, is it Could you elaborate a little bit more because, you know, my family, we like to go out and take pictures in front of that big oak tree. Do I have to pay $50 for a minute?

No, it's really only if you've hired a professional photographer. Again, this is not, I wouldn't say that anyone's going to enforce a Christmas photo shoot with your family if you don't have a permit. But we do get a lot of small productions, even for large companies like Puma, that shot at the basketball courts on the beach. They might still only have a model to wear the shoes and a photographer. So those do require a certificate of insurance as well as a permit.

Can we separate that from commercial versus non-commercial? A wedding has a professional photographer out there and all kinds of lights and videography. It's a major planned production, but it's not a commercial shoot. I wouldn't encourage us to get a permit for a wedding or a bar mitzvah or a birthday or much of anything else. Can we separate that?

Yeah, absolutely. Weddings, bar mitzvahs, birthdays, as long as they're in in spaces that are not utilizing public property, then they don't require permits. It's really only...

They typically like to do them in public property, like parks, where trees are. That's a very common location. Someplace in nature... is where you're typically going to see people want to take their wedding photographs, and that's going to be most likely in a park. Yes. So I think I would separate this from commercial versus non-commercial.

Absolutely. I agree. Most of the productions that come to us are for commercial or marketing purposes. Very, very rarely do we have someone coming for their own private use seeking a film permit.

Okay. I want to raise an issue, though. I have one of my constituents who lambasted the city quite extensively because he was woken up by a film production that took place adjacent to his house very early, very loud, very consistent, blocked the street. You may have heard about it. He was pretty vocal and let everybody know. We had film crews smoking weed all up and down the street. They were blasting music. There was all kinds of... of obnoxious behavior taking place as a result of this uh suggestion was that they may or may not have been filming pornographic material there don't know don't want to know i'll leave that up to other people what's our what's our control over the invasiveness of this into communities yes because they were told you know called the cops sorry i can't do anything And that's an unacceptable answer. So when they're blocking the street, parking all over the swales, parking in front of people's driveways, impeding access, fire trucks and garbage trucks can't get down the street, they're out there banging up a crowd 7 o'clock in the morning. We need better protections for our neighborhoods, our residential neighborhoods than that. Because if that's what film is to Fort Lauderdale, I don't want it. I don't want it in District 1. You may want it in the rest of the city. I don't want it in my neighborhoods.

I agree. Um, I'm very familiar with that situation as well. Um, I will say film and productions do have to abide by all city noise ordinances. Um, based upon that complaint, we've also started, um, informing code compliance as well as parking enforcement where we have productions and residential areas. We have also asked if that neighborhood in particular would just like to not have any production at all and we just don't film or we don't permit anything. to be in that area. So how are we doing that?

How are we going out to a neighborhood and asking if they want film production in that neighborhood or not? Because I've never heard of my neighborhoods being approached and saying, do you want this or not? So what's our process or mechanism for doing that?

So we do reach out to the HOA president with the full permit package and ask if it is approved, if they have any issues with it. And they do oftentimes come back and say, yes, but please add, you know, no parking on the street or cannot block driveways or, you know, are they soliciting the neighbors immediately adjacent to where the production is?

So if we're going to go out to the HOA presidents, I want it more than just an HOA president says, okay, yeah, we think film production is good. I'd like them to go and talk to the neighbor immediately adjacent who may or may not be a member of the HOA. So we have a lot of folks who don't feel like paying dues and so who may or may not be a member of an HOA. I encourage everybody to join HOAs because it's a way to get your voice heard. So it's a good mechanism for communication, but not everybody does it for a variety of reasons. So is there... Let me rephrase this, not is there. There should be a requirement that the HOA talk to the impacted adjacent property owners, not just that it is the HOA president or HOA board's opinion that filming in the neighborhood is a good thing.

Absolutely. And so productions that are within residential areas, they are required to notify all homes within 500 feet for feedback, at least I believe it's 72 hours prior, so they do have their buy-in. We've never had a resident have an issue with it as long as they're informed. Again, most of these productions, I would say all of the productions in residential areas, we do require an off-duty police officer to be on site. So there is someone there to enforce the actual rules. That police officer is also empowered at any point in time to shut down production if these production companies are not complying with local city regulations or ordinances. So it's well within the right to fully remove their permit.

So we know that didn't happen last time. We know we had rampant drug consumption. We know we had violations of noise ordinances. We know that the police officer on there did not shut anything down. So where did that break down? Did that break down that the officer didn't know he had the authority to shut that down? Did he think that the city's permit overrode his authority to shut it down? Help me understand.

Yeah. I could not speak for the police officer on duty that day. I do know that PD did look into it, and they were going to review for further training for their off-duty police officers that are on site at productions.

Okay. Again, we can't have this be a burden on our neighborhoods.

I agree.

I'm, you know, just the neighborhood comes first.

Okay. Thank you. Josh, could you go back to the last slide before that? Thanks. So the final bullet there, you're going to be coming back to us then to talk about things like the park fees, like you had mentioned earlier. Is that coming down the pike for us? Yes, sir.

I'll work with the Parks Department as well as other city staff to facilitate public property use fees for all of our facilities.

Okay. When do you anticipate something like that maybe coming back?

When would you like it? Well, no, when can you do it? I think the commission break would be a good opportunity for us to start exploring it. I won't promise August, but shortly thereafter.

Okay, because I do hear sometimes, not that it ever really has risen to an issue, but we do get a lot of production in District 2 along the beach and in some of our parks. So I'm just curious about that one. That's all. Thanks. Thank you.

Great. Thank you. Thank you, Josh. So MY VIEW IS I LIKE THE PERMIT APPLICATION FEE CONSTRUCT. I LIKE THE TIERED LICENSING. I AGREE THE FOCUS ON COMMERCIAL. SO MY UNDERSTANDING IS THERE IS THIS COMPONENT OF IT AND THEN THE ADDITIONAL SECONDARY COMPONENT IF YOU GO TO THE NEXT ONE, WHICH IS IN ADDITION TO THE APPLICATION FEE, THAT SECOND COMPONENT. AM I UNDERSTANDING THAT RIGHT? YES. FANTASTIC. SO I THINK WE HAVE CONSENSUS OF DESIRE TO MOVE FORWARD, CITY MANAGER?

I just want to add that this is part of our approach in terms of cost recovery, identifying opportunities for revenue, and just making sure that we aren't leaving anything on the table that doesn't need to be left on the table. So thank you.

Yeah, appreciate it. I think it's the right approach to take. Okay, fantastic. Thank you, Josh.

Thank you for your work. Thank you.

All right. Now we'll go on to Business 4. Business 4 is consideration of the future use of the United States Post Office located at 400 Northwest 7th Avenue. City Manager.

We have to present today Chris Cooper, Deputy City Manager.

Good afternoon, Vice Mayor and Commission. So this presentation today will seek to provide some information about the state of the current post office at 400 Northwest Seventh Avenue, also known as Avenue of the Arts. The post offices plan to relocate from that site and then seek the commission's input and feedback on what the future of that site may look like. So I'll go into a little bit of the history of the post office because it's important for the context of what your feedback and what your direction may be in terms of how to use that site going forward. The post office itself was part of a larger redevelopment project in the area from 1994 to 1997. What I found interesting, the post office itself was named after Sylvia H. Allridge. Miss Allridge was a very notable figure in Fort Lauderdale and in the northwest area in particular. She actually founded the first Broward Employment Agency, a uniform company and a taxi service. She owned many rental apartments, was a landowner who donated land for Provident Hospital and St. John's Church. And she was the first president of Dillard High School PTA and donated all of the original band instruments to the school. So very important person, very worthwhile to name this site after Ms. Allridge. THE CITY ACTUALLY FUNDED THE PROPERTY ACQUISITION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE POST OFFICE USING CDBG FUNDS IN THE MID-90s AND THEN LEASED THE POSTAL SERVICE, LEASED THE FACILITY TO THE POSTAL SERVICE FOR $160,000 A YEAR FOR A 30-YEAR TERM. AND THAT LEASE AMOUNT STAYED CONSISTENT FROM THE START ALL THE WAY THROUGH TO WHEN THAT EXPIRES NEXT YEAR. LATER IN THE PRESENTATION I'LL SHARE HOW THAT USE OF CDBG FUNDS MAY AFFECT THE DECISIONS WE MAKE IN TERMS OF THE FUTURE USE OF THE SITE. Another notable feature of the site for you history buffs is that the site includes a memorial to John H. Hill II. Mr. Hill was also very notable in Fort Lauderdale's history in the Northwest neighborhood. He's considered the first black millionaire and one of the largest property owners in the Northwest area. He owned a number of businesses, including Hill's Grocery, a hotel, the Windsor Club, several funeral homes, and several housing developments. WE INTEND AS WE MOVE FORWARD AND CONSIDER REDEVELOPMENT OF THE SITE TO PRESERVE AND PROTECT HIS MONUMENT, WHICH IS AT THE NORTHEAST CORNER OF AVENUE OF THE ARTS AND NORTHWEST FOURTH. SO A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT THE SITE DEVELOPMENT AND THE HISTORY OF THE SITE. AGAIN, IT WAS PART OF A LARGER NORTHWEST AREA REDEVELOPMENT EFFORT. IT INCLUDES THE CITY VIEW TOWNHOMES, REGAL TRACE APARTMENTS, THE SHOPS ON AVENUE OF THE ARTS. the Broward Health Facility and the Sistrunk Entryway Park. The Postal Service lease expires on December 11th, 2027. And that gives us the opportunity again to think about how we reuse and redevelop this site. The reason for the relocation and conversations with the Postal Service were their desire to downsize. This facility is not just a retail facility. It also includes mail distribution services. So their intent was to DOWNSIZED INTO REALLY JUST A RETAIL FACILITY. WE DID HAVE CONVERSATIONS WITH THE POSTAL SERVICE EARLY ON ABOUT THE POTENTIAL FOR REDEVELOPMENT OF THE SITE AND THE POTENTIAL INCLUSION OF THAT SMALLER RETAIL FACILITY WITHIN THE DEVELOPMENT. BUT PER LETTER WE RECEIVED FROM THE POSTAL SERVICE, THEIR INTENT IS TO RELOCATE SOMEWHERE WITHIN A TWO MILE RADIUS OF THE EXISTING SITE. Looking at the potential redevelopment of the site as we consider how to move forward, the site's about three acres. And for context, that's roughly about the same size and shape of the Adderley development, which is at the corner of Sistrunk Boulevard and Avenue of the Arts. It's also about the same size as the adjacent shopping center that includes the Kim Chi supermarket. So just for an idea of what could be done on this site, two different developments, but both similar to what could be done and what could be redeveloped on the site should the commission choose to go that route. The zoning is Northwest RAC mixed use east that allows for a variety of development, including single use residential or commercial, as well as mixed use development. It's very permissive. There's no density cap. It's really just based on the form and overall dimensions of the building and what can fit on the site. And it can go up to 110 feet in height. We did recently appraise the site in May of 2026, and it appraised for about $13.5 million. So for the commission today, what we want to focus on are the potential paths forward for the site. Again, we have until December of 2027 when the Postal Service moves out to really have an opportunity to redevelop it. But this is a good time for us to start thinking about what that path looks like so we can put those things into action. Most of the paths forward require us to follow the city charter with the exception of retaining the property for city use. A couple of items to note when you're looking at these options are all of the options require a needed identified public purpose except for the option to surplus and sell to a private entity. If the Commission decides to surplus and sell the property based on the current appraised value of $13.5 million, the proceeds should at least be $10 million based on the 75% of assessed value requirement in our charter. At least 15% of that per policy would go into the affordable housing trust fund and the rest would be available for whatever use the city determines. Lease per sale is also something to consider. To do a land lease to redevelop the site, that could potentially be a reoccurring revenue. A sale of the site is really a one-time revenue source. And then going back to the HUD funds that were used to purchase and develop the site, there may be some restrictions on how that's used moving forward, or there may be requirements for the city to repay the CDBG program at least a portion of the value to comply with federal regulations. We don't know that answer yet. That's something that we're still pursuing with HUD, but it is something that we should consider as we redevelop the site. One option would be to redevelop the site within a national objective of CDBG, which includes affordable housing, removal of slum and blight, and something that benefits low or moderate income populations. Another thing to note is with the charter amendments that the city placed on the upcoming ballot, SHOULD THE COMMISSION'S DECISION EXTEND PAST THOSE CHARTER AMENDMENTS, AND IF THOSE AMENDMENTS PASS, THE VOTE THRESHOLDS FOR SOME OF THESE OPTIONS MAY COME INTO PLAY, WHEREAS NOW THEY'RE A MAJORITY, POTENTIALLY COULD BE A SUPER MAJORITY VOTE REQUIREMENT PAST NOVEMBER. SO LASTLY, THESE ARE SOME KEY CONSIDERATIONS TO HELP THE COMMISSION IN THEIR DECISION MAKING ON WHAT TO DO WITH THIS SITE. FROM A REVENUE PERSPECTIVE, YOU KNOW, LEASE IS A RECURRING REVENUE SOURCE POTENTIALLY, SALES A ONE TIME PAYMENT. Whatever the commission's desired use may be, whether it's residential, market rate, affordable, workforce, commercial, mixed use, the site can accommodate all of those types of uses. One pathway is the city could transfer the property to the CRA. The CRA could issue an RFP per the city commission's direction for a use that's consistent with the Northwest Progreso CRA redevelopment plan. And again, the federal compliance with CDBG could become a factor. We don't know that answer today, but we can certainly factor that into any decision the commission makes today.

Great. Thank you, Chris. Appreciate it. Commission, we have three people signed up to speak. If it's all right, maybe hear from them and then we can talk further. So Jim Karras, you're signed up. Bernadette Norris-Weeks and Dodie Keefe. So come on up, Jim. If you want to come up first, you have two minutes.

Good afternoon again, Vice Mayor Sorensen, City Commissioners. Thank you for allowing me to speak on this item. As I indicated before, I'm now the interim executive director of Invest Fort Lauderdale. This is a critical site, needless to say, as was evidenced by the presentation just now. There are a number of approaches and alternatives. I have to say the priority approach has to be based on the community and what the community believes that should be there. THE SITE WAS PURCHASED WITH COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT FUNDS. THOSE ARE THE COMMUNITY'S FUNDS. CDBG IS ISOLATED TO COMMUNITIES OF LOW MODERATE INCOME. AND THESE FUNDS WERE EXPENDED TO HELP REDEVELOP THE CIS TRUNK COMMUNITY. AND WE COULD ARGUE ABOUT THE IMPACT THAT THE POST OFFICE HAS HAD, POSITIVE, NEGATIVE, NEUTRAL. I'M NOT NECESSARILY WANT TO LOOK BACKWARD, BUT I THINK THIS OPPORTUNITY IS NOT TO FOCUS ON THE APPRAISED VALUE OF THIS LAND, WHICH IS QUITE ENTICING IN THESE DAYS OF BUDGET CONSTRAINTS. what we ought to be looking at is a robust community engagement process before any of these decisions are made or even considered. So I would argue that Invest Fort Lauderdale in conjunction with the CRA could play a very active role in conducting a robust community engagement charrette process where we engage the community very similar to what we heard earlier in Business 2 in terms of the pathway forward for Systrunk. IS BRING THE COMMUNITY IN FROM THE BEGINNING. LET THEM DECIDE OR MAKE A RECOMMENDATION TO YOU IN TERMS OF THE REUSE OF THIS PROPERTY. IN TERMS OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING, WEALTH BUILDING, SMALL BUSINESSES, ARTS AND CULTURE. THIS IS A COMMUNITY PROPERTY THAT SHOULD BE GUIDED BY THE COMMUNITY ITSELF. AND BEST WALL WATER DEAL IS READY TO PLAY AN ACTIVE ROLE TO DO SO.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU, JIM.

APPRECIATE IT. BERNADETTE NORRIS-WEEKS.

Vice Mayor, Commissioners, I am speaking today in my personal capacity. As a longtime business owner, my office is actually located just across the street from this site, and I can throw a rock at it, literally. For those familiar with the movie Green Book, this site represents much more than a current post office. It occupies land associated with a period in American history when African Americans were often prohibited from staying in many hotels. AND SO THIS SITE REALLY REPRESENTS QUITE A SIGNIFICANT ALTHOUGH NOT DESIGNATED HISTORICAL PRESENCE. THIS IS MORE THAN JUST A SITE. IT'S ACTUALLY A VISIBLE GATEWAY INTO THE CIS TRUNK COMMUNITY. I AM NOT STANDING HERE SUPPORTING ANY ONE THING OTHER THAN SAYING THAT THIS SHOULD BE AN RFP PROCESS, IT SHOULD BE SOMETHING THAT GOES OUT FOR BID AND THAT THE COMMUNITY HAS A CHANCE TO VOICE WHAT THEY BELIEVE THEY'D LIKE TO SEE IN THIS COMMUNITY AND A PROJECT. I UNDERSTAND THAT THERE HAVE BEEN LONG-TERM DISCUSSIONS THAT HAVE BEEN GOING ON. I'M GLAD THAT THIS HAS BEEN PUT IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN SO THAT FOLKS LIKE ME CAN COME OVER AND COMMENT AND LET YOU KNOW THAT WHAT WE'D LIKE TO SEE. I'VE SPOKEN WITH SEVERAL BUSINESS OWNERS IN THE NEARBY AREA, AND I THINK WE ARE ALL OF THE SAME BELIEF THAT THIS SHOULD BE SOMETHING THAT IS AESTHETICALLY PLEASING speaks to our community in a way that there is involvement. I do like what Mr. Karras said a little while ago with there being a charrette or something that will engage the community and allow us to come out and tell you what we'd like to see. And so with that, thank you for your time today.

Thank you very much. Dodie Keith.

Good afternoon, Commission, Dodie Keith. I'm actually here representing Broward Partnership today. I am the co-chair, along with Debbie Orszewski, who couldn't be here today, of our Real Estate Development Committee for Broward Partnership. And Jerry Gutierrez was here earlier as our president and chair of our association. And long time Fort Lauderdale, our engagement, a lot of you know what we do there. But the affordable housing aspects of what's needed in this community and that low to moderate income level is so important to create opportunities for people to live that have jobs and that just want to stay here and work in our city and be great assets to us. And I think what's so important when you look at this, what we'd like to challenge, and I'm sorry Debbie's not here so I'm going to play attorney a little bit, is we believe there's another process. And I was at your CRA advisory board meeting recently a number of months back where they did vote to go ahead and move this forward and move it to the CRA and begin that process of taking it, looking at it for redevelopment. And we believe that there's a process that would shorten the RFP process. When you're dealing with this low to moderate income, you definitely need community output. You need all that. We've shown to do that as part of our partnership here in the city of Fort Lauderdale and in the city of Pompano Beach where we're doing another project. And it's really important you have community buy-in, but it's also important to try to figure out a way to do these projects real efficiently and save dollars. So there is a process through the Florida Redevelopment Act, Chapter 163, which Debbie has put forward, which has an element in there that allows for disposition of real property through your CRA. and it allows it. It's still an open procurement process. It's somewhat similar to an unsolicited bid process, but it allows for a project like this to move forward simply, not extended, lengthy RFP process. So we would really encourage, yes, this should move to your CRA. It needs to go quickly. The opportunities here where they talk about leasing it, one of the challenges we found, oh my goodness, is when you have that... The 50-year lease does not allow you for financing. So that option doesn't work for a lot of developers. But we really encourage you to move forward with what you've got.

Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Excellent. Let's see. Let's talk more about it. Commissioner Glassman, it's your district.

Yes, it is. Thank you. First of all, thank you to all the folks that spoke. I've been talking to a lot of people about this for a while now, and there's always been a lot of interest on this site. My preference would be that we actually choose the CRA pathway, and I like the state statute that gives us that opportunity to go about it perhaps in an expedited fashion. But I really believe, I actually think those HUD restrictions will come into play if we were going to try and sell this property. But I don't think that's the best thing for us to do for the, basically for the corridor and for the city as a whole. So I'm agreeing with what I've heard from the speakers. I think that we should move to transfer this to the CRA, let the CRA dispose of it, obviously with all of that public input, do that RFP and get moving on it. But I think by far that is the best path when we look at all of our options here. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Glassman. Commissioner Herbst, any further feedback?

I would concur. I support anything that brings more workforce and affordable housing to the city.

Thank you. Commissioner Beze-Pittman.

With this direction that we're going, I want us to remember also the history part that was given, added to the conversation about the legacy of the land, what was going on in the area, who EVEN THE POST OFFICE WAS NAMED AFTER. I BELIEVE EVEN IN THIS PROCESS WE DO NEED TO INCLUDE THE NEIGHBORS IN THE AREA SO THEY COULD BE A PART OF THE PROCESS, HAVE A CONVERSATION TO ADD INPUT. WE DO KNOW WE ARE IN DESPERATE NEED OF HOUSING, BUT ALSO WHATEVER WE DO THERE, WE WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT NEIGHBORS ON DISTRICT 2, DISTRICT 3, WE'RE ALL IN HOMINEE OF WHAT IS COMING. So we cannot alleviate that part of the conversation. So with that, including opportunity for the surrounding associations, neighborhoods to be in a space to share their comments as well.

Great.

Can we do those on parallel paths?

I think we can, yeah. I think we can do both. Commissioner Glassman, is that reasonable? I didn't hear what you said. If we can have the public engagement participative process of this while we're exploring moving it to the CRA.

Sure, I see no reason why. I think that makes perfect sense. And plus we'll have the CRA board doing it. Those are all public meetings as well. So sure, no problem.

And also if we can add to that, you know, the transparency of everything we're doing. This is the reason why, um, I had shared that just conversation of, I have had with neighbors from district three, um, not knowing exactly what's going on. Um, Chris did address the fact that cause conversation I had was that we, the city was refusing to renew the contract with the post office. And that's not true. Correct. But that is the conversation in the community. So when we begin to hear things like that, we do need to address them, bring the facts to the table. So we do not feel like things are being done behind our backs. So with the education with that, let's make sure we're being TRANSPARENT IN EVERY AREA SO EVERYONE IS COMFORTABLE WITH THE DECISIONS THAT ARE BEING MADE.

WITHOUT A DOUBT. IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE THAT THERE'S MISINFORMATION BEING SPREAD. HARD TO BELIEVE. BUT WE'RE GOING TO ADDRESS THAT HEAD ON.

YES.

THANK YOU.

JUST FOR CLARITY, THERE'S CONSENSUS TO DO A CONVEYANCE TO THE CRA AND THEN have an RFP process via the CRA to also have a public engagement or outreach component on a parallel path.

Yes, but the RFP will be done also with input from the Commission.

Yes, I would certainly think that would be required, yes.

It would be input through you as the CRA board, because when it transfers over to the CRA, we would bring that back to the advisory board, but also to you to have that conversation. And we're lucky because we're doing this very early. Again, the post office isn't scheduled to move out until December of 2027, so we do have time to do all the things you've asked for in parallel and bring that back in a timely manner.

And Chris, are you familiar with the statute that Dodie had mentioned in terms of a possible path for us?

Yes. Debbie Warshawski had brought that up to us before, so we'll work with the CRA and see if that's the right path that the Commission or the CRA Board would like us to follow once that property is transferred to the CRA. Have you had a chance to look at that? I haven't recently, so I'd like to spend some more time with that. Okay. Thank you.

I can give you a little bit of a high-level overview of that. Sure. SO WITH A DISPOSAL PROCESS, ESSENTIALLY THE CRA COULD SAY, HEY, THIS PROPERTY IS AVAILABLE, AND IT WOULDN'T NECESSARILY HAVE ANY SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS AS TO WHAT THE CRA MAY WANT TO SEE INCLUDED IN THE REDEVELOPMENT OF THAT PROPERTY. AS DODI MENTIONED, IT'S A VERY SIMPLIFIED SORT OF PROCESS AND IT CAN MOVE RATHER QUICKLY, AND SO I THINK trying to find a balance between what I heard. That's why I wanted to get some clarification as to what the steps would be to incorporate the feedback, do a process, but also expedite it. I think I THINK WE WOULD NEED TO MAYBE COME BACK TO THE COMMISSION VIA A LETTER TO THE COMMISSION JUST EXPLAINING WHAT THAT PROVISION IS IN CHAPTER 163 PART THREE AND HOW THAT MIGHT INFLUENCE THE THE AVENUE AND APPROACH.

I WAS GONNA ASK I WAS GONNA ASK THIS MISS WEAVE TO COME BACK TO THE PODIUM. And because I know you've been speaking with many of the business owners and even some of the neighbors in that area, if there was anything additional you wanted to respond to that was said.

I appreciate that.

I appreciate that, Commissioner. Thank you. And our position is, or at least my position is, and that of other business owners, and I believe Mr. Karras expressed something similar, is that we should take the time that's needed in order to ensure that the community is heard. So when we talk about having an expedited process, that does not achieve that goal. And so that would be inconsistent with what I've said about It will be inconsistent, and I'm sure, Ms. Keith, it's further along than a lot of us, but many of us are just coming to the table. This is a huge piece of land for this area. It is one that had previously been in your district, quite frankly, and I think that it is one that we should take the time needed in order to make sure that we're heard and it is respectful of the community. Thank you.

Thank you. Sure. Yeah, Dodie, come on.

And I apologize, Commission. When we talk about an expedited process, we never would do anything that would alleviate community outreach and the community input. And one thing's great is Bernadette and I just got together on Friday, and I didn't even realize that there was any concern in the community at all. And that's one of the things that for our partnership, I think you know from our 25 years here in the city of Fort Lauderdale, WE HIGHLY PROUD THE YEARS WE'VE HAD FOUR HOMER'S ASSOCIATIONS SURROUNDING OUR SEVEN ON SEVENTH PROJECT THAT ARE FULLY SUPPORTIVE OF US. WE WOULD NEVER SHORT CHANGE THAT PROCESS BUT WE WOULD CERTAINLY ASK YOU FOR THE RFP PROCESS IS A VERY EXTENSIVE PROCUREMENT PROCESS WHERE THIS STATUTE AS DEBBIE HAS POINTED OUT AND PROVIDED THE INFORMATION TO STAFF LAST YEAR ACTUALLY that it's a process that simplifies the process, but it does not alleviate the project from providing everything you need in it, the historic aspects, the Avenue of the Arts, everything about this. And if you look at 7 on 7th, which we were one of the first buildings, now all the new affordable housing projects are coming. 7 on 7 was the first one on Avenue of the Arts to come out of the ground. And our board spent hours, countless hours, to come up with what should the murals look like, what should the exterior look like. And how do our residents engage with the communities? So we are very, very engaged in that process with those associations, with those businesses. And we would just look forward to be able to have the opportunity for staff to look into it a little farther, that statute, before you just lay out there it's going to be an RFP. Because it really helps us as a nonprofit be able to not go through that extensive process, but follow the process and include everything you want in it and everything the neighborhood wants. Because we need to be good neighbors because we live there too.

Thank you. Thank you, Dodie. Go ahead, Commissioner.

Commissioner Glassman, as much as we can, let's work together to ensure that the neighbors are heard. The process is, I'm going to say respected, where if we pace it in a way that voices are heard and that everyone's input is considered. I did get when I heard expedited, it did kind of give me a little alarm with that. But we do want to be able to pace this where everyone has an opportunity to sit to the table. and have the conversation.

Without a doubt. And we have the time. We know that that lease is until December 2027, although in government speak, that can easily go to December 2027 before you know it. We tend to, as a commission, love to explore all options, so sometimes we're just going forever. But, no, I agree. I think we have the time, and I'm more than happy to work with you on this. Thank you. All right. Thank you.

Great. Thank you. So city manager, I think the direction is moving it to the CRA, which I also fully support. And then once in the CRA, then exploring options through the new statute through it may be through RFP, but at least looking at the options we have. and then coming back with recommendations for us.

Absolutely, we can do that. The conveyance will require action by the commission anyway, so we could bring the additional information on the disposition route, and maybe the commission would give us that direction at that point.

Excellent. I think that sounds good. And as Commissioner Beasley-Pittman, Commissioner Glassman, Bernadette, there will be good public engagement outreach and so forth. So the more you all can partner with us to do that, absolutely, I think is the right thing. And if I could just add one other suggestion is, City Manager, Commissioner, as we just think about this, I think having a memorial of Sylvia Allridge and John Hill in the building, if this does become a building. So some significance in the building or next, I mean, something that really honors would be my suggestion. That goes without saying.

Okay. Thank you. It's good to have it within the records as well, because as we heard the history, the THE OPPORTUNITY THAT HAS TAKEN PLACE, WHAT THEY HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO THE CITY. I'M SURE THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME, INTRODUCTION TO A LOT OF US HERE IN THE ROOM, BUT MS. AUDRICH IS DEFINITELY AN INSPIRATION FOR ME, THINKING ABOUT THE TIME PERIOD, THE ERA THAT SHE WAS LIVING IN, BEING A WOMAN, BEING A WOMAN OF COLOR, AND WAS ABLE TO EXECUTE WHAT SHE DID, NOT ONLY FOR THE COMMUNITY SHE LIVED IN, BUT it went also for the city. So I am excited that we will be able to continue her legacy and let it be known for generations to come. Perpetuity is the word, right?

Yeah, exactly. Thank you. Completely agree. There may even be a naming component of whatever this becomes in her honor, but we can talk more about that later. Excellent. Anything else on business four? Fantastic. Okay. Business five, holiday park parking update. City manager.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. We will have Ben Rogers, Assistant City Manager, as well as Quentin Pugh, Assistant City Manager, and we have outside counsel available as well. Yes. And so the commission authorized negotiations of an interim agreement, and we wanted to share some FEEDBACK AS TO WHERE WE'VE ARRIVED IN OUR NEGOTIATION PROCESS TO DATE. THE TERM SHEET THAT WILL BE DISCUSSED TODAY AS WELL AS THE OVERALL PROJECT PARAMETERS REFLECT WHERE WE INTEND TO LAND WITH THE INTERIM AGREEMENT SUBJECT TO FEEDBACK FROM THE COMMISSION AND ANY GUIDANCE THAT MIGHT allow us to update the interim agreement before we bring it back to the City Commission for approval. So this process has been one that is inclusive of various members of our team, and we want to update you not only on the terms that we've negotiated to date, but also the thoughtful approach that we've taken as it relates to this project. So I'm going to turn it over to Quentin Pugh at this time.

Thank you, Manager. Good afternoon, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, Quinton Pugh, Assistant City Manager. The following presentation is an update on the Holiday Park parking project and the proposed interim agreement term sheet. The intent today is to brief the Commission, receive feedback, and incorporate that direction before any binding agreement comes before you. This project began a little over a year ago in March 2025 when a city received an unsolicited proposal. A few months later, the city opened the required 45-day solicitation window, which resulted in three proposals by the end of August. The city then engaged outside council to assist with the process, followed by proposal presentations in December of last year. In January 2026, the City Commission ranked the proposals and authorized negotiations with the highest ranked proposer, Holiday Park Parking Partners. Since the project kickoff meeting in February, the developer, its team, and city staff have held regular implementation meetings to advance the project. Staff has also met with representatives from the Parker and the Panthers and is coordinated future outreach with the YMCA, Flagler Village, and Victoria Park Civic Associations. Holiday Park is a unique community destination, and the project would anchor the park with several major components, including an approximately 1,000-space parking garage, an embedded fire rescue station, and a vertiport on the rooftop. The initial project vision for the surface parking lot featured 300 spaces, but as the design advanced to 60% and refinements were made, the surface lot was reduced to 292 parking spaces as of January 2026, as shown on the next slide. The developers project team is shown on the left and includes a strong bench of experienced firms. The vertiport has no capital costs to the city. And the proposed total project estimate shown on the right is approximately $41.9 million. That price reflects the developer's proposal. It is not a final or locked-in price. The final cost will be refined during the interim agreement process as the design matures and the scope becomes more clear. Additionally, the figures shown are construction estimates only and exclude financing costs and city overhead, such as project management fees and inspection services. Several work streams have been moving forward concurrently to get this project to this point. The city manager's office, city attorney's office, and the core construction team have been negotiating the business terms. In parallel, city departments and the developers team have been meeting regularly to pressure test this project. That includes looking closely at the real site conditions, confirming what each department needs to operate effectively, reviewing parking demand, ADVANCING THE DESIGN AND MAKING SURE THE WORK SCOPE AND PROJECT DELIVERABLES ARE CLEARLY DEFINED. THE SURFACE PARKING LOT IS NEARLY DESIGNED AND IN PERMANENT, BOTH OF WHICH WE EXPECT TO FINISH BY THE END OF THE YEAR. RIGHT NOW THE PARKING LOT COUNT IS TRACKING, LET ME MAKE SURE I'M CLEAR ON THAT ONE, RIGHT NOW THE SURFACE PARKING LOT COUNT IS TRACKING BETWEEN APPROXIMATELY 275 AND 285 SPACES, DEPENDING ON FINAL DESIGN REFINEMENTS. A few items are still being worked through, including accessible parking and landscaping updates, stormwater approvals, and inclusion of a partition wall to separate the parking area from nearby residential properties to the west. A parking study has been completed for the garage, and that study suggests that the garage should have no fewer than 1,000 spaces. Based on the work completed to date, the scale and complexity of the garage may trigger a level four DRC review, which would influence the overall timeline for this project. The vertiport component of the project is still being developed and remains depending on pending FAA guidelines, regulatory direction and required approvals. Additionally, the fire station layout will be finalized after the site survey and geotechnical work confirmed the boundaries, access, and soil conditions. We are estimating approximately 12 months from the execution of the interim agreement to complete the design and negotiate the comprehensive agreement. But that timeline will ultimately depend on the final vertiport direction, garage programming, site survey, and geotechnical findings, as well as permitting. AC and Ben Rogers will discuss the proposed IA business terms and what they actually commit the city to.

Thank you, Quinton. Good afternoon, Vice Mayor and Commissioners. Ben Rogers, Assistant City Manager. So as we look towards the framework for this interim agreement, we really broke it up into two phases. The first phase, as Quentin said, is a surface lot. And what we're looking to do there is define it. As we've worked through this process, the cities own the design process. And so what we'll be doing is delivering design plans to the development team. They will then provide the cost estimates, the backup, the support for that. And then we'd move forward with the construction of the surface parking lot. And we envision that that would be funded through a cash payment from the parking fund. The second phase would be through the pre-development efforts for the parking garage, the vertiport, and the fire EMS station. And we kind of separated the vertiport conversation for you today just because there are some nuances and uniqueness in the business terms for the vertiport. So as Quentin indicated, the parking lot is looking to be towards 275 parking spaces at this point, based off of the enhancements that he referenced with landscaping, pedestrian facilities, upgraded drainage, and so on. One thing to note that the process for the construction of the surface lot is expected to be nine months, but that is from the completion of the notice to proceed. That is not tied to the execution of the interim agreement. It would be nine months from when the city provides the final plans and the permits for the project. As for the parking garage, 1,000 spaces, and this would be 12 months, as Quentin said, for the design efforts and the negotiations to bring forward back a comprehensive agreement for city commission consideration. That 12-month period, we would refine the design, work through all of the elements that would be embedded or included inside of these structures, and then have that not to exceed cost for city commission consideration. The VertiPort is part of Phase 2, but again, we pulled it out for conversation for the City Commission because there are a lot of moving parts with the VertiPort, not having federal regulation clear at this point or state approvals. We want to really make sure that we understand the what-ifs in the VertiPort. What if the project's ready to move forward, but the vertiport doesn't have the approval to move forward? And so we've structured the vertiport in a way that the city has the ultimate determination that if the vertiport would be included in it and our intention to have the vertiport in it, that the development team would provide all of the plans, the financing, the potential long-term arrangements between the parties to the city, and the city would have 30 days to make a determination if it wants to incorporate the vertiport or not. The next steps, today we're here to get city commission feedback. We'll take that feedback and we'll work to interim agreement. Once the interim agreement is approved, then we can start the construction efforts for phase one once the design and the permitting is completed, and then start the pre-development work on the phase two components, and ultimately bring back a comprehensive agreement for city commission consideration.

Excellent. Thank you very much, Ben. Appreciate it. City Commission discussion. Go ahead, Commissioner Glassman.

First of all, excellent. Excellent work. Thank you. Thank you, Ben. City Manager, development team. I had a chance to go through it. I have a question, Ben, for you, though. What do you see as that last ring? How far till roughly the comprehensive agreement would get actually executed? What do you see as the timeline between the IA and the CA?

So as ACM Pew referenced, right now we need to go through the permitting process to understand that timeline. And so I think that it's probably 10 to 12 months out before we bring back a comprehensive agreement because we want to have that guaranteed maximum price, the fixed price for the city commission that would be all encompassing within the comprehensive agreement.

Great. And based on if we move forward with the term sheet today, next step would be interim agreement and then you would have that 9 to 12 months between interim agreement and comprehensive agreement to get into the weeds and work out all those details.

That is the process that we're putting forth, correct?

All right, good. I like what you had to say about the vertiport. The vertiport, I do believe, is a very important component, but there are some ifs. We are relying on others. It's not under our control. But I like what I hear out there. I like what I hear in terms of the funding from FDOT. for this project. I like what I hear in terms of how people are excited about this technology, this new form of mobility. I know in speaking with Flagler Village Civic Association and also Victoria Park Civic Association, those neighborhoods are very excited about that possibility on top of the garage. But that should not in any way, shape, or form get in the way of us still moving forward with the garage. I mean, after all, the vertiport's on the roof, right? So we still need that AMS station. We still need the spaces. I'm also very concerned because I think we're really far behind in providing those surface parking spaces. I hear from the Broward Center where we're located right now all the time. about the parking that we were supposed to deliver a while ago. That surface lot of roughly 300 spots is really important. We've got to get going with that. So I'm very eager to move forward with this term sheet, get on to the next phase and get going with the surface lots, and then also coming back and hopefully by July 2nd looking at an interim agreement and then having 9, 10, 11, 12 months to get to the comprehensive agreement. But I think you guys did a really good job. Everybody who worked on the term sheet, it reads well to me. So I just want to say thank you. That's it for me.

Excellent. Thank you, Commissioner. Anyone else? Yeah, just want to iterate great work. Let's keep going, you know, as expeditiously as possible, I think is the right, right mode and completely agree. So thank you. Great. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman.

Yes, thank you again for this PRESENTATION GIVING US MORE CLARITY REGARDING US MOVING FORWARD. IN REGARDS TO VERDA PORT, THAT IS THE DEVELOPER'S RESPONSIBILITY OVERALL, CORRECT? SO IF SOMETHING CHANGES WITH FUNDING OR ANY, I'M NOT GOING TO NAME ANYTHING, BUT ANYTHING CHANGES, IT HAS NO BEARING ON WHAT WE'RE DOING MOVING FORWARD WITH THE GARAGE ITSELF. That's correct. That's correct. Okay. All right. Thank you.

Just to add a little more color there, the developer would be responsible for the financing, construction, operations, and maintenance of the vertiport element of the project.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Herbst? Good. Great. Thank you. Fantastic. Thank you, Ben. Thank you. All right. THAT CONCLUDES BUSINESS 5. NOW WE'RE GOING TO MOVE BACK TO THE START OF THE CITY COMMISSION CONFERENCE MEETING. SO THAT'S GOING TO BRING US TO BUSINESS 1. SO BUSINESS 1 IS PRESENTATION OF THE CITY OF FORT LAUREL'S FISCAL YEAR 2027-2036 LONG-TERM FINANCIAL PLAN. OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET.

I see our consultant from the Stantec made it to the podium ahead of our director. He's nimble. He's very familiar at that podium.

AS LAURA MAKES HER WAY, I'LL GIVE KYLE A QUICK INTRODUCTION. SO SANTECH HAS WORKED WITH THE CITY FOR MANY YEARS. THEY'RE VERY FAMILIAR WITH OUR PROCESSES. AND WHAT THEY DO IS THEY DO A LOOK AT OUR REVENUES AND OUR EXPENDITURES TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE REALLY POSITIONED FOR FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY OVER THE LONG TERM. SO KYLE WILL BE HERE TO TALK ABOUT SOME OF OUR MAJOR FUNDS AND WILL ALSO PROVIDE SOME INFORMATION ON SOME OF OUR OTHER FUNDS SUCH AS THE PARKING FUND AND AIRPORT FUND. SO WITH THAT, I'LL TURN IT OVER TO KYLE.

THANK YOU SO MUCH, YVETTE. GOOD AFTERNOON, VICE MAYOR, COMMISSIONERS, AND CITY ADMINISTRATION. AS YVETTE MENTIONED, KYLE STEPHENS WITH STANTEC CONSULTING. WHAT I'D LIKE TO DO TODAY IS GO THROUGH THIS UPDATE. IT'S BEEN ANOTHER YEAR, SO WE'RE HERE TO TALK ABOUT THE UPDATED FINANCIAL OUTLOOK. WITH THIS FIRST SLIDE, I ALWAYS TALK ABOUT THE VALUE THAT THIS PROCESS ADDS. SO FIRST AND FOREMOST, WHY DO WE CONDUCT THIS ANALYSIS? WE CONDUCT THIS ANALYSIS TO GET THE LATEST AND GREATEST DATA FROM THE CITY. UNDER THE UMBRELLA OF FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY. SO NOT ONLY THINKING ABOUT THE BUDGET PROCESS THAT YOU'RE THOROUGHLY TALKING THROUGH RIGHT NOW, BUT ALSO THE IMPLICATIONS OF THAT BUDGET PROCESS IN THE NEXT FIVE AND TEN YEARS AND THINKING ABOUT THE FINANCIAL STRUCTURAL COMPONENT OF THAT THAT WILL SHOW UP OVER YEARS AND WE WANT TO BE ABLE TO ANTICIPATE THAT SO THAT WE CAN PLAN FOR THAT IN THE FUTURE. IMPORTANTLY DOWN ON THE BOTTOM OF THIS SLIDE AS WELL AS THE PROCESS THAT WE GO THROUGH. SO THIS PROCESS STARTS BACK IN THE APRIL AND MAY TIME PERIOD. And we work at the level of the business managers and directors with the various funds and the utility at the city in order to get an understanding of on the ground what's happening within those utilities, not only today, but anticipate what's going to happen in the future. The Office of Management and Budget does overall run the project. And then additionally, toward the end of the project, we interface with city administration, the city manager's office specifically. SO SOME OF THOSE DATA SOURCES THAT WE'LL BE LOOKING AT TODAY THAT ARE INCLUDED WITHIN THE ANALYSIS, SO THE SOURCE DATA IS THE FY2025 UNAUDITED ACTUALS, FY26 AMENDED BUDGET, AND THEN THE FY27 DRAFT BUDGET AS OF JUNE 8, 2026, AND WE'VE INCLUDED ALSO IN THERE THE DECISION PACKAGES. WITH REGARDS TO THE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN, WE HAVE INCLUDED FISCAL YEAR 2027 AND THROUGH FISCAL YEAR 31, SO THE LATEST AND GREATEST DATA WITH REGARDS TO INVESTMENTS PLANNED IN THE FUTURE. A KEY ASSUMPTION ACROSS ALL FUNDS TODAY WOULD BE THE NEW CITY HALL. SO RIGHT NOW THE ASSUMPTIONS WITHIN THE MODELS IS $15.8 MILLION OF ANNUAL EXPENDITURES FOR THE NEXT 30 YEARS STARTING IN 2028. THIS WILL OF COURSE BE UPDATED AS NEW NUMBERS ARE AVAILABLE, BUT THAT IS WHAT'S CURRENTLY IN THE ANALYSIS. And then, of course, within the general fund and utilities, there will be subsequent rent reductions across most of the funds for lease space beginning in fiscal year 2029. So with that, I'll jump through the next few slides. I've put over here the eight funds that we'll cover today, starting with the general fund. And within the general fund, I've got two slides of assumptions that we've got to go through real quick before I get to the updated outlook. THE FIRST SLIDE HERE IS TALKING ABOUT THE REVENUES. QUICKLY ON THE REVENUE SIDE, FIRE ASSESSMENT, WE'VE TALKED ABOUT THAT QUITE A FEW TIMES TODAY WITHIN THE ANALYSIS WE HAVE INCLUDED FULL COST RECOVERY IN FISCAL YEAR 2027, THAT'S $70 MILLION OF REVENUE. TO BE UPDATED AS PART OF THE STUDY WE DID LAST YEAR. IT'S AN UPDATE OF THE FULL STUDY FOR THE FIRE ASSESSMENT WE DID LAST YEAR. AND IMPORTANTLY, WE'RE INCLUDING FUTURE TRUE-UPS TO THE FIRE ASSESSMENT AS WELL. SO A 12% INCREASE IN 2028 AND THEN A 10% INCREASE PLACEHOLDER. for 2029, 32, and 2035.

Is that to achieve full cost recovery in each of those years?

That's the thought. So in the near term, we've seen a bit more cost pressure, and so we've seen those annual updates would be needed. But then we've gone in the further out future years to the cycle that we've had in the past where it's been every three-year true-ups. Got it. And then for the taxable value from the property appraiser, we have included a 7.16 increase over the 2026 amended budget for those ad valorem revenues. We have updated accordingly current year and near-term assumptions for that. And then down here on the bottom, we've got the Los Olos Marina revenue. That is an additional revenue sharing of 300,000 that starts in fiscal year 2028. And then BAMR annual revenue, So in the near term, that's a $900,000 revenue reduction. That's from fiscal year 2028 through fiscal year 31. And then as we get to fiscal year 32 through 36, you would see revenues in the range from $17 million up to $24 million.

And let's just pause there for a moment. When you say, first of all, the Los Alamos Marina revenue, additional revenue revenue, Do you just mean 300? You mean addition into what's already estimated? Give me full context.

That's exactly correct, Commissioner, from what we've shared in the past in the analysis. So that's the update this year would be a $300,000 increase.

Which gets to what of a total for FY28?

Don't know if I have that number right off the top of my head. That's okay.

I'm sure Yvette can – no rush, Yvette, but just – okay, great. And then – The BMR near-term revenue reduction, just for the public to understand that more, why are we making that adjustment? And that might be a vet question too, so don't want to put you on the spot there. Thanks.

Good afternoon, Vice Mayor Yvette Matthews, Assistant City Manager. So we're making the Bahia Mar revenue adjustment based on what we've heard from the developer. So part of that $900,000 was in anticipation that the hotel would come offline. And what they've shared with us is they're delaying the timeline in which that hotel will come offline. So we'll continue to mean online. Well, offline. So we currently have a hotel at that site.

Oh, the existing will come offline. Right. And build a new one that will come on. Correct.

And so once that hotel is no longer active, then we will no longer receive revenue associated with it.

Makes sense. And then our FY, just to explain to the public, the FY 32 through 36, why does that then become $17 million?

Yes, so that is the anticipated condo sales associated with that property. At that time, as part of our agreement, we received a certain percentage of those sales. We pushed that timeline out because part of how those condo sales were occurring was sales the demolition of the existing hotel, and then they would build a new facility there. So we still need to update those revenue projections. Those are from our initial projections, which the real estate market has changed significantly since that time, and the developer may be making some changes to their plans. So we'll continue to update and refine those numbers, but we wanted to make sure at minimum we push them out to be reflective of the timeline that we're aware of right now.

Understood.

And Laura Reese has just shared that Los Olos is $1.9 million.

$1.9 for 2028. 2027, sorry. Great. And then it'll get to $2.2 for 2028, sir. Okay. Great. Thank you, Kyle. Go ahead. Absolutely.

And then on the other side of the ledger, the expenditures. And so a couple notable expenditures to go through the city's annual required pension contribution. That is 600,000 annually for police and fire pension, which will reach the 7% target rate of assume in fiscal year 2028. We also have the annual GERS COLA contribution. That's 2.2 million for seven years, which started in 2025. OF COURSE IN THE MODEL WE ALSO AS WE LOOK OVER TIME WE'RE INCLUDING SERVICE ENHANCEMENTS RELATED TO GROWTH WITH THE IDEA AS THE CITY GROWS THERE WOULD BE SOME ADDITIONAL COSTS RIGHT NOW WE HAVE 0.12 PERCENT OF SALARIES AND WAGES AND FRENCH BENEFITS SO THAT COMES OUT TO ABOUT A HALF A MILLION DOLLARS IN FISCAL YEAR 2029 WHICH WILL THEN ESCALATE BY 2036 TO 4.9 MILLION FOR THE SWIMMING HALL OF FAME WE HAVE 300 000 WHICH BEGINS IN 2030 AND GOING FORWARD and then for the police headquarters and infrastructure special obligation debt service. That is 3.2 million in fiscal year 26, but it will increase to 6.4 million in FY 2027 and ongoing thereafter. And then finally, down at the bottom, we've got just notable ongoing cost increases. These are typically items that decisions were made in the past that now have come up in the future, which will be included in our analysis. And so the notable increases here, total $20 million. We've got $6.4 million from the SAFER grant expiration. That includes the payment for 28 firefighters. $3.1 million for the Los Olos downtown garage, the Heron lot, fire rescue staffing. $2.1 million for the COPS hiring grant, which is six police officers, and $11.1 million for the new city hall. That's the general funds portion of the overall $15.8 million cost I mentioned a second ago. And also related to city halls, we do have some rent offsets there. So that's $3.7 million in rent reductions beginning in fiscal year 2029 and going forward. With this next slide, now that we've gotten through all the assumptions, we can look at the dashboard output of the current general fund model. So this is our baseline or diagnostic run of the model. In this particular case, I'm going to walk through some key elements of the analysis. First and foremost, on the very top of your screen, you'll see the millage rate assumption by year. So the 4.1193 mills in this particular scenario is maintained throughout the period. And then next, if you go down, you'll see a box that is the cashless surplus or deficit. I've highlighted that. A couple key dynamics there. So first, in 2026, immediately to the left of the box, you'll see $42.8 million in deficit spending. What that represents, I just want to provide context there. THAT IS THE PREFUNDING OF SOME CAPITAL IN 2026 AS WELL AS THE PFAS SPENDING THERE. SO THAT'S WHY THAT LOOKS SO NEGATIVE. IT'S JUST BECAUSE OF THE FINANCIALS IN 26 AND PREPAYING THAT CAPITAL. THE REAL VALUE OF THIS ANALYSIS, HOWEVER, COMES TO MY MIND AS WE LOOK FORWARD FROM 27 TO 28, 29. As it sits in the projection right now, we're showing that deficits would evolve in a manner by which in 28 we would expect 8.9 million, growing to 16.9 million in this baseline, and then continuing out in the forecast period to grow. The growth year is driven fundamentally, again, by inflation and then also those assumptions that I just went through of future costs that will impact the city negatively going forward. The other item that I didn't mention, I just wanted to note in this, the property tax value assumption. So while the millage is flat, we have assumed in this base run of 6.5% overall taxable value growth going forward. WHAT THIS WILL MEAN IS ON THE FIRST GRAPH TO THE LEFT, THE END OF FUND YEAR BALANCE, IF THE CITY CONTINUES ON THIS PATH HERE, WHAT WE WOULD SEE IS THAT FUND BALANCE STAYS ABOVE THE MINIMUM TARGET WITHIN THE GENERAL FUND THROUGH FISCAL YEAR 2028 AND INTO FISCAL YEAR 2029 YOU'LL BE RIGHT THERE, BUT WE WOULD EXPECT GOING FORWARD DUE TO THE DEFICITS IT WOULD GO BELOW THE TARGET HERE. As we always update this, we tend to see this evolve over time, right, these deficits from spending. The real value I see here is because the city goes through this annual budgeting process, like you've been discussing today, it's really the magnitude that we see here, that $8.9 million going to $16.9 million going forward. In these next few slides, I want to show you a couple other scenarios. So this next one is a structurally balanced scenario for the general fund. What this shows here is looking at a millage increase. And what I'm trying to calculate specifically is the magnitude that would offset those forecasted deficits that I just showed you. In the models update this year, what we're forecasting is an offset against those deficits would be a 0.25% millage increase in 2028. FOLLOWED BY ONE IN 2031 OF THE SAME MAGNITUDE WOULD PROVIDE STRUCTURAL BALANCE OVER THIS PERIOD. AND WHAT YOU'LL SEE NOW IS ON THE END OF YEAR FUND BALANCE IN EACH AND EVERY YEAR WE ARE ABOVE OUR MINIMUM TARGETS. IN THESE NEXT SCENARIOS WHAT WE'VE DONE IS A TAX REFORM SCENARIO. SO A GOOD AMOUNT OF DISCUSSION AS I'VE BEEN SITTING IN THE AUDIENCE TODAY ABOUT THE TAX REFUND THAT COMES UP ON THE FOR THE VOTE THIS FALL. IN THIS PARTICULAR SCENARIO WE'VE INTEGRATED Those reductions in ad valorem revenue that the city would see if that referendum passes. And what that would mean is in fiscal year 2028, we would add an additional $17 million to the deficit, followed by $10.3 million in 2029 as that's fully implemented. THAT WOULD MOVE THE DEFICITS IN THOSE YEARS TO 25.3 AND 44.8 RESPECTIVELY. SO IT WOULD SIGNIFICANTLY GROW THE DEFICITS IN THOSE YEARS AND I WOULD ALSO POINT ON THE END OF FUND YEAR BALANCE NOW YOU'LL NOTICE IN 2029 WE'RE BELOW THE FUND BALANCE AND THEN EACH YEAR GOING FORWARD WE WOULD BE ACTUALLY AT BELOW ZERO GOING FORWARD HERE. SO WHAT I'VE DONE IN JUST THIS NEXT RUN IS CALCULATED AGAIN THE MAGNITUDE of the offset in millage in order to offset those deficits we just talked through. And what that would be is effectively a doubling of the analysis I just showed you. So instead of 0.25 mils, it would be 0.5 mils in 2028 in fiscal year 2031. TO FULLY OFFSET THAT DEFICIT. OF COURSE, THE COMMISSION HAS BEEN DISCUSSED EARLY, HAS A NUMBER OF DECISIONS WHETHER THAT'S IN REVENUE ENHANCEMENTS OR EXPENSE REDUCTIONS AS YOU GO FORWARD. THIS IS JUST PRESENTED TO SHOW YOU THAT FULL REVENUE OFFSET TO THE LOSSES THAT ARE EXPECTED. This last slide here on the general fund is a survey we update each year that just tracks within Broward County the millage that is levied for the municipalities within the county. We've tracked this over 20 years in this particular slide. And there's a couple of key things that I'll point out here. So first and foremost, down at the very bottom, we've got the average millage rate. What's important there that I see over time is just the growth. So from 2027 through 2026, with the updated information, we're seeing the average millage rate within the county has grown 36% over that time period. Another key item that I've noticed from the update this year is in fiscal year 26, we had a number of reductions as well. So you'll see those arrows point to millages increasing or reducing. There were eight reductions in 2026, and the average millage rate actually dropped a little bit in 2026. So with that, I'll move on to the Water and Sewer Fund if there's no questions.

Yeah, Kyle, thank you. For sure. This is great. Commissioners, I just want to check in with you all. Kyle has a lot of good information in here. I'm sure we've all reviewed it. Just in the interest of time, do you want to just catch some quick highlights? Do you have any questions in particular? I just want to get a sense of timing. Do you want Kyle to continue to go through the entirety? It's a desire of the commission. Keep going. Keep going through just at this pace. Okay, great. Go ahead. Thank you, Kyle.

Absolutely. So the next utility will cover is water and sewer and a couple key observations and considerations. Within this utility fund, the city targets three months of operating reserves as a minimum in each year. Some of the key changes to expenditures for the Prospect Lake Water Treatment Plant, as that comes online, we've been anticipating this over time, but now we've arrived at the year next year. In fiscal year 27, we anticipate $15.6 million of additional costs for chemicals, electricity, and personnel. And then in addition, we have subordinate debt and availability payments of $29 million. In fiscal year 27, that will increase over time to $41 million by fiscal year 2036. Capital investments excluding Prospect Lake, we're targeting within this fund roughly $40 million of cash-funded capital annually, from 2027 through 31. And then in addition to that has been the practice of the city over time to use debt as well. And so there's $100 million in fiscal year 2027 expected, $100 million in 2029, and then $230 million in fiscal year 2033. And that's all in current day dollars. Additionally, the city's currently undertaking the implementation of the Advanced Metering Infrastructure Project, or AMI. There's $1.1 million in contractual savings FOR FISCAL YEAR 28 GOING FORWARD WITHIN THE ANALYSIS. AND IN ADDITIONALLY AS YOU REPLACE OLDER METERS, WHAT YOU'LL TYPICALLY SEE IS AN INCREASE IN THE BUILD CONSUMPTION AND WE'VE INCLUDED THAT IN THE ANALYSIS OF 1.75% IN BOTH 2027 AND 28 AS THOSE METERS ARE ROLLED OUT CITYWIDE. WHAT THIS NEXT SLIDE SHOWS IS THE UPDATED FINANCIAL DASHBOARD FOR THE WATER AND SEWER FORECAST. I'VE HIGHLIGHTED AT THE VERY TOP FOR FISCAL YEAR 27, THAT'S THE LAST OF THE THREE-YEAR ADOPTED SCHEDULE OF INCREASES THAT THE COMMISSION ADOPTED. IT WAS A 9% AND 5% THAT WAS ADOPTED FOR WATER AND SEWER RESPECTIVELY. AND WHAT WE'RE SHOWING GOING FORWARD IS ANNUAL INCREASES OF 5% PER YEAR WILL PROVIDE A SUSTAINABLE FINANCIAL FUTURE FOR THE WATER AND SEWER FUND. SO EFFECTIVELY WE'VE GOTTEN THROUGH THE PERIOD OF HIGHER INCREASES FOR BOTH WATER AND SEWER AND WE'LL BE MOVING BACK TO WHAT I WOULD CATEGORIZE AS MORE INFLATIONARY LEVELS OF INCREASES AND INFLATION IN THE WATER AND SEWER INDUSTRY TENDS TO BE A LITTLE BIT HIGHER THAN INFLATION AS WE MEASURED BY THE CONSUMER PRICE INDEX JUST DUE TO THE INFRASTRUCTURE HEAVY NATURE OF IT.

And Kyle, just city manager, remind me of our projected date of completion and integration for AMI.

We're targeting summer of 2027 and doing everything we can to try to advance that.

Okay, great. Thank you. Thanks, Kyle. Go ahead.

Absolutely. So the important charts down here on the bottom, the revenues versus expenditures, the definition of financial sustainability is seeing those two lines on top of one another, the expenditures coming out and the cash coming in. We will see that with this 5% plan as we project it. And then secondarily off to the right is the end-of-year fund balances. And what you'll see there is we have a plan with those 5% increases TO BUILD RESERVES BACK TO THE TARGET LEVEL, THE THREE MONTHS OF O&M OVER THIS PERIOD AND MAINTAIN IT THROUGHOUT THIS ENTIRE PERIOD. AND ADDITIONALLY AS I MENTIONED A SECOND AGO, THIS WILL ALSO PRESERVE ACCESS TO CAPITAL MARKETS AND THE ABILITY TO FUND DEBT SERVICE GOING FORWARD. A COUPLE SLIDES ON JUST THE SURVEYS FOR WATER RATES THAT WE TYPICALLY INCLUDE WITH THIS PRESENTATION. I'VE GOT THREE OF THESE. And so what we're doing is essentially looking at the current rate schedule as it sits in fiscal year 2026 and looking at other peer municipalities and how it compares. You'll notice that this particular slide, this is a low volume user of 3,000 gallons per month. Fort Lauderdale is right in the middle to slightly below average at $66.02 for that 3,000 gallons monthly usage. However, as usage increases due to the inclining block rates that are in place, the more you use, the more you pay, you'll notice that the position on the survey will change. So this is 5,000 gallons of usage, and at 5,000 gallons of usage, the bill jumps up to 116.79, which will put you in the top 25% of peers here. And then, finally, at a high volume, so this is 8,000 gallons of usage, that bill goes to 192.87, which on this survey will put us in the second position here, only behind Wilton Manors. And next I'll move on to the stormwater fund. A couple key observations on the stormwater fund. And so this fund is driven primarily by the needed capital investments that have been discussed over many years. And what we have included within the analysis right now is $230 million for the completion OF PHASE ONE PROJECTS. THAT'S A NEW BOND IN FISCAL YEAR 26 HERE. AND THEN IN ADDITION TO THAT 230, $100 MILLION THAT'S GOING TOWARD THE PLANNING AND DESIGN AND SOME CONSTRUCTION FOR PHASE TWO PROJECTS. AND THEN AS PLACEHOLDERS IN FISCAL YEAR 29, 32, AND 35, WE HAVE $350 MILLION FOR FUTURE PROJECTS TO CONTINUE TO ADDRESS THE NEEDS OUTLINED IN THE MASTER PLAN. OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE COSTS. SO THOSE NEW INVESTMENTS WILL LEAD TO INCREASED OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE COSTS OVER TIME. WE IN OUR ANALYSIS PUT PLACEHOLDERS TO ANTICIPATE THOSE CHANGES OVER TIME. SO WE HAVE 1.1 MILLION IN 2027 AND 1.6 MILLION IN FISCAL YEAR 2030 AS PLACEHOLDERS THAT WILL BE TRUED UP OVER TIME AS THOSE INVESTMENTS ARE MADE. And then in additional, outside of the large bonded projects, we do have recurring capital investments. And so the Watershed Asset Management Plan has $3 million in fiscal year 2028, $3.75 million in 2029 through 2030. We are targeting additionally overall in the fund $12.6 million in cash-funded projects. Those mainly address more the neighborhood-level projects. And then those will be funded by utilizing available fund balance or annual revenues to cover those costs. And so this dashboard now shows the updated model and analysis with those assumptions included for stormwater. Importantly, the plan of increases up there that I've highlighted with the orange box shows the continued need for a 20% increase in fiscal year 27 of the revenues that are generated by the assessment. And in 2028, it then drops down to 15% through 2032, and then we see 10% after that. That is the exact same plan that I showed one year ago when we updated this analysis. So we're showing a very similar level of increases going forward. And with that level of increases, the real key part here is that this utility will be able to support those new debt issuances. So as we borrow that money over time, the revenues are ingesting to make sure that we can pay back the principal and interest on those bonds throughout the entire forecasted period here. I've included in here just an updated survey again of a peer municipalities that have stormwater services and have a fee associated with that. I'm currently for a single family home in 2026 in Fort Lauderdale. The annual assessment is $375.75. And you'll notice across here a number of different DOLLAR VALUES FOR THE PEER MUNICIPALITIES. HOWEVER, WHAT I'LL NOTE AS I GO ALONG AND DO THESE PRESENTATIONS FOR A NUMBER OF THESE COMMUNITIES THAT ARE ON THIS LIST, WE CONTINUE TO SEE A LOT OF PRESSURE ON THESE RATES. SO IT'S NOT JUST FORT LAUDERDALE SEEING DOUBLE DIGIT INCREASES ON STORMER. MANY OF THESE OTHER COMMUNITIES ARE SEEING THAT AND WE'VE EVEN ADDED A FEW THAT ARE HIGHER THAN FORT LAUDERDALE THIS YEAR AS FOLKS HAVE INCREASED WELL ABOVE JUST, YOU KNOW, 20, 30. SOME OF THESE HAVE DONE 50 OR 100% INCREASES OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS TO TRY TO GET AHEAD OF THE NEEDS ON THIS PARTICULAR UTILITY For the sanitation fund, this particular fund has a reserve target of 1.5 months of operating costs, a target level of three months overall for the maximum. Notable updates from the recent contracts and service changes, contract costs we're assuming to inflate, so that's the single largest cost here in the utility, assuming to increase 4% per year, and disposal costs we've assumed a 5% increase per year. Additionally, as part of commercial service within the city from private haulers, the city receives franchise fees. And so 13.8 million of those are transferred in fiscal year 27 as projected in this analysis to this utility. And then we're escalating that by 4% each year. This dashboard right here shows the updated analysis. What we're showing is a continued need for 5% increases for the sanitation fund over time. And what that will do, again, as we've talked about here today, provide ongoing sustainability. So we'll match our cash in and cash out and be in alignment with keeping reserve targets above the minimum throughout the entire forecast period. We've created a peer survey here that's been updated this year for the annual or the monthly sanitation bill. Fort Lauderdale's is currently $52.49 in fiscal year 2026, and I've included a number of other peer municipalities here. Fort Lauderdale tends to be on the higher one on this survey. However, I always note that in this particular utility and all utilities, there's big levels of service changes between different peer municipalities. WHICH CAN OFTEN CHANGE OR DICTATE THE OVERALL LEVEL OF THE MONTHLY BILL. JUST A COUPLE OF OTHER FUNDS TO GET THROUGH AS WE'VE GOTTEN THROUGH THE MAJOR UTILITIES. PARKING, OBSERVATIONS AND CONSIDERATION. SO WE JUST TALKED THROUGH AND YOU JUST HAD A PRESENTATION ON THE HOLIDAY PARK GARAGE. WE HAVE INCLUDED THAT WITHIN OUR FINANCIAL MODELING IN FISCAL YEAR 2028. So we have $35 million of capital costs to be funded. That would begin in 28, but debt service would actually begin in fiscal year 28, the third quarter of that year. And then $200,000 of additional expenses that we just have a placeholder for that cost in fiscal year 2028. And importantly, on Holiday Park, no additional revenues at this point forecasted. FOR THE FEDERAL COURTHOUSE, WE HAVE GARAGE OPERATIONS BEGINNING IN FISCAL YEAR 2028 WITH THAT $7 MILLION OF CAPITAL COST TO BE FUNDED, WAS FUNDED IN 2026. AND IN THIS PARTICULAR CASE, WE HAVE NET REVENUES AFTER EXPENSES BASED ON A $3 PER HOUR RATE THAT WOULD BE PROJECTED CURRENTLY AT $409, WHICH STARTS IN 2028 AND GOES FORWARD. AND THEN IN THE LAS OLAS DOWNTOWN GARAGE, THE HERRON LOT, We have that one operational in fiscal year 2029. That adds an additional $475 of revenue. It's a net change above the H lot that it replaces. With regards to the parking fund, the forecast here on the dashboard shows a couple of dynamics that I'll highlight. So for the annual increases right now, we have a projection for 3% in fiscal year 2028 and 3% in 2029. That is necessitated by that additional debt service that I just talked about that would be issued in 2027 with the debt service starting in 2028, as well as the additional cash-funded capital that occurs during that time period. And again, a highlight, that doesn't include any additional revenue for Holiday Park. And then as we go through to the next fund to talk over observations and considerations, this is the building fund. So the building fund has a few different limitations on it. Florida statute limits how much fund balance can be retained in each year. So we can't carry any more than the average operating budget for the previous four years. And we include that within our analysis. ADDITIONALLY, ADDITIONAL BUILDING PERMIT REVENUE, SO AS WE UPDATE THIS MODEL, WE HAVE A GOOD CONVERSATION WITH BUILDING SERVICES STAFF TO UNDERSTAND THE PROJECTS THAT ARE IN THE PIPELINE AND WHAT'S GOING TO OCCUR OVER TIME, AND WE INCLUDE THOSE WITHIN THE MODEL. SO BEHAMR ANNUAL REVENUE, WE'VE INCLUDED A 4.4 MILLION IN FISCAL YEAR 2029 THROUGH FISCAL YEAR 2034, AND THEN WE HAVE ADDITIONALLY OTHER ANTICIPATED PERMIT REVENUE OF 3.6 MILLION IN 2028, 1.8 IN 2029, 2.7 IN 2030, IN 1.8 IN 2031. SO THAT REPRESENTS A NUMBER OF OTHER PROJECTS THAT WERE IDENTIFIED AS PART OF THE ANALYSIS AND ADDITIONAL REVENUE THAT WOULD COME IN IN THOSE YEARS. WHAT WE'RE RECOMMENDING HERE AS I GET TO THE UPDATED DASHBOARD IS A CONTINUATION OF THE ANNUAL INFLATION ADJUSTMENTS THAT ARE CURRENTLY IN THE CITY'S ORDINANCE. AND TIED TO THE CONSUMER PRICE INDEX. WHAT THIS CURRENTLY LOOKS LIKE IN THIS FUND IS YOU'LL SEE THE 3.3% INCREASE STARTING IN 27 GOING FORWARD. THAT'S THE ANNUAL ASSUMED INFLATIONARY INCREASES. AND THEN WHAT YOU'LL SEE HERE IS THE FUNDAMENTAL GOAL IS TO MANAGE BETWEEN THE ORANGE LINE which is the statutory maximum that I just discussed, and the reserve target in black in the minimum. And it's very often in this fund, as you'll notice as it goes forward, we see activity trail off and you see deficit spending. That in this particular fund is not necessarily alarming to me. That's really fundamentally the idea that we have a really good idea of the projects that are happening in the near term, but as we get on the backside of a 10-year forecast, WE DON'T YET HAVE VISIBILITY INTO WHAT PROJECTS MAY BE OCCURRING THEN, AND AS WE GO FORWARD AND THIS GETS UPDATED, WE'D LIKELY SEE PROJECTS COME IN AND FILL THAT GAP OVER TIME.

KYLE, QUESTION ON THIS AND PART OF YOUR MODALITY THROUGHOUT IS AS YOU'RE, FOR EXAMPLE, HERE PROJECTING INCREASES OVER FYI OVER FY, RIGHT? Is that, in your process, do you say to yourself, okay, here's what we need to do to stay where I think we need to be? Are you working with city staff to say, hey, I think we should increase this percentage of city staff? What do you think? Is it a collaborative? What does that look like?

Yeah, absolutely. So each fund's a little bit different. If you're speaking to this one specifically, right now the city has a practice of doing inflation. It's set by ordinance, right? So I think this one's a little bit different in the sense that we probably have an overall idea where we're headed, and then we see the results of that, and that's what we're showing today. When we get to the other funds, though, it's much more of a collaborative effort to make sure that we've got all of the assumptions correct and they're right. Typically the way that I like to run the analysis, we put what we showed you last year in. We say we presented and we updated the funds and we had a forecast of what we thought we needed to do. We update all the assumptions to see where we're at. And if deficits occur or the financial forecast looks like it's no longer going to be sustainable, we look at what the additional increases would need to be and the particular timing of those increases to get back to sustainability. So it's absolutely a discussion, but it's really fundamentally driven by this update process.

Okay, great. Thank you.

And in the central sewer fund, so the city has set aside an additional enterprise fund that just covers the central regional fund and its large users that are participants in that, given their agreements with the city. The city of Fort Lauderdale, however, is the largest user, and that's their 84% of the current flows to the regional fund. FROM A WASTEWATER FLOW STANDPOINT. THE OTHER USERS INCLUDED HERE ARE OAKLAND PARK, WILTON MANORS, TAMARAC AND DAVEY WHICH MAKE UP THE REMAINING 16%. SOME ADDITIONAL ASSUMPTIONS IN THE NEAR TERM THERE WILL BE SOME ADDITIONAL DEBT ISSUANCE WITHIN THIS FUND. $127 MILLION IN FISCAL YEAR 2026 AND $60 MILLION IS CURRENTLY A PLACEHOLDER IN FISCAL YEAR 2033. One of the main drivers over time that as we update this fund we're watching is the renewal and replacement expense growth. And I've included a table below that shows how that's increased from $9.4 million in fiscal year 2018 all the way to the anticipated fiscal year 2027 amount of $24.3 million. This is set formulaically within the agreements with the large users. It looks at the 20-year replacement needs out of the plant and determines the deposit that needs to be made annually in order to support those needs. And, of course, as we know, that plant's been aging over time. And so we've seen aging and the replacement cost has gone up, which leads to an increase in the annual deposit. This forecast here shows the dashboard for the updated regional fund. What we see here is near-term pressure. And so in fiscal year 2027, you'll notice I've got an increase in there right now of 16.15%. And so those increases from the replacement needs as well as operational cost increases do show a near-term need. And then in 2028, we again forecast an increase of 5.77%. This will ultimately get set per the contracts and get updated over time. So the way to think about this as you look at it is more directionally than the actual rate that we're calculating here. This gets calculated per the large user contract. However, once we get through this period in the near term, we anticipate that this will be more stable over time as we get the revenues up to a level that support the full cost of the utility. And then finally today, just the airport fund to cover. So the airport fund is a little bit different than the city's other utilities in the sense that it has a very stable base of leases, aviation leases and non-aviation leases that support the utility over time. New leases and changes in leasing activity are really the fundamental drivers of additional revenue over time. And so as we update this, we look at all the current outstanding leases and have discussions about properties that are coming up in the near term and what those new leases may be. Additionally, on the expenditure side of the equation is really fundamentally the capital and the funding sources for capital. And so while there's an amount of capital that needs to occur out there related to airport activities, a good portion of the funding comes from either Florida Department of Transportation, FDOT, or FAA grants, which offset some of that cost going forward. As we show this particular one, we see in the future here for the airport continued financial sustainability. There will be positive cash flows going forward and reserve balances we expect to grow over time for the airport. I think the key item here is this gives the city a lot of flexibility. So if grants do get cut potentially in the future for any reason, the city would have cash reserves and a buffer available to continue to engage and deliver on the capital projects out there at the airport. And with that, the final slide, but happy to go back to any of the slides today and answer any questions that may have come up.

Great. Thank you, Kyle. Thank you for this presentation. Kyle, how long have you been working with us?

My first year with City of Fort Lauderdale was 2013.

Okay. Wow. All right.

So, Kyle, can we blame you for everything?

Or just part of it?

Do you mind? I will take the bullet, sure. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate it. Well, that will be in our next newsletter.

We'll disseminate. Thank you. Thank you, Kyle, and thank you for your work. And in my neighborhood meetings, your presentation is very helpful. So it's very helpful. Captures in an effective way, helps folks understand where we are, where we might be. So I appreciate it and appreciate your ability to kind of go through and analyze and working with staff. So this is, I think, a very helpful planning process for us. I'm assuming it's a helpful one for staff as they work with you. I'm seeing a nod that it is. Okay. Great. So city commissioners, I want to turn it over to you for questions. Commissioner Herbst, anything on this? Great. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman? No, I'm good. Commissioner Glassman? Great. Thank you for your work. Yeah, thank you, Kyle. Appreciate it. City Manager, I had some budgetary-specific questions around staffing and some other pieces. I can ask you that now, or I don't know if you have anything else you're sharing in the context of this presentation.

Nothing further from me.

Okay, fantastic. So, Kyle, I'll let you go. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. For your time, and keep up the good work. All right. City Manager, so a few questions I wanted to run through from a budgetary perspective for your proposal. Okay. Staffing. So when there's... various kind of data points I just want to walk through. So one of the things I see is a $14 million increase in staffing in FY27, I think. Is that sounding right?

And salaries and wages.

Yep. And so what... So I hear that. And then I also hear the just adding one new position in FY27. Right. And then the reduction of six vacant positions. So just help kind of how can all those things be true at once? And what does that what does that all mean would be helpful?

UNDERSTOOD, VICE MAYOR. SO IN TERMS OF SALARIES AND WAGES, WE TYPICALLY HAVE GROWTH IN THAT AREA YEAR OVER YEAR BASED ON EITHER CONTRACTUAL AGREEMENTS OR THE COST OF BENEFITS, MERIT INCREASES, COST OF LIVING ALLOWANCES, SO THAT IS PRETTY TYPICAL THAT WE WOULD SEE AN INCREASE IN THAT AREA IF WE MAINTAIN THE SAME LEVEL OF STAFFING. THERE HAS BEEN recommendation thus far to add some new positions as well as to eliminate certain vacant positions that we have resulting in a net increase of one position that would be impacting the general fund and that is in the clerk's office okay fantastic so

THE HOW MANY TOTAL NEW POSITIONS HAVE BEEN ADDED TO THE CITY DURING YOUR TENURE?

THAT WOULD BE DIFFICULT. I THINK THE NET INCREASE TO THE GENERAL FUND LAST YEAR WAS SIX.

Six new last year.

Yvette is nodding.

Yep.

Yes. Net of six.

Net of six. Okay. Great. Just a couple of the budgetary highlights I just want to emphasize my appreciation for. Expansion of the PSA programs at schools to help with traffic mitigation just across the city. Love it. Thank you. Very happy about that. Expansion of the code compliance officers to cover times and days when we don't have current staffing is again across the city, I think is very positive.

THAT WOULD TAKE US FROM FOUR DAYS TO SIX DAYS OF STAFFING WITH A FOCUS ON THE VACATION RENTALS. GREAT.

EXCELLENT. I THINK THAT'S MUCH NEEDED. I'M ALSO EXCITED ABOUT THE LPR PROGRAM AND EXPANDING THAT TO I THINK IT'S 175 OR SO LPRs ACROSS THE CITY BY 2027. I'M A BIG BELIEVER IN LPRs AND GROWING THE PROGRAM I THINK IS great. So just wanted to appreciate that. One of the concerns I have is adding additional police district. So we have been talking about a new police district, district four in downtown, which would cover parts of at least a couple of city commission districts. And we've been talking about that. We were moving forward with that. And then all of a sudden, I'm not clear what why we're not moving forward with that. So can you help me understand what's happening?

Thank you for that. And, you know, we shared a little bit of information in the backup as it relates to the creation of the fourth police district, which was discussed at the January 13th. commission prioritization workshop. At that time, the approach was to realign existing personnel resources as identified by the police department to assist with the creation of that fourth police district to focus on the downtown area based on CALLS FOR SERVICE AND THE NEED. SINCE THEN THE POLICE DEPARTMENT HAS DONE SOME ADDITIONAL DUE DILIGENCE AND EVALUATED THIS OPTION AND AT THIS TIME IT'S NOT BEING RECOMMENDED TO GO FORWARD BECAUSE IT IS ANTICIPATED THAT THERE WOULD BE A SIGNIFICANT increase to personnel in order to facilitate that fourth police district. It should be noted that the police department did put forward a request for roughly 45 employees on top of their existing personnel complement. Those employees were not focused on the creation of a fourth police district and so they had identified some other opportunities as priorities. And I'm fully supportive of the new direction to not explore the fourth police district at this time based on their current recommendation.

Okay. It's just different than as we have been talking about this, including in January, we'd been talking about and what I was hearing, but maybe please correct me if I'm wrong. I was hearing this is not going to be a revenue increase requirement. This is not going to be a cost increased requirement that this will be budget neutral by creating a police district for to allocate. Just readjust is what I was hearing. staff members and so forth to one of the areas in our downtown where we have some of the greatest need. So I'm just trying to understand what changed from that analysis that was happening which seemed logical and rational and I'm assuming police have done their analysis to now.

So Deputy Chief London is here acting on behalf of Chief Schultz who is out of the country. Sure.

Yes, Deputy Chief Victor London. Thanks.

Yeah, you're good.

Thanks. Yeah, once we did the analysis of the calls for service volumes, as well as the citywide view of what would be required to do a fourth district, we knew we would have to change the boundaries and more than just one district. So when we looked at that process, and the number of personnel that we had to stay at not increasing the needed full time sworn officers to effectively staff a fourth district, we realized this wasn't the time to do it. We need more time to do the analysis and ensure that the city manager can support the personnel in order to do a fourth district.

Okay. So it sounds like we didn't do any of that analysis before we started talking about this possibility.

We did the analysis. Initial? Yes, we did the initial analysis. We actually did a staffing changed. We went from one staffing model to the current one we thought would allow us to have more officers available to make it happen. And once the reality of calls for service and then trying to figure out the boundaries, it wasn't feasible. Okay. Okay.

Vice Mayor, if I may add, I just want to look at the overall context of it as well. You know, as we're considering the impacts of property tax reform, you know, I also did not feel that it would be appropriate to push for that increase in staffing based on the current evaluation that has been brought forward. So I just want to share that that was part of the consideration also.

Okay. All right. Thank you, Chief Lund. That helps me understand a little bit more of the context. So, City Manager, this would just, I think, be helpful as much as possible, and I know things change. But whether it's Police District 4 or the regional training facility, safety facility facility, We have great ideas, and we start communicating out to the public, and I start working with, and I'm sure many of us start working with other elected officials on other bodies to help line up and support these initiatives. WE DO A DEEPER ANALYSIS AND REALIZE, OH, YOU KNOW, DISTRICT FOUR POLICE DISTRICT IS NOT A GOOD OPTION OR THE REGIONAL SAFETY TRAINING FACILITY AT SEGAL IS NOT A GOOD OPTION. OKAY, I GET IT AND THINGS CHANGE AND WE ALLOW GRACE FOR CHANGE AND SO FORTH. BUT AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE BEFORE WE START ADVOCATING FOR POSITIONS, AS MUCH RESEARCH AND CONFIDENCE WOULD BE HELPFUL. Fair on both of those. And I'm looking forward, I think it's later, but I'm looking forward to hearing what changed about Seagull. Because this was, again, something I've been working on in the community for a while and working with other elected officials and other boards.

Very fair and well received. We endeavor to bring forward information that is as accurate and reflective of the existing environment and the existing needs as possible. And I agree that we could communicate more effectively and perhaps do a little bit more due diligence before socializing some of the ideas. And so we will strive to do better at that.

That would be great. And then when there are adjustments, as much as possible, if we can just have that, you know, kind of in real, I'd love to have like real-time intelligence, just real-time, okay, you know, this department's coming back with some changes. Here's the immediate feedback, or if they can get me that immediate feedback. We just did analysis. Here's the immediate results. We're analyzing further, but here's what we're looking at. Just things like that so I can start to process would be great. Okay. Thank you very much. So that is, I think, all for budget that I have. Great. We're good on that. Business one. Thank you. Fantastic. All right. Now moving on in the city conference meeting, we are now going we've done CF1. So we did it as end of session report. Now we're going communications to the city commission and the. The first one as we progress here is, I had it open here, sorry. Great, so the first communication is from the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee. And correct me if I'm wrong, City Manager, what I have is the motion made by Chair Condon, who's here. Thank you very much, or was here. THERE HE IS. I KNEW YOU WERE STILL HERE. TO GAIN APPROVAL FROM THE CITY COMMISSION TO ALLOW FOR THE CREATION OF THREE SUBCOMMITTEES UNDER THE AFFORDABLE HOUSING ADVISORY COMMITTEE. THREE SUBCOMMITTEES ARE ZONING, ORDINANCE, AND ACCESSORY DRILLING UNITS, THEN FINANCE AND DEVELOPER INCENTIVES, AND THEN AMI STANDARDS AND AFFORDABILITY ACCOUNTABILITY. THESE WOULD BE STAFFED BY CURRENT MEMBERS OF THE AFFORDABLE HOUSING ADVISORY COMMITTEE, AND THAT IS THE SUGGESTION. AM I CAPTURING THAT RIGHT, CHAIR? Thank you for your time. Thank you for being here this long. We appreciate your work. Fantastic. So city manager, I want to get your feedback and city attorney of the appropriateness and so forth for this.

Staff has no concerns with this request.

Okay. Fantastic. Makes sense to me, city commissioners.

I just have a question. So I'm just wondering, as opposed to having to set up three separate subcommittees, what Why isn't this able just to happen in terms of the work that the committee does ongoing, ask people to just tackle these things, report back? I guess I'm missing the need to actually restructure when I can't figure out why it just can't be part of an agenda, part of their discussion, people on the board or committee work on those topics. I'm just missing something here.

Yeah, sure. I think the... Charter for this board might require commission approval for a subcommittee, which then has sunshine requirements.

I get that part. My question is, why isn't this just being able to be handled as part of an agenda, part of their work, part of just when they convene, why isn't this an agenda item, those topics? Why aren't people just working on that without having the need to have us restructure it with three new subcommittees? I'm just looking at it from a structural standpoint. I'm just trying to figure out the need as opposed to, again, like every board and committee has agenda items. People work on different things on boards and agenda committees. I'm just wondering why it needs the restructuring. Just a question.

Sure. And who's that directed to?

Anyone who can answer.

City manager or bill chair. Condon, you want to tackle that one? Thank you.

Thank you, City Commissioner Phil Condon. I am the chair of the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee for the City of Fort Lauderdale. Currently right now, we meet once a month for two hours. And we have a lot of things that go on that agenda. One is the requirement that we have in the state to create the incentive advisory report every year. So a lot of our discussions on that two-hour meeting go into every month we have certain things and milestones we have to meet to get that report ready every September. And there's just not enough time in that two hours to tackle the things that we really want to try to bring. One of the things that we're really trying to do with the Advisory Committee is to bring very solid recommendations to the Commission on an annual basis when we have our working group meetings to be able to bring some ideas and some recommendations from the Advisory Committee to the Commission. And those three items that we just talked about, accessory dwelling units, obviously being a very hot topic right now, but also taking a look at the AMIs and some of those kind of other things. There's just not enough time in those two-hour meetings once a month to really tackle all these things. We just run out of time. So the idea here is that we could create subcommittees based upon the people that are already on the advisory committee to be able to tackle other things in between those monthly meetings. It's great. No, thank you for that explanation.

It makes perfect sense. And I appreciate your work. Thank you.

And also, if I can add, I didn't want to speak before our chair. I am a member of that board. And as has been stated, Um, we, the board overall is a great group of volunteers who are really engaged and they really, um, want to be, um, you know, a part of the process and they're eager. So this opportunity to be worker bees, I think is a good, good opportunity to take advantage of. And, um, I hope we can support this overall because it will be beneficial to what we're doing overall in the city.

Thank you commissioner. And thank you for your service on that bill. Thank you for what you do. Um, so I think, I think this makes sense. I think we're all, uh, aligned here.

So city manager, um, Rachel Williams, she's taking notes on this and we'll make sure to implement, put it forward.

All right, chair. Thank you. Thank you for your great work. Um, who, Who formats the minutes of the, is it the liaison for each board? Who does the minutes of each board? City clerk or?

Outside vendor.

Outside vendor. Okay. So just a suggestion. So if you look, city clerk, at the, let's see, the motion. where it's seeking approval from the City Commission on these minutes, okay? So take a look at that. And then what I want to share is, if I can get there, I'm going to go to the minutes of the next communication we got, which is from Fire Rescue Advisory Committee. You see what they did there? The Fire Rescue Advisory Committee, there's a box around it, for the communication to the city commission. And you see how it's called out a little bit more? I think that's a great practice. So if that could be, if we could do that for all the minutes, if that's possible. Great. Okay. Thank you. Excellent. Fantastic. Mr. Chair, do you want to share this communication?

Bill Brown, chairman of the fire advisory committee called the FRAC. I'll be very brief. This communication is being sent to ask that you always remain open for the need for Public Safety Fire Training Academy. We know Segal has possibly fallen through. We also understand that the STARS have to align correctly in order to have the funding, the opportunity, the location. And given the challenges that we're faced with with the city budget, Timing perhaps is not right, but in future years could be. So we ask that you always remain mindful of that as we move forward. Thank you.

Okay, great. Thank you. Appreciate it. And I think, you know, again, asking that we can continue to be open to exploring public safety training facilities. What's the next step there with that, City Manager?

So I've asked the fire and police departments to develop a plan and a needs assessment. And I shared via letter to the commission very recently, maybe a few days ago now, a preliminary outline of what's actually needed and what the purpose would be. There's still a little bit more due diligence that would need to be done. There is another school board site that both departments are interested in. It was the site that we were originally looking at, but for the school board sort of redirecting us to another opportunity that would become more readily available. So at this time, there is no immediate next step for the commission. But what I have asked staff to do is to do a deeper dive into what the requirements would be, what the funding would look like. Would this generate any revenue? How would this fill any gaps that we may have? And so there is something that was shared with you, but I still think that that's very high level. And I think we can do more homework on this.

Okay, great. Sounds good. Thank you very much. So that is the communication to the commission. So now we move to city commission reports, but in the interest of time, it's 525. So what I'd suggest commission is we stop here. SO THAT WE CAN EAT. AND THEN WE RECONVENE 6 P.M. AND WE'LL INCLUDE THE CITY COMMISSIONER REPORT, CITY MANAGERS REPORT, THESE OTHER COMPONENTS ONCE WE RECONVENE. SO DOES THAT SOUND ALL RIGHT? JUST IN INTEREST OF TIME? OKAY. SO WE'RE GOING TO RECESS THE CITY CONFERENCE MEETING FOR NOW. WE WILL BEGIN THE CITY COMMISSION MEETING 6 P.M. ON THE DOCK. THANK YOU.