City Commission - Regular Meeting

Let's go ahead and call this. Pompano Beach, let's see. It's the Special City Commission EMS Taxing District Commission meeting, September 14th, 2026. Let's call this meeting to order. If I could ask everyone to please silence their cell phones, put them on vibrate, that way we don't get disrupted during the meeting. That would be great. Let's go ahead and call the roll. Mr. Alfred.

Here. If we can ask us all to please stand for the invocation followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Father, grant us the wisdom to consider this budget for the best of the residents of Pompano Beach. Let us do our best to follow your will, get through this process, and move on to bigger and better things. In your son's name we pray. Amen.

Thank you. Mr. Harrison, any changes to our agenda? No, sir. Great. Can I get a motion approving the agenda as printed? Moved and seconded. All in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries unanimous. Thank you. That takes us up to our public hearing portion, presentation, staff presentation, adoption of tentative millage rates and tentative budgets for the City of Pompano Beach and the Emergency Medical Services District for physical year 2026-2027. I'll go ahead and turn it over to you, Mr. Waters.

Very good. Thank you for that presentation. Very good. Are there any questions from the Commission for Mr. Waters at this time? Commissioner Fessick.

Thank you. Thanks for this. I appreciate it. I had a couple questions about the biggest one I think for me was the reduction in our surtax, given that we have our roads in pretty much deplorable condition. in a lot of areas, and I know how important that is to residents in all districts. Is this something, is there anywhere else we can pull some of this money from? Is there anywhere else we can pull some of this money from?

And from a real world basis, practical application, like right now, how does that work out for our scheduled, you know, how does that rate reduction, I'm probably, I see Mr. McCann here, so how does that work out for our schedule for what we have budgeted? Does it push us off? Are we, you know, does it push us off into, you know, a reduction of services, or are we going to try to spend it still trying to go as far as we can with what we have planned, and then maybe we can get grants or something? I don't know.

Are there any options? I mean, I guess Mr. Waters would maybe, like he said, we could always come back at it with an amendment to the budget if we can find some money. But one of my concerns, I guess, is my next question for Mr. Waters. I mean, thank you, Mr. McConn. I appreciate you and having to try to make lemonade out of some lemons here. I had a question when we were at the cost of our, I'm trying to find the slide. It's where we're spending our money and it was salary and then there was the operating expenses. And they were almost even, it was like once this one, yes. So salary and benef

And then you mentioned contractual as part of operating expenses. Do we have a breakdown of what that looks like from contracts and how they're spent in terms of service agreements are one thing, right? So we have a service agreement for Maybe there's the breakdown of that I think would be a little bit more helpful to understand. Because if there's anywhere we could trim something in there and try to push it into services we may need as a city overall, maybe it's time to look at some of those contracts we have and see if we're actually using them or if we can tighten the belt there.

One other question. Have you done any—so I noticed that we've gone down, you know, our millage rate has gone down, and we've had that consistent decline, which I'm sure is very thrilling for a lot of people. But does it help that we have—it's because we haven't borrowed additional money yet that we don't have the top level? For example, a bond the following year.

usually the first year you're paying mostly interest. Do we anticipate, have we looked at what future years might look like if we have, if this tax thing passes and if we're playing with the numbers and then we also have a bond on top of that or we have additional debt service?

there's a menu of options that's going to be available to the commission and it just depends on what men what what choices you make from that menu and how that impacts either services debt or even the military okay yeah i think that that would be really interesting to me just to see kind of a worst case scenario i'm not saying that it's worst case scenario but just saying just what we might be facing so that when we're looking at this even if we just kind of move forward with the suggested We at least can anticipate where, throughout the course of the year, we might need to make changes or may

And I agree with you. There is time, but if we're paying X amount per month out that we might not need to be doing, then we can put that money back into the general fund, and maybe we can offset any potential shift in funding that we might miss out on by planning ahead. I think that's it for now. Thank you.

Very good. Further discussion? Commissioner Seegerson-Eaton?

Yes, can we just let the record show that I came in about 10 after 6 meeting? I just wanted to remind you. Thank you.

Very good. For the commissioned questions, Vice Mayor.

Thank you. I have a few questions also. I had the same question about the paving funds because you said that we'd still be able to complete the five-year paving plan. even though we're going to have about a million less than we expected. So Mr. McConn answered that. It's the additional streets in Harbor Village that won't be done this year. Okay. With respect to the two changes for golf, one was personnel. What was the first one?

Are we going to continue using the golf course for sediment piles from utilities?

Okay. We can still expect that in the short term until we transition away from that plan?

Okay. Thank you. And my other question is on the late-breaking BSO treatment. We've not heard about this. I know that this money has been sitting and we've been waiting until the end of the fiscal year to see if deputies were going to get their raise. What is exactly the proposed COLA? And do you have any idea how many million that will be relative to what we put as budgeted in fiscal year 2026?

I guess that's kind of what I was thinking about. So is this a one-time COLA?

But I mean, it's not an annual additional 4% every year.

Right. So that's what I was getting at. As we think about our contract going forward and what we have in the budget, we're comfortable with this year still. And with the salary. Okay. Okay. And then I guess I have one kind of... theoretical question. So from your perspective, when we pass the budget, not the military necessarily, but the budget, so I believe that will be item two. We always hear from city management that you passed the budget, everything was approved in the budget, so it's done, right? If you ask a question later, well, you already approved it in the budget. And that's always

It's here to get to my mic. What would be the net if instead of lowering the rate a half a percent, if we lowered it a quarter percent, how much net would that bring in and would it make up for the surtax that we're going to lose?

Well, 300 doesn't make it, so thank you.

Very good. Further, Commissioner Perkins.

Just a question on page 10, where it says public safety under the green, and it has other? Yes, ma'am. 5.1, can you explain that?

Further commission questions? Commissioner Fessick.

Thank you. So one of the other things when I was going through, and I guess this is more related to don't know if we get into it later at the budget side but the air park there was an i noticed that there was i guess is the first is it the first ever i guess general fund subsidy to the air park or is because i didn't see it before but there's a transfer fund from i guess a hundred thousand dollars to three hundred and ten thousand dollars i looked back several years to see when that was done i it's the

Okay, and was there, so, there I mean I feel like the city needs the money you know for public works and for paving our roads so maybe let's let's work this problem backwards mr. McCann do you know if that that money that we were missing from Broward surtax is that the amount that we would have needed or can we run it a little bit trimmer what's the actual cost to get the roads done on schedule and even if we were to I don't know, step it back if we have to a little bit, but what's the number we need to hit?

Right, so I think that was the next in line for our plan. That's correct. So what's our number, how many miles do we have that we need to multiply that number by to get that done?

Okay, so even though we lost 1.4, we could probably get it done for a million-ish.

Okay, thank you. The second part is, the second question I have is related to, so I just, I'm concerned about spending another $178,000 to air park when we kind of need it for our roads and for our own infrastructure. The other portion of that is the CRA funding. I liked what Vice Mayor said was sort of on my radar in terms of if this then that because that's what we find ourselves many times hearing over the course of the following year once we do things because things have to be approved within a timeline. The question I have was about the accounts, and again, I can maybe move this, but the

Very good. Thank you for that. Further commission questions at this point in time? Seeing none, let's go ahead and move on then to our considerations. Item number one is a resolution.

Very good. Thank you for that. This is a public hearing. Is there any input from the public on this item? Please come forward. Just come on forward. Just come to the podium. State your name and address for the record. Welcome, and thank you for being here.

well sir i mean if you've got valid questions absolutely but we we're not going to micro you know pull things apart at this point in time but if you want to get with mr waters he'd be happy to go through all those all those questions with you and explain every detail i mean it is your budget it's our budget so absolutely we want people to understand it so if like i said not tonight we're not going to pull everything apart but absolutely give this with mr waters and he can explain all of it all your questions answer them and hopefully to your satisfaction Commissioner Fessick.

Thank you. And if you wouldn't mind, please just get in touch with me. I don't know if you'll stay for the whole thing. I hope you will. But I'd just like to see some of the things. I was scribbling, but I'd like to see some of the things you found.

Thank you. I appreciate that. No worries.

Very good. Further input from the public? Seeing none, public input closed. Commission discussion. Questions, concerns, comments? Seeing none, let's go ahead and call the roll.

Mayor Hardin? Yes. Item number two is a resolution.

Very good, thank you for that. This is a public hearing. Is there any input from the public on this item? Anyone? Seeing none, public input closed. Commission questions. Vice Mayor.

Thank you. I want to comment on what was said as it relates to the budget and going through this because... We bring this up all the time, that it is a very dense document with a lot of details and not much of an explanation. And we did go through some level of detail in our July session. I mean, I had gone through it line by line and kind of dragged us through that for a few hours. But to someone who just opens it and tries to understand the budget, nearly impossible so uh and maybe that's just the nature of how this is created and and how it has to be reported but um with respect to some of

Very good. Further, Commissioner Fessick.

Thank you. Vice Mayor, I agree with you. I think it's a little bit too high of a spending authority for where we are. I'm still a little bit needing more clarification about the operational expenses versus salaries because I know consultants and contracts are in there, and I'd like more of a line-by-line detail of how much is where and what it's for. That's imperative. My bigger issue is is that we have to vote on this tonight. And there's still a lot of things that I have questions about related to the air park. So I don't know if you're aware, but over the weekend, after we had a very spirit

commission tomorrow um but but with regard to the cra and the air park linkages between the enterprise fund the cra funds and the rest of the city's budget that's how those linkages work okay is it possible to perhaps say then that we would make let's say if i were to make a motion that we maintain the air park let's for let's just focus on the air park maintain the air park budget at the same one as it was in fiscal year 2026 which basically has it at that same level, which is lower, essentially saving us the several hundred thousand dollars, or 178 plus reducing the transfer from 310 to 100,

I've got Mr. Berman, he wants to chime in. I think that may be a legal question as well.

you take other action later okay thank you mayor thank you so i yeah so i just want to go on record as saying that i don't i don't support um some of the spending money i'd like more clarification also i guess on exactly what that contractual ovulation obligation is for that air park where that money is going and what what it's applied to specifically um as for the cra stuff yes i understand that it was approved but through a plan approval that was done in 2024. And that was basically where it was, I think on page eight, it was like, or somewhere buried in the document. It basically said to do

Mr. Waters, the questions that Commissioner Fessick has about the air park, you could answer those, what those monies are for, you could answer that between now and next reading, hearing, budget hearing, couldn't you? Yeah, of course. And any other, but we're not voting on any bonds in our budget documents, correct? We're not approving any bonds. Okay. I just wanted to make that clear for the record. Commissioner Perkins.

Yes, thank you. I'm looking through my notes as far as cutting back, and I see where we are cutting back in several positions. Some of the positions are frozen. We're cutting back on the Yuletide, the drum show, those kind of things. But are we cutting back on any consultants do you know of, Joshua?

Yes, can you give me a list of those consultants that have been reduced? the positions have changed or cut from the budget. You can get that to me before.

Okay. So I do have a copy of all of the positions, of course, that were eliminated or reclassified, but I don't see anything for consultants. So if you can get me any information on that. The next budget meeting. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Pretty good. Further commission. Vice Mayor. Thank you.

So the CRA plan that we will be dealing with tomorrow will show a proposed bond in it. That's not approving the bond. It's approving a plan that has a bond in it. I'm certain that the city CRA is waiting until November, December to actually put the bond on the agenda in the hopes that it passes. But that's what you're getting at. It's in the plan. It's troubling to some of us. I know what we're passing today, but I have issues with the CRA budget or plan still. And I'm going to circle back to the consultants because we've talked about this so much over the last year or more. And it's not just

I think even if Amendment 1 or 3 doesn't pass, it is time for us to have forced competitive bidding and get rid of the favoritism in the contracts and to have this commission actually have a say in them.

But I want my colleagues who just sit here and talk about compromise or talk about frustration with a smile on their face to actually spend some time over the next week thinking about it and thinking about how we're going to continue operating as a commission and as a city. And I will make that motion next week. And I would like, like I said, everyone to think about that, because we do have another budget hearing that we have to get through. So I'm going to pass our budget, or I'm going to vote to pass it today, but I want people to realize that we have one more hearing of this, and this is a

Mayor? Mr. Perkins. So Vice Mayor, you're saying you want to cut the city manager's spending authority to how much? 100,000. Do you remember when it used to be 75? It was 75 and now it's 200, yes. I think we need to consider 75,000. Cost of living increase. I'm done. Thank you.

Very good. Further commission discussion, questions, concerns on the budget? Yes, Commissioner Fessick.

Thank you. I do think it is, Mr. Berman, respectfully, I do think it is kind of, I would have to agree, I'll wait the week as well and I'll probably second it again, but I do think it is important because it is something we're talking about. We're talking about money and how we're watching the money and how we're spending the money that is the taxpayer's money. And it's really important that we are careful with how that is being spent. And given that there are still so many questions, as we're sitting here at the first approval, still, and Mr. Waters, you've done a great job. I want to say tha

All right. Further commission discussion? Seeing none, let's go ahead and call the roll.

Yes. Vice Mayor Fournier? Yes. Mayor Hart? Yes, item three is a resolution.

Very good, thank you for that. This is a public hearing. Is there any input from the public on this item? Seeing none, public input closed. Commission, questions, concerns? Any? Seeing none, let's go ahead and call the roll.

Mayor Hartman? Yes. Item 4 is the first reading of an ordinance.

Thank you, I just had one question. I just noticed that the budget assistant went to budget analyst, but the pay grade jumped like eight points. So that was the only one that I saw that stood out that was not like one or two. What was the reason for that, and what does that equate to in dollars? Because it's Josh's position. Oh, it's Josh, oh good. All right, that's good. Well, you know what? I would say that you're more of an analyst than an assistant then, huh?

Okay, and does this change though? Because I know that previously we had contracted as a transition period. Was Orjetta still on the contract? She was contracted, right, to help?

Okay, so basically now that you could be full-time and take over the role fully.

So technically there is one more additional FTE?

Yeah, I remember we talked about you needing this person to go from part-time to full-time at our budget workshop. So is it the same person?

Thank you. Further commission discussion? Seeing none, let's go ahead and call the roll.

Yes. Okay, that adjourns that meeting. Now let's commence the meeting as EMS Taxing District, Monday, September 14th, 2026 at 723. This is a public hearing, adoption of tentative millage and tentative budget for the Emergency Medical Services District for physical year 2026-2027. Under considerations, item one is a resolution.

Moved and second for discussion. Good evening again, Mr. Waters.

Moved and second for discussion. Once again, Mr.

All right. Thank you. This is a public hearing. Is there any input from the public on this item? Seeing none, public input closed. Commission discussion, questions, concerns? Seeing none, let's call the roll.

You like Perkins, I know it, I know it, I know it.

Yes. Mr. Waters, thank you and your staff for everything you guys do throughout the year. And Mr. Harrison, good job. Thank you.