Remarks by John C. Herbst
43 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 2
- Play at 3:35
“Yes. So I also want to acknowledge, we lost a good partner for the city, Nick Rojo from Affiliated Development. We had the funeral for him on Saturday. So I just want to ask everybody to just keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you. Thank you.”
City Commission · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 5:29
“So it's my pleasure to read this in recognition of the folks from Chenmore. Proclamation in recognition of Chenmore & Associates' 40th anniversary, whereas since its founding in November 1986, Chenmore & Associates, headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, has provided engineering, planning, environmental science, landscape architecture, site development, and project delivery services throughout Florida, demonstrating a commitment to technical excellence, environmental stewardship, and sustainable and resilient communities. And whereas Chenmore has grown to include 13 offices throughout Florida, as…”
City Commission · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 45:10
“Looking at this, I believe I've met with Barbara Hall a long while back. Okay.”
City Commission · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 47:27
“YES, I MET WITH ROBERT LOCKERY. OKAY. COMMISSIONER BEASLEY-PITTMAN?”
City Commission · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:05:06
“I'm sorry, Mayor, which number? This is PH4. PH4, hold on. This is a waiver of limitations on Idlewild. No disclosures, thank you.”
City Commission · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:08:16
“Oh, wait. I'm sorry. I apologize. Was that Robert Lockery? Yeah, Robert.”
City Commission · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 24:28
“Laura, while you're up there, so I'd like to kind of address that too. So the question was asked, What have we done in terms of achieving efficiencies? So I know we've carved $12 million out of the budget. A big chunk of that was financial engineering. So we rejiggered our pension plan and we did some other stuff. So more power to you for doing that. How much of that $12 million savings, to answer the gentleman's question, was achieved through efficiencies and operations as opposed to just financial budget maneuvers?”
City Commission · Sep 14, 2026
- Play at 25:18
“Keep going. Those are empty positions, non-efficiency. I'm going to beat you up here, so go ahead.”
City Commission · Sep 14, 2026
- Play at 25:28
“Respectfully, it's not. You carry vacant positions for years on end, and then we cut them, we redline them. Non-efficiency. Go ahead. Payroll attrition. Non-efficiency. People leave. Non-efficiency. Keep going.”
City Commission · Sep 14, 2026
- Play at 26:04
“Not efficiencies. Okay, so we didn't achieve a significant amount in efficiencies. I love that we're applying for grants. I love that we're finally budgeting for interest income because, and by the way, this is not a good thing that interest rates are going up. So that affects us all in a very bad way. I love that we're doing financial engineering. I love that we're redlining vacant positions that we've kept in the budget for years. All good things. So I call that truth in budgeting. None of that's efficiency. So to your question, sir, we've done virtually nothing to achieve efficiencies in…”
City Commission · Sep 14, 2026
- Play at 26:52
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Commission · Sep 14, 2026
- Play at 41:06
“Right. Thank you. Chief, as I understand, most of these calls for service, though, aren't they EMS calls, not necessarily fire suppression calls?”
City Commission · Sep 14, 2026
- Play at 41:23
“I apologize. You talked about the increase in the calls for service as a larger, as a holistic number. So I'm saying I know it historically has been roughly two-thirds of our rollouts are EMS related. I assume that percentage hasn't changed over time. If anything, it's probably increasing for EMS versus fire response.”
City Commission · Sep 14, 2026
- Play at 42:42
“And there's a large ongoing debate nationwide, not just here locally, about three men on a truck versus two men on a truck. Certainly, three men on a truck is a more efficient response. Two men on a truck and responding with two vehicles is a much more cost-effective response. So we know this statistically. The numbers are there. This case has been amply proven over and over and over again. So there's a difference between efficiency and economy so we just need to recognize that as we talk about that but i don't think the gentleman's comments were necessarily directed to fire in general as i…”
City Commission · Sep 14, 2026
- Play at 1:00:12
“I agree with the public comments that we should be doing the rollback rate, so my vote is no.”
City Commission · Sep 14, 2026
- Play at 1:21:55
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Commission · Sep 14, 2026
- Play at 1:25:41
“Yes, Mayor. I categorically reject the idea that we can't support a fiscally prudent and responsible government without saying that we don't support our public safety personnel. That's not true. We can support our public safety personnel. We can support our employees. And at the same time, we could also ask, are we right-sizing our staff? Are we right-sizing our government? Are we doing the things that we're supposed to be doing? Are the projects that we're undertaking with those capital investments the right ones? So I think those two things can be true at the same time, and I just want to…”
City Commission · Sep 14, 2026
- Play at 1:27:21
“It's always a special day for me when I can find myself on the same side of an issue as Ted and Sarah. I'm sorry he left, but I vote no.”
City Commission · Sep 14, 2026