City Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay, good evening and welcome. I hope you're all doing well. This is the second of nine scheduled town hall meetings that we will be holding in Pembroke Pines. That's correct, I'm sorry, the third. The third of nine town hall meetings that have been scheduled in Pembroke Pines to talk about three ballot questions that the City Commission is contemplating. Final decisions on Those ballot questions has yet to be made by the city commission, but you should anticipate that there might be three, and likely will be three, questions that you will see on your ballot from your city this coming November. And I wanna go through what those are so that you understand, but we have experts in these fields who are going to present this to you, okay? Meeting should take about an hour, including questions. But if it runs a little bit extra, we're going to be here for you. It's also being streamed live. And I want to welcome everyone who's watching from home. And it's going to be videoed and placed on our website so that those who couldn't make a town hall meeting can consume the information. OK? There will be a full question and answer period at the end of our presentation to you. And we appreciate your cooperation and your coming out tonight to be with us. The first question is really the easiest one. The city of Pembroke Pines has determined that it's necessary now for us to begin holding our regular elections, which typically happen in March, in November. And there are reasons for that. There's a tremendous cost savings involved. But two, the voter turnout is significant. And you will see the stats here. Typically we get somewhere between seven and nine percent in a March election that come out to vote of registered voters, seven or nine percent. In a November election, in even-numbered years, we get about 79 to 82%. It's a big, big difference. And it's important that when we have these elections, that we hold them on the days that the people want to vote. And there's a whole history to this that we'll go through with you. Typically, city elections, municipal elections are held in March because that's sort of like the nonpartisan election month. As you all know, we don't run on party platforms. We run online. nonpartisan so no matter what your party is or none at all you get to vote in a March election versus some of these other elections which you know have traditionally been for partisan elected officials but the way it is now it really it really just doesn't make sense financially and the turnout is has consistently been low in these March elections. So we're putting it on the ballot in order to save you money and increase the number of people who vote in municipal elections to move those election days from March to November. And that's the first item. The second item has to do with the vote count that's necessary in order to hire or dismiss a city manager or an assistant city manager. The standard in government is majority. And that's because typically what you want in your chief executive is someone who can command the full confidence of a majority of the elected body. In Pembroke Pines, the standard is a two-thirds. So that means that you have to have four out of five elected officials currently to make one of these decisions. And it becomes very, very cumbersome. Now, I want you to know that when they write the book and one day they will about Pembroke Pines, the number one most commonly used word will be Charles F. Dodge. Mr. Dodge, who is here in the back, has been a pivotal and instrumental person in the development of the city. I had the pleasure of presenting him with a key to the city on his 50th anniversary as a city employee. He's been the city manager going on 41, 38 years. No one that I know of in Florida has served as a city manager for that period of time. The day will come, hopefully many, many years from now, when Mr. Dodge will decide to retire. And when he does, the chances of us finding another person who can serve another 40 or 50 years in the position and provide us with the kind of guidance, the kind of leadership, and the kind of stability that he's provided are slim. We got very, very lucky with Charlie Dodge. It's very, very important, and even he understands this, and that's why he is even recommending it, that we change the charter to three out of five instead of four out of five to make these decisions. It's incredibly important that we get this right, and I understand that there has been some history in the city with four out of five. However, that is the unusual scenario in government, and we are now heading into a very, very different time And it's very, very important that we keep whoever it is that we hire next, in the fullness of time when that happens, on their toes to make sure that they understand that minimally, minimally, they have to keep three out of five satisfied and in their confident zone, and ideally all five of us. So that's an important item. The third item has to do with a public safety complex. And we have both chiefs from police and fire that are here. As you know, the public safety complex that we have is somewhere between Palm and Douglas on the south side of the street. It has been there for a very, very long time. The building, the fire station's been there since 1977. The police section of the building's been there since 1981. That is pre-Hurricane Andrew. It was built to the old code. The building is not hurricane rated. If we get a category three or four or even maybe a strong two, depending on its location, it has to be evacuated at the point that you need it most. It is the home to the most important, the busiest fire station in the city of Pembroke Pines. It is the one that handles East Pines. It only has two bays. It needs four based on the current amount of work that it has. The building is too small. There's not enough room to store evidence. When you don't store evidence correctly, bad guys walk. You take the risk that their cases will be dismissed because the evidence is not properly taken care of. There are many, many reasons. Technologically, it is obsolete. You can't bring in, in a cost effective way, the technology that police need today in order to keep us safe. The discipline of criminal justice has moved increasingly toward technology. and having that available to us is essential. It is the reason that other cities are doing the very same thing in order to properly outfit their public safety operations and give them the tools that they need to do the job. The building is being built now, not just to accommodate the size of the current fire and police department that we have, but also moving forward into at least 2050, they will have the the necessary size and the necessary parking, not just for the public, but also for the personnel that operate there. The time has come to make that change. Unlike this, you'll recall that we brought this issue up to you about a year or so ago. We learned a lot from that experience in terms of what your expectations were. And so what we've done is we did an awful lot more work. Currently, we have designs on the building to the 40% standard, which is what you need to go out on the street and get a bid. They're going to review with you what they anticipate the costs are, what they anticipate the building will look like. There's a breakdown of costs that the architect has already developed. The city commission approved this effort in order to move it forward. They also approved a resolution just last week that the fire and police department and the city manager encouraged us to approve and we did unanimously saying that a new public safety building is required in order to uphold the health, safety and welfare of the city. This is something we have to do. So we're here to talk to you about it. We're here. I think you'll be pleased at the outcome. The our assistant city manager and finance director has a full presentation for you about what the costs are and how how it works none of you should be very scared it's it's i think you'll be pleased in terms of what the impacts are and how very thoughtfully we have gone about presenting this issue so without further ado i'd like to bring up our city attorney who's sam gorin who's also been with us for a very long time and he's going to talk to you about the first two items And then I'm going to bring up the chiefs. They have a presentation for you. The assistant city manager and finance director will wrap up our section of the presentation. And then we're going to open it up to questions. We really want to know what's on your mind, what your impressions are, what your thoughts are, what your questions are. And we're here to answer them. So thank you very, very much. Mr. Gorin, the podium is yours.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you very much. I need the clicker, which is over here. It is on. Good evening, everybody, and welcome to City Hall. I am Sam Gorham. My law firm has the pleasure and the privilege and the honor of being the city attorney for the city of Pembroke Pines for a number of years. I've seen many of you in the audience many times, many Wednesday evenings. It's nice to be with you, nice to have you here. Tonight, we're going to talk to you about some charter issues and some aspects of the charter that the mayor alluded to a few minutes ago, and I'm happy to respond to questions when the question period begins and otherwise ends.

Let's see how we do this.

So we turn that on. Okay, a couple of observations. We have a city charter in the city of Pembroke Pines. What's a charter, just generally? The charter, by the way, is the constitution of the city of Pembroke Pines. It's kind of like the Bible as well, but it's the constitution of the city, and it was the people's charter. Why is it the people's charter? Because it was adopted by the voters of the city of Pembroke Pines. It's not one that was simply adopted by the legislature and left alone for many, many years. It is a living, breathing document, and it has been amended many times over the past number of years. But the People's Charter is in charge of the people, and basically people get to vote for it. The end result is that what I'm going to talk about in a few moments is how the charter can be changed. Under Florida law, the city cannot advocate for or against referendum. Under state law, they can't spend public money to advocate. They can spend limited amounts of public funds to educate or to factually or factualize information before an item actually hits the ballot. But at this particular point, cities are not allowed by state statute to be advocates for or against referendum items. The end result is they have to be, in fact, neutral. Our office, in the context of tonight's presentation, is going to show you a couple things and allow you to ask questions as the case may be. Okay. Next up. That's a picture of City Hall. That's where you are. That's not you, but that is where you are at the moment. Let's talk about the next item on the item here. This is just some factual data, which I think is helpful to you. If you are a registered elector, a registered voter, there is an election in 2026. It is a national election. It is election day on November the 3rd of 2026. You can register to vote up to October the 5th to be able to be a registered voter. And there's a window that's directed you here in the presentation regarding getting your mail-away ballot. You can get an absentee or mail-away ballot also provided for by state statute. There will be early voting in the city of Pembroke Pines in November, the context of which is October 19th to November the 1st, 7 o'clock in the morning until 7 o'clock at night. for those who choose to vote in the early voting situation. Next up, there are a couple of items the City Commission has been considering. For those of you who attend meetings on a periodic basis, there are two referendum questions that will be on the ballot as if and when the Commission adopts the ordinances on second reading. There are two ordinances, both of which were adopted on first reading several weeks ago, and the prospects are to put them on to the City Commission agenda on August the 5th for second and final public readings. The one that the mayor spoke to is the one I'll talk about first, which is changing elections from March until November, March of even-numbered years to November of even-numbered years. And also the second question relates to the city manager and the acting city manager and the vote count that's required or would be required, depending upon the outcome of the election, from four-fifths vote to three-fifths vote. Okay, first proposal. First proposal relates to the moving of the elections. Interestingly, elections in Broward County date back to 1974 and 75 when the county charter was initially adopted and I was around back then working for the county government. And the end result is that there was a special act in Broward County that regulated local elections. At the time, there was consideration that local elections were not paid attention to and were not emphasized on the ballot, and they therefore created a general municipal election in Broward County just for city elections. And that was done by a special act of the Florida legislature. And to that extent, we're going to be implementing that special act and state law for the city commission in moving the election from March to November in even-numbered years. What you're looking at now are two items. One is the ballot title. Under Florida law, you cannot have more than 15 words in a ballot title, which this is not. This says changing date of commission election, extending current terms, and selection of vice mayor. That does not exceed 15 words. The ballot question is below, and that cannot exceed 75 words, unless you're the state legislature, which apparently doesn't believe that that's the case. They believe they can go beyond 75 words, but we cannot. the end result of which is that this ballot question specifically talks about three things. It talks about changing elections from March to November by also adding an extended eight months to the terms of elected officials under the special act of the legislature. The eight month bump, call it what you will, is a temporary extension to provide for staggered elections. The end result of which is that once the issue is adopted by the voters and becomes part of the charter, nobody gets more than a four-year term. The only time they'll get a brief but meaningful extension is to provide for the sanctity of basically staggered terms and also making sure that everybody gets the same eight-month bump. And this makes reference to that selection specifically in the question. Each commissioner who is otherwise affected by the extension gets their eight months under the law. We didn't create that law. The law came from the legislature. So that result would be a yes or a no. Still four-year terms once the staggered terms are existing.

Next. Okay.

Next up. Broward County has 31 cities, although, frankly, I didn't find the town of Lazy Lake, which used to be a city. I think it still might exist or might have been deemed out of existence, but there technically are 31 cities. Cities, as the mayor indicated, cities run nonpartisan in the state of Florida. That's by state statute. They don't run in a partisan way. That doesn't mean that they can't be partisans. They can't register as Democrats or Republicans or independents, but they're not required to and do not run on a partisan basis. In Broward County, however, there are still some number of cities that are, in fact, on the March election cycle. Let's take a look. I can count. You can count. There are only eight cities remaining that have the March elections. Deerfield, Hillsboro, Lazy Lake's in there somewhere. They're a city of about eight homes, I think, totally. Lighthouse Point, Miramar, Pembroke Park, Pembroke Pines, and Sea Ranch. Those are the only eight cities that we could find that still conduct March elections. For whatever reason, that was their objective. You'll note, however, that these cities have a different texture and a different culture and a different size and all that kind of stuff, and the end result of which is that was their decision to make. But here's what I thought was kind of interesting that the mayor pointed to as well. Look at this number. There are, in this group, approximately 22 cities which had converted from March to November. And that's 22 plus 8 gets you to 30. But at the end of the day, someone's missing in there. The end result here is that the bulk of, the majority of, many of the cities in Broward County made this decision. They made it over the years. And it has to be done not just by the flip of a coin. That has to be done by an ordinance and a charter amendment and a referendum. So you have to have an ordinance that creates the charter amendment. It has to be in the hands of the people who make a decision, the voters in the city, to get to the answer specifically. OK, next up. So what happens? District 2 and District 3 would be extended to 2028, because they're next up in the election cycle. And then districts 1 and 4 would be elected in 2030. And those four seats would get a bump. The mayor, as you know, runs at large and runs for all the districts. So the end result is he's not affected by this discussion. But the districts 2 and 3, 1 and 4 would be affected by the specifics of this question. Remember that passing this ordinance, passing this item that the commission will consider on August the 5th and having it adopted on the ballot in November only gives the eight-month bump one time. It doesn't give you a 4.8 years. It gives you four years plus eight months to make the staggering terms event occur. So it's not done because the mayor liked it or because the manager liked it or because commissioners liked it. Special laws allowed for it. In fact, requires that you provide for this to make sure that those four-year terms are sanctified, but not extended except this one particular time. There's no magic here. It's basically, again, provided for by state statute. Ordinances. You've sat in this commission chambers many times. An ordinance requires a public hearing. Interestingly, state law only requires ordinances have one public hearing and two readings. But Mayor Castillo and this city commission has embraced, as it always has, allowing the public to be heard during first reading and during second reading. It's not required by law, but they have done it consistently and by custom and practice. In this situation, there will be two ordinances, both of which have been adopted by the mayor and commission a month or so ago. And they're scheduled to be on the agenda on August the 5th. We have an outside date for delivery of our ballot questions to the supervisor elections. who committed to the city during a public meeting in these chambers. He was appearing by video by August the 18th, and he made that commitment to us. So here's some interesting facts, because the mayor likes facts, manager likes facts, commission likes facts. You can't make this stuff up. It is what it is. These are references to several elections over the past number of years, March 10 to 26, March 11 to 25, and November 5 to 24. Look at the statistical turnout for voters. We didn't make it up. We actually gleaned it from the public records. 7.9% turned out for the city election in 2026. 9.2% appeared in March of 2025. But in November of 24, which is a general election, almost 80% turned out. That's a staggeringly high number. I'm not trying to add more context to it, but it's just a fact. That's what the number looks like. So it gives you a sense for why the mayor and commission took this into account. They studied it. They reviewed it. They measured it. They evaluated it. They decided that this is something that the voters should decide. And the law says that they can't alone make that decision because it's your charter. It's not theirs. They own part of it, but you own most of it, and you together own all of it. Next up in this discussion, let's take a look at this. Election costs. The mayor alluded to that. This is interesting because we got this information through our research with our city clerk, Gabe Fernandez. Good evening, Gabe. Nice to see you. And through the supervisor of elections. In the March 26 election, look at that number. The final invoice was $147,000 plus. In March of 24, it was almost $73,000. In March of 22, $166,000. And the allocated fees for those elections by the supervisor, who, by the way, is a constitutional officer, right? You know what that is? What that is, under the Florida Constitution, there is a sheriff. There is a property appraiser. There is a clerk of the courts. And there is a supervisor of elections. And now there's a tax collector, also provided for by the Constitution. They're separate, independent, separate, legally independent individuals holding office, different than the mayor and commission. They're elected countywide, and they hold office for a four-year term. These numbers, we didn't create them. They were established for those particular componentry at $290 per registered voter plus a per-page cost during the course of those elections. Those numbers were his numbers, and we're not disputing those numbers tonight. We're simply giving you the information that they existed, and those are fact.

Next up, if you take a look at this, interestingly enough, March versus November.

And we have had the city commission just adopted an agreement literally a month ago or less an elections agreement that the clerk brought to our attention through the city administration. If we move to November elections, the cost, and this is important, there'll be no costs for the city to be on November ballots for individuals who run for office. If it's an individual on a November ballot, there'll be no additional cost to the city of Pembroke Pines. If there are questions on the ballot, referendum questions that a city might put on the election ballot, there's then a cost per registered voter, 75 cents per registered voter, and 15 cents per registered voter for each additional ballot beyond the first page. There is a cost to November of 2026. It's not free. It's not discounted because we're nice people or because we're offering to give in more business. The end result is that it's a $92,000 clip in November to conduct this election. We've already got the numbers, and there'll be what's called a true-up. What does that mean? It could be a little more. It could be a little less. Supervisor has an obligation to make sure that he doesn't overcharge anybody for his services to the public specifically. That's the first question in the ballot. Number two, this is the issue that the mayor spoke to. This is the issue of we have a wonderfully gifted and honest and theorist and a very thoughtful person in Charlie Dodge. This is not about Charlie Dodge. This is about the issue of the future of the city of Pembroke Pines. Right now, the charter, the people's charter, the constitution of our city requires that to hire and fire a city manager, requires a four-fifths vote. There are only four direct reports to the mayor and commission. Direct report, do we know what that is? What that is, I'm a direct report. I work for the collegial body of the city commission. I work for all five of them at one time. Mr. Dodge works for all five of them at one time. The finance director is nominated by the manager but works for the commission at one time. And the commission auditor, which by the way was a ballot question some number of years ago, also a direct report to the mayor and commission. So the manager and the acting manager are what's called direct reports. Everybody else has dotted lines to the manager, which are bold lines, but they're dotted. But we have direct lines to the mayor and commission. So we talked about the ballot title and we talked about the ballot question. The ballot title is very simple. Appointment or removal of city manager or acting city manager by the city commission. And this question essentially allows voters to review the question and answer the question yes or no. Do you want to change the vote count that would be required to make a decision hiring or firing a city manager? I hate to use the word firing, but it's a word that people are accustomed to, and we use it in common daily life. Both questions are in one ordinance, and they meet requirements of state statute and are legally available to be decided on by the voters of our city.

Next up.

We discussed the direct reporting issue to the mayor and commission. The mayor used the word expeditious, and I use it here in the presentation. I also use the word fullness of time. Fullness of time is not a pejorative comment. It's simply a fact of life. And I did some minimal but thoughtful homework. What does fullness of time means? We all live in a fullness of time world. And the end result of that is that, as I looked it up, at exactly the right time and destined or appointed, things will happen. Things do happen. We all don't live forever, and that's not how it works in life. The end result is that this is a progressive discussion and decision that the mayor and commission made with the support of the manager to essentially look at the future and predict the future now by this voter issue that's on the ballot in November. It's not personal. It is a professional business decision for the benefit of all. Here's a little history, and I know that Commissioner McCluskey may remember this, but prior to 1984, We had a seven-member commission. I remember it because I sat with them from time to time. And at that time, it took a five-sevenths vote to hire and fire. That was transitioned when the charter was amended in 1984 to require a four-fifths vote when it became a seven down to five, which is a supermajority in the common terms of things. There had been other discussions in recent years. I had this discussion with the mayor in recent days where a discussion might have been raised about changing it from four-fifths to three-fifths, but it never became an ordinance, never became a ballot question, and the history goes back to the year 1984. Just for informational purposes, I actually looked at the original ordinance that the clerk was able to provide to me. It was written, I think, on parchment paper. It might have been papyrus. I'm not really sure. And there was a scribe whose picture was right next to it. It was an ancient document. It was an 8 1⁄2 by 14 paper. We prepared it. In fact, I looked at the initials in the lower left-hand corner, and one of my law partners helped to finalize the ordinance, but it had the initials of one of our legal assistants in the day. Her initials were NS. Her name was Nina Shine. And when asked the question from our clerk was, well, how did you type things like that back in the day? I said, we have what was called a MagCard machine. Nobody probably knows what a MagCard machine is. It was a predecessor to a computer that actually was able to type documents quickly. That's how far back this discussion came. So we're in a different vintage, a different time when your cell phone has more data in it than was in the lunar lander from back in 1969. So those are the two questions. And I present to you, the mayor, to finish the next set of conversations. But these are important to the city. They're important to you. They're important to me as your city attorney. And they're important to the future of the city. But that's the framework and the background I think is worth your noting. Appreciate very much your listening. Certainly, in the weather, don't look behind you because it looks like a hurricane out there. But we are very grateful for your being here in City Hall tonight. This is a rare occasion for me to be standing here versus sitting there. So I'll leave you be, and I want to say thank you very, very much for being here tonight. Thank you.

Thank you, Sam. Very eloquent, as always. You know, Pembroke Pines, a few organizations carry the kind of fondness and confidence that our police and firefighters do. This is a city that since its start has been an excellent provider of both law enforcement and fire rescue services citywide. And to talk to you about the proposal for the public safety station, we have our fire chief Marcelino Rodriguez, who is a veteran firefighter here in In Pembroke Pines, he worked his way up the ranks from a firefighter here to becoming chief of this elite department. And also Assistant Chief Rich Barnes, who likewise worked his way up. from a patrol officer to become assistant chief of the department. And for your consideration, they're going to be talking to you about the importance of a new public safety station and complex. And I would ask them to come forward at this time.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, everyone. Hello? Yeah.

Excuse me.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you all for being here. My name is Rich Barnes. I'm an assistant chief for the Parent Pines Police Department. So our intent today is to discuss to you the operational challenges that we currently face due to limited workspace. So in other words, we've outgrown our current facility, and we need the capacity for growth so we can continue to enhance our services for years to come.

Good evening again, everyone. My name is Marcelino Rodriguez, the fire chief for the Pembroke Pines Fire Rescue Department. And my role tonight is to explain to you why there's an immediate and growing need for a new public safety complex, which is going to include a new fire station. And in the process, we're going to talk to you a little bit about the history of these buildings. We're going to talk to you about the challenges that we're experiencing today as well as what are those solutions. We're also going to talk to you about the benefits of the new facility that is being proposed as well as the impact that it's going to have on the community.

So just to give you an idea of where we want to go, we want to give you a little bit of a historical from where we came from. So our current police headquarters spanning approximately 35,000 square feet was completed in 1991 to accommodate approximately 200 employees. The city's population in 1991 was approximately 65,000 residents.

Fire Station 69, which on the second floor is where we have our administrative offices, you could see there in that bottom picture, was constructed in 1977. That's almost 50 years ago, and I think it's done its job. It's done its job for almost 50 years. To date, that facility is no longer suitable to house our firefighters, nor for our emergency response operations. When that facility or that building was originally constructed, it had three emergency vehicles that were staffed with approximately nine firefighters. Out of that same facility, we have five emergency vehicles that can be staffed with as many as 15 firefighters. So clearly, we've outgrown that facility, that building. What you're looking at there is a picture of the back of Fire Station 69. Those two trucks that are in the back, ahead of them or in front of them, are two other emergency vehicles. That is not the proper way to stage vehicles for emergency responses, period. That is unlike any other fire station that I'm familiar with in Broward County. Fire vehicles or fire emergency response vehicles should respond directly onto whatever street they're actually getting onto to respond to emergencies. That response... concept incurs significant delays that we prefer not to have. The other thing I want to point your attention to is that command vehicle at the back of Fire Station 69 under that canopy there. When that emergency vehicle gets a call to turn to the commander, they have to travel either around the fire station or around the police station, where employees are walking to and from their car to their place of work. Again, those are not ideal circumstances for any emergency response vehicles.

So present day, as of 2026, the Perrin Pines Police Department has a projected staffing levels of over more than 400 employees and an estimated population of 170,000 residents. So since 1991, the city's population has increased by 160%, with our police department staffing increasing by 125%. So this growth has resulted in limited workspace, decentralized resources, and logistical challenges. If I can direct your attention to the middle photo there, that is a current photo of our computer services office. As you can see, employees are working in limited workspace with storage and equipment literally right next to them. That is not ideal. That is not how we would like to operate. However, that's what we've been forced to do because we just simply have no other storage space to put that equipment. So what would a future public safety complex look like? So this is a proposed concept. So if you see there in gray, that is the parking garage. The blue represents what the police department would be. And the red is the fire department. So the proposed public safety complex will meet the needs of our community. It is designed to accommodate over 500 police and fire personnel with sufficient workspace, equipment, and vital assets for optimal first responder services beyond the year of 2050.

Included in this proposal is a new fire station, as I mentioned, which is going to have four bays. So each of the four primary vehicles will each have a bay that will respond directly onto Pines Boulevard, which will reduce emergency response times. And I can't overstate the importance of reducing response times. Seconds could make the difference between someone living or dying. Seconds could make the difference between keeping a fire in check or perhaps that fire extending onto the attic, or worse, onto the neighbor's house. So when I talk about reducing response times, that is critical to our operations, and it almost always improves outcomes. In addition to that, it will provide a modern facility that will support firefighter wellness, help control contamination or limit firefighter exposures to contaminants, et cetera, with the way in which we store our bunker gear, our fire apparatus, et cetera. And very important, also very important, it will be a facility capable of sustaining Cat 5 hurricane winds. To date, should we get a, as the mayor mentioned, should we get a Category 3, 4, or 5 hurricane or a threat of a hurricane, I will not be able to safely staff that building. And that is concerning. That facility provides essential services to key buildings, key residential communities in our area. And the idea of not being able to staff a building is incredibly concerning, especially in a time when we would need them most. That's before, during, and after a hurricane. Currently, we have 172 employee parking spaces. At any given point, we'll have 270 employees at that complex. And that picture there tells the story. Those vehicles there parking on the grass and on the curb, that's any given day at our facility. Those are not ideal circumstances for our employees.

So what would the proposed solution be? It would be a five-level parking garage to accommodate approximately 317 total employee parking spaces with 55 visitor parking spaces for both police and fire. So if I could direct your attention to the upper right-hand corner there where that red car is. Those are actually visitor parking spaces. However, due to the limited amount of spaces that we have, unfortunately, our employees are forced to park there on a daily basis. Now, we would like to have a facility that accommodates everybody, visitor parking, employee parking, and also our special events as well. So what are some of the benefits of a modern public safety complex? So if you can look at the bottom image there, that is a concept image of what we call a real-time intelligence center. One very important example of modern policing today. It's a room where a number of different resources are put together that helps with intelligence, it helps response times due to critical incidents, and something that we would really like to bring to the community going forward. Some additional benefits. So the decentralized operations of resources create several challenges for us. If I can direct your attention to the upper right-hand corner there, those are shipping connexes. They are not designed for evidence storage. However, that is what we've had to resort to for low-risk evidence because we've simply run out of room. Now, we would like to have a large facility where we can accommodate all those things. In addition to that, we have crime scene vehicles that show up that are involved in crimes that we have to process. Currently, we're processing these vehicles in a vehicle sally port that's just a normal sally port that wasn't designed for evidence storage. That's what we've had to resort to. But we would like to have a facility that accommodates all those things so that we can enhance our services. So I assure you, we're a professional organization. We follow all the guidelines set by the state and by our department as far as chain of custody. But you can see these types of things create unnecessary stressors that we would like to avoid when it comes to chain of custody of evidence.

And to highlight again some of the benefits that this facility will bring our community, it's going to improve our response time. It's going to provide our firefighters with the facility that they need during and after a hurricane. What we're talking about here is a second home to our firefighters. I realize that we talk about it as a regular office space, et cetera. But in reality, that's what it is, a second home. Our fire department has been a class one organization for almost 30 years now. Our firefighters deliver exceptional service. And in my humble opinion, I believe our firefighters are deserving of a facility that is equivalent to the service that they provide. Thank you. This building is not just going to do all the things that I mentioned, but it's also going to provide us the space that we need for our community engagement. Community engagement, community education and training is a very important part of both operations, both law enforcement and fire. And currently, we just do not have the space. In addition to all these things, This will also provide us the space that we need. That picture right there at the bottom, that's a CPR class on any given day at Fire Station 69. Those tables are supposed to be for two students. Several of them have three. That's one point that I want to make. The other one is in the back. See that equipment that's on the table? That equipment's on the table because it doesn't fit. You've been there, right? It doesn't fit in that back room. That back room is our... storage room, and it also houses some low voltage equipment too, and it just doesn't fit there. Again, he's been to our facility, and thank you very much for twice. It's fantastic. Again, the facility is no longer suitable for our needs and where we want to be in the future.

As the fire chief mentioned, we're very dedicated to community engagement in our agency. And we want to expand programs like the Citizens Police Academy, Student of the Month, and Citizens on Patrol. If you could see the picture up on the upper right-hand corner there, that is a picture of our Student of the Month activity. That is an event that we run during the school year. It's where 16 elementary school students from within the city are chosen by their peers and by staff members, not just because they're good students, because they're good kids. So we make it a special event. We dress up. They get to meet the crime dog there. They get certificates, OK? This is a family-friendly event. But what you don't see on the other side of that room is the back of the room is standing room only. We don't have the capacity to sit everybody. So that means sometimes parents are standing, grandparents are standing. We would like to have a room that accommodates everybody for special events and all the different things that we do at our agency. So the proposed public safety complex will strengthen police and fire operations, improve emergency response capabilities, and centralize critical resources and enhance community engagement for decades to come.

That's it. Thank you very much for saying that. Thank you for your continued support for public safety.

Thank you, Chiefs, for everything that you do and for an outstanding presentation. I think that station is Station 69. Is that correct, Chief? And that's the busiest station in the city? Sorry? Last month, the busiest station in the city takes more calls than any other station in the city. And it is the chief station from which all of East Pines is provided with fire and rescue services. It is a very important asset in our community. And I want to thank you for your presentation. Now we have assistant, oh, I just wanted to mention, happy anniversary to Commissioner Tom Good, your District City Commissioner. I want you to know that he's celebrating with his family today. Asked me to say hello. However he texted me, he's on the phone. He's watching the meeting. So I want to thank you, Commissioner Good, if you can hear us. I want to thank you for everything that you do, and we certainly understand why you're not here, but we're very, very thankful that you're watching us on TV. With us today, thank you. With us today is Assistant City Manager Lisa Chong. She is a CPA. She runs our finance office and our budget office. She has for years. And she is gonna talk to you about the finances associated with the public safety station and any bond issue that we might choose to put on the ballot in November. Lisa.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, everyone. Try not to stand behind her because you can't see me. So thank you all for being here. As the mayor said, I'm an assistant city manager. I've been with the city almost 27 years. I actually also live in Pines, and probably my entire family lives in Pembroke Pines as well. So it's not just where I work, it's also home. What I'm going to go over with you is the cost of the building itself, what was proposed to us, as well as how much it's going to cost you as a resident to undertake this project if the commission decides. So as of today, they have not come to a decision formally as to the actions or the debt that was going to be taken with this project. The other thing I wanted to mention is that the numbers here, have been projected by the architect. These are professionals. This is what they do for a living over the next last 40, 50 years. So it wasn't numbers that was developed by staff. These are numbers that have been developed by professionals, including the financial advisor. I know there's a lot of numbers in here. So the presentation will be online. You probably cannot see these tiny numbers. I apologize for that. But the presentation is online and is available for you to review line by line if you need to in detail. This is the architect's estimate of the building construction cost, the hard cost. Right now they're estimating it to be $108.9 million for that, the building, the parking lot, the fire facility that was just spoken about. There's also going to be site development costs. That's $4.2 million of site development costs. There are some additional soft costs, including design, furniture and equipment, technology. That amounts to $42.5 million. So overall, we are talking about building construction of 108.9, site development 4.2 million for a total of $113 million, and then soft costs, which does include about 20 million of contingency and CPI inflation at 42.5 for a total building cost of $155.5 million. What we are looking at in terms of our funding needs, we're taking that $155.5 million. We're removing from that the contingencies and the inflation, because they're not necessarily specifically identified. And we are proposing that there is a potential sale of city assets at $55 million. So that brings down the cost or what we would be borrowing to about $80 million. Using the $80 million, so how do we finance these projects? Normally, these projects are financed through debt, one form or another. The city has undertaken debt in different forms. One is a general obligation bond. We have undertaken what they call a covenant to budget and appropriate. We have also done revenue bonds. And we haven't really done lease purchase, but this was also presented by our financial advisors. But at the end of the day, when you look at it, the most cost efficient and the best cost to the resident would be a geo bond. And that's because the city has a very high rating in terms of our credit rating. In 24, we were upgraded to a double E plus. So when they come and look at all our financials and our operations, we have a very good operation. And so we have high credit ratings, which means lower cost of borrowing for you. So we're looking at, right now, general obligation bonds. So if we use the $80 million that we're estimating, we would borrow that money in two different, what do we call, tranches. The first year, and then in the third year, we'll borrow the remaining $40 million. The rate that was provided to us right now by the financial advisor was at 4.63%, borrowing. And then we're also assuming that the taxable values do go up by 3%. Looking citywide, there are about 56,778 residential units. The median taxable value, this is after all your homestead exemptions, senior exemptions, disabilities, all of that, the median taxable value is $223, approximately $1,000. We have about 2,600 units that pay no city tax, and they will continue not to pay any. If we look at that calculation, assuming the $80 million, boring it in two different tranches at 4.63%, that median taxable value for the city for the entire 30-year period of the bonds, we're looking at $1,536 for the entire 30 years. The average per year, we're looking at $51. The average per month, $4.25. And the average a day is $0.14 a day. Looking at this particular District 1, we have 10,744 units in this district. The median taxable value right now is $193,880. And there are 374 units that pay no taxes. Again, using those assumptions, the entire 30-year period, that taxable value will pay $1,334 for the entire 30-year period. That's an average a year of $44 per year. If we're looking at per month, we're looking at $3.67, and the average per day, we're looking at $0.12 a day. But you're looking at me and you're probably saying, well, my taxable value is none of these numbers here. So what we have done is we have created a calculator for you. It's online. I'll show you the link where it is. But first, we need to have your taxable value. And this is after, again, all your exemptions have been taken out. So we're looking at the BCPA. You can go to that link. Find your address by your address or any name. You look at your taxable value. You use that number in this example. The taxable value is $202,000, but the market value was $362,000. So you're looking at that lower number, the taxable value. You put that in the calculator. Press Calculate. And it will show you, again, for your specific property, what the 30-year payment will be, the average per year, and the amount that you pay per day. This link is on our website. If you go to resident resources, you'll see a link, and it would say November 2026 ballot. All the calculations are there. All the presentations are there. And if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to any one of us on that. Thank you. Thank you, Matt.

Thank you, Assistant City Manager Chong. Excellent presentation. So I want you to know that in the back of the room, there is a handout that you can take home with you of this presentation. We want you to have it. I want you to discuss it with your friends. It's all online as well, if you prefer to see it that way. But we did print some copies for you to take home. So the bottom line is, and I want to make sure that everyone understands it, we all have a market value for our home. And it's captured the way they calculate market value at the property appraiser's office. But that's not what you're taxed on. You are taxed on your assessed value. And it's that value that gets applied in these calculations. And based on that, in the average home, If this is approved, we'll pay $44 a year for this new facility that the police and the fire department need. I want to make sure that everyone understood it. When we're going along these town hall meetings, what we try to do is we try to give everybody what the value would be for their district so that they have a sense of what they're looking at even before they use the calculator. So if we go to a condo, you should know, I mean, you all don't live necessarily in a condo community, but the typical payment at Colony Point was how much was it again? Do you recall? I think it was like $7 a year in Colony Point. It's not about the money. It's about what the money will do over 30 years. Now, the last time we presented this project, we thought that this facility was going to cost about $120 million. The cost of it now, even though it's smaller, believe it or not, though the fire station is double the size, is $155 million. And at the time that we presented it, about 18 months ago, bond rates were somewhere in the area of 4%. Now they're about 4.6%. and we're not happy that our projections came true. The longer we wait, the more this will cost, certainly from the perspective of construction costs. Construction costs are constantly moving up. So we feel that this is the necessary time, not just because we need it now, but it's the necessary time in order to save taxpayer funds. And that's why part of What the ballot language for the bond issue says is this is also to save taxpayer dollars. If we did it with revenue bonds, which we could do and not put it on the ballot, you'd pay more because it's typically true that the bond rate on revenue bonds is higher than GO bonds. It's almost virtually always true. We want you to pay the least amount necessary. The facility that we're selling is an affordable housing complex. This was not something that was available the last time we presented it. The city owns and operates it. It's about 400 units. It houses young people who are working from the city and also senior citizens. The group that we're looking to sell it to will continue to operate this facility as affordable perpetuity it can be used for no other purpose they're going to invest significant dollars in in renovating it and bringing it to even a greater level of of of appeal ability though it's a pretty good shape now nobody will be displaced additional services will be added And the waiting list for people who take the vacancies will be generated by the city. We want people who are from Pembroke Pines to continue to be able to use that facility that their taxpayer dollars originally generated. If nobody's on the waiting list, they can pick someone else. We have never not had anybody on the waiting list. And in the times that we're in right now, with affordability being what it is, we don't think that's going to happen. Some of you may be, I hope all of you have been eagerly watching the saga in Tallahassee right now about property values and property tax. We want you to know that there's nothing about what they're passing or potentially placing on the November ballot, that prohibits you from voting to use GO bonds for a facility that you want to see happen in your city and using property taxes, the mechanism through which that debt is paid. There's nothing. We've checked it over and over again with our financial people and also with our lawyers and also with our lobbyists in Tallahassee. That is not part of the bill here. And I mentioned that because some people have asked me the question, well, with all these changes in Tallahassee, will you even be able to float a bond issue? And the answer is yes, but only with your approval. So that's our presentation. Our goal today was to educate you about what we have in mind and to open it up to your comments, your reactions, your questions. what you like, what you might not like, what we might be able to improve. We're eagerly awaiting your comments so that we can collect them. I want you to know that everything that you say will be written down by our clerk for the purpose of making sure that when we put out the frequently asked questions, that the questions that you ask are included and the answers that are provided are also included. I want you to have all the information that you have. And if a question should come up later that you didn't think of tonight, please send it in. Email me or email Tom Good, your great city commissioner. We'll make sure that that question gets answered and we'll add it to the list. So with that, I'm going to open it up to you. What do you think? What are your thoughts? You've had a full presentation tonight. What's your impressions? Please, just one at a time. Oh, there's our friend Scott Barnett, and he's the chair of our Citizens Budget Commission, and that's the group of citizens that participate in watching every nickel that comes in and every nickel that goes out, and we're very, very glad that he volunteers along with his board members to do that. Scott.

Thank you, Mayor. Just a quick clarification. Just to understand, the total cost of this public safety complex is the estimated 155 number. What is the specific number for the bond request? 80. Okay.

So we think that the only thing we'll have to borrow, the only thing that we'll have to tax you with is 80, and we can figure out how to pay for the rest here without taxing you anymore. The 80 is the funding gap that we need to fill in order to deliver this facility.

So to be clear, the city is exhausting every possibility to use whatever assets it can to contribute towards the construction of the building?

I don't know that there's ever been a time in the city's history, maybe, but I can't think of a time in the city's history when we've sold an asset for the purpose of being able to build a new one. or done it, frankly, as thoughtfully as this deal is going down. The only thing that will change at that housing facility is the name of the owner. Everything else will remain the same. But we will generate a great deal of profit from the sale of that facility, and that profit, 100% of it, will be poured into this new construction. So I think it's very thoughtfully put together. Yes, George?

Yeah, okay. I did a little number crunching myself, and I think the deal that has been presented to us is really very good. But I'd just like to make a quick analogy for the people that are listening, okay? According to the supervisor of election, there's about 123,000 registered voters in Pembroke Pines, okay? And just think of what the average person does a day. Do they drink a cup of coffee while they're out? Maybe have in the evening a drink or two? If they have to buy little Johnny or Mary that candy bar at the grocery store, just look at the amount of money that is spent in luxury, I guess you could call it, and weigh that against the pennies here. If they put some of that money toward protection and everything, this would be just a walk in the park. if they would set up a drop box and instead of having that drink or a pack of smokes, drop that $5 bill in a box.

You know, I totally agree with you. And I don't know if you know, but this May, I celebrated my 41st continuous year in government, though I've only been working for you guys for 22 years. I've been in government now for 41 years in the city, working for a county, working for a state, working for the federal government. I was in the private sector for a while as an executive and 22 years here as a city commissioner and now as mayor. And I can tell you based on experience, do you know when the best time is to ask residents for a tax increase? You know what the best time is? Never. Never. It's always a bad time. But the longer you live, the clearer it becomes that yesterday's worries, the things that worried you most, you look back on them now, and they weren't quite as bad as you thought at the time. Time passes. But here's what doesn't pass. What doesn't pass is the opportunity to seize a moment and make a decision that has to be made. And then years later, you don't have to make a harder one because you waited too long to make that one. I'm telling you the construction costs are going to continue to skyrocket. I'm telling you right now, just like we told you last time, that interest rates can continue to go up. This need is only going to get more acute. It's not going to get better. And the quicker we prosecute this concern to completion, I think the better off we're going to be. That's my opinion. You all will have to tell me what you think. Other comments? Yes, ma'am. at exactly where it is right now. The footprint, she was asking, where is the facility going to be located? Currently, the plan is to put it exactly where it is right now. We will probably have to move the operations out. They have worked out a plan a staging plan for who's going to move out and when and where they're going to go and that kind of thing. We're going to have to double up in some of our other buildings and share that burden during the time that it takes to build the facility. Mr. Dodge feels that it'll take somewhere between 18 months and two years to build this whole campus out. So we have some work to do in the meanwhile. But both chiefs feel that their staffs are up to it. We'll get through that period of time. Before you know it, we'll be out of ribbon cutting. By the way, this facility is going to be celebrating its 10th year soon. Can you believe it? It's been 10 years since we've had this facility and how fast time goes. But what a difference this city center has made in the life of the city. That, too, was built with a geobond issue that you all passed in 2005, right? 2005. Other questions? Yes, ma'am.

Last time this was kind of clumped with some other things. Yes. Money. And I think this is good. This is standalone. And I think it's got a great chance of passing. And when it does, how soon will construction begin?

We want to get going with this right away. So once we have that, we will be free to go out with our 40% drawings and to hire a contractor and begin the process. And we will be contributing all of the permitting fees. I see our building official in the back, and that doesn't make him happy. But we're going to be contributing a lot to this building that we would charge other people if it was a private building. So we're going to be all chipping in to make sure that we keep the costs down. But I want to tell you, there are a lot of people that voted no on the last bond issue because they wanted a menu. Well, here's your menu. There's only one item. So hopefully that pleases them, and they might look at it a little differently. Other thoughts?

Commissioner McCluskey. Thank you. I have no problem with the police and fire. I'm a little prejudiced. Two of my three sons, one was a cop here in the Pines, who's now retired, and the other was a firefighter in Hallandale Beach for 30 years. What I do have a problem with is the request for a 3-4 vote on the hiring and firing of a city manager. I've lived here 57 years. The first 11 years in this city we had 11 city managers and very often it was a motion from the Commission at the time hey Joe you want to be the city manager you got it that created a very unstable city. And it's very easy if you're sitting on the commission, as I have, to be ticked off at the city manager and only have three votes out of five. Whether it's a seven member or five member, it should not be a simple majority. The city manager has the biggest responsibility in the city, and he or she is the boss, period. And that's the way it should be. But it should be harder to eliminate his boss ship, if you will. Other than that, I don't have a problem with what the commission is proposing, although I would, as a former member of the charter board, would have preferred that they come before the charter board last year.

and let us hash it out but anyway thank you thank you very much and we appreciate your service uh jack has a park named and named after him because he earned it as a volunteer but he also served two terms as city commissioner in pembroke pines he was a colleague of mine have a lot of respect for him uh jack i don't believe that we can compare um Pembroke Pines as the 11th largest city in Florida today to what it was early on when it was firing city managers once or twice a year or however it was back when it had 20,000 or 30,000 residents. Yes, sir. And I understand that politics is still politics. But today's politics is that we're looking at the retirement at some soon point. of the single most impressive guy that Pembroke Pines has ever produced. And the chances of us finding another one quite of that caliber would involve a lightning strike at the same place twice. And the city commission in its deliberation of this issue has decided that it could be that we have to go through a period of of a few before we find the right person. And the city manager works for us, not the other way around. And we feel that if a city manager can't keep the confidence of at least three people, That's a problem. Politics is assumed to be something only elected officials do. There's no better politician in all of government than a city manager. And so what we want to make sure is that the future of the city is one where we represent the people, the manager represents and that the expectations of the city commission are carried out. We want to make sure that we have somebody in that chair who's sitting up and paying attention, not just because of their natural disposition, but because their job is on the line to do so. And that's why we feel that it's important to put this before you. Arguably, there's no right answer, but we feel there is a right answer. And that's why we're placing it on the ballot. But I respect your view. Other views? Yes.

Wasn't that on the ballot a couple of years ago when it was voted against?

It was. It lost by a very small margin. I think it got like 47%, something like that. It just failed. However, we feel that we want to put it in front of you again, because those on the city commission that voted on it feel strongly about it. And so it's going to be before you again. Sometimes ballot issues fail. And the second time around, people understand it better, and they support it. We hope that that will be the case.

Yes. Are there any improvements are gonna be done in the second or the out west police station?

Okay, so this is often asked to me. So we're gonna build this new station. How about the rest of the fire stations in the city? Every fire station in the city will be renovated. Some of them are already being renovated now. Some of them will be renovated next year in the budget. This is a plan that happens on an ongoing basis, and we're not asking for any additional tax dollars to do that. There's no other fire station that we are proposing to replace at this time. However, in terms of renovations, making sure that they're clean, you've got to remember, these stations take a beating. It's not just that they are where these trucks are at and everything else. The firefighters live there during their tour, and these places take a beating. And so we want to make sure that they'll never be luxurious. That's not our goal, but they should be clean, and they should be functioning, and they should be... They should not smell. And so we want to make sure that they are habitable and they are respectful places to come to work. So PD West, the PD West station. PD West Station will continue to be operated by the police department. It continues to be a necessary item of theirs. They're not interested in getting rid of it just now. Frankly, in the fullness of time, again, that could be another police station out west. That's why that facility was originally acquired. And we'll see what happens with that station. But it's still part It's still an asset that the city owns, and there is no immediate plan to get rid of it. It will continue to be needed and used. Other questions that you might have? Yes, sir.

Thank you.

We do pass this. We vote for this, yes. We're agreeing that we're going to pay for it through as minimal as the numbers as Ms. Chung gave us, and I appreciate it. $44 a month, $100 a month, $7 a month, or a year, a year, excuse me. By the way, I'm Dennis Hines, everybody. Could we get assistance? I mean, we should be able to get assistance from Tallahassee. We have state representatives that.

Tallahassee right now is about taking money away from cities, not giving us any. There are no grants that we're aware of that would pay for this. Years ago, there were some grants. But here's what happens often with grants, even if you could find one for this purpose. They come with a lot of strings attached. And when you add up the strings, sometimes taking a grant actually ends up costing you money. Because then they want to get into your pots and pans, as my mom used to say. And they want to tell you how to cook. And they want to tell you which types of people to hire. And they want to tell you this. And they want to tell you that. And they want to tell you, no, not this union, but that union. Or not this, but that. And then it starts piling up the costs. And by the time you're done with all their strings attached and everything you have, you conclude that you're almost better off doing it yourself. Because it ends up costing you money to use other folks' money. These grants are often laden. with public interest requirements that add cost to the total. And they don't amount to much. But here's what happens. So let's say you need to build a building, and it's $20 million. And you see a grant, and it's only for $1 million. But implementing the grant brings your project to $25 million. Well, what do I need your million dollars for? You just added another $5 million of cost. So it has to be very carefully looked at. So the full answer to your question is, one, there is no grant that we're aware of that will help us with this. But even if there is, we have to look at the information to see whether or not it would add cost. If it doesn't, we won't borrow it. And this is why we say on the ballot question, it's up. To 80 million. So let's say out of nowhere we got a 5 million. Let's say somebody died and left us $5 million to help build our, in a will, to help build our police station. We're not looking to, now we're not looking to borrow more than 75. So we're not looking to borrow any more than we need to do the job that we have to do. And all that money that you might approve would be used for is this one project. It's not going to be used for anything else.

Excellent. But I didn't say grants. There's more money up there in Tallahassee besides grants.

We're not aware of any. But if anyone comes up with a scheme to bring us money, I love working with federal money or state money or county money or any other money, so long as it works. And so long as it doesn't add value. If you find it, let me know. We're looking constantly. We haven't seen anything.

That was my actual question. Where are our state representatives in assisting our city in funding these important projects?

So you're talking about like an appropriation.

Now we're talking.

So separately, we'll talk about what happens. You asked for an appropriation, and the appropriation And this happens in every state. Jack mentioned politics. And so all of a sudden, you get a phone call. Hi, it's the governor's office. The governor would like to see you. You walk in. State Rep, how are you doing? Good to see you. How's your family, everything else? So I hear you want this $800,000. Let me tell you, I looked at it. It's a great project. Let's talk about my vote on my item next week. That's been going on since Julius Caesar was in short pants. And that's why a lot of things get vetoed. And later on, they'll tell you, well, I vetoed it because I didn't believe in it. No, you vetoed it because you didn't get a vote. That's just the way it works. And we can't be tied up in that process. We need to build this building. So... If it comes to us, terrific. We won't borrow it. Will we look for it? Hell yeah, we'll look for it. But if it doesn't work for Pembroke Pines, it just doesn't work. Other questions? Yes, ma'am.

Okay, so I have probably two. Let me go ahead. Okay, so first, I want to ask, is it guaranteed that your purchaser is definitely going to buy your building?

Well, it's good. The... The contract is on our agenda for tomorrow, correct? So we think that's going to happen. But if it doesn't happen, we don't have a deal. They'll have to wait.

That was going to be my next question. So what if, okay, so you actually answered that. But my next wondering is, let's say it goes through, right? And you probably got a little bit more than you anticipated. I'm assuming that it will lower, right? It will lower whatever the citizens would pay. Yes. Because for me, who goes paycheck to paycheck, I don't have anything extra. So anything that's coming out, that's extra. Don't worry, it's a good idea. But I'm just wondering. So those are my wonderings.

Okay. And they're the proper questions, and I thank you for asking them. We think this deal is going to go through. We would not get to the stage of that paperwork coming to us if this wasn't a live deal. We think it's going to work. If it doesn't work, we're not going to proceed. And we will know that within the next... what, month or so, for sure. The deadline for us to submit ballot language to the supervisor of elections is August 18th. So there's more than enough time for us to make this decision as to whether or not, and you won't see it until November. So there's plenty of time to work this thing out. But this is our plan. We think the plan will work. We have every reason to think it's gonna work. And if it doesn't work, we'll pull it off.

And I'm assuming that you're gonna bring back some information to us about what it goes through or whatever before we even get to the ballot.

Oh, yes. Oh, absolutely. Before you get to the ballot, you'll know whether we have a deal or not.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you. It'll be long dealt with before then. Correct, Mr. City Attorney? Yeah. Other questions? I warn you out. Well, I want to thank you all for coming. The weather has just turned. As I mentioned to someone before, when you don't like the weather in Pembroke Pines, just wait five minutes. And there it is. And there it is. It's beautiful out. And your cars have all been washed. So free of charge. So I want to thank you all for coming. I want to thank all of you who are watching from home and on video. Please go on to the website. Take a look at the information. We want you to see everything that we've seen. There's total transparency in this. We want you to see it. We want to hear you raise your questions, and we'll answer as many of them as we can. We want to thank you for your attention. We are incredibly lucky people here in the city of Pembroke Pines. Millions of people around the world would trade anything to trade places with any of you. And so be proud of your city, because we're proud of you. Thank you very much, and good night.