City Commission - workshop

I'm called to order this meeting of the Pompano Beach Finance Corporation. Irvin, will you call the roll?

Yes. Director Fezzik?

Here.

Director Perkins?

Here.

Director Sigerson-Eaton?

Here.

Director Smith?

Here.

Vice Chair Fournier? Here. Chair Harden?

That let's all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Can I get a motion approving the minutes of the Pompano Beach Finance Corporation Annual Meeting, minutes of June 10th, 2025?

Second.

Moved and seconded. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

All right. Mr. Harrison, are there any changes to our agenda today?

No, ma'am.

Thank you. Can I get a motion approving the agenda? No? So moved. Moved.

I just thought we'd vote no on this and see if you liked it.

Mark would like us to vote no. Moved and seconded? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Okay, moving to our regular agenda, item one is the election of officers for the Pompano Beach Finance Corporation, President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. Mr. Alfred.

Yes. Good afternoon, everyone. Kerwin Alford, Secretary. Pursuant to the bylaws of the Pompano Beach Finance Corporation, it is required to hold an annual meeting to elect the officers of the corporation. The following officers must be selected. President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer. each of whom shall be members of the city commission or city staff. Traditionally, the mayor serves as the president, vice mayor as the vice president, finance director as treasurer, and the city clerk as secretary. Without further ado, I turn over the floor to the vice chair to accept nominations for the four positions.

Thank you very much. I guess I would nominate. Go ahead. Okay. Go ahead, Commissioner Smith.

I will nominate the same board that we had last year, which is Rex Hardin, President, Allison Fourier, Vice President, Allison Furtado, Treasurer, and Curvan Alfred as Secretary.

I second. Are there any other nominations for the positions? Okay. Mr. Alfred, with that, will you call the roll?

Sure. Director Fezzik? Yes. Director Perkins? Yes. Director Sigurdsson-Eaton? Yes. Director Smith? Yes. Vice Chair Fournier?

Yes.

Chair Hardin? Motion carries.

Motion carries. Thank you. With item two is approval of the fiscal year 2026 annual budget of the corporation. So moved.

Second.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, board of directors. I am Patricia White, stepping in for Allison Furtado, treasurer. I'm requesting approval of the fiscal year 2026 annual budget of the corporation in the amount of $1,000.

We don't need public comment on this, do we? Yes. We do? You can offer.

First you need a motion, then you need public comment on the motion.

So moved.

Second.

Moved and seconded. Is there any public comment on proposed budget?

Once it's a motion, then it's a matter before the commission for public comment.

Thank you, Mr. Berman.

Thank you. Any public comment? Commission? Seeing none. Seeing none. Commission discussion. All right, with that, Mr. Alford, will you call the roll?

Director Fezzik? Yes. Director Perkins? Yes. Director Sigurdsson-Eaton? Yes. Director Smith? Yes. Vice Chair Fournier? Yes. Chair Hardin?

Motion carries.

Motion carries.

Thank you. With that, we are going to adjourn this meeting.

you Thank you. Thank you.

all right let's go ahead and call this pompano beach city commission budget meeting budget uh yeah budget meeting to order um budget workshop if we can please ask everyone to please silence your cell phones or put them on vibrate during the meeting so we don't get disrupted during our meeting with a telephone call that would be ideal so please silence those cell phones or put them on vibrate kirvan if we can go ahead and call a roll

Commissioner Fezzik?

Here.

Commissioner Perkins?

Here.

Commissioner Sigurdsson-Eaton?

Here.

Commissioner Smith?

Here.

Vice Mayor Fournier? Here. Mayor Harton?

Here. If we can all please rise to the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. I get a motion approving the agenda as printed.

So moved. Second.

Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Closed. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Takes us up to our regular agenda, presentation of the fiscal year 2027 preliminary estimated general fund budget. Mr. Harrison, you want to lead us in?

Yes, sir. I'd like to make these remarks for the record. Mr. Josh Waters here to my right, city's budget director, will present the recommended FY27 general fund budget. Presentation will provide an overview of the projected general fund revenues and expenditures as well as the key assumptions and priorities reflected in the proposed budget. Beginning tomorrow, June 24th, staff will meet individually with each member of the city commission to discuss their recommendations and receive feedback. The objective of these meetings leading up to the July 20th budget workshop is to build a consensus among the city commission regarding the proposed FY27 budget and its funding priorities. Mr. Waters.

Thank you, Mr. Harrison. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Joshua Waters, the city's budget director. Mayor, vice mayor, and commissioners, before we begin, I would like to take a moment and thank our department directors and their staff for their assistance throughout this budget development process. Their input and cooperation have been essential in preparing this preliminary FY 2027 budget. I'd also like to thank the city manager and his executive team for their guidance and support during this process, and to the city attorney for his help in evaluating the proposed constitutional amendment. Finally, I would like to recognize the budget office staff, Coron Grant, Alan Collar, and Liliana Alvarez for their hard work, professionalism, and collaboration in preparing this information before you this afternoon. Today's workshop will provide an overview of the preliminary FY2027 general fund budget. We'll discuss key financial issues and policy considerations and provide an opportunity for the commission input before staff returns with the recommended budget on July 14th. We'll review the preliminary general fund revenue and expenditure projections, discuss the recommended millage rates and fire assessment fees, and review the major budget pressures affecting the upcoming fiscal year. We'll also discuss the proposed property tax reform measures and their impacts on the city's finances. The purpose of today's discussion and the discussions at the one on one meetings later this week is not to make final decisions, but to identify priorities and receive guidance that staff can incorporate into the recommended budget that will be before this body later in July. I'm going to walk through this slide. These are the next steps in the FY2027 budget decision process. We held our first budget workshop on April 14th, where we received some preliminary guidance from the city commission. Today is the second of three workshops where we'll go over the general fund preliminary budget. We'll hold meetings again later this week with commissioners individually to get your individual priorities for the budget. We'll be back on July 20th. That'll be for the third and final of the three workshops this year as we will walk through in greater detail the recommended operating budget for the general fund and all the other funds, as well as the capital improvement plan. On July 28th is where the commission is scheduled to preliminarily adopt the fire assessment fee resolution. This is so we will stay in compliance with the state notifications that the preliminary fire assessment fee has to be adopted before August 4th. On September 14th is the first of two required budget hearings under the state's Truth in Milledge Act. This is where we'll receive input from the public, and it's where the commission is scheduled to adopt the tentative millage rates and budgets for the city's budgets, as well as adopt the final fire assessment fees. On September 23rd is the second and final budget hearing. At this meeting, the commission is scheduled to adopt the final millage rates and budgets for the city, as well as adopt the capital improvement plan. This slide provides an overview of the city's preliminary FY2027 general fund revenues, which are projected at approximately $257.8 million. This represents revenue growth of approximately $14.2 million from the adopted FY2026 budget. Ad valorem taxes remain the largest source of revenue at 122.3 million, or around 47.4% of general fund revenues. The next largest category, the yellow category, licenses, permits, and assessments, comes in at 45.9 million, or around 18%. Intergovernmental revenues, miscellaneous revenues, and non-ad valorem taxes account for approximately 26% of general fund revenues. Charges for services, transfers, and fines and forfeitures make up the remaining revenue sources. Property taxes do remain our largest source of revenue. However, as you can see on this slide, the city does have a diversified portfolio of revenue sources. And this diversification will help the city support its long term financial stability. This next slide shows how the city's $257.8 million general fund budget is allocated across services and operations. Public safety remains the city's largest expenditure, accounting for approximately 55% of the general fund budget. This includes police services, the blue slice, at 78.5 million, fire services, the orange slice, At 47.9 million, EMS support from the general fund at 10.9 million, the green slice. And the light blue slice represents other public safety functions, including park rangers, code enforcement, housing and homelessness services. Parks, recreation, cultural affairs, tourism and marketing account for approximately $31.4 million of the general fund budget or around 12%. Development and support services represent approximately 56 million. Public works, facilities and engineering account for approximately 27.8 million or 11%. And as I wanted to call it, the note on the slide is noted on the slide. Police services budget not only includes the city's contract with BSO, but it also includes the city's pension contribution for former city of Pompano Beach police officers, police employees, as well as related support costs. From a couple of slides ago, you may recall that I said that revenues increased by a little over $14 million year over year. However, as we were putting together the budget this year, we identified approximately $18.4 million in additional costs that have to be addressed in this budget. We talked a lot last year about budget pressures. This year, you see a continuing theme of budget pressures, non-discretionary budget pressures that we have to account for in the budget. These cost increases are largely driven by contractual obligations, inflationary pressures, operational requirements, and long term capital needs. The largest single increase on this list is the Broward Sheriff's Office contract, including implementation of phase two of their salary study, which is projected to increase costs by approximately 5.4 million year over year. Salary and benefit projections for city employees account for an additional $3.6 million. The tax increment increase for the West and ECRA are $1.3 million. Financing and leasing of vehicles and equipment at $1.2 million. Pension contribution for all city employees goes up by $656,000 this year. I want to note here that as opposed to previous years where you've seen increases of $3 to $4 million for pension contributions, due to higher than expected market returns, the increase this year, the required increase is less than it has been in previous years. The Broward County Tax Collector Commission increases by $446,000, and I'll touch on this in a little more detail in a moment. Fuel cost increases go up about $250,000 as a result of increased fuel costs. And then general fund support for the CIP is at $5.5 million. So as you see on this slide, approximately 446,000 of this list relates to commissions charged by the Broward County Tax Collector, including approximately $240,000 associated with the EMS Special Taxing District revenues. At the commission's request to have evaluated alternatives to the EMS Special Taxing District this year, we consulted with outside counsel, internal counsel, as well as the department heads of finance, budget, and the fire department to see if there was really an option to transfer some of the millage rate from the EMS Special Taxing District over to the general operating rate this year. After discussions with outside council, we were advised that the city should probably maintain as much flexibility as it could with regard to the special taxing district given the pending consideration of the property tax amendment out there. So at this time, staff's recommendation is not to do anything with the millage rates for the EMS taxing districts in 27 and to revisit this issue in fiscal year 2028 once that issue has been settled. Since identified budget pressures exceeded revenue growth, to offset a portion of these increased costs, staff had to identify several general fund budget balancing measures. These balancing measures include the strategic use, these are the first two lines on there, of the law enforcement trust fund revenues that we received from BSO earlier this year or late in the fall last year. If you recall, we did receive a check from BSO about $2.8 million. This is from seized property as a result of their law enforcement activities. This money goes into the law enforcement trust fund and can only be used for specified activities. So staff reviewed existing expenditures and identified costs within the school resource officer program that are eligible for LETF funding. So by funding those eligible expenditures with LETF revenues instead of the general fund dollars, approximately $1.2 million in general fund resources became available to help address one-time FY2027 costs. So we're doing a funding substitution. We're essentially paying for school resource officers with these funds, which would free up general funds that can be used to pay for one-time costs. We're also recommending the use of LATF revenues to cover the cost of the FY 2026 Public Safety Technology Capital Improvement Project. You guys approved this last year for $900,000. If approved, this would come back as a budget amendment later this year for commission approval. This action would allow those previously budgeted general fund support for that project to be reprogrammed and made available for FY2027 CIP needs. So you appropriated the funds already to the general capital fund. We would do a funding swap, and then those would free up dollars that could be used for FY2027 capital projects. So together, these funding substitutions reduce general fund expenditures by approximately $2.1 million, while ensuring that LETF revenues are used for eligible public safety projects. So even after these allocations, a portion of those LETF revenues that we received this fiscal year would remain available for future eligible uses. Additional balancing measures include savings from renegotiation of the health insurance contract, which is before the commission's consideration later this evening. Reductions in vacant positions, it also includes some position freezes and other operational efficiencies that we found as we were working with departments as we went through their budgets. Additional savings were identified through adjustments to some special events programming across cultural affairs, recreation, and strategic communications. And then there was the election budgeting that you guys spoke about several weeks ago where the supervisor of elections reduced his fee schedule for this year. So we were able to realize some savings as a result of that action. So together these actions reduce expenditure growth and help maintain a balanced budget while minimizing impact on service deliveries. We'll talk about tax rates for a few minutes. So as shown on this slide, preliminary taxable value estimates indicate continued growth within the city, albeit at a slower rate than in recent years. Current projections show taxable values increasing by approximately $1.5 billion, or 6.5% compared to the prior year. Growth in taxable values continues to be supported by new construction and redevelopment activity within the city. So in this chart, the blue bar represents the taxable value, the net taxable, the total taxable value of city properties, and the orange line represents the new construction. So you can see in this line the fluctuations with new construction year over year. Based on the current projections, staff is recommending no change to the general operating millage rate of 5.2181 mills this year. The EMS millage rate is also recommended to remain unchanged at 0.5 mills. Because of the growth in taxable values, debt service millage rates for the city's voter approved general obligation bonds are projected to decline by about 6%. And as a result, the citywide aggregate millage rate would decrease from 6.1608 mills to 61335 mills, or around a net change of minus 0.0273 mills. This chart shows the historical operating millage rate and the aggregate millage rate over time, beginning in fiscal year 2020. You can see we've been pretty stable with the aggregate millage rate, with the exception of 2021 to 2022, when there was a jump to account for the GeoBond series 2021 voted debt millage rate that was added to the tax bill that year. Since then, the aggregate millage rate has been declining year over year, and for the past several years, the commission has voted to decrease the operating millage rate. We also reviewed millage rates throughout Broward County. So what this slide shows are the 2026 rates. So Pompano Beach would continue to rank among the lower tax municipalities within the county. The two green bars there show the FY2026 adopted rate and then the proposed FY2027 rates. The 2027 rate is slightly lower than the 2026 one. The proposed aggregate millage rate ranks 14th lowest among the 31 municipalities within the county. When looking at the operating and EMS rates together, the city ranks the 12th lowest among the 31 municipalities in Broward County. These comparisons are just provided to give you guys some informational context and to place the city's tax structure within the broader Broward County context. As other cities, I do want to note, as other cities consider their respective FY 2027 budgets, these rankings might change. We'll talk about the fire assessment fee for a few moments. So staff is recommending an adjustment to the fire assessment fee for FY 2027. The recommended residential assessment would increase from $361 to $391 annually, an increase of $30 per residential unit. Commercial, industrial, and institutional rates would also increase proportionately. So one of the primary reasons for this increase is the growth in fire service costs, including compensation costs associated with the collective bargaining agreement that was approved recently by the commission. The proposed assessment is projected to generate approximately $34.8 million in net revenue after statutory discounts for an increase of $2.5 million. And we're recommending this increase both to address fire service costs that are going up, as well as to continue progress toward the city's longstanding cost recovery policy for the fire assessment fee. This slide illustrates the relationship between the fire assessment fee revenues and total eligible fire costs over time starting with fiscal 2020. The blue bar represents total eligible fire expenditures. The yellow bar represents net revenues associated with the fire assessment fee. And the black line at the top represents the coverage ratio of fire assessment fees to total expenditures. The city has historically maintained a policy of recovering approximately 90% of eligible fire costs through fire assessment fee revenues, with the remaining costs supported by other general fund revenues. Over the last several years, the coverage ratio gradually declined as fire service costs increased faster than assessment revenues. So as the coverage ratio declined, a larger share of fire service costs was shifted from the fire assessment fee revenues to other general fund revenues. And during the FY2026 budget process, the commission supported beginning the process of restoring that coverage ratio toward the historical 90% goal. The FY2026 adopted budget thus increased the coverage ratio to approximately 81%. Because of cost increases and maintaining this ratio, the fiscal 27 recommendation would further increase that coverage ratio slightly from 81% to 82%. And it's important to note that the recommendation is in a new policy direction. It just represents a continuation of the commission's previously established objective of moving us toward that 90% cost recovery rate. So while the recommendation doesn't fully restore the 90% target, as was the case in 2023 and prior, it does continue incremental progress while balancing affordability considerations for residents and businesses. So what we're trying to do is at least keep up with what we did with the rising costs of fire increases, fire costs year over year, and then continue to make progress toward that 90% goal. So without the proposed increase, the coverage ratio would decline further, and a greater share of fire service costs would need to be subsidized by other general fund revenues. This slide will show you a comparison of residential fire assessment fee, our residential fire assessment fee with the fees currently charged by Broward County municipalities. Just to note that these are FY2026 rates. The proposed FY2027 rate of $391 per residential unit is within the range of rates charged by neighboring jurisdictions. And as municipalities go through their budget process this year, it's likely you'll see these rankings will change as municipalities are still facing the same pressures that Pompano Beach is. of rising costs for fire services and having to figure out how to maintain those services at the appropriate level. And we can report back later on in the budget process where those cities wind up. Finally, we'll touch on the proposed property tax constitutional amendment. So this slide provides some information related to the proposed property tax reform constitutional amendment. At this time, the proposal has not been approved by voters and no changes have taken effect for 2026 or 2027. The proposed constitutional amendment would increase the homestead exemption to $150,000 as of January 1, 2027, and $250,000 as of January 1, 2028. It would also require annual inflation adjustments to the expanded homestead exemption. In addition, the amendment directs the legislature to establish a schedule for the eventual elimination of homestead property taxes. The proposal would also reduce non-homestead assessment cap from the current rate of 10% to 5%, beginning as of January 1, 2027. So if approved by voters in November, the amendment would become effective January 1, 2027, which would impact then the FY 2028 budget. So for the FY 2027 budget, we use the assessed value as of January 1, 2026 that the property appraiser is currently going through the process of developing for us. So this would affect beginning fiscal year 2028. This slide illustrates the estimated fiscal impacts of the proposed property tax reforms using current taxable values and current millage rates. The estimates shown are based on the 2025 tax roll and are intended to provide just an order of magnitude understanding of the potential impacts. The increase in the homestead exemption to $150,000 is estimated to reduce the annual city revenues by approximately 10.9 million. This is just for the first year. If the exemption increases to $250,000 in the second year of implementation, the estimated annual tax revenue reduction increases to a little less than $18 million, $17.8 million. And then full elimination of the homestead property taxes would result in an estimated annual revenue reduction of almost $30 million. In addition, reducing the non-homestead assessment cap from 10% to 5% is estimated to reduce annual revenues by approximately $2.9 million. So this would be on top of the homestead tax reduction. So these estimates don't include future growth in taxable values and therefore likely understate the long term fiscal impact associated with this amendment from both a new development standpoint as well as increased values of homesteaded properties. But a revenue loss of this magnitude, just note, would require significant policy discussions regarding service levels, staffing, capital investments, and alternative revenue sources. So given the uncertainty surrounding the property tax reform, staff believes it's prudent to begin planning now. As outlined in the city manager's memorandum that you received last week, the goal is to preserve essential services and maintain financial stability. The city manager's already implemented precautionary measures beginning with this fiscal year, fiscal 26, including a smart hiring freeze, enhanced review of procurement and contractual commitments, careful expenditure management and ongoing evaluation of operational priorities. These actions are intended to just preserve flexibility and not expected to affect current frontline service levels at this time. City managers also established a budget review task force to evaluate operations, expenditures, staffing levels, service delivery, organizational structure, and revenue opportunities. The task force will develop recommendations for fiscal improvements, including a comprehensive five year fiscal plan. The work plan will be presented to the commission later this year, and project updates will be provided regularly to the commission. It's important to recognize that the potential revenue losses associated with this property tax reform may exceed what can reasonably be achieved through administrative efficiencies alone. For that reason, staff believes it's important to begin evaluating both expenditure strategies and revenue alternatives now. Ultimately, these efforts are about preparedness. By beginning the work, the city will be in a stronger position to respond to future challenges while continuing to provide high quality services to the residents as the city manager laid out in his memorandum. So I want to go over this slide briefly. As part of our broader planning efforts, we're working to identify some discretionary expenditures that could be reviewed in future years if significant revenue reductions occur. This slide does provide examples of those programs and events that may be evaluated as part of that process. No action is being requested from the city commission at this time. At this moment, these programs are funded within the FY 2027 budget. The purpose of the slide is just to illustrate the types of discretionary expenditures that we've been asked about that exist within the budget that could be considered if future financial conditions require additional reductions. As discussed on the previous slide, the projected impacts of property tax reform may require the city to evaluate expenditure reductions and alternative revenue sources. And at this stage, our objective is to identify what those available options are and understand the potential fiscal impacts associated with them. Ultimately, decisions regarding funding of these programs, events, and service levels would remain decisions of the city commission, and we would bring back options for your consideration. So in summary, we've developed a preliminary fiscal 27 plan that addresses current operating needs while maintaining the current operating millage rate. The budget continues to face cost pressures as we discussed, particularly with regard to public safety, personnel and capital support. And we're also monitoring the impacts associated with the proposed property tax reform amendment. So this concludes my presentation and we're available to answer any questions you may have.

Very good, thank you for that. Do we have any questions from the commission? Questions, concerns, comments? Anybody? Vice Mayor.

So I think we'll all get into this in our sessions this week. It feels a little bit on the verge of doomsday. We're not there, but we are having to prepare for that. And the last slide on the discretionary programs and events, it hit me when I looked at this. maybe each one of us going into our budget meetings could make a list of not just events because this seems very focused on community events but of both opportunities and things that both revenue opportunities and things they might be able to compromise on this year to get us through budget season because I just anticipate this being a challenge I have a long list of things that I would do like i would say we need to eliminate all consultant contracts right now and if we need if we find that we need them because we're missing some service that we need then we can add them back as necessary but i think it's time to kind of clean house on all of this and this is the time to do it so that we are very prepared going into the next year if if this ballot initiative passes which i fully expect it will So thank you for your work, and thank you to everyone in the city. I know this is a very challenging time for this, but it's also an opportunity. So thank you.

Thank you. Very good. Further commission? Commissioner Fessick.

Thank you. Just a quick recap on this. If I remember correctly, we raised the fire assessment fee last year, correct?

Correct. You raised it $30 last year. It went from $331 to $361 per residential unit.

Okay, so we're asking for another $30 this year.

Correct.

Okay. I want to just kind of, again, we'll have meetings, but I'd like to see more about the task force and such that was set up. I'd like to see more of a workshop, if at all possible, or some sort of open conversation, because I think I would agree with the Vice Mayor that there is this opportunity right now for us to really look at where discretionary spending could be cut or could be modified and and I'd like to make sure that all of us up here have input into what the task force or what is being shaped before it comes to us for a yes or a no, because we are on a timeline. And I know that it's very difficult for you to do work down one avenue if it doesn't align with something that one of the six of us would say would be important to our residents. So I would like to see if there's any way, Mr. Harrison, is there any plan for us to have, aside from just the one-on-one, any sort of... budget workshop or conversation that we can have publicly so that after we get to this point before we get to the next point we can have those conversations yes ma'am there was a budget workshop that Josh went over in addition to the one-on-ones right but a lot of these are presentations and not actual conversations and I and I appreciate the hard work that comes into it but I feel like if you're gonna continue moving forward now that we start getting actual numbers from from the, you know, from the, from the county and from fire departments. It's just, we, now's the time to really figure out what are top priorities for all of us collectively. And I know that some of that can be done in one-on-one meetings, but I also feel like it's also a time for the public to have the opportunity to come to us and, and say the same, say, you know, have their say. Um, the last, that last slide really got me to, um, you add it all up. It's what, like, what, less than a one and a half million? And collectively, I know that we can probably trim some fat in a lot of other ways without having to give up something that people truly enjoy that end up being revenue generators for our city. For example, like even just talking about Jazz Fest, if we had the fifth year, we can look at other opportunities there to have sponsorships or additional sponsorships. We can have other opportunities to bring business to the city And I think that the elimination of that isn't $325,000. That's also something that our businesses in that area are counting on, that sort of revenue generation for their own businesses, for our tourism department, for just something for us to do. So quality of life here seems to be suffering more than any other industry. arena if you will so elimination of holiday lights drone show you know celebration for july 4th yuletide means these things are like we could probably trim the fat elsewhere and it's not going to have to affect quality of life for the residents thank you all right further commission discussion yes mr perkins can you expound a little bit more on the uh the non-profit partnership program

Sure, so this is a $300,000 program. It's for nonprofit organizations to apply for every year. The city makes awards on an annual basis. These usually come back for commission consideration later in the summer. So this $300,000 pot of funds that we use to provide assistance to nonprofit organizations. There's a $71,000 administrative cost associated with that. We do have an outside group that manages the application process, the review process, and the implementation process of this. that can't be done in-house. So the total cost of the program is 371, 300 for the program itself, and 71,000 for administrative costs.

Right. So how much would we basically say that we can do this in-house?

To get rid of the administrative costs, it would be $71,000. $71,000.

Can you elaborate a little bit on the grant in aid program?

Sure. So there are a number of other organizations that the city supports directly through grants and aid. Those include the Historical Society receives funds from the city. Tiger Trail receives funds from the city through that pot of funds. There's a BSO summer camp program that receives funding from that. And there's also a summer youth employment program that's administered by our human resources department that receives funds from the grants and aid pot. right so in the uh in the budget there is a breakdown of everything here on this list that you want to eliminate so this isn't to just to be clear we're not recommending eliminating these things these are just examples of things that could be eliminated that are you know non-core programs um and events we've been asked about his staff and so we wanted to at least provide some examples of those because we've been asked about them um so these are some are specific line items in the budget so all the grants and aid programs those are four discrete line items in the non-departmental account budget the um the funding for the non-profit partnership program is also a discrete line item in the budget and i believe the rest of them are as well yeah is it possible to get us a list uh the commissioners a list of all of the consultants i know there's a breakdown in the budget but just a separate um

a separate sheet just to give us the breakdown of all consultants in the entire city and the cost.

Yes.

That's it. Thank you.

Okay. Vice Mayor.

Thank you. So going into the one-on-ones, I guess, hearing from you that you've been asked for a list like this of discretionary programs that could be eliminated, I know I've said it, but I guess I'll say it again. I'm looking for a list of opportunities of belt-tightening measures department by department. So I'd like to see what 5% or 10% elimination by department looks like. going into the one-on-ones and certainly by the budget workshop on July 20th. So if we're going to be shown things we can cut, programs we can cut and services that could be cut that residents value, we better have lists of revenue opportunities our golf course, for example, I think we're leaving a lot on the table there, and cost-saving measures by department. And I don't see any of that in here. I don't see any slides that, I mean, on the prior slide it mentioned there's a task force that's going to think about these, but there's no explicit slides on those details.

So at this point, no recommendations for these reductions are needed to balance the fiscal year 2027 budget. These are for future conversations that would happen as we're developing fiscal 28, should the property tax amendment

Totally understand.

This is more of a hypothetical slide that I wanted to put forward because we've been asked some of these questions. Totally understand there's a holistic conversation that you're getting at that needs to take place regarding all costs as well as revenues. We just wanted to provide some specific examples based on some questions that we've gotten.

Okay, so in response to that, I actually think it's even more important to have the other slides. I agree we're not cutting these this year, but if this is the slide about how the mindset that we have going into fiscal year 2028, if the initiative passes, I think we're already starting off in the wrong mindset, basically. This should be the last slide. The first slide should be... all the things we're going to do to cut costs in the city all the contracts we don't need all the revenue opportunities are missing this could be one of the slides but if you're thinking holistically about that this is only a part of it and this is the last part of it i want to be looking at i want to be looking at the ways to tighten our belts and departmental budgets that are 10 less things like that

I hear what you're saying. I think that's the main goal of kind of the budget review task force that's being put together to develop the work plan to kind of decide what gets looked at, the process to look at these, and to bring those items back for commission discussion and consideration.

I also think it's probably time for this board, and we can talk about it at our commission meeting, to reinstitute the budget review committee. We need that more than anything right now with another perspective. TO KIND OF WORK WITH THIS TASK FORCE BECAUSE THE TASK FORCE THAT HAS BEEN CREATED IS ALL CITY PEOPLE, WHICH I UNDERSTAND. YOU ALL WORK THERE AND THAT'S YOUR JOB, BUT I THINK THERE NEEDS TO BE A BALANCE TO THAT OF WHAT RESIDENTS AND OTHER PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN THE CITY AND HAVE THEIR VIEWS OF MAYBE HOW WE SHOULD CUT. SO I THINK LIKE OTHER CITIES, WE NEED TO REINSTITUTE THAT MORE THAN EVER RIGHT NOW. THANK YOU.

VERY GOOD. FOR THE DISCUSSION FROM THE COMMISSION. SEEING NONE, ANY INPUT FROM THE PUBLIC ON THIS ITEM? QUESTIONS, CONCERNS, COMMENTS? SEEING NONE, PUBLIC INPUT CLOSED. THANK YOU. THANK YOU, MR. HARRISON, FOR PUTTING ALL THIS TOGETHER AND APPRECIATE THE TASK FORCE TO LOOK INTO VARIOUS OPPORTUNITIES AND METHODOLOGIES GOING FORWARD. I UNDERSTAND WE'RE NOT FACING THE BULLET, SO TO SPEAK, YET. It kind of depends upon what happens at the ballot box in November, but we need to be prepared, and that's what this is about, to look at all of our options, figuring out ways that we can still run this city and provide the services that our residents expect and want while reducing the tax from the residents if that happens. So thank you very much for that. Nothing further? This meeting is adjourned.

Thank you. Thank you.

Meeting to order June 23rd, 2026 at 6 p.m. If I could ask everyone to please silence your cell phones or put them on vibrate during the meeting, that would be great so we don't get disrupted by somebody getting a telephone call. So please silence those cell phones or put them on vibrate. That would be great. Thank you. Mr. Alford, let's go ahead and call the roll.

Commissioner Fezzik.

Here.

Commissioner Perkins.

Here.

Commissioner Sigurdsson-Eaton.

Here.

Commissioner Smith?

Here.

Vice Mayor Poitier?

Here.

Mayor Hardin?

Here, thank you. Our invocation this evening will be given by Pastor Byron Shortinghouse from the Church of Nazarene, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. If we can all please rise for the invocation followed by the pledge.

Mayor, Council Members. Father God, we come before you this evening with gratitude in our hearts, gratitude that we live in a community where we can feel like we belong and there's a place for each of us. We thank you that we live in a country that will soon be celebrating a 250th anniversary of our beginning. We pray, oh God, that although we don't have that much of a heritage in this community, but the reality that there are so many things that pull us together to help us to become one And so we ask, O God, that as you meet with us tonight, that your blessing would be upon each one who will participate, our council members and the community at large. We pray that your blessings would be upon each one as we endeavor to serve you in the best way that we can do so, by the grace of God. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

Amen. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.

All right. All right. Can I get a motion approving the regular city commission meeting minutes of June the 9th, 2026? So moved.

Second.

Moved and seconded. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? Motion carries unanimous. Thank you. On our agenda this evening, are there any changes to the agenda, Mr. Harrison?

No, sir.

Great. Can I get a motion approving the agenda as printed?

So moved. Second.

Moved and seconded. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? Motion carries unanimous. Thank you. On our consent agenda this evening, we will be pulling items number three and four for individual discussion. So three and four are pulled. So items one, two, and five are eligible for discussion during audience to be heard. All right. Okay, that takes us up to our first special presentation, the 2026 Nick Criolla Heroes in the Community Awards. The Parks and Rec Advisory Board will present the 2026 Nick Criolla Heroes in the Community Award to Tim Bentley. I believe Scott Moore is going to head it off over here, over on the side. Here, let me tee it up real quick. I didn't realize we've got Rafi Katz here with us, the chairman of the Parks and Rec Advisory Committee. He's going to tee it up for us, and Scott's going to be in the background.

Mr. Mayor, thank you. Ms. Vice Mayor, Commission, good evening. I am not the chairperson of the Parks and Rec. He was unavoidably detained today, so I was asked to speak and to present this award. The Nick Criolla Heroes in the Community Award recognizes individuals who embody the values that made Nick Criolla a respected member of our community. Dedication, service, leadership, and a commitment to helping others. This year's recipient exemplifies all of those qualities. For many years, Tim Bentley has generously volunteered his time coaching and mentoring young athletes throughout our parks and recreation programs. He's coached multiple sports across a wide range of age groups, demonstrating not only his versatility, but also his unwavering commitment to the young people of our community. Anyone can show up when it's convenient. What sets people different or who truly make a difference are the ones who keep showing up year after year, investing in kids, teaching teamwork, building confidence, and helping young people grow. Those are the people that we strive to recognize through this award. Tim's impact, or I'm sorry, this year's award was actually easy, because Tim's impact reaches far beyond wins and losses. Through his leadership, encouragement, and example, he has helped to shape the lives of countless young athletes and made a lasting difference in our community. On behalf of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and the City of Pompano Beach, it's my pleasure to present the 2026 Nick Criolla Heroes in the Community Award to Mr. Tim Bentley.

All right.

So I'm at the field a lot. I have young kids, and I will tell you, I don't think I've ever been out there and not seen Tim out there. I feel like he lives at our park. So thank you for all you do for all of the kids. Your impact really is immeasurable, and you are very worthy of this honor. Thank you so much.

Tim says no, he didn't want to say anything, but let's give him a big round of applause again for all he does for the kids. Congratulations, Tim.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate all you do.

All right.

All right, next up we have the 2026 Broward Sheriff's Office Annual Award recipients. So let's see. I believe I'm going to be joined up here by our major eventually. Good evening. Tonight, we have the privilege of recognizing several members and units of the Broward Sheriff's Office Pompano Beach District for their outstanding service to the citizens of Pompano Beach. These awards represent more than professional achievement. They reflect a commitment to protecting our neighborhoods, responding when our residents need help most, solving crimes, embracing innovation, and making our community a safer place to live, work, and visit. Whether through lifesaving actions, exceptional investigative work, proactive patrol efforts, or the successes of our real-time crime center, these award recipients have made a meaningful difference in the lives of the people we serve every day. On behalf of the City Commission and the citizens of Pompano Beach, I want to thank these dedicated public servants for their hard work, professionalism, and unwavering commitment to our community. It's my honor to recognize the 2026 Broward Sheriff's Office annual award recipients. Here they come. For the life-saving award, we've got eight recipients. We've got a couple who are in attendance. I'm going to go ahead and read them all, but come on down if you're here, please. Deputy Felipe Camacho, Deputy Javier Rodriguez, Detective Shane Crump, Detective Leonardo Montalvo, Deputy Joseph Reynolds, Detective Jose Machado, Deputy Alexandros Souflias, Deputy Wyatt Genesee, thank you so much for life-saving awards and appreciate all you guys do. Thank you, let's give them a big round. All right, moving on, we've got the Grand Cordon Unit Achievement Award. This is for the Real-Time Crime Center. represented by Sergeant Chris Williams, who is here in attendance, I believe. Sergeant Williams, here we go. Give him a big round of applause. Thank you. I've got to say, you guys should really start a TV program about that real-time crime center. It is so cool. Seriously, I'm sure that the residents would love to see it also. All right, Grand Cordon Unit Achievement Award, Area 2, Criminal Investigations Unit, represented by Sergeant Jason Hendrick, who's here with us tonight.

Thank you, appreciate you.

The unit of the year, the Pompano Beach Patrol K-9 unit, represented by Deputy Joe Reynolds, who's here with us. Joe, is Joe here? Oh, sorry, I'm not here already, yes.

Thank you, sorry about that.

All right, and finally, this is the deputy of the year, and this is for the entire BSO agency, Deputy Daniel Cutlass, who is here with us tonight. Deputy Cutlass, come on down.

Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

So these are the men and women who serve us every day, protect us, keep us safe. And they've been recognized for their outstanding achievements here in the city of Pompano Beach. But as you heard, it's not just recognition from the city of Pompano Beach. It's also throughout the entire PSO agency. We're part of a large family there. And we've gotten a lot of recognition. We have a lot of great people who serve us. So thank you. Thank you once again. Let's give them all a big round of applause. Thank you. Just a couple of words? Yes, sir. Go ahead, Major.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, first of all, I just want to say thank you for having this time to recognize our deputies and our detectives, sergeants. We don't do this job for recognition, but they did receive these awards for the entire year of 2025. The awards were this year, just about a month or so ago. And the mayor said, if you wanted to speak about them, each one is a story, especially the life saving. a strenuous committee that goes through these stories, and it's not just showing up and getting fire rescue to transport them. They literally are saving people's lives to get the life-saving award. And also, I just want to say, all the awards are very, very important, but to get Deputy of the Year for our Pompano deputy for the entire agency, that's a heck of an achievement. So another round of applause for that. Thank you. I also want to thank our Lieutenant Colonel for being here to be a part of this award ceremony, and thank everybody here for your applause and your appreciation. Thank you.

All right. Very good. All right. Photo op. We're going to have to tighten up, folks. I'm sure we're going to have to tighten up. All right.

We've got to turn in, guys. We've got to turn in.

Turn in. How tight? come this way the middle

Come this way, you're the seal. You gotta get us in the middle.

Wait, why are you putting the lady on the end? She should be in the middle.

Captain Martin. Martin, in the middle.

We want you in the middle, you're the lady.

Ready, one, two, three.

Ladies first, ladies first.

All right. all right let's see that takes us up to our proclamation today we've got the boys and girls club week of june 22nd through june 27th 2026. let's see do we have miss laonka woods here the club director for boys and girls yeah come on down club director yes club director for the boys and girls club of bower county how are you very good thank you for being here thank you for what you all do Whereas the young people are tomorrow's leaders, and their development is vital to the continued prosperity and well-being of our community, and whereas many young people require professional youth services to assist them in reaching their full potential as productive, caring, and responsible citizens, And whereas, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Broward County have been a beacon of hope and opportunity for young people for more than 60 years since their founding in 1965, providing a safe and supportive environment where youth can thrive. And whereas, since 1975, the Thomas D. Stephanus Club has proudly served the Pompano Beach community. helping the Boys and Girls Clubs of Broward County continue providing services to an average of 12,000 young people aged 6 through 18 annually. And whereas, Boys and Girls Clubs are places where great futures begin, building a formula for impact through core efforts in academic success, character, and workforce readiness. And whereas, the Boys and Girls Clubs' outstanding results demonstrate the impact of these efforts, with 97% of club members graduating from high school, 92% expected to graduate on time, and 88% pursuing higher education opportunities. That is remarkable. Thank you. Whereas, Boys and Girls Club organizations throughout Florida help ensure that youth have a safe and supportive space to learn, grow, and belong, offering life enhancing programs that build skills and character while fostering meaningful relationships with caring adult professionals. And whereas, Boys and Girls Clubs of America continues to champion the message that America needs club kids, recognizing that tomorrow's leaders innovators, and community changemakers are being developed today through the support, mentorship, and opportunities provided by Boys and Girls Clubs nationwide. And whereas during National Boys and Girls Club Week of 2026, Boys and Girls Clubs of Broward County will join more than 5,400 clubs and millions of young people nationwide in celebrating the positive impact clubs have on youth, families, and communities across America. Now, therefore, I, Rex Harden, Mayor of the City of Pompano Beach, on behalf of the entire City Commission, do hereby proclaim the week of June 22nd through June 26th, 2026, as Boys and Girls Clubs Week in the City of Pompano Beach, and encourage all citizens to join in recognizing and commending the Boys and Girls Clubs of Broward County and Boys and Girls Club organizations throughout Florida for providing comprehensive, effective services that empower young people and strengthen our communities. Done this 23rd day of June, 2026. Rex Harden, Mayor, thank you so much for what you do for all of the kids across this country, but especially in Pompano Beach. Thank you so much.

Appreciate it. Care to say a couple of words?

Well, on behalf of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Broward County and the Thomas D. Stefano slash Hare Hoser campus here in this great city of Pompano, I want to thank our municipalities for all their continued support. And I would invite you all out to come and check out some of the good things that we're doing here at the Boys and Girls Club in the city of Pompano. With that being said, you all have a great day.

All right. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Very good. Thank you. Thank you so much. Appreciate all you do for our community. One second. All right. Just found out that item number nine, which is our health insurance, we've got the Aetna folks with us here tonight. They've got some time constraints. So with commission approval, I'd like to go ahead and move up item number nine so we can take it. Let's see. We'll take it first. First on the agenda before we do the consent. How's that? Any problems from the commission? Okay, we'll wait just a minute. We'll go ahead and do audience to be heard. They'll be first before the consent. All right, so that takes us up to audience to be heard. Do we have anyone signed up, Mr. Alfred?

Yes, we do, Mayor. We have nine speakers.

Okay.

Bear with me. First speaker, Shelley Moore, followed by David Miller, followed by McCrease Smith.

Very good. Please come forward. Just give your name and address for the record and limit your comments to three minutes.

Shiley Moore, my address, 5214 Northeast 19th Terrace. Good evening. I've been a resident of Pompano Beach for 34 years. I've lived in the same house majority of my life. The speeding through the neighborhood is very dangerous and has increased with the Walmart being relocated to the area. Riding through Highlands, this is one of the very few streets without speed bumps. Many times you can hear cars at 48th Street revving their engines up to speed to 15th Street in broad daylight. There are elderly people and a significant amount of children that use the street as a way to school, recreation, and leisure. Please consider putting a speed bump for the community's safety.

Very good.

Thank you.

I could just ask you, let's see, we've got John Seropoulos is here. Yes, there's John. He's out there over on the staff side over there. If you could just go talk with him about that, we'd appreciate that. Thank you so much.

Mayor? Yeah?

Commissioner Seegers-Eaton.

Thank you. I just, you know, just for everyone's information, there's a process that we need to go through. We have, as a city, just cannot just put a speed bump in upon request. There's a process that we go through with Broward County traffic engineers. So happy to do a speed study. And I'm sure Mr. Sirfaflis is going to be scheduling one as we speak. I will say, however, I have a number of speed studies in the queue. There is a long list. And then once it goes through the process and the numbers are analyzed, if it gets approved, then there's another list for the amount of time it takes public works to get the actual speed table installed. So if you feel like you have speeding on your streets, contact me or contact the city and we'll be glad to do a speed study anytime. All right, thank you, Mayor.

Very good, thank you. Next speaker.

David Miller.

I'm tired of speed bumps. But good evening. David Miller, Pompano District 5. So I just came up to say hello. And it's been a minute since I've been here. Thank you for attending my events, if you happen to make it to any of them. We had a birthday party for the country and for the Sam McDowell House last weekend. And I also had a Juneteenth event myself that was last Thursday. If you had noted or not, it's Men's Mental Health Month. So I did an exercise dealing with what happens when you have your hands free, freed hands. And that was a very interesting conversation. That's my exhibit of artwork there as well. You missed the reception, so it's $15. Go see that now. Looking forward, in November, I'll be doing another function, an exhibit honoring Native Americans in the month of November. And that's what I want to do, spread the culture. I'm unfortunately not enough to make this list but we still have things going on in the city of pompano that's not you don't have to spend y'all money city dollars on it um i have a couple of more seconds so i just wanted to say moving around from my other favorite cities deer field and louder hill um i found that people are enjoying what we do in pompano with our programming so good job for the cultural affairs department and a suggestion, maybe even some advice from your cultural arts ambassador, I would say that if you're seeking counsel for the manager or anybody, men to talk to. Honor these names. Listen to these people. I think you should. Men by the name of Tom, any kind of, just Tom, a person from Pompano, David, of course. These names are significant. I'm going to tell you that my cultural studies and my history in this city has gave me the right to actually say that. So any Dave, any Tom, any Willie, any Yeah, District 4, you know plenty of Willies. We got Cameron, Ponder, Brown, Reed, Jones, Danny David. But these names are significant. I'll even throw in a Mike here and there, Michael. Why not Michael? But Davids and Toms. So when you get closer to August and you already speak to these individuals in your city, trust me, you're going to get some good advice. You're going to listen to some of the best ideas you could come up with out of these names and I'll be in one of them. Thank you.

Very good. Thank you. Next speaker.

Mark Rees-Smith, followed by Mike Serversky, followed by Adam Abutina.

Good afternoon. Marquee Smith, 611 Northwest 2nd Terrace. I'm coming up today. It's been a long time coming and I can't commend the city and the individuals that was working with me in that particular area. Well, we still have a lot of work to do. That particular area, I own the rental property in front of the new building that was just new construction. When they did the construction, they moved the debris on the side of the alleyway what the city owns. So I reached out to the city in code. They did clean the area up, but the mountain hill is still there. They haven't smoothed it out or evened it out, as well as in the dead-end entryway, all the debris is still there. Now, I am going to commend them because it looks a lot better than what it was looking before because I had to complain. But, however, we still have a long way to go as far as it should be a standard across the board, and I just feel like it needs to be a little bit more improvement with the cleanup I did explain to them in that particular area, it's a high prostitution there, and they use that alleyway to make their transactions. Now, I'm going to commend the BSO officers. It has gotten a lot better, but I suggested that if they were to use a fencing the alleyway to block them from you know using the alleyway that would probably cease the problem or alleviate a lot they did post signs up so I am greatly appreciated and it's not bashing anyone but I just wanted to put it on notice so everyone knows you know the conditions of what's going on in that area I mean do you know an address of where you're talking OK, my property is 611 Northwest 2nd Terrace. When you make the right, it's a dead end entryway there. It's a dead end zone. On the side, it's an alleyway. And directly in front of me is the new construction. So when they was building a new construction, the leftover debris, they pushed over to the city side. So now it's a mountain there that's creating weeds, and it just does not look appealing. So what I'm asking them to do is to smooth it out. Either they're going to make the person, the owner smooth out, because that's who did it. Either smooth it out, or the city can smooth it out, and eventually we can work on trying to block that in. I know it's the process, but I'm just making a suggestion. I mean, the officers can only do so much. So if the city was to team up and just try to make some type of blockage there to keep them from using that alleyway, that will alleviate a lot of the problem. And then the office can use their resources someplace else. Then my tenant keep calling them out when she feels, you know, unsafe.

Gotcha. Thank you. Thank you for the address. That way we can have some place to target. Yes. Thank you. Appreciate that.

Again, I want to thank everybody who was in participation of it.

Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker.

Hi, Mike Skawerski, 1630 Southwest Fifth Avenue. All right. This is a first. I'm actually going to say thank you to you for sticking up for me at the last meeting. I got like five texts telling me Hardin stuck up for you. Then I had somebody stop me in the store and said, how come she didn't stick up for you? I said, she wasn't around then. You can't blame her for that. She wouldn't know. So anyway, thanks for doing that. But I'm used to not getting credit for anything, so it doesn't matter. And also at the other meeting, I saw the thing on the microloans. The biggest problem was qualification. I remember that. And there was probably a lot of failures on that, if I recall. Qualification, I used to teach the mortgage brokers, is the most important thing. If you don't qualify properly, you've just screwed everything else up. they didn't listen anyway. So you need somebody that qualifies. It truly knows what they're doing on how to qualify people. Now, the last thing I went to a show on Sunday. Yes, I went to this show. It's called the color purple. Okay. Now for everybody watching on TV, 50 West Atlantic Boulevard, is directly across the street from the Orient gas station or next to City Hall, where there is a library. And inside the library is an auditorium that fits about 300 people. Now, this show goes for about two hours and 30 minutes. You're going to have a 15-minute break. It's still going until July 3, almost every single night. I think tonight's off and the next night is off, and then after that. It's several nights in a row. You have tremendous actors and actresses that are not getting underpaid. I may as well say they're not getting paid at all. That's how good they are. They deserve at least $10,000 a night for how good these people are. It's a terrific musical. I suggest everybody please go see the show and support actors and actresses like this. They're all terrific singers. You name it. I liked it. My friend who I was with, she loved it. Everybody loved it. Almost all the seats were filled in this place. So I'm sure there's still some seats left, and I would suggest if you have not purchased a ticket, I don't know the website, but the easiest thing to do would just type in the color purple slash Pompano Beach and it's going to take you to the site where you can purchase your tickets. So once again, please support this. Great actors, actresses, singers, a great show, and hopefully you'll have a good time.

Thank you, sir. Appreciate that. Yes. All right. Next speaker.

Adam Adbutna, followed by Vicente Dror, followed by David Hall.

Thank you. Adam Mabuta, 200 Northeast 1st Ave. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners. I currently serve on the board of the Islamic Center of South Florida, just five minutes from here. On behalf of our congregation, we just want to express our sincere appreciation for the work that you all do. In serving the Pompano Beach community, we know that public service requires long hours, thoughtful decision-making, and a deep commitment to well-being of every resident. And just briefly, as a faith community rooted in service, compassion, and civic responsibility, we value the leadership you all bring to the city of Pompano Beach. We're proud to be a part of this diverse and vibrant community, and we look forward to continue to contribute positively to the community we all share and call home And just thank you again for your dedication, your accessibility, and your ongoing efforts to make Pompano Beach a welcoming and thriving place for all. Thank you.

Thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you, sir. Okay, next speaker. Mr. Thrower.

Vincente, throughout Pompano Beach. Mayor, you had your budget workshop or your pre-workshop earlier, but I want to go on the record and say a non-starter for us, we're not giving up MLK Day. So they don't even need to even be in the conversation. To every commissioner up there, their manager, MLK Day is off limits. You can cut whatever else you want to cut, but MLK Day, for us, is off limits. Are we on the same page, Mayor?

I hear you.

I mean, are we? Are we on the same page? Absolutely, yeah. Okay, thank you so much. Next, Mayor, as we take pictures and stuff, I gotta be honest with y'all, we spend a lot of money for cameras and TV. Mayor, you get up here and you take pictures and everybody got iPhones. Where are these high-priced cameras and stuff we pay for and equipment and stuff and all that? Do I need to take an audit of what we paying for when we pay for our social media system? Why are you all standing up here taking pictures, and where is our social media network that should be taking your picture? Just now, when you got up, where was our people?

They're probably in that booth back there.

Okay, no, not the booth. Did you see, back in the day, they had little cameras, they . Did you see that? I know you didn't see it. Did anybody get up and take your picture? Everything's on TV now. Did anybody take your picture, Mayor? Did anybody get up and take your picture tonight? Yes. No, no BSO took your picture. Didn't anybody from my staff take your picture? From your staff? No, from your staff. Yes, actually, they did. Who took your picture? Mr. Tran. That's the CRA, man. That's the co-executive director of the CRA. You asked. Hey, Mayor, you see where I'm coming from, right? Okay. Listen, I hope we'll have to have a discussion about if we at some point get to this discussion about outsourcing, I don't want to have to look at the ones that are not really performing. Because if we're spending money, we need to at least see out the results of the money we're spending. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker.

Just want to start off by saying David Miller was right. Listen to people named David. So I watched the budget hearing, the meeting that just preceded this one. And I heard a lot of things about having a committee, having a workshop. Let's be strategic. Let's be forward thinking. Let's do all these things. And then immediately heard things that were none of those. We put our flag in the ground for things that we like, like Jazz Fest, July 4, holiday lights, and all of those things. and some things at the beach generate revenue, which they do, which is fantastic. Then we heard the familiar refrain of cutting out our consultants, one of them, I'm sure, being RMA. Well, we shouldn't forget the fact that we wouldn't have a beach that's worthy of a jazz fest, a July 4th celebration, a drone show, if we didn't have the CRA and RMA who developed all that and brings in 20 to 1 ROI on our dollars from the beach into this city, so it seems that we're stepping over dollars to pick up pennies when we're talking about just carte blanche, going after some stuff we hate, keeping our flag in the ground with some stuff we like. I'm all for trimming fat. I'm all for cutting waste, fraud, and abuse, and I think we should look at all that. We talked about laying off some employees as a way to do it. We have 1,000 or so employees in the city of Pompano Beach. 30% of them are residents. Nothing will help our tax problem, revenue problem, like getting rid of people who live in our city when we're already gonna have money reduced by the tax cut that's gonna come when we all vote for that. If you're talking about firing our employees, which I've heard, and replacing them with AI, how are people gonna make their mortgage? How are people gonna make their rent when we're letting people go who work for this city? It was said at that meeting before, reducing people. And it was also said at a previous meeting. I think you said you don't want to do anything on the backs of the residents, which is fantastic. I applaud that. But that has been said about reducing staff and getting rid of people and trimming those folks. So I think if we're going to do that, 30% of those people live in the city of Pompano Beach. And then, of course, some people's favorite punching bag is our city manager, Mr. Harrison, who has Proceeded over tremendous revenue to our city, tremendous growth to our city, and has done a fantastic job, but everyone gets hung up on how much he makes. I've said it numerous times. You take his salary divided by the amount of people that live in this city, and he costs every resident $3.33 a year. Yet he's brought in $100 million worth of bonds into this city. That's great ROI as well. So I'm feeling generous tonight, so I'm going to give... Mr. Harrison, a $20 bill here and cover all of you guys for your fee.

$3.33 times six.

So you guys don't have to worry about paying for him.

Thank you. And the $3.33 he costs every resident of the city for the great ROI. Thank you.

Thank you all very much. No, thank you. I don't need it.

Ladies and gentlemen, please, no applause here. Next speaker.

Next speaker, Shaka McFadden, followed by Delvin King. Shaka McFadden.

Hi, good morning. Shaka McFadden, 2821 Northwest 6th Court. I'm coming here to let you guys know that I'm having a community outreach event day on June 27th from 10 to 3 p.m. at Hunter's Manor Park. And I would love for the commissioners and mayor also to attend the event. It's geared towards the unhoused. I'm offering them resources, feeding them, giving them clothing, We'll have various vendors such as phones, health insurance, mental health, housing for them, someone to assist them in getting into a place to stay, whether it's a transitional house or whether it's some sort of housing. And that's it. Just letting that be heard.

Very good. Thank you for that. Appreciate it. Thank you. Mayor? Appreciate that. Yes, Commissioner Perkins?

Could you get with the lady behind you there, Cassandra Rett, who does a lot of our work with the homeless, and perhaps you all could work together and make it bigger and better. Okay.

I will. Thank you. Very good. All right. Thank you. Next speaker.

Delvin King, 2601 Northwest 12th Street, Pompano. Okay, so I got a couple of things I want to address today. I want to start off by saying the Broward Sheriff Office, they receive awards today. And a lot of them do some great things here in Pompano. And it was to me a slap in the face to see that they didn't get a certificate, They didn't get a bag of chips. They didn't get a little sticker on their shirt to say, job well done. If we're going to recognize everybody else with a certificate, everybody else with a plaque, every officer that came up here today for an award should have walked away with something from the city of Pompano to show that we really appreciate them. JUST LIKE YOU'RE GOING, YOU APPRECIATE THEM SO MUCH, YOU'RE GOING FOR A FOUR-YEAR CONTRACT. BUT WHEN THEY COME UP HERE, WE DON'T WANT TO SHOW THEM THAT WE REALLY APPRECIATE THEM. SO NEXT TIME WE HAVE AN AWARD FOR THE BRAWL SHERIFF, AS A MATTER OF FACT, BEFORE THEN, WE NEED TO GET THEM SOME AWARDS. WE NEED TO GIVE THEM SOMETHING TANGIBLE THAT THEY CAN TAKE BACK HOME TO THEIR FAMILIES TO SAY, THE DAY AT THE CITY OF POMPANO, I GOT THIS AWARD. Not just, oh, they called my name. And then just to piggyback on what Vicente said, I went to the city of Coral Springs meeting. When awards was given, all you heard was, pictures being taken. But here at the city of Pompano, we pull out, Mr. Tran pull out that old, I don't know if that's an android, and trying to take a picture like this. This is embarrassing. that this city, with all this money, pulling out an old iPhone or an old Android to take lifetime memory. These are lifetime memories we're taking. The city of Pompano can't afford one of them Canon cameras. The city of Coral Springs got the nice big one with the light on the top. We can't get that in Pompano. But you know why we can't get it? Because people don't want to come to work. People in those departments want to work from at home. And we got to hold people accountable. We got to step our game. If we talking about new downtown, RMA, all this. RMA couldn't tell y'all to get a camera? Look professional? We finna build a new city hall with a camera, with an iPhone. Come on, a new city hall? Y'all trying to fight for, and we gonna take pictures in a new city hall with a phone camera? We gotta get it together, city of Pompano. Thank you.

Very good.

That concludes audience to be heard, Mayor.

All right, thank you so much for that. That one, then we'll go ahead and take up, what is it, item number nine at this point in time? Yes. Okay, item number nine is the first reading of an ordinance.

An ordinance of the City Commission of the City of Pompano Beach, Florida, approving and authorizing the proper city officials to execute a service contract between the City of Pompano Beach and Aetna Life Insurance Company to provide employee health benefits services, providing for severability, providing an effective date.

So moved. Second.

Moved and second for discussion. Good evening, Ms. Sinego.

Hi, Lisa Sinego, Human Resources Director. Well, I'm excited to state that joining us tonight we have Mark Rodriguez and Shawna Whittingham from Gehring Group. And they are the city's employee benefit consulting team. Mark and Shauna work with public sector employers throughout Florida. They have over, Garing Group has over 100 public sector employers they work with to evaluate health care programs, analyze costs, and support informed benefit decisions. So they work with us throughout the year, but most definitely during these processes when we go out to market. And so Mark is actually going to walk us through a presentation for your consideration. So let me pull that up. And thank you for taking us a little bit earlier.

You need to change the input for the camera. Here we go.

Thank you very much. Good evening. Yes, again, thank you very much for moving us up on the agenda. It's greatly appreciated. So I'm just going to go through a very brief overview of the process that we went through.

Please identify yourself.

Oh, Mark Rodriguez from the Gehring Group. So we went through an RFP process this year to bid out your medical insurance. So we're going to do a quick overview of what that process was about. Talk a little bit about the response that was received once that bid was put out to the market. Then talk a little bit about the evaluation of those proposals that came in. And then finally, we'll end by formally requesting a commission approval to move forward with the evaluation committee's recommendations. So first of all, the RFP process itself, it was a competitive procurement process. So we did work hand in hand with your procurement department, who did release the bid out to the public. We got a pretty good response. Multiple carriers submitted proposals. And there was an evaluation committee formed internally, which consisted of various members of the city staff representing HR, finance, and administration. So that was the committee that evaluated all the proposals that came in. We also were involved in the process as technical advisors. So currently your medical insurance program is a fully insured program with Florida Blue. Florida Blue's proposal reflected a 5% increase in premiums. So there are many other options that we were able to look at as a part of this process. We looked at not only other fully insured programs, but also self-insured programs, which consisted of medical, pharmacy, and stop-loss components that are part of self-funded. Like I said, we got a lot of responses from all the major carriers, various ranges in terms of pricing and the different program approaches. There were multi-year stability options that were made available. And all of the carriers had a strong emphasis on cost management and clinical programs. So some of the criteria that the evaluation committee took into account were, one, the financial position of each proposer, the risk and funding structure of each proposal, plan designs and flexibility within those plan designs, and also network access and the impact that the network would have on your employees. So the proposals were independently evaluated by the committee members and scored. I should also add that all of the proposers that were determined to be finalists did come in and gave in-person presentations as well. So those scores were compiled by the committee and reviewed collectively. Aetna was the insurance carrier that received the highest overall evaluation score. It's a fully insured program that represents a 2.7% decrease from your current rates, which equates to a savings of roughly $371,000 for the year. So instead of the 5% increase in premium you would have had staying with Florida Blue, you're now going to realize a 2.7% savings. So again, there is a savings, so that's something that should be taken into account as far as the cost goes. But another thing I'd like to stress is the network stability that was presented by Aetna. So currently with Florida Blue, unfortunately in the past year or so, you've had two major hospital systems drop out of the network. That would be Broward Health and Memorial Health. With the Aetna proposal, those two hospital networks are actually in their network. So you are basically gaining those two major hospital systems here in Broward County back by going with Aetna. As a result, this will be a lot less disruption to your employees. And the provider match actually is about 99% is what Enda presented. So that means that 99% of all the providers that your members are currently utilizing will be in network, which is basically the highest match that you can possibly have. And the other great thing about the proposal is that it does allow you to maintain a fully insured structure, which is great because in a fully insured structure, the insurance carrier is taking on all the risk. You don't have to take on any risk at all. You basically just pay your premium and you receive your coverage. And you're able to do that, again, at a savings of 2.7%, so a very strong proposal there. And it does also include a rate freeze on the second year renewal. So we already know what those numbers are going to be. So it makes it easy to budget for next year's renewal. We don't expect any surprises in terms of what that renewal is going to look like. So again, some of the considerations that the committee took into account were one, the balance of cost and stability of the program. The risk management approach, again, every insurance carrier did come in and do a presentation where they discussed their approach to managing risk. The employee impact and continuity, again, is great because you have a 99% provider match. And you're also gaining those two major hospital networks that are currently out of your plan. All that being said, the evaluation committee is recommending that you award the medical insurance coverage to Aetna for a fully assured medical program, obviously subject to the commission approval. So once we do receive your approval, we will finalize any agreements that have to be signed off on. And then our team will take over and we will implement the program and do employee education and communication. and be ready in time for implementation on October 1st. That's all. Thank you.

All right. Thank you for that. Appreciate that. All right. This is a public hearing. Is there any input from the public on this item? Please come forward. Seeing none, public input closed. Commission discussion, questions, concerns? Commissioner Fessick.

Thank you. So I want to say thanks for the work on trying to find savings. We don't get to hear those words very often here. So thanks for all the hard work in trying to find that. And I do know that a lot of residents in general have, so I'm sure a lot of the employees, the 30%, as Mr. Hall had said, that are living in Pompano will be happy to know that some of the services will come back for Broward Health and Memorial. I do have a question. It wasn't here. Sorry. What's the difference of the comparison of services and costs?

Yep, so you're basically receiving the exact same plan design that you currently have. Nothing's changing in terms of the benefits of the plan. So that's staying the same. And like I said, we've realized a savings of roughly about $371,000 for the year. So basically, same benefits that you had with a bigger network at a savings.

Okay, so for the average user, they will not see a difference, really.

Excuse me.

So for the average user or family, they'll only see a decrease, but their service will stay the same?

Yes, exactly. Yes.

Thank you.

All right. Vice Mayor.

Thank you. I didn't see anything on the committee in the backup or the other proposals, so there's nothing to compare it to, obviously. this was the plan that was selected and the provider that was selected. Did, is Holy Cross in the network too? I assume so if you have 99% overlap, but I wanted to just.

Yes, they are.

Okay, so we're back to the providers and the networks that we lost with the Florida Blue issues that happened. Exactly. And did, so with the savings, is that just the city or will premiums go down for employees also?

Yeah, so that's the total overall premium savings. We still have to, through the implementation process, work on what is going to be the, yeah.

Family, the- Absolutely, you can please.

Yeah, specific to our plan here in the city, we do some premium share with the family plan. They pay half of the additional cost over a single employee. The city pays for single employee. And then if a family, someone purchases a family premium, they pay half of the difference. from the employee single, am I making sense?

So that structure will remain?

It will decrease their portion that they pay. They don't pay the full family cost. The portion that they pay will decrease. Okay.

And was there any survey done of employees or any outreach done in this process or after it to just make sure that they were happy with the option?

This is the first they're hearing about that at this point in time because it was the cone of silence and things during that, yeah, during the outreach to the market.

So they haven't had the opportunity to kind of look at this and determine what it really means for them and their doctors and their... individual circumstances.

They will over these months. Yeah, they will over these months, yes. But in the oversight of the team that reviewed for the plan, the goal, as Mark had stated, was to keep the same benefits and see what pricing we can get and keep our same networking and making sure that our network has those hospitals and things included. So we're really seeing it as a good win-win. Yeah.

I mean, changing health insurance is disruptive generally. It is. It's a very disruptive thing for, for users of the system and checking on their doctors and all that. Yes. And even just the updating information every time you go to the doctor. So the network over, like the overlap is I think probably the most important. Yes.

And they call that the disruptive rate. And so that was just a win for us with that. Okay. Because yes, the color of people's medical cards will change, but they should be able be going to the same doctors.

And use Holy Cross, Broward Health, Memorial, all of the local health care systems and regional health care. Correct. Okay, thank you. Correct.

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

Commissioner Fezzik? Yes. Commissioner Perkins? Yes. Commissioner Seegerson-Eaton? Yes. Commissioner Smith? Yes. Vice Mayor Fournier? Yes. Mayor Hardin?

Yes. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right, that takes us back to our consent agenda. Can I get a motion approving items one, two, and five?

So moved. Second.

And second. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? Motion carries unanimous. Thank you. That takes us up to item number three as a resolution.

A resolution of the City Commission of the City of Pompano Beach, Florida, approving and authorizing the proper city officials to execute a service contract, which has now been changed to a purchase contract, between the City of Pompano Beach and Century Industries, LLC, to purchase a mobile bandstand stage, providing an effective date. So moved. Second.

Moved and second for discussion. Good evening, Mr. Moore.

Good evening.

This item was pulled by staff, actually. There will be some... Staff wanted to pull this item. Mr. Berman?

I can explain very quickly, unless you want to get into the actual item and what it does. The only reason for the pull was a last-minute adjustment to the title of the contract, which indicated service contract, which is what went on the agenda. It's actually a purchase contract. It's been corrected and amended. That's the only change, and the vendor has agreed to the change. We have that in writing, and we just wanted to bring that to your attention. That's all, Mayor.

Okay. Anything further, Mr. Moore? No. Okay, well, this is a public hearing. Is there any input from the public on this item?

Seeing none, please come forward.

This is item number three. Very good. Any further public input? Seeing none, public input closed. Commission discussion. Vice Mayor.

Thank you. I had also pulled this item because of two things. One, I wanted clarification or to clarify that this isn't, we're not buying a service. We are actually buying a new show mobile, right?

Correct. Scott Moore, Parks and Recreation. You are correct.

And I remember this came up at the last budget hearing or workshop last summer. What is the condition of the old one? Because whenever I see it, it seems okay. I know we're buying this. We need it. But what are we going to do with the old one?

It is, to be honest, it's on its last leg. We're not expecting this to come in for another nine to 10 months. And at that time, we'll evaluate the condition of the stage because it's got to go through this summer months and everything else. So we'll evaluate it at that time and make a determination on what we're going to do with it.

Is there demand for more than one?

Are you asking me? Yes. I mean, if it's salvageable and we could use it, yes, we'd love to have.

That's my point. Sometimes we just sit here and think we have a blank checkbook and just buy another new one. But if we have an asset that is in okay or reasonable condition still, keeping it as a backup and continuing to do some maintenance on it. I would do at my house or anyone else would do who was kind of worried about the finances would make sense. So I just want to make sure we're not like trashing the other one because we're getting the new one. I want to make sure that we're looking at it as an asset maybe we could keep and use still.

Yeah, like I said, we'll evaluate it and see what we can do.

Thank you.

Very good. Further commission discussion? Commissioner Fessick.

you yes this was actually one of the questions i had too because a few times when we go to music under the stars i've i've seen it you know wheeled out there and you know there's seems like everybody's enjoying it just fine so in light of the tax issues or if if there's any way that we might know ahead of budget season what necessary repairs there might be for the old one um so that we know what that cost looks like to to repair it to at least a you know more to add to its usable life. That might be one option. And the second thing I just want to put out on the record is we're looking for new ways to add revenue. I do know that other cities rent out their show mobiles for different events to other cities and other municipalities, et cetera. And that might be something we look at as a potential revenue generator for us as well for your department. So just want to make sure I threw that on there.

Absolutely. And if you'll see, I think there's a picture in your backup. This showmobile, it was very important to us that we have banner opportunities on here where we can use that for revenue producing items and sponsorships and stuff like that. So that was an important feature that we wanted with this new showmobile.

Awesome. Thank you.

Commissioner Seegerson-Eaton.

Yeah, thank you. I'm just surprised that this is a tart vehicle, that there isn't any sort of hard roof structure. And so why is that better?

We met with the vendor. This is a new state of the art feature that they have. There's a lot of show mobiles that are doing this. It is completely automated where we can close it during a storm really quickly, remote control-y. versus having staff which right now it takes two or three staff to close it all up or secure it so this this is a got a remote control for the whole thing it closes it up and it's supposed to be safer for any time we have storms or anything like that

Is it roughly the same size?

Exactly the same size.

Okay, same width and length? Yes. Okay, so it folds down similar to the way that we have now. And I do like the banners. Does it have the same sort of lighting capacity or is it improved?

Yes. And we have a generator. Another thing that it has, it's all ADA compliant. So we have a lift that goes on the side so we can use that as well. It also requires just one person to use. So that's another thing that for cost savings or efficiency, right now we usually deploy two staff members with it. So we'll have one staff member after training to be able to bring this out to different events.

Okay, thank you.

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

Commissioner Fezzik? Yes. Commissioner Perkins? Yes. Commissioner Seegerson? Eaton? Yes. Commissioner Smith? Yes. Vice Mayor Poitier?

Yes.

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

A resolution of the City Commission of the City of Palm Beach, Florida, approving and authorizing the proper city officials to execute a license agreement between the City of Palm Beach and South Florida Technical College Preparatory Inc. for use of the city's vacant athletic field for football practice activities, providing an effective date. So moved. Second.

Moved and second for discussion. This item was pulled by Commissioner Smith, I believe, for a member of the public. Commissioner Smith?

Yes, I had a request to pull this by Jocelyn Jackson because she has a concern about the quality of the soil in the athletic field. Okay. So she would be able to address that.

How you doing, Jocelyn Jackson? I know about this parcel. I just want some clarity. It's located at the Boys and Girls Club. It sits east of it. Is that correct?

Mr. Moore? Yes. Scott Moore, Parks and Recreation. Yes.

I know this parcel so well. About seven years ago, we pretty much presented a proposal for our little league football team. Diffield Pack of Rattlers is the longest football team in the Broward County area. It could be the Tri-County area. It was brought to, it was brought by some pioneers of Deerfield Beach, Sevier Portier, everybody know Sevier Portier and some other constituents in the city. The property, on that parcel, it was, It was used for hurricane debris. That's where they took all the trash for the hurricane. They dumped it on that parcel. So that parcel has glass, it has rocks, all different particles on that because, like I said, it was a dump site. So with that said, as it being a dump site, you have to cultivate the land. It's not safe for the city to contract anyone to partake and play on that land. That land minima, to bring it up the park, is $200,000 to start, not to complete. We have a gold bond for that area. It's not fair to the taxpayers to double dip and charge us because the land is not up to park at all. And if a kid get hurt out there playing on that soil that have not been tested, have not been cultivated, it's going to fall back on the city and it's not fair to us as taxpayers to have to pay to get it up and into compliance. And besides, I thought we had a budget meeting today, and we cutting out some things to try and shorten the budget here from expenses. Now, I know we have the school over there in Cuyahoga City. I think it was the neighboring school from Charles Drew. So I think the better for the kids is to try the school board. They have 10 schools that was closed down. I think that would be a better fit for this particular program with the school board.

Thank you.

Mayor. Mr. Harrison. So first of all, part of that area the south end of that property was used for about a week to haul vegetation debris trees limbs there was no nothing that contained glass and This has been used for this purpose. This property has been used by this purpose with various and sundry leagues from small little kids up to these size guys. This is an area where grown men are going to be using this as a practice football field. But it will only be until October. because we will be going in there on the construction project for the ultimate sports park. So I just want to make sure everybody understands that we just didn't sit here and let this property go into an agreement for the technical school folks to use it as a practice field without double checking everything and knowing the ground that we're talking about. OK?

Very good. Thank you, sir. Appreciate that. Okay, well, let's go ahead and take any public input. Public input on this item? Yes, right here. Okay. Just name and address for the record.

Michael Skawerski, 1630 Southwest Fifth Avenue. The group that wants to use this, it appears that Delvin King, he's running for commissioner. He's an owner, runs this place. Is this true? You don't know. Do you read backups? All right. Correct? Okay. So it's Delvin. All right. And I'm not elected, but I glance at this stuff once in a while. I used to always look at it. All right. There was a few things mentioned. Nobody knows, but a few years ago when Mark Boudreau was in charge, when people wanted to, I would run into coaches or there would be like somebody up there, it was mainly at McNair Park, throwing a football with three players. So I would give him Mark's number and say, listen, if you want your football, because they were coached at Coconut Creek or one of these other places, call this guy up. He's head of parks. And if you want, maybe he will allow Coconut Creek to use the football field for a fee. You hear about losing money, a fee. And also when you pay to play, they also have to sign something. If anybody is injured, It's not Pompano Beach's fault, it's their fault. We have people that rent out pavilions at the park for years. We have people that rent other things out at the park. If you want to use a field, you have to pay for it. Obviously, most of you know how big I am on sports, but that's only the right thing to do. If you want to use it, you pay for it. And this is Delvin. And he should know better. You know, hey, listen, whatever. Like I said, I have no problem renting anything out to anybody as long as you pay a fee. Very good.

Further input from the public? Please come forward.

My name is Tanger Jackson. I reside at 841 Northwest 6th Avenue. I'm going to speak and I'm going to follow up on what city manager said regarding the land. And the only reason being because I have 20 years experience with FEMA, which is Federal Emergency Management Agency, and I have been a supervisor in debris monitoring. And even though they're supposed to pick up, like, vegetarians, like, for his trees and limbs, that is not always so. So my dad always say CYA. You're supposed to pick up trees and limbs and all that, but a lot of times debris is put into the pile as well. So I don't have anything against anybody in sports and keeping kids active and out of trouble for that. But I would recommend that you still have it tested or do whatever you need to do just for safety issues because safety is always first.

Very good. Thank you for that. Appreciate it. Further input from the public?

How you doing? How you doing? Isaiah Martinez, South Florida Technical College Commit. You can call what I'm about to say bias, but me and a couple teammates, you know what I'm saying, we've been using this field the whole offseason to practice and get extra work in. Me personally, I found the field in perfect condition to play and practice, and you could say it's biased or whatever, but I feel like I wouldn't be putting my teammates or my future teammates in danger or harm saying there's glass from what previous people are saying or, um, anything harmless or harmful to us, I feel like the field is in perfect condition. And if that was the case, Boys and Girls Clubs has several children who goes out there and play during their PE time. I feel like if there was any hazards or any problems, that wouldn't be the case because they wouldn't let the children out there to play. I think people have a lot of problems and how do I put this? Yeah, a lot of complaints, and they're very biased to certain people due to their personal conflicts with certain people, and I feel like you can't do that because there's a lot of people out here, and me personally, I was homeless, and I feel like you're trying to take away from children that are going up in life and trying to make a better living situation for themselves by trying to take away this field and this opportunity to be great. I feel as if this field can be a great place This field could be a great stepping stone for us South Florida Technical College students and players in the future. And I mean, it's just temporary. It's not like it's going to be a longevity thing. I feel like the field is in perfect condition. I played there. I had a great time. And I hope you guys can put that into consideration. Thank you. Thank you.

Further input from the public? Anyone else? Seeing none, public input closed. Very good. Commission discussion? Mr. Ketchum, you want to chime in?

Yeah, Russ Ketchum, Director of Environmental Services. The event that we're talking about was Hurricane Irma. I'm over the debris removal for the city for many, many, including that particular site. And as the manager said, it was open for a very short amount of time. The material that it brought in, because it was in the early stages, was vegetation. You are correct. In the long haul, you're going to have it mixed. It was not the case. Probably the most important thing I wanted to bring up is, When we did close down that operation, we raked the entire property. That was by request, that was what we did by design. Not only did we rake it, we did it twice with various screening and to the point of it went actually to the beach screening size rakes through there. It removed things that had nothing, rocks, everything. After that, then we sodded the entire field. So it's been sodded. It's been cleaned. So there is no debris from that event. I can assure you that.

Okay. Thank you. I've got Vice Mayor, then Commissioner Perkins.

Thank you. I think you said Irma, which is also nine years ago in September. So it's been a while. And when I read the agreement, it sounds like it's adults. This is an adult program, not a youth program. And it's not used for anything else this time of day. They're not displacing someone else that wants to use this field.

Correct. The South Florida Technical College met with the Boys and Girls Club, and there's no conflict whatsoever, and they will not be on the fields at any time when the Boys and Girls Club are in session.

Okay. Because there's almost nothing I hate more than driving around our city and seeing empty fields. And I was at Kester Park at a baseball game over the weekend, and I had another mom say that to me, too. She's like, there's never any kids on all of our fields. You drive by your sports complex, you drive by Kester, which we've made sure it's unlocked so people can get out there. But our fields... For some reason, they're used at certain times, and at other times, they're just not. So I love driving by a field and seeing people getting exercise, building community, having fun with each other, and that's what it is all about, and I'm guessing Parks and Rec probably feels that same way. So if they're not displacing anyone, there is no issue with debris or danger, and these are all adults anyway. I don't see an issue with it for a short-term arrangement for now. Thank you.

Very good. Commissioner Perkins?

Thank you, Mayor. I do remember Hurricane Irma, and our city manager mistakenly dumped debris on that property, and remember the neighbors were all over you, right? But we made sure that that area was cleaned up properly, and I don't know if anybody's noticed, but if you pass by there every day, the kids are playing there. And if the land was not properly cleaned, the kids wouldn't be playing there at the Girls and Boys Club today. So I would definitely have an issue with that and When it comes to our children, we want to keep them, our young adults, we want to keep them as active as possible. And we're only talking about, what, four or five months?

Correct.

Just four or five months to give the kids or the young adults something to do. But I think it's safe for them to play there, especially if we have the younger ones there already. So if you pass by the Boysen Club almost every day like I do, the kids are out there in the sun. And I think it's safe for our young people to be there at least four or five months until we start developing the ultimate sports park. Thank you.

Very good. Commissioner Fasik.

Thank you. Just wanted to make sure I address this briefly because this is just using the park for practices. Correct. And so in our backup, it does say that if there are any games and things like that, the appropriate fees would then be charged. So I just want to make sure that it's stated, since it was a concern, that it is stated that if there is that, then obviously appropriate fees would be paid.

Yes, if there's any games which probably wouldn't be played there, they would be played at one of our other parks, the appropriate fees will be charged.

Perfect. Thank you so much.

Very good. Commissioner Smith.

Just want to thank you for confirming that it's a safe field. That was concerning to me when Ms. Jackson asked me about this. I'm glad that we've cleared that up, and I'm going to vote for it. Thank you.

Very good. Commissioner Sigerson-Eaton.

Yes, and I'm sure the entire area, Boys and Girls Club included, are so looking forward to the improvements there at Apollo Park. That's really gonna be a wonderful thing. So the only thing is, my question is, I know because we have the football clubs, teams throughout the city, we have very strict rules, and do we know, how do we know that these are going to be adults and not kids?

How do we know that?

Yeah.

Just per the contract. We know it's the South Florida College. So we'll drive out there and take a look and make sure there's no kids and everything else that we'll make sure that it's the college that's using the fields.

Right. Okay. And because it's adults... not children under 18, there's not the same protocol? In other words, the coaches aren't vetted through background checks or anything?

They may through the college, but it's not a requirement for us to have background checks on those coaches.

All right, thank you.

Very good. Further commission discussion? Excuse me. Further commission discussion? So, Mr. Harrison, they've got the proper insurance, and we're going to be covered, so the city is not going to be liable for anything.

Well, each member of the adult teams will sign a whole harmless agreement with us, or they won't be able to play on the field.

Okay.

Okay.

Mr. Berman, that's adequate, correct, would it be?

That's my understanding. Normally, if someone's running a football program with kids, they have to pass level two screening that's built into the contract. This was a license agreement to allow a college to use a field for their practices. So that's why that's not in the agreement.

This is just a takeoff from the McDougal group that has been using this in this capacity in this very same way since before I got here.

Right, that's correct. Very good. I hear you. Okay. Any further commission discussion? Seeing none, let's go ahead and call the roll.

Commissioner Fezzik. Yes. Commissioner Perkins. Yes. Commissioner Seegerson-Eaton. Yes. Commissioner Smith.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Poitier. Yes.

Yes.

Mayor Hardin. Yes. Takes us up to our regular agenda. Item number six is a resolution.

A resolution of the City Commission of the City of Pompano Beach, Florida, approving and authorizing the proper city officials to execute a railroad reimbursement agreement between the City of Pompano Beach, the State of Florida Department of Transportation, and the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority regarding the grade crossing and crossing traffic control devices located at Northwest 33rd Street Railroad Crossing, providing an effective... So moved. Second.

Moved and second for discussion. Good evening, Mr. McConn.

Good evening, Mayor, Commission.

Rob, hang on one second. Uh-oh. So while everybody's still here with the remarks that were made about us and the BSO officers, there's more to that story. This was not our... event to give the BSO officers anything. It was BSO Sheriff's Office. And I'd like for Major Elwood to come up here and explain that. Put it on the record. That way we got that out of the way and it's clean. Okay? Okay.

Mayor and Vice Mayor, Commissioners, there was a public speaker that expressed concern for our deputies not receiving awards, just for clarification for the record. There was an award ceremony with the Broward Sheriff's Office. They received certificates and ribbons similar to that that's on my uniform right now. And that is sufficient for the awards they got. We're just very appreciative to share this with the community tonight that they received those awards. So thank you.

Very good. Thank you. Appreciate the clarification.

Mr. McCaughan. Good evening, Mayor, Commission, Rob McConn, Public Works Director. The South Florida Regional Transportation Authority assessed the three-track railroad crossing at Northwest 33rd Street and determined, because of its poor condition, it needed to be rebuilt. This crossing is just south of the Pompano Beach Tri-Rail Station. Because Northwest 33rd Street is a city street, the city is responsible for the maintenance and repair costs of that crossing. The total cost is roughly $865,000, and it is very expensive. Typically, it's the railroad, and it's their contractor, it's their cost, and we have to pay. So that concludes my comments subject to your questions. Thank you.

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? Vice Mayor?

Thank you. Your tone and mood is kind of how I felt when I read this.

It was a little bit like, are you kidding me?

We happen to own this, and is there – what was the visibility of this? Did we know far out this was coming so we could plan for it? How long do we actually have to do it? Is there a way to – I mean, how unsafe is it? Is there a way to – do they

finance it and pay them over time is there anything to mitigate this because it's a big number it is and actually they do notify us I think it was two years ago and the problem is I guess they don't understand our budget process I think it's around this time of the year I got notification two years ago, we need to come in and fix the railroad track. I said, well, we've just missed the budget cycle. Can you push it out a year? So they did agree to do that. But I think in the agreement even, it says, once we invoice you, you have four months to pay the bill. So unfortunately, we can't finance it or spread it out over multiple years. And it's, I don't know, we're getting railroaded.

Right, that's what it feels like. So they're coming in with their contractor and doing it and then billing us for this at whatever it takes to get it to the level they need it or desire it to be, but we pay for it.

Correct.

Are there other of these coming down the railroad?

Actually, there have been several more just recently in the last year on the other railroad track because we have two tracks. We have to pay for both of them. On the FEC track, the... Northeast 6th Street, Northeast 10th Street, and maybe Northeast 3rd slash Northwest 3rd. All those had to be repaired. Roughly, they're a two-track crossing, not as expensive, but about $150 a piece. So those have been done recently. I'm sorry, Mr. McCall, you said $150 a piece?

I think you meant $1,000.

$150,000. Thank you.

We get that contractor to do this work.

Yeah, sorry. Thank you.

Are there any in the future? Those were just done. I guess I'm trying to size the risk going forward of us getting another one of these notifications for a surprise million dollars.

Well, yes. And then I was just thinking, when was the last time this crossing was repaired? I've been here, I think, now about 20 years, and it has not been reconstructed since I've been here. Atlantic Boulevard... Within five years, it's been reconstructed twice. I don't know why. In some cases, it's more frequent. They do the assessments. And as long as the train can run safely down the track, I guess they're OK. But recently, I have gotten a lot more complaints on the Northwest 33rd Street crossing. It has gotten to be a pretty rough crossing.

OK. So this is something that we budgeted for?

Oh, it is now budgeted for the FY27 CIP because we budgeted it two years ago, and then all these other crossings I mentioned, we had to pay those bills. So now that we know this cost, it has been put in the FY27 CIP program.

Thank you.

Very good. Not really, but further, Commissioner Perkins?

Thank you, Mayor. So you're saying that the railroad track is in poor condition. And I would like to bring your mind and your memory back to maybe 20 years ago. We were complaining about 15th Street right down from Hopewell. And for 20 years, we could not get the city to repair that railroad track because the city kept saying it belongs to the county. And it was not until I got elected but I worked with Broward County Commissioner Mark Bogan. He and his office paired the railroad track because they were willing to hang in there and fight until they got it done. And the city was not willing to do that, and it was in very, very poor condition, very poor. So we have a second railroad track there. It's in poor condition. When you go over it, it's not leveled. That's the railroad track that's supposed to be a quiet secret as to what is going to be done in the future in the Northwest. That railroad track needs to be repaired. So when you say poor condition, please consider 15th Street, which is owned by the county, and the railroad track needs to be repaired. And it's been that way for over 40 years, the second railroad track, 40 or 50 years or more. So you really need to look into that as well.

Right, and that track has no signaling on it. And some of that issue may be that is a private spur off to those warehouses, and maybe that's causing more difficulty. But I understand your concern.

Because really, if you drive over it, it will damage your car. So we have to look at different ways

ways of moving the roads so that it doesn't do a lot of damage to our cars.

So yes, I think you need to look into that. But yeah, that track is utilized between four and six in the mornings. So there's not a lot of traffic when I hear it coming through there. you would look into that yes ma'am we would appreciate it if if we have to go back to now he's mayor bogan if we have to go back to bogan again we'll do that as well we know he can get the job done thank you very good commissioner fessick thank you just a quick question i know it was brought up that we've had this the several repairs atlantic twice then the was it north

6th, 10th, and Northwest East 3rd as well. Have we received notice for any other ones? So this took like two years and you were able to kind of have them cut it off for a year. Have we received notice for any other railroad crossing that there might be something coming down the pike

No, not to my knowledge. However, for example, Copens Road on this track is a fairly rough crossing. That's Broward County's track. So there may be something there that's happening. Same thing at Sample Road. That's FDOT. So they get the notification for those tracks because they own the jurisdiction for the road. So that may be happening, but not for the city to fund. Okay.

Are there any other crossings where the city, so they're not county or FDOT, that are the city crossings that we need to be aware of or just kind of, you know?

Not that I'm aware of.

Okay, perfect. Thank you.

Atlantic Boulevard.

Any commission discussion? Seeing none, let's call the roll.

Commissioner Fezzik? Yes. Commissioner Perkins? Yes. Commissioner Sigurdsson-Eaton? Yes. Commissioner Smith? Yes. Commissioner Fournier?

Yes.

Mayor Hart? Yes. Item number seven is a resolution.

Resolution of the City Commission of the City of Palmetto Beach, Florida, approving and authorizing the proper city officials to execute a piggyback agreement between the City of Palmetto Beach and National Metering Services, Inc. to install new meters and backflow devices as needed, providing an effective date. So moved. Second.

Moved and seconded for discussion. Good evening, Ms. Muhammad.

Renuka Muhammad, Utilities Director. The Utilities Department is requesting City Commission approval to execute a piggyback agreement with national metering services through the city of Zephyr Hills General Construction Services, RFP 2025-004, in order to provide supplemental water meter and backflow replacement services. The city purchased approximately 19,000 replacement meters and backflow devices under the 2024 Water and Wastewater Bond Series to improve system reliability and meter accuracy. Shortly thereafter, National Metering Services was approved under Resolution 25-85 to assist with the meter replacement. At the time, National Metering Services worked with Utilities Customer Service Division to develop a specialized meter interface system to ensure integration within the city's billing and customer service systems. They were able to successfully replace approximately 3,600 devices. Since then, the agreement on the resolution 25-85 has expired. In the interim, the utility staff have continued meter replacement in-house. To date, approximately 6,000 meters have been completed with approximately 13,000 meters remaining. The proposed agreement will provide supplemental contractor support for the additional 5,000 to, or in the amount of 5,000 up to 7,500 meters and backflow devices on an as-needed basis. helping reduce the backlog, improve meter replacement timeliness, and maintain operational efficiency while allowing staff to focus on daily operations. There's a total of 933, 933, 437 in remaining funding available under the approved project. The approval supports the city's strategic goal in maintaining and enhancing the crucial utility infrastructure. That concludes my comments.

All right. Thank you. This is a public hearing. Is there any input from the public on this item? Please come forward. Just name and address the record.

Marquee Smith, 1320 Northwest 24th Ave. I have a quick question in regards to the meters. So are these going to be the new meters being implemented or are they already being implemented? meter the new meters that they're talking about in you know changing out yeah there'll be new meters automatic you know wireless meters okay have they already started the process or they yes okay so my question is with the new meters with she's saying that it's an accurate reading because now when i get my water bill i have estimate building so with the new meters is going to be accurate where it's no longer being estimated

The estimating, that's a function. I'm not sure. The estimating is a function of the customer service.

Customer service, yeah. So if the meter is not working properly, yes, customer service, utilities customer service is providing an estimate based on your historical usage. With the new meter, once the new meter is installed, yes, you will get an accurate, true reading. And if there's a credit to the account, they will do this so.

Okay. So I should see a difference in the water bill with the new meter. Yes. And when is that supposed to go in effect?

So what they're rolling it out by cycles in the city. So it depends if there's, we get a list from customer service of meters that are not working. Those are priority replacements in house right now for us. So we take them by cycles cause they have to do billing. So it all depends on the list we get from customer service.

Okay, and would they notify the residents that their current meter is now updated and it should be an accurate reading at this point moving forward in the next billing cycle?

So if there's an estimate, they usually let you know it's an estimated billing for it. If we or our contractor come out there to do the replacement, there is a notice that is placed for the customer that the meter has been replaced.

And moving forward, that there will no longer be any more estimated bills.

Correct. And there's also a portal that each customer could sign up to to take a look at their usage, if there's any leakage and anything of that sort to monitor.

Okay, so would you have to call the water utility bill to see when your particular meter is going to be put out or has it been changed?

Like I said, we get a list from customer service based on their billing cycle. So once they provide us the ability to go into a cycle, then we notify the customers for the replacement.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

Okay, thank you. Further input from the public? Please come forward. Just name and address for the record. Sorry, can you pull that closer?

I can. Is that good?

Okay.

Ashley Luzik, Highlands Pompano Beach. I have a question for you. So my water is... connected through different services and like I just got a trash barrel I tried to get it paid so I couldn't pay it through one company or another so when that estimate comes who is actually is that all of district two because I was put on hold

There's parts of the city that are handled by Broward County. Yeah. Because, yeah, this only pertains to Pompano Beach water customers.

So Pompano Beach handles my water. How would I know that when I get my new...

If you're serviced by Broward County, they would... the meter would be through Broward County. But we're not talking about residents that are served by Broward County. This is only for residents that are served by Pompano Beach Utilities.

Very confusing.

And Ms. Muhammad, Broward County, they bill the customers directly. Direct, yes. So they would know by the bill that they get. If it's from Broward County and you make your check payable to Broward County, that's Broward County services you. Otherwise, it's the city of Pompano Beach.

I just pay my transfer to Pompano Beach. your trash yeah i ordered a new trash box one was broken okay and if it would be yeah so if it's through the county then you do it through the county i'm sorry i'm sorry ma'am what was the question i'm sorry i'm sorry go ahead will it be the same with the water now no no they can they can be separate the trash is handled through the city for the entire city the water is handled

in the northern section of some areas through Broward County. The trash is still handled all by Pompano.

But it all comes on the same bill.

Broward County bills the water and sewer separately. The trash is on there. Do you get bills from Broward County? Broward County. Yes. So Broward County, they bill their own system. The trash, that's Pompano Beach. We bill that.

If you give me your address, I could take a look into it if you'd like. Okay. I go to you after?

Yes. I walk over there now?

If you want to, yeah, you could write it down for me.

I'm just saying, like, this was the single most confusing thing. Like, I told everyone, it will go into collections because no one wants to take my money. It was crazy. So if you're putting new meters in, that's a concern, right? Because I've been here since 97. I just was wondering if something was going to change on my bills because this was like a three-ring circus.

We could research it.

Get with Ms. Muhammad afterwards.

I'm sure I'm not the only one having this problem.

We'll figure it out, but if it's a Broward County issue, we can also make sure you get in touch with the right people at Broward County to get it solved. We're still your city, but Broward County, they handle some of the water and sewer department for some of our residents, but we can intervene and try and get things straightened out.

You know on the bill it says waste, water, sewer. It says all those, right? Yes. but when you try to get a hold of one to do something, they're like, yeah, no. Not happening.

Well, like I said.

Four hours on the phone.

I'm sorry, ma'am. It's Broward County sometimes. I can't answer for Broward County, but we will do what we can to try and help the situation.

Can we all check into this? Because that's like four hours on the phone. You can't get back.

I'm sorry, ma'am.

No? Okay, I'll come to you.

If you give me your address.

Okay. Very good. Further further input from the public. Please come forward.

Jocelyn Jackson. Before I talk about what I need to ask the question, what happened to all these Morris that y'all telling us the resonance before the city going to contracts, any other contracts, more turpitude, integrity stance when you're doing business with people that got open charges, felony charges. What happened to all that big talk that y'all was talking about earlier? He was talking about city manager, that he's not being the street who we get into bed with. So the day is the day, and it was embarrassing because you say one thing and you do another. But you don't sign the contract where somebody has open felony charges for fraud and scams. Okay, I'm going to stick to the right here. Okay, next thing. The digital sewer meters. They're digital, correct?

So they are water meters, but we use the water reading to calculate the sewer reading from the meters.

Correct. And you have here with the backflow devices. Yes. We have to pay for the, you know, we have a company that comes out with the backflow. It does that service a lot of the, Units, I own apartments. So, yes. Okay, so with the backflow devices, so you guys install them as well?

So we do the residential. For this program, we are installing residential devices. but backflow devices under the state of Florida must be tested and recertified annually. So we do have a company that sends out notices to customers, commercial multifamily customers, letting them know that they have to recertify their device annually.

Right, because I know I had to recertify a couple of my units this year, this term. And also what would help the elderly people, they struggle when it comes to their meters. So do you have anything? And I see just a piggyback. So the piggyback is with which company? And piggyback means the people who's listening. It means a company that was already in place that the city used prior. Is that correct? Okay, tell me what the piggyback is right here.

A piggyback is a company. A piggyback refers to a company that has already gone through a bidding process, perhaps outside Broward County or within Broward County, but we are piggybacking on their Procurement process. That's what that means.

Only procurement process in this position. Correct.

In other words, they went through the bid process in some other locale, and they were rated the number one firm. So we're allowed by state law and local ordinance to piggyback on that.

Okay, that's for this situation here. Correct, yes. Because sometimes the piggyback, you know, use the company prior, and you're bringing them back to do the same services.

If we bring a company back for the same service, that's an extension of the contract that we already had with them. That's not what this is.

Okay, so they don't have to go through the procurement department if they come back.

It depends upon the contract. Some contracts are renewable. Some contracts aren't. This particular contract we're talking about was a piggyback. that, okay, it was bid someplace else, so we're utilizing their procurement time and effort and money to benefit our residents.

Okay. So with this new operation that's supposed to start when?

So remember, this company started before with us. Their contract expired. And now we are going into a new contract, a new piggyback contract. So in the meantime, utilities have been, we have been doing the process in-house. So the process is ongoing. We just need some supplemental help. So we're bringing in a contractor to help us speed up the process on the meter change outs.

Right. So we already used them before.

We have used them before.

Right. And they doing, we bringing them back now?

We're bringing them back to assist us, yes. Right.

Okay, I'm just looking out for the elderly people of age. We need to find a system to help them understand, because when you speak of computers, a lot of the elder people is not computer savvy, so we can kind of structure something for them.

So this, you know, this helps the utility. It's, you know, this is to have the meters be read electronically. This is, the new meters are electronic meters. It communicates electronically. It sends the reading over to our customer service, and the process is the same on the back end for the customers. They receive their bill with their usage. That's it. Nothing is changing on the customer front. Okay.

Because a lot of them struggle with reading their meter, and they don't understand it. So I just want something simple for them.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Further input from the public. Please come forward. Careful now.

Hi, everybody. I'm Brandy Zabitol, Pompano Beach Highlands. How are you? I just have a question because in District 2, we're very special and our water does come from Broward County. Will we also be getting new meters on behalf of Broward County? It's very nice to be the stepchild of Pompano Beach, but I'd also like to ask for services as well because I hear all the amazing things and congratulations on your water, but we don't receive services. So will we also be receiving something?

That'll depend upon Broward County.

Okay, so you guys don't advocate for District 2 in that way?

Yes, absolutely. We sure do.

So is there a conversation with Broward County Water?

Is there an issue with the meters in District 2?

I have heard yes, there is.

Well, you heard?

As the president of the Civic Association, I do talk to my constituents quite a bit.

Look, I've gone to bat for Broward County water users throughout my term in office. So anytime there's a problem, CUI, just let us know and we'll go to bat for the residents.

So is it our responsibility to speak with Broward County directly or do we typically bring that up with you guys?

You can bring it up with us. We'll intervene with Broward County. That's fine.

Awesome. This is me bringing it up. So I was just wondering, what is the process?

If you've got an address, I'd be happy to look into it for you.

I have quite a few addresses. I'll follow that up tomorrow.

Okay.

Thank you. Sure.

Mayor. I'm trying to answer the questions. That's all. Mayor. I'm sorry. Commissioner Perkins, I'm sorry. What was that?

I said every time she walks up to the mic and she make a statement, you have a way of talking to her as though you want her to go away.

Am I the only one that?

Yes, you are. He engages, normally he doesn't. He does that all the time when you walk up, so obviously there's an issue, right?

Thank you, Commissioner Pershing.

You're very welcome. Anytime.

And, no, I have no issue with anyone. I was just trying to answer the question. We just want you to be fair. I was trying to answer the question. Just. I was trying to answer the question and get to the focus of what the issue was. That's all. Trying to solve problems. That's what I'm doing. Commissioner Seegerson-Eaton.

Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Muhammad, I believe you worked for Broward County Water. Did you not prior to coming to Pompano?

No. No.

I thought because you were doing the Water Board that you were with Broward County.

No, I was previously with the Town of Davie, and I am a member on the Technical Advisory Board for Broward County.

Okay, and a lot of the meters in District 2 have been changed. Broward has changed them. They have a schedule. If they're not working, they get changed. And if there's a problem... reach out to Broad County, or as the mayor said, send an email, sit in, we'll help you if you aren't able to reach out yourself. Thank you.

Very good. Further input from the public on this item? Seeing none. Asked. Public input closed. Commission discussion. Commissioner Fessick.

Thank you. I just have a couple questions. Many times when we see a piggyback contract or a renewal, there's some sort of cost savings sort of received or attributed to the benefits of a piggyback. Do we have sort of an idea of what we're saving by continuing this contract?

Of the top of my head, I would say that this is not necessarily a cost savings to us with regards to the pricing. This is one of the only labor contracts within the state of Florida that's available right now. The cost savings, I think, comes in for us on the back end. Because if the meters are not working, there is no revenue to come in. We are estimating meters, we are estimating usage for customers, which again, we are trying to get away from that. We want an accurate read so we can bill the customer accurately. Since we have previously engaged with this contractor, we have expended funds to build the interface already. That was close to $10,000. We are also being charged communication fees on these meters. We have expended close to $270,000 to date. So these meters, they need to be put in the ground. So this is a process of expediency. to get these meters in the ground, to get them operational, to get the usage out of them. So this is why we are moving in this direction. When I take a look at the price comparison between the previous contract and this, yes, there is a cost increase anywhere from 25 to 30% on the meters. The price point of the contract is a little bit elevated because we are also doing the backflow devices, which is a requirement of the state for the residential meters. The thought process is to bring them in and have them focus primarily on the residential meters at this point. The utility will continue in the background doing larger meters as needed through the process. So the savings for us is really on the back end to get the meters in the ground, to get them functional rather than have them sit on the shelf right now.

Okay. I know you mentioned earlier about quality assurance or quality, they're annually tested. Those are the backflow devices. Backflow devices. OK. Is there a process? Who manages the ensuring that these are working correctly? Because I know I've received quite a few emails related to water meters and costs and bills, et cetera. So I just want to make sure that that's, is that part of this company's contract?

So this is for the meters, the installation of the meters on the back flows on the residential. The public comment that we had for the other types of devices, the commercial devices on the back flow. Those have to be recertified annually, and that is done by any licensed plumber to be able to do that. The utility gets the certificate that it's been renewed, that everything is working properly. If, for whatever reason, the backflow fails, we get a notice, the customer gets a notice that a replacement has to be done.

Okay, thank you.

So there is a process that we go through. We have to certify annually with the state on the number of devices we have. Thank you.

And then, I guess, with piggyback contracts, and it's important to this, and this is more general than it is specific to your item, but when we have piggyback contracts, is this something that was blessed by our procurement department in terms of, what does that process look like? Are we circumventing our procurement director, or are we just, what is the process that that goes through?

I will speak specifically to this. When we came into this contract, or when we were vetting contracts, I mean, we took a look at other contracts, but like I said, we had already invested in the integration platform with this. So it didn't make sense to go back and select another vendor, because then that would delay the entire process. Because to build the interface would take at least three to four months. And unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of that time right now in utilities when the metering system is failing. On a piggyback agreement, yes. We would do the first vetting as the using department, and then we would put it through to procurement, and they would go through and continue that process to get us to a contract to be able to present to you.

And the reason I'm asking that is specifically, so you mentioned that there was, what, $270,000 in communication? So that's on the meters itself.

Meters themselves. Mm-hmm.

Is there, if let's say years down the road we decide that we want to try to negotiate the contract ourselves because, like you mentioned, there was a 25% to 30% increase, is that system something that we can basically, without a massive investment, use if we were to renegotiate, even if we were to use with the same?

So in the future, so there's a lifetime for all of these meters. At whatever point in time that that lifetime materializes, yes, the utility should be able to go out to open competitive bid and solicit for a metering program and possibly for also install at the same time. Yes.

And when was the last time, I know that these are new meters, but when was the last time we as a city, if you know, went to competitively bid this type of project?

So my understanding is that the utility reselected under a sole source for this current replacement that they're doing. So you don't know when the last time? I don't know. I would say this meter, the old metering is probably anywhere from 15 to 16 years, and they went back with the same manufacturer under a sole source. Okay, thank you.

Very good. Further commission discussion? Um, Ms. Muhammad, just, uh, in response to commissioner Fessick's question about the piggyback and how we save money there and you indicated, well, it's really on the backend. Isn't it also on the front end because we don't have to go out and bid the project?

FOR US RIGHT NOW FOR THE ACTUAL LABOR COST.

NO, NO, NO. I'M STRICTLY TALKING ABOUT THE PIGGYBACK OF THE CONTRACT. IF WE HAD TO GO OUT AND BID THE CONTRACT OURSELVES, WOULD THAT COST US MORE MONEY?

IT PROBABLY WOULD, YES, BECAUSE IT'S THE COST, YES.

THANK YOU. OKAY. THANK YOU. FOR THE COMMISSION DISCUSSION. COMMISSIONER FESSICK.

MR. HARRISON, COULD YOU REALLY LET ME KNOW HOW MUCH IT WOULD COST TO BID OUT A PROJECT? Roughly? You're talking like $1,500? I'm sorry? How much would it cost us as a city to bid out a project through our procurement department?

I don't know. I would have to get that broken down.

Does somebody here know how much it would cost, roughly? I mean, I'm not asking for specific dollars. I'm just saying a ballpark would be fine.

I don't think there's a cookie-cutter way to answer your question if you Are you talking about if we were to bid this particular project out?

No, not this particular one. But, I mean, let's use it since it's an agenda item. But so many times, the reason why I'm asking this question is so many times when we're up here, if there's any sort of questions answered, it says, well, how much would it cost us more money to bid it out? And the thing is that we have a procurement department for a reason. And I just want to know, when we're talking about how much money is being spent, I just want to make sure we're clear from management Roughly, ballpark, I understand that certain items will have a certain cost and some might be higher. But on average, for something like this, what is the cost or assumed cost for bidding something of this nature?

First of all, it's obvious that if you can purchase through a piggyback arrangement, that it's going to be more economical to use that vehicle than it would be if we were to go online separately with all of our staff and everyone involved.

Except in this situation where it's 25% to 30% increase. But I just actually have a question about that one particular procurement. And Mr. Bosworth, you might maybe know, just a ballpark so that we...

I'm just curious. What are the requirements? Is it advertising? Is that what we're talking about?

Sending out an email? So I will say this to Mr. Harrison's point. You know, when we look at contracts, if it's feasible to piggyback or not, this contract was put in place last year. So cost savings on labor for us compared to going out to bid now, that we would expect, okay, from the previous contract in 24, we did see a markup anywhere from 25 to the 30%. If we go out to bid now, we would see another probably 25 to 30% off of that price. So it also depends on the entity, and again, Usually there is some savings in the quantities that we see. If we will go out to bid, there's a timeline project. It's to prepare a specification, a bid specification, to send it to procurement, to legal, to go through the process. Then it goes out to bid for 30 to 45 days. Then it has to go through a recommendation process, the committee recommendation, and then it has to come back. But through all of that process, if we're looking at something that was awarded, like I said, a year before, like this specific contract, there is cost savings compared to what we think we're going to get now.

Right. And look, I'm not trying to give you or this particular thing a hard time. I just want to make sure that so many times we hear the same thing over and over again, and I want to make sure that it's clear. that sometimes it is a benefit to use a piggyback agreement, and sometimes it may or may not be. And I just want to know what the cost and the time looks like on an average basis. That's where I was going that apparently our city doesn't know. Thank you.

Yeah, like I said, for us, if we had to go out to get a new contract right now for this specific service, it would probably take us anywhere from six to eight months. And because the system is failing, you know, This is something we have to take into consideration, along with the prior work that has been done in order to get us over here. But utilities, we do try to take a look holistically at everything that's out there. And if it's something that we can go out to contract for ourselves, if it's a benefit to us, then certainly. We are part of what is called the Purchasing Co-op of South Florida. where all utilities come together as an entity to be able to solicit services. This is just a very unique case where, again, we have to go out, and because we have a metering service that is in need of replacement work. Thank you. I appreciate that.

And like I said, for clarity, I'm not trying to discount any of the hard work that you've done. My concern is. I agree. In some cases, procurement can be...

It depends on the contract, yes.

It can be less of an easy process. But the reason I bring this up is simply because when we're looking at budget and tightening all our belts on everything, I think it's important for us to know and for the public to know so that when they have come to have a comment or... may have a comment or thoughts that what does that process look like for us as a city and where can we start to show that in the backup what the costs would be so if we're going to say it's going to cost us more is it you know is it the cost of advertising is it time labor etc we need to know what that looks like thank you very good for the commission discussion seeing none let's call the roll commissioner pheasant yes mr perkins

Yes. Commissioner Sigerson-Eaton. Yes. Commissioner Smith. Yes. Vice President Poitier.

Yes.

Mayhard. Yes. Item 8 is the first reading of an ordinance.

An ordinance of the City Commissioner of the City of Palmetto Beach, Florida, approving and authorizing the proper city officials to execute a first amendment to the Agreement for Transportation Services, point-to-point between the City of Palmetto Beach and Circuit Transit, Inc., to expand the microtransit service area, providing for severability, providing an effective date. So moved.

Second.

Moved and second for discussion. Mr. Lance.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioner, Jeff Lance, Parking Manager. Notting before this evening is an amendment to our agreement with Circuit Transit, which was executed originally on January 26th of this year. The intent of this amendment is to expand and offer point to point transportation services further west to include a greater number of residents and visitors. It's important to note these rides would be free of charge. and there will be no need for individuals to pay for parking if they use the service getting to the beach. Initially, this will be a pilot program, and these services will be offered Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And the goal of this expanded program is to reduce traffic and demand for parking on the barrier island. There will be no charge, as mentioned, for these rides. And with your permission, I have a brief presentation that would maybe make this a little more clear.

Okay, go ahead.

So we'd like to implement this pilot program serving neighborhoods to the west of our existing routes, as mentioned, focused on providing access to the fishing village for those residents and minimizing the impact to the limited parking at the beach, increase more convenient access for these residents, reduce single occupancy vehicles, and to offer greater equity throughout the community. THESE VEHICLES WILL BE 100% ELECTRIC AND THIS SERVICE IS AN APT-BASED ON-DEMAND SHUTTLE SERVICE. I HAVE A BETTER PICTURE OF THE ZONES HERE ON MY NEXT SLIDE. THIS WOULD BE POINT-TO-POINT SHORT TRIP TRANSPORTATION. AGAIN, IT'S ON DEMAND. WE LIKE TO FOCUS ON SENIORS AND RESIDENTS THAT ARE NOT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE TO THIS SERVICE. The vehicles will be available to be wrapped for branding opportunities, which could offset our costs somewhat. Initially, we were recommending two EVs, two electric vehicles, and I'll give you an example of those in just a moment. This is a little better picture of what we're planning to do. What you see in blue is our existing service area. What you see in green is our planned expansion. Again, we will be using some park and ride locations in the green area, which I'll show you in the next slide. Again, this will be point-to-point service, so from the green area directly to the beach, or it could go the other way directly from the beach. If you live that way, go straight out to one of our areas in the green here. Park and ride locations will be the lot directly across from to the northeast of First Baptist Church. And then you obviously recognize at the bottom, that's City Hall. Again, this will be Friday, Saturday, and Sunday initially. And the vehicles that we have selected would be the VW ID Buzz and the Ford E-Transit van. A Ford E-Transit van obviously would be for a greater number of people or those folks that have a lot of beach gear to take down to the beach. Service hours will be, that's actually incorrect, it'll be 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. And uh... will operate thirty three hours a month in our in our existing contract uh... will monitor these reports very closely every month and and circuit reports are very detailed so we'll be able to keep an eye on wait times uh... focus on where the demand is coming from and again it's a it's a this is a starting point may look entirely different after we get two or three or four months of data under our belts but uh... This was our timeline. We met with each commissioner. We're giving the contract obviously today to you to review and approve, hopefully. Next will be, hopefully within 90 days, we'll be able to implement and go live with this service. We'll continue to look for grants to help us with this process, but currently it'll be paid, all services will be paid here by the Parking Enterprise Fund. And again, this is, let's call it phase two. Certainly phase three could go deeper west or in other areas, just depending on the demand. That concludes my presentation.

All right, 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 DISCUSSED. VICE MAYOR.