City Council - workshop

Good morning, and welcome to our city of Port St. Lucie City Council workshop this Monday, 04/20/2026 at 09:00AM. Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Councilwoman Morgan?

Yes, ma'am.

Councilman Pickett?

Yes, ma'am.

Mayor Martin? Here, ma'am. Councilman Bana?

Yes, ma'am.

And vice mayor Carrabala? Here, ma'am. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. On to public to be heard. Would anyone like to address the council? Seeing no one, I'll close public to be heard. Moving on to item five, new business 5A, tentatively approve the proposed capital improvement program for fiscal years 2027 to 2031. Ms. LaMar Sarno?

Yes, good morning. Thank you. I just have some opening remarks, and then I'll hand it over to Caroline. But I first wanted to thank the team that has worked really hard at bringing this capital program in front of you today. The proposed capital improvement program represents months of hard work across organization.

Many departments partner together with the budget team to build a responsible long range plan that reflects the community's needs and our shared vision for the future. This five year program focuses on the projects that our residents have told us through the Citizen Summit and other engagements that we have done, so focuses on projects for roads, public safety, utilities, storm water parks and parks and recreation. At the same time, this plan does recognize the need for a measured approach. The pace of new construction has slowed and we are experiencing higher than anticipated costs for current projects. Because of these pressures, there are some challenges when we drafted this capital improvement program.

Several projects you'll see have been deferred. However, we continue to work on what we consider to be our needs and the projects that are critical to continue the city's vision. As we consider inflation and global economic uncertainties, you'll see that we've supported these programs, these projects in front of you with a balance of a mix of grants, reserves, bonds and dedicated revenues. So I want to thank Caroline for her time, and thank you for providing the staff support. And hopefully, we're here prepared to answer any questions.

Thank you so much. Good morning.

Good morning, Madam Mayor, Madam Vice Mayor, City Council and all those that are present. For the record, Caroline Sturges, Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Want to thank Chief Assistant City Manager, Lamar Sarno, for introduction. Today, I am here to present the fiscal year 2027 through 2031 proposed capital improvement program, or CIP. The plan represents our road map for responsibly investing in Port St.

Lucie's future. As mentioned earlier, today I am joined by members of the budget team as well as representatives from all of the city departments. Once again, would really like to thank them for their hard work in recent months in collaboration with both the city manager and the executive team as we plan the proposed CIP budget that is in front of you. Therefore, let's dive in. Today, I will provide an overview of the CIP process, walk through the proposed projects and funding recommendations, review alignment with council's priorities and conclude by requesting tentative approval of both the five year CIP and the fiscal year 'twenty six through 'twenty seven capital budget.

The CIP is our long term planning tool for major investments, projects such as roads, parks, public safety facilities, stormwater improvements and utilities. It includes project costs, timeline and funding sources. This five year plan is closely tied to the operating budget, ensuring we can support and maintain new infrastructure. We are experiencing significant pressures. Construction slowdown is reducing revenue growth.

Mobility fee revenues have declined almost by 50%, and projects already underway are costing higher than budgeted costs to complete. These impacts reduce the number of new projects that we can advance. The budget process starts off with City Council approved strategic plan. Then the city manager provides direction to city departments based on City Council's priorities. Departments complete project request forms, which are reviewed by the city manager, and preliminary decisions are made for the proposed CIP.

This year, department submitted four twenty seven project requests that totaled $1,700,000,000 Based on available revenue and strategic priorities, we are recommending two thirty eight projects in the five year plan totaling approximately $1,100,000,000 and 71 projects in the first year for a total of $244,000,000 This budget acknowledges economic challenges and uncertainties. Not all requested projects can be funded, and a number were deferred to future years due to fiscal constraints. Projects were prioritized in consideration of applying stewardship of taxpayer dollars. This graphic illustrates how funding is distributed by category. The utility system CIP represents the largest share of nearly 68%, followed by the general government, road and bridges, parks and the $05 sales tax.

This reflects the scale and complexity of the utility infrastructure investments necessary to support our population growth. The utility system is supported by user fees and not property taxes. We are recommending a five year capital budget of $990,000,000 with a total of 187 projects funded across all categories. Here, I must note that the total excludes stormwater and golf course projects, which are funded by the operating revenue, and those will be included in the operating budget, which will be coming before you in July. For fiscal year 2026 through 'twenty seven, we are recommending a one year capital budget of $226,300,000 with a total of 60 projects funded across all funds, except for the stormwater and golf course as those will be in the operating budget.

This will represent year one of the CIP. The general fund CIP, supports community facilities and public safety needs. It is funded by ad valorem tax revenues, grants, reserves and bond financing. Key projects over the five year period include police building renovations, public facility improvements and expansion, playground upgrades and safety related improvements. The recommended five year capital expenditure plan for the general fund is $62,500,000 and it includes 52 projects.

Revenue sources include pay as you go or PAYGO strategies, grants and bond financing. In year one, the police department is requesting $1,300,000 for renovations at Buildings B And C. The facilities department request of $3,000,000 include renovations and equipment replacement at City Hall. Impact glass will be installed in the police building. Funds are also being carried forward for the design of a new building to house the city's facility's maintenance operations.

Parks and Recreation requests funding for replacement of a twenty one year old inclusive playground at McChesney Park Riverland Paseo parking lot expansion to meet higher than expecting parking demands at the new park sports lighting at Sportsman Park to boost field coverage, improve security and safety on-site and enable nighttime recreational activities Parks and Recreation's total year one ask is $5,300,000 The Mid Florida Event Center is requesting $1,000,000 for replacement of one chiller that has reached its end service life roof deck lighting in the parking garage replacing the twenty year old outdated system and replacement of the West Garage elevator, which has exceeded its lifespan and is currently inoperable. The parks impact fee fund is driven by economic growth. As new development occurs and impact fees increase, we're able to bring more park improvements projects online. For the upcoming fiscal year, we are projecting revenues of $4,000,000 Key projects include enhancements to Rosser Lakes, Torino And Tradition Regional Parks, along with expanded safety, lighting features for our growing community.

The golf course

CIP balances project needs with golf course revenue supplemented with general fund transfers. Planned improvements include bunker, tea and green renovations, irrigation system upgrades and a training center to enhance the quality and sustainability of facility for all ages. The Community Redevelopment Agency, CIP, is supported by revenues generated in four designated areas in the city. Dollars 7,100,000 is being requested in year one to support redevelopment initiatives within the CRA districts. CRA projects focus on revitalization efforts, including Walton And I New City Annex renovations, various renovations and upgrades at the Mid Florida Event Center and a gateway signage at the Port District.

Our road and bridge CIP is driven by gas tax revenue, mobility fees, interest income and bond capacity. Major projects include citywide resurfacing, new sidewalks, ADA improvements, traffic calming and significant widening road widening projects such as Gatlin And Savona and Port St. Lucie Boulevard. These investments will reduce congestion, improve safety and enhance mobility. The Road and Bridge Fund sources over the five year plan is a total of $71,700,000 This fund, as well as the stormwater and utility system, anticipates significant bond proceeds and debt to help advance critically long term capital investments.

The issuance of debt now instead of using all cash reserves or PAYGO strategies will allow new growth to share in the long term investment costs for maintenance and infrastructure expansion that will serve current and future residents and businesses. Across all funds, we are projecting a bond need of $784,000,000 over the five year proposed CIP. That will require financing to support these essential capital projects. As the city remains committed to reducing long term debt through scheduled payments, early retirements and refunding, city staff will uphold its prudent financial and debt management strategies. This strategic approach will position the city for favorable interest rates on future borrowing, ensuring responsible debt management and maximizing cost savings for our community.

Dollars 200,000 is requested by the Public Works Operations Division to support land acquisition in year one of the CIP. Reflected on this slide and the next slide is a total of $45,000,000 for road widening and mobility improvement projects, including Gatlin And Savona Phase two Port St. Lucie Boulevard from Becker to Par Tradition and Village Way St. Lucie West Boulevard from Peacock to Cashmere The Street Division is requesting $4,700,000 to support annual resurfacing of streets and sidewalk repairs throughout the city. Stormwater improvements continue to be essential to protecting neighborhoods from flooding.

The plan includes culvert replacement programs, basin improvements, canal slope restoration, water quality upgrades and major multiyear drainage projects across the city. Projects included in the stormwater CIP improved both safety and water quality. Slides twenty six and twenty seven total $18,000,000 requested by the Public Works Drainage Division for the first year of the CIP. Projects include OCAMIC watershed improvements, replacement of aging or inadequate culverts with modern design to improve efficiency of water flow, a swell liner replacement program to help reduce flooding in major roadways throughout the city, El CAM Basin improvements property acquisition for access to water control structure E-eight downstream repairs of B-fifteen and also the design and grant coordination for future water quality projects. Moving on to the $05 sales tax.

The voter approved $05 sales tax continues to deliver results. This funding supports road widening, roadway resurfacing and sidewalk construction. 15% to 20% of tax revenues supporting this fund come from nonresidents. Dollars 13,200,000 is requested by the Public Works Operations Division to support California Boulevard widening South of St. Lucie West Boulevard, Gatlin Boulevard resurfacing, annual resurfacing throughout the city and new sidewalks and improvements in accordance with the City Council approved ten year sidewalk plan.

Our largest fund, the Utility Systems CIP, ensures reliable water and wastewater service for current and future residents. Projects include new wells, treatment plant expansions, advanced water quality systems, citywide pipe replacement, lift station upgrades and multiyear improvements to both water and wastewater facilities. Projects included in the CIP will ensure reliability, capacity and growth planning. The James E. Anderson water treatment facility requests funding of $5,600,000 in year one for three Western reverse osmosis Floridian wells.

This is a required project by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection due to a change in groundwater conditions. Dollars 71,000,000 is requested for the Rangeline Road Discovery Way reverse osmosis injection well system and monitoring well to provide disposal for concentrate waste the Rangeline Road Discovery Way reverse osmosis water treatment plant and six Floridian wells to increase the utility system water supply capacity and accommodate new development and future growth. Dollars 7,000,000 is requested by the Water Distribution Preventative Maintenance Division for PSO Boulevard Segments 1 from Becker Road to Par Drive the relocation of low pressure main, force main and water main associated with a road widening project installing a 16 inches parallel water main under I-ninety 5 along Glades Cutoff Road as part of Phase one in accordance with the 2012 Water Master Plan relocating a 12 inches and 16 inches water mains to accommodate Florida Department of Transportation and county road widening projects on Midway from Jenkins To Glades Cut Off dollars 7,000,000 is requested for a new warehouse at Northport to meet continued growth in storage capacity for materials necessary for daily projects and tasks $1,600,000 for citywide replacement of lift stations to prevent raw sewage spills and overflows and $12,000,000 for construction of two four million gallon upset tanks and pump stations to meet the Florida Department of Environmental Protection regulatory requirements for treatment systems.

Dollars 20,000,000 is requested for the construction of an injection well system for the Glades Wastewater Treatment Facility and expansion. All of these projects will accommodate new development and future growth. Dollars 14,800,000 is requested for wastewater preventative maintenance projects, including installing a 16 inches parallel force main along Becker Road and Doran Boulevard to support continued growth in the Southeast Service Area and the Northport booster pump force main to direct additional flow from the Northport Service Area to the Glades Wastewater Treatment Plant. In total, the fiscal years 2027 through 2031 CIP includes two thirty eight projects totaling $1,100,000,000 with another 189 projects identified for years six through '10. This demonstrates the scale of the need in our growing community and our commitment to long term planning.

Staff will keep focused on strategic foresight and responsible planning. While today's request for the five year CIP, we are also maintaining a long range plan for years six through 10. These projects include major road expansions, extensive park improvements, stormwater upgrades and additional utility infrastructure needed to serve a future population that will continue to grow. Current planning does not commit funding for years six through ten. However, it does position the city for the future.

For the next couple of slides, Slides thirty nine and forty display projects being planned out in the out years for the general fund. I will just display these slides and not really spend much time discussing the projects that are being deferred. Likewise, these are the projects in the parks impact fee and the golf course CIP for years six through ten. Slides forty two and forty three display the road and bridge projects for a total of 29 projects that are being planned for years six through ten. Here are the stormwater and the half since sales tax projects that are being programmed for the all years.

The utility system, CIP, includes 22 projects being planned for years six and on. Mayor and City Council, staff respectfully request your tentative approval of the fiscal years 2027 through 2031 proposed capital improvement program and the fiscal year 2026 through 'twenty seven capital budget. The plan does reflect your priorities. It supports essential infrastructure, and it ensures Port St. Lucie remains a safe, vibrant and well managed community.

This completes the presentation for today. Staff and I do stand ready and available to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you very much for the presentation. Counsel, comments, questions?

I want

to talk about

OCAMIC. We're spreading that out over four years. We know that it's a problem now. Why can't we just bomb the whole project and do it all at once instead of spreading it out over four years and continue going through what we've been going through for the past years?

Well, we have Koch come up and

talk

about that. Because, you mentioned, I wrote down about the phases and wanted to talk about the phases.

Sure. I'll allow Koch to elaborate more on details. But to answer your question regarding financing, all of it upfront instead of phasing it out, what we have seen is that with these capital projects, we do have the design before we move into the construction. So we're being strategic in financing design before we finance the construction, knowing that the construction may happen anywhere from twelve to eighteen months after the design. So instead of going out and bond financing immediately and then having to pay on a portion of the project that we will not get started, so we are strategically timing the requesting for bond financing when those projects will actually begin.

So that's why you see some of the phasing happening, and then I'll allow Colt to elaborate.

Good morning. Thank you. It's a great question, and I fully hear and understand the need to get as much activity done in the Okemec area as soon as possible. No one wants to see what we had happened last summer or previous summers. The one thing with this project is a complex multipronged approach type of project.

So we're currently going to be bringing forward a design consultant here in the very near future to city council for recommendation of approval. Part of that is going to be a phased approach on trying to tackle this project. And by that, we're looking at we're going to have to have a design with a stormwater model that tells us what we are gonna need. We know we're gonna need interconnecting culverts to connect all these canals into one centralized location to install a pump station. We're gonna have to do some stormwater, storage, water quality treatment areas along with this.

And then also, this will be raising the intersection of California and Savona. But it's gotta be done in a sequential type of time frame. We can't raise the intersection before we provide the storage volume for that type of intersection. But we definitely heard the call and we're going to do everything we can to accelerate and get as many shovels on the ground as soon as we humanly can. But if you have any additional further detailed questions, ready for any that you may have.

I appreciate that. I just living close to that neighborhood and having to drive through there, My heart goes out to those people every time it does rain because streets flood. And the quicker we can get it done, better off we're all going to be.

Absolutely. And what I envision in some of the phase one type of projects would be creating the storage areas and getting the interconnecting canal pipes into place. And then that way, the later phases will be the actual pump station to help provide positive drainage and, you know, discharge capabilities that we currently are struggling with because the South Florida Canal stage is so high and therefore we have a hard time getting our gravity fed system out.

So it's not something that can be done from a design build standpoint as opposed to design first then construction? Is that

that's

result because of all the complexities?

Yes. And to an extent, it's not gonna be design build because we're gonna be having the model that has to get done to tell us what we need to do. Mhmm. But that's why we're gonna do this phased approach. That way they can face certain segments of it while they're designing the overall entire complexity of the job. So in essence, where we can do a design type of build aspect, that's what we are gonna be doing with these cohorts in storage.

And I know we are working on property acquisition for that area. Right? Yes. At this time?

Yes. We've been working with the high performing public places group in the area on the Southeast corner of that intersection. We've been working with the church and buying a portion of that. And that's one area we are really targeting for additional storage in that project.

Great. I think that's important for the public to know so they don't think we're just sitting on it. There is active there are active things happening right now in order to allow for that. And then how are we funding the design? Are we using the commercial paper aspect? Or are we bonding the design? What does that look like in terms of funding the design? Or do we have funds for that saved?

Sure. We are using a mixed approach with our financing. Some of our projects are using short term commercial paper, and then some of our other projects are using ten year through thirty year financing.

But what about for this? How are we funding this? Because you have $8,000,000 $8,000,000 7,000,000 and $7,000,000 but for this first phase going into next year, how are we funding the first $8,000,000

Sure. We're bringing up Stephen Okia, our Finance Director to provide us details.

Good morning. Stephen Okia, Finance Director. Good morning, Madam Mayor, Counsel, Assistant City Manager. We are using a mixed approach. We are using commercial paper to fund the first phase of it in order for us to just get a trajectory of how long it's going to take to get past the design portion until we go out to issue that long term bond.

And

it may be a couple of series with the bonds, it just depends on the construction. So the first series as an example may just encompass roughly $20,000,000 of it and then the second series of the bond would encompass a larger chunk of it

as it proceeds. And the reason why we do that, why we're doing that?

The reason why we do that is to really time the bond financing along with the project so that the city and the residents are not paying out on debt that it doesn't need to. Because as we go out to issue bonds, we have that interest payments that we have to pay on it along with the principal. If the construction and the work have not been completed, it doesn't make sense for us to go out and start doing that at that time.

Great. Thank you for that explanation. Any other questions for our cult with regard to this project or anything else? I

know Stephen you went all the way back there, but a question on bonding for design. Are we bonding at all for design? Just want to make sure.

It's commercial paper. Commercial paper is what we're

using for design on our projects. And I don't know how counsel feels about this, but while we're in that discussion, even when we go for appropriation requests throughout the federal and the state government, typically they don't do any funding for those requests unless it's for the actual construction or the shovel ready portion. And personally, I think that's sound business strategy in general. I think when it looks when we look at design, I personally would not like to see us ever bond design. And I see Stephen shaking his head no, which is good, because I think that bonding should be for construction and shovel ready projects.

With that, I also would like to just make a general comment. I understand the presentation informality is required in this way because this is how we have to vote as a body. And more importantly, there a sense of formality of how cities present CIPs and budgets. But just like previous discussions of transparency and how we present to the public, when I started on the council many years ago, I remember saying that transparency goes beyond just providing the information. It's how it's presented so that the public can consume it in a way that's digestible and understand and they can understand it.

I remember those years, Madam Mayor, I'm sure you do too, when we came out with the budget in brief. And there were some really innovative communication pieces that went to the public that may have even gone stale at this point because people have just gotten so used to seeing them in that format. I would really like counsel to consider encouraging the city manager's office to prepare this year's budget, the CIP in close proximity to communications because there's a lot of great information in here, but nobody understands it. If you talk to most people, they don't know what a general CIP is. Don't understand that that's our general fund and that's actually their property tax dollars.

They don't understand that road and bridge is not usually funded through their property tax. It's actually funded through gas tax and other formats. They don't understand that parks impact fees are not funded by their property taxes. It's by new growth and development and an assessment done on new properties. They don't understand how the utility system they're looking at 67% of this $990,000,000 thinking all it's going is to utilities.

And the utility fund, which is not a property tax fund, is actually what's funding this. And unfortunately, there's just been a lot of information provided broadly statewide that I think has confused people along the way and has not given them a clear understanding of how their dollars are spent and how they're collected. And I really want to find a way, and I'm hoping communications and the Centimeters office can really find a way that when we present this for final approval, because this is tentative, as well as this year's budget, that we're going to see it presented in a way of formality because it's required for adoption that way, but also in a way that the public will be able to break down these categories. Because each one of us has gone through this process of being up here. And I don't think any of us could ever say, oh, I knew what all that meant when I walked into the door.

It took many of us a long time to understand this. And so I think it's important just to try to make it as transparent and understandable for the public out there in the future. So I hope you guys can support that, but I'm sure everyone's probably on the same page too with what you're seeing and what I'm seeing too.

Thank you. Thank you. Other comments? Vice President, do you have anything?

Sure. I'd just like to say a lot of great information in here. Thank you for meeting with me and going through it, as you did with all the council members, I'm sure. Anyone who says that we're not investing in our infrastructure or planning for our growth, that's obviously not true based on this. And there are a lot of investments. We had defer some things based on the global scope of things. But I just want to thank you for all the hard work and the tough decisions that were made going into this.

Thank you.

Also, I'd like Stephen to come on up real quick. I don't have a question for him. I just want to see him get up again.

Get your step in, Stephen.

Next time, you better sit a little closer. Counselor Morgan, do you have anything? No. So I have a question with regard to the golf course CIP, dollars 350,000 for a training center. Where did that come from? And why is that necessary at this time when we're scaling back on other projects and making sure that we're focusing on our priorities?

Morning, Madam Mayor. Brad Keene, Parks and Recreation Director. The training center has been envisioned for several years as a teaching center for golf. It would serve as an area where private lessons, camps, group lessons could be given. It's merely just an investment into the course, very similar to the improvements that were made on the driving range. Brings it up to another level. And that's the reason why we've proposed it.

But then you have car repairs, which is a maintenance issue and bunker renovations, which is a maintenance issue, and that's out in 2018, I would think that, that takes precedent over a training center.

We're actually trying to check off some of those maintenance items as we can in every year that we operate so that we can use some surpluses if found on other projects, we'll apply it toward that. But again, the idea of a training center is just to bring the Saints Golf Course to a different level of what we offer in services.

Okay. I understand it, but I don't really feel that, that is a priority. I'm sorry. That's just how when we're talking about scaling back and funding what real priorities are, knowing our maintenance issues, knowing things that we really need to take care of, I just don't think that that's important. So and I'm disappointed that it's in here. Yes.

So kind of what's the plan on that? Or do you have data or a plan to suggest that it's going to help with ROI? Or kind of why did you guys put it in there?

Sure. So with the recent renovations that we've seen done at the golf course, we are seeing increased revenues to the point where the golf course now is pretty much self sustaining. It is generating enough revenues for its operating. With this one, from our conversations with the department, the ROI is at eighteen months, where it does plan on to bring on sufficient revenues to help offset the cost of the new training facility itself.

That's great. But I would like to see that happen first before we put money into it. That's just and and we really need to work on getting this in its own fund and getting it off the general fund. Right. We've been talking about that for years. Hasn't happened yet. It seems to have been self sustaining and has been getting better over the last few years. So I really would like to see that happen. Councilman Pickett?

Well, with this training center, is it going to require

more people to operate it?

No, sir. We actually have a teaching pro under contract that gives private lessons and group lessons and things like that. He would operate out of that facility. It would not require any more staff on the Saints side.

Yet we have an animal control facility that needs to be expanded, right? And we have strays out on the streets all the time and don't have enough animal control space, but yet we're going to say okay to funding a training center for a golf course. I'm sorry. It's just frustrating to me when we're talking about priorities.

Madam Mayor. Yes, go ahead. No, and I understand your frustration. I think for me, the reason why I'm Okay moving forward with it is it seems like this is an expense that is obviously from perception not needed. But the reality is that I remember a time when the Saints Golf Course was actually $500,000 a year under and the general fund was funding it.

It's breaking even. I think the importance is to ensure that it sustains itself. And I would love for those additional maintenance improvements to actually be covered with the increase of revenue that's generated because that to me is the benefit of the ROI of that actual training center, not just to continue to assist us to break even, but then for it to be self sustaining to the point where the golf course is doing its own maintenance. The reason why I'm also Okay is because I believe that the leadership in the golf course has proven that that was a commitment. He said that he was going to make sure that it was self sustaining and he was going to take it out of the hole.

He's done that. So I'm going to trust that this is going to have an ROI, and more importantly, that it's going to help key plans hopefully to have money key plans to have money to be able to deal with the maintenance issues moving forward. Because listen, I'm with you. For me, type of amenities like this are private sector amenities. This was taken over by the public sector. So it's one of those things where either we maintain it and we make sure it's not costing the taxpayers anything or we give it up. That's kind of so right now it's sustaining itself, but I hope that it continues to do that. If not, then we'll have an issue. I understand the request. But to the mayor's point, and I agree with her 100%, we do need to see this go on to an enterprise fund.

And I'm going to really be looking for staff at the budget hearing to kind of tell us when they feel they'll be able to transfer that into an enterprise fund, hopefully sooner rather than later.

I would like to know that as soon as possible.

Thank you.

Because we've been talking about moving this into an enterprise fund for years, and here we are still funding it. So either we're going to do it or we're not going to do it. So I would like a solid answer when that's going to happen.

Consuelo Morgan? I saw you push your button.

Well, was going to echo what the Vice Mayor said. Yes, we have been asking for many years for this to be an enterprise. It is great to know that they are breaking even or very near breaking even. I think that is We've been asking others to try to do that. I mean, with the Mid Florida Event Center, we're still supplementing.

So I think kudos to the golf course for doing that. I do agree with the enterprise fund. That's something that I do believe needs to happen. In the grand scheme of things, with all of these expenses, 3 and 50,000 is a huge amount to me, but not a huge amount for something like that, which I believe we're setting them up for success. And this will help gain momentum and to keep level if not being in a really good way with the golf course.

But this has been a contentious discussion for many, many years. And just again, congrats for getting to the point where we're breaking even.

Madam Mayor? Yes. Just a point for clarification. And I'm sorry, I think it's important that we do this. Can you explain to the public what an enterprise fund is and why would we want to put the money into an enterprise fund or this fund into an enterprise fund?

Sure. The enterprise fund is similar to a business operation where you're bringing in profits, revenues and you have your expenditures, so it's not underneath the general fund. So for clarification for the golf course, the golf course operations, it is set up as an enterprise fund, so it does have its own standalone fund. But you're absolutely right. For the past couple of years, we have been doing a transfer from the general fund, which ad valorem tax funded dollars, over into the golf course enterprise fund to help offset it because it wasn't able to fully carry all of its revenues.

But what we've seen in recent years due to new leadership, their revenues, their profits have been increasing to the point where they are now self sustaining with the exception of their capital projects, their maintenance. And so what I'm hearing from counsel today is the direction to city manager and his staff is to look at how can we get it fully off of relying on the general fund transfer to supplement those capital projects, and those capital projects need to also be coming out of the enterprise funds, which is generating its own revenues to sustain all operations, both all expenses, both operational as well as capital.

Yes. Mean, that's my position. I don't know about the rest, but I thank you for that explanation because, again, with the discussion of transparency, I think an enterprise fund creates tremendous transparency because if not every piece of revenue would go into the general fund and every expenditure would come out of the general fund, and you wouldn't know where that money was being moved or shifted or changed. The enterprise fund requires that all the revenues, the T fees, everything that is generated from the Saints Golf Course goes into its own fund, and all the expenditures come out of its own fund. And then only in the case that it does not meet the funding availability does the general fund, which is property tax dollars by the way, then have to supplement the actual enterprise fund?

And that goes for all of our enterprise funds. And I think that it's really important to just put that message out there that not only is the city budget transparent, but we go above and beyond to make sure that every fund is accountable to the residents and to the public. So I really want to just hone these points in, Madam Mayor, because there's been a lot of misinformation out there.

And there will continue to be because unfortunately what happens is you see a headline or you see a snippet of information and it's not the full scope of a project or it's not the full scope of information. It's not truthful information and then it just creates more challenges Because we work very hard to be transparent. We put the information out there. But if you're not open to receiving it, and if you're not open to checking out the website, or watching a council meeting, or attending a community event where one of us is speaking, makes it really difficult to know and understand what exactly is going on. But we keep striving to do that as much as we can.

And I do include a lot of this information, as I'm sure counsel knows, in some of the presentations that I provide to the public. Because I do PowerPoint presentations in front of many, many different groups. They're about an hour long and they're very detailed and explained a lot of what we do. And I'm very grateful for the residents who do come out and listen and get a lot of the questions answered. But that's what we'll keep working on and make sure we can share as much information with our residents as we possibly can to make sure they understand a little bit, at least a little bit of what we do here in the city.

Yeah, I agree. I think that this year more than ever, probably in the history that we've all been on the board, which is a good thing I actually look at it as a good thing. It is a good thing. People are going to be looking more closely at our budget presentation this year. And I think it's a tremendous opportunity for us to show the information like the mayor presents to the residents and like I present and the rest of the council presents when we're meeting one on one to get down to basics so people understand what their budget is.

All right. Anything else on this matter? So I'm not, just so council knows, I'm not going to vote against the CIP because there's a lot more that goes into it. And I want to thank the entire team for all your hard work. I know this is a lot of work and many, many meetings to figure things out, but I still stand by that concern that I have with regard to the golf course. With that, is there a motion to approve the capital improvement plan for we'll take them separately, 2027 to 2031?

Second.

Second. Okay. Any final discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Is there a motion to approve the CIP for 2627? Motion to approve?

Second.

The motion is second. Any final discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

Thank you.

We're going to move on to 5B, approval of final design alternative for Tradition Parkway and Village Parkway intersection improvements. Good morning, Antonio.

Good morning. Good morning.

Go ahead. You don't have to

wait for me. I'm sorry.

I'm Tony Bellischeri, Public Works Engineering Department. Good morning, Madam Mayor, Madam Vice Mayor, Counsel, Madam Chief Assisting Manager. This next agenda item is for the Tradition Parkway and Village Parkway intersection. It is aligned with residents' number one concern, traffic management. It also meets at least two of our city goals about high efficient infrastructure and safe and beautiful.

So I will teed up. I'll give some background, and then I'm going to pass it on to our third party engineering firm, DRMP, who has done the design, and they'll walk you through the design, how we got there and the next steps. Ultimately, today, we're looking for council approval to move to the construction RFP process, to move forward to that. And also, we just want to make sure that we're all in agreement with the final design. Aliyah Wad will walk through the process.

But just for clarity, staff does agree with the engineers' recommendations to go with Alternative three, which is the most comprehensive. The estimates you'll see, they do range from about $800,000 to $1,500,000 We've budgeted, as you saw in the previous agenda item on the CIP, we've budgeted $2,500,000 for next year for this project to be conservative. And the cost estimate you see is absent of the CEI services, which this being such a major intersection, we're definitely proposing to include our CEI there to make sure that everything gets done to a high quality and also done coordinated with all of various contractors. So just before I pass it over, a little bit of background. This project has come before Council before.

It initially started as a safety improvement for pedestrians and cyclists. As part of that, the traffic analysis unveiled that if we did some capacity improvements, we would be able to definitely increase vehicle traffic flow, which is part of the design that we're proposing today. And then at the end, if there's any questions or anything that some clarity, we can answer some questions. I'll pass it on to you. This is Aliyah Awad and Patsy Fusqueto from DRMP.

Thank you so much. Good morning.

Good morning. Thank you so much for having me here this morning. Aliyah Awad with DRMP. I'm the project manager for this effort, and here also is Patsy Fasciano from DRMP as well, one of the senior engineers involved in the design. And so like Antonio mentioned, this project started out a couple of years ago as just kind of implementing minor safety improvements to make it safer for everyone to use the intersection.

But that was followed by a traffic analysis exercise that revealed need for capacity improvements at the intersection. And so several iterations of traffic analysis were done for current and future conditions to evaluate the needs. And then out of that, we evaluated different alternatives for what could be done to the intersection in addition to what's been done already, just like the dedicated eastbound westbound right turn lane, for example. And so over time, we refined the design and we actually met with the community in August and received some feedback after which we made some revisions to the design. And where we're at right now is that we're almost wrapped up with a design, we're at 90%.

And like Antonio said, we're hoping to get it to construction soon following your direction. And so not all of the slides are this dense, but this slide right here shows the different capacity improvements that we ended up proposing based on what the traffic analysis was telling us. The picture on the top left is what's out there right now, existing conditions. And so I'll just quickly walk through each leg of the intersection to explain what's been done and added. Starting with the westbound, right now there's a dedicated westbound right turn lane that recently got installed.

Our analysis showed that an additional right turn lane is needed for that approach. And then we also extended the left turn lanes to maximize that storage. And then also, we had previously talked with you all about the blank out signs. What those do is basically they only light up when a pedestrian pushes the button to cross, and that eliminates the conflict and improves the safety. Otherwise, cars can turn right from the outmost right turn lane.

So as far as the eastbound approach, there's currently two through lanes, I'm sorry, and a dedicated right turn lane. To maximize access to 95, we proposed converting that right turn lane into a shared through to allow a little bit more through lanes and minimize the bottlenecks in that approach. Similarly, we are proposing a blank out sign and that really goes to the whole of the intersection. Now there are a few approaches where it is unsafe to make a U-turn due to geometry and then also to improve operations, which is why you see some

of these

approaches recommending a no U-turn sign. Going northbound, right now there are three through lanes. Our analysis showed that there is more capacity that is needed to turn right to access 95, and so we're proposing to convert one of those through lanes into a dedicated ride. So you'll have two right turn lanes going northbound onto eastbound. And finally, for the southbound approach, similarly, we have three through lanes, and so we're recommending converting one of those through lanes into a third left turn lane.

And as you can see here, there's a pattern where we're trying to work with the footprint that we have, the right of way, and that at the same time maximize access to 95 to really kind of flush out the traffic and minimize the overall congestion at this intersection. Another alternative we considered, and that was actually the option that was included in the Southern Globe master plan back in 2021 was to remove the Eastern Crosswalk. And that was kind of proposed back then in conjunction with a proposed future pedestrian bridge that would cross tradition and connect the south and north sides. And so we evaluated what that would do in terms of improvements in traffic analysis, and I'm going to get to a slide where it kind of lays out the differences of these improvements. Like I mentioned, we conducted a public meeting that was held on August 2025.

We gave a presentation of the proposed improvements, the impetus for the project, and then the community had the opportunity to kind of discuss specific questions at a couple of different stands. And so during that meeting, we got a lot of positive feedback. The community in general was in favor of enhancing the intersection to make it easier and improve mobility. But we also got some feedback about some of the improvements. This is the exhibit that was presented at the public meeting.

This is essentially what just of went through and described. But one thing I did want to point out is an example of the community feedback that they gave for the westbound through lane that we proposed kind of combining it through with a right turn lane. The community wanted to maintain a dedicated right to kind of facilitate those right turning movements, but also understood the need for an additional through lane to enhance that capacity. So that kind of helped us go back and reevaluate that corner, that bottom southwest corner of the intersection to see what can be done, again, within the existing right of way. And just wanted to point out that for all the other improvements that are highlighted, the community was in favor of these improvements.

And so based on this feedback, we looked at what could be done and you know, we could we were able to add an additional dedicated right turn lane and still have three through lanes within the existing right of way. There are some impacts on you know, right now it's swales, so we just have to do some regrading, but we also have to extend the through lane and the right turn lane further west. And so that then impacted the bus stop, but we were able to propose kind of a safer spot for it further west away from the intersection, and so that was included in the cost as well. We also took a closer look at extending the left turning movements eastbound and westbound even more, basically maximizing it up to as far as we could. And so that's why you see the westbound and eastbound lefts highlighted that basically going as far back as the opposing turn lanes.

That of course has an impact on the medians and the lighting that is currently in the median. And so what we did as part of the costing and evaluation and really kind of the design and construction that is needed is evaluate what is possible, you know, relocation of those lights from the median to one on each side of the roadway. What drainage impacts are there on all corners of the intersection? You'll see how in the northeast corner of that intersection we're proposing tying the sidewalk to the existing trail to maximize what's out there and then regrading adjacent to the through movements and essentially making it safer for everyone. And so basically what we did is now that we had three alternatives and a couple of years had passed, we basically upgraded all of the data.

As you all know, the Port St. Lucie is growing, and so we kind of leveraged that information and analyzed everything to compare apples to apples. There are different measures in terms of how you evaluate delay capacity and benefits, and the measures you see here are examples, the level of service, the delay that vehicles experience, and then the V over C, which is basically vehicle overcapacity. Any times you see a V over C over one, that's when you are in congested, maxed out conditions. And so just the high level story of this evaluation is that the PM peak, the afternoon rush hour, is really kind of the worst time of the day, more so than the morning, although as you can see, there is some congestion in the morning.

And so looking at that, we found that Alternative Bill three, the one we basically did the final improvements in and folded in the community's feedback provides you with that lowest V over C ratio, dramatically reduces delay in the afternoon. We also looked at the queuing in terms of how far back from the intersection the cars queue up, and alternative three really presented that kind of least amount of congestion in those different kinds of measures. And so finally, as Antonio mentioned, we costed out each alternative. Really the main difference between one and two is the Eastern Crosswalk. But in terms of alternative three, I had mentioned that we're maxing out extending everything out in terms of terminalling to maximize this storage and capacity since we're already going in and reconstructing the intersection.

And so that kind of created some impacts like moving the light poles and so forth. And so that's where that cost for alternative three is. Of course, we're still finalizing our planes, we're at 90%. The 100% will come up with that detailed final cost estimate, but this is based on design, what is provided here. And so like Antonio mentioned, what we are looking this morning for is direction from council to advance into the final design of the plans to move into construction.

From our recommendations, we feel that alternative three provides the best benefit for the reward in terms of minimizing alternatives. And of course, Port St. Lucie continues to grow. And as it continues to grow, there's a lot of signal retiming, a signal coordination efforts that are being done along village as we speak and Becker. And so I think the overall system overall will adapt.

But with what we have right now, we recommend alternative three, and we look forward to your recommendation. And just kind of a quick overview of what's immediately to come next. If we do get your approval to proceed, we have substructural analysis that needs to be done that evaluates the capacity of the current mast arms. The goal is to keep those existing mast arms to minimize costs. So we're going to try to look at different ways to do that and just really finishing up the design towards 100%.

And as you can see here, we're hoping to let it out for the RFP or the city in June so that we can start construction by August. And with that, I will close it out and open it up for questions. Thank you so much.

Yes, go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor. When you did this analysis, did you look at the timing of the lights on the adjacent roads? The reason I'm asking is because no matter which alternative we go with, if we don't do something to the light at Meeting Street, then we could open up as many lanes as possible. Because what's happening now is people that's traveling on Village Parkway going north further inter tradition, the light at Meeting Street is red. You have green at Village Parkway.

You go across Gatlin, and traffic starts backing up there. And you have people that will park in the middle of the intersection because the light at Meeting Street's red. So no matter which alternative we go with, that needs to be addressed.

That's a great question. And allow me to highlight one of the things that we're doing. So we have another engineering outfit that's actually doing a retiming study. Actually, they're implementing or creating a coordination plan exactly for that purpose. So we did a pilot or a trial last September, late fall last year on Becker to optimize that. It was implemented really well. We were able to optimize some of timing. So we're continuing with that effort now. We're actually in the process. We've provided a bunch of design plans, and we're getting timing plans over to another engineer.

So that way, when this design is completed, it's going inform that so that they can continue to coordinate not just Meeting Street, but all the way up to Village across Crosstown. And then after that, we're going to look at Gallon. So

I very much appreciate you looking at and doing the Alternative three because those turn lanes have needed to be extended eastbound and westbound for a long time now. Mhmm. And I think that's gonna help quite significantly to be able to, you know, stack into the turn lanes instead of having so much traffic and backup because that intersection is a nightmare most of the time. My question though is when are we doing this work? Because like I just said, this intersection is a nightmare all throughout the day, all throughout the night, especially during peak time, in the evenings.

So I can only imagine when we're having construction out there what a disaster it's gonna be even though it needs to get done. So how are we gonna work Absolutely. With

So the schedule that Aliyah just went over, that's expediting to be able to get the RFP process started in June, award anticipated for August so that we can turn around and get the build our own board and get them moving and start ideally this fiscal year before the end

of this fiscal

year. Yeah. But what time of day? Like, can we do this work at some of this work at night? I know it might be more expensive, but it's I mean, it's crazy

out there.

You're absolutely right.

Yep. So that's what we're going go over with our contractor through the bidding process. We want to see what they present and if they're thinking that way. And that's why we did budget a higher number in there to accommodate for that. So absolutely, if the phasing and constructability requires us to do those types of things, we're completely aligned to do that for sure.

Any other questions?

Steph?

I do like the option three, if that's what it's called, build alternative three. I I'm glad that you had changed and made the eastbound a right hand turn lane only instead of having a combination. But from what it looks like, the residents were there and gave some really great suggestions. The only other thing that I wanted to say, and I probably really don't need to say this, but has the preemption light been done at that intersection only because when I rode with 20, it's a, for lack of better words, it's a cluster there. And when a fire engine or squad or rescue is coming out, people freeze and they stop and they won't move.

I actually don't think this intersection has been done yet. I'll double check.

And you can get back with me. I just had to throw that in because you know how we are on the pre m shuttle.

Absolutely. No, but that's a good point. And we are doing corridor by corridor. So I think even if we put it there, I think for it to be coordinated, it would be optimal if we have a little corridor. But I appreciate you bringing that up, so I'll definitely double check it back with you.

Thanks.

And then just since we have that slide up, you can see in the southwest corner, all the way at the left side of the slide, where the new bus pad's gonna be. I just wanna highlight how happy we were to see with this new idea that came up, was that bus stop is now pushed further south so that this new right turn lane allows there to be enough space for the bus to pull out of the second turn lane and not be in the way. So we're maintaining those fully two lanes of traffic through traffic going eastbound. So that's another safer situation for the most widely used bus stop in, I think, in the city.

Thanks. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I too support option three. I'm hoping that with other improvements that it's going to be a little bit better on the levels of service, but definitely needed either way. The three biggest words and most important words in this presentation for me were per resident feedback. And I just want to give a word of encouragement to residents.

Anyone who thinks or says that the public meetings don't matter or things already decided before you go to the public meeting, that's absolutely not true. We value our public feedback. So this is a word of encouragement, that if there is a public meeting in your neighborhood or at one of our community centers, show up, give your ideas, because it makes better policy, it makes the community a better place, and this is a shining example of that. So thank you to our staff for listening. Thank you for putting together an alternative that's going to be better overall.

Any other comments? Is there a motion?

Motion to approve Alternative three.

Second. Okay.

I have a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. All right, counsel. Thank you. That's all we have on our agenda. So this meeting is adjourned.