Well, good morning and welcome to day two of the City of Oka Raton Strategic Planning Sessions.

It is Thursday, May 8, 2025.

The time is 10 a.m.

Welcome everyone.

We're excited to start the second of two days of our strategic planning.

Appreciate everyone's presence and comments yesterday, and we're looking forward to more today.

And I'll turn it over to our facilitators from Prenovations.

We have Trina Polyam, Melinda Miller, and Sarah Spurlock.

Welcome and thank you.

Good morning.

Mayor, Deputy, Council, Esteemed staff, and welcome everyone who is here from the community.

Thank you so much for coming to day two.

I'm not sure.

I just became aware, so I'm not sure if you are aware, but it is public service recognition week this week.

And I wanted to sort of start with something we said yesterday, but I th and we and we sort of ended with it.

Mr.

Thompson made some key remarks that I want to sort of piggyback on.

And I wanted to just take the time to recognize the accomplishments of staff that we you know have been fortunate, and I do say fortunate to work with the city of Boca Raton and the staff.

Like I said yesterday, we had monthly meetings with the city manager's office.

And it they're quick, they're intelligent, they're talented.

We had a really amazing opportunity to work with the directors and the cross-functional teams with the city, and again, they're dedicated, they're very hardworking.

One of the things I find uh most perhaps different about this city versus some of the other cities where we work.

I think for many of the people who work here, this isn't just a job for them.

This is this is a a life that they believe in.

I remember there was uh a workshop that that we were in uh that we watched publicly, and um I thought to myself, Brandon Shad's kids are the most well-behaved kids I have ever seen in my entire life to sit to sit.

And I know they weren't listening, and maybe they were doing homework, or maybe they were watching a movie on their iPads.

I have no idea.

But but my goodness, they sat for hours waiting for uh the presentation that that you had uh given, and I was reminded in that moment that the people we work with here in this city have kids and families.

And you too, as council members have kids.

Uh I didn't realize how young your kids were until you said that yesterday, Mr.

Mayor.

Um and I know you know Mr.

Thompson's got a uh a family that he's dedicated to, and I've spoken to Councillor Drucker around uh, you know, college and different you guys are so dedicated.

And I just thought that being public service recognition week is a good time to just be reminded that this is a an extraordinary place to be.

And after yesterday, it's an extraordinary time to be here.

Uh I walked out yesterday so enthusiastic and excited about what the the next generations of Boca Ratonians, is that correct?

Boca Ratonians, um, have to look forward to.

Because it's big and it's neat.

And you know, the three of us went to dinner last night and had conversations around uh what's it gonna look like?

And and what do you think they mean by vibrant?

Like what does that mean?

Like, is you know, and then and then Melinda and I drove home and we thought to ourselves, like, how is the vibrant city of Boca Raton gonna be different than the vibrancy of Miami Beach, where we work, where we are in their local government as well.

How's it going to be different here?

And we just looked at each other and we were like, yeah, maybe Boca.

Let's let's focus Boca, right?

Because it's going to be different, and it's going to be this flavor that is uniquely the city of Bo Reton.

And so I wanted to just use this opportunity to recognize the people that make it happen.

And that's you as council and city manager's office and the rest of the staff that is very talented, very intelligent, and unbelievably dedicated to the city in which they work.

So thank you for allowing me those seven or eight minutes to do that.

I'm gonna I'm I would also like to move into today talking about what we're where we're going today.

So we have three strategic focus areas that I think will be more robust in terms of the dialogue among you because it as we started with campus master plan and the related and associated interconnected projects, the strategic focus areas today, the outcomes you decide directly impact the downtown.

And so we will talk about that.

As we think about and talk about those focus areas, the intent of those conversations is to understand what the outcomes are.

What are the targets?

What are we aiming for?

Imagine it's 2035 and you're here, and you're maybe uh coming back from a trip on Bright Line, and you walk through the the station and you take a gondola down to the city center, and there's a underground tunnel walking path uh through the the major intersections at Palmetto Park Road and US 1, so that you can safely, you know, walk or walk your bike to Meisner Park and eat or go shopping.

And then you decide you're staying, and it's 2035, and you're staying downtown, and there's uh live music playing somewhere and it's being piped into wherever.

And we we thought, like, is that is is that what it's gonna be like in 2035?

Is that what they want?

And today's conversations are going to um really impact the ta the tangible changes that residents and stakeholders can feel ten years from today.