Transportation Surtax Oversight Board Budget Meeting – September 5, 2025
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Transportation Surtax Oversight Board Budget Meeting – September 5, 2025
The Transportation Surtax Oversight Board held a consolidated budget workshop and regular meeting on September 5, 2025, to review FY2026 recommended budgets and five-year plans (2026–2030) for Broward County Public Works, Transportation Department, Municipal Surtax Program, and Support Services. The board also discussed proposed updates to the county administrative code and ordinance following the Third Amendment. Key presentations highlighted accomplishments, small business participation, and new initiatives. The board approved all proposed projects and expenditures as statutorily eligible, and also discussed quorum rules and the hiring of an outside auditor, reaching consensus on a majority vote requirement.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Miguel Fernandez, representing Pembroke Falls HOA, requested that the community be engaged in the Sheridan Street expansion project. He noted mixed opinions among residents but emphasized the desire for collaboration.
- Herb Vargas, a traffic engineer with 34 years of experience, urged the board to prioritize intersection improvements (nodes) over road widening (links), using Sheridan Street and Flamingo as an example. He also raised concerns about pavement conditions and the need for intersection work.
- Keith Polyakoff, town attorney for Southwest Ranches, expressed support for the Sheridan Street project but asked the board to consider the Hollywood Boulevard bifurcation project, noting that state funding was recently extended. He also referenced a grant match application submitted for that project.
Discussion Items
- County Office of Economic & Small Business Development (OESBD): Presented MAP Broward small business highlights: 36% goal achieved on county projects, 39% on municipal projects. Over $415 million committed to certified small businesses. Economic impact analysis of 106 active projects shows $796 million in direct/indirect impact and over 4,000 jobs.
- Public Works Department: Reported 11 projects completed in the past year, including road expansions, fiber infrastructure, intersection improvements (SR 84 & US 1), and BMSD sidewalk projects. Requested $100 million for FY2026, with $428 million in the five-year plan. Discussion focused on resurfacing lifecycle costs, new fiber projects (e.g., Atlantic Boulevard with FDOT partnership), safety improvements on NW 31st Avenue, drainage upgrades (Broadview Park pump stations due to climate change), and sonovoid bridge repairs (5 of 39 funded, 9 more planned). Board members raised concerns about project scope and the share of surtax funding for recurring maintenance items like drainage and resurfacing.
- Transportation Department: Presented ridership figures (20 million annual rides), cost per passenger ($8, second lowest in Florida), and customer service improvements (24/7 live agents). Highlighted the Late Shift Connect service (352% increase in usage), Paratransit (15% surge), and a clean audit of COVID relief funds. Discussion included electric bus challenges (Proterra bankruptcy, failed buses, $38 million local investment, shift to low-emission hybrids), community shuttle program costs (varies by city, with some routes at $25/rider), and the need to accelerate bus shelter installations. The board also discussed the comprehensive operational analysis (COA) expected in late 2025.
- Support Services: MAP administration costs remain at 1% of projected revenues. Additional funding requests included $500,000 for flooding sensors and updates on the near-miss traffic incident identification system (Phase II). Dr. Lee and Dr. Ranka from the University of Florida presented before-and-after studies on two intersections, showing an 80% reduction in severe near-miss events through signage interventions. They recommended expanding the system with mobile LIDAR technology.
- Ordinance & Administrative Code Updates (Post Third Amendment): Nathaniel Klitzberg presented changes including: new formula-based funding for municipal rehabilitation and maintenance, grant match program, enhanced project oversight (ability to terminate long-dormant projects and redeploy funds), adjusted quorum rules to conform to other county boards, and changes to CBE provisions based on state law. He also noted the removal of MPO review and the inclusion of micro-transit as an eligible use.
- Board Governance Discussion: A lengthy debate occurred on whether hiring an outside performance auditor should require a supermajority or simple majority vote. The board reached consensus to change the ordinance to require a simple majority vote (majority of present members with a quorum of five physically present). Members also discussed making pre-meeting briefings mandatory, with encouragement for all members to attend.
Key Outcomes
- Motion 1: Approved the minutes of the May 2, 2025, meeting. (Passed unanimously)
- Motion 2: Approved as statutorily eligible the proposed projects and expenditures for FY2026 in categories A (Public Works), B (Transportation), C (Municipal Surtax Program), and D (Support Services). (Passed unanimously, with county attorney confirmation of eligibility)
- Motion 3: Approved as statutorily eligible the proposed projects and expenditures for the five-year plans 2026–2030 for Public Works, Transportation, and Municipal Projects. (Passed unanimously)
- Board Consensus: Directed staff to amend the ordinance to require a simple majority vote (rather than supermajority) for hiring outside performance auditors. This change, along with other ordinance updates, will be finalized and transmitted to the Board of County Commissioners.
- Next Steps: The MAP administration will provide a side-by-side funding breakdown for drainage, bridge, and resurfacing projects. The low-stress multimodal mobility master plan will be presented at the December 2025 meeting. The comprehensive operational analysis for transit is expected to be complete by late 2025. The next oversight board meeting is scheduled for October 24, 2025.
Meeting Transcript
Okay, I know it's just about 9 32, and um Alan will be on his way, but we're gonna go ahead and get started. Uh good morning, everyone. So good to see so many of you here. Um I I just want to uh thank you all for your participation, and um for those of you who are here uh in person and those who are virtually um chiming in. Unlike recent years, we have um consolidated the annual budget workshop and the fiscal year 2026 budget approvals into one meeting. So it's going to be a long meeting, so we want to try to get through as much as possible um today as quickly as we can. Members, I just want to remind everyone to speak directly into your microphone for the recorder, so we can make sure we can capture your um comments verbatim. Um if you are not speaking directly into the microphone, then it means that we're gonna have to ask you to repeat yourself, which is only gonna delay um our meeting today. So just to get started, Roy, um, do we have anyone sign up for the general public for comments? Uh three uh three individuals signed up. We have three for mobility related topics. All right. So can you go ahead and call? Yeah, we'll start with uh Marco Fernandez from Pembroke Falls. Okay. Are you interested in good morning? Thanks for the opportunity to speak today. Um my name is Miguel Fernandez. I'm here representing Pembroke Falls Homeowners Association. Um the reason I'm here is we will be um impacted uh in all ways with the sharing expansion project that is uh taking place and being uh considered. I want to make sure uh we set the record in terms of we have uh we're a large community, 2,000 plus homes, uh several thousand uh residents, and even though we we are being affected, we have a group of people that are really don't like the idea there against, but we also have a group of people that are excited and would love for the project to move forward. So my my point is we would like very much to be part of the conversation, to be engaged to see how we can work together regardless of how the committee and and the department decides to move with the project that we're considered and that we can be part of any solutions or recommendations. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And next we'll have uh Herbert Vargas from Pember. Thank you. Good morning, uh Madam Chair and members of the other side board. I really want to first of all I want to thank you for the work that you do. It's very important that somebody's looking over how our tax dollars are spent. My name is Herb Vargas. I live at 12507 Northwest 18th Manor in the community of Peru Falls. But I'm here more as a technical person. I'm a traffic engineer. I've been uh in in transportation for the last 34, not the last for 34 years, the last four years in real estate. But before that, I've been three or four years in the transportation business in the states of Florida, California and Texas. I've been in a traffic and transportation business in the states of Florida, California, Texas, Colorado, and many, and Virginia and so on. But I bring 34 years of experience. Um my main topic that I want to talk to you guys today is that your focus is mobility, mobility advanced program. In mobility, what we uh technical people are aware of is that we want to address the nodes, the intersections. Not necessarily the expansion of the of the links of the highway links, because the links may have plenty of capacity, but when you get to an intersection, and intersection is a bottleneck, all we're doing by building the link, well building a beer parking lot that causes more pollution more idling. Well, if you take care of the node, you make the cards go through, you reduce delays, you reduce congestion, you reduce pollution, and you save gas and all those things. So I I bring that up because of the issue of Sheridan Street. In the past, you allowed me to talk to you over the phone, and I want to thank you for that. But Sheridan Street's a good example that the priority of Sheridan Street improvement should be on the intersection of Sheridan and Flamingo. We need to take care of the node. Because if we we don't take care of the node, we don't take care of the intersection. Doesn't do us any good to add three lanes in each direction of Sheridan Street. So that issue will be it's I was hoping that by now, because we've been working on this for almost a year, year and a half uh in many ways. With the city and then with the county, that uh I was hoping that by now we will have a budget as part of the resurfacing project between 126 and 145th, because we have path holes, it's it's really about state.
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