The Fort Lauderdale City Commission held a conference meeting on April 1, 2025, at 1:30 PM. The agenda included updates on the 2025 state legislative session, a discussion on state immigration legislation from Special Session C, a review of parliamentary procedures, and a detailed debate on the New River Crossing project. Commissioners also gave reports on community events and upcoming activities. The meeting concluded with a brief Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) board meeting.
Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the City Commission meeting, conference meeting this uh April 1st. Yes, this is real, not an April Fool's joke. And uh we are moving forward with uh uh an interesting agenda this afternoon and uh thank you all for being here. We all seated oh not yet, okay. All right. So um hold on, let me get to the right agenda. Okay. So we have a number of presentations this afternoon, and the first is gonna be with regard to getting a legislative update of what's going on at the uh legislature, which is currently in session in Tallahassee. And Daphne, you want to give us a heads up? Not really. Yes, you do. Uh good afternoon. A lot of things are in flux, though, right? Lots of things are in flux, but a lot of things are moving along. Okay. So this is our our mid-session update. There seems to be. All right, good afternoon, Mayor, uh, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, um, the Daphne Sainville, public affairs manager. Wanted to give you a mid-session update on what's going on in Tallahassee. Before I get into the policy bills, I want to talk money first because we like talking about money. Um, the state budget has been released, the preliminaries uh with the base budget from the House and the Senate. The Senate budget is looking at 117.4 billion dollars. The House budget is looking at 112.9 billion dollars. So there's about a $4 billion, $4.4 billion difference between the two that they're gonna have to reconcile near the end of April during budget conference. Part of that um budget release was our appropriations projects that we put in. We put in approximately 11 projects. We are in play for seven out of the eleven. So the ones that got into one house, one well, one chamber or the other, are as follows. The Galt Mile Improvement Project, we requested two million. We have 500, oh no, we have a million in the house. Um in the Senate, we didn't get into their budget, but we're working on that this week, next week, and for the remainder of session. Um, we're looking to see if we can bump up to that full ask. Uh the roadway resurfacing project, we requested 750, and in the Senate, we are in the budget for 750, so that's a good sign because the Senate does control the budget this year, so being in play on their side makes it much easier for the House to come up to that full amount. The sidewalk repair safety project, we requested 750,000, and in the Senate, we are in there for 750,000, so we are in play there, looking very good. The Las Olas Safety Improvement and 88 upgrades, which is the Las Olas Mobility Project. We are in the Senate for 500,000. Uh uh no, the House for 500,000 and in the Senate for 1 million. So there's a disconnect there, and we're gonna look to bring the House up to the million dollar mark. What was that money intended for? Is that for the design that you know off the top of your head? That is for I believe construction design, Miloch. Good afternoon, Milo Smash, retracting director for cities transportation and mobility department. So the funding was actually for construction, a portion of construction funding for Los Alas Mobility and specifically for shops segment. We're currently working on design, and uh these funding would help with contraction. Well, isn't the budget for construction like in the tens of millions? So, what is this gonna go for? ETE's so I believe the Trump segment only is probably around over 10 million dollars. So ultimately we're seeking any funding opportunity that we can secure in order to advance certain aspects of the project. Okay. Thank you.