Fort Lauderdale City Commission Conference Meeting - June 17, 2025
STREAMING COPY IN PREPARATION — RECORDING AVAILABLE FROM THE ORIGINAL SOURCE
Fort Lauderdale City Commission Conference Meeting - June 17, 2025
The City Commission held a conference meeting on June 17, 2025, beginning at 1:30 PM. The meeting included a joint budget workshop with the Budget Advisory Board, followed by the regular conference agenda covering communications, old/new business items, and commissioner reports. Key topics included the 10-year financial outlook, Sailboat Bend Vision Plan, mixed-use code updates, code enforcement lien collection, net zero plan next steps, and appointments to the Election Board.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Spencer Lasday (Sustainability Advisory Board) presented on the communication from the SAB, recommending that the city adopt an EV fleet policy for non-pursuit emergency vehicles to meet net zero goals.
- Chris (Historic Preservation Board) reported that the HPB was favorable to the Sailboat Bend Vision Plan and supported implementing its initiatives.
- Jacqueline Scott (Planning and Zoning Board) expressed frustration that PZB meetings are held in the lobby of Development Services, calling it an unprofessional environment, and requested a more suitable venue.
- Doug Egan spoke in support of the mixed-use code update, emphasizing the importance of maintaining the 150-foot height limit and using form-based regulations to guide development along corridors.
- Ted and Sarah (River Oaks Civic Association) voiced concerns about the removal of single-use residential references and the lack of density limitations, urging protection of single-family neighborhoods.
Discussion Items
- Budget Workshop (Joint with Budget Advisory Board): Kyle Stevens from Stantec Consulting presented the 10-year financial forecast for eight funds. Key assumptions included a 7.3% increase in property values for FY26, $61.8 million full cost recovery of fire assessment, $10 million placeholder for new city hall, and $4.6 million expiration of SAFER grant in FY28. The general fund dashboard showed a balanced budget in FY26 but projected deficits starting in FY27, with a need for a 0.55 mill increase in FY27 to maintain sustainability. Water and sewer rates are projected to increase 9% in FY26-27, then 5% thereafter. Stormwater rates need 15% in FY26, 20% in FY27-28, then 15% through FY32. The sanitation fund requires 5% annual increases. The parking and building funds are projected to be sustainable. The airport fund is self-sufficient.
- BUS-1: Sailboat Bend Vision Plan: Andrew Georgiatis from Dover, Kohl & Partners presented the plan, which was developed over 18 months with community input. Key elements include gateway features, street design improvements, park programming, a polishing marsh for water quality, and missing middle housing. The plan includes short-term, mid-term, and long-term implementation tasks. The city has allocated $100,000 in the FY26 budget for next steps.
- BUS-2: Mixed-Use Code Project Update: Principal Planner Jim Hetzel presented the project, which aims to update mixed-use regulations in response to the Live Local Act and Broward County policy. Staff proposed moving forward with amendments to limit building length to 200 feet, require podium step-backs, cap floor plates at 10,000 sq ft, implement residential transition areas, remove single-use residential references, and apply mixed-use rules to Live Local projects. The commission directed staff to proceed with these amendments.
- BUS-3: Code Enforcement Lien Collection and Administrative Cost Recovery: Portia Garcia presented an update on lien collections. The city has $66 million in outstanding liens, with 1,321 properties responsible. The current amnesty program has collected $2.4 million in reductions from $16 million in liens. The commission supported restarting the lien foreclosure process (subject to staffing) and revising the discharge policy for uncollectible liens. The amnesty discount was recommended to be changed from 90% to 85%.
- BUS-4: Net Zero Plan Next Steps: Sustainability Coordinator Lucy Ramirez presented the five-year roadmap. Initiatives include $200,000 for a community energy strategic plan, $200,000 to expand Circuit microtransit in the Northwest service area, $100,000 per year for solar panels on city facilities, and a fleet electrification policy for non-emergency vehicles. The commission expressed support for all initiatives except the fleet policy, which Vice Mayor Herbst opposed. A majority (Mayor Trantalis, Commissioner Glassman, Commissioner Beasley-Pittman, Commissioner Sorensen) supported the fleet policy, giving direction to proceed.
- BUS-5: Mayor’s Appointments to the Election Board: Mayor Trantalis appointed Commissioners Beasley-Pittman and Glassman to certify the results of the election for the employee-appointed Civil Service Board member.
- City Manager’s Report: Interim City Attorney D’Wayne Spence noted that for the upcoming PH-1 item (unrelated to the conference meeting), a unanimous vote of the full commission is required because portions of the property are zoned park. He proposed a walk-on resolution to allow Commissioner Sorensen to participate remotely.
Key Outcomes
- Budget Workshop: The commission received the 10-year financial forecast and will use it to set the maximum millage rate and non-ad valorem assessment rates at the June 30 meeting.
- Sailboat Bend Vision Plan: The commission supported the plan and the $100,000 allocation for implementation.
- Mixed-Use Code Update: Staff was directed to move forward with the proposed amendments with a goal of bringing them to the commission in approximately four months.
- Code Enforcement Lien Collection: The commission supported restarting lien foreclosure efforts (pending staffing), revising the discharge policy, and modifying the amnesty discount to 85%.
- Net Zero Plan: The commission supported the community energy strategic plan, Circuit microtransit expansion, and solar panel installations. The fleet electrification policy was approved by a majority.
- Election Board Appointments: Commissioners Beasley-Pittman and Glassman were appointed to certify the Civil Service Board election.
- Temporary Street Closure: The commission supported a temporary closure of Southeast 17th Avenue for a six-month trial, with the Transportation and Mobility Department to report back on impacts.
Meeting Transcript
Together let's resume our joint city commission budget workshop. Budget uh uh advisory board workshop. What's that you can't hear me? Can he hear me now? Okay. So a vet uh could you please uh bring us back to the uh absolutely and thank you for making the time this afternoon. So um with me is Kyle Stevens from Santach Consulting. And what Santa does is look at our current financial position and help us determine what we're going to look like over the next 10 years. This information is really intended to help you set the rates at the next meeting, the June 30th meeting. Will you be setting the maximum millage rate in addition to the non-advalorum assessment rates? And so with that, I'll turn it over to Kyle. Hello, Kyle. Good afternoon, Mayor and Commissioners. Um thank you for making time to go through this information as you Yvette mentioned. Um really what we're trying to do here is dovetail with the conversations that you've been having today with regards to taking the fiscal year 26 budget and providing that snapshot going forward of the next five or ten years and the dynamics that are in play with regards to ongoing sustainability. We'll be covering eight funds today. Um and feel free to ask questions as we go through if there's certain topics you want to dive further in. Uh in this first slide here, I just wanted to tee up why we really do this. And I was mentioning that it's really fundamentally to take a look outside of the budget about items we know about future capital investments or future expenditure commitments that we have, integrate those into the model so that we're planning for those. Okay, just one second. This presentation has not been attached to our agenda. Is that correct? I don't see it. Is it exhibit one? Is that business too? Oh, a business too. It's under the joint workshop business too. Got it. Thank you so much. So as I was mentioning, uh big item here is financial sustainability and sensitivity testing, as well as uh really taking into account the current economic conditions that the city operates in. Um it really is a team effort. So we've spent the last few months integrating with staff, including the city manager's office, assistant city managers, department heads to really get the latest and greatest information on the ground with regards to the various funds that I'll cover today. Across all of the funds, there are some common information uh that are included in the analysis, and I'll also highlight as we get to each individual fund the unique observations or planning assumptions that we've made. So 2024 uh unaudited actuals are included in our analysis, the 2025 adopted budget, and the current draft budget as of June 4th. Uh additionally, we've integrated the latest numbers looking for for the community investment plan, which is 2026 through 2030. Uh a key assumption that will go across uh all funds as well will be the new city hall. So that's 10 million dollars that we have currently as a placeholder for that, the majority of that being in the general fund, um, but other funds do have a share of that, and we've also recorded rent reductions when that facility would come online. Rent reduction because we'd be consolidating. Exactly. So within the funds, we put that that order of magnitude estimate in. Got it. And so here are the funds that we'll be covering today. We'll be going through through them in order. Um, typically, if we presented this historically, really concentrated on the first, I'll say three or four as the larger funds that have some of the more dynamic uh investment decisions associated with them. And first we'll go into the general fund and these next two slides. I just want to list the key observations that we've included in this year's modeling. And so what we're looking at, and this has been mentioned today is a full cost recovery of the fire assessment. That would be in fiscal year 21 to six uh $61.8 million dollars over fiscal year 25's uh levels. Uh additionally, we've included placeholders. The city has a past practice of every three years doing a fire assessment study, and we've included 10% increases to represent that true up to full cost recovery over time.
openpublica.com