Good afternoon, everybody.

Welcome to 2026.

Thank you all for being here today.

And I want to thank uh the members of the commission for once again returning to work.

And uh we get a lot going on this year, so very excited about working together and making sure that all the good things happen to our community.

Uh today we have quite a few presentations we're going to hear.

Um but before we get to those, I want to first refer us to the uh communications that we had from um first from the budget advisory board.

Is there anyone here from the budget advisory board?

Bill Mr.

Brown.

So uh there's a motion made by Mrs.

Booker, uh seconded by uh Mr.

Kelly to state that the budget advisory board supports the proposed ordinance as presented by staff without amendments.

Do you want to talk a little bit about that?

Yes, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the commission, Bill Brown, Chairman of the Budget Advisory Board.

Uh Judy Erickson from Parks and Rack came before our board on ordinance change that related to food and beverage applications and the fees for the beach and the renewals.

Uh I believe it came before you at the last meeting for ordinance first reading, which passed.

We are in support of as it passed.

We also discuss, I think, what might be an amendment that gives the council the option for a call up on the automatic renewals at staff level.

So I think it's on tonight's agenda for second reading.

So we are in support of that.

Uh and then the second communication.

Do you want me to just go into that as well?

Yes, the second communication regarding the reserve and the general fund.

You want to talk about that?

Yes.

Um staff came to us.

Uh they brought after the staff had worked on the financial uh integrity principles that the city adopted several years ago.

They went back, updated it, made it more to make sure that what was current principles in today's uh municipalities and everything, and there will be a presentation this afternoon from staff on that.

Uh we uh first of all want to thank uh the city auditor.

He attends all our meetings, uh the budget, and he sits here quietly, doesn't say anything, but we did ask him about the principles of making sure that they felt comfortable with them as well.

And he brought up and that we asked that it be amended and put in as a best practice is a best practice is used by the governmental finance officers association be incorporated in that.

So you'll see that in the presentation, but we're in full support of staff's uh recommended changes.

Okay, great.

Any questions of Mr.

Brown?

Okay, thank you.

Oh, and by the way, thank you for now all your appointments.

We have a Tim member board after tonight.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

All right, very good.

Uh thank you so much.

And now we have another communication from the planning and zoning board.

Is there a member here?

Ella Good afternoon, Mayor, Commissioners, Ella Parker, Deputy Director of Development Services.

Um there's no uh members of the planning and zoning board here today, but we wanted to um let you all know that they would like um the commission to consider changing the time frames before um the planning uh before an applicant comes to the planning and zoning board to have a public participation meeting more than no more than a year prior to the public hearing.

And staff concurs with that.

So we would like to take a look at our ordinance, amend that language and bring something back in front of the planning and zoning board and uh back to the city commission, if you all give us that directive.

Uh that's not what it says here.

Um it says here it has to do with uh adding vacations of rights of way to the code as it relates to public participation.

So you want to limit it to just the vacations and rights of way?

No, so what happened is there was a case in front of the board that was a right-of-way vacation, and the applicant for that vacation um had done a public participation meeting um a couple years before coming back to the board and actually having the item scheduled.

You want to know exactly.

Yeah, yeah.

And if um if the commission concurs, I think staff would look at just amending the public participation meeting to anything that's subject to it, not just right-of-way vacations.

Okay, great.

Okay, thank you.

Do you think a year is even too long?

It could even be like six months and discuss that internally.

Yeah, I think a year is too long because you know things change, circumstances change, people forget.

Agreed.

You know, players change.

I don't know.

I think we'll assess it and um I I concur.

I think even something like six months would work if you all agree.

We could certainly take a look at that and bring that back in front of the commission.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

All right, very good.

Um, moving on from communications.

We uh we have business one, and uh this is an update on Brower Schools Redefining Initiative.

Um City Manager.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, we have Susan Leon who will begin the presentation, and then Susan Grant will join.

Thank you.

Susan and Susan.

Good afternoon, and happy new year to everyone.

Thank you for allowing us to present to you today regarding Broward County Public Schools Redefining Initiative, which has primarily begun uh due to significant under enrollment and shifting demographics, uh aiming to optimize resources, improve programs, and ensure equitable funding by potentially closing underutilized schools, merging campuses, adjusting boundaries, and adding new magnet or specialized programs with community input guiding these difficult decisions.

So that's why we're here to speak about it today.

If you could please put up the first slide.

Oh, sorry.

Okay, so this initiative started uh last school year in the phase one.

The only item that really uh impacted the city of Fort Lauderdale is regarding Broward Estates Elementary School, which has now been transitioned to an early learning resource center.

And the students that were housed at Broad Estates primarily went to Dr.

Martin Luther King Junior Elementary School.

Some may have transitioned to plantation elementary if they wanted to remain in some specific specific programming.

So for this year in phase two, after many community meetings and workshops, school board workshops.

Um this is part of what is being recommended for this year's phase that impacts the city of Fort Lauderdale that is consolidating Seagull Alternative High School into Witten Rogers Education Center, as you know they are on the same campus.

Um Seagull Alternative High School campus would then be transitioned to us, possibly, or for another district use.

So we're here to talk about that today.

And also Susan, can you can you explain to all of us what is alternative high school mean?

Sure.

The students that are attending the school are still working towards their regular high school diploma, but they're in an alternative setting.

It is not a traditional nine to twelve high school.

So what does alternative mean?

They learn, they learn about trades, they learn about schedule may be different, their programming may be different, some of them may be shared time in other programs.

Um it is unique and individualized for those students.

Is it for is it for underperforming students?

Is it for advanced students?

Give us an idea.

What is what is alternative?

They may have special needs.

I'm going to introduce to you, Dr.

Valerie Wanza, who is here.

Thank you so much for coming today, chief officer for the division of strategy and innovation.

Okay, great.

Good afternoon, mayor, commissioners.

Um, the viewing public, please forget my voice.

I had oral surgery on Sunday, but I'm here.

Um it look it looks better than worse than how it feels.

Trust me.

Um, so uh thank you for the question.

I can tell you so Seagall Alternative High School houses three um unique programs, if you will.

They have the adults with disabilities program, which is a special allocation for the state where they literally have students from age 18 to 82, and they come there in the daytime for different type of um programming to suit their needs, and they can be um effectively or efficiently transitioned into the wooden campus as well.

One of their programs that we um probably all know and that has is their longest standing, the longest standing program is the teen parent program.

Um, and uh, and that's where um pregnant and parenting teams have the opportunity to continue their K-12 education um at the school district along with child care services um to assist them so that they can go ahead and graduate successfully, and then they have um the school of choice program at uh Seagall and the the school of choice is really for um high well, they have some middle school but more more so high school students who for whatever reason were not successful in the traditional school setting.

These are not students who have committed expellable acts or students, these are students who are deficient in credit, they're maybe overage for grade, so they transition here and they work on a more individualized um pathway and track that gets them um closer to graduation and graduating with their cohort.

So um Wooden Rogers offers the the School of Choice program.

The children who are the babies who are in the um in the child care program, though the uh program, believe it or not, uh it's actually on Wooden's campus where the children are, it's just you know sectioned off.

So the transition of Seagull and Wooden together is more of a likely um uh opportunity because then we will be able to um realize greater resources by combining both schools.

Seagull has um just under 175 students on campus, um excluding the adults with disabilities, and Whiton Rogers has about um at our about 550 students, don't quote me exactly on the number, but all of the programming, the students would not be compromised, would not be eliminated, but they can be um efficiently and effectively offered on the wooden campus because the wooden campus can accommodate upwards of about 1400 students.

And and tell us a little bit about what the Whitden Rogers Education Center is.

Sure.

So um thank you, Mayor.

So Wooden Rogers um like Seagull, and that that's why it was um a great opportunity to merge both schools.

So on Witten's main campus, they have um that same school of choice or alternative pathway program for high school students.

They also have a middle school um component for middle school students who are overage for grades at the middle school level, and then they also um Wooden Rogers also provides all of the educational programming in the BSO jails, as well as um many of our um Department of Juvenile Justice programs, they provide the educational component there, but on their main campus, they offer the um alternative or non-traditional track or pathways for middle school and high school students.

But to your point, they they do offer some um workforce certification programs there.

They also partner with our local technical colleges to um ensure that students have exposure and opportunities to participate in um career and technical education so that they can also graduate not only with a high school diploma but also with the work credentials as well.

So by combining them, how is a school board uh able to actually save money?

It's on the same campus, same number of students.

Um tell us a little bit sure.

Uh what are we are we are we reducing the number of faculty and adding more kids to classrooms?

How is this how's the school board saving money here?

So so they're on the same acreage, but they're in two different buildings buildings, if you will.

Okay.

So um, so uh a part of um like Seagull's main campus and um those buildings would be repurposed for another use, right?

That and then um, but to your point, a part of the cost savings is really and truly when you combine schools, you do um you you don't have to have the duplication of staff to operate a school.

So so for example, you don't need two principals, right?

So your administrative staff is uh is reduced because you're now doing it on one school system.

Right.

Okay.

So what kinds of what kinds of program uh what kinds of programming has the school board been considering for the Seagull building?

Um so the the and that's why I'm here today, part of the reason why.

Um the the city of Fort Lauderdale has been very vocal about wanting to look at opportunities to partner with the district um for an alternate use of that Seagull campus around doing a full service, and don't quote me if I get it wrong, but like public safety, some type of opportunities that could benefit the city and the community at large.

Okay.

All right, great.

Well, thank you.

Anyone else have any questions?

Okay, thank you so much.

I did good.

You did good.

You get a star, a gold star today, yeah.

Susan Susan, does that you have more to uh to report?

I do.

That was the first item.

The second item is they're consulting considering consolidating North Fork Elementary School into other surrounding elementary schools as you see listed here for you, and possibly translist transitioning the North Fork elementary school building to for another use.

So this is a second item that's under consideration for adopting.

They will be discussing it and voting on their recommendations January 21st at the school board meeting.

Well, again, uh the North Fork Elementary School campus transition to another use.

Um, what kinds of uses have we been considering for that?

I I'm I'm back.

Um, so right now the the board has received proposals um from uh junior achievement in South Florida um looking at potentially erecting a um a workforce training center um on that property.

We also received uh proposal from um Cis Trunk Rising, which is another entity that would look at doing um some housing, some community resourcing, and then there's the the United Way also um provided a proposal.

Um so right now the the board has received proposals um from uh junior achievement in South Florida um looking at potentially erecting a um a workforce training center um on that property we also received uh proposal from um cis trunk rising which is another entity that would look at doing um some housing some community resourcing and then there's the the united way also um provided a proposal and so um and then there's one more that I can't remember off the top of my head oh the the museum of the thank you the Museum of Discovery and Science wanted to look at look at partnering with the district to actually leave the school open but um look at transitioning the school into a uh museum magnet school a true um whole museum school but in after the board takes its vote on June 21st I'm I'm sorry January 21st and we know what the final decision is then in March we're gonna have a board workshop to actually look at all proposals received so that the board can come to some kind of um direction to give the superintendent on how it would like to see the North Fork campus transitioned and for what specific use got it mayor yes um is the school board still taking additional proposals for the property we are okay my only concern of course is mixing elementary school age kids with adult activities that's the only concern I would have so just keep that in mind yeah okay yes I commissioned yeah Susan Grant um with the city manager's office just gonna provide a little bit more background information about Seagull as we said it is jointly um on that same piece of property with the Wooden Rogers it takes up about a third of that site um on the site we just went to the property appraisers website the structures are valued at 21 million the land at 17.45 acres and that assessed value is four point six million um we talk about the redevelopment options is the city had pr expressed interest as far as a police and fire training facility or another district use um and just here's some a list of possible uses um from fire as far as what would happen at a fire rescue training facility so dedicated classrooms for EMS simulation lab office space training structures for high-rise fire scenarios um apartment training facility props um indoor space for skilled based training um and then for the police similar type of uses um emergency vehicle training um on a track um a simulated urban training village um a training shoot house canine training um they have a place right now but again that's with a lease with I believe F dot and they don't know how long that will happen um training for special operations and bomb teams so those are some of the uses if the city were to pursue keep in mind we haven't had any negotiations and we haven't necessarily appropriated money in the capital plan but that's something just that is currently being explored um zoning Susan could I back you up on that for one second so I I know the sheriff just built this rather elaborate training facility I mean like you can drive vehicles into the building and I mean this is probably one of the most advanced training facilities that I think we have on the East Coast.

Is that not available for us?

I I'm gonna ask the police chief andor fire chief if they have any information on that.

And I'm thinking that's probably more for PD than fire but I mean m Bill do you and Sheriff Tony not get along well I thought Bill was here so you're a pretty affable guy.

I mean with so uh good afternoon uh Steve Greenlaw assistant chief of uh where's Bill come on I mean Bill build my goal is at the uh Officer uh Penny uh memorial uh so he will be here momentarily so I'm here just in his absence for right now but um commissioner yes absolutely um could you just uh re-ass the question and um I'll try to help as much as why can't we why can't we co-utilize the sheriff's new training facility so uh we actually we did take a tour of that and uh had a lot of good ideas from it um we've worked together with the sheriff's department in training for as long as I've been here for 25 years we do have a good relationship with them I and I am uh surmising this that facility is also open to others within the county right and so for an agency our size it would be hard to get the type of training um that we are looking to for uh you know as much as we would want to share that along with the county and other uh entities that would be doing it um I know the question remains you know we're just building coming to the the end of our uh PDHQ being completed um look at that as kind of a an administrative housing area for us this training facility would be a more of a hands-on as uh Ms.

So on our existing campus where we have the new HQ, there's a lot of other vacant land back there, right?

Could we not utilize that for some of this?

So, for instance, um the Evo course, that that would not be able to be uh conducted there for right now.

When we do EVOC, um we have to use either the police academy, uh, which has a a certified training uh uh track or uh a space that we uh at the time are unable to find uh because there's just not that land anymore to use for an EVOC course.

Right.

Um the simulated uh shoot house in the training village, um that is um available at BSO's facility.

It's a great facility.

Right.

Um and again, it would probably just be the supply and demand of it is how often would we be able to incorporate our wants of training with the other municipalities and entities that are also using the the county facility.

Um the canine training field, um that is something that's kind of uh unique in its own.

Um it has to have you know uh to be right there at the PDHQ would just not be be feasible for a lot of uh logistics with the animals and the housing and actually probably a lot of the noise complaints that we would get from those surrounding neighbors.

Where do we do canine right now?

Uh there's various places that they do, but I know at the well fields they have a training facility.

Um, and then they'll also uh work with um other county entities and use vacant malls, uh vacant shopping centers, so on and so forth.

And it's usually not because you mentioned the well field right because I was thinking up there, I I know currently, you know, fire does their their burn training up there.

I know there's a lot of vacant land up there.

So if it's just vacant land we're looking at, I know we've got a lot of vacant land up by the well field um that we could certainly utilize.

Reason I'm asking this is uh I'm not necessarily a huge fan of acquiring additional land above and beyond what we already have to utilize for a dedicated purpose like this.

So I just want to know if we can if we can utilize what's currently underutilized land for some of these purposes.

Well, to your point though, the existing police station is going to be demolished.

And so that's a significant amount of land.

Right, and that's what I want to know.

Can we utilize it like for the shoot house?

I mean, can we construct some of these some of these facilities, the shoot house, the training village on that existing on that existing land.

I I get you know, potentially not the canine facility, but the canine facility could be done up at up at the well fields.

In fact, I think we had talked about that at one time in the past, didn't we?

Yes.

I I remember those conversations uh in uh at some point in the in the past.

Um again, I'm just wondering how much of this we can utilize on existing on existing city uh property before we start looking at at other things like that.

Well these are already built built, these are already built, right?

So this is these are buildings that exist, which repurposing them correct.

So trying to put in there, trying to uh locate them, co-locate with our headquarters would require an additional outlay for building a structure.

That's the only that's the only difference, right?

Well, the reason I'm asking Mayor is, you know, I've had a number of folks approach me uh about looking at opportunities to construct workforce and or affordable housing in the downtown area.

Right.

And you know, before we start looking at creating new training facilities, uh I think we've got to be mindful of the fact that we have a housing crisis in our area for our service workers, you know, people that work in our hotels, people that work in our restaurants, and we're constantly on the lookout for locations that we can utilize to increase that availability of housing.

I think this is an ideal location for that.

And again, I know I've had a number of developers that work in that space that have approached me that are basically chomping at the bit for opportunities to create more housing for our employees that have been priced out of our area.

Um, you know, we look at we look at the fact that we have an affordability issue.

These folks are having to live further and further away from where they work, which puts more traffic on our roads.

We don't have very viable public transit, and so that's more traffic on our roads.

It just creates a cascade of problems that having people that live close to where they work tends to solve.

And I think if we can utilize that in a way to help solve some of this problem, I I think that's a more pressing need for us, if especially if we have other existing locations that can meet the needs of our training requirements for police and fire.

That's all.

Okay, thank you.

Mayor.

I would just like to ask if Chief Golan could provide a little context on what the fire rescue needs would be for this training facility to augment what Assistant Chief Greenlaw mentioned earlier.

Sure.

Hello, Chief.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, happy New Year's to y'all.

Uh thank you for the opportunity.

Um the uniqueness that with this property is is just as the vice mayor had stated is we we can erect these training facilities on any parcel of land anywhere.

But we have to do so uh carefully.

Uh part of that needs to be outside of direct contact in residential areas because of the smoke or because of the activity of public safety training taking place.

And the the beauty of the schools is that there's already classroom space that's available.

Um as we all know the cost of construction and the time just to even build a classroom space, how long that currently takes, and already have classroom space that is already set, ready to go, and kind of a plug and play where we could just build the connex box structures out in the parking lots is would speed up our timeline incredibly.

Um absolutely there are other training facilities as far as from the fire rescue side.

There's uh Coral Springs, there's Broward Fire Academy in Hollywood.

Uh but all of those require us to take our units out of the city of Fort Lauderdale to attend training at those events.

Uh and the challenge with that is we uh run so many calls that we have to backfill then.

Uh we were fortunate enough just to receive a grant uh from FEMA, uh and that grant allows us to pay overtime so that we can then go to other locations.

But that historically is not the way that we've been able to train.

You know, most recently uh we were utilizing the HCA training facility out at West Side Regional and Plantation.

Uh beautiful facility with SIM mannequins there that will do everything from fleet to deliver a baby, putting the paramedics in real life scenarios, but we're not afforded that same opportunity here.

We do have the financial ability for some of our FEMA grants to purchase those SIM mannequins, but we don't have the classroom space to to deploy those mannequins.

This would give us that claim training classroom already there set up where we'd be able to start doing some of this training in-house in meeting the the requirements that we currently have uh to our firefighters on their annual uh training needs.

Quick quick question on that, then Chief.

So if you have a I I'm assuming you have a training day, right?

So if it's a training day, you're not you're not taking somebody out of service necessarily.

So if it's a training day, whether they drive to Coral Springs or whether they're driving to this location, it doesn't make a difference, right?

I mean, first of all, n none of our firefighters live in in Fort Lauderdale anyway.

So they all probably live in Coral Springs or somewhere closer to that.

I mean, realistically speaking, most of our firefighters are not living in the city limits.

So they're probably elsewhere.

So if you have a training day and that training day is in Coral Springs, it's just as easy for them to drive their personal vehicle to Coral Springs on that training day.

You're not taking anybody out of service.

They're not leaving the station to drive there and come back.

I mean, we're at least.

We'll take one of the other stations to backfill that station.

And then that's the same.

So uh if you're training for two hours, I get that.

But if you're training for an entire day, you're taking them out of service anyway.

So by the location of Seagull in particular, station three right there.

So theoretically, I could take the station three units, move them to whatever firehouse was going to training, and then the units would still be in that zone.

So if a call came in for a fire in the Seagull zone, down in three zone, they would already be at that facility in the city.

Whereas right now, if they're going out to Coral Springs, it's an easily 45 minute, 30 minute response code three, should we have multiple units.

And there are there are unfortunately times in the city where we do need all hands on deck.

Right.

Um if you're at 53 right out at the beach and and you're doing a training day, does it make a difference where you're driving to for that training day?

It would because this would afford me the ability to send station three up to 53 to cover.

Right.

And 53 would then come down to station three.

That's where the training would be, it'd be in the city.

They'd be able to if you had to call them back into service, is what you're saying.

So you pull them off their training day and pull them back into service.

In other words, they're closer if you've got to recall them.

Correct, sir.

And that's a common occurrence?

It is.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh, and that, yes, uh, as Ms.

Grant had just mentioned that the other side of it is is also that they have to have their equipment with them.

So they don't report directly to the training facility uh without their equipment.

They would need the trucks, their bunker gear, all of their stuff.

Don't they typically travel with their bunker gear?

No, sir.

They leave it at the firehouses because of the contamination in PFAS.

Okay.

Uh so when they get done with their shift, they leave the bunker.

They leave everything at the firehouse they're assigned to.

Okay.

Got it.

Thanks.

Yes.

And before we move on to the the next campus, just to point out, um, we had talked about um this isn't necessarily the city buying this land.

I mean, it would be subject to negotiation with the school board.

It might be a lease for a certain period of time, but it's not necessarily a purchase of the portion of this site.

Didn't I hear there from the school board that they intend to maximize their prices?

And we have heard that with this site, I think might be a little bit more unique, just because it is that combined both of those uses are on that same set of of property.

But again, I think that would be subject to negotiation.

I think we should proceed with the assumption as the school board has stated that they intend to maximize their financial return.

They're they're desperately short of cash.

I wouldn't assume they're giving anything away at this point.

Oh, and I don't think giving away, I just I don't know that it's necessarily a sale.

Susan, I just to just a uh dovetail on that.

So the assessment for um Seagull is with the structures and the land about 25 million dollars.

What would be our plan?

I mean, if we were really interested in moving forward with something, as opposed to just letting the market do what it's gonna do, and whoever's gonna step in and do what they're gonna do.

Where are we coming up with 25 million dollars for this?

Well, again, that is for the entire site.

Um, and the seagull piece is about a third of that.

So the property appraisers website, it's the entire Witten Rogers slash Seagull site.

So, but yeah, yeah, when you look at it, it is 25 million dollars, so maybe a third of that.

Um, and again, we talked about that this is just at the very beginning stages.

We haven't necessarily started putting it into hey, what's the financial plan?

But we're here to get some input to talk about how we would go forward.

Thank you.

And there again is just the zoning for Seagull.

It's currently community facilities.

Um the next um one we were talking about was North Fork Elementary School.

Um, and that is 11.17 acres on the property appraisers site.

That land is valued at 1.3.

I think for 11.7 17 acres, that's probably on the low side.

Um the structures um are at valued at 11.2.

Um as Ms.

Wanza said, um, we the redevelopment options that have been the people have contacted the school board, um junior achievement united way.

Um she had mentioned one other, and then mods.

Um and then there are the zoning um for North Fork.

Um and again, just here for any discussion or questions that we can answer.

Okay, does anyone have any further questions of Susan or Susan?

Yeah, yes, go ahead.

Okay, I was gonna ask the question of about the ones if that's possible.

I'd like to ask the question of Dr.

Wanza.

Thank you.

Um I'm going back to um page two of the exhibit.

Okay.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Um my question and concern um what where we have those um scholars who are living in the area, and we're looking to, or it's being suggested that they would be uh moving into um Crescent Park.

Okay, and then also um Dr.

Martin Luther King, they're a good marshal um schools in the area.

Um I'm looking at specifically um Walker and I don't see Sunland Academy on here, but those two schools are like immediately in the area.

And my concern and thought if our two schools that are in the immediate area, what's the conversation to keep those scholars in the area?

Um I'm understanding that um Walker, their capacity, they're not at capacity with their numbers, but Sun Land Elementary may be a little bit closer to their capacity.

So what conversation is being had to keep our scholars in the community?

Thank you for the question.

So when we had the workshop on December 9th, I believe it was, um there were two proposals for the board for the board to give the superintendent and staff feedback on.

One was to transition all of the students from North Fork into Walker Elementary School, and then the other, because Walker does have the capacity to um house the students from both schools, and then the other was the proposal that you see up here.

And um the reason why this one was the one that um I guess received more of a favorable, this is something we want the we we would support more, and it became one of the superintendents, it became the recommendation is because we heard from the community where the boundary is large, and if we're gonna um um repurpose the school, then can we put the students closer as close to possible to their residential area, right?

So you have some students given um the actual boundary of the school on the outer fringes, they actually live closer to Croissant Park.

They would no longer have to cross Broward Boulevard to come to school.

They live closer, you know, to Thorough Good.

So so that's what we did um following community input um to really try and actually clean up the feeder pattern and and make it less of a um uh uh a safety hazard, if you will, for students to have to have hazardous conditions to now um contemplate with as they go to school.

Thank you very much.

You're welcome.

Any other questions?

Mayor, yes, yes, thank you.

Yeah, don't go away.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here.

Um Mayor Seagull's in uh in District 4, and the uh principal at Seagull I've had a chance to spend some time with is was nominated to be principal of the year, um Broward County, amazing principal there, so there's a lot of great work that happens there.

Um as we think about the possibilities for Seagull as it uh consolidates the Witten Rogers.

I I like the possibility of exploring how this could be used as a police and fire training facility.

And Chief Golan up a question for you around that concept.

When you uh go to other facilities to do training, do you pay those facilities for that?

Thank you for the question.

Absolutely.

Uh so whether it's Coral Springs, Robert Fire Academy or Hollywood, uh, we do pay uh for the amount of time that we're there.

Uh we're also for our ISO insurance rating required to have so many facility training hours per year per firefighter.

Any sense of the annualized cost of the training uh use of facilities, what that might be.

I don't have that number offhand.

I apologize.

That's right.

So, Mayor, that's in commission.

That's that's one of the you know, I think cost savings that this would represent, clearly is is saving some of those um the the use costs.

Um Chief, if this were to be leased uh by the city would it be a possibility for the city to then in turn if negotiate with the school board, but in turn be able to lease that facility at times when we want it to other agencies.

Absolutely, and we've been approached by some of the maritime industries uh that have been interested in partnering with us.

Uh they have what's called STCW, and I can't for the life of me remember what that acronym is for right this moment.

But uh, but that is training that's required by all mariners licensed mariners on an annual basis.

Uh, there's currently, to my understanding, not enough of those training facilities, and they're required to use the live fire props.

That's why they want to partner with us.

Uh it's about more than just classroom space.

Uh, the other thing I think that's even far beyond that is CPR training.

Uh, we hear from our community on a daily basis requesting CPR, stop the bleed, um, and even how to administer Narcan.

Uh, those are all classes that could be taught out of this facility helping uh our community.

All right, great.

So I think that's uh that's an important point you're making, Chief.

And then um Raquel question and uh was brought up workforce and affordable housing, which I'm a big believer in.

Um I I know I've been working on on one of the uh initiatives around that, which is in our um the well field that I think was mentioned.

We've been working with the um uh the housing authority in the city to explore uh a workforce affordable housing development there.

Is that am I saying that right?

I I'm not familiar with uh a development uh initiative for the well field in terms of affordable housing.

Um we're talking about the one by the field Dixie West, yeah.

The Dixie one, yeah.

Uh Mayor Commission Chris Cooper, Deputy City Manager.

So I think you're talking about the Broadview site, which is in uh unincorporated Broward County, just west of 441 near the city of plantation.

Exactly.

Yeah, and is that how is that project coming?

So they're currently working with Broward County, that's the entity that would issue their development permits.

So they're going through that process.

We're working on some other issues to make sure that that property is clear so they can develop, so it's in progress.

Okay, that's what the housing authority is.

So I thought.

So, and that's if I remember right, I mean that's 500 units or so.

Yes, I think a little over 500 units, um, kind of mix of housing types, both um low density, single family type with some multifamily as well.

Okay, great.

So I didn't know if that was the well field that was brought up, but no, the well field brought up for the the canine facility is uh the prospect lake well field, so it's near the new water treatment center.

Near the new okay, great.

Okay, fantastic.

So what um Susan and Susan, so um what would be helpful for you all to to hear.

Okay, and I'll I'll I'll refer tofer to the city manager on that.

Sure.

So one of the reasons that we brought this item forward is that there's been a lot of uh communications media reports, a lot of meetings being held, and we wanted to ensure that the commission had the appropriate opportunity to discuss uh potential development options for either the sites being impacted that are within the city of Fort Lauderdale.

We've recently and publicly talked about the public safety training facility at Seagull, but we had not had an opportunity to discuss the North Fork site.

And should the commission seek to uh go in any particular direction or direct staff to engage with the school board or uh its staff on any initiative preference for the North Fork site or for the Siegel site, we would like to get that feedback from you so that we can appropriately have those discussions with the members of the school board.

Uh we want to make sure that we're in alignment with the city's goals and objectives.

And although we have put forward the public safety training facility, it's not to say that we don't think other uses might be relevant.

Uh we do understand the need for affordable and workforce housing within our community.

And should the commission want to see the school board go in that direction, uh, we would want to communicate that to the school board so that they can uh know what the city's preferences are and they can contemplate that as they make their decision on January 21st.

Great.

So, Mayor, my suggestion for Seagull would be that we explore with the school board this possibility of a police and fire training facility.

Um I think uh uh a dollar a year lease would be a wonderful price.

So that's gonna be my suggestion, Mayor, uh, to the school board, and we appreciate their uh partnership and and being uh sensitive to our budget limitations, and um that we also in that analysis do a little bit of what's the uh cost outlay currently for police and fire training, what could be potential revenue uh draws as well for that, and in our conversations with the school board, you know, sharing that we would like to have if we you know pursue this the possibility of being able to use it uh with other services, services and agencies um to maximize the utilization of it for for the seagull.

Um mayor and also to my um colleagues, um I did um speak with City Manager about the North Fork site.

Um that um location, as we know it has been um it's been a it is a prime location, also it has been documented to be um land that is also burial ground.

So that property has a lot of um legacy, a lot of um history that we have not really talked about currently, but I did ask if city manager would look in to the opportunity what it would look like for us as a city to even um discuss assuming that property.

Um we don't know exactly what that looked like today.

We don't have a purpose spelt out for it, but also being able to hold on to something that has a great um significance to our city and being able to in the future have a voice as to what happens to the land.

So I I want to put that in part of our conversation as well.

Well, it being a burial site, would that limit our ability to develop it?

Um possibility, but also with what we have there already that would give us opportunity with what's being utilized, the land that is being utilized.

Okay the barrier land um that's been identified along the waterway there, and even go on a little further into um some green space that's on that property has been identified through conversation to have been used as burial grounds for indigenous people.

Okay, but for the purposes of our trying to create um or trying to create a an activity on the site, I'm I'm not sure.

I'm not sure acquiring property that's going to limit our use is going to be the best use of taxpayer dollars.

You know, if we're gonna just acquire land and then let it sit because we're trying to respect the fact that it was a burial site, I'm not sure we're achieving the purposes for which we are seeking to pursue now.

Do you have something to say, city manager?

Just seeking clarification.

Uh Commissioner Beasley Pittman, is it that you are considering repurposing the existing structures on the site for other purposes other than for the educational purposes provided today?

Um yes, with that gets open an opportunity to have that discussion where we could see where we could use this of the structure was there because there's there's um great opportunity with the structure that we can also um discuss and see what we can use that property for as well.

Yeah, I Commissioner Bees I completely agree.

I think it's worthwhile having that conversation and um you know, Mayor, I think if there are some encumbrances or limitations to the property, we obviously you know do the due diligence and that would factor into you know pricing and opportunities, but I think it's worth at least a conversation.

Yes the conversation and leaving the our opportunity open to us and not just walk away at least having a conversation.

Okay.

So city manager is it possible that we have someone whether it's from the historical society or anywhere else that can educate us fully on exactly what we're talking about on this property um so that you know we know going in all of the facts all of the relevant information we will do some outreach and our own research.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Any other questions of the commission to Susan Susan do you have anything more to report?

No thank you for your input okay thank you.

We have one person to sign up to speak uh former school board member Heather Brinkworth Heather welcome or Lord was it hi good afternoon happy new year.

Uh first I want to say how thrilled I am to see great progress with our city's public schools.

I'm impressed with the community support for the sports academy at Bennett Elementary and a feeder pattern sports focus um and to see it come through life through the recent kickoff what was it what would you say a Bennett Elementary what was the sports academy and the new uh sports focus feeder pattern that we have with the groundbreaking we had recently at sunrise I'm really excited to see that come to life.

Okay.

Um second I want to remind you all how proud we should be of our city's formerly struggling schools being at capacity and serving our students very well.

Now I'm gonna get straight to the point on what is before you today I'm disappointed not in you all in BCPS's failure to listen to the overwhelming show of community support at the last Erlot High School meeting to maintain an elementary school for the neighborhood at the North Fork site.

I understand the financial constraints the district faces but I remain steadfast in my push for innovative thinking to serve the students of our city both now and in the future I have reviewed the proposals being put forth by BCPS and I encourage the city to not be short sighted and to push back.

An innovative neighborhood elementary school could coexist with either the JA proposal or the United Way proposal.

I heard the mayor's caution about co-location of students with adults but I ask you to look at facilities right here in Broward and around the country and around the world where innovative solutions are in place.

With the immense growth of our downtown corridor it continues to be prudent to include the opportunity for an innovative elementary school in that area.

The North Fork site would be perfect.

With regard to the Siegel proposal my question is how much of the acreage I think you all started to talk about that with the city plan to purchase or lease I noticed that the entire 17.45 acres were listed in the backup and it certainly wouldn't be that much because Witten is going to still continue to exist.

I do believe that the usage of the Siegel site to meet the training needs of the city's fire department may open opportunities for the city to recruit BCPS students and have other opportunities for training for cert for neighbors for um CPR and those types of things my brother is a hazmat for um BSO and so that type of training is really important to me as a resident of the city to make sure that our responders are ready in case of a disaster here within our city.

So thank you for your time and your consideration today.

Heather I have a question I'm sorry and happy new year.

So has the education advisory board discussed this topic we have not unless I missed the meeting where we discussed the proposals that just came forth because it's you're making good points but I'm just wondering why this has not been a topic of conversation and uh the the our education advisory board taking taking a stand or having an opinion or expressing it even as a communication to the commission or to the school board before on the Jan I guess what they're beating on January 21?

Yes we did not have a meeting in December.

Okay.

So um at the I believe it was the November 5th City Commission meeting we did have a um communication from the education advisory board it was dealing with the Seagull recommendation they hadn't addressed um the North Fork because I think that was still being uh considered um with the school board but there was a letter or a communication supporting the fire and police training um at I think it was November 5th.

Does the education advisory board meet before the school board meeting?

Yes the next meeting is January 15th.

Do you think that that will be a topic of conversation the North Fork site.

The redefining initiative is on the agenda every meeting.

Okay great I I'd be interested to see you know what that conversation is.

So the superintendent's memo that uh made the recommendation that you saw today came out after their last meeting so they haven't had an opportunity to discuss that they discuss all of the redefining initiatives and attend the community meetings as well at every meeting it's a topic of discussion.

So, you know, a lot of what we're talking about are really you know, this is a business decision that the school board is making with regard to repurposing and shuffling around a lot of these uh assets that they have, and then I think they've come today to say, hey, you know, there might be an opportunity for you to repurpose some of this stuff.

I know the education advisory board would certainly have an opinion, as would this our um members of this commission to give to the school board, but I guess ultimately it's their decision, and uh um, and so whatever they decide, you know, what remains as options for us will be determined by the decisions that they make, right?

That's um that's the way I'm understanding it, right?

Okay, all right, very good.

Thank you so much.

Thank you all for being here today.

Uh moving on to uh business two.

Um fireworks and drone shows.

Yes.

So Mayor, this is a good one.

Did you bring a sample today for us to observe in this room?

No, I don't think we have the height clearance.

Uh so at the October 23rd commission meeting, it was discussed at conference to look at alternatives and to just look at the overall aspects of firework displays and drone shows.

And so this presentation today from Carl Williams and Amy Jean Baptiste will provide a little bit of clarity surrounding those two options.

Go ahead, Carl, thank you.

All right, good Easterly.

Afternoon, yes, sir.

So um, as the manager mentioned, um, at that October 23rd commission meeting, there was a conversation uh regarding the fireworks and the drones and some of the operational aspects of that.

Uh, we were then tasked to come back to you to provide some feedback as it pertains to those drone shows as well as our fireworks.

And doing that will be uh deputy director Amy Jean Baptiste.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, happy new year.

Amy Jean Baptiste, Deputy Director of Parks and Recreation.

And uh, like a city manager said, I'll be providing some costs and operational comparisons along with key items to consider.

So Parks and Recreation produces approximately 60 events annually, ranging from large-scale signature events to neighborhood community events.

Today we are focusing only on events that include firework displays, which are the Fourth of July Spectacular and the New Year's Eve downtown countdown.

So here's a snapshot of our current fireworks programming.

So for downtown countdown, it's a four-minute land-based display, and it was cost just under uh six thousand dollars.

And for fourth of July Spectacular, it was a 22-minute offshore display.

Um so this includes marine uh operations.

So for the barge and tug, that's $54,000, and for the actual display itself is 86,500, totaling the 140,500 there.

But it, you know, I was looking at these numbers, and it's very hard to make a comparison between the two because the Fourth of July spectacular is far more spectacular than the New Year's Eve display, which we all saw the other night, was kind of a looks like a backyard effort to just throw up a few fireworks.

I mean, more people were interested in the in the uh anchor drop than they were in the fireworks, and it was good to have fireworks, but they don't compare, obviously, right?

So um, if we're looking at costs, really the 4th of July is probably a better uh standard by which we should follow, you know, any any discussion here today.

Sounds good.

Yeah.

So the drone show is an aerial light display created by a fleet of drones equipped with LED lights.

Uh the drones are programmed to fly in formations that create images, animations, and story sequences in the sky.

So this photo is a depiction of what an event goer would see uh a typical an ethical drone show.

So simply put, there's hundreds of drones that move together to form shapes, logos, and animated scenes.

A show can range from 150 to a couple thousand drones, uh depending on the complexity of the visuals, and uh the vendor can create custom storyboards that match music or event themes.

This photo here was taken uh from a drone show in Miami.

So previous drone shows that we've done, uh we first started off with Starlight Musicals, which was back in July as part of Parks and Recreation Month, where we did 200 drones at the cost of 20,000.

For Summer Jams, which was in August, we did 300 drones, and that was sponsored.

So it was sponsored by the drone show company in uh in exchange for marketing exposure.

And downtown countdown, which was last week was 200 drones for 40,000.

It is important to note that uh the item we're considering here today, uh downtown countdown and fourth of July are both on holidays.

It is important to note that uh the item we're considering here today, uh downtown countdown and fourth of July are both on holidays, so the price is significantly different.

As you can see for Starlight Musicals, you have 200 drones as well for downtown countdown, but the prices differ.

I wasn't there for the downtown countdown.

Um the downtown countdown show.

I wasn't there because that was done earlier in the evening.

So how many images were displayed at that time and what period of time over what period of time was the show conducted?

So it was about a 12 to 15 minute show.

Uh the story board might have had about 10 images, which included the city's logo, uh was Happy New Year's, there were some cheers.

Um, and it was shortly after the uh anchor lighting for the kids at seven o'clock.

Right, okay.

So it's about 12 to 15 minutes, you said correct.

Okay.

Was there any musical accompaniment to the to the drone show?

There was that that complimented what they were seeing.

So it wasn't complimented, they were just house music in the back, but it wasn't a complimented show.

Okay, all right.

So this item was brought to the parks, recreation, and beaches board for their uh recommendation.

Uh the consensus was to continue fireworks for 4th of July, either exclusively or in combination with the drone show.

And the feedback I could the feedback I received from them was referencing uh the tradition and the historical significance of fireworks.

And uh they're open to consider a drone only display for downtown countdown as a potential pilot.

So key items to consider.

Uh if we're adding a drone only display or drone show in combination with fireworks for downtown countdown, this will result in a fiscal impact of about 40 to 60,000.

And if we're adding a drone show in combination with fireworks for 4th of July, it will result in a fiscal impact of about 80 to 100,000.

So that's that's fireworks and drone.

For 4th of July.

For 4th of July.

For 4th of July, that's if we do a combination.

So the next slide will have the we'll have the uh price list, but in terms of uh fiscal impact, it will be in addition to what's already budgeted.

So just to compare uh fireworks versus drones, uh, in terms of regulatory processes, uh, there is a fire watch that is done by the fire department, and there's some regulations by FDEP for drones, they're regulated by the FAA.

And as as it relates to setup, there's no impact from a staff perspective.

Um, as for 4th of July, they're done offshore, and there are limited impacts for drones as they don't like to typically fly over people or cars.

As far as noise, as we know, fireworks are loud, uh drones are quiet, practically noiseless, and for visibility, uh we're talking about maybe three mile radius uh for fireworks and a mile and a mile and a half for drones.

The weather conditions are similar where they typically fly with winds less than 15 miles an hour.

However, for drones, they can fly in light rain.

As it relates to beach access, there's no restrictions for fireworks.

Um for drones, they will be flying from the sand, so there's a restricted area needed.

For fireworks, uh, we typically do a 22-minute display, and then for drones, there uh they're any they range about 12 to 15 minute uh shows.

So what I did want to point out is that if we decide to retain the fireworks for 4th of July, uh staff will evaluate uh reducing the duration to about 10 to 15 minutes.

Um and that doesn't necessarily mean cutting the the uh show in half would result in cutting the price in half as there's fixed operational costs such as the tug, the barge, and the uh base production costs.

So I'm seeking commission feedback on options for each event for downtown countdown.

If we're gonna continue with the fire work show only, it's six thousand dollars.

If we're gonna do a drone show only with two to three hundred drones, that'll be forty to sixty thousand dollars.

And if we're gonna do a combination of both, it's forty-six to sixty-six thousand.

For fourth of July, if we're gonna continue with the firework show only, it's a hundred and forty-five thousand.

If we do drone show only with four to five hundred drones, it's eighty to a hundred thousand dollars.

And if we do a combination of both, it's two hundred and twenty-five to two hundred and forty-five thousand dollars.

That's the uh end of my presentation.

I'm available to answer any questions.

So um just for purposes of today's discussion.

I don't think we need to talk about the downtown countdown because that's a year away from now.

Why don't we just focus on 4th of July?

And and by focusing on 4th of July, we could see and we can measure the success of what a drone show would be like so we can then make a decision regarding the downtown countdown.

Does that make sense to everybody?

If we could just focus on 4th of July, any opportunities to get uh to get uh a sponsorship for any of these uh for this event?

As it relates to drones, as it relates to drones.

So uh there may be some possibilities.

So, like I said, for uh summer jams, this was uh sponsored by the actual drone show company, they were looking for marketing exposure.

They typically look for that um in the non-peak seasons.

So we're there is uh another event sp uh in the pipeline, it hasn't been finalized yet, but we're looking uh he's looking to sponsor uh Carter Park Jams.

Right, but um that's fine, but I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about for 4th of July.

Are there any opportunities for the if we would find a company to sponsor the to sponsor the event?

Yes, but we don't have any uh currently.

Right.

I understand that.

So but are there are are is there a suggestion perhaps that like for example the developers that work in our community, you know, writing a check for 25 or 50,000 may not be so difficult for them, and a combination of that would be would allow us to produce a really great, you know.

This is the 250th anniversary of the of the country, and we need to buy into this.

And uh, you know, have we talked with the county?

You know, what are they doing for Fourth of July?

Do they want to participate in our fourth in the Fort Lauderdale Fourth of July spectacular?

You know, um, you know, I'm just saying that it it might behoove us to reach out to some of these folks that have deeper pockets in the city and be able to contribute and maybe do, you know, instead of four to five hundred drones, maybe do four to five thousand drones.

You know, we've seen we've seen on the internet some of these very spectacular drone shows around the world.

There's no reason why the city of Fort Lauderdale can't participate in the same measure if we can get some contributions from folks that do business in our city that would like to show Fort Lauderdale off in a very grand and spectacular way.

We're gonna be competing with a lot of cities around the country on July 4th this year, and I'd love for for Fort Lauderdale to be able to stand out in this regard.

So something to something to talk about, something to think about.

No, those are great points, and I did want to also add that we have a a solicitation out currently uh seeking a consultant for uh sponsorships.

Anyone else have any questions?

Yeah, Mayor.

Go ahead, then um, thank you.

Thank you for the presentation.

Have you done any um uh analysis of the environmental impact that fireworks have?

So outside of the basic um noise pollution and air pollution, uh as it relates to the combustion, so there's uh debris with our offshore fireworks, there's less debris impact to the actual event, uh more in terms of uh offshore.

Yep.

Thank you.

So Mayor, I think for many reasons.

I think drone only for the Fourth of July makes a lot of sense.

It's the research that I've done that shows to your point of the debris that falls from fireworks, there's metals, microplastics, other components that fall into the ocean and for for our show as an example.

Um so drones are cleaner, quieter, being a pet owner, dogs, uh other pets, it really impacts them.

Safety, much safer uh in my view, uh, the drone than than others uh than the fireworks.

Um and I think there's also an upside from uh the weather drones can operate in and um slightly different weather when there's a little bit of drizzle and so forth, have a little bit greater flexibility for that.

And I think from a cost savings standpoint for the Fourth of July, this would save us money uh as well, Mayor.

Well, what's what's the possibility of you know, uh Fourth of July is about celebration, and this would be like seeing a silent movie, you know.

And that's not how I want to see Fort Lauderdale celebrate.

Can we uh can there be musical accompaniment?

So we have speakers up and down the beach that you know that uh project music that that complement what they're seeing, you know, in the air, because just seeing drones is really boring.

Okay, you're sitting there and you're seeing a very like a quiet sp you know, it's quiet uh uh images in the sky, and you know, it doesn't have the same punch as fireworks, and I think that's what the parks and recreation board members were suggesting.

Now, obviously we all got that letter from the ASPCA that um Commissioner Sorensen was reciting all their all their uh their bullet points, and that they're all well said, and well, you know, we've been doing fireworks for you know dozens of years, as have cities around the world.

Um but yeah, maybe we could take an opportunity here and and and be a good good uh stewards of the of the earth and not be polluting it with air pollution and debris and and noise for the pets, but I don't want to take away from the feeling of Fourth of July.

So when you do your research, talk think about how you could combine it with uh um with music or other kinds of images that that you know give people a moment of excitement to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the country.

Mayor, given that we have a concert that typically happens at that time, I think pairing the drones with music shouldn't be a significant challenge.

I have experienced drone shows with a musical accompaniment, so I think it's something that's possible if that's the desire and direction of the commission.

If I could though, yeah, what do you want?

Yes, so uh a couple of thoughts.

So let me just address that one first.

So that's only if you're right there.

So when I go to if I'm watching the firework show, I don't go to the beach to watch it because I don't feel like fighting my way all to the beach, so I will be a little closer in town.

So I don't have to be at the beach to watch the firework show.

I can watch it from anywhere in the city.

Whereas if I want to listen to the music, I have to be at the beach.

So I think that's a you know uh a mitigating factor to to the music aspect of it.

Um mayor, you brought up something I think is very important.

This is the the 250th anniversary of of our country, and I don't think this is the year to experiment with it.

Back to the founding of this country, we have been celebrating with fireworks.

This is a tradition that goes back to our very first you know, Fourth of July.

Um I think it's important to honor that.

Um I I'm open to experimenting with this going forward, but I don't think this is the year to do that.

You know, I I I've also done a lot of research on this, and when we look at the environmental aspects of it, you know, what I've read in my research is that the air contamination is basically the equivalent of one hour of traffic in an urban area, it dissipates over the ocean very, very rapidly.

I I don't think it's a significant issue.

Um I think this is an important event that brings a community together.

I think this is the way that we celebrate, we honor our country, we honor you know, our founding of our country, and I think it's something that brings a lot of people great joy.

I think there's a reason that Disney has a fireworks show every single night.

It's because it's something that people celebrate, people enjoy.

Um I think it would be a mistake, especially this year, to not do it.

If we want to do this going forward, uh I'm open to experimenting with it, seeing how people react to it, but I I don't think this is the year to try that.

I think this would be probably the worst year to try and change it up.

It's just my thought.

Or maybe we could do a combination.

So, Mayor, if if I may, um because I have thank you.

I have been hearing from a lot of people.

We haven't heard from district two yet.

And uh, and the July 4th actually I think ha happens in District 2.

Uh so I I would like to.

I think that everything happens in District.

Well, isn't that what you is that what you try to tell us?

No, I don't.

Okay.

So here's the deal, and this is what I've been hearing.

I've been hearing pro and con about this, and I just want to tell you some of the things I'm hearing.

Uh there are many people in the boating community who feel that the drone show will not be helpful to them.

Uh you know, we have a lot of voters, they go out on the ocean, they watch the fireworks.

Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not an expert on this, but drone shows are directional.

In other words, if you do a drone show over the beach or a tenth of a mile offshore, people from the beach area will see that, but people that are further east in boats will see nothing, right?

I mean, because it is a directional program.

Correct.

So how our uh event is currently laid out, we would probably do the drone show uh off the beach facing west.

So if the boat was directly behind the drone show, they would be seeing a mirrored version of the drone show.

So basically if we had an American flag on display, they'll be seeing an inverted You say facing west.

You mean instead of looking out over the ocean, if you're looking downtown.

No, no, no.

So the drone show would be would be facing west to the state.

I see, yes, okay.

Facing A1A essentially.

So if the boaters um are on the boat, they would be seeing a mirrored version of the why do we have to do it over the ocean?

Why don't we just do it over the city?

We can we can do it over the city facing east.

Well, then would everyone from the city east see it?

Yeah, if you look up.

Well, thank you.

Really?

Unless you're holding a mirror below you.

Yeah.

Okay.

Anyway, these are I I well, oh there are a lot of voters that were concerned when they read it because they said we they said we won't see the show.

Well, that's why I'm saying if if you do it further inland.

Okay, well, these are just things to consider.

Um and also if you're downwind or upwind, the same thing, you're gonna run into a problem with this.

Um I I I've also been hearing from people, uh I've definitely heard the environmental argument that they think it's cleaner and something to pursue.

Uh, but I've also, as you've all expressed, you, vice mayor, uh, this is the 250th anniversary of the country, and is this the year to do away with fireworks?

I'm not so sure.

Um, but maybe we do some sort of hybrid where you have we keep our fireworks show.

And by the way, even that should be really spectacular this year.

Um, but maybe there's just a drone that says happy Fourth of July for Lauderdale.

One one sign in the sky that lasts the whole way.

I don't know how that works.

But I I I'm open to some sort of hybrid approach.

Um, but from what I'm hearing from people, um, they are just concerned um, as the vice mayor said that that maybe this is not the year to change it up.

Um, that maybe the year after that is when we really look at changing it up.

But but okay, so like if we you know, if we tapped into the uh the hotel business improvement district, okay, try to get a grant from them.

Because this will, if you know, if we publicize this as being you know an amazing spectacle of drone fireworks or whatever, uh you know, it might draw people to the beach, it might draw people to take hotel rooms to want to to want to see what's gonna happen at Fort Lauderdale Beach.

I mean, we have six months to do something really great, right?

So I really think that uh, you know, uh I don't look to compromise on quality and on impact.

Uh I think that you know there's so much in technology now that has been um that has been brought into the the drone arena that I think you know let us all maybe as all of us as commissioners contact some of our some of our the people that we know that have been generous in the past and see if they'd contribute to a fund that would help us really put together an amazing drone show and or fire work show.

Um and I think I think we really could do something really great.

But you're right, we're competing with other cities, so we gotta work best, right?

We probably already missed the boat.

We probably already missed the boat on that.

Yeah, I know.

And one thing to consider is that um, you know, we're currently in the holding stage before we actually put this out to bid, and so what I'm hearing from commission is that we kind of have both.

Um, and then we can kind of pick and choose from there.

But the idea is that we need to go out to bid so that we can obtain a vendor to provide this service, and then we can uh make adjustments at that time in consultation with the city manager.

And I think we have to be aggressive for finding sponsors, I really do.

Uh even if it just means that while an incredible spectacular firework show is going on, that those sponsors' names are on drones in the sky, like you know, just keep going.

But maybe we can just sell that.

I I think that people might be willing to buy into that because of the nature of the 250th uh anniversary of the country.

I just think we could get some sponsors.

I agree with you 100%.

Okay.

All right, great.

We'll move in that direction.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Maybe maybe one of those messages can be fixed at FTL, you know.

Because apparently nobody knows that app exists.

Okay, uh business three, uh, for City of Fort Lauderdale's um financial integrity principles and policies update.

City management.

Thank you, Mayor.

So we want to have a discussion with the commission on how we can refine and memorialize some of our policies and procedures surrounding our financial um policies.

So I want to invite Laura Reese, our ONB director.

And looks like Keith Forrell is joining her.

Um Laura Reastructor of Office of Management and Budget, happy new year.

Um we're here with you today to talk about with my colleague Keith Farrell to talk about the city's financial integrity principles and policies and updates that we're proposing to them.

This iPad is new.

All right.

So today we'll be discussing with you the reasons why financial policies and principles matter, the focus on the working group updates and an overview of the financial principles and the emergency management reserve program, and suggestions for its use.

Adopting strong financial principles and policies is central to a strategic long-term approach to financial management.

They're recommended by the government finance officers, and they're a fundamental part of each review that's conducted by our credit rating agencies when they come to visit.

Um so some examples of the priorities are to strengthen the city's credit rating to clarify and communicate our strategic intent, encourage long-term financial forecasting and decision making, and to establish clear boundaries that the city puts in place while also fostering innovation.

And so GFOA periodically updates their best practices around policies and principles, and that's what we're integrating into our updates.

And the goals have largely stayed the same.

And although a periodic review is still warranted.

To this end, a working group was created over the summer to review and incorporate the new emergency preparedness reserve fund that the city manager recommended as part of her budget.

And as well as to review and refresh existing principles.

This has been done in partnership with the budget advisory board.

You heard Chair Brown speak about that, who requested a role in the review process during budget development at one of your joint meetings.

The working group that reviewed and updated the policies included the members listed, um, Evet Matthews, Assistant City Manager from the City Manager's Office, as well as Susan Grant from the Office of Management and Budget was myself and Keith Farrell, who actually led us through the process and took the lead role in this initiative.

He'll be talking more to you about that soon.

In the finance department, Linda Logan Shore, the director, Laura Garcia, and Alicia Sheffield were key to the process.

And then the budget advisory board played a role in making recommendations during budget development.

And then in December at their meeting, reviewing and making a recommendation.

With that, I'm going to turn it over to Keith, who is going to walk you through the principles and the changes we're recommending.

Keith, I don't think you've ever spoken before us, have you?

This is my second time.

Oh, second time, okay.

I try to avoid it, Mayor.

How many years have you done us?

Not that you're counting.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, Keith Farrell, Assistant Budget Manager.

When the working group convened uh this summer, we wanted to do a comprehensive and systematic review of the integrity principles.

Um, but as you'll see here, the uh framework remains unchanged from what you all adopted uh 10 years ago.

The four principles remain sound budgeting practices, prudent fiscal management, cost effective operations, and long-term financial planning.

Um, for the good of the public here today, I'm just gonna go over the four principles very briefly, um, and then we'll close by talking about um the pros of the proposed amendments that the working group is bringing before you today.

Uh, principle one is sound budgeting practices, and it states that the city is committed to maintaining a structurally balanced budget to support high quality services to our neighbors consistent with the needs of the city.

And this principle is guided by uh sound budgeting practices that are listed here, including the revenue estimating conference committee, cost recovery, interfund borrowing, proprietary funds, fund balance, structurally balanced budget, budget transfers, budget amendments, and allocation of overhead costs.

These components are all detailed uh in the exhibit, um, which which we will be bringing forward uh to you all in a couple weeks for adoption.

This principle is also where we're um incorporating language around the emergency reserve fund, uh, which I'll be speaking about here in a moment.

Um, principle two, prudent fiscal management.

Uh this principle states that the city is committed to best practices in revenue collection, expenditure disbursements, asset maintenance, and record keeping for ensuring the optimal performance and integrity of public funds and resources.

Uh, this principle contains uh detailed policies associated with how staff handle revenue collections, purchasing fixed assets, P cards, risk management, cash management, and financial oversight and reporting.

Uh, principle three, cost-effective operations.

Uh, this states that the city is accountable to stakeholders through transparent and fiscally responsible decisions in order to deliver high quality services in the most effective and efficient manner possible.

Uh, this principle has four components associated with it, which is performance management, financial transparency, uh, business continuity preparedness, and travel policy.

And then last but not least, our fourth principles around long-term financial planning, and it states that the city shall be dedicated to investing in the future and enhancing the quality of life through public-private partnerships, cooperative decision making, community engagement, and smart strategic investments, uh, while using debt in a responsible manner and striving for the highest level of government bond ratings available.

Um, and the components associated with this principle include investments, our city's multi-year CIP, uh the multi-year financial forecast, which is our stand tech model, debt management, and capital maintenance renewal and replacement.

So those are the four principles.

But there was a request to establish some guardrails for this fund, some parameters and some city policies for how this fund operates.

So when the working group convened this summer, we took that request seriously and the establishment of some guardrails.

And we centered our discussions really on two questions.

And the second question was what is the target fund size?

The first question, when could they be utilized?

The group reached consensus pretty quickly.

And we're proposing that these funds can be utilized upon a formal declaration of an emergency by a governmental authority or agency.

And that the funds would be used for recovery efforts, specifically general fund recovery efforts, and in most cases, hopefully as a match for anticipated federal or state uh disaster recovery funds.

The second question, what is the target fund size?

This was a more difficult question to answer.

Um and what you have to keep in mind in the development of financial policies is that it's more of an art than a science.

Um but we did uh staff did quite a bit of reading and research over the summer.

Um GFOA actually a few years ago released a white paper of sorts on rethinking reserves.

Um and it differentiated between uh fund balance and reserves, and it stated that the perennial question around reserves is how much is enough.

Um the answer they provided you might not find very satisfactory, it was that it depends.

Um it really depends on um what your risks are as a municipality.

Um and they included a risk assessment.

And probably no surprise to you all, the city's major risks are hurricanes and other major weather related events.

Um so what we did was we looked at what the city was um, we looked at historical events and what the city had paid previously for the 2023 April flood, um, as well as Hurricane Irma.

And we looked at those financials, and that was one element that we kept in mind.

Um we also looked to see if other municipalities around the country were establishing a similar fund.

Um and we did find some examples.

Uh, one that I like is from Denver, Colorado.

Uh they established a contingency reserve separate from their fund balance, and they set it at a minimum target of 2% of their general fund operating expenses.

So that research we brought to the working group over the summer, and the um what we're proposing as an answer to this question is that staff aims to maintain a minimum reserve equal to one percent of general fund operating expenses.

Uh that's excluding pass-through funds.

And then, in addition to that, if the reserve exceeds 5% of the general funds operating budget, that those excess funds can be uh transferred back to the general fund and used for one-time expenses uh such as uh CIP projects.

Um in addition to the emergency uh did you want to say some.

So what is um remind us again what is the source of revenue that would be put into this emergency fund?

So we uh for fiscal year 26 budget, we um used a portion of the PFAS funding, and we put in 4.8 million into this reserve.

And the hope is is that we won't have to use that reserve, and a portion of it can uh be invested, and those earned pool investments will keep it at approximately one percent.

So that's just a a one-time allocation that you feel would be and we don't have to do it, it's not an annual thing that we have to continue to feed this fund until of course we have to use.

Until we have to use it.

Yep.

Okay, I get it.

All right, thank you.

Okay.

Um the other proposal I'm sorry, just be on a record.

I didn't support this last time, I don't support it this time.

I just want to be really clear about this.

We don't need an emergency reserve.

We have more than adequate reserves in our current fund balance.

We're over policy.

We we take way too much of the taxpayers' money and hang on to it ourselves.

So I just I can't support that.

Okay.

Okay.

Um the other proposed changes of note to the policies that I wanted to bring to your attention.

Um, and a lot of these proposed changes, as Laura mentioned, are to align with updated best practices, and they also are to align with just how we're operating as an organization today.

Uh the first section is an update to the cost recovery component, which is related to principle one, and it's under section B.

Uh cost recovery is how we establish fees for um for services provided to the community.

Um and so when we're doing the analysis of what the rate should be, we added a requirement to consider rates charged by neighboring minim municipalities, and we added a requirement to incorporate analysis of overhead and other indirect costs that might not be immediately incorporated or obvious to incorporate.

Um the second uh amendment here is for general.

Let me let me pause you on that.

Is that is that going to be based on uh an approved cost allocation plan?

How are you gonna do that?

Because we've run into this problem before.

So what's the basis of your overhead and indirect cost?

It used to be the 87 cost plan, now it's the circular 200.

So just tell me how you get in there.

Hi, Commissioner Herbs.

So yeah, um, each year we allocate costs through admin overhead through a cost allocation process.

Okay.

And so that would be considered like for HR budget.

Um, but then in addition to that, when we're developing fees for like parks and recreation, we would account for other costs like the administrative function if you're doing a recreational program.

Who's doing the who's doing the cost allocation study is what I want to know.

Um so we have a active contract with Matrix, which is our cost allocation consultant.

It's good for another one or two years, I believe.

Okay.

Um we're working on an update right now, but that would be how we do the cost allocation for HR, the auditor's office, all of those overhead functions.

But in addition, when we work with departments like um DSD to develop their fees, we ask that they include the administrative portion of their operating budget as well.

And that's consistent with OMB's guidance.

Um so we don't necessarily have to meet the OMB guidance for um unless we're doing um grant-related activities.

Right.

But um if we are going to charge something related to a grant, we would make sure we're following the OMB guidance.

I guess that's my question.

Is the report consistent with OMB's guidance?

Yes.

So we're circular 200, right?

We typically would do two different reports.

Right, there's the 87 and there's a full cost.

What used to be the 87 plan and a full cost allocation plan.

So the for the plan that matrix does, there's two.

There's a full cost allocation plan, and then there's an OMB compliant one, which is based on actuals.

Well, I wanted to do that.

We use the full cost allocation for most situations.

In the case where we're charging the airport or grant-related expense, then we have to use the OMB compliant model.

It subtracts out you know the cost of lobbying and things like that that are.

Okay, we're good.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Um the second proposed amendment here is in the section related to general fund balance, which is principle one's uh section G.

And really, we just added some language.

I'm sorry, we we just lost the uh the screen out there.

We went back.

There we go.

Thank you.

Um and we updated the language to communicate the commission's commitment to a target fund balance of equal to three months of operating expenses.

The important thing here is that this is really additive.

Um we kept the language previously that talked about the minimum target of a uh or the minimum of a two months.

Um, and so now the principal talks about the minimum target as as well as the three-month target.

So let me ask you has the GFOA change the standards from two months to three months?

It is it is not.

So that this is a city uh decision to charge.

So best practice is two months, but we're going to three months.

Commissioner Herbs.

Um GFOA's best practice is that a minimum of two, and that it's based on risk.

So what the city has historically done, and we've been doing in our models is we do set that minimum at two months.

We target three months based on risk and based on bond ratings.

So our target's higher than the minimum that GFO recommends.

And you know my feeling on this.

We've never ever once needed it, but that's okay.

But we have triple A bond ratings.

Um it's and we also know that the bond ratings are not based simply on having that, they're based more on a willingness to raise taxes than they are on reserves.

I know because I've been up there and I've talked to standard reports and moody's and finishes.

I've done the presentations on Wall Street.

I know we're not gonna we're not gonna uh agree on this one.

Yeah, and I'm not meaning to be argumentative, but that's all part of the reason behind the target.

I'm just trying to explain.

Thank you.

Well, I I can introduce interject here that the commission's willingness to raise taxes has been uh pretty small as we've not raised taxes in 19 years.

So that too would be an indicator of how we need to we need to other indicators uh to to present to the bond markets of our financial solvency.

So doing three months makes a lot of sense since we're not planning to raise taxes, at least not in not uh not as far as I'm concerned, not during my tenure, and I hope in the years ahead.

So but anyway, we'll that's another subject for another time.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Uh the third proposed change uh listed here is for the financial oversight and reporting section.

This is under Principle 2, Section G.

There's really two uh significant edits here.

The first is that we have updated the city's deadlines for recurring financial reports, including the ACFR.

We've updated the deadlines to align with state statute requirements in the current version of the financial integrity policies.

Um some of the city's deadlines are a little bit un uh more aggressive than that, um, unnecessarily so.

Um and then finally, what we have also done is we've replaced the requirement listed for staff to compile monthly financial reports uh with quarterly projection reports.

Um and an important note here is that quarterly projection reports still have the same information of monthly financial reports.

It has those year-to-date actuals.

Um but in addition to that, um it's also they're also forward looking.

Uh they're prescriptive and they're more actionable, so they add an additional value for staff in maintaining the city's financial integrity.

So let me back you up on that.

If I remember correctly, and and I I could be wrong on this, it's been a while since I looked at the the state's requirements, what nine months after the end of the fiscal year?

For the ACFR?

Right.

Correct.

And and we were shooting for six months after the end of the fiscal year, which by the way, in the private sector is absolutely unheard of, right?

And and we've struggled for the last what, ten years to actually meet our six month deadline, so we no longer qualify for the certificate of achievement, right?

So we we're constantly missing our deadlines.

That's more of a question for the finance department.

And sorry be for beating you up, Linda.

But uh yeah, no, I I I I think it's I I think it is irresponsible for us to say that it's gonna take us nine months to close our books.

By the time by the time the uh financial report comes out, it's useless.

So you know there's certain principles for financial reporting.

One of the most important ones is timeliness.

Uh a year-old financial report is worthless.

And so uh to to say that we're gonna do the bare minimum of nine months after the end of the fiscal year again.

If we were a private sector, we'd be laughed at the um Yvette Matthews, assistant city manager.

So, Commissioner, we wholeheartedly agree with you.

Um, we're taking a lot of efforts to make sure that we are hitting those benchmarks.

The first one is implementing a new um ACFR software, which will allow us to quickly close our books and ensure that we're compliant under these principles.

What we were attempting to do was align the dates that are included in our principles with the state statute.

Um it was something that we heard during our discussions, both with the budget advisory board, um, making sure that everything was aligned with state statute.

And so we agree we're not targeting nine months as our goal.

Nine months should be the last resort.

But what we are saying is that the state dictates that within nine months we hit those targets, and we want to make sure that we outline that in our policies as well.

So I'll back you up.

So software is never an answer.

You have a broken process, you don't have broken software.

When we put our ERP system in years back, that was supposed to fix the problem that we had 10 years ago.

Guess what?

Didn't fix the problem.

Exasperated it.

Every software implementation we have ever done in the past two decades that I've been here was always designed to fix a process problem, never fixed a process problem.

You can't fix a broken process with new software.

And every time we've tried to do this, it's not it's not the ACR.

It is a process problem.

And so you're never gonna fix that with software.

I've done ERP implementations.

They don't fix process.

So by merely saying we're gonna move the bar back, you're you're you're essentially embracing the fact that we fail.

I uh that that's a wrong way to do it.

You're you're you're accepting mediocrity.

Let's not do that.

And the software is not the only I agree with you a hundred percent.

We are making sure that we are um striving for a quicker resolution of our financial statements, and we're gonna be able to do that.

And we move the deadline up.

And we're gonna be three months.

We're going in the wrong direction.

Okay.

Absolutely.

Stretch goals don't go backwards, they come forwards.

We hear you.

Thank you so much, Commissioner.

All right.

Um beyond the ones listed up here.

If if you did read closely and compare to the previous version, you would notice that under Principle Three, there was a section called called uh full cost of service.

Um we did remove that section because we felt it was already fully covered under the cost recovery component.

Um, so we felt that it was uh an unnecessary duplication.

And then beyond that, there are just really minor edits.

Um for instance, the uh uniformly accepted acronym for the annual report is now the ACFR.

Um so we have replaced that in our integrity policies, and we'll off we've also just added some clarifying language that delineates the role between the Office of Management and Budget from the finance department so it's clear who's responsible for what.

Um and we've added a little bit more detail um to the revenue estimating conference committee and their role in the budgeting process.

Um with that, um next steps is what we're hoping is that at the first uh regular meeting in February is that we will bring these amendments um to you for consideration and and hopefully adoption.

And uh with that I'll I'll turn it over for any discussion and feedback.

Great, thank you so much.

Did you want to add to that, Laura?

Okay.

Um any member of the commission have any additional questions to ask?

Yeah, Mayor, thanks.

Yes, go ahead.

Uh thank you for your presentation.

Um, what was in this past year?

What um how timely of a submission of our um the ACFR and other reports?

And while Yvette is coming up, I'll just say, Commissioner, and to the full commission, this is something that uh I've recognized as a challenge for us and the organization very quickly, and I've been working with the team uh that has been in place and the team currently in place to um ensure that we have new procedures so that we can mitigate these challenges because it is something of uh concern to me and obviously for you as well.

Absolutely.

Um and so this last year, actually the last two years, we actually have not met the nine per nine month uh trajectory for the release of our financial statements.

So that is why we have one focus on upskilling, we focus on the process, we focus on the software.

We're putting all efforts into this to make sure that this year is the year that we're back on track.

And what's your expectation for this year's submission?

This year it is uh something that the manager really uh made sure that we were aware of, both in our performance goals as well as our organizational goals, that we will hit that benchmark this year.

Okay, hit with meaning within nine months.

Within nine months.

And where have we been just interested as a city historically?

Have we for you know years and years always been beyond the nine months?

Um so I see Commissioner, go ahead.

So once upon a time, we used to get it done by the due date, which is March 31st, which is when you submit to the GFOA for the certificate of achievement.

Um we haven't hit that since probably around 2012, give or take.

If my if my recollection is right, you know, I I'm getting old, so dates are all starting to run together in my mind, but it's been probably since about 2012, I think.

It's been a while.

Yes, okay, 13-14.

But we used to get it done within six months.

Okay.

So it's been 13-14 years of delayed submissions.

And what have the strategies we've implemented this year is through personnel?

We've augmented staffing in the finance department uh at somewhat at the request of the director, but also based on additional observations.

So with the commission support, we have uh applied resources to that department to help in this fashion.

Great.

And Raquel, if I'm understanding it right, just because there's an alignment of deadlines does not infer that you will wait.

You're aiming to wait to submit to that deadline.

In other words, my what I'm understanding is your aim is to submit well within the nine months.

Is that accurate?

That's correct, and there are performance evaluations that speak to that.

Yep.

And what's your goal, Raquel?

How many months out would be I would love for us to be at that March 31st date.

Correct.

Uh but I believe that I I think we need to be realistic, and I think we need to take progressive steps toward excellence.

And so I'm hoping that we can get to June and then ultimately get to March.

But it's gonna take a little bit of time for us to course correct.

Great.

And is there fair to say that this alignment of deadlines?

There's kind of two deadlines.

There's a kind of procedural deadline that we aim for, and then there's your own internal deadline that you're striving for, and it sounds like your internal one is much more timely than the uh state one that we would say you know, outwardly aligned with, absolutely.

We just wanted to have some sort of cushion in the principles that would be adopted by the commission, but we're always striving to beat the minimum standard.

Great, thank you.

Thanks.

Okay, any other questions?

Yeah, Mayor uh City Auditor Bat.

Like to get your feedback on the folks can sit down.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you so much for your presentation.

Like to get your feedback on these proposed changes, any feedback.

Thank you.

Keith, we'll see you in another year.

Yeah.

No, no, I I went over them in uh with uh Yvette and uh when we just heavily discussed at the uh at the VAB uh meeting.

You know, uh for me as far as the general fund, I'm more conservative.

I I like the three months better than um the two months.

Um there's always um some emergency that could be more, and you gotta remember with uh hurricane type of things, you know, in the in the past FEMA may give you a draw, but initially when there is an emergency, you have to pay for you have to pay first and wait for uh reimbursement, which can be a long time.

So that's why I like the cash flow point of uh of having three months.

Um as far as um the financial reporting.

I mean, I I like the nine months.

It's it's always been um I think that way for a long time by the state to have nine months, it gives you a little leeway.

Of course, we'd like to make it in six months if you could, but uh, I think that leeway is good because then it you don't have to deal with uh you know requesting additional time uh with the state and um you can get additional time, but it's I think it's nine months is is a better way to have it in our policy.

Great.

Thank you.

That thanks, Mayor.

All right.

Any other questions or comments?

All right, there being none, thank you so much.

Uh moving on to uh business four.

So I just want to make sure, or do you have what you need, Raquel?

Yes, we will come back to the commission to formally adopt.

Okay, great.

Thanks.

Thanks, Mary.

So let's talk about the exciting subject of sewer lateral connections.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yes.

We have Albert Carbon, utility services director.

This is another item that came out of uh commission uh reports on October 23rd, and so we're just following up on that request.

Yeah, good afternoon, Mayor City Commission.

Uh yes, tonight uh or this afternoon, I should say.

Uh, we're gonna talk close uh uh start the discussion or continue the discussion on the chapter 28 revisions to the the code, which is the water, which is the water wastewater and stormwater uh chapter in the code.

And we're just gonna really specifically talk about uh sewer lateral connections.

Oh, no.

Let's go forward.

There we go.

Uh sewer ladders.

That's uh just a brief thing about what the presentation is going to be about the ownerships and the responsibilities and up to the little short code changes.

Uh typical last connection.

This is the focus of what we're going to talk about in a very simple diagram.

Uh we're gonna start from the home, what the homeowner's responsibility is, uh all the fixtures within the house, the sewer line below the house, the sewer line going through the property, and and do a comparison about your water meter.

So your water meter is usually on the property line, it's on the city side of the property line.

So the owner's responsibility ends at the property line.

Whether that clean out is there or not, it's usually on the on the the property owner's side, but that's where the property owner's responsibility would sign.

And then the city's responsibility would be for the sewer line going into the main the lateral going into the main line.

There are some nuances of whether you're going to need the replacement or fix that that sewer line, that sewer lateral going into the city's main.

Uh so we're gonna get into the the city co chapter updates.

Uh we've added some definitions, uh the depth or modified or added uh definitions uh having to do with the house sewer and the connections, really defining to make sure this house connection is the responsibility of the property to construct and maintain.

Again, that's and then the second one is the service lateral.

That's the city's responsibility.

That's the lateral that goes from the city main, going up and down the streets parallel to the street, then perpendicular to the street going into that that uh termination at the property line.

City takes that, and then the maintenance of that uh is the proper is the property owner's responsibility.

Again, that that definition about the sanitary server service, the house connection on their property.

Um let me go back to this.

Some of the nuances about uh what you really need to know is about um uh if the the sewer line with if the property owner requests the sewer line to be relocated, uh that would be at the expense of the property owner and would be similar to uh additional tapping charge on our water service that we asked that we will give them a cost estimate on what that would go going to cost.

It's very variable depending on where that sewer line is in in the street and how deep it is in the street.

Also, if you're the a property owner wants to go from a single family to a duplex, duplex to a four plex, that they need an additional sewer lateral or Y.

We'll only allow one Y off a lateral, so they would have to again request us or the city to install an additional sewer lateral from the main line.

Uh okay, and then uh that that's really the the gist of the changes uh with the code changes we're presenting to bring back in the spring of 2026, uh feedback tonight.

Uh we draft ordinance ordinance changes and then we go back with first reading, second reading, the second way would be a public hearing.

I'm available for any questions.

Thanks, Al, for your work on this appreciate it.

Um, one of the ways to just kind of simplify or boil this down in my mind is the emphasis of hey, city pipes, cities responsible, homeowner pipes, homeowners responsible, um, using the the property line of the differentiating point, is that fair?

City property, city right-of-way, city's responsibility, private property, private side, property property.

Exactly.

And as you and I have talked about, there were you know, we've had some issues where um there was some lack of clarity around if if uh a homeowners would be responsible for some of the work that it that goes underneath the right-of-way.

And so I thank you for clarifying that and work on that.

And uh love to see this, you know, coming back as soon as possible.

Thanks.

Thanks, Mayor.

Any other questions or comments?

I have a question.

Um this is not directly on this issue, but relates to the infrastructure underground.

Um at one point a couple of years ago, we were given a report regarding the infill and infiltration um rehabilitation of our of our system.

Do we are we gonna get a report at some point as to where we are with regard to uh the rehabilitation of the uh of the underground uh pipes that uh regarding infill and infiltration?

Uh there's two items going on on that uh mayor that uh the city has at a consultant working on a report.

I've I've heard one presentation since I've been back.

Uh that report is having to do with the evaluation of the system and then making recommendations on prioritizing which uh sewer basins to that would be most uh would benefit from the from an I and I reduction uh using uh different techniques that they've come up with between the city and that.

And the second is uh the consent order that we've said we've written some report or some uh letters to the commission about uh regarding uh negotiations with FDEP about the amendment two to the sewer uh consent order, and that's uh pending still negotiations with FDAP and will come back plan to come back to commission sometime in the spring, the spring 2026.

So is there no ongoing work with regard to the rehabilitation of the uh sewer pipes?

Uh that there is some some minor work that my staff does, some engineering work, but substantial uh focused in on basin by basin.

Uh no, but there is some lining of individual lines if they are leaking, stuff like that.

Little projects is going to be a good question.

It's the stuff like that I'm concerned about because uh several years ago um we uh were were given a report that we were about 52 percent um we've achieved about 52 percent of the rehabilitation of the sewer pipes because the the issue is when it rains and it storms and it soaks up into the ground, it goes into these old pipes and it and it overflows our our water treatment plant, which is a waste of uh facility capacity when we're trying to maintain uh an uh the integrity of the of the plant.

So how can we just stop all of a sudden when we thought we were actually uh continuing with that effort to rehabilitate these underground pipes?

Uh we have not stopped the reason.

We just said we're just doing it here and we've engaged to try to make sure that where we're spending the money, we're spending it wisely, and that's the evaluation that's going on now.

So we are how long is that evaluation been going on?

Uh it's getting ready to be complete.

We have funding identify some funding in 2026, we have uh funding in the 20s uh the the CIP, the five-year plan.

Right, but how long has that study been going on?

Uh I'm not sure because you say it's about to be done in the spring, but I thought that I thought that I mean this is a real concern, okay, especially because we're under consent order uh, you know, by ignoring the issue and just studying it to death, we're not accomplishing anything.

And I and God forbid we should ever have the type of sewer breaks that we suffered in 2018 and 2019.

So uh can we have a report on that sooner than later?

So at the January 13th goal setting meeting, the commission will have a discussion on this as being proposed by staff.

So we're preparing some information now so that we can have a more thorough discussion during that time.

Okay, but it's not just talk.

We want to see where we are with regard to the efforts.

If nothing is being done, we're just studying it.

You know, that that's how we got into the problem last time.

We had a lot of studies on the shelf that were sitting there and we weren't funding any of it.

And I was so I've been under the impression since oh I would say in the last five years, that we were told that there's a continuing effort to re-line pipes to rehabilitate the underground sewer systems so that we don't overwhelm the the the George Low Meyer sewer plant when it rains, when we have flooding situations, so that it doesn't uh stress our capacity.

And if you're telling me all we're doing is studying it still, I thought the studies were done years ago.

So I know you're new, so I don't I'm not explaining I'm not putting any um you know uh expectations on you, but but when we do have our when we do have our goal setting session, I would hope that we would have a little bit more to report on than just saying, Oh, we're gonna have a study in another few months completed.

All right.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Any other questions or comments?

There being none, thank you so much, Alan.

Thank you, Mayor.

All right, moving on to uh uh business five uh presentation of the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.

Yeah, what mayor, that one was removed.

I didn't hear you.

It was removed from the agenda.

Okay, I'm sorry, I don't I didn't get that memo.

All right.

Um commission reports.

Uh uh Vice Mayor.

None.

Okay, Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

You've been busy the last couple of weeks.

Talk to us.

Oh, I was I was I was thinking about bypassing just to kind of you want to bypass?

No, I think I'm gonna give a little bit.

I won't give all that stuff you saw that I was doing.

You right, I've been very productive, but I'm just gonna share some of the highlights.

Um just want to thank the commission um for um agreeing and and um voting to rename 23rd Avenue to Reverend Dr.

C.W.

Bell um Avenue in Fort Lauderdale, District 3, of course.

Um wonderful outcome um participation.

I'd like to um give thanks also to um Stratcom for all of their work that they did to make that happen for us.

Um thank you, thank you, thank you very much.

Um also would like to um congratulate Fire Rescue Class 25-2 for their um batch um ceremony.

I wasn't able to attend, but I'm always excited when we um learn that we have these candidates are coming up to the next level to serve and protect our community.

So thank you very much for your um dedication and your passion to be a member of uh city of Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue.

Also, on um December the 20th, Smithy's restaurant celebrated their fifth anniversary, and that's a big come on, let's give them a clap for being Yeah, come on now.

Come on.

New business in the city, um five years, and we know a lot of times it's a challenge for um new businesses to survive.

So I'm really excited that um they were able to continue what they're doing.

Also, um doing that acknowledgement, um we the Smithy's owners they did dedicate the building to um Desiree Giles Smith, which is the wife of Chris Smith, they're co-owners, and it was a very, very um moving um afternoon and dedication for her.

Also um want to share, let's see.

Uh I'm gonna stop there.

I'm gonna stop there, yes.

All right.

And because um, what's gonna happen?

We all were at so many of the same events where it all you all acknowledged that I was there as well.

But I wanted to pause to share this.

That's how I know you were busy.

We were hanging out, we were really thick.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you for the time.

All right.

Um, Commissioner Glassman.

Yes.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh first, if I could request that this evening we do a moment of silence for Harry Stewart, um, who passed away that would be great.

Thank you so much for that.

Uh long-serving attorney for the city of Fort Lauderdale, so thank you very much for that.

Um December 17th, we had a great ceremony topping off of the um ocean rescue.

Uh thank you to all of those incredible people who serve, such a valuable, important part of our city.

Um I was really nicely attended, and uh I wanted to thank everyone who was involved in doing that.

Um facility is always so amazing, and this is gonna be a really integral part of that peninsula.

That evening was also the Flagler Village Civic Association holiday party.

Maybe that was perhaps the last of the holiday parties, at least in District 2, maybe in the entire city.

December 19th, several of us were at the Omni Ribbon Cutting in our city.

Such a beautiful venue.

When you think of 17th Street Bridge, and you think the bookends of the Pier 66 on one end, and then now the Omni Hotel on the other.

That coupled with when you look out uh at the convention center that we attended, that new opening of that facility, uh, and you look at what's happening in the port and all of the brand new ships that are coming to Fort Lauderdale.

Um it it it makes for a very optimistic uh revenue source uh for our future.

So congratulations to everyone involved in that.

Coming up, January 8th, uh we have History Makers this Thursday uh from the Historical Society honoring War Memorial and also the Florida Panthers.

Um as we know on the 13th, we'll be sitting down together for our goal setting workshop, always a very valuable exercise.

Uh visit Lauderdale will do its annual report on January 14th at the Broward County Convention Center at that luncheon, always very interesting.

Those facts and figures are very important to us as well in our city.

Uh January 15th, we have the Arcadian ribbon cutting, quite a important, important building uh development um in the CRA.

Uh we'll look forward to the Arcadian ribbon cutting.

Um and also uh that evening, the Fort Lauderdale Police Union FOP 2025's Police Officers Awards Banquet uh at War Memorial, which is also a really well attended uh event, and we look forward to that and congratulations to everyone uh who's going to be honored that evening.

Uh couple of comments, Mayor.

I've been trying to get through a lot of information that we've been seeing.

Number one, I did want to talk about uh something that's been happening in our city as of late.

Uh we had uh uh bad experience in the Himershi Entertainment District, uh and we also had a bad experience at Beach Place on the beach New Year's Eve.

So I want the city manager to assure me uh that we are gonna get serious.

I know that not so much Beach Place and the Beach, although that's been historically problematic over the years.

Uh but the Himershi Entertainment District, we've been talking about it.

I've been going to charrets and workshops for at least five years uh in terms of how do we restore this area uh to what it needs to be, what it once was, how do we activate it in a very different way?

Uh, and how do we clamp down on the bad actors, uh, whether it's at businesses that are not doing enough, uh, or just how are we going to deal with the fact that we have so many people coming to these places that are really just causing problems.

Uh, I want to see us get as aggressive as we possibly can.

I want I know that we have an item tonight on the beach uh with regards to significant impact events, but I would like to see that actually translate into other entertainment districts.

I would like to see us look at things like curfews.

I would like to see us really be able to figure out a way uh that we don't have to within two weeks see shootings, uh, some resulting in death in our entertainment districts, whether it be the beach about Hemership.

Let's talk about that.

You said entertainment district.

So I know we we visited the entertainment district concept uh a while back, and maybe it's time to revisit it again.

Because I think that entertainment districts uh because of the late hour that they're open.

I think it creates a an environment of indulgence, and people just think it's a place to not just hang out, but to act out on whatever it may be.

In this particular case, uh Him or she and also on Beach Place.

Obviously, those were inside um events.

It wasn't just random shooting.

These people all knew each other.

They were they were fulfilling goals that uh uh trying to get at each other, and they chose those locations to do it, and why do they choose those locations?

Um I personally feel that when you when you have uh an entertainment district uh where you have open care, you have uh um you have late night entertainment, a lot of it, you know suggests and invites people to come there and to do things that they wouldn't otherwise do in other locations.

Um I think we need to look again at uh what the parameters of a of an entertainment district should be and perhaps even restrict the hours that we have allowed in the past.

Uh certainly get rid of open containers.

And uh, you know, we've we we saw at uh someone sent me an email.

And uh, you know, we've we we saw at uh someone sent me an email, and I believe you may have all gotten an email of one of the one of the bars uh on Hemershead was serving underage kids.

This guy uh sent me this gentleman sent me an email saying that his 15-year-old child was served at one of the one of the um the bars on Hemershead, and he wanted to report it.

So, you know, first of all, why is he allowing his child to go out on Hemershead when they're 15 years old?

But I guess you know good luck with that.

Yeah, I know I know that can't always be controlled, but we can control some of the things, and uh and not having availability out there is one of the things that I think uh we as a city should be more responsible for.

So I think your point is extremely well taken, and uh you know, we've tried our best to press upon bar owners, uh taking on more responsibility.

I that didn't go anywhere.

So um I think that the city needs to revisit its entertainment district concept.

Uh Ocean Drive uh did a more draconian approach to to this.

I don't think we need to go as far as they did, but certainly I see there's creeping um uh activity that we've never seen before.

Uh and I don't I don't want that kind of um migration of of people's uh thinking that Fort Lauderdale is now a new staging ground for acting out their personal vengeances.

So at some point, maybe city manager, we need to put down put this down as a conference item.

I would also just say that we did have a fairly robust discussion of this not that long ago.

About a year ago.

And I I thought we I thought we actually came to some conclusions that I had not really seen in force.

Um by the way, I would also direct everyone's attention.

We did receive a very good email today from the Hemership Working Group, uh, which is comprised of the Brower Center for the Performing Arts, uh Museum of Discovery and Science, the uh history for L'Oreal, and also uh the DDA.

Uh take a look at that because and I agree with them.

I think that we should immediately prohibit off-premises and outdoor consumption of alcoholic beverages in this district, and we have to make sure that we step up the enforcement.

It's as simple as that.

Um, I agree with everything that they said in the letter.

As I said, it's just been too many years of listening and talking, but not doing anything.

And I I think we are at that crucial point now where we really have to step it up.

And and we are doing something.

And on December 24th, we did share with the commission a letter to the commission on some of the comprehensive steps that we've been taking toward approaching this district.

And we unfortunately saw the incident that we saw, and our police department has been diligent about how we are managing enforcement in our downtown.

Uh, I'm gonna ask Chris Cooper, our deputy city manager to come and give us an update.

I do know that as directed by the commission, we have been working on an amendment to the ordinance, and we intend to bring that forward in February of this year.

We also have Chief Schultz here, and I think Assistant Chief Greenlaw is still here, and they're available to talk about our new approach to policing in the area, and we also have some strategic uh opportunities within our police department and staffing and how we look at the scheduling and how that can impact police visibility in those areas and across our city.

Yeah, good afternoon, Mayor Commissioners.

So, as the uh as Commissioner Glassman alluded to, there were a series of shreds and meetings on how to redefine and revision the Hemmershee district in particular, and in September 2024 that came to commission, and the commission accepted that vision plan of sorts that kind of laid the roadmap out for how we could go about proposing changes not only to the entertainment district itself and the rules that surround that, as well as the uh the our land development regulations in the area and some other streetscape issues and things like that.

So what the uh what staff did was in May of May or June of 2025, we brought a conference presentation to the commission about the histor about the entertainment district specifically.

Uh we received feedback.

There was a lot of stakeholder input during that meeting as well.

And what we what we were directed to do from that meeting was to look at some amendments to the special entertainment district ordinance, especially as it pertains to the Hemmershead district, and bring those back for the commission for their consideration and hopefully adoption.

So those amendments included creating a different way to participate in the district prior to that.

It was based on common control, common ownership of the businesses within the district.

Um what the commission directed us to look at was something that contemplated more of a permit system so that individual businesses could opt in, opt out of the entertainment district, but also have some entity that had control and responsibility over making sure those permitted entities were operating within the parameters of the special entertainment district code requirements.

Two of the big things that have been mentioned were also directed to staff to bring back, which is the removal of the outdoor sales and the open container provision within the special entertainment district.

So from that meeting, staff has been working with stakeholders but also with our internal staff to draft those code amendments.

We are at a place where we are prepared to bring those back to you, and we believe we can have those to you for a first reading in February.

So unless the commission has any thoughts or input on changes to what was contemplated back in May, June 2025, those are the amendments that we would be prepared to bring back to the commission for consideration.

Could you outline those?

Sure.

So currently in the special entertainment district um ordinance to be an entertainment district, there needs to be some common control or common ownership element over the establishments that are part of the district.

So what the amendment contemplates is that rather than that element, there would be an ability for a district like Hammershead in particular to continue as a special entertainment district, but more so under a process by which individual businesses could opt in or opt out by way of a permit, but instead of that common control or common ownership element, there is a entity that's established to be the overseer of the district to make sure that the requirements of the district are being abided by.

That includes things like a security plan, which outlines individual establishments reliance on either police details or some other security measure, as well as the participation in an overall security plan for the district.

So that would be things like street details.

It also contemplates who manages and oversees the maintenance of the district.

So there's requirements for things like power washing sidewalks and making sure the district is maintained in a clean and sanitary manner.

So that entity would also be responsible for making sure that the participants are also abiding by those requirements as well.

I'm sorry, Chris, I apologize.

Uh I'm gonna focus a little bit more on just the the open container and hours of operations aspect.

The others are more aesthetic in nature.

I'm thinking more safety oriented.

So apologies.

I wasn't clear.

Yep, the code of ordinances right now allows for entertainment districts to have some benefits.

Um I think the primary benefit and one that we don't talk about much is the ability to be within a closer distance to each other than the code normally allows.

So right now, establishments license to sell alcohol are required to be separated by a certain distance.

If you're within the district, you can have establishments selling alcohol bars and that sort of thing right up against each other by right.

Um, the other thing is uh enhanced noise levels.

So this came up during the conversation about our noise ordinance when the commission amended that about a year ago.

Um, these districts are allowed to have an increased decibel limit over what other areas of the city are allowed to have.

The other um privileges are the ability to um have an open container in the district, so walk from bar to bar that's within the district, outside in the street, sidewalk with your beverage, as well as outdoor sales.

Um the other I think that's what the vice mayor is.

Right.

So those are the two things that the commission directed us to bring back into ordinance that removes the privilege within the special entertainment entertainment district.

The other item is the hours of operation.

So right now throughout the city of Fort Lauderdale, an establishments selling alcohol can operate throughout the week from Sunday to Thursday from I believe it's 7 a.m.

till 2 a.m.

and get started early.

Um then uh on the weekends, so Friday night into early Sunday morning, they can operate from that early start time to uh 3 a.m.

In the special entertainment district, the establishments are able to sell alcohol until 4 a.m.

at those any day of the week.

So they get an extra hour on the weekends and then an extra two hours during the rest of the week.

So let me ask my colleagues, do we think that still makes sense?

I I know I was never really comfortable with that.

I mean, I think the 2 a.m.

is nothing good happens after midnight.

You know, uh I'm I'm I have long subscribed to that, Mayor, and it uh I I recognize that you know I'm I'm not a 20-something year old anymore, and I'm not trying to party till dawn anymore.

So I'm an old fogie, I get the even the young people at some point, you know, it just becomes uh it I don't really think there's a benefit.

Now, some of the bar owners came back and said, No, you're gonna put us out of business and so forth.

Um, you know, I just think it creates a culture uh that that we don't want to um foster, and I think we need to we need to revisit that.

Well, one of the things that I've seen happening through the years and and and talking to some folks that are still young enough to go out down there, is you've got you've got people showing up at around 11:30, 12 o'clock who've already been drinking, and they're not showing up to come out and start their night.

They're coming out there now, having already shown up inebriated and standing around in the street.

They're they're not patronizing a lot of the establishments.

There's crowds just gathering in the street out there of folks who are already drunk and just you know looking for sort of a a what I'll call a uh uh bourbon street type atmosphere of of New Orleans.

You know, it's just people congregating in the street looking for a carnival type atmosphere.

And I don't think that's what we're trying to encourage down there.

So just you know, just just my my observations from people that that are going down there that are patronizing the area, is that there's an earlier crowd and there's a later crowd, the later crowd uh are not people who are going into the bars, they're not spending money, they're they're coming down there again, having already gotten their drink on and uh just looking for the party.

And that's when I think we're seeing more of the activity that we're concerned about starting to happen.

People again who are already showing up, already drunk.

This is when we're having more fights breaking out and things of that nature.

Chris, where are we with regards to the organization that always was in place back in the day when that agreement first was signed by the businesses and the district was created and all of those responsibilities are laid out?

Um there have been amendments to that.

Um everyone had a buy-in to that.

That sort of has fallen by the wayside.

I know there was a little bit of movement maybe last year to try and get that going again, but where are we in working with those businesses so that we are showing them that uh this is their their responsibility as well?

Yeah, so the common control element which oversaw the Hemershead district did seem to dissolve in while we brought this to the commission back in spring of 2025, we did have that conversation that from what we have found and what we were able to uncover, we didn't feel like that common control element was still in place, which would potentially invalidate the district and led to the conversation of to come up with an a process or a program by which they could re-establish and we could have that level of common control again within the businesses that participate in the Hemershead district.

So for all intents and purposes, we believe that prior entity has has moved on.

Um there was some conversation about who would take on the responsibility to be that entity that oversees these businesses in the district.

I think they're waiting a lot on what the code amendment does to implement that program, but I do know they've been coordinating and having conversations about what that group might look like and who might lead that group.

Okay.

Have you been finding that the businesses have been cooperative with you?

Yeah, we've had multiple stakeholder meetings with the businesses, so I think there was the expectation that what the commission had decided on would be the path forward in terms of repealing the open container opens open sales of alcohol primarily, and the things that we focused on was the crafting of this program that would allow for some permit to participate in the district and then who would oversee it and kind of the more specific details of that program.

And this is coming back to us in February?

Yes.

Okay.

The intent is to have this in place before spring break.

Yes, I was gonna say that's coming really quickly.

Uh we need to do that, not just for the beach, but also for the Himeshi as well.

May I ask, how are we doing with regards to those incidents in Himishing and also the beach in terms of arrests or investigations?

Again, I'm asking Chief Schultz to come forward and provide an update.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, Bill Schultz, Chief of Police, uh, for the two incidents regarding the New Year's Eve shooting at Beach Place.

Uh we have developed leads in the case.

Uh there is no arrest as of yet.

Uh but it is uh very confident in our review, uh review of the case thus far that this was not a um a crime that was committed by individuals who did not know each other.

We believe they did know each other.

So we're we're developing leads in that case.

Reference the Hemmershee area.

Uh a arrest warrant has been, I'm sorry, uh an arrest warrant has been issued for beach place.

Reference the Hemmershi area, that's the uh area where we're looking at a car that was involved, a vehicle.

Uh we have located that vehicle.

Uh we're developing suspect leads in that case.

Uh neither case has had an arrest yet.

So one suspect identified uh in the beach place incident.

Do we have uh uh a handle on where these folks are coming from in terms of both populating the Hemership district and also beach place?

Uh where are these folks coming from?

Uh over the years, and it depends on the time of year you mentioned spring break, that's an off lier.

Uh but a lot of these incidents have involved individuals who are not residents of Fort Lauderdale.

Uh we believe uh they've uh over the years they've come from the Pompano Beach area, you know, further north, further south.

Uh we've had incidents as far south as uh individuals as far south as South Miami Date.

So it really is uh an area where uh we have gatherings of individuals from all over South Florida.

And do we have any intelligence before events like New Year's Eve or you know, any weekend in Hemershire?

Do we do we know what to possibly anticipate?

Do we know uh when there is trouble on the horizon?

Do we have that kind of intelligence?

Uh there is sometimes uh intelligence given to us, and a lot of times we will gather that from social media post.

Uh sometimes even parents will let us know when they've heard something that's going to be developing.

And of course, our partners, uh Broward Sheriff's Office uh works very closely with us, and they have a a stood up real-time crime center, which is of great assistance in getting us intelligence.

But sometimes uh these groups will hand will gather um very quickly with very little notice and not really posting it, so we don't have that notice.

But sometimes we do, and m more than often we do.

Do you feel that we have adequate police presence and staffing in Hemershead and also on the beach on regular occasions, like just weekends, and uh obviously also on special occasions like when we had the shooting on New Year's Eve at Beach Place?

So we'll handle beach place first.

Uh we did have uh two officers stationary at beach place, and that's an instance, as you noted, where the groups gathered very quickly.

Uh and the officer noted it and had called for even more officers who were on their way when that shooting occurred.

So the beach does have uh normal staffing, both on duty patrol, uh, and it has uh a number of businesses with off-duty detail officers as well.

Um we can always uh supplement when we know there's big events.

Uh if one of the one of the bars or hotels has a large event, we do supplement out on the beach, uh, and that's both with more off-duty and with overtime uh or redeploying on duty resources.

So the beach, uh, we always try to keep we do keep uh officers on the beach at all times because of the drawbridges.

So there's a minimum level of officers who are always on the beach at that time.

Uh Beach Place has uh its own private security as well.

Um their hours are varying, they don't always have security there.

Uh but we do always have officers out there.

Hemmershee.

Uh downtown, right now we have initiated uh a plan where we've pulled resources both on duty uh and over time.

We pulled them in later than uh normally staffed down there.

So they'll stay around at least until four, usually until five until the streets are completely clear.

Uh we have an action plan going on right now for the next two weeks, but then uh mid-January, uh January 18th, we switch our staffing schedules, and it's going to uh put an ample amount of individuals on staff that we don't normally have.

And uh I'm happy to report we are now down uh to just three vacancies in the police department, which is going to assist as well.

No, that's excellent, and thank you for your work and thank you for the department for the work.

Uh I am definitely in favor of increased police presence in these entertainment districts.

I I just think that we have to have a physical presence where people see it, uh and people just know that we're just going to enforce what we have to enforce because this behavior just can't go on anymore.

I mean, I just can't see this happening.

And you know, when I get calls from folks down in the Sailboat Bend area or the historic district, or when I get calls from the beach, you know, it uh it's just shocking to hear what people are having to experience, you know, especially on New Year's Eve and you know, just any weekend in general.

So I I really appreciate the effort, and I'm really looking forward to a coordination between you and the city manager to really beef this up because this just cannot cannot continue.

And we already have commissioner, and it's something that uh I think very seriously, as does our police chief, and we have discussed opportunities for improvement and to modify our approach, and we are taking steps to actively improve the area on multiple fronts.

Excellent.

Well, thank you for that.

I appreciate it.

Thank you, Chief.

Thank you.

Commissioner, could I add in on that?

Go ahead.

Thanks.

Uh okay, I'll like to talk to bring Chris back up.

Thanks, Chief.

Okay.

Chris, so it's uh I think we have five special entertainment districts in the city, is that right?

That's right.

Okay.

Um is the proposed ordinance that you're that you'll be bringing back to us in February would is it for all five?

Or is it uh individual?

Yeah, so the open container open sales is is all, but the uh part where the program would change to allow for Hemmershee to continue on with a different oversight method would be just for Hemmershee.

Okay, so the no open container would apply to all five.

Yes.

Great.

How about the uh hours of operation?

So we don't have a we weren't directed and we don't have a proposed change for the hours of operation.

So if the commission wanted to have that conversation, we'd seek input from you and then we'd have to check with you know legal and talk about the way we treat these districts one way or another if we were to contemplate how we how we adjust the hours of operation for the for the districts.

Thanks.

Um city attorney, can we treat in respect to hours?

Can we treat special entertainment districts differently?

Uh we're looking into that this week.

We've uh been drafting some options to consider.

We're working with the manager's office, and with regard to that specifically, uh we're going to make that determination, understanding that that's likely what we'd have to do.

Okay.

Yeah, I mean, Commissioner Glassman, uh I'm interested in both of those.

Yeah.

The no open container and and the the hours at minimum, uh, Commissioner Glassman.

Um I'm interested in the the special entertainment districts where we're having these challenges of adjusting hours.

Is that okay?

No, without a doubt, we have to show that we're serious, you know, we have to deal with the loitering, but that's a number that's a big big issue.

Um and everything that's we've explained today, I think those are all really crucial.

Okay, and is there any way to bring this forward?

I mean, is is February the soonest we can bring this forward?

Is that your else?

We certainly wanted to incorporate any feedback provided by the commission today.

Uh we could work to expedite.

Uh I'm not sure if the city attorney would agree with that, but uh I want to make sure at a minimum we're before you at the first meeting in February.

Okay, because this would be two readings, is that right?

Okay.

Yeah, I mean, if at all possible, I'd love to see this at the next meeting in January if possible.

We're confident that we can do this um in February, but we're focusing on trying to get it to you in January.

Okay, great.

So if I could, Commissioner, we we could bifurcate this effort if the intent is to expedite the amendments to address the benefits in repealing some of those benefits to the districts.

I think that could be done much faster, and we could check with advertising and see if that could be done.

Obviously, in coordination with the attorney's office.

I think the item about the district structure, you know, that's what we need a few more a little bit more time on to get it in February.

So yeah, that's an option that we could pursue, and we'd certainly work with the attorney, and if that changes, we could communicate back to the commission, but that may be a way to expedite some of those other items.

Yeah, I mean I'd if possible, I'd love to do that.

That's definitely the quicker the better.

Chris, are we going to also discuss items like a curfew?

I mean, we heard tonight about underage drinking, which is obviously happening.

Uh can we have something like a curfew that if you're if you're under 18, you better be with an adult.

If not, you know, we're gonna enforce that.

So we have an item on the agenda this this evening to talk about high impact areas for the beach, and one of the provisions uh is to allow for a curfew for those under 18 uh so that we can manage that population more effectively.

If this is something that the commission would like to see broadened, and if the high impact ordinance should be applied to other areas of the city, that provision could also be incorporated there.

As I said earlier, I'm in favor of extending what we're doing tonight when we discussed the high impact area on the barrier island.

I'm in favor of uh of extending those issues to the other entertainment districts.

So I will so those are separate sections of our code of ordinances, so we may need to while that conversation could occur in in in the context of the beach impact events, we would likely need to draft the separate ordinance to bring that back to incorporate into the special entertainment districts.

That's fine with me.

I I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Okay, do you have any other comments?

Yes, I do.

I'm done with that.

Thank you, Chris.

Well, do we was there any feedback on the hours if there was any interest in incorporating a uh different hours of operation for Hemmershee in particular?

Was there consensus on that?

I think I'm interested in that.

Yeah, I mean I know that as a body we we we said keep the four.

What that was like last April or May, so now I guess we're having a change of heart.

Um, but I know that is the same.

I would say two o'clock.

I agree.

Two o'clock.

So in other areas of the city, it's permitted until three?

Yeah, another areas of the city is permitted until three a.m.

on certain days, the weekend hour, the weekends primarily.

Is the intent to have that the same as the rest of the city or are you looking to I I think we should just I I think three because if that I don't think we should be more restricted than the other areas of the city in the entertainment districts, but I think we should be at least the same.

Okay, yep.

Okay, and just for everybody's awareness, that's for the ability to sell alcohol.

So I don't know why they would or wouldn't, but businesses can stay open past those hours, they just can't sell and serve alcohol past those times.

No, this isn't a formal item, but if we are entertaining a rollback, the recommendation would be to 2 a.m.

Not the three.

Well, why would we want to be more restrictive in the entertainment district than we are in the rest of the city?

I want to look at across the city 2 a.m.

Oh, you're saying across the city.

I'm okay with that.

Yep, I agree.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um next item.

Okay, I had a few here.

Um, or she city manager.

So I I I know that we've gotten a flurry of letters to the commission a lot last night.

Uh I will have to agree when the vice mayor, I think at the last meeting you said that's a lot the night of or the night before or the morning of it is.

I I try to get through them, but it's a lot.

Um I want to talk about though the December 23rd, go back.

I'm gonna try to take them chronologically.

Um I I'm talking about the City Hall update one.

So I I I when I read it, I I appreciate that you guys are going to come together in two days.

That's the first meeting.

But I think that that timeline is really a little ex too extended to come up with a comprehensive agreement.

I think we could do a lot better than the spring.

I mean, I don't see why if people are meeting regularly, we can't knock that out in a month.

I mean, I don't know why we we've when did we approve the city hall uh first week in December.

That was the first week of December.

So we waited like five weeks to meet for the first time.

But then, and I understand it's holidays, but I would just like to see us maybe on a little bit more of an accelerated program so that we can really see a comprehensive agreement a little bit faster um than the spring.

And if it is the spring, at least the March part of spring as opposed to the May part of spring.

Uh if that's if that's at all possible.

I I just don't want to see us forcing uh you know our partners to obviously not be able to deliver on time if we're just going to extend this out and out and out and out.

So I'm I'm just asking for uh a little bit more of an aggressive uh schedule uh on that.

So, yes, Commissioner, this morning we actually had an internal uh staff meeting with the working group identified in that letter to commission, which is also an attachment to the city manager's report uh for this meeting.

Uh the city attorney's office as well as outside council uh participated with uh staff and the administration to discuss next steps.

And we're looking at uh a draft term sheet.

We're having a first meeting this week.

Yes, the holidays did impact the schedule.

We do plan to operate in a very expeditious manner on this, and we will keep the commission advised on a very regular basis as to our progress.

Uh we fully intend to work toward having a project that comes to fruition sooner rather than later.

Uh and it is our intent to ensure that the commission is advised all through the process.

Excellent.

Thank you.

I appreciate that very much.

Um I want to turn now to one of the letters to the commission that we received last night uh about fortify Lauderdale unsolicited proposals.

So here's my question, because I thought we had a conversation a while ago when we first did talk about the fact that we might be seeing some unsolicited proposals to help us uh with our infrastructure programs, uh specifically fortify Lauderdale.

Uh I I and I read this, and I'm gonna probably need some help from the city attorney as well.

But I know that you're saying in this letter that staff is recommending we not proceed with either unsolicited proposal.

Um, but then later the letter says should the city commission wish to consider the unsolicited proposals in the future, the commission is welcome to provide feedback.

Well, in the future, does that mean something after this, or does that mean this one?

So this letter to the commission was intended to provide information to the commission on what staff received.

So just prior to the Christmas holiday, we received two unsolicited proposals for a fortify Lauderdale phase one project.

And actually the proposals that we received bifurcated the project as the city has already designed, planned, and um we we have approached the project as a combined project between the Riverland area as well as the Melrose Manors area.

The proposals that we received are being provided to you for your information.

Uh we are recommending that we not move forward with this project through an unsolicited proposal process for various factors as outlined in that letter to commission.

One of them being that the project as designed and at 90% design, no less, is contemplated as a unified project.

It is also apparent to us that the two proposers that submitted to us are working in coordination with each other.

And our hope is that as we implement Fortify Lauderdale, the completion of phase one and going into phase two, that we have the most uh robust uh competitive process as possible to ensure uh good pricing for the city and fair pricing for the city and to ensure that the supplier community understands that we are open for business and we uh do want to have a competitive opportunity for everyone.

Uh this project currently is slated to come to the bidding stage by summer of this year.

So again, we've advanced to a degree that an unsolicited proposal at this time really isn't necessary or recommended.

But of course, the city commission uh can provide policy direction to staff to uh proceed in any fashion toward implementing this project.

Uh we wanted to provide this letter to the commission to ensure that you were aware of the staff recommendation, which is the professional recommendation looking at all the factors involved in this project.

Going forward for phase two of Fortify Lauderdale, as mentioned at, I believe it was the November 18th City Commission conference meeting.

We intend to expedite our procurement approach for those new projects.

We intend to do a two-step selection process to identify a qualified vendor pool so that on a project by project basis we can issue an invitation to bid and have that supplier community provide their best offer so that we can competitively uh look at the market and select uh a partner for each and every one of those 12 projects coming forward for phase two.

Uh again, this Melrose Manors and Riverland project, it's at the tail end of the phase one uh element of the Fortify Lauderdale program.

It's at 90%.

We're ready to go with our established procurement process.

Uh P3 or unsolicited proposal will not have a material impact on the public benefits for our residents, and so that is why the recommendation is written as such.

No, and I and I understand exactly what you're saying.

I'm just wondering about the process though.

I'm wondering if if unsolicited proposals are received, I I'm just trying to figure out well, is that the city manager's role to say yes or no?

And we're not even going to hear it, or is that the city commission's role to say yes or no?

We're not going to hear it.

And should we?

I mean, I appreciate the letter, but obviously we have not seen the proposal, so we can't even judge for ourselves.

The proposals were attached to the letter to the commission, and if the commission would like to direct staff to bring this forward as an item for discussion and to make a decision on whether to move forward and have a competition period, the commission is well within its authority to do so.

This was provided for informational purposes and to gain your feedback on what direction to head in.

So is that the process though that's typically followed in in a P3 unsolicited proposal where they would be submitted and then we get a um a letter or a memo saying we're not recommending this, and then that's the end of it.

Well, from my understanding, and we can have staff provide some more of the historical information.

I believe there have been times that we have received unsolicited proposals and have uh looked at them at the staff level for several weeks or or months, and then brought them before the city commission at a later date to provide information and to say whether or not uh or to inquire as to whether the commission would like to move forward in that fashion.

I don't know that we have a process explicitly established.

I know we had discussed having a process and that didn't materialize in terms of how public-private partnerships should be presented or how you know what the responsibilities of the city are and what staff has to do uh on the occasion that we receive that.

Uh I wanted to ensure that you all had the information.

Again, we got this just before Christmas.

I didn't want to sit on the information on the proposals.

I wanted to make you aware that we received this in a timely manner, uh, but also to share the recommendation given uh what we saw in the proposals and where we are with the project, uh, it was prudent for us to share it with you as well as with the recommendation.

Understood.

I just want to make sure going forward that I'm I'm I'm um appreciating and understanding the process by which these are gonna go, especially again.

So when your letter says should the commission wish to consider fortified lauderdale unsolicited proposals in the future, are you also referencing these two as well as the future, what might happen?

What might happen?

Yes, these specific unsolicited proposals for fortify Lauderdale.

And as of today, these are the only ones that we are aware of.

So that is the reference.

Because when we had the last discussion in the city commission of the uh fortify Lauderdale, I think we all agree that we don't want to wait 15 years for everything to get done.

So we were welcoming anyone's idea to help move this process along, whether it's a unsolicited proposal, whether it's what.

I just I just want to make sure that they all get a full hearing.

I don't, again, with all the respect, I just don't want the buck to stop with you with regards to these unsolicited proposals.

I want to make sure that we're able to vet them and see them and say, hey, maybe that's not a bad idea.

Commissioner, could I offer a historical perspective on that?

Sure.

So uh I I could actually confirm what the city manager has said.

So the city manager's office historically through the years has reviewed with uh with the city manager's staff, uh finance department uh uh assistance of the city auditor's office various submittals that have come in unsolicited proposals and have on occasion determined that those submittals were not in the best interest of the city and have declined to cash the $25,000 check and have made that uh made that recommendation to the city commission that they didn't feel it was in the best interest of the city.

Of course, the city commission as a policymakers always have the option of overriding the city manager's recommendation and directing the city manager to, in fact, cash a check and to consider that.

But the professional recommendation by the by the subject matter experts has been that it hasn't been in the city's best interest and to move forward with a different process.

So there is a historical precedent, a process in place, if you will, uh uh along the lines with uh what the city manager is recommended in these particular instances.

No, thank you for that.

Um so then that brings a question to mind because if that has happened in the past, I would ask our city attorney is that a proper process?

Is that uh does that comply with state statutes in terms of what the vice mayor just said has happened historically, what we're looking at now.

I'll bring up another one that's coming up also that we receive.

But what's your take on that?

Well, Commissioner, the uh statute calls for the responsible public entity to make the decision, which is of course you uh you may just uh devise your own process for review of that.

Just like with my advice, you can reject it.

Uh the city manager would vet that in process and present it to you for your review and acceptance.

Uh I'm not speaking for the city manager in terms of the language used in the letter to commission, um, but it is clearly still within your province to accept a P3 and and ask that it proceed or not.

Well, I I can I also add to this conversation.

I know in the past, when a when an unsolicited proposal is presented to the city, the staff does do an initial vetting process to determine uh financial viability and other other key components before it even considers you know letting the commission know that we've received something.

Um so that that has that's consistent.

And I and but but to wrap up this conversation, yes, you are correct, Commissioner.

The City Commission ultimately has the uh uh the final authority as to whether or not to receive a tendered submission and to accept it, and then to direct uh uh the city attorney's office and the city uh manager's office to proceed with the next steps.

So with regard to these um these two projects, Riverland and Melrose, um, are you saying that if we if if we kept the process going as we now have gotten and uh 90 percent design and so forth, that the unsolicited proposal would take more time to procure to con and to construct than the process we currently have uh uh uh initiated?

I I'm not asserting that the unsolicited proposal will take us more time.

We would have to go through a process to accept the unsolicited proposal, open up a competition period, uh receive additional proposals, if any, evaluate, have the commission rank and award.

Uh what I am saying is that there are no material benefits in terms of schedule or uh financially that we can ascertain at this time based on the proposal provided uh based on the fact that we have progressed in this project to this point.

Okay, so you're saying you all things being equal, there's no advantage to accepting these P3s.

That is the recommendation, that's the evaluation.

You know, it's interesting.

You say you know, we would like to establish a pool of vendors.

Our our experience, there aren't a whole lot of people who know what they're doing out there, especially lateral drilling.

It's uh it's an art, and uh there are very few people who know how to do that, and that's why we have always relied on these types, these folks to do the work that we have been doing, just to keep just to let you know.

But we would welcome any one of these firms to bid through a competitive solicitation process, and we think that either of these firms are very qualified, they've done work in our city.

We know uh that they bring a quality product.

Yes, they know our dirt, and I'm familiar with these firms in other places as well, and we just want to ensure that you know we approach this program uh in a manner that is in the city's best interest in terms of uh competitive pricing and you know, letting the vendor community know the supplier community know that uh they have an opportunity as well.

Uh there's a handful of of firms that can do this work that are very reputable, even beyond the two that have submitted, and we want to ensure that we have a robust pool going forward for the Fortify Lauderdale uh program, not just to complete phase one, but also to get into phase two.

The way that we are ramping up and and accelerating these projects is to get that vendor pool in place.

We have Glenn Marcos here, he can talk about what uh the steps are to get that pool going.

Uh, we also have Brad Kane, our public works director, to provide any details on this project.

Okay, and I think that's the ultimate goal to to uh to accelerate the process, do not delay this any further.

You know, there's one thing we all we can all be guaranteed, and that is that we're gonna continue to have rain and uh uh and and we're gonna continue to have flooding, especially in those low-lying areas.

So, whatever you could do to accelerate that process, that's what we're looking for.

All right, any other things.

I just have one more comment.

Thank you.

I have some comments and questions on this.

Go ahead.

Thanks.

Um okay.

So first what I'd like to do is just uh a few questions on the existing process.

Um, but Commissioner Beasley Pittman, this is your district.

It is, yes.

So I want to defer to you.

I I have some questions just on kind of timing, but I want to defer to you in terms of your comfort level with where we are, where we're heading, what you want, and then I'll I'll you know uh give some ideas.

Okay, thank you for um bringing me in at this point.

I was gonna wait for the opportunity.

But also um, with that being said, um we do know that we do not want to slow the process and what I'm receiving from the this letter that we received that going in the deray in the direction to bring in the opportunity to um in it well to review and look at the um P3 proposals, it will slow down the process.

So I'm um in favor of us moving in a direction, continuing on the direction that we're on, so we do not slow this down.

Again, we know that um this is already been a process, and we're coming into the spring again, and our neighbors are really concerned about the time that we're taking now.

So if we could um continue on the path to even go faster, speed it up, that would even be better.

And and just to clarify a little bit, uh Commissioners, um as proposed, the unsolicited proposals uh demonstrate a bifurcation of the project as designed, and so we feel that that could impact the project schedule, and we don't want to take that chance.

We also uh don't want to deal with the risks that would be involved with bifurcating the project because there is a point of connectivity that would be required for both neighborhoods, uh, and it is specific to the outfall area, and so I want to make sure that the project is implemented in a cohesive manner and that we would not be arguing with Tom and Harry about how the project should be managed, what the timeline should be, and how that connection point should be navigated.

So that's a little bit on the technical side, and we can have our our public works team explain a little further, but that that's part of the constraint that we have.

Uh we want to have a cohesive integrated project, and bifurcating the project does not make sense as we've reached 90% design.

And that makes sense.

I I'm I'm agreeing with everything I'm hearing.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Do you have further questions?

No, no, no.

Okay, okay.

Go ahead.

No, and I I I'm hearing and I agree with everything I'm hearing.

Uh in this particular instance, I agree that it would just slow down the process.

Why just Tom and Harry?

Wasn't there one more person involved in that?

I didn't want to call him out.

Oh, okay.

I'm just I always thought there were three.

Aren't there three?

Yeah, I think there was three.

Okay, yeah.

Just checking.

I just trying to jog my memory there.

Okay.

Uh but I understand.

Thank you.

If I can keep going though.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I forget who's deferring to whom okay.

Go ahead.

Wait, are you finished with this particular subject?

I still want to talk about it.

I know you're just particularly subject, yes.

Yes.

Okay, so Commissioner Sorrison.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um great.

So Commissioner Vies, we've been off here here and you're right.

You're saying keep charging ahead on the path we're on.

Don't consider the uh unsolicited for this project.

Is that correct?

That is my assignment.

So that's great with me.

Completely support that.

Um so thank you.

Raquel for unsolicited.

I I think this is what I was hearing, but I just want to confirm.

So I a couple things I liked about what you did here, which was you got on solicitor proposal, you and staff evaluated it in 12 days or whatever the case may be.

Then you provided us the proposals and your feedback to the proposals.

That I have that right.

Okay.

So I think that is the right model for any unsolicited, if that makes sense.

That any time you get it, whether you think it's crazy idea or brilliant idea, there's some degree of evaluation, and then in quick order, sharing it with us.

Is that a fair process?

And and in some cases the evaluation may be more extended than what you've seen here today.

So we would still want to inform the commission, but we might add the caveat that we would like more time to evaluate before we bring it back for further discussion or for an update via a letter to the commission.

But for this one, it was very um it was very easy to evaluate considering the project considerations right now.

Okay, great.

And I think is it fair to set a you know just uh uh a two-week kind of expectation two weeks of receiving an unsolicited you'd communicate to us in some form fashion, whether even if it's we got these unsolicited proposals or proposal, I would need further evaluation and get you you know uh evaluate uh assessment within you know I I think that is very fair, and what I probably foresee happening is that you might hear about the unsolicited proposal from the vendor before you have time to hear it from staff before we've been able to draft a letter to the commission, you might have received some sort of communication from that vendor or their representative.

So I never want it to appear as though we're sitting on information, we're keeping anything back from the commission.

So, yes, I do think maybe a a two, three-week window would be very appropriate for us to put something on paper and share with you all.

Great, and then thank you.

And then Sherry again, it's within our peer purview as a city commission, regardless of what staff thinks, yay or nay, for us to make decisions and to decide whether we want to kind of follow in or engage.

That's correct, right?

Okay, great.

So then um just last question on the uh current uh proposal and the work being done, sorry, the current work being done towards Melrose and Riverland.

The this is going to procurement when Raquel.

Glenn and Brad, you want to come provide those details?

So the summer that seems roughly.

And as mentioned before, we are working through an easement um challenge with the shipmong site.

This project is dependent on that, and so we've been actively working on that as well.

Okay, great.

Thanks.

Thanks, Brad.

You want to push the button now at the bottom of the speaker?

Great.

Good afternoon, Mayor City Commissioner.

So that's that's the one thing I I just want to kind of touch on because I think it's really important.

Uh we didn't we didn't really cover that today, but I think it's important that the commission understands this.

So one of the big reasons this project, you know, we don't recommend um going through this process uh you know separated is because of the easement issue that we have uh with the Shipmunk Melrose Manors and River Glans Civic share a single outfall as a manager stated through the Shipmont property, which has now recently been sold and under new ownership.

Staff has a meeting with them on Thursday.

We're hoping to work through that.

Uh and as long as uh everything goes well with that, you know, then we'll be able to attain that easement, and then going forward we can obtain the Broward County Stormwater permit, which is dependent on proof of theasement.

So those things are really important.

So kind of like if you go ahead as those proposals suggest, without um, you know, those easements obtained, you're potentially risking you know, upsizing, redesigns of piping, pump station capacity being changed, those all things could come into play, and that is very risky to do uh you know, without having that easement.

So um basically at this point, uh we're very uh optimistic that we'll be able to uh come to an agreement, be able to get this easement done, and then the timeline that we continue to you know have in this point is uh going to bidding on July of 2026.

Is there a way to expedite that bit have that bidding happen sooner?

I mean, if we can if we can work through the issue with the easement in a relatively quick period, potentially we can hold it up.

That's the hold up the easement.

Yeah, because we're at 90% design.

So and so it's not on our it's not on our end then.

It's it's on this legal issue.

That's correct.

Okay, which I'm assuming that legal issue would still be present regardless of what form we're tackling this.

Absolutely whether it be a P3 or FR exactly we still have that to get absolutely that's why I mentioned those items uh those three items that are critical because you have to get that no matter what permits are just not going to be issue without that okay that that helps clarify for me so thank you Raquel what and I think we've already gotten some communication about this from staff in terms of fortify for Lateral so what I'd like to see is so I completely understand it for this uh project and and the path we're going great when we think about phase two and phase three what I'd like to see is a better understanding of the timeline expectations for each project within phase two and phase three and I'd like to be able to um have that information and have any impediments um concerns about where in phase two and phase three an unsolicited proposal might not be advantageous what are the for example are there any easement issues or or drawbacks to exploring that so that we can have that communication and then that can go um to the marketplace as it were for their consideration evaluation to say hey in the marketplace of ideas and efficiencies here's how we think we can deliver faster or better or more cost effective is that does something like that make sense yes and and what I can tell you is that within the next 90 days we will have an award um recommendation before the commission for that qualified vendor pool so we plan to put that out this month and then 90 days later we want to be back before the commission so that we can establish that pool.

We want to keep that pool open for at least a five year window with opportunities for suppliers to be added at a later date should additional suppliers you know learn about the opportunity later on in the process and you know the fortify lauderdale phase two program is a function of our funding capacity so we have uh indicated to the commission the level of uh funding required over the life of the project and we're going to be doing this in tranches and so as we draw down on the funds we will continue to design and implement the projects in the priority order that the commission has recommended and approved.

We can provide um more detailed information as we go through the design efforts because that's going to help dictate uh the schedule so it's hard to say what the schedule will be for all of the projects right now we haven't even begun design with many of the projects so uh that's something that's going to be ongoing uh discussion and we're gonna be providing and fine-tuning that information throughout the project we can give some high level preliminary estimates of where we think these projects are going to land uh in terms of timeline and I'm I'm looking at my team and they're nodding so I think they're agreeing with me uh so I I think we can do that at a high level and as we go further into the program we can refine that schedule yeah that'd be look high level is great for that and in addition in that communication I think Raquel it would be helpful for me and uh so that I can explain to neighbors of here's our plan right now and here are would be some pros and cons with receiving an unsolicited for these projects as well so just from a high level here would be our concerns here would be the upside here's just our thinking that would then I think allow neighbors and and and the marketplace to kind of evaluate say well hey we could we could mitigate that concern in this way or that way or so forth is that that's fair and as with any opportunity or project uh there are pros and cons to different procurement approaches absolutely and there are times when a P3 is the in the best interest of the city and and perhaps provides benefits and there are times when P3s do not and so I I appreciate that question and we'll provide some information surrounding that.

That'd be great.

And then maybe the third so and and remind me again what we what we call the current process we're going through for Melrose Park and Riverland what what just what's the you mean the procurement process?

Yeah just normal procurement I didn't know if there's a more technical it's um either we for I'm sorry Commissioner Glenn Markle's chief procurement officer um it's known as the multi-step bidding process okay um or a two-step a bidding process where there's a uh pre-qualification pool uh set forth in the first step and then competitive bidding for individu individual projects thereafter go ahead okay correct and then specific to the Melrose and Riverland projects because we're gonna implement that two step process for phase two uh because we're at 90 percent at this time I think we are looking to continue with uh our traditional procurement process would which would mean to put this out to bid once we have the hundred percent and once we get the easement situation clarified.

Uh because we're at 90 percent at this time, I think we are looking to continue with uh our traditional procurement process, would which would mean to put this out to bid once we have the hundred percent and once we get the easement situation clarified?

Okay, great.

So kind of the the two-step process, the unsolicited process, and then Mayor, the the other kind of um uh consideration here, I think, is how much do we draw down from a bunding from a bonding capacity per tranch.

So I think Raquel, the plan right now for phase two and phase three is like three hundred million.

So for uh 26, we're looking at 330 million and 350 million for 2029, 2032, and 2035.

So we have already baked these numbers into our estimates for what is gonna cost consumers or customers.

We've taken these numbers and calculated what the rate increases would need to be to support uh this level of uh debt.

So any deviation from this could impact what our users um are responsible for in terms of payments.

Okay, thanks.

And so, Mayor Commissioners, the other why I asked that is because the other consideration, if we said, hey, we want to expedite the um project delivery, uh that would require one of the things that were to require is an increased drawdown and funding mechanism, right?

So go from 330 million to say 400 million, 450 million a year.

So I think that's another consideration.

Is that right, Raquel?

That's right.

Right.

So under our current plan, our rate increases are anticipated for uh 20 percent from fiscal 27 to 28, 15 percent from 29 to 32, and then 10 percent from fiscal 33 to 35.

If we take on more debt now, let's say roughly 500 million as opposed to what we're currently planning, yeah.

We're looking at an additional 26% rate increase by 2029.

So we would have that 28, then 29, and so forth.

Right.

So again, it's a function of how much funding we have and what we want the obligation to be on our users.

Right.

And thank you.

And in that communication, it doesn't have to be a uh uh um uh overly in-depth uh analysis, but if you could just share just some of those hypotheticals, if we increase the the drawdown, just kind of what would that look like from a rate structure, so that we can kind of easily explain and talk through that with neighbors, I think it'd be great.

Again, nothing overly complex.

We can absolutely do that.

Okay, all right, great.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Thank you, Commissioner Glass, you want to continue.

Yes, thank you guys.

Um appreciate it.

So um I just quickly um following up on this discussion of unsolicited proposals.

So also we received a letter to the commission last evening about the interactive digital kiosk program.

Um and I I actually am interested in hearing more about this.

Uh the Ike kiosk product.

Um I I've seen this in other cities.

Um I don't want to dismiss this one so quickly.

I I I I'm interested in hearing more.

Um I'm interested in hearing how that can get our message out.

Uh I like what I've seen in terms of um what other cities are doing with it.

Um I I certainly think it's worth looking at as a commission.

I don't know how the rest of my colleagues feel, um, but I I'm not so quick to dismiss this one.

Um I understand the reasons that the other one with regards to Melrose and Riverland makes sense.

We're concerned about the timeline.

Um, although I still think we can do this quicker than you know that we were told.

Um, I think we should be able to do that better than July.

Because actually, I think a P3 could actually happen faster than we have the easement issue, no matter what I think.

I understand.

I mean, they could start tomorrow if they had the easement issue resolved with this.

Well, let's see how that works out.

Yeah.

Okay.

And just to clarify, Commissioner, it's it's not that uh staff is recommending that we never proceed with this.

Uh the narrative within the letter to the commission explains that uh there's a feeling that this might be a little premature considering some of the planning efforts that we have ongoing right now.

Uh what I know of this um product or this offering is that there's a dependency on uh the pedestrian areas uh of cities.

And so, you know, when we think of areas like Los Oulis and the beach, especially those areas that are highly focused on tourism, uh I think these products would do very well.

Uh just note that we've been in conversations with this firm for uh a couple of months now through our information technology services department, and we see that there could be some value to the city.

There could be some um revenue that's generated, it could provide wayfinding, uh it could provide some economic development opportunities.

Just given the discussion around the Los Olas Mobility Project and you know, trying to determine the city's approach to that, as well as the configuration of Fort Lauderdale Beach and where the amenities are going to be located in terms of how we have those discussions with uh Behem R C D.

It just felt uh a little premature to put this out on the street for others to consider the opportunity when we ourselves aren't really sure of where our highly pedestrianized areas are gonna be in terms of those projects that we're planning for.

Well, I I think I mean I think the beach we've finished the sidewalks there.

We finished the streetscape after a lot of pain and agony is done.

So that clearly is an opportunity, especially at the Los Solos Oceanside Park, where there's a lot of pedestrian activity.

I think it would certainly merit uh putting one there.

Um and Mr.

Brown, you could certainly chime in on this, but that's certainly a highly walkable area where people often need wayfinding opportunities that uh we don't provide right now.

We got rid of that all of that program that we had worked on for years.

We had a whole signage wayfinding program that we just I know so uh as far as Los Oulas is concerned.

I'm not gonna hold my breath as to when that's gonna happen.

So I just assume you know, consider putting a uh um one of these kiosks maybe near the uh the uh the tunnel top plaza or some area where we see a lot of pedestrian activity.

Um, I've met with these folks uh at uh mayors conferences and it's a it's a very viable product and it's very it's very popular in other cities.

And uh I met Mr.

Sistrunk and uh um who didn't know that he had uh his namesake here in Fort Lauderdale.

And uh and I really don't wouldn't be I I I personally feel we should move forward on this.

I agree.

Right, and uh and and consider you know, you know, as far as waiting for what's gonna happen on Los Oles, like I said, the the area around um the tunnel top plaza is not changing on any of the design schemes.

So certainly, you know, if you can um work with staff to see how we can move this forward.

And it doesn't have to be a lot of them all at once.

I mean I just couple.

I I I really like the interactive aspect of this.

I think folks will enjoy using them.

Uh I I see a real benefit in key areas of the city that I I'm just not so quick to dismiss.

And I I like the technology.

I I want our city, I want our city to do things not just for today, but for the future.

I want us to be able to plan for the future.

I want us to be cutting edge.

I want us to be proactive.

I don't want to always be reactive, and I don't want to always just have old technology, you know, old whatever.

I I just think that sometimes we just have to be willing to step outside of our comfort zone and outside the typical box.

Um that's why I'm I'm curious to just see a little bit more discussion about this particular program.

Okay.

Anything else?

Just one last item.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

Um, were you just making a case for drones?

I think you were making a case for drones.

Innovative, not just what we want to do.

Well, but there's a limitation because you need to be right in front of it or else you're not gonna see it.

That's right.

I don't like old technology.

Drones are already old technology.

Oh man, okay.

There you go.

Um, go ahead.

Yeah, that's right.

Um so what what does that mean in terms of how we would consider this raquel?

So we would bring an item forward for discussion and the commission could make sense.

And Bill, do you want to say something at a conference meeting?

Yes, I think that would be appropriate.

I think that's good.

And Bill, do you want to say something on this?

Yes, Mayor.

Bill Brown press Central Beach Alliance.

Great discussion.

I personally have met with the proposer on this project.

I know other community leaders, neighborhood leaders have as well.

We think it's a great idea.

In my meeting, I brought up the question, uh, what's why not a P3 versus going out on a proposal?

Uh and the conversations come up of having to what's the pup the benefit of public purpose easements, right-a-ways, and I think at the end of the day, uh it could both be done, but we would like to see it done what in the most expedient manner because we see a benefit for our community, not only Central Beach, but Los Olas Avenue, uh Flags Village Boulevard.

Yeah, yeah, what I say Avenue.

Avenue.

Um, because they've shared with us what they've identified where the kiosk is would be, and those key points have already been identified.

So whatever what's ever the most expedient but most cost effective for this program we support.

Okay, very good.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Bill.

Uh and and lastly, Mayor, um, and my colleagues, I just wanted to be transparent about this.

I've begun discussions with the developers from the Behemoth team.

Um, and I and I've done this actually, ironically, we have minutes to approve tonight from October 23rd.

If you read those, you you see that we actually had consensus and comments that said let's move forward with that 1A alternative.

We know what happened at the last meeting, which obviously is the opposite direction of what we all agreed to on October 23rd.

Um, but that being said, um, my main concern still is a legal jeopardy for the city um and and that agreement that we have with the CDD.

Uh so what I've asked the developers to go back and talk to the CDD, because obviously they're separate entities, uh, and I don't have any communication with the CDD.

Uh, but at the very least, I am I'm working towards at least extending that deadline of January 2027 to have all of these amenities finished because I know the way these things work, I know what's going to happen.

We still haven't decided what we want to do.

Uh and basically with permitting and everything else, I do not see how we will get all of these amenities completed in 11 months.

So I I've asked them to at least give us that consideration, that courtesy of extending that deadline out that gives us some breathing room so us to figure out what we want to do.

Uh, and I just wanted to let you know that I've taken that step.

All right, just so that you know the commission uh appointed me to be the representative.

Congratulations.

Okay, so uh thank you for revealing what negotiations you've had.

Is there anything further you would like to let us know that you've got to know please don't be too defensive.

I'm just as the district commissioner reaching out to people that I've been working with for 15 years on a project.

I feel I have the ability to do that.

Uh and again, I wanted to make sure that that was the first thing before you enter into your conversations.

I wanted to make sure you had the breathing room, the timeline to make sure that you didn't have the pressure on your head to have to come up with an agreement before the January 2027 deadline.

So I'm sorry that you're upset.

I just want to I think you're upset or else you wouldn't have said that.

But anyway, what I'm saying is I just wanted to make sure you had the time, and I've reached out as the district commissioner um to do that.

Uh hopefully they will be able to do that.

And then, Mayor, go to town, you'll have an extended period of time to work out something really wonderful for the entire city.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

I'm finished.

Thank you.

Commissioner Smithson.

Thank you, Mayor.

Please don't put any more pressure on me.

Oh, there's no problem.

I'm trying to relieve the pressure.

I know how you are under the pressure.

We're trying to relieve the pressure.

Thank you.

Uh thanks, Mayor.

Just want to uh recognize Yvette Matthews and Tiffany Bain.

They were recognized by you probably all saw this legacy South Florida, recognize them as uh among South Florida's most prominent and influential black women in business and industry for 2025.

Let's do a cross or as a proclamation when we need it.

Uh congratulations.

Thank you for your work.

Uh on behalf of the people of Fort Lauderdale.

Just a couple other comments.

One mayor, and I know so many of us were there for the Omni Hotel ribbon cutting, uh, which is you know can be a great uh hotel in our community.

And I want to thank Broward County for during construction, they did a very good job, Broward County and and all the contractors of working with the surrounding neighbors to ensure noise mitigation, traffic flow, and so forth.

So that I just want to thank them for that.

Um the traffic challenges continue now at the port, and Raquel, thank you for your work and Chief Schultz and so many uh Miloch and Ben on really trying to find solutions for 17th Street uh and Eisenhower, especially.

And so we have a working group that's that's the uh Raquel is part of that's working on that, and we're continuing to work with the port in Broward County and BSO.

Are people using that uh to try to move people are using the bypass, the wayfinding from you know um online maps is still not tracking the bypass on all of them.

So that's a challenge with the increased cruise traffic, the parking capacity at the port is limited, is not uh to the level that the Broward County wants it to be, so they're uh exploring and working on additional parking structures, but it causes some real congestion there on 17th, that probably many of you have have have experienced.

And um, so uh Chief Schultz is is working on on having uh FLPD officers there, and that they've been deployed, which has really been helping, but it's gonna take continued working effort with the county with the port.

So uh just appreciate in advance all that work work that's going into it.

Um Commissioner Pizza Pittman mentioned the firefighters class 2402.

Uh I was honored to to be there and celebrate those uh cadets.

Um so it's a great celebration of our and what was really special for me at least was the the family members of these cadets were there and just so proud of for many of these cadets, it's been a lifelong dream to be a firefighter and to see that day where it's just coming to fruition was was awesome to be there.

Uh heard very positive things about the Las Olas Art Fair Um The Riverwalk uh Stone Crab and Seafood Festival.

So that was all fantastic.

We got some great recognition and press about the slow wake zone and the intercoastal and and how that's really going to be a positive adjustment in the intercoastal.

So that was just great.

And um lastly, we were on Jeopardy, I heard on January 2nd.

There's there's a question.

Let me let me pull up the question and see if see if everyone can get this.

Okay, so I'm gonna give you the question.

Okay.

This fish named Beach City in Broward County is just north of Fort Lauderdale.

Papado Beach.

What is Papano Beach?

Right, yeah, yeah.

What is Papa Beach?

Does it get it right if you didn't freeze?

I quickly adjusted.

You adjust.

What is Pompano Beach?

All right.

So go try out for Jeopardy next.

Commissioner Glassman, you got it.

So that is it.

Mayor.

Was that a $20 question?

Yeah, I don't know what the value dollar value was on that.

I want you to know I have been on a game show.

Have you?

Oh, yeah.

What I'm not gonna get into.

Let's make a deal.

No, actually, and it you'll never remember it.

It was called Phew, WHCW.

What?

No, I'm Kennedy.

Never heard of it.

Before my time.

Late 70s.

It was great.

I'll show you the video.

I was gonna say to tell the truth, but you really went somewhere else.

Oh, yeah.

Well, just ask Tom and Harry.

Okay, thank you.

Um just like to uh recognize a few things that did take place on December 17th.

I was very happy to participate in the um City of Fort Lauderdale Employee Appreciation Evening that was uh held at the Museum of Discovery and Science.

It was very, very well attended, and um, and I appreciate the city manager for for uh initiating that.

I hope it's an annual event, and uh it was very very well, like I said, very well attended, and it was just a fun, fun time.

Everyone was having a great time.

So uh uh that was great.

Uh also in the last couple weeks we had multiple menorah lightings.

I attended four of them, yes.

Uh and uh what about the other four ninths?

Uh I was on break.

Okay.

And uh uh, but in doing so uh I participated with four different Jewish uh communities who each had their own celebration, and uh uh so it was very, very nice to uh to to be able to be invited to them and to participate in them.

Um we also Commissioner Beasley Pittman and I attended a Kwanzaa Ujama um event on December 29th, and uh that was also very well attended and uh it was really great.

And uh saw the kids dancing and singing, and it just was uh a great community event at uh at a festival time.

And then, of course, um thousands of people showed up on December 31st to see the anchor drop uh not just on the 7 o'clock for kids and families, but also mostly for adults at uh midnight.

And uh it's it was a great tradition.

Uh that despite what happened on um on him or she uh people were not dissuaded.

Um, and uh the cold didn't keep them away, and uh everybody everybody it was just amazing how many people turned out.

I think it's probably one of the largest um uh turnouts that we've had over the many years that we've uh had this tradition.

Um let's see.

Uh tomorrow uh the police academy is having a graduate swearing in that's at 3 p.m.

at the uh police headquarters on Cypress Creek.

Everyone is invited to attend.

Um on January 13th, the Chabad Lubavitch uh 36th anniversary gala is happening at 6 p.m.

Um all the members of the commission are also invited.

And then, of course, January 19th, um we're going to have the Martin Luther King parade uh that starts at 9 30, starting at Sistrunk and Northwest Fifth Avenue, going to Carter Park, which will be followed by the Unity Festival.

So I hope everyone marks that in their calendar so that uh we're all prepared to go.

Um I believe city offices are closed that day, correct?

Uh Martin Luther King Day.

Yes.

Yeah.

So be very happy to see all everyone from the city uh be there.

So that's pretty much everything I have to say.

City manager, let's hear your report.

Thank you, Mayor.

And thanks so much for uh leading with our winter wonderland employee appreciation event.

Yes, we do hope to make this an annual occurrence uh at various locations around the city.

I think staff really appreciated uh being appreciated.

So I appreciate you um attending and sharing remarks.

Uh we are getting into our spring break prep season, so just wanted you to know that our staff is meeting to talk about plans, uh, not just from a public safety perspective, but on how we communicate and how we uh market.

So if there's any feedback as to uh any approach to spring break, if you could let me know offline if you have any uh concerns, preferences, ideas uh as we ramp up our planning efforts.

We're also in parade prep uh right now as we're entering parade season with several coming up.

We want to make sure that that experience is as safe as possible and that uh logistically it meets the expectations.

Uh you were provided with letter to the commission 25-291 on December 30th.

It outlines an update on our police department headquarters, uh, including information on the fact that we're going into another phase of the demolition of the old police headquarters, and so we may likely see uh visible demolition efforts beginning tomorrow.

Uh we intend to hopefully capture that uh on video as a as a moment for our city.

Uh we hope that uh the demolition process uh is not impeded, but we feel that we are on the right track with expediting this project.

Uh we also provided information on phase two at the end of this week.

We expect to get some information that would hopefully conclude the evaluation of phase two as done by WJE, our third party engineering consultant.

We will provide you information once we receive that uh update from them.

Uh we will share that with you.

But I wanted to make sure that you were aware that that building is coming down and our neighbors are going to be seeing that, and you know, the news may be reporting on it, so I just wanted you to know that.

So aside from that, um uh the community center, which we had talked about uh um uh uh having the city commission meetings take place there.

Uh what's the timetable there and our ability uh to uh be able to occupy that space and to utilize it for our commission meetings?

So we we definitely don't want to have um demolition activity going on with the yeah, I get that right there.

So our plan is to have the community room available hopefully by spring of this year.

All right, spring is March 21st to June 21st.

So give me a ballpark here, other than the three months.

It's too loosey goosey, doesn't take six months to dem to just to demolish.

I like to work in seasons on on these.

Yeah, I know, but uh that's too that's seasons of love.

Yeah, new beard, new beer like the Who's that behind the city?

Is that the same person?

Uh Anthony Fajardo, director of services.

Is that your evil twin?

I think that's my evil twin.

Wow.

Um I'm sorry, it was the question related to the demo was occupation.

How soon are we going to be able to occupy the community center to have our city commission meetings?

So the community the occupation of the community center is gonna be predicated on how far we can get with the demo because the proximity of the building next to that portion is gonna require more delicate demo, and so it'll be more hand-done to where you start building where you're starting the demo.

Um Chief, do you know where they're they're starting it there?

Well, anyway, let's say it takes a month to demolish.

It's gonna take more than a month.

It'll probably take a little more than a month.

It'll probably take about six weeks.

All right, six weeks.

So we're talking about the middle of February, okay.

So is the is the building itself finished?

Fundamentally, yes, except for the slide bearing, which we still need to install.

That was identified in phase two of the report.

Right.

And then we still have the testing results that we're waiting on, and hopefully we're gonna get on Friday.

The testing results for that.

Testing results for the structural connections that were identified in the phase two report that WJE pointed out that they had concerns with.

Okay.

We were at the testing facility about two weeks ago.

They did um 12 mockups, six with the WJE's uh specifications and six with TT specifications.

They did all that testing, they're now doing the math to look at the results and make sure that it's going to meet the specification required for category five building.

Okay.

Um and that's with regard to the entire structure or just the community center.

That's the entire structure.

Okay.

So um all right, so how long so how long is that going to take?

I mean, that should that can happen concurrently with the demolition.

It can happen concurrently, and even if we do have to do structural enhancements, our thought is that we can occupy the building, it would just require us to vacate certain areas while those instruction has enhancements are going, because you're really talking about the connections between the the ceiling and the walls.

So it it's like an L bracket that you can put in and install.

So, so it we only need to want it twice a month.

Right.

So I mean the the other 28 days you have at your disposal.

I just want to get us out of here.

Because I know it's more expensive to operate here, and and I just don't I we just need to be back in our own property.

So none of those enhancements would really be related to the community center.

The community community center is solid, except for the fact that it is part of the same building that has these other issues that we're trying to resolve.

Right.

If not for the proximity of the existing building to the community center, we would be able to use it, but we can't get gain access to the egress that we need for fire.

So once the that part of the old building is down and that area has been completed outside, which the site work is done around that part of the building, we'd be able to occupy it.

I can try and get you a more specific date once we've started with the same.

So maybe we can target like March 1st or or March 15th.

We can we can shoot for that and then see where it gets us.

Um we might have to adjust adjust it, but I'll I'll update the city manager's office as soon as I get another.

Okay, excellent.

Thank you.

More nailed down.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

That's it.

We're back to spring.

Okay.

Well, it's not it's pre-spring.

City manager, I know that we put it in our district emails, but have you been in contact or has anyone been in contact with the Sailboat Band Civic Association just to you know let them know what our plans are going forward for the next couple of months over there?

I I am not aware of that, but I will make sure our strategic communications office.

I think it would be a great idea just to, you know, we send out general notices that we know of dates and things, but if they could get some sort of really detailed timeline, that would be I think really helpful, and I'd appreciate it.

It's Saleboat Bend Civic Association.

I thought it was Riverside.

Okay.

No, thank you.

Does that conclude your remarks?

Raquel, does that conclude your remarks?

Actually, I I do have just a few people to highlight.

Uh, yesterday you received a letter to the commission on key personnel updates, and not everyone listed in that memorandum or that letter are physically with us yet uh at the city, but there are some new members joining our team, and we've made some modifications and just some key personnel changes.

Um we have various members of the team who have been promoted into uh different roles with our city.

Uh so we have some uh changes in our strategic communications department.

We'll be welcoming a new director uh starting next week, and uh more information will be shared with you uh so that you can have a meet and greet.

We also have selected a capital projects director, as you know, that's a new department that was approved in the budget, and we'll be focusing on mostly vertical construction, so fire stations, garages, and our uh park spawn program.

Uh Vanessa Martin is stepping into the acting CRA manager role, uh, given that Clarence Blizz has uh retired or or resigned, but he's never too far away.

He's always available for our call on anything that we need.

Uh in our fire rescue department, we have assistant chief Leslie St.

Floor.

He is now stepping into the role as our emergency manager.

Uh, we still have uh deputy chief Jermaine Frazier, he was recently promoted to deputy.

He will still have oversight of that function, but the actual emergency manager will be assistant chief St.

Fleur.

Uh we have promoted David Clemente in our procurement department.

He is serving as the assistant director.

Uh we have Roberto Betancourt in our public works department, uh promoted into the role of city engineer, which is a role that was recently re-established through the budget process.

It's a role that we had previously in our city, and we feel that that role is gonna help us streamline some of our uh underground infrastructure and stormwater projects.

Uh, we have joining us Troy Geith and O'Neil Rodriguez in public works as assistant directors.

We have Tristan, and I always butcher his last name, so I won't even try.

But he is our uh new assistant director in the information technology services department.

And so overall, I just want to say congratulations to all those members of our team who have been promoted and to all those who have recently joined the city and to those who will be joining us in the coming weeks.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

City attorney.

I do have an item, Mayor.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Um I'm requesting a uh closed door session pursuant to Florida Statute Section 286 on the matter of Jada Severance versus the City of Fort Lauderdale.

Uh this would take place at the next regular city commission meeting on January 20th.

We need approximately 30 minutes.

And in attendance will be all of you, City Manager Williams, myself, assistant city attorney, and our outside council.

Okay, very good.

Does that conclude your remarks?

It does.

Okay.

Uh Commissioner Beasley Pittman, you have one more thing to say.

Yes, I'm sorry.

You know, you sit here and you start to think of a lot of things.

Um my question is in regards to the order of our meetings.

We normally have our conference CRA and then regular commission meeting.

Right.

Have we ever thought about changing the order to the CRA first?

Because we usually go through that meeting quickly, but we make those neighbors wait hours for a meeting.

So is it possible we can um consider doing CRA first, then our conference meeting, and then moving on to I thought I thought they liked sitting at through our meetings now.

And I don't know if there's anything in our code that precludes us from the No, we could change the order any time we want.

Uh we could we can consider that.

I mean, I would never uh I would never expect a person who is it is participating in a CRA meeting or wants to witness one that they should come any sooner than four o'clock or four thirty.

I mean, that's been consistent.

I've never I don't think we've ever done one before four o'clock.

I don't I don't really remember one before four o'clock.

No.

Well um I like that idea.

Um we could do that.

All right, so we'll consider that next time.

Right.

All right, okay.

All right, commerce meetings now concluded.

Let us begin the CRA meeting.

Uh uh, Mr.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Uh Vice Chair Herbst.

Commissioner Glossman.

Here, Commissioner Beasley Pittman?

Here, Commissioner Sorensen.

Here, Chair Trentals.

Uh, here.

M1 motion approving the minutes for the December 16th, 2025 CRA uh board meeting.

Do I hear a motion to approve the minutes?

Moved.

Second.

Any questions or comments?

There being none, please call the roll.

Vice Chair Herbst.

Commissioner Glossman.

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman?

Yes.

Commissioner Sorensen, yes.

Chair Trentals.

Yes, and M1's now approved.

R1, a resolution approving a forgivable loan increase of 475,000 dollars under the property and business improvement program to VNR family enterprises.

Okay.

Yeah, Vanessa Martin, acting CR manager.

Oh, Vanessa Martin.

There you go.

No, no, no.

Could you push the button?

Great.

There you go.

Vanessa Martin, acting manager.

So VNR is actually a mixed-use housing development.

So the first floor is going to be a banquet hall and with an office space and also a kitchen.

And the second floor are five unit apartments, one bedroom, one bath, and that's all actually going to be affordable housing.

So four of which are 80% AMI and one of 30% AMI.

So why are we in didn't we already give them a grant?

Yeah, so there are structural issues with the building.

It's a 67-year-old building.

So we once we opened up everything, we noticed that there were roofing issues as well as structural issues.

Okay, so this is this is a rehabilitation, not new construction.

Correct.

Okay.

All right.

Anyor, I'm sorry, go ahead.

Go ahead.

Go ahead.

Commissioner Pittman.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Um excuse me.

Um in regards to the exhibit, I want to go to um item number 22.

Exhibit five, page four, number twenty two.

Page twenty-two.

Yes.

Item number twenty-two is page four.

Oh, page four.

Okay, page four.

Yep.

Okay.

And um what I would like to um have a discussion about.

There's um, hold on one second, let me get there.

I'm telling everyone to which exhibit was that?

Page four.

Which exhibit?

It is a bit five.

It has to do with uh thank you.

I got you the affordability period being extended for up to 30 years.

Okay.

Um the first question I have about it, it indicates um on item number 22.

It says the um the agency would like to extend the term of affordability period for the rental units for 30 years.

Are we you use I'm used to seeing a number defining the rental units?

So, how many units are we talking about for the 30-year projection?

Well, we actually made an adjustment back to 10 years.

So we need to make a modification for that.

Okay, so this is back to 10 and it's for how many units?

For the five units.

Five units, okay.

So um, so what I'm hearing you say right now is this would be the five units for 10 years.

Correct.

Okay.

So just to add a little bit of uh additional clarification, uh so the original intent was to have this as a 10-year period for affordability.

And when the uh developer asked for additional funds, we thought it might be appropriate to look at a longer period of time.

And so we were thinking of a 30-year period.

But after analyzing the level of affordability and the very few number of units in totality, the margins just seem to be very slim.

And so to keep the affordability period at a 30-year level didn't seem appropriate for the magnitude of the project, and based on the fact that we have four units at 80% AMI and one at I'm sorry, four units at 80% and one unit at 30% AMI, it just didn't seem uh like the project would be as viable uh to maintain the affordability period for 30 years.

So what is paragraph 22 in there for then?

So paragraph 22 uh as amended would say a 10 year period.

Okay, but it says 30.

Correct.

So what are we voting on then?

A 10 year period.

Okay, so how would we have known that?

Is there an amendment here?

So the intent was that staff was going to bring that forward as a as an update during the discussion.

Okay.

And how much is the developer putting into this project?

About 23%, which is about 369,000.

Okay, is that including the land value?

Correct, yes.

And all that is currently required based on the program is 10%, so they are contributing above the minimum threshold.

Okay.

All right, good.

I I gotta say though, I don't think we've ever done any funding of this level with that short a period of time of affordability before, have we?

I think I think we've typically done at least 15 years, haven't we?

Historically, we've we've had um it depends.

So but historically it's between five and ten years.

At this level of funding, though, is what I'm saying.

So we we've done smaller loans of 100,000 dollars with five-year forgivable and things of that nature.

I don't remember ever remember seeing um funding at this magnitude with that shorter period of the year.

This ratio, yeah, this ratio, yeah.

That's what I'm asking.

Yeah.

Yes, I'll have to double check back on that, but um historically from my recollection, it is uh in the norm.

Well, one of the units is thirty percent, which is pretty low.

Yeah.

Um I understand the argument that the cash flow would not be sufficient to carry the burden of I I agree the 30 years is too much.

I think 10 years might be too low.

Uh huh.

Does 15 seem more reasonable?

Yes.

Well, again, I don't know the numbers, you know.

Right, when is it when is it we we looked at anywhere between 10 and 15?

Right.

Uh 10 would definitely be more favorable to the developer, but 15 would be acceptable as well, anywhere within that window.

If 15 is acceptable, I would agree that maybe we should make it 15.

What do you think, Commissioner?

Well, um, let me also give a little bit more background on who the developer is.

The developer is um a their family is really four generations in four Lauderdale.

They have um for decades fed back into our community, um, being one family that's always given refuge to families in need for homes.

Um again, like I said, the building is an older building, they've owned this building for a time and they're trying to bring it back to be um able for the community to use it once again.

The um comment about the 10 versus the 15.

Um, when I initially spoke with the developer, we talked about the 10 year.

Um, and with that, because my my concern overall was we're talking about five units, and then when we were having the conversation about the 30 years, I couldn't understand how do we get to 30 years when um well, how do we get to the five units being subjected to the five um 30 years when we're used to seeing 10% of the units that are um used?

So I was like, okay, that the numbers are kind of off for me that way.

But overall, I've I'm comfortable with 10.

Okay, but if we as a uh um commission are leaning towards the 15, that is workable as well.

I I think I'd be more comfortable with that, Commissioner.

Okay, so as amended, can we make that 15?

Okay.

All right.

So R1 as amended, would someone like to introduce the resolution as amended?

May I also had a question after we looked at it before or after?

Is it been introduced?

I'll I'll introduce it.

Okay, Commissioner.

Thank you.

Um so in reading the back of Vanessa helped me with some of these things.

So I I did notice that originally when this project came to us in 2020, the CRA was doing 47% of the project.

4733, yes.

And then it went we then the CRA portion became 67% of the project.

And then now the CRA's portion is 77% of the project.

Correct.

Right?

So the CRA's total contribution is 1,225,000 out of the 1,594,000, roughly.

Correct.

Okay.

The only thing that I'm having issue, and maybe you can explain this to me, because I want to know if this is a true statement.

So when I go to the minutes of the CRA board of May 13th, 2025, and I'm looking at page three of four, and this is exhibit six.

There's a paragraph that I just find troubling, and I want you to help me understand it.

It says regarding the roofing, Mr.

Richie said the owner had been pressured by the city regarding the 40-year inspection and had paid a roofer to repair the roof, but that roofer had not done the work to the plans.

That was why the roof now needs to be redone.

So did is the city in the business of putting pressure on folks, or is that a true statement that that we can blame the failure of the roof on the fact that we pressured the developer about the 40-year inspection on the roof?

No, um, I think that's an inaccurate statement.

Um I believe that based off of the knowledge that I do have, you know, it is a 67-year-old building.

And as time went on and progressed and they started to open up the building, there were structural issues.

So I would just remain constant at the fact that they had issues as the building as we started to uncover unforeseen issues with the building.

Okay, but Mr.

Ritchie is the CRA project manager, and he's quoted as saying in the minutes that we put pressure on the developer.

Yes, I'm not um sure why that would have been stated as far as putting pressure on, because that's not something that the CRA um would be responsible for doing.

Okay.

Thank you.

It's a it's an interesting part of the minutes.

Okay, any further questions?

Thank you.

There being none, uh, please call the roll.

A resolution of the Board of Commissioners of the Fort Lauderdale Community Redevelopment Agency approving a second increase in the forgivable loan in the amount of 475,000 dollars approving the second amendment to the property and business investment improvement agreement authorizing the executive director to execute all related instruments, delegating authority to the executive director to take certain actions and providing for an effective date.

Vice Chair Herbst?

Yes, Commissioner Glossman?

Yes, Commissioner Beasley Pittman?

Yes, Commissioner Sorensen?

Yes, Chair Trent Halls.

Yes, and R1 is now approved.

R2, a resolution approving a forgivable loan increase of $26,800 under the property and business improvement program to pleasant image distributing in.

Um someone like to introduce the resolution.

Introduced.

Resolution has been introduced.

Anyone have any questions?

There being none, please call the roll.

A resolution of the Board of Commissioners of the Fort Lauderdale Community Revelopment Agency approving a forgivable loan increase in the amount of $26,800 under the property and business investment improvement agreement for a total forgivable loan of 124,900, authorizing the executive director to execute all related instruments, delegating authority to the executive director to take certain actions and providing for an effective date.

Vice Chair Herbst?

Yes.

Commissioner Glassman?

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman?

Yes.

Commissioner Sorensen?

Yes.

Chair Trentals.

Yes, and R2 is now approved.

Is there any further business of the CRA board?

There being none, meetings concluded.

We'll return by six o'clock.