The City Commission of Fort Lauderdale convened to discuss priorities, budget development for Fiscal Year 2027, and progress on existing strategic goals. The meeting featured extensive updates on public safety, infrastructure resilience, homelessness, broadband access, and major redevelopment projects including the new City Hall and the use of the former federal courthouse site. Commissioners engaged in detailed discussions regarding neighborhood-specific concerns, strategic communications, and the potential for charter revisions, emphasizing a consensus to continue prioritizing the current six strategic goals while addressing emerging community needs.
For each district and citywide. As we look at opportunities for this year, our team is looking to gain a lot of valuable feedback as we enter the budget development process for fiscal year 2027. And with that, I'll turn it over to the team. We have a video prepared. And I'll allow the team who spearheaded this workshop to kick it off. Thank you. All right. Can you hear me without this? Can everyone hear her back there? Good. Okay. Is this better? We're doing better? Okay, perfect. All right. Um so uh as we go through these goals today, the city commission will be sharing uh their goals, priorities, and direction for the city. Um ultimately you'll also be approving some funding later on to move these and advance them forward. Whereas staff, our role is really to operationalize these goals, create work plans, and implement them according to your direction. Um I think it's helpful as we're kind of in the crossroads of 26 and 27 to share a timeline. So today we're hearing from the city commission on what those priorities and ideas are. We will take that in March through June and build it into our budget development process to make sure that we're moving those initiatives forward with a resources. In July, you'll have the proposed budget where you'll clearly be able to see how we've articulated and funded each of those priorities. Fast forward a few more months, we'll have our final budget hearings in September where they will officially be adopted as part of the budget. Um, and then in October, we'll have funding in place and we're ready to hit the road running if we haven't already by that point. Um, so that's really what we're as we're looking for where the process will end up. Now, as a reminder, because I've said these priorities really serve to advance our five-year strategic plan. We have six goals under this plan. The first is focused on public safety. The second is focused on housing, and this is inclusive of both affordable housing and how we address homelessness in our city. Number three is focused on infrastructure, um, really more so the pipes in the ground, whereas the next goal is focused on infrastructure in terms of transportation, our roads, our sidewalks. Um, goal five is uh all about making the city beautiful, welcoming our parks, uh making sure that it's an inviting community, and goal six is focused on economic development. Now, if we're looking at the priorities that were established last year at this time, you can see that almost verbatim, they are perfectly aligned. We had public safety, homelessness response, infrastructure and resilience, the enjoyment of waterways, public spaces and cultural initiatives, and to bolster our thriving communities. So I'm gonna pause here for a second and I'm gonna ask our AV team, we're gonna pivot to a video to share just a little bit more context about uh the commission prioritization workshop as well as some of the progress that we've already made to date towards these 2026 priorities so that we can catapult onto that as we talk about next year. So Andres, if you want, thank you, and while our A V team pulls that up, I do want to mention that staff and the city commission, you have what we call our resource guide. And while our AV team pulls that up, I do want to mention that staff in the City Commission, you have what we call our resource guide. Fort Lauderdale is a city you never want to leave. Not just because of where we can follow along with today's discussion in here as well. So with that, here is the video. Not just because of where we are, but because of who we are. A connected, resilient and thriving city where people want to live, work and play. The city strategic plan turns our vision into action. Guiding our work through focused priorities in public safety, housing, infrastructure, public places, and business growth. Within each of these areas of focus, the city has outlined six goals. One, build a safe community that is proactive and responsive to risks. Two, enable housing options for all income levels. Build a beautiful and welcoming community. Build a diverse and attractive economy. The city is additionally guided by the principles of customer service, fiscal responsibility, innovation, the wise use of technology, and inclusivity. To ensure we are making progress towards our goals, accountability is key.