A closed door session is returned from dinner and uh we now is my mic not working is it working okay okay um this is not a carnival this is a city commission meeting so please don't yell while someone else is talking thank you so uh we the uh so the closed door session is now uh concluded and the public meeting is now reopened.

Uh at this time I'd like to recess the conference meeting and open the regular meeting.

And with that, I'd like to invite everybody to please rise that we join in the Pledge of Allegiance, and in doing so, I'd like to invite Ashley St.

Germain, Julia St.

Germain, for Wendy Vincent, and Ruth Shirley uh Jean Marie to join me at the podium so we can together recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

For you good why don't you turn over here?

Come over here.

You all know the Pledge of Allegiance.

Okay, you're gonna put your right hand on your heart.

Your okay, your right hand on your heart.

No, your right hand on your heart, your right hand on your heart.

Very good.

Okay, and get a little closer.

Okay, it's all up to you.

I keep it.

And turning wishes to stand one nation on the car and a visible and liberty, justice for all.

Now, are your families here?

Your mom or your dad or any of your family with you tonight?

No, they're not with you.

No relatives, nobody came with you tonight.

Um, our camp, our dark camera.

Who's what our little who's what our ladies tonight who said to pledge?

Please join them.

Why don't you stand over here?

Thank you.

Okay, ready?

We're all looking here.

One, two, three.

We're gonna do one more.

One, two, three.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for coming.

I appreciate it.

We have a little gift back for you, okay?

You're welcome.

Token of our appreciation for your coming here.

Thank you.

Okay, so for those of you who are here for the first time, welcome.

Uh we appreciate your attending.

We're gonna take things a little bit out of order.

First of all, I just to let you all know that we did not finish our conference meeting this afternoon.

We had one more item left.

So I'm gonna reopen that conference meeting and we're gonna have the conversation regarding that.

Then we're gonna we're going to suspend the conference meeting and we're gonna come we're gonna come back to the the regular meeting, and at that time we're gonna take out of order the issue regarding the uh the um the uh uh what's the word I'm thinking of the um uh the the bar issue and uh so we'll take that out of order so because I know a lot of you are here tonight, and I don't want you to wait all night for that to happen.

So we'll take that up front, and then that way those who need to speak will be able to speak tonight and be able to get back to your families.

But before we uh before we go back into the conference meeting, we have a few presentations I'd like to make.

But before we even get there, we and normally at our meetings we ask everybody share in a moment of silence, which we'd like to do right now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um also at well, I can do this later with retirements.

Okay, so Mr.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Mr.

Glossman here, Commissioner Beasley Pittman here, Commissioner Sorensen.

Here, Mayor Trentals.

Here um with regard to the agenda, we have OFR two is the only revision exhibit six resolution.

The header was revised.

Other than that, do I hear a motion to approve the minutes and the agenda as uh amended?

Moved, second, move and seconded, please call the roll.

Vice Mayor Herbst.

Mr.

Glassman.

Yes.

Mr.

Beasley Pittman.

Yes.

Commissioner Sorensen.

Yes.

Mayor Trentals.

Yes.

And the minutes and the agenda as amended are now approved.

So we have a uh we have three presentations tonight.

I first like to invite Susan Leon, our chief education officer to the podium, who's going to present to the Fort Lauderdale High School Innovation Zone student recognition.

Susan.

Good evening and thank you.

The city manager's office in the city of Fort Lauderdale recognizes that acknowledging and valuing students can significantly increase their self-esteem and their self-confidence.

Recognition empowers students to more fully engage in their education and in their community.

This student recognition program is based on the eight essential core character traits as identified after extensive public involvement by the Broward County School Board.

Those eight essential core character traits are cooperation, responsibility, citizenship, kindness, respect, honesty, self-control, and tolerance.

So as I call your name, please come up for your recognition.

And I'm going to ask after we give you your certificate that you stay up here in the front for a photo afterwards.

So from Bayview Elementary School, I'd like to welcome Mary Wallace.

Mary is a fifth grader at Bayview Elementary School who demonstrates a remarkable blend of academic excellence and exemplary character.

She exhibits strong leadership qualities and is one of the morning school morning announcement anchors at her school and shows a strong passion for science and is an active participant in the STEM program in Broward County.

So congratulations to Mary.

Okay.

Now we're going to move to Bennett Elementary and Beatrice Magumbe Anaba.

Beatrice.

Beatrice is a fifth grader who just arrived last school year and has already become a bright light on her campus.

She is fluent both in French and English and is courteous, respectful, and enthusiastic with her students and anyone she meets.

She enjoys playing golf and tennis and wants to become both a lawyer and a model.

She has been heard saying if it is not the right thing to do, I don't do it.

Congratulations.

Next up from Harbordale Elementary School, we have Jules Siegel.

Jewel is a fifth grade student who demonstrates outstanding respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, citizenship, and a consistent basis.

She is the leader in their Peace Rangers group and actively promotes kindness.

Her ability to lead by example, encourage inclusivity, inspires her classmates, and is a true role model in her school.

Congratulations.

From Northside Elementary School, we have Grace Miriam Castro Rivera.

Okay, we'll wait and see if Grace comes.

We're going to move on to Walker Elementary School and Brandon Sohome.

Brandon is a fifth grader at Walker Elementary School and is an outstanding student who consistently demonstrates excellence in every aspect of his life.

He approaches challenges with integrity and sets a strong example for others.

Congratulations, Brandon.

Next from Sunrise Middle School, we have Zoe Williard.

Zoe is an exceptional young lady at Sunrise Middle School who demonstrates all of these core character traits and has a smile that can light up a room and is a leader among her peers.

Congratulations, Zoe.

Also, we have Gregory Johnson.

Gregory is an eighth grader at Sunrise Middle School who is new to us this year and has only been here for five months, yet is made himself one of the top students at the school.

Congratulations to Gregory.

From Fort Lauderdale High School, we have Josiah Defoe Glover.

Josiah has been the student class president for four years and is graduating this year in 2026.

She's involved in community service and has logged over 594 community service hours.

That deserves its own class.

What does she do in her spirit?

She did all that while still maintaining top 15% of her class and captain of her cheerleading squad.

She also participates in the Cambridge program and embodies what it means to be an outstanding student.

Congratulations, from Wynn Rogers Education Center, Anaya Young.

Anaya possesses a truly remarkable blend of leadership and service and is a natural collaborator and communicator and has honed her skills on the debate team and is part of Student Government Association.

She understands the importance of presentation, teamwork, and grace, and has a creative eye in the student photography club.

So congratulations to Anaya.

Now is photo op time.

Okay.

All right, that was great.

Now I'd like to invite the vice mayor, who'll be uh presenting a proclamation regarding uh Fort Lauderdale High School Diving Team Day here in the city of Fort Lauderdale.

And I'd like to invite the principal Aaron Brown, assistant principal uh Edward Rodriguez, athletic director Timothy Lawrence, head of swimming and diving coach Adam Drucker, diving coach Greg Boardman, and members of the Fort Lauderdale High School Diving Team.

So while we wait for everybody to come up here, I've been informed that our own Mr.

Bob Dunkel, our assistant city attorney, won this back in 1966.

So wow, there's a long tradition of this.

So the school wasn't open until 1965.

So you gotta remember Bob was also a lifeguard for the city, I think, when he was like 14.

So uh good, good opportunities there.

Well, thank you, everybody.

So, in recognition of the Fort Lauderdale High School diving team, 2025 FH SAA Class III state champions.

Whereas Fort Lauderdale High School has a proud tradition of academic and athletic excellence, fostering student achievement through leadership, discipline, and sportsmanship.

And whereas the Fort Lauderdale High School Dive Team delivered an outstanding performance at the Florida High School Athletic Association State Swimming and Diving Championships held in Ocala, Florida, showcasing exceptional talent, preparation, and perseverance on the state's highest competitive stage.

And whereas Fort Lauderdale High School achieved a historic sweep of the class 3A diving titles, demonstrating dominance and depth with its diving program and affirming the school's reputation as a leader in interscholastic athletics.

And whereas Fort Lauderdale High School Junior West Parker, I hope I pronounced that right, captured the class 3A Boys State Diving Championship, earning first place with an outstanding score of 563.40.

Come on, clap.

And senior Aiden for rank.

I hope I got that one right.

Capture the class 3A state diving championship with a winning score of 455.45.

Again.

There we go.

Together exemplifying exceptional skill, focus, and poise under pressure while solidifying Fort Lauderdale High School sweep of the Class 3A diving titles.

And whereas Senia Sophia Cabaretta earned state runner-up honors honors with an impressive score of 420.80, protecting her school record and contributing to the team's sweeping success through determination and competitive spirit.

That's it.

And whereas senior Ginger Boardman placed sixth in the class 3A diving competition, further strengthening Fort Lauderdale High School's commanding presence at the state meet.

Come on.

There we go.

All right.

And whereas the accomplishments of the Fort Lauderdale High School dive team reflect the dedication of its student athletes, the leadership of its coaching staff, and the unwavering support of families, educators, and the greater school community.

And whereas the city of Fort Lauderdale is proud to recognize the Fort Lauderdale High School diving team for its exceptional sportsmanship and representation of the city on a statewide level.

And by the way, my daughter graduated Fort Lauderdale High School.

So let's go, guys.

Now, therefore, we as city commissioners of the city of Fort Lauderdale do hereby proclaim January 20th, 2026 as Fort Lauderdale High School Diving Team Day in the city of Fort Lauderdale, and encourage all of our neighbors to join us in congratulating Principal Aaron Brown, assistant principal Edward Rodriguez, Athletic Director Timothy Lawrence, head swimming and diving coach Adam Drucker, diving coach Greg Boardman, and the Flying L's diving team on their title-winning performance at the FHSAA Class 3 State Championship dated this 20th day of January 2026, signed by our mayor Dean J.

Trantalis.

Congratulations, everybody.

Guys, guys, coming.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Now I'd like to invite Luisa Agathon, who's the neighborhood support division manager, uh, to introduce to us and recognize the 14th graduating class of the neighbor leadership academy.

Good evening, Mayor, Commissioners, Neighbors, Louisa Agathon with Neighbor Support.

And to tell you a little bit more about neighbor support and our neighbor leadership academy is Jordan Wing.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioner, staff, and neighbors.

Actually, before I start, can I have the class come up and stand at the front, please?

Jordan Wingate, on behalf of Neighbor Support, to congratulate the 14th graduating class of Neighbor Leadership Academy.

The neighbor leadership academy lets neighbors experience a six-week curriculum where they learn about how the city operates, interact with commissioners, and gain an overall insight into the world of local government.

After the six-week curriculum, participants volunteer their time in ways to improve their communities.

Class 14 hosted an empowerment village with the goal of providing resources from local community organizations.

These resources included job opportunities, toys for kids, family advocacy, book giveaways, and household cleaning supplies.

The neighbor leadership academy began in 2017, and as of today, we'll have graduated 267 graduates.

This is possible because of the support from the Council of Fort Lauderdale Civic Association, the City Commission, City Staff, and neighbors for volunteering their time to learn more about our great city.

I'd like to welcome one of our graduates, Jose Rogero, if you don't mind coming up to share his thoughts about the program.

District one resident.

Good evening.

I'd like to uh on behalf of our team thank the city for this uh opportunity, which is amazing in many ways to be chosen for something as special as this program.

And it wasn't just what we learn about the business, but it was the um enthusiasm, motivation, and love that the leaders of the city obviously had in sharing that with us.

And that that's very infectious for us.

As a group, you can see we're as diverse as any other group, but we all share a common wish, and that is to be able to get involved and help the community be better.

Um, yesterday, as Jordan mentioned, we we delivered a little bit on that promise.

And I have a sneaking suspicion that we're going to do a lot more together.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

Thank you, Jose.

And class 14.

I look forward to seeing you all become future community leaders and congratulations to class 14.

Very nice.

Okay.

All right.

So now we're going to uh suspend the evening meeting right now so we can go back into the conference meeting and finish that one item of business, and then we'll come back and we'll talk about the uh entertainment district item that's on the evening agenda.

So um yeah, you folks, there's plenty of seats in uh up front here.

You're welcome to sit as people uh leave the meeting.

Okay, business two presentation of the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airports, history, economic impact, revenue, capital improvement plan, and leasing policy.

Uh city manager.

Mayor, we have airport director Rufus James provide the presentation.

Good evening.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners.

And we have the presentation.

Okay.

As it's coming up, um, uh Rufus James, airport director at the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.

Um, want to thank you in advance for this opportunity.

I know it's often you hear great things about the airport, uh, not necessarily from me, but from the operators, the users, and so forth.

So uh grateful for the opportunity to share with you the past, the present, and to seek feedback on what our future is going to look like at the executive airport.

Um we'll look at uh briefly uh the vision and mission, uh provide an airport overview, look at our economic development, airport revenue, capital improvement plan, our leasing policy, transaction fee, and challenges.

Vision of the airport is to be the best general avian airport in the nation.

And our mission is to attract businesses to the area, help those tenants prosper, and also be a benefit to the community.

Going back to 1941, the airport was constructed in preparation for World War II.

Um, as most of you know from his from a history standpoint, there was a um military base, naval base at Fort Lauderdale International Airport, Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, which is known as Prospect Field at the time, was actually a practice field for those aviators to do approaches, landings, takeoffs, and so forth.

And as you can see from the uh image here, there are multiple runways that uh existed.

And for reference purposes, uh the top part of the picture there is Cypress Creek Boulevard.

Um to the south is uh what's known as Prospect Road today.

And if you uh look to the right, you can see the beginning remnants of what is today uh uh the uh inner Miami Soccer facility.

So we go into the 1960s and with the previous slide, the airport remained in that state uh all the way through the 50s.

Uh as we go into the 60s, you can see the development that has occurred um within uh the 15 years that the airport uh had been deeded to the city.

And so from those images, you can see residential uh development starting to encroach, and uh also uh on the airport, there isn't as much activity.

And again, for reference point, um left side of the screen is your uh um what's known today as Twin Lakes.

Um the right side of the screen, again, I mentioned earlier was uh Cypress Creek Road.

Um to the uh about the middle of the page again, we can see that Lockhart Stadium and the Yankees uh spring training facility uh came into the uh fold.

Now during the 60s, going into the 70s, uh the airport um did see some of that uh improvement come along.

Uh however, there was limited aviation activity.

Um unfortunately at the time, the airport operated at a loss.

Uh it depended on local taxes to prop up the airport.

And also what was done, and unfortunate at the time, but land was sold in order to generate uh revenue to take care of some of the capital improvements at the airport.

And obviously, as I mentioned earlier, the encroachment of nearby uh um residential areas, forgive me.

But uh interesting enough, if you look at the uh picture here, over the right shoulder of uh Yogi Berra is the uh cab or the air traffic control tower cab that sat on the stadium.

Thankfully, uh going into the 70s, the base building was constructed on the west side of the airfield, and they took that actual cab and placed it on the uh base building.

Uh today we do have a state-of-the-art air traffic control tower.

During the 70s, we did have customs and border protection.

Um we also uh had our first airport rescue and firefighting equipment at the airport.

And thankfully, the decision was made during the 70s to stop selling property, airport property, and to really go into a uh uh a program that would generate long-lasting revenue for the airport.

And believe it or not, uh by the 1980s, early 1980s, 1981 to be exact, the airport experienced its first profit in 36 years.

Um not much, but still something.

It was about 70,000 that was generated.

What I can share with you is that uh since generating that uh profit, the airport has continued to be operate to operate in the black, uh, not to depend on city general fund anymore.

And the money that was borrowed from the general fund back in the 60s and 70s, um, I can probably say was paid back to the general fund with interest as well.

So uh today we're no longer a uh drain on the general fund, thankfully.

But you know, at that time when uh they were able to generate that revenue, you know.

The article um uh is quoted with uh Bill Johnson, the airport manager at the time, uh did make reference to the fact that the economy was starting to get better, and so that really made a difference where uh more developers started coming to the airport to construct hangars, which helped the airport's bottom line.

Today we're fully developed.

Um not many airports in the country that's of a general aviation statute can say that.

But uh as you can see from this aerial map, um, we are fully developed.

Uh, you can again for reference point, north side of the uh top of the page is Cypress Creek Boulevard, commercial boulevard to the south, uh the well field to the uh left and inner Miami's soccer stadium in place today.

The airport is made up of a staff of 22 people that report to our deputy city manager and uh part of the city manager's office.

And um, of those 22 staff members, it's everything from our maintenance staff, administrative staff, our operations team, an airport electrician, airport engineer to maintain the airport and ensure that it's available for use on a daily basis.

Certainly uh the airport is an integral part of the city's economic business development program.

Um, when you look at what the airport is made up of, it's a thousand-acre campus.

Uh, there's um also an industrial park that was made up of 200 acres, and in that industrial park, you have two million square feet of warehouse and office space.

The um the other thing that we've done to uh add another tool to our toolbox is uh have a foreign trade zone.

Uh the good thing with our foreign trade zone, we're not limited to one location in the county.

We can go anywhere in the county to set up a foreign trade zone.

Um, some other economic development uh points.

We are in the top five of busiest general aviation airports in the country.

We're the busiest general aviation customs clearing facility.

Um to be honest, we do fluctuate or go back and forth with uh FLL that has uh customs and border protection on the general aviation side of the house.

Uh we have four fixed-based operators, uh 600-based aircraft, um 24 hour air traffic control tower, and also an on-site 24-hour airport rescue and firefighting facility.

So every four years, the Florida Department of Transportation does an economic impact study of the 129 airports in the state.

And FXC from a 2022 study that was done is uh generating uh economic output of 3.9 billion dollars.

Uh payroll is about 1.2 billion, uh value added is 2 billion, and uh 23,000 jobs approximately are uh supported by the airport.

Now to demonstrate to you how much growth has happened at the airport in the last 10 years.

In 2014, that economic impact was at about 839 million dollars.

In 2019, when the uh other one was completed, uh that jumped to 2.1 billion.

And today, this is uh 2023, obviously, but we uh are in the process of preparing for uh an update for uh DOT.

But 2023 that went to 3.9 billion dollars.

So a lot of economic activity, and it doesn't stay on the airport, it does go to other parts of the city, the county, and so forth.

So the airport is definitely a major economic engine for the city and the county.

And of course, we do like to keep tallies, and um, you can see from this list here, FXC is ranked number seven out of the 129 airports for greatest economic impact and so forth.

And those airports that are on this top 10 list are all commercial service airports.

Um FXC is a general aviation airport.

We do not have commercial airlines at that airport.

Um, so a real testament as to what goes on at the airport.

So, how do we generate revenue?

Before I go into that, it's worth noting that back in 1947 when the airport was deeded to the city.

Uh it came with strings attached, and the FAA has what's known as grant assurances, which basically ensures that the airport is able to remain self-sustaining.

And there are a total of 40 grant assurances.

So typically there are these five that typically can get airports in trouble if they don't adhere to these uh grant assurances.

Uh grant assurance number five, preserving rights and powers.

Grant insurance 22 and 23 kind of go hand in hand.

Uh, typically, you will have uh a violation of one with the other because there's some exclusive right that has been given to one entity, or you may have discriminated against another entity from coming onto the airport and conducting business.

Grant insurance 24, your fee and rental structure, it's keeping that standard.

And then, of course, grant assurance 25 airport revenues, basically ensuring that any revenue that's generated uh from the airport businesses must remain at the airport and not to be used for other expenses today.

As we look uh forward to the 2026 fiscal year, the revenues that we generate, it's about 13.3 million dollars.

And that uh derives from 37 leases.

Um aviation, 20 are non-aviation.

We also have other revenues from uh fuel flowage fees, the foreign trade zone fees, and other city leases at the airport.

Our expenses are about 10.3 million for 2026, and that's made up of uh personnel services, uh operating expenses, and capital outlay.

We've been very fortunate over the years to be able to supplement our budget with grant funding from the FAA and the FDOT.

Without that grant funding from both of those agencies, it would be really difficult for the airport to get to the point where they are today.

And that is more or less providing the services and the amenities for the businesses on the airport to be able to attract businesses as well.

And so I won't delve too much into this, but what I can share with you uh from our from the last five years, we were able to generate approximately about 30 million dollars in grant funding from the FAA and FDOT combined.

The airport's portion was about five million dollars.

Uh thankfully we do have a healthy reserve, and that healthy reserve does come from the ability to get that supplemental grant funding from FAA and DOT.

Looking into the future, uh five years out, and this is how we typically plan our uh capital improvement projects.

Um it is through a 20-year master plan, but every year we do meet with the FA and DOT to look at that five-year outlook of what projects we have to complete and what funding is available as well.

And so in the previous slide, you'd have seen that the airport uh had about maybe three million dollars of um expenses that would have gone into capital projects and so forth.

And as you can see with this slide, it's now at almost nine million dollars over the course of the next five years.

Um what we do anticipate from getting from the Florida Department of Transportation is approximately 11.5 million dollars.

And uh as it relates to the FAA, it's about 25 million dollars.

Now we've learned lately that's not a guarantee.

We can only um hope that uh the funds are available at that time.

So as we seek feedback, uh there are challenges that we're gonna encounter in the future.

Um the uh the the previous years have been great.

Like I said, having the ability to leverage grant funding, it has really made a difference uh for the airport.

But some of the challenges we're facing uh in the future are uh sponsor assurances.

Uh we do have FA and FD FDOT grant funding, which we've been advised, don't expect it to be what it has been in previous years.

And also the uh uh financial sustainability of the airport, um, cost of city services, uh construction costs.

We know that of late with uh the onset of COVID five years ago, uh construction costs went through the roof.

Um we have service delivery challenges, uh the economy, uh fuel prices always fluctuating, and advanced air mobility.

Yes, it's coming, and the concern is how is it going to interact with existing traffic that normally operates at the airport?

And of course, the FAA FDOT compliance that we have to adhere to.

Some other uh concerns that we have are potential loss of revenue as it relates to our our budget and so forth.

Uh typically with leases, they run about 30 years for uh aviation tenants.

The non-aviation tenants, it's about 50 years.

And we are encountering a scenario where as leases revert back to the airport, the improvements revert back to the airport as well at that point.

And so tenants typically pay what I call the dirt rent, if you will, but it's the underlying ground, and it's usually pennies on the dollar, but over time that does increase.

However, one of the things the airport does depend on is reversion rent.

And what we've been experiencing uh the last few years with uh reversion rent, in some instances, if a tenant decides to tear down those uh improvements, then that reversion rent doesn't exist anymore.

And so that's a challenge that we're uh trying to resolve here and figure out how best to deal with the airport in the future.

And of course, the reduction of grant future grant opportunities.

Rufus, um if a tenant uh improves the property, let's say like building an airplane hangar, all right, and then they tear it down.

Do they need our permission since it's our property once it's built?

No.

Shouldn't that be included in the lease?

And this is some of the uh things that we want to address in the lease.

Um it's coming up with different approaches to ensure that the airport will remain financially sustainable.

Okay, thank you.

So what we are proposing is a leasing policy, which uh, you know, should help with maximizing airport revenues, uh, ensuring compliance with deed obligations, ensuring policies are uh satisfied, implementing protection from uh detrimental uses, uh, ensure equitable treatment of current and future lessees, and most importantly, mitigating the exposure to risk.

So, one of the things we are considering, and um it's not new to the industry, but a transaction fee.

Um, as I mentioned, uh there is a uh trend that's popular now in our industry, such that um you have companies buying up smaller companies at different airports, and we'll sell them for if not hundreds of millions, billions of dollars.

And so we have missed out on that opportunity uh with the couple of uh lease transactions that have happened, not just on the aviation side, but as well as on the non-aviation side.

And the intent is to apply a transaction fee that'll at a minimum capture some of those losses if it's a case where a new tenant comes in, decides that the hangars that are there doesn't work for their business model.

Um, how do we then recapture that uh uh reversion rent and so forth?

Um, as I mentioned, it's not new to the industry.

We've added this language in two of our leases so far.

Uh there were no issues uh from the tenant.

The tenants actually admitted that, well, if they do have to uh sell, um, they're not the ones that are gonna pick up that transaction fee.

It's the buyer who will uh pick that up.

So we're we're looking to apply that transaction fee moving forward in all the leases.

And it's to understand that the transaction fee is derived from the uh sale of the lease.

Again, these leases are being sold for uh double-digit, if not triple-digit, millions of dollars.

And the airport doesn't benefit from that at all.

Uh an example of several airports in the state of Florida that have done that.

Um, you have Tallahassee at uh 2% transaction fee, but some of the other airports have taken it a bit further and even uh included verbiage or uh terms that would uh reset the lease uh terms, uh actually impose or negotiate that transaction fee at the time of the sale.

Um, with what we're proposing, it gives the uh tenants the upfront knowledge and understanding of what that four percent dollar figure would work out to.

And you know, one other um uh situation I know uh uh Opalaka had done the same thing of using a transaction fee.

And what that came about with Opalaca was they did a lease with um uh developer, three years went by, nothing was developed.

The tenant sold the lease, made millions of dollars, and opalaka never saw a dime of that.

So Opalaka went to the transaction fee and later applied a uh opportunity fee, if you will.

Rufus, can we go back to that for one second?

So one of the things you were talking about previously with the FAA is uh we're required to treat all tenants equally.

How could they have varies on their fees as I'm reading that?

So you're showing that Miami Opalaka basically they make up a different fee for every tenant, same thing with Northeast Florida?

It's not a different fee.

There's uh they use what's called an opportunity fee, and it's based on the investment that's being made.

Expect not every tenant.

So not every tenant will come into Opalaka and build 10, 20,000 square foot hangers.

Okay.

Um, you may have a tenant or developer that'll come in and just build one hangar.

Okay.

So they have that as varying because not every tenant that is coming to the airport is making the same type of uh um capital investment.

So you're saying that the that the fee varies based on the level of capital investment, other words, it's a tiered fee based on capital investment.

Yes.

Okay, do you have what those fees are?

No, I don't.

Um, what I do have, and I gotta dig into it is uh Opalaka does have a rate and fee policy.

As I've gone through it, I haven't seen exactly how they've tiered it.

Uh the next step is to actually uh try to get copies of those leases to see how it's spelled out in those individual leases.

Okay, what about Northeast Florida regional airport?

Northeast uh regional, let's see.

And so they would just, you know, generic in saying it varies.

All right, so I don't find this very helpful, right?

So if we're trying to compare your 4% to the transaction fees at other airports, the only one I can compare it to is Tallahassee International Airport, where you've got a transaction fee.

So I know what it is.

The rest of this information is for purposes of comparison, basically useless.

I don't know what Boca has.

I don't know what Brooksville has, I don't know what Fernandina has, I don't know what Miami has, I don't know what Northeast Florida has.

I mean, all this information that, like you say they're like reluctant to give it to you, it's all public information.

I don't know why they're reluctant.

You guys have been working on this for months now.

I I expected more specificity here so that we can make an informed decision.

So please try and get that information so that we can actually know what it is we're looking at.

This doesn't help me understand what we're comparing ourselves to.

Yeah.

And I understand, Vice Mayor, and for um additional uh information, what I can share with you as well.

Um in reaching out to some others, um one thing that was shared with me was yeah, not every airport will set the same uh rate, right?

Um, someone actually admitted that they're working with an airport right now, and that airport is talking about six to eight percent.

Um they wouldn't divulge to me which airport that is because that airport is still negotiating that.

But how does that import though with the FAA's requirement that all tenants be treated equally?

I don't understand that.

If that's a if that's a a one of your five governing principles of the FAA's lease requirements, how do they just sort of make it up with every tenant?

I don't understand.

It's negotiated.

If it was the case that it violated the those grant assurances, then yes, the FA would go in and uh investigate and um put that airport on notice to correct the uh um discrepancy.

Yeah, I'm assuming the lease terms don't have to be exactly mirrored across lease terms should be such that it doesn't give one tenant um the advantage over another.

And and so an example um as we talk about terms.

Um again, a tenant who will come in and build one hangar um shouldn't get a 30-year lease term, all right, because the capital investment just isn't there all right.

However, someone who's coming in with more capital investment, um, naturally you would give them a 30-year lease term.

Okay, but everybody who's spending everybody who's building one terminal should have the exact same rate structure.

Everybody who's building 10 terminals should have the same rate structure.

In other words, everybody who's similarly situated should be treated the same.

People who are in different categories of investment, I understand what you're saying there.

If you're in a 10 million dollar tier versus a hundred million dollar tier, you can make a credible argument that you would have a different rate structure.

That's I think I think the FAA would probably amenable to to that to that argument.

But anybody who's investing 10 million dollars should have a comparable rate structure so such that they are then treated equally.

Is that so the rate structure you're referring to is ground rent?

And um, again, what I can share with you is that with our outside council, we've presented this to them.

And yes, similarly situated was the question.

And outside council um uh actually indicated that uh it shouldn't apply.

Um and uh what I would like to say about uh the outside council that we use, um they're the ones who will typically engage with the FAA from a legal standpoint on what's right, what's not right.

So as it relates to having the best advice, that outside council is worth every dollar that we spend to keep the airport out of trouble.

Um if you recall uh about what is it, maybe eight or ten years ago uh with the uh pilot payment.

Um, it was this attorney who went to Washington, DC with the city manager, uh, the budget director, and um uh got this whole thing resolved with the pilot payment.

So we are confident in the advice that this uh outside council provides and not to be led down a path of uh of um um uncertainty and so forth.

Rufus, I have a question, please.

Um this um transaction fee, does this apply to both aviation lease and also non-aviation?

That is the intent.

So when we're able to add new terms to a lease, it's when there are changes being made to the lease.

Our non-aviation tenants, as I mentioned, have 50 year terms.

And back in the 1980s, there were more favorable terms that were provided.

Options to extend 25 years in addition to the 50 years, four tenure options uh in addition to the uh uh 50 year term.

And of late, the FA's position is no more options because at that rate you might as well dispose of the property and um uh sell it to the uh uh uh tenant.

So some of the things we've done uh, and this is before my time, obviously, but rather than giving those options with no other terms, what has changed is when you get that option now and you're ready to exercise it, we now do an appraisal of the property, and again, it's just the underlying ground.

And based on that appraisal, when you exercise that option, that's your new rent, right?

So that was a good move because yes, today we have several leases that have long term, and the revenue that's being generated is very minimal because the terms that was done back then are clearly different from what we've done today to put the airport in a better position.

If I may, a question to city manager.

So we have a lot of leases, non-airport leases.

Do we charge a transaction fee on any other lease that we do in the city?

If there's a if there's a transfer lease or renewal lease or an extension lease, like take the fort, right?

So we just did a lease with the fort.

Did we charge them a transaction fee when we did a lease with the Ford?

I'm not sure of the specifics of all the terms in the Fort Agreement, but the recent New River Trading Post Agreement included a transaction fee, and that was approved by the commission, I think at the last meeting.

Did we discuss the trend?

So the the challenge I had, and I've communicated this with you, is that and the reason I wanted to have this discuss is that if we're imposing transaction fees, you know, that is a is a commission policy decision.

And I don't remember ever us having a discussion like this about the imposition of fees for that purpose.

So again, I I don't I don't remember us ever having a discussion about when we impose fees on our tenants on any of our properties.

We've got a lot of leases in the city.

Um to Rufus's point, I I know through the years we have oftentimes been asked to approve a transfer when a new company comes in and buys out another company.

So with the Fort, for example, conceivably somebody may come in and purchase the leasehold interest from the existing developer at some point in time.

Um I'm curious as to whether we would anticipate a similar scenario to what Rufus is describing and say, well, you know, a new developer is coming in, they're gonna buy out the leasehold interest.

We want to get paid.

Is that what we're going to say is our policy every time we go forward that you know we're we're gonna expect uh you know our our 4% every time a transaction takes place.

I just want to understand what are what our what we're trying to do here.

Your your concerns are are well taken.

Um Rufus has mentioned what our intent is.

I just want to clarify that we have two leases approved by the commission that include the 4% transaction fee, and those leases were approved in 20%.

Right, but I'm hearing I discussed there's nothing in that backup that describes the fact that there was an imposition of a fee.

You you couldn't find it if you're if your life depended on it.

And and during my tenure as city manager, uh the transaction fee in the last lease uh that was brought before the commission included it in the backup and the commission agenda memo.

And we it was described in a background section.

It it was in the ones that we approved in the new river trading post.

The new river trading post, right?

Not the previous ones that we're discussing with about Rufus.

That's correct, Commissioner.

So staff normally would summarize a lease or terms of the lease.

Uh there has been no requirement as to the expansive um requirements in terms of that summary.

And so in 2023, it did not appear as though the CAM incorporated the transaction fee, but it was a part of the backup materials and the exhibits.

Uh we are describing lease terms now and going forward and any lease that's negotiated.

I consider the transaction fee to be a salient term that should be incorporated in the commission agenda memo so that it not only is listed in the backup, but also in the memorandum.

So going forward, that would be the position I would take.

In addition, in my experience, uh we have seen transaction fees uh in other leases.

Uh I've worked in other cities where a transaction fee is a customary part of doing business, and it's part of ensuring the economic sustainability of the city.

Uh it's something that is um based on policy direction.

So if the commission did not see fit to include a transaction fee or wanted to modify what staff is proposing to be the transaction fee, then of course, you know, staff would proceed uh with the direction from the commission, but it is not something that is very novel.

Uh and so any lease coming forward to the city commission, uh, I I think it should be expected that all opportunities to generate revenue would be included.

Uh except that the commission may say this is not something that we want to do.

So thank you, Raquel.

And and that's and that's part of why I wanted to have this discussion for my colleagues up here, because this is an entirely new direction for us, and it may be one that you know everybody is amenable to, but I think it's one that merits a uh a larger discussion.

I don't think it should be limited just to this.

Well, I think I I'd hate to think we're leaving money on the table.

No, I I I agree, Mayor.

I absolutely I I think this is something we need to think about.

It depends on the holistic action though.

I know I think we I think we should think about this more holistically, mayor.

Is this going to be our policy that we're going to incorporate?

I don't think we should cherry pick and say, look, you know, we're going to do it to this uh tenant, but we're not going to do it to that tenant.

I think if we want to impose transaction fees as a policy, we should say, yeah, we think this is a great idea.

We want to maximize revenue.

And because I'm a big believer, mayor, in that we treat people uniformly.

I don't think we should pick winners and losers when we start imposing fees on people.

I think we should say that this is our policy that we're going to charge fees.

And I'm okay with that.

I have trust me, I have no problem with making sure that we're maximizing our revenue.

But let's do it in a uniform, transparent manner where everybody knows what the ground rules are when they come to do business with the city.

We don't change the we don't change the rules halfway through the game.

Okay.

That's all.

City manager, haven't didn't we charge a transaction fee for the last two leases?

Yeah, the LSX?

Those are approved in 2023.

Yes.

Right.

No, my point is my point, Commissioner, is that when those leases came to us for approval, it wasn't disclosed.

I didn't know about it.

But but but staff knew to impose them and they were the lease wasn't included wasn't shared with commission as an exhibit in the backup material.

Okay.

With no with no markup.

So there was no, there was no way to know that this was a change to the lease terms.

You gotta read the lease.

You gotta you can't.

Have you ever read the entirety of the lease?

Please come on.

All right, gentlemen.

Okay, all right.

Let's move forward on it.

Rufus, well, hold on, it's not absurd.

No, it's it's not absurd.

It's absurd to not know.

Typically, when you do that, there's a markup.

There's there's a there's a red line version, so you know what's changed from the lease before to the one that's in there now.

Without a red line version, how do I know something like that was inserted?

Oh, that's that's is that a valid point?

That's part of talking with the city attorney city manager to say, hey, what's changed on this lease?

I talked with them and they never informed me that they did it.

Okay.

Okay, go for it.

Rufus, can you just tell me how we got to the 4% as opposed to like for instance in Talassy 2%?

How do we land at 4%?

So obviously, this is going back uh 2021, 2022, uh attending a conference, and it was the FAA that used that example of Opalaka and said airports, you can't allow this to happen.

Um you should at a minimum uh use four percent.

And the the position of the four percent was uh considered a commission, if you will.

Uh on average, commissions are about four percent uh on transaction deals.

So that's how that came about.

Um and so uh like I said, we'd done it with two other leases.

And and for the record, I just want to add that um it wasn't something I just came up with on my own.

When I put leases together, the city attorney uh is involved.

But also at that time I reported to the city manager's office.

And so when leases come to uh tenants come to the airport to renew leases, update their leases.

Um I pretty much outline for the city manager, hey, here's what we're considering.

Uh if you feel you want to do more, let me know.

Or if this is satisfactory, then I'd like to move forward with completing the lease.

So, in other words, you brought this to the city manager, city attorney reviewed it with all of them.

Yes, here's changes we're making, here's what I'd like to do.

Okay, yeah.

And then there's been other instances where was this discussed at the airport advisory board?

Not the transaction fee.

No, okay.

So typically the the airport advisory board that would have been the ones that are kind of reviewing these things, the advisory board at the airport that are experts in this kind of stuff that we would typically run this by before we make any substantial policy changes, didn't know about it.

Okay.

Ruby, uh, I just uh I if I could just finish my other questions, thank you.

If I could just finish my other questions.

Thank you.

Um these other airports, uh, do any of them institute uh a cap on the dollar amount for these transactions?

None mentioned a cap.

No caps.

No.

And then also, last question, um, any kind of uh tiered system at the other airports in terms of either the scope or the dollar amount?

No, none that were uh mentioned.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, yeah.

And and so I'll I'll add the flip side of my recommendations to the city manager when we were doing these leases.

There's also been instances where the city manager was in total disagreement and took another approach, such as, as I mentioned earlier, at the end of the lease term, improvements revert back to the airport.

And so with uh the the improvement reverting back to the airport, we hire an appraiser who will walk out, go out to the airport and do an analysis of those improvements to determine what they're valued at.

And so there have been I think it's one instance now where it was no, there's not going to be any reversion rent, just five percent of gross rental receipts.

So to give you an idea of what improvement rents can uh generate.

We have a tenant that was paying $60,000 a year in ground rent.

The lease came to term, the property got appraised.

Obviously, the underlying ground rent would come up to today's market rate, but the improvements itself worked out to about 270,000.

Right.

Um so in that sense, you know, depending on the value of that infrastructure, that improvement, yeah, that's how much money is being left on the table.

Um, if we take the position of not charging or collecting reversion rent.

Any idea over let's just say the last five years how much money has been left on the table because we did not have transaction fees?

Uh okay, yes.

Um between uh I'd say the last 10 years, I've presented to the commission um at least one or two non-aeronautical leases for assignment.

Um as to the relates to aviation, uh we've done one transaction that uh brought a new tenant on board to take over existing leases.

And so it's in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Okay, thank you.

Rufus, can you describe the lease rate reset um functionality?

So if I have a lease, yes, sell it.

Yeah, yeah.

So with the lease uh rate reset, if an assignment is done, typically everything stays status quo.

There's you know, the terms aren't uh adjusted and so forth.

And so with the reset, it affords the airport the opportunity to make sure that the rent comes up to what the current market rate is, but also to put in new terms if it's necessary rather than waiting till the end of the lease term or maybe uh you know, years before the lease comes to term that the tenant may consider re uh doing an extension and so forth.

All right, great, thanks.

Yeah, so so more or less it's to ensure that the airport has more flexibility.

Um the city is able to not find itself in a predicament where some airports today struggle because of some of the leases that they've um the lease terms that have been included, such that they also are challenged and not being able to generate enough revenue to match for grant funding from FAN DOT.

So we are looking for the recommend we are providing these recommendations to also get your feedback, uh Mayor Vicemor and Commissioners, and um it is to move forward with developing a lease policy, um, and also a rates rates and charges policy uh for review by the aviation advisory board and approval by city commission.

Uh additionally, uh request commission feedback um on the inclusion of a transaction fee based on uh the industry examples, uh obviously the um 4% transaction fee.

Uh we can also include a cap of one million dollars.

Um, negotiate a fee at the uh time of transaction.

And again, I'm not too favorable to that because again, I want to be up front with our uh tenants so they know what they're dealing with and so forth.

Um the lease reset with new terms, um, and even also an opportunity fee.

Uh, someone who is interested in coming to the airport but haven't been able to get to the airport because of our long-term leases.

Um yeah, it's just been impossible.

And we constantly get requests from other developers and business operators.

Hey, I want to come to FXE and set up shop, but we have no more land available to lease out to these tenants.

And so for someone who's looking to come to FXE, um, they decide to acquire a lease.

Uh, yeah, there is the the potential of a uh opportunity fee.

Um so those are just some uh recommendations.

Um, but I I do want to you know make it clear that um we have been very fortunate with grant funding.

If you take a look at the slide where it breaks down what the airport is responsible for when it comes to a project, what DOT is kicking in and what FAA is kicking in.

It is a fact that that funding will be reduced drastically.

It's not my perceived notion, it's what DOT and the FAA has uh presented to us um at conferences, and obviously one of the ones that um is really making a push with DOT right now, and you all aware of this with the verteport uh industry.

Um there's House Bill, there's a state house bill and Senate bill for this legislation cycle where DOT is being directed, 100% of grant funding for Vertaports and advanced air mobility.

So DOT has advised us previous years were great, but we won't be able to provide you as much as we have in the past.

So this is just to realize that um it's not just a transaction fee, but also other means of generating revenue for the airport such that we're able to maintain the airport in the state that it uh it currently is.

Okay, those those bills, that's a double-edged sword for us because while you're saying that that's going to take away, that can also be incredibly beneficial to us for the holiday park garage.

And by the way, that's uh HB 1093 and SB 1362.

And for any of my colleagues that have not read those, uh I have not read them.

I'm sorry.

Well, you want to get us copies?

No, I'm just gonna tell you red light them so we see what the highlights are.

The proposed bills in Tallahassee right now, uh, will basically say that FDOT will cover 100%, 100% of Verdeport uh production.

And we are obviously leading in the state.

No one else has done what we've done in terms of the holiday park garage.

Uh, those are incredibly important bills that we must track, and we must get our lobby teams behind uh because we're talking about a 16 million dollar vertiport on the top of our holiday park garage.

Yes.

Um, but then there are other parts of that legislation that could even go deeper, and our costs will go way down.

Well, it was never to be our cost to begin with.

They had promised that they would be completely funded by the uh by the company building the verteport.

I understand, but eventually we will own that, and also that will bring their costs down, and then in turn that will bring our costs down.

No, it trust me.

It will bring our costs way down.

Okay, we just have to.

Let's keep to this subject though.

Because we've got a lot going on here tonight.

No problem.

I want to get us all out of here before tomorrow.

Um, good idea.

So Mayor, before we get to that, I just want to ask a couple of questions of our city attorney.

So I I know typically we can do fees that are cost recovery.

Okay.

This is not a cost recovery fee because there's been no cost established.

It's an arbitrary number that we're picking out in the thin air.

Um, typically those are not allowed if they're regulatory in nature.

Have you looked at this fee and have you determined whether we are legally entitled to charge a non-cost recovery fee?

And is it appropriate?

Thank you for that question.

Um, Vice Mayor.

We have external counsel that does uh a regulatory work with FAA, and they have vetted this, and that was their opinion that this was appropriate.

And the only consideration and the only admonition was that we treat all entities similarly situated equally.

And so when we're talking about structure, let me back up.

I'm sorry, not not in terms of FAA.

In in under Florida law, you can't charge anything more than a cost of providing a service if it's a regulatory fee.

So I'm not I'm not looking at this from the perspective of regulatory capacity.

Right.

Yes, right.

Um not for the FAA.

I'm sure the FA is fine with it.

Under Florida laws as permissible as a regulatory fee that is non-cost recovery based.

I believe that to be so, but I'll look at that specifically.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh does that complete your presentation?

Okay, we have a number of people.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

I appreciate all your good work and uh always looking out for the city.

Uh I have a number of people signed up to speak on this.

Um, I'm not sure if you're all still here, but I'll call your names three at a time.

I'll give you a couple minutes to speak, if that's okay.

Uh and I'll begin by uh uh Neil uh Simzac Simzac.

Neil, are you here?

No.

Uh Robert uh Lettman.

Robert.

Followed by uh Don Campion, followed by Deb Kelly.

See if you can keep your comments to a couple minutes.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Thank you for hearing us tonight.

My name is Robert Lettman.

I'm associated with Zelly Aviation.

We are an aviation tenant on Parcel two.

We are your tenant.

We have been since the 80s.

Um a couple points.

First off, Mr.

Mayor, on a practical basis, we don't just knock down hangars.

If we knock down a hangar, it's to build another hangar.

In fact, if you saw Rufus's slide from the 60s, one of our hangers was on there.

We've got an old one on there, which was the original Ben Bradley hangar for the historians here.

Okay.

Our airport has grown.

We are no longer for the little flights that go to the Bahamas for fishing and come back.

We need bigger hangars, not just a row of garages.

So as time has gone by, we have had to knock down hangars and build more appropriate sized hangars for the use of the airport.

Well, this is not about that.

This is about this is about selling your business or selling your lease interest and then making a profit from it and the city not being able to participate in that profit.

Yes and no, sir.

Part of the transaction fee is also talking about uh adding years to the lease and refinancing of the lease.

Okay.

Uh I'm not concerned with selling our leasehold at this point.

My concern is that when I build a new hangar and I have hypothetically 12, 15, 18 years left on my lease, I can't amortize that over 12, 15, 18 years.

I go back to the city to seek another 30-year lease, 30 years being capped by the statute.

Right.

Okay.

Now am I paying a 4% on that?

Am I paying a 4% if I go and have to refinance to build my new hold it right there?

Is that the intent of this?

The intent is just if it goes to a uh an unrelated third party, isn't that correct?

It's not if they refinance part of it is refinancing in the backup exhibit one page 22.

Uh the triggering events for the transaction fee includes uh net refinancing.

So if they're not benefiting from this, if they're not profiting from this, why is is that included as a triggering event?

Well, wait, let me or at least extension.

Why is why is that why is that triggering?

Rufus, can you tell us where does the city, where does the city feel it is it is losing out if they're going, if they're just building something bigger and building something um that's more expensive.

So some of the things we've realized over the years and we've learned from um the situation a few years ago.

Um the the situation was the tenant went out for refinancing, got the funds, and used it for something else other than what they were supposed to do at the airport.

All right, so there's a way to monitor that then.

Well, yes, there is a way to monitor that.

And so um unfortunately, in this situation, what was expected was a hangar to be completed by a certain date.

Uh the tenant failed to complete the hangar um in its entirety.

Uh so I'm familiar with that situation.

Those funds are were diverted.

Yes.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

I continue.

Yeah, please continue.

Okay.

Outside of fraudulent situation or something of that nature, we're refinancing to build hangers.

The second point I wanted to mention where I disagree with Rufus is is yes, our basic lease starts starts out with a ground lease.

That ground lease is increased annually by CPI, COLAS.

It is then re uh analyzed every 10 and 20 years to make sure that that is kept up with market.

If not, we jump up to that.

In addition to the ground lease, every 10 to 20 years, every 10-year increment, 10-year 10 and year 20, we are assessed for our above ground improvements for our structures.

The city within the lease has two methodologies of doing that at the city's discretion.

First is a percentage of our rents.

So it's in essence an audit for what we're paying for for the property, and we pay, I believe the number's 4% to increase our rent.

Alternatively, the city can then do an appraisal of the buildings and determine rent in addition to our ground lease to increase our rent.

So there's no free ride here.

Okay.

And no, I think the free I think there's a misunderstanding here.

The free ride is trying to if this if you're gonna go and sell your business and sell your lease and make a profit from it, the city wants four percent.

Mr.

Mayor, I'm I'm not even arguing that continuous.

Well, that's all we're here about.

No, because part of the say no, that's what we're here about.

Because part of the proposal, and please understand, and if I'm cloudy and I'm wrong, you're but you're we have not had it.

You're not in an airport advisory board meeting on this.

We have not had any notice on this.

So we're kind of operating blind.

But according to Rufus's slides, this goes for refinance and lease extension as well.

And that is my level of concern.

Right.

So maybe we need to defer this to the aviation advisory board to vet this.

Has it been vetted by the aviation advisory board yet?

No.

Well, that was in Rufus' slide asking us to go the next steps.

Right.

That's right.

We had we did not, we when we're doing lease negotiations with tenants, we do not spell out specifically every uh transaction or term in that uh in that lease or the changes.

Again, we went through this scenario of what uh terms were in old leases and how we can correct them.

We've made those corrections to ensure we don't find ourselves in the predicament of being on the other side of uh a bad situation.

So we don't go in detail to say that we're adding this, we're adding that because it would be a 10-page memo that we're presenting to the board.

Mayor, if I could go ahead.

Um, so I think I like Rufus's, I like Rufus here presentation, and I like the options to consider and weigh as we're kind of moving forward as a kind of standard practice.

So, mayor, I think Rufus's presentation should go to the airport advisory board for them, not to focus on a specific lease, but holistically, what are revenue sources we should consider, how are we doing?

I like seeing the business model of where we are, future grant funding, and so forth.

And then I'd love to get some feedback from the airport advisory board around best practices they see, and then us be able to take this up more specifically.

Okay, that does that make sense to you.

Yes.

Can we do that?

All right, so the folks that sign up to speak, um, since we're going to um defer this to uh uh the aviation advisory board, I know you all wanted to speak.

Uh Don Campion, Dead Kelly, Todd Anderson.

Do you still want to speak tonight?

You still want to speak tonight?

Okay.

So I'll give you your two minutes.

Okay.

You're very welcome.

Thank you.

But by the way, while we're waiting for them, mayor, so city manager.

So one of the things I had asked for, and I hadn't seen it yet, is I was asking for projections, talking about what the airport's actual needs for revenue were as part of this conversation.

So I don't see that as part of the presentation.

So when this goes to the airport advisory board, can we please have that as part of it?

Because if we're going to be asking for more money for the airport, as we've discussed, I really want to see a demonstrated need for the money, not just because again, we can't pull money out of the airport to the general fund, right?

We're not the general fund isn't benefiting from building up reserves at the airport.

And we don't get a lot of grant funding.

But most of the capital improvements are funded through grants.

So the more money that we get, the less grant money we're going to get.

Well, we'll talk about that another time.

So again, all I'm asking for is that the government is.

It's not necessarily true.

I'm asking for the financials.

Okay.

We we make decisions with data, right?

We make decisions with data, but I don't think we without data.

You can't make a you can't make an informed decision.

I'm asking for the data.

We make a decision with data.

And so I think it's important that the aviation advisory board have an opportunity to review the data and come back with recommendations and hopefully be able to refine the process and and perhaps answer some of the questions that the commission has so far poised.

Agreed.

I'm asking that the airport, the aviation advisory board get the data because I've been asking for it for months and I haven't gotten it.

Thanks, Mayor.

We can handle that.

Thank you.

Yeah, okay.

Um Mayor, yes.

Um, I would like to recommend that we also include um our auditor um in this process as well.

We can look at um numbers and you know, could we have one point out here the conversation about a million-dollar cap?

Um, and my answer but my question is how do we value what's the value to that million dollars compared to the 4% that's being proposed?

So if there's um whatever you can share to this conversation, um, if you can um look at what's being proposed, and then come back and give us a breakdown of how it applied, and also as um vice mayor has said, um, when we get that information about where these funds are gonna, how they'll be used.

Just give us a breakdown through your um scope and your eye.

Okay.

Sure.

Don?

Yes, thank you, Mr.

Mayor and Commissioners.

Don Campion, president of Banyan Air Service.

And uh I wanted to say the policy changes generally are discussed with the prime tenants and brought before the aviation advisory board, but this fee seems to have fallen through the cracks, which is really quite unusual.

Um I'm speaking more from the operator's point of view.

Uh, as the uh co-founder of Banyan Air 46 years ago, along with the airport leadership and listening to customers, uh, worked with Shelter, has built a tremendous facility meeting the needs of uh customers from all over the world on a smaller scale, ZLI Aviation as a prime tenant who has also invested into their hangars, and uh which we operate from.

Within the Banyan Shelter Zili complex, we provide fuel services, maintenance, avionics, a jet cafe, uh pilot shop, air ambulance, uh, passenger and cargo charter helicopter services, and create an excess of 800 jobs.

Our complex has been cited as the only one in the world that offers such a variety of services in a single location.

In line with the vision of FXC to become the best general aviation airport, our company, Banyan Air Service, operates on that leasehold of Shelter and Zeli Aviation, and we were ranked number one in USA in the USA by nationally acclaimed professional pilot survey and constantly within the top five aviation companies in international news, and this survey is over 3,000 airports.

Our team at Banyan, we view our ourselves as the corporate aviation gateway to the city of Fort Lauderdale.

We treat the or we treat our customers with that first impression of the city, those company executives come and go out of executive airport.

Do you serve champagne?

Sometimes I believe the model and the policies in place at FXC are in that transparent relationship that we have with airport leadership, and that and the tenants has been able to make FXC to be a self-sustaining and an ever advancing airport.

And FBO providing services brings tremendous value to the airport and to the city of Fort Lauderdale at a tremendous cost.

To the operators, such as insurance, training, purchase of aviation equipment, safety, FAA and environment regulations, and advertising with the sales force to get our customers to prefer to come to Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, although it does result in low margins in the aviation business.

A fee at the time of sale should be tied to the airport's actual administrative cost of reviewing and approving an assignment, not to market value.

Otherwise, the fee is a transactional tax that will adversely affect those that have invested the most.

For example, a percentage fee to an FBO on 10 acres at FXE that's invested into new hangars, upgrading their ramps, expanding their capabilities and services, is going to pay more upon the sale than an FBO on 10 acres that's invested little, has not upgraded their facilities or expanded their services.

Could you please conclude your remarks?

Yet the city would benefit substantially more for the FBO that invested more.

So in closing, any new change or new FXE policy must apply to all operators at the airport, not just those like Shelter Banyan, who's been the largest contributor now looking to extend the lease.

All right, thank you so much.

Uh Deb Kelly is Deb here.

Uh Todd Anderson, followed by Marcos Marchena.

Oh, it's on, okay.

Okay.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice uh Vice Mayor, Commissioners.

My name is Todd Anderson, and I am the chief operating officer for Shelter Aviation, based out at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.

I have over 25 years experience.

I'm here today to express my overall objection to the airport's idea of imposing a transaction fee when a when a FXE tenant goes to sell his leasehold or during any type of refinancing.

Again, I'm going by the presentation.

A little background of Shelter.

We had we've been on the airport since 1977.

We have 79 buildings, 1.2 million square feet of air side property.

We approached Mr.

James to redevelop some of the older buildings on our leasehold, but he was also interested in us considering us to build new air site compatible hangars on the former FAU parcel, which was already approved within the FAA master plan.

The only way he would issue, the only way we could do this project is if he we can get to a new 30-year lease to allow us to adequate time to amortize the upfront costs.

For the past three years, we've been negotiating with Mr.

James and the city attorney and staff for new leases, and a new transfer fee was introduced during this negotiation.

Originally discussed as a cost recovering fee for the city's time to assist a tenant with approving a lease assignment.

We assured the transfer fee was to cover city costs, not to form not a new form of a revenue stream as we as it's recently involved into.

What these new leases will do for the airport is commit Shelter to a minimum capital investment of 40 million dollars, increased revenue by developing the FAU parcel, the vacant FAU parcel add periodic increases in ground rental rates, but more important impactful will be the reversion of the existing buildings that will substantially produce new improvement income for the airport.

Okay.

Two another minute.

You have 15 seconds.

The city has not participated in any financial manner.

We've never asked for anything from the city, and Shelter has never defaulted on any of our leases.

The transfer fee concept came to Shelter as a surprise.

And sometimes Shelter does not have in any of our 18 other leases we have throughout our network.

There was no tenant or substance uh public or tenant engagement either.

We were told that it was done in 23 with two other smaller hangar tenants.

There should be no transfer fee applied to any type of refinancing, and that's why I'm here today.

Okay, thank you so much.

We appreciate it.

Marcos.

Followed by Ed Smoker.

Ed, are you still here?

I think he left.

Who is he?

I think it's Rivaldo.

Okay.

Could you push the button at the bottom of the speaker?

Good evening, Mayor.

Uh, is it possible to put up uh Rufus' presentation?

As long as you can do it in two minutes, you're welcome to do it.

The list.

Well, I don't know.

You want to put up a presentation?

Can you can you put back his presentation?

While I'm speaking, I just want to be able to pull up the page that lists the airports that have the um have the what?

The transaction fee?

I have the transaction fee.

Okay, we have it in front of us.

Okay.

Page 23.

Great.

So let me begin.

Um, I'm Marcos Marchena.

I'm the external general counsel for Shelter.

Uh, by way of background, I've represented airports uh regarding FAA and real estate matters for 30 years, including serving as the general counsel to Orlando International and Orlando Executive Airports for uh 10 years.

When I work with staff at airports, I always try to make sure that the presentations that were brought to our boards were streamlined, accurate, and complete.

I just think that a decision makers, you guys are entitled to accurate information in order to make those decisions.

Well, I think we kind of are on the understanding.

I think uh Vice Mayor has pointed out that we'd like to see more specifics with regard to these other airports.

So, yes, we're not making any decisions tonight.

And so we agree that as far as this chart is concerned, it is not complete, and we will we would like it more complete before we make any decisions.

It's not only not complete, Mayor.

Uh I need to point out the provision regarding Tallahassee Airport, Tallahassee doesn't charge a 2% transaction fee.

Tallahassee charges, and I have the lease provision here from the lease in Tallahassee, the lesser of 2% of the fair market value of the leasehold or $50,000.

So in other words, the Tallahassee fee is capped at $50,000, which is really just an administrative cost recovery fee.

The other airports, Booker Ratone doesn't have a transaction fee.

When they say they have a reset, that means the underlying land rent is re-established.

You do that in the Shelter lease every five years.

Brooksville confirmed for us they do not have a transaction fee or a reset.

They are considering imposing a 100 to 200 administrative fee.

Fernandina Beach does not have a transaction fee at all.

And St.

Augustine does not have a transaction fee.

So we need to make sure that you are dealing with accurate information.

I will tell you that in negotiating this leasehold, we were presented a transaction fee in June of 2024.

We struck it in red line by his mayor.

We struck it in red line and sent it back.

There was no discussion regarding a transaction fee again until July of 2025, when it reappeared without explanation in another draft of the lease.

I will also point out to you that in September of 2025, you approved a lease modification with another tenant on the airport without a transaction fee.

And placing us in the same category as Weather Tech and JM family, who are standalone single tenant or single hanger tenants, does not justify grant assurance number 22.

We are completely different operators.

We have put scores of millions of dollars into the airport and we'll be investing another 40 million dollars when this lease transaction goes through.

You can't compare us to Weather Tech and JM who were required to invest a total of 200,000 on their leasehold.

Okay.

We are definitely situated.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for coming tonight.

Yes, sir.

All right.

Sandy here.

All waiting for that.

Sherry, I I need you to sit down with them, please, and confirm these issues because that's serious to me.

Sandra Kirby here.

If these if this is being misrepresented to me, there's a 2% whether it's a $50,000, and we're talking a million dollars.

That's that is seriously concerning to me.

So I need you to sit with them, please, and I need you to get the facts straight on this before there's any further discussion before this goes to the airport advisory board.

And then please get back together with me and let me know what you find out.

Thank you.

John Roth.

John, are you still here?

He left.

Steve Weary, Steve, and finally Ignacio Ignacio Martinez.

Mayor, uh, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, uh, good evening, Steve Weary on behalf of W Aviation.

I might have a coughing spell, so I'm sorry about that.

I'm coming getting over um a flu.

But anyway, um, you know, we appreciate the city's goal to uh you know safeguard the financial position of the airport.

No question about that.

The the concern that we have is that in in speaking with our own FAA lawyers, is that uh, you know, with all due respect to the uh the questions maybe that have been posed to the city's FAA lawyer, um the information that we're getting is that uh this kind of a uh uh a transaction fee would uh would very likely run a foul of grant assurances 22, 23, and 24, in addition to revenue uh diversion rules that are uh uh um laid out by federal statute.

So a lot of times, you know, with lawyers, the uh the answers you get depend a lot on the questions you you offer them.

So I I think some additional scrutiny should be done to uh to you know make sure that whatever methods the city is using to generate revenue are are not gonna get the city into uh into a tight spot.

Um maximizing revenue is there's nothing wrong with that.

Um I'll say this that when uh when a user is selling its business, um the the entirety, the totality of the value of that sale isn't isn't just the lease, obviously.

We all know that.

Um the lease is a part of it, it's one of the assets.

You know, fuel trucks are part of the assets, goodwill, IP, brand management.

There's a lot of uh, you know, other aspects that get taken along with that.

That um, you know, with a larger sale, like you know, we were hearing about Banyan's world-class operation, you know, the the portion of uh a value attributable to uh the to the leasehold part of that is is it's gotta be a small fraction compared to you know what it is that they've worked hard over, you know, more than a half a uh a century to uh to build in terms of uh of a solid business.

And uh and and that should belong to them.

Uh, one more thing, just to close.

I'll say this that the uh that the totality of what a tenant puts into a lease, lease hold rather, is is not uh is not encompassed within the uh the four corners of the lease.

Um oftentimes, you know, especially with longer term leases, um, the lease may establish a minimum of floor uh for what has to be invested into that leasehold.

And over time, uh the uh the the tenant may find themselves exceeding that by by a far a great margin.

I know there's uh you know there's there's differences of opinion about W Aviation's uh track record uh to date.

I can tell you this that um their parcel 8AB lease required in total them to uh to invest say uh you know five million, four point nine million dollars.

And uh to date, they've they've invested almost 15 million dollars, which is triple that.

Um so if if there was a four percent uh fee that was being added to that, what your your tenants in in that kind of a position would be discouraged and chilled from making those kinds of additional investments, which actually improve their business, improve the city's uh uh reversion value of those assets.

Um and and I I think you know, if those didn't occur would put the city in a much worse place.

But anyway, I've I've gone way over.

Thank you for the indulgence.

Well, I I I don't wait a minute.

Um, first of all, is Ms.

Martinez with you.

He's also with W.

He is.

Is there anything else you want to add to his comments?

I I think he's okay.

Okay.

So let me ask you this.

So I agree that when a person sells a lease, uh, whether it be a restaurant, whether it be something like this, whether it be uh whatever the circumstances may be, um the the goodwill is often part of that.

So we certainly don't expect that to be part of what we want back.

Um but there are situations that over time, uh whether it be through inflation or whether it just be through opportunity costs, whether it be the the um the scarcity of opportunity that that uh uh may exist in an industry and they come to Fort Lauderdale because there's an opportunity there.

Um would you think that there is something that uh can be attributable to the city of Fort Lauderdale providing the space and the and the um older lease payment that might be desirable to the extent that someone will pay a sum for that, and you don't do you think that the city of Fort Lauderdale would be entitled to any portion of that?

Well, I I think that would depend on the circumstances.

Like for example, if the uh if the city was in uh in a specific instance subsidizing the activity of that of that tenant, then yes.

But if if it's a market uh you know, generally uh if it's a market-driven business decision in which another operator chooses to come to Fort Lauderdale because the choices are few and the opportunities here are great, we too should benefit from that goodwill.

Well, but uh from the uh city's standpoint, the activity at the airport is revenue neutral.

Um any surpluses that the revenue or that the that the airport generates, they they have to stay within the airport.

Yeah, so it's not a good thing.

And so we're making a good airport.

I mean, we're making the Taj Mahal of airports, but at some point it's going to be only suited to the uh uh the Maharaja, right?

Uh if we want to expand the runways, if we want to improve upon the facilities, if we want to uh uh whatever it costs to operate this place, if and also to add to capital investment, um, I know that we do get grant funding, but it's not always a hundred percent.

And so don't you think that the city should want to provide uh uh a better place for you folks, you and your and your neighbors uh to want to uh do business in an environment that isn't tattered, that isn't you know threadbare, that that actually represents, you know, I don't want the city of Fort Lauderdale to be represented in any way that is that is you know that is uh you know uh you know um you know embarrassing.

I want Fort Lauderdale to this is why we're the seventh, right?

Right.

So we have to keep up our standards as much as you want to keep up your standards.

Right, and we are keeping up our standards.

Um I know we want to keep up our standards too.

Of course, but you know, one of the things that's not gonna be on the backs of taxpayers.

And it and it hasn't been since 1977 or whenever that was.

You want to keep it that way.

Of course.

But um, you know, one of the revenue diversion uh corollaries is that uh you can't establish a rainy day fund.

And if uh if you know it's been suggested that you know, maybe down the road uh uh grant sources from FAA or F DOT, you know, might be in decline.

And and my FAA, you know, lawyers that I've spoken with have told me that you know there's been talk of that, you know, for the last uh you know, 15 years, every year, you know, it's it's a uh a continuing thing.

But it never happens, it always stays you know fairly consistent.

But regardless of all that, even if we wanted to uh you know believe maybe there was gonna be a reduction, those those statutory rules, and I think that this bears further investigation, don't take my word for it, um basically prohibit uh the creation of uh of that kind of a fund.

You know, it would allow a small reserve fund.

We're a lot of fund balance.

We're a lot of fund balance.

But not a excuse me, Steve, for one second.

So the aviation fund is different.

This is not the general fund.

So it runs differently.

The FAA's the no, the FAA decides what's acceptable, not us.

I understand that, but we've had a fund balance.

We you're allowed to have a minor fund balance.

This is no different than the building permit fund where the state of Florida says if you have excess money in your building permit fund, you have to return it to all the developers that paid building permits.

You're not allowed to build up an excess balance in the building permit fund.

This works the same way.

I understand that.

Okay.

All right, just having a discussion.

No, no problem.

All right, thank you so much.

I also do have some doubt about how scrutinized the uh the the weather tech and the JM family leases were.

I'm not the dumbest guy in the room, and I've looked, I have read those leases and and those provisions relating to the uh the the four percent uh transaction fee relating to um refinancing net refinancings.

I can't make heads or tails of it.

And I think anybody who was on the tenant side, you know, paying a lot of very close attention, you know, probably would have wanted some clarity on that.

So I don't know, you know, how valuable that that is as a precedent.

And if you're gonna establish something like that with one tenant, you you shouldn't, you know, have it take effect until it applies uh universally to all the tenants.

Otherwise, it's not fair.

All right.

Well, we're gonna vet this, so we'll get back to that.

Okay, Mr.

Martinez, did you want to say anything?

Anyone else wish to speak on this item?

Okay.

Thank you, Mr.

Major.

Uh Mr.

Pice Major Commissioner.

I just want to add uh really quickly, uh uh that uh well we are one of the uh Las uh Familian FBOs in South Florida and uh uh correct into what uh uh Mr.

Warrior said we have invested between both parts, so you only count one of them over 23 million dollars in our lease.

Well, then we're ready, and we're asking also we're negotiating with uh uh uh Mr.

James and the city and extension of our lease to invest another 10 million dollars to build at two additional hangars.

So my point is that uh we're only doing these, yes, to satisfy the demand that we have, but also that will increase the fuel sales.

That fuel sales will bring additional revenue to their as we see in the presentation, uh, out of the $13 million of revenue.

Uh uh 1.7 comes from two old sales, and uh as well as the 40 million dollars that uh uh the uh neighbors of shelter and Mr.

Seeley's uh improvement to his hangars.

We're doing all these to uh make like you said, Mr.

Mayor, one of the finest airport in the nation.

So with that in mind, we we feel that uh that's the kind of of uh improvements that we're bringing to uh the fine city of Forlord.

Okay, great.

All right, thank you so much, and we appreciate your investment in our city.

Thank you.

Okay, uh, so we're gonna defer this item then uh for further discussion.

This is just a conference item anyway, so there was no vote that was going to be taken today.

And uh my understanding is that Rufus will now take this to the aviation advisory board and we'll and and and in uh concert with your participation and with the city attorney who try to come back with uh something that uh is a little bit something more that we could accept and uh and and agree with the uh the uh tenants at our airport.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay, um so I'm going to uh again suspend the conference meeting and go back to the evening meeting.

Um and uh let's get back to business.

All right, uh let's just quickly go to the consent agenda items.

Um Vice Mayor, do you have any consent agenda items you wish to pull?

Uh Commissioner Beasley Pittman, uh Commissioner Glassman?

None commissioner uh Sorensen?

None and I have none.

There's someone who signed up to speak on M1 and M3.

Um are you folks still here?

Gary Olson.

Uh Lisa Wanamaker and Tasha Joseph.

Did you want to we're not gonna we're gonna consent to them?

Stand up and say it.

Okay.

Oh, you're very welcome.

Okay, okay.

Okay.

Uh someone like someone like to move uh to approve.

Second.

Please call the role.

Vice Mayor Herbst.

Commissioner Glassman.

Yes.

Mr.

Beasley Pittman?

Yes.

Mr.

Swanson.

Yes.

Mayor Trent Alles.

Yes.

And those consent agenda items are now approved.

Thank you for your patience tonight.

You got to see government in action.

All right, we're gonna jump here.

Um just for a minute.

Let me get the okay.

We're going to move to uh ordinance of first reading OFR two.

This is an ordinance of first reading, amending the City of Fort L'Oreal Code of Ordinances, Chapter 5, Article 2, Licensed Establishments, and Article 3, Special Entertainment Overlay District to amend the hours prohibited for the sales, consumption and service of alcoholic beverages and to profit prohibit off premises alcohol consumption in special entertainment overlay districts.

Um we have a number of people sign up to speak.

Um, but I know Ellen Bogdanoff has uh has promised me that if I allow her to speak first, it might shorten the process.

But before we do that, should I have uh I need to have staff uh come up and explain exactly what our intention is here to do tonight.

Chris Cooper.

What are you trying to do, Chris?

What am I trying to do?

Uh so good evening, Mayor Commission, Chris Cooper, Deputy City Manager.

So uh the item you have before you tonight on OFR one is an amendment that was discussed at the last commission meeting and asked to be brought back tonight.

The amendment deals with the regulations that govern our special entertainment districts, those are areas within our city that are designated as kind of hubs for entertainment and nightlife.

Um with that comes some benefits that those areas get to avail themselves of.

It includes everything from the ability to have a little bit louder of music and and sound into the evening.

It allows establishments selling alcohol to be located in closer proximity to each other than in other areas of our city.

It provides for the availability of uh open can open container, open open carry of alcohol outside of establishments.

It allows for the open sale of alcohol, and it allows for the ability to sell alcohol until 4 a.m., whereas in other parts of the city, that of the ability goes until 2 a.m.

Monday through Thursday and until 3 a.m.

through the weekends.

So following the discussion at the last commission meeting, staff drafted an ordinance which is before you tonight to address three of those benefits of the special entertainment districts.

The ability to have alcohol outdoors from an establishment, the ability to sell alcohol outdoors except within licensed and permitted outdoor cafes and sidewalk cafes, as well as the ability to serve alcohol until 4 a.m.

So the ordinance contemplates rolling that back to be consistent with what's allowed in the rest of the city.

Okay, so um it's not just outdoor sales, but it's also outdoor consumption.

Consumption right.

So the ability to to drink an alcoholic beverage outdoors from an establishment.

Correct.

Within a district.

Okay.

All right.

Um so those are basically the three items we we want to address tonight.

That's correct.

And I understand there are a number of people who have come here really concerned about this, so I appreciate your interest and and I appreciate your patience in duck in uh hearing uh what we're going to discuss tonight.

Um I'm okay with uh allowing um uh Ellen Bogdanov, who represents one of the establishments, the Sway bar.

Before Ellen, uh Mayor, if we don't mind.

Chris, could you just outline for everybody where these districts are, just in case not everybody knows where they're yeah, I sure can.

So a special entertainment district is established in one of two ways.

It's an area that is contiguous and either is under common ownership or common control.

Common control is basically a lease agreement between multiple parties that puts them under one kind of governance structure.

So our entertainment districts include the Hammership Entertainment District, which is right next door on two street.

Now, how far does that extend?

So does that go from like PACA all the way to the railroad tracks?

Does it extend past the railroad tracks?

What exactly comprises the Hembershead district?

So that district includes some but not all of the establishments in the area.

Again, I go back to that comic control element.

So there is a lease document that was executed.

The last one we had is probably from the mid 2000 2010s, kind of 2015-2016 area.

Yeah.

Um, so there's about seven establishments in the area between I think it's Third Avenue and Second Avenue.

Southwest, second and southwest fourth Avenue.

Southwest, second and southwest fourth, thank you.

Um on both sides of the road.

So that's the Hemmershee district.

There is the uh the Brickle district, which includes the wharf and the Society Building.

There's some record Mercury building district, which is uh tin roof in that area just off Andrews Avenue.

There's the Tumi District, which are the bars and establishments just north of Elbow Room, so Rock Bar in that area is is a district, and then Beach Place, which is the entertainment venue that's just north of that along A.

Right.

Thank you.

Because I I don't I think people don't realize that they're actually separate areas.

I think people just think we got the beach and we've got Hemershead, and this is that's it.

So that's right.

There are actually five separate distinct entertainment districts.

That's correct.

Okay, thank you.

Yes, sir.

Appreciate that.

Chris, while you're up there, can you just do me a favor?

So we were given a revised OFR2, what actually was revised in that whole document from what we saw prior to this.

So in the header, there was just text that was doubled.

So it was just a minor scrivener's error.

That's all that was.

That's all that was.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

So um so those are the basically the three items the outdoor sales, outdoor consumption, and the 4 a.m.

service on Friday and Saturday night.

So uh Ellen, uh thank you for coming tonight.

We appreciate your uh participating.

Tell us a little bit about um what the position of your client is.

Thank you.

Um Ellen Bogdanov representing Sway, but I also had the opportunity to talk to another a bunch of the other um bars on on the street and said I would set the stage because we're all on the same page as to what we're sorry, which street now are you which of those.

I'm sorry, Hemership.

Are you in that?

Hemership.

Okay.

Um to set the stage for what we feel like is a reasonable compromise where we're gonna kind of step up.

I know that there's been some concern that the association really wasn't doing its job and monitoring itself.

The challenge they've had is there's been a lot of turnover in businesses in that area, and I think it's just a lot of people were just trying to survive and it fell apart.

Obviously, certain circumstances have brought this uh to to a head.

And we have heard your concerns loud and clear.

And obviously, everybody here, and it can you all just stand up so they understand who's here and we're hopefully so the these are all folks that have a concern about um one one issue, pretty pretty much and only one issue.

Um that's in the ordinance thing.

You can sit down and uh we're gonna try to limit the speaking because I understand we have a very long meeting and we're probably two hours behind already.

Um, but basically the concern is on the hours.

Um they are prepared.

Before you go there, so so the cons the issue regarding outdoor consumption, the uh is not is not they're all on the same page.

It does not help businesses to have other people bring in their alcohol from home and drinking it on the street, they're not patronizing.

They are all okay with shutting off.

Okay, the outdoor sales, unless they're specifically licensed as a kiosk or or fruit truck or whatever, they're okay with that too.

Correct.

Okay, so the only issue is that is of con that is being um debated tonight right now is the 4 a.m.

service on Friday and Saturday nights.

Is that correct?

Correct.

They we they want to maintain the hours of the current entertainment district.

And the issues where one of the challenges I think you all know is that we have the where people are kind of staging over at the garage.

Um, you know, they're kind of tailgating and they're using that street as an opportunity to walk around with their own solo kind of right.

So what we feel is um we know that enforcement, as uh Commissioner Glassman said, is he wants enforcement.

And the bars are prepared to get together.

We know there's at least eight that would pay for off-duty police, work with Captain Jenkins, um, in terms of deciding how many police each night, depending on how many bars are open and whether or not it's a holiday, whether or not it's something, you know, it's a weekend.

Um they would pay for that.

If a bar does not want to participate in the security, then they're okay with you telling them they have to close early.

Um, this is about giving a special benefit to the entertainment district, and they're prepared to step up to the plate and to handle their own security.

I know that work.

Well, that is something that the logistics we have to.

We we talked about kind of like a lot of ideas, and it's something that it would be their obligation to sit down, but to basically have what you call a chair or a captain of the district that would coordinate and get everything and collect the money and pay for the security, meaning that's just how it would work.

Like an HOA.

Basically.

Basically, and the if the ordinance specifically stated if you didn't participate in the security that you would have to close, you wouldn't be able to get the excess hours, then that would at least be an incentive for people to stay in the program.

We're we're asking for a review of six months, like keep the hours the same, do the other things.

Let's take a look at six months and see how it works out.

But there is a very strong belief among a lot of the owners that the open container is the key issue.

And the the young adults that are coming to that place and walking around with their own solo cups, they're not going to be there anymore because there's going to be no incentive.

And what the only thing we would ask of the city is to do a better job of policing the garage to make sure that they're not staging their tailgates there and kind of like pouring into the streets.

So obviously, the reason why this issue has come up is because of the violence that has taken place, the gun violence that has taken place there and also on the beach.

And we're very lucky that no one got killed in the Himershi event.

All right.

But it's it has been the commission's voice so far.

That we have to do something to rein in the sort of indulgent environment that some of these provisions of the of the entertainment district have been allowed to encourage and entertain.

And uh we we kind of feel that we started, started with these three provisions.

One was the uh open container with open sales outdoors, and and we also thought that maybe restricting the uh the um operations by one hour, that that might um discourage people from thinking like it's an all-night bacon now to to come out to Himershi or go out to the beach and think that you know they're gonna stage their frustrations, their disputes, their conflicts with other groups that they that they you know are in uh competition with.

Like in um at Beach Place, you have two 17-year-olds who were fighting with each other, and somehow they acquired guns, and somehow they shot one shot the other and killed them.

And why did they come to Fort Lauderdale Beach for that?

And why do those other folks come to Himershi to have their shootout?

You know, it's not like the okay corral here.

You know, we do not want um you know, Himershi to be seen as you know, Dodge City, where you go out in the street and you you know you have a shootout.

What encourages people to think that that kind of environment is an okay environment in which to come play out your your your you know the things that you want to uh um that you want you expect that you can be able to fulfill.

Is that does that area create an audience for you?

Does that area create an environment for you that you feel it's okay?

So we don't know the answer.

And maybe experimenting, as you say, with a few months and maybe changing some of the rules might be the answer, but we really need to do something.

We're not going to be like other cities that have neglected over the years and they become war zones.

We that's that's not going to happen in Fort Lauderdale.

So um, so tell us a little bit more about this program you have in mind.

So maybe this the commission can consider it.

Mayor, can I make a suggestion here?

Before we hear Chris wants to say something too.

Chris, go ahead.

Yeah, so if I may, we we came back.

We were we came to you last summer, I think in June of 2025.

We made a presentation specifically on the Hemership Entertainment District, but it really covered all the entertainment districts.

And as a result of that meeting, what the commission gave us direction to do was to go back and contemplate a program similar to what Ms.

Bognanoff had just described.

So we've been meeting with with stakeholders in the district, other stakeholders such as DDA and some of the other entities that are in the district to talk about what that governance structure of the Hemership district could be, because we we told you this last summer, and and we'll say it again is that the district itself is not compliant with the combat control or common ownership element.

So that needed to be corrected.

And so the commission gave us an opportunity at that time to work with the groups to correct that governance structure and come back with a program again, very similar to what was described, that had some level of oversight, governance, and responsibility, so that if issues did occur, hopefully they wouldn't, but that we could have somebody to hold accountable and also some level accountability for the individual establishments, potentially a permit or some other sort of way to say, you know, if you're a bad actor, you're not necessarily going to affect the whole district.

There could be some consequences for those actions.

So we've been working with our city attorney, our staff at DSD to bring back that new governance structure.

If there's anything, if the commission would like us to move forward with something like that, as Ms.

Bogdanov described, we can kind of compare what we've come up with with what she's presented tonight and see if there's any tweaks and things we can do to align those and then bring that back very soon to the commission to consider.

I I don't know if we could bring it back on second reading.

I'd have to check with the attorney to see if it's it's germane to the first reading ordinance or if that's something we need to bring back through on first reading for consideration, but we can have that conversation.

But Chris, everything that you just said, isn't that a requirement of the district having everything that we've enabled the entertainment districts to have?

That's something that has not been happening for years now.

You mentioned last summer, but also in January of 2024, we saw and we discussed the entire Himershi revitalization plan.

Yeah.

What's happened since January of 2024 that was not in effect then so in terms of the the governance structure for the districts?

I don't think anything has changed.

I think we've continued to have those conversations with how to adjust and tweak the system by which the districts governed and overseen.

We've also been working on things like the ULDR amendments for the uses, the design guidelines, the historic district um analysis and things like that.

So there's been many concurrent efforts as part of that chemistry vision plan that you received in 2024 that have been ongoing at the same time to bring back to you for adoption.

And we have a zoning workshop coming up next week, I think.

There's a lot of moving parts that we've got to somehow put together, right?

I mean, it's just this is happening, that's happening.

So many things are happening in terms of plans and discussions and talk, talk, talk, talk, talk.

And we've just got to just get off the dime.

Mayor, here's Dan.

Here's thanks, Chris.

Here's my suggestion is uh that I think for today's reading, I think we should adjust it to narrowly uh prohibit uh open container and outdoor sales of alcohol.

Going forward, I think in the next, let's say two months max that there's a discussion with representatives of the um the establishments here, Alan and so forth to talk about the components Commissioner Glassman's talked about, Chris talked about, and about ours, so that we get a little bit of feedback and and and guidance and and and then we make a decision about those components uh and two months from now, but I think we should go forward with the open container and other.

So hesitant to wait those extra months is as we're going into spring break.

So uh or one month.

I'm good, one month.

I think we uh we need to have the whatever rule, whatever supervisory role, whatever detail uh officer uh program you're talking about.

We need to have that in place by March 1st.

So um uh so you know, my feeling is that can we have second reading at the second meeting in February, as opposed to the next the first meeting in February?

You know what I'm saying?

Yeah, I I I do uh mayor, but because we're kind of conflating issues here, I wouldn't recommend it.

I I would like to kind of offer us a suggestion, if I may, um, pretty much along the lines of what Commissioner Sorston is saying.

If you wanted to act immediately now, as you said you wanted to last meeting to deal with at least the drinking, which seems to be the biggest problem, you could pass this tonight on first reading, deleting the reference to ours, leaving that issue of ours for the the total revamp of the SED ordinance, which we're already working on, which we would work with stakeholders to create criteria to potentially uh um increase security, allow some other uh opportunities to have the advanced hour.

It is the underlying um uh uh document, it's not the the agreements that they all have.

So it's it's it's a mess.

And they could agree to some things in the interim while we work to restructure that that ordinance okay.

Can can we assume that you're going to work on this aggressively?

We need to have this in place by the second meeting in February.

Something with your with your your group of operators um so that we have some assurance that if we don't have it, we're gonna have to pass some kind of ordinance one way or the other.

So if we have a voluntary uh voluntary uh agreement uh amongst your operators uh so that we feel comfortable that something's being done to to provide the necessary supervision in that area, then I think the commission would be more comfortable in in pushing back any further decision on on hours of operation.

I I think that um they would be willing to do it because they're gonna have something to prove.

I mean, you know, spring break is their Christmas, so it would be important for them.

It's not only important to them, it's good business sense too.

Right.

They don't want they don't want word getting out that it's a dangerous area, and then college kids aren't coming to Fort Lauderdale.

Correct.

Correct.

So we we could work with the group if they're all um amenable to that to just kind of get together and figure out how we're going to coordinate and is working with uh the police to make sure that they have the appropriate number of people on the property on on the street um during whatever time, whether it be weekends or spring break or even during the week, because not all the bars are open during the week.

There's uh a handful that are, but not all of them.

Ellen, here's a problem though.

So this is not a new issue.

This has been ongoing for quite a long time.

This has come up not just to this commission, but the prior commissions.

And I will say candidly, some of your operators down there are bad actors.

Okay, they are notorious for allowing an underage drinkers.

I can tell you multiple friends of mine whose kids go down there and drink on a regular basis.

So I I'm not impressed by the uh, you know, by the willingness of these folks to self-enforce.

They got a lousy track record.

So I'm hoping that improves.

I really am.

Because like I said, I know every weekend kids are down there drinking.

And there's a reason 17-year-olds are showing up down there.

It's because they're finding folks down there their own age to hang out with.

Um, and and that's gotta stop.

You know, the bar owners have got to police themselves better because if they don't, we'll do it for them.

Well, did it to we threatened Beach Place years ago to pull their ability to operate as an entertainment district and they clean their act up for a while.

And if it comes down to that, if they can't police themselves, we will be forced to do it for them.

They need to get their act together.

They have to stop the underage drinking that's taking place in their establishments.

I don't hold them accountable for what takes place out in the parking lots.

I I agree.

We've got to get rid of you know the open container because we don't know if people are walking around with a solo cup that they filled up in their car or if they got it walking out of a bar.

That's always been a problem.

As far as I'm concerned, and I I've said this, I I responded, I must have had a hundred emails today.

I probably responded to 50 of them, and I tell them the same thing.

I don't want to see Bourbon Street in Fort Lauderdale.

Okay.

I don't want us to be party central for all of Broward County.

That's not what I want to see.

This is not what we're trying to convey now to the world as the image of Fort Lauderdale.

We've moved past that.

We've grown up.

That is not what we're trying to be.

Entertainment districts are still important.

I'm not suggesting that we don't want to create an environment where people can come and socialize and be part of an active entertainment district.

But what I'm saying is we should not be seen by all of Broward County as you come to this area and you party till dawn.

And you you you show up at 12 o'clock at night already drunk or stoned, hang out in the parking lot, and you come strapped and ready for fun.

And we don't need that.

That's not the fault law.

As I said to a couple of people tonight, I don't know people that will go down there anymore.

I don't know people who will bring guests down to that area anymore because of the reputation it's developed.

So if we're trying to help these businesses be successful, they need to do a better job of policing themselves.

And so far, they've done a lousy job of that.

So I I hope this, you know, kind of kumbaya, we're gonna come together and be better.

Really works.

I I think there are two things that I can I can say.

Number one, I think it's going to be harder for the young people that are underage to come down because they're not going to be able to blend into the street crowd where people are drinking on the street.

Um, the second thing is is the increased police presence will discourage young people trying to get away with you know going in and drinking.

I I do know that I've talked to a number of the bar owners, uh, sadly, um, you know, and I know there are a lot of people who, you know, back in the day when you didn't have pictures on your ID could walk in.

The IDs I'm eating myself, but you know, whatever.

But I guess I I heard through rumor and speculation, but but bottom line is um the you know, everything's gotten so sophisticated, and I know they all have scanners, and I've talked to them about that, and some of these fake IDs go through the scanners.

They do the best they can.

This is not a him or she problem.

This is a Fort Lauderdale problem, this is a state problem.

It's happening all over the country.

I mean, kids get away with it because of the sophistication of now the false side.

But I think what the vice mayor is saying is we all have to be part of this be mindful of what's going on.

Absolutely.

We had an email two weeks ago from a father who emailed all of us, I believe, and said his 15-year-old daughter was served inside a bar.

Okay.

So if these bar owners are going to be are not going to lay down the law amongst their own employees, then you know, why should we be the ones having to always carry, you know, carry the burden of trying to maintain the uh the safety of this area.

So my feeling is that I I personally am prepared to uh let us pass this ordinance, uh taking out the 4 a.m.

uh service uh requirement.

And but but but relying on you, okay.

Okay, okay, relying on that you're gonna bring together the the group of operators who are going to participate in this voluntary program to to contribute to some kind of fund that's going to hire more detail officers and uh and maintain the safety and the excuse me, sir.

What are you doing?

Are you waving to me?

I can't see you.

Oh, hi Richard.

I didn't see you.

What's the matter?

Well, he said you're not making a well, I haven't gotten to that yet.

So relax.

Um, so uh just so that we know as a commission that this is not the end of the conversation.

This is the beginning of an of an effort to uh bring this the bring the standard of him or she up so that people feel safe and that this this kind of activity doesn't again take place in that area.

Yeah, we appreciate it.

It's a wake-up call, it's an opportunity, and I think that they can do it, and um, it's just important for them to be able to continue to run their businesses with the hours that they do, but they're prepared to step up to the plate and do everything they can to address the issues on him or she.

And Alan, I I would also ask that you really share the documents that we have in place, the agreements that are in place for the entertainment district, because what I hear from the residents in other parts of that district, whether it's history Fort Lauderdale, whether it's the Saleboat Bend neighbors, whoever I hear from in that area, it's not even just about some of the issues we've talked about, although those are so serious, but I'm also hearing about the aesthetics of the area, that whole corridor, the street.

There used to be a time when all of the owners were very, very responsible in terms of cleaning, terms of uh you know, pressure washing, in terms of making sure that when that night was over, actually it's the morning was over, um, that that street was returned to the way that it should be for people to be able to take a walk or whatever it was.

All of that's not happening anymore.

So, you know, everyone that has expressed their opinion here tonight on the dais is correct, but this is not the first time we've had this conversation.

Um I I think that we've been really patient as a commission, um, because time and again we're being told we're going to do better, but then that doesn't happen.

Um, and I really think that probably our patience is right at the end of the line now.

Um and we're gonna really have to see results, and we're gonna really have to see a change uh for us not to do something.

Um again, flip side, I don't want to see the good actors punished for the for the behavior of the bad actors.

I don't want to see even we have five entertainment districts.

We never hear a peep from the majority of them.

I don't want to see you know, city mayor, I'm sorry, mayor, city attorney, city manager.

I don't even want to see other entertainment districts have to abide by what we've decided is a problem in just one or two entertainment districts.

So I think we have to be cognizant of those that are behaving and following what it is in their documents in terms of why we're even extending these entertainment districts.

It's not our it's not by right that you have an entertainment district, it's because you are adhering to an agreement with the city in terms of what you must do to have that ability to act as an entertainment district, and with that comes all of the extra advantages in terms of helping your business, and I'm all for that.

I want to make sure that we are helping the businesses, but we need help uh from the businesses.

There's no reason why uh so many institutions are willingly serving to 15-year-olds, 16-year-olds, and 17-year-olds.

And we know that they are, and we know that that's a big part of their business.

So that is a challenge for us right now as a commission.

Um, but we just have to do better because I don't think we have a choice otherwise not to do better.

So I'm I'm really hoping that you're able to, you know, marshal all of those folks and uh really study the agreement that's in place with entertainment district, and you will realize how no one's living up to that agreement.

No one is living up to that agreement.

Thank you.

No one's leading up to that agreement.

Okay, thank you, Mayor.

Oh, all right, Alan.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um Mayor, okay, go ahead.

So just so there's a few people there's I okay.

If we're gonna have a debate, if we're gonna have a discussion, a public discussion about this, then I want to talk about ours tonight.

If we want to talk about hours tonight, we're not at the the subject.

Okay.

So then I want to make a decision tonight about ours.

We could.

Okay.

If we're just wanting to move forward with no open container, and by the way, no open container and no alcohol sales outside for me is all special entertainment districts.

Yeah, I'm not talking about just hammer sheet.

Okay.

So if we're gonna say no open containers anywhere in the city, regardless, whether you're entertainment district or not, you're not allowed to have open containers or you're not allowed to have outdoor sales.

Okay.

Yeah.

Great.

So if we're gonna do that, it was it seemed like Alan, you were saying if we're gonna agree to no open container, no alcohol sales outside, that folks are comfortable with us moving forward without changing the hours, changing the hours and having a robust conversation tonight.

If you want to have a robust conversation tonight, then I want to talk about hours and I want to make a decision tonight about ours.

So I just want to put that out there, Mike.

We're not there yet.

So get there.

But I agree with what the commissioner's saying.

That's it's a very good point.

Either we are gonna continue this conversation and all in or we're gonna just do what we said in terms of what we've all agreed on and then move forward on the next reading.

Okay, that is a big decision.

I totally get it.

Okay, let us move forward.

Thank you.

Uh Richard Mercedes, you want to come up to speak.

Uh I have a whole bunch of other people who sign up to speak tonight.

So I'll call your name if you feel uh you want to you want to wait until you want to wait until uh the the reading comes up a second time.

You're welcome to do that, or you're welcome to speak tonight.

Yes, so we're gonna continue then, and we're gonna go as far as we might want to.

We're having a public conversation, public uh comment, and then after that, the the commission has an opportunity to discuss the issue.

Isn't that the way we always do it?

I just thought that we agreed to bifurcate this though, and not go all in on this discussion.

That because I just decided I just thought that we made that decision, but maybe I'm in quite let's make let's make sure it's clear what's been said, okay.

What's been said is, and according to uh Ellen Bogdanov, that the people she represents uh are fine with restricting outdoor sales and outdoor consumption, right?

Okay, so we're we're good on that.

Yes, okay.

The question now comes up the the hours of operation, okay?

Right, and it's right now in the special entertainment district.

Uh these operators are able to operate on Friday and Saturday night until 4 a.m.

Okay.

That issue we have not yet agreed on.

Right.

Okay.

So now we have public comment and have the public weigh in on it, and then we can make a decision.

Okay.

Why is that so complicated?

But it's not complicated, it's not what was expressed by Commissioner Sarnson.

It this is what you're saying now is the opposite of what Commissioner Sarenson proposed.

So I just want to know what we're doing.

That's all.

And I just told you.

Okay.

So we're not doing stakeholder meetings and so forth to coming back February.

Don't you want to hear for the public?

Well, ideally, I do, Mayor, but if we want to do that, I want to make a decision tonight.

You can make a decision tonight.

Okay.

Or you can make it, you can make a decision not to make a decision.

Okay, great.

Okay, we'll make a decision tonight.

Okay, I'm all in.

Mr.

Mercedes.

Thank you for allowing us to speak.

And um, this is pretty important because we've been here before about this.

And I understand that a couple of months ago there was a shooting there where a couple of people were shot.

Five people were shot.

And one night, five people were shot.

I thought it was five over the whole year.

It was one night.

Five people were shot in one night, and another person was killed in on the beach.

At Beach Place.

Okay.

Well, I did not know that.

But well, uh it's good to hear that you're all in favor of prohibiting the outside sales and and and outdoor consumption.

Whatever you want.

It's the hour thing.

You know, at four or five o'clock in the morning, they're still going at it.

So I heard the the spokesperson say something about hiring security to come in and help protect.

They did that to us when we had the the um musicians exchange years ago.

We wanted to be open late.

But the commission came back and said, you gotta have fault law to deal PD there, not a security guard.

And it wasn't our decision, it was a it was in order for our occupation license to be um issued, we had to have fault law to deal PD there, making sure that things weren't happening because nothing happened, nothing good's happening after one, two o'clock in the morning.

So we commend this commission for doing this, but not having the hour thing.

I don't know if that's actually going to help out.

And we have Emily's Garden.

We close early.

So you're saying you you think that we should restrict the the hours of operation?

I think that look, I think that what we see there every night, it's just it's a uh Fridays and Saturday night.

It's it's it's it's a madhouse.

Okay, you know, young kids drinking, and no one is policing it.

Okay, are you in favor of favor or against restricting the hours of operation?

We're in favor of what you wrote here.

That's what we're in favor of.

Okay, all right.

And thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um Skylar Smith.

See here.

No.

John Farino.

Are you are you John?

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Did you sign up to speak?

And what is your name?

Oh, you're the next person.

Okay.

Okay.

Go on up.

Good evening, Commissioners.

And and thank you for the two and a half minutes of time you're gonna give me uh two minutes.

I'll try to keep it really short.

My name is Steve Burke.

I'm here today as both a property owner and a business owner with uh stake in the survival of this district.

Which owner, which business you have?

Uh I own 200 Southwest 2nd Street, which includes Munchie's Pizza Club and Nowhere Lounge.

And I want to be clear about the the economic reality of him or she.

The street you remember from 10 years ago, it's gone.

The market has spoken.

Tarpin Benz not coming back.

Taco Craft and Rock Burger are long gone.

And the era of 200 lunch covers on a on a weekday died almost a decade ago.

Uh during the day, him or she is a ghost town.

And I had the former Tarp and Ben space on the market for two years.

I didn't get one phone call in 18 months, not a single call.

And I didn't open up because I wanted to be an operator.

I I opened up because nobody else called.

Him or she has evolved into an entertainment district where people come to dance to drink and experience the nightlife that makes Fort Lauderdale a world class destination.

And some of the businesses on our street are just profitable enough to keep going.

To understand the gravity of your decision, please understand the numbers.

First, my establishment generates 30% of its annual revenue in three weeks in March.

So and I estimate other businesses are in the exact same boat.

Fort Lauderdale has tried restricting March tourism before, and it was a historic disaster that took decades to recover from.

If we change the hours in March, you are signaling to millions of dollars of tourism, hotel bookings, restaurant reservations to take their business elsewhere.

Further, we haven't had a shooting in March in the past 20 years.

So please don't sabotage the most critical month of the year.

I have to I want to tell you that we got an email from a father whose daughter went into your place and she was 15 years old and she was served.

What are you doing to I I want to first address like the uh the idea that there's a lot of underage drinking inside the establishments is patently false?

Munchies has been raided 17 times by the alcohol commission, 17 times, and not a single underage person was caught drinking inside Munchies.

Now I'm not saying it's 100% foolproof.

It's not because the father admitted to us that his daughter was served at your place of business.

And daughters sometimes lie and say that they were served because they can bring a flask in, they can bring a flask with their friends, but Munchies does not, and I urge you just come on any Friday or Saturday night to Munchies and look at our operation.

All right, I will.

Our operation, right?

If you are under 21, you get a you do not get a wristband to drink our bartender's car.

You absolutely absolutely so you know, 17 times in the last three years we've been rated, and and and I'm not saying it's 100% foolproof.

People always click through the.

I get the email.

We have parents that live in in Indiana and New Jersey and are wondering whether they should allow their children to come to Fort Lauderdale because of this reputation.

I get what are you doing to help prevent this problem from if someone slips through the car?

I get the emails from parents, okay?

I I get them too.

And I say, please send me a picture and I'll look and if they have a fake ID, I will send it to our security.

We pay over 200,000 a year on train security to police this situation.

And I'm not saying it's 100% foolproof.

This is a problem in Fort Lauderdale in South Beach in New York.

Kids get really good fake IDs that can fool you, that can fool me, that can fool all the cops in this room.

And they sometimes they slip through the cracks.

But come and look on a Friday or Saturday night, come to our establishment and watch how we do it.

We do it right.

Tell you something.

A 15-year-old does not look like a 21-year-old.

I I agree with you.

Okay.

I agree with you.

Okay.

So uh let me get back to my speech.

Sorry, I divert.

Um beyond March, the impact of your decision will be staggering.

We generate 15% of our revenue between 3 a.m.

and 4 a.m.

Between the lost hour during the year and the lost hours during the month of March, we're looking at a 30 to 40% total drop in annual revenue.

And and the businesses on the street can't survive that.

That this ordinance is one hour is gonna take that one hour.

That one hour is critical to us.

It's four like it's 40% of our revenue on the year between the month of March and the on the Fridays and Saturday nights.

So a solution.

Police the street, not the clock.

Miami Beach didn't shut down Ocean Drive due to the multiple shootings they've had over the years.

They understood that more police and enforcement was a solution, not rolling back the hours.

They passed measures to manage the behavior, not roll back the hours and kill the culture.

So I'm standing here respectfully, asking you for a six-month reprieve with two specific solutions that absolutely cost the city zero.

Number one, eliminate open carry.

We need to stop the people who can bring a cheap bottle of booze from home, tailgate and city garages, and then pour it into a plastic cup and walk up and down the street causing mischief.

These people don't patronize our establishments, and the behavior needs to stop.

And the second solution, private funding for extra police detail.

All of us on him or she are prepared to independently pay for increased police detail on the street, which combined with eliminating open carry, will give the police the teeth that they need to enforce the law and keep the streets safe.

Why haven't you hired detail now already?

Why haven't you guys come together?

Well, I pay just to put it in perspective, I pay 200,000 a year for security.

And right now, the police can't the police are there, but they can't do anything because if you're walking around with a cup, they they're not going to go and just stop and frisk and ask every single person for their ID.

There's too many people.

But if people, if it's illegal, you're proposing a private detail, right?

Everyone come together, hire private detail, right?

Why haven't you done that month?

We aren't having any problems inside.

So that's a job including, but it wasn't inside an establishment.

Okay.

Okay, so if it's only if it's inside, it's your responsibility.

We out there weird we are designed to self-regulate any problems inside.

And if we have a problem inside, we escort them out to the police.

Okay.

And so the police can't really do their job if everybody can walk around with a drink.

Okay.

We're a community.

I just encourage you to think broader than just inside your walls.

We all work together.

So which is I ask you to think broader.

I agree.

And the biggest problem, according to everybody sitting here, is the tailgate culture.

People being able to bring their own drinks and tailgate in the garages.

And all of the underage drinking that we're talking about happens in these garages, not in the establishments.

And I urge you to just come.

If you haven't been on a Friday or Saturday night, just come and see how we operate.

All right.

Can you conclude your remarks?

Yeah, I respectfully ask you to just give us 180 days to prove to you that these measures can work.

And you know, refrain from passing an ordinance that would be could cause permanent damage to our culture, our tourism, our history, and our property values, uh, and the violence, not the businesses.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Actually, if you could hang on, because you and I exchanged a couple of emails earlier today.

So that my condolences.

My deep consultant condolences.

So we had a good back and forth earlier today.

So I thank you for that.

It was nice and respectful, and I I appreciate that.

It's sadly rare that we have a respectful dialogue back and forth with with folks.

It's it's not always very nice.

So I appreciate that.

Um one of the concerns I expressed to you, and I I think I kind of brought it up with with Ellen too, is one of the things that concerns me uh with with the 4 a.m.

And I want you to kind of address this with me to give me some some comfort with it, is that it creates a perception that we are party central, right?

And years ago, uh a gentleman told me other people's perceptions become your reality.

And that's been proven true to me over and over and over again throughout my life.

So, you know, folks know you want to go party, go down Ocean Drive and South Beach.

And guess what?

They have a lot of problems on Ocean Drive and South Beach, shootings included, right?

There are areas that become known as a place to go and party long after they cease to be a place to go and party.

Even Fort Lauderdale, long after we implemented zero tolerance, our spring break tradition continued on, despite the fact that we did our level best to try and kill it.

People still kept coming here.

So the behavior that we're trying to reduce will continue on long after we take those steps to stop the drinking in the street.

There's not going to be some magic flip a switch and we stop the drinking in the street and people stop coming here.

People still have this perception that Fort Lauderdale is where you come to party all night long.

So if we if we are not going to reduce the hours, if we keep the 4 a.m.

all night long rave going, help me understand or help me figure out how we're going to stop people from coming down and hanging out and standing around in the street.

Sure.

So first to address you like it is an entertainment district.

The idea is we want people to come and hang out, but we don't want them.

We don't want that.

Respectfully, we're not Tulsa, Oklahoma.

We're not Lincoln, Nebraska.

Fort Lauderdale has a reputation of being a world-class entertainment destination.

People come here because they want to have a good time.

So we're putting it in one district is in my opinion, a lot better than letting it spill into Las Solas and to other places that serve drinks.

But we just have to police that district.

And right now, the police detail that currently exists on the street, they aren't able to police it because they don't have the ability to tell people to put away their drinks.

If all the people are inside the establishments, the establishments know how to regulate inside.

Listen, we have problems.

We we our bouncers are there to handle it.

I'm not a bouncer.

And I used to be a guy that every single night I went to bed at 4 a.m.

Now I'm in bed by 11.

That that lifestyle doesn't apply to me anymore.

But who am I to judge for people who are night owls that like to listen to some electronic music at three in the morning?

They wake up at 11 or 12 o'clock and that's their lifestyle.

Just like I mentioned to you in an email, some people wake up at six in the morning and they go for a run down the river walk.

I don't like to run, but I don't judge people who do.

And so there are different tastes in different cultures.

And Fort Lauderdale is a diverse city.

We need to have these options.

And the entertainment district, if it's policed correctly, should be an option for people who, unlike probably most of us, don't go to bed at four in the morning.

I'm an I'm an early bird myself.

But you know, as a business owner, as a property owner, um, I I'm very concerned that passing this ordinance would cause a lot of plywood, because a lot of the the businesses to not be able to survive.

And that has the exact opposite of effect of what you're trying to do, which is clean up the street.

Let us clean up the street.

And if we can police the garages and the open container, I think that solves 95% of the problems.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you, sir.

May I I need to have Chris Kuppel come up for a second and please also stay?

Because I I need to also know how we're going to be dealing with who is officially recognized in this district and who's not officially recognized in this district.

So, Chris, how are we going to address businesses that are not a part of the last common control lease that we had as the entertainment district in Himishate?

For instance, I don't think Munchies is a part of that district.

Correct.

How are we dealing with that issue?

Sway, I think Alan Ellen's client.

I don't think they're officially part of the entertainment district.

So why are these businesses afforded the benefits of the entertainment district if they're not part of the entertainment district?

Help me help me understand how we're dealing with that.

Right.

So they shouldn't be.

As I mentioned last summer when we presented to the commission, we talked about the establishments that were part of that last common control lease and the ones that weren't.

And at that time, instead of taking a path of decertification, which was an opportunity for the commission at the time if they chose to, if you chose to do it, um, in lieu of that, you asked us to go back and create a mechanism by which it would be more based on a geographic area where there were criteria for being in the district first outside the district, and also consequences for being a bad actor in the district.

So that was the path we set out on back in June to take what's there now and try to formalize it and make it more legitimate.

Well, that's something we have to definitely deal with because we're talking about a district that has obviously identifiable businesses, but then there are all these other identifiable businesses that are not part of the district.

So how are they able to reap the benefits of that entertainment district unless we do some changes or incorporate more businesses into the district?

Yeah, the only way to make it to where they should, could have those benefits is to complete what we started back in June.

Well, I I don't see how we can't.

Well, at this point, there are certain businesses that that think that they can stay open till four, but can't because they don't, they're not part of the district.

Correct.

There's probably about 20 establishments total within that Hemershead area.

Uh about six were part of that last comment control lease.

The others, which many of them operate as though they are in the district, especially in terms of the hours of operation.

So what are we doing?

Where's code compliance?

And have how have we permitted that?

Wait, wait, wait.

Let me just answer that question first.

Yeah, how how is I had a few questions there, but that's okay.

But how how is code?

Well, this is the anyway.

How does code enforcement, what's their role in ensuring that these these uh establishments that are not part of the entertainment district are allowed to continue to operate as if they are so they they could be subject to a code violation.

I mean, operating in the way that they are would be outside of what the code provides.

So that would be something that an issue.

We have not stopped up on that.

Right.

I can provide mayor just yes.

Just to add, I think the intent was to bring everyone into compliance, and that was part of the work that we were doing in uh overhauling the ordinance and we have been working on that since we were given the direction from the commission last summer.

And so it was the understanding that these businesses that aren't officially part of the district, although located within the boundaries of the district, that they were going to be working toward coming into compliance with the rules of the district and that we would incorporate them officially at some point.

Um, but you are correct, there are several businesses operating under the privileges of a special entertainment district, but they are not officially a part of the district because they were not part of uh that common control.

Okay, well, common ownership.

Shame on us.

Okay.

And now what do we do?

Well, I I think we're at a critical moment, a pivotal moment.

So if the commission would like to see us allow these businesses to have that time to get it together so that they can be officially part of the district.

I've heard that stated tonight.

But if the commission is not interested in going that route and having these businesses become part of the district, uh, I would want to enforce and ensure that they are not participating in those privileges.

But again, we're having a policy discussion, and so I don't want to take any action until I know where the commission wants to go with this.

Okay.

Mayor, um, we're having a lot of conversation that is um exclusive to what seems to be Hemershe.

But this ordinance, if I'm not um incorrect, it is it will affect all five of the districts, correct?

It'll it'll affect all the all the whole city.

Okay.

Yeah.

So wait a minute.

Go ahead.

Let me finish my question.

Because we have um when we're talking about especially entertainment districts, we have districts that are in compliance, and they're not having um some of the um situations and issues that we're seeing in Hemership.

Good actors versus bad actors.

Are we going to um in a sense discipline the whole um opportunity, all the districts?

Um, you know, I you know how I go, I like to go to the lowest denominator.

I'm thinking as a a parent, okay.

I have five children in my home.

One child is not in, is not following the rules.

I do not punish all five children.

I address the one that is in that is not in compliance with the house rules.

So I understand what's being said, but I think we also need to give consideration to those districts that are being good actors that are not having these particular um situations.

Well, I think I think what's being brought up now is that we have certain areas, geographical areas, the one in Hemershead and the one on the beach.

Those are the only two entertainment districts in the city, correct?

There's five.

Five.

What are the other three?

So there's the uh area that's known as Brickle, which includes the wharf and society Los Oulas.

That's separate from Hemershead.

It's separate from Hemership.

Yeah, there's the Mercrury building, which includes tin roof.

It's modern timber, correct?

Is there and then there's Beach Place, which you know, and then there's Tumi, which is the area of rock bar that's just north of the elbow room.

Okay.

There are two two on the beach.

Right.

So they're basically all within very they're they're can they're contiguous to one another.

Yes.

Okay.

So uh so and now we're learning that not every operator or every bar qualifies to be considered um within the entertainment district because the entertainment district is not just geographical, but it's also you have to have a special relationship with the city, a contractual relationship, correct?

So you have to either be under common ownership or common control.

Again, Hemership operated more under the common control model through a lease document.

And I failed to mention earlier, so while the establishments that are part of a special entertainment district do get the benefits that are afforded to them under that section of our code, it also does require some things of the participants in the special entertainment district, which includes the filing and updating of a security plan, which does outline detail officers, street details, details for the establishments and other security measures that are taken for those establishments that are in the entertainment district.

It also includes maintenance responsibility.

So if you're in a district, if you're a participating establishment, you're required to you know power wash your sidewalks, you're required to maintain the alley, you're required to maintain the business in a certain way.

So it's it's a little bit of give and a little bit of give back when it comes to what those documents are do.

So at this point in time, there are certain number of operators that do that do qualify that have their their contractual relationship with the city, but then there are those even within that geographical boundary that are operating as if they have those privileges, even though they aren't, they don't.

So if we so right now the status quo is that there's just a handful of businesses that qualify, and all the others do not.

So almost to the point where if we just do code enforcement, we may have solved part of the problem.

So to be consistent with what we shared with you over the summer, that common control element, we believe for the Hemership district has gone away.

The person entity we haven't approved that yet.

Well, no, no, no.

So they had a common control element through release.

That entity that was the overseer of the common control element has since gone away.

So there's no longer that that controlling entity that could even form the district.

And that's what we shared back in June.

Right.

It's consistent as far as we know today.

Right.

So go ahead, Ben.

No, you go.

So to so we haven't, we have not, we have not um we have not finalized any revision of the entertainment district requirements.

We have not gone that far.

But operators are operating still as if they're we as if they're complying based on the previous uh requirements that you just described, the common control thing.

Right.

Previous that integrated, right?

That went out, but they're still operating as if they are right, right?

But they technically don't have that authority.

All right.

Uh it's very it's good to know that.

Uh I appreciate your telling me that your bars are not part of the district.

Not control.

Put the put the um put the mic on.

I'm sorry, so to provide some color on common control.

The person passed away, and then when COVID happened, a lot of new entities came in, didn't exactly know.

Uh, and there needs to be an agreement with the city.

And so we're willing to be under common control, and we've we've been trying to formulate that with our discussions with the city attorney and the city of COVID.

Yes.

Oh no, recently in the past year when we've been talking about solutions, when did the person away?

Oh, they uh 10 years ago.

Yeah.

And then yes, and then my cousin Greg was trying to be Greg Berkowitz uh was trying to be in charge of the district in common control, but still needed the agreement with the city, and there there wasn't a come to there wasn't.

So basically you're operating outside the scope of your in good faith.

We've been trying to get the common control agreement with the city, and it just we've there's been a disconnect.

Okay, right.

Technically, technically, yes, yes, okay, your honor.

Okay.

So, Mayor, that's what I want a little clarity on city attorney.

I'm gonna ask you and Chris, I'll ask you.

So there you can take a seat.

Thank you.

Okay, so if I'm understanding this right, does common control still exist in Hemershead for a number of businesses or no?

Yes or no?

Effectively, no.

Common control does not exist anymore.

Effectively not, which is what we're trying to correct by revising the ordinance entirely.

Okay, so if common control does not exist for any business in the Hemershead special entertainment district, then businesses abide by the standard city hours of operating alcohol sales.

Is that correct?

Yes, the the agreements are not, and and the ordinance does not give any um other authority other than uh to decertify in terms of enforcement.

So it's not clear, and this is what I'm trying to express is by revising the SED ordinance entirely, we can recreate all of these standards.

We could we could give by either license or or petition each individual entity the opportunity to act to have that extra hour instead of messing with this common control, which is unworkable, we have found, leaving us in a situation where we really don't know where it stands.

Sure.

And as of right now, on the books, businesses in Hemmersheet need to abide by standard city hours.

Is that correct or not?

Correct.

That that is correct.

I mean, there are there are listed specific entities within the common control, some of which exist and some do not.

Um Chris, I think you could probably speak to that, and those would have the the benefit of the actual agreement, but I thought you said common control doesn't exist.

I said effectively it doesn't because it is just it, it's it is not um many of the businesses don't don't exist any longer, and so it's really not even an enforceable um concept.

We don't have the person who manages it, it's not working the extended hours are not enforced correct.

So well, they are they're enforceable as to those who who entered into the agreement when the common control was structured.

So what the code of ordinances says in the special entertainment district section is that if there's a belief that a special entertainment district has not been compliant for at least 180 days or more, that the city commission can direct staff to draft an ordinance and then by motion approve the decertification of a special entertainment district.

So to me, if we were to look at that last common control document, if we didn't believe they were compliant or that it was still compliant with the code, that would be the process by which that would be decertified until then.

I think we operate under the assumption that that last document that lists those businesses would be in effect until the commission took that action to actually decertify that district.

Okay.

Now the businesses that weren't part of that, that's a different story.

But I think if you were to ask, what about the the ones that were part of that?

That would be the process by which, and I'll see attorney if if she agrees, but I think that would be the process by which you would you would take action if that was your decision.

Okay.

So in other words, your reading is I think it's six businesses are in the district and are allowed the benefit of longer hours due to some degree of common control still in existence or legacy common control still in existence.

So I don't we don't believe the common control is still in existence, but until the commission moves to decertify that district, we are going by the last comic control document that we have to identify those businesses that allow those six businesses to operate okay in the longer hours.

Okay.

I think it it may be eight, so I think it may be more than six.

Okay.

So eight.

So in other words, outside those eight businesses in Hemershead, everyone else in Hemersheuld be operating at standard city hours for the sale of alcohol and so forth.

Yes.

Okay.

So I think that matters in this matter in this discussion.

And I think until we revise revisit common control and possibly broaden it to others, we have to stand by the current allowances, the status quo.

For well, the current allowances.

Well, I think status quo has been oh, not the excuse me, not the status quo, but that's been overly permissive.

Right, right.

The status quo, uh not the status quo, but to but to enforce the law as it now currently exists.

Right.

Uh, we we have to um because there that is the law on the books.

So who has city manager?

Do you have a definitive list of those that are in the district and are falling under the umbrella of controls that Chris has that person?

Yes, I have the list, Chris.

I'll have the list.

Chris, if you could come to the case.

I'd like to I'd like to hear that, City Manager if we can.

So we understand who as of right now is able to operate.

Because if you if you're not able to operate, that means you are not committed to performing the tasks that the that the law requires you to perform, like cleaning your place up in the morning and stuff like that.

I just think that um oh, here she comes.

Yeah, so the last no, go ahead.

Go ahead.

So the last seven that we had in a comic control document are the following uh revolution live, club euro, e-bar, capones, original fat cats, dicey rileys, and squiggies.

And all the others, all the others are not in have they were not part of the okay.

One more time, read those again just so I can kind of track them here.

Revolution live, Club Euro, E Bar, Capones, original Fat Cats, Dicey Rileys, and Squiggies.

That's just in the Hemershead that's entertaining the Hemership.

That's correct.

And the other entertainment districts, everyone is compli in compliant?

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

So Mayor, just as we continue this discussion and so forth.

I mean, I think the we have a couple, you know, decisions, which is the ones that are in the district and allowed the longer hours.

Do we allow those longer hours for those seven?

Chris is always said seven, I think.

If he's I think he said, um, to continue to operate in those longer hours.

Uh um, so I think that's one of the decisions.

And then the future decision is do we is there a broader conversation for allowing others to be part of the district?

Um, and I think that that opportunity should be made available to them.

Yeah, I agree.

Um, so that's that's a sub that's a second conversation.

Exactly.

Right.

Yep.

Okay, good.

All right.

So all right, so there are more people that signed up to speak.

Did you want to say anything else, Chris?

Okay.

More people sign up to speak.

Samantha Coslow from uh Munchies and Capone's, followed by Larry Maley and uh Danny uh Kalika.

Oh, that was not her.

Okay.

Samantha, that was not you.

Okay.

Uh is Larry here.

Larry.

Good evening.

Hi.

Could you just push the button at the bottom?

Yeah, great.

Perfect.

15.

You're good.

Good evening, Larry Mele from Emily's garden.

So we call it entertainment district, but what kind of entertainment do you guys do?

I don't remember.

I'm trying my best, you know, to have uh basically a family-oriented business.

The comment that I have from a lot of my customers, and my business is basically lunch, then I'm dead.

And I'm dead because of you.

Most of the people won't walk from where the high-rise are to my restaurant.

And same thing is for Pizza Craft.

Uh Jacelle is a manager.

Because of how dangerous they think it is to walk through the bar.

Well, you can shake your head.

I honestly believe you're in the business of overselling to people.

It is illegal to get people drunk.

And you guys do.

I mean, I'm sorry to say, I had it enough.

You guys have been talking about, you know, oh, put this and that and that.

It's if you fail with a business, it's because your business model is not sustainable.

Not because the city tells you what to do.

I mean, I'm sorry, but the streets is horrible.

It's land of no one.

There is no code enforcement.

That's true.

You're right.

You know, they are allowed to have a dumpster, like three yard dumpster in the street.

If I do that, I'm in travel, and my run right next to it.

Why is entertainment district allowed to do that in the street?

Why are they allowed to have a loud music and sometimes you have to shut off a music because a club next door?

Actually, is it parking between me and the club?

Put it so high that I cannot have a business, and we're talking about 9, 10 p.m.

and Sunday at lunch.

I don't think it's okay.

I'm sorry.

You know, you can have all your your employees come over and uh protest, but you gotta do a better business too.

You can't just ask the city to control you.

It's the public what's the name of your business?

Emily's garden.

Okay.

All right.

Well, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Danny.

Danny Kallock, Kalika.

Is that you, Danny standing up?

Followed by uh Jamie Norris Kingharn.

Followed by uh Derek uh Kurzrar.

There's this famous button.

Are you Danny?

Are you Danny?

Yes.

Nice to meet you guys.

Please go ahead.

Yes.

So I've heard a lot of discussion, and I want you guys to know that us personally, we've had our issues, and it does deter our customers from coming to our club for the streets to be the way they are.

But we have not had any power to do anything about it.

And I know somebody discussed before, but we do pay detail every week.

So I mean, I don't know if it's irrelevant because I just heard you guys talk about the entertainment uh entertainment district, and we're not a part of it.

So right now trying to fight for my 4 a.m.

I need to figure out how to get in the entertainment district, but I can promise you, as one of the newer venues there, we are very strict.

And when it comes to IDing, you won't find anybody underage drinking in our venue.

A lot of our uh a lot of our business is 21 plus, depending on the type of event.

Um, but the problem that we have is that the detail officers cannot enforce anything on the streets.

They even when we hire, they stand there.

I've asked them to remove people from our parking lot, and they say they can't.

So it's gonna be something that the city and us need to work on to enforce it.

So and like somebody else said, we need to give them the teeth to be able to move these people out of our parking lots, out of our streets, so that we could bring a better class of people into our neighborhood.

Okay, we get it.

So all right, thank you.

I think that's about it.

All right, thank you.

Hey, um, uh city attorney, if if an underage person is drinking in a street, um, is that considered illegal?

Well, well, yes.

Yeah.

So if a person has got us keep hearing the solo cup, uh, is drinking a beer in the middle of Himershee Street and they're 15 years old.

Um, can a police officer cite them?

Yeah, if the police officer was aware of that.

Right.

Okay.

So to say that we don't have the we don't have the teeth in our laws, I don't think is correct.

This is just a matter of enforcement.

So all right, thank you.

Jamie.

There you go.

Okay.

Thank you for allowing me to speak, mayor in the city of Thor Lauderdale.

My name is Jamie Norris Kinghorn, and I've been a resident of South Florida for over 40 years, and I care deeply about the future of Fort Lauderdale.

Professionally, I am not only the owner of nightclub shop and e-commerce that services nightclubs, not only in South Florida, but throughout the world internationally.

But I'm also a senior leader at a major healthcare organization, one of the top five fortune companies.

So I operate a business that um my work brings partners, talents, and clients from outside the United States into South Florida, people who invest here, spend here and evaluate whether this city is one they want to return to and do business in.

They shape how Fort Lauderdale is perceived, not just locally, but globally.

So I want to be very clear.

I support public safety.

I support accountability, and I support holding bad actors responsible.

But what I do not support is a blanket curfew on night life and liquor sales, because it does not address the root causes, and it creates unintended consequences.

Curfews do not eliminate light night late night activity, they displace it.

This ordinance goes further by creating special entertainment overlay restrictions and high impact zones that can be expanded during loosely defined periods.

And that kind of discretionary framework creates uncertainty for businesses, workers, residents, and investors who rely on predictable rules.

When enforcement standards are not clearly defined or data triggered, compliance becomes subjective, and that undermines the trust.

So when venues are forced to close at the same time, crowds spill into streets, parking areas, and ride share zones all at once, increasing congestion and disorder.

Professionally managed venues with licensed security and staggered closing times provide far more control and oversight than can uncontrolled alternatives.

So blanket curfew also penalizes compliant businesses and workers.

I think we've heard a lot from the um actors and the people on the street, but we're not thinking about the bartenders, the servers, the security staff, the DJs, the valet attendants, even our ride share drivers that depend on the business that comes into the so you're saying that if we decided to close uh excuse me, if we decided that uh liquor cannot be served after 3 a.m.

that um that's gonna cause patrons to kneel around in the streets and and at 4 a.m.

it does not happen.

It'll displace.

It'll displace the the activity, but is it displaced too?

That's exactly the place that go to the place anywhere that has 4 a.m.

So where are they gonna go?

They can go to house parties, they can go to different so they could do it at 3 a.m.

too.

That is correct.

But I think what we're talking about here is the legivity of the businesses that help promote and the economy in South Florida, and it's not just for me, it's for Uber drivers, Lyft drivers.

I also depend on it.

There's, you know, I'm an executive for a fortune company.

I think I'm not the only one that works just one, you know, more than two jobs to survive here in a very But Uber drivers can pick up drive pick up passengers at 3 a.m.

as well as they can pick them up at 4 a.m.

Not if those venues are closed and not if there's not a demand.

Do you see what I'm saying?

Because they're still they're still gonna trickle in business.

You shut the business down an hour earlier, and I think the last gentleman said that there's more business past three to four during certain periods of the time, you're shutting down the opportunity for continued business.

And I just think that's something that Fort Lauderdale and I think that the other gentleman spoke about, we should be data-oriented.

And I and you know, traveling all over the United States and internationally, we have not seen success and a blanket curfew.

There has been more success in addressing the bad actors and addressing the behavior rather than addressing a blanket statement that affects even the good actors in the community.

So when you say addressing the behavior, what does that mean?

Not abiding by the rules, like you know, those that you stated that continue to have underage, you know, that are you know predominant.

And I also wanted to touch on something.

You know, we we talked about the five, you know, the deaths with five, and to me that's an outlier if it happens on one day.

And before someone says I'm being very insensitive, I lost my husband the beginning of this year, 30 years.

Okay, I take it very seriously.

He died within the nightlife.

If I truly believed that putting a curfew would have stopped him and would have saved his life, I would be the first one up here.

I just truly, I strongly firmly believe that shutting down by a certain hour night is not resolving the root cause of the issues.

And it in what several people have said before, we are known for our our entertainment.

We are known for our nightlife.

And it's not just these businesses that are being impacted, it's all the families, it's all the people that depend on these businesses for their income.

Thank you for letting me speak.

Thank you.

Is Derek here?

Derek, Derek uh Kurzok.

Mayor, before we do that, I want to ask a question of Shari to follow up on the question you asked.

So it's my understanding that Florida is not a stop and ID state.

So in order for an officer to go up and approach somebody on the street that's engaging in an otherwise legal activity of drinking an open container, and by the way, everybody keeps saying open carry.

Open carry refers to firearms.

Please, let's be clear.

Open containers.

Well, we don't want that either.

Uh it's still still still the law of the land in Florida, but uh so open container.

So if somebody is standing there with an open container, that's an otherwise legal activity.

An officer has to have reasonable articulable suspicion that they are committing a crime.

You can't just go up and ID people randomly on the street.

Which is what I said, if he knows, right?

He would have to have some right.

So there's no basis for an officer to walk up to anybody on the street and ask for an ID.

Well, they can ask for it, but they don't have to provide it.

They can decline to provide the ID.

So if the person is if a person that looks young is carrying a cup of beer.

So suspicion is not reasonable, articulable yeah, suspicion that somebody looks young is is not a reasonable articular suspicion that they have committed or are about to commit a crime and therefore.

This is kind of the problem we have here, because that would put the police officer in the position of making that analysis person by person in a street full of people.

Um I I think instead what you're trying to do is a constitutional issue is very problematic.

Uniform ability to to regulate, uniform ability to enforce, which we currently don't have the way the SED is written now, which is why we want to revise it, which could include issues uh the the hours and perhaps give an opportunity to have that extra hour based on a petition or some other uh criteria that we could work with the stakeholders to create.

Um, but we also have the problem now that we have a district with people who are not technically part of the district.

Um, but the statutes enforcement is is limited.

We need to act quickly, is my point.

Right.

So what you're suggesting is that if we if we bring it back to 3 a.m., that we still have a process that allows a business operator to apply for the 4 a.m.

So uh provided that they comply with the certain requirements that we that we would establish, and that would allow them to operate at 4 a.m.

So we're not precluding them from operating at 4 a.m.

We're just not giving a blanket permission within that area to operate at 4 a.m.

That's what I'm suggesting per uh per entity per business, not per some unit per business or some right per common control issue.

Like what we have like with the war film with uh McCrories and things like that.

So let me ask you this are we are we in a position to do that just yet?

No.

I know you're new to the jobs and I thought you didn't know everything, but I mean, uh we're not in position to I understand that there has been I I'm hearing that this has been worked on since the summer to revise the SED, and we are working diligently now to get it done, especially in light of what has happened.

This is why tonight's proposed ordinance addresses just those discrete issues, so that we can still go back and and revise the SED, putting in some other criteria and other things that you may choose, but but in the short term, immediately to address this issue, you can deal with the alcohol in in the outdoor alcohol, yeah.

The outdoor alcohol, you can be with that immediately.

You could deal with the hours immediately too, and then further deal with it in the ultimate revised agreement that's completely up to you.

But you could also parse that up.

Okay, just to add uh those additional potential criteria by which a business may be allowed to have extended hours or for those hours to be rescinded.

That is not what staff has been working on over the past couple of months.

So that would be a new element that we would want to incorporate if that was the pleasure of the commission.

We also haven't sought any feedback from the business community as to what those set of criteria would be.

So just want to put that out there.

Well, we have some of them anyway, do we not?

It was just they were just articulated earlier.

Some of the some of the criteria for being able to be considered uh with an entertainment district operation.

Um, we do have certain criteria, so it's not like we're starting from scratch.

We're not starting from scratch, but if it's criteria that is based on the hours of operation for alcohol sales, that's not something that we had discussed in terms of whether they could go beyond a certain time and if they were things that would occur that would cause us to say you no longer have that privilege.

Well, I think I think there needs to be a path for their ability to operate at the later hours.

Okay, there needs to be some kind of path.

And uh at first we did it, I mean, it was an experiment, it wasn't really intended to last forever.

We we we established this entertainment district to be able to create a district, okay, where um bar operators could locate next door to each other.

Okay.

That was to that was to promote economic development.

So now we're at a point in time we have to assess the situation.

Where has it gotten us?

Where is it taking us?

Um there's been a lot of success there, and there's been some failures, okay.

Um but the point is, like the gentleman said, he's afraid to take his family there even during the daytime because of the reputation that the street has.

So that's not where we wanted to go.

But if we can if we can establish a policy that bars can stay open till certain time, and then if you comply with these certain requirements, then we'll give you permission to stay open even later.

That to me sounds like the most sensible approach to what we're trying to do here tonight.

So what's the direction staff will work to accomplish that?

Yes, but would we also be able to entertain extended hours on certain occasions like certain holidays, certain dates, certain.

I mean, I'm I think that that's a path also um that we could also offer, I think, to the good actors.

And we proffered that for consideration as part of the agenda memo.

Uh so that was expressed to us as we were considering how to put this item together for your consideration.

Uh, I've seen this done elsewhere.

There could be a an opportunity for extended hours to be approved, whether by the commission or by staff, with the commission having maybe a call-up opportunity.

Uh, but yes, I I think there's a lot of sense to look at it for holidays or special occasions, maybe uh a set number of holidays per year, maybe a cap on the number of special events per year or in a rolling 12-month period, whatever.

New Year's Eve.

Perhaps.

Right.

Even and as we heard tonight, such a large percentage of revenue is in the month of March.

Maybe we figure something out for that month as well.

Okay.

Let us continue.

Uh Derek.

Is Derek still here?

Okay.

Followed by uh Mark Dickman.

Are you still here?

There's Mark.

And then um Tim Petrillo.

Good evening, Derek.

Are you associated with a specific operation?

Uh okay.

Uh hospitality supplies everywhere you see.

Okay.

So good evening, everybody.

They say it takes a village to raise a child uh tonight.

That village is here.

I've worked in the Himersheet Village District since I was 16 years old.

That's 21 years of lawful gainful employment due to many familiar faces in this room.

Today I have a small hospitality supply business that's reliant upon the businesses represented here tonight.

And that's in all districts.

District one, two, three, four, and five.

Not just Tim or she.

I've been able to provide for my child.

I've been able to employ others.

They've been able to provide for their children.

Some more affluent stakeholders here may say that the operating hours of the businesses here are a safety concern for them.

They close the museum doors and theaters well before many of these businesses open and open well after they close.

I saw an exhibit five, the business impacts estimate where the city attorney and department director claim there's no impact.

It impacts the employment of everyone here, it impacts their families and impacts all of our lives.

It impacts the vendors, it impacts the residents who support them, impacts the people making an honest living.

Selling food, cups, napkins, birthday cakes, birthday candles.

I generate about 95% of my revenue after midnight supplying such items to hospitality establishments across the city of Fort Lauderdale.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Um before we proceed, I need a motion to extend the meeting to 11 o'clock.

Moved.

Move and seconded.

Please call the role.

Vice Mayor Herbst.

Commissioner Glassman.

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Yeah.

Commissioner Sorensen.

Yes.

Mayor Trentals.

Yes.

Thank you.

Mark.

Good evening, Mayor.

Vice Mayor, Commissioners, Mark Dickerman, Citizen Fort Lauderdale.

First of all, to all the bar people that are here tonight.

Now you got to see why the expression, uh, you don't want to see laws and sausages made.

You're not enjoying yourself tonight.

No, I'm having a ball.

I always have a ball democracy in action that's correct, man.

Um, I think I see a couple issues here.

First of all, I don't think the closing time is an issue.

I don't see it as that.

Three o'clock, four o'clock on on weekends.

Um, the biggest problem I see is the open container and the need for patrols of the garages to make sure that there's not tailgating going on.

Um that'll also prevent the miners from they get their they may get their alcohol from some uh liquor store out west as opposed to local.

So the thing come in, they bring their alcohol with them, they walk around the streets and they get drunk.

I also think the kiosks is a problem, and those should be closed at least at two o'clock.

No kiosk sales outside the bar after two o'clock.

Um last call of three is beneficial to the businesses, and again, open container allows for tailgating, lack of bar control of consumption of alcohol, which they are required by state law, as well as enforcement and crowd control.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Tim Patrillo followed followed by Bill Brown.

Still awake, Bill.

All right, mayor and commissioners, thank you for uh hearing this.

Uh first off, I agree with what's been said.

I do believe that the open container, it's been a history of problems down in that district, and I I really don't think that the hours of operation are the concern.

The open container um and open uh walking around is is a big issue.

I've been down that district, I started in 1997, as many of you know, and I had four operations in that.

And in 1999, we were forced into the entertainment district, okay?

The the South side of the street was not in the entertainment district.

We were asked by the city of Fort Lauderdale to join that because there was an incident involving a patron that was crossing the street from Dicey Riley's to the what it was now was Rust Street, and there was an altercation.

So we all went into the entertainment district, and all that was was a amendment to a lease that Betsy Kerman held at 11 properties.

Uh there was no really rules or anything like that.

Then uh city manager George Bressis came into town and said, Hey, we have to clean this up.

We need to establish some rules.

And in 2025, there was some rules that were put out by George Gressis.

2005.

2005.

And then again, they were revised in 2008.

Uh that went on for about eight years, and then it became another issue.

And in 2016, Lee Felvin stepped into uh as a city manager says we have to do something about this district.

Uh and then in 2018, a set of rules that were adopted by everybody in the Hemership village and the city were put in place, and I was uh put on a selection committee to hire the nighttime manager, okay, Sarah Spurlock.

Sarah Spurlock was in office for about three years, and during that time, issues were at a minimum.

Uh and now she went and here we are again, talking about rules and regulations.

The fact is that the city needs to take accountability for managing this district.

We cannot allow this to be this to be self-patrolled.

Okay.

I had raised several times that this should be no different than a uh sidewalk cafe permit, let's call it.

Okay, where the there is a district that you're allowed to have these certain rules if you comply, and you comply every year with the city, just like a sidewalk cafe permit, and you are listed, so you have to make sure you have your proper security and every every rule that you come up with, and then you get your certificate to operate, and that can be pulled at any time if you're not in compliance.

But Tim, why should taxpayers have to be the regulators here, the enforcers of the district for a district that the city sees very little return on?

Okay.

Well, does it just look like that?

I would say I would say when this was under control, there was great value.

When we had when I was in 1997, someone referenced that there wasn't that districts changed, it's changed dramatically because of the of the no restaurants and just bars.

Before there was a lot of different bars and restaurants, and people would would visit there and from Browser and everything else.

Once upon a time now, once upon a time.

No, I am a I am in charge of the McCorrecy district.

Okay.

I I couldn't tell you if my my uh there's two there's three people in there.

There is uh tin roof, there is taste and rooftop, uh, and then there was someone on the other side that had closed.

I can't tell you if Tin Roof is compliance.

I can't tell you if they are doing things that that had been reported to the city.

I don't get any reports from the city.

I get no insight to how they're performing.

And if I were to enforce, I have no teeth to enforce.

What how what action can I take?

Now, Tin Roof is not a bad actor, but what action can I take if Tin Roof is a bad action?

I can go down and say, hey, listen, you guys have to comply.

If they decide to stay open to 4 a.m., what am I gonna do?

Okay.

Well, they violate their lease agreement, and therefore you can evict them.

I I don't control, they have a lease with another landlord.

They are a tenant of the district.

What's your role?

Exactly.

Nothing.

Well, what wait a minute.

You said what is your connection to the McCrory district?

There is a contiguous BS rule that you have to participate.

So uh when I stepped in and opened up rooftop at the time, it was Briney.

I believe Tom Bogle had Briney, and then there was uh tilted kilt, and I stepped into that district.

So it's like uh I can't do that.

It's a fan police that has no control, no teeth, no, and the city needs to be put in that place.

That's the that is the issue with our attendance.

I don't know whether we want to be put in that place, because that's because well, you're asking us to self-patrol ourselves, okay?

And now, and and you're asking us to try to enforce our neighbors with no real mechanism to enforce.

So without the city, who is going to enforce and who's gonna build accountability?

Well, we're trying to we're trying to build in some rules where the city can enforce.

I guarantee you every rule that you're gonna come up with is in these four different things that have never been enforced.

So you think it's an enforceability?

Absolutely an enforceability issue.

There's a lot of good actual information.

There's a lot of bad open containers, not the open canners, we don't have that rule now.

Well, open container allows teenagers to walk around.

We get that.

So that's not in those rules.

Okay.

And the outside outside sales through windows and kiosks and so forth.

That's not in those rules.

No, but there is cleanliness, there's security, there's all the other things that require and and in those rules, there were uh to participate in open container, what you had to do and things like that.

Right.

But it's it's a privilege to be able to do it.

It is a entertainment district.

Absolutely.

Right.

And all privileges can be taken away if you don't comply.

Right.

But who's taking them away?

Well, that's we're here tonight.

That's exactly that's what I'm getting.

We're here to discuss it's great to discuss this, but we really need to look at who's going to be enforcing this.

Well, Commissioner Sorensen wants to make a decision tonight, so we can make a decision tonight.

Okay.

Thank you too.

Thank you.

Bill.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of commission, Bill Brown.

I come tonight representing two groups.

The president as president of the Central Beach Alliance, which has Beach Place and Rock Bar and those two separate entertainment districts, and also as a president of the Council of Civic Associations that represents over 50 neighborhood community leaders.

And at the meeting of the Central Beach Alliance on January 15th, we had 175 people in attendance, which is probably more than the red shirts here, concerned about what's going on, the violence and the problems within those entertainment districts.

And then also at the Council of Civic Associations membership meeting last week on June 13 or January 13th.

We also took ananimous consent at both groups to support the commission's decision on enforcement and changes of the ordinance as they pertain to hours of operation, open container, and uh open sales.

I heard a lot talk about him or she, but I haven't heard much talk about beach place.

It goes bigger than just alcohol.

You have miners coming down, unaccompanied minors that come down there that aren't going into the establishment, so they're congregating outside.

We don't have enough police officers on the beach at any given time.

On a good night, we're lucky to have four officers patrolling the entire barrier island, not counting on maybe beach place having one or two officers at work.

The chief, I sit on the budget advisory board's chair.

He doesn't even have enough resources, and he comes and asks for more officers, but the pie's only so big.

Should it be the responsibility of the taxpayers to spend taxpayers' money to help support and police, the businesses of the certain ones that are the bad actors?

No, you know, I talked to the I think the chief will tell you a lot of those businesses that used to have security, don't use them anymore because they can't afford them.

That's you know, he says $75 an hour.

That's a lot of money for some establishments.

So they don't utilize the police.

I don't we don't have all the answers.

I don't think you have all the answers tonight, but you got to start somewhere.

Um because it's public safety, and these are public nuisance businesses that have to be addressed.

And we hopefully that we can all reach a happy medium uh working together.

This is maybe a start, but there's still a lot of work to be done even after tonight.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Uh Deb Montwani, followed by Sandy Faye.

Uh good evening, mayors and commissioners.

Thank you for your time tonight.

Um I'm fully supportive of addressing the security concerns.

I think everyone in this room is uh is supportive of that uh as it pertains to uh him or she and and beach place.

Uh these are the two districts that have uh you know where the impetus for this conversation starting, well, I guess him or she starting last summer, and then of course the events, the tragic events over the holidays at Beach Place as well.

Um, but uh I represent the district that was mentioned earlier where the wharf is uh and we haven't been mentioned because we don't have these issues.

We are in compliance, we follow the rules, we don't have these security concerns.

Uh and it's disheartening to see us included in staff's recommendation tonight uh that all of the districts be penalized and addressed here.

Um I uh I found I I was not proactively reached out to by anyone.

I found out at a public DDA meeting that we were to be included.

Uh I do appreciate staff's willingness to get on the phone quickly as I so I could express my concerns, and uh that some of them are addressed in in uh in the backup, but the recommendation is to penalize all the districts, including the good actors uh who don't have these issues, and that doesn't make any sense to me.

Uh I did express a willingness to have a conversation with staff uh on some amendments to our district.

Um, if you're gonna be taking away something that's gonna impact our business, I think there's a compromise that can be had uh with some other items, and so I appreciate staff's uh time so far on that, but we haven't had a full conversation.

So uh I'm certainly open to that.

Um, but I don't want to slow down uh addressing the security concerns.

So I think it makes sense to bifurcate them.

They're clearly different districts that have different uh issues and uh different uh governance issues, as you mentioned, him or she is a unique uh district because you have a public roadway in the middle.

Uh we don't we don't generally don't allow open containers and we generally don't stay open until 4 a.m.

But we occasionally do.

Uh but we follow all the rules and we're compliant when we do.

Uh taking that away from us will impact our business negatively.

So if that happens, if that's part of the discussion, I think the prudent thing to do is to allow us a seat at the table to address some other areas where maybe you can benefit our business so that we don't have so it's a net net win-win.

Uh so that's all I ask again.

I appreciate your time tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Sandy Sandy, Sandy Faye, followed by Eric Maggid.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor, Vice Mayor Commissioners for uh having us here today.

Uh my name is Sandy Faye.

I represent uh Riverwalk Center, one of the property owners here around Hemershead Street, which um has I think six tenants, uh several of which are actually uh eligible and members of the Hemershead district.

Um, which which businesses do you represent?

Um I represent Riverwalk Center, the property owner.

Right, but which businesses?

Um I think uh uh Dicey Riley's Ebar, Euro are three of them.

But you're not operator, you just own the real estate.

We own the real client owns real estate, yeah.

You're not the operators, correct?

All right, okay, but but all yeah, hold on.

I just want to understand.

So Club Euro, E Bar, Squiggies, Squiggies and uh Dicey Riley's.

That's right.

So four of the seven.

Yes.

That are in our building.

Um, just want to clarify clarify a couple things.

Um, first of all, we're obviously aligned with the safety concerns.

Everyone wants the place to be safe and a vibrant community.

We support the getting rid of the open containers, the underrated shrinking, and the increased police presence.

Um we would also say is the folks that come to our establishments from the two to four uh uh uh two o'clock to four o'clock period are not the folks just coming looking for a hard party.

These are folks that work at the establishments that close at two o'clock and don't want to go home right after work and just want to go wind down for a few hours after their jobs are completed.

That's what they that's the bulk of our my my client, my tenants um business through those businesses through the that time frame is those folks who are coming off of work at the places that close at two o'clock.

Also, um I understand a lot of this is unfortunately a reaction to the recent violence that occurred at Beach Place and Hemershead.

However, violence and crime does not operate on a time clock.

That could happen any point in time during the day.

Well, you you're correct there, but it what it did was it triggered our attention to come back and revisit what's going on in these places, and it's and this has been simmering for a very, very long time.

Right.

I understand so it's not it's not as a result of that.

We're not there's no way we're gonna be able to um eliminate uh uh gun violence in the city of Fort Lauderdale, just like we can't eliminate it anywhere else in the country as long as people have open carry and you know unfettered rights to own guns.

That's just another issue for another time.

Absolutely.

But we do have the right as a city to monitor and regulate where we can, and if we feel that it would help uh uh shape character of what a district should be like because I remember years ago, like it was said to earlier, you know, him or she used to be a place where we had steakhouses, where we had uh nice restaurants, where we had more family-oriented things, and it is now become it's become you know, it's fun to go there, right?

It's not it's it's a great place to go.

The businesses that have invested there, they've created a really great environment to go have fun.

But unfortunately, some people take that too far, and we've got to figure out a way that we it doesn't become a a you know a three-ring circus, okay, that's going to take away from the enjoyment that other people come to expect when they go there.

And we're fully in line with that.

My point is that to correlate the violence with the hours of operation, I think is a non-sequitur because violence could happen at any point in time.

I believe if I'm not mistaken, the beach place shooting happened around midnight, and the events here on him or she happened somewhere between one and two o'clock.

So it had nothing to do with the four o'clock operation.

Just happened to be a random time of day.

That's all.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Eric.

Followed by um Mr.

Lowy.

Is it is it Ian?

I then uh Chanel Coward.

Good evening.

Good evening, the mayor, good evening, vice mayor, good evening, commissioners, good evening to the public that have joined us here today.

My name is Eric Maggot.

My family has owned the Bryan building since 1986, 40 years.

Okay.

I apologize for what's happened to my him and she, but you know, this is what happened when mass crowds come.

I also own and operate e-bar in the Him and She district since 2000.

I keep a control door.

We're 21 and over.

We don't allow underage.

What's gonna what's gonna make this work for the city?

I'm currently investing over a million dollars to renovate and open a new restaurant in my building where Squiggy's pizza used to be.

I also built chemistry building.

No, no, we we understand your investment, and we're thankful for that.

And we appreciate your commitment and your long history with this.

We have paid the Fort Lauderdale police since 2000 to detail and monitor.

Okay.

The lack of enforcement is what seems to be the problem.

As they take our money.

Hold on, hold on.

Lack of enforcement of Fort Lauderdale police.

I'd hate that they're not enforcing the laws.

I'm not throwing them under the bus.

They're like everybody else.

You're saying these are private detail though.

We private we pay the Fort Lauderdale police department to be in our neighborhood every week for the last 25 years.

And what laws are they not enforcing?

One of them, the biggest problem I don't go down because I'm highly offended, is the marijuana laws.

The smoking on the street.

I've expressed my concern about that because my customers shouldn't have to see that when they come to Ebar.

Okay.

Okay.

I'm here tonight because I care deeply about the MSC district and the future of Fort Lauderdale.

The challenges we discuss in today didn't have happen overnight.

For many years, this district has lacked consistent focus and effective enforcement.

At the same time, we are dealing with a much larger national issue, gun violence, as we all know.

Can happen anytime, anywhere, any place.

These incidents are happening across America at all hours.

And there's responsibility lies with the individual committing the crime.

The bad apple that came and decided to shoot in on our street, who also shoots in our schools, who also shoots at our airports, happens all the time.

No one knows where this person is, and he's the one to blame for all of us having this ugly meeting today, as I see it.

I want to talk about what happens after hours.

Well, many people are asleep, others are working to support their families.

Late night business create jobs, generate income, and keep our local economy moving.

That economic activity supports investment stability and opportunity for people across all income levels.

Or middle class and rich.

Some have to work two jobs.

That's why they come at 10 o'clock and 11 o'clock at night, the bartend, bar back, place security in DJ.

Safety and economic vitality are not we're not opposing the goals.

That we're we're all on the same page.

We agree with you.

We have to have a new vision for my district, especially for me to withstain and hold on to my investment.

We can have both through smart enforcement, accountability, and cooperation with punishing those who are who are who are creating this problem.

This is our investment, and things are the right way.

That's how we unite as one.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Mayor.

Could I have the chief come up to ask ask my question?

Is that all right?

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

City manager, just want to ask the chief to come up with one to police.

Schultz.

Thank you.

Chief, thanks for being here.

Good evening, everyone.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Couple questions.

One would love to hear your perspective on calls for service demand and chief uh city manager.

I'd love to hear from Chief Golan too on calls for service from a paramedic standpoint to uh here.

So love to your feedback on calls for service, the kind of hours and when you think about you know those later hours, what that looks like, and then um like to hear your feedback on the smoking marijuana on the streets.

Thanks.

Okay.

Uh, if you don't mind, I'm gonna address something that was just raised.

Um, if anyone here has information about our officers not taking enforcement action, I need to know about that.

I will tell you this.

Uh, I am very proud of our officers.

I've been down there many a night, I've been on the beach many a nights, uh, working side by side with them, and they endure a lot.

Uh, and as far as I'm concerned, they do a very good job.

So if there's others in this room that have information to the uh contrary, I'd like to speak to you before you leave tonight.

Um, to answer your questions.

Uh reference the uh open smoking.

Uh, we do address that, we have addressed that.

Uh, and in fact, we have uh an action plan that's been going on for the last three weeks, and I'm just gonna give you some quick stats from that.

Uh, 18 arrests have been made, 152 traffic stops, 216 citations issued, 12 towed vehicles.

We've had one firearm recovered, one or 14 morning citations issued, and many parking citations issued.

Where is this where that's just in the hammer she area?

Just in the hammer she area.

So is it is it legal?

I don't know the law on this.

Is it if you see somebody smoking a joint in the street?

Do you have the right to go up and ask them if they have a medical card?

So well, recreational use is not uh allowed in Florida.

So it would it would only be so when we uh would address, and we do that, we do address that publicly.

Uh, when we address that, uh it's normally quickly realize that it's not a medical use of marijuana.

Right.

Uh it but it's similar.

Remember, whenever we uh approach someone, we definitely need uh a suspicion or cause to approach someone.

Well, isn't just the the act of smoking a suspicion or cause?

No, because remember also there are many variants uh in today's society of the marijuana use, uh, whether it's medical or not, there's many variants.

Sometimes they don't smell uh exactly, but they smell similar to marijuana, and those who uh may not know may mistake that for marijuana.

Okay.

So you so just the very act of smoking, uh you you're not allowed to go up there to them and say, Can I see your medical uh your medical card that allows you to um to purchase marijuana?

That is correct.

Okay.

We cannot demand someone's medical card.

Okay.

Uh and now you bring up smoking.

Uh, you know, that's been discussed too on the sand on the beach.

Do we allow smoking in general?

Do you look at that in entertainment areas?

That's been brought up as well.

But as of now, there's no regulation of that.

Um I thought that the state, I thought the state uh passed uh statute about smoking.

Within the inside inside.

I'm talking outside.

Okay, yeah.

Yeah.

Can you I thought you couldn't smoke uh on the beach anymore?

That on the sand.

On the sand.

Yes, I believe that's still uh NFF.

Yeah.

Okay.

So uh one more question that you had asked, I would like to answer, Commissioner.

Uh if you're looking at that area, uh and roughly the borders I'm talking about are Broward Boulevard to the north, uh Riverwalk to the south, Andrews Avenue to the east, and Avenue of the Arts here uh to the west.

Um one o'clock to four o'clock are the busiest times.

Uh and we have a spike uh at 2 a.m.

And if you look at uh the calls for service, generally between 4 a.m.

and 5 a.m.

they drop dramatically, about 300 on average.

Uh if you're looking at a certain period uh of a couple years here is what I'm looking at.

And if you're looking at days of the week, uh it's obviously uh Friday uh into Saturday, early Saturday morning.

Now the busiest time is uh Saturday, late evening into Sunday morning.

Those are when uh the the peak calls for service come in in all regards, non-emergency 911 and uh officer field initiated calls for service.

And how does thank you, Chief?

And how does the Hemmershee area compare with other parts of the city?

In other words, is this a higher call volume than other entertainment areas or Las Olas or wherever we have other bars, restaurants?

For that time of day, yes, that's higher.

Okay.

All right, thank you, Chief.

Sorry, go ahead.

Go ahead.

No, I just chief.

I just wanted to ask, and thank you for being here.

Um talk to me a little bit about the activity in the garages and parking lots and what we're doing, because this is something I hear also over and over and over, um, especially from the residents down in that area.

Um what are we doing in terms of the garages and parking lots?

A number of those statistics that I read off to you are from the garage activity.

But what we've done now is we've taken officers and put them static and stationary in the performing arts center garage here, uh, as well as the government garage downtown.

Um we do not have uh, you know, as you know, there's uh another garage that's private.

Uh we do not have um our resources on there unless they're paid for for detail in that garage.

The other two that uh I mentioned, we do have uh an increased presence right now.

And would you say that that's made a difference as late?

Um a noticeable difference in in the activity that's been going on there.

Yes, and I will tell you uh of complaints.

Uh and I've spoken to you about this before as well.

Uh those are very common complaints.

I have not personally seen any since we started this action plan.

Any complaints come in?

Thank you.

You're welcome.

City manager could ask Chief Golan.

Certainly.

Chief.

Fire Chief, thanks for being here.

Good evening, Commissioner.

Uh if you can give us a sense of calls for service, this uh late night, early morning.

So the data pretty much uh mirrors what PD is seeing, the same exact thing.

You know, from the hours of midnight to 4 a.m., we see substantial increase in call volume.

Uh to put it in perspective, uh, we responded last year to about 11, little over 1,100 calls in that that generalized area.

Uh of those calls, about 50% of the calls are non-transport calls.

So that means that we've been called out for a pass out or an incident.

When we arrive, uh the individual's either gone or refuses treatment or transport.

Uh looking over the data over the last year, couple of years, when we go back to 2021, uh, we show up takes in 2021, and they had calmed down over the years, uh, and then this past year have gone back up.

Uh and what I mean by that is is in regards to shootings this past year in 2025, we responded to 11 shootings uh in that area.

Uh and the last time that we saw that many shootings in the area uh was in 21.

Uh in between that time, it was only about two to three per year that we were responding to.

Uh most of the other data simply shows upticks in March, uh, March being our busiest month down there.

Um, but it is important to point out that when our units are responding to this increased call uh there that end up not being transport, that those resources are being taken away from being able to respond to other emergency incidents in the city because we don't have detail units down there uh our units or the same units that are responding to all the calls in the city at that same time.

Thanks, Chief.

Appreciate it.

Yes, sir.

Any other questions?

No.

Um all right.

Uh next up, this is uh either Ira or Ian Lowe.

And after that, we have Chanel Coward.

Good evening, commissioner.

Good evening, Commissioners.

My name's Ian Lowe.

First, I just want to comment on something from Chief Schultz just said those parameters that he gave you, Third Avenue to 7th Avenue, Broward to the River.

That's three entertainment districts, not just ours.

Also, all those numbers are not just ours.

My name is Ian Lowe.

I've started at original Fatz 21 years ago as security and worked my way up to owner three years ago.

Fatcats has been open for 24 years.

Fat's is a historic staple in the community.

Live music every night, and voted best Philly cheeses steak in Fort Lauderdale three years in a row.

Our our food is our food is amazing.

Our kitchen closes at 3 a.m.

The hours between 2 and a.m.

and 4 a.m.

account for 32% of my monthly sales.

These hours are crucial to our survival.

We're aware the night we're aware the night workers in town go to go to relax after work.

The ver our version of happy hour, if you will, their version of happy hour.

As a new owner, my first meeting with the city regarding the safety in the district and the district contract was in 2023.

I have participated in countless meetings and urban workshops with the city regarding the district.

In every one of these meetings, I have strongly voiced concerns about the loitering and the violence brings it brings into our district.

Parking lot parties, car shows, illegal drink and food vendors on every corner.

The DHVA in Riverwalk presented rec recommendations for a new entertainment contract in 2024.

Part of the presentation you saw here last June with Chris Cooper is mentioned.

These included removing open container that we agreed with, giving FLPD the power to stop the loitering.

On May 2025, the commission agreed a new contract needed to be drafted quickly.

The commission asked the city manager or the city attorney to clarify if the district manager must be a landowner, a tenant, or it could be a collective.

Since that meeting, we have heard nothing from the city.

As a responsible business and representative of this district, I've done everything you've asked.

I've been able to at the table for years now.

Years of warning about this unchecked crisis coming into our district with no help and no answers.

And here we are talking about punishing the same district.

We agree that business the businesses that don't follow the rules should lose those privileges.

I ask you to just that you distinguish those between those businesses and the one with the ones that are which will hold the agreements and are working to revitalize the district.

We agree more more police detail are needed.

But let's be clear a detail's job is to protect the business and the customers on our property.

My liability ends at my back door.

Not a single bar or restaurant on our street owns a parking lot.

Most of them owned by Asta that have zero security, day or night.

We agree this is a law enforcement problem, an ATF problem.

This is a code enforcement problem.

This is a city problem.

We ask you to please review the previous meetings agreements and address the gaps in strategy before making decision that will impact all business and health in the district.

I thank you for your time, and I hope you come see me at Fatcast for a Philly cheeses soon.

Okay.

Phil Cheese sounds good.

Um Capone's still operating, is that correct?

They're part of the original seven, I believe.

Sabones is still there.

Okay, great.

Um fantastic.

Thank you.

So everyone and Squiggies is still rocking.

Wiggies is not.

That was actually the business that Eric just said he's remodeling.

Okay, remodeling.

Got it.

Yep.

So excellent.

Then there's six on there that are up and running, I believe.

And so if they're not up in if Squiggies isn't up and running, then when it reconstitutes, would it be grandfathered into the seven, or would it would that be a new process under where we fall now?

When you say reconstitute, you mean it's the same entity for some reason.