The executive closed door session of the city commission is now terminated and the public meeting is now open.

Good evening, everybody, and welcome to the city commission meeting this uh March 3rd, 2026.

Um we have a number of interesting items to discuss tonight, and I appreciate all of you being here.

For those of you who are here for the first time, welcome and thank you for being here.

Shh shh thank you.

And um so let us begin.

I'd like to invite Omar Hunter.

Omar, where are you?

There you are.

Omar is going to join us and uh leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance, so I can ask you all to please stand and join Omar speaking there.

Where do you go to school?

Rock Island Elementary.

Very nice, very nice.

So you're gonna lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance tonight?

All right, so let us begin.

Put your hand over your heart.

Right ahead.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republics for which stands, one nation under God, indivisible and liberty and justice for all.

Very good.

Thank you, sir.

Here it's a little gift to you.

Thank you for your efforts.

Thank you for being here tonight.

Your family here?

Come on.

Come on up here.

Is this your family?

Come on up here, we'll take a picture with everybody.

Come on.

No?

She doesn't want to.

Who is she?

She is now your sister.

She doesn't want to take a picture.

All right.

Are you as mom?

Yes, sir.

Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you.

Thank you for coming tonight.

Thank you for allowing Omar to be here.

Very good.

Thank you so much.

You know, that's how Commissioner Glassman started out, so there's great hope for you.

So next, I'd like to all invite you to join the commission in a moment of silence.

And in doing so, tonight I'd like to uh recognize our former county commissioner Sue Susan Suzanne Gunsberger who passed away this week.

Amazing champion for her district, for our our community, the county, and for um so many people, especially in the LGBT community, who for whom she stood up uh time and again.

And uh it's uh indeed sad to hear about her passing.

Great, thank you so much.

At this time uh we take a pause in our meeting to recognize people who have uh announced their retirement.

Um and these are people who have been here for a very, very long time.

Uh there are a few of us uh together tonight to uh to recognize.

We have James Hughes, who is a public works maintenance supervisor in public works, has been with us for 28 years.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, James, for your uh commitment to our city.

Dave Heaney, Public Works uh Park Supervisor, um with us 24 years.

Congratulations.

Thank you so much, Dave.

Stephen Bean, uh uh Beach Lifeguard, 32 years.

Wow.

Um and Milton uh Salamos, uh, who is a driver engineer in fire rescue, been with us 31 years, and Mark Rossi, a fire captain with fire rescue, has been with us 20 years.

So congratulations and thank you for your service.

So let us begin.

Mr.

Clerk, please call the role.

Vice Mayor Herbst.

Commissioner Glossman here.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman is not present.

Commissioner Swordson?

Here, Mayor Trentals.

Yes, uh here.

Uh just to uh announce to the community that uh Commissioner B Beasley Pittman could not be here today.

She uh uh has medical uh emergency to which she's attending, and uh um and we uh um and she probably won't and she won't be here for the evening at a meeting as well.

Uh we have an agenda item, uh a revision OSR 1 exhibit one, it's which is an ordinance, section 27-27 and 27-66 have now been revised.

So um would someone like to please move to accept the agenda as uh amended and the minutes from the previous meeting.

Second.

Move and seconded.

Please call the roll.

Commissioner Swanson.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Herbst?

Commissioner Glossman?

Yes.

Mayor Trentals.

Yes.

And so the agenda and the amendments have not been approved.

The agenda as amended.

So now we take a little pause again and we have some presentations to discuss tonight.

And there are just three.

And the reason for presentations is the city recognizes individuals, organizations, or causes which which we believe are important to the community.

And tonight is my honor uh and privilege to uh recognize Mike Lambrex, who's chair of the Coastal Conservation Association, who is coming to the city to provide us with a check for a lot of money.

Mike, are you here?

There you are.

Come on up to the podium.

Yeah.

Good evening, everybody.

Um first of all, I want to thank the commission for having us here.

Um the check that we have and tonight that we're presenting is for a project that Marco our Aguilera, our chief waterways officer, had presented to us and brought to us for the city's first sewage pump out boat, and it was a grant that Marco had identified.

Um we came to Marco and we said, how do we ensure that this happens?

How can we incentivize the city?

How can we be a part of this as an organization and what we do for marine conservation to ensure that this project goes forward?

And so we are committing $10,000 to add on to this grant for the city to be able to purchase and operate this sewage pump out boat.

And this is something that we've been uh a lot of the marine community has been asking for for a long time, um a very long time, and uh we're really thankful to have Marco here with us, thankful for the Coastal Conservation Association, thankful for our commit our commission's steadfast uh commitment to our waterways.

Um and uh we look forward to doing a lot more.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

So why don't you tell us a little bit what is a pump out station?

Uh good evening, Mark Aguilera, Chief Waterways Officer of the City of Fort Lauderdale.

So uh many boats that have uh any boat that has a restroom on board, has a sewage holding tank on board.

The city currently has four pump out stations that are operated that are free of charge.

Uh the public is welcome to use them, but they are stationary, so it does take a boater to go to the station to do the pump out themselves through the grant through uh Coastal Conservation Association through Lauderdale Isles Water Management District and through all the partners we had involved throughout this process.

We're purchasing a vessel that is a come to you service that'll be free of charge.

Uh we anticipate getting a high use out of the vessel, and we're really looking forward to it.

And the commitment from Coastal Conservation Association has been unwavering since the beginning.

Uh they're an amazing association.

If you haven't checked them out online, I suggest you do so.

Great.

Thank you so much.

We really appreciate it.

And uh this is all part of this commission's uh commitment to ensuring the safety and quality of our waterways.

And um you want to take our picture?

I want to call over here.

We're gonna go forward to closer to the $10,000.

Thank you so much.

That really really is appreciated.

Um next, uh we have uh I'd like to invite Monica Newman McLoney, who's head of the U.S.

Corporate Social Responsibility and the Embraer Foundation.

Uh please come to the podium.

Uh we are we have a proclamation that we'd like to declare March 2026 as National Women's History Month here in the City of Fort Lauderdale.

Yeah, how are you?

I'm well.

Nice to see you too.

So this proclamation was intended to be presented by uh Commissioner Beasley Pittman, so on her behalf, I am I am making that presentation.

So from the Office of the Mayor of the City of Fort Lauderdale, this is a proclamation in recognition of National Women's History Month, honoring Monica Newman McClooney, and this was requested by Commissioner Pam Beasley Pittman.

Whereas National Women's History Month is observed each March to honor the trail-blazing women who have shaped our nation, expanded opportunity and broken barriers across every sector of society.

Aviation has long been a field defined by innovation and possibility, and the growing presence of women within this industry continues to open doors, elevates representation, and inspire the next generation to reach new heights.

Monica, head of the U.S.

Corporate Social Responsibility and the Embraer Foundation, exemplifies the spirit through her leadership in advancing corporate responsibility and expanding access to aviation pathways for our youth.

The Umbrer Foundation, established in 2017 as a 501 C3 Foundation, makes strategic social investments that positively impact the communities that we're umbrer employees live and work with a strong commitment to volunteerism and youth engagement in aviation.

Monica has built strategic partnerships across the nation that strengthen educational initiatives and broadens access to careers in aviation.

Finally, whereas the City of Fort Lauderdale proudly recognizes women leaders whose vision and dedication strengthen communities, expand opportunity, and inspire future generations to soar.

Whereas now, therefore, and this we as the city commissioners of the city of Fort Lauderdale do hereby proclaim today, March 3rd, 2026 as National Women's History Month here in the City of Fort Lauderdale, signed by myself, Mayor Dean Trentalis.

Congratulations.

I promise I will be brief.

I am so grateful and honored to be standing before you this evening and to be recognized.

Um it's an amazing way to kick off Women's History Month.

So thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I'm especially grateful to Commissioner Pam Beasley Pittman for this recognition and to be able to do the work that we do, not only here in Fort Lauderdale, but in other cities across the country.

So thank you for having me and thank you for this great honor.

Thank you.

Okay, our final presentation.

I would invite Commissioner Ben Sorensen, who will be presenting a proclamation regarding National Kidney Month here in the city of Fort Lauderdale, and is Barbara Chapman here.

Hey Barbara, come on down.

You're the next contestant.

Thank you, Mayor.

I appreciate it.

Thank you, Barbara, for being here.

You're looking so festive and colorful.

Thank you for for being here.

I'd love to read this recognition and then turn it over to you.

That's all right.

Love to hear more from you.

Great.

So this is in recognition of National Kidney Month.

Whereas healthy kidneys are essential to regulating the body's balance of water and chemicals in the blood, removing excess fluids, waste, toxins, and medications, and regulating blood pressure, producing red blood cells and promoting strong bones.

And whereas approximately 37 million American adults, nearly one in seven are living with chronic kidney disease, yes, yet most remain unaware of their condition.

The disease is the ninth leading cause of death in the United States, claiming more lives than breast or prostate cancer, with more than 102,000 individuals nationwide currently awaiting a kidney transplant.

Whereas in Florida, more than 51,000 individuals are living with kidney failure.

Approximately 36,000 received dialysis and 5,700 remain on the transplant waiting list.

Whereas the National Kidney Foundation of Florida is dedicated to the awareness, prevention and treatment of kidney disease, working to improve the health and well-being of individuals and families affected by kidney and urinary tract disease, and to increase the availability of organs for transplant.

And whereas the National Kidney Foundation of Florida hosts an annual Fort Lauderdale Kidney Walk, a meaningful community event that brings together individuals and families affected by kidney disease along with local supporters to inspire hope and generate critical funding for patients.

The National Kidney Foundation of Florida honors individuals living with the disease, dialysis patients, transparent recipients, living donors, donor families, health care professionals, community partners, and volunteers for their commitment to combating kidney disease.

Now, therefore, we as the city commissioners of the city of Fort Lauderale proclaim March 3rd, 2026 as National Kidney Day and month in the City of Fort Lauderil, dated this day, March 3rd, by your Mayor Dean J.

Trantellus.

Thank you, thank you so much.

Thank you, Commissioners, and thank you, Mayor.

My name is Barbara Chapman, as they stated.

I'm the Regional Development Director with the National Kidney Foundation of Florida.

And it's my honor to be here to accept the proclamation.

And just to share that kidney disease is not in the forefront, it is a silent killer.

So my connection with kidney disease is through my husband, who is the kidney recipient.

He was diagnosed in 2017, which is how I became involved with the National Kidney Foundation of Florida.

So fast forward to 2026, I now work for them advocating uh on kidney disease and awareness.

So thank you so much.

And I just want to say orange is the signature color for kidney disease, and it is National Kidney Month.

So thank you.

Yeah, here we go.

What do we do without iPhones?

What was life like without iPhones?

A lot more private.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

Thank you for being here tonight.

And thank you for the all the good work you do on behalf of the foundation.

And thank you, Commissioner.

So at this point, um we have uh what's called the consent agenda, and it is an opportunity for it's an opportunity for the commission to vote on all these items at once, or if there's an item that any one of them would like to pull from the agenda, and we'll discuss and vote separately, this would be the time to make that announcement.

So, Vice Mayor, do you have any consent agenda items that you would like to pull?

And uh Commissioner Glassman?

None.

And Commissioner Sorensen.

Yes, Mayor.

Um there.

Uh CM8.

CMA.

CM8, which is the uh Third Amendment to the Brickle License Agreement for the Las Solas Riverfront.

Thank you.

So except for CM8, do I hear a motion to approve the consent agenda items?

So move.

Do I hear second?

Second.

Move and seconded, please call the roll.

Commissioner Sorensen.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Hearst.

Commissioner Glossman.

Yes.

Mayor Trentals.

Yes, and all those consent agenda items are now approved.

So if you're here on any of those items, you're welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting.

Otherwise, um your item has now been approved.

Um CM8, uh Commissioner.

Thank you, Mayor.

Just want to clarify a couple items on this.

Been working with the city attorney and city manager on it.

Um to start city attorney, if you won't mind just kind of giving the public just a understanding of the basics of this, and then we'll go into some of the specifics.

Thanks.

Um this amendment uh addresses the um the right of the leasee to extend the lease for a period of 25 years.

During the time he did not delete, he did not have uh access to the related uh property, the the um Jason Brown.

Not the dock space and the seawall, the bird seawall.

And so the seawalls and just was in disrepair, the city needed needed to fix it, he had limited access to it, and so uh in negotiating the uh the extension, an extension that he elected to take, which was his right to do, the city negotiated an extended term of two years uh while the seawall is repaired.

And so that gives him um the benefit of having uh the lack of use of it during the term of his lease.

And so that's what this lease would do.

It's the third amendment to the underlying lease, and um that is all it accomplishes.

Great, thank you.

That'll be in partnership between the city and the developer to kind of determine.

Is that right, city managers?

So there is a uh day dockage component, and there's also a commercial dockage component.

So the day dockage component of 160 linear feet, that is what is uh memorialized as part of the agreement and the amendment.

Uh we do have some improvements that are needed.

And as a result of not having those improvements done, this is part of why we're uh supportive of adding an additional two years to the renewal period.

Uh we are undertaking seawall improvements and we will be installing floating docks.

Uh we're currently in the design phase and we have spoken with various stakeholders and we're identifying the best location for those floating docks.

But there's 160 feet of day dockage and about 300 feet of commercial dockage.

Right, but this only contemplates the 160.

Well, this outlines that the 160 feet uh that are currently included as part of the license agreement would remain uh accessible to the public.

And what this item essentially addresses is the time period for the renewal, and it also memorializes that no fees would be required from the licensee because the public or capital improvements necessary have not been done to date.

Right.

And once those improvements are done, then the waiver of those fees would be rescinded.

Right.

Yep, exactly.

And then just the and city attorney on the uh amendment page two.

Are you do we need to add further specificity as to the third whereas clause?

Developers granted a non-exclusive right to use the 160 vinear feet of brickle dock space as shown on exhibit C.

It's it's labeled as day dockage on that exhibit.

Do we need to kind of further stipulate or well that's what it is, Commissioner?

It is the hundred and that that particular area is the 160 feet, and it is known as day dockage because it is public public access accessible dockage.

And so that's the reference to it in this warehouse clause.

The city controls the dockage along the riverwalk, uh, which is depicted as the brickle dock space in exhibit C.

And exhibit C refers to the day dockage.

Is it your point to say that while the amendment says brickle brickle dock space, the exhibit doesn't expressly say brickle dock space?

Exactly.

It doesn't say brickle dock space on on the like that that's not a relevant term indicated on the exhibit.

Right.

Right.

Um we could uh amend that exit exhibit city manager um the reference was to brick dock space.

I think it was sort of a generic term for day dockage.

And I think that we could amend that um exhibit to reference that, or I can amend the language in the uh amendment to say brickle dockage space known as day dockage space in the exhibit.

Whichever avenue is administratively prudent.

Yeah, I think that would be helpful just for so we're all clear.

Well, I'll recommend that we make that notation in that whereas clause as you suggested.

Okay, great.

And then um City Manager, we just city attorney and I talked about how just going forward's uh helpful to have just in the future the all the amendments, the original agreement and the amendments attached to the uh the agenda item.

So I I will work with the city attorney's office on that.

It goes through a review process with um various members of uh my team as well as the city attorney's team in getting these items before you.

So we will work together on that.

Okay.

Well, would it be helpful to red line, give us give us a red line version of what the changes are?

Yeah.

That makes it more sense instead of having to plow through what the amendments are if we could have a red line version of what the new version is supposed to be.

You know what I'm saying?

As uh as distinct from the previous amendment or yeah, if you if we're changing if we're if we're adding language to a previously approved document um and we're making changes just to give a red, it's easier for us to reference what the changes are.

Sure.

And in this case it's a new amendment.

It's a third amendment.

Yeah, I think that's the same.

So we would we would and should include the second amendment and the underlying agreement.

I think that's appropriate, I agree.

Okay, great, great.

Thank you.

That was just the only adjustment there, so I think we're we're in good shape.

So uh mayor a move to approve.

Okay, the move.

Do I hear a second?

Second.

Okay, we have uh Mr.

Martwani's uh you're good.

Okay.

You didn't even have to come.

By the way, thank you for draping your property with a a new uh lifestyle uh draping around your property on Federal Highway.

Thank you.

Are you planning to build soon?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And Mayor, that's moved as amended as we made the the minor adjustment.

Okay.

Um please call the roll.

Commissioner Sornson?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Herbs?

Yes.

Commissioner Glauben?

Yes.

Mayor Trentals.

Yes, and that item is now approved.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh now we go past the consent agenda items and we move to neighbor presentations.

Is Suzanne Jacob here?

Hi, Suzanne.

Wanna come up here?

And just push the button at the bottom of the speaker.

Oh, it's already on.

It's already pushed.

Okay, great.

How's this?

Very good.

Hi, good evening.

Thank you so much for allowing me to speak.

Uh good evening.

My name is Suzanne Jacob, and I am the vice president of the Lost Palmare Village HOA.

I own a home at 6170 Northwest 31st Way.

Our neighborhood is less than a mile away from the beginning of runway 927 of Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.

Additionally, please be advised.

I am an FAA licensed commercial pilot.

I have a four-year degree from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Aviation Management.

And I have a two-year degree from Broward College in Professional Pilot Technology.

I have lived in the LOFS neighborhood since 1997.

So what we've been trying to do with the city since the beginning of uh 2023 is request help specifically with noise abatement.

And this started out with uh Debbie who is here tonight, and she has been faithfully attending every aviation advisory board meeting for over two years now.

Um and that's been quite entertaining, including the last one.

Um we've really been trying to work with the airport and to follow the process that's within the city to make our requests.

In addition um to this, Mayor Dean, uh you came to our HOA meeting in July of 2023, and Zach was there.

Is Zach's still with you?

Yes, yes.

Excellent.

Okay.

So Zach was there and we gave him a petition that we had a hundred and fifty-eight out of 160 um homeowners had signed.

We also presented this uh petition personally to John, Commissioner John, at our November 8th 2023 HOA meeting.

And finally, this petition was personally presented to Mr.

Rufus James, who's the manager, longtime manager of Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, and that was given to him at the Aviation Advisory Board meeting on December 7th, 2023.

The last time I came before you was November the 7th, 2024, exactly what I'm doing right now.

I did the same thing on that date.

So again, this is now the fifth attempt that we've made to ask for some help.

We do understand and accept that the runway will be receiving a 1,000 foot displaced threshold to the west that's gonna meet move everything closer to us.

Specifically, what I have uh taken exception at is we're using a noise study from 2002.

That's still that's not I don't mean any disrespect, but that is not the standards of what I would come to expect from the city of Fort Lauderdale, considering how many other things you guys have have accomplished.

Additionally, uh just for reference for everyone in the audience, um your 736 million dollar water waste treatment plant.

There we go.

Oh, thank you.

Give me another minute.

Thank you.

Is right next door to us.

So in summary, what I'm looking for is some proactive action by the city to try to update our noise study.

I mean, I would love to be back in twenty two thousand and two.

All of us were a lot younger than.

I mean, I some of these airplanes that are now landing at executive airport weren't even around in 2002.

Are airplanes louder or less loud these days in your in your experience?

It depends on the situation.

And one of the things that's very interesting that's included in your budget, and I actually read these things.

So your 2025-2029 budget that has this project in there, you have a blast pad built into this, which means that there's going to be a noise issue.

So just would really like some help if we could be proactive rather than reactive on this expansion.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So, city manager, could we kind of address some of those questions and concerns?

Is Rufus is not here now, is he?

No.

He is here.

Oh, there you go.

So quiet, Rufus.

Good evening, Mayor.

Good evening, Commissioners.

Rufus James, Airport Director for Lauderdale Executive Airport.

So what about I think the first question, uh Vice Mayor, is the is the noise study, right?

Right.

So the noise study.

So can we just kind of walk through some of the issues that were raised?

So we've got a noise study that dates back to 2022.

When would we be doing an updated noise study?

No.

2002.

Oh, 2002.

I'm sorry, I apologize.

I thought you said 2022.

My my apologies.

2002.

So when would we be doing in the normal course of business an updated noise study?

What would trigger a noise study and it's a part 150 noise study is uh excessive uh calls from residents and obviously looking at the number of operations that generate those calls and so forth.

Uh from the last study that was done in 2002, we had residents involved.

Residents made recommendations, which was presented to the FAA.

And with those recommendations, an example I'll give is um the I 95 turn for uh departures to the east.

That's what residents wanted airplanes to do the I 95 turns, so they're not flying over Imperial Point.

However, the FA responded that it would be voluntary, not mandatory.

So a lot of what was recommended in that 2002 study was voluntary that we could implement, but we couldn't make it mandatory.

Let me suggest this, um this is to the city manager.

I I think anything that's you know going on almost 25 years old is woefully outdated.

So regardless of the volume of calls or anything else, I I would suggest that it's probably timely for us to do another study.

So can we can we get that done?

I think that we can plan for a noise study in the near future, yes.

Okay, thank you.

And so your your other questions uh you you were also talking about the the pad?

Yeah, so the last time I was here, you specifically said that you're gonna be able to do that.

Yep, come on up to yep, that's okay.

I would like to kind of take these one at a time, if we could.

So the last time I was here, which was November the 7th, 2024, we had talked about being proactive about building in noise abatement.

And you had said, hey, that would that's a great idea.

You so one of the parts of the one part 150 noise study is using the airport perimeter to mitigate noise.

Unfortunately, when you have a clear zone of a runway, you can't be building lots of things.

There's only a limited number of things you can put in that clear zone at the end of the runway.

So we had talked about earthworms or blast paths or something European, you know.

The Europeans do a really good job.

You know, we're the Venice of America.

So hold on, let me let me get the airport the Venice.

So let me let me get Rufus to address it if we could.

So Rufus, could you speak to that, please?

So again, this is one of those items we can put in the environmental assessment uh or the part 150 noise study, whichever.

And when it's submitted to the FA for their review, they would come back with the final say of whether we can or can't.

Um so can we do this without doing the noise study?

I mean, these sounds like improvements that we can make irrespective of whether we do the noise study or not, aren't they?

So something such as a berm, since this is the final approach uh to land.

Okay, it would require FAA input or study, if you will, to determine the impact on aircraft that are arriving and so forth.

Okay, are there other things that we can do that don't require the FAA's input?

Not that I'm aware of.

Anything that could impact navigation uh aircraft operations, it does require FAA input.

Okay, so we start with the noise study and then we progress from the noise study to whatever mitigation efforts we can reasonably do to help out the neighborhood.

Yeah.

Okay.

So that makes the noise study even more important.

Okay.

And what was your you had one final uh question, I thought, didn't you?

Yes.

I don't know if you all are aware of this.

The airport was given to us by the Navy.

I am aware of that very much, yes.

Yeah, you are because you're military.

Uh so you know you guys have done a great job with stewardship.

It's one of the few things in the city that makes bucket loads of money instead of causing problems.

You know, it's a wonderful thing.

I we do accept that this is going to happen and and we want some help, but please be advised.

Not only is this going to impact Fort Lauderdale, this is gonna impact all of Brower County, changing this runway.

You are permanently changing an infrastructure that has been in place for over 50 years.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

And thank you, Rufus.

So Riquel, if you would please um give us to my office at least a timeline of when we can expect to have this done so I can share that with uh the residents out there.

So I I know you said you you'd commit to getting it done, but if you could give us an actual timeline of when you anticipate having this done so that we can communicate actual expectations to the community, I think that would be great.

I'll discuss with staff what it all entails and required.

Not today, but once once you have a hard date of when you think you can get this done, if this is something that has to go out to RFP, if you've got somebody already under contract that you can use, whatever that process may be.

What I'd like to do is to be able to create reasonable expectations in the community.

One of the problems that I have is we communicate to the community that we're going to do something, and not everybody understands how long it takes for government to move.

And so there's an expectation when we say we're going to do something that it's going to happen, and not referring to this this particular instance, but you know, within the last uh month or so, I've had a half dozen residents saying, Oh, you said you were going to do something last month.

How come it's not done?

And they don't understand when we say we're going to do something, that means sometime within the next year, if we're lucky.

So, what I'm trying to do is create reasonable expectations with the folks in my district about what our process is.

So when we say we're going to do something, well, here's our timeline, and here's when we expect to get it done.

And that also gives my staff an opportunity to know when we need to be coming back to you and your staff as to where are we, status updates and so forth.

So it creates an expectation on both ends, and we can manage those expectations accordingly.

Understand.

Okay, very good.

Thank you.

Thank you, Suzanne, for being here tonight.

You're very welcome.

So moving on, we are on now on M1.

This is a motion approving an award uh for invitation to bid uh regarding the purchase of Prospect Lake Clean Water Center Chemicals.

I guess we're adding some salt and pepper to it.

Uh Morton Salts, Hawkins Wallet Water Treatment Group, DBA Hawkins Inc.

Um, no one is signed up to speak.

Would someone like to move the item?

Moved.

Second.

Moved and seconded.

Please call the roll.

Commissioner Sorensen.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Herbst.

Yes.

Commissioner Glossman?

Yes.

Mayor Trentels.

Yes.

And M1's now approved.

M2, motion approving agreements for invitation to bid for turf grass maintenance, northeast and southeast, respectively, to the next lowest responsive and responsible bidder.

Visual escape.

No one is signed up to speak.

Would someone like to move the item?

Moved.

Second.

Moved and seconded.

Please call the roll.

Commissioner Sorensen.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Herbst.

Yes.

Commissioner Glossman.

Yes.

Mayor Trentals.

Yes.

And M2 is now approved.

M3, motion approving a reinstatement and amendment to an agreement between Broward County and the City of Fort Lauderdale for property located at 1,000 Southwest 2nd Street in substantially the form provided.

No one is signed up to speak.

Any questions?

Okay.

Someone like to move the item.

Moved.

Second.

Moved and seconded.

Please call the roll.

Commissioner Sorensen.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Herbst.

Yes.

Commissioner Glossman?

Yes.

Mayor Trentals.

Yes.

And M3 is now approved.

Moving on to R1, which is the appointment of board and committee members.

Mahalia, are you here?

You wanted to speak on this item?

All right, but before all right, you I'll invite you to speak, but he's going to read the names into the record and then you can come up and speak.

Okay.

Um Mr.

Clerk, please read the names into the record.

Thank you, Mayor.

I I was going to discuss the uh Broward League of Cities, Florida League of Cities, and National League of Cities, but with uh Commissioner Beasley Pittman out tonight.

I will just put all three of those items.

Why don't we just appoint her to everything while she's not here?

We could do that as well.

So move some move.

But I'll put the items on individually discussed at the next meeting.

But for tonight's resolution, the affordable housing advisory committee, Maryland Mamano, uh nominated by Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Aviation Advisory Board, John Fritzinas, thank you.

Nominated by Mayor Trentells, William uh Gilbert, nominated by Commissioner Sorensen.

Beach Business Improvement District Advisory Board, Michael Berry, primary member for B Ocean Resort Fort Lauderdale.

Carlos Young, alternate member for Marriott Courtyard.

Summit hospitality.

Christopher Casey, nominated by Commissioner Glossman, and Bobby Tenoco, not by Commissioner Glossman.

Community Services Board, Gary Hensley, nominated by Commissioner Glossman.

Mahalia Balfour, nominated by Commissioner Sorensen.

Housing Authority of the City of Fort Lauderdale Board of Commissioners, Jeff Lowe, nominated by Mayor Trentals.

Infrastructure Advisor Board, Jerry Angelli, nominated by Mayor Trentells.

Marilyn Mamano, nominated by Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

And for Sunrise Key Neighborhood Improvement District, Thomas Walter, nominated by Commissioner Glossman.

And we do have one additional name for the Board of Adjustments, Samir Yajnik.

That is a Commissioner Sorensen's uh appointment.

And this would be a reinstatement.

He reached out and he wanted to stay on the board.

He had a couple reasons for why he missed the meetings.

And since they have a meeting coming up, if we could add that name as amended.

Okay.

Okay.

Are there any uh modifications or amendments to the ones that have been read into the record?

There being none.

Uh Mahalia, want to come up?

Which board was Mahalia being uh recommended for community services.

I can't hear you.

Community services.

Okay, great.

Good evening.

So good evening, Mayor, Commissioners.

Uh my name is Mahalia Balfour.

And first and foremost, I would like to thank Commissioner Sorrison for nominating me for the community services board.

I am a public health professional and a Ryan White Part A case manager in the city of Fort Lauderdale.

And currently the community I work with, those living with HIV aids are facing severe challenges.

Some would say inhumane restrictions to their access to medications and health care.

And this board, I truly believe has the power to make impact to their lives.

The CDB grants and the Hopper grants impact my patients daily.

And I believe being of service on this board will be hopefully a positive impact to them.

So I hope to serve if appointed, and I am so grateful for the nomination.

Thank you.

Well, thank you so much for your willing to participate and volunteer your time on this regard and this uh effort.

Okay, was someone like to introduce the resolution?

Introduced.

Resolution has been introduced.

Please call the roll.

And that's asked amended to include the reinstatement.

As amended.

Thank you.

Yes.

A resolution of the city commissioner of the city of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, appointing or nominating if applicable boarding committee members set forth in the exhibit attached here too, made a part hereof.

Commissioner Sorensen, yes.

Vice Mayor Herbs.

Commissioner Glossman.

Yes.

Mayor Trentels.

Yes, and R1 is now approved.

Thanks to all those folks who have uh agreed to participate in our boards and committees and and your volunteerism.

We really appreciate it.

R2 uh resolution delegating the uh city manager the authority to submit a grant application to the Florida Inland Navigation District for a grant of up to 2,967,364 dollars for the replacement and construction of the River Wall River Walk North Seawall.

Uh no one assigned up to speak.

Would someone like to introduce the resolution?

Introduced.

The resolution has been introduced.

Please call the roll.

A resolution of city commission of the city of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, delegating the city manager the authority to execute and submit a grant application to the Florida Inland Navigation District Waterway Assistance Program for the grant funding of up to 2,967,364 for the replacement and construction of the Riverwalk North Seawall.

Commissioner Sorensen.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Herbst.

Commissioner Glossman.

Yes.

Mayor Trentals.

Yes, and R2 is now approved.

R3.

This is a resolution delegating to the city manager the authority to submit a grant application again to the Florida Inland Navigation District for a grant of up to $847,107 for the construction of the Sebastian and Seville Seawall Replacement Projects.

No one has signed up to speak.

Would someone like to introduce the resolution?

Introduced, but I also have some questions.

Go ahead.

Um so city managers came up at my district two pre-agenda meeting last evening.

And I think it's a good point.

Um in the CAM, it talks about the fact that the completed seawall design did not include living seawall components based on recent city commission feedback regarding living seawalls.

City staff will explore and evaluate options to retroactively incorporate living seawall components for this project.

So this is what came up.

And first of all, I want to make it very clear that both my district and I are very much in favor of our push out to do living seawalls.

However, this is brought to my attention last night.

These two locations in the Central Beach area on Sebastian and Seville are areas that are number one used by water taxi service, and also um riverfront cruises at 2900, Sebastian.

In other words, we have some really large vessels that will be constantly pulling up to these particular areas that might actually be harmful to living seawalls.

If we actually go forward with living seawall, they most likely will be destroyed by these vessels.

And I just wanted us to be aware of that.

I think it's a great point that was brought up.

Again, we are very much in favor of the city's push for living seawalls.

However, these two locations on Seville and Sebastian on the beach just might not be a good choice for living seawall unless there's some way to mitigate that.

But I just wanted to bring up that point.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Uh point well taken.

And as part of our evaluation process, we would look at the activity in the area.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um I believe the resolution has been introduced.

Yes.

So please call the role.

A resolution city commission of the city of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, delegating the city manager the authority to execute and submit a grant application to the Florida Inland Navigation District Waterway Assistance Program for grant funding of up to 840,001 for the replacement and construction of the Sebastian and Seville Seawall Replacements Project.

Commissioner Sorensen.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Herbst?

Commissioner Glassman?

Yes.

Mayor Trentos.

Yes.

And R three is now approved.

R 4, a resolution approving an amendment to the public transportation grant agreement with the Florida Department of Transportation for the construction of runway 9, parallel taxiways extension at the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport and to delegate authority to the city manager to execute the agreement.

No one has signed up to speak.

Someone would like to introduce the resolution.

Introduced.

The resolution has been introduced.

Any questions?

There being none, please call the role.

A resolution of City Commission of the City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida approving an amendment to the public transportation grant agreement with the Florida Department of Transportation to accept additional grant funding in the amount of three million from the Florida Department of Transportation for the construction of runway 9 parallel taxiways extension project at the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport authorizing the city manager to execute the amendment to the public transportation grant agreement on behalf of the city and accept such grant funding for financial project number 454780-1-94-01 providing for conflict, providing for several and providing for an effective date.

Commissioner Sorensen?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Herbst?

Yes.

Commissioner Glassman?

Yes.

Mayor Trentals.

Yes, and R 4 is now approved.

Moving on to R5.

This is a quasi judicial resolution approving a site plan level 4 Central Beach Development Permit for a six-story 203,000 907 square foot multipurpose building with 25,182 square feet of event space, 24,440 square feet of museum, 17,000 five uh excuse me, 17,052 square feet of aquarium, and 7,027 square feet of restaurant use and associated parking reduction.

This is at 501 Seabrees Boulevard.

Anyone wishing to speak must be sworn in.

Good night, Suzanne.

Good night.

Anyone wishing to speak must be sworn in, and the Commission will announce any site visits, communications, or expert opinions received, and make them a part of the record.

Vice Mayor, do you have any disclosures?

No, you didn't mean with Vlogarite.

R5.

They look alike.

They do.

They do.

No, none on this one.

Okay.

Yes.

Wrong item.

Okay.

Yes, I have uh I have had uh meetings with 70 Tooth Acre as well as with the applicants.

Um Commissioner Glassman.

Yes, thank you.

Uh several site visits.

In addition, I did meet with uh Mario Caprini and the team, um, as well as uh attorney Stephanie Toothacre on uh June 12, 2025, October 31st, 2025, and November 17, 2025.

Commissioner Sorensen.

Yes, thanks.

Uh site visits and meetings with the applicant.

Okay.

So uh we have two people who sign up to speak.

Um uh Stephanie just for questions and Mr.

Brown, Bill Brown from the Central Beach Alliance is asked to speak.

And then we have to have a little conversation.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, membership Bill Brown, President of the Central Beach Alliance.

I come for come for you this evening in support of this phase.

It's one of the final phases of this fantastic project of the Aquatic Center and uh iShop project for many years and many meetings.

And even when Commissioner Glassman was present of the Central Beach.

These this was always talked about this vision and what it could be and what it couldn't be.

And some of the residents had concerns about this building being too high.

They went back, they met with the swim club folks, they met with the neighboring uh homeowners association across the intercoastal, and they worked with other groups to make them more the feel more compatible for their needs.

They brought the height of the building down a couple of floors.

I know we're losing parking spaces.

Um parking is a problem, will always be a problem on the barrier island.

But I think at the end, we're all gonna one day look back and just be kind of like Snyder Park and the Fort and be so proud of what's been accomplished.

And the same with the Iceplex.

So, you know, this is always has been a can-do commission that will that will do it and do it right.

So I want to commend you and uh I strongly encourage you to let's pass this and move forward so they can start putting shovels in the ground and start bringing international competitions back here and uh showcase again the swimming community of Fort Lauderdale.

Thank you.

All right, great, thank you.

Is there anyone else who wishes to speak on this item?

Commissioner Glassman, did you have any comments?

Uh it is, thank you, Mayor.

Um, I I do I just have some questions about process, but are we going to hear anything um about the site plan from the applicant or are we passing on that?

We haven't they haven't asked to speak.

Okay, I just then I I just have some questions, and I don't know if that would be for the applicant or um whether it would be for the story, you want to come up here also.

Okay.

Um because I I want to just make a point here, and I want to just know where are we exactly?

This is a site plan, but I know that we have so much work to do with regards to finalizing leases, uh, finalizing finances.

Um, and let's face it, these are very unstable times in the world.

So I get a little concerned about the markets, I get a little concerned about financing.

So if you could just help me understand where we are with that aspect of this, I I'm all in favor of the site plan.

We've we've worked really hard.

Um, and I do have some questions about that as well, because I know parking has been an issue that's been brought up, but I wanted to begin with this.

Okay.

Um well, thank you so much.

Thank you to the mayor and the commissioners.

Thank you for all your support on this project, Stephanie Teethacer on behalf of the applicant.

This is this is the site plan.

I'm happy to answer any questions on the site plan on the parking.

It's been a long journey.

I was just even in your own um in your own staff report.

It says on September 14th, 2020, the city received the unsolicited proposal, so it's been a long journey.

We're so proud to have worked with the swim community to work with the community at large to work with the Central Beach Alliance.

Thank you to Bill Brown for the comments.

Um it was a long journey getting here on on this phase of the site plan.

I'm going to pass it off to Mario Caprini so that he can respond to you as to any questions with regard to the lease.

And then we can come back to you because I do have some questions about the site.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, Commissioners.

Um thank you for the opportunity to answer your questions.

Um we've made some good progress.

Uh following the world events, it was a little bit of a scary time in the financial markets, and the probability of the rates lowering are pretty much nil or low.

And the probability of the rates going up are really high.

So I had communications with Susan, with Ben, with the city manager, and I think we're all on the same page.

Uh I believe that uh city manager wanted to get comfortable with the deal and make sure that from my last message, my understanding was that she's gonna give us the uh okay the rate lock so that we prevent the rates from going up.

That's that's one of the little scary things going on.

Are we good?

What I shared with Mario uh in response to his email of yesterday afternoon is that the developers should feel comfortable with pursuing a rate lock subject to approval of the site plan that is before you for consideration.

Right.

So if we if we approve this tonight and we'll walk it tomorrow morning.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

And we're still good.

I checked before I came here.

So we're good with the rate, yeah.

With the financing.

You were on the same page, city manager on the same page with the developer team.

A couple of adjustments still remaining on insurance, but minor things, it's all coming together, and hopefully by next week we should be able to sign off on that.

That's very encouraging.

Um thank you very much for both of you.

So I appreciate that.

Um Stephanie, if I could just ask you some questions about the site plan, of course.

Of course.

So I've been hearing a lot.

People have been misunderstanding some quotes in in the paper about parking, not hearing from people.

I understand that the building went through significant changes.

We did that basically because of the input that we received from the swim community, neighboring condos.

We took two floors off that Western building.

That's correct.

Along with that means that some parking was lost on there.

It obviously you can't have both.

You either gonna have the height, which no one wanted.

Exactly.

Or you're gonna lose some parking.

It's you know, it's very difficult to have both.

Right.

So my question to you is how many parking spaces are we actually losing and how much under are we that people are upset about?

I've done my own math, but I just want to make sure I have that number correct.

Give me one moment.

Make sure I get my 49 spaces.

There's a whole chart in here that I I reviewed and it's completely accurate.

So the total number of spaces that are required, but keep in mind this includes the aquatic center, the pools, the ocean rescue, um, the office, the um aquatic center and ocean rescue, that's 176 bases.

So some of those are city uses.

And then you've got um West Building Museum 61 spaces, aquarium 43, there's some event space 63, restaurant space, that's 62.

Total parking spaces required for the West Building is 229 parking spaces.

Total parking spaces required for the site is 405.

But in the ULDR and the way parking works in Fort Lauderdale and really in every municipality, is that you take all these individual uses and you say how many parking spaces does that require, how many does that require, how many does that require?

But those are not unique users.

So somebody that's coming to the pools is probably gonna eat at the restaurants.

Somebody that's going to the aquarium is probably gonna eat at the restaurants, maybe the person in the office is going to the restaurants, or somebody that's going to the pools is also going to the aquarium.

So you don't double count those spaces.

So we spent a great deal of time through the DRC process through the planning and zoning board with the community and with the city to really analyze what was actually needed on the site.

And as a result of that shared parking use and that parking reduction, we are providing 259 parking spaces on site, which is a lot of parking.

And of course, as the district commissioner for the beach, you know that there's almost also a tremendous amount of foot traffic.

Not everybody is driving.

That is, we see that when we do hotel development, we just they don't require the number of parking spaces that they used to require.

People don't rent cars, they Uber pretty much everywhere.

They walk around and they visit the site.

So at 259 spaces from what's required, if you were to count each use individually, that's a deficient number of 146, but it's not really 146.

Because when you have a shared use analysis, you automatically chop a huge number off, and then you also, of course, have parking in the city's Las Hallas Garage.

Okay.

So let me let me just take this a little bit further.

Um the aquatic center closes what, six o'clock, five o'clock?

Six o'clock.

Okay.

So is any of that factored in?

Because obviously, if you have events after six o'clock, you're going to be freeing up a lot of spaces because the aquatic center has closed.

Correct.

So that cannot even be used by swimmers, etc.

How many parking spaces were attributable to the aquatic center?

To swimming and bags.

We have four, I think.

Um the aquatic center.

Actually, it doesn't list it out separately, but it's um but the total number of parking spaces was 176.

Thank you.

Yeah, it's 176.

110.

176.

176 for the aquatic centers.

Yes.

And those spaces can't be used because it closes at 6 o'clock.

There's your difference.

That includes ocean rescue.

So you know those are not, they're not there once the beach closes, those those cars are not there.

So that too.

Exactly.

So that's very helpful.

But I also want to uh talk about the the use of the Las Olas Garage, which you mentioned, and I know I've heard that as well as a sort of shuttle people back and forth.

So city manager, a couple of years ago when the Las O'S Garage first opened, we actually did have a shuttle service because we thought that people might not want to take, you know, the kids, all the stuff to the beach and go from Las Ola's garage by the intercoastal all the way east to the ocean.

We might want to consider reinstating that shuttle service, especially if this is going to happen.

And we have an identified shortage, although I'm not so sure it's as severe as some people think, but it might be a good idea for us to look at reinstituting that shuttle service from the garage to at least to the the swimming hall of fame aquatic center for especially when we think it's going to be crunch time, or there's going to be some big event, or when we just expect maybe on the weekends if a lot of people are going to the aquarium, the museum, whatever.

But I just want us to think about that going forward, that that kind of service.

Um because what were you guys thinking of in terms of using the Los Solos Garage?

Well, we are our traffic, I'm sorry, our parking analysis actually we don't need the Las Soles Garage.

It's there, it's an amenity for the residents and for visitors, but it's actually not required for this.

Okay.

Because because that's because we we are proposing it as a shared parking use with a parking reduction.

And staff signed off on the shared use and the parking reduction.

So they felt that what was being provided was adequate uh for the use.

But I still think city manager that we really should look at that.

So my understanding is that the resources that we originally allocated for that shuttle service.

We repurposed for our circuit uh micro remover program.

And so any future needs in terms of that shuttle service we would evaluate from an operational and fiscal perspective based on the utilization that we're seeing or anticipating.

And it it could be that we seek partners to potentially offset those costs.

I definitely think it's worthwhile keeping it in the back of our mind.

I mean, obviously we're not right there yet.

This is an opening tomorrow, but it I think it is really important for us to to think about.

Um that's good.

I would like us to you know just keep that in mind as we move forward.

Of course.

And uh I really thank you very much for the information.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

City manager, I just wanted to bring up one letter that I got about the swimming hall of fame and the aquatic center, because this does concern me.

Um I'm getting some complaints about the conditions of of the pools.

I'm getting some complaints about the fact that people are leaving.

They're seeing you know, Algae in the pools, they're seeing what they're claiming to be.

Again, I have not witnessed this first hand, but they're talking about um an overall decline of maintenance uh of the pools uh in terms of the of the water conditions.

I don't know if we've checked it.

Um I don't know if we're you know responding to this email um from some of the swimmers, but I think it's worthwhile looking at.

Again, I do not have first hand knowledge of this.

I'm just going by what I'm hearing.

Um but I want to make sure that we're that we're sure that the investment that we've made on this peninsula is is being maintained in a way that everyone is happy about.

That's all.

Thank you, Commissioner.

I saw a particular email today, and I shared it with staff, and I'll be following up with them on that.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, everyone.

Appreciate the information.

Thanks.

Sure.

Can I just um let me let's just talk um some real numbers also?

You know, the the square footage for the aquarium is significant.

And um and you allocated 40 something parking spaces for the aquarium.

I mean, I think there will be several hundred people at a time who will be I mean, if it's just if it's a real success, it I think several hundred people at a time will be will be visiting the aquarium.

So you may consider a dedicated shuttle service that you might find that you might operate between the parking garage and your and the aquarium just as an amenity so that people so you don't lose customers because people go there looking for a parking space, can't find it and go away.

I think it's a really good comment.

I I will tell you that the the way the aquarium is um is supposed to work is that you're ticketed for a time, a specific time.

So while we do anticipate a lot of foot traffic and we hope to have it, um not everybody is gonna be coming at the same time because the it's it's a good thing.

Exactly.

There's it's staggered times for entrance.

I get that, but still it's a big space.

I think it's a great comment.

You know, you're gonna have a couple of people there at a time.

So I think once we're once we're up and running and operational, you know, you're gonna learn a lot about how this is a new use for Fort Lauderdale and how people use it and what that parking looks like, and I think we can always shift and respond to you know to the to the situation at hand.

All right, very good.

All right, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Stephanie, just remember the fact that the mayor has donated his Speedo from 1960 to the museum is gonna draw a lot of people.

You're gonna you're gonna see the number of people buying tickets in the museums.

It's being framed.

Thank you, excellent.

Thank you.

I will be modeling it.

Well, then I take my comments back.

Thank you very much.

So I think so.

Before you guys step away, I just want to echo that too, though, because I've had a number of calls regarding parking as well.

And I will just say I I think this is probably a mistake.

I think you're shortchanging that facility by the parking that uh that I think it needs.

My personal preference would be to restore the height and put the parking back that I think it needs, but I know that's not the direction of the commission, but I just want to be on the record that I think cutting the height of the building and losing all that parking spaces is a mistake.

Every time we've done a parking reduction in the city, we've always come back to regret it.

This is not the first time, and it won't be the last time that has been a problem.

I know Mayor, you're always the one who's talking about flag the village and the lack of parking.

I know when I lived out at 511 uh Southeast Fifth Avenue, we had cars double parked and triple parked in the fire lanes in front of that building because of the wonderful uh valet service that everybody was supposed to use and cars stacked up in the street for hours waiting to be put away.

Everywhere we've done parking variances and parking reductions, we've always regretted it.

This will be another instance.

Well, I'm sorry, go ahead.

No, I I just want to repeat again, we went through so many community meetings.

The fact that we took those two levels off of that building was because the swimmers, number one, complained about the size of the building and a distraction to their swimming.

The neighboring condominium associations complained about the height of that building.

Um other people complained that we were dwarfing our our beautiful high diving tower because of the height of the building.

So we we tried to work with everybody over the course of all of those meetings by bringing that down, and we made it very clear that we were eliminating two floors of parking.

Again, it's so hard to please everybody.

Um, but again, that's why we did it.

We didn't just take two floors off for the heck of it or for the fun of it.

We we took them off because that's what everyone was clamoring for, and at the same time, knowing that we would of course have to lose some parking.

Again, I think we're gonna have to monitor the situation.

I think we're gonna have to realize and you're both right.

I mean, the thing is that you know it it the compromise had to be made.

There the the reduction needed to take place, the height reduction needed to happen.

But we there are there are opportunities on the beach to circulate uh traffic, uh vehicular traffic.

We still have the South Beach parking lot, you know, all this is very near.

So um and and I think a shuttle service between the the aquatic center and the uh Los parking garage is something that should be considered as an operational expense going forward, in addition to the city uh resurrecting its own shuttle service around the beach.

I don't know why we stopped it, but uh um but anyway, there's there are opportunities.

Circuit's a great company to work with.

They've been efficient and they're safe and they're eager to expand their uh operation here in our city.

I've spoken with them multiple times, so we'll make it work.

My concern is that it impacts the business model for the aquarium and the museum and anything that takes away from the customer experience is going to cut the number of patrons that they have there.

And the reason that I'm concerned about that is because I'll remind everybody that we are guaranteeing the debt on that on that entire project.

So if it doesn't hit its revenue targets, remember we are the guarantor, we are the payer of last resort.

So my focus is less on whether the swimmers like the height of the building and more on whether the project is financially successful.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

I'm sorry.

Uh I'm I'm not sure if you'd like to have staff provide a little bit of background on how we anticipate that parking will be mitigated or managed on the peninsula.

And we also have Carl Williams available to the So here's here's my thinking about that, right?

It's just like the conversation we had about Las Olas, where we want parking in front of the restaurants.

People like to pull up and park.

They don't want to park miles away and take a shuttle.

They would rather just go do something else.

If we make it difficult for this isn't Disney, where people are willing to park in the goofy lot and take a shuttle because they're planning their entire day around that.

This is not.

If if we make it inconvenient, people won't do it.

And so my concern is we are making it inconvenient.

And the more friction I can tell you from a business perspective, the more friction you place, especially when you're dragging young kids around, the less likely people are to do it.

And anything that impacts the business model of those facilities out there concerns me, and I think this has an impact on the business model.

I hope I'm I hope I'm wrong.

Well, we'll see.

And at the same time, keep in mind that uh a lot of the kids that would be going coming to the aquarium will be coming in buses.

You know, they'll be having groups coming there.

So those won those don't pay.

The ones that come in the buses from the from the schools, those are free.

Those are the ones I'm not concerned about.

I'm concerned about the paying patrons, the families that are going to be driving in other parts of the county that are actually going to be buying tickets.

The the ones that are coming there that are going to be coming through the school system, I I don't believe, and maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think they're going to be paying.

Why don't you think they're going to be paying?

Because I think I think part of that whole deal with the school board is that the children get to come there like on field trips.

I don't know that they're going to be paying full price for the kids to come and pay a student.

Maybe I'm wrong.

They'd pay a student rate.

I'm sure that's probably fairly low.

But anyway, again, I I hope we're successful.

All right, your point is okay.

We understand.

But I know Mario's a good businessman and I'm sure they'll figure it out.

And if mayor, if I could just make one more suggestion.

Um there are so many hotels right within a block or two of this site.

Their parking garages are empty.

They're empty all day.

I if we can just figure out a clever way to work out arrangements with all of these hotels in that strip um and then educate the public about that availability.

I'm sure the hotels will be willing to have a little bit more revenue, but at the same time, work with us to make sure that we have that.

But I'm telling you right now, so many of those parking garages in all of those buildings are empty.

Okay, let's work that out.

Very good.

Mayor?

Yes, ma'am.

If you will allow it, I'd like Carl Williams to address the pool conditions comment made earlier.

Well, I don't think we need to.

I don't think we need to that's not the issue.

That's not the issue before us right now.

Um I'd like to just stick to the issue, but I appreciate staff uh being you know willing to respond to the commissioner, they can talk about it after the meeting.

I think it's relevant only because there's some construction going on on the site, and that's uh impacting the chemistry of the water, and so we're trying to mitigate that.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Okay, thank you, folks.

Thank you very much.

Any further questions or comments?

Someone would like to close public hearing?

Moved.

Do I hear second?

Second, move and seconded.

Please call the role and closing public hearing on PH, excuse me, on R5.

Commissioner Sorensen?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Herbst?

Commissioner Glossman?

Yes.

Mayor Trentals.

Yes, and R five.

Uh the public hearing is now closed.

Would someone like to introduce the resolution for R 5?

Introduced.

Is that for approval?

For approval.

Please call the role.

A resolution of the city commission of the City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida approving the issuance of a site plan level four beach development permit for the development of a six-story multipurpose building with events-based museum use, aquarium, and restaurant use known as International Swimming Hall of Fame West Building located at 501 Seabrees Boulevard for Lardo, Florida, having a land use designation of Central Beach Regional Activity Center in the South Beach Marina and Hotel Area Zoning District and a parking reduction request for the development.

Commissioner Sorensen?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Herbst?

Yes.

Commissioner Glossman?

Yes.

Mayor Trentals.

Yes, and R5 is now approved.

Good luck with that.

You're welcome.

PH one, uh public hearing, quasi judicial ordinance approving vacation right-of-way, 40-foot wide by 140-foot long portion of Southeast Second Court.

Anyone wishing to speak must be sworn in.

Yes, we're sorry again.

I'm sorry.

Which one are you on Mayor?

This is not a good idea.

You're not on PH one?

PH1.

PH one.

Vacation on the right of way.

That's a vacation or right away.

Yes.

So Robert Lockery.

Okay.

If I had any communications, it would have been with either Robert Lockery or Nectaria.

Commissioner Glass.

Yes, Robert Lockry, January 8th, 2026.

And Commissioner Sorensen.

Yes, applicant and site visits.

Okay.

What would you like to say?

I actually just have a correction that Nectaria Chakis uh with the firm Lockery and Chakis on behalf of the applicant.

Um I have been sworn.

Um there just a correction to one of the conditions of approval.

We're fine with all of them, but at the planning and zoning board meeting, we made a um a modification to one of the conditions, and that was um adopted by the planning and zoning board, and it's not reflected in the ordinance.

So I just wanted to read it into the record.

I've already spoken to Sherry and to um Anthony and this is the way I think we can decided to go ahead and resolve that.

It's uh on exhibit B of the ordinance.

It involves the um infrastructure that may be located, utilities that may be located in this area, um, and that we are to relocate them.

Um instead of we want the option of granting a utility easement to that facility provider.

So at the end of the sentence of condition number two, we would just ask that or an easement granted to the facility provider um be added there.

Anthony, are you are you okay with that?

Yes, Mayor, we discussed it with Sherry and we're good with it.

Okay, all right.

All right, very good.

Um you're the only next area, you're the only one that signed up to speak.

Is there anyone else who wishes to speak on this item?

Okay, there being none, thank you so much.

Do I hear a motion to close public hearing?

Moved.

Be moved.

Do I hear second?

Seconded, please call the role.

Commissioner Sorensen.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Hearst?

Yes.

Commissioner Glossman?

Yes.

Mayor Trentals.

Yes, public hearing on PH1 is now closed.

Uh would someone like to introduce the ordinance?

Introduce.

The ordinance has been introduced.

Please call the role.

Uh Sherry.

Just real quick since the connection.

As amended.

We're doing it as amended or as amended.

As amended.

Yeah.

Thank you.

In Ordnance of the City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, vacating and approximately 40 foot wide by a hundred and forty-foot portion of Southeast Second Court right away, lying between the west line of lot five, block three, a mened plat of Oak Ridge, according to Plot Theraves recording plot book 10, page 48 of the public records of Brower County, Florida, extended southerly.

And the east line of Sedlot 5 extended southerly located west of Rio Navarro Waterway, north of East Las O's Boulevard, east of South Victoria Park Ray and south of Southeast Second Street.

Also lands being in the city of Fort Lauderdale, Brower County, Florida.

Commissioner Sorensen.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Herbst?

Yes.

Commissioner Glossman?

Yes.

Mayor Trentals.

Yes.

And uh PH1 is now approved.

Thank you.

PH2.

Public hearing.

This is a quasi judicial resolution.

After the fact certificate of appropriateness for major alterations for the installation of artificial turf within the front outdoor seating area of a designated historic landmark located at 101 South Port Lauderdale Beach Boulevard.

Anyone wishing to speak must be sworn in, and the commission will announce any site visits, communications, or expert opinions received, and make them a part of the record.

Vice Mayor, do you have any disclosures?

None.

Commissioner Glassman.

Yes.

Um numerous site visits and also met with the applicant and uh counsel on January 16th, 2026 and March 2nd, 2026.

Thank you.

Commissioner Sorensen.

Yes, the applicant.

Okay.

So uh we have several people who sign up to speak.

I see one person is chomping at the bit.

The count, would you like to start?

Good evening.

It's been a long time.

Good evening.

The Pantheon was built between 26 and 19 before the Common Era in Rome.

It is the oldest extant, still operating public building from the ancient world.

It is noteworthy because after it was built between 2029 and 19 before the Common Era, in 80 of our common era, the Emperor Domation, the last of the 12 Caesars, had to renovate it.

What was interesting is later, one of the the second of the five good emperors that succeeded the twelve Caesars, a trajan, who, if you with all due respect, you should think in terms of the ambience of uh Stephen Glassman's attitude towards historical preservation, then restored the building and put an inscription with uh Marcus Vispanian Agrippa's name on the building, which was the original person who built it between 29 and 19 before the common era, which confuses uh ignorant tourists thinking that it was the that it is the original exact building, which it's not.

It's really the renovation by Trajan, who, as I said, had the ambience of historic preservation of Stephen Glassman.

Now, the successor of Trajan was his cousin Hadrian, who had the sort of the ambience of uh Dean Trantalis, in the sense of uh his ambience is more spended and make it look good, as opposed to Steve Glassman who says let's do the research with the magnifying glass.

Now, everything was going fine until about 202 of the common era when Emperor um Servius Alexander decided that it needed a little fix uh fixer up.

So it was fixed up again, but he didn't, but he put a little plaque with his name on the building, so it's very little that he actually changed.

But remember, it was still being used as a courthouse, as a temple, and it had, and it's most famous, it has the greatest unreinforced rotunda, concrete rotunda on top.

Now everything was going fine until 609 of the common era, when the Emperor Pocus in Constantinople heard that the peel that the ceiling was coming down and things weren't so great.

So he made a deal with Pope Boniface IV that we it would go that we convert from a pagan temple, which didn't have any money because everybody was a Christian into a Christian church.

So the Pope took the responsibility of renovating it.

So then we have a renovation to preserve it.

So the physical building was preserved, but we added altars and chapels, which by the way still exist.

I traded one myself when I was in Rome.

Now everything was going fine until about 1471, when Pope Sixtus IV decided he wanted to glorify Rome.

So he took people like Raphael and a person named uh Melazote de Foley, who was an artist to put uh religious frescoes in it.

The connection between us here in Fort Lauderdale and Maroluzzo do Foley, because he and his um mentor, his teacher, Francisco uh Piero Di Francisco's major works are in Rimini.

And the reason why we care about Rimini is it happens to be our sister city in Italy.

Rimini and Fort Lauderdale have been sister cities for decades.

Now, everything was going fine until, of course, Italy was reunified in 1870, and it became and the papal states were abolished, and the King of Italy, or the Kingdom of Italy, took over the church.

And what they did is they made it a national monument.

So they sort of stopped with services, and when the first king of Italy, Victor Emmanuel II died, and later his son, uh King Umberto I died, and his wife died, they are buried in, they are buried in the Pantheon.

Can you kind of conclude your comments?

So it was under the uh under the Republic of Italy, uh, under the Kingdom of Italy.

When the kingdom was abolished and it became a republic after World War II, then they made a deal with the church where the church takes care of part of it, and the other part of it is taking care of take care of the state.

What is the application to turf in a restaurant on the beach in Fort Lauderdale?

What this teaches you, the first example of historic preservation that goes back to 114 of our present era is you have to be flexible.

You have to make changes to historic preservation to historic buildings, or you end up with a pile of rubble.

And a little thing about adding a little turf is a minor thing that will encourage the business and the restaurant, which is the money that keeps the building standing.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Suetonius.

Anyway, um Michaela Conka, Michaela here.

Ah, there she is.

Followed by Bill Brown, followed by Courtney Crush, probably just for questions, right?

Or you want to say something?

May I have one record from Dr.

David Ruggieri?

I thought I would.

What is this?

We have to hand it to the clerk.

Okay.

So that letter is from Dr.

David Ruggieri, a resident of the historical of the historic La Sola Speech Club.

Okay.

The historic section.

I also um these are copies of my letter that I'm going to share for each one of you.

Okay, you can give it to us after you're using your time here.

Well, good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Commissioners.

I'm writing on behalf of the La Sola Speech Club as well as Broward Trust for Historic Preservation.

As the stewards for this iconic historic building, we understand we cannot take a formal position since the issue is outside the purview of the facade easement.

The trust can voice its concerns that come with this de novo and how it may work against the city's own historic design guidelines.

This is the second incident where the Cafe Del Mar, a business that chose to reside in a designated historic structure, has gone to the commission to request a resolution to alter changes that affect visually the exterior of this significant historic building.

Your decision today sets a precedent and allows for the consistent idea idea that if we do not agree with a law, a rule or a guideline.

I I will find a way to break it and get someone to change it for me.

All of our guidelines start at the federal level and make their way down to the local level for a reason.

The Federal Government, the National Park Services, and the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act 1966, its subsequent major amendments from 1980 and again in 1992.

Expand preservation benefits to communities nationwide, to American Indian tribes, and other cultural groups.

The National Historic Preservation Act delegates a wide range of responsibilities for historic preservation work to the National Park Service, its partners, and other federal agencies, tribal preservation offices, state historic preservation offices, the certified local governments and private organizations, including the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Together, these make up the National Historic Preservation Partnership.

What follows reflects common preservation principles and ideas that are standard to the field of historic preservation.

All modifications should respect the building's original character by retaining significant architectural features, materials, and spatial relationships.

This ensures that any new additions remain compatible in scale and appearance, yet clearly distinguishable from the historic fabric.

Interventions should be minimal and when possible reversible with repair perverted over replacement.

These principles align with national recognized preservation standards and will help ensure that the property's historic integrity is protected while accommodating contemporary use.

Broward Trust for Historic Preservation chooses to make decisions regarding the facade easement based on the Federal Historic Preservation Act and the City of Fort Lauderdale's historic preservation design guidelines.

We believe that the city should follow its own historic design guidelines.

You too are the steward of this historic section of the Las Olas Beech Club, and when necessary, it is your responsibility to care for it and protect this building for perpetuity, since it will soon be the last historic structure left on the beach.

The historic preservation design guidelines were completed and approved by the Fort Lauderdale City Council in the spring of 2012.

Thank you for your time, consideration, and interest.

Michaela Conka.

First of all, thank you for being here tonight.

Thank you, Mayor.

In looking at your statement, you're saying that retaining significant architectural features.

So what was the architectural feature that was uh that's under the um the proposed covering as we see it today, the the artificial turf.

What's the what's the architectural feature that's being covered up?

Well, most of the residents were unhappy with the artificial turf because they they want to see the um what what what architectural feature are we covering up?

I am not taking an issue with this TURF as much as what's happened to this building over the years, Mayor, because everything that's been approved there has actually distorted the visual aspect of that historic iconic structure.

And when I I also mentioned the spatial relationship to Well, let's start all right.

We'll get to that.

That's that's later on in the sentence, retaining significant architectural features, materials, and spatial relationships.

So what does that mean, spatial relationships?

Are we detracting from the space continuum by putting the artificial turf?

It's a distraction.

It's a distraction, not an enhancement.

Yes.

Okay.

So what architectural feature are we destroying with this distraction?

I didn't imply that any feature was being destroyed.

What I basically was explaining is that the guidelines that have been in place with regards to historic preservation are included in these other principles that align with the nationally recognized preservation standards and will help.

I don't want you reading to me.

Please, Michaela, I can read.

I just let's just take your your standards that you've identified here in your statement, and let's apply them to the situation.

That's what we do in these quasi-judicial situations.

We we take the facts and we apply them to the to the law.

All right.

You've given us the law, architectural features, retaining significant architectural features, materials, and spatial relationships.

Now I just need to understand what architectural features are we obscuring.

Um what are the spatial relationships that we are we are that we are compromising?

Okay, if you look at any of the pictures of the other.

I just walked by there this morning, so I know I have a visual of my personal visual.

I know what it looks like.

If you look at the historical pictures of what that structure looked like when it was constructed, 1938, I believe.

I'm not 36, thank you.

There was there was uh a wall with a small area in front of the building with some grass.

The rest of it was sidewalk.

There was no distraction from pergolas to uh planters to artificial grass, all of that material that sits now in front of this iconic building is for a true historic preservationist a it's it's there's a conflict there for for the building.

It's a distraction to the building from an architect uh from an architectural standpoint.

Um I hear you.

All right.

All right, thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

May I have a question?

Yeah.

So did the Broward Trust for Historic Preservation have any say on the awnings that were attached, actually attached to the historic structure?

Was that within the purview of your facade easement?

The awnings, it's my understanding, Commissioner, that though those came up for a resolution when they first were installed that um attached to the building.

Yes.

And did the prior to prior to the fall within your facade easement that you have on the structure?

I had no say in those awnings.

That's not the question.

The question is did the Broward Trust, under its facade easement on that structure, participate in the acceptance of the awnings attached to the building.

Well, we approved the existing awnings to the building.

I think you got your answer.

Okay.

Thank you.

I'm not an engineer.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

Stop.

Thank you, Michaela.

Bill Brown.

I hear you're going for a knee operation tomorrow.

Yes.

I'm sorry, you're probably in pain, or you're you you're suffering from euphoria from all the medications you take.

How better could I spend uh evening prior prior to surgery than with the sting diet?

Talking about artificial turf in front of the Lauderdale Beach.

Okay.

Bill Brown, President of the Central Beach Alliance, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Members Commission.

You have I have you have my word that I'm not going to give you a history lesson on ancient Rome, nor will I give you a history lesson on modern Rome.

But I will give you some facts.

When I hear the word distraction, I walk by on a weekly basis, Cafe Domar.

I've been in there, I've eaten there.

I never even realized it was actually turf.

So how can it be a distraction when someone goes by there as many times as I do in other residences?

This never came up at any of our meetings, even when the awnings were put up, it was never an issue.

We discussed it at the CBA board, and we felt that since it has no effect on the structural historical integrity of the building.

I mean, how do you attach astral turf that covers pavers to a building?

It's not.

And so we felt there's no need to take take it before the membership because it's a kind of a mute moot point.

The same thing when the awning, the the structural frame of the awning was put up in that building a few years ago.

It was never an issue.

It's never been an issue.

And we asked that uh you you consider all these facts as you deliberate this and hopefully can reach a resolution that will support the uh the businesses and the community.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you so much.

Um Courtney Crush.

You represent the uh applicant, correct?

Yes, Mayor, I represent Cafe Delmar.

Uh Leo Um Vincenzo Padula is here with me this evening.

Uh Mayor, given some of the comments that were made, um, may I go through a brief presentation if you wish by the way?

I'll be honest with you.

I'm just I'm trying to I'm trying to figure out because I know the Broward Trust approved the awnings, which which completely changes the architectural facade of the building.

But wait a minute, let me finish what I'm saying.

Yes, Mayor.

But but but the green um artificial turf, which doesn't even touch the building, um, is somehow considered a distraction or a compromise of the integrity of the historic nature of this building.

I'm just I I don't believe it and I don't and I don't believe it does, Mayor.

Um please reconcile that for me.

Uh certainly.

Um as the mayor may recall, the designation of a portion of the Lauderdale Beach Hotel in conjunction with related redevelopment plans was approved by the City Commission in 2002.

The city code, when a structure or a portion of a structure is designated as historic as a historic landmark, also then includes the land surrounding it.

You would ask at the last meeting on this item, what portion of the Lauderdale Beach Hotel is designated.

So you have the landmark, which is just the facade, and then you have the landmark site, which is the portion of the property I just shared.

There is was also in conjunction with that a facade easement in favor of the Broward Trust for Historic Preservation, which required if there were any maintenance uh alteration, maintenance, et cetera, permission from the trust be obtained.

Um just for reference, I shared these with the commission the last time uh postcard of the Lauderdale Beach Hotel, a um picture that I had shared the last time you had asked Mayor the origin of it.

It was in an article, but it was actually excerpted from a pl press release from the Broward Trust for Historic Preservation, um, which shows as you can see green out in front and the wall.

The area today, which to your question, Mayor, um, we are seeking a certificate of appropriateness to place turf on top of existing paver.

And and I do want to make a comment on Mr.

Padula's behalf.

Um, if the turf company should have pulled a permit to install turf on top of pavers, um, then the the company should have done so.

Um and when Mr.

Padula was advised that even though he wasn't changing pervious area, laying this carpet, if you will, on top of the pavers required a permit, he approached the city to get one.

He was then advised that he needed a certificate of appropriateness for a major alteration by the city and filed this application.

Um I've been doing practicing this area of law for a while.

It would never have occurred to me that placing turf on top of um that portion of the property while it is designated historic in support of the facade structure, required a certificate of appropriateness.

Um as was brought up in to your question, Mayor.

Um the uh Cafe Delmar took over this property um from H2O, which had approved outdoor dining, had approved awnings, and sought and received um a certificate of appropriateness from the historic preservation board.

Um the Broward Tusk for Historic Preservation at the time said, as long as you're not touching the facade, we have nothing to do with this.

So the city approved the awning structure.

We are here today to request, and again, I'm not sure why it require is considered a major alteration for but a certificate of appropriateness for the turf.

Um as you can see, the turf does not obstruct their view of the historic facade.

It's actually lower.

It is ground cover, and we believe it meets the criteria contained in the city's ULDR.

The effect of the work on the landmark or the property, um, there is no effect.

We are not altering the facade, and we are not actually altering the pavers.

The relationship between the work and other structures on the landmark, again, the the this is this is an inch or too tall.

Um it doesn't impact any relationship between the landmark site or other property.

Um to the extent that the historic architectural or archaeological significance and color will be affected.

Well, it will be green instead of red.

It looks like from some of the historical photos, it has been green over time.

Again, not creating a distraction to one experiencing the facade.

Whether the denial would deprive the property owner of a reasonable reasonable beneficial use of the property.

This is a commercial condominium, which includes this outdoor area, and um depriving the economic viability of operating this cafe where his patrons clearly um enjoy this, yeah, we think is um inappropriate.

The major alteration criteria talks about providing a compatible use that requires minimal alteration to the building use structure, site environment, etc.

There is no alteration to either the facade.

The distinguishing original qualities or character of a building structure or site and environment shall not be destroyed.

We certainly agree.

We're not destroying or alterating and altering anything.

Um the sites and the structures on the site have to be recognized as product in their own time.

You agree, turf is a product of um this era.

I actually think it was invented in 1965.

Um so not quite historic.

Um again, but does have a nod to the past to this hotel, which had grass before, and a putting green, actually.

It was um tennis courts and a putting green.

It was one of the first, as the Commissioner Glassman and you all know, resort hotels on the beach.

Um every reasonable effort shall be made to protect and preserve archaeological resources affected by adjacent to any acquisition, protection, stabilization, preservation, rehabilitation, restoration or reconstruction project.

Um there is no impact um because there is no digging going on and the like.

So therefore, mayor, um, I think we meet each and every one of the city's ULDR requirements for um installation of this covering of the pavers, which while they're not historic, they're not being destroyed either.

And we very much appreciate the commission um approving the certificate of appropriateness.

Thank you.

Okay, uh you're very welcome.

Is there anyone else who wishes to speak on this item?

There being none.

Does anyone else have any questions regarding this?

Okay, there being none.

Was someone like to uh hold on?

Um move to close public hearing on PH.

Which one are we on to?

Two.

So move.

It's been moved.

Do I hear second?

Second.

Move and seconded to close public hearing on pH two.

Please call the rule.

Commissioner Sorensen.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Herbst.

Yes.

Commissioner Glossman?

Yes.

Mayor Tentals.

Yes.

And public hearing is now closed on PH two.

Would someone like to introduce the resolution?

Mayor, I is it the resolution to approve um the whoever wants to introduce the resolution.

I I would like to introduce a resolution to approve.

Yes, to approve the after-the-fact certificate of appropriateness for major alterations.

Although I do share Ms.

Crush's uh skepticism about major alterations, although that is actually in the in the campus.

And this is based on your belief that the uh UD UDLR, UL ULDR uh criteria have been met.

Yes, I actually do believe that.

And I I I think we have to look at past practice here.

Um for the fact that those are the Christian era or the Roman era.

No, I'm not gonna go back to the Roman era.

I'm just gonna go back to like 1936 when this structure was constructed.

Trying to just gonna get perspective.

And as I mentioned a month ago, I actually did uh file that application for historic designation on this building.

Such a significant building in terms of the only Art Deco resort uh and Fort Lauderdale that has partially been kept uh right now.

Uh it was a major resort and a major architect, and that's why it did deserve the designation that it received.

But it it is hypocritical to say that there's an issue with this turf when it was already approved for the awnings, the signage on the building.

There's actually signage on the building that identifies the retail on the building, uh, the shade structures above the turf.

All of that was approved.

I I don't see how we can say no to what basically is a carpet um and yet have that history of approving all of those other alterations to to the building.

It doesn't make sense.

Um the the restaurant did ask the manager of the hotel, I'm sorry, of the Las Solas Beech Club condominium at the time uh for approval and was granted that by the manager of the condominium.

Um and also was told by the city that appointment was necessary for the the turf.

So I'm I'm taking all of that into consideration.

But I do have one actual request, Mayor, and I know that this is maybe a little bit outside of this, but um if you will just indulge me for a second, um I understand the can the concern of the residents that live right above the the restaurant.

They are actually residing in the historic structure.

Um as you know, when we did that compromise, it was 2002 when this was designated.

The Las Olas Beach Club was constructed to the west of uh what we now have as the remaining designated hotel.

Um because of that, there are people that actually were able to purchase into the historic structure on the eastern portion of this project.

Um I understand their concerns.

I want us to be perhaps sensitive, and if I could just ask the the applicant or the applicant's attorney uh a question on this.

Um again, I am all in favor of allowing this turf.

But I do know that when it comes to historic preservation, the most important aspect is what's facing the street, is what you see from the street, the facade on the street, that elevation.

So, because of the fact that the planners really go all the way around, except at the very opening, um, and also to the north where you have the cafe.

Um, the turf was put in there for the comfort of the patrons to make it you know appealing for the patrons.

There are no patients that sit at the north end by the cafe.

Correct, mate.

I would just love that.

I'm hoping that we, as a commission, approve the approval of this turf.

Um, but then I'm hoping that that's not the end of the story.

I'm hoping that you're able to go back to the residence.

I'm hoping that you're able to have a conversation and perhaps come to a moment where you're able to at least discuss the removal of the turf all the way north, which really does not impact the seating area, and at the same time, possibly, possibly look at the part that it really is the most important in terms of historic preservation, that eastern portion.

You have a large green area of the turf.

I'm just suggesting that a little bit of that remove at the entrance, for instance, where the hostess stand is, um, and that at least shows some pavers, and it also creates a little bit more of uh a transition from the street from the pavers to the actual turf and then the seating area.

I just would love that kind of an interaction and discussion with especially the owners that live right above the restaurant.

If that's just a consideration, I would love for that kind of a commitment.

Yet um yes, um Vincenzo will commit to get with those unit owners and discuss the north area where there is no seating and also a discussion regarding the portion portion of the entrance area.

That'd be great.

That's that's all I asked.

Yeah, but that's not part of the resolution.

I understand.

Exactly.

But I also wanted to get that on the record because I think it's important for the people that live there as well.

Uh I know it's not part of what this uh you know, what this public hearing is about, but I just wanted to get that uh on the record.

And then I think we uh we can consider that a proffer of a commitment to have those conversations.

And I appreciate that.

And with that, may I am very happy to move this resolution forward.

All right, the resolution has been introduced.

Please call the roll.

A resolution city commission of the city of Fort Lauderdale, Florida approving an after-the-fact certificate of appropriateness for major alterations for the installation of artificial turf in the front outdoor seating area of the Lauderdale Beach Hotel case number UDP-8021 for the property located at 101 South Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard Fort Lardo, Florida, and providing for an effective date.

Commissioner Sorensen?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Herbst?

Yes.

Commissioner Glossman?

Yes.

Mayor Trentals.

Yes, and PH2 is now approved.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Our last item tonight is OSR 1.

This is a second reading and ordinance amending chapter 27 of the Code of Ordinances to establish an administrative application process, associated fees, and to define for uh vehicle for hire services and operating standards.

Again, this is an ordinance on the second reading.

The city commission has already approved uh this item in the first reading.

We have a number of people who sign up to speak.

Um about six, seven.

Uh so let us begin.

Um Gregory Oates.

Followed by Bill Brown.

Bill, are you still here?

Yeah.

Uh followed by Uzochi.

I'm never gonna even try to pronounce your last name.

Please bear with me.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Um my name's Gregory Oates.

Uh, as a way of introduction on April 1st this year, I was celebrate my 21st anniversary, riding petty cubs, uh, which began here in Fort Lauderdale under Ocean View Rick Sure.

Since then I have become a globally experienced petty cup, or I still have a connection to Fort Lauderdale.

I'm passionate about uh green transit, making places more accessible, especially cycling.

Uh I apologize for not having participation and you do the meetings.

I apologize for not having participating and you do the meetings, I'm a busy person.

I'm in other places.

This means that pedicups, for example, can give a more romantic, a more laid back experience of a tour to visit us to the city on the river fronts and river walks, areas like that, whereas a golf cart can't do that.

A golf cart can, however, travel at 28 miles an hour and can carry maybe eight to ten people.

If you treat them with the same licensing regime entirely, they will not be able to uh the golf cuts will probably squeeze out the romantic aspect of the pedicabs.

Uh I do believe that golf carts are useful and they can be more environmentally friendly than regular vehicles, so that's something to consider for sure.

Golf carts are not as romantic, I agree.

They are not as romantic, exactly.

You like some modified cycling, you know.

You got your your partner with significantly children.

Romance is always a part of a pedicure ride.

Yeah.

Um I think that uh something that perhaps needs looking at and considering, uh maybe this has been mentioned before, is um out of area riders if they uh get permits somehow.

Uh they're not really quite as respectful um as the old riders.

There are still some old Ocean View OEX riders, and there's a small network that we know in other places that would still like to come and work seasonally as we used to and I used to and still do.

Um the old riders can liaise the people in the city and can say uh, you know, these are the old people we could maybe get about be vouched for by uh people like some of the old Ocean View people, like the uh Alexander's.

Um I think that the other uh one suggestion I may have is it's possible that you would separate the number of permits uh and begun with a trial period for a small number of pedicabs to allow it to develop and then maybe expand from there.

That way you can see that uh you're not gonna get a glut of out of area riders coming in for one or two events where they may break a lot of rules.

Uh, another thing to consider is that uh pedicabs can operate as electric bicycles under existing state law, which would limit them to 20 miles an hour.

Um what you may see is out of town is coming in, and if you want to get a radar gun on them, you're gonna see people doing 30, 35 miles an hour.

They're road vehicles.

Well, petty cabs?

Yes.

Uh doing 35 miles an hour.

Some do.

Got some pretty strong legs.

Yeah, right.

So that's that's the wrong type of electric motor or some very unusual legs.

Yes, exactly.

All right, well, thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

Bill Brown, followed by Uzochi, followed by um uh I think this says Julie Demure.

Good evening, Bill Brown, President of Central Beach Alliance.

You've got a lot to say tonight, Bill.

I know.

Uh this is a long time coming.

Uh having to address this problem.

As you heard at the first reading, even uh legal counsel for some of the operators said that it's out of control.

We know it's out of the control, out of control, these uh electric vehicles.

There's right now it's no control over it, and this ordinance one passes, we'll do that.

Since the last meeting uh before this commission ordinance at first reading, I had the opportunity to participate in both the Zoom meeting and in-person meeting with the stakeholders to listen to them.

Uh they do have some valid concerns, which is out of the control of the city, and part of that is two years ago when the state legislature passed an or uh bill that allows other operators to come in from say Orlando or different counties.

And I think at some point, maybe the lobby city should put look that as a legislative agenda action as a glitch bill and limiting the number of permits.

I support staff, and you'll hear probably some of the staff comments to limiting it to the CBA.

We've heard it.

We've met with the transportation mobility well over two years ago when this start process started.

We support keeping it at 100.

It's a pilot.

If we need to uh up the number at a certain point later, you still have that flexibility.

When it comes to insurance, I see every day practically, especially on weekends, six and eight, and I hate to put it this way, but intoxicated individuals at 12.30, 1 a.m.

in the morning on these carts.

God forbid, if one of them ever got T-boned and had serious injuries or loss of life.

If you have only a hundred thousand and two uh with uh uh individual currents maximum three hundred thousand for eight people, my new need that I'm getting tomorrow costs seventy-two thousand dollars.

So do the math to ask for a million per currents maximum two million is not unreasonable in today's society, especially when you're there transporting these individuals.

So we come before you and let's let's pass this ordinance.

If you have to come back and tweak it later, you do have that flexibility.

Uh we support the criminal background checks as required for the chauffeur's license, which is there now.

So let's work together and I and we move forward and not kick the can down any further down the road on this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Zoshi Onya Jura.

Okay, you so you don't want to speak?

Okay.

Did I come close to pronouncing your name?

Okay.

Okay.

Uh is it uh Julie Demur?

Jewel.

Jewel, I'm sorry.

That's fine.

You did not get an A in penmanship.

I just want you to know that.

Well, Mr.

Mayor, I've um being uh born and raised here in South Florida, and then growing up in California every first day of school year, I've had that issue.

My my whole name is actually French, and yes, it's spelled J-U-L-E without an I, but you know, people read it quickly, and so you know, every first day of school.

Julie for 13 years, so or you know, whatever.

Uh nevertheless, um I I kind of want to follow up on uh what Gregory Oates was speaking about.

I I'm uh former Ocean View Rickshaw operator of petty cabs, and it came to our uh um it was brought up to us that there was you know these things going on with the city as far as like you know the golf carts.

And um we ended up making it to a meeting where we sat with stakeholders and we learned about all the things that are going forward.

Uh we weren't here for the first reading, uh some of us, and so we're here now.

Uh my concern with uh the ordinance, uh, which I think is a perfectly good ordinance in general, is uh that quite possibly if it's possible, we should be allowed to carve out our industry, our uh bicycle taxi industry, uh e-bike in some cases, because we are uh uh we kind of just transformed a little bit from being exclusively human pedal to uh e-bike in order to uh you know provide the services that we provide.

You know, we're not vehicles for hire that are um registered with a DMV, and uh that's a little concerning.

So in general, I just like to suggest that if there could be a possibly a carve out for our specific industry moving forward if this ordinance is passed, which I'm not against.

I I put neutral on my card, but frankly, the the general consensus I I like.

I think it's great.

Insurance for every you know, the insurance like the previous gentleman talked about one million, two million.

We have that under our own petty cab permitting processes in other cities, and I work in another city outside of Fort Lauderdale, I work in California.

Um that's that issue.

Uh the second issue, or at least the second concern that I have is our special events tend to draw the attention of other petty cab operators from other towns that have come in.

Some of them were coming into the F1 event in Miami.

Somehow they found out about this one here in uh Fort Lauderdale, Tortuga being the specific event.

And last year, uh many of them showed up from out of town from another city here and locally in the state.

And uh I spoke with someone from Parking Parks and Recks who was concerned about how they were operating.

They'd also like mentioned that the year before there were some of these same characters who uh were doing things that just wasn't very cool.

Uh charging just excessive amounts of money just to take a bike ride that lasted only maybe five to ten minutes, and they were charging like five hundred dollars.

Uh I believe that at least for this coming Tortuga, there should be some type of uh edge that the police should have as far as enforcement, particularly and specifically for our petty cab operators that might be coming in to work.

Okay.

All right well thank you for coming today appreciate it you're welcome.

Eric Schwartz followed by Paul Minhoff and Carlos Barrios.

Good evening.

Good evening mayor commissioners I'm here on behalf of the golf cart drivers and shuttle services.

Is like a solid maybe even signage or something about the elbow room and like their parking a lot of drivers are getting tickets we were told that there was going to be a 90 day educational you know if the a police officer has an issue with you know say for the newer drivers that don't know you know what the standing or parking rules are in spring break event like this you know all of the road all of A1A is blocked off with the barriers to you know control the crowds and stuff like that and we're trying to find out what the actual rule is or ordinance or if there could be an exception while the street is blocked off about us parking at the elbow room because everybody is getting funneled that way because of the street is blocked off for crowd control which makes perfect sense but a lot of drivers are getting parking tickets for being there so we're trying to find out what the what the statue is for that because when you say parking at the elbow room there's no parking at the elbow room.

So we typically line up near the bike lane where the elbow room is the at the light and customers come to us.

Is this on Las Olas or on on A1A?

On Los Solas on Las Solos before you make the the turns on to A1A okay you know typically lined up there our lights are on we're visible we're not staying in traffic we're not uh Peding traffic at all customers come to us and ask us for the shuttle ride to XYZ and that's what we do.

Um the carts aren't being left unattended if someone has to use the bathroom or maybe they run across the street to grab uh slice of pizza or something like that.

We typically ask the next driver hey can you watch my car if the car needs to be moved up the keys in it so on and so forth.

Can you speak into the microphone?

Oh I'm sorry about that.

I have a pretty loud voice so I don't really ever need a microphone.

Gotcha I understand thank you.

So we're trying to find out you know because a a lot of police officers don't care we've developed pretty good relationships with them so on and so forth but then you have just one traffic uh I don't think they're actually police officers but the people that are in charge of writing the tickets and stuff like that.

You know we're doing the best that we can to provide a service for the city a relatively safe service for the city and they're just cracking out these 40 dollar tickets every single day you know and that sometimes is a few hours wage right there.

Alright well that's an enforcement issue which I think you know we'll have to that's separate from what we're trying to do tonight but um you know it's a where you park you know there on Los Olas um so today I happen to be standing in front of the elbow room at 10 o'clock this morning and an Uber driver stopped right in front of the elbow room at A1A blocking the horns went off like crazy.

Police officer was standing right there issued them a ticket okay you don't stop in the middle of traffic.

So we have you know these are traffic lanes and travel lanes that's the problem.

So we're staying out of the travel lanes.

We are completely clear of the travel so that so that you'd have to take up with our police department you say if you say that they you know they cooperate with you then you know we'll figure out a way but that's not what this is about tonight.

So I think I think everybody that came here would might have been misinformed about what we were here for tonight that's all or misinterpreted well tonight is it tonight's about establishing rules and regulations for operators not about the actual um not about the actual um practice that you undertake when you you know when you run your business on the beach or wherever it may be.

So you know we encourage you to meet with our our transportation people.

Mrs.

Dunn yes yeah and they'll be I've never met you before I'm relatively new at this button it's okay.

Um so to speak with her and you know try to figure out some solution because we want you do provide a great service for us okay let's let's understand that okay and we want you to we want you to be successful in your business at the same time.

And uh so let's see if there's a way to work that out.

And if I could put on a record we're definitely more than willing to uh help provide that shuttle service for the for the parking garage for the parking garages as well.

Where are they?

Oh they left if I could get her information I would love to discuss a business plan with that.

Okay.

All right very good we'll get that to you all right I apologize for wasting your time we were just under the impression that that's what this meeting was about.

Uh but you can meet with them.

Okay.

All right you're very welcome.

Paul Minhoff hello there gems of wisdom are you going to impart with us tonight.

I hope uh some very useful gems.

Thank you.

Well any different than when you spoke the first time well I can tell you that things have changed immensely and and uh everyone the stakeholders that I've spoken to including my client just for the record Paul Minoff trip Scott here on behalf of Card Concierge LLC.

I want to start just by thanking Morgan and and her folks the last two meetings that Mr Brown mentioned I was at the in-person one it was very productive uh the staff's been very open minded and listening and they did come back with a product that is vastly different in a number of incredible ways and that's also due in part large part to the city attorney's office and uh Ms.

McCarthy's been her folks have been absolutely fantastic and I even got a personal call yesterday just to remind me that the meeting was going on and to ask me a couple questions and I I very much appreciated that uh because I did provide a lot of feedback.

I have only one issue one concern.

I have one concern and then an issue tied to that concern.

So we know that there's a state statute that allows anyone licensed or permitted in any jurisdiction to come to Fort Lauderdale and Fort Lauderdale can't require them to be separately permitted.

So what's happening is we have this insurance requirement which is my only objection if you will to this ordinance and I understand why it was set and I did hear Mr Brown speak.

I think some of the concern can be addressed through enforcement rather than penalizing business owners and small business owners like my client who have only one vehicle so the insurance right now as Mr Brown referenced is requiring a million dollars per single limit.

If you look at the state statute for taxicabs, jutneys and all other types of as they use the term uh for hire passenger transportation vehicles the limits are 1252 fifty fifty and fifty thousand so 125000 per incident for bodily injury two fifty in the aggregate and 5000 for property damage.

The city is currently required the state legislature is the standard by which we should follow not at all.

Okay.

I'm just saying that standard is actually followed in a lot of other jurisdictions other that the way the stat the law is written the statute the 324 uh 320603 is that these folks can go to a jurisdiction in the state that has much less requirements and operate here not be required to meet the state the the city's insurance requirements but the people who actually live here and who are working here and operating small businesses they're going to be penalized and I might ironically my client who's going to be penalized the the person who suffers an injury as a result of as a result of you know patronizing your client or other people who are in the same business who suffer a severe head injury and the limits of their exposure is only a hundred thousand dollars.

Who's being who's being penalized here I'm not promo I'm not advocating for a hundred thousand dollars of insurance I'm advocating that a million dollars is excessive when you consider the cost my client just got her renewal she just sent it to me she's she personally holds 150 300 thousand and 150.

That policy the renewal is six thousand twenty one dollars one cart two drivers if she drops the second driver which means she would then limit the amount of how often the cart goes out then it's five thousand and two hundred dollars so what's the million dollar coverage?

So what's the million dollar coverage?

It's going to be at least three times that amount for one cart.

That's unusual because there's the usually insurance, it's not uh it's it's not calculated arithmetically.

There's usually a point of diminishing costs as you go higher.

Except the there's very few companies that will actually insure golf carts for hire, and they are that I don't know.

Because of the liability and the costs of of injuries that that they have suffered.

I mean, this everything is done actually.

They don't just come up with numbers uh, you know, uh our artificially.

No, I agree, but think about I can go to I can go to our Orlando.

But this is the same issue years ago when the county was encountered with Uber, and we were there the county was requiring the Uber company and Lyft to um to have certain insurance requirements.

And that what did Uber and Lyft do?

They went to the state legislature and and the power to in enforce a higher uh insurance requirement was taken away from them.

Right.

Well, that's the risk here though, too.

It's not the risk, right?

No, we want to avoid that risk.

No, but if I can go to Orange County and go to City of Orlando and and get my permit there.

I don't have to live there, I just have to operate, get a permit there.

I can then operate here in the city of Fort Lauderdale with 125, 250, 125.

So all we're doing is encouraging people to completely circumvent this permit process by just registering somewhere else, which vitiates or undermines the whole purpose of this permit ordinance to begin with, and doesn't give you the additional protection.

I don't disagree that additional protection is needed.

The last time we were talked about this, I know the members of the commission were concerned because there are people who have five carts and now all of a sudden they're gonna be paying fifty, seventy-five thousand dollars for insurance, and when you're when on five carts for a million dollars, you're talking about it and you you're gonna put these people out of business.

And I don't think that's what the city wants to do, especially because I think everyone recognizes that it is a valid, viable, and worthwhile uh enterprise here in the city.

But these people are really concerned and and I feel their pain because some of them, my clients not going to be able to afford that.

She's gonna have to stop.

So you're saying they could so you're saying they can register anywhere else and then come and operate here?

Correct.

You can ask Morgan.

We don't make to have a commissioner, maybe uh Vice Mayor may interject.

So Mr.

Leno, while uh it is true that there is reciprocity that you can get your license, your permit elsewhere and operate in a different county, the insurance requirement is not linked to your permit.

So while your permit from Orange County allows you to operate here, Fort Lauderdale still requires you to have that level of insurance.

They're not linked.

No, it's actually a permit requirement here in Fort Lauderdale.

But it would still be you you would still have to have that insurance.

That would be the so if somebody gets their permit in you know Polk County, they still have to get our they still have to meet our insurance requirements.

Is that that is our intent?

How do we enforce it?

If they've got their permit from somewhere else, what's our mechanism for ensuring that they've met our insurance requirements then?

Because they've already showed up with their permit.

So what do we do then?

This is becomes an enforcement issue, that's correct.

So City Manager, how how how do we then ensure that we've got you know equal treatment?

So that his clients aren't being required to have a higher level of insurance than somebody who's coming in from out of county with a permit that should be meeting our insurance requirements.

Can we tell?

If if I've got if I've got two carts side by side on the street, how do I know whether one is permitted here in Fort Lauderdale and one is permitted in Orlando or somewhere else?

Vice Mayor, I think enforcement will always be a challenge, whether it's a golf cart or a regular vehicle.

Uh everyone's supposed to have insurance, but everyone doesn't always have that, and our police officers don't necessarily pull over every single car to make sure that they do have insurance.

So enforcement will be a challenge, but our requirement to have that higher level of insurance, we hope will help protect our neighbors.

But if they're coming in from out of county, they're not going to have it as a practical.

But let's be realistic here, right?

So if you the you know the whole purpose of uh being permitted in Orlando is to avoid our more stringent requirements down here, otherwise they would get their permits from here.

And so if they're never going to get caught, they're never going to get the insurance.

The only time we'll find out they don't have the insurance is after the accident.

Or or if there's a traffic violation and they're asked to provide their permit and their evidence of insurance.

And just like any other vehicle situation.

Well, true, but I I doubt I doubt when they're asked to provide the evidence of insurance that the police officer is looking at the limits on the insurance.

They're just asking, do you have insurance?

I doubt they're looking, is it 100, 300, 1 million or anything else?

No due respect to my to our officers, but I I don't think they're the I don't think that they're walking around with our insurance requirements for vehicles to hire handy as their or or PSAs when they're out there, you know.

If we have our public safety aides and they're out there uh uh you know investigating an accident, I doubt they're looking at the insurance requirements on the insurance certificates.

I'm just I'm I'm trying to be realistic about this.

So why do we have any insurance requirements?

Why don't we just say why you say you don't need to have insurance if you want to operate?

Well, I'm trying to figure out how uh I'm I'm not trying to say none.

What I'm trying to figure out is how we put everybody on an equal playing field.

Well, what's equal?

I don't know, every single I'm trying to explain.

I think Foreign Lauderdale should set a standard and let maybe others should follow because they're gonna find that accidents are going to be to the detriment of their of their patrons and uh there's there's a lot of things that I think should happen in the world, Mayor, but that doesn't mean they're gonna happen.

So in the meantime, so that we don't so that we don't create an unfair playing field for our local businesses.

Uh I'm I want to ask um, you know, what do you think?

How do we enforce this so that either one of two things happen?

I I know what you're suggesting.

You're suggesting that we have a lower standard here.

The mayor is suggesting that we have a higher standard.

If that's the case, how do I how do I get your competitors to have to meet that higher standard?

Well, there's there's an initial problem, a threshold problem here.

This the ordinance is not written in a way that says any vehicles for hire operating in the city shall meet the following insurance requirements.

It literally says in order to get a permit, and I'll read the language, it says before a permit can be issued to any person, you must submit the following proof of automobile liability insurance.

It's not tied to the ability to operate, it's tied to getting a permit.

The purpose of this ordinance is to regulate issues issuance of permits, and it's a requirement.

I don't know, and and I'd have to defer to Madam City attorney, but I don't know if the city has the authority under the governing statute to tell drivers and other from other cities that they have to have more insurance than their permit requires in their jurisdiction.

I think that contravenes the intent and purpose and language of the statute.

But irrespective, if you read the ordinance, it does not mandate insurance for all vehicles for hire.

It mandates insurance in order to get a permit in the city of Fort Lauderdale, and that's not the same thing.

So that this maybe attorney so there's no miserable.

It would be difficult to enforce it, even even with that change because there's nothing it's linked to, so it would be very difficult to enforce that.

Well, it's not difficult to enforce if a police officer stops uh a driver and and says, Do you have evidence of insurance?

And they're gonna show evidence of insurance, but they but under these circumstances we should require evidence of the of the scope of their insurance.

It's I mean it's very doable.

And if they can't, then they should be denied denied the opportunity to operate here.

It's a simple option.

But we're only we're only stopping them for traffic violations.

We're not doing random stops.

No, you can't do a random stop.

No, I know that.

So we don't do random stops with automobile.

No, I I I understand that, but what I'm getting it's it's it's the point, Mayor, is not is not catching the people who have lower levels of insurance.

It is how do we create a level playing field so that everybody has the same cost of doing business.

So he's going to have a much higher cost of business for his clients than our out-of-county operators are experiencing, putting him at a competitive disadvantage when they're trying to operate.

Um so I think the issue is not in my mind, the issue is not whether or not they have the same insurance.

The issue is whether or not they have the same business model, and and what we're what we're saying here is that they have a more cost advantage business model because they don't have to follow our rules.

Yeah, but the thing is there's a cost of doing business.

And you know, having one vehicle for hire is not cost effective as opposed to having five or ten.

That's just the that you know, the the ability to operate this kind of business does not um does not um uh merit having a single vehicle because the cost is too great.

So that's just the that's just the nature of this business.

So I you know we can't accommodate everybody, but the people that we must accommodate are the are the people who patronize these and who or who get run over by these and um and to have the have the ability to compensate people for their their medical suffering, and I think that's more important.

Now, I would say anywhere between what did I think I saw a statistic between 20 and 30 percent of all motor vehicle drivers in the state of Florida have no insurance.

Okay, but we don't know that.

And so they have to be stopped because of a traffic violation in order to enforce that part of the law.

But that's but that's not that the I think the difference here, mayor, that I'm not arguing that point with you.

The the the I think the difference here is this is a commercial business requirement to operate, and I think that's what's different.

So it would be like it would be like saying, you know, the Uber driver doesn't have insurance, like you were to use your example, and you know that makes it that makes it uh uh different competitively if Lyft drivers have to have insurance, but Uber drivers don't, you know, then I'm gonna say, well, you know, you you've cost advantage one particular operator over another.

But you have to scale up your business in order to be able to pay the I think what we're doing is we're just telling our local operators don't get your permit here in Fort Lauderdale, go get your permit in Orlando and then come back and operate here.

Well, you know, that's what I would do.

If that's if that's if wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

If that's the consequence of this, then so be it.

But the but the reality is that if they're stopped and they cannot prove that they have sufficient insurance, we can prevent them from operating.

Actually, I'm not even sure we can if I Well, we're gonna talk about that.

Sherry?

Yeah, I I'm not certain that we could do that.

I think the suggestion is please, please, please.

I think the suggestion is, and and and the point is taken that it creates disparities.

That I think the suggestion is that um the mandate that this ordinance be modified to mandate similar insurance coveries for uh coverage for all those who operate here, regardless of the county from which they they got their permit, whether we can do that or not, that still creates the enforcement implications, right?

How would you and how would you possibly enforce it?

You're gonna buy a lawsuit because some operator is going to sue saying that it's violates 32023, number one, and number two What is 32023?

It's the state statute that says anybody who is issued a permit in the state of Florida can operate without having to pay any additional permit or licensing fees in the state in any other jurisdiction within the state.

So why do we have any insurance requirement?

Let's just say zero.

No, because every jury is a very important thing.

And everyone will get their permit here in Fort Lawrence.

Every jurisdiction has insurance, Mr.

Mayor.

It's just a matter of which.

So if you require a million dollars, you are going to encourage everyone to register out of the city.

And even if the city says you have to have a million to operate here, it's cheaper to pay the fine because it's a civil, it's a municipal fine.

It's not a traffic stop.

It's not going to be enforceable through arrest or uh seizure.

We talked about that last time.

So the people here want to act legally and they want to act responsibly, and they've been working hard with the mobility department to come up with something that works, but now you're not going to be able to do that.

So what happens if a person has a brain injury as a result of an accident?

Is that responsible?

No, but that happens every day.

I got hit and my car doesn't.

I'm not saying I don't talk about it.

I'm not saying I don't.

I said we need adequate insurance.

A million dollars is just excessive for small business operators.

I'm saying people suffer from brain injuries happens every day, and and three hundred thousand dollars is sufficient to cover that injury.

No.

That is baloney.

But a million dollars may not be able to cover that either, number one, and number two, there are you when you where's Morgan and Morgan when you need them.

Okay, when you're dealing with when you're dealing with state minimums that's please stop talking from the back.

If you want to come up and talk, I'll be happy to have you come up here.

Because we can't pick up what you're saying, and it's just a distraction.

So please.

The whole state minimums for just owning a car are 25 a hundred twenty-five, something to that extent with ten thousand dollars pip.

Anyone can kill anybody and create chaos, and that does happen unfortunately.

We're not asking the city to create a danger for these people or to put them in danger.

We're asking the city to allow these business operators to operate without having to take a significant portion of any money that they actually earn.

Have you ridden in one of these golf carts?

Absolutely.

Exactly you have zero protection but that you have to but even in a car we have minimal protection with the amount of uh little bit of metal that they use I understand your concern I'm not in any way trying to say the city is wrong at what it wants to do I just think that it needs to look at the the economic ramifications of what the city is trying to impose and when the city when when the ordinance itself will be undermined by just getting your permit in another city or county then with what you're trying to accomplish you're better off you're better off instituting let's say a 153 or even a 255 and at least letting people get their permits here and get that insurance than having them go to Orlando and getting a 100 or a 125 and 300 and then operating here.

So you're saying it might be more an incentive uh to do it do an incremental increase over the average of what we'd find in other countries rather than a uh uh the the large increase that we're getting tonight that's you want to disincentivize people from registering here you want them to register here because you number one you want the revenue and number two you want the enforcement powers that the ordinance comes with if you incentivize them to go somewhere else they're gonna get the minimum insurance at whatever the cheapest jurisdiction is they're not going to come here with sufficient insurance and and you're gonna take the revenue and enforcement away from the city so it's a lose lose and then this becomes all for naught unfortunately all right but I do appreciate you hearing me out and and thank you to the entire commission devil's advocate thanks um do you think we should limit the number of permits at the end of the day I think it's you're you can limit it to one you can limit it to five hundred you can limit to a thousand as people could just go register in other jurisdictions exactly but I do that's so I do think a limit look there are some people that aren't going to go through the hassle expense of registering somewhere else they live here they work here they want to be here I don't think we want to penalize I don't think we want to incentivize people to go somewhere else because they can go right down the road and register in in Palm Beach County and or in Hollywood or wherever else they allow them for much cheaper without those extreme limits.

I think limits are a good thing but they're really a moot point when you think about anyone can register anywhere and come operate here and not be subject to that limit.

Yeah right so you don't think we should have limits then it I I think doesn't serve any it doesn't serve any purpose but to get rid of permit limits all over all together I don't know that that you want to do that either but they really are they're gonna be moot so 200 300 of these vehicles on the road maybe that's reasonable but the city of Fort Lauderdale the more restricted they make it the less you're gonna have people registering we can't limit the number of people that operate in our in our city correct all you can do is limit the number of permits.

So I think you're setting it right now at a hundred that's a low threshold where you're you're just gonna again incentivize people to leave.

But I do think permit caps are good because there are some people who aren't going to go elsewhere and you want to limit people who shouldn't be operating in the city and I think there's a reasonable way to do it.

The the rest of the ordinance I think is fabulous I I give a lot of credit to everybody involved the only qualm I think that's gonna hurt this industry and is going to actually hurt the city more than the intent of fixing this problem is keeping a million dollars insurance.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you all thank you.

Milos did you want to say something absolutely thank you very much.

So just a couple of things so in order for anyone to apply elsewhere outside of the city for permit to operate in here that would be based on the residency actually address of the residency right so our our operators from here if they have a residency here would not be able to go anywhere outside of our city to apply for a permit right so someone from Orlando could apply in Orlando get a permit there for vehicle for higher service and come down to operate here.

However anyone who has an address here would not be able to to go to Orlando apply for a permit and come to up to to operate here.

That's based on a Florida statute the way that uh I understand it.

All right so but okay interesting and the second so if they have so let's be smart about this is they have a PO box in Orlando.

Actually they're gonna have an LLC which they can register anyway.

Yeah that's yeah the it's probably not it's probably not Joe living at uh you know Gulf Ocean Mile it's probably an LLC registered to a PO box somewhere so so how it reads is that active license or or a permit to operate a vehicle for hire hire in the country I'm sorry county or municipality in which the person permanently resides person permanently resides.

Person permanently resides.

Right.

So you're saying that you're saying that LLCs cannot apply for a permit.

Because a well, is a company is a is a company a person, the Supreme Court said a company is a person.

You're not helping.

The second the second point about the insurance requirements.

So when it comes to Florida statute, it was established back 24 years or so ago.

So that might be changing our risk management uh staff did the uh conduct additional uh reviews of about 20 plus municipalities and feels comfortable with what we are proposing just because of type of vehicles and level of exposure and risk that uh they bring with uh their operation, and given the fact that the insurance requirements haven't updated been updated for a number of years.

So having heard all this, Milos, we what do you recommend?

Do you recommend that we keep the the ordinance the way it's written?

Do you think we should lower the insurance requirements so we can add more of an incentive for people to stay local?

What are your thoughts on that?

So I think that we have a new process that we are trying to establish in here of what we will have.

We will have about 90 day educational period as a matter of fact, our police department will be helping us educate uh these operators even now during the spring break as to the perimeter requirements that we currently have in place.

We'll be doing the same uh for the future uh operating uh standards and expectations.

Um and I think that we will have to stay flexible and mindful of any changes we have to make along the process.

I think that we have made a lot of improvements through year and the whole process that we have been developing operating requirements for the for these type of businesses.

Um and I would uh go with the recommendations of our risk management unless they have anything else to add in here.

Okay, thank you.

My pleasure.

Okay.

Uh Carlos Carlo Bellrios, are you still here?

There you are.

Anyone else wish to speak on this item was not yet spoken?

Good evening, Carlo.

Could you please push the button at the bottom?

Good evening, Vice Mayor, Mayor, Commission.

Um, we've been having a lot of construction constructive meetings together the last year, year and a half, um, trying to develop this.

And um you an operator?

I am an operator, sorry.

Representing uh Cav Daddy.

And um how many do you operate?

Uh we have a total of five five vehicles.

Okay.

Yeah.

Over the last three years, started one.

Um insurance is necessary.

I mean, it protects the drive the riders, it protects the company.

All right, if I don't have insurance and something happens, they come after me, I can't work.

I can't my my employees can't don't have a job.

Um, I can't pay my bills.

As a local, someone who's lived in Broward County in Davy, grown up in Davy, come to Fort Lauderdale the last 26 years of my life.

You know, like we love the city.

Um we're a huge proponents for everything going on on the beach.

Uh I met with Amy Thomas the day who works at um you probably know down at the beach at Birch, uh, who called me.

They want to bring more awareness to this the park to all the um things that you guys have going on over there, right?

Raise money to an awareness to let people know that for Lauderdale has so much going on.

We are the number one people bringing an awareness to those things in the city, to everything that's going on, to the marina, to the parks, to the new playgrounds.

You're you're cutting you're cutting our throats by raising the limit to a point that we cannot afford to employ our drivers.

We we want to look out for the city's interests as well as the people that live here and our own, right?

But we have to work to a point that makes sense because if not, everybody here is smart enough to go get a permit somewhere else.

Why not work with us so that we can look out for each other and for the city to make sure it's safe to make sure that everybody's doing the right thing because if you recommend so what do you recommend?

I I recommend let's let's keep on working together through open conversation.

Are we having a and develop the relationship that we've been developing over the last three years?

Got it.

So what we're having an open conversation now.

What what do is the issue of the limit of liability the uh the question?

And if if that's the question, what limit would you s recommend?

The limit the limit is good right now.

The limit is is where I think it it needs to be.

If if you guys want to raise it a little bit, yeah, we can try to work to find a spot that makes sense.

The you know m the cars first of all, there's one insurance prime, right?

They also have uh um you know, kind of a uh chokehold on on what you know we we can't really fight with them.

What they say what we have to pay goes.

Um so we're already paying a lot of insurance, right?

Every cart has seat belts.

Some of these carts have have video cameras.

Um you know, every cart has a sign that says you must wear a seatbelt, right?

They're also consenting adults that also make their own decisions, just like if you're if you're in a car in an Uber, you're you're not consenting adult happen.

Right, accidents happen, but you're supposed to be wearing your seatbelt if you're riding a golf car.

If you're ready if you ride any vehicle and you and I'm sure there's a statistic out there that says that the likeness of you getting injured will go down by I'm sure a very large percent, right?

So so let's also think about that.

These are adults, these are people that you know, you know, especially if they're kids.

I I will get out and I have a big training manual, by the way.

It's like eight pages for that I give all the drivers, any drivers that shows a process.

It's an SOP, right?

My standard operating procedure from when you turn the put the key in the vehicle to when you finish at the end of the night that shows exactly how you should operate in a safe manner, picking up, dropping off, entering, stopping, right?

So those are also things that needs to be educated, right?

And I'm happy to give that SOP out to every other driver out here if it means that there's gonna be a s uh higher level of of safety education, but work with us to a point where you're not we're not having a battle and and the cops were they're putting I mean they're already dealing with a lot, right?

So why give them way more work when we could be the ones working together to make sure that that we're operating in a way that Fort Lauderdale is safe, and also it's fair for the people that are here that live here that love this city that want to want to see the city continue to grow in all the amazing ways that it's been growing over the last five years.

Um and help us develop together.

But let me just say one thing.

I'm not I I I appreciate all everything you're saying, and I'm sure that your drivers are responsible and educated and uh well meaning.

But I'm also concerned about the car that's that's being driven by a drunk driver who's gonna smash into your vehicle, and then what happens?

I'm just I'm just I'm we're just bringing up these aren't these aren't impossibilities.

These things happen.

And I pray that that never happens because that's my number one fear, right?

That keeps me up at night.

But at the end of the day, that that driver also has insurance, right?

And we also have insurance.

We don't know that.

Well, well, they're supposed to and they may have ten thousand dollar uh live, you know, uh liabilities.

So trust me, right?

Everyone's got the m minimum minimum amount of insurance.

I don't I have maximum, but there are people that have minimum.

So um all right, so what's the right thing?

I'm just saying if you t if you raise it to a point that is is excessive, right?

Everyone's just gonna leave.

So circumvent what is it now work with us so we could keep it here.

Keep it at what it's out.

If anything, I mean thank you.

Yeah, thank you, Carlo.

Thank you guys.

You're welcome, Carla.

So Mr.

Middle to answer our question is one hundred thousand three hundred thousand.

One hundred to what?

Three hundred dollars.

One three hundred.

That's right.

All right.

Uh no one else is signed up to speak.

Um so uh hold on a second.

What's this?

Oh, you guys have uh wait, hold on a second.

Mr.

Schwartz, didn't you just speak?

I can't remember.

Uh I'd like to speak again.

I think some things are getting mixed up in my own.

All right, I'll give you a minute.

Why don't you come up here?

And I uh Mr.

Mayor, I apologize for yelling in the crowd.

Don't apologize.

Um Mr.

Mayor, you keep bringing up the insurance of someone getting hurt and the you just mentioned a moment ago about the drunk driver that hits the the the cart driver.

Once you wouldn't eliminate half of these carts because their insurance is through the roof and they cannot operate, you're gonna have exponentially more drunk drivers driving cars to hurt more people.

You know what?

It's a very good point.

Because we drive so many I know people rely on us.

And and like Carlos said, you really cut us at the throat.

We're not you're not making the people that are driving electric scooters who go exponentially faster than our golf cart.

You're not insuring the you're not making the people that walk across the street without looking in front of the golf cart.

They don't have insurance on their two feet, but you want our insurance through the moon.

Oh we don't want to we don't we're not through the moon.

A million dollars paying six thousand dollars.

She's not she's she might make that in a month.

Okay.

So now she has 11 months of income, and one of it is just insurance.

Okay, I get it.

All right, thank you, Eric.

Well, it you're welcome.

Thank you.

Okay.

Anyone else wish to speak on this item?

Did you sign up?

You did sign up originally.

Okay, come on up.

And that's the last one.

Good evening.

Um just to uh tack on to what Paul was saying as a state your name?

My name is Uzo Chi on Yajirua.

Um just to tack on what he was saying.

Um of course, if our insurance uh requirements are far higher, people are gonna leave, of course, as we've all discussed.

So it at the very least, if you guys are gonna go that route, can we at least use some kind of signaling device to show that we got our permits here as opposed to these other people who just come in so that if we have to pay that crazy amount, let me not say crazy, but if we have to pay that much higher amount, at least these other people can't just come in and take food out of our mouths because they have it so much easier than us.

Okay.

That's fair quite fair question.

Okay, thank you.

All right.

Um do I hear a motion to close public hearing on this?

Moved.

Do I hear a second?

Second?

Second.

Wake up.

Um please call a roll on closing public hearing.

Commissioner Sorensen, yes.

Vice Mayor Herbst?

Yes.

Commissioner Glossman?

Yes.

Mayor Trentos.

Yes, the public hearing is now closed.

Okay, folks.

Um what kind of ordinance do we want to introduce here?

Right now we're at 100, 300.

That seems to be the only sticking point regarding this entire ordinance.

Do we want to lower it from the million two million, or do we want to keep it that way?

What's your pleasure?

I'm comfortable with the 100-300.

Well, the the okay.

The business community indicated that they'd be willing to go a little higher.

So I'm just wondering if this is an opportunity for us to do that.

Do you have a suggestion?

What are the how does it how are um Jerome, how is it structured?

Jerome, mayor, could we defer to Guy Hein, our risk manager who's done a logo?

Guy, I'm sorry.

Guy, how are how the insurance price uh limits structured?

Is 100-300, what's the next level?

Well, there's there's a lot of different options, but one thing I want to mention is right now state statute says 125 per person, two fifty per occurrence.

So I'm not sure uh city attorney, I think we have to be at least the state minimum.

I I my understanding is we can be above that, but we can't be below state.

Right, we're talking about going, we're talking about upping it a little bit.

Right.

You're saying what's the state minimum now?

120 125,000 per person, 250 per occurrence.

And we're at 100, 300?

Correct.

So we're actually below the state requirement.

So um if we go so what is the next level after that?

There's there's a lot of different different options.

Go on.

Can we go 300, 500?

That I don't know.

Bill, can you go one three?

We're already at one point.

We're insurance.

Insurance agent consultant.

Mr.

Mayor, Commissioners.

You can go up by increments depending on your insurance.

So you can go up by 50, you can go up by 100, and you can just keep adding, you can double.

Is there a policy that we can go 300, 500?

You can.

Is that make sense?

No.

Well, we have to go 150, 300.

That's the state statute.

125, 250.

Don't correct me.

Yeah.

So 153, and they're at 125, 250.

So if we go so why don't we start on at 153?

But we are.

No, we're at one where we're at 103.

We're at 103.

153.

153.

If we went to 153.

I'm not comfortable with that, to be honest with you, but um I mean, I'd rather I I'd rather the minimum be a little bit higher.

Like two, like 200, 400.

I mean that that but again, uh it's a pleasure of the commission.

What is the commission want to do?

Vice Mayor, do you have any thoughts on this?

I'd be comfortable with the 153.

153.

And I I think we could always come back and revisit this later on if we don't think it's it's it's sufficient.

Okay.

But I I again I I understand your points, Mayor, and I don't want to discount them.

I I do think we need to be mindful of the fact that you know we want to have a sufficient level of insurance.

Um look, I I deal with this all the time because I sit on our risk management committee and I see all of our accidents, and you know, I review all of our claims.

So I appreciate very much on a granular level the kind of accidents that our police officers are getting in, not to pick out you know, our police officers, but the those are some of our more frequent accidents as they're responding to calls and these are the kinds of crashes that we as a city experience on a regular basis.

So we do see a lot of these.

And I I get where you're coming from on that.

Um, but I also want to be mindful of the fact that you know these are small businesses, these are mom and pops that are trying to compete.

And I want to try and balance out those two competing objectives.

And so I think one fifty-three is a reasonable balance of those of those interests.

All right, so would you like to introduce the ordinance?

I'll introduce the ordinance at 153.

All right.

So you you're approving the existing ordinance with the amendment of 150 to 300 as the as the range of insurance coverage.

That is correct.

Okay.

Um else have any questions with regard to that?

I do.

Do we have any data on accidents in our city with these vehicles?

Do we have any anything to go on in terms of how adequate this insurance level is?

By the way, right now, well, we're saying now 153.

153.

And what are we at right now?

103.

103.

And the state state is one.

125, 250.

125250.

Right.

Uh but again, do we have any data at all?

Do we do we know what we're talking about here in terms of records of accidents or we do not uh want it to come to operation of these vehicles?

We actually only have uh about two permitted for these fiscal years so far.

So many of them we do not have permitted currently, and we do not have any readily available accident data or crash data.

Okay.

I know I understand.

And the state has no data statewide, or they don't go by county, or they don't go by anything.

We don't have any data that they have.

So there are tools that we can use in order to determine whether there were any one of these or any vehicles, vehicles of these sort that were included in in crashes historically, but we would have to do that research.

So what commissioner, for purposes of tonight, why don't we just set us a base, go with that, and we could always amend this if the data comes back to us and suggests that we should.

I I would like to know that.

I I personally happen to actually agree with the mayor.

I think these numbers are low.

I obviously you must think so also, because what you are recommending is much higher.

I'm just trying to see if there's a middle ground somewhere, but I'm fine to go with that if that's what we would like to do.

Why don't we start with that?

So the one thing I could add, just because I've I've been doing some research on this, so as I'm looking here, based on my my my good friend Chat GPT, says that 15300 is considered a strong above average balance for bodily injury for specifically for in uh for four higher vehicles, exceeds both the standard expert recommendations and legal thresholds for high risk operations.

So it's considered to be a strong insurance expert suggest that this is far exceeds the bare minimum.

I I think it's okay to start with.

Um look, we could always go higher, but again, it's you could always insure to a much higher level.

It's a question of balancing out the competing interest.

I think this is a good place to start.

Okay.

Commissioner Sars, do you have anything else to add to this?

No.

All right.

Um right now the uh the ordinance being introduced is to uh approve on second reading uh with the amendment to require that the insurance uh coverage be 100,000 three hundred fifty thousand three hundred thousand uh coverage, 150,000 single occurrence 300,000 um uh what's it called?

Um yes, thank you.

Okay.

With uh with the hundred uh permit limit.

Is that right?

Is that part of this?

Yeah.

Okay.

All right, there we go.

Please call the rule.

And just to confirm the uh revisions that were sent out uh yesterday, those are also incorporated into it, correct?

Yes, as presented and as amended here.

Okay.

Thank you.

So the city of Fort Lauderdale, Florida amending Chapter 27 of the code of ordinances of the City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida titled Vehicles for Hire by amending Article 1 in general repealing and replacing Article 2 Taxi caps with Article 2 rental cars with chauffeurs and sightseeing vehicles.

In Article 3, Moteller, Hotel Courtesy Cars with Article 3, non-motorized vehicles for hire, and repealing Article 4 rental cars, Article 5, rental cars with chauffeurs and sightseeing vehicles in Article 6, non-motorized vehicles for hire, thereby removing references to certificates of public convenience and necessity and implementing an administrative review and permitting process for the operation of vehicles for hire, amending certain definitions, defining a low vehicle, low speed vehicle, and revising insurance provisions and providing for several repeal of conflicting ordinance provisions, providing for a correction of scriveners errors and providing for an effective date.

Commissioner Sorensen?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Herbst?

Yes.

Commissioner Glossman?

Yes.

Mayor Trentals?

Yes.

And that ordinance is now approved.

Mayor.

Just be careful, folks.

Yes, please.

Yes, city manager.

Would the Commission like staff to put some advocacy efforts behind this at the state level to promote consistency?

Well, at this stage of the game, since the uh yeah, at some point.

Yeah, at some point.

I agree.

Um and one of the one of the gentlemen said if they could put a badge that they're permitted by Fort Lauderdale, we'd love to see that too, because that might give people that might be give people level of assurance.

You know, it's like being flagged in a certain country, you know.

Um thank you for your patience and for you know your being here tonight and for working with us.

Thank you so much.

Um nothing further.

Thank you.

City attorney, no mayor.

Did you want to did you want to call for a closed door session?

Thank you very much for reminding me of that.

Yes, um that's what I'm here for.

I'd like to request a special um executive session next uh meeting, which is March the 19th, related to the three Fort Lauderdale matters with Florida Department of Transportation, and uh we would have that um at as early as possible on the um after the conference on the meeting of March the 19th.

So this is City of Fort Lauderdale versus Florida Department of Transportation, case number 4D 2025-2783, the fourth district court of appeal.

City of Fort Lauderdale versus Florida Department of Transportation, case number four D 2026-0271, the Fourth District Court of Appeal, and the City of Fort Lauderdale versus Florida Department of Transportation, the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings, case number 25-004856RU.

That is correct.

Very good.

Mayor, I was gonna share this via email, uh, but staff would also like to have uh opportunity to provide the commission with an update on our collective bargaining efforts with police and fire.

Uh I'm not sure if was that you want that as part of this closed door session?

I I think we need an opportunity to get with the commission sooner rather than later.

Okay, so that will be included.

Yes, thank you.

Okay, very good.

All right, any further business to the commission?

There being none, this meeting is concluded.

Thank you, everybody.