All right, folks, if we could all please find a seat.

Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the City Commission conference meeting this April 7th, 2026.

If we are all please ask you to find a seat and we can begin our meeting.

Thank you.

So for those of you who are here for the first time, we appreciate your coming and participating in this process.

The meeting in the afternoon, the purpose of it is for the the commission to engage in uh discussions on items, things we don't vote on, but we do have the opportunity to discuss uh the facts and get information for ultimately having to vote on specific ordinances uh during the evening meeting.

So but before we begin that, today we have a couple of neighbor presentations and two people signed up to speak today.

And uh the first one is Luke Lockhart, who'd like to talk about loading and unloading zones and parking enforcement.

Luke, are you here?

Luke.

Not here.

Okay.

All right, we'll pass on Luke.

Is uh and the next person, the second person is Salvador Noriega.

Is come on up.

Please come to the podium.

Where's the podium now?

Oh, okay.

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

Hello, hello.

There you are.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Nice to meet you.

Uh well, I'm a neighbor here in Fort Lauderdale.

I moved almost three years ago.

To the to the Dorsey uh River Bend neighborhood, really close to here, a few blocks.

So uh my life has been very nice and calm.

Um a very good uh tranquil life here, tranquil m better than Miami because I I came from Miami.

So everything was good.

You with the Chamber of Commerce.

Last uh I I mind my own business, I stay at my place.

I don't I don't uh mess with anyone, you know.

I I I keep to myself I work from home, I'm a writer, I work in advertising.

And the other day this sometimes in this neighborhood you listen to gunshots some days, you know, it happened like two or three times since I moved there.

Fire gunshots, you know, but this time sa it was Saturday, uh February twenty-eighth night, uh 10 p.m.

something like that.

I was watching TV there with my dog.

It was evident I was home, my car was there, the lights were on.

Uh my property is the only fenced property of the block because when I moved in, when I moved there, I I I built a fence immediately.

I I paid for my permit with you guys and everything, and I built my fence uh to be more secure, no.

And I was watching TV uh this uh Saturday, a month uh and a little more ago, and I heard these gunshots.

Then I started hearing helicopters, then uh cop cars, you know, as sirens, and uh like half an hour, half an hour after the gunshots, I hear like a loud explosion in in my door in my gate of my place, and I I look out and my house was being raided by six cops with guns drawn and dogs and terrorizing me and my dog.

You know, they they I I I look at them and they told me, come back inside.

And I went I went back inside of my place.

They didn't say anything else, they just left my they they they broke my gate, they broke my lock and the the lock support on my gate.

So it's uh it's an expensive repair.

It's not just like I just changed the lock and that's what was the purpose for their coming to your house.

They never explained it to me.

They didn't give me an explanation, not an apology, nothing.

They just told me, wait here, and I wait there on the street talking to the neighbors because the neighbor saw what happened, and the only house they broke in was my house for some reason.

And the only gated property, the only place where a subject wouldn't try to hide.

That's where that's where they so after a while they they finally left.

They left and they they gave me a card with a case number and they told me to call this number, patrol division, whatever.

I called them.

I I I I was like, oh, this case is like a reference for them to send someone and fix my gate, no, because they broke my gate.

No, and I called the next day and they told me no, it's not here, it's in uh risk management.

And then a sergeant called me because I left a message in your office, mayor, uh asking Sachari for help because he helped me before with uh with an issue I had with garbage in the neighborhood.

And uh that's why I'm here.

Sachari Sachari asked me to to come here.

Uh I uh this sergeant told me that I should file a case with risk management, a claim, and I file the claim and I I send them pictures and evidence and everything, and they told me that the cops might not even uh uh be liable.

Uh they they wouldn't they wouldn't accept liability or whatever, something like that.

And that I have to wait, and now uh my damage gate by the police is part of a criminal investigation because this person in in the city the the um risk management uh person who is helping me with this told me that um they they that that the investigation is still on and they they keep on investigating and until the investigation is oh my time is up.

It's okay.

Sorry, it's okay.

So all right.

So let me ask you this.

Have you spoken with uh uh uh commissioner Sorensen at all on this?

He's your district commissioner.

Did that you just went directly to my office, right?

Okay.

Oh, you're the district commissioner.

Oh, sorry.

Uh three blocks apart.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You replied to my email.

Thank you, but yes, thank you so much.

Yes, yes.

Yes, okay.

We have not spoken.

Um we I heard about the presentation um yesterday doing my pre um my briefing.

So I'm I'm gonna go for the uh uh Commissioner Beasley Pittman is your commissioner, so she's now going to work with you and assist you in this.

Um Chief, do you know anything about this incident?

What happened?

Why did why was this house um approached in the manner it was and without any explanation to the owner?

Good afternoon, Mayor, Commission, Vice Mayor, uh Bill Schultz, Chief of Police.

I don't have the specific information.

I have that being researched right now to see when the call occurred and how long it's been with risk management.

But I'll be happy to take your information today and I'll personally follow up with risk management to see where we are.

Okay, all right.

Okay, thank you.

It's just scary when you have you know when you have police swarming your house and you're told to go in and you have you know it looks like a raid.

I mean the fellow understood.

I mean, it's just uh that shouldn't happen to anybody, and there should be an explanation, should be an apology, especially if it wasn't directed at him.

So you know, we should look into the whole instrument.

Yeah, please do that.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chief.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just I just don't think it it's fair uh for for me to be part now of a criminal investigation.

We agree with you.

But apparently, you know things that fall between the cracks, and we want to make sure that you're taken care of.

So we apologize for that.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you so much for your time.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

And also, I would like to say we with my from my office will also follow up with this to make sure that we get back with you and keep you in the loop as to the transition progress with it.

Thank you so much.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

All right, great.

Uh, there's no one else who signed up to speak, so we'll we'll jump right into communications to the city commission.

Um we have one communication from the historic preservation board.

Um is anyone here from the historic preservation board?

Yes.

Wanna come up?

Hi, good afternoon, Mayor and Commissioners.

We have a board member Arthur Marcus with us this afternoon, who is here to represent the historic preservation board.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Commissioners.

As the outgoing chair of the board, uh our communication today is uh let me let me just read the motion that was required.

Thank you.

So motion made by Mr.

Golden.

Right.

Seconded by Mr.

Jones to recommend communicating to the city commission the quorum requirement be based on the number of appointed members.

In other words, as opposed to this positions that are or that are that are open.

So right now we have seven members on Trisha, we can have nine.

We can have up to nine, but actually, with myself and somebody else having to step down yesterday, we're down to five.

So what we're asking is that instead of basing our quorum on the nine members to base it on the number of members that are attending the meeting.

So you would you would you technically need to have every single person uh attending that meeting be so you'd have a quorum.

And we've had to cancel several meetings because of that.

Uh your your thoughts on that?

Yeah.

Arthur, thank you.

First of all, and thank you so much for your service all these years as uh district appointee.

Thank you.

We really appreciate it, and I thank you so much.

It's been a pleasure working with you uh as my appointment on HPB and for your service, not just as a board member, but also as the chair these past few years.

So thank you for that.

I have a question though for you because might this not be a moot point.

I know that I'll I'll be uh submitting a name for your replacement.

There's also tonight a an uh an appointment that we'll be voting on.

So that would get it to eight, and the quorum for eight would be the same as the quorum for nine.

Well, I'm because it was myself plus another board member who stepped down last night.

So instead of seven, we're now down to five.

But maybe whoever whoever's appointment that is, I don't know, because I I don't know what my colleagues are doing, but hopefully that person is going to be replaced as well.

So you should be at least eight.

My point being that the quorum for eight is still the same requirement as the quorum for nine, it would still be five.

But I I understand what you're saying.

I would just like to know what we do with other boards and committees in terms of they're enabling legislation.

Do we do this for the other boards and committees where we just do it based on the number of the other things?

Well that's the point.

That's the point.

Do we do what is um Anthony?

What is our what is our practice?

Uh Anthony Farter, director of development services.

So most of the boards do the same thing.

There are some what's what's the same thing?

The quorum is based on the number of seats.

Seats, not those who have been appointed.

Not those who have been appointed, but it is it there I can't remember the board that does it.

There is at least one board that has a quorum based on the number of people available in those appointed seats.

And I can get that information for you.

Well, so what is the policy of the commission?

What do we want to do?

Do you know what it is?

I mean, obviously we should be we should be responsible enough to make sure we've made appointments to our various boards and committees so that this doesn't happen.

Ben, do you have something you want to say about it?

Yeah, Mayor, I think it's a good question.

I think it makes sense to have the quorum be those that are appointed be based on those that are appointed.

But the ones that are there.

If we're able to make that adjustment.

Um I think you're right.

Well, I what do you think?

I'm not in agreement with that.

I think it should be with the um the seats that's designated overall.

Um I do have a concern about you know how do we do this across the board if it's needed.

We do we know if it's needed across the board pertaining to the other um committees and boards.

And also, um I'm sorry, if we can go back just a little bit.

How many meetings were actually canceled for lack of quorum?

I think in the last year we've had at least one canceled.

But over the last several years there's been periodic cancellations.

But in the last 12 months, you're saying one.

One and then several, but delayed starts.

Okay.

With the one that was canceled, what month was it in?

I don't know off the top of my head, but we can get that information.

And the reason I ask because we know summer people are a little bit.

I want to say it was actually March.

It might have been you think you were earlier in the year.

Okay.

All right.

Um, I like the status quota we have.

I I actually agree with that.

I uh I think it it it makes more sense that it's based on whatever we have allocated is the number of seats on a on a board or committee, and then it's incumbent upon all of us to make sure that we're filling those seats.

Um I don't know what other openings we have on HPB, or I know there's one appointment tonight, maybe there'll be I don't know.

I don't know what my colleagues are doing.

But does staff reach out to the mayor and the commission's office on a regular basis to say, hey, we need we need some appointments here.

Do are we reminded of that?

Um one thing I just wanted to add before Tricia jumps in is that besides canceling the one meeting, we've had problems starting the meeting because of a lack of attendance of board members.

So it's not usually the number of the show late.

Pardon?

They would show up late.

They don't show up.

You said starting a meeting.

Right.

Isn't that the same thing as they show up late and we don't have a quorum?

I see.

Okay.

Sorry.

John, do you have a thought about this?

So I would be inclined to go with the number of appointees if this was presenting itself as more of a problem of canceled meetings.

I we can't help it if people show up late.

Um, you know, they can show up late no matter how many we have up there.

Um so I'm inclined to to go along with Pam on this.

If if if we were missing, you know, three or four meetings during the course of the year as a result of it, then I think that would be more problematic, and we might want to reconsider it.

But if it's only one meeting, then I I think we can probably live with the status quo.

Okay.

I hear from board members on other boards that periodically they are unable to uh meet quorum because of vacancies.

Do we know if other meetings, other boards are being canceled as a result?

I I'm not gotten any reports for the boards that DSD manages, but although there are several around the city.

And I did just talk with the clerk.

He said there are nine boards that have a quorum that's required in this way.

All the others that you have a quorum based on the number of seats.

So the number, if it was 11, you have a quorum based on eleven.

Every other board outside of those nine, you said there's like thirty one-ish.

There's a lot of boards that do it the opposite way.

It's how many you have appointed.

Right.

That would determine the number of quorum.

So it it's done both ways.

Okay.

I don't know the rationale behind it, but it is done both ways.

That's right.

I just I think Mayor, we should have uniformity on that.

Just whichever way we're gonna go.

I think all boards should be that way.

I I think you're right.

It seems like the majority is inclined to keep the status quo as far as uh the quorum being based on the number of open positions as opposed to the ones that are filled.

So uh I guess we just need to know from the clerk um what our what our appointments um vacancies are so that we can be more responsible and making sure those positions are filled.

Yeah, we we said we said and and I'm open to revisiting this if like I said, if we're seeing that there is a recurring problem of cancellations, uh I'm happy to revisit this in a couple of months if if you know.

I I don't know how many meetings are being canceled across the board.

We've got what now 47 boards and committees, I think.

31, he said.

No, no, in total we no 40.

There's a lot.

Uh we were at 41 and then we added a few more.

So we're up in the mid-40s at this point.

So I don't know how many of them uh and maybe we can I I hate to add more stuff to your to your plate, David, and this may not even be a U job, but you know, if we can get an idea of just how many boards are are canceling meetings as a result of lack of a quorum at some point in the next couple of months.

You know, say between now and summer.

Certainly we can.

So then I think an additional part of that analysis is if I think we all are agree on a degree of uniformity, right?

So all the boards should operate the same way.

Yes.

So then the next analysis is if we were to change the boards that have a um appointment requirement for the quorum, then how many board meetings would not happen as a result of that change.

So if you're following me, which will I think would be a big number of meetings that would not meet quorum if we move them to say it's now no longer the number of seats that you have appointed, it's a total number of seats.

Correct.

So yeah, that would be a big so for I'll just say uh community appearance board where there's 20 plus members on it and there's about five or six that are appointed.

They wouldn't be having meetings at all.

And we do send out the vacancy list usually the Thursday after the commission meeting.

So this coming Thursday, we have we'll we'll be setting out the vacancy chart to you all.

Okay.

Um so let us be more responsible in making sure we fill our vacancies, because obviously this is an issue.

Um and uh and we'll see how we'll see how far that goes.

All right.

All right, very good.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh now moving on to the commission reports.

Uh Vice Mayor, do you have a report today?

More of a question, Mayor.

So uh at the last meeting, uh I had asked that we get some information about the site plan for Lockhart so that we could share it with the residents of District One and hold a community meeting to look at the plan.

Um I've obtained a location for us to do that, but we still haven't received a site plan.

Do you have any information that I can share with my residents?

Um Raquel, where are we where are we on that?

Were we going to just present it to the commission at a meeting?

I thought that's what the protocol was.

So the commission asked that we obtain the latest version of the conceptual site plan and disseminate that plan to each commissioner, which would allow for the vice mayor to circulate that and use that as part of the public meeting.

Uh to my knowledge, we have not received that conceptual site plan from the developer.

I did send out a follow-up request.

Oh, are we ready to uh yesterday?

I'm not sure if anything hit my email this morning, but as a question, Mr.

Could you come up and please push the button at the bottom of the speaker?

Is there is there good afternoon?

Is there a conceptual plan that we can do?

I I received it this morning from the uh from Inner Miami's uh in-house architect.

I received it this morning, so I will send it to the city.

My phone is talking to me to tell me what a conceptual plan is.

Uh okay, so we can disseminate that.

Yes.

Okay.

Well, that necessarily will push back my date.

I was planning on having my community meeting on the 15th.

Um, this doesn't give me enough time to get that out and get noticed to everybody, so I'll probably have to push that back by another week.

Um, just so you know.

All right, thank you.

Whatever works for the city, thank you.

If you can get that done today or tomorrow, we'd appreciate that.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um Saturday, March 21st, giving you a report starting from that date.

Um, we were excited, are excited to be able to push forward the group violence intervention program, which is a project um in collaboration with our police department.

The event was held at Provident Park.

Um, it was an opportunity for law enforcement, some stakeholders, neighbors, all to come together to um be introduced to um the group violence intervention project.

It was a great afternoon.

Um in attendance, we of course had the PD.

Um we had with us also our our state um commerce woman.

Um, I'm sorry, yes, um Dr.

Osga, she was with us as well.

And it was a great opportunity to come out into the neighborhood explaining how we are collaborating with the neighbors with law enforcement to make a change with um how we're interacting to let our young people know and the neighbors overall understand that we as a city we recognize that there is uh um a large presence or some presence, I should say, of um violence in the community, and we want to come together to work together to start to alleviate that matter.

And through this process, it is an opportunity where we also um engage individuals who um at one time had a um criminal lifestyle who have now been um reformed and they are living productive lives, and we are aligning them with um young people or individuals who have um are experiencing some situations in their lives right now that are not necessarily leading to the best decisions.

So this is a um opportunity to begin to have that conversation where the community um begins to work together to make a change.

I've been saying for a minute now, you know, we we've heard that that proverb where it says um it take a village to raise our children, but I also believe that even then that that village part of it, the villagers, the neighbors have to be a part of it.

You have to come out and participate, and this particular program is will do just that.

Um really thankful for our police chief who heard me when I first came on as a commissioner saying that I wanted to address the issue of the violence in our district and our city overall.

Also thanking Captain Will August for his hands on this and all of those who are working on his team to make this come forward, and as well as um Dana Baggett, who did a lot of background research to help identify some funding, some grants for what we need to make sure this occur.

Also, this is the same project that we talked about um during our priority conversation back in January, and I asked that um understanding that we're starting this as a pro um a pilot in a sense, but the the request is that this is not a one and done that we add it to um opportunities through our budget that we have funding so we can continue this.

And it's the um in my view of it and um the police as well.

This is a a different approach that could make some great grounds on changing um the results that we've been seeing as in collaboration and working together.

So, once again, thank you to our police chief and the police department that's been working with us to achieve this, and also to the neighbors who have stepped up to who want to be a part of this to make a change, and again, thank you for that.

Um, on Tuesday, March 24th.

I was able to attend with honor our um three 30 seconds, 72 police academy graduation ceremony and our new police headquarters.

That's a big hand, you all you're not excited.

Um, at that um ceremony, um Sean Hertz was with us, um, commissioner for that district, um Glassman, as well as our city manager, and it was great to see these um new um we we don't have to call recruits anymore, more new police officers and also detention officers to graduate.

They were given their badges, and we all were able to thank them for their commitment to Fort Lauderdale.

They could have made a decision to go anywhere in the nation, and they chose Fort Lauderdale.

So really thank you to those graduates.

Yes, thank you very much.

Also on Wednesday the 25th, I had the pleasure of attending as a board member for the continuum continuum of care board through the Broward County.

Um care um is a unique board.

And the conversation is we need to learn how to connect the dots a little bit better.

And right now with the city of Fort Lauderdale, there is a pilot program that's basically funded through Broward County that's called the Safe Parking Initiative.

That parking actually is in District 3.

One of the churches, which is Mount Olivet on Northwest 15th Way, they stepped up to be a part of this program.

I am really um I'm used to where it's disappointed in the progress with this.

This started out November, December ish.

Um the numbers that are coming back, and I may have to um correct the numbers, but with the numbers, originally 184 individuals or parties were vetted for this program.

From that 184, 150 were actually considered able to move forward for the next step.

From that step of the 150, there are 20 individuals that were deemed to go to the next step to be allowed to park at this particular safe parking.

To date, there's only been nine opportunities or nine families that are parking at this particular spot.

I'm very I don't understand, we have conversations, but why I'm bringing this up, I would like to see we the city to see how we can collaborate to be more of a voice with this program.

So to city manager, my question is even though the Broward County, they are the head funding of this project.

I believe that we do, as the city of Fort Lauderdale, we're contributing in some fashion.

If you can identify what that manner is, and then also what is an opportunity for us to align with them to change these numbers, increase them, brother.

Okay, thank thank you, Commissioner.

Uh we are not a funding partner for this program at this time.

Um while the program is anticipated to be located in the city of Fort Lauderdale, that does give us an opportunity to weigh in and give our input.

Uh we potentially could look at more official ways to partner and collaborate, but at this time uh we are not a funding partner.

Okay.

So without the funding piece at this time, I would like to see what we can do.

Again, it is in our city in our in my district, and I believe that you know this is something I advocated for before, and it had an opportunity to go through the county first.

It is a uh project that could be very beneficial if it's um collaboration is better.

I would say it that way.

So if we could um move forward in a manner where we could have that conversation and jump in the process, that's what I'm requesting.

And I'm gonna ask Deputy City Manager Chris Cooper to share a little bit more information.

Thank you, City Manager.

So uh Commissioner, we we have been in conversations with both the uh county through their housing and and um homeless services division and the uh and hope as well with their program.

You know, it's important to remember this is a new program for everybody, and so they're going through the process of figuring out what works and what doesn't work, and they've been very candid about the fact that they haven't had a lot of clientele for the program thus far, but there's been some commitment to continue to evolve and think about those things have been restrictive to people and participating with the program from our side of the city.

Um we've we've been in conversations with them.

We've used our homeless outreach team to try to find qualifying individuals.

We know there's a lot of people in our city and throughout the county that do sleep overnight in vehicles, so we think the population's there and the need is there, so we've been making some efforts on the on the outreach side to try to find folks to participate in that program.

Um the commission also funded some funds to pilot our own safe parking program.

So we've been working with our homeless advisory committee, our community services department, and LifeNet for Families to bring forward a program for the commission to consider.

I believe that's coming either at our next commission meeting or the meeting after for the commission to weigh in on.

But you know, we're learning from what Broward County is doing, the things that have made their program more challenging for people to participate and using that information to one help them, but also to help us with our program to see if if we can make that program work in a way that's beneficial to everybody.

Okay, um, with that, I appreciate that information.

Um, my concerns not going into details, but the things that I view as restrictive.

Um, I believe that's something we as a city really need to um look at to when we move forward in the direction that we're going in, because some of those things are really restrictive, and it to me it it doesn't make sense on not even on paper, but in reality.

So with that part of it.

I agree with you.

And you know, I would have liked to have started and brought this program to you a little bit sooner, but the benefit to where we are now is that we have learned a lot from the county's program and some of the things they've run into, and we've also had the opportunity for our staff with community services as well as Life Net to work closely with our homeless advisory committee and make sure that you know we've implemented things and contemplated things that could overcome some of those challenges that that are currently being faced with the other program.

Okay, all right, thank you for that information.

Thank you.

Um also would like to share that on Friday, March 27th, I attended the annual Teach Her Mont Mentoring Program at William Dandy Middle School.

Great opportunity.

This is my third year attending the young ladies there, they are really excited, they are um looking for mentors, they're looking for opportunities to learn and grow to be motivated.

And I'm glad that I was one of the return invitees that was able to come in to pour into these young people.

And I encourage all of us at every level, if you have an opportunity to um work with young people, pour into them.

We often hear conversations where they're not um operating at a level that we were familiar with or what we were exposed to when we were younger, but that's no reason for us not to engage them, not a reason for us not to pour into them and make sure that they're ready for to be the next because it's coming.

We I I tell people this all the time.

I'm I love my young people, and I want to make sure that they're ready to be next because they're the ones who are going to be making the those decisions that's based on us when they're sitting there making those votes.

So take a moment and embrace the young people.

Also, I'd like to share with you Thursday, our um April 2nd, career day at Norfolk with Dr.

Gretchen Atkins Brown and her staff.

Um, they have always for um years at Norfolk had a wonderful career day.

Unfortunately, we know that due to the board um Broward County Public School System's decision to close North Fork, that is the last career day that uh we would see at that particular location.

However, I want to thank Fort Lauderdale, City of Fort Lauderdale.

We showed up, we were everywhere.

Let me tell you, public works was there, human resources, law enforcement, um, um TAM, which is traffic and mobility.

Um I don't want to forget anybody.

So law enforcement, our um Motemans, mounted units, K9s, um, our fire department was there.

Thank you for coming in to share with our young people about careers and giving them that opportunity to hear what's really out here in the working world.

Also, who was there in attendance was um public supermarket, Hilton, FPL.

I was impressed with FPL.

They showed up with that bucket truck, and um, I didn't get in, but I did ask, but they were there with their bucket truck, and um the kids were really excited about that opportunity.

So again, um being able to be a part in the community um with North Fork to be a part of one of the last um great events that they host on their campus.

Also, on later in that afternoon, um April 2nd, Broward League's cities.

Um, we had our meeting.

Um, unfortunately, um we were um we dedicated that meeting in regards to Vice Mayor Nancy Matea Boeing out of Coruscreen, she was a member of the Broward League of Cities as well.

So we spent that opportunity to um remember her, give encouraging words to one another.

And I want to take this moment to ask Mayor if during our commission meeting that we would acknowledge and give a moment of silence for her.

And then also just a reminder regarding to the Briar Leaks of Cities.

And encouraging our dais, everyone on commission to be there as well.

A couple more things I wanted to bring to our attention.

Also had a conversation with school board member Jeff Holness, the principal of Walker Elementary, Ms.

Nodis, and also a regional director in regards to the old Dillard Museum.

The old Dillett Museum actually sits on the campus of Walker Elementary.

And because of the location, it follows this the school hours.

So it's not open as a museum every day.

So this location it is, this museum is on our national registry.

Tourists wants to come and visit this museum.

And they don't have the opportunity because Monday through Friday, 8 30 basically to 4.

So we had a conversation as to with the school board from the city asking from the district asking how we can change that with an opportunity for everyone to be able to take part and visit the museum.

So we did have a conversation that with the principal.

She did say that she with additional staffing, she has been able to keep the school open.

I'm sorry, the museum open till about 6 p.m.

on request.

So again, we're still at that on a request.

It's not like someone Googles and say, oh, old Dillard Museum, let me go visit, and they go and everything is locked down.

So in a conversation with them, want to be able to continue this conversation to move forward where that is an opportunity for everyone to be able to visit the old Dillett Museum.

And that is something I I think we as a commission should address as well.

Let me see here.

Let me see if I'm gonna dig deep here.

Let me see here with which way.

Excuse me, eighth court.

She said in the meeting that her storm drains are basically filled with dirt, and one is growing plants out of it.

Now this is the area, this is indoors.

We just did the major um multimillion dollar infrastructure in that community.

And I I it wasn't that I didn't believe her, but I had to go see it for myself.

And I'm so disappointed in what I saw, because we are as a commission, we're giving direction to make sure that we're ready for the storm season, and not a little bit of um dirt.

Now hear me.

This is the you got the grid, and you have dirt almost, it is enough to have a green plant growing out of it.

So this needs to be corrected today.

This is not right.

Commissioner, could you repeat that location, please?

Northwest 18th Avenue and Northwest Eighth Court is in the community of doors.

And again, that's one of the neighborhoods we just months ago finished the storm water infrastructure.

So we'll have that checked out by our public works department.

Okay.

All right, and also with that, I would like to ask for a um report of the storm drains that have been cleaned the maintenance for district three.

Thank you.

Mayor, that concludes your remarks.

Okay, great.

Thank you so much.

Uh Commissioner Glassman.

Actually, Mayor, I apologize.

Could I just before we move on to Commissioner Glassman?

I I happen to notice that Gina is over here, so I just want to say thank you.

Um they did a hopscotch painting in George English Park, and I just want to say thank you to Riverwalk Trust and the artist Heather Neiman and Stephanie Lane.

Um they did an amazing job.

So this is a third of five of them that they're painting.

So I just want to say thank you to Riverwalk Trust and to Gina for So what is it exactly hopscotch.

It's a hopscotch.

A hopscotch design on the pavement.

Yeah, it's in sort of like the burrito style.

Um it's in there, so it's it's I'll have to come back.

Come on over to George English and George English.

Don't hurt yourself.

But yeah, come hopscotch.

And uh yeah.

So it's a champion hopscotcher.

I just have you know, you are a champion hopscotch.

I I I didn't I I didn't I didn't know that about you.

So my resume helped me.

And like, and I also want to acknowledge that uh that Gina's grandson is here.

He's gonna be playing with his band Goose, and they've sold out two shows.

So congratulations.

Very nice.

He's a drummer.

Are we ready?

Yes.

Okay, I'm sure.

No problem.

Yes, I appreciate the indulgence.

Thank you, Mayor.

Mayor, next time you're at GE playing uh pickleball, you can check out the hops guys to do that.

They have a hopscotch there too.

Well, it's actually at GE with George English Park where they did the hopscotch.

Anyway, thank you, Mayor.

Uh a busy couple of weeks.

We had an extra week in between here.

So um District 2 had a lot going on.

March 23rd.

Uh, I know we were all there, and I just want to also say again, thank you so much to the DDA.

Uh, we had a great event, Hezinga Park in Bloom on March 23rd.

It was great to see everyone come back uh and again enjoy that space that has been created downtown.

Uh so incredibly important to our city as we continue to grow to maintain these kinds of spaces.

So congratulations to everyone again.

March 24th, Commissioner BZ Pittman already mentioned Commissioner Herb, she and I did attend that 372nd Police Academy.

I've had the the pleasure of touring that facility several times now.

Uh and it really is a remarkable, a remarkable facility.

Uh congratulations to everyone, and I'm thrilled that um our police have uh uh an amazing headquarters to report to and work out of.

Uh thank you to everyone involved in that.

That evening also attended the South Middle River Civic Association meeting at ArtServe.

Uh congratulations to Christina Robinson, who's our new president in South Middle River.

Uh also uh congratulations and thank you for all of the years of service to Ed Catalano, who is the outgoing president of the South Middle River Civic Association.

Uh March 26th, had the pleasure of convening our District 2 Neighborhood Association President's Roundtable.

Uh always a great networking uh time, uh a lot of sharing going on at those meetings.

I want to thank our city attorney Sherry McCartney for taking the time to be with us that day.

Uh it's really helpful for all of the presidents of these neighborhoods to meet new staff as they come on board and to have that opportunity to have a discussion.

So thank you for that for taking the time on that day.

Um Monday, March 30th.

Excellent meeting um in Himeshee Village uh concerning the special entertainment district.

We'll be talking a lot about that today.

I want to thank everyone, Marine Industries, for hosting us.

Uh, I want to thank all of the stakeholders for showing up that day.

Excellent exchange of ideas.

Uh and again, we'll be discussing that later today.

But I wanted to thank staff for putting that meeting together uh and everyone taking the time.

That was a really rough rainy night, very stormy, still excellent turnout.

Thank you to everyone for coming and expressing your feelings on that topic.

Uh April 1 had the pleasure of joining Commissioner Sarenson over at a new opening in Flagler Village.

Uh Sweet Melody Ice Cream, very well known in several locations, mostly in Miami Dade County.

This is their first location um in uh Broward County, and they chose to locate in Flagler Village, so we're thrilled about that.

Um and uh again, uh great spirit, uh a great story there about um Sweet Melody Malady is actually the son uh the daughter of the owner, um, and she was the inspiration for the opening of this business.

Uh all the best to everyone at that location for success.

Uh April 1st also was the first night of Passover.

Uh I want to just tell everyone that's celebrating that and observing that.

Uh a very happy Passover.

Uh also this past Sunday, uh, as we all know, we celebrated Easter as well.

A very important week on many calendars.

Uh Passover will continue through uh the 9th this week.

Um April 3rd.

Um a really special evening at the Las Olas Ocean Side Park.

Um that park at A1A in Las Olas has become an amazing gathering spot for so many people.

Uh such a greatly activated space uh right on A1A.

Um that night in particular was very special.

Uh for those of you that have ever attended uh Friday night sound waves, more than 10 years now that uh that event has taken place.

Uh that was the brainchild of Ari Glassman.

Uh Ari is leaving our city uh after actually working with our city for about 24 years now.

Um we did a very special proclamation for her, lots of tributes that night.

It was an amazing crowd.

Uh I don't know the exact number, but that entire lawn uh was full of people uh just enjoying the music and um being with everybody every Friday night, and that was the last uh in that particular series.

Many people came up to me and said, please let's make sure uh that we continue Friday night sound waves.

So I just wanted to say thank you to Ari, wish her all the best as she heads out to Cleveland.

We all make choices, but that's okay.

Uh so I wish her the best uh over uh uh up there and out there wherever that uh she's going.

Uh but seriously, I wanted to just say thank you for uh an amazing time spent in Fort Lauderdale in building community and doing something very special um at that site.

Uh when you think that that corner was an asphalt parking lot for so many years, um, and that transformation uh has really been indicative of what we've seen, not just on the beach but in the entire city.

So thank you to everyone involved in that.

Thank you to Parks and Rec for actually It was the button south before that.

Yeah, exactly.

Um but it has really become a very popular place now, so uh thrilled to report on that.

Uh coming up April 9th, I'll be speaking at the uh Birchfinger Street beat uh Birchfinger Street Neighborhood Association.

Uh actually I think it's called Birch Park Streets now.

It used to be Birch Finger Streets.

Uh we'll be meeting um on the beach and having their annual meeting on April 9th.

I look forward to that.

April 10th.

Uh April 10th is slated uh for a very interesting new concept in Fort Lauderdale moving up here from Winwood, uh Schmorgus Board.

Um and what they do is they take uh uh possession of empty fields, empty lots before development, um, and it's really quite the market.

I do know that there might be a hiccup with this, and I will ask staff later.

I haven't had a chance to find out about that if that event is still going to take place, but it is scheduled to take place on April 10th.

Again, Schmorgusport is moving here from Windows.

It is an amazing development because we have been looking for somebody to um as a vendor to do exactly what they do have been doing in Winwood for all these last few years.

To have it come to Flagra Village is just um we're ready for it.

We need it.

So whatever has to be done in order to facilitate it.

I didn't know it was going to be um postponed.

But there is no issue with the event moving forward as planned.

Good.

Okay, so it's going to be this Friday at six o'clock.

Correct.

Okay.

Excellent.

I'm happy to hear that.

Anyway, we're looking forward to that.

That also is going to be a very interesting concept for Flagler Village, uh, not just for Flagler Village and District 2, but also for the entire city.

Uh, that their presence will be really felt there.

It's really quite a concept.

Uh look it up if you're not familiar with it, but we welcome them to Fort Lauderdale.

Um couple of comments that I'd like to ask the city manager and staff about.

Uh, first of all, um at our president's round table in District 2, uh, there was a lot of discussion in many of the neighborhoods that are experiencing a lot of construction.

Uh we're having some really serious issues uh with construction vehicles blocking the roadways, um, some confrontations happening when owners come out and talk to the contractors.

It's been a little bit nasty, a little bit aggressive.

Um I I've been hearing this from several of the neighborhoods um in District 2.

I do know that on Hendricks Isle and Venice Isle, they've actually been able to work with um our staff and making sure that when permits are granted for projects and development, um, that they put in as conditions of approval um providing off-site parking uh as the responsibility of the developer, making sure that these roadways are clear.

So I just want to make sure because I'm hearing this more and more and more about this issue in our district, uh, about what's happening when these huge trucks and vehicles just take over the streets and people are not able to get in and out of their driveways.

Uh people are not able to navigate um their roadways.

So I would love for us to be able to see if we can possibly do what we've been doing, obviously in Hendricks and Venice Isles uh in terms of requiring the developer to provide um that kind of uh of off-street parking.

So if we can work on that, Commissioner, our transportation mobility department is currently working on a construction parking management plan requirement, and Milo could speak to that if you so desire.

Well, I think it it's okay as long as we're working on that.

That's great.

I look forward to that and sharing that with the neighborhoods.

It's really important.

I do want to also thank um from staff Joe Pascarello, who I understand he and his team uh have been very responsive when neighbors call us and then we pass it along to staff.

Uh so I want to say thank you for that because some of the confrontations have gotten a little ugly, uh, and we certainly don't want to see uh see that happening anymore.

Um also on the radar, um, some of our hot spots for homelessness have gotten um a little bit worse lately.

Um I had a conversation obviously this morning with city manager and in chief about this.

I want to make sure that we're doing all that we can.

I know that we no longer have that capability of holding centers like we used to have.

Uh I know that the sheriff's office will not accept people and we don't have that facility, but I I'm hearing more and more of some of our hot spots just getting a little bit hotter.

Uh and I want to make sure, especially in areas where I know that businesses have been spending a lot of money, thousands and thousands of dollars to hire their own security, um, that they're still not able to get ahead of this.

Um so I think that it's really important that we can do all that we can.

Um so if I can just get some sort of updates on that as time goes on, um, that'll be really, really important.

Um also wanted to welcome to Flagler Village Go Grosser.

Um I know that we've talked about the need for grocery stores and other places.

Correct.

Right.

Um that's long time coming.

Uh we have built this amazing part of town, uh, and now we're seeing the services come that actually make it a real neighborhood.

Finally.

Finally.

Uh Mayor, you'll get your chance later, you know, just like that.

No, but I'm not sure.

I'm cheering you on the cheering.

I just want you to know that.

After Commissioner Sarensen, we're going to turn it right over to you, and you can just located?

Grow go grocer.

Uh uh Sistrunk and Andrews, right?

Yes.

In the motif building.

In the Motif building.

Yes.

Um here.

No, you're doing a great job.

I really I appreciate it.

I know you have my back, and I thank you for that.

Um, so moving around on Go Grocer.

It's a great combination, by the way.

Uh, it's not a big box grocery store, and it's not a good thing.

Excuse me.

Right, the Sun Sensor, they called it a combination of Whole Foods and 7-Eleven.

I think they said if they got married or had a child, it would be Go Grocer or something like that.

Exactly.

So it's great.

It definitely fills uh a void.

Uh, so that is absolutely wonderful that that is actually going to be happening.

Um I do want to, I've been watching the news this weekend.

I want to actually congratulate Inter Miami CF on their move to their new stadium.

Um I know that you know, when you think about it, uh we thought we would have them for one year.

Uh maybe two.

We had them for five.

But actually, the agreement with them started in 2019.

Um and I I just wanted to wish them all the very best.

They are still training in Fort Lauderdale.

Um, but I just wanted to say thank you for creating an amazing community spirit uh these last five years, filling that stadium all the time.

Um I know we still have to work and finish that park situation there for sure.

Um but I did want to just wish them all the very best in their new home.

It's exciting.

Um and I think that the five years that we had here uh in Fort Lauderdale uh were excellent for the community, excellent in terms of economic impact, uh, and really brought a lot of attention to our city.

So I wanted to say thank you uh and congratulate them uh on their new on their new move.

Uh tonight I know that Commissioner Beasley Pittman mentioned um the passing.

I was going to also mention that we mentioned Nancy Mateyr, but there are some other people I wanted to mention that had a lot to do uh with Fort Lauderdale.

Uh Tom Chansey was a very well-known local landscape architect and arborist.

Uh he was the founder of the not profit tree bank.

For many years, this man did amazing work when it came to our landscape in Fort Lauderdale.

Um and he recently passed away.

I'm hoping we can remember him as well.

Um also uh from Riverwalk, uh we we lost Richard Rodriguez, a past chair of Riverwalk.

Um I will say that that is also an amazing loss.

Uh all of these people have contributed so much to our city and to our county.

Um and I I think that I'm hoping that we can remember all of them.

Um it's ironic that tonight we also are doing a proclamation uh declaring uh world landscape architecture month.

So how fitting that is for uh us to also remember uh Tom Chansey.

Um and last but not least, I do want to mention I know we had a discussion last time about the Solid Waste Working Group and the Governing Board and the Executive Committee.

Um I I'm sure hopefully we'll hear some more details from Commissioner Sarnson who attended, but I was disappointed that they did not seem to be an appetite to add the city of Fort Lauderdale to the executive um committee.

Um although they did have the uh quorum that they were hoping to get for the governing board, um, they just didn't seem to think that that would make it uh in terms of changing the voting restrictions and the voting rules for the executive committee.

Um ironically, they didn't even deal with the master plan because there was some legal issues.

Well, why don't we let Ben Sorensen?

I'm sorry, I'll go ahead.

But uh well, I'm getting to the point is I'm actually going to submit my resignation as the liaison um to the Solid Waste Working.

I will say it isn't true.

It is true, Mayor.

Um I wish them all the best.

Uh they've been working on this for seven years.

I have no idea how much longer it's going to go on.

Um, but I am going to step aside from representing the commission on the uh well, we're not on the executive committee, they didn't want us on the executive committee.

Uh I guess we're still part of the governing board.

Um, and uh we are still the largest uh the largest tonnage uh in the uh in the county when it comes to solid waste.

So maybe the dynamics will change there, but I'll just be happy to pass that over to whoever you guys want to uh appoint.

Um city manager, I had one question about one of your letters to the commission, uh, and this dealt with the Lauderdale by the Sea public safety issue.

Um Lauderdale by the Sea uh I guess now is entering into negotiations with the City of Fort Lauderdale and the Broward Sheriff's Office in time in terms of providing services.

So I want to know sort of what that timeline is.

Um I also want to find out from you why the city of Pompano Beach, uh, which was providing services, declined to be considered again uh to provide services to Lauderdale by the sea.

Um, and if that's going to impact anything, we're gonna do, I just want to make sure as we move forward on this that uh we're not going to find ourselves in a situation where I guess Pompano Beach just couldn't make the numbers work.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Based on the information provided to us, it appears that Pompano Beach did not have a contract that was in its financial interest, and that is likely why they decided not to put in a proposal for uh the next contract.

Uh we have been advised by the town manager that the city will be conducting a study as it relates to fire rescue services, and those are the services that they seek to negotiate with the city of Fort Lauderdale and BSO simultaneously.

And so while it isn't really our preference to have uh dual negotiations going on uh with both entities uh out of respect for the request, we will sit down with them and negotiate for fire rescue services.

Okay, excellent.

And that's supposed to occur 2027 when they is Pompano go all the way through 2027.

Evette Matthews, Assistant City Manager.

So what they have shared with us is that they would be looking to transition their services mid-year 2027.

So that's when they would transition.

They're currently on a month to month with Pompano right now.

Okay, great.

No, thank you for that.

I appreciate that.

I just want to make sure we're cautiously moving forward on that and you know not going to find ourselves in any kind of pitfall that you know, Pompano obviously did.

Um, City Manager, um, can we expect soon to have a discussion at the commission level or a conference meeting or an evening meeting uh about what's happening across from BMR in terms of that park that is being created?

Is that coming to us soon?

Yes, Commissioner, our Capital Projects Department has been in discussions with the HMR developer, and we anticipate bringing an item to the commission for discussion as to what the plans would be for Fort Lauderdale Beach Park.

Uh that should come before the commission, the first meeting in May.

First meeting in May, great.

And lastly, I just wanted to welcome to the district two team um Chiara Coleman.

For those of you that have not met her, uh, we say welcome.

She is our new district two outreach coordinator.

Today is her eighth day on the job.

Uh so I wanted to say thank you and welcome to Chiara.

She's back there sitting next to Erica.

Can you want to stand up, Karen?

Just say hello to everybody wave to everybody.

That's Chiara.

Uh welcome.

Thank you, Mayor I appreciate it.

Okay, uh Commissioner Sorensen.

Thank you, Mayor.

I got I have a number of items here.

Um like to start with this.

The um as as you all know, it's uh increasingly challenging time for our military service members.

Uh we are stretched around the world uh in a high opt tempo pace right now.

And we have 16 members of the city of Fort Lauderdale, uh, myself included, who serve in a military reserve capacity.

So we have reservists from Navy, Army, uh Florida Guard, Coast Guard, Marines, uh, Air Force, all branches.

And this presents a very difficult challenge in my experience as a reservist of balancing two jobs at minimum for for these folks.

And I want to highlight uh, Mayor, what the city does for reservists uh in general, and and city manager maybe if Jerome could come up just to um share anything I missed.

But one of the big things, Mayor and Commissioners, I just want to share is when you are deployed as a reservist or called up for duty as a reservist or uh a Florida Guard member, there's often times where that reservist is not receiving the pay that their city job affords.

So there's oftentimes a differential between what you earn as a reservist when you're called up for active duty or extended reserve duty and your regular city pay.

That difference can really provide significant challenges for families.

Um you're supporting family members, that can be a real real uh hardship.

And so one of the do we suspend their pay when they're serving?

Well, so that's a great question, Mayor.

And so I'll try to articulate what we do, which ultimately is good news.

I think as a city we're doing the right thing, Mayor.

But I just wanted to kind of visit this as a commission and make sure we're we're um feeling we're doing everything we can to our service members.

So that uh differential, we are not required as a city or an employer to compensate members during that time of service.

Um there are federal laws that ensure that that job is not lost when they return to the city as an employee, but that that supplemental pay, historically, what the city has done and continues to do, and again, Jerome, correct me if I'm wrong on any of this, is the city provides the supplemental pay so that whatever that reservist is earning as a reservist when they're deployed or on duty, the city compensates them for the difference between that reservist pay and their standard city pay to allow them to support their families at the level that they are traditionally have been able to when they're a city employee.

So I just want Jerome, am I explaining that right?

Yes, sir.

Um Florida statute actually requires the employers to pay the first 30 days during training for reservists.

After the 30 days is up, the employer is not required to supplement the pay that the military provides for that employee.

We historically, however, have we're allowed to by statute, we're just not required to.

That is if the employees pay from the military is less than what they would have earned had they stayed on the job with the city, then we pay that that supplement to make them whole as if they had stayed employed with the city.

Does that interfere with any pension contributions either?

Yes.

Yes.

Do we pay that too?

Yes, we do.

Okay.

Thanks, Mayor.

I and that's a good question.

I actually hadn't thought about.

And so right now we have 16 City of Fort Lauderdale employees, myself included, who are reservists in some capacity and would be uh able to seek this support if they are mobilized, deployed, or serving an extended duty.

And I just think that's not all cities do that, Mayor, and I'm very proud that as a city of Fort Lauderdale, that's a practice that we embrace and just ask that we continue to encourage that, uh, Mayor.

So I just wanted to lift that up.

And Jerome, anything else in terms of supporting reservists and their families that you want to share?

Well, of course, we keep their their benefits in place as well.

Of course, the employee is subject to the employee contributions towards the benefit plan, but um we manage that and we make sure that there is no loss of benefits in in the course of their uh reserve duty.

Um I understand that both the police and the fire departments have ribbon programs.

Um the fire already has it in place.

Um police is uh uh on the verge of putting one in place for allowing the designation to be placed on the chest of the employee as well.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Appreciate that.

Thank you, Jerome.

Um next.

Highlight a uh uh a real positive, I think, Mayor, and maybe you were gonna cover this or city manager, but just the success, the entire city team uh achieved in spring break.

Um just the from a supporting our visitors to crowd control to being proactive, just Fort Lauderal PD, Fort Lauderal Fire Rescue, Parks and Rec.

I mean, just everyone across the board, I thought did an amazing job.

And I just want to thank City Manager for your leadership of what is a very, very intense time period and important time period for us, but I want wanted to highlight that, Mayor.

Well, I think it's a good point, and I believe the newspaper even had an article today about it.

Uh and uh and I think uh our hats off to the chiefs, the two chiefs and and parks and rec, as you mentioned, as well as the city manager, because it's not easy job corralling, you know, thousands and thousands of people that come into our city, and plus not just visitors from other states, but also the local kids who love to come to Fort Laurie to have a good time.

So uh we appreciate uh the vendors and the business people that that go out of their way to uh to roll out the red carpet for those who do come to visit our our city, not just during spring break but throughout the year.

But the um but the reports of spring break in Fort Lauderdale um were I should say uneventful and as compared to other cities that we've we hear about and unfortunately you know uh kids just like to be kids and you know we we have to make sure that when we promise parents that their kids are going to be safe when they come here that we fulfill that promise.

So uh so I too appreciate what you're bringing it up.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um City Attorney, another topic that that I know you're working on, and just want to bring up is the crafting of an e-bike e-mobility ordinance, and just want to check on the progress of that city attorney, how we're doing this is a major concern in in my district and I know across the city, and so I want to check in on that.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Uh yes, that is being um drafted, and my understanding is that Tam is actually going to go into the community and discuss the um uh the proposed ordinance and then we would have it back to you.

Okay.

Great.

And and time-wise, what are we thinking if this is April?

Good afternoon, Milo Schmidt, uh director for cities transportation and mobility department from the standpoint of timeline.

Um our goal is to take it to City Commission in June of this year.

Okay.

So but but Commissioner, uh you bring up a uh a point that I think needs to be addressed more thoroughly, and that is enforcement.

We can have all the laws in the books, but how do we enforce it?

How do we how do we um manage traffic on city roads where dozens of of uh bicyclists who maraud through our city streets in gang-like fashion, you know, harassing and terrorizing other people, either pedestrians or or drivers of vehicles.

How are we going to um implement an enforcement procedure?

Uh I don't expect you to have an answer today, but I'm just saying as part of this program, we have to consider that.

How are we gonna do it?

What are next what are steps that we can allow our police department to take in order to try to enforce whatever ordinance that we come up with?

Absolutely great point, Mr.

Mayor.

And we have drafted an ordinance in the process of drafting, we did uh receive input from our parks department, our police department, our code, um cities attorney's office, and also police legal.

Uh so we want to make sure that we are uh also consistent with uh some of the state laws that uh state of Florida already has or that might be upcoming so that we can simplify their uh Morgan job as well.

Okay, thank you.

And Milo Sh my understanding, City Attorney, my understanding is State House and State Senate passed uh e-bikes bill.

I think that's going to the governor for signature.

Is that am I tracking that right?

That is correct.

Okay.

And that has components where it's limiting speed on sidewalks, if I understand right.

That is correct, limiting speed on sidewalks to 10 miles per hour within 50 uh 50 feet away from the pedestrian.

Right.

And so what our ordinance would explore, um, mayor and commissioners, I think, is in addition to that clarity on is that state statute applying only to state roads?

Does it apply to city?

And then making sure that we're being as aggressive in our regulating of these as as possible, right?

So that is correct.

So our approach is to make sure that we are covering parks um and uh uh turf areas within the parks, number one, number two, riverwalk um as well, and number three, if uh there is desire of city commission, we can also expand that to uh right-of-way um or sidewalk, city owned uh sidewalks, uh state statute will be covering uh FDOT right away, but we are also uh making sure and uh working with legal to understand whether the upcoming state uh law would apply to city right-away as well or only state right-away.

So that's clarification that we're seeking.

Okay, great.

And and today I received an email asking about non pedal e-moto's and e-dirt bikes that are throttle powered and pedal less.

Would our statute cover all of those modalities as well?

So our goal is to cover any micromobility devices, and those would be e-scooters, east gateboards, uh self-balancing devices and similar.

So those that are powered by not human power.

Okay, so yes, then is that what I okay?

It would cover all that.

Okay, fantastic.

Thank you.

That's great to hear for that.

Um next up, um see, uh wanted to go to this.

Um, just some of the events as was mentioned.

Um happy Easter, happy passover to those celebrating.

Um I participated in for a short period of time, the Lexus corporate run.

And so we had, I think, City Manager 73 city employees are part of that uh run and walk, uh, which I opted for the walking, but I thought that was great.

Um, mayor, I think that was the first time we had that big of a team.

So it was it was excellent, good good camaraderie.

I thought went went very well.

Um just from uh we shifted the route a little bit and and from a feedback standpoint.

I couple concerns about the route, but overall I think it went well.

City manager, what any feedback that you received on the route and we had very limited uh complaints about this year's route.

So I think we can always fine-tune it and improve.

But this was a great upgrade from years past.

Okay, great.

That was what I was hearing too.

Also, uh I got a chance to go to the 13th annual Fort Lateral Track and Field City Championships, and Mayor, on your behalf, I presented the Mayor's Cup, which I didn't even know existed, but there's a mayor's cup for the best track and field team in the city, which was uh wonderful.

And this is the what's that annual event?

Annual event, right?

And and first I've heard of it.

Yeah, and Commissioner Beasley Pittman, you may be more familiar than I present a mayor's cup.

Yeah, we got to get you there next year, Mayor this is a prestigious event to celebrate your your loba, mayor.

Giggle beloba.

So this is the only, as they shared with me, the only uh citywide event that has all city high schools, public and private, all competing against each other at the same time.

So it's just uh unique coming together of our city and all the all the great teams that were there.

I remember that.

So you gotta remember that, Mayor.

It's uh come coming back for you coming back.

Just put it on the calendar.

Um so that was great.

Um, the Fort Lauterelle Family Fun Day at Snyder Park, thank you, City Manager, Parks and Rec, PD, everyone who was involved.

That was just a great celebration.

Mayor, thanks for you know leading us there.

Just wonderful, wonderful day.

Um, along those lines, want to thank Parks from Rec and everyone else who's involved in adjusting the dais here.

I think this is this is working well, so thanks for thanks for that.

Uh was it too close.

That's just a little too close, a little too close.

Well, this way you can keep an eye on Pat and see what he's really doing over there.

Uh the I had a chance this to visit with our clean team, which is uh falls under uh public works.

So these are folks who are out cleaning our city, graffiti, trash, um, just do amazing work, and they do um they kind of up staff during spring break.

Mayor, so they're uh they're doing double shifts for a lot of them and just doing amazing, amazing job.

So I just uh want to thank them for all their great work.

Uh Boys and Girls Club of Broward County had a great we had talked about this before, coordinating with Commissioner Beasley Pittman, uh this one-day internship where a bunch of the boys and girls club youth got to experience what it's like to be a Fort Lateral police officer, firefighter, IT, host of opportunities within the city, and many of the students immediately said this is something I'd like to pursue.

So we had mayor, we had I think three high schoolers that uh immediately want to uh be part of the police explorers program.

Uh several were interested in IT, so just a great way to show our our young people how public service is is a wonderful opportunity for them.

So I just want to thank I know it's a har heavy lift for all city staff, so just want to thank city staff for that.

Commissioner Glassman, you brought up thanks for talking about solid waste authority meeting.

So I I went on on behalf of the city uh commission, and uh I brought up my the first thing I said was you know, basically, what do we need to do to be part uh on the executive committee as the biggest municipality in Broward County?

And so um that was not uh exactly what I was hoping to hear.

So that to me was disappointing.

Um mayor and and commissioner Golaster.

What does that mean in November we're gonna have an election?

So they have elections every year as I understand it, and and um Brad or feel free to correct me, but they have elections every year for the executive committee.

So there's a governing committee, which is all municipalities are invited to be part of the executive committee.

They hold elections once a year.

And I said the fact that we're the biggest uh municipality, I think we're gonna be able to do that.

Well, we should have an ex officio membership there just by virtue of being the biggest city with the most uh hunt tonnage.

Absolutely.

Uh you know, and so I still don't quite understand why we're not part of that.

Their feedback to me though was well come to we'd love the for City of Fort Lauderdale representatives to come to every executive committee meeting and be part of the discussion, and we will always encourage your participation and so forth at the executive committee at the governing committee.

And so I said, you know without a vote.

Thank you very much.

Correct without a vote until we're uh a member.

So and and then taxation without representation.

And then as Commissioner Glassman shared, the idea was at this past meeting that they would vote on the framework for the agreement that would then go to all municipalities to deliberate and vote on themselves.

Some of the members of the Broward County Commission that were there brought up concerns about that agreement and asked that uh there be further clarifications and work on this agreement.

So that vote to allow this framework to move to cities to discuss uh was delayed.

And so now the tentative date for that vote is April 17th.

Um I am gonna be out of town that day.

Uh, but they suggested that I could vote uh virtually, possibly if I'm able to uh while out of town.

So I wanted to defer to you all uh and mayor and the commission for what you're you would like to do.

I'm happy to attend virtually on April 17th.

I am not sure I will be able to vote, but if my schedule allows me to, I'll be they they've said I can vote virtually and I'm happy to do so if we like that would be helpful, yeah.

Okay, if you all like okay.

So I'll continue in that uh and at least for this next meeting, then we can revisit once I get more feedback and and and see what you would like to do next.

Um great.

Thank you, Mayor, for that.

And I think the last question I had, the and and again, Mayor, maybe you're talking about this for city manager, but just the um city manager's uh letter to the commission about city hall.

I'd like to talk about it.

I think she can bring that up.

Great.

Yeah, thanks, Mayor.

That's everything I have.

All right, great.

Uh so you guys have covered uh most everything, but just a few things I'd like to point out.

First of all, I had the uh the honor and the privilege of once again attending the uh Greater Fort L'Oreal Chamber of Commerce Washington Summit this pat last week.

We spent uh four days in Washington, it was a great event, and uh Dan Lindblade from the the chamber is here, and I want to commend him for another excellent uh program that was put together.

It started out with a uh with a visit to the uh uh it wasn't the embassy, it was the home of the of the uh uh ambassador from Ireland.

Uh so she was very gracious, gracious in have in hosting uh a reception for us on our first night, and it continued to go from there where we met with a number of congresspeople, uh, members of the administration, members of Holland and Knight staff who uh used to work with various administrations talking about a lot of the issues that that concerns uh our city and cities in general, so it was definitely a well worthwhile program.

So thank you once again.

And it was Dan's last official uh um participation there because he is going to be retiring in a few weeks, a few weeks.

Well when?

Yeah, this week's, yeah.

Okay.

I know he's counting the days.

But uh anyway, it was a great event, and I encourage the members of the commission in the future.

I think the next one is gonna be in 2028.

Um members of the commission to consider participating in that because it's really a great uh opportunity for us to learn and and to be heard.

Uh the end of that week, we had the family picnic here in the city of Fort Lauderdale uh at Snyder Park.

It was very well attended, it was a beautiful day.

Uh, I want to thank the Parks and Rick and all the staff for putting together another great uh uh program.

Uh I know it lasted through the day, and uh um and once again it was uh fun serving beer at early in the morning, but uh but we definitely had a great time, so thank you.

Uh also uh we received uh uh Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz uh came to Fort Lauderdale and where she presented a check for one million dollars to the city of Fort Lauderdale to help build a public safety training complex.

We're very appreciative of that.

And I believe uh this coming week we're going to be um getting another check from Congressman uh uh Jared Moskowitz, and I'll be talking about that uh at a later time.

Uh see you mentioned the Schmorgasborg.

Oh, you didn't mention the Battle of the Paddles pickleball tournament on April 11th at the Fort.

Uh April 11th at 11 a.m.

I'll be giving welcome and remarks to the uh this national tournament uh which we once which we'll now be able to host at our beautiful Fort facility down over in Snyder Park.

Um April 14th, and maybe um uh uh maybe I should ask uh well we'll see.

Uh uh this is uh the inaugural prime pulse networking evening at uh on New River Drive.

This is an announcement of Prime Pulse establishing its first United States base in uh in Fort Lauderdale.

Um you want to come up and talk a little bit about it?

No?

Okay.

I'm looking at you.

Yeah, you don't want to come okay.

Um what's great about this is the fact that Fort Lauderdale is being recognized as a center of of the tech industry.

Uh we have quite a few um we have quite a few businesses who are tech-based, tech focused, who are coming to Fort Lauderdale.

Um, and Prime Pulse is a family equity investment firm.

It's it was invited and and um uh promoted by the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance, and I want to thank you for doing that.

Uh, do you want to say a few words about it or no?

You're good.

Okay.

All right.

Um April 15th, we have the Smart City Expo USA.

I'll be on a panel discussion.

It'll be in Palm Beach County.

This is a Bloomberg-sponsored event, and uh a number of the mayors from uh the three counties are going to be talking about um about smart cities and how to best promote uh if uh artificial intelligence in uh in making our cities uh uh um provide better services.

April 17th, we have the annual Art Serve Impact Awards.

This is at ArtServe, it's uh at from 6 to 9 p.m.

Um great opportunity once again to uh recognize individuals in our community who have who have made a great impact in the arts community.

Um let me see a couple issues here, but they're mostly uh I can talk actually.

I can talk to a couple of these I can talk to you, uh Raquel privately um and the others are gonna come up on the agenda.

So um so I'm good to go.

And City Manager, your report.

Thank you, Mayor.

I do want to echo the sentiment shared earlier uh by you and by Commissioner Sorensen on our spring break uh success this year.

Uh thank you so much to all of our teams who participated and planned uh this year.

I asked uh deputy city manager Chris Cooper as well as assistant chief Leslie St.

Floor, who's our emergency manager, to work together to ensure that all of our teams were uh working collaboratively to enhance our spring break experience.

Uh police and fire and parks and recreation certainly did a wonderful job.

I also want to highlight our public works team, uh, transportation mobility, strategic communications, information technology, procurement, uh, community services, particularly our community enhancement division.

Uh so many of our staff members came together to uh elevate our spring break operation.

Uh this year I had the opportunity to uh visit him or she from about 12:30 in the morning till 4 30 in the morning to observe uh the spring break atmosphere.

I got a chance to walk around with our police.

You were there for four hours.

I I was that sign that Banner that said all you can drink for ten dollars.

I really thought it was.

I I think it's important to observe uh spring break in its natural form, and so it was a great eye-opening opportunity, and our team did a phenomenal job.

Uh this year, thank you so much for supporting the city's team in implementing various new elements.

So this year, strategic communications uh came up with a tagline for the spring break period, good vibes, clear rules.

Uh we also implemented two high impact zones.

We normally do one, which is the Barrier Island.

This year we did downtown as well.

Uh we had enhanced sanitation services to ensure that the beach was pristine at any hour of the day.

We had 247 code enforcement, something we have not done in the past.

Of course, we had the no open container uh restriction, and we had this year as well the age restriction.

So we had a lot more tools in the toolbox, and that allowed us to uh have the flexibility to enforce and also ensure an enjoyable and safe experience.

So thank you so much for your support of our team for spring break and for uh supporting those new enhancements this year.

I also want to highlight uh the team that put together our Lexus Corporate Run team.

Uh we were in an agenda briefing, and this was an item on a previous commission agenda where uh the event producer was looking for a permit, and I asked the team, I said, Hey, do we have a team for the Lexus Corporate Run?

And they said no, we haven't done that in many years.

And just like that, the human resources department, strategic communications and parks and rec, they mobilized, and we had about 75 runners or walkers uh self-included, and so I thought that was just a wonderful moment for our team.

I did get to go to the Dillard Elementary career day alongside various city departments.

That was a great experience.

I think it's very important for us to demonstrate the benefits of public service and to inspire that next generation to follow suit.

So that was very rewarding.

I was able to attend the Broward County Sheriff's Advisory Council uh awards luncheon, and two of our city personnel and public safety, both police and fire, they were honored that day.

And so that's something that really speaks to the caliber of public safety professionals that we have in our city.

I do want to highlight that we have the Tortuga Music Festival coming this weekend.

You may have noticed that the beach has been transitioning over the past couple of weeks, and we are excited to welcome event goers, various members of our city team have been working together with the event producer to ensure that we're ready for that impact.

And so I I appreciate that this event continues to be part of our cultural fabric.

I do want to highlight uh letter to the commission 26-097 that was issued on April 2nd as it relates to our city hall project.

On December 2nd, uh followed by on January 13 at the City Commission prioritization workshop, as well as our February 3rd Commission Conference meeting, and then our February 17th City Commission meeting.

Uh staff has communicated with the commission on the potential target budget for the project.

We have been making uh several strides in the negotiation process since we began on January 8th.

We did come to the commission with a draft term sheet on February 17th, which uh was well received and the commission provided feedback.

Uh but now as we continue to progress, I wanted to ensure that the city commission had an opportunity to learn more about uh what the project would entail from a design perspective as well as from a cost perspective uh based on the negotiations thus far.

Uh it's important that we are on the same page with what the expectations are, and although there was a target budget shared uh you know amongst the commission and acknowledged, uh we feel that there is a need at this moment for us to uh revisit that discussion, and we want to make sure that we are uh aligned with the commission as we negotiate, and so we're looking for the commission to provide feedback.

As I shared with each of you in the agenda briefing, uh we have several scenarios that we're looking at uh from a design and cost perspective, and uh before we bring forward the interim agreement, it might be helpful for the commission to reaffirm or uh reset uh what we know as the the target budget so that staff can be well equipped to meet your goals, needs, and expectations, and so that the developer also understands the parameters in which we are working um do you want to hand out you took back the term sheet?

Yes, the clerk has some documents, and we are also able to share on the screen if you desire.

Well, it's easier for me to have it in front of me that I can't see behind me.

So could the clerk's office uh bring up the screen?

We will start with the uh financial modeling.

So let's talk a little bit about that.

Yeah, let's talk a little bit about the financial modeling.

Um I'm gonna go to concept B.

Now when the uh when the original proposal was uh provided to us, it was based on a square footage that we have since um reduced significantly, and therefore the price of the project was reduced significantly, correct?

Yes, Mayor.

Okay.

So in looking at concept B, um we see uh we see employee head count of about 630 and uh programmable gross square footage of about 200,000, but I think it's a little bit more than that, uh as I as I get more information.

And the cost per square foot, you have a 1,200.

Has have any of these numbers changed since yesterday?

So as I shared in the briefings, uh the document that you were provided was in draft form.

We have since uh worked with the developer to ensure that we are um closer to being uh accurate as we know it today, they did some additional homework and provided us some uh updated numbers.

So what changed since yesterday was the price per square foot on concept A and concept B.

Uh up until yesterday, the 1,140 per square foot price had been consistent from the date the proposal was submitted until yesterday.

Okay, so um so in concept B we're looking at approximately uh $1,200 a square foot and um which comes to a design and construction cost of $240 million.

Now in our discussion, there was um let's talk about the 10% uh the 10 percent equity interest that the developer has been talking about.

Now, in our discussion yesterday, you indicated to me that um uh that was going to cost the city approximately 11 and a half percent uh on the money that's going to be borrowed in order to accomplish this.

Am I am I am I uh in the ballpark?

Sure.

What what I shared is that the developer is interested in having a 10 percent equity stake with an internal rate of return at 11 and a half percent.

Right.

And so depending on the cost of the project, that would dictate um what the additional cost to the city would be should the city include the developer equity stake at 10 percent with that uh IRR rate at 11 and a half percent.

So if you're looking uh at concept B, uh it it could be that the city could anticipate additional costs, and I'm gonna ask you Vet Matthews to come forward and and just back check me, but I know that the price has changed a little bit from yesterday to today.

But when we were looking at a project that was about 245 million with developer equity at about 25 million, the additional cost to the city for the developer to have that equity is about 43.7 million.

So but what has not been discussed is what that represents.

It's not just um it's not just a return on investment, but that's also the cost of operation and maintenance for the for 30 years, including not just operation and maintenance, but also replacement of of parts and materials should they become uh obsolete and dysfunctional.

That was never disclosed to us.

Do you is that part of this discussion?

We did share that the O and M cost was not rolled up into the top line, and so if we look at the document that's before you and currently on the screen, and we go down a little bit.

Okay.

We we see that with the city financing 90 percent and the developer financing 10 percent, the O and M is an added cost.

It's an added cost, but it's also included in this.

It's included in the 10 percent.

The 10 percent, my understanding is that the 10 percent equity interest of the developer and the and the payment of the city of the 11, 11 and a half percent on on the uh so-called equity return, that includes the the payment for operation and maintenance as well as replacement of parts and and facilities that should wear out or be need to be need to be replaced during a 30-year term.

That's not money in their pocket, this 11.5%.

You want to explain that to us?

Yes, sir.

I mean that Matthews, assistant city manager.

So uh the 11 and a half percent equity return is not part of the operation and maintenance costs, as the manager was mentioning on line 18 of that worksheet that's in front of you, would be the agreement that we would enter into with the developer for the operations and maintenance.

The 11.5 percent equity stake, sometimes people refer to it as an availability payment.

That's really more reflective of the developer's stake in the project.

So we would finance 90 percent, they would finance 10 percent, and their um proposition for that 10 percent is really the coordination of the projects.

But also, let's say we get to the project date and the building is not ready.

We would not make that availability payment or make a contribution to their equity um at that time until the building becomes ready.

Let's say that we get further along in the project and there are some substantial challenges with the building.

There would be certain deliverables that are tied to us continuing to make that 10 uh 11 and a half percent contribution that we would withhold in the event that something happened that limited the availability of the building.

But doesn't that also isn't that uh practice also carried through for the 30 years?

That is correct.

It would be for the 30 years that we are making contributions on their equity return.

Right.

So this is kind of an insurance for the city that some that the maintenance, the operation, and the facilities will all be maintained and kept and kept operational for the 30 years that we have this agreement, correct?

Um it ensures that we have availability for the building, but there's a separate payment that six million dollars that is specific to ensuring that the building is operated and maintained appropriately.

So you're saying that there are two separate payments here?

Correct.

And where is that reflected?

Um so the first payment is reflected on line 16, which would be the developer's uh projected availability payment or the equity payment.

So that's the 11 and a half percent return on the 10 percent contribution.

So um in option B, that would be three million dollars a year.

And then the second payment would be on line 18, and that would be the operations and maintenance.

That's everything from and we would have to negotiate what it finally includes, but the initial proposal included things like janitorial services, um, the actual maintenance of the building, and that is included in line 18, and that's the 6.1 million dollars.

And and then the third payment obligation is based on the city's 90 percent financing, which would be 17 million.

That's line 15.

That's on line 15.

Well, that isn't the it's it's you mean 15 million.

That's concept A.

We're not looking at concept A.

I'm just looking at concept B.

Okay.

So line 15 across the board for all concepts, that would be the city's obligation on an annual basis, and then the payments uh related to the developer, uh, that's line 16 and line 18.

Right.

So you're saying that the 10 percent uh developer equity of 3 million dollars a year is in addition to the cost for operation and maintenance of 6.160.

Correct.

You want to come up here, Cody, and explain a little bit about this?

What is your response to that?

Thank you, Mayor.

Alex Barrett with plenary, the developer for this project.

So I think you had it right with the idea that it's the insurance for the project.

So the equity investment is the guarantee that the operations and maintenance requirements will be delivered upon.

So it's not just janitorial and those types of services, but it's the condition of the building.

So we will be required to keep the building in the same condition that it's delivered on day one for 30 years and give it back to you with 30 years of life left at the end of the term, or you don't pay us that amount back.

So wouldn't that wouldn't that wouldn't that be coming out of the six point one million dollars?

No, no, no, no.

So the six point one is the cost of the actual services, it's the the labor for the technicians doing the work.

The availability or the equity amount is the guarantee of the performance.

And so debt, the deadline item, that's a cost.

The city's paying that no matter what.

The equity is only paid if we meet the obligations of the contract.

Well let's assume you meet the obligations of the contract.

Okay.

So that the So we'd be paying, in addition to the 6.1 million, we would be paying an additional three million because you're you're going to be, I mean, I have to assume that you're going to be working with the city in good faith every year that you're going to maintain and operate the building in a in a um in a proper manner.

So why do we need to have insurance on top of that?

So I think this goes back to a a comment that Commissioner Herbst made last time we were here.

So you talked about you know all of these promises and guarantees and contracts.

They sound good, but how do we know that they're going to happen?

And the answer to that is that you have 25 million dollars of the developer's money, and you're only paying that back if we meet the contract.

And so it's it's a guarantee of the obligations versus just the cost of performing the work, which you know, if the cost goes up, we have to eat that.

And if there wasn't equity on that, any operator who is charging you for work, they're not going to take cost increases.

They're going to just hand a bill back to the city and say this cost more than we thought.

So it was the 6.1 million, is that for each year for 30 years?

That's right.

And there's no gr there's no uh increase for cost of living or CPI or anything like that?

It's just tied to CPI.

So it's a five payment.

It cannot be increased, but it is tied to CPI to reflect escalation.

Um and if the cost of something should go up, that comes out of the availability payment?

That's right.

It comes out, we pay the additional cost.

That's right.

Can we back up on that?

Just so I'm clear.

So the OM is going to be done by Siles, right?

They are our subcontractors.

Okay.

So we've got a contract with Styles.

The contract with Styles is I like round numbers, it keeps it simple.

I'd I'd rather be approximately right than exactly wrong.

Okay.

So six million dollars, we've got a contract with Styles, and it's got a built-in inflation factor based on CPI.

So you're saying that if it goes up, if their costs go up in excess of CPI, your IRR goes down and you eat that?

Correct.

Okay.

Let me clarify one thing with you, because I've I've heard conflicting stories on this.

Is your 11.5% IRR post-tax or pre-tax?

Post-tax.

Post-tax IRR.

Okay.

So it's really a 15% IRR, 16% IR or something.

What is the exact number that gives you a post-tax?

I haven't done the algebra.

I haven't bothered because I want to confirm it first.

I could do the math, but yes, uh, it's it's not that much.

So the tax is something that we'll have to calculate on a specific basis once we get into the project, but it will be approximately half a percent.

So 12 percent in total, not 15 percent.

Your corporate tax rate is only half a percent?

Yeah you.

And I thought I was a good CPA, all right.

But okay.

So your your IRR in this project to do the project, that that's your hurdle rate basically to undertake an investment is 12 percent.

That's right.

Okay.

And I think uh just to add, so when you talk about the maintenance of the building, you know, think about replacement of elevators over time, replacement of IRAs.

I understand the HVAC systems and all that.

I I I'm just I'm concerned on the um, you know, in year 21, okay, you're still around.

Okay.

And what what's the insurance that the city will have other than we can withhold the availability payment?

What's the insurance to for the city is gonna have that we're gonna know you're still there?

What is there an insurance policy that or some kind of bond that gets put up that that guarantees that that money is going to be there?

Should we have to tap into it?

So the the investment itself is that product.

So we are paying for 10 percent of the construction project, and then you do not pay that back if we don't meet the project.

So at any point in the project, if we are terminated, you owe us nothing.

Nothing.

All right.

So you're paying, you're paying 10 percent of the construction.

Correct.

Okay.

Well, presumably in that case, somebody steps into your shoes and they take over the investment.

I mean, if you walk away for whatever reason, um presumably somebody else steps in and they take over that.

If if we personally walk away, um so if we were terminated for our own default, the city would have the option of replacing us and not paying us back.

What what would what would be a default?

We can't be more than a certain amount of time late.

So these are the details that still need to be negotiated.

But this is all after the fact.

We're talking operations.

So construction is done, we're done, we're to the mayor's point, we're 10 years down the road.

What are the default options in the agreement 10 years down the road?

So there'll be a series of performance requirements.

The elevators have to be online, the air conditioning has to be available, you know, all of those types of requirements.

There will be a threshold for at first you just receive a deduction.

So you stop paying us as much, and then once you hit a certain point, you can terminate us because the performance has reached a level that is insufficient enough that you can get rid of us and not pay us back.

But I'm not terminating styles because they're the ones that are responsible for the OM.

Like wouldn't I be terminating the people that are responsible for the O and M.

Why would I terminate you as opposed to the company that's responsible for the OM?

I'm missing something in there.

We're in privity with them, that's the thing.

Right.

Because Styles will be providing the boots on the ground, the individuals.

Well, I think performing.

Pardon me one second.

So mayor, this is a comprehensive agreement.

We're in privy of contract with all of them.

Well, I don't know that.

That's a request.

So Madam City Attorney, does the comprehensive agreement put us in privy of contract with all of the subs or only with the with the the general?

We've yet to negotiate the comprehensive agreement.

We are almost done with the uh the um the IA and we'll present that to you shortly, but those terms could be negotiated.

Well, I I would think we need to be in privity of contract with everybody that we want to hold accountable in this.

I mean I would just throw that out there.

I I don't want to have to work through somebody to hold somebody accountable.

Well, the other thing I'm concerned about is and I and these are where uh look everything looks like the fact that you've explained all this makes a lot more sense to me and it's actually really good for the city.

But I'm just God forbid you should find your you should find the entity that's doing the maintenance and uh and uh um operations falls into bankruptcy.

I don't want a bankruptcy court coming back and clawing back saying, well, you owe this you owe the trustee 25 million dollars because okay, I just want to make sure that this structured in such a way that that doesn't become an opportunity for a clawback by a bankruptcy court.

That's a great point.

So we are the ones taking that risk.

So if Styles were to go into bankruptcy, we would have to go find someone else to do the work, and if they wouldn't do it for the same cost, again that comes out of our pocket.

So we would go find another contractor to perform the OM and the budget to the city would stay unchanged, and so we're the ones paying that increased cost.

And so that's part of the you know the layer that this provides is a third party whose money is on the line guaranteeing this for 30 years, no matter what.

Okay.

If if the ONM contractor falls through, can't we just go to the marketplace as a city and contract out ourselves?

Sure.

Yes, and then you would pay the increased cost of whoever comes in and says, okay, I will do the work, but I will not do it at the budget that your former contractor signed up for because that's part of why they went into bankruptcy is that they under budgeted the project.

And so the difference is not that you can't replace styles.

You could always replace your contractors, but the city would now be the one paying that increased cost instead of us paying that increased cost.

Sure.

Well, you're assuming it's increased.

Correct.

It's not might not be the case.

If the contractor has fallen through, it's I would say it's highly likely that the cost has gone up, and that's why.

But yes, it it could have theoretically gone down.

Okay.

So the the um you know the uh availability payment is just it's basically an insurance, right?

It's basically an insurance that if something bad happens that you're gonna either hold the OM team member accountable or you're gonna fill in where they might not.

I think the key difference though is that in insurance, you're just buying the product.

We are giving the city 25 million dollars to contribute towards the construction project.

That is then being repaid, and the repayment of that is somewhat like an insurance.

But the key difference is we have given the city the money up front to help pay for the project.

Right, and you're giving the city money at a far higher rate than the city could get itself.

Right.

So the city can go out to the market, right, and get dollars for what, four and a half percent?

And have to pay that back no matter what.

So that's just the difference.

Debt is a cost.

The city borrows from debt and you will pay that back no matter what happens in the project.

Right.

With the equity piece, you are only paying that back if the project is being delivered perfectly to the contract for 30 years, 40 years, whatever term we agree to.

Right, which we're assuming it will be.

I mean, it's we take in good faith that core and is gonna do an excellent job, right?

And that there's not going to be issues and it's gonna be a sustainable project.

So we're looking at over the course of the 30 years, $90 million in availability payments, right?

So I think as an insurance.

I mean, do I have that number right?

Yes.

Um but I think another key point to make is obviously core is going to do an excellent job.

No one's questioning that.

Absolutely.

But when you look at, and I'm not gonna talk about just one government, but when you look at government projects across the country, when maintained by the government entity, you have to deal with you know budget increases.

If something happens and it costs you have a 20 million dollar cost in one year that you didn't plan for, now that's got to come from somewhere.

So the tendency is that cost gets pushed off called deferred maintenance.

And so what eventually happens is at the end of the 30 years, that building is in a state of disrepair, much like why we're here today, because the former city hall got to a point where it was unusable.

And so I think part of the what this equity provides is guaranteeing that in 30 years the building will be just as it is the day the core hands it over to the city.

Okay, so is your position that the ONM component cannot exist apart from having the equity piece?

That's correct, because no ONM contractor will commit to just unbounded 30-year cost risk without something like an equity investment.

So you could go contract styles and they could provide the operations and maintenance, but if something costs more, they're gonna come to you with a bill instead of coming to us.

Right.

Again, it's the this idea of insurance and how much is insurance worth in this case.

I mean, to say, hey, as a city, you could contract separately with an OM provider, but we're gonna help cover if there's there's uh uh a bigger deficit, and for that we're gonna write charge much higher rate for the dollars for the equity, basically.

Yeah, but but the keep in mind though, Ben, that uh you know, let's think back 30 years, 1996.

Has there been inflation?

Has there been cost uh and and supply chain issues?

I mean, the risk is really falling upon them and not upon us.

So I really believe uh honestly I I that's a big risk for you guys because you're taking all the risk away from the city, and I can tell you right now, 30 years worth of maintenance in of any building, especially a government building, is going to uh I mean I I'm sure you guys have figured it out, but I can tell you through my own experience working with our city and working with other mean watching other municipalities.

Um I just feel that I mean I hope you know what you're doing because this is because a lot of the risk is really falling on you.

Yeah, but we we have 65 projects, and this is the the model on all of them.

We are still there, still performing every single one of those.

I think two closing thoughts.

Um I've talked about the the guaranteed condition on handback, but I think it's really important because if you think about the cost of doing this all again in 30 or 40 years, if the building is in a place where it needs to be replaced again.

I mean, that's that's a key savings of this.

Well, I'll be here in 30 years to make sure you do that.

Okay.

May I have one question?

Yeah, and so we're looking at Mayor, I mean, just to be clear, we're looking at over the course of thir the course of 30 years, 200 million dollars, 200 million dollars for OM.

200 million dollars for ONM, and then on top of that, 90 million for availability.

So that's 300 million dollars we're paying just for ON and then assurance that ONM will be effective and the building will be in good shape.

That is a huge dollar amount.

Well, how much how much I'm sorry, how much is go ahead, go ahead.

Sorry, mate.

Just the the one thing, so the ninety million, I want to make sure it's clear.

Yeah.

That is in place of you borrowing the money from debt.

It's not just a ninety million dollar cost.

So it's not that if you don't have equity that the ninety million just disappears.

You just then go borrow it from debt.

And so I think the analysis was 39 million.

Actually, I think the difference if you figure that your number is 12 percent, our number, our tick is about 4 percent.

So the delta is 8 percent, which would equate to 60 million, Commissioner.

So 90 million.

60 million round number six.

Okay, again.

Approximately approximately wrong.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I mean, so 60 million difference by you know going in this route, which is massive.

Well, over 30 years.

Yeah, over 30 years, it's not that massive.

Um I have a question for you guys.

Go ahead.

So um help help explain, because I think this is really important, and we haven't really talked about it.

So you have the P3 agreement.

Um it's a let's say 40-year agreement, but then if we do go through through with all of the risk transfer on you, uh and we spend these dollars, that building is still coming back to us with correct me if I'm wrong, another 30 years of useful life.

That's correct.

After the 40-year agreement, yeah, so you're correct.

In the 30-year period, at the end of that 30 years, we're guaranteeing that you're gonna be in the same condition as the day that you first occupied it 30 years from there.

So you got an additional 30 years of life cycle cost, and I think what Alex is trying to say is when you're factoring in just the upfront cost, it may seem expensive.

But if you think about in 30 years, if you have you know do not have it maintained to the standard and have an additional 30 years of life to it, well, you're gonna have to go spend money on either renovating or replacing or building another city hall after that, you know, 30 years down the line, so you're going to spend an additional couple hundred million to replace the city hall at the end of that thirty years.

So you're getting a guaranteed sixty-year life cycle on that building, 30 years during the initial period, and then at handover, it's at 30 years as well, which is guaranteed by the equity stake.

No, I don't see it's costing a couple hundred million at the end of thirty years to build another city hall.

I I'm thinking more of five, six hundred million.

Yeah, I think if you take average construction inflation thirty years, a $275 million building now will cost about a billion dollars in 30 years.

Right.

And that was my next point.

If we assumed all of this risk and cost, I I could definitely see that number being reached over that time, close to a billion with inflation and cost of money.

So I I mean I know that we're talking now about sixty million, but sixty million in comparison to what we might be facing as a city of one billion, I it's that's like a no-brainer.

Cody, what's the lifespan of a building you build today?

Um I mean it depends on the actual components of the building, but uh having a building between you know 30 and 50 years, uh, it's not going to be the same as the day that you built it.

Sure.

Um, but that's typical.

Okay, 30 to 50 years.

Somewhere around there.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Mayor, I mean, uh I have one broader question, is just how I I thought we were aiming for a 200 million dollar project.

How did we get to these elevated costs that are projected here?

I don't know where that 200 million dollar came from because uh you said that I mean we've we talked about that in we talked about numbers in general, but frankly, um maybe that was aspirational, but there's a reality, and I think that when we compare uh the per square foot cost of this building, and you can you let's say you you compare it to what the county is projecting is gonna cost for its building, which is almost twice as much per square foot.

Uh I don't think we're out of line in terms of the number, the dollar figure we're looking at now and the amount of square footage we anticipate being able to incorporate in the structure.

So uh I don't think it's anywhere near out of line.

In fact, the county's building is close to $2,000 a square foot.

And and if you recall when we were trying to do the joint government center with them, we were at $3,000 a square foot, which is why we totally walked away from that.

So now bringing it down to $1,200 a square foot, I think is well within the uh within I feel an appropriate range of cost to be able to build the kind of structure we're looking to create.

Mayor, I'm sorry.

Uh so just so what sounds like mayor, you're interested in is the concept B.

So annual city obligation would be 24 million dollars a year.

Is that right, Mayor?

That's what it says here under concept B, yes.

24 million dollars a year.

So in a that's principal interest, everything.

Maintenance, it's everything.

It's not just it's not it's 24 million dollar um uh cost to our budget.

Yeah.

So right now we're leasing space for the people that would be in City Hall, I think City Manager, is that am I saying that right?

The people that would be in City Hall, we're right now leasing space to have those people in offices, right?

Is that right?

Yes, we currently lease office space.

Okay.

So and I think that dollar amount is what five million?

Uh to the general fund, yes, roughly five million.

Okay.

So this would be a a difference of then $19 million a year.

Is that right?

In other words, we'd have to pay, we'd have to find $19 million more a year for 30 years to fund City Hall.

To build a new building.

That is correct, based on concept B.

So, Mayor, in the midst of we have collective bargaining going on right now with police and fire, which is going to be in all likelihood a increase in dollars.

We have the state legislature, which is meeting a special session this month to possibly enact some form of property tax reform.

And we're already projected to be in a budget deficit next year.

Where are we going to be finding $19 million more a year for every year for 30 years, City Manager?

What are your how do we what what will get cut?

Because it this has to be there has to be a trade-off, I'm assuming in order for us to meet that annual financial obligation, we would uh make recommendations to the City Commission uh as to what could be cut from our budget as well as any opportunities to increase revenue that could support the general fund.

It it would be an exercise that would likely cause us to uh rethink the way that we operate and provide services.

Well, you're talking in very general terms, but let's just let's just answer Commissioner Sorensen's question.

Right now in order to fund this project, we're we're not looking to take money out of the general fund, we're looking to borrow the money, correct?

We would be doing a special obligation bond.

Right.

But the payments would be based on our general fund.

Yes.

So you're saying that in order to borrow the money for this project, we would the cost of the of the payment every every uh year to pay for the general obligation or the special obligation bond would uh would be $18 million yes.

And in the past, have we factored this amount in when we came when we started planning for the city hall?

Based on the financial modeling that the city had done prior to the proposals and as shared with the commission, we had programmed a payment of about $12.2 million based on a $200 million project.

Right.

So if the project costs increase to the concept B plan, we would need to basically find double what we were originally anticipating or had programmed.

Uh not to say that we had already identified where the $12.2 million would have been generated from, but we were thinking that that was feasible and uh something that we could tackle uh based on our annual budget process.

Uh to go to the Concept B plan, we would have to look more extensively uh to find revenue or cuts in order to make this availability payment.

All right, so that's something that that still has yet to be done.

That is correct.

And that would be something uh staff would uh recommend, but the commission would certainly have to be very involved in that that process because uh all those decisions have meaningful impacts.

Well, I would say this.

If the State Legislature should, in its wisdom, decide to eliminate property taxes on homestead property, we obviously have to revisit everything, not just the SNU City Hall, but everything we do in the city.

So to that extent, anyone thinking that you know we'll have endless amounts of money uh uh after this the legislature makes a decision with regard to property tax.

Now keep in mind it still will have to go to referendum, it still has to be approved by 60 percent of the electorate, but depending upon what the state legislature does is definitely gonna impact anything we do here in the city, not just this.

So we can't stop everything now.

We should continue our planning process, continue to work towards our agreements, and I believe the special session is supposed to be this month, so we'll know sooner than later what's gonna happen.

So uh so to anyone's consternation that we're not gonna have enough money, we don't know what we're gonna have until we until we hear what the legislature is going to pass.

I've spoken with our, I'm sure many of you have spoken with our our state representative.

Um they're talking about maybe a staggering reduction uh increase in the homestead exemption over a period of years instead of all at once.

So we don't know what it's going to be.

So my recommendation is that to the Commission is that we continue to move forward as in the way we have been, and then we'll see what our availability of income is going to be once the uh once the legislature completes its process.

So, Mayor, this goes back to the issue that I raised a couple of meetings ago.

I really think it behooves us to go forward with a general obligation bond because that again will be protected respective irrespective of what property tax reform comes forward or not, because of constitutional protections against impairment of contracts.

So I I really think we need to make sure that we put this to a vote of the residents so that we can have a funding stream that will not be impaired by whatever comes forward from property tax reform.

Well, we I have said it before, and I will say it again the only way we can afford this thing for the next 30 years is through a geo bond.

We don't want to do a special obligation bond because we don't know where things are going to be, and we are not going to be able to afford 300 million dollars if we don't lock it down with the geobond.

All right.

Well, we don't have to make that decision today.

We need to make it pretty fast.

We need to get this in front of the property appraiser.

I'm sorry, the the supervisor elections by June.

Right.

But we don't need to make that decision today.

This is just a conference meeting.

It's just the managers report, and we're just having a conversation, bringing us up to date as to what the status of the negotiations have been.

And uh uh and so now we know where things stand.

And then uh with by the time we have our next meeting, I think that the state legislature will have spoken and will know more about where we stand as far as our income is concerned.

Well, I'm gonna throw out one idea.

I'm gonna bring it back full circle, and I will say one more time we need to go back and look at bifurcating our staff, putting admin folks up at the Kaplan building up on Cyprus at 28 bucks a square foot and renting up there for the next 30 years on property that we already own.

And putting a ceremonial city hall downtown over by the police station on property that we already own.

That was the most cost-effective solution we could ever have come up with.

It's the only one that makes good fiscally responsible sense.

I'll put it out there again.

I know you're not going to vote for it, but it is the only financially responsible course of action.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

Anyone else?

Uh city manager.

Uh, Mayor, please.

I'm sorry, go ahead.

I did have just a couple of comments.

Because you had uh, and I just wrote some notes because you had mentioned where did the 200 million dollar number come from.

So I I did go back and I I watched our um goal setting workshop, our prioritization workshop from January, when we did discuss this.

Um actually, Mayor, your words at that time when the 200 million dollar was thrown out was you said that was pie in the sky, not bad for a target, but not necessarily realistic.

Um and we shouldn't be dictated by that.

I I I personally think that what should be dictating the amount is the work that's been going into this in terms of space programming, operational planning.

I don't know how you just pick a number without anything behind it, without anything that's determining that number.

So uh again, I just wanted to reiterate that that number was never a firm number, although at one point in time it was mentioned as a possible target uh uh target number.

If I look at the city annual obligations on the bottom here, you're always even at the lowest amount, you're gonna still be at 20 million nine hundred thousand dollars up to twenty-six million.

So it's definitely that range uh that we would have to think of in terms of our our annual obligations.

And and my last point about this process is when I think back on some of the other P3s that we've done.

I'm not sure why we're so fixated right now on this number when we really have not gone through all of all of the costs in terms of really digging down into all of our needs, into all of the operational uh elements of this building.

Uh we haven't done that yet.

I thought and from past experiences that we've had with P3s, is that that interim agreement will lay out that process, that interim agreement will then give us the opportunity to dig deep, uh look at a bunch of different submissions, design processes over a period of time, maybe up to 10 months.

Uh, and that's when you are really gonna be able to hone in on it on a number that's much more realistic.

We we have not done that interim agreement yet.

We're gonna supposed to do that interim agreement and discuss that at uh I think the next meeting, April 21.

Uh so correct me if I'm wrong, but uh I think right now locking in this dollar amount before all that other work that's necessary to substantiate a dollar amount.

It it just doesn't make sense.

And I don't know why we're putting that pressure on ourselves right now at this moment, when I think the interim agreement, which is still coming to us, will lay out that process where we're going to be able to see uh, you know, exactly how we value engineer, how we do whatever it is, uh and that to me is when the budget is going to be refined, uh, when city staff will meet with the developer.

Uh and that to me is when we should concentrate and finalize that number.

It seems premature to me now.

That's all.

Okay.

Yep.

Mayor, if I could.

Yes, please.

Yeah.

So these are not the only options for City Hall.

So as I've suggested before, and I'll suggest again, we should evaluate other options, including buying an existing building.

We've been presented with an offer to buy an existing building.

It would have a dramatic difference in city annual obligations, including renovation and OM.

So there are plenty of options, and now is the time to evaluate costs because the 24 million dollars of a year, 24 million dollar a year obligation would require us as a city, I think, to reduce services or have layoffs.

Well, and that is a significant sacrifice for a city hall.

Well, Commissioner, you you've made that argument many times, and we appreciate your point of view, but the commission has made a vote and decided not to do that.

So bringing it up again is not really moving this process forward.

Well, we can reconsider it.

Yeah, so we can't.

Yep, you can.

But until we get to a comprehensive agreement, all all options remain on the table.

And I and Commissioner Sorensen, I continue to support it.

If I if I can't move staff up the up to Kaplan, I will happily move them into 101.

I already have my office there.

I don't have to move.

Yeah, okay.

I don't want you to be disrupted.

Completely agree with you.

And I the we are getting more refined numbers, which these uh represent.

And Mayor, you you brought it up and I completely agree about the idea of property taxes.

So let's wait until we see what the legislature comes through with on property taxes.

Maybe it's something, maybe it's nothing.

The property tax possibility is the biggest financial revenue change the city of Fort Lauderell has experienced in its entire history.

So let's continue the discussion, but let's wait till we get clarity from the legislature this year, and then we can't.

Well, that's exactly what I'm saying.

Okay, great.

So let's push the great.

I completely agree.

Okay.

So it's pushing.

I don't think you're both.

I'm speaking.

No, because you're both not agreeing.

Speaker, you're really not agreeing.

Well, I'm saying we need to continue the process going forward.

But we may have to pivot if the state legislature suddenly does something that's going to significantly impact our income.

Right.

And that's all I'm saying.

Because I think that's what benefits.

So let's exactly.

So let's wait until the legislature finishes a special session on property taxes and then bring the interim agreement up after the fact because until then we just don't know this massive financial change that could happen to the city.

And it still will go to uh voters, the property tax reform, but at least we'll have a good understanding.

Right.

There's always going to be an if.

There's always going to be an if.

And I I don't I can't in good company tell you what my mother used to say about if when I used to say if, because it was very funny, but it was a little vulgar.

Uh but your mother.

Yes, it was.

But I'm going to tell you, there's always going to be an if.

I'm not in favor of just waiting and waiting and seeing what happens.

I think we have to keep moving.

Keep moving.

Keep moving.

Uh, and we'll deal with an issue when it becomes a reality.

I'm not going to worry about if if and if until I need to worry about if and if.

Okay.

Mayor, so do you agree with me on waiting to bring the interim agreement forward until we're not going to be able to do that?

No, no, no.

I'm not agreeing with you waiting at anything.

We need to keep the process going forward.

And if for some reason the state legislature passes something that's going to it it uh impact significantly our income, then we will we'll review it.

But we don't shouldn't stop everything.

Well, well, here's why.

It again it's it's dollars.

The interim agreement, and city manager, correct me if I'm wrong.

The interim agreement binds us to provide reimbursement for expenses to the developer.

Is that right?

Correct.

There is some financial obligations tied to the interim agreement, certainly not the entirety of the project costs.

Uh but from a staff perspective, as we continue to negotiate, it would be helpful for us to have an idea from the commission as to where we need to target uh in terms of the budget.

I know things are being refined, and you know, I think we will continue to get uh better details and more accuracy.

But from a negotiation perspective, it would be helpful for both sides to understand the parameters with which the commission wants to set for this project.

What do you mean the parameters?

So a target.

Well, let's work on concept B.

If that is the consensus of the commission, we will do so.

We just wanted to get this feedback because we know we were above the 200 million that had previously been discussed.

So if the commission would give us the consensus on the target, we will focus our efforts there.

All right.

No, I disagree.

Uh Commissioner Beasley Pittman, are you okay with here moving forward to trying to come together with an interim agreement based on concept B?

Yes, I'm okay.

I agree with moving forward.

Okay.

You have you have a majority.

That's a majority, but I still want to understand why the pricing cannot wait until as at why can't that be part of the process of the interim agreement?

In other words, the guarantee maximum price?

Yeah, why I well guaranteed maximum price, that's after that.

But isn't the point of the interim agreement correct?

I mean, if I'm wrong, we've gone through a bunch of these P3s before.

Aren't those dollar amounts solidified after you go through much more stringent space planning, operational needs, all of that, then you come up with a number?

So yes, that that will be refined as as we continue.

Uh given that the commission had discussed uh previous target, I wanted to make sure that we had full awareness of where we were currently with the budget.

And so it's helpful because I don't want to come to the commission way down the line, and now the project is out of reach, and we have to make another decision.

We've potentially wasted time, energy, and money.

So I just wanted to get some feedback, check the temperature so that we know how to negotiate going forward, and the developer has some awareness of that as well.

Okay, so I think we've given you that direction.

Thank you.

Do you feel we've given you that direction?

I didn't officially hear your your vote or me?

Yes.

Oh, I I'm agreeing with the mayor and Commissioner Beasley Pittman to give you that official direction.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Do you have anything additional to report on today?

I do.

I just wanted to share that staff will be meeting with uh contractors and their representatives as it relates to uh the Riverland and Melrose Manor fortify Lauderdale Stormwater project uh with the district commissioners uh included in that meeting.

So uh stay tuned for more on that.

Okay.

Is that complete your report?

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

City attorney, do you have any report?

No, I do not, Mayor.

Okay.

Um I frankly would like to take a five or ten minute break if we could.

Uh and and I just want to also say that a lot of people have signed up on business two.

How many people are here for business two on the entertainment district?

Like most everybody.

Who's here from business one?

I was wanting to take up business two first so that we can hear all those folks.

So uh if you don't mind, we'll talk about business two first when we come back from the 10 minute break, and then we'll go into business one.

All right,

Okay, folks, let's resume our conference meeting.

Um we finished with all of our reports.

Uh just gonna be a couple of agenda changes.

It doesn't appear as though we're going to get to business three today.

So uh this is the outdoor event ordinance presentation.

So uh city manager, would you mind if we just uh scheduled?

I don't think has anyone signed up to speak on business three.

I don't see any, I don't think anyone's signed up to start.

So um if we can just put that on another agenda item that way we don't uh uh the people's expectations are not uh are not uh uh not disappointed.

So mayor.

Uh with regard to with regard to business one.

There are there are three people who have signed up to speak on that.

Um and I'm gonna let them speak and then we'll have our our city attorney talk to us about the uh the presentation.

Um those folks are amenable to that.

They just want to be able to leave and go home and uh perhaps look at the rest of the meeting uh from home.

So uh if that's okay with the commission, we'll we'll we'll continue now on to business one and the people that have signed up to speak.

I will now call uh as soon as I can find all right.

We'll start with uh uh Marilyn Momano.

Marilyn and followed by Mary Furtig?

I'm sorry.

I think the first yeah and then followed by Barbara Stern.

Okay.

Hang on, I gotta take my paper clip off before you start.

Oh, wait a minute.

Okay.

Lauderdale tomorrow has advocated for preserving and enhancing public lands since we formed as an organization.

We've spoken numerous times in front of the city commission and supported the principle that public lands be used for a public purpose.

To that end, we have repeatedly requested that public purpose be defined in the city charter.

And a 2022 neighborhood presentation given on behalf of our group.

We shared a headline from the Daily Business Review, and I quote, only five years worth of land left.

South Florida developers looking for golf courses, racetracks, and landfill amid land crisis to emphasize the importance of strengthening the protections in the city charter for our existing public lands.

As you consider putting proposals to amend the charter on the ballot, we appreciate the areas where you have incorporated prior suggestions from Lauderdale tomorrow, such as requiring supermajorities and unanimous votes in specific situations.

Remaining concerns, section point eight point oh two, the charter revision committee in 2024 recommended a change which included quote for public uh purpose to wit an activity that is essential to the health morals, protection or welfare of the city is determined by the city of Fort Lauderdale City Commission for use predominantly or for use predominantly for educational, literary, scientific, or charitable purposes, and the most recent proposal it now states uh to what an activity is central to the health safety, general welfare of the city is determined by the city commission, notwithstanding an incidental benefit to a private party.

Wouldn't it be better to draft a definition that relies on legal opinion rather than on a city council interpretation as that may change from time to time?

It's important to state and and you really have to say notwithstanding an incidental benefit to a private party because there's nothing right now to prevent that.

The change in the title of uh section 8.09 reflects a major change in city policy.

Currently, as leases for more than one year and not more than 50, and 2024, this the Charter Revision Commission recommend at least this licenses concessions and use agreements for one year and not more than 50.

The current proposed title is Leases, Licenses, Concessions Use Agreements for More Than One Year.

The tiered approach responds to many of the suggestions we've made over the years.

However, the deletion of 50 years with no new limit in place raises concerns.

Should there be a cap, can a new tier be added?

Leases, 99 years or greater, would be subject to a referendum.

Section 8.21 incorporates stronger protections for the sale of parklands.

However, there is concern that city commissions could uh simply avoid a referendum by changing the zoning category.

Is there a way to prevent that?

Organization is primarily focused on section eight, but there's one other section that we have a lot of experience in.

Can I read my last paragraph?

Okay.

Finally, with over two dozen changes on one ballot with so many other issues.

Finally, with over two dozen changes on one ballot with so many other issues, uh, it could be very confusing and it may discourage voters from responding to all proposals.

It may be better to prioritize the most important changes, particularly public lands, and include those on the ballot.

Thank you for your consideration.

Okay, thank you, Mary.

Meryl Mamano.

Hi, I'm Marilyn Almano.

Uh good afternoon, Mayor and Commissioners.

Thank you for your consideration, Mr.

Mayor.

Um, in the interest of brevity, I'm simply going to uh support what Mary has said as the position of Lauderdale tomorrow.

I do though want to compliment the um the uh city attorney and the city manager and whoever on the staff worked on this presentation, because considering the complexity of the um uh questions in front of you, it's probably as clear as I've ever seen it presented.

So kudos to those people.

I just want to um say, as uh planning professional professionals to professionals, the concern that we have is with the definitions.

You always get uh the devils in the details.

So the definition of what does public purpose mean?

What does otherwise convey mean?

What does in the city's best interest mean?

There, these are terms that you know is very difficult to um to uh to to define.

However, on the assumption that this is not the last we're going to be having this discussion, and we know we are going to be having this discussion with all of our members uh uh in order to bring forward uh this information to the public.

I would um like the opportunity to submit to you some suggestions for how to define these terms.

I would be happy to send that over to you again for the sake of brevity, good start.

We're running late.

Let's keep working until we get this done and get this on the uh calendar.

Thank you very much.

All right, thank you.

Good afternoon, Commission Barbara Stern.

Um kind of curious how we got here, because about two years ago, many of these same revisions were brought to the commission by the Charter Revision Board, and we were told we couldn't move forward because there had not been enough public outreach.

Um here we are two years later, next to no public outreach.

There was a survey that was done last year, sort of, and the commission got upset because they didn't know about it.

Um there was a presentation to the Council of Civic Associations, and on average, I would say 25 to 30 people attend those meetings.

So there's been no real public outreach, and that's why this got stalled two years ago.

So now we're here addressing a lot of the same uh uh proposed amendments that were recommended to years ago.

But we were told then we couldn't move forward because there was no public outreach.

I don't know how we're considering this now.

If you use your arguments from two years ago that there wasn't any public outreach.

That being said, I'm gonna echo some of Lauderdale tomorrow's comments.

I think it was great on addressing the leases, but you didn't put in anything in there about a max lease, and I think that's an important thing to address.

There's also no uh proposed revisions on limiting P3s, but I think after what we saw today, we should be giving some additional consideration on when matters should have to go out for referendum on spending public dollars.

If I follow the math from the earlier presentation about City Hall, which was not a separate agenda notice, but we were told that the annual contribution from the city will be 24,160,000 a year.

And if we spread that out over 30 years, if I if I follow the presentation properly, over 30 years, this is going to cost us nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars.

The math comes out to 724 million eight hundred thousand dollars.

And I hope I misunderstood what was coming out in that presentation.

But 30 years at 24 million dollars is costing us over 30 years three quarters of a billion dollars.

If we are going to be spending that kind of money for city hall, the public should have a say in that.

It should go out to vote.

And I hope there's some consideration that is given here.

We've heard about needing to be fiscally conservative.

I wish those conversations were had before City Hall was voted on last year.

Then you were one of the ones who voted to move forward with one of the most expensive proposals.

So if we're going to be fiscally conservative, let's have a process in place.

Let's have the city vote on items that are going to cost us this much money.

We still have time to address additional charter changes, and I encourage the city to consider something that would tackle numbers such as this.

Thank you.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

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

City manager, could you just simply address what our plan is for the public outreach that was just mentioned?

Because I know the Council of Fort Little Civic Associations has written us, and uh so in terms of the timeline and what we would do once this commission did decide uh if we were going to place any of these items on the November ballot.

Yes, so staff is waiting to hear from the commission as to what those ballot items would be, and we would work with the council as well as through our strategic communications department to disseminate information, to do public outreach in multiple forms and facets through various channels.

And we want to be as aggressive as possible.

I think the starting point for us though is what those items are.

What those topics are.

So in other words, we didn't do any public outreach yet because we don't even know if we are selecting any items for November.

And if we do select, we don't know which ones they are.

That is correct.

We did get direction from the commission to pull back on any public outreach until such time as the commission decided on which items would be moving forward potentially.

Thank you.

I I I need to clarify that though, because uh uh uh as the speaker pointed out, we decided not to move forward.

The commission decided not to move forward on any of the previous board's recommendation because we said that there had been no public outreach prior to it coming to the commission.

So is is our process that we socialize these ideas with the community before it comes to the commission, or we socialize the ideas with the community after the commission decides.

Like I thought the idea was to get input from the community to help the commission make a better informed decision about what's important to the community.

How do we how do we do that before we talk to the community?

If we make our decisions without community input, then it seems to me what's the point?

Are we selling it to the community or are we getting community input to inform our decision making process?

Well, the direction that we received several months back when that survey was put out, it was to halt or pause until the commission gave staff more definitive direction on what the topics are, not go to the public with uh the entirety of the charter or the entirety of all of the topics suggested by the charter revision board at that time.

And if I'm mistaken, Anthony Fajardo can clarify Anthony Ferrara, Director of Development Services.

So the city manager is correct.

We we did start a little bit of public outreach.

I did a let me back up a little bit.

There was there was the original recommendation from the Charter Revision Board back in May of 2024.

We did a presentation to the Council of Civic Associations.

That presentation, I mean, it it was a bad presentation.

There was too much information, there was too much data, there was everyone was glossed over, they weren't really paying attention, they weren't engaged.

So we worked with Stratcom and the Senate in the and the Charter Revision Board to come up with a better um method to get it out.

What was key to that was breaking it up into smaller bytes that we could then deliver to people to you know kind of talk about it on a maybe a per topic basis or just you know uh an article basis.

However, we felt that we never had enough direction to really consolidate it down to what the ultimate topics were that the city commission would prefer to see on a ballot.

Um as you're probably aware, we're not allowed to advocate for these things.

We can't go in front of a charter charter.

We can't go in front of an HOA or anybody else and tell them why we think it's a good idea to do what we're doing.

We can just be there to educate and answer questions.

So I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna ask you to pause right there because I think that is the whole point, right?

Of why we wanted community input, because they could advocate all they want.

So the idea of having the community input was to let the neighborhoods advocate to their heart's content about what they think would be valuable to have in the charter, and then communicate that to us as decision makers so that we could incorporate that input into our final recommendations as to what went to the commission.

So let's go back to that meeting where the presentation was made by the Charter Revision Board to the City Commission with a list of final recommendations, and we opted to move forward on none of them.

And at that meeting, the commission was very explicit that part of the rationale for not moving forward on any of them is because they had not gone out and gone to every community and every HOA and met with them to talk about what was coming forward.

So it seems to me we're moving in a completely opposite direction of why we rejected all the work of the community, I'm sorry, of the charter revision board.

You know, my appointee, uh Richard Weiss was very very upset at the amount of work and time he put into that board only to have it rejected at the time.

Um candidly, he's going through this again and is getting quite frustrated.

So where do we go from here?

I mean, I'm hearing, I'm hearing, you know, obviously conflicting things.

I know, Anthony, what you tried to do is to simplify it a little bit and and give it to the public in smaller doses.

I don't think every neighborhood association was supposed to be uh met with.

I think we were trying to use the model of the uh infrastructure task force, which went out and had selected meetings.

Um how many Jeff for the City Hall?

Five.

Um five meetings throughout the community inviting all neighborhood associations to participate if they chose to uh then came back with the final report.

So um I remember what you said, Anthony.

You said, look, we can't we can't just spread it all out because there's too many charter amendments that were being recommended by the by the uh uh advisory board.

So uh obviously what you did was you distilled it down to uh a select number, and now you're asking us to give our opinions on it.

Um I don't know how the commission wants to go from here.

Do you want do you want to just disc tonight?

Do you want to just discuss um the the particular items that that have now been presented to us, or do you not want to do anything until we have the full gamut of the proposals that the committee had recommended?

Well, mayor, to your point, I thought we were gonna have like the infrastructure task force board to go out to the community and have a series of workshops where these ideas are introduced to the community.

If we make our decisions, then there's nothing for the community to talk about.

We've made our decisions and we're presenting it to them as a done deal.

We're not asking, we're not seeking input.

We're saying, okay, here's what we looked at.

You know, we've made our decisions, and this is what we're presenting you with as a final choice.

So we're we're no longer soliciting input.

We're now in we're it's a de facto here's what we're we've decided.

No, I so why don't we care anything that we decide today?

Why don't we why don't we simply characterize it as a refined recommendation to the community?

Uh let the commission look at it, refine uh the uh refine the the ch rule changes and then put it out to put it out to the community.

Unless you just want everything put out to the community and let the community uh refine it for us.

I think that's an unwieldy process.

That's that's I think our concern.

So you know, and honestly, I'll be honest, I don't think we're even going to get to it tonight, but uh um but I guess my only my only question, Mayor, is I'm just I I guess I'm confused because that's exactly why we rejected it last time around.

So we rejected it because it never went to the community, and now we're saying, okay, we don't need the community's input.

So I don't understand why we're flipping our approach if we rejected two years' worth of work by the charter revision board last time on the sole basis of we didn't shop it around the community, and now we're not gonna shop it around the community.

I just I don't understand the process.

Here's sorry, go ahead.

Here's uh idea sorry to share.

So uh just working backwards.

So city manager, city attorney, this our ultimate uh charter revision changes need to be submitted to the supervisor of election by when?

Is it June to be on the fact to the clerk?

Yeah, or sorry, city clerk.

June fifth.

June 5th to be on the ballot, and this would be on the ballot in November 2026.

Right?

Correct.

So June 5th.

So mayor, I'm just thinking time-wise.

So we have until June 5th, we're April 7th.

Um, so it would be just I'm just you know, what's the measure of the committee?

Brainstorming we could put it out.

Is it June 8th?

Is it actually June 8th, just clarifying?

Mayor.

Yeah, apologies.

So well, if I could finish if I can finish.

And then we say that as a commission, we're gonna make the decision on what goes on the ballot after that time.

So maybe it's in May we make that decision as a commission.

So there's a month for a community engagement, is is one idea, Mayor.

Mayor, I think last one.

I I personally think that the timeline is so tight to get all of this information to the supervisor of elections for the ballot.

What I think we should do is first of all, we look at everything, all of the all of the suggestions from the Charter Revision Board, and we figure out how many can one ballot take.

Because we're gonna have to spread this out over several elections.

Well, there are 26 uh recommendations tonight.

Right.

And you're not going to be able to put that all on one ballot.

So we have to figure out, we have to look at this holistically.

How many elections are we going to have to spread this out over?

How many ballot items can we reasonably expect to put on one ballot in any given election?

But I do think that we have time for this initial offering with June as our deadline.

Let's just look at the low-hanging fruit.

Let's just look at the items that need to bring us into compliance with state statutes.

Let's look at cleanup items.

Let's look at items like we appoint a vice mayor in April when we should be doing it in December.

That's an old item from when we had our elections in March.

There are enough simple non-controversial issues that items labeling cleanup issues, and we just put those in November.

And then we let the council do its thing.

I don't know, is there any money to budget city manager for outreach?

I'm not sure, but we do the best we can, but we explain that this is going to be a process.

We explain that we can only do X amount on any given ballot, but I really don't think that we have any choice other than to just do cleanup items, bring us into compliance with state statutes, that kind of item for this coming November.

That's all.

Well, keep in mind that the purpose of the agenda item is simply for discussion purposes.

We're not voting on anything.

So to your point, why don't we have those discussions?

Why don't we refine the recommendations, then let staff take it out to the community, and then before the uh June deadline, we'll make a decision on what should go on the ballot.

Does that seem like an appropriate protocol?

Silence is concise.

But you just said that was not consent.

Did you just say that was unwieldy?

I didn't say it was unwieldy.

I said that to I said that the recommendations that have been that had been put before us.

Let's have a discussion on them.

Let's refine them and put them out to the community, right?

Just the ones we're talking about on the agenda.

And then uh and then get feedback from the community, and then we'll make a put a uh put together a uh agenda item, vote on it, and do it by by the June deadline.

That's a that's a big task, just so you know that's a lot to organize, and uh good luck to whoever's gonna organize all that for.

Well, why hasn't it happened until now?

Well, we've been talking about it for over a year.

But we but we we were the ones who said let's revisit us and and put it in a different direction to allow the neighbors to come together and put their input on it.

And the direction that I'm hearing right now, we are again removing the neighbors from the opportunity to get the input.

No, no, we could still put it out to the neighbors.

Yeah, but we're we're we're going to give them a menu with the items that we're suggesting, and then we're telling them what to pick from.

I would prefer if we follow what we initially said um at the timeline was right about a year ago, that we would allow the board to come back with recommendations, go out and do that community input, allow them our neighbors tell us what it is they want us to focus on, and then move forward.

So we're back where we were again, as uh Commissioner Herb said, we're right back where we were the time before.

I I don't disagree with you, but now we're at a situation.

What do you want to do?

What we're at the situation.

So I'll tell you what, hold that question.

We'll discuss it after we're finished with business two.

Okay.

All right.

All right, so we'll now convene the meeting to talk about business two.

Um who's gonna is gonna be making a presentation?

Trish Logan from Development Services.

Okay.

Hi, good afternoon, Mayor and Commissioners.

Trisha Logan, principal urban planner in the development services department.

Um bringing up the presentation now.

Um today we're talking about special entertainment districts and some proposed um revisions to adopting an ordinance.

Just get the presentation up first.

Here we go.

So oops.

Um, the presentation will cover the background of the special entertainment districts.

We'll talk briefly about where the special entertainment districts are located, um, some of the goals that were outlined previously for the amendments and what we're currently focusing on, some of the recent public outreach that was conducted on this effort, and then we'll give a proposal, an overview of the proposed code um amendments as well.

So the special entertainment districts were initially formed to encourage development and regional activity centers to clean up those areas that were identified for promotion of cultural and economic and educational aspects, and um just overall enhance the visibility of public projects within those locations within that ordinance that did outline several incentives for these areas, and that included extended hours, um no distance separation between liquor um establishments, um, the permission to sell alcohol outdoors, um in the original ordinance that did allow for the open containers to be used, and then also um increase decibel levels for noise.

In the original ordinance, it did allow for the open containers to be used, and then also increased decibel levels for noise.

The way that these were formed were through outreach to the city manager, and originally it was done through common ownership.

So if it was an area that was owned by one common owner, they could propose to have a special entertainment district through the city manager, provide documentation about security and maintenance, and then have an agreement that those would be the specific areas.

So such as beach place is owned by one common owner.

There's also a common control option, and that's something that is done in the Hemershead area where you have several different property owners that are formed together with several different businesses to form that special entertainment district.

There are currently five special entertainment districts.

This also took into consideration public outreach that was conducted as part of a vision plan effort for the Hemershead area where there was a lot of focus on enhancing and improving that special entertainment district.

We were focused on the management structure of the district, improving security, enforcement, and then overall providing a process update.

So that was changed.

And then there was a discussion at the time about limiting the service hours.

That's not part of this discussion today.

Currently, we've been focusing on that overall management structure of the districts and how that should be addressed, enforcing security and enforcement measures, as well as making sure that the overall special entertainment districts are kept cleaned and maintained throughout.

We did conduct some public research outreach recently, and we conducted uh several small group meetings where we talked to different groups of stakeholders about what they'd like to see in an updated ordinance and what they'd like for us to focus on.

We did have uh last week a public meeting, and we had over 40 attend 30 attendees that came to that meeting and gave us um some input on what we presented to them.

We heard a variety of um things through all of this outreach, but we did hear that some of the participants would like to see a district by district ordinance so that it would be applied on a district by district basis rather than an overall blanket ordinance for everyone.

We'd heard about stricter enforcement measures to make sure that they were any bad actors within the districts would have enforcement measures placed on their individual business rather than on the district as a whole, and that coincides with some concerns about having an overall district-wide standard that would be imposed on the overall district and maybe difficult to manage without clear enforcement mechanisms.

So that leads to some of the proposed code amendments that we've been working towards.

Um the intent of what we'd like to propose is to modify the special entertainment district ordinance from a district-based model to an establishment-based model where any enforcement mechanism would be uh placed primarily on making sure that each individual business had to supply their own security and maintenance plan.

So that would involve repealing the existing special entertainment district ordinance and then creating a permit system for each individual establishment.

Um that would require each individual establishment to apply for that permit.

There would be set geographic boundaries that identify the existing special entertainment district areas within the code.

Would that be every year or just once?

It would be on an annual basis.

Okay.

Um there would be specific requirements for the security and maintenance plan that are outlined, and I'll go through that in the next slide.

And then we would retain the existing incentives that are in the code, and then implement a process for uh fines and for suspension and revocation of the um the permit itself.

So within the security and maintenance plan, as of now within the code, it doesn't really go into a lot of detail of what that would be that what that would require.

Uh we did talk a lot with police to determine what uh mechanisms or um items should be included in the security plan.

Uh there was recommendations to ensure that we have um identity scanners for underage patrons to ensure that uh they are not entering these premises and that there are video recording devices.

Um just ensure that each business has a plan in place for when there's special events and making sure there's security coverage for all hours of operation, and then additional elements related to ensuring that the area is kept clean and maintained.

So the permit itself um would include an application.

Uh we have contemplated that it would be submitted to the city manager or their designee, potentially through the police department.

Um several items would be required as part of that.

The um the primary thing that would be included in that would be the security and maintenance plan for each business.

With that, uh, there would be level of and levels of infractions that are on a tiered basis, and those tiers kind of go a little bit more stringent associated with fines and suspensions based on what type of um infraction took place.

So if there is a code violation versus having underage drinkers, there'd be a difference in how that would be handled as far as imposing a fine or a suspension on that business.

Um there are different options that we could implement into the code as far as the fines, levels of fines, um, periods of suspensions, and then um what ultimately would lead to revocation.

And then that is all we have in our presentation.

Uh, we're happy to answer any questions and um people sign up to speak.

I wonder if we could do that first before we go into our discussion because it's getting late.

Um I'll call the names three at a time.

Try to keep your comments to about two minutes if possible.

Start with Dev Montwani's.

Dev is are you still here?

Dev Montwani, followed by uh Bob Swindell, followed by Robert Lockery.

Bob Bob left.

Okay.

Right here.

Okay.

Thank you, Mayor, Commissioners.

Dev Matwani of Merrimack Ventures.

Uh I also represent the SED, uh, the old Las Riverfront property, as you all know.

Um I I wear a number of hats.

Last year I was chair of the DDA, currently chair of the Broward Center for the Performing Arts Foundation, as well as vice chair of PACA.

Uh and all these boards I sit on as a volunteer doing community work.

We've talked about the frustration with the Himershi District for many years, but particularly over the last years, you all have taken it up and and uh talked about it and made some attempts at addressing the issues, but unfortunately the root of the cause has not uh been addressed, and there's still a lot of frustration despite the efforts and all the meetings and conversations uh about addressing it.

And staff recommendation today uh in its entirety, uh well, I appreciate their work, uh again is another attempt that doesn't hit the the nail on the head.

What is the root of the cause?

What's that?

What's the root of the cause?

The root of the cause.

It's a lack of enforcement.

You have four districts that exist, you don't have problems.

We haven't been meeting over the last year for those four districts because they're in compliance.

We have you have good actors, you have a system that works.

We're talking about amending a system that works for one district where it's not working.

And I agree with staff, the ownership fraction ownership is a challenge.

Uh the reality is they don't fit in the ordinance.

Um, but rather than amending the ordinance to fit them, you know, you're you're amending a rule for the problem child as opposed to addressing the problem.

Uh, you have many actors in that district that are good that are good, there's good businesses there, good people that work there, but there's a lot of bad actors.

Or there are people that aren't in the district legally, yet they operate like they are.

And here we are talking about amending an entire district or four other districts just to appease and accommodate the one district where the problems are.

It's like saying if the speed limit's 55, and rather than enforcing the speed limit of someone's speeding, let's lower it to 35.

That makes no sense.

Enforce the limit, enforce the rules on the district before we go to take this step to change.

Although I do agree that district needs a separate process, and I'm supportive of have that district of being allowed to continue to operate as long as there's enforcement and there's rules that allow staff to enforce those rules.

It is challenging, but there's certainly enforcement existing that could happen that's not being done right now.

And it's very frustrating to be on this board and raising dollars for this foundation and serving the hundreds of thousands of kids that we do and have the types of infractions and incidents we do and drunk people being found in the courtyard and the fountains around here at all these beautiful institutions.

So I have no problems with the the businesses that are there, but as a whole, but there are some bad actors within there that need to be addressed.

And um, and so I'm not in favor of staff's recommendation.

Uh I talked to the city attorney, there is another way to do this.

Um you could decertify the district, uh the Himershi district, and immediately put it into a new district, um, or create a new process for the fractured ownerships if they no longer fit within the framework of the existing SED SED ordinance.

Um I'd be supportive of that.

But outside, and and that's not the easy way because it's two steps, um, but it's it's the right way to do it.

Don't penalize the good actors uh because there are a few bad actors.

Let's address the problem, let's address the issues head on.

Um, but changing a whole ordinance and affecting everybody is not going to solve the problem, and all it's gonna do is make life harder for those of us who actually follow the rules and operate in the way that the in the ordinance is intended.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um Sir Lockery, followed by Marty Applebaum, followed by Sandy Fay.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners.

I like the new setup.

It's good to see everybody up on the dias.

It's been a long time since COVID ended.

Um I think you may hear some some similar uh themes, but uh Robert Lockery um, again wearing many hats like Dev, including uh representing Las Sulas Riverfront.

Um, you know, I think it's gonna be very clear to you, and I think you all have recognized starting last June and through this last year, that something has to change on him or she.

It is directly impacting Broward Center, it is directly impacting Museum of Discovery and Science as well as history of Fort Lauderdale.

But I think it is also important to recognize that the issue does not lie solely with the existing rules that you have in place.

It's not a case of them being too lenient or too lax.

It's just it is very importantly a case of them not being enforced.

In your own backup materials, which staff put together in a good and or rather the operators not abiding by your rules, I should say.

Um the backup shows that of the in the SED, um roughly 84% of the operators today aren't even in the SED.

So they're taking advantage of a privilege that the city has offered, but they are not part of the of the they don't meet the minimum requirements, have never even been included within that SED.

In addition to that, you have the problems that have been mentioned regarding that you have multiple ownerships when SEDs were clearly from the initial way they were written to the way they've been operated.

It's very important to have one controlling entity or one owner.

That's the way they've been drafted, that's the way they've been enforced.

You all had an issue with Beach Place a few years ago.

You were able to go to the representative of that owner, you were able to make demands on that owner, they've come into compliance and now they've been operating.

By having a disparate number of different representatives and different owners, you only dilute your authority to bring a special entertainment district into line, so to speak.

So I think it's very important to recognize that there are laws in place.

Apparently, a majority of the folks who are operating in this area are already violating those rules and those regulations, and that by enforcing, I would say a good place to start is enforcing those regulations.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Marty Applebaum.

Followed by Sandy Fay, followed by Alan Hooper.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners.

Um I'm a resident.

I have lived in South Florida for 40 some odd years, and I actually remember Button South and Penrods and everything else that you guys were talking about.

Um I've been listening to people talk.

I've been up in here in the Fort Lauderdale area for about three to five years, three to five years or so.

And I've been listening to everybody speak about um the special entertainment districts and the issues that everybody's been having.

And um the one thing that I'd like to say is as I listen to uh people discuss enforcement and rules and regulations, I would encourage you to have the courage to do what happened 30 some odd years ago when the Fort Lauderdale Beach was the spring break capital of the world with the Button South with Penrods and with all the other places that were there, um, and realize that we need to make the Las Olas Oceanside Loop or Oceanside Park instead because you need to change the image.

You need to understand where the real residents want to want to have and want to participate within uh the city.

Thank you very much.

You're very welcome.

Sandy, followed by Alan Hooper, followed by Ty Sutton.

Good evening, good afternoon.

Push to bot and push, yeah, you got it.

They didn't turn them off the first time.

Okay, good afternoon, Mr.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners.

Appreciate uh the opportunity to appear for you today and the and the great work that uh Miss Logan and her staff has done and the continuing the conversation that we have here.

Uh Sandy Fayer residing Riverwalk Center, one of the property owners in the uh Him or she district that uh has uh I think five or six of the establishments that operate there.

I agree with the previous speakers before that we should not punish the good actors as a result of the bad actors.

What I would take exception at is the statements that the majority of the Him or She operators are bad actors.

That's not the case.

There are some, we agree with that, and I think that the proposal that staff has presented to you allows the city to focus and take action against those bad actors and allowing the get the folks that are following the rules that haven't followed the rules to continue to operate, provide jobs, economic uh uh uh development revenue to the city, and we think that's the approach that the city should go with today.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Alan Hooper followed by Ty Sutton, followed by uh uh Pat Ziler.

Not yet.

You sound like a spring breaker.

I feel like I've been here since this morning, okay?

And now it's night time.

All right.

Okay.

Um uh I don't know if you guys know it, but I'm the chairman of the PACA.

Um I've also been a foundation member for years, and there were several of our board members that were here, but they had to leave.

So I do want to let you know that they are here in support of what we're uh telling you.

Uh and the Broward Center, the one we're sitting in right now, the mods, the Historic Society, were all here before any of those operators were here.

They were all here.

Um and so, you know, we're sitting in the Broward Center that's worth probably 500 to 700 million dollars today.

It was built in 1991, and it's a critical jewel, economic jewel for our city.

It's an amenity for our city.

It's one of the biggest draws that would make people or CEOs of new businesses want to move here.

Okay.

That is until they see the social media, the stabbings, the shootings, the fighting.

That kind of stuff is not positive for uh not only the Broward Center, but for the city of Fort Lauderdale, and this area deserves to be treated with more respect than it's getting now.

It deserves the protection from this commission.

It deserves the enforcement of the existing ordinance rather than trying to engineer a new ordinance that puts the non-compliant into compliance.

A new ordinance that makes bad behavior in dangerous situations vague and hard to enforce.

The one the the uh uh a situation that would drive cultural patrons away from this area, you know, you almost feel like you need to put caution tape across 2nd Street when the shows are letting out, so the patrons don't take a dangerously bad right turn and go down the wrong side the uh the uh down second street.

So, you know, and I think about this, and I'm like, why are we arguing over this?

I don't get it.

You know, we tell we tout, how do I count all of our successes?

We top the Hall of Fame swimming pool, we tout the Parker, the Panthers, the HMR, all the great things that this city is doing, and all the very the amenities that that we're bringing to this city to make it great, and yet, you know, we we fail, we drag our feet and fail to protect the biggest asset we got, which is the one we're sitting in.

And then meanwhile, we're wondering why companies are choosing to go to Miami and to Palm Beach, and after 15 years of chaos and promises, I think enough is enough, and we really need to reset the situation here.

We need to enforce the ordinance that exists today.

And we need to clean that area up.

I mean really clean it up because people are tr are staying away.

You can ask Ty Sutton.

Some of his patrons don't want to even come here because of the situation that's happening on 2nd Street in the press that it gets.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ty Sutton, followed by Patricia Zyler, followed by Ellen Bogdanov.

Uh Ty Sutton, President and CEO of the Performing Arts Center Authority.

I've now attended two sessions with uh with staff, and I want to thank uh everyone for the incremental changes we've seen to this district.

Um the elimination of open containers and outdoor consumption are positive steps.

Um but the real question is with these proposed um amendments to basically put one SED in compliance when four already are.

Where are the teeth?

And in the details of this, um, I wonder what best practices have we looked to around the country.

What does Austin do?

What does Nashville do?

None of that is in there.

Does this give it says video cameras, does it give police access to them?

What are the training steps?

What's the alcohol prevention?

Those should all be part of every district.

But if we're gonna look to amend this to create a new one, um, we need to look at that.

Um, what are the requirements for each individual business?

What are the options to end such heavy density of licensed businesses?

Most of which don't actually fall into the bounds of the SED.

The SED has been out of compliance since 2013.

And I want to put that in perspective for a second.

13 years of noncompliance, so we should move to make everyone compliant.

I don't know how that makes sense in terms of density.

Um why we have so much, you know, that isn't within the bounds of the hundred foot reel, the hundred foot rule.

But my real question is what is the city going to put into place to investigate, enforce, and make sure these rules are actionable if they are permitted.

Who is going to do that?

Who has the responsibility and at what level?

Is it 24 hours that I have to report?

I got a violation, I got a ticket or some other violation.

Do I have to report as a business owner every time I have a call for service, like you would in Austin?

And so I think this isn't completely thought out if this is the path, but at the end of the day, we have a district that hasn't been in compliance for years.

And I'll tell you, every time I get a call out at 3 45 or 4 15 a.m.

for a 19-year-old who's passed out in the need of medical support on our campus, it's a good reminder that this has to be addressed, and now it's been going on too long.

Thank you for your time.

All right, thank you.

Mayor, Commissioners, the Trisha Zyler, um Fort Lauderdale Historical Society.

Um, I was operating your son trolley when the mess when the beach place was a horror, and that was fixed and brought into compliance under the current ordinance.

I moved to to um uh Him or C at about the time that this Amers he became non-compliant, and I've watched it deteriorate over the last 12 years.

Um I have customers, Ty has customers, Joe and Mauds has customers.

We bring in in daytime hours.

Uh I have 200,000 plus visitors a year with 65% out of state, out of country.

When I first came to work at this historical site, I could send my visitor up to Tarp and Bend.

I could send them to Taco Craft, I could send them to Rockburger for a nice lunch.

They could sit outside and enjoy the street and enjoy Fort Lauderdale and have a really nice experience.

Today I have no place to send my visitors on 2nd Street, and I wouldn't, I don't know that I would do it if I had.

I I think the desperation is that there are other businesses here that are driving significant crowds into that district.

Broward Center, of course, Mods, and and our and our museums as well.

Um I take care of six of your historic properties.

We are stewards for that.

And uh they've been abused by the by the the permission to just free-for-all in that area and enforcing what the ordinance as it exists today would help all of us.

I know it would help historical society.

Thank you.

Great, thank you.

Ellen Bogdanov followed by George Hanberry, followed by Jack.

Is Jack Abdo still here?

No.

He left.

Okay.

Thank you, Mayor and Commissioners.

Um, I represent several of the bar owners on him or she, and um we support a lot of what's being said.

Um bottom line is is that maybe not one size fits all, and if him or she district needs to be treated differently than some of the others, so be it.

If there are people that are operating as if they are in the district and they're outside the district, nobody wants them shut down more than the legitimate bar owners that are actually in the district.

Um, each and every one of them had mentioned before that they were willing to have private detail.

Many of them do today.

Uh at least three of the bar owners had private detail, and we find that there's a lot less going on there.

Um, I want to thank the police a phenomenal job this spring break.

We saw it.

There were 49 arrests, um, of which many, I think there were 29 that were for underage drinking, and I do want to make a point, not one arrest in him or she.

They were all on the beach.

So they are doing a good job.

I do know in particular, Sway probably collects nearly a thousand false IDs a year.

Some of them are gonna get through, but that happens all over the city.

That's really not the issue.

The issue is that we need to perhaps maybe tweak the ordinance specifically if they want to do it for him or she.

I don't think our guys have a problem with it, and with all of the recommendations that are made, they also don't have a problem with it because the bad actors that everybody seems to be talking about on a him or she are ruining the reputation of the legitimate operators, and there are a lot of legitimate operators on him or she.

And we also talked um previously that the open container was one of the main issues here.

And in that open container, we were gonna let it settle for six months and selling alcohol on the street to see if that settled.

And it settled a lot.

Once in a while, you still had one arrest during the three-week period of uh that where somebody had an open container, but it's less and less, and I think if we had more detail on the street, which which is the plan, um spoke to Captain Jenkins, and there's not you know, made a recommendation for more off-duty police officers on on the street.

I think people will be less inclined to walk around with open containers and to potentially have a problem with their um that you know some of the things that are going on.

I mean, kids getting drunk during spring break and falling asleep on the street.

I mean, that that's gonna happen.

Um it happens all over the city where you see people sleeping on the street, but we support the recommendations, and if they want to treat us differently than they want to treat the others, so be it.

We don't have a beef with the other ones if if they're operating properly with the current.

We don't think the current ordinance is effective for him or she.

All right, thank you.

Mr.

Hanberry, followed by Tim Petrillo, Jenny Moorehone, and Steve Helmos.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh my name is George Hanbury.

I'm speaking as a private citizen.

Uh my wife Janna and I came to Fort Lauderdale almost 40 years ago when the mayor and the city commission at that time invited me to be the city manager.

And I feel like history is repeating itself because in 1980s, Port Lauderdale was the wild and woolly place that we saw and talk about spring breakers getting drunk in the streets.

Uh the old Fort Lickerdale uh rooms were being rented by the hour.

Uh business could not be attracted to the city.

And uh matter of fact, there was no increase in taxes because there was a decrease in the assessed valuation just to keep the tax rate at the same amount of money to be raised, needed a tax increase.

And the city commission ripped the bandage off of the scab and said, hey.

Too much of a good thing is a bad thing.

Overindulgence, overabundance leads to nothing but to destruction.

And when I came here, the vision of this city commission was by 1994, we won't be recognized as the best city of its size for the culture, for business, for corporate headquarters, for four and five-star hotels, and as the destination place for families to come.

We want to encourage our children to go to the beach.

We don't want to be recognized as Fort Liquerdale with a bacchanal spring break.

So we don't want spring break.

And that's ladies and gentlemen, what the city commission said they wanted to do.

They wanted to replace the bad with the good.

So they came up with in order to attract private capital to build five-star hotels.

We needed to show the public interest with beautiful, beautiful destination public facilities.

Whether it's building river walk, which is what we started doing, starting right at sailboat bin, under going all the way to Los Alas.

Cleaning up the beach, making it real pedestrian friendly instead of parking in the sand.

And getting rid of spring break, where you couldn't rent hotel rooms by the hour or have wet t-shirt contest or many other unspeakable shit.

So you're the one that took all the fun away.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So this area right here where we're speaking in the 80s and 90s, the Hermeshi District was wild and woolly.

Fort Lauderdale had the highest crime rate per capita in the nation.

Some of the worst deaths occurred right here, and it seems to be repeating itself.

There was a bar here that was infamous, that sold many things that you don't want to talk about at home.

And that is what the Fort Lauderdale City Commission wanted to do.

Replace the bad with the good and have the good to get rid of the bad.

Going through and having and to establish the special industry districts after what's built.

Beautiful places like this, the Museum of Science and Discovery, the beach and all of the aspects, river walk, esplanade park, all of those public facilities did start bringing investment back into the city, and we actually saw for the first time an increment, an increase in taxes.

What we're seeing today, unfortunately, is hey, too much of a good thing has been a bad thing.

We started the special interest districts at the request of the business community that came in that said they needed special entertainment so they could be more like Miami and open up later on at night.

So instead of closing down at midnight, let us stay open till one o'clock.

That's all we need is one o'clock.

And we started that experiment.

Well, it became so good we had to go to two o'clock.

Well, I left in 1998, and now you see it's four o'clock.

I don't know if it's gonna stop, but I think I'd ask you and encourage you to reexamine.

Do we really need this?

Because we did it as an experiment in the 90s to continue to attract high quality businesses, not just to continue to be the old Fort Lickerdale.

And I encourage you to really evaluate not just special police or anything else, but is there really a need for this special entertainment district to attract and retain quality entertainment or quality business.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Mayor and Commissioners, thank you for uh looking at this initiative.

Uh I do agree with George and Alan and Dev.

I think that uh something needs to change.

Uh as you may or may not know, I opened my first restaurant in 1997 on 2nd Street, it was a fine dining restaurant.

I own property down there now, and I will not put a restaurant there.

I'm opening two on Los Boulevard, and I have them all over the city.

And why is that?

Because a restaurant does not want to locate in the chaos that's down on 2nd Street.

We've been doing this for decades now.

Uh I can remember when George Cress stepped in and tried to put guardrails on this district.

Then I remember when uh Lee Feldman came in and tried to put more guardrails on this district and continued through uh Chris Lagerroom, and now our new city manager is trying to do the same thing.

What has happened is we tried to fix a broken system that cannot be fixed.

This this idea of a common control does not work.

Common control means that I'm I am in control of the McCorreys district.

I have no say in how Tin Roof operates, they're part of the district.

Tin Roof operates, they're a good operator.

I want to make that sure that's for the record.

But if they were not a good operator, I would have no control on enforcing them.

And the city does not want to step in to be the person to be in the common control position.

What's your recommendation that we do here?

I I recommend that the city has a draconious penalty system that they enforce.

I mean, you know, it was amazing how quickly the uh COVID penalties came into effect and how how they work quite quite well.

I mean, Dean, you you were witnessing that.

Why don't we have this for this?

You know, you get a warning, okay, and it you get one warning, you have to correct your behavior.

You you close until you correct your behavior, then you get a significant penalty, then you are out of out of penalties.

You cannot, you can no longer operate and and and use the the benefits of an entertainment district after strike three.

Okay.

That's how I feel.

All right, thank you.

All right, thank you.

Uh Jenny Morihon, uh Steve Halmos, and I see Richard Mercedes here.

Okay.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, city officials.

Um, I think it's interesting to lead with one sentence from the existing ordinance that says these incentives are designed to promote redevelopment, which will eliminate deteriorating conditions in areas which are found to be detrimental to health, safety, and the welfare of the public.

And what we've seen over the past 13 years is a full circle where these incentives have actually contributed to those exact conditions in the Him or She area.

Uh we started working on this as a city, probably 16, 17 years ago, visiting Ebor City to learn from them.

Believe that there was the last update to the Him or She agreement, as we've all heard in 2013.

Go back to that.

Look at the regulations and requirements that the establishments were supposed to provide for security for four police officers that patrol the district for seven specific venues that were required to have their own detail, and all of those, a combined 11 officers to be paid for by the district.

Look at the venues that were in the 2013 agreement that are still operating and are playing by the rules.

Look at ones that have changed and are promoting 18 and overnights when clearly the agreement says it's a 21 and over district.

If individual permits move forward for the Him or She district because that needs a unique condition, then look at the best practices for bar management, require that the establishments go through that training, the life, safety, code compliance conditions that venues have.

There are no more kitchens except for a handful from the venues down there.

The SED ordinance talks about retail, restaurants, entertainment, the collection of those uses that make for a truly viable destination.

Look at the media scan over the past five years.

And whose liability is that?

You know, it was 2019, Commissioner Glassman when Tim Petrillo and Jeff Johns and I and others in this room came and sat with you.

Two venue operators who said something has to be done.

And now is the time to really enforce accountability of the existing regulations and looking at the agreement that may be outdated and no longer existing, but that had some teeth.

And let's start there.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello, Steve.

Thank you for uh giving me a couple of minutes.

I'm Steve Halmos.

My uh my company is Helmos Holdings.

I've been here since 1972.

And this is the only the second time I've ever come in front of you to speak, which is really no big deal, except that it I hope it's an indicator of how important I believe this issue to be.

At one time I had 500 employees here with with my company, which you know I no longer have.

Um I have a partner in all the styles projects downtown.

I'm partners with Tim Patrillo and all but one or two of the restaurants.

And uh I've I've either owned directly or in partnership with others, uh roughly 20 properties in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

Um I was chair of the Capitol campaign that brought that built the mod the the facility, the Museum of Discovery and Science across the street, and I believe I was one of the first donors to this facility that we're sitting in.

And I'm not telling you all that to big time yet or toot my own horn, though it kind of feels good to do that.

I haven't done that in a while.

Um I think I'm also aging myself because uh I kind of like spring break because uh uh few folks here may not know that before uh Tim Chavon owned the Parrot Lounge.

I own them.

So I was a frankly.

Did you sell the wood paneling too?

Uh well wait, we won't talk about those days.

I'm a sophisticated businessman now, so I don't talk about those those days.

But anyhow, I was kind of sorry to see Fort Liquerdale in.

Anyhow, as my friend George.

We need to get to the point here we can we now know your resume.

Yes, yeah, enough of my resume.

So uh as my friend George Hanberry said, you know, uh the entertainment district was was put in place to to make this blighted area not blighted.

And but over the last few years, it is it has become blighted.

And the the two organizations that I've talking about, the performing arts center and the museum of discovery and science, though those are important to me, and I and they should be important to the city.

And I would just encourage you.

I I don't need to tell you all the reasons.

Uh other speakers I think have done it more eloquently than I can do it.

But I ask you to enforce the existing code, but but I really support the three strikes year out kind of approach that Tim said, or going as far as George said and decertify the whole district, even though that would impact some of the tenants that I have in properties that I own.

I don't think anything good happens after 2 a.m.

And uh I I would just encourage you, whatever you do to once and for all clamp down on it and clean this area up.

Thanks.

Great.

Thank you.

Uh Richard Mercedes.

Anyone else wish to speak on this item?

Okay, which would be the last one.

Thank you for letting us speak, let me speak.

Um the city has certain rules when it comes to life safety.

Don't have a fire extinguisher, you don't have a proper fire exit, you don't have proper things with the fire department, they shut you down.

Uh I learned that the hard way many many years ago.

There's no three strikes.

If there's a fire safety issue, they throw you out, they they shut you down.

I would assume it's not really a fire safety issue, but when kids get served alcohol, that's a big no-no.

And a couple of months ago, I sat in this audience and you all gave them an opportunity to clean up their act.

You said, get get to get some guards, do this, do that, so on and so forth.

Here is an advertisement from Munchies.

They're on 2nd Street.

On April 10th, they're having a an event from 10 a.m.

to 4 a.m.

It's some sort of a 10 a.m.

10 10 p.m.

to 4 a.m.

I'm sorry, I said it wrong.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, those hours get me confused.

Anything after 2 a.m.

is not good.

So from 10 p.m.

to 4 a.m., all ages are invited.

It's right here in black and white.

You gave them an opportunity a couple of months ago to clean up their act.

I think there was a stabbing or two or three after that event.

Shut down the district.

Get rid of it.

You all have the power.

Can I see that?

You sure may.

Where does it say all ages?

Yeah.

Right there.

Oh, I see down there.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

As a representative of Munchies, I like to speak after.

All right.

Well, you signed.

Did you sign up?

I did because you just asked if anyone else liked to speak directly in my business of something saying there's a stabbing.

All right, why don't you why don't you read it?

At the bottom it says all ages.

Yeah, that's that's an eventbrite.

That's not advertised for munchies.

That's that's something that Eventbrite put there.

So that's nothing in our flyer says all ages.

Um if I may just I have sixty seconds.

I'm sorry, but I I gotta stop you before we'll give you your 60 seconds.

So Eventbrite is where you usually partner up with Eventbrite to sell tickets to events that you're sponsoring.

So that's a partner of yours.

It's a third-party uh seller of uh of tickets, correct.

Right, but you partner with them to sell tickets to your event?

We partner with Eventbrite to sell tickets to our event.

I haven't seen that before just now.

I uh we don't know I'm just saying they're an agent of yours, so whatever they put out there advertising your event, you own that.

Yes, but I I I I've never seen this before, and I'm gonna do that.

I'm just saying you can't you can't disclaim responsibility for what they put out there publishing your events.

You own whatever they public I I do agree.

Okay, I do agree with that.

And you know, since the last meeting when we we discussed this uh a couple months ago, um we have moved our age from 18 and over to 19 and over because uh we heard some of the feedback.

Um we are a restaurant bar within the district, and I just have a short speech I wrote just two minutes ago.

Uh few months ago when we were discussing this, uh an agreement was made.

We all agreed that the core problems on him or she weren't coming from people who go inside the businesses, patronize them and spend money.

They were coming from people bringing their own alcohol, carrying flasks, loitering outside and causing issues on the street.

Because of that, we agreed to a solution, eliminate open containers and give it at least six months to see if the majority of the problems are resolved.

The expectation was let's have a trial period and see what happens.

Spring break came and it was a success.

Not only according to to the businesses, but according to the Fort Lauderdale police department themselves, they publicly bragged about how well things went on him or she in a social media post.

So my question is why are we discussing this again?

If the policy we agreed to test is working, and if law enforcement is publicly saying things have improved, why are we talking about changing the rules again?

Since open container was removed, we had a strong month, the streets have been calmer, safer, and more manageable.

Uh but if the city keeps moving the goalposts, changing the rules before the test period is is complete, then how are the businesses supposed to know what solutions actually work?

I can't I'm sorry, I can't see that.

This is where we had kids slightly bleak and we have some fights, Mayor.

Over a dozen police officers, hundreds of kids, some kids laying on the ground after a fight.

And you're telling me that things are cleaned up.

I'm saying according to the case.

According to the depot police department, they said it was a big improvement.

The arrests went down, the underage drinking went down.

Sure, there's a video outside of Dicey's just a few days ago of people getting into a fight.

Are you licensed to be in this special entertainment district?

During the last meeting, I believe three of the commissioners agreed that to to enforce the code where many of the businesses didn't even know it existed.

I just asked you a question.

Is that a yes or a no?

Uh no.

Okay.

Yeah.

All right.

All I'm asking is that we honor the agreement.

Are you open to four AM?

We we are currently open to four AM.

Even though you're not licensed to be in a special entertainment district.

Yes, because the commission in the last meeting agreed to allow it to happen for six months before we started enforcing that code.

That's not what we agreed to do.

That's not what we agreed.

We allowed those that had the license to continue to maintain their license.

Mayor, we did agree to allow everyone, whether they're licensed or not to continue.

You may have the better recollection.

Yeah, I asked for us to say let's enforce those who have been.

I agree.

I'm with you, Mayor.

I'm with you.

So it's it's just a mess now.

All right.

I actually thought we agreed not to change the hours.

So apparently we all have a different idea of what we agreed to.

Yeah.

Is not real.

We did not use that company.

None of this is our writing.

I handle everything that gets listed.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

And pretty easy to chat GPT something to to accuse us of something.

All right.

Vice Mayor.

And all right, Mayor, can I wait?

Have you completed your comments?

I'm done.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Vice Mayor, my understanding from our last meeting was no change whatsoever to the operating hours as they are operating.

Correct.

Was that yours?

I think what I was focused on and you you may very well be right.

I I was thinking in terms of we don't need to change the hours from four back to an earlier time until we had an opportunity to revisit this in a couple of months and see how it was working out.

I wasn't even thinking.

You know, I I can candidly tell you I wasn't even thinking about those who were operating outside of the limits of the special entertainment district rules.

Um so I I I candidly I will tell you I wasn't even thinking with respect to that.

So I wasn't speaking to that for or again.

So I I my confusion on that side.

Yep.

No, thanks.

Appreciate it.

All right.

So um city manager.

You got that report.

Well, we we were given a deadline of 90 days to come back to the commission where we are ahead of that deadline.

So the purpose of this conference item is to get your feedback and direction so that by the next meeting we can propose something uh more tangible.

Okay, so let's pull it.

I thought we did January 6th.

All right, let's I'm sorry?

I thought we meant January 6th, no.

That was another meeting.

Isn't it 90 days?

No.

Well, anyway, um January 20th century.

So who who on who all right?

Start with District 1.

Commissioner Herbst, Vice Mayor.

Do you have any comments you'd like to make?

Yes, I do.

Actually, I I find myself rather much not surprisingly in agreement with Dr.

Hanberry.

You know, I I used to talk with uh again, not so I said not surprisingly.

Uh he was out there close the button down, close the button down.

Well, you know, I used to I used to sit and and talk with uh with Mayor Dressler uh on many, many occasions.

He and I used to go to lunch over um uh Chuck and Dive, uh Great Oysters on Wednesdays.

Um and we would talk about this.

We would talk about you know hi him beginning this back in the 80s and and Bob Cox, you know, carrying it forward after that.

And uh, you know, great great historian of city history.

And you know, as as Dr.

Hanbury points out, our reputation of of Fort Lickerdale versus what we were trying to accomplish back then, and this is the days before I got to the city.

I got here in 06.

But you know, the goal of the city back then was to get rid of the you know twelve college kids in a motel along the beach.

And and that's why the CRA acquired what was it, the old holiday in over there, which is now the the the Los Alas Oceanside Park, um using CRA dollars to buy that.

Um the city made a concerted effort, as you put, and and I think I like your word, you know, to to move to an economy driven by culture, not by you know drinking oriented activities.

And nothing wrong with drinking.

I'm I'm I'm the first person to go out and enjoy a glass of red wine and and uh and and happy to do it.

Um but the the idea that that our our nightlife revolves around something other than getting drunk and wasted and and puking into the bushes, I think is a direction we've been trying to move Fort Lauderdale in for quite a long period of time.

And I will tell you, Mayor, and and please don't this is not an insult to you, but I was actually very dismayed at the level of enthusiasm that you displayed for bringing spring break back to the city.

I I cringed inside when you said spring break is back, because I think we were going in the wrong direction, candidly.

I don't want Fort Lauderdale to be the spring break city.

Kids are gonna come here anyway, no matter what we do, I get that.

But you know, when we're talking about a St.

Regis and hotels of that caliber, when we're talking about what Suntex has done with the Las Olas Marina, when we've got 300 foot yachts that are docking here, and we're really trying to promote ourselves as the yachting capital of the world.

I think those things are incompatible with bringing the spring break capital of the world.

Um I I think we can't be both at the same time.

Um with what they're trying to do with Bahia Mar, all of these things that we're seeing with Pier 66 with what Tavistock is doing, I think the direction that Fort Lauderdale has moved in in the last 20 years is inconsistent with this continuing image of us as a spring break destination.

And I would love us as a city to shake that off and continue to move forward as a cultural destination for people.

We we promote the museums.

You know, there are things that we really need to be talking about.

One of the things that concerns me is folks are are are relocating down here from California from New York from other high tax places, and they're bringing businesses down with them.

And they're not coming to Fort Lauderdale.

They're going to they're going to West Palm and they're going to Miami, and they're passing Fort Lauderdale by.

And I think one of the reasons that's happening is this reputation that we have.

And I think we need to continue to shake that off and present ourselves to the world with our best foot forward.

And what we're seeing right now, these images that you were just showing, Mayor, I think speak volumes to why Ken Griffin is in Miami and not here.

And why 11 hedge funds have moved to South Florida and they're not here.

Well, I I I I that's a whole other debate.

No, but I but I think that's a good question.

Ken Griffin came to Miami well during the heyday of spring break in Miami Beach.

So one had nothing to do with the other.

No, but I I think I think it's about our image, Mayor.

And and and all of this comes back to what our image is.

And I think our image, again, as as as uh uh as the the gentleman in front of me said, our image should be focused on culture.

And I don't think what we're seeing here is culture.

So I'd love to see us move in that direction.

Um I think that should be our or a North Star is is what drives us to to that.

I think what we've seen over here with Heisenga Park is is moving in that direction.

Um I think we have to continue advancing in a direction that cleans up our city, not one that brings it down.

So those are my thoughts.

All right, Commissioner Beasley Pittman, you have to do that.

Yes.

Um the conversation on decertification, um, Ellen, I believe you had stated um a different ordinance, if I'm not misquoting what you said.

But with the decertification, if we could um talk about that a little bit, what it looks like and how that would um in a sense remove the hemishi from the other districts.

What does that look like?

And would that put us in a uh position where we're moving forward?

Because what what we're hearing, what we're seeing that is going on in Himeshi, there hasn't been any change.

So if we go ahead and remove that certification, what does the enforcement look like?

What what is that new look for Him or show?

Well, first of all, it would be tough to it would be tough to go back if you if you no longer had a special entertainment district because one of the components of a special entertainment district was to eliminate the the distance between bars.

So you if you already have businesses uh in place, you can't tell them they can't be in business anymore.

So that would be a challenge.

I think you can do that through I think we could do that legally through ordinances and I think we I don't know the answer to that question.

I think we could have to have that conversation with our city attorney.

But that's a direction I think we need to.

So who do you tell who do you tell has to leave?

Four bars in a row next to each other.

How many who has to leave?

No, what I'm saying is I believe that you can legislate the fact that they can still keep that quote privilege of or that ability to be right next to each other if you decertify.

In other words, it will take a little bit of work and it will take a couple of readings, but I believe that you can still, if we well, I'll I'll just wait till I speak because I don't want to interrupt everybody.

But um yes, that's the direction I want us to look at, and maybe even now with city attorney, maybe we can get some type of definition of what that may look like with the decertification.

But I do believe that that is an opportunity um where um we can craft an opportunity for those who are there to, in a sense of a grandfathering process, but no one who comes in after that a certain day, it does not apply to them.

Okay, and that way we would also give who's there an opportunity to continue doing business, but at the level that's required under the new ordinance.

But decertification is what I want to talk about.

Okay.

All right, uh district, both the entertainment districts are in your district.

Tell us a little bit about your thoughts, what what your community is saying.

So uh thank you.

Um I have attended many meetings over the years.

I've heard a lot of input, and I just want to thank everyone for all of that input.

And I I've been listening for a while now.

Uh and then after the March 30th meeting that we did just have, um I I thought about it a lot, still spoke to people.

So what I'm gonna actually recommend, uh and I think it's the way that we need to go now.

Um, first of all, I do not want to throw the baby out with the bath water.

I do not want to involve the other four districts.

I think we need to separate the Himeshi district and not make any of those recommendations law for the other four districts.

So immediately I I don't want to say to the other four districts, you're involved in this.

I don't want to make them go through the extra step of that permitting process.

I don't want them to have to do that.

I just want to leave them alone.

I want to focus on Him is she.

Um I believe that we have to de-certify the district.

I think we have to decertify the district, but still give all of the businesses the ability to show that they can, that they can operate legally and responsibly and with accountability.

That's not happening now, and I want to make sure that what we say is we are going to take that step of decertification, but we are still going to allow the businesses to go through that individual permit process that we just learned about in that presentation uh and that we also talked about at the March 30th meeting.

Because I think that if we do that, and then if we stress the enforcement aspect that we have been listening to all afternoon, I think we can get there.

If there's a business that's not going to comply, if there's a business that is just having difficulty, then that's the end.

They they will not have those privileges to continue operating as if they are in the SAD.

I also think that we should take a look at age restrictions.

I think we should took a look at age restrictions that are done in other cities in our state, uh, whether that's at 10 p.m.

or 11 p.m., uh, whether it's 21, whatever that age restriction, I think we have to look at that.

I don't think it does us any good to have, and especially because it is in violation uh of the agreements that everyone supposedly signed years ago.

Um I don't think it does any good for us to allow 18 years old all night till 4 a.m.

So I'd like us to also look at that.

So those would be my recommendations in the short term.

Um I think we have to be so strong when it comes to penalties, when it comes to enforcement.

Um, but I do think that we are past the point now of just more tweaking, more taking another look.

Um we're just past that point.

Um I I think that we have to realize that what's that expression, the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over and over and over and expecting a different outcome.

I I I think we're not going to have that different outcome.

Um but again, I want to be respectful of the businesses that are playing by the rules, and I want them to understand that decertification is not a penalty in and of itself.

It can be if you do not live up to your responsibility and you are not accountable for what is happening.

We had good suggestions at that March 30th meeting.

Uh again, the individual businesses should step it up with regards to their security, with regards to even have someone on the sidewalk so that we are controlling sidewalks in front of each of these individual businesses.

We have to lay out really specific rules like that so that we can begin to clean this up.

I want to be able to hear someone like a Tim Patrillo say, you know what, uh, I'm going to open up a business again.

I'm going to open up a restaurant again.

I mean, I remember very fondly, you know, Him or She Bar and Grill, those days where people would go and they would eat, and then they would come to the theater.

I also remember those uh hour by the uh rooms by the hour.

That's a whole nother story.

Um but that's okay.

I could tell you a few stories from Spring Break to back in my day, but that's okay.

We'll talk we'll talk offline if anyone wants to hear some really good hair-raising stories.

I do have a few.

But all seriousness.

I just think that we need to get serious about this.

We need to go in a different direction, and we need to show that we are serious.

So I believe that we should ask uh City Attorney to come back to us with a first reading of decertification for Him and She.

We have all of the other four districts alone.

Let's just focus on that, and then also at the same time craft those rules, craft those regulations so that the businesses that are there can operate right next to each other.

In other words, everything that you think that might not be able to happen because of decertification, I believe that we can craft that legislation so they are going to be given the opportunity to succeed.

I want everyone to have the opportunity to succeed, but we have to play by different rules.

That's all.

Thanks.

Okay.

Commissioner Sorensen.

Great, thanks.

What is so the process, City Attorney, the process for decertification, which I'm uh I support that's so it would decertify the him or she special entertainment district, is that right?

And it's two readings coming to us.

Just want to make sure I'm trying to.

I'm understanding the intent of the Commission uh would be to decertify that particular SED, and to do that, we'd not need to pass an ordinance, obviously two readings.

In uh doing so in the first hearing, you would have to establish the criteria that would allow for the decertification.

We believe there is ample evidence to do that.

Okay.

And then there would be in parallel to that, I am assuming we would begin creating a some of what is suggested here, which is a uh district-based accountability model.

No, rather an individual establishment-based accountability model, the commissioner, where permits would be issued to each establishment with all of these criteria, much of what you are uh uh asking for tonight, uh so that it could be individually enforced and individually accountable would allow for the same benefits of the N SED, but give you the opportunity really to enforce it.

Great.

And so what would happen from the point when the uh special entertainment district in Hemership is decertified to the new uh kind of stipulations going into effect.

So we would probably uh recommend that they dovetail that the certification ceases at the point in time that the permits are issued for those entities in that geographic area.

And so during this decertification process, then individual businesses would apply for a permit.

Correct.

Is that right?

Correct.

They'd apply for a permit, and the permit would stipulate all of the kind of stipulations that we would like as a commission.

And then that would be a annual permit renewal process.

Yes.

In addition to all the penalties if they did not follow the stipulations in the permit.

Correct.

Is that right?

Okay.

For the specific components of what is required to gain and sustain a permit.

Do it would do we need further discussion as a commission to indicate what those would be?

Because we want these things going concurrently.

The decertification process and the new permitting process, right?

Right.

So are are you are you asking what would be the criteria for the permit?

Correct.

And for the sustaining of the and all of those things that we would flesh out many of the things that you've already mentioned has been comp contemplated by staff anyway, uh all the security, um uh particular uh hours, all of that stuff and the and the ability to apply for it, but to have to meet the criteria.

We would lay out all that criteria for you in the proposed ordinance.

Yeah, including the revocation.

And yes, so Commissioner, yes, that will take some thinking, and I think that might actually be the most important part of this.

What are the levels of penalties?

How do we enforce it?

Um that's gonna take some discussion on your part, and and I think obviously with staff and and perhaps with um uh the chief as well.

Right.

And uh mayor, I just I think the model that Tim Petrill suggested that we replicate what we did during COVID makes a lot of sense, where we gave a warning and then if you don't comply, then you know we we we close you down until you do comply.

Right.

I mean, you have to put some teeth into that.

I agree, Mayor.

I'm with you.

And uh and Mayor, I'd I'd like to have the city manager or the city commission really to have uh ability to uh engage and enforce with good discretion.

So yes.

So I think I think that makes sense, City Manager, is that we given enough direction then?

Yes, I just want to add that in advance of the item coming forward, we could share a letter to the commission outlining what we are proposing and give you an opportunity to you know gather any feedback that you might want to gather from the business community or otherwise uh so that it's not hitting you cold on a first reading.

Okay, right.

I like that.

Okay.

All right.

You have something else, yes, go.

Um my question, how quickly will we see that?

Um are we putting the time to it or just the process?

Sometime before the break.

Is that possible?

Yes, Mayor.

Okay.

All right.

Any further comments or questions on this item?

All right.

Um so my suggestion is that we take a break now and begin our evening meeting at 6 30.

Uh we can we can resume our discussion regarding the uh the charter amendments after the uh evening meeting, assuming we still want to go forward because I know there was a question as to whether or not we should put that out to the public first before we we as a commission making decisions.

So this meeting is now uh this meeting is now uh concluded, and then we will resume our evening meeting at 6 30.