Welcome to the Fort Lauderdale City Commission.

Thank you all for being here.

We are calling to order the June 16th regular city commission meeting of the city of Fort Lauderdale.

The mayor is away on business and will not be participating in tonight's meeting.

So I'm your vice mayor and honored to with our commission to be working here together.

I want to thank everyone for being here tonight.

And as we get going, we'll just uh adjust the order a little bit till we get our other commissioner here.

But um want to do a couple things.

One is recognize some of our retirements.

So long-serving employees in the city of Fort Lauderdale that are retiring.

Just want to celebrate them.

David Reynolds, he's a lieutenant of fire rescue, 20 years of service retiring this month.

Shannon Dameron, police sergeant, 23 years of service.

Lewis LaFouvury LaForey, 28 years of service with public works.

Chantel Botting, who's leaving fire rescue and going to Deerfield Beach, right, as a chief, which is amazing.

30 years of service.

Thomas White, police officer, 31 years of service.

Jack DeCristofalo, 33 years of service as a police officer here at the city of Fort Lauderdale, and then lastly, Mark Renner, police sergeant, 34 years of service.

So if you just give them a round of applause, thank you.

Appreciate it.

And now as we start, we'd love to open with the Pledge of Allegiance and the Fort Lauderdale Summer Camp Program participant, Willie Brown.

If you'd come on up, Willie, we're gonna say the Pledge of Allegiance together.

I'll meet you at the podium over here.

Good to see you, Willie.

All right, kick it off.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which is stand one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Yes, really, thank you.

Thank you for doing that.

I got your little, got your little little bag of goods too.

All right, thank you, Willie.

Yeah, of course.

Excellent.

Thank you, Willie.

At this moment, I'd like to take a moment of silence.

Commissioners, anyone that um to lift up in particular, just want to check.

Okay.

If y'all would please join us in a moment of silence.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Mr.

City Clerk, would you call the role of the commission, please?

Commissioner Herbst.

Commissioner Glossman.

Here.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Here.

Vice Mayor Swordson.

Here.

Thank you, Mr.

Clerk.

Alright, now moving to the agenda.

So there is an agenda revision.

Uh PH1, the CAM, and exhibit seven were revised.

If there are no other changes or revisions to the motion, do we have a to the agenda?

Do we have a motion to approve the minutes and the agenda as amended?

So moved.

Moved.

Is there a second?

Second.

Mr.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Commissioner Glassman.

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Sorensen?

Yes.

And Commissioner Herbst.

Fantastic.

And the agenda and the minutes are approved.

Now we go into presentations.

So the first presentation is being presented by Commissioner Beasley Pittman presenting a proclamation declaring June 19th as Juneteenth in the City of Fort Lauderdale.

Thank you, Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Yeah, you can give her a hand.

Thank you.

Okay.

You want me to I'll read that.

Yeah.

Okay.

So let me, I'm gonna read normally the commissioner, mayor, vice mayor reads the script, so I'm gonna read their recognition and then we're going to uh present and along with uh a song.

So City of Fort Lauterals honor to recognize Juneteenth as a day that commemorates freedom, resilience, and the ongoing pursuit of equality.

This evening we gather in advance of the official Juneteenth holiday to reflect on its significance and celebrate its enduring legacy.

Observed annually on June 19th.

Juneteenth commemorates the day in 1865 when enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, learned they were free.

More than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Today it stands as powerful symbol of freedom, resilience, and the ongoing pursuit of equality for all of us.

To help commemorate this important occasion, we're honored to have Charlia here, program manager of Hughes Songs for a special tribute to the history, culture, and spirit of June nineteenth.

As part of that presentation, John and Jania of the Harden Project will perform Lift Every Voice and Sing.

A song that has long served as a powerful expression of hope, perseverance, and freedom.

Following the performance, Commissioner Beasley Pittman will present a city proclamation recognizing Juneteenth and its significance to our community.

So before we begin, the City of Fort Lauderill invites everyone to join us for an annual Juneteenth celebration.

It's this Saturday, which is June 20th, from 5 p.m.

to 8 p.m.

at Carter Park, where we celebrate Juneteenth and freedom and culture and community.

So now please join me in welcoming the performance.

Thank you.

Okay, good evening, everyone, and thank you so much for that really beautiful introduction.

Uh, Vice Mayor.

Good evening, everyone.

It is an honor and it is a privilege to be here once again.

Uh, my name is Charlia Gully.

I am the project manager and programs manager of Hewed Songs, representing tonight, and I wanted to first start by telling you about our mission.

The mission of Hughes Songs is to amplify a sense of greater empathy to create belonging amongst all people and to amplify the voices of black and brown artists.

We believe that art is a right and not a privilege reserved for the few.

So through the performance of art across South Florida, we do that.

And this year, as the Vice Mayor said, we have the Juneteenth experience happening at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center on June 20th at 7 30 until 9 30 p.m.

And we would love to have you out.

Um a heartfelt thank you to the city of Fort Lauderdale, especially to our city commissioners.

Commissioners, uh Mayor, City Manager Raquel Williams, for all of your support.

Your commitment to the arts collectively is a testament to the city's dedication to inclusivity and to celebrating the arts.

We're here today with the artists, as Vice Mayor has said, Janaya Hardin and John Hardin, who will be performing Lift Every Voice and Sing.

And before I tell you a little bit more, I will invite you all to rise and stand as this is considered the Black National Anthem, written by James Weldon Johnson and later set to music by his brother, Jay Rosamond Johnson in the year 1900.

This is Florida history, as both of these brothers are from here, the state of Florida, right in Jacksonville.

Um they were born and raised there, and here in South Florida, we stand on the land that is deeply intertwined with legacy and rich cultural tapestries woven by African-American leaders like James F.

Sistrunk, Eula Johnson, Clarence Walker, and so many more who created community and belonging here in this neighborhood, like Sistrunk and Dorsey River Bend, which we all know, right?

Um, this song, Lift Every Voice and Singh was born out of struggle and the continued fight for equality for all people, for all Americans.

This song has carried the collective aspirations of black Americans across generations.

It's a call to resilience to unity and to hope.

Let us remember the voices now as we raise our own.

The lyrics to lift every voice and sing was placed onto your seat.

So I invite you to grab that and sing along with us.

May these words and melodies remind us of the past, inspire us in the present, and carry us forward together into a more harmonious future.

Thank you so much.

Ring with the harmies of let our rejoice single high as the lishing skies.

Keep us forever in the path.

Stray from the places are God where we may be lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee.

Shadow beneath thy head.

True to our name till.

Thank you.

Ravo.

Thank you so much for blessing us with the song.

Thank you, thank you.

I am so honored tonight to be able to present this proclamation.

Um, this proclamation is being issued under the first time the city, the city of Fort Lauderdale, we are recognizing Juneteenth.

So this really has great value tonight.

So if you would um allow me to read and present this, we will um honor the moment.

Thank you.

From the office of the city mayor, whereas, I'm sorry, in recognition of June, June 6th, Juneteenth.

I think I ate a little bit too much.

Hold on one second, let me breathe a little bit.

In recognition of Juneteenth, whereas on January 1st, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Immaculation I could Emaclamation Proclamation, declaring that all enslaved people in the United States were forever free.

Whereas the Freedom Eve, the night before the proclamation took place, enslaved and free African Americans gathered in churches and homes across the nation in hope of anticipation, marking the first watch night services in the American history.

Whereas, although the proclamation was a turning point in the fight for freedom, it could not be enforced in all areas until under in all areas still under Confederate control, leaving 1,000 in bondage for more than two years after its insurance.

And whereas on June 19, 1865, nearly 2,000 Union troops arrived in Gavinston Bay, Texas, to announce that all enslaved people in the state were free under the federal law, delivering freedom to more than 250,000 individuals and giving rise to the annual celebration known as Juneteenth.

And whereas in Florida, the emancipation came when Union forces arrived in Tallahassee on May 20th, 1865.

Yet many enslaved people throughout the state did not receive the news of their freedom until weeks later, including on and around June 19th.

Whereas freedmen and their descendants began to commemorate June 19th as a reflection and of resilience and rejoicing with traditional the tradition of Juneteenth spreading across the country throughout and migrating of African American families to new communities.

And whereas Juneteenth honors the strength, the sacrifice and the endurance strength of African Americans who endured generations of enslavement and injustice that stands as a powerful reminder of continuous pursuit of equality, inclusion, and justice.

And whereas the city of Fort Lauderdale proudly joins communities across the nation in recognizing June 19th as Juneteenth Day, a celebration of liberation and a call to continuous building of a brighter and a more just future for all.

Now, therefore, we as city commissioners of the city of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, do hereby proclaim June 19th, 2026 as Juneteenth Day in the city of Fort Lauderdale and encourages all residents to reflect on its significance, honor the lives and legacy of those who fought for freedom and participated in meaningful commemorations throughout our community.

This is dated this the 16th day of June 2026 by our Mayor Dean Trantellus.

I think we already said some words, so what we'll do, I'm gonna put this in your hand and we're gonna take some pictures.

If that's that's the direction we would like to go.

Alright, if you would go this way, please, thank you very much.

Thank you, Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

And City Manager, is this the first uh year that Juneteenth is recognized as a city holiday?

This is Vice Mayor.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman mentioned that.

So I just want to emphasize that.

Um so I just uh celebrate that from the city commission and city manager and city staff making that possible.

So fantastic.

Now we'll move on to presentation two, where I'm gonna present a proclamation declaring June 16th as Fort Lauderdale Youth Rugby U-14 State Championship Day.

So, Commissioner Beasley Pittman, if you want to hang down there, I'm gonna come down there with you, and we will celebrate that.

Thank you.

All right, U-14 rugby, how we doing?

Good, alright.

One of y'all, if y'all don't mind, stand up, and if you just get right in the center of the room, because you got it's all about you.

Just get in the center of the room there.

And Coach Toby, if you're there you are, Coach Toby, congratulations.

We've got a proclamation, which I'll read, at least part of it, to celebrate you and the team, and this is on behalf of myself and Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

So uh this is celebrating Fort Lauderdale Youth Rugby 2026 U-14 champions, right here.

You're looking at champions.

State champions, soon to be world champions, but state champions for now.

So here's a little bit.

Whereas Fort Lauderdale Youth Rugby U-14 team has demonstrated exceptional athletic ability, discipline, and teamwork throughout the 2026 season, serving as an outstanding ambassador for the city of Fort Lauderdale, both on and off the field, and whereas under the leadership of head coach Toby Lawrence, assistant coach TJ, and a dedicated with TJ TJ here?

Traveling.

Alright, we'll give TJ a pass.

And dedicated team of coaches, volunteers, parents, guardians, loved ones.

24 young athletes achieved an extraordinary season marked by perseverance and competitive excellence.

And whereas during the 2026 season, team extended its reach beyond stink competition by hosting the Cayman Islands U-14 rugby team in Fort Lauderdale and traveling to the Cayman Islands for its inaugural international match.

Did we win?

Oh, okay, all right.

Hey, so there's some tough matches here and there.

It's all good.

It's all good.

Still one state.

Um, and whereas on May 9th, 2026, Fort Lauderdale Youth Rugby U-14 captured the Florida Youth Rugby State Championship with a hard-fought 17-14 victory over a highly respected Weston rugby club.

And by the way, I was talking to the fellas here.

They were, were you down 17 to 14 to 0?

14 to 0.

Perseverance, grit, came back, pulled it off 17 to 14.

And whereas this remarkable yeah, give them a hand for that.

This remarkable accomplishment reflects it reflects the dedication of athletes, coaches, families, supporters, whose collective efforts have brought pride, inspiration, recognition to the city of Fort Lauderdale while setting a strong foundation for these young men as they advance to the U-16 division.

You ready for this?

U16?

We ready?

Nothing less than a state championship coming back.

So all right, bring it.

Okay.

And now, therefore, we as city commissioners of the city of Fort Lauderdale hereby proclaim June 16th, 2026.

Fort as Fort Lauderdale Youth Rugby U-14 Champions Day here in the city, signed your mayor Dean J.

Trantellus.

Coach, congratulations.

I think commissioner just said everything I was trying to say there.

So I'll be pretty quick here.

Um just real quick, uh, Mayor.

He's gone to the bathroom.

But uh, commissioners, thank you so much just for honoring these kids.

Um, the championship belongs to the players.

You know, uh, these kids put the hard work in, they represent Fort Lauderdale with pride on and off the field.

Um I also want to highlight what this club does beyond the scoreboard.

Um we hosted, which is not easy to do, um, Cayman Islands over here at Holiday Park, which you heard, um, which was, you know, we had to just gather and go, and we and we did it well.

Um, as well as two other festivals that we hosted at Mills Pond Park, um, with hundreds of kids playing rugby from across the state um in our city here.

So it was really cool.

Um, and then when we reciprocate in rugby its tradition, so we went down to the Cayman Islands.

So we got to represent Fort Lauderdale internationally for the kids' first time with more destinations to come in the future.

Um we look forward to growing that more international teams coming to Fort Lauderdale and more opportunities for our kids to represent our city abroad.

Um to get there, we'd love to work with the city on improving our facilities.

So Fort Lauderdale can truly be a destination for rugby in South Florida, but none of this happens without the support of Fort Lauderdale Parks and Recreation.

Um Garrett Smith, Tommy Hall, Nigel Doeling, Reese Hippolyte.

We couldn't have done it without you guys.

Um, a testament.

They've been great to work with.

I know it for them, it's like you know, putting the square peg in the round hole every day of the week.

Um but it's been great to work with them and accommodating them and giving these boys a place to compete.

It's been phenomenal.

Um, well, greatly for their partnership and their commitment to youth sports in our city.

Thank you.

Thank you, coach.

Go ahead, Paul.

Go over there with a fellow.

Thank you.

Now we're gonna hand out certificates to each of the boys and hopefully we got everyone here.

So Commissioner Beasley people will h hand them out as I speak.

Uh Bear.

Bear.

So uh what do you have?

How do you want to do that?

Yeah, bear.

Okay, raise your hand.

Come on up.

Adler.

Are you talking about it?

Sebastian.

We'll applaud the man.

Bentley.

Matthew.

Good one.

Good one?

Good one?

Okay.

Okay, we're going to one.

Come back, Matthew.

London.

There you go.

We're back running Logan.

David.

Come on.

Okay.

All good.

Not here.

We'll get it now.

Parker.

Aaron.

Jonah.

Tommy.

Not here, alright?

Matthew, good one.

Good.

Come on here, Jamie.

Tyler.

Anyone?

And Jackson.

Oh, everyone here.

And everyone's perfect.

Everyone's good.

Everyone got it?

We got the ones who are here.

Matthew, let's give it up for these trucks.

All right.

Fantastic.

Now I'll call Commissioner Glassman up to present to the boys and girls club.

Thank you.

Hey, rocking awesome.

Here we go.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Good evening, everyone.

This is a actually, I would like to have some people join me, please, at the podium.

Cameron Warwick, Director of Development, Marcus Thomas, Club Director from the Nan Knox Club.

Jasmine Brown, Club Director from the Leicester H.

White Club, if you're all here.

Two out of three?

That's not bad.

I'll take you about it first.

Gentlemen.

Thank you.

All right.

Okay, this is my pleasure to present this from the office of the mayor, City of Fort Lauderdale, a proclamation in recognition of Boys and Girls Club of Broward County.

Whereas the City of Fort Lauderdale proudly recognizes the Boys and Girls Clubs of Broward County for their unwavering dedication to helping young people reach their full potential as productive, caring, and responsible citizens.

Through its investment in young people, the organization strengthens our community and helps build a brighter future for generations to come.

And whereas, in 1965, a group of five community members came together to establish the Boys Club of Broward to serve boys in underserved neighborhoods in the Fort Lauderdale area.

Utilizing abandoned church buildings, they opened two clubs within the first two years.

Now the Lesser H.

White and Nan Knox Clubs.

And whereas in 1990, recognizing the need to provide girls with the same safe, supportive, and enriching after-school environment, the board expanded its mission by hiring additional staff, updating facilities, and enhancing programming.

This pivotal shift marked the transformation into the inclusive boys and girls clubs of Broward County, which continue to serve youth across the region.

And whereas for more than six decades, the boys and girls clubs of Broward County have served young people throughout Broward County, operating 11 clubs and five teen centers in Davy, Deerfield Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Lauder Hill, North Lauderdale, Pompano Beach, Sunrise, and West Park.

In Fort Lauderdale, that mission is carried out through the Harold Hackie Wrightman MD Club, Lester H.

White Club, Nan Knox Boys and Girls Club, and Fred DeLuca Teen Center, which provide local youth with educational, recreational, and leadership opportunities in safe and supportive environments.

And whereas the Boys and Girls Clubs of Broward County serve more than 12,000 young people between the ages of six and eighteen each year, providing programs focused on education, leadership, healthy lifestyle, citizenship, and personal growth.

Their impact is reflected in the success of their members, with 97% graduating from high school, 92% graduating on time, and 88% pursuing higher education.

And whereas National Boys and Girls Club Week, observed annually, celebrates the transformative impact of clubs across the country.

The boys and girls clubs of Broward County are part of a nationwide network of more than 5,400 clubs dedicated to providing safe, supportive spaces where young people can learn, grow, and thrive, empowering the next generation to reach their fullest potential.

Now, therefore, we, as City Commissioners of the City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to hereby proclaim June 22nd through 26, 2026, as National Boys and Girls Club Week in the City of Fort Lauderdale, and dated this the 16th day of June, 2026, and signed by our Mayor, the Honorable Dean J.

Trentalis.

Thank you all for having us.

My name is Cameron Ward, Director of Development and Corporate Relations for Boys and Girls Club with Broward.

I'm joined here by Mr.

Marquise Thompson, Club Director of our Nan Knox unit.

So Boys and Girls Club of Broward County is dedicated to doing whatever it takes to shape great futures.

We're home to 18 locations with four spaces right here in Fort Lauderdale, and we provide a place of safety and access for the youth of Broward, ages 6 through eighteen.

But we can't continue to do this without the support of our community and more importantly, the municipalities that govern them.

Nationally across the U.S., one in 19 people have been through the famous Blue Doors as Boys and Girls Club's kids.

That means that you very well know an alumni personally or pass one by every single day without even realizing it.

So when you support a boys and girls club, you're supporting future doctors, lawyers, city officials, teachers, athletes, businessmen, leaders, and peers.

So as you can see, America and Broward County need club kids.

And as we continue taking the steps to graduate our club kids from adolescents to young adults, providing the resources necessary for them to become productive citizens.

We are grateful for the recognition from the city of Fort Lauderdale to support our mission and growth.

We thank you and encourage you to visit our clubs and learn more about the impact we are creating each and every day.

I'll allow a couple minutes for Coach Marquise to say a few words.

Thank you.

Good evening, everyone.

Talk about the impact.

You're looking at the impact.

This is Marquise Thomas, one of the troubled kids from the Fort Lauderdale area in that same community, whereas the Boys and Girls Club was his sanctuary.

Going through many struggles in my life, being raised by grandparents, didn't have much, but one thing we had in our community was a boys and girls club.

From age 12, when I joined the boys and girls club, they gave me an opportunity.

They gave me hope.

They instilled in me that I will become somebody.

I had no choice.

Those were leaders in that building.

I've been through the struggle and still go through the struggle.

However, the boys and girls club has strengthened me so much to where now I'm the director of the same club I grew up in as a kid.

And I'm able to give back.

Thank you.

I'm able to give back to those youth every single day when I have orientation and I speak to them and I let them know the choice is yours.

Once you turn 18, there's a thing called life.

And it's my job and my responsibility and my staff is to prepare you for that once you leave these blue doors.

And like the proclamation says, we have grown doctors, lawyers, teachers, principals that has come through the Boys and Girls Club.

And they come back and they thank us for the work we've done.

And I thank each of you for always being a part of Boys and Girls Club and recognizing Boys and Girls Club and what we do, because it definitely changed lives because it changed mine.

Thank you again, and we love you all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Glassman.

Thank you, Boys and Girls Club, and Chris Genteel, who's a co-CEO of the Boys and Girls Club.

Is right there, Chris.

If you wave your hand, just thank you for all your work.

God, thank you for what you do.

I laughed.

Thank you so much.

Amazing testimony.

So now we're gonna move into our consent agenda.

So if you're here for a presentation, I know you might want to stay for the whole commission meeting.

You're welcome to do so.

It'll go for about three more hours, but if you'd like to leave now, that's okay.

We will not um uh hold that against you.

So thank you all for being here for the presentations.

Yeah, thank you.

Appreciate it.

Yeah, yeah.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

You're welcome.

You're welcome.

Welcome to having you on the guys.

Thank you guys.

Crowding guys, thank you.

Congratulations.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, guys.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

That's good.

Good job.

Sorry, good catching.

Cat like reflect.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, yeah, you got it.

Thank you, guys.

Appreciate it.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Fantastic.

So now we move on to the consent agenda.

The items under the consent agenda will be enacted by one motion.

Any item may be removed from the consent agenda and considered separately if a discussion is desired by any commissioner or charter officer.

So at this point, I will ask each commissioner if they have any items they'd like to pull from the consent agenda, and we'll discuss that separately.

Commissioner Herbst.

M1.

M1.

Fantastic.

Sorry, M1.

M1 is not in the consent.

Yeah.

So none?

No, in that case, none.

Let's just double check M1 Commissioner.

Let me just double check M1 to make sure.

Contract capacity for Hazen Sawyer.

Is that the 31 31 million?

Is that we want?

Okay.

So not on the consent agenda.

So we'll we'll address it.

That's all good.

Right after the consent.

Okay, so none for Commissioner Hertz.

Commissioner BZ Pittman.

CM7 and CM9.

Great.

CM7 and CM9.

Excellent, Commissioner Glassman.

None.

None.

Okay.

Then in terms of speaking, we have Gary Smith who signed up for CM 14.

And Gary, is that for qu before you get up?

Is that for questions or would you like to talk about it?

Fantastic.

So I'll pull CM14.

So we've got CM7, CM9, and CM14 will be pulled.

Okay, City Clerk.

Fantastic.

So now do I have a motion to approve all the consent agenda items with the exception of CM7, CM9, CM14.

So moved.

Is there a second?

It's been moved and seconded.

City clerk.

Call it all.

Commissioner Glossman?

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Sorensen?

Yes.

And Commissioner Herbst.

Yes.

Fantastic.

So all of those consent agenda items have been approved except for the three that have been called.

So now the ones that have been called, CM7, we will start with.

Commissioner Beeson Pittman.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

I pull CM7.

I am in full support of it.

But this is a program that is growing, and I wanted to um ask the um our chief fire chief to come up.

This program is amazing, and I just wanted to give a little extra light to it.

And it's also city manager.

Moving forward, I would like to add a um what is it?

Conference opportunity to talk about the um mobile integrated health program.

So if you could just share with us a little bit, Chief, what this is, so everyone in the room will understand the value of it.

Absolutely.

Good evening, Stephen Golan.

I'm your fire chief.

This is a collaborative effort between Broward Health and Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue.

Uh this rescue was obtained on state appropriations about a year and a half ago.

Um and Broward Health purchased it, outfitted it, put everything together.

And what this rescue will be uh utilized for is for providing services out into the community through the mobile integrated health system uh through opiate addiction uh funds that were received through the core grants and things of that nature.

We'll be able to take this rescue out and provide blood pressure checks, uh, care out in the community, and hopefully be able to navigate uh conversations with the community that prevent them from having to go to the yard, whether it's in just basic medicine or anything all the way to addictions, uh having those conversations before they're too late and curbing our call volume.

Thank you, Chief.

Absolutely, and most importantly, just once again, this would not have happened without the collaboration of Broward Health and the willingness for them to work with us to provide that health care all the way back to the homes.

Thank you.

Um Vice Mayor, uh again, I wanted to bring value to it.

With that, I move that we um we move to accept this item.

Excellent.

So motion's been made to approve CM7.

Is there a second?

Second.

Second, City Clerk, please call the roll.

Commissioner Glossman.

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Swanson?

Yes.

And Commissioner Herbst.

Yes.

CM 7 passes.

CM 9.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Um CM9, I request for it to be pulled.

I uh I love to give transparency to um opportunities um within District 3.

This is a a rebid suggestion for the Provident Park redesign.

Um, this redesign has been going on for a moment, and I wanted to give transparency.

So if we could have someone um come and give um clarity as to why we are moving in the direction of a rebid.

We have Vanessa Martin, our newly minted CRA manager.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Good afternoon.

So I wanted to shed some light on Providence Park.

So there are three components to Providence Park the design component, the artist component, and the construction component.

So the design component, we procured someone back a firm back in 2021.

However, that firm went out of business and only completed 90% of the design.

So we went through the procurement process again to procure a firm to complete the 10% of that uh design component.

Um so moving forward from that point on, we submitted a bid and um that we thought was reasonable because it was just to review the drawings and make sure that we um followed whatever zoning required.

However, the those bids came back um considerably high, um exceeding two hundred thousand dollars.

So this is why we're here to rebid that this contract.

Vanessa, um, could you share with us that original bid and you said it was 200,000 more?

Could you could um define those two um dollar amounts for the room?

Yeah, sure.

So we submitted a bid for two for $32,000, considering the fact that we did pay the original firm about 136,000.

So we estimated um based off of what needed to be done that it would only cost about $32,000.

However, the new firm suggested that they needed to review all of the artwork, all of the design and make their own assessments, hire their own subcontractors, so they just exceeded exactly more than we anticipated.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Thank you for that clarity.

Okay.

Um, Vice Mayor, with that being um shared, um, again, I wanted it for transparency.

If we could um I make the motion to reject the proposal um for and go into a rebid.

Excellent.

So you're making the motion to reject all proposals uh to request for qualifications, so you're you're moving that item forward.

Is there a second?

Vice Mayor, can I ask a question?

I'd like to get a second and then I have a question.

Thanks.

Sure.

Is there a second?

Okay.

Commissioner Herbs is second in it.

Commissioner Glassman.

Thanks, Vanessa.

Actually, if I could just follow up some of those questions because I know this is going to be a rebid, but when I read the uh when I read the CAM, I I see that the last sentence it says rejecting all proposals received in response to RFQ number 543-1 and utilizing the city's existing architectural continuing contract to perform the required services.

So if we already have an existing architectural uh services and we already have a contract in place, why is it necessary to rebid and add another firm to the pool?

If I may before Vanessa jumps in, just want to clarify that this was the rebid, and so we want to reject so there is no rebid.

We would like to utilize the pool of architects that we have and uh issue a task order.

Uh so the rebid in the title was for the uh the item.

We're saying that we don't want to accept any of the proposals received under the rebid.

So basically then that the motion has to change drastically, because the motion is calling for a rebid.

Okay.

So I'll I'll let we can deal with that, but so my question then is we're not going to do any additional rebidding on this, and we're not going to be adding to the pool.

So again, my original question is if we already had a city existing architectural continuing contract to perform these services, why was it necessary to add to the services, the pool of services?

So, Commissioner Glenn Mark was chief procurement officer.

The motion in front of you is a motion rejecting all proposals.

I understand.

It's not to rebid.

I understand that.

Um at the time we were exploring the possibility of rebidding, but since then, as the uh CAM indicates, we have identified a contract currently in place that we can use to have a firm render these services.

I understand.

Maybe it's my fault for not being clear.

Again, I read in the CAM that we already have these services provided.

We have a contract.

We have existing architectural services, correct?

That is correct.

So, what was the original intent to enlarge that pool?

And I'm saying, why did this happen in the first place?

Why didn't we just say, well, we already have these services?

Why did we find it necessary to add?

Why wasn't the original direction like we're fine, we don't need it anymore.

Why did we have the need to add to the pool of vendors for architectural services?

Great question.

That contract came after this item.

So that contract for architectural services was actually put in place after this item was rejected, or it's in front of you to be rejected.

Okay, so that contract for services came after this item went out.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

And we couldn't just pull it and just not move forward with it?

Um, as far as the the the current contract that we're looking into, um, well, that's exactly what we're gonna do.

We're gonna just um utilize the current firms under that contract to render the services.

Okay, so why did we have that?

Why did one come before the other when it should have been reversed?

But if we already knew that we had a contract, why did we continue down the path of trying to add to that pool?

So the item before you um happened before uh the the um current contract was awarded.

So the I the actual contract that we're gonna use for these services came afterwards, Commissioner.

Again, I understand that.

My question is why did we even bother if we already had that contract in place even though it came after?

Why do we bother to even go down the road of saying let's find another vendor to add to that pool?

Why did we why didn't we just stop and say, you know what?

We've got this contract now of architectural services, we don't need another company.

So the services that's um currently before you, it was for a firm to take on the work of a prior firm that went out of business.

So there was a risk involved, and so we wanted to put this out in order for firms to take on that risk.

So now, since the firm um said that they could, but then through negotiations, they came back and then stated that they were not going to be able to meet the thirty-two thousand dollar budget because they wanted to redo the whole entire work.

That was not the scope, Commissioner.

The scope was to take on the liability and take on the actual work of a prior firm, and so they're now trying to uh do the whole entire um scope all over again.

So if they if they came back with that price and thought it was way out of line, are we confident that whoever we have now under contract is able to do that work for whatever they were hired for for their services?

Commissioners, that's gonna be basis of negotiations.

We are gonna try our best to see if we can utilize that contract.

If it fails, then we're gonna have to do a rebid.

Okay, because this firm that we're rejecting, they came in at over 700% higher than we wanted to pay.

Correct.

So you're gonna have to work some magic with whoever's in our stable right now to make sure that they're gonna be able to do this.

Uh when one firm has already said they wanted seven hundred and thirty percent more, right?

Yeah, that is that is correct.

That firm is gonna have to agree to take on that liability.

If they do not, then we're gonna have to uh again rebid this thing out, and then we're gonna have to kind of face um you know, uh, you know, face the curtain here.

I mean, either they're gonna do the work, taking on the liability, or we're gonna have to have the firm redo the entire work all over again.

And so we're gonna have to find the money to have the f the firm perform the entire work, and that's gonna be probably within the same range that this firm came came under.

Okay, well, I wish you all the best.

I I appreciate it.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner.

So is there an amendment to the motion, city clerk?

I think it stands so the motion before you is just motion rejecting all the proposals.

So just a motion, just a simple motion.

So we've had a we've had a the motions been moved and seconded by Commissioner Glassman.

Commissioner Herbs.

No, seconded by Commissioner Herbs.

Okay.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman moved it, but it was but the motion was the motion included the word and go out to rebid.

We can't have that.

So it's minus minus going out to rebid, just rejecting the proposals.

Yeah, motions to reject.

Okay.

Thank you.

Motions to reject.

So I move that we is it is the amendment to the motion.

What are we saying here?

I don't hear three things right now.

A motion to reject the proposal.

All proposals.

All proposals.

That's it.

Okay.

Yeah.

I'll send it to you.

So again, great.

So motion's been made to reject all proposals.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Commissioner Herb seconded.

City clerk, call the roll.

Commissioner Glassman.

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Swordson?

Yes.

Commissioner Herbst.

Yes.

Alright, we did it.

That was good good work team.

All right.

Fantastic.

CM 14.

So this is a motion approving FY26, not for profit service agreement between the city of Fort Lauderdale and Fellowship Recovery, community organization.

Uh Rotary Connection as well, not to exceed $90,000.

So Gary Smith, if you want to come up, you have two minutes to speak.

The floor is yours.

All right, thank you, and uh good evening, Vice Mayor and Commissioners.

My name is Gary Smythe.

I am a co-founder and the executive director of Rotary Connection, a bus for our homeless that connects our riders to resources and reunification.

I'm here tonight to express my sincere gratitude for your investment in rotary connection and more importantly for your commitment to helping some of our community's most vulnerable residents.

Since launching less than a year ago, Rotary Connection has provided over 5,000 rides to individuals experiencing homelessness in our city with onboard resource navigators, and we've placed over 150 people in residential treatment and have reunified over 160 people just this week into cities like LA, Kansas City, Detroit, Atlanta, and today Fayetteville.

While the bus may be what people see, what makes this program successful is the partnership behind it, and this investment reflects a shared belief the practical, compassionate, and innovative solutions can make a real difference.

I'd like to extend on behalf of our team a thank you to Rachel Williams, Chris Cooper, Portia Garcia, Katrina Johnson, George Rushka, Carol Mitchell, Raquel Williams, Louisa Agathon, Erica Franceschi, Vicky Gargano, Jamal Walker, Jeanette Frey, Scott Wyman, and Zachary, Eekins Durand, who all work tirelessly behind the scenes to help us support this mission uh that we have before us tonight.

I'd also like to thank each member of this commission and Mayor Trentalis for your leadership for your confidence in our work and your willingness to support new approaches to addressing homelessness and improving quality of life in our city.

And a special shout out and thank you to Vice Mayor Sorensen and Commissioner Pamela Beasley Pittman for joining us on the bus for ride alongs.

We enjoyed you coming along to uh experience the uh the work that we're doing on the road.

On behalf of my co-founders, Rick Ricardi, Gwynn Beattie, and Pastor Ralph Ghiacetti and our parent organization, fellowship recovery community organization, and the Rotary Club of Fort Lauderdale, plus our staff, volunteers, partners, and thousands of individuals we have served.

Thank you for your support, your partnership, and your belief in Rotary Connection.

Great.

Thank you very much, Gary.

Appreciate it.

Um thank you for rotary and all your work on this, and Rick is here, Rick.

If you just wave your hand, thank you and go on.

Thank you for your work as well.

If you haven't heard of Rotary Connection, it this is a brain child of Rotary Fort Lauderdale that identified a need in our community to get those who are experiencing homelessness to the service providers that support them.

It is amazing, amazing initiative that's working incredibly well.

So it's fantastic.

I just uh I'm so grateful.

We as a city commission and the city of Fort Lauder supporting it.

Also, Fellowship Recovery, who's here does amazing work to help those experiencing addiction and in recovery to help them get back on their feet in amazing ways.

I've been there, I've seen the work.

Thank you for your work.

Please keep it up, and we're so grateful to partner.

So thank you.

I just want to give you all a hand.

Um city attorney question for you, city attorney.

Am I able, as chairing the meeting, am I able to make seconds?

You would have to pass the question.

That's passed for okay.

Great.

Okay, so is there a motion to approve CM 14?

So moved.

Is there a second?

Great.

CM 14 has been moved and seconded.

City clerk, please call the roll.

Commissioner Glossman.

Yes, Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Yes, Vice Mayor Soren.

Yes, Commissioner Herbst.

Yes.

Fantastic.

CM 14 is passed.

That concludes our consent agenda item.

So if you were on the consent agenda and I've you are free to leave if you like.

Also, welcome to stay.

Um, now what I'd like to do is I'd like to pause our city commission meeting to finish our city commission conference meeting.

So this was an earlier meeting that we were participating in.

And so we're going to um we are going to pause our city commission meeting, and we're going to go back to our city commission conference meeting.

So we'll start that back to our city commission conference meeting.

So where we left off there, we had covered a lot of great ground.

We're now on the city commissioners' reports.

So what we do is allow each commissioner to uh share any policy questions, issues, and so forth.

Commissioner Herbst, start with you.

None from Commissioner Herbst.

Thank you.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Yes, thank you, Vice Mayor.

Um, thank you for the time.

It's been very um productive the last couple weeks.

Um, a lot is going on in our city, and um I'm grateful to be a part of what is transpiring.

Um, on Thursday, June 4th, I attended the Broward Leagues of Cities board meeting.

Um, it was a great meeting.

Um, I'm thankful for my commission, the commissioner and our um partners that sit here with me that elected me to be a representative for our city.

Um, our special discussion was the impact on the um on Brow municipalities regarding the property tax reform.

So we talked about that a little earlier.

Um, I asked the question about um how are we as elected officials affected about how we can educate versus advocate or um talk about that subject overall.

So we talked about that earlier, but it was a great uh meeting, and um again, thank you for allowing me to be the representative for our city.

I want to tell us about um the group violence intervention um program that we have here in the city of Fort Lauderdale.

This is a um program that I am really excited about.

I am also a champion for it.

It is a data-driven um reduction strategy addressing balance in our city.

It's through our police department, and um I am just so honored that when I started this um opportunity to be the city commissioner for District three.

I was able to have conversations with our PD, giving them the concerns and um talking to them about things I would like to see us go in a direction for change.

And they were welcoming, they began to do dilig do due diligence to find opportunities where we could address this matter overall, not only for district three, but for the city as well.

This program is not considered community policing.

It's actually a focus on deterrence.

Right now, it is it's it's Genesis started in district three, but the initiative is for the citywide.

And what it allows for is our neighbors, stakeholders, um concerned individuals, our neighbors who uh recognize this things that are going on, and they are becoming ambassadors where they're speaking with our young people, young people speaking with the ambassadors, given an opportunity to make a change in our city.

Um, some great things are going on.

We officially kicked this off in May of this year.

I'm sorry, February of this year, but this this month of June, PD has really taken off with the opportunity.

Thank you to our police department that's in the house.

Thank you so much for what you're doing.

Um we have had on um we had a field day at Oswald Park.

That was on Saturday, um, June 6th.

This last um Saturday, June 13th, we had a block takeover, and that was at Northwest 8th Street and 10th Terrace.

And this coming, um, the next event rather is Saturday, June 27th.

It is a peace walk that's gonna start at Northwest Ninth Avenue and end at Lincoln Park, which is at Northwest 19th Avenue.

I'm sharing this because again, this is a citywide initiative.

I'm inviting all of us to be a part of the change.

You want to see a change in the city, you have to step up and be a part of it.

Please, this information is on our city web pages.

Find out about the information.

And if you don't remember anything else, you know who I am.

Look on my page.

I want to see you out there because this is not a district three solo item.

This is a situation that we need to face as a city.

So that's an invitation to all of us.

Um, also, I'd like to take this opportunity to applaud our explorers, the police academy explores post number 1160.

They had a graduation last week, and it was I wasn't able to be there, but I've been watching these young people since I took this position, and the leadership that they have grown into, um, the program is amazing.

If you haven't heard about our explorers, we need to find out about it.

And then I'm gonna take a little pause.

The fire department, we have an explore program as well with the fire department.

When I tell you, our city is reaching out and putting hands on our young people.

I am so excited about this.

Because if you're like me, you know, I'm not gonna tell my age tonight, I have told it before, but if you are like me, you want to make sure that 10-20 years from now that your future is secure, and when I tell you we have some young people who are stepping up to make sure that be proud of the products that's coming through the city of Fort Lauderdale.

Um, I believe that ends my report, Vice Mayor.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Beasley Bitman.

Appreciate it.

Commissioner Glassman.

Yes, thank you, Vice Mayor.

Um busy couple of weeks for District 2 and the city, as Commissioner Beasley Pittman said.

Um June 5th.

I had the pleasure of attending with about a thousand of my best friends, the Port Everglades Association Economic Engine Report and luncheon at the at the convention center.

And I will tell you, I attend this every year because I just find it fascinating to listen to the data and to listen to what is happening in and around our city.

Uh obviously, strong, strong report.

Uh the present looks great, the future looks great.

There are many places in the nation that are envious of what's happening in terms of our own economy, and the economic engine report for our airport and seaport uh is very, very, very strong.

Uh, June 6th, I had the pleasure of joining the Dolphin Democratic Club.

That is the oldest LGBTQ Democratic Club in the state of Florida.

They celebrated their 44th anniversary.

Uh very spirited evening, uh, great speeches, uh, and a really uh a really good feeling uh in that room.

Congratulations to that organization for that.

June 9th, attended the Marine Industries annual meeting and luncheon.

Uh I believe Vice Mayor and Commissioner Beasley Pittman, you were there as well.

Right in this room.

Uh, this room was transformed into a beautiful setting.

Uh city manager, if we can have that kind of dinner service here for uh whenever we have our meetings in this room, that would be tremendous.

I mean, they really transformed this space, didn't they?

That's great.

It was wonderful.

City manager, I know you were there, so I'm just throwing that out.

Maybe on, you know, we can have our dinner break right in here.

We got budget cuts.

Budget cuts, I forgot.

Yes, we do have budget cuts.

We have a lot, a lot of challenges.

Uh I wasn't really serious, but thank you anyway.

There you go.

Uh June 11th.

Um, as everyone knows, right down the street.

We're working on uh working on our Himeshi Historic District.

We have a three-prong attack.

Uh one is the tactical urbanism, the streetscape beautification program, one is the ordinance for redevelopment of the street, and then one is also how we are dealing with the decertification of the entertainment district and the new rules that we were putting in place.

Uh so on June 11th, I did attend the Himishry Street Tactical Urbanism and Street Beautification.

Uh at the New River Inn.

I want to thank staff for that.

Uh again, these are wonderful meetings.

We've done so much public outreach, so much received so much input uh from all of the stakeholders.

So that was an excellent meeting.

That evening I also went over to ArtServe and participated in the e-bikes ordinance with Vice Mayor.

Again, another issue facing our quality of life and how we are going to control the e-bikes in our city.

Uh June 15th.

Uh again, um, dealing with the Him Street uh Hemistry Street corridor.

Uh we just had last night the special entertainment district meeting uh over in the Marine Industries building, lots of excellent discussion.

Uh dialogue was a little heated at times, but that's okay.

Uh staff again has done a great job.

This has been about a three-year process gathering input, refining what's going to eventually come back to the commission.

And I have an ask of city manager and of the commission.

Uh staff has been doing a great job, and I commend staff for putting this all together.

Uh, but the conversation hasn't quite ended.

And I know that we said that we wanted to come back on July 2nd, our last meeting before our break uh and get that ordinance going.

But I I'm going to advise that we just take a little more time.

Again, so many more ideas were floated, so many more solutions were floated.

Uh the input is still continuing.

So I'm going to say that I really think that we should let this digest a little bit.

Uh staff can listen to it a little bit more, figure it out.

I don't want a rushed ordinance on July 2nd.

I want an excellent ordinance when it comes to us.

So I'm going to ask that maybe we look at after the break for this.

It's not that much longer, but it gives staff a little bit more time, I believe, to put this all together.

So instead of July 2nd, I would certainly recommend uh August 18th when we come back or the meeting after that.

I just think it would behoove us all to take that little bit of extra time and do it right as opposed to rushing it to July 2nd and then having everybody disagree with everything.

So that's just my ask on that.

Let's pause there, Commissioner.

Um I'm supportive of that, but let's just see if that's the commission uh Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Is that yes?

I'm in favor of pausing and taking notes.

Taking an extra time.

August 18th, I think he said Commissioner Herbst.

Fine.

Okay.

City manager.

We will do so.

Okay.

Great.

Okay.

Thank you to my colleagues for that.

Thank you to staff, and hopefully that'll give us a little bit more time to get it right.

Uh June 17th through 20th coming up.

Um, we actually have the Speedo Summer Classic at the Fort Laurel Aquatic Center.

Uh, lots of top athletes.

I still have to decide which color I'm going to choose, uh, but I'll figure it out in time for June 17th, which is I think just tomorrow.

Uh another great venue, another amazing venue in our city that's attracting uh top top notch swimmers and divers from around uh the country and even outside uh of the country.

Uh June 19th, um I will be uh having the pleasure of speaking at the Broward Workshop.

Uh I'm looking forward to that.

Uh and we'll be talking about a lot of issues facing our city.

These are top businesses in our city that gather, uh, and I'm looking forward to being with them.

Uh also that night, um, for those of you that don't know, the Starlight Musical Series has reconvened.

Uh that is in Holiday park in District 2 through August 14th.

Great concerts.

Uh this Friday will be the uh Rockabelli Kings, and uh great crowds show up for that.

So happy to see that series uh continue again every summer.

People really seem to enjoy it a lot.

Uh Sunday, June 21, uh Make Music FTL at the Tunnel Top Park.

Uh, that's Sunday, the 21st and Sunday between 2 and 6 p.m.

Uh also want to make mention on June 25th.

I will be convening our last District 2 President's Round Table where the presidents uh of all of our 24 neighborhood associations in District 2 are invited to gather.

We'll be doing this one in person.

That will be our last one before the summer recess.

Um I just have uh something I wanted to mention because I've been thinking about this.

We've been talking about cuts a lot.

We've been talking about having to face the challenges that we might have if the voters decide to pass the uh the ballot uh item in November on the property tax reform.

And it got me thinking, and I know this is going to be coming up to us again.

We've been having a lot of discussion of City Hall and New City Hall versus retrofitting older buildings in the city.

And it it made me think about the way we're going about this, and I just want everyone to think about it before the next time we have this conversation.

But you know, we went with a team, there were actually six teams that ponied up $25,000 to participate in that process.

We asked four to actually make presentations.

They all had skin in the game, they all paid $25,000.

They all had a lot of extensive uh meetings, they all had incredible presentations.

Uh, they all had really excellent teams here uh in front of us.

Um and they went through that process.

Um and then all of a sudden now we're facing a situation where owners of older buildings have approached us to to buy their properties, uh, and we as a city have not made them have any skin in the game.

They did not contribute $25,000.

Uh in fact, we are spending $500,000 as a city to do appraisals on their buildings to actually have uh reports, engineering reports on their buildings.

These are not even invasive reports, these are non-invasive engineering reports that we're doing, and we're taking on the entire expense.

So I'd just like us all to think about why is it that we didn't ask those owners of those buildings that approached us with selling their buildings to us?

Why aren't they paying for the appraisals?

Why aren't they paying for the engineering reports that we're going through?

You don't have to answer me now, but I just wanted everyone to think about it because it just didn't seem fair to me that we're elevating the owners of those buildings and those older structures, 25, 35, 40-year-old buildings, um, to a point where they're on an even keel now, almost with a team that we selected after a long process that we made everyone go through an arduous process.

So I'm just I'm just throwing that out there.

Um in fact, I don't know if you saw, but today at the county level, they actually rejected the idea of going into Dania Beach to buy the Spirit Airlines buildings because they said they didn't have enough information.

They were afraid of going down a rabbit hole of expenses in retrofitting that building to meet the needs of the county commission.

Some of the topics that we've already talked about.

I will also remind you that the proposals that they had with that building ranged between 415 and 500 million dollars, and they've rejected that because again they didn't know how much they might have to spend going down that rabbit hole of uh not knowing what was going to happen if they started ripping and tearing.

Uh but so they're staying with their proposal, and I believe their proposal on West Broward Boulevard in our city, they're looking at an expense of $663 million, so we're way under that.

Uh and yet they're at $663 million.

I think we're gonna be able to come in uh under $200 or right around $200 million for our building, uh, which is just so you know is very much in line with Pompano Beach spending, Sunrise spending, Oakland Park spending uh per square feet per capita of those cities.

Uh they all managed to build a new city hall.

Um I think we can do the same.

So uh that's it for me.

I just wanted to mention those notes.

Let's think about though why we didn't put any of the onus on those buildings that came to us to sell their buildings.

Why are we footing the bill for those appraisals and for those engineering reports?

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

So, like last one, can I weigh in on that?

Go ahead, Commissioner.

I I think that's a great idea.

I think we should absolutely ask them because the one proposal that we had that involved the sale of a building was for the Kaplan building, and they actually did pony up and put skin in the game.

They they did submit.

So I think you're absolutely right.

I think we should ask these other folks to do the same thing.

We should get a $25,000 minimum check out of them as well.

I don't see any reason why we should treat them differently.

Great.

Yeah, I'm I'm fine with that as well.

So Commissioner Beasley.

With the process that we are now, we can ask.

We can ask at this point.

Okay.

You know, we say no, but you need to ask.

Great.

City manager, that that you okay to make that ask?

We will make the ask.

So who would that be of just so we're clear?

It'd be 101 tower.

One East Broward.

And not the Broward County Courthouse.

GSA is not.

GSA is going to say we have to pay them.

Good point.

Well, also because they didn't approach us, we just threw them in the mix.

The other two buildings approached us with proposals.

I think they should also pay for their own appraisals and the engineering reports, but that's just me.

No, I I I think you're absolutely right.

I think we need to treat everybody uniformly and fairly.

I there's no reason why we shouldn't be asking them as well.

And one of the things I learned in sales is the only sale you don't get is the one you don't ask for.

There you go.

Agreed.

Okay, we're facing tough times and budget constraints, and all of a sudden we're taking on $500,000 to help them.

I don't I don't understand.

Thanks.

Great.

Thank you.

Yeah.

So city manager, you'll make the $25,000 ask.

Great.

You will do so before July 2nd.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

And actually, that brings up um and are you done, Commissioner?

Yes, I am.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, so I'll go to my uh comments.

Um I didn't have a chance earlier to bring this up, but when we were talking about City Hall and what we're gonna do, um, in terms of we were talking about funding mechanisms and so forth, Commissioner Herbst, you brought up this couple times of bonding possibility for city hall, right?

If that if I have the right and can you mention that again or what type of bonding is your thing?

I I would love to, and we we may still have an opportunity to do this.

I don't know.

Uh I'll look at my city attorney.

But so, yeah, so one one last time for the record.

Um, if we were to put this out for a general obligation bond uh on a referendum for a vote in November, it would become voted debt service, and it would be I'll use this term loosely, grandfathered in if there's any tax reform that is approved as it relates to uh ad valorum taxes.

So it would be off the table for for purposes of that.

So I think it would behoove us to move in that direction and put in a voted debt service option.

Now, if it is turned down by the voters, that doesn't mean we can't move forward with the project.

It simply means that we have to have an alternative funding source.

And I'll give you a historical precedent for this.

You may remember when the county went forward with the GO bond for the county courthouse, it was rejected by the taxpayers, and they used a different funding mechanism for the special obligation bond that they did for that.

So one does not necessarily preclude the other, but if it is passed by the taxpayers, then we have a protected source of funds for debt service that will not be impacted by property tax reform.

So I still think if we can get this on the ballot for November, it would be in our best interest.

Okay, thank you, Commissioner Herbs.

City attorney, city manager timing.

Is that a possibility?

Um we'll have to look into that.

I'll I'll work with David on that.

There's some concerns because, of course, the the one date has passed for our submission, but I'll talk to David and we'll see what we can do.

And I'm assuming that's a supervisor of election question engagement.

Yeah, okay.

Is there interest for the that to be considered?

Um I just I have a concern.

I just want to know, let's go back to the first unsolicited proposal, um, and then we receive five others.

Uh did it have to be a part of that conversation at all, or did it have to be a part of any kind of term sheet since we've moved forward, or now that we're almost ready to look at an IA?

I mean, are any of those considerations or issues when it comes to then all of a sudden looking at the bonding?

I think in all the documentation that we put out as it relates to the city hall project, I think it gave the city a lot of flexibility in terms of how the project could be funded.

Uh at this time we have been exploring uh special obligation bonds, not general obligation bonds, but that would not preclude us from going in another direction if that was the will of the commission, but there's nothing in the unsolicited proposal process that uh bound the city to a certain financing structure or mechanism.

And city attorney, you don't see any issue with that with that at all, either going forward and what we've done to this point with the team that we've selected in terms of moving forward.

Commissioner, an overarching issue will be whether we could even do this with the time we have.

I understand.

Okay, so let's take it one step at a time.

Okay, thank you.

Right now I'm not inclined to say yes to that.

I think it's gonna make things complicated, but I'm I'm willing to hear what what they come up with.

Thank you.

Okay, great.

Commissioner Beasley Benman.

Okay, move forward with that.

Okay, great.

So city manager, city attorney, is that sufficient guidance?

I I think it would probably start with David reaching out to the supervisor of elections.

Yeah, I can reach out to them.

I guess the one issue would be is if we have to do an ordinance uh we only have July 2nd, and then by the time we come back, it would be past the time for final submittal.

So we might need a special meeting.

Yeah, we could call special information.

But I I I'll reach out to them and ask them the question.

And David, my only thinking is we already have a number of items that are going to be on for referendum.

This is simply one more item in a list of other items.

We've got charter referendums, we've got a special election.

It's hopefully just one more line item, and I and and I would I hate to presuppose what the supervisor of elections will do, but perhaps he will not be too upset if we just want to slide one more line into it because he's not printing the ballots until after the August elections, anyway.

Right.

So we have to have August, we have to have the August primaries, and then he prints up the ballots for November.

So in terms of the actual printing and mailing, it doesn't preclude him from being able to include any additional language.

So hopefully he won't see that as a as a complicating factor.

But I don't want to speak for the supervised relations.

But also this would require three of us to say yes at two readings, correct?

Correct.

Gotcha.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you, City Clerk.

Fantastic.

Um Commissioner Beasley Pimman, I know you mentioned you want to share a little bit more about Juneteenth, uh, just activities.

If you um making the announcement that on June 20th, um we as a city we are celebrating Juneteenth.

The event will be at Carter Park.

It is from 5 to 8 p.m.

Again, this is an invitation, a celebration, an opportunity for the city overall.

I look forward to seeing everyone there.

Thank you.

Great, thank you.

Um this this last couple weeks I've I've gotten a lot of emails uh from residents about our city commission code of conduct.

I don't know if it's just me, but I got a lot of those.

The city commission code of conduct is something we all signed um when we uh enter into office, and just some of the feedback I got was pertaining to um comments about uh the Commissioner Glassman you made about um bad upbringing, Ted, really bad upbringing, and so the concerns that many residents were emailing me about is where the uh code of conduct says I will refrain I, as a city commissioner or vice mayor, mayor will refrain from inappropriate language, including statements that are malicious, threatening, slanderous, or disparaging, and then says I pledge to be fair, honest, and respectful to others.

So I just I I want to bring that up for discussion and uh how we can, you know, best communicate with respect and dignity to all residents, even when we disagree.

So just want to open that up for any discussion or comments or thoughts around that.

I think you should not clutch your pearl so tight to your neck over this issue.

Uh I will tell you that um I I don't even believe you're gonna go there because go right ahead.

You want to be a doormat.

I will tell you that respect and decorum is a two-way street.

That's all I'm gonna say.

You want to defend the people that malign you personally every day on social media, you go right ahead because I know what you're doing right now.

And that's okay.

So you bring up whatever you want to bring up but you know what if you're going to open that door right now vice mayor you're going to open that door because I have plenty of things that I could say about your behavior, your staff's behavior, the eavesdropping on other people in our office coming from your office, but I never go there.

But you're opening this door because of your own ambition.

And I say that's really a shame.

That's all I'm going to say on this one.

But I'm just going to tell you that respect and decorum is a two-way street.

And if we don't get it and I the people that are writing to you you make it sound like it's the whole world.

I know exactly who's writing to you the same ten people that come to the commission meetings and criticize us for every single thing the same ten people that write on next door that write on wherever their social media thing is and criticize you and me and the mayor for every single thing that you can think of and a lot of it is very malicious.

So let's let's talk about a code of conduct from even the public side you know I I think that a lot of that was taken out of context if someone's going to be rude to me while I'm speaking here and trying to make a point I'm going to stop and say you're being rude.

That's it.

If you're having a problem with that or you want to listen to those 10 people that are in your head now rent free you go right ahead and do that but I take exception to even bringing it up because you know what we have serious issues that are facing our city right now.

We deal with such serious issues such serious business we have so many challenges ahead of us and for you to focus on this right now in your commission report that's just a shame you want to create this tension now you want to make this an issue now you go right ahead you go rewrite that code of conduct city attorney was the code of conduct violated did I violate the city code of conduct commissioner that that's not for this office to determine okay thank you great I can continue but I'm not going to because I want to get to the city's business important business that we have on the agenda I'm not going to deal in that gossip and that that constant negativity that you seem to be lured into right now vice mayor but you go right ahead and you continue as much as you want.

If I can say something um coming um well let me back up a little bit when I attended the National League of Cities um the overall tone for the city um for the conference was decorum being civil and they suggested that um cities across the United States do a proclamation declaring how they would operate and being civil I I'm I'm putting this out because there is a proclamation that's waiting coming after we come back from the um break.

So the proclamation that I suggested had nothing to do with anything that has transpired before this this proclamation is coming.

So I'm putting this out here to say when it comes out it's not connected to a conversation that we're having today.

Okay I want to be transparent it was it was slated to be given um last meeting but it was so packed with proclamations they asked if I would wait until another opportunity so I'm putting it out there you know what's going on and even if you think back at one point I asked that we even as a commission would read our um statement at the beginning of um each meeting because we have a statement here that says that we will um operate in a place where we are operating in the quorum and being civil with one another and also with our neighbors so I'm saying this to say this.

When it comes out it's not an attack on anything that's being said right now and I just want to put that on the table okay but it is coming.

You know and I'm going to add to that and I think I welcome that I think we should all welcome that you know I'll tell you Vice Mayor also just to the people that you're listening to all the time now, it seems.

Um, you know, it's interesting.

And Commissioner Herbst, forgive me for mentioning you in this instance, but uh Commissioner Herbst is known to once in a while lose his temper and patience with people in the audience.

Yes, okay.

Oh, it is so.

I I I saw you doing I saw you doing a commission meeting.

You went after plenary, which is part of the team that's building our city hall, and you called them loan sharks, I think.

Now, to your credit, I think you did apologize at the end of the meeting, but I've seen you go, I've seen you go a little hard sometimes at people.

But interestingly enough, Vice Mayor, the people you're hearing from now that are so upset with me.

Guess what?

Have they ever written to you or complained about when Commissioner Herbst goes after people in the audience?

I would say no.

And you know what that proves to me, and should have it proved to you, it's really not about the issue of being nasty to people or not respectful.

It's really about the personalities.

Because those people that are in your head now, they like Commissioner Herbst.

They don't like Commissioner Glassman.

And you know, that's life.

But again, he's a lovable guy.

He's a very lovable guy.

But I'm I'm using this to prove my point, Vice Mayor.

I hope you're listening, because you should have thought about it, and you should have thought about all the instances where we've seen that kind of maybe even yelling or screaming or or condescension from Commissioner Herbst.

Again, he's a lovable guy, but I have seen him go after residents.

I have seen him go after people that are coming to us to do business with us.

I've seen him go after everybody.

And yet, so interestingly enough, the names of the people that have written to you, Vice Mayor, I can name you those names of those people.

You see them every day in social media bashing you, bashing me.

But unlike you, I'm not a doormat, so I'm not gonna take it.

And yet, yet they've never written about or written in a letter to the editor about Commissioner Herbst, have they?

Or the editorial board of the Sun Sentinel has never written about that conduct.

But if I look at somebody the wrong way, oh boy, they're gonna like just like crucify me.

So I'm just bringing that point up to you again.

Sorry, Commissioner Herbst, to use you as an example.

Um, but again, because you are a lovable guy, I knew you wouldn't mind.

Thank you.

I take no offense, Commissioner Ryan.

Thank you, Commissioner Glassman.

Uh I believe in treating everyone with respect, even when someone is not respectful towards us.

Yes, we all do.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

I'm glad you do.

Keep moving with the report.

And I will continue to do that, and I'll continue to, you know, ask that we all do the best we can to hold everyone with respect and dignity as they engage here.

Every day.

Um, I think it's very important.

Very important.

Great.

It's fantastic.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Appreciate that.

All right, good.

Well, that's can I continue to be disrespectful?

You're f you're free to be you, and uh I will uh happy to agree as we all do to the code of conduct, and being kind.

Marines have their own code of conduct.

Very nice.

Um excellent.

Next up wanted to touch on joint workshops.

So this was this came up this morning in terms of timing for joint workshops.

So what now that we move the city conference meeting back to one, what time would our joint workshops start?

I I think we've addressed each joint workshop a little bit differently, and so I think as early as 11 would be okay with staff, but we work at your pleasure, so whatever the commission would desire to do, that would be fine.

Vice Mayor, so I think when the county does this, they start some of these at like nine o'clock in the morning.

I would suggest that if we want to take on something that is as weighty as a budget, we either do one of two things.

I would much prefer to have seen the budget as a standalone meeting on its own day and set aside a day for that.

I I think we did a disservice to the budget advisory board as well as to ourselves and staff and and to the general public.

Um not intentionally.

Um, no, nothing to fairies intended here.

But I would either say we start at nine in the morning, so we can afford uh, you know, uh a proper amount of time for it, or we do it on a on a separate day where we focus on one issue for one day.

So that would be my recommendation.

Okay.

Great, thank you.

Commissioner Beasley Pedman, any thoughts on timing for joint?

Um, just thinking about we've we talked about this earlier.

We were saying, um, and I'm thinking I'm familiar with um our meetings, those workshops being like 11:30 a.m., a little bit more of a opportunity that timeline window.

But what Herbst is suggesting the one the day stand along separate opportunity, I think will be more beneficial.

You're focused on that one item, and we don't end up in a fatigue when we go through the remainder of the day, because it's adding on to our focus for that meeting day.

So a standalone meeting is something I would support.

Okay.

Great Commissioner Glassman.

I think whatever works as long as we're just honest about the time so people don't sit here and wait, and you know, I just think that we should just figure out if we need to do it 11:30, 12 o'clock.

We should be able to figure out what time it can start so everyone knows what time we're starting.

That's all.

Okay.

City manager thoughts on that.

Just want to get clarification.

Would that be specific to budget related workshops?

I know sometimes we have other types of workshops, for example, the affordable housing advisory committee.

So is it a case-by-case situation, or is it specific to the my suggestion is we do it on a case-by-case basis and we decide that when we're setting up a workshop.

So I think that should be a policy decision, because I think we are going to have a fairly good idea of what is going to be topical for us and what we think we're going to want to delve into deeply.

There are going to be some things where I think we can wrap it up in half an hour to 45 minutes, and there's other things where I'm thinking we're going to plan, you know, uh half a day on it.

So, but I think you know, I'd rather not put that on, I'd rather not put that burden on your shoulders to try and figure out what I'm gonna want to do.

Um we have enough difficulty trying to figure out ourselves.

Great, I think that makes sense.

So, in other words, city manager, if we can just talk in advance before it's a joint workshop is scheduled, we can talk about the amount of time we think it could take, and then setting that time accordingly.

We can do that.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Um, next topic is P cards.

So there's been a lot of discussion about purchasing cards.

Um, so city manager, I'd appreciate if you could give us a little bit of an update of P Cards, the city auditor has done an audit on them and some of the activity of you know, again, when did that activity happen?

What are you now doing about it?

And what I'd like to hear is the commission kind of engage a little bit on that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

So the PCARD audit that was conducted by our internal auditor, uh, covered activity in 2023 and 2024.

And since the audit was presented at uh the May Commission meeting, and even before that, uh staff has taken several steps to try to improve the PCARD program.

I take the audit very seriously.

I think that it highlighted a lot of weaknesses and deficiencies in the PCARD program.

I think those weaknesses are a result of many years of uh lax management culture that has been developed and that we are striving to course correct on.

So we've taken multiple steps.

I've outlined them in the June 11th uh letter to the commission, but I could share more uh at this time.

Uh, as you are aware, several residents have been calling me to uh express their concerns, and I share in their frustrations, and I've uh talked to them individually about the things that we're doing now to ensure that this program uh meets the level of uh professionalism that I think our organization deserves.

And so, in expressing those thoughts with residents, many have been very supportive of the work that we're doing now and want to see the city move in an even more positive direction.

Uh so we now have digital statements uh from the bank.

That's something that we didn't always have before.

So the timeliness of getting those statements uh has improved uh since January.

We are now requiring a receipt to close transactions, and we actually started that in March of 2025, just a month prior to my arrival.

But things that have happened since my tenure as city manager, we've increased training and monitoring uh with the upcoming training course in August of this year.

We had two prior last fall.

The finance department is now doing monthly audits with a sampling of PCARD transactions that's starting in June of this year.

We're updating our policy and procedure for the PCARD program.

We are also reducing the number of P Card holders that we have in the city.

We have about 320 as of the time of the audit.

By July of this year, we will reduce that number by a minimum of 25%.

We've already deactivated 35 P cards across multiple departments.

We are going to reduce the monthly and daily limits for P card purchases, and that varies from employee to employee depending on the level of management.

We are also removing the ability to modify information once it is posted.

Department directors are now being notified on a monthly basis of any transactions by P card holders in their departments.

We have more PCARD analytics and monitoring software for real-time fraud detection.

We are implementing a procedure for updating disposal and property control procedures.

A lot of the weaknesses in our PCARD program that had been identified in the most recent audit, some of those things were identified in a 2019 audit.

And so to see that our organization has not been able to correct some of these weaknesses in this period of time is really disturbing and quite alarming.

I think accountability has been more of an uncommon word in the P Card program vernacular, and I would like to ensure that that's what we're promoting.

I think culpability rests with many P Card holders and supervisors and department directors.

Even recent activities demonstrate that.

So I'm happy to give more frequent updates on the PCARD program and what we're doing to make improvements.

So we're really trying to shift the culture to enhance our accountability, responsibility, professionalism, our transparency, and I want nothing more than to maintain the public's trust, and I hope that I have the commission's support in holding our staff accountable and to make the changes that we need, make the investments that we need to ensure that our programs are running effectively.

So thanks for the opportunity for sharing that.

It's very top of mind.

I'm still getting phone calls, and so I definitely am understanding the concerns of the residents even more, but again, once I share with them all the things that we're doing, there I think is a new level of respect for the changes that we're trying to make from an administrative and management perspective, and I really appreciate that opportunity to engage at that level.

Okay, thank you.

I mean those sound like reasonable steps.

What penalties are being enforced for those who have not used P cards responsibly?

So we have implemented some suspensions, unpaid suspensions for a number of members of the team related to this, but I have to tell you that within every single department, there are gaps and weaknesses.

And so I need to balance the years' worth of mismanagement with the needs of today and maintaining an organization that is moving forward in a positive direction.

So those uh suspensions are limited, but not indicative of my feelings about the way this program has been managed.

And quite frankly, I am probably not done yet with the level of due diligence on uh this matter.

Uh I'm still learning things about uh some of the details, and so I I think I will continuously uh look for opportunities for growth and improvement, and I am still learning about some things as we go along.

Okay, thank you.

And I just want to I just think it'd be helpful to just check in with each of us.

So, Commissioner Herbst, any feedback on that and steps taken or things we should do differently.

Uh Rickel and I have had, as you may imagine, a lot of lengthy conversations, particularly since I did the 2019 audit.

So she's benefited, I think, uh from a lot of my feedback and input, and I'm glad to see it sounds like she's taking it to heart.

So thank you.

Okay, good commissioner visa pitman.

Yes, thank you.

Um, City Manager, um, thank you for um giving us that detail um summary of what you have accomplished and how you've been interacting with our neighbors, employees, all of us overall.

Thank you for this transparency, and um I appreciate the fact that you are even bringing to the forefront that when these artists took place and um the date of them and what has happened under your tenure, because I believe a majority of the people did not realize the timeline of what has transpired and that um this wasn't necessarily under your tenure, so with you stepping up and you know revealing the transparency, because it could have been something where we still may not have known about, but your actions is also along with our auditor, making sure that we are aware of what's going on.

So I um thank you for your your boldness because we have to be bold in what we're doing, being accountable, and I I love this term you said a new era of accountability, and that means much to me because transparency is where we need to be and what we how we should operate.

So thank you for what you're sharing, and um I look forward to a culture that is transparent.

So thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Glassman.

Yes, thank you.

Um all good.

I I agree with what I'm hearing.

I again want to mention what I mentioned when the auditor gave his report to us that uh we just seem to have taken too long between these kind of audits.

I mean, three, four years, and even this one that we're responding to now only went up to what January 2025, I think, or something like that.

December 2024.

Close enough, but yeah, December 2024.

So I'm just saying that we need to be on top of this just a little bit more often uh and not let those lengthy periods of time uh happen in between the audits.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And city manager, so the audit went to December 2024, and when did you start a city manager?

April 2025.

Okay, and just note that many of these issues did not come to my attention until discussion of this audit.

Uh some things were being put in place prior to the audit being completed, but uh the level of um course correction that I think we need for this program.

I think uh while we're making some immediate steps, I think we need some time to put things in place, get things going so that we can see a meaningful difference, and I think you know, changing the culture will require employees stepping up and saying, yes, this is important.

So it's only as good as the users that we have and the supervisors and the procedures and protocols are are great, but they are meaningless if there isn't that oversight and that personal accountability as well as organizational accountability.

So I think the mindset just really needs to change.

The city manager, in terms of personal responsibility and organizational responsibility, do we have any responsibility as an organization for people that did perpetrate these acts, should they be fired?

I think that if we look at the expenditures that were inappropriate or the purchases that were unauthorized, I think case by case, there are different levels of gravity, but I do think that because we have had an overall multi-year culture, that includes a lack of oversight.

I think it's very difficult to penalize every single P card holder who has not followed the protocol.

I think now is the time to reinforce our organization with more training.

I think now is a time to demonstrate that although we want accountability, we're not going to be punitive across the board when there hasn't been the framework to support the accountability that is expected.

So I think that we have to find the right balance, uh, but I think everyone is recognizing at this point that future actions uh will definitely be viewed in a way uh that is a lot more uh a lot more stringent.

Uh so I think our organization needs to shift, and I'm hoping that our personnel really recognize the seriousness of this moment.

Thank you.

Great, thank you.

So thank you for those steps.

I mean, as you and I have talked about, my immediate reaction was we need to get rid of the whole P Carb program, if people aren't gonna use it, right?

And um, you know, you you had a perspective of let's let's try to improve the process, make this better, more efficient, structured in the right way.

So I look forward to that and look forward to the the steps ahead and improving this.

So okay, thank you for that.

Um last comment, last topic I have is solid waste authority of Broward County.

So I've been uh being our representative for that.

We just met yesterday, and so just wanted to give you all an update of that.

So there are two amendments that are relevant to Solid Waste Authority.

Again, the overarching structure is this is 28 municipalities in Broward County trying to get together to work on being one entity that they uh conduct business as to get contracts for solid waste removal disposal and so forth.

So there's two contracts that are relevant, two amendments that are relevant.

First is a facilities amendment, which is this basically framework overarching agreement as to what this is, how these 28 municipalities could work together, and then a second amendment which talks about once we get once these 28 cities, the solid waste authority gets RFPs back in terms of how much this would cost, what this would mean, um, how long does that contract last, what are the opt-out provisions?

So, as we've talked about before as a commission, one of the things that I think, and we all agreed as well, was the solid waste authority is gonna go out, get RFPs, those RFPs are gonna come back with contract terms, costs, facilities, and so forth, a whole host of issues.

What I think is in our best interest as a city is to have all those RFPs come back and then us evaluate okay, what are the contract terms?

Is this something we want to do or not do?

I've been advocating for that.

The Solid Waste Authority governing board voted that concept down at their meeting a month ago.

Thankfully, they reconsidered and yesterday they put forward that amendment to allow any city of these 28 to opt out once the RFPs all come back.

So that would happen in late 2027 possibly.

All these RFPs would come back, we'd then see the terms, then we as a city could determine is this something we want to do or not.

So that's one component.

The second component to this is that this facilities agreement has to be passed by August 15th.

So the last commission meeting we have between August between now and August 15th is only July 2nd.

So we have to decide, do we want to enter into this agreement?

My suggestion, and and Brad will share more of this now, but he he's he's scheduled to speak about it at July 2nd, is my suggestion is we consider joining with the caveat that if this second amendment that allows all cities to opt out when the RFPs come back, that we will not join unless that amendment passes all cities.

In other words, if we don't have the option to opt out in 2027, I don't think this makes sense for us.

So that would be the contemplation we would have at July 2nd.

So I just want to share that with you.

Blah Brad can articulate a little bit more about it.

And then the other piece that we've talked about for the SWA is for Lauterella having a seat on the executive committee.

So in September 18th, there's gonna be an election for an open seat on the executive committee.

Myself or whoever is our appointee to the SWA could run for that.

So it's not a as I've been pushing for a designated seat of the two or three biggest municipalities, it's an election to be elected to the executive committee.

So I want to share those pieces with you all for feedback guidance.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought we scheduled as a commission this entire topic on the July 2nd meeting, didn't we say before we broke?

We at last had this.

You made a presentation, we said we're gonna have this whole discussion on July 2nd, right?

Exactly.

And this is an update from yesterday that just happened.

So I want to give you all that full context.

Yeah.

So let me let me understand now.

So I thought we had one opt-out.

Are you saying that we would now have a second opt-out?

Correct.

We'd have a second opt-out, exactly right.

So the first opt-out would be after the RFPs all come back in 2027 for us to say, hey, we like the contract terms, we're interested, we're not interested.

If we decide to enter into the agreement, say yes, we like it, we're gonna join.

Then the second opt-out is 2048.

Do I have that right, Brad?

Right.

Um, good evening.

I think it's 48.

Yeah.

Brad Cain Public Works Director.

So the so the item that the governing board passed yesterday related to the second amendment, uh, contemplated two components.

One of them was to allow uh municipalities out with for with no issue as it relates to pricing, uh, no, you know, if it fell within the pricing that the SWA had proposed, uh this amendment allows now us to look at it as a city and say, okay, we don't like it or we like it, we can go in and go out at that time.

And the second item is relating to uh when you can get out at basically the 20-year mark of the 40-year agreement, which is 2048.

And what it also contemplates, just so everybody's aware, there are 16 cities that have already approved the SWA facilities amendment.

Every one of those cities has to approve the second amendment.

Otherwise, it does not pass as is as contemplated.

So if they all 16 cities, one city says no, we don't like it, we don't agree, you are locked into the 40 year agreement.

When are they voting on that?

Daytime?

You know, though all the cities have to all the cities who have already voted and passed the facilities amendment would have to go back and do it.

I think the concern is um there's a deadline, you know, that they want from you know us and the cities that haven't passed it yet of August 14th, and if that doesn't happen at that point, and we enter into it, and the votes happen in some cities afterwards and they voted down, you're locked into the 40 years.

So, a couple of thoughts.

Um, first, if we don't have a guaranteed seat, it's an on-starter for me.

We're the largest city, we have the largest population, and we direct the most flow.

And I don't even know why we would even be debating that.

To me, it's not up for debate.

So that's a threshold question, and I've expressed this to Mayor Ryan.

It's like that's a non-starter.

I'm not going to submit that we need to get elected to that seat.

It's as simple as that.

I agree.

My my second issue is a lot of what I've read in all of this is predicated upon us achieving this state's absolutely absurd 75% recycling level that we're never gonna achieve, right?

So we're at 38%.

State of California, I've said this before, is at 38%.

The most, you know, progressively enthusiastic recycling state in the entire country can't exceed 38%.

The idea that we in Florida are going to get there is non-existent.

So let's be realistic about the fact that we're going to be building a $2 billion waste to energy plant, and let's stop talking about the fact that we're going to somehow magically all become born-again Greta Thunberg recyclers, and all this stuff is going to salvage, you know, the the ability of us not to have to build a a waste energy plant.

We're going to build one.

And I think we're being very disingenuous to everybody involved when we operate under the premise that we're somehow going to achieve unachievable recycling goals.

I don't think it's going to happen.

So I I think if we were more honest in this process, I'd be more comfortable with it.

And we're not being honest.

So the honest truth is we're building a two billion dollar recycling plant that some I'm sorry, waste energy plant at some time in the future, and we should be talking about that.

And we're not talking about that.

Third part of it is I think we need another opt-out.

And to me, that third opt-out should be at the 10-year mark.

If this isn't working well, because again, I've had the misfortune of living through the RRB and the dissolution of the RRB, and I went through the litigation/slash mediation, and I was the auditor at the time that was involved in doing all that and figuring out what the assets were worth.

And it was very, very painful to go through.

And our counterparties were let's just say not collaborative in the dissolution process.

And pardon me, but I'm in the risk management business, and I expect everything to go badly.

And so I like to try and position it's like having a prenup.

You know, you have a prenup so that you do that when you all like each other to make the divorce easier.

And this is kind of the same thing.

I'm assuming this relationship is going to fail, and I want agreements that allow us to walk away without rancor and without litigation.

And I'm not seeing that in what I've seen so far.

Great, thanks.

Yeah, so the there the currently there's just there would just be the two opt-outs.

That that first one, right, and that's so you want an intermediary one, 10-year point, okay.

Right, and and the reason for that is we paid some of the highest tipping fees in the entire southeast for 40 years while we were paying off the two waste-to-energy plants that we turned over to waste management.

Taxpayers paid for them, and we gave them to the private sector.

And by the way, if you ever want to make any money, folks, do a public-private partnership with the government, and we just give you stuff and the taxpayers pay for it.

It's great business.

I'm doing this when I get out of government.

I'm gonna become a consultant for this stuff.

And what's the thank you?

Um, Brad, the the waste energy plant.

What what is the contemplation of a the facility?

It's very much up in the air is my understanding.

So currently there's a company called FCC, is the one that um is operating it, is on county property.

Um, it's a it's a 30-something-year-old facility approximately to this date.

There is gonna have to be at some point in time, uh, because wheel of Brader North was taken down in about 2015 per the global amendment that the county entered into with waste management, there's only one facility in Broward County that does waste energy.

But there are issues as to whether they need another boiler, and eventually at some point you're probably going to need a facility because it's just age and and maintenance that go with these, and they get very expensive over the course of time.

So, they contemplate it in the bigger plan, but there is no definitive um timelines and time frames to build uh a new waste energy facility.

And just one of the issues, why is you know, Dade County, you know, went through a fire at Covanta.

That burned down.

The numbers that were being proffered at that time to build a new facility in Dade County, uh outside of the issues of not wanting to have it in anybody's backyard, were about 2.1 billion dollars.

So it's it's it's a very expensive, you know, uh facility to build.

So that's that's some of the issues that you know you're still facing today, and as time goes by, it's gonna get more.

So with that out there, if we're part of this agreement and we can opt out for and then we wind up building this plant in five years, we're at end of life.

From all practical purposes, right?

We're roughly at end of life with the plant out there that we have because we built both of them at the same time, right?

So they took out, as you say, they took out the north one, Willabrator shut it down.

They shouldn't have, but they did.

They opted to because they controlled it, even though we built it and paid for it, they control it.

And so we've got the remaining one, which is approaching end of life and is going to have to be shut down and rebuilt at some point, two billion dollars, give or take, probably more by the time we get around to doing it.

And are we going to be obligated then to build and fund that under this agreement?

I I will tell you the participating cities will have to cost share at some point if a new facility is going to be built.

Exactly.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

I just want to give you all that that immediate update that just happened yesterday.

So more to come.

Thanks for the feedback.

Great.

So that completes commissioners' reports, uh city manager's report.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

I included on the agenda for this item two letters to the commission, one related to the federal courthouse building and the disposal process.

I'd love to get some feedback from the commission so that we could respond to GSA by the July 3rd deadline.

I shared the categories or methods to acquire the property, and if the commission could give me uh some guidance, that would be helpful so that we can formulate our response.

Great, thank you.

So the federal courthouse disposal, there's three categories for that.

Let's just open it up for comments, Commissioner Herbs.

So I I said before, I'll say it again.

I still think this would be a great location for a museum, which would fit in with the federal categories of educational facilities.

So I I think it's got it's it's if if you've ever been in there, uh spent some time in there while we were doing the federal court facilities task force to replace the facility.

The way the courtrooms are structured, they're not set up to bring a lot of light into the structure.

So to utilize it for anything else would require extensive rework of the uh the envelope, the fabric of the building and punching holes in there and windows and everything.

Um, but that's great for an art gallery.

You don't want a lot of light into an art gallery because it's destructive to the art.

So the way the building is currently configured would make it a natural transition to a museum.

It's architecturally unique in Fort Lauderdale, be a great building worth preserving.

Um it's in a location that is ideal for tourism.

Um I've said this for years.

I'd love to see that become a new a new location for a museum.

So I keep thinking that's the way to go, and not funded by the city.

Okay, so that'd be the third category school classroom or other educational purpose.

Is that just wanna highlight we we shared some updated information uh to supplement the June 10th LTC?

So we sent out something actually today.

Oh yeah.

Uh there's some backup material as it relates to what qualifies as uh the educational criteria.

So I don't know if you have it up, but I could read from the list.

Uh okay.

Sure, could you?

Thanks.

Elementary, middle, junior high, and high schools, public or private, colleges and universities, including related research programs, preschool, head start and kindergarten programs, child care per se excluded, alternative education programs, continuing and adult education programs.

Specialized schools and training programs, special education, developmentally disabled, mentally and physically handicapped, exceptional slash gifted schools for blind or deaf, vocational, technical or trade schools, marine and accredited research programs, central administrative and service facilities, school athletic, track, and stadium facilities, educational radio and television production/slash public broadcasting, vocational rehabilitation programs, student staff and faculty housing, state and local public libraries tax supported only, and public service training programs, fire police, public safety.

I think that we can put our feelers out and engage with them and ask if that would qualify based on the guidelines that they've shared with us.

But I think we should have a backup plan.

Sure.

Yeah.

Commissioner Beasley Goodman thoughts.

Um not pinning down a direction.

I know you're looking for a direction of what we could utilize the space for or the building for.

Um, but I am in support of us continuing this opportunity.

Um, as I've said before, I think it would be a great opportunity for us to assume that property.

It would also help us as a city, as a city to control the narrative as to who the neighbors are who would come in.

Um it would be it will be the city opportunity to put uh um suggest what we would like to see there instead of just letting it go to an open public opportunity.

Okay.

Commissioner Glassman.

Yes, thank you.

Um, well, I know I think my office sent all of you the work that was done by Tropic Magazine where they had great ideas.

I think one of them actually was a museum.

There were a lot of arts and cultural uh ideas.

You know, I just think that we have to make sure that we respond by that deadline and make sure we let them know that we're interested.

Then we also need to also talk to all the folks in the community.

You know, there's a huge piece of land just to the west of that building.

Uh, I mean, it could be really a spectacular project.

I mean, I don't know what they're asking for for that piece of land, but that in conjunction with uh uh the restoration and renovation and you know, basically uh looking to do something else with that building, I think would be great opportunity.

But my main concern is just making sure that the GSA knows that we're interested and that we don't miss that opportunity to to you know to make sure they know that that's all.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Vice Mary, that list isn't all inclusive, so we can definitely ask and get a specific answer to the museum question.

Otherwise, we would need to identify that it would be for an educational purpose.

So if that's the direction of the commission, we can definitely find out more information and circle back to each of you individually and let you know the outcome of that inquiry.

Yeah, I'm really interested.

I'm open to the museum idea and and also interested in that education school.

Could there be a partnership there in some way for school at some point?

So is that is that good direction from all of us?

I think that gives us something to work with.

Thank you.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Um, next topic, city manager you'd like to talk about.

Yes, the A5 Lyft Station.

Uh, back in March, staff shared a conference presentation outlining four potential sites for the A5 lift station, which is much needed to facilitate development in our downtown and ensure that we have the infrastructure needed uh to address our development community as well as our own development needs.

We did at the request of the commission have a meeting with the DDA where it outlined an opportunity for another site that was not identified in the original four.

Uh staff did do some due diligence along with the city's consultant, and we saw that there would be some challenges with that particular site, which was a section just north of the bus terminal off of Andrews.

Uh the DDA came back to us with another suggestion, which was pretty much reflective of one of the initial options that the city had been exploring a couple years back.

Uh the DDA then came to us with uh an idea to do a land swap with a private property owner, whereas the city owns a section or a sliver of uh of land that is a budding to a private property owner, and uh there is an opportunity to explore a land swap that would give the city another portion of land that would be more conducive for a lift station.

At this time, we would like some feedback from the commission as to whether we should explore that opportunity, and also to we wanted to advise the commission that the community court option is not as feasible as we once thought because the convenience store lease has been extended, and so in order to go after that option, I think it would require a lot more than we originally anticipated.

Uh I'm gonna call Deputy City Manager Chris Cooper if he has any additional information or uh details.

Uh thank you, Manager Williams, Vice Mayor Commission, Chris Cooper, Deputy City Manager.

I don't have anything additional to add.

We are prepared to engage with that property owner though in the conversation.

We've had some preliminary discussions just to gauge whether or not there'd be any interest in even having that conversation.

We believe there would be.

So if the commission gave us that direction tonight, we would further those conversations.

I think it makes perfect sense.

I I'm I look at all the options that we have there.

Um I think they're all actually in district two, and I I think that that makes the most sense because the others, especially with that long-term lease now over uh you know, where we have a uh court, it doesn't make sense.

I think that's our fastest way, don't you?

I mean, the the path of least resistance and getting this done because I think time is really of the essence in getting this lift station done.

It is.

So in that area of the downtown, we're very constrained with what we currently have with our lift station that serves that basin.

So for any new development expansion of existing development, we would really need to get that project moving to, you know, get it done within the next couple of years.

Yes, co.

So have you had the conversations though with the property owner about this possible swamp?

We haven't had anything in depth.

We've spoken with a uh a member of the DDA that has some contact with the property owner as well as their property manager, but you know, we're looking for that direction so we can have more detailed conversations.

Well it makes sense to me.

I don't know about my colleagues, but it makes sense to me.

It seems to be the fastest way to go and get it's done and the least expensive and obviously it it seems to work um just if the two parties agree, but I I would certainly recommend we we move down that path.

Yeah, great.

Uh I agree.

I think Commissioner BZ Pittman.

Um I do have a question um with the options, because what we've been going through, we had some other options turned out does not work out.

We keep getting um suggestions after we have a no.

Is there like a a list that we can work on together and say, you know, hey, these are the options other than coming back every um quarter to say, hey, this isn't working, we need to go in a different direction.

Sure.

So um what staff presented back in March, those original options which included um you know the one-stop shop site as well as the city hall site um are still options to consider.

So we we wanted to go through that effort with the DDA to see if there was some opportunities to look at other sites in the downtown.

We feel like we've narrowed that down to the point where if these sites or this site in particular doesn't work out, we would need to come back and get that clear direction from the commission on one of those other options that we presented.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Herbst.

Yep.

Um, we find it okay.

Okay, great.

City manager, is that good direction?

Yes, thank you very much, and that concludes my report.

Okay.

Fantastic city management city attorney's report.

I have nothing this evening, Vice Mayor.

Okay.

Fantastic.

Then that concludes our city conference meeting.

If there's anything else?

Great.

We'll return back to the city commission meeting.

So now we are going to M1 motion approving a retroactive agreement and increase in contract cost capacity request for qualification.

Commissioner Herbs, I think this is something you wanted to talk about.

Go ahead.

My issue with this is for the last couple of meetings, we've been getting a lot of retroactive agreements.

And I want to understand why.

What is going on with our contract compliance and management that we have to do retroactive agreements?

Retroactive agreements are agreements that have, for one reason or another, ceased.

They have ended.

We're done.

And yet we're still doing work under agreements that are no longer in effect.

How is that happening?

Why is nobody noticing this until months afterwards?

So I need an explanation as to what's going on, guys.

What is wrong with our process?

Why don't people know that our contracts have terminated?

How come nobody is catching this months in advance to say the contract ends June 30th and three months earlier?

We need to be working on an amendment, an extension or something.

We should not be doing retroactive ratifications of contracts.

We should not have anybody out there in a field working without a valid contract.

Why is this happening again and again again?

I've seen this now for probably the last three or four meetings where item after item after item is coming forward.

So what is going wrong with our process?

Agreed, Commissioner.

Uh these retroactive agreements sort of speak to what I was uh discussing earlier in terms of management and oversight.

So there's been a lot of cleanup work being done in multiple departments, one of which is public works.

Uh, if we go back over the past year, there have probably been ballpark eight, nine retroactive agreements.

Uh so yes, I've noticed, and this is something that we are working on as well.

Uh we also had somewhat of a management void uh prior to my arrival.

Uh we have new leadership now.

Uh things are becoming more and more streamlined, and this is something that yes, it it is not ideal, but we are working to clean up these gaps.

You're being too kind.

It's a lot worse than not ideal.

We have people working without a contract.

So I'd look at my city attorney and say, What's the liability if somebody gets hurt on a job, if there's a if there's any kind of an accident when they're operating outside the scope of a valid agreement?

This is not.

So, first off, if we're working on any kind of a construction project, we've got a project manager.

What is a project manager doing?

Managing a project.

First thing they should know is when the contract ends.

You should know exactly how many days you've got left.

They should be doing weekly stand-ups with the vendor saying, okay, guys, we got three months left to get this done.

Where are we?

Absolutely.

Where's where's our where's our GAN chart?

Absolutely.

So where's our project timeline?

Where's our change order management system?

Anyone who's a PMO, and by the way, we put all of our engineers through the PMP program up at FAU.

I know, because I did it with them 16 weeks of Saturdays of my life.

Okay, went through the whole PMP certification program.

If I know this, I sure as hell hope your engineers know this.

And what's the first thing you do?

Change order management process.

It's the process that's failing.

Why is our process failing?

Red.

Good evening again.

Um we're definitely, you know, aware of these things, and a lot of these changes that we are in the process of implementing have to do with one, as I spoke to, you know, quite a while ago, is we're in the process of trying to get a permanent city engineer.

I think that's one issue that really helps with the overall structure of the engineering and oversight.

We've had some turnover in project managers uh on some of the bigger projects.

So there are some, you know, loops there, and and again, no excuses.

It's not about that.

It's just we are, you know, working very diligently, you know, with the engineering section under uh our new assistant director's leadership to make these changes so we can get away from this.

These things, you know, on some of this stuff goes back, you know, six, seven, ten years even.

And you know, we should never have to be in a position where we're doing retroactive agreements.

It's very frustrating.

Um, it's not uh a common practice that I've ever been used to in my career, and it's just something that you know we're really trying to button up and we are putting in mechanisms in place so those things do not happen, and we stay away from that process because again, uh I I agree with everything you're saying, and that's what we're doing to try to correct these things going forward.

So I I don't put the blame on not having senior engineer senior management in place.

The problem lies at the at the line level engineer.

It's down at the bottom.

It's the again, the person who is the project manager needs to know what their budget is and what their timeline is.

Again, this is fundamentals of project management.

You manage two things.

You manage a timeline and you manage your dollars.

That's it.

That's that's all you gotta do as a project manager, manage your timeline and manage your your dollars being spent, right?

So is the is the project getting built?

Yes.

Are we running out of money before we're finished?

If yes, escalate.

That's that's the escalation process.

So this is nothing more than sloppiness, and I'm very disappointed.

Because you know what a sloppy engineer tells me?

Shit falls down.

Sloppy engineers give me a lot of concern because if they can't manage this, what else are they not managing properly?

If you can't manage the basics, what else is not being managed properly?

I have no confidence in the job now.

I have no quality confidence in the quality of the construction of whatever it is they're overseeing.

If you can't execute on the basics, how do I know you're executing on the complicated stuff?

So unacceptable.

I don't want to see another one of these come forward.

Understood.

Thank you.

I'd like to add to that, but first I also just want uh just uh a caution, Commissioner Herbs.

I think you used the profanity.

We might have a complaint about the code of conduct.

Uh I would have.

I would hate to see the vice mayor get some more emails from his fabulous constituents.

So I just want to give you that cautionary tell.

Okay, careful with that profanity.

Uh thank you so much for that.

Um I'd like to just go in a little bit of a different direction on this one.

Um, you know, we're up to about I did a little math, we're up to about a hundred million dollars in fees over the last few years with Hazen and Sawyer.

Nothing against Hazen and Sawyer.

I think they're an amazing company.

Um, but I am hearing rumblings out there that a lot of people that could do this work have just thinking that that's that's our contractor now, that's our vendor now, and don't even apply to the city of Fort Laurel uh because it's locked up uh with Hazen.

Um but yet they're very busy.

Uh, I also hear that they're experiencing a certain amount of workload, you know, bandwidth related issues, and I'm concerned about that.

Um I want to make sure, and I'm saying this because I want to make sure that going forward, again, we're facing very challenging times.

I want to make sure that we are attracting the most qualified firms possible that can compete on these projects going forward, um, and just giving us more options uh and maybe even a better cost.

So I'm just saying that um for whatever it's worth again over a hundred million dollars, uh correct.

This is this is a thirty-one million dollar uh extension to this to this uh project.

Uh again, so please I just want to make sure that we're being smart in who we are also giving an opportunity to uh if it can save the city money uh and at the same time give us that expertise and also with a company that might not be just so overloaded at the time.

That's that's all I want to say.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Beast Bittman.

Yes, thank you.

Um my question with this um Herf said he doesn't want to see any more um retroactive agreements come before us.

Are we being proactive to see what's coming next?

Is there like a um list of um agreements that's just waiting to come next?

So um with that, uh, what are we doing to get in front of these?

If you know, so we are aware.

So, good evening, everybody.

Come uh Vice Mayor, Commissioner Zonio Rodriguez, Assistant Director with Paul the Works.

So, something since I got here uh with the City of Port Lauderdale.

I've been noticing this trend and having this conversation with with all of our managers.

So, something that I've implemented is I requested a list of all of the active contracts that we have within our department that do work are calling during work in the city, and also the ones that have expired in the past two years, so that way I could sit down with the team, see where those projects are in the completion, and see if there might be a need of having to see where we are with these contracts.

I'm not saying that that perhaps there might not be the instance in which we may have to come back, but at the very least, my intent is just come back with any and all contracts that are in this particular um situation and do it once before all and ensure and have practices in place that would ensure that this trend does not continue to happen.

Could could I add something, Commissioner?

One of the things that we are actively seeking is project management software that would be utilized across multiple departments, including public works, uh capital projects, and utility services.

There is not a single uh streamlined unified software system that we utilize for project management in the city.

So we had one.

What happened to it?

I'm not sure if it's we had it effective, we had project management software.

I know.

I used it.

Where'd it go?

So we currently have what we call ETS.

Um that is the what we call right now our program management software.

However, since the implementation of the capital projects department, uh we're looking for uh a more streamlined software that would meet the needs that we currently have as a city.

So those are the conversations that we're currently having that the manager is referring to.

So that all departments can utilize the same software and we can speak the same language.

Hopefully that will improve our efficiency and alert us to some of these contract issues.

The only disconnect we had is we had project management software in public works, and we had a separate project management system in IT.

So we were running two parallel tracks for project management software.

So what are we using now in IT and what are we using now in public works?

Hello, Laura.

Hi, I was just gonna chime in what public works used for a shorter period of time was Oracle Unifier.

Um so that was implemented.

That was probably when you went to the project management training with the group, and then it was discontinued before um I think it was under Hardee's leadership, it was years ago.

But that was the software that was used for a shorter period of time, and then they went back to ETS, which was the Ingram, like the home grown system from or I I apologize, Commissioner Glassman in advance.

Our Piss Poor Homegrown System that didn't work in advance, which is why we went out and acquired off the shelf state-of-the-art software, which then we threw out and brought back more piss poor homegrown in-house software.

Is that what we did?

Just say yes.

I don't know if that was a rhetorical question.

Just go buy something that works for the love of Christ.

Okay, good.

Any other questions or comments on this?

And fantastic.

So M1s or motion to move M1.

Moved.

Second, second, City Clerk, call the roll.

Commissioner Glossman, yes, Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Sorensen, yes, and Commissioner Herb.

Yes.

Excellent.

M1 passes M2 motion approving the final ranking of firms.

Negotiate fee schedules and agreements for requests for qualifications.

Number 454.

Alright, no one is signed up to speak for this.

Any questions from the commission?

Seeing none.

Is there a motion to approve M2?

So moved.

Is there a second?

Second.

Second.

City Clerk, call the roll.

Commissioner Glossman.

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Sorensen?

Yes.

And Commissioner Herbst.

Yes.

M2 passes.

M3 motion rejecting all proposals for requests for proposals.

5493, P25 radio communication system.

We have, let's see, several people signed up to speak.

So how about we take those first?

Starting off with Keith Costa, Rick W, and then Joe C.

So Keith Costa, Rick W.

Joe C, you have two minutes to speak.

Go ahead.

Hi, Keith Costa, President Fort Lauteral Firefighters, IFF Local 765.

I'm opposing this motion to rebid just because it's going to create additional delays that directly impact my members and the communities they serve.

The timely implementation of communicate of this communications infrastructure is critical.

This RFRP has already been delayed once, and any additional delays are going to affect the safety, effectiveness, and operational readiness of my members.

It says that there's inconsistencies in the interpretation of this solicitation, and that's kind of the basis for wanting to rebid.

Just a question, but shouldn't that be on the vendor to vet all of that?

Shouldn't they have done their due diligence due diligence to make sure that everything was clear?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Rick W.

Yes, good evening.

Um Vice Mayor, uh Commissioners, City Manager, City Attorney.

My name is Rick Wallakachuk.

I'm with Communications International, and we are here in support of the city manager's recommendation.

Communications international has been supporting public safety for over 50 years.

We're a Florida-based company with 10 locations.

We provide sales service engineering support and program management support for customers throughout the state.

Um and L3 Harris technology, which we have proposed is widely used across the state of Florida, most notably with the state of Florida itself.

Uh we are actually helping to deploy that network as we speak with L3 Harris technology.

Um, with all due respect to to the previous gentleman who spoke, we have heard the conversations about a public safety emergency here if there are any delays, and there are arguments that have been made about that.

These arguments are manufactured, they're not real, and they're employed by Motorola to avoid a competitive procurement and and seek a sole source award.

It's in the best interests of the city, of the commission, of the public safety, uh first responders, police officers, firefighters in the city, and the taxpayers to delay this and to rebid.

A few facts for your consideration.

The current system is operating in a proper manner.

It is no worse, no better, no worse than it has been for the past few years.

The new system uh that it's been proposed will take approximately 18 months to deploy.

The current system is not, does not have any end of life, end of support, uh published uh documents at all and software, parts, and service availability, availability, excuse me, will continue through through 2032.

Last comment on this.

There were known no known outages on this system in the past 12 months that are associated with the current infrastructure.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Joe C, then Michael L then Pratima R.

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

I am a resident of District 4.

I'm also happened to be on the board of directors of a 600 unit condominium that's experiencing BDA problems here in the city.

I also am the uh on the board of CI.

I'm a lawyer, and my experience has been and my specialty is data telecommunications and wireless.

So as you can imagine, when this RFB came out, I had more than a passing interest in it.

You know, for your consideration, the we're we're here to support, I'm here to support uh the city manager's recommendation.

This is a once and a decade opportunity to get the infrastructure right for the city.

These systems don't go in, it's not one of these things you're gonna put in, you're gonna change next year, next month, three, four, five years from now.

We're gonna live with this as residents.

Fire, police are gonna live with it for years to come.

The RFP was ambiguous.

The RFP, the city, the responses did not give the city what the city wants, it does not give the city what it needs, and does not set the city up for the near-term future for the requirements that it needs.

You know, given what we've heard earlier today about the budgets and the challenges we're gonna have.

We need to get this right the first time for the city and for the residents.

Supporting, you know, we we've heard about the time frame.

Look, both vendors are more than adequate to respond promptly to a new RFP to a new request to negotiate and turn the thing quickly.

You know, a 90-day delay is not going to impact the system as it exists today.

It's the same one that's running and operational today.

Um, I as I said, I I'm here to support the cities.

I think it's the city manager's recommendation.

I think it's in the best interest of the city.

I think it's an investor, so fire, police, and I think it's definitely in the best interest of the taxpayers.

Great, thank you very much.

Michael L.

Pratima R, LMB.

Good evening, Vice Mayor, Commissioners.

Uh, my name is Mike Yorente with LSN Law.

We represent Communications International CI.

One of the markers of leadership is the ability to acknowledge when things have gone wrong and to course correct, to take immediate remedial action, and that's what we believe the city manager is doing with this item M3.

We understand probably better than most the importance and the urgency, the sense of urgency with this competitive procurement.

We also understand, and I as a procurement lawyer am especially sensitive to the awesome responsibility of this body to ensure that tens of millions of tax dollars are spent in a way that is uh fair, transparent, defensible.

Uh, this procurement, particularly during the negotiations phase was riddled with fatal defects and material deviations from procurement law and norms.

And while we believe that our client, CI was the highest ranked responsive responsible bidder in this procurement.

Uh we recognize that this procurement got messy and complicated.

And for those reasons, we fully support the manager's recommendation to start this over and conduct an expedited fair, transparent, competitive process to ensure the city gets the best value.

We welcome the competition.

We look forward to offering the city a uh state-of-the-art best in class communication system for the next uh decades.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, Pratima Rajou, on behalf of Communications International.

We support the current memo to reject all bids and move forward with the ITN process.

The memo acknowledges that the technical specifications and scope were complex and resulted in inconsistent interpretations.

When this occurs, the most responsible and lowest risk course of action is to reject all proposals, address those issues, and move forward now through an ITN process.

Doing so protects the city, straightens the procurement, ensures the final decision is based on true apples to apples comparison.

For example, Comms International proposed 30 talk paths, while Moto proposed 13.

When vendors are proposing materially different solutions based on different interpretations of the requirements, it becomes difficult to compare pricing and overall overall value on an equivalent basis.

For those reasons, we respectfully ask the commission to support the manager's recommendation, reject all proposals, and move forward with the ITN.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Mayor, Commissioners Alan Bogdonoff representing Motorola, and I'm sure it will not shock you that we actually have the opposite position, which we would like you all to reject the motion before you.

Keep in mind I'd like to put everything in perspective that there was a fair and open process.

It was there was some technical issues with language in the first one that was thrown out.

The second one comes forward.

You have hired a professional who is an expert in the technical aspects of this RFP, and their recommendation was to move forward.

We were found responsive.

There was an appeal.

But those were also summarily dismissed by your consultant.

There was a fair and open process, and keep in mind that we were 10 over 10 million dollars less.

There were also 10 meetings and 50 hours of negotiations.

There were items that were taken in the second round of comments by CI that were several comments taken out of context based on the style of negotiations of the procurement director, had absolutely nothing to do with the facts, where both your consultant and the procurement director found that uh Motorola was responsive.

And bottom line is, and I know there was one thing that was said that I do want to correct that there are no end-of-life components.

There are the control points, and it's critical.

Um, actually, this was stated by Jason in your IT department.

So that that actually is not accurate.

There were also, as part of the 50 hours of negotiations, an additional 3.5 million dollars that they were excellent at getting out of Motorola benefits that were in addition to the RFP.

Uh, we're asking you to respectfully reject and let's move forward with the protest, and everybody will have their day before the commission.

Thank you very much.

All right, commission discussion.

Commissioner Herbst.

So I fully support the city manager's recommendation.

I don't think this is a clean process.

I think it exposes us to liability.

Um I think that we can move forward with a very expedited process that can have this done in 60 to 90 days and come back with award that I think is clean, defensible, and in the best interest of the city.

Uh this has nothing to do with who we're choosing.

I'm agnostic as to which company winds up with the award.

I think both companies are very good.

I think they're both capable of delivering a product for the city.

Um I don't with respect to uh to Mr.

Costa, I don't think it's gonna fall apart in 60 days.

Um if this was going to be six months or six years, I would absolutely share your concern.

I don't think 60 days is gonna make a difference.

The system is not gonna collapse that quickly.

Um, but I I think I do think the integrity of the process demands that we start over again.

I'm not comfortable with what I've read, with what I've heard, with what I've been told, and I don't want to litigate that from the days, but uh I'm simply I'm simply not comfortable with anything that's gone on with the process.

I think it's been flawed, and I think the only way to fix it is to start over.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Visa Benman.

Yes, thank you.

Um could we give some more clarity on how we would this process would only take the 60 to 90 days to ex or reevaluate and execute?

Sure, yeah.

Gwen, do you want to address that?

I think that um Glenn Markle's chief procurement officer, procurement director.

Um, obviously, we this is a third time.

This will be the third time putting it out there.

So it's gonna be the same players.

Um, they know the city's requirements, and so the understanding is is that we would want to go back, tighten up the technical specifications as well as perhaps looking at the method of source selection and perhaps allow for an ITN.

That invitation to negotiate will allow for concurrent negotiations and would pin um the firms against each other.

Obviously, the way we would try to manage the situation is to allow them to just negotiate things that we feel um is of material and no longer an issue to further negotiate.

So things that we feel we can't further negotiate will set aside and only address the things that are most important for the city.

Okay, so um trying to get clarity here.

Um initially this um proposal had how many um listed um qualifications.

I may be using the wrong term, but with the um RFP that went out, how many specifications was um identified and with that a new bid?

Is it gonna be the same or is it?

It will be.

Exactly.

It will be just with uh again, more refined language, just to make the city's uh position known.

Um, commissioner, commissioner, over 200 pages of technical specifications is involved here.

So obviously um we believe that the ITN will give us a better robust uh process where again things that perhaps maybe it's not clear to the um the proposer, we we would be able to negotiate with those that are shortlisted um and welcome into an ITN environment, that invitation to negotiate environment.

And again, that that will happen concurrently.

So it can happen with um two firms, it can happen with three firms.

It's gonna be at the recommendation of the EC, that's um the evaluation committee, as to whether they would like for two firms to enter into negotiations or even three the three firms.

Okay.

With that, we if we um reject the bids tonight and we put this back out, when does this time clock this timeline start?

So we would probably take two weeks to refine the documents.

We would have to work with the city's consultant in doing so, Commissioner, and then um after two weeks, we would have a 30-day turnaround from the time of issuance to submission.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Glassman.

Yes, thank you.

Um, so a couple of questions.

Um, when you look at the CAM, it does say, and I just find this troubling when I read things like uh the complexity within the approximately 200 pages of technical specifications and scope of work, including appendices, has resulted in inconsistent interpretations of the RFP responses to certain sections of the solicitation.

So isn't that our problem?

I mean, we that's isn't that on us?

Just throwing that out there.

Uh I also want to know why now it's being recommended that um further revisions to the technical specifications, scope of services, and to pursue an invitation to negotiate.

That's an ITN procurement process.

So why is that that's very different than what we've done?

So I want to know why we didn't do that to begin with.

If why we're set we're recommending that now, why wasn't that the original path?

So honestly, uh Commissioner, the intent was that the RP environment uh we thought would be the most easiest uh way to get to procuring the P25.

Uh the ITN we thought would be um somewhat a little bit more complicated, and so we went the RP route.

But understanding the fact that there's really no simple way, um, I can write a sentence.

You might interpret that one way, I might interpret that another way.

Obviously, the two um proposers being CI and Motorola, um, they saw things a little bit different, and it's different than what I saw, and then what the city consultants um have has uh has also seen.

So now within the ITN environment, if there is a sense of clarity, we can actually come back to the table with all firms if that's the desire of the EC to get that clarity on the table.

And then if there's one clarity that's not clear enough for one party, we can make it clear for that party, as well as their competitors.

Thank you.

I I I hate to sound skeptical, but I'm having a difficult time believing that we'll be able to turn this around if we reopen it uh between thirty and sixty days.

I looked at I look at the timeline of just this last one.

I know there were two, uh, but just this last one began in December.

So that's trying to figure out that's six months.

So 30 to 60 days.

So Commissioner, I think that the turnaround time of 30 days is doable.

What I cannot commit to you is the length of the negotiations.

Yeah.

Because when you have concurrent negotiations, you're gonna be going from one room to another room.

And actually, you're trying to get the best solution from one of the providers, take it back to the EC, and then the EC saying yes, that's what we want.

That is the best solution.

So what while I can't commit to you a 30-day turnaround time, what I cannot commit to you is negotiations happening just as quick.

So, but the end game would be to get you the best solution, the best we P25 to address all the public safety issues, including those that uh come from um the commission.

Okay.

So here's where I am on this for my colleagues.

It this is a tough one.

I've gone back and forth over this.

Um, but I am going to have to concur with Mr.

Costa and and and the fire union, uh, because I also believe that time is of the essence on this.

Um I've expressed my concerns about the BDA issues now for months and months and months and months.

Um, I believe if we actually open this up and we redo this, there's gonna be a protest.

Whoever doesn't get it, there's gonna be a protest, and we're gonna find ourselves in the same exact spot that we find ourselves now.

Uh so because I am concerned with the time, I am concerned with getting this done.

Um I don't know why, and maybe you can help me with this, again, because I also believe there will be a protest no matter what happens once we do this again, and then we'll again here we are.

There'll be a protest submitted, and we're gonna have to as a commission figure this out.

Um, so why don't we just cut to the chase and hear that protest, and then the commission decides now.

Help me if I'm wrong.

A protest has been filed, right?

Yes, sir.

Why aren't we just hearing that?

I'll leave it up to the commission whether or not um it would like to hear that protest.

Again, I don't want to, you know, I apologize for repeating myself, but I believe we'll always end up with a protest on this particular issue.

So I I am I am leaning towards actually saying let's just hear the protest um and maybe not reject all the proposals.

Let's just cut to the chase and we'll figure it out because that's what we're gonna have to do anyway, maybe 30, 60, 90, 120 days down the road.

So that's what I say.

I I I don't think that we should reject the proposals.

I think we should just hear the protest and get on with it.

What's the timeline for the protests?

Timeline for the protest.

No, I it will be here if the city commission so chooses, it would be placed on the next agenda.

So the th there often is a protest in the procurement process, is that right?

For the P-25 commissioners, Warrington, that is that is correct.

So if you ask um all the firms, but there's two today here, they will tell you that is customarily it ends up in a in a protest.

Wherever you go, whether it's whether it's in Palm Beach, whether it's the city of Miami, um, it always pretty much ends up in a protest.

Right.

And so you have evaluated the protest, is that right?

I have.

And what is your determination of the protest?

Uh at that particular point in time, um, they brought up two issues, commissioners.

Those two, those two issues failed.

Um now they did bring up um issues after the fact post-the uh protest period, and so um there could be precedent that will be established there, but it would be something that I would not entertain any post protest um arguments.

If not, none of your procurements will ever end.

None of your procurements would never would ever end.

But again, that's I'm at the will of the commission, and so whatever the commission desires to do, uh, we will follow.

Thank you.

So my view is we've got a you know, the protest has been evaluated, in effect, um denied, doesn't see the the validity validity in it from a procurement standpoint.

So I support us moving forward with the uh city manager uh suggests requesting and really moving with very quick speed to enter into negotiations and and get a solution as quickly as possible.

Um so is there a motion to to this end?

Okay, motion by Commissioner Herbs.

Is there a second?

And that's a motions to reject all proposals.

Okay, is there a second?

Okay, no second.

Second, just second, okay.

There's a second city clerk, call the roll.

Commissioner Glossman?

No.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

No.

Vice Mayor Sorensen?

Yes.

And Commissioner Herbst?

Yes, fails.

So a two-two votes, the motion fails, I believe.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

So is there another motion?

I move that we hear the protests on July second.

Okay.

There's a motion.

Is there a second?

Not hearing a second.

So, yes.

Is the point of the motion, Commissioner?

If the point of your motion was to set the date for it, um I understand that, but there is uh an appeal pending and it would have to be heard.

Oh, that's right.

There already is.

So that's it's not necessary to make a motion.

I thought you're doing it perhaps for purposes of setting the date.

Yes.

Thank you.

But you needn't.

Thank you.

So do you want to amend your motion?

No.

I I think the city attorney is saying there already is a protest that's been filed.

We don't even need to have that motion, uh, just that we're gonna do it on July 2nd, I guess.

So you would have motion necessary, right?

That's correct.

Correct.

No motions necessary.

So I withdraw that because obviously we have to hear it because the protest has been filed, right?

Hold on, let me get some clarification on this.

So a protest has been filed.

Did we move to put that on a it is it is pending and would need to be heard.

Why?

Because it's been filed and needs to be addressed.

So, we need to hear it.

You could you could choose not to hear it.

We're doing we're doing that right now.

We right, we make a decision as to whether we're gonna hear an appeal.

It's not automatic that it comes to us.

That would be your choice, Commissioner.

That was the commissioner's motion.

It doesn't have to come to us if we don't choose to hear it.

My point was it would have to be resolved one way or the other, coming to you, and you just could say no or go forth.

So let's otherwise have a pending item out there that hasn't been addressed.

You've got somebody that's appealed something to staff.

That doesn't mean the commission has to take it up.

So the protest policy, the pro the protest appeal is not codified, right?

It's not part of our ordinance code.

There's no mandatory requirement that it comes to the commission.

They've appealed something to staff.

If we don't if we don't affirmatively choose to hear it, it dies.

Well, we have to make a decision to call it up.

Well, if we do not hear the protest, then the does it just go to Motorola, which was the number one selected firm.

No.

So then no, because we've never made the award.

So it was selected by a selection committee.

So we either need to do one of several things.

We either need to award it to Motorola, we need to decide to hear the appeal, or decide to not hear the appeal, or do something else.

But we have to do something.

It doesn't come to us absent or action.

Just because they've appealed to staff doesn't mean that it automatically comes to us.

Well, what is the history on this?

Your election to do so, sir.

I'm sorry?

It would be your election to do so.

Okay, right.

We'd have to elect to do so, which is what I believe Commissioner Glassman was was making a motion to do was electing for us to hear the appeal.

It would not automatically come to us on the on the second just because there's appeal sitting before staff.

But then in the in the in the past, why do these appeals or protests, why do they regularly come to us?

They do come to us without us saying we want them to come to us.

I'm not sure.

Okay.

What's the answer to that question?

So what I'm hearing now is something that is perplexing because we do get protests and appeals.

We never get asked do you want to hear a protest or appeal?

They just come to us when they come to us.

So now I'm hearing something very different.

So we have to figure this out.

Well and and so our code does direct that the uh procurement officer would bring such an appeal to you it says that yeah Glenn would you please specify your process for this yeah I I need some clarity on this me too.

So this is pursuant to the procurement ordinance once I render a decision if there's a uh if there's an appeal that appeal must be heard by the city commission.

It's it that's in that's in the procurement ordinance I'm sorry yes sir it is.

Thank you.

Well there you go.

So I'm gonna set that for July second how does that get set then?

Who sets it?

I don't think there's a requirement for a time certain but the commissioner's asking for it in his motion.

Well only because this is the third time this RFP's gone out we we need to just figure this out.

So just so I'm clear if Glenn if an appeal comes to you then you must bring that forward to us I just want to be clear the city commission I mean the city uh code requires me to bring it to you.

Okay.

Ben Rogers are you coming in with something additional or to that okay great go ahead so it is required to come to us.

Is this like a de novo hearing though where we have to set a hearing?

I mean how does it just like appear in our agenda right?

In the same way other matters would appear on your agenda.

Right.

The city manager would the city manager right because the city manager creates the agenda then right?

For that particular item yes all procurement related items also get reviewed and blessed by the city attorney's office.

Okay.

So so then you you're the one that determines when it comes on the agenda then if I'm hearing that properly am I I just want to make sure process wise I I understand how this works.

Typically yes for items coming from departments within the city manager's purview I would determine the timeline for those items to come forward.

Okay.

So if I'm understanding right then we do we have to hear the appeal before rejecting all proposals sequentially based on the information that I have received the commission could reject all proposals before hearing the appeal.

Okay.

Could reject all proposals without hearing the appeal but the appeal has to still has to come to us now sequentially we could reject all proposals and then the appeal would come to us after thus we won't have to hear the appeal because all proposals have been a rejected is that so the actual process commissioner if you do decide on the rejection and move forward with that then you can dismiss the the appeal we don't have to hear the appeal to hear the appeal per your procurement code yes and I can read the language verbatimly into the record if you all like me to sure let's say the protesting party may appeal to the C city commission a decision by the chief procurement officer denying the pro the protest by delivering a notice of appeal to the CPO within three days from the protesting party's receipt of the chief procurement officer's decision upon receipt of a timely notice of appeal the chief procurement officer will schedule the protest for consideration by the city commission which may affirm reverse or modify the chief procurement officer's uh decision okay okay great so just in summary we had a motion to reject all proposals that motion failed so as we're continuing our discussion, the we're talking about the appeal that this the appeal without a rejection of all proposals, the appeal would come to us as a city commission um per the code.

So that will be coming to us.

So city manager, is that coming to us July 2nd, or what would be the date of that coming to us?

We would put that item on for July second for july second yes that doesn't need a motion or any action of the commission because that is the process per procurement code.

Is that my understanding?

Yes, is that clear, city attorney?

Am I capturing that correctly?

Yes.

Okay.

Fantastic.

So that achieves uh M3.

Okay.

Next up, R1.

R1 appointment of board and committee members.

Mr.

Clerk, please read the names into the record.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

For the uh July 2nd resolution, beach business improvement district advisory committee, Janet Alvarez, not uh she'll be an alternate representative for the Hotel Marin.

Uh homeless advisory committee, Robin Martin, nominated by Vice Mayor Sorensen.

Uh Raven Detman, nominated by Vice Mayor Sorensen, Sustainability Advisor Board, Susie Bailey, nominated by Mayor Trentalis.

And for tonight's resolution, Central City Redevelopment Advisory Board, Nicola Stan, nominated by Commissioner Glossman, Charter Revision Board, Bernard Norris Weeks, nominated by Vice Mayor Sorensen, Community Services Board, Tanya Cohn, nominated by Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Sharon Hughes, nominated by Commissioner Beasley Pittman, homeless advisory committee, Paula Yukna, nominated by Commissioner Glassman, Michael O'Brien, nominated by Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Amy Shimulfang, nominated by Vice Mayor Sorensen, and Parks Recreation Beaches Board, Solomon Schoenover, nominated by Mayor Trentels, and that rounds it out.

Thank you.

All right, can someone introduce R1?

Introduced.

Alright, it's been introduced.

Mr.

Clerk, call the roll.

A resolution of the city commission of the city of Fort Lauderdale, Florida appointing or nominating if applicable boarding committee members as set forth in the exhibit attach here to made a part hereof.

Commissioner Glossman?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Sorensen?

Yes.

Commissioner Herbst.

Yes.

The resolution is adopted.

R2, resolution approving economic development incentive for project access and total amount not to exceed $15,750, consisting of a strategic job creation incentive of $15,750 and authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute an economic development incentive package.

Discussion.

Okay.

Uh let's see.

Um there are no speakers for this.

Can someone introduce R2?

It's been introduced.

Mr.

Clerk, please call the roll.

A resolution of the city commission of the city of Fort Lauderdale, Florida approving an economic development incentive award in the amount of fifteen thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars for project access to implement a strategic job creation incentive payable over a four-year period and authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute an economic development incentive agreement providing for conflicts, providing for severality, and providing for an effective date.

Commissioner Glassman?

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Sorensen?

Yes.

And Commissioner Herbst.

Yes.

The resolution is adopted.

Greater alliance.

Thank you, Todd, for your partnership.

Maggie, thank you for your work.

Excellent news.

And Porsche, Porsche Garcia, thank Garcia.

Thank you.

Our three resolution providing notice is of the decision to proceed with unsolicited proposal submitted by ManCon Inc.

for the design construction delivery of the Melrose Manor Stormwater Improvement Project and authorizing negotiations of a proposed interim and or comprehensive agreement in accordance with section 255.065 Florida statutes.

All right, we have Ellen Bogdanov is signed up to speak.

Is that for questions only?

And okay.

Excellent.

City Commission, any questions, comments?

Some comments, please.

Thank you.

Um I'm excited about this opportunity to um for us to vote on this and hopefully move it forward.

But I do have some questions and some clarity that I would like to have in regards to this.

Um, so Ellen, if you or whomever.

Can I have that one here?

As long as I have the we can get the answers.

Okay.

Thank you for being here tonight.

Um, the questions I have, we we you know, we've we met, we had conversations about this project and how it could be very productive and expedient moving forward to uh rectify and address the floodings in the areas of uh Merrills Manor and the next one, which is Riverland.

Um what I'm asking, I have some um concerns because we talk so much in layman terms, and when I look at this um cam, everything is in I guess engineering type terms.

So I want to go through this to make sure what we discuss is being addressed in this um opportunity.

So in regards to the water quality structures.

Now my question is this um the same as the detention or retention basins that we talked about that would um help relieve um uh capture the water from the storm water.

So if you could introduce yourself first, thank you.

David Mancini with David Mancini and Sons and Anthony Mancini, Mankind Incorporated.

So the question was regarding the excuse me, the water quality structure, and how it relates to the basin.

Uh the water quality structure will be a structure that goes at the discharge of the outfall.

So it won't be in either one of the neighborhoods, it'll actually be at the outfall that discharges the water into the river.

Um, and definitely we'll have to go through the plans and design the project with that structure to meet all the requirements of the permit.

Okay.

So again, my question is because we talked about basins.

I haven't heard basins yet.

Am I um I addressing the wrong item that's listed here?

But we have here drain pipes and structures, stormwater force mains, um trenches, water quality structures, storm waters, pump stations.

I know what those are, but the others, if you could tell me, um is this identifying our conversation with the basins?

So um commissioner, um, when it comes to the design of the pump station, the pump station is gonna have two separate components that will provide some level of quality water quality.

One of those is what we call the um the trash racks that is going to um before it gets uh the water goes into the river, is gonna remove those those bigger elements.

And then we're gonna have a vortex structure which is going to remove the majority of the sand-sized particles and around 50 60% of the fine sediments.

So that will provide that level of quality that we're looking for.

Okay.

I'm still not hearing.

Maybe I'm not being uh I'm expressing myself correctly, but in our conversation, which also led to this opportunity to move forward, we said that we would you would go in and you would offer a um a immediate resolution or resolve to the standing water in the community.

Um we're coming up what we we're in the rainy season now, and understand if we move in forward, um, we could see opportunities quicker to address the standing waters.

I don't see anything here that looks like that.

Yes.

Could you define that?

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Yes.

So, what what I think you're alluding to is how do we prevent flooding or assist with emergency pumping in a rain event.

Okay.

Um the city's doing excellent job at running a concurrent course continuing with the permitting path while we are negotiating the contract with the city or will be um as soon as that permit is issued, which is uh probably I would say, you know, 60 to 90 days, we will have all means necessary to drop in catch basins in the low-lying areas and bring in eight-inch to twelve-inch above-ground pumps to pump from low level to a uh F DOT system as an emergency uh protocol.

Okay, that that's the conversation that we had.

Exactly right.

Okay.

Now again, um, and this may be to staff, is this included or will be included in our interim agreement, comprehension agreement?

But this all was part of the conversation when we decided to move forward in this direction.

So, so commissioner, that's the commitment that we have received from the contractors, and we'll be working with our city attorney's office to incorporate that language into the agreement that we negotiate.

Okay, and also we discussed um I'm still using layman terms.

We talked about the cost, what this will look like, and I I wrote down a commitment that the price that we negotiate uh moving forward will remain the same, avoiding change orders.

So that that is that is what we committed to, and we stand by that.

Okay.

With that commitment, will we need that in our interim and our comprehension agreement?

Because I don't see that listed in the CAM that we're looking at.

And all of these were also conversations that led to us being here tonight.

Yeah, that will be part of the uh contract negotiations, and those points will all be within the and then also liquid data damages.

I keep I need verbal.

Come on, y'all.

Give me some verbal.

Get on the record.

Absolutely.

All of the items that the individual that they originally proposed, all of those concepts will be memorialized in the agreement.

Every single one of them that you saw in the presentation will absolutely be a core part of the agreement.

Okay, all right, thank you.

And for if I'm not out of order, when we um discuss R 4, the same requirements would be expected and asked for in R4.

If I'm not out of order, just trying to condense the time.

Agreed.

Okay, all right, thank you.

Absolutely, Commissioner.

Thank you.

Commissioner, yes.

Just want to put it on the record that my expectation is that we include some significant liquidated damages to ensure compliance with the timeline presented.

So not baby LDs but grown up LDs.

Yes, okay.

Yes, that is the goal.

Thank you for um giving me the verbiage.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Thank you.

Commissioner Glassman, thank you for your time.

Um, I'm I'm really happy to see this going.

I think we could have actually done this four months ago when it first came up to us, and we decided we didn't want to go this route.

So I'm really happy we're doing it now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, I'm very excited.

Took some good work and excited about where it's heading.

So uh now uh can someone introduce our three.

Introduced.

It's been introduced, Mr.

Clerk, call the roll.

A resolution of city commission of the city of Fort Lauderdale, Florida providing notice of its decision to proceed with and accept unsolicited proposals submitted by Mancon Inc.

for the design construction delivery of the Melrose Manor Stormwater Improvements Project authorizing negotiations for a proposed interim and or a comprehensive agreement in accordance with section 255.065 Florida statutes and providing for an effective date.

Commissioner Glossman?

Yes, Commissioner Beasley Pittman?

Yes, Vice Mayor Sorensen?

Yes, and Commissioner Herbst.

It's not present.

Okay, there are resolution passes, correct?

Um just wanna uh it's adopted with three.

Yes, fantastic.

R for the yes.

That's a yes, he said yes.

With three votes, it's just a quorum.

It's a quorum and adopted.

Okay.

R4, resolution providing notice of the decision to proceed with unsolicited proposals submitted by David Mancini and Sons for the design, construction, and delivery of the river land stormwater improvement project and authorizing negotiations of a proposed interim and or comprehensive agreement in accordance with section two five five.

Florida statutes are four.

No one has signed up to speak.

Does anyone like to would anyone like to introduce?

Introduce.

It's been introduced.

Questions?

Mr.

Clerk, please call the roll.

A resolution city commission of the city of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, providing notice of its decision to proceed with and accept the unsolicited proposals submitted by David Mancini and Sons Inc.

for the design, construction, and delivery of the Riverland Stormwater Improvements Project authorizing negotiations for a proposed interim and or comprehensive agreement in accordance with section 255.065 Florida statutes and providing for an effective date.

Commissioner Glossman?

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Sorensen?

Yes.

And Commissioner Herbst.

It's not present.

The resolution is adopted.

Congratulations.

Thank you for your work in the future.

R five resolution waiving the application of the mandatory commission approval amount, the purchase of goods or services, including purchases of goods or services via change order during the period beginning after the last city commission meeting before the city commission's recess until the first city commission meeting following the city commission's recess and providing for a report to the city commission of all purchases made pursuant to the resolution honor before September 30, 2026.

Any questions from the commission?

Seeing none, would someone introduce our five?

Introduced.

And introduced Mr.

Clerk call the roll.

A resolution city commission of the city of Fort Lauderdale, Florida waiving the application of the mandatory commission approval now to purchases of goods or services, including purchases of goods or services via change order during the period beginning after the last city commission meeting before the city commission's recess until the first city commission meeting following the city commission's recess and providing for several rescission of conflicting resolution provisions at an effective date.

Commissioner Glossman?

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Sorensen?

Yes.

And Commissioner Herbst is not present.

And the resolution is adopted.

R6 resolution approving a moratorium of understanding with the Downtown Development Authority of the City of Fort Lauderdale for planning and design services to develop concepts for the future use of the one stop shop site located at 301 North Andrews Avenue.

One person is signed up to speak.

Mary F.

Come on up.

You have two minutes.

Hi, thank you.

No, hit the button there.

My idea, can you start me again?

I think I'm less than this, but good evening, Mary Ferdinand on behalf of Lauderdale tomorrow.

I'm here to nut tonight to express how happy we are that you're commencing a community process to plan design and advance the development of the site known as the one stop shop as a public park.

The Fort Lauderdale City Commission adopted the downtown master plan on November 18th, 2003, after broad input from various stakeholders, including residents, business leaders, property owners, and it was amended in 2007.

And I'm going to be handing you two excerpts from the downtown master plan, but I'll read them to you because the print's small.

By the way, I took that from your website.

Uh one is from the section called Heritage and Legacy Goal on page 51 of the plan.

Need um it reads goal four, encourage preservation of historic and significant landscapes.

Action maintain the publicly owned landscape at the corner of Northwest Second Avenue and Andrews Avenue.

Currently the one-stop shop and preserve the mature trees behind the existing building.

Redevelop the entire block into a neighborhood park as illustrated, and the open space section of the framework.

The others from the section of open space on page 58 of the plan.

Goal two, encourage the creation of new parks and public spaces downtown and um reads action encourage the creation of six new major parks and public spaces.

Community park number six is community park located on the block currently occupied by the city's one-stop shop building.

As you move forward tonight to create a partnership with the DDA to work with the community to create a park, please consider rezoning the property park.

Uh your MOU is for a term of 18 months.

And so it's conceivable that by the end of 2027, you would actually have this property zoned for the intent of the downtown master plan as park and have plans for the park.

In addition uh to the excerpts from the downtown master plan, I wanted to give you a picture of Dr.

Wilhelm handing over the deed for the portion of this property in 1945, which he gave to the city for just a dollar as they have excitedly made plans for their new city hall.

Please rezon the property and proceed with plans for the park envisioned by the Fort Lauderdale residents, business leaders, and property owners.

Nearly 25 years ago.

And I have to tell you, this is scary.

I was sitting in some of those meetings.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Uh City Manager, the rezoning, we've rezoned many of our parks to parks.

Is this uh an option for this?

This is certainly an option that the commission could pursue.

And Ben, just so I'm just gonna I'm sorry, I'm gonna take this to tell you because you should feel really good about this.

And the last few years you've re done that with 23 pieces of parking.

Exactly.

Yep, I'm very proud of that.

Um, so excellent.

I think the rezoning makes sense to me.

Uh Commissioners, what commissioner Glassman, this is your district.

Yes.

What do you think?

Uh thank you.

Uh I'm thrilled about this.

I'm I'm happy about this.

I've had great discussions with the DDA, I've had great discussions with the neighborhoods around the park site.

Um again, my only my only concern is I don't want it to take 18 months.

I actually think that we can do this faster than 18 months.

I like to just really get this moving.

And I really also love the temporary activations of the site.

I think that's a great idea to get folks used to coming here, seeing what the potential could be.

I think we can do a lot of really nice things in the time that we're developing what it is we want to do with this site.

So I'm all in favor.

Thank you to the DDA for all of the work on this, and I I look forward to moving forward with it.

Thank you.

Excellent.

So the city manager for some of the other feedback I got was making sure that community engagement is citywide as we think about this and plan for it as a city park.

Um so that'd just be one suggestion, and Jenny, I see you're in your here for questions, but uh that that'd be a suggestion.

That and then if we did want to rezone it to park space, what would that process be?

I'm gonna turn it over to our deputy city manager and need clarification as to whether you want you would want us to proceed with that, uh, in tandem with the work that we're contemplating with the DDA.

Yeah, thank you, Manager Williams.

Chris Cooper, deputy city manager, so vice mayor commission.

As uh Mary said, the uh the master plan does call this out as a place for park open space type amenity within the downtown, but I would say about the rezoning, this is a very large it's a large site, it's I think about three acres in size.

As we go through the process with the DDA, um the commission is signal signaling the intent to have a park-like um feature in the downtown with this site.

I would say though that as we look at those potential uses, um, in the mix of uses that could be within that park like feature in the downtown, uh there may be opportunities for certain amenities may be co-located on that site that may not fit within that park zoning box.

I'll use Heisenga Park for an example.

The the balance of the site I believe is zoned park where all the park like features are, but there is that restaurant component that does draw folks to that park space on another large site similar to the one stop site.

So I think the intent is there to develop a park-like feature in the downtown, but if the commission or the community had a desire to have a feature on that that didn't fit within the park zoning district, we could cut that out of that site and rezone the balance to park to preserve that as park, but also leave some flexibility to what those other amenities or co-located features may be.

Okay, great.

So then maybe commission if if this is um aligned with or thinking have the DDA process move forward as that design and feedback from the community comes back to us, then we can begin to approach and think about what should be uh zoned what and so forth.

Yeah, I think we have time.

Yeah, time.

Again, I think we've heard the overall intent to build a park like feature, but just to allow for that flexibility.

Great.

Thank you.

All right, would someone like to introduce our six?

Introduced.

It's been introduced.

Any other questions from the commission?

City clerk, call the roll.

Hey, resolution city commission of the city of Fort Lauderdale, Florida approving a memorandum of understanding with the downtown development authority of the city of Fort Lauderdale for planning and design services to develop concepts for the future use of a one-stop shop site located at 301 North Andrews Avenue, delegating the authority to the city manager to execute the memorandum of understanding on behalf of the city of Fort Lauderdale and providing for conflict several ability and an effective date.

Commissioner Glossman.

Yes, Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Yes, Vice Mayor Sorens?

Yes.

And Commissioner Herbst.

Yes.

Resolution's adopted.

R seven, this is quasi-judicial resolution approving the amendment to site plan level four, development permit nine twenty northwest seventh Ave.

Broward County Board of County Commissioners.

Broward County Central Homeless Assistance Center.

Anyone wishing to speak must be sworn in.

The commission will announce any site visits, communication, or expert opinions received and make them part of the record.

Commissioner Herbst.

None.

Commissioner Lindsey Pittman.

Commissioner Glassman.

Well I apologize.

Hold on.

Take your time.

This is R7.

This is R7.

Yes.

None.

Sorry.

I have had site visits and discussions with applicants.

Okay.

Does anyone on the commission have any questions?

Seeing none.

Questions only for those who are here.

Can I have a motion to close public hearing?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

City Clerk.

Commissioner Glassman?

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Sorensen?

Yes.

Commissioner Herbst.

Yes.

With that, public hearing has been closed.

Will someone introduce R7 for approval or for approval?

Yes.

Excellent.

City Clerk.

A resolution of City Commission of the City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, approving an amendment to the site plan level four development permit for the Broward County Central Homeless Assistance Center.

To increase the occupancy limit to 300 beds, providing for several and providing for conflicts.

Commissioner Glossman?

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Sorensen?

Yes.

Commissioner Herbst.

Yes.

With that, the resolution is adopted for approval.

Excellent.

Good work.

Now R eight.

So R8 is resolution approving a site plan level two development permit with allocation of flex units and alternate design requests in the downtown regional activity center.

11 North Andrews Ave.

Batchow FAM, Oz, Fond, LLC.

Anyone to wish anyone wishing to speak must be sworn in.

Questions only.

Commission will announce any site visits, communications, or expert opinions received and make them part of the record.

Commissioner Herbst.

Previously met with Robert Lockery.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Robert Lockway.

Commissioner Glassman.

Yes.

I met with Robert Lockrie and also had several conversations with uh applicant uh Noah Backown.

Excellent.

Myself, applicant, uh Robert Lockery, site visits.

Any questions?

Can I have a motion to close public hearing?

So moved.

Second.

So we moved and seconded.

Mr.

Clerk.

Commissioner Glassman?

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Sorensen?

Yes.

Commissioner Herbst.

Yes.

Commit uh public hearing is closed.

Would someone introduce R8?

Introduced.

Excellent.

Introduced for approval.

Mr.

Clerk.

A resolution of City Commission of the City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, approving the issuance of a site plan level two development permit for an alternative design that meets the overall intent of the downtown master plan for the development of a 27-story mixed use development named 11 North Andrews consisting of 378 residential units and 4,821 square feet of commercial space use through the allocation of 62 residential flex units located at 11 North Andrews Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, Florida in the regional activity center city center zoning district having an underlying land use designation of downtown regional activity center providing for several ability and providing for conflicts.

Commissioner Glossman?

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Sorensen?

Yes.

Commissioner Herbst.

Yes.

It is approved.

Alright, now we go to public hearings.

PH1.

Public hearing approving the city of Fort Lauderdale's 2026-2027.

Annual action plan for entitlement grants programs provided by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Any questions?

There are no speakers for this.

No further discussion.

Can someone please have a motion to close public hearing?

Moved.

Moved and second.

Mr.

Clerk.

Commissioner Glassman?

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Sorensen?

Yes.

Commissioner Herbst.

Yes.

Public hearings closed.

Is there a motion to approved?

PH1?

So moved.

Moved.

Is there a second?

Second.

Second, Mr.

Clerk.

Commissioner Glossman?

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Sorensen?

Yes.

Commissioner Herbst.

Yes.

And the motion is approved.

PH2.

Quasi judicial resolution approving a waiver of limitations at 1614 Brickle Drive for one boat lift extending 27 feet 8 inches into the waters adjacent to the upland property property.

Anyone wishing to speak must be sworn in.

The commission will announce any site visits, communication, or experts' opinions received and make them part of the record.

Commissioner Herbst.

None.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

None.

Commissioner Glassman.

None.

I have none as well.

Any questions?

Can I have a motion of close public hearing?

So moved.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

Mr.

Clerk.

Commissioner Glassman.

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Sorensen?

Yes.

Commissioner Herbst.

Yes.

Public hearings closed.

Would someone introduce the resolution for approval?

Introduced.

It's been introduced for approval.

Mr.

Clerk.

A resolution of the city commission of the city of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, pursuant to section 47-19.3e of the city of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Unified land development regulations.

Approving the application by 1622 Brickle Drive Inc.

for a waiver of the limitations of ULDR section 47-19.3C for installation of one boat lift extending a maximum distance of 27 feet 8 inches plus or minus into the waters adjacent to the upland property.

Such property being located at 1614 Brickle Drive, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 33301, and more particularly described below, subject to certain terms and conditions repealing any and all parts of resolutions in conflict here with and providing for an effective date.

Commissioner Glassman?

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Sorensen?

Yes.

Commissioner Herbst.

Yes.

That the resolution is adopted.

PH3.

Quasi-judicial resolution approving a waiver of limitations at 234 Plaza Las Olas for a one finger pier and one boat lift extending into the water adjacent to the upland property.

There are no no one is signed up to speak.

Anyone wishing to speak must be sworn in.

The commission will announce any site visits, communications, or expert opinions received and make them part of the record.

Commissioner Herbst.

None.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

None.

Commissioner Glassman.

None.

I have none as well.

Any questions, Commissioners?

Can someone introduce a motion to close public hearing?

Introduce.

Second.

And moved and seconded.

Mr.

Clark.

Commissioner Glassman?

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Sorensen?

Yes.

Commissioner Herbst.

Yes.

Public hearings closed.

Can someone introduce a resolution for approval?

Introduced.

It's been introduced.

Mr.

Clerk.

A resolution city commission of the city of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, pursuant to section 47-19.3e of the City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Unified land development regulations approving the application by Susan Rotman for a waiver of the limitations of ULDR section 47-19.3C for installation of one finger pier and one boat lift extending a maximum distance of 48 feet 10 inches plus or minus into the waters adjacent to the upland property.

Such property located at 234 Plaza Los Alles, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 32301, and more particularly described below, subject to certain terms and conditions repealing any and all parts of resolutions in conflict here with and providing for an effective date.

Commissioner Glassman?

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Sorensen?

Yes.

And Commissioner Herbst.

Yes.

All right.

With that, it passes and is adopted.

PH4.

Quasi-judicial ordinance approving a rezoning from residential multifamily.

Medium rise medium high density district to northwest regional activity center mixed use district.

Case number UDP Z 26002 538 Northwest 8th Ave and 537 Northwest 7th Terrace.

Anyone wishing to speak must be sworn in.

The commission will announce any site visits, communications, or expert opinions received and make them part of the record.

Commissioner Herbst.

None.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Um yes, with um Greg Bruton and Associates.

Commissioner Glassman.

None.

I have none as well.

Uh we have a few individuals assigned to speak.

Greg B.

Lawn M.

Greg, just questions.

Fantastic.

Lawn.

Questions?

Fantastic.

Hope it's questions.

I do have a question from Mr.

Beasley.

So Commissioner Beasley Pittman is the only one you wanted to meet with in this.

That's my question to you, sir.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

I'll remember.

We were friends, Greg.

I'll remember, sir.

Thank you.

No reason to answer that question.

She's very special.

She's very special.

It's all right.

You're still special, don't worry.

All right.

Um, any questions, comments?

There's none.

Can someone introduce a motion to close public hearing?

Close.

Second.

Then introduce second and Mr.

Clark.

Commissioner Glossman?

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Sorensen?

Yes.

Commissioner Herbst.

Yes.

Public hearings closed.

Someone introduce the ordinance for approval.

Intages for approval.

Mr.

Clerk.

In ordinance of the City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, amending section 47-1.6.b of the City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, unified land development regulations through the revision of the official zoning map of the city of Fort Lauderdale and Schedule A revised compilation attached there to and by reference made a part thereof so as to reson from residential multifamily mid rise medium high density district to Northwest Regional Activity Center Mixed Use West Districts Lots 7, 845, and 46, Block 15, North Lauderdale, according to the plot there of as recorded in plot book one, page 48 of the public records of Dade County, Florida, together with that portion of the 15-foot vacated alley per official records book 15316, page 195 in the public records of Broward County, Florida, lying adjacent to and contiguous with said lots 7, 8, 45, and 46, located north of Northwest 5th Street, west of Northwest 7th Terrace, east of Northwest 8th Avenue, and south of Sistrunk Boulevard.

All said lands lying and being in the city of Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, Florida, providing for conflicts, providing for severability, and providing for an effective date.

Commissioner Glossman?

Excellent project.

Good luck.

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Sorensen?