Okay.

Good afternoon everybody.

Welcome to the city commission meeting this uh June 6th.

Excuse me.

July 2nd.

Right.

I'm dyslexic.

Okay, July 2nd, 2026.

Thank you all for being here today.

We have uh just a few items on the afternoon agenda, but it's going to be uh um uh filled with a lot of information, so really looking forward to moving ahead and getting this forward.

I want to thank the vice mayor for taking over the chair uh at the last meeting.

Thank you so much for uh conducting the meeting.

I appreciate it.

Welcome, Mayor, thank you.

And uh so let's move ahead.

We have a communication uh to the city commission from the central city redevelopment advisory board.

Um is uh city manager thank you, Mayor.

Guess we have reviewed that communication and we do feel that we're able to address those concerns.

Uh is there anyone here from the central city rede?

You want to speak?

How are you?

Yes, please, yeah.

I can't see, I can't see yet.

I couldn't see whether I can't see the podium, so oh yeah, but Mr.

Mayor, yes, commissioners, uh city manager, city staff.

My name is Nicola Stan.

I am uh have been a member of the advisory board for three years now, and uh uh uh sign up for another three years.

Um I live in the CRA boundaries.

I am um on the fifth terrace uh 1125 Northeast Street.

Um I wanted to talk about this communication.

Um the communication is a recommendation to accept proceeding with the land use amendment um pro uh program as it's um uh as it's uh presented to you with the reduction in scope to only the rezoned areas, which is what was approved at the board meeting.

Uh what was discussed over the previous years uh when uh rezoning was discussed.

There was a lot of meetings and back and forth um consensus has been established on the rezoned on the areas that were proposed for rezoning, not for the entire CRA area.

So that's one thing, and the second thing.

Before you go on, so this is an issue that's been um bounced around since I was a commissioner.

So is our CRA manager here?

Can we talk about what the timetable is about implementing those changes and when it's going to come before the commission?

Good afternoon, Vanessa Martin, CRA manager.

So we are at a stage where we're actually trying to bring forth the land use plan amendment consultant on board.

We have that coming before you in August 18th, as far as the rezoning is concerned.

That was of course on a whole through September October of this year through this the Senate Bill 180.

So we're working through all of those um parameters to make sure that that everything is addressed in a timely manner.

Once we can bring that consultant, we're going through the negotiation contracting periods right now for the land use plan amendment, and once we can get that sorted out, we will bring that to you on August 18th.

But our but we do understand the urgency and we are working with city departments to address those concerns.

So when you say um you're you're putting out to bid for the consultant, what consultants have we been using up to now and why aren't they part of this process already?

So we that part of it has been done already.

Um procurement has already gone through through the CCNA, and they have identified a firm, and that firm right now is actually we're actually in the negotiating contracting process.

We're also working with legal to come up with other um ramific decisions in order for us to before we can draw a conclusion to the contract.

So when you say um it's coming to the commission in August, what exactly would be coming to the commission in August then?

The the land use plan amendment consultant hiring that firm to come to um to help the central city CRA.

So we don't have the firm on board yet.

No, we're actually going through the negotiations.

Procurement did select a firm, but we're currently going through the negotiation part of that process right now.

And so that that is this is not something that we are actually discussing today, because we're still in the process of that.

We were actually discussing the master plan consultant, and so that's what we're bringing before you today.

Okay.

Uh district commissioner, do you have any questions?

I not so much much of a question, but just as a concern also, I do because I do echo what I'm reading in terms of the communication.

There is always uh that message that I get that things are just moving slowly, that that when when questions are asked about why are things moving slowly, it's always in the hands of another city department or someone else is working on it, or CRA is working for something to come back, waiting for something to come back.

So, are we cognizant of that issue as a concern so that we can see these projects move a lot quicker?

Um, even when we go ahead and hopefully we'll ratify the consultants that you're talking about and the plans that we're talking about.

Can we set a maximum time on that so that these things happen within a reasonable amount of time, you know, six months, nine months, and we move forward, uh, just so that we get off the dime.

It just seems that everything just sort of gets stuck a little, if you know what I mean.

I I I do agree, and in working with legal, we're trying to come up with a notice to proceed and adding some type of time frame where that's a no notice to proceed plus like five days to complete a task.

So we are working through those negotiations right now to make sure that that is in the contract, and we do hold the consultant accountable to make sure that the deliverables are achieved at a certain amount of time.

That would be excellent.

I and I'm happy to hear that because I think it's really needed.

Um we just need to expedite these projects and just move.

Um they they just seem to languish.

Yes.

So thank you for recognizing the concern and hopefully we'll see an improvement in that.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Great, thank you.

What's that what's point two?

Uh well, I think we're mixed up a little bit.

Uh this was the concern about.

Um, I first talked about the Lupa consultant coming on board, and uh just to summarize it is reduction in scope only to the rezoned proposed areas, not the entire CRA.

Right.

That's the recommendation.

And if possible, in any way uh in light of uh a senate uh state bill uh to proceed with what is the what is that Senate bill?

180.

What is 180?

What is the impact of that?

That was the Senate bill that preempted our ability to uh change zonings in certain respects that contradicted what the state was um was requiring, and they we thought that they might have killed it the session, but they did not.

They've extended it a little further, so it's kind of a whole holding up some of our uh attempts to change some uh code.

So we're not allowed to change our zoning.

Um in some aspects, yes, there's things certain things that we cannot do if they are uh preempted by the Senate Bill 180, and it should sunset.

I I believe it's in July of next year, I believe, but it's uh about a year away.

Okay.

Mayor, I think Chris Cooper can add a little bit more color if you'd like.

Okay, yes, uh, thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, City Manager.

Chris Cooper, Deputy City Manager.

I just wanted to mention we did um send an LTC, I think a couple months ago that we worked on in conjunction with the city attorney's office that includes uh a really great summary of Senate Bill 180, but as well it includes a table of projects and zoning initiatives that are affected by the Senate bill.

So we can recirculate that after this meeting so you have that for your awareness.

Okay, and but it really gives a good summary of everything that has that bill has an effect on.

Okay, great.

That would be very helpful.

Thank you.

Chris, could you stay there a second?

I want you to help address uh Nicola's uh concern about the land use plan amendment because I did notice that was the second motion that came to us uh communications from the board, um, and it passed six three, so there was some disagreement there, obviously.

But maybe if you could just go through that really quickly because I want to make sure we address his concerns as well.

But as the vote stood 6 to 3, they are saying just focus on what they are looking at in terms of what's being rezoned and not the entire district, correct?

Yeah, and that's typically what we would do.

So the central city area has a variety of zoning districts, everything from residential uses all the way through to commercial uses.

So what the land use plan amendment would apply to are those areas that the zoning district was created for, which are primarily along fourth, 13th in that area in between, because that is where we were attempting to add a mixed-use component to the area.

So the land use plan amendment already really only can really only take into account that area that the zoning was going to be applied to.

I'm assuming that the three that opposed that wanted it to be broader.

I would have to go back and check the minutes.

I don't know today why the three opposed it.

I don't remember seeing a lot of the detail though in the minutes why the three were opposed in terms of because obviously this is just limiting it to the areas proposed for rezoning, so I was assuming that the three wanted it to be much broader in scope than just that limited area.

But maybe someone from the board can help me understand what happened.

And then that's and certainly we can go back to the board and have that conversation, but it's just not really how land use and zoning works.

So the zoning is what allows for the specific uses and the types of things that can be done on those properties.

The land use assigns the intensity and entitlements to those.

So a land use plan amendment would would create a pool of units for that area, create a density for the properties, it would create uh transportation standards and things like that to make sure that those uses and future developments were accommodated.

So again, the land use plan, the land use under that underlies the zoning really only applies to those areas that are rezoned for that zoning district.

The zoning district allows you to do the things you want to do.

The land use provides the basis for those uses.

Okay.

Thank you, Chris.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay.

Did you want to add to your comments?

Um I did.

So if this is the case, then uh the scope of the proposed contract with the land use consultant should be changed to what was just said.

Because that's not what it was communicated to us.

Okay.

And that's why the communication is as it is.

Okay.

Um and uh the second topic about uh uh frustration with long delays.

I think that was already addressed uh uh appropriately.

So we are just looking to communicate uh um uh a need uh uh for your help to identify uh what in the processes is causing such long delays.

There is a clear disparity between what's promised and what uh actually happens, and with such a uh a big uh transiency in the board memberships, it's uh uh hard for advisory board to really function cohesively because new board members um uh take time to get on to to get up to speed on the projects and and the projects really uh last for years.

Um, and a comment on why some of these board members uh the three board members voted uh against uh one member asked to be abstained uh previously that board member asked to get quickly familiarized with the rezoning, she only joined um uh I want to say a couple of months before.

So that's an example of why these projects that last so long um cause friction in uh uh decision making like this.

Yeah, all right.

Thank you.

I have a question for city attorney.

City attorney, are board members or committee members permitted to abstain if it's not a financial conflict of interest.

Can someone abstain just because they don't feel up to the speed?

No commissioner, they must vote.

They must vote.

So we we should make sure that we take care of that.

That's why there was a third against because the person could not abstain.

That's what he said.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, thank you.

Okay, uh Troy, did you want to speak?

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor, members of the commission.

First, I think we've clarified about the land use amendment.

Um, uh only the areas we rezoning, the neighborhood is fine, the neighborhood endorsed that communication and what's communicated.

The second one issue is what I want to touch on briefly, and that's what on the delays.

Um, I hope you realize the extraordinary position that this crab board is in and its frustrations.

There are a lot of nice words in their communication to you, but note that they voted unanimously about the delays in general with CRA projects.

Um, I hope you take that seriously.

We really don't feel like anyone in the city is.

Um, we met with the city manager last August, and we talked about three issues of concern.

Number one is urgency.

Um, almost a year ago, number one.

She was new, she was get figuring it out.

Number one is urgency.

There hasn't been a project started since 2019 that is finished.

The Fourth Avenue sidewalks, the dead-end street lights, this capital plan, everything is still pending.

They haven't been able to pay to finish two blocks of sidewalks since they got the million dollars in 2019.

Um, when I met with the city manager, we talked about transparency.

This issue that you're facing tonight with land use, about what does it apply to?

Like at the last meeting, they couldn't answer that question, and they told us you've known this all along, and they're like, No, we didn't.

So that's why they made the communication to you to make it clear.

Transparency is a problem.

The third point is engagement.

When we met with the city manager in August, we were like, please help us with the communication.

It would help tremendously with all of these issues.

One thing we suggested was that someone from the CRA come to our meetings.

You may remember Miss City Manager, you turn to Vanessa, who's now the acting director.

Like, can you guys do that?

The police take the time out to come every month.

Code comes just for a few minutes, so we can answer questions.

That was in August, they came in April.

At the following meeting with Chris Cooper, we're like, Can't you have a community forum?

They do this in SysTrunk in Commissioner Beasley Pittman's district and uh in that area at the and Commissioner Glassman's, they hold community forums on this what's going on with the CRA regularly.

I think last year there was a whole series of them, what was happening in that area.

We're like, can we have one in our meeting with Chris Cooper?

She turned to he turned to Fidessa.

We'll see what we can do.

In December, at the December Crab meeting, staff said we're gonna do that in the first quarter of 2026.

And I went back and people came away happy they're gonna do that.

It's July.

All right.

So that's my point.

That's what my communication.

Thank you very much.

Okay, thank you.

Um, Kimber.

Good afternoon, Commissioner.

Uh, Mayor, staff.

My name's Kimber White.

I reside at 1112 Northeast Second Avenue.

I live in the CRA, but I'm also chair of the Central City Redevelopment Advisory Board for the past two years.

Um, all the concerns that Nicola and everyone have said is true as far as communication.

Uh, one of the most recent communications that we had is the zoning.

Uh we've been asking for months and months and months what's going on with zoning.

Only to finally get a call after I made a phone call.

Oh, we're delaying it because of Senate Bill 180.

That's not the type of communication that we need to have.

Um, in December, uh, I will say that.

Um, we had asked CRA to have a meeting, a working meeting with everyone.

It is the second quarter, and we don't have that yet.

So we have made those directives.

But at the same time, the staff tries.

I think a lot of the issue is communication between city contractors, things that done.

I'm in the finance business forty years.

I understand contractors, finance, building, so it takes a while, but it also takes full communication.

And I feel like at times that's not what we get.

I want to go back to the LUPA.

The reason that I think the people voted for and against is when we first started this, there are properties that back up to properties in the CRA.

If you do land use that is separate, you may not be able to zone because of the depth of the other properties or properties that are backing up to it.

So that is one of the reasons that we had initially talked about doing outside of the CRA because of where those properties are, the land use and the zoning.

But we did agree that all we wanted to do was inside that zoning area for now.

The other question I'm having is when there was a vote by the planning and zoning commission, 100% all agreed to move the plan forward.

And to at that time, the city attorney uh said that we can do a bubble, which they voted on to put that district and everyone that was a builder and developer agreed that they would drop down to 80 feet, they were never a problem with it, and we were moving forward to city council, even with Senate Bill 180.

Since that time, I understand that the city attorney's office has changed their mind.

I we were never communicated that we went to the meetings, we all discussed it, we're moving it forward.

Now we're here in another year.

You have a redevelopment advisory area, you have an area I've been in the city for 20 years.

Central City is one of the last areas to be redeveloped.

Central City has lost two booms.

You're getting ready to lose another one if you're waiting two years.

That's what's going to happen.

Central City is like that snaggle tooth that's missing, another year and a half, and I've been in finance, like I said, 40 years is a long time to wait.

I would hope we can figure out a way to make that work and move it forward and put all the efforts that the CRA's put into it.

Thank you.

Anyone else wish to speak on this item?

Okay, all right.

So city manager, those are the directions that was that the neighborhood is requesting, and if we can uh work with our manager, the CRA manager and uh the advisory board is roles with the district commissioner.

It does seem like a lot of these projects just seem to linger, so um uh glad to hear from the neighborhood.

Thank you.

Uh okay, moving on to the city commissioners' reports.

Um District One, John Hurst.

You have none, okay.

Um Commissioner, more time for me.

How you doing, John?

Good afternoon, everyone.

Um I'm always grateful for this time to share what we're doing, and then also to um bring up discussions as possible.

Um, wanted to give congratulations to our Fort Lauderdale police and our explorer program.

Um, one of our explorers, Danico Zapeta, has been um through the Florida Association of Police Explorers, has been recognized for being the outstanding new explorer for the year.

So let's give Danico a hand.

And also with that being said, recognizing Officer Fairburn for his leadership with our explorers.

I'm really excited to see the um the movement with the explorers because we do know that um during the pandemic there was a time where we were not able to have our explorers in action, and they're they are again uh working and representing and learning leadership, and also um within this month, um, they had a great graduation for the explorers.

So, again, thank you for what you're doing through the program, it encourages our young people to um take a look at what our law enforcement is doing, giving them an opportunity to be hands-on, um learning about public safety um hands-on.

So I want to share that.

Also, I wanted to um bring to our attention and have a conversation in regards to um our group violence intervention program.

I'm gonna read the statement because I want to make sure I hit all my points.

I get so um emotional sometimes when I say things, so I do not want to miss anything.

I want to cover everything.

So if you would give me the privilege of hearing me out, it's not that long of a statement, but it is detailed.

Um, it's in regards to our commitment um with our police regarding the group violence intervention program.

This is a public safety um program.

This June, it was a it was strategically um rolled out, it was an interaction rollout that gave GVI introduction to the city of Fort Lauderdale.

As you know, I've been working with the PD, and we did launch this program in District 3, and that was because that's where the data took us first.

But GBI addresses a Fort Lauderdale problem.

What we are seeing pertaining to violence violent incidents is a Fort Lauderdale problem.

Offenders, they don't check district lines, neither should we, neither can we as a commission.

We cannot do that.

This is not a call, this is a call in, this is not a call out to what we have been doing, but I'm calling us as a commission in to take part and be proactive with this program.

I'm asking us as a commission to work together as one body because the residents who elected us expect an united front.

We show up unitedly for Tortuga.

We hold press conferences advocating for safety during spring break, and as we should, we should do that.

But when it's time to show up for generational families and neighborhoods throughout the city, we are not there.

But we can fix this, and now is the time to fix it.

This means standing together in unity, not stopping at the invisible lines where we think it doesn't matter.

We are a whole city.

As far as I know, we're not just 25% of a city, these four of us that represent.

We are a whole city.

Here's a fact for Fort Lauderdale violent crime.

This problem affects all four districts.

Violent crimes as shootings, stabbings, assault, sexual assaults, and they don't stop at the boundaries.

Yes, it's in all of our backyards on the east and on the west side of our city.

The principals of GVI are sound, and our police department knows it.

I sat down with our chief as well as with our major exo Steven Sheffloe and also Captain Will August.

They didn't guess.

This cannot be perceived as a solo or silo police initiative, nor a silo district three initiative.

This must be city-driven.

That means that this commission, the PD, the city manager's office, along with Strategic Communications, all working together with a dedicated project manager to coordinate all of this.

GBI, it devised from a proven model refined by John Jay College, the institution of criminal justice, who we have already partnered with.

We're following their curriculum, building trust on every block, creating relationships, and hosting events that will bridge gaps.

The whole city, all four.

We know we don't have a strong mayor, but what it does pertain is violent crimes.

You have to address that.

It doesn't mean that you have to be a silent mayor when it comes to violent crimes.

What I'm asking of this commission is one commitment overall is that we own GVI together, and that the commitment looks like these four specific items.

One showing up consistently, we got to commit.

Each of us are committed.

If each of us are committed to GVI events that will look like us moving forward in the next 12 months, being committed and moving beyond the 12 months.

What we have seen and why this has this matters.

GBY had four events this month, and the commission has not been present.

Do you want to know who has been present?

We've had both federal and state representatives, pastors, chaplains from our very own police department, the neighbors, they're showing up.

If federal and state representatives show up and we don't, what is the message we're sending?

Number two, we need to fund GVI permanently.

We can look into for fiscal 27 for GBI's project manager and outreach where it could be sustainable within the next for the next three-year plan.

And that is something that we have part of our priorities, but I want to make sure that we understand the necessity and the urgency of this.

This includes strategic communications again between PD, city manager, and the strategic communications.

Number three, we need to institutionalize this.

We need a resolution making GVI permanent part of the permanent city policy, integrate it and within the Fort Lauderdale PD's violent reduction strategy with quarterly reports back to this body.

This should outlive all of us on this diet.

Number four, reporting publicly quarterly, rent mandating, quarterly GIV progress reports at commission meetings, data, outcomes, which commissioners show up, and we'll be able to own this.

No more I don't know after a shooting.

We want to know what's going on.

We want to be here as a whole doing what's necessary to make sure that our our city is holed.

We stand united for tourists.

At times we stand united as we built, and times we stand united for the families that built our cities.

Again, offenders do not check district lines as the commit as a committee, excuse me, as commissioners, neither can we.

Mayor, again, I'm asking that we have an agreement to have a resolution to make sure that GVI is a part of the blue plant for the city of Fort Lauderdale.

Okay, thank you.

Does anyone have any comments with regard to that?

I would just request that we can get some information.

I haven't really read much about it, and I I just like to be a little bit more educated.

If we can get the information, I'd be happy to read it and understand it better.

Okay, can we also at this time just to um if we can have our chief and some of those who are here with who represents GVI, give us verbal again because this is not the first time we've had this conversation.

I've been ringing this bell since last year, and we can do more about um incorporating everyone in the conversation.

But again, this is not district three, this should have been something that sparked an interest among each one of us in this on this dais because violent crime is not just in one part of our city.

We've seen it everywhere.

Commissioner, as Chief Schultz prepares to speak, I just want to highlight that we shared a letter to the commission uh yesterday detailing our efforts with the GVI program and what the next steps could be.

Thank you for that.

And before the chief speaks, so just a couple of thoughts on this.

Um, I think GVI is probably one of the better programs out there from what I've seen.

Um, you know, my my questions are somewhat specific about it.

Is it implementation assistance only or is it funding permanent staff?

Um, one of the things that I bring up over and over and over again, I'm sure you've all heard me talk about it before, is what kind of performance metrics are going to be reporting?

How frequently, and again, who's going to be evaluating these outcomes?

And again, uh, whenever I talk about it, I had this conversation with you at uh yesterday.

We talk about outcome measures, not just inputs, not just activity.

So, what I'd really like to see is what kind of outcomes are we looking at, and also what happens if these targets are not being met.

So, as we think about a program and programmatic funding, um, again, I from what I know of this program, I think it's a very good one.

I think it's probably one of the best violence prevention programs that is accessible for communities to use.

So, I'm generally supportive of it, but I'd like to understand what it is that we are doing, what our expectations of the program are, and what happens if those expectations are not met.

So kind of think about that.

Thank you, John.

That is also, you know, I did date on notate that those are the outcomes, um, data that I'm looking for as well.

So we are in agreement regarding how we're going to see the quarterly reports.

So, Chief, please.

Okay, good afternoon.

Uh Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commission, uh Chief of Police Bill Schultz.

Um, yes, to go directly to answer some of those questions.

Uh we will be reporting directly uh via a letter to commission, and I will be here as a chief, before you begin.

Okay, give the commission um, tell us a little bit about the genesis of this project and what is it what what its intentions are.

Well, actually, what I'll do is I also prepared a statement just like you, Commissioner, just to make sure I got it all correct.

So I'll go ahead and read that and then I'll answer the specific questions.

Uh GBI is a nationally recognized evidence-based strategy, reducing violent crime by focused law enforcement, uh, community leader involvement and service providers coming to the table for a small number of individuals, offenders or victims responsible for the majority of serious crimes.

Uh the goal reduce violence through focused accountability, meaningful intervention, and strong community partnerships.

So that's the that's the overall basis for the program.

Uh and the program is proven uh as noted by the commissioners.

It's already been proven nationally for many years.

Uh this is our first uh go at it, and already we're seeing uh very, very uh strong interest from our community.

Um so far, our key accomplishments thus far during phase one, which did complete on July 1st.

We've successfully launched our impact patrol team, which is a volunteer ancillary team of officers who are concentrating on intelligence-led dedicated uh policing to support our violent crime reduction, and that's already seen results.

Those are some of the results you'll get in the quarterly reports.

Uh we expanded our investigative capabilities through advanced crime analysis technology, including some software programs, conducted six community engagement events throughout this uh past six months, partnered with John Jay College to deliver the four GBI educational workshops, training more than a hundred police personnel, community leaders, service providers, and residents for their very specific roles in this collaborative effort.

And we built a GBI coalition of more than 65 community participants and service providers who have dedicated to their time to the program.

So now, as of July 2nd, we move into the uh second phase of the program, which will include conducting direct outreach to individuals, especially in highest risk areas and those who are in highest risk of committing or repeating gun violence, connecting the individuals with coordinated support services and holding violent accounts uh offenders accountable, also very important part of the program.

Uh measuring our success through our reductions in violent crime, uh our reductions in recidivism is gonna be very important.

Um we're gonna very much so be looking at firearm related crimes throughout it as well.

And uh with that, I will take uh any further questions you may have, and I do have a couple answers for uh Commissioner Herbs as well.

Okay, before you do that, I so I have a question.

So Commissioner Beasley Pittman said, you know, it's important that the mayor and the commissioners get more involved.

What role would we play in getting involved when it's really a law enforcement uh initiative that's taking place here?

So that's where we want to make sure uh, and I am very uh passionate about the fact that I want it to be a community based initiative with support from the police department.

Uh I I definitely don't want this to be seen as only a police initiative or program, uh, but what you can do uh as we begin to reach out to your offices, we're gonna come to you with the uh areas, the data-driven areas in your specific districts that we would like to start to focus on, and then we'll plan events uh in the public, and we'll invite you to attend those events uh to stand side by side with us uh in addressing them.

Uh, for instance, this past weekend we did a crime walk.

Uh we put we've been taking the Tim Smith crime walking, similar walk very similar to back what we used to do with Tim.

Um so that's just one initiative.

Uh back and we do uh front porch briefings and other such initiatives.

So we'll be reaching out to your offices to schedule those.

So that's what she was referring to.

And if I can elaborate a little bit more far as um what I see as um collaboration and cooperation and standing in unity, we represent this city 100%, and if there's anything going in going on in anywhere in the city, we should be there, united, standing and saying we see this, we're not we are addressing this.

Again, we had a peace walk on last Saturday.

Again, we had state and federal representation, I was there.

Not knowing, not saying that you know people weren't there because of their scheduling, but at the same time, people are asking, where's the mayor, where are the other commissioners?

If this is a city-driven event, do they not care about district three?

Those are the words.

This mayor attended the Juneteenth event in Carter Park and was there and was there talking with neighbors and showing my presence.

So it would be very unfair for anyone to say that the mayor doesn't care and doesn't do anything in district three.

What I spent time doing there is specifically in district three.

But this is what's being said.

Well, mayor, I listen.

A lot of things are not fair.

Yeah, okay.

Let's let's put it on the table.

Many things are not fair, but they're factual, they're being said.

Okay.

Okay, and perception and what people are experiencing.

I have learned, it's not what you say, it's how you make people feel.

Yes, you were at Juneteenth.

Thank you.

We all were there, and we know you were there.

But also, at that was a celebration at a time we are declaring that we have had enough, and enough is enough of violence, and the we don't have representation by this dais, that is concerning to the community, and it should be concerning to the whole city.

Well, let me just say this.

You know, I think this commission has been uh very aggressive in responding to uh acts of violence regardless of where they take place in the city.

You may recall how that young boy was uh killed in a in a spray of fire that that uh was extremely tragic.

Uh the families are still um still uh impacted by that, and I commend our police department for finding who the culprit or culprits were.

Yes, and and your mayor had a press conference to bring to bring attention to the community of what happened and and ultimately how we were able to achieve what I thought was justice in bringing those people to um to uh to um uh to justice.

So uh, you know, I for those that that want to demean me or any member of the commission because we don't pay attention to violent crime.

Okay, we I'll admit that I can't be everywhere, but I do try to be as many places as possible, and I have to say that um as I look at members of this commission.

I think everyone does their best to try to get to as many things as possible, regardless of which district it's in, and uh uh and we'll just have to do better if that's the perception.

So that's the word, and and I I the mean is not the intent.

This is a call in for all of us to look and see what more we can do.

Okay, that's the line, and the mean is not the attempt, and I believe that my colleagues, you all know who I am and how I operate.

I'm not one who stirs up mess.

My goal why I'm here doing working in this capacity is to see unity across this city, and to be honest, that's not something we have.

You can it it's a fact, it's something that we don't have, but it's something we could attain.

Okay, I believe we can do that before 2028.

Okay, Commissioner or Mayor, if I can jump in there, Commissioner Visa.

Yeah, I just want to say thank you.

Um, I think this is a very important initiative, and I will pledge to participate and support uh to the best of my abilities and and appreciate chief your work on this.

I've I'm very familiar with the stats and the outcomes of um these initiatives, not only in the city, but when you look countrywide at some of the cities that have been very successful, this is one of the key driving forces to really lower violence.

And so I'm loving that we're doing this, and and I'm all in to support.

So thank you.

Okay.

Um else have any responses or comments.

I do.

I I think it's an amazing program, and I think we should definitely move forward with this.

I just want to make a comment about process and the way we run our business meetings and when we have conference meetings.

You know, we moved our conference meetings to one o'clock because we we found that we were just getting really backed up.

So this is a very important conversation.

I think it's a conversation that the public should have a chance to read backup, should be on an agenda.

I'm finding that more and more we're doing things either by just referencing letters to the commission under a manager's report, or we're just doing things because one of us brings something up at a commissioner's report.

And I think that does a real injustice to the community.

I think it does an injustice to us because we don't have really a lot of reference.

Like we could have had that statement from the chief.

We could have had the statement from Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

We could have had backup.

We could have we could have had a really thorough discussion and plan for this accordingly as part of our agenda.

But I'm just finding that more and more we're conducting business where no one really knows what's coming.

It's not noticed to the public, and it's taking up a long period of time from the meeting.

So I'm just saying that going forward, I would just appreciate if we could just streamline um the way we do business in terms of how we conduct the meetings and make sure that we have an agenda that has items listed so it's not just happening and people don't even have a clue about it.

So I again I'm not this is nothing negative about what I'm hearing today.

I think it's wonderful.

I think it should be buy-in from all of us.

I'm just talking about process and the way we discuss business.

That's all.

I agree with you, Commissioner.

And my goal and the reason why I brought this up was to start the process, um, not to have a full open discussion about um what we the plan or what we're gonna do, but to get the buy-in from the commission so we can have exactly that type of a process.

So um, I'm believing I am following the process introduction opening a conversation from us deciding to give directive to city manager to move in a process where we can follow the um process at hand.

Okay, thank you.

Can I can I kind of weigh in on that?

Um, so it uh that's actually a very good point.

Um so uh I'm gonna try and thread the needle here a little bit.

So historically, what we've used the conference meeting for is to introduce topics and then say I would like this to come back at a future conference meeting for a larger discussion.

So I think it's kind of in between, so uh Pam.

The idea of bringing it up that this is something that I want to talk about is great, but I also along the lines with uh Commissioner Glassman say this is not yet appropriate for us to be giving direction to the city manager because I don't think we're necessarily informed or educated enough where the public is.

So I think it's somewhere in the middle between the two to say the conference meeting is best used as an opportunity for each of us to bring forward issues that we're concerned about that we would like then to have a future discussion on, a scheduled discussion with the public engaged and the supporting documentation that everybody then has had an opportunity to review and and is ready to discuss.

So I think it's kind of in the middle.

Thank you.

Do you have any further more matters you like to bring up?

Um that's the only matter um that I'm bringing up today, and um just um saying to everyone thank you for um listening to uh my introduction of the GBI that's already in process.

Thank you to our PD who's doing an amazing job um already um with what's being done.

And then my other um comment I want to make to all of us.

Um we know that we are in this summer season.

I encourage us all, please, please stay hydrated.

Um, this is very serious.

Walk with your board um water bottles if you need to wear a cap, wear a cap, but please um where we can take care of self, hydrate, hydrate.

And thank you for the time, Mayor.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Commissioner Glassman.

I just need that time.

I just need to hydrate for a second and then I'm gonna be right with you.

Hold on, one second.

Okay, thank you.

I feel much better.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um I was actually thirsty, so it was perfect timing.

Thank you.

Um thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Good afternoon, everyone.

It's our last day of school.

This is so exciting.

Um June 19th, I had the pleasure of speaking at the Broward Workshop, an excellent discussion.

That was basically the urban core.

We we talked about every issue that you can imagine in terms of what impacts the city, uh, what impacts business, and I thank them for the invitation to speak to that group on the 19th.

Um June 20th, um uh we had a great event.

Um, Vice Mayor was there, mayor was there as we as we showed to the public the circle of love by the Celine.

I want to thank Celine.

I want to thank staff, I want to thank anyone that had anything to do with it.

Uh everyone that attended, um, that was a really nice community event, and uh, I think in terms of happening during Pride Month, that was really great.

I'm sure the mayor will talk about this a little bit more uh in his report, but that was a really nice event.

So thank you to everyone that had something to do uh with putting that circle of love together by Sebastian Beach.

Uh, really appreciated it.

Uh June 22nd, again I want to thank um DSD.

Uh, anyone that had anything to do, the vendors with the sailboat bend master plan community meeting.

Um, as you know, last year in the budget, we had the funding to move forward with the vision plan for Sailboat Bend.

Sailboat Bend is our oldest neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale.

It is also our only historically designated neighborhood uh in a residential neighborhood in the city of Fort Lauderdale.

Um, and we've moved from the vision plan to now a master plan uh for that that neighborhood.

So I'm excited about that work moving forward again.

Thank you to staff for putting that together.

Uh, and to all of those who gave their input both uh in person and also virtually.

Uh I'm really looking forward to how we are going to be able to make that neighborhood even better uh than it already is.

Uh, June 24th, I had the pleasure of attending the Middle River Terrace Neighborhood Association meeting.

Um uh city manager was there.

Uh a great number of staff was there.

We covered a lot of topics.

Uh it was a really cool area that we were in, also called the space.

The business was called the space uh off of 13th Street.

Um again, I wanted to thank everyone for that meeting as well and the opportunity to be with everyone that night.

Um that night also we had the Sailboat Band Master Plan Results were presented.

Um, and again, looking forward to that moving forward.

Uh, June 25th, uh we convened the district two presidents round table uh meeting.

We had a really nice lunch together to wish everyone a good summer.

Uh, I want to thank Colette Sachel for appearing with us and taking time from her busy day uh to talk about the work that she does.

Uh one thing I find when we get all of the presidents together in district two, uh it's not a shy bunch, and yet it's a very passionate bunch.

And I I appreciate that.

And we learn so much from each other, and each of those people do so much sharing, uh, and it really is very helpful to see uh what each of those presidents learns from the other presidents that have gone through very much the same issues, uh, and the sharing of the knowledge that takes place is excellent.

Uh, we also try to make sure that they get to meet uh new staff that they haven't met yet to understand what staff does on a daily basis.

Uh it was a really nice meeting, and it was a pleasure being with everybody.

Uh and again, uh really hearing from each of those presidents what's happening in each of those neighborhoods in real time uh is very helpful um to the rest of the group.

So I wanted to say thank you.

And again, Colette, thank you so much for being with us that day.

Um that evening, um, Mayor, you and I attended the Axios launch.

Um, Axios, as many of you know, is a news media outlet.

Um, they actually have a newsletter and a presence in Miami.

This was a launch to actually extend their reached into the cities of Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale.

Um that was a really well-attended meeting.

Uh, and actually very interesting to meet the players uh that are going to be talking about and reporting on the city of Fort Lauderdale.

Uh, I found my conversations with these journalists to be very interesting.

Uh many of them felt that, and I know this is gonna come as a big surprise to people, that our local newspapers maybe don't always cover everything so positively uh in the city of Fort Lauderdale.

Uh nor do they actually uh praise a lot of the work that we do as a commission uh as a city, uh all of the neighborhoods, and these folks from Axios seem to understand that uh and that was a joy to have those conversations with them and to hear what it is they wanted to be able to tell to the world about what is happening uh in both the cities of Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale.

So I welcome them to town and I welcome their their knowledge uh and the work that they're going to do uh covering our our amazing city.

Um upcoming again.

I wanted to wish everyone uh a really happy summer recess and a safe summer recess.

Uh just a couple of comments, Mayor, that I wanted to get some answers to from City Staff if that's okay.

Uh we all did receive um a letter that was dated June 26th uh that was signed jointly uh by many of our union presidents, uh the FOP, uh firefighters, teamsters, and federation of public employees.

I wanted to ask the city manager.

Uh I was a little concerned when I read this letter about the procurement process and how long this has been languishing.

Uh this is regarding the uh our completion of the event 330, the employee plan administration, which really seems that it could save uh a good deal of of money for folks.

I wanted to just find out if we are going to get to the bottom of why this would take so long and what we are doing about that in terms of moving this a little bit quicker uh and uh what what the direction was with this because it just seems that it's just been hanging there way way too long.

Thank you, Commissioner.

I'm gonna have Glenn Marcos, our procurement director, share some insights.

To my knowledge, uh this solicitation process has been going on since 2024, and I think Glenn can provide some details as of right now.

I believe that staff is currently working uh with the city attorney to try to bring this to completion, but I'll allow Glenn to talk through some of the milestones over the past two years.

Before we get into that, so Commissioner Glassman, I began raising questions about the 401 and 457 plans.

I'm looking at my emails now because I have everyone going back to 2006.

So I first raised this issue in 2012.

2012.

So through I can't even count how many administrations this has been a problematic.

Um we last had a solicitation to bring in new uh fund managers back in 2019.

We actually did a solicitation to bring on some uh consultant to develop an RFP to bring on new fund managers.

And then the selection committee met, and I think it was in 2020 and rejected all bids, and I don't know why, and so I've been trying to get this back up for consideration.

Um my finance director knows that I regularly harass her about the current status of the 457 plan.

So this is again, I have been working on this issue since 2012.

And by the way, so for everybody that says that government uh moves slowly, this is slow.

Glenn, do you want to respond?

Uh yes, sir.

Thank you.

Glenn Markholes, uh Chief Procurement Officer.

Um, consistent with those with uh what the city manager went ahead and shared.

Um currently the agreement is with the city attorney's office.

We've been working with the city to uh city's attorney's office since April.

Uh we do have a an agenda item ready for 2012.

Okay, no.

April of this year this year.

And we're currently, we do have a drafted cam ready to go.

So hopefully uh this item comes before you in August.

Help me understand something, Glenn.

So this process, this procurement began in January, I believe, about 2025, correct?

Um, so let me go back and give you highlights of the time frames.

Um going back to July of 2024, uh the drafting of the scope happened then.

Um that process um happened to uh be a 16, approximately a 16-month process.

So from July of 2024 to November of 2024, we worked with finance and the finance consultant in drafting the specifications.

The RFP was issued and responses received.

Responses were received in January of 2025.

That was one and a half months that occurred.

The next phase was the proposal review, responsiveness, revenue, review of the firms, responsibility, and then we got together with the evaluation committee to make a recommendation.

That process was uh approximately eight months from January 2025 to September of 2025.

Um negotiations then occur.

Those negotiations were roughly a month between September of 2025 and October.

Uh the drafting of the contract um was taken, uh, was taken upon thereafter.

So that drafting of the contract and reviewing of the red line, approximately nine months between October 2025 to June of 2026.

So as of right now, going back to what I just said earlier, we are working with the city attorney's office.

Right now, the city attorney's office is working with the firm.

There are some exceptions that were taken to the agreement.

Terms and conditions are being somewhat spoken spoken to back and forth between the attorneys within the city attorney uh attorney's office and and Corbridge.

And that's the current that that's the current status.

No, and I appreciate that.

Thank you.

I I just think that it's just been too long.

I I and I I really hope that we're gonna be able to expedite whatever's left to do in this process.

It just again uh you mentioned 2024, it's 2026 now.

It's like I I don't know.

I I mean, this is not my lane, this is your lane, but I from just watching this and reading about this, it just seems that it's way too long.

A process.

So the longest process that took place, Commissioner, happened outside of procurement.

That was the drafting of the scope.

Um that drafting of the scope happened, that was a 16 a 16 month time spend right there.

So that was almost almost a year and a half.

A year and a half to draft a scope.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

And that's something I cannot speak about.

Um we don't draft scopes in the in the procurement department.

That is um the end user that's responsible for that.

Uh the procurement starts once we receive a complete uh a complete set of uh specifications.

How typical is 16 months for to draft a scope?

Well, it all it all depends on the on the actual procurement.

Um it's the level of sophistication.

I'm sure that we're dealing with people's money monies here.

So I'm not really equipped to kind of answer that, but understanding the delicate nature of the accounts that we're dealing with here, and we're talking about millions of dollars.

I'm sure that it is uh critical and vital for us to get the scope correct, but I do know that the finance department was working with their consultant and drafting the scope.

Okay, well, again, I'm I'm hoping that we're gonna be able to bring some relief to all of these employees and to be able to move forward in a you know an expeditious for fashion and a judicious fashion.

But again, I I was just concerned when I read the letter and I said, wow.

Um so hopefully everyone's on top of this now and we'll be able to get to a conclusion.

And commission commissioner, the uh the concern is shared.

This impacts all employees, not just police.

Police and fire.

No, I understand.

Glenn, can I back you up on that?

So we paid a consultant to develop the first scope.

Why did it take us 16 16 months you said to develop another scope?

Yes, sir.

I I don't know the answer to that.

Perhaps maybe I don't know if Linda wants to share.

I I I didn't realize that we were developing a whole new scope.

There was no we literally paid somebody a lot of money to develop the first scope.

And commissioner, you you stated 2020.

I wasn't here in 2020.

I think we started it in 2019, the selection committee met in 2020.

If I recall, I could pull up my emails and tell you exactly, but that's sort of my recollection.

Okay.

Yeah.

And I'm gonna defer to.

Linda knows this is my favorite topic.

Like I said, at least at least every quarter, I ask her the same question.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Commissioner.

Hello, so um it I can tell you that I was here for the whole thing.

We went through it together.

We this is our dance, yes, 100%.

Um, so the first RFP process to develop the scope fell apart.

We end up canceling the contract.

What started the gl the window that Glenn is talking about for the 16-month window was not developing the scope, was to hire a new consultant because the contract we had originally was not good anymore.

So we had to do a new RFP to bring on a new consultant.

So the second person who we awarded it to then develop the scope.

So we had to go through the process of selecting a vendor and then redefining the scope.

So what was wrong with the scope the first time?

I I I remember the scope of work the first time.

It was pretty actually overly exhaustive was the problem.

It was.

So it turned basically into a camel.

It was a design by a committee.

Right.

So decided by the we want to make sure everybody's concerns were represented.

Since the first time when we did it on our own, they had issues with how it was drafted.

Right.

And you may recall I had issues with the selection committee at the time.

I know I berated them quite a bit.

I remember.

Yeah.

Okay.

So no, I I think it was a much thorough process this time, which which made it a little elongated, unfortunately.

Okay, thank you.

I really want this done before I leave.

Again, I've been working on it since 2012.

I've wanted since 2020.

I'm I'm trying to get there.

I'm with you.

It affects everybody, including myself.

And I only have one more item, Mayor.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um I just would like to know.

I know that we've been waiting for a long time for the mural to begin in Peter Feldman Park, and we did get um a letter to the commission that said it was.

This is on the pump station wall.

Yes, correct.

Uh and it was supposed to begin, I think the latest was June 30th.

So can someone tell me if the artist did start on June 30th?

I was showing renderings that it was done.

No, no, it's still not done.

Wasn't started.

We previously shared renderings of the mural applied to the pump station wall.

Um, but that work had not started at that time.

I think there's preparation work going on at this moment to make sure that the wall will receive the paint, and so I think there's cleaning, scraping and some uh prep work.

But I just want to know for sure because the last notice that we got said that he was going to begin on June 30th.

So I just want to know that was like two days ago, three days ago.

Did he begin on June 30th?

Is this has been delayed for years?

Brad.

Our assistant director of community services is coming forward.

It's funny how graffiti artists don't seem to have to prepare the service, and their project stay there forever.

What are your thoughts?

What's happening?

Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioner, City Manager.

The artist is here in the city of Fort Lauderdale and has begun the prep work.

Of course, due to the rain, it has not progressed very far, but he is on site daily trying to get the work started.

Great.

Excellent.

Thank you.

So what's the timetable?

I think it said three weeks, four weeks.

It's three weeks.

Yeah.

Okay.

It should be very lovely when it's finished.

It's nice.

We've seen all the, you know, all the the drawings and looks nice.

So I'm happy to hear that he's here, returned from Italy and ready to go and prepping and it's good news.

It's good news.

This is a wall, not a ceiling.

Well, you never know.

One thing can lead to another.

Okay.

I'm gonna just make sure that he stays hydrated.

In the letter to the commission, we shared four to six weeks.

Three weeks is ideal, but depending on the weather, we would we just wanted to give some cushion.

No, that's good news.

Thank you very much.

And that's it for me, Mayor.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

First topic is wanted to touch on temporary protected status, which is uh humanitarian immigration program used when uh countries in in turmoil and to allow it to um uh nationals that are in other places uh to stay and and um we have there's a couple uh there's a house bill that's looking at um uh supporting and allowing for extended temporary protected status for Haitian nationals, which as you all know, there's a significant turmoil in Haiti, and uh we have many members of our community uh who who work here, live here, who are um protected by TPS.

Well, do we have the authority to intervene with the federal directives in this regard?

I'd like to know that question.

Because we have a huge Haitian community in our in our city, and I don't know I don't know if we have the authority or the are we s uh circumvented from getting involved in that.

Uh good afternoon, Mayor Commissioners Toronto as human resources director.

Well we have the uh tie.

Yeah, good luck.

It's my Patreon.

Sorry.

What we do have authority for is to verify the work authorization, which is impacted by the ability to reside within the United States.

So we've been keeping a very close eye on the certifications of those who are of Haitian born uh citizenship that are residing in the United States that are working for the city.

Uh we have had to take action on one employee whose work authorization uh expired on the 30th of June.

Uh so that uh person unfortunately had to end their employment with the city.

They were separated.

Uh they do have the ability to return to employment if their paperwork is updated and they regain their work authorization.

Uh then we have two other employees, one full-time, one part-time, um, who do have work authorization, but they are also impacted by uh the TPS status.

And the TPS status we learned at uh close to four o'clock yesterday was extended to July 10th.

So they are able to continue working until the 10th, um, at which time we'll wait and hear from the federal government as to whether they will extend it again uh or if they will have to go into an unpaid status pending the resolution of their immigration status.

Thank you, Jerome.

So I think Mayor, we could what I'm what I'm asking is if there's interest to uh support a resolution or statement of support for extending uh TPS for the Haitian nationals, and that could be we could send that to members or members of Congress, we could send that to uh Department of Homeland Security just as a statement.

Um I don't know.

I'm I'm just concerned about interfering with the federal prerogative on this and whether or not um decisions have already been made.

What didn't the Supreme Court recently rule about temporary protective status as it did?

So where does that leave cities in getting involved in something like this?

You have any thoughts on this, Sherry?

Mayor, this is clearly a federal issue.

Yeah.

Um so there isn't much the city could do in that regard, and even if we were to send a resolution to our congress people, um has the dis isn't that an executive branch decision, or I don't I'm trying to figure out the different uh I don't know if that would be helpful, and then there's considerations about jumping into that at this juncture anyway.

I I don't want to I don't want to have a fight with the federal government.

Um I'm not going to win.

We're not going to win.

Uh so but I do I do am very concerned about the this um the situation which a lot of our folks who have been living here for months or years um have now are now facing.

You know, people from Nicaragua, Haiti, um a lot of affected countries um are impacted and they're part of our community.

They've been part of our community for a very, very long time.

Uh upstanding individuals, um, you know, they have jobs, they go to church, they, you know, they're part of our community, but um despite our sympathies, I'm not I don't know, Vice Mayor, what it is uh that we can do to change the executive policy on this.

I I'm just concerned about backlash from the federal government.

That's all okay.

I mean other cities have just supported these bills.

That's all right, Mayor.

We'll move on.

I have a comment with that.

When we decided to stand as a commission to um go against the state government regarding the opportunities where our streets are pay representing flags.

I stood with that because I believe that was something we're fighting for.

And this is worth fighting for this is human life opportunity, even though we may not have an opportunity to win I don't think it will be um deprimental if we make a statement.

I understand.

So with that part of it.

But has it already been decided is my question.

The Supreme Court has ruled Mayor, yes.

And and the Supreme Court's ruled and Congress is considering legislation.

Are they yes so now so th so there is a there is a place for us then.

Okay.

So um uh I would personally support a resolution encouraging our members of Congress in the uh in both the House and the Senate to um to allow you know to be I don't know what I don't know what the resolution is going to say.

Did you want to propose that at some future time?

We could yeah Mayor exactly I think maybe we can we can look at what other municipalities have done yeah what members of Congress I'm I'm sure there are some members of Congress that that are supporting it that we're familiar with so get some of the language.

There's still an opportunity.

Okay.

So if there's still an opportunity I think it makes sense um because you know these folks are very much a part of our community and I'd hate to see their um their place in our community compromised because of uh uh for you know for you know when they go back to their own countries they they came here for a reason they came here to to uh get uh away from violence and get get away from conditions that were insufferable in the lands that they that they escape from so um whatever we can do to encourage Congress to try to come up with a more understanding and sympathetic approach to those that are here on temporary status I think we should be able to do that.

I agree with you.

Thank you mayor so if you can come up with something and then give it to uh our give it to our city attorney and try to put together some kind of resolution for our I guess it's gonna have to wait till August.

That's right.

Is that right?

Congress will be recess anyway.

Right they're not okay thank you.

Thank you very much.

If I could just share I know Jerome mentioned three employees but we also have five additional employees with a work authorization that will expire years out but just want to put it on the radar uh that in total we have about eight employees that may be impacted.

Okay.

Thank you city manager thank you Jerome thank you mayor next topic um something I've been learning a little bit more about which is um uh type of glass type of building glass that is bird safe mayor and this is uh as you may know uh many birds hit glass in buildings uh believing it's not there and so forth and so there's some real uh opportunity to have glass that has some minor adjustments to it to um be termed what's called bird safe glass and this is something some neighbors have brought up to me and so just want to see if that's something we could explore as we think about city buildings new city buildings um so all right so contemplate that there are folks who who are advocates in this regard who have approached me over the years and have indicated that you know dozens of birds are dying every day or every week um there's no evidence of that but um we don't see birds lying on the ground everywhere.

But I do understand uh the possibility that uh protecting uh wildlife uh um such as birds from smashing into buildings because they see their reflection, and there is a coding that can be applied.

I don't know what the cost to that coding is, um, but we could explore it.

Okay, especially if we're looking to build a new city hall, then certainly that's something we can consider.

I don't know what the extra cost would be, but um but you know, trying to maintain a balance in our environment and trying to respect wildlife in our community.

Um, you know, it's um uh at the time I was first approached we weren't building anything.

But um uh and it's not something we can impose on private developers, but we can s any any municipal buildings is something we can uh we should consider.

I agree.

Great.

Thanks.

Chris Cooper, you and I have talked about that.

Is that sufficient kind of guidance or feedback?

Okay, great.

Thank you, Mayor.

That's all I have.

Thank you.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

I just have a couple of things.

Um first of all, I want to compliment our city staff, um, and um uh, starting with uh Daphne Samville and our lobbyists and our manager's office and everybody who's involved in advocating for the state allocations that we applied for at this um legislative session.

Um I do not recall a year in which we have received so much of what we've asked for.

So, city manager, I want to thank you.

I want to thank everyone who's involved with that.

I want to thank our again our lobbyists who were um uh really fighting for us.

I want to thank Chip Lamarca, our state representative, who um was up there advocating for uh uh a number of um financial obligations now in the Sun Sentinel today, for those that still read it, I know you don't, but uh uh for those of us that still read it.

Um all we heard was negativity.

All it's uh talked about was how uh the governor vetoed this and vetoed that, but they don't talk about all the things that he did not veto and all the um the grant money that we that will help advance so many of the projects in our city.

Uh so I want to thank the governor and I want to thank uh the legislature and I want to thank all those involved in making that happen um and uh and I appreciate these uh city attorney uh Sherry McCartney for bringing uh to a resolution our dispute with FDOT regarding street markings and having brought that to I feel a win-win situation, which was I think a uh precursor before we would have ever seen a positive result.

But we we made it we made it work.

We our team made it work, and I want to thank you and everybody for having accomplished that.

And now our city can continue to move forward with a lot of the projects that we had that we still have planned.

Um I also want to thank the uh I understand five members of our fire department uh were deployed to Venezuela to help assist in the uh urban in the rescue efforts for the the two major earthquakes that took place there.

For those of you who saw the images uh either in print or on television, um uh it's just unbelievable the amount of devastation that took place there and the hundreds of people that have died as a result, uh uh whether or not uh you know they'll recover someday, but how many years it's gonna take to get people back to where they were.

Uh and I want to thank uh our fire chief for uh allowing that to happen and thank you, uh Chief Golan for participating in that uh rescue effort.

We really appreciate it and uh it shows a tremendous amount of honor that we as a city uh can share uh and knowing that our uh our members of the fire department were there to help others.

Um also I want to mention uh July twenty eighth uh national night out.

It's gonna be at four p.m.

at Carter Park.

We do this every year.

Uh the at the goal here is to bring attention uh to the importance of crime prevention.

Uh and I hope everyone from the city will take a take time out of their their schedules.

It's at four o'clock p.m.

begins at four o'clock, it continues for several hours, and it brings the neighbors together along with our uh enforcement police department to get to know one another.

Uh not to be afraid of a police department, but to know that members of our police department are there to protect you and to ensure your safety in your day-to-day life.

So again, it's July twenty eighth national night Out.

Begins at 4 p.m.

at Carter Park, but it will also continue through the early evening.

Uh and of course, we have our fourth of July event.

And that begins at 12 noon on Fort Lauderdale Beach and continues through 9 15, I think it is, when we have both our fireworks and our drone show.

So very excited about uh what we're able to do there.

I want to thank everybody on city staff who's able to pull together that event and also um I don't know who's the fellow that's going to be singing that Walker Hayes.

Right.

I forgot, I'm sorry.

Yeah, sorry.

Sorry, sorry.

Um, and uh and looking forward to uh his entertaining us uh that that afternoon and the evening.

What time is he coming on?

Do we know?

Is it I believe it's about 7 30.

Is it 7 30?

Yes, 7 30.

Okay, and uh uh so again, City of Fort L'Oreal stepping up and uh showing its great appreciation for the uh for the 4th of July, and of course this year is especially notable because our 250th anniversary.

Um I confess I remember the 200th anniversary.

I was living uh in New England at the time.

I think I I saw the tall ships come into Newport that year.

I was 10 there.

Yeah.

Thanks.

Yeah.

He was here for the signing of the declaration of independence.

Thank you.

Thanks.

The reenactment picture you see.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I loved your wig.

Yeah, thank you.

It's in my closet.

Thank you.

So uh anyway, looking forward to Saturday night.

Pray that it doesn't rain.

So uh yeah, no, but uh uh we're looking forward to it, and uh uh and I hope everyone from the community comes uh to Fort Lauderdale Beach, get there early and uh bring the family.

It's gonna be a great time for everyone in our community.

And that's it.

So uh we can now begin our afternoon discussion on uh.

Wait, Mayor, I have comments.

Yes, I want to I was gonna get to you.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

City manager's report, and MGR1.

Yes, thank you.

Please proceed.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just want to highlight our finance department uh this week we were able to submit our annual comprehensive financial report to the state timely, and this is a significant accomplishment made possible not only by our director of finance, Miss Linda Short and her team, but this truly is a reflection of the commitment of the city commission in last year's budget.

We requested two additional accountants to support that department, and that has helped tremendously with being able to uh submit our report on time.

We want to thank our auditors, but just truly we appreciate the support in doing so.

We haven't been timely since the 2021 report, and I'm just really proud of Ms.

Short and the entire finance team.

In addition, you mentioned uh supporting Venezuela and the earthquake relief efforts, as we did with uh Hurricane Melissa with Jamaica and uh Cuba.

We are collecting donations in partnership with Food for the Poor.

We have several donation sites uh at fire stations throughout the city, and so we want to make sure that we're promoting that to our neighbors and stakeholders.

We'd love to get as much support for that program as possible.

If someone wants to donate money, is there a uh website or something?

Is it through the American Red Cross?

Do you know any info?

You have any information on that?

Food for the Poor, which is a nonprofit will accept financial donations as well, okay.

Food for the poor.

Yes.com.

Let's be careful about soliciting from the day as well.

I know that.

Well, just it's informational.

I know that's what you were intending.

Yes, thank you so much.

And that concludes my record.

Um, as part of your report, you uh you have uh three pages of uh status on the on the follow-up items that the commission has requested.

So, does anyone have any questions of the of the manager with regard to the attachment to her report?

If not, I mean you can always meet with her separately and discuss this, but I just want to make sure that uh if there's anything that's particularly salient that uh you were able to bring it up now.

Okay, so um city attorney, do you have a report?

No, Mayor, I do not.

Okay, thank you.

All right, so moving on to business one.

This is a city hall update, uh, project history, building evaluations, revised interim agreement, and financial overview.

City manager.

We have three people who sign up to speak, and I assume these are from Jacobs, right?

There you are.

This isn't church, you don't sit in the back of the room.

Jonathan, Kevin, and David all signed up to speak.

Thank you very much, Mayor.

212 days ago, on December 2nd, the City Commission asked staff to negotiate an interim agreement for development of a city hall.

140 days later, on April 21st, the City Commission also asked staff to explore the feasibility of three existing sites and buildings that could house our city hall.

We're now 72 days later, since that time, and we're here to share not only our findings, but also the progress on the interim agreement since the last time it was on the agenda.

As promised, appraisals have been completed.

Staff has provided a detailed list of funding mechanisms to support a city hall project, whether new or renovation.

That funding approach also contemplates property tax reform should it be approved by voters.

We wanted to ensure that we could outline a roadmap no matter what outcome and no matter what decision by the city commission uh would be revealed to us.

Staff has completed every single task that the commission has given us.

We have outside council, we have our owners' rep, we have appraisers.

Of course, we have been working diligently with the developer, and today we want to ensure that we lay out all of the due diligence and all of the efforts to bring to the commission viable options to move forward with the city hall project.

So our guiding principles as established by the infrastructure task force before you before you yeah, they're not showing on the screen.

They're not showing on these screens.

Okay, there we go.

The commission asked that we incorporate the guiding principles in our assessment of the opportunities for the city hall site.

I just wanted to remind the commission as well as our viewers as to what those guiding principles were.

Accessibility and security, a major priority, history and arts, cost effectiveness, a site that's welcoming and engaging, functional and efficient, amenable for the public and for staff, resilient and innovative.

All of these factors were contemplated in reviewing not only the opportunity for a new city hall through a new build, but also the existing buildings based on any potential renovation.

This slide provides a snapshot of our review of those existing buildings.

Each building was appraised by two independent appraisers, and you see the average appraisal as is.

The renovation costs reflect a swing of about 30% below and up to 50% above, and it contemplates renovations that would bring the buildings more in line with a new build project.

The total estimate is provided as well, including the annual impact.

In addition, we have been working diligently.

Can you back up a second?

Yes, sure.

Where it says annual impact, does that also include operation and maintenance on a yearly basis?

It does not, and there's a little footnote at the bottom of that slide.

It does not include that.

I just want to point that out.

Okay, thank you.

The interim agreement has changed significantly since April 21st.

We heard the feedback from the commission, and we sat down with the developer and we began to contemplate what we could do to make the project more viable and more acceptable to the commission.

To deliver the project, we have now reduced by about 50 million dollars the cost to bring that project to life.

Our annual impact has reduced from 24.1 million to 15.8 million, which reflects an 8.3 million dollar decrease.

But that includes operational maintenance.

Correct.

Right?

Correct.

What is the number for operation and maintenance for the other buildings?

Do we have that number set aside?

We have some estimates, and we tried to back into it based on the square footage of each building.

As you know, if there is a renovation that is significant, the likelihood that operations and maintenance would be significantly high.

I think that that is rather unlikely.

However, as those buildings get older, those costs may go up.

So what we tried to do is take a cost per square foot approach for each building and estimate what the operations and maintenance costs would be.

We have Jacobs available, our owners' rep, they will be speaking about that in greater detail.

We also have Quentin Pugh, our assistant city manager, who will go into those details as well.

Okay, thank you.

On April 21st, the interim agreement included developer equity.

That developer equity is no longer a part of the project.

There is no developer fee as part of the project.

The developer has also been able to do a redesign of the project and has provided two options, option B and C, which is a part of the agenda package, and those design options include a building that is 215,000 square feet.

We're also looking at milestone payments should the city commission decide to move forward with the interim agreement.

All in all, our team has worked to be responsive to the request of the commission.

Several members of our team will be presenting today.

Yvette Matthews, assistant city manager.

She will open with a brief overview of the project history, and I know it's a long history, and she will go through it as quickly as she can.

Quentin Pugh and Jacobs will go through the building due diligence.

We have assistant city manager Ben Rogers who will talk about some of the terms of the interim agreement.

We also have Eric Singer outside counsel with Bills and Sumberg, who has been with us for the entirety of this project negotiation.

We will then close with assistant city manager Matthews with a discussion on the budget approach for the project.

There are various opportunities for the commission to weigh in on, and all of these are subject to your feedback as we contemplate developing the fiscal year 2027 budget and as we look ahead to fiscal year 2028 and 2029.

So I'm going to turn it over to Ms.

Matthews at this time.

Thank you, City Manager.

As the city manager mentioned, the city conducted a very robust public outreach engagement effort before embarking on creating a vision for the new city hall.

The city conducted five workshops, each with a focus on a different topic across the city in conjunction with the infrastructure task force.

The feedback is included in this slide, which shows the efforts that were put in, and as you can see, the number one priority was accessibility.

And that came from both the infrastructure task force as well as the public outreach efforts that were completed.

It was also reflected in our neighbor survey results.

The city also had an opportunity to engage a leadership cohort from the Urban Land Institute, which focused on turning the city hall into a central meeting place for our local government.

This is a timeline of those public outreach efforts, which started in 2023 and continued through 2024.

In May of 2025, the city received an unsolicited proposal for the city hall project, which led us to the conversations that we're having today.

In 2026, the really this project had tremendous uh effort and progress.

And as you can see, we're now here in July 2020 or June 2026, July 2026, in preparation for a decision by the city commission.

With that, I'll turn it over to Quentin Pugh, who will talk about the appraisals that were received on the project.

Thank you, Miss Matthews.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Commissioners Quentin Pugh, Assistant City Manager.

City staff coordinated both building appraisals and condition assessments for three existing buildings.

The purpose of this effort is to provide the commission with two key pieces of information, each building's estimated open market value based on independent appraisals, an evaluation on each building's current condition, suitability for city hall reuse, and rough order costs for major improvements based on identified deficiencies by Jacob's project management.

Together, this information is intended to help the city commission evaluate whether any of the following buildings could serve as a viable alternative to new construction.

Due diligence was conducted on the following three buildings.

The Ivy Tower 101 is approximately 231,000 square feet and consists of two office buildings.

The main tower is 19 stories and was constructed in 2001 above an eight-level parking garage.

The property also includes an adjacent six-story mid-rise office building known as the center, which was constructed in 1987.

One East Brower building is a 19-story tower, constructed in 1983 with roughly 350,000 square feet of space.

The building is also connected by a pedestrian bridge to the city-owned parking garage.

The federal courthouse was constructed in 1978 and is a four-story building with roughly 170,000 square feet of space.

The city used two independent appraisal firms, Callaway and Price and Walter Duke and Partners.

This was done in accordance with Florida law, which requires two independent appraisals when a municipality is considering acquisition of a property valued at more than 500,000.

Both firms have extensive experience in commercial and real estate valuation, including complex office and institutional properties.

Representatives from both firms are here today and available to respond to any questions from the city commission.

Both appraisal firms use standard real estate valuation methods, including comparable sales, income potential, lease information, market rents, and operating costs.

They looked at what similar properties are selling for and what income the buildings could reasonably generate.

The far right column shows the average appraised value for each building, approximately 69.5 million for Tower 101, 80.5 million for one east Broward, and 28.3 million for the federal courthouse, which value rests on the sales comparison approach only.

This next slide puts the asking price next to the appraised values.

The independent appraisals tells tell us what each building is estimated to be worth in today's market.

It also established an important valuation baseline to inform any future negotiations.

For Tower 101, the asking price is approximately 16.5 million higher than the average appraised value for one east Brower.

The gap is a larger, roughly 42 million above the average appraised value.

Acquisition of the federal courthouse will run through a different process and not a private listing.

Pivoting from property valuation to condition.

Under task order number four, uh Jacobs project management conducted a phase one assessment of all three buildings.

In summary, their tasks were to perform a high-level review of each building's ability to support city hall functions, including a commission chambers, assess each building's current condition, including its major building systems, and complete a structural evaluation, prepare near term and life cycle cost analysis, and develop a database comparison to inform the city's building, the city's bill versus buy and renovate decision.

I would now turn it over to Kevin Regalato, principal architect uh for with Jacobs Management to walk through their findings.

Also joining him from Jacobs is David Feet, Senior Project Manager and Jonathan Jordan, project engineer and business leader.

Quentin, before you leave, can I just ask you one question?

Yes, sir.

When did Ivy?

I think that was the first time someone reached out to us about selling a building to us.

Do you know do you remember when that was exactly?

I wasn't here around that time.

Um I don't have the exact month, but I believe it was some sometime in summer uh 2025 that they may have reached out.

Um, Ben Rogers can speak to that.

Good afternoon, Commissioner Ben Rogers, assistant city manager.

Uh Commissioner Glassman, yeah, it was sometime during the summer of 2025 when we were talking about our lease extensions and what the future city needs are for the space.

Summer of 2025.

Okay, thank you.

And also just one last question for you while you're there.

Thank you, Ben.

So at the last commission meeting, I asked about why we're considering um the development team we selected in conjunction with two buildings that approach us to sell their buildings.

When the development team had to pay the $25,000, the two buildings did not, and I think there was consensus among the commission to go back and say yes, you should be paying that $25,000.

So, where are we with the two buildings paying that $25,000 to have that skin in the game and be considered on this equal level as the development team that we're moving forward with?

So we met with representatives from both buildings uh last week to speak about that.

Uh they were open and amenable to submitting the $25,000.

Since that time, we submitted invoices to them and payment instructions.

Uh to our understanding, both of them are going to be making the payment, but to date we have not received any.

Was there a uh due date on that invoice or was it just left open-ended in terms of an invoice?

Um I think that it's been more in real time.

Uh Commissioner, so the the one is process of payment.

Now they've committed to make the payment.

Uh, the other one was gonna be dropping it off either yesterday or today, but I don't believe we received it at this point.

Okay.

Thank you, Ben.

I'll now turn it over to Kevin Regalato from Jacos Project Management.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Letting us uh speak to you today and give you a brief brief um a brief synopsis of the report and kind of our findings throughout the uh the process.

Um, our assessment and methodology, um, the limitations we had.

Our standard approach was a non-invasive assessment based on HTME 2018.

Um, that was the main project.

We uh in May we were out on the site.

Uh, we had about six weeks to conduct the site visits and put the report together.

Um, this phase one is was just a screening um of each of the the three properties and not so much a uh in-depth diagnosis of the uh of each of the of the facilities.

Uh, it was more to inform um the commission whether um the direction was to build a new facility or or a purchase of one of these three facilities and and renovate.

Um, the cost estimates that you're gonna see uh later on in the presentation.

Um were based on a class five um uh double ECE recommendation um for the feasibility level, and it has a range of of a plus 50 and a minus 30.

Um, and again, that includes all the numbers you're gonna see include all soft costs, social costs and and markups as well.

Um wanna thank both uh two of the three um facilities um and their team for providing us all the information.

Um the one that would not get we did not get too much information just because it's an operating courthouse, um, and due to security reasons we're unable to provide us a lot of information as far as plans and information, but we did have a walkthrough of the entire facility with them.

We'll be going over the three the three different um projects.

I just wanted to make sure that um this is the same format for all three.

This will be a quick rundown on the first column, the system condition.

This kind of gives you an idea of of the of the main systems, the structure, envelope, uh MEP systems, fire light safety telecom and site flood uh uh the prone to to sit and flooding for each of the sites.

Um, red being it's probably not as good.

Green is really good, and and the yellow is kind of in the middle.

So that's kind of uh the color coding.

You'll see that, and you'll see that throughout the rest of the presentation with the matrices that we're gonna show.

Um, strengths and opportunities.

Uh we'll talk about key key considerations for each of the three, and then uh the suitability for uh for city hall for each one of these three.

The first one we're gonna talk about a little bit is uh tower one oh one.

Um we did look at the uh the strengths and opportunities for this one.

Um durability is it's uh it's a concrete uh frame structure, concrete uh um slabs as well on each of the of the uh of the buildings.

Um this one's comprised of two tower and a smaller building just to the east.

Um the tall tower, uh the skin on that building is all precast um with glazing, and then the um the smaller building is uh more of an episode component system with a steel framing on the exterior and glazing as well.

Um it has a large uh garage podium, that's the only one of the three that has a really large garage component.

Um, and this one's good because it has about about um 423 spaces, and that will be in addition to the uh the existing um parking garage that's uh county owned, um just to the to the west of it.

Um six hundred and thirty uh staff is more than ample space to accommodate, and as well it's uh it's a compact and down in downtown just like the other two buildings are key considerations.

Um for this one was the uh the glazing on the exterior would need to be replaced uh as far as the windows on the on the tower, and then on the small building, it'll be the entire skin uh just because of the year that it was built back in the early to mid-80s.

Um and then the uh can I can I stop you right there?

Because I read through all this, and you you probably heard the comments that I made to staff yesterday.

Um why do we have to replace the windows?

It's and by the way, these windows made it through Wilma and Katrina and every other helicane when all the windows in the school board's Crystal Palace blew out.

I happen to move here in 06 and I used to look at them every day from my building over there.

Um nothing happened over here.

So tell me why we've got to replace windows that are perfectly good.

In my house, I don't rip stuff out until it fails.

I don't just come along and like replace my roof 10 years into a 30-year roof.

I don't rip out perfectly good windows and put in new windows until the insurance company tells me they're not gonna insure because they're not, you know, hurricane-proof.

So I I reject the entire premise of this entire study.

I'm not faulting the work you did.

I'm faulting the underlying premise that says we have to do a study about how we bring a 20-year-old building up to brand new, you know, cat five status.

I it that was not the direction that I heard from the commission.

So tell me why we're replacing windows that are perfectly good.

Commissioner Hearst, what about bird glass though?

You know, that's a very good point.

I'm just want to bring that up.

I I think that's absolutely a very good point.

I can't live with the thought of birds dying on a daily basis all around the city.

I just needed to mention it.

Thank you.

And by the way, bird glass adds about 10% to the cost, especially with an all-glass building.

So if we're building an all-glass building, adding bird, you know, bird friendly glass is a horrible idea.

Just so that I can.

Unless we only do the first three floors, which is what they do in New York City, they only put bird glass at the height of trees.

I've looked into bird glass before, so yeah.

Thank you.

Thanks for the comments on bird glass.

Appreciate it.

And, you know, part of what we do here is we represent the people of Fort Lauderdale, and when they come to ideas with ideas to us like bird glass, are there initiatives that are fair and reasonable and worthy of consideration?

I think it's it's appropriate to consider it, have a discussion, and um, you know, act accordingly.

So appreciate the bringing up bird glass, and glad we're continuing to look into bird glass as a as an option.

Thank you.

Go ahead, Kevin.

Sorry, go ahead with your response to Commissioner Herbs.

No, um, so the the building was especially the small building was built in the mid-80s, be just before the uh the Florida building code take into effect and and the wind requirements and the and all the all the uh you know the the pressures and everything else.

My first office in 2006, by the way, was in the small building on the third floor.

Very familiar.

You want to fix that one up, go for it.

So the idea is always to bring the building up to code, especially in the with the floor building code, and we'll get into a little bit of that in another slide.

If you have if you renovate more than 50% of the of the building, or then you have to bring the whole building up to code, including.

So stop right there.

If you renovate more than 50% of the building, so where are we renovating more than 50% of the building is is my starting point.

If we're not ripping out the windows and all this other stuff, we're not renovating more than 50% of the building.

It and the if the way we the way we're doing it, or we look at the assessment, the way we were tasked to do is to look at the building and both buildings, right?

In this case, they're combined, small building and the tower, and looking at the floor plates, edge of the floor plates, whether it's in this case in the small building case, that's where the county commissioners uh the commission will be at.

So that there we're doing some major renovations to the first two floors, and the upper floors, the idea is to bring in new restrooms because that'll meet code, bring up the code, and then go ahead and to the current code.

So my my office is in that building and has been for the last 15 years.

I haven't noticed a problem with the bathrooms.

It's so what what's the what's the bathroom issue?

The bathroom issue is the you have a city commission, you have an assembly use, so the number of fixtures are a lot more.

You need to provide for the for the chambers.

So you have to provide more restrooms.

So it's throughout the entire tower throughout the ground floor and wherever the public is gonna be, okay.

So if we keep the tower, if we keep the public out of the rest of the building, then I don't need to worry about upgrading the bathrooms.

It's some of them meet code and some of them don't.

So depending on what floor you're in, we need to go in and provide upgrades to meet the current code.

So if we don't put a commission chamber in there, we don't have any of these problems.

If we continue to use the the rather overpriced community center at the new police station, and by the way, I don't know why we have a community center in a police station, but that's a whole nother question.

But if we use the community center that's in the police station that we're going to be occupying for the next couple of years, then we don't need to build chambers in the building.

Is that accurate statement?

No, that's not what we were.

No, I'm not asking you, mayor.

Thank you.

I don't, I don't need support.

I I'm asking I'm asking the uh the professionals.

Yeah, we were we were that wasn't part of our task, so okay.

I'm not sure what the task was because it's certainly the task that you guys executed, and this is my again, my my question zero here, doesn't sound like the task that we discussed up here at the commission.

So go ahead, I'll I'll let you continue.

Yeah, and I'll keep peppering you with more stuff as we go along.

I I like doing that, so go ahead.

And Commissioner Herbs, if I could jump in there.

Yeah, I was at the police station this morning actually in the community room, and this is gonna serve us well as a commission chamber in the short term, definitely, and I think it's worthy of consideration as we explore all options, which is what we should do for the people of Fort Lauderdale, explore options, to consider that that could be a commission chamber as we think about these possibilities.

And Kevin, so to your your your as as you did this analysis, the totality of the renovations, the totality of renovations you're suggesting are required to bring it to a like new standard.

Is that right?

Like new standard to meet the current code to meet city hall requirements.

A typical city hall requirements for all for all the amenities that it should have at the city hall.

So does code require us when we buy a building to immediately move everything up to uh to set it by code?

If you don't do any work on it, you bought it and you could and you could use it.

So we could buy it, use it.

Depending depending on the use, right?

Depending on the use.

And if you want different amenities or if you don't want amenities within your city hall.

Yeah.

So we use it right now, for example, many a couple of these buildings as office spaces.

My office is in which is right.

So we have not required any significant upgrades to the building.

And why have we not needed to do upgrades?

Because it's it's it's a it's an existing space use for office space for that use that you're currently using it.

Great.

So once you bring in different amenities, public space, public functions, you have you know the commission chambers, the really big one in this case, then those those trigger different um upgrade requirements.

Sure.

So I have public functions in and around my office space right now.

Right.

So I have public meetings, I have large HOA gatherings, we do a host of things in those existing buildings without bringing it up to code.

And that's fine in your accessory use to an office through an office building.

It's all accessory uses.

The commission chambers, and that's why on some of the buildings you're probably have been seeing being presented to you for from the developers, they usually have a separate little building or a separate little area for the commission chambers, because they want to separate that from the tower.

Yep, because it's two totally different requirements.

Yep.

So in this case, you know, we we do have the and with tower one on one, we have a little building that we call it a little building on the on the east side that we could do that function.

Yeah, and the tower could potentially stay the same.

Great.

So I think that's an important point.

So in other words, if I'm hearing you right, continuing to use either one East Broward or 101 in the current use as we use it, uh, we can continue with operating as we're operating without massive renovations.

If you're using a profit space, is what we're doing right now, and and you could live with the way it's all laid out, yeah, and it's doesn't if it meets your current standards and your requirements, yeah.

Then yes.

Okay.

Great.

If we wanted to put a commission chamber in one of those buildings, within then that would possibly change and require this 160 million dollar renovation in totality.

However, if I heard you just right, if for example, in tower 101, tower 101 is actually two buildings, right?

Correct.

So there's a the smaller building.

So if we want it, we could renovate that smaller building to create a commission chamber.

Is that fair?

And not have the exorbitant 160 million dollar renovation, it would just be a much smaller dollar amount renovation to the much smaller building.

Is that fair?

Yeah, yeah, David.

Please, David B.

Yeah, come on up, speak up speaking the microphone.

David Beat, um, the project manager who was involved with the project as well.

Um general contractor, uh certified construction manager.

Um, in addition to the commission chambers, the scope that we considered was as you are moving in your various departments and looking at adjacencies between the various departments, what that might mean on a floor-by-floor basis as far as a renovation, and if you need to go in and take an office space that is currently all individual small offices and want to make an open office space to fit your program, that also counts towards your 50%.

I just wanted to make sure you were aware of that.

Yeah, thank you.

That helps, David, appreciate it.

And where are you?

Vice Mayor, where are you getting 160 million dollars in renovations?

I've never seen that number anywhere.

Yeah, let's see here.

I'm going to page, let me go up there.

So I'm looking at page, let's see, it's page four, maybe if you want to bring that up, uh Quinn.

If you're able to actually I see it on page 30.

Page.

Page 30.

57.9 million dollars to renovate Tower 101.

Okay.

So, yeah, but if you go to page four, because I think that's a little easier, Quentin.

Please.

Thank you.

Just it sums it up.

So here's what I'm looking at, Mayor.

Is for Tower 101, their total estimated renovation, 157.9.

So that's what I'm looking at.

Okay.

Their suggestion.

Um, great.

Thanks.

And then the other option, if I heard you right, was you could continue to use Tower 101 or 18 Broward in its existing office space use, negating the need to have massive renovations.

And you could use, for example, we could build a commission chamber on the land that is now where the previous city commission city hall was, right?

So you could build, in other words, a two or three-story chamber there and negate the need to do massive renovations to either these buildings if we bought them.

Is that another option?

Yeah, that's another option.

Okay.

And then a final option, as has been mentioned, is continue to use one east proud or 101 tower for the existing current uses, negating the need for significant renovation, and use the police station as a chamber if we want it.

Again, just another option.

Yeah, that could be an option.

I don't know the size of that police.

Yeah.

As long as it's about 13,000 square feet and you can have a 300 people, then yes.

Then you should do it.

I just want to looking at all options as we're weighing uh good possibilities.

Okay, thank you.

So we're tower one.

Yeah, and before you move on, can I ask you a question?

Because I want I'm looking at the key considerations here.

So one of my concerns about tower 101, and you tell me if this is best practice.

You you mentioned that this is above an eight-story parking garage.

Is that best practice for a governmental center?

A governmental building to have a building of uh government functioning above an eight story parking garage, or that to me, and I'm mentioning this because if we looked at the first slide, we saw that the what were those seven principles of whatever what was that called?

I'm sorry.

Seven the guiding principles.

Thank you.

The guiding the guiding principles told us that safety and security is very is one of those guiding principles.

I don't find, and I'm not an expert, that's why I'm asking you.

I do not find that a governmental center should function above an eight-story parking garage for the obvious reasons.

I want to hear your take on that.

So typically we don't what we do, we don't we don't recommend that, but typically with those parking spaces within that garage space of 423 spaces, those will be limited to staff, so you know, secured staff, and also um the the commissioners.

So that'd be a parking, a secured parking area, not it won't be open to the public.

The public will still need to park on the existing city garage adjacent to it, and a walk over to the building.

But for those 423 spaces will be only for staff that's been screened.

So that's typically if it is in the building, that's the way we resolve it.

It's it's not open to the public, it's only staff.

So that would still be okay in terms of best practices for a governmental center.

It's not ideal, but it's been done before.

Okay, thank you.

How's it been done recently though?

One timeline.

There is a, I believe there was a time when we nationwide stopped doing that, right?

What year did that go into effect?

Well, the couple examples that we'll show a little bit later.

Um, the parking garages are adjacent to the building and not under the building, so they're connected horizontally.

So we haven't been doing those lately.

So the city hall we did in Cogo Beach was the same thing with separate parking garage, not within the building.

So we're starting to get away from it.

An example of that also is the new federal courthouse on Southeast Third Avenue, where it was specifically designed without a parking garage incorporated in the main building for for security reasons.

And even and all that parking is secure parking, but even still the architects told me that even if it's secure parking, you still should not have parking underneath the building for security reasons.

A la 9-11.

A lot of things.

We'll get into the federal courthouse building as well that has parking underneath, and that's one of the reasons why they're they're kind of moving besides the fact that the building's a little bit older, okay.

Please proceed.

Okay.

So on the tower 101, uh key considerations are listed there.

The main thing we talked about was uh was the um the envelope, the garage the the uh elevators um in the garage has not been modernized.

The building the towers have, so we're good with that.

And then on the right-hand side is kind of our our scale for suitability for city Hall, overall conditions about average, capacity it meets the capacity commission chambers.

There's a way to do it.

Um on the um on the smaller building to the east, so there is there is space there.

Um welcoming engaging is a little bit lower just because it's kind of difficult to find um the entrance on that building and it's off first street and it's kind of tucked in, not really inviting to the public, and then resilient resilient and innovate and innovative.

Um as you'll see in the other buildings, they're all they're all pretty much one of five.

Um that has to do with the buildings wanting to be lead certified as far as some of the some of the initials uh findings in the task force they wanted and ULI as well.

Um they wanted to be uh resilient um and lead certified and and bringing in new technology and security.

What's your color code?

Um, my monitor, I can't tell the difference between red and orange.

Could you just go down each one of these systems conditions and identify what the suitability is?

Yes.

So on the system condition, the structure, it's a sound structure, it's all concrete.

Um, and and so that one that one was good, that one was was good.

Envelope was red.

Um that with a little bit of discussion.

We talked about the with the uh bringing the whole um exterior cladding to code um to current code uh based on the on the 50%.

If we get there, MEP systems, um this building had really good um electrical systems were pretty were were very very well uh designed and maintained.

Um as um the only one that had a little bit of issues was the mechanical.

Um there are gonna be they're gonna have to replace the chiller and and the pump and and the AC unit um on the roof structure which which help which serves about 70% of the building.

Okay, I'm gonna interrupt you because I still don't know envelope.

Is that red orange?

Well, that's sorry, that's orange.

Sorry.

That's four out of five.

The envelope is orange.

Okay, red.

Sorry.

It's red.

There's only three colors.

Okay, green and yellow.

And also, I don't know if welcoming engaging is red or resistance is red.

I can't tell.

I don't know if the color line.

It's red.

So all right.

So let's start with that.

So, overall, um, condition.

Conditions is orange.

Orange, correct.

Okay.

Three out of five.

Okay, and then the green, staff, yep.

Commission chambers.

Three out of five.

What color is that?

That's yellow.

Yellow.

And welcoming again was red.

Red.

Two out of five.

And resilient and innovative was one, one out of five.

Also red.

All right.

So when we go through structure, if you can go down there and tell me color to what it equals.

Okay.

So structure was green.

Mm-hmm.

The envelope was red.

Mm-hmm.

Um MEP systems was yellow.

Yes.

Um, fire life safety was red.

There's some upgrades that need to be done there.

Telecom and security was red, and site and flood was red.

And that's in the site and flood, it's it's right now the 6.25 is the finished floor of the of the ground level, and requirements of the city of Fort Lauderdale is 7.4 above.

Um at the NV NV and NVAD, which is the uh the finished floor elevation.

Okay.

On East Broward, um, I'll go down that list.

Um, I don't know if you mentioned this.

Isn't this below the NAVD flood level?

Yes, the tower 101 is.

Right now it's uh the requirements 7.5, and right now it's 6.25.

So it's about a foot and three inches below um what's required.

And we can't.

My current code.

We can't.

How do you how do you mitigate that?

It'll take a lot of uh there is pretty there's a good clear height on the first floor, so we have to raise the either raise the whole floor in the ground level, redo the site work, and bring it up to that level, or provide flood panels, which we don't want to do that, right?

So that's a whole different okay.

So I'm gonna weigh in once again.

So we just went through a thousand year flood in 2023, which took away City Hall.

Last time I checked, I think 101 was fine.

So are we expecting any more thousand-year floods, or is it gonna get even worse?

Is it gonna be a two thousand year flood?

Is NOAA coming with the arc?

And we're gonna have like how how high is the water gonna be.

Here's the thing.

We just had we just had a real world test of how that building performs, and the worst storm that we've ever seen in this country in the last hundred years, and guess what?

Came through great.

I'm not worried about flooding.

That that that it it's a facetious argument to say that that building is at risk of flooding when City Hall drowned, and the building right next to it performed stellar.

Well, the difference was that city Hall was at even a lower level than this building.

And also, City Hall isn't at a lower level, it's at a higher level.

You go up steps to get into City Hall, Mayor.

Respectfully.

Yeah.

I spent a lot of time in that building.

I worked there every day.

It was not at a lower level than the building down the block.

There was a basement, yes, but that entire street was underwater.

All of Broward Boulevard was underwater.

What was not underwater?

The one-on-one building.

Okay.

I'm not gonna I'm not gonna debate it with you, but go ahead.

You want me to answer that question?

No, just go.

It's one brower.

Let's get there.

Um so I want to go through this um for the commissioner, just make sure.

Um system conditions on on East Brower uh structures green.

Um, this is an all-steel structure, which is um, it's easier to renovate and bring up to code if needed.

Um so that's one thing that we wanted to uh ensure there.

It's all steel frame uh metal decking and concrete flooring.

Um the envelope is red.

Um, this one again, similar to the small building over at um 101.

The envelope um in the glass will need to replace it's not impact position.

MEP system is yellow.

This one, um, the uh the mechanical systems were really good.

It was gonna go to the opposite of our one, um, in good shape.

Um, and but the um the the um the let the electrical system needed a little bit of work on the some of their electrical rooms and and clearances to me code.

Uh fire light safety was red, um telcom security were red, and then site flood on on this one was um yellow.

Um this one, the um the actual um elevation.

This one was 7.83, um, 7.4 being the um the minimum.

There is the existing um FPN vault, which is below the 7.4, we need to, which would need to be mitigated, and that's why it's uh it's showing only as a yellow.

Uh some strength on this one.

Um the wind loads uh do meet the the risk category three.

Um uh it has a double height volume on the build on the little building on the on the south um east corner.

Uh there's a little two-story structure there.

So it already has the volume and the height, there's no need to do any a lot of major structural revisions there.

Um, so that that was good, and that has enough space there to hold the uh the 13,000 square foot um space as well as the uh the staff.

Um, and then keep consideration again the the biggest expense here is the um is the current wall impact um and there are some ADA um upgrades that we need to do on the uh on the building as well as replacing the roof on the connector bridge to your existing parking garage.

The overall suitability for the um city hall, it's yellow for the overall condition, um, green for staff capacity, commission chambers, and welcoming engaging.

This is a really interesting building because it has a really big plaza on on Broward Boulevard, has a nice plaza on first, and it has uh a smaller it has a plaza, a little bit smaller, but it does have one on Andrew too and Andrew's too.

So I kind of it's more welcoming any than any of the three buildings in our in our opinion.

And then red was um resilient and um and the innovative.

So you have that one.

This was the building that was built in 1980 what 1983.

1983, okay.

And the last building we looked at was a federal courthouse.

Um that one, the structure was um was yellow, um, just because with the lack of information we have, but it's assuming it's kind of built like a bunker, it is a federal courthouse.

Um envelope was red, uh MEP systems were red, um fire stages was red.

You can go top right there.

Yeah, yeah.

It's all red.

Yeah, so this one had a lot of challenges.

So that's stuff.

Thanks, Kevin.

And I don't even think this can even be considered, right?

City manager, because this doesn't fall on one of the GSA uh a city hall use.

It doesn't even fall in one of their categories.

So this would not be a practical use for this building based on the categories that they've shared with us, and we've moved in the direction uh that the city commission shared with us for the educational or museum use, and we've indicated that to GSA, and we'll follow up with the commission on that.

Right.

So yeah, you can just skip this you don't need to thank you.

So come so we're gonna ignore the column on the right.

So this is a comparative matrix.

Um we graded it one through five equally weighted um on some on some of the key point good key components that we spoke about on the when we went through each one of them um just to give you a good idea of the uh of the scoring uh tower one oh one and and east brower they were pretty close um and then obviously the federal courthouse was way off but um those two are were pretty close some had better ratings than others um so that's kind of uh what the comparative matrix is the uh task force we looked at this at the seven um main guiding principles that was discussed a little bit earlier and we scored those how these um correct correspond to those um with east one broward being probably the uh the highest scoring uh followed by one oh by one on one um the the floor building code and the risk category um anything uh we're thinking on the to bring this this project's up to where it needs to be for city hall we're looking at a level three alteration which if it's fifty percent more of the of the area then we'll have to bring everything up to code um and the and also if it's exceeds 50% of the appraised value you'll have to bring it up to the base flood elevation so you'll have to raise the floor on on that one on the one building um the risk category um typically for an office it's um risk category two 170 miles per hour we are doing some buildings now that are city halls that are risk category three there's a little bit more um just because they don't want to do the the baseline uh which which brings it up to about 180 miles per hour but for our case we're assuming we're leaving it at one seventy just because the buildings are older and to get it to one eighty it's gonna require another level of of funding to get it there.

Um and again the base floor elevation the bottom 7.4 is what's required flood exposure resiliency this is we talked about before um which ones are not compliant on the on the um east broward is and tower 101 um it's a little bit below um and then an assessment um summary one on one structurally sound sufficient capacity um and and it has the the space that needed just the um the envelope needs to be replaced um east broward um it's probably the strongest for for adaptive reuse candidate out of all three um so that's one that that uh just because of the plazas and and the way it has a civic presence on three on three uh three of the roads adjacent roads and the federal courthouse was good commissioning chambers uh fed up we were asked to do a little analysis on the commission chambers and what would the cost would be um for each one of them uh we'll focus on tower 101 it is a concrete structure so there'll have to be more um demolition and structural modification on that one um the price a little bit more four point about four point four eight million um on east broward about three point nine three million just because there is no structural um issues there with uh with the two story height that's already in place that's really the only the only difference there between one and the other um renovation costs this is the slide that um we talked about a little bit earlier that Quentin talked about with the three numbers um tower one oh one about one point seven one point five seven million and the two oh eight for east brower for the total renovation some of the main components are listed on the on the first column and some of those associated costs um again we will leave out the the federal courthouse this gives you a good idea and the ROMs that are here again they could google up 50% or below 30% as the design moves forward.

This is uh just a preliminary feasibility study so that's where those numbers are coming in at Kevin question on that if with 101 or 1 East Broward if we kept it just as an office building without a chamber is there any immediate renovation requirement that has to happen to one on one or one East Broward if it doesn't have a chamber in it.

If it does not have a chamber and you're leaving everything the thirteenth floor, that's a bad example.

14th floor.

You're innovating the 14th floor.

Yeah.

And you want to go in and make that open office space, then that floor.

At a minimum, that floor needs to meet the current.

But nothing, life safety.

There's no major issue.

There's no major issues with us.

Okay.

And but you'll have to also bring it up with the whole security and the security system because you have to have security, a new security system in either of the two buildings.

Sure.

Thanks.

Could you speak into the microphone?

I'd like to also add that you know, in looking at the IT infrastructure, um, certainly with with newer uh forward-looking technology.

Uh our recommendation would be to certainly replace that immediately, and then you know, there are certain pieces of equipment, uh, whether they be mechanical, electrical, that are at the end of their life cycle, and and would it would be our recommendation that you start looking at changing those out immediately so that they don't become a problem and break down on you.

Sure.

Thank you.

Kevin, when you just said there and no, I'm sorry, go ahead, Commissioner.

Um, in regards to I didn't I didn't say anything about the life expectancy of the buildings.

We're talking about buildings that are um multiple years old, 25 plus more, how much more life do these buildings have?

I don't I didn't hear that in the report.

You want to talk a little bit about that, David?

Or it's kind of tough.

Yeah, that's that is you know general.

Can you just speak into the microphone, please?

Because we can't pick you up on the recording.

The reason I'm asking the question the the building that we lost was 60 years old, and both of these buildings that we're talking about are basically halfway point.

So, what I'm trying to figure out, you know, is there any estimate when you're looking at these businesses on buildings?

Do you give us an estimate of how much longer the life expectancy for those two buildings?

Yeah, I that would be very hard to do.

Um, you know, certainly the the structures are sound, but you know, as you look at the various pieces of equipment, you know, that that was what was reflected in our report.

If if we felt that a piece of equipment was going to need to be replaced in the next 10 years, you know, that you know that ended up being a a piece of equipment that was carried in our estimate.

Well, like electrical, all the electrical, the plumbing, the IT connections, things like that.

Not we're not talking about the just the brick and mortar, talking about the theory.

Well, I'm I'm sorry, Mayor, I'm talking about brick and mortar because when we look at condos, yeah, we have a 40-year inspection and they tell us what's going on.

So is that not a fair question?

It's a very fair question.

Not based on the level of, you know, just an observation without doing more extensive testing.

Well, we did not do that type of um inspection.

Analysis.

From observation on the outside, what we could see the structures appear sound.

That's that's all I can share at this point without any more evaluation.

Well, but that's of concern to us in this environment.

You know, uh to the commissioner's point, you know, in this environment, we're seeing a lot of the the structures being compromised and having, you know, we don't want another champlain on any of these buildings, right?

And if a life expectancy of the structure of a building uh has has a, you know, uh has a shelf life of a certain number of years, taking over an older building, uh say it's at a lesser price, but you have fewer years left remaining in it, right?

So um anyway, could I offer some comments?

Yeah, mayor, so you bring up Champlain.

So I don't know if you've read the after action report that just came out.

I did extensively.

And so let me tell you about Champlain.

Do you know why the building fell down?

And I'm sure that you guys have read it and you know, it wasn't built to code, and it wasn't even built to the plans that were not built to code.

It didn't fall down because of any other reason except for the fact that it was poorly constructed in the first place.

It's not about it's in Florida.

There has never been another building that fell down except that one, and now that we've done the after action, we know why.

Wasn't built to code, wasn't built to the plans.

So I don't think we could use Champlain as an example of either of these two buildings potentially falling down anytime soon.

And I'll offer up another thought as well, having spent a long time in government and a long time in the private sector.

It has been my experience that professional investors and real estate companies that they hire to manage their property do a much better job of maintaining their buildings than government does.

There's a reason for that.

We don't invest in our properties.

We like to cut ribbons, we don't like to do maintenance.

And that has been historically true for government buildings going back forever.

So the deteriorating conditions that we experience in a 60-year-old building that we occupied is not reflective of office towers.

I worked in office towers in New York City that are over a hundred years old.

And do you know how much and how valuable those are?

I worked in the Empire State Building.

I worked in the Chrysler Building on the 42nd floor, deep back to the 1930s.

Great buildings.

Why?

Because they're maintained, they're kept up.

As long as a building is well built and is kept up, it will last for hundreds of years.

So again, I take exception to the idea that a 20-year-old building is somehow going to collapse anytime soon.

Not gonna happen.

I don't think anyone's saying it's gonna collapse anytime soon, but I think uh the Commissioner Beasley Pittman was saying there's a life expectancy.

There's a life expectancy of mechanicals, I agree with you.

So life expectancy of everything, everything has a life expectancy.

So I was in buildings, by the way, in England this past summer, and they're 700 years old.

I was in a church that's a thousand year old.

And do you know how much it has cost them over those 700 years to restore and maintain maintenance?

They don't just put a slap of paint on it every year and call it call it quits.

These buildings, if you know anything about restoration, I do.

Okay, then you know that restoration is very expensive.

If you look at the government buildings in Washington, DC, when they go to renovate a government building, uh it's hundred hundreds of millions of dollars just to renovate and restore.

So every building has a has a life expectancy, and when you start from zero, your life expectancy is much greater.

When you start from year 30 or 40, your life expectancy is much shorter.

So your building costs may be less, but overall your the value that you get on return of your investment is far short is far less than if you build new.

And how old, by the way, are those buildings in Washington, D.C.

They all date back to roughly about the depression.

A lot of them were built during uh by the works projects administration, and so they're a hundred years old, and it costs it costs money to maintain and keep up a building.

It costs money to do upkeep on my house, and I I but budget for that, and there's again a reason that government buildings run into the issue you're talking about, it's because we don't budget money for maintenance because it comes out of our operating budget.

We budget money for capital projects because it comes out of the capital budget, not our operating budget.

And when we're making decisions about allocating resources among police and fire and parks and all the other stuff that we allocate our general fund money to, taking money out for maintenance is usually the last thing on the list and the first thing to get cut when budgets get tight.

Okay.

And Commissioner Herbst, if I can jump in.

The good news too, with Tower 101 and One East Broward, as we've seen in the backup and analysis, is the owners of these buildings have been investing in the infrastructure of the building and the systems of the building.

Thus we're not going from ground zero.

We're this these are properties that have upgraded in many ways the systems that oftentimes, mayor, are require significant investment.

So that's that's other good news about the buildings themselves.

But the bad news is there's still so much more work to do, and there will be so much more work to do in the future.

I saw a sign the other day in one East Brower that said, do not use the microwave and the toaster at the same time.

Now, I I is that what we want for City Hall, do not use the microwave and the toaster at the same time.

So I'm just throwing that out as well.

But I want to just piggyback on some of the comments that Commissioner Herbst made.

Yes, there was a buildings that are older in other places, but you know, conditions are different in Florida.

Also, look at what's happening now with so many of our condominium buildings.

So many people are being forced to leave these condominiums, sell their units.

They cannot even afford to pay for all the work that has to happen.

And I'm not talking about just what mechanical systems, uh, I'm talking about the actual structures.

I'm talking about after they all were mandated to do those structural integrity reserve studies by the state, uh, they are all finding themselves in real trouble now not being able to afford the assessments that are coming their way again for concrete restoration, things like that, rebar, mechanic.

I'm not even talking about mechanical, electrical.

I'm talking about structural.

And yes, the buildings are not in danger of falling down, but it's very costly to keep them up, and those are the ones that are 30, 40, 50 years old and more, like uh along the Gulf and some places on the beach in my district as well.

Um so they are facing that.

Um I just want to ask you one other question that we didn't hear much about.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but maybe the city staff can help me.

Didn't we just have to go through a vulnerability assessment on our buildings uh in terms of things like the floodplains?

I know you mentioned current, but what about the future?

What about sea level rise and how that might impact these older buildings?

Was that a consideration at all in terms of future floodplain?

Well, I think the the 7.4 that's in there, that already takes into account the sea level, the future uh the new FEMA guidelines um to make sure that that's incorporated now for the future.

So some of that is in there already resiliency for the future in the 7.4 requirements.

Okay, good.

Thank you.

I forgot to mention, besides not being able to use the toaster and the microwave at the same time.

There was a piece of red tape over the electrical outlet um below it.

That's a to me, that's a little bit unnerving.

I don't know.

Is that what I want in a city hall for the city of Fort Lauderdale?

I'm not sure.

Um I don't know.

Do you think they have those issues in the brand new City Hall in Oakland Park, in the brand new city hall in Sunrise, in the brand new city in Pompano Beach, in the brand new city hall they're building in Miami.

I guess I don't know.

Maybe you tell me.

Thanks.

Well, you know, I'd like to comment on that because I think we're having similar problems in our brand new police station.

Uh I understand there's all kinds of ventilation problems, there's leaks, there's cracks, so yeah.

No, brand new.

I think some of that is misinformation, actually.

I think some of that is exaggeration.

Not misinformation.

Oh, I well, I've been talking about not misinformation.

I think I think some of it is misinformation.

And yes, actually, that is still under warranty, but that's okay.

I'm talking about that's a brand new building under warranty where that will be taken care of and fixed.

These are 30 year old, 40, 50, 60 year old buildings.

How uh one one is proud is how old?

80 87.

87.

So 30, 40 years old.

So there's more concern because those warranties, Commissioner Herbs, have expired.

The one in the police headquarters has not expired yet.

Well, in 10 years, we'll be in trouble then when the warranty runs out.

But to your point, and I'm glad you brought it up because it it reaffirms actually what I said.

So all these older condos that are going through these 40-year research and are experiencing these substantial uh assessments, all share one thing in common deferred maintenance, because the the particularly along the Gault and some of the areas you represent, there tends to be uh a population in there that doesn't want to fund repairs and maintenance, and they vote to keep their HOA fees as low as possible.

That's why there's no money in reserves, that's why they neglect to do fit repairs and maintenance on a timely basis, and that's why all these things are now being brought to light.

So the one thing that we did get out of the champlain collapse is that we're finally we're finally forcing these condos to actually pay for it.

Because you know, when I talk to a lot of these folks and I talk to the residents in there, you know, they're they're in their 80s and we're like, I don't care, I'm not gonna be here 20 years from now, so I don't care about a 20-year repair because my kids will worry about that when they inherit it from me.

If you do maintenance and you do upkeep on a structure that is built to code and well built, it will last hundreds of years.

Okay.

Neglected maintenance.

If it's brand new, it'll fall down too, or it'll need substantial repairs, regardless.

It all comes down to whether you reinvest in your property on a regular basis and do the necessary repairs and maintenance to keep it in in a first-class condition.

And I don't care if it's a brand new building or if it's an old building.

If you neglect it, it falls apart.

Yes, but if you look at the reserve studies of all of these buildings, you'll notice that there's also something called that reserve study will have the useful life.

And a lot of the things that we're talking about today, it's not the fault of the lack of maintenance or operation on these older buildings.

There's a useful life to everything.

And of course we're going to have these expenses.

It's just it's just natural.

I mean, of course, can we just move in and occupy the spaces and say call it a day?

Sure.

But you know, again, there's so much more that's a very simplified look at how we would deal with f had any of these older buildings as our city hall.

Um it's just I I mean, I actually think that your estimates on what the repairs would cost are actually low.

I have a feeling that we would be going down a rabbit hole that would be even more expensive than what you've actually projected.

That's just my own opinion.

Um, although I'm glad to see that you know the numbers that you throw out there.

But I I just know that uh again, a lot of this doesn't even have to do with how people are maintaining and operating their structures.

It's just the useful life.

It's the useful life of the structure.

It's the useful life of all of those mechanics, the HVAC, the electrical, uh, the finishes, all of that.

So I'm good.

Thanks.

Okay.

Um is there any further uh anything further in your in your presentation?

A couple more slides.

Okay, good.

Mayor, if I could just correct the record really quickly, the one East Powered building is forty-three years old, not 47 or 48 as was mentioned earlier.

Okay.

Thank you.

Please please proceed.

And so the next one is a path comparison options.

Um that includes the appraisal value as well as the uh the rough order of magnitude cost that you saw in there, a total, and that gives you a kind of cost per square foot for the renovations.

Um that's what what this one is.

And just just to back back to the I want to go back, but back to the uh the forty year certification.

We did get a lot of information from one on one tower, which was good, which one of them was the 40 year certification, which just happened.

So we looked at those documents and they look good.

Remember 40 years certification is only the structural and electrical and life safety issues, life safety.

They don't touch mechanical IT or anything else.

And which building received that one on one.

Okay.

And Kevin, can you give the definition of useful life?

Okay, useful life.

Here's a here's an example I'm gonna give you of one that we just did.

Uh about ten years ago.

So the useful life, and this is like extreme project because it's an F top project, right?

And F dot usually you design a little bit for longer term.

So when we designed the uh the Port Miami tunnel, that was designed for an 80 year life.

So we designed it for 80 years, so hopefully in 80 years we don't have to go under that tunnel, right?

So that or it'll get replaced.

Same thing when you do roadways and bridges, a lot of the life the life of the 50 or 60 years is what we designed to.

Buildings typically a building if it's when you design it, the structure, design, usually it's between 40 and 50 years is a useful life for the building until you have to do major renovations.

We're currently doing that at the Mammy Big County City Park Center, where we're going floor by floor, and we're doing renovating a floor, bringing it up to code, including the restrooms, redoing the restrooms, redoing the the all the office space, finishing that.

People move down, then we go to the next floor.

So we're going floor by floor, hypothetically, bringing the whole building up to standards, and then we're gonna have a new a new building.

So that's kind of what we're working on.

Which building is this?

Civil Plea Cart Center, Mammy Day County.

So we're currently doing that for them.

Great, and it's a great example because your point is well taken, which is useful life is the estimated time at which substantive, significant renovations may be needed to be done.

Is that fair?

That's fair.

Right.

Those renovations are might be needed, might not be needed, might be desired, might not be desired, right?

So just wanna uh everyone to understand when we're talking about useful life, that's the definition of use.

I disagree with you entirely.

That's not the definition.

So you don't disagree with this.

A useful life means life expectancy.

DJ and tell us has a useful life of whatever it's going to be.

Say 73 this year is gonna be 73.

So what we're gonna be useful life for.

I'm talking.

I mean, useful life question.

Well, please don't interrupt.

Okay, I I I I apologize for everybody has a useful life.

A car has a useful life, right?

Everything has a has has a useful life.

It's intended to last only a certain amount of time, right?

At which time either you invest in it or you get something new, right?

So if you have if you buy a used car, okay, it's seven years old or five years old, right?

You can anticipate having to put money into it because while you got it on the cheap, you're gonna end up putting money into it to keep it running and to be make it efficient.

Would you agree with that statement?

Okay.

So useful life is not uh is not so much a uh an elective choice of whether or not you want to invest in it or not to keep it operational.

It's a requ it's it's a necessity that you would have to invest in it in order to keep it operational and functional as you intend to use it.

Is that more accurate?

Yes, and and a lot of these useful life uh years that they put in buildings when you design them, they anticipate a normal maintenance schedule for all the equipment and the building and the finestrations going back, recocking.

I mean it's all renewed roofing systems, right?

So the you useful life of the building also has to do with maintenance, right?

And let me ask you this.

Now the city manager presented uh numbers to us uh early in her presentation in which the um on page four in which the annual impact of the various buildings was presented fourteen point one million for one oh one and seventeen point nine million for one east Broward, but it did not include operation and maintenance costs.

Yet she included operation and maintenance costs in the new building, which brought it to 15.8 million.

Do you have an estimate as to what operation and maintenance costs for 101 and one East Broward might be, or was that not part of the scope of your employment?

That was not that was not part of our scope.

Now with the operation and main, did you want to say something?

We we do have uh a one-page document that sort of summarizes uh the operations and maintenance across all of the alternatives.

So the new build options as well as the renovation options.

Again, I mentioned it was based on the price per square foot, and you know, these are just estimates at this time and we do not have an official number, and so we can share that information via the clerk.

Well uh it so to answer my question then, um, uh the s the scope of your employment, the so scope of your engagement was not to include operation and maintenance, correct?

Not for those two buildings, correct?

Okay, so what is this?

Oh, why was this not included in our backup?

We're just getting this now.

This document was prepared after publishing of the agenda.

Typically when we've had city hall discussions, we've created a one-page sort of cheat sheet and disperse that to the commission uh on the days.

Okay, so now an updated annual impact for 101 is seventeen doll 17 million ten uh one hundred thousand dollars uh versus uh the new new construction is fifteen million eight hundred thousand dollars.

Am I reading that correctly, manager?

Yes, Mayor.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yeah, and Mayor, if I can just point out on the operation maintenance, because there's a lot of assumptions and factors that go into this.

The numbers that you see on that one page summary are just taking the cost uh per square foot of a new build, taking that dollar figure and then multiplying it by the number of square feet in the existing building.

And that's with the assumption that all the renovations that the Jacob report is recommending would be made, and so that way it'd be an apples to apples operation and maintenance.

Should the city uh pursue one of the existing buildings and not make all the renovations, obviously the operation maintenance cost would be significantly more than what's on your sheet of paper.

Great.

Thank you so much.

So so going back to that useful life question.

You said a bridge has a useful life of sixty years?

That's what you designed to?

They designed to that.

That's the that's that thought.

So the Brooklyn Bridge is uh about eighty years past its useful life.

What do you think?

They could keep it or they could build a new one, but usually they keep them, they maintain them, they usually keep them.

If you maintain them, the useful life actually is an irrelevant thing.

It's kind of like the sell by date, you know, when you're in a supermarket.

You know, water actually has a sell-by date on it.

Last time I checked water doesn't actually go bad.

So useful life is sort of a suggestion because there's y and you mentioned cars, mayor, that's really good.

Um my first car was a sixty-eight cougar.

Guess what?

Still running.

Got it.

Um I I routinely uh work with people who who drive much old request.

I'm sorry?

Yeah, yeah, I I did.

I I put a new paint job on it and uh that's it.

You just put a little body work on it.

Uh yeah.

Run runs great.

Okay.

Um the thing is, it goes back to what I said before.

If you maintain it, it you extend the useful life.

The useful life is not that it it is not mayor like your useful life, which has a terminal date.

None of us here get out alive.

We all end the same way, it's just a matter of when.

Okay.

That's not true with buildings or mechanical systems.

Uh airline I used to work for is still flying the oldest DC three in in commercial operation stuff.

Okay.

We are routinely flying planes that are 75, 80 years old.

Routinely.

Okay.

These are in use every single day.

Again, it comes down to maintenance.

If you ignore something, I don't care how new it is.

I haven't haven't taken my my boat out in a couple of weeks, and I went to go start it, and guess what?

It wouldn't start.

Can I show a question about you said bridges have uh are designed to have a useful life of 60 years?

You're designed to that, correct?

Right.

And what is the what was the tunnel life expectancy?

We had eighty.

Eighty.

Okay.

Good to know.

We may need you.

It's a little bit harder to design one of those.

And by the way, you know how how old the uh the Holland tunnel is in New York?

Oh, okay.

So well pass its useful life.

Last time I checked, still in use every day.

There is a hundred millions of dollars they've spent to keep it up.

Just one more question before the gentleman sits down.

Yes, yes.

Uh one more question.

In regards to that useful life.

In regards to the useful life of the buildings, you indicated that buildings are usually um designed with an intent.

Do we know what that original um intent useful life are for those two buildings?

Do we have documentation or can we get documentation?

No.

Because if we built it for 40 years, we're already at the exploration, yeah.

What are we getting into?

Exactly.

Yeah, we don't we don't have that information.

Is there any way to get that information?

All we could do is kind of do an assessment of the structure, do the next step, the next phase, look at the structural because we're talking structural, because we do have the systems already in our report.

But to do a structural analysis of the building, that would take another step, and we could probably tell you it's probably fine if you keep maintaining it, it could last another 20 years, another 30 years.

Okay.

So we just have to look we have to do an assessment.

So hovering over my question, yeah.

Is there anywhere that someone said I'm gonna build this building with the expectancy of it it lasting 80 years?

You gave me an example with the the tunnel.

Yeah, so there's someone's doing that somewhere.

So typically, if it's FDOC or government building, federal government, they they have that in their standards.

They have it in the standards for development developer work, no, but there is none, nothing in writing, but you design as a professional engineer or architect, you design the buildings for typically a lifespan between 40 and 50 years.

That's kind of the average that you design for.

Because if you design a developer building for a hundred years, no developer will hire you, right?

Because you have you'll have a building three times as much.

Yes.

Question on those documents that documents put it together.

There's nothing there.

There won't be anything.

There won't be anything there.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Is Cynthia Rich here?

Are you Cynthia?

You have signed up to speak.

Would you like to speak?

Mayor, just want to confirm that.

Yeah, go ahead.

Just want to share that uh we still have some sections of the presentation to go through.

Uh I wasn't.

I'm sorry, I didn't know that.

Yes.

All right.

We have the revised interim agreement.

We have the the budgetary considerations.

Yep.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

I'm sorry.

So, Mayor, the last thing on this section was just Jake's was tasked with looking at existing or some other city hall projects, his reference points, and so that information's been provided in the presentation.

What page is that?

32.

Yes.

I did see that.

Let's see.

As we close that section out and move uh into the interim agreement, you know, I just want to remind the city commission and I know the manager did some opening comments about April 21st and the uh the proposed interim agreement that point.

And the city commission had a lot of feedback and concerns that were related to the to the staff and to the project team about the cost of the project, the equity, uh the developer fees, the long-term uh financial uh viability of it.

Um there was also the request to do the building assessments, which we just did the update on, and so really just gonna touch base on some of the changes that uh the new uh proposed interim agreement uh has in it.

Uh you've seen the slide before the manager opened up with it, um, but again, almost $50 million dollars, over $50 million dollars and reduced project delivery cost from April to July.

You can see the developer equity, a major expense, uh, and the last one is completely removed, as well as the developer fee of twelve million dollars.

Um as I progress through this presentation, we'll talk a little bit about the building design.

Uh seek city commission feedback, and then one of the bigger changes in this one is that we'll be paying the project team and milestone payments.

So as they reach certain deliverables along the interim agreement, we'll be paying for those services at that time.

City Hall, what's going to be in City Hall?

It's the same as it was in April of twenty uh twenty twenty-six, with the addition of uh bringing back some more customer service functions, the utility billing, uh parking customer service would be added probably into the lobby space or into a public function area, so that way there's more uh transactional experience for uh bills and customer customer needs.

Um the space uh for it would be again around 215,000 square feet.

Uh the chambers was about 12,500, focused on about 300 person capacity with some back of uh office space for uh support services, breakout rooms, things like that.

Uh and the expected staff head count would be somewhere around 625.

Uh as we talk about the building design options, uh, this is uh three uh renderings, uh option A, option B, and option C.

Option A is what you've seen throughout the uh proposal period, it's what you saw in uh April of 2026.

Since that time, uh with a focus of driving down some of the costs, we worked with the development team to come up with two different uh options for consideration.

Option B and option C both have about a 200 million dollar project delivery cost, which is what we established in the interim agreement for the target price for the project.

So if I can, mayor, uh take a pause and ask for any feedback on design building consideration.

So we don't have to make a decision on design today today, do we?

It's up to the commission.

Uh again, it's the interim agreement does have a uh target cost of 200 million.

Right.

Um, and so that's in there right now, and if there's any feedback, it would be greatly appreciated.

All right.

And you would anticipate the timeline between the IA and the CA to be how many months?

Uh I want to say it was close to 12 months.

So in that 12 months, 18 months.

I believe it's 18.

I'd have to double check.

Well, not hopefully not 18.

Yeah, let me go I can double double check that number.

Um, but I do want to say that in the interim agreement there is a hundred-day period that we've created that we would finalize the building design, work through the space program that we already worked with the developer on over the last couple months, and be able to deliver the ultimate space program.

So we still have between three and four months to finalize what design we would want.

Yeah, I believe there's still time.

Uh, the only caveat is the interim agreement has financial considerations in it.

So if if those are going to be modified or changed, that based on the design.

So there's a kind of a push and a pull relationship between the design and the and the financial impact.

Understood.

Thank you.

Could I could I get some clarity on that though?

Because I thought there was some difference in price between B and C.

This has got them both rounded off at 200 million, but I thought I thought it was my understanding that that C is actually the cheaper one to build.

So picking one today seems kind of important to me.

Yeah, so we re we did round up Commissioner based off of just unknowns as we've been working with the development team.

This is just a point in time and a reference that both B and C can be delivered at that estimated $200 million.

We did ask the developer to back into that budget of $200 million, and so they've committed to being able to do so at the square footage presented.

Uh the I I think the biggest distinctions between option B and option C are the commission chambers and how soon it could be delivered based on its connectivity to the main tower.

Uh, everything else pretty much uh would be in line, and I think the only benefit to expeditiously determining the design option if the city commission were to go in this direction, would be to socialize this design uh with the public as well as to identify a potential timeline for the construction based on the chambers being included as part of the overall building or as a separate building with a connectivity point.

Well, I I hope we can come up with an option today.

I don't want to approve an agreement when I don't know what I'm approving.

So if that's what we're being faced with, then I I think it's a disservice.

So I I hope we can at least settle on which option we're entering into an agreement for before we enter into an agreement.

And if you could go back to I think it's 35, please.

Okay, so just touching on this.

So this is the interim agreement as it stood April 21st, and now as it stands today.

So the this is a significant difference.

If we were to go in this build option, the total cost of project delivery when we put it out 30 years, which includes the financing and so forth, I think the April 21, it was around 720 million.

Is that right?

It sounds familiar.

724.

724 million.

Now, July 2nd, when you uh finance that out over 30 years, what's the total cost there?

474.

474 versus 720.

So that is a significant delta, and I think I just want to acknowledge that because we've engaged in this communication, this ongoing discussion, and have looked at options, and the builder has been willing to you know continue that negotiation, continue that discussion.

We are now this option at least is going from a uh 720 million to 47.

This is a 250 million dollar reduction in this option because we've considered options, we've explored possibilities, we've committed to ongoing negotiation.

Developer, the builder has been very helpful part of that.

So that's what happens when we evaluate options, do analysis, we get better value for the people of the city of Fort Lauderdale, and this is just one example of that.

I just want to highlight the success and city staff in engaging with that, the builder engaging with that, so that it makes this build option as one of the many options we consider a more uh approachable possibility.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Please continue city manager.

I think Ben had a few more slides.

Okay.

Uh and just to confirm on the timeline, that timeline I did give earlier of 16 to 18 months, it is accurate and it includes the whole site plan DRC approval permitting um process.

And ribbon cutting?

Not quite ribbon cutting there.

Um, and so as we head into the interim agreement, I'm going to turn it over to Eric Singer from Bills and Sunburg to talk a little bit about the uh legal content of the agreement, but just to again to uh talk about the financial commitment with the interim agreement.

The April 21st version had an 18.8 million dollar financial commitment that would be paid at the conclusion or at the close of the interim agreement phase and as you entered in the comprehensive agreement, which included the developer fee and others.

Um this version uh has a 10.9 million dollar commitment uh to go through it.

Uh it does have a $4 million uh payment that would be associated in July that got us to this point in time, uh including the preliminary site assessments, designs, the space programming, uh which included the developer meeting with all the department heads.

I believe they met with all the elected officials, uh, to talk about the needs of of the city hall building and how it functions.

Uh, and then there'll be a remaining series of milestone payments that I referred to earlier, um, that as they deliver and progress to the project, we would be uh paying them for their efforts.

And so with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Eric to talk through some of the legal points.

Welcome back.

Thank you.

Um good afternoon, Eric Singer with Bills and Sumberg.

I'm your outside legal counsel for this project.

So most of the changes to the interim agreement from the April version are changes to the business terms that Assistant City Manager Rogers just walked you through.

With respect to the legal terms, um, I'm happy to answer any questions you have, but there are really just four changes to the legal terms that I wanted to uh focus on.

First, you may recall from the April version, there was an exhibit that included pre-negotiated terms for the comprehensive agreement.

That's been removed from this interim agreement.

So the city has full flexibility to negotiate the best possible terms for the city over the course of the um interim agreement, and so there's no pre-commitment to enter into a comprehensive agreement at all or to enter into any particular terms for the comprehensive agreement.

Second, there is a 100-day scope finalization period built into this agreement.

In the April version, there was a particular design, a particular program, sort of baked into the agreement.

This gives the city and the developer up to 100 days to finalize the design, the program and the sort of the scope before the developer starts doing the more detailed detailed designs.

Third, this agreement remains exclusive in that the city is agreeing not to negotiate with a different developer for this project during the term of the interim agreement, but we clarified that the city would still be able to pursue or explore purchasing an existing building or any other alternative to the project.

And finally, the city retains the right to termination for convenience.

But this agreement also adds essentially a pause button.

So if for any reason the city wants to reevaluate where it stands, it doesn't need to terminate the agreement, it can just tell the developer to put its pencil down, stop incurring additional expenses for the city while the city decides how it wants to proceed.

So those are really the main changes to the legal terms.

Happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Okay, thank you so much.

So much easier this time, huh?

Wow.

So we've already talked a lot about the financial components of this project, but there are a few things that we wanted to touch on as we move through the discussion.

The first thing we want to touch on is the major changes, which you've noted with the design and construction as well as the removal of the 5% developer fee, which is that 12 million dollar obligation.

As we look at the total project budget, we also noted the change in the developer equity, which was about three million dollars a year.

As we look at the funding snapshot, the general fund makes up about 70% of the space utilization of the building, with the other funds using about 30%.

That's about $4.7 million a year in the annual contribution towards the building.

These are just very preliminary numbers as we go through the space programming as well as the final space allocation.

We'll continue to refine these numbers, but we wanted to provide some preliminary estimates.

The last time we were here, the commission asked us to look at what does the budget look like.

When Stantech was here, we projected we included the city hall costs in the Stan Tech model, and that included a projected $8.9 million dollar deficit in fiscal year 2028 with the inclusion of City Hall.

At the end of that meeting, our fantastic budget director stood up and shared some of the cost-cutting measures that we anticipate in the fiscal year 2027 budget to help prepare us for fiscal year 2028.

We had Stantech actually incorporate that information into a projected model, and really we're just about balance in fiscal year 2028 with those changes that have already been shared.

Most of them are on the screen, but there are a couple of additional levers that we can pull in fiscal year 2028 just to make sure that we're well positioned to incorporate the budget for this project.

Property tax reform continues to be front and center on our minds, and so we wanted to make sure we were also including what the budget plan would look like in the event that property tax reform passed.

What you will see here are a myriad of options, and of course, we would decide as we get closer to that year in that situation exactly what we would do.

But a few of the main options would be looking at our contribution to capital right now in 2029 and outwards.

We plan for about $27 million a year in capital costs.

Another big one that we wanted to make sure that we shared with the City Commission is the option of using cash funding for a portion of this project.

So if we were to use 40 million dollars from our general fund reserves in order to support this project, it would reduce our annual obligation by about 2.4 million dollars a year.

And just as a note, we're currently about $9 million over our 25% threshold as of the release of the ACFER.

So we will be making some adjustments to how we use those amounts over the 25% cap anyway, but this would provide some additional options on using funds to support the city hall project.

The other options are really just a myriad of either program adjustments, looking at the way that we do business and the organizations that we support.

Again, we would seek the city commission's feedback with the development of the fiscal year 2028 budget to ensure that we're pulling the levers that are most agreeable to the city commission and our neighbors.

We're not just planning for fiscal year 2028, but we know if property tax reform passes, we will see a bigger impact in fiscal year 2029.

And we wanted to make sure we were sharing with the commission some of the things that we would look at, including position control, staffing realignment.

One of the items that the commission decided was at every two-year review of the community redevelopment agency Northwest Progresso, just to determine whether or not we would continue to make a contribution to the CRA.

And what we could do is decide to sunset that contribution, but still dedicate a portion of that $6.5 million obligation to those initiatives.

Again, this would be something that the commission would have an opportunity to weigh in on and provide guidance on, but we wanted to make sure we were sharing with you all some preliminary ideas of things that could go into the fiscal year 2029 budget in the event that we had a city hall project as well as property tax reform, which has a 27.3 million dollar impact in that year.

That question.

Thank you.

This is very helpful as you're looking at budgetary impact and analysis.

So it looks, so the I think the build option is 215,000 square feet.

Correct.

So if we were to buy instead, have you done any analysis on how to monetize that additional square footage?

So, for example, the one east browers, I think 349,000 square feet, 101's 231,000 square feet.

So could there be revenue sources uh with that extra square footage?

Um, absolutely.

So both buildings have existing tenants, and we could look at those lease agreements to determine which tenants would still be something that would be aligned with what city would want in those buildings.

During the reimagining city hall effort, that was also something that was discussed.

The opportunity for either nonprofits or other elected officials to rent space within our city facilities, and so if we had ETSA space, we would look at capitalizing on some of those opportunities as well.

We don't have a dollar amount associated with them because it would really depend on what the city commission would like to see in terms of other partners in a building.

Okay.

Thanks.

That's helpful because one east browser, for example, 349,706 gross feet square footage.

So if we need 215,000, that leaves, you know, more or less 135,000 square feet, which is a lot.

Um for a possibility.

Okay.

Thank you.

And then again, just as we explore all options, if we were to buy instead of build, have you done any analysis on the value of the uh city hall, the previous city hall lot that could be again monetized, sold, leased, uh uh P3 partnership.

Any kind of sense there?

I think Benjamin Rogers had a sense on that.

Great.

Thank you.

She called me by my full name.

There you go.

That's when I'm in trouble when I'm gonna call Benjamin.

So I I need to go pull an email, but I think we did a appraisal a couple years ago, and it's somewhere in the mid 20 million range for the for the parcel.

Okay.

Yeah, if you give me a few minutes, I'll give you.

That's fine.

Thank you.

Yeah, so in other words, could be sold for that around that twenty, twenty-five million dollar, which again revenue in.

Okay, thank you.

I'm sorry, before you move on.

So have we done any kind of exercise?

By the way, that selling of that city land, that's public land that might get us into trouble if the charter passes.

We have to check on that.

Um, that I just want to make sure that uh we've done the exercise.

If we purchase uh an older building and renovate it, to the tune of what Jacobs has told us might be the cost of that total project.

Uh I would assume that we would be financing that as well as financing a new building.

Have we done an exercise that shows us what that might cost over the 30-year period?

So the sheet that um Ben just passed out, which included all of the options, including the new build options, has some preliminary numbers at the bottom, which share not only the design and construction, which incorporated um some of the renovation costs in it, and what it would cost in order to continue to um finance those buildings.

Right.

But the question, you know, the vice mayor pointed out that there would there was a huge uh savings now that has been that has been secured as we have gone through negotiations and now we're in a 400 million dollar range versus the 700 million dollar range.

Um the question that the commissioner is asking is if we were to purchase say 101 or one East Broward, um, has that dollar figure been uh calculated to let us know what that total purchase what that total cost would be over 30 years?

Because it's not part of this.

Correct.

I could do some quick math on it.

Um, as we look at the annual costs, we're looking at a difference between 15.8 million dollars and ranging anywhere from 16.3 to 22 million dollars a year for one of the purchases.

So if you multiply that by 30, I don't have my phone up here with me, but so that's how you that's how you arrive at that number?

That's correct.

Okay, so if we look at one East Broward, then uh 30 times 22 million is about six hundred and forty million.

And what about one on one?

And one oh one would be about five hundred million.

Yeah, and that's if you do all the entirety of the renovations right that that are suggested, which as they're saying you only need to do if you have a chamber in it.

But yeah, once you have Ben, thank you.

So, Commissioner, in January of 2025, okay, uh the city hall site was appraised at 23.2 million, 23.

Okay, thank you.

And that really concludes my portion of the presentation.

Um I think we're just seeking any feedback that the commission may have on the various options and direction on how you would like us to move forward.

Okay, does that complete the manager's presentation?

It does, thank you, Mayor.

Okay, um, let me just call up Cynthia Rich who's from Ivy, one of the one-on-one buildings, and give her a couple minutes to make uh comments.

She's the only one that's signed up to speak.

No, press the button at the bottom of the speaker.

Go ahead.

So thank you, uh, Mayor, commissioners, city manager, and staff appreciate the time.

My name is Cynthia Rich.

I'm a senior vice president at Ivy Realty, donors of Tower 101.

Candidly, we're disappointed by where things stand today.

As you all know, on Friday, June 26th, each of you received a copy of a comprehensive report that Tower 101 put together.

That report confirmed that the building is was recently certified to be in sound condition.

It also included approximately $23 million in pricing for voluntary upgrade, including the replacement or enhancement of properly functioning mechanical and electrical systems, all elevators, as well as hurricane hardening of the building through new roofs and windows.

On Tuesday, June 30th, we were asked to participate in an impromptu call by Mr.

Ben Rogers with the city engineers from Jacobs.

During that call, it became clear that the objective of the exercise had shifted.

We spent several months and nearly $60,000 in parallel with the city to conduct an honest evaluation of Tower 101 as a cost-effective alternative to constructing a new building.

Unfortunately, that's not the analysis that the city ended up conducting.

Instead, the city spent the past several weeks, along with thousands of taxpayer dollars, evaluating what it would take to make Tower 101 equivalent to a new building.

That approach doesn't appear to make sense as it was not the directive given by the commission, at least our understanding of that.

Of course, that analysis would be more expensive, and of course, it would make new construction appear more feasible.

The commissioners, you were being asked to ask to make a major decision on behalf of the residents and the taxpayers.

You deserve to know what it would cost to use Tower 101 as a modern safe building that residents can be proud of.

Unfortunately, that information has not been provided by your consultants.

We urge you to insist on an accurate, relevant analysis before making such an important decision on behalf of your taxpayers and residents.

I have a copy of the report that was submitted to all of you.

I think we all have that, yeah.

Okay, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Um Jordan Paul from 101.

Excuse me, from one East Broward.

What is your relationship with that building?

Um I am the C I'm the CEO of NAI Marin Hunter Codman.

We are the property manager, and we also manage an affiliate that has an investment interest in the property.

Okay.

Please proceed.

Okay.

So first I do want to um thank the commission for considering one East Broward.

Um we appreciate the city recognizing that we have a valid, well-maintained, high-quality building that could serve as the ideal choice for City Hall if the city chose to acquire an existing property as opposed to developing a new property.

If the city wants to and chooses to develop a new property, we think that they have chosen a strong team.

Um you have a great design and you have an ideal site.

But if the city wants to save money by purchasing an already existing um property, we do believe that we are the ideal alternative.

As you know, the city's currently leasing approximately 20,000 square feet from us.

Um we're in the process of having discussions for expanding an additional 5,000.

I'm not sure what the problem is with the toaster and the microwave, but uh I can assure you that there are dozens of toasters and microwaves running all the all the time.

We have two restaurants there.

I really don't think that's an issue.

I think it's uh I've got my chief engineer here.

I think it's a circuit breaker issue.

We'll get that corrected.

Um we will we would be able to deliver almost 200,000 square feet to the city very quickly, and that would include ground floor space that would serve as an ideal city chambers, and I think um even the Jacobs report showed that that could be converted um quite easily.

It's a separate building, and so some of the discussions we had about the percentage of renovation um would apply there, and I really don't think you'd even have to do a whole lot of renovation there.

In addition to delivering um 200,000 square feet quickly to the city, which will minimize your costs over the next few years in leasing, as well as provide certainty of execution, as stated previously by Commissioner Sorensen.

We have approximately a hundred and fifty thousand square feet of additional space, high quality space with high quality tenants.

That's space that can be used for future expansion and in the interim, um, could generate, I believe, give or take four million dollars a year, and I think that's an increasing trend.

Our rental rates in the city are um fortunately, office rates are fortunately improving, so we're on the upswing.

So I think that's a real revenue possibility.

Our view of the Jacobs report is that it confirms that we have a building that is fundamentally sound and well maintained, but we do also share the belief that the two hundred million dollar estimated um renovation cost is grossly overstated.

Um there's opportunities to significantly value engineer that, bring that down.

Can you conclude your remarks?

I'm just about done.

Okay, good.

If the goal is to have a um a quality, high functioning, uh safe building, we believe that can be done for considerably less than two hundred million dollars, and we're happy to continue discussions with the city if that's the avenue you want to take.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Should I ask a question before you step away?

So um obviously you've had a chance to look at the report.

Um you know one thing they that they did say is that uh your foot elevation is good.

I again I know I walk up several steps every time I have to go into the building, so I'm pretty sure it's up high enough.

Um but talk a little bit about the the MEP, right?

So w talk about the conditions, electrical plumbing.

Sure.

Um we have actually we've owned the building I think since 2018.

We have invested heavily in the maintenance, as you mentioned.

We're uh private owners.

Uh our partner is a multi-billion dollar investment firm.

We've totally replaced the elevators.

We invested over two million dollars on a brand new high speed, highest quality elevator system.

We've replaced all the roofs, the um chiller, which is probably your most um expensive uh part of your mechanical system, chiller and and cooling tower, are both less than 10 years old.

Um the Jacobs report acknowledges that they're in in good shape.

Really the primary um mechanical issue you have is over time you have to replace.

I think we've got about 10 or 12 air handlers.

Um they're about 150,000 each, and we replace those on a on a schedule.

So that would be a million and a half to two million dollars that you could spread out over eight years.

Um that was one of the things that really shocked us when we looked at that report.

You know, that report, and I I sent a letter to um all of you on uh I think it was Sunday evening that outlined we we didn't have enough time to really dig in and you know value engineer point by point, but there were big ticket items that jumped out.

The concept of replacing the entire, you know, glass curtain wall with impact glass, that's a seventy-two million dollar number that I don't think you need to do.

There was again, I think it was like twenty-three million dollars in mechanical, even though they've acknowledged that you know, our chiller and our our cooling tower are in good shape.

There was I think twenty to thirty million dollars in electrical.

Um we have major you know law firms in that building that we put new build outs for recently.

We have had no problems again, notwithstanding the microwave and the toaster.

We've had no problems with electrical capacity.

Um the other big numbers that were there that frankly were were shocking.

I think it was roughly a a twenty-five million dollar number that I sort of uh I think was kind of an inflation factor.

I mean, if you come in and you you get this done and do this, we're not waiting three years.

You know, we've had a lot of inflation, hopefully it's coming down.

I don't think you're gonna have twenty five million dollars inflation.

I think there was also like uh uh 10 percent-ish uh soft cost or uh type of number.

So big picture, those were the things I've seen.

We've addressed all of our major systems.

Are there things that you would want to do differently as a city?

Sure.

I think one of the advantages that was discussed today is a commission building has to have um uh um uh a different type of uh setup.

And our chair I'm so the chambers, I should say.

Our chambers are ground floor, which is currently occupied by West Marine, and I think we can recapture that is already basically set up as a public facing build uh area with it's an open area, high ceilings, it's got its own entrance.

So I think you know, if you really dig into it and take a different type of approach, you would find that it's gonna be a lot less than two hundred million dollars to make that a good building for the city.

Let me ask you why are you trying to sell the building?

Um, you know, we are we haven't we have investors, and uh you know we're not a REIT, you know, we don't hold the building.

No, but I mean you bought a building a few years ago, you spent a lot of money into it.

You obviously you've you've buried a lot of money into this building, and um it sounds to me like you anticipate bearing a lot more if you keep owning it.

I mean, why are you trying to unload the building?

I don't think we're trying to unload the building.

We're not trying to unload the building.

If you guys don't want to do this, we're we're fine.

We didn't we were approached by you, we didn't approach you.

Oh, we approached you.

Who are we who approached you?

We we understood that the city was interested in purchasing an existing building.

I I should say that when we learned that the city was interested in purchasing an existing building, we made ourselves available.

So you approached us.

That that that's true, yes.

Okay.

But the build the buildings are not for sale, and if you don't, we're gonna continue with our current operations.

Okay, thank you, sir.

And and Mayor, if I could probably add to that, and and I I think he's I think he's being delicate and not not framing it, but the primary tenant whose name is on the building is currently in bankruptcy, and I imagine that's probably going to impact uh, you know, every bankruptcy usually involves some cancellation of leases and things like that.

So uh again, you don't have to comment on that.

No, I do want to comment on that.

West Marine is not our tenant.

Okay.

Okay.

Kemet is a multi-billion dollar publicly traded company.

So they're a subtenant, they're a subtenant, it's a sub lease.

So we have no risk at all from the marine.

Well, you know what?

That that's that's uh very interesting.

So th thanks for sharing that.

I appreciate that.

Um I just assume since their name was up there in the building that that was probably.

So that's that situation.

Okay.

You also brought up another point though that I think is kind of interesting.

You talk about your air handlers.

You know, one of the things that I that that I struggle with a little bit from the from the Jacobs report is that it makes an assumption that all of this needs to be done right away.

And you know, as you mentioned, there's there's a schedule of maintenance for replacement of things that take place over a lengthy period of time.

So over 10 years, you know, like you said, maybe you replace one every two years and and you have you you have an identified need, you can start to plan in advance and budget money for that.

And and that's how, you know, uh a responsible property manager looks at their portfolio and they says, Okay, what are our financial needs?

At what point do we need to start replacing these things?

And you budget for them um in advance.

Whereas we typically wait for things to break and then we try and find money to do it.

We use pay as you go, we don't actually establish reserves like our condos have to do to replace mechanicals as they as we anticipate them failing in 20, 30, 40 years.

Um so I think that's an important point.

So I'm assuming that you said you've done a lot of a lot of upgrades um and you're seeing the air handlers.

What other major expenses do you see on the horizon within say the next 10 to 20 years?

You did the elevators, which is a which is a big expense, and so you know we have we have a saying in the you know office business in Florida that um you know you want to keep them cool, you want to keep them dry, and you want to keep them moving up and down.

Right.

So cool.

I would say that you know again we're gonna have to continue with the program of the air handlers we have been doing we've we've owned it I think since 2018 and we've done uh you know some air handlers each year the um uh cooling tower and the chiller I think they're both about 10 years old useful lives for those are typically 25.

I've got my uh construction manager here who's a lot uh better versed in that than I am but if you maintain those properly as we do they'll have another 15 maybe 20 years of useful life so you will have that the elevators should be good to go.

I mean we that was when we went in when we bought this that was a problem there that we fixed um so you know we're keeping them cool we're keeping them uh you know run up and down and you're keeping them dry so over time I think you're gonna want to continue to um you know make sure that you're you're caulking the building and um you know the roof is a major part of keeping them dry so hopefully that answers your question.

Thank you so much sir.

We appreciate it.

Okay uh city manager what are next steps?

That's what we'd like to find out from the commission if there are um decisions that the commission would like to make and direct staff to uh move forward in a particular direction we would like to hear that feedback as you know there's also an evening item on the agenda related to the interim agreement that was deferred from first the April 21st meeting then the June 2nd meeting and so we're here today to glean from the commission an approach for the City Hall project or any other related direction.

Okay so um so we've heard um I first want to thank the Jacobs group for an amazing presentation and doing such a uh an in-depth analysis in such a short period of time I want to thank you for your uh for your work and we appreciate uh everything you've done to assist the city in making a decision uh tonight um uh you know I I'm of the belief that uh I and I want to hear what the uh appetite is of the commission I'm of the belief that uh we should move forward with new construction um I always am hesitant to um to buy something used because it's always going to anticipate uh unexpected uh expenses and again I point out the example in Miami Dade County when Miami Dade purchased a building thinking it was going to cost uh uh certain amount of money and it turns out it costs six significantly more once they got into the building um you just never know sometimes what your outside expenses are going to be and and uh with a new construction I just feel that the the life expectancy of a building the the dollars we're investing the tax dollars that we're investing are a better return on investment than if we were to um go into a uh building that has been uh built 40 30 20 years old I just I you know you get what you pay for and I really believe that um um you know that moving forward with uh new new construction is the best foot forward now I know Commissioner Herbs you've stated your opinion you don't feel that that's what you want to do as you have you changed your mind at all tonight.

No and you know and and you you made an interesting statement you said that you prefer to buy things that are new and not used and I'm just the opposite I haven't bought a new car in years um because I I tend to buy uh late model used cars because you get most of the value out of the car and somebody else takes a depreciation hit.

So I'm frugal by nature uh I'm a CPA and that's how I approach things is the what I consider to be the most appropriate use of of the resources that we have from our taxpayers and I don't think building a new building is it I think buying an existing building that is in objectively very good shape.

We've got two 101 or 1 East broward, both of which I think would make ideal city halls.

And I think it would be the most prudent financial choice for our residents.

Again, we're looking at uh at a very challenging financial environment given the pending tax reform that I think is probably going to pass um and even without that, we were still looking at some struggles financially in the next couple of years.

And so I think keeping the costs as low as possible is the absolute best cost for our residents.

And I still think that that is the optimal solution.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'm still in agreement for the new bill.

I haven't been convinced that going with an older building would be cost saving.

I'm still seeing that what we have to put into the building for as finances for the build out for the maintenance of it over the years.

And I'm still uncomfortable that I can't get definition of the life cycle of these buildings.

Even with you know buying used cars, I'm a used car buyer as well.

My thing is, you know, I'm looking at the mileage on it.

I'm looking at what has happened, what how did the previous owner maintenance, as you said, but all of that plays into my decision as to if I would go into that use opportunity.

And what right now with what's being presented with the comparison of costs, I believe that the um new build out would be a better financial decision for us to preserve moving forward with the generations that are coming and how we're going to utilize the money.

Okay, thank you.

Commissioner Glassman.

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

Um, I also wanted to echo your thank yous to Jacobs and to everyone who presented.

Uh I am very, very pleased with what staff did also in a reasonable amount of time, city manager and the entire staff that put together all of this information uh from the times that we delayed uh and deferred this item.

Um I think that tonight's presentation, today's afternoon's presentation was so cohesive uh and so full of excellent detail.

Uh I will also echo the words of the vice mayor.

I think as a team, we've done a really good job in taking the time to examine what we could possibly do in terms of bringing down that cost.

Uh if you remember, we as a commission voted at one point in time to accept a concept at about $300 million for this building.

Uh so to shave off over 30% of that, and then you compound that with all of the interest, uh, I just think that we've come a long way from that first concept that we all voted for actually at 300 million, uh, to then look at what we could possibly do.

So I just wanted to commend staff for that and all of our uh consultants who worked on this because I think that um the exercise was a good one.

Uh we've come a long way, uh, and I think uh I'm very confident that we're gonna be able to move forward in a direction uh that's going to basically benefit the taxpayers in our city.

Uh I am also of the mind, as the mayor has said, and Commissioner Beasley Pittman has said, that the unknowns are just too unknown.

Um I think that our city has it is at a point in time where we are able to handle the expense.

Staff has done a great job in showing us how we can pay that yearly amount, uh, how we can do that within our budget.

Um again, and I've said this before.

If the city of Oakland Park, if the city of Sunrise, if the city of Pompano Beach, if the city of Miami can all figure out a way to afford a brand new civil structure that basically is something that the city can take pride in, that the city can attend, that the city can say yes, that is our city hall.

Great cities have city halls.

They they have a place where the public can gather and call it their own.

I'm not convinced that our two options here uh are that kind of a place uh where the city of Fort Lauderdale wants to.

You mean the existing building options?

I'm sorry, the existing building options, I'm sorry.

Yes, that the existing building options are not that place.

They do not meet those guiding principles that the ULI and our own infrastructure task force identified over years of years of public input.

Um they just don't fit that criteria.

Um it's as simple as that.

You look at that first slide and you see what those guiding principles were.

Uh, our city is at a point in time where this is something that we should do.

It just makes common sense to me.

I also am very fearful of going down that rabbit hole of opening up walls or just getting into kind of structural issues.

Remember, uh Jacobs did a great job, but those were all non-evasive studies.

I feel that if we got into an evasive study, or that if we actually did have to make some changes to accommodate what our city needs in a city hall, it would be uh uh a very negative situation.

So I'm not going to belabor the point.

I just want to say that I agree uh with the mayor and Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

I think this is our option.

I'm proud of the fact that we've shaved over 30 percent on the initial cost of what we first decided to talk about.

I think we first talked about this at our goal setting workshop in January, correct?

And that's when we actually voted to say yes, let's move forward with this idea.

Um, and then we went through the entire exercise of all of those teams presenting.

Uh we are definitely at the point where tonight we must approve the interim agreement, and then that gives us anywhere between three and twelve months to work out every single detail that we need to do so that when we come back with the comprehensive agreement, we are then ready to move forward in a way that makes sense for all of us.

So that's what I would suggest that we move forward tonight uh with the IA and we take a look at uh those details that we still have to work out between the IA and the CA.

Thanks, Amanda.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor.

Thanks, Mayor, and thank you, Jacobs, and thank you everyone for for being here and presenting.

I thought you have very good, compelling discussion with a lot of great facts, and I think the um buy options are are very are worth continuing to pursue and explore.

Um, you know, when you look at Tower 101 or one east, um you as we heard on uh today that you don't have to make these extensive renovations, they are incredibly well built, uh sustainable buildings, and can will continue to function for years ahead.

And uh while we use those as primary office space for city staff, you know, there's a lot of great options for the city commission chamber.

We're gonna be in the police station, which is a great facility.

Um, also we can even explore building a new city commission chamber on the old city hall site, so that could be an option where you build a very cost-effective city commission chamber um right there, one or two stories right on the existing city hall site, so that you have the uh you know all the functionalities we would want of a city commission chamber.

So there's a lot of good options to again uh save our taxpayers dollars in a very challenging time right now where we have tax reform coming down, we're facing budget deficits in the city, and so it's I think the best uh responsibility of us is to look at the most cost-effective options to explore those further.

Thank you.

So, city manager, I think we see a majority are in favor of uh entering into in into an interim agreement based on new construction.

Um I appreciate the fact that you supplied this addendum to our uh to our backup, which shows us the uh the differentials between the uh the existing buildings and new construction in terms of the uh um the annual impact.

So, this is good to me.

What you told us is cheaper to build build build new.

So um okay.

So that's your direction.

Is there any further business that we want to entertain this afternoon?

Nothing for me.

Thank you, Megan.

Okay, this meeting is concluded.