All right, good evening, everyone.

Welcome to City Hall here in the City of Hollywood.

Today we are here for a uh first of two uh public budget hearings.

Today is September 15th, 2025, and it is just after six p.m.

Uh please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

And to the Republic for the stance.

One nation, undergo indivisible liberty and justice.

Well, I'm gonna uh thank you.

Roll call, please.

Commissioner Shoeham.

Here.

Commissioner Hernandez.

Here.

Commissioner Kallary.

Here.

Commissioner Gruber.

Here.

Commissioner Biederman.

Here.

Vice Mayor Contana?

Here.

Mayor Levy.

Here.

As you may have noticed, Commissioner Callary is joining us virtually.

I'd like a motion and a second to approve her participation.

Motion to approve her participation.

Motion from Commissioner Hernandez, second from Commissioner Shoeham to approve Commissioner Kalery's virtual participation today.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Showing that carries.

I'll say seven now.

All right.

Of course, in the form of government that the City of Hollywood shares with the majority of Hollywood cities, excuse me, of Florida cities, the city manager and the team prepare a proposed budget that goes through line item by line item, department by department, his recommendation on how to uh expend uh all the revenue that the city uh is projected to take in uh for the upcoming fiscal year, fiscal year 2026, which begins October 1st in just a few weeks, and we'll run through the end of September in 2026.

Uh thankfully we are in a much better financial position as the city was 10 years ago or 15 years ago or any time in the past.

Uh but we also know that the city faces challenges that we're more aware of that in the past uh they haven't been.

The city continues to age, and so there's a lot to do, uh, but thankfully we have a lot more to work with.

And so uh city manager, looking forward to your presentation.

Um residents, you'll have an opportunity to speak as I call the different items that are on the agenda um with regards to uh setting the uh millage rate, um, the fire assessment fees and what have you.

City manager.

Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor and uh Commissioners, and to all members of the the public and staff who are in attendance or watching this evening.

Um as you indicated, uh we are required to hold two public hearings for adoption, the first one tonight, the second one on the 25th, also at 6 p.m.

That will also be the evening of the CRA's uh to follow the city's public hearing, the CRA's budget hearing.

And uh we are fortunate every year when we get to this point, we talk about the importance of this meeting, and if you were to only watch one meeting a year, this might be the one because you can in it get a capsulated version of priorities and concerns and revenues and expenditures and and where the focus is from the past, present, and future.

And um uh with that, I want to say a special thank you to um everybody.

Um starting if you remember back several months ago when we had uh budget workshop right here and uh and we've had numerous meetings since and then many internal meetings um and listening to members of the public at a variety of forums in terms of what the concerns and priorities are for the city, but not just for now, but for the future, and that's one of the themes of this particular budget is we find ourselves at kind of a crossroads uh right now.

Um the much of the the past, as the mayor was making reference to the city has been able to put the past in the past.

And to be able to get to this point in time where we for the second year in a row recommend to you a decrease in the operating millage rate and including uh a decrease in the debt service uh as well, so that we can actually decrease the total millage rate below eight mills for the first time in about 15 years or so.

And we'll continue working on that going forward.

So we're very happy about that.

It's at least the third year in a row that we've been with the structurally balanced uh budget, meaning that all of our ongoing operating expenses are paid with ongoing operating revenues and no one-time covers on any of those expenses, also very important.

Um, the level of capital improvements, not only from the uh the general obligation bond that you see already completed and going in the ground, um, are not just are not just catching up on some of those needs for decades in the past, but they create a foundation for the future of this city, for instance, the PD headquarters.

That's that's really going to be a central anchor anchor point for this community.

It's also going to be a backup emergency operating center.

It's going to have technology and capacities in it that the current uh facility doesn't even uh imagine.

And and it is setting the foundation for the next generation or two for this city, so that as we've eliminated many of those weaknesses and concerns from the past and doubling the tax base of this city uh in the in the past decade is is just a testament to some of those efforts.

It's creating that capacity so that in the future there will always be cycles and ups and downs.

The rate of growth of the tax base and property values of the last several years, we've been watching it flatten out.

So the rate of increase has been decreasing, and that may continue for the foreseeable future.

You never know what the future holds in terms of cycles if they become more difficult or now.