All right, good morning, everyone.

Welcome to uh City of Hollywood here this morning for those that are visiting.

We're happy to have you.

Uh, today's uh an important opportunity to uh kick off uh the fiscal year for 2027, and we're here as February 23rd, 2026.

Uh City Commission is here in a workshop type setting.

Uh the city manager has put together the agenda for us today.

We'll have an opportunity to hear from uh some exciting and always welcome guest speakers.

And then we'll get into our fiscal discussion and uh talk about some uh technology advancements that could help move the city forward and of course end it with a discussion regarding the uh budget goals and priorities uh for fiscal year 2027.

Uh City Manager Adam, uh, we're excited to be here.

Uh we thank you for the uh strong and fiscally responsible approach that uh this administration has led the city over the past uh decade, and it's really shown results with I think the strength of our reserves.

Uh our liquidity is good and strong, but we always know there's there's uh always headwinds uh before a city, and we always have to adapt uh and also understand what the particular needs of the city are in every given year and time, and of course, with a long-term view as well.

So I know today we'll tackle all of that, and so I thank you uh for uh putting this together and for enabling us to begin that discussion and kick off the 2027 year uh budget planning.

City manager.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Can everybody hear me all right?

Yes, um, Vice Mayor, Commissioners.

Yeah, thank you, Peter.

And to uh everyone appreciate you taking the time and the interest to attend this morning.

As the mayor indicated, uh it's a workshop setting, and I know each year we do the uh the fiscal kickoff to start the the formal process of the budget development for the subsequent fiscal year.

But I want to make sure that we um we maybe take a little special pause and interest this year because we probably have some challenges ahead of us and some opportunities that are a little different than have typically happened in the past.

We'll talk a little bit about what may be happening uh legislatively in terms of some of our revenue streams going forward because that obviously is something that we need to uh obviously focus on and make adjustments to if they take place.

But this is also the uh the time and opportunity.

If we have ideas, um positive, negative, big or small, operating or capital, new or old.

This is the time to initiate those, and we've got all morning.

So bring those suggestions, ideas out now because uh later in the process, uh sometimes if we try to catch them at the workshop level or even at the hearing level, sometimes it's too late to get them fully formed for right now or funded, and then they have to wait till the subsequent year.

It also gives us a chance to document uh certain issues and needs in the public record.

And that way, not only is the issue fleshed out a little bit, but it has a it takes on a life and a stature of its own so that it has its place when we compete for time and money and other considerations in the decision making going forward.

So um, please take that opportunity this morning because that's what it's for.

We're also gonna hear a little bit about AI, and um obviously once the genie's out of the bottle, you can't put it back in again.

So, whatever that means in terms of how that changes the way we do business and deliver services.

Um, we need to appreciate that and and use it as a tool going forward.

Um, it will probably maybe not initially, but over time, but we'll probably have a significant impact on how we deliver services, and that may change things in terms of people and numbers, um, and that may be a bit of an adjustment for all of us to make, but so be it.

I mean, that's the reality that we're faced with, and it's it's a positive opportunity.

It just as with anything, sometimes change is not easy to adjust to as well going forward.

So we'll uh we'll hear a little bit about trends and goals and priorities, and uh and then you'll have plenty of time for the uh the suggestions and ideas and questions.

So, with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Assistant City Manager Adam Reichbach.

Thank you.

Well, thank you very much, and I really appreciate everyone's attendance today.

Uh again, Adam Reichbach, Assistant City Manager.

Just for logistics and just for everyone's awareness, we will be recording this meeting.

Uh, we'll be uh playing it on our YouTube channel as well as our government access channels.

They'll be uh previewed probably the next um several days they'll be on there.

Okay.

So today does mark the beginning of the fiscal year 2027 budget development process.

Um, over the next several months, our departments and our offices will be tasked with preparing their proposed budgets for next year, as well as taking into account what you all would like to see as terms of priorities and then looking for operational efficiencies garnered by our performance measurement data as well as industry standards, as well as the adoption of some innovative programs that we hope will enhance our services and perhaps even offer some additional revenue strategies for us as we go through these on uncharted times in terms of our revenue development over the next several uh years ahead.

So as was discussed today, we're going to have the opportunity to discuss some of those opportunities and challenges that we face in fiscal year 27.

We are very fortunate to have our Broward County property appraiser Marty Kerr here, and we will be introducing him shortly to give uh some uh hopefully an update for us as well as we go into the fiscal year 2027 budget.

Um we will then take a look at some local trends, and then we will have our director of IT, Raheem Cheran here, who will give us some AI outlooks for local governments as we move into the 2027 budget year.

And then lastly, will be the interactive part of today, and that that's when we'll be looking for you all to provide to us some information that we need to help build for the 2027 budget year.

So, in looking from a 35,000 foot view, we must be cognizant of those external factors that we are going to have to face and will ultimately be challenges for us as we go into the 2027 budget development process.

Um the slide's a little busy, so I'll try to walk through as much as I can in in short order.

But we do continue to see moderate inflation tied perhaps to ongoing tariff discussions, and this is also providing for a prolonged volatile stock market.

Although, despite that volatility, we have seen some significant growth, which has been very helpful for our investments.

Um, it's something that we do need to be cognizant of as we go forward into 2027.

Many of our federal funding opportunities have been frozen or significantly reduced under the current administration, so that's also been a challenge for us as we go into this at this fiscal year as well as into next.

And at the more local level, we do have the revenue threats associated with property tax reform, which we'll touch on in a little bit.

Um, this coupled with necessary infrastructure improvements is something that we'll need to be cognizant of as we go into the fiscal year 2027 budget process.

And certainly we also need to uh prioritize greater reliance opportunities on new technology, and that's why we'll have a great conversation about AI development as we go into next year as well.

Oh, before I leave the slide, just something also worth mentioning is the unemployment indices.