All right, good evening, everyone.

Today is September twenty third, twenty twenty-six.

We are here for a special city commission meeting here in the city of Hollywood.

Welcome to everyone who's here in the audience.

Let's please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

She is a student at MacArthur High School, and she's a member of the uh Hollywood Youth Ambassadors, and Vice Mayor Collary, who's joining us virtually today, offered an opportunity for Crystal Marie to uh sit up here and uh be part of our budget uh work uh presentation.

So Chris and Larie, welcome.

Let's go ahead to roll call, please.

Commissioner Gruber.

Here.

Commissioner Biederman.

Here.

Commissioner Cantana.

Here.

Commissioner Shoeham.

Here.

Commissioner Hernandez.

Here.

Vice Mayor Kallary.

Here.

Mayor Levy.

Here.

All right.

That's everybody here in attendance.

So today we'll have two meetings.

The meeting that we're now in session with is, of course, the uh second public uh budget hearing for fiscal year twenty-seven.

Uh, following this meeting at approximately six thirty or later, uh, we will have the uh budget meeting and hearing for the community redevelopment agency.

All right.

So uh thank you all so much.

I want to uh extend an opportunity for the city manager to uh begin with some remarks.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, uh, City Commissioners.

Uh, thank you so much.

Um, each year, the um one of the most important tasks that we all undertake is the financial planning for the city as fiduciaries of the city's revenue and expenditures.

It's a very uh critical time for us.

This process, as you know, really gets underway uh in January with the fiscal retreat uh and our strategy kickoff session, uh, then department submissions of budgets, countless meetings, lots of number crunching by our uh budget team and by staff all to get here to where we are tonight.

And of course, uh this year we've had some uh curve balls thrown into the mix with the discussion uh and the proposed uh ballot measure with amendment three.

So uh, you know, we are in a good place right now for uh fiscal year 2027.

We hope that we will continue uh to be uh in a good place.

We are now a billion-dollar city with a structurally balanced budget, and we continue to have a lot of resources for significant capital improvement investment and maintenance across our city, which is a big change from where we were a little more than a decade ago.

And so there has really been some tremendous uh progress in our community, and we would certainly love to see that continue and the investments that we've been able to make uh be able to uh be maintained at the current level.

With that, I want to thank our budget team.

I want to thank our deputy city manager, Adam Reichbach, for all of the efforts that he has put into this, and I would like to turn it over to him for the presentation for tonight.

Thank you.

Good evening, Adam Reichbeck, Deputy City Manager.

Thank you very much.

Um as the city manager indicated, today marks the second public hearing, second and final public hearing to review and then ultimately adopt the fiscal year 2027 budget.

Following the presentation, you'll be asked to approve a series of resolutions that will set the stage for services and projects that will be planned for fiscal year 2027.

This includes establishing our millage rates, the second reading of the budget, approving the fiscal year 2027 capital improvement plan, and then establishing the number and types of authorized positions for fiscal year 2027.

So, as we as we presented prior, the proposed millage for fiscal year 2027 proposes an operating millage that is flat from fiscal year 2026 at 7.4293.

We are proposing to reduce all three of our debt service millage rates.

Together, the debt service millage uh totals 0.5075, bringing our total millage to 7.9368, which is a reduction of 0.0238.

As the city manager indicated, um, this year we are just over 1 billion dollars for all city funds.

This represents an increase of 13.1% from fiscal year 2026.

Collectively, the city's enterprise funds account for just over 42 percent of the overall city budget, and the general fund, which represents just under 41 percent of our overall citywide budget, amounts to 436 million dollars.

Speaking of our general fund, the total proposed general fund, as I indicated, is 40 third 436.1 million.

As a reminder, property taxes continues to be the single largest revenue stream for the general fund and coming in just over 46 percent.

On the expenditure side, police and fire as expected continues to be the largest cost centers for the city.

And just continuing to point out that collectively, uh, and this is certainly not unique to Hollywood, that our public safety budgets exceed our total property tax revenue.

Um speaking of property tax revenue, uh certainly there's been a lot of conversation and discussion, specifically as it relates to amendment three, but I want to provide some facts uh just for the record that recognizes both the increase in in our in our property tax revenue over the past three years, but also showcases examples of increased expenditures over that same three-year period.

On the property tax revenue side, in the three years, uh specifically last three years from fiscal year 2023 through fiscal year 2026, our revenues have increased by about 42 million dollars.