County Commission on 2026-03-26 10:00 AM - Mar 26, 2026

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By the time he became chair of the Parks and Advisory Board, and where I got to see him a lot was I was coaching softball. And he was, as chair, he was in charge of opening day, which is why I did opening day for the music today. He was in charge of that, and it was like something he loved doing. In Hollywood, you have all the teams parade out on opening day, everybody from t-ball all the way to high school. He'd do all the announcing of it, and then he asked if I wanted to throw the first pitch, which was something I always wanted to do. I obviously wanted to burn one in and show I still had it. Yeah. You know, unfortunately, I threw it right over the catcher's head. You know, the catcher was only about that big. But he gave me another chance, but it was one of my highlights of being able to do it. And he just did a lot of work there. He was your classic Boston politician. He'd worked in Boston government a lot. And when I decided to run for county commissioner, he asked if I needed a driver to help that, because he had helped Tim Ryan do all that. He had helped Tim drive around. He went through a couple of transmissions of Tim's driving. Yeah, horrible driver, horrible driver. But he drove us, you know, drove around to knock. And he would always tell me, like Tim would hand out Emory boards every one. Beam, you've got to be handing out Emory boards. You're not going to win. And, you know, and all the different things that Tim had done, he kept saying, you've got to be doing this. But for the last 11 years, he's been, he has helped a lot of people. And knowing government, knowing that he worked in the property appraiser for a while as well, but he knew government inside and out, up and down. And so when anybody called our office, he knew exactly where to go. And he was a pitman. And he, he would not, he would not take no for an answer. And I know, and I was always apologizing to some staff somewhere, because he would always, he would push and push and push until he got the answer, you know, until he could help somebody. He would always tell people, like when he, when he would get ready to hang up, the difficult we can do today, the impossible, it may take us a little bit longer. You know, and that's the way, that's the way he approached it. And he just did a tremendous amount of good. He worked since I've been here, from the first day. He's been, so 11 years, 11 and a half years. And he would be, you know, when he was apologizing to people, he would write a letter. Old school, he'd do letters, then he'd invite them to lunch. And he would have lunch with everybody. Hey, I, he'd tell me, I'm not, and that's the one time he would take off during the day. And he'd be having lunch with city managers and mayors. I'm going, I haven't even had lunch with those guys yet. But he, I'm going, well, okay, that's, that's what Frank did. He would always, for all our newsletters, and you guys know our newsletters, he always got the last read, because he was a printer at one time. And so he was the last, last one who would proofread. And he wondered if he might have to go back to school after November, so that he could get retrained to stay working for the county. At 97 years, he's thinking, what am I going to do? What job am I going to do afterwards? Unfortunately, he didn't, didn't make it there. So, prayers go out to his family. I know Dean is here today. He, he talked to you about you guys all the time. So it's opening day. Yeah. If we could put his jersey, if we could, if we could put his jersey up in the rafters, it'd be great. It would be good. So, he's going to be missed. A childhood friend of mine, Deetra Sands, passed away. Funeral services will be this weekend. She's done a lot in this community. She's been president of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated, and many, many other organizations. The reason why I bring her to her attention today, because one of our own, her daughter-in-law, is a reading clerk for us. That's her mother-in-law. And our prayers are with you and your family.

Let us all, let us also all honor the brave men and women who have served and continue to serve in our armed forces, both here and abroad, and thank them for their service. And let's pause for a moment of silence. Please take your seats. Our breakfast that most people don't know about, and music that you heard, was provided by Commissioner Furr, Center Field by John Fogarty, and April Come, She Will, by Simon Garfunkel. And maybe sometime we're going to hear more of your music, right? Today, we got something very special. Today, Senator Geller, I need to have his attention. I'm honoring him right now. Today, we're going to start off this meeting by honoring our airport director, Mark Gale, who's one of the best in the country. He's being honored by the American Association of Airport Executives. It's a 100-year-old, nearly 100-year-old organization with approximately 12,000 individual members. You correct me if I'm wrong, from 949 different airports. It's one of the highest levels of recognition getting the Distinguished Service Award. So with that, I'd like to call up Rebecca Hupp, who will present it. She's the current chair. And you got the mic.

Good morning. Thank you, Mayor. Do you want me to have Mark come up? Let me say a few words about Mark. It makes me a little nervous to have him behind me, but we'll power through. Thank you so much for allowing me to be here and to present this award to Mark. I can tell by just the interactions that I've had with him here this morning how dearly beloved he is here in our community. I think the mayor corrected me when I said he was one of the, amongst the best airport directors in the country. He said, no, Mark is the best airport director in the country. And clearly, his airport colleagues think very highly of him as well. So it's wonderful to see someone who's so beloved in the industry and also in their community. So it's my distinct honor to be here today on behalf of the American Association of Airport Executives to present Mark Gale, accredited airport executive, with our Distinguished Service Award. This award is our association's highest honor, and it recognizes airport executives whose leadership, accomplishments, and service have made a lasting impact on their airports, their colleagues, and their communities that they serve. Mark is incredibly deserving of this recognition. With nearly 40 decades of service in the industry, doesn't look that old, including 10 years, Mark will be celebrating 10 years of service to the Broward County Aviation Department this coming Saturday as the Director of Aviation, overseeing both Fort Lauderdale Hollywood Airport and the North Perry Airport. Mark has a career that is defined by thoughtful leadership, steady judgment, and clear vision. During this same period, Mark has guided Fort Lauderdale through strength and resilience during moments that no airport director wants to have to deal with. During his leadership defined not only calm decision-making, but also genuine compassion for people who make the airport run every day. By putting people first while keeping the organization moving forward, Mark helped ensure that Fort Lauderdale emerged stronger and better prepared for the future. He has overseen significant expansion and modernization while guiding the airport through a $2.3 billion capital improvement program. Prior to his time in Fort Lauderdale, he served with the Philadelphia International Airport, including seven years as the CEO, where he earned the respect of colleagues nationwide for a steady leadership and collaborative approach. Mark has also given generously of his time to the American Association of Airport Executives, including serving in the role as chair. During that time, he worked to strengthen airports across the country and helped to ensure that airports spoke with a unified voice in Washington as critical political issues were debated. Those who know Mark best will tell you his impact is measured not only by projects or passenger numbers, but by the people that he mentored, the teams that he built, and the confidence he inspires in those around him. Mark, this award reflects the respect and appreciation of your colleagues throughout the country for the leadership you have shown throughout your career, especially here in Broward County. On behalf of AAAE and the entire industry, I want to thank and recognize you. Can we maybe do one with the entire commission and Mark, and then maybe all of the airport employees as well? Because we all know that it takes a great team to support an airport director. We should go to one of the airports.

I was just thinking of saying that.

Airport team, come on up.

Airport team, come on up. Airport team.

Come on up. Airport team. How do you want it? Anybody else? You want anybody to mark it? Yes, sir. Oh, this one. All right.

We need to back up, guys. We need to back up all the way up. No, we got back up. That's awesome.

That's not an airport team. We should get a drone, then. You guys, come on in the bus. Hey, don't be afraid of the bus. Come on.

Okay, guys. We're going to mute. You have to move back. I can't get them right now. Oh, that'd be not. That'd be good to do a bunch, please. Excuse me, Susan. You hit the shot.

You hit the shot.

You hit the shot.

I'm shooting.

You hit the shot.

Okay.

We're going to do employee recognition.

Everything good, Mark? Oh, I'm sorry. Let's make some comments here. I'm sorry. I'm being rushed. I apologize. Very quickly, Mayor.

I'll hold you up. I just want to thank everybody. Certainly, the Association for the Recognition, to be honored by your peers, really means a lot to me after four decades of this. But as has been said before, you know, we get to do what we do at the airport. But it comes with the backing and the blessing of leadership, you, the commission, those that I've been working with for the last 10 years, county administrator, the entire county administration team. Nothing happens without your unwavering support. And I'm greatly, greatly appreciative of that. And, of course, the phenomenal team that is the American Aviation Department. I get the pleasure of serving with some of the finest individuals in this industry, in the country. And I just want to give a shout-out to the BCAD team that came up here with you. Guys, you rock. You're the best ever. Family and friends, as if Chair Hupp, Rebecca, we learned from each other. We're there for each other when things happen, whether it's, you know, disasters, much like what just happened in LaGuardia. We reach out, and we're always there to try to help each other, educate each other. But last, not least, and most important is family. And I had to prove to some of you that my wife, beautiful wife, Yvonne, actually does exist here. And came around. She does exist. But she has been really my most ardent supporter for the last four decades. And I couldn't do anything without her. So thanks again, Mayor. Appreciate it.

Mark, I didn't know if you wanted to tell everybody that everyone who's here, you're going to give a 50% discount on any airfare for the next year. Is that what you're going to do for us?

Do I get to pick the airline, Mayor? Are they still in business?

Thank you, Mark.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Monica.

All right, we're now going to do employee recognitions and have Monica Shapiro lead the way.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Commissioners. And here we are again. Quarterly, we get to do this really fun activity. where we get to honor and recognize our employees for many, many years of service. I think today we have, I think, about 31 employees that are here that have checked in. And these employees are recognized for years of service between 20 and 40 years of service with Broward County. So we're going to start here, and I'm going to start with aviation. Since we're on the aviation kick this morning, I'm going to ask for Gertie Sherry to come join us. 20 years of service. Who are you coming up?

Gertie's coming down now.

There you are. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you so much. Congrats. Thank you. Thank you for your service. Here you go. Take your visitor. Pass off to the photo. Come on in over here. Here we go. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. If they want to like, Gertie. Gertie. Gertie. Gertie. If you'd like, you can also go around the dais and get to say hello to the commissioners and shake their hands as you'd like. As you go around. They want to shake their hands. They would like to congratulate you. They would like to. No, no, no. This way. This way. This way. Right through here. And even our county auditor as well. So let's stay with aviation for a moment. Let's ask Renee Spence to join us from aviation. They would like us this way a little bit. To the right. There we go. I think we have a gift over here. Someone is doing. There we go.

There we go.

Congratulations.

Go around the dais. Go around the dais.

Okay. As she's going around the dais, I think she would like aviation employees to come quickly. We've got to make, just keep it moving. If you guys could go stand over there real quickly. Who's going to take a picture with her? And in the essence of time today, we're going to try to move through these kind of quickly. The next one is libraries, Mark. If you guys want to get ready for your photo, we've got to take a quick, I know. Sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because they're going to. And commissioners, if you'd like to stand behind.

Okay, guys. Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me. Okay. Ready? Thank you. Thank you.

Our next employee we're going to recognize is from the libraries. If I can have Morgan Reeves join us, please. Congratulations. 20 years of service. Quick photos. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Awesome. We're going to stay with the libraries, and let's ask Eric Gomez to join us, please. Congratulations.

We're going to switch gears.

Let's ask our assistant director of OESBD, Nadia Hankerson, to join us. Thank you. Congratulations. I was thinking Spanish. Come on.

Come on, Donna. Right down here.

All right. Come on, Donna.

There we go. There we go. There we go. I know. We have it all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Perfect. Absolutely. Absolutely. OESBD. Let's stay with OESBD. Cheryl Roberts. You have a hot mic. Just for my name.

It's fun.

I know. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you. Thank you. I'll hide it. Okay. Thank you.

Congrats.

Thank you.

We have more?

Oh, no. Oh, there's one. We're going to come up. All right. We'll do it quick. All right. All right. We'll do it quick. Thank you. All right.

All right. Group pitch, let's go.

We're going to go to the bathroom here.

Okay. Quickly. Come on up.

I'm going to line up beside you for one, just the same time. Two more people coming up. Okay. Two more people coming up. Next, we're going to switch over to Parks and Recreation.

Jeannette Howie, please join us. Hi, Dan. Hi, Dan. How are you doing? I'm good. Good to see you. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good? Yep. Let's keep it. What are you doing? A team. Let's keep it quick. Let's keep it quick. A team. Come on. Let's stay here. We can't stay here. We can't stay here. You can't stay here. You go. We're good. I'm going to be on the end. I'm going to book that. Come on. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you.

You don't have to be nice. Yep. Absolutely. Port Everglades. Let's welcome Jerome Davis. Come on, you guys. You going to back up just a little bit? Right here. Back up just a little bit, Jerome. Right here. You good. Take your physical back. Oh, okay. Take your back.

Take your back. All right. All right. Okay. Good. Good. Study. Yeah. Good. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm getting a little back. Oh. That's all. Congratulations. Thank you. Of course. Congratulations. Let's stay with Port Everglades and let's ask Justin Davis to join us. 20 years of service. Congratulations. Justin. Justin. All right. Stay up here. All right. Another picture.

Ready.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Take care, guys. All right. Stay with Port Everglades. Timothy Ehrlich. Join us, please, for 20 years of service recognition. Thank you. For your service. What's up, boss? All right. Congratulations. There you go, sir. Let's take the photo. Here we go. You want to extend it? There we go. Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. Hi, there. We're still on 20 years of service. Public Works and Environmental Services. Let's ask Claudia Rodriguez to join us. Do you like to have everyone in your photo?

Yes? Is that for her? Is that for you? Yes.

There we go. Oh, come on.

Come on, kids. Let's do it. Come on down. Aw.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

You want her in the picture? We have a county employee, huh?

All right. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Enough with the paparazzi. That's what you're going to do.

She's smart. So you're going to do. She might do better than some of our employees. Public Works and Environmental Services. Jeffrey Thompson. I know. What is he doing? I don't know. He's acting out like you are. Or like you did. Thank you, Mike. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. There you go. Are you going to jump in this picture? Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on.

Come on.

Come on.

Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on.

Yeah. Okay.

All right.

Hold on. I'll leave. I'll move. Yeah. He learned from me. He learned from me. He learned. Yeah. See that? Thank you, Mayor. You bet. Be well. Take care. All right. Also from Public Works and Environmental Services. Marjorie Jacosing. Congratulations. Take your sticker off. There you go.

Take your sticker off.

There you go. What's that? You want to look there? Oh, you got that? Yeah. Oh, you got that? Yeah. Come on. Oh. Take your visitor back. I'll take it. I'll take it.

I'll take it. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations.

Now we're switching gears over to 25 years of service. I'd like to ask from aviation, Winston Canical to join us, please. Can I have any flowers? Yep. Absolutely. Thank you. Is this your next person? No. No. Finance. No. Next, I'm going to switch over to Finance and Administrative Services. Let's ask Joshua Parsons to join us, please. Let him come down. Let him come down. Come on. Let him come down. Hey. Congrats. Hey. Don't pick the library. Yes. Yes. All right. One in five. Come on in. Congratulations. Thank you.

Where am I?

Finance and Administrative Services. Mitho Licks. Please join us. Here you go. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on down here. Get in. Get over here. Get in. Get in.

Get in. Get in. Get in. Get in.

Get in. Get in. You didn't want to get in here.

Go. Congratulations. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. All right. Let's switch over to Human Services and Elderly and Veterans Affairs. Andrea Busala. 25 years. Hi. Congratulations. Come on over. Come on over. Go next to you. There we go. Come on over. Go next to me. You're going to get a lot more people. Come on down. Yeah. Just quickly. Wow. Let's scoot over this way. Scoot over a bit. How do you care? Go ahead. Scoot in. Go ahead.

Scoot in. Scoot in? Go ahead. All right. Go ahead. Go ahead. Get in. You're never going to move. I'm trying.

You're tall enough. Continuing on 25 Years of Service, Cara Gebe. From Transportation, let's welcome Cedric Perry, 25 Years of Service. Our last 25-year recognition this morning, Nicholas Morris, also from Transportation. Okay, quick picture. There you go. Okay. If you'd like, if you want to walk around and say hello. I'm just going to hang here just a second. Yes, sir. Boards and Regents. 30 Years of Service. Let's ask from boards and agencies, but this is really the Planning Council. Why don't we ask Barbara Blake Boyd to join us? Congratulations. 30 Years of Service.

Exactly.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I serve on the Planning Council. Congratulations. That's for you. We have one more from 25 Years that has joined us this morning. I'd like to ask from Parks and Recreation, Catherine, but really we know her, is Katie. Bernal, thank you, Katie. Join us. Come on in. Come on in. Hey, Katie. Thank you. May I want to give you a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you. There you go. We'll do it all once. We'll do it all once. Thank you. Thank you. Let me get to bring you one. Eric, go right here. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Did you just walk around any days? Okay.

Okay. Okay.

Do you want to rest? Yeah, thank you. Oh, my God. Let's do it for the first one. Yeah. Let's do it for the first one. Here's the next one. Marlene Barnes. Finance and Administrative Services. Let's ask Marlene Barnes to join us. Thank you. I said no. I was like, that's for sure. Katie started in County Admin. Good morning. Well, why do you need your family? I don't know. You got it? Well, I'm back. All right. Here we go.

I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go.

Monica, do you want to go back here? Yeah, let's do mine. You're good or do you want to? Well, I'm going to get it. Oh, let's go in the back. Okay. We're going to go back here. Do you need help? Yeah. Oh. Okay, here we go. Let's get more of it.

You're good. You're good.

You're good. You're good.

You're good.

You're good. All right. Backward. Go ahead. Go ahead.

Go ahead.

Go ahead.

Go ahead. Get up on the picture. No, no. I'll take it. No, I'll take it. No, I'll take it. No, I'll take it. I'll take it.

Is that going in? Hurry up. Hurry up. Hurry up. You're on the clock. Hurry up. You're going down. Hurry up. Okay. You're going down. What's going down? Wait. Don't worry about me. All right. All right. Thank you.

All right.

From libraries, let's ask Cynthia Hayes to join us. 30 years of service. Cynthia, congrats. Thank you. Of course. Thank you. All right, so I think the house is going to come down in just a minute. Not literally, but when I announce the next person, who always takes care of our house away from home, let's ask Katrina Jackson to come join us. Thank you for taking care of us. Come on, guys. Katrina, Katrina. It's out of control. It's the whole chambers. On the other side, man. Yeah, on the other side. All people on the other side. It's going to be right here. There's no way I can get in there. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. All right, let's, if we can have every, if we can have everyone shift over here. Shift over here. Let's shift. All right, let's take it. Okay, ready? Well deserved. Good morning. There's no hugging a lot. Come on, hurry. There's no hugging a lot. Thank you, everyone. There's no congratulations. So if that's not a testament of how Katrina leads. All right, so we're going to stay with Public Works and Environmental Services, but I think we're going to try to get the pictures a little quicker here. Raynell Moran, please. Also with 30 years of service from Public Works and Environmental Services. It's a Susan Royal. Royal. It depends. Is it Rolo? Rolo. There we go. Congratulations. Congratulations. I think you should call Mark Dale. He should be here. He's stuck out. He'll be back. 30 years of service also with Public Works and Environmental Services. Marlise Seeley. We're switching over to 35 years of service. We've just got a handful of employees left today. From Parks and Recreation, let's ask Mark Reckman to join us. Mark Reckman to Mark Reckman to join us. It's spelled with a K, right? Yeah. All right, good. Congrats. Go around the business if you'd like. Let's ask Candace Jensen from Public Works and Environmental Services. We'll do it at the end. We could come in. We'll do it at the end. Get everyone in. Go ahead. All right, let's assemble. Same as the last one. A little bit. Yeah. All right, let's do it here. Ready? I'm with you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Great. I got it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Another employee. Did you get to go around the dais? Another employee from Public Works and Environmental Services, Ali Younis. So I'm going to now have the employee recognized with 40 years of service in Broward County. So this individual is one of our steadfast, amazing employees from Port Everglades. Let's ask Conrad Strong to join us. Thank you. All right, now I'm sitting here. Oh, yeah. Hi. Commissioner Fisher. One more thing. Yeah. Before we go on to our last recognition, are there any other employees here that were here to be recognized that did not check in? No? I think we're good. Thank you. So we have one final employee that we'd like to recognize. And while it's... Oh, there is? Come on. Come on over. And... Yep. So Christopher Marchant, 20 years of service. Thank you so much. Also from the port. From the port. From Port Everglades. 20 years. Congratulations. Thank you. Let's take a photo. Come on over here. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. You can go around. You can go around. And we'll get you your certificate. Okay. Now, we were going to recognize the final employee for this morning, and I'm going to turn it over to Commissioner Fisher. Thank you, Monica. Monica is, as the commissioners know, the most important folks that can serve your district is your staff, right? They're the ones that make you look good, do all the work for you most of the time, and then they don't get the recognition. But it's my privilege and honor to provide a certificate of appreciation for my team member for 10 years of service, Mabel Hurtado.

Mabel, would you come here?

Come on, Monica. Come on.

Why don't you guys do it one first? Congratulations, Mabel. I just don't know if Mabel wants to go around the dais, though. Mabel. Mabel. Did you want to go around the dais? Mayor Bogan, may I have you come down for one more picture, please? My apologies. No, it's all good. Thank you. I think you're better.

You got a certificate, thank you so much.

They were hiding it. Thank you. Were you hiding it?

Thank you so much. And to our employees, thank you for your dedication and passion and commitment to this community. Thank you.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

While everybody is leaving, is Michael Rayner here?

Come here.

Michael Rayner, come here. Why don't you come on up for a second? While everyone's going. In the back, can you make the podium louder in a second? Michael, let Senator Rich take it from here. Turn on your microphone.

I'm going to get to it, too. My chair is all the way over there. Okay. Okay. I'm just trying to wait until it gets right down a little bit. I just wanted us just to recognize somebody who worked incredibly hard since January in Tallahassee on behalf not only of Broward County, but of all people in our community that happened to be taking certain drugs for AIDS that were being cut out. And I feel like he went up there as a citizen and spent days, weeks, days, hours working. And he was recognized in every article, practically, that came out. And he was recognized on the Senate floor by the senators, thanking him for his work and also the House. So I just wanted him to – I wanted us to recognize him for what he has done, the importance of this, and why, unfortunately, we had to go through this is another story. But we came out with a wonderful result. And much of it goes – the credit goes to Michael. And we wanted to just recognize you, Michael. And thank you.

Thank you, Michael. Thank you, Michael. Thanks. I'll speak to item 50.

That's very choked up. Okay.

Ready to move forward? Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay. All right. Let's start by reading the Thursday morning memo. Would the reading clerk please read the memo?

Thursday agenda memorandum. The following are submitted for your consideration. Consent items are 1 through 43. Public hearing items, none. Regular items, 44 through 55. I request the following withdrawals and other modifications to the agenda and note the following additional information. Withdrawals, item number 9, withdrawn. Item number 32, withdrawn for further staff review. Other modifications, item number 50. The board's consideration of this item is based upon the revised resolution. Submit it as additional material, number 50A, by the sponsoring commissioner. Item number 53, time certain at 11.15 a.m. or the conclusion of the consent agenda, whichever occurs first. Item number 53, Commissioner Alexandra P. Davis has requested to be added as a co-sponsor. Scrivener errors, item number 45. The board's consideration of this item is based upon the item with the correction shown on the attached page. Attachment A of Scrivener errors. Move to consent, items number 44 and 50, be moved to consent. Additional material, regular meeting. Items number 1C through 1F, board appointments. Item number 28A, exhibit 3, business impact statements submitted by Office of the County Attorney. Item number 47A, move to the board, code of silence. Communications submitted by Purchasing Division. Item number 47B, replacement exhibit 5, page 1, submitted by Purchasing Division. Item number 48A, project dashboard submitted by Mayor Mark Bogan. Item number 50A, proposed resolution submitted by Commissioner Hayes L.P. Rogers. Item number 53A, email correspondence submitted by Commissioner Steve Geller. Item number 53B, memo to the board submitted by County Administration. Item number 53C, email correspondence submitted by County Administration. Additional material, public hearing, none.

Okay, I'm going to go around the dais to see if you have any polls. Just to let everybody know, we're time crunched today because we have some commissioners that need to leave at a certain time. So I'm going to try to move this along as fast as possible. We'll start with Commissioner Rogers.

44.

Senator Rich. Okay, I'm going to ask our county attorney. We have two. Any polls from the public?

There was two items that were going to be transferred to consent, both were pulled by the public, 44 and 50.

So we have three items pulled, 43, 44, and 50. County attorney, would you frame the motion, please?

Yes, Mayor. Thank you. So the consent agenda today consists of items 1 through 42, minus item 9, which was withdrawn, and minus item 32, which was also withdrawn. Mr. Mayor. And did you say, Commissioner, did you say 44 or 24? 44. 44, that's what I thought. Yeah. Yes. So let me just repeat it. 1 through 42, so I left out 43, and subtracted from that are items 9 and 32, which were withdrawn.

I move approval of the consent agenda as read by the county attorney. I have a motion. Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Show that passing. 9-0. Let's go to our pulled item, start with number 43, Commissioner, Senator Geller.

And, Mayor, you're going to be taking up 47 afterwards, and the subject matter is somewhat related, so do you want to take 43 with 47 afterwards?

If you're suggesting it.

Okay. Let me just say one sentence. Mr. Mayor, I'm not going to object to the six. You need six votes to prevent something. I'm not going to do that. I just want to say when we reached that, I'm going to ask you because I've read the facts. It didn't seem to me that the employee there had done anything wrong. It appeared to be an error on the part of administration, not the part of the employee, and that's what I wanted to ask you about when we get to that item number.

Well, so just real quickly, 43 is about we had an employee that sat on an evaluation committee that had a conflict of interest. Okay, that employee did the right thing. They posted it and gave notice that they did have a conflict of interest, and then it was up to somebody else to either disqualify that employee or not disqualify. That item really goes to I don't think whether if you have a conflict, whether it's potential or actual, it shouldn't be a discretion of whether should we leave the person on the committee. It should be an automatic, if you have a conflict, it should be an automatic, you're not on the procurement committee, period. And if an employee decides not to disclose that conflict, then they could be subject to any type of discipline or determination.

Mr. Mayor, the only thing, I agree with everything you just said. Okay. The problem is, I'm not sure that the wording of this does that, because the employee, as she said, did disclose, and there was an error, but I don't think it was the employee. Senator, it's a motion to direct. Let me get to 4-7. It's a motion to direct.

County attorney will write it up, I think, in a way that's going to be legally sufficient and proper.

Because I agree with it.

Okay.

You want to move it? Or do you want to? I would. Based on what you just said. Pardon me? Drude, Senator Rich wants to hear from you.

Yes, what you both said is true. The employee did disclose things here, didn't do anything wrong. This item, I think, when we draft it, it's going to come back before the board twice. We'll make sure that it adds value and adds clarity. That's all. Mr. Mayor, I move item number 43.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Show that passing 9-0. Let's go to number, the next item that was pulled is number 44. Commissioner Furr.

Do we want to hear from the public first or is a public pull on that as well?

Okay. Okay. That's fine. Who from the public pulled it?

Joshua Freeman.

Please go.

Good morning. Josh Freeman of LSN Partners on behalf of Duty Free Americas, the largest duty-free provider in the Western Hemisphere, which also happens to be headquartered in Broward County. I'm simply asking the Commission today to vote no on this item and to direct staff to go through a competitive procurement for the duty-free concessions to get the best deal for Broward County. This current contract does not expire until the end of this year, so they have over nine months to do a procurement. The current provider is owed nothing from the county, and I don't understand the reason for giving a no-bid extension. This current contract was given to them without a competitive process because of the anticipated disruption of the terminal modernization projects. They were also made whole by an amendment that provided offsets for the increased cost of adjustments in the living wage. And furthermore, they provided multiple amendments, providing millions of dollars to them for pandemic relief during COVID. There isn't a single reason to approve this extension, but there are millions of reasons not to. Those are millions of dollars that FLL will be foregoing in potential revenue. Competition will deliver higher revenue to Broward County and better service to passengers. The gap between what FLL collects and what comparable airports collect represents millions of dollars in foregone annual revenue to Broward County. Typically, the best measure of the potential of a duty-free contract is the number of international passengers, since duty-free items can only be sold to people traveling internationally. Although I must note, when this current provider was extended in 2024, they were given the ability to sell items that aren't duty-free, and there was no further payments being given by the provider for that privilege. FLL, according to ACI's most recent data in 2024, is the 13th busiest airport in the U.S., with 7.3 million international passengers. The current minimum annual guarantee is $1.9 million. By comparison, Orlando is the 12th largest airport with 7.8 million international passengers, only 7% higher than FLL, and their minimum annual guarantee is $4.5 million, more than $2.6 million difference. That's more than double, with only a 7% increase in passengers. Also, it is operated by the same operator, which operates FLL. Dulles is the 10th largest international airport by passengers, with $10.3 million, which is 42% higher than FLL, yet the minimum annual guarantee for that airport is over $9 million, more than 400% higher than FLL, 42% higher in passengers, 400% higher in revenue. So there's a lot of other details that could be brought up, but my time is short, so I'd just like to say that Duty Free Americas is headquartered here in Broward County and would love the opportunity to compete for business and hope that we can get a competitive bid. Thank you.

Mayor, we do have two other speakers.

I thought they said one speaker. You got three?

Yes.

I'm sorry. There was three for 44, one for 50. Who else? Who's next?

We have Matthew Sacco, followed by Jared Rosenstein.

Okay. Matt Sacco, where are you? Or Jared Rosenstein. Come on up.

Morning, everybody. This is very different from Tallahassee for me, so just give me a second. Now, Jared Rosenstein with Capital City Consulting, representing Duty Free 360. I'm going to be short. This contract and this extension is something that we were able, my client was able to work through with the administration for a while, getting it into a really good spot. There were a whole bunch of factors why they were originally given a five-year extension. That five-year extension didn't happen. There was COVID, construction delays, and it just took us a minute to get all the parties aligned. We're in a really good spot now. They've been a really good partner with the county. What's really important here is I know this item has been heavily lobbied, heavily, okay? And you don't want to compare apples and oranges. I know you guys hear arguments like that all the time, but not all airports are the same, right? So with all due respect to our competition, who, yes, has an office here in Broward County, we would welcome any deal with the county for additional investment, any deal, right? Look at how Miami-Dade County does it. Miami-Dade County does 12-year extensions, massive redevelopments of this entire wing of, you know, the retail part of their airport. My client would welcome that in a heartbeat and would put up its own money to get us there. So with that, I want to say that, you know, we support staff's recommendation for the three-year extension, and I'm happy to take any questions, and I appreciate you guys. It's good seeing you all.

Matt Sacco.

Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners. Matt Sacco, representing 360 Duty Free. I just want to echo what Jared said. I'd also want to commend staff, the county administrator, Assistant County Administrator Ruiz, and your airport director, in working with our client on this extension. As Jared said, we started working on this many, many years ago. Actually, during COVID is when we started working through the extension. On our side, the client has committed significant capital investments to justify this extension, and I would just encourage you to support it today. And happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

With that, let's go to Commissioner Furrer.

Thank you. I have no qualms with the current operator. I think they've done a good job. But I do think when we have a contract that is, I think this started in the early 2005, 2006? I believe it's 2007. Okay. That's a long time without going back out to bid. And I just think that when something is that long, we should be, I don't know what, was it a 10-year contract?

If I could ask Mr. Gale to join us at the podium, thank you.

So, I guess my question is, one, how long was the initial contract? Because I know it got restated. And then how long, and I know you're thinking going back out to bid in three years, is that right?

Correct. Okay. Commissioner, and good morning again, commissioners, vice mayor, and mayor. The original time that I am familiar with that our current duty-free operator had the contract started in 2007. And then prior to my arrival in 2016, there were a number of extensions to contracts in the 2014 timeframe. The current duty-free agreement was from 2014 to expire December 31st, 2024. It was a 10-year deal. As was stated by Mr. Sacco and Mr. Rosenstein during the pandemic, when international travel basically dropped off of the charts, so to speak, coupled with impacts that occurred during terminal modernization, we began discussions with Broward Duty-Free about what a term extension might look like in order to make them whole for some of the impact that they were experiencing. Stores were delayed in getting open, and traffic was not coming through. We had settled on a four-year agreement to extend the deal. When we went to take that forward, as we were required to do with the FAA for a long-term extension, there were some issues that were identified with respect to a sub that was working for duty-free. And the FAA was only going to allow us a one-year extension and then require us to go back out. We asked for two years, just because of the time for the duration, to get a procurement done. The FAA agreed and said, we'll give you two years, but it'll be a one-year plus 12 one-month renewals, which is what we are in right now. And during that timeframe, the current operator cured the issue that was with the FAA, and we went back and asked the FAA if they would be willing to look at the original four-year that we had proffered through our discussions with duty-free, and the FAA was amenable to it. So in the end, what we're doing is looking to extend for the additional three years to give duty-free time to, again, amortize their investments. To your point, I think they've been a good partner with us to date. The shops look good. And then during that timeframe, we'll work to put a solicitation out on the streets for the next vendor.

Okay. And I guess your explanation kind of bolsters what I was thinking, was that the FAA, in terms of fairness, tries to make sure that there is a competitive bid out there on a regular basis, correct? That is correct. Yeah. And that's what I'm seeing missing here a little bit, is after 20 years, there should be a competitive bid, because I think we would benefit by that a lot. I think we would actually see our percentages and the money coming into the airport go up by a considerable amount. Plus, I think with a competitive bid, what we'll see is both or whoever bids for this, they're going to be making plans for investment. Sure. I see a $300,000 proposal here. But I would think that it would be way more than that, I mean, in terms of what somebody would be, they're coming in to do duty-free at one of the busiest airports. At the time when that bid was made 20 years ago, we were not one of the busiest airports. So the numbers wouldn't reflect that. Now that we are, our numbers should reflect that we're going to have a lot more money coming in. I think we're doing a disservice to our own bottom line. That's what I'm concerned with. And so I would think that, rather than going for three years, I know these procurements take a while to put together. Do you have an idea how long that would take?

I think we're going to probably be, by the time we get to put it on the streets and then you go through a changeover process, you are looking at a two- to three-year cycle, Commissioner.

I guess I'm wondering if that three-year can be shortened a little bit so that we can kind of get to that bid quicker?

We can certainly look at it. But to your earlier comment, Commissioner, I think the FAA, in respect of the fairness issue, took into consideration the county's position, the airport's position, that the impacts from the COVID pandemic, as well as our own terminal modernization, to your point, yeah, they generally like to see competition and would encourage us to go out. But they took some of those things into consideration and certainly would encourage us to go out on the streets as soon as we get through this extension period.

I do think that, I mean, I recognize that procurement takes a while, but I think it should be shortened a little bit so that we get to that competitive bid sooner than later. That's my, that's where I think we would be doing better by the county.

I'm going to, I'm going to comment and then I'm going to recognize Senator Geller, Senator Rich, and anybody else. Yeah, no, I don't, I'm good. Look at, the one thing, I'm supporting this item and I kind of feel like I'm being, and I'm sorry, I don't want to use the right word, but a little misled. And I'm going to tell you why, Josh, the only one that could give, my understanding is give these duty-free stores business are international passengers. Well, you cited Dallas, Dallas, which goes to major hubs, or Dulles, sorry. You know, Dulles, which goes to major hubs in Europe. Okay, you have a different passenger. When, when you have passengers that are going out to the islands here versus passengers going out to London and Paris, there are different buying power. Okay, so you could sit here all day and say to our commissioners, we have as many international flights as this city and that city, but you're not taking into account the most important thing, and that's the buying power of that passenger. We lost Emirates Airline. That would have been a good buying power passenger, but we've lost airlines that have good buying power. You say that millions of dollars of potential revenue is lost. You give no basis for that. You say the same number of international passengers in your argument, but then you don't talk at all about the buying power. If I have a person that's going, you know, somewhere, you know, depending locally, that may not have the buying power versus somebody going to London, it's a big difference. And so you don't bring that up, and that's what bothers me. And that, to me, is the most important thing. Another reason why I'm supporting this is what Mr. Gale just said. It would take two to three years to go back on the street anyway. So what are we going to do? We're not going to support it, but then they're going to be here without a contract. You know, I think also the airport took into account COVID, as Mr. Gale said, modernization, the loss of some international airlines that would have had a more buying power. And so with that, I just want to make sure it's apples to apples. When you make an argument, it's apples to apples. And I don't think you're making the same apples to apples argument on this situation. And with that, I'm done. I'm going to recognize Senator Gale.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And my remarks will be brief because you and Commissioner Furr have already said much of what I would have said. I have no problem with the four-year extension based on what happened during COVID. And this is making it up to them. But, Mr. Gale, it sounds like almost as soon as we approve this, you're planning on starting work on the actual next RFP bid, RFQ, whatever R you're going to use. Is that correct? I mean, I'm not saying you're issuing it, but you're going to begin work on that. You are correct, Senator. You know, the drafting process, working with all the appropriate parties, our purchasing division, county attorney's office, county auditor's office, that takes time.

And then when you finally issue and you go through the proposal process, if there is a change in vendor, you have to go through the capital process of changing the stores out and bringing a new vendor.

Based on that information alone, you know, I'm certainly going to be supporting this. I, like Commissioner Furr said, I would not be supportive of an additional renewal. I think that your four years that you and the FAA have negotiated is a reasonable time for them to recover from the loss from COVID as well as any internal construction from the airport. And I would want, I won't still be on the commission at that time, but I'm, I'm assuming based on what you're saying, that there will be a full open procurement process, whatever R you choose to go with. Um, and I hope that that occurs. I just don't see that turning this down now would actually advance it more than maybe a few months. So I agree with the mayor and, uh, I'm fully supportive of the four year extension, but I would expect that there will be a full process next time.

Commissioner Rich. Senator Rich. Thank you. I just have a question. Mr. Gale, I just have a question for you. Um, it was mentioned about the, the different differences in the, in the mag, um, uh, in the minimum animal annual guarantee. So could you explain, because the, the sub, it was brought up that like Fort Lauderdale has 1.9 million and, uh, Orlando has 4.5. And I understand the differences and, you know, the, the international travel and everything, but it seems like we're quite low as compared to others. And is there, if, if it's true, is there a possibility to, to reconsider what that might be, the return to the, to the airport and the county?

There is Senator. And each airport that, uh, international airport that, um, uh, puts an RFP out on the streets for these types of services, what is then proposed on by the various vendors are all going to have different types of percentages. Some of them may be flat. Some of them may be escalated, um, over the course of time. Uh, there may be different, uh, requirements for the capital investment in the stores. Um, we've had deals before where there's a certain break point where you, you pay a certain percentage up to a certain gross revenue amount, and then a higher amount kicks in, a higher percentage kicks in as you go forward. These are the terms, uh, that we have from the current agreement that was done back in 2014, uh, when it's put out, uh, the next time with the competitive, we would see what, what the street is going to bring. I think Mayor Bogan raises, uh, you know, a good point as well is that, you know, all passengers with respect to, um, where they're traveling to, um, and what they're looking to buy and take abroad, um, differs from airport to airport to airport. Our number one international partner is Canada. We get more international, uh, passengers from Canada than we do anywhere else. But we also do a lot of, in the Caribbean markets and then to South American as well, but nothing transatlantic to Europe, uh, Middle East, uh, Scandinavian countries, uh, or even Asia for that matter. There are things that we're working on, um, but there is a difference in, in, in the, in the demographic of the passengers for sure, and the spend per passenger in that category.

But within the contract, does it move up and down, uh, you know, up compared, you know, during that period of time, or is it a set amount? Is it, in other words, if there's more traffic and more, you know?

It's based off of the, the gross revenues that it's an escalating scale, and I think that was identified in the, in the PBMI, uh, that we, uh, we answered.

Okay. Thank you.

Commissioner Dean.

So, I think, I'm supportive of the item, and I think Senator Geller made a good point, and, and, and every, all the points we're going to be, but I think Josh Freeman's comments were spot on, and they were on, on point.

But at the end of the day, the procurement would take two to three years anyway. It's just a minimum annual guarantee. If there's more business there, more dollars will flow back to the county. And I don't think you can continue to ask partners to come into our airport, our port, our convention center, expend capital dollars, and then, you know, cut them off at different times. This is something that the FAA approved. They should have gotten a while ago. So, I think it should be approved now, and then the airport director said they're going to go back out in the street of New Deal. I'm going to make a motion to approve this item.

Second. I have, uh, a motion in multiple seconds. Commissioner Rogers, I'll call you second. We'll give her a second. Okay. Take the third. All in favor?

Aye. Aye.

Any opposed? Show that passing unanimously 9-0. Let's go to, uh, we have a time certain on number, uh, uh, 40, uh, I'm sorry, 53?

Yes, Mr. Mayor, I believe you, you had mentioned you may want to take up 45 quickly just to be able to dispense of that one quick item.

I'm sorry. Let's take up number 45. Yeah. One minute. Um, who, uh, County Administrator? Yes.

If the reading clerk would read number 53, please. I'm sorry.

Uh, uh, 45. 45. Motion to approve agreement between Broward County and Sunshine Cleaning Systems, LLC, DBA, Pritchard,

and Industries for Group 2. No member of the public has signed up to speak on the item.

Second. I have a motion and second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Show 45 passing unanimously 9-0. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Now we're going to our, uh, 53 times certain, um, and, uh, hold on a second. Who do you have on that, uh, to lead it off?

53. 53. 53. Motion to approve tourism sponsorship application for the FIFA World Cup 2026 in the amount of $2 billion funded with Tourist Development Tax Funds. No member of the public has signed up to speak on the item.

I'm going to recognize Vice Mayor McKenzie. It's his item.

All right. Thank you. Um, as a TDC chair, um, this was brought to my attention. I, I took it to the administrator and we, uh, went back out. We met with, uh, the chair and, uh, his committee, uh, to vet, uh, this dollar amount to, um, um, sponsor, for sponsorship for FIFA since it exceeded the amount that, uh, TDC could, could, could do on their own. So we're here today, but I asked the chairman, um, Mr. Barretta, step up for a minute, uh, to reach out to my colleagues and make sure all of their concerns, uh, were met. And based on, uh, the memo that went out last night, it looks like, uh, the feedback we got from the other commissioners, because we can't talk, uh, we got many, many emails and I had many meetings with other folks about doing certain events, uh, around the county. And I think we all, uh, have the same pulse for, for, uh, the events and, and for Broward County, uh, for this investment, making sure Broward County is highlighted in any and every way that we can. And so we're here today, uh, to, to, to, to, to, to, to move this item and I'll be leaving here in a few minutes. I wanted to make it time sensitive, but I think the appetite of this day is, has been, uh, satisfied. If not, um, we'll take it on then, but, and just hold on one second and we probably don't need all the speakers, but just in case there are questions, I want you to stay there and the chair, you can. Well, first of all, let's see if we have a consensus or do you want to, you want to, no,

we don't, I do, I do have, you have comments or do you want to, do you want, you have the people speak first or do you want to go around the days?

Monica.

Um, and, and Mr. Mayor and Mr. Vice and Mr. Vice Mayor, I believe they do have a short presentation that they wanted to share. Um, but at your will, if you'd wanted to go with commissioners. No, that's what you want, yeah.

They want to present, present. And then we'll come back to the dais and go around.

Mayor, before they present, can I be added as a co-sponsor to this item? No, of course. I've got to just make a quick phone call, but I want to be as a co-sponsor.

I mean, I want you as a co-sponsor. Thank you.

Please. What's your name?

Good morning, Mr. Mayor. My name is Alina Hudak, and I'm the president and CEO of the host committee. Um, thank you very much for the opportunity to present today. It's an honor to be here, and thank you to all of you, Madam County Administrator, Mr. Attorney. Um, again, I'm here to proudly represent the FIFA World Cup 2026 host committee together with our co-chair, Rodney Barreto, sitting behind me, and members of our board, all of whom represent the Broward businesses. A very special thank you to Dev Matwani, who's spearheaded a lot of the briefings. The 2026 FIFA World Cup is a once-in-a-generation opportunity that brings regional economic benefit and impact to Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties alike. If we could go to the next slide, please. As we all know, seven matches will be played. The next slide, please. Seven matches will be played over a 33-day time period in June and July this summer, a time when tourism industry in our communities is at its lowest performance point. Last year, when our communities hosted the FIFA Club World Cup, we benefited from a significant bump in tourist tax revenues during that time period. If we could go to the next slide. And the importance of both of these slides is to tell you that South Florida is hot. We know for sure that we have four group stages, and two of those matches are the most sought-out tickets in the world. The June 27th match, Colombia versus Portugal, is the single most popular ticket in the world. The South Florida region, again, Scotland and Brazil, also top 10. Today, we're here requesting an investment from Broward County as a strategic partner in capturing that impact. The World Cup is the single largest sporting event in the world, bringing millions of visitors and global attention to our communities. As we have all historically and collectively experienced, from Super Bowls to national championships, all of which you've funded, fans, teams, and economic activity do not stay within county lines. This is a shared regional ecosystem. When FIFA made the decision to come to South Florida and to bring the seven matches to South Florida, they evaluated the region, not the individual counties. Broward County will experience thousands of hotel room nights due to demand and strategic location. If we could please go to the next slide. Already, FIFA has contractual commitments that equate to a total of 13,295 contracted room nights for official FIFA delegations and teams. This number does not include the room night impact of the visiting fan, and it is strictly reflective of the official FIFA delegation. And for clarity, and it's really important that all of you understand that FIFA is, in fact, a separate entity. We are a private nonprofit host committee charged with implementation of the bid. And the information that I'm providing you, the 13,295, was updated as recently as yesterday. FIFA provided me those numbers. FIFA plans include two team hotels and two practice venues for each of the seven matches headquartered in Broward. Each team brings players, staff, media, and sponsors who stay for extended periods generating sustained economic activity during, again, a 33-day time period. So imagine the impact of a Super Bowl times seven matches. Investment in practice facilities ensures upgrades that will serve our communities long after the tournament ends. If we could please go to the next slide. I wanted to show you this slide because I wanted you to understand the magnitude of the multi-agency coordination. Success for all of us requires coordinated transportation, public safety, visitor, and resident experience. Over the past year, multiple Broward agencies and multiple departments have been participating in all of the training opportunities and the coordination and preparation efforts that we have led or coordinated. Our funding requests will support the overall requirements of our bid and preparing for an event of this magnitude. Transportation, logistics, coordination, public safety, emergency management, marketing, and promotional engagement, fan communication, volunteer recruitment, training and deployment, fan activations, community programming. This investment positions Broward to benefit from increased tax revenue, job creation, global exposure, long-term tourism growth. If we could go through the next slides, please. Wanted to again show you the level of coordination. As you can see, the transportation mobility plan that is being led and the efforts that are being led by Miami-Dade County are in deep coordination with Broward, and you can see that the line extends all the way to Broward. If we could please go to the next slide. Our volunteer effort includes almost 20 percent Broward residents participating in what is now close to 6,000 volunteers that are presently being interviewed and trained. This is about legacy and continuing to position Broward County as a global destination and demonstrating our region's capacity to host events of this magnitude. And I like to say that over and over again because one of the things that I've come to realize, and I serve as a representative of this region on the White House Task Force in preparation for the World Cup, is that we're getting access to training capabilities that if you're not a host city and if you're not a host county, you actually don't have access to. And what that does is it builds all of our capabilities for purposes of the future. Today, we're here to invite you to be a partner with us and to help lead in this effort. If we could please go to the next slide. While seven matches are being played in Miami, just barely, across the geographic boundary that divides us, and quite frankly, I live in South Miami-Dade, it probably takes me longer to get to the stadium than most of you, the World Cup will be enjoyed and celebrated by our residents, our communities, our tourists across both Broward and Miami-Dade. We have an opportunity for collaboration from fan activations to the use of the one game, one passion, and I'm highlighting this brand in particular because we've worked really hard. We have intellectual property that in the bid is created and was created by FIFA, and we have limitations as to what we can do with that. But as a host committee, we've come to the realization that we want partners, and so we've very intentionally created this brand that we are allowing different partners to use for purposes of promoting their partnership with us. If we could go to the next slide, please. We have many opportunities for collaboration, from fan activations to the use of our One Game, One Passion brand to community youth clinics. We stand ready to work with your administration and commit to those options. I'd like to conclude my presentation with a video, and quite frankly, as a team, we debated whether we wanted to show this video or not because this is just an example of our toolkits and the different things that we've developed that we can share. But the reason I want to show you this is because I want you to see the emotion behind the passion of the game, and I want you to understand that we stand here prepared to develop a branding campaign, the equivalent of this, that would obviously market Visit Lauderdale and all that all of you represent. Thank you very much for the opportunity to present to you today. This is very short. It's a minute, 20 minutes, a minute and 20 seconds, a minute and 20 seconds.

Do you feel it? Before everything begins. Before the first whistle, time slows down. Because in that moment, everything else fades away. From homes we left. From families we missed. And from dreams that brought us here. Every match is a way back. Every goal is a memory. And every whistle makes us one. And we stand together. We'll divide. But this game reminds us that we are one. One game.

Thank you very much. Thank you for your presentation.

Do we have any other speakers that have asked to speak on this item?

No others.

Pardon me?

No others.

No others. Okay.

Well, bring it back to the dais. Senator Geller, Mayor, before, I have a lot of comments. But first, what exactly, this has been changing, including yesterday. What is the motion in front of us today specifically? Asking for $2 million in exchange for what? What is the motion? I hope somebody can tell me what we're voting on.

I believe the motion is to invest $2 million as part sponsor into the games. That's what I believe the motion is for. That's exactly right.

Without any list of deliverables or what we expect. I just want to know. You get a ticket. That's it. I would like. I'm not going to take any ticket. I just want to know exactly what it is we're voting on. It's got to be in writing somewhere. Can I recognize the county attorney, please?

So the motion that's currently before you is as written, which is a fixed amount of $2 million for a return in deliverables to be negotiated in the sponsorship agreement, executed. You'd be authorizing the county administrator to negotiate and execute the agreement. And during some discussions, because it's not clear what the deliverables would be, it had been raised that it may make sense to, instead of having a fixed amount of $2 million, to authorize the county administrator to sign an agreement for up to $2 million dependent on the specific return and deliverables that are contained in the agreement.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. It is my view, and I'd like to, I'll ask administration or I'll ask CBB if they want to speak. But my question here is, and I've told, I've spoken with Mr. Barreto, I've spoken with Daniella, Levine, Cava, old friend, and I've told both of them, I have no objection to our putting this. I'm completely undecided if we're getting certain deliverables in return. If we're going to be giving $2 million and we're not getting anything other than the fact that the game is in Miami, and whether we do the $2 million or not, we're still going to get exactly the same economic impact here. I don't, I'm not supportive of giving $2 million if we're not getting anything in return. But if we are getting things in return, I'm fully prepared to do this. So that, that's what I've been trying to figure out, what our deliverables are. Sir, sit down, please.

Okay.

What they, what the team, the local team can agree to versus what FIFA has to agree to. And I guess I would move to do what Drew just mentioned, which is say that we would give up to $2 million based on what deliverables we can get. I have no problem. I want to repeat that. If we're getting deliverables, then giving them up to the $2 million. But if we're not getting deliverables, then I would oppose it. So I, I would move to amend the motion to reflect what the county attorney just said. Are you making a motion to amend? Yes, sir. Is there a second to his motion?

I'd like discussion first.

Well, he, I first got a motion and a second, and then we'll discuss his amendment.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. Okay. Let's, let's, oh, I'm sorry. Commissioner Rogers was next.

It's like deja vu for me, listening, talking about soccer after coming off of cricket and hearing the same things. I see smiles, but we're mature folks. I'm hearing the same concerns from the community. And thanks to Dev Matwani. I'm always messing up your name, but it's Mark. How are you here? All right. For clarifying certain things for me, because I'm hearing the same concerns. We might not say return on investment, but that's what your community is asking for. And I want to be listed as a co-sponsor of this item, although I'm speaking the way I am, because my district is Broward County. 31 municipalities that wants to be a part of whatever Broward County is doing today. And that is where I'm at at this point.

You want to be listed as a co-sponsor? Yes. Okay, great. Thank you. Commissioner Davis?

Thank you. I'm already listed as a co-sponsor, but I do have some things that I'd like to hear if this committee can deliver upon. So, one of the things that was talked about was events, fan events. And whatever's happening in Miami-Dade, we would hope that we have the same experience here in Broward County. So, there's these watch parties. There's a couple that have been set up already in preparation. One in Miramar, and the other in Miramar Regional Park, and the other in the Broward Regional Central. And, you know, we don't want to give administration just nothing to work with. And so, I want to know, what is it that you can do? Can you allow for these events at these two that have been mentioned who are preparing already to host events? And they'll be able to have FIFA soccer clinics and a fan festival, youth event, as is happening in Miami-Dade. Can you mirror some of these events as they are happening in Miami-Dade in Broward? So, folks, tourists, and regular folks can attend these events in Broward as opposed to going all the way in Miami. Are you able to answer that? Can I get an answer to that question?

You want to call somebody up to answer that question? Yes, please.

So, on the issue of fan events, which there are two plans so far that I know of.

Thank you, Commissioner. And I welcome the opportunity, obviously, to discuss this with the administration. The answer is yes, obviously. We would never ask for $2 million and not expect that there would be a deliverable associated with that. And to be, you know, honest, I mean, the goal always was to work with the administration in developing that. And so, to the extent, yes, fan activation and a viewing party. Specific ones that I mentioned. A viewing party would be very much something within the scope of what we would be happy to do. Just for clarity, the investment on the part of Miami-Dade County was well over $21 million in cash and over $25 million in in-kind. And so, what you're hearing about in terms of a fan fest, which is a 23-day activation in Bayfront Park, is quite different. And that is obviously something we would not be able to do. But without a doubt, a watch party, our preference would be to do it at the tail end of the tournament because I think that offers fans the greatest opportunity to enjoy what's happening as part of the World Cup. But we're happy to do that for a particular match that is the favorite match in the community here.

Yeah, this would be events over the course of those 45 days that they're looking to do, specifically at Miramar Regional Park. And so, we'd hope that we could get giveaways and FIFA items. Are you able to deliver on those?

I think it would depend on the extent of those, but yes, absolutely.

The other question I have is as far as social media and what can be advertised. You mentioned, what was the brand that you have? The reason I highlighted the brand is as an example of all the ways in which the Visit Lauderdale brand would, I mean, you would become effectively a promotional partner.

And again, there's intellectual property protections, but for all of our promotional partners, we would include you immediately in our website and all of our promotional materials. Our Instagram account, I'm proud to say, is the second most popular host city account in the country. And we would obviously highlight the relationship. We would highlight the relationship at all of the activations that we are currently sponsoring along with our supporters. And yes, you would have access to part of the branding. We would do probably city dressing here as part of the package and activate in the same way, in the same manner that we're activating in Miami-Dade from a social media perspective.

Are we able to use the word not FIFA, but World Cup?

You are able to use the word World Cup.

But just not FIFA, correct?

Correct. You can't use the trophy and you can't use the emblem.

I know that, I don't know if the administration had given you what they gave us. Just now. Okay. We just provided that. Because it would be good to know if you can deliver on any of these. Because once we say yes to this amount, it doesn't come back before us. And that happened with the college event. We gave a million dollars and we really didn't know what was negotiated. We didn't have a say so. So that's why it's important that we try to understand what it is you can deliver upon before you leave here. It's not going to come back to us. First of all, we don't have any time for it to come back. And then we give it to our administration. But they also need to know what are our thoughts. And we really can't discuss it unless we're in an open forum like this. So, I don't know if the administration, you just gave it to them. Have you gotten any responses?

No. So, in fairness, while this piece of paper, which was additional material that was released last night, 53B, much of all of this was taken from the application. So, when you get a chance to sit down and look at it, the very top part of that additional material says major value-added deliverables. All of those items were in the application. And then the ones on the bottom portion, additional value-added deliverables, as of a few minutes ago, even President and CEO Hudak here just went through some of them that they already are speaking to that they would commit to. So, I believe there's nothing on here that is a surprise to them. They just hadn't seen the official document, the list that we provided last night to the board. And we took it, again, most of it from their application.

Okay. So, the fact that we have the Hard Rock Stadium being utilized, and you mentioned here, request local committee to apply for and receive name change exemption. Is that something they can do? Is this just a pie-in-the-sky request?

So, this might be a pie-in-the-sky, but this is something all we're asking here is that they request of them to request of FIFA for an exemption. We understand that there may have been one in the country that has been allowed. That is not something that we've had a conversation about, this particular one item. And I can tell you, again, I'm very transparent.

I've been in public service 42 years of my life.

That is not something that FIFA is going to consider. And, again, please understand, we are not FIFA, and we do not have control over FIFA. And so, that is something that they are not going to consider. We're 78 days away from the World Cup. We're well into production and preparation for the tournament. And so, that is not something.

I think I'd like to just note, Rodney Bredo, chairman of the FIFA World Cup. I'm a volunteer businessman out of Miami. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor, for bringing this forward. I know a lot of you personally. We have to deliver the stadium as a vanilla stadium. So, you know, Hard Rock name is coming off the stadium. So, any name that's on that whole stadium, whether it's Coke, any name you see as a sponsor today will be off that stadium. When FIFA walks in that stadium, it's a plain vanilla stadium. They'll put their whole branding on it. So, it's going to be FIFA's, I would say, an 800-pound gorilla times 10 to deal with. And I've chaired three Super Bowl committees here for this community, and they've been much easier to deal with within FIFA. But we're blessed. I think in our lifetimes, and I'm being honest, in our lifetimes, we'll never see a FIFA World Cup game here again. And it's honored to chair this event of this magnitude for this region. And I often tell people, the beautiful thing about South Florida is that we live in a destination area where we have three international airports, Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade. People are going to come here. There's all price points between hotel rooms. We can go from $100 a night to $10,000 a night in hotel rooms. All three counties are going to benefit. There is no geographical line when it comes to where the stadium is located. Your Uber, your Lyft, your rental cars, your restaurants, your hotels, they're all going to be utilized. Our numbers, by the way, the beautiful thing about this for at least us in South Florida here is that June, July are the dead months, as you all know, for tourism. Our numbers are, we show that the rooms, the hotel rooms are up almost 200% activation in Miami-Dade. I don't have the numbers for Broward. However, the short-term rentals, which is the, I'm losing the name. Airbnb. Airbnb is 500% up in Miami-Dade. So people are coming. I mean, this is, it's amazing. If you didn't experience the Copa games that we had here, amazing the activity, how the fan, their fanatical fans, in fact, the stadium's really concerned. Like, we have the number one stadium, the game that's being looked at is Portugal against Colombia, and it's the most sought-out ticket. Anyways, enough said. I just, you know, to Commissioner Geller or Senator Geller, I just want to let you know that it's our intent, if this passes today, to sit with Monica and negotiate what you're going to get out of it, and all in good faith. And we know, we've got to give something up. We're just not going to take a check, you know? We've got to get back. We're going to work, and we intend to do that. Thank you.

Yeah, so let me finish up by saying that it seems that we're not going to have time to go through the details here, and that it's going to be given to administration. And half of it, it looks like a lot of the stuff you're not going to be able to deliver on because of short time. Some of the things you will be able to do. So I may support Geller's item because it gives some negotiation, some leverage, because it's not going to come back to me, and we can't, we don't have time to debate it here. So, and then hopefully I can speak with administration as to what has developed moving forward.

Thank you.

I will share with the board. I can provide updates.

Senator Rich?

I have to just say, you know, when Jack Seiler came here to ask for the Orange Bowl money, we were very supportive of him, and we turned it over to our administration to deal with deliverables and so forth. And I am comfortable doing that. There's a difference between saying we will go up to $2 million than saying that we fully support this, knowing the tremendous amount of funding that has gone in from Dade County. And, I mean, they are the seat of it. But we certainly get tremendous, and when you look at this, you know we get tremendous benefit from this. And I think we should have, you know, we should support it that way by supporting it at the $2 million level without saying, you know, we'll go up to. We will get reports back from our administration about what the events are, and I think that Commissioner Davis has pointed to a few very good ones. So, I'm sure that, you know, the money will be used wisely, and we'll get, you know, accounting for it. But I think we should show support for this, I mean, from everything that I've heard this morning. I mean, this is a worldwide celebration of sorts, and I think we should be a positive part of it.

Commissioner Udine.

I'm supportive of the item. I think that the only thing that I would say differently is I sent the email probably two years ago or a text two years ago. I wish we could have been more in the beginning on when this was coming here, but I understand how this works. And I sent the text, I think, probably to Monica or to Stacey or whoever, that when they sent this committee and this group that they were putting together, there was really no one on from Broward. Now I see they brought some people on from Broward. I think maybe Josh Levy from Hollywood or some, there were Dev and Ramola are there, and there's Broward thing. So, I'm supportive of this. We will get the dollars that are going to come into Broward regardless of whether we do this or not, but we should still do it because Broward at some point becomes a free rider on a lot of these events that they're trying to bring in to South Florida. If we don't, if the county and the, and none of these dollars come from county ad valorem dollars. These are tourist bed tax dollars that go in there. We can't use this on, these dollars on anything else from the public's point of view. This is an investment that's going to come back, the FIFA World Cup games in South Florida. The question is, would it come back anyway? Yes, it would come back anyway, but we still shouldn't be free riders at this point. Broward should be involved in this. The stadium is on the corner of Broward and Palm Beach line. This, to me, is a very easy, a date in Palm Beach line. This, to me, is an incredibly easy one. And our local businesses and our hotels and our restaurants, if they can't capitalize on this again, they should not come back and complain about it. This is an easy one for them. I'll move the item. We've still got people speaking.

Commissioner Furr?

Thanks. This came in front of the TDC back in maybe June of last year. And I had asked Commissioner Udine for them to come back soon after that. We had actually asked for the Orange Bowl to come at one meeting. And I was actually expecting the next meeting for you all to come there. I was disappointed that you didn't come because now we're at the last minute and we don't have the luxury of being able to build this up from our point of view. This is very late in the game. The other part that concerns me is that in the original application that you gave us, it says what is expected is potentially $1 million in tourism tax revenues. So I ask you, why are we giving $2 million to get $1 million? That's in the application. So that concerns me. The part that we can't use the logo bothers me a lot. I mean, if we're a partner and we can't use the logo, I mean, I don't know. I mean, we can use our Visit Lauderdale logo, obviously. Would that be on the stadium? Would that be at the stadium? Okay. Do we have an idea of what kind of in-kind? Because Miami-Dade is putting a lot of in-kind. Are we doing any in-kind?

So some of the in-kind would also be through the sheriff's office and our emergency management department that they've been very active in those security claims. I mean, this is something I wanted to get behind before, but I'm sorry it came in so late.

Because I don't know if we're going to be able to capitalize on this the way that we would have been.

And if I'm sorry, if I might clarify something, Commissioner, through the mayor. So this application that we had attached through Vice Mayor McKenzie's item was the original application, which was done in April, exactly almost a year ago. So that was before there was any solid announcements of which games were coming, what hotels were going to be locked down, if you will, meaning contracts signed with them. So there was a lot of unknowns at the time that application was submitted. And so for just purposes of benefit of having some data in front of you based on that previous application, that's why that item was attached as additional material. Now what I think you're hearing is that there was a lot of additional known factors that are far exceeding what was in that original application. I believe the letter that you all received last night by email that was distributed also as additional material was, I believe it's almost 10,000 room nights. That was not necessarily known at the time.

Does that equate to more than a million? I have no idea what that equates to.

I am sure it does. We can do some quick math. But I think also what is not quantified there is the economic impact to the region and restaurants and shopping and all of that. I know there's going to be a huge one. And I think the thinking at the TDC when I was there was that, as Commissioner Houdini had mentioned, we're going to be benefiting no matter what.

We're going to be – I already know – I've heard Airbnbs are, like you mentioned, are getting flooded very quickly. So I know all that's happening. I'm just – I really wish that you'd come back earlier so we'd have a chance to work on it. I wish we could use the logo.

And those are my concerns. That's it.

Has everybody spoken once at least?

Okay. Go ahead. You know, Mayor, it really sums up into this is the world's largest event in the world, and we have an opportunity to be part of it. I mean, we have the number one game coming to us. To me, it's absolutely a no-brainer. Why are we even continuing to debate it? It is what it is. Let's get behind it and be a part of it. Thank you.

Before we go around again, I want to just make – I want to just say a couple quick things. First of all, on a return on investment, can we promote the Omni Hotel room nights so we can fill that hotel up because of this event? I'm asking you guys. Monica, one deliverable to me that would be valuable, we own an asset called the Omni Hotel. You've got 10,000 room nights. Can we prioritize the Omni, which is our hotel? Can we fill that hotel up?

Dude, all the hotels are going to fill up when they have – They're all going to fill up? They're going to all fill up.

Okay. Dumb question. Okay. All right. Second, Commissioner Davis is saying she's going to talk to administration. I want to just make sure that the squeaky wheel doesn't get oiled the most, meaning if – obviously, we all care about our districts, and we all want something to happen in our districts, but I want to make sure admin knows that you're not going to focus on one district because you're not hearing from me or somebody else.

You know, it's either – we all get stuff in our district if there is something equally. That's all I want to make sure.

So what I can share is that in initial conversations, I believe I understand that there are three watch parties in Miami-Dade. They have been working on them for a long time, and they gave $21 million. You don't need to respond.

I just want to put that in your ear that if – you know, that if – I just want to make sure that you know we've got nine districts here, nine commissioners, and I'll leave it up to you. I trust that you'll negotiate. I'm done talking to you.

Are we going around the second time? I don't think, Mayor, I don't think we need to go around another time. I think what we need to do is put the motion out there. Let's vote it up or down because we could debate this all day long. This is the World Cup. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, but – But hold on a second. Hold on. But I had to cancel my family reunion the time that I scheduled it because World Cup decided they were coming here because, A, there were no vacancies, B, I couldn't afford it if there were vacancies. So this is an economic impact. We all know it. So if you don't want it, just vote it on the record, and let's move on. Commissioner Rogers, I have to recognize it. Please. I'm not saying go through this.

We're going to always have international – folks are going to be coming here.

As you stated, it was stated, okay?

I hear you, and I see you, my colleague. This is not the first time I can go by example, okay? What happened before. So we should not allow it to happen the third time. If we're going to have international game and events here in Brown County or try to attach ourselves to other counties, we need to have a plan because you're going to want communities. You want to know what is in it for me. It is my tax dollars. And you're going to tell me it's tourist development taxes only. You're going – okay, I don't need the education. I know they don't know. Our constituents don't know. So we have to tell them. And, yes, it's 31 cities here in Brown County. I've heard from more than two cities. The Lauder Hill already has a committee going, have been having these discussions for – So does Miramar. And so, you understand, it is not new to us. Why is it new to us hearing it from staff? Isn't the tourist development board a part of Brown County? Isn't administration here a part of Brown County? Yes. So I'm just saying we should not be hearing it at this point in time. We should have already known about it and know where we are going because it's easy. This is easy to be engaged in. This is something we should be engaged in. But we should not be hearing about it in details at this late stage. So I make a motion. No, no, no, Senator Geller.

Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me. We have an original motion of 53. Senator Geller has made an amendment and we had a second on his amendment. So that's the first thing we're going to vote on is Geller's amendment. Okay? And so there's been – okay?

Okay? Funny. You got 30 seconds. Okay. First of all, I agree with you. If we're doing watch parties, I want one in Cooper City. But, you know, ignoring that. On my amendment, I agree that we should be giving money to the World Cup based on everything I've heard. However, we have a list of deliverables. If we get one of the deliverables only, I would not want to give a full $2 million. If we get five or six or whatever the number is, then we should. And that's all that my amendment does. It says it's up to $2 million based on what the deliverables are that the administration is able to get. They've already printed a lot of the stuff that just says Miami. It's never going to say visit Waterdale on some of it because it's already been printed.

Senator, I think you made your amendment. I think we're clear with it. I want to call for a vote on his amendment. All in favor, please raise your hand. Okay. I've got two. That amendment fails. Now I'm going to go back to 53. Do I have a motion on that? So I have a motion on 53 for the original one. I have a second. All in favor, raise your hands. Okay. Look at that. Passes 8-0. One, Commissioner Furzen here. But we're done with 53. Congrats. And hopefully, admin can do, you'll come back with the negotiation. Thank you, folks. Because I'm leaving, can we deal with the other issue so I can be on record?

Thank you, sir.

Okay. We're going to skip over right now to number 49. Hold on real quickly.

49, motion to discuss the appointment of a new county attorney up at September 10, 2026 and to direct appropriate action and delegate any appropriate authority based on the discussion. No member of the public has signed up to speak on the item.

Normally, I was going to joke around and nominate Steve Geller as our county attorney, but I'm not going to joke around right now.

Move nomination.

I second it. We've got a time frame here, so I'm going to recognize Commissioner Fischer, please.

Thank you, Mayor, because this is obviously a very important item, and I want everybody to understand what we're doing here. I want to thank you again, Mayor. I'd like to speak about Anika E. Ashton. In a few moments, I'll be making a motion for the board's consideration. Anika is uniquely qualified with vast experience and is the right person to lead our county attorney's office. We have all witnessed firsthand her superior work ethic, dedication, professionalism, and her personality. And, of course, she has learned from one-of-a-kind individual that I don't know where we'd be replaced through. Anika, she graduated from Princeton University with a major in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public International Affairs and a minor in Latin American Studies. Her thesis was playing politics, United States-Cuba relations since the end of the Cold War. Then, she graduated from Columbia University School of Law, receiving honors as a James Kent Scholar and a Harlan Fisk Stone Scholar, awarded the Best Appellate Brief, Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition, and was the Editor-in-Chief and Staff Editor for the National Black Law Journal. She is board-certified in city, county, local government law, and her board admissions include Florida, New York, United States District Courts for the Southern and Northern Districts of Florida. Prior to joining Broward County's Office of the Attorneys, she worked in the public as well as the private sector. She was a summer clerk in the Miami-Dade County Attorney's Office, a real estate associate and summer associate with Skadden, Arp, Slate, Meager, and Flom LLP out of New York. She was a law clerk for the Honorable Jordan in the U.S. District Court, the Southern District of Florida, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Miami. And she served as associate with Morgan Lewis, Macias LLP in Miami. And then, we were blessed when she joined Broward County's Attorney's Office, serving us since 2009. She's serving as our Assistant County Attorney, Senior Assistant County Attorney, and currently as our Deputy County Attorney. Some of her accomplishments here in Broward County highlights include, she directly supervises and reviews the daily work of nine attorneys, ranging from one-year attorneys to attorneys with over 30 years of experience. She leads the office's finance, real property, housing, and ethics practice groups. She is counsel to the Office of Management and Budget, Finance and Administration Service Budget, excuse me, Department, and the Housing Finance Authority. During COVID-19, she drafted and negotiated the CARES Act agreements with all municipalities here in Broward County and litigated federal court and challenges to its regulations. She is the lead attorney for our arena project with the Florida Panthers, the Omni Hotel and Convention Center, Government Center East, AFTF, AHTF, GAP Financing, Affordable Housing, Amendment 10 Transition, Property Acquisition and Management, and all of our county bonds. And previously, she served as counsel for the Transportation Department and litigated employment and compliance matters in the state and federal courts, along with conducting arbitrations pursuant to collective bargaining agreements. She serves on multiple civic and bar committees and boards, including, she's the past president of the Caribbean Bar Association, their former chair of the Broward County Bar Government Lawyer Section, former elected governor of the Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division Board, former director of the Florida Association of Women Lawyers, the Miami-Dade Chapter. She's a member of the Broward County Bar, Caribbean Bar Association, T.D. Reddick Bar Association, Bernice Gaines, Storm Black Women's Lawyers Association, and, of course, the Florida Association of Four Women's Lawyers. Lastly, very important, she grew up here in Broward County, in the cities of North Lauderdale and Margate. She attended the Silver Lakes Middle School. She graduated from Boyd Anderson High School in the International Baccalaureate Magnet Program, and she was a varsity swimmer. She resides in Coral Springs with her husband and son, and therefore it is my honor and privilege to make a motion that we appoint Anika E. Ashton as county attorney effective September the 10th, 2026, subject to execution of an employment agreement and direct the county attorney and the county auditor to prepare an employment agreement for the board's consideration at one of our April board meetings. Thank you, Mayor. It's indeed been an opportunity.

Thank you, Commissioner Fisher, since this is my item, I'm going to second your motion and then recognize... I passed the gavel. I'm going to recognize... I'm going to second it, and now I'm going to take the gavel back, and I'm going to recognize Vice Mayor for two comments.

I just want to go on the record and say I support her, I support it. Let's get it done.

Okay.

Okay, do we want to talk around? Commissioner Rogers?

Yes. Thank you, Mr...

No charge.

Thank you. Good, good. This is easy for me, and I want to get it right, so I wrote it. Okay. And I'm so honored to be sitting beside Drew. I'm going to miss you, but you're doing the right thing. You were charged to lead us to the right person, and I think you have guided us well. And Anika, my niece is Anika, so I keep calling her that. She pronounced it a little bit different, but you're still the same young lady that I know. And I heard us mention Boyd Anderson. I want you to know that's in my home city of Lauderdale Lakes. I represent Five City, but that one is my home city. We have brilliant people out of central Broward County. I just wanted to add that to the conversation. And she's highly pedigreed as a graduate of Columbia University and law school, we should say. She has a law firm as well as municipal experience. I can't speak to everything that you did just now. You represented us well, all right? So I'm briefing my comments. She has transactional government as well as litigation experience. And you know, Drew, there are times that we have to go to court, so we need to know that we have all of that. It's not a speech. You guys need not be talking. Okay. Importantly, she has deep community ties and is a proven leader. She has served as president of the T.J. Reddick Bar, the Caribbean Bar, and so many others. She is well regarded by our peers, and that is important. If you're going to do this, you have to be connected to your peers. You have to be connected to this community. You have to engage the community. And, Drew, we have had those conversations when I came on board. So I like the fact that you have done us proud by advancing the name of the new child to be your successor. I'm asking you good health. And there's still a lot of work because you have to get this agreement approved by this body. So there's still more work to be done. And that's just...

Trying to move it along. Got it. You want to go home? No, no. We've got people that are running late.

Okay.

Senator Gellar, we'll go around this way if you have anything to say.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I think I was first person to say in non-agenda that I thought we needed to hire from within. And I continue to believe that. Anika is the only senior county attorney I have not done a lot of work with just because the issues didn't clash, all our issues. But I met with her. I was very impressed with her. I think she'll be an excellent county attorney. I'm fully supportive of this. And the only additional thing I'm going to say is I'm not going to miss Drew when he's gone. Because Drew and I have become close personal friends. And I'm sure we're still going to continue to see each other. But I have full confidence in his replacement, Anika. Thank you, Senator.

Commissioner Furr? Sure. First of all, Drew, thank you for helping guide this process. It made it a lot easier. You've got great people in your attorney. Renee, I actually thought that you would be the logical choice at first. I understand your reasons for not doing it. Likewise, Nathaniel was under consideration, I think, as well. Well, two unbelievable attorneys, both. And I think your department has said Anika's time. And I have had the pleasure of working with her. She's fantastic. So we're going to be in good hands. I'm going to say goodbyes for later on yours. Okay.

Senator Rich?

Yes. I want to first mention about Drew, because when I've been in certain positions where I've had to find a successor for an organization or something. And the phrase that I always will remember is that the best thing you can do is to find a good successor. And I will tell you, it's hard, if ever, for, I mean, people can always be replaced, but you have also become a friend. And you have been so attentive and interested in each of us, I think, in our priorities, and particularly, I think, some of the ones that I've had. But you've done, I think, the thing that's most important, and that is to find somebody that will come in here and will hit the ground running for sure. And I also want to say that, unlike Senator Geller, I have had the opportunity to work with Anika a lot, because a lot of the issues that I focus on fell right into her bailiwick. So I have had the experience, and I know that she's going to do an amazing job as our next county attorney.

Mr. Dean. I'm supportive of this concept as well. I like Anika, and I think that she's the appropriate person for the job. Normally, I would be the type, and I've had to do this twice now up here to go out for more of a robust search. But the thing is, when you do that, usually then, so they would go to some of the other counties, and the headhunters would say, give me, like, some of your top assistant attorneys in those departments, and then they'd bring them to us. So we would be getting an assistant from another department when we have one of the top government attorneys right here within our grasp to use going forward. And we get the added benefit that you don't have to go through the whole protracted process while our county attorney is here to help, you know, continue to mentor and guide so that the transition's as smooth as possible. So I'm going to be very supportive, and I look forward to seeing an appropriate contract come back, and I'll wait until then.

Commissioner Davis.

Thank you. I've had the pleasure to work with Anika, and trust me, she's a lot better to work with than Drew. Me and Drew have buttheads, but I find Anika, her personality, she's able to get along with pretty much everyone, and very strategic. I think she'll be a great county attorney. She's learned from the best, Drew. He's quite capable in that area. But in terms of her personality, I think she's just a great fit, and I'm sure that her employees will say the same. Good to know that she is a Yadi. So regardless, just like myself, I know her capabilities. She's from good stock, and I know she'll lead the county attorney's office to its future endeavors. Thank you.

I'm the last to speak here. First of all, with all due respect, Commissioner Davis, I've been here for going on 12 years, and I've been an attorney for 43 years. 43 years. And one of the smartest and brightest people I've worked with in my career is Drew Myers.

I didn't say he wasn't smart.

Yeah. Well, I'm just telling you, I just, I got to defend somebody I think is one of the best. And I think, Anika, you're going to have very big shoes to fill because he really set and paved a way for how he's worked with everybody, his knowledge, his expertise. And the great thing that Drew has done that I hope Anika can do is Drew looks out for us. He does, he wants to make sure we don't do something that violates the law. He wants to make sure that we do everything that we should be doing, and he'll tell us, at least he'll tell me when I'm wrong, and that's not how you can do it. And I assume you do it to everybody else. And so I know you've got five or six more months, and you've still got to give us hell for another five or six months. But I do support Anika. I made the motion, and I look forward to working with you so long as I'm here. And with that, Commissioner Fisher made the motion. I seconded it. I passed the gavel and seconded it. So I'll call for a vote. All in favor?

Aye. Aye.

Any opposed? Show that passing. 8-0, but with the separate concurrent. You have Senator Geller right here who yelled aye. Okay, yelled aye. Okay, passing 8-0, although Commissioner McKenzie had to catch a flight, he didn't show his support verbally for that. And congratulations, Anika.

Believe it or not, we're back to one more poll. I think we're back to number 50, correct? Or am I mistaken? No, was 46 polled? No, no.

Right, so 50 was polled, I believe. 50, correct? Yeah, 50.

So we need to go to 50, it was polled by somebody in the public?

Yes. 50? It's a resolution. Michael Rayner. Yeah, by Commissioner Rogers.

50. Michael Rayner? Come on down, Michael. Yeah, Michael's here.

Item number 50 is a motion to adopt resolution urging the state of Florida to restore prior eligibility criteria and benefits under the state's AIDS drug assistance program. One member of the public has signed up to speak on the item. Michael Rayner.

Mr. Mayor, can I just make a brief comment before Michael speak? Sure, sure. And he promised me he was not going to be long-winded because I told him his amendments were well-received by me, so that means my colleagues will support it. They support mostly, you know, whatever. But thank you for your engagement. You were recognized before. You're always active on these issues. I've worked with you in Tallahassee, so it's good to be home and still working with you. So this, I thank my colleagues. This resolution is about protecting the health and stability of thousands of Floridians living with HIV, including more than 22,500 residents right here in Broward County. So it's a good resolution. It will continue to provide the services and the necessary services that is needed. And thank you for always being engaged. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Commissioner. Michael Rayner, person living with HIV AIDS. I had previously had served on the HIV Health Services Planning Council. Francesca, the vice chair, is in the back of the Planning Council. But I just wanted to say, and I'm really happy that Commissioner Rogers was able to have the changes made. You know, it was a daunting task this last session, and this resolution best expresses what we're up against. You know, we did get a stopgap measure from the legislature for $30.9 million to help raise eligibility back up to 400% of the federal poverty limit. But it removed one of the most used HIV medications, BICTARVI, that 60% of the individuals on this program used. And so, you know, the health departments really, they don't have a good doctor in charge, quite honestly. And that's something I've said to himself when I had to meet with him. But, you know, they really made this program so unstable and so dangerous for people living with HIV AIDS in the state. But the good news is the changes that happened from the stopgap measure is that people living with HIV AIDS, more of them, will have access to these medications. Now, one of the problems is, without the premium assistance component of this program, the program at the state level will become less stable and won't be able to handle the capacity. The health department keeps throwing numbers that keep changing, which is surprising because even some of the most conservative Republican legislators called out the health department for just not being able to get them data that was reliable and keep changing the information. And so one of the concerns is that without having premium assistance in place, what premium assistance allows under the 340B, I don't know how many are familiar with that, but what the 340B allows is for ADAPs to pay premium. And then what happens, that generates revenue for the program because they're paying for part of the ACA premiums for individuals. And then the ADAP program gets to have another bite of the apple and they get medication rebates for paying the copay and deductibles. And so the state program was getting about $95 million a year, but yet getting another $225 million in rebates to expand capacity. And the Department of Health just took a chopping to enact and chopped the tree down on this one. And so I do, you know, appreciate that that's put in there. It's something we're going to be going and advocating for with the bipartisan legislators. But I also want to encourage the county through its Ryan White Part A program that it look at building capacity in the system with funds that it has to make sure that it's also paying for premiums where it can to ensure that people living with HIV AIDS who are aging, you know, I'm getting there myself, but I have insurance, that we make sure that those who are more critically ill or more vulnerable, that we make sure that they stay with insurance to treat the other comorbidities of cardiovascular disease, which you lead on, Mayor, and diabetes and so many others. Ryan White isn't equipped just to deal with that on its own. So we need to make sure that our systems are finding capacity to serve people as best possible. Thank you.

County attorney just informed me I need to extend the meeting. Can I get a motion on extending the meeting? I have a motion to second. All in favor? None opposed? It will show that passing unanimously. Let's go to number 46. Pardon me? Oh, that's a good point. Minor details. Do I have a motion on number 50?

Or are we going to speak on it? Yes. And it's just to remind everyone it's on 50A is the replacement resolution.

So 50A, do I have a motion to move it? I'm sorry. I have a motion to move the amended 50A. I have a motion to second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Show that passing 8-0. Let's go to number 46.

46. Motion to award multiple open-end contracts to CDW Government LLC, first level, Soft Choice Corporation, second level, NetSync Network Solutions, Inc., third level, United Data Technologies, Inc., fourth level, and Presidio Network Solutions, LLC. Fifth level for standardized sole brand Cisco products. No member of the public has signed up to speak on the item.

Hold on one second. I think there's an issue. No, there's no issue. You voted on the amended, the item as amended, basically, which is 50A.

I'll move item 46.

Okay. Co-sponsor item 50. You got it. No charge. I'll move 46. Okay. I have a motion for 46. I have a second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Show that passing 8-0. Let's go to number 47.

Item 47. Motion to approve final ranking of qualified firms for requests for proposals, general planning, consultant services for the Port Everglades Department. Three members of the public have signed up to speak on the item. Larry D. Rose, followed by Joshua Freeman, and then Bernie Friedman.

Okay. Want to call first person?

Larry D. Rose.

Come on down, Larry.

Hello, everyone. Very, very happy to be here. I've been around a little bit, so I know most of you. Anyway, I just wanted to say that Moffin and Nickel has been ranked twice now as number one, and we want to, therefore, maintain that position, obviously. And the other items that are on your agenda on this matter are such that we really have no suggestions, no comments to make. I'm just here to say that me and my firm are very, very happy to be ranked number one. I want to keep that position. Thank you.

Thank you. And just to point out, you're ranked one in the first go-around, and then the second go-around, you're ranked number one.

And unanimously, both times.

Got it. Thank you. Great. Anybody else?

Joshua Freeman.

Great.

Josh Freeman, of LSN Partners, on behalf of Hatch Associates, who was ranked second in the first evaluation committee. I'd just like to raise that in the Broward Procurement Code, it talks about equity and uniformity, and I think that appointing the second committee sort of violates those principles here. I hope all of you read the letter that my firm submitted, which kind of lays these things out. But essentially, after this process was scored and ranked, Hatch was second, and this was for two firms to be awarded a contract, then somebody objected, claiming there was a conflict of interest with the first-ranked firm. So nothing to do with the fault of Hatch. Then I believe that objection didn't really meet the standard of objections, because in the code, it says that it must be new information that wasn't present or known at the time of the evaluation scoring. It was known, because as previously stated, that employee correctly disclosed that, and it was public information at the time, yet they still decided to act on it. There's another provision in the code which says if new information arises after the fact, the director of purchasing could choose to take action. But again, it was known at the time of the scoring, so I don't see any reason why they could take that action. And then even after that, in the code, it talks about if an appearance of a conflict of a committee member becomes known what to do, and it says that that one committee member would be removed and replaced. That's not what happened here. Instead, they removed the entire committee, appointed a new committee, show them the original proposals, show them the original presentations that were recorded, and that just, in my mind, violates all of our processes. And I'm asking that that second committee be invalidated and that the results of the first committee be honored. Everything prior to that appointment of the second committee was fine. And what I'd like to say here is that there is no process to appoint a second committee in the code. It was completely made up. Generally, we don't just make things up on the fly. We either choose to move forward and remedy that, the flaws in the current procurement, or we throw everything out and redo it. The reason why my client chose not to object was because when the second process was, when we sent a response to the objection letter, they sent back a response saying that they were intending to appoint a second committee, and would we like to opt into that? We told them no. They never responded to our response and just moved forward with that second committee process anyways. So after the results, we didn't think it was warranted to object again because they had already heard our objections, and we didn't want to protest because this solicitation has been going on for over a year, and we really didn't want to delay them coming to a conclusion. So we really think you should honor the results of the first committee, and if not, we'd be open to some sort of legal way to do three contracts. And since this is an on-call contract, it's easy to split up the work, and we'd be happy to split it amongst three firms if that's an acceptable solution to the board. Thank you.

Stay there. Counsel, he's making some interesting legal opinions on our code being violated the way this is. How do you opine on that?

No, and we've had an opportunity to speak also, including with regard to what Mr. Freeman just said, which was maybe offering three contracts and which I thought was a creative solution. However, we don't think that we can do that under state law because of the way the CCNA statute is structured. In terms of our procurement code, we weren't left with any perfect options here. A mistake was made. Our procurement code, which is very lengthy, can't anticipate everything, so it doesn't anticipate, in our opinion, this precise set of facts. What Mr. Freeman said about replacement of a member under certain circumstances, I think is true when it's at a more preliminary stage of the proceedings. Here, the Evaluation Committee had already ranked, had basically completed its work. It was one of the things that we presented to purchasing as an option, including throwing the whole thing out and starting over. But we think that what we've done here is consistent with our code and with state law.

But doesn't the code say if there's a problem with one person, you replace the person? And in this situation, you replaced everybody, and that's what he's saying.

That's not what our code says. We view that as before the Evaluation Committee basically has already completed its work. So at that point, if you replace one person, what are you doing? The Evaluation Committee is done at that point. It's already ranked. The problem is that by the time this conflict was determined or was realized, the rankings had already been done. And frankly, given that our code doesn't speak directly towards this, this all could have been thrown out, reject all, start over again. Or what I think staff did here was reasonable. I don't think it was arbitrary. They ended up listening to the same presentations with new Evaluation Committee members, but offering live questions and answers. I think, Mayor, bottom line, it's the best you could do under these circumstances. But, of course, the board has ultimate discretion here.

Does anybody here want to opine?

We'll start from this side and go around. Senator Geller. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This, unfortunately, is a mess, and there is no good resolution. I had actually asked the county attorney whether we could do exactly what Mr. Freeman suggested, which is hire three companies instead, and was advised by the county attorney that he thought that this would violate the CCNA. Otherwise, I would have made a motion to do exactly that, the CCNA Competitive Consultant Negotiations Act. Unfortunately, I don't know that there is any good solution. Can I ask what exactly is county attorney recommending?

Thank you.

I mean, and you know that I don't say this very often. I mean, I think it's a policy decision by the board. I think the motion before the board to approve the final rankings as is presents the least legal risk here. I think the board does have the power to reject all and go back out. The one thing I don't think you can do today, you'd have to have basically a supermajority vote and then take presentations, would be to re-rank. Mr. Freeman's exactly right. His client did absolutely nothing wrong here, was in second position, but the process was changed. There's no protest that was filed, and the rankings that are before you, almost as if the first ranking didn't happen, it's just the ranking that's actually with a printed agenda. One final question.

Since this is, in your opinion, under the CCNA, normally that means it's not that you split a contract. It means you go to the first vendor and try and negotiate a contract with them. If that fails, you go to the second vendor. Is that the process that we would be following?

Yes, except here it calls for two contracts, but you would start with number one, then number two, and you'd work your way down to number six. And the problem with, and I did speak with you about it, and then I spoke to Mr. Freeman about it, and I thought it was sort of a fair and creative solution to say give a contract also to hatch. The problem is that under CCNA, we look at it and say that you have to then, after number two, go to number three, the number four, and number five, you can't skip over those. So we create more legal risk.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. You know what? We have one more speaker. I'm sorry, and then we'll come back. We have one more public. We have just one or two more?

Two more, actually.

Sorry. Two more. Who's next?

Bernie Friedman, followed by William Barbro.

I'm sorry. What's your name again, sir?

Hey. Hey. Wake up. Anyway, Bernie Friedman representing Larry DeRose and Moffitt and Nickel. Well, we don't really have an issue with, you know, your decision here today. The only thing that we really care about is making a decision today. We won the first ranking. We won the second ranking. And, you know, I would defer to your county attorney's advice, you know, as to which ranking basically has the least amount of risk. There is no bid protest. There is nothing filed within the deadline. So that means that if you approve the ranking today, this could go forward after a year and a little while, and the port could get their planning consultants working. There's a lot of issues at the port, a lot of important issues. So, but, again, I would defer to your county attorney with whatever option you decide. But Moffitt and Nickels was the first-ranked firm the first time and the second time, and it appears that the second motion that's before you today has the least amount of risk because there is no protest, and basically that means the process would go directly forward, and after a year or so, we could finally move this to fruition. Anyway, thank you very much. Thank you, sir.

William Barbaro.

Good afternoon, council, mayor. My name is Bill Barbaro. I'm the business unit director for Bowman Consulting. We were ranked, I believe, tied for third in the first selection, and then we came in second, so on the second selection. We were very happy with, you know, the process. We thank the procurement and the county officials that try to deal with this situation. Our team, you know, given the time we prepared, the new process was simply a questions and answers, and the previous presentations were used. So I just wanted to say that, you know, I wanted to thank the board and thank the procurement, and we stand ready with our team of local consultants to serve the county. Thank you very much.

All right, I'm going to be bringing it back now. No, thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. I'm going to go around this way. Nothing, nothing. Senator Rich?

It was mentioned, Drew, if you could respond to this, that we technically have no process to appoint a second committee. How did we appoint a second committee?

I think we have a certain discretion under the Procurement Code. The powers of the board and that have been delegated to staff here are pretty broad. And normally, under the case law, and again, this is far from a pure process, but under the case law, as long as what we do is not arbitrary or capricious, then it should be sustained, especially where no protest has been followed. I'm not saying, Senator, that it's, you know, do you remember a couple of years ago, and I know Commissioner Udine led the effort from the board's perspective. We rewrote our procurement code after many years because we run into these situations that are not fully addressed, and then we sort of put a Band-Aid on it. This is one of those in connection with item 43 that you voted on. We would be looking to change some of these things to expressly address this. We don't think the current language does expressly address it.

Okay, I just have great discomfort with this because it just seems to me to be very unfair. I mean, I don't know what the answer is, but, I mean, to take someone who legitimately got it second and then came in sixth somehow, and, but, you know, it just, I don't know. I mean, because I definitely don't want to throw it all out and start over again, but it just is too, you know, I just feel that it's unfortunate not to have a, some kind of a compromise position where you could use the seconds from both so that, you know, you could at least, you know, be fair to everybody or try to be fair to everybody. I don't know if that's impossible, but.

Isn't it possible to structure a deal where maybe you're not doing the same, but isn't it a structured deal as we just mentioned to get the two number twos somehow involved? One is a consultant, one is a, you know, you're creative. Can you come up with some creative ideas? So the people that would get the contract could try to get things done,

but here, if we were to force that, it's almost as if the first evaluation didn't occur in terms of the board's action here today. Now, there are creative solutions. I'm not going to jump in front of anything, but people have raised things with me

that, you know, maybe you want to broach when you finish your discussion here. I mean, there are things theoretically that could be done, but Epson, we need to fix the code on this point, I think, to clarify, and I'll yield at this point. Let's see what. Commissioner Udine.

So this is like the old legal axiom, bad facts make for bad laws when they come in and try and go fix these things. The whole contract, the whole issue was less than a couple million dollars, and as far as port contracts go, that's a very small drop in the bucket. As I look at this, it's clear to me that Moffitt and Nichols has to be awarded first position, and it's clear to me that no matter how we do this, in any way that we do this, it opens up some legal risk no matter how you handle this. No matter what we do, there's some legal risk here. So with that said, it's beautiful that we have a great county attorney and such a great county attorney team. There's a courthouse right down the block if people want to complain. I'd like to make a motion that we give the rank Moffitt and Nichols number one, and the other two that came in second are tied for second, so they can negotiate, the two came in in a tie, and we would move from there. And if there's a second and that gets approved, if anybody else wants to file lawsuits, there's a courthouse. But we can negotiate with the first one and both second teams, and I think that solves it. Yes, so do.

So, well, I have a motion. Is there a second to that? Oh, we've got a lot of seconds. So we've got a motion and second. Counsel, is this legally viable? So we're going to approve one, number one, and do what he said. What are you smiling about? Yeah.

Yeah. I'm going to answer for him.

There's risks to this.

So if one of the things that was discussed basically was that number one is clearly number one, they came in number one on both. So theoretically, and again, I don't want to take anything away from anybody here who's in any position, but theoretically, there would be a way of awarding or approving the final rankings and through a code waiver and through certain other things. And I think that's what I'm going to do. I think that's what I'm going to do today. I think that's what I'm going to do today, directing that staff proceed to negotiate with one firm. And then theoretically, you know, theoretically, again, and the administration may disagree with it, but fast tracking is some sort of re-solicitation for a second firm to bring them in on, you know, the bid specs are ready. You know, maybe something can be accelerated. I wouldn't legally recommend today doing number one and then splitting between the two number twos. I think that is a problem under CCNA, but we do have defenses to it. So, I mean, we would see how that would shake out if that were.

I agree with Drew, but I'm going to vote for my motion anyway because I get it. I mean, there's six local engineering firms. We messed up. So state the motion again. The motion is Moffitt and Nichols, number one. The other two are tied for number two, and we move on with life.

And just under our code, which we'd have to waive, you're basically re-ranking. You're supposed to be re-ranking by a supermajority vote and after hearing presentations. So it does – and again, Commissioner, I think that's a very fair – Well, what if they get up and waive? What if they get up and waive it?

You have the principals right here. We're trying to be fair.

We're probably going to get sued anyway. I'd like to make a motion. I'd like to make a motion to waive presentations by the presenters and allow us to re-rank.

But if they also get up and waive – But it doesn't matter.

They're not all here.

Well, the representatives are here.

But they're not all here, so if they don't – Whether they waive it or not, there's a – They're probably not ready to make a presentation.

Pardon me? They said they're probably not ready or able to make a presentation today.

Commissioner Rogers, did you – Question. Did you doctor his drink?

Again. She keeps doing that. Mr. Mayor, I have a question for the county attorney.

Wait, let me finish going around.

It's – to me, this is incredibly simple. You don't need to say any more.

We got a motion. We got a second. Do you want to vote on that first, that motion? I have a question for the county attorney first. Okay. All right. Well, Commissioner Davis is next, and then we'll come back to you.

Yeah. I was pretty troubled by the results of the second compared to the results of the first. It seemed way off the mark to have been second in the first round and the second time you're number six. With a new group. So I was a bit perturbed with that, and I like the idea that Commissioner Udine has presented to be fair to all parties. And so I would certainly move – join that motion that you made to support that. Thanks.

Question. County attorney. What – our goal, I think, is to try and find a way out of the mess instead of deepening it. So my question is, first, on the current motion by Commissioner Udine, that would have the one that was in first place ranked number one. Who were the other two? Was it – was there actually a tie in the second ranking?

No, there was actually a tie in the first ranking between Bowman and Hatch. Hatch won because of a tiebreaker. In the second ranking, Moffitt is number one. They were number one in both. Bowman is number two, and Hatch is number six.

So under Commissioner Udine's motion, would it be one, two, and six in the final ranking? Okay. Under Commissioner Udine's motion, it would be number one, and then number two in the first ranking, and number two in the second ranking?

Yes, that's how I understand the motion. When I asked you if we could do that, you told me that you thought we could not, and I don't want to do anything that you're telling us we probably can't legally do.

I think we're susceptible to a challenge under state law for that. Now, not if we – if we go through a formal process, we have by supermajority vote, we decide to re-rank, you theoretically could waive re-rankings if you want. You could stack these on top of each other if you'd like to, and you could. But again, after presentations or waiving presentations, trying to come up with a ranking where number one is number one and number two is tied and split, you still have issues, you're opening yourself up to challenge. And by the way, if you're going to do any of this, because the board does have – the board does have broad discretion on it,

including theoretically just to award to the first ranked and going back out with the rest, a waiver would be helpful.

It's possible that some of these firms may be willing to waive it, which of course reduces risk.

Can you do the waiver first, or can we address his motion first?

I would want to hear –

I would want to hear waivers. If we don't get waivers, I don't want to vote for it. If we do get waivers, I'm okay. I got it.

So I'm just going to close my motion to the extent it is. I don't want to make it long. No matter what we do today on this, we are open to risk. If we threw everything out and started all over – You said that. Right.

You got a motion. You got a second. Yeah, let's – All right, I'm going to – he's got a motion and a second. Let's first vote on that. All in favor of his – you know, the amended motion, show your hands, which is to – Moffitt is first, and these two companies are tied for second.

Can I ask some point of order?

Sure.

And I'm a little worried about not doing the waiver prior to that. Right. I think the waiver should go prior to that. Okay. So I'll make a motion that we waive presentations by any of the applicants.

No, he was asking if they would waive.

I think the way to proceed would be to start with the three affected parties to see – and there are five or six affected parties, but we only have so many present here. So mainly the number one and the two number twos to see if they would waive, and they would agree to basically three contracts going out. Then we would waive our procurement code and do certain things to – All right. Let's take the first step.

Mr. Freeman, you want – you representing him, or can you come on up real quick? Drew, the question is, will you waive – what am I – what is he waiving?

I'd waive in any – basically claims, right to protest, right to challenge in court, if this outcome is obtained.

Yeah. Ken Parkinson, principal with Hatch, Broward County resident for 30 years. Yes, we would agree to waive our objection.

Okay. Thank you. Sir, come on up. Do agree if that condition occurs. Do agree to it. Not would, but do. Yes. Thank you.

Yes, I mean, Bill Barbaro, principal with Bowman Consulting Group. We're located here, 900 Southeast 3rd Avenue, Fort Lauderdale. We agree to waive. We want to see – we want to have a long relationship with Broward County and see this move forward. We've worked long and hard enough to – let's move forward and do some things for the county here.

These are the – thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Council, these are the two companies that came in second.

We are the ones that came in – that came in two seconds. Right. These are the two companies – okay, wait.

There's one other. Okay. Sir, who are you with?

Volkert.

Do the microphone. Okay. James Spinks.

I'm the Southeast leader, business unit manager for Volkert.

Okay. Let me ask you, in the first ranking, what were you ranked?

We were tied for second, not Bowman.

No, we never said Bowman was in the first ranking.

He's correct.

The county attorney said that earlier.

That just forms some confusion. They were tied for second and were reduced to third place because of a tiebreaker. Correct.

We went to – we lost on a tiebreaker in the first evaluation.

So, you were tied for second. You lost on a tiebreaker, so you went to third.

Yes. Great.

Okay.

And in the second, what were you ranked? We were third.

Third again.

By two points behind Bowman.

Okay. Okay. Council – I don't think we need – Council, do we – so they were in second, but they tied for second, but then they – if we held up the first one as legitimate, they still wouldn't get the contract because you lost in the tiebreaker. Correct? Right. Is that correct?

Correct.

Okay.

So, now that those two companies have weighed, what – I would want to hear from Moffitt also because they would be getting one of the two contracts. Now it would be going to three contracts.

Okay. Sir, would you please come on over? Larry?

I think it's my public duty to waive. Thank you, sir.

Now we have a motion. We have a motion. Go ahead. No. So – Yeah. Okay. I got a motion and a second from Commissioner Udine. Do you want to restate it?

Yeah, and I just want to add a couple of chunks to it if it's okay, Commissioner. And I've got a bunch of procurement folks here and Renee also. So, just to jump in because we're doing this on the fly, which creates – Come on. Come on. Okay. But the bottom line is that we're waiving our procurement code to the extent necessary to not require there to be a supermajority vote in order to re-rank or for there to be presentations to re-rank. As part of the motion, the board would be re-ranking in operative part, Moffitt's number one, and then there's a two-way tie for second, which would be Bowman and Hatch. Come on, Mr. Paul.

Bowman a second, correct? So, Volcker became in third, though, after the tiebreaker, correct? Yes. So, if the first one was legitimate, Volcker wouldn't be getting the contract, correct?

Is that correct or are we wrong? It's correct, Mayor. And then the last part of that would be that we're also, to the extent necessary, waiving the procurement code to modify the solicitation so that it's, in effect, seeking up to three contracts as opposed to two. Let me just ask – and then the re-ranking, as I mentioned, is the first place and then a two-way tie for second place, okay? Is there anything that's missing? Yes. Right, right. Volcker, right. You're confirming. I said – no, no, I know. So, it's – the first place is Moffitt, and tied for second place under the re-ranking would be Bowman and Hatch.

Under the re-ranking.

Under the re-ranking. Under the re-ranking that you'd be doing right now with all of that wrapped in there.

So, do you want to preface your motion that based on the fact that they have waived, agreed to waive, that now you're making this motion?

I will to make it easier. I don't really want to, but I will. It's the first and two that are tied for second.

Okay. And based on their waive. Okay. So, you made the motion, and based on what said – Senator Ritchie seconded that? Great. I motioned second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Show that passing 8-0. So, now it's incumbent upon the administration to meet with those two companies and work out something?

Yes. The three companies basically to try to – and then after that would – if they can't get the three contracts, they'd go beneath that to firms that are ranked after that.

Okay. Can we – are we ready to move on, guys? Okay. Good. Number 40 – let's skip the dashboard. Let's go to 50 – what is it? 51. By the way, there's lunch waiting in your offices, just so you know. Always wanting to feed. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 54.

Item 54. Motion to discuss recent feedback from the local business community and constituents regarding Broward County priorities and operations. One member of the public has signed up to speak on the item, Cheryl Robinson.

Okay. Ms. Robinson, please come on up and speak.

How y'all doing? Broward County Commission. How you guys doing? My name is Cheryl Robinson. I'm here to represent West Park, Dainey, Hollywood, Hollindale, and all of Broward County. I love it. I'm born and raised to Broward County for over – I'm about to be 40, guys. So I love my community. I'm seeing a lot of neglect in my community. Our community is being squeezed, property costs, raising rent. It's just crazy. We've been neglected. I've been a lot of misuse of funds. There's no real respect – I mean, no real support for the local entrepreneurs. And just like right now, I've been sitting here for the whole commission. It's my first time being at the Broward County Commission. I've been at the other ones, standing up for a lot of things in my community. And I'm seeing a lot of developers and things like that. They're coming in. They're getting the funding. They're getting the support. But you have a lot of us, as myself, we get a lot of – just a lot of runaround due to our backgrounds, things like that. And, you know, it's like we're not allowed to be – we're not a part of our community anymore. Even from the football coaching and things like that, you got some guys that went to prison, came home, doing better. And they want to make, you know, a contribution to the community, be involved with the children. And they're not even being able because they had a background. Nothing even to do with children, with kids, but they're still being exempt. A lot of the rental apartments and things that's being built, I'm not seeing a lot of the residents that's – the natives of the community. It's a lot of backgrounds they like to give us, but who's giving these people backgrounds that's coming, the developers and things coming in our community, building up? Who's giving backgrounds really – like we have to have backgrounds to be in our community that we've been in, to get in a new apartment or something that's getting built and land that's been here in our community? And, again, I just want to push the fact on entrepreneurs. I see a lot of things getting built for – McDonald's, all these corporate things keep popping up in the communities when we can be empowering the moms and pops, the entrepreneurs in the community. Myself, I'm great. I'm trying to do things. And it's a lot of – it's just a lot of blockage for the residents, and we really want some real transparency, and we really want some real support, like you guys support a lot of people that come in here. We just had somebody come up here and want $2 million, and, you know, I'm in support for great events and things going on in the community, but it's a lot of things that we've done been having historically, and they don't have any funding for these different cities. Martin Luther King parades, all things like that have been pushed back. Groom bays, things that we had growing up has been pushed back, but it's a lot of things that you guys are funding for people that's not from Broward County, and that's what I'm here. I'm here to stand up on my legacy, my history, and my community. Thank you guys for the opportunity.

Thank you. Number 54, hopefully it won't take more than 60 seconds. I had a meeting with Broward Workshop. I had two lunches with the Broward Workshop and the Alliance, and I just want to let you know out of all the issues, the biggest issue, and I'm going to come back with this, is our identity. When Austin, Texas is selling themselves, L.A. is selling, Chicago is selling, but when Broward goes out to sell around the country, people are going, who's Broward, what's Broward, what city? I'm hearing this constantly, how difficult it is. And we say, oh, Broward, South Florida, what city is that? And it's a big problem. So I'm going to come back with some of their thoughts and ideas. Again, this has to do with, I think, Commissioner Udine last year was talking about, shouldn't we be called maybe Lauderdale County or whatever it might be, but the biggest problem I'm hearing from the business community is trying to sell Broward. Nobody knows outside of this area who's Broward, what's Broward. Remember, L.A. County has, L.A. County has 188 communities. They have Beverly Hills, Pasadena, Santa Monica, but L.A. is the anchor. And so, you know, in our districts, we have 31 cities. We all like our own cities, but what's the anchor here and what's the identity? And that's what I'm hearing the most. So I just wanted to let you know there's a bunch of different issues. That was the predominant issue. How are we going to attract people and sell people in the future when nobody outside of here knows the name Broward? You could say it a million times. We had it on our sign in the Rose Bowl, Broward. People, Broward, where is that? What state? They have no clue. So that's that. Mr. Mayor? Yeah. Yes. Get away.

I thought you were going to be brief, so I just wanted to give you a solution. Visit Lauderdale at Broward. I'm not saying anything. I'm just saying that's what I'm hearing. Visit Lauderdale at Broward. You want to include it? I don't find myself included in it. I'm not making motions. I'm just saying that. I'm just saying, even for that conversation we're going to have with the international team that's visiting, we want to let them know there's a Broward County. This is our opportunity to put Broward County on the map with a group of people that's visiting from all over the world. That's not going to cost us too much. I hear there's two million on the table, but.

One second, Senator. I just want to let everybody vote. When we voted, I voted against changing the name. So let me just start. I'm not a proponent, but again, I'm representing what the business community is telling us.

That's all I'm doing right now. Yes, sir. Mr. Mayor, based on who you've spoken with, I would just ask, you met with the Fort Lauderdale business community.

No, I'm not sure.

I met with the Alliance and the workshop people. The workshop is the Fort Lauderdale.

It's our anchor. It's the Broward workshop.

It's our anchor.

I would only ask that you might want to also consult with the business community in Hollywood, in Miramar, in Cooper City. If you ask a group of Fort Lauderdale residents what they should call it, they will probably tell you Fort Lauderdale. I'm just suggesting that you reach out broader. I understand.

Their response is, look at our convention centers there, our convention hotels there, our airport is here. I mean, you go on and on. When people, it's where people understand the geographic area. It's, you know, I'm not, you know, if you said Coconut, my district, Coconut Creek, Florida, where is Coconut Creek? Where, you know, you're right. I mean, you know, I mean, it's just people know Fort Lauderdale. Let's just put the ego down and know that people know Fort Lauderdale and or Lauderdale. There's what, 11 cities named Lauderdale, right? And I'm just telling you the comments they're saying back. Anyway, I'm not here to argue it. I'm here to just let you know and may, you know, see what the suggestions they have.

Mr. Mayor, try not to circumvent this board by going to, not you, by going to Tallahassee and that's all we found out, that there was recommendation or consideration for changing. No, I already went and they just passed the legislation

and we're tomorrow announcing, I'm joking. Thank you.

All right, can we move on real quick? Next. Again, this is something that came up last meeting. Dr. Gerardo was standing there and Senator Geller and I were going back and forth. I want to just confirm. 55, yes. 56, 55, I'm sorry, 55. We have 1,800 miles of canals that the cities, the water district and Broward County are responsible for its water movement. Not the Army Corps of Engineers, the cities and if we don't do anything in 10 years, all your neighborhoods are going to see massive flooding. Every one of you sitting here and your constituents that we represent are going to see massive flooding. So the answer is brought up again is we need a funding source and they're going to come back with suggestions on a funding source. This would be a billion out of their 27 or 28 billion total resiliency. This would be a billion dollar cost that they estimate that will be and it's something I'm going to bring back and keep bringing back until we find an answer and then I'm done. 60 seconds on that one. Senator Geller, you should learn from me.

You've only been practicing law for 43 years.

I think we're done, right? Just reports. Since nobody has reports, I'm going to adjourn the meeting, right? All right. We're going to have to listen to everybody's reports. 60 seconds. Short, short. Commissioner Davis.

Thank you. I have visited Port Everglades a couple of occasions.

You mean Port Lauderdale?

No.

I'm joking.

Port Everglades. And there are a lot of opportunities at Port Everglades. Yeah, yeah. And when I did my tour, one of the things that I wanted to do, which I brought up to staff, is to expose the rest of the county who don't know about the opportunities at the port to what can be available there. Whether it's jobs, whether they're training to get jobs, the opportunities that exist at Port Everglades. So I worked with staff to come up with a concept to do this year for the first time a job fair and an exposition that would showcase Port Everglades and what there is to offer our residents. This event has a date, certain, May 27th, and I'll be hosting it at our Broward County Convention Center. We have gone to various stakeholders at the port, and we have participation of over 40 stakeholders who will be participating. They have opportunities for jobs, opportunities to talk about various careers, and how to get into some of these high-paying jobs at the port. I hope it's going to be an annual event and that it will continue to grow from maybe 40 companies who will be participating in this first year to a much larger opportunity for our residents. I encourage everyone to stay tuned because we're going to have a rollout of this opportunity, and hopefully it will be a success. I've done other type events like this in Miramar where I hosted a job fair that had over 2,000 participants. I'm not sure we're going to have that amount of folks in the first year, but we're hoping to expand upon it in future years. In addition to that event, which is on May 27th, I just want to remind folks that we do have a free tree giveaway, and that's coming up on April 18th. at our Miramar Pineland Park from 8 a.m. to noon. We have several trees that are going to be given away, one per household, Broward County resident, to include mangoes, banana, papaya, sour sap, and Jamaican caper trees. We want folks to register in advance. This is already out in social media and out on my e-blast at broward.org slash naturescape slash trees. Thank you.

Just very briefly, as the public watches these meetings, I just want to make sure that they understand that sometimes the things that get said from the podium or from the dais, it's like snippets of that and it doesn't represent the full complexion of the entire issue. Like when someone from the public comes and says, you should be spending money on X, and if you spend tourist dollars on X, why would you spend that? because we could build roads with those dollars, we could make our schools better. It doesn't make it factual as to what we can actually do with those dollars. There are certain dollars that are segregated a certain way that become, you know, chained as to what we can do with those dollars, and I think it's important that the public understands that. And even things like when we say we're just finding out about FIFA, obviously we're using that in a different context to what's really been happening because I do know that Broward County staff for two years have been working on FIFA events. There's been multiple workshops with OESB to get our businesses involved in these things, and many of our businesses, I know many of them will be working these things and making dollars that will be coming back into our community. I just think sometimes when we debate this and the public watches this, it's hard to go around five or six times to get every one of those points in. So that's number one. Number two, Visit Lauderdale welcomed back their ambassador, Anton Londell, the other night. He came back with a bronze medal. It was cool to go there and see him, even though Team USA is who we were all rooting for. Anton played for Finland and they got the bronze, but he is Visit Lauderdale, one of their, you know, marketing sponsors. And just for brevity, I wish everybody a meaningful Passover, blessed Easter, if you celebrate it. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you.

I have just a few events I'd like to mention. I just wanted you to know that Florida Children's First held its Advocates for Children's Awards, honor, first awards, and they honored a very outstanding person, Sarah Franco, who is the founding CEO of Jafco. She's just retired this past year and she's an amazing person. She started Eagle's Haven after Marjory Stoneman Douglas. She's just a passionate community leader and she spent her career connecting foster children with loving adoptive families while providing a full range of supportive services to kids in foster care, including the whole Children's Village, which is a program for people, children with disabilities that allows parents to be able to actually spend weekends so that the children can spend weekends there so the parents can have a little relief. It's just a fantastic program. And it's interesting, the evening's other honoree was a young woman by the name of Shanika Ramos shared a deeply moving personal story of navigating the foster care system. She had everyone in tears and it was just beautifully illustrated how Florida's Children First is able to transform children's lives. My friend Howard Talenfeld, well-known attorney in town is the founder of it and wanted to just recognize his years of dedication and just amazing outcomes for children. I also want to mention that on March 20th, we had the launch of our new Broward County 17th Judicial Circus, circuit, kickoff, circuit, circuit, I don't know, sorry, circuit, kickoff for the program that we, the pilot that we funded last year in our budget and we are providing four full-time navigators assigned to the Family Court Division. These navigators connect individuals involved in family litigation with suitable therapeutic resources including counseling, parenting classes, substance abuse treatment, and on and on. They also do conflict resolution. So far, in the short time that this program has started, which is January, 89 families have been connected with over 240 services, different services in our community and that shows how critical this program is because they needed the navigators to act just like the case managers to get kids and families into the right programs because we have programs out there, so many wonderful programs. I was happy to be invited to represent us there on behalf of the County Commission. I thanked Chief Justice Carol Lisa Phillips, you remember the three actually judges were here at different times to talk to us about this program, the Chief Judge and Judge Hope Team in Bristol and Judge Lauren Alperstein for identifying basically these needs in the court system and, you know, approaching us and we stepped up to the plate and I just wanted you to know how important it is what we're doing and I think that they'll be, you know, doing an evaluation and I just feel confident that we could look forward to continuing this critical program in the future and lastly, I want to mention since my colleague did not, Commissioner Davis, but the three of us, Commissioner Rogers, Commissioner Davis and myself were on a panel discussion and the panel was moderated by our esteemed County Administrator and it was really basically sponsored by our own OESBD and Nova Southeastern's University Center and we discussed how women leaders can strengthen connections between residents and businesses and local government to create more empowered communities. We also shared our personal stories, journeys into public service and the challenges that we faced as women and I just want to thank my fellow commissioners for the thoughtful conversation and to Monica for being such a good moderator and it was really an outstanding, it's the first time that it's ever been done in person. I also want to congratulate Maribel Feliciano because, you know, this is her first go-round with this and she's become the director and it was outstanding.

To the three people who are watching this I'm going to have

to switch over

to Senator Fischer

to Commissioner Fischer. Thank you, Commissioner Furfer. Let me just jump in real quick. Two things. Number one, I want to again congratulate Monica Shapiro. She will be recognized again tonight as a trailblazer and so she continues to rack them up and so we appreciate her leadership. Last thing I want to talk about really is just as an information only, I don't want to really get into the nuts and bolts. I want to thank Kevin and Issemi for their dedication dealing with traffic on Southeast 17th Street Causeway. They're continuing to meet as a committee with BSO and the city and the public works and trying to figure out how we can ease that traffic. It's a good thing that we're so busy

at the port and our new hotel, our convention center.

Exactly.

But obviously it causes headaches at times with folks who live in that area which is my district. So I just wanted to say everybody, you know, they continue to give me updates what we're doing. So thank you so much for that and as we continue to improve that.

And lastly, happy Passover and happy Easter. God bless.

Senator Geller. Oh, you're not here. We'll bypass him. Commissioner Furr.

Thanks. Real quick. Solid Waste Authority did pass a facilities amendment which is what is going to be going to every city commission for approval. It did not pass a master plan yet because there's some recalculations being looked at at the surcharge. We had to kind of reel that back in and we'll be looking at that again on Monday. But we're getting closer. I think all of our offices are getting lots of emails with regard to the sand bypass. I think what the, I think we're going to have Greg Myers

put out something. Is that right?

Or how are we?

So what we're doing is I know Greg has had a conversation or two with some media folks to make sure that, just that they understand the information that was shared with all the board from Dr. Gerardo. I believe it was maybe Friday. Just to make sure that everyone's aware of our steadfast attention and focus on the environmental issues and certainly I think when they hear

what the actual facts are

they'll feel a bit better

about things because there are some facts going out

that aren't quite right. Correct. And we're doing the actual monitoring. From the public. Yeah. And there was one machine that was not monitoring correct by NOAA, I think. That's correct. That caused a lot of alarm so we just need to set some facts straight. So hopefully we can do that soon. I have a question with regard to jurisdiction on something. Every city on the east on the coast sets a determinate number or yardage of how close boats can come. But each city has a different number. Holland has a different number from Hollywood. Hollywood has a different number from Fort Lauderdale. And to me, I wonder if there's a way where there can be consistency there. So that you, you know, because when you're in a boat you don't know where you're when you're crossing one city to the other. So if there's a way of finding out if we, if there's a way of pulling everybody together maybe to do a...

We will take a look. Okay. Commissioner, thank you.

Thank you. And lastly, I just want to say congratulations to former Dania Beach Mayor Tamara Jones that we just opened up a gymnasium with her. She was number eighth round draft pick and took South Broward High School to three state champions. and then played on in the WNBA and, and, and internationally. One unbelievable gym. So she, congratulations, sir. That's all.

Senator Geller.

Thank you. That was pretty quick. That was pretty good. A couple quick items. First, I'm pleased to hear from Commissioner Davis that Broward County is hosting this event at Fort Everglades Everglades on dealing with the building trades. I've been saying up here for the entire nine years I've been here how important the building trades are because I am absolutely convinced that half of white-collar jobs are going to end up going, being killed by AI in the building trades, which I've been working on for like nine years, is really our future and I'm very pleased to hear Commissioner Davis that Broward is doing this at the port. I think that's a really good idea.

Commissioner Geller, can I add one? I forgot one thing. Of course. With your permission, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. On that same topic, the, and I, and I, Commissioner Davis, I know you're new on the career source and they're doing a very similar, they do a very similar thing. Right. And I don't know if you are aware of that. I know you just got on that. Whoa.

Let's go. Let's get out of here. Poltergeist. Come on. Monica, can you please do that a little more often? Whoever's doing that.

But they do a tremendous job fair at the, at the port and where, where we, we have all our transportation, we bring all our buses, all that. So I guess, I, you know, I want to, I don't, I, hopefully that's, there's the redundancy.

No, they're actually participating. Okay. So they're a part of that. Yes. It's okay.

All right. It's so good to hear because that, because they've done a fantastic job the last couple of years on that.

Okay.

And so while I was saying that, I did want to remind everybody that I do have these quarterly building trades meetings. I've invited all of the commissioners to them for years. Commissioner Davis has in fact, RSVP'd for our next one, which is April 2nd, here in Chambers. So they're in Chambers. They are taped. They, they're sunshined. So anybody that would like to come, we've been doing these again, quarterly for nine years now. So the next one is April 2nd, nine o'clock, right here in Chambers. And finally, the South Florida Regional Planning Council and the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council are holding,

we,

once a year, we hold a joint conference. This one, which is going to be after summer break is over, I believe it's in October. But if anybody wants to be involved in that, it's on the blue economy, specifically the tech parts of the blue economy, working with the marine research hub, working with others. Again, high paid jobs, high paid jobs, high paid jobs. So I know Commissioner Furr has been very active with the SFRPC and I'm just letting anybody know if you'd like to be involved, please let me know. That's all, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Commissioner Rogers.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And let me say that I'm surprised that no one knew, I didn't hear, have not heard any conversation since I've been here for the past three years around Portia. Port Everglades and the connection between the port and the foreign trade zones that are not located at the port. And I know my colleagues will tell you that one of the first cities I visited when I got elected and went with staff was Miramar to look at the foreign trade zone in that shopping plaza. Can't remember the location. Okay, came out of Tallahassee making sure that the curriculum that we would need was approved by Broward College and we have that in place. I have since been in conversation with staff around hosting, connecting port and off port side businesses. Whatever we call it, that's what we are doing. I truly have a problem with if staff is aware, I don't know, maybe this is a question. If staff is aware that a commissioner is engaged in doing something and it's similar to what another commissioner brings to the forefront, how is that handled? I'm just saying, think about it. You don't have to respond right now because I have an answer for you. All right, where does staff come in with this? We had an issue with Omni. there was a group visiting from, I think it was Guyana or Belize and they booked the hotel and they weren't sure how to negotiate and benefit from bringing an international event, heads in beds. They just were doing their thing. Now, when that is, when that comes to the attention of folks who should be selling Broward County, how come that was missed? Okay? No one knew, no one shared until it was brought to my attention. So, there's some things that we need to look at. So, we mention our small business division to let us know they will be involved in everything but it would be nice for the elected officials to know, okay, what is going on internationally here because you can see that cities want to be engaged. You want to know what is happening at the port, the things Broward County is sponsoring and investing in. They want to know. So, we need to find a solution to that issue. Okay? The young lady that had her, no. And I will say what you discussed earlier today relative to soccer, it's any international event you are going to have that challenge wherein, okay, whether or not it's in Miami, you're going to have pop up all over Broward County. Why don't we have a fund or put some thought to it? How do we engage none, engage the broader community? They know, they have been meeting around this soccer event. They have been talking to the parks division. Okay? They don't have a funding by themselves so maybe that is something we need to look at. How do we reinvest? Instead of giving, you know, making sure the local community benefits. All right? And it's not just for one event or for this year I'm talking. They are talking, the community is talking about long-term, long-term international projects that's coming to Broward County. How do they hear about it and how do they engage? If staff is sitting at the table having all of these conversations, at some point in time it needs to get to the broader community, not selected broader community. And that's where I'm at relative to this moment. It's not just about Fort Lauderdale. It's not just about Central Broward, my district. It is about, it is about, truly about Broward County. People want to engage and nothing is wrong with our name, Broward County. as long as we know whatever name we select, it should be reflective of the entire county. We should see ourselves in it and sometimes we don't see ourselves in the activities that we have here. Now, there was a speaker, I think, petitioned from the public. She focused on West Park and how do we respond? What is your policy in responding is what I would like to know because the person talked and I don't know. What do we do? How do we address that someone came before us and talked? Someone assigned to responding to the district elected official? I'm just trying to understand what is the process when someone comes here and speaks.

There isn't any.

There's not?

No.

You don't have to respond to your constituents.

She's not my constituent. I'm not,

I'm just talking to you because you're talking to me. Right. But I'm just saying to staff.

There is no process.

No process. Okay.

If I, if I might, Commissioner, to address your issue, if you'd like, I can wait until you're finished. I just wanted to make sure you respond to that. If there's something that comes to this commission meeting or even to your individual offices and you guys have a request for follow-up, we certainly do. Now, this individual, she did not ask for specific service or anything like that, but we have people here and walked out right behind her and if there's any follow-up that there's a request, we certainly would do that. That's typically what we do. We immediately, when there's a person from the public that comes in to speak, if they're requesting assistance with any of our programs, we have our directors come in immediately and walk them out. in this instance for today, there was not a specific request or service that was being requested of the county. I do know that we had people follow her out.

I'm going to be brief, Mr. Mayor, I'm getting to that closing. I can say to my colleague, Alexandra, you're going to get all of the bananas. We'll be choices, the bananas and the mangoes went over very well when we did ours last week. I was shocked, but that was this bananas and mangoes went over well. Thank you. You don't recognize my voice? I ain't going to change it. I had it for all.

Guys, are you done?

Mr. Mayor, I thank you for the opportunity.

Administrator, you got a report? No, thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you. I just wanted to wish everyone

a happy Easter and a happy Passover. Thank you.

Thank you. How about you, Mr. Melton? Are we keeping you awake and alive? Okay. County Attorney. Happy Easter. Happy Passover to everyone. Thank you. Okay. This meeting is adjourned. To those three people watching, thank you for watching.