County Commission on 2026-09-22 10:00 AM - Sep 22, 2026

media. County Commission meetings are open to the public. Members of the public wishing to be heard on any agenda item can register one of two ways. Visit registertospeak.broward.org and fill out the online registration form or scan the QR code posted in various locations inside and just outside the Commission chambers to register on your mobile device. A registration form must be completed for each item you wish to speak on. If you have trouble registering digitally, visit County Administration on the fourth floor for assistance. All speakers must appear in person. No further speaker signups will be accepted after an item has been called. Please show respect for others and refrain from making impertinent, slanderous remarks or personal attacks. Boisterous behavior, including applause, booing, and cheering is not permitted. Thank you for joining us. The meeting will begin shortly.

Folks, can you take your seats, please? Good morning. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to our

Broward County Commission meeting. Today is September 22, 2026. I'd like to ask everybody to please rise for Pledge of Allegiance and please remain standing and remove your heads. And I'd like to ask I'd like to ask our County Deputy County Commissioner Kevin Kelleher to lead us in our Pledge of Allegiance. County Administrator, sorry. Please remain standing. It is customary that we observe a moment of silence in honor of notable persons from our community who have recently passed. I'm going to go around the dais and start with Commissioner Geller. Let us also honor all 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 I ask to pause for a moment of silence. Thank you. Please take your seats. So, again, welcome everybody. And our breakfast and music today was provided by Senator Geller. And Senator Geller, would you like to open up? You wanted to talk about our live band?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Today's music selection, and for those of you in the audience, this is the first time that we've done proclamations early. So for the choir, my apologies. We didn't actually know how this was going to work. We will be hearing one performance from a wonderful performance by the Master Chorale of South Florida. They were playing earlier. I think most of you heard them in your office because it was being broadcast. Special thanks to Kathy Sedlak, Chorus Administrator for Master Chorale of South Florida, and Brett Carlin, the Artistic Director for coordinating this performance for Broward County. I'm very happy to be able to provide live music today as a continuation of what some of you may remember is called the Geller Series. I truly believe you can tell a lot about the soul of a county through its cultural activity and programming. We are a wonderful, wonderfully county, culturally diverse county, and I hope you all enjoy this performance. Special thanks to Broward County Division Executive Assistant Ava Stringfellow and Assistant Director Amanda Kovac for helping to coordinate today's performance. Now, take it away. Master

Corral of South Florida. Thank you, Mr. Corral. No, no, no. Wait, wait, wait. No, don't go.

Thank you, Mr. Carlin. Thank you, Mr. Corral. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And if I could ask the commissioners to stand while we take a picture. Okay, you guys, look at me first, please.

Thank you. I'm going to share your pictures with me. Thank you, sir. Okay, we're going to be doing

employee recognition now. Monica, you're going to go down? Okay, I'm done.

Good morning. How are our fabulous county employees feeling this morning? Good? All right. So, we're going to start. We've got a lot of celebrations of a lot of years of service here. I think we have like 36 employees here that have over 20 years of service with Broward County. So, we're going to start off with aviation, 20 years of service. Let's welcome Keisha Peterson. So, I'm going to remind our employees that after you take your photo, please go around and say hello to the commissioners. I know they'd all like to congratulate you on your years of service. We'll stay with aviation, 20 years of service. Pablo Alboranos from Finance and Administrative Services, 20 years of service. Let's have Suzanne Morris come join us. Thank you. Another 20 years of service. Let's ask, from libraries, Marisol Franco to join us.

Thank you. Hi, how are you? It's so nice to see you both. That was a really nice surprise. Thank you. Please go around the dais. Oh, I will. Thank you.

All right.

Also from libraries, let's ask Veena Pailove to join us. Sorry. Thank you for your service. Congratulations. Hi. Hi. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll take a quick photo. Thank you.

There we go.

Please go around the dais. Thank you. Also from libraries, Teresa Chonese. Thank you.

I love that.

Thank you. Congrats. Thank you so much. There you go. There you go. I'll take our photo. You got some other folks here for you? Yeah, come on. Yeah, come over on this side. Come over on here. There we go. There you go. How are you? Get that up.

Thank you.

Thank you. Teresa, please go around the dais. Okay. Now we're good. From Parks and Recreation, another 20 years of celebration of service. John Pipoli. Pipoli. Pipoli. My apologies. Holy moly, John Pipoli. That's how you're talking about. Now I'm going to offer that. I'm going to forget it. Hi. How are you? Thank you very much. Come on in. There we go. Here's your certificate. Come on in. Do you want your wife up here? Your visitor pass.

There we go.

Oh, yeah.

Congratulations, John. Thank you.

Thank you. Thanks for coming. Congratulations.

He's going around the dais, of course. Holy moly. I won't forget your last name. John Pipoli. All right. All right. Parks and Recreation. Let's stay with Parks. Matthew Forrest. 20 years of service.

Congrats. I'm ready, though.

All right. Come on in.

You guys. Come on in, guys. Come on.

Come on. On the side.

Come on. Come on.

Come on. Come on. Come on.

Thank you. Come on. Come on. That was amazing. Oh, nice. Okay. I think you all may recognize this name. Our Deputy Port Director, Glenn Wiltshire, 20 years of service.

Glenn, as usual.

Thank you.

There you go, Glenn.

Yes.

Thank you.

All right. Thanks, Glenn.

From Public Works and Environmental Services, Heather Soto, 20 years of service.

Good time, though.

Congratulations. Thank you for your service. Thank you. I think we got it. Come on, Richard. You guys want to jump in the photo? Here we go. Come on.

Thank you, my good sir.

There you go.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Congratulations. I'm hoping you weren't an employee. Just kidding. Congratulations. All right. Let's stay with Public Works and Environmental Services, Gary Mouyin.

Thanks.

Thank you.

All right. Thanks, Gary. Also from Public Works and Environmental Services, Carlos Garcia, 20 years of service.

Transportation Department, 20 years of service, and I'm going to ask for some grace and maybe some help. Safan Fingdaleth. Hi, sir. How did I do? That's me. Why don't we tell everyone how we say it is. Siphan Fingdaleth. Siphan Fingdaleth. Well, thank you for your service.

There you go. Congratulations.

Give me the new kid, though. Give me Sam. Sam. Okay. Sam. You should have started with that one, Sam. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Sam. Please go around the back. We got a couple more? I think, yep. So the next one, I've known this lady for a whole 18 years I've worked here as well, and she started, I think, with HR at the time. Faye Cobb. Why don't you join us? Congratulations. Hey, congrats. Thank you.

Hi, Cole. How are you?

She rates on the voice beater. She's got a big fan winner. She's got a big fan winner. Oh, come on. Congratulations. All right. Let's take the photo. Here we go. Congratulations, Faye. All right. Of course. Please go around the gates. I'll throw yours out like I'm on. Is this Canute or Canute?

Yeah.

Okay. Also from transportation, 20 years of service, Canute James. Please join us. All right. Thank you. Congratulations. Congrats. Thank you.

There you go.

You got Angelica as well. Thank you. Come on, Faye. Walk by. There we go. Thank you. Thank you. Go ahead. So that's transportation. Thank you. All right. Now we're moving on to 25 years of service. We're going to go back to aviation. And let's ask Aida Ortiz to join us. 25 years. I'm going to do her first and then we're going to get her. All right. Come on, aviation. Right in here. Right in here. Yep. Yep. Of course. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Of course. All right. We're going to go to finance and administrative services. Terry Rogers, 25 years. Wow. Congrats. Thank you.

Thank you. Nice. Congrats. Thank you.

All right. Come on in, Faye.

Oh.

Thank you. Get a hat in the back. Hold on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Turn on the camera. Oh, no. Come on. Oh, you got a beautiful camera. Hold on. Wait.

Wait.

Wait. We got somebody's sticking in. Is there you good? So I think they just upped the game. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm thinking we may need to do some additional security screening here. So FASD, let's stay with FASD. Let's get Felicia Holcomb, 25 years of service. All right, Felicia, let's get in the middle a little more by the mayor. Right down here, right? There we go. Now we're going to go over to the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau. Let's give a warm welcome for 25 years of service to Kristen Norona. Oh, we've got another person. Oh, we've got another two people. Oh, we've got more people. Oh, boy. Come on. Let's do it. Yay. Come on in. Come on in. Here we go. We've got it. Oh, boy. Here we go. We've got more people. Oh, right there. All right. Come on in.

Ready?

Go for it right here. All right. Three, two, one. All right. Thanks, all right. Thank you. That's a lot of days. Now we're going to go over to the libraries. 25 years of service. This gentleman, you've seen his work on social media and our marketing at the libraries, Mr. Stephen Grubb. We're going to stay with libraries. 25 years of service for Tara Zimmerman. Now we're going to switch over to Parks and Recreation. Melanie Comparato. 25 years of service. Come on down. Come on down. Come on down. We have too many. Let's go in the back. Come on. Let's get to the picture back there. Back it is. Thank you. Good going, guys. How are you? Good. Good to see you. Hey, guys. How are you? Good? You doing well? I'm coming over. I'm going. Okay. Ready? We'll be just right now. All right. Okay. Ready? Thank you. Let's switch over to Port Everglades. 25 years of service. Alex Williams. Got some folks here who want to take this side off. With you? Come on in. Let's switch over to Public Works and Environmental Services. 25 years of service. Sean McCall. Congratulations. Thank you, sir. Hey, congrats. Let's take a photo over here.

Let's take a photo over here.

Let's go. Let's take a photo over here. Let's take a photo over here. Let's take a photo over here.

Let's go. Let's go.

That's all right. That's all right.

All good. Here we go. Hold on. You got a whole group.

Oh, come on. You want a bit? That's fine. Good morning, guys.

Oh.

Let's go real quick.

Let's go real quick.

You got it? You got it? You got it? You got it? Yes, I'm good. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations. From Public Works and Environmental Services, Susan Gafoud. Thank you for your service. All right, transportation, 25 years of service. This will be the last 25 years for this morning. Carla Wells. Come on. Come on. Congratulations. Come on, Terry. Ms. Clark. How are you doing? Good to see you. Good morning. How are you? Good to see you. Good to see you. Carla, I've got your certificate. Let me have three. The whole crew is here. Come on. You call on, Neil. Get them on your side. Right. Come on. Get them on your side. I just want to know. Okay. All right. Now we're switching gears to 30 years of service. Aviation Department, Mark Ebersole Moore. Please join us. It's a job, I guess. It's a job, I guess, to keep you busy. Hey, thank you. I appreciate you. Thank you. There you go. All right. Thank you. You know, I thought you were going to leave. No. She doesn't let me. Oh, you want your mom? Come on.

Come on. Come on. Take off your dessert. Oh. There we go. You can hold the certificate. There you go. There you go. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for coming, Alex. Thank you very much. All right.

All right. Another very important person in our organization who taught me a lot of things when I was early on here in Broward County in HR and in training. Let's ask Ruth Miles to come join us. Hello, Dean. Let's go. Yep. And daughter. Come on. Those are for you, Ruth. Thank you. Hurry up. Come on in, Fuzzy. How are you? Good morning. Good morning. Come on. Come on. You guys come over here. Brad. Come over here. Brad. You want to come over here? There we go. Good morning, Brad. Good morning. Thank you.

Thank you.

So this next individual, also, you will see him riding all over the town and the county trying to deliver many things for CVB. His name here says Francisco, but we know him as Frank Patton. Join us. The CVB in the back. Get in the back. Let's go. Thank you. Take a picture with the person right back here. Yes. CVB. Ready? Thank you, my chance. Also, one more real quick. One more real quick. One more real quick. Sorry. No, it's all good. It's all good. All right. Three, two, and one. One more time. Three, two, and one. Perfect. Thank you. Share it with them. We will share the photos. Thank you. All right. Parks and Recreation. Francis Bowen. 30 years of service. Parks. True. Good. Good to see you. Can you hear you? Yeah, right? Everyone has this. It's better on his back. Yeah. Yeah. Congrats. Thank you. All right. Please go around the dais. All right. Okay. So, Public Works. Let's switch over to Public Works and Environmental Services. Christy Cave. 30 years of service.

Congrats.

Thank you. Come on in. You want to do a big picture? Come on in, guys. Let's do it. Posse's coming. Hey, Christy. Hey, honey. Thank you, Pete. You guys want to come over here as well? Can we get them?

Here we go.

No, no. It's all good. Here we go. Thanks, Michael. Come in. Come in. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. Go around the dais. Absolutely. 30 years of service. Continuing. Let us switch to what we'll say with Public Works and Environmental Services. Tiffany Batten. Oh, the mayor's here. Congrats. Congrats. Quick, but I'll switch on this side. Okay. Who wants us to? There you go. Thank you. Congratulations. Please go around the dais. Thank you. All right. We have another very special one here. I want to hear it from everybody. A nice warm welcome and a congratulations and a thank you for your tireless service. Miss Daphne Sewell. 30 years of service. Can we ask, can we take a picture of the commission? Come on. Let's go in the back. Or come on down. Or either way. Go there. There we go. Thank you. And so everybody that works for Broward County knows who Daphne is. But those of our guests that are here, Daphne is, among many things, the lady that keeps me straight and in line and all my meetings perfect. And thank you. Otherwise, we'd have a little bit of a mess around here. So thank you, Daphne. We have a bomb. Okay. Thank you. All right, guys. I see you guys come back. I'm the admin. Come on, it's me. I'm the admin. Back up a little bit. I can get all of you. Well, we'll have to photograph you. Back up a little bit, guys, so I can see all of you.

If we can have shorter people to the front.

I can't see you. There's someone short in the back. Yeah, yeah. You can go in the front. Yeah, come to the front. Yeah. There we go. All right. Perfect. Good. Ready? One, two. Thank you so much. Over here. Over. It's a bit. It's a bit of a story.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Thanks for your indulgence there. And Daphne, just don't be mad at me later. Thank you. I know. First thing she said to me was, I'll get you later. Okay. So, she does not like this, but we owe her gratitude. All right. Now, we're switching gears to 35 years of service. I'll go back to them. 35 years of service from Human Services, Mary Reiner. Look, we got human. I think we may need to go to the back. Let's go to the back. Let's take it. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Come on. All right. All right. All right. Ready? Thank you much. Thank you. All right. All right. We got two more to go. We're going to go to libraries and ask Neil Iskowitz to please join us. 35 years of service. For a photo. Switch closer. There we go. Switch closer. Okay. So, now we have to do a little switcheroo. We're going to go back to 25 years of service. One second. We're going to go back to 25 years of service, and I'm going to ask a camera switcheroo, because we're going to congratulate and give a warm welcome to our very own photographer, Max Desdunes. Excuse me, guys.

This is my first working out of class.

Oh, okay.

Got a backup.

Thank God. Max, right here. Thank you. Hold on. We got transportation. Just in case, right? I appreciate the confidence. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Please go around the days. Thank you all, and thank you, Commission, for your support of our employees. Thank you. Oh, wait. My, um, go get my bag.

Uh-oh. Maybe we can go in the front?

Maybe we can go in the front. I think we can still have one in space in the background.

Yeah, you go in the front. I think you can slide. I can be on my shirt. Yes, sir.

Okay, we ready to start, guys? Vice Mayor, ready to go?

Yes, sir.

Where's my Vice Mayor? Hey, Vice Mayor, he's lost. Okay. You ready? Okay, we're going to have a short presentation. I'd like to call up to the podium Richard Walter. He is the Florida Inland Navigation District Commissioner, amongst other things. A lot of different professional things, but that's why you're here today, and take it away. Richard.

Thank you, Mayor. I want to thank Vice Mayor, the Commissioners, your amazing County Administrator, Monica. I appreciate being here. Thank you to everybody here, all the constituents, and I want to really thank my amazing wife, Brooke, for being here. Without her, I wouldn't be able to do what I do every day. I'm here, actually, to talk about a new aquarium at the International Swimming Hall of Fame Peninsula that's going to be ready by about the end of 2028. It's going to be amazing. So, this is basically some of the slides that we're going to talk about are what is going to be put together for the aquarium. This is going to be called, we're working with the City of Fort Lauderdale, the Water District, everything water. So, not only do we have the flack pools, but we're going to have the dive show with Red Bull, and we're going to have this amazing aquarium. But it's going to be a dual attraction with the International Swimming Hall of Fame Museum. We're also going to have another really nice project. It's called one of the other attractions. It's called Frameless out of London, which is an immersive experience. But this, as you can see on the screen, is what our vision for what it's going to look like with LED different graphics. This is going to be part, this next picture. We're going to have a promenade, which is going to go up from Seabreeze Boulevard all the way up and into the aquarium. And this is an elevator that you see where the statue on top, that's going to take you down from the elevated promenade to Seabreeze Boulevard. Currently, we've just built for the lifeguards on Fort Lauderdale Beach a new Ocean Rescue Building. And we're going to have a new East Building. And there's going to be also on the intercoastal waterway is where the aquarium is going to be. It's a 200,000 square foot building. It's going to have parking in it, two parking levels. It's also going to have a 30,000 square foot event center and an amazing restaurant on the roof on the sixth floor overlooking the intercoastal. Here's your site under construction just behind the pools on the intercoastal. We're also going to be building a large dock in the back for the water taxi to come, which we estimate around 350,000 people will be bringing to the aquarium through the water taxi. This is the vision of the water district. You can see the elevated promenade coming up from Seabreeze Boulevard, and it's going to be full of different vendors and a lot of different attraction-themed items and sculptures for artists along the promenade before you get to the new aquarium. We just installed a new seawall all along the entire peninsula. Here is their vision of the new aquarium right there. So if you envision a super yacht, we want it to look something that's going to look really cool, really modern, and really exciting. Here's your entranceway, parking. This is your promenade in tan. And here's another great picture of the promenade where people are going to be able to walk and see different sculptures. And here is another view. So there will be food vendors and merchandise vendors. And what's going to be nice about this promenade is it will take you from the beach up and into the aquarium, but it will also take you down to the docks. So during boat show, this is going to be a great promenade for people to get back and forth from the beach and then to the water. And then we're going to have covered grandstands. Currently, there's grandstands there, but they're not covered from the sun. This is a view, a 3-D view of what the aquarium is going to look like. It's going to be over 100,000 gallons of water. And what's great about this aquarium, this is about oceanic conservation. We're not going to have any mammals. There's no whales. There's no dolphins. There's no manatees. There's over 300 species of sea life, and I don't know if anybody knows, but 200 feet off of Fort Lauderdale Beach is one of the largest reefs in the world. So if you go out there with a snorkel or a mask, you'll see sea life like you would on the Great Barrier Reef. It's amazing. So we want to teach kids and the next generation about oceanic conservation. We've also teamed up with Guy Harvey. He's going to be doing the murals, and we're going to have all kinds of an education foundation. We have an educational 4-D theater that we're going to have for the kids. We've teamed up with Pixar Films. We're going to have a lifeguard and a Navy SEAL of how they grow up and become into their professions. We're also going to have FWC, Fish and Wildlife Commission. Their officers are going to come and teach kids about oceanic conservation. The undergraduates from FIU, FAU, and NSU in their oceanographic center are going to teach kids about oceanic conservation. The coral, sharks, turtles, a lot of different programs. Not only are we going to have breeding of coral and other species, we're going to be putting it back into the oceans. We're also teaming up with four oceans for beach cleanups, ocean cleanups. This is really about helping the next generation learn about oceanic conservation. This is about our constituents of Broward County, all about families, kids. There's three initiatives that I'm going to be working on. One is special needs. We're going to give special needs individuals that age out of all state and federal programs jobs. We're going to have over 1,400 jobs. But we want to have a large percentage of people, individuals that are special needs, be able to have jobs at the aquarium. We also want to give back. If you're a service-disabled veteran or a service-disabled first responder, you and your family are going to be able to come to the aquarium for free. Same with the special needs families. So we want to be able to give back and give those opportunities to the individuals that mean a lot to us. So if you look here on the top right-hand corner, this is the beachfront entrance to the aquarium. There's going to be a sand dune walkway. There's going to be an area where you're going to wade into the shallows of the reef. And then there's a shallow reef touch pools for the kids. There's going to be an ocean tunnel, mid-reef shipwrecks. There's going to be a shipwreck for kids to play in. Mysteries of the Deep Reef, a research station finale. And the kids are going to be able to not only go to that, but there's going to be a joint attraction to where you're going to be able to go into the International Swimming Hall of Fame Museum. So this is some of the pictures of that. Here's our Eichhoff Experience Museum. Kids will be able to go up on podiums, put on a gold medal, and look at Michael Phelps and some of their heroes to envision what their life can be if they want to do that in the future. This is our frameless exhibition. This is the immersive experience where you're going to have artists from all over the world. You're going to be able to see paintings from Van Gogh, another amazing artist up on the wall. And it's going to be able to be an immersive experience where, as you're walking, things are moving, and you have to experience it, but it's going to be amazing. We can do corporate events there, weddings. It's going to be fantastic. This is a project that I'm interested in doing with Broward County, also with NSU and Guy Harvey. This is a turtle discovery center on Fort Lauderdale Beach to where families can come and learn about sea turtles and how they evolve and how they nest. So this is something that I think is a very important thing that we look to do in the future. We also have a 30,000-square-foot event center, people that want to have weddings or any type of neat events. They can do that overlooking the intercoastal. We're also going to have a great, amazing Japanese restaurant on the sixth floor. We're also looking at creating a FLAC, the training pools for all the athletes, and housing them in Broward County. Economic and physical impact currently under construction. During construction, the economic output is going to be about $343.5 million. We're going to be supporting around 1,700 jobs and $135.5 million in worker earnings during this time under construction. Every year after opening, reoccurring, it's going to be around $278 million of economic output, 1,429 permanent jobs, $115.8 million in annual earnings. Approximately 1,250 of the construction jobs and 1,207 of the permanent jobs sit inside the city of Fort Lauderdale and the balance fall within Broward County. Port Everglades does around 4.77 million cruise guests in 2025 and is the third busiest cruise home port in the world. Greater Fort Lauderdale had 20.9 million visitors in 2025 and the county collected $124 million in tourist development tax dollars in 2026. We're estimating over a 30-year period, Broward County schools will generate around $31 million or a couple million dollars a year. Broward County Adverlarum, $29 million. Broward County local options tax, $14.8 million. Broward Health, $8.4 million. So around $83 million back to Broward County taxing over the 30 years. Also generating $89 million in the state of Florida sales tax, $109 million in tax-exempt property put on the tax roll, and $21.7 million in Adverlarum for the city. So over a buildup over time, you're going from a couple million dollars up to maybe around $5 million per year out of this project. Port Everglades, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood International Airport, and the Broward County Convention Center are very important, and we'd love to be able to be a part of that and be able to promote at a point when we're ready to be able to put a life-size aquarium model, digital LEDs to be able to promote this project. And we're a 501c3 nonprofit. So we want this to be a real part of Broward County, the important constituents of our county, but not only that but tourists that can come from around the world to be able to see that and spend their money here in Broward County.

You all set, Richard? Thank you very much. So before you go, any questions? Yes, Commissioner.

Thank you, Mayor. Mr. Wallsler, I just want to thank you. I mean, this has been your baby from the very beginning, and it would not, it would not be here today without you. I know you have a lot of people that work on it, a lot of folks and staff, but this would not occur without you. So thank you for what you're doing here. And the expansion, the education that you just told us, from dollars to economic development to what it's going to be today. So hats off, brother. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.

That's for it. Anybody else? Since nobody else, since Richard, Richard, since no one's brought this up so they can't ask you for this, you said there's a statue, and I think the mayor who's at the time you're doing this, you should remember who that mayor is. I'm joking. Anyway, thank you, Richard. We've already made the bronze statue of you.

Mr. Mayor, I thought you wanted an arch.

Really, in all seriousness, what a great project, and I hope our commission will continue supporting you, and it sounds like a great project.

Well, I can't thank you enough, and thank you to Monica, our county administrator, for all her help, and Lamar and all his support, and also I've worked with Dan West quite a bit as being an intracoastal commissioner. He's amazing, and I've brought over $15 million in grants that I've fought for Broward County out of Tallahassee to bring to our constituency.

Great mooring project in Hollywood. Thank you.

Absolutely.

When do you see a date of completion?

Towards the end of 24th quarter at 28th.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Thank you. All right. Thank you. Have a great day. Thank you, everyone.

All right. We're going to start by reading the Tuesday morning memo. Would the reading clerk please read the memo?

Broward County Board of County Commissioners, September 22nd, 2026, Tuesday Agenda Memorandum. The following are submitted for your consideration. Consent items are 1 through 33. Public hearing items are 34 to 44. Regular items are 45 to 69. I request the following withdrawals and other modifications to the agenda and note the following additional information. Please note, directly following employee recognition, there will be a presentation on the Water District project. Withdrawals, none. Other modifications, Item 9, signature pages have been received. Item 14, the board's consideration is based upon the item as supplemented by Exhibit 4, distributed as additional material 14A, submitted by Human Services Department. Item 34, the board's consideration is based on the item as amended by additional material 34A, including the amended motion statement submitted by the Transportation Department. Item 42, the board's consideration is based on the item as modified by additional material 42A, submitted by the County Attorney's Office. Item 43, the board's consideration is based on the item as modified by additional material 43A, submitted by the item sponsor, Mayor Mark D. Bogan. Item 46, the board's consideration is based upon the item as modified by Substitute Exhibit 1, distributed as additional material 46A, submitted by the Aviation Department. Item 54, the board's consideration is based upon the Substitute Agenda Item, including the proposed resolution, shown as additional material 54C, submitted by the Public Works Environmental Services Department. Item 55, the board's consideration is based upon the Substitute Agenda Item, including the proposed resolution, shown as additional material 55A, submitted by the Public Works Environmental Services Department. Item 57, Commissioner Lamar P. Fisher requests to be the sponsor for this item. Scrivener's errors, items 12 and 62, the board's consideration of these items is based upon the items with the corrections shown on the attached page, attachment A, of Scrivener's errors. Move to consent. Item 61, 65, and 69, be moved to consent. Additional material, regular meeting. Items 1B through 1D, board appointments. Items 6A, Exhibit 1, on airport land lease, submitted by Aviation Department. Item 14A, Exhibit 4, submitted by Human Services Department. Item 46A, Exhibit 1, amendment to signatory TBLA with JetBlue Terminal 5, submitted by Aviation Department. Item 54A, substitute agenda items submitted by Public Works Environmental Services Department. Item 54B, replacement agenda and resolution submitted by Public Works Environmental Services Department. Item 54C, replacement agenda and resolution submitted by Public Works Environmental Services Department. Item 55A, substitute agenda items submitted by Public Works Environmental Services Department. Item 55B, emails and letters regarding filthy organics submitted by county administration. Item 57A, letter to the board submitted by Commissioner Lamar P. Fisher. Additional material public hearing. Item 34A, amended motion statement submitted by Transportation Department. Item 42A, amended ordinance submitted by Office of the County Attorney. Item 43A, amended resolution submitted by Mayor Mark D. Bogan.

Okay. Let's go around the day as to see about any polls. Starting with Commissioner Rogers. Senator Gellar?

No polls, but I will be asking for a deferral on 53. Senator?

69. Okay. How about from the public?

We have polls for 7, 11, 12, and 24. 7, 11, 12, and 24. Okay. Go to our county attorney and see if you would formulate that motion.

So the consent agenda are items 1 through 33, minus items 7, 11, 12, 24, and adding items 61 and 65.

Mr. Mayor, a move of approval of the consent agenda as read by the county attorney. Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Joe, that passing 9-0. Let's go to Commissioner Rich first on 69.

Thank you. This is kind of a simple thing. This came out last night, and I didn't have a chance to discuss this with anybody because of the holiday. So I just wanted to ensure that this item is specifically and only dealing with maintenance and repair required to ensure the continuity of operations and that it has nothing to do with changing the use of the stockade.

That is correct. Item 69 is strictly in an abundance of caution for the county to take over the maintenance for those five jail facilities as they're currently used.

Okay.

Sure. With that being the case, is that then spelled out in the sheriff's budget that we have, too, because isn't there dollars in there for the county maintenance? How does that reconcile?

So in the budget that we'll be discussing later this evening, there are 34 positions in BSO's budget that are associated with the facility maintenance portion of these facilities. Those positions and the dollars for those positions remain in BSO's budget. We have asked them to work with us on a smooth transition for the maintenance of those facilities. It is our intent that after six months, this item is asking for authorization for six months for me to take the necessary actions. We will come back and give a report to the board as well as to outline every action that I and my team have taken related to contracts and things of that nature for this. At that point, I think it would be appropriate to have the conversation with the board about any potential adjustments in the budgets related to those positions and maybe moving positions, I think, at that point. Thank you. Just to follow up there, this was requested by BSO? Yes, Commissioner, in June, BSO sent us communication with their intent to transition several functions back to over to the county. This is one of those activities. They are outlined in the body, but for the public's benefit, since this did come out yesterday, I will at least share real quickly what they are. There was, for inmate care, for the well-passed contract for health care provision at the detention facilities, that is coming back over to the county for the county to work with both BSO and Broward Health for that activity, the financing of that for billing related for medical services. There's also the actual facilities maintenance that I just described. So that's got two components. It's got contractual components that, because we could not really determine the mechanism by which the contracts that BSO currently has, how they were procured, and since they were not, we could not verify that they were not procured in a fashion that would follow our procurement rules, our purchasing department is not recommending that we assume any of those contracts. So that's why I need this particular authorization, so that we can actually do what we need to to make sure that those facilities are in line and working functionally. At the same time, we're going to begin our procurement process for those services that are needed. And we also had utilities that I believe that we had disclosed that we knew that that portion we were going to take on in the budget. Those dollars, Commissioner Hedin, to your point on your question, the dollars associated with utility bills, that is on the county side. That is not in the BSO side, but that's more of a billing mechanism portion, and so that does appropriately sit on our side of the ledger for that. And I'm going to ask Isumi Ayala-Koyaso. Did I miss any other points? Okay, that's it.

I want a clarification. So the 30, I think?

34.

34. We're trying to incorporate them or bring them over, if we can, with this transition.

So at this point, no, but our hope would be that those individuals, after the transition, we will have a smooth transition, because going from one day to the next, with a light switch, you know, with facilities, those facilities, as I understand, obviously are very unique, and those individuals have been working in those spaces. So over time, we would like them to, that would be our intent.

Yeah, I would like to see that. Yes, thank you.

Yes, sir.

Okay, anything else? Yes, Commissioner.

Thank you. Just for the clarification, is there a list of items that the Sheriff's Office have asked us to take back, that they want to give back to the county? And can you further explain how does that work with the contract we currently have? How does it work?

The county can say, we're taking this back, and the sheriff can say, I'm giving this back. I don't know what the contract, I don't know, I've never read it, but I've had it explained in different times. I'm curious as to how this works.

So it's a great question.

So under a perfect circumstance, there would have been an MOU memorandum of understanding that the sheriff and the county would have been entered into to provide those facility maintenance services. That has not been the case. It has just been done by the sheriff's office and funded by the county in their budget. So it was really just by a letter that we received in June that the sheriff kind of just stated that to the county that it was their intent to just transfer all those activities over to us.

There wasn't a lot of discussion. It was the first time we had heard of it that I'm aware of was during that letter and some unofficial conversations, I think, between Michael and Colonel Yorana at the time. So at that point, we began those negotiations, if you will, or discussions so that we could appropriately be prepared for that transition. This particular item related to the facilities maintenance of those jail and detention facilities is one that was a lot greater involvement and necessary for conversation because it's a lot more complex than just paying a utility bill. So those facility maintenance is something that we have requested that takes a little bit longer of a transition so that we can appropriately be prepared and provide the services needed in those facilities.

Okay, one other comment, Mr. Mayor. I believe whenever these things happen, it's an opportunity to look at our overall contracts to make sure that we are covering ourselves. When do you modify or renew these contracts? It's just forever that you have a contract like with the sheriff. What is it? What do you do? You go into a contract 20 years ago and it's just there until someone disagrees and then here we go?

So you actually have an item later this morning for another contractual relationship we have with BSO and that would be fire rescue later in the agenda. So periodically, obviously, the contracts that we have with BSO for some of the services, they have different terms. They're all different agreements. Obviously, you guys have all discussed different ones, including the airport and the seaport law and fire provision of service. You have 911 that the sheriff also provides on behalf of the county for the call taking and dispatch. That one, unfortunately, we don't have an active agreement. That one, we are operating under a term sheet and we have attempted at times to try to codify that into an agreement unsuccessfully. And so they all just have different terms. And so at the time that they are being discussed and evaluated with the sheriff's office, that is when we would bring an item to the board.

Just want to thank Senator Nan Rich for pulling this item. Parification. Thank you very much.

And if I might add, you all have on this agenda as well, I believe it was transferred to consents, it was adopted, it was a calendar update, and we will have a board discussion, a workshop on Broward Sheriff's Office next Tuesday, the 29th, in room 430. So I believe that this and as well as the other issues that are outstanding with BSO would be the appropriate time to discuss that as well.

The only item that will be impacting our budget for this year, the 2026-27 budget, is that the only item from the sheriff that will be impacting our budget?

I would not feel comfortable saying that it would be the only item. Obviously, there are things that come up throughout the year and throughout as well. I do understand that there is another conversation that we will be bringing to you next Tuesday that is related to 9-1-1 and salaries and some things that we were made aware of recently. But I'm not prepared at this moment to disclose it because I just don't have all of the information in my hands at this moment. But we will be prepared to share that with you all on Tuesday. Yes, ma'am.

Yes, go ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Parrot, and feel free to speak with Mr. Ruiz if there's any questions there. On this item that Senator Rich has pulled, I want to just verify, was this an interim operating agreement that the sheriff had the ability to terminate at any given time? Or did he just terminate an existing agreement without following the terms for termination?

So, it is my understanding, and I'll look to our county attorney and my team here. It is my understanding there was no existing agreement for the provision of that facility maintenance activity at the detention facilities. It was just something that the sheriff, it was done many years ago that they had just undertaken that responsibility. We have funded it in their budget, and by means of the letter that we received, the communication that we received, we were notified that it was their intent to no longer carry out that responsibility.

Okay, and we were funding, and we were funding this before, and we were funding this, we will be funding this now, or the sheriff had been funding this before?

So, well, you, by means of the county commission funding BSO, all the funding comes from, obviously, from the county. However, the funding for that responsibility does lie in the sheriff's budget.

Okay, and the sheriff has asked for, I think, $74 million, $740 million, $8 billion, something?

$73 million plus benefits.

Okay, and my question is, if we were, if the sheriff had been funding this, and the county will be funding this now, does the $73 million plus what the county will now be funding, or minus what the county will now be funding for maintenance?

Mr. Ruiz, if you'd like to join.

I told you.

Go to the podium.

Good morning, everyone. Michael Ruiz, this is the county administrator. So, from a maintenance dollar standpoint, it should be a net zero wash. It's just a matter of whether it sits on their side or our side. This will be a transition year.

I'm just trying to figure out, Mr. Ruiz, whether or not he's asking for $74 million plus the fact that he's no, we will be funding instead of he will be funding the maintenance, or if it's $74 million, but that's inclusive of, inclusive or non-inclusive of the dollars. Do you understand what I'm saying? If it's $74 million and he is no longer responsible for the maintenance there, then he's actually asking for substantially more than $74 million additional dollars.

So, to be fair to the sheriff's office, the $73 million that are in question that are related to the appeal process is strictly on the salary side, right? So, to the extent that we potentially transition those 34 individuals back over to us, they will be sitting on our books, but it really doesn't change the appeal number in and of itself.

I'm not talking about the appeal, I'm talking about his request for our next year, the budget we'll be voting on tonight.

So, it's in addition, then, to answer your question.

So, all right. So, he's asking for the additional $74 million plus the amount that he gets from no longer having to be responsible for maintaining that. That's correct. How many millions of dollars is that?

So, I was, okay.

And that was my last question.

I've got it here. So, that's all, it's just getting confirmation. So, we have $8.4 million that we did move to our side of the ledger for some of these activities, including the utility bills and all of that, that I had shared with you guys through the budget process, and some of the facilities' maintenance needs that we knew would probably be coming over. So, we put $8.4. There is still $8.5 million that is sitting on the BSO side of the ledger for these related activities. $4.9 million is associated with the 34 positions that I just shared. And then there's another $3.6 million that is related to operating expenses. That would be those contractual things that this agenda item would need, that I would need that authorization, that I'm looking for authorization to make sure that we continue to be able to meet the needs of the detention facility. So, to answer your question, there's about $8.5 million more that sits on the sheriff's side of the ledger that we are going to be working, hopefully, smoothly with the sheriff to be able to transition that activity fully over to our side.

So, the answer to my question is, instead of $74 million, he's actually asking for $82 million in new dollars. The answer is yes.

These dollars will eventually be coming back over to the county, but in order to make sure we could do it smoothly, I wanted to leave them, my recommendation to you all was to leave those dollars in the BSO side. So, beginning October 1st, there wasn't an immediate switch over and we wouldn't be prepared to provide the facility's maintenance.

Thank you. Okay. We're at 69. Do I have a motion? I have a second. Second. I have a motion. Second. And 69. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? I show that passing unanimously. And before we take the public, I want to go to number 53, we're going to get a deferral from Beam Fur.

Thank you. Thank you, mayor. This is an item that was continued before. It needs to be continued again. And I'm going to ask for a continuance and then for an indefinite deferral. Two things are happening. One, a case was filed in late June from Keep Lands Public Incorporated and Kathleen DeBono versus the City of Hollywood challenges the development on four grounds. One, violation of deed restriction. Two, violation of city charter and city code of ordinances. Three, violation of public-private statute. And four, violation of development agreement statute. This case is still in the pleading stage with a motion to file second amended complaint scheduled to be heard today. If the plaintiffs are successful in this case, it would make the appeal of the Planning Council's decision moot. Also, the city is scheduled to consider the live local project for the property on October 7th, the day after item 53 would be set for a public hearing. So the county commission's next meeting dates are after that. I think those things need to settle so that there's a clear path of which way to go. And before I go any further, I do want to acknowledge the new city manager for Hollywood, Raelynn Story. I had the pleasure of working with her for many, many, many years. And I know she's trying to pull a lot of this stuff together. And I think right now this just needs to be deferred indefinitely until those things are put into place.

Could we just open the item, and I believe that there may be a speaker signed up to speak on it, and then you can make the motion.

Okay. We're going to open item number 53. Do we have a speaker?

One member of the public has signed up to speak, and that is Catherine Uden. I'm going to read the item. Catherine, he's going to defer. Do you want to speak?

He's going to defer it.

Item 53 is a motion to adopt resolution directing the county administrator to publish notice of public hearing to be held on October 6th at 10 a.m. to approve or approve with modifications the Broward County Land Use Plan formal interpretation of the Broward County Planning Council related to 1301 South Ocean Drive in the City of Hollywood.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. So I'm making the motion to defer this indefinitely until those cases are.

I have a motion to defer item 53. I have a second. Second. All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Show that item 53 is deferred indefinitely.

And just to be clear that it's deferred until those cases that the commissioners were referred to are resolved. So it's not indefinitely. It's just until those things are resolved.

Okay. Let's go to the public polls. Number seven.

Item seven is a motion to approve memorandum of agreement between Department of the Army and Broward County, Florida, and substantially the form of Exhibit 1 for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to perform maintenance, dredging, and compliance monitoring at various births in Port Everglades. Two members of the public have signed up to speak on the item. The first member of the public is Aranza Caudillo, followed by Jessica Ganim.

Who's the first name?

Aranza Caudillo.

Is Aranza in here? Thank you. Sure. Absolutely.

Jessica Ganim.

Just state your name, please.

Sure. Good morning, commissioners. My name is Jessica Ganim, and I am the environmental policy specialist with Miami Waterkeeper. I'm here to speak on item number seven regarding the memorandum of agreement between the Department of the Army and Broward County to perform maintenance dredging at various births in Port Everglades. In my role at Miami Waterkeeper, I have been closely following the impacts of dredging on South Florida's natural resources and coral reef, and specifically the developments of the proposed Port Everglades expansion in the ongoing sand bypass project. I'm here today because the commission must act now before this and other dredging projects proceed. The deficiencies and impacts observed during the initial phase of the sand bypass project are a clear warning that stronger environmental safeguards and mitigation measures are needed to protect our natural resources during future dredging operations. We have an opportunity to address these shortcomings, and what we do now sets the precedent for every project that follows. Our reefs act as natural breakwaters protecting Broward's coastline from storm surges and flooding. Port Everglades is special because it's located next to some of the last remaining wild staghorn corals in Florida, which were declared functionally extinct across the state in the fall, and a breeding aggregation of threatened queen conch. Satellite images during the initial project construction show larger-than-predicted sediment plumes traveling over these healthy populations. When corals are buried in sediment, they suffocate, and they can't recover from repeated prolonged exposure. The National Marine Fisheries Service sent a letter to the Army Corps in April while dredging was ongoing for the sand bypass, recommending they reconsider re-initiating Endangered Species Act consultation and redoing environmental assessments for the projects due to evidence of greater-than-predicted sediment impacts and the use of sediment overflow during dredging. The Corps did not re-initiate, and dredging carried on. A few months later in August, the Corps decided to halt all dredging activity and redo the assessments for the sand bypass project after acknowledging it may have exceeded limits for incidental take, meaning harms or deaths of threatened staghorn coral, and after Miami Waterkeeper and our partners a few days prior had sued the federal agencies for violations of the Endangered Species Act while permitting the project. This followed after multiple failed attempts to improve project methodology, minimization, and mitigation to the reef during conversations with the county. The speed with which the Corps capitulated after we filed this legal action proves that the alarm bells we've been ringing for months are justified and deserving of county attention and action now and during future maintenance dredging operations at the port. We're asking you to take a hard look at the history and demand that these projects going forward be done in a manner that doesn't sacrifice the ecosystems that make Broward Broward, and this is not a matter of an environmental issue versus an economic issue because healthy natural structure is the economic issue. They protect property, attract tourism, and prevent erosion. Degrading them is a fiscal risk. Please consider this during future maintenance dredging. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, may you just state your name, please.

Hello, Commissioners. I am Aranza Caudillo-Alvarez.

Time clock, please.

And I am the Community Organizing Fellow at Miami Waterkeeper. I am here to speak on item number seven regarding the memorandum of agreement between the Department of the Army and Broward County to perform maintenance dredging at various birds in Port Everglades. As stated in this memorandum, additional dredging should not begin until all applicable environmental laws and regulations have been complied with. I am here to draw attention to actions previously taken during the sand bypass project near Port Everglades and how improving environmental safeguards during current dredging projects can prevent environmental catastrophe during future dredging. The deficiencies and impacts observed during the initial phase of the sand bypass project show that we need stronger safeguards and mitigation measures to protect our marine resources during future dredging operations at Port Everglades. We saw deficiencies in project planning when Port Miami was deep dredged over a decade ago, which caused damages to hundreds of acres of reef and killed over half a million fish and corals. After that disaster, agencies promised to do better, and they have not. The same modeling failures and monitoring gaps that enable the catastrophe are present right here in Broward County during the sand bypass project. If we do not course correct, we continue to place our natural infrastructure and resources at risk. These deficiencies include underestimations of sediment plumes, extent at the surface and sedimentation on the seafloor, insufficient coral mitigation, and monitoring that fails to capture the full scope of the project and impact. Commissioners, we are asking for specific achievable measures which can be implemented during the sand bypass project and set an example for improving project methodology, mitigation, and minimization of impacts during any future dredging projects at the port. These include access to real-time, public, continuous water quality and biological monitoring data in a format that can be independently analyzed, adequate coral mitigation located outside of current and future dredging impact zones at risk of sediment re-exposure, regular during construction monitoring of threatened staccum corals and queen conch populations that captures the full scope of the impact, elimination of sediment overflows, third-party oversight and turbidity monitoring to ensure accuracy, and use of satellite imagery to detect the extent of sediment plumes and determine the frequency of plumes extending beyond the permitted mixing zone. We are here because we all share the same goal. We want to enjoy Broward County's waters, recreate our reefs, and pass them on to our kids. We believe we can get there together, and we are ready to work with you to make that happen. What happens now sets the precedent for any future dredging. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other speakers on number seven? Bringing back to the desk. Any other comments? I have a motion to move it.

I just have a comment, too.

Senator.

Yeah, I just wondered.

And that will go Commissioner Davis.

Yeah.

I just wondered if Dr. Arato would like to have a comment. I'd like to hear from her.

Yes, Mr. Mayor. Dr. Arato, if you'd like to be able to, would you please come up and say a few words to clarify the record?

Good afternoon. Yeah, almost. Good morning. Still here. Stay in your name, please. Dr. Jennifer Arato. I am the Deputy Director for our Public Works and Environmental Services Department. Thanks for the opportunity to speak on the project that was referenced, and specifically the sand bypass project. I think we've shared a great deal of information with the Board of Commissioners and with county administration throughout this project. As you are probably recalling, we are 94% complete with the dredge activity to create the sand trap for that particular project. We know a lot of questions have been raised. I would remind that we went through probably a decade of environmental permitting just to arrive at the point in which we were unable to undertake the project. We did go through reconsultation for a conch in advance of the project. We'll need already commenced construction. We have worked incredibly closely with the environmental agencies. We know that the Board has been, you know, strong advocates for the environment, and that sentiment has been carried into the practice as this project has been undertaken. We do remain in full compliance with our state and federal permits. We know that questions have been asked, and we're going through the process of working with the environmental and regulatory agencies in responding to those questions. But the fact is, as I would remind, shoreline protection is going to continue to be a very necessary part of how we protect our shoreline, our community, urban community, our infrastructure. And the traditional practice of large-scale dredging and truck haul projects are not only incredibly costly, but they have their own environmental challenges. The county commission and our staff undertook the development of the sand bypass project as a new tool, one that was embraced by the environmental community, because it would allow for more strategic, smaller-scale sand placement projects for decades to come with one necessary critical investment, which is the sand trap itself. Again, it's 94% complete. We have provided on-site monitoring throughout all dredge activities during the daylight. There has been every day turbidity monitoring, every week sediment monitoring, and the reporting and monitoring has remained within compliance with our permits. So, as indicated, while questions have been raised, we are eager to work with the agencies to satisfy those questions. But we remain convinced of the prudence, utility, and practice that has been undertaken to develop this project and its performance for the county moving forward.

Thank you, Dr. Horato. In conclusion, you support number seven.

We do support these activities and the environmental protections we put in place to execute them, yes.

Okay. Commissioner Davis, then.

Thank you. I know you mentioned, Dr. Horato, that you've been working with environmental groups. Does that include water keepers?

I would. So, in the course of the project, we've responded to a number of questions and had an extensive dialogue with water keepers. When we were looking to gain support for the sand bypass project, the project was amended and modified numerous times in response to feedback that had been received from various environmental groups. I don't recall whether or not water keepers was specifically on the record at the time, but we did go through extensive modifications and have been responsive to the questions raised throughout the process, and water keepers have been one of those inquiring parties.

So, the two young ladies, I'd like to thank them for their, you know, presentation and what they spoke about. But there were some questions raised, and there were some solutions suggested. So, have you looked at those, and would you be willing to speak with the young ladies or, you know, be in touch with them as far as their solutions to what they see is a problem that has not been addressed?

One of the questions that has been raised has been access to real-time field monitoring. That isn't even available. The instrumentation isn't in place. It wasn't required for the permit were 94% complete to install equipment like that for the remaining 6% of a project. It wouldn't be prudent in the final stage to completely rework something that isn't a project requirement. Now, with regards to real-time data, we have a QA, QC. We go through a process. If everything that's being collected goes through a process and is reported to the state and federal government, we don't even have real-time data because that's not how it's collected and analyzed. So, we are willing to provide those reports. It's just not real-time data. It isn't feasible given how the field reporting is managed. All right.

So, the bottom line is, you know, if we could just have conversations with them, answer those questions, you know, have a meeting of the mind so they know, well, this can't be done because it's not the first time they've come before us. Thank you. So, I want to make sure that they are heard and the questions are addressed so they understand where we're coming from. And so, hopefully, we can work together. We all want exactly the same things. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Jurada.

Yeah, I just want to thank our staff for, because I've had a chance, and I think a few of us have on regular updates on this. I don't think there's any county in the state of Florida that's going to try to be more responsible. I mean, this is a county that put forth the conservancy and the conservation of the entire coral reef from Martin County down to Dade County. This is the county that wrote that language for that and for the protection of those coral reefs. And I appreciate water keepers. I mean, they've done a good job all throughout, you know, our area of trying to keep alert, people alert to things that are, you know, that need paid attention to. But I do think our staff has been on top of this from the very beginning. And I think they would be the first to, and have, when construction needed to be stopped, they did, if the turbidity was too much. So, I just want to thank them for, it's a tough project. It took 25 years to get it going. We're almost done with it. And I think we're going to, you know, I think they've done a good job and tried to be as responsible as possible. And I just want to thank them for that.

Any others?

Okay, I move Senator Rich, number 7, do I have a second? I have a motion to second, number 7, all in favor? Any opposed? Show number 7 passing unanimously. Now, second public poll is number 11.

Item 11 is a motion to approve 8th Amendment to the agreement with Super Nice STS doing business as Transportation America for the provision of paratransit transportation services. One member of the public has signed up to speak on the item, and that is Aretha Wimberly.

The person's name again is?

Aretha Wimberly.

Aretha, you're here? Okay, I have a motion on 11, a second. I have a motion to second on number 11, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Show number 11 passing.

The next public poll is number 12.

The next public poll is for Aretha Wimberly, though.

Okay, Aretha, here again? Nope. I have a motion and a second on number 12, all in favor? Any opposed? Show that passing number 12 unanimously. Move going to number 24.

Item 24. Public poll, right?

Number 24.

Number 24 is a motion to approve funding agreement between Broward County and CCFTL WFH LLC, providing funding to owner to facilitate the development of a minimum of 330 rental units, including a minimum of 136, 136 income-restricted units in the city of Fort Lauderdale. There is one member of the public sign-up to speak, also Aretha Wimberly.

Aretha, you're here? Seeing not here, I have a motion and a second. All in favor of number 24.

Aye.

Any opposed? Show 24 passing unanimously. There's one more deferral. A deferral would be on number, I'm going to open up the meeting to number 58. That's my item on an ombudsman. I want to defer that until after the November elections. So, can someone make that motion? Move it. Second to defer, number 58.

You could have done it, but you could.

Do I need the motion or vote on that? I have a motion, a second? All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Show 58 being deferred until after the November election. And then we're going to go straight to one number out of order here is number 57. And have Lamar Fisher take it.

You want to read the item or not?

Item 57 is a motion to discuss and provide direction to county administration regarding whether to renew the interlocal agreement between Broward County and the Broward County Sheriff for fire rescue services beyond September 30th, 2028. Two members of the public have signed up to speak on the item. And the first member of the public is Chris Nelson, followed by Dan Hertz.

Is that okay? Yeah, we'll let the public speak first, then I'll introduce the item. Go ahead. Chris Nelson, come on down.

All right. Thank you, Commissioners. Chris Nelson. And I just first want to put this into perspective, okay? We talk a lot about property taxes now and where they're going, but I don't think a lot of people know that the Broward Sheriff's Office, their budget right now is $833 million. That's roughly 54% of the county's total budget. But that's not enough for him. He wants $937.4 million next year, okay? He's getting close to a billion dollars he wants, okay? And while these commissions have come under scrutiny from the state, the sheriff's offices are the ones that take a lot of this money with their big bloated budgets, and they escape scrutiny. But Broward Sheriff has gained the attention and has actually brought in a doge audit on himself. Because what is this money being spent on? Well, an audit showed that Sheriff Tony wanted his $73 million training center. It was originally budgeted at $34 million. It went to $73 million. He needed $7.5 million for wellness amenities, sauna, cold plunge, the full spa experience, added a backdoor change order so his wife could have full access to the facility, okay? This guy, he also has a department Lamborghini, an armored-up Bearcat with armored turret. And I'm not really sure in a representative republic why we need sheriff's vehicles with armored turrets. But he comes to you guys, and then he says, oh, well, if you don't give me what I want, I'll just go to the state. Well, you know what? This time, tell him, go to the state, okay? He wants to go around you. He can do that, okay? So now we come to this, $104,613 spent by the county on a study to see if it would be more efficient to put the airport under a security agency. And subpoenas start flying. Oh, my God. It's like the end of the world. I mean, budget dust here, $104,000. They're trying to intimidate you guys, okay? And I don't like that the state has gotten involved in this because it seems like somebody called in a favor there, and that made big news. They really want to get to the bottom if this $104,000 was spent right. No, guys, don't be intimidated by this. This study was rightfully done, and I look forward to hearing what the results of this study are because if we can do this cheaper and more efficient by divorcing ourselves from the Broward Sheriff's Office and having a private security company take over the airport, we absolutely should do it. Thank you.

Hold it, Chris. Can we hire him to be our spokesperson? Yeah, go ahead. I mean, this guy is great argument, man. Just stick around here the next time he comes. Mr. Mayor, can I make one brief?

Chris, I agree with everything you said except you said the sheriff's budget was whatever it was. That's not the sheriff's budget. That's just what he gets from us. Nobody knows what the sheriff's budget is because it also includes what he gets from the local cities, what he gets from state and federal grants, what he gets from his forfeiture fund. We have no idea what his total budget is, and we have no ability to audit it. And apparently nobody else does either.

We need the state to step in and allow audits of the sheriff's budget. The waste that's being examined by the DOGE audit, it's not coming from DEI programs. It's coming from these sheriff's offices and their massive bloated budgets, and they get afraid that we're going to say, oh, well, this is defunding the police. Well, if taking away Sheriff Tony's cold plunge is defunding the police and going to cause us to have public safety problems, then maybe we do need to do that.

Chris, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Who's next?

The next member of the public sign-up to speak is Dan Hertz.

Dan, are you here?

Okay. Let's go back to Lamar. Thank you, thank you, Mayor. Again, today's item does pertain to the interlocal agreement between the Broward County and the BSO for the delivery of fire rescue services. Under the agreement, Articles 11 and 12, the current five-year term does expire on September the 30th, 2028. The next five-year term would automatically begin October the 1st, 2028 as well, unless either party provides at least one year written notice of its intent not to renew. The agreement does offer other consolation opportunities and rights, but I do feel it's the right time to end the agreement, effective September 30th, 2028. This timeline, again, ensures a smooth transition for this critical service. As I stated on our August the 20th board meeting, the item would come back for us today, so there's ample time for all the parties and the public to study the issue. I trust each commissioner had the opportunity to do their due diligence and have met with the administration to address any questions or concerns they may have. The process, again, can be a relatively smooth transition. We can hear from administration on that, moving all 907 employees already Broward County owning the fire facilities and equipment, and Broward County, of course, will assume admissible contracts, the 9-1-1 communications will be seamless, et cetera. So today's actions, again, will allow Broward County the opportunity to control, to control its own fire department and its costs. I want to thank Commissioner Rogers, City of Lardale Lakes, who came last time to speak on this matter and encouraged us. I want to commend Commissioner, excuse me, Mayor Castilla from Pembrook Pines, who sent communications of their support. And I know that a lot of folks here served at the city level, understand their own fire departments, understand the control of them, understand the community base they are, and we want to get back, in my opinion, to that opportunity. So, once discussion has been made, Mayor, with the board and with any else in the public, I would ask that you come back for me to make a final motion on this item. Thank you. Any comments?

Mr. Commissioner? Thank you.

I can support this. The one thing that I think that does need to be considered is that the benefits package needs to match the other union's benefit package. I think with the one thing that has, in my 12, of the county, in my 12 years here, what I've seen is a very healthy and collegial, as much as it can be, between unions here. You haven't seen a big fight, and I think that's because there's been fairness across the board, that every union is getting the same thing. And I think that needs to be the case with this. Otherwise, you're going to have something sticking out. It's not, you know, one, a different tier. And I think that's, you know, I think if you're working for Broward County, it's, you know, everybody understands what that level playing field is with the benefits package. So, I hope that that is what is in mind for the fire department. Otherwise, I think it's a very good move, and I want to thank you for your work on this.

Anybody else? Yes, quickly. Yes, sir. Just one question. My understanding, Commissioner Fisher, and I agree with what Commissioner Furr said about thanking you for bringing this up. The, um, we have to do this if we're going to make the transition in 2028, but this is not an irrevocable move yet on our side. If four months from now, we determine, after hearing from the firefighters from our cities, et cetera, that we, or we work things out with sheriff or whatever, that this is not an irrevocable move we're taking today. Is that correct?

That is correct.

Thank you.

Okay. Yes, Commissioner Davis.

Thank you. Um, for those, um, in the public who may not have known the history of why, in the first place, this was turned over to the sheriff, could we have a bit of historical, because, um, many folks will probably think that we're taking something that we never had before, or that other counties use their sheriff's office to control the fire department, but it's quite the opposite. So, if you could just briefly go through that for the public.

Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I'd like to ask Mr. Ruiz to, uh, provide some background, and, and in that, um, those statements, if you could also share how other counties around the state are positioned in this area.

Thank you very much. So, I'll start with the second piece. Uh, there are only three counties we're aware of in the state of Florida that have transitioned their, the operation of their fire rescue over to a sheriff. The other two are in the panhandle. I believe it's Walton and Holmes. They're fairly small, one 90,000 total population. The other about 20,000. So, there is no other comparator to Broward County. Um, the transition of the operations of the fire rescue agency occurred back in 2003. So, just to remind you, uh, what was going on at the time, there were still ripple effects from 9-11 from a security standpoint, and Broward County was going through a massive incorporation and annexation effort to essentially incorporate the entire county. That triggered a number of different challenges around that space. And the fire rescue conversation was part of the conversation around incorporation. The sheriff at the time had pitched it. There were a number of task forces that looked into it. And it eventually led to an interlocal agreement with that transfer. Very different times. This has always been Broward County's fire department. It still is Broward County's fire department. It just happens to be currently operated by the sheriff via an interlocal agreement, which is why all it essentially takes is a letter, uh, direction from the board and a letter to the sheriff saying, we're just not going to extend to reverse that and bring it back. You know, the agency exists, the budget is understood, the personnel all exists, the, the relationships, the contracts with the cities all exist. It's a relatively short, uh, transition period, and there are very few unknowns. It's very different than the law enforcement effort that you all are looking at, at the airport and the seaport. So the two year window that you would be providing if you voted in that direction today is more than enough for us to confidently transition the agency back to Broward County.

Thank you.

Mr. Ray. I just want to say, um, I didn't come this far to turn back. We've done our due diligence. Um, we think this is the direction that we need to go in and I fully support it. And I think it's brought out to the public, you know, how we got here and, uh, where we go on in the future, we've just got to go back to where we once was and we'll have more say so and not so much control, but we are responsible for your tax dollars. This is just another action for accountability, transparency that this board has displayed since I can remember.

Mr. Mayor.

Yes.

Okay. Thank you. Question of staff. As we look at this, you see some savings or financial benefit as we move forward in these challenging times. And so timely. Do you believe this is a good financially sound decision for Broward County?

So, Mr. Mayor, um, so the financial accountability that, um, is being discussed here is really about, um, how the growth in the fire rescue in the future will be, uh, that you all as a board will have oversight, direct oversight over that union negotiations will be brought, uh, uh, through the collective bargaining, um, uh, process, um, through the board and it wouldn't be, um, done by a different organization and then just shared with you. So, um, you will have more, um, uh, financial oversight. So long-term, I believe it is, uh, most economical, uh, for oversight by the board.

Okay. As it relates to employees and, you know, being able to be a part of a large organization, so there's opportunity for growth. I recall when we were looking at it in the city of Lauderdale, because I know we were one of the first cities that joined that movement, because then staff thought a larger organization, a bigger organization, they could grow. And I know that was one of the reasons. Do we need a police officer to run a fire department? I'm just saying different skills. It's both public safety and both are different entities. So that's where I see and hear some of the arguments or the conversations that I'm engaged in, that they know fire when they go out. They're looking at things differently, and those are some of the things I wanted us to look at. Are they interdependent? Can they work together separate entities, but work with, you know, I don't know if that makes sense. I just want us to look at the value of that partnership.

So if I understand your question appropriately, Commissioner, the infrastructure for fire rescue, it would be our intent, should the board choose to give us this direction, would be to bring in the entirety of fire rescue under the oversight of the Board of County Commissioners. And that would be inclusive of the leadership in that organization. And so there are many, as Mr. Ruiz mentioned earlier in his comments, most of the state of Florida fire rescue operates independently under the Board of County Commissioners. There's 64 of the 67 counties already operate that way. So we don't see any problem whatsoever in that structure.

Okay. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

I'm going to bring it back to Commissioner Fisher for closing.

Thank you, Mayor. And just again, I want to reiterate or ask the county administration, obviously you're ready to take this transition on at this particular time, correct?

Yes, sir. Commissioner and Commission, we are, you know, confident that we can successfully transition fire rescue over to the county within the two-year window, and depending on your vote today. And we certainly, we have a working group already that we have just to begin to evaluate this, and that includes the county attorney's office. And we are prepared to transition, to begin that transition work immediately.

And I want to, I'm going to make my motion, but I want to thank you and your administration for really getting on this and really educating everybody, understanding it, and getting a hold of it and all the stakeholders. So thank you so much.

And Mr. Commissioner Fisher, if I might, for a point of personal privilege, I just really want to commend Michael Ruiz, who has really taken leadership on this issue and had countless research and conversations to understand the full impact of this possible transition.

Definitely appreciate him. Mr. Mayor, I make a motion to direct the county administrator in consultation with the county's attorney's office to promptly provide formal written notice to the Broward County Sheriff of the county's intent not to renew the interlocal agreement with the Broward County Sheriff providing for delivery of fire rescue services, and in the interim to work with the Broward County Sheriff's Office to play it a cooperative, coordinated transition of fire rescue services from the sheriff of Broward County.

I have a motion and seconded by the vice mayor. I'm sorry, seconded? I have a motion and a seconded. All in favor? Any opposed? Show that passing unanimously. Let's go last before our shade meeting, item number 45. This county administrator has a lot of great assets, and Newton Sanon is one of those great assets. Newton, come on up. Thank you very much for the delegation, and what a great job you do.

You've got 30 seats.

Yes, sir. Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice, Mayor, members of the commission and county administration. In keeping with the spirit of the presentations earlier this morning, this July makes 25 years that I've had the absolute pleasure to serve as the president and CEO of OIC of South Florida. Yes, you can clap for that. Thank you. Knowing all sincerity, it's interesting, I was reflecting on the fact that twice prior to today, we were scheduled to meet with you all, and something happened with my office. And fortuitously, maybe divine redirection, we find ourselves presenting today, one in the keeping of the spirit of recognizing your employees. And I celebrate you for that, because it's really, really important. The second thing that I think is really fortuitous is the fact that this is now National Workforce Development Month. In fact, 21 years ago, National Workforce Development Month was started, and listen to the intent. I think it's appropriate for why we're meeting with you today. The purpose is to honor workforce development professionals, which I am a lifer of a workforce development professional, highlights career and training programs, which we're doing together. And last but not least, but most importantly, to show how workforce development helps local businesses and the economy thrive. Ladies and gentlemen, I'll tell you, about 11 years ago, we joined hands in a journey to make sure that people had opportunities and instances where they were unemployed, underemployed. And our organization started off with putting up a million dollars we got from the Department of Labor to partner with the Brown County government to make sure there was this workforce development initiative. We started off with about 19 employees, and I can't tell you how proud I am to share with you today. We have 187 families who are full employed. Now, listen to how challenging your jobs are, so God bless you, and you don't always get, you know, the recognition and the appreciation, but I could not not come here and say thank you for the partnerships. You may not hear the families who get to eat and feed their families. You may not get to see the school closed as bought, but even more importantly eradicated vicious cycles of poverty because these adults who work, their children watch their parents get up and go to work 24 hours because our operation is 24 hours. And so not only are we helping those individuals directly receive a paycheck, the measure of dignity that they have as a result of this partnership, the children who are watching and monitoring the success that they have remains a pleasure. And so last but not least, I just want to call up two of our employees who work with us. I'll start with Mr. Ortiz. Come on up.

Good morning, commissioners. I was asked to come and speak with you guys today, a little bit of my experience with OIC. And, you know, it's very exciting just to be here speaking at a commissioner's meeting. It's very different in my life today than it was many years ago. Uh, 2019, that's when things kind of, you know, came to a head for me and was definitely a different life. And OIC has been a part of my rehabilitation all along. Um, I started working with them in 2019, started working with them as a bus cleaner and, um, quickly made my way into, um, site lead for the site that I was handling. From there, I went on to become a supervisor. That's what I am today, a supervisor. I handle, uh, four sites and I handle about 80 staff members under me. Um, so definitely very, very different than what I was. And I always, I will always be grateful to OIC for the opportunities that they gave me. Um, and not just with the employment. I mean, when I found myself in the situation that I found myself in back again in 2019, I mean, everything from, they assisted me initially with housing, with, um, food, everything. They were just, they held my hand all throughout. So, it is my privilege today to be able to work with them and to hopefully provide, you know, other people in our community the same type of assistance through OIC. Thank you.

Last but not least, Ms. Davis. Good afternoon.

My name is Christina Davis. Early 2019, I was introduced to Ms. Pamela Batten at OIC of South Florida. Ms. Batten encouraged me to join the Women's Workforce Empowerment Program. I was also given the opportunity to work a part-time job, um, on a project cleaning county bus stops. I didn't know what to expect. I didn't even know if it would have been the right opportunity for me to go to my next journey. But when I really, really got to know OIC and I found myself not wanting to leave them. My walk through OIC has been a blessing. I've seen a lot of lives change. OIC has provided me and others in my community with opportunities that we may never have gotten if it wasn't for OIC. Over the years, I have been on many different projects. I've been a bus cleaning, a bus cleaner. Amazing. I cleaned bus stops, doing lawn service, code enforcement, janitorial, uh, and porter services. I left each project prepared with training, knowledge, and the hands-on experience to excel in that field. About three years ago, I stood to this podium as a part-time employee. Today, I am proud. Today, I am proud that I'm a full-time, salaried employee with benefits. I'm a site supervisor for the Copens Bus Depot, Lotta Hill Transit, and the Bark Recovery Center. OIC have appreciated my commitment, my hard work, my willingness to go above and beyond. For that, I am grateful. And I will not let them down. Thank you.

I realize it's lunchtime, so I'll wrap up briefly. It's all right. Thank you. Thank you very, very much. I can't tell you how intoxicating it is. That's what keeps me here for 25 years. Uh, stories like that. And there are many of them. Uh, we didn't just pick random folks. Um, and they asked me, what should I say? I said, I'm not gonna preach, I'm not gonna script you. You speak from the heart. And so, sincere thank you all. I think affordability remains a big issue in this community, in the South Florida corridor. Uh, thank you all who participated and attended our middle class summit. Those of you who didn't, my feelings are hurt. I'm teasing. Um, last but not least, I just want to recognize Corey Lonergan, our CEO of BCT. She's been a great partner to work with, so thank you, Corey. Um, I can assure you, um, she's on top of it. I promise you that. I personally have gone and go at 3 o'clock in the morning to the graveyard, and Gollum to make sure things are right. Um, you're in good hands. And again, thank you so much for the partnership. God bless you guys. Thank you.

And thank you so much. Uh, do you guys want to do a quick picture with him? Uh, sure.

Can I, can I say one thing? Yeah. Newton, you know, I know. One second, commissioner. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Thank you. I know. I remember when we did this 11 years ago and it was a pilot project. And I think all of us were like, all of us were hoping this works. And to see how, how unbelievable it's going. Ten times the number of people. And, and just changing lives. And you and I had a discussion a couple of weeks ago. That's right. About the kind of, that kind of work. It's not just, it's just, it's, it's work that, you know, you can, you're doing stuff for the community as well. And so it works on so many different levels. Just so. Thank you.

My pleasure.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Newton. Mr. St. Allen. How are you? Good.

It would work because there was a need. And those that were involved were concerned that we need to do something as Broward County.

So when we look at workforce, as long as you're paying me right, we're going to work just like anybody else. That's right. So I want to challenge you as we look to these emerging industries. We need to make sure that we're training, getting our workforce that is being challenged to up to speed so they can get jobs and work and full-time position and positions that they can, children can be proud of also. Okay. So I am proud of you because you had to feel it to be able to deliver the way you have done. You weren't fearful of axing. We have had numerous conversation because there are communities. The 33311 zip code continues to need help.

It's not fixed. You have done an awesome job, but there's more to be done. So I've seen folks got recognized for 35 years, so I just want to share with you. You said I have a lot more years to go, all right, because there's work to be done. Excellent. And I would like to see OIC and CareerSource working together more and making sure this auto AI and all of those good stuff don't take away all the jobs from the people that you have employed. We have to find new emerging industry. Get on board to make sure we train and continue to train our workforce. And that's a challenge for you.

It's a challenge well received. And just so the commission, the audience knows, we're a licensed workforce institute with the Florida Department of Education. What that means, we have three campuses in our most recent campus. We're now training low voltage electricians, fiber optics, to your point, given the advent of AI and robotics, to make sure that people have those AI adjacent and AI relied upon jobs. And so a challenge received, and I certainly tip my hat to Commissioner Gellar who really pushes about good paying jobs. You know I hear you loud and clear. So a challenge received, and I'll report back soon, okay? Okay. Newton. Thank you.

You know, Beam and I came on the same time, nearly the same time, 12 years ago. I mean, I got to tell you, out of all the things we've been involved with, as far as I'm concerned, you're one of the brightest lights of, you know, being here. So I just wanted you to know how I feel.

And, you know, we were just talking about that. Should we do a quick picture? Sure. But I got to bring my crew though. Come on up.

The whole crew.

Come on down.

Let's go.

Take off your visitor's badge for the photo.

Okay, over here in the center. One, two, three.

Am I supposed to say cheese? Okay, cheese. Beautiful. Thank you.

Thank you. Cheeseburger?

Of course. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Neighbor.

Oh, I appreciate it.

We need to do a motion to extend the meeting.

Move to extend the meeting until you want to end it.

I have a motion to extend the meeting. Do I have a second? Second. Second. Thank you. All in favor of extending that meeting? Aye. Any opposed? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Seven. Eight. Well, he's seven. Show that passing is seven-zero. Do we want to do the shade meeting now or do we want to do the public hearing?

Well, Mr. May, it's certainly your call, but we might be able to get through the public hearing quickly and then go on to the shade meeting.

Okay, so we're okay doing the public hearing? Great. Let's do it. Here we go. Public hearing items today are items 34 through 44. The reading clerk will open up each item and recognize any members of the public signed up to speak. Upon completion of the public comment the item will come back to the day as for any discussion and for the vote. For each item the reading clerk reads take it away.

The public hearing on item 34 is now open. Item 34 is a motion to adopt resolution approving the Broward county 2026 to 2029 triennial title six program update and authorizing the county administrator to submit documents to the federal transit administration. No members of the public have signed up to speak on the item.

I have a motion. Do I have a second? I have a motion second on item 34 all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Show that passing eight-zero. Number 35 please.

The public hearing on item 35 is now open. Item 35 is a motion to approve Broward county transportation department's 2027 transit capital program of projects. No members of the public have signed up to speak on the item.

I have a motion on 35. Do I have a second?

Second.

I have a motion second on item 35 all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Show that passing eight-zero.

The public hearing on item 36 is now open. Item 36 is a motion to adopt resolution approving an inventory list of county owned real property appropriate for use as affordable housing pursuant to section 125.379 Florida statutes. No members of the public have signed up to speak on the item. Second.

I have a motion second on item 36 all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Show that passing eight-zero.

The public hearing on item 37 is now open. Item 37 is a motion to adopt resolution pertaining to rates fees and charges at Fort Lauderdale Hollywood international airport amending section 39.2 and exhibit 39.A of the county administrative code. No members of the public have signed up to speak on the item.

Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor on item 37? Any opposed? No. Show item 37 passing eight-zero.

The public hearing on item 38 is now open. Item 38 is a motion to adopt resolution regarding vacation petition number 2026-V-05 vacating and annulling a 12-foot utility easement lying within a portion of parcel C and D of Googie Platt number one. No members of the public have signed up to speak on the item.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor on item 38? Aye. Any opposed? Show that passing eight-zero.

The public hearing on item 39 is now open. Item 39 is a motion to enact ordinance adopting an amendment to the county comprehensive plan text relating to the transportation element, the capital improvements element and the Broward Municipal Services District element. No members of the public have signed up to speak on the item. I have a motion.

Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. All in favor of specialize aye? Aye. Any opposed? Show that passing 39-80.

The public hearing on item 40 is now open. Item 40 is the motion to adopt resolution pertaining to Port Everglades tariff number 12, amending section 42.25 of the county administrative code regarding tariff rates and requirements for various activities at Port Everglades. No members of the public have signed up to speak on the item.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor of number 40? Aye. Any opposed? Show that passing 8-0. Renee, is that loud enough for you?

That was good.

Thank you. Okay. Number 41.

The public hearing on item 41 is now open. Item 41 is a motion to enact ordinance pertaining to transportation concurrency, amending various sections of Chapter 5 of the County Code of Ordinances to eliminate concurrency districts, road and transportation concurrency and related fees, transportation concurrency assessments, and road impact fees, and making general housekeeping amendments. No members of the public have signed up to speak on the item.

I have a motion on number 41. Do I have a second? Second. I have a motion and a second on item 41. All in favor, vocalize aye. Aye. Any opposed? Show that passing 8-0. I want to also, before you get to 42 and 43, which is the towing, even though I think it's, is this showing that I put it on? Okay. This was brought to me by the towing group. It's, if you guys won't like it, I'm going to modify it, whatever you want to do, but it's, even though it shows me putting it on, which I guess I did, it's up to you guys at some point if you want to, if you're happy with it. Anyway, go ahead.

The public hearing on item 42 is now open. Item 42 is a motion to enact ordinance pertaining to towing and immobilization services, amending chapters 8.5 and 20 of the county code of ordinances. No members of the public have signed up to speak on the item.

Mr. Mayor? Yes. Just to verify, I see Mr. Villalpando in the audience. Can I verify that he is supporting this? Yes.

Mr. Villalpando, if you can join us at the podium, please.

And Mayor, did you want to open both of those items together, or just take one at a time?

I'm going to open together. Wait, I have a script that I just want to read real quickly. These are both my items. I want to point out two things and then I'll pass the gavel to make a motion. Can you continue both items? Oh, we're going to continue both items. I'm sorry, I totally forgot. Until the next board meeting on October 6th. First, most of the pricing increases shown in item 43 are simply an annual CPI increase since the last amendment of that section of the code five years ago. Second, the remaining changes are price changes requested by the industry, but the storage surcharge rate for the damaged electric vehicles seems excessive to me. And so I submitted additional material 43A to provide for a lower rate. With that being said, county attorney, can we vote to continue both items in one motion?

Yes, Mayor, but we'd like to open both items. So if we could have the reading clerk open item 43 as well.

Thank you.

The public hearing on item 43 is now open. Item 43 is a motion to adopt resolution pertaining to towing and immobilization services, amending section 40.50 of the county administrative code. No members of the public have signed up to speak on the item.

Mr. Mayor, I move.

Hold on, hold on. I'm going to pass the gavel to the vice mayor, make the motion as stated by the county. I entertain a motion. I'm going to move that this be continued, both items be continued until the next board meeting on October 6th. Can I have a second?

Second. Okay.

Aye.

Can I just clarify the motion?

Sure. Yes, please.

The motion would be that the items 42 and 43 be continued until the next scheduled meeting at 10 a.m. on October 6th, 2026 at 115 South Andrews Avenue, room 422, Fort Lauderdale.

You wanted to travel that far?

That is the motion that he stated.

I thought that's what I said.

All right. Having the correction, all in favor?

Aye.

All opposed, ayes have it unanimously. Thank you, vice mayor.

8-0.

8-0. Next, 44.

Our final public hearing item is item 44. Item 44 is a motion to adopt resolution pertaining to the procurement code amending various sections of Chapter 21 of the county administrative code relating to procurement procedures and appeals. No members of the public have signed up to speak on the item.

I have a motion to second and I have a speak. Senator Rich? Yes.

This is another one of those items. I've done four of them already, 72, 73, 75, and 76 on the August 20th. This is another one where we are eliminating living wage and employee retention, this time in the procurement code. And even though, again, I know that we have to support it or at least vote in favor of it because it is part of state law. But again, I want to remind everybody on the record that these changes that have been imposed by the legislature and the governor remove the sections of our procurement code that ensure employee retention in recognition of domestic partnerships. It affects, most importantly, it affects, most importantly, the living wage ordinance and Broward County currently pays $18.53 per hour for security service guards, as an example. And minimum wage is $14.00. So employees are losing anywhere from $2.19 to $4.53 an hour. As I said, as I understand, it's part of state law. I'm hoping maybe in the future we will be able to return to sanity and be able to provide everyone a living wage.

Anybody else? Okay. Item 44, do I have a motion? I have a motion and a second. All in favor on item 44? Aye. Any opposed? Opposed. Any opposed? I'll show that passing 7 to 1. They might take me out in the last month. I think we're going to kick him out of the commission soon. That's it for that behavior.

That was the final public hearing item. The public hearing portion of the meeting is now closed.

Okay. We're closing the public hearing and we're going to adjourn this meeting for after lunch.

Mayor, show me affirmative on all those other votes, please.

I'm showing you affirmative. We're recessing, going to a shade meeting, and we'll be back within the hour?

Probably.

And we have lunch waiting. Mr. Mayor, I believe, does he have to read?

Yes. So just to be clear, we're going to recess this meeting so that the board can attend an executive session relative to collective bargaining pursuant to Section 447.605 of the Florida Statute. The closed portion of the meeting will be in Room 430. The board will return to this meeting after, to this room after that closed portion to continue the rest of this meeting. It's the hearing. That's why I need you to make those motions up.

She's leading the charge.

She's the attorney in charge.

We're in recess. Time to go to the playground. Where's the aviation matters? Kevin, which one of those? Thank you. We're going to skip over to 46. Reading clerk, would you take 46 for us?

Well, that's the next item on the agenda.

Pardon me?

That's the next item on the agenda. So we're not. Great.

46.

Item 46 is a motion to approve second amendment to the second addendum.

8, 8, 0. 8, 0. Next.

Item 47 is a motion to award and approve agreement for fixed contract to low bidder Central Civil Construction Company. I have a motion to second on number 48.

All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Show passing unanimously 9, 0.

Item 49 is a motion to award and approve agreement for fixed contract to low bidder Ranger Construction Industries, Inc. for taxi lane T rehabilitation at Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport. No members of the public have signed up to speak on the item.

Second.

I have a motion to second on number 49. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Show the passing 9, 0.

Item 50 is a motion to ratify action taken by the county administrator on August 19, 2026 on behalf of Broward County through delegation granted by the Board of County Commissioners on June 9, 2026 to approve the award of a fixed contract and the single source bidder Rosenbauer Minnesota LLC for a Rosenbauer Panther 6x6 aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicle equipped with high reach extendable turret. No members of the public have signed up to speak on the item. Motion, second.

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

Aye.

Any opposed? Show the passing on item 50, 9, 0.

Item 51 has two motions. Motion A is a motion to approve single source destination of science building solutions, WSA divisions, DBA, WSA systems, Boca LLC for fire alarm system monitoring, maintenance and a repair for the Broward County Aviation Department. Motion B is a motion to award open and contract to single source science building solutions, WSA, DBA, WSA systems, Boca LLC for fire alarm system monitoring, maintenance and repair. No members of the public have signed up to speak on the item.

We have a motion on item 51, A and B. I have a second. I'm both. We have a second on 51, A and B. We can vote them together. Council. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Show the passing unanimously, 9, 0. I and B. A and B. C if you want as well. But A and B we got. Okay. Let's go.

Item 52 has two motions. Motion A is a motion to approve single source designation of Pesser Aerospace Inc. for Pesser Data Subscription Services for the Aviation Department. Motion B is a motion to approve technology products agreement between Broward County and a single source Pesser Aerospace Inc. for Pesser Data Subscription Services for the Aviation Department. No members of the public have signed up to speak on the item.

I have a motion to move. I have a motion and a second on 52, A and B. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Show 52, A and B passing unanimously, 9, 0. We're now done with the, we're now moving on to number 54. We did 53, correct? Yep. Okay.

Item 54 is a motion to adopt resolution determining that the unsolicited proposal submitted by Dependable Equities LLC for demolition, site clearing, and temporary use of Broward County-owned properties at 400 and 408 Northeast 4th Street, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is in the public's interest directing the county administrator to publish the report required by Section 225.0653D, Florida Statutes, and to proceed with further evaluation and negotiation of a comprehensive agreement. No members of the public have signed up to speak on the item.

Do I have a motion on 54? I have a motion. I have a motion and a second on item 54. Senator Gellar, you have a question?

Keep the microphone.

What? No, it's the next one. Okay. Thank you. No question. I have a motion and a second on item 54. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? I show that passing unanimously, 9, 0.

Item 55 is a motion to adopt resolution determining that the unsolicited proposal submitted by Filthy Organics LLC for the design, construction, and operation of a composting operation for the processing and beneficial reuse of yard waste on approximately 8 acres of Broward County-owned land located in unincorporated Broward County, Florida, is in the public's interest, directing the county administrator to publish the report required by Section 255.0653D, Florida Statutes, and to proceed with further evaluation and negotiation of a comprehensive agreement. Four members of the public have signed up to speak on the item. The first member is Joe Carvalho, followed by Dustin Dubois.

Mr. Mayor, this is the one I...

Dubois, I'm sorry.

Well, I'm going to let the public speak, and then we'll come back to Dez. Okay, can I just... I just wanted to ask the county attorney what the procedure would be when we've received a competing, because I think that's what the speakers will be speaking on. Okay.

Senator?

So as Senator Gellar says, there was a second, essentially, it's just a second unsolicited proposal for similar services by another proposer. In this case, you know, the board may still proceed with this. It's just considered a second unsolicited proposal. So you could determine... Did we discuss this last meeting? Yes. So what are we talking about again for?

I don't understand why. This is the same thing as last meeting.

Since then, I know we've all received a correspondence from the next...

I'm going to let the public speakers speak, and then we'll go from there. Public speakers, come on in.

Joe Carvalho?

State your name, please. Vase Recycling Resources. Okay. Good afternoon, Honorable Mayor, Commissioners, Administration. As you know, we've recently submitted a counter-proposal, another unsolicited proposal to the county, to provide services for organic composting at the same site as being heard on this item. We're respectfully asking you to table item 55 in order to evaluate both proposals side-by-side before making any final decisions. What do the numbers say? What do the numbers say? The numbers are different. The lease revenue from the Filthy Organics proposal is $5 per ton. We're proposing $750 a ton from day one, with no $10,000 flat fee for leases for one year and potentially up to two full years, which would be 50% more rent from day one. Over 20 years, that could represent between $4.6 and $9.9 million more in revenue to the county, comparing our proposal to the one that's been presented. Further, we suggest a 10-year lease with the opportunity to be revisited in the 10th year, year 11 and beyond, to adjust how much we're paying. Regarding the free compost for county and residential use, Filthy's proposal is suggesting 500 cubic yards per year. We're offering between 7,000 and 8,750 cubic yards. That's 14 to 17 times more. Plus, we currently have approximately 10,000 cubic yards of finished or almost finished mulch and compost materials that we would offer to the residents of the county right after commencing an opportunity potentially with the county at that site. Operational capacity. ACE is already processing a pace of about 56,000 tons per year at our licensed facility. Filthy operates, I believe, 78 tons on a pilot project. That's a substantial difference as far as proof to concept. Timeline, we see about 6 to 10 months to become operational versus 12 months to 2 years. Integrated capacity. With approximately 18 months, it could be sooner. ACE would operate on 23 acres. That's three sites within Broward County. The 8-acre site, that's being considered here, and our existing 10-acre site in Miramar, plus a 5-acre site of land that we have adjacent to it that's being expanded onto. So that would be 23 operational acres for composting that we'd be able to provide. Commissioners, county staff, the analysis provided, which was exhibited for this item, compares the filthy proposal to the potential county operating of its own operations to provide composting. However, none of that included any third-party opportunities that include us or anyone else that might be in the community who could also serve the county's needs. ACE delivers higher revenue, more compost, faster timelines, and lower risk. We thank you for your time and attention.

So I'm going to start, if you guys don't mind, real quickly. What's the name of that sport that's not soccer? It's played cricket. So we have a large cricket stadium, correct? And 10 years ago, 12 years ago, when Beam and I were here, somebody brought an unsolicited proposal to do something with the cricket stadium. It was very unique. It was their idea. They brought it to us. And all of a sudden, other people came out of the woodwork and wanted to participate. And it bothered the people on this commission at that time that here's somebody that came, had an entrepreneurial idea, and then all of a sudden, others were trying to squeeze them out. And that bothered our commission. And we went with the person that came with the original proposal. And while this gentleman seems to have great numbers and stuff, the filthy organics came to us first with their idea a year ago. And now, all of a sudden, let's not award and reward entrepreneurship. Let's not reward unique ideas. Let's now let somebody else come in and see, wow, what a great idea. Why didn't I think of that? And that's how I feel. You know, so with that, we'll go around the dais, whoever wants to speak. And we have three more speakers.

Yes.

Oh, we have three more speakers? Okay. Let's do the other three speakers.

The next speaker is Dustin DuBois, followed by Nicholas Matthews.

Good afternoon. Thanks for having me. Can I just say ditto? Now, listen, again, I wanted to thank you guys for your help getting to this point. Obviously, it's been a really long road to get here. We've done a lot of work with staff in the last couple weeks as well. And so we're making a lot of headway on that. We've got a lot of terms that we've agreed to. Frankly, the terms that, you know, we originally proposed have increased. So I think you can be happy to hear that as well. But again, we're heading in the right direction. You know, the finances is important, but I also believe it's really important to know who you're working with and trust that, you know, you're working with somebody that's going to get the job done for you. But six years we've been fighting for this since we started this and spent countless days and hours with different communities, different organizations, preaching compost, teaching compost. And we're getting traction in an industry that's never existed here in Broward County. So I'm extremely proud of that. We've got eight different municipalities that we've got compost programs with. Again, it's programs that never existed before. We work with entities like North Broward Prep. We work with South Plantation High School. So the Hard Rock Hotel, Margaritaville Hotel, the Florida Panthers.

So this is, for me, it's a passion. It's something that I can promise you I will work my butt off or continue to work my butt off to make happen for us. And I just encourage you to vote to move this forward. Appreciate it.

Thank you, sir.

Nicholas Matthews, followed by Robert Holland Esquire.

I'm pretty sure that's me. Nick Matthews with the Southern Group on behalf of Filthy Organics. Mayor, members of the commission, I want to thank you again. for bringing this forward. You know, one of the things I kind of, you know, I think helps kind of echo some of what Mayor Bogan said. Back about a year ago, we had meetings with staff. Dustin attends every Solid Waste Authority meeting. I attend when I can. We have been on a combined four commission agendas at this point. In each commission agenda, this commission notices two weeks in advance when an agenda is noticed.

So there are a couple months' worth of public notice that have helped flavor this conversation for over a year now. Dustin, at every turn, has worked on this, spent money, time, and energy to align this closer with the county's long-term goals are, what the Solid Waste Authority's long-term goals are, and we've positioned ourselves to do that. In fact, since the last meeting, we've had some really good conversations with your staff. We are landing on financial terms that will eclipse the 750 that are being told. When we're fully operational, the county will be in a better position than this kind of additional proposal. Also, I don't, I'm not certain, and this would be something for the county attorney, if their proposal was submitted as a truly unsolicited proposal. The way I look at it, it looks like it's just some other stuff to think about. I don't think you're obligated in any way to entertain it. I don't know if the $10,000 or $25,000 was submitted to make it a qualifying unsolicited proposal pursuant to the statute. I don't know that. But, you know, I think the track record Dustin has, you know, has at the county is unparalleled. He's stated this for over a year. We're ready to do this. We're ready to walk hand-in-hand with the county to go after the Solid Waste Authority RFP for the yard waste. I mean, I think that's another really important piece here. This conversation has, thank you to Commissioner Furrier in the last couple months has really been, all right, how do we position this for, to be competitive at the Solid Waste Authority level in partnership with the county? We view this as truly as a partnership. We've worked in that collaborative fashion over the last year to kind of get here, and we're ready to roll. The beautiful thing about this is your decision to move this forward, as we kind of all, or as I envision it, doesn't preclude these folks from pursuing opportunities at Solid Waste Authority level. They can submit on RFPs, and they can attend those meetings and start really dialing in and fostering and developing opportunities like Dustin has. They have every opportunity to do that. But please, you know, we would respectfully ask you to move this forward the way that it's written on the agenda. And I want to thank Dr. Otto and her team and everybody who helped move this and kind of get us to here. So thank you for that.

Before calling the fourth speaker, I failed to say two things. One is that this, I've been informed, this is the only thing on your agenda. So, Senator, even if people, other people are here, the only thing to vote on is either you're voting for or against this agenda item. Other people, other companies can make other, you know, future stuff. But right now, the only thing that we're voting on is either approve or disapprove this. Next speaker.

The final speaker is Robert Holland.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Board members. Well, Mr. Mayor, I hear you loud and clear. I know your position is already solid on this. You bet. And what I would say is simply that it's an unsolicited proposal process, which typically triggers a competitive process. And so nobody sits around because you had an unsolicited process that goes quietly, saying we normally know it goes into a competitive process. And when you look at what was submitted, the numbers are much greater. And I heard all of the comments earlier about the police chief or whatever you call the gentleman that runs the police department. And you're talking about transparency and what's in the best interest of the voters and the taxpayers. And you have a proposal that is more than double. And you're saying, in essence, to hell with that because we already had this on the agenda before. All we're asking, we're not saying anything filthy about the filthy, the company. What we're saying is you have two small businesses out here. And we've been doing compost for a while. We're not new. We've been to all of the board meetings with the trash authorities as well. What we're saying is maybe you can carve out some more land to allow us to do the same thing. There's more than enough composting out there. But just don't shoot us in the foot when we're a small business out here doing it. And we're telling you we can give you better numbers. Maybe we can do work together and have two sites out there to do this here. But before he just closes off as being a nuisance, we're not being a nuisance. We're worried about our business as well because this moves within five miles of our operation. So we ask that you at least have some consideration with that in light of all of the stuff that you spoke about on the last item before we took the break. That it's in the best interest of the taxpayers, it's more revenue, and in light of what could be a property tax rollback, that we just ignore these extra revenue streams if we have the ability. So with that, we ask that you give some consideration as you move forward.

Just to clarify my comments, certainly we can come in the future, and also according to our attorney, we consider other proposals as well. I'm not trying to shoot anybody in the foot. I'm just trying to help somebody that's been before us many times with a unique proposal. That's all how I feel.

We just don't want to get painted as the bad guy because we're in the same industry and have an interest. I get it. Absolutely.

Thank you.

Bring it back to the desk. I'm going to go around. Let's just go around. We'll start from left to right. Commissioner Rogers, anything? Yes.

Now I would like to go back to the county attorney and ask my question at length. I want to make sure, however we vote, and I'm not wedded to either proposal, I just want to make sure that we're doing things properly following the statute. As the last gentleman stated, my experience with unsolicited proposals is when one person files one, and it's then put out for a 30-day notice or whatever, that other people can submit competing proposals. A, has that occurred here? Mr. Matthews says that he doesn't believe that there was actually something else that would be submitted. I just want to make sure we're doing this properly. I'm asking her, not you. Sorry, because you're not permitted to come back to speak. So I just, what procedurally should we be doing now to make sure that we're following the statute?

So under the statute, there are two options with a P3, right? So a P3 comes in, the board determines it, the staff makes a recommendation about whether or not we're going to accept it or we're going to just kick it back, and then we do an analysis. Then the board has two options. They can decide to do the competitive process, which is what most people are familiar with.

But which we did not do in this time.

Yes, the board chose not to do it, but that's what the process that most folks are familiar with. You choose to take the P3, and then you accept other proposals, right? But then there is also a second option of a non-competitive process. If the board determines it's in the best interest to do that, then we, at the first, right? So the board, back in August, directed us to go through the non-competitive process, which requires these two meetings, right? So the way that they're essentially doing it through notice, right? So there's these two meetings. You have, people have an opportunity to speak at it. At the first meeting, we collected information. And at this meeting, the item that's before you is a resolution that makes the findings required by the statute in order to proceed through this non-competitive process. So you've evaluated the comments received at the prior public hearing and their findings that are being made for why the board believes that this is the best way forward. And then there's still more process, right? So this is not the end of this. So after this, then there's going to be a publication in the Florida Register. And then another analysis being made for the financials of the particular procedure and another public interest finding made. And then we negotiate an agreement after that that's going to meet the public's best interest.

So we do not have to consider the other proposal that has been made, correct?

You are not required to compare them against each other when making the analysis. So the board can decide to move forward. And I think that there's, right, this is a policy choice, that there are policy reasons why you could make the choice to go the unsolicited way, or you could do it as a full competitive process. And the board's direction was, for policy reasons, to move forward with the proposal before them. And it is my understanding... And you can change their mind if you would like to.

And it is my understanding that from the gentleman of Filthy Organics that they have increased the initial offer. Is that correct?

I don't know if the county administrator can speak to that.

Darby? Mr. Dessal?

So, yeah, the initial proposal that they had submitted, they actually, in fact, did amend. And most of that related principally to the amount of compost that would be available and in the rate that it would be that profit-sharing piece of it. And we can pull that particulars out. You know, again, not trying to compare the other application to this one. And just keep in mind, as we move forward with this particular application, that is just what their proposal is. That does not necessarily mean that's where you're going to end up once when we get into a deeper negotiation as to what would actually occur.

And, Mr. Dessal, is there room for additional, potential additional composting space for this other company? Right, right. So, again, you know, the proposal that was put forth by this particular company

did not have a non-complete compete proposal or anything like that. And that would be part of those negotiations as we move forward. And we can choose to not have some type of a non-compete. We can move forward. We could have two, three, four companies theoretically out there.

You've answered all my questions.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Senator Gellar, I've got a crazy question I want to ask you. It's my understanding that anything that goes on our agenda, our county attorney looks out for us. But your first question to the county attorney was, I want to make sure this is all legal. And I want to just clarify, everything we're doing on this agenda, I believe our county attorney looks over, does not present it to us unless it's legal. Mr. Mayor, it's always appropriate for me as an attorney

to verify that when somebody else is saying we have done a competing proposal to make sure that we're following our procedures. That's our job for a county attorney. I'm going to assume... I'm adjunct to the county attorney's office. Huh? I said, I'm adjunct to the county attorney's office. Wow. Okay. Let's move on.

I'll be brief, Mayor, because my position on this has been very clear from the beginning. And I think it's in the best interest. I think this board made the policy choice of where we are today. This is just the second step or the third step, whatever it is, to move it forward. Filthy Organics has been engaged for over a year. The policy has been there. The marketing has been there as far as the advertising. So I really don't know... I appreciate the opportunity for those folks to come forward. At the end of the day, I want to have the continued negotiation done. Also, Ms. Sapir, I want the negotiations between the county, obviously, and Filthy Organics to be fully transparent. No surprises so they can negotiate together. I don't want to hear things like, okay, I had something on the next day. The next day it came in different. I don't like that type of negotiations. I don't think you do either. And I know that you'll make sure that it's in the best interest of the county and, of course, the Filthy Organics. So at the proper time, I want to go ahead and move the resolution that's in front of us today, Mayor. Thank you.

We're going to go wrong. We have still people that want to speak. At the proper time, I want to make the rest. Commissioner Furry, you passing?

I do think there's going to be room for more work here. I think there's probably about 30, 34% of our waste stream is organic, and 17% of that is yard waste stuff. So what you're talking about is probably about a million tons of yard waste. Filthy Organics' proposal is just a fraction of that. So somewhere within the next three months, according to the Solid Waste Authority's timelines, there will be further RFPs put out for both disposal and for compost. I do see, and, you know, Dustin has been at every meeting of Solid Waste for years at this point. ACE is, I know you guys are actually uniquely located in two of the biggest cities that aren't part of the Solid Waste Authority. You're actually located right there with Miramar and Pembroke Pines. Both of them elected not to be part of the Solid Waste Authority, in which case there is, I would strongly recommend to both of those cities to be, I mean, they didn't elect to be part of the Solid Waste Authority initially because I think they were concerned with the waste energy plant being placed out there. Yeah, I correct, yeah. I mean, I think that was part of their calculus. And I had mentioned to them back then, I said, if that's the case, then what you should be doing is showing the other option of how do you take care of all of that material without going to the waste energy plant. Composting is a way to do it. So you guys are in a great position to be able to do that. And I think that, you know, I think it's interesting seeing your numbers as opposed to Filthy, they are different. And I think these might inform negotiations, both with Filthy Organics, as well as looking at future RFPs from the Solid Waste Authority. So right now I'm going to be supporting this, but I do encourage you to be on the lookout for the RFPs coming out in the next couple months because there is going to be plenty of work on this. Right now this is mainly dealing with residential. There is way more even on the commercial side that we have not been figuring out how to deal with yet. And whether we quadrant out the entire county is still up for grabs. So there's different ways of looking at this. Solid Waste Authority hasn't. We've actually called an extra meeting next week to start to sort some of this out and try to figure out how and where those RFPs are going to go out. So I think there's room here for everybody. I don't think anybody's going to get shut out. And I know you guys have been in business for a long time. You've got a lot of land. So that, you know, bodes well for yours as well. But for right now, I'm going to support this. I do think it does give possible ways in which the county can be involved in RFPs. And I think that's important. That's all.

Thanks.

Mr. Perr.

I tend to support the district commissioners on issues in the district. And you've been chairing it, from what I understand, for quite some time. So I respect that. I was just trying to get a clarification on the process as well. And it sounds like you answered the question that there will be opportunities. But typically, and how I know P3s or unsubstances to work, that we either accept it and close it out. Or if we look forward, I think in the way that we're doing it, by the time it comes back, it would allow those opportunities to present itself. So I just wanted a clarification on that. I think we did that. But we'll be looking to see the opportunities there in the future. Senator Rich.

Thank you. And I'm sitting here and I'm thinking to myself, I'm not sure why anyone wants to do business with us sometimes. Really, we moved ahead in a proper way. These people came to us in good faith. We've been working with them for an extremely long time. And we direct staff to do it this way. This is a policy that we were going to move forward with. And by the way, it is in my district. It's in District 1. And I do support this. I believe, as I said, they came in good faith. And they've been negotiating. And I think they deserve the opportunity to move ahead with this. And I'm very comfortable with what Commissioner Furr said. There will be other top opportunities for other companies. But I think right now, this company, Filthy Organics, deserves the right to do this initial project.

Deputy. I've evaluated the submission by Filthy Organics. I believe the submission by Filthy Organics is the best way to process this. And I believe it's in the public interest to approve Filthy Organics. I will be voting in the affirmative.

Commissioner Davis.

Thank you. I support Filthy Organics. But I also believe there is room for ACE also. You know, I was told that, as being firm mentioned, there's going to be a lot of opportunity. But my question is to the county. Are there any other opportunities for ACE within county-owned property? Is there an opportunity at the same landfill or elsewhere that they also, with their proposal, can be looked at in the same manner as Filthy Organics has been looked at?

So, I will ask Mr. Del Sal, whoever would like to, or both of you would like to come up and address the question. I think they might be better positioned to give you some insight.

Yes, sir. So, as Commissioner Furr pointed out, everything is early at this time with the whole yard waste issue. There is not flow control or source separation at this time for yard waste. And in the agreement with Filthy Organics, for example, to scale up to the 100,000 tons is going to take some time. They're starting off at 10,000 or so. So, the other firm mentioned that they've got a certain amount as far as future potential and doing the RFPs and the Sold Waste Authority deciding to do flow control and getting source separation so that there is a reliable stream of separated yard waste that can be handled. Then that would, I think, open up those opportunities. But for now, I will tell you I'm a regulator of solid waste. And in some cities where they try to source separate yard waste, I have to find them because people just dump their trash in there. And getting people educated and getting the source separation done and creating that stream is going to take some time. And I think it will probably be predicated on that work the Sold Waste Authority is going to do. So, with time, the answer to your question is yes. At this time, I think it's going to be a minute before we even can scale with Filthy.

Okay. So, in the meantime, I'm looking forward to hearing from the Sold Waste Authority opportunities where companies like ACE can compete. And hopefully the work gets done where, again, other small businesses can have an opportunity to also compete as much as Filthy Organics got this opportunity.

What Lenny was bringing up with regard to source separation is going to be the biggest obstacle in this county. Because all of our trash, almost in every city, when you have bulk pickup, you're getting yard trash and shopping carts or washing machines. That is all going to have to get separated. But every city has to negotiate that with their hauler. And that is going to take maybe a year or two years or three years. Who knows? Who knows? Because every city has their own contract. When they sign it, whether they can come to terms with those haulers. And that's going to be, that is a huge thing to go. When we bring stuff to, when the stuff that goes to the BIC, it needs to be source separated. That's what's going to, that's what we need to do. But Dustin needs it separated. So that's just, just so everybody knows what is ahead of us on that.

Mayor, I'll move the resolution.

I have a motion. I have a second. Second. All in favor, item 55. Any opposed? Show that passing unanimously 9-0. You know, it's 2-25. Does anybody need, I just got a Celsius. Bob Melton, you need a Celsius? You sure? You got to stay awake with all these guys. All right. It's, it's no sugar. It's no sugar. It's horrible. Okay, what do we have next?

Yeah.

No, I'm not drinking the Coke. 62, let's go.

Item 62 is a motion to direct county attorney's office to draft an agreement to provide funding to Feeding South Florida, Inc. in the amount of up to $5,000 from District 2 excess budgeted office account funds for fiscal year 2026 to help nourish local families with healthy food. No members of the public are signed up to speak on the item.

Who would make that ridiculous motion? Mr. Mayor, I'd like to speak on that.

Yeah.

Okay, my comments will be on item 62. I'm going to make one comment on 62, 63, 64, 66, 67, and 68 on all of these. I think that in the future, not that I intend to support all of those items I just mentioned, but I would like to ask county administration in the future, I think that we need a better policy in how we dispose of our excess funds, not to apply to this year, but in the future, you know, I think they're not our personal dollars. I think we should only be distributing those to county agencies like the animal shelter, like cultural center, or perhaps other funds that we fund, like Feeding South Florida. But I think that we should have a policy. I don't think in the future that we should be able to give them to charities outside of things that are currently funded by the county. So I intend to ask for all of these this year. I intend to vote for all of these this year, including item 68, which is my motion to reconsider. But I would ask that administration draft the policy to come back to us in future years for how we do this. I think we need to do that in ample time so that we're not turning things down at the end of the year after commissioners may have already promised funds.

So, I'm done. So, Senator Gellar, what you're saying is if the county is not supporting a 501c3 that a vice mayor might be supporting or Nan Rich or any of us might not be supporting, your proposal is that if the county isn't supporting that 501c3, then they shouldn't be allowed, individual commissioners should not be allowed to show any type of support financially to that.

So, through county funds, yes, Mr. Mayor, I think we should own, if it's county funds, taxpayer dollars that should be going to...

To the 501c3 that the county determines...

It should be going to things, either county agencies or possibly things that the county is already supporting as opposed to just any charity at random. But I don't want that for this year, which is why I'm saying I'm going to be voting for 62, 63, 64, 66, 67, and 68 this year. I'm just requesting for future years that a policy be drawn and then brought back to us for debate.

Mr. Mayor.

Wait, county attorney, since that's not an agenda item to direct the county attorney, is that an appropriate motion that he's making, that he can make to direct the county attorney to come back with a policy?

Yes. Well, he made it to the administrator, but I would propose that it would be a motion to direct that he could raise with this item. And, you know, we would draft something and work with Senator Geller as a sponsor to bring back to the board.

So, we can go around. I'm going to say I would never support that because I think that, again, you're treating each commissioner, if a great 501c3 comes into play, can help somebody in a community, you're taking that away. Mr. Mayor, I'll bring this up in another day.

What?

I'll bring this up in another day. No, I just want to make sure I vocalize why I'm against it, and that is, you won't be trusting whether it's Senator Rich or Udean or Commissioner Davis or Commissioner Rogers if they have something in their community that's a legitimate 501c3 and the county doesn't have the money to support that, that $1,000, $2,000, whatever they may have, you're saying shouldn't happen. So, again, people vote for us to trust us, and if they don't like our judgment, they could vote us out of office. And so, that's why I'm just wondering.

Yeah, I wouldn't agree with that either because there are a lot of small nonprofits that have never heard of Monica Shapiro or don't know anybody to ask to try to get funding from the county. So, this is their only opportunity, not that I ever have any money left over. But if I did, I wouldn't give it to a nonprofit that I know in my district, perhaps that doesn't do business with the county.

I just want to say, Senator Gellar, in response to you, first of all, I always give mine to the county agencies, and I did this year as well, and I want to just explain it, though. So, I feel personally, and I think it should be a personal decision, that's where we kind of differ, I personally feel we don't fund enough to some of our agencies, like Animal Care. That's a perfect example. Those women came here the last time, and we have a real deficit when it comes to funding TNR. So, you know, I put my money there, and I have in the past gone to animal care issues. The family court issue, again, is something that we fund through, you know, through us

here at the county.

And I just want to mention that the Barrett Partnership with the Homeless, although it's not our agency, it's going for washers and dryers there, and it has a plumbing factory. Some of you may remember, it took almost three years for this county to do a plumbing job there, and it cost millions of dollars by the time it was over. So, in order to avoid that, I ask that this money go directly to them. So, again, so that we don't have to have a contract with the county on the plumbing. So, that's my opinion, and I do it every year. I do it something to our agencies. However, my feeling is it should be up to the individual, that everybody needs to decide for themselves.

I mean, everybody has different needs in their districts, and, you know, and I, as I said, I try to look at this as county money. That's my opinion. But I understand why people don't, and why they use other things, because there's no funding for some things that are very important in the community. So, I just want to say, I don't think one size fits all here, and we need to just respect.

Mr. Mayor, it was not my intention that we discuss this today, because I have to leave in 15 minutes, and I'd like to get to item 68, which is my motion to reconsider your item.

So, because it was brought up, I echo the senator's comments. I think it's personal. So, if it meets a 501c3 criteria, I'm sorry. Okay. So, it's a personal choice, and I will respect each and every one of you when you come up with a chair that you think is worthy of these disposable funds, that we have an ordinance on the books that has been working. I always make a comment that, you know, I don't like others opining on it, but you know what? It is what it is, and we do respectfully get them to the finish line. So, there's no need for change, if you ask me.

I'm going around because it would be a direction to the county administrator, and based on what I've heard so far, there's no direction except your direction. That's all. Great. Let's go on. Okay. What number are we on?

I've withdrawn it. Mr. Mayor, yeah, I need to leave in 10 minutes. Can I ask you to take up item 68?

Sure. Let's just finish 62. Motion? Second? I have a motion second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Show number 62 passing unanimously. Number 68. We're going to go to number 68. Senator Geller is making a motion for reconsideration.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I voted no. I was on the prevailing side. I voted no on your item 68, which was the item to permit you to, or permit the commission to also use our discretionary money or money that was left for salary increases or bonuses, I should say, for other people. In light of the discussion that just occurred, where everybody said that each commissioner should be able to make that determination, I move that we reconsider the vote, by which it failed last time, because I had been planning on saying I don't think that we should make that determination right now. Now, we've just heard that everybody wants each commissioner to be able to determine where that money goes, and if that's the case, then your motion at our last meeting probably should pass. So I am moving to reconsider, or excuse me, to renew your prior motion.

Okay, you got a motion. Any second to his? Okay. I got a motion and a second. All in favor? All in any opposed? You want a discussion?

I'm still not certain what we're talking about here.

First is the motion to get it back on the table.

Oh, okay.

So a show of hands of how many on the table?

Back on the table is fine.

I got six.

Okay.

It's back on the table. Now you want to make your regular motion?

Mr. Mayor, I yield to you, since it was your motion originally.

So hold on. So basically this allows, if I want to allocate to employees that are doing above and beyond and who have worked weekends, it all came about with the OPAGA. So I just want everybody to understand that we have something on the ballot. I shouldn't, you know, but OPAGA required our employees, some work weekends, evenings and stuff, and I wanted to show my gratitude. You could sit there and say all day that's their job, but, you know, they went above and beyond, and that's all I wanted to do with it, and, and, and, and that's it. So I'm, I was looking for the approval to do that. And, you know, maybe we'll do it by a show of hands again, and if we, it goes down the drain, it goes down the drain. Appreciate it, Steve. So how many people would approve that? Show of hands. I got one, two, three, four. I got five. I got approval. Okay.

Motion's in. Are you waiting?

Doesn't he say? I'm going to, so here's the deal. I looked at all these numbers 62 through 68, and I think that pretty much the way we work it now is the individual commissioner is given the authority to do what they want to do with the funds that are budgeted for their office. It's not their money, it's the county money. Like, some people give them internally to agencies, some people give them to 501Cs, some people give it all back. I gave all mine back because I didn't, we didn't use it. Everyone does what their thing is. But if we're going to give it to a 501C, and we don't have controls over what they're doing with their employee bonuses, then I'm fine. If the, if administration can deal with it, give them the bonuses if you want. If there's an individual commissioner that wants to bonus somebody out, and there's no rule on it, I think from an organizational point of view, it's difficult, but I'll support it.

Thank you, Michael. Senator Rich, I know you're against it, but go ahead.

Well, I'm entitled to speak.

Absolutely. I'm opposed. Take it.

I am opposed to it. This is very different to me than giving out money to some of our agencies and 501C3s. There is a process here, and I think Monica has indicated that. And we can, we can talk to her and recommend and say how wonderful somebody did this job and you think they deserve something. But I do not feel we don't touch the lives of 7,000 employees. We touch a handful of them compared to all the employees we have. And it's not right, I don't feel, for us to be doing that. I think that is the role of the county administrator and the process that she and her staff have in place to do this. And we can certainly, as I said, mention that somebody did an outstanding job, you know, but I don't think that it's for us to give money to the individual employees.

Thank you, Senator.

Can I?

Yes.

Commissioner? Yeah. I'm also concerned about, you know, interaction. There's 7,000 employees and I may only interact with a few on a special project. At the end of the day, because they did that for me, I'm going to reward them monetarily. Is there another way that maybe we could use our, I don't know, our office account that we have to show appreciation? And maybe that's a question for the attorney rather than using the taxpayers' dollars, using the leftover campaign money to not necessarily maybe give monetary dollars, but maybe show an appreciation, maybe do a, you know, a get-together, something where you want to show appreciation. Is there a way to do that?

I'm just asking about it. If the board is going to do something like this the way that it's drafted in the motion is how we would recommend it. It avoids or it attempts to address the issues with the non-interference and some other statutory restrictions and with what our employees can receive, even in their pay. So we would recommend going, using this process if the board wants to do something like this where they're having, they're providing input. And I just want to be clear what the motion is, right? And so it's not a motion to, you know, just make a transfer. However, it's to direct the county administrator to modify an existing program so that commissioners could recommend employees to get additional funds that would be funded by, through their office, through their own account.

Okay. So it's really not doing anything but asking the administrator to come up with a program where this could possibly work and bring it back for approval.

Well, it doesn't necessarily bring it back. It's just directing her to make the changes to the program to allow for that to happen. So there's, I mean, you could direct that it come back to the board, but direct that she, you make the changes and she would modify the process so that the commissioners would also recommend employees that would receive funds.

But I just wanted to know, how much is there, is there going to be an amount or just any amount that we want to give? Is that what you're going to come back with or?

So this item does not require me to come back at all. So this motion would just be for me to amend my existing county administrator performance award program to allow for recommendations by the board. And if you all recommend individually an employee, then we certainly would do our due diligence and make sure that, you know, that there's no outstanding employment issues or things like that. And if it's commensurate, then whatever the recommendation would be, and you had the money within your budget, your district budget, then that would be deemed appropriate.

Okay. And then it would come back like this. That's how this has come to us about the nonprofits, the amounts that are going to the employee.

No.

No.

No.

It would just be done.

It's a recommendation to the county administrator saying, hey, I really think this person would appreciate $1,000 from an office account to them working above and beyond, working above and beyond. And I think, if you don't mind me saying, I think Commissioner Udine hit it right on. You go give money to some 501c3 if you want. You don't know if they're taking that as salary as well. You don't know if they're increasing their salary. We have no way to know how they're spending their money as well. But here we know exactly this employee, that employee, has done above and beyond. And I'd like to make a recommendation to the county administrator that an extra $500, an extra $1,000, whatever, you know, to go to that employee for thanks for working weekends, nights, whatever they've done. And I know what's happening with that versus going to a 501c3, and I don't know exactly how they're spending that money. And I have no way to know. You know, but anyway, that's what it is.

Yeah, my only question would be, so we would never know who you're giving the money to. None of us would know.

Right.

And we wouldn't know how much.

I don't know. Is it public record? I assume it's public record.

It would be public record if someone asked for the public record, yes. Yeah.

Okay.

A public record. So, you know, go ahead, Beam. Say your negative thing again.

I'm not saying negative on this. I'm saying that my hope is that the county administrator is doing this on a regular basis, that as a regular part of your job, you are trying to make sure that every department finds a way to let each, all their staff know that they're doing a good job and to, you know, reward them, not necessarily with money, but at least with praise that energizes them to do even more. That's really what you're trying to do. That's the most we can hope for. Not the most we can hope for, but that's what, you know, that's, you know, because we're not, like, like Nan said, we're not going to see all 7,000 people. I see a handful. And those handful, yeah, you know, probably you already know who they are, is my imagination. You know, and today, you see some good morale in this. What I'm seeing is good morale throughout this county for the most part. There's places that there's not, and it's your job to figure out how do you bring that morale back up. It's not necessarily by giving one person money. It's going to be by systematic ways of bringing an entire department back up, because one person's not going to do it. And so, you know, I look more toward what program you're going to be putting together. You already have some. And I assume you're trying to tweak that on a regular basis. How can I make this better? And probably every day you think, how can I make this county better? And that's what you're doing. You know, we're sitting there trying to tweak the edges where we have very little idea of what goes on and on that. You know, I applaud what, because when, you know, when you were mayor last time, you had brought up, brought back that idea of letting, of rewarding people or making notice of who's doing really good work. And I mentioned the guy who did the, got the patent for the mosquito stuff. Amazingly, and I don't know if you saw this, did you see, did you all see this thing with all the counties that had all the dengue fever? You know what county didn't have it that was traveled? Broward. Why? Because of that guy. That's. Yeah, this was in the paper the other day. We were the only ones who didn't. Didn't have any dengue fever initiated here because of the larvicide. That's the kind of stuff that, you know, you make huge notice of that. And there's employees that do stuff like that all the time. And they should be notified, noticed. But they don't have to be, we shouldn't be the ones saying, give them more money. I don't think, I don't think we should be doing that. I, I know I'm totally different on this because I, because at the end of the year, I do give all the money back. Because I think that when, when we do a budget, it is showing the priority, priorities of all of us together. It's not one of us, you know, and it, and, and you know what? We have to trust the wisdom of the nine of us, not the one of us, but the nine of us. And what we say together, because frankly, sometimes we're all, we're all wrong sometimes. And it's better to have that wisdom of the collective be, be the, be what is spoken. And that's when you give your money back, you know, you can say, you know what? I think some of this money should be, and I, and I'm going to say the same thing. I think more money should be going into the TNR. And then when you have a chance to do the, the reorganizations of the money or the re, I forget what it's called. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Okay. Anyway, that's the time and the place to do it is to say when you, when you.

Just vote no on this. He's got to go. Okay. Just vote no.

All right. Enough.

We just have a performance awards program and you have your dollars in your account and you want to give it to that program and allow for the county administrator. To put it in that pool of funds and do what she would normally do. That's different because we are able, I'm able to give my staff. I just want to say I'm able to give my staff a bonus. All right. Because it's my staff, but all the other 7,000 belongs to all of us. So I would prefer that to go to that. All of us could give. That's not what's on the, in front of you right now. So you can vote no on this. I just want to. No, what is in front of me is the fact that we have a program already and we agree that we should make the decision on our funds that we have. So I'm saying it's okay if you want to take your funds and put it into a performance, a counter-wide performance awards program and let the administrator run the program because, you know, we don't meet all of the employees and it doesn't take one employee to get something done. And I'm in the support of you giving your money to the county administrator so she can give to those. But that's not the argument. I understand. I like bothering.

Okay.

I need to call for a vote. Can I have the hands, the hands in favor? I got one, two, three, four. Oh, I got, I got five votes in favor.

Motion and a second.

Pardon me?

Motion and a second.

It already was a motion. I moved. You moved it. He seconded it already. There's already a motion and a second. There's five in favor. Who's the sixth? Since when? Since when do I? No, excuse me. When do I call for extensions on a vote? So we have five or six? Who's the sixth? Are you for this or against? Are you for or against? Okay, great. We have six. We're six. Passing six to three. Pardon me? Six to three. Right. I got it. It's all done. Thank you. Let's move on. Let's go to number 63. Thank you, Michael.

Vice Mayor.

Mar. Thank you very much.

Item 63 is a motion to direct County Attorney's Office to draft agreements or amendments to existing agreements as appropriate and take any other action needed for the donation of County Commission District 1 excess budgeted office account funds for fiscal year 2026 to 1 the 17th Judicial Court of Florida for the Family Court Navigator Program. In the amount of $15,000 to Broward Partnership for the Homeless Incorporated for the amount of $10,000 and three for additional trap new release vouchers through Broward County Animal Care Division. In the remaining amount of excess funds, no members of the public assignment to speak on the item.

Number 63, all in favor? Any opposed? Show the passing 8-0. Next.

Item 64 is a motion to direct County Attorney's Office to draft agreements with the designated municipality and charitable organizations for a total donated amount of $24,000 in projected excess office account funds for County Commission District 9 for fiscal year 2026. No members of the public assignment to speak on the item.

Do I have a motion? I have a motion on 64. I have a second. All in favor? Any opposed? Show the passing 8-0. Next.

Item 66 is a motion to direct County Administrator to take any administrative and budgetary actions necessary to transfer $5,000 in remaining District 5 budgeted office account funds for fiscal year 2026 to the Broward County Cultural Division. No members of the public assignment to speak on the item.

Whose item is this? So this is Gellar's $5,000 to Cultural. I'll make a motion to approve.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Show passing 8-0. Next.

Item 67 is a motion to direct County Attorney's Office to draft agreements for the donation of County Commission District 8 excess budgeted office account funds for fiscal year 2026 to one Zeta Chi in 1954 education and foundation incorporated in an amount of up to $33,000 to fund its community service programs. And two, the Florida Emergency Management Association incorporated in an amount of $100 to fund disaster relief programs for the elderly, homeless, or impoverished. No members of the public have signed up to speak on the item.

Item 67. Do I have a motion? I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Show the passing 8-0. Next. Are we done? We're done? Okay. That's great. That gives us time. Let's go around the dais for a commissioner report. Start with Commissioner Davis.

No report.

Oh, great. Let's keep it going.

I have a couple things I want to say.

Oh.

No. I just want to mention that since they'll probably be doing public records requests on all this, so I don't have anything on the agenda to give back because I just let it flow back to the county. So in case anyone's looking, I don't want to say, what, Michael, you didn't. Did he spend all his or he did it? It just went back to the county.

You gave yours to the sheriff, just to let you know.

I gave 140,000 over 6.8 million, whatever that percent is. That's what I gave to the sheriff, and I gave the rest to affordable housing. I gave some to TNR because I gave it back to the general fund. So whatever you funded, that's what I gave it back to in my percentage. I attended the Home Rule Hero Award for the League of Cities. I just want to thank them for all they're doing because we work quite closely with the League of Cities, and there's a lot of stuff coming up on the November 3rd ballot, and we're pretty much all in the same boat on this. And just the educational outreach that they do, I think that's important to put out there. And that's my comments, Mayor.

Thank you. Senator Rich?

Was that long?

No, it was okay. Time was?

You did it within the two-minute time limit. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Yeah, I don't have a report today.

Great.

How are you?

Great.

How are you?

Yeah, you're eight. Three seconds, Mayor. I just want to congratulate Monica for being elected president of the 2026-2027 term to lead Florida Association of County Managers. Thank you for that. Earl Bosworth, who used to work here, went to City of Pompano, is assistant city manager, is now newly hired as the city manager for City of Lyles Point. Congratulations to Earl. And I wish and happy retirement to Elia O'Connell from our Water and Wastewater Service Department after her many years of service. Thank you. Senator Geller, I see nothing. Next.

Okay. Just want to let you know, watch out for District 9. We're going to have our pop-up location as we continue to do our outreach, Mr. Mayor. And because I know you must leave, I will cut my comments until our next meeting. And thank you for allowing all of us to speak.

I have no comments.

I have nothing. Thank you.

County Attorney?

Be back here at 501 for the budget hearing.

501. Right. Sharp. Thank you. This meeting is adjourned.