Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the City Commission meeting this March 19, 2026. We're filming a movie here today, I guess. These lights are so bright. It's a weird color, Mayor. Is this like turtle lighting? Yeah, not turtle lighting. I'd run out to the sea, too. Anyway, thank you all for being here today. We have a number of items to discuss this afternoon. But with every meeting, we begin now with our City Commission reports. Did you say something, David? Mayor? Yes. We would typically begin with the CRA meeting. I can't hear you. We would typically begin with the CRA meeting and then go into the conference meeting now. You want to do the CRA meeting first? That one's noticed for 1.30. All right, folks. We will jump into the CRA meeting. Community Redevelopment Agency Board. Mr. Clerk, would you please call the roll? Vice Chair Herbst? Present. Commissioner Glossman? Here. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman? Here. Commissioner Sorensen? Here. Chair Trantals? Here. So for those of you who are seeing us on the Internet, I just want to announce that the Vice Mayor was not able to attend in person for personal reasons, and Commissioner Beasley-Pittman is not able to be here in person for personal reasons. So the remaining commissioners, myself, the Commissioner Glassman and Commissioner Sorensen, will be able to conduct the meeting according to city charter. As long as there's a majority that are present, we can continue with the meeting. Nonetheless, the Vice Mayor and Commissioner Beasley-Pittman will be allowed to vote, and we'll be able to conduct our business in the normal course. Okay. So we have our first motion, M1, motion approving minutes of the February 17, 2026 Community Redevelopment Agency Board meeting. Would someone like to move the item? Moved. Second. They're moved and seconded. Please call the roll. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman? Yes. Commissioner Sorensen? Yes. Vice Chair Herbst? Yes. Commissioner Glassman? Yes. Chair Trantals? Yes. An M1 is now approved, M2, motion approving a services agreement between the City of Fort Lauderdale and the Fort Lauderdale Community Redevelopment Agency. Anyone have any questions with regard to this item? There being none, would someone like to move the item? So moved. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman moved. Commissioner Glassman seconded. Please call the roll. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman? Yes. Commissioner Sorensen? Yes. Vice Chair Herbst? Yes. Commissioner Glassman? Yes. Chair Trantals? Yes. An M2 is now approved. M3, motion accepting the Fort Lauderdale Community Redevelopment Agency annual report and audit report and authorizing to transmit to the taxing districts. Anyone have any questions with regard to M3? There being none, would someone like to move the item? Moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Please call the roll. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman? Yes. Commissioner Sorensen? Yes. Vice Chair Herbst? Yes. Commissioner Glassman? Yes. Chair Trantals? Yes. And M3 is now approved. Is there any further business of the CRA Agency Board? There's none, Mayor. There's none. This meeting is now concluded. We'll now go back to the conference meeting and we'll begin with commission reports. Vice Mayor, do you have any reports? Yes, I do. This is actually more of a question. So I understand that a follow-up meeting was had with Inter-Miami regarding Lockhart Park design. Just like a status update on that? During my report, I'll be giving that. Okay. Well, all right. I'll address my comments and questions then at that time. So in that case, I've got nothing further at this point. Okay. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman? I'm going to pass today. Thank you. Okay. Did you have fun in Washington? Oh, very busy. Very productive. I will be sharing that at another point. I'm going to give something in writing for everyone. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Commissioner Glassman? Yes. Thank you, Mayor. March 4th, a very interesting meeting at the Convention Center, Broward Workshop, putting on the 18th annual State of the County. It's always reassuring to hear what's happening in our county and the positivity, especially as it centers around our city, Fort Lauderdale. Later that day, I did join you, Mayor, and Commissioner Sorensen at the Ribbon Cutting for Thrive Art District in Progresso Village. Again, I've mentioned this several times. I would just tell folks, if you haven't been there, you should get there. What the gentlemen have done there, the Fish Brothers, in terms of turning a very, very desolate area of not just my district, but for the entire city, into exactly what the name is, Thrive, Thrive Art District. The hundreds and hundreds of people that are coming there for all of the activities, they're about 80% rented now. Now, it's really quite an accomplishment, and I'm still going to push that the city does more in terms of sidewalks, connectivity, lighting, parking. We need to just tie that ribbon and make it really a complete area, because what has happened there from the developer's side has been really incredible. When you look at that arts district and you connect that with the Mass District and Flagler Village and Fat Village, we've really, and including even the downtown where we are, the arts and entertainment district, we've created a really nice corridor of arts and cultural activities, really uplifting the entire city. And congratulations to those folks. March 5th, I had the pleasure of speaking at the Marine Advisory Board, quite an engaged group. It's always great to see the work that goes on there, and it's always really a very positive experience, and thank them for their service as well. March 7th, Mayor, we were at the Human Rights Campaign Dinner held at the Fort Lauderdale Harbor Beach Marriott. Very well attended, dealing with many current events of the day. Unfortunately, most of them are not positive when it comes to the LGBTQ community, but it was really a good gathering there. A lot of issues aired, and very important. March 10th, I had the pleasure of meeting with about 30 business leaders downtown to discuss what's happening in our city as it relates to business, how far we've come, more importantly where we are going as a city, and how that affects business in our city. Thank you to the folks that showed up at that meeting as well. March 11th, I had the pleasure of speaking at the Sailboat Bend Civic Association meeting. Again, our city's only, only residential historic district. And it's always a pleasure to be there in the incredible historic fire museum. What a great location that is. March 13th, the distinct pleasure of touring our brand-new police headquarters. I want to thank the chief and everyone on that tour. It was really an excellent, excellent tour. I'm very impressed with that facility. So state-of-the-art, so incredibly encompassing for every need that you can think. And it really is a facility that our police deserve and our city deserves at the same exact time. That afternoon, a very important meeting, and joined Commissioner Sorensen at that meeting with the chief and many other officers. We had a meeting with our city's local rabbis in the aftermath of the Michigan synagogue tragedy, and so many others that are happening around not just our state, country, but the world. It was a good meeting. It was a good meeting to reassure the Jewish community and the rabbis from Fort Lauderdale that we have their back and that we will do what we need to do to make sure that that community feels safe and that those synagogues feel safe. Again, thank you to the chief for that meeting and for the tour. I really appreciate it. March 14th, we had such a good time at the City of Fort Lauderdale, our St. Patrick's Day Parade. It was great to be there. Always the energy. You know, the next day we also – actually, we had the street striping on the 13th, the parade on the 14th, and the Emerald Society breakfast was out in Coral Springs on the 15th that I attended as well. So three days jam-packed of celebrating St. Patrick's Day. The spirit is always great. And the Emerald Society breakfast, again, they must get about 1,000 people at that breakfast. The scholarships that they provide for the young students, it's really a great group and so deserving of what comes their way, and I wanted to say thank you to them for the work that they do as well. I would like to ask, actually, a question while I'm talking about St. Patrick's Day for the city attorney. Have we determined or are we still trying to clarify what our role will be in the future with regards to St. Patrick's Day? I know that it's not an official holiday. It's not on the state list of holidays. It's not a federal holiday. Would that entire celebration be in jeopardy next year? Commissioner, we're working to provide a more comprehensive analysis of all of it. In the most conservative view, you're absolutely correct. It's those items that are both federal holidays and state holidays, and many things that you would expect our holidays are not. So we'll be providing that to you along with guidance going forward. Okay, thank you. It'll be interesting to see how that all plays out in the future. March 17th, again, this was a distinct honor. I served as a presenter, and also I installed the brand-new 2026 Broward chapter of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association Board of Directors at the beautiful Sonesta Hotel. And I wanted to thank all of those people for their service. Obviously, the hospitality industry is vital to the success of our economy. That's a great group. I think it's the largest membership of any of the chapters of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association. So congratulations to them for their work. It was a pleasure to be with them. Yesterday, two events in the evening. Shop for a Cause at the Lilly Pulitzer store on Los Olos Boulevard was excellent because of the fact that the people were in such a great spirit, and Lilly Pulitzer was donating 10% of all the sales that day to the Pink Angels Memorial Foundation, which is basically in support of breast cancer patients and their families at Memorial Cancer Institute, a great cause. And I would thank everyone involved for that. That was also done in conjunction with Los Olos Boulevard and Isles Magazine. And then in the evening, I had the pleasure of meeting with the Flagler Village Civic Association. We had talked as a commission about what our next steps were going to be with the one-stop shop site, and I was asked to convene and contact the DDA, which I did. The Downtown Development Authority came together with the Flagler Village Civic Association last night. We had a great meeting. It was an excellent presentation by the Downtown Development Authority, basically going through the history of what it took to get to where we are with Huizinga Park, and then what the possibilities were, and then what the next steps are. It was well attended, and everyone there was very supportive of moving forward. I couldn't bring up the... What's that, Pam? She's... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt. Go ahead. Okay, no problem. Okay. So I would just ask city staff if we can just keep moving along that path and figure out what we're going to do so time just doesn't pass us by. The neighborhood had a lot of good ideas, and I think that we can certainly continue to move forward with that. I know that they would appreciate that as well. I would also just mention, and I'm going to actually talk a little bit briefly about an item that I've been reading about all over social media, but before I get to that, although it does sort of connect, I did want us to congratulate the retirement for Ford. I don't know if Ford will be on your list when you announce the retirees this evening, Mayor, but that's a 17-year-old American Mustang who's part of our mounted unit and is retiring. Hope he has a wonderful retirement, and hopefully we'll mention him when we mention the retirees this evening. That's quite a horse, and it's really, really nice. Thanks. I wanted to just discuss quickly if I might ask the chief of police to come to the podium. So, Chief, I've been reading a lot about. I heard a lot about that night. We had a little bit of an incident on the beach. I'm going to bring up the one on Hemershey Street. I want to show the video. Okay. This is the beach one. The beach one. Okay, go ahead. You take Hemershey. I'll take the beach. Okay. Okay. Although they're both in District 2, but it's okay. I'm going to pass that to you. We won't hold you to that. Thank you very much. So, Chief, I was made aware of what was happening, when it was happening, and I've heard, I know a lot of social media carried it. I've been seeing videos and people just posting all over the place. If you could just very succinctly tell us what happened, what you were aware of, how it was handled as easily as possible. Absolutely. Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commission, Bill Schultz, Chief of Police. So, reference the incident on March 17th. We were made aware of this potential gathering prior to the event. Thankfully, thanks to our very positive interaction and relationships with our local youth in middle and high schools, they actually brought it to our attention that this event may occur. After that, as soon as we got the notice, we planned, and that planning mattered. We increased the staffing on the barrier island. We deployed a wide range of resources to include additional patrol officers, additional motors, additional mounted, our quick response team, criminal investigations, so on and so forth. We also coordinated, and this is important, we coordinated with the Broward County School Board, their police department, and their security department, and we actually crafted a message that we sent in advance via the normal means of communication to the students' parents. And we sent that message three days in advance, four days in advance of that potential gathering, advising parents, this has been advertised to your children. Please have a conversation with your children about attending or not attending. While the crowd was large, the event itself lasted approximately five hours, ended around 10 p.m. We most importantly had no major incidents. There were a number of small squirmishes and fights, which were immediately broke up by officers. There were three arrests during the time. One was an adult resident arrested for battery law enforcement officer and had narcotics on him. Another was a notice to appear of a local adult for disorderly conduct. And the last was a juvenile resident who was arrested for theft. The broader point here is we cannot stop people from coming to the beach. We know that. But what we can do is prepare. We can surge our resources, just as we did, and we can respond effectively. It's exactly what we did in that situation. Now, I will tell you, that night I was out there the entire night. I was actually on site, mostly up in the Beach Place area. The weather did end up playing a factor. It became very cold and very rainy. So I think a number of the individuals in attendance left due to the weather. But I will absolutely say, when this occurred, our officers responded in such a noble and commendable way. I could not be more proud of how they handled this situation that night. And we did work very closely with our city manager and other officials throughout the night to make sure that this was handled as specifically as it was and in correct fashion. So that was the summary of that night, and I'll open it up if you have any questions. No, thank you for that. And I'm glad you mentioned the notice that went out and how we were anticipating. It always boggles my mind that all of the – now, a lot of kids were actually middle school, correct? Yeah, there were some very young middle school children. I mean, middle school and high school, I don't know where the parents are. I'm glad there were notices that went out, but maybe we can work even closer with the school board because it has to get a message out to the parents. I can't even imagine that that's okay, that all of these kids – you know, that's a school night, right? Tuesday night? Yeah. Well, it was – Are they off school right now? They're on spring break this week. They're off. So what exactly – describe to us what this event was publicized as being. So there was a – obviously an unofficial, unsanctioned event. So someone made a graphic, an advertisement, that ultimately went out on at least Instagram. I'm told it probably went out on Snap and other means as well. It was just a one-page graphic that had the logos of all the county schools and invited everyone to come to the beach at the same day on the same time. The time was incorrect. It was – at first it was noon, then it was changed to 10 a.m., and the majority did not show until starting at 4 p.m. But that's what garnered the attention of individuals. On the advertisement, there were various things mentioned, but it was primarily to advise the local youth to all come to the beach on that day at some time. So just to show up? Just to show up. Okay. It wasn't in protest of anything. It was not. It wasn't to confront other groups. It wasn't meant to be a staging area for, you know, any kind of conflict resolution. It was just simply to show up. As far as I know, yes. Any estimate of the number that showed up in the day? So I'm still working on a more official approximate count, but it was certainly many hundreds. And if I were just to guess by what I saw, closer to 800 to 1,000 throughout the five-hour span. Excellent. Well, I want to thank you, and I want to thank the entire department, because I have heard nothing but praise from the beach community, from that whole Central Beach area, the neighborhoods, all of those streets. And actually, I've heard it from people that typically are not so complimentary. So I would say thank you, because that's an outstanding job that was done. The anticipation is so important, so we didn't have a repeat of what we saw last year. And I just want to say thank you, because, again, great job. Job well done, and it's really greatly appreciated, not just for District 2, but for the entire city. Thank you, Commissioner. And I want to say that that thanks truly belongs to the women and the men of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department. We are truly blessed to have one of the absolute finest forces in this nation, and I could not be more proud of them. Thank you. Thank you. I agree. Mayor, that's it for me. I was going to talk about him, Michelle. I'll let you have it. You've got the videos. I'll chime in when you do your thing. But I know that that was also on my list, but I wanted to make sure. I wanted to also find out, city manager, the IPW conference, for those of you that don't know, the largest tourist conference in the world is coming to Fort Lauderdale in May. I just want to make sure, because I've been hearing about this from people, what are we doing? Are we going to do banners? How's the beach going to be affected? Are we going to play this conference up to welcome these? I guess we're expecting like 6,000 delegates to this conference. It's that big. Are we working towards? So the city manager has something to say on that. I did just ask her. Yes, thank you. Thank you, Commissioner and Mayor. Yes, we are coordinating on the IPW conference that's coming to the Broward County Convention Center. We want to make sure that Fort Lauderdale is as beautiful, safe, and inviting as possible when those event goers come to our city. We're going to be working on banners with the Beach Improvement District. We also want to work on a closing reception activation with Visit Lauderdale. We are going to enhance our major corridors. So think on the beach, La Solis. We want to make sure that they're as beautiful as possible during that time period. Excellent. I just want to make sure, because I'm getting asked a lot about that. So I really, really appreciate that. Just very briefly, I know that March 23rd, which is this coming Monday, we're all going to gather and celebrate what has been accomplished at the Huizinga Park. March 24th, the 372nd Police Academy graduates wearing in ceremony at the new police station. And on March 26th, I'll be hosting for District 2 our Neighborhood Association President's Roundtable. That's it for me, Mayor. Thank you. Okay. Commissioner Cusorenci. Thanks, Mayor. Appreciate it. City Manager for IPW, is the Mayor or the Commissioners playing any role in welcoming the conference to our city? We can certainly coordinate that with the Visit Lauderdale team. There are several moments of engagement and interaction that can be scheduled around your availability. So we'll work with Visit Lauderdale on that aspect. That'd be great. Thanks. I'd like to be part of that and defer to the Mayor on that, but I think that'd be great. Okay. Thank you very much. Just some additional comments on some of what we've already talked about. Fantastic St. Patrick's Day parade, striping and parade. So thank you, Parks and Rec staff. Thank you, police, fire. Fantastic job making sure that was safe and fun time. We had a... We're going to put your sport jacket in the St. Patrick's Hall of Fame. I'd appreciate that. Will that be next to your Speedo? Yes. That's at the Swimming Hall of Fame. Right. Maybe it could be a moving gallery where we just bring it to different parts of the city. So fantastic. I'll look forward to that. I'll make sure to dry clean it in advance. Get it ready. Thanks. Went to the Edgewood Civic Association, and they honored Allied Kitchen and Bath. And especially for just their great volunteerism, Allied Kitchen and Bath have contributed to the Edgewood Clubhouse and just doing such a great job in supporting our neighborhoods. So I wanted to thank Bill Feinberg and the whole Allied team. So that was great. I was honored to participate in the Witten Rogers Educational Center's annual Women in Action Seminar. And I was there with Commissioner Beasley Pittman, which was just great, celebrating the students and all the folks that came to be there. That was wonderful. I want to also thank our, and maybe we've already done this, but our Chief Waterway Officer, Marco Aguilera, has left for bluer pastures, let's say. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. He just has done a great job, and thank you for those who have supported him and worked with him and the Marine Advisory Board and much more work to do. But we've really set the standard for having Fort Lauderdale lead in terms of waterway quality initiatives, living seawalls, mangroves, lowering the speed on the ICW. I mean, it just, pump out boat, it just goes on and on what the City Commission with Marco's leadership has done. So very, very grateful for that. Also, City Manager, I just want to touch on, if it's possible, with Milos and our continued good work in partnering with the county, the port, on 17th Street, port traffic, and just the challenges. We have a working group that I know Milos is helping lead. I'd love to hear just a little update, how that's going, how we're trying to address the bottleneck that is created in large part by the significant number of cruise ships, conventions that are coming in now. Thanks. Absolutely. Thank you very much. Good afternoon. Milos Mastori is Director for the City's Transportation and Mobility Department. So there are a lot of traffic challenges around the port and the convention center. We recognize those concerns. We create a task force meeting around monitoring traffic and managing traffic, and we hold monthly meetings with representatives from our police department, Broward Sheriff's Office, Florida Department of Transportation, and Miami-Dade County Board Division, who does roadway design and those who operate signals, our strategic communication, the port, convention center, including their supporting staff. So there were a number of things that have been done so far. So on our end, I think most impactful is what our city's police department is doing, which is helping manage the traffic on Eisenhower and Southeast 17th Street, as well as US 1 and State Road 84. I think that's the most impactful. Broward Sheriff's Office also is helping manage traffic inside of the port and convention center area. I think that they have realigned resources in order to do that job a bit better. There is also effort that the county is helping with, which is revising some of the signage and payment markings along State Road 84, approaching the security gate for the bypass road as well, also making some roadway improvements by Eisenhower and Southeast 20th Street as well in order just to enable traffic to flow a little better. So those are some of the short-term improvements that have already been done. We will continue our discussions with the entire group, but in terms of some of the longer-term improvements, one of the most impactful would be improvement or increase in parking capacity at the port and at the convention center. So based on the feedback that we're getting from those two entities, there are planned improvements within the next five-year capital plan for either one of the two. So there is very limited parking capacity right now, and I think that that is what's creating some challenges. Additionally, I think that improvement in transit service would also be beneficial, and we will be participating in review of Broward County's comprehensive operational plan, which looks at how their transit service operates currently and what would be most beneficial change in the way that they operate transit service. So that will be happening within the next couple of weeks, and our goal is to see what kind of interim service as part of that effort could be provided between the airport, the seaport, and convention center in advance of larger premium mobility plan, which is in a process of development, I would say, but it wouldn't be delivered before 2032. So we have to make sure that we do something and do it quicker, even if that means that bus rapid transit service or similar is implemented between these main points of interest or destinations. All right, thanks. And, yeah, I think you hit on the importance of sooner matters, and the parking solutions are years off, right, for the port. The transportation, if there's ways we can expedite that sooner, I think it would be great, city manager, to move people. Well, another factor, and it's tied into parking, but it's just the traffic stacking that happens on 17th and going into the port. Is there anything, in your view, that the port of the county could do to improve that traffic stacking that's happening right now? So what we have done, we have installed some of the variable message signs in order to give drivers far in advance information as to which travel lane that they should really be taking in order to get to the port, depending whether they're coming from the east or the west. So our police department, I think, is doing a fantastic job in managing demand because before our police was out there, the box or the intersection entirely would be completely blocked, and that is unfortunately the cause of both demand supply and also behavior of the drivers. So I think that what we can do is very limited, and I think that we will have to focus on our solution really on increasing capacity within the port and reducing demand somehow, some way. So one of the solutions that I would like to focus also on is potentially working with the port and convention center to enable for some type of park and ride opportunities, right? So not everyone who is trying to go for a cruise has to park at the port, right? Maybe there are facilities that are a little further away and that clients could use some type of bus service to get from those parking facilities to the port because ultimately every vehicle matters when we are trying to manage already saturated roadway network. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. And City Manager, this is, you know, as we've talked about, a top concern so we can continue to support. Thank you. Milos, can I? I'm sorry, go ahead. But, Ben, to your point, though, you know, there is a significant amount of new passenger service at the cruise port, and that's great. I think it's a vibrant cruise port, and more and more people are finding Fort Lauderdale as the departure point and destination point. And you're a member of the MPO, and you hear at our meetings the county talking about their primo plan, and, you know, Milos, you referenced, you know, the port, the airport, seaport transportation systems. They are out in the future. I mean, we've been talking about this for the last 25 years here in Briard County, and luckily now we have a one-cent sales tax, which is dedicated for transportation purposes, and we'll be able to tap into that money to be able to design and build it. But it is a ways off. And so a lot of people are concerned that trying to get to the hospital, which is really what the e-mail was about, is the ambulances are choked in traffic. So, Chief Golan, Chief Golan, can you come up here for a second with Milos? And I think there's a little bit of a misnomer into thinking that, you know, when you call for 911 emergency help, that all they do is show up in a car and throw you in the back seat, and, you know, and you're on your way to the hospital. I think that science and technology has improved significantly. And, Chief, you had once explained to us what happens in an ambulance that in terms of trying to deal with trauma and trying to deal with an emergency situation, you once described that these ambulances have almost the same level of service as one would see in an emergency room. Could you explain to us a little bit about what your EMS trucks do contain? Absolutely, Mayor, Commissioner. Thank you for the opportunity. Stephen Golan, your fire chief. So, great question. Over the years, our rescue units or ambulances have evolved well past just a taxi or Uber to the hospital. They've honestly become almost many emergency rooms that are out in the field. We now carry over 40 medications, including just as early as last week, whole blood, and are able to do surgical-type procedures even on scene, such as finger thoracostomy, crikes, and things of that nature should they be needed. When talking about the traffic and the challenge that we have getting to them, we also have devices in our truck that are preemptive devices that actually change the lights and signal ahead on major thoroughfare so that we're able to change those lights. Sometimes you will see our units taking the path of least resistance and going against traffic so they can navigate around, but they're all trained to do that. Ultimately, once we get on scene, we're able to render that care and to be in direct contact with the hospital should we need orders from the physician at the hospital. Most recently, in the last couple months, we've actually gone to what we refer to as stay on scene and treat the patient or stay in play, where we'll work, say, a cardiac event such as a code for sometimes 20 to 30 minutes on scene before we'll move that patient. What clinical studies have shown is that staying on scene and providing that life-saving treatment on scene is far better than trying to load the patient and navigate them to the closest hospital. We are blessed here in Fort Lauderdale of having transport times that are normally less than 30 minutes. When you look across the country, transport times to facilities that have stroke centers or cardiac catheterizations or trauma centers are sometimes well over an hour. Here in Fort Lauderdale, we're blessed with that 30-minute time and also having all of that equipment on the trucks to begin that treatment. Just to give some numbers with the whole blood that went into effect last week, last Tuesday, we partnered with the local trauma center, Broward Health. So we did it a little differently than other municipalities have done. There's only 250 municipalities or fire departments in the country that are currently offering the whole blood program, the ability to administer. All of the other programs throughout the country haven't paired up with their emergency rooms, and we took a different route here with Broward Health, being that that's the only trauma center that we primarily transport to. It's afforded us the ability to get the blood in an exchange program from Broward Health at no cost to the taxpayers. The other side of that is also blood is one of the most invaluable commodities that we have here on the face of the earth because it's harvested from other individuals. It only has a lifespan of 21 days, and we don't ever want to waste something so precious. So we also are in exchange with Broward Health where we exchange that blood every 14 days. The blood that we don't use in the field is then taken into surgeries and utilized, so there's zero waste and zero cost to the taxpayers of Fort Lauderdale. All right, great. Thank you so much. I appreciate you're helping us out and understanding what facilities and opportunities we have here in our city. So thank you. I hope that's helpful to the people that have expressed concern about that. Certainly getting to the emergency is one thing, but leaving from it is also part of it. We're a growing city. Obviously, you know, we're going to have growing pains. The bypass road, the connector certainly has helped to some degree. We're in the height of season, so everyone wants to leave out of Fort Lauderdale and go to the Caribbean Islands. And then people just come here as the destination in and of itself. Pier 66 being popular now is also another destination and choke point that adds to the traffic, and then certainly the convention center activity itself. We boast about how we're getting these great conventions, but then we tremble when they come because of the impact that they have. But your concern, Commissioner, is well taken, and hopefully our staff can continue to work with the county to try to mitigate these difficult situations. So thank you, Milos. Milos, I just have one question. Thank you. Has there ever been any discussion at any of these meetings about staggering the arrival and departure time of when we have seven or eight ships in the port? To me, when you have 30,000 people coming and going at the exact same times, why can't they look at ways to make those ships come in at different times of the day and depart different times of the day? Yeah, that is a good point. I think that what has happened over the last couple of years is that it looks like that in terms of capacity of a number of ships that the port is accommodating, they have kept that number to the same number, which is eight ships maximum in the port per day, right? What has happened over the last couple of years is that ships became much larger, and also frequency of their arrival and departure has increased, right? So with the frequency, I think it looks like that it's much harder to manage the arrival and departure times. But just to maybe cover one more topic, through these discussions over the last couple of months, we're trying also to focus on understanding a little more in real time what's happening along the corridors and approaching the port and U.S.1. So we have been talking with the Florida Department of Transportation, who has a regional transportation management center that they operate, which is their command center from which they operate or oversee operation of the highways and arterials. Our South East 17th Street was not part of that effort, but we're discussing with them, and they're willing to help us monitor traffic conditions on South East 17th. So within the next couple of weeks, we will hope to have a plan for that. Typically, they do it from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, but they're willing to expand that on the weekends as well, as we see it beneficial. And as part of one of the recent projects, there is technology, or there was a technology that was installed to help us monitor those metrics. We will absolutely explore, to your point, whether there is any way to stagger them. But, again, initial feedback that we got is what I have explained. Okay. Thanks. If you could bring it up just to see what they say. Absolutely. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Commissioner Mayer, for your support on this. Milos, another project that you've been helping lead, which has been great, is working with FDOT on traffic signalization along 17th and the Barrier Island. If you could give us just a quick update on that as well, how that's progressing. Absolutely. So as part of the recent project, all along Sunrise Boulevard east of US-1 to A1A, A1A to Southeast-17 and Southeast-17 to US-1, there were smart signals that were installed, what we call adaptive traffic signal technology, including some of the components of technology that allow us to track the performance of the traffic and speeds and travel times and stuff. So the project was completed by FDOT, since those are FDOT-owned and operated roadways, and Broward County Traffic Engineering is taking over the operation as they normally operate and maintain traffic signals. So the project was completed. There was a period of time during which Broward County was conducting some field observations. What they call optimal traffic timing patterns should be in place right now. They're still conducting reviews, making certain tweaks. But, again, demand and supply and also bridge operation is really affecting our ability to coordinate well signals along the corridor, right? So any time bridge goes up, it affects really ability of traffic to move and ability of the signals to properly correspond or respond to demand. Thank you. Thanks for your work. That's going to help make a difference. So thank you on that. Two other just quick points. This is a minor, Mayor, just kind of configuration. In talking with a couple of charter officers, an idea just for configuration of our room until we get to the police station hopefully soon is possibly moving just an idea is moving the tables where the two charter officers sit maybe kind of perpendicular with our dais to allow them a little bit more visibility to see the public and kind of engage a little bit more than how they're currently configured, if that's something we could explore. That's up to them. You know, and certainly when we move over to the police station, we can certainly set that up perhaps in a curvilinear fashion so that we can all see each other up on the dais because in the year-old city hall we all sat up there, scrunched up there. Right, it was tight. But we're all up there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But certainly, you know, it makes a lot of sense. I know they'll feel more comfortable too. Okay. Yeah. Great. Thanks, Mayor. And last one, and Commissioner Glassman, I know you're on the solid, waste. I was going to bring that up. Oh, you're going to bring that up? Yeah, I'll bring that up. And then I'll defer to you because they just asked me about their meeting Friday. So I'll defer to you on that, Mayor. That's it, Mayor. Thanks. Okay, great. All right. I have a few things to go over. Just in terms of events, everyone has pretty much mentioned a lot of the things that we all participated in. A couple things that were a little different, though. On March 5th, I attended the NSU Museum Art Teen Exhibit. This was really a great night. Commissioner Sorensen was there and saw hundreds of young kids who were displaying their artwork. And it was a great program sponsored by the museum, which to me shows how important it is to bring young people into and expressing their artistic talents. And so it was great to see that it was sponsored by a couple of the big donors of the museum. So we're very thankful to the sponsors who participated in that and made it happen. And the next day was Ina Lee's birthday party. And we were all there. We were very appreciative. Ina, she was, I guess I shouldn't repeat her age, but it was a great birthday party. Well, it said it on the banner. I know, but 80? Oh, shh. Okay. Great lady, has been an unbelievable partner with the city and the community in making so much on the beach happen today. She's been on every committee, been a part of all the visioning that has taken place over the last 30 years. And much of the success of the beach is a result of her input and her collaborating with everybody and bringing people together. So it was a tribute well worth where she has taken our community forward. With regard to the St. Patrick's Day Festival and weekend, we were visited by the Earl Ivy, who is a member of the Guinness family, who helped march with us. Yes, you didn't mention that. So the Earl was there. That's right. I saved the big news for you, man. Okay. Thank you. But we were honored with having him here. He really loved our parade, thought it was one of the best parades he's ever been in. And certainly we hold no candle to those in Ireland, but at the same time, we feel very proud of our parade. I know the new statute, if you read it strictly, prohibits us from having the parade because it refers to an ethnic organization and there's no national or state holiday that's been made by any of the legislatures. So we've got to carefully navigate what we do going forward after January of next year should the governor sign that law. So let's see, on March 15th, I presented two proclamations at Christ Church over in Coral Ridge. The Nova Singers were celebrating their 50th anniversary and also the Florida Singing Sons also celebrated their 50th anniversary. The church was completely packed and they put on an amazing program and very proud to have them in our community and as part of the cultural enrichment in which we all get to share. Last night, I attended at the Tower Club, an event that was sponsored by the Hungarian Economic Attaché from New York. He came down from New York City to host a group of folks, mostly of Hungarian-American origin. And it was really great. It was the first time we did this. And what? Okay. And a lot of good... Hungary. Yes. Anyway, so Hungary... Did I mispronounce it? No. Okay. Okay. Anyway, it was great. Got to see a lot of new faces and some of the familiar faces as well. Want to thank the Tower Club for participating and allowing that to happen. And it was just a great event to meet some new people and to invite them into our community. So next week is going to be exciting for a number of us who are going to join the Greater Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce in the Washington Summit fly-in. That's going to start Monday and go through Thursday of next week. I will be attending that. And I don't think anyone else in the commission is going. So... But I'll be happy to share what results. We get to meet with a lot of congresspeople, members of the administration, and we certainly have the opportunity to get to meet face-to-face with a lot of the folks that make decisions. So we're very happy to have this opportunity once again. I want to thank Dan Lindblad and the Chamber for putting this together once again. And I think it always reaps great dividends for our city as we get to learn more and more about what goes on in Washington, and they get to know more and more what goes on here in our city. March 28th, that's the following weekend, we have the city's family picnic at Snyder Park. So looking forward to seeing everybody there. It's always fun. I'll be serving beer from 11 o'clock to 1. Yes. Yeah. Some thirsty people. And let's see, also... We have a bartending license for that. Yeah. Let's see. March 31st is going to be the VIP opening of the Lauderdale Tropical Bear Week at the Sinesta Hotel. I'll be presenting a proclamation and welcoming that group who will be vacationing here and celebrating their community's event here in our city. And then April 2nd, we have the Lexus Corporate Run at 6.30 p.m. that begins next to the Broward Center. So Commissioner Glassman, put on your running shoes and hopefully you'll be able to make it this year. Thank you. Yeah, well... Okay. All right. Let's talk about a few issues. Solid waste. So yesterday I got a call from Commissioner Beam-Furr who made me aware that there's a meeting tomorrow. Commissioner Glassman, do you want to talk a little bit about what's going on there and what this meeting is about and why they want us to participate? Sure. Well, first of all, Mayor, I do know that we've been trying to schedule a meeting to have an update on exactly what's been happening with the county and the Solid Waste Authority. Do we have any idea when that's going to be happening, City Manager? Because I know that we've been waiting for a while. Sure. I'm going to invite Brad Kane, our Public Works Director, to give an update. Sure. Push the microphone. I always have that problem with my... Yeah, we're going to bring some items forward in May. The county, the SWA consultant is going to make a presentation on the future of what the SWA is to look like in participating cities. And then staff is going to have another presentation basically reviewing the Solid Waste Master Plan and the facilities amended agreement. So those two items will be coming in May. A decision to join the SWA does not have to be formalized until July. That's when the county and the SWA are expecting a commitment from all the municipalities. So we have some time, but those items will come in May. Thank you. So I'm glad you're giving me that data and that information because that's very pertinent to tomorrow. So tomorrow there is a meeting of the governing, I guess, governing board, you can call it. It's every single city in the county. They've been having... And I'm going to be really honest about how I feel about what's going on with the Solid Waste Authority and the work that's been happening. It's been seven years. Seven years that the county has been trying to put this together. You have three cities who have automatically said we're not participating. Pembroke Pines, which is one of our third largest cities in the county. Second. Well, I said one of our third. Yeah. Oh, okay. But second is good. Hallandale Beach and Pompano Beach. They are not participating at all. And there are many more that are on the fence. So here's the issue. They want to have a quorum because they're nervous about not having a quorum to present this, the master plan that you said. I think they need 19 votes to move the process forward. The master plan. Right. I personally think it's premature to vote on the master plan until we actually have a discussion and we have a presentation. I think other cities are feeling that as well because they're not able to gauge their commission's approval or non-approval of this master plan. I will tell you that really what the master plan is basically saying is very, very general and not, in my opinion, comprehensive. It's talking about just setting up a couple of drop-off points and then pushing everything like 10 years down the road, if I'm correct in my assessment of what that is. So that's difficult. That's not a lot. I don't even know why the county can't even do that on its own, just set up those drop-off points. As a city, we have to decide if this is a good deal for Fort Lauderdale, for our taxpayers, for our city. Right now, as presented, the rates are not better for us. If I'm remembering correctly, the tipping fees are maybe a little bit better, but the recycling is not. We do well on our own, and we actually do more than any city in this county when it comes to everything that the Solid Waste Authority has been talking about. So they want our participation now just to be part of a quorum. I will tell you that for more than two years, I was going religiously to every single meeting way out west. I was participating as well as I could, doing that job that this commission asked me to do. But then when it came time for the cities to get a little bit closer to forming a little bit more of a concrete organization, hiring a director, by the way, the first director has already resigned from the Solid Waste Authority. There is now an interim director. This is after seven years of this work. So when it came time to select the executive board for the Solid Waste Authority, each of the categories were small cities, medium cities, large cities. The large cities took it upon themselves to think that Fort Lauderdale did not deserve a seat on the executive board. Did you ask for it? Yes. We were, yeah, well actually, yes. We were all there. We were all showing our willingness to serve on the board. They chose not to choose Fort Lauderdale to sit, which is amazing because obviously as the largest city in the county, we produce the most tonnage. So you would think that it would make sense that the city of Fort Lauderdale, would be part of the executive board for this. Again, my concerns are, is this a good deal for the city of Fort Lauderdale? Is there even going to be participation that's going to be warranted or needed to make this successful? I will tell you that we have had staff, you know, the Solid Waste Authority also has a technical committee, the TAC, the Technical Advisory Committee. Melissa Doyle from our staff, who I consider to be probably the most knowledgeable of that entire room whenever I've gone to any of the meetings. She's amazing in terms of knowing the issues. Oh, Melissa? Yes. Melissa, knowing everything. She has been attending every meeting because I was not going, because I wasn't on the executive committee. There was no reason. And I basically was relying on Melissa's input, Melissa's advice, and Melissa's incredible summaries of what was happening, keeping me abreast of what was happening. And then we were going to plan a, I thought it was going to be April, but now I'm hearing it's May, we were going to plan a very good presentation in terms of where are we, where is the county, where are all the cities on this after seven years, where are we going, and does this make sense for Fort Lauderdale? So that's basically what I know. Tomorrow is just the vote on the master plan, but that's not even really, it's the facilities plan that's going to be the real big vote. And I don't know when that's going to come, because that's going to really decide if we are moving forward with whatever it is that they're planning on doing. So again, I've had these discussions with city manager, have had these discussions with Brad. We have to just determine whether this makes sense for Fort Lauderdale, or are we actually gaining nothing, or are we just going to be paying? I did look at some of the fees, and I think, hold on a second, I'm going to pull this up really quickly for you. The latest that I saw for city of Fort Lauderdale, and I can't find, oh, wait a second, I apologize. Anyway, it's a big number. What would be the alternative if we don't participate? I mean, is that part of the presentation? Was that what we learned? Yes. Oh, yeah, all of that. But right now there is... We've got to dump our garbage somewhere, so... Exactly. Well, we still have our... Well, again, we still have the rates that we're able to do because of the county. We still are going to be doing the same exact thing. Again, it's just a matter of, are we going to participate in something that hardly anybody else is participating in? Or, again, what are the advantages to the city of Fort Lauderdale if we participate? So that was the discussion we were going to have on, I thought, April, but now May. And then we decide where we go from there. But, you know, tomorrow I guess they're nervous about a quorum. There are many cities that have just not been attending the meetings. And now they're, I guess, nervous about the quorum and moving forward with the master plan for tomorrow. If there's anyone else that would like to go, I'm not going to go. You're not going to go. If you would like to go and represent... I can't go. I can't go. If not, I don't really think it's a big deal. But, again, we're going to have to decide what we think is the best for the city of Fort Lauderdale. And that's where we are on this. Well, my understanding is that if we go, if someone from the commission goes tomorrow and votes to move it forward, it's not really committing the city to any one program or the other. It's just moving the process forward. And that's why they called me to see if I could go. But I'm completely booked tomorrow. Well, how we would be voting without discussing the master plan. I mean, is that okay? Well, Brad, tell us what the consequences of voting. I mean, there's really no consequences. It doesn't affect whether we, as a city, make a determination to whether we're going to opt in or opt out. But it's just they're trying to move the process along. And as part of the governance of that particular system, they need to get the 19 votes to get it to move the master plan forward. All it will really do is if they don't have quorum tomorrow, it'll just delay it, you know, maybe another month or two months. And it may change their timelines going forward. That's really all it does. And, Brad, just for clarity again, the vote tomorrow would be on what specifically? It's just the governing board accepting the master plan that the SWA is putting forward. Okay. And there's no commitment from us or the city in any way? That's correct. Do you find anything in the master plan objectionable? I mean, we're going to, when we make a presentation in May, you know, we'll have our comments on the master plan on the facilities amendment. There are some changes in the last four or five days that I think the new executive director, along with their consultant and SES, has been making. So we'll have to evaluate those changes and how they look compared to the rates we're paying. So, but, again, once we bring forward the item in May, I mean, all of that is going to be comprehensively presented to the commission so you guys will have a very clear understanding of what the benefits are versus, you know, what would be the other options if we don't decide to enter into the SWA. And that would just be things that we can do on our own independently or in collaboration with other municipalities. Thank you, Brad. So what are we going to do then? We're just not going to appear? Is that the idea? Well, if someone would like to go, I think anyone can go from the commission. I don't think, I think a couple of years ago we did try to get an alternate, but no one wanted to do it. I think if anybody else is going to go besides you, Commissioner Glassman, you guys would have to probably just vote on picking an alternate member to go. I think it also would be helpful if someone does want to do that, that they get a copy of the master plan, just because it makes sense to me to vote on something if you're familiar with the document, not just going to go. Well, it's a thick document, and I doubt anyone's going to be able to read it between now and then. Well, how do we as a city just go and vote when we don't know what we're voting on? Well, I'm not disagreeing with you. That's why we're having this discussion. All right, so it's the commission's decision then to not participate tomorrow and to wait until we have a presentation before we decide whether or not we're going to continue to involve ourselves with this program going forward. Is that kind of the way I'm understanding it? Okay. Mayor. Yes, ma'am. Um, is there a recommendation, um, for, you know, someone going tomorrow from, um, Mr. Cain? Is there a recommendation? Um, understanding that we haven't read this document, but understand we asked the question, what would be the, how would it look with us not showing up is where I'm going with this. Um, is there a recommendation from, um, Brad about which direction we could go? We should go with this. Brad. Nothing like being put on the spot, right? Not putting you on the spot. Um, no, I, I, I mean, I think, you know, our staff is going to be there to, to listen in to the discussions. Um, so. But I think the, I think the, the question from the commission, the county commission was, you know, we need your help to move this forward. We're finding it difficult to get a quorum and, uh, we need this process all these years, seven years of effort. We don't want to stop right now. So, um, they, they want someone to at least vote yes to bring this, continue with this process so that, um, it doesn't just stall on its, on its tracks. So to answer your question, Pam, uh, if you could go, uh, at least you could represent the city. No, she's shaking her head. No, I, I, I wouldn't be available to go. I wasn't following. I wasn't asking the question to be voluntold, but. Well, this is the, this is what happens when you ask questions. You get volunteers. I know you ask the question and you end up in a position, but that wasn't the reason I was asking, um, wanting us, you know, of course, to be in position where, um, we're not, um, in a sense, um, forced to show face and make a decision when we're not ready to. Um, even with that, my other question is, um, has there been mayor, any indication of how close we are to a quorum? You know, is it, are we like the, the hold it out or the, the one that they're waiting to make the quorum? Do we know how close they are to a quorum? I, I don't know the answer to that. I'm sorry. I don't know the answer. Well, we already know the 31 cities, three are not participating. So now you're down to 20, uh, but I don't think they're actually part of the vote because they never actually joined to begin with. So I don't think they're actually part of the cities. Those cities are not, are not right. Yes. 28 cities. Yeah. 28 cities. They need 19 out of the 28. And this whole discussion actually begs the question that after seven years, why is it so difficult to get a quorum? I don't know. I don't know. Okay. Mayor. Yes, sir. A couple of thoughts on this. Um, so, um, if it, you know, if it pleases the commission, I'm willing to consider um, going, I'm being, well, I, I'm willing to, for the commission to consider making me an alternate if, if it wishes. And, um, you know, if I'm, I have some meetings tomorrow, but, uh, I might be able to move some things around, but if I, um, get the material, if I'm able to digest it and Brad, I'm going to have to talk with you, uh, to, to get me up to speed. But if I'm able to receive it, able to study it and, and get in a place where I'm feel comfortable, um, being there and, and discussing and voting, I'm, I'm happy to do it. Um, but those are a lot of ifs. Well, and now we do a, if motion, like, and then that would be great. And I, and I think we all appreciate it, but so long as we understand that, should you vote to move forward with the, with the, uh, program that it's not committing the city to anything because we need to still have our, our presentation in May. That's absolutely correct. Okay. As long as, as long as, uh, we know that, then, uh, then we appreciate your, your being able to do that. Right. And just, just, just understand any items as it relates to yesterday, we actually will have to come to the city commission to be voted on. So they can't, you know, not do it, not by resolution. So there's no way that just a yes vote, just to move that process forward bounds the city to being committed to the SWA going forward in 28. So Brett, if the city participates tomorrow on the governing board with the other 28 cities or whoever shows up and votes to move forward with the master plan, are there any, are there any ramifications to that when it eventually comes back to us? In other words, it's okay to vote yes tomorrow and no in the future or vice versa, or you don't see that it's tying us to anything. We're not obligated. We are not obligated. That is correct. All right. And, and mayor, if I could add another point, I and commissioner Glassman, it boggles my mind that four lateral is not on the executive committee. That does not make any sense to me. And anytime anyone has talked to me about this, that's the, because that was my understanding that I've heard. That's the first thing I say. So why don't you bring that up? I absolutely will bring that up. You're dang to tell you. If I go. Yeah. If you go. Because that's, it, it, it doesn't make, to me, that's, that's priority number one. They didn't feel it was a priority then, but it's a priority now to have us there to make a quorum. So it's interesting to me. Yeah. Well, that needs. Use that leverage. It's just interesting. That needs to be corrected. What we can do for you, commissioner Sorensen, is we can try to prepare a, like a cheat sheet packet for you of the key things. So, you know, you have a little bit more understanding going into it for tomorrow and we can work on that today and make sure you have that before tomorrow. Okay. That'd be great. And then Brad, if you can give me the logistics and I'll see if I can make it happen. I think it's, I think it's 9am at the county center west. Okay. It's at one university drive, the county building. And I believe it won't start until at least 9.30 because the executive committee meets at 9am. So I think earliest is 9.30. Okay. All right. Mayor, I just want to clarify that there are two voting items on that agenda tomorrow. So one for the master plan and one for the facilities amendment. So I just want to make it clear that if commissioner Sorensen does attend, that his vote or participation might coincide with those two voting items that are on the agenda. Okay. And mayor, I know commissioner Beasley Pimmons shared her availability. Vice mayor, I want to defer to you. If you'd like to be there and interested, please. Please, I will happily defer to you, vice mayor. Unfortunately, I am out of town and unable to participate. I will be at my brother's memorial service up in St. Augustine this weekend. So unable to be there. Okay. I'm sorry to hear that. So then mayor, I don't know the next steps. It sounds like this would have to be a vote for. Well, I think that there's consensus to allow you just to represent the city at the meeting tomorrow and to vote to move it forward. And then we'll have our presentation in May. So, and at that same time, you might want to bring up the subject of your, of the city being, you know, on the executive committee. Happily, Max, you do that. Happily. And, Brad, you'll be able to get the commissioner also the facilities. We'll get him everything he needs. Because I think that's even almost more important than the master plan. Okay. Thanks, Brad. Yep. City attorney, city manager, is that, is consensus fine for this? Or I just. Yeah, I think that's right, Commissioner. We have consensus here to send you as a delegate. Okay. I think, I think we may need a walk-on resolution this evening. Does that require a walk-on? Okay, that's fine. We'll get some clarification on that. Okay. We can figure that out. Thanks. Thanks, Brad. Thank you, Ben. I appreciate that. Yep. Welcome. A couple of other things. You know, every year we have nominees for the Walk of Fame. And this year we have, I believe, five. And I believe we may be running out of sidewalk. And we should think about reducing the number of Walk of Fame nominees each year from five to a lower number, whether it be two or three. Honestly, over the, I don't know how many years we've been doing this now, what, ten years maybe? And we've certainly been able to select the low-hanging fruit, like the most prominent people over the years who have been significant contributors and who represent the values and the history of Fort Lauderdale. Well, we've certainly have now recognized those people. And I just think that as you look at the length of this Walk of Fame, at some point we're going to run out of sidewalk. And we don't want to end this program. I think that it's a great program. So something to think about. It's not really, it's on, you know, it's on the consent agenda. I didn't want to hold up the meeting discussing it. But I just wanted to, us to think about it, the commission at some point, what we want to do on that. Because, and you may disagree with me, which is also fine. But I'm just bringing it to our attention that we might want to consider reducing it from, say, five to three or something going forward. I thought we did discuss reducing it already. And if I remember the minutes from that committee, they discussed it as well. Did they? Yes. I think they do four. And the discussion was about just doing two. But I think that was because we brought it up first as a commission. I know that I mentioned it to the committee. I thought we agreed. Did we? As a commission. I do. The commission discussed it at conference, and staff shared that we would go to the committee and have that discussion with them as well. So that message was relayed to them. And they came, and they had a discussion there? I believe so. I defer to the Parks and Rec team. Who? Enrique Sanchez. I think they did. Please push the button. Yeah, great. Hi. Good afternoon, Mayor, Commissioners. Enrique Sanchez, Deputy Parks Director. That is correct. So the committee did vote four this year, but they did speak about going to two. In the future? Yeah, in the future. There's nothing holding them to that. If we do want to hold them to that, it would require some action from commission saying future ones are limited to two. Okay. So it depends how strict you want to do if you want to keep it. It's up to them. Yeah. The committee committee, yeah. Okay. All right, great. Thank you. I appreciate it. Okay, so now I'd like to talk about Him or She Street. Do we have the video in place? I want to – okay, let's all look at this video. Warning, distressing content. Okay. Someone has to push the button. If you drink pre-kip, well. If you drink pre-kip, well. If you drink pre-kip, well. I don't want to. No. You drink pre-kip. No. I don't want to. No. I don't want to. You don't want to. That's cool. No. I don't want to. No. okay thank you um so obviously there are a number of questions that i would like to ask so let me begin by saying the following a few weeks back we had a discussion here in the commission regarding the uh entertainment zone and we came up with a number of recommendations we ended up uh settling on one or two um and we felt that that was going to be the opportunity for us to tone down the the atmosphere the culture that seems to be engendered on him or she street we thought that the open containers were the were the answer to some of the uh um the the violent activity there um it was supposedly bringing in the an unwanted element there and so we got rid of the open containers we tried to reduce the hours of operation but we were persuaded not to by a number of the bar owners and staff people who worked there um so the reason why this video is important is because this is what was put on the new york post website and fox news so millions and millions of people have now seen this with the moniker of fort lauderdale spring break now none of these people none of these kids are spring breakers okay these are not people that live outside out that live outside the city the spring break visitors have been amazing in terms of their uh coming to fort lauderdale appreciating what we have to offer having a good time and going home and we heard a little bit about that this morning earlier today and uh and and i commend the police department and the fire department for and parks department for all the efforts that they have done to create an environment that is safe and that is um welcoming and that sends a signal to the parents that send their kids here that we provide a safe and welcoming environment this is not what we want people to see and we don't we don't want this to happen in fort lauderdale now i'll tell you some of the things that distressed me about this we saw the perpetrators but nothing was done to them they were just pushed aside and and the police took the position of just diffusing the situation there should have been handcuffs on some of these guys there's absolutely no retribution that was shown here against the perpetrators i don't care whether they're 10 or 20 or 30 years old there's absolutely nothing that was done there they should have been taken into the into the station their parents should have been called someone should have come down and picked them up there's there all they i saw the the guy that was slamming everybody smiling as he was being pushed away like it was a joke we have to give the authority to our police department to do more than just trying to defuse situations because there's absolutely no reason why these kids are not going to come back and do the same because nothing was done to them to punish them for what they did and with the kid laying on the ground i mean some have told me that oh he was just drunk but i heard people say oh he was slammed to the ground he's out cold no matter what this is not fort lauderdale we are making every effort to prevent this from happening again and here it is happening again after the bar owners swore it wouldn't happen again these bar owners i didn't see one bar owner out there the ones that came and appeared before us that night about the entertainment district not one of them was out there policing their own their own places of business so i don't know what we need to do but we're not doing anything near what we need to be doing we need to be taking action another thing i saw a video of uh one of these status cars racing through the tunnel all right and police officers followed the car i think it was an audi uh nice car but it was it was just racing through the tunnel um uh backfiring its muffler system its exhaust system uh police officers followed it stopped it and issued him a ticket and the kid who was driving it had the nerve to say oh this is the second one i've gotten as far as i'm concerned that car should have been impounded and let the guy come get it after he's been arraigned in court and has been and his case has been adjudicated there was absolutely no reason why that person would not do it again he did it once before and all he got was a ticket he did it again he only got was a ticket when people drive you know cars that are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars these tickets for a couple hundred dollars are nothing it's a night out and you know at a bar so unless we are willing to enforce our laws in a way that shows that we are we mean business we are wasting our time and this is going to kill our businesses if we do not do something to prevent what's going on him or she street from happening again and i and i at some point we need to know what is what our our intentions are because we are hands off we just want to keep things calm and we want to hopefully everyone goes away and nothing happens again in the meantime i saw someone who's laying on the ground next time it's going to be a shooting next time it's going to be someone who's going to get more seriously hurt and all we're going to do is wring our hands and say oh you know we have to do better we've got to prevent that from happening and and i don't know you know i don't know how to save what just what we just saw when you have a national newspaper like the new york post putting it on their website when you have fox news redistributing it on their website this does not look good for our city and we don't deserve that kind of image when we're not that kind of people so i i just i bring it to your attention city manager and i hope that we can find ways that we're going to do better and i and we've got to figure a way to prevent this from happening again because unless there's retribution unless there's uh consequences for this kind of behavior it's going to continue to happen again and again thank you well thank mayor may i yes please so on january 20th i believe the second meeting can you speak up on january 20th this commission had the conversation about the special entertainment districts and asked that staff come back within 90 days with an update to the ordinance to allow us to have an opportunity for those businesses that are operating under the privileges of the special entertainment districts to become officially part of the district we have been working on that we have a public meeting our final public meeting scheduled for march 30th we intend to come back to the commission with proposals that will assist in streamlining the behaviors and the obligations of the businesses in those special entertainment districts our police department has the authority to enforce uh in any manner that coincides with their training and their observations of the current situations and they exercise judgment in doing so and so our our teams are committed to ensuring that hemershi and the conditions there improve and we're looking forward to having that winter discussion with the commission honestly i don't see it improving we just saw it happen again so when we can't keep waiting you know the the business owners you have to do what you have to do you do that in the course of of time we when you can organize them and meet with them uh i i think that was a complete dereliction of their responsibility to manage their own properties and to manage their customer base but as far as we're concerned we need to be more proactive we need to be more uh engaged and we need to show that we mean business because look i've lived here for over 40 years i've seen spring break i've seen different levels of spring break i see where where kids have been dragged into court because of their misbehavior okay um and we cannot allow us to fall into the trap that other cities have subjected themselves to to the point where they no longer have spring break and we've seen that happen and this is but we want spring break in fort lauderdale the kid the college kids are great they provide great business to our to our um to our business owners and also adds to the the culture of who we are historically you know this is in our dna you know but when you have when you have mostly local kids who come here to act out they probably don't even live in the city but this is a staging area for them to just come there intending to get into a fight because that's what they do and we can't have that this is not we don't this is not a place for them to to act them they're out there their conflicts and their disputes and their and their disagreements so anyway mayor mayor i i agree with you completely it's unacceptable it's not who we are and we've got to do better as a city and when we last talked about this we talked about eliminating open container we talked about eliminating on street alcohol sales both of which we done we did and are working on and we talked about reducing the hours of this specific entertainment district the majority did not want to change the operating hours of this entertainment district i think we need to and let's have a discussion with this added what we're seeing we've got to take proactive steps and so are we willing as a commission to change the operating hours for this specific entertainment district i think we need to do that mayor well they're going to have their meeting with the business owners and when you report back but no one this could have happened at 11 o'clock at night it could happen at 12 o'clock at night i'm not we don't know that reducing the the business hours is going to really change the conduct but it certainly changes the atmosphere of what what you know what kind of uh what kind of entertainment zone this is if we you know if it's you know four o'clock in the morning is it creates a sort of licentious atmosphere right like anything goes so if we reduce that yeah maybe it's not going to be as as uh you know it's not going to be the kind of edgy environment that you know him or she has become so um i'm going to defer to the city manager i agree with you let's we need to really rethink this because i think we we just were too trusting that these business owners were going to be more responsible but clearly they haven't been no and i do want to highlight that our police department implemented an operation specific to the him or she district in terms of stepping up enforcement and patrols and that has carried over into the spring break period so we have more police officers engaged in the special entertainment districts than we would normally have had prior to january so we saw the police there i mean they did a great job you know breaking it up but there's we have to go one step further well that's because if you remember all of the business owners at that meeting in january promised us that they were going to step it up in terms of their own security detail i know they were going to step it up in terms of you know improved uh funding to do all of those things also to clean up the street yeah uh there were a lot of promises made remember at that meeting that we had and that's what i want to see i want to see have they lived up to those promises because 90 days takes us to they haven't lived up there this just happened two days ago look i've seen worse than this i've seen yeah i've seen pictures of people passed out on the street like on the sidewalk rather than just we're not talking about the sapphire which thank you very much well that was just for saint patrick's day um but seriously the 90 days that we said from the january brings us to when again it brings us to the april 21st meeting okay so at the are we going to be able to have some sort of assessment given to us in terms of the promises that were made uh with regards to increased funding security detail all of that that was promised that night i mean have we seen a change is there anything that's happening that we've seen that's different so based on the feedback that we have received from the businesses thus far and we will continue with those outreach efforts we will incorporate requirements in the ordinance that will speak to those promises and obligations and again i also want to make sure that this is not just a blanket action for all entertainment districts because we're not having issues in all of the entertainment districts so i i don't want i don't want not having issues in all you're right i want to make sure we're not penalizing the good actors for um what's happening you know in just one area really mayor who's talking yes um commissioner pam um when we say the special details that the um business owners said that they would also um hire i think our expectation and definition may is not coinciding because when i hear um hiring additional detail to patrol their businesses to me that's just the doors um the entry door and beyond when we talk about the roadway all of this that we witness on this video are individuals who are walking the street we we didn't see one incident where they were actually um well i didn't notice one incident where it was actually saturated around one business this is traffic that's moving um back and forth um along that on hemisphere street and we said no open containers there was no one i didn't notice anyone walking with open open containers so there's a this we need to dig a little deeper with this um these are what i'm observing like people just coming to the area to do what they're doing so we do need to have that balance to also provide that opportunity for those business owners i i before i agreed that we needed to um specifically look at him or she and what was going on in that area not affecting good actors versus bad actors but again a lot of what was on that video was individuals that were walking that that corridor it didn't have seemed to be specifically coming from one um business per se true all right so city manager you'll get back to us uh after your meeting with the business owners and also work with the the police chief to come up with possible solutions as to how we're going to better enforce that area yes mayor okay thank you thank you bill um okay that's it for me uh oh wait wait one more thing um uh with regard to an update on the mediation with inter-miami um when we uh when we last had this discussion at the city commission meeting the uh uh vice mayor had said that he now want he his he went back to his community and his community indicated to us that they did not want pickleball course anymore and that they wanted more of an open field and um so we met with inter-miami this week and um we got yet another redraw of the of the site and when uh when is it coming up uh raquel mayor can i weigh in on that for one second so it's not that my community let me finish let me let me finish vice mayor let me finish i just wanted i just wanted to if i could i just wanted to correct that slightly it's not that they don't want pickleball um what they want are the multi-purpose playing fields for the kids they don't want an open field we already had an open field what they want is a multi-purpose playing field soccer fields football fields things like that i just want i just want to clarify what what the community is looking for is a multi-purpose playing field okay okay when when am we when is this when did we decide we're going to come back to the commission on this the request was for april 7th i didn't hear you april 7th april the first meeting in april correct right so uh so just to give you a little heads up the the the redraw of the site does include a multi-purpose playing field it in fact it consists of a full regulation size soccer field so i think everyone will be very happy to see the result and uh and i'm going to make a presentation uh of my most recent meeting uh at the first meeting in april which is our next meeting and uh and hopefully we can move forward and finally get this park built all righty so so that's that's actually what i would like to weigh in on so under heather prior to me uh there were many many workshops and charrettes held with the community to talk about what this park was going to look like and the design that went forward very much reflected all those meetings that she had had prior to my coming on board the only change i made was like i said the addition of just pickleball to what had been uh formerly an empty space um i would like to have an opportunity to socialize whatever the current drawings look like with the community i think my community needs to have a workshop and an opportunity to see what the current iteration looks like and so i know that there are plans out there but i haven't seen them so as the district commissioner i'm requesting an opportunity to circulate these and have a workshop with my community because again they've invested years in the design of this park and i think it would be premature to do much of anything vote on anything until the communities at least had a chance to look at it well no so again i'm we're trying to find ways to move this thing forward okay and understood okay so uh here you know we're going on seven years now and um uh and and it's and that many iterations of trying to redesign this and each time we do a design it costs the city money uh up till now inter miami has been paying for the redesigns in fact they even paid for this redesign so they've been very good partners in all this they've been spending hundreds of thousands i have to correct you on that they did john john please please do not interrupt me let me finish i don't interrupt you let me finish they've been they've been great partners in this and paying for the many hundreds of thousands of dollars of design fees that is taken to get us to this point also keep in mind that the um this is part of the mediation and part of the dispute resolution and so the design that we've come up with includes requests on their part as well as requests on our our part now the last design that we came up with which was presented to the commission included uh modified parking area as well as the pickleball courts and we were ready to move forward on that and the um i don't recall you're asking for a community outreach at that point but uh we did it we changed nonetheless at your request and we and we took away the pickleball courts and we had a multi-purpose field uh included so i don't have a problem uh you know you're seeing the uh the proposed design between now and the next meeting and if you want to circulate it around to the community before the next meeting that's fine um uh but after next meeting this next meeting we need to just vote and move forward on it so i think we can all be cooperate in that regard and i think that uh i think you'll be happy with what you're going to see and i think the community will be happy in knowing that we can move forward with their with their vision for that area all right i i i don't think so so i just i want to formally object to uh moving forward with anything until i've had a chance to workshop this with my community there's there's no instance where we do something that affects a park in any part of the city without involving the community we were just talking a little bit earlier about one stop and and what did commissioner glassman say we need to share this with the community i'm simply asking for the same consideration for district one that's what i just said i said no i want to have a workshop before we before we before we vote on it i'd like to have a workshop well i don't have time to organize a workshop between now and april well how many months that's not realistic how many months i'm sorry how many months do you need mayor we've to your point we've we're going on we're going on seven years on this i don't think another month or two isn't going to make any difference so how many months do you need i i don't know i just learned about this literally today so you know you're asking me to to give me an answer on something when i have absolutely no information whatsoever i don't know what the plans look like you know the one question i asked was whether or not joe webb the engineer who's been working on this for the last five years who's intimately familiar with the faa's requirements was involved with this at all and i was told no so the person who knows the most about like you want to put this in the middle of the field well you know lights don't go there because it's the landing path for the runways right so i mean these are things so how many months how many months do you need to to go out and reach out to your community at at least at least a month to organize a workshop mayor at least a month so so a month would be uh the second meeting in april at a bare minimum yes so we're talking about the first meeting in may that would be fine yes so you'd rather just come back in may yes all right so you realize you're just delaying this another two months after you have insisted that this whole process has delayed the the the creation of this park and that your community has continued to lambast the commission for its delays and its refusal to move forward on this you want when we can actually wrap this up at the next meeting based on all i don't want to wrap based on all your requirements that you have requested the commission to come up with and we we responded to all of your requirements but i haven't seen the plan yet so i don't even know what the plan looks like i haven't seen the plan i don't know what it looks like i don't know how it reflects what we've asked for so what what i asked for so i'll be very clear what i asked for was that we relocate parking and put the playing fields back to where they originally were and move the parking over to where pickleball is and from what i've been given anecdotally it does not sound like that's what you've done so i don't believe you have in fact done what the community has asked for so that's why i want to see it know what it is take it to the community show it to them have them have an opportunity to weigh in fine so i mean we do so you want us to come back in may correct yes please okay thank you okay i have nothing further in my reports um so just to clarify mayor so we will share the you can share the design you can share the design the proposed design to the commission to all the members of the commission and uh and then we'll have it brought back in may thank you mayor all right i just had one other item whenever you're going right here okay i just wanted to um i know we all got this email but i just wanted to call out and celebrate some good news our um government finance officers association awarded the city of fort lauderdale uh distinguished budget presentation award for fy 26 budget i guess it's the 42nd year mayor that we've received this and then in addition that was going to be in my report oh sorry well you'll say it much better and in much more interesting way so i'll defer to you thank you city man well i i didn't know what you had next but i do want to celebrate uh the team we are an award-winning team so shout out to the office of management and budget under the leadership of director laura reese so congrats laura it is the 42nd year but we got to keep it going right i also want to congratulate uh fort lauderdale fire rescue on achieving the commission on fire accreditation international reaccreditation for the third uh consecutive time so congratulations to chief golin and his entire team uh the men and women of our fire service are matchless then we have our parks and recreation department also award-winning uh last weekend they received a naturescape emerald award in conjunction with broward county for the work they did at riverside park in terms of the renovation and preserving existing trees and the way that we situated the playground was very much environmentally conscious so congratulations to carl williams and his team he's out today but enrique is standing in his stead other than that i do want to recognize several city departments probably too many to name off the top of my head but we just concluded our parade season and i know you all mentioned the saint patrick's day parade but during this time of year we had the martin luther king parade we had the cis drunk parade and festival and then we concluded with saint patrick's day and our parks and recreation department fire department police strategic communications public works transportation mobility and a host of team members from other departments assisted in making those events memorable enjoyable beautiful and safe for everyone to enjoy so thank you to the entire team we also want to recognize that we have various members of our team our teams who have been participating in enhancement opportunities in terms of training and we have a few members of our team who have received awards and we're putting those out via letter to the commission but if you have an opportunity to give them a shout out or respond and share with them that you congratulate them i think it's also very meaningful they don't all get recognized here at commission but we try to communicate that very proactively so thanks again to the commission for all the support and for our wonderful team for all their efforts in keeping us at the highest level of achievement this weekend we have the group violence intervention program there's a walking one stop occurring at provident park under the leadership of commissioner beasley pitman and district three we're piloting this program in coordination with fort lauderdale police department chief schultz and captain will august have been very instrumental in seeing this program launch and this is just the next uh iteration of community engagement and outreach events in support of reducing gun violence in our community so i just wanted to put that out there that's happening from 12 to 3 on saturday at provident park thank you does that conclude your report that concludes my report okay uh state attorney do you have any report uh thank you mayor i just want to uh address the appointment of uh commissioner sorensen to this uh for the meeting for tomorrow the uh resolution appointing commissioner glassman appointed him as the primary but didn't designate a process for an alternative so we're going to prepare a walk-on resolution for you for this evening and you could formally appoint commissioner sorensen to go tomorrow okay great thank you ben for doing that okay uh there are being no further reports then we'll continue now with our business one this is the a5 sanitary sewer lift station presentation public works department thank you mayor i'll begin by sharing an update at the january commission prioritization workshop we had a brief discussion about the one-stop site and there was a footnote to that discussion and related to the a5 lift station which is very much needed in order to promote development in our downtown the city team has been expeditiously and diligently working toward advancing the city hall project and the city hall project can only move forward with a new a5 lift station and so our hope is that we can ensure that this project moves forward expeditiously so that we can also advance the city hall project and meet the expectations of our commission and our neighbors and stakeholders this time i'm going to turn it over to neil rodriguez our assistant director of public works to walk through the presentation good afternoon mayor vice mayor and commissioners as manager williams mentioned today we'll be presenting an overview of the proposed sanitary sewer lift station a5 including the need a little bit of a background some side considerations and the next steps and staff will be seeking commission direction on the preferred alternative of the preferred location so we can proceed with a final design and implementation so to give a little bit of overview of the sanitary sewer lift stations they are a critical component of our wastewater infrastructure it allows sewage to be pumped from the lower points to higher elevations when the gravity sewer is not sufficient these stations they move the wastewater through forest mains to our gtl wastewater treatment plant ensuring reliable and continuous service now a sewer basin is the defined geographical area where all the wastewater is collected and directed to the specific specific lift station everything within that boundary flows to the same point in the system and the lift stations are typically located at the lowest points within a sewer basin and as you can see in this picture gives you a graphical representation of how they work they come in into the lift station we have pumps that pump that sewage into our treatment plants now the city for lauderdale currently has approximately 190 lift stations here and our system capacity is measured using what is known as the nominal average pump operating time or napot and the industry standard it is a maximum of 10 hours of pump operating per day so when that threshold is exceeded it indicates that the system is under stress which can reduce equipment lifespan and reliability and in those cases it is recommended approach is to split the sewer basin to redistribute the flows and restore capacity although our current lift station for a7 the napod is approximately seven hours per day with the anticipated development that we have in this geographical area and the future development that we anticipate to come online we already have commitments of approximately 15 hours per day what this means is is if those developments were to come online we'll be above the industry standard of the 10 hours of pump operating time per day another way that we can see this or we can look at this is this particular lift station has three pumps right now one of those three pumps is operating 24 7 the second pump it's operating more than half the time and the prayer pump is there for reliability and redundancy in the event that one of those other two pumps fails so the intent for that second pump is not to can to operate more than half the time it is intended for it to be to operate when we have high flows of sewage now to address this concern staff is recommending splitting the a7 basin and creating a new basin what we that we would call a5 this will increase the operational capacity improve system reliability and extend the useful life of the existing infrastructure and infrastructure and i want to highlight that the modern lift stations are designed with odor control units or systems that can reduce the odors by more than 99 percent and they operate at noise levels between 40 and 50 decibels which are lower than a normal conversation it's that one percent that's the killer but go ahead you always have to leave that one percent out now the a7 basin currently serves a large portion of our downtown regional activity center which includes portions of district two and four and it's experiencing significant growth there are currently 375 hotel units over 7900 residential units and more than 200 000 square feet of commercial space in proposed developments that are either in review process have either been approved or are already under construction in total this includes two projects in review 10 approved projects four projects of the construction and 15 that have completed that have been completed so as we can see this level of growth it's placing an increasing demand on the existing system therefore the creation of the a5 basin is necessary to support both the current and the future development at this time for development projects require the construction of the a5 in order for them to receive their certificate of occupancy in addition future development in the area including our new city hall project would also depend on this infrastructure doesn't don't we don't we require some of these developers to build lift stations in their own projects how does that work so the city is required to treat the water that they that they the that they produce so yes part of the process that they have to go through sometimes they have to pay impact fees to the city that then is used for products like don't they have don't they have lift stations within their own projects that process the effluent that that's produced within the building it depends on the type of building that they're that they're looking at some big buildings now right correct so um chris help us out here sure chris cooper deputy city manager so from a development services perspective we have not had new developments build their own lift stations within the project itself they have contributed to the creation of lift stations that will serve their project but they're always on a piece of public property or or a public utility easement out outside of their project um there are some communities that do allow and do have developments create those lift stations within their development site but we haven't we haven't done that here in fort lauderdale is that a practice we should we should we should consider so i will leave that answer yeah is it i mean it only makes sense that if they're building a whole community of you know three or four hundred units that you know they should they should be required to do to create their own lift station because these are expensive yeah yeah somebody to think about sure yeah all right thank you for that feedback mayor so i was the a5 lift station um once implemented will reduce the pump operating times of the a7 pump station lift station preserving its capacity and extending its life cycle the estimated timeline for design permitting and construction of the a5 lift station is approximately two and a half years however the advancing of that design requires the selection of a site for this lift station and this particular slide illustrates the the existing boundary of a7 that's what you see in the shaded purple and also the proposed a5 which is in the green um outline so the proposed split will distribute the flows and improve the overall system performance within the downtown area so city staff evaluated potential locations um for the a5 and evaluating these locations staff consider several criteria the current project budget of approximately 11.5 million dollars the side must accommodate a footprint of approximately 50 by 50 or 2500 square feet and allow for adequate access adequate vertical clearance and proximity to the existing sewer system additional considerations that we're taking into account included constructability the ability to be able to reverse the sewer flows the traffic visibility and also opportunities for straining and landscaping so the four sites that staff evaluated were the city hall site the city hall garage the one-stop shop site and also the community court site and now we're going to go into a little bit into each one of these and present some of the advantages and disadvantages oh neil before you go further i just want to clarify that in addition to the four sites being discussed today staff looked at the entirety of the area of the basin and identified these four sites as potentially viable we also in prior years looked at a privately owned site as an opportunity and so i just want you to be aware that we have looked at many more potential opportunities but these have presented as the most viable well to date i mean as far as the city hall site is concerned there isn't a huge area there that we can allow for a you know a 50 by 50 block that this is going to create i mean the footprint of the new city hall and the chambers is going to take up you know most of the area as well as the plaza that was intended so where were you thinking of putting this on the city hall site i saw the backup it wasn't terribly clear so that that's a very good question mayor so that would have to be discussed with um in coordination with the city hall developer however the city hall developer has already said that indicated that there's not sufficient space at this site for the right for that so so why don't we move on then understood yeah go on to the next one so the city hall the second one would be the city hall garage site it is a city-owned facility and similar to the city hall site it is located near the force main however it presents several constraints including the limited vertical clearance of approximately 16 feet we would need a minimum of 20 feet vertically and this would restrict the maintenance access also as you can see there would be a loss of parking spaces would be limited construction area and a need for a structural analysis and as we mentioned before in order for us to be able to accommodate that minimum 20 feet vertically most likely a portion of the second floor would have to be removed which is imperative for that structure analysis to see it as viable so considering everything you've just said why was this considered a viable site so break up the break up the garage lose 20 spaces uh i mean why was this even added to the visa viable site then so from a constructability perspective any of these four sites can potentially work however as i mentioned they all have their pros and cons this being one of those negative um aspects of it which is would be the structure analysis that we've required having to retrofit in the existing structure and perhaps reinforcing it in order to be able to accommodate okay a lift station so let's move on there then the third site um is the one-stop shop site which this one offers several advantages from an engineering and construct constructability perspective since this particular site has not been developed we don't have the um restriction from a vertical clearance it provides 2.75 acres it allows for easier reversal of gravity sewer flows with fewer utility conflicts and the lift station can be placed outside of the vehicular site triangle one moment mayor mayor i've been notified by uh the district 3 commissioner that she is unable to hear the speaker i've shared with uh the clerk's office i'm still not sure if she's able to hear and that's been going on for a few minutes now so i just want to put that on the record so something else to consider when with this particular site is the future impacts of the site planning this location provides the most flexibility and also additionally any concerns as i mentioned before related to noise and odor can be effectively mitigated through standard design features and the last but not least on the community court side it is not a city-owned property so therefore it would require the higher acquisition and the most recent appraisal was approximately 2.5 million dollars back in 2024 and with an asking price of three million dollars at that time which exceeds the current project budget there would also be impacts related to relocating the community court and addressing the active lease on the property that extends beyond through extends through 2027. so here this is a matrix of the four alternatives. It summarizes how each site compares across the key criteria, including the ownership, the cost, the constructability, and also the operational feasibility. With this particular slide, I wanted to highlight examples that demonstrate how lift stations can be designed with appropriate screening and landscaping to minimize the visual impacts and integrate it into the surrounding community and therefore make it more aesthetically pleasing. This is based on lessons learned from prior projects that we've had in our city. So if we were to go back to the one-stop shop site, where would you recommend that that go? On the southern part? So in theory, it can go anywhere within the particular site. We would also work to see with the programming of what the future site would look like, but primarily we were looking at the southwestern corner in the vicinity of that area. Why? Because that way is closest to Broward Boulevard, which is where the main sewer flow would be coming from, and therefore the shorter distance for us to have to reverse the flow of the sewer. So from a logistical point of view, that makes the most sense, and also from a practical point of view, it takes it away from the hotel and also the residential, which is on the north end, right? Correct. Isn't the building just on the north side of this site, I think it's the shooting range, hasn't that building been for sale for a while? You know which building I'm talking about? Yeah, I don't know about the sale. I thought that that building has been for sale for a while, but you're saying that it makes more sense anyway closer to Broward Boulevard because of all the pipes going in that direction. Okay. And so you don't happen to have a rendering of what it would look like if you were to put something on the southern part of that site, do you? Not at this time. We're still in very early stages of the preliminary design. What I can say is from a screening perspective, we will work with our internal departments, particularly our development services department, go through the DRC process to make sure that we have the adequate screening and make sure that this feature, it gets incorporated into the community. Okay. You know, there are several people who have come to us who have indicated an interest in developing this site for a park and, you know, activating it as a park. So as you go forward, if you can collaborate with them to be able to integrate something like this into whatever design they have anticipated. I like the next slide that you have, which is the next one after that, the decorative features of how these can be integrated into a cityscape instead of just what you did at Peter Feldman Park. Hopefully we could do something a little bit nicer. We still don't have that painted, do we? So we have two opportunities to beautify that lift station. We will be doing some landscaping, and we also have the artistic mural that is going to be implemented. Is he back from vacation yet? Spring 2026. Okay. So Mayor, to your point, that would be the intent. Should the one-stop site be selected, we would work to make sure that all those features, it's planned with the future planning for that site. Okay. So the last slide, these are the next steps. We're requesting commission feedback and direction on the preferred site location. And once a site is selected, staff will then proceed with the final design, the permitting and construction. And just to close, this is a very important project for the city in order for us to be able to maintain a reliable wastewater service, continue to support our growth within the downtown area and also protecting our infrastructure. So staff is ready to move forward once we receive direction from the city commission. And I'm here to answer any additional questions that you guys may have. Any questions for the commission? I do. Go ahead. Thank you. So in terms of what you've seen recently in these kinds of lift stations, anywhere really in the country, my concern with one-stop, and I understand the benefits, but can we guarantee, if you go back to that screening, that slide, I want to make sure that if we do something like this and we choose one-stop, that we are going to do something artistic and we are going to do something in terms of mitigation of any odors. Is that even an issue anymore with these lift stations? I know, but I just want to make sure. The older stations, yes, especially if they don't have an odor control unit. The new ones, now it's standard practice to install those odor control units. And from personal experience and the ones that I've been part of, it does reduce the smell significantly. You can hardly smell. And as the mayor pointed out, that 99% of the odors get reduced. I just want to make sure I saw that and I heard the 1% comment. I just want to make sure that that really is just 1%. Correct. Okay. And then, so I'm looking at the one with the landscaping. Where is that? Is the lift station behind all of that landscaping or enclosed by all of that landscaping? Okay. So that particular, the larger picture, it has a fence around it. And then within that fence is the lift station. And then beyond, outside of the fence, you have the landscaping to shade it. Is this part of the Las Olas Marina? Yeah, I just want to make sure if that's what we're talking about. That's correct. Yeah, because that's beach place. Okay. Good. So you feel confident that if we were able to put it in that open space, that we would be able to mitigate any of those concerns? We do. And then we'll work very, very closely, I guess, like I said, from the lessons learned to make sure that we have a product that the community enjoys. And it's not a sore. Let's talk about chicken and the egg. So we are in the process of hopefully going to be reimagining the one-step shop site. Had a good meeting last night. Do you think that moving forward, the timeline for the lift station is going to come way before we ever do anything in terms of that site, redeveloping it? Or what's the timeline here? I'll begin by sharing that we've done some preliminary design work already that would be conducive to the one-stop site. And it is anticipated that we would need to move forward with the lift station likely in advance of the reimagination of one-stop and however it will be implemented. As you know, we have to do a lot of outreach, planning, design, permitting, identifying the funding. So those things do take some time, even if we expedite that. We feel that if we don't move forward with the lift station quickly, it will put the City Hall timeline in jeopardy. And so just we're thinking from that standpoint, if the City Hall project wasn't a factor, certainly we could wait a little longer and maybe have more of an opportunity to wait to see how the reimagination of one-stop proceeds and then tie in the lift station. But I think there's opportunity for collaboration to identify a location that would work best. From start to finish, what is the timeline for constructing the station? So we're estimating somewhere between two and a half years and three years. From finalizing the design, right now we're at 30% design, so which is very critical in order for us to continue that we finalize the site. And then we'll go through the procurement process and construction. So we're estimating between two and a half and three years. So actual construction is how long? Actual construction is how long? That could go between a year and a half and two, depending on unforeseen conditions that we might find and with the underground. Once you're working with underground, you can hardly ever know what you might find. It's just an estimate. So I know you've mentioned City Hall several times, so we just heard it's three years for this to happen, the lift station? That's worst case scenario. We think that we can get it done sooner, especially since we've done some preliminary design work related to this site. So how does that factor in when we've been talking about opening at least the commission chambers of the City Hall, not the tower, by fall of 2028? Well, I know that the developer has proposed a timeline. We're still working through the specifics of that timeline, and we have not yet come to a final determination as to what the project timeline will be. We do intend to share that with the commission as we continue to discuss with the developer, and we'll be bringing forward the interim agreement in April. So we should have some more definition around the project schedule by that time. I know what is desired, and I think we're trying to find the most practical and feasible way to get there. But again, no matter what the timeline is, without this lift station, we won't be able to achieve But what about just the, let me chime in on this. So if you look at the existing City Hall that we had, right, there were hundreds of people that worked there, and the sewer systems were working fine. So what the new City Hall contemplates is just the commission chambers. So it would be very, very little impact to the system over what was already being accommodated. So I think to your point, I don't think we have to worry too much about it, because the system should already have the capacity to handle whatever we're going to do for commission chambers. Yes, it's going to be different when the tower is built, but that's not contemplated for less than three years anyway. Well, that was going to be my next question. Are we planning to be able to just have the commission chambers open, like we said in the fall of 2020, even if this lift station is not completed by that date? And we could always make sure that everyone that goes to the commission means no one can go to the bathroom, right? I do. I do want to factor in that there are other projects that are contingent upon this lift station and have received approvals from the city in anticipation of this lift station being developed. So as private development progresses, you know, we can't think of the area as being in a standstill and that City Hall is the only project that is going to be coming forward. So I just want to give you that context and I'll turn it over to Chris if he has anything else to add. Yeah, yeah. I'll just add that as far as development approval is concerned, when we have a project like this that's been programmed partially, well, I think it's fully funded and then partially designed, we're able to condition a certificate of occupancy on the achievement of this project being completed. So we could look at it from that perspective. So I think the development permanent approval is not so much of a concern, but we'll want to be very mindful of the timeline for CEO of any of those facilities to make sure that we're able to open those when the time is right. That's helpful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Does that complete your presentation? Yes, sir. Any other questions? Do you have any other questions? Pam, John, any questions? No questions. Thank you. No questions. Okay. I don't have any questions. Just a comment. I've gone through the presentation. My takeaway from this is that really the City Hall garage is the best location for it. I've never been a big fan of when it was located in Peter Feldman Park. And I don't think putting it in one stop if that does become a park again, which I think the neighborhood would like to see, makes any sense either. I think the least impactful area from a pedestrian user perspective is in the City Hall garage. People park there once in the morning and they typically may go out to lunch. But other than that, they're not going to see it or walk past it again until the end of the day. So I think from that perspective, the least visible, least odor present place you could possibly put it is in the City Hall garage. There are some engineering challenges, but nothing that can't be overcome. So that would be my recommendation. I don't think the park is the right place to put a lift station where kids are going to be playing and people are going to be congregating and spending, you know, hopefully hours of their time recreating. And there are odor control devices, but that doesn't mean that odor doesn't escape. And so I think that would just be the wrong location for this, in my opinion. That's all. So to that point, maybe if you can just address, if you look at that slide, the City Hall garage site, what are we talking about when that bullet point says requires structural analysis for viability? What are the concerns about viability? And what are the concerns about the structure? So with that particular site, first of all, the first floor only has 16 feet of clearance. You need a minimum of 20 feet of clearance, which means that just from the get-go, a portion of the second floor may have to be removed in order for us to be able to accommodate that clearance. Also, from lessons learned from another lift station, A7, it's also within a garage. And from conversations with our utilities department, there's some issues or concerns that we have with that particular one when it comes to the maintenance. It is a confined space. Also, the type of equipment that would be required in order to maintain a facility within a confined space would be different. Also, it provides limited access for vac trucks and to clean the wet wells. So it also altogether increases the time that staff has to spend in maintaining these structures. So from that perspective, that's some of the concerns that the City staff would have. What about the gravity sewer reversing will be challenging? What makes it challenging? So you would have to cross. So in order, right now, you would have to bring the gravity on 2nd Street, northeast 2nd Street, bring it south along northeast 1st Avenue from Broward Boulevard. So from Broward Boulevard north and then east on 2nd. So that's a much longer run. You would have to cross a lot of utilities on Andrews Avenue, which at this point may be unknown. That in itself would create challenges that we perhaps may not know necessarily until we open up the road. Also, the cost in order to do a longer gravity sewer rerouting, it's a lot more expensive. The longer you go, the more expensive it is. So is there any standard with regards to building something like this facility, I would almost say indoors, a garage, I mean, it's in an enclosed structure, versus just outside? So the standard primarily is to have an open space like the ones that we have throughout the city. On very rare occasions, we have them within enclosed areas. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Can I ask? I'm sorry. No, go ahead. I was going to say, let's go back to the one-stop shop building, okay? There was a concern that because the current tenant has a long-term lease, but the tenant doesn't occupy the whole building, correct? I think you mean the community court? You mean the community court. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm missing the community court. Yeah, I'm sorry. So there are two portions of the building. One is what we use for the community court program, and then there is a convenience store operation on the western side of the building. That's where the convenience store is. Correct. Right. But it doesn't take up the whole space. The convenience store does not occupy the entirety of the building. There is a portion of the building that is utilized and leased by the city for the community court program. Right. So if we were to buy the building and then cut the building off where the convenience store is, that way they can still live out their lease and the balance of the site can be used for a pump station, a lift station. I think it would be possible and require a renovation. I don't want to speak prematurely, but I do think it is possible. I mean, it's much easier than thinking about we're going to break up the parking garage. You know, that doesn't even make sense because we would compromise the whole structure by trying to break through the second floor. So, you know, but looking again at the community court building, it's a very long building. I know I've been in that convenience store. It doesn't take up maybe a third of the site, and the rest of it would more than accommodate a footprint for the kind of lift station that we're contemplating. Chris, what do you think? So I think we'd have to do some analysis and evaluation. There are some things that I would want to look at to consider, which is are there shared mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems that would be disconnected should the eastern half be removed? Also structural components, roof components, you know, with that portion of the building that remained, you know, what would it take to short and keep that structurally sound? The other thing to keep in mind is there is a proposed development just to the east. So by using the community court site in that eastern portion of us particularly, we would be pushing that more towards that future development site. So, again, just some considerations, things we'd have to evaluate to understand if that's a potential solution. Okay. I'm just trying to think outside the box here of how we can best accommodate this lift station, knowing that the further south we go, the better. And also keep in mind the county is now contemplating its government center just to the east here, just to the west, and they too are going to need the underground systems that we create in order to accommodate this. I think they're talking about 700 employees in their building. So just a thought as we move forward without having to write off the whole community court site as unavailable when, in fact, we could certainly cut the building in half and still be able to use the site. And, honestly, has anyone really approached the tenant? I mean, do they really want to stay there if they do? You know, that's their prerogative, I guess. But it shouldn't interfere with the operations of the city because a small convenience store wants to stay there. You know, that's their business. That's their livelihood. I don't want to take that away from them. But at the same time, you know, we have – we're building a city, and we can certainly consider buying that site to be able to accommodate the needs that we now have. So just a thought. Keep it in mind. So, I was suspending several million dollars. Who's talking? Commissioner Herbst. Vice Mayor Herbst, we can't hear you. I'm trying to go on to simply to tear it down. I don't think that's a good use of our resources. Okay. Commissioner Sorensen. Yeah. Thanks, Mayor. So, City Manager, what would be – based on this conversation, what would be the next steps? I'm seeking consensus from the commission on a location that we could determine as the site. I haven't heard that yet. Okay. What – and I might have missed this, but from a cost perspective. Do we have an estimated cost perspective of one-stop, garage, community court? So, I'll allow O'Neal to go into that a little bit. I know there's some variables. Just give me just bottom line. Yeah. Based on the location of each site and tying in and, you know, the distance to Bard Boulevard and the work that has already been done. So, we have an engineering estimate of what it would take to conduct the sewer rerouting for all sites. Any of the three sites would require sewer rerouting. For example, the one-stop site, which, as the manager mentioned, we've done some preliminary design with that particular site. It would take approximately $1.3 million to conduct the sewer rerouting from Broward Boulevard to the potential location within the site. Okay. Should the city hall or the city hall garage be selected, the cost for the sewer rerouting would be approximately $2.1 million. So, that gives us a delta of $767,000, and then with the community court side, it's a lot closer to Broward Boulevard, so the sewer rerouting would be approximately $700,000. However, you would have to factor in on the cost to acquire the property, which, based on the cost that it was selling for in the past, the $3 million, that would bring us to a cost of about $2.3 million. But we've been talking about buying this property anyway, so, you know, because it's good for the city to own this, just, you know, and now we have an actual use for it other than community court. I mean, we were prepared to spend $3 million just to put community court there when we could, in fact, you know, put a lift station there. The enabling infrastructure that you just spoke about, that's significant, you know, $2.1 million to bring the pipe work over to that site. I don't think that makes sense. It's an unnecessary expense. But, anyway, you can calculate that in your proposals. I thought we had completely rejected the idea of buying that building. No, we hadn't, I don't think we rejected anything. We did at a previous meeting because we had a discussion about using CRA funds to acquire that building for community court. And I believe it was Commissioner Glassman who said that's not the vision that we have for Gateway to the City. At the time of that discussion, it's my understanding that the commission opted not to move forward in that direction. Right, we said we don't want to buy that building because there's better uses for it than what we had intended for it. I don't think a lift station is a better use, but just my opinion. There was a lot of concern from the Flagler Village Civic Association at that time. They had actually said they didn't want us to buy the building at that time. They did not want us to put community court there. Right, but they also didn't want us to buy the building. They thought that, well, the building's been for sale for a long time. It's, what are you going to do with that site? It's like they thought the price was too high, and they were just concerned with what was going to happen there. But at that time, we did say no to the purchase of the building. Right, so what does the neighborhood feel that that site should be used for? It's already got a convenience store there. Right, and I have not had those discussions. I did have some earlier discussions with the neighborhood folks about doing some sort of a possible substation in that area because they were concerned with the homelessness issue there and just the general upkeep of that little corridor. So there was some discussion of that, but other than that, I have not reengaged on that particular site in terms of a purchase or a use. I wonder if we could talk to the county to use some of the bus station, which has 20-foot ceilings, and they don't use the whole bus station. I mean, it's just another option, and it would certainly accommodate their new government center better as they're going to need those facilities for their new project. So, I mean, again, we're thinking outside the box, but we have to really think of all options because we're not seeing an optimal choice here. So, anyway, I mean, someone should consider contacting the county and see if they would be willing to allow us to put a substation, left station rather, in their bus station. Anyway. Mayor? Yes. Okay. I'm looking at an email that I received yesterday, and I'm thinking we all, as the commission, received this email. It was from the DDA, and in that email, they were indicating that there were, like they said, I mean, I'm trying to bring this up on my phone. Hold on one second. But they were saying in this letter that they believe that there are more options to locate the lift station on another site. So, the DDA is indicating that they have some suggestions for other sites. Do we want to direct the city manager to hear maybe where those other sites are as well that may be beneficial? Well, lucky for us, Jenny Morihone is here, and she's asked to speak, and we can find out from her directly what those other sites are. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Hold on. Thanks. Mayor, can I keep asking the questions? Okay. Thanks. So, O'Neill. Thanks. So, you gave half of the cost, I think, which is the sewer rerouting. So, the other part of the cost is the building of the actual lift station. Is that right? Correct. That would remain the same regardless of the location. Okay. So, the cost of the lift station would be how much to build? So, the budget for this particular project is about $1.5 million. Sorry, $11.5 million. Sorry, $11.5 million. Okay. I was going to say that seems like a good price. $11.5 million. Okay. We call good prices. Right. Exactly. Two for one. Great. So, it's $11.5 million. So, that would be for one stop. Now, it sounds like, if I was hearing you right, the City Hall garage is going to require significant structural change to the City Hall garage. So, wouldn't that then cost more than $11.5 million? Definitely. Right. The numbers that I provided to you, just from the sewer rerouting itself, it would be approximately $7,67,000. That's not including the structure analysis that would be required because we would have to do a certain – we would have to look at different aspects of the building in order for us to be able to determine whether or not, in fact, that structure can be modified further. And also, we take up parking spaces, too, right? The loss of parking, correct. Because I know, like, the Community Foundation of Broward is planning on moving from Las Olas to 200 North Andrews, and they've already inquired with us about seeing if we could lease them parking spaces in our parking garage, which is already – we're already tapped out. So, I'd hate to lose any parking spaces there. That's another concern. I agree. So, okay. Do we know how many parking spaces we would lose? I'm still talking. He's still talking. Hold on. I apologize. You raised the number of parking spaces. I was just wondering if we knew how many parking spaces we would lose. Okay. I want to just kind of amplify that. I'm sure. I think O'Neill said 20, maybe. Is that how many parking spaces we'd lose? So, the standard parking space is about 8 1⁄2 by 16 in the square footage. So, in order for – the area required would be 50 by 50. So, we would have to see – ultimately, the loss of parking spaces would also be where within the structure it falls under. So, from now – right now, it's kind of hard for me to give you an exact number. Okay. And then, O'Neill, would there be a potential impact to the second floor? Correct, yeah. That's the second floor and the first floor. So, we'd lose up on the second floor also. Correct. Okay. Okay. So, for City Hall Garage, there's a loss of parking, unknown how many spots. Right, right. So, then, going back to the costs. So, for City Hall location, it's $2.1 million to reroute. Then, walk me through the other costs for City Hall. There's – then what? You said – it sounded like you said design or analysis? So, that would be a conversation that we would need to have with our City Hall developer. We would have to see how the proposed programming that potentially be impacted in order for us to accommodate. So, at this time, it's hard to say what additional costs would be incurred should the City Hall site be selected. Hold on. I'm saying City Hall Garage. Oh, City Hall Garage. My apologies. What was the other question? So, I'm trying to figure out – City Manager, I'm trying to figure out the cost for each option, total cost for each option. So, for one stop, I'm hearing you say the total cost for one stop is 1.3 plus 11.5. No. So, the budget for one stop is 1.5. That already includes the sewer rerouting and the 1.3 that would take for us to reroute. That's already incorporated. 11.5 million is all it. Great. Should we – should we select the City Hall Garage? That would be 11.5 plus the 767, approximately 800. I thought you said 2.1 million for the City Hall Garage. You said 2.1 million for the City Hall Garage. That's for – that's only the number for the sewer rerouting. No matter which site is selected, the sewer rerouting would be required. So, from the – what would change – what could potentially change the cost of – depending on the site, it's how long the sewer rerouting would be. So, City Hall and City Hall Garage are farther away, therefore, they would require a longer stretch of rerouting. So, to answer the commissioner's question then, what is – if we located in the City Hall Garage, do we have a number what the all-in cost would be? That would be approximately 12.2. 12.2. That's not taking into account the cost for the structural analysis. That's just construction. Right. But probably – And not taking into account the cost to having to retrofit the existing building. Okay. So, we don't know that number yet. Okay. Okay. Great. And then, for community core, we're looking at, again, $11.5 million total plus the purchase price. Is that right? Correct. Okay. So, you're looking at – let's say its purchase price is $3 million, so you're looking at $14.5 million. But would there be any savings there in terms of the routing of the effluent because it's closer to Broward Boulevard? Correct. That would be approximately $600,000, $700,000 savings. Savings. Okay. Okay. Okay. And then the bus station, which the mayor shared, which is, you know, I think worth exploring, you'd look – probably the total all-in would probably be, again, around that $11.5 million range. Is that fair? Okay. Tomorrow, you can tell the county we'll vote for their plan if they let us use the price terminal. Let's work together. Let's work together. Come on. Collaboration. That's right. Come on. One team. Come on. Okay. Thank you. That helps me get a sense of cost. And a tunnel. Yes. Throw in the tunnel. Come on. They're feeling generous. I can sense it. So, excellent. All right. Mayor, thank you. That helps for me for cost. Again, I'm going to – Okay. I always say this. We need to choose the most cost-effective solutions as we face a very unknown budget environment coming up. So, okay. Thank you. All right. Any further questions? I think it's the best one. I don't know. I want to – is Jenny going to – Yeah. I want to just say if there's any further questions. Okay. Not at the moment. Thank you so much. Okay. Okay. Jenny Morhorn from the Fort Lauderdale Downtown Development Authority. Good afternoon, Mayor, Commissioners. I wish I – we're coming up here with here's the site, it's free, and let's move because we know that this is an incredibly important infrastructure investment, and we've been talking about it for several years. I think where the DDA board was a bit caught off guard as an entity, maybe not individually, but seeing the four options presented last week, and not having maybe a chance to restart some of those conversations on other lands within the area that may have happened years ago, knowing that some market trends have changed, and maybe there are some unique new opportunities. So certainly we don't want to see a slowdown of this important project, but I have received input from at least four different board members at the meeting last week that said we would love to sit down with staff looking at alternative options to make sure, with the information you're presented with today, that the best option for the long run is presented. This, in many ways, this in many ways has nothing to do with whether DDA participates or not in one-stop shop. It's really about how are we looking at this for the benefit of the long term, and, you know, so that was the request simply from yesterday that was sent to you all. Could we take one more time to engage private sector developers and landowners in and around this area to have, you know, a round of conversations? And I think that comes in line with when these important infrastructure investments are being decided, you know, how do we engage together? One team, I think I heard a little bit earlier on, on these solutions. There may be some properties that are barely even shown on this map that are still within the basin that some preliminary analysis has come forward. But I don't have those today that I can say pick one or the other. But we would like to have one more conversation, or the first conversation, I should say. Yeah, I mean, it's still a work in progress. And, again, maybe reaching out to the county, since they're reconfiguring their land sites, maybe we could work with them to see if we can incorporate this kind of need to accommodate their new structures as well. I was going to ask, Jenny, I'm sorry, how quickly can we do this? I mean, I just feel like we need to really get going on this. I don't think we have a lot of time here, especially because of what we know that's coming in terms of downtown development. What do you see as getting everyone together? I think we can have a meeting as soon as schedules are available and make that a priority. If that were to be tomorrow, that would be wonderful. If not, early next week. And have you actually heard of, I know you mentioned that you don't have, right, here's the place and it's not going to cost anything, et cetera, et cetera. But have you heard of possible solutions or alternatives? Again, you look at the vacant property that surrounds the one-stop shop, for instance. You look at some underutilized property where it's closer to Broward Boulevard. We, through board members, whether direct relationships, I mean, that's the value of the DDA partnering with the city is having that knowledge on the ground of some of the private real estate interests and where there may be opportunities to coordinate so that it's still a potentially cost-feasible project that can move faster even. City manager, how quickly do you think we can have this kind of a meeting where you can meet with them? I think that we can prioritize having this meeting. I know that this has been a conversation for a number of years, and so we welcome ideas. Even if those ideas are shared with us in advance of the meeting, potential locations and options, we want to make sure that the project can move forward expeditiously and also in a very economical fashion. So if there are private property owners that have recommendations or there are sites that we should consider, I want to keep all the considerations in mind. But we will prioritize having this meeting, but anything that can be sent to us ahead of that meeting, we would evaluate it as soon as possible. That's great. Good feedback. I'd encourage everyone, let's get going. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Jenny. Anyone else wish to speak on this item? Okay. There have been none. Thank you so much. All right. Moving on to business two, presentation of the evaluation. Yes. So I do want to set an expectation that we have this meeting and then we will come back to the commission as soon as possible. I think no more than a 45-day window to come back to the commission with a follow-up to this discussion. Okay. All right. Okay. Business presentation. Business two. Business two. Presentation of the evaluation of the unsolicited proposal submitted by IKE Smart City for the Interactive Digital Kiosk Program Development Services Department. City Manager. Thank you, Mayor. You may recall that I shared with the commission back in January a letter to the commission related to this unsolicited proposal for the IKE Digital Kiosk. At that time, the city was still having a lot of conversations about the Los Angeles Mobility Project, and now that the commission has made a determination for us to move forward, I think it is timely for us to proceed with this conversation as directed by the city commission. So I want to turn it over to Chris Cooper to walk through the presentation. Thank you, Chris. Good afternoon, Mayor, Commission. Chris Cooper, Deputy City Manager. And before I go through the presentation, I just want to let you all know that there are representatives from IKE both here in the room and also one joining us virtually. So they'll be here to answer questions, and I also believe they have a presentation of their own that they'd like to share following our presentation to you. So for the proposal timeline, we received this proposal as an unsolicited proposal on December 26, 2025. It came with the required number of copies of the proposal as well as the $25,000 check that's required to initiate this process. The city manager sent an LTC to the commission. Following that LTC, the commission asked staff to look at the proposal a little more fully, do more of an evaluation, and bring back some feedback to the city commission for consideration as to whether or not to move forward with the process. So IKE Smart City is a company that provides interactive digital kiosks. They're a media company. A lot of what's shared on these kiosks are advertisements and public information and wayfinding. They have existing partnerships with some cities currently nationwide, about 25 cities, including some here in Florida, such as Aventura, Coral Gables, Miami, Miami Beach, and Tampa. These kiosks have interactive features. They're touchscreens so people can navigate the information and resources on the kiosks through that touchscreen. There's a variety of applications that can be customized and made available on these kiosks. Part of the benefit is they promote local business advertising, wayfinding. It helps to share city information, has information about events and festivals and other things going on in the areas at which they're located. They could function for things like surveying, feedback, all sorts of different interactive tools. The operational model, IKE has an in-house team that includes project management, design, software, advertising sales, the construction of the kiosks, maintenance, and the revenue-sharing concept that I'll share here in a moment. So really high level, the proposal promotes some financial benefits to the city, suggested that we were to look at 30 kiosks in locations that are mutually agreed upon. These areas are really based on places where they're high visibility, there's a lot of use of these kiosks, and they're really worthwhile. So part of this is going through a collaborative process to see where they might go, should we enter into an agreement. Really, the benefit to the city, other than the ability to share information and provide a resource for our neighbors and visitors, is a revenue-sharing model. So in the proposal that states that in the first year, years one and two, there's 20% of net revenues, and those revenues come from the advertisement sales on the kiosks. And then this also contemplates up to a 20-year agreement. So in years three through 20, the proposal suggests the 35% revenue share. So the proposal breaks down what that could look like, depending on how those sales look. In the first 20 years of the agreement, which is the term proposed, the city could look at about $684,000 in annual revenue, potentially a total of $13.7 million over the term of the agreement. Again, the civic benefit, I suggest they'll provide the city with 12.5% of all advertising time to be used by the city. So, you know, we could certainly use it for things like advertising our events, public service announcements, different things. You know, and then there's also some other public benefits related to other entities, including nonprofits that we've discussed, could potentially share some information as well. Again, the contract term, what's proposed is a 10-year initial term with a 10-year auto renewal. That auto renewal would be subject to Ike meeting certain performance criteria, which includes maintenance, update of the software, providing electronic monitoring of each kiosk 24 hours a day, seven days a week, excuse me. That Ike will replace the hardware components, internal networking as needed, Ike won't be in default of revenue share obligations, and that Ike has kept those kiosks in the content with the most up-to-date and relevant information pursuant to a plan that's developed in conjunction with the city. Some potential benefits that, when we reviewed the proposal, we thought were worthwhile to share with the commission, top of the list would be the potential revenue to the city. You know, I've discussed the revenue share and what that could look like. There could be some curated local business advertisements and exposure, a way to promote our local companies and businesses. Wayfinding, we've talked a lot about wayfinding in the past in the city, both downtown, on the beach, and some other areas where we have high traffic. So this could provide a wayfinding solution or a part of a wayfinding solution. We could promote our city brand. So looking at events, information, things the city has going on, this could be a way where we could get that information out and get that visibility. Public information notices, public art displays, part of what we saw in some of the revolving images that were displayed on these kiosks and other places were public art displays that could be curated and shown within that rotation. And then emergency communications, both in terms of what's presented on the kiosk, but these kiosks also have a function where there's an emergency button, if you will, and a speaker, a two-way speaker that could be set up and used so that somebody could contact an emergency service should they need that emergency service. So we also did a review of, you know, what this could look like in implementation. So our development services staff looked at the proposal, and, you know, these are all things that we think are worthwhile to consider, and should the commission decide to move forward and we're looking at places to install these, these are items that we would probably look at. One is the authority to place these. So when we looked at where Ike was proposing some of their installations, they're not our rights-of-ways. So we would have to work with those agencies, work with Ike to make sure that we have the appropriate easements and authority to put those in, specifically areas like A1A where it's an FDOT right-of-way. That would be important for us to make sure we're engaged and have all the agreements in place needed to make those installations. Locations, again, you know, these are meant to be in high-traffic areas, lots of visibility. So with that, you know, we're also looking at things like the proximity of the intersections, whether or not they're in a site triangle, which is the area of the street where there needs to be enough space for a vehicle and pedestrian at those intersections to be able to have clear visibility, to be able to safely navigate the roadway or the crosswalks. Also, underground utilities, anytime we're putting something in the ground, we want to make sure we're not putting them above or in a way that would interfere with an underground utility. And then ADA compliance, you know, making sure the sidewalk remains wide enough so that, you know, ADA considerations can be met and people can traverse those sidewalks clearly. Public realm impact, you know, these are things that would be installed in, again, very high-visible, high-transportation, high-trafficked areas. We want to make sure that they don't detract from that public realm. So when we look at the beach, Las Olas, some of those areas, again, we just want to be mindful that when we look at the installation of a kiosk, because they are large, we just want to make sure they're not taking away from that public realm, that they're actually enhancing the public realm and providing an amenity to our public. And then the last thing that we touched upon is usefulness, and I think you'll hear a little bit more about this from Ike when they talk here in a minute. But, you know, everybody has a smartphone now, so I think something that comes to mind is, you know, why do we need an interactive kiosk that can provide directions, wayfinding, information on a restaurant nearby, or what have you, when we all have a lot of that information in our pocket? I think what you'll hear from Ike is that they worked very hard to make sure the information provided in the kiosk is curated in a way that it's relevant. It highlights local businesses and makes sure that things that you may not find just in a Google search or an Apple Maps request are highlighted here because they're more local and they're something that we want to promote and highlight in a way. So the information provided, again, is, I think, meant to be more curated and more specific to where the kiosk is located than what you typically find on your smartphone. So with that, again, what we're looking for today is if the commission would like us to kick off the unsolicited process, which would mean we'd come back with a resolution to accept the proposal, identify a public benefit, and initiate a competition period, if there's anybody else out there that has a similar product or concept that would compete with this proposal. If that's not the case, you know, the commission may want to seek more information from us and Ike to bring back for further discussion. And, of course, if this isn't something the commission would like to move forward with today, you could tell us that and we could reject the proposal and move on. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. You indicated, city manager, that the representative from Smart City has a presentation, but I have Matt Sacco, who just signed up for questions. You don't have a presentation, do you, Matt? I'm sorry? I didn't think so, no. The representative, I believe, from the company is available online. Yes, I'm available for questions. If you guys have any, staff's presentation was wonderful. I feel like it covered a lot of the key points. To the extent that it's helpful for us to speak to our experience installing on FDOT right-of-way, for example, we've done that in Miami Beach, Miami, and Aventura. So I'd be happy to give details on that piece of things or elaborate on the benefit of the kiosks beyond what a smartphone can do, if that's helpful, too. But, you know, I defer to you all on the questions that you have and how I can be helpful. Okay. Let me ask you a question, Chris. I thought when we first discussed this that we were going to do like a trial option where we just put a couple out there to see how they work. This proposal says 30 right at the beginning. And I'm concerned about sign pollution, you know, having so much of it, especially on the beach. Was I mistaken in thinking that we were just going to do a pilot program and just put a couple out there just to see how they work? Yeah. I don't recall if that was part of the conversation with this proposal. I do recall conversations in the past where we've talked about something like that. What I will say is what we found through our evaluation looking into this, especially in other places, is that the rollout of these, you know, it doesn't have to be all 30 at a time. You know, it could be a handful at a time. We could see what they look like, see how they feel, see how the public reacts. And we also would collaborate closely with Ike on where those locations are, again, to make sure that they're not, you know, one every block or something like that. So, you know, I think there could be opportunities. I'll let Anna share if there are. But I think there are opportunities to roll this out without doing all 30 at one time to kind of get that feel before we go whole in. In addition, Mayor, there's potentially an option through discussions with the proposer to identify the appropriate number for Fort Lauderdale or various corridors. So they've presented 30, but it could be that the commission and staff and the proposer, you know, has a conversation about what the ideal number is and what works financially. So it could be 30, but, you know, the city could say, hey, we'd like 32. Or the city could say we want a fewer number. Well, the reason why I ask this is because I know there's a point where it doesn't become profitable. I think I don't know whether it's profitable with one or it's only profitable with 20. I don't know how that works because these dollar figures are based on 30, and they look all very rosy and exciting. But I don't know if those numbers only are achievable if you have a larger-scale operation. So just at some point we need to know that. A couple people have signed up to speak. So why don't we hear from them, and then we can let the commission then have a conversation. Do you want to ask questions, Amanda? Well, we can ask questions now if you want. All right. All right. You want to ask questions now? I want to add two quick points, too, if I could, Mayor. So one thing I failed to mention and I did want to touch on is that, you know, we do have our ULDR, which does reference signs and advertisement and off-site advertisement. So we may need to look at our code and potentially bring forward some amendments to allow for this type of advertisement and conversations with Ike in our evaluation. We were told that that's not uncommon, that some cities have had to make adjustments to their code to allow for this type of advertisement. But I do just want to highlight that that may be one hurdle that we need to overcome should you go down this path. Okay. All right. All right. Commissioner Glassman? Yes. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Chris. Thank you, Anna. I do have some questions. Basically, I'm going to ask questions of Anna just to get a reply to staff comments that were in the backup and some of the items that you mentioned, Chris. Some of the questions or some of the concerns from staff, I think I actually already found the answers. I'll point those out. But that seemed to have been already in the proposal. So let's just look at those comments. So they were general comments. So, Anna, talk about, and Chris did mention it, and it's also in the backup, that everyone has a smartphone. So isn't this an outdated concept? Can you just address that? Yeah, absolutely. And by the way, I'm sorry that I'm not there in person today. I am nine months pregnant. I am due any day now. So I appreciate you accommodating me virtually. So, yes, the kiosks definitely serve a different function than a cell phone. They are a discovery tool that does not allow for paid placement when they are being interacted with. So if you were to click on the eat and drink application on a kiosk, it's going to sort all of the restaurants and bars and, you know, dining establishments in the area based on proximity to that individual kiosk. If you were to Google or Yelp, you know, coffee shop near me, Starbucks probably has paid for the elevated placement within your, you know, within Google or Yelp because that's the business model of those search engines. And so by not allowing for that, it really will highlight what is local to the area and help people discover all of the best options that are around them. And you can sort and filter, you know, by food type and price point and review ratings and then send directions to your phone as well. The other thing that's different between the kiosks and your phone is that it's a messaging tool for the city in a way that, you know, someone's cell phone would not be. So it was mentioned in the staff presentation that one of the eight slides in that advertising loop is dedicated to the city plus any unsold time, which our business is very seasonal. There are going to be some times when the kiosks are at sellout and there are going to be some times other than the one of eight slides that the city gets. And there are going to be some times where there's more room for the city to promote its events and initiatives in that ad loop. And so it gives the city a tool in the public right of way to communicate with the public, you know, the things that they they want to get out. And that also goes for public safety announcements and emergency alerts. You know, we work with FEMA to automatically pull in those types of alerts into onto the kiosk. And so that helps, you know, communicate evacuation orders or severe weather warnings to the public and especially to those that, you know, maybe don't have a cell phone as well. And then there is emergency functionality on the kiosk. So there's the option of having security cameras and an emergency call button that would enhance public safety in a way that, you know, your cell phone, your cell phone wouldn't have, you know, a security function or a security camera functionality. The kiosks create free Wi-Fi as well, which is especially useful for international visitors, which it can be a or people that have a cell phone, but no data plan. So that can also be a great benefit as well. And then the ability to display public art. We work with local artists. We pay those local artists to display artwork on the screens. We actually have a community engagement team that is solely dedicated to finding those local artists, working with local, small, local businesses and nonprofits and making sure that they get to advertise on the screens as well. So that's another another key benefit of the program. And then, of course, there's a revenue stream to the city, which your smartphone does not generate a revenue stream to the city. Not yet. OK, thank you for that. We have had this discussion a little bit, and it's also a concern in the backup in terms of how you decided about the number of 30 of the kiosks. Tell me what you have in the other cities in South Florida, like Miami, Miami Beach, Aventura. How'd you pick 30? And if you could just address that in terms of if there is a concern about that number. Absolutely. So in Miami, we have 150. But Miami is a very different city than some of the other cities that we're in in South Florida. It's much more sprawling in Aventura. We have at least our contract is drafted as at least 20 kiosks. And we are installing to that 20 number in Miami Beach. It's interesting. Our contract is for 30 kiosks, but in two phases of 15. And we're installing the first phase of 15. And then the city gets to decide if they want to expand beyond that. We would certainly be open to a phased rollout here. And we, of course, would work with the community on which locations make sense in the city, on which locations make sense, and ensuring that all of them are ADA compliant and, you know, on sidewalks that have a sufficient width and are going to be really highly utilized. So we are very open to conversations about phasing the rollout. There is, you know, 10 to 15 is usually kind of the minimum number that it makes sense to launch with just from, you know, to make the it makes sense for both sides of the equation, both us and the city. But we are we're flexible. And the proposal was actually for up to 30. And so we definitely can look at phasing the rollout. Thank you. Engineering had commented that majority of the proposed locations are on state or county right away, not the city. We also just talked about other agencies when Chris did his presentation. They say it's unclear how or what mechanism would be needed to permit the kiosks and would be an additional liability for the city, if you could address that and how that worked in the other cities in South Florida that you've installed these in. Sure. So in Miami, Aventura and Miami Beach, we actually the city and we're the authorized agent on behalf of the city to, like, submit the permits and things. But each city has what's called a master memorandum of agreement with FDOT that allows for the installation on FDOT right of way. And we have a form agreement. We actually created it for the city of Miami. And then we ended up utilizing the exact same form in Miami Beach and then again in Aventura. And it just outlines all of the Florida Green Book standards for installation and all of the things that, you know, the types of permits that FDOT wants to see us pull for each of these kiosk installations. It outlines the review process. And so my recommendation would be for FDOT right of way to utilize that same form agreement. It was an administrative process through FDOT. So FDOT was able to sign it without it needing to, you know, have any public process associated with it. And in all of the other cities that we're in where we have one of these FDOT agreements, the FDOT agreement and the agreement between the city and Ike were approved during the same meeting just to ensure that we would be able to install an FDOT right of way. In terms of county right of way, we actually did work with Miami-Dade County to install, but I understand that Fort Lauderdale is not in Miami-Dade County. My recommendation, because there's just a handful of locations that were on county right of way, would be to focus on city right of way and FDOT right of way, at least for the initial phase, just because those two have a much clearer path to permitting and install. Thank you. What about the question that was in the backup about the safety issue for passing vehicles? Is it a distraction? If you could just address that. Sure. Yeah. So the kiosks are, they're relatively small, right? The screens themselves are 65 inches on the diagonal. There is no documented, you know, evidence that these do cause a safety concern for drivers. I think there's, there are things inside of your car that are much more distracting than something that's on the sidewalk, but really these are of a size and format that they are more pedestrian oriented. And so we, we have not seen any safety issues come up in any of our cities. We haven't seen any reports that they create safety issues. We would, of course, comply with all code standards. So setback, you know, setbacks from the curb, complying with sightline triangles, just to ensure that they are placed in locations that will not create safety concerns. Thank you. There was a comment about them not being able to be placed within 10 feet of underground utilities, but I think you have addressed that in the proposal on page 27. As I read it, it looks like you do make sure that you hire a civil engineer to assess these locations. And then you basically make sure that everything is going to work. Is that correct? That's correct. We would hire a local civil engineer and we would submit for permit for every individual location and ensure that they meet all code standards, including utility offsets. Okay. And all other. And then also it does say one of the comments was that they will require electric source to function, which will generate monthly costs. But I believe, again, in your proposal on page 20, you manufacture, you install, you operate, you maintain at no cost to the city, and that includes the electricity, right? That is correct. How are these powered up, all of these kiosks? So typically we work with the public utility, Florida Power and Light, to connect to underground power. In some cities, like in Miami and in some locations in Miami Beach, we've been able to connect to, you know, city street lights or things like that if the city allows that. But generally speaking, we would be working with Florida Power and Light to establish new service and to connect to underground power. And we would bear all costs associated with every aspect of the program, including utilities. Okay. Thank you. Planning did mention about who would maintain the kiosk. But again, I think in your proposal, you do tell us on page 61 that you are responsible for all the maintenance issues, including cleaning and basically taking care of it with your technicians out there five days a week and even on weekends, if I'm not mistaken. That is correct. Our contract would outline all of our maintenance obligations. But our typical maintenance obligation is five days a week, boots on the ground. Someone goes out there and cleans every single kiosk. One of those days would be a weekend day. And then we also do 24-7 electronic monitoring. So we would be alerted if a kiosk were to go down. Thank you. And we have heard from Chris that there are some issues that we might have to deal with in terms of code amendments because of the signage. Um, have you had experience working with the other cities in terms of how they might have to have had, uh, amendments to their ordinances that you'd be willing or able to share with us so that we can do that as well? Absolutely. And in some cities, we've even been able to avoid amending the sign code. And we place a new definition for interactive wayfinding kiosk with advertising in the public right-of-way code. Um, so we, we could share plenty of examples in South Florida and nationwide, um, where we have done very narrow code amendments that, you know, don't allow for the proliferation of other types of signage, but, um, really narrowly allow for this type of technology since it sort of is, um, a unique type of signage. Thank you. Um, again, we've discussed just briefly, um, pedestrian connectivity and mobility. That was also a comment from planning, um, that these kiosks are inappropriately placed, distract physically and visually, uh, from the pedestrians. I want to make sure that nothing is set in stone in terms of these locations and that you will be working with staff. I know that I have received letters from, uh, I know a lot of these places where you're planning on putting them, I've received, and I've seen letters of support from the Central Beach Alliance for the Beach, Flagler Village Civic Association, Coley Hammock Homeowners Association, Sailboat Bend Civic Association, and just today we received an email from the Downtown Civic Association. So do you work with neighborhood associations in terms of placements as well as working with city staff? We do. We, of course, defer to the city on how they want us to engage with the community, but our typical standard is we work with both the city and community organizations to work on not only the placement, but also the content on the kiosks. And, you know, every kiosk can look different in terms of branding and functionality by neighborhood. Um, and we learn about that through our conversations with the community. And so we do a lot of it on the front end. And then once we have an agreement in place, uh, that collaboration continues into discussing kiosk placement and then content as well. Okay. Because that's going to be, I think, very important with the different neighborhoods, uh, throughout the city where these eventually get placed. And my last concern and question would be the comment also from planning in terms of ADA accessibility. Uh, I know that throughout your proposal you have addressed this, but if you could just quickly talk to us about that ADA accessibility issue? Yes. Our kiosks are ADA compliant. Um, they are cited to be ADA compliant. The functionality itself is ADA compliant. The screen, you know, can ship down for a user in a wheelchair. We also have a fully blind solution that is, um, endorsed by the National Federation for the Blind. Um, so we should be covered in terms of ADA compliance and accessibility. Thank you. And that's my final question. I want to say thank you because I have heard from several of my neighborhoods in the district. Um, and I'm, I'm hoping that others as well. I have not heard any negative comments, only positive and people really looking forward to seeing something like this in our city. And, uh, they think it would be a good addition and a good benefit. So thank you for answering all my questions. Great. Thank you. Uh, anyone else have any questions? Okay. So yes, I would. Thank you. Yes. Um, in regards to, um, going back to the city manager's, um, letter to the commission, um, what's highlighted there is outdoor advertising. And my question, um, would be to city manager or to staff. Um, it's regarding the opportunity that is, um, basically given to the boys and girls club. I understand that there is a, a current agreement with the boys and girls club where they are generating, um, $200,000 a year from bus benches or trash reciprocals. How does this, um, affect that agreement if we go into this type of, um, P3 with, um, this company? So, yes, commissioner, we do have that agreement with the boys and girls club, which is set to expire in 2028, but we've had a longstanding agreement with them that we've extended, uh, on multiple occasions. I'm going to ask Milos to just kind of share really quickly as to what that agreement entails. And then, uh, to the extent that it might impact this opportunity. Thank you very much, manager Williams. Good afternoon. Once again, Milos, my story is director of city's transportation and mobility department. So, um, the agreement with the boys and girls club, uh, dates back, um, to 2008, actually even prior to that. Um, it accounts for about 430, uh, bus benches or benches, uh, that provide, provide for static advertisement at either bus stops or convenience locations. Uh, it also accounts for about, uh, 50 trash receptacles and about 50 superior trash receptacles that also, uh, allow for, uh, recycling and advertisement, uh, um, on the body of, uh, dose. So, uh, in terms of the agreement, again, as manager Williams stated, uh, that agreement expires on December 31st of 2028. Um, so agreement can coexist, two agreements can coexist. Uh, we generate over $200,000 through boys and girls club, um, agreement. Now, the revenue generating opportunity or how one might affect the other, uh, would be something that we would have to determine down the road. Um, it's a different type of advertisement. Again, uh, what, um, Ike is proposing would be digital and what we currently have in, uh, place is, uh, only static, um, at bus benches or, uh, trash receptacles. Okay. All right. So, um, with that being said, um, it doesn't aspire to 2028, but can, are we able to look into that to see how that would look after 2028 affecting the boys and girls club? We, we could. So there are also a couple of other efforts that we might be, uh, pursuing in, in, in the meanwhile, but good feedback and, and absolutely we can do so. There is typically some type of a market level analysis that these companies would do that would, uh, be engaged in, um, a business of, of outdoor advertisement. And based on my personal experience, professional experience from the past, um, as long as there is a degree of separation, uh, between, um, uh, the advertisement locations, uh, the revenue generating opportunity wouldn't be, uh, affected very significantly. Okay. All right. Thank you, Milos. And one other question. Um, this question is in regards to, um, basically the life, um, span or, um, with this digital kiosk program with technology, the way it is, um, we're looking at, um, I see 10 years and again, 20 years. So looking at it 20 years down the road, will this digital kiosk program still be, um, impactful? Would it, would it not be obsolete in 20 years? And if so, what do we do with these 30, um, kiosks that are there? That's a great question. If you don't mind, I, I'm happy to address that. That's a great question. So the way that we think about it is if you think about your smartphone, what hasn't changed since you probably first got a smartphone to, you know, a very high degree is the shape and the size of your smartphone. But what has changed significantly is the software and your software is usually updated on your phone a couple of times a year. Um, you, you know, opt into that update and that's what keeps it fresh and new features and new functionality. We have an in-house software team that has built a proprietary software that we're pushing out multiple updates a month on that software. And one example that I, that we like to give is that, um, there's an arcade on our kiosk. And when we first launched the kiosk, the arcade only allowed you to play a game with yourself. And then the next generation of the software, you could play against the person that stands on the other side of the kiosk since they're dual sided. Now we have the functionality where you can play. You could be standing in Fort Lauderdale and be playing someone in Houston, Texas. So that type of, of innovation is something that you would be expecting throughout the term. And that is why in our performance criteria, we bake in that we have to push out those, uh, software updates and keep the content fresh and up to date, or else you have the ability to terminate because to your point, there's no point in having these in the public right of way if they're not serving the city. And so I'm not sure if that answers your question, but we would be committed to, to innovating the software and ensuring that it stays fresh and relevant for the city. Okay. All right. Thank you for that. Because I, I have this vision of in 20 years, everything will be, um, what, what's the word? Uh, I'm sorry. Where it's just reality. Yes. I mean, if you guys want augmented reality, maybe that's where, that's the direction we'll go. Okay. Thank you for answering the question. Thank you, mayor. I'm finished with my questions. Thank you. Okay, great. Thank you. Um, I have a couple of people have signed up to speak. We'll start with, uh, we will start with Melinda and then, um, the other person, Joe Cox. Is Joe still here? He left. Hi. Can you push the button? Can you push the button? Yeah. I should know this by now. It's been a long 2026 already, unfortunately. Um, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, uh, Melinda Bowker, I'm president of the downtown Fort Lauderdale Civic Association. Um, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on remarks. I just did want to come because, um, I only got the letter to you in support of this technology today. So I apologize for that. Um, I did actually get to meet in person, um, with Anna and, um, with her colleague, Nick. Um, and then I had them, uh, come to a board meeting, um, and then subsequent to that board meeting after they presented to the downtown civic association, um, our board in December did vote, um, to support the use of this technology. Um, the main, I think reasons just in summary, um, there's been a lot of the good points already highlighted. So wayfinding obviously I think has been an issue in the downtown on the river walk, um, and, and other locations of the city. I will say as a South Sider, it's strangely enough, I'm always having to explain to people on the South side of the river walk. Um, they want to go to Las Olas and they always want to go through the tunnel. And I say, no, don't they're, they're pedestrian. So I say, no, you got to go this way over the bridge. Um, so wayfinding is a big deal, I think still. Um, and I, and I don't think the phones are solving it. Um, I think safety is important. Um, we really liked the fact that there's a call button and that there's cameras and those are options that I believe are free. Um, and so we are actually interested in this potentially in a few areas of river walk. Um, and I think, you know, that's city property. Um, the other thing is the connectivity. Um, I'm not sure if this was emphasized, so I got to put the glasses back on. Um, the kiosks offer, um, free public wifi within a hundred feet. And given that the city is spending money to bring broadband to our park system, the use of these kiosks in several city parks could be considered. Um, the other thing is the non-car public transit location and information sharing. Um, we were actually interested in the kiosk being at water trolley stops, uh, potentially, um, they could also have information connected to the water go system so that you can actually see where the water trolley is. A lot of people don't know how to use the app on the phone. And I think that when they're waiting, they know, okay, should I walk across river or should I wait for the water trolley? Um, and then public art and promotion of, uh, Fort Lauderdale. We saw that the kiosks, um, can promote local artists, um, display city posters and events real time. You can also have, uh, city of Fort Lauderdale branded selfies. So in summary, we feel the city should strongly consider working with Ike Smart City to determine the best locations. Um, we're not sure if the location's presented or the number and kind of that density is right. Um, but we think that that's ongoing conversation. I think contract terms would need to be negotiated and we think that, um, the potential for a phased rollout is important. We think additional locations could include river walk at the pedestrian bridge ramps that cross the new river and the historic district. We think this would be a great way to connect Stranahan house, um, the, um, history Fort Lauderdale complex and the women's club, new river in, and then also just, um, the multitude of city downtown parks and near the main library. And, uh, those are my comments. All right. Thank you so much. I think all those places would be great. Right. Um, uh, who's going to ask? Uh, oh, uh, Anna. Hi. Yes. Hi, Anna. Um, so these kiosks, uh, you know, a, a walker can look into us. Can we look at them? In other words, are ring cameras attachable to these things so that they can, they can help for crime prevention and safety? They actually already have integrated cameras. So there are, if they're optional from the perspective of some cities elect not to have them, uh, since some cities are very sensitive about that type of technology, but all of our South Florida cities have elected to have them. There are two cameras, one at the top, either side of the kiosk at the top, um, that are capturing the scene sort of on the sidewalk in either direction. And then there's a pinhole camera above the emergency call button on the spine of the kiosk. So if someone presses it, the security camera is able to capture that footage as well. Oh, good. Good to know. Okay. Very good. All right. So what's the pleasure of the commission? What would we, what would we like, what would we like to do? Do we want to accept this and, uh, have staff look at it and, uh, make a decision as to how many days we are going to allow the, um, the period of, uh, of contests be open? What's the next steps? Competition period. Mayor, a couple, a couple of thoughts that I have. Um, so one, um, definitely there's, I think there's some, um, you know, good features to this possibility. I, I think I like the idea and I don't think we have to, um, get to this granular level, uh, city manager, but the phasing of a rollout makes sense. I would want, uh, flexibility in this number of units, like, um, uh, because some parts of the city might, some districts, city commission districts might want more, some might want less. So I think good flexibility in our contract terms for the number of units is important. Um, as well. And I would say entering into competition period may or makes sense because that, that's, doesn't commit us to anything. Right. Right. It's a competition period to get other, if there are other providers that are interested in, in this, um, uh, to provide, um, you know. So let's pick a, let's pick a number of days. I think the minimum is 21. 21. So I'd say 21. That sounds good to me. And that way we can get, you know, any other perspectives, thoughts, and then we can go from there. Okay. Very good. Um, all right. Anyone have any, any comments from the commission? Um, my, my, um, concern mayor and commission, um, I'm uncomfortable with the, we can, I guess it'd be in the negotiation discussion through city manager, but the 20 year, um, opportunity that 10 20, um, I just think it's a, a, a, a, a wide and a long, um, contract on agreement with the way technology is changing so rapidly. So if that could be a part of the conversation with whomever, um, comes to the table, um, just concerned about just bringing forth some concern about that 20 year window. Well, you're right because, you know, they may have holograms by then and they'll be have real persons, uh, all right. So staff can look into that and see what the flexibility can be worked into these agreements in case we need to change out these, these, uh, the, the, these, um, billboards with whatever new technology would come out by then. It's a good point. All right. So is that the consensus of the commission? Okay. So we will bring a resolution establishing the competition period for this qualifying project. Okay. All right. Very good. Uh, now business three city manager, you've asked me to continue this because we do have a closed door session, but there are people who have come here to speak. So how do you want me to handle this? Well, I was advised, uh, that the attorney, I'll leave it to the city attorney, but I think we have some scheduling issues with outside counsel. All right. So, um, uh, let's see, Steve. I mean, we could take this up in tonight's meeting, which isn't about, I can take it up at the beginning. Um, at the beginning, would that be okay with you folks? Okay. You have more billable hours, so it's, uh, yeah, if you don't mind, uh, I don't want to, I don't want to put it off to the next meeting. I'd like to do it tonight. Okay. Very good. All right. Thank you. All right. So, um, so at this time, the city commission shall meet privately to conduct discussions between the city manager, the city attorney, and the city commission relative to pending litigation pursuant to section 286.001 parentheses eight Florida statutes in connection with the following matters for city of Fort Lauderdale versus F dot case number four D 2025 2783 city of Fort Lauderdale versus F dot 25 dash zero zero four eight five six R U and city of Fort Lauderdale versus F dot, uh, four D 2026 O two seven one. Isn't there another case? It was just those three. There's the other discussion. The city manager has with you. Okay. City manager, and there's a, there's a collective bargaining meeting too. Correct. Okay. I will come after. All right. So present at the attorney client session will be myself, vice mayor, commissioner, John Herbst, commissioner, Steven Glassman, commissioner, Pamela Beasley Pittman, commissioner, Ben Sorenson, city manager, Raquel Williams, city manager, Sherry McCartney, deputy city attorney, D. Wayne Spence, assistant city attorney, Sean, uh, Amarnani, uh, outside counsel, uh, Howard DeBosar, um, outside counsel, Jeremy Rosner, and of course, certified court reporter from Bailey and 10 court reporting. The estimated length of this time will be approximately 45 minutes total. And so the executive closed door session will now begin where we, where are we convening to the, the room across and hospitality is available if you'd like. Okay, great. Thank you. And we'll, we'll resume our conference meeting, uh, at the beginning, uh, after, after six o'clock.