City Commission Conference Meeting on 2026-08-18 1:05 PM - Aug 18, 2026

Okay, folks, thank you so much. I appreciate everyone's patience today. Moving on to the conference meeting. Before I begin the conference meeting, I'll do it now and I'll do it later. I just want to remind everyone who has not yet voted that today is Election Day, and we'd appreciate if everyone makes their way to the polls to vote. We have a lot of important races from school board to primaries and all the different races up and down the tickets. So if you need to excuse yourself, we'll let you go for a few minutes to go vote. But we appreciate your voting today. So we begin our meeting with communications, and we have a communications from the Fire Rescue Bond Issue Blue Ribbon Committee. And Mr. Versinas, are you here? There you are. So we have a communication. John, you want to come up and talk to us about this communication? Thank you for being here. You don't have a smile on your face. I don't know. This is pretty ominous. You want me to read the whole thing? No, no. Just give me the punchline. Mayor and commissioners, I'm John Brett Senes. I'm the current chairman of the Blue Ribbon Committee Fire Bond Board. This situation started 22 years ago when the city voters voted a bond issue. And you guys, your predecessors, I think, authorized it. I don't think any of you were on the commission then. Were you? I was one of those predecessors. Approximately 10 stations have been in the program, and we have just about to ground break station number 13 reconstruction, which is the last station in our mandate. I think you've noticed the Sunrise Boulevard Road Work that started that they have to change the road to get to the new elevation for the fire station exit due to everything being raised due to water level changes. And we anticipate, actually, the abatement and the demolition work to start here in September, and real construction to start in December of this year, completing the station at the end of December of 2027. And this program will come to an end. I think staff has done a great job, and the department has been very patient. And I think everybody involved is happy to see this program sunsetting. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone have any questions of John? All right. Yes, Chief. Mayor, I just wanted to personally thank John and the entire team that they've gotten this bond project further along. And I know that there's been times where it's been rather aggravating. We haven't seen much movement with the projects, but it's further along than it's been in 22 years. And we're right there at the cusp, I think, in the next 30 to 60 days. Well, better late than never. Exactly. All good things come to those who wait, right? Yeah. We're right there. 22 years later. Thank you very much. I appreciate your time. I appreciate all the meetings that you're there for and leading and making this come together. So thank you. All right. Mayor, I have a question. Go ahead. Is there anything from the commission perspective that we would need to do to make sure this does not stall for another 22 years? Can I offer some suggestions since I audited the fire station bond program 15 years ago? It starts with, number one, budgeting for inflation. It starts with, number two, budgeting sufficient amount of money to actually complete the program. We didn't budget enough money for Station 8. We didn't actually contemplate how we were going to accomplish Station 13 since we thought we were going to get money. I'm sorry, not money. We thought we were going to get the land from the state, which was never going to happen because it had a reverter clause back to Antioch College. So if the state ever gave it to us, Antioch College could take it back from the state. So that was an absurd suggestion. That was a crazy reverter clause. Well, it's because Hugh Taylor Birch hated the city of Fort Lauderdale because we took away the land fronting the ocean to build A1A instead of taking the land fronting the intracoastal. So he donated the land for Sunrise, and he said, yeah, I'll give you land for A1A. You just have to build it along the intracoastal. And we said, no, we really want that oceanfront land. And he said, great, I'll never give you another thing ever again. And so he donated it to the state of Florida, and that's how we got Hugh Taylor Birch State Park. And then he said, and by the way, if you ever try and give it away again, it reverts back to Antioch College. Okay. Are they still a college? Yeah. Yes, they are. So they actually split into two, and then there was a whole other story behind that, and that's why we're still – so – and then we came along. We said, by the way, we'd also like to move the fire boats up there, so we wanted an extension all the way down to the water. And they said, absolutely not, not today, not now, not ever. And we basically wasted 10, 15 years for Fire Station 13. So what we have to do is plan realistically, Commissioner, budget enough money, budget for inflation, and kind of like we did when we were doing the fire – I'm sorry, when we were doing the parking garage in Holiday Park, where we budgeted $7 million and we knew it was going to cost 30. We did the same thing when we didn't budget enough land for Fire Station 8 on the south side. We budgeted, I think it was $1.5 million to acquire land. Right. When land was at its most expensive back in the 2006 peak of land value explosions in Fort Lauderdale, we were never able to acquire land down on the south side for that price. So we basically set ourselves up for failure from the word go. So we have to be more realistic when we're contemplating a long-term – what was supposed to be a 10-year construction project, which turned into 20-plus. That's 23. Okay. So – well, at least it's the last one. So we don't have to think about it anymore. We have two guests here today. And if – with the permission of the commission, I'd like to just jump the conference reports and – I mean the commission reports and go right into – is Jennifer Gihardo here? Hi, Jennifer. This is CF1 Resilient Broward Grant Program presentation by Dr. Jennifer Gihardo from the Broward County. She's the Chief Resilience Officer, Deputy Director of Public Works and Environmental Services Department. My goodness. How do you put all that on one business card? You just did. Thank you for being here. Nice to see you again. Can you push the button at the bottom of the speaker? Thank you. Okay, great. And I believe that there's a pleasant presentation that will be queued up. Yeah. Is there a presentation? Thank you so very much, Mayor. Very good to see you. Thank you, Commissioner, a member of our Water Advisory Board. Nice to see you all and lots of communications over the month. So it's nice to see everyone in person. Appreciate the time on the agenda. I'll be very brief. I'm here to talk about the Resilient Broward Grant Program. Perhaps you heard about that. But a couple of months ago, the Broward County Board of County Commissioners took action. And I'm here sharing on their behalf the investment that they have made to help support resilient infrastructure improvements in Broward County. You're, I know, as a city, well aware of the rising risk that flood conditions present for our communities and have had, unfortunately, personal experience with some very significant events over the last several years. It's with this recognition of local conditions and what we've been observing over the last decade and more that the county had undertaken development of a countywide resilience plan. It involved participation of our consultants across the communities, our planners, our engineers, public works departments, drainage water control districts, all with the purpose of investing in a strategy to help reduce flood exposures, the spatial extent of flooding, the depth of flooding, the duration of flooding, and the impacts that flooding is occurring and generating within our communities and for our residents and our businesses. I'm not going to go through the whole plan, but just share the outcome. There were multitude, dozens of scenarios that were run for future conditions. There were investments in infrastructure that were modeled as part of adaptation strategies, and the map here shows the distribution of all types of infrastructure investments ranging from hard infrastructure like pumps and culverts and seawalls to investments such as storage and bioswales. And underground storage that could be generated as part of redevelopment projects. The banner on the right shows the totality of project approaches that were captured in these strategies as modeled in the plan, and you can see the total number or acreage and so forth associated with each of those for the city of Fort Lauderdale. Here is just a presentation of one scenario for the two-foot sea level rise, 100 year rain event, 20 year storm surge. The dark red shows areas of predicted flooding on the left with no adaptation with water levels greater than two feet. The orange is more like one to two feet, yellow six inches to one foot, and green less than six inches. The image on the right with all of the adaptation investments that we modeled shows the improved conditions under that particular scenario. Some areas will continue to require investment, some areas are designated perhaps water storage areas, and we would look at the aerial behind that to see whether or not the persistent flooding was a concern. But the point is dramatic reductions with the types of investments that we included in that modeling. This image just shows conceptually. We model things. What do they look like when they're actually in the ground? These are the types of projects. These are the types of projects, but our board, county commission, was mainly interested in the projects where we could say today there's a location, we could put the infrastructure in the ground and derive the flood benefits now. And those are the ones that are focused on conveyance, whether they be pumps, control structures such as flexible weirs, and canals or culvert improvements that can help move water better. It was recognized that those investments will occur over a duration of decades, but there are significant economic outcomes. I'm not going to go through these, but these are the derived, modeled economic benefits by McKinsey Global. You put the infrastructure in, what does it look like in terms of return on investment, and the numbers were in the billions as part of recurring and additional one-time costs. Whether they were loss reductions, property, value, preservation, preservation of economic opportunity. But the plan came with a large price tag. We know about $9 billion in total is expected to be invested across the public sector. That could be conservative. The conveyance projects that I talked about account for about $1 billion of what we modeled. Another $2 billion anticipated in the way of coastal pump infrastructure. Those are the areas that are shown in the pink shading on the more right-hand side of that map. And additional investments in seawalls and storage with time. But as I noted, the board was particularly interested in the capital projects that could be put in the ground today, helping reduce flood risk today while those benefits would accrue with time. They agreed on April 28th to allocate from their reserve outside of the budget process $20 million to help launch and jumpstart this initiative. The idea is to contribute up to 25% cost share towards eligible projects, which they identified as the three categories that I've referenced a couple of times. Our responsibility as staff is to manage those dollars in a way which we enhance that leveraging where we can to achieve a five-to-one return with that leveraging for every dollar that the county puts in. And the goal being that if we can accommodate and invest that $20 million a year through the grants for a period of 15 years, we could achieve $1.5 billion in installed infrastructure. That would meet the $1 billion that I talked about in the way of the conveyance improvements, plus another $500 million that is intentionally focused on coastal pump stations, which may be of particular interest to the city of Fort Lauderdale. The criteria for the grant program are shown here. I won't go through them. They're available on the website. My purpose of being here today was just to ensure that all leadership knows about this opportunity. We have been reaching out to all the municipalities, the drainage, the water control districts. We have two webinars that are scheduled. We are obviously heavily desirous that we will receive your applications. We will be using these criteria to review and rank. The point allocation for these are also posted online at resilientbroward.com. Now, I want to share that of the projects that we modeled in our model, there were only two explicit project locations. Now, the projects that fall within the city, there will be higher points allocated for projects that are specifically identified in the strategy, but all projects that are consistent with the resilience plan are fundable. It's just a matter of the ranking. And so if you have other projects that fall into those categories that address flood risks in areas that we maybe didn't adequately model, but they meet those objectives, those projects are eligible as well, as well as coastal pumps that are not defined here, because that was left to the communities to ultimately say where are you putting up public seawalls, where you would want to have more in the way of pump capacity on the landward side of those investments. Okay, let's stop right there. Sorry. Let's stop right there. Okay. Now, before we get to seawall, as you may recall, the city of Fort Lauderdale was the recipient of a large rainfall in April of 2023. Yes. And whether it was a 100-year storm, a 1,000-year storm, it really doesn't matter. But certainly a large portion of the southern part of our city was inundated with flood water, and so was the airport. Yes. And the airport had significant flood water to the point where its northern runway was incapacitated due to the flooding, right? Correct. And so the question was when an airport like that sustains so much flooding, there needs to be a way to create the runoff so that it leaves the airport and doesn't incapacitate any of the surrounding areas. Instead, what happened was all that water had no place to go, and it ended up going into the neighborhoods. And the neighborhoods meaning people's living rooms, people's businesses, almost to the point of threatening people's lives. Now, I don't see anywhere here where the county plans to create a pumping capacity along the canal in the northern part of the airport between Fort Lauderdale's southern neighborhoods, Edgewood and so forth, where that same kind of rainfall will not again inundate these neighborhoods. Obviously, when you have 595 dumping into the area under their highway and you have the airport also unable to drain with large amounts of water like that, what are the county's plans? Don't depend on us and say, you know, well, what's the city want to do? You know what the city wants to do. The city wants the county to take responsibility on its own property to try to find a way to push that water away from the area rather than allowing it to push its way into our neighborhoods and cause significant, significant financial impact to our communities. What's the county's answer to that? Well, the airport is designed to hold on site a tremendous volume of water. But it didn't? Well, so we did hold about five feet of water on that landscape and that did occur. So a tremendous volume of water that was stored there. I know that there's a passive park to the north of the airport that is also part of the stormwater management system. However, it's connected with a very small culvert relative to the volume of water that was retained. And I know that we continue to do and have a lot of active grants, including many with Resilient Florida, for stormwater improvements that will continue to serve drainage and water management needs. I know that the infrastructure there does meet today's standards and that there are a lot of areas in our community that are older and haven't been redeveloped and would benefit from additional stormwater management improvements. And the intent of the program is to help those communities that don't yet meet today's standards. A lot of them don't have active stormwater management infrastructure. Well, we've already taken care of that. The City of Fort L'Oreal has already done that. Okay. We put drainage systems into those southern neighborhoods which satisfy the technology that exists today. Okay. Up to 7 to 10 inches per 24 hour period. Right. But the canal that exists just north of the airport and to the south of the city. Ted, do you have something to say? Did you sign up to speak? Okay. So just let me finish. Okay. So we've already built the infrastructure in those neighborhoods. But the point that I'm trying to make is that the county needs to take responsibility. I'm going to say it can store up to five feet of water. It can't store nothing because it has to go somewhere. And it's going to go in our neighborhoods. And that's the problem. The airport doesn't store anything. It's going to run off into the adjacent areas. And it did. And the canal that's just north of the airport was overrun with capacity. They could not handle all the water. And so our previous public works director, Alan Dodd, when he was with us, he convened a meeting with all the stakeholders. The state, FDOT, people from your government. And he convened a meeting and he said, okay, let's get in a room. Let's figure out what we're going to do. And one of the big takeaways from that was that they needed significant pumping stations to be able to push the water out. Is the county planning to do anything like that? It's not the city's responsibility. It's on your land. I understand that the airport has significant stormwater master plans. My understanding is that there are numerous active infrastructure projects, some of which include plans for pump stations. And I well, I don't have the details because I don't work for the airport. But I do know that there are a multitude of projects because I've seen them. I can't speak to the details of every investment that's being made, but they do include additional investments and stormwater management that are very specific to the airport property. In addition, we do look to partner with the Army Corps of Engineers on a coastal stormwater management study that is very specific to the coastal areas. And also encompassing of canals, which maybe you're referring to the C 13 spur. I'm not sure, but that would be part of that analysis. Continuing to look at where we can improve coastal infrastructure, not just on the landward side of our salinity control structures and those canals. But also looking at what can we do more effectively on the coastal side to deal with the water management challenges that are more coastally driven as opposed to net stormwater runoff. But clearly, the combination of those two things together warrants a very robust kind of next phase of what do we do with larger scale infrastructure beyond what we're talking about here. Well, the reason why I bring that up is because I'm looking at the slide and page 11 and it talks about it talks about pump stations and culverts and control structures. And I don't see anything on the area that we're talking about. Mayor Tran, tell us this study did not use general fund dollars to include the details of our enterprise funds. Okay. Because we cannot. And that is a very complex system on our attempt. The airport has all of the modeling information and we do work with them to ensure that all of their planning is able to incorporate this work. But we did not do modeling for the enterprise agencies. And the airport is an enterprise agency. And that would be their dollars focused on their infrastructure. And, of course, it all has to work together. So what you're saying to us today is that it's not on the county government's agenda to provide flood control in the airport area, especially as it abuts up to our southern neighborhoods. It's the airport's responsibility. So do they have a whole department on flood mitigation? Do you know? Well, they have a stormwater management program and team. They do. And I can't detail every project that they're working on. And nor is this study intended to capture every project that will take place in municipal areas or areas that are incorporated. It is not exhaustive. It's not meant to represent everything. And it certainly does not. This study was focused on where can we maximize the investments that are focused on conveyance improvements that we could capture. We did work with your consulting teams and others to represent the projects that were shared with us as part of these city zone investments as well as those that you would help identify as areas of high risk. We didn't model everything. We didn't model everything. And if there and nor is there a debate that there could be additional work that we didn't identify here that you would say, hey, this is a priority. It's a project, whether it's the city or whether it's the airport that needs to look at additional project opportunities. This is not exhaustive. It is. So we have been doing that. And I think it's pretty obvious over three years ago that this problem existed. It made national, international news. Right. There shouldn't be rocket science in order to figure out what our priorities are. So you're saying that we should invite the airport authority to come speak to us and talk to us about their flood mitigation efforts then because you're saying it's not really within your purview to speak to them about what their priorities are. I certainly will not feign expertise with regards to their system. I am not involved in the details. I don't work for the airport. I don't work for the airport. And I would suggest that if there are very specific airport questions that we could make arrangements to have a different representative. Okay. All right. All right. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Well, it's not within your jurisdiction. Well, it's not within your jurisdiction. Yeah. So we always thought it was. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. These, obviously, it impacted River Oaks, impacted Edgewood significantly. So I've met with the airport, you know, water management team and so forth. And the kind of solutions that they've offered thus far, which were in, are in progress. And Brad or city manager, I don't know who would know the latest status of that. But it's basically some additional culverts, berm work, and so forth. There has been not a discussion that I'm aware of, and city manager, you may be able to provide added info, around the more substantive pumps and so forth stations that you're talking about, which are the berms. Exactly. So that's my concern. And varying, when you talk to engineers, the amount of water flow from the airport into these neighborhoods was significant, was significant. That's the only reason why they flooded, because it all came from the airport. It was significant. So I'd welcome that chance to continue to have this discussion and understand where the status is on these projects. Chris, I don't know. Do you know offhand where we are on? I don't know. The airport is on some of that work. Okay. So we'll get more info. Yeah. Thanks. And I would like to jump in here also to have an opportunity for the southwest area for Merrill's Park, Merrill's Manors. I know we're doing infrastructure opportunities, but I'm hearing grant monies being offered so we can look at opportunities to help us partner and move forward in those areas. I don't think this is an opportunity that we should bypass. No. And I want to put it on the record that Merrill's Park, Merrill's Manors, Riverland. Yes. I'm on my job. Yes. We need to make sure that we take the opportunity to take advantage to apply for those grants that are available. Certainly. We understand. Thank you. You got that? I got that. Certainly seen those images as well. Obviously, there are a range of projects and investments that will be taking place. These funds are intended to support infrastructure needs that are within the municipal and water control district jurisdictions with the desire that if we can put money towards these projects, and you've got other source funds like Resilient Florida, that we can accelerate projects that might otherwise be delayed. That's the goal. And so we have a timeline here. Just to share, we've got some webinars coming up, but the application period will open on September 2nd. The portal address is shown at the bottom of the screen. We expect to complete ranking and review by the end of the calendar year. Would look to bring these to the county commission first part of 27. And I would actually say agreement execution by early spring. That would be the goal. So I do hope we receive applications, and I and my team stand ready with any technical questions that your team might have in that process. Thank you. Great. Any questions of Jennifer? No questions? All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Gerardo. Thank you for City, though, if that's okay. Chris, you see any potential possibilities here about how we can take advantage of this? Todd, IGW, Public Works Director. So it is limited in scope for the eligibility of projects to culverts, control structures, and pumps. The also other limiting factor is the timeframe. It's three years for design, permeating, construction. So those are some limiting factors currently in place. But, again, we're always open to opportunities, and I think the webinar is tomorrow. And I will clarify, seawalls aren't part of this, so it's only limited to these certain type of projects. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Okay. I'd like to then go on to business one. We have, this is Broward County Public Schools informational presentation regarding the next generation referendum. And, I'm sorry? You can't. You didn't sign up. You can talk. I do need to hear what the residents say, but we do have a procedure here. And you are very, very familiar with that. If you'd like to sign up after this presentation from Dr. Hepburn, I'd be happy to have you speak up. If you could please go up there and sign in, I'd be happy to do that. Dr. Hepburn. Thank you, Mayor. Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners. I'm here with my Deputy Superintendent, Dr. Angela Fulton, and also Chief of Staff, John Sullivan, who actually tagged team with me on this presentation. I don't know if you're going to get that presentation up real quick. While he's queuing that up, I just want to extend my sincere appreciation to the City of Fort Lauderdale for your continuous engagement, support, and commitment to your schools. I'll talk about some of the accolades for many of the schools right here in the City of Fort Lauderdale, but your partnership matters. I often tell my team all the time we can't work in isolation. It takes strong partnerships to relish in the accomplishments that we've relished in for the past few years. And I'll talk about many of that. So thanks for giving us the opportunity, yet brief, to talk about our next-generation referendum. And we certainly want to educate the public. We can't advocate, so we're going to provide as much information as possible to discuss what the referendum supports, currently supports, and what it will support in the future as well. I often like to start talking about our accomplishments. We've been an A-rated school district three years in a row. Congratulations. Thank you. Huge accomplishment. And also, no D and F schools for the past three years as well. Which is probably more important. Which is absolutely a lot of hard work by our teachers, administrators, volunteers, bus drivers, custodians, food and nutrition staff, people in our cubicles working in the admin office, hundreds of thousands of volunteers. I can go on and on and on. It truly takes a village to demonstrate that level of success year after year. Also, first time in 25 years, our traditional high schools, 97.5% graduation rate. So we're turning them out. When you add in all of our alternative high schools as well as the charter schools, we're at about 91.4%. But for our traditional high schools, 97.5%. Also, we're number one in the state of Florida for funding for our accelerated courses. AP, ACE, dual enrollment, industry certification courses. What that means, we are challenging our students with college level coursework in high school. We also challenge our students in middle school with high school level coursework to get them ready for that level of rigor when they actually get to high school. So they can take advantage of the wonderful opportunities to live out their post-secondary dream. And I'll talk about that a little bit more as well. We are also recognized only large district in the nation as the Cambridge district of the year for 25-26. So we're the only school district in the country that can relish in that distinguishment as well for 25-26 school year. What exactly is that? So Cambridge is, so we have our ACE program, which is actually a- ACE is the A-I-C-E. Yes, which is a college level. You get college credit if you're a student taking those courses on our campus. So it's like advanced placement. Correct. So similar to AP courses. And so Cambridge is the institution that actually runs ACE. And so it's an international program since Cambridge is in the UK. And we're the only district in the nation that has the large district designation for Cambridge. Yes. My daughter graduated from Cambridge at Fort Lauderdale. Fort Lauderdale. Absolutely. I see it. Fort Lauderdale High School does a great job. Yeah, absolutely. They do. And got a full ride to UCF. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Yep. Go Knights. Superintendent, do we have in the county international baccalaureate? Yes, we do. Remind me which schools. We have Miramar and Deerfield Beach High School. Okay. Yes. Thank you. I always like to remind people about the scale of Broward County Public Schools. We are a very large and diverse district. Service about 236,000 kids of that. 180,000 are district operated. In our district operated schools, the rest is actually in charter schools. We also have about 325 schools, and 86 of those schools are charter schools, and 27,000 employees. And as I mentioned earlier about being number one in ACE, AP, IB, industry certification, this is the result. Students being challenged with rigorous coursework, college level coursework, earning college credit equates to our students earning $617 million in scholarship for the class of 2026. $260 million more than actually class of 2025. So we continue to challenge our students and great things are happening as a result to help them live out their post-secondary dreams. Also, again, highlighting our school grade for the past three years, one of the things you'll notice at the bottom of that table when I came to Broward County Public Schools, we had, you know, a few DNF schools. We had a lot of C schools, and we had a few A and B schools. As a result, as you move up the years, we've been able to actually increase our percentage of A schools by 130% and decrease our C schools by over 70%. Today, 87% of our schools are A's and B's, and we have zero DNFs for the past three years. And to be more specific about the city of Fort Lauderdale schools, the majority of the schools are actually A's and B's. I think there's only two or three C schools in the city. And when I stepped in, there was quite a few D's and F's in the city, and we have gotten rid of all of those D's and F's. Yes. It was an F, and now it's a B. Teams are doing amazing work. So thank a teacher, thank a principal, thank an assistant principal, and everybody else who contributes to making that happen. Superintendent, could you just go back to that list? Yes. When I was reading this, maybe I'm not following this right, but like, oh, never mind. I think it was corrected. The categories were all kind of crazy. I wasn't following whether it was elementary, middle. I see they've been corrected, though, from the time we got the backup. Okay, awesome. So thank you for that. No problem. And then at this time, I'm going to have Mr. Sullivan come up, and he's going to go a little bit more in detail about the next generation referendum. Next generation. I'm a little shorter. Good afternoon. John Sullivan, Chief of Staff for Briarwood Schools, the superintendent, and a proud resident of Fort Lauderdale. What district is that, John? Your district, sir. Thank you very much. I'm sorry. I meant the best district. I just wanted to make sure it was clear. I really appreciate it. Thank you very much. Now you own whatever I say next. Just kidding. All right. So at a glance, so voters are accustomed to seeing this on the primary ballot. However, statute has changed, so now it's in the general election. So that's why people aren't seeing it on their ballot today. But they will see it in November. So it's a renewal. It's not a new tax. This has been in place since 2018. By law, every four years we do have to go out. If this renewal would start to impact the 27-28 school year, it's approximately $358 million across Broward Schools, including our charter schools. So it funds mainly three buckets, our teacher and staff compensation supplements, our school safety personnel, and our mental health personnel. So I'll go a little bit over those buckets in later slides. Again, this is a renewal. It is not a new tax. Property owners are used to and accustomed to seeing this on their tax rolls since 2018. These are some of the items that the current one funds. So currently $173 million annually is compensation supplements for our teachers and eligible staff. So think about all the frontline workers that touch students every day. So our teachers, teacher assistants, the bus drivers, cafeteria workers, custodian workers, our site leaders, they all benefit from these supplements, including our charter school partners as well. Over 393 school safety personnel or $1.7 million in terms of software is dedicated out of this referendum. We do appreciate the City of Fort Lardo's partnership and our SRO program. We know that's a financial burden for the city. We've been able to have meaningful contributions increases since the onset of this referendum. When this referendum was instituted, our contribution was about $56,000, and we're up to $119,000 that we contribute towards our SRO program. So again, a big thank you to the city for partnering with us in our SRO program. And then 224 mental health. You're up to $119,000, you said? Yes. And the renewal would allow for additional conversations to continue increasing that contribution rate. Okay. So you're still using our officers then? I thought that you had a little bit of that. Primarily, we use your officers in our high schools. In the high schools? In the city of Fort Lardo. Okay. All right. This is the ballot language, but this is the ballot language that the voters will see when they decide whether or not to support this measure. And again, it's not where they are accustomed to see in the primary. They'll see in the general in a few months. So the board voted if the referendum is successful, 90% would go towards teacher and staff compensation. And the other 10% would go towards school safety and mental health. What does this mean for the average taxpayer homeowner in Broward? Again, these are averages. So a year for an average homeowner would be about $418 million or $35 a month. For a condominium owner, the average would be $230 a year or $19 a month. That small investment generates a huge dollar amount annually throughout the county. And again, that's $358 million is what we anticipate annually if the referendum was successful. If it were not to pass, again, the $358 million would go away. This is really the only mechanism that the district has to have additional revenue outside of what the legislature gives us in Tallahassee. We're very thankful what they give us in Tallahassee. However, how they fund us is not enough. We spend way above the categoricals that they give us, whether it's mental health, school safety. We fund that out of general funds. And the addition of supplements positions are accounted for in the referendum. So we have no other mechanism to raise additional funds. This is not unique to Broward County Schools. About half the districts in the state have referendums for the same reason or purposes. It's just additional revenue to support the schools within their counties. So not unique to Broward. That was a lot of information, but we do have a website, a QR code. And also they can go straight to the website, BrowardSchools.com for slash referendum 2026. Again, everything we've said is for information and purposes only. We cannot tell people how to vote. Just got to say that for my lawyers. So they're happy. That's our disclaimer. And of course, we're open to any questions. Anyone have any questions? So the question is going to be by voters. What happened with the last charge of money? Yeah. So this is completely different from our bond. Our bond program is well publicized. There was many issues. That was prior administration prior to the superintendent. This referendum is general. We've had no issues. We had audit report done on the last one. There was no findings. We had another audit done on the current one. No major findings. So this is operational. It has nothing to do with the facility bond program, which obviously there's been controversy delay. The superintendent has been managing to close out the projects that were remaining. But this is apart and separate from that bond program. Okay. I think that clarification needed to be made. Thank you. I appreciate it. That's probably a fair point. Anyone else have any questions? There being none, thank you so much. We appreciate it. We appreciate the partnership and for having us today. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We'll jump back to the previous agenda item, CF1. Mr. Ed and Sarah, do you want to come up and speak? Hello, Ted and Sarah, President of River Oaks. I apologize, Mr. Mayor. That's okay. But when you went to the direction that you were talking about, it got me kind of a little excited, you know, being in River Oaks. Well, I care about you. I know you do. I believe that 100%. And, but you know, boy, she talked about some great things with the culverts. We have those in installed in River Oaks. We have the control structure. We have the pumps. They never really been tested yet, but we have all of those things installed. I hope we never have to. I agree. But you brought up some great points about the airport. You do need to get these people in here to talk to us. We tried to get them to come to River Oaks. I guess we're not, you know, powerful enough to make them say yes. They just kind of ignored all of our, all of our requests. And actually at our Thursday night meeting, we have Stephen Peritano coming in to explain the rain project, the advanced warning system that I know you guys are, it's on your agenda tonight to vote on. And I highly recommend that, that you vote yes on that. Cause I've seen the presentation once before and he's going to give it to us about what that can do because, uh, about letting us know when to get these pumps started and all of this stuff. But the one thing that, boy, I wish you were still here that, that you kind of hit on. Remember when you came to River Oaks, we talked about the Osceola Creek on getting that clean. That's one of those waterways that still, they, the city owned the land to the south of State Road 84 and you did a nice job cleaning that up. But then it goes underneath I-95 and I mean on State Road 84, it comes back up in River Oaks on the north side of State Road 84, which is county. And so that has still not touched. Remember, we've talked about this many times, even with Ben and with yourself that we need to get them to do something to the north side of the Osceola Creek, the north side of State Road 84, or else, like you said, it'll happen again. Because there will be, once again, nowhere for that water to go. And, and I know Kitty and I, McGowan, President of Edgewood and I have, have talked about this many times, but that is, that's going to be very essential to get, to keep the flooding out of the neighborhood. So I think that's the next conversation we've had. Uh, the Vice Mayor brought it up to, um, you know, speaking with the airport representatives. Yes. We need to have that conversation. I'd like to be able to invite them here to talk about that because, um, it could happen again. Yes. And if they don't change, it will happen again. And the Osceola Creek was so overwhelmed. Yes. And if they, and, and our public works department said, well, if the county had pumps there. Right. It would have pushed the water out to the ocean. Right. So, uh, cause they can't just use gravity to expect that to dissipate such huge amounts of water that we, you know, we sustain. So. Exactly true. That, that'll be a great meeting. If you can get them to come here, I'd really like to hear what they have to say. Okay. So mayor, just to touch on that. And thanks Ted. Um, so we are working on, on the North portion of Osceola and city manager. Do you want to give us an update of the progress there? Um, cause we are making progress. And then. That's all. That's us though. That's our side. On our side. We're working. Well, we're working with it's multiple. Let Todd kind of share. Sure. Good. Todd. One on. We have the passive park in Edgewood where we are doing a, a small pump station there and a berm there to, to alleviate some of the issues there. But it, that is a, the county park. And the other for, um, that we have a dredging project for north, the northern part of Osceola Creek, which is currently in design. So. And what's the status of that? It's currently in design. Design. Design. Yes, sir. But that's part of the county's jurisdiction. What did, what did Mr. and Sarah just say? No, that's, that's, we're, we, we dredge the southern part. We're dredging the northern part. That's part of the River Oaks neighborhood. It is. Like, like Ted was saying. Yeah. Okay. And there's been some property ownership challenges for the northern portion we've had to navigate. And so that's where we're, we're designing to, to improve that. And all that being said, and all the good work we're doing, it's still talking with, to your point, Mayor, Ted, talking with the airport and re-engaging. And that's something I'm happy to, to initiate and start that going again. Yeah. All right. Great. Thank you so much. Okay. Let's move on to city commission reports. Commissioner Herbst, do you have any reports to me? Thank you, Mayor. So one thing came up recently, and this was a conversation with, with a resident in the city. And he has a diseased tree in his front yard and he was trying to get a permit. What? A diseased tree. A diseased tree. A diseased tree. And he wanted to have the tree removed because he feels it's a hazard. And what he found out is that he's required to pay to remove the diseased tree. Now, if it was a dead tree, he wouldn't have to pay. And so this is just the way that- If you wait a little while longer. Well, and candidly, that, that becomes the answer. And so I think we might want to take a look at this because it actually does incentivize people to allow it to die a natural death. And then they no longer have to contribute to the tree fund. And so I think that's probably a disincentive. I think if we have something that's a diseased tree and we have a resident who wants to take it down, they've got an arborist report, we may want to consider whether or not we still want to require people to have to pay a significant amount of money in order to take down something that's hazardous. So I'd like to bring this back for a conversation at another time. Thank you. All right. Great. All right. Well, thank you. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman. Good afternoon, everyone. I only want to make an announcement. This Friday is August 21st. It is the Summer Jam at Mills Pond. Very excited. This is an annual event. This is a city-wide event. We're inviting everyone in the city to come out and have an amazing time. This year, the headliner is the group that is named Ohio Players. The Ohio Players is a 50-year-old group, yeah, with some funk and soul. So if you are familiar, even if you're not familiar, come out and have a good time. Bring your lawn chairs, your coolers, and let's just have a good time as a city together. So it starts at 7 p.m. Again, that is at Mills Pond. And police, fire, everybody's going to be in place. And we are going to have a rocking good time. And what's the date again? That is Friday, August 21, 7 p.m., Mills Pond, City of Fort Lauderdale, the greatest city in the state. Be there or be square. I ain't going that far. That's a little bit for me. That's right. It might be the last year we ever do it, so let's enjoy it. Yeah, exactly. Woo! That's it. That's it. Okay. Commissioner Glassman. That's it? That's all I'm sharing? That's all she's sharing. Do you remember Roller Coaster? Roller Coaster. Roller Coaster. Baby. That's their song. Okay. Roller Coaster. You got Ohio players? Ohio. It's on his playlist. It's on my playlist. You started something, now you have to sing with me. They were from the 70s. That was the 70s. You're going to have to sing with me. That was the 70s. All right, thank you. I wasn't alive then. You were alive. You were very alive. Thank you very much. Just a few things. First of all, welcome back everyone and congratulations to the police department. Thank you for hosting us. This is just an amazing building and this room I think is just like just perfect. It feels great. It feels like home. So thank you very much. Thank you to all of the staff that got this together for us and all of the technology that's been hooked up. Everything looks absolutely terrific and I'm getting text messages from folks saying it's really easy to see and they appreciate the screens and again, thank you to everybody. Just very quickly, a couple of things over the summer. July 11th, congratulations to everyone who's behind Flockfest on District 2 on the beach. Very well attended. A great event. A great amount of money always raised for very, very worthy organizations. August 12th, Mayor, we celebrated at Juan's Mandarin House by Victoria Park. Their 60th anniversary. That family has an amazing history. Congratulations to that family. Six generations of the Juan family, starting in Miami, also in Dania, Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale. A really very close-knit family and it was a pleasure to support a family-owned business and the food's delicious as well. Coming up, August 29th, we have the AFL-CIO Labor Bowl at the Diplomat in Hollywood. September 9th, we have the headquarters of this incredible organization, the Ribbon Cutting, right here on September 9th. And then two days later, we also have the city's 9-11 ceremony. And that evening, Rosh Hashanah begins as well. So, to everyone who's celebrating that, that is the evening of September 11th is the first night. Just a couple of comments. Chris, if you could let me know, because I'm getting asked this a lot by folks in the downtown area, where are we exactly regarding the A5 lift station downtown? Because so much of the future development there is contingent upon us getting this done. Yes, thank you, Commissioner. So, when we last had this conversation here with the City Commission, we discussed a potential location around 100 Northwest First Avenue, which is near the central bus terminal downtown. Since that time, we've continued conversations with the representative of the owner of that property. We've designed some schematics of what that could look like for them to refer to. Spoke with that person earlier today. We expect within the next 30 days, we'll have a solid answer on whether or not they're interested in moving forward with siting on their property. And is there a Plan B if it doesn't happen? So, for a Plan B, we would likely revert back to the presentation we shared with the Commission with those options. Those included the one-stop site just north of the site we just talked about, as well as the sites around City Hall and the City Hall garage. So, we'd need to reengage in that conversation. Okay, excellent. Yeah, I just think it's so important. So, thank you for the update, and hopefully we can bring some closure to that. That would be absolutely terrific. I also wanted to mention that tomorrow, believe it or not, it's hard to believe it's been a year, but tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of the death of Rachel Louisa Nisanoff. If you remember, that was a 13-year-old who had that unfortunate accident on the Intracoastal Waterway. But it was an impetus, I believe, for us getting the FWC to change the speed limit, which is something that many of us never thought would happen. So, I thought maybe we could at least remember her and keep us in our memory tonight when we do our moment of silence. That triggers another question or issue, and that is extending the no-wake zone down to Sunrise Boulevard. Right now, it was only for the area in which this young lady passed away, but there's still a significant amount of activity south of Sunrise Boulevard Bridge that we should abridge the speed there, because it's really very dangerous here. So, has there been any further discussions, Commissioner, on that? None that I know of, but Chris, maybe you're aware of that. If there's been further discussions of maybe going a little bit further south? There haven't been further discussions. If that's the direction, we'll certainly start engaging on those. We've been doing that with the former Chief Waterway Officer and FWC and Chief Schultz. So, there's some progress on that. Is there any activity? Is there any, Chief, can you please come up here? A number of residents in the Sunrise Intracoastal area have approached me and asked me what's going on there. So, yeah, that was part of, I'm sorry, Chief Schultz. Chief, please. That was part of the discussion initially, but that was not part of the original amendment. But, Vice Mayor is correct. That is still on the discussion board with FWC and with the Commission, and I can certainly look into the status of that, and I can report back at the next meeting. Okay, that would be helpful. Yeah, I think, Chief, the last communication I saw, maybe you were on this or not, I don't know, but the need for further data to emphasize the speed, the frequency of speeding and so forth, and so there are some other components. So, yeah, we had discussed, as you may recall, for the section that is now no slow wake, we did speed zone studies, so we're going to have to do that for that area again, and we have the equipment to do that, so I'll make sure that happens. Okay, great. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Excellent. And lastly, Mayor, I did, even though there is no proclamation for this this evening, I wanted to wish everyone a very happy National Delicatessen Month and go eat a pastrami sandwich, and that's it for me, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. First, we had three interns that helped in District 4 this summer, Connor, Brooke, and Nico, and they just did a great job there. Connor's at FSU, Brooke's at Rutgers, and Nico's at Fort Lara High School. So, just great job. They and Vicki really helped lead and guide them, and they were involved in everything from waterways to homelessness. So, just, it was a great experience. So, just thank all the city staff that helped with them. City Manager, we've talked about this, but if you can just give us and the whole commission a little bit of an update on the Riverwalk seawall on the north side that continues to fail, and just what happens next so that we're all tracking and how we can move this as fast as possible. Great. Thank you, Vice Mayor. So, the Riverwalk seawall on the north side, as you said, has continued to deteriorate. That's been a project that's been ongoing, and that's something that we've been working on and designed to rehabilitate not just the seawall but also the Riverwalk around the seawall. We're about 90% of the design phase right now. Those finishing touches are being wrapped into that final design. We expect that design to be done towards the end of this calendar year, and then we can go into our procurement process and permitting and construction. We will likely need to come back to you to reallocate some of our CIP funds to make sure we can advance this project in a timely manner. We're also anticipating the results of a fined grant application in October. So, we hope to bring some good news around that. In the interim, we are looking at anything we can do to try to mitigate some of the primarily safety but also aesthetic issues that surround that one section that has been undermined by the seawall and look for ways to improve that so that it's representative of the Riverwalk itself. Yeah, thanks. And this is Mayor, as you and Commissioner, as you know. It's been going on for- It's a very dangerous situation. It's very dangerous. It's fenced off. It's impacting pedestrian traffic, businesses, and so forth. So, we've just got to keep pushing as fast as possible on this. So, thank you, City Manager, for that. Another suggestion that I think we as a commission should really look at and track with the city attorney is construction, parking, MOT plans for residential streets and homes. In other words, I'm sure it's in many of our areas, when there's multiple constructions of residential homes on a residential street, it can really provide a significant challenge to traffic and so forth. So, I'd like us with the city attorney to really begin, and Milos and others have already started working on this, but really come up with a serious plan for prior to construction that residential construction really has to have a good plan for parking, traffic, and so forth. So, City Attorney Mike, describing that appropriately? Yes, Vice Mayor, and we are already working on that. The TAM with the city is working with our office on that, and if the commission would like us to move forward, we could bring that in whatever form is necessary to effectuate it. Okay, great. So, does that sound okay for getting that moving? Great. Next piece, we've made some good progress on a sidewalk ordinance that would provide exceptions for neighborhoods that don't want sidewalks and so forth. So, I think we're making some updates to that. City Manager, what's the next step for that? Yeah, so the next step would be just to bring those amendments forward. So, one of the key parts to those amendments would be to allow for our staff to use the sidewalk master plan, specifically that was recently adopted by the commission. When the ordinance was amended the last time, that wasn't a factor. We didn't have that plan. So, we want to be able to reference that in ways so that when somebody asks for an exemption, we can have another factor to consider in those requests. Okay, great. And so, when do you think that will come to us? I'll look to Director Fajardo for an answer. Sure, thanks. Good afternoon, Anthony Fajardo, Director of Development Services. So, right now, DSD staff is working with the City Attorney's Office on finalizing that draft. Once that draft is completed, we should be able to get it on an agenda pretty quickly. I believe all that language is in Volume 1, so we don't have to go to Planning and Zoning Board. We can just bring it directly to you for consideration for two readings. So, I'm hoping in the next month or so, we'll know a specific date we can put it on, if not sooner. Okay, great. That sounds good. Thank you. Next is water billing. So, you know, I'm sure all of us continue to get concerns about water billing, prices, discrepancies, so forth. So, as we're instituting AMI and automatic readers, which is fantastic, I would like further data about what are the number of complaints, concerns we're receiving about water billing? What are we doing about that? Any systemic issues we're identifying, patterns we're identifying, and a regular update on that so that we can better articulate to neighbors, here's some of the issues we're finding across the city, here's how we're addressing it, here's the number, and so that we can really better identify a solution. Yeah, we understand, and those are some things we've been looking at internally. Linda Short can come up if she has anything to add to what I'm about to say, but we have been looking at those one off, or not one off, but those instances where somebody calls in with an issue that we have to address, but also looking at those systemic things such as extended reading periods that may trigger something into another tier of usage, or situations where there's a misread that creates a need to adjust in the future that could really increase that billing amount. Yep. Good afternoon, Commissioner, Mayor, Vice Mayor. So, Finance Department, as you guys know, we went out to every district, did community meetings, had the workshop as well online. We hear the cries from the community. We deal with it every day. Everything that we can do to address the concerns we're working on, implementing a new CIS system, we're doing the AMI. What we're trying to do is figure out, with the new things we're implementing, how to manually track the concerns that a Vice Mayor wants us to track, and we're investigating how we can gather that information in a way that's meaningful to you, Vice Mayor, so you can do it. So, we're investigating what we can do, because the systems we have right now is not the best systems. That's why we're changing things to modernize it and get the data more readily accessible for you. Yeah. Thank you. That's great. And remind me when the new system, not the AMI, but the CSR, when is that? Is that fully implemented? It's not fully implemented. We are currently going through the development stages of the system right now. It is expected to go live October 1st of next fiscal year. Okay. So, we purchased it in February. We've been doing some designing information and learning about the system. So, right now, they're getting ready to gather. We're waiting for permission or the funding to get the data conversion from the old system. That was approved at the last commission meeting. So, now we're working with the legacy vendor to start to gather the data, to start doing data analysis, and data cleansing to do the import into the system to start testing it. So, that's expected to happen later this fall, into the spring, and hopefully we'll be going live. As the latest we're expecting is October 1st. Okay. Next year. October 1st of 2026? 27. We're still developing the system. This is not right. Yeah. We have been complaining about this for years, and I can't – why does it take so long? I mean, I'm not blaming you. No, no, no. Why does this process take years to – we made the decision to move into this purchase. Yeah. And why does it take years to implement it when we've got people constantly being harassed with outrageous spikes in their water bill that no one seems to be able to detect? And people are coming to us all the time. What are you doing? What are you doing? And all we're saying is, oh, we're still designing it. All right. So what I'm going to – we approved the contract in January of this year. So it hasn't been years. It was funded this fiscal year. Yeah, but we've been talking about this for years. Right. And finance has asked for funding for a new CSI system for several years. We finally got approval in this budget year for it. Right. So this is the first year we've got funding to buy a new software system for the utility billing system. So we approved the contract in January. We started looking at it, but then, like I said, we have to deal with the legacy vendors, people to get the data out. So we've been working – it has not stopped. The project is ongoing. It was an 18-month implementation. So if we awarded it in January, we're still within the timeline for the 18-month implementation. So when you say it goes live in next year sometime, the – The new billing system. The new billing system. Right. But the meters aren't in store. Are being in the ground. That is expected in June of next year. All of them. For all of them to be done. Okay. I believe there's over 22,000 meters currently installed. Okay. So the meter process. That's all – That's all – Yes. Okay. The meters are being installed. Okay. And it's two projects working simultaneously. Okay. We were trying to line it up where they would both come online at the same time. It just didn't happen. So we are already way ahead with the implementation of the meter program. Okay. And the new CIS billing system that the meter data will feed into is expected to go live a couple of months after the meters are fully installed. That's in 2027? Seven. October 2027 is when I expect to go live with the new billing system. But the AMI themselves already being installed, like I said, we're about 30%, a little over 30% replaced already throughout the city. Okay. All right. Thank you. So we have a lot of positive news stories. Yeah. Overall, the utility billing system or the utility billing office has received a lot of positive results and feedback from the AMI. We're using it proactively. So, for instance, even though the residents don't have access to their data, we're reviewing their data. We're getting a report every day of anything that shows continuous running of the meters. We're reaching out proactively if we see something where there's flow coming out every couple of minutes. You'll see flow coming out. We're reaching out to the residents in advance of waiting for the bill to generate. So even though they can't see it, we're looking at it and we're reaching out proactively. We're watching you. And saving. And trying to save money before they get the big bill, the shop. All right. Thank you. That's good news. Anything that we can do proactively to reach out ahead, we're trying to do, even though they can't see it themselves. And, Linda, even, and thank you for that. Mm-hmm. And those are great wins. And any way, city manager, we can capture that, too, would be great. In other words, hey, during this month, 20 leaks or flows or irregularities were detected by staff proactively and we solutioned. You know, anything like that would be great. And, Linda, you and Aaron, both of you continue to just be rock stars in addressing these issues as we get them. So just thank you for your professionalism, your responsiveness, because I think we're just limited in some ways as a result of our systems that we have. And so you can only do so much, but please continue the great work you're doing on this because it helps. No problem. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Great. Last one, Mayor. And maybe I'm going to rely on you all with maybe a little bit more historical knowledge. I had a neighbor reach out, a young neighbor, asking about they would like to have a hen in their backyard to produce eggs. And I don't know historically if we've, you know, there's limitations on that, but I wanted to lift that up to the good of the order for feedback or guide. Commissioner Herbst looks like you. We have visited the backyard beekeeping and hen raising issues many times over the last couple of decades. And what's the result, Ben? We've never allowed it. Well, you haven't noticed any, have you? Yeah, I haven't. People don't take care of them. What happens you notice? People don't take care of them. And they become infested with, you know, disease and there are a lot of responsible people. Right. Most of them are responsible, but our history has not been consistent. Okay. I figured there was a history that I wasn't aware of. Those responsible people have farms. Am I the only person that sees these roosters and hens running around our city? Don't act like you don't see them. They are here. And the peacocks, too. Let's not forget the peacocks. Okay, so don't act like this is a brand new conversation. They're here, it's just not permitted to be here. They're here. So I was at the gym this morning at 5 o'clock, and what did I hear? Brewster. Brewster. I was not the only one up this morning. They're running rampant at the Sapphire. Right. But on a serious note, it's not only the city of Port Lauderdale that we see these chickens, these livestock running. Right. Just curious, because you are bringing this up. Yeah. Do we know if other cities have this ordinance? Could we look into that? Yeah. Other cities do have this ordinance. I come from a former city that I worked with. I had an ordinance, and I was there when we implemented that. So they come in all shapes and sizes. They usually have a maximum number you can have. It's usually all hens, no roosters. There's usually some type of enclosure requirements, some sort of maintenance. That's discrimination. I know. I know. Well, no roosters. No free range. It's not fair. The roosters are too loud, right? You're breaking up homes here now. That's right. Yeah. That's what's Andrew for. Yeah. Anything else vice versa? That's it. Thank you for the good of the order. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So a few things. While we did have a break with our meetings, it didn't mean our city stopped working. There was a lot going on this past couple of months, and your mayor stuck around. So guess what? I got brought into a lot of these events. First of all, Starlight Musicals was taking place in Holiday Park through the summer, and it was really very, very well attended. I did the welcome remarks on July 17th. I attended the Drowning Prevention Press Conference on July 22nd. Very important. Commissioner Beasley Pittman was there, which we try to draw attention to the need for people to take swim lessons. We're a water community, and so it's really important that people continue to make this a priority in their lives. On the 23rd of July, I spoke to the Chamber of Commerce about property tax referendum. I was on a panel discussion, which members of the community participated and talked about the pros and cons of the property tax referendum. The next night, I attended the Chamber's Rising Leaders Summer Soiree that took place over, I believe, over on the beach, and mostly young people, and spoke to the folks there a little bit about entrepreneurship. The 27th, I welcomed the Florida Airports Council's Conference and Exposition at the Convention Center. Airport representatives from all over the state attended and spoke a little bit about the importance of how great FXC was and how it stands apart from so many other general aviation airports around the country. And then the next night, I participated with Commissioner Beasley Pittman at the National Night Out at Carter Park. It was attended by hundreds of families, kids and families. I saw the commissioner downing her fire apparatus. And it was a great night. It was attended by, and I think we handed out, I forgot how many backpacks we handed out, but hundreds of backpacks, 200, to the kids who were preparing for school. On August 4th, I did the welcoming remarks to the Florida Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials at their annual conference. I also, on August 5th, I attended the Rotary Club and talked to them about things happening in the city and the upcoming events that are taking place. August 7th, I did the welcoming remarks at the Kenia Catholic Congress of North America, representatives of the Catholic faith of the Kenia, I would say, group. They came from all over North America, Canada, Mexico, as well as the United States. There were hundreds and hundreds of participants at the convention center, and I gave the welcoming remarks there. August 8th, in the Tower Club, the Sister Cities program sponsored a Taiwanese food tour. The council general's office, I guess they're not really a consulate, but they call it, it's the economic development director. They flew in two chefs from Taiwan, and there were several hundred people there, mostly from the Taiwan American Chamber of Commerce, who participated in this event. And I spoke on behalf of the city there. I also spoke on August 12th, the welcoming remarks at the Water and Energy Expo here in the city. And that same day, I was on another panel discussion at the Tower Club regarding the property tax referendum. On August 12th, we invited Andy Thompson, who's the new mayor of Boca Raton. He participated along with Marty Kier. You mentioned Juan's anniversary, 60th anniversary. And then finally, this past Sunday, I presented a proclamation at the India Independence Day event here at the Broward Center. Several hundred people attended, and it's the 79th anniversary of their independence from Great Britain. We had something to share there, our 250th independence from Great Britain. So, anyway, it was a well-attended event, and I was very proud to be able to represent the city in that regard. A couple of issues. As many of you saw in the news, Columbia suffered a major earthquake, and many people passed away. And certainly, there were quite a few people who suffered property damage. We have an opportunity for our community to step up to the plate and provide any donations. And donations are being accepted through August 31st. There are a number of drop-off locations. The priorities that they need are tents, sleeping bags, toothbrushes and toothpaste, soap, shampoo, deodorant, first aid kits are the priority items. But I'm sure they'll accept anything that can be donated to improve the quality of life of the people that have suffered tremendously as a result of these earthquakes. They can be dropped off at any of our fire stations, except Fire Station 13, which is not yet built. But certainly, any of the fire stations around the city, they're accepting donations, and they will be forwarded to the folks in Columbia. I want to make special mention of, we had a lifeguard competition a couple of weeks ago, and people from all over the country came to Fort Lauderdale to participate in it. The thing that's particularly noteworthy is I got an email from a gentleman named John Holmes who participated, and I want to recite a quote in his email. He says, I want to thank, excuse me, I want to highlight Chief Alex Bagwell and Lieutenant Crystal, he didn't know her last name, and their amazing staff for their hospitality and for doing a great job. It's a very well-run tournament, and it starts from the top. Chief Bagwell is a great leader amongst her staff, as well as a fierce competitor, taking second place in the boat and representing your city well. So congratulations to everybody. I want to thank them. Mayor, we had over 1,200 lifeguards from around the country here. Yeah, I know. 1,200. It was quite a competition. Yes. It was a beautiful day, too. It was sunny and... The whole week. The whole week. Yes, right. I meant to say the whole week. Interesting development happening over at the county tomorrow. Tomorrow, they're having an agenda item at their meeting where, interestingly, Commissioner Alexandra Davis is wanting to attach the phrase Broward County to all the Visit Lauderdale logos. And so it would be Broward County to visit Lauderdale. And we got an interesting email. I got a copy of an email by Heiko Dubrokov, who is the general manager at the Riverside Hotel. And he sent this email to the commissioners at the county vehemently against it because, and I want to quote from this email, there has been no demonstrated evidence that the current brand is failing or that the absence of the words Broward County creates a barrier to visitation. Before changing a successful brand, we should first define the problem we are trying to solve. Do travelers choose destinations based on county names? Is there a measurable confusion in the marketplace? Would adding Broward County increase visitation, hotel occupancy, convention bookings, or tourism spending? These questions deserve answers grounded in independent research, not assumptions. To me, I think Broward County is just looking to piggyback on our good name and that it's, you know, Fort Lauderdale that continues to be the magnet for visitors who come to this area. I mean, I don't know what they're going to do tomorrow. You certainly are all welcome to communicate with any or all the county commissioners your opinion about this, but I think it looks silly. They're either going to market Broward County or they're going to visit Lauderdale. And being on the Tourist Development Council, I can tell you that all the research, the marketing research shows that Fort Lauderdale stands head and shoulders above any phrasing that compares to Broward County. Broward County certainly falls flat on most people's radar. And visit Lauderdale certainly is the brand that attracts the most attention. So I just want you all to be aware of that. Mayor, was it discussed at the Tourist Development Council at all? No. I mean, we discussed it. It wasn't an agenda item, but we discussed it amongst ourselves before the meeting. We all thought it was inappropriate. Have you had any opportunity to speak to any of the county commissioners? I have not. No, okay. Okay, good. Thank you. Let me see. Hold on. I think that's it. That's it for me. City Manager, you have a report. I do. Thank you, Mayor. I first want to start by acknowledging some folks that helped make this room what it is today. We've heard a lot of great and well-deserved accolades from you all and others about the quality of this room and what the experience is. I want to acknowledge a group that really doesn't get a lot of attention usually, but they do deserve it. And that's the folks from Parks and Recreation that actually built this dais and installed the flags and things like that. Is this where our parks ball money went? No, no. This was really a labor of love. Is that why we can't get that extra pickleball on Holiday Park? Or those bathrooms? Oh, come on. Wow. They were working here building the dais. Okay. Sorry about that. No, but truly they did put in a lot of work, not only completing and working on a lot of those projects you just mentioned, but also this project as well. So if I could just read their names just so they get that acknowledgement. Alex Torres, Josh Pops, Richard Pace, Paul Latham, Omar Smith, Mohamed Zabar, Antonio Lupina, Kingsley Lataboudiere, Alberto Diaz, Glenn Kaufman, and Jordan Snead. Thank you. Good job, Logan. You know, I've done a bit of remodeling in my lifetime and I have to tell you that they did an amazing job here in terms of the finishes and the quality of workmanship. You know, it's really a beautiful job. So, you know, our hats are off to you all because this is an amazing, amazing thing that you created here. So. Thank you for that. Very talented team. And, you know, they did, like you said, a wonderful job here. I want to go back a little bit to July 4th and recognize our Parks Department for putting on a wonderful July 4th America's 250 Spectacular. Really wonderful event. Very patriotic. Very well attended. This year we did something a little bit different with the drone show and the feedback thus far. It's been really great for that as well as the fireworks and the entertainment. So, again, Carl Williams, Parks and Rec, thank you very much for that. Also, Police and Fire, huge presence that day. Kept us all very, very safe. Did a great job controlling the crowds and the traffic. So, thank you to those departments as well. I want to announce two key new hires to our organization. We have Tina Jaramillo, our Chief Education Officer, who I know some of you have met, but welcome her to the city. She started on June 29th. And Stefan Peritano, our Chief Waterway Officer, who started with our city on July 20th. I do have some potential meeting date changes I want to run by you all today for your consideration. Our November 3rd commission meeting is also the same day as election day. So, I wanted some feedback. Yeah, this is not good that we're even meeting today. Right. So, feedback on whether or not. Can we move that to the next day? So, that would depend on scheduling. Does that make sense to everybody to just move it to Wednesday? I can't do that Wednesday. November 4th is Wednesday. Okay. Could we do Monday the 2nd? Oh, this is... All right. So, it's November 3rd is the election day. So, it would either be November 2nd or November 4th. You can't be here November 4th? I can't do the 4th. Correct. The rest of the week are you available? The 5th? No, the 5th I can't do. I can do the 6th. Friday? Yep. Or the 2nd? Will you be here this... Are you going to be... Yeah. You want to do it on the 6th? Friday? Me? Hell no. I'm leaving on the 3rd. Are you kidding me? I'm out of here. What's your resignation date? Huh? What is your resignation date? 11.59 on the 2nd. The 2nd. I'm going to be in wine country on the 4th. 11.58 we'll have it then. Fantastic. I'm going to be in Napa on the 4th. Well, if he's going to be gone, so we'll only have 4 members, so... Mayor, hang on one second. Don't we have to swear in the newly elected person at the first meeting? No. How was that? The election's November 3rd, so we won't even get the... The results? The certified results until 10 days after, so... Okay. Just curious. Yeah. We missed that one meeting. I mean, I'm good with the 6th. That's fun with me. Are you not here? You're not good on the 6th. Well, folks, what do you want to do? Well, it's election day, and I don't think that's fair. A lot of us are going to be involved in helping other candidates. And Vice Mayor can't be here on the 4th. The 2nd? I can do the 2nd. Okay. Oh, he's going to be working. Oh, he's back. Not till midnight. Not till midnight. It's all right. It's okay. We just have to end by midnight. He can skip a meeting. He can skip... Yeah. We'll do it the 2nd. We'll try to keep that light. Yeah. Keep it light. The other day... We're going to start the meeting at 11.59. The other day, we probably don't need to decide this today, but just before the next meeting. December 1st, our commission meeting, and this often happens, conflicts with Christmas on Las Olas. There's been conversation in the past whether or not the commission wanted to reschedule till offer attendance for that. Yes, I think we should do it right now. Can we do it the 2nd? Wait. What did we decide with November, just so you know? November 2nd. We're definitely doing that on Monday? Well, you can't be here on a Friday, so... Well, let me ask you a question. So, what happens to all of the... So, the staff has to redo all of the pre-agenda meetings and everything right to the Friday before or whatever? How do you work that? We obviously can't have all those pre-agenda meetings. Yeah, we'd obviously have to reschedule our agenda briefings with you all, and we're happy to do so to accommodate your schedules. Okay. You sure you can't be here on the 6th? I could, but I really don't want to. Are you going away? No, but I'm going to a very special birthday party, but that's okay. No, I understand. I mean, if it works better and John will be happier, what does he want to hang around on that day? I agree. Okay, let's do it Friday. Who's going to come on a Friday, but whatever? All right. So, we'll do it November 6th, and then as far as Christmas on Las Olas, are we good on December 2nd? Before we go into that... Hold on a second. December. There is some adjustment to that schedule already, right? Because I was told that light-up six-trunk date was changed for one of the holidays, the Jewish holidays, and so what does that week look like in comparison to... Which is the first week of December? Yes. We're doing a menorah lighting on the 4th. On the 4th. Right. Is that at the Las Olas social site park? Yeah. Friday the 4th, right at... And what is the new date for light-up six-trunk? No, I don't know about light-up six-trunk. I have light-up car... Oh, come on now, y'all. Y'all asked me to change my date. Someone knows the date. I have light-up carter park on the 11th. Okay, but no, light-up six-trunk. Someone called my office and had me to commit to change the date that week. Light-up the galt is November 19th. The 3rd? December 3rd. November 3rd is the six-trunk. November. December. December 3rd. December 3rd. So, it's the next night. Yeah. After the commission. That's also... December 3rd is Lake Ridge holiday party too on the 3rd. Well, we'll go to both. So, the commission meeting will be December 2nd. Light-up six-trunk is December 3rd. I can't do the 2nd. You can't do the 2nd. Yeah. I could do the Monday, November 30th, if you want to move it. I mean, that's fine. Here's a wild idea. Is there any way we could still have it on December 1st, but may have everything earlier in the day? Like the conference meeting at 10 a.m. and the commission meeting at 2 p.m.? Isn't there a charter? A charter... Does it have to be at 6, Anthony? Okay. Yeah. They're saying it has to be at 6. Okay. Thank you for the charter because I don't want to be here till tomorrow. If we come earlier, you know, the longer we've come, the earlier we come, the later we stay. So, Thanksgiving is the 26th. So, it would be coming back from the Thanksgiving weekend if you want to do it on the 30th. Well, is everyone going to be back? No. When would pre-agenda meetings and... Well, that's the point. Your pre-agenda meetings would have to be... They can't have them. And Friday the 4th doesn't work? Friday the 4th... I don't think we have... Wait. I thought Wednesday was the 4th. No. December 4th. Wednesday is the 3rd. Excuse me. Tuesday, the 2nd. And the 4th is the Jewish holiday, right? The 4th is the menorah lighting, correct? Okay. Menorah lighting. So, we don't want to do it that night. And then the 2nd is Wednesday, and Vice Mayor says... I may be able to make the 2nd work. Does that work for everyone? What day of the week? The 2nd is Wednesday. The 2nd is Wednesday. December 2nd? December 2nd. Wednesday, December 2nd? Yeah. Okay. Let's... Go with that? I'll double check, but yeah. Okay. We can aim for... Wednesday, December 2nd? Yeah. Okay. You got that, City Manager? That's fine with me. I do. Thank you. Okay. Any other dates that conflict? No. No, I'm glad, because I like to go to Christmas on Las Olas, you know? Yeah. And I think they should see their commissioners there. Yeah. So, we know Tuesday the 1st is Christmas on Las Olas. Yes. Okay. Yes. Thank you. All right. Thank you for that. The other thing I have is that I would like to request an executive session on the September 2nd meeting, which is currently the 1st, but you have an item tonight to reschedule to the 2nd on collective bargaining, specifically with our FOP bargaining. Wait. Say that again? I'm requesting an executive session with you all for our collective bargaining on September 2nd. Yeah. The next time. Yeah. No problem. Next meeting. And then lastly, over the break, we did execute the interim agreement for our City Hall project. You've probably seen a lot of the geotech and site due diligence going on and the screening go up. So, we're continuing in that process and we'll share more updates as we go. And that concludes my report. Okay. Thank you. City Attorney, do you have any report? Yes, Mayor, I do. Thank you. One thing I wanted to bring up. As we sit in this building, I'm reminded of the constant ongoing negotiations we're having with AECOM regarding the reimbursement for our costs to repair the deflection, that is, the construction damage, destruction defects. Earlier this summer, staff had calculated our costs and we had worked with AECOM to finally come to an agreement on those costs. They approximate $3 million. We are now and since have been discussing issues like future liability. It's our position that the agreement we enter into regarding the cost reimbursement would relate only to costs and not to liability. We're going around about that even as recently as this afternoon. So, I'm hopeful now that we will reach a conclusion, although it's a possibility that we will not. And I think this has gone on long enough. So, I would ask for your approval to move forward with some action if I cannot resolve this in the next week or 10 days. Define action. File a lawsuit. Yes, ma'am. File a lawsuit. At least starting with a demand letter. That's what this lawyer talked about. File a lawsuit. Yes. Absolutely. Thank you. As they agreed in front of us, in person, that they would make us whole and not only do that, but they would also fund measurement, evaluation, and ongoing analysis of their repairs and the structure of the building. So, absolutely. I support them there. And this is why I kept insisting that they should be paying for all the change orders and not us because I knew that recouping this at the end was going to prove problematic. So, absolutely. Thank you. I have a question as well in regards to that. What other business do we have still pending with AECOM? A lot. And how is this going to professionally affect the opportunity to continue on? I'm in agreement that we take the next action, but let's be realistic. Also, if we're suing someone, what it looks like overall. Understood. I'm hoping that it doesn't come to that now. Stay tuned. Does that complete your report? Yes. Thank you, Mayor. Okay. Let's continue with the agenda. We've done CF1. We've done business one. We're on to business two. Infrastructure investment special obligation bond presentation. This is going to be exciting. It's going to be exciting. Sidewalks. Good. Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners. My name is Daniel Rodriguez, Assistant Director with the Public Works Department. Today's presentation is going to provide an overview of the roadway and sidewalk infrastructure program that was funded through the 2025 Infrastructure Investment Special Obligation Bond. We'll discuss how this bond funding will address critical roadway and sidewalk deficiencies in our city, how funds have been allocated across the four commission districts, and where we see opportunities where we can coordinate these investments with all the transportation initiatives already underway. So, to give you a little bit of a background, in November 2025, the city issued the Infrastructure Investment Special Application Bond to accelerate these critical infrastructure improvements. Historically, the roadway and sidewalk repairs had been addressed through our annual maintenance programs, and this particular bond allows the city to move with a much more aggressive approach in addressing the citywide infrastructure concerns. A portion of this bond program was developed to repair all the roadways that are currently classified as very poor, serious, or failed, also to address the serious and failed sidewalks, while also improving compliance with the American with Disabilities Act and enhance pedestrian safety. Additionally, this particular bond provided each commission district with funding dedicated to address neighborhood-specific specific priorities. In total, $26.9 million were allocated to roadway and sidewalk infrastructure improvements. Of the total $26.9 million, $16.1 million was allocated for the roadway improvements. This investment allows the city to address every roadway citywide that is currently identified as being very poor, serious, or a failed condition. In addition, each commission district received $2 million for roadway initiatives. These funds can either be used for maintaining the existing infrastructure or also for implementing new street improvements that support the district priorities. So, to ensure that the investments are based on objective data, the city completed a citywide assessment where we provided a pavement condition index, or PCI, so that way we could prioritize these improvements. So, beginning, very soon, beginning this summer, additional contractors will be deployed in every district to focus on roadways with a PCI score of below 55. And at this time, we anticipate construction activities to take between 18 to 24 months. Just a quick question on that, if I may. Yes. Thank you. So, I understand what you're saying about $2 million per city commission district. But in the CAM, on page 2 and page 3 of 4, so the dollar amounts really vary quite a bit. Some are under that $2 million, some are right around there, some are way over that. So, how are we reconciling what you just said about the $2 million per district with regards to the need that's been identified on page 2 and 3 of the CAM? So, what you see in the CAM, Commissioner, is the cost that it would take to address all those sidewalks and roadways that are in either very poor or in very poor seers or failed condition. And that accounts for the 8.1 for roadways and 3.8 for sidewalks. Additionally, on top of that, each district received $2 million for roadway improvements and also an additional $2 million for sidewalk improvements where city staff is going to work with each commission district to see how they decide to spend those funds. So, the $2 million per city commission district is above and beyond the dollar amounts that are identified in the CAM? Correct. Gotcha. Thank you. Now, the sidewalk improvements represent an $11.8 million investment. So, this funding will address the existing serious and failed sidewalks throughout the city while also improving accessibility and ADA compliance. And as I just mentioned, each commission district also receive an additional $2 million in dedicated sidewalk funding. And commissioners will work with, city staff will work with our commissioners to have the flexibility to determine whether those funds should be directed towards construction of new sidewalks or to expanding connectivity or to increase maintenance within their districts. This slide highlights opportunities that the city has to maximize the value of these investments through coordination with our city transportation and mobility department. The city sidewalk master plan identified 31 miles of priority sidewalk gaps throughout the city of Fort Lauderdale. So, rather than approaching the sidewalk repairs and new constructions as separate efforts, city staff is proposing to bundle projects whenever possible. So, by combining sidewalk gap closures with nearby repair projects, we can reduce costs and accelerate delivery. And that same approach applies to the roadway projects. City's traffic calming program continues to experience a very high demand and very little available funding. So, by coordinating traffic calming improvements with our roadway resurfacing projects, we can leverage existing construction activities to implement additional safety improvements. So, this particular summary table summarizes how the funding is distributed. As you can see, for both sidewalk and roadway, each district received $2 million. And for the maintenance of existing roadways, the citywide, we received an $8.1 million. And for maintenance of existing sidewalks citywide, we received 3.8 for a total of the 29.8. Sorry, 26.9. Just did the math in my head. So, this is the current status. These numbers are a little off since from when we issued the presentation. But right now, today, we've already encumbered the $8.1 million and the $3.8 million for sidewalk repairs. So, that way, that work is already getting ramped up to start. And then, we'll be working. We've already provided some briefings to all of our city commissioners on how we anticipate spending that additional $2 million for both sidewalk and roadway. And we'll be working very closely with you guys to ensure that the priorities are being met. Now, all locations, the next eight slides are going to be a little bit repetitive. We have some options or alternatives that we can do for each district, District 1 through 4. And also, the prioritization of the neighborhoods in which we're going to go in there and start making the sidewalk repairs. Sidewalk repairs and also roadway. Can I stop you for a second? Yes, sir. Poinsettia Heights, Northeast 18th Street. Ever since we installed the sewer pipe under that road, that road has now become a test track for four-wheel drive vehicles. There are so many depressions and holes in that road that to just address speed hump refurbishment would be a mistake. The speed humps are fine. It's the roadway itself that's going to, it's terrible. So I wish you would go back out there and reevaluate that roadway. I travel it every single day, multiple times a day, and it's just a nightmare. There's so many depressions in that roadway that it really needs to be readdressed. So the next slide, you're going to see the prioritization of the neighborhoods, and Poinsettia Heights is the very first. No, no, I understand that, but the treatment that you have here on the slide number eight says speed hump refurbishment. Okay. That's not the priority. Brad? Great. Let me just, Brad Cain, Public Works Director. Let me just say, so these are slides that we worked in conjunction with TAM to put together as some suggestive items for traffic calming and streetscape improvements in that area. Well, that may work hand in hand. And I think as O'Neill had stated, what we're going to do is we're going to evaluate every situation. If it makes sense to do that, we're absolutely going to do it. If their priorities don't mesh, we're not necessarily going to do that. But that's something that we're going to evaluate as we go through it. Okay. I just want to bring it to your attention. Absolutely. Understood, Mayor. Thank you. I didn't mean to interrupt you, but I did. That's perfectly fine. You can stop me anytime. So, even though I'm not going to go through every specific treatment or proposed, we wanted to highlight the overall strategy that we took. So, staff evaluated each district to identify the opportunities where roadway maintenance, sidewalk repairs, ADA improvements, and traffic calming projects could be delivered together. And examples of those, as we talked about, include raised intersections, speed cushion installations, re-striping projects, sidewalk gap closures, and also ADA connectivity improvements. So, by coordinating these projects whenever possible, there is an opportunity to reduce costs, minimize disruption to our city residents, and deliver a more comprehensive transportation improvements throughout each district. And this is the, for District 1, this is the prioritization framework that we're going to be utilizing right now for this particular neighborhood, for this particular district. They're rated or categorized from high priority to low priority. And then again, the $8.1 million that was already allocated will address all the roadways that are in very poor, fail, and serious condition in all these neighborhoods. And very similar, the next eight slides will have similar information. District 2, and we can go to District 3. And this is all very close coordination with the Transportation Department. Yes. Dillard Park, okay. This one or the previous one? You're on the right one, I'm sorry. You're on the right one. But what I know, I know you did the evaluation, but Dillard Park, I believe, should be ahead of Dorsey Riverbend. Dorsey Riverbend just recently got the stormwater. So a lot of the roads were redone in that area. Dillard Park has been waiting for a while for resurfacing and addressing for their asphalt. So if we could look at that to see if that order could be changed. We could definitely look at that, Commissioner. Dillard Park, then Lake Eyre, historic Dorsey Riverbend. Yeah, and this is part of the coordination that staff would have with each district commissioner. Also, we're having additional crews in the district to ensure that we could move forward in an expeditious manner. But we'll get back with your office on that one. All right, thank you very much. Next slide. Okay, so next steps. So right now we're requesting guidance as we communicate with each one of the district commissioners on the balance between repairing existing sidewalks and constructing new sidewalks within each district. We also want to prioritize the safety by paving our roadways and repairing sidewalks based on the pavement condition index that was assigned the PCI. And we're going to be using our existing contractors and allocating additional resources to ensure that we can plead on this project in expeditious manner. And ultimately, we're going to be working with coordinating with our transportation department and also other initiatives that we have in our city like Fortify Lauderdale, as some of those neighborhoods that do require that sidewalk and roadway repairs will coordinate to ensure that the underground construction is completed first before the restoration is completed. And with that, we're here to answer any questions you guys may have. Okay, great. Thank you so much. Does anyone have any questions? Just one point. Thank you for this presentation. This is very exciting for a lot of people that we're going to be dealing with this. So I know that we've seen over millions and millions of dollars of projects in Progressive Village. So would the repaving of the roadways be part of that restoration from that project? Or is that something in addition that we have to make sure gets on this list? No, so Progressive Village, the underground project will address the restoration as part of the underground stormwater project. So that repaving is something separate? That is separate apart than this initiative. But also going to be taken care of as part of that project? Correct. Perfect. Thank you. And also, it said in your presentation we'll be using the existing contractors? Yes. Who are those contractors? So right now we have two annual contractors. We have team contracting and we have A&M as full. M&M. M&M. And like Mary and Mary? Mary and Mary. Thank you. O'Neil, thank you for this work. This is great. The duration of the work for both sidewalks and roads, 18 to 24 months, when would that start? This summer. This summer. Great. We're going to be two years out from this summer. And we're doing everything possible to ensure that we shorten. Does that include high and low priority? Correct. Great. Everything. Everything. Awesome. Thank you. Okay, great. Thank you so much. We really appreciate it. Okay, moving on to Business 3 presentation on the Florida Department of Health's Harm Reduction Overdose Program, the Mobile Integrated Health Community Outreach Response and Engagement. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, City Manager. My name is Chris Davis Partridge and I am the Battalion Chief for the Emergency Medical Services Bureau and Mobile Integrated Health. I brought with me my team, Lieutenant Brenna Oblock, Lieutenant Danielle Turpin, and Community Health Coordinator Galeen Smith. Next slide. We talked a little bit about the MIH program and how it started and then the two grants that we're currently operating off of. So, in 2021, there was a need for the fire rescue department to address frequent callers because we were getting a lot of people that were frequently calling 911 and unable to get the services that we provide to them. They needed beyond what we provide to them. So, and that could be anything from housing, from food to additional medications or treatment facilities or at-home care. So, in 2021, the Mobile Integrated Health Program was established. And that was initially one lieutenant and one community health care coordinator who's similar to a social worker that goes out to the scenes that are referred by fire rescue. So, our operation crews, when they complete a patient care report, if they feel that there's a need for further assistance beyond taking them to the hospital or treating them via EMS, they'll hit a referral button, and then that referral goes to our MIH program. Our MIH program then follows up with them. They actually go out and make visits to these people's houses, citizens' houses, and they see what they can do as far as helping them out, whether it be at-home health care or getting them into a further health facility or whatnot, to try and reduce the operational call volume. So, as we go along, the Mobile Integrated Health Program has now received funding from two separate grants. One was from the Department of Health Harm Reduction Grant, and the other was the CORE Grant. So, those two grants are kind of similar in their structure. The Department of Health Grant is for us to provide treatment for overdose occurrences within the 72 hours post-overdose. The CORE Grant is to provide prevention and reoccurrence of people going into withdrawals from the overdose program, too. So, once we got these contracts approved, which was around July, moving into August, we did a phased approach. We did three phases. The first phase was we made contact with clients who were victims or who had suffered an overdose, and then we established a list of those clients. Phase two was our Mobile Integrated Health Service actually responding and receiving notifications of overdoses. So, from there, what they did is they either responded to the scene or they're going to respond to the hospital and make contact with the patient to see if they can get them into one of these programs that's going to help them get off of opioids. And then the final phase is what we call the MAT treatment program. That's the Medicated Assisted Treatment Program. And what that is is administration of Suboxone. So, typically, it could take up to seven days for somebody to get into one of these opioid programs. So, within those seven days, we want to prevent them from relapsing. So, how we do that is we would administer a medication called Suboxone. Our MIH team would go out and administer this medication to this person so that they don't have any of the potential life-threatening side effects such as seizures or other bad things that could happen in between those seven days when they start coming off of the opioid into the treatment facility. So, that's a little bit about our program. And those are the grants that we have funded and currently push forward. And that's where we're at. So, we are fully functional now in August. All right. Great. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions or comments? Yes. Go ahead. Okay. Was someone else going to speak? No. Go ahead. I got excited and I touched my screen and it jumped. But first, I... Calm down. Calm down. Yes. I'm really excited. I'm truly excited because I did request this presentation. Yes. I support this program 100%. We appreciate it. 2021, you mentioned I was one of those neighbors that sat at the table that was vetted and we brought and we gave information. And knowing that this is a great opportunity for the city. And I even say it's a game changer for lives for those who are in need of this type of a source, a resource. 100%. So, I wanted to bring it before the dais, before the city. So, one, that everyone is aware of it. I don't believe that it is advertised as an awareness is really there. And I want everyone to be aware of it. So, again, thank you for bringing the presentation. The progress, I want you to share a little bit more. You gave us a little glaze over what you do, but it's very impactful. 100%. I want it to be shared. And I also want my colleagues to understand that this is something that we need to give great consideration to. Something we need to look at. I love the word perpetuity. Yes. Opportunity as the need is there. Because I'm hoping even there would be a point where we don't need these types of services that people, lives will change and this type of activity wouldn't be so much of what we see on the often. But, however, I'm saying to my colleagues, let's look at this really with a good scope and see how it benefits. The first thing that I want you to share a little bit more about is that initial contact where you have noticed where individuals are calling 911 for transportation. Yes. And how you were able to reduce that by giving them the resources to know you don't need to call 911 for that. Yes. So if you could just elaborate on that a little bit more to let my colleagues know how impactful at that level we are. Absolutely. So I can actually give you a personal example. So a couple years ago when I was a captain on squad 53 and that's up at the executive airport area, we had a couple patients that we ran on multiple times a week. Two, three, four, five times a week where we were going and we were providing services like a lift assist, right? They just couldn't get out of bed so we would go and pick them up and assist them. They did not need a hospital. We then referred them to the MIH program. From there, the MIH program went out, our community healthcare coordinator and our lieutenant went out to their house. They got them the services that they needed and since those services were provided, we no longer ran calls on those specific individuals. So it's very individual based as far as who's calling 911 multiple times and what their needs are and placing them into those right needs so they no longer use fire rescue as their sole source for those things that we can't provide them. Wonderful, wonderful. And if you can answer two other questions and then I'm going to get off the soapbox and see what else my colleagues may want to add to the conversation. What is the current organizational structure for MIH and who are responsible for those components? So give me your breakdown of that. So currently over EMS, there's an assistant chief that oversees the whole bureau as a whole, which also encompasses MIH. There's then a battalion chief, that's me, who oversees. And then below that, there's one lieutenant and then there's two community healthcare coordinators. The reason there's two lieutenants here right now is because one is transitioning in and the other is transitioning back to operations. So that is our current structure. Okay. All right. So for individuals for this department? Yes. Is there a need for additional? At some point there could be, absolutely. At some point. And when you look at the number of contacts, there's about 3,000 contacts in the last fiscal year. So there's a lot of contacts, a lot of volume coming in for the MIH program. So. And then also for the department, long term vision for MIH. Long term vision would be more staffing and to expand the core and the DOH program. And then obviously do a more in depth job of capturing the actual services we're providing and what they're doing to reduce call volume. So those are the, that's the vision. We're building out this program where we just again started the core program and DOH program this last month. So to build on those and then continue to also give the services of reducing the operational call volume. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Before you go. Before you go. Yes, sir. I mean, you were saying that there was a particular individual that was calling you four or five times a week. Yes. At some point, is there an abuse of the, of the program that triggers a different response? I mean, I think what you did right was transitioning this person into a more permanent. Yes. Rather than a, you know, this temporary ad hoc response at each time. But I mean, that's the drain on our resources. Yes. So it's difficult because if they're calling for a medical complaint, that's considered okay for them to call 914, right? When we, when you get into 9-1-1 abuses, more of the false calls and the other things that go outside of that boat. If you call 9-1-1 with a medical complaint, technically you can't be charged with abuse of the system. I understand that might be the rule today. Yes. I'm going to elaborate on this because, again, because consider this. If you are someone that, like you say, he needed assistance getting maybe out of the floor, out of the bed, whatever the situation is, there's no one there to assist him. If you have, I'm going to say, two elderly people living together. Yes. And one person cannot assist the other. And maybe there's not insurance in place where they can have a caregiver. Right. And this is the source. Mm-hmm. And this is the best part of MIH because it gives them the resources. Yes. Because they may not know that they can call this service. Yes. To get that type of, this resource to get this service. And MIH, I'm speaking for you all. Yes. Yes. That's perfectly fine. But they will make the connection. They make the connection. They have to make the connection. Yes. They give them those resources. Yeah. They're going to have to. Yeah. This is not sustainable. No. No. So let me, I'm sorry. Go ahead. I'm going to jump in here real quick. Stephen Golan, your fire chief. So what it is, is it's that connection, that peace past. So these individuals are very, very well trained in social work and all of the benefits that are available to the community. And a lot of times the community doesn't necessarily know what they may need or even how to get to that end solution. So with Medicare and Medicaid, sometimes there's some challenges there. And this group is designed to help the individuals in the community navigate that bridge, that gap, so that they can find that solution. And just as, as, as Commissioner Pamela Beasley Pittman had mentioned that we can go to a scenario of a, a, an older couple that are trying to live on their own. However, the living is outside of their means. And they don't know that there are currently resources available to help them navigate that, whether it's someone coming to their house other than this team to provide medical care or even transitioning them into the next stage of life, which may be an assisted care facility. Right. Okay. All right. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. The problem you've identified, Mayor, is that there's a lot of people that call 9-1-1 for things that are not 9-1-1. Right. They use our emergency services as all kinds of things. And it's not necessarily what 9-1-1 is intended for. Exactly. We've got backup for community services and mental health services and, and, and pizza delivery. Yes. Well, that's, that, it borders on that. Right. So I'm glad though it's, it's a temporary thing. Yes. Not a, not a permanent solution because. Pizza delivery. I want to, pizza delivery now. No, no. That's a code. Called up for. But that's a code. Well, I'm not, I'm, I'm not talking about pizza delivery as a code. That's a code. People have actually called up to complain that Domino's didn't deliver their pizza. Okay. That's one thing. But there, there's a code for domestic violence when someone calls 9-1-1. Oh, really? Yeah. And they ask for a pizza. Yeah. That's a trigger to let 9-1-1 operators know that there's a situation at that address. Wow. So that's why I'm bringing that to the point. See, you didn't even know that. Okay. So. All right. Thanks for letting us know. I didn't know that. Yes. Especially from a cost perspective, when done right, MIH is an amazing cost savings on our city, on our community, on resources, because what you all do day in and day out is amazing. And it's going to the source of the problem and providing effective, you know, cost effective care and preventing someone from having to rely on more, more expensive, challenging resources. It's, it's, it's how I view it is preventative care, prophylactic care in many ways. And so I just, I thank you for that. And, and I was, as I was thinking about it, I was wondering who else in, in Broward County, are there other similar MIH programs with other? Yes, sir. Majority of fire departments in Broward County do have an MIH program. Okay. Yes, sir. Great. Well, I'm sure ours is the best. So I appreciate what y'all do. So keep it up and, and your partnership again, this, this impacts addressing our homeless population, giving them the services, helping prevent people from going homeless, because when you can, as you all know, when you can provide medical care in advance, when it's needed, that medical care can be more cost effective and less than the likelihood that that could be burdensome to get them onto the streets. So thank you for what you do and keep it up. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you very much. Okay. Moving on to our last item, business four. This is an airport leasing policy and lease reversion update, Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport. Mr. Rogers. Good afternoon, Mayor and Commission. Ben Rogers, Assistant City Manager and Interim Airport Director. So over the last- How many hats can you put on that? So over the last 45 days, I, I have introduced myself to a lot of the airport tenants. I reinvigorated the passion that the airport has. And we put together an action plan to address some lingering negotiations, agreements, and to move forward with the business of the airport. The commission challenged staff back in March to update its lease policy. And we're working on that. And you'll hear that presentation later this year. But as we try to move forward with some of these lingering agreements with Shelter, with WA Aviation, both of which are here today, we needed to get the city commission's feedback on a policy dealing with lease reversion. And so at this time, I would ask Carlton Harrison to come up. He's the Assistant Director of the airport to do an overview of that. And again, specifically, we're looking for the reversion policy and the city commission's feedback so we can finalize these negotiations in advance of having a formal lease policy. Okay, great. Thank you. Before you begin, is Ignacio Martinez here in the room? You are. Okay, so not right now, but when we're finished with the presentation, I'll call you up because you asked to speak. Thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, Carlton Harrison, Assistant Airport Director. As Ben mentioned, our objectives today are to go over the overall leasing policy where we're at so far. Specifically, we'll talk a little bit more about lease reversion. And then lastly, we want to obtain feedback from the commission on establishing of this reversion policy. As Ben indicated, the city provided direction in March to establish a leasing policy working group with the objectives of evaluating our existing leasing practices and procedures, incorporating industry benchmarks, as well as establishing a new policy framework going forward. So the airport retained Kim Lee Horn and Associates to provide leadership services to be the facilitator of our working group. And the working group was made up of our airport tenants, our aviation and board members, FXC staff, as well as the city attorney's office. We held three meetings in June and July of this year. And there were several takeaways from the working group. And next slide, please. So some of those key topics included self-sustainability, sub-tenant management, lease assignments and lease reversion. And so when we talked about self-sustainability, the focus and a little bit of a subtle shift, but the focus shifted from maximizing revenue for sustainability to sufficient revenue for sustainability. So just a small subtlety, how we manage our subtenants, approval processes, compatible use issues, lease assignments, ensuring that we preserve the rights of the airport, as well as preserve the rights of our tenants. And then lease reversion is the key topic we're talking about today. And this is really what happens when the improvement reverts back to the airport at the end of a lease term. So whether it's via termination, whether it's the lease expiration, what happens to that hangar, whatever that facility is when it returns to the airport. And so at that time, the airport has full ownership of what that improvement is. And so we have the opportunity to either release it, we can repurpose it for something else, or we can completely redevelop it. And this provides a foundation for our long-term rent structures. Of course, when we look at the benefits of this, it supports a consistent and transparent framework for our leasing policy overall. It ensures that we don't have outdated facilities. And that's certainly important as we continue to try to track business to the airport. Again, it supports our long-term financial goals. Of course, it deals with our compliance with our FAA policies and procedures, as it relates to fair charges. And of course, we want to encourage that private investment into the facilities at FXC. So when we looked at a bit of history in terms of some of the leases, reversion structures that were contemplated, you had the forward version where all improvements revert back to the airport. You have the fair market value approach where an appraisal is done, and then that determines the value of the improvement. You have percentage of gross rental receipts, where essentially a tenant will pay a percentage of the rent income that's derived from the improvements. You have the fixed buyout formula essentially like a leaseback policy where you determine at the beginning of the lease what you would charge at the end of the lease. And then you have the tenant removal or demolition where essentially you create a greenfield site where you demolish all the improvements and then you start fresh. So as relates to FXC leases, we have 37 leases. We have 17 aeronautical leases. Aeronautical leases are leases that touch the runway and taxway system of the airport. And we have 29 aeronautical leases. Again, those don't touch the runway and taxway system. And those are in our airport industrial park primarily. Today we'll be focused on the 17 aeronautical leases. So of those 17 leases, we have four that are private or government leases. That's a single owner that have a single use. They develop this facility and they have a sole purpose that they use it for the duration of the lease term. And then we have 13 commercial leases. And those are either developed by an FBO for their own use or to sublease to others. As well as we have developers that have constructed facilities for their own use or subleasing to others as well. So as we look at the reversion structures on those leases for the four leases that are private or government, the approach is from the reversion perspective is there's a fair market appraisal that's done to determine the rent. And then we establish a triple net lease where you back out taxes, insurance, whatever improvements that are being provided, and any cost of operations. And the same thing is true with a government lease where there's a fair market appraisal for land. A triple net lease is expired and it's usually as a lower percentage because of the government comps. And so when we look at both the private and government lease structures, these are non-revenue generating. They are for individual use. When we look at our commercial lease structure, these are entities that generate revenue. What we found is inconsistencies in terms of how reversion language was within those lease agreements. So of those 13 agreements, we found that five, I'm sorry, eight had 5% gross rental receipts as reversion language. We found four that had no reversion language at all. And we had one that had the appraisal approach to reversion. So this begged the need for, you know, establishing what this reversion policy should be. And we understand that that needs to come before the commission. We need your feedback in terms of what that policy should look like because it is going to establish, you know, a approach for us to move forward. So what we did is we retained MAI Prazier, Slack, Johnson, and Megan Heimer to take a look at our airport leases to help us with the development of policy as well as provide a recommendation to our board and ultimately to our commission. And so when we retained Slack Johnson and Megan Heimer, what they did is they looked at all our airport leases. They evaluated all the language in our leases. They met with our tenants. They consulted with airports around the state as well as their industry expertise and developed recommendations. And those recommendations were presented before our Aviation Advisory Board at the July 30 meeting. And next slide, please. So based upon the feedback from Slack Johnson and Megan Heimer, they recommended no changes to how we deal with reversion for our prime and government tenants. And again, that's where an appraisal is done to take care of the underlying land. And the triple net lease is established, excuse me. And as relates to the commercial tenants, there's a recommendation for reversionary rent done via percentage of gross receipts. And their recommendation was 20 to 30% of gross rental receipts. What does that mean? So for instance, if you rent a hangar for $20,000 a month, then that recommendation would be 20 to 30% of that $20,000 would be the reversionary rent that would be paid to the airport in addition to the underlying ground rent. So is that paid at the end of the lease? It's paid monthly. It's paid monthly. Correct. And what does that represent? So what it represents in the biggest picture is when a hanger, for instance, reverts back to the airport, it's owned by the airport. And so since the airport in particular in our business model, we aren't in the business of managing hangars, then essentially what we're doing is releasing it to an operator to run it on our behalf. And so in doing so, we're sharing in the profits of running that hanger. So essentially there is a management fee that they're paying. So they retain 80% of the profits or 70 to 80% of the profits. And then they would pay us 20 to 30% of profits based upon this recommendation. Really? Yes. Is that competitive? It is competitive. And so as you saw in the white paper that was developed by the appraiser, there's a wide breadth of formats in which this is applied. And so as we looked at it and we evaluated, and I'll touch on it in a future slide, but there are several different approaches that we can take to how that's managed. And what really determines that percentage is the level of involvement. So for instance, you'll see in the white paper that there are, you know, there are language that has 70% of those grocery receipts coming to the airport. And in those cases, the airport is essentially managing the hanger. So they're responsible for all the maintenance, upkeep, insurance, and everything. And then essentially they're just having somebody run the hanger for them. So in our cases, we aren't doing that. Then we don't think it's fair that we would take that much of the revenue generated. So it becomes more like a small management fee that's paid back to the airport for essentially managing the hanger on our behalf. And those are still triple net leases? Yes, still triple net leases. So as we present it... Wait, hold on a second. So is that 20 to 30% gross rental receipts in lieu of rent? No, it's in addition to. So there's still ground rent, and that's done by our fair market appraisal. So it's like an override. Yeah. So the ground rent is done by our fair market appraisal that we bring to the commission every three years. Currently it's 70 cents a square foot. And so that will always be the floor. And then if there's anything that has reverted back, then that's what the recommendation, the gross rental receipts would apply to that. Got it. Okay. And so we presented this to our aviation advisory board at the July 30th meeting. And of course, they had several concerns. And again, given the example of 5% is what the historical trend had be, and then an increase up to 20 to 30%. So of course, the board was concerned about the impact to our existing tenants. How does it impact the future investment? Could we lose tenants? Is there a need for additional revenue? So we definitely heard all those concerns as we listened to our board members as well as our aviation working policy working group. Next slide, please. So when we looked at trying to balance our airport needs versus fee structure, then of course, we're looking at responsible stewardship. And so that starts with Grant Assurance 25 where it ensures that airport revenues stay on the airport. They go for the capital and operating costs of the airport. But at the same time, we also don't want to create a profit center. So we don't want to have costs or our fees be so high that we're, you know, that we're generating too much revenue. And of course, revenue diversion is when we're, you know, funds are being used not in support of the airport. And so when we look at our funding sources, basically our funds come from our rent income from aeronautical or non-aeronautical leases, our fuel forage fees. So that's percentage from the fuel sales at the airport. And then our grants that we get from the Federal Aviation Administration for Department of Transportation. So when we really break down how we look at our fee structures, since no general fund dollars support the airport, then we really look at our expenses, our capital projects, and in our future development projects. And then, of course, we look at the availability of our grant funds. So based upon all that, looking at our Stantec projections over the next 10 years, the airport is in a healthy position. And so considering the feedback from the board, airport staff sat around and we talked about what the best approach would be and we developed the recommendation that we move forward or recommend the 5% gross return receipts as a reversionary language and make that the policy today and going forward. This will allow us to finalize our current lease negotiations as Ben mentioned. And then we include this into our formal leasing policy that we will present to the commission later on this year. And then take the next two years to evaluate what the 5% of gross receipts, how that impacts our current budget, as well as we look at our capital projects and availability of grant funds. During that two year period, that would give us a good opportunity to see what those true impacts will be. And then we can bring that back as part of our minimum annual lease rates update that we bring to the commission currently scheduled for 2028. And so I just want to make a note that no current tenants will be impacted by anything that we do today. So they already have an existing lease, so they won't be impacted by any change that's made. And then even as we evaluate in a two year period, if you have a current lease, you won't be impacted by that either. So these would be for new leases going forward. Or if there's an old lease and you're looking for new terms, then that would be the opportunity to make any changes if any changes are warranted. And with that, that concludes my presentation. So remember we had that controversy earlier this year where some of the tenants were trying to assign their leases to other tenants. Correct. And we were looking to extract like a fee. Yes, it was a transaction fee. Transaction fee. And it was pushed back by the tenant as to, you know, saying that we shouldn't be charging that. So when you say that this will only apply to new tenants, if current tenants are able to sell their interest in their lease to a new tenant without any consideration to the city, then we lose out on that opportunity for a gross rental receipt. So the gross rental receipt is tied to reversion. So it's only when that hanger comes back to us. That's what I'm talking about. But it may not come back to us because these are long-term leases that are currently in existence. Yes, I'm sorry. So the reversion is based upon basically when the improvement comes to terms. So if it's a 30-year lease, at year 30 is when it reverts back to us. I'm totally understanding that. Yeah. So them taking on a new lease doesn't start the clock over again. The clock is continuously running. So it's not a new clock if the lease is assigned to someone else. Right. So we lose out on that gross receipts percentage. If somebody has a 30-year lease and they're into it 10 years and they decide to sell their interest in the lease, we still can't charge the 5% gross receipts portion of that because there's still 20 years left on the lease. And that's why we brought up the idea of having a transaction fee that would come to the city. Remember what I'm talking about? You look puzzled. No, no, no. That's a separate issue. I understand. So none of this may even come into being for another 10, 20 years. That's correct. That's correct. So it's all tied to just when the improvement reverts back. When there's a new lease. When it's a new lease or if there's changes to an existing lease. So if somebody comes back for additional terms or other types of changes is when that would apply. So if you have an existing lease today, the language in your lease would not change at all. So it would only apply to new leases going forward. So does it make sense to try to revisit that discussion regarding the transaction fee? If it's the will of commission, we would be happy to entertain it. Just bringing it up. No, based upon the feedback from our Aviation Advisory Board's Commission, there was not an interest to move forward with the transaction fee. So we tabled that issue. Okay. All right. Thank you. Absolutely. Anyone else have any questions? I do, Mayor. Thanks. Go ahead. So I just want to reference the letter dated August 3rd from Andrew Maggenheimer. Yes, sir. If you could look at that. So a couple of things and maybe if you could address it. Because I see staff recommendations. I understand that. But I was wondering what your opinion was or what the board's opinion was on a couple of other recommendations in here. So on page three of that letter, he talks about the renewal period, reversionary improvement rents. But then it is our, and I'm quoting, it is our opinion that FXC should standardize their aeronautical leasehold renewal policy in an effort to recognize basic differences in the leaseholds and provide consistent terms for similarly situated aeronautical tenants. Based on our analysis and review of industry practices, airport sponsors typically provide for private hangar development tenants in good standing, the ability to continue their use and occupy the facility in exchange for the payment of reversionary improvement rent, i.e. reversionary rent, in addition to the continued aeronautical land rent. In these instances, the standard practice includes the airport sponsor establishing a reversionary improvement rent based on appraisal based on an estimate of the fair market annual rent based on comparison to other similar end user and then on and on and on and on. So did you get into that at all? Yes. Yes. So the underlying ground rent is what we bring to the commission every three years in terms of the fair market. So we employ MAI appraiser and they establish that rent. And then we bring that to the aviation advisory board and then on to the commission. And that's established every three years. That's the underlying rent. As relates to reversion, so again, we have the two categories that we deal with. We have the private leases and the private and the government lease. And then we also have the commercial lease. So as relates to the commercial leases where you generate revenue, that recommendation. So it wasn't a lot of those leasing policies is the 5% of gross runner receipts is kind of the current practice for eight of those 13 leases. And then so also in the background, it spoke about with the others where there was no language and then one had an appraisal format. So what our goal is, is with the leasing policies to establish what that new procedure should be. And our recommendation is to establish it at 5%. And that would be the kind of the law of the land going forward. So that recommendation does cover what I just read then. Correct. Okay. And then just one more point. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate it. Ignacio Martinez, you had asked to speak. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Ignacio Martinez, W Aviation, Mayor, Commissioners, City Manager, City Attorney. I just want to express my opinion about this. I'm on one of the leases that have been waiting to get renewed, waiting for clarifications and all these clauses for the commission. We have been a tenant on the airport for the last 20 years. And we have invested in our lease for over $30 million. We are prepared to invest another $10 million in exchange of the renewal of our lease. And we have invested in our lease over $30 million. We are prepared to invest another $10 million in exchange of the renewal of our lease. But these are reversions, a language that we are supporting. We are supporting the 5% presented to the commission by the staff. In our opinion, you know, if you go higher than that, like it was some conversations about paying more than that at reversion, it's going to be almost impossible for us or any other operator to keep operating with the normal expenses. Because 5% on the gross rent on the hangars, it's only one of the expenses we are going to keep paying for a land rental rates that are going to be adjusted every 10 years like it's standard in our current lease and we support it. We are going to keep paying for our, in our case, 32 members of staff that needs to be serving every hangar in order to keep tenants' necessities of moving aircraft in and out. And we're doing all these in a really healthy airport that have been growing in part to our investments and our capacity to keep the higher standards for the aviation community nation-wise. But at the same time, that have been generating more flourish to the city that is another source of rents. We are paying 5.5% on every gallon of fuel that we are selling net to the city. We assume all the additional costs of the fuel and everything else. So you support the recommendation? I do. Okay, great. Thank you, sir. Thank you so much. Anyone else wish to speak on this item? There being none. City Manager, do you have any further business? I do not. Thank you. Do you want to say something, Mr. Rogers? Mayor, I was just going to ask for confirmation if the commission supports the 5% reversion rate language. If so, we'll wrap up negotiations with W Aviation, Shell Air, try to bring those agreements forward in September or October, and then we'll bring the ultimate leasing policy back to the commission before the end of the calendar year. Do we have consensus? Yes. Good job. Thank you. There you go. Meeting concluded. We'll resume at 6 o'clock, I assume in the same space.