City Commission Conference Meeting on 2026-09-15 1:05 PM - Sep 15, 2026

We now move on to the conference meeting this afternoon, and there's no communications, so I guess we'll begin with City Commissioner Reports. Commissioner Herbst. None. None. Thank you. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman. Thank you, Mayor. You're welcome. And thank you, Mayor, for this opportunity to share what we have been just blessed to take part in these last days. It seemed like we've been here like seven days this week. I don't know if I could. Continuation. I love this space. Don't get me wrong, but I'm just like, we are here. We are truly here in this building. I want to start with on Wednesday, September 9th. It's official, yes. 1300 West Broward Boulevard Police Headquarters is open. We had the ribbon cutting. Yes, yes, yes. Yes, yes, yes. The pleasure to stand alongside our police chief in the dais in its entirety to cut the ribbon, to begin to utilize this beautiful space that we have here. It was great to be able to shake hands with previous police chiefs, our city managers from before, a retired police department that was here as well, our neighbors that were here. And overall, the attendees, and so was I, truly impressed and excited by the tours that was offered. So, thank you to all of those who organized and put this great opportunity together for the ribbon cutting. Also, our chaplain was here. He blessed this building, blessed the first responders for decades to come. You know, just affirming that this space is a safe haven, and there to be a space for great productivity and great engagement for the community. So, we're here. 1300 West Broward Boulevard. Yes, yes. Also, on Thursday, September the 11th, we attended two remembrance ceremonies that were held here in the city. 9-1-1 ceremonies, attending alongside the commission. We were first at the Fort Lauderdale Fire Museum. They also were the organizers of the event. Again, a beautiful ceremony that was put together where we were able to reflect and be encouraged after the 25 years of what most of us in this room, all of us in this room, actually lived through. And the mayor made a point, hadn't even thought about, you know, we have so many millions of people at this point that weren't alive on that day. They have no true connection. They hear the stories as we share it, but we have a responsibility to share the story in a way that it's understood and that it would never be forgotten, that we are a nation of resilience. So, it was a great opportunity to be together and reflect. Also, from there, we went on to the NSU Art Museum, another great opportunity for celebration. Thank you to the museum for everything that they offered. They offered a free exhibit also, photo exhibit of 9-1-1 things, pictures that were captured through that day, and then also through the rebuilding of the city. On Saturday, the 12th, I had the honor of attending and presenting an expression of sympathy for Mr. Floyd T. Johnson. As you know, Mr. Floyd T. Johnson, he was, at one point, Broward County Administrator, as well as city manager here for the city of Fort Lauderdale, also learning his long resume of the things he touched in this city and this county overall. His memorial service was at the main library downtown, so I had the privilege of going and presenting that expression on behalf of our city commission. On the 13th, the mayor and I attended the centennial celebration for the anniversary of St. Andrew's Catholic School. Oh, excuse me, St. Anthony's. What did I get? Yes, Anthony's, yes. Beautiful. Full mass attendance. I was excited to be there. I will say I wasn't expecting to look for parking. We talked about that. A full congregation of beautiful mass, and I was really excited when they recognized the alumni, and they went back. I believe it started in 1950 asking alumni to stand, and there were so many members in the room that graduated from St. Anthony's, and they were proud graduates, so that was exciting to see as well. So I was a pleasure to stand with the mayor as he presented the proclamation to them. Upcoming events on this Friday, September the 18th, we will be at Joseph Street Carter Park for the Carter Park Jams that starts at 7 p.m. It is an open invitation to the city. I'm inviting you all to come out, and let's have a good time under the stars. You can bring your lawn chairs, your blankets, and your coolers. We also have vendors, food trucks there, and it's a great night of entertainment. Carl, do you know, could you share with us who the headliner is? I'm sorry. I don't have that in front of me, and if you don't, that's fine, but it's going to be a great time, and I invite us all to be out for that. And then also, moving forward to Friday the 25th, it'll be another opportunity to have a great night under the stars. This will be over at Riverland Park. This is Friday Night Musicals. We have this at, again, Riverland Park. That's 950 Southwest 27th Avenue, and their headliner will be Mickey's Hot Swing Latin Band, and we always have a great time. Yes, and through Parks and Rec, we have an actual wood dance floor, so you can really come out and have a good time and dance on the floor. And, again, everyone is invited. We invite you to come out. It is a free event as well. Bring your blankets, your lawn chairs, and your coolers, and there will be truck vendors that's there as well. So that completes my report. Okay, great. Thank you very much. You've been busy. Yes. Commissioner Glassman. Yes, thank you, Mayor. Good afternoon, everybody. A busy, busy time for District 2 since we last met, September 3rd. I had the pleasure, and I want to thank staff very much, Milos and Transportation and Mobility and others, for hosting the La Salos Mobility Project, the Eastern Corridor. As you know, we began with the Western Corridor. Now we're moving to the Eastern Corridor. Thank you for that. It was a good meeting. A lot of questions, a lot of concerns. Thank you very much for organizing that. The next day, September 4th, Portia and staff, thank you so much. A very, very detailed, in-depth meeting about the vacation rental situation in our city. I think there were over 300 attendees on that Zoom meeting. It was quite amazing. Excellent questions, and staff did a great job basically answering all of those questions and concerns. A lot of folks on that Zoom were from the vacation rental industry. Again, thank you very much for putting that together and listening and answering all of those questions. September 5th, a very popular spot on Northeast 20th Avenue, right on the edge of Victoria Park, has always been a gathering spot. Really cool place. It was called Pulp and Press. I had the pleasure on September 5th to attend their rebranding. It's now called Amelia's. It has a really nice vibe. It's got a coffee shop vibe, but it's also a bookstore. The food is excellent. They really pack people in there. It gets a big crowd. It's right across the street from Serafina on 20th, close to the gateway. On the west side of the street. Yes. Again, on the west side of the street. So congratulations to them, owner Gina and Edinson, for putting together a really good program. And we had a lot of fun that day. They've done a great job. As was already mentioned by the commissioner, it was a pleasure to be here for the September 9th ribbon cutting. I hear nothing but very positive comments wherever I go from anyone that's been in this building. They feel very strongly that it represents, finally, what the five men and women in the police department do every day for us. And getting that past building behind us is truly a wonderful thing. So congratulations to everyone that has something to do with this project. Again, City Commissioner Pam Beasley-Pittman mentioned the 9-11 ceremony at the Fire Museum. Always very stirring. And again, the NSU Art Museum exhibit and ceremony. That evening also, that was a busy day. Rosh Hashanah also began that evening. And I just want to thank, I was able to make it to three of the Fort Lauderdale Chabad synagogues over the weekend. Just three? Just three. Well, that's unfortunately why I couldn't make it to St. Anthony's, which is in my district. But that was on Sunday. And, you know, from where I come from, Rosh Hashanah took precedent over St. Anthony's. So what can I do? What can I do? But I did make it to three of them. I want to thank those congregations. They were very welcoming. I had the opportunity to speak to all of them. Very big crowds. At least 200 at each of those three congregations. And very much in love with our city. I think I mentioned this previously. But I was really impressed with the youth, the age of the folks that were attending these services. One of them was predominantly 20s and 30s. And we did meet, Mayor, if you remember, we met some folks. And also Commissioner Herbst was at the Galt that one night, Friday. We met a lot of young people. And they live all over our city, predominantly in the Flagler Village area, the downtown area. And they're all thrilled to live and be a part of Fort Lauderdale. They're very appreciative. So those Jewish High Holy Days continue throughout this week and through Monday evening when September 21st will be a breaking of the fast in Yom Kippur. So to all of our Jewish friends and neighbors, I wish everyone a happy and easy fast on Yom Kippur. September 15th, this morning, I actually had, I forgot that was only this morning, I had the pleasure of speaking to the New River Business Exchange downtown at the Tower Club. Again, a very interesting group of folks that are predominantly, as it says, around the New River. And it was a pleasure to be with them for an hour and a half this morning and talk about what's happening in Fort Lauderdale and having their questions and concerns addressed. Again, I wanted to thank them for that. Mark Budwig leads that group. And it was a pleasure to be with them just this very morning. That was, I guess, the early start to today. September 16th, that's tomorrow. I will be at the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association Tourism in Focus Conference over at the Omni Hotel. September 17th, actually, I'm sorry, the Central Beach Alliance meeting has been canceled for Thursday night. It was going to be at the North Beach Community Center. But that evening, I will attend the USS Fort Lauderdale Annual Review and Update. And that will be that evening on September 17th. September 20th, congratulations to Sanctuary Church on Federal Highway. One of my favorite buildings, not just in District 2, but in our entire city. It's just a cool structure set way back there off of Federal Highway. We will be celebrating at this entire week, celebrating their 75th anniversary of that church. I will present a proclamation in honor of that occasion on September 20th. September 22nd, we have a dedication ribbon cutting at Peter Feldman Park in Flagler Village. We will be doing the playground, and we will also be celebrating the mural, which looks really cool, right on the street side of that park on the, I guess I'm so bad. Thank you very much. Sometimes I'm so bad with that north, south, east, west. But yes. Anyway, two occasions we're going to celebrate on September 22nd at Peter Feldman Park in Flagler Village. September 23rd, I want to thank the Council of Fort Loyola Civic Associations. They will be hosting a District 1 candidate forum at the Fort Loyola Beach Community Center. And again, thank you to them for taking the time to care about that as well. September 24th, we will be celebrating with a ribbon cutting the Ocean Rescue Structure building at the Aquatic Center International Swimming Hall of Fame on the beach. And that's a very welcome addition to that peninsula, and it's a beautiful facility, and I'm very happy that we were able to finish that as we go through the phases of what we're doing on that peninsula, not just for the pools and the high dive tower, but now Ocean Rescue, and then eventually bookending that peninsula with the development on the east and west side of the peninsula. September 25th, I will be a panelist at the Florida Water Reuse Seminar hosted by IDE Technologies in Tampa. I'm looking forward to that. We'll be discussing public-private partnerships and the great things that are happening in our city in terms of our own water treatment plant and what we do here in terms of our public-private partnerships. The next night, September 26th, we'll have the Urban League Derby Gala at the Omni. September 30th, obviously, Mayor, we're all looking forward to the state of the city. And then on October 3rd is the 55th anniversary of Sunshine Cathedral. Looking forward to that. I believe that's at the Coral Ridge Yacht Club. And then that evening is also the YMCA Beach Ball Gala at the Hard Rock. So a lot of things happened, a lot of things still to happen. I just have two comments that I want to talk about. And, David, if we could put those photos up. I got a very disturbing email from the Fort Laurel Historic Society, also known as History Fort Lauderdale. They've been having a very rough time. I'm not going to read this entire email. But, basically, they're almost at their wits' end city manager in terms of what they consider to be not be surrounded by good neighbors. You know, the Fort Laurel Historical Society brings over 100,000 visitors to their neighborhood every year. They do a great job promoting museums, surrounding districts. But they are having a tough time with the Himishi Commercial Partners. And is this, I'm sorry, I didn't look. Is this the first one or the second one? Is this the second? Okay. It seems that right now what they're doing is a lot of the bars are just sort of dumping trash in the alley by their building. Obviously, the Historic Society does not serve liquor. And a lot of the trash that they're finding on their property is not theirs. So, they're having a really difficult time. And they're asking for our help. Again, they have been, Patricia, who is the director, has been there for 12 years. It's never been any worse than this on 2nd Street. And they're just finding it to be a real nuisance. So, city manager, I don't know. Don't they have a dumpster there? Should there be a dumpster? Again, it's not their garbage. But all of this garbage is ending up in the alley. And when they try to say, you know, can we get some help here? They're instructed that unless they have camera footage of the garbage coming from the bars to their side of their building, they're being told there's nothing they can do. And Fort Lauderdale Historical Society doesn't have the money for all the cameras and the surveillance. And they're just asking for some help. We need to help them because it really is unsightly. We have staff people who can respond. Yes. Thank you. Can you push the button? Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, Mr. City Manager and City Attorney, Antoine Lourke, Compliance Manager. So, we've been working in the Hemisphere area since February trying to attack all the businesses. Obviously, we started during the spring break time with some increased enforcement. We recently went out to this location. We've done some illegal dumping enforcement. We've done some trash enforcement. We reached out to the bars and the business owners via email just to make them aware of the issues that's in the area, give them some educational information and some reminders. We're also going to deploy our night team as they go out because they're there at 3.30 to go out and visit these areas, these bars at nighttime, the locations at nighttime that's open to make them aware. We'll be doing a door-by-door visit short in the area sometime next week to place information news on the doors, to try to make contact with the bars and the business owners there. And then we'll connect with PD to see what we can do about the illegal dumping as well. That would be great. Have you been in conversation with Patricia Ziala, the director over at History Fort Lauderdale? I have not directly. Okay, because I recommend that. Only that because it always seems to be something else that's also a problem that just seems to be, you know, to be growing. And I know that they really do need some help. She has a very good idea of who the three main culprits are. I don't need to name names here, but I just think that it would behoove us to actually have a conversation with her. And if there's anything that we can do, I mean, if you look at the alley, even just the alley itself. Is that a recent picture? These are very recent photos. So if you've been monitoring this since February and this stuff is going on, something's falling through the cracks here, right? Hi, Portia. Hi, Mayor. So I do want to address something because Antoine is being a bit modest. So there are actually cases that were previously opened proactively by code on the businesses that we believe are contributing to the dumping. Code issued civil citations. They also took some of those cases to special magistrate. Beyond trash, debris, and graffiti, they also cited sidewalk cafe permits that were unlicensed. And so there has been proactive code enforcement in the area prior to now. So what's the resolution? I mean, they've been cited. Are they responding? They're clearly still violating. So they are. In two instances, they actually appealed the civil citation before the magistrate. The city did prevail in those instances. We also observed instances where they voluntarily complied with either removing the sidewalk cafe or receiving the business tax receipt for the sidewalk cafe. We also observed instances where they removed the trash proactively. I think an increased presence of addressing the illegal dumping directly with the people doing the illegal dumping would be very beneficial. If the historical society cannot place cameras there, we can work with the police department to see if they can do a poll camera. That is something that we have done in instances previously, and it's been effective. Okay. Yeah, and I think that would be a great idea. I mean, we know that it's mostly the bars that back up, like, the 200 block of 2nd, that back up in that alley to the historical society. So we know who's doing it. It's not a mystery. And I thank you for that. And I think that camera would be a great idea and would be very helpful in this situation because they really don't know what else to do. Antoine, I want to just thank you also for your work at the Vacation Rental Seminar. That day was excellent. Thank you, sir. Maybe next year we don't have to do four hours of it, but it was really good. I hung in there as long as I could, maybe about two hours and a half. I didn't know it was very good the 2nd time. Well, I just believe it based on my experience of the first two and a half hours. What I did tell staff the other day is maybe we're going to need to start to put an end time on some of these meetings. You know, we always advertise what time they start, but we never have an end time. We should do that with commission meetings. No end time. But, again, thank you for this. I know that the Historic Society would be really helpful, whatever we can do. And we need to clean up that alley anyway. It's just even without the garbage, it doesn't even look, you know, like it should look for that part of the city. Yes, sir. We'll get on it. Thank you for that. I really appreciate that. And then, Commissioner, if I could jump in on that. I think thanks for bringing that up. It's completely unacceptable. You know, we've talked about this, and I think we've got to do more to him or she, and we've talked about looking at hours, looking at, you know, how we're addressing these businesses. Where are we in that conversation? We just continue to kind of kick it down the curb and down the road. And I think there was another shooting there recently. I mean, we've got to take action now. This is not working. Yeah, so just for an update on that, so staff had a head direction from the City Commission, I think, around spring of last year to work on a new program for the accountability measures for individual establishments in the Hemerslee District. That probably would have actually addressed some of this because we could have held those bars accountable for some of these issues rather than just going through the code enforcement process. So we've been working closely with the attorney's office, stakeholders, as well as the establishment owners. We have a draft of that ordinance that is pretty well perfected in terms of what we were asked to do with staff to bring back. So our plan is to bring that back to the commission probably in the October 20th time frame to have the commission consider whether or not you want to pursue that or if you want to give us any different direction on that path forward. Okay. And does this include a – how does this impact the hours of serving alcohol? It does. Yeah, so just very broadly, it creates an individual permit requirement for each of these establishments, whereas now under the current special entertainment district format, everybody is kind of under the same umbrella, so it's more of a group accountability model. This would be more individually accountable based with the permit, and the idea would be that they would either – and this is a commission decision, but they could either revert back to a much earlier hour of the night without the permit and still sell alcohol, or they could go to the regular city hours without a permit and still sell alcohol, but they would need this permit with those accountability measures in order to go to what they currently have with the 4 a.m. So that's kind of a broad overview of what that proposal is, but that's what the commission heard at the last time we presented to you and what we've been asked to work on to bring back to you at a future meeting. And then would we be able to revoke permits based on unacceptable behavior like this? Right, so what it does is it ties various infractions and violations to the individual permit. So, for example, if an establishment created this situation here and we could attribute that to one of the establishments, multiple establishments, that would be similar to our vacation rental program. That would be a strike or a knock on that permit to where if they had so many of those over a period of time, and that's all written out in this proposal that we'll share with you, that that permit could either be suspended or revoked depending on what the issues are and the severity of them. So maybe garbage in the alley is one thing. You know, a shooting tied back to your establishment would obviously be something of a greater magnitude. Yeah, okay, and this is coming to us at the next meeting? We're looking at October 20th. Okay, so two minutes from now. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I agree with what your sentiments are. Just so you know, one of the reasons we did delay this from when we were supposed to deal with this at the last meeting before our break is I did request us to consider a little bit extra time, and the commission concurred, because I have been in close contact not just with our city manager over this, but also all of the stakeholders. I've been continually meeting with everyone along 2nd Street to make sure that we come to basically a meeting of the minds, and I'm hoping that when it comes back to us, we're going to take some strong action. All right, great. Thank you for that. And lastly, Mayor, I did want to ask a question that came up last night. So city manager, help me, or city attorney, I remember reading that there was some state statute passed, and I don't remember exactly when, that we could advertise notices. And the reason I'm bringing this up is I noticed that last night for every agenda item that we had for our budget, we have been publishing notices to let people know that these items are coming forward. And we're not the only city that does it. Others do that as well. But we do that in the newspaper. But I remember reading something whereby cities and counties could actually advertise on websites and not have to advertise in the newspaper. The reason I'm asking this question is because we're all looking for, and I know this is a buzzword now, efficiencies. We're looking for ways to save money in the future. So I don't know why we continue to spend money on advertising in the newspaper when, if I'm correct, we could actually advertise just on websites, whether it's a city website, a county website. I think we would actually reach more people because if I'm correct, I read something in the Sun Sentinel the other day. The circulation is down, like, in the 20,000, and that's incredibly low for a publication that hits so many counties. So I think we would be more effective if we actually did advertise on our websites, county websites. I think we would reach more people because I don't think people are even reading those notices. And for us to, you know, just think that we're going to let everyone know about these meetings with a circulation of, you know, 20,000, 25,000 people for a newspaper, I don't think we're hitting the mark. So is there such legislation that I remember reading about that lets us advertise in a different way? Thank you, Commissioner. We had this discussion the other day, and we spoke with the clerk about this. And we will be able to do some things when we have one of the charter amendments passed, we'll be able to do that. Some things might still need to be published, but many will be able to be put on our website. So we'll do that as soon as we can. And I think some are, if I may ask, David, aren't some currently posted by a website? No. We still, per the charter and ordinances, we are required to do them in the newspaper. However, like you said, with the charter amendment, we would be able to use our city website. Previously, it was a county website, but they updated the legislation to allow on a city. We just have to create a dedicated web page. And there's a couple of things. You do have to advertise, I believe, once in the newspaper, allowing people that if they don't want to use the website, you have to mail them. So you have to put that in the newspaper to make them aware of that. And then, you know, you create a list from there if there's anybody that wants that. But a majority of those notices. But a majority of the notices, as the city attorney said, can be published on the website instead of in the newspaper. Great. Well, I really think that that is a good way to go. We're looking for ways to save money, and I think that that would be very helpful to save that money and do it that way. And I think more people would be able to read it. Well, but there's another point which you should make, and that is I believe the charter says a publication of general circulation or I forget the exact phrasing. But in the newspaper just a couple of days ago, I read where their daily publishing rate was only 23,000 issues per day in a circulation area of almost 3.5 million, 4 million people. So we're barely reaching less than 1% of the projected population. So there has to be another way. And if we can do it through either through some sort of Internet website or our own website or whatever it is that we can do to try to push those notices out to a larger pool of readers, we need to investigate that. Because 23,000 to 24,000 people who are receiving or businesses who are receiving the newspaper on a daily basis is really not really putting notice out to the general population. Could I ask a couple of questions about that too? So what does it cost us to publish? I have no idea. All of our ads? Yeah. It depends. It's just the size. Say a quarter page. Quarter page. I'd have to pull it out. Yeah. Do you know? We can get that to you. Hi, Cassandra, Deputy City Clerk. It is based on word count. So that's how the pricing is. Ballpark. I mean, are we talking $500, $5,000? No. Ballpark figure $700 is an average. Okay. For a quarter page. Correct. Do we know the other side? Because the mayor made a point about the paid readership being about $20,000. Do we have any idea what their online readership is? No. That I would have to research. Okay. I think anything we can do, if we can certainly publish it on our own website, whatever mechanisms we can do to reach more people, I think, is advisable. Yes. I agree. Reach more people and save some money at the same time. Thanks. Thank you, Mayor. That's it for me. I appreciate the time. Thank you. Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. Again, I want to thank everyone for being here for the police headquarters opening. And Chief, who's not here, but thank you, Chief, and his mom for being here and a great, great day. 9-11, thank you, Chief Golan and Chief Schultz, for making that a wonderful memorial event and celebration, anniversary of our heroes and the tragedy of 9-11. So thank you for that. Wanted to touch base on a couple items. One of the improvements of our park bond project has been some of our public schools, the City of Fort Lauderdale partnering and investing in public schools like no other city in the county and in the state, as far as I'm aware, has done. One of those schools we've invested in almost, I think, about $2 million. Commissioner Glassman, you'll know some of the specifics on this, too, is Sunrise Middle School. And so, City Manager, we've been talking about upgrading the park, the field facilities there and the configuration of those. So, City Manager Quinn, if you can give us an update on some of the challenges and limitations for putting in a full field there. What options do we have? Where are we right now? Thank you, Vice Mayor. Quentin Pugh, Assistant City Manager. Good afternoon, everyone. So, at the current moment, we are exploring the cost impacts as well as the schedule impacts for increasing the size of the current 65 by 25 yard field. This field was agreed upon at previous meetings back in 2023 and 2024. There were at least three to four community meetings where this field was talked about and it was agreed to at that point in time. At this present moment... And actually, Quentin, if I recall correctly, you couldn't physically put a regulation-sized soccer field there. There isn't enough real estate to spread it out. That's why when Alex from the Neighborhood Association got upset over it, in 2023, we were told that there just wasn't enough area in which to put it. So, I believe that's what we're addressing. That is correct. That is correct, Mayor. And, Mayor, I'm going to chime in on that because I met pretty much monthly with the folks from the school district, with the principal from the school, with Joe from AECOM, myself and my staff, and all the representatives of Poinsettia Heights. They were at the table. They saw these designs. This is not a surprise. We've been talking about this for years. I've got so much time invested in this park. Granted, I would love to have a regulation-sized field, but the idea that nobody knew about this is, frankly, disturbing to me because they were at the table. This was discussed over and over and over again. This was one of the few meetings that I went to every month. I know. And, Commissioner Herb, sorry to reference Commissioner Glassman. And thank you. That helps. And was the original plan to have that field next to the track, that smaller field next to the track, was that the agreed upon placement? So the plans went through a variety of iterations because there was a lot of discussion about the pavilion that was being built and how large the pavilion was going to be, the material that was going to be used for the track, the material that was going to be used for the field. So it evolved substantially over time. But, Quentin, I'll let you address that a little further. Thank you. That is correct. Back in 2023, 2024, there were portable classrooms, multiple portable classrooms on that site, which limited the size that the field could be. Sometime late 20, I want to say late 2025, it appears those portable classrooms were removed. The kids were used to, within the last year or so, used to that entire open green space for playing soccer or flag football or what so have you. The space next to the track. That is correct. So as construction is going on at the present moment, obviously, we're putting in a field that was agreed upon years ago. At the current moment, again, we're looking at the cost impacts, whether or not the field can be large. There's drainage components associated with it. There's design fees associated with any changes. There's schedule timelines associated with this if we were to stop. So we're looking at those impacts. I want to be able to present that to you all and see if there's an appetite. But again, this will slow down the project. We also are checking in with the school as far as what their plans is for the open green space. To the north, there's a retention area. The school may have plans for that area. To the east, there's a youth baseball field or so. This would expand onto that existing baseball field. So we really need to know what the school's plans are for that expansion, if they have an appetite for the expansion, and whether or not we want to fund this expansion. And to add to that, Dr. Zeman was one who was also coordinating a group meeting every month of the entire construction team to make sure that we got this done. Our goal was August because that's when the funding that we got from the school district ran out. So we did a hard, hard push with AECOM and our contractors to try and get this project done by August. Again, everybody was on board with us. Saturday, Leonardi was there for the groundbreaking. Dr. Zeman was there. We all went out for this. And everybody knew. And we pushed the contractor as hard as we could to get this project done. So I'm surprised that now there's this push to stop when the neighborhood was beating me over the head on a weekly basis to move this project forward. So I'm just, I'm at a loss. I want to also be clear. We have not instructed the awarded contractor to stop. The show is continuing at the present moment within the next two weeks. I hope to have all those cost impact and scheduling to share. And then from there, we'll see how we want to proceed. Great. And does the current plan have a new field or updated grass in the track itself? No, it doesn't. No. So that just remains the same. It remains the same, natural. The turf would be on the side. Okay. Okay, great. Yeah. So I'll just look forward for the update. And thanks, Commissioner Hurst, for your work on that. And Vice Mayor, just to add one more thing, too. We had to do a tremendous amount of value engineering because we were way over budget on this project. So a lot of what we did was a matter of balancing the resources we had with what the neighborhood and what the school was looking to accomplish at that site. So, unfortunately, there were compromises that were made in order to get the project in within budget. And certainly, we would have loved to have been able to do more. But we did what we could with the dollars we had. So, Vice Commissioner, that's a great point. There's actually no funding available in this project. The only funding that is available is for phase three, which is for the pool chiller, which is roughly about $50,000. So, at this current moment, there is no more funding. We would need to do budget transfers, et cetera, if there is an appetite to. We have funding for what we have planned. That is correct. We've dedicated, yeah, from the parks. But any enhancements or enlargements of this field, there's currently no funding. Okay. So, Vice Mayor, Mayor, would it be helpful? You know, we're going through this process. We're going to end up at a point where it's going to look at time and money to even see what's possible. Would it be preferable for us to bring something back at the next meeting to kind of have a bigger conversation around this to see if you would like us? Well, I think we should leave it up to the District Commissioner to coordinate that. No, I'd love to know what else we can do. Candidly, we're, you know, at 11.59. If at all. I don't know, you know, that it's feasible, quite honestly, for us to change the magnitude of this project at this point in time. But I'm certainly open to suggestions. I'd love to be able to accommodate the neighborhood if there's space, which I don't believe there is, and if there's funding, which I know there's not. But other than those two things, I think we're good to go there, Chris. I agree. And I'd like to get a little bit more direction before we spend more time or more money just so we know we're all on the same page. If you could do back of the envelope, I think that would be enough for us to decide if we want to move forward with a more extensive evaluation. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Agreed. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Quentin. Thank you, Commissioner. Fleet Week. Fleet Week is coming back to Fort Lauderdale, where it should be, year after year, April 20th through the April 27th of 2027. So if you remember, it went to Miami and is back here and hopefully will stay here. So just want to – I don't know, City Manager, if you've talked with JW and the Fleet Week team, how we can support. Yeah, the last message I had from JW was they wanted to kind of get their program together to see where they could seek resources or assistance or participation from the city. So we'll continue to follow up with him, and when they're ready, we'll be ready as well. Okay. We had Fleet Week last year. It was in Miami two years ago. Two years ago. I don't know if you remember. It was Fort Lauderdale, went to Miami, and so we want to continue to keep it. Right. I think they decided they didn't want to go to Miami anymore. Right. So they – but I agree with you. Yeah. They realized – They thought it would – well, because they thought it would be an opportunity for a larger recruiting. Yeah. Right. Right. So – No one wants to be in the Navy in Miami. I guess – Hey, come to Fort Lauderdale. We're Navy USA town here. Exactly. Go Navy. Yeah, go Navy. That's right. Exactly. Y'all need brides. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Yes, we help. All right. Stop. Stop. Marines, part of the Department of the Navy. Yes. Great. So that's excellent. Riverwalk, seawall, city manager, can you give us an update in terms of the challenging conditions there? I know we're working to expedite how we're looking at stabilizing and upgrading the seawall. Yeah. Thanks. So what we've tasked our public works department to do is work with our consultant and our project managers in public works to finalize the design to a point where we can go out and procure this project and get it started. So we have some goals to really start the work towards the end of this year where we're looking at probably summer of 2027 before. So we've worked really hard to find ways to expedite the project. We will have to come back to the commission to move the funding up for that project because it's currently funded in an out year. So you'll expect to see an amendment to allocate those funds. But the goal is to really get this project underway by the end of this year, if not sooner. Okay. Thanks. Yeah. Just everything we can do, Mayor. I'm sure you've seen it. It's just... The pit? The pit is in horrible condition. Yeah, but it all relates to the seawall. It relates to the seawall, which is a much bigger project. So what is... I mean, I've heard what you just said, but do we have some... Can we get it done sooner than later? That is the plan. So we are working very much towards that end of this year goal. Obviously, if there's ways to expedite or start some work or do anything sooner, we will. So we're trying to push this as hard as we can. And can you make that a living seawall, please? Please. Yeah, sure. Yes. That's... Just kidding. No, that's part of the plan. Okay. Excellent. Thank you for that. And then lastly, Sidewalk Master Plan. Remind me where we are in the implementation of the Sidewalk Master Plan. What neighborhoods, you know, how many are we engaging with and validating and then moving forward next steps? Brad Kane, Public Works Director. Good afternoon, everyone. Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners. Yeah, so we're starting to get into that process now, now that all the contracts and everything have been improved. We also have an additional staff member who's going to be in the role of street superintendent coming on board in the next three weeks. So we're really just working to kind of get all of these things in place so we can start proactively getting into the neighborhoods. And as we get this process going, we'll be reaching out to them so people know where we're going and what areas we're going to be going into first. So that's all going to be coordinated over the next three, four weeks. And we should then see, you know, activity in each district. Great. So this sidewalk czar begins when? I would say within the next 30 days. That's a reasonable expectation. As well as road resurfacing as well. We'll be doing them both on a dual track. Okay. Fantastic. Milos? Yeah. Good afternoon. Milos Maestrovic, Transportation and Robility Department Director. So I think that Director Cain provided some feedback related to special obligation bond and probably work related to sidewalks as connected to special obligation bond. When it comes to sidewalk master plan, it's also a related effort. So we brought the plan a couple of months ago to City Commission. You guys provided feedback and direction. We identified about seven neighborhoods within each one of the commission districts to focus our efforts on in terms of public engagement. There were about four or so neighborhoods, which the gap was very large, and there were about three or so where we had very small gaps. So the presentation that we brought to City Commission identifies those, and we'll be starting with some level of public engagement to go about making sure that, number one, communities that we identified still one sidewalks implemented, and we're talking about the new sidewalks, and that's the focus of sidewalk master plan, and then that we can really engage into conducting feasibility, design, and ultimately construction. One of the first ones probably that we'll be starting with would be southeast 15th, straight east of Cordova. There is a public meeting or meeting with the Ajoa that is scheduled for early October to get a feedback from that community so that we can move into feasibility and hopefully design and then construction. Thank you, Milos. Can you remind the public the dollar amount that this has been allocated for this on? So the sidewalk master plan itself identifies about 530 or so miles of existing sidewalks, about 430 miles of missing sidewalks. What we have in terms of different funding sources, if I recall well, is over about $20 million for it, and the first priority is about 30 miles or so. Now, the gap is much larger, again, about 430 miles or so missing sidewalks, but assuming that we won't be installing sidewalks everywhere and that we can start with one side of the street, the gap is less than that, right? Thank you. I mean, Mayor, I'm very excited about this. It's a public safety concern. It's an infrastructure concern, pedestrian safety, transportation. So I'm just excited that we continue to move forward with that. So thank you, Milos, for that update and work. And then lastly, Mayor, just want to recognize I have a new chief of staff starting for District 4, Nicole Scarcella. Nicole, can you wave your hand? So just thank you for Nicole being here and for her work. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Okay. A lot of the things I was going to talk about have now been covered. There are a few highlights, however, I'd like to point out. On Labor Day, we had a gathering at North Beach Village with our annual antique car show. Unfortunately, it rained a lot of it, but by the time the program began, it did stop raining. So I want to thank city staff for putting that together, once again, highlighting the North Beach Village shops and the neighborhood in particular, and a lot of activity going on there, some business establishments, which I had not yet been to, some of the watering holes that were kind of interesting. You need to visit District 1 a little more often? Yeah, I guess so. And of course, the official opening of the police station, once again, it's a proud moment in the history of our community to be able to provide a facility like this that measures up to the expectations and the demands of law enforcement and crime prevention, and to be able to provide a workspace for the men and women who work for our police department. So, you know, we know that we never know what the future is going to hold, but at least we know that we've done our best to try to provide the police department with the best facilities available in order to perform their jobs. On September 10th, I participated at the Galleria Mall with Henderson Health to recognize our veterans, and it was called the Poppy Project. As many of you know, it comes from a poem written right after World War II, World War II, I believe, in which the reference to poppies were made in connection with the veterans who gave their lives. And there were quite a few people from the community who attended, and again, it was another opportunity for us to show our respect for the men and women who have served our country and helped protect our values and our freedoms. September 11th, of course, we had an amazing ceremony at the Fire Museum here in Sailboat Bend, and we had a wonderful turnout of the community. I want to thank everyone who came to attend and to hear the wonderful words of recognizing the 25th anniversary of a horrific act that was perpetrated upon our country. And, but just as important, the response that our public safety and public officials undertook in order to try to help those families and individuals who were impacted by the event. The Art Museum, as Commissioner Beasley Pittman pointed out, did an amazing job at opening its doors to the public and showing the aftermath in wonderful photography exhibit that is still there for those who were alive at the time and for those who were not, to be able to see what really went on and what the first responders had to deal with, what the community had to deal with, what those who lived in South Manhattan had to live with. And I have to say that if you go there today, it's a completely transformed space, and it's amazing how the people of New York have responded and how resilient they were to this attack. So my hat goes off to the public officials who were able to create a space where people feel comfortable once again to come to, as well as to continue the memory of those who gave their lives, who were workers in those buildings, as well as the first responders who responded to the event. We thank you again and again for the recognition that we were able to participate in on that anniversary date. As Pamela and myself both attended the anniversary of St. Anthony's School, I want to say that I've never seen such a turnout at St. Anthony's, and actually St. Anthony's has never seen such a turnout. They even remarked how if we came next Sunday, we'd probably be a fraction of the people there. But we were very proud to be able, as a city, to be able to recognize a school that's been here for 100 years, educating young adults, and it's all part of the institutions which are the foundation of our city, which have allowed our city to grow and prosper the way it has. On the 16th, I was there with Commissioner Herbst, as well as Commissioner Glassman, attending the Rosh Hashanah dinner at the Chabad, at the Galt. Almost 200 people were there, and not just people from around the country, but people from around the world showed up. The rabbi's cousin from Monaco was there for three days. I couldn't believe she flew here for just the three days. But it goes to show you how important people find a home here in Fort Lauderdale. The Jewish community continues to emerge and feel comfortable and safe to call Fort Lauderdale a place where they can express their religious freedom and to be able to do so without fear of retribution. And I feel that the city of Fort Lauderdale continues to provide that home for the Jewish folks, as well as for anybody else who comes to Fort Lauderdale and seeks to express themselves, worship, and to be able to participate in public events in the way they have so far. So we want to thank everybody who put that together. And I want to thank my colleagues who attended because it made them feel good that we recognize them as important parts of our community. On September 18th, which will be this Friday, I have been asked to participate in a forum regarding homelessness. The Harvard School of Public Health is putting together a panel, and I'll be on a panel discussion with others to discuss how Fort Lauderdale has been recognized throughout the country as showing, creating innovative approaches to dealing with homelessness. Who knew? Well, they found that what we have done in terms of connecting with the business community was an important approach to trying to deal with homelessness, our community court, and all the other innovative practices that our city has undertaken. Yes, homelessness is still here. Homelessness still is a challenge for our city as well as other cities. But the fact that they've recognized Fort Lauderdale as being at the forefront, and they take particular note of what we did in 2018, and how we undertook to dismantle an encampment in our downtown, and how we continue to reach out to homeless individuals to give them a path out of homelessness, to give them a hand up. And we have increased our staffing through our police department as well as our civilian staff to be more aggressive in trying to create an opportunity for homeless people to seek a better life. Let's see. On the 23rd, I'll be participating with the mayor of Miami-Dade. WLRN is sponsoring what's called the Sunshine Economy Summit. This is going to be at noon at the Downtown Events Center to discuss the Amendment 3 and the proposed homestead exemption increase. So everyone's welcome to attend. Again, it's September 23rd at the Downtown Events Center. On the 24th, we have a ribbon cutting for the Ocean Rescue Headquarters over on the beach. This is part of the aquatic center peninsula, and it's one of the key components to the redesign of that entire site. So we're very proud to be able to provide, again, another facility for our first responders to be able to handle emergency situations when they come about. So Commissioner Glassman mentioned the state of the city, September 30th. It's a very, very important moment in our city to be able to provide to the public the information as to what has happened in our city this past year and some of the aspirational goals that we have in the year ahead. So this will be, there'll be a reception at 5 p.m. at the War Memorial Auditorium, and then at 6 p.m. the program will begin at the Parker. So we're very, very proud to be able to present that again this year. And in light of the 75th anniversary of the, I keep thinking of the Second Presbyterian Church. Sanctuary Church. The Pastor Dwayne Black will be giving our invocation. So we're very thankful that he is agreeing to participate in that, and we welcome his presence at that event. Mayor, just to check timing, I think the reception starts at 6. Is that right? 6. I just want to check. It's reception. If I'm wrong, my notes say 5 and speech is 6, but is it 6 and then 7? Just the city website says 6 and 7, but you're the boss? No, no, no, no. I'm just a public servant. Chris, what are you? You have 5? Yeah, we'll verify and we'll get back to you. Okay. All right, well, I need to go to 6 as well, but we'll verify. Thank you. Sorry, Mayor. I just want to. Who knows? No one knows. What does our ad say? The website says public reception, 6 p.m., state of the city, 7 p.m., but that's just our website. Is that what it says? Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, I take your word. I've just been corrected. It's all at the Parker now. It's not at the. It's all at the Parker. 6 and 7. Kevin, is that. What is it? 6 and 7. 6, 7. 6, 7. 6 at the reception. Thank you for getting that. At the speech. Yeah, that's correct. So 6 p.m. is the reception and 7 p.m. you'll take the stage. All right, great. Thank you for pointing that out. Thank you. You got it. Thank you for pointing that out. Yep. I wouldn't want to get there too early. That's right. It's all at the Parker. It's all at the Parker. Formerly known as the Parker Playhouse. All at the Parker. All at the Parker. Yeah. Okay. October 3rd, the YMCA is having its annual beach ball and gala. This is at the Hard Rock Casino. It's again October 3rd at 6 30 p.m. It's a fundraiser and everyone is welcome to attend. I plan to to attend this year. And let me see. I want to make sure I got everything. Um, oh, duh. Scott. I just flipped the page. Yes. Don't do that. I got yelled at for calling out Erica last week. Yes, I know. Careful. It's all right. She's not here today. All right. One other thing, which I know is going to be a little sensitive. Uh, vice mayor, you know, I've been getting, let me ask you this. Um, we all know that the charter says that we are not allowed to tell individual, um, employees, give them direction, ask them to do certain things. Our only ability is to, is to, um, meet with the city manager and the city manager then direct city staff. Um, vice mayor, you've been having these weekly meetings for an hour and a half, sometimes two hours. And I'm getting pushed back by city staff that is becoming a burden on them every week. Now, it's, it's something that I think is great for you to be able to, um, get direction and input from city staff. But to gather everybody every week, in addition to your pre-agenda meetings, is becoming a burden. So, commission, what, what is, I want to hear the commission's response to something. Is it, is it okay that, that a commission, a member of the commission require a full city gathering, you know, fully staffed, city staff gathering every week for an hour and a half or two hours? What, what, I mean, if we all did that, imagine, you know, what would happen. But Commissioner Beasley-Pittman, Steve, uh, I see Commissioner Herbst is not there. What are your thoughts on this? Mayor, let me, sure, thanks for asking the question. Happy to, uh, give you further information. So, uh, in District 4, we have a host of, um, projects, initiatives, from small, fixing a pothole, to big, broader infrastructure projects. And so, um, as a result, we have a, uh, in my office, we track all those projects. I'm big on project management, efficiency. So, tracking all of the neighborhood concerns, uh, moving them towards completion, whether that's fixing a light or a pothole. And so, we have a very robust, in my office, system, uh, for tracking each of those concerns. And it's been incredibly efficient and helps us really move things forward in our district. And so, that's been fantastic. I meet with a city manager, uh, once a month, once a week. And to go over those initiatives, ensure we're tracking and progressing. And so, as you know, uh, meeting with the city manager is something any of us can do at any time. City manager is fine. Right, for however, yeah. But it's a full complement of senior staff that I think has become a burden. And that's what, that's the pushback we've been getting. Sure. So, that's good feedback. So, um, I meet with the city manager. It is completely, uh, up to the discretion of the city manager in terms of who's there, mayor. So, the city manager can bring a lot of people to those virtual meetings, no people to those virtual meetings. Okay, okay. Completely up to the city manager. I have, um, uh, I do not dictate to the city manager, uh, who should be there, what staff people should be there. Um, it is completely at discretion of the city manager. Is that, am I being accurate on that, city manager? Yeah, so, per the charter, as the mayor said, you can ask me to do whatever you need me to do to support you. So, yeah. Okay, so that's, I'm glad we should hear that up. Yeah, okay. No, I appreciate it. So, you know, city manager, as always, whenever you and I meet, um, on these weekly meetings, which, again, very helpful, very important for us to make sure all neighbors' issues are getting resolved. And, uh, I'm very proud of the progress we're making in District 4 across just a host of issues, mayor. And I'm happy to kind of give you a little more detail. And I'm glad you're back on the commission to make this. It's good being back. It's good being back. It's good being back. We're having a good time. And, uh, yeah. And so, you know, hey, always good feedback. And, you know, city manager, if certain staff members, you know, don't want to be part of that meeting, that's completely your discretion to whoever you want to invite or not invite. Yeah, I appreciate hearing the feedback from you both. And, you know, I'll definitely plan accordingly and make sure I have what I need and you have what you need. Okay. Very good. Yeah. If I may, I, and again, vice mayor, I understand what you're doing, but I'm getting the same rumblings from, uh, not just charter officers, but also from department heads that feel it's just a little much. We all meet, I think we all meet as city commissioners with, um, on a pre-agenda meeting to go over all of the agendas of every commission meeting. Um, and then, um, I think hopefully all of us have a way that we're tracking all of the issues in our district. But as the mayor said, I'm nervous about like, if you're meeting for an hour and a half with all of the charter officers and department heads, city manager every week, in addition to the pre-agenda meetings with staff, that's a bit much. And he's right. If we all did that, we would take away several days of work from the staff. They, I don't know how they would be able to get to all of their work. So I'm going to say, and I, I've, I've had this conversation with the city manager because I've had people complaining about it. I, I just have, my honest opinion is, um, it's a little bit too much. I think it does border on, you know, perhaps making, you know, other department heads or staff feel that they need to do something for you when I look, and I don't know how others. I think we resolved it. Yeah, but what I'm saying is for the city manager, um, I'm saying that if I have an issue in district two, I, I don't need to wait for an hour and a half, two hour meeting on a Friday to, to gather everybody. I'll, I'll send a quick text to the city manager and we take care of it like this. I, I just happen to think it's too much time. Even if it's just a few people, I just, I just think it's too much time. Um, again, only because if we all did that, and I'm thinking if one of us is doing it, then we all should do that. Then we should all be scheduled for an hour and a half on a Friday or any other day. And we should all have that opportunity to meet with, uh, whoever we want to meet with. I just think it's a little bit too much. That's all. I just, okay. Thank you. So discretion of this. Yeah. And that's how I like to lead. And you're welcome to lead however you like to with the city manager and collaborate with the city manager. Um, I'm very much a efficiency and project management and tracking and data. And so that's what works really well for me and city manager. And, uh, it's been very successful. The people of district four are very happy with that progress and, uh, all the efficiencies we're having. So, um, you know, encourage you, if you'd like to do that, meet with the city manager for as long as you like. It's, uh, part of the wonder of our charter officer system. Thank you. I don't want to take too much of his time away from his daily activity. I do meet with the city manager, but just, I mean, I talk to him almost every day or text him every day when there's an issue that pops up. You're talking to me about that, too. And we do that. That's okay. Um, but we do. I don't know. How often do we meet? Maybe once every three weeks or four weeks we meet for a longer meeting. So we do have regular meetings just like I do with the rest of you. Right. And I will say that as your charter officer, I serve at the pleasure and the will of the commission. I'm willing to make myself available to you whenever and however you need me to be to make sure I'm carrying out the goals and priorities of yourselves and your districts. Um, I also understand that, you know, managing my staff and their time is also important to make sure they have the capacity to carry out their job duties. And if there's thoughts or concerns about that, I will certainly be more mindful of that going forward. But for me personally, I am, again, available to you all at your, at your discretion. Okay. Very good. Yeah. Thank you. And actually, I don't think we have normally department heads in the meetings. I think it's just your, your, uh, city manager's team, right? Executive team. Executive team. So assistant city manager. So if you're a commissioner glassman hearing that the department heads there, you're probably not getting some accurate information. It sounds like thank you and happy to clarify more and talk more about this. Thank you. Happy to share my management. I think we're good. I want to chime in. Fantastic. Another one. Another one's chime in. I feel left out. Yeah. Well, I, I want to say this, this is the first time I'm hearing this. So to hear that it's kind of been a conversation that there's some type of problem, I'm not aware of it. Um, and I would even say that as a positive that I haven't noticed, um, where you have not been available, the staff, you know, through you have not been available. Um, we each, um, organize and run our districts, our office that a way that benefits us that we feel that is very, um, helpful. Um, with that being said, um, I believe with, um, when I pick up the phone, I make a call, I get the, um, results and the conversations that I need. I feel that the team is available and, um, you know, I, sometime I feel like I'm calling a little bit too much, but, um, even with that, I, I get the results that I want. Um, and I believe that is whatever it takes for us to reach that individually, collectively, um, however, um, your staff, you and your staff is available, I think we should be able to work to that because sometimes, you know, we have week of daily conversations and the next week it may not be as intense, but the availability is there. So if district four needs that type of, um, conversation and it works for them, um, that sounds good. Cause that makes me feel a little bit better when I call and realize I'm not at that level, but I don't feel like I'm, um, overextending an opportunity being that you are there. So I want to say that. So I'm comfortable with the opportunity. Okay. Very good. Thank you. All right. So, so Chris, I want you and your executive team to meet me up at founder shooting club every week. Yeah. My normal Saturday. So feel free. We'll be there. They can bring their own firearms or I can bring them. Don't, don't not for longer than 90 minutes. Just keep, keep it under 90 minutes to make it. Yeah. All right. Let us move forward. Uh, city manager. So I just want to remind the commission and those watching that this week is our free sandbag for residents, uh, distribution event over the weekend. Uh, we have several sites available for everyone's convenience, um, from Floyd hall, the Morton center, George English park, holiday park, mills, mills, pond park, and riverland park. We do this every third week of the month from may until November. Uh, we're having a lot of heavy rain events. So we'd certainly encourage our community to come out and take advantage of that service through the city of Fort Lauderdale. Uh, and I do want to answer commissioner Beasley's question about the, uh, the act for this weekend for Carter park jams. It is the melodic vibrations band. They're an R and B soul and funk band. So, you know, we invite everybody to come out and enjoy that with, uh, with us on, on Friday. And that concludes my report. There you go. Okay. Um, city attorney. No, mayor. Nothing. Nothing. Okay. Very good. So let us move on with our, our agenda. We have business one, uh, presentation of the children's services council of Broward County, the Fort Lauderdale impact presentation from the office of strategic communications. Good afternoon. You want to push that button? There you go. I'm a little shorter than the previous speakers. Yeah. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, commission. Uh, congratulations on the new public safety building and Shana Tova. Your name, for the record. Sorry. Cindy Ehrenberg-Seltzer. I'm the president, CEO of the children's services council of Broward County. Welcome. Thank you. So I think this may, do I control this? Somebody who knows? Yes. Okay. And do you have monitors in front? I'm assuming you have monitors in front of you since you can't see behind you. Yeah, we can see in front of us. Okay. All, all good now. All right. So, for the most of you, I know, are familiar with the children's services council, but you may not know exactly what we do in the city of Fort Lauderdale. And for all of the residents, I just want to remind them that the children's services council was created by the voters back in 2000 and reauthorized in 2014. And we are a dedicated funding stream that uses $0.45 per $1,000 of property tax in order to improve the lives of the children and families of Broward County. Council is made up, is supposed to have 11 members. Right now we have one vacancy. Six of the people are there by virtue of their position. And five are appointed by the governor based on recommendations from the county commission. And our mission statement, as you can see there, is to provide leadership, advocacy, and resources necessary to enhance the lives of the children of Broward County and empower them to become responsible, productive adults through collaborative planning and a funding of a quality continuum of care. I always say that is the most ridiculous and long mission statement. But as some of you know, I have been the CEO since the CSC was created 25 years ago. And every single word of that mission statement has guided our work. But I'll take you back to why we were created. So back in 99, 2000, there was a crisis in our foster care system. Almost 4,000 children were in out-of-home care. There was disproportionate impact of the juvenile justice system on children of color, but also just an unreasonable number of children being arrested. Over 12,000 children being arrested over 14,000 times. Not great for them. And of course, a public safety concern as we sit here in the public safety building. We had lower educational achievement, high teen pregnancy rates, high infant mortality rates. And there was a general consensus that we needed an organization that was focused on prevention services. And that is why the voters created us. So in 24-25, and since that's the last full year of funding, that's what all of these slides will represent. We had $133 million worth of funding into services that served nearly 200,000 children. And as you can see, those services are all over the county. 93% goes into the programs that we fund, 4% administration, and 3% are those things that we can't avoid, like the property appraiser and the tax collector and the CRAs, which will be over as of this year. So what have we done? Well, in the area of early care and education, there's been, in 24-25, $11 million was invested in early care and education, where 100% of parents and caregivers reported benefits from getting the child care services, whether it be that it allowed them to work or it was beneficial to their children's education. Both goals are sought to be achieved. Family support, so just as I said, one of the reasons that we were created was because of that crisis in the foster care system. And so the very first request for proposals that was issued on the very first day we had taxing authority, October 1 of 2001, were family supports. And the results you're going to hear about in a moment are very impressive. But as you can see, just in 24-25 alone, that's now $24 million worth of services where families are improving their family functioning. They're having no abuse reports within 12 months post-program completion. And the families are feeling and seeing the gains themselves. Youth programs. These are really your primary prevention programs for young people that keep them engaged, give them an opportunity to try out their first jobs, big investment in summer youth employment, but also preparing them in middle and high school for what's to come. And they are making great gains. This also covers our diversion programs. So 92% of youth who complete our New Day programs, which are new diversion alternatives for youth, have no repeat offenses within 12 months after completion. And the research shows that if they haven't reoffended within a year after completing, they will likely never reoffend. And you're seeing that in the long-term results. After-school and summer programs. Again, we want to keep kids engaged, keep them from having that summer slide. So these programs don't just, they're not just fun and engaging, though they are that. They also are learning social skills. They're also reading and doing math every day in disguised ways, so that when they return to school, they haven't lost those one or two grades that often happens during the summer. Children with special needs. This has been a big focus of the council since the beginning as well. Having a child with special developmental or physical challenges can be very difficult on a family. And having programs that are focused for them, there's inclusion programs as well, but if they need specialized programs, we fund those as well. So those community conditions, I told you that we had almost 4,000 children in out-of-home care in 2000. There's now about 1,200, just over 1,000 children. Youth referrals for crime. We were at over 12,000 being referred 14,000 times. It's now about 2,500, 2,800 a year. Teen pregnancy was at 20, as a rate of 20 per 1,000. We're now down to 1 1⁄2 per 1,000 children 13 to 18. Educational achievement has gone up. These are real results, and I'm not going to tell you that CSC is solely responsible for this. Most of this work is done by the nonprofits that we fund, but we have brought models and data and research to the table. And on Thursday, we are going to be revealing the results of external evaluations, which demonstrate just how much of an impact CSC has had on this. Can I ask you a question? Of course. So back to where it says children in the child welfare system, the number has gone down. Yes, sir. Is that because of your successes in bringing children out of the welfare system, or is it because your funding doesn't allow you to address a greater need? You know what I'm saying? So it's prevention services. So what happens is families can self-refer if they are struggling, but also if there's a call into the hotline and they go out and they see a situation where they think a child can be safely left at home, if there are services available to them, then the services that we fund go in. So you have available funding and available staffing to provide the service. You're just saying that the need has come down? So the out-of-home care is not my responsibility. Foster care is a state responsibility. Yeah, I get that. That's handled by ChildNet. I get that. So if there were more children coming in, they would have to, if more children were being removed, the state would have to pay for taking care of them in out-of-home care, which is not good for the child or for the family or for society, quite frankly. So if they can remain safely with their family, that's better for everyone. So what does that graph indicate, then, children in the child welfare system? What is it that... It's gone down. I know it's gone down, but what has gone down? The number of children that were removed from their family and put into either relative or group care. A third party. A third party, foster home, whatever it is. So more children are being able to be safely left with their family, which, again, is better for them and saves the state a lot of money. The more children you have in out-of-home care, in foster care, the worse it is for their family and the more expensive it is for the state. So have any of the metrics changed in terms of qualifying to be removed or not removed? Are those, I mean, between 1999 and 2025, have any of those metrics changed in terms of what qualifies a person should be removed or not removed? So the State Department of Children and Families has changed their modalities multiple times over the years, exactly what's considered safe and unsafe. Right. But when corrected for all of that, Broward is still way ahead in keeping children safe at home. And again, when you look at families where the child was in danger of being removed, they got services, and then they never got... They didn't get another call into the hotline that demonstrates that the programs that we're funding are helping improve their family functioning and learning some alternatives to perhaps discipline that may not have been appropriate. Or it could just be, in some cases, they were poor and now they're getting subsidized child care or they've got an after-school program or things that are keeping the child safe where they might have been unsupervised and somebody called it in because they saw the child roaming in the street. So essentially, this graph indicates that the at-risk children, the number has diminished. There aren't as many at risk today as there were 25 years ago. I'm not going to say there aren't as many at risk because we're serving a lot more children than we were 25 years ago. But the number of children that were in danger, physical danger, that needed to be taken out of their home, that number has gone down. That's what that's telling you. Okay. All right. Thank you. Sure. Please, anybody, stop me any time. I'm happy to clarify. You know, I do this all day, every day, and it seems like second nature, so it's not as clear to everybody. I want to take you into Fort Lauderdale itself, where in 24-25, nearly $20 million went to serve just shy of 37,000 children in this city alone. So you get a disproportionate share. As you can see, they're all over the place. When it talks about the seamless system of care, that's the 2-1-1 system, and I'm happy to see that in Fort Lauderdale, people are aware of 2-1-1, because if they're not, they need to be. If you are in need of social services, 2-1-1 should be your first call to get connected to services. And then we do pay for school nurses in several schools in Fort Lauderdale. That's why that number is so big. But again, you'll see over 8,000 children getting, or families getting family supports. The list of providers. Before you move on, if you could, the elementary after-school program. Yes, ma'am. You can explain that a little bit. Is that, I guess, what I want to know is where are those programs? Are they city established programs that you are funding? How does this work? So, most of the programs that we, well, pretty much all of the programs that we fund are funded, are nonprofits, or in some cases, governments, government programs. Fort Lauderdale itself does get a little bit of money for the program. Let me think. No, actually, we're not funding the city of Fort Lauderdale. You have not applied for funding directly from us. However, as you see the list of providers in front of you now, many of them are doing after-school programs. I heard you all cite many times the YMCA and their beach ball. I'll be there on the 3rd. I'll see you there if you're there. They are a very large after-school provider for us, and a lot of their services are in Fort Lauderdale. So, all of these programs, and when I get to, let's see, most is what we call our out-of-school time programs. We call them most, maximizing out-of-school time. That's for the elementary school students. So, there are 780 students that are participating in CSC-funded after-school programs that are generally offered in the school after school. Though we do fund Jack and Jill, there are a few programs that are not on-site at a school. But primarily, to make it easier on the parent, they're offered at the schools. Yes, ma'am. Special needs program, if you could elaborate on it. I see there's 82 that's identified. Always trying to help neighbors who are inquiring about special needs. So, is that an opportunity where we would need to place an application if well? How do the city of Fort Lauderdale, also our neighbors, benefit from the special needs? So, we will get you, if you don't already have it, funded program guides. Those will detail for you exactly which programs are offered and where they are and which provider to contact. Our brand new family resource guides are coming out this week. So, we usually provide the city with those as well. But we'll make sure that all of your offices have funded program guides as well. The difference being, one is a more general, not necessarily funded by CSC, but if you have a constituent that's looking for services, it can help direct them. The funded programs guide means those services will be available most likely for free or on a sliding fee scale, most of which wind up being free. So, I can't tell you exactly where those special needs programs are, but all of our elementary after school programs are equipped to take children who can be integrated into an inclusion setting. And then we have some programs that are for those who need, like, one-to-one or one-to-two ratios, like, I'm sure your Ann Stork Center, the Jafco Abilities Center, there are Broward Children's Center. There are some places that are specifically for those that are more involved. Sure. Yeah. Oh, great. So, we're going to give you folders. Oh, you have the folders. There you go. Okay, so within the folder already, she's so fast, my little ninja. If you scan that QR code, you can get to the funded programs guide. Okay, so guide bypassed. Subsidized child care, there are 624 children who we are paying for their, from Fort Lauderdale, who are having their subsidized child care, subsidized through CSC, 780 for most. And while we don't have the outcomes broken down for these specific 780 or 403 children, they follow the pattern of the statewide that I brought out before. 403 children doing youth development programs and New Day. Again, those are those new diversion alternatives for youth. They're not so new anymore because we've been doing them for 25 years. But this is where children who have gotten a civil citation or have gotten referred, but the state attorney says the offense is one where they can be diverted. They get referred to one of these programs, they learn the error of their ways, they make restitution to whether it's the community or the person they harmed, and then they are not reoffending. Our results have been quite extraordinary and externally validated. I already talked about the helpline, school nurses, and then some of your basic needs. We've got, we have really increased our participation in the hunger, in ameliorating hunger, over the last couple of years as that has gotten worse. So there are over 3,500 people who have received packages of food thanks to CSC-funded programs. And then for those that want to learn more about CSC, about what we do, about the outcome measures, about our financial accountability, we have reports that are easy to read. So if you really like just highlights, for those that are listening, if you want highlights, the annual report and the popular annual financial report give you a high-level overview. If you really want to dig into the details, the annual comprehensive financial report, our annual performance report, those get into nitty-gritty detail on every single program, all 200 programs, what their outcomes are, how many children were served, et cetera. And so I encourage folks who are interested to check that out, and you can find all of those on our website. Okay, very good. First of all, thank you for all your good work here in our community. We really appreciate it. You provide a great safety net for a lot of underserved communities, and we thank you for, I know this is not your first time at the rodeo. You've been involved with this for so many years, and thank you for your dedication. Does anyone from the commission have any questions or comments? I would, Mayor. Thank you. So, again, to echo what the mayor said, thank you for everything that the CSC does for the children here in all of Broward County, and particularly in Fort Lauderdale. Children's Services Council is close to my heart. I was the finance director for the Jacksonville Children's Commission for several years, back when we used to call it the essential agency. So, I date myself, I know when I do that, but, no, working with at-risk youth, working with all the programs that we do, the after-school programs, the pre-K providers, the voluntary pre-K, all of that is incredibly important for our community. As you know, the at-risk youth is a very mobile community. I know when I used to volunteer as a mentor over at Dillard High School, our biggest problem was losing kids to different schools and not having that continuity with the mentor, which is so important. So, the work that you do, the programs you provide, the assistance that you provide to these families is critical. So, I just want to say on behalf of myself and I assure my colleagues, thank you for everything that your organization does and the dedication of the staff that do it. Thank you. Thanks for your service at the Children's Commission. They've gone through a lot of changes up there. Any other comments or questions? Just to also echo all of the words that my colleagues are saying. So, Cindy, I was working for Broward County, as you know, in the cultural division when you first began, and I can't even believe it's that many years. I had the pleasure of mostly doing with arts education programming, a lot of times for at-risk youth, and our offices did intersect. And I just want to say thank you. I can't believe that it's been that long already, but it really has this amazing growth and such a service to the community. So, I just also wanted to echo everyone's words and say thank you. Thank you. And if I may, your legacy lives on. We still do incorporate the cultural arts into all of the after-school programs, and that was a partnership that we developed 25 years ago. From the beginning. Yep. So, thank you. It's great to see that growth, and it was always so important. It always is. Thank you. Cindy, thank you. Thank you for your work. CSC does amazing, amazing work in our community, especially the partnerships with all of the other service providers is near and dear to my heart. I believe, and the more we work together, the more effective we are. What are you seeing, and possibly if you can narrow it down to Fort Lauderdale, in terms of biggest challenges or opportunities or growing concern? What's kind of top of mind when you're thinking about our community, our youth, our families? What's top of mind? So, some of the things that we've been digging into, specifically in Fort Lauderdale, trauma, our trauma work has really increased since the Stoneman Douglas tragedy. We got, we stood up what we've called the HEAL trauma programs, which are helping all in need of assistance after a trauma. And we were there after the flooding in Fort Lauderdale a couple of years ago, because that clearly was a trauma. And we're doing more and more in that space. There's a lot of mental health. So, we're partnering with the Broward Behavioral Health Coalition to address that, whether it's trauma or just the pressures of modern life. The food insecurity and housing, we have stepped up, we have, we're partnering now with legal aid, as is the county, to provide support for someone who's facing eviction. If it's a matter of creating a bridge for them to help connect them with whatever resources might be necessary and keep them in their home, because obviously to keep someone in their home is better than to try and ameliorate homelessness. So, that's been another big focus. And then, we're doing asset-based community development, working in community. And I'm sorry, I should have looked up which districts we're in. Sorry. But we have stood up a couple of community connectors that have been working for the last few years on identifying what assets already exist in the community and building upon those so that folks feel more connected. There's a bridge to the commission so that we can help build the trust between government and the citizenry. And they're identifying issues that are coming up and some micro-solutions that we're seeding to blossom. So, I think those would be my biggest things. Great. Thank you. That's good to hear. And if there's, I don't have to answer it now, but just if there's ways we can better partner as a city, as a convener, as a collaborative partner, please love to hear how we can better support all the good of your work you're doing. So, thank you. Thank you. And to follow up on Commissioner's question and statement and your response, thank you. Because I was leaning more to District 3, the 333-1112, wanting to know more in a detailed dive as to how, what, and when, and how we could even work a little harder together. So, I'm offering an opportunity to sit down at the table, have a conversation, have those definitions laid out so we can see what we're doing and what else we could collaborate to make sure we are meeting the masses. Because my district, District 3, as you said, you know what's going on. We know what's going on. You hit on those areas, the trauma. We are experiencing that. The food insecurity, those are items that we're, you know, we're talking about daily and living daily. So, being able to sit at the table to come to a collaboration where we could, you know, make sure that we're hitting the mark. Absolutely. Because, you know, when you started off with the presentation, yes, it was Broward County. So, I was sitting there waiting. I'm like, okay, where's the Fort Lauderdale piece? And then you brought it in to a point to show what overall. But that deeper dive for District 3, that's the conversation I would love to have. And we'll get with you and have an appointment meeting, and we can see where we can elevate this more. Absolutely. We'll reach out to your staff to get something scheduled. And I believe, is the YMCA, is that in your district? Yes, we have the L.A. Lee. L.A. Lee Y. And also the Boys and Girls Club on 3rd right here. And then, of course, Jack and Jill, that's our district as well. So, we fund all three of those. And after the shooting that was across the street from the L.A. Lee, we were there with our Hill Trauma folks. I wasn't in commission then. Right. You were the community then. So, I remember our conversation and you all coming in to help facilitate those conversations, to help our young people with the trauma. So, thank you. So, we'll pursue that. Absolutely. Thank you. Okay. Very good. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you, Cindy. Thank you. Okay. Moving on to Business 2, an update on the agreement between the City of Fort Lauderdale and the Fort Lauderdale Studio Initiative for the Development of a Movie Studio. City Manager. Yeah, I'll kick this off. So, back in September 2022, the City and Fort Lauderdale Studio Initiatives entered into a partnership to redevelop the Wingate site into a full-service movie studio. Since that time, work's gone on related to environmental remediation, to the DRC process, and the projects evolved along the way. So, what we wanted to do today was have the project team, and Mr. Milledge will kick us off, come in and give the commission and the public an update on that project. Okay. Very good. Hello, child. Hello, Mayor. John Milledge on behalf of Fort Lauderdale Studio Initiative. What we're trying to accomplish with this presentation is showing you that we're ready to build and move forward. We've all been waiting on this for quite some time, and we're ready to go. We're going to demonstrate that we've resolved all the major issues. The City Manager mentioned one of them, EPA. And I just want to say off the bat, we appreciate the support, the indulgence this commission has given, the trust you have to stand behind this, and we very much appreciate it. So, let me just introduce the folks that are here just briefly. Obviously, the same core team is here that when we started this off, you know, myself, Greg Bruton, Brian D'Antoni is a producer. He's here, and obviously, Mike Yulian, the developer of the project. And as you recall, he's the mastermind behind Midtown Miami Wynwood. That was a former rail yard there, and that's why he – that was a contaminated site. And that's where we have the expertise moving forward and obviously being able to redevelop the site. And I'll get into that in a minute. So, I also want to introduce Kevin Callahan with Filmworks. He's here. He's been working with us a number of months on the plans before you, and he's – his expertise, he's actually running a successful movie studio, and he built it from the ground up. And so, that was important to us to bring in that expertise, somebody that can do a startup, and he understands this market and very well respected by the local film commissioner, Sandy Leidman, and that group. So, how are we teed up the bill? So, first and foremost, the EPA. So, we spent about a year and a half on dealing with the EPA. It's really through Mike's guidance. In dealing with them, they've been very supportive. They want the project redeveloped. In conjunction with that, we did additional testing beyond what the EPA has done. They had their own five-year monitoring wells and things of that nature for 20 years, which ended. And we did some additional testing. We actually did boreholes through the whole site, even in the cap. And interestingly enough, it all came back inert. So, it's, you know, safe to redevelop. So, I just want you to understand that's extra work. EPA didn't even ask us to do it. We just did it, and it just showed that, you know, this is a safe project. The second is we spent considerable time on pre-development activities. We spent $8 million to $9 million on, you know, things, just, you know, planning or engineering or plat work. Traffic studies that need to be done relative to the traffic ways with the county. And all those things cost a lot of money. And also, just working with the DRC staff. There were several plans and iterations that we worked with them on. And I want to kind of get into that because that's relevant to this plan here. This plan that I'm showing you is just not a bunch of pretty pictures. It's the evolution of your staff and working with them along with Mr. Callahan here in terms of making this project really state-of-the-art and really an impressive... I'm pushing green, but it's not moving. We've got to do... All right. So, your staff had two primary issues that we needed to work with. They had others in the DRC. One was just to make sure that this project really stood out, that it was state-of-the-art looking, that it was better looking than your average, you know, commercial project. And so, we worked with Kevin and his team along with your staff to come with this design element to have glass, have a brick elements to it that really just make it stand out, make it unique. So, it's just not a vanilla aspect. It's kind of got, I think, like a New Orleans flair to it. That's the north side of it. Seems to be working out. That's the north side of it. The second main issue was being a good neighbor. The prior iterations were having the docking and the loading on the south side, proximate to the neighbors. And working with Kevin and his team, we reoriented really the loading and those activities on the east side. So, away really from affecting neighbors. The studio was going to be on the southwest corner of the property on that corner. So, there are some folks that are just south of there. And we made sure that this was reoriented to, you know, again, be a good neighbor and to stay away from those neighbors so that they have really a quiet operation that's next to them. So, we've, the other thing that we've done here is to make sure that we've really benefited from the additional time to make sure that this project incorporates the latest technology. So, you know, AI is a bad word. But AI has really affected, really, you know, gone across the gamut in terms of many, you know, aspects of our lives. And it's, you know, affected, you know, this film operations also. So, we'll have the latest not only screen technology, but we'll have on-site computers to make sure that when the film companies come in here, they've got access to the latest computers. And then they can also access post-production. That's very important because a lot of the jobs are not when they're filming, but afterwards when they're working on the films. It's called post-production. And they really need that technology. Mr. Callahan's operation, oftentimes the, you know, the movie production companies have to kind of fly in the computers and servers to make it happen. We're going to have this on-site. So, that's going to be a huge advantage for us. So, with that, let me turn over to Greg Bruton. I know project scheduling and timing is very important and also the outreach. And then I'll introduce Kevin Callahan next just to go briefly over, you know, his excitement of this project. And then once we end up, we'll answer any questions you may have. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon, Mayor, Commissioners. Greg Bruton with the development team. I bring to you this afternoon. Is that microphone tall enough for you? Probably needs an extension. And I always have to readjust it. What's important is the fact that what John spoke about was the overall aspect of the development. And you've seen a prior iteration of what was presented. We've been in DRC, but we're doing something different. We're tweaking it to be more responsive to what staff has said to us and what we believe will be a better project. So moving forward, our intention is to have this project in front of DRC with that revision within the next 60 days and be hopefully under permit by the end of the year at the latest, the first quarter of next year. And the intent for us at that time is also to go back to the community, show them what we have now come up with, let them understand the changes that have been made. And we believe it's a better product. The use hasn't changed at all. We've actually upgraded the aesthetics of it and how it operates. And so we have reached out to, we will be reaching out again to not only those residents who are impacted in Fort Lauderdale, but as you may or may not know, just across the street about 100 feet is Lauderdale. They're impacted as well. And we've reached out to them in the past. They have supported the project. And we will continue to do that as we move forward. Mr. Bruton, that's also including conversation with those neighbors that are in the unincorporated, the Broward County area. Yes, Roosevelt Gardens. Yes, Roosevelt Gardens. Yes, yes, absolutely. Hello, everyone. Thank you very much for having me. It's a pleasure to be in Fort Lauderdale and doing the same thing that we've done in Buffalo in a much warmer. It's 39 degrees in Buffalo, but just. Yeah, it was a little chilly. I had my sweatshirt on this morning, but I left. How was that Bill's game? Wasn't that a great game? I know. Go Bills, right? Go Bills, man. That was a game. It was a good winner. Actually, we were listening on the radio because we were going up to meet the film commissioner up in Toronto on Sunday. And another great conversation with her. Things are really moving forward for the film business here in Florida. And again, we're Filmworks Buffalo. That's where we started. This is Filmworks Fort Lauderdale. And the message behind it is that, again, it's film work. And everybody is going to work. It's the men and women that work in it. The breakdown is almost 50-50 now, male and female. And it's the hundreds of jobs per production that are there. They're high-paying jobs. And with the technology and everything that's changing, the studio that we have and the designs that you see in front of you are maximizing both traditional production. So, you know, you're always going to have a Gourmel del Toro or you're going to have a Christopher Nolan or something like that that's always going to shoot on film. Or they're going to have this grand, you know, these great builds and things like that. But also there's a lot of changes now with AI and technology and things like that, too. So we have the large practical stages, but then we have the smaller, more intimate stages to capture that AI technology that is the future for a lot of it. And, again, there's a lot of changes, too, with how content's being made. And, again, with influencers and everything else like that, and even vertical productions now that you watch on your phone, it's a bit of a changing market. So, you know, the designs that we, again, have been working on for months, it's really kind of finding that balance of, you know, traditional Hollywood-type stuff with the modern stuff that people are watching on their phone. And, again, the influencers and, you know, the digital nomads that you have here, it's taking advantage of that and bringing it all kind of together in one campus that is for creators and technology users. So thank you. And, again, honestly, I feel the level of professionalism from your government is quite honestly a lot more welcoming than the one that we have in our home. So thank you very much. It's our motto, we aim to please. Well, it's the level of professionalism is refreshing to a guy from New York. How's that? So I'm not going to tell that to Mayor Ryan, just so you know. You're welcome to tell him. He's a fan of the jobs I was at, the union workers. Okay. Awesome. So thank you. You're welcome. Question. Thanks for being here. And I'm not sure who the best to ask this to, but originally on, John, you'll remember this. We talked about not only the job creation, but we talked about the partnering with our high schools as a, you know, internship, learning, vocational training, Dillard, Stranahan. Give me a little update on what that looks like, what that program would be like. So there'll be an on-site film school. We have an MOU with FAU to run that. Obviously, we agreed in the agreement to have a direct relationship with Dillard, and we already do that. We funded their band camp. We've got a scholarship, yearly scholarship program at $70,000 or $75,000 a year that we funded them, and that's been ongoing. Great. So they're kind of the entry point, but we feel it's going to be a lot broader than that because there's going to be a lot more demand than just even through Dillard. It's going to be a larger intake. I think over time, we may have to have a larger discussion with maybe some of our government partners, possibly with, you know, our friend Debbie Wasserman Schultz and others, because I think the educational piece is going to grow probably beyond what even we can deal with. But I think there'll be several levels. There'll be internships, and then there'll be the on-site film school. So those will be internships for the kids that are in school and high school and potentially junior high, but then there'll be an on-site degree program in conjunction with FAU, and it could be with some other degree programs. We initially had some discussions with NOVA about advanced degrees, so we'll pick that up again now that we're, you know, moving forward. They were very interested. They have their own related programs at the graduate level. So it'll be a whole comprehensive from school to degree level to advanced degree. So it'll be that whole level. And the beauty about it is, from what I've seen when we visited, you know, other studios, is, you know, a lot of times the sound stages are technically reserved a period of time, but they're only shooting for a small portion of it. They may reserve it for three months but only shoot for a month. So the kids really get their run of the project itself. So they'll move around. They'll move around the different sets, and they'll be able to utilize the facility there. So they're not going to be pigeonholed in a classroom. They're going to kind of really have their run of the operation, and that's what's kind of cool about it. Okay, great. Yeah, I think that's excellent. And just I think the priority and focus with Dillard is, you know, absolutely where it needs to be. And then, as you mentioned, I'd really like to look at how we can grow and expand to our other public schools, Stranahan, Fort Lauderdale, private schools, and really have this as an amazing conduit for vocational job creation and certification degree program. If I could, I just have to say this. I would like for all of us to think about this project differently. There will be a few jobs, but there mostly will be careers. We think that's more sustainable. What we're producing here is going to be transforming, we believe, to families within the area. You can get a job. You may work there for six months or whatever. But we're talking about careers that can be transferred to other projects as you move forward. So that training piece that we're talking about is important, and we're truly committed to that. We're making sure that that's going to happen. Thank you. The one thing, too, to understand about this is that it's also not just about, like, training the children or the kids, and it's not just about people in high school or in college, too. There's ability to train workers that, you know, just have an army career. So a lot of the jobs, again, it's not something you need a college degree for, and you don't have to be young. You can come in and do it at any time. So we have training programs that, you know, people in their 30s, 40s, or 50s can come into. And, again, they can be in different areas. But there's a lot of jobs, and there's a lot of different skill sets that can be used. So, again, it's, you know, again, we work with the high schools. We work with the colleges. But, again, it's also, you know, having those training programs that are open to really anybody that can come in and work. Thank you. Thank you. John, can I answer your question? Thanks. So this is a topic that came up in front of us when we were talking about some of the Broward public schools that are closing and possible uses for those schools for our city. We do know that there is a need in terms of a training facility, warehouse facility for police and fire. On this entire site, is there room for something like that in addition to what you guys are planning? I'm just trying to think of ways that we can accommodate that need in the city for police and fire. We became aware of this, and I think I had a conversation at least initially with the chief to let him know, chief of police, that we were open to looking at a training facility on the site, possibly on the north side. Of the property. So, yeah, I think, and I just talked to Mike tonight about it. And, yeah, I think there's, you know, potentially room to do this. And we had talked about this some months ago as a potential option. So we would be happy to look at that. That's great. So maybe city manager, maybe if we can somehow get together, you know, with chief Golan and chief Schultz and explore that option in terms of the possibility of using some of that on this site. I know that chief Golan's excellent on camera. I mean, I've seen his work on the news. I've seen, you know, he does a lot of video. So I think that maybe you can even use him in another way besides just picking his brain for the training facility and the storage area as well. And actually what I understand about movie sets, they love having activities like that. So it would be a positive to have that kind of structure there anyway. They'd film on it and, you know, they'd work with the senior county at times to utilize it as a set. Great. Well, if all you guys could get together and pursue that, I think it would be great. I know that he's definitely ready for his close-up. Thank you. Okay. All right. As the District 3 commissioner and where this project is going to live and be erected, first of all, thank you again for bringing the presentation back, giving us the update. Before we go into the part of the opportunity for the training facility, you know how I am with District 3. Everything has to go before District 3. Neighbors, before we make those decisions, it's a very good idea, but I am the voice for District 3. So before we move in that direction, we will check with the neighbors. The other part, you said a dirty word. You said AI. Okay. So let's go back to that. The conversation about AI center versus a mega data station, I need you to clarify that on record for the neighbors because I am getting those phone calls. It is out in the community that there will be a data center on this property. So with that, if you could tell us the difference between an AI data opportunity and then what we know to be the data mega center. It's a great question. So what the public understands a data center to be is a large-scale set of AI computers that traditionally are a sole source to Google and Amazon or Meta. And it scares people from a standpoint of not knowing really the reality of, you know, how that AI is going to be used. It's going to be used to reduce jobs and so forth. The other major concern has to do with the use of water. There's major, there's large computer racks that traditionally have been built, use a lot of water. They're loud. They're also a standalone facility that's not really, it's not part of a campus. It's not, it's kind of just a center that just provides, you know, AI to, again, one of the major technology companies. So we don't, we have nothing in common with that. And what I mean by that, one, we're at the scale of the same type of computer centers that are all over, that are in Fort Lauderdale now that you don't even know they're there. So that's the kind of scale that we're talking about. They're in Broward County and there's four or five of them here in Fort Lauderdale that you don't even know they're operating. And our technology is better than theirs in the sense that when I go back to water use, what technology that we would bring would be a closed system, much like a radiator in your car with a coolant. It'd be a closed system. So there'd be really zero water use. They're quiet. And also they are job creators in the sense that first they would be very important. It's really essential. Kevin can't come here without those computers being on site because that's where the technology is going in the future. So there's preferences and priorities in life, and this is a priority. We have to have it. But I would say to the public is that we have nothing in common with what they see and what they're concerned about and these data centers that are popping up and these large-scale systems. They're here now. They don't even know they're here. And that's the scale we're talking about with really the highest and latest technology that even makes them better than what we have here locally that people aren't even aware of currently. They're here. And we can go over. We've got a map. We can kind of get into them. But, John, I think the larger question is this building, for example, uses artificial intelligence, right? So what you're saying is it's a technology that you're using in order to create the videos, the movies, the commercials, whatever. It's not for third-party distribution to other users. It's only meant for the operation of your business. I mean, there will be some extra capacity because the studio will go up and down in its use. Are you intending to sell it? I mean, there will be some component of that, but it's – Well, that's a concern. There will be some component of that. Well, that's a concern. Could I chime in on that, Mayor? Yeah, go ahead. So what you're saying is what you're trying to differentiate, if I understand you, John, is the difference between a hyposcale data center. Correct. You know, something that's, you know, 500 megawatts, you know, that, like, Musk is building right now that takes up a couple hundred acres and vast consumption of electricity and capacity and so forth. So you're talking about primarily data consumption on site. There may be some excess capacity that you sell off. Again, no different than somebody that generates, you know, solar electricity primarily for their own use. If there's any left over, it goes back into the grid. Is that primarily what I'm hearing? It is, it is. This is not designed to be a data warehouse for people to co-locate and things of that nature primarily? No. Okay. Do you have any estimate of the percentage of usage on site versus – and I know this is probably pure speculation at this point. I doubt you have customers signed up. I can't speculate because we haven't really gotten into Kevin and kind of understood his usage. And obviously, Mayor, the ultimate limitation is going to be, you know, the power that's available to the site. And, you know, I think that at best there could be 50 megawatts in that area available. If you talk about hyperscalers, they're, you know, they're 300, 500 and more megawatts. So, they're a monster amount of power draws. We don't have that amount of power available, you know, to that site. So, that's – it's just not going to be the scale that would concern anybody. Now, I would say to you, Mayor, I think there's some benefits to having some extra capacity here because, you know, the people using AI and ChatGVT and these things, it's about 5% of the people use that now, and it's growing exponentially. The city's going to be using it, too. I totally get that, but I don't want this to be a backdoor way of creating a data center. It's not a backdoor way. Okay, I mean – But I don't want to mislead you that because we've got to build the computer system that's viable, and he's not going to be using it every day. So, you know, you've got to be able to fund the computers that are there. I understand that. So, there will be extra capacity. So, I don't want to mislead you that. Kevin, what do you have to say on this? Well, so the movie business is kind of like a roller coaster, you know. So, they come in, and, again, things are changing so fast. You know, this AI technology and the processing technology, whether it's AI or whatever, it's changing so fast that things are changing. I own one of the largest sound stages in the world. I built it. That was my dream, right? Like, there's me, Warner Brothers, and somebody over in Germany that have 80,000-plus-square-foot stage. I was wrong. I made a giant stage for Marvel. They used to make all these superhero movies. I didn't watch them, but America loved them. It was a mistake. I got a giant stage. It's sitting mostly empty. I do some Josh Allen commercials in it. But the technology has changed, and Marvel left the United States. They don't make movies here anymore. Everything's becoming smaller and more intimate. And the amount of technology that's going into a smaller, smaller area is tremendous. So, I don't know how much of that algorithm we're going to use on a daily basis. I know we're going to use it, and I only know we're going to be using more in the future. It's going to grow substantially. I totally understand that. That we understand. But, again, we want to make sure that the primary focus of the infrastructure that you plan to build here is intended for the purposes of moviemaking and not to create a data center for third-party distribution to the general public. Understood. And, again, I go out to Hollywood to visit the studios. They're mostly sitting empty. Well, that we understand. Those are dinosaurs. Things are changing. Yeah, and there's always going to be people that are still making that stuff. But, again, it's that riding that wave, that crest that's coming, and being ahead of it. I missed it with the giant thing with Marvel. I'm not going to do it again. This is what this stage is. This is what the future is going to be. It's going to be technology with humans interacting, big scale, large scale. It's kind of hard to tell. But, again, that's where the future is, and that's why I'm here. It's because of this technology. I don't want to burn myself again. I'm not going to do it, building a giant stage that, you know, the technology has just passed it by. Okay. All right. So then to be clear, so, again, what you're saying is, and I want this on the record for everybody to understand, is that if you've got downtime, if you're in between production, you have downtime in your data center, that's the excess capacity that you will then be making available to third parties. Is that kind of what I'm hearing? Yeah, we would need that to finance the build of the stage itself. Sure. Yeah. I mean, like, downtown, like, it's like an empty restaurant. If the restaurant's empty, you know. If you can lease it out to somebody else when it's empty, you'll do it. Let me back up to the water, too, because the water's very important to me, right? We're just in the process of getting ready to do the ribbon cutting on our $660 million, $1.2 billion after financing water plant. So there's three kinds of water, right? You've got potable water, you've got reclaimed water, purple pipe, you know, and then you've got what you're talking about here is a closed-loop system. So I don't know if everybody understands that. Certainly I do. Basically, you fill up the swimming pool once, and then you capture that water from the condensate and everything else that's utilizing and stays within the system. So topping off that initial water consumption is fairly minimal. That's my understanding of how these data centers are working. Is that what you're contemplating here? That's my understanding of how it works. Yeah, you top it up, and it's like a car radiator. So you top it up like you top your car. Occasionally you'd have to put something in, but it's not a major water draw. Right. Now, I know that's a lot more expensive to do a closed-loop system. I know that's why most of the hyperscalers don't do that. And I know the reclaimed water is also more difficult because you've got a lot more minerals and other substances in the system. They've got to put more technology into the system in order to use it. It's technologically feasible, just pricier. The cheapest thing is potable water. But I certainly don't want to be using our brand-new, very clean, not-yellow water to be filling up the data center. We're not going to do that. All right. I appreciate that. Going back a little bit, because I still have a couple more questions, in regards to even location of where this data center or AI service will be on the facility, you gave reference to southwest corner of the lot itself, the property. Where in alignment will this center be in alignment with the neighbors who are really to the east of the property? A component of it would be within the studio itself, and then anything additional would be to the north. So it would be adjacent to 31st Avenue. So it would be away from the neighborhood. Okay. All right. And then my other question regarding that, with what you need today and what you're projecting your need in the future, if you can give me a little bit more of a definition of the size, the capacity of the use of what you're planning to build on this property. I don't think we're prepared to do that, because that would involve you talking about in terms of the AI, the computers? Yes. I don't think we're prepared to tell you. That's something we'd work with the city on. Right now, we'd first look at what's needed in the near future for the studio, and then look at what we need to ramp up. So I don't think we've got a plan on the scale of that, to tell you that. I'm hearing you say we have four or five other currently being used or utilized within the city of Port Lauderdale. And trying to understand comparison to what they look like. They're already in operation. Yes. That capacity. And then what we are projecting for 20 years or perpetuity. This is going to be your board. We're going to see this be a success long term. So I wasn't making a comparison necessarily on the sides, more or less just letting everybody know that these things exist and no one knows they're there. That was kind of my point. But if we want to get into the locations of that, we're prepared tonight. If you want to talk about it right now, where they're at. Do you want to get into that? Yes, let's get into that. And that will help give some verbal or rather some visual to what we can, in a sense, expect. Tomorrow, you got it? All right, wonderful. And because as we know, the community is accepting of the project that's coming. But we were talking about earlier, I don't want to use that word, but just the history of the property and what the community was exposed to for decades and wanting to make sure that the direction we're going in, they feel comfortable and they are fully aware of what's coming and how it will be a positive. I'm looking for the positive results is where I'm going, not trying to bring out anything that would not support this, just being transparent, but what we're looking at bringing. Absolutely. I have some addresses. If you wanted to take those down, I are to tell you where they're currently located, basically in Fort Lauderdale and the surrounding areas. Yes, please. Okay. In Fort Lauderdale, we have a center that's located at 200 Northwest 2nd Street, 5300 Northwest 33rd Avenue, 100 Northeast 3rd Avenue, and 3250 West Commercial Boulevard. We've actually, I think your staff have actually gone out and looked at a couple of these in anticipation of a discussion on this at a future date. And they may be able to give you some over and above what I'm saying to you, Commissioner. But they are currently located. When you go out there, I would say they're on smaller sites. When you take into comparison what is being proposed for the 60-plus acres that we exist on, the largest facility I believe is on maybe an acre, and it would be somewhat near the size that we will be talking about that's going to be on 60 acres versus being on an acre. Okay. All right. Thank you for those addresses, and I'll follow up with staff to go deeper. Okay? Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. We have a couple of people who've signed up to speak. April Young. Is April here? I didn't see her. Oh, there she is over there. Thank you, Commission, for having me. I would like to say that we hear a lot of what is projected to be on the site, and we have personally met with both of these projects. I definitely have spoken with Michael and Mr. Bruton firsthand, as well as Mr. John. But what I can say is that I would like to bring you back your attention to the development and accept this into the record in reference to some of the information that is very candidate. And we, the people that are not going to object to the project, but what we are objecting to is that we're asking for the residents that we have requested for action. We asked in 2020-22 that there be emergency action taking place in reference to this parcel. So we've also placed TRO onto this parcel, and it was supposedly moving forward. However, it got halted and dismissed from the very last time that I've spoken with Mayor, 2000 and 2023. We go on to the fact that not only Mr. James Williams, my daughter April Young, as well, has been laid to rest. Currently, we have some real serious conditions that are here that's before us. And we're asking for due diligence that today our representation is coming from District 3, Commissioner Beasley, which we're asking for just what is being stating, civility. And I do believe that that will restitute on the community and the concerns that we do have in the community. And right now, for me, myself, to deal with the fact that these numbers are very massive as far as conditions. I'm right now currently facing with environmental infections as well as everybody else that's here because we are actually dealing with the dust, the debris, the air, the water. We have it all. And we're asking for due diligence that this soil be tended to properly, that the residents will feel at least comfortable and transparent as far as being able to state that we want to live in a more dignified way in our residents. And with all of these things that are going, it's really concerning because at this point, we fill up the rooms in DRC and we try to voice our opinions, but it's fallen on deaf ears. And right now, I've gone as far as going to Tallahassee, Washington, and other places, spoken with a lot of the people that I hear today, names that were mentioned, so to speak. But I'm asking you for all the names and the petitions that have gone forth, that the individuals who have given the sweat of their bribes to the city, to the county, to the state, to the federal, me giving 33 years to Broward County School Board as well as Broward County Water. So I'm asking that you do due diligence, take the time and sit and listen and be very stern and careful as to what is being projected into our city, that we will make certain that the people that are not in the room has gotten to the point that they feel like they're not being heard. So they get on to the internet and they listen or they repeat it back. But I want you to know that we are very, very concerned as to what's going on. So we're going to ask that the Congressional Department has displayed that on October that there will be officially some finding. We have spoken with the Health Department. We have also spoken with the EPA and the Special Protection Department. So, Commission Board, please take the time. And even if you decide that this is something that you would like, remember, we are the residents and we have to live there on a continuous basis. So even if you were to do that, I'm going to ask that you would consider that the community has spoken and we're asking you to either do a relocation or a voluntary buyout into these areas because we are actually going through a lot. And even as we're speaking, I think I've spoken on two weeks, three weeks ago today, that we actually have three to four deaths from February in this area. So you have, you know, words that sometimes even myself, I have not had the proper opportunity to grieve for my own family because everybody around me is grieving. So I'm going to ask that you take city clerk, take this record and place it into transmittal as a receipt. And I'm asking that even with this, it's 220 pages attached to a report of 63 pages. So for the record, I'm going to ask that you receive and that we're asking to actually speak on the other pieces. But as I heard the information, we're not rebuttal to that. We're just asking for diplomacy. All right. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Please give it to the clerk. Has everyone from your team spoken? Yeah. Michael, John. Yes, Mayor. Okay. Mr. Bruton, can I ask you to respond? I mean, this is an area that you've been very familiar with all the years you worked for the city. The Wingate site has definitely been something that the city has been dealing with for so many decades. What can we say to put this person, this neighborhood association's fears at rest as we try to proceed forward with this project? I truly welcome that opportunity, Mayor. I not only know about this site, I grew up at this area. So I have an intimate relationship in knowing what has gone on in the past. There have been many projects that have come before the city in the past and never materialized based on emotions, maybe, or effects that were inaccurate. I truly respect the passion that you hear from the neighborhood, but I'm concerned about the facts, and I'll tell you why. I respect Ms. April. She just spoke about James Williams, who was a friend of mine, a classmate who supported this project. I know the family. I know the wife. He did not pass away because of what went on in this particular area. But those are the types of emotions that run with this property, and it's truly understandable because of what occurred over the years. The facts are the site has been deemed clean to develop. As you are aware, the process requires, before you can stick a shovel in the ground, environmental review and approval. This is not the 50s or the 40s when things were done behind closed doors. Particularly with this site, there's been so much focus on this site over the years. There's absolutely no way that I would be a part of any kind of development that would increase or add to what has already occurred in the past. So I understand it. I understand the emotions. I'm a part of that. I get it. But there are facts. The majority of the people that I've spoken to support this project. And I'll tell you why they support it. Because they see empty land there with no opportunities for anyone who lives in that community to ever benefit from. I have a cousin who lives just east of the site. 80-some-odd-year-old cousin. When I speak to her, she tells me, I don't support the project. And I ask her why. She says, look, I don't think anything should ever happen there. That's the mindset. That's the pain that's in people's hearts and minds as it relates to this development site. But the question is, are we going to let that be the legacy of this community? Years ago, there could have been warehousing put there. There was also a suggestion that we do a golf course. All of that went by the wayside. That was the Carlton Moore plan. That was the Carlton Moore, a good friend of mine, yes. That wasn't going to change lives in the community. It might have been some recreational activities that would be available to a few. We're talking about a project that will transform families in the industry that left this area, went on to other areas. And now the talent that's in this community will be able to come back and benefit with careers, six-figure careers. I know for myself, if I was in high school in my family, who I grew up without a father in the house, just a single-parent family, if I was able to bring that kind of income into a family at the age of 19 or 20 years old, that would have changed the entire dynamics of my family. That's what we're talking about. We understand the emotions. We're not setting that aside. There are true emotions that need to be heard, but at a certain point, the facts should prevail, and we should move on to do something that's going to be productive for everyone. Great. All right. Thank you, Mr. Brew, and I appreciate your responding to that question. Does anyone have any questions or comments? Okay. So thank you very much for coming today, and good luck, and we're looking forward to seeing the progress happening on that site. And I think overall, I think the community will truly benefit, not just that neighborhood, but throughout the region. So thank you so much. Okay. Moving on to business three, presentation of the watershed master plan for the community rating system. So, Mayor, Commissioner, the next two items are related to the city's floodplain management program, flood resiliency, and our community CRS rating. So I'll have Anthony Fajardo introduce the first presenter. Do you want to take them together? There are two separate presentations, Mayor. There are two separate. Yes. I know that, but okay. Yeah. So good afternoon, Mayor, Commissioner, Anthony Fajardo, Director of Development Services. So as the city manager said, we do have two presentations. Ultimately, they're tied to CR5, which is on the agenda for tonight for consideration. The ultimate goal is to lower or raise our discounts for CRS so that we can provide additional discounts to the residents of Fort Lauderdale. So the first item was a grant that we entered into in 2022 for $150,000. We partnered with FAU to do the watershed master plan. So we have Dr. Frederick Blutcher here from FAU who will be giving that presentation. All right. Good afternoon. How are you? Fred Blutcher for the record for Atlantic University. So we undertook this project a number of years ago. I'll run through kind of the findings. There's a huge report that has lots of pictures in it that's in your package. And if there's any questions we need to answer, we'll do that. Okay. So the project was funded by the Florida Division of Emergency Management. It's basically part of their program to help communities try to improve their flood resiliency and reduce their flood costs to their residents by improving their CRS scores. It's ultimately a grant that came to FDEM via FEMA, and actually it's many years old. So this is the purpose that they have. You can read it faster than I can. But the big issue is they're trying to help communities reduce the CRS numbers. Mark's going to talk about that, but the game plan there is by reducing the CRS number, you increase the amount of discounts for flood insurance. All right. So basically you contracted with us to go do this project. One of the reasons for that is that we did the Phase 1 project for DEM starting in COVID. So that was the fun time to go do that. We went through and worked with the CRS folks that review these plans. We got a template document that is being used throughout the state. And this is one of 20 projects that we undertook at FAU. So what's the watershed plan? So first thing is a policy document, okay? It has a lot of information about flooding and things like that in there. But it's a long-term kind of document to look at policies. And there's a goal to look at how your community relates to other communities because they contribute to your potential for flooding. So, for example, there's an area of the town of Davie that actually comes in to downtown Fort Lauderdale. So basically this is kind of the process. So the watershed plan is set up for CRS. So we are the red arrow right there. We'll identify some problem areas and go through the plan. We've done that. I'll show you some examples. We'll identify some problem areas. Then there's stormwater master plans. You all have done a whole series of localized stormwater master plans and a couple hundred million dollars worth of work that you've been undertaking. So those are identical. Yeah. Yeah. And I want you to speak to the Osceola Creek situation south of the city, which even though we have installed significant amount of stormwater infrastructure, still poses a threat to the city because of the of the highway and of the airport, which does not have sufficient stormwater remediation. So they they dump to you as as does a lot of other areas come into the city. And you don't have this. One of the things that we'll talk about here real quick is you don't really have a barrier to the ocean. OK, so the ocean is the least of our worries. Well, maybe maybe a bigger part of your worries in the future. So one of the things that the plan does require is we look at sea level rise up to five feet. And so one of the things that comes out of this and we can kind of skip some slides here. But to get to your point is there is a tipping point. So those of you that are familiar with Malcolm Gladwell, there's a point in time where all of a sudden things change dramatically. And that occurs somewhere between two and three feet of sea level rise. And while we all know about the flooding that occurs down here in downtown Fort Lauderdale, I've been there myself. That's a king tide issue. This is a much more consistent issue. And we'll talk about why that is as I go through this. OK, so this is basically the outline of the plan. As we noted there, we looked at future land use. We looked at sea level rise up to five feet. We did it in one foot intervals, which are in the plans. We looked at the 10 year storm, 25 year storm, the 100 year storm. And because we're in the South Florida Water Management District, they look at flood control on the three day, 25 year storm, which we also got FEMA or CRS to agree dealt with the long term plan. And then we created a kind of a periodic table of solutions that we'll take a look at and talk about some other things that are there. So this is what we did. These are all the organizations we looked at. So not only the city, but the surrounding communities. And those are long chapter three in the plan. So note that the city has multiple what we call HUCs, their hydrologic units. All right. And they drain from upstream to downstream. There are four of them that affect the city of Fort Lauderdale. We've modeled each of those separately and then we've consolidated the pieces. All right. So this is our kind of our modeling scenario that we utilize. We're using a district software that's based on a Army Corps of Engineers with a tree and post processor. We're actually modifying that ourselves to make it more feasible to use. We looked at elevations. So we have LIDAR. I actually participated in one of those early projects that you guys did before COVID on stormwater. So we have the one foot tiles of LIDAR that we use. We have our water basins, our water utilities, we have future land use. All these are inputs in GIS that need to be there. And we looked at the storms and you'll note the storms are not consistent across the area. We actually did take a look at the 26-inch rainstorm that occurred here two years ago. I'm familiar with that. I only live two miles away from it. So I got a bunch of that rain too. All right. And then we took a look at all the infrastructure, so staff, and we can't do this without a significant amount of help from your staff in providing information. So we took a look at all the drainage structures and utilized those. I will note that at the watershed level, looking at catch basins is not really the thing and small pipes. Those get filled up with sand. But we're looking at kind of the bigger infrastructure issues that create the flooding that you have where things get plugged up or pump stations are needed. So these are the four current storms, all right, under the current conditions. And so what this means, if you see blue, it means there's a probability that this floods, all right, and the probability is like 90%. It doesn't say it floods by feet. It doesn't tell you how the depth, okay, it just tells you it's there. And then as the colors get less, the flooding is less. And you'll note there are certain areas of the city that don't really flood at all. They tend to be high, okay, and kind of along the railroad track and things like that. Downtown, a little more challenging. And, again, places that rely on seawalls to protect them are vulnerable because the seawalls generally are not at a high enough level. So what's the difference between these four? They're different storms. So the one in the upper left is a five-year event. So it's like seven or eight inches of rain. Okay, and they progressively get... In 24 hours? In 24 hours, right. And then what they'll do is you get the one in 10, which is a little more, and you get the one in 100, and then you get the three-day 25-year storm, which is the one the district has, and that's like 14 or 15 inches. Okay, we then looked at critical facilities, so this kind of relates to vulnerability assessments and things that are done there. Red are the critical facilities, like this building right here, your water and wastewater plants, schools, especially if they're utilized as hurricane shelters, hospitals, EMS, those kind of things like that. And then essential facilities was orange, and the idea was do those things flood, and if so, can we identify solutions to help them? So this is kind of what it looks like with and without the flooding. So you'll see there are some areas, obviously, in the downtown area that are potentially a challenge, and some of these are already addressing, some of these areas. Then we decided to go drill down. So we have, like, 20-some-odd areas that we drill down to, and so we can zoom in, remodel those specific areas using additional infrastructure, all right? And they're in the plan, but the example would be several areas. What we did is we modeled the same storms on top of the same potential land uses that are there. And obviously, you don't really see much of anything at the one-in-five and the one-in-ten-year storms, but when you start getting that three-day, 25-year storm event, it's more of a challenge. And then we took each of these and started adding sea level rise to them. So we also spent some time on North Beach. The Bonnet House is a model that we went ahead and created specifically, tried to look at how to protect that historic structure, all right, and looked at solutions that would allow us to raise the parking area. The house itself is fairly high, but the area around it floods. And as you know, back on the intercoastal side, that's really low in some areas there. And so we looked at what would happen if we raised seawalls and then put in pump stations to try to address that, and there's a solution that does that. All right, so this was kind of that example there. Raise the seawalls, and we can go ahead and figure out the amount of water from sea level rises. Also, groundwater rises because sea level and the ocean and groundwater are tied together. We can figure out what that looks like, and we can figure out an engineering solution for that. But this is our periodic table of solutions, and different ones work for different communities, and different ones work in different areas, obviously, in the city here as well, just depending on where it might be. So what we did is we identify all that kind of stuff. And so we're at kind of a point here where staff is saying, hey, we have these plans, and we want to put them together with some other plans that we're doing for adoption. So here's the big issue that I want to make sure people understand. Number one, this doesn't happen today, all right? This is a forward-looking plan when you're talking about five feet of sea level rise. That's not happening in our lifetimes, even if we're really, really old, okay? That's probably past 2100, could be 150 years from now. Second thing is seawalls don't last more than 50 or 60 years, so they're going to get rebuilt, all right? And so that's a code issue. So as people come in to start rebuilding things, this ultimately ends up being a development code issue. So a lot of the problems get solved with that pumping, maybe not so much. Elevations of houses, again, buildings, excepting the bonnet house, typically last 50 or 60 years as well. Somebody comes in, I want a bigger, better house, puts it on the property, and you're going to need codes to raise the finished floor elevations as well. Most of the things that we have noted in the plan are that type of thing, all right? Certainly there are areas that today flood, so that's going to be a pump station and piping type issue. But a lot of the other areas in the city, as you look at the changes over time, likely developments requirements will do that. It's why you note on the periodic table of solutions, they have three things that are in black. Those are policy documents, so as opposed to pump stations. Okay, so basically these are the things we said. There are areas that have minor flooding. It's nuisance flooding. It's an inch or two in the rain. It lasts a couple hours. That's fairly typical. Flooding increases with more intense storms. That should be obvious. There are a lot of gray solutions because Fort Lauderdale is so low. That's typical of southeast Florida. We've done multiple plans down here. It's just the reality that we live with. Sea level rise is long-term the biggest threat we have, and it requires hard solutions. We've dealt with some folks who say, well, let's go put mangroves and stuff. That helps reducing energy. It does not help with vertical movement of water, all right? And so, as I said, policy changes with finished floors, rebuilding seawalls and things like that, maybe coming up with some standards for that is the idea. And that should then integrate with whatever CIPs that staff determines you need. I mean, didn't we already do this? I mean, that's what initiated this whole project years ago and how we've already come up with a strategic plan and how we identified the adaptation action areas and how we've already implemented our Fortify Lauderdale program. And, I mean, this seems to be something we've already done. So, the deal with this plan is – so, this one's based specifically to help with the CRS score. So, it's oriented to that as opposed to master planning or vulnerability assessments. The state has all these different tasks. Right. So, this one, we incorporated all those other things. So, if you look at the plan, you'll see the Hazen documents for, you know, rebuilding certain neighborhoods and we utilize some of their modeling information to confirm ours. This is kind of pulling all the pieces together so that you can – the city can make a submission to CRS to get that score back. They don't accept just master plans and vulnerability. Those are – it needs to be this large encompassing document that includes what happens with other communities and how you would deal with that. And, you know, the Water Management District has a significant amount to do with many communities in South Florida. They can divert or dump water on the communities and ongoing conversations on how they divert or move water around is a long-term important thing. So, we're going to take your work, we're going to submit it to FEMA seeking CRS scoring. Yeah. So, the second presentation is going to go into that in a little more detail plus some of the other things we're doing to help with our flood program. Right. But the doctor was correct. So, think of this more as a document that's a formalized document that gives us tools in the toolbox that we can pull from as we're doing these other efforts. And it will hopefully lower our CRS so that we have more of a rebate. Right. Which, in turn, benefits not only the city but residents as well. Correct. For the lower CRS. Yeah. Those would be directly impacted to individual residents for flood insurance. For the flood insurance. Thus, just so everyone's clear, reducing flood insurance costs. Exactly. For residential and commercial uses, right? Assuming that we earn the points that we're looking for, yes. And so far, we're hopeful, doctor, that we've completed what's necessary and that we're heading in a good direction for CRS reduction. And the first step is to have a plan and adopt a plan. Great. Because it doesn't go anywhere from there. Yep. I've told the staff if there are issues that come up about the plan from FEMA and the CRS reviewers, let us know. We're happy to go do that. That was one of the things we agreed to do as part of this process. Great. So, we're here to help as we need to. Is that traditionally a dialogue with FEMA? In other words, they give you feedback, we give back, here's where they're at. Okay. Yeah. And the staff here, Mark, has already sent stuff back and forth. He's going to be your next speaker. Great. We've already communicated some with FEMA. We've had meetings with the reviewers on some of this stuff. And sometimes we have to go back over it again. But we've incorporated prior comments. So, Homestead was the first plan that we completed and ran through the review process. We got approval on that. Things that we were asked to do in the Homestead plan were incorporated into your plan. So, there's actually a whole section that's basically dialogue with FEMA. Great. That's in there. So, if there are questions that come up, we're happy to address those. And overall, the dialogue with FEMA so far, their receptivity positive heading in good direction? I'll let them talk about it. Okay. Thank you. Great. I know that's the next presentation. Go ahead. Thank you. Yep. Appreciate it. Thanks, Mayor. They have one more slide. Anthony. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, it's the question slide. The end. Anthony. Yes. Just one quick question. So, what is the plan in terms of hopefully this is all successful and making sure that all of our residents, condominium associations in particular, how are they going to get the word to know this information, to pass that on to their insurance companies? I think once we have a confidence level that we've been able to positively impact our score, that we would work through STRATCOM to get that information out so that it's well publicized. Okay. Because that's really important, especially not just for the individual residents, but especially the, you know, the condo associations. Yeah. Absolutely. Thanks. I live here, too, so I can't wait. Thank you. Appreciate it. The second item is going to be presented by Mark Haggerty as our floodplain manager. And like I said earlier, this will talk about how this plan, among other plans, are being integrated together to be submitted to FEMA to increase our score for CRS and lower those rates, as well as some of the software that we've implemented in our floodplain program to help with the process and help with applications as they come through. Good afternoon. Mark Haggerty, DSD floodplain manager. To answer your question, Commissioner Glassman, to follow up on what Anthony said was about the insurance policies. Once FEMA goes through the review process and we're scheduled for inspection with FEMA on October the 8th, when FEMA comes down to review the process, we'll go back and forth with them on all of these plans, make any, address any comments they may have, update them to ensure that we get the credit. But once the insurance discount has been increased, it's automatically applied. And that's available and you can see it right on your flood disclosure page. And it will say CRS credit and it will give you not only the percentage amount, but the total dollar amount. Currently, the city is a class seven. All residents that have a flood policy receive a 15% discount. Okay. We're looking to move that to 25% with these efforts. Great. Thank you. I appreciate it. Yes, sir. All right. So today we're going to be talking about the floodplain management program. I want to give you an update on what's happened since April of 2023 and the activities we've engaged in to improve the floodplain management program and to move forward this effort to reduce the flood insurance premiums. Okay. April 23 flood report. We've also implemented an integrated floodplain management platform that we'll talk about. And of course, we've been discussing the CRS already. Everybody remembers April 12th, 2023, when the flooding came through here and directly affected the city. Whenever impact of the city is so great, the National Flood and Presurance Program and FEMA require multiple reports from the city. The first one is an initial damage assessment to get an idea of what the damage was. And then the second part of that is a follow-up, which is substantial damage reports for individual structures themselves. The initial flood, Fort Lauderdale initial damage report was filed with FEMA in April of 2023. Unfortunately, the person in my position at the time resigned on May the 3rd, which stalled that effort to follow up and do the report for the individual structures. Complicating issues in August of 2023, during the recovery efforts, FEMA revised the compliance documentation for all development. So we're already under the stress of recovery, and now FEMA changes the program on a national level of how you report compliance. So that happened in August. I was brought on in September to deal with the aftermath and make sure that the reporting was completed and that we were implementing the new procedures from FEMA and the new forms to ensure that we remain compliant so we could remain a compliant community. After my arrival in September, five weeks later, FEMA showed up on our door to say that we were behind in our reporting and that we needed to move forward with that effort immediately. They were very clear with that directive. I then met with Melissa Doyle of Public Works, who uses Thompson and Associates as the disaster assistance coordinating consultant and coordinator contractor for the city, that they completed the initial damage assessment, and they were also in charge of the debris removal program. So on November the 15th, we retasked them to begin the process of creating these reports that were required by FEMA. Then again, in January, our friends at FEMA again moved the goal line and released new flood maps. All along, the development community was having to deal with the recovery efforts, the change in the reporting, and now we're going to increase the requirements for elevations, elevations, and we've also expanded the floodplain. So that was in January. Do you want to advance the slide? Yes, sir. Anthony? Absolutely. There we go. Thanks. We're coming. Yep. Yes, sir. So again, we talked about the flood maps that were updated in January. On May 9th, Thompson filed their first set of reports with me. The way that the process works is the floodplain manager administrator must review and certify every document before it goes to FEMA. They won't accept it any other way. So we went through several iterations and several changes in a lot of these reports. As you can see, 3,798 structures were inspected. It was a very large project. We all know there was plenty of damage and plenty of residents that were affected. So a total of 3,798 inspections were performed. I went back and forth with Thompson, editing them, putting them in the correct order. And finally, we had reports that were good enough for FEMA, and we submitted them on the 23rd of December, 2024. FEMA responded on May 19th by sending us a letter stating that we were recertified for our 15% discount, our Class VII, which signified the closure of this file because you cannot be recertified at CRS if you're not a compliant community. So at that time, we were notified that we were then compliant and we would continue to enjoy the 15% discount for flood insurance policies. Of course, during my first year and a half here, having to deal with the recovery and all the changes to the FEMA, we realized that the development community had to change and adapt to all these new regulations, but we internally also needed to change and adapt. So we began a program, and we turned to Forerunner, which is an integrative floodplain management program. It improves the accuracy of document review through the use of AI. It reduces plan review times, provides a public-facing portal for flood information, and the most important part is it integrates our existing databases into one location so we can then respond better to flooding. We received the contract approval for Forerunner on February 12th, 2025, and we began integrating Forerunner with our existing platforms, our permitting software, Accela, and our C-Click Fix, which is our Fix-It FTL citizen reporting, and also integrating with Survey123, which is the damage assessment software that the rapid impact assessment that the fire department uses. Integration of that will reduce the response time and reporting time tremendously. So we're looking forward to that project being done. The Accela integration for AI was completed back in April, and as a matter of fact, it was so successful that Forerunner actually featured Fort Lauderdale on their national program as the first to move forward with integration between the Accela platform and Forerunner to use AI to review these new FEMA documents. So we were featured. I did give a presentation to the national conference back in August. We're looking forward to the ending or the completion of the integration project with Fix-It FTL and Survey123. That's projected to be done by the end of December. Moving on to the commuting rating system, here's where we're going to get credit for all the efforts that we've made over the past three or four years. You just heard from Dr. Blesher, and the plan will be presented to you tonight for your consideration and hopefully your adoption so we can move forward with the CRS program. While the recovery efforts were going on, we realized the opportunity to increase our CRS discount. So we began work on that concurrently with our recovery work. And in December of 24, procurement issued a solicitation looking for a consultant to help us with our CRS improvement. In March of 25, WSP, who's a nationally recognized CRS consultant, was hired, and they began work with staff and stakeholders to move this effort forward. In August of 26, WSP, in conjunction with the stakeholders, city staff, completed the following draft plans for your consideration. The plans being presented to you later tonight for your adoption have been designed to mitigate flooding while maximizing the CRS score, which will increase the flood insurance discounts for the residents. The first plan is a program for public information. We need to get the information out to the residents. So we put together an ad hoc committee, representatives from the insurance industry, the banking industry, the development industry, my department, the resilience department, and STRATCOM all came together and had multiple meetings to design this program for public information. We have a bunch of documents that were designed. STRATCOM is finalizing those documents now. And should you adopt this plan, we'll be able to move them forward to production and start disseminating them to the public. The next plan is a substantial damage management plan. And this has been developed in accordance to ensure compliance with FEMA National Flood Insurance Program, the Florida Department of Emergency Management, and our local ordinance. Again, we can't delay reporting in the future. So this plan memorializes and puts in writing the steps that are required regardless of who's here or who's running the program. The steps are now certified, they're FEMA approved, and they can be used to move forward so we don't delay the response. The next plan is floodplain species assessment. It's designed to aid in the understanding of floodplain resources and functions and examine strategies and tools to protect and preserve or restore these resources specifically related to threatened and endangered species in critical habitats within the special flood hazard area. The final plan is a repetitive loss area analysis. And this is the meat of the matter for somebody like me. The areas that were flooded, what can we do to address it? As you see here, as of May, there's 23,579 insurance policies here, flood insurance policies here in the city, with $6.28 billion worth of coverage. It's very important that we understand those numbers and can protect these homes. Since 1978, 5,000 claims have been paid for over $172 million. It's a very important program. If we're not compliant, we're not eligible for any of this money. So it's so important that we maintain our compliance to do that. The repetitive loss data is maintained annually, and I will need to bring this plan back to you once a year to report on an update of if there's any changes. Since we are a community with 50 or more unmitigated repetitive loss properties, a stormwater floodplain management plan or repetitive loss area analysis plan is required. We're putting this repetitive loss area analysis plan forward because it focuses on the areas that receive the most damage. So that's why we are going forward with the repetitive loss area analysis. There's 416 properties that are repetitive loss here in the city, according to data from FEMA in October. The CRS required RLA plan is designed to track and mitigate repetitive loss against the city and to keep us compliant with NFIP. As I said earlier, this evening you'll be having these plans be brought before you, hopefully for adoption. Adoption of these plans is a critical step in the improvement process. FEMA is scheduled to visit us on October 8th. If the plans are adopted, we'll be submitting them for their review. In summary, to mitigate flooding and keep flood insurance as affordable as possible, a community-wide effort is essential. Community leaders, staff, the development community, and neighbors all share the responsibility to facilitate compliance. Thank you for the opportunity to have presented this information to you. Do you have any questions? Great. Thank you so much. Does anyone from the Commission have any questions? I'm sorry, what is the date that FEMA is going to visit? October the 8th. October 8th. Okay, we have one person who signed up to speak, Mr. Ancerra. Yeah, Ted Ancerra, President of River Oaks. I see my city commissioner has left. It's just like Snyder Park all over again. I mean, maybe he should have said that I'm not going to give my commission report and talk about the same three events that you guys, the 911, you know, all these other events, said because I have to leave early, then he'd be here to listen to something, you know, from his district that I want to talk about. But I guess that's all. Whatever message you have to say, I'll convey your message to him. He had a family event to attend and he had to leave early. Yes, it took over an hour on these commission reports. Jeez. Okay. April 12th, historic flooding. Actually, this report, I like this report because it finally proves what I've been saying all this time is absolutely true. April 12th, historic flooding occurs. No doubt. I live in River Oaks. I was in the middle of it. Then we have the FEMA re-changed their flooding map. We are now in a registered flood zone. I grew up in River Oaks. I've lived in River Oaks for over 60 years, two houses down from where I grew up. In 1964, there was Hurricane Cleo, direct hit on Broward County. I remember it well because the tree got blown over that had our tree fort in it. I remember my dad going outside to check the wood that we had on our windows while the eye was going over. Much damage, trees down, but you know what? We didn't flood at all. Why? Because we had our floodplain, which he talked about, still in place, which is very, very important. See, we had creeks. We had preserves. We had ponds. That's a floodplain. What a floodplain does, it provides natural storage for water during heavy rain, which slows down floods. It is dangerous to build on floodplains. All our floodplains are gone and have been developed. Except that's what caused the flooding in River Oaks. What's been developed in River Oaks? What development has occurred in River Oaks? Well, where our preserve is. That replaced the floodplains that you destroyed. Where our preserve is, is now on 20th Street, is called La Preserve. It's a gated community right where the preserve was. Where our ponds were now on the western side, were now enveloped or taken over by the LMC and developed for the Lauderdale Marine Center. Our creeks are now Pond, Apple Creek, apartment complex. So all of these things that Mother Nature had in place, and it's documented, they're called floodplains, which are important, are gone. I've been saying this for years, that the city created our flood zone. We had Mother Nature had our back, and you guys thought you were smarter. So what do we do now? We dig up trenches, put in pipes, and try to mimic what Mother Nature already had in place from the beginning. But that is what caused our flooding. We never flooded growing up, period. We had hurricanes. We had storms. Our neighborhood is not flooding because of sea rise. We're not flooding because of king tides. We're flooding because there's nowhere for the water to go. And you developed it, and it's all concrete, and I learned in second grade in Creuson Park Elementary School from Mrs. Sweet, cement does not absorb water. And that is what caused our things. You developed over the floodplains, and now we're paying for it. All right. Well, thank you so much, sir. Does anyone else wish to speak on this item? Okay. Mr. City Manager, that was our last item. Is there any further business for the conference meeting? Nothing further from me. Okay. The meeting is concluded. We'll resume at 6 o'clock. Thank you.