Okay, folks, so we're going to resume our meeting. The conference meeting will be suspended until this evening when we'll take up the balance of the items on the conference meeting, which will include the commissioner's report, the mayor's report, and the city manager's report. Right now, I am now convening the budget hearing. This is the first of two public hearings as required by law in the city of Fort Lauderdale Sunrise Key neighborhood improvement district millage and budget for fiscal year 2026. The purpose of the hearing is to receive requests and comments regarding the Sunrise Key neighborhood improvement district budget and to explain the budget and any amendments thereto. The public hearing is now open. The city manager will now present the proposed millage rate and tentative budget. The city manager. The Sunrise Key neighborhood improvement district taxes the residents of this special district to provide security to their neighborhood. At its May 6, 2025 meeting, the district voted its millage rate at 1.0000 mil, which will generate an estimated tax collection of $223,168 to support an operating budget of $223,168. This millage rate is 9.15% more than the rollback rate of 0.9162 mils and is necessary to maintain services for the Sunrise Key neighborhood improvement district. This concludes my report on the Sunrise Key neighborhood improvement district. Thank you. This is a time for anyone in the public to speak or ask any questions about the budget. No one has signed up to speak. So do I hear a motion to close public hearing on Budget 1? Moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. Mayor, just for official, I'm just going to do the roll call real quick for this meeting. Vice Mayor Herbst is not present. Commissioner Glassman? Here. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman? Here. Commissioner Sorensen? Here. Mayor Trentonis? Here. And for the closure of the public hearing, Vice Mayor Herbst, not present. Commissioner Glassman? Yes. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman? Yes. Commissioner Sorensen? Yes. Mayor Trentonis? Yes. And public hearing is now closed. So the tentative millage rate for the Sunrise Key neighborhood improvement district purposes will be 1.0000 mil, which represents an increase of 9.15% over the rollback rate of 0.9162 mils. So there are going to be two votes tonight. One is going to be on the tentative millage rate, and one is going to be on the budget. So right now we'll just, I would like someone to introduce a resolution adopting the tentative millage rate for the Sunrise Key neighborhood improvement district for the fiscal year 2026. Introduced. Resolution has now been introduced. No one has signed up. Okay. Please call the roll. Okay. Please call the roll. You signed up to speak on number two, not number one. Nothing? Okay. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. This is for the introduction of the millage. A resolution to the City Commission of the City of Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, Florida, adopting a tentative millage rate of 1.0000 mil to be levied by the City of Fort Lauderdale for the Sunrise Key neighborhood improvement district for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2025 and ending September 30, 2026. Vice Mayor Herbst? Not present. Commissioner Glassman? Yes. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman? Yes. Commissioner Sorensen? Yes. Mayor Trentonis? Yes, and that item is now approved. The vote number two is now for the budget. Will someone please introduce a resolution adopting the tentative budget for the Sunrise Key neighborhood improvement district for fiscal year 2026? Introduced. The item has been introduced. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. A resolution of the City Commission of the City of Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, Florida, adopting and approving a tentative budget of the Sunrise Key neighborhood improvement district for fiscal year October 1, 2025, and ending September 30, 2026. Vice Mayor Herbst? Not present. Commissioner Glassman? Yes. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman? Yes. Commissioner Sorensen? Yes. Mayor Trentonis? Yes. And the resolution has been approved. So now the public hearing to adopt the final millage rate and budget will be held at 5 o'clock, excuse me, five, one minute after 5 p.m. on September 12, 2025 at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts here in the Mary N. Porter Riverview Ballroom, 201 Southwest 5th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Let's continue on to Budget 2. This is the first of two public hearings as required by law on the millage rates for the fiscal year 2026. Purpose of the hearing is to receive requests and comments regarding the City's millage rate and to explain any amendments thereto. Public hearing is now open and the City Manager will now present the tentative millage rate on which the fiscal year 2026 budget is based. Madam City Manager. The fiscal year 2026 City of Fort Lauderdale tentative budget includes maintaining the current millage rate of 4.1193 and decreasing the combined debt service millage from 0.2545 to 0.2306 mills. The recommended millage rate of 4.1193 exceeds the rollback rate of 3.8604 by 6.71%. The aggregate tentative millage rate including the Sunrise Key dependent district is 4.1230 which results in an increase of 6.71% above the aggregate rollback rate of 3.8639 and is premised upon the following. Funding increases in wages and insurances, funding key commission priorities and community investment plan projects, and maintaining a healthy fund balance. Increases to the fiscal year 2026 general fund budget that require maintaining the millage at the same rate as the prior 18 years include $12.7 million for the increase in salaries and wages, $10.4 million for the increase in fringe benefits including health insurance and pension contributions, as well as $4.2 million for the increase in capital outlay equipment purchases. This concludes my report. Thank you. This is the time for anyone in the public to speak or ask questions about the tentative millage rates. No one has signed up to speak, so do I hear a motion to close public hearing? So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Please call the roll. Vice Mayor Herbst. Yes. Commissioner Glossman. Yes. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman. Yes. Commissioner Sorensen. Yes. Mayor Trent Toss. Yes. And public hearing is now closed. So the recommended millage rate to be levied for all general city purposes exclusive debt service will be 4.1193, which represents a 6.71 increase in the millage rate over the rollback rate of 3.8604 mills. The aggregate tentative millage rate, including dependent districts, is 4.1230, which results in an increase, again, of 6.71% above the aggregate rollback rate of 3.8639 mills. Excuse me. Let me repeat that. 3.8639 mills. The recommended millage rate for debt service for the 2015 general obligation refunding bonds is 0.0171. The recommended millage rate for debt service for the 2011-A general obligation bonds is 0.0175. The recommended millage rate for the debt service for the city's voter-approved public safety bond is 0.0776. And the recommended millage rate for debt service for the city's voter-approved parks bond is 0.1184. Will someone introduce a resolution adopting the tentative millage rates for the city of Fort Lauderdale for the fiscal year 2026? Introduced. Resolution has been introduced. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. A resolution of the city commission of the city of Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, Florida, adopting a tentative operating millage rate of 4.193 and debt service millage rate of 0.2306 to be levied by the city of Fort Lauderdale for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2025 and ending September 30, 2026. Vice Mayor Herbst. Vice Mayor, if you can turn on your microphone. I'll say that again. I think we should be cutting our millage rate, not keeping it the same, so my answer is no. Commissioner Glassman? Yes. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman? Yes. Commissioner Sorensen? Yes. Mayor Trenton? Yes. And that item is now approved. Budget 3. The next item is the tentative five-year community investment plan. This is the time for anyone in the public to speak or ask any questions about the tentative five-year community investment plan. No one has signed up to speak. So do I hear a motion to close public hearing? So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Please call the roll. Yes. Commissioner Glassman? Yes. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman? Yes. Commissioner Sorensen? Yes. Mayor Trenton? Mayor Trenton? Mayor Trenton? Yes. And the public hearing is now closed on Budget 3. Will someone please introduce a resolution adopting the tentative five-year community investment plan for the period beginning October 1, 2025 and ending September 30, 2030? Introduced. The resolution has been introduced. Please call the roll. A resolution to the City Commission of the City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida tentatively approving and adopting a five-year community investment plan for the period beginning October 1, 2025 and ending September 30, 2026. Tentatively reappropriating the unspent community investment plan project balances at the end of the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2024 and ending September 30, 2025 for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2025 and ending September 30, 2026 and providing for severability and an effective date. Vice Mayor Herbst? Yes. Commissioner Glassman? Yes. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman? Yes. Commissioner Sorensen? Yes. Mayor Trenton? Yes, and that resolution is now approved. Just to step back for just a second, in Budget 2, maintaining the millage rate as it is, is to cover $12.7 million in the increase in salaries and wages. That's inclusive of police and fire. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. And those contracts were approved by the City Commission unanimously. Is that correct? I believe that was correct, right? I'm not sure of the vote tally when that was approved. Yeah, I believe they were. And $10.4 million for the increase in fringe benefits, including health insurance and pension contributions. That's across the board, including police and fire, correct? That's correct. And the $4.2 million for the increase in capital outlay equipment purchases. Those were also approved by the Commission. Is that correct? Well, as we've discussed at the budget workshops, all these items are included and have been since we've begun developing this budget. Okay. So that comes to, what, $22, $23, $27 million? Now, is that about what the increase in the income of the city is as a result of maintaining the 4.1193 millage rate? Yvette, do you have a, can you help me out on that, or Laura? I'm just wondering if we reduce taxes, would we be able to honor those contracts that we had approved unanimously as a commission? So the budget, as it's developed, was developed with the idea of maintaining the current millage rate, but there are also other revenues that are included in this budget. And so there were also some other revenue increases. So the total increases that you outlined actually exceed the amount that came in specifically for ad valorem revenue. So if we didn't have the other sources of income, we're not relying entirely on ad valorem revenue then in order to cover our obligations. Is that correct? That is correct, yes. Okay. We use a myriad of sources. But is the ad valorem revenue necessary in order to cover these, at least these three items that you identify here? Yes. This whole budget was developed with the idea that the ad valorem would remain, or the millage rate would remain the same. So if we had lowered the millage rate, say, to the rollback rate, would we be able to honor the contracts that we approved here as a commission? We developed the budget based on the guidance that the commission has provided us. So we would make adjustments in other areas to accommodate any adjustments that the commission directed. Okay, so we would, so we would, but as far as these contracts are concerned, was the ad valorem tax necessary in order to be able to honor those contracts? It is a large part of supporting those contracts, yes. Okay. Just trying to understand. Okay. So, Mayor, I think that's kind of directed towards me, so I'm going to respond to that if I might. Sure. So there's increases in personnel, increases in headcount, there's increases in expenses across the board, and we could very easily accommodate the contracts that we've already approved by cutting back in other areas. This is not a zero-sum game where we only have one item in the budget that, you know, that we can work with. We have other items in the budget we could work with in terms of overall staffing and other ways to cut costs. So I reject the premise that if we cut the millage rate that we would necessarily be somehow violating the contracts that we've approved with public safety. I don't think that is an accurate way of reflecting this. There are other ways to cut budgets other than simply. Give us some examples. I'm just curious. I could happily do it. We can look at the number of personnel that are being added to the budget and say, no, we don't need all these people. There are other departments in the city that provide nonessential services that I'm happy to make suggestions to. This is not the appropriate forum to do that in. But, yeah, look, I've wanted this budget for 16 years. I could tell you exactly what to cut on it. So between now and the next hearing, why don't you provide that recommendation so that we have some idea? I made suggestions when the budget was introduced two months ago about things that I thought were inappropriate at that point in time. And the recommendation of the rest of the commission was to move forward with it anyway. But, yeah, I'm happy to sit down with staff and tell them every single thing that I think we could reduce on this and bring our millage rate down and not impact public safety. Again, it is an inaccurate statement to say that the only thing in the budget that we can go after is public safety. That is a red herring that gets thrown out any time somebody suggests cutting the budget. It's like, oh, we've got to fire cops. That's not true. Well, I'm not suggesting any of that. I'm just asking questions. And I just want to know, now, instead of working with staff, why don't you elucidate the rest of the commission as to what areas you want to cut back on, public works? I don't know what it is that you're hinting at. I'm happy to bring back an entire proposal for you, and I'll bring back a PowerPoint, and we can walk through this. Or I could actually have a productive conversation with staff because, as you know, sunshine violations, I can't sit down with any of you other than in this format. And this is not a particularly conducive format to go line by line through the budget and say, I think we should cut here. I think we should cut here. I think we should redline that position. I think these positions that have been created are unnecessary. I mean, certainly we could do that here, but we'll be here for, you know, a day and a half going through that. So thank you. But I don't think that's an appropriate forum to have that conversation. I actually think this is absolutely the appropriate forum. This is our budget hearing. This is where we talk about our budget. This is where, if you have suggestions, love to hear them. So go ahead. I'm happy to stay here as long as it takes. Before we start to listen to all of this, and I know where this is going and I know what I'll hear, I'm just wondering why this is the first time we've ever had this millage rate discussion at all. I mean, we've been talking about the budget now for how long and when did we set the millage rate? I know we can go lower, but when did we set that? In June or July? And I voted against it back in June. Right, but I don't think I ever remember hearing the words, I'm voting no on the millage rate because I want to lower it. I don't think I've ever heard that discussion. I don't think I ever heard those comments, and we've been talking about the budget now for actually almost a year. I'm pretty sure I said that. No. Thank you. Thank you for reminding me of what I said. You're welcome. So I'd love to hear the specifics. Vice Mayor, please share with us. Not prepared to do that tonight because it doesn't really make a difference. So I'm voting no. It's as simple as that. Thank you. When would you like to share specifics? We can do it at the next budget hearing. We have a second one, right? Yeah, if you could provide that to us so at least we have something in front of us. Yeah, that would be great. That would be very helpful because maybe we need to make that decision. We'll see. We'll see where we're going to cut services in the city. Absolutely. Okay, moving on. Budget four. This is the first of two public hearings as required by law on the city of Fort Lauderdale's budget for the fiscal year 2026. The purpose of the hearing is to receive requests and comments regarding the city's budget and to explain the budget and any amendments thereto. The public hearing is now open and the city manager will now present the tentative budget. Mayor, if we could go back to budget three. Budget three, yes. And section seven of your comments? Yes. If you could begin there. I'm sorry. I need to – I'm sorry. I didn't recite that. Public hearing. This is going back to budget three, number seven. Public hearing to adopt the final five-year community investment plan budget will be held at one minute after 5 p.m. September 12, 2025 at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts here at the Mary N. Porter Riverview Ballroom, 201 Southwest 5th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. You happy now with that? Okay. All right. Thank you. I got distracted. Now, back to budget four. Madam City Manager. The fiscal year 2026 City of Fort Lauderdale tentative budget includes maintaining the same millage rate of 4.1193 and increasing the annual fire assessment rate by $75 to $403 per residential unit. The tentative budget is premised on the following, funding increases in wages and insurances, funding key commission priorities and community investment plan projects, and maintaining a healthy fund balance. I would now like to present to you the adjustments to the fiscal year 2026 budget that have been made since the submission of the June 30, 2025 proposed budget. The following adjustments have been made to the general fund revenues. Increase in revenues totaling $481,923 to account for updated ad valorem and state revenue estimates. Decrease in revenues totaling $514,283 to reflect the updated anticipated schedule for PFAS settlement payments. Adjustments have been made to the general fund expenditures, including a $108,576 increase in the transfer to the school crossing guards fund. A $85,057 net decrease due to various adjustments in salaries, wages, and operational expenses. A $35,301 decrease in the required annual payment for the police and fire rescue pension. And a $20,578 decrease in the transfer to the community development agency. These revenue and expenditure adjustments result in a fiscal year 2026 tentative general fund budget of $520,425,269. The full changes to other funds since the submission of the fiscal year 2026 proposed budget are outlined in Commission Agenda Memo 25-0706, Exhibit 2. Key changes include, the school crossing guards fund budget was increased by $108,576. The ward and sewer fund budget was increased by $64,719. The central city redevelopment area fund and incentives fund budgets were each increased by $8,306. The Sunrise Key fund budget was increased by $7,393. And the Northwest Progresso Flagler Heights Redevelopment Area Fund and incentives fund budgets were each decreased by $28,884. This concludes my report on the fiscal year 2026 tentative budget. Thank you so much. So this is the time for anyone in the public to speak or ask questions about the tentative budget. I have two people signed up to speak. Joseph Kenner, are you here? Mr. Kenner. And then Ansel Praff, that's just for questions, right? Is Ansel here? Okay. Just for questions. Okay. Yes, sir. Push the button at the bottom of the speaker. There we go. Can you hear me now? Yep. Perfect. Good evening, Commissioner. This is my maiden voyage. This is my first time speaking to this commission as the president of Hope South Florida. My name is Joe Kenner. I am new to the area, but not new to this issue of homelessness in our country and particularly in Fort Lauderdale. So first, I just want to say thank you to the commission. I have had the chance to meet with you, Mayor Trentalis and Commissioners Beasley-Pittman and Sorensen. Looking forward to meeting with you, Commissioner Glassman and Commissioner Herbst. But I really just want to commend this commission. We saw that there was $200,000 allocated for a safe overnight parking pilot. And as a 30-year organization committed to uplifting homeless families in this community, we are very excited to see the city investing that type of dollars in an issue like this. And we just want to encourage you to continue with this. We've been meeting with you for the past year, talking about this issue and supporting it, and looking forward to not only working with you on this, but on other issues as it pertains to the homeless population. So I really want to say thank you for this and to commend you for the work that you're doing. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. And don't be a stranger. We will. Okay. Mayor, if I could just add on that. Thank you, Joe. Thank you for your leadership. And, Mayor, I know you know this, but Chris Cooper has really been helping drive this. And also, Mayor, this is another example where we're working very closely with Broward County. And Patrice Palladino, right, Chris? Am I saying or pronouncing her last name right? With the county, Mayor has been fantastic. I know Commissioner Beasley-Pittman, you probably work with her closely as well on this. But the county has just been lockstep with us. And, Chris, from a dollar standpoint, the county towards safe parking, remind me what that structure looks like, if you don't mind. As he comes up, can I just commend Chris for the work that he's been doing on this issue? It's been incredible to work with him and our team. So thank you, Chris. Thank you, Joe. I agree. Thank you. So the county had an RFP for $350,000 towards a safe parking pilot program as well. There's, of course, to be available countywide. So whatever agency they sponsor could service folks throughout Broward County. The intent with ours is to focus on those in Fort Lauderdale. Thanks. And, Mayor, I think we were at, like, $0 several months ago. And, again, county mayor, county commissioners, Patrice, really stepping up on this program. So, anyway, thank you, Chris. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Chris, the amount of money we got, was it $350,000, you said? That's what Broward County allocated towards their safe parking program. And so we got $211,000 of it? No. So we, in our budget, have proposed $200,000 to pilot that program here in the city of Fort Lauderdale. So how much from the county are we going to be able to receive? So we are not getting anything for our safe parking pilot. They are doing their own pilot program for $350,000. So they put an RFP out. They had a couple providers respond to that. They're evaluating those proposals. And they'll be awarding that at some point in the future. Okay. So it's like in partnership, Mayor. Okay, this is to augment the program. But we're independent of their program. We're just doing our own thing, and they're going to do their own thing. Correct. And we're working together in terms of the evaluation process. We're helping them evaluate their proposals. We'll also share information we get from our pilot. They'll share with us, and we'll figure out what the best way to move forward is once we have the results of those programs. Okay, great. So it's very collaborative. Okay, thank you so much. There being no further comment, would someone like to move to a closed public hearing? So moved. Second. He's been moved and seconded. Please call the roll. Vice Mayor Herbst. Commissioner Glassman. Yes. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman. Yes. Commissioner Sorensen. Yes. Mayor Trin-Tiles. Yes, and public hearing is now closed on this item. So the tentative total of all funds budget for the City of Fort Lauderdale is $1,194,366,687, which will fund the various operations of the City of Fort Lauderdale for the fiscal period beginning October 1st, 2025 and ending September 30th, 2026. Will someone please introduce a resolution adopting the tentative budget for the City of Fort Lauderdale for the fiscal year, 2026? Introduced. It's been introduced. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. A resolution to the City Commission of the City of Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, Florida, adopting and approving the tentative budget of the City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida for fiscal year beginning October 1st, 2025 and ending September 30th, 2026, which includes the budget for the General Fund, Water and Sewer, Central Regional Wastewater System Fund, Self-Insured Health Benefits Fund, Stormwater Fund, Sanitation Fund, Debt Service Funds, Central Services, ITS, Unified Customer Service Funds. Service Fund, Parking Fund, Building Funds, Fleet Fund, City and Property and Casualty Insurance Funds, Grant, Bond and Reserve Funds, Airport Fund, Community Redevelopment Agency Funds, Cemetery System Fund, Project Management Fund, Transportation Surtax Fund, Cemetery Perpetual Care Fund, Arts and Science District Garage Fund, Marine Facilities Fund, School Crossing Guards Fund, Beach Business Improvement District Fund, Nuisance Abatement Fund, Sunrise Key Neighborhood Improvement District Fund, and Police Confiscation Funds, tentatively adopting and approving the City of Fort Lauderdale, personal compliment for the fiscal year beginning October 1st, 2025 and ending September 30th, 2026 and providing an effective date. Vice Mayor Herbst? Commissioner Glassman? Yes. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman? Yes. Commissioner Sorenson? Yes. Mayor Trantels? Yes. And the budget has been now tentatively approved by the City Commission of Fort Lauderdale. Um, um, um, City Manager? You got, there's this one. Yeah, yeah. I'll read that in a second. Um, is there any further business of the, of the budget? No, Mayor, and thank you for your support. Okay. So the public hearing to adopt the final budget will be held at 5, um, 5.01 p.m. on September 12, 2025 at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Marianne Porter Riverview Ballroom, 201 Southwest 5th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Is there any further business? There is none. Um, this, this budget meeting is now concluded. The commission meeting will begin at 6.30 this evening. We had, we ran a little late for this afternoon. Do we have CRA? Do we have CRA today? I think we have, um, do we have CRA? Do you want to do the CRA now? Yeah. There is a budget item included with the CRA. Let's knock it out. Okay. All right. We'll knock out the CRA, uh, meeting. Let me get to that. Okay. Um, we'll now begin the, uh, Community Redevelopment Agency meeting. Um, Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. Vice Chair Herbst? Here. Commissioner Glassman? Commissioner Beasley-Pittman? Here. Commissioner Sorensen? Yes. Chair Trent-Tullis? Yes. Here. Oh, here we go. M1, motion approving the minutes for the, uh, August 19, 2025 Community Redevelopment Agency Board meeting. Moved. We'll hear a motion to approve. Second. Been moved and seconded. Please call the roll. Vice Chair Herbst? Yes. Commissioner Glassman? Commissioner Beasley-Pittman? Yes. Commissioner Sorensen? Yes. Chair Trent-Tullis? Uh, yes. So M1 is now approved. R1, resolution approving the final Community Redevelopment Agency operating budget and the Community Investment Plan allocations for the fiscal year 2026. Would someone like to introduce the resolution? Introduced. Resolution has been introduced. Please call the roll. A resolution of the Board of Commissioners of the Fort Lauderdale Community Redevelopment Agency approving the final Community Redevelopment Agency operating budget and community investment plan allocations for fiscal year 2026 and providing for an effective date. Vice Chair Herbst? Yes. Commissioner Glassman? Yes. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman? Yes. Commissioner Sorensen? Yes. Chair Trent-Tullis? Yes. And R1 has, uh, been approved. Is there any further business of the Community Redevelopment Agency Board? No. And again, thank you for your support. Thank you. This meeting is now concluded. We'll resume at 630.