CITY COMMISSION WORKSHOP on 2025-06-17 11:30 AM - Joint Workshop with Budget Advisory Board - Jun 17, 2025

Hello? Okay. Much better. Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for your patience. We're here today, this June 17th, 2025, to celebrate the – oh, I'm sorry – to have our joint workshop with the Budget Advisory Board. I want to thank everybody from the Budget Advisory Board for appearing here and for participating in this first of many workshops going forward as we try – is this our first or second? Seconds, I thought. I see that we have Commissioner Sorensen online. Hello, Ben. Hey, Mayor. Thanks for having me. Sorry I can't be there. I'm on Navy duty out of town, so thanks for allowing me to be here virtually. Sure. How's Greenland? Oh, I'm sorry. I don't know. Great. Rhode Island. Rhode Island is wonderful. I have no idea where you are. Okay. Thank you. So, Mayor, if I could say something. Ben, I noticed something different about you today. You actually have on a jacket. You don't have your Ben shirt on. I don't have my Ben shirt, so I figured I'd change it up a little bit virtually. Oh, I love it. I love it. We'll bring that back in the future, but thank you, Commissioner. Actually, that's not really him. That's an AI image of him. Okay. He's in Greenland. Okay. Very good. So, the chair of the Budget Advisory Board, do you want to call your role? I'm going to call it. You're going to call it? Because there affects the bike. Okay. Chair Brown. He's here. Present. Vice Chair Milroy. Norbert Bells. Here. Ross Camerata. Present. Olivier Cowell. Present. Rich DiGirolamo. Here. Mildred Lowe. Present. Desiree Giles-Smith. Rob Buehling-Patel. And Melinda Boker. So, we have a quorum of the committee. You want to call the role of the commission? Vice Mayor Herbst is en route. Commissioner Glassman. Here. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman. Here. Commissioner Sorensen. Here. Mayor Trent-Hals. Here. Thank you so much. We have a quorum with the city commission. So, Mr. Brown, would you like to lead this discussion? Yes. Thank you, Mayor, Vice, Mayor, Commissioners. And Commissioner Sorensen, I would sing you anchors away, but my voice is not that good singing. So, I don't want to ruin your afternoon. Next time. Next time. Next time. The advisory, budget advisory board sitting behind me are the members of the board. First, let me just say, this year was the first time in many years we had six out of the ten board members that were new. And I'm very pleased to report to the commission that they came in, got very engaged, especially coming in for the first time. They rolled up their sleeves. They really dug in. They asked good questions. And, you know, during the month of May, we spent three Wednesday evenings meeting with all the department heads for three consecutive weeks on Wednesdays. And some of those meetings went over two hours. One went to almost three hours. And we gave them the latitude to really, really ask good, prudent questions, being physically responsible to the taxpayers and to their districts from which they live within. And I'm pleased to say that I'm very impressed with the selection of the members of this committee. With that, Mayor, as you said, in May, we met for the first time. We kind of got some direction based upon your January workshop on what the commission's priorities were moving forward. So what I've chosen to do is we received the preliminary budget presentation from the city manager, and we're going to – it's going to be presented, some of those highlights. And what I'd like to do, with your permission, is go ahead and let staff do that presentation that we received, and then I'll follow that up with comments and recommendations from the board. Okay. Keeping in mind that the exhibit, the preliminary budget report, is 81 pages, so we're not going to be going through 81 pages, but we will get a summary of that through staff. And, Laura, will you be doing that? Who's going to be doing it? There'll be a combination. I'll start it off, and then we will follow with Laura Reese, acting assistant city manager, and Yvette Matthews, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget. Okay, very good. Please proceed. Good afternoon, honorable mayor and commissioners. It's my honor to discuss our preliminary budget, the first one under my tenure as your city manager. Since the day that I started, I've been inundated with meetings on my calendar related to the budget. It's been nonstop, budget, budget, budget. And I just want to thank the Budget Advisory Board for all of their effort. They have been very diligent in scrutinizing all of the information that they've received from staff. I also want to thank all of the department directors and their teams for all of their effort over the past several weeks and months in developing the preliminary budget. So, I want to stress that this is preliminary. This is not yet the city manager's proposed budget. As you know, we received information from the property appraiser that was more favorable than we anticipated. As we were building out the budget, we thought, hey, maybe we'd see 6%, but seeing the 8.15% in taxable value increase really made us feel like we're headed in the right direction. And we applied a lot of thoughtfulness to the development of this budget because of the fact that we have a lot of one-time revenue generators, including a PFAS settlement, as well as the fire assessment. So, we thought that it would be prudent to apply those revenues toward expenditures of a one-time nature, so capital projects in particular. This budget is balanced and reflects the commission's priorities as reflected in the discussion at the commission prioritization meeting in January. I believe it was the 21st, and I had an opportunity to attend that meeting in person to understand what your goals are. And so, we wanted to make sure that we were in alignment with those. So, you'll see expenditures related to public safety, homeless response, infrastructure and resilience, public spaces, and cultural initiatives. For me, my focus was on filling the gaps that we've had for several years. There's several capital projects, particularly for public safety infrastructure, that hasn't been funded. Our fire station, number 88, number 13, and the Heron Garage have needed funding for many years. And this year, I felt, was the best opportunity for us to fill those gaps and to get that done. There's also a focus on information technology and its relationship to public safety. So, you'll see that several positions have been recommended for inclusion in the budget that tie to IT for fire and our police department. You'll also see the inclusion of something new. It's our emergency management reserve that's being recommended. So, essentially, we will have $4.8 million from the PFAS settlement in fiscal year 2026. And the idea is to set aside additional funds to the tune of $4.8 million for that emergency management reserve so that we can deal with situations as they arise. We know that there are some uncertainties as it relates to emergency management at the federal level. And we don't know what that will mean for our city. And so, I just want to make sure that we are fully prepared. And I'm just very grateful for the BAB support for that initiative. The preliminary budget includes a placeholder of $2 million for our contributions to community organizations and nonprofits, which has been our traditional level of support. We are including potentially some new organizations based on some discussions with the commission. And we want to make sure that the nonprofits continue to have support from the city, given that there are other funding sources that are disappearing or becoming very limited. This year, we're also highlighting very particularly and intentionally the overtime expenses for public safety. So, our police department participates in several city-sponsored events. And when we are looking at those events, we don't always take into account the overtime costs that are associated. So, we just wanted to highlight that more explicitly this year. And so, we are recommending that we maintain the millage rate that we had last year. And for the past 19 years or 18 years, this would be the 19th consecutive year at 4.1193 for our millage rate. We do think that this year wasn't an anomaly, a unicorn. We didn't anticipate getting the PFAS settlement. We didn't anticipate the level of the fire assessment. And so, we're looking at this as a great opportunity for one-time expenditures. And we're also filling some gaps with our personnel. There are several areas in our city that have been underfunded and we haven't met the service expectation. We're also putting forward 18 FTEs for the Prospect Lake Clean Water Center. So, that's driving a lot of our personnel additions. So, at this time, I'm going to turn it over to Laura Reese to go through our presentation. And thank you, Laura, very much for your diligence during this time. And we'll follow that up with Yvette Matthews. Great. Thank you, Raquel. Good afternoon. And it's been an interesting budget process. So, the city manager started right when we were ready for city manager meetings. So, I first would like to acknowledge her for jumping in headfirst with us and really digging in and asking all the questions and getting really comfortable with a budget that we could recommend together. I'd also like to acknowledge the budget advisory board, as Bill mentioned. And they meet 14 times a year. I believe they're the hardest working board in the city. And they also meet with you three times per year. So, this board digs in. They ask all of the taxpayer-related questions. They make sure that, you know, staff's on point and that we're accountable to the public. So, thanks to the budget advisory board. I'd like to also take time and acknowledge the Office of Management and Budget. The whole team's here today to answer questions. And so, I'd ask them to stand up, but they have laptops on their lap because they're going to be, like, finding answers to all of your questions as we move along. And a special thanks to my colleague, Yvette Matthews, who's the acting director of Office of Management and Budget. She's really stepped up this year and led the city through the process. So, thanks to Yvette. She'll be my co-presenter today. So, I did not test this out. Okay. So, here's an overview of the items Yvette and I will be reviewing with you. I'll be reviewing ad valorem and the increases there, the fire assessment, and how the rate adjustments look on the tax bill if you were to go with the staff recommendations. I'll also be reviewing key revenue and expenditure changes. Then I'll turn it over to Yvette. She's going to talk to you about strategic enhancements, commission priorities, and how the recommendations align with your priorities, special event funding, community investment plan, replacement plans, and planning for the future. And, Mayor, if it's okay with you, we're happy to take questions as we move along through the presentation. But, you know, that's at your pleasure. Okay. I think that's the most productive. So, if anyone on the commission or anyone from the committee has any questions during the presentation, please just, you know, let me know. We can, we'll stop and answer the questions at that time. Thank you. Okay. Great. And so, just to clarify, most of this presentation is about the general fund budget. And the reason we focus in on the budget or the general fund budget at this point in the year, as a reminder, is that on June 30th, the earliest meeting ever, you'll be setting those maximum millage rates, the fire assessment rate, and those assessments that will go on the trim notice. So, we really wanted to make sure that everyone's comfortable with the recommendations before the proposed budget comes out. Manager Williams? Oh, I thought you. Okay. So, that's kind of the purpose of today's meeting. So, for ad valorem, as the manager mentioned, we received good news from the property appraiser. The June 1st value indicated an 8.15% increase over the final taxable value from last year. And this will generate an additional $17.1 million to the general fund to support needed services. This is an 8.15% or the 8.15% increase equates to a 7.3% revenue increase. That's because of the value adjustment board adjustments between when the budget was adopted and the final valuations. So, general fund revenues are 48% made up of the ad valorem revenue. And that's a really good statistic, a good place to be when our bond raiders come to look at us. They want to know we have diversified revenue sources. And the fact that we're less than 50% reliant on property taxes is a positive thing for our city. Another important thing to note is that our net new construction was up again this year. So, last year, it was down to a half a billion dollars in net new construction. This year, it was up again to $1.1 billion, which is 23% of our increase for the year. So, that's a key point. We hope that net new construction continues to increase to drive our revenues into the future. 75% of our tax base is made up of residential properties. And of that, around half of the properties are homesteaded. So, the homesteaded properties are capped at 3% in a year. But the non-residential and the non-homesteaded properties are not capped. So, we're in a good position in terms of the makeup of our tax base moving forward as well. So, fire assessment update. So, this is new information for this year. Every three years, the city goes through a study and looks at our fire assessment. And really, the purpose of this study is to look at all the fire rescue costs and to distribute those for the costs that are to suppress fire versus those to conduct EMS-related services. And then those costs are allocated among various types of properties. This year, the full cost recovery rate went from $328 per year per residential property to $403, which is an increase of $75 from last year. And as the manager mentioned, this would generate around $10.4 million if we go to full cost recovery and will allow us to fund some much-needed capital costs related to three fire stations. One is a fire bond project that's still underway, Fire Station 13. And the other two are new stations that are being constructed, the full-service downtown EMS Station 88 and the Heron Garage substation. And it also allows us to continue to fund the staffing levels as the SAFER grant expires in two years. Laura, it's Ben. Can I jump in there for a second? Absolutely. Hey, thanks, Mayor. Thanks, Laura. And, Mayor, I don't know if this is a good time to mention this, but I've been talking with the city manager's office and Laura, Mayor, about exploring the possibility of a fire assessment exemption for disabled veterans. And Laura's done some analysis of that, Mayor. And so I'd like to talk about that at some point, Mayor. I don't know if now is the right time or whenever you like. Well, first of all, it sounds to me like you've already asked the question. And has any analysis been done as to what impact it would have on the revenue? Yeah, Laura did an analysis of that. Yeah. So, if I may, if we exempted VA, our folks who qualify for a VA exemption at the highest level this year, it would result in approximately a $150,000 decrease in revenue to the general fund. And that would be allowable. It would just be a reduction in revenue to the general fund. All right. So it's not a big impact, but it would be for the individual. Correct. Okay. It's certainly something we can talk about then. It makes a lot of sense. So, but it's good that you brought it up now. So now we know you're, it's been, it's been discussed and analyzed. And Mayor, just, I'll give you a little bit more detail. It's, so, and Laura, correct me if my language is wrong on any of this, but in the city, Mayor and Commissioners, there's 372 properties currently that receive 100% VA exemption on their property taxes, 372 properties. 97 properties in the city receive a partial VA exemption for service-related disability. So, you know, you're looking at a total of around 469 or so properties. So, and again, Laura mentioned the total impact would be, I think, $153,832. So, I don't know on timing whether to discuss, when to discuss that, Mayor, but that's the, that's, those are the details. Okay. Thank you. And, and, and, uh, uh, Dwayne is missing. Um, at some point, I'd like to ask a question regarding the use of funds that are derived from the fire assessment. Can we, is it legal to use fire suppression funds for capital expenditures? I don't, I didn't know if we could do that, but, um, but perhaps at some point we can get the answer to that. Um, Mayor, our fire assessment consultant has advised that it is allowable and we have done it in the past as well. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. Please proceed. Could I just tap into that? Yeah. Go ahead. So, so Laura, just to clarify on that though. So, so we capture capital costs as part of the overall cost study, which then is built into the fire assessment phase as opposed to a specific item. Right. So, so if I remember correctly, unless we've changed our methodology, we look at our operating costs and then there's a capital cost component that becomes part of the operating costs as well. So similar to what we do with what used to be the old 87 cost plan, are we still doing it that way or we have a different methodology now? Um, we used, uh, we use the actual project costs that we appropriate that are directly related to fire. Um, so it would be the cost of fire station, 1388. Right. But we, do we do it in one year though? We're spreading it over three. Right. Okay. The cost recovery over three years because the assessment is done every three years. Okay. So if we build a new building, so let's use a fire station, for example, we build a fire station that has an anticipated useful life of 40 years. You're saying we're recovering the cost of that all in three years. The cash funded portion it's recovered in the three years in the current study, not over the useful life of the building. Correct. Okay. So then presumably once we've done that, our fire assessment fee potentially could drop somewhat substantially. Yes. So that's part of the reason why last year it did drop is because we had fire station, 13 costs the year before last. And then last year we, we saw a slight decline in our fire assessment fee, um, because we no longer had that fire station, 13 costs to recover. Okay. I'm just, I'm surprised at that. Cause like I said, normally you would, you would recoup a cost over the anticipated useful life of the building. Why are we doing an accelerated cost recovery? It was, we shared the costs with our consultants as we designed the rate. And that's the recommendation that they came back with was recovering that cash funded amount over three years. Could you ask them to reach out to me? I'd like to discuss that with them. Thank you. Correct. Okay. Please proceed. Okay. Um, anything more on fire assessment before I move along? Okay. So, um, in the city of Fort Lauderdale, the average, um, single family home is about the taxable value is $641,000. And so this is a sneak peek at what the tax bill might look like for somebody who has an average single family home in the upcoming year. So at the current millage rate, um, they would see an increase in their tax bill, even if they're homesteaded because, um, the save our homes exemption allows up to 3% this year, the CPI is 2.9%. So they would see a $74 or 2.9% increase there for voter approved debt. The, um, millage rate would actually go down because as our tax base increases, the debt service rate goes down to pay for the same payment. Um, so that would be a decrease of $15 or 9.4%. For stormwater assessment, um, understanding we have a significant number of capital projects that we're trying to support through debt financing. Um, we're planning on increasing that by 15%. And we'll talk more about that when we do our revenue sufficiency rate modeling. And so that would result in a $49 increase or 15%. And we just spoke about fire assessment, which would be a $75 or 22% increase to our neighbors. And that would equate to $183 or around $15, um, per month per 15, 25 per month. For a $641,000 house. For a $641,000 house. Yeah. So that's an overview. Any questions on this? Nope. Okay. So I'll highlight a few of the driving factors between general fund expense increases. As in prior years, public safety expenses are increasing the largest in terms of the category, $17.4 million. And then salary and benefits in terms of a category, which is $19.3 million. They drive the majority of the expense increases from 25 to 26. Also of note is a new debt service payment that we anticipate to come online this coming year of $3.2 million. That's to support the extra funding that we needed to issue, um, to complete the police headquarters. And, um, also $1.9 million increase in scheduled capital equipment plan replacements. E-Bet will be talking a little bit more about that later in the presentation, but we want to make sure for every equipment purchase that we make that we replace it timely so that we have, um, our equipment in good working order. Um, the CIP fund had some fund balance, so we were able to decrease the transfer to that fund while keeping the same level of investment in our capital plan. And there's $1.5 million reduction this year in the funds that we are appropriating for micro transit. And that's because surtax can now support those expenses. Um, also of note is a $1.1 million reduction in the special obligation loans due to refinancing and some savings we saw there. And, uh, finally, the CRA, um, the partial extension of the CRA resulted in a partial reduction offset by increase in costs in the central city, or increase in taxable values in both the central city and the Northwest Progresso area, resulting in a net decreased transfer from the general fund of $4.6 million. Okay. And key revenue changes from 25, um, the highlights here are in addition to ad valorem and fire assessment revenue increases, other notable increases include increases in franchise fees and utility fees. Um, these are fees that are paid directly by our neighbors and it's, um, really the increase in the costs that you're paying to FPL or people's gas are increasing and the increase in use as we get additional revenues and visitors to our city. Um, also there's one time revenue associated with the PFAS settlement that the manager mentioned in 2026, we anticipate that amount to be around $4.8 million. And, um, we also... Is that, that's not, that's, that doesn't end there, right? There's still more money coming from that settlement, correct? There's money in fiscal year 25 that we anticipate at about $14.3 million and we'll be bringing a budget amendment to that effect. For 25? For fiscal year 25. The current year? Yes. Yes. $14.3 million. Are we going to discuss that at some point? Oh, we certainly can. And this might be an opportunity to do so. So... So perhaps at the end of your presentation we can talk about that. Sure. All right. Thank you. All right. And, uh, another notable increase is the increase in cost allocation charges to other funds based upon services provided by our general fund internal service, um, like HR, office of management and budget finance and those sort of services. And then also there's a decrease in appropriated fund balance in the amount of $4.6 million, um, which is an amount we used to help to balance the budget last year. So all in all, that left some, um, funds available that the manager and team were able to strategically invest to be aligned with the city commission's priorities. And I'm going to share the presentation with Yvette Matthews who get to share that fun overview with you. Thank you, Laura. Yvette Matthews, acting director of the office of management and budget. And Mary, you asked about PFAS settlement, uh, funding that comes in in future years. It's about a million dollars for the next four million or four years. And then it steps down to about $600,000 for another about four years. So is there, is there a current, um, is there, the city manager indicated there's, there's a, an amount of money that will, is that in addition to the 4.8 million? Yes. So we're anticipating the 14 million this fiscal year. And what the manager was referencing is there's been a discussion about how we can utilize those funds to advance some of our capital project needs. And then this budget includes the 4.8 million that's anticipated for next year. Okay, great. Thank you. Awesome. So I get to talk about some of the enhancements that we're making this year, and it's really exciting, um, the efforts that are being made. They focus on a lot of the different needs that we've heard from the community, both through our neighbor survey, we've heard from the commission, um, through commission goal setting. And so I've highlighted a few of them, but the full listing is available in the preliminary budget memo. So if you'd like to do a deeper dive, all of that information is available in attachment to, um, so in the city manager's office, the enhancements really focus on three things, homelessness, economic development, as well as providing assistance to our neighbors in homelessness, we're expanding our supportive services, our sheltering services programs in two different ways. The first way is providing some, um, condition-based services for individuals. So individuals that are experiencing substance abuse challenges, as well as mental health challenges, really targeting those populations to ensure that they have access to housing that can provide some, uh, stability as they're making that transition, as well as funding for a safe parking pilot program. This has come before the commission a few times. Um, really this funding is to give the city an opportunity to see whether or not that pilot program would be an effective use for the city. Um, under economic development, we have the airport workforce training program build out. Um, a lot of this is one time related expenses, but it's to build out a program. Um, where we would be able to train aviation technicians. This is something that we've seen in a lot of our economic development studies as well. Um, this budget also includes funding to continue student scholarships, as well as a new program. It's called Municipal Services Affordability Program, but really this is our water affordability program. And the idea is to help our neighbors that are unable to meet their, uh, water bill, providing up to $300 a year in financial support. So this really has, uh, opportunity to impact up to 500 families on the development services side. We've, for the last few years, talked about how we built out cultural affairs. This budget realizes that vision by providing a couple of different, uh, funding sources, a funding source for temporary and permanent art installation, as well as sponsorship of art programs and art activation events, as well as some administrative support for that program to really make sure that the commission's vision on cultural affairs is brought to fruition. Um, there's also funding for the sailboat bend historic district, as well as the hemorrhage, his, uh, district for some small street activation plans. These are really small funding, uh, sources that are intended to activate these areas and provide the funding that's needed to make sure that we're really realizing the vision that we had for these areas. And finally, um, the finance department for the last eight years has really been operating with the same staffing level for their accounting and financial reporting team. Even though the city has seen tremendous growth, we've implemented a new ERP system. This budget provides two additional accountant positions to ensure that we have the resources to make sure that we're maximizing the use of our ERP system and effectively processing the transactions that are coming before the city. Could I, could I jump in on that? Yes, sir. Because the whole idea of an ERP system is to enhance efficiencies and reduce the head count. We don't put in ERP systems and then hire more people. So help me understand that where this is counterintuitive. Yeah. So there are two things that happen with the implementation of Enfor. The first is we realized that as we're actually handling the, uh, bank reconciliations and the posting associated with Enfor before we could handle a lot of things in batches. Um, the current system really does line item transactions, which does require additional staff time and really staff time on the finance side to make sure that those transactions are appropriately accounted for. And while we have received some efficiencies with the implementation of Enfor, specifically on the department side and the way that we're able to report information, their growth of the city has, um, tremendously increased the number of payments that we're processing, capital projects that we're, um, dealing with and the complexity of the transactions that we're dealing with. So it's really a twofold system. It's one, the line item details that we're now dealing with in the new system, which is great from a reporting standpoint. We couldn't have this robust reporting without that line item detail, but it also does create some additional staff effort associated with it. Okay. I've just never gone through a system implementation that requires us to hire more people. Again, the whole idea of ERP is less people. I know, but that, that also just points to the fact that we bought the wrong ERP system, but that's okay. That's a, that's a whole nother conversation for another day. Any other questions? I have a couple of questions. Oh, yes, sir. So let's go back to the first part of that under the city manager's office. Can you be, um, um, can you give us more clarity on the homeless supportive shelter services for $250,000? What does that entail? I will actually turn it over to Chris Cooper, who is extremely passionate about this program and let him have an opportunity to share more about it. Thank you. Yeah. Good afternoon, Mayor and Commissioners. Chris Cooper, Acting Assistant City Manager. What this funding will do is, is extend a program we've partnered with, um, for several months now that we've partnered with through a grant from the state. It's, uh, Fellowship Recovery Residences and Homes United, which provides emergency shelter, but also mental health, um, services. So we are, our grant ends on June 30th, and these, these providers have provided us with good service. It's, it's been a positive experience, so this would extend that through the next fiscal year. So this is going to cover housing as well as supportive services? Okay. And this is supplemental to a budget we already have, or this is the entire budget? So this would be the entire budget for the year. Um, we believe that the volume that we've used this, these services at this year, this would fund the need going into next year. So what this would do is it would add to our, uh, resources for shelter services. The commission currently funds, and we, we just extended the agreement for a year with a facility in, um, Hollywood, which is called the Caring Place, and that provides supportive services and emergency shelter services. Uh, this adds to our, our toolkit, um, services related, again, towards shelter with substance abuse, um, services as well, treatment, as well as, uh, services with mental health treatment. So it broadens and it diversifies our opportunities to refer folks that we encounter that are in need and ready for services. Okay. Um, and the next item, safe parking pilot program. What is that? So, um, when we've made presentations in the past, the commission about other potential, um, avenues for folks that might be in need and as a way to get them into the, uh, into services that safe parking would be an opportunity to do that. We know that there are folks in the community that do sleep and live in their cars in various places. A lot of times they're behind shopping centers or businesses within our community. And when they do that, they're doing it just to sleep, but they're not getting the services they may need to transition into a more permanent housing situation. So this, this would fund a pilot program for us for a year to figure out if this program works for us as a city, if it is beneficial and to see if it's something that we would want to engage in, into the future on a more permanent basis. Okay. Thank you. Thanks. Anyone else have any questions on these items? Um, so I have just one more list. Um, no, keep, no, keep going. Don't worry. Oh, okay. Of enhancements. Um, and really within our fire rescue department, um, one of the things that the chief was extremely passionate about was an officer development program. This is intended to be a two year program. As we had an influx of new, uh, fire rescue personnel, the chief wanted to make sure that we were positioning them for long-term success within our organization. Um, and so this will be about $300,000 for two years for that program. There's also funding in here for a classification and compensation study. You've heard a lot about turnover within our organization and some challenges with recruiting. The intent here is to make sure that we're well positioned, not only to recruit staff, but also to retain staff with a competitive compensation package. Um, and then the last thing that's on here for parks is we're starting, um, the build out of a smart irrigation controller program for some of our medians. So we started this program a few years ago where we expanded, um, how we were, uh, beautifying our medians. This allows us to use solar powered irrigation controllers, which will allow us to determine when we should be actually watering our medians to enhance the beautification, but also to reduce our water usage. So this program is actually going to pay for itself over a three year period with the water savings that accompanies it. Um, Mayor, sorry, I just had a question there. Go ahead, Dan. Uh, thank you. Thank you. The one-time FIFA World Cup and U.S. uh, semi-quincentennial. Can you tell me a little bit about those? Absolutely. These are two very exciting events and the mayor might, uh, want to lead this one for me, but I'll start it off. So for FIFA, we are going to be fortunate enough to host the FIFA, uh, World Cup in South Florida next year. And really this is an opportunity to brand ourselves internationally. Um, one of the things that you hear about FIFA is it's like seven world, uh, seven Super Bowls in a year. And so it's not only exposure for our city, but it's also an opportunity for our neighbors to be able to celebrate, um, this monumental event coming to our area. And the second part of that is also next year is the 250th birthday of our country. Um, and we're going to start off that, uh, celebration with a New Year's Eve celebration. And both of these are one-time funding, which is important to note because these aren't things that happen every year. Um, but really they both serve as an opportunity for us to, uh, bring our community together to celebrate these monumental events. So Ben, let me elaborate a little bit on what, uh, you had just said. First of all, um, two things. One, uh, the FIFA World Cup, I want to be careful about that because, um, there's been a lot of, uh, difficulties, uh, and, and moving forward with the, with the, uh, engagement of countries and players that are coming to South Florida to participate in FIFA. Um, ticket sales have plummeted, uh, the prices have plummeted because everyone's afraid to come to the United States who might find themselves in an untoward situation. Because they're not a, uh, uh, U.S. national. Uh, just recently, I understand, um, Mayor, uh, Levine Cava hosted a, a reception for FIFA officials and it was raided by ICE. So, uh, we can't have that in our city. So we have to be very careful about what we do. Also, sitting on the Tourist Development Council, um, there are, there are numerous attempts, outreach attempts by FIFA to secure funding for various, uh, promotional programs for FIFA, which we have pushed back on because the actual FIFA is not taking place in Broward County. If anything, whatever games are going to be played are going to be at the Hard Rock Stadium, which are not in Broward County. Um, the, the, um, the only time I understand that, um, soccer players will be participating in Broward County would be at our, at the Chase Stadium, but only for practice sessions, no competition play because the stadium is much too small to accommodate the number of players, excuse me, the number of, of, uh, spectators that would come to participate. So, um, so I'm not sure how much of that 700,000 should go towards, towards the FIFA thing. So we have to figure that out. Okay. Secondly, can I just echo that? Yeah, go ahead. So before you move on to the other thing, I want to, I want to chime in on that. And I want to say, I agree with you completely on that. When I saw that I've been reading about FIFA and it's, it's all focused on Hard Rock, which as you say, last time I checked is not in Broward County, let alone Fort Lauderdale. So I'm very, I'm very cautious about spending money to promote something that's extra territorial to the city and, and the County. Uh, you know, if anything, that's, that's a County or a regional kind of a, a thing to pay for. I don't think that's a city. Um, I don't think that's a city event in any way, shape or form. So if there was some way to capitalize on it, I, I'm, I'm with you, but, uh, even, even the TDC is, you know, pushing back on it because we don't see the, you know, the, the, the benefit from it, but putting that aside for a moment, cause there's, there's, there's further discussion to be had. Um, the new year's Eve celebration that I have been talking with folks about, um, and I believe that's what you're referring to. I want to share this with the commission. Um, it is the 250th anniversary of these, of the country. It's amazing. I can't, I can't believe it seemed like yesterday I was celebrating the 200th birthday. Um, and, and then I was celebrating the 200th birthday in Newport, as a matter of fact, with two, there was a tall ships, uh, event. There you go. Yes. Um, but I, I met with the, um, I met with the local executive, uh, here for live nation a couple of weeks ago about maybe doing, uh, a concert at the chase stadium with some a list entertainers and collaborating with inter Miami to help underwrite this and to, um, celebrate the, you know, the, the new year's Eve celebration that we normally do on Himershey street and with the dropping of the anchor and all of that, but bring the party over to the chase stadium, do a much, much bigger event. And, uh, and live nation loves the idea. So they're working on it and, um, uh, they didn't ask for any money from us, but they, they think that they may be able to get, um, much of it underwritten by, uh, by inter Miami. If you're listening, inter Miami, we're knocking on your door, but, um, no, seriously, um, to me, that would be a much more appropriate expenditure of funds. If we have, if we have the funds to spend on such a thing, and it would certainly showcase Fort Lauderdale being in Fort Lauderdale and being a way to, uh, to usher in, you know, 2026 as a celebration of our, is it called sesquicentennial? So one of our amazing analysts actually, uh, found this word and I Googled it three times. So yes, it seems like you got it right. I was afraid to say it out loud. Is that what it is? Yes. Yes. That's what it is. Um, Mayor, if I could just add a little bit more clarity around, uh, the FIFA World Cup activation, it would be about 350,000 out of that $700,000 figure that you see. And it's truly an international, uh, sports tourism and economic development opportunity. But what would, what would we spend it on? We would like to leverage our, uh, financial commitment with Visit Lauderdale and Broward County. My understanding is that the request to the county will be discussed in August and the request is about 2.5 million. So our 350,000 would just be to supplement and to ensure that Fort Lauderdale has a stake in whatever activations come out of that. Okay. Uh, but having this, this came up at a discussion at the last tourist development council meeting and, um, this, the general sentiment was, what are we getting out of it? So even though the ask is for two and a half million, uh, I would want to hold back and wait and see exactly what, what, what that money's going to go towards and how we're going to profit from that. Because honestly, personally, I don't see any gain from it when nothing's happening in Fort Lauderdale, nothing's happening at Chase stadium of consequence. So if it's all happening in Miami Dade County, um, and even Miami Dade County is only one of many places where one of many venues where soccer competition is taking place. And also in, in our venerable sun Sentinel this past week, um, it was reported that ticket sales, which started out at 300 and something, $360 a piece are now down to 35 to $50 a piece because people are not buying the tickets because they're afraid to come to the U S and especially those countries that where travel is now banned completely. Um, you know, we're seeing a diminished demand on, um, for the, for this, uh, for these games, which is a shame, but it's a reality. So anyway, we'll, I, I, you know, I appreciate your, you're wanting to participate, but let's just walk towards this, uh, effort gingerly. Okay. Absolutely. Thank you. Yeah, mayor. Thanks. And that's why I brought it up. So yeah, I just, I'd like greater fidelity on that. And Raquel, I'd like to, you know, I'd like to better understand what FIFA's, uh, desires are and so forth. So, um, I just like to be included in those discussions. Thanks. Certainly. And mayor, I might add from, from the Babs perspective on that, we questioned that, uh, in detail too, last week when this was presented and we had some of the same concerns, making sure, especially that the county, uh, which received so much more from the hotel and bed tax and what we get back. And now we're putting some, some skin in this, in their game to support that the county makes, if we go this avenue and do this, that the county steps up and contributes significantly as well. Well, the county, the county, the tourist development tax, uh, income, um, certainly it goes into that account, you know, through the bed tax, uh, collections. So the, you know, what, so what portion of that do we get? Nothing. Right. So, um, uh, so there's definitely a return on investment for them. Um, ours is more in, more, less tangible, say. And so, um, so we'll see. We'll see how it goes. More branding of Fort Lauderdale and what we have to offer. Yeah. We'll see how it goes. We'll see how it goes. I mean, if there's a host hotel, for example, on the beach, if they pick a, you know, one of the hotels like Conrad or Four Seasons or whatever, uh, and they're saying, you know, this is going to be a host hotel for this team or something like that. But I, I still don't know. I don't see the, how we've, how we've benefited from that. But, but again, as this, as this, uh, subject is further discussed, we'll just see what the county's response is. And again, on the TDC, um, uh, we'll see what we ultimately decide to do. Thank you, Yvette. Awesome. Um, in the police department, you'll see a few one-time related expenses for special events, technology, um, technology enhancements. These are really intended to be more force multipliers for the police department, bringing everything from LPR or license plate readers to cameras, um, to support their ability to monitor activity in given areas. And the other one, the city manager spoke to when she was giving her opening remarks and it's really on special events over time. So over the years, the amount of effort or amount of staffing that our police department has had to put forth to make sure that we're secure at these larger and larger special events has increased. And so what this budget does is memorialize the contribution that they're already making to make sure that the budget is reflective of that amount. And this amount was generated using historic actuals. So it's aligned with what we've seen over the last few years. Um, and then there's a position. Yes, sir. Can I comment? Um, so, um, this past week, uh, what's today? Tuesday? So I guess it was Monday. Uh, I, uh, I visited, uh, Nova Southeastern University and was given another tour of the innovation center there. Uh, and, uh, they have some technology there that I, I really invite our, uh, police chief, our fire chief, and our city manager to go witness. Um, it makes the license plate reader program look juvenile compared to the technologies that now exist to be able to enhance the safety features for our entire city. So, um, this budget may seem too small for what the possibilities are. And I think that, um, uh, in fact, the person who gave me the tour was Kelly Shanley, who is now, you know, he's now evolved into a completely different role. And, uh, uh, and it was amazing what they have there to be able to map out hotspots in real time, uh, using, using, uh, advanced technology and to be able to, um, you know, really keep folks in our city, uh, as safe as possible. So at some point we'll, we'll hook you all up and we'll see where that money actually can best be spent. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you. Um, sorry, if I can just go back. Thanks. Um, to a couple of questions. One, Raquel, are we doing an analysis of deploying ShotSpotter citywide and the cost that would be? Yes, that is something that we are exploring. I know that our ShotSpotter locations right now have been positioned based on data. And so we can definitely expand that program, uh, but it would need that analysis to be completed. Okay. And we're working on that. Great. Thanks. And then are there with a special event over time, what are, are, I mean, some of them are obviously very intuitive, but option possibilities to try to lessen that expenditure. Are there any ways to find some cost savings there? Come on, chief, how are you going to save us a couple of million dollars in general on the overtime front, uh, looking at special events as well as overtime that is incurred on a regular basis. We're looking at some mitigation strategies, our police department and each bureau has come up with some strategies that are currently being implemented because we're seeing some overages and overtime expenditures. And so one of the primary ways that we can reduce special event over time is to reduce the number of special events that we have. And I'll allow the chief to add to that. Good afternoon, mayor and commissioners, uh, Bill Schultz, chief of police, uh, commissioner Glassman, go Panthers. Um, yes, absolutely. What the city manager just stated. And also it's important to consider, uh, in my tenure here, I'm in my 24th year of service, the number of events, both city sponsored and privately funded have just grown exponentially. But each year, the challenges of protecting those events becomes more and more intensive for police. Uh, for instance, during the Stonewall pride parade this past weekend, because of the increased presence of screening, uh, metal detection and security, uh, an individual was stopped as they entered the event. But that's what we're planning for now. Stop, but explain what he was carrying. He was carrying a loaded weapon with loaded magazines in addition to that. Right. And he passed through the metal detector. Correct. But when, but, um, but the police officers detected something more and they took him aside and they frisked him and that's how they found out. Yes. In the past, had they not budgeted for extra personnel, that person might've gone through and created havoc. Budgeted for metal detection and extra personnel both. So as we begin to, uh, every year, when we begin to look at our current existing events and especially new events that are coming, there are new challenges each year to secure those events. And that's exactly what the city manager touched on. And that's what we're working together to determine what level do we need? How much is that going to cost in sworn personnel versus, uh, non-sworn, say traffic control personnel? Those are all considerations that we take into when we're planning every event. Yeah. Thanks chief. Appreciate it. Thanks mayor. And, um, you know, mayor, this is another reason why I think we really need to take a hard look at the number of events we have in the city and really reduce the number of events and have caps on number of events. It's from the infrastructure wear and tear to police, you know, demands that we're putting on them. I think for all these reasons, we've really got to do a better job, uh, of that. And, um, Raquel, where are we in the, I think it's going to parks and rec for a suggestion of evaluating, you know, limiting the number of events and increasing the permit fees. I believe that we'll be coming back to the commission after the break with feedback from the advisory board as it relates to sponsorships, number of events, and those particulars. Okay. All right. Great. Great. I think this just underscores the need to really, um, evaluate to, to be more financially, uh, uh, appropriate. So, okay. Mayor, thank you. You're welcome. Let me ask you a question about this, uh, overtime expenditure. Don't we, don't we have cost recovery, like if there's an organization, uh, that is going to have an event and they get a permit, don't we build in cost recovery? Um, so the special event over time that we're referring to are the city special events, the ones in which we're hosting them ourselves. So our 4th of July, those type of events, as well as spring break is the other major cost driver. Okay. Um, so it's not something that's sponsored by another organization. It's really, the city is the organization that's putting on the event. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Um, and I'll kind of speed up just a little bit to make sure that we still have sufficient time for the BAB to share their comments. Um, but in your, in the preliminary budget memo, it highlights a few things that highlights, um, your commission priorities related to public safety. And we just want to note that we've added 91 sworn personnel in our police and fire department since 2023. This year, the city manager really focused on infrastructure, support personnel and equipment to make sure that our public safety departments are fully equipped and staffed and ready to serve our neighbors. Um, there's a highlight in the packet, which is your attachment five on our homelessness response. Chris gave a really good overview of some of the new initiatives that we have, but really we put $13 million into homelessness response this year, or we're anticipating next year. Um, that includes $3.3 million from the general fund, as well as $9.7 million from grant funding. And it's important to note that it's not just our response to homelessness, but also preventing future homelessness. It's something that we aim for with our grant supported funding. And then this year, the commission added a new, uh, priority related to the enjoyment of our public waterways and continued your focus on resilience for the city. And so attachment sits of the preliminary budget memo really goes into detail about the funding that's aligned for those items. And it includes everything from a new solar panel pilot program, as well as electric, electronic, um, or electric vehicle charging stations. And then for our enjoyment of the waterways, increasing the water quality testing and the point source, uh, testing or mapping that we'll be doing over the next year. Um, in your attachment three, there's a full list of how the various funding aligns with the commission priorities, but you've heard about the things that we're doing to, uh, bolster our thriving communities, as well as our public spaces and cultural initiatives. And commissioner Sorenson asked about the number of events or was concerned about the number of events. We have 33 city hosted events. Um, that is $2.7 million in operational funding, 600,000 in police security related expenses. This doesn't include the 1.2 million that we provide in police security expenses related to spring break. And this is just a quick snapshot of those events. Um, you've seen this list year over year, the two additions this year would be the 150th anniversary, uh, new year's Eve celebration, as well as the FIFA, which we've discussed already. And finally, as we look to our community investment plan, which is our, how we outline to our neighbors over the next five years, what we'll be doing, um, to build our infrastructure, you'll notice that we're keeping our commitment to sidewalk streets, seawalls. Um, it's starting this year for sidewalks at $1.5 million by 2030, that amount is growing to $3.6 million in addition to some of the new investments that we're making, which Laura discussed in our fire stations. So we have three fire stations that we're providing capital funding for this year, um, as well as bridge restorations and, um, bridge replacements as well. And this is just a quick snapshot of over the next five years. So then it's for, um, what other investments we're making. The full listing is available in the preliminary budget memo and attachment eight, so that you can see the five year schedule. And finally, our replacement plans. We've really invested in this from a staff perspective over the last few years. We wanted to make sure that even if we're making a commitment in one year, that the equipment that we're buying will be prepared to replace when it's time to replace it. So that our public safety personnel, our public works personnel are not using aged equipment. They're always using equipment that is prepared for them to do the job that they're intended to do. And so we have everything, replacement plans for everything from our service animals to our license plate readers, um, in it, our laptops and, you know, our radio related equipment, all of these things. We're not just preparing for today and tomorrow. We're really preparing for the years to come to make sure that we continue to be not only financially sustainable, but also have the equipment that we need to, um, excel at our roles. All right. Yes. I'm sorry to interrupt with regards to the replacement plan. So, and maybe Raquel can also chime in. Um, where are we, um, uh, with regards to the Las Olas garage and also the beach wave wall? These are two, two projects that have been just hanging around forever and ever and ever and ever. Um, and really we, we need to get them repaired and replaced and fixed. And I just would love to know where we are. I know we have outside counsel with regards to the Las Olas garage. Um, and I also know that we're waiting for some other, um, proposals and agenda items with regards to the wave wall. But I just love to know where we are and if we are going to have the funds, uh, in this fiscal year coming up, um, to deal with that, hopefully even in fiscal year 2025, actually. Good afternoon, Mayor Carl Williams, Parks and Recreation Director. Uh, as it relates to the wave wall, uh, we actually had conversations today, um, that is going out for solicitation. Um, I anticipate that to go out this week. I just had a conversation with our procurement, uh, manager. Um, we currently have the test area done, which is directly across from the loop, which is done. Um, I was also made aware that we don't specifically have funding for the wave ball, but we will be using facility, uh, funding to fund it. And, um, that is our plan to address the area. So that is in the works. When, Carl, when do you see that wave wall, uh, lighting actually coming to fruition? So based on our past efforts, if we're able to get a qualified, uh, vendor to perform the work, uh, it'll be 30 days if we go out to bid, I'm going to use July just as an example. Um, August, we'll have to, you know, do the pre-bids, uh, review of those solicitations. Um, then we'll start to identify that vendor, do the, um, selection committee portion of it. Once we have that dollar amount and we can fit within our budget, we will then, um, proceed forward with the vendor to do the work. Um, I, I'm kind of hesitant to give you an exact time because I know this has been a, uh, longstanding project, but it is my hope that towards the end of this year, that project will start. Sure. Okay. Great. Thank you. But do we know what product is available? We're not going to use the same product. So it's not just going out to bid. Do we have specifications? Do we have a product in mind? Or are we just going to be an unsolicited proposal that we're seeking? So we actually have both. So that we have received an unsolicited proposal for it. And that's kind of like our, our backup plan. If this particular doesn't go through. Okay. Um, but we did revise those plans associated with this upcoming bid from the past. Okay. Now let's go to the second question. The commissioner asked, let's talk about the Las Olas garage. Um, there have been, we've been, they've gotten their people out there. We've got our people out there and, uh, where, what's the status? Glenn, what's going on? Good afternoon, Miloš Mojstorjevic, acting director for city transportation and mobility department. So for Las Olas garage, we had a solicitation, uh, that was, uh, posted out there a couple of, uh, weeks ago. We received eight proposals that, um, are basically with the goal of repairing, uh, facade, uh, decorative lights. Evaluation committee will be meeting within the next four weeks or so, I believe, uh, mid July, uh, to go over the proposals. And, uh, we will, we plan on coming back to you with our recommendations related to the proposals. Uh, there is about $3 million that we do have if we receive a direction from the city commission to go ahead and repair the lights. Now there is a separate, uh, and connected effort, uh, which is led by our city attorney's office that has to do with, uh, uh, with, uh, um, um, warranty. Right. Not just the lights, but also the screening. That is right. So the solicitation was really focused on, uh, repairing of the decorative lights and not the screening. Okay. But you know, we've been dancing around this issue for, um, several years now and we need to come, we need to make a decision. They had their experts out there. We had our experts out there. It's been months have passed. What is going on with regard to their liability to compensate the city for the defective lighting system? Uh, Dwayne Spence, uh, interim city attorney. Uh, we're still in the process of the 558 process. Um, I have gotten an update from outside counsel in terms of the, um, where we are in that process. Uh, their experts are now digging into some of the mechanical details. Okay. Wait, wait, wait, I've been hearing this now since the beginning of the year. We've got to make a decision about moving forward on this. They have, I mean, we need to sue them. We need to move. We need to, uh, this is getting, we can't keep going back and forth and waiting for them to do nothing. So we've agreed to enter into this process with regards to construction defects. And we've entered into a tolling agreement that expires at the end. Well, mid July, uh, July 12th of 2025, 2025. We can agree not to extend that, uh, agreement. I can schedule. Well, that's three, four weeks away. Okay. I mean, when are we going to realize that, you know, the time is not on our side anymore, we need to do something. And, and, you know, this is a multimillion dollar, uh, problem that the city is not going to pay for. So we need to, I don't know who our outside counsel are. I mean, we've met him, but what's, you know, this has been a very, very long period of time. This should not be taking this long. I think they think they're going to wear us down and we're going to forget about it and we're not going to forget about it. So we need to do something aggressively on this. And, and I don't know what we're waiting for because it's been months since their experts have come back with their own conclusions. Ours have, have had, uh, our experts have, have made their conclusions. Why nothing's happened in the meantime, I have no idea. So we need answers, right? When can we have, when can we have a response? Is the 558 issue dealing with the lighting and the mesh, the screening, both of those items? That's correct. It's dealing with both issues. Okay. So what, what's, what's the, what, what's the delay? And I'm just parroting what we're hearing from the community, by the way, I'm tired of being accosted on the beach. What's happening with our lights? And I don't have an answer for that. So I think you gave directed to staff in terms of moving forward with a procurement process to replace the lights. Although our council advised to wait until the process is completed. What process though, do we, what is, what is the, when does, when does the process end? Well, it's a complicated light system. It's a complicated meshing system. So we have our expert reports that have come in. We've provided it to the parties that have been involved. They've done their site inspections. We've had two site inspections and, uh, presently their experts have requested, uh, last site inspection was in, uh, March of this year. Uh, their experts are now reviewing certain components. And once the, uh, period ends, we enter into our pre, uh, pre suit mediation, uh, segment of this process. So I, is our, are our rights compromised by not filing suit before July 12th? Is that, is that become the statute of limitations deadline? No, it does not. Have we, have we, are we still within our rights on the statute of limitations to file a lawsuit to make our claim against the company that provided this product? Yes, because we've entered into this construction defect process. We, we have to exhaust this remedy before this is a process that goes before the actual filing of the lawsuit. Okay. And so when is that process going to begin this pre suit mediation? We expect that to begin in July. Okay. And is there a deadline within which time that has to come to some kind of conclusion? Do we know that yet? We do not. Okay. So can we hear back from your office by next meeting as to a timetable that we can anticipate in order to bring closure to this because procurement alone is not a solution procure. We know where we can buy new lights. Who's paying for them is the issue. And we've been dancing around on this for several years, not months, years. And we need to, we need to bring closure to this. They, we need to put their feet to the fire and say, look, you gave us bad stuff is damaged goods. You got to cough up the money. You have insurance. This is what insurance is for. We need to get this job done. These lights are dark for the last two years. So I'll ask Gary Brown to come to the meeting and address the commission directly. That would be, that would be one thing, but we still need, as a city, need to make a decision as how we're going to proceed going forward. Yeah. No, thank you, Mayor. I'm, it's the reason I brought up both of these items because this has been dragging on forever and ever and ever. Uh, you know, and as the Las Olas Marina has really taken shape now with the Marina opening and the restaurants and everything else that's happening down there as part of that entire, um, central base, basically that was the CRA projects that have all come to fruition. Uh, we've got to get this done. That's all. It's, it's way too, way too long. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, gentlemen. Awesome. And the last slide was really, um, just to go a little bit deeper into what the city manager reference related to the creation of an emergency reserve. And I understand this is a little bit different of a way of looking at it from the way our, his, our organization has historically looked at our use of fund balance. So we have a 25% fund balance target, um, which is what we strive to maintain really what we're seeing, not only in our city, but across the country is increased volatility associated with the effects of, uh, weather related events, the effects of some of the changes on the federal level related to how the federal government will support organizations through rather relate weather related events. And so the idea here is to create an emergency reserve, which just speaks to the fact that we have funds that are prepared that we are prepared to use in response to any of those critical weather related, uh, events, the bad provided some really good feedback about making sure that we're, um, setting aside some are establishing guidelines on how these funds would be used and how we're going to maintain this fund. And so that is something that we'll be working with the bab on over the next few months. We'll share that information with them. Um, um, but we know that just looking at our fund balance from the way that we use it today as more of a savings account to be able to quickly respond to increased capital needs, to be able to leverage grant opportunities this fiscal year alone, we spent $14.5 million just on those two areas alone. We really wanted to make sure that we had an emergency reserve that set aside for those events that go above and beyond just our regular occurrences. Well, and so if it isn't, hasn't it been our practice in the past that we dip into the fund balance? Let's say, for example, there's a hurricane, God forbid, and we have to dip into the fund balance in anticipation of getting reimbursed through FEMA or some other federal agency. We may not have that luxury going forward. That's what you're telling us today. Exactly. Or, and we're not sure what that's going to look like. Um, you know, things are changing day by day and we just want to make sure that we're prepared for whatever it looks like. A really good example is Irma. Um, it's been about seven years since we had that hurricane, but the city spent in general fund dollars about $3.6 million to in response to that. The federal government supported us at the time with about $24 million. And so, you know, understanding the changes in what the federal support may look like. We just want to make sure that we're prepared to respond to whatever may come. Got it. Just to chime in on that. I shared with staff, my thoughts on this. I'm, I'm strongly opposed to this. The whole point of our rather excessive 25% fund balance is for those unanticipated unforeseen emergencies. We don't need a reserve on top of reserve. As far as I'm concerned, we have overtaxed our residents as it is. We've taken money out of the taxpayers pockets and we put it into our savings account. We take it out of their savings account. We put it into our savings account. The GFOA recommended reserve is 16.7%. I know I was here when we established it because when I first got here, it was 7%. Now we're at 25%. Now we're going to be roughly at 30%. When does it end? I think this is outrageous. And I just, I firmly, firmly think this is a step in the wrong direction. We do not need to be set aside additional funds. But I thought this wasn't burdening the taxpayer. This is coming from the PFAS settlement, is it not? So that's the way that we've approached it, Commissioner. We anticipate 4.8 million from the PFAS settlement next fiscal year. And so that is the equivalent amount that we would like to dedicate to the emergency management reserve. But funds are fungible. So the more we take away from the taxpayers to build up reserves. So let me throw something out there that doesn't seem to ever be considered by anybody. We cut the millage. Okay? If we have all this money sitting in reserves, guess what? Cut the millage, folks. Let's give our taxpayers a sorely needed break as we're raising our fire assessment fees, as all other costs are going up. Let's give the taxpayers a break. So, so let me see. Let me ask you then. So what would be, what would be your answer then, if God forbid, a hurricane should come through our city, should cause significant damage, FEMA is, FEMA is, is eliminated. What is your solution? What are you going to tell the people? Do a special assessment on everybody's house in order to pay for this? So I'm pretty sure out of the hundred million dollars that we've got in reserves, we can handle three million dollars of costs, Mayor. Well, let me tell you this. When we had the flood in April of 2023, we received about 33 million dollars from FEMA. Now that's not going to be available. So I, I dispute that. I, I think that's, I think that's absolutely uncalled for to think that FEMA is not going to be there for anybody ever in the case of a stratific, stratific, uh, in the house bill, it's been defunded completely. Right. Why are you saying these things? Because it's a myth for you to bring. No, I think it's, I think it's a myth to assume that FEMA is not going to be there for natural disasters. I think that's, I think that's pandering. Let me give you an example. I think that's pandering. Well, let me give you an example. This past spring, there were numerous tornadoes that went through the Midwest, in particular Arkansas. And when the governor of Arkansas, who happens to be a very good friend of the administration applied for money, she was rejected three times saying that you didn't, you didn't suffer enough. Finally, when she made a call directly to the president, they finally released funds, but all the other states, Kentucky and Indiana and all those other states that applied for funds were never given funds. Well, lucky us that Mar-a-Lago is about 30 minutes away from Fort Lauderdale. So I think if the hurricane hits here, it's going to hit, it's going to hit Palm Beach County as well. Well, I just think that's, would be mismanagement of funds. And I couldn't possibly support your position. Well, that's okay. I, I still think it's, it's, it's financially irresponsible. And I'm going to be on the record as having said that. Thank you. I think it's financially irresponsible not to do it and not to be prepared. I, I'm not having a lot of confidence in federal programs. I'm not even having a lot of confidence in state programs. I, I think that we have to be really, really self-sufficient and I would much rather see us be a little bit overprepared. Uh, again, this is not a tax burden on the taxpayers because this is, uh, money that's coming from the PFAS settlement. And by the way, I'm going to take a lot of credit for that. Uh, I'll say that right now. I don't think if it wasn't for my office, we would even have this $25 million in PFAS settlement. I believe I'm the only commissioner who decided to meet with these people. Um, and then we passed it on to the mayor's office and then we went through the city attorney's office and the city manager's office. And lo and behold, we have, is it 25 million, Raquel? Yes. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. So, uh, I'm, I, I don't think you're welcome. And I'm, and I'm, and I'm, and I'm, and I'm very happy that we have it. Will someone please go order a pizza for the commissioner. Thanks. I'm very happy that we have it. I'm very happy that my office took the initiative to get it and to join that class action suit. And, uh, I think that this is a good, good use of 4.8 million for the reserve for emergency management. I really do. Thank you. Okay. And that concludes my presentation. You're a very controversial figure. I know. Um, so I would like to turn it over to the budget advisory board chair. They made some recommendations or some, uh, motions associated with this, uh, preliminary budget that they would like to share with you. And then we have Stantec consulting that is going to give you some insight in how this budget sets us up for long-term financial sustainability. Before we do that, I want to get back to that though, because this does impact the taxpayers. We can take this money and we can pay down debt. When we pay down debt, we reduce our voter funded millage. So yes, it does impact the military commissioner. All the funds essentially have the same impact. It doesn't matter what you call it. At the end of the day, if we use these funds to pay down debt, guess what we're doing? We're reducing the impact on our taxpayers. So to say that this has absolutely no impact on our taxpayers is a mischaracterization and a misunderstanding of how governmental funding and budgeting works. Yeah. I don't think there's any misunderstanding. I think there is. I think there is. I think everybody understands how budgeting works. No, I don't think you do actually. Okay. Well, we can go back and forth. Yes, I do. No, you don't. Yes, I do. No, you don't. I'm the only one who's been a budget officer up here, mayor, not you. Well, we saw how well that worked out. Yeah. Well, anyway. Wait, right up until the point you fired me, guys, it was going great. Okay. Oh, yeah. Anyway. Just terrific. Anyway. Just terrific. Anyway, the point is that we need to, we'll be making policy decisions and we're going to try to respond to many of the community needs and demands for infrastructure improvements, sidewalks, roadways, everything that our community has asked and sought for. So, you know, I don't think a millage rate reduction is appropriate at this time. I think if we do have these monies, we should start applying these funds towards the things that the city needs. We're a growing community. We have failing infrastructure that has been unaddressed for many, many years. And let's hope that we can be judicious in how we, we appropriate it going forward. That's what we're, that's what we're talking about. You don't think that it's appropriate to hold money back in case we haven't had a hurricane in 20 years. You don't think that the chances of our getting a hurricane are, are pending that, you know, we have more than enough cash to manage it mayor. So spend it on infrastructure. I agree with you. Great use of it. We have, we have needs for, for sidewalks. We have need for street repavings. We've got more unmet infrastructure needs than we can count. Let's look at our CIP plan and let's talk about what's in the out years. It's not getting funded. So great. I, I love that idea, mayor. I proudly support you to take this and target it towards infrastructure needs, which we know are throughout the city. Great idea. Okay. All right. Thank you. Does that conclude, uh, does the, uh, does the, uh, does the budget advisory board have any, any comments with regard to the presentation? So we have three, uh, communications. Yes. Uh, following that discussion is the number one communication is that the BAB is this, uh, is this on the afternoon, uh, agenda, the, your, your, your communications? Hold on. The communication had not been drafted with the minutes because the meeting just occurred. And so we will submit that to the commission in writing, but at this time, I think they want to verbally report on their recommendations. Okay. Okay. One, we do support the establishment of the reserve, emergency reserve fund as mentioned with some guidelines, either codify it to an ordinance as to how the ways to spend it and the funding of that. And the reason was some of the concerns was for when you establish funds, what other states, municipalities in previous years, when you, we create like pension funds and they come and they, for lack of a better word, will rob that money to fund other projects. Uh, we saw that with some of the water sewer funds in the past, uh, with, with our own city taking money around to, uh, shore up the operating budget. So there had, we, we would support it, but we also want some strong sideboards to it. Uh, and it's clearly with this current, uh, at the federal level, it's been stated that more responsibility is being thrown back on response and recovery to state and local governments. So we're going to have to step up to the plate. If we have a disaster, it's, it's clear, it's been communicated to that. The second, uh, piece is we strongly, or we recommend and support the fire assessment fee to the full cost recovery. Uh, that's going to be in include this included in the preliminary budget of the increase of $75. And then the third, uh, third piece is that, um, we, uh, support no millage increase this year. Uh, for the 19th consecutive year, we feel that based on the preliminary budget is drafted by the city manager and by staff that, um, we do have a balanced budget. Yes, there's some fine tuning to it, but we can, we can live within our means with the current millage rate as, uh, established today. Um, in closing, I would just like to say we still have some concerns as was previously discussed on the number of special events and the cost of those special events. We also still have concerns about the number, the non-for-profit process. Um, and we're going to, you know, it's been raised for several times, but we will be coming back to you, uh, at a later date after we do, uh, some additional review of, um, the fees that the city's currently charging. Some have not been evaluated for a number of years and see if they're still, uh, proportionate to what's being charged or should they be readjusted, either increased or decreased, uh, based on the revenue review committee's review process. And then also we still strongly encourage looking at sponsorships for events and brand and naming rights. Uh, I think we're missing a big opportunity to get revenue in to help alleviate some of the additional costs that we face face in the future. And then just a final point, uh, I'd just like to thank on behalf of the BAB, all the directors and, and budget and financing, uh, staff, the draft, the directors this year, they all came in. They, they really came in lean. They didn't ask for a lot, uh, which was good. It really showed that they were asking for what truly keeps them awake at night. So that's why we can support no millage increase, the increase of the fire assessment fee in the established emergency fund. Thank you. All right. Great. Thank you. Um, anyone from the committee have any, any other comments? You're all good. Great. If you want, if you want, sorry, I was Melissa Milroy with the BAB. Um, I just think the biggest eye opener will be the presentation from, uh, Stantec, uh, because, you know, there are so many capital projects, uh, that, that need to be done. And I think when you take a look at the millage going forward over the next 10 years, I think you're going to have to have a hard discussion going forward about that. And I do agree with you on so many points, like you discussed FIFA. I think, um, I'll just say waste of money. Um, but the 250th celebration, you know, you're talking about a new year's Eve celebration. I think you could also look at adding additional money, maybe to the 4th of July in 2026 as well, since it's the 250th celebration. And I fully support the public safety. I think our police, you know, you talk about special events, but these are city events and, um, city sponsored events. And I think you can't put a price on having, you know, protecting our, the public safety of our residents. So I fully support all of the initiatives that they brought forward. Okay, great. I just want to say, um, thank you to our chair, chair Brown. He's done a great job in leading us and also to the city manager for leading her staff and these presentations. They've done a wonderful job too. Great. Thank you. I think I just want to go on record too, with the events. I know there's a lot of scrutiny, but I want us to look at those as opportunities to bring our communities together. There's also some of those events, particularly in some of the districts that help to generate revenue for businesses in those, in those areas and also bring people to areas. So I really want you to consider when you look at those events to consider the impact, because I think what we love about Fort Lauderdale is that big, small town feeling of it. And those events are crucial to bringing communities together and also supporting businesses in areas too. Yeah, I would add, sorry, Olivier Kelly, um, to that, that I think the idea is to be more selective, not necessarily having more events, uh, and maybe have a sort of a PNL approach event by event in terms of recovery and also opportunities for increased revenue, including sponsorship opportunities that I believe we're missing. And, uh, there's a private sector approach that we need to have there. So what you just saw was what we do in our BAP meetings. We have robust discussions and that's what's a great asset to this community and to the members of the BAP. Thank you. All right. Great. Thank you. Mayor, I'd like to ask Bill a question because I don't know how many people know about Bill's expertise, but Bill, I know that you travel the country whenever there are storms and you've done a yeoman's job with regards to being a chief out there, uh, for FEMA work. Um, I, I want to hear what your thought is personally, you, you know, what's going on in the field, you know, what's happening, um, with regards to our emergency emergency management reserve that's being proposed by the city manager. Um, do you see that as a redundancy? Do you see that as just something we don't need because of already what we've built up in terms of our reserves? But what, what are your thoughts, your gut reaction to that being out in the field and doing this work whenever there's a storm? Well, my personal thank you for, for those remarks is for the introduction. Yes. Uh, I'm a member of the, um, FEMA's urban search and rescue incident management support team that gets deployed on all presidential disasters. One of three teams, uh, the, the funding mechanism that in the past to reimburse state and local governments, uh, was a hundred percent, but now that's been cut back to 75 25. And then they're in the process of eliminating the federal emergency management agency. No one knows how that's going to reshape. Uh, the president did come out and say that during this hurricane season, it's going to, the response will stay the same, uh, communications from the state of Florida state emergency management director, recent communications that he met with the acting FEMA director last week stated that the, everything will stay the same for this hurricane season as it relates to Florida and response and recovery through mutual aid and EMAC agreements. But there's still a lot of unknown, but from, from every indication that I'm seeing, FEMA will be either rebranded and under a different organization and the elimination will, will occur. And what are you, and so your thoughts then on my thoughts are, if we had a major, major hurricane, uh, you know, $4.8 million is not going to go very far, you know, and it could, it could be a $50 million response and recovery, just the city just to get back within the 90, 120 days. And then you're having to wait three, four or five years to get federal assistance and reimburse that could wipe out that operating reserve fund immediately. Okay. All right. And the economic impact during that time too, to our community. I understand. Yvette, did you want to say something else? I was just prepared to introduce our consultant, Stantec Consulting, who will be doing the next presentation that you have on this workshop. Which we're not going to do today because it's, we're almost at the end of our period and we have to do our conference meeting at 1.30. So I'm sorry we didn't budget this time correctly. There's no way we can do your Stantec's presentation, uh, within the timeframe that's been allotted. So can we bring them back for another presentation? Yeah, we're going to have to do that. Yeah, absolutely. Could I ask Bill a question? I want to follow up on that. So Bill, um, I've been dealing with FEMA for 25 years and FEMA has never been the response agency, right? So FEMA doesn't come running in with change laws after a hurricane. It's usually the pre-position contracts we have with, uh, firms like PBS and J years ago, Ashbrit now, um, Bergeron. So every time I've been involved with any of the governments I've worked with, we haven't looked to FEMA to show up with trucks and guys with, with the chainsaws and clear away the woody debris and clear the roadways and everything else. We've always handled that at the local level. What FEMA does is allocate funding to eventually reimburse us. And, you know, as I'm looking at the plans here, what FEMA is talking about doing is shifting the disaster recovery responsibility to the states. So for that first on the ground response and FEMA coordinating then the federal funds being allocated to the state and local governments to prioritize those areas that are most vulnerable. I'm reading off the website to disasters. So I agree with you. FEMA can be very slow to pay. I know we've waited for years to get paid. Um, and I know even after we've gotten paid, we've had FEMA come and claw money back from us. And we've had to go with, uh, former city manager Lee Feldman up to DC and, and kind of, uh, twist their arms to get them to, uh, to, to not take back. I think it was $13 million back at the time. So I've had a lot of those ongoing negotiations with FEMA, but it's always been fighting over, you know, when, when the check gets here and, and how much they're paying for. But I have never looked in all my years, and I I've gone through the NIMS training and everything else. I've never looked for FEMA to hit the ground running. It's, it's our first responders. It's our firefighters. It's our police officers. It's our public works guys. And again, it's those pre-position contract with disaster recovery companies that make all that happen. Which, which, which thank you for that recitation because it fully supports everything that we've been saying, which is we need to have our own money in the bank to be able to do immediate recovery. We do. And, and, and the only problem with the scenario you just described is that FEMA is not going to be there to try to, for reimbursement anymore. That's not true. And if we, and if we decide, and if we decide if the, if the federal government decides that it is now the responsibility of the state, I can tell you right now, there's nothing in this year's state budget that has anything to do with cost recovery for emergency responses. They've completely eliminated the entire budget for that too. Because the federal government is, is not talking about cutting funding. What they're talking about is eliminating the staffing that comes along with it. The folks that do the training, and there's a lot of them that go out there. Well, you must be reading different news stories than I'm reading. Because apparently I am. Okay. Maybe I can recommend some to you. Okay. So I'll stop watching Fox and I'll watch CNN. But do you have any idea how much cash we have on hand at any given point in time? You know, it's not a discussion right now. We're finished. It's over a billion dollars. So mayor, I just want to make sure that I communicate to you and the city commission on June 30th, you'll be setting your, the millage rate, the maximum millage rate, as well as the ad valorem rates. So the Santec presentation usually is to help prepare you all for that discussion. We're going to work with the Santec team to see if we can get another member to participate in advance of that meeting. But I just wanted to make sure you all were aware that the reason we bring Santec here is to ensure that you all are able to see that information in advance of setting those rates. And that's important, but it wasn't done. I mean, we've been here for two hours now and, and I appreciate your presentation. Our questions were important. You've been very responsive and I want to thank everybody for participating in this, but we can go on the rest of the afternoon with just this alone. And maybe we should have, but we do have another agenda and another meeting to, to engage in. And I like to, I'd like to bring this to a close, a close so we can take a half an hour between now and then the commencement of the conference meeting and get on with this afternoon's business. Yes, commissioner. So what I was going to offer mayor is I think this is critically important for us to have this done today. If we can, um, I, I think we should perhaps consider foregoing some of the items on the conference agenda in order to accommodate Santec's presentation. I think this is probably the most important thing we're going to discuss today. So we can forego commission reports. We can forego some of the other items on the conference agenda. Let's, let's, let's do the important business of government, which I think this, this really gets to how long, how long is your presentation going to take for a half hour, an hour. All right. So let us take a recess then. What do you think that, what is, what do you think about the recommendation that we, well, no, I think this is, I mean, I've read it. I mean, I, I'm comfortable with it. I don't know. I don't think I had any extra questions, but I think that we should, if we could get it in, I don't know how long the conference meeting is going to take. It doesn't seem to be that much, actually. Maybe we could push. Why don't we take this, why don't we take a recess? I think there are some things we could probably push till the 30th. Okay. Why don't we take a recess now to, uh, for 30 minutes. And if you don't mind waiting then, okay. And we'll come back and, uh, and we'll do a continuation of your presentation. And then we'll follow with the, the business of the conference meeting after that. Does that make sense to you, Raquel? Raquel, can we like mix use code project? I just asked her a question. Oh, I'm sorry. Does that make sense to you? Yes, we could do that. And I don't know if it looks like Commissioner Sorensen wanted to say something. Commissioner Sorensen, did you want to say anything? Yeah. Thanks, Mayor. Yeah. That, that, that sounds like a good plan. And just to finish up part of what we were just discussing, Raquel, um, talking about, uh, tax cuts, uh, Raquel, what, what would you need to put into the budget as a draft item, the, uh, uh, exemption from fire assessment for disabled veterans? I believe we'd have to do an ordinance update or change to accommodate that, but I think we can budget to show the 153,000, uh, that's something that could be accommodated in the budget. Okay, great. Does that sound all right, Mayor? Sounds good to me. Great. Okay. Thank you. And that sounds good in terms of hearing from Stantec. Thanks, Mayor. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner. So, um, let us take a 30 minute recess and then we'll, we'll reconvene and, and, and hear from Stantec and then we'll conclude the budget workshop. You folks don't have to stay if you don't want to. I know it's a, you've got other things in your life to do. So, um, but the commission does want to hear from Stantec and then we'll, we'll commence our commission conference meeting right after that. Thank you. Thank you, Bap. Great job.