Good morning everybody and thank you for your patience. I was unexpected. First appearance of the commission and the community together since our summer break and I want to thank you all. I hope you all had a great summer so far and I know today we have a lot to talk about and I want to appreciate all the members of the Budget Advisory Board for being here and for taking time out of your day and throughout the year for making the effort to try to come to terms with the budget that we all try to make sure that we all work in the best interest of the community. Before we begin I just want to announce that Commissioner Herbst has indicated he will not be attending today's budget hearing nor will he be attending today's conference meeting nor will he be attending tonight's evening meeting. So he will not be here today to participate. So if I could please ask the clerk to please call the roll with regard to the Budget Advisory Board. Chair Brown, Vice Chair Milroy, Norbert Bells, Ross Camarata, Olivier Call, Kelly, Rich DiGirolamo, Desiree Giles-Smith, Rob Buehling-Patel, Melinda Boker. Thank you and would you please call the roll of the City Commission. Commissioner Glassman? Here. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman? Here. Commissioner Sorensen? Here. Mayor Trentos? Here. So we have a quorum for the City Commission. I believe we have a quorum for the Budget Advisory Board. And so I'll now turn it over to the Budget Advisory Board for a further presentation. Mr. Brown. Good morning, Mayor, Vice, or members of the Commission. Thank you for the opportunity to allow us to come before you today. Before we get started, though, I just wanted to inform the Commission that we will have two members coming off the board. They're termed out. Say it isn't so. And I understand that there's a presentation that needs to be made. Yes, there is a presentation. I believe Ross Camerata and Mr. Patel are both ending their term on the Budget Advisory Board. I can only say that I know that the work has been intense, and I know that the City Commission and the people of our community truly appreciate all the work that you've done. I understand that Mr. Camerata is not here today, so we do have a presentation we'd like to make for Mr. Patel. Mr. Patel, you want to join me at the podium? You're fine, Mr. Zielinski. Oh, I'm sorry. So, on behalf of the City Commission, and how many years did you serve on the board now? Six and a half. Six and a half. Okay. Couldn't make it to seven. You know, it's truly and honestly, and from the bottom of our heart, we really want to say we truly appreciate all the work you've done on behalf of the Budget Advisory Board. Please don't be a stranger to our city meetings and to our city events. And we have this small gift, a token of our appreciation, that we'd like to give to you on behalf of the City of Fort Lauderdale. Thank you. Open it up. Open it up. Is there anything in there? Oh, yeah. Wow. That's hermetically sealed. Oh, wow. Look at that. Okay. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. In recognition of your outstanding contribution and commitment to the City of Fort Lauderdale and the Budget Advisory Board from 2019 to 2025. Oh, you took us through COVID. Absolutely. So, thank you again. You want to say a few words? Sure. I just want to say that it has been an honor and a privilege to be on the board for the last six and a half years. And one thing I wanted to mention is that before I joined the board, all my adult life, I was in corporate America. That's where I worked. But when I came to the City of the Budget Advisory Board, I was amazed and stunned at the way the financial department conducted its affairs. I've got to tell you that you would put to shame many of the Fortune 500 companies, the way you plan, the way you budget, and the extraordinary people you have in the City of Fort Lauderdale. Thank you, Ben Sorensen, for appointing me as a board member. Thank you. You're very, very welcome. I just hope the state doge representatives heard that about the – anyway, thank you so much. We really appreciate it. Do you want to take the bag or the box at all? Let me give this to you. It's hard to depart from such talent, and we know that you've left a huge void for the community and on the board, but we appreciate all the work that you've done, and hopefully Commissioner Sorensen will be able to fill that vacancy soon so we can continue with the good work of the committee. Okay, Mr. Brown, please continue. Thank you. As you know, over the summer, while you're in recess and you get to take your vacations and your cruises and trips to Europe, we're a hard-at-work board, probably one of the hardest-working city boards during the summer. We meet 16 times a year. We roll up our sleeves. We meet with not only the staff of OMB and the city manager's office, but also the department heads. This past year we had several new members come on the board, and a lot of good questions, a lot of good conversations, a lot of good ideas, both as a board that we're going to start incorporating, and also the OMB suggestions that we're going to further strengthen the advisory board process on what we work through on budgeting. Normally we set aside at least two hours, but this summer there were meetings that went three hours, which was good, and it was all productive time. So I want to thank not only the staff and the new city manager and OMB staff and department heads, but also the members of the board that are sitting behind me this afternoon. Back in July, since our last meeting, our city manager and our staff came back in and presented the tentative, which you are going to see presented here shortly, the budget for 20 FY26, which includes the reorganization list as proposed. On the 13th of August, just a week ago, we met and we discussed, had a presentation on public engagement. Public engagement, I think if you recall, it was last year or the year before, that there were some members of the public who said they didn't feel like we were engaging them enough in the budget process. So we went out of our way. And what I find interesting is at the public meetings, we have only once during the budget process did we have, I think it was three members of the public come from sailboat bin asking for a particular item. That was the only time the public came to our meeting. Then we have the balancing act, which staff puts out citywide on the website, and you'll get some statistics, I'm sure, later on on the number of participants. But we still aren't where we need to be. We are doing everything. The board's doing everything. City staff's doing everything. Strategic communications is outreaching. We've given, as I mentioned earlier, some ideas. I think we're going to make it more interactive so that we can have links to that balancing act that people can learn about certain parts of the budget and how it actually functions. But we can do all we can do, but you can't make them open it up or look at it. But at least we are being transparent. So I want to reassure you that this process that the city does is very transparent to the public. So when people say that they don't have the opportunity, that is not the case. So as I mentioned, August 13th, the budget board passed a motion to support of the city's manager's budget. I want to share with you a few of the comments and sentiments from our discussion. We're thankful for the city manager and her staff for their work throughout this transparency problem. And we're overall supportive of the proposed reorganization. You will hear later from closing remarks from members of the board some of their thoughts on that. But they range from it gives more accountability, more efficiency, and streamlining of the government organization. And overall, it was all positive and supportive of the board of this reorganization. The city manager is to be commended for taking this bold action from going from 10 department heads to 16 and still keeping it within the budget without increasing any of the salaries to bring on additional department heads. We also am supportive of the emergency reserve fund that you're going to hear a little bit more about as it relates to the money from the lawsuit settlement. And we're going to set some goals and expectations working with staff and the city manager on these new departments to the reorganization so that there are benchmarks and measurements in how those are tracked so that we can be assured that there's accountability and efficiency of government. We are very thankful, as you know, through your budget workshop meetings, priority meetings. Water quality has obviously been an important issue and is an essential asset to our community and the city. And we're pleased with the enhancements of the testing and tracing that this budget includes. Several members expressed concern about the timely completion of capital projects. I think even the commission has concerns over the length of time it's taking capital improvements. It increases cost overruns. It just, CIP projects are really hard for us to manage. And there's never truly been a good management of CIP projects. I think with this proposed budget and the way that city manager is going to propose, managing those projects will be much more efficient and it will be interesting to see if we're successful in doing that, which they can do it in the corporate world. If they can build a project in two years, we should be able to build the same project in two years, not five years. We had a lengthy discussion at some of the meetings about the millage rate. Based on presentations by Santec and what some of the shortfalls are going to be in future outlining years, we still have those concerns. Fortunately, this year we had an 8.5% increase in assessed values. That equated to about $17 million. But when you really dig into the budget and look how that $17 million was spent, it went to salaries and benefits. You know, there's an increase of $23 million this year's budget to cover all salaries and benefits. So there's a delta there that got absorbed within this budget. Now, we're coming in future contract negotiations. Currently, there's contract negotiations going on with municipal employees. But then next year, there's labor contracts with police and fire that's going to have significant impact in those outlining years that Santec is concerned about as well in the shortfall of the budgets. So we need to have a contingency plan in place. Maybe seriously next year have some dialogue to maybe how do we stair-step if there needs to be ad valorem increases so that the citizens don't get hit with a big one-time increase. If it can be stair-stepped, we have to be concerned because the community, we all recognize right now, they're struggling economically. And increases are hard for the community to swallow, especially the ones that aren't homesteaded. And given the lie that we don't know what the state's going to do, I mean, there's been proposals to eliminate property tax. And if that were to happen, you know, we'd have to have some serious discussions. So a lot's on the horizon as we enter into FY 2027. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to staff to go ahead and do the tentative operating budget presentation and the PowerPoints. And then I'll come back if it's agreeable with you, Mayor, to do some quick closing remarks and have each member of the advisory board the opportunity to say a few words and talk about their experience. And, you know, as I mentioned earlier, the new members came in unbelievable with the amount of ideas. Normally we take October, November, and December off after the budget, but we've agreed to meet those three months and start reviewing additional revenue sources that potentially could be out there, cost recovery mechanisms. Are we charging enough? Are we getting enough for fees? And we're also going to be looking at other resourceful avenues. And staff has agreed to help us kind of retool moving forward too with some of the new ideas that some of the members are bringing forward. So with that, I will turn it back to you and let staff do their presentation. Okay, very good. Thank you so much. I know you want to meet during, you know, October, November, December, but I hope you'll take time to come to some of the light-up events during the holiday seasons. Don't deny yourself that, okay? That's why we kept it in the budget. Oh, okay. Okay, who from city staff? I believe that there's now video for us to see. No? No, Mayor. A PowerPoint? There is a presentation. There is a PowerPoint, right? There is a presentation. Right. But I'd like to begin with a few comments. So thank you for this opportunity. The city team is extraordinarily grateful for the opportunity to work with the budget advisory board. The budget advisory board really challenged me this year as a new city manager and challenged our entire team to be efficient, to be creative, innovative, flexible, and to take and distill the feedback and to utilize that feedback and incorporate it within our budget development process. So I just want to thank the budget advisory board, including Chair Brown, and every member of the board. Thank you so much, Mr. Patel, for the kind words and acknowledgement of staff. I agree. We have incredible staff. And I think our path forward is going to be very bright. So thank you for the feedback. To the mayor and commissioners, thank you for your feedback as well. We've been listening. At the last workshop, you shared some of your perspective and comments. And even over the recess, you've been commenting on certain things or requesting information and asking for certain things to be part of our budget development process. So thank you for that feedback. I consider the budget to be the single most important policy document that the city commission approves on an annual basis. And so we don't go into this process or go through this process very lightly. I do want to acknowledge members of the Office of Management and Budget, including its director, Ms. Laura Reese, and assistant director. Could you stand? That's Mr. Park Patel. I also want to thank Yvette Matthews, assistant city manager, for her tremendous contribution to the budget process. Please stand also. And to the entire budget team. Just get on up and be acknowledged. Thank you. Thanks as well to all of the city directors, all the members of the various departments who contributed to the process. I think I joined the city at the most opportune time at the start of the budget development process, and I was able to meet with every single department to understand their concerns, their needs, see where there are opportunities, where there are challenges. And I'm extremely proud to present a balanced budget that addresses the priorities of the city commission, including the city's strategic plan. I am excited that we have recommended no change to the millage rate for this year. We are optimistic about future years, and we're looking at opportunities for revenue generation. And we're going to be working with the BAB to identify those opportunities and see those through for the next fiscal year. I'm also excited that this year we were able to obtain some one-time revenue injections that allowed us to advance some projects that have been on the shelf for quite some time. The focus this year is on capital projects and getting things done. You will see that the proposal includes a realignment of our existing personnel resources to promote accountability and responsiveness and efficiencies, including six new departments. The capital projects department is one that I think the city has probably needed for some time, and I'm excited to see how our project management teams that are among the various existing departments can come together and leverage their know-how to ensure that our project management and project delivery functions are more efficient. We're also planning to invest in technology, including artificial intelligence, to see how our staff can be even more productive. We want to promote education among our team and provide the training necessary to improve our team and its capacity to handle the work of today and for tomorrow. I'm also extremely proud that our staff negotiation team engaged Teamsters and Federation early this year, and for the first time in a long time, we have tentative agreements with both of those unions, and we'll be going into the fiscal year with some certainty as to the fiscal impact. And so I'm really proud of our negotiation team and thankful for the negotiation teams of Federation and Teamsters. So at this time, I'm going to turn it over to our Office of Management and Budget. Before we do that, can I just ask a couple of questions? Sure. Do you know roughly, was there an increase in expenditures year to year from last year? Is the proposed budget anticipating an increase in expenditures versus last year? Do we have an answer? So we have an increase in revenue that's projected, and because we have a balanced budget, we're showing an increase in our expenditures. As you know, every year our staff costs go up and other costs go up as well. I know all the reasons. I'm just wondering. So there was an increase year to year. Now, are we using any of these one-time income sources to plug the hole of the gap, or are we using that simply for the CIP projects, advancing those CIP projects that were sitting on the shelf that you referenced? Are we using that for operating expenses at all, or those are just capital improvement projects? So it's best practice that when you have those one-time revenue sources that you utilize them for one-time expenses. So the focus is on capital projects, including our fire stations and some other projects that are capital in nature. So it's for capital projects. Just capital projects, okay. Primarily, yes. Okay. And we also have the proposed emergency fund utilizing the PFAS settlement funding that we anticipate for fiscal year 2026. I think we said we were going to hold some of that money was going to be held out for, we were going to add it to the fund balance, I thought we said, or in an emergency status in case we needed it? Yes, $4.8 million. Also, in October of this year, our intention is to bring forward a budget amendment based on our existing fund balance and the anticipated balance of the PFAS settlement to propose some additional capital projects for fiscal year 2026. Okay. Can we just quickly go to the organizational chart, page 27? I just want to see, I know there's been some moving of the pieces on the board here, and Chairman Brown talked about changes in the organization. So I just want to make sure I understand, to the right, we see Assistant City Manager of Operations, and then we see Assistant City Manager of Project Management. So the project management ACM is new, correct? Correct. Okay. And that person is going to make sure that things that are supposed to get done get done. And it's under parks bond and transportation. What about public works? That's the initial launch of the capital projects department. At a later date, we will also be looking at transitioning some personnel from the public works team that are currently engaged in project management activities and transition them to the capital projects department. So this is a preliminary launch. We anticipate additional personnel will be added to that team. Okay. So the purview of the ACM for project management might expand as we're looking to have someone to oversee and to facilitate the completion of these projects. That's correct. And many of the other departments will become clients of the capital projects department. So that department will service those departments and get their projects done. So let me pick out an example. You know, we're looking to build a new city hall, for example. And so would that assistant city manager be in charge of overseeing the construction and completion of that building project? Or is that going to be someone different who's going to handle that part of it? So the city hall project will be handled in phases. So right now we're going through a preliminary planning process to engage a development partner through the unsolicited proposal process, as we've been directed to do thus far. We also have an owner's rep on board with the city. And so during the negotiation process, it is not anticipated that the capital projects department will have a very significant role. However, as the project transitions from planning through negotiations to the beginning of construction, that's when the capital projects team will have more insight and more responsibility into the project. So will there be a separate person in charge of managing the construction of that project? Or will that come under the purview of this assistant city manager? So for large-scale capital improvement projects, such as city hall, this assistant city manager will have oversight. Okay. So that will come under that person's role. Yes. Anyone else from the commission have any questions, or you want to wait until staff makes their presentation? I can wait. I can wait as well. Okay, great. Okay. Thank you. Good afternoon, Mayor and Commissioners. Laura Reese, Director of Office of Management and Budget. Nice to see you all after break. I hope you all had a great break. So on behalf of the city manager, we're here today with the Budget Advisory Board to present the tentative budget. The tentative budget is the difference between we came to you before with the preliminary budget, which really focused in on the general fund. It includes the proposed budget, which is all funds, and it talks about the reorganization. So today I'll be presenting with my colleague, Yvette Matthews, and we'll be talking to you about the tentative budget and the reorganization. Thanks to the city manager for her leadership through the process and to the Budget Advisory Board again for all of their hard work. I agree with Chair Brown that they are the hardest working board in the city, and we enjoy our time with them. And thanks to Mr. Patel for his nice comments. I've enjoyed my time working with him for the last six years. So it's always a little bit sad to see our members move on, but there are term limits. So on behalf of the city manager, Yvette and I will be talking about the ad valorem revenue, which we talked a little bit at our last meeting about, the tax bill comparison, some key takeaways from the proposed budget, the operating budget by fund, where the money comes from, where the money goes, and key changes since the proposed budget. Yvette will be talking to you a little bit more about the reorganization that we got into just a little bit with the mayor's questions. So as a recap, when we came to you at the end of June, we had the June 1st numbers for ad valorem revenue, and that was an 8.1% increase, and that would generate additional $17 million in revenue. Great news, that went up just a little bit. Now we're at 8.5%, and that's going to generate almost $18 million in new revenue. So the nexus there, or the increase in revenue, is around $750,000. As we talked about at the last meeting, that new construction went up again this year, which is a great sign to $1.12 billion. So we're heading in the right direction as a city in terms of growing our economic base. And just kind of as a point of reference, 23% of the growth came from new construction. And so last week, our residents would have started receiving the trim notice from the property appraiser's office. And so we just wanted to kind of recap for you, as you might be getting some questions, what they would have seen on that notice. So based on the information that you all approved in June, so June 30th, you all set those rates that go on the trim notice. An average single-family home in the city is $641,000. That's the average taxable value. And each year, homesteaded properties are capped in the increase. And so the cap this year was 2.9% based on the CPI change in the state of Florida. This will result in an average increase of $74 per home at our current millage rate, or the millage rate that went on the trim notice. Voter-approved debt, that will go down slightly because the overall values in the city increased. And so that will result in a decrease of $15 on the average single-family tax bill. Stormwater assessment was recommended and approved on the tax rule to go up by $49, or 15%, to fund all of those really large-scale projects that are underway. And the fire assessment, in order to go to full cost recovery, is recommended to go up by $75 on the tax bill, which is a total of $183 increase, or as the mayor likes to put it, in terms of the $15 per month. So a lot of our property owners actually have a mortgage, and so the increase that they're going to see on their monthly bill for the city's portion is $15 per month. So, Laura, the $49 increase in stormwater assessment, is that to cover the capital improvement costs, or is that for operation and management? It's for the debt service. The debt service. Yeah, so we're leveraging this rate structure to pay for debt in order to do the large capital projects. Okay, so those big projects that we keep moving forward on, this is to help pay for that? Yes. Okay, thank you. It's required to support the continued investment. Great, thank you. You're welcome. So as you all spent time over the summer reading the budget by the pool or wherever you were on your cruises, we're hoping that your key takeaways are the same as ours. No, I think it's it. I'm just jealous. I'm excited that you all had a little time off. I'm happy for you. You all are the hardest working commission. Thank you. So we know that you deserve a break as well. Do I get a plaque? Yes, we will work on that immediately following this meeting. So as you were perusing the budget over a summer break, we're hoping your takeaways were the same as what we intended, which is that this budget really addresses your key priorities. We create a clear alignment with the goals you set and what's funded and how we're going to move those goals forward as part of the budget process. It prioritizes public safety infrastructure and improvements. So we'll continue focusing on the needs of the city as it relates to public safety. We accelerate the completion of key capital projects. You know, the manager mentioned the fire stations. There's other capital projects that had been lagging and some bridges that needed to be done. So those are funded in this CIP and in the budget. But something that's super important to me and probably to you, too, is it maintains a healthy fund balance in all funds. We've gone through some challenges in our city over the past several years. And as you all can remember and appreciate during COVID, during large water main breaks, things like that, we're always able as a city to responsibly address those concerns ourselves without panicking or asking for help from the outside. So we really want to keep our fund balance healthy in all funds. This budget does that. And it's structurally balanced, which means that the revenues that we're receiving in a year don't exceed the expenditures that we're making in a year. We're using one-time revenues to support one-time expenses. So with that, our all funds operating budget is $1.2 billion. So that's really just about the same as last year. It's pretty flat because we had some one-time expenses in last year's budget. As you were asking about the increase, mayor, I looked at the overall as 0.1% increase. So it's 0.1% in the overall city budget because of some one-time capital that was funded in prior years. And, yeah, $1.2 billion in all funds. Our largest fund is our general fund with 44% of the budget. And the second largest is water, sewer, and central region, which is 23% or $277 million. We really focus a lot on the general fund because that is the fund with the fewest restrictions when we talk about revenues and expenses. The 2026 proposed general fund budget is $520.5 million. The largest revenue source is ad valorem that we talked about, but that is a little less than 50%. So that's a really good spot to be in. In terms of having diversified revenue sources, if the market does experience a notch down, we're still in a strong position financially. And our public safety folks take up 60%, a little over 60% of our general fund operating budget. And that's pretty typical from year to year. And the second highest group would be parks and recreation with other transfers to capital and expenses like that accounted for. Laura, question. Thanks for this. Can you go back one slide? To the revenue? Please. Yes. When we compare with other maybe similar size municipalities, is the kind of 48%, 50% ad valorem operating, is that similar, different? So I haven't done recent studies, but historically we are lower than a lot of municipalities. A lot of our neighboring municipalities are more highly reliant on taxes. And as another point of reference, our homesteaded properties are only around, I believe, 50% of our residential properties. So that also provides some additional upward mobility for us over the years. Yeah. Okay. That helps. And then if you could go to the next one. Absolutely. I know it depends by debt service, but on average, what rate are we paying in terms of our debt service? There are different bonds that we've purchased over time. Right. I know. And so I'm saying on average are some of the bigger ones? I would probably have to look into that, but the most recent rates that we were issuing, like for the police headquarters, were really favorable. It just depends on when they're – I believe it was less than 3% is Linda, 3% for the police headquarters, the debt service rate. She's looking at that. Okay. That's fine. But – so we have AAA bond rating, so we're going to get the highest preference when it comes to issuing debt. So tax-exempt, AAA bond rated, we're solid, and we're getting the lowest rates that are available in the market. Great. Thank you. Any more questions or should I move along? No, I'm good. All right. Thanks, Laura. So I wanted to go over a few changes that have happened between proposed and tentative. We talked about the ad valorem increase that we received. State revenues are still being posted. There are two that we were able to account for. One went up, which is municipal revenue sales tax, and one went down, which was a local government half-cent sales tax. And those are estimates that the state is providing as the new state-related laws are being implemented. So we may have tweaks as the year progresses, but this is the best information they've provided at this point. And then the PFAS settlement, when we looked at the actual payment schedule, the payment that is being expected in the next fiscal year went down just slightly. And so we accounted for that in our revenue adjustments as well. In terms of expenditure adjustments, the school guard crossing fund needed to go up just a bit because the contract came in higher than what we had budgeted when it was rebid. There is a decrease in overall wage and operational expenses. There's a lot of small ins and outs that make that up. A decrease in fire rescue and police pension. So we put in a placeholder number until the actuary completes the report. We are really close, but it actually reduced just a little from what we had planned in the budget by $35,000. And when we get the July numbers, that also changes the transfers into the CRAs based on the new valuation, and that decrease was around $21,000. Oh, and the other is part of the changes. FIFA World Cup funding has been reallocated for homeless initiatives, and that is included between proposed and adopted. Can I ask a question regarding that? And maybe, Raquel, you can help out. So somewhere along the line I saw emails regarding the fact that certain teams were going to be housing their teams here in Fort Lauderdale hotels, and they were asking for extra security. So is that something that they are going to pay for? Are they expecting us to provide that? Do you know anything about what I'm saying? Yes, I was actually part of a public safety meeting with a representative of an international team that may be coming to Fort Lauderdale during that time next year. And so they are looking for some staff resources in terms of public safety assistance as they traverse from their hotel to either their practice facility or elsewhere. And so we have not yet defined what the details would be in terms of how those costs would be covered, but I will be working with our police department to sort through those details. Okay, so it's my understanding that we are not covering any of those costs right now, and you would bring that to us if that ask is being made. Should we receive that ask and, you know, we identify the resources necessary and foresee that we need to come to the commission for approval? We will certainly do that in a timely manner. Okay. Thank you. Sorry. No problem. I have just two slides, and I'll turn it over to Evatt. Okay. So as our population increases, our positions have also increased over the years. In fiscal year 26, a net of six positions is being recommended to be added to the general fund for a total of 1,872 positions and a net of 64 positions to other funds for a new total of 1,058 positions, and so that's a total increase of 70 positions. And some of the key drivers for adding the positions are the 28 safer grant positions that were added after the adoption of the last budget. We needed to include those in the fiscal year 26 budget. The Water and Sewer Fund were required to add 18 FTEs as part of the Prospect Lake Water Treatment Plant opening at the end of this coming fiscal year. Marine Facilities Fund, there were six FTEs transferred from the general fund in order to be able to reinvest in our marine facilities in a more effective way. And for Central Service or the IT Fund, nine positions were added to really support public safety in a better way through technology enhancements in that area. And with that, I'll turn it over to Yvette to talk about the reorganization. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you. Good morning, Yvette. Good morning. Or good afternoon. I'm sorry. Afternoon. Okay, I'll take it too. So during budget season, we start by looking at where the city wants to go in our long-range plans. And, you know, that really starts with our Vision 2035, so our Fast Forward Fort Lauderdale plan. You're going to see this interweaved throughout the entire presentation. So I just wanted to make sure you had this as your guiding principle as we begin. In addition to looking long-term, we're also looking at the initiatives that you all want to bring forward right now, which you set in your January commission goal-setting meeting. And, again, you'll see these priorities as I go through the restructuring that is occurring. So as we look at the guiding principles, the city manager created a new organizational framework. And what that meant was realigning existing resources to ensure that we're promoting visibility of those highest priority projects, streamlining service delivery to make sure that we are being very responsive to our neighbors, strengthening our accountability to make sure that the directors over departments are able to have a complete view of the activities that they're responsible for, and also centralizing similar operations within one area. And you'll see that the result of that is the creation of six new departments, which the city manager already went over. Most of them are either separating out previous divisions within the city manager's office or separating some of our larger departments into more focused service areas. And we'll start with the city manager's office. The goal of this change was to maximize the potential of existing resources. And what that meant was capitalizing on our existing housing and community development group to help to advance our homelessness initiatives, making economic development its own division so that we could really advance those priorities outside of it being housed within the city manager's office. So you'll see those things as we move through. And here's the new breakdown of the city manager's office, focused on neighbor support, intergovernmental affairs, real estate, and the Office of Professional Standards, with strategic communications and the executive airport now becoming their own departments. And for FNC, the idea is to create greater visibility in their long-term strategy and to enhance their economic development goals. For STRATCOM, we've already seen this pay dividends in their unified communication plan. We're hoping that by centralizing these personnel, we'll have timely delivery and consistent communication of the goals and initiatives of our organization. And I know you all love the idea of the capital projects department. We've already spoken a lot about that. Accelerating capital project completion, re-envisioning project management, but also, as the city manager stated, this is phase one of this plan, where we'll incorporate additional project management resources that are currently housed in other areas of the city as we move through the process. As we look at our community services department, this was previously part of the development services department, and it takes out some of the enforcement activities. It also looks at advancing arts and cultural initiatives, economic diversification and growth, as well as enhancing partnerships and internal synergies with some of the activities we already have. And in this slide, you kind of see what those highlights are. Housing and community development will now include homelessness. Economic development will be a standalone division. Business hats, cultural affairs, community inspections, and our call center will all be housed in our community services department. Procurement services was previously a part of the finance department. The idea of transitioning them into their own department is really to enable targeted procurement strategies on many of our large capital projects and to streamline processes and improve operational efficiency. This allows for more robust focus on vendor engagement, as well as employee education, which we're hoping will pay dividends as we bring forth procurement items. And last but not least is the utility services department. This will bifurcate some of the higher priority issues in the larger public works department, and is intended to focus on the utilities as we bring on a new water treatment plant and a number of initiatives associated with utilities. We wanted to make sure that they had the leadership that was needed to make sure that they were focusing on those initiatives. And you'll see the division of activities here from water and treatment and wastewater administration and customer service, as well as distribution and collections within the utility services department. And we've already kind of talked about the org chart, but you see there are four city managers, which is basically memorializing the structure that we already had. But it shifts a little bit, one for internal services, one for external services, operations, and then that project management-related function. So I know I went through that fairly quickly. If you have any questions, and like everyone else, I just want to thank the Budget Advisory Board. This has been such an amazing budget development year, and thank you for the work that you all put into making us better. So thank you very much for your service. Does that complete your presentation? That completes my presentation. Okay, great. Is there anything further from staff? Is that it? That's it. Okay. Does anyone have any questions of the event? Okay. All right. So as we may already know, the Budget Advisory Board members' terms end on September 30th, and we will have three vacancies due to a recent resignation and upcoming term limits. That would be in District 1, District 3, and District 4. So we've asked you to please reappoint your members and appoint members for your respective districts. For the upcoming year, the Budget Advisory Board has indicated they would like to, number one, be involved in setting the policy for use of emergency reserve. Two, partner with the staff to, quote, dig in a bit more to ways to enhance revenues and reduce expenses in anticipation of the potential shortfall in future year's budgets. C, be a part of identifying alternatives for balancing the fiscal year 2027 budget for consideration by the City Commission. And lastly, partner with staff to enhance communication with neighbors regarding the budget and encourage public engagement in the budget process. So this is the last of the three scheduled joint meetings with the Commission and the Budget Advisory Board for the fiscal year 2026 budget. Our next regularly scheduled time to meet with the City Commission will be in the spring of 2026. I miss you already. We will have a presence at the 2027 goal setting. Okay. And to begin work on the fiscal year 2027 budget. So anyone from the Commission have any questions of the City Manager, of Mr. Brown, or any members of our staff before we conclude this meeting? Mayor, thank you, Budget Advisory Board. Really, really appreciate your work and look forward to continuing to partner and do good things together. So thank you. And just even my ask is even if you're not meeting as a body, please still engage with us individually around what you're seeing, thinking as we're moving through the year together. So please continue to help us and give us feedback. Raquel, could you touch on, just so we're kind of have the latest update, nonprofit funding. What's that looking like? And just I've gotten a bunch of questions from the community. Sure. Please, thank you. And thank you. And I do just want to highlight that our City Auditor's Office also has an item on today's agenda. So in terms of nonprofit funding, we have kept the level of funding similar to what we have allocated in prior years, which is about $2 million. And we haven't seen a lot of fluctuation in the groups that we intend to fund for the year. Maybe one or two new groups identified, and our budget team can assist with that. So the primary changes since the last year were $50,000 for the Fort Lauderdale Historic Society. They previously received $85,000. That number is now increased to $135,000. The other major adjustment would be the addition of the... And I think that increase is because of capital improvements to their properties. Is that not correct? So they also provide services directly to the city. So it really serves as a win-win for both organizations. They had some financial needs, but we also are in need of their services in advancing the priorities of historic preservation within the city. And so this supports both of those initiatives. Okay. Well, because we own the buildings, the city owns the buildings, and they operate them, and they preserve the history. And every time I have a conversation with them, they keep telling me that the buildings are falling apart. So I just want to make sure we're on top of that and that we see that our obligation to maintain our own properties is a priority for the city. Absolutely. Okay. The other addition was the Jewish Adoption and Family Care Options, Incorporated, which was $25,000. They provide case management and respite care for families and children within Fort Lauderdale, including providing medical services and educational opportunities for individuals. And the last one was the Stranahan House. So the Stranahan House has historically received $100,000 a year as a contribution to their Welcome Center. Last year, or fiscal year 25, was the final year of that contribution, and those funds are in escrow pending their completion of that Welcome Center. But this year, we're adding $63,000, which will help programming for residents and visitors of the city of Fort Lauderdale for encouraging the region's history and social and cultural visibility within the city. Okay. Any further questions? Great. Thank you, Mayor. You're very welcome. Commissioner Glassman, do you have any questions? Yes. Thanks, Mayor. Again, I also want to say thank you so much to the Budget Advisory Board, and I echo Mr. Patel's sentiments about staff, and thank you so much, everyone. I do agree. It's great work that we see every year, and it's a whole year's worth of work every year, and then we start all over again. So I want to say thank you. I would say that my major concern that I want to make sure that we're monitoring very closely is if, indeed, there is a ballot initiative next year for eliminating property taxes, I think that we need to just see how that's playing out, but also to try to gain as much information as we can. How does that look? What is that all about? And then what is our plan? What is our contingency to deal with that? That's an interesting – it's an interesting exercise, but I think that rather than get caught flat-footed at that moment, if that happens, we have to anticipate, and we have to be prepared for whatever that is going to look like and how it is that we're going to deal with that reality. That's probably my major concern over the next bunch of months. Okay. If I may respond, I just want to share that our public affairs team and our contract lobbyists are very much engaged already and gearing up for the next legislative session, and so we will keep you updated as to any movement on that front. Excellent. Thank you. Well, based on the figures you showed us today, if they eliminated property taxes, which comprise 48% of our budget, and public safety comprises about 60% of our budget, we would probably find ourselves defunding all of our police department and our fire department so that we would be cutting back significantly on public safety in not just our city, but every city would be the same way. So that's the message that has to be out there. I mean, the whole idea is lunacy. And to try to score political points when the reality is you're causing chaos within the cities, I don't know how the state government would shore up the difference. I hear some sort of dialogue going on whether it shore up the difference in some of the lower-budget rural communities, which is fine, but the city of Fort Lauderdale would have several hundred-million-dollar gap, and we'd like a check from the state to help us cover that gap. So thank you for already being involved with this and trying to get the message out to the community and also advising our state lobbyists how important it is that something like this never even come before the public. So thank you. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman. Yes, thank you. Yvette, if you could come back to this podium for us. If you would take a moment for me and for our neighbors as well, if you could go down that nonprofit list as to what is being allocated, increases, same amounts. I know we have a list, but more than transparency, if you would share for us, please. Yes, ma'am. So the first one is $127,842 for the Area Council on Aging, and they provide meals and transportation services to our seniors and adults with disabilities. $100,000 for the Early Learning Coalition of Broward County, which subsidizes child care for some of our lower-income neighbors. First call for Broward Health, $25,000, and they help with supportive listening and crisis intervention. I already spoke about the Jewish adoption and family care options, which is $25,000. Junior Achievement of South Florida, $33,900, and they provide 5th and 8th grade public school students in Fort Lauderdale with financial learning through BizTown and the Financial Park. $214,000 for the Museum of Discovery and Science, which provides STEM education to elementary students within the city of Fort Lauderdale. $500,000 for Nova Southeastern University for the NSU Art Museum, and they provide culture, education, and enrichment programs, as well as neighbor days for our residents. The Stranahan House, which I spoke about, which is $63,000. The DDA, we're continuing our ongoing initiative with the Huizinga Park for the added amenities that will take place there. This would be our third payment for our $5 million contribution, and that is $714,000, in addition to $100,000 for ongoing maintenance and programming of Huizinga Park. CareerSource Broward, which provides our summer youth enrichment programs, $300,000. And then at the Budget Advisory Board's request this year, we actually included in our listing some of the partners that provide homelessness services to the city because they were included as part of Neighbor Support's budget, but we weren't highlighting that we were also supporting these initiatives. So you'll hear a few new names, but they were previously supported, which is the Fellowship Recovery Community Organization, which is $125,000 for substance abuse stabilization and housing, $125,000 for Homes United Ministries, which provides shelter for mental health and mental health support services, $330,000 for Miami Rescue Mission, which is the Caring Place, $315,000 for the Task Force for Ending Homelessness, $135,000 for the Fort Lauderdale Historic Society, which I spoke about earlier, $50,400 for Riverwalk Magazine, which provides us with monthly features within the Riverwalk Magazine, and then $309,000 for Riverwalk Activation, which provides some of our light-up events, beautification, lighting enhancements, and finally, $75,000 for Winterfest, which provides the annual boat parade and also a full complement of activities within the greater Fort Lauderdale area. Thank you, and our neighbors, thank you for giving us that list, and thank you to our board, our committee that has done such an excellent job going through this. What you all do is amazing. The time that you put in is truly appreciated, and thank you again, and thank you to staff as well. Thank you, Commissioner. Before you leave the podium, you said that $100,000 for Huizinga Park Activation, and it's a construction site. Nothing's going on there. Why are we giving $100,000? So we have, and Carl is probably going to help me out a little bit with this one, but we have historically provided some of the landscaping type and maintenance type services, but Carl is going to help me. Right. I understand that, but it's a construction site now. Everything is closed down. The fountain is closed. It's dirt. It's debris everywhere. Nothing is taking place there. Can we skip that for this year? It is anticipated that the park will be open at the end of this year or the top of the next calendar year. That's the projected opening. So this is budgeting and spending $100,000 in anticipation of that opening the beginning of next year? Is that what we're saying? I think we have some expenditures that are incurred prior to that opening. We have some maintenance and operation expenditures, but Carl will provide detail. Carl, what have you got to say? Good afternoon, Mayor and Commissioners. Carl Williams, Parks and Recreation Director. I can't really add too much to this. I was just speaking to a vet here. I'm not really familiar with that component. All right, so can you get back to us and see, you know, is that earmarked for specific events? What, you know, that's a lot of money for something. It's a line item, but, you know, we all know that nothing's going on there right now. Yeah, so Mayor Laura Reese again. So prior to Huizinga being transferred back to the DDA, the city contracted with Huizinga to make it a public park, and so we provided the maintenance, and we also gave them $100,000 a year. When we entered into the longer-term agreement where we were funding a portion of the construction, the annual contribution of $100,000 was included in that long-term agreement. So we're required as part of our agreement with them, our multi-year agreement, to contribute $100,000 per year, and then they're responsible for all of the activation. But the concept is it's going to be a park open to the public. They're responsible for programming it and maintaining it. I totally understand all that. And so it's part of our – But there's nothing going on there. So we would have – I believe we'd have to amend the agreement that we have with them. If we didn't want to make that contribution, I'll pull the agreement, and we can separately send it. But it's a requirement based on our long-term agreement. I understand that, too. But let us be smart about this and let us hear from the DDA how exactly those funds are going to be earmarked for whatever activation is going to take place in that park in the next calendar year. Absolutely. We can reach out to them and ask them how they plan to spend the $100,000. Okay. But, Mayor, Raquel, did you say that we're anticipating that park to open at the end of this year, beginning of 2026? Yes. Well, Mayor, that would still give us nine, ten months of them being open in operation. Well, again, those are projections, and I'd like to know what – and I'm not saying we shouldn't give it. I just want to make sure that by adding it to our list of donations, I want to make sure that it's actually going to be used for the purposes for which it was intended. And that's all we're asking. All right. We'll get that to you. Can I ask you this question? Did we include $100,000 this past year when it was fully under construction? Yes, Mayor. I believe – and I'll provide you the backup, but the agreement, I believe, states that we'll give them the contribution no later than November of each year for – over the term of the agreement. Well, that concerns me because we all know that the park has been under construction for at least a year and a half. And here we've been giving them $100,000 a year for – to contribute to the activation of the park, and nothing's been going on there. So I think we need to revisit that. Yes, Mayor. I'll reach out, and I'll get back to you through the city manager. Thank you. Laura, you might have mentioned this. What's the length of term? The agreement, I believe, was for at least seven years because that was the – we did seven contributions of a certain amount to equal that $5 million total contribution for the capital. And as part of that same agreement, we transitioned from the arrangement where we maintained the park to them maintaining the park and programming it. And as part of that same agreement, the $100,000 annual contribution was included. I understand. So that's how it's set up now, and that's how we've been – OMB administers the agreement. So that's why I'm familiar with the payment schedule. But we can ask how the funding was spent in the current fiscal year and what the intent is next year for the $100,000. Okay. So we'll clarify the timing and we'll, through the manager, communicate back. Okay. We appreciate that. Yeah, thanks. Because it sounds like it might be allocated towards capital versus operating. So there is a capital contribution and separately an operating contribution. The capital contribution requires invoices to support the capital expenditures that they have and will pay for up to one-third and up to the threshold of $5 million over a period of time. The $100,000 is simply a contribution separately to support their operations and maintenance. Okay. All right. Yeah. Good. Thank you so much. Thank you. Any other questions to the commission? Any questions from the advisory board? Any members of the advisory board want to ask the commission anything? You're all good? Okay. Well, let me just in closing to reiterate what the mayor pointed out. It is we ask you seriously to appoint during the next six weeks by the end of September the vacancy for District 1, District 3, and District 4 because, as I mentioned, we're going to be hitting the ground, digging in starting October, and we'd like to have a full board in place. And let me just close by saying it's truly an honor and a privilege serving as a chair for this excellent board. The synergy that this board brings to not only this commission but to the citizens and their input and ideas is part none. And if any of the other boards or committees need a model, we should take a look. Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much. Mayor, if I could just ask you a question before we adjourn because there was a business, too, and I just wanted to make sure that – and I wanted to thank Pat for your work on that with the audit. And all of that information is very important. I just want to make sure before we adjourn that city management audit office is in synergy with regards to the response the city manager gave to your concerns with the budget. I just want to hear from both parties that we're all good with all of those items that were in business, too. Business, too, is just a schedule. Pat, did you want to respond? Yes. Yeah, along with our presentation, we had six items that were of our concern that we had, and management responded to those. And I would say basically management concurred with those. It was two things that they gave a further explanation on to the topics, one being overtime and one being the fund balance that they provide additional information to our comments. So were there any issues at all with management's response on their August 13th memo to your concerns? No, I think, you know, we worked together on it and agree that, you know, we accepted those management responses. Okay, good. I just wanted to make sure that everyone's on the same page. Thank you. Pat, is there anything further you wanted to present today? Yes. Three minutes? No. I'll give you more. I'll go quickly then. Pat Riley, City Auditor. Good afternoon, Mayor and Commissioners. The City Auditor Office has performed a review of the 2025-26 proposed budget. The budget is compiled by the city manager pursuant to Section 4.09 of the city charter. We had several objectives for our review for the fiscal year 26 budget. The primary focus, though, of our review was to ensure that the budget is balanced, revenues and expenditures, estimates are reasonable and materially correct. And also, the priorities of the commission's annual action plan show that they have funded those requests that you've made. And finally, the millage rate is verified to see that it's in compliance with Florida statutes. The scope and methodology of our review established, excuse me, the scope and methodology of our review consisted of various items. We take a very strong look into the analytical procedures. We observe the budget workshop and workshop sheets. We review three years of prior year budget versus actual activity so we can get a perspective of what the trends are and variances over the three-year period that we look at. We review the budget message, we review the executive summary, we looked at information that is brought through the budget department, through the city's software system. And we attend all the budget meetings, revenue meetings, and any other meeting that we felt that would give us a better understanding of what's the operation and activities that are going to be happening in the future. As I mentioned in prior years, we have, well, let's see, moves here, okay. You know, I mentioned in prior years that we do this review each year. We work strongly with the budget, our department, and with city commission and the budget advisory group throughout the year. We're always looking at the budget. And the budget department has had a continued group of staff that has been maintained there for many years that we work closely with. And really, over the last couple years, there has been no material errors noted in the previous years. So I guess this is the important point of our review is the CEO's conclusion is that the fiscal year 2026 proposed budget for the city of Fort Lauderdale is considered a balanced budget as presented. In addition, the established priorities from the commission's annual action plan have been budgeted and the proposed millage compliance with, are in compliance with the Florida statutes, the millage. The areas of concern that we have mentioned in our memo are things that we felt that the city commission should be briefed on. And we feel that these are things that going forward are things to consider. And hopefully, we'll take a quick look at those. First area of concern is the information and enterprise resource planning. Upgrades and updates are a normal part of the information technology and even through ERP funding seems appropriately budgeted. The CEO believes that there's still areas of concern in this area associated costs to enhancing the software and applications that have to work in conjunction with the ERP operations. These upgrades and enhancements are not budgeted with ERP, but instead are in various other budgets, therefore not providing the consolidated true cost of the ERP implementation. The city's ERP system remains a significant concern due to escalating costs. Incomplete functionality and delayed implementation of key components. And its key issues include the addition this year of Infor cloud suite managed services. This is intended to address knowledge gaps, assist with customization, and improve analytic and reporting. This initial contract was for two years for $535,000 with annual renewals. And this contract could total up to $935,000. Another item is a pre-production tenant. It's a testing environment to review changes and impacts before regular updates, especially Infor semiannual upgrades. Although phase one of the ERP was implemented in 2022, the critical component is only being added now, which is an additional $75,000 annually and contributes to a $557,000 contract increase for subscription fees through 2032. Also, licensing is calculated by individual rather than by the number of licenses that we have. And this is projected to exceed $600,000 by 2027. There are still some items related to approvals and workflows that continue to be processed outside of the ERP also. The combination of rising costs, delayed implementation of critical components, and operational efficiencies indicate that Infor, in its current state, is not adequately meeting the city's needs. Another item we had was overtime. The overtime notes is a significant expense for the city. In our review, in our review, overtime is consistently understated when compared to actual overtime incurred. In addition, we fill the gaps with budgeted vacancies, which are funded, unfulfilled positions, and are cumulative over all our departments. And these are used to, you know, to handle the increases in the overtime. The message we have there is the overtime budget numbers should more accurately reflect what is needed. An example is the PD department was underfunded approximately $5.4 million for fiscal year 2025. Additionally, this year, we've added $2 million to the overtime for fiscal year 2026, which, based on historical trends, most likely still might be underfunded with current operational practices. As mentioned earlier, the next item relating to community investment plan, CIP, you know, we still feel that there's a lot of delays in starting projects and completing projects, and this only adds to the cost of materials and labor increasing. The potential increase is difficult to assess, but we really feel that there's, you know, kind of a tendency over the years to delay getting them started or finishing the project. There's been some overtime, I mean, I'm sorry, there's been some change orders continue to extend the time that a project is completed. Some examples are the new police headquarters, advanced metering infrastructure, and parks and projects. The next item we wanted to mention was reserve and general fund unrestricted fund balance. The reserve balance for a municipality, as per the government officers associated, is approximately 16.7 of the operating revenues or expenditures. The city has elected to use expenditures and have also increased it to 25% of expenditures. As per the GFOA, at a minimum, equivalent to two months of operating expenses in reserve. So we are, you know, more conservative on that. The current understanding of the CEO at the time of this memo is that there's approximately $14 million over the 25% threshold that we have set up for reserves. And in this current year, these funds could be allocated for various opportunities, including but not limited to possibly paying down some debt, allocating to a new fire station. And I think the new influx of monies from the PFAS will also help that were mentioned that could do some capital project improvements there. As far as another topic we mentioned was union negotiations. I know the union negotiations were completed with two of the unions, but police and fire collective bargaining contract should be looked at for some changes, possibly. Examples include, but not limited to, regardless of the group or department, if a delayed negotiation results past the start date of the new CBA contract, then retroactive pay should not be paid or possibly extended 90 days to foster more proactive discussion and conclusions rather than paying a retroactive amount for years and back pay once negotiations are completed. I think, you know, like I was mentioned earlier, the two unions that were completed and they'll be voting on quick soon, were done before the contract expired. So I think it's kind of an important thing because that gives budget a really good feel for that. And then the expense of having to pay a back pay that we've done in the past is a hit to the budget. And then there was just an unexplained budget balance, but I think management is clear relating to the FIFA World Cup event that's going to be played in Dade County. And we're understanding that they were moving that 350,000, but at the point of our review, that was still pending. So I believe they were changing that to be the homeless. And again, like we mentioned, management has provided responses on our areas of concern. And lastly, I just wanted to thank the Office of Management and Budget for assisting us with compiling budget information and supporting documentation. Thank you, Yvette and Laura Reese and their staff. And I would like to recognize our audit staff in their excellent work on the review of the fiscal year 2026 proposed budget. And they're back there. Please stand up. Please stand up. Please stand up. Thank you very much. So at this point, if there's any questions, be happy to try. All right. Very good. Thank you so much. Any questions of our auditor? All right. There being none. Thank you. I think they're hungry. Okay. Does anyone else have anything to say from the commission? We're good? All right. This workshop is now adjourned. We'll return around 1.30 for our afternoon meeting.