and call to order the final public budget hearing. Ms. Beguerle, please call the roll. Councilmember Anderson. Here. Councilmember Andreu. Here. Councilmember Fajan. Here. Councilmember Horland. Yes, here. Councilmember Reinstein. Here. Mayor Sortel. Here. City Attorney Ezra. Here. Good evening, Ms. Otaniano. How are you? I think we can dispense with the presentation, which we usually do on the second reading of the budget. So we have items one through seven on the budget. Mr. Ezra, would you like to read the summary on item number one, which is FY 2027, final millage rate resolution for the Plantation Gateway Development District? Before we read those, can I just read into record the rollback rates and the proposed rates? Please. Go ahead. Okay. The City of Plantation Fiscal Year 2027 proposed budget is based on the general fund operating millage of 5.700 mills. This is an increase of 3.87% from the rollback millage rate of 5.4878 mills. The voter debt millage rate for Fiscal Year 27 is 0.2637 mills. This is the millage rate required to fund the voter-approved debt. The Plantation Gateway Development District Fiscal Year 2027 proposed budget is based on the operating millage of 1.6364 mills. This is a zero increase from the rollback millage rate of 1.6364 mills. The Plantation Midtown Development District Fiscal Year 2027 proposed budget is based on the operating millage of 0.9662 mills. This is an increase of 2.06% from the rollback millage rate of 0.9467 mills. The City of Plantation Aggregate Fiscal Year 2027 proposed budget is based on the aggregate millage rate of 5.9221 mills. This is an increase of 3.84% from the aggregate rollback millage rate of 5.70.31 mills. The increase in ad valorem revenue for the operating fund is to fund personnel costs, increase in capital costs, and to fund operations. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. Ezra, would you like to go ahead and read that item, please? Sure. This is the item number one is a resolution adopting the final millage rate for Plantation Gateway Development District of 1.6364 mills for the operating fiscal year October 1, 2026, through September 30, 2027, identifying the computed rollback millage rate, providing findings, a savings clause, and an effective date. Thank you very much. Council members, do we have a motion? I'll make a motion to approve item one. And do we have a second? Second. Okay. And Mr. Conklin, good evening, sir. Did you wish to speak on each item, or would you like to come up and make your... Okay. Welcome. Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwest Sixth Court. Heavenly hosts, protect you. And all of your families. Yes, unified comments. Thank you for a bit of a rollback on the Gateway 7 District, Development District. And I wish you could have done rollbacks for the whole city. And I normally don't comment on Midtown, so I'll yield back. Thank you. So you don't want to come back up for general? You'll come back on stair, right? Okay. Thank you, Mr. Conklin. We have a motion and a second. Ms. Begaro, could you please call the roll on item number one? Council Member Pageant? Yes. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andreu? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Item number two is the FY 2027 Final Millage Resolution for the Plantation Midtown Development District. Mr. Ezra. Resolution adopting final millage rate for Plantation Midtown Development District of 0.9662 mills for the operating fiscal year October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027, identifying the computed rollback millage rate, providing findings, a savings clause, and an effective date. Thank you. Thank you. Do we have a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing no other public comment, Ms. Begaro, please call the roll. Council Member Fajan? Yes. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andreu? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Item number three is Fiscal Year 2027 Final Voted Debt Millage Resolution for the City of Plantation. It's Resol. Resolution of the City of Plantation, Florida, adopting the proposed finalized voted debt millage of 0.2637 mills, which the City of Plantation shall assess during the next ensuing tax year as required by voted debt known as the City of Plantation Ad Valorem Bond Series 2017, providing findings, a savings clause, and an effective date. Thank you very much. Do we have a motion? Motion to approve. And a second? Second. Thank you. No discussion, no public comment. Ms. Begaro, please call the roll. Fajan and me. Council Member Fajan? Yes. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andreu? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Item number four is Fiscal Year 2027 Final Millage Resolution for the City of Plantation Consolidated. Mr. Ezraal. A resolution adopting the final millage rate for the City of Plantation of 5.700 mills for the operating fiscal year, October 1, 2026, through September 30, 2027, identifying the City-only millage rate, the City-only rollback rate, the aggregate millage and aggregate rollback rate, and the percentage increase from the aggregate rollback rate, providing findings, a savings clause, and an effective date. Thank you very much. I'll make a motion to approve. I would like to make a comment, a motion, before that's okay. Absolutely. I'm going to kind of restate my case again, requesting the rollback. I think the time is now. I think it would be wise in anticipation of the potential of Amendment 3 coming through that we take action now. And like I've said in my past comments, the revenue has increased since Fiscal Year 2021 to Fiscal Year 2027 by 49.95%. Some of these, at least three of those seven years, we've had 9% year-over-year revenue increases, which is extraordinary, which I really believe is a really compliment to our residents who have created these vibrant neighborhoods and communities and communities and our businesses and our commercial property owners who are creating a great marketplace for people to want to come to the plantation and utilize the businesses and services that we have. Now, I know that, Council Member, Council President Horland, you did mention that it is more difficult to raise the millage, I guess because it's a supermajority. But I regularly have a 4-1 vote, so I really don't think it will be that. We won't always be sitting here, sir. What's that? We won't always be sitting here. And that's fine. But the history has shown in the last 25 years that we've raised the millage 14 times, we've reduced it three times, and we've kept it the same the rest of the time. And my point being is that when it's necessary to raise it, we are. And Davie is right now the only city that is – or town, my apologies to our neighbors to the south, that they're implementing a rollback this year. So I think we would be in good company if we did the same thing. So I will make the motion to implement the rollback, which I believe was 5.4878. Thank you. And we often disagree at this time of year. We rarely disagree, but we disagree on this one. And I will continue to maintain that I feel, in my opinion, that it would be fiscally irresponsible to cut $4 million out of our budget. It's 3.2. Okay, but close to 4. But thank you for the correction. When we do have Amendment 3 hanging over our heads, and as I said, it is much more difficult with the supermajority now to raise the millage rate, and that is a concern because, again, we won't always be sitting here, and I would hate to put another council in that position. You brought up Davie tonight and brought up the other night. I would venture to say, and I apologize because I did not do my due diligence on it, but Davie's had an awful lot of development going on in their community, and I think if you talk to the mayor or any of the commissioners there, council members, that that development has helped to offset a lot of the tax base, and I would not want to be in a position to encourage more development than we are already approving here to offset our tax base. So that would be my argument on that. May I reply to that? Absolutely. Because I did talk to one of their council members about it. And she didn't bring up anything regarding development in the city, town of Davie, but she talked about giving a break to their residents and their property tax owners, and that's how they framed it in their discussion, and it passed 5-0. Okay. Very good. Thank you. I heard your argument. Councilmember Einstein. As much as I enjoy hearing the two of you back and forth with me sitting here in the middle, you know, the question that is raised every time the budget is before us about a rollback, I'd like to see a rollback, too. I'd like to see our, what my family pays to be decreased as well. The concern that I have is that when the argument is being made, whether it's by yourself, Councilmember Fadgen, or anybody, in terms of reducing the millage rate, I don't hear the accompanying, what should we reduce in terms of the services to our public? And, you know, that's the balance that I find and I believe is worth stating clearly, is that in order to maintain the customer service that we do in our city, that we need to maintain the revenue, and we need to make sure that we can afford the services. And, you know, I would always listen that if, when we're discussing the budget, that there is a very clear discussion of what $3 million or more can be taken out of our budget. Let's talk about the real numbers in terms of what would be reduced from our customer service beyond just talking about the mills. I think we've had some residents that have very aptly stated that when we talk about the millage rate, we're talking about real numbers in terms of what the public is going to pay. And that public includes me, who also uses our services, and my family uses our services. And so, you know, I will always listen to a motion or a consideration. I may even make it myself if I feel that we can stomach it to reduce the millage rate, but not without hurting our residents and how we serve them. Thanks. Thank you, Council Member Reinstein. Council Member Andrea, and then Council Member Anderson. Thank you, Council Member, President Horland. I didn't do a lot of research, but I did see from one of the commissioners in Sunrise that they're actually increasing their millage rate. So talk about being sandwiched in the middle. So, you know, we do have a city that's increasing to the north and decreasing, I guess, to the south of us. But I, too, I'm not sure exactly, especially this late in the journey, how we could cut $3.2 million from our current budget. And I do think it's prudent just to wait and see how the Amendment 3 vote pans out. Thank you, Council Member Andrea. Council Member Anderson. I hear all of my colleagues' comments. Council Member Fadgen, when you say it from 2021 to 2027, it sounds very high. Hi, however, you see all these appropriations come past our desk about how much fire trucks cost and how much just redoing a bathroom is $100,000. And you see the costs far exceeding CPI. And you see the raises in insurance far exceeding CPI. So to Council Member Reinstein's point, it would be very hard to find these cuts. I wish we could, somewhere in between, if we didn't have Amendment 3 hanging over our heads, I would be fighting for something in between rollback and the current rate. Bless you. Thanks. I just, Amendment 3 is a big hole out there, an unresolved hole, and it would be very difficult. So I have a pledge to myself, I make it public, that I want to work very hard, depending on the outcome of Amendment 3, for next year that we do something. But I don't think this is the time right now. And I just have one response. Thank you for that. And I just want to say, and that is an exercise that we will all be going through when we have strategic planning, and we've talked to administration about that in January. You know, it's interesting, as I'm going out, and I did another presentation on Amendment 3 last night out in Park East, I created a poster board with some of the items from our budget and what the prices are, $24,000 for a police dog. You know, people don't think about that. You know, the price of a hydraulic stretcher in one of our rescue units. So it's interesting for people to just look at that graphic and put a price tag on it, because we do see that. You know, I often talk about my tour through utilities with Danny Polio, and he's like, that needs to be replaced, and it's $14 million, and that's $12 million over there. And, you know, I'm generalizing, but there are a lot of needs in this city with infrastructure and, you know, the items that our staff needs to do their job every day. So thank you for that. Council Member Fajan, I'll let you wrap up. Just one response. I lost one of my thoughts. I don't think there's many households in that same period of time had a 49.95% increase in their household income. And I relay what we do here on this dais and what the mayor does upstairs with the administering of the budget, is that it's kitchen table politics. You have so much that comes in, and that's all that can go out. So there's a lot of tough decisions. And I'm not saying that we don't make tough decisions already. I'm thinking it just should be more difficult. And there was another comment, but I can't remember what it is, but that's all I have. Thank you. And I think we all respect that, and we're sensitive to what our residents and what we're all going through. I know that my bills have gone up, but I think to Council Member Reinstein's point, a better exercise would be for us to come to the table and talk about, you found your thought, talk about the things that you wanted to cut in order to make that change. Go ahead. I remember, very briefly. Sure. And it's not late in the process. This is part of the process. There's two readings for us to make this final decision. So it's right on time if we decide to do it. Okay. Thank you very much. So you've got a motion on the floor. I did not hear a second. Do we have a second on the motion? What was the motion? It's a rollback, right? All the way to the rollback? Mm-hmm. I know, but it's too much. Okay. Give me something a lot higher than that, but less than that. Okay. Or details of what you want to cut. So we have a motion on the floor for the rollback. I do not hear a second. Okay. The motion dies. Do I have a motion on the proposal, which is item number four, maintaining the millage rate of 5.7? I'll make the motion to approve. Do we have a second? Second. Okay. And Ms. Sword, you wanted to come up. We've got a motion and a second. We'll take public comment. Good evening again. Good evening. Carol Sword, 1621 Northwest 82nd Avenue. I'm speaking in support of the rollback. Otherwise, our property taxes will be increased. I have neighbors in my community who are having to spend over two-thirds of their Social Security just on HOA fees and utilities and phones and so forth. So they have very little left just to go buy groceries, much less any form of entertainment. So again, I support the rollback. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Sword. I just wanted to get those numbers because you were not here for the last presentation. But we do have numbers for Lauderdale West for an average of what it would go up. And not negating that it goes up, but it's really pennies and dollars. All right. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? No other public comment? Ms. Beggar, will you please call the roll on item number four? Council Member Fadgen? No. Council Member Einstein? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andre? Yes. Thank you very much. Item number five is fiscal year 2027. Final budget resolution for the Plantation Gateway Development District. Mr. Ezreal, please. This is a resolution providing for the adoption and approval of the final revenue and appropriation budgets of the dependent taxing district of Plantation Gateway Development District for the operating fiscal year October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027, providing findings, a savings clause, and an effective date. Thank you very much. Do we have a motion? Motion to approve? Second. We have a motion, a second, and no public. Would you like to speak on that one? I thought you were coming back up for CRA. You wanted to speak on Gateway Budget? I was better. Okay. Apologies. Welcome to the podium, Mr. Conklin. Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwest 6th Court. I found my notes. That's why I was yielding before. I was checking the CAFR because I mentioned that there was about 10 million bucks in the Gateway and CRA overlay districts and everything. So I said, I think I lowballed that. So what I did was I went back and read the CAFR for 2025 and found that the Gateway Development District special fund is at 3.8 million bucks. The CRA Capital Improvement Fund is at 20 million bucks. The Gateway Capital Projects Fund is at $373,000. The CRA Endowment Service Fund is at $390,000. And this year, this projected budget is for, excuse me, this year, the tax windfall would be 1 million bucks to the Gateway. And I can see a clause and a case by the numbers to zero out the millage rate for the Gateway. The budget was at $300,000 or something like that, $300,000. But I wanted to see what the pile of money was sitting on that district. So you can feel comfortable in knowing that there's money there to provide for this year's projects and budgets without any fear of cutting services. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Conklin. We have a motion and a second. Hearing no other discussion, Ms. Beggarrow, please call the roll on item number five. Council Member Fadgen? Yes. Council Member Einstein? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andrew? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Item number six, fiscal year 2027, final budget resolution for the Plantation Midtown Development District. Mr. Ezra. This is a resolution providing for the adoption and approval of the final revenue and appropriation budgets of the dependent taxing district of Plantation Midtown Development District for the operating fiscal year October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027, providing findings, a savings clause, and an effective date. Thank you. I'll make a motion to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Okay. Any discussion, public comment? No. Ms. Beggarrow, please call the roll. Council Member Fadgen? Yes. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andrew? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Item number seven, fiscal year 2027, final budget resolution for the City of Plantation Consolidated. Mr. Ezra. Resolution providing for the adoption and approval of the final consolidated revenue and appropriation budget of the City of Plantation for the operating fiscal year October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027, providing findings, budgeted compensation of elected officials, providing a savings clause, and an effective date. Thank you very much. Do we have a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Item seven. Anyone for a second? Second. Thank you very much. Any discussion or public comment? Ms. Beggarrow, please call the roll. Council Member Fadgen? Yes. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andre? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Thank you very much. And Council Member Fadgen, I always enjoy the discussions this time of year. So, yes, I do. So, at this point, we're going to adjourn the final public budget hearing at 555.