City Council First Budget Public Hearing — Sep 10, 2025

Erik Anderson: present · Jennifer Andreu: present · Timothy J. Fadgen: present · Denise Horland: present · Louis Reinstein: present · Nick Sortal: present

Second. We have a motion, and we have a second. We have a motion, and we have a second.

Jennifer Andreu: yes · Timothy J. Fadgen: no · Denise Horland: yes · Erik Anderson: yes · Louis Reinstein: yes

Do we have a second? Second. Motion has been made and seconded.

Jennifer Andreu: yes · Timothy J. Fadgen: no · Denise Horland: yes · Erik Anderson: yes · Louis Reinstein: yes

Outcome: Motion to approve? (partial — some responses not in transcript)

Motion to approve? We have a motion, and I will second it. I will second.

Jennifer Andreu: yes · Timothy J. Fadgen: yes · Denise Horland: yes · Erik Anderson: yes · Louis Reinstein: yes

Outcome: Motion to approve. (partial — some responses not in transcript)

Do we have a second? Second. Council Member Horland has a second.

Jennifer Andreu: yes · Timothy J. Fadgen: yes · Denise Horland: yes · Erik Anderson: yes · Louis Reinstein: yes

Outcome: Motion to approve. (partial — some responses not in transcript)

Motion to approve. Second. We have a motion, and we have a second.

Jennifer Andreu: yes · Timothy J. Fadgen: yes · Denise Horland: yes · Erik Anderson: yes · Louis Reinstein: yes

Erik Anderson: present · Jennifer Andreu: present · Timothy J. Fadgen: present · Denise Horland: present · Louis Reinstein: present · Nick Sortal: present

Do I have a second? Second. We have a motion and we have a second.

Erik Anderson: yes · Jennifer Andreu: yes · Timothy J. Fadgen: yes · Denise Horland: yes · Louis Reinstein: yes · Nick Sortal: yes

Welcome and good evening to a City of Plantation first public budget hearing. It is 5.01 p.m. and Ms. Beggaroe, please call the roll.

Council Member Anderson.

Here.

Council Member Andreu. Here. Council Member Fadgen. Here. Council Member Horland. Here. Council Member Einstein. Here. Mayor Sortel. Here. City Attorney Ezra. Here. Thank you.

Thank you very much. We are going to begin tonight with the budget presentation from the city. We will follow that with public comments after the budget presentation. And then we will follow that by taking each one of the items one at a time for a vote. Following that, we will recess to the regular council meeting, which will begin with the opening remarks and the Pledge of Allegiance at that time. Followed by the CRA and the continuation of the council meeting. Budget presentation. It's all yours. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, Council President, Council Member, City Attorney Ezra. Welcome to the City of Plantation fiscal year 2026 first public hearing. Before I start the presentation, I usually read into record the proposed millage rates and then the increase above the rollback rates. The City of Plantation fiscal year 2026 proposed budget is based on the general fund operating millage of 5.7000 mills. This is an increase of 4.39% from the rollback millage rate of 5.4603 mills. The voted debt millage rate for fiscal year 26 is 0.2710 mills. This is the millage rate required to fund the voter approved debt service. The Plantation Gateway Development District fiscal year 26 proposed budget is based on the operating millage of 1.7108 mills. This is an increase of 4.5% from the rollback millage rate of 1.6367 mills. The Plantation Midtown Development District fiscal year 26 proposed budget is based on the operating millage of 0.9707 mills. This is an increase of 3.40% from the rollback millage rate of 0.9388 mills. The City of Plantation Aggregate Fiscal Year 26 proposed budget is based on the aggregate millage of 5.9198 mills. This is an increase of 4.34% from the aggregate rollback millage rate of 5.6738 mills. The increase in Advalarm revenues in fiscal year 26 are for the specific purpose of funding increases in operating costs, increase in personnel costs, and to fund operating capital needs. The proposed budget for all funds, including Advalarm bond, is approximately $281 million in fiscal year 2026. This is a decrease of 0.2% or approximately a decrease of $500,000. The significant decreases and increases, I only listed there are other funds, but I'm just listing the significant changes here. As you can see from the pie chart, the general fund had the most significant decrease at $4.3 million. Special revenue funds decreased $511,000. Capital project funds decreased of $158,000. Stormwater utility funds decreased $71,000. And then the debt service funds decreased $23,000, approximately $24,000. Significant increases were seen in the special district funds, primarily, not primarily, but mostly in the Midtown district, approximately $2 million. Utility funds increased $1.5 million. And then the golf course fund increased $1.2 million. Now, I will go into these increases and decreases in these changes as I go through the budget presentation. Starting with the general fund. The general fund budget is based on a proposed millage of 5.7 mills. This is a decrease from the fiscal year 2025 millage rate of 5.8 mills. It's actually the first decrease in millage rates since fiscal year 2018. Now, I'm sure you remember when we came in at the maximum millage meeting, we came in with a budget based on a 5.8 millage. During that meeting, there was a lot of discussion with council, mayor, residents. And after that meeting, it was decided to reduce the millage to 5.7. So, because we had a budget balanced to 5.8 mills, we were then required to bring that down to 5.7 mills. So, the reduction from the 5.8 to the 5.7, we lost $1.4 million. Therefore, we needed to cut $1.4 million out of the budget. We removed some $485,000 from the road repaving budget, and we removed $933,000 from the parks capital budget for the turf fields. Initially, we had four turf fields budgeted at the 5.8 mills. Now, we have two. So, these items won't – it's not that these activities won't continue. We will – once the funds run out for the paving, we will be using fund balance for capital – the general fund fund balance for capital improvements. We will be using dollars from that fund balance to finish the paving, and we will also be using funds from the same fund balance to do the turf fields as well. So, continuing on, the property values in the City of Plantation increased 6.99%. This is according to the Broward County Property Appraiser. The combination of the increase in property values and the proposed millage rate of 5.7 mills will generate approximately $81 million in ad valorem revenues. This is a 2.9% increase in ad valorem revenues over the previous fiscal year amended budget. 0.8% of the additional revenues, or $641,000, is related to new construction. The proposed millage of 5.7000 mills requires a majority vote or three votes from Council. Now, as customary in my presentations, when I usually do the budget presentations, I like to show the impact to the homeowners. This year, it's going to be a little bit different because we have a third component added due to the reduction of the millage. So, I'm going to show you what the resident paid in 25, what they're estimated to pay in 26 at the 5.7, and what the savings were from the 5.8 to the 5.7. So, with the Lauderdale West customer and a resident, in fiscal year 2025, they had a Save Our Home value home of $102,800. They paid $306.24 in property taxes. That's city property taxes. In fiscal year 2026, the Save Our Home value increased to $105,780. So, the homeowner will pay $313.83 in property taxes. So, even though we reduced the millage, property taxes did increase slightly due to the increase in property values. So, the homeowner will pay an additional $7.59 over the previous fiscal year. That's the annual increase over the year, and then the monthly increase, $0.63. Now, at 5.8, if we had not changed the millage rate to 5.7, this homeowner would have paid $319.34 in taxes. So, the savings between the 5.8 and the 5.7 is $5.51 for the Lauderdale West homeowner. Park East Savings are $11.61. Country Club Estates, $13.26. Historical Plantation, $17.30. Royal Palm Estates, $20.64. Tropical Estates, $26.02. Jacaranda, $29.29. Fox Run, $47.08. And then Plantation Acres, $48.95 in savings. Every year when the tax, when the trim notice goes out to the residents, we typically get some calls from the residents because the first thing they zero in in is the total tax bill. And they usually think that the total tax bill is coming to the city. So, they call the city and question the taxes. Using the homeowner on the previous slide from the historical district, they had a Save Our Home value of $223,710 with an exemption of $50,722. So, they would get a tax bill of $3,639.64. Of this $3,639.64, the city portion is $1,032.91. Of that amount, $986.03 is for property taxes and $46.88 is for the debt service. Now, the dollar represents, for this representation, shows the resident what portion of their dollar goes where. So, Broward County School Board has the largest piece of the pie at 35.40%. City of Plantation coming in second at 28.38%. Broward County at 26.94%. And then the North Broward Hospital District, 5.90%. Children's Services Council, 2.14%. South Florida Water Management District, 1.09%. And then the Florida Inland Navigation District, 0.14%. So, moving on to the general fund. The general fund total budget for fiscal year 2026 is approximately $151 million. This is a decrease of 2.8% or $4.3 million, the decreases in capital projects. Looking at the revenues, the city, the significant revenue sources for the general fund help fund all the services to the general public. And as you can see from the pie chart, 53.8% of the general fund, the total general fund revenue is ad valorem revenue. So, the city depends a lot on the property taxes. Again, ad valorem revenues in fiscal year 26 are $81.2 million. The next biggest category for the city are the charges for services, which is 14.1% of the total revenues of the general fund. And coming in at $21.3 million for fiscal year 26. Now, of the charges for services, there is 29.4% or $6.3 million here that's related to solid waste. This is not money that belongs to the city. This is money that the city collects on behalf of waste management. The other 70.6% or $15 million is charges for services, charges to the residents for city services. The intergovernmental category is 9.9% of the overall total general fund revenues, coming in at $15 million for fiscal year 26. This is another category that has a small amount in here that does not belong to the city. In here, we have 18% or $2.8 million, and this money belongs to the police and firefighter insurance premium taxes. Again, this is money that comes to the city that we have to turn around in five days to give to those fire and police pensions. 72% of the category is revenue sharing from the state, of which we get $10.6 million. The largest piece of that, the largest chunk of that is sales tax and half-cent sales tax. And then we also have 10% that's related to public safety grants. That's $1.5 million, of which $1.3 million is related to the school resource officer program. The next category is 8.4%. That's permit fees, special assessments. This is $12.7 million for fiscal year 26. The good news is the total category here belongs to the city. 84% or $10.7 million is related to franchise fees for electricity, gas, and solid waste. And then 16% is permit fees for police, engineering, short-term rentals, and then also the tributification. The last category is 6.5% of the overall total general fund revenues. That's the utility service taxes coming in at $9.9 million for fiscal year 26. And this category is just as it's described. It's the utility service taxes for gas and electricity. So moving on to general fund expenditures. Again, just listing the significant ones. As you can see from this pie chart, personnel is the largest cost for the city, coming in at 71.3% of the overall general fund expenditures. For fiscal year 26, personnel costs approximately $107.6 million. Operating expenses come in at 19.7% of the overall general fund expenditures, and they're coming in at $30 million for fiscal year 26. And then last but not least, the capital category is 6.9% of the total expenditures coming in at $10.3 million. So digging into these particular categories a little further to kind of show you where the monies fall, I've grouped certain groups together, like groups together, so you can kind of see what groups are actually the winner of the category or the most costly of the category. Again, personnel costs are 71.3% of the general fund budget, totaling $107.6 million. The increase in personnel costs is 4% or $4.1 million. The increase is due to the addition of six new full-time employees, 4% increases for general employees, various percentages increases for FOP based on their approved negotiated contract, and then estimated increases for fire rescue pending the outcome of their negotiated contract. IT is a category all by itself. It's a very special category. They're all by themselves. They're coming in at $3.7 million. The public works departments, this is all the departments under the public works umbrella. We've got public works, central service crafts, facility maintenance, landscaping, and resource recovery, coming in at $10.5 million. General service departments, we have about nine in here. You've got administration, finance, city clerk, HR, procurement, engineering, planning and zoning, library, and museum, all totaling $12.1 million for fiscal year 26. Parks and recreation, again, parks, recreation, aquatics, tennis, and equestrian, all totaling $13.3 million. And then last but not least, the public safety, which is the most expensive cost for the general fund personnel, coming in at $68 million. That category is police, fire, and fire rescue. So looking at the positions that were requested, there was actually seven requests for positions, but one request for deletion as well. So the net effect is six new positions. City clerk requested to remove one full-time position. Information technology requested one junior security administrator. Police requested three positions, two police officers, one background specialist. Fire requested one communication technical coordinator. Public works requested one assistant fleet specialist. And central services requested one position, a maintenance worker one. Moving on to operating costs, again, operating costs are 19.7% of the general fund budget. They totaled $29.7 or approximately $30 million for fiscal year 26. This is an increase of 7.8% or $2.1 million. The increase is primarily due to the increase of cost of goods and services. Now, we've talked about inflation has come down, but the cost of goods and services did not come down with it, unfortunately. Again, the same category, same groups. Information technology, $1.9 million. Parks and Recreation, $3.7 million. Public works, $6.2 million. General service departments, $7.1 million. And then the most costly department for operating costs is public works, coming in at $10.8 million. Capital costs, approximately 6.9% of the general fund budget. They total $10.3 million for fiscal year 26. This is a decrease of 50.7% or $10.6 million. Again, same group, same category. And Parks and Recreation came in as the winner of the most costly department in the capital area. The total cost in the general fund, $218,000. That's actually for the ADA projects. It's not normal to see big projects there. Information technology, $1.5 million. Public works, $2.1 million. Public safety, $2.9 million. And parks and recreation, $3.6 million. Looking at the capital projects, I group them now by actual department, and I'm only listing the significant items. For example, public works have a total capital of $2.1 million. The total items listed does not add up to $2.1 million because those other items were all small. I didn't, we would be here until next week if I had all of the items. So the first item on the list had an allocation of $514,000 for road repaving. Now, again, this was a million initially. We took out $485,000. We now have $514,000. The public works department has $496,000 allocated to architectural drawings for two new roofs, one for the fleet maintenance building, and one for the administrative building. There's $200,000 allocated for sidewalk and swale tree improvements, $100,000 each. These are initiatives that have been ongoing. We've been doing it in 24, 25, and you're going to see it again in 26. There's also $150,000 for the citywide AC systems maintenance program. And then $386,000 for six new service vehicles. Parks and Recreation has a total of $3.6 million in capital items. The fourth item on the list is $933,000 allocated to synthetic turf fields. Again, this is now there's only two. There was initially four. There's $350,000 for the Volunteer Park Bridge. $170,000 for a dugout replacement. There's going to be 16 dugouts replaced. $150,000 for the project that's currently ongoing for the pump room. And that's the $150,000 is going to be for fiscal year 26. Parks and Rec continue. We have $350,000 allocated to playground equipment. $335,000 for shade structures for playground equipment and bleachers. $300,000 for playground safety surfacing. And $175,000 for fencing in various locations. We also have $175,000 allocated to three new service vehicles. $150,000 for room dividers for two community centers. $126,000 for sports courts resurfacing for basketball and tennis courts. $75,000 for parking lot and walkway resurfacing. $75,000 for exterior exercise equipment. And $50,000 for tractor loader. The police department has $1.9 million in capital items for fiscal year 26. Of that $1.9 million, $1,007,000 is related to 19 marked and unmarked vehicles and the equipment that is used to outfit those vehicles. $766,000 is for body-worn cameras and tasers. You may remember the first year of the body-worn cameras was we received a grant for $400,000. We're hoping to, in the future, receive more grants for that. But for right now, we do not have a grant for fiscal year 26. Fire and rescue departments have a total of $1 million in capital items. They have $175,000 allocated to a new alerting system. They have $195,000 allocated to three new emergency response vehicles. $192,000 allocated to miscellaneous life-saving equipment. $67,000 for a hydraulic response equipment. $100,000, that's $50,000 each, for RMS CAD, fire, and fire rescue. And then $300,000 for a fire station 4 remodel design. The Information Technology Department has approximately $1.5 million in capital projects, of which $75,000 is allocated to network servers and devices. $75,000 to network file management software. $235,000 to a Sala Cloud update. $962,000, $63,000 for ERP. And $143,000 for a virtualization subscription. So these are the projects that are budgeted in fiscal year 26. This next slide is, we wanted to show you, even though these projects are not in fiscal year, some of them are actually continuing in fiscal year 26, but these are projects that are currently ongoing. We wanted to show you that, you know, every year we come in with a budget and we're asking for these items, capital projects, we wanted to show you that these are all the projects that are currently in play. $4,728,000 is what's been spent to date. That's not the total cost of all these projects, but that's just what's been spent to date. Hazardous tree removal and sidewalk mitigation, you just saw that. That's going to be in fiscal year 26. These are talking about what we've been budgeted in 24 and 25. Sidewalk mitigation, they're making great progress there. They've finished 12,511 linear feet of new sidewalks. Public Works Department's working very hard. City Hall sidewalk additions, although you don't see any cost here, that project has started. There's lots of roadway improvements. You've got the Southwest 3rd Street Roadway, the Southwest 6th Street and Southwest 78th Avenue, Northwest 5th Street, Northwest 46th Avenue, Northwest 55th Avenue, Northwest 10th Court, Cypress Road and Northwest 74th Avenue, Cypress Road and North Fig Tree Lane, Central Park Drive, Cleary Boulevard and Northwest 94th Avenue, State Road 7 corridor enhancements. We've got Plantation Park Community Roadway improvements. We've got the Design and Permitting Services for Culvert Bridges and Central Park Place, Basin 2 drainage improvements, Volunteer Park Bridge and Pier improvements, Liberty Tree Park improvements, Stormwater Master Plan and ADA compliance. So lots of projects currently in play. The departments are very busy. We also wanted to show you a little bit that some significant projects have been completed. The very popular North Acres Park, Pine Island Park improvements, pavement condition study, library windows and doors, museum windows and doors and a new annex building. The next slide I showed you. I won't go into all these details because we've been through this one at the maximum millage meeting, but I just wanted to remind you that we do have other projects that we have grant funding approved for, $4.8 million. Of course, when you have grant projects, it requires matching. So we are going to be using fund balance to match for those projects. And then we also have $628,000 in appropriations that were approved as well. So very busy with capital projects and making a lot of progress. Everybody's doing a great job. So moving on to special districts, the City of Plantation has two special districts, the Plantation Gateway Development District and the Plantation Midtown Development District. The Plantation Gateway Development District is based on a proposed millage of 1.7108 mils. This is zero change from the previous fiscal year, although I will add we did change from 1.8115 mils down to 1.7108 mils in fiscal year 25. So it was a reduction in 25, but we're not recommending a reduction for 26. The Gateway District property values increased 8.32 percent, according to the Broward County Property Appraiser. The combination of the increase in property values and the proposed millage rate of 1.7108 mils will generate approximately $850,000 in ad valorem revenues. This is $25,209 more than we had received in the previous fiscal year amended budget. The new construction costs, it's 3.5 percent of total ad valorem revenue. It's $29,000, approximately $30,000 related to new construction. The proposed millage rate of 1.7108 mils requires a two-thirds vote or four votes from Council. The Gateway Budget for fiscal year 26 is approximately $390,000. This is a decrease of 23.3 percent or $118,000. The decrease is due to the removal of a financial incentive that was in the budget in 25 and that was removed in 26 because we have financial incentives in the CRA budget. The Midtown Development District, the budget is based on a proposed millage of 0.9707 mils. This is a zero change in millage rate since fiscal year 2018. Property values in the Midtown District increased 5.72 percent, according to the Broward County Property Appraiser. Between the increase in property values and the proposed millage rate of 0.9707 mils, we're expecting to see $2.3 million in ad valorem revenue. This is an additional $36,000 approximately over the previous fiscal year amended budget. 2.2 percent or $49,000, $50,000 of the additional revenue is new construction. The proposed millage rate of 0.9707 mils requires a majority vote or three votes from Council. The Midtown Development District budget for fiscal year 26 is approximately $10.1 million, $10.2 million. This is an increase of 25.1 percent or $2 million. The increase is directly in the area of capital projects. The capital projects budget for fiscal year 26 is $7.9 million. This is an increase of 34.2 percent or, as I said, $2 million. Now, a lot of these projects you've seen in the past, we did increase some of the costs based on new analysis, but we did add one project here for the Cleary Boulevard drainage improvement for $1.6 million. Special revenue funds. The city has about nine special revenue funds. We've got the Library Board, Road and Traffic, CRA, CDBG, SHIP funds, federal forfeiture, state forfeitures, impact fees, and the building fund. All of them combined have a total budget of $18.8 million for fiscal year 26. This is a decrease of 2.6 percent or $511,000. Now, the decreases are primarily in the SHIP and the road and traffic area, but we did have some increases in the building fund. Road and traffic fund is $3.1 million for fiscal year 26. This is a 10.4 percent or $356,000 decrease. The decrease is related to the fact that this fund, we removed the R&M for bridges, walkways, and paving because the fund doesn't have sufficient funding to fund those projects. So those initiatives will still continue on with the support of the general fund. You may remember last year in fiscal year 25, we budgeted $3.6 million in road repaving. That's the first time, to my knowledge, that we've ever done that because it has always gone through the road and traffic fund. But unfortunately, we've depleted those funds, and we are at a point now where the general fund has to support it. The SHIP fund, which is the State Housing Initiative Program, the total budget is $760,000. This is a 31.1 percent or $343,000 decrease. The decrease is due to a reduction in grant funding in that program. The building fund is approximately $8.4 million for fiscal year 26. This is a 3.0 percent increase or $248,000 increase. The increase is primarily in the area of personnel costs. You may remember in the Maximum Millage meeting, I talked about the building inspectors. The building official came to administration saying, I can't hire building inspectors because I'm interviewing them. They're all great, but when I hire them, I go to offer them a job. They're taking jobs at other cities because they pay more. So administration agreed to let them increase the salaries for the building inspectors. But not only for the future ones, you had to also do it for the current ones who are currently here. So that's part of the increase. And then the other part is the 4 percent for the general employees. Moving on to the debt service. The city has two types of debt service funds. We have a non-advalorum debt service and an advalorum debt service. The non-advalorum debt service for fiscal year 26 is approximately $325,000. This is a decrease of 6.7 percent or $23,000. The decrease is due to the payoff of the acres for a note, which we paid off in fiscal year 25. The advalorum debt service is approximately $300,000. Well, actually, it's $4 million for fiscal year 26. This is a decrease of 0.01 percent or $250,000. It's just a decrease in the amortization schedule. Advalorum debt service is supported by an advalorum debt millage. What did I say? Oh, no, sorry, $250. Everything else is in the thousands, $250. $250. The advalorum debt service is supported by an advalorum debt millage, which is 0.2710 mills. A homeowner with a property value of $200,000 with approximately $50,722 in exemptions will pay approximately $40.65 in advalorum debt service. Capital projects, like the debt service, we have two types of capital projects. We have non-advalorum and we have advalorum. Non-advalorum capital projects for fiscal year 26 total $843,000. This is an increase of 108.1 percent or $438,000. And this is due to the addition of a new project in the CRA area for the green mill senior housing, which was $350,000. And then there was another increase in a couple of the other projects that have already been on this list for the past couple of years. The advalorum capital projects in fiscal year totaled approximately $1.7 million. This is a decrease of 26.1 percent or $596,000. The decrease is due to the completion of the advalorum bond projects. We started out with three silos. We are left with one. And in that one silo, which is the parks and recreation silo, we have two projects. One for the Pop Traverse, which is $185,000. And then the Central Park Multipurpose Improvements, $1.5 million. Moving on to the enterprise funds, we have three enterprise funds. We have the utilities, golf to preserve golf course, and the stormwater utility. Utilities is the largest of all three with a total budget of $83 million approximately for fiscal year 26. This is a 1.8 percent increase or $1.5 million increase. There were some increases in personnel costs and then increases in capital. Personnel costs for the utility funds is approximately $17.8 million in fiscal year 26. This is a 3.8 percent increase or $649,000 increase. The increase is related to the request for one full-time position for utilities engineer one. Four percent increase for regular employees, current employees. And then various increases related to some internal promotions. Operating costs for the utility department is $21.3 million. This is a decrease of 1.8 percent or $385,000. The decrease was in the area of R&M mains, meters, and hydrants. And the reason for the decrease, it was the department decided to have the, reduce those numbers based on actuals in the prior years. So they just brought it more in line with what was actually happening. Capital projects for utilities totals approximately $36.8 million. This is an increase of 5.8 percent or $2 million. The capital projects are spread over the repair and replacement fund, the operating fund, and the capacity funds. $28.5 million of the total capital projects are in the R&R, which is what we call it, the repair and replacement fund. That's 77.4 percent of the total utility capital projects. Operating funds capital projects total $6.9 million. This is 18.6 percent of the overall total of the capital projects. And then $1.4 million or 4 percent is in the capacity funds. Plantation golf course. The budget for fiscal year 26 is approximately $7 million. This is an increase of 21.1 percent or $1.2 million. The majority of the increase is in capital projects. The operating budget for the golf course is approximately $5.8 million. This is an increase of 7.7 percent or $414,000. The increase was in outside service fees, bank fees, electricity fees, and R&M grounds, structures, and equipment. The capital budget for utilities for the plantation preserve is $1.2 million. This is an increase of 208.6 percent or $800,000. The increase is primarily related to the addition of these two capital projects, the clubhouse renovation, and the re-grassing of mutated grass and bunker reconstruction. The stall-mortar utility fund is approximately $3.1 million for fiscal year 26. This is a decrease of 2.3 percent or $71,000. The decrease is primarily in the area of capital projects, capital equipment. Let me restate that. So personnel costs are approximately $1.9 million in the stormwater fund. This is an increase of 2.8 percent or $52,000. The increase is related to 4 percent increases for current staff and payroll allocations. Operating costs in the stormwater fund are approximately $782,000. This is a decrease of 8.1 percent or $69,000. The decrease is in the area of R&M tires, R&M maintenance contract, and R&M grounds, as well as supplies, materials, and expendable. Capital costs for fiscal year 26 is approximately $425,000 in the stormwater fund. This is a decrease of 11.3 percent or $54,000. And the decrease is related to the reduction in capital equipment requests. The stormwater utility fund is actually based on a stormwater utility fee. That fee is being proposed to increase by 2.2 percent, which is CPI. The initial request of counsel was approved on June 25. The new rate is going to be $4.56 per ERU per month, which is up from $4.46 per ERU per month. The new annual rate of $54.74 per ERU is up from $53.56 per ERU. The final hearing to adopt the final stormwater rates is scheduled for Friday, September 12, 2025, at 5.01 p.m. in City Council Chambers. The fiscal year 2026 recommendations for Council are to adopt the fiscal year 2026 tentative millage rates as follows. City of Plantation, 5.7000 mills. This requires a majority vote or three votes from Council. The voted debt service millage rate of 0.2710 mills requires a majority vote or three votes from Council. The Midtown Development District proposed millage rate is 0.9707 mills. This requires a majority vote or three votes from Council. The Gateway Development District proposed millage of 1.7108 mills requires two-thirds vote or four votes from Council. The recommendations for Council are also to adopt the FY26 tentative budgets for the City of Plantation, the Gateway Development District, the Midtown Development District, and the Community Redevelopment Agency. The second public budget hearing to adopt the final millage rates and final budgets is scheduled for Wednesday, September 17, 2025, at 5.01 p.m. in City Council Chambers. Now we are ready for some questions.

Thank you very much. Thank you for all the work that you and your team have put into the budget, and not just this budget but everything leading up to it and leading up to today and the revision. So thank you for all your time. Open it up to my colleagues. Do we have anybody that wishes to begin? I see Council Member Andreu.

Thank you, President Reinstein. Thank you, Ms. Otaniano, for providing us a very balanced budget that is aligned to our City's priorities, and thank you for taking the time to meet with all of us individually to help us to be prepared so that tonight can be facilitated so smoothly. As we look ahead, I really want us to focus on how we can keep our operating expenses where they are or decrease them looking forward to next year. And I know we had a couple of conversations on maybe some possible ways we can do that. So I'll be looking forward to that. I don't know if we could number the pages. It might help also. Oh, I'm sorry. That's okay because I wanted to ask you a question. I think it's on slide 28. I think on the bottom you can see the page numbers.

Oh, it's not going back.

It's about the general fund balance.

All right. Let me – I have the presentation here, although you probably would want it on screen. Let's see.

You probably can answer it without even looking at it. Oh, thank you, Laura.

28.

There it is. So –

The grant one.

Okay. Well, it's general fund and grant, right? Mm-hmm. Yes. Or is this only –

No, no. There's one column that's grants and then the general fund balance. Yeah.

So the items that we removed due to the reduction in the millage rate, the – I do not see them listed here. So were they not considered the turf fields in this particular slide?

Well, no. They have not been considered yet because this slide was created at the maximum millage. And so – and also because we're waiting – we don't know when exactly they're going to need that. So it's not that they're going away. This was created at the maximum millage. So at that point, they were not a consideration. But they definitely will be on the list. Absolutely. Okay. And then we're also looking not just for general fund balance. We're also looking to see – I think Jason may have mentioned in one of our meetings – so our tax dollars might be going for paving. And, you know, any grants that we can get, we absolutely will. I don't know for the fields. But definitely they will be added to this list. This was just the list that we had created based on the original presentation. Okay.

I completely understand. And can we also – on page 10, I'm assuming it's not there since we're voting on it tonight. But on slide 10, that 12.7% would increase if the item on our agenda later this evening passes and we decide to work with the city of Laudahill, correct?

What are you referencing? Well, we already have money. Yeah, we do have money, don't we?

What's that in reference to you, ma'am? I'm sorry. Are we talking about the interconnect or the bulk rate?

It would be under the permit fee special assessments, correct? Is that where – if the item with the city of – We charge for services? Correct. Is that where it would be?

Solid wastes and the charges for services. Solid wastes and charges. Is it related to – I'm not sure. It's water. It's not. It's water.

It's water. It's water.

Oh, I don't know.

We're doing a bulk – we're doing a bulk agreements later on the agenda. That'll be coming back to you all at a subsequent meeting as far as the rate setting because we did a rate analysis. And so right now that's a tentative measure because what they've told us, while they're making some improvements into service a particular development, they need about one MGD potentially. But setting the stage for the future, we've all had the conversations about PFAS, what our treatment mechanism is. A lot of others, unfortunately, are not in the situation we are. So we're also laying a foundation could – now, stress could we be a regional provider. So that opens up that possibility. We've also structured the rate such that we won't get caught in that trap with the state of charging external customers more than internal customers because the rate is structured irrespective of internal customer or external customer. So we're safe on that regard. But to your point, you will receive that. You'll see that reflected in the future. It just hasn't occurred yet. Correct. But would it be –

Is that enterprise or general?

Enterprise.

So that's enterprise. So no, that would be enough. Oh, okay. This is just general. Okay. So that would be on the utility side. Perfect. You would see their revenue go up. This wouldn't change.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, President Reinstein. You're welcome, Council Member Andreu. Next up, we have Council Member Hortland.

Thank you, Mr. President. And I just wanted to echo Ms. Otaniano to you and your team, to administration, and the department heads. I think not many people understand what goes into preparing this budget. And I also want to acknowledge the public in attendance tonight. This is your money. It's important that you're here to hear this. And this is not our first look at this. So as Council Member Andreu referenced, we've all met with administration and our finance director to go through this. So most of the work has been done. But I just want to bring up two things that we had discussed in our conversation. First of all, I appreciate the reduction to the $5.7, but let's be clear. While it's costing the city $1.4 million, it's really not making a huge difference in the amount of residents. I think for my household, it's going to be $4 a month. So it's not a lot, but it does have an impact on the city. I do think that the city of Plantation continues to be conservative in its fiscal management. And I think it's more important than ever, given what's coming out of the state. While the suggestion is that ad valorem taxes go away, and you see that it would be an $81 million hit to the city of Plantation. While it may not be that extreme when we get through the legislative session, something will be on the ballot in 2026. So either way, we'll be looking at a different budget potentially next year. Two things that I want to bring up is we've talked about it on this day as before, but, you know, that $4 a month is not going to make much of a difference for my family. I really want the city to start considering what we can do that's a little bit more meaningful for the residents. And Council Member Andreu and I have discussed up here, perhaps doing, you know, even if it's a quarterly food distribution, a lot of people are going to be losing their SNAP payments. So I think that we need to look, and maybe I understand when we did that during the pandemic, it takes a lot of manpower. Maybe we reduce one of our events to be able to provide for that, because I think that the city needs to be able to facilitate such an event to support our residents. Additionally, when I was looking at the PAL P&Ls, it's interesting to me that several of the sports, and while it is not our decision, perhaps Parks and Rec can put a little bit of pressure on PAL, have raised their rates over the years. But when I look at the P&L, they're bringing in $90,000 in registration fees and carrying over a balance of $20,000 in there and having $10,000 banquets, which I think is irresponsible, and that's something that's meaningful for our residents, to lower those rates to participate in recreational sports. So I think it's important to discuss that. One other thing that we talked about in our meeting, and it may not be this budget cycle, but perhaps the next, I think when we're starting to look at P&Z, and we've all talked about business tax license up here. I understand we have a new business tax receipt clerk who's doing an amazing job, but my understanding is on Google, there are over 15,000 businesses that are registered as on Google doing business in the city of Plantation, and we have only 5,000-plus BTRs. That is approximately, by the calculations I have in front of me, $2.5 to $3 million that the city is losing. So, again, I'll bring up the request that we'll see how the new BTR clerk does, but that's a lot of work to be able to reach out to all those businesses, which are mostly home-based businesses, I would imagine, or if they're registered on SunBiz and they don't have a business tax license. I think it's important that we be able to have the manpower and the process in place so that we can go after that $2.5 to $3 million. So, I just want to put that out there, again, for a future budget. But, again, thank you so much for the work on this.

You're welcome.

Thank you. I'm going to make some comments, and then I'll turn it over to Council Member Fadgen. So, I was looking at the minutes from our maximum millage rate meeting, and I thought I'd begin there, and I want to first thank Council Member Fadgen, who brought up taking a look at the reduction of the 5.7. And I agreed with that and said that I'd like to see what it looks like at 5.7 so that we have an ability to make informed decisions, which is what we're up here to do. And thank the Mayor for responding to that and working very hard with you and all of our departments to give us that. My number one question, and it's not so much for you, it's more for the Administration, for whether the Mayor or for Mr. Nunamaker, is that based on this decrease in our budget from the 5.8 to 5.7, does it lessen our ability to provide the highest level of service to our residents? It does not. So, that's the question. I mean, I look at everything we do here, and I think most of us do, is that it's customer safety and service, right? So, again, I think you jumped to answer the question. You were very ready to answer it.

Yeah, because that's important, because you all stress throughout, at least my time here, it's always been about service delivery, delivering the most bang for the buck for the residents, and increasing every year and increasing the quality. That's why you see in this budget, everything we touch, we're trying to improve. We do anticipate, it was alluded to earlier, that we'll get some surtax revenues earlier. We'll use that to augment our paving schedule. We're also looking to expand the freebie service in Midtown, which has been very popular. It's had a great pickup compared to other cities for the same terms of implementation. And, you know, we regret that we can't be more than symbolic with the millage cut, but that's largely a function of the homestead exemptions and how they're implemented in Florida. So we can only control what we can control, and you'll see from what we occupy on the tax bill, we don't have the ability to make the magnitude of impact that I think everybody would like to see.

Yeah, and I agree with that. I think that that's the tough choice that we have up here and that you and all the departments have, is that we want to give the best customer safety and service to all of our residents, which includes us and our families. But at the same time, we also want to give more, we want to give relief where we can, when we can, and as much as we can. But something that Councilmember Horland, I think, alluded to, and it's a note that I have, is that, you know, PAL is one example where I was looking at it from the perspective of the banners that we've talked a lot about banners in our city. And if you look and you see all the banners that PAL uses as part of their funding, that doesn't come back to the city. And I'd like to see that, you know, where, especially, you know, when it comes to permit fees and special assessments, it's 8.4% of the revenue, but that's $12.7 million. is that, you know, maybe there are areas where we really need to take another look at and see where we can increase so that we're benefiting our residents as a whole much better. And we haven't had that discussion as to, you know, where we can increase those permit fees, but I'd like to see that that's taken a look at. And one of my, you know, one of my concerns when we talk about customer safety and service, and I've had this conversation with Parks and Rec, is that, is our playgrounds. And so there's a part of our budget that is talk, that is about renovating our playgrounds. There's a part that is adding shade to our playgrounds. And the discussion of shade, it's over a period of time for all of our parks. And, you know, that's something I looked at, and I said, I don't want to see that reduction. So Parks and Rec had made a, I mean, they did an amazing job of cutting back in order to reduce us to the 5.7, but I'm concerned that they've reduced too hard and that maybe that is not in the best interest of the safety and well-being of our residents.

Well, let me address that and be very clear that the cuts that we've implemented or that we're proposing for y'all will be augmented with fund balance. So they will not, we will not cut those projects. So the discussion about, and those were never on the table. We didn't cut shade structures. We didn't cut playgrounds. It was the...

Well, hold on one second. I think, though, it's not a question of that it's necessarily being cut, but they're not being added, right? It's so that it's being, it's looked at over a period of time. So in our budget, we have fiscal year proposed going forward for four or five years, and we're spreading it out over a larger period of time in order not to ask for it all right now. And that was one that stood out for me is that, you know, I think if you look at our playgrounds, you can't utilize these playgrounds safely if there's not shade. So the structures have to be safe, but they also have to be safe for the touch of our children. And I think it's commonplace now that when we're building our playgrounds that we're putting the shade. And I think that if you go to any city, just about anywhere in our country that is facing the heat that we have, shade is the commonplace. And so, you know, that would be one where I would like to see us push forward ahead instead of proposing it out over a period of four or five years. So, and maybe, you know, I know that in having that discussion with Director O'Toole, one of the, part of that conversation was that we were benefiting from the Parks and Rec Foundation that assisted with shade at Pop Travers. But maybe we need to ask PAL and some of the other organizations that are using our facilities to also assist and help with that funding. So, you know, I'm torn with are we cutting in all the right places and are maybe there some where we're cutting more than we need to.

Well, we welcome that feedback. And if between now and the second meeting, and even beyond that, if y'all see the prioritization shifting or you see a particular park that's problematic that is in year five and y'all feel it should be in year two or year one, we can always look at that. We're also going to be very aggressive as we can be with grants to do more to leverage our funds. And to the point about other revenues or permit fees, we absolutely want to explore that. And one item that will be coming to you, I believe, at the next meeting or in early October, we're going to increase the capacity fees on the utility side. Because one of the things is, as Mr. Poli and I would talk about, he would express his frustration at the inflationary impact on his department. If he's going to do a lift station, so recognizing development is pretty hot right now. I want to make sure they're paying their fair share. To your point that that doesn't get distributed among the rate base, that it is going from the demand side.

Just to be clear, though, when I'm talking, I'm looking at more developer fees than utility fees. You know, if we're talking, when we're looking at certain permitting.

And these will be paid by developers? Yeah.

Okay. Very good. I'll take your point. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Fadgen. Mayor, please.

Thank you for bringing that up. The question about shade structures, when I sat over there, was, why the heck are we waiting? Which is really what your question is. Give me a week to sit down with Parks, if you please. Let's map out what we have, where we are, and let me come back to you all with some options. And let's take a shot at it. Very good. Give me a week and we'll come back with you.

Thank you. Thank you for listening.

Thank you.

Council Member Fadgen.

Thank you, President Reynstein. I'm going to start off with a couple of comments that were brought up by Council Member Horland. That's a very interesting stat regarding, like, the 15,000 registered businesses on Google and 5,000 registered businesses with the city. I also, I go into so many businesses and the business tax receipt is not posted on the wall in plain view. So I question how many businesses actually are operating appropriately. I actually feel like when the landlords are submitting their business tax receipts that they give a list of all their current tenants at the time with their business tax receipt numbers so that we can cross-check it. And if there's to be a very quick way for us to identify businesses operating without an appropriate business tax receipt, and we could stop the landlord from actually finishing their business tax receipt until all their tenants are in compliance. So we, you know, we can push the burden off us a little bit because it is an impossible task to go through our businesses and make sure that they have their, you know, their business tax receipts posted. They might not even know that their business tax receipt is supposed to be publicly posted. So I think that would be a great thing to follow through in line with Council Member Horland checking these things. Regarding businesses registered on SunBiz, I think we need to make sure that our business tax receipt ordinances take in consideration for non-operating entities. And I'll give you an example. I have many clients that have LLCs, one client in particular moved all his LLCs out of the city registered with SunBiz because they're not an operating business in the city. They're investment vehicles that have no roots in plantation other than the management office or the registered agent is listed in plantation. So he took them all to Fort Lauderdale. So I think we need to differentiate between an actually operating business and an investment vehicle for a business listed in LLC because I don't think it's not going to, it's not going to equal an operating business on SunBiz. I have an investment that's in an LLC that's, it's not an operating business. And I don't know if I'm not in compliance, but I don't have a business tax receipt for it. So, but there. So, and then a comment that Council Member Angerio brought up regarding holding the line on the operating expenses, trying to keep those expenses down wherever possible. And I'm going to make more comments. I'm not even in the part where I was just going to talk about tonight. You know, my experiences with my clients is when times get tough, you know, the grip on the dollar gets very tight and they become extremely efficient. And how much more successful can they be if we don't get fat in the good times? So, you know, we are approaching some uncertain times, you know, that people are concerned about the tariffs, the job, the job numbers are slowing, you know, so there's definitely uncertainty. We don't know what's going to happen. We could come out of it strong or there could be some struggles going on in the amongst our residents and our neighbors. So, let's always, let's always work with a tight grip on our, on our budget and let's not get fat. So, to my comments, because my colleagues brought some good comments, I wanted to make some, put my, my thoughts to that. First, you know, I've been long on the record that there should be some relief in the millage. So, thank you to Council President Reinstein for helping me to have us look at that. And thank you to administration for proposing this 5.7 millage that we'll be voting on. I appreciate the comment that Mr. Nunamaker made regarding that it's not going to affect the quality of the services that we're going to provide. It might, um, extend the term of what we might do with some fields, but, um, this is not going to have a sacrifice and maybe it is an inconsequential thing, but it is a symbolic thing from the standpoint of, and I, with these updated numbers, um, since fiscal year 21 to fiscal year 26, there's been a 42.97% increase in revenue. So, um, not too many people can say that with their household income. So, we need to give relief when we can, when there's opportunities that we can, um, give these relief in the 5.7, you know, in the millage to go from 5.8 to 5.7, like we're going to vote on tonight. I think we need to try to take those opportunities. So, thank you, um, for listening to my presentation and considering it and figuring out a way to get it done. This is my fifth budget, uh, budget process and, uh, um, and I'm, I'm very happy with this proposal. Um, so, of course, I'll finish up Anna and, um, the finance department, your team, thank you. I know the misery of this, um, to all the departments. I've said this in the past that, you know, we are very responsibly operating as a city. Um, and I know we make hard decisions and it's a thoughtful process. And I, I think I said this at the max millage meeting. I know it's difficult, but I want to make it painful for all of you. And, uh, if we don't have painful decisions to make, then I think that we are not being, um, tight with the public's money. And, um, I really appreciate everyone involved and all everyone that, um, works to make this city what it is. And on that, I appreciate all of you. Thank you.

Thank you very much, council member Fatch. And we're now going to move into our public comments before we, uh, take each item one at a time. Um, please note that I'm going to try and make sure that, uh, I call up the first person to speak and call up the second person on deck. Um, if I'm calling you as the next person, um, I'm going to ask you to also please come forward and find a seat as, as close as you can to the front. Uh, we're also going to keep to the three minute, um, timeframe. So please, uh, please don't ask for an extension of time because we want to make sure that we make it to our 630, uh, council meeting. First up, Mr. Conklin followed by Ms. Sword. And again, this is only our, this is our first, uh, budget hearing. There will be another one. Mr. Conklin.

Dennis Conklin, four, five, eight, one Northwest six court, heavenly hosts, protect you and all of your families. That's desperately needed. Um, my public comments is this, um, from last year's CAFR, uh, which was published this year, um, on page 68, it has deposits and investments of $351 million. Um, and 112 of that is in U S treasuries and nobody bought treasuries on the last, uh, auction. So, uh, we got to get rid of those. The, the CAFR had 3.3 million for the gateway seven, 3.3 million. And for the CRA, which overlaps, there was 4.1 million. Um, I, I think that the millage rate for the city is fine. And I think, and I'm going to speak to it on the legislative items too, that you have to zero out the gateway seven millage rate. You're sitting on $7 million in that nice little prescribed area. It's going to, it's going to bring in the extra millage this year. It's going to bring in 850 million, uh, 850,000. So, that's, that's my public comment on that. And I'll yield back.

Thank you, Mr. Conklin. There's no yielding back. Ms. Sword, please come right up. Mr. McIntosh, you're on deck. Followed by Carol Isaacs.

Carol Sword, 1621 Northwest 82nd Avenue. For several years, I have spoken in support of Councilman Tim Fadgen's request for a property tax rollback. I am here now to again support his request for a reduction. Due to an increase in property values, taxes will increase without the rollback. Many seniors are hurting because of inflation. So, any savings is critical to their welfare. Since our residents have to live within a budget, our city should do the same. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Sword. Mr. McIntosh.

Matthew McIntosh, 601 Northwest 82nd Avenue, Apartment 531. I support the military with how it is and also the minor reduction. We do need the money for the services that residents expect, like the sewage, drainage, fire service, police service. So, it seems like the council and the administration has done their job here. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Ms. Isaacs, followed by Jason Antonio and then Kathy Bowers.

Yes, hi. Good evening. This is my first time here. So, I'm looking at my trim that I got. And overall, I'm at 4835 Northwest First Court. I have two properties. And they just keep going up. And I'm not getting much for my money. Because my avenue that I live on, I put in request like two months for three to trim. It's not trim. I put in my walkway like you're walking and people are tripping over. And nothing has been done. And every year, my property value just keep going up. That's not fair. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Isaacs. I don't know, Mr. Noonemaker, if there's somebody from either public works or from the administration who can speak to her just to find out exactly what some of the issues are. Matt's out working on the AC, so if somebody could cover for public works and cover for Matt. Thank you. Jason Antonio, followed by Kathy Bowers.

Jason Antonio, 95th Street. Thank you for giving me a moment to express what I think is the concern of many of the residents in plantation. You're not going to like what I'm about to say, but it has to be said. I question your spending for non-advalarium taxes. It appears your budget is larger than necessary. Right now, as you all know, the state of Florida is being audited by Doge. And at the top of Doge's list was Broward County because of its reckless, ballooning budget. That budget, that audit will be out in another 60 days. And those people who are currently responsible from Broward County tax appraiser's office on down, who are in elected positions, permit me to say, it's going to have a very difficult road making a career in elected politics. What I'm doing here is putting you aware that in this community, we have elderly on fixed incomes. And for the past five years, plantation, as being part of Broward County, has recklessly ballooned spending. The county as a whole has increased operating expenses $1.5 billion a year over the past five years. Property taxes have gone up 40% over the last five years, yet there was only a population increase of less than 5%. So there's something incongruent in Broward County. And that will be straightened out 60 days from now. Doge, I dare say, is going to cause a big change in attitude with the leadership, not only in plantation, but for Broward County as a whole. We just passed, the voters, Amendment 5, just last year. Amendment 5 allowed adjustments to be made on the value of a property factoring in inflation. It's great. It's wonderful. It's about time. My question to all of you, well, not all of you, because I don't want to impugn.

Am I done? Mr. Antonio, can I get your address for the record? I didn't see it on the form that you filled out.

231 95th Avenue.

Thank you very much. Mr. Bowers, Ms. Bowers, sorry, Kathy Bowers. Thank you.

Kathy Bowers, 6755 West Broward Boulevard, 201 Plantation, Plantation Club. Real quick, I want to give my hat off to Denise Horland and, of course, Timothy Fadgen for talking about how to get more businesses not paying their fair share for the business tax. I'm a proud owner. I'm self-employed. I use a private mailbox. I know from time to time, y'all go into the private mailboxes to see who has a business and maybe doesn't pay their fair share. So I would encourage you. That's a good source. Also, policing may be the Chamber of Commerce. I'm a member of an organization. We're a member of the Plantation Chamber of Commerce. So I think that's a really good – the UPS, I don't know how your jurisdiction goes to the post office, how you can see who's renting post office boxes, but clearly that's a thing that we're missing the mark, if that's the stats that you offered, Commissioner Horland. In addition, Broward County, I pay my occupational business tax for Broward County. Is there any way to cross that county, cross county and city to see where they are as opposed to where they're not here in our city as well? And the last thing I'd like to say is, is it possible to do a little increase in user fees for some of the fees that the residents pay to maybe – let me give you a prime example. So those seniors who choose to go on what's called an HMO, Medicare Advantage plan, some of them have access to health clubs, silver sneakers, where they can go. So if they're utilizing our city parks and recreations, which some of my friends go to, they're paying a couple bucks. I think for those who can't afford, they have other options to go to other places, and I think possibly raising a few dollars, whatever it is, 50 cents, a dollar, I don't know how many people are using it, would be an excellent way of increasing fees. It might impart on the budget of the staff and having people come to the classes and paying instructors, but I think that's something to take a look at. A couple dollars here, a couple dollars there, and also the last thing is, so supportive, the work I do in human services, of freebie and expanding that, considering expanding that to other areas. Again, going back to those Medicare Advantage plans, some of them have free transportation, so using a whole big – what's the word? If this is the issue, there might be different feeder sources into that. So I thank you very much for the good work you're doing on our behalf.

Thank you, Ms. Bowers. Vandilla McClendon, welcome.

Good evening.

Good evening.

I don't know if this is part of the budget, but I live at 960 Southwest 74th Avenue, and I am having a problem with – and in fact, I know it's not part of the budget, but I am having a problem with landscaping. And I've come here on several occasions to talk to landscaping, and when I bought my home, it was a Lakeview property. And for some reason, my new neighbors have put trees and have blocked the lake. And I've come here to get some assistance, and I'm not receiving it. I believe that it does create a property value to my property, and when I wake up in the morning, I'm not able to see the lake. I'm not able to go to my deck and see the lake. So I did call the mayor office on yesterday, and he suggested that I come here and speak to someone. I got a call from landscaping, but it's – I'm not receiving the help, young man, to accommodate me at all. So this is –

Back to the microphone, please. Thank you.

At the other side of the neighbor's house, he stopped at the end of the house, but he comes all the way down to my pit.

So let me ask you. I appreciate – I know that you've got more that you may want to describe. So as you started off, is that this is not for the budget hearing. Typically, we take those comments at the start of the city council meeting. When we conclude the budget meeting, we may have some time in between before the council meeting. I'll also give you some time, if you'd like, at the start of the city council meeting when it's the right time. But you also have – in the back there, all of our directors are here. You have the administration here, and so there may be a little more time right now to also share a little more information with our administration so they can see if they can help you.

Okay.

Okay.

So speak with someone.

I'm going to let Mr. Neunamaker decide who may best be able to assist you. So if you – there you go.

Thank you, sir.

You're welcome. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mayor.

I have a last card that was presented. Ms. Ruiz Nicolas Guiteau. Welcome.

Good evening to members of the council and President Reinstein. My name is Guiteau Ruiz Nicolas. I'm at 10121 Northwest 14th Street. I am very encouraged by what I'm hearing today. I go to other meetings, smaller cities. You have members getting themselves raised, cutting services at the expense of residents. I am very proud of this council. We're rolling back a percentage of that millage rate. We're not cutting services. And whatever you – I won't say a salary, but the stipend that you get, it's really not enough. So I look at the glass half full. We are a very fortunate group of residents who have a council who is responsible. They are not looking out for their pocket, and you're not cutting services for residents. So I truly appreciate it.

Thank you very much. I don't see any further comments from the public. I have no more comment cards, speaker cards that have been submitted. I don't see any further discussion from our day as nobody else has rung in. City Attorney, is there anything that needs to be read before I call each one, each item?

No, sir. The Finance Director stated everything that needed to be stated on the record for purposes of this budget hearing.

Perfect. So we're going to first call up item one, which is for the tentative millage resolution for the Plantation Gateway Development District. As set forth in the agenda, do we have a motion?

So moved. Second.

We have a motion, and we have a second. Seeing no further, I'm sorry, Mr. Conklin? No, the public comment we took before the items, that was what was, everybody had the opportunity to speak. Thank you. We have a motion, and we have a second. Ms. Beggro, please call the roll on item one.

Council Member Andreu? Yes. Council Member Fadgen? No. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Reinstein?

Yes.

Thank you.

Item two, tentative millage resolution for the Plantation Midtown Development District. Do we have a motion?

So moved.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Motion has been made and seconded. Seeing no further discussion from the dais. Ms. Beggro, please call the roll.

Council Member Andreu?

Yes.

Council Member Fadgen? No. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Reinstein?

Yes. Thank you. Item number three, tentative millage resolution for the City of Plantation Operating Budget and Voted Debt Service.

Motion to approve?

You really wanted that one, huh? I did.

I've been waiting.

We have a motion, and I will second it. You deserve it. I will second. Seeing no further discussion, Ms. Beggro, please call the roll.

Council Member Andreu?

Yes.

Council Member Fadgen? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Thank you.

Item number four, tentative budget resolution for the Plantation Gateway Development District. Do we have a motion? Motion to approve. Do we have a second? Second. Council Member Horland has a second. Seeing no further discussion from the dais. We even had a bark. Mr. Third. Aye. Ms. Beggro, please call the roll on item four.

Council Member Andreu? Yes. Council Member Fadgen? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Thank you.

Item five, tentative budget resolution for the Plantation Midtown Development District. Do we have a motion?

Motion to approve.

Do we have a second? Second. Seeing no further discussion, Ms. Beggro, please call the roll.

Who was the mover? Who was the mover?

Fadgen was the mover, and I was the second.

Council Member Fadgen was the motion, and Council Member Andreu was the second.

Got it. Council Member Andreu?

Yes.

Council Member Fadgen? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Reinstein?

Yes.

Thank you.

Item six, tentative budget resolution for the City of Plantation Consolidated. Do we have a motion?

Motion to approve. Second.

We have a motion, and we have a second. Seeing no further discussion from the dais, Ms. Beggro, please call the roll.

Council Member Andreu?

Yes.

Council Member Fadgen? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Reinstein?

Yes. Thank you. Thank you, everyone, for your attention and participation during the budget meeting and the budget portion of our meeting tonight. At 6.22 p.m., we will recess the regular council meeting, and we are going to wait until 6.30. I'm sorry.

CRA.

Call the order.

But I think we're still. Sorry. We're going to recess the regular council meeting at 6.22, but we're going to go right into the CRA budget meeting at 6.22. So that is called to order at 6.22. Ms. Beggro, please call the roll for the CRA budget portion.

Commissioner Anderson?

Here.

Commissioner Andreu?

Here.

Commissioner Fadgen? Here. Commissioner Horland? Here. Commissioner Reinstein? Here. Commissioner Sortel? Here. City Attorney Ezra? Here. Thank you.

Administration, is there any presentation on the CRA budget item? No. I'm just going to ask the public, if you're leaving, if you can just leave quietly, since we still have business to conduct. Seeing that there is not a presentation from the administration for the Plantation Community Redevelopment Agency budget, we will take public comments regarding the CRA. Mr. Conklin? Followed by Ms. Sword.

Thank you. Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwest Sixth Court. In regards to CRA, again, just to reinforce what I was mentioning, if people go onto the city's website, plantation.org, and go to the government section and click on the finances, you can get all the annual reports and all of the budgets. And the Consolidated Annual Financial Report reveals an awful lot. It reveals a mountain of money. It reveals where that money is distributed. And as I mentioned, as of last September 30th, not this year, it was $350 million in cash and investments. It's in banks, it's in treasury items, and so forth and so on. A bunch of that is unrestricted. And the main definition of unrestricted is that it's to be used to pay debts. And the greatest debt that the city has, although it says it's got two debts in the presentation, it's actually their pensions. Because it's over $100 million unfunded between the general employees and the police officers. And you could not get around the police officers' contract, but you could satisfy the debt and bring everybody up to current full value in their general employees' pensions with the unrestricted monies. And I would recommend getting rid of the treasuries because nobody is buying them except our government is buying its debt back. They're worthless. So the CRA, again, it's sitting on $4 million. It's going to bring in the TIF again, probably another $4 million. And the overlying Gateway 7 is sitting on $3 million. And I have to say, the businesses pay not just what everybody else pays that owns property. They pay extra in that district. They don't need to. There's all kinds of money there. And with the CAFR, with the CRA TIF funds exceeding the millage rate after three years, so by 2003, they already exceeded the millage rate fee. It should have been repealed or replaced or whatnot. So, again, you're sitting on $7 million for that district. And I have to say that with our director that we have now, he's done a fantastic job because for 20 years, nothing was really done. And I'll yield back.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Conklin. There's no yielding back. Ms. Sword, you do not wish to be called on? Okay. I see you waving it off. And Mr. McIntosh, did you wish to be called on? He's already left. Okay. Some people, when filling out the form, seem to mark both areas. So I just want to make sure. Council Member Andre, you wish to be recognized?

Thank you. Just because I can't speak to my colleagues outside of this meeting and the healthy discussion that we had based on the comments that Council Member Horland made with the businesses. It seems like an overwhelming task, but, and I'm overdue for my meeting with Mr. Montefusco, but through AI, I really feel strongly that we could leverage that to kind of do, I think you were saying, like a cross comparison of what we have in our records versus, you know, what the state is reporting in terms of people who file with the state. And even, I think one of our community representatives stated, looking also at just Broward County as a whole. So doing that kind of three-point check, it could come up very easily for us. So I will be scheduling that meeting with Mr. Montefusco because that's a conversation I've been meaning to have for some time as to how, as a city, how are we leveraging AI and utilizing it to, and this is the perfect, I think, pilot project. If we haven't been doing so already. Okay.

It makes perfect sense. Thank you for, for bringing that up again and following up on that. Yeah. Go ahead, Mayor. Thank you.

We've had a couple meetings and discussions regarding AI through many different elements of this, including AI in building and permitting, too, because we could use that as ways to coach people up and eliminate mistakes that applicants make as they apply for permits and speed things up. So it's all on the table. I didn't have it for BTRs, though, so we'll look at it. Thanks.

Thank you, Mayor. Seeing no further discussion, do I have a motion on Item 1 of the CRA? So moved. Do I have a second?

Second.

We have a motion and we have a second. Seeing no further discussion, Ms. Bedgrove, please call the roll.

Commissioner Anderson. Yes. Commissioner Andreu. Yes. Commissioner Fajan. Yes. Commissioner Horland. Yes. Commissioner Reinstein. Yes. Commissioner Sortel.

Yes.

Just for the record, since we have two separate meetings, the final budget hearing is going to be scheduled for next Wednesday at 5.01 p.m.

Thank you very much. The budget meeting and the CRA meeting is adjourned at 6.29.