At this point, we do have a presentation, our CRA update July 2024, Mr. Abert or Board. Thank you, Board Chair. Yes, we will bring- Exactly, Director. An update on what's been happening in the CRA. I asked Mr. Herrera to keep this tight because we do have a long agenda, but she will give you some highlights and then we have a couple of items for your consideration. Nesa Herrera. Thank you Executive Director Aver. Good evening. Sierra Board Chair, Vice Chair and Board Members. Nesa Herrera, Sierra and Economic Development Director. And as always it is a pleasure for me to provide you with an update of all the exciting things that continue to happen within your CRA. Businesses continue to believe in Oakland Park, and we're excited to welcome food friends catering to our community. They provide food catering services to all occasions. TMP Electric provides premium electrical services and serves Oakland Park and South Florida. MJ Draperies and Interior's Interior has also joined our community and they provide interior design and the fabrication and installation of draperies. We're also very excited to welcome Oasis to our downtown. As you may know, prison pals close earlier this year about two months ago. So what happened was that the owner of the Franchise Pals decided to close Prison Pals as the franchise and has worked in relaunching a new concept that features healthy menu items that include smoothies, bowls, beer and wine, under the name of Oasis. Immediately south of them there will be a premium meet retailer that would also join our community in the next few months. So in order to support these incoming businesses and the existing ones, the city signed a development agreement with our investments. This formalizes a public-private partnership to create the sky building, which is the first mix use development project within our community. As you may know, this project features the future home of the city hall, structure parking, but it also includes 16,000 square footage in commercial space to bring commercial uses that will create a vibrant daytime and or nighttime customer base that will support other businesses within the downtown. Additionally, the sky building features 17-leaf work units and 119 residential units that will increase the local food traffic that will support the businesses in the downtown and will ensure the economic viability of our culinary arts district. As part of this development agreement, the excuse me, let's go back here. As part of this development agreement, the city agreed to allocate funding for tenant improvements to support this project. However, we have learned that the developer has been offering this type of incentives build out incentives to their prospective tenants. Therefore, in order not to conflict with these incentives already been offered by the developer, CRA staff is recommending the creation of a new incentive program, which is the Sky Building, Job Creation, Job Creation Pilot Program. I'll talk a little bit more about that because it's part of this CRA agenda. So let's summarize what this amendment to the agreement would do in order to create that program. It will convert the city's responsibility to provide tenant improvement to an employment support type of program. This agreement also provides that the city will allocate a minimum of 260,000 and allows to see a rain in the city the discretion to increase or allocate additional funding to ensure that all base or commercial base within the sky building are occupied promptly. The benefit behind us is if we do that, if we ensure the activation of these bays, it will also result in the activation of our downtown, which is greatly, greatly needed by our businesses that are now existing. And it will also guarantee or ensure the long-term stability of our businesses within the culinary arts district. Another item related to the sky building is an agreement between the city and the sky building developer and our investment for the installation of a generator that will support the operations of the City Hall on this site. The city and the developer recognized the necessity to provide uninterrupted power to the city operations that would help city departments to provide essential services to residents during a power outage or during emergencies. The generator capacity required by the developer does provide life safety components during a power outage but is not enough to provide for the continuation of services to the city hall, to the city hall as the tenant. Therefore in order to accomplish this, the city must substantially increase the capacity of the generator at this site. Having said that, the benefits of approving that agreement or upgrading the generator is to provide uninterrupted city operations during power outages or emergencies. It also eliminates the need for a separate generator and reduced maintenance cost. As part of this agreement, the city agrees to pay the co-sifferential between the generated required by the developer and the upgraded generator to support the full operations of the city hall during an emergency. In the amount, and this cost would be in the amount of $250,000 but also in addition to the cost differential, it also includes the cost associated with the installation. As you have seen, everything that we do has an economic development purpose behind it, including our special events. Our special events are intended to bring food traffic to the downtown to support our businesses and also to provide visibility to them. The next special event actually is going to take in our downtown. So please mark your calendars and join us at the next Oakland Park Art Walk that will take place on Main Street. And please also be prepared to join us on November 16th. This event takes place from 6 to 9 p.m. And while you come and explore the different artisans that participate at this event also stop by your businesses and support them. this event also stopped by your businesses and support them. In support of the redevelopment efforts that the city has undertaken, it is important that we also build long-lasting partnerships between our business owners, property owners, realtor, so work in the area, as well as other community partners that have a stake in the downtown. It is for this reason that the CRA hosts by monthly meetings to share updates of upcoming projects that may be of interest for these partners. Also, understand and make sure that everybody understands the vision and where we're going into different responsibilities in the role that everybody plays in to realize and in achieving that vision. These meetings are also an opportunity to provide feedback on city services and operations. Actually, at the last meeting, Brad Ostrov, director of building services, had an opportunity to share with the group the improvements that they're making to the building and permitting processes. And the attendees had also an opportunity to ask questions and provide their feedback on those initiatives. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues, Brad and Sierra Marrero for attending these meetings and addressing the concerns of our business owners. The next meeting then will be on September 10th and we encourage you all to attend and take advantage of this space. The location has not been confirmed but once those details are finalized we'll be sure to share those in our platforms and through the CRA email blast. This meeting takes place from a 30 AM to 930. And with that I conclude my presentation and I'm available to answer any questions you may have. Terrific, Mr. Herrera. We super appreciate you. And at this point, let's see, so that's the presentation. So at this point, I'll entertain whether questions from the board. Board member Gordon, any comments? Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Ms. Herrera, great presentation. I did have a question about the tenant improvement incentives. That's the 260,000 is that correct? No, so as part of the development agreement that the city signed with the developer for the construction of the sky building, the city committed to allocating funding in the amount of $260,000 for tenant improvements. However, we have learned that recently, the developer has been already offering those type of build out improvements to their prospective tenants. So in order not to conflict with that incentive that they're already offering, we are converting that commitment to an employment support program, which is the sky building job creation pilot program that we will be further discussing later on. Yes, thank you. No, you answered my question. I just had an additional question to what you said. It's an employee incentive employment incentive employment support program. Okay, where are the tenants? For the commercial business. Yes for the tenants in the sky building, right? And I'm asking you these questions please for the consumer in the sky building. Right. And I'm asking you these questions, please, for the consumer consumption, you know, public consumption, right? So can you explain a little bit more about how that's going to work, this incentive? Because I know that one of the goals is to and this is combination from the city as well as the developer is to fill those spaces so you want tenant buildouts okay that's how you you know get those spaces occupied some just trying to understand the employment incentive portion of it. So board chair if I could. Yes, Mrs. Board Member. That item is coming up. It's item number four on the agenda and we'll talk about it in more detail. Well, I was going to suggest if the board chair would like for us to, we could bring that up first so that we can explain it in more detail. We have a separate and more comprehensive presentation that might assist you in understanding how that will operate. And rather than doing it now and then repeating it again. But I leave that to the discretion of the Board Chair. Well, I would say for myself, I'm okay. I can wait, Board Chair. And I was even seen if we can, but we can't transfer an item from the city commission item, city commission agenda, the CRA agenda, because it's not right. It's not been publicly noticed. So this is on the serious. This item is on the serious. Oh, I apologize. It is on for, do we want to talk about, sorry, do we want to talk about that? Let's do it when it comes now. I'm kind of jumping a gun. I can wait. I'm patient. I can wait. Okay. Thank you Mayor College as a note. Okay. Thank you. I just have one question. Wait a member on it. Yes Real quick. The city to see me. I could the answer The generators are gonna be diesel or is that gonna be a natural gas natural gas? Thank you be diesel or is that going to be a natural gas? Natural gas. Thank you. Is that natural gas? Natural gas. Natural gas. I haven't heard that word in a long time. Well, we're number new. We're number new. Sorry. This is Herrera. Thank you for your presentation. And thank you for always Connecting with the business the businesses in Oakland Park because I know I've contacted you several times And you've reached out to the businesses to answer any questions or provide any information they need so that they business remain Successful in Oakland Park so I thank you for that. Thank you board member or vice chair. Thank you. I appreciate it. Well great information. Thank you for all you do. I agree. Welcome to the new businesses that were announced today. That's great news. I see on July 9th, our friends at Black Flamingo actually hosted the downtown business meeting. Thank you for doing that for us. We appreciate it. And if you guys haven't been to Black Flamingo yet, you got to go. Great, brood brew great food. We're gonna save the comments for the other two items correct? Yes for the agenda well it's up to you here it's your it's your moment yeah okay I'll save my comments for the other stuff thank you I would have said thank you miss her air and great to see our business some of our business owners in the audience. I do want to take this time. It will take two minutes, what's important to read because you did mention about where it's sitting on the move and all, we're at dynamite organization, but you know what? We can always improve and this is an outstanding improvement. And I want to thank you, Mr. Abert, Ms. Meraar, Ms. Herrera, and Mr. Austrof who's not here. This is an email. This was a summary of what was provided the downtown partners meetings on permitting. This is important guys. Since I've been on the commission, we've all received. Could we kind of streamline this a little more? This is for public consumption, Mr. Abert. I mean, and Miss Herrera, I know you, Miss love, I know you talk to obviously and everybody talks to applicants whether they're residential commercial. This is like huge and I do want to read this. Please give me two minutes. I'll still try to get out, out soon. Miss under Mr. Ostrov to others leadership to improve providing processes we have. This is from an email I received that's publicly consumption. Fully implemented the online permitting system to allow customers to submit and pay for permits without needing to visit the department in person. That's number one. Number two, introduced pre-application meetings for projects to address potential issues re-emptively. Number three, implemented an online appointment system, excellent, to enable customers to schedule time with the appropriate staff for planning for mid-reviews. And number four, under this section, and there's one more section, implemented a system to track all permits that have not been issued within 20 days, to repeat that. Implemented, this is huge, implemented a system to track all permits that have not been issued for 20 days. I want to give you a hug right now, Mr. Aver. This is excellent. Seriously, this is excellent. I'm elated. I'm just so tired, but I really am elated. This right then I find a dress in the issues maybe because of today's. This is outstanding. Are we going to be perfect? No, no one's perfect. But this is great and this is such an improvement and we're going to see a difference. One more section. Optimize permit reviews and inspections. One, priority is now given to ensuring this is a major, the same inspector. Does subsequent inspections for each discipline? It's not going to be perfect, but that's excellent. Two, checklists have been introduced for each discipline to standardize inspections to the extent possible. Great. Number three, reports are being generated to assist in tracking these initiatives. Outstanding rubber data. I'm a professor, PhD, we run by data, right? It's great. Four, conduct construction meetings pre-during and post, I love this to allow communication among disciplines and to manage expectations. And five, provide additional training for inspectors on best practices for consistency and thoroughness. Honestly, in my time, and I commissioner Newbold doesn't like to talk about the times I ran and didn't, wasn't successful, but I've been engaged with the City of Oakland Park for basically a decade and this is we are responsive This is thorough. This is comprehensive and this is forward thinking and this is about continuing in this case commercial But certainly residential investment to with the permitting process obviously we're talking about this in the CRA capacity, and particularly in the downtown, but this is obviously city wide. So I just want to take this time. I was going to say, frankly, a commission comments, but to thank you, Mr. Raybear, and Ms. Lovefire Call, who's kind of Brad Ostroff supervisor, and then in conjunction with you, Ms. Herrera and Ms. Marrero, and and everybody, obviously everybody on the team, thank you for doing this. This is, when I leave in November, I'm gonna remember this is one of the highlights for what an amazing staff you all are. I'm very, you can tell, I'm pretty excited about this. I will end my comment now and I think we now have a agenda item to go to. The public comments, Dari, I have to go to this public comments. So at this point we will take public comments. At this point anybody who'd like to talk about CRA business can be the redevelopment agency business. You have up to four minutes if you feel free to come forward. Hi, my name is. Hi, my name is Stephanie Tata. I'm co-owner of Black Flamingo, like many of you know. Stephanie, I'm sorry. I can just say your address. I'm sorry. 3482 Northeast, 12th Avenue. So we're right down the street from here. Sorry, I'm a little choked up because this is been a lot. But I'm here today because when we initially came here four years ago to Oakland Park, we came here with a grant in hand from Hollywood actually for $250,000 for construction of our brewery. And after coming to Oakland Park and seeing that Oakland Park's values and the progress that we saw was more in line with what we wanted to create. We decided to come here and spend our money out of pocket. We came in with a $150,000 budget to start our construction something that should have only taken 8 to 12 weeks, something that eventually snow-beld into three years. Three years where we paid rent, three years where permitting took quite some time, and I understand that you guys are making those changes now, but a lot of the businesses that are currently opening, or I the businesses that are currently opening, or I'm sorry that are currently open, we've suffered a lot of that. Between these four years, I have spent almost a million dollars between permitting construction and rent, never making a cent back during that time. I had to sell both properties that I had that were our life savings. We put everything into Oakland Park because we believed in it. But I don't feel that permitting was fair with us. I feel that a lot of the changes that were made and that we're not going to be able to do that. it, but I don't feel that permitting was fair with us. I feel that a lot of the changes that were made could have been solved with meetings beforehand that we did ask for. We at the beginning never asked for grant money, but when this snowballed and got out of control, we did reach out many times to the city and everyone kind of passed the buck. When we asked at permitting for them to please make these changes in a timely manner, we were answered with, I don't know why you come here and cry so often. You're going to be laughing to the bank when you open. And what I can assure you is I'm not laughing to the bank I am now crying at a commissioner's meeting because I Will never make that initial investment back and I understand that but I do need help to be able to keep my doors open Because I'm at the point where they're going to have to close. I have no operational cost left. And this is, believe on time, because I know that a few of you have already been inside my business. You have seen what's in there. And I can assure you that between the two bathrooms, a large bar, a walk-in cooler, and two ACs that we installed, there is no million dollars in that building. And I am just reaching out because if there is some sort of relief for the current businesses open, we could definitely use it because I have no more funds to give. I have maxed out my credit cards to pay rent. To be able to stay in this city, we have invested, we did everything we could. We appreciate the support that we've been given by the community here, and I think we've built some great community and some amazing regulars. But I can't see us staying open as a possibility as of now. I know, Kith and Co next to be able to take the responsibility of us staying open as a possibility as of now. I know Kithin co next to us also closed down and a lot of these businesses cannot keep up with it and a lot of it had to do with the permitting process. It should have never taken that long and it greatly affected us. I don't know. I don't want to say for sure, but I have heard, and I'm not going to name names, that there is a business down the street from us that is receiving some sort of assistance. So if that is available in the budget, I ask you to try to help black women go out because we're on the verge of closing, And I don't want that to happen. Thank you for. Thank you. We will talk more later after public comment in this meeting. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you for your time. Okay. Our next speaker, Mr. Little. Yes. Mr. David address please. Patrick Little 3580 northeast 12th. I have street. I know exactly what you're going through, ma'am. When I first opened it took me over a year to get my permits approved to. I know exactly what you're going through, ma'am. When I first opened it took me over a year to get my permits approved to since they have been approved. I've been open coming up on four years. It's especially in this economy right now. It's very, very, very tough. You know, everything that we can do as a city, as a community. Every little thing helps. And in my opinion, permitting has let us down. I'm not on a witch on here. I'm long gone, I'm passed all that crap. Thank God. But it cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars on my time in my money. In community enjoyment, I feel like we run a nice operation. Our establishment is very localized. I feel in my opinion everyone enjoys it. our establishment is very localized. I feel in my opinion everyone enjoys it, but I feel like we don't have support from the city. I, a lot of you I look at, I see you all the time, you guys are friends at the end of the day. Like, we need help. Like, you know, at the end of the day, like, like, we need help. Like, you know, I'm here, I've been here twice one time I received like a fireman's award as I put the city off and burning on fire. I'm not here asking for money. Like, I just want your guys as back, not just for me for the city. Like, we're losing more business, more businesses than we're gaining. Like you guys can put up New York City down the street. Like you got the high rise here and you're going to revamp all this stuff. If we don't have businesses, if we don't have a standing 10 year places, it doesn't have to be restaurants, it's retail, it's all itself. Why do people want to come here? Like you want to come here because it's a nice place to live. Look at Flagler Village, you got all these restaurants. These places have, businesses have been there five, ten years now. Like that's what we should be looking at, like longevity. Like, I understand, oh, we signed a new place here. We signed a new place here. No, like those places should last 15, 20 years. This is a small city. We're looking at mom and pop places. We don't want. I mean, look at these, I'm sorry, I'm just really flustered here. We don't want big franchises coming in here. That's not what Oakland Park is. We're not big franchises. We want mom and pop small businesses to succeed. And we're not getting the help to succeed. And we're not getting the help to succeed. There's tons of business models out there, wine and food festivals, art walks, all this stuff. They generate money not only for the city, but they also generate money for the business. Okay. Why are we as businesses going to do a food festival down the street that we have to pay for and make zero money on exposure. Yeah, exposure is great. This is a small city. All these people are going to come into our business anyways. Why are we going to fork out two three four thousand dollars. How long does it take to get that back an average person spends in a restaurant $8,526 a year, something like that. In Oakland Park, maybe we receive a tent of that. Like we all need to work together. It's a family. Like you guys, you know, family on the move, city on the move and all this stuff. It's not just about higher rises and developments and all of stuff. It's about the core of the businesses. And that is us. That's the small businesses. And that is what we need to be focused on. We need to be focused on small business and helping small businesses succeed. You guys just talked about earlier, you have a budget for $1.3 million on vehicles and that's for 19 vehicles That's a hundred and fourteen thousand dollars of vehicle I'm 39 years old. I haven't had a hundred and fourteen thousand dollars in vehicles in my life Thank you, Mr. Little. Yeah, okay one more thing. I'll fill the bus for the second if I have to Because what we're gonna know, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Let's start right now. Thank you. Okay, next speaker please. Chris Fisher 3711 North East 13th Avenue. Good evening Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, City Commissioners and City staff. I was here three months ago advocating on behalf of the small businesses within our downtown and how the greed by select property owners is suffocating the growth of our city's downtown and it's giving our city a bad name and permitting as well when you talk to contractors and different developers. I'm here tonight to do the same thing. You commissioners reside on this day as not just as a conduit to your constituents and our residents, but you also are supposed to be people of action. More so than just voting yes and no on agenda items. We have a big problem here in Oakland Park and it's policy, which is your job to fix. And with that problem, you're obviously seeing, and as you've heard of tonight, our small businesses are dying. It's hard to be a city on the rise when a few individuals and they're greed or pinning Oakland Park down. I heard from two different business owners within our CRA last night after our coconut meeting and I've spoken all these business owners that have spoken tonight and these are two different business owners that said they would never do business in Oakland Park again because of the permitting process. The beautiful vision of building out from our CRA and creating prosperity beyond the downtown, that vision right now has glaucoma. Commissioners can't grant grants take time. Small businesses don't have it. You heard Stephanie from Black Femingos say that someone in the city permitting office once told her that she'll be laughing all the way to the bank. The reality is now these businesses that had aspirations of that misguided notion are faced with crying their eyes out on the way to bankruptcy. You can't affect this by reaching out to property owners. Or you can affect this by reaching out to the property owners, the landlords, and helping them to see that the rental fees are too high for our city. Tonight we have an agenda item which you already sent through and consent agenda, which I don't understand. But where you basically gave another parking waiver, we did this a couple of years ago, and I'm not going to name names. We all know who he is. He owns multiple businesses within the downtown. He did that. We keep giving, giving, giving to property owners and they, they don't give anything back outside of property taxes. So it's time that we start asking these property owners, these landlords to help us out. Our AMI is not as high as most of the other cities within Broward County. Our price per square foot for these businesses, we're charging downtown Fort Lauderdale rates. We are not downtown Fort Lauderdale. That will change when horizon comes and sky building and there's more people living here and there's more opportunity. But the walkability that was promised is not there and we know it. I walk these streets every night with my newborn son and I get get to see Norah Thai, which is probably our busiest restaurant. And there's nights where I look in, and there's one person sitting at a table. You've all eaten there. You've eaten at Paths Place. You've been to Black Femingo. We've seen, go back to Fat Tap and some of the other trendy spots that have come along over the years. And it's the property owners and the rents that they're charging them. It's too high. And you and folks, I know Tim, you're a huge advocate for small business. Mitch, I know you're a doctor, but you've seen this. You've all been a part of the ribbon cuttings, and I'm looking at three small business owners right there who grew up in that. You know what it's like. It's a very difficult time. I don't want to say we're in a recession because I'm not an economist. But all you have to do is just walk down the streets and you see it. So I think if I can ask you to do anything, please, is to reach out to these property owners, find out a way they can lower the rentals, values, and still make money so that we can get to that brighter future that we have laid out ahead of us. You see you with big scissors all the time with these ribbon cuttings for new businesses. Use those big scissors. Go cut some of these rental prices and help these small businesses out, please. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Fisher. Thank you, Mr. Fisher. How are you guys? My name is Andres Wolfe. I'm going to be the same. I'm here, but we're leaving for a lot as well. And I just wanted to say because- Just for the record, just say your full name and address. And it is well. No, I said it. You see, I don't speak English. So thank you for bearing with me. And you guys, thank you for opening this space for address. 3482 Northeast 12 hours. Thank you. That was just for the record. Thank you. Yes, for the record. I mean, my wife speaking English. So she was doing the job. But to me, to see her like here breaking her voice is like a sucks to me because I promised her this future in Alcom Park is not a lie that we got this grand money I believe we spoke about it with some of you guys. And we got it in Hollywood and it was great. It was gonna be awesome. But I remember when I saw that corner and I fell in love and I say, oh my god this is this is what we want we want the sense of community we wanted the inclusion and everything that's going on here because there's many good things going on here right and and and I know you guys are doing the best job possible to to make it happen and I know it's hard also when you have the policies and everything in place, but somethings don't work. Like, you know, the permitting plumbing guy, and all the people that makes other people's like processes a little bit harder. And in some cases, it's miserable like in my case. When I got my CEO, not even my CEO, what I had passed plumbing, I cried. And he said, well, this is like a university, so feel good about it. Because it was three times that we changed plumbing and everything. But I guess at the end of the day, I don't want to say that because I guess you guys know already that there's a problem in the permitting office with the people. But I wanted to talk because I think I thought to my wife, I said as well, in bring here, in the dream, because at the beginning was my dream, right? I was for giving more money, not more money, like a food for my kids' table. You guys all built a beautiful case for me to talk. And it's all the presentations that you did. They were awesome. The budget one, the development one, and the CRA, and what you say Mr. Herbert, like about not having people and taking pride and ascending people to looking for a job and everything, but unfortunately for us, after having years of not, you know, before I didn't have a debt, right? Right now our debt goes almost like $500,000. And when you were saying that you guys take pride in not sending people to, you know, to align, to look for a job for us as investors here is like, oh, damn, I have to look for a job. For us, as an investor here, it's like, oh, damn, I had to look for a job to kind of maybe help my business to thrive till the traffic comes to the strip. And that really, really sucks because it's like a part of a saying, you feel not you guys, but as an entity, you feel that the city failed you. It's like, damn. It's not a, oh, what I'm not so failing to be an American today. And I want to just encourage you guys because the plans are great. What do they say? All the presentations are great. And I said it at the meeting that we have last week. There's a face and a story behind the re that should be here more than, oh yes, we're doing it. We have every processing in place because when we were looking for answers and everything, most people were like, you know, and I remember because we'd not only run out on money when we were doing it, but not even our contractors wanted to be brought. We're not going to be even for the inspection because we know what's going to happen. So I started having the inspection of myself like I end up doing the project by myself and we're not knowing anything of what I was doing what I was doing. And I remember the inspectors, I'm not going to say names, and whatever they say, hey, it's not my job to tell this guy what to do. So they weren't like as loving and caring as these projects are looking, because they look great. And if you guys can put it in place, it's going to be a better feature for that. And I, and I just closed this, because Christian, the guy from Buddha was here talking and the Leridha's, Lamani, he said that to happen because I don't want to leave. I want more other business to come and we all try together because I don't have another chance. Like, oh, let me just go another place and try to. So, sorry, I couldn't finish, but thank you guys for listening to me. Thank you so much. Oh really sorry. Okay, well, thank you. Next speaker. Jack Doran 4529 Pioneers Trail West. I'm kind of known by a lot of people. I think I have a reputation of being a cheerleader for the city. Some people feel it's excessive. And I think that they report that email that I wonder who wrote it, but that email that you described, Mitch is unextatic about it also. It's about time and they're incredibly important goals and policies. But I go to restaurants and I go to different facilities, especially on our Oklahoma Park Main Street. And one after one business owner tells me about the problems that they've had with permitting in the city for the last several years. It's embarrassing. What am I to say to them? What am I to do? So then, frankly, and I wasn't going to make this public, but it just feels appropriate now. I talked to two department heads to ask if they would meet with these business owners to try to establish some communication between them. I was told no. So in respect to all the current department heads, none of the current department heads I'm referring to. So what is that about? Why will they not even talk to these people? Yes, I understand that some of the business owners did things without a permit that were inappropriate. So I'm not saying that there is an fault on both sides, but it's disproportionate and it's embarrassing. Every other aspect of our city I am so blanking proud of. But this, this, I don't know what the problem has been. And I just really encourage the commission as or seers and our city manager and department heads to correct the situation because these businesses are going to go away away and Other businesses seeing that will be much more reticent to come here A representative of Pulti told me we will never come back here again to the city It's major and they said it with anger and yes developers Blame the city and all kinds of old there, the city's fault, the city's fault. My own permit for my house was got lost for two months. A close friend of mine and I signed a contract on the same day. He was able to close two months earlier than I did because mine got delayed and I was never told why. And I wasn't going to try to use any political poll to push it. But I finally, after two months, called and said, just let me know that it's going to be dealt with and when. So there's a problem here. So that's in terms of the business owners, there's another agenda item that I do keep on hearing about. The rents are a bit. I'll use the term exploitative in some cases. So that puts additional pressure on the part of the property owners on these businesses. And when when when rents are, you know, like right now eventually when the sky building is built and when Verizon is constructed, there will be foot traffic, there will be support for the business of it. Right now, I would recommend to these property owners give a one or two or three year introductory rate for rents to help them survive because otherwise you're going to empty buildings and empty property that you're not going to be getting anywhere in from. That's where we're relaxing it a little tonight. Thank you, Dr. Doran. Anyway, thank you very much. Thank you. Our next speaker. Thank you, Mayor commissioners. Tim Smith, 1015 Northeast 39th Street. I didn't intend to talk on this item, but I decided I would because my wife and I live about three blocks from here on the west side of Dixie and you guys know I come up and I whine about us having a difficult time crossing Dixie Highway to go to the businesses on the east side. So I'm intent over the next bunch of years to try to help you guys find a way for that connection. We opened a business on the Fort Lauderdale guy. Finally left there, opened a business here in Oakland Park, oddball, sniffty thrift, bought a house, three blocks from here. Remodeled the whole thing, put in a swimming pool, Moa said, we've never had one. We did not have a good experience with the building department. So I wanted to tell you, because I think you guys know I'm honest and, you know, reasonable, but I never went to you all about it. But I remember, particularly the swimming pool, this was a time during COVID where you couldn't walk into the building department. You had to press the buzzer outside, and then if you were lucky, they would answer you. A lot of times they wouldn't, but you'd see people in there. I don't think there was a good leadership in there. The pool took, the pool permit took forever. One of the last moments I thought it was about ready. I went in and I said, you know, you guys told me if I redid this and redid that and my pool guy redid this and redid that, you give me a permit. And they said, there's no record of a building permit for you for a swimming pool here. My head almost exploded because this was like six months ahead. So this is why I came up to talk to you guys. I think whoever was responsible for running the building department just didn't give a crap about citizens. And I think you've changed that what I understand and by what the mayor said, I think things have changed. But you're hearing all this frustration back here. My wife and I love to walk across Dixie, go to Funky Buddha on Thursdays, buy one set of wings, get one for free. Then we walk down to Big Dog Saloon. They got a great chicken filly and they're nice people and they got a pool table. The ones in between have struggled. Personally, we tried a few of them and we found them too expensive. My wife and I were old people. We're not going to pay $37 for dinner on the Tuesday night. A lot of them have now closed. So you just have such a tremendous opportunity and a tremendous challenge. The city is exploding. This is going to be the coolest place forever, but you're all going to have to work so hard, particularly you, sir, just to get all these moving parts working together between the new building city hall, the downtown businesses, the building department. I'm there to help and I know it will work out and I'm sorry that it's a bit of a bummer discussion. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Smith. Our next speaker. Good evening. Hi, Ernest O'Leavis, 1736 Northwest 38th Street, Royal Palm Civic Association. I had no intentions of speaking either, but to hear the same things repeated over and over again it was shocking to me in the sense that honestly I'm a carbon copy of all that I always thought that the culinary district being pushed so hard was a business error people decided to you know we were supposed to have all this development. We're going to have this fabulous school and then we're going to have the restaurants. We didn't get any of that. Then we put these restaurants in here. There's no economic base for them. They have been sad. I have watched them close for six years in a row. The city did these businessmen a disservice. The culinary district was backwards, and so we really did fail in an economic sense. And, you know, my other story was so small, I just ignored it, but yes, I asked for a permit. I got a new fence gate and you thought I had murdered a small child. It was failed, it's like fine. And it was like, well you did this wrong, you did this wrong. And I'm going, okay, you know, I thought I was doing better and apparently by trying to do better, I couldn't have done worse. But that is a common theme around here is that oh you guys are always doing everything wrong and it's like People the citizens we aren't educated on this. I look at the permits. I go I'm not really sure what form to fill out we try to fill them out if we pick the wrong one we do it over You know it's it's the bureaucracy you're used to that but You know, it's the bureaucracy. You're used to that. But when I made a might, what I thought was a moderate complaint, I got shut down really hard and I go, okay, never fight a bureaucrat that's mad at you. And then I talked to my contractor and he said the same thing that these other people were saying. He said that he had never seen a city that was so hard to deal with and that he deals with all the cities in Broward. Again, I just took this as small incident, small observation, but it sure seems to me that it's extraordinarily widespread. And so, you know, it's too late, it's water under the bridge, the people have been harmed, and I don't know that you can rectify it, but you should take account that you cannot encourage small business to come, unless the business is there first. So I encourage your planning staff to make economic cash flow projections when they talk to businesses. I never expend my business without doing a cash flow projection first. And it is true. Sometimes you will have civil servants be a little bit condescending to the civilian population. It's just so common, it happens. I hope you can root it out. Thank you. Thank you. Excuse me. Any other speakers tonight? Excuse me a second. My voice is a little challenged tonight. I just appoint a privilege. Please stay. We're gonna get through a few items and we're going to have a board comment, as well as comment from the executive director. I do encourage us to we often, our board members have zero comments. I challenge you all to have comments tonight. Please, all of you, please, very thoughtful comments about what we just, the people we just heard, we spent, I don't even know, probably at least a half an hour. And of course, we're relaxed. We needed to do that for over four minutes. So please have thoughtful comments about what we heard tonight. Mr. Executive Director, please, please be thinking about what you'd tonight. Mr. Executive Director, please, you know, please, please be thinking about what you'd like to say. We're not going to solve every single thing here. I just have to say this though. I too had two permits for a roof and for a fence. And I had to call, I waited this certain amount of time and then called. We're fixing this. Honestly, I wish prior commissions respectfully had addressed this. And I'm talking all the way back to 2016 because I heard about the permitting problem when I first ran for office in 2016. And months ago when I heard three people before noon, three different entities talk about permitting about three or four months ago I called Mr. Raybearance and we must do something and I so appreciate as I said earlier Mr. A. Bear and Mr. Ross drawf but I hear you loud and clear. That's great now What about us? So we hear you please stay for our comments at least we'll be having them very shortly at this point we have a consent agenda Item two Prove the minutes June 5th approve of the minutes June 5th, 2024. A resolution to the Board of Commissioners of the Vocal and Park Community Redevelopment Agency approving and authorizing the appropriate CRA officials to execute the first amendments to the interlocal agreement between Broward County, the City of Oakland Park, and the Oakland Park Community Redevelopment Agency for the Sky Building, formerly known as Oakland Park Square, redevelopment project, providing for conflict, severability, and effective date. Motion to adopt. Second. Any discussion? What will it call? Form of renewable. Yes. Form of our arms. Vice Chair Lonegan. Yes. Form of our Gordon. Chair Rosenwald. Yes. Now we come to item four, resolution recommended the adoption of the sky voting job creation instead of pilot program. Mr. Aber. Thank you. Mr. Error, will you bring this up and we're going to have to get through this fairly rapidly so we can attend to more pressing issues, please? Mr. Error, before you start, we do need to. Yeah, I'd like to extend the meeting to 11 o'clock or to businesses if it ends prior to that. Set of motion. Yes. Second. for children's rights. So, I would like to ask you to ask for your services if it ends prior to that. Set of motion. Yes. Second. Local. Board of Renewable. Yes. Board of Renewable. Yes. Board of Renewable. Yes. Vice Chair Lonegan. Yes. Board of Renewable. Yes. Board of Renewable. Yes. Vice Chair Lone the to the amendment to the development agreement that we touched on as part of the previous presentation. The proposed sixth amendment to the Sky Building Development Agreement converts the city's financial obligation to provide funding for retail tenant improvements. Take it into consideration that the developer is already offering tenant improvement incentives to their prospective tenants. For this reason, this amendment converts the city's obligation to an employment support program called the Sky Building Job Creation Incentive Pilot Program that we're discussing today. The Sky Building Job Creation Scentive Pilot Program is intended to provide financial assistance to encourage businesses to create new jobs within the CRA. Businesses that are seeking funding under these programs are required to provide quarterly payroll reports in order to get this funding. They would have to demonstrate that they incurred into payroll expenses that meet or exceed the scheduled grant funds as we're going to see later on based on a table that I'm going to explain. Businesses will be able to submit their application starting October 1st of this year, and the program is intended to sunset December 31st, 2029, unless the CRA board decides to extend it. As we explained, this program provides financial support for businesses within the CRA, within this guy building, excuse me, to support the businesses during the first critical two years of their operations. This will help with ensuring the long-term stability of the downtown. Eligible businesses must create at least one additional full-time equivalent position other than the owner, the principal assist of its equivalent to be eligible under this program. They will, the funds will be awarded over a two-year period, and it will be disbursed on a quarterly basis. This program also provides a threshold of funding threshold for culinary and non-colonary businesses. So culinary uses that lease one retail space are available are eligible to receive up to $40,000. The CRA may award additional funding for businesses that lease multiple retail spaces up to a maximum of 96,000. up to a maximum of 96,000. Non-collinatory uses that at least one space are eligible to receive $32,000. The CRA may provide additional funding for tenants that at least multiple base up to a maximum of $80,000. At this point, CRA staff recommends that the board approves the adoption of the Sky Building Judgment Program and authorize the appropriate elected officials to implement this program. With that, I'm available to answer any questions you may have. Thank you Mr. Rera and Mr. Raybear was there anything more from staffer? No this program has received the support of the developer and we are encouraged to try this out to see whether or not this might assist us and assist him in drawing business to the downtown areas. So your support for this would be much appreciated. Thank you. I'm sorry. Resolution of Board of Commissioners, Ocompark community redevelopment agency approving and adopting the Sky Building Job Creation Incentive Pilot Program and authorizing the appropriate CRA officials to implement the Sky Building Job Creation Incentive Pilot Program in program in accordance with the program guidelines providing for conflict severability and effective date. Okay, is there a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Is there a second? I just had one procedural comment and I think this is what Mr. Smith was talking about. When we extended the meeting, I think we were referring to the commission meeting, not the CRA meeting. Are we good with what we did? Okay, thank you. Does that discussion? Vice Chair. Thank you, Chair. I appreciate that. You know, this amount was built into the project to begin with. It's designated for the project. I think this is an interesting experiment to see how it goes. At this point, I, I'm obviously I'm willing to support it. I moved it forward after the discussions recently. I know we can't use this money towards other things because it was designated specifically for this project. So yeah, I'm going to support it. And again, I'm considering this an experimental project. If it turns out to be a winner, that's great. And maybe as other things occur we can implement in other places and it turns out that it doesn't work right for us we know not to do it again so that's kind of where I'm sitting with it thank you. Thank you. I don't disagree with you one bit. My births. But here's my big concern. You're trying to bring people in here and there are people moving out right now. And we've got to do something to retain businesses in this district right now. I don't care what the CRA's got to either provide money for renacistness or something. It's got to happen because I've seen too many businesses go out We got another one getting ready to go out and maybe another one at that another one for that and it's You know you want more people in here, but the problem is you can't keep the people we got here I'm a business owner. I mean luckily I own my property Okay, so I don't have to worry about running or anything, but the problem is I know what it is to be in a small business owner Everyone I talk to all my customers that own businesses the summer their their business goes like this it goes Right down to nothing. I mean you can hear a pin drop in some of these places So I don't know what the answers, but we've got it I would like to have you know It's not the night to do it because it's we've got other press issues right now This is but to you this is a super super important thing that we've got to do something about retaining businesses Otherwise you're just gonna have a revolving door. I know it's gonna come on, come on, come in. If they keep seeing people coming in here, seeing people leaving here, like the floodgates are opened up, sorry, but it's just not gonna happen. I mean, Mr. Olives is pretty much right when the business plan wasn't started. When you, you know, this is before my time is pretty much right when the business plan wasn't started. When you, you know, this is before my time on the culinary district before that should have been, you know, when you started to say, you gotta have the foot traffic, you gotta have the availability of people to visit these culinary districts. And we're in the process of doing that right now. Don't get me wrong. The problem is the cart was put before the horse. I have to agree with them 100% the cart was put before the horse. Now we got people are just but somehow we need to do something here soon. And if it's putting money into the new budget to the CRA budget for next year, so be it. But I just can't see people leaving here and leaving. In regards to what happened the past, the past is the past. I'm looking forward to the future. So I'm going to keep it short because we've got a lot of stuff to do here before 11 o'clock Thank you member aren't Gordon Thank you Mayor I Agree with you vice mayor when you talk about this item and The fact that you will support it, you know based on You know the fact that it's here and it's a good program and it's a Pro it seems like it's going to be a good program. Let's just hope it's a successful program. I agree with you, Commissioner Arne's. We have an issue. We have a problem here and it's not going to be solved overnight. During my briefing, my agenda briefing, I did ask the question when I was introduced to this item, I wanted to know. So what happens to the existing businesses? Will the new businesses push out our existing businesses? We don't know. But hearing what the business owner said tonight, it resonated with me. tonight, it resonated with me. I don't know, and it's just, I mean, this is on this surface because I was always told where there's smoke, there's fire. So this is smoke. And I don't know how we are going to assist and happen our businesses' sustain their business. But we put a lot of emphasis on small businesses. Invisity and this city is made up of small businesses. Small businesses are the heartbeat of this city is made up of small businesses. Small businesses are the heartbeat of this city. So we need to find a way to support our businesses and keep them sound and sustainable. That's all I have to say right now. Thank you. Port member, Newbold. Thank you. Port member, New Bowl. Thank you. Yes, there was a lot said. And I know this calls for further discussion and ways for everyone to come up with a way to be sustainable and maintain their business now here in downtown Oakland Park. I'm bringing what I apologize for the option. When you said needs for their discussion, are you talking about the item we're talking about or more? Right, we need to find a solution right now tonight. We need to be a discussion just like Commissioner Ernst said. We need to discuss ways to maintain these businesses. Coming from a small, coming from a family that owned a small business. My parents didn't, they already, they didn't have much, but they did everything they could to maintain their business. The way they started off, they did not end it. But I sympathize with you, but I also just remember my parents, the way that they ran their business, and they didn't have resources. They didn't even know to go and ask for resources. So I just think it's good that we have a city here a county as well because we are not an entitlement city. So we don't have all the funding that everyone think that we have. So we will have to go out and look for other resources. That's why I say there does need to be a future conversation to see how these businesses are maintained. And I understand that I don't know. I mean, I heard everyone tonight that came up and spoke and do know, you know, I didn't know as much until like what I didn't know as much because no one ever really called me or reached out to me and I'm not just saying it's okay but I'm glad I know now that let us know that we just have work to do. So thank you. Okay so on this particular item, on item four, I'm supportive and it does, but we're gonna get to our reports from board members where I'm gonna address everybody a little bit more on the item because this is a job creation, an incentive particularly for the sky building and the other comment on this item, roll call please. Board member Nubold. Yes. Board Member Arns. Vice Chair Lonergan. Yes. Board Member Gordon. Yes. Chair Rose and Wald. Yes. So now we come to reports from board members I'd like to begin. I at the age of 13 my parents had a Montgomery ward store so I'm certainly dating myself. Remember Montgomery ward's the older people years like a Sears and I grew up every Saturday working in the store and helping unload trucks with my dad and the driver and selling it. It was a catalog store with a small retail. So while I'm not a business owner I certainly grew up with one. My parents I said are you gonna pay me? They're like you get to eat but I did get some Star Wars toys so that was cool. So I know from my parents what they did and it closed. This was in rural Maryland and they're closed. We just passed a job creation incentive program. I agree with Commissioner Arnt's, we need to move forward. I hear all of you and I agree with all of you. I think no one up here, I shouldn't say this. I doubt anybody up here would disagree with what you said about permitting. I had enough. After years and years and years since 2016, when I went to the local government academy here, it's the problem continued. And now there's a solution. And I think it's, like I said, one of the best things I've heard since I've lived in Oakland Park for a decade. But we have a problem and you have shared it. And we hear you. There's a motion here. I just want to say, you know say I want to do many things. The city attorney said that we can do a work. This CRA can do a workshop. I would like us to think about Mr. Executive Director and team having a workshop specifically on this. I know people will say, well that's fine, but where's economic assistance to help us? And I hear that point very loud and clear, along with improved permitting, which we are finally doing. So I do want us to think about, Mr. Executive Director, as having a workshop on the specific issue through the CRA at a time to be determined, but relatively soon. Sooner than later, I also support Commissioner, board member, Arnst and Newbold, it really all of us on what's out there. What is out there for the county, what's out there at the state. We're looking at our budget, we're not in abundance, that means the City Commission funds the CRA budget. We don't get additional money from the county. So these are things, I appreciate you all talking tonight. I know this was very upsetting and emotional. We hear you. We, I live a block from here too. And it pains me when I saw Switchbox close years ago. I live near the Christmas refresher. So we were both walking the same street. I walk with my dogs. I don't have a child. They're my child children. So we need to do something. I'm going to turn this over to the board. I know some of you may have spoken already about your general comments, but I want to just turn this over. Vice chair. Thank you, Jerry. Appreciate it. You know, Chris, sir, I have to say Chris, I have to say I have taken pride in Oakland Park as far as new businesses open. I make sure I get to those new businesses. I talk to the owners and I say, tell me, how is the process? How is staff? And a lot of times they're very honest with me. Sometimes they'll say to me, they'll say, it was okay, but I'd rather not share and I think they're nervous to say something to city staff so I can assure you as information came in I would have discussions with with Mr. A. Bear and We discuss I'll give you a prime example this past Saturday night I went to the new Il Pastille restaurants. First time I went there, the two owners were in there. He said, gentlemen, how was it? How was the permitting process? He goes, yeah, he said it was good. I really had no problem. I said, well, how was staff? And he said, staff was good. And he said, Tim, I had two problems. He said, one, staff told me I couldn't put up four flags on top of I was just wondering what was the other one. Staff told me I couldn't put up four flags on top of my restaurant that I that the maximum was two two. And I said, OK, OK, thank you for sharing yet. I'll share that with the city manager. And I said, what was the other one? He said took a little bit longer with the process for permitting. Again, shared with Mr. A bear. He jumped on it right away. Not only he's jumped on it, but he went to the, did you make it to the restaurant, sir? I do have a try to, but it hasn't been paid for that. Okay. But I have confidence that when Mr. A. Bear hears about something, he does get concerned. I am concerned as Commissioner Nubolt said, my phone really hasn't rang much, and as I do get around, I do ask business owners, genuinely, Charlie's that opened up by Oakland Park Boulevard. They were a little bit frustrated permitting, you know, worked with them. They originally didn't even want a grand opening. Talked them, talked with them a little bit. Everything went much better. They had a grand opening. So I guess my point here is please, please encourage people. If you're not going to share with Mr. A. Bear. Call one of the commissioners and let us know. I know it's not perfect and I'm going to say this is no excuse, but I know we've got so much going on that some of the things aren't quite up to power as it should be and I'm saying because there's so much going on it's not an excuse and I apologize genuinely. I know like the rest of the commission want to work on a solution and it sounds like Mr. Avaire and his team already put something out which the mayor had read a little bit earlier but trust, now that this is on the radar and we are aware, if you say, if you would say vice mayor, what are your recommendations at this point? It's our job to improve the city, improve the quality of life, and increase traffic in this city. It's the business's job to give them quality service, a good product, and a good price. So we got to make sure that we can expedite the process to get you open. Herd you guys loud and clear, completely agree. I have no disagreements that we need to fix it. And I can only say at this point, I'm sorry, and we'll work on ways to try and make it up to you. If it comes to more events on Main Street, we'll put more ban events on Main Street in front of the restaurants just to drive more traffic. And we will, I'm going to ask the city manager to look to what we can do immediately event wise. That's not real expensive to try and drive traffic in so that it's not just a matter of we're going to give the business money we're going to think of smart ways to get people here to get in there to spend their money. I think that's that's an initial good first solution and we need to jump on it right away and I can give you my commitment that I will work with the city manager and the team also and we'll do what we can to drive traffic. So again, my ask of business owners at this point, good service. I'm telling you, I hit a lot of restaurants. I love Alcom park restaurants. And when I feel welcome when they smile at me, they welcome me back. Some of them maybe don't even have the best food sometimes. Okay, I'm saying some are just average. Some are wonderful, but that's what it's about, right? That's you welcome me in, you make me feel like I'm part of your business, you know what I'm saying? That's what we need you to do. We need you to make sure, smile. Welcome to people, give them good price, give them good do. We need you to make sure smile. Welcome to people. Give them good price, give them good product. We'll continue working on driving in traffic, whether that means putting some bands in, whether that means more art walks, whatever it is. I want you know probably about seven, eight years ago, I really thought and I really thought what this city needed was a hotel down on Oakland Park, boulevard to drive people into Main Street. So I'm going to push on that again. I pushed on it in the past. I really feel a hotel brings people right to downtown Oakland Park and has them utilize our businesses. So again, you have our, I believe I can speak on part of the commission. You have our attention. You have our commitment and we will do what we can as quickly as we can. Thank you, Vice Chair. Rest of the Board. It's excuse me. Mr. A. Barrett, the executive director. Just wanted to have a word real quick. Thank you. I'm sorry. I'm having problems with my mic tonight. We can hear. I'm frankly ashamed that these experiences have happened to you. I'm not going to try to make any excuses because there are none that will allow us to make you hold. And I don't have an answer tonight on where we might be able to provide additional assistance moving forward. And unfortunately, the new director of our building services department who has instituted the proactive measures that the mayor has referenced this evening is not here this evening. So I don't know how to express how disheartened I am that this happened under my watch and that you have experienced the kind of disrespect that I have heard this evening. Had I known that any department had in this city refused to meet with somebody, I would have dramatically taken action. That's not the kind of customer service that I have tried to instill in my staff. And I am frankly ashamed. I'm a customer service that I have tried to instill in my staff. And I am frankly ashamed. I hear what you said this evening, and I will pull my team together first thing tomorrow, and we will navigate to the best of our abilities, some recommendations to the Commission moving forward. I am not prepared this evening to provide that information because I don't have it without consulting with the experts that I rely on. But if ever again anybody in my staff tells you that they don't have time to meet with you, you have my telephone number and I want to hear that immediately because that is simply not something I would tolerate. I also want to apologize that we have a long agenda this evening. I had not anticipated that this would come up to this extent certainly and we have an obligation legally to end the meeting at 11 o'clock. We have no choice about that. And we also have to address the urgent issues of setting our trim notice information that has to be delivered in a timely manner by the Property and Preasers office. So I beg the deference of this board and this commission that this evening, if we could please provide me an opportunity to try to come up with a plan here. I think the mayor's suggestion of a workshop may be excellent. And I'll talk individually with each of you on a strategy moving forward. But if I could appeal to you this evening, we have to get through the items that are on our agenda. We don't have any choice on that regard. Thank you. As pressing as this is to the public and as immediate as I will give my attention to it. I do have an obligation to inform you that we've got things we've got to attend to this evening. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, let me suggest that we have an instead of workshop a special meeting because if there's any action we want to take, workshop we can't take any action. So if we're going to do something that's have a special meeting and we'll worry about that then what I want to do is I don't know cut it or not. They're comments tonight but we've got a lot of stuff to do here and we've got some city management we've got some stuff that has to be done tonight. Absolutely and I'm okay. I feel about this thing. I'm tired of having the revolving door. I'm tired of the rig. I'll have you stop. So, the Lux Padita's I do just super quickly though. For a member new bolder. Yeah, really quickly. I just I just want everyone that came up tonight. You were hurt. We're going to get together and we're going to discuss. So just know that. And again, you have my number. Please call me and as well as any of my colleagues up here. So thank you for coming up. Thank you for sharing. And I apologize for anything, any bad experience you've had that does not represent the city, but we will get it right. Thank you. Department of the Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. Just want to thank everyone for coming out tonight and expressing this critical concern. And as Commissioner Newbold said, call us anytime. We are called public servants. We're here to serve you. So never feel, don't be hesitant to pick up the phone and call us. And thank you so much for letting us know and we're on this Thank you as mayor. I also apologize for past and present For everyone's experience because the buck stops with all of us and whoever's turned it is to be the mayor We will be public facing about the permitting. I will ask the city manager We need to put that out there to the public our processes and we will take a look at these ideas for relief for economic relief. We can't answer them now. But I like your idea word number.