state of the city addresses like I tell you over the years I've seen some pretty venerable people sitting in this chair that I hope to be half of in Statcher Mayor Bowlin. I think when I first started paying attention was Mayor Judd Shank was serving of course with him for Mayor Lonergan but with Mayor Shank and then I think it's a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a she's not ill, she's recreating, but she'll be back at the next, well, there will be an election. So the next commission will be who will certainly be Mayor Lonergan and Vice Mayor Arnsd if you don't know we rotate the mayorship. So we know for sure these two gentlemen will be here and we know for sure I will not be, though I will be soon across the street and I'll be in this audience from time to time. But it's been very humbling for me to be just a part of this city. As Commissioner Newbold doesn't like me to say, I ran three times, but I got involved with the city way back when I went through the local government academy, which I'm sure we'll be having again. It's a dynamic, it's a fantastic opportunity for residents. If you want to learn more, hello. If you want to learn more about the city and all of your government, it's very important that you do that. It's also free meals, but it's also it's a great opportunity. And all just about all actually all of us on the commission have gone through it except Commissioner Arts just only because his initial service predated that. But maybe you'll go to the LGA at some point. Maybe you'll give a class. And so that was my original foray into the city. I worked with Bruce Garrison and actually Pat Crowley, I've known we've known each other a long time Pat on the local, on the vulnerable population registry. Then sat where Commissioner Newbold was on the Arts and Culture Board for a couple years and here we are. But it all takes from all of us, from the wonderful staff we have, the wonderful volunteers, we just honored all of you who listen, who we have tremendous volunteers. I go around the different cities, we really stand out for our volunteer corps and for our resident participation, it's very humbling to be just a small effort in helping the city grow. So a year ago, hard to believe, I was just about a year ago in November, I stood in front of you as your newly sworn mayor and a lot of responsibility. The city manager, you've helped me. It's, I may have told you this years ago, I had originally wanted to go and and go and at least got an MBA, maybe not city, maybe city management at one point though I didn't do that. And talking with you over the years, you've given me obviously we have to, the inside look, you've lifted up the hood and how this stuff works. And it'd be easy if it was just the bureaucracy of Oakland Park, it's a government, right? We try to be as responsive as possible, but we have entered locking, obviously, Broward County, State of Florida, United States, other cities, private enterprises. We try to make everyone happy 100% of the time, and we can't. But if we try to, if we do our best to make most people know that we are as responsive as possible and as efficient as possible, I think we can lay our heads down. Okay at nighttime. So thank you for showing me the inside. I think you were a professor of mine during this as we're you mr. duty. I'm not an attorney nor did I ever maybe for one day wanted to be but you've been a professor in terms of municipal government. So my colleagues have been professors here. You're the one who encouraged me in 2016 to run. I wasn't ready to yet. I was ready in 18, but I did in 16. So thank you. And Steve, you and I raised together, I think, and here we both are and Commissioner Newbold, so so good to have you on the team and of course Commissioner Gordon and I were elected the same year. But all of you are my professors too. You're the ones the reasons we all do this work. We don't do it for the salary. What is it 25 or I don't know what it's it's not little bit waged just if we did this. We all have full-time jobs. We do this because we do want to serve. But you're our professors because you tell us where to focus, when to speed up, when to slow down. And if we're not listening as well as we should, I try to listen my best. I fail occasionally, maybe more than occasionally. But we just have to keep being responsive. We have to keep being responsive. And I'm very proud of the team we have here. We have heard dozens of times how this government is. Our government is not flawless or seamless, but it's a robust seamless but it's it's a robust expression of diligent people who care, who give a damn and who are respectful towards each other. I recently viewed I will not tell you the city of a city commission meeting of another city that we've all heard of and it was not it was not diplomatic. I also recently talked to the mayor of yet another city in Broward, who let's just say there's quite a bit of animus on that commission. So as you go around and around and around, you see that we kind of are a beacon of hope. And I know that sounds really corny, but if we get past the cornyness, it can be kind of sobering and hopeful. So as you know, we are founded in 1929. 2029s coming up. We just had our birthday in July, I think. And so we're still making significant strides for the foundation for our second century. You heard, you saw our planning staff as a, I don't wanna say the, nobody's the, but a core team, a core team in that effort. And as you've learned about, and some of you do know, and some of you may not about our cap improvement plan, it's just amazing and the millions of dollars in grants we have to supplement our budget as just pretty extraordinary. So this past year, we've seen investment in the city. We call it our building in our second century initiative. We opened North Andrews Gardens Community Center. We had a quick hiccup for the fire station that will be now November 1st at 11 a.m. That'll be my last formal act as mayor. And let me just say more about the grant funding. $65 million in grant funding. I know you're at a city manager's conference a few weeks or a month ago. And maybe you all to talk about this stuff or maybe you don't want to brag too much because other cities will be a little envious. But I'm not an expert in this. But for proportionally, Mr. Abert would I think we're pretty good proportionally compared to other cities as a proportion. I mean this is just outstanding $65 million in grants over two million for flood mitigation at Lake Emerald $2 million to relocate the library the public works complex, and centralizing, which will centralize our public works. This past, I'm pretty exact month, we were honored as one of the hundred cities. We were all here, or at least on the day us, for the National League of Cities Centennial Roadshow, they featured us as one of 100 cities to watch out for, to look out for, that's on their rise in the country. We also had our beautiful creative orchids of the Stunson to look out for that's on their rise in the country. We also had our beautiful creative orchids at the Stunson Nature Trail as well. Some of our infrastructure that's been completed, we know it's about drainage. We know we have when it's horrible storms and they happen more frequently, we still have some flooding, we know that. We continue to work on that and thanks to Commissioner, I mean, well, Vice Mayor Lonergan, under your leadership with Mr. A. Bear and probably what you did long ago, Commissioner Arnst for the planning, all these bid packs that looked at all the underground. That's when I first moved Oakland Park in 14, I remember the bid packs. I think it was nine at that point and over by Peter Pan and I think there was a North Andrews and that was to help with all this drainage. So this is not a pool like it used to be. So we're very proud of that. We're repaving eight miles of city streets. We just had Lloyd's sidewalks by Lloyd Estates, that ribbon cutting, upgrading the entrance way signs. I'm looking forward to the sign coming on Dixie Highway, there are new Oakland Park signs, and of course, what's right behind us and what will be here. Our sky building and our horizon of Oakland Park, together we're looking at 260 million dollars in investments. Well it's all for the dogs because we now have a wonderful bag dog park which is the north part of Justy Park and we have a beautiful community garden and you know I think it's a prime example of community engagement with some members of the Harlem Pride community about what do we want for this park and and Mr. Raybear you you had a lead or perhaps had a prompt not a promise but like this was a very good chance we can have a garden and some members were very happy about a community garden it's kind of a thing in the country people like gardens and somewhere like well maybe community garden. It's kind of a thing in the country, people like gardens and somewhere like well maybe the garden but let's make sure we have you know our basketball courts repaved and let's make sure we have a really good surface for our playground and there is back and forth and we made it work and it did it's still always still one target for December. Knock on, I said we will aside from acts of God by December and and the Carver Woodson Park is is being renovated. We have all of our events of course. We just had October fest. We've had the taste of Oakland Park. I think our third our third pride. Third I think youth day fourth youth day, which is what? Mr. Buck I? Good to our historians, we've that was from the 50s am I correct? Youth day is from the 1950s or so. It's the oldest continuous parade city parade, at least in the county and our holiday village and of course, Halloween fun is coming up. Our art walk, we've now had a series of art walks under the leadership of Mr. Braemer or our consultant. You all see this, everyone. We're on the rise, we're on the move. Financial Mr. Thompson is not here. Every year since I've paid a attention to this city, we get these national awards. And he is, I know he's your Doug Ruck report Mr. A bear but I know you give it right back to him and and Miss Love good evening tonight but Mr. Thompson does an extraordinary job. It is I'll tell you part of this job is being a fiduciary responsibility and not that I'm sure the five of us don't look and dig but when you have someone of Mr. Thompson's caliber Commissioner no more new mode, you know, you just there's some faith. There's some faith there We look but there's some faith and some trust for the 10th time in 11 years We've also we've reduced our milled rates. We can have finances. We've saved taxpayers over 17 million and We have a general reserve of 22%. I think very importantly, maybe not most importantly, we have a high credit rating, we have a high bond rating. Some cities go into receivership. Their bankrupt, the state has to take over. And I think that is the, we will never have this problem under Mr. A. Bear and Mr. Miss Loves and Mr. Thompson's leadership. As I mentioned, the creative work is it sounds in nature trail, continue to have the donations. I was one of the ones with some of us who did the first ones. Now there's a new way to do it. It used to be the string and now it's the glue or anyway, there's some sort of environmental glue or something that they do. But I really think that's becoming a real majestic exhibit of our city. We played at 300 bulbs this year. Mr. Chess, Mr. Amos Chess, who still is an investor in the city, had been, had a lot of real estate at one time in the city donated 50 grand to a baby grand piano that's housed at the North Andrews Gardens Community Center. So we thank you, Mr. Chuss for that donation. And Mr. Schir, funding a Florida Native Garden that will be right behind us within the next year I think, along with our wellness goals. I had mentioned the volunteers, our advisory boards, you saw three members of our, again, I want to shout out because you're here, Dr. Doran, the speeder, Senator Miss Crowley, three of our very fine members of the advisory board. Our planning is only advisory board, we have a number of them. Ms. Schradd, I think we have about 12 or 10. We have 10. So they're just about fully staffed and they help they advise us whether it's from arts and culture to historical preservation to schools. And speaking of schools we had a wonderful meeting about a month ago at North Andrews High School. The five commissioners were here. The entire school advisory board was here there as well as Mr. Herrera from from Economic Development, Mr. Kassale from Parks and Miss Burnett from the library and school services who set that up. And we had the principles bosses the high up from the northern Broward County. And so we were talking about just not just the grades, which by the way, Oakland Park Elementary is now a B. North Andrews has returned, Garden Cellimentaries returned to a B. Lloyd Estates stuff, few points away from a B. Okay, records is a B. No, I apologize as a C and as a few points away from a B for that principle is dynamic and Northeast tie is a few points is it be now and Mr. Valcovich says we're going to be in a very soon. So that sort of discussion, things that the city might be able to partner with. One of the things I like to think about this the principal's boss okay so a high up educator for Broward County wants to start coming to the downtown Partners meetings to solicit funky Buddha for a snow cone machine and the school or something like that Whatever it might be you see these synergies that you wouldn't usually think about but that's what we can do in Oakland Park when we broker So I think that's very powerful So I just want to thank you again to all of our volunteers. So look it ahead. Our work is far from done as Mr. Southerner I think mentioned but we'll continue building on our progress and smart growth, our sustainability and our innovation. We'll see new facilities, obviously Fire Station 9 on November 1st and Public Works in the new year. We'll continue adding more than 30 acres of open and green space through planning. And I want everyone to know the public works building that's vacating, Wembley Field frees up acres of green space. Five acres to be exact. We've recognized a few, well whatever she's here, we say how terrific she is. Our new sustainability coordinator, again Mr. Raybear, something that you either want to brag about at your conferences or you want to keep quiet. Well, you might brag. I don't know. You're also a humble man. But not there aren't many cities of 47,000 that have a sustainability coordinator. That kind of shows a progressive city. And I'm not talking about Republican or Democrat. I'm talking about progressive in terms of how we think of the environment we do live in an environment. So in conclusion, yes, there's a conclusion. I'm filled with pride for what we've accomplished together. We're not just a city. We are a community. It's been a real honor to serve as your mayor. It is a sentimental time, more than I thought. However, I'm very happy, as many of you know, I was honored to be elected as your next representative for the State House District 98. I've asked my future district aide, Mr. Eric Lockwood. Could you, you'll be getting to know him when he's officially on the team once I'm sworn in in November. But I'll be continued to, I've said to my commission and to Commissioner Gordon as well as to you Mr. A. Bear and Miss Alvarez who directs all the planning for this more like the strategic planning for the city that I'll be I'll have six cities That look at where I put the office right in Oakland Park and literally it will be across in the Resellee Plaza Mr. Resellee will be my my landlord Where the heart to heart dental is on 34th court the west side. That's where the office will be. So I will be in Tallahassee some but I live around the corner and we'll be here to help the city be on the map. I have to tell you when they put my name down as a state rep guess what they write right after that Oakland Park. In the past we've had great predecessors from Pompopeno and Deerfield, but it's time for Oakland Park to be on the state map. So with that again, we'll have closing comments for the at the by the commission at the end, but I wanted to give some awards out now. We'll be giving Commissioner Gordon her award when she is back. I guess that will Mr. A. Vary will take care of her getting her award. Well, you've done this before yourself, vice mayor. So you know what's coming, but vice mayor, you know, you scared us this past spring. I know you're like, well, you might have scared us. You scared yourself, I'm sure. And we're so glad you and your husband are both not on the mend even, but you're healthy again. And this is just a slight cold today. This is nothing, nothing, so. But I just want to thank you so much for your service as Vice Mayor. This is I think the third time you've received this award, I think, and you'll transition into mayor next meeting. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Commissioner Aritz, what to say. You and I sometimes would be the only people in a neighborhood participation meeting. We go back to 2016 when we were interviewed by the Sunsat and all when they used to, when you open park, believe it or not, for endorsements. They stopped doing that. I thank you for your history of the city, your, at an industry, you do have an encyclopedic memory. But also I think your, your pragmatism and your financial acumen, you really bring that to the commission. So I thank you. Thank you. And Commissioner Newbold, it was my... I'll get you these boxes. You have boxes if you want them. It was my honor to vote with Commissioner we when Commissioner Sparks left to go to Arizona and I've seen your spirit I've seen your love for this city and all you do you show up I think for the anybody else does it everything and it's that sort of commitment to the city you're care for your residents not just like side but you but citywide. But you really want to make sure we're all one city. And for that, your focus on justice, I super appreciate. So thank you for your service to Oakland Park, for your leadership as mayor, for your leading the neighborhood groups for all your work over the past year as mayor, your four years on this commission, which I'm sure felt like it just flew by and all you've done for the City of Oakland Park, we have no doubt that you are gonna make us so proud and you're gonna do a great job in Telehassy fighting for the people of Oakland Park and the people of Florida and Howard County. So on behalf of the Oakland Park Commission, your commission, we wanna say thank you. to to to to to I think that's in the box. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. the your reward for your office I can't run that fast well not one thank you guys thank you so much thank you guys I'm thankful and maybe maybe you're the God of God. Well, you're getting back to your chair. I just want to say, especially congratulations, you were the first person in Oakland Park and it's transition from the city commission to a higher office. So you had that honor of being the first person in the city to do that. You know, it almost 195 years. So congratulations, then. We look forward to working with you. Thank you, sir. I too want to congratulate you. I want to congratulate you. I too want to congratulate you. And when I said I don't want you to talk about the three, I just want you to focus on the loss because you've met so many people and you've gained so much knowledge and you was not afraid to share that with me and I want to thank you for that. And I know you're going to do great. Thank you.