We have a motion to make a motion. We have a motion to make a motion. We have a motion to make a motion. We have a motion to make a motion. We have a motion to make a motion. We have a motion to make a motion. We have a motion to make a motion. We have a motion to make a motion. We have a motion to make a motion. We have a motion to make a motion. We have a motion to make a motion. I'm happy to then bring Airman A4 Albert Paulver to follow our moment silence to lead us in the pledge so we'll have our moment of silence now. Thank you and Airman Paulman Paulver will be honored. We are honored by your presence and to lead us in the pledge of allegiance as our one of our fine active duty service members. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. It's great to see you, Albert. Thank you so much. And save travels back to Okinawa. We'll see you hopefully fairly soon. At this point, I'll ask for any additions additions changes or deletions to the agenda. Nothing here Mayor. Nothing for me Mayor. No. No. No sir, thank you. Anything? Mr. Attorney? No sir. Okay. So tonight we're going to have we have have this annually, our third September meeting, which is going to be a very short meeting. It's devoted to our three budget public hearings on our three assessments as well as public comments. So at this point, so I'll be opening and closing three different hearings. So our first item is the fire assessment adoption of final annual rate resolution the advertising for this public hearing appeared in the Sun Sentinel August 18th 2024 Mr. Attorney. Resolution the City of Oakland Park Florida relating to the provision of fire rescue service facilities and programs in the City of Oakland Park Florida. Reimposing fire rescue assessments against assessed property located within the City of Oakland Park for the fiscal year beginning October 1 against assessed property located within the city of Oakland Park. For the fiscal year beginning, October 1, 2024, proving the rate of assessment, approving the assessment role and providing an effective date. Thank you, and Mr. A. Bear, you have a presentation. We do, thank you, Mayor. We have combined the three public hearings into one presentation for expediency purposes. Our chief financial officer, Andrew Thompson, will walk us through this item. Andrew, if you would please. Thank you, Mr. City-Mandor, Gnemi Mayer, Vice-Merry, members of the City Commission. Let's give us one moment while the presentation is pulled up. But in brief tonight is a special city commission meeting due to the timing of the adoption of special assessments we always require to have a special meeting separate from our other budget deliberations so earlier this month you all adopted your tentative millage rate and your tentative budget. And that tentative mileage rate represented the upper limit of what? You'll be able to consider as you go into your final mileage hearing next week. Likewise, these special assessments, there were preliminary rates that were adopted in July. These were included in the trim notices sent to all city property owners. And these also represent the upper limit of the rates that can be considered. They also represent a major component of the budget process and along with the millage rate they are the only rates of significant value that are set during the budget adoption process. So tonight we have the fire assessment, the residential solid waste assessment, and the storm model assessment. The fire assessment is the only item tonight that is a revenue that's received in the general fund. The fire assessment is one of the restricted revenues, meaning that it can only be spent on specific purposes. In this case, fire suppression. So the numbers you see here, all of this revenue, it goes towards supporting that function within the fire department. It does not go towards general administration or emergency medical services or to subsidize other city operations. As part of the fiscal year, 24 budget, one of the business planning initiatives was to conduct a new fire assessment study. These studies are required to be conducted every four to five years to ensure costs are appropriately apportioned among the different property classes. This is one of the few methodologies that are approved in the state of Florida for use. We continued to use our consultant who did our prior studies. They presented their results in May of this year. The recommended residential rate, which was based on maintaining 91% recovery of fire suppression costs, was $402 per residential unit. Based on the feedback provided by the City Commission and with the data provided by the property appraiser on our property tax base in June, we came to commission in July with a reduced recommendation recovering about 85% of fire suppression costs for fiscal year 25, that rate 382 per residential unit. A few things occurred between studies. The most important was the substantial increase in costs. The prior study was implemented in fiscal year 21, used pre-COVID data for much of it. And there was also a significant escalation in cost. Fire suppression costs went from fiscal year 21, a projected amount about 7.75 million to about 10.24 million in fiscal year 24, and projected to be 12 million for the upcoming 2025 fiscal year. When we compare the proposed assessment rate to our peer cities, those medium sized cities in Broward, 40 to 80,000 population, it is right there in the middle of that 382. When averaging it out among those cities, it's about $48 lower. That average among our peer cities is $430. With the proposed rate schedule, it will generate $10.7 million and after your property tax generated by operating millage is your single largest revenue stream for the general fund. So the recommendation denied is consistent with what was presented in July, which is to adopt that proposed rate schedule, including the residential rate of 382 per unit. The second hearing tonight is on the residential solid waste assessment. This applies only to residential properties with five or fewer units. All other properties in the city are handled by our commercial rate schedule, which would be considered for adoption as part of next week's budget hearing. Just as some background over the past two fiscal years we have seen a significant increase in the our disposal fees. In fiscal year 23 we were hit by a 20 I'm sorry a 48% increase in our recycling rate and then for our current fiscal year 24 in December we received a 38% increase for a regular stream solid waste and a 31% for bulk, and we're anticipating 5% increases for the upcoming fiscal year for those streams. To all together, that's a cost increase of over $800,000 to the fiscal year 25 budget. based on the need to have a robust enterprise fund, a solid waste fund that can support itself without the use of property taxes to subsidize its operations. Rate increase of $30 was recommended as part of the recommended budget, taking the rate from $310 to $340 per residential unit. Even with this adjustment, I will note that the solid waste fund remains in a deficit as it will be using reserves to purchase to solid waste trucks and the upcoming fiscal year. This more conservative rate increases to reflect the county's efforts to establish the Solid Waste Authority with the hope that that will help mitigate some of these cost increases and allow us to not increase the rate so quickly. When compared to our peer cities, we're towards the bottom with this residential solid waste. The average among those eight cities is 370. We're at 340. And also just by comparison, historically that $340 that's being considered tonight. That's only $40 more than the rate in fiscal year 2012. Considered all of the inflationary elements of play, it does remain a very competitive rate, both historically for the city and in comparison to our peers. The final rate for consideration is the stormwater assessment. This too is an enterprise fund assessment. All of the money goes to the stormwater fund. And this is the almost exclusive revenue source for the stormwater funds operation, which provides for all of the drainage improvements in the city, including the enhanced capital improvement program, Conniplyton next year, which will increase the level of investment from $730,000 fiscal year, $24,000 to over $7 million next year. And that's part of the rollout of the store motor master plan adopted by the city commission. And it reflects a significant amount of grants the city has received for the upcoming fiscal year in addition to beginning the debt service through the state revolving loan program which offers low interest loans to cities for drainage projects. So compared to our peers again we are in the middle with that proposed rate of 125 and that is an 11 dollar increase over the current rate. The average among all of our pure cities is $191. So again, much lower than the average. And all together will generate $5.1 million. So the recommendation again is to stay consistent with the preliminary rate adopted in July of $125 per equivalent residential unit. All of these assessments are a significant element of the budget's funding. Along with the millage rate that will be finalized next week, these are really all of the items that go out to the property owners and affect the public and set the course and help us balance the budget for next fiscal year. So for just ease of comparison, we have put the millage rate on here although it's not for comparison is not for action tonight with our rates and you can see that compared to our peer cities our average millage rate remains significantly lower even though we have issued debt and have debt service mileage. It's the second lowest and again lower on the fire assessment and the average, lower on the residential solid waste assessment and the average and lower on the storm monitor assessment and the average. It's always difficult to see the pricing differentials and every city has its own circumstances. But we do believe that this budget, although it contemplates rate increases, continues to be a cost effective solution to our operational needs and continues to provide value to our residents, businesses and other property owners. After tonight's hearings, next week we have scheduled, and the agenda that was published yesterday, our city's final budget hearing, and that will have two public hearings, one for the adoption of the operating and debt service milled rates, and then one for the adoption of the budget itself, the capital improvement plan, compensation plan, fee schedule, and fiscal policies. With that, the presentation has concluded, and we can return to the first public hearing on the fire assessment. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr. Thompson. At this point, I'm going to open the public hearing. So any members of the public who'd like to speak on this proposed fire assessment adoption of the final annual rate resolution, you have up to four minutes to speak. If you could just say your name and address for the record and good evening. My name is John Kramer. It's 899 North East 42nd Street. My family has 23 properties in the city of Oakland Park. Reason I'm here is because of the fire increase of it. You decided to increase the fire by 250% for over last year. Now I spoke to somebody at the city and they told me the reason a lot of that was to give the firemen a pay raise. And that's what I was to understand. That's what the mud of this is about a pay raise for the firemen. Unfortunately, my business in Oakland Park is down 90%. My tenants can't pay the rent. We're having tremendous problems where everybody, we cannot start raising the rent on everybody. There's worse economy in the world, we just can't afford to raise the rent. My own business in Oakland Park is down 90%. With a 250% increase on fire and 138% increase on single family homes seems unreasonable. It just seems unreasonable at that kind of percentage increase for people that want to pay raise. And the gentleman who's spying at me, I can't remember his name. I think it was Tom or something. He was a really nice gentleman. He was excited to me. But unfortunately, I'm not getting a pay raise. And I don't think this is the time to get people to pay raise and spend more money when nobody has money right now to spend. I don't have around to my tenants and ask them to spend more money for more things that we know it's just not happening I people that can't pay me rent I people that pay me weekly instead of monthly I Have one person hasn't paid me rent in a year But they're going through school and I can't kick them out. I just can't do it And that's just the way it is. I just think it's a little too high 250% on commercial properties and 138% on single family homes. And that's what I have to say. Thank you, sir. We don't respond during public comment, but then of course we can address everyone who speaks when we have our commission comments. Okay, thank you. Thank you. But we hear you, We were listening to you The next person you'd like to share public comment Okay, we're gonna close the public hearing and on our tenant motion in a second and then a discussion We're either question. I'm going to read the resume first. The audio. Okay. I'll be clear to make a motion to adopt the storm fire assessment. What do you mean by preliminarily? Because I want to talk about it. Right. So we'll make a motion. Yeah. Zero second. Second. Okay. So now we will discuss and we can we can respond. Commissioner Rantz. Okay. Mr. Thompson, can you tell me for sure that this was not because of any raises the firefighters God. the firefighters got. In May the consultant presented some of the causes of the increase and it would be a statement to say that personnel costs were not part of that but the largest component of the increase particularly these past two years have been changes to the city's required contribution to the pension programs. Personnel costs over the study period did increase by 19% about $1.3 million. Operating costs increased more quickly at 59%. Although that's only an impact of about $260,000, personnel costs are by default about 60% of all costs in the general fund. The personnel costs that come into play with the fire assessment, the pension ones, I mean the most significant. These reflect changes to the Florida retirement system that were implemented by the state legislature the other year that changed the pension benefits for public safety. And that raised the contribution rates required of FRS participants, including the city. The other component was a determination by the Florida Department or Division of Retirement Services to accelerate the speed at which the city would need to pay the outstanding liability of the closed city pension plan. This was a plan that was closed as part of that transition to FRS. Normally for a pension plan that unfunded liability is amortized over many decades. the division of retirement decided that because the plan was closed and they wanted to ensure full funding by the time the last individual would be eligible retire that the city would need to amortize that over a span of about seven years. Because of that for fiscal year 24 the pension cost just to support the existing benefits in the closed plan increased by over $900,000 a similar increase also took effect for fiscal year 25. So though pension as a single line represents the largest increased in personnel costs. Wages are part of personnel costs. There was a contract approved in July. That contract comes after the fire assessment study was conducted. So the majority of the costs increase that we're talking about here, it does reflect personnel costs, but the majority of that is due to pension cost and increases that occurred during the study and for the upcoming fiscal year. And also contract that started in 10 one of 21 and and expired in 930 of 23. Correct it did contemplate that contract which which did include the city's step plan and the contract that was approved in July was retroactive to the beginning of this fiscal year. And for next, there were no significant changes to the provisions of the plan or the benefits. So essentially, we, I know why was it sitting in the commission in October of 21. So that contract is what was, anything that was contemplated on this, was three going on four years ago now. So I don't think you on the commission back then. Okay, so he's the only one that was in here, we're both, okay, we're almost here. And so it's not that, we passed new contract and they've got big increases no they didn't get big increases they got the same increase that the general employees had except one percent more. But it's significant because the fact is this study was done way before the contract was done. So this contract that was just signed has no implication on what the fire fee is. Am I correct? It was not part of the data set that was used when they developed the projections for the future five-year forecast. The five-year forecast took into account the historical trends, which would have concluded that contract that expired in 23 in the one immediately per sheeting it. Now if you decided to do two away with the fire fun fee, it would add about 10.7 million dollars to the budget, you would have a deficit of that amount correct. Okay, so at that it was probably close to about $5 million per mill. So you added another two mill onto the milled rate. You'd be about 7.67 mills for your operating millage with your debt service millage. That would bring you up to about 8.22 or so. In terms of how then we would compare, I think only Lauder Hill would be, would be Hollandale Beach would be higher or maybe would be equal. Essentially that would probably, instead of paying the extra $100, you're paying right now, you'd be paying an extra $300 on the military So it's either you want to you have two choices either Accept the bill the the fire fee increase But if you decide that you don't want the fire fund increase You have to jack that you you want to get rid of fire fit fee Then it's gonna cost the average homeowner at least $300 more a year, then if you do the fire fee. And I know with this gentleman's issues, he has commercial properties, correct? And they are set at a different rate. Correct. So the residential properties, I think there is a slight magnitude differential there. Residential rate is increasing by 38%. And it is a per unit cost. So that applies to all residential properties. And industrial properties, it's about 150%, and then commercial, it's 40%. And those have different rates based on the square footage. Over the study period, they review the demand for calls and what units went out to service those calls. Industrial, as a proportion of calls, did increase over the prior study, but also the cost of the equipment and the assets that are used for industrial fires much greater than a residential fire. And because of that, there's a weighting that reflects the cost of those units. And that goes back to the study. The cost of the capital equipment for fire suppression has gone up considerably during this inflationary period. Part of that is a result of a lot of federal stimulus. You have many departments all competing to purchase a limited number of fire trucks and vehicles creating higher prices and also significant lead times. So there has been a waiting by those property classes, but it does reflect the cost of providing those service, which is really the core of the fire assessment and why these studies are done every four to five years. Because courts require that this assessment reflect the value of the benefit of the service of properties receiving, which is why there are cost differentials and why not it's not a flat percentage increase for all property classes. So there's different classes, different square footages, et cetera, et cetera, because I know, as the same thing in pop, I have a commercial that mine's a lot higher just because of that. But you know, you've got a choice, you know, and it's a little late to make it right now because we're so far along in the budget process. But if you think the fire fee is just not the way to go, then, you know, next year, it's time to change something. You know, flat out simple. We caught the, you know, the last thing I'd ever want to do is have the city fall short on fire equipment and when they go to a fire the truck breaks down where the pump doesn't work or any of those reasons. The hoses are bad. I can't justify not giving them the full capability of fighting a fire. I'm sorry. I mean, it's, I'm a big public safety person and people expect when they have a fire that they're going to get that fire truck out their ASAP and it's going to work same thing with the police When they call the police the police are going to be their ASAP and To me, there's no dollar amount that you can put on that to save someone's life Or even someone's pet inside the house someone's's pet is just like their kid. And these guys, they rescue pets too. They have special breeders for them. So I'm not a big fire fee fan. Okay, I've never had that. And I'm not for increasing rates, but I'm not gonna put the safety of all of our public at risk. So that's my say on for now. You know, really really close the floor and let someone else talk. Thanks, Commissioner Rantz. Vice Mayor Lonergan. Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate it. You know, I've expressed in the past how I felt about the fire assessment fee. Real quick, I wanted to start out first by asking Mr. Thompson a question. Mr. Thompson, I'm sorry. I know I usually get questions to you ahead of time and allow you to research it. I'm sorry if you don't have the answer that's not a problem. But of the eight ranked cities, how many have their own fire department and how many contract out? I believe the majority of them have their own fire departments. North Lauderdale, Margate, Coconut Creek, Dew, Esdo's, Tamarack and Lauderdale Hill. Weston, I believe, contracts with BSO. Hollendale Beach, previously at its own fire department, but chief, they moved to BSO not too long ago. So the majority have their own fire department. Excellent. And I only ask that because as we're all aware, it's easier to control costs when it's our own versus contracting it out and bringing a middleman in. I know some of my frustrations I expressed in the past. You know, any job you go to that's paying full time benefits, full time pay with benefits. We need to take into account salary and wages. We take into account pension. We take into account education. We take into account the cost of health care. As I said in a prior meeting, I think that I think we were excessively generous. Some on the commission and in the past, I think Mr. Thompson, did you say in the past year a 19% increase? That 19% represents the cost and personnel cost increase from study to study. So it doesn't take into contemplation the fiscal year 25 budget itself because it uses historical data. So it looks at what we had budgeted for 24 and actuals of the prior years and then they project that out. And one thing I apologize for not clarifying earlier with Commissioner Arns that one of the other factors is that the prior fire assessment study, three of those positions in fire rescue were partially offset by a safer granted play at that time. That has since didn't discontinued. It's only for the expansion of new positions for three years. So there are three additional bodies that those costs have no offset from FEMA. Thank you, Mr. Thompson. So ultimately, I'm saying this commission and other commissions could have done a better job when considering total benefit compensation for employees and not just looking at hourly wage. In other words, when we took the hit, and especially this year, we're taking a huge hit on the state unfunded mandates regarding the pension. So, you know, we're putting another million dollars in the pension, you really have to consider that in the total compensation of the employee. And we didn't do that. I didn't hear that conversation. I apologize myself for not bringing it up. Historically before I got back on the commission again, 700 homes were removed from the fire, paying the fire assessment fee. That money's got to come from somewhere. You can say, well, that wasn't a lot of money. Well, you can say that 700 times $300 or whatever the cost is. So my philosophy is every little bit helps. So I don't want to go back down that. But as as Mr. Thompson said, there were certain state requirements that really drove up the prices inflation, inflation cost increases. And you know, you can make the determination what percentage of that was corporate greed just trying to get more money during a difficult time and it's very unfortunate. So I said before I didn't I'm supporting this because I think the city manager proposed a budget that was difficult to do based on the situation that was handed to him. I'm still disappointed that the commission did not equally grant salary increases this year and the unions were treated differently. I think that was unfair and I didn't like that that happened. But overall, I'm going to support the fire assessment fee because that's what was dealt to the city manager and Mr. Thompson when they had to put this together so that's kind of how I feel about it right now. Thank you. Thank you vice mayor. Commissioner Nibbo I think you want to do the next. Thank you. I too do not like raising fees on residents, but I also want to make sure residents are safe. And I was thankful to receive a call from a resident. And I pulled over, I was driving, I pulled over and I spoke to him and I tried to explain to him as best I could regarding the increased fees. But when I pointed to him, the alternative to not increasing some of the fees, maybe we have less services and he assured me he did not want that. I agree with Commissioner Ernst. I rather have our residents safe because when a fire starts or when a fire is at your business, which I've experienced that, all you want is them to come and put it out to save as much as you can. But it's difficult and I understand the increases, but most of these fees are fees that are totally beyond our control. Correct, Mr. Thompson, because the operating costs as well went up. Correct. The study reflects costs that we've already incurred and then taking a look about more information we have is the fiscal year 25 budget developed. So costs are always in moving target. Just this week we met with our insurance broker about health insurance cost renewals and projections about what those would be and how those compared to our assumptions just earlier this month we received our property and auto insurance liabilities those increased. Those aren't things that we're taking to consider this in consideration in this study or is part of the budget. We work with the best information we have at this time. So many of those costs are ones that we have no direct control over or they represent the fulfillment of existing legal obligations, be they the funding of the pension program, be the FRS increases, insurance renewals, service contracts, debt service on fire equipment, and other personnel costs. Thank you. And are there any other alternative sources to cover the growing costs? As part of the budget process, this again is a general fund revenue. You can only be used for fire suppression. The only real options are to reduce your applicable costs, which are the fire suppression services, or to utilize a higher milligrate to offset those reductions. So as part of the budget adoption process. There would have had to have been consideration of a substantially higher milled rate to either keep the fire assessment lower or to eliminate it outright. And as terms of the budget adoption process now, the tentative millage has been adopted. And for all legal intents and purposes, that does set the upper limit of what can be considered. Any effort to change the milled rate higher at this point would require a first class mailing notification to every property owner, the scheduling of additional meetings because the process would essentially be starting over. And it would also put the city and jeopardy of not doing it appropriately time-wise. The penalties for that include up to 12 months denial of some state revenue share, state sales tax that shared to us explicitly, which would represent millions of dollars in revenue loss to the city. That is why it's very rare. Not not aware of any circumstance where city has restarted the process right next to the finish line. Thank you. And of course increasing the military would definitely raise the tax property tax substantially for residents way more than the fire assessment what we're faced with now correct. As Commissioner Arns was outlining it would have a more significant impact and it would also have a less equitable impact because it would be based on the property value rather than the cost of service being provided. So particularly for those properties that don't benefit from home state exemptions such as your commercial properties they would be seeing a significant increase more so even than the residential which would still see an increase. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Commissioner Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. Okay, so I'm that one that like to say could have should have would have we are where we are today? Unfortunately, there is an increase in the fire assessment and when that homeowner, when the business owner slash homeowner came up and spoke, we don't want to see increases. We don't want to see our residents pay more. That's never the objective. We do everything possible. When I say we, meaning our CFO, Andrew Thompson, thank you, Mr. Kramer, thank you. When Mr. Kramer came up and spoke, it was touching and hard felt. Because we don't want to see increases. We don't sit here to make it hard for our residents. That's never the objective. As I was about to say, Mr. Andrew Thompson, I will see F.O. Very talented. Very conscientious. Understands how to balance a budget. We are fortunate to have him. And then we have the city manager here, David A. Bear and other staff members. I mean, we have one of the best teams in this town working on our budget to get us where we are today. And I had a meeting with you, Mr. Thompson. A couple of days ago, I wanted to have a one on one really wanted to understand certain things because I too received a phone call and when we were out and about on Saturday, a cup of residents We can't afford these increases. Please don't approve any increases. So I was busy moving around going from one place to the other, you know, in celebration of National Good Neighbor Day. So I, it was on the weekend and I couldn't reach out to you, Mr. Thompson, and say, have someone speak to this resident to explain to them there what's happening on the Atrem notice as I did with another person who called me. It's a weekday you were able to speak to that person. So I say all of this to say we don't as elected officials sit in here we make sure that our votes are sensitive, consider it, good and just we do our best so we have been able to keep the military low yes we have had increases but when you look at the increases for Oakland Park for the three assessments and you compare it to other cities. Not saying that we are trying to compare ourselves or compete with other cities, but the vice mayor asked the question that was in my mind and you answered it, because I wanted to make sure that we would compare in apples to apples. Right? And I think we are. So considering the type of service and the quality of service that we provide in this city, it's unmatched. Our firefighters, our police officers, we have our public works service. I mean, the goods and services in this city are excellent, outstanding. And I never would wanna think that we would ever have to compromise our services. Now, if we had to make a decision where we wanted to reduce the cost, because we know that's not the objective, lower the cost so that our residents are not impacted by these increases. If there was a way that we can do that, take my word for it. I'm sitting up here and I'm saying, if it was possible, we would do it. Now, we can't go back and redo what's already been done. And we all learn from the past. So we are where we are today. And there was something you've mentioned. And I'm going to stop shortly. There was something you mentioned, Mr. Thompson, during our meeting. And I have, actually I have two questions. You mentioned in 2013, there was an impasse. In 2013 there was an imposition of a labor contract on the fire engines correct. Okay, yeah, and we talked about that and there were substantial decreases at that time. As part of the imposition of the contract, there are reductions made to the benefits of the union members chiefly a decrease in future pension benefits. Yes, sir. And I say that to, I wanted to prefix that because my next question to you is when the city find out that you had to pay that old pension fund, you had to escalate it because typically it's what, it's how is it paid? Typically when there is an unfunded liability, it's based on the valuation that's done every year and unfunded liability. It's based on an evaluation that's done every year and depending on the act's royal methods being used, it's usually 20 to 30 years that that's paid off. So you'd be paying 120th of, if the market was poor, did very poorly be paying off 120th of that loss a year over time or 130th depending on the individual actuaries determination. Yes, sir. Thank you. So this is a factor that's out of our control, out of your control, out of the commission control, out of the city's control completely because it's a mandate by the state. Correct commissioner. We received notification of that from the state that they were going to insist that that the treatment be done to the Axueroe evaluation prepared by our board during the coronavirus pandemic. We did make efforts and reached out to the state actuary who makes these determinations hoping to change his mind. Those efforts were not successful and as a professional administrative determination, there was not an opportunity to appeal. So it is something that we're required to fund on the basis that they determine in their role as the state actuary. Yes, sir. And that's impacted this increase. Correct. So any loss that occurs has to be amortized over a short period. So that was one of the primary drivers of the, almost $2 million in cost increases over a two-year period was that there were losses in the market. And there was a value down 930 of every year. And unfortunately, if that's been a poor year, even if the market rebounds the next week, that's the basis of the valuation. So those losses then are being amortized over a shorter period that's scaling downward. So seven years now it has to be paid off in six years and five. So any losses in the fund further escalates those costs because they have a smaller window to pay them off. Right. I understand. Well, thank you for explaining that again to us. So I am, I don't like to see increases, as I said before. It's time's tough for everyone. But sometimes those necessary evils must happen, unfortunately, in order for our city to stay financially sustainable and also keep us at the the How should I say it it keeps We are we can we are how should I I'm trying to think of the word we are in a position where if we need it to go out to borrow our power borrowing power I mean we are a strong city because bond rated. Thank you. Yes. Our general obligation bonds there were double a rated, which is very high quality. And both sales were oversubscribed, meaning that we had more people wanting to buy them than we had bonds available for both sales. That's right. And we sold the last one, I think last year. We had 2022. 2022, yes. So, you know, I think we are then fiscally responsible. And I just want to thank you for presenting this to us to the commission tonight. So we'll move right along. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Gordon, to the team here. Mr. Kramer, thank you for your comment and for everybody in the audience. So I looked long and hard, I agree with my colleagues. We nobody likes to do, see increases. We actually have two other options, right? We can increase fees, we can increase the milled rate, we can cut services, we can terminate employees, we can cut programs of the city, we can also, and what I had an extensive conversation with Mr. Thompson on is that reserves. I, Mr. Thompson, every year I think talk about the reserves. I think it's been our four. I think I've talked to you for seven years in a row, actually, before I got on the commission. And I asked Mr. Thompson if I'm remembering because there's a certain amount of reserves that he needs to keep. For example, cash on hand liquidity. So if we get a grant or if we say we'll get a grant or we'll get FEMA money or COVID relief money, that's fine. We're going to get that but it could take six months or a year to get that. We need to do not just the incidentals, but we need to do the pain. So we need to have a certain amount of liquidity. And Mr. Thompson, my correct, with the proposed budget, and I know it's on one of the pages of the gigantic binder, we typically are recommend in the range of, is a 20 to 22? Your fiscal policy, which is a doubt that as part of the budget has consistently been 20 to 25% of your general fund expenditures. So I respectfully press Mr. Thompson this year, in a very respectful way, of course, about can we go lower? What does 18% look like? What does 16% look like? What does 1% if we have 1% less liquidity and emergency and everything else? Because God forbid we have any sort of disaster that we can't predict plus the need for liquidity, what would happen that then could translate to X amount of money to cover this fire assessment? We had a lengthy hour conversation probably on it and Mr. Thompson's response to me was it would just be fiscally not sound to do that am I summarizing that your Fair character I'm not sharing all the conversation though. He fiscally unsound, I have to rely on Mr. Thompson. He is under his management and thank you Mr. A. Bear for hiring a lockshift. I think he proceeded to do a fire call, but for elevating him to CFO because under Mr. Thompson's leadership, our financial as Commissioner Gordon referenced as our financial state of the city has been highly reward highly revered with multiple awards for many years in a row. So I have to trust him on that and I do. So to me it becomes a fiscal question. Mr. Thompson and Commissioner Arnachie mentioned this. If we were to we're talking about and say please remind us again the increase the proposed increases what exact amount again or the individual fee. It's going from 276 to 382 if we're using just the residential as the reference. Thank you. In the original budget presentation back in June, I think if I'm correct on the month, it was actually even higher. It was four something in May. It was for something. No, I wrote to 402 So I would like Everyone to know the public. There's something called a recovery rate And I don't know what my four colleagues did, but I know I did and I said to mr. Ray Bear From 280 from 276 to 402 like that that's jumping to numbers in the hundreds column, and 2 to 3 to 4. And so through what's called a recovery rate and an assessment of that, there is an ability to reduce it by $20, which is what we approved on the first hearing a bit ago. My question to you, Mr. Thompson, is this recovery rate of 382, which is about how much you can recapture, right? He, just to confirm to the public, that's what you recommended, a $20 reduction in the original proposed. So your commission, us, is, I assume that my four colleagues had similar conversations. I don't know for a fact to reduce this. I know I said, can this be reduced? And it was brought back for $382. Now $20, some people think $20 is like a drop in the bucket. For others, $20 is important, $20. Your new proposal, $382, which you've already voted on once, that to you again is the basement. That is the lowest number that you would feasibly and fiscally sound, feasibly recommend from a fiscally sound perspective. Is that right for accounting for the least recovery rate that is still fiscally sound? One of the things we heard from you as a commission was that what the consultant provided, which was trying to maintain consistency of recovering 91% of costs, which is where that 402 rate per residential unit came in, was that that was too much of an increase at one go. Even though costs had escalated, the ability of the community to withstand that impact was not something for consideration. And we knew that that was something that we would need to address as part of the budget. That's also what we made sure to bring the consultants' presentation in May to give us time to factor that in as we started to get the property appraisers number on the tax base in May to give us time to factor that in as we started to get the property appraisers number on the tax base in June. The other thing we heard was that we wanted that there was a desire to have a rate that could be held steady for more than one year that would be able to have viability for a two-year period. I think what's being proposed does provide for that. I can't always predict what Tallahassee is going to do. None of us can. You might soon in your new role. Maybe I can, maybe. But it was a balancing act. There are a lot of variables at play and reserve certainly are one of them. And we felt that this provided a fiscally prudent recovery ratio supported the costs that have already been baked into the system while still allowing us to maintain a competitive assessment rate to our computers and a competitive knowledge rate. And the intent is to maintain this rate structure and to fiscal year 26. Thank you. And we're certainly legally nor in other way. I think can hold that as a count of like, am I right, Mr. Troy? We can't be held. If we're saying it's our intent to hold this, so a year from now when I'm not here, but whoever is on the commission then, for it to be 382, when we're here next year, that Mr. Thompson, Mr. A. Bear will not propose any change to the milledrate. That is the spirit that I'm hearing, that is the intent. But we can't be held legally liable for that sentence if it's just an intent to respirate. Right okay thank you so I appreciate that so the intent for the public is a year from now perhaps around this date in September we will not be talking about this an increase in the fire assessment. It's our intent it's not a legal promise it's an intent and I just want to draw that I just want to you know for the sticker shock is it a sticker shock? We reduce the sticker shock sticker shock a tiny bit, but it's still sticker shock and we hear that the other two fees are going up, you know than before. And as Mr. Commissioner, are clarified with Mr. Thompson, and as did you, Commissioner Newbold, the increase in village would be around 300 or so if we didn't do this fire. I was at a meeting yesterday, I talked to a commissioner who obviously was not on this commission, and their village rate proposed, I was second hearing soon hearing soon is going up. And since for years, I don't have my computer today so I don't have everything right here. But was it the past 11 out of 12? Is that what it is for the millage? Since fiscal year 14, the millage has only been increased one time the operating. Right. So so that's huge. That's really huge. So for all that, those reasons, this is the best option of a bad of a choice we don't like to make. We brought it down 20 bucks. I trust Mr. Raybear, Mr. Thompson, we can do their due diligence. That next year there is no increase. Yeah, don't call it us legally. For that, it will be the intent and spirit that it will not be brought up, increase next year. And as we have to think of the entire budget as we look at these fees, we can celebrate, I think though it's in the next week's agenda from the second hearing that our millage rate, if we all agree to it, will be brought down more significantly than it was last year. So with that, I'm supportive of this item. Anyone else want to say any other comments? All right. Thank you all. This is a very robust conversation. We will have roll calls for these, Ms. Greco. Commissioner Gordon. Yes. Commissioner Newbold. Yes. Commissioner Arne. Yes. Vice Mayor Lonergan. Yes. Mayor Rosenwald. Yes. Oops. I don't know why you're gabbled. Sorry about that. Okay. Quasa. Excuse me. Item two resident. We're still in our public hearings residential solid waste assessment adoption of missed of annual rate resolution Advertising for this public hearing appeared in the Sun Sentinel August 18th 2024 Mr. City Attorney Resolution the city of Oakland Park Florida relating to collection and disposal of solid waste and recyclable materials The entire incorporated boundaries Closing solid waste service assessments against certain assess property Located within Oakland Park Florida approving the updated assessment role confirming the preliminary rate resolution Variety for conflict severability and effective date Thank you, and mr. Abert you said for this the presentation was from the prior. Yes, it is but Andrew and Robin if you could just put up the screen that addresses the solid waste fee so that people can see the highlights and also the ranking. Thank you. Thank you Mayor. Sure, thank you. So we're going to be opening up public hearing again. And the individual and the audience is welcome to come up. Just please again state your name and address and you have up to four minutes to speak. and the individual and the audience is welcome to come up. Just please again state your name and address, and you have up to four minutes to speak. Seeing that one, I'm gonna close the public hearing, and I'm going to entertain a motion to adopt the annual rate resolution a second, and then we'll have discussion. Well, motion to adopt. Second. Okay, so Commissioner Gordon will begin with you today. Is that okay? No, thank you. So this rate went from 310. What is the increase? 310. 310. 310. 310. 310. 310. 310. 310. 310. 310. 310. 310. 310. 310. 310. So, it's $30 increase. And again, during my conversation with Mr. Thompson, we talked about some of the drivers that contributed to this increase. I understand for public consumption maybe you want to just elaborate on that a little bit, but I am in total agreement with this item. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Just to recap some of the items we discussed earlier and the largest increase is attributable to the disposal fees. Recycling went up over 48 percent one year and then last December, for our current fiscal year, we had a 38 percent increase in our regular solid waste tipping fees and then a 31 percent increase in our bulk trash. Those were not contemplated at such a magnitude as part of the fiscal year 24 budget. And so as we look to develop 25, we needed to do our best to accommodate those costs in addition to the scheduled increases of 5%. That does not bring this enterprise fund, which is supported solely by its own fees, commercial and residential, does not bring it into a full balance of recurring costs with recurring expenditures. It is using reserves, but based on your fiscal policies, the use of reserve is for one time expenditures, in this case, to solid waste side-loader vehicles. One of the intents of being more concerned with the rate increase was to make sure that there was not, as we said, sticker shock on every assessment. And also because we are hopeful that the Broward County's effort working with the city's collaborative to establish that solid waste authority. I believe it's scheduled for starting fiscal year 26. So that will bear fruit and will be successful in helping reduce some of these cost increases by applying the a shared and joint perspective towards all of waste issues, whereas right now it is much more each city is on its own. Sure, thank you. Looking forward to the, when we can do all the cities can come together and get that economies of scale, to lead looking forward to it. Thank you. That's it for me. Thank you. Commissioner Nubel. Thank you. I know this is an increase. And again, I didn't think you're in the beginning for the presentation. Thank you for that. You're welcome. And answering my questions. This increase also includes new any new fleet Not an expansion of the fleet per se but it does replace vehicles Sawdway's vehicles that have reached the end of their useful life span is frontline Units so the two major investments are those saw waste side loaders. Each one is, I believe, $375,000. The solve waste fund, it doesn't have pipes underground, it has trucks. That's their number one capital cost. So it's vital that we maintain that replacement schedule as best we can. Thank you because I know there are residents that do not like to see oil from the trucks as they come and pick up and schedule as best we can. Thank you, because I know there are residents that do not like to see oil from the trucks as they come and pick up their trash. So I know that's part of the increases we have to incur because they wanna keep the streets clean and of course operating trucks on the road. So thank you. and a course operating trucks on the road. So thank you. Mr. Lawrence. On the one thing I like to say is, I want to congratulate city for being fiscally conservative on buying these trucks and not leasing them or taking loans out for them. Save a lot of money. So that is a good reason, an example, how the city does go above and beyond to try and save money and not have to increase anything more. And I appreciate that. I really appreciate it starts with the city manager. So it starts there and goes down and goes to the finance and it goes to the trucks So instead of you know paying extra money We're saving money, so I appreciate that Thank you vice mayor. Hey, thank you mayor appreciate it Mr. Thompson one question I have same question is when we were talking about the fire assessment fee of the eight cities listed Do you by chance know which ones are contracted out which ones are actually percent wise or. Yeah. I'm, Albert, you can correct me. I don't believe any of these operate their own solid waste. These are all ones that are different high world and we are the only city operating our own solid ways. In this. You. We have a different 40% population. Okay. Yeah, it would be interesting to see the whole list at some time. Thank you, Mr. Thompson. I appreciate that. Mr. Ray Berry, I know during some discussions we had. You had mentioned that there's challenges as far as staffing with this department. Is that true? Anything you'd like to share with us? First, I'd like to talk about the great advantage that we have because we run our own sanitation service. And this is something that we don't fully appreciate in less than until we realize the absolute commitment that they bring to their jobs, especially in times of emergency. We've all been through the unfortunate reality of the weather systems that plague this part of our country. And we can hit the ground running as soon as that weather system passes us by and on a regular basis because of the outstanding contribution that we receive from our teammates at sanitation. We are the first or one of the first cities to keep our streets clean and passable in the aftermath of these hurricane situations. It is very challenging today because the marketplace is extremely competitive. And we have been very fortunate to have a solid management team over at our sanitation department led by Antoine Armolin under the direction of the assistant public works director Julie Leonard and of course our leader in public works, Albert Carvin. And because of this spirit, the Esprit de Corre, the camaraderie that takes place within a small town environment like we are, we're able to achieve retention, even though some of our private competitors offer higher salary and sometimes benefit opportunities. It has been a challenge, especially in the aftermath of COVID, when, as we all know, unemployment rates were reduced significantly and a lot of entities were begging to find new candidates for job openings. But Albert's done an outstanding job along with his management team. I'm proud of what they've been able to do. I know this is an increase, but still in comparison with other cities. Our rates are very desirable. And more important than that, the quality of the service that we receive here is outstanding and I would compare that with any other entity that operates here in the county and probably beyond. Again, nobody likes to see increasing fees, but we don't control what it costs to bring our loads to the dump. And those dumping fees have escalated exponentially. We don't control the marketplace for recycles. And those have unfortunately seen price increases for the disposal of recyclables that we could not have envisioned just a couple of years ago. I agree with Commissioner Gordon and thank you Commissioner Arns for your work on the solid waste effort countywide. We are hopeful and prayerful that by working cooperatively with the other cities in Broward. We will realize some significant advantages to future costs for dumping and other services that our sanitation team relies on. So I hope that gives you some insight, vice mayor. And if you have any additional questions, we're happy to address them. Albert is here with us this evening. Thank you, Mr. Rebier. That's exactly what I was hoping, just a great explanation that you gave. And I want to say that I do think Mr. Carbon and his entire team do an outstanding job. And this I think pretty much everything I see here was like inflation related and cost of equipment. And I plan on fully supporting this one. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Vice Mayor, anyone else? Yeah, these are a lot out of our control. I want to say actually there's a, and thank you, Commissioner Arns, for your representing us, the Solid Waste Authority of Broward counties having a community engagement meeting. I sent this to staff and I think our Public Information Officer is sending this out. It's a discussion about the solid waste authority of Broward County Masters plan. This is a public hearing. Just like this is a public hearing Next week September 18th from 6 to 8 p.m. It's in Lauderd Hill, Lauderd Hill Veterans Park meeting room 3 But anyway, there's information that will be going out, not just from Oakland Park but around. I just had a question, Mr. Carpink, as part of this, of course, is the cleaning. When we dump everything in the recycles, it has to be the appropriate things. And I know we've had a push, thank you sir, an increase for residents, whether they're residential or commercial to make sure you're putting the correct things in the recycling bin. Sir, how are we, how are we doing it? Because there's always costs of course associated with making sure that it's clean. What's your assessment just generally of how we've been doing over the past six months years? Have we been getting better, flat, worse? I have seen by the way on a couple of my neighbors. Notice, as I first got it, if they're green or orange, like we're not picking up your recycling. So if you could just, I did not prepare to give a specific, real specific, but just a general assessment of how we're doing and how that can relate to costs. Thank you, Mayor Albert Carman, Public Works Director. In late 2020, we hired a recycling inspector. At the time, we had a very high recycling contamination rate that continues to go down. Whether it's significantly or not, it's gone down, justifying that person's position, overly justifying that person's position. And the challenges for the recycling is the cost of recycling. The value we give for our recyclables continues to decrease. It did go up this time. We got a 2.3 percent increase in our recycling value. So our recycling cost did go down slightly for the six month review period. So, you know, we do see a less contamination to justify the position, but not significantly. Thank you, because when I see 48% I said this last week, I am for recycling, I think we are for sofically, but we can't control things. Honestly, the solid waste authority that all but two cities in Broward County are part of, I encourage the two cities who aren't part of it to join, is not going to actually be operational. I mean, it's gonna take a few years. It's just a public hearing, not something that's just, it's probably one of the number of public hearings next week to collect data. This is gonna take years. And again, I won't be here on the commission next year, but I sure hope it doesn't say 25 or 40% because we have to make, I mean, we almost have to make a decision and I hate to say that. I never ever thought I would say this. I want to build myself as a green person. But if less, if I know when I drink a beer, a corona, and it's made of glass, I don't put it in my recycling bin, because I learned from Albert carbon It's not collected right Am I am I correct on this no market for the glass? So I throw it in the trash can I threw my glass I'm sorry, I asked you question then it go it Glass is recyclable But it's my our recycling stream has about 20 components. Only about four of those do we get a positive revenue. The rest of them are negative. And glass is one of the highest negative we pay for that recycling process to occur. They are recycled. Plastics recycled, papers recycled, but we don't get any value for it All right. Well, this is a different question. Do you recommend? I'll change if I need to I used to recycle last do you recommend that people still recycle glass? Or do you not want to answer that? That's okay My my answer is I want to keep a recycling program going Yeah, other cities have stopped regret. We've spent a lot over the past 30, 40 years, spent a lot of time and effort to teach people to separate the recyclable product. If the product is recyclable, put it in a recyclable product. All right, then I will start re-putting it in. But I just, like I said, with the nut value of all but four. I didn't remember that specific. It just makes me, I philosophically don't want to abandon a recycling. That's not in me to do. Again, I won't be here next year on this commission. But when we have this discussion, but I just, no, but I'm saying like it, but if this was going up 48% more next year, I might actually say as a green person should we stop a recycling program? Because this is a significant, I mean maybe we like do paper somewhere else and Plastic some are not saying that we couldn't somehow find a place to but we'd have to I that might be a different discussion I would have the market just yeah, it's the market, you know that dictates what you know how the recycling goes I mean 10 and aluminum are they outperform everything they're the best okay cardboard paper plastic and glass anyway I've said what I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But even we're all held accountable to law. The plastic, so maybe this could be announced. Plastic bags, I know you mentioned plastic. Could you clarify which plastic because I was putting the public's plastic bags? Okay. The can we put out there has a sticker on it says do not put your recyclables in plastic bags. So regardless of what's in that plastic bag, we take it to the recycling center. They do not open that bag up. That bag is immediately picked up and tossed in the contaminated area. Whether it has aluminum, metal, anything in it, they don't shred those open, open those up. So even if you put plastic bags paper, anything in bags is completely just taken out of the stream immediately. So do not put anything in bags that you put in. You can put the bags. The public spikes are recyclable. It's highly recommended that you put take them to public. They are what is near knows a single stream recycle. It's only if that can if that can if you take all your plastic bags to plastic and they have been to throw them in there they can make those into those same plastic bags. Commissioner Nobo and so you've learned but I've learned something to when I drink beer out of a bottle which I don't drink beer out of cans I've now I'm going to re put them back in my recycling you've learned I had to learn this two two years ago I did not I used to I don't know it was contaminated I do take my public's bags to publics or you know safe way or whatever. So good, good education for everybody. Commissioner Gordon. Thank you Mayor. Just a quick question Mr. Carbin, since you're up here. Is there a list of items that's recyclable? Do you have a new list? Because I know there was a list on the website has that list changed? That list is not changed and it's still on and if you have a recycling ban or a card to firm your house it's on the top of the card also. But that fades that's gone. Okay. Yeah there it's on the website. Okay. And we can promote that. We can promote that. We can I think Shannon puts that out every quarter about what the recycling will be acceptable and what's not acceptable. Is there a list that I can get and make sure I give it to every homeowner? Yep. And my association, I will appreciate it. I can make that available to you. Okay. Maura, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Yeah, Mr. Carbin, would it also be possible as the commissioner was saying I've noticed they're faded off the bins. Can you get stickers that we can put replace them? We will make that happen. Thank you. You are wonderful. Thank you for bringing that up, commissioner. So we now have to do stickers. Thank you, Commissioner Gordon. That's good. They do fade. And by the way, if you're container, sorry, we're going to close this item off. But Mr. Carp, and if someone's trash or recycle bin over time through whatever reason, yeah, they get dirty. But we have to kind of clean them ourselves, I guess. But if they get cracked or anything like that, could you talk about how replacement of a bin works? Yes, we have replacement carts available most times. They can't say that we do run out back order But yeah, you can call our our solid waste or the public works number and we will get your new card delivered Well, we will ask that we if you do call us and we say we want to pick your card up Please keep your card on the curb line because we're not we're not going to hear your yard into your private property. If you're when your cards out there will exchange the card and that you can bring us you and we'll take the whole card with us. Thank you vice mayor. Yeah I was going to mention too I once with the broard league of cities we took a tour of the recycling facility. I Albert were you there? I can't remember. No, I've been by wasn't it that one? It's amazing. It's huge and the paper bags are what gears up the things that everything runs on. Those paper bags get in there and jam up all these equipment. So that's where the paper bags, yeah, I'm sorry, plastic bags. I really have problems. So make sure you're not putting your plastic bags. That's a huge, I have been doing it until two years ago until I learned this commission being on the commission not to do it. I had, and so all our good intent, which we do have, and it ended up being contaminated. I think, because we want to, you know, put things in a little bag to help out or keep it organized and now you can just take that take this or take this and you just put it just throw it right in your whatever but then just dump it in your just dump it without a bag that that's actually a huge thing and that also that would save some costs. Commissioner Gordon yes. Here to Mr. Carman is there a fee for replacement tote? No commissioners is not. Okay. Thank you. I would get the notice out to my neighbors. At this point, we're going to do a roll call. Commissioner Gordon. Yes. Commissioner Newbold. Yes. Commissioner Arn. Yes. Vice Mayor Lonergan. Yes. Mayor Rose Maldon. Yes. Item three adoption of the annual storm moderate assessment rate resolution advertising for this public hearing appeared in the Sun Sentinel August 18th, 2024 Mr. City Attorney. Resolution of the commission of the City of Oakland Park Florida, estimating the cost of storm water management services provided by stormwater utility, determined that the real, certain real property will be, especially benefited by the services provided by stormwater utility, establishing the method of assessing the cost of utility against the real property that will be specifically benefited thereby, approving the rate of assessment, approving the stormwater management assessment role, providing for conflict, severability and an effective date. Mr. Rear, again, the presentation for this, I think, was how old is our ready, sir. But we will put up the screen. Thank you, Andrew. OK. All right, so we're going to open the public hearing. Anyone here? Whoops. Anyone who'd like to speak, you have up to four minutes to come and talk. Please state your name and address. Seeing no one, we're going to close the public hearing. I'll entertain a motion in a second and then a discussion. Second. Discussion. Vice mayor. Albert, could you, for public education could you explain what the funds are used for just in general the funds are excuse me Albert Kern Public Works Director the funds are used for the maintenance of the the stormwater system which includes several thousand feet of pipe, several, the ten thousand different inlets, catch basins in you will, and a series of ex filtration trends in eight pump stations. We regularly go out and clean those storm drains and inlets, part of our national permit requires to do that on an annual basis. We try to get to a twice a year, once after the season and once we've just gone through it over this past spring and summer. So all the storm drains are clean. And then after the storms, we try to hit what we know is the hot spots. So that's the operations and of course for the staffing, the vehicles and the operation of the and then the capital improvements that Andrew discussed earlier. Perfect. Thank you. I appreciate that. In fact, the stormwater drain right by my house was being cleaned today. Commissioner Hubeald. Mr. Nubold. For the stormwater portion. Can you for public consumption? I know they're still flooding throughout. Does this have will this impact or reflect any Upgrades to the streets that are flooding that are currently flooding? By the actions and ideas tonight you're setting the assessment. So part of that assessment pays for the capital and the project. We have several in the mix now that are very much assisted by grant dollars. Northeast 6th Avenue pump station is in the middle of the design. So I will take care of the Northeast 6th Avenue area between Commercial Boulevard and the Middle River. There is the Emerald Lake of the Western Lake Connection Project that is partially grant funded also up to 50% of that. That project is also in design right now. So those are two projects plus the Northeast 6th Avenue or the North Andrews Garden pump station which is 100% paid for by the Sirtax project which is out to bid right now. So all those three projects in connection with the other 15 capital projects will help alleviate the flooding within Oakland Park. Thank you. Thanks, Commissioner Arst. No, I just They say this is only the third time the rate has been increased in 20 years and Glad to see the cities not sitting on the keyster and not doing anything about the flooding and unlike some other cities that have massive, massive flooding. Oh, and by the way, it's not Lake Emerald. It's Lake Jubilee. Most people call Lake Emerald but it's Lake Jubilee. Yes, Lake Emerald is Lake Jubilee. You should learn something new tonight. I learned what to do with my beer bottle and that's Lake Jubilee. I did not know that. That's on the map. Mr. Tomerr bottle and that's like Jubilee. I did not know that that's on the on the map. Mr. Marissa's like Jubilee take your beer bottle. Go take your beer bottle. That's a lake Jubilee. I'll take an Uber. Okay, after November Commissioner Gordon will give me a ride. I'm so happy that city's doing this. Okay, this just to me it's just so proactive. I was involved in a lot of the flooding over here before and we put a 72 inch main up here, we resolved a good deal of it, not probably 90% of the flooding and this is gonna really take care of six out of you, which since I've got first and I'm in the commission, I'm gonna try to get six out of you taking care of and all of a sudden Albert Magic You know, thank you because you know you had a lot to do with so appreciate you Thank you commissioner arts commissioner Gordon. Thank you because mr. Carbon pays attention Yeah, I To your point, Commissioner Orange. He is. He's a very big part of what's taking place right here. And his staff, when we had the big rain, I think it was Eda, one of the big rains, and I went to, went out with the chief. Chief took me out in the city, looking at some of the flooding, and in comparison to other adjacent cities, it was bad in some areas, but not as bad as it was in some of the adjacent cities. So again, great job with the imperfective because I think we're going to be within for a lot of rain. And I will be attending the WAB meeting tomorrow to hear more about it. So thank you. This is good news. Can't deal with the flights. Appreciate it. Commissioner, can you just say what WAP is so the public news? Absolutely water advisory board. Yes, I'm a member of that board. Thank you for your service there. I certainly approve this just to related to this. The pump stations and I'm here we're going to be having eight. If I'm recalling correctly, I know it was an item and I signed an emergency. Did we have a, we had an emergency repair earlier this year? Can you just talk super briefly, Mr. Carbin, on how the, how the, how the pump, how the pump, listen to me, how the pump stations are monitored for functioning. And that sort of thing. That emergency repair mayor was having one of our wastewater pump stations, by the way, not one of the store. Oh, wastewater, okay. But they all are pump stations operated by a supervisory controlled access system, data access system, called SCADA, that our staff is able to monitor and do some basic operations remotely, change over turn-off pumps, turn-off pumps, open and close gates as some of our major lift stations. But they do require us to go on to that staff. Should they all alarm me there. So part of the, and we, those are seven existing pump stations that does not include the two that I discussed that we haven't designed. So we're going to be adding several stormwater pump stations to our inventory to help get the water out of our city and into the receiving waters. So if everybody knows there's a good reminder to me we have a centralized command, technology command looking at all of our waste water and storm water. Present and obviously future will be integrated to obviously look for safety and full functioning. That was a software you passed the last meeting. I remember the Scotto, yeah. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. on an honor and thank Miss Greco for ably being in the clerk's position tonight and your terrific thank you. This point we're at item number four public comments any person who would like to speak on any matter of city business you have up to four minutes to speak just to say your name and address. I don't see any public comments so we're going to close public comments move to item five reports from the Commission Commissioner Gordon. Thank you Mayor. I just want to say thank you to Albert you're going to do this as well. Albert Pover for being here tonight and leading us in the pledge. So, it's been not a lot that happened since the last meeting, but I did attend the National Good Neighbor Day, which was excellent. I want to thank Mr. A. Bair of course and City staff for organizing such a great event. It was well attended. Great spirit. People were just enjoying, you know, giving back to the neighbors. And the commission was there and we had a wonderful time, but I'll let them speak for themselves. So, one is think staff tonight, Mr. Thompson, Mr. Carbin, and again, our deputy city clerk, and everyone, from being here tonight and making this meeting a success, a success. And I want to thank the Coana's Club for coming out to the national Good Neighbour Day and always been involved. They came out and they were there the entire day and really helped us out on Saturday. This morning I attended along with Commissioner Newbold. It was a breakfast because today is National Police Woman Day. And it was a wonderful event and we attended and just really thanked all of the women in our law enforcement. And I just want to say everyone be safe. There's a lot of speed in our community. It's something that we will certainly be addressing in the future. We want to find ways to mitigate it, make our neighborhoods more safe. So my final comment is continue to keep Oakland Park clean, green, and environmentally sustainable. Very important. I was parked, actually not parked, but I was waiting for the light recently, and there was a person in a vehicle right next to me and They it appears that they finish their lunch and through the whole bag out of the window and That really gets To my heart and I rolled my window down and I asked them please don't do that again and I've seen it so much and it's throughout it's not just in Oakland Park in fact this didn't happen in Oakland Park but I'm just saying please put your garbage where it belonged. If you hold it in your vehicle and throw it out when you get to a garbage can, because that garbage ends up in our waterways on our beaches and our storm drains. And that's what we just finished discussing stormwater and the price would it cost to keep out with drains clean. Please protect the environment. Stop littering. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Gordon and vice mayor. Thank you, Mayor. Appreciate that. Just was going to mention I yesterday I met with Captain Quigley and took a tour of the BSO Research Development and Training Center. I have to say it's well-designed and constructed. They did a great job. Overall I really think it was a much needed investment and it was long overdue. And I would encourage you or anyone who wants to see the facility and how it's gonna benefit Broward County. Definitely, I was really glad that I went on that event and thanks to Captain Quigley for taking me on that. This morning, there was a MPO meeting at the Museum of Discovery and Science. It was our regular board of directors meeting immediately following that. They hosted a, it's referred to as Route to 2050 Summit, a journey of innovation, community and mobility. Talked about the future of Broward County and where we're headed and how the technology is changing. I just want to say thank you to Anna Elvarez and Sierra Morrero and our MPO citizen representative Wallace Peterson who was there and they were doing a great job advocating for the City of Oakland Park. So a lot of great things are coming along with the MPO and Oakland Park is going to be benefiting the long run. So as is all a Howard County, that is all. Thank you, Mayor. Newbold. Diddo with the dolphins. Diehard Dwarfen fan. I just want to thank those residents that called regarding the budget, knowing that this is budget time. And I have the conversation with them as much as I can. And I offered them to call staff to get additional information just so they can understand how the city of Oakland park, the staff, as well as the commission. We're fiscal when it comes to the budget, how we, we're responsible and we look at everything. We don't like raising fees on anyone. So I just want to say that and just thank you for calling us. And also, I attended a good neighborhood day. That was a good day with the residents, the volunteers that we get to come out and the volunteers that we've come out. It also helps come back different fees within the city because of all the help they do, how we keep the streets clean and the pioneer house. It has come a long way. So I'm thankful for Mr Smith, how he took on that project and he just ran away with it. And I'm so glad for all the volunteers that come out willingly and help him. So I just want to thank him for that as well as the commission because we're often there. And the volunteers out in the and throughout the city of Oakland Park that willingly come. I think this is Tammy's Vice Mayor, your friend Tammy. She said that's now her new passion right now. And as Commissioner Gordon mentioned, safety throughout our streets, I agree with that. We just need to look overall in our streets for the safety because everyone should be safe in their in their homes and on their streets while they're walking and I guess I better hush so Commissioner Arns can go and see his office. Thank you to staff tonight for all of your presentations. When I also thank you to see you W. Howard and I was always chief Krovanek and we've named everyone else in the room. I wanted to thank Miss Sierra Marrero and Gummary who are engineering leadership and planning leadership. In the city because they did some problem solving the of course the sky building is being built as we know and sidewalks are going in and we have a wonderful historic business central park that's literally south on 37th. So I was all week, been part with Mr. A. Barron doing some problem solving because we protect our businesses, but we also honor and encourage our new buildings being built. So I particularly want to thank Ms. Marrero and Ms. Montgomery for your problem solving this week with that. I had the pleasure Sunday night actually to attend the Florida Hindu organization Shiva Mandir and one of the really wonderful, if it was night four of a Hindu service. I had never been out on 29th, I have been out on 29th Avenue, but never actually have been there for actually a few hours. And I understand Commissioner Gordon, you were there this week too? Yeah. One thing actually just for a city perspective that I want to share was a few of the congregants mentioned to me when you're going exiting that temple and you're going on 29th Avenue and you're trying to turn right, it can be very difficult with all of the speeding but also the volume of the cars going eastbound on Oakland Park Boulevard so an idea was if any sort of traffic signalization what have you so I just want to put that on the record it's just an idea for staff as you want to get more information about that and I just finally want to promote Mr. Thompson. I think this is your to understand was it the second, if I recall? Third. Okay, so that's the third and so that's just a great opportunity. We had an idea for that years ago and for the public before budget season every year. I've never thought the people may disagree with me. I've never thought we need a separate advisory board on the budget. I know other cities do that. I didn't think there was a need for that because we have such a stellar budget team Mr. Thompson, champions and of course people are always welcome 300 and maybe not Sundays but the rest of the year to reach out to us. So with that I'm going to thank you all I'm going to turn it over to Mr. A. Bear. Nothing this evening