City Commission Conference Meeting on 2023-10-17 1:30 PM
meeting
Fort Lauderdale City Commission
3h 15m
5 speakers
8 agenda items
transcribed 3 days ago
official recording ↗
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
City Commission conference meeting this October 17th, 2023. We appreciate your coming here. For those of you who are here for the first time, we have an agenda that we have here today, and it starts out today with communications that the City Commission has received from the advisory boards.
What is the Formosan termite threat to Fort Lauderdale’s urban forest canopy?
So why don't we go directly to those right now. The first one is from the Sustainability Advisory Board. One of the big issues that that board is targeting on is the urban forest canopy and how the Formosan termite population is starting to threaten that. Is there anybody here from the Sustainability Advisory Board?
Yes.
How are you, sir?
Good.
How are you? Right here? Yes. Now, is the button pushed? Not yet. No, no. On the foot of the mic. Test one, two. Okay, great. So please identify yourself and tell us what you have to present today.
My name is Whitney Dutton. I'm a member of the Sustainability Advisory Board.
And we're
here to put, District 4, we're here to put forth a piece of communication that is a threat to one of our main goals. So the Sustainability Advisory Board has a goal to create and increase the urban forest canopy to 33% by the year 2040 and by 27% or to 27% by the The end of 2024. And one of the big threats we're running into is the Formosan termite. This is an invasive species that is unlike anything that we've seen in the last 10 years has just been exploding. Some of the issues that is causing that is the reproductive rate. They can lay up to 3,000 eggs per nesting cycle. And they can also kill and take out a live oak tree, and they don't forage just on dead limbs from oak trees. So this is a big threat.
Dr. Chovnik from the University of Florida came to give us a presentation and raising some serious red flags on what this is doing to Our current canopy and what it can do in the future and these rates that this termite is showing up is really alarming. Also, the infrastructure. So any type of building, wood, that's involved with city buildings, public, citizens' buildings, et cetera, obviously a big threat there as well. The main ask that we have from our advisory board is to create and implement an awareness or treatment program through the citizens and through the city, most importantly, to help identify this type of termite. Because although it's never been eradicated, it can be controlled. And what that comes through is first awareness and then through the treatment programs, which could be either DIY or could be done from a city initiative as well.
Is there a natural predator of these termites? No, there's not. There's not, except humans. Yes. So the question is, so is there an ask that you have today from the commission?
Yeah, and most importantly, so Dr. Chauvin, who is with the University of Florida, has offered free to his services to help train city staff or at least to have an awareness program put out to staff, citizens, the Parks and Recreation Department to be able to help identify at least when they see an infestation and what the steps then are to treat it.
So Phil, Mr. Thornburg, could you please come up here for a moment? Have you had any interaction with our Parks Department at all on this?
Yeah, I have actually Laura Tolley's here for the urban forestry division also to help us answer any questions and Glenn as well Who's our main advisory?
Okay, so Glenn why don't you come up and tell us sorry Phil? Sorry Phil Tell us what is the city's response to this to this request by the by the board and do we have a program in place that is able to rapidly respond to any infestations that are identified and
We do not currently have a program that addresses this. We've done some pilot projects working with parks, and our previous urban forester had done some testing to help identify those in select parks in some of the treatment methods that Dr. Shovak recommended.
How is the Infrastructure Task Force planning a public‑private partnership for city projects?
So is your department looking to the management to perhaps enlarge that program so that we can eradicate it before it gets out of control?
That is something that would be a benefit to our tree canopy, so
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Agenda
8 items
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:18
2
What is the Formosan termite threat to Fort Lauderdale’s urban forest canopy?
0:18–4:24
3
How is the Infrastructure Task Force planning a public‑private partnership for city projects?
4:24–8:09
4
Why are Fire Rescue Advisory Committee members proposing to expand the board to seven members?
8:09–16:39
5
What changes are being considered for remote participation in Planning and Zoning board meetings?
16:39–23:33
6
What key findings did the Noise Control Advisory Committee’s soundscape study reveal?
23:33–1:03:41
7
What are the main provisions of the draft public‑private partnership ordinance being presented?
1:03:41–1:36:08
8
How is the Code Enforcement Division improving inspections, enforcement, and community outreach?
1:36:08–3:15:11
Speakers
5 identified
Pamela Beasley-Pittman 19 min
John Herbst 15 min
Dean Trantalis 13 min
Steven Glassman 12 min
Whitney Dutton 3 min
Officials recognised by voice; public commenters shown as “Speaker N” unless they state their name.
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