CITY COMMISSION WORKSHOP on 2025-06-17 11:30 AM - Joint Workshop with Budget Advisory Board - Jun 17, 2025
meeting
Fort Lauderdale City Commission
1h 36m
6 speakers
8 agenda items
transcribed 5 days ago
official recording ↗
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What was the purpose of the joint City Commission and Budget Advisory Board workshop?
Hello? Okay. Much better. Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for your patience. We're here today, this June 17th, 2025, to celebrate the... Oh, I'm sorry. To... TO HAVE OUR JOINT WORKSHOP WITH THE BUDGET ADVISORY BOARD. I WANT TO THANK EVERYBODY FROM THE BUDGET ADVISORY BOARD FOR APPEARING HERE AND FOR PARTICIPATING IN THIS FIRST OF MANY WORKSHOPS GOING FORWARD AS WE TRY. IS THIS OUR FIRST OR SECOND? SECOND. SECOND, I THOUGHT. I SEE THAT WE HAVE COMMISSIONER SORENSEN ONLINE. HELLO, BEN.
Hey, Mayor. Thanks for having me. Sorry
I
can't be there. I'm on Navy duty out of town. So thanks for allowing me to be
here virtually. Sure. How's Greenland? Oh, I'm sorry. I don't know. Rhode Island. Rhode Island is wonderful. I have no idea where you are. Okay. Thank you. So, Mayor, if I could
say something. Ben, I noticed something different about you today. You actually have on a jacket. You don't have your Ben shirt on. Yes.
I don't have my Ben shirt, so I figured I'd change it up a little bit virtually. Oh,
I
love it. I love it. We'll bring that back in the future. Actually,
that's not really him. That's an AI
image
of him. Okay. He's in Greenland. Okay. Very good. So the chair of the Budget Advisory Board, do you want to call your role?
I'm going to call it.
You're going to call
it? They're fixing the mic.
Okay.
Chair Brown. He's here. Present. Vice Chair Milroy. Here. Norbert Belz. Here. Ross Camerata. Not present. Olivier Kao.
Present.
Rich DiGirolamo. Here. Mildred Lowe. Present. Desiree Giles-Smith. PROB BUILDING PATEL. YEP. AND MELINDA BOKER. HERE.
SO WE HAVE A QUORUM OF THE COMMITTEE. YOU WANT TO CALL THE ROLE OF THE COMMISSION.
VICE MAYOR HERBST IS ENROUTE. COMMISSIONER GLASSMAN.
HERE.
COMMISSIONER BEASLEY-PITTMAN.
HERE.
COMMISSIONER SORRINSON. HERE. MAYOR TRENTALS.
HERE. THANK YOU SO MUCH. WE HAVE A QUORUM WITH THE CITY COMMISSION. SO MR. BROWN, WOULD YOU LIKE TO LEAD THIS DISCUSSION?
YES. THANK YOU, MAYOR, VICE MAYOR, COMMISSIONERS, AND Commissioner Sorensen, I would sing you anchors away, but my voice is not that good singing, so I don't want to ruin your afternoon. Next time.
The
budget advisory board sitting behind me are the members of the board. First, let me just say this year was the first time in many years we had six out of the ten board members that were new. And I'm very pleased to report to the commission that they came in, got very engaged, especially coming in for the first time. They rolled up their sleeves. They really dug in. They asked good questions. And, you know, during the month of May, we spend three Wednesday evenings meeting with all the department heads for three consecutive weeks on Wednesdays. AND SOME OF THOSE MEETINGS WENT OVER TWO HOURS, ONE WENT ALMOST THREE HOURS, AND WE GAVE THEM THE LATITUDE TO REALLY ASK GOOD, PRUDENT QUESTIONS, BEING PHYSICALLY RESPONSIBLE TO THE TAXPAYERS AND TO THEIR DISTRICTS FROM WHICH THEY LIVE WITHIN.
AND I'M PLEASED TO SAY THAT I'M VERY IMPRESSED WITH THE SELECTION OF THE MEMBERS OF THIS COMMITTEE. With that, Mayor, as you said, in May we met for the first time. We kind of got some direction based upon your January workshop on what the Commission's priorities were moving forward. So what I've chosen to do is we received the preliminary budget presentation. FROM THE CITY MANAGER, AND WE'RE GOING TO, IT'S GOING TO BE PRESENTED SOME OF THOSE HIGHLIGHTS, AND WHAT I'D LIKE TO DO WITH YOUR PERMISSION IS GO AHEAD AND LET STAFF DO THAT PRESENTATION THAT WE RECEIVED, AND THEN I'LL FOLLOW THAT UP WITH COMMENTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE
BOARD.
KEEPING
IN MIND THAT THE EXHIBIT, THE PRELIMINARY BUDGET REPORT IS 81 PAGES, SO WE'RE NOT GOING TO BE GOING THROUGH 81 PAGES, BUT WE WILL GET A SUMMARY OF THAT THROUGH STAFF. AND, LAURA, WILL YOU BE DOING THAT? WHO'S GOING TO BE DOING IT?
THERE WILL BE A COMBINATION. I WILL START IT OFF, AND THEN WE WILL FOLLOW WITH LAURA REESE, ACTING ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER, AND EVETT MATTHEWS, ACTING DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND
BUDGET. OKAY, VERY GOOD. PLEASE PROCEED.
Good afternoon, honorable mayor and commissioners. It's my honor to discuss our preliminary budget, the first one under my tenure as your city manager.
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Agenda
8 items
1
What was the purpose of the joint City Commission and Budget Advisory Board workshop?
0:00–9:57
2
How did the Board members introduce themselves and establish quorum for the meeting?
9:57–21:45
3
What are the key highlights of the preliminary city budget presentation?
21:45–40:43
4
How is the city addressing homelessness and supportive shelter funding in the budget?
40:43–59:40
5
What is the safe‑parking pilot program and how is it funded?
59:40–1:13:44
6
Why is there debate over the FIFA World Cup activation and related spending?
1:13:44–1:28:30
7
What is the proposed emergency‑management reserve and why is it controversial?
1:28:30–1:35:14
8
What are the next steps for the Stantec presentation and the conference agenda?
1:35:14–1:36:32
Speakers
6 identified
Dean Trantalis 28 min
Ben Sorensen 4 min
Steven Glassman 3 min
Rickelle Williams 1 min
Pamela Beasley-Pittman
Adam Geller
Officials recognised by voice; public commenters shown as “Speaker N” unless they state their name.
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