Heat. Hey, Heat. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Good morning and welcome to the June 8th, 2026 workshop of the Orlando City
Council. Commissioners, we have uh two workshops today. We're going to begin with a workshop on the Pulse Memorial. Friday is going to mark 10 years since the tragedy. A decade has passed since
the lives of 49 people were taken and countless others forever impacted. We're continuing to send love and hope to the victim's families and survivors, first responders and medical professionals and all those impacted. And I'm proud that
we continue to honor the 49 in many different ways that we'll mark this week. But one of them is the creation of a permanent memorial. And obviously you know that we purchased the site a couple of years ago and have begun that process. And Heather is going to update
us on that. >> Thank you, Mayor Dyer. And good morning, commissioners. Um we're going to do a brief update on the Pulse Memorial. Is it on yet? Is it on there? Okay. >> To hit first.
There we go. Perfect. Um, okay. Before we get started, I would like to start. Um, okay. Maybe not. Oh, here. Let me try the clicker. I would like to start by taking a moment of silence to remember the 49 angels.
Commissioners, I'd like to note that the names on this slide um is an effort of an undertaking as part of the memorial process. For the first time in the 10 years since the city team took it over, we have made contact with all 49 next of kin to be able to confirm how how they
each want their angel's name spelled and if they have a preferred nickname that they would prefer to have used. And we have also asked them for a preferred photo of their choice. And over half of them have provided those to us. And so those photos will be used as part of the remembrance ceremony on Friday. And so
there were some corrections to some names or some hyphenations or things like that. And so we're very proud of the city's team, the neighborhoods team and our um staff at Greenwood Cemetery who helped to outreach to all 49 of the next of kin to help achieve that. And they're staying in contact with them
throughout the memorial process to get keep them updated and to continue to get additional information from them. So, a little reminder of how we got here because we do have two new commissioners since we've started this process. But in October of 2023, the city purchased the
Pulse site with plans to build a permanent memorial. That was after hearing from family members who are concerned that the foundation was no longer planning to build the memorial on the Pulse site. In April of 2024, we began the memorial engagement process. Um and then and that was really
selecting a Pulse memorial advisory committee which we selected 18 people out of the 150 that applied to be on the committee. Almost all of them had a connection to Pulse whether that was being an actual survivor, a family member of a victim or they worked there,
attended there. Um the one had some design expertise that um we thought was important to the process. So they held their first meeting in July and had meetings um throughout the remainder of the year. One or two was canceled because of hurricane since we live in
Florida. That's always um something that we have to deal with. And so in February of 2025 was the last time that I was here at council and we presented the conceptual design that the advisory committee had created. After that time, we went out for a design build RFP and
um selected Gomez and Bellian partners as the city's design and construction partners. And then in September of 2025, council agre approved that agreement and we began the design work. As part of that design, we also began working on
the building and we removed several of the artifacts that were left within the building. things like disco balls and chandeliers and posters, things that could help tell the story of what Pulse was before we took um the building down. And then um in Mar was it March? Yeah,
in March we actually um took the building down and had our 30% design public meeting. We committed throughout the process to have two public meetings at the 30% and then at the 60%. We did the 60% design meeting just last month
in May. And um we plan to commence construction in September. And so with that, I will introduce the design team to talk more detail. George Barlli. Sorry. >> Thank you. Thank you, Heather. Good morning, mayor. Good morning,
commissioners. It's an honor to be here and thank you. It's truly an honor to have been selected for this long awaited important project. My name is Jorge Belli. I'm the principal president in charge of Belli Partners Architects. Uh with me here today is Steve Gomez. Uh sorry, sorry. Steve Caro with Gomez
Construction. Uh they are our construction our build partner. Uh Dan Turovvich uh is a senior project manager and senior assoc our firm. He's the architect leading this team of of a thousand. Um a lot of firms you know I won't go into everyone but two other key
people in our on our team are out of New York. They're our exhibit our exhibition and media uh design team. um they are helping with the interpretive message for this memorial and that is a local projects and they're represented by Nico Gillon and Amanda White.
So this concept began with the committee um and the committee developed a pulse memorial mission. Their concept echoed and reflected that mission which you see in this document that was developed and this is what the city used
for the RFP and it was called the design control document. And you'll see the elements in the lower right hand corner that include the memorial the the healing garden, the um memorial plaza, the survivors common, the the angel ellipse, the private gathering area, and
the visitor pavilion. And we were we took this concept and we're bringing it to reality now in the design build process. This is our 60% complete uh presentation and we're on track to meet the deadline and get the memorial
started for construction. um in September. Uh more on that uh later in the presentation. So here's our current um progress on the 60%. You can see all the elements are still represented with the Prism Tower Plaza on Orange and Esther Street. You see the large ellipse
uh on um in the foreground of this picture and that'll be those will be honoring the 49 Angels. Dan will touch a little bit more on that in a second. the visitor pavilion you'll see kind of tucked into the existing trees to the to the left to the west side of the the image and then to the probably north corner is the peeking out of the
existing trees tree line is the um visitor pavilion and then the central you'll have the memorial plaza uh fountain reflecting pool and obelisk and Dan's going to jump uh jump into some more of the details of each of these elements so you can understand some of
the design interpretation Dan >> thanks Thanks, church. Uh what we're looking at here is a view from Esser Street into the memorial proper itself. Uh what was important to the design team was the degree of transparency, views, ventilation, and natural Florida
sunshine. Uh but you also have an uh element uh symbolically looking back in time from this perspective. Uh you're outside of the event in the tragic area which will be defined by the memorial pler itself. And the ellipse itself is an important element that radiates and
pulses from the actual generation of that tragic site. And it I'll go into a little bit more detail on some of that, but we wanted to be able to sit down and showcase the visual appearance and the visual process that a typical uh visitor will actually experience and particularly uh survivors and those of
the family members. This is a view of the inner ring of the uh angel ellipse. Uh what you'll see it uh encompasses the entire site, the memorial area proper itself just to the right. Uh the signal element to a lot of
this is that this is an area where family members and visitors can come to visit a particular angel. Uh you'll note that there are uh name plates as well as national identity flags associated with that as well as an al cove for actual
gathering of individuals family members away from the main line of uh traffic throughout the site. The pillars themselves are are colorcoded and they they are colorcoded based on the entire range of the rainbow spectrum uh circulating the site. And then you'll if
you notice subtly in the upper two panels is a photo interpretive u um cutouts of a uh ripple um of the panelings themselves. The importance here is we wanted to showcase the the
notion of layering in depth of color presence as well as that notion of a memory ripple p uh going throughout time and reinforce the the notion of the ellipse doing just that. You'll see that in the heartscapes as well. This area here is within the private
gathering area. It's located outside of the ellipse line looking directly towards that back wall uh which is actually the survivors wall. Uh it's an important area for us to identify those areas uh where you can have a sense of healing uh a sense of retrospection
beyond the tragedy itself. We have a specifically we're looking at investigating a series of quotes specifically uh would be original to that. But the interior of the private gathering this is an area in which along the bench seating just along that back area that granite space those are actual
capsules for uh personal effects of the 49 angels. And so in a very symbolic way this is the area in which you can come to be surrounded by those angels. Uh it's a very it's a very psalm place. It's supposed to be introspective contemplative. It's there to also
promote healing because much of this tragedy occurred not only of the night of the event, but was um prolonged with that the lack of healing and the suffering and the trauma that resonated throughout our community. And we wanted to make sure that we provided a space
where people can reflect and have a chance to heal. uh and that was an very important concept as we took on the documentation from the design control documents is we wanted to provide those opportunities inherent with the design beyond physical elements which I'll talk
about in a minute. This is part of the the survivors common again outside of the memorial plaza itself. Uh it's an area for light gathering contemplative nature to be in touch with natural elements sunshine and and the environment. But in particular,
we have a symbolic architectural reference of a tree. Uh for that of of particular note, we're looking at utilizing an olive tree for all the symbolic elements for uh the that the olive tree represents the longevity, resilience, forgiveness, peace,
solitude, uh as well as being just a magnificent specimen. So we are looking at a at an age tree uh that is welldeveloped for this particular area and it's a fairly open common ground for people to gather kind of sit contemplate but it provides an opportunity to to
detach yourself from a lot of the triggering events of the the memorials themselves. Uh memorials themselves are not a passive element. They're they're they're an act of engagement and sometimes you have to have provide for that relief otherwise becomes overly dawn and we wanted to make sure that
this memorial place was peaceful, respectful and contemplative in nature and we have to balance that with the elements of remembrance as well and the act of engagement. This is actually several components all at once. Uh this is the memorial plaza.
Uh the most specific element uh that that I'd like to highlight is the perimeter of the memorial plaza itself. It actually outlines the original nightclub. Uh and it's done with rainbow band banding. Uh you can see a touch of it underneath the reflecting pool, but
that colorization will actually go along the entire perimeter of the actual memorial itself. Uh which actually encompasses the original building in the tragic tra tragedy site. The reflecting pool uh while having kind of artistic impressions of dance and movement and
memory and that memor ripple again is location symbolically within the the public gathering areas of the original building itself. So much of the community was gathered within that specific area. We wanted to make sure that we were representating uh that component very directly. It's bookend
onto the right uh with a water feature uh with quotes in both English and Spanish for those who wanted to dance by our our Daniel Foster uh as well as the pulse heartbeat logo. Um what you'll see below that is a listing of all the angel's names. It is here that they're
actually represented in together as a group within that pulse site. Whereas on the angel ellipse it's they're actually represented individually. inside the uh perimeter of the site they're collective outside they're individual uh in the very background uh we have what we call
the obelisk uh and that is the site of the SWAT breach wall uh that that was the termination of the event um for many survivors uh it is a a point of terror that they do not wish to remember others
it is a point of salvation that their life began a new uh we know memorials our active engagement sites. This is probably one of the most challenging areas that we had to uh kind of develop and look at. Uh we do it very straightforward with a very stark
feature, a very massive feature with the concrete as well as representational of the anniversary date itself to acknowledge it. And then just to the right as you would pass by, that's the survivors wall. That's the location I called attention to earlier.
>> This is the remains of >> you got I'll go back to it. Um George wanted me to point out one of the challenges that we had was not just elemental. It's not physical features. Uh the with it's it is human nature in
human psychology to get attached to things and places that are not normal. They're not people, things you don't normally have relationship with. Um it's the difference between what makes a house and a home different. uh for this particular site, the community on the
whole um many members of our design team as well as the community have direct connections to this facility, our experiences and it became a psychic warehouse of our memories and experiences during that time period. the removal of that can be immensely
traumatizing and that was a major obstacle and challenge that the DCD team had to overcome and kind of get um agreement to by the family members and we heard the the city's struggle with this. Uh we saw how challenged this
became and we took a moment to pause to sit down and say how do we address that? We know we need to move forward. We need know we need to move past it, but how do we acknowledge this emotional connection we have with space and our approach was to actually salvage much of the elements
as we could from the facility so that an area of the dance floor of the original Pulse nightclub will be salvaged and by dance floor I mean the concrete section and will be placed and interred beneath the actual dance floor tying that moment and placed symbolically to that area. So
so it's reused and re re gives life to it. Likewise, uh the the breach wall itself has been uh salvaged uh in hull. Um and what we will be doing is instead of putting that on display because it is stark, it is incredibly striking. Um and
while evocative, it was too much. We wanted to make sure that we were taking a kinder, gentler approach to uh this trauma and reflect that. Uh and that was part of the balancing act. who will be interring part of that the brereech wall itself in
hole at the location of the obelis we're bringing those two elements together likewise we're taking much of the concrete of the existing facility and we're salvaging that and we're going to be utilizing in part not so much in the concrete mix I don't want any confusion that we're mix it in with the concrete
but we'll be adding it as elements to the concrete everywhere we have concrete or aggregate and we're going to be distributing that throughout the entire site so that the the building itself while removed is reinterpreted back into the living embodiment in this entire
memorial. Uh and that is is something you're not going to see. We know it's there. And with speaking with the family members uh and and survivors, uh we think this this is able to transcend that loss and allows them to kind of let
go, move forward knowing uh as quote direct as as uh I was told by an individual, they will always have a place to stay. My daughter will always have a place and she can always be here. And so uh immensely moving. Um it it was
a very difficult decision uh but not one you would see in rendering boards. Uh this is the southeast corner. This is a prison uh tower plaza area. Uh it's a kind of a very communicative element to the orange avenue uh approach. We know
that this is a signal component of it. Uh we wanted to be able to have uh element to marquee element as well as referential uh the original pulse logo as part of a glowing element. Um, one of the the important elements of the Pulk Memorial design is the fact that it's
also a day and nighttime facility. So, this this entire column piece will be illuminated at night as well as much of the the remainder of the the memorial itself. Uh, this is uh north view from uh Kayley Street looking at the visitor pavilion
itself. Um, like what I said earlier, we wanted to have a strong day and nighttime uh connection to the facility. This is opia a 24-hour operational area and what you're seeing in the corner there uh is very directly the original pulse sign. Uh we intend to have the
sign not only showcased as a living artifact but actually uh actually renewed. And so at night that sign will be reilluminated. And so we're incorporating kind of the elements of zoning and planning and public face with this element of being able to see and experience the facility even after its
closure. Uh the other strong element that we've kind of interpretating is the rainbow color panel screening. And while the everybody can see the coloring, the intent is that we wanted to make a space that was inclusive, safe, and comfortable. And the language that was
being used uh to describe it is that people often feel they want to be held and embraced. So in a very literal interpretation, those screens, the arms actually do wrap around and kind of embrace the entire pavilion itself, the visitor pavilion. Uh and that was very
intentional. Uh this is more the public face facing the actual exhibit um or the memorial proper itself. And what we wanted to do was have a transparency between interior and exterior. uh again so that when you visit the site after hours you're able
to look into and see the vast majority of the visitor pavilion as well. Uh the curved wall itself is a a specific uh memorial feature. It's there to actually give acknowledgement to why we're here, why the memorial what was the purpose of
memorial and to be a message of hope. As you enter the facility itself, the first major public experience uh zone is going to be the simple timeline and and it is it is intentionally simplistic. Uh the language is text only. Uh there's no
images associated with this and it's narrative in journalistic pros. So it's very factualbased, very subdued with very limited but pointed emotional language. And so it allows the experience uh of to understand to walk
past and through the the events of that evening. Uh and it start it reads from right to left as you go towards the actual exhibit. And it's situated in a way in which if this was too evocative for individuals, they could bypass it without it interrupting the flow. It's not an absolutely essential, but it's
presented there and and it's a it's a it serves as a narrative standing for the actual facility itself. in the distance you get a glimpse of what you'll see obviously coming from another area outside you'd be able to see it but you do see the the major elements uh linearly going through the facility
itself so there's a an artistic datam line going through the center of the facility this is an alcove uh it's a very prominent one just behind the the radial curve of the exhibitory this is the chance to actually give visitors an idea
of what pulse was like before the tragedy itself. Uh historical framing uh there's some general some very light quotations. There's obviously this is the artifact collection zones uh between the posters, the entry doors, the the
grand chandelier uh which we understand uh would have originally had been purchased from the Grand Mon Mulan Rouge in Paris, France and brought over specifically. So there's a lot of precimians that's that's a central major element. It is a massive chandelier as well as other figurative elements in
interpretive form. So we have some of the textured walls that we had in the VA please. And again you did not have to actually visit Paul's nightclub to get a very good sense of what Paul's nightclub was like and and how colorful and vibrant and larger than life that it was.
The main visitor experience is centered uh upon a radius uh in which the disco oversized disco ball rotates. The intention here was to play with light, the the notion of what a nightclub was and in particular how oversized in our
minds and memories this nightclub actually was for for what it served in the community. It also creates a experience in which the visitor is bathed in this light and experience as as it gently rotates around that room. I mean, we all have a sense of what a disco ball light is, but it's a unique
way to bring the the idea of solemn remembrance, but a transcendential element in space and time. Uh, within this area uh on the left is is essentially the global and international response uh uh to the pulse event and how the world stepped up and showed they
cared and were in solidarity. Uh there's a single line of text that kind of describes some of that in narrative form. on the right is the Orlando response. Uh and and it's centered quote is right now we're looking for Mayor Dyer's quote during that time period
because it was characteristic of the Orlando experience uh being Orlando strong and how we came together and it set the tone so well for the time period uh that we felt it still resonated in a classic timeless manner that still rang true today. So we're utilizing that with
a a host of imageries uh associated with that that we're still going through the curative process. This is the kind of the culminating element. Um and this is where we we host the 49 angels. Uh this is the area in which visitors are able to come in
contact very directly with the indiv uh the angels individually in in fairly large in size and format as well as having family members and loved ones come back and specifically remember their angels as well. Uh it's it's reserved intentionally. Um we did not
want competing images. Uh it was a desired effect to put more emphasis on the individuals and their absence and what's not there. uh and and that stripping of life. Uh it's it's again it's it's while it's a visitor center
and somewhat of a a artistic impression of these events, we wanted it to be an area for gathering rather than a holistic approach to museum uh programming and design. uh and what we wanted to make sure that we had uh the images of each of them uh by each of the
49 family members as as Heather recently said that all 49 at this point have responded and providing imagery and contacts and names. Uh and so we're seeing the progression on that as well. Uh but again this is the kind of the culminating feature of when you actually get to see the actual angel themselves.
Uh next steps coming up are kind of very uh historical amongst most of these we've already completed. Uh the pulse pulse site has been kind of cleared. The building's been removed and cleaning. We've we've hit our mark for the 30 60% design schedules uh which are very accelerated. Uh and then we have
commencement of construction starting in September 26. Another way of saying that is we're going to permitting in mid mid July. So literally in 30 45 days we are bringing this to to actual permitting process. uh and and we'll be moving
forward and we anticipate the completion date to be in the third quarter of 2027. We have every expectation we'll be able to achieve them. So, as we close that out, commissioners, um, to note that city staff have played a significant role in the development
um, from EDV, um, Richard Forbes, Doug Mezer, Tim Johnson, Marty Hudson, and Donna in our office. They were part of the initial pulse memorial advisory committee and have continued supporting the effort throughout the time including um I should mention Jay Hood with catalyst. He volunteered his services to
create the conceptual design with um Wayne and Baker Barios and he continues to be a connection point to make sure as we have to make changes the conceptual design to make it actually constructible that the intention of the committee um is still throughout that design. And then of course Christy who's been
leading as our um construction project manager and our facilities team has been um extraordinary throughout this process carefully removing the items, making sure they're packaged well so they can be restored again. Um and they were also very supportive throughout the site visits to make sure that the building was secure and safe for people to go
through. So as we close out the memorial this week um we have started the tenure remembrance events. Yesterday, Commissioner Sheien and or not yesterday, Saturday, Commissioner Sheien, Commissioner Chapen, and Commissioner Ortiz. I don't know who was the fastest, but they were all at our community rainbow run or who actually
finished. I'm curious if everybody finished. Oh, okay. Um, but that um we had uh more than 2,000 people come out for that run on Saturday. um including um there was 15 sponsors who helped make this event possible, including Orlando
Health, who's been the presenting sponsor in Hard Rock, who has consistently supported this event with the Love is Love Lounge inside of City Hall. We had approximately 50 families and survivors participate and more than a 100 first responders. The Rainbow Run was created um at the first year mark by
students at um UCF as a way to honor um the 49 angels. And so that is one element that the city has continued on when we took over the memorial process. Also this year um the prayer ribbons that have been out there every year will be in front of city hall um as well this
week. And then we've added um a new opportunity for reflection. The created in community portraits of pulse art exhibit will be installed um on the first floor art gallery starting tomorrow. This exhibit features um 49 um
they're paint by number works that were done by family members um immediately after the tragedy. And so those will be redised for the first time in many years and partnership with the history center. And then our pulse remembrance ceremony will be Friday at 5:30 at the First
United Methodist Church. And we've expanded it this year um in honor of the tenure. There will be some additional um cultural performances. The Orlando gay choir will always be will be there as usual. Um our poet laurate Kamara is doing a special poem that she has written for the occasion. There will be
a candle lighting ceremony as we read the 49 names. And then our angels, the angel action network um that were there and multiple places right after um will actually be part of the ceremony as well. And so with that um I guess here's
the slide with all of those events in case you're interested. And with that, we'll take any questions. >> Thank you, Heather. Thank you, team. Very well done. Uh, Commissioner Sheen. >> Thank you, Mayor. Well, first of all, I want to thank everyone who's been a part
of this. I know this was a very um sacred and important, you know, role that all of you took and I and I appreciate the sensitivity and the way that you approached it and the way that you because it's not always easy dealing with people who are dealing with grief. You know, it's a very difficult process.
Everyone processes grief differently and some people process grief with anger and you know, I understand that it was a difficult process to go through. But I think that with the way that you took all of that and and and have put it together and and you know, I have to also thank the city employees who, you
know, who have been a part of this since day one who I'm I've been so proud of. many left their desks to assist the families and worked at Camping World and this has just been a city process and and you know actually from the beginning. So I just want to say thank
you to everyone who's been in you know a part of it. Um I really appreciate the fact that you dealt with the breach wall in a very sensitive way. It will still be there but it won't be a macob tourist attraction. That's what the concern was
that, you know, that it would be, you know, a weird, you know, people died here. How are we going to handle that? I think you dealt with that in a very sensitive way. And uh the only And I love the olive tree. Wow. That's just a really beautiful touch. Um I just had a
question about the portraits. I just wanted to make sure, Heather, they were all finished because I was part of that process and we didn't finish them all. So that are they now finished? >> They are not, according to Flynn, they are not finished because they were intentionally not finished by some of the families. Okay. And so they've been left in that condition. So some are
finished and some are not by the choice. >> As long as they're okay with that because I know I did one for a family who asked me to paint it. But if but if that as long as they're okay with the process again, I just want to make sure that if we're going to do the exhibit that we we did it in a sensitive fashion. So thank you for that. And um
the the run was was lovely. And I love how it brings everyone together. And you know what's always touching is to see the handlettered signs by children along the route because and that's what happened when that happened. I mean when those streets were closed for almost a month, you know, and and the neighbors
were very much inconvenienced, they embraced this and their children put out handlettered signs about love, which was really very very inspirational. So again, I just want to thank everyone and and and mayor, you know, I mean, I'm glad that we got out of it. Let the family, you know, the politicians didn't need to do this. it needed to be a
community thing and I think it really shows that this was done in a way that really honors the families and and and and uh and involve them. So, thank you, >> Commissioner Burns. >> All right. Thank you, Mayor. Uh and thank you, Heather, and to the team. I
just like to say that I appreciate the the um the care and the intention and the trauma trauma-informed approach that you all took to uh designing this memorial. My my questions are more from
a um operational standpoint. Uh and so I have three I'll just >> drop. So one is the operational control and oversight. Who will have the operational control and oversight? Uh but also the ongoing cost of the operations. Have we, you know, looked at
that and then determine where that that comes from? And then the last one is just um the availability of of of of the uh of this memorial. Will it you know can it be rented out for birthdays and things like that and can it be activated
or will it just be um will those activities be be allowed and then who will make those decisions of what types of events would be appropriate? >> So some of the most of the operational things we're still working through at a high level. Um, we are making sure that
the decisions we make in the design are low maintenance and so that there's we're having minimal cost for ongoing operations. It's envisioned that it'll be, you know, maybe part-time or minimally staffed. I think when the building o or when the memorial opens, it'll need additional staffing and then
probably pair down over time. So, some of those we're still finalizing. You know, we're kind of building the memorial as we go. So, um, we're kind of finalizing some of those. As far as events, the idea is not to rent it out to the general public for types of events. However, that family gathering
area that's on the side was created because families do have events there. So, we know one family, they like to put up a Christmas tree every year for their angel. We know some like to come for birthday parties. So, they'll be able to use that family gathering space for those types of activities. Um, and then
we can follow up with you as we continue um working through all the operational elements. FJ is kind of leading that effort more. um on the operational side and we'll but we'll keep you updated on all of those. But the idea is that this will be more passive and hopefully to
keep operations um minimal. >> Yeah. And I think we we also have to because I I I imagine based on these renderings that it will be a beautiful memorial and I'm thinking 10 15 20 years down the line we want it to be as beautiful as it is on day one. There's a
lot of discussion that we have related to materials that are used, types of trees so that how they, you know, the leaves fall off of them and the concern around some of those. And so we've spent a lot of time working through some of those details. I should also say as far as the memorial being opened, it's
envisioned that the outside space will be accessible 247 because we know I mean a lot of people go there at night given that the shooting happens late at night. The visitor pavilion will have hours, you know, more 9 to5, something like that where it will be closed in the evening, but the memorial will be open.
>> And and for as far as security, uh, because I think that should be a a a big piece in >> ensuring that that asset is protected and individuals who will attend there are protected. >> Yes. And we've had OPD involved throughout looking at SEPTED design
principles and those kinds of things as well. So, >> thank you very much. Great job, team. Okay, thank you very much. Great job. >> If you guys want to >> now we'll move on to some really fun stuff. Uh
>> oh, Commissioner Ortiz. Uh hold on team. One sec. Heather, >> I'm sorry. I didn't mean to keep you guys. I just had a quick question about parking. Nobody has talked about parking, >> but do we have access, you know, accessibility for this?
So, um the parking off of Kaye where you saw the um visitor pavilion is anticipated to be the um handicap accessible parking with additional spaces than required given that we know several you know survivors were injured and have those types of injuries.
Correct me if I'm wrong, Doug. And those actually no planning things. And then um we envision using Esther Street for parking for the as today for the remainder of that. So >> Okay. Thank you. So, uh we had scheduled
this Okay, the second workshop we had scheduled as a legislative update uh primarily for the session that concluded the first week of May, but turns out to be extremely timely given the fact that the legislature has had a couple of
special sessions, the one that concluded last week related to an initiative that'll be on the ballot in November related to local government property taxes. So, Kyle Shepard, our legislative affairs director, is here to update us on both um subjects. Kyle.
>> Sure. Good morning, Mayor. Good morning, commissioners. Kyle Shepard here to give you your annual legislative update and your annual reminder that I'm just the messenger. Please uh do not blame me for anything that I have to report here. Sadly, uh
this report every year often is uh to deliver some bad news about our relationship between our state legislature and local governments throughout the state of Florida. Maybe it's getting a little bit better, but as you'll see, there's um things we have to think through. Uh every year when the legislature meets, we have dozens and
dozens of bills that impact what we do here at the city and and counties as well. your staff is spending a lot of time. We're still spending a lot of time going through those bills trying to understand how to operationalize all these new mandates the legislature has given us. Understand that just within the next 20 or 30 minutes I can't go
through all those bills. We'll pick out 10 or 12 of the more interesting ones. U but there are going to be questions probably we can't answer yet because we're still going through uh going through bills. Um, you're represented by a team in Tallahassee, including myself and very
talented group of folks from the Grey Robinson Law Firm, also the Pitman Law Group based out of Tallahassee and the Southern Group. Uh, they work hard for you all session and um have been working through special sessions over the last few weeks and as the mayor said, one special session just concluded last
week. So, they've been on the clock a lot for you over the past six months. Quick overview of the session. session is supposed to be 60 days and it's supposed to be uh once per year. This year we had interim committee weeks where a lot of the business of the legislature starts. That was last fall
and into the winter. The regular session this year was early because this is an election year. So it was in January through about the middle of March. The legislature is supposed to adopt a budget. In fact, it's the only thing they have to do each year. They're supposed to adopt a budget during
regular session. They did not do that again this year and had to hold a special session. There have been three special sessions since regular session. The first one uh on redistricting um and the governor also called that to consider regulations of AI and um some
issues related to uh medical freedom. There was no legislation on AI or medical freedom and instead the legislature simply redrrew the congressional districts for all of the congressional districts around the the state of Florida. Um the second one was
adoption of the budget which the state finally uh did. They had to do it by July 1st and they did that. And then last week, we'll talk about this here in a minute, there was a special session um over two days, just two days that adopted a proposal to go on the ballot
in November. This year there were over 1,900 bills filed um almost that many amendments to bills filed. Um almost 3,000 separate votes in the legislature. There were a total of over 15,000 discreet legislative actions taken. Your
team is watching every one of those um for uh intended and unintended consequences to the city of Orlando. Ultimately, there were 237 bills passed by the legislature. That does not account the account for the special sessions. We track this year about 418
bills uh through the process. And of those, about 60 or 61 of them that passed have some impact on what we do here at the city of Orlando. And those might be major ramifications or small things. You see here sort of the trend
over the years of of how much the legislature has done. Remember that drop off back in 2022 or whatever just has to do with the way the legislature counts their bills as opposed to them being less uh productive. At the beginning of this legislative session, the bills
filed were were pretty low. Uh, and we were looking at a a pretty unproductive legislative session. >> Excuse me, >> sir. >> Your slides are not showing on the screen. >> Oh. Oh, do I >> F5? Okay. Pardon me.
Let's see. Someone with some tech savvy will have to assist me. >> Oh, here we go. There's that. What do you have in front of you? Um, but if you have questions about it, let me know. So, remember that drop off in the number of bills filed uh was just have to doing with the way the
legislature counts the bills they adopt. This session looked like it was going to be pretty slow, which is usually going to be a good thing for us. Uh, about midway through this session, the legislature gave up on trying to adopt a budget during the regular session. And that was kind of trouble for us because you remember what your pastor used to
say about um idle hands and the devil's workshop. That's that's true for us and they were able to direct a lot of legislative energy towards uh bills and so they caught back up um during the session. So let's go through about 10 or 12 of the more interesting ones. You remember for years now the legislature
has talked about changing sovereign immunity laws. So, as you know, um, as a local government, uh, and as the state agency, uh, here in Florida, you have sovereign immunity. So, the government has a cap on how much you can sue the government for for many types of
personal injury claims. That cap for years and years was $200,000 per um, person, so per plaintiff, and $300,000 per incident. So, if you had an incident that harmed a group of individuals, all of them together could only um sue the
government for up to $300,000. That's been the same caps here in Florida for um since 2008 or 2009 or so. And uh the legislature has been talking about raising those. Uh in their minds, it was to catch up with the effects of inflation. There were some legislators
that believe there shouldn't be sovereign immunity caps at all, that um plaintiffs should be allowed to recover whatever their damages are. There are a few states that do that. Um, and that would be a real cost to taxpayers. Ultimately, while this has been going on for a number of years, this year, the
proposal was to raise those caps to about a million dollars. Uh, maybe something a little less. Uh, by the end of session, we beat that back to them going up, but not going up um um nearly as much. So, it is now $350,000 per person and half a million dollars
per incident. On the other side of the scale, we got some relief um as a small change. This is a 100page bill. There's a lot lot in it. Um but the preso pre-suit notice period for when a plaintiff has to notify a local government about a
lawsuit has been shortened as has the statute of limitations. So that's um that that that's that's a good thing. Next bill SB 382 on micromobility devices. There's been a lot of concern about the safety of micromobility
devices. That's like electric scooters, electric bikes. The legislature has been tinkering with these laws over the last few years. Ultimately, what they decided to do here is to create a task force that will look at new laws going forward and how we address the safety concerns
related to micro micromobility devices. So, this is sort of a watch this space. Whenever you have a task force like this, that's a a dead giveaway that we're looking at legislation on this topic next year or the year after. The one substantive change, there's really two. Law enforcement needs to report um
um safety incidences related to micromobility devices. And there was a cap put on the speed limit allowed for electric bicycles on shared pathways and sidewalks. That speed limit is uh 10 miles per
hour. Uh but it only applies when the person operating that device is within 50 feet of a pedestrian. Um you know that may may change in the future but that's what it is u for now. There were a lot of bills this session on growth
management and land use. And each of the bills we're going to go over three here. They're easy to get confused. There's lots in them. And so I can just sort of hit some of the the highlights real quick. In this bill 399 uh this is was frankly already the law. It was in case
law, but it's now in statutory law that our permit and application fees um have to be uh equal to the amount of cost actually imposed on the government for processing those fees. In other words, local government can't use permit fees as a ways to sort of subsidize other
functions of the local government. Um there were some provisions in here related to how large destination resorts process certain variances and special exceptions. Uh you might think that that might apply to some land uses here in town, but this is specifically geared
towards a a a project and an issue in South Florida, which is kind of a a lesson that we have in a lot of these bills. A lot of these bills are sort of grabbs of grievances on very specific projects somewhere. So when you actually read the provision, they often are narrowly tailored to just that situation
and often don't apply. So when you read some of these, you might think, yikes, that's a that's an issue. when you actually read the provision in the bill, you find that it has very narrow application and this is one of those provisions here. Um, the one thing that is in here that is kind of a big deal and your staff is going to have to work
through over the next 6 to 8 months is the legislature wanted local governments to quit denying land development applications that comply with your land development code regulations. So, your development standards and your use tables and complies with everything in
the comprehensive plan, but is denied based on something called compatibility. Just it doesn't feel right. It doesn't fit with the neighborhood. Here, what the legislature is saying is that's too amorphous. That's too ambiguous. Put some meat on the bones. What does
incompatible mean? And so, cities around the state are going to have to come up with some standards, some more concrete standards for what compatibility means. and those will have to be adopted. On top of that, there will have to be something in your land development code that says, "Hey, if you're not meeting
community uh compatibility, if you're not meeting the neighborhood field, whatever that is, there has to be mitigation efforts offered to a builder, could landscaping help, for example, would a landscaping buffer that is enhanced help?" And um so those things will have to be written down uh in in
the code. Another thing in this bill is um the state and it's actually in another bill as well worded slightly differently but off-site manufactured homes so home single family homes that are built say in a warehouse um cannot
be discriminated against in your land development code. So if you allow a single family home in say the R1 district you have to allow these homes in an R1 district as well. You can still apply sensible architectural standards and so on, but you can't say just because it was built offsite as opposed
to being on-site uh that it is uh forbidden. The next bill 803 on building permits and inspections. Just the quick takeaway here is the legislature continues to try to make it easier for applicants to use
private providers for both plans review and for inspection services. There was a a a series of complaints that some local governments in other parts of the state were making it tricky and difficult for applicants to use private providers and this was largely an effort to deal with
that. The other thing that's sort of a takeaway out of this bill is that for years local governments had their own residential and commercial building application form. Uh now the Florida Building Commission has been instructed to come up with a common application form for both commercial and residential
property. Um the trick here is going to be getting that univer uniform form uh integrated into our our system here, our review system. Um that form hasn't been produced yet, but we'll watch that process and make sure it's done in a way that is um sensible.
Um local land planning and development HB927. The big takeaway from this bill is the legislature is thinking about taking this private provider idea, this system that we use for building permits and to apply it to land development
applications. Here what they've done is they've created a system where planners, private planners can be used for certain processes and applications on the land development side. When it was written, it was very narrowly tailored to a very
small set of administrative reviews of site plans. And on top of that, it wasn't the review of the actual plans. It was simply a review of whether the plans were complete as applied. So, it is an incredibly narrow set of circumstances. But the takeaway here is
that I suspect the legislature has put this in the statute and will expand it going forward. Um, so we're going to have to watch that very carefully to make sure that like with all these preeemption bills, as much of the um, decision-making authority remains here with you as the democratically elected
officials of our of our constituents. Uh, here's an unfortunate bill I have to report to you and you all heard about this. Um, SB 1134, official actions of local governments. This bill, just sort of the topline headline, forbids local governments from funding, promoting, or
taking any official action on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. The takeaway here was that the the state legislature wanted to ban DEI programs, DEI offices, DEI officials.
This bill doesn't go into effect until January 1st, but that is banned statewide. Jod and I have spent a lot of time reading this bill and it is an incredibly difficult bill to understand. If you read it 10 times, you'll come up with 11 different interpretations of it.
Um it's very difficult to understand and what its ramifications are. You'll have to spend some time with the city attorney. Um understanding exactly um how um this will get operationalized. I will tell you this, there was an interpretation of this bill early on
that really concerned some people about our ownership and our promotion of the Pulse Memorial. Um, and we worked with the bill sponsors, is awful as this bill is in
terms of home rule power, um, the bill sponsor added a provision in there that exempted out any national um, memorial. And so, um, we were able to get a provision in there that relieves us of any concern related to that. Okay. Uh,
but again, going forward, we're gonna have to spend some time doesn't go into effect until January 1st. Another preeemption bill that was unfortunate uh on the sustainability side. This bill prohibits any local policy or fee that is used to implement
a net zero greenhouse gas policy. This bill was really concerning early on. A lot of these bills start out really bad and just turn out bad. And this is an example of that. Um, originally this bill was written in a way where we couldn't have had any carbon reduction goals, policies,
objectives at all to reduce carbon, the use of carbon in our environment, in our economy. The way the definition of of greenhouse gas um policy is in the bill now, it's just that you can't have a net zero policy. So if you think about that,
if our goal is to reduce carbon by 99%, that's not net zero. So it's um not as bad as it started out to be. Um but uh net zero policies banned in the in the state of Florida. Local government finances HB1 1329.
Couple takeaways uh here. There's some kind of administrative changes to the way we post our budget and when we post it and how we post it and how long we keep it up on the city's website. Local governments now will have to post um salaries publicly. They're already public. Um but our salaries will all
have to be posted. The state has been doing that for state agencies for many years. They've now imposed that on local governments. Jose will tell you more about this and his team later, but the local governments now have to undergo an exercise during the budget season of pretending to take a 10% cut to
everything at the city and u showing how that would would work if that was a decision of the city council. don't have to make cuts, but you have to go through that uh reduction exercise as part of your budget season going forward. The Live Local Act, um the legislature
continues to tweak little things in the Live Local Act. Um the kind of takeaways here, there were some local governments that were uh maybe getting a little cute with development standards as a way of of um denying some live local projects. Um not an issue here. Um so there have
been some changes to development standards in the live local act. Um there was um a small change to the opt out for the tax exemption for affordable multif family. So you remember that there's a tax exemption an adverarm tax exemption for certain affordable housing
projects that are built. Um you could opt out which this body decided to do based on the availability of affordable housing in your metropolitan area. uh the change is that you have to be able to show that you have adequate affordable housing under the Shimberg housing study not in the last year but
over the last over the last three years. The other thing in here is the zoning categories that you can do a live local project on has been expanded to not just encourage religious uh sites but it's now required. Um, you also can use the
live local act on municipally owned property, but interestingly, you're not required to sell uh the municipal property for affordable housing uh uses. Here's a bill that um an infill redevelopment bill that um makes it
easier to uh build and develop property that is environmentally contaminated in urban areas. This bill actually doesn't apply to Orange County. It applies to the big three counties in South Florida, but I bring it up just to say that this will probably possibly uh in the future
be uh expanded uh to other parts of the state. Um the gist of it is is if you have an environmentally contaminated piece of property, it's in an urban area that you can go through administrative approvals and you are entitled to a development density and intensity that is kind of an average of the density of
and intensity of the properties surrounding that property. Okay. The legislature continues to be concerned about utility services that are provided by a municipality but are provided outside municipal boundaries.
In the legislaturator's mind, those customers don't have the same access to political sort of redress of their grievances uh since they don't vote for the city council that is providing those services. A lot of this stems from a a series of disputes in South Florida over
a city that has a lot of facilities in another city but charges the other city residents much more for utility services. The takeaway from this is that going forward whenever there's a change in the boundaries of our utility services they're provided outside of our
city boundaries. Those agreements have to be in writing and we have to hold a public hearing to describe our services to those new customers. We also have to provide an annual hearing to non- city residents to u give you feedback about those services. Right now statute allows
cities to charge extr territorial customers a sir charge for the um wastewater and water um service. This will phase that out um over time uh and say that you can not charge out of city
residents any more than in cityity in city residents. Um there's a few other things here. This is one of those things to watch going forward. Um okay, so that was sort of the the big stuff. Um there's there's other stuff out there, but here's some of the key bills that failed. Uh we mentioned these
because this is these are our success stories usually, but also ones that may come back next year. Uh there was again an effort to do away with the local business tax or to cap the local business tax. That's a major source of general revenue to um to your general
fund. Um so that was uh that was fought back. Uh there was a bill called the blue ribbon projects bill that would have allowed um in essence very large developers um with lots of land to bypass local approvals for uh large-scale developments. Maybe we don't
have the land for that here in the city of Orlando, but you got to watch these sorts of things. That bill was um was was beat back. Proposed changes to the uses, allowable uses of tourist development tax uh also failed. Um ideas on that will probably come back as well
the next legislative session. There was a a bill that would have made substantial rewrites to the public records act and um this was a real concerning bill because of the amount of time and effort and cost associated with fulfilling public records requests and
this bill would have made a lot of those things uh worse not better. Quick look ahead. Next legislative session is in its normal time of March um and April. Um issues next year. Um before we actually get to next legislative
session, as we'll talk about here in a minute about the property tax reform proposal, um if there is a positive vote, if the voters of Florida approve a property tax amendment in the November ballot, there will likely be an implementing special legislation in late November, early December this year. next
legislative session, you can see kind of the issues that I think we're going to have to contend with. But the big two, I think there's going to be there is an effort underway to make a substantial rewrite of the uh open meetings and public records law. Uh the city attorney's office is engaged in the
drafting of some of those ideas to make sure that they um don't work against us and work for us. Um, one of the upsides I think is that the incoming speaker of the house um is a city attorney actually in another part of the state and I think he probably sort of understands some of
the the the challenges associated with um with um operationalizing the the public records laws. But the other big thing I think we're going to see next year is a is the possibility of a substantial rewrite of the community planning act. So our old growth management act. Um there's an effort
underway now to start thinking about a reddraft of that and we're engaged in that and working on it. So those will be the two big things, open meetings laws, public records act and uh the growth management act. Incidentally, next year just by chance every 20 years under the Florida Constitution, there is something
called the Florida Taxation and Budget Reform Commission that actually is sitting next year. whatever happens with property taxes at the ballot in November, that commission can put new amendments on the ballot. And so, it's going to be interesting to watch that and see what comes out of it.
If nothing is passed in the ballot uh on the ballot in November, maybe this body comes in with a different idea. So, something we're going to have to have to watch. Okay. Um let's go on to talk about the property tax reform proposal. There's a special session last week. Throughout
this legislative session, we carefully followed a bunch of proposals to make substantial changes to property taxes here in Florida. And just for the folks at home, and everyone, you all know this, but property taxes are the single largest and most important source of general revenue fund for cities
throughout the state of Florida. Um, and so this is a big deal. Last year, the governor said he thought property taxes um had gone up too high um or had grown too much. He largely wasn't referring to the millage rate, which for many of us cities, including ours, has not gone up
at all in a very, very, very, very long time. His concern was the assessed value of property being the other part of the equation. Something that you don't control, the economy controls, but it resulted in increased revenue to cities, which in his mind was not a good thing.
The House passed a number of measures during the regular session. The Senate passed nothing. To get on the ballot, the House and the Senate have to agree on a joint resolution and pass it by a three-fifth majority. So, it's a supermajority threshold. And actually, a joint resolution doesn't have to be
approved by the governor. The governor doesn't approve it or veto it. It's just done by the House and the Senate. House passed something during the session, Senate, nothing. We come back to a regular session last week. The proposal by the governor was revealed a few days
before the general session or for the special session. So, um, we were, um, had to jump into action very quickly. Um, unfortunately, the legislature after only a couple days of consideration passed two measures, one which will put
something on the ballot. Um, our legislative delegation uh, voted against it. U,, our Orange County delegation, they understood the ramifications and we did what we thought was the right thing. Uh, other parts of the state, um, it it it it passed and so it'll be on the ballot. So, what does it
say? There's currently a $50,000 exemption on homestead properties from advorum taxes. This proposal would change that from $50,000 for nonchool levies. So, levies by special districts, counties, and
cities up to $150,000. And that would occur beginning in 2027. So, not this tax year. We don't have to worry about it now. that you may um in consultation with Jose and staff need to start thinking ahead and planning ahead. That would apply starting to tax um
assessments on January 1st. The >> 2027 >> Yes, ma'am. >> 2027. A year later, that assessment, and again, it's just on Homestead properties, would go up to $250,000. And by the way, it's on the first 250 and it's on the first $150,000. It is
not parsed out over different parts of the value. It's the 100 first $150,000 first $250,000 of value. Then there is something in the uh proposal that says and the legislature is going to come up with a procedure, a uniform procedure statewide
that would have cities and counties eliminate the remaining value of all homestead uh properties. So from 250 to an infinite amount, a total exemption will have to be phased in in some unknown procedure to be
decided upon by the legislature. So in other words, if your home is worth a million, you get a $250,000 exemption in 2028. The legislature is going to come up and invent some way in which local governments will have to go to a full homestead exemption.
We don't know what that means. the legislature uh would be given the power to decide that by general law which we think would occur during that special session that I just described for you. So we'll have to watch that space on what that what that means. Now on top of
all that if you are a new resident to Florida you don't get the benefit of that 150 250 and then eventual full homestead exemption. If you're new to Florida after uh some date this year, December 31st, 2026, you move here next
year, you get the old $50,000 exemption for five years. Okay? So, you're paying sort of under the old tax system for five years. The theory there being you're new here, you got to chip in a little bit before getting the full homestead um homestead exemption.
And then finally for non-homestead properties. So that includes um rent rental multif family uh commercial. Right now there's a cap on how much assessments can go up each year. So as the assessment of your property goes up.
It was always capped at 10% per year. It's now capped at 5%. The idea that the state had there was uh to make it more difficult to move the burden of the the tax burden from homesteaded properties
over to non uh homestead properties. Though, keep in mind, you still have control over the millage rate. So, you still could under the system have effectively a tax shift from homestead property owners to non-homestead property owners. um if you still need to
come up with the revenue necessary to pay for all the services that that we provide. Finally, there's um a limit in this proposal on what you could spend advorum property taxes on. Okay. Um we're still
digesting exactly what this means, but um home uh advalorum taxes can only be used on the following things. Please, fire, all the stuff that you think of. The last provision says and anything else not prohibited by law. So in other words, this may not meet mean much, but
what it does allow the legislature in the future to come in and say, "Hey, you can no longer spend taxes, adorum taxes on this thing, whatever it is." Um so um that that's a that's a change change as well. Originally, this list was very limited. It was limited to police, fire,
and a little bit of infrastructure. and um the legislature um added to it and we were um that was uh we were thankful for that at least. So what happens next? Um this measure is doesn't go into effect unless it's approved by 60% of the
electors voters in November. It would go into effect if it is uh approved by the voters on January 1st. And as I said, we kind of expect if it does pass u a special session uh to implement it. You might have two questions. Um, one is
what does this mean for us in terms of of future revenue collections? Uh, we're going into the budget season. Jose and his team have been thinking this through and have been thoughtful and deliberate in and um their analysis of how this might impact us in the future and they'll be prepared as we move into the
budget season to advise you uh on the impacts of this. Mayor, that's um your legislative update for the year and if there are any questions, I'll be happy to try to try to answer them. Okay, questions for Kyle, Commissioner Rose, and Commissioner Sheen.
>> Uh, I want to thank you, Kyle, and the entire team for your advocacy in Tallahassee, um, providing a great update, um, and keeping us informed. So, I do have a couple of questions. Um, do when does, because it wasn't in the
presentation, when do the compatibility rules um that we need to have begin? Because I think Jason has a lot of work to do. He's got a little bit of time. That one's January 1st. >> Okay. When does the standard permit fee schedule go into effect or need to be
done? Because I think Tim Johnson and permitting has some work to do. >> Supposed to ask questions. I know off the top of my head. I I I'll just check and get back to you on that. >> Okay. And then the last one. Um, so there are still some contaminated. So,
while you mentioned South Florida was a focus on the contaminated sites, we do have a lot of contaminated still in Parore and Holden Heights. And so, I want to make sure that we keep an eye on what that means for us here locally. Um, as we talk about redevelopment, I mean,
I have one literally in my backyard that we're looking at. So, I just want to make sure we're keeping eye that while it's there, no one like what does that look like for us here in Orlando because it is still a legislative policy. >> Yep. Understood. >> That's it. Thank you, >> Commissioner Sheen.
>> Thanks, Mayor. And um I'm very concerned about DEI because, you know, I mean, we've got the Dragon Parade, Martin Luther King parade, all those kinds of things that we fund at the city. Um and and whether that's going to be our ability to to fund those initiatives is going to be impacted. Um I did notice
though that under affordable housing, the the legislature said that they broadened non-discrimination protections. Is there a way for us to call it non-discrimination protections instead of DEI because they're broadening non-discrimination protections? So, how can they broaden
non-discrimination protections and and say that we can't? >> That broadening of the non-discrimination protections is in the housing context. >> Yeah. >> Um, good question. >> Um, we need to sit and digest that a little bit. Um, by the way, there was
already something in state law that forbid local governments from discriminating against affordable housing. It was written in a way that was not as clear as it should have been. Uh it also was confusing who had the right of action to bring against the local government if they were discriminating against affordable
housing. >> This provision cleared that up. Um but it's really not substantively different than what was already in in the law. >> But what I'm saying is if they can use that language, why can't we? Y >> okay. Um and and and I think that you know that all of the festivals and
things that we put on Martin Luther King parade, you know, Veterans Day, all of that are are events of significant economic impact. So if we reclassify them as a as an event of significant economic impact, what are they going to say now that we can't do events of
significant economic impact? Are they going to go after that now? So I think I think that's a that's a good way to deal with it. Um Kyle, when we dealt with um property tax reform, which is basically cutting our our our budgets, um we
actually had a tool where people could see, you know, what their actual tax, city tax was. And I think, you know, part of the problem is people, you know, pay their taxes to their mortgage. They see a large number. They don't understand that most of that is school tax. That the the the city portion is
dimminimous when it when you look at your really at your tax bill. And it's frustrating to me that insurance is what is everybody's complaining about, not property. I pay a heck of a lot more insurance every month than I ever have in property taxes. It's actually kind of ridiculous. Um, but can people look up what their actual we can have some kind
of a tool people can look up what their actual city um, you know, taxes are and then have something that talks about what services how what is the impact of this cut. So, you're going to you might, you know, you might save $800 a year,
but you could potenti the the the cost of the city is how many millions of dollars and what would the potential impacts and cuts be? I think it, you know, we need to talk about we need to educate people on what these cuts mean, you know, because they're just, oh, I I hate paying property tax. Don't we none
of us like paying property taxes, but we all like being able to get on the road without having their cars fall into a pothole. we all like have, you know, the services, the street lights, the things that people take for granted that they don't understand we pay for. Um, and that that we need to do a better job of just explaining to people, you know,
from the time that they leave their car in the morning, the number of city services that they are in in interacting with >> so they understand what's really at stake. Um because it's easy to hate government until you you know and people people I remember the last time that we
did that they did the really draconian tax cut on us and we had to stop remember we had to stop the mowing on the courtesy mowing that we used to do and one of the guys that used to always send me these mean things about how we're wasting their tax dollars was very upset because we stopped his courtesy
mowing on the rightway behind his house. So I think people need to understand the kinds of things that are going to get cut as part of this and and we still don't do courtesy mowing now, you know. I mean, so I think that, you know, again, these are things that people need to understand that this is a potential
potential loss if they vote for this and that we're not wasting their money. Um, and that we have kept the millage rate consistent. You know, just I think it's just an you know, this is more for everybody. We need to do some education so that we are not, you know, so that we
at least try to fight back against some of this stuff because they they say that we're wasteful because we did hot yoga even though the yoga classes are required as part of our wellness program to reduce our insurance cost by 25%. I mean, this is the stuff that I hate that they do to us. They they they take a
very small thing and blow it up and don't tell the and don't show the whole picture. So, anyway, I appreciate your work. I don't know how you get to Tallahassee, Kyle. I mean, I used to work for state government. I left state government because I got sick of them cutting my budget every year. I came to local government and here I am having to
deal with them cutting our budgets every year. So, you know, I I don't know how you do it. Thank you for the work that you do. I know you've got a lot more gray hair than you had when you came here and I know why. >> And less of it. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner
Rose, >> so I did have a question. Um, Commissioner Sheen mentioned DEI. Isn't it anti-discriminatory if we don't support all activities happening in our community? >> Those are good questions, Commissioner. Um, there are some exceptions in this
bill, okay, that allow local government to continue following state and federal anti-discrimination laws. So, state and federal anti-discrimination laws have not been overturned. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> Um, another question. Um, so I know legally we are not allowed to expend
funds to educate for or against a bill. I'm requesting communications to come up with standard something similar to what Commissioner Sheen started. But if communications can come up with some standard language that we can start now to say what our t city
tax dollars go to so that we can educate the community that way. maybe do a couple of videos that show like, hey, this is the things that city because I know legally we can't expend it, but if we're just educating on what our property taxes currently go to, that would be great. That way, none of us get
in trouble. We have standard. We know what comes from legal and communications for us to all like break down because I know when we do budget, um Jose and his team normally have like here's your dollar and how it's broken down. But then if we take that dollar and go a little bit further, that way we're all educating city of Orlando residents
against the misinformation that's going to start because the ads are going to come before we blink because it just got approved on Friday. But I want us to educate our residents on where our dollars do go. >> Mayor, if I may, Commissioner, you rais a really good point, which is when it comes to measures that are on a ballot,
there are some constraints, some limits on what local governments can do in their official capacity. outside the your official capacity when you're on your personal time. You can say and do um as you please, but there are limits on uh what we can do in our official capacity. There has been some changes to
those rules uh just in the last few years, but you're absolutely right and um city attorney's office will need to guide you on what what the clear lines are and sort of where the where the gray is and and and how to avoid avoid trouble. Yep. >> Commissioner Keane and Commissioner
Ortiz. >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh, great presentation, Kyle. I I had hair before I went up to Tallahassee, so I I understand. So, my question has to do with parks and recreation, and I'm looking at our director sitting in the back there. Uh, it's like the third
largest uh budget item, I think, after public safety, right? You're saying that that last bullet then is where that would fall into. Is that my understanding? And it wasn't there before they made a last minute deal.
>> That's exactly right. So early in the governor's proposal, the only thing that you could use, and by the way, this is confusing. This was just a limitation on what you could use the remaining adalorum property taxes on. It didn't impact other sources of general fund. Um, but that's still an issue because
it, you're right, it is a large um expense of any city. And we were very concerned about parks and recreation because there was lots of talk in Tallahassee about saving preserving the expenses associated with public safety. Um, no quibble there at all. But if you don't protect these other things that
are important, um, you have you have problems. The ultimate proposal that came out doesn't say anything about preserving any particular expenditure at a certain level like public safety. >> So that was going to be my followup. Is there that's been taken out? So >> that's been taken out. Yes, sir. Not
that we would do that, but we could say we could cut police and fire by 50%. >> Well, there was already a state statute in effect that said that you couldn't cut state uh public safety funding. U the concern was that they were going to go further in some way in this proposal.
What this list says is that here's the only things you can use advalorum property taxes on. But that last bullet that says unless and anything else that's not prohibited by law, that protects what you're spending money on now. Now, what we have to do in the future is protect those things so the
legislature doesn't come back and say, "Here are new things that we want to prohibit you from spending advor property taxes on." >> And we spend more on public safety, police, and fire than we collect in property taxes. >> Yep.
>> Okay. Commissioner Ortiz. Thank you, mayor. Um, you were talking about some of these legislations that are being uh played on up in Tallahassee that they emerge from the southern part of the state.
Maybe we should start a magistrate that would evaluate these proposals to determine if these are more local issues instead of, you know, umbrella issues for the state. Have they ever thought of that? You know, >> I commissioner um I have heard the idea
of, you know, trying to tackle some of these discreet problems with local bills rather than with general law because you capture all the other sort of actors, good actors, cities in the state because of a dispute in very one specific dispute some home rule concept.
>> Yeah. No, I've heard I've heard that discussion before. >> It's a home rule concept. Anyhow, let me get to property taxes, which is the main subject here. Did the legislature ever discuss how are we supposed to supplement those monies we're going to lose by property taxes?
>> Commissioner depends on which legislator you ask. I mean there was an idea out there by some legislators >> maybe. So is in record. Uh this is a time for me to ask you what percentage of the legislators over there have ever worked at the local government.
>> I don't know. No, >> there there's there's some, but not the majority of them. >> Um, all right. I'm going to see when the debacle, you know, this is what's going to happen. Eventually, they're going to have to increase sales taxes
because it's the only way we will be able to supplement some of this. And and I don't care what they say. I would like to also ask has anybody done a study of the difference the delta in terms of the insurance increase compared to the
alleged delta in property taxes increase. I have commissioner I've lived in the my current home for six years. So my property tax has gone up less than 18% because it's capped at three and my
property insurance has gone up 150%. >> Yep. >> Can we do our finance team? Can we do something of of this nature so we can talk to people because we're going to have to go out and and of course not at the government expense, but we're going to have to explain to our communities what's happening here because most of
our people do not understand. They see property tax uh going away and they think, "Oh, this is great. This is great." They don't realize what this is happening, what this is doing. This is not a tax cut. This is a tax shift. Um on the same token, uh let's see.
Do we have any of our members of our delegate members from the central Florida making any amendments on this? Trying to propose any amendments to this property tax >> there? Yes, sir. There was efforts but none of them were successful. >> Really? You mentioned that nine voted
for it and five didn't. >> It was the other way around in our delegation. Nine voted against this measure. >> Exactly. Exactly. >> And five voted for it. I think there was one member that was absent if I recall correctly. >> Okay. By the way, we might have had we I
don't know this for certain. We may have had the only legislative delegation in the state where a majority voted against the measure. >> Good. Good. That's that's good. Um let's see something else. So So I'm really concerned because people don't realize I'm going to make this announcement and I come from a from a
country that saw something like that. You know, they almost you can have a home of I don't know if it's still the case. I believe is still the case of over $300,000 the assessment and you don't pay any taxes which puts a huge burden I mean on on the yeah property
tax which puts a huge burden on the sales tax. So they increase sales taxes to 11.5 Puerto Rico. Uh which considered to what we're going to have to do here is nothing. But um the the other concern that people are not looking at and they
should be aware of is this is going to create an underground economy because people are going to start going pay me cash. I don't want to, you know, so we don't have to deal with this sales taxes in addition to the impact this is going to have in our tourism because could you imagine whatever sales
tax we increase to in addition to the TDT that we may people are going to say the heck with Orlando let's go to now Texas is building Disney and everything you know everybody else is going to go somewhere else it's going to put a huge burden into our economy here locally and
and this people I don't know what mind what are they thinking of here I don't know if it's just people from from rural areas. I don't know what's going on. Who's thinking about making these cuts without really thinking about the impact this is going to have? Forget about the big cities, the small cities that have no money coming in, no revenue coming in
whatsoever. What's going to happen to all of them? And I'm surprised that 2270 legislators, local elected officials are not being listened to compared to only 160 of them in Tallahassee. I don't know what's going on here in this world, but thank you for the the work that you guys are doing. and uh let's let's see if we
can sit down and and coordinate something to start making people making sure that people do understand what's going on here. >> Thank you, >> Commissioner Ortiz. You bring up a pretty good point. Um financially, we will continue to exist >> as a city, probably not offer a lot of
the quality of life things that we've been used to um presenting as a city. There are however cities that are not going to be able to continue to exist and maybe some counties >> too, especially the rural. And I think I
saw something that the fiscally constrained counties are going to go from something like 27 to 40 if this passes in November. Okay. Uh Commissioner Rose, one more time. >> Y times the charm. um special
assessments that are levy locally on in municipalities, those are done by county. So, for example, Miami has food and beverage tax, etc. Those are done by county administrators, correct? >> And what's the process look like? Cuz I'm assuming that's probably the way unfortunately we'll end up having to go
to subsidize paying for um government um things is going to like Miami. I think they're like 10% if you buy something. is >> any additional tax has to be authorized by the legislature, >> right? >> Okay. >> There's two things there. There's the g that's like the sales tax that you just
mentioned that has to be authorized by the state legislature. You mentioned assessments that is done by home rule power. Um but there are a lot of constraints on what you can use that for. Um so um you know you got to spend some time with with the city attorney and and sort of think about this going forward on what's available. My fear is
that you know some cities start to move towards assessments rather than advorum um taxes for things and the legislature does something on home rule assessments as well that is uh restrictive. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you Kyle.
And that will complete our workshop. So we'll stand adjourned and we will convene our agenda review meeting.