--------- Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Good morning and welcome to the May 19th, 2025 workshop of the Orlando City Council. Good morning, commissioners. Um, at our last council meeting, it was a day after another person had lost her life in downtown as a result of a late
night shooting. And during that meeting, there was a request update um the council on our after midnight safety initiatives. So, that is what we're going to focus on in this workshop. This morning, David Barilla, executive director of the DDB CRA will speak,
followed by Chief Smith and CEO FJ Flynn, who provide us with an update. uh David stood us off and I think this is a fairly lengthy presentation between the three of them. So why don't we hold questions and comment till after the
speakers have finished. All right. Sounds like we're good now. All right. Good morning, mayor and members of council. So, let me go ahead and get this presentation up for us. I think we're good to go. So, as you mentioned, mayor, during the last
council meeting, um there was some discussion on really looking at how the nighttime economy was ultimately operating in downtown as well as as how it has been working in the past. Uh and then looking forward a bit. So, just a little bit of an agenda for this
morning's conversation. Uh the mayor gave you a little bit of a highlight already. Uh but you'll start by hearing from me. I I'll get to walk us through a little bit about um um what we've been doing within the CRA as well as the downtown development board looking at enhancing downtown's economy and quality
of life. Uh and then really getting to dig in a bit um on the history of the nighttime economy specifically in downtown Orlando. Uh some various studies that we worked on in the past uh and how it has evolved over time. Uh, I'll then turn the mic over to our chief
of police, Eric Smith, who will talk to you about uh some of the uh recent incidents uh in relation to safety in downtown. And then our chief administrative officer, FJ Flynn, uh we'll talk about some of the the staffing and fiscal realities of what's
been ultimately just dedicated to specifically uh supporting the nighttime economy in downtown uh for for several years. and then to kind of start a discussion as to uh getting your thoughts and seeing how we might want to consider moving forward. Uh so, as many
of you know, downtown Orlando continues to welcome new residents, visitors, as well as businesses. Right now, we have over $2 billion in ongoing development um investments. Uh and we even have greater opportunities that lie ahead. Uh so we have a great opportunity uh to
really look at how we align uh the next steps that we take uh with creating uh what we've all said to be more vibrant, inclusive, and a neighborhood uh that welcomes everyone in downtown. So over recent years, we've really been looking at how we diversify our offerings in
downtown Orlando and how we can support small businesses uh as they either choose to expand within downtown or our look at making downtown a new home. Uh so one of the the big steps in that was really looking at how we can incentivize
uh new businesses to come into downtown. Uh we took a big step with your support uh in creating a new retail incentive program as well as a restaurant incentive program uh to really build out the framework and establish downtown uh as a food and retail destination. Uh our
restaurant program specifically actually offers up to $400,000 uh for new restaurants to come into downtown uh especially those that are full service. Uh it comes alongside them with the interior buildout of those places as well as rent abatement. Um and
and we've been fortunate to have over $2.5 million approved uh to support new restaurants as well as retails coming into downtown. The average uh investment per establishment is $110,000. Uh we also took the opportunity to double down on our facade
program. So, as the restaurant and the retail program really focuses on the interior of spaces, we wanted to make sure that either as new businesses were coming into downtown or our current property owners, uh, that had been here for a while had the opportunity, uh, to partner with us in investing in the
presence of the outdoor space. Um, so with that, uh, we we doubled down, as I mentioned, on our facade grant program. So businesses, especially those or property owners within the core, could get $300,000 of financial assistance, uh, to upgrade the exterior of their property. Um, and that could actually be
combined uh, with our restaurant and retail program. So, you can see that could add up to potentially $700,000 for an establishment within the core um to really align and lock arms with us as we take steps forward in becoming uh a premier neighborhood in central uh
Florida. Uh we've uh been fortunate to get over a million dollars in approvals uh uh last year and that was a 28% increase over 20 23. So, had some good activity and look forward to continue that moving forward. Uh but we haven't just been focusing on our ground floor
businesses. We know it's important uh that downtowns are the economic epicenters uh of cities and we needed to continue or we need to continue uh making sure that we have people coming to work every day uh and activating things during the day. Um so you see here we've had our high wage highv value
job program for several years but uh last year we did amend it and actually make it a little bit more targeted es especially focusing on headquarters in our paramore area. Uh we were very fortunate many of you will remember that travel and leisure uh took a big step at moving out of the attractions areas
bringing over a thousand jobs uh to downtown Orlando in just several months from now. So it is on the horizon. Excited about that. But in addition to that um you notice some some of the other logos on this slide. Uh they haven't been the only company we've had the opportunity to work with. We brought Assured Partners here. Uh they're in the
building just next door to us here in CNL. Uh many of you know EA Sports, Granite Telecommunications, as well as Sinesta are other companies that we've had the opportunity to work with to either move here or expand as we continue to fill out uh that daytime population in this post-pandemic
environment. Um but I wanted to share also um some of the big components. Obviously, when you're looking at uh a lot of the things that we'll be talking about in a bit as far as various bars or or nightclubs, those often look at ground floor spaces, right? That's where they're zoned for. That's where they can
be active. U the logos before you are some of the the components that we've seen open up uh in the past uh two years in downtown. You'll notice some familiar logos hopefully. Create coffee over in Creative Village. Uh Quidoba there as well. Uh the Drake over just kind of
north of Lake Eola. uh Planet Fitness just south of us. So uh we've been fortunate to have a lot of uh ground flooror business openings. Um what what you also will notice in this slide is that the vast majority of them have been outside of the central business district. Uh our kind of uh bedroom
communities or other components that kind of surround that central business district have been seeing the most interest from new businesses coming to downtown. uh um and getting these type of establishments within the CBD continues to be uh a little bit more of an uphill battle. Um but absent of the
businesses themselves, we're obviously always looking at attracting more vis visitors and ensuring a high quality of life uh for those who call downtown Orlando their home. Uh so we've been very fortunate to to continue to offer our special events program through the
DDB. Um, with that, uh, this past year, we actually brought over 42 different events, uh, to downtown. Some of those, uh, very large. You see the IOA 5K, uh, there at the bottom, uh, or and some small. Um, you'll notice on the right was a new program that we partnered, uh,
with this year. That's Kaleidoscope. that's for movies over at Luminary um Green and just about every other type of event uh in downtown as we continue to draw people here uh at for a variety of different reasons at a variety of different times. Um but we also wanted
to make business a little bit easier to um uh to be able to have here in downtown Orlando. So actually during the pandemic uh we started a parklet program but we were fortunate to be able to extend that to allow our restaurants and businesses to extend their patio space.
Uh if you go all the way back to actually project DTO uh the initial or 1.0 as it's sometime referred one of the big highline items there was being an outdoor city. Uh and we wanted to make sure uh that we're able to continue that part program. The one yet you're seeing uh is in the south area. Um, but we also
heard from our businesses that parking was one of the biggest challenges uh for customers when they were coming to downtown. One of those uh uh impediments if you will or hurdles was either the cost of parking um or just the perceived availability of parking. Uh so we created a program called park DTO. It
initially had two different components. Uh if you were coming downtown to go to a restaurant u um you could effectively get complimentary valet um so that make your stay a little bit more seamless. Uh but we also had a metered parking uh uh uh code so to speak. It was just park DTO. Uh we're very secretive here. We
just made it very challenging to remember. Um and you can see some of the stats there between both of those programs. Uh and our meter program is still active. We were able to get over 30,000 stays of people coming to downtown and uh take part in that program and hopefully be patronizing our
businesses as they were here. Uh but we didn't just stop there. We wanted to make sure that uh uh ultimately the experience in the day uh was very exciting, very new, very something that would hopefully pull individuals not only out of their office buildings but maybe get them there uh in the first
place. Uh so we started an initiative and partnership with United Arts last year uh that many of you are very familiar with DTO Live. Uh we've had nearly a thousand performances at this point. So every day uh there's someone performing. You can either see them in Duncan Park, that's right out front of the former Sunrust building, the
Exchanger Building is what it is called now. Uh, but we also did extensions of other types of uh uh activities such as Third Thursday and things to really make downtown unique, exciting, extend people's stays when they're here during the day or draw them outside to uh be
able to take part uh in a lot of the various uh businesses that we do have during the day, hopefully get them buying lunch and just spending some time in our beautiful city. Uh, but we also wanted people to be able to get around. Um, so we did something called Ride DTO. Uh, so they're the bright yellow carts
that you see driving around downtown. We also have one Kia. Uh, it's a sedan that drives around downtown that for just a dollar. Um, you can get around anywhere you want in downtown. It's on demand. Uh, so it works just like Uber or Lift. They will pick you up uh and take you to your destination. Uh, and it's only been
out for about 6 months now, but uh, we seeing great feedback. You see there the average driver uh, rating is 4.95 out of five. So, we got a lot of friendly drivers out there that are uh driving our constituents around and we've moved uh nearly 5,000 people already. Um
especially during those uh and it it is focused, I should say, during those daytime hours. Uh if you haven't used Ride DTO uh yet, we also have a very unique code for that to get three free rides. It's ride DTO. So, uh uh but but the other component is making sure what
everyone experiences just from uh at any point in time when they are in downtown. Uh so we launched our clean and safe app last year. Uh so it's a very simple app. You just you're able to open it up on your phone and anyone can help us uh uh keep downtown clean and safe. So any non-emergency items, you just take a
picture, snap a couple notes. Uh it will geollocate ultimately where uh that individual had snapped that picture. So we've been able to address uh the vast majority of of all our uh tickets, so to speak, in less than 15 minutes. Uh so it's making sure that downtown is as
presentable as ever. Um uh but as we continue to move forward uh there's been other aspects which uh you've seen kind of take shape over the past year. We've done a lot of placemaking initiatives. Um here you kind of just see some highlights as to what those have been. Uh in the upper left uh uh that's
actually probably the newest edition. That's a a new mural we have on the Central Plex garage over in the Paramore area. Um then you see Prismatica which was a traveling art piece that we installed down at Lake Lucern. Obviously some components of what's been very successful is our our downtown for the
holidays walk so to speak and then our event in Lake Eola. Uh the mural that that has caught everyone's eye over on the corner of Rosland and Orange. And who can forget our classic uh Marita sign that we were fortunate to be able to reactivate uh right in the core of
the CBD on 30 South Orange. Um, but many of you um had the opportunity uh uh to join us last week uh at uh the downtown Orlando Partnerships Golden Brick Awards. Um and I I mentioned this when I was speaking there. Uh uh but it's really really
exciting to see uh you learn so much uh of all the other things that are happening in downtown. Uh I put some snapshots here but many of you will remember them. obviously DTO Live up in the left, but we heard from uh a number of different activities and just the economic impact that EDC brought uh the
huge success of the Orlando Pride uh as well as the courtyard over near uh the downtown arts district space. Uh but as all of those things uh have really taken us uh um s have helped us take significant steps forward in downtown
Orlando, we do still u have conversations like we're having today uh in the challenges we face at night and how uh we ultimately uh could look at at managing them a little bit better. Uh many of you uh will remember at least this name, the downtown entertainment
area. Uh uh but ultimately I know the map uh can kind of help be challenging to recall off the top of our heads. So, I wanted to put it in front of us just so we know the area that we're talking about. It's generally bounded by Colonial on our north side, 408 on our south, uh, and I4 on our west, though we
do kind of loop in over the West Court as well as the Kia Center area and then Rosland on that eastern side. Um, um, so over well, it's been about a decade now. Uh we've done a host of different things um to really try and come alongside our
nightlife uh establishments, figure out how we can do better as a city uh to support them, how we can do better as a city to manage them and to make them safe uh exciting uh and vibrant. Um I want to walk us through kind of just a little bit of a timeline u to really to show uh that you know today's
conversation is is is not one that I think we're having in a silo. I think it's a conversation that has evolved over this period uh and has been met with a number of different steps along the process. Um so when uh it kind of going back to that 10-year mark, we partnered with a group called the
Responsible Hospitality Institute um and and really took a deep dive into uh ultimately the value of the nighttime economy and how we can manage it better. We had over 30 stakeholder meetings. We had seven different night tours where we walked around uh various parts of
downtown making sure we saw how things operated and what may uh what was working well quite frankly uh and what we could look at enhancing. Um we had 113 different stakeholders uh intimately involved in that process that represented 80 different companies. Actually that picture you see in the
upper right was one of our roundt sessions. Um um you actually may see some familiar faces that are still in the crowd today because we've been fortunate to have uh a lot of uh folks in our our nighttime community that have uh stood the test of time so to speak. We really were uh rolling up our sleeves
and figuring out how we could better lock arms together and take steps forward. Um some of the high level goals that uh we presented to council uh at the completion of that are kind of listed below. Uh so these were kind of the ideas of uh the the group that I mentioned before. It was enhancing
community policing. Uh we were really focused on the bike unit at that particular time. Uh having dedicated code enforcement officers that really focused on downtown to make sure everybody was on a level playing field. Um to lessen the state's SRX or SFS requirements. So that was for special
food service licenses. So what that did is uh ultimately allow restaurants, full service restaurants to get uh kind of full service of alcohol and liquor in smaller spaces because we noticed that that was a challenge due to our historic building stock in downtown Orlando. A
lot of the spaces that we have uh did not uh were not big enough for restaurants to be able to take space in. So we were successful uh in working with the state in doing that. uh enhancing cleaning and maintenance resources uh create an ambassador unit and then establish dedicated ride share areas. Uh
I I'm I'm I'm happy to say that all of these components from that report uh have been acted on and established since then uh in one way, shape or form. Uh specifically in 2018, uh we implemented the downtown ambassador program. You see some imagery uh of that on the lower
right uh those bright blue shirts that you see walking around in downtown Orlando. Uh uh moving on to 2021 um um we obviously we still had challenges. Many of you will remember when we had a fatal shooting in May of that year um u of an innocent bystander and an army
veteran. Um and we continue to look at implementing various components of our plan and enhancing our conversations. Uh at that time the CRA stepped in to kind of support uh our police department and provide 10 temporary officers to increase the presence of OPD in downtown. We enhanced their camera
system uh as well. Uh we put 11 new cameras. We replaced 21 cameras uh in downtown and and added nine automatic license plate readers throughout the area. We enhanced our code enforcement presence. So we put in two dedicated nighttime code enforcement officers as mentioned that that was a part of the
initial plan. Uh and then there was a six-month moratorium on outdoor speakers. And you may say, well kind of how did that play in? Um really through uh a majority of components. the street party atmosphere in downtown w was noticed as something that we needed to to look into and outdoor speakers uh
were kind of a part of that with various different establishments kind of just playing music into the street uh rather than just in their venues. Um uh we also did a number of lighting enhancements. We had over 413 different fixtures uh upgraded within uh the area and downtown. And then we required sidewalk
cafe permit to operate in the ride ofway. That's where a lot of those uh outdoor speakers were. Um um moving on to 2022 uh we again uh had an incident that year. We had nine innocent bystanders that were unfortunately shot. Um um and then we had some additional components
and took some steps forward to kind of better put uh context and structure around our nighttime economy. Uh we you may remember uh ordinance 202246 where we established a late night special use permit uh which just really said that new businesses when they were coming into downtown had to have a
security pan. they had to register what's known as a responsible person. So, we knew who to contact uh when there may have been an issue or really just to support them as well, inviting them to various different meetings um such as things like uh uh that we're having today where we're talking about the nighttime economy. Uh but we also heard
uh loud and clear from our businesses uh that surface parking lots was also a place where a lot of challenges were happening. Uh so we we instituted uh uh some additional safety requirements upon those surface parking lots uh at that time. Uh um later on that year we had
another ordinance. This was uh 202268 where we clarified really what is the difference between a restaurant and a bar and a nightclub use so we can better really have that structure in the code and the CRA established the safe program. So uh this was another way that
we saw our opportunity to really support our businesses in this process. The safe program specifically allowed CRA funding up to 80% uh for things like cameras uh that would connect to our OPD system, come alongside them to get various uh scanning requirements uh so various
scanning tech scanning technology, ID scanning that is uh as well as metal detection uh technology. We added additional code enforcement officers uh into the downtown at that time. Uh we created a new sidewalk cafe funding program to help people utilize their outdoor space and utilize CRA funding
for that. Um and our CRA community policing innovations line item became more a specific component as a CRA had come alongside both our businesses as well as our police department uh in enhancing the safety and very strategic ways uh in downtown. One of those was for temporarily funding 30 additional uh
police uh uh presence within downtown. Uh and we started something at that time known as uh coordinated entry where we actually uh had various entry points into downtown uh and various different individuals as you would come into downtown would walk by vapor weight detection dogs. So those would just be
dogs that uh you know sniff or weapons or other items just like you would experience at the airport uh in order to uh alert our police or security personnel that we had uh that someone might be bringing something into the area uh that could be uh cause a safety issue.
Uh um moving on to the next year in 2023 uh um there was two officers uh that were shot while investigating criminal activity in downtown Orlando. Uh um um some steps at that time is we had a temporary moratorum um for new nightclubs uh that would operate uh
within the CRA. Um and then later that year um uh ordinance 20238, the after midnight sales permit uh which I'll talk about in a little bit more depth uh took shape and was ultimately approved. And I'll talk about that here in just a couple minutes. Uh and then in 2024,
that following year, uh um many of us will remember because it was so recent, we had two fatally shot on Halloween and nine uh individuals injured. Uh there was an emergency order placed on that time for a little bit less than a week uh at 1:00 a.m. uh to 5:00 a.m. for a ban on alcohol sales in the DEA after
midnight. Uh and then we started a phased reopening of Orange Avenue as as I referenced before uh in earlier years really looking at the street party atmosphere was was something noted uh that was just an additional challenge. It was challenge for police to really monitor is challenge for all city
services uh because it's like really um um hosting an event every day the I should say every day of the week every weekend day of the week every week every week throughout the year uh which has significant financial implications uh for us all. Um um also that year um is
we did get a challenge. So we are in active litigation right now um with some of our bar operators in downtown in relation to the after midnight sales uh permit. And then uh uh this year we really finalized the full opening of Orange Avenue to vehicular traffic. So
as I mentioned I wanted to just talk a little bit a little bit of a reminder about what our after midnight sales permit is and what it requires. So this was approved in 2023. Uh, so if someone wants to sell alcohol after midnight, as that name would indicate, uh, there's several different things. They have to get the permit. Small fee, $250 in and
of itself. That's just the permit fee. Uh, they have to tell us some things. They have to have hours of operation, occupancy. We'll need to know their state um, alcohol license type. Uh but then based on their occupancy uh they could be required to uh contribute to
extra duty police presence um um that uh the chief found being required uh really to make sure we were trying to keep it as safe uh downtown or keep downtown as safe as possible. Um you notice the kind of table on the right of this slide um showcases kind of how that ironed out
after a series of meetings with uh uh both uh residents in downtown as well as our business owners in downtown. uh if there's an occupancy or if a business has an occupancy of one to 124 so less than 125 effectively uh they're not required to participate in that in that
fund the funding of extra duty police. Um now that next step up you'll see level one, level two and level three kind of denotes based on their occupancy uh what their portion uh of of that funding is. So you see uh the level just correlates with how many officers uh uh
they would uh participate uh in funding. In addition to that, uh, we added requirements for weapons detection systems. So, just metal detectors to make sure that, uh, they're providing safe, uh, establishments for anyone that's coming into the area. Um, that they're scanning IDs, making sure that
everyone, uh, who comes in is of the appropriate age. Uh, and then obviously, we want to have occupancy load monitoring so that uh, the establishments aren't getting overcrowded. Should there be an instance where people need to to leave quickly uh that the establishment is designed in a
way where it can accommodate everyone who is inside? Uh a lot of lot of information on this slide. This is just kind of a snapshot of our current after midnight sales permit holders. There's just over 60 right now. You see the vast majority of them. You see that kind of
middle column uh states a level zero. Uh that means they are less than 125 occupancy. So they do not have the extra uh duty requirement from a funding standpoint uh based on the current uh after midnight permit requirements. I also wanted to show just
a brief snapshot of kind of the activity in relation to that permit. So uh as uh you might imagine it it it permit is only as good as uh you know we monitor it. Uh so since its inception there's been about 14,000 uh uh different inspections uh through a variety of
different city departments uh between warnings and and well there's been 39 warnings there's been 414 uh violations uh that have been noted over that period of time. Uh, and then you can kind of see a breakdown of the AMS, uh, permit counts. And then in the
middle, um, this is kind of just a graphical depiction of what I was pointing out on that last slide, uh, which is that, um, you see the the kind of the portion of this pie, so to speak, the 30 is, uh, those establishments were at level zero. Uh, and then the darker blue, uh, is level one. Uh and then you
see that dra drastically decrease as we get to some of our larger establishments that are level twos uh and level 3es. Um and then when you look at uh the after midnight permit uh uh just wanted to note kind of some of the context that we've seen a variety of different uh
cities either shortly before us or or a lot after us kind of move to this style of structure a as they manage their nighttime economies. This is just a list of uh some of the more major ones in Florida between uh Daytona Beach, St. Augustine, uh, Winter Garden, Bradington, St. Pete, as well as, uh,
Oakland Park. I don't want to say that they, uh, they have, uh, they have after midnight permits that are are similar in structure to ours. They are not all exactly the same. Uh, obviously, each city has their own way of of determining what's best uh, for their individual municipalities. Um and there were some
alternate proposals especially in 2023 um um when we were having significant discussions about the after midnight permit u on other ways that we can look at keeping a safe uh and really what it was focused on at that time is getting a funding source uh to to really fund what
was kind of determined as required uh by our chief of police from a police presence standpoint. Um um uh all of these actually were kind of uh presented to us and we had conversations with business owners um through a variety of different things. One of them being the Orlando Hospitality Association at that
time. Um but wanted to note uh that there was a creation uh there was conversation of creation of a a special taxing district or a neighborhood improvement district. Some of the challenges um with that were it it really would focus on the property owners themselves. Uh in downtown Orlando, you can think of how that would
be focused. a lot of our larger buildings or office buildings who who really didn't have uh the context of um the types of businesses that this service was being ultimately required for. Um so that uh uh component was really never taken there were never uh
steps taken as thinking that was the right piece to to move forward. There was a sales tax charge option that was proposed uh within the DEA. Um um we did encourage our establishments to that we would kind of support that uh component should they seek to uh patronize the
state in order to get that process uh started uh which has not taken shape up until this time. There was conversation about an MSTU municipal testing service units uh as many of you know uh that really wouldn't work in this context but it was discussed those funds would go to the county um um in the way that that is structured. Uh but then there was
significant conversation and a hopeful conversation on our uh part at the time uh that that uh actually continued to move forward about an 18A uh which is a special event permit so we can kind of um have a more formal approach uh to the coordinated entry style of approach that
I noted earlier. Uh um ultimately that that was never able to um u be effectuated uh for a number of reasons. Some of them being the context of the uh you know new uh legislation that has come before us from the state level. Other components of making sure that
everyone within that area um was open to having uh you know restrictions placed on people coming in uh to their to their individual area. Uh the cost of that in in and of itself for additional resources both from a security standpoint, barricades and all of those
pieces uh as well. Um but um as as we did this, I wanted to share uh um kind of as as my one of my closing slides and just how does our downtown compare? So, especially as we were looking into the
our uh proposal for the after midnight sales permit, we really wanted to see kind of just how Orlando stacked up so to speak, not only against some of our major cities in Florida, but also uh against similar cities uh throughout the country. Uh and what we found uh at that period of time was that uh we had the
highest density of bars per square mile against all other CBDs uh in Florida. That's Tampa, St. Pete, Miami. Uh and even when you look bigger than that, uh um we had more than Denver and Austin uh and just behind Nashville. Um so you can kind of think about what a similar pier
city uh from a density standpoint might look like. Uh we had four times as many bars per square mile uh as Miami and Austin. uh um that really plays to the the context of the density uh in the location of our establishments. Uh and
we have the highest number of bars per linear mile compared to to other commercial uh uh corridors in Florida. Uh so uh to that extent uh we are a bit unique I think both in the location because it's in the smack dab center uh of our central business district. Most of it on our main drag or just off of
that on Pine or Court and obviously our main drag being Orange Avenue. Uh um but we have almost the same amount if you want to think about it as Broadway Street in Nashville as well as Sixth Street in Austin. Uh uh many of you uh may uh have seen that these cities as well are kind of working through various
different components of how to manage uh their night life. Specifically, Austin uh uh had had went through a uh roadway opening similar to ours around that same time in order to try to kind of deter that street party uh atmosphere. Um, so
with that, I want to turn it over to our chief of police, Chief Eric Smith, to walk you through some of the uh items that uh his team has seen in downtown uh in recent years. Thank you, David. Welcome, Chief. Thank you. Good morning. Thank you,
Dave, for that introduction. Um, as you all know, I spent a lot of time working downtown, even before I was the chief, when I was deputy chief. I always I still continue to spend one night a week riding downtown either Friday or Saturday night. I spend a significant amount of my time downtown because we have a lot of officers downtown. Safety
downtown is a priority for the Orlando Police Department. Today we'll share crime statistics from downtown Orlando. We'll review staffing numbers downtown, compare them to those in International Drive and Universal CityWalk, our other entertainment areas. We'll also discuss
our extensive efforts to keep downtown safe and present an impact video displaying a few of the ma the many significant incidents that have occurred in our downtown. Here are the stats from May 2024 to May of
2025. We have made over 1500 arrests downtown. We've taken 177 illegal guns off our streets. We've come across 335 legal firearms. Now, we've only been tracking that since October. And the reason for that, that's when the law changed when allowed people to legally
carry firearms. So, we also track that number. We've handled 236 fights and we've handled 548 disturbances. We've also in that time with proactive activity have done 5698 suspicious person stops in our
garages and our parking lots. We've also in that time downtown have did 1,057 traffic stops. Despite the law change, our officers are still seizing a large number of firearms. Our last shooting involved a legally carried
handgun. 33% of our officer involved shootings happened in our downtown. The next slide will show you stats of the past three years. As you can see, arrest, fights, and
firearms encountered by officers has continued to rise. Since 2021, 46 of our police officers have been injured downtown. Of those, four suffered severe
injuries. During the same period, 176 officers have been injured citywide. 25% of all officers injured occur downtown in a very small area. Downtown staffing, on duty
staffing cost approximately $61,000 for each weekend. Extra duty staffing, which is our downtown detail, cost around $51,000 per weekend. Uli downtown staffing cost approximately $6 million. From a
staffing st stand standpoint, downtown requires between 81 and 131 officers to cover just eight blocks. As comparison, we have 98 patrol officers citywide. So, as you can see, downtown some nights has
more officers than the rest of our city. Downtown staffing and cost for 2019 and 2022. The cost was lower when the crowds are smaller. 2019 averaged 23 officers per night for
the downtown detail. On duty staffing averaged 29 officers per night. The total cost for on duty and extra duty staffing was approximately 1.5 million in 2019. In 2022 we averaged 30 officers per night in the downtown detail. On
duty staffing averaged 29 officers per night. The total cost for on duty and extra duty staffing was approximately 2.1 million. So, as you can see, there's been a rise. Here's our comparison between International Drive to downtown.
These are the crime stats for International Drive for the past 12 months. Compared to downtown, they have 63% fewer arrest, 91% fewer guns seized, and 93% less violent crime. Now, a
comparison of Universal CityWalk for the last 12 months to downtown has 95 few arrest, 98% fewer gun seizures, and 96% less violent crime. So, the public safety efforts to
mitigate issues, we've attempted partial road closures, full road closures, and currently there are no closures in place. We've also done proactive efforts such as increased cameras license plate readings, readers, and officer staffing increases. Quarterly,
we meet with bars and nightclubs to get input. As a result of drug complaints, open drug sales at nightclubs and bars. We conducted Operation Nightcap. This ran from July 2024 to November of 2024. OPD's drug enforcement division launched
this operation. This resulted in 85 charges against 32 suspects across 23 bars and nightclubs. Five of the suspects were employees of the establishment. Fentanyl, cocaine,
ecstasy, cannabis, meth, and other drugs were sold to undercover officers. We also discovered 150 afterhour permit violations at 23 different bars and nightclubs. officers were able to enter bars and nightclubs with firearms in an
undercover capacity. This shows significant incidents. What you're looking at now is a map of some of the significant incidents that have occurred downtown. On May 2nd, 2021, a man was shot and killed, an innocent military veteran on the street. On September
25th, 2021, a man ambushed officers picking up a brick and hit them repeatedly in the head. He live streamed this incident on Facebook. On July 31st, 2022, nine people were shot on a sidewalk as a result of rival gang activity. All the victims survived and
no ail had no affiliation with either gang. On July 3rd, 2023, an officer fired his weapon after the suspect disobeyed commands during a traffic stop. On August 4th, 2023, two TAC officers were shot se several times
while investigating criminal activity. Both officers survived multiple gunshot wounds. On January 7th, 2024, a victim was shot and killed in a parking garage. On March 15th, 2024, a suspect had an altercation with security guard,
which resulted in security guard shooting the suspect. On June 2nd, 2024, a suspect exited a parking garage at a high rate of speed, nearly hitting pedestrians. In response, one of the pedestrians threw a road sign at the suspect's vehicle. The suspect then
fired seven shots at the pedestrians. No one was injured. On October 27th, 2024, a person drove erratically through downtown almost hitting pedestrians, forcing officers to fire at him. On November 1st, 2024, a suspect shot 10
individuals, resulting in two deaths. On April 7th, 2024, two individuals were involved in a fight that ended with one victim being stabbed six times. On April 20th, 2025, a person fired a weapon in the air towards a crowd of people.
Officers gave command for the suspect to drop the weapon. When the suspect refused, the officers were forc forced to shoot him. Eight of these incidents occurred after midnight. Now, here's a video of some of the downtown incidents.
The question is, is this the downtown we want? Um, now you can see 8:00 p.m. to midnight versus midnight to 4:00 a.m. comparison. This consistently shows increases in crime after midnight. 50% of downtown visitors after midnight are
not local. They come from 30 to 250 miles away. Some of the crimes that we encountered downtown, armed robbery, attempted homicide, battery, battering a law enforcement officer. We deal with vehicle burglaries, resistings, of
course, homicide, and drug violations. So, here's a stat of violent crime by day of the week. As you can see, towards the weekend, of course, it goes up. You see a large impact on Sunday. That's because violent crime that happens after midnight on Saturday counts towards the next day. So that's
why Sunday you see a very large impact on Sundays. As you can see here by time of day, you see that crime goes up as the night goes on. Here's another video. Since 2020, 46 officers have been injured while working downtown with four
suffering severe injuries. Downtown Orlando places a significant financial burden on our department. It also is creating a strain on manpower. The staff downtown OPD's ability to conduct proactive enforcement in other critical areas is limited. The high pressure environment does take a toll on our
officers morale. Our officers are experiencing increased levels of burnout and fatigue. We have a duty to keep residents and our visitors safe. As the police department, we have tried everything to curb violence. This time, we really don't see any other viable options. Thank you. Now I'll be FJ
Flynn. Thank you, Chief. Uh mayor, commissioners, um we're right at the end, so I'm just going to kind of close. Uh but one of the other things, uh to kind of consider is so we've heard from David, we know what the vision is that
we want. Um we've heard from chief and we know what he uh does to kind of keep things safe, but then there's actually other costs to the city. And so uh managing the downtown cry crowd requires operational support from a lot of other
areas. And so we've got transportation with and parking. We've got um OPD um to kind of treat folks uh after they've been injured or maybe have had too much to drink. Uh public works spends a
little bit more time um with uh compactor pickups and just all the trash and then economic development spends a lot of time just keeping things clean uh downtown. So what does this all cost? And so, um, chief has already spoken to
the hundred officers, uh, downtown, but the other interesting thing to point out is that there's, uh, almost a hundred officers that actually have the responsibility of policing the rest of the city, uh, outside of downtown. Um, so we've already gone over the the cost,
6 million annually. Um and that the CRA is budgeting uh 4.7 million annually to handle that which is about 12% of the annual revenue. Uh but you contrast that. So they're spending 12% but the approval on
the tiff is only about 1% uh from the bars and nightclubs of the property taxes that's generated. uh code enforcement spends u about a little over a million little over half a million dollars on downtown and then the OFD
costs are there so roughly $6.7 million worth of cost and then the acrrual from the AMS permit is about a million6 so about um not quite 25% of what's acred so um those are the the staffing impacts
and so I know you've heard um a lot this morning Um it's a lot of detail and we appreciate you know your time uh spent on this. And so uh we're just going to basically open it up. These are really the three questions that we'd like to kind of talk about today which is um if
we continue with this, how are the additional public safety costs covered? And the other question is is uh do we stop selling alcohol at midnight? And then uh in both scenarios, do we keep
some sort of AMS permit? Um so um scanning, ID checks. Um so those are really the three things that we want to want to talk about this morning. And so we still we have staff here to kind of answer any questions and then I'll turn it back to you, mayor, for Okay. Thank
you, FJ. So, um, it's a lot of information being presented and obviously we've made significant investments in downtown because it's our economic and cultural hub, not just for Orlando, but for all of Central Florida, and we want to draw people downtown. U,
but we also have to balance the resources to manage the crowds that we draw downtown. I don't know if we put a number on it, but 10 to 15,000 people a night probably. David, what do you got on that? somewhere in that range on f Friday, Saturday, Saturday
night. And we have to ask whether that's um what our vision is for our downtown and our community. I look at today's discussion as a challenge on how do we manage the downtown crowd and it's just like a lot of the other large events we
now have to manage. Um the uh marathon trials come to mind, but that's events that are occasional events and not uh two or three nights every single week, week after week. So um there's a lot of resources that are being expended for
the 12:00 to 2:00 time frame. So um I think we have three ways we can go from here. we can maintain our after midnight sales permit the way it exists today but shift the cost of the program from the CRA which could only do it as a really a
pilot um to general revenue. So we'll have to figure out where that $4 million from general revenue will come. Um, we can amend the AMS to change the police funding structure or we can amend the AMS to end alcohol sales at midnight
with a continuation of some security measures and redirect the investment that we have made from the CRA into existing establishments to more align with the DTO action plan. And I'll remind you on the sale of alcohol, state
law is to midnight. The city of Orlando extends by ordinance the sale of alcohol from 12 to 2. So I will open it up for discussion. We do not I do not intend to come to a conclusion today. It's a day
for input and discussion among commissioners and questions of the presenters today and then we will um certainly want to engage and have stakeholder input um as we move forward with any proposed changes. So, first I have Commissioner Rose and Commissioner
Sheen. Thank you for the presentation. Um, so I will set this tone. Um, as someone who has lost a spouse uh to Nightife, um, I don't believe that the
policies that are in place currently are protecting the community. Rather, they are hurting some of the businesses. I think that the city has done a lot of knee-jerk reactions to situations that have happened downtown. Um, as a commissioner who represents downtown,
who comes downtown, and who lives downtown, I think that there are opportunities that we can explore. I do not believe that um ending alcohol sales at midnight solves anything. Um there are cities there are major cities in this
state including Jacksonville who have after midnight who stop alcohol sales at midnight and it does not stop the violence. What we do have to do is create a place where we do not allow back actors into downtown. I think we need to go to universal security measures. Um last week during my
briefing I still have not received the alleged notification that says we cannot mandate offduty. I did do some research and Eore City requires all of their establishments downtown to have a certain amount of offduty based on the amount of their um the amount of uh occupants in their building. One
mandatory um in outside and then a security plan. I think we need to look at security detail as a whole in our downtown because while there are establishments who are zero occupancy, they have multiple when there are different activities and events happening in downtown, they do change
that occupancy. Are we um I heard the statement made about um quarterly meetings. I'd like to know and I'm I I'll go down to I don't know if someone has a pen to write my questions. I really would like to know when was the last um other than situationals or
announcements. When was the last time the bars and the nightclubs met quarterly? I know that there have been times when we're going to change a policy or when we did the when we shut down when we did the curfew when the shooting happened downtown. Um, and I'm going to use this. Safety is a top
priority, not just in downtown, in this entire city of Orlando. Shootings happen across this world, not just in downtown Orlando. I will use Eboard City. Eore City had a Halloween mass shooting similar to downtown. They still serve alcohol after 3:00 a.m. They did not
change their policies because that is not conducive to uh businesses downtown. I do believe that the policies that have happened in the last I would say four to five years have been a direct in my opinion punishment to the establishments in downtown rather than looking at
cohesive how do we work together um the security measures that we have for AMS everybody needs those same security measures again if we go back to the RHI plan that I was a part of in 2015 the countless nights touring downtown I just reshared a post of a night when we were
at um one of the bars downtown we were like what's next where we cohesively came together. I would challenge everyone on this day is if you have not go visit downtown in the night life as a single woman who has a child at home. I come downtown with no regards. I understand my safety. I know what's
safe. I know where to go. I know where the establishments are. A lot of the a lot of those in the room have seen me. I come I go I come and I frequent downtown. So I want to challenge before we start talking about policy changes. I want every one of you all don't come with security. Don't have OPD with you. find an establishment after midnight and
come and come and experience downtown. I think the portrayal I it's a sad situation with anyone losing their life whether it's our officers who are getting injured or if it's individuals who are coming in downtown but we have to work together um come up with
security measures and stopping alcohol sales at midnight does nothing. I'mma set this and I'm going to set this and then I'll pass it on to Commissioner Sheen. It's 11:59. I just finished my paper. I live in downtown. I've had a hard, stressful week. I want to just go get a drink. If
we stop alcohol sales at midnight, your average person who lives in downtown who wants to go get a drink, where do they go? Is that the nighttime that we're trying to do? Is that the entertainment that we're trying to do where we said we're a dead downtown? And then beyond that, we become a dead downtown,
businesses start leaving. What do we do? What's the plan of action? We can't restaurant our way through. Yes, it's been great. We've been doing a lot of great investment in our restaurants in downtown. We just can't have all restaurants in downtown. I think there has to be a happy medium balance with nightlife. I think and I supported last year's change to policy downtown. I do
think that we need to spread out the um the night life and the entertainment in downtown because the core there's still other parts of it. There's a north quarter and there are other parts of downtown. So, I did support last year's because we do need to look at how do we encourage establishments to go into the north quarter. How do we encourage
establishments to go into different areas so that the entertainment isn't just in one area? But I would like the the to find out the questions. Um what are some of businesses saying about coming into downtown because
parking was one, but I also hear rent prices being an issue with businesses coming downtown. How often are the officers, the venues, and city staff meeting outside of a policy change or implementation change? I know I had one when I first got elected in July last
year. I haven't heard of any others since then. The ambassador program that we currently have is in the daytime. In the RHI study, it was requested that ambassadors are in the nighttime to help the ebones and flow. Um, and are we
running the same patrol operations? So, we looked at numbers about iDrive and Universal. Are we running the same operations in Universal and iDrive as we are doing downtown? And so, those are the questions that I'd like answered. Okay, Commissioner Sheen.
Uh, thank you, Mayor. And, um, I think that we do need to keep the after hours permit and I but I do think that the bars need to pay pay their fair share. I mean that we should not be subsidizing, you know, half of our officers should not be downtown. And and if the bar owners want to have a free-for-all and they want to go to 2 am, fine, but they
need to pay for those officers that are necessary to maintain that. I do not think it's fair for the rest of the city to maintain um to subsidize the bad business practices. And you know what? I walk through downtown, too, and I hear some language and some things that are that that promote violence towards women
and officers. And I might not agree with that kind of entertainment if you call if you can call it that. But you know what? We can't control speech or the bad businesses practices, but we don't have to subsidize that nonsense either. You know, I mean, if you're going to bring in a rough crowd, you're going to have
rough things happening in downtown. It's up to the business owners to control themselves, and they will not do that. And that sucks, frankly. I wish that that we keep having conversations and we keep having conversations and we keep having conversations and none of the behavior changes. That's the problem. We
cannot h it's not fair that 50% of our officers are in downtown attempting to control violence. Okay? It's just not it's just not fair. So I think we need to pull the police who create a false sense of security and tell people it's dangerous after midnight because of the practices that the businesses are doing.
It is what it is. the bars will have less patrons if they realize they are creating an unsafe environment and it's up to the bar owners to help create a safer environment and they will not do it. Okay. Other areas are very vibrant. Mills 50, Thornton Park are vibrant. They have live music. They have downtown
for grown-ups. They cater to a less violent crowd. And if you're going to be drawing people from 150 miles because they you are providing a kind of entertainment that promotes violence, which I hear when I walk through downtown, it is what it is. Somebody's got to call it out. Um, I wish we would
I wish we would promote the kinds of things we want to see. Have live music incentives. Let's do something other than promoters that just bring in people that trash downtown. Okay? Let's create the kind of downtown we want. Let's stop trying to, you know,
and and and you know what, y'all, you got to stop you got to stop this. You all have the ability to control the kind of entertainment that you provide. All right. But we can't. Okay. And this is this is the frustration. We have to we have to
treat everybody the same. All right. Okay. We have to treat everyone no interaction. Well, we have to treat everybody the same. And that's the difficulty that we have. All right. So, I think that we do need to have more responsibility. If you want to go to
2:00 a.m., okay, if you're going to be given a a privilege, it is a privilege because you stop at midnight in state law. We are providing a privilege. If you want to continue that privilege, you're going to have to have some level of responsibility in
it as well. And you're going to have to pay more because if we're paying $6 million, the the the people who live in our communities are not going to be happy with subsidizing, you know, a a four or five block area with half of the cops in downtown. Okay? It's just not sustainable. It's not sustainable
through the CRA. I mean, we kind of been pushing it to even do that for the for as long as we have. Okay. Um, but you all have to have some level of responsibility in this as well. And I don't agree with putting all of our officers in downtown because you and and you know what? If you create that unsafe
environment, guess what? People are going to quit coming and they already are going to other areas. So you it is in your best in business interest to partner with us and to create a safer environment. Stop the bad promoters. I
walk by your establishments at night. I hear them. I hear the language. I hear what's going on. All right. Let's try to have some level of responsibility here and quit being adversaries and let's try to do something responsible as adults because you know what? Adults are the ones that
are supposed to be consuming alcohol. adults are supposed to be the ones serving the alcohol. Let's try to get this solved. You know what? Okay. There is no interaction back and forth. Less than 1%
of the CRA taxes are from bars. All right. 25% and we're paying $6.7 million. That is unsustainable. So, y'all going to have to figure out a way to work with us on this. um or I'm going to support the midnight,
but I would rather we try to get it together. All right? I would rather we try to get this together and work this out. And y'all going to have to realize that there is a that this is a privilege and you're going to have to be part of the solution as well. That's all I had, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Burns and
Commissioner Gray. All right. Thank you, Mayor. And uh thank you, David, and um T for that for that presentation. Um you know this is this is an issue that uh many cities are grappling with. Uh and when I look at this you know we look at it and I
consider several things. One number one is safety also business operations um jobs as well as the city's budget. You know I am concerned uh as commissioner Sheen just mentioned that the uh 1% of the CRA taxes that are
generated comes from from the bar. So there there is a concern right now. I uh do believe that there needs to be some amendment to the AMS uh structure. Uh I think we need to continue the scanning of the ID IDs, the uh ID checks, the
capacity and all of that. Uh but also I think we need to look at how the charges are spread spread amongst the the um bars. uh because I understand that there are some bars who are not open uh that often that are paying a significant
amount of these fees. So I think there needs to be an an assessment of that and spread uh that love if you will amongst all the bars that are there. Right now I am not uh in support of ending uh alcohol sales at 12:00. I do believe
that um I do believe that that I one I don't believe that that would solve the issue. Uh because then when we look at a lot of these incidents, I haven't seen one that a person was coming out of a club, you
know, parted all all night at the club, came out and committed those those in, you know, those those uh activities. Now, we know that clubs draw people downtown, and so I'm hoping that with the opening of Orange Avenue, we have
less of that uh festival type of of feel. But again, I think that we should not um penalize our bar owners. We need to work with them. We need to continue to diversify the offerings downtown. I like to see the the uh restaurants and
things like that. And Commissioner Rose, I do um frequent downtown. Unfortunately, one of my favorite establishments is closed now, Ember. Um, but I I'm there and I want to come there. When I have friends in town, I want to take them to downtown. We take
them to the other areas that make Orlando great. And we also want to want to bring them downtown, but I also want my friends and my family uh to be safe in doing so. So, uh, mayor, I do think we need to, uh, look at the AMS structure, again, keeping all of the
the, uh, safety ID checks, but I think we need to look at how we disperse and how we, um, charge the the the, um, the organizations and the establishments so it can be more equitable. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Burns. Commissioner Gray, thank you, Mayor.
Thank you, Mayor. And I also want to thank the chief and David and FJ for putting together these stats and and for their team for doing it. Um, just a couple of comments on this one. I I think we all have to remember what's our goal and we've had stated goal for a long time, which is we want downtown to
be a place for everyone morning, noon, and night. And the key is for everyone. And I would submit to you that u in my opinion, we are not there uh especially in the night time. And I would remind folks these aren't mutually exclusive.
um what happens during daytime affects nighttime and vice versa. So, we need to create a downtown that's that's there for everybody. Again, morning, noon, and night. I apologize. I'm kind of coming back from a cold. Um why is it important
to me? And I've stated it before, but I'll state it again in no particular order. Remember folks, we have a huge investment not only in your business but in our downtown venues to the tune of two plus billion dollars. We have
Camping World Stadium. We have the KIA center. We have the performing arts center and while it's privately owned, it it's directly affected um the city soccer and we have an owner at the city soccer that has stated a desire to invest more money not just in central
Florida but downtown. So certainly you have an investment. We recognize that. But we have other investments. And the taxpayers of of the city have over $2 billion invested in venues that we need to protect. And why do I say protect? Uh
what's happening right now, and I talked to enough people, I feel pretty confident in saying this. Folks are coming downtown, whether it's a ball game, a concert, a show at the stadium, a football game, but they're coming downtown for the event, and then they're jumping in the car and they're going
back home. Why? Because at night time, they tell me they just don't feel safe. And remember, people have options. They have options and they want to go where it's safe. So, number one reason for me that we have to make sure downtown is safe is we have a big investment in the
venues that we need to protect. Um, number two, um, the other thing is our Orlando brand. Look, we're not just a Central Florida thing. We have a tourismbbased economy. We're working hard to change that. Uh, but folks see
whether they're here in Central Florida, in the state, in the country, or inter internationally, they read about um what's going on downtown, and that would kind of turn them away from coming here. And again, people have choices. Uh we've we've talked we're going to talk about
later today at council about the fact that we've got um international soccer teams coming to Orlando. That's good for your business. It's good for our business. But if we're not perceived and again I I say perception's reality. If people perceive downtown is unsafe,
they're not coming. They're going to go to other places. So I think we need to protect um our brand and I'm not sure we're doing it right now. Um the other things that the chief said, there's the financial uh component. I don't need to do that. But to me, the biggest reason
that I'm struggling with where we are downtown is what chief said, the amount of officers and first responders and includes firefighters that are involved in this process. I take it seriously as a commissioner. They're our employees.
No different than Solid Waste, Parks and Wreck, and everybody else. our first responders, our police officers, and our firefighters are our employees. And I sure don't want to put them in harm's way. They have families just like you and I do. Nobody wants to be in an environment um that that's unsafe by
design. That's part of their their uh their commitment when they when they put the badge on, whether they're firefighter, police, they know they're going to face danger. But I sure don't want to put them into that position night after night. And you're seeing the numbers don't lie. The numbers are
telling us that it's a dangerous place to be if you're a police officer or a firefighter. And as a commissioner, they work for the city. I don't want to put them in that position. No more than I want to put a solid waste worker in a position where they're going to get hurt, you know, collecting solid waste.
That's not my job. So, uh, I'm concerned about protecting our our first responders. Uh, so it's those four reasons, and there's some others. We've got a lot of folks living downtown that have made big investments. I'm not sure they're getting the most out of downtown nightife that they'd like and they tend
to go to other parts of the city and Commissioner Sheen said it. Thornton Park, Mills 50, the milks milk district. Um so, uh we we need to do something. The solutions we've suggested just don't seem to be working. And um I guess I'm
my role is I'm kind of out of I don't have any other ideas. and and maybe Commissioner Sheen said it best. If you guys have ideas, come to the table quick because I'm out of solutions and we've been working at this for three and a half years. It's not getting better in
my opinion. And um quite frankly, you know, we try to be open in us. I'm a 12:00 guy right now until somebody can convince me that we can have downtown entertainment after hours in a safe environment. And look, I know I've met with a couple of you. We've got some
really good operators downtown. They're investing their own money. They're trying to make a good living downtown and provide a product. So, it's not the whole group, but there uh my general observation is there's some bad apples in the group. And you guys as a as a
industry need to figure out a way to get together, have some leadership, people step up and say, "Look, if you're bad operator, you're not going to be with us." And here's the good news. you eliminate the bad operators, you've eliminated your competition by 50%. So,
um, that's kind of where I am. Mayor, I appreciate you bringing this to to the front so we can discuss it. I don't have all the answers. I just know we're not where we want to be. We're not going in the right way, and I sure as hell don't want to put our officers and
firefighters, continue to put them in a perilous situation. And that's why I'm a 12:00 guy. But I am willing to say, "Show me something that works and I'll consider it, but I'm not there right now." So, thank you for letting me share my thoughts. All right, Commissioner
Stewart, then Burns and Rose. Thank you, Mayor. Um, Jim, thank you for your comments. I think that's a good reflection of what is down what's going on in downtown. And I and I specifically am concerned about u um after 12:00 and and alcohol sales. I My mama used to say
nothing good happens after midnight. and we've now got the figures that say nothing good is happening after midnight in downtown Orlando. I think the biggest thing we have two two issues that concern me and I think the first is I think Jim is and I've said it for 15
years. Uh the city has made an significant investment in downtown Orlando. Uh people come to venues and then they drive away. U we bring thousands of people to downtown Orlando and they go someplace else. So they're not there. I I'm the same way. When I
want to go to dinner, I grab dinner and usually in College Park in my district someplace and then go downtown and then go back to that area to have drinks. Why? Because I feel safer about that. I feel safer about walking around. I feel safer about those same kind of issues.
I'm not an after midnight guy. I'm a 10:00 to midnight guy and I don't feel safe in that time frame um in downtown Orlando. I appreciate Chief where where are you? Thank you for those those statistics. I think that's a a telling
concern that we have. Um like Jim, I we we have thousand hundreds of officers downtown. I don't know what the f ofd report is, but I'd like to see their response as well as the number of off of uh of firefighters and paramedics that
we have downtown as well and who's paying for those. That's a concern that I have that we have started from the very beginning. Um Patty, your idea is your your comment about being sustainable is just exactly right on. The challenge that we have is
that that that somewhere along the line in the course of the next couple of years that the the rest of the community is going to say we're tired of paying for downtown. So commission do something about it because there is no real benefit. I have a challenge of of having
taxpayers in my district pay for a downtown core and I've only got about a third of downtown. But they're concerned about the fact that they're now spending money for downtown so that there can be a different type of nightife in downtown and a different type of clientele and
it's an unsafe environment. They don't have a problem essentially paying for the venues. they have a problem paying for fact that there's a core of bad operators and a core of downtown that is making money. I think that's would be
consistent um uh with other expenses that we have. It's consistent with public works projects. You can't spend a whole lot of money in downtown Orlando because I get we get complaints from people outside saying I'm spending money in downtown. But when we have those kind of conversations with our constituents,
their answer is they understand that a a good infrastructure of our city is good for everybody. If we look at this as an infrastructure issue, it is not good for our community. That's what's happening right now. I'm like Jim, I'm going
towards 12:00 curfew. And the reason is because we don't know. We we don't have other ideas that accomplish that task. Um I think that downtown has to be paid for by the downtown core. I think the fact that
that the small number of small amount of money coming in doesn't match the amount of safety investment that we're making. Now, I'll also blame a little bit on the state of Florida because part of the challenge
that you have is that it's a public area and you can have a gun and you can have a gun without any kind of of repercussions as long as you haven't got some kind of record. And so, a guy comes up, shows a gun, we check his record, he walks in. There's nothing we can do
about that. I think that I will tell you in my mind many of those shootings and even some of those deaths fall on on Dantis and on Scott because those governors pushed that issue and took that call took that
issue away from us. Some of y'all may know, but literally you can open up a gun store in any retail establishment in Orlando and there is nothing we can do about it. Nothing. And I think that's that's wrong. I think these decisions need to be made here
locally. So we have what we're making trying to make a decision and overarching is there's three or 400 guns on the street on any given Friday night and we can't stop that. So the solution is you stop it. So
when a guy walks into your establishment, you stop it. There's no issues with is on um at at Universal. Why? It's private property. So they can do what they want to on private property. We can't do it on public property. And that's the challenge that
we have. So hey guys, help us get those controls back here. You don't want guns in your establishment any more than we do. So help us accomplish that task. When you take those decisions away and you try to create a one Florida, you miss out on the opportunity of our downtowns and what they're doing all
over the state of Florida and how you can make them better and safer for our community. Look, I'm a downtown guy. I started working in downtown in when I was 14 years old. Worked in downtown through 1990. Didtown events in 1990.
Worked 25 years of my life in downtown in another environment across uh in Paramore. I know downtown, but I know people that I to talk to don't want to come downtown. They they feel it's unsafe. And because of that, we have to
do something about it. Um, the other issue is I think and Jim is correct, we have a we want a downtown for everyone. I interpret just a little bit different than Jim and that's okay. But I can tell you that those people who are using the venues that we
have aren't staying downtown and those ought to be your customers. Those ought to be your clients and we're not accomplishing that task. I'd like to see some more creative ideas that come back. Um, I'd like to see some figures on how much it costs us in investment with um
uh our firefighters, paramedics that are assigned downtown. Um, I'd like to see some other figures in terms of how we're going to pay for this. If the answer is we're not going to make any change to it, where's the six million going to come from and where is it appropriate? Because when six
million down here, that means that Baldwin Park, Thornton Park, College Park, Nona, take Southwest, they're less safe in our town. And that's wrong. That's wrong. It's okay to be a
little bit disproportionate based to find something that's uh it's paid for, but we turn around tomorrow and try to do an event in our in in my district, I got to have two or three police officers there. And the reason we have to do that in our town is because of the history
we've had with downtown Orlando and the history we had with alcohol. And that's what we have to figure out what that solution is because we're stopping those other things that are happening around our community based upon the history of what's going on in downtown Orlando. Mayor I'd like to see more creative ideas. I think David's got the right
idea. We've made a good investment and good investments on the downtown in the daytime core. What we have not done um uh is really address the evening core and address those people who we bring down 18,000 people to arena. We bring
2500 maybe 5,000 to a a show or two shows in downtown Orlando. Guys parking in parking garages, walking to Judson Live and then leaving there and going back home. That's not the downtown that we
want. It's not the downtown that we promised in 2005 and 2006, and that's the downtown we want to have something different on. So, Mayor, I'm still looking for great ideas. Um, and somebody's got them, that's okay. But the comments I've had from the community
are stop, stop, stop. Don't do what you're asking to do. And no comments that come back and say, "Here's how I we would solve this problem." The only person that's often that solution is one friend who said, "Solve the problem by making everything open till 5:00." And
what happens is people don't cram in at midnight. I don't think that is a fair assessment. It is a good creative way to look at it. And I appreciate it. But that's the kind of creativity we're going to have to figure out how to solve this problem. And while I don't
agree with that, I'm glad that people feel they have a way to provide that kind of creativity, but the other is not happening. So, so much for my Robert Stewart lecture 101. I just think we need to we need to figure out what
happens with the investment that we've made in downtown Orlando and how people can come down here and be safe. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. I'm going to go to Commissioner Ortiz before we start a second round. Comm Ortiz. All righty. Now, you ready for this? All
right. Um, Chief, can you come up to the podium? I have a few questions to ask you. Thank you for your presentation. Thank you, David. Thank you, FJ. Um, in each one of these incidents, were the suspect caught? The list of incidents we had
throughout the years, the only one I think that is still open is the gang shooting. I think there's two or three of the young suspects who are still we made a couple arrests, but we still have more arrests to make. That's the only one that I know that's open. Okay. I was looking at different videos which pretty interesting. We have
cameras in place for each and every one of these incidents strategically placed where we could monitor. Yes, I would say downtown is pretty well covered with cameras, but of course there may be an alleyway, a place in front of a business is not covered. But how we use it, most of our blocks can zone in and see it. And if
you see if any of our shooting video cuz we shooting videos we released or any videos we released, you can see the cameras zoom in um and we can pretty much see every major intersection, most side streets and areas like that. Have we done a study of what's the greater cause of all these
incidents? Is it gangs? Is it just somebody getting upset because he drank too much and somebody was messing with his girl or any of this? I mean, are we looking to what's causing because it's it's repetitive. is we're getting this. I mean, I was looking at Yes. So,
they're mostly all different. The one like on Halloween, we're still trying to figure that one out because the suspect, of course, is incarcerated. He's he's taken down, but we saw just a little bit of a conversation. So, we're not sure what happened there. The shooting that happened near Wall Street and Orange Avenue where nine people got shot or
eight people got shot, that was 100% gang related. That was two gangs that was gang related. Um some of the other ones like the person we just shot on that we just shot um about a month ago that was more of a domestic situation. Him and his either girlfriend or wife were arguing about that. So they all come back to a situ situation. The
military veteran that was shot, he bumped into the guy, the guy got mad and that was him just being agitated to a certain level and you're not going to bump into me and I'm going to shoot you and that's the way I run my life. So there's no patterns. No, they're all they're all very different but also because there's so many different people coming down there, so many different
walks of life. You do see, I mean, my officers do stop gang members. We're very, very proactive, as you saw. We do 5,000 stops in a year is a lot. On top of that, a thousand traffic stops is a lot. So, we're stopping a lot of people. We're coming across a lot of guns, but we're coming across a lot of guns that are legally carried. And it may be a bad
actor, but he's got no felony convictions. He's not over he's he's over 21 years old, so he can carry his gun. So, we get those people who will tell us right off the bat, they're like, "Hey, I've got I've been arrested a bunch, but I don't have any convictions. You can't take my gun." Okay. Okay. And we'll have a conversation about that on
on a conversation we had um some time ago. You you were telling me a lot of these people that come downtown, they're not even from here. They come from other places, people have come as far from uh Pensacola to to to enjoy downtown. That could be that that's a great thing. That
means, you know, good music or most of the time. And uh but uh it seems like we we're an epicenter. So how are we staggering police? Are they bunched up in certain areas or are they staggered? You know, officers all over the place. So, now that the streets are
open, we've sort of changed it. We have less officers, of course, because it takes a lot more officers to have a street closed. So, you have four or five officers sitting at each of the intersections. So, now what happens is you have the officers who are on patrol. The officers are riding in two-man teams. You have the officers that are assigned by me down there, and that's their that's their job. So, they're
there for 12 hours, and it just rolls into downtown. That's their job. They're in twoman teams riding around downtown, and they're ones doing very proactive work. You also have some of the main corners do have officers. So they still have the two officers on every main corner because what we found if we pulled the main officers off the corners
even when we have them roam the problem is if you're at Orange and Washington and you roam away from Orange and Washington a fight breaks out at Orange and Washington. So they pretty much stay at Orange and Washington Central and Orange. There's a bunch of there's probably four five intersections that we cover all the time. Then because of the AMS we have officers who are assigned to
each club. So there's a twoman team assigned to each of the major clubs and there's an officer right near the clubs. So sometimes you'll see the two officers who are at wall like wall and orange that are assigned to wall and orange are interacting with the two officers who are assigned to like beach them or assigned to wall street. So there's a there's a gaggle of officers in that area and that has helped us out because
a lot of our fights break out the central and orange area the wall in orange area. We just get a lot of fights that break out in the street in that area. Um but the rest of our officers are mobile. Those are the ones who are doing the 5,000 suspicious people, the 5 thou the 10,000 traffic stops. They are mobile in their vehicles because one
thing that we found is bicycles because there's so much traffic now and so many people on sidewalks. We pulled away from bicycles on the two busy nights. So Friday and Saturday the officers are in cars. So the officers are downtown bike officers that are assigned down there. They are two men in cars just because there's nowhere to go. If a car comes at
you, you saw the officers in a video get hit by the car from behind. A bunch of those officers got hurt. I went to the hospital and visited them. We just can't put our officers in a position on bikes to get hit by cars. So that's the only change you see if you're looking at things. They're in cars, a nightclub or somewhere close calls out a fight,
they'll respond to assist the other officers, but that's the only real difference you see. We're still very present downtown. You'll see them in cars more. That's why you see a fight, you see a bunch of cars pull up because it's just not safe for Friday and Saturday nights right now. If it changes, the crowds start to diminish or something like that, then we can go back to using bicycles like we do for the
rest the rest of the day and the rest of the week. We've gone back to bikes on Sunday night, but that's basically based on a lieutenant. If it's a very busy night because something on Sunday has a some of these nightclubs have very busy nights then we pull out of the cars. I mean bicles the old New York style of
policing you know police officer stagger you know kind of instead of two. That's that's good because I think we need we need that especially what we're seeing. Thank you chief. Um I appreciate that information. You know, growing up, we used to go to baseball games and a for sure thing was after the
baseball game there will be this big massive fight because teams they were just rivals, right? Football all over Europe after the game don't matter or South America after a big football game there's a lot of fights. People just
don't care for the other team, you know, winning or losing or what the case may be. And and and what I'm trying to say here is that inside the clubs these things are not happening. We cannot control the baseball game, right? We cannot control the we can control the outside and that's what we're trying to do here. Control the outside because I
know this is not happening in the clubs. Other issues may be happening in the clubs that we have to address the drugs or whatnot. We definitely have to address that. So we have to address the outside of the the uh the clubs, the the cities, the streets. And um I have been talking
about this for the longest time. Cameras, technology. We live in a world of technology. And I think that it's about time for us to get really aggressive. I know we do have cameras, but not the kind of cameras we need. We need thermal
imaging. We need AI gun detection. We need facial recognition. I know way back then we're trying to implement facial recognition. and all everything broke loose because people didn't want to um have their privacy invaded. Well, let me
give you some examples. Boston, Massachusetts, they have cameras all over the place on the bombing. We cut those guys pretty quick. Uh Minneapolis, Minnesota, they the police got defunded when we had that trip to M uh Minnesota. I did a ride along with with the police. They have a population of close
to 480 something thousand and uh they only have about 485 police officers. 485 that's that's not very much. So they use a techn the camera came camera cameras technology in order to police themselves pretty effective to a certain
extent right and um meaging Colombia talk about Pablo Escobar back in the days right so I went to Medagene Colombia and I was teaching a class down there and they I was invited they heard that I was a commissioner so they thought commissioner was like the chief
of police in New York right so they invited me to see their police department their technology good thing They they didn't know I was not a police officer. Um because they gave me all kinds of information. But one of the things I was most impressed by was their um camera system because they had this.
They had this um facial recognition, the the thermal, all these different things. And Medigene Colombia is not the place it used to be. It's very safe. They have thousands of cameras all over the city. We need to get we need to saturate our downtown with cameras and let everybody
know that they do exist. We need to put tag readers, which I know that we we're doing a lot of that, but we need these cameras with this particular features, with these elements. Okay, that's going to help the police work incredibly because we may be
able to use less police officers and be able to attend to whatever the incidents are happening. crime and and we know this. We can deter crime, but we cannot totally avoid crime because whoever comes with a mindset of doing something,
they're going to do it. But if we have these cameras that can tell us that the body heat, that person, if he has a weapon, and you can compare, you can do an analysis of, okay, this person looks like he's agitated and he has a weapon. Not that you can stop, that's not a probable cause to a stop, but it's it's
a pro is it's a good stop in a sense of consensual encounter. You can say, "Hey, can I talk to you?" And that initial encounter with a police officer may bring some lowering down of the temperature. We need all the businesses
that we have in town to make to allow us to have cameras in front of their businesses so the police can monitor and we can arrange that. We've been talking to some of of our members here. we can work together for that. Um, it is a difficult situation. I know everybody is
exhausted of dealing with this. I've been talking about the cameras because they are effective. They don't solve the crimes. They're good for prosecution. But once a couple of um two or three people get caught because they know there's no other way of doing crime
downtown, the water is going it's going to uh go out there and people are going to know. We need everybody's cooperation. club owners. We need to be very very tough with our employees. Make sure that drugs are not being uh funnel inside the clubs. But we also need to
work handinhand with our local government and with the police have those chats. I don't know if every quarter, every two months or whenever, but we need to have them and see what's going on, what's the patterns that are going on and continue working in a proactive way. You know, there's no
no coincidence in the fact that New York back then when they have the uh the broken window theory um system that worked. There was a lot of communication. There was tough enforcement, too. Staggering police officers, keeping tabs of what's going
on, making sure that people are not just hanging out and and um loing and prowling, but they're moving. You know, that may avoid a lot of the incidents. We're not going to be able to avoid every single incident, but we'll be able to bring crime down
effectively. So, what I suggest is that we start looking into investing on this equipment instead of um and and doing a recap on where we at in terms of this dues that some of you guys are paying for for police officers and see
how we can alleviate the situation. I'm also uh I also agree that the um the 12:00 system is is not I mean we should continue doing business until 2:00 is fine but we need everybody to
work that's that's old school you know and and we were able to do it in the past we had our our seasons you know I've been around here for over 31 years and um and we had our seasons we had times when the juveniles coming downtown they were terrible and We implemented
certain rules and whatnot. Then we got back in the swing of things and now we're going through a crisis. Let's let's think about the kind of music we're playing out there too because I know that that has a lot to do with this. Let's see if we can minimize some of this uh kind of music that uh uh that brings
the attention of people that like to get in trouble. I'm not saying to eliminate it. I'm not anybody to to tell anybody what to do with their clubs, but um let's work together on this. That's all I have here. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. We'll go back and do Commissioner Bones, Commissioner Rose.
Yes. Thank you, Mayor. Uh as we move forward, mayor, I think we need to um be intentional about maybe conducting a uh coordinated public campaign where we uh show that guns are not welcome or advised in our downtown. I know because
of the Florida law that we can't prohibit guns from down there, but I think we need to to be more aggressive in communicating and highlighting some of the safety measures that the chief talked about. Uh but just getting that word out that downtown is safe. You
don't need to bring your gun. It's not advised. It's not welcomed. uh as well as highlighting those those safety measures because one thing that we have to do is protect the the the businesses in our downtown the economy downtown but also we have to increase the uh
confidence in the individuals who may come downtown. So, I think, you know, we I don't think we have to wait to do that. Uh cuz, you know, if you go on YouTube and you Google and you put in uh nightife in Orlando, downtown Orlando, you'll see some disturbing videos. But I
think we need to counter that again with what we what we would like the downtown to be, highlighting the safety measures, but truly promoting that downtown is not an area that you need to bring your gun. Uh so, again, I don't think we have to wait for that. I think that's something
that we have a great uh PR and marketing team. I think we can start rolling out those types of uh communications via social media and other outlets because again, we want people to come downtown, but we want them to leave their guns home. We want them to leave the reckless
activity uh home, but we want them to come and enjoy all of what Orlando and downtown has to offer. So, that's all I have. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Commissioner Rose. Uh along those lines, I feel a little bit different. Perception was mentioned twice by two of my colleagues and perception is key. And
if we're as the electeds standing in front of bodies of cameras saying that we don't feel safe, we have to come up with solutions. We can't continue to spread the negative persona of isolated incidences to make it seem like all of downtown is bad.
Um the last year I asked for a rebranding campaign. I've heard zero. I've sent follow-up emails. That's how we start by talking about the great things. Um we let's and I'll use a couple of establishments. Beichchum has uh uh
events all the time, regular um uh music performances. Let's talk about those things. Let's highlight those things. Like I said earlier, I would challenge my colleagues who are struggling because I don't know what the struggle is with downtown to come and visit downtown in the nighttime and come and experience.
There's a lot of great things to offer. Um, I heard the comment about guns in the clubs. Let's start by state statute. Guns are illegal inside of clubs. And so, we need to start looking at, again, going back to what I mentioned earlier, a universal security measure in all of
our establishments downtown, not just for those who s who s um sell after midnight. Everybody needs to have that. We need to make sure that there are not guns inside of our nightclubs. It's against the law. Um, another comment that was made, um, let me say
this. To say you don't have solutions, but to say let's close at midnight, is a poor solution. You've got to sit down with the groups and really talk through what next steps look like. I think, like I said, universal security is going to be the the key measure. Do we know
everyone? Um, I want to challenge the I've been made aware that there seems since AMS has started, there has been a divide in the relationship with law enforcement at some of the establishments. I think we need to rekindle those relationships. I think the officers who are downtown need to
understand they work for all of the operators that they work for the visitors who are down there as they are hired and they are someone is paying their paycheck. They are there for the visitors as well as the bars and establishments. I want to challenge establishments. When you have instances in your bars, don't just put people out.
You need to have them escorted by police officers to their cars. We need to let folks, but people will think a second time. If two people get into an interaction and an a law enforcement officer escorts them back to their car, I now know that officer knows who that person is. A person is going to think a second time before they think to react
and say, "Well, I'm going to go get my gun and I'm going to go shoot this person." So, I think we need to look at the rebuilding the relationship with the bars and OPD um and ensuring that again you have a fight, don't just push people outside because they're fighting in the establishment because that's where we see these brawls that are happening.
Most of these folks were put out from an establishment and they ran into each other again on the streets and then they continued it and it escalated unfortunately injuring some of our officers. So, I think we've got to be proactive and I'm encouraging the establishments that are here to be proactive when you put people out. Let officers know, hey, I put this person
out. They were arguing in the club. Let those two people decide if they want to prosecute and they want to press charges. If not, let officers send them back to their car. Go about your day. Leave downtown. We don't want you here. We don't want Because that moment where I feel like I got beat up at the club. I'm going to go get my gun. I'm going to find this person. I'm going to wait for
this person. I'm going to see if I run into this person again. No. If we start escorting people out of downtown, we know. Um I want to thank Chief for uh no longer putting downtown um in our uh night in our weekend recap. That is a start because those guns and those drugs
are not only coming from downtown. So that is a start. We've got to work collectively at rebranding. You all are all here. Yes, y'all are all competitors of one another. But this perception and creating and making sure folks see that we are a great town. We a great downtown. We have to overpower the
negatives. We have to overpower the fights at a pizza club. We've got to be able to talk about the positive things that we are doing, the jobs that that are created. And I think that's a piece that we didn't talk about here. And that was one of the things I did not see in a data report which was part of the RHI. How many people are especially in
district five in West Orlando are employed at some of these establishments. So when we start closing when businesses start closing their doors we are adding unfortunately to the poverty we are adding to unemployment in our communities. And I think that's what we have to think about. I don't again I will stand my 10 toes down. Midnight is
not the solution. We have to work together at creating safety safety opportunities. Um, David, I would like to know, has there been a lighting study done in recent time in downtown to make sure that downtown is well lit throughout the entire area? So, we work with OC. Uh, they do light
candle studies. So, we've done several different upgrades. Uh, the 413 really took us out throughout the core. Uh, we've also extended out to Lake Lousern. And you may remember um it to with additional study with OU we brought another over a million dollars of lighting improvements that are through
Paramore and and other areas. So yes, thank you. Okay. Thank you. So when I ran for office for mayor in 2003, uh one of my top priorities was revitalization of downtown and that included residential, that included
businesses and we have made substantial investment in our downtown and intend to make additional investment in downtown and our parks like Yola Park and we want to get it right because I think that most cities um are judged by their
downtowns. We're a little bit different because of the theme parks. Obviously, you can come to Central Florida without going to downtown Orlando and enjoy vacation and see only uh Universal and Disney and SeaWorld and not be with 10
10 miles of our downtown. Unfortunately, that's a good thing or a bad thing depending on if you want to have thousands of people in downtown or not. But the bottom line is I'm committed to having the best downtown we can have, the best downtown in America. and we're
not there right now in my opinion. Commissioners, I thank you for today. Generally, my last 22 years as mayor, what I've tried to do is bring a recommendation to you and bring you to that recommendation. Today, I don't have a recommendation and I wanted to get
your input so that we can formulate how we move forward in our downtown area. So, I think I've collected a lot of good information. We do want to engage with all of the stakeholders in the downtown area. Um, Chief, I appreciate OPD's
um continued creativity. Um, now opening the roads up is another um area to consider whether that's the right thing to do or not. But what's what is ins unsustainable is the amount of money that we are putting toward downtown on a
nightly basis on Saturday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday nights that are being subsidized right now by the CRA. But we're coming into budget season. And if we continue as is with no changes whatsoever, it means we're going to need to more five or six 7 million in general
revenue to pay for all those police officers. And it's a striking number when you think on a Friday night or a Saturday night we have as many police officers in a fourb block area downtown as we do throughout the rest of the city. And that's unsustainable in my
mind as well. So today I don't have a recommendation but that's something we're going to work on in the next month or two. Um and we invite input. Um we don't have input at workshops. That's not the purpose generally of a workshop
but we will figure out ways David to engage anybody that wants to have some recommendations. So I thank everybody for attending. Workshop is adjourned. Heat. Heat. Part: 2
Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat up here. Heat. Heat. happy. Hey Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.
Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Happy. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.
Heat. Heat. Good afternoon and welcome to the May 19th, 2025 meeting of the Orlando City Council. We're going to begin today's meeting with the invocation and the pledge of allegiance led today by Commissioner Jim Gray. Thank you, Mayor. Kind of feel like a Baptist minister
here with a full house. So, if you're so inclined, please join me in prayer. Dear Lord, we come to you today asking for your guidance, wisdom, and kindness as we address the affairs of this community. Help us engage in meaningful discussions that lead to
decisions that advance this city and its residents. We also ask for your intervention into current disputes throughout the world. We need calm minds, rational decisions, and healing hearts. In your name we pray. Amen. Amen.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Let's call the meeting to order. Madame
clerk, would you call the role and make a determination of quorum, please? Commissioner Gray here. Commissioner Ortiz here. Commissioner Stewart here. Commissioner Sheen here. Interim Commissioner Rose. Commissioner Burns here. Mayor Dyer here. Mayor, you have a quorum with all members present. Thank
you, Madam Clerk. First item of business is consideration of meeting minutes from the workshop agenda view city council meeting of April 21st, 2025. Motion by Commissioner Ortiz. I'll take you through a second. Commissioner Burns. All in favor of the
motion indicates so by saying I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries. Okay, we will move right into awards presentations and recognitions. And I know I am probably a little biased, but I happen to believe that we have the best city staff of any city in
all of America. And our team MA members provide incredible service uh to our residents. And one of the ways that we recognize our staff for that is nominations that are made each year for the Magnamera Employee of the Year awards. And today we're honoring our
2024 recipients. Um, and I'd like our human resources director, Anna Palenoa, to tell you about the award and then we will introduce the recipients. Mayor, it is my pleasure to come before you to announce the 2024 Magnamero
Employee of the Year Award winners. The purpose of the city's employee recognition program is to motivate, recognize, and retain employees. The most prestigious award given by this program is the Magnamera Employee of the Year Award.
Only the best of the best are nominated for this award and this year we received 14 nominations and only four could be selected. And now it's time to celebrate the winners for their exceptional service to the citizens of the city of
Orlando. The Magnum employee of the year recipients are Candace Kado, digital project manager, Mikael Pion, planning manager, Victor Diaz, grants and contract
accountant, and Renard Mitchell, traffic safety technician supervisor. Give all a big hand. The director for each of these outstanding employees will introduce and share their employees accomplishments. Mayor, I don't know if you want to join
us. Sure. And the first presenter is Michelle Mcrimman, followed by Elizabeth Deng, then by Orin Henry and Tanya Wilder. Good afternoon, mayor, commissioners, guests. Um, thank you so much. I'm so
happy to introduce Candace Cardillo who's right over here. Um she is our digital product manager within uh the information technology office of the office of business and financial services. This is a position responsible
for improving city operations with the use of digital platforms. It's a unique position because it interacts with city departments but also with residents as well regarding their use of digital tools. And as I highlight Candace's history with the city, you'll see this is really a recognition of her work over
her entire six-year tenure with the city. Candace told me she wanted to work at the city because she wanted to work at an organization where she could make an impact on the community. She said she looked at job postings every Saturday until she saw and applied for her first
position with the city as board coordinator and then as the administration coordinator in the clerk's office. She started in 2019, but fast forward to 2020 when COVID hit and Candace was instrumental in moving over 50 public meetings to virtual platform
platforms like Zoom and Teams. The clerk's office said this about Candace. Candace's reassuring presence and commitment to serving the public as well as her colleagues leaves a lasting impression in each of her endeavors. She consistently has proven to go above and
beyond all expectations and takes on each challenge with most unwavering dedication. In 2023, Candace moved to IT as a digital product manager. She mentioned to me that the position was attractive to her because it allowed her to focus more on technology, which makes
complete sense to move to IT since she was a psychology major at UCF. I do I say that jokingly but the position she's in um interestingly it looks at user behavior and user experience with technology which really aligns well with
psychology in it. Candace has been involved in many projects and these are just a few of them that impacted residents and external users. She solved some security issues noted on the Manilo Museum website by building and moving its content to a more secure platform
and also training the staff on the new system. She worked with Lou Gardens leadership on the complete redesign of the Lou Gardens website. This also included meeting with members of the public to understand how they would interact with the website um how they
interacted with other websites and how they would use it as well. and she redesigned the whole look um and all of the different pages to really optimize the user's experience with that site. She helped to automate the process
when users provide feedback on the city's.gov site. Um users are able to provide some recommendations. And so she automated the process where if you actually implement something that somebody recommended, it provides feedback to them and lets them know that
hey, their recommendation was heard and um implemented. She also improved the DDB website by adding Spanish translation to the site and also updated the DTO live content. But finally, Candace had a critical role in developing the Pulse
Memorial website as well as the Engage Orlando platform. This was a project Candace said that was really something she was really proud of and it was important to her to make sure there was opportunity for public input and that information was available to the public regarding the Pulse
Memorial. Candace was also involved in several projects that helped city employees perform their jobs more efficiently. She developed a process to automate it automate the preparation of 18A permit agenda items which was previously done manually. Um, so there's significant staff save uh savings to
that. And then she also developed a process at FPR for the starting and ending safety checklist that staff complete when they check out vehicles. Um, that was previously on paper and now streamlined. Someone actually reached out to me when they found out that Candace was a winner. So it was
unsolicited feedback on the help she's provided, saying Candace's standard is to exceed expectations. She always responds immediately, takes ownership of every request for assistance, and follows through. Candace really is a
superstar. Candace is joined today by her wife, Sage, and her sister, Samantha. And her parents may be watching online as well. Um, thank you, Candace, for your dedication, hard work, and solutions you bring to the city. And I'm so happy to recognize you as one of
the 2024 McNamera employees of the year. And also want to wish Candace a happy birthday today too. Come on guys. Come on but Tony. I would tell people Well, good afternoon, mayor,
commissioners, and guests. I'm going to invite Mael to come on up. She does not get to sit down for this one. It's my pleasure to introduce Mika Petion, our 2024 Magnamera Award winner.
She joined the city planning division in 2007, uh, providing design services in our community planning studio. She was promoted several times and is now the planning manager for our comprehensive planning studio. Now, she's been an
exceptional employee for 17 years. So, what made 2024 so special for Mika? So, she saw a lot of her long-term goals be reached this year. Here at city
hall, she has been hard at work updating the city's wetlands regulations and is in fact making a presentation to the planning board tomorrow. Uh, she has been working on this since 2022. She took it upon herself to become an
expert in the topic, learning about state, local, county regulations, meeting regularly with our wetlands manager, and writing many, many, many drafts of the regulations based on all those comments that she received. Mael
is also keeping an eye out for future planners. She coordinates our internship program and is often the very first person our candidates meet. She's creative in coming up with topics for them to work on and endlessly patient in
teaching them things like how to measure the floor area ratio, our favorite. Mail recognizes that her job does not end when she walks out of city hall. She is a certified AICP planner,
which means that she spends a good part of her career uh being part of a community of professionals who seek to promote good planning principles in many different types of settings. This year, she's serving on the executive board of the National Forum for Black Public
Administrators. Through this organization, she helps develop leadership skills for professionals in her field with the goal of increasing diversity in local governments across Florida. For Black History Month in February of this of 2024, she and a
colleague partnered with two local pastors to create a webinar for the Florida chapter of the American Planning Association. The webinar is called Beyond a Sunday, the role of the black church in planning communities. and they highlighted the important contribution
that black churches have made in promoting affordable housing and community development. It's gotten over 800 views on YouTube, which is practically blockbuster status for a planning video. Mael can also add not one but two
master's degrees to her 2024 accomplishments. So, while she's doing all this professionally, she's also studying for her final exams. She spent several years as a part-time grad student and this year she graduated with a dual degree from UCF with a master's
in both public administration and nonprofit management. She's now both a UCF Knight and a Miami Hurricane, which is a formidable combination. And while you can't get a Mcamera award for being a parent, she's
certainly a role model to her four children who are here today. So um so some people might ask how does she do so much and I think a big part of it is a support from her family including
her husband and her mother who are also here today. She also knows the importance of taking a break and having a good time as I saw in her pictures from her trip to Morocco last fall. Mika is someone who lives life to the
fullest and looks for opportunities to contribute to her community, but sometime somehow always has time for a joke with colleagues or to ask an intern to tag along to a meeting. During her career, Mika has made so many meaningful
connections with our community. Whether she's meeting with a developer trying to get a million-dollar project approved or a homeowner trying to set up a sewer connection, she treats them all with care and kindness. She's such a great ambassador for planning as a profession
and for our city beautiful. Thank you, Mael, for all the talent and energy you bring to the city planning division. I'm so proud of you. Congratulations. Thank you. Victor No bunny ears or anything. Okay,
I'll be good. Okay, just this one time. Uh good afternoon, mayor and commissioners and um uh all of uh our guests here today. And uh uh mayor, I uh
am not biased. I do agree with you that you have the best employees here in uh uh the country uh at the city and uh none better than the department of housing community development over there.
had to get that in. Okay. Good afternoon. Uh the city of Orlando Housing Community Development Department administers local, state, and federal funds designated for uh housing and community development.
Uh in his role as grants and count contracts accountant, Victor Deis is responsible for providing accurate financial accounting of grant funded programs and project activities, expenditures and budgets and ensuring
compliance with federal, state andor private agencies award specifications and reporting requirements. In addition to his daily workload, Victor has volunteered to train and provide ongoing technical assistance to our subreients
on policies and procedures in order to ensure they meet state and federal grant requirements and deadlines. It cannot be stressed enough how important it is for subreients to follow the complex rules and regulations of these grant programs.
An error could result in a decrease in funding or repayment of funds. And we never have that. Just in case you didn't know, we've never never had that happen. Uh Victor is one of the reasons we are so successful in
administering our programs because of his willingness to provide so much technical assistance to our partners and ongoing dedicated support to helping them build capacity. thus allowing us to take on bigger projects with more impact
on the community. This sets Orlando apart from other municipalities and makes us one of the better performing entitlement cities in state. Victor doesn't just assist our HUD grant subreients. He volunteered to
train the property management team for one of our newer affordable housing communities. Victor trained the entire management team on how to incomequalify tenants and manage a rentrestricted project. Training like this ensures its
ongoing success. Victor has also been managing more than two million for the rapid unsheltered survivor housing grant known as Rush funding uh that the city of Orlando received under the emergency solutions grant uh program from HUD to
address the needs of individuals and families experiencing homelessness or at risk of becoming homeless. At the time we were notified of the first allocation, our department was already working at full capacity administering
and managing COVID and ARP funds in addition to our regular entitlement grants. Had Victor not volunteered to take on Rush ESG, we would have had to pay to contract out or hire additional staff to have the capacity to manage
this essential grant addressing homelessness. Due to our success in expending the funds from that first allocation and having demonstrated the clear benefits of the program and continued need in our community for this type of assistance, the city received
two additional allocations of Rush funds. The city has partnered with the Christian Service Center on this program, which has helped more than 200 families to date find homes through family reunification, movein assistance,
temporary housing, and help with rent and bills. So, through teamwork and partnerships, the city of Orlando is working on solutions to end homelessness and continues to work to create and preserve affordable housing. An
instrumental part of the team are employees like Victor who genuinely cares about the people in our city. The work that Victor does every day and the work he volunteers for above and beyond his normal responsibilities. This goes towards improving our community and the
lives of our residents. We're grateful for his passion and dedication to helping others and we're so excited to see him recognized here today. I don't think those are my Hi, good afternoon Renard. Please join me as everyone else has. Renard
Mitchell. Congratulations. Good afternoon, Mayor Dyer, commissioners, staff, and guests. We are so excited to be here today honoring one of the city's best. I'm Tanya Tanya Wilder, director of transportation for the city of Orlando. It is my sincere
honor to represent the entire transportation team and recognize our very own Renard Mitchell. He is joined today by his beautiful family. And if you've ever had the pleasure of working with Renard, then
you'll know exactly why we are here. With over with over 20 years at the city, most of you probably have Renard on speed dial. He is our own Clark Kent. mildmannered on the surface, a smile
always on his face, but ready, always ready to leap into action when duty calls, no matter what the challenge. As our traffic saf safety supervisor, Bernard plays a critical role in keeping our streets safe. from
emergency response to special event traffic operations, day-to-day maintenance needs, and if there's something that you need done but not sure who who to call, well, there always is Renard. There are moments we have all
had them when you need to quickly make a call and need to know that you don't have to ask twice for action to be taken and the job to be done right. I'm talking about times of crisis or when you're in a pinch. For instance, a
hurricane has come through our city beautiful and you have a four-way stop without lights and no one to to direct traffic and barricades that need to be put into place. Sound like a job for four people? Nope. Call Renard.
Ever have a nationally televised Olympic trial sporting event with millions of eyes watching and need traffic to change direction? Call Renard. Have a full portaotti left
behind in a residential area by a contractor for a year with people pointing fingers of who needs to handle it. Call Renard. during the city's Fourth of July fireworks celebration when tens of
thousands of visitors are pouring into downtown and you need someone to safely move people in the right direction with calm leadership. Call Renard. His answer when you call Renard, I got you.
Renard is on the heartstrings of things that allow our city to run smoothly every day. and he does it quietly, humbly, and collaboratively. Renard is always in the right place at the right time. Superman, I wasn't lying. Cool under pressure and
seemingly everywhere at once. Renard works seamlessly with others in and out of the city. His presence and quick decision-making make a complex situation look effortless. When a large storm has passed, but the impacts are still being
felt all over our city, or a major intersection at one of our busiest tourism areas has lost power and traffic lights are down, or someone needs to bring a team and a plan together for an event, or when you just need a smile for the day, Renard jumps into
action. No cape, just a safety vest. That's who Renard is. always there, always ready, always serving. Renard makes you feel like you're not adding to his already full plate. He makes you feel like when you get him on the phone to ask for
assistance, there's no need to make any other calls. With Renard, consider the job done. That portaotty it went on the back of Renard's truck and was hauled away to be taken care of. In addition to that huge smile and deep understanding and commitment to safety on our
roadways, what makes Renard truly special is how much people really enjoy working with him. If the pressure is high and there can be a slim margin of error, we call Renard. Cool as a cucumber, Renard works
across departments and agencies to coordinate traffic control plans, signage, and pedestrians flow. On the ground, he is a steady presence, making real-time adjustments, answering many, many calls, and ensuring both safety and accessibility are never, ever
compromised. The community knows Renard. Everyone knows Renard. In fact, our team affectionately refers to Renard as our mayor of transportation. Known for his positive approach to problem solving, his responsiveness to community needs, and his ability to build strong, trusting
relationships with everyone he encounters, not unlike our own mayor of Orlando. Mayor is an Orlando native for over 50 years. He has deep rooted connection to the community that drives his dedication and pride. As evidenced in my commitment and illustrated in his
action, his this award is a testament to Renard's exceptional contributions and his embodiment of the city's core values. We are lucky to have him on our team and beyond thrilled to celebrate his well-earned recognition
with the McNamera Award. Renard, you are the standard of what public service should look like. Dependable, trustworthy, community-minded. That's Renard Mitchell, folks. Congratulations. Thank Amen. Yay!
Keep on going. I hope you got it. the very welldeserving recipients of the McMary awards. Congratulations to all and you are not required to stay for the rest of the meeting. Let's go back to work.
Okay, we have I'll give you a quick little mayor's update. Uh just want to call out a few items that are on the agenda. Items B1 and 14 and B 15 um relate to uh expenditures of tourist development tax that we've come to an
agreement with Orange County. The first is related to the additional improvements to Camping World Stadium which includes construction of a multi-purpose event center. There's also an agreement on today's agenda with Florida Citrus Sports for donation of
the land that the event center will be built on. And then lastly, related to the TDT, we're looking to approve interim financing of 60 million a year over the next three years for improvements at the KIA center until we are able to bond the 226 million that
the TDT will be um funding. B9 is an award to Prime Construction Group which will allow the first phase of the Lake Natasala and Harelson Estates improvement pro project, something that has been long awaited.
Um, we have a contract that advances the canopy. Something that seems like we've been talking about for 10 years. And the last item, well, I have two more items that I'd like to mention is contract to design the new Press Park in South East
Orlando, a nice 14 acre park. And then um we have uh DTO restaurant and retail sales incentive agreements with Buffalo Boss Acropolis Greek Tavern and the Wig Factory. And that's all I have today.
We'll move on to the consent agenda, which is a number items acted upon through a single vote of council. We give each of our commissioners the opportunity to speak on items on the consent agenda and update you on important happenings from their districts. we rotate the order that we
do that. And first up today is Commissioner Thredd. Thank you, Mayor. And I wanted to uh mention probably eight to 10 events I attended. I'll try to be quick, but I want to give folks the the accolades they deserve for for these organizations. So, first of all, thanks or congratulations to our
Magnamore McNamera Award winners. It's we're very proud of our employees. So, congrats to all of them and their support families. Uh on April 25th, I attended the afterchool allstars golf tournament. Just want to say shout out to those folks. They do a great job every year and uh a good time was had by
all as we raised money to support the afterchool allstars. Uh then on the 27th of April happened to be another golf tournament I participated in which was a driving impact and that was a uh benefit of Lyft Orlando which also does a lot for our community. So congrats to them
and glad to participate. On the 29th of April, I was at Lauria Park Elementary for a uh bike and pedestrian safety uh event that was sponsored by the Florida Department of Transportation along with our city transportation folks. Uh a great event to teach the kids bike and
pedestrian safety. So, I was glad to be part of that. On May 1, uh attended the law enforcement memorial service at the county courthouse. Uh congrats to Chief Smith and our entire OPD team for uh they really showed well and represented us well. So Chief, thanks for for that.
Um on the 7th attended the Golden Brick Awards. You know, we talked this morning at the workshop. We've got some challenges downtown that we're going to deal with, but we've also got a lot of really good things going on downtown and the Golden Brick Awards uh kind of represented that and a lot of the great
things going on. So congrats to all the winners at the Golden Brick Awards. Uh on the 8th of May, I attended the visit Orlando lunchon and among other things, uh visit Orlando announced that um our 2024 uh visitation was
75.3 million visitors to Orlando, which almost gets us back to co precoid levels. So, congrats to that group and to all of us for uh continuing to embrace our visitors and getting them to come back to Orlando. So, uh, 75.3
million quite quite a few visitors to our to our city. On the 13th, um, I went with the folks from OEP, Orlando Economic Partnership, did an advocacy trip to Washington DC. Among other things, one of the things we were there for is advocating with our uh,
congressional leaders uh, funding to help us get Sunrail to the airport. Just want to let you know everybody public and private together are working hard to get Sunrail to the airport. Also to get Sunrail out to the tourist and convention corridor and eventually
Bright Line will participate in that and ultimately uh hopefully get us down to Tampa with the with the Bright Line train. So that's in progress. Be patient. Nobody wants it to happen quicker than than us here, but we will get that done. So congrats to to OEP for
organizing that. And then this Saturday, this past Saturday, uh we entertained a lot of children. Uh Commissioner Stewart and I were there. We u we had the Lion King performance. Thanks to the folks at Dr. Phillips Center for organizing that, but we brought kids from throughout the
city who may haven't been exposed to uh the fine arts and and and uh the Dr. Phillips Center down for a chance to have a lunch and a performance at the Lion King. So that was a great event. So thanks to the staff at Dr. Phillips. And
then this Friday coming up um at six o'clock at the Greenwood Cemetery, we're going to kick off the Memorial Day weekend. Uh it's a free event. Everyone's invited. Uh but I just want to ask everybody to kind of reflect on the importance of this coming weekend with Memorial Day. Um a lot of noise in
the world right now, but I think if you stop and reflect, we are very very lucky for those who have given their lives for our country so that we have choices and freedoms to make. So, uh, please, um, just think about what what the significance of Memorial Day is. I would
encourage you to do that. Um, two things on the agenda. Uh, the mayor mentioned, one, 3B10, which is the design build for Pris Park. Um, thanks to all the staff for continuing to support, uh, the southeast part of town as we we build recreation. We've got a lot of new homes
and new businesses and we need to have places for folks to recreate. So, this will be the uh third of five parks we're building in the southeast. So, excited to get that started and that should be delivered plus or minus another year from now. Uh and then finally 3B11. The
mayor mentioned that, but that is the um the beginning of uh additional services in in by Florida Citrus Sports to uh eventually do a sports complex. But if you did not get a chance to read um the article in Orlando Sentinel yesterday
celebrate uh describing the celebration of Florida Citrus Sports 80th anniversary and it puts in perspective all the things that organization has done for our community. And so I think I saw Steve Hogan running around. Stephen, he's got a jacket on so we ought to at least applaud for him. Steve, thanks for
all your leadership with Florida Citrus Sports. Yeah. Um it's it's a great organization and yes it's about sports but it also the real core of that organization is to help that community. So Commissioner Rose didn't mean to steal your thunder but um there that's a great
organization. I'm just proud to support that. That's all I've got. Mayor, thank you. Thank you. Thank you Commissioner Commissioner Ortiz. Thank you mayor. Uh once again, Steve, congratulations. Great partner and great events going on at Florida Cedar Sports.
Uh, congratulations to the Magnimar Awards recipients also. Great job. Great people. Uh, Florida. From the 22nd to the 24th, I traveled to Tallahassee once again to engage with proposed legislations advocating for bills that have a direct impact on our communities.
My focus was to support initiative that positively influence the lives of residents and enhance the well-being and prosperity of our neighborhoods. Uh on April 24th, our second neighborhood leaders meeting was held at the Anglewood Neighborhood Center. Among the many topics discussed, Mr. Kate Broad,
the transportation planning uh division manager, led an insightful conversation about ongoing transportation initiatives and projects aimed at improving residents commutes by providing reliable transportation options in the siman corridor. Uh other key topics included
homelessness, sustainability, recycling, and various concerns raised by neighborhood leaders. On morning April 30th, I attended and presented at the Sunshine Ladies Gathering at Ventura Country Club where community members came together for their weekly meeting. The morning
included updates, announcements, and discussions about our upcoming events. The meeting concluded with my presentation and an engaging Q&A session during which I had the opportunity to share and connect with our community. Uh on the evening of May 3rd, I had the
pleasure to attending the Gateway District Jazz Festival. And for those of you that have not attended one of these festivals, you're missing out because it's a great festival. Great uh bands come over. Is an evening of pleasure, relaxation, and good gathering of the
community. So um the um the event showcased incredible local talents and brought people together through the timeless rhythm and soul of jazz. For those of you that are jazz lovers, on the evening of May 8th, um I had the opportunity to attend the UCF C
community English program graduation celebration hosted by UCF Global, which are doing a great job in our community, especially teaching English to those who are have uh uh English as a second language challenge. This event honor the hard work and dedication of graduates
who completed free English courses offered to local residents striving to improve their language skills. We're incredibly proud of these graduates and all they have accomplished. A lot of people have come to this country, doctors, attorneys, and they don't speak the language and they have to take on jobs that are not necessarily
representing what they have studied for and worked in the past. And one day, once they learn English, they get a chance, a second chance in their lives. So that's that's a great opportunity. I attended another on the same date, I attended another meaningful graduation ceremony, this time at the Anglewood Center for the Youth Employment Program.
These events highlight opportunities for students to access education, vocational training, and job placement. The program includes a four-week four-week job readiness course covering uh workplace skills, financial literacy, and employment preparation. Graduates also
receive continued one-on-one support from youth employment coordinators to help them succeed in their workforce. And last but not least, uh, on the morning of May 17, we had the Anglewood Center Glide and Slide event, a summer community celebration designed to bring people together in a welcoming and
inclusive environment. The event invited participants of all ages to enjoy their favorite forms of wheel transportation, including bicycles, scooters, rollerblades, and skateboards within a safe and supportive space dedicated to community engagement and recreation. We
are finalizing our government academy in English. Uh we have I believe one more session and after that we're going to have a graduation. The government academy now is um is part of the continued education of UCF. So when you graduate you get two credits from UCF.
So those of you that are interested uh is once a year in English and once a year in Spanish. The Spanish course will start in August. That's all I have. Mayor, thank you. Commissioner Commissioner Stewart. Thank you, Mayor. And um let me say a couple things. I've got a I want to make a statement if
you'll allow me the privilege to do that. I don't do that very often, but I would like to do that. First of all, congratulations to our Macimator winners, uh Candace and Mielle and Victor and Renard. We have we have the great greatest staff. I get a chance to brag on them all over the state with
with our city um Florida League of Cities and we do have the best staff and they have recognized that as well. So, I appreciate that. Thank you very much, Mayor. Um, let me also uh continue kind of a little bit about the Florida uh citrus
sports. So, Steve, I'm going to take a little bit of your thunder. Uh, we're celebrating our 80th year uh this year. Um the the Florida Fisher Sports started years ago as a Tangerine Bull and it started 1946 and one of those guys that
helped start that was my father and I've been honored to to kind of connect with that. Had a celebration of the membership this past week uh weekend and uh we had the honor of uh of recognizing my brother George Stewart Jr. with the
Arnold with the Howard Palmer award which is the highest volunteer award that's given by the at Florida sports and it's a it was a real um really sweet time and I appreciate Steve your leadership and recognizing my brother and the work that he's done as a past
president and all the rest of the stuff that he's done on behalf of the uh partner sports. Um you left off the fact that I used to run the basketball tournament but that's okay. Uh, I'll get you back on that one. Uh, but but it has been an incredible uh impact on our
community and it started off not as a football game, but started off as a game to do something else. And so we've continued that for the last 80 years. I'm so honored for that. On a side note, my brother claims that he's the only one who's ever attended every game. And uh
he claims that my mother took him as an 11-month-old and we have continued that tradition. He's continued tradition for for 80 years. are for 79 years. Let me also say uh the last couple things have happened in the last couple weeks. I'll mention it to you. Thank you for mentioning the
Golf Classic. Um Jim, I appreciate that. And Jim forgot to mention that he is his team won. Um which means he's not doing much commissioning. He's doing mostly playing golf. Um Ivanovich had Earth Day. We raised almost we picked up almost 1,000
pounds worth of uh trash over in the area. Uh appreciate all the work that went into that. So thank you all very much. I had the opportunity of being over at the Spiral Circle bookstore this past weekend to celebrate their 50th anniversary. Um really really Julie Wiler is just a really neat lady and
took over for a really neat lady Beverly Ford. That's really kind of fun uh to be over there. Um, uh, Fringe kicked off, uh, and, uh, Patty will tell a little bit about that, but, uh, the same night it kicked off, uh, Advent Health announced a, uh, new multi- almost
almost a billion dollar project that they're going to be doing, a new surgical wing, a 14story surgical wing over on their property. Um, that will be started probably within the course of about the next eight or nine months, and then, um, it will go up pretty quickly.
So, we're excited about that addition to the health area in Advent. Um, tomorrow is the Ivanho um Village State of the Village uh over at the uh Harriet's Orlando Ballet Center. On the agenda,
mayor, um obviously I'm in support of the Florida Sister Sports. I think it's a great move for us. Um in addition to that, um I'll be not voting on items 3C4. I mentioned it earlier. This is a zoning
2025 one 1000 0 and NPL 22510004 and 006 as I have a conflict of interest. So now if you allow me let me just take I'm going to take some time and so guys just I get to write my own eulogy every now and then. So I'm going to have you guys listen to it.
For the past 20 years, it's been my honor of my professional life to serve in the amazing people of Orlando. From Bowwin Park to Rosemont and to most neighborhoods in between, I've had the fortune expressing of representing many of our historic and unique neighborhoods
that make up District 3. Words cannot express how proud and grateful I am for the opportunity to work with everyone um especially our staff uh over this this past incredible journey. Since I took office in 2020, I'm sorry,
in 2006, our hometown has seen many changes. We built Sun Rail. We'll use my glasses so I can read my stuff. Um, built a renovated three worldclass venues, invested in our parks, downtowns, roads, infrastructure services, and more. We have stood by and
supported the amazing men and women of our fire and police departments, improved every aspect of our public safety apparatus, and made Orlando decidedly safer place to live, work, and raise a family. Together, we have steered our city to a new path and set
it on a course that is the envy of many of our peers around the country and the world. In this role, I've had the privilege of working with some of the city's most dynamic and visionary leaders, living history amid the truly
transformation transformative era. Under Mayor Dyer's leadership, and alongside 10 devoted city council members over the years, we have guided Orlando through one of the most successful growth periods. We have weathered the great recession, the tragedy of pulse, and the
COVID crisis, showing our community's resilience, unity, and strength. Steady, collaborative, service focused, and visionary leadership is what makes our community thrive. I'm so proud to have played a role in this
collective success alongside these colleagues who've all become my friends. In 2005, I decided to run for Orlando City Council because I saw so much hidden talent and potential in District 3, waiting to be unleashed. With the launch of our main
street program, we got to see and experience this potential firsthand. Our family of communities is home to three of our family communities home to three of the original main streets and are constantly growing and thriving, earning national recognitions
for our innovative approach to developing and evolving these unique business districts. In recent years, we've made major improvements to Dartmouth Park, the gym of a city of College Park, where both I and my children once played, and updated
playground equipment that my grandchildren got to enjoy. When I first took office, Bowwin Park was still a vision and a lot of vacant dirt. It is now a thriving community with its own unique culture
and full of amazing people and families. We expanded our outreach in the Rosemont Neighborhood Center by finally uh by adding the long- awaited state-of-the-art gymnasium, now filled each week with children and adults alike. We secured the Jwid Park from the
US Navy and created one of the city's newest and coolest places. We repurposed the old Chamber of Commerce building on Lake Ivanho to build a state-of-the-art Holocaust Center that will soon be a beacon for
generations. We found a new home for the Orlando Ballet on the shores of Lake Formosa. We created Grove Park and a brand new packing district and built a brand new Orlando tennis center there as well. We've worked with great partners like the Tap Room at Dubstread, Russell's on
Lake Ivanho to produce new and updated leases for these historic city assets. There are so many other smaller projects like these that are just as important, but they all help us build a stronger sense of community in our city. As I think about the things we
have accomplished together, I can't help but remember those who have inspired me along the way. First, there's my wife and family who have always been by my side through every season of life. Then there are my parents who taught me the importance of expressing my deep faith
by serving others. My friends who have blessed me with so much support and advice. To my dedicated staff who joined me on this journey and the thousands of city professionals who have listened to, worked with, and simply just put up with me. I cannot thank you enough. You've
inspired me to serve, educate, lead, follow, and create a positive and supportive environment that will guide us into the next decade and be and beyond. Looking ahead to my next chapter in life, I decided to step away from elected official and focus on serving
our community in different ways. But don't worry, my involvement in Orlando won't end here. In the coming months, we'll be finishing up the renovated lakefront at Lake uh Lake Fairview Park, the new driving facility at historic Dubster Golf Course, and renovating both
Albert and Dartmouth parks. This is just the beginning. Throughout my life, I've always been passionate about getting involved and I've encouraged my friends and neighbors to do the same. And it's in that same spirit I'm renewing that challenge to asking each of you to emra
embrace the responsibility of citizenship that comes with active participation. It means being open to different perspectives even when they challenge your own. Seeking balance between opposing views and respecting
the right of others to have different opinions will be among our greatest challenges. but also will make our community truly great. Together, we create a wonderful future for the city beautiful. At almost
every meeting that you've heard me say, I'm grateful that you, our neighbors, have placed your trust in me. I appreciate it and I don't take it lightly. Again, I share these same thoughts with you. Thank you for
allowing me to serve my city. Thank you, Mayor. That's all I have for this meeting. Thank you, Commissioner Stewart, and thank you for your service. And I know we'll have appropriate times to thank you more formally at a some retirement party of some sort, probably involving
Irish Whiskey. Irish Whiskey. Commissioner Sheen. Uh, thank you, Mayor and Commissioner Stewart. That's a hard act to follow, but I'll try. Um, I too want to thank the Magnamar Awards. Absolutely great, great choices, wonderful people that I've gotten chance to work with and just
great choices, y'all. They were they were they're absolutely great folks and it's great to recognize their work. Um, I want to congratulate my friend Jared Dylan on winning the uh the uh Downtowner of the Year. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend. I lost my little dog and I'm kind of having a hard time.
and anybody who's a single person who has a dog, she was the best little dog and I had her for 12 years and I was just having a tough time. So, I wasn't able to to attend that. Um, but I just want to thank Jared for everything he's done and that was very very very welld deserved as well as all of the other winners of the um of of the awards at
the Orlando Economic Partnership, the Golden Brick Awards. That's just a wonderful event that we have every year. Um, the Florida International Fringe Festival is going on through Memorial Day right now at Lock Haven Park. If you have not gone, you need to go. It's one of the best things that happens in the
city. Buy a button for $10. You can buy you can you can see shows. You can see people from anywhere from Japan to from Canada. All acts from all over all over America. It's just a wonderful thing. There's something for everyone from standup comedy to to d to uh Shakespeare
to drama to something that's just they even have a kids fringe. So there's something for everyone. So, I really I can't say enough nice things about the Orlando, you know, International Fringe Festival. Do make sure you go check it out because it's a it's just a great event over there at Lock Haven. Um, on
the agenda today, um, I will be serving on the canvasing board, so don't ask me to endorse you. Uh, I will be remaining neutral on that. Um, we finally have the phase two of the Oregon Street Drainage Project from Fern Creek to Shine. That's on the agenda today. And we will be
replacing the bricks. Yay. Thank you, Corey. Um item 3B18 15 lighty years the carpenter shop solar on West Morland. I love the fact to see that we're putting more and more solar energy on our um on our buildings. Solar energy is great. It
works. I'm a total proponent of solar energy. I have solar panels on my house. I drive an electric car. I believe in renewable energy and I believe in climate change and I'm glad to see that we're continuing to do uh these kinds of projects. And uh also on item 3 C13, glad to see the Florida Division of
Historical Resources grant uh to inform residents of the historic preservation rules. I think that's just an excellent program. That's all I had. Mayor, thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Commissioner Rose. Good afternoon, everyone. Um I share the sentiment. Congrats to the 2024 Dennis McMair
employee of the year recipients. Um work many of the employees that received the award today. Um, I want to recognize that we are celebrating AAPI, the Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, as well as Haitian um, Heritage Month. Um, congrats to all of
the Golden Brick Award winners. Um, this is a testament to the great things that are happening in and around downtown Orlando as well as Pyramore. Uh, Commissioner Gray, it's okay to recognize Steve. Uh, I shared the sentiments with you as well as everyone on this board. Um, and I congratulate
Florida Citrus Sports on 80 years. But I want to say this, it's not just about the events um that Florida Citrus puts sports puts on. It's about the commitment to this community um the redevelopment for the entire Westlakes community. Um Steve is a phone call away if you need anything um from the
community. And so I want to send a thank a special thank you to Steve. Um since I've been elected, you've been a pleasure to work with um going through some of the initiatives uh to enhance the community as well as to serve the community a little bit better. and I'm looking forward to a lot of the great um programs programming coming out of
camping world and hopefully still getting the Jaguars here. Um it's been a very busy month in District 5 since our last meeting. Um we've celebrated teachers. As you know, the school year is ending this week. Um uh celebrating some of the student accomplishments, both grades and
graduations. Um I was fortunate enough that I was able to get a couple of the Jones High School graduates computers and laptops to go off to college. um finished up Earth Month last month with several cleanups, Majestic Life, uh and then we did a cohesive Main Street. So,
I've been very committed to our district 5 main street. So, there are three in district 5, city district, Paramore, and Westlake. So, if any of you are in the district 5 corridor and boundaries, including a little bit of uh Commissioner Sheen in district 4, I encourage the businesses to join um one
of the main streets as they are looking to elevate the work uh in the the businesses in the downtown community. Um the cleanup was with the three main streets, so City District, Paramore, Westlakes, myself. We collaboratively did a partnership with Orlando City Soccer. Um that we gave out tickets to those that volunteered. uh Publix was a
part of it, Gringo Locos, and I want to thank Turner for being a great partner. They came out as well. Um the past week, um the seniors are doing the senior checkout, so I was able to go to Evans High School. We registered students to vote. They are our future. Making sure that they know
their rights and their active and civic engagement is important. Um I want to thank all of the volunteers and the organizations who come out every month to my monthly food distribution. It continues to be a success as an opportunity to serve the needs of the residents in the district. Uh thank you
to the National Entrepreneur Center. Um Belinda and um some regions foundation uh funds were able to we were able to do a partnership where we did a free QuickBooks training. Uh for those that don't know, QuickBooks is really important if you're a small business making sure that your finances are in
order. Coming up this Saturday, I will be hosting a free wills and proate training at the Jackson Center uh with in the partnership with Bats Lake View Funeral Home. Next Saturday is going to be a very busy day in the district. Um we will be having a free Next Saturday, May
31st, we'll be having a free veterans health fair at the Jackson Center from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. And then at 400 pm, bring your skates and meet me at Lake Lana for roller rodeo. for all activities, events taking place in and around District 5. Please follow us on
District 5 uh on both Instagram and Facebook. And I would recommend joining to be a volunteer. Um now on to the agenda. Uh excited for 35 for the USD composting and food waste reduction cooperative agreement pilot program. I'm
thankful for my cast and the sustainability team for exploring opportunities for energy efficiency and getting to zero waste by 2040. Um 3B9 as mayor mentioned with Harle Estates improvement has been a long awaited project um for the Harles
Estates community. Um this includes various storm water sanitary gravity sewer sanitary force main assult reconstruction. Uh portions of this project will include curves and gutters, new sidewalks, um speed bumps to um control um some of the traffic, driveway
reconstructing, and then retaining the walls. As part of my commitment to the 150 years celebration, we will be installing a mural along the wall in Harleen Estates. It's our opportunity for full wraparound services. We will also be working on re um redoing the
neighborhood association so we can really engage with the residents and that community so that they have a voice here in the city hall. I'm happy to continue to approve the rankings and the different contractors and parts and pieces of getting the Kia Center and Camping World Stadium off the ground. This is an
opportunity for us to continue to thrive in entertainment here in the downtown Orlando area. Um, as far there's a couple of CRA items that I'm glad to support the new businesses that are coming into downtown. This is our commitment to diversifying downtown to be a place for retail options. Both
restaurants have locations in district 5 and I'm super grateful. I'm also super grateful to support the wig factory that's come retail store that is coming into the paramount community. And that's all I have. Mayor, thank you, Commissioner Commissioner Burns. All right. Thank you, Mayor. Um, also I'd
like to say congratulations to the recipients of the Dennis McNair employee of the year. Uh, just like to say thank you for all that they do to make our city a great city. Uh, also congratulations to Steve and uh, Florida City Sports on 80year uh, anniversary.
Then, Commissioner Stewart, um, I just like to say thank you for your service as a commissioner, but even before that, as a leader of a nonprofit organization serving people experiencing homelessness, and I've always looked to you, uh, as an example and some guidance and some things to do and some things
not to do. Um, but I just like to say thank you for your service on this council, uh, but in our community as well. Uh, looking forward to, you know, your next chapter and hopefully, uh, that'll be an example for me as well. So, thank you, uh, Commissioner. Also,
mayor, prior to the council meeting today, I had the pleasure of issuing a proclamation to honor Adelene, uh, Addie Mueller. Uh, and, uh, Addie is a current student at, uh, University of Florida. And she, uh, Addie is passionate
community advocate who has been engaged in helping the less fortunate since she was 10 years old. Uh she has organized and recruited volunteers for my district 6 back to school giveaway. And since the founding of her nonprofit operation shared shoes in 2017, Addie has
collected and donated over 25,000 pairs of shoes, new shoes to our our community for people in need. So she's now at University of Florida, but we just wanted to recognize and say thank you for all that she has uh done for our our community. Also this month,
uh May 5th, I attended the Dr. Phillips High School 38th annual academic awards where I awarded three stellar students $1,000 scholarships. Also, uh May 7th attended the Jones High School's third annual Dr. Christy Hardy's senior award
ceremony where I again awarded three uh stellar students uh $1,000 scholarships. Also, uh May 5th, um well, dur throughout May, we had the chance of uh celebrating Mother's Day at um in Carver
Shores at Parky Park, as well as I sponsored a uh Mother's Day celebration at El Claudia Allen Senior Center where we had food, dancing, and and live entertainment. Also, happy Haitian Heritage Month. Over the weekend, I had celebrated Haitian Flag Day at Bona
Patique and delivered a proclamation on behalf of the city of Orlando to the Haitian-American Chamber of Commerce. It was a great event. A lot of good food, a lot of sharing of of culture. Uh so again, um happy Haitian Heritage Month.
Also May 19th, I sponsored 21 students from uh Carver Middle School to see the Lion King at Dpack. And I understand they had a great time. Uh just some upcoming events. Um on Wednesday, May 28th from 10:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. I will be
holding my satellite office hours at the Elcla Allen uh senior center. Again, this is a time for uh individuals to come meet with their commissioner outside of um outside of city hall. It's a little easier to get to the Claudia Allen Center. So, please reach out to my
office if you would like to make an appointment. Uh, also we've began planning and raising money for the fifth annual for the children's celebrity golf tournament. Uh, this year will be held at at Shingle Creek Golf Club August 22nd. And the proceeds again from this
golf tournament goes to support uh our student scholarships. Uh, right now we've uh awarded four scholarships uh in addition to those ones I just mentioned and we'll be awarding another 10 over this summer. on the agenda. Um item 3A3.
I also will have the pleasure of serving on the canvasing board along with uh Commissioner Sheihan. So I look forward uh to exercising those duties. Also items 3B11, 3B14, and 3B15. These are agreements and resolutions that will
allow us to continue to move for forward with the improvements for Camping Royal Stadium uh and the Kia Center. And these again which are made possible through the tourist development tax. So uh excited to support that and see those
move forward. Also items 3C14 the targeted redevelop uh revitalization site redevelopment pilot program. Uh this item renews the targeted revitalization program for Fashion Square and adds North
International Drive uh to that pilot program. uh over the period of last three years I've been able to engage our North ID drive uh stakeholders uh listening to their ideas their concerns uh that they have and I believe that this pilot program has the potential to
breathe new life into this vital tourism and commercial sector corridor and uh have a few members of uh my stakeholder kind of my my lead team out there. I'd like to say thank you to Lanne Brooks, executive director of the I drive business uh improvement district. Also
with us today is Maria Tres Trescari, uh CEO of the International Drive uh Chamber of Commerce. And then uh also my friend Alejandro Pazini, CEO of the AM group. uh and just like to say thank you for engaging in this process, providing
guidance and wisdom as we move forward to uh ensuring that North I drive looks as good as as South Drive. And my vision for the corridor is uh one eye drive, a cohesive north and south eye drive. At the heart of this first initiative being
presented to the council today is an incentive package targeting the city's international drive focus area designed to attract high quality development uh and redevelopment while significantly increasing the taxable value of the area. These proposed changes signal a
pivotal shift for the North International Drive corridor by aligning aligning economic development with community needs. I hope to help foster an environment that is not only economically vibrant but also capable of accommodating our large hospitality
workforce. Again, with Epic Universe coming in a few days, we can expect to see an increase in both visitors and employees in this area. So, uh again, I'm excited about that. Also, I just like to thank uh the staff for economic development team for uh working uh with
my staff on on this endeavor. uh and specifically Eric, Kim, Jennifer, and Sherry for all the work that you do uh to help us out. And with that, mayor, I move to approve the consent agenda. Motion by Commissioner Burns, second by Commissioner Sheen. All in favor of the
motion indicates so by saying I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries. Okay, let's uh if there's no objection, recess the city council meeting, and we will convene the CRA meeting. I'll take items 4A and 4B. So 4A is the meeting minutes
from the CRA March 24th. Motion by Commissioner Rose, second by Commissioner Sheen. All in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries. Okay. The consent agenda passed. So anybody that was here just for the
consent agenda items, you are free to go. 4 B is advisory board meeting minutes for March 26th. Motion by Commissioner Sheen, second by Commissioner Rose. All in favor indicate so by saying I. I. Those
opposed. Motion carries. All right. 4 C David. All right. Thank you, mayor, and and good afternoon, council members. Uh so C is our advisory committee rankings and authorization uh to contract for a construction manager at risk for the canopy project. So we did release an RFP
for a construction manager to start helping us bring the canopy to fruition. The top ranked firm uh was the Whiting Turner Contracting Company. Uh what's before you today is only the the approval of the rankings, ranking them as first and then the subsequent uh companies below them. uh but also for
them to start in constructibility review of design documents. We're currently at about 60%. Uh total uh implication financially is $105,000 uh that the CRA will cover. And I'm happy to address any questions. So move motion by
Commissioner Stewart, second by Commissioner Sheen. Discussion hearing none. All in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I. I. Those opposed? Motion carries. All right. 4D. Thank you, mayor. So, this is a uh DTO
restaurant program funding agreement for Buffalo Boss Orlando LLC. Uh happy to have them joining us at 333 North Orange Avenue. So, that's just south of our uh Orange County Courthouse. They sent a 5-year lease lease for the space. It's
about 1,700 ft. They'll be open 7 days a week. Um, this entrepreneur has 14 years of experience and actually has several other locations, some on New York, Wisconsin, as well as Dubai. Uh, so hopefully we'll be able to have them join our downtown Orlando community. Uh,
from the program, um, they qualify for a total of $89,257.20. Uh, 50,000 of that is towards the first year's renovate. And I'm happy to address any questions. Motion by Commissioner Rose, second by Commissioner Sheen. Discussion hearing none. All in favor, the motion indicates
so by saying I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries. 40. So, E mayor, this is another uh DTO restaurant uh incentive agreement. This one with Turio LLC, uh doing business as Acropolis Greek Taivera, Orlando. So, they're coming out
of Tampa. They've signed a 10-year lease for the space at 390 North Orange Avenue. Uh so that's the City National Bank building or it was formerly the Bank of America building. So this is kind of a caddy corner to the Orange County Courthouse. Um um they're bringing uh a number of different Greek and Mediterranean dishes to downtown. Uh
they are eligible for a total of $99,300 uh from the CRA funding program and 50,000 of that again is towards renovatement. They're bringing five years of experience and they're coming out of Tampa. Motion by Commissioner Rose, second by Commissioner Sheen. discussion hearing.
None. All in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries. And 4F. Thank you, mayor. So, our final item on the CRA, uh, this is a retail program, uh, funding agreement. This one is with the Wig factory uh, LLC. So, uh, they'll
hopefully be joining us at 642 West Church Street. So, that's kind of across the street from Inco Stadium. They signed a three-year lease uh for the space and they are eligible for a total amount of funding of in 35,129 and 15 about just a little over
15,000 of that is for the first year's rental assistance. Motion by Commissioner Rose, second by Commissioner Sheen. Discussion hearing none. All in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries. David, any
further business to come before the CRA? That is all mayor. Then we will stand as journed as to the CRA. We'll reconvene the city council meeting and we will move to ordinances on first reading number 13A. Madam clerk,
ordinance number 2025-18, an ordinance to the city council of the city of Orlando, Florida, amending the city's adopted growth management plan to change the future land use map designation for approximately 0.13 acres of land generally located east of North Summerland Avenue, north of East
Washington Street, west of Hill Avenue, and south of East Jefferson Street from office low intensity to neighborhood activity center on the city's official future land use maps providing for amendment of the city's official future land use maps providing for severability correction scrier's error and effective
date motion by commissioner she second by commissioner Stewart my son represents turns out the land owner that is seeking this um land use change so I'm going to abstain from this and I have uh filed the appropriate
paperwork discussion hear none all in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I those opposed motion carries Ries 13B. Ordinance number 2025-9, an ordinance of the city council of the city of Orlando, Florida, amending the city's adopted growth
management plan to designate the property as urban village on the city's official future land use maps. Amending the boundary lines in the text of area policy S.35.7 to include the property providing for amendment of the city's official future land use maps providing for separability, correction of scrimmers
error, and infectivity. Move to approve. Motion by Commissioner Grace, second by Commissioner Ortiz. Um, madame clerk, I forgot to ask you, do we have on any of these ordinances or are there any speakers requested? There's no speakers, mayor.
Okay, no speakers. Uh, discussion hearing none. All in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I. Those opposed and so the motion carries. Okay. and 13C. Ordinance number 2025-20, an ordinance of the city of Orlando, Florida,
amending the land development regulations of the Lake Nona plan development zoning district relating to certain land generally located north of the Orange Oyola County line south of Dowen Road east of Bogy Creek Road and west of Narusi Road and comprised of
9,053 acres of land more or less providing for amendment of the city's official zoning maps, providing for severability, corruption, scrimmage error, permit disclaimer, and an effective date. Move to approve. Second motion by Commissioner Ray, second by Commissioner
Stewart. U no speakers discussion hearing none. All in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I. Those opposed motion carries. All right, madame clerk, we'll go to quasi judicial hearings. We have one item
16A. So this is off on recommended order uh QJ 2025- 01. This agenda item is a recommended order from the hearing officer in the case that I just referenced. The case involves an appeal from the MPB's
decision to recommend approval of an application for a conditional use permit to allow a communication tower in the Starwood Planned Development. The petition in this case is David Growl. The respondents are Gina Growl,
Sean Harrison, and the city of Orlando. Anth Anthemnet Inc. is the respondent. So, Elizabeth, can you enlighten us here? Elizabeth Dang, our planning director. Good afternoon, mayor and city council.
Um, if I could please have the PowerPoint displayed. Um, I'm here to present the Starwood Communication Tower Quasi Judicial Appeal. Um, are we able to get the screen up?
There we go. So, this project is located along a future extension of Dowen Road uh just north of Launchpoint Road and west of west west of Pergola Avenue. You can see here on the future
land use map the designation is office low intensity. The subdivision you see on the right has not been built yet, but it has been platted. the subdivisions to the kind of southwest um have for the most part already been
constructed. Here you can see the zoning map and it is all part of the Starwood PD. This is the Starwood PD land use plan. The entire area in yellow is designated for residential. You can see
across the street in orange is a multif family designation. The light green hatch area is conservation. The blue area is a high school site. So this is an aerial photo. You can see Dowen Road is nearly complete.
And this shows the location of the site as well as the future multif family parcel across the street and the future residential parcels to the east. So, back in January of 2024, the applicants came in with a request for a
150 foot tall monopine communication tower. Um, and they asked for a waiver from the separation uh between residential uses for those uh future residential sites. Um, but based on some
discussion and community meetings, the applicant did reduce their request to a 105- foot tall tower, uh, which does meet all of the distance separation requirements and does not require any type of waiver per our
code. So again, we received the application in January of last year for 150 foot high tower. That was revised in November of 2024. and then went to the planning board with a recommendation of
approval in January of 2025. So this case was appealed by the petitioners and a quasi judicial hearing was held on March 28th and on April 17th um the hearing officer uh recommended
upholding the MPB recommendation of approval. So these are the standards that we use for review of communication towers. Uh any residential zoning district of R3A or less, including within a PD, which
this site does fall under, requires a 200 foot separation or 300% of the height of the tower, whichever is greater. and you measure from the cell tower location to the closest set back for a principal building structure in the adjacent zoning
area. Uh so you can see here the original site plan those large red circles you you can see they did need a waiver from the distance separation requirement. Um, and so with the reducing the height of the tower, they
now meet all the standards for 300% of the height, which as a 105 foot tall tower, the distance separation requirement is 315 ft and they provide 330 feet distance
separation. So this is the look of the tower. You can see the height of 105 ft. It's proposed as a monopine with um several antenna arrays along the top as well as a fence with landscape screening
at the bottom. So, the process for a quasi judicial appeal um is set out by the Florida Supreme Court as well as our city code chapter 2 um which allows for a denovo or new hearing before an independent
hearing officer and that occurred on March 28th. So the hearing officer founds that um the land development code implements the policies of the growth management plan and there are certain sections of the
code that contain criteria for conditional use. Um and when specific uses are an analyzed the standards and criteria of that section of the code is referred to. So in this case, we looked at the cell tower code, which addresses
separation and site development standards, and Anthem Net's application meets those requirements. The code does not provide provisions addressing visual obstruction or buffering from neighboring uses. Those topics are only addressed in
the waiver provisions of the code. In other words, if someone's asking for a waiver, they have a higher standard that they need to meet. But in this case, a waiver was not needed. The proposed tower is compatible with surrounding land uses, including
visual compatibility. In addition, the hearing officer found that the application did not require any waiverss or variances to any applicable cup or other criteria in the code. So, the hearing officer adopted in
to the project analysis and the staff report. um including all the recommended conditions. Um he found that the petitioner and respondents failed to carry their burden of showing evidence and proof with competent substantial
evidence to justify the denial. Anthemet and the city have presented competent substantial evidence justifying approval with conditions for the cup. So once again um these are the legal findings related to a quasi judicial
hearing um and the requirement for the burden of proof is with the person who appeals the decision. So to summarize, the hearing officer uh recommends that the petitioner's request to deny the
application be denied and therefore Anthemet's application be approved subject to the conditions in the updated staff report and any comments or conditions recommended by the MPB. So today the request is either for
council to adopt the recommended order, adopt the recommended order with changes, or direct staff to prepare a revised order. Uh staff's recommendation is to adopt the hearing officer's recommended order, which would deny the petitioner's
petition in opposition and approve the MPB recommendation. And I'm available for other questions for Elizabeth. All right. Section. Oh, sorry, Commissioner Gray. Sorry, Elizabeth. Clarification. In the code, it says
we've got the setback requirement and they to meet that. So, they didn't get an exception. They reduced it to 100 ft. 105. Yes. 105, excuse me. So, I guess that says by definition they cannot increase the size without encroaching
again and having to come back. Is that correct? Because we do give them what 20 ft. So the the code allows for um if they want to put an an additional carrier onto the top of the pole um it
does allow for an additional 20 ft um at some point in the future to accommodate collocation and that additional height um does not require additional analysis of distance separation between towers or
between towers and off-site uses. So, um, the code does not require them to remat the standard. So, I guess my point would be if they decide to do that, they really have only reduced the original size from 150 down to 105, but they
could add 20. So, they're really only reducing it from 150 to 125 if they choose to go that high. Fair. Or looking at it that way, 170 to 125. I guess that would be true, right? Right. But then we'd be having a different discussion.
But okay, thank you. Yep. Further questions for Elizabeth. Do we have petitioners and respondents here? Do you know? Okay. Section 2.209. The Orlando City Code provides council not entertain. Uh yeah, we do have the
petitioner. Okay. Let me just finish this. Comments from the public. However, we will allow staff in each of the parties up to 10 minutes for oral presentation argument. Um is the petitioner here? Um, and are there representatives from
the respondent or the applicant? Okay, so you'll each have 10 minutes. Come on up, Mr. Crow. Is that right? You know, I think my cheat sheet here has it a little
wrong. Are Mr. and Mrs. Grow and Mr. Harrison, all petitioners versus respondents. Elizabeth, help me out here. They're on different sides. So essentially there were a group of neighbors who worked together, but
they're all on the petitioner side, right? Correct. Yes. Not respondents. Um that's where Melissa, do you do you mind? I'm going to ask our attorney to explain
this part. Okay. Good afternoon, mayor and commissioners. Melissa Clark, city attorney's office. Mayor, in this case, David Growl was the petitioner. Um the his his wife, Miss Grow and Shawn Harrison, the way that they responded to the petition, they
they responded to the petition instead of joining as petitioners. So from the beginning of the uh proceeding the hearing officer um designated them as respondents but they are not in favor of the application.
So they're listed as respondents on the petition and that's because they responded to the petition. Okay. How how many of you are here of the three? Okay. I'll you guys between you can have 10 minutes. Split it up however you want and then the other side will have 10
minutes. Um are we able to put the presentation on? would you guys state your names and addresses for the record as well? Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. My name is David Growl. I live at 12059 in Orlando
in Meridian Parks. And my name is Aan Harris. I live at 12067 Found Street in Orlando Meridian Parks. climbers clicking. Um um thank you, Mr. Mayor, and um council members. Uh I'm not here because I'm
paid to be. I'm here because this conditional use permit will will irre irreversibly harm our community and natural resources. My neighbors and I submitted over 100 pages of white paper paper style evidence to the municipal planning board and the city staff report didn't
address our concerns. It simply reiterated requirements and declared them satisfied. With that, I was given three minutes to speak and based on the municipal planning board's discussion, it's clear many board members never reviewed what was submitted. When asked whether an affidavit was submitted on alternatives, city staff told the
municipal planning board they were. The record is clear. No such affidavit was submitted before the municipal planning board vote. I was told the hearing would be a new informal and independent of prior decisions. Yet, I was denied the right to submit relevant evidence due to
formal evidence rules being applied despite code requirements to the contrary. The hearing officer also cited the municipal planning board decision in his rationale, a clear violation. Under 65285 cups must satisfy the purpose and intent of land the land development code
align with the GMP and consider compatibility public facilities like drainage displacement of residential use and other matters matters. This proposal fails on all counts. The city's own telecommunication tower additional requirements checklist posted on
the posted on the city website completed by the applicant submitted into the record as city exhibit C5 and authorized by 65288 requires lineation of search area visual and aesthetic impact statements antenna power levels RF plot affidavit
of necessity and alternatives and an engineering review. What's in the record on these items is shown on this slide. Nothing. Additionally, the applicant entirely failed to identify need or demonstrate necessity. There's no drive test data,
no drop call data, no emergency services data, and no RF study. Under the statute, you are empowered to consider zoning and land use, including environmental impacts under the GMP and LDC. Yet, no environmental assessment was submitted.
The hearing officer concluded one presumably existed that violates Florida evidentiary principles. A presumption is not evidence, especially when it's contradicted by live testimony and photographic evidence. Further, a decade old EA from the Starward annexation is
not part of the hearing record. I submitted seven less intrusive alternative sites. Exhibit P through P4 through P9. This included the Orange County Landfill, CFX toll plaza, a planned commercial site, the existing tower to the east, utility sites, and
existing power poles to the south. The landfill has dry land. Designated access from the 528 is possible. The county expressed a willingness to consider a tower on the landfill. Power poles in the PD are like those
throughout the city, county, and state that already support cell antennas, proving feasibility. Further, our city's website details small cell solutions being deployed. Yet, none of these were explored. City staff performed no independent review, and the record
contains no documentation assessing less intrusive alternatives. Chapter 58, figure 2B of the LDC conditionally permits mono poles in R-3A, but monopines are not mentioned anywhere in the code. They are separate structure, bulkier, synthetic, and
environmentally different. Still, the city and hearing officer applied 58.844 as if they were a standard mono pole without a conditional use permit. Meanwhile, when I asked to be represented by an out ofstate attorney specializing in communication towers at the hearing, I was denied by the hearing
officer because the code was silent. But when the code is silent on monopines, that silence is interpreted as permission. Even if they were conditionally permitted, this proposal still fails. Cups must show compatibility, not just a single code
item minimum. But the hearing officer essentially said it meets the setback, so it's compatible. That's not the standard. If true, there would be no need for MPB review, no need for a hearing or a council meeting on the matter. And the minimum setback wasn't
met. Under 58846 and 58844 we just discussed, the tower can be expanded to 125 ft without further review that triggers a consideration of a 375 ft back setback requirement under 58844. This tower is just 317 ft from planned
homes and sits directly on undeveloped residential land in a PD. In QJ 20119006, which was APC vers Orlando, the city denied a tower just 52 feet from undeveloped residential land. This one has a zero foot setback from undeveloped residential land in a PD,
making it even more severe than the denied case. Exhibits P13 and 14 show the tower will be 35% to 100% visible from key locations including 100% from homes 317 ft away and major thoroughares
half that distance. The tower will be triple the height of the of any PD structure disrupting views of natural aesthetic amenities. The tower will become the defining visual feature in our community undermining its carefully planned character. Let's be honest, this
isn't a stealth tower. With exposed antennas and a bloated silhouette, it looks like a toilet bowl brush bolted to concrete. We have all seen the eyesore these structures create in commercial districts in South Orlando off John Young Parkway and West Orlando off the 408.
Environmentally, the risks are real and this tower violates GMP vision, which opposes development that harms sensitive lands and GMP environmental policies, including goal one and associated objectives and policies, which aim to protect natural resources and eliminate pollution. The tower fails to meet LDC
63101 with stated intact to protect natural areas, 63270 pollution abatement, and 63293 storm water runoff quality. It fails to meet 65284 setbacks meant to protect uplands and ensure clean drainage. The tower will sit 56
feet from wetland ranked during the annexation during the city's using the city's Qit scoring system as one of the top five out of the 39 in the PD. And now with photographic confirmation of a threat state threatened species, the Florida sandill crane, the wetland is likely the most
ecologically valuable in the PD as shown. My family has seen and photographed these adult nles cranes for years. I also submitted physical evidence and images of plastic discharge from two existing monopine towers. Mr. Shawn will show you. I collected this
pollution from freshly mowed grass. So pollute the pollution fell recent as a known outcome of sun, heat, and wind exposure. This macro and microplastic failure mode has no mitigation plan and there is no ability to remediate pollution that will enter the wetland
and be consumed by wildlife. And it's not just in Orlando. The Martha's Vineyard Commission documented similar failures in ordered cleanup. I found video evidence of tower shedding in Georgia and California with microplastics confirmed. Without any proof that this tower will behave differently, the pollution risk is not a
possibility. It is a certainty. Under consideration is also a safety issue. Whether it's microplastic branches or discharged parts falling from height, these pose a real risk to residents on trails and adjacent
properties. I'm sorry, something. This parcel was marketed by the developer and approved in the city N2 master plan as open space, but the hearing officer claimed it wasn't without citing any rationale. If it's not a residential or HOA lot, not undeveloped residential land, and not residential open space, then what is it?
The land cannot be treated as void, its classification matters because 58844, city policy, and PD planning rules all rely on it. The tower will also block future uses like a community pavilion or nature center, and discourage residents from enjoying adjacent space. Who wants
to picnic under a hazard sign and beside a tower that's dropping pollution from overhead and poisoning wildlife? Our community was designated to showcase nature. GMP flu policy S40.8, which is for the Starwood 165, and other requirements. They require that natural
features be treated as amenities and be protected. The tower violates that mandate and it violates everything this process is supposed to protect. If this cup is approved, it sends the message that incomplete applications are fine, zoning silence means approval,
environmental law is subjective, and residential safety is negotiable, even in the fa face of threats of threatened species harm and structural failure. So I ask you plainly, if this tower were going next to your home or your park or
your trail, would you call this compatible where surrounding uses are not impacted? The law doesn't require you to defer to the MPB or hearing officer. It requires that we all apply our growth management plan and land development code and our reasoned judgment.
Please deny this conditional use permit for the wetlands, the community, and the integrity of our process. Thank you. Thank you. Do you have any questions? Questions. Okay, let's hear from the respondent. Good afternoon. Mary Solic, 121 South
Orange Avenue, Sweet 1500 Orlando, Florida. I represent Anthemet, Inc., who was the applicant on this particular tower. I'm going to be brief. You've had a long afternoon. We would ask that you adopt the recommended order of the of hearing officer Reeves and approve our
105 foot monopine tower. Um, your conditional use approval is but one piece of the puzzle that is cell tower development. Miss Tracy Moore testified at the hearing. She is the project manager for Anthemet about the
tremendous amount of due diligence work companies like Anthemet do before we ever even come to a local government and ask for zoning approval. Um, she uh by the time we get to you, we have done title work. We have secured FAA
approval. We have done a NEPA assessment. We have secured FCC approval. We've done a survey. We've done engineered drawings. Sometimes we've even gotten our water management district permit or an exemption letter. But we've also read your code. We do
that when we start. And we follow your code and we rely on you to apply your code as it's written. We meet all of the requirements for cell towers and a conditional use on this property under the terms of your code. Your professional planning staff made that
determination when they evaluated our application. The municipal planning board determined that we met the code and officer Reeves determined that we met the code. You do not have a shred of evidence before you to suggest
otherwise. The um things that Mr. GR just went through the hearing officer made findings of fact on all of those things. He determined that our application was complete and sufficient. He determined that the tower was compatible because it met all of the stepback requirements. He determined
that it met all of the applicable code requirements. He determined based on testimony from the city staff that no alternative analysis is required under your code. Um, and there's no uh there w the hearing officer determined that there was no evidence presented by the
petitioners to establish a nexus between the presence of the tower and the presence of sandill cranes in the the community. There was no link between the impact that tower would have. Um he also determined that the setback requirements to the wetlands were met. And um he also
determined based on testimony from your city staff that the area where the tower was proposed to be located is not designated as park space or open space or future common area for the development for the neighborhood that's coming into the east. It will be
developer retained property. Anthemet and its anchor tenant Verizon would very much like to be providing essential wireless coverage to Mr. Grow's neighborhood, Innovation High School, and all of the new future homeowners in the Starwood PD. And we
would respectfully request that you approve this application today. Um, I'll stand for questions, but I will also add that under the category of no good deed goes unpunished, we proposed a monopine for this particular tower. That is an
impact a visual impact mitigating design because it is a residential area. Uh, that seems to have caused a lot of consternation on the part of the neighborhood. We are more than happy to change the tower from a monopine to a
monopole and that would eliminate the um the objections raised by Mr. Grow to the pine needles and the dropping of whatever it is. Again, we thought we were doing the respectful thing in this community by proposing a camouflage
application, but it was not received that way. Do you have any questions for me? Okay, are there questions? Commissioner Sheen, um, with with the concern about the the stuff falling off the pole and
everything like that, do we have to make an do we have to change Elizabeth? We have to change the recommended order from the monopole or whatever. Do you all have the discretion to go ahead and do that as part of the process? Yes, you could recommend approval of the
hearing officer's decision subject to an additional condition that the tower be a monopole instead of a monopine. Thank you. Further question, Commissioner Gray. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, counselor, there
was an objection that there were no alternative sites looked at, and I must admit, I did not see any. Did you guys look at alternative sites for a tower? We did our anchor tenant is and this was all testimony at the hearing. Our anchor tenant is Verizon and um it's a a fairly
large the Starwood area is fairly large and there are um three property owners in that community. Three, there's just three that was in the search area that Verizon gave Anthemet. The high school, my
clients contacted the high school. The high school said, "We're desperate for better coverage. We'd love to have the tower on the site. We don't have room." That left the two property owners that make up the Starwood be um PD, and that's Beacheline South Residential,
which is our landlord, and um Carl'sbad. They're the only two other property owners in this community, and they own all of the um undeveloped properties of the Starwood PD. Carl'sbad said, "No, no. Beach Line was the only property
owner that offered us a location." And they offered us that little tiny area. It's just a tiny little bit of upland area that is it's cradled with conservation area all the way around it, which helps screen and buffer that tower from off-site uses. So, yes, we did
consider alternatives. We were limited in terms of land owners in that particular area. And how was that evidence? Was that just verbal testimony or is there some kind of written document where you actually explore? That was testimony of Miss Moore at the hearing in front of the hearing officer.
Thank you. Can I You raised another issue about the height of the tower being increased and that the code allows us to do that. That that that's a that's a provision in your code and it's allowed as of right. You made a very
good point, Mayor Dyer. It could be 150 going to 170. But the purpose of that provision is to accommodate collocation. And what that does is eliminate other towers. You want to get as many users on a tower as you can. We started at 150
and we lowered this to 105. We're going to build that tower capable of supporting four users. But with the top user at a rad center of 100, we don't know whether the other three wireless providers that service this marketplace will be able to use that tower below
that 100 ft level. We don't know what their service needs are. So when you you have to be careful what you ask for on that particular issue. Totally understand. My only point in making that was my understanding, correct me if I'm wrong, you reduced the height such that
you would not have any exceptions. Correct. Correct. You came down. So you would you could raise your hand and say there's no exceptions. But the reality is by our code granted you can increase it now such that it would be a violation
had you come in and ask for 125 ft. Correct. Correct. Correct. But we only get that approval if we have another carrier that demonstrates that they need that height. Understood. But I carrier can go underneath. I suspect you're not prepared to say that you're not going to have another carrier. The reality all
I'm trying to make is if you said no more carriers than 105 got it. But the reality is you may nothing nefarious but you may have another carrier come and at the end of the day the neighbors are going to say hey look now the height is
125 which would be an exception had we done that day one that's my only point to make correct we we part but we also lowered the height again so we wouldn't need an exception but we did that after we had a community meeting and and we got an earful so on that community Yeah,
we we you know we went back to our our customer Verizon and said what and that's why it took so long to get from January to November when we resubmitted is we had to work on our customer to agree to 105. Got it. Thank you. Thank you.
That's all I've got there. I would like to just give my two cents and then we'll go for it. I I assume because you're going to need a motion. I'm not sure I'm the guy to do it. Look, we've been through this before, right? We we've had three of these, four of these. I've yet to meet a neighbor that comes
to me and says, "Gra, I'm so excited I get a cell tower in my backyard. And oh, by the way, I probably paid a premium for my lot in my house because I'm looking over a conservation area." So, nobody likes it. Um, and so they're they're tough. But I do also acknowledge um cell phones are uh you know, the
future. We talked about that this morning with technology. So, um I I guess what I've asked um Elizabeth and our team to do going forward, perhaps we can avoid some of this, if we ask future land owners, developers to put in their
PD the ability to do a cell tower. At least that's not going to prevent uh anybody can always object, right? won't prevent it, but at least we can look to say you had a right to know and you should have known had you looked at the
PD that this land owner can do a cell tower. This was not the case. So this you could argue that every homeowner in Meridian Park could argue there was nothing in the PD. I had no knowledge that there would be a cell tower. Probably should have figured that would
happen, but I didn't know. So hopefully going forward we can do that. I think Elizabeth and I have had kind of a meeting of the minds. We're going to try to do it. Don't think it's going to avoid everything. But given all of the things here, I just want to go on record. I can't support this one. I appreciate your cooperation and trying
to find a solution, but I'm going to vote no on this one. Thank you, Mayor. Okay. Somebody got a motion? Um, Commissioner, I I'd like to make a motion to uphold the municipal planning board recommendation and and adopt the
recommended order with the removal of the monopine to a monopole. Second. Okay. Motion by Commissioner Sheen, second by Commissioner Burns. I'll just say to the neighborhoods one thing, if you if you have a set of rules
and they follow the rules, you got to follow the rules yourself, meaning us. So, we got to follow the rules. They touched all the bases. And Commissioner, can I? Yep. I agree. Can I make one more comment? Yeah, you can. If you let me just finish. I'm sorry. It's probably in
your best interest to figure some of this stuff out going forward as you've just suggested because I guarantee you all the new cell towers are going to be out in your district. The rest of the city is pretty much covered up with cell coverage. I can I agree. And the funny thing is you told me the last one of
these we had, you said you'd never had one of your neighbors complain they couldn't get signal going down um right Narusi. Well, the very next day, one of our employees that works down that way told me she could never get coverage down there. So, she was happy about getting I get it, but I can't I mean,
there was somebody said earlier, the school's begging for coverage. So, we opened a brand new high school and we didn't have cell coverage. I don't know if I believe that one, but my I just want one clarification, counselor, just to make sure that you and your client are aware, we do have in the code if the
cell tower is abandoned for up to Elizabeth, help me, 24, 48 months, it has to be taken down. Yes, I see a shake. Just wanted to clarify that. Absolutely. With all towers, right, we because we have one in Lake Nona that's been standing for 20 years. It's not in
use, but there's no ability for us to get them to take it. Right. Well, Commissioner, I would suggest that the the the private sector would take care of that faster than the city would. Our lease, all of our lease agreements required with our land owners. We just lease that property, that we remove that
tower if it's not in use. So, um we're going to have a land owner screaming at us if it's not in use. So, we're not party to the agreement you have with the land owner, right? No, you're not. You're not. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So, sorry, man. I'm I'm done. I promise. Okay. No problem. Um All right.
Motion by Commissioner Sheen, second by Commissioner Burns. All in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I. I. Those opposed. I. Okay. 52. I think Ortiz, will you? No. No. Okay. 52 on the voice vote. Okay. That concludes the uh agenda
business for us today. Ed could get us in position to do general appearance. Heat. Heat.