We had a good presence at the County Commission meeting today. The discussion on The Wave lasted over 3 ½ hours with twice as many speakers against as for. I was really proud of our all of our speakers as well as the many members of our community who showed up to lend support. It was a challenge to fit everything into the two minutes allotted to each speaker. But thanks to the careful planning and many meetings over the past few months, every point was raised with very little repetition. null ​ Prior to the start of the meeting, an alternative motion was added to the back-up. It conditioned Commission approval upon “upon the City of Fort Lauderdale (the "City") and the City's Downtown Development Authority ("DDA") taking formal action to acknowledge that the changes resulting from the Third Amendment, which would affect the project's scope and various financial obligations, would not diminish or negate the City's and DDA's respective obligations to contribute toward the full local share of project cost overruns.” The County could have terminated or suspended the project today. As the backup for the agenda items stated, “the County and FDOT are able to terminate the Project Agreement if bids come in at more than 125% above $114M, or $142.5M.” (The bids came at $188.7 million to $218 million, well above the $142.5 M) However, a motion was introduced to proceed with conditions stated above. It was approved by a 5-4 vote. Commissioner Dale Holness, Nan Rich, Michael Udine and Chip LaMarca voted against. null ​ The motion gives the Fort Lauderdale City Commission and DDA until February 9th to agree to the conditions. Commissioner LaMarca suggested letting the new City Commission make the decision; several other Commissioners subsequently supported that idea. However, the prevailing side supported moving ahead with the current commission. They even said that once the current Fort Lauderdale City Commission supports the conditions, the County would prevail in litigation if the City later tried to get out. It was also suggested by two County Commissioners that the City might not need to wait two weeks to have a meeting on this but could instead set a special meeting. A couple of the County Commissioners commented on their disappointment that they had heard nothing from the business community until yesterday when they were flooded with form emails whereas those protesting the continuation of The Wave had sent passionate emails for months. On a personal note, I was disappointed with the condescending manner in which the supporters of The Wave spoke of “the vocal minority” opposing the project. Although speaker after speaker spoke of their support for working to create a successful public transportation system, they accused us of having no vision. One person went so far as to remember the critics of the tunnel and suggested it must be their descendants who were fighting The Wave. They painted themselves as visionaries even though they are locked in the past supporting a system that has become antiquated before the bids are even in. We will meet Sunday to begin planning for the next phase. P.S. Thanks to Cal Deal for documenting the meeting through photos! Also, just a reminder that the Fort Lauderdale Forum will host a Wave update followed by a pro and con panel on Wednesday, January 24 at 7:30 AM at Broward College, 111 East Broward Boulevard, 12th floor.