Miami Lakes, Florida

The time is 6:10. Yes, please meet your phones. Counsel, please come up here. Perfect. Okay. We've got Councilman Fernandez coming in now . We'll wait for you to go ahead and start. So he thinks. Perfect. So we're going to go ahead and get started and we 're going to begin with a special presentation by the Miami Lakes Bar Association. And so at this time, I want to introduce Melissa Alvarez to come up the president of the bar and to present the award along with Mary Alice Castilla. Thank you, everyone. So good evening, Mayor, Council members and everyone here in attendance on behalf of the Miami Lakes Bar Association. It is my honor to present our 2026 scholarship award to a gentleman by the name of Gabriel Diaz. Do you want to come up? The purpose of the scholarship was to recognize an outstanding graduating senior from within our community that has demonstrated not only academic success, but leadership and commitment to their future. And Gabriel exemplified all of those qualities. We had a committee that voted for him pretty much unanimously to award him this scholarship. He will be attending Massachusetts Institute of Technology. So we'll be wrapping Miami Lakes over in Massachusetts. He plans to study computer science and environmental engineering and we are incredibly proud to support him as he begins this exciting journey. And we have no doubt that he has a bright future ahead. Congratulations on this well-deserved achievement and we wish you nothing but the best. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Let's go ahead and present them the check and get a few photos and then we'll get to the proclamation. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Don't spend it all at once. Well, it's his money so. True, true. Next up, I want to invite representatives of the National Sluriderma Foundation to please come up. There she is. I remember you. Welcome back to Miami Lakes Town Hall. And we have a special proclamation here proclaiming June 29 th as Sluriderma Awareness Day in the Town of Miami Lakes. I apologize. I may mispronounce it as I go along. But the proclamation reads, "Whereas, scleroderma is a rare chronic connective tissue disease generally classified as an autoimmune disease where the word scleroderma comes from the Greek word sclero meaning hard and derma meaning skin. Whereas a scleroderma patient's immune system becomes over active and attacks its own tissues through an overproduction of collagen which can cause thickening and tightening of the skin as well as serious damage to internal organs including the lungs, heart, kidneys, esophagus, and gastrointestinal tract. Whereas scleroderma is a highly individualized disease with the symptoms ranging from very mild to life threatening that affects an estimated 300,000 people in the United States including families across South Florida and is found in every age group with the onset frequently being between the ages of 25 and 55. Whereas prompt and proper diagnosis and treatment by a qualified physician can minimize the symptoms of sclerod erma and lessen the chance for irreversible damage but there is not yet a cure for the disease. And whereas founded in 1998 the National Scleroderma Foundation is a 501c3 charitable organization where its volunteers work diligently throughout the month of June recognized nationally as scleroderma awareness month to raise awareness promote research and support individuals living with this disease. Now, therefore, I, Joshua Diegues, by virtue of the authority vested in me as the mayor of the town of Miami L akers and on behalf of the town council and 33,000 Miami Lakers do hereby proclaim June 29, 2026 as scleroderma awareness day. And I want to thank you for all your consistent advocacy efforts. Again, like I said, I do remember you and I hope that someday we will have a cure. But I want to turn it over to you to go ahead and say a few words to those who are watching. Thank you. On behalf of the National Scleroderma Foundation, Florida and Puerto Rico chapter, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to the city of Miami Lakers for recognizing June 29 Scleroderma awareness name. As a person living with scleroderma, this proclamation is especially meaningful. Thank you, Mayor Diegues and the city of Miami Lakers for being Beacons of Hope for our Scleroderma community. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We'll grab a quick photo now. All right, it's 6:15. We will come back at 6:30 to formally kickstart the meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 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Thank you. moving like I'm waiting for this freebie to come pick me up and it's just sitting on Main Street and I was the next person to be picked up so I got in my car just to see what was going on because I tell them every once in a while oh I'm on my break that's why I haven't left I would like to for whatever new company comes into play or even freebie for whatever cars are on their scheduled break to be taken out of circulation so that the people that are waiting on those freebies are not waiting you know they don't see their wait time go from 15 minutes to 30 minutes or 45 minutes so just so you know that there's a lot of frustration that I have personally that me and Justin have with the way freebie operates there you know not not all of it is wonderful let's just put it that way we get complaints about things like that we get complaints about you know if I'm here and somebody else is picking up why are we not picking up two people at a time and that's my favorite thing like you don't have this is not uber you don 't give people single rides right you are supposed to be picking up two or three people at a time and and coordinate that right so that's you know these are the kinds of things and obviously anytime that happens to you again because it's important that I give them feedback with the specific time and car number that they're doing and I have a dashboard on my on my on my computer that I can check where every freebie is at all time and I know which car number it is that is or is not doing what they're supposed to do I would really appreciate if you let me know so I can actually make the report right then and there and like really give it back to them because that's you know again we meet with freebie every two weeks I give them feedback all the time on things that I see of you know people that have complained to us of and and one that you know sometimes the complaints that handle really well and sometimes the complaints are handled you know less to my satisfaction right but but I would appreciate that if you give it to me right away as in like no filter straight out absolutely I will do and you know me I 100% yeah so but I know freebie was the first one but I'm sure that competitors have have come out since thank you anyone else on this item councilman quite yeah for the chair thank you Mr. Mayor I apologize Councilman Garcia we'll come back to you I'm gonna let Councilman Quadro Garcia go first but we'll come to you right after I'll make it real brief actually had the same identical issue as Councilman Sanchez I was coming to my briefing with Ed I called freebie 15 minutes half an hour 45 minutes I said council the freebie I'm getting in my golf cart and I came to the briefing in my golf cart so I had a real bad experience again you gotta realize that especially if it's we have four vehicles that's all we have if one of them is taken to go to the palmetto now we only have three vehicles out in the in the ethersphere right if if one of those is going from West Lakes to Costco that's another one that is out of circulation for another 20 minutes and now you only have two vehicles so there's this is sort of like the same thing that happens with uber sometimes right and because it is a very similar service model not funding model but service model only we don't have congestion pricing so basically everybody has the same idea at the same time and then supposedly the algorithm decides the most optimal route for the vehicle to go in and service all the passengers sometimes I see it sometimes I don't see it right and this is always my my my conversations with freebie are always like a can these algorithm be made a little more efficient right can it be made more to to prevent precisely that kind of situation just wanted to share my experience 100% yes and like I said to him the same thing anytime you have a negative experience or a positive one I we also like to hear the positive ones there's you know they're also very nice to a lot of our community that has trouble getting in and out of their vehicles and they they have them as as family members almost right so they also do a very good job of them and being ambassadors to the town and and and providing a service especially to the elderly right and to the disabled that cannot drive so you know by all means do please let me know so that I can make sure again and maybe it's just a problem in the algorithm at that particular point it's just a coincidence that you were asking at that moment right uh Councilman Garcia thank you mayor uh just to Susanna real quick I know previously the town had its own shuttle you know service and then we went to freebie uh but I know we spoke about this many times about working with our sister cities and you you just mentioned that Hialeah and Hialeah Gardens have an arrangement Hialeah is right there you can get through 87th Avenue to Miami Lakes through 67 through you know through 57th um it might be a good idea to look into to see if there is a way to coordinate with the resources Hialeah has if we pool our resources together we might be able to have more routes uh serve more people it's it's all about supply and demand when we have only four three or four of our uh you know our freebies and one's always at the Palmetto station we talked about this before maybe that's another route we can go maybe we can share resources with Hialeah and everybody saves money this is the kind of thinking we need to have especially now if everything if we start lowering uh if in November we have to make some cuts I think working with our sister cities might be a way of finding efficiencies that serve everybody so that's something you might want to look at I like that idea about working with uh a sister city just throwing that out there as a matter of fact sir our prior configuration when we had the the fixed route it was through a contract with the city of Hialeah that it was operated so okay and that's why we actually the bus we had to sell it back yeah okay yes that was the the fixed route that was discontinued in 2017 or 2019 um it was through a contract with the CEO of Hiale ah's transit services lack of use is that what it was that we went we went with the ubers i mean the free bies there you know that was death by a thousand cuts there were some problems with the design of the route some problems with the bus the buses actually needing to get serviced throughout like from 12 to 2 in the afternoon which is really your busiest time and that was the only time that they could get service there was issues with drivers and and other things so there was a lot of little a lot of a million little problems that were not easily solved by by the configuration that we had at the time is that something that we want to revisit that's some i'm happy to that is certainly something that i i would love to revisit well maybe a hybrid model uh using yeah using using the the what we've learned over the years uh you know you're you're a genius when it comes to that so data that's come in maybe we can find a better way uh it's but it's true what the both councilmen say i've been a i've had to cancel that as well because it just it's been 40 50 60 minutes so i would rather have a more efficient system than one that's inefficient for everybody you know most people have to wait 30 40 50 minutes that's not really an efficient system although it's free and i get it you have to wait longer than uber but yeah if you can look into it we appreciate it thank you so much thank you anyone else okay uh we're moving on then to item 8f alternative locations for miami lakes letters good evening mayor and council jeremy bagdell director of parks and recreation um at the last council meeting we discussed some of the uh struggles we were having with trying to finalize some of the ftl t permitting and engineering documents needed to continue with the location that we were looking at implementing the donated letters from the miami realtors association in doing so we are we've gotten some comments back from the engineers in which they are starting to have troubles with meeting some of the ftl t requirements and in this conversation we decided to go ahead and look at alternative locations where we can install these letters have them in high visible locations and also kind of for the most part out of the four options look at a way to make them a little more interactive where people can be closer to them and kind of utilize them for photos and something that can be picturesque so the report in front of you lays out four different options for implementing the letters one option is rotating through the main four parks the second option is utilizing kind of one of our unique parks in p74 east also known as grand park with the pond and locating it within the water another option looks at another high visibility area which is the off-ramp but within an area that we already maintain outside of actual highway grounds and then option four would look at potentially a partnership with the grams as far as trying to implement it within main street any questions yes the vice mayor and then councilman sanchez thank you mayor so on the option one the rotating around the parks as well as the grand park option and the a26 off-ramp option are you anticipating uh power in in all of these in terms of electricity for lighting at this time no um there is no lighting that is incorporated as far as looking at once we select on a location that we 're looking at that would be part of what will come back to you with a full scope and cost and if lighting is going to be something considered by this council if i recall correctly when when we initially requested the f dot location um we had asked for it to have power power is that what's causing some of the issues with meeting the f dot requirements it's the entire development and engineering of the actual unit being installed in the location that it's at okay so it's not necessarily it's not just that that's one of the components okay uh as far as this um i i struggle with i guess the um potential logistics i guess of of the rotational one um and damage over time uh to to to the unit um i think that the one on the lake floating on the lake looks absolutely phenomenal and i mean even if it could just be a solar light uh just to give it a little warm glow it doesn't have to be well lit it just has to glow a little bit right because it 's gonna be there's not a lot of lighting in that park anyway so whatever amount of light it has will make it stand out um i think that that'll make it a true a truly nice landmark in the town uh and then i do the the only one that i really don't like is the main street partnership only because it's not our land and they they already have a monopoly on all the cows let's put some stuff elsewhere councilman san chez jeremy thank you for the report i like it very thorough um the one that i really like is option three but i do have two but for two reasons number one we don't have an entry feature at that um entry point into my aminx we have one on the east side but we don't have one there something that i discussed with the manager earlier today but something that does worry me the second thing about it i know we maintain it but do we own that land or is that somebody else's life it's still fdot maintained by us as far as the actual grounds maintenance so it would still be something but it is no longer in the highway portion so the restrictions are not as heavy we would look into it if that is the decision of the of the council that is something that we would then pursue and talk with both the designer as well as our fdot contact okay yeah because this will be a very high visibility area um you know everyone in miami will see it there and i like the idea of the lake it's it's very nice i completely agree but it would be very hidden unless you're going to either main street or the farmers market or that micro area it's uh you know it's going to be out of out of sight um so yeah i would fall in favor of option three if we can pursue it but i would think that it's still a foundational item to have the engineering for it for hurricane damage and things like that yeah the installation itself would be installation that we 'd install anywhere as far as meeting building code and and so forth but the biggest thing is the location and what are the requirements for next to a highway the distance from the center of the road and and that's where kind of the issues are arising okay now i'd be in favor of option three um uh well uh you want to make a motion yeah okay go ahead and make the motion and then we'll continue discussion i'd like to actually move to move forward with option two grand park uh i think that that's honestly the nicest option um and i i agree with councilman sanchez uh on the issue with um there not being an entry feature on 826 i'd rather find another solution for that than this one i don't think that this one should go there uh but the the gram lake one is great so i'll move that one second it 's been moved and seconded councilman herzberg you wanted to uh discuss it yeah no that's that's my position i think uh the lake one looks awesome i think it's a great idea hopefully you can add some solo solar lights or something but that's just different miami lakes makes sense to put in a lake like that all the rest are just you know on the side of the road this is different i love it i mean that's what they are the rest are on the side of the road this is not this is in a lake in miami lakes in our parks that's us so it option two is by far my preferred item i wouldn't even vote for the other ones and and and to that point the goal of that also is if you were taking let's say this is some of the ideas that we thought of staff is if you're taking senior pictures or any type of pictures you can be positioned on the bridge with the lay the letters directly in front of it and kind of catching you as well so it was definitely a definitely unique spot that we decided on through the chair a councilman garcia then councilman cuadra garcia and did any of you guys want to say one more question and then thank you know it looks great uh you know especially we do a hashtag miami lakes campaign along with it on our instagram page it'd be great with a lot with the solar lighting the only um caveat i would ask you is this park is uh especially at night time a lot of kids go to this park to hang out um when i was a kid i used to do the same thing uh we need to figure out a way so they don't have access to that little island it needs it can't connect to the shore it has to be you can be it can be reached by you know by jumping over or jumping over the jumping on the on the bridge because the kids are going to jump there and trust me they will councilman guazard garcia um basically um at the entrance where we had thought about it would be uh choice number one i think that we should try to um reach out to whoever it is that we're having the issues with uh whether it i know they're not responding to phone calls let's try visiting them and see maybe if you know by visiting them that they might give us a response if not then uh this is beautiful the lake is beautiful but have we thought of placing it in the entrance of the town right where the fire station is six seven our entry can it be put there uh i'll answer that yes that that that is what we've been discussing for the longest time to do unfortunately it's six seven he's talking about six seven by the last 67 okay by the uh by the library i don't think i don't think there's enough space there right i thought about the library redevelopment is supposedly doing some kind of an entry feature on their redevelopment so we'll have that entrance entrance captured so i think that's uh why they they looked at the southbound palmetto exit onto one five four uh as one alternative but if we're moving forward with the lake then we'll we'll put all the uh dot all the i's and cross all the t's and come back to you with exactly what that entails but i just want to remind you that the vote that we 're going to be taking at the end of this discussion is going to be for option two so you know when it comes time to vote you are going to have to make a decision now though option two is the lake yes okay so just wanted you to be aware so that when we we get to the vote after councilman sanchez okay all right council man sanchez so just forward thinking um how is the sign going to be anchored to the lake will it be moving or just stationary stationary we look at uh it's not that deep that pond so we have to go ahead and not talk and work with uh omar public works to get a solution that is going to be stationary as mentioned we would want it to avoid moving so that it cannot be moved okay um and also that it's not it's positioned in a way that it is not susceptible to vandalism and and nefarious acts and then the second part of that question is maintenance some at times someone's going to have to go out there to clean it you know exposure to to animals in the area flying over and rain and it's going to get dirty it's white what is the plan to get someone into the middle of the lake to be able to clean it we'll bring that back up as part of the the cost when it comes back to fine-tuning as the manager mentioned and crossing the t's and dotting the i's we'll bring that back as a maintenance plan what it's going to require what we anticipate to maintain it at a pearly white uh letters um sign is it is it easy to put like a small boat into that lake to be able to get somebody out there it can um we can also look at because of the depth being so short we can see what are our other options to walk yeah it's short okay perfect mr mayor one more last one two seconds okay last one but we got to move i like the lake issue but i'm concerned and we should all be concerned on safety where kids can be going up there and uh you know thinking that they're superman uh taking selfies and we we need to take that into consideration and they might fall into the water thank you all those in favor say aye aye aye all opposed no the ayes have it the motion carries option two is the direction um with that um with that we're now on 8g mlop pickleball report um so in light of the previous council meeting in which we looked at and heard about some of the demand for um pickle ball and kind of a in a niche time in the evenings where the demand was exceedingly uh higher than the courts available yet there were some tennis courts that were still being underutilized uh staff came up with the plan before you that looks at kind of instituting a kind of instituting a hybrid pickleball program that essentially operates two additional dedicated courts in the off times of tennis on a tennis court so it'll grant us two more courts to meet more demand without foregoing an entire tennis court in its entirety so the program you have in front of you is to essentially line um two new courts on the existing tennis court just to the east of the pickleball courts um without having to touch any of the tennis net it'll actually be a lot of the having to touch any of the tennis net it'll actually act as a divider between the two courts activating those two courts in the specified time within the report and then any time outside of that it would remain being a fully available tennis court um which we are in this process we kind of went out there and saw that mostly tennis is played weekdays during the morning times not when the peak uh pickleball times in the evenings are are occurring so you have the report in front of you there is a cost associated um with the item um we discussed and one thing what can be just it would be absorbed within the capital uh improvements of optimists Vice Mayor I'd like to move to have the recommendation from staff here adopted and implemented by the staff is there a second second it's been seconded councilman Sanchez discussion no I am completing in favor of this pickleball is is an overwhelmingly popular sport right now as long as it's done in a proper manner by all of the users that you know without any foreseeable issues of fighting and discussion among them that we're tearing down of our rule signs or anything like that so I am in favor of it but we have to also keep in mind the the rules of these anyone else can I just mention something man sure yeah and if this motion can also include spending let's say just to be safe I was up to up to no more than $2,000 from the Miami Lakes Optimus Capital account may you want me to amend my motion or do I'm gonna just make a follow-up that'll be easier just go ahead and amend it so it's the authorization and the fund I 'm in my motion to authorize the funding of up to 2,000 uh 2,000 from the MLP uh capital account I 'll second that it's been moved and seconded any discussion on the amendment seeing none all those in favor say aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye opposed no the eyes have it the motion is amended and we're back on the main motion further discussion Seeing none. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed no. The ayes have it. Item 8G carries as proposed. Next we are on 8H building Department technology modernization and digital permitting update. And Ms. Parks. Good evening Mayor, Vice Mayor, Town Council , Daniel Angel, Director of Building Zoning and Code En forcement. The report in front of you is in response to Councilman Sanchez's technology upgrade new business item presented at the February Council meeting. This report represents the culmination of a multi-year technology modernization effort within the building department. It began with then Councilman Diego's 2021 convenient business licensing initiative to allow businesses to apply for and renew licenses online and was further guided by the recommendations of the building ad hoc committee to improve technology operational efficiency and customer service. After rebuilding operations, modernizing our systems, expanding online services and enhancing our existing software platform, we have now success successfully processed more than 100. digital permit applications and plan reviews through our electronic permitting system. And this is all with a soft launch with no announcements. This accomplishment fulfills the vision established by prior council initiative and advances the objectives out lining Councilman Sanchez's NBI by delivering a modern customer customer focused digital permitting platform. Also attached to this report is a draft scope of services for a digital plan submittal and electronic plan review program, which serves as a reference to the and a document and a document and framework for the type of functionality contemplated by the MBI staff's assessment indicates that most. If not all of these capabilities have already been implemented or are currently being implemented through the town's existing software platform, allowing us to continue modernizing services while maximizing the town's existing investments. And I'm sure you guys read the reports. I'm sure you guys are going to be able to do that. I'm sure you guys are going to be able to do that. I'm sure you guys are going to be able to do that. I'm sure you guys are going to be able to do that. I'm sure you guys are going to be able to do that. I'm sure you guys are going to be able to do that. I'm sure you guys are going to be able to do that. I'm sure you guys are going to be able to do that. I'm sure you guys are going to be able to do that. I'm sure you guys are going to be able to do that. I'm sure you guys are going to be able to do that. I'm sure you guys are going to be able to do that. I'm sure you guys are going to be able to do that. I'm sure you guys are going to be able to do that. I'm sure you guys are going to be able to do that. I'm sure you guys are going to be able to do that. I'm sure you guys are going to be able to do that. I'm sure you guys are going to be able to do that. I'm sure you guys are going to be able to do that. I'm sure you guys are going to be able to do that. What this day is requested was the last two pages of this report and it's this is a sample. We wanted to see what was this. I understand that 100 reports have already been received, but I also wanted to see what other software and something that we didn't have before. We didn't have the ability to have software plans submitted digitally. So this was a good way of having a trial run without having to replace systems and take nine to 18 months and spend all this all these funds. It wasn't a replacement. It was a new system that gave us an opportunity to see what was out there for procurement that could be more cost effective. That could be more user friendly. For all we know, based on the system that we have, that is on an annual renewal. It's not a five or three plus two one years. It's an annual renewal that we've had since 2019. It's just it's it's doesn't give us the opportunity to see what else is out there that could be cheaper. Like I stated that could be more user friendly. And that now is what's in front of us. Something that you ran with when this isn't what was asked of this of this council. I would still like to see that procurement process go through with an actual scope that shows bigger monitors that are needed. That shows this is the type of software that we need because this was presented in February. It's been four months that it was presented and we don't have what was requested. So I get it. You run with the company that we currently have, but we can we don't know if there's something better out there. We don't know if there's something that is easier to use. So I still insist on having that scope developed so that we can put it out to bid so we can see if there's something that can save us some money, save your department some more money that you can reinvest into other technologies and keep going that way. For all we know, we're running Windows 3.1 in a world that 's running Windows 11. We don't know that because all we know is a software that we have right now. And I'm not saying that the work that you did went in vain because 100 people did get helped and we see the ability to do it. But I want to continue with down that path of going through the procurement process and seeing what else is out there. Because it's something new, something that we didn't have before. So I move to continue on the path of creating that scope. I'm putting it out to procurement when a proper scope is presented and not a sample scope. There's a motion on the table. Is there a second? I'll second for discussion. Seconded by Councilman Garcia. Councilman Garcia, any discussion? Vice Mayor. Mr. Manager? Yeah, I just with all due respect, I beg to differ with the Council Member Sanchez. The motion that was passed when the NBI was to come back with a scope of services. And we've done that. So I think we have complied with the NBI, which was to provide a scope of services. We have also, we are responsible for providing and providing this Council with as much information as possible so you make educated decisions. So the fact that we also highlighted the fact that we have been able to, with our current software, accomplish the digital plan submittal. And it was a project that was well underway for many months , probably over a year, between the building department and our IT department. So that's it. I, if the Council obviously, if the Council decides to move forward with a, with the RFP and put a, put it out, we're more than happy to fulfill that, that wish of the Council. But I'd like to just state that we did provide the scope of services for an RFP. Um, and we feel obligated to provide you with as much information and background as possible. So you make as educated decisions possible. Okay. Councilman Sanchez. Um, for the benefit of the, uh, all of us, cause I, I heard it from this side as well. There's a little bit of confusion. I don't think we really understood the motion. Uh, if you could elaborate and explain it a little bit, uh, so that we understand what it is you're requesting. Absolutely. Earlier today, placed on your desk, you have this document that has eight H at the top of it is the actual NBI that did not have amendments, did not have any changes. I motioned Councilman Herzberg seconded without any discussion, it passed and it states there is recommended that staff returned at the March 17, 2026, regular council meeting with a project scope to begin the procurement process for the technology upgrades needed to implement the ability for architectural plans to be submitted digitally instead of printed paper. Right out of the gate to be able to read those plans. Hardware wise, you need larger monitors right out of the gate. This sample scope has nothing about hardware, has a few things about software, but nothing about hardware. So it wasn't to go ahead and run with it. And I understand that staff understood the spirit of it was to start implementing it, but I just wanted a scope to be developed so we could see what else is out there. What other softwares are out there? Through the chair. Hold on, councilman Garcia. I'll let him finish. Yeah. Okay. Respectfully on that point, isn't the answer to this, the how is the report that is provided as 8 H on the actual agenda on starting on page 69 through. 74. 74. Yeah. 74 with the, or 75 of today's agenda. How is that report not the answer to this? The project scope. It's not because it also includes things for BTRs. It includes information that isn't part of this. And I understand that it was an item on the past that mayor Diego's brought up, but the scope of this specific NBI was just for something, to implement something that we didn't have, period, for online submission of plans. Okay. It's just, it's, it's, to me, it's filler information. And instead of putting it out and listening to the letter of this NBI that states just to create a scope, just so that we can approve and say, yes , this is what's needed. Start the procurement process. It was just run with. And we don't know if there's something better out there at this point that can be more cost effective. Okay. I also just want to say, cause you know, you were mentioning hardware and software and I, I'm not going to lie to you. I read through this lightly, uh, because it's a, it's a dense report. Um, but I did read through it and it, it seems that we're good. Um, my, my concern is substituting. What is my judgment on what is needed versus you, the department heads judgment. And for example, as a moment ago, you were saying we definitely need larger monitors in order to read plans. But the guy in charge was paid by our town to read plans for shaking his head and seemingly in disagreement. And I no offense to you. I, I kind of take his word a little bit stronger when it comes to reading plans because that is pretty much the only thing he does. Uh, and so if he tells me he doesn't need larger monitors and I don't have to waste money on a larger monitor, I'm going to go in that route. Uh, and again, credit to him because most of the time when a government says we're willing to give you money, they, they don't hesitate. And he did. So thank you. Uh, but I, I'm still struggling to understand what do you, do you need him then to, I guess, extract from this report the parts specific to your NBI and then put that into its own report? That way you actually develop a scope that we can put out for procurement. Okay. Is, is that understandable? Is that something that can be done for the next meeting? Is that something that can be done for the next meeting? Is that something that can be done for the next meeting? Is that something that can be done for the next meeting? Is that something that can be done for the next meeting? Is that something that can be done for the next meeting? Is that something that can be done for the next meeting? Is that something that can be done for the next meeting? Is that something that can be done for the next meeting? 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Is that something that can be done for them and now we have a new one? Does it mean that there isn't something better? But we won't know unless we open that procurement process to see what is out there and if it can be more cost- effective. The more money we keep on our side, especially with what's coming down the pipeline of the tax referendum, we don't know unless we start that process. If it's something because, yes, on the back end there are a lot of departments that deal with it, but we also have to think of the consumer side, the residents. Is it easy for them to use it? The contractors, is it easy for them to use it? We don't know if there is something easier out there. Is it Windows versus Apple? We don't know. There used to be a system. I don't know if it's still around. Maybe it's on the business side of Linux. I think it's now used mostly by businesses, but we don't know what's out there, which is why I want to search out this process to see if there was something better and cheaper out there. Councilman Cuadro-Garcia. I didn't know that we had to be geeks also, computer geeks. Anyways, if I understand this correctly, basically it's simple. It's basically we want to go digital. Is that what it is? Okay. I mean, our sister. We currently are digital councilman. That's part of the report. We currently are digital. Oh yeah. Our sister Miami, Miami gardens is digital. So what is the whole, I'm trying to understand this. What is it that we need? Do we need, do we need enough? What is it that we need? The whole purpose of this was to see if there was a better solution out there? Another software company that can come in and say, we can do your online submittals. We can take care of that. The software is X amount of funds . The hardware is X amount of funds. But we instead went with the in house that we have, which was not the spirit of this item. It was an exploratory type of item. It's an idea. An idea to see what else is out there. And it would help you. That could be more cost effective, cheaper, something that 's easier to use. But now we don't know that because it's been implemented. The only way to find that out is to create a scope that says we need this type of software or this type of hardware and putting it out to procurement and see what comes back. So if what we have is the cheapest and the most, you know, I mean, not the most user friendly and the most cost effective, then we keep what we have. But we don't know if there is that existence out there. Well, let's then direct staff to look into it and do some homework and get back to us. Well, look, we got to keep moving. So we have a motion. Mayor. Is that I mean, Mr. Mayor, is that a good idea? Have staff look into it and come back? Stephen Herzberg. Okay. Yeah, no, no. We're discussing the options that are before us. Again, if you have other ideas, you have plenty of time to get with the attorneys and the manager. But I'm going to go to Councilman Herzberg, who has not had an opportunity to speak yet. Thank you, Mayor. I mean, reading this, I just want to get your position clear. Are you are you saying that the town is already accepting digital plans and you don't see a need for another software ? Is that basically your assessment? What I would suggest and recommend to this town council as my professional opinion is to continue to entrust me. I just to remind this council, I assume that row in 2021 that department was in pure chaos. We're able to bring it to where it's at. And I just ask this council, each individual, do you guys get complaints during the permitting process? Do you guys get complaints during the code process? Is there a specific complaint that we need to address? And I'll just use the words as council, councilman Coadro says, if it ain't broke, don't fix. What we're doing now is we're continuing to, when I, when I took over that and it was part of the building ad hoc committee, that software that they had in that department was only at 30% full capacity. I want to say right now, I've already brought it up to at least 80%. And they continue to bring out software releases and they continue to bring out software releases like the iPhone. Every time there's a new software release, it fixes a bug and we're going to get there. And all I'm saying is that we're going to go through this round of RFP. And I think we've suffered from this as a town in the past is we go out to bid, we pull the bid. Then when we go out to bid again, nobody's bidding because they know that the town is not serious about bidding. When we go out to bid, let's be fully serious that what we want to bid and we want to acquire, we're going to attain. Because we have a reputation here just like everything else . So my recommendation is continue to entrust me. We will bring it up to standard and we'll make the building department the best building department in Miami D County. Continue. But I just, and sorry for the cross examination here. Your department already accepts, because the MBI says he wants, you know, the councilman wanted to start the process and make sure that we can get our architectural plans submitted digitally, which is true. Definitely something that I think the town should be able to do. Which we have since April 1st. And this is not something that I just turned on a switch. One of the things that we started doing in light of then councilman Sanchez, and I'm sorry, I keep on saying, I mean councilman, which is Mayor Diego's. He wanted to modernize the building department. This was back in February of 2021. We're already doing that. And because we're doing that, we're like, no, we got to make everything digital because it's not just a want. It's a, it's a requirement Florida statute now requires that we have to accept digital plants. So this is something that has been in the works for the last three years. We've had consultants. We've been working on it just to make sure. And we talk about cost efficiency right now. We're paying $45,000 a year for that program to maintain it because we own it. We go out to bid and we acquire a full enterprise system half a million dollars. Okay, so I'm going to call the vote, but first I'm, I'm just going to state now that councilman Sanchez, I respect the spirit in which this item was proposed. I obviously supported it last time. Um, as I'm thinking about it now, my concern is just the response that you gave councilman Fernandez, which is that you're not aware of another company that handles this. And yet, and you and I both know that both of us are intelligent people that go out and do research on these items. And we could absolutely, if there was one, I think you would have found it. Right. Um, so my concern with just putting it out there is that it might be just spinning our wheels, spending inordinate amounts of staff time on something that we may not get any, anybody to, to bid. Um, so that's my concern. Um, just wanted to put out on the record that I'll be a no on this, but you know, let's see what happens. Uh, but I respect where you're coming from and I want to continue to remind staff that for me, I'm always going to support the council's prerogative. When we give direction, I want it followed exactly as it was passed. Um, if you're going to go in a different direction, I've always been an advocate and normally the manager, uh, uh, works with me on this too. But if there's an alternative direction to go in, you speak to us to the sponsoring council member first before proceeding with that alternative direction. So I just want that noted for staff. But with that, um, Madam clerk, please call the roll. Council member Sanchez. Yes. Council member Herzberg. No. Council member Garcia. Yes. Council member Fernandez. Councilmember Fernandes no councilmember Quadra Garcia no vice mayor Moreira no mayor diez no the motion fails mayor point of order you're recognized for the point of order I'd like to make a motion to reopen the agenda all right is there a second second in all right it's been moved and seconded all those in favor say aye aye all opposed no the eyes have it the agenda is reopened what is it that you would like to move around thank you mayor I'd like to bring 16 L to immediately after 8 H so next so now and other than that that's it okay so with that vice mayor Moreira moves to move 16 L to the next item is there a second second all right it's been seconded all those in favor say aye aye aye aye all opposed no the eyes have it the agenda is amended and we are on 16 L which does that require a waiver yes it does all right so go ahead you're recognized for the waiver thank you I'd like to move to waive section 7.2 of the special rules of order as it pertains to item 16 L second wait what oh no I saw Ed move toward the mic so I thought it was him that was I was confused yeah no it was story it was turning me off all right so with that all those in favor of the waiver say aye aye all opposed no the eyes have it the rule is waived you're recognized to proceed thank you mayor so first and foremost I want to say that this item is here because of one person that's Miss Carolina Cuba who is here in the audience she was here during public comments I I don't have to even explain to you guys how impressive she is in her public speaking and in her own advocacy but my motion here is going to be to adopt the resolution that's attached to my NBI as exhibit a it seeks to re-establish a youth advisory board for the town of Miami lakes and it seeks to supersede resolution 24-1993 so that resolution was adopted back in April 2024 just before I came in at that time they sought to create this youth advisory board would you like let me actually pause for a second or no okay so so at that time the council basically said yeah we're gonna go do this but as sometimes happens it was more lip service than anything else because immediately after it was passed nothing happened not no council member appointed anyone no applications were were sent to the schools as the original resolution required and again but for miss who I bring this up this would have completely gone by the wayside and in in so doing and in so bringing it up she proved the need for the for a youth advisory board the the spirit and purpose of such a board is to ensure that the that the voice and the opinions of the youth are taking into account as a great example today we took up a very important item and that's the MLP items this would have been an item in which I think that the that the youth advisory board would have definitely had an opinion given that it directly affects the youth in our communities you guys can read the the resolution as well as the the NBI in greater detail yourselves but this does envision the council members having a certain amount of flexibility if you wanted to offer them shadow opportunities you're welcome to do that if you prefer to not be bothered you you don't have to give them that opportunity but the primary thing is that they would be able to deliver a report to us and just as we're given these here on the dais prior to the meetings they would hand in their report it would necessarily be after close of agenda because they would need to receive our agenda and then they'd be able to have their report commenting on the items that they deem are important to the youth and then we can reference it or not during you know we're not obligated to but I think it is important that it be considered it would be considered it or not or not or not or not. I think it is important that it would be considered other than that I'll go ahead and move for the adoption. I'll second for discussion. Thank you. Okay the first one I heard was Councilman Sanchez so I'll go to him first then to Councilman Garcia. If I may ask Ms. Cuba can you come to the podium for a moment. Thank you. If I understand that correctly you do not live within the boundaries of the town of Miami Dix is that correct. I just have there's a reason I asked that question. I want to amend this NBI but first I have a question. Claricelle, communications director, really quick because she knows more about the committees. I submitted it with a resolution. I could probably answer his question before he even asks it . Do we have any committees where that residency requirement is waived and it's not grandfathered? So for example blasting advisory we have the chair of the blasting advisory isn't a resident of Miami Dix but I believe he has been grandfathered in. Good evening mayor and council. Yes, all the committee members that were already serving on the committees and did not live here have been grandfather ed in. The only committee that has a waiver for that rule is blasting advisory board. Okay, so it's not unheard of to be able to add a stip ulation to the resolution for this committee that they do not have to be residents. Well blasting has it so yes, you're correct. Okay, so I wouldn't be breaking the ground by introducing it to this one. Well, it's up to you. You know, I just introduced what I would do. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. Okay, so I move to amend the resolution to remove the residency requirement. There's no need. I'm sorry. I don't know. I thought that my resolution my proposed resolution was included in this. I had submitted one along with my submission. I don't have it. My proposed resolution had a very simple requirement. It actually intentionally removed the Miami lakes residents see requirement and instead simply created a requirement that they attend one of the schools in Miami lakes including HMO as well since that's If that's already in the resolution then I fully support. I just didn't see it. Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. I actually didn't realize it wasn't included in the digital agenda. Okay, I'll circulate it actually to the manager so that he can circulate to everyone. Okay. Councilman Garcia. Thank you, Mayor. Vice Mayor. Again, you're absolutely correct. If they're coming to our if they're attending our schools, then the waiver should be should be wait, that should be wa ived. And again, I want to apologize to Miss Kua for for dropping the ball for not jumping on this quicker. But but but you just showed that it, you know, your voice, your voice works. You came to us. You talked to the vice mayor and look, it's getting done. And I agree. I think that it would be a great idea to hear here from more students in the town. So I'm 100% for this item. Has it? Yeah. Okay. Councilman Herzberg. And do you want to say something? Councilman Fernandez. Okay, so Herzberg Fernandez, that'll be the order. Thank you, mayor. First of all, again, thank you for, you know, I saw your emails come in. We spoke briefly and keep pushing it to make sure someone someone got it on the agenda. I don't know what happened. Why this didn't Mr. Manager. Mr. Manager, Mr. Manager, Ed, you're being asked a question . Is there is there a specific reason why nothing happened for all this time when it was approved previously? I think only one person submitted an application when we put it out. We advertised it. We put it out. Clarisol can speak better about the efforts that we did. But we did put it, you know, like a newly constituted thing and only, Ms. Guba, I think, was the only one that. So to you, I hope that we can get people to apply and be interested. I don't care where they live or where they go to school. Yeah, we're going to need help. Right. I mean, I've been getting the enthusiasm going. I'm just letting them know. Exactly. The resolution makes sense to not have the residency requirement. Anyone, anybody in the youth that wants to get involved, I 'm all for it. So it's a good item. I hope we can get it going. The only question I have then to the vice mayor is your idea is what for them to meet like on the Thursday after the agenda post. How does it how do they advise us? In my head, it's like that. It's that they meet after agenda posts. Ultimately, I would actually leave it to them at the date that they believe makes the most sense for them. What makes a lot of sense to me is that it's after agenda posts so that they can comment on the things that are on the agenda. I was able to pull up the resolution that I that I submitted along with this NBI and a I did just forward it right now to the manager so that he could disseminate it to all of you guys. The requirements are to qualify prospective board members must one be a resident of Miami Lakes or be enrolled at one of the following schools. And then it goes Miami Lakes K through 8 Bob Graham Miami Lakes Middle our Lady of the Lakes Miami Lakes Educational Center Barbara Goldman or Hialeah Miami Lakes Senior High. I think I got them all. They have to have an unweighted GPA of at least 2.5 and submit a completed application. One of the major differences, which is I think the reason why there wasn't a lot of interest in the past or we didn't get back many is and that has been changed in this version is. How the applications are sent out and received in the past it was done through the school. Basically, we handed the applications to the school and the school decided who they were sending us. I didn't like that for two reasons. Number one, it allowed the schools to play favorites and we all know that it happens. And number two, I didn't like it because it almost forced upon us who was on the committee. We had almost no voice in who was in the committee. It was just the schools. Each school had a representative. So Miami Lakes Middle had a representative. K through 8 had a representative, etc. And and so if there was a vacancy, I can't just select the person who I think is the most qualified. I had to select the one who who making faces, the one who who who who goes to the school that has the vacancy. So I didn't like that. So we got rid of it. Like I said, I've sent the resolution to Ed. Feel free to take a look. Thank you. I know I had said Councilman Fernandez, but I looked at the time and we really got to get moving. We're falling behind. And thankfully, the conditional use approval, you know, decided to defer. So my one question to you is this is going to come back to us, right? I don't know. Yeah, if they pass it tonight, it's a new business time. So the resolution would have to come back even though you had attached it. I think so. Yeah. Yeah. So I have a lot of questions. I'm deeply skeptical. You know how I feel about creating any new boards. And, you know, so it has nothing to do with you, Miss Cuba. I think you're great. And I, huh? No, no, my personal beef is with just endless committees, right? That's always been my beef. As you saw today, look at what time you're here, right? Look how many reports we have to get through. So, you know, and to hear from different groups, it really takes a lot of time. And so I'm going to review it in depth and think of alternatives that can get me on board. I'm going to vote it forward tonight, but just to move us along. But, you know, I guess you and I will be scheduling a meeting so we can discuss it further. With that, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. The ayes have it. The motion carries. Thank you very much, ladies. All right. Going back into the regular order of business. We are now. Wait. Remember that. The attorney's report number nine. Number nine. We don't have anything to report, which is fantastic. That is the best report ever. Yes. All right. Consent calendar. So we're now on the consent calendar. Is there a motion? I move the consent. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. The ayes have it. The motion carries. The consent calendar is passed. And we now come to 13 a. The revised lien reduction ordinance. I just want to remind everybody we're on first reading. There's no need to, you know, beat this up too much. So with that, I'm just going to move. Well, after the attorney reads it, I'm going to go ahead and just move it. And I would ask that we just advance it to second reading. All right. Mr. Attorney. An ordinance of the town of Miami lakes, Florida amending chapter eight, section eight dash seven of the town of Miami lakes code of ordinances titled recovery of unpaid civil penalties, unpaid penalty to constitute a lien interest to be paid on liens, foreclosure prohibition of the issuance of permits, licenses, certificates of use and occupancy or zoning approvals to violators with unpaid civil penalties or liens, civil penalty reduction. The temporarily reinstate prior lien mitigation schedules to require town council approval prior to foreclosure on non homestead property providing for inclusion into the code, providing for repeal of ordinances in conflict, providing for sever ability and providing for an effective date. Excellent. I move to adopt the ordinance as proposed. I'll second it to second reading. It's been seconded. Any discussion? Hopefully not. Okay. With that, Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Ordinance in first reading item 13 a council member Sanchez . Yes. Council member. Cuadra Garcia. Council member. Garcia. Yes. Council member. Fernandez. Yes. Council member. Hersberg. Yes. Vice mayor. Yes. Ordinance in first reading item 13 a passes. Excellent. We're now on 13 b. Again, an item of first reading budget amendment j a g grant. Mr. Attorney. An ordinance of the town of Miami lakes, Florida amending the fiscal year 2025 2026 annual operating budget. Adopted in accordance. Adopted in ordinance 2025 dash three, four, six to recognize and appropriate grant funds awarded to the town by the Florida Department of law enforcement. Under the Edward burn memorial justice assistant grant jag program for the purchase of police equipment providing for the increase of general fund revenues and appropriations in the amount of $4,054 as set forth in exhibit a providing for authority providing for implementation providing for appeal of ordinances in conflict and providing for an effective date. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, go ahead. Councilman. I'll move. I'll second it. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Seeing none. Madam clerk, please call the roll. Ordinance in first reading item 13 b. Council member Fern andez. Yes. Council member. Herzberg. Yes. Council member Sanchez. Yes. Council member Garcia. Yes. Council member. Cuadra Garcia. Yes. Vice Mayor Moreira. Yes. Mayor Diegis. Yes. Ordinance in first reading item 13 b passes. Excellent. We're now in 14 a non ad valorem special assessment rates for security guards and Lake maintenance special taxing districts. Mr. Attorney, go ahead and read the ordinance ordinance of the town council of town of Miami lakes, Florida approving adopting a non ad valorem assessment role for special tax ing districts approving adopting adopting and ratifying special assessment district rates for special taxing districts, including but not limited to security guard and multi purpose maintenance providing for severability and providing for an effective date. Thank you. And before we continue, this is a public hearing . So I'm going to open the public hearing. Are there any members of the public wishing to speak seeing none in chambers. Madam clerk anyone online. Participants I see two. I see one actually I'm sorry. Mr. Adonis Sardinas. If you want to participate now. 14 a ordinance in second reading welcome and unmute yourself. Okay, so going once going twice. The public comment period on on this item is now closed. So with that, Mr. Manager. Yeah, this is the setting of the assessments is not the approval of the budgets, but it's setting of the assessments for the non ad valorem special assessments for the security guard and lake maintenance special taxing districts for next year. Thank you. Um, so with that, is there a motion? I'll move it. It's been moved by councilman Herzberg. It's been seconded by the vice mayor discussion. Sure. All right. Mr. Vice mayor. Okay. So. Okay, so. To be clear as you clarified, we're voting here on on the rate, not on the budget. Um, as far as a lot of the public comment that we have received on this, we did receive some strong objections from homeowners living over in Miami Lake section one. Um, they opposed generally speaking, uh, because it's a lot that I'm trying to synthesize into a short statement. Um, they, they generally opposed the way in which the direct costs are calculated. Uh, they deem that it lays a heavier burden on, uh, Miami Lake section one than on others. Um, with respect. I, I, I know individually pretty much every single one of those residents that commented. So with, uh, all respect to them, I do respectfully disagree with them. Um, everything I've seen seems to actually indicate that. on a per home basis, the residents of Miami Lake section one actually pay less than the residents in other special taxing districts. Moreover, I, at the same time, I sympathize with their objection. I understand the way that they're seeing it. They're seeing the overall picture of because we are a bigger community, we are saddled with larger numbers of, with a larger number as a community. I think that that is flawed for the reason I already stated in that on a per home basis, they are actually getting a better rate. But additionally, because ultimately, while I did hear a lot of the objections and considered them thoroughly , I didn't see a valid or feasible alternative. And in the absence of that, I kind of have to go with what I have. So that being said, I am still open to hearing a valid, feasible alternative between now and the budget. But at this rate, as far as the rate is concerned, I will move, move or vote to approve the current rate. Should we determine that there is a better way between now and budget season, I am happy to reduce the direct costs and allocate more to the contingency funds and then give them a savings next year. I'm happy to do that. I'm open to them . I want them to know we are listening. And we did hear, read and, and, and consider all of the objections that were raised. But ultimately, at this time, I don't see a convincing reasoning to go with something different. All right, we're going to go to Councilman Herzberg, then Councilman Fernandez, and then Councilman Cuadro de Garcia. That's the lineup for the next three. Thank you, Mayor. And I share your, your viewpoint to an extent, Vice Mayor. I spent an hour of staff today going over these numbers and the history of how they got there. The way the numbers that work is 100% Section 1 has the lowest per household, right? Their, their issue is that the, the percentage of the budget is this proportional, right? But the other, other ways that I discussed and how it could be done, this is, this is a compromise. This makes the most sense because at the end of the day, it's going to be paid by somebody. And there are more homes , more residents asking for service. There's actually even four, is it four gates that are there? So there's even four gate guard. Each gate has issues. Each gate gets broken down. And I, when I'm speaking with staff, my understanding is Section 1 has a large amount of calls for service, right? If you want to come up and talk about what your findings were in that. Yes. So we were able to go ahead and pull a report for all guard houses and take a look at guard gate issues as well as guard house issues. And in the report by guard house, Section 1 does have the highest reports through the reporting system of SFM for guard house and guard gate issues. Overall, even looking at districts as a total, they are barely beaten out by total overall reports other than Royal Oak Section 1, which does have two guard houses, but it's a difference of three reports. Right. So the idea that there's more residents than there's going to be more time for staff . That makes sense that. And that's where, and that's where staff's position came from on, on how to do this. Yeah. I, I looked at the numbers. I tried to see where the numbers would flow. I, based off the, one of the suggestions from one of the residents, I, I saw the difference of about $21 a year, $22 a year. I, it's, it's money, but it's not something that's going to move these budgets much. Uh, I will say though, from one thing from Mr. Foster's email that 100% agree with, and I discussed that with staff was if a district make, does a big capital improvement, like Loch Lomans been discussing that, that capital improvement needs its own admin fee because no district, it doesn't matter if it's section one or Oaks should be supplementing the amount of time and staff time it will require to build a new guard gate or renovate a guard gate. Right. So that's something I think we should all discuss up here. And, and the third thing, which doesn't have to do with section one, actually, Loch Lomans, which we had a brief discussion , um, now with the president of HOA, I, and, and vice mayor, maybe you can help me. I know Loch Lomans has come up and asked for approval to get plans and improve their gate guard. Does, do we need, do they need to get a voter petition or can we just add that to the budget? Is the HOA saying they have approval from their HOA? That's what I'm confused about is how do we get that moving if they're asking for it? Thanks. Hey, um, director Bagdown. Do you have an answer to that? So with regards to the item of block Lomans, um, under the current status where there is no defined capital improvements, this would require the budgeting authority through the council and approval to go ahead and start the planning phase for the Loch Lomans, uh, redevelopment of their guard house. So it would be a function of the budget, um, process and approved by council. And, and how much was that money? How much does it cost? So it's in the report under the exhibit C that lists all the additional items. It is the total, it's phase one of, uh, planning of design and permitting. It's 55,000. It comes out to $308. It's on the report. I can't remember off the top of my head right now per unit. And as spoken with the HOA president, they have no concerns with the one time increase for that $308. But they , I, they do understand that then they're gonna have to pay for the building, right? Correct. And then in the report, you also have our preliminary, uh, estimate, uh, working with public works as, as far as redesigning that road and creating the guard gate in a position that will alleviate a lot of their issues they're currently having. Um, and based off that very preliminary budget and using state, uh, labor rates and state, um, estimates, it was around 400,000. That number obviously would, we'll know more once we get into design. So, uh, maybe a question for the budget director. Do we need to make that decision now? Because if we set the rate, there's not gonna be room for $50,000, right? Right. So if I, I guess I'll make a motion, I'll make a motion to add that line item. Because it seems like the Locklum and HOA is requesting it. And my understanding is that that's the only one, that's the only STD that we're supposed to listen to the HO A. That's my understanding. So I'll make a motion to add that line item to Locklum. Yeah, no, I know it's an amendment. Uh, let me see if it gets a second and then we'll, we'll go to you. Yep. I'll second. Okay. So the amendment is being seconded, uh, by council member Garcia, Mr. Manager, before we continue discussion. Just to re remind everyone that similar to the, um, the millage rate that once you set the, the cap, it's the cap, it's the most, but during the budget process, you can lower it. What you're doing here is setting the assessments. It's the maximum assessments and correct me if I'm wrong, Melissa, during the budget process, you can lower the assessments. So you're better off setting a higher assessment now to take in those capital improvements. And if during the budget process that doesn't pan out, then you can lower the assessment back down. Okay. So if I may, mayor, so yeah, I, then I definitely am. I had the conversation with the HRA president. I'm definitely comfortable doing it because if we get feedback all of a sudden that that's not what the residents lock women want, it doesn't seem like that's the case. It seems like they want this. So let's set it, keep it high, and then let's get the feedback and confirm that's what they want. But I'd rather have it in here now so they can start that process because it's going to be a two year process. Okay. So that's an amendment to the amendment. Is there a second? Second. Okay. Uh, well, what is it Mr. I just think that it should just be clarified that really all he's asking for is the current rate that is given to us in our agenda. Just add $308 to it as far as luck. One is concerned. That's a much simpler way of putting it. So let's just call it like that. Okay. So we'll just say that you rest ated, you know, restated with the vice mayor. You clarified the existing motion. There we go. So, okay. So with that, any, uh, or actually the order of discussion was councilman. Councilman, should I create a buffer? Yes. 315. Okay. So, and again, this is only for Lockwoman, right? Only for Lockwoman. All right. So I'll just to get us moving, I'll go ahead and I'll second it. Uh, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed. No. You guys have it. The amendment passes. Okay. Now, councilman, Cuadro de Garcia and then councilman Fernandez. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor, I have to speak on behalf of my, uh, of my residents on my side of, uh, Royal Oaks East after listening to all their objections and, uh, cannot support raising any more, uh, any more money to the security gates, at least on my side. What I would like to recommend, I don't know if I'm in the right, uh, channel to ask through the manager, uh, through the mayor and to the manager and to staff is to see if we can look into, um, living in the 21st century, if we can remove these guard gates, not the guard gates, the security guards and implement cameras or systems where they take over these guards. Is there a possibility that could be done? Is there a possibility? Yes. Under the current verbiage in the, uh, the ordinances that created them, no, they, those would have to be modified. So I believe that there's an item later on in this agenda that is a new business item by council member Herzberg for him to work with staff to develop some different options, some different alternatives, some different, uh, models or methods on how to manage these, uh, taxing districts. Plus what would be the steps necessary to make those, uh, changes happen and then bring it back to this council for you to make a future decision on the management and the different, uh, protocols in those, uh, guard gates. That'll work. Okay. Councilman Fernandez. Well, I, I just want to stay for the record that, that we do read all the emails. Unfortunately, I don't respond to all of them, but we certainly heard, we, we heard from the residents that, that had an opinion on this. Um, I, I'm going to refer back. So I wanted the staff to do a little bit of research and it came back and it was told to me that the item, because I wanted to know how long had, had, had we been charging in this manner, had, had we, um, allocated the, the, the percentages of how we were going to be collecting administrative fees. And apparently it was, I think since 21, if I believe, 23, 23. And it was councilman, then councilman Fernandez, Tony Fernandez. And he, in fact, lives in that section. So, you know, I think it would, it's stands to reason that it's the fairest way to collect the, these fees. Uh, and I 'll just add that, um, at the end of the day, I, I think that it, the, the logic is, I, I don't see any other way that we can collect, uh, and we can proportion out how we're going to collect it . Because we, the administrative fee is, is a set, is an, is an amount that is going to be collected one way or another. And I think this is the most logical way that it's, it's being collected at this time. All right, we're going to go to councilman Sanchez and then to councilman Garcia. Okay. Same as everyone here. We've received the emails. We received a plethora of email overwhelming. The scale is overwhelming to, to the negative and specifically about one line item on this budget, the expenses, account number ending in 513-011 management and monitoring. So I went through, as I do with my Excel spreadsheets, as I, you know, every budget season, I try to do this and added up all the homes in every single, um, section, every single special testing district, how much a management costs and divided that to see what the total cost would be. It costs $41 per household for that one individual that handles all the homes. So section one doesn't have just their token individual for just section one. And Royal Oaks doesn't have one just for Royal Oak section one. And there isn't, there aren't foreign employees. There's one, and all four, every household shares that. If section one would like, they, they, they love to state how they are their own body. They have their own laws . If they would like to have their own person, then I would pursue that. But their price is going to increase exponentially to have a dedicated person just to them. You're talking salary, benefits, taxes, everything that goes into it. So all four are sharing that one individual at a cost of $41 per household. Actually, Loch Lomond pays $42 per dollars per household on that one line item, which is what 's being discussed here. The emails that we received are on one line item is not on the entire budget is on the first line item of expenses. So it's very fair. It's $41 per household for one individual that handles everyone. And for what I understand, the lion share of attention that goes to section one from that town employee is, is his time the lion share goes to section one. So it's extremely fair. And I'm, I just don't see where the science, the math is, is mathing on, on the side of where the disputes are coming from. We actually had one email from a resident of Royal Oaks that voiced exactly what I'm saying. And it's the one that was on the other side. So it's, I get it. There were powers and numbers and they were against it, but it's fair to pay a proper fair of a proper rate to the individual as handling all. How many? Yeah, so almost two, a little over 2000 homes, a little over 2000 homes. So I just, I don't, I don't see where that is adding up. So I agree that this is proper and I agree at setting the marriage. I mean, at the rate at the new rate that includes the for Los Lomans for their security guard game. Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor. No, no, no. Remember that next up was Councilman Garcia. Councilman Garcia, you're recognized. Thank you so much. I have to agree with my colleagues in this. I mean, you know, we've all asked the questions, is this the best way to do it? Not everybody's going to be 100% with everything, but I think this, this, the way we're doing it now, the way we 've parsed it out for this fee is, is the, I guess the most fair possible at this time. So I'm going to be voting yes on this. Okay. So you're on the second turn. So just so you're aware , but go ahead. Councilman Cuadra Garcia. And if you look, my district is being penalized the highest . Look at it. Royal Oaks East is the highest one punished. So therefore, because of that, I cannot support this. Well, and I'd like to know why. How does it, how do we get there? How do we get to these numbers? I would. It's a simple question. Yeah. And I would respond, but in the interest of time and considering the, the statements already made by my other colleagues that I agree with wholeheart edly, I think it would be better just for us to go ahead and vote. So Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Mayor. And just to make sure that we don't, that I didn't lose a motion. We have a main motion, which was by council, made by council member Hurstberg, seconded by vice mayor Morera. And that's the main motion to approve the ordinance in second reading. We had an amendment by council member Hurstberg, seconded by council member Garcia, which was to add the line item for lock Lohmann to guarantee the guard gate district improvement. And to that motion, we had an amendment, which was by vice mayor Morera, seconded by mayor Diegues, which according to my notes was to, um, to provide $315,000 to the added budget of capital improvement. $315 added per household to the assessment that's already in that amendment, that amendment that may a manager Peterman just stated past . But I, according to my notes, we have that amendment and we still have to have the vote in the amendment motion to add the line item for lock Lohmann for Garrett guard gate district improvement by council member Hurstberg, seconded by council member Garcia. That's the first amendment. You 're right. And maybe we, I mean, basically the vice mayor's amendment was like a strike off at the end of the day. It all, it all got to the same conclusion. So we don't have an amendment anymore pending. We're voting, you're voting on the main motion. That is as amended. Okay. I just needed it. And the manager just wanted to protect your inbox from getting inundated with the $315,000 number. Okay. Okay . So may motion ordinance in second reading item 14 a council member Hurstberg. Yes. Council member Cuadra Garcia . Council member Fernandez. Yes. Council member Garcia. Yes. Council member Sanchez. Yes. Vice mayor Moreira. Yes. Mayor Diegas. Yes. Ordinance in second reading item 14 a passes. Thank you very much. We're now, uh, on 15 a I'm going to move to the first. It still exists. It's still on the agenda. We have to defer. So with that, I'm going to move to defer 15 a to the July regular council. Second, second. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed. No. The ayes have it. The item is deferred to the July RCM. 16 a evaluation of security service modernization options for special taxing districts by councilman Hurst berg. You are recognized. Thank you, mayor. Um, so. Uh, yes, uh, mayor can be item 15 B resolution pages were stuck together. So I apologize. Council for herzberg. So sorry. 15 B resolution. Yes. 15 B authorization to accept grant funds for Miami lakes green north grant. Now, uh, go ahead. Is there a motion? Is it on the. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is just, this is an old grant. There's a grant that's about a decade old and we have to accept this from a F dot and it's for a, uh, there's been a lot of changes on this project and Omar's negotiated with a F dot, uh, real well to it's a shared use path that'll go from one five four to where the project that F dot concluded that right by more or less about where Bob Graham is and it's a shared use path, um, for that stretch. I'll move it. I'll second for discussion. Well, uh, before we go to you, I just want to remind the manager that normally we go to whoever's presenting the item to present it first and then we go to motion. So all right. So with that, a councilman Sanchez, you, you wanted to speak and then we'll, we'll open it up to everybody else. Michelle. Good evening. How are you? Good, good. Just wondering the funds for this. So a third of it would come from grants and two thirds or give or take, you know, it's a rough estimate would come from, from PTP funds. Yes. The grant funds, do they have to go specifically to this project? Yes. This was something that we were awarded back in 2015. Um, but because it was delayed due to that FDOT project that would have interrupted, it would, we would have constructed it and then they would have had to tear it up doing the construction that they were doing there. So it got delayed until now fiscal year 2027. So now as we're trying to execute the agreement with FDOT, we have to give them a new resolution showing your guys' support or authorization to move forward with the project. Um, but with that, yes, it is specific to this project. It's what we were awarded with that scope. Okay. I guess at this point, I bring that up because of an earlier item that, that came up during the manager's report of PTP 80 funds and me trying to find some funds for a project that I have for traffic mitigation, um, you know, and, and to dedicate that amount, that amount of funds is, you know, is a heavy amount and for an area that might not be used that often. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the goal with the project is again, as it will connect the area next to that school with 154, we're hoping that the shared youth path will help both parents or students or anybody again utilizing or that works in that commercial center that's right there. Um, that can walk or bike to work from the residential community or again, that local school, obviously they're not working there, but, um, to have people be able to walk and bike more safely in that, along that area. So we do think there is a user population there that we hope will be, uh, big, but yeah, unfortunately that was decided back then when they proposed it. But we currently have a sidewalk that already connects to the new addition that was added by FDOT in August of last year when they completed that project where it comes down north 77th and crosses over just north of Bagram educational center where they created that new sidewalk where parents used to park for the middle school pickup. Yes. And that connects to the sidewalk that goes all the way out to Miami Lake. So this project would really just widen that sidewalk to create that shared use space. Correct? Correct. So this would end up, this would complete the, the , the circuit. It would connect it and provide a full facility for both pedestrian cyclists right now where that, that FDOT section ends is not, uh, consider a bicycle facility. So if they would end there, they would essentially have to get on the road. Okay. So the one that FDOT created is already wide enough to be shared use. Right. And they, and they went ahead and did a crossing for the town, which now we don't have to deal with that with the county. Okay. So we just need to finish this, uh, the small portion considering their overall size. The vice mayor has a point of clarification he wants to make. Um, director Santos, you, you gave a great explanation during my briefing, um, about what exactly this project is. And I can hear that there's a little bit of confusion on the dais as to what exactly this project is because, uh, the, the actual item that's here on the agenda doesn't really talk too much about what we're doing. Uh, so could you just talk about the project? I, I know you explained that, um, was it FDOT? Uh, yes. That paid for, I think over half of it. Uh, so it ended up being a lot cheaper for us. Um, and, and they did us a great service. Go ahead and explain it please. So the project initially, which is the green, it was to construct the, uh, pedestrian bicycle facility from 154 all the way to essentially the canal crossing to connect it with the county system, which we don't have jurisdiction over. FDOT came to us several years back, um, proposing a milling and resurfacing project of 77th court when they provided that scope. The, uh, Sus ana and I at that time, uh, mentioned that we have a project in the area and proposed them building it out for us. They agreed to do the portion that they had to, they did, which is from the canal to, uh, Luc ida, but the rest would have to be done by the town. When we presented this to the FDOT team that oversees our funding, they asked us to re-estimate the project, uh, essentially to show the reduction and their idea was to reduce the funds. Our argument was that even though there is a reduction in scope because of the, you know, changes in costs, we would, we requested to maintain the budgets the same. So we, we kept the original FDOT budget and the town match. And now it's our, it's our, our time to, or the town 's time to go ahead and do the portion that's left over. That's what this is gonna accomplish. No. All right. Uh, vice mayor and then councilman Herzberg. Thank you. Ms. Shock. Um, the, the item mentions that it actually splits the, the town match 248, over the course of, um, two years, uh, the fiscal year 27 and 28. Uh, can you just clarify how much is 27? How much is 28 for our purposes as we go into budget season? We'll have to look at that. I know we haven't gotten design quotes for it yet. No, that, that one's already in design. Oh, it's already in design. Perfect. That's the reason it's just, it's just a split, but a portion of it goes towards design, then the rest goes towards construction and inspections. But is it like equal? I'm sorry. I'm very bad at math. No, it's not equal. It's just, it's just for purposes of distributing it. But it's not, it's not exactly one 24. It's not exactly that. Thank you. So, so it's not exactly one 24 each year. For that component. Yes. But the cost may not exactly be that. We would have to respond back. Yeah. I, I, what I want to know is for budgeting purposes, as we get into that season, I, I don't want to allocate, you know, uh, as we've been discussing up here, uh, pretty much all day today, you know, PTP 80 funds that are already locked up for this project. Uh, and then later on we, you know, uh, uh, I don't know, but bite ourselves in the foot. I don't know. So that's my main comment. Yeah, we'd be clean for 62 and a half percent. All right. Councilman Herzberg. Thank you, mayor. So to, to the director, so I looking at, you know, Google maps or, or whatnot, I see that F doc made the larger dual use lanes, right on 77th court. Yes. So this connects the two, because right now if we voted no, we would just have this random two use lanes that's connected to nothing. That's what I see. Because you have to do, you have to connect the Southern side and the Northern side. So this connects though. So then the work that F dot did actually gets used and, and there's a connection. connection there. So that's the purpose. And this would be for the construction. So we're already on design, right? Okay. Got it. So you already spent money on design. You spent money on this. Okay. All right. All right. First line on the big, you know, in Miami lakes and South Florida in general, I don't know how much use these bike lanes honestly get, but works at work has already been done. Money's already been spent. And right now there is a, you know, a path that's not connected to anything basically . And remember, this is all, because we, we've got this question, what you just mentioned, this is all part of a larger green ways and trails. Yeah, I know. So we have to start in pieces as through our areas. And as we expand the system, you'll get that larger connectivity. But if you don 't, we don't do anything, then then you won't have to. No, I mean, I, what's, what's getting me on it was one, money's been spent. But then two, if you go onto Google maps right now, you see that F.D. made a dual use lane already. So if we don't complete this, it's just this random dual use lane. It's not connected to another dual use lane. Right. And the component, the section they did, it was one of the most complicated parts because it does include that crossing. And there's no sidewalks on the north side to connect to it. So just is there or no, there is, there is, it continues with the county system across, which is why it's important that F.D. did that crossing for the time. Right. Right. Okay. Yeah. I mean, we can talk about the master plan a different day, but this seems to make sense. Anyone else? Wait, wait, before we go to any follow up. Councilman Garcia, do you have anything you want to add? No, not this time. Okay. Uh, with that, Councilman Sanchez for follow up. Just a rebuttal for Councilman Herzberg. The, it already connects just a single wide sidewalk instead of a double wide. So it's, it's inaccurate when you say that it doesn't connect to anything. It does connect. It just goes from double to single and that sidewalk goes all the way out to Miami. That's it. All righty. Anyone else? All right. This being a resolution , all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed, no. You guys have it. 15B passes. And now we're back on 16A. Councilman Herzberg. Thank you, Mayor. So this item is, you know, coincidental timing, honestly, but, um, when I was looking over the, actually I guess it wasn't coincidental timing. I was looking over the budgets of, of the special taxing districts. I realized how much money was being, how large these budgets really are, especially on the Royal Oaks side. And I, I, you heard it today. You've heard it from Councilman Cuadro Garcia. I don't know with, with updates to technology, how much there is a need for a human labor in these special taxing districts anymore. So this is very preliminary, but we need, I would need staff and legal to start working on it is looking at what other alternatives there are. The alternative I like, and I've spoken to residents and they seem to like this too, but again, we need to discuss how we get there. And this really would only be for, um, the Royal Oak sections because they have the money section one doesn't necessarily have the money for my idea, um, is you can remove the guards. You can automate the gates. We can have our own license plate reader, not a, not a law enforcement one, our own. And there's enough money there. I 've done the calculations, I believe, to hire a police officer, one or two to patrol the neighborhoods at night. The money's there from, from basic calculations of that I can't guarantee. So that's what we need staff because the biggest cost in all these districts is the labor. You remove the labor, you can, we can either save people, save residents a lot of money if they don't believe the, the actual human being is necessary or potentially provide a much better security service with a hybrid model. So my idea is just to have staff start working on it, reporting back to us and also have legal start working on what we would need to do to modify anything in these districts, which I believe the first issue, which we do need to do is, um, take over the take, adopt the ordinances for these special taxing districts, which I don't know why we haven't done it already. We should do that. Maybe that's something uh, the manager can bring up at the next meeting if you want to discuss that. Oh, well, I guess let me make my motion. That's my motion. I'll second for discussion. Great. All right. It's been seconded, but uh, a let's get some clarification from the attorney. Then we 'll go to, we'll start with councilman Sanchez. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, uh, council, uh, going to what, uh, councilman Herzberg said. Yes, that's something that we should, we should have done a while ago. Uh, really these ordinances were, uh, adopted by the town and were taken over from the county, but they're not codified anywhere. So if we want to make any changes to them, we first have to have them in our books and we can start the process of how we're going to modify them. Uh, and I believe, uh, vice mayor Morera had created a process within the code of how to start taking a look at some of that. So while we can start definitely, uh, there's, I think two avenues. One is legally taking these, uh, ordinances and codifying them into our books. And then the second part is we can look at what other technology is out there and then we can, you know, bring it to the residents and see if it's something that they have an appetite for. Mayor. Well, remember that, uh, Councilman Sanchez was the second, so we're going to start with him and then I'll go to you. As someone that serves in the military, I know the perceived value of having a physical body. Okay. Especially for example, we've even approved an item to have extra screening from 10 PM to 6 AM where you have a physical body. They're asking for IDs and you know, some residents are unhappy about it and they feel like they don't have to stop and that's okay because it's a public access road. But I also think of a special taxing district that's outside of Miami lakes, Eastern shores. I don't know if you're familiar with Eastern shores or have ever gone in there. They have the same thing that we have here in Miami lakes with the guard gate. The difference is that it's manned 24 seven by North Miami beach police officers. And as soon as you pull up right in front of the guard gate is a set of as a Miami beach police car with the police officer and started inside of the guard gate, but to move. So within section one, there is an HOA that is implementing exactly what you're standing at. They have is now a kiosk is the anchorage is a kiosk. And I know it's because my dog sitter, you know, resides in there. And every time I go, I have to slide in my ID. And eventually after a couple minutes, somebody comes up over the intercom and says, please tell me who you are, where you're going. And, but it's, it's different. It's not having a human physical body there, but that is an HOA is very different. If you don't get access, you don't get access and hours you have to get access and having that physical body there is the same as having a sign in front of your house that says, Hey, I have an alarm. So it's, it's, you know, it's, it's a determinant. And yeah, I like to see other ideas. Absolutely. But at least foundationally having a person there, I think is something that is needed. Mr. Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. So I, I respect and probably agree with the spirit and the intent of your item. And I, I want to say thus far, I'm probably supporting it, but there is an important caveat. And I think it's just phrasing the way that it is phrased. Um, the, the, the item of, for example, um, switching to an automated gate service or things like that, that violates some of the existing STD ordinances. Uh, I, it definitely violates Miami Lake section one. I'm pretty certain it violates both of the Royal Oaks, special taxing districts, uh, which require a 24, seven man ned guard house. Uh, they, uh, one or two of them might also require a roving, uh, officer. Lock L oman, I think has the, the, the roving one. Uh, so in order to deviate from that, you would require, uh, uh , an amendment of the ordinance, which would trigger 38 dash, I don't know which section of our town code, the amendment that I had made, um, which goes through the whole petition process. And again, I , I, I actually kind of also agree with councilman centers on his point that there is a, a strength to having a physical person, but you know what, at the same time, uh, where I, I will not substitute my opinion for that of the residents. The amendment process was created to go out and get the opinion of the resident. Let them make the decision of whether, because maybe Royal Oaks agrees with you and says, we really don't need that. It's honestly annoying to give my ID after a certain time. Uh, but maybe Miami Lake section one says, no, we want to keep giving our IDs. We feel a lot safer doing it or, or not just the IDs. I'm sorry. Um, the, we want to keep our, our physical guard. Roy looks might say we want virtual, um, let them make the decision. Uh, so as insofar as really what you're seeking here, as I understood it was, let's generate ideas on, on how we can modernize these ordinances that I do agree with. And I'm happy to support. And I guess what you're asking for is for the staff to come back. Uh, right. If I may, mayor, uh, correct. There, there's no absolute direction. If there's no timeline here other than staff coming back and working with staff. And that's actually one of the questions to the town attorney, what needs to be done for us to amend the services? Do we need to go back to the voters? Do they, what are the, what are the procedures to do that? We look at your ordinance, we look at the original ordinances. Those are exactly the discussions. All this is, is getting staff back. But I believe there is, I think there is a one, I think the councilman will agree with me, on at least on our, on these, on these sides that we're not really sure how useful the human capital is on taking pictures of guards. And you, and you know, a bunch of you had discussed the nighttime IDs. That's not happening. I, it's rarely happening. I go in and out at night. It doesn't happen. It just doesn't. So I, I really believe, I believe if we went out to vote to the, the owners of, of the rural sections and we told them we can automate the gate and provide you law enforcement at night, I'd rather have that personally. But that's exactly the questions to discuss. And then depending on what we need to do, of course we would have workshops, send it out to residents . We need resident input. This doesn't happen without resident input. And potentially, I don't know. I, I take a different position. I don't know if it needs a resident vote, but that's something for the town attorney to tell us. The, the issue is, councilman Herzberg, is that you, you need to have a process at least to have the resident input. This is a tax on, on them specifically. And I think that's something the vice mayor's, uh, what it does, uh, we'll call it the, the, the, the act, uh, that's in our code, uh, accomplishes. So, you know, we can follow that or we can tweak that in the future if we want to. Uh, but, but definitely it's going to require a resident input. I think the only exception is luck Loman based on what we were just discussing. When the county created these, uh, special taxing districts , they, they basically stated that in, in, in, it's in the ordinance that they could go to the HOA, locked Loman HOA, and whatever the locked Loman HOA requested, they would follow. It was advisory. So they didn't have to, but they, they, in, in all, in all instances they did. Why? Because the HOA and the STD is one and the same. Councilman Fernandez. So I, I, something to think about. I, I've been, this is my second home in Royal Oaks. I started on the west side across the street from former vice mayor, um, Roberto Alonso. Rest in peace. But I, when, when this came up back then, I, I was scared. I, I said to my wife, I, girlfriend back then, I'll move out. If we move, we get rid of the guards, I'll move out. Like, you know, to me, I like knowing it's kind of a feel good thing. The prestige, you know, that, that was me. But now with technology, I've been thinking about it. I've actually thought that maybe there's an alternative that we can save money. The, the part about the police, we have to think about that a little bit further because as a taxpayer, I'm paying for police anyway. So why am I going to pay again for more police when we, we would probably have a roaming police officer at one point going through there. I don't know. Would it deter them to, to not go through there if there was already an assigned police officer? You know what I mean? Like that's something that we'd have to think about. But I will say that I'm open to hearing what alternatives are. That's it. That, that's what it's about the alternatives. I will say though, my law enforcement idea is that officers only there. They, they are roving those specific streets six, eight hours a night. That's a completely different level of security. So, but we'll see. We, I don't know what the cost is. We got to determine that. It's just a matter of getting these processes moving forward. And as the town attorney said, we need to move forward and taking that ordinance and codifying it. Next speaker, uh, councilman Guadalajara Garcia. Council. I hope you, uh, consider what my colleague has presented, uh, strongly. I have been there for 26 years and all those guards do is nothing more than a deterrent. Okay. They have laughed at law enforcement. They go in there, they've done all kinds of issues, things. They have burglarized cars. They've done everything. I understand that law enforcement cannot be at all places at all times. That's understandable. We have to help them be their eyes and ears. But we have to find something better than what we have now. What's there is not working. So we're living in the 21st century and we have all these tools available. Let's consider them. This is, this is costing money to us. We're not getting nothing. We're really not getting nothing. We're paying for a service that they do nothing. I mean, I can get on and on and on. And some of you might laugh at it, but, you know, I have to represent the residents that are on the side. I'm not on that side. There's a better idea and there's better tools that we can use than that live body. So please consider it. Councilman Garcia to bring us home. Thank you, mayor. I think anytime we can take a look at alternatives. I know the Anchorage uses a, uh, a automated, uh, entrance to their gates for a while now. And they also have customer service. You can talk to a live person if you need any issues. So the technology exists and, uh, looking into it, at least seeing if it's an alternative to certain, uh, districts, I think is a good idea. So I'll, uh, I'll be for the item. Councilman Sanchez. I just want to reflect back on the report that our major gives where we've only had 49 crimes year to date and we're down 42%, 49 crimes across 10,000 homes. I think is a pretty good number, not just a special time different, but townwide. So, and I think the deterrent is a good portion of that. It's a good reason as to why our numbers are down in addition to our police officers. That's all. All right. This is coming back to us. Uh, so all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed, no. No. The ayes have it. The motion carries. We're now in 16B by Councilman Sanchez. 16B. So Miami lakes has an estimated population of 35,000 people. We have for hurricane seasons. When they come, we have two urgent cares and an ER in order to expand that CCMS, which we are all familiar with Mario Espino. We gave him a proclamation. He is the CEO and president of the company has offered one of his, he has these mobile units that go to homes in order to help residents with, or the elderly community with needs that they might have. Might it be a regular checkup, x-rays, anything like that. He has proposed being part of emergency network after a hurricane. So in addition to those two emerging, that those two urgent cares and that ER, we have a little bit more help when it comes to, you know, attending to 35,000 residents. So my motion is to, with the resolution is to direct the town manager on behalf of Miami lakes to work with CCMS and a Miami-Dade County fire department to include them in our circle of emergency response. Postal storm. A second. Motion. Seconded by moved by councilman Sanchez, uh, seconded by councilman Garcia. Is there any discussion on the item? Uh, uh, councilman Herzberg or first let me just ask councilman Garcia. Did you have any discussion or were you just seconding to move it along? No, I'm, uh, this is for directing the town to look into the, you know, any being in part, they're going to come back with the details. Correct. So they didn't come back. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, right. So I, if this is just for them time to come back , I mean, my, we don't have a fire department, right? So I'm confused on what, what are we asking? So when someone calls 911 after a storm, the nine, when would would consider the CCMS mobile unit within Miami lakes to be a point of care, instead of having to take them to Palmetto or take them to the, the, the ER, the two urgent cares, depending on what they need. So if they need, if they have a broken bone and they go to the emergency room, but if they're having like a panic attack, they would go to a lower level of care like the CCMS mobile. Right. No, I, I get all that, but we don't operate the 911 system. We don't operate the fire department. No. So that's why it would be a three party system. We Miami lakes asking the fire department to include them in the Miami lakes circle of care. So if someone from Miami days calls 911 and says, I'm having, I think a panic attack or a heart attack or a stroke, and they would include CCMS to the, for the ambulance to go to them. I guess my question, why the town asking we shouldn't CCMS just be asking Miami day fire to, I, I like the idea. Miami day fire would send them somewhere across the county. Miami day fires would send them where the Miami day fire wants that we don't have any say in what our firefighter fire department does. I like the idea of, of CCMS, maybe partnering with the town. If there's, if there is a storm and the town saying, Hey, they're over here in town hall. If you need medical care, come here. I like that idea. I just don't see why we're getting involved in 911s and Miami day fire. I just, it's almost like we're pushing for CCMS to become part of the 911 system. This has nothing to do with it. We don't control any of that. Yeah. Right. I, that's all. I'm just trying to figure that out. A, uh, vice mayor Moreno. Thank you. So I, I mean, I'm very familiar with CCMS. They're, they're a phenomenal company. They have a, I hold them in very high regard. My, my one issue is I do see a little bit too much of government promotion of a single corporate entity. Um, and to, in the vein of what councilman Herzberg was saying, I actually do support us designating saying, Hey, in the event of a, uh, declared weather emergency, I think is how you phrase it here. Um, CCMS can use Robert Alonzo can set up at Robert Alonzo and, and that MLP. So we have the west side and the east side covered. Uh, we don't have to worry about, you know, road blockages after a storm or something like that. I'm completely okay with that. But again, in the interest of fairness, uh, and, and not playing, uh, favorites. Um, and, and while, again, like I said, I hold them in very high regard. I would expect them to, to win. They would need to go through a competitive bidding process to be the one selected to be there at the, at those sites so that a, the mayor or the county mayor declares a state of emergency that then opens up their, their having been picked after a bidding process to be the one that is there because let's call it spade a spade. They're not there for free. They're charging for those services. And the other concern that I have is is them being private the way that they are. Are they allowed to reject patients? Because again, we're talking about a, a weather emergency declared weather emergency. If they are uninsured, can CCMS turn them away? Because when you get rescued by fire rescue , they're not asking, I mean, they're going to eventually ask for your insurance, but if you say no, they're still going to treat you. They're not going to turn you away. They're going to take you to an emergency room. My concern is the town putting its stamp of approval on a private entity that could potentially turn away an uninsured patient. And, and then we are the ones that are getting into problems. So that, that's my main concern. I think that this is a phenomenal idea that's simply just, uh, I think I'll, I'll support the item even to, to allow it to come back, which is what we're voting on . But it, I, I have some serious concerns that do need to get parsed out between here and then is my point. Mr. Mayor. Um, we'll go to you. Then councilman Garcia, do you want to say anything after him? He seconded. No, I'm okay. Thank you. Okay. Uh, councilman Fernandez. Okay. Just getting a lamp. So you go ahead and then I'll close. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, requesting a point of privilege, uh, to correct, uh, item 16 a from a nay to a yay. Madam clerk, uh, I think just, can you? Yes. Okay. Thank you. I think he, thank you. I think he was a little confused as all that happened. Of course. Uh, so with that, um, councilman Sanchez, uh, I get where you're coming from in. I, I believe that the vice mayor raises a valid point about concerns regarding a competitive process. Um, but again, just like him, I'm going to vote to advance this, uh, and wait back, uh, on the final form of this item , you know, to further, further evaluate it. If for whatever reason we have to go ahead and do a strike all amendment later and, you know, and shape it more as a, as an RFP, then we can do it at that point. Uh, but in the meantime, let's just, uh, move forward. So with that. Mayor. Yeah. I just want to be clear because what, what is the council voting on? Because you're all saying different things. Yeah. Uh, council member Sanchez has a written, uh, you know, request or member or motion on here, but several of you have said different things. I just want to be me sure. Be sure that we comply with what the will of the council. Well, okay. Councilman Herzog, you want to take the first stab at it? Yeah. If I may, mayor, because there's a resolution here directing the town manager to hereby authorize and coordinate with Miami-Dade fire rescue. I don't think that's what, at least to me, I don't like the idea of just because the resolutions in the MBI that it necessarily means that the item flies into passage, right? Unless it's an urging, which this is more than an urging, right? It's asking for something to be done. Um, so just to be clear, uh, I mean, and somebody correct me if I'm wrong, I'm pretty sure this has to come back. Right. But what, I guess, Mr. Mayor, the item's directing the town manager to do something. Isn't that the point of item? I'm confused on what, what are you trying to do? You intend for it to come back? I do intend for it to come back because we still have to, uh, an MOU needs to be developed. We need to see if the fire department is willing to even put them in their circle of care in their communication channels where someone calls into 911 and then they would direct them to just like they would direct them to a Baptist DR or a Nicholas Children's Urgent Care, something of that nature. Right. Just something that can be done. And if I may, Mayor, I share the same point of the vice, Mayor. We're right now having the town manager push for one company to do something with Miami-Dade. I mean, I like the idea of promoting them, maybe seeing, I don't know if it needs to be a competitive bid. I feel like it's a service. They, we let them park their car, their, their van. We promote them because they're providing a service. Obviously they make money in the service, but the idea of directing the town manager to see if a private company, which I agree is does great work, can be part of the Miami-Dade fire 911 system. That's, that's the comp private company's job. That why, I don't know why the town of Miami Lake seems to get involved with lobbying for a company. That's, that's my concern of the item. Because I want them to, or I would like for them to be within the conference of Miami lakes to treat our 35,000 residents that have more beds for those 35,000. But I, then I think we got to open ourselves up to a, to a, a process, not just choose a company on the whim. That's my only concern. They probably would be the best company, don't get me wrong. But then I think we got to open the process and maybe that's what can come back, what the process is to do that. And then I, I don't know, I just, just to direct the town manager to say, hey, we want CCMS to do this, that I'm not comfortable with, right? Doing other things or , or having it come back with what the process is and getting more information that uncomfortable with, but just making that direction. I'm not. Well, I think, uh, the councilman has clarified that he wants us to come back to us at that point. We'll be open for amendments there to improve it or just to outright put it down. But again, we still have a couple, actually, yeah, quite a few items that we need to get through. So with that, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed no? Aye. No. Okay. One no. Councilman Herzberg. Councilman Herzberg is a one no. All right. The item carries. We're now on 16C by Councilman Garcia. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This item stems from the Public Safety Committee's effort that we all approved for them to put up signs all over the town that say slow down. I'm sure a lot of you have seen that. Our current ordinance does not allow for those signs to be placed on town swales. After speaking to the manager, the Public Safety Committee as well, and town attorney, it's my understanding if we change our ordinance to allow town sanctioned signs, especially signs that are for public safety, it would be more effective. They'd be able to be visible to the residents and to people driving as opposed to right now. They're on the side, inside the parks or not on the swales. They're not visible. So what I asked my colleagues is to ask town staff to allow us to put town sanctioned committee signs that are public safety related to be allowed to be put in our swales. I'll second for discussion. I'll second for discussion. It's been seconded by Council man Sanchez. Go ahead and you may discuss. I'm in full support of this item. I also relate to my colleagues on Miami Lake Drive, just in front of the 7-11. We have a town sign that says, don't even think about speeding. This is the signs of the, of, you know, drive like your kids live here, slow down. They are very much a one-off of that sign, just more into residential areas. So I'm in full support of this item. Just, and you know, it just that one example of that permanent sign that we have in a median on Miami Lake Drive is a great example of what those types of signs are. And I just want to remind everybody that you don't have to say me too. If you agree with the item, you can just vote yes. But with that, vice mayor. Me too. No, I'm kidding. My, I guess if I heard correctly, this has to come back because it requires an ordinance change. Am I correct on that? It's a change to the sign. So the only thing I'm going to ask is that when that does come back, please. The town sanctioned signs, I just need a definition of what that means. All right. Obviously I'm okay with what Councilman Garcia is proposing. The, the slow down signs by the public safety committee. I'm okay with that, but let's get a definition in the ordinance. Through the chair. As a response, go ahead. Through to the vice mayor. Yes, it would be committee signs , but approved by the council that we allow. Because if it's a committee sign about a party or something , I mean, it has, you know, it has a more public safety related, but we have, we're the final word on what signs we approve. And there's a temporary sign. There are two by three that you stick into the ground and take off and take down. That's it. Councilman Cuadra Garcia. And then Councilman. Her. What, what concerns me, I like the science. Because it's about safety and that's, that's, that's important. But what will worry me is if we approve these signs, right? Somebody will come and put and say, okay, well, you allow those signs. Can I put my signs? And it's got this on it. And it could just turn into a chaos, you know? But I like in what, what Councilman Garcia stated, yes, it needs to come back to us and it needs to be approved. It just can't be any sign. But those signs that were for safety, they're a go for me. But, but I'm worried is if we allow them, can somebody come and say, well, you know, I'm going to put my sign and mine's going to say, La Caf eteria Pepito down the street or something, you know, along those lines. No. And then we're just going to have the whole town full of things. Does that make sense? I mean. The answer is no, they can't do that. And Councilman Herzberg. I mean, I, I shared the same concerns as Councilman Garcia. I'll, I'll move it, but I don't know how, how code or the staff is going to determine what signs allowed it, or we just let it to be a council vote. I, I get that. So then we just got to pick, you know, signs that we believe are okay and not, I, I have, I have my concerns. We'll move it. Let's see what, what staff comes back with. I understand this is a safety sign. So maybe it's only road safety signs that we approve. I don't know. I guess why won't we approve the cultural affairs committee signs that I encourage all my colleagues to get in touch with staff in advance to give them their input as they're developing this item. With that, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed. No. The ayes have it. The motion carries. We're now on my item 16 D Miami-Dade County 250th celebration. This was simply inspired by an email blast. Oh, yes. Correct. Sorry. Wait, wait, what? Says here that it requires a waiver. Oh, it doesn't say that on my, okay. I'll go ahead and move to wave rule. 7.2. 7.2. Second. It's been seconded. All those in favor of the waiver say aye. Aye. All opposed. No. The ayes haven't. The rule is waived. Seconded. All right. All those in favor of the waiver say aye. Aye. All right. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed. No. The ayes have it. And we're now on 16 E, which this one says here requires a rule of. Is that correct? It is. I want to make sure mine is consistent with what you got there. I move to wave section 7.2 of the special rules of order. All right. Is there a second? Second. All right. All right. All those in favor of the waiver say aye. Aye. All right. All right. All those in favor of the waiver say aye. Aye. Opposed no. The ayes have it. The rule is waived. It's 16 E, vice mayor. All right. The way I phrased and wrote this, I already ran it through Jeremy, Manny, and Ernie at the parking department. They know what I'm asking for. There's a long story short. You guys know I love my senior bingo. There's a storage room in the back. I'm asking them to optimize the space in there so that the seniors can stop storing their bingo materials as well as their bottled water in the non-climate controlled outdoor storage space, which is horrible for many reasons. That I don't think I could put any shorter than that. Is there a second? It's been seconded by council member Fernandez. Any discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed no. The ayes have it. The motion carries. We're on 16 F code enforcement fee schedule and fine mitigation reform by councilman Herzberg. Thank you, Mayor. The MBI speaks for himself. We just discussed extending the lien mitigation. So I think once we come to that conclusion, we do need to revise our fee schedule for things we've spoken about. I've spoken about before right now. The fines allow someone to, for example, store a boat and it's cheaper to just pay the fine 30 years later, even when the house sells than it is to comply. So it's not about collecting money, but it's about making our code and our fine schedule make it more financially feasible to comply than to stay out of compliance. Right now, our fine schedule allows people to stay out of compliance and it saves them money. So I work with staff. We should develop a good ordinance, but our fines need to make sense to make sure that people are following our code. That's my second. Any discussion? Any discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed, no. The ayes have it. The motion carries and 16F passes. We're now on 16G volunteer hours by Councilman Sanchez. So in February of last year, the first item that I ever introduced passed unanimously to create a volunteer initiative to bring more volunteers to Miami lakes. And because of the ratio that is dictated by Miami County public schools of one to one hours, we can't just for certain events give two hours for one hour of work. So I have been in communication with Miami County public schools and local schools in the area too, and created a form that you have in your hand that has across the top 16G , which is the same one that we had before with an addendum right underneath of dates of service. It says hours, hours, hours calculation notes to include the following as applicable pre-planning preparation time travel to and from the event, event set up and breakdown and the duration of the work event itself. Because schools were using the actual time, the time of the event itself. So for example, if they volunteered at the Halloween event and it was from 5 to 10 PM, why is it that we're giving them five hours? I mean, it's 20 hours for five hours of work. So this includes all that. The pre-planning, the setting up, the breaking down. So I moved to create it to amend it to adopt this new form to be included. It's been seconded by the vice mayor. Any discussion? Nope. All right. Seeing none. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. The odds have it. The motion carries and we are now on 16, aye, which requires a rule waiver. You want to go ahead and make the motion? Yeah. I'll move to a wave of section 7.2. Is there a second? It's the, the waiver has been moved and seconded. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. The rule is waived and you are clear to proceed. Yeah, just given the nature of this one, I'm going to go ahead and just read it completely into the record. Recently, our community lost Mary Collins, the namesake of the Mary Collins Community Center, and a resident and leader whose contributions to our town were significant enough that we chose to honor her by attaching her name to one of our public buildings. Recently, during the memorial service that was held in her honor at the very center that bears her name. While I was there, I was struck by something there. The, despite the building having her name on it, there isn 't a single photograph of Mary Collins anywhere inside it, other than a very small one, which is part of a newspaper article. Um, and there's all, and then there's also almost nothing to tell the visitors who she was or why her role in our town's history matters. Um, we see this all the time with courthouses. They're named after people and we have no idea who they are . And I don't want that to be the case here. Uh, we honored her in life, uh, by placing her name on the building. Um, now that she's gone, we should continue to honor her legacy, uh, by ensuring that her memory is preserved. Uh, so given that, uh, I want to ask my colleagues to support the following two measures. Uh, and, and by this, I am moving for these, uh, measures to, to be, uh, adopted. Uh, one that a portrait of Mary Collins be hung above the interior doorway leading into the main meeting room at the Mary Collins Community Center, or in any other location that is equally tasteful and dign ified of her memory. And also that a poster or a plaque bearing a QR code be placed near that portrait, inviting visitors to scan it and learn more about Mary Collins, including her life, her leadership, and the role she played in shaping the town we know today. Uh, by doing so we can, it can potentially also serve the greater purpose of inspiring some of our youth, uh, and the next generation of leaders of our town. Um, it's been seconded by council member Garcia. Um, Mr. Viceroy, I think this is an excellent idea. Um, and is exactly what, what we need more of, right? Especially when, when we name a facility after somebody, um , that, that is a glaring omission. So I'm glad you caught that and that we're going to rectify that with that all in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed. No, the eyes have it. The item passes and we are now on 16 J. By councilman Sanchez, military and student banner cycles. So in 2018, the time I'm a mix veterans committee launched the military tribute banner campaign in partnership with Miami lakes. Automall the program has grown substantially since inception from 29 banners displayed in its inaugural year to more than 95 in 2026. Building on that momentum during the pandemic. Councilman Lewis. We also introduced a complimentary senior high school senior recognition banner campaign to honor graduating high school seniors while who otherwise lack the dedicated public celebration within the town. The response to both programs has been very enthusiastic. However, the concurrent display of both banner types has created a logistical challenge with a limited number of light poles along the display corridor on Miami lakes drive veteran banners are currently double stocked on a single pole. To accommodate both campaigns simultaneously. A presentation that diminishes the individual recognition each honoree deserves. I recommend that the town council approved a revised display calendar that serves the two banner campaigns into distinct non overlapping cycles under the proposed schedule . Military banners would be displayed from November prior to Veterans Day through May concluding after Memorial Day. Senior recognition banners would then be displayed from late May once the military banners have been removed through November or earlier when the military banners are reinstalled. It is further recommended that the senior recognition b anners when they are removed this year the military tribute banners be transitioned to a single banner purple display format along Miami lakes drive replacing the current double stock configuration. This change will restore the dignity and individual display that each veteran honoree. Second. Merits. All right. Was there anything else a are you changing anything that's there. Yes, I'll change from no ending the student one in November to September for the beginning of the new scooter second that way. Yes, okay. If I can just add a comment there. Yes, go ahead. I will say right now the the student banners. I mean, I think we should continue to allow side by side on the student because it gives more space. It's not the students. Right. I know the I know the military banners side by side. Honestly, I notice them more when they're side by side. Like when you're driving down the street, I feel like they 're more there's more presence and you notice them more. But I'm going to approve that. I don't understand the reason for having a single single on one each. But on the student banners, I don't know if the board runs out or runs out of space. I mean, I don't mind having the student banners be side by side moving forward to give more people the opportunity to be up there. That's all I'm saying the student, not the military. So communications director, please. During the application cycle for the student banners, did we have to say no to certain banners because we didn't have space? Yes, we did. Okay. Okay. Was it more than the polls that if it was just students? We ran out of polls. All right. But if it was just students with the amount that we turned down. No, no, no, no. We turned down maybe a handful. A handful. Okay. Because we did close the applications when we saw that it was getting close to that number. Okay. Because in total, how many polls can we use off the top of your, is it more than 100? Yes, more than 100. Okay. What does this have to do with anything about double stacking? Yeah, but we're now not going to stack the campaigns. No, you're right. It doesn't, if you're not stacking the same time, then there's plenty of like, right? They're no longer at the same time. So it doesn't matter. Correct. Okay. Got it. You're right. Because then there's, then you won't run out of the space. There's plenty of space. You got it. Right. Right. Right. Right. Got it. Okay. So with that, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed, no. The ayes have it. The motion carries. And we are on K, 16K, resident notification of HOA restrictions. Councilman Garcia. Thank you, Mayor. After speaking to our building department, also the manager , I'm going to amend the actual item that's written here. The whole point of this item was to improve customer service for us. Our building department continues to improve and we continue to, you know, ask it to make sure it's doing the best it can technology wise and also customer service wise. My concern is, are we a resource to any person who comes in , gets us something approved and doesn't know what the HOA rules are? So if we could provide, if we can ask staff to contact the HOAs and have a way for, for us to have a link to the HOA rules and guidelines. So then our, our residents are well informed before they spend money on plans and already start building and, and spending a lot of money on, on, on their projects. And then have the HOA come in later on and say, no, this is not approved. And then there's an issue between them and it causes headaches for everybody. What can we do as a staff to connect our client, our, our, our residents to that information so they can make a proper decision before they spend money on plans, things like that . So I just asked the, the staff to, to look into a link between that information and the HOAs information to be a better resource for our residents. I'll second it for discussion, a very brief discussion though, because again, you know, I think this coming back anyway, but I just wanted to ask, didn't we already have a website with all the governing documents of the relevant HO As? I remember a neighborhood improvement committee having that available a while back. There was an HOA map and everything. Go, I would encourage staff. No, no, no. Okay. That I did discuss with, with the councilman. It's, I, I would urge that we do not have HOA documents. It's legal documents in our webpage. Okay. That opens us up to someone saying, okay, well, no, but the town said that, the HOA says X, Y, Z. I mean, those are their documents. Those are, that's a private agency. We are a municipality. Okay, but that's a different issue. We can create a link to their webpage. Yes. We can create information about who their managing director is, who's on their board. That's fine, but what I'm trying to say is. That creates other issues. Then we got, then we start becoming in charge of updating it. Yeah, that's the problem. And what if we give the wrong information and the wrong link. That's the problem. I mean, I don't, I don't, I don't. Yeah. Okay. Well, there is an HOA map. Worse, we can do that. Chair, or yeah, Chair Javier Le Soto just said, it's just not updated. So, and I know that this has been on there for. That's the problem. You're in the problem. Okay. Okay. But what I'm trying to say is that it is there. So you guys are going to want to look into that. Right. But just, I'm going to support the item. I just wanted to ask that question because I remember this being something that was displayed. We had asked all the different HOAs to get involved by giving us their information. Lake Glen Ellen complied, I know, for example, and a couple others. And I think on that they did also have a link for those that did have a website. It does have a link to those websites as well as contact information. But anyway, just want to throw it out there for your benefit then. Yeah. I mean, we got to, if we're going to do something like this , there's got to be disclaimers everywhere. They go and click inside of that to get inside of that page . They got to click that we don't warrant anything. We don't talk about the accuracy. We don't talk about anything. We're just doing it as a convenience. Good luck to you following the link. Well, I mean, look, my personal opinion anyways, you know, if you're living in an HOA. So, you know, obviously you're told. Well, I think some people, you know, may look the other way , but that's another story altogether. With that, you know, let's go ahead and close this out. We're going to take them. What do you have? I have to get my two cents in on this one because I'm going to vote no. Okay. And it's with all the respect in the world. I think that it is coming from a good place by Councilman Garcia. The attorney in me and the former board member of an HOA in me is repulsed by the idea of this. And it's because the HOAs don't update their own documents. How are we going to keep their documents updated? It's there's a lot of negative. Also, are and Mr. Angel can correct me if I'm wrong here. Our current permitting system requires a there's a affidav it that homeowners have to sign saying, I understand that I may be subject to an HOA and that approval of this permit is not. Subject is not tantamount to approval by your HOA and you 've got to figure that out on your own. So we already have that in our permitting process. If to be frank, if they're wasting money because they went and got permits from the town and only to later find out that they did not get ARC approval. I'm sorry. That's on them because it's exactly what Steve just said. Some people refuse to realize that they live in an HOA somehow and but that's on them. I mean, just one thing. Just one thing. I'm the president. Just so you know, I'm the president of two HOAs. So I see from the HOA side, but from the town side. I mean, all the lawyers up here are very hesitant. If I may, Mayor, quickly. Yes, go ahead. I brought an item that's not a little a little different. It was might have been my first meeting about this about the HOA issue. And I tried to I've worked with staff and I tried to make like a violation and update to affidavit. Maybe update to the affidavits where to go. But you know, it's just I don't believe it's in the perfume of the purview of the town to try to even enforce or direct people to the HOA. I share the concerns of town attorney. What I suggest maybe we do is we look at that HOA affidavit and make it stronger and scarier because the issue is people don't care. But that's not our problem. It really isn't. Unfortunately, it's it's the HOA's problem. And that's where that's where I see it. I love the idea. Everyone stay in your seats after the vote. But with that, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. The ayes have it. The motion carries. And before we adjourn the meeting. Okay, before I adjourn the meeting, I just this is not this time. It's not pop bear castigating his children this time. It's me just reminding you all that we have to maintain qu orum at all times. When the meeting is in progress, there was a point briefly before we got to public comments or around thereabouts where we were down to three council members here. And I understand that you were talking to residents and different ones, but you need to be mindful before you leave the dais of how many people are in chambers. Right count anyone appearing virtually like Councilman Garcia. They do not count for purposes of quorum, which means we can't conduct business, which slows the meeting down. And again, it's a people's work ultimately that we're slowing down. So so just whenever you get up out of your seats, I want you to please be mindful to look back at the dais, make sure we have at least a majority of the council members, meaning four people up here on the dais at all times. So please help me with that. I did have to deputize the vice mayor briefly to be a serge ant at arms. You know, so but just be mindful of that with that there being no further business. We're now adjourned at 10:43 PM. I don't know what y'all are doing.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Mayor Dieguez. Last week, a patriarch of our town passed away, Council woman Mary Collins. She was vital to creating this town and her family as well. And I just want to say, I wish God to say, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. into effect when we're talking about money because if you 're not there to discuss it you're not really doing anything so we've been really great with that. Very very committed set of individuals. Now for the budget we are requesting a total approval of increase of $800 and that would be we kind of sort of move things around in terms of what we're giving the amount of money for what. For example bike rodeo and safety day we are planning to we 're requesting $1,000 for that for the next physical year. We are planning this year to do it as well without any sponsorship dollar without any you know taxpayer dollars. So we're moving forward with that. The difference between this next physical year and all the other physical years is we are bringing something new. We're not sticking with the same plans hoping that it would work. We're bringing in new partnerships such as the Miami-Dade Transportation and Planning Organization. I've already been in the talks with them. And a lot of different other sponsorships that we are confirming. I don't want to speak on anyone else since it's not fully confirmed but we are in the works for that. And again we're just experimenting and adding a new twist to it. Also you know looking into you know really collaborating with the other committees as said in the committee. The chair committee the committee chair meeting. questions Council Councilman Herzberg thank you mayor um more maybe a question more for for finance but the adopted budget for 2526 was 34 2 and the committee request budget is 46. now i get it the amended budget was 45 too but is that including donations because right now we're trying to figure out what the towns will give so so you're not asking for a little bit you're asking for almost twelve thousand dollars if you go to page 22 you will see um that they have um raised eleven thousand dollars in sponsorships right so to i just want to make sure we're clear on what keeping the budget flat means in the proposed budgets go say thirty four thousand two hundred correct and keeping the budget flat yes right that's what i want okay so it's for you guys to understand okay you're the budgeting money from the town was 34 2 not 45 right because that that included the donation so your request right now is to us to give you an additional 12. that's not going to happen um and my only other thing is if you know that you guys do a great job your your program is great you want to keep that you have the youth speak and talk about what the financial significance of losing those tax dollars would mean uh you guys have a very loud voice in that okay thank you anyone else yeah through the chair i just want to say i i love the way you're you're iterating and and taking initiative trying to find sponsors especially the halloween haunted house which is an amazing event and it was very difficult it gets more expensive every year but yet you guys are figuring out working with different partners and you know companies to to bring so that just that's great that that way of thinking of you know getting getting uh you know just getting more sponsors involved and and just uh doing things efficiently is great and i i i love it thank you so much for doing that thank you thank you anyone else i just want to say since basically their whole committee's here and some of the other committees aren't i say we just transfer their their budgets over to them i'm kidding i'm kidding uh thank you guys for being here and showing the the dedication well thank you very much thank you next up we have the veteran affairs committee all right good evening gentlemen william perez 7280 miami lakeway south i'm the chair of the veterans committee we have a great group of veterans and non-veter ans that support our committee basically we are keeping our budget flat we have moved some or requesting to move some money around we want to move uh 500 from the care package line item to the memorial day event actually that's not even funded so we need to fund that and i think we moved about 120 bucks or so to the veterans committee for t-shirt uh the polo shirts otherwise there's no changes um we get most of our money if not all our money from sponsorship so when you see that huge amount it 's all sponsorship i love that the last thing i got a note from isabella who tells me what to do she's liaison um you guys need to approve the 16 950 and 50 cents that we made at the reindeer run for the veterans monument um it was like they need a vote on and make a motion i guess to move it to the parks i guess i'm supposed is that what's needed yeah um budget director so that's just moving i think that was already done wasn't it already done i'm sorry what was the question it was basically thousand that they raised at the reindeer run uh he's just uh asking us if we haven't already to formally move it to the memorial fund uh for the monument the monument we have money in the capital fund that was moved over i think it was like 25 000 35 000 something to that degree i'll check and i'll get i think that was last year's and then we had an additional 16 specifically just for the design and then once the design is completed then we would we can budget for um the construction of it yeah that that's more to do with just an internal uh change within your budget as opposed to the building of next year 's budget the creation of next year's budget so i think that that's the that's already been taken care of of tonight's meeting however from the reindeer run um there's 28 000 that isn't allocated i'm not sure if that's what you're referring to and that you're wanting to move that to be able to well send that to the capital fund and have it as well it's it's it should be just tagged for the monument the way we've been doing it you guys yeah i thought that that out the last time you reported there were already the proceeds from the reindeer run i thought so too that's why i was kind of surprised as if i wasn't that note and i think that the council took action on your request and okay then we're good we'll double check and if need be we'll bring it back but the all right so that the council's aware and even the liaisons whenever there is a motion done that the council approves there is a form that needs to come to me where the account the liaison signs and then that gives me the authority with the proper backup to then go ahead and do the actual um transfer of funds so if i haven't received that then the action won't be completed that's probably okay that's my okay that's my task and never mind hey councilman herzberg yeah a question on that to the manager i mean why wouldn't we just and i guess question you as well like for the special needs advisory board they keep carrying over their funds just leave it there why wouldn't we just keep the funds in the committee until they have the funds you know until we're raising enough funds to actually get somewhere or spend it why why are we transferring in and out i guess that's the question or why the committee wouldn't want to just roll it or that's what we do especially we don't have a line item to put it in that's we can add right we can add the line i guess how does how does special needs work because i always see they have a bunch of money so special needs is um very different than all other committees because they get their funding from the mayor's gala what has happened in prior years which now moving forward will be different because the mayor's gala now falls within the same fiscal year the reason it's been carried forward is because the mayor's gala would fall in september which was at the very end of the fiscal year so once everything then was um accounted for then at the budget amendment we would transfer what happened in september to the new fiscal year however now the mayor's gala happens in november which is already in the current fiscal year so we won't necessarily be having to transfer or carry over those funds moving forward but although this year it'll be october 23rd i just want to put that out there still the same thing exactly doesn't the money stay with the committee it stays with the committee right that's what i'm saying this his his funding stays with his committee it doesn't go anywhere but so do we need to do anything i guess i don't see it on my budget though okay if ed if you tell mandry if you just look into that i just want to make sure we don't get confused of how much money are you talking about surpluses at the end of the fiscal year that that not necessarily surpluses but they have an amount of money that wants to be they want to be used to help build the memorial i think councilman sanchez might be able to help me out so i'm going to put a motion out there i'm going to i'm going to motion that any money that comes from sponsorships and events that was not paid for with taxpayer funds automatically gets rolled over into the next you have that in a resolution already we do yes and because of that resolution that was approved by council and i believe it was all of the council that's sitting currently um but sponsorship money yes and i can actually read it for you what it actually says non-general fund that's okay okay but you're saying that that's already in existence okay i guess what we lack is an actual line item to put that money in in our actual veterans committee budget okay so if you take a look at all the different light items we have we have one for shirts one for care package we do not have a monument line item so there's nothing to hold it through the chair you have a you have a monument line item in the parks um yeah capital fund transfer to cpf for parks veterans monument it's in the parks fund in a in a capital account in the capital fund in 301. it doesn't stay with the committee so then they see how much money there is it is in the community the monument right the title of account is monument veterans monument okay i don't know i get it okay all the other other lines are all operational lines that's why the money goes into the capital account and it's dedicated for the monument and it's yours but it's just not in the veterans committee uh budget for you to see but whenever you need the balance or whatever we can easily get that's easy it'll be great if we can have it every time we have we're presenting with our budget um it'll be good if we could see it every single time every meeting is that something you guys yes okay it's actually because we we have a goal we're trying to hit and we're not sure how close we are and what we need yeah i think that's all i have you're you're you're we'll make sure your liaison every time you guys meet has that the latest and greatest uh snapshot of what the capital account uh thank you very much i appreciate that town and for the record for the public that's listening resolution 25 20 94 is where it gives the authority to carry over sponsorship dollars okay perfect all right any other questions see none thank you very much thank you next up special needs advisory board good evening mayor council my name is vivian levy i'm the chair of the special needs advisory board first i want to thank the mayor because our funds all come from the mayor's gala and i want to thank all the council for their support as well um so we're basically keeping all the programs that we have and all the events that we've done throughout the years the only thing is last night we had our meeting and we had a special young man uh miami laker uh andrew ale jo um he has a sister with special needs and he came to present a uh pickleball um clinic um for special needs and uh we we made history last night at our meeting because we had uh the collazo brothers show up to support the item at our meeting that's the first time that ever happened so it was uh really heartwarming to see that these young kids want to get involved want to be inclusive and um so uh the board approved the item uh for we allocated three thousand dollars so now it's not on the report because it just happened last night so um i wanted to uh to present that to you all and uh it would it would come out of our social and recreation programs line item how much three thousand okay sorry i missed that okay i'll go ahead and i'll move that change it's been seconded by the vice mayor any discussion seeing none all those in favor say aye aye all opposed no the eyes have it and the motion carries event is approved and so is the transfer of funds online line items and i sense a future council member to among that duo there right so oh my gosh didn't i say that last night yes must run in the family anything else uh madam chair no everything we're you know we're going to continue the three programs we have the dance program the animation program and the karate program and all the events that we do throughout the years the years that we've done the workshops um our last new event was the game night which was a great success we had over 100 people come so um yeah really the only new thing that you hadn't been approved is this pickleball uh tournament so any questions to the chair seeing none thank you all right thank you so much all right mental health the mental health task force anyone here representing them all right uh we'll skip them blasting advisory board well let's do good evening everybody miguel martinez i'm the chair of the blasting advisory board um promise to keep it short and sweet it's very simple it's two items very conservative numbers um it's just it's literally having backing for what we're doing um as an example we had a a um an award ceremony last week that came fantastic it was unbelievable the response um so much that the the sponsor is is is promoting himself to increase the award uh for next year to over 2500 in awards um so that's obviously cost us nothing to to carry this event um but the influence that it had on on the on today's youth was was immeasurable um i was very pleased with the results and and the turnout the turnout we had 17 um applicants but but but the response of which they had which they presented it was unbelievable so what we do is it as you're aware uh through creativity is use a very limited and conservative budget to get to get our awareness out um and and it's a very dynamic um um field that we're doing so this year's budget it was limited and i had gone to day days which it was unorth odox a bit for for the campaigning that we do um but it was very successful so at a minimum i'm asking that we keep the the the the budget flat and and we can continue doing uh creative uh events with that thank you thank you very much any questions through the chair hey councilman garcia i just want to say thank you again for for everything you do and i think what we do with the with with the kids is amazing because you're inspiring them to um take something negative that's affecting the town and turning into something positive i just have to say that yesterday it was yesterday before i i felt the most the strongest blast i felt in years twice and it really rocked me i mean i was like what the it 's been so long so it's yeah yeah yeah absolutely the higher you are the yeah so and that took literally at least three or four seconds for the for the actual building to stop rocking um it's still happening it's happening uh to all of us to to to the town and and our neighbors and we still gotta you know this this committee does important work so the the need is still there um we need to keep moving this and and we're definitely moving the needle um there's not one person that i saw in tallahassee they know me as the blasting guy so it we're known um and so needle is moving uh anyone else all right well thank you very much all right before we go to public safety i'm going to circle back just to see if anyone from the other committees we passed up are have arrived we have nick neighbor and improvement committee no economic development committee all right mental health task force one more time all right public safety you're it what was that yes i mean i just got a notification from education advisory board miss soto had a family emergency and she's asking to please be excused that that's okay yeah what was that i'm part of the committee tonight sure yeah i'll come on up welcoming back haley prieto for this time education advisory hi everyone i'm an adult member of education advisory board as mrs nguanzo said she unfortunately had a family emergency so i'll be stepping in her place as i'm seeing here we're requesting the same amount um as the previous budget year the only new proposed event that we are requesting is field day that would be held if approved at roberto alonso community center and that would be bringing together kids and competitions as such like a chess chess competition and different aspects such as that so you just need permission from us to use roberto alonso for a field day for this would be a new event that's not part of our budget line okay yeah i'll move the new event and i'll move for them to be able to use the roberto alonso center second it's been moved and seconded all those in favor say aye aye all opposed no the ayes have it the motion carries i may i do have a question councilman herzberg um so the i see 1616 part of that is the imaginary library which was a donation right is that donation part of next year already or that's just i don't i don't is it is an annual donation i'm hearing from the director that no that it's not um so that that line item wouldn't be there um okay got it so no but no it wouldn't be 15 000 the the flat budget would be a thousand dollars just want to be clear i don't know why you guys didn't ask for the ap language and stem you know we did fund it in the carry forward should have been on there at least in the last i'll i i do like it i will try to fund it in the next carry forward but we'll see what happens but yeah so the flat budget would be a thousand dollars just want to make that i i assume finance knows that right well i do now right well and i'm budget but yes okay perfect all right that's all thank you i'll bring that to the committee chair our next meeting yeah thank you councilman sanchez for town events a thousand dollars is that the spelling bee on the awards of excellence yes correct okay you do both with a thousand dollars what both events with a thousand dollars sponsorship we manage um yeah we get a lot of sponsors you know if you want to give us a little bit more we wouldn't say no okay all right anyone else seeing none just best wishes to uh miss soto and whatever she's done yes yeah thank you well thank you very much all right uh last but not least public safety committee going once going twice oh yes okay we see you we have a chair andres we cannot hear you you have to unmute yourself okay um let's see i thought i did yeah we can hear you hear you now in it if you can if you can display his um screen bigger so that the chair the council can see him in the tv monitor that would be helpful thank you perfect nothing much to look at but nonetheless uh thank you for the opportunity and i apologize for not being there um currently at uh end of the year activities for the family with school mayor town council management thank you uh for the opportunity having me um essentially you know why i'm here and why i feel so important to attend this meeting is because currently our budget is set at twenty two hundred dollars uh that is what was voted on last year um and we historically have had a forty eight hundred dollar budget um our actuals from uh uh 23 ending fiscal year 24 fiscal year ending um you know we're forty three hundred dollars and forty seven hundred dollars respectively uh the reason why the 25 year fiscal year was lower uh was because we planned to do uh you know pay out the car show uh cars for heroes expenses by end of the school year uh school year uh end of the the fiscal year and that couldn't happen right if not we would have been in par with the previous year so what the committee is requesting is essentially to go at slightly higher than our historical uh from 4 800 to 5 000 and that is comprised of several uh things two hundred dollars for our deputy and fireman of the year award uh two thousand dollars for our psa's um you know there's been um as you all know a lot of traction of our psa's we're actually working on one i'm just working on the skit right now with our major uh for the golf car safety and there's some conversations with the neighborhood improvements as well for um you know the life rings as well and there's many others that i've been communicated on by our residents that we want to work on for the future so that's two thousand dollars uh two hundred dollars for our new logo uh we we did uh redesign our new logo which i'll be presenting to during a report to council next month uh two thousand dollars which include uh three events one event is back to nature which we just had it was the first time we ever did this with neighborhood improvement um uh cars for heroes is at zero as we all know we made a profit last year and god willing we'll make even more of a profit this year um open house for the station 64 um you know which is 1200 now just to hone in on that 1200 so you all understand what that is uh that's essentially a crossing guard um coffee or an acai vendor uh sorry an icy vendor um groceries uh for uh a barbecue because we actually had last year the uh folks at the fire station actually paid for the barbecue and we felt that you know that was uh not fair to them uh so we would want to go ahead and put that forward for hosting this event for us um we have had a sponsor there last year but uh which was game day and they were very um you know happy to support um the cause but it was still very expensive to have a vendor in fact they actually had eleven hundred dollars that they paid to la cafe data uh to come to that event so we're hoping we can have a sponsor for that event but this budget is considering if we do have uh we don't get a sponsor uh then two hundred dollars for our 9 11 memorial event um and then uh four hundred dollars uh for shirts and hats with our new logo again that'll be presented next year now just to kind of go through and i'm following the organization that was given to us by our committee liaison uh cars for heroes we had a thousand to two thousand folks that attended that event the open house in station 64 had about a hundred folks back to nature was 20 uh individuals it was our first event that we did um and i know that some of these events take some time to take off i will tell you the folks that did show up were very very happy that we had this event actually requested to have it even more um but you know the committee right now is is planning to have that next year um and we hope to get the support from this council to have it again um and then there's something that again this is a tbd uh swimming lessons uh we felt and again i'm sure you you all remember that i'm very big into competing with our local municipalities uh that surround us uh we should have swimming lessons as well uh like everybody else and that's something that i'll be discussing next month during our our council uh report to council on uh working with the zero drowning prevention program uh to hopefully open that up for miami lakes residents at psn so we don't know what that costs yet because we haven't even had those conversations we have the key contacts at miami-dade county uh but we haven't had those conversations yet we're going to be asking for approval for that during a report to council and then lastly our our 9 11 memorial event that uh brings about 30 folks uh so that's what we're asking for we're asking to get our budget back to where it used to be um again you know there's a lot of ifs right if we do very well this year on cars for heroes we we could probably get there uh but essentially we we don't know so um again we're very important um you know and and when it comes to the committees because we have we're that extended arm to the fire department and to the police department and we want to continue that relationship there's a lot of things that are going on so i 'm available for any questions you all have questions through the chair councilman garcia uh less question and more a comment uh chairman i just want to thank you for everything you've done and your committee is amazing you've had people there for for for for for a long time like uh mama nance sitting there hi nance and um and yourself who honestly the the events that you have put together the new events as well i mean it's very impressive very impressive what you're doing um i know the officers and first responders of the town appreciate what you do for them and so do we we are a public safety town and um i just wanted to just give you give me give you my thanks for everything you've done and and your innovative ways of of of doing things and putting things together and bringing in again as many sponsors as possible i know it's not an easy task but you're leading the the way in showing showing uh other committees how it's done as well as well as youth activities and others that bring in are starting to bring in a lot more sponsors so thank you for everything you do every day thank you council councilman and and just uh and if i may mr mayor um we are right now through today we're at thirty one hundred dollars that we have spent and what we have projected is another seventeen hundred so just so you have an idea we're going to be at forty eight sixty six that's our projection for this fiscal year so again this is where i'm i'm kind of you know asking the council that we go back to our old budget of forty eight hundred we're asking a little more five thousand but just to give you all some perspective um you know from year to date and actually and uh you know projections councilman hersberg thank you and thank you chair when you when you say you're at forty eight fifty six or whatever number you gave me does that mean you expect uh uh a balance in your budget based off what you spent and what you got received in donations so what's happening yeah and and thank you councilman hers berg so right now we have spent through today is 3166. what we have projected to spend through the end of the fiscal year is an additional seventeen hundred dollars to get us at 4866. now back to your question where you're asking well hold on a second how are you spending more than the twenty two hundred dollars it's because we had a carry forward uh that councilman sanchez thank you again for your support we were able to get and then we had a profit that came out of our cars for heroes that is also helping as well right so it's more of a question for finance i don't believe we typically carry forward committee budgets do we we sponsorship sponsorship sponsorship dollars yes um balances that are general fund dollars based on the resolution that i mentioned earlier that prohibits that right so that would have to be a motion which is what um councilman sanchez um did at our second budget hearing but these are if if it's sponsorship dollars and when you show us the budget come june august you'll show if your sponsorship dollars left they'll show uh carry forward for that committee yes whenever the budget amendment comes in uh april it's it specifically says these are the amounts for whatever committees are eligible to have funds carried over but now in the resolution it specifically specifies that um sponsorship dollars will be utilized first before any general fund dollars will be utilized so after that whatever is available in sponsorship dollars gets carried forward okay i guess uh we'll i'll talk to the manager i guess i just feel like committees i understand the journal fund dollars should go back i just want to figure out how we can make sure committees that have sponsorships get to continue to use that money for their purposes that's all and where i get to that is i think to the chair uh your car show i think was a great success for the first year i'm sure the second year is going to be even better my goal is to have a zero dollar line item for this committee because i believe your committee can fund itself i really do because you're doing because you're doing a great job so i know you don't want to hear that necessarily but you're you're doing a great job and we're going to have uh tough decisions on budgets every year so that's all thanks and if i mean mr mr mayor do you mind if i respond sure go ahead okay thank you mayor uh so uh what ended up happening here the reason why we were given the carry forward uh councilman was because when we went to go pay our vendors for the car show uh we were essentially told that we couldn't because the services weren't rendered yet so when we plan to spend all those funds by the end of the fiscal year we weren't able to so the request that we had as public safety at the end of that second uh budget hearing was listen we're being told we can't do this is there any way we can carry it forward that way we can use those funds and not lose them uh so we we feel that was that was a one-time occasion and we know and we want to make sure we abide by the resolution that the budget director is mentioning uh but that's that's the backstory behind it to be clear in 2025 in 2025 last fiscal year the only sponsorship dollars that this committee raised was 207 dollars so there was no money to sponsorship money to be carried forward everything that they've collected today is 10 240 in this current fiscal year councilman sanchez yeah i just touched base on what he was mentioning in the last fiscal year the money that was left over exactly what he just said was the money that was had i not done the motion and it would have been approved by by all of us that money would just would have gone in back to the general fund but in order to keep the ball moving on the car show i motioned to move it into the next fiscal year and that's what he means you moved i moved and then we approved uh mr vice mayor just a quick question uh is there anything that you need us to approve or move around i see something here about swim lessons that it shows here as a new request he said he was going to present that the next okay so we don't have to worry about that now god thank you thank you all right well thank you very much mr chair and uh with that ladies and gentlemen thank you all for your time thank you staff thank you to our volunteers there being no further business we are now adjourned at 7 36 pm thank you

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. The time is 6.30 p.m. and I am calling the council meeting to order. My colleagues, please take a moment to come up here to the days. With that, Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Council member Fernandez. Council member Cuadra Garcia. Present. Council member Garcia. Present. Council member Herzberg. Council member Sanchez. Present. I saw earlier council member Fernandez. I saw him, but Mayor Diego is here. Mayor, you have quorum to start. Did she call me? Yes. Yes. She noted your attendance. All right, everyone. Please rise for the invocation which will be given today by Councilman Garcia. Gracious Lord, thank you for bringing this group together. As we discuss the matters before us, keep our hearts open and our minds focused on what is right and just. Let us always remember the trust placed in us by the people we serve. Guide our words and actions tonight. Amen. Thank you very much. Please remain standing for the pledge, which will be led by Councilman Sanchez. Thank you. You all may be seated. With that, we are on the order of business. I have a few changes to make to the agenda. I am going to go ahead and move that we combine items 8D, 12B, and 16F. That's one. Another change is to add a new business item as 16I regarding a resolution concerning Cuban independence. And thirdly, and last on my part, is to defer item 15A to the June regular council meeting at the request of the applicant. Is there a motion on the motion? Is there any further changes before I proceed? I'll move it. Okay. It's been moved. Is there a second? Yes, sir. Did you mean 8D, 13B? Because you said 12B. Yes, I have 12B being the, or which is the other item dealing with Optimus Park? It's 8D, 13B, and then 13B. Oh, I thought it was. Or I'm sorry, 13B. Oh, so, okay. So, sorry. I misnotated my record. So, just council for clarification purposes, AD, 13B, and 16F will be the ones that are combined. There's a motion. Yeah, councilman Garcia. If we can move 16F, 13B in that order after AD, after the presentation of the manager. After AD? Yeah. After AD, 16F, then 13B. Or we're to consider them concurrently, though. Yeah. Okay. As part of AD? Concurrently, then, yeah. Okay. Okay. So, that's in the motion. It's been moved. Is there a second? Second. All right. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. I will oppose no. The eyes have it, and the agenda is amended as stated. We are now in public comments. Madam Clerk. Good evening, and welcome to the council meeting. As I always state, if you're joining us via Zoom and you would like to participate in public comments, the only thing you need to do is click on the reactions icon, selecting raise hand, and our IT department will allow you to speak. If you are joining us via Zoom or via telephone, because you also want to participate in public comments, and if you wish to speak, just raise your hand by pressing hashtag number nine. And if you are in council chambers and you would like to provide us with public comments, please, it is a moment now to reach the podium and state your name and address for the record. We will afford you three minutes to speak, and welcome. Bonnie Cintron 14770 Lewis Road. Good evening, Mayor Diegas, council members, Mr. Peterman, Mr. Gastesi, and staff. Before I get to the main reason why I came tonight, I want to make two quick comments on the agenda. First, I think that the proposed improvements for the Optim ist Park are reasonable and necessary, and I support they're being funded and implemented. Secondly, I would just question why a zoning and planning and zoning committee has to be only people that are related to the construction or real estate industry in some way. To me, that seems not fair. I think it should maybe be half with those kind of people and half lay people so that you don't have just one mindset there, but that's just my opinion. Now, for the reason I came, I wanted you to take a good look at the town seal. Nowhere do you see any high-rise apartments on there. Now, I know full well that the original plans by Mr. William A. Graham did have some apartment buildings included in this town, but they weren't seven stories and there weren't so many of them because he did not intend for this town to exceed 30, 000 people because he knew the infrastructure, the roads, the schools, the access for emergency vehicles. He knew that this town could not support more than that because we're only six square miles, and some of that is water. So, I just wanted to come to say that I feel very disappointed and disillusioned because I feel that you all had a chance to sort of make a stand against the avaricious and harmful blight of over development. I have high hopes for all of you, and I thought that you were a council that would hear our voices and really protect us, but you failed to do it. I spoke out against that seven-story building. I spoke out about the monstrosity going up on 154th Street at the Palmetto, and I spoke out about this last apartment complex, but it just doesn't seem to do any good. I don't do social media of any kind, but I'm told that there was a lot of condemnation on social media after the vote to let that construction go ahead. I don't really see any reason to come here and take time to talk and give your opinion when it seems like you will always ultimately decide in favor of the influential people with money, rather than act on the common sense and environmentally sound words of the people whose quality of life is impacted by your actions. There are many things that this council does very well, but this was a huge mistake, I feel, on your part, because the last thing that this town needed was more residents. And I think you saw those statutes that would have given you just cause for opposing if the Live Local Act had been brought into play. There was a way to get around that because I think we would qualify to not have to have those things here. The Grahams would have had to develop that land the way the zoning was set up, and we should have done it in a way that it would not increase our town population. The zoning should never have been changed to something that will allow all those new residents. We will probably have over 36,000 people here. So I'm just saying, I feel like you were to blame, you betrayed us, and I feel very sad about it. I wanted to tell you to your faces. Thank you, Bonnie. Thank you. Next speaker. Good evening. Dave Bennett, 15830 Northwest 83rd place in Miami Lakes. I want to thank those members and citizens that spoke at the Charter Commission meeting, committee meetings. The Charter Commission has been going on since January. We've had relatively little input from our residents. We've done our really our best to try and come up with some solutions. Many of the council members, several council members spoke up. There's one thing that concerns me when the questions do return to you. I just wanted to go over my concerns. The idea of reducing the town council from the seven members, a mayor and four at large, excuse me, six at large to five council members, I think will significantly reduce representation within our town. I know the, I guess the final decision will be yours as far as if you want to put it on the ballot. It was very frustrating when we had so many people online and that came that spoke out against that and yet the four members of the Charter Commission wanted to continue to do that. I agree that if it's this question needs to be brought up every 10 years, apparently, that the people will decide. And I'm hoping they'll reject the idea of reducing this council. I think seven members adequately handles what we need to do here. I don't see there's too many complications with five and one or two or absent. We're down to three and we're down to three. That means of the three, they got two of them is going to going to appoint a mayor and a vice mayor and then you have a council member and it becomes list logistically a problem. I just wanted to speak about that here. I'm also here. I got one minute. Good. The I'm also on the committee for the blasting committee. We have sponsored a competition at the high school level to basically suss out what the blasting that we all have been feeling basically impacts our properties. And the students have been amazing in producing some of these projects for us. It's been such a nice turnout that I think next year for the science fair, I think I'll sponsor it again. This year I sponsored it because I really thought there was some really good science that could be gleaned from this and it would directly affect our homeowners who are experiencing the blasting and the vibration. I'm hoping that during the award ceremony, one or more of you could at least join us and celebrate with the kids. I want to thank you for your service. Have a good night. When is that ceremony? I think, I believe it's set up for next week. We're going to, I'm meeting here now at seven o'clock and I can get you more information, but I think it's, we're dealing with a clericel getting things organized. So, but we have to do it before the end of the year. So we'd like to do it. Thank you. Thank you. Sir. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, members of the council and town manager. My name is Adonis. I live on 16511 Stonehaven and I'm here as vice president of the Loch Ness Homeowners Association. I'm joined tonight in spirit of our, all our volunteer board, as you all are aware, representing 148 family homes in the Loch Ness community, probably established here in 1972. I did have a slide deck for you all, but I will share it with manager Peterman and he can share it with the rest of you. Just to showcase some of the activity that Loch Ness HOA as a community has established over the course of the, since December of me moving into Miami leagues. Um, I did want to give out some shout outs to some of the members of your staff. And so I'll start with a town manager, Eddie Peterman. Thank you for the quick commitment to our speed hump repl acements and introduction to the South Florida water management district to protect our lakes and C eight canal zoning director, Danielle Angel and co compliance team specifically Lourdes, Ariad, Carlos and Brian for the response detail ordinance guidance that they've given the, the Loch Ness community as we move forward in correcting a few things that have not been, that have been overseen over the years. Park director Jeremy and his incredible team, including And res, Manuel and Beatrice for helping us secure venues and guide our neighborhood library program . So we are, we did approve a eight, $860 to buy the free little library and we will start implementing, uh, we've followed the process to get that installed in one of our parks. Uh, Rachel and Oreo for the C click fix desk. Uh, they have provided guidance and how I can share that with the, how we can share that with the community. Some active initiatives on, uh, to Loch Ness. And I would love to invite you all for the grand opening of the free library or whoever in, uh, the council can join. Um, we've actively stepped up a active neighborhood. We're doing a bi-weekly on Sundays walk to bring awareness to why we shouldn't park on sidewalks as an example. And also why it's important to the elderly and the, um, my wife who walks around with my seven, uh, my 10 month old daughter. So we are, and again, everything that we've been doing is to proactively showcase, hey, we're doing this fun community event, but it's also to bring awareness of some of the co, the ordinances that make Miami lakes great. Uh, the other one that we, uh, another fun event that we did and thanks to parks for helping us coordinate that is the chalk it up Sundays where I did have a picture of some kids that from the community that went and drew artwork on the sidewalk with that. I know that I'm coming up on my time, so I do have a few other things and I will moving forward will come more often representing the 148 residents. If any of you have any comments or questions or guidance, even for Loch Ness and my new role as vice president for the Loch Ness HOA, I encourage you to let me know and thank you all for your time today. Thank you so much. Next speaker. Okay. Mayor of Council, Town Management, Carlos Andres, uh, 14530, Dave Pine Ave. Okay. Uh, thank you, uh, for those of you that, uh, supported us for Law Enforcement Awareness Month. Uh, we had a few events, so appreciate your support, um, for law enforcement and the Public Safety Committee. Um, wanted to speak in support of, uh, Mayor Degas's item about early voting. There's no price in democracy. Uh, so definitely got to get those, uh, early voting days and, you know, um, in there, um, in connection with what's going on with the charter. The reason why I'm here is the same reason why I was here last month. And I know that I've been lobbying with, uh, some of you about related to MLOP. Um, MLOP is, is, is really just, it's a diamond in our, in our town. It really just provides so much for our students, uh, students of, you know, athletes, students, learning, learning all types of things. It's, it provides future. I used to play there. I know some of you have played there when you were kids growing up. And the magic of that town, of that park. And, and hearing Jim Hamilton talk about that park and how so many parents came together to make that a reality. Um, and, and, and really just the overwhelming support of parents. And they might not be here because they have jobs or they 're taking care of their kids. But I can tell you, I talk about this around town and parents want this. They want this. You know, we just finished our flag football, um, at, uh, you know, Miami Lakes, uh, Roel Oaks Park. And, and, you know, people were ecstatic. Brandy Fields is gorgeous. There's no reason why the optimist shouldn't be in that same shape. So in this report, which I'm so glad that, you know, director, uh, you know, Badgenau put this together. Please support it. The money is there. We're not asking for more money. Let's get this going and let's plan for the future of this town to for us to be competitive. Okay. We're Hialeah is doing so many things to their parks. We're losing people to Broward County for, you know, athletic, you know, sports. We shouldn't do that. Our town is gorgeous. It's a beacon, Northwest Dade, and we need to continue that investment. And I just ask you all to please support this. And, uh, let's get these wooden poles down. Let's get these new lights up. Let's get these backstops repaired and let's go play ball. Let's get this started for next season. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Next speaker. And while we wait for the next speaker to come up, I just wanted to encourage those in the audience that live here in the town to please stay behind. We're going to be pinning our new major, uh, at some point tonight. So it would be nice for, for us to have a willing audience, uh, to go ahead and celebrate this important milestone. But with that, sir, please go ahead. Hello. Good evening, everyone. My name is Julio Yanez. I live in 8756 Northwest 168th Lane. I'm here to discuss the pickleball improvements that were done to Optimus Park. The problem we're having is, uh, PSN's lights, and I have called the county several times, have not been repaired. So we're getting an enormous amount of people from that park coming to our park. And when we go play as the residents, we don't, you know, we can, we sit there an hour to play. So I was trying to see if it was possible that the tennis court next to the next four pickleball courts, if that could be turned into four more pickleball courts, because the tennis court's usually empty. It has the lines for pickleball. And yesterday I played pickleball there, but it's not the same. The net is lower, et cetera, and stuff. So, uh, obviously I'm going to go play now attired and pickleball attire. So that's all I wanted to mention to you guys. It's, it's causing a problem for us. And if there's any way that the park could be extended to 10 o'clock at night, the lights instead of 9:30, because some of us work during the day and we get there like at 7:00 to play. So thank you very much. That's all I wanted. Thank you very much. Next speaker. Going once, going twice. Madam clerk, anyone online? I, no, no one with a hand to raise. You want to go ahead and note the public comments who got by email then? I do. I do want to share them. So we have one from Mr. Abel Fernandez in regards to planning and zoning and how the vacancies are filled. One from Mr. Boris Foster in regards to special taxing district section one and budget changes or charges. I'm sorry, budget charges. Public comment, written public comment from Ms. Hope Reynolds in regards to objecting to charges from the special taxing district section one. A rules protecting planning and zoning board and in opposition to the PNC nomination that council member Cuadra Garcia is doing. And as those are the three that I have, I also had two that I was gonna state for the record, but they are regarding item 15A, which was deferred earlier . So I don't know, town attorney, should I state that for the record, the oppositions that we got, or should I wait till next month? They want you to put them in the record. They gave them to you today. So put them in today. Very well. So we got an opposition, a letter of opposition from that item 15A from Belamanda Investments, LLC, signed by Mr. Ruben Sanchez. And the other one in opposition was from Miami Lakes Professional Center Condominium Association, also in opposition to the Education World Learning Center. And that one was signed as well from Ruben Sanchez. Those two I received earlier today. And I just wanted to state for the record, although the case has been deferred 15A to next month. And that is all for written public comments. Thank you, Madam Clerk. We're now on 7A appointments. Before we go to Councilman Cuadro de Garcia, I'm going to go ahead and read my usual statement. But first, I want to take a moment of personal privilege to address Ms. Bonnie Santron. Obviously, we don't normally answer questions while we're in public comments. But being that this is appropriate to your topic about why it is that we have these requirements to serve on the Planning and Zoning Board, that is because professionals in those fields typically deal with the matters that come before them, right, whether it's related to permitting, design, or land use and planning and zoning and land use generally. So that is why we have that requirement, right, because these matters can be complex. And I understand your disappointment with respect to the Lakeside Project, but the reality is that the laws that govern that project militated in favor of us approving it if we wanted to do what was best for the town, right, because it wasn't a policy decision. Again, it was a quasi-judicial decision. And I understand that there are some residents that still, you know, have read the law and want to interpret it a different way than what it actually states. But that's exactly why you need that sort of technical expertise on these boards, because a lot of times these legal mechanics can be misunderstood and, as a result, put the town in legal jeopardy. So that's my concern. I mean, one example is the way that the term "covenants" was being loosely used at the last meeting when we had that consideration and that there is a legal distinction between conditions to a site plan and a covenant that is recorded with the land. That's an example of why we have these requirements. And I guess it also answers your question regarding the Lakeside Project. But I want to take a moment of personal privilege to acknowledge what you said and to address it, you know, at this time. I want to take a moment of personal privilege to acknowledge what you said. I want to take a moment of personal privilege to acknowledge what you said. I want to take a moment of personal privilege to acknowledge what you said. I want to take a moment of personal privilege to acknowledge what you said. I want to take a moment of personal privilege to acknowledge what you said. I want to take a moment of personal privilege to acknowledge what you said. I want to take a moment of personal privilege to acknowledge what you said. I want to take a moment of personal privilege to acknowledge what you said. I want to take a moment of personal privilege to acknowledge what you said. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. My recommendation is to appoint Mr. Aniva G. Perez to the Planning and Zoning Board, a real estate broker. I am requesting my colleagues to waive the said requirements of the categories listed above. I'll move. Wait, was there a second? I'll second. Okay, it's been seconded for discussion. Councilman Fernandez? Well, I'd be a huge hypocrite if I were to turn it down. I mean, I served on the, I chaired the Planning and Zoning Board, and I'm a realtor by trade. So, you know, I do agree that he has the knowledge to be able to serve on that board. Vice Mayor? Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, the fact that the nominee is a real estate broker doesn't really affect me. I actually don't know Mr. Perez, but what I would say is I started off being okay with this, and then we got those comments from Ms. Hope Reynolds, from Mr. Fernandez, and they actually seem to make a lot of sense. And then even then, just out of deference to you, I was willing to still support it. But then I actually took a look at the roster, the existing roster of the PNZ, and I noticed that it's actually mostly not people who fit the qualifications. It's mostly people who have been waived in, and I would like to see a start of the committee coming back. I don't know. I think this item is probably going to pass anyways, but I'm going to be a no, only because I'd like to see that return. I don't know the individual. It has nothing to do with them . It's just even with my own, once they decide to retire on their own, I'm going to be seeking someone who actually fits the qualifications. Further discussion? Through the chair. Councilman Garcia. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I mean, your points are valid, of course. However, I do believe that the experience that Mr. Perez brings, the fact that he's lived in the town many years, he understands for many years what the town's going through , and he follows his experiences alone, I think will bring much needed experience to the town. Now, as the councilman said, he was the chair of the council in real estate, and that gives you an understanding. We love to have engineers, we love to have town planners, you know, things like that, but in this case, I think the experience alone and the time he's lived in the town warrants us to waive that and accept him on the board. Thank you. Any further comments? Seeing none, I have been advised by the attorney that this requires a super majority vote to waive this rule. Therefore, Madam Clerk, please call the role. Council Member Fernandez. Yes. Council Member Cuadra Garcia. Yes. Council Member Garcia. Yes. Council Member Herzberg is absent. He will be joining the meeting a little later. Council Member Sanchez. No. Vice Mayor Moreira. No. Mayor Diegues. No. I'm sorry? No. So the motion fails. With that, we are now on item 8A, the monthly police report presented by our new major, Major Eddie Ulloa. Council Member. Good evening, Mayor and Council. So for the month of April, we show a 43% reduction in reference to our crimes for the town. So that continues to be obviously a steady decline on our end in reference to comparison to last year. Additionally, for for the month, we issued 231 citations. We provided 48 written warnings, 51 verbal warnings and 21 parking tickets for the month. We also had the coffee with a cop last month. I'm sorry, last week on Friday. It was a nice event. We did it at Mayor's Cafe. You know, it was very nice event. Good. Nice turnout. And I'm opening to you guys if there's any questions or any concerns in reference to the police. Who wants to go first? Councilman Sanchez and then the Vice Mayor. Major, good to see you and looking forward to what's going to happen now in a few moments. Yeah. I'm before the next council meeting. Obviously school is going to cease for for the summer. And we know in the general consensus of the area, usually when that happens, those, you know, teenagers, they like to roam around and sometimes look into cars and homes. Is there a different strategy? I don't need to know the strategy, but will there be a different strategy for monitoring those types of environments or residential environments, making sure that, you know, break-ins are not happening to the extent that they have in the past and things of that nature. Yeah. Predominantly what the plan of action is going to be pretty much moving forward is we're going to do something relatively not exactly the same as something relatively similar to what we do for Grinch Busters. Okay. So we're going to, you know, do a high visibility, especially like in Main Street, like our typical places like Publix, those extended places that are very prone to, you know, like the vehicle burglary and stuff like that. Obviously the locker loose is going to be a very important part of that too. Mm-hmm. You know, and obviously, you know, with outreach and high visibility is pretty much the focal point of how we're going to try to, you know, to mitigate those crimes from occurring during the summer months with the juveniles. Awesome. Thank you. No, you're welcome. Mike, my original question was relating to something else, but actually Councilman Sanchez brings up a point and I was going to say I'm not necessarily certain that the close of the school year may bring more burglary issues, and I'm sure it might. But what I see, and I know it's a resident that a lot of, it's an issue that a lot of residents have brought up, and it's the kids on the bikes, popping wheelies in front of the cars. Is there a way that that detail can somehow be not just more visible, but also more out on the street? Because what I've come to understand is it's just impossible to catch them in the act. Is there some way we can, I don't know, hide behind a bush or something, especially on fairway drive? That's where they're always there on fairway drive. Yeah, I mean, in reference to that, part of that is going to be our unmarked vehicle details, which will obviously be, you know, consistent with those types of behaviors. The unfortunate thing for that is obviously it's like any typical traffic crime. We would have to catch them in the act of doing so. Where it becomes difficult is obviously there are laws to allow bicyclists to be on the road, etc., but obviously their behavior is what isn't allowed. So that's that would be what we will curtail. And then to my original question, which was I actually never noticed the inclusion of parking tickets in here. Where are we giving parking tickets? Like where geographically in the town and Main Street or? No, it's not nowhere in specific. So we've we've given a lot like, for example, Sanchez has brought up to our attention in reference to I think it's 139, if I'm not mistaken, or what street is that? Like along like along the along 87th Avenue, that little turnaround that comes out. So if you're going south on 87th Avenue right before the bridge, if you make a right on that soil area between the homes and the bridge, cars parked there. Yeah, it's that little auxiliary road. Some of the residents typically overnight try to have a tendency of parking there. So we've been doing that. Obviously, you know, here about like New Barn, the the shopping centers, a lot of it too. Obviously, the handicap parking has been a big a big thing for us as well. So thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Councilman Garcia. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. First of all, congratulations. Thank you, sir. Early but well deserved. I know there's a lot of talk about teenage takeovers going on all over the country. And I know we had a little rash of that a couple of years ago in Main Street and the curfew and the job that you're doing and and at the events and along with the grams is has prevented that from happening in the town. And I just want to congratulate, you know, you, the you know, the department and everything, all the plans put together and what you're doing now to prevent that from happening here in the town. So I just want to say it's happening everywhere else. It's not happening here because we've really, really been very tough with teenage curfews in the town, which is very important. So I want to thank you. Thank you very much in the past and the future. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Yes, Mr. Mayor. Councilman Cuadro Garcia. Thank you. I want to take a point of privilege. Uh, by the way, congratulations, uh, major. Um, I spoke to the, uh, town manager a couple days ago to advise him of, uh, speeding that's going on. I don't know if, uh, the manager, uh, has shared it with you. Um, all the way from, um, I want to say it's 169 to the school area. There's 79th Avenue. Correct. Yeah. Right. Uh, they're using that road there to speed. Um, so if a person's making on the left on 163, uh, and they have a vehicle that's blocking their views, some, you know, they're, they're speeding. Uh, I, I, I can 't tell how fast they're going, but you could pretty much tell they're, they're, they're, they're speeding. So I want to see if there's anything that could be done. Yeah. Uh, yeah. So, um, um, I mean, technically even before your, your concerns were raised, we, we, we typically do, do run radar there. Uh, predominant. We've been pretty unsuccessful. Cause it's not the first time that we've gotten in the complaint. Uh, I know typically a lot of times like, uh, visually a lot of times it seems like the cars are speeding. And then when you actually go out there with the radar and stuff like that, there might be one, two, three miles over. Um, so, but with response to, to your concern, I do have my traffic guys out there. Uh, they're, you know, they're predominantly just moving around in reference to time. Uh, so we're not hitting it every day at the same time. Uh, so we're doing it pretty much all during the daytime and on the afternoon guys with my NTU guys. So my traffic guys, which, which a lot of them are here, um, they're, they're addressing that. And as, as of right now, we haven't had any, like anything in reference to a fruitful that's come out of it, but we are addressing it. You're welcome. Anyone else? All right. Well, thank you. We're now on item 8B to be presented by director Santos public works, monthly infrastructure report. Is the director here? Yeah. He's online. Yes. Evening council. Okay. Perfect. Welcome. Omar. Good evening. So I'm going to start just highlighting three projects. Uh, one, uh, what would be the palmetto underpass? We pretty, that project is pretty much completed. Uh, last piece that we have pending was the, the improvement to the pavers. So I'm guessing most of you have, have seen that we have some cleanup work to do and some green, uh, space restoration that will be ongoing in the next month. But that project is, is pretty much completed. Next project would be our 59th Avenue project. So our consultant, they are finalizing our 60% submittal. They have just two disciplines pending to submit to them, which are lighting and landscaping. And once that is completed, which they have told me they're anticipating within the next two weeks, that will be uploaded to our DOT, uh, server. So they can have their reviews ongoing. We've also been coordinating with aviation. And other entities to get ready for permitting and other, and reviews that are part of the, of the design process. And lastly, when it comes to the projects, we have our park , west pedestrian and bicycle improvement project. The reason I'm bringing that one up is that we're anticipating that starting during the summer. We want to take advantage of the summer months as much as we can. This will be enhancing, uh, predominantly about going road. We're going to be adding bicycle facilities, uh, protect, uh, buffered bike lanes. So you're, you're going to have a nice bicycle facility in that area that will eventually connect to Montrose road. And my last item before I open up for questions would be, uh, highlight on, on, again, on the canal bank phase one repair estimate that I presented last meeting, uh, at the request of the vice mayor, we brought up some, some more breakdowns and a recommendation as to what we can do to move forward. With these repairs in the future. So if you go to that section of my report, the two options are there. And then I broke it down a little bit further as far as unit cost per linear foot. And then, uh, a unit cost per average property length, which turned out to be about an 87 foot section. So this will be, uh, the width of a, of a, of a property where there's roughly 30 something in that area. So depending on which option we, we go with, you have your unit cost there. Um, based on what we've seen and on the report, we tend to, well, I would recommend going with the filling the, the cells that are void and repairing those with concrete. And also if there's some, some broken, uh, segments of the, of the plastic sheeting, we can repair those too. And, uh, any washouts, get those repaired. The, the thought process behind that is that a lot of the, the sections that haven't washed out. If we reinforce the ones that have washed out, we potentially couldn't elongate the life of those. And obviously it's less costly, uh, for in the long run, but that would be, and that will conclude my report on this . So I hope no for questions. Mr. Mayor, now that we're on the subject, I'd like to see if you can give me a couple seconds to talk on this. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we're in the discussion portion. Go ahead. Thank you. Um, you all know that this has been, this has been my project from, from day one. Um, with all due respect to the professionals, um, I am not going to support one penny putting residents money into this canal embankment with, whether it'd be one, two or three. I've asked, uh, the town attorney, uh, to please look into, to see if we can go after legally, uh, these contractors for phase two and three. Um, that have been broken since today. They, they, they were broken before we even started. So, um, I need to find out what's going on, uh, through the manager and through the mayor. What are we going to be doing, uh, with this? Cause it's, it, it seems that we're, we're letting this take time and time and warranties are expiring and, and, and, and going and going away. So can you tell me, uh, Mr. Matt, uh, Mr. Attorney, what's going on? Do we have anything? We were going to meet with you. Yes. And it got canceled. Um, there's different things we can do if, if the council wishes to look at it, investigate it and see if, if there's any, uh, liability on the, on the part of the contractor. I think for, for three, it's much more open since it's much more recent than two. I think for three is about a year or so. Uh, and, and the warranty did may expire, but, but there's other types of theories that we could look at, whether it's a latent defect rather than, than a real defect. Um, but again, that's something that we would rather really have a conversation one on one with each of you and decide how you feel because whatever we do decide to do would cost . Would require a full and a more in depth, uh, uh, inspection of, of, of the properties and what is causing any of the so, uh, any of the damage. We know that we already did one for section one, right? Mr. Manager and that one was completed. Yes. So we haven't done one for section two or for section three yet. We've done it internally, but not with a professional engineering firm. Right. And that's what would be required. I, I, I asked that we don't keep wasting any part time. Time is as the essence. And that's what happened to, to two. Now we lost warranty on two. Um, we should have. I've been talking about two for, for the longest. So please, I asked my colleagues to please, let's not forget about this. Cause I'm going to be, I'm going to keep talking about this until I turn purple. Anyone else? Uh, wait, before we go to you, I know the manager wanted to address something or you're, you're good. Whenever you get done, I just want to interject that whenever the council. Vice mayor, you're recognized for a motion. Uh, thank you, mayor. Before I make that motion, uh, director Santos. I just wanted to confirm. And I apologize if I didn't hear you because, uh, I stepped away from the dias for a second. Are you recommending, uh, out of option one and two, are you recommending, uh, that the council adopt option one? Well, as a strategy to start. Okay. So what I didn't mention is one, one of the options that I would like to explore is approaching this as an invitation to bid. So we'll get a contract similar to what we have on roadway, which would be canal maintenance and repair as needed. So then we would have a multi-year contract with a fixed rate. And then as, as we, uh, funded, then we would issue work orders. Okay. Uh, thank you for that. So with that in mind, I'm going to go ahead, as he said to start, um, I'm going to move option one so that we can actually start repairing some of these damage cells. Is there a second? I'll second. It's been seconded by Councilman Fernandez. Any discussion on on option one? Yes. Count Councilman Quasile. So we're we're going to, but Mr. Vice mayor, you're appro ving to spend money on, on, on, on this. Well, if you want it to get fixed, we gotta spend money. It should have been fixed a long time ago with a warranty. I've been talking about this for the longest. So I'm not going to approve to spend one single penny of our residents money. Okay. But through the check the quorum. Remember the chair. You're talking about coming up to this dais and you're talking about this issue until you turn purple. I understand that. I understand being passionate about a subject, but you're talking about coulda, woulda, shoulda. That's in the past. Do you want to fix the canal bank or not? Yes or no? And, and I'm directing that through the mayor, but, but the reality is we're one at a time, please. But the reality is we should have done it under warranty, but it wasn't. I'm reclaiming control of the days. Yes. I want to be absolutely clear that there is no exception that there will only be one person speaking at a time. Okay. We'll go back to you for a rebuttal. But in the meantime, Mr. Vice Mayor, continue your thought, but please do so with the quorum in mind. Thank you. This issue has been brought up ad nauseum. And an option to repair. If we are looking at this as an item of danger because of erosion of the, of the coastline of the canal, of the canal bank, then we need to do something to fix it. If there is a legal avenue that can be taken. As the town deputy attorney just came up and spoke about, then they will chase that opportunity for reimbursement. Right. But we still have to spend the money one way or another. It's not going to magically fix itself. They've already told us the warranty expired. So it's not going to come back. And so either we fix it or we don't. If we think it's an important issue that needs to be fixed, then we, then we need to fix it. But we can't just continue to complain about something that already wasn't done. I agree with you that certain things should have been done differently in the past and that maybe certain staff and, and, and, uh, other councils, because this is like way back in our town's history, um, may have dropped the ball. And not enforcing the warranties sooner. But we're here sitting in 2026 and those warranties were not claimed. Therefore, we either pony up or stop talking about it. One of the two through the chair, Mr. Vice Mayor, who do you wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on. Remember that everyone needs the permission of the chair, which is me in order to speak. You will have a chance for rebuttal, but the way normally happens is we give our colleagues all a chance to opine first and then the, the listening council member jots their note. And then addresses everything on at once. We've heard from the vice mayor. We have two other colleagues. I want to speak. The first one I saw was councilman Sanchez, and then we'll go to councilman Garcia for their comments. And then I promise you that once everyone we've done a first round, then we will go to you for a rebuttal. Councilman Sanchez. Councilman Sanchez: Okay, so warranty terms. I'm going to break it down to the most simplest terms, cars . All right. In the last meeting, we discussed warranty for cars. Cars are three years, 36,000 miles on average. There are some cars that are 10 years, 100,000, but that's, you know, those are outliers in the average time of warrant ies. When it comes to the warranty of this, based on what the, on the research that was done, it's five years of warranty for phase one, which right now the item that's being discussed is specifically budgeting for phase one, not two or three, specifically only phase one. Expired in 2019 before the pandemic, before any of us were up here. Expired in 17. So even more backdated. So at this point, we can't go back in time and say we need to fix something that was under warranty because there's no historical. There's no historical data, no documented proof from 2017 that shows that it's in the condition that it is today. Everything, nothing lasts forever, nothing. But in order to fix it, we're not going to do the all in approach. We're going to do a phased approach, which I am fully in support of because the warranty, as you just stated, expired nine years ago. Phase two and three woke, we'll cross those bridges. But right now, what is in front of us is phase one. And I am full support just because it expanded, it expired so many years ago. And we just can't go back in time and be able to fix it. What we can do is take action now in a responsible manner, in a manner, which is a phased approach. Like I just mentioned, that takes care of the residents of phase one, which I believe you, you are a resident of phase one. And it protects your home, your land. But just kicking the account down the road, hoping that one day a warranty will come back is not a proper way of addressing this. We've spoken on up here about things that take action, sometimes take most of the time, take money. If it's Brazilian red pepper trees or fixing sidewalks or in this case, fixing a canal embankment. We can't go back to 2017. We're in 2026. And as I said before, it's not an all in approach. It's a phased approach to do it properly. We're not changing all four tires. We're changing one because the other three are working just fine. Thank you. Councilman Garcia. Thank you, Mayor. Councilman, well, I see I totally understand your passion on this because you've lived it. It's it's in your backyard. You see it every day. But I think multiple things can be true. Yeah, we we need to learn our lesson when it comes to making sure in the future that any project that we do, we make sure that we check the work before that warranty exp ires and jump on that warranty 100%. We need to make sure we do that in sections phase two and three. And if there's any money we can get back 100%. You know, hindsight is 2020 and I wish you would have been thinking this way back and you are correct. We should have been thinking that way before that expired. The reality is phase one needs needs work and we got to fix it. The other thing is residents. Some residents have taken upon themselves to contribute to the degradation of this by literally sticking poles inside of this and creating issues. I've I've walked it with you many times. I when I drive down 170th, I see it constantly. But multiple things can be true. Let's see if we can get some money back when it comes to phases two and three when we do the repairs, but we need to start repairing phase one. I wish we can go back in time to 2019 when this first started happening. Unfortunately, we can't. Let's try to learn from this and not do the same thing again. And let's at least start the process and seeing if we get it to bid, maybe we can save some money on on on on future future projects, future maintenance and get some reimburse ment if possible. So that's the reason I'll be supporting this item. But I agree with you that this should have been done years ago. 100 percent. Before we go back to Councilman Cuadra Garcia, I want to stay for the record that Councilman Herzberg has now sat here on the dais. And Councilman Herzberg, just to bring up the speed. We are in the monthly infrastructure report and there's been a motion and a second for option one that's been presented there. And Councilman Cuadra Garcia wants rebuttal time. So I'm going to go to him. But before I go to him, do you have anything you want to op ine on this? Yeah, I was actually following in the car on the way here. It's my wife's birthday. So that's why the late arrival. That's okay. Happy birthday to her. Happy birthday to her. I agree with the vice mayor. I think we have to do some sort of maintenance. I also agree with you. You know that we've discussed this for a very long time. He's been up here right there since 2015 discussing this issue. So it's been a very long issue, but we can't do nothing. And even if there was a legal action, we have a requirement to mitigate, right? So we got to maintain. There's no way around that. Now Councilman Cuadra Garcia for rebuttal. Let me get back to the ones that we're talking about maintenance. Okay. When you have a faulty product that's faulty, you can throw all the money you want at it. It's faulty. So in this case, it's been faulty since day one. Are you aware? Councilman Sanchez that right after we lost warranty on project on phase one, we threw another $25,000 through it. And all those $25,000 are in the water. So this is, this is, we have put money. So now we're going to put money again. And all we're going to do is just throw it because the bottom, I guess I keep talking about this. The geo bag at the bottom is, has holes. It's like I talked about the Skittle issue. If you have a hole in your pocket and I put Skittles in your pocket, where are the Skittles going? They're going to fall. That's what's happening. So you can put all the money you want in there. All the, we're going to lose it. It's been broken since day one. It's a faulty product. I don't have the answer, but I've said it since day one. I don't know what to do. So I have a lot of educated people here and that's why you were all appointed. So we can all work together and figure out how to fix this. Well, elected, but well, yes. Yeah. But with that, there being nothing further, let's go ahead and not a roll call. I'm going to do a voice vote. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. The ayes have it. The agenda is reopened. Would you like to be registered as a no or a yes? I'm a no. Okay. Spend money? Spend money, a no. The ayes have it. The motion carries. And is there anything else that we need to move on in item 8B? Okay, yeah. So with that counts, I'm going to move to reopen the order of business to move up the special presentations in light of the audience that we have here and to allow them time to celebrate this event after we finish. So with that, is there a second? Second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. The ayes have it. The ayes have it. The agenda is reopened. I'd like to go ahead and move the special presentations, items 11A, B, and C to take up immediately after this vote. I'll second. It's been seconded. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. The ayes have it. The motion carries. And the agenda is amended as stated. And we are now on item 11A, the pinning ceremony for the new major, Eddie Ulloa. And as he makes his way up here with his son who is going to be pinning him. There we go. Excellent. I wanted to go ahead and just say a few words and I will open it up to all of you to go ahead and say a few words as well. But I just wanted to state, well, actually, why don't we go ahead and take care of the pinning ceremony first, however you guys would like, and then we'll say a few words and I'll go from there. All right. It's a big milestone, everybody. This is a major career achievement. Don't poke them. Don't poke them. Excellent. All right, guys. Major, I just wanted to say congratulations on your promotion. In the last couple of months that we've been working as we 've transitioned from our former major, Major Gonzalez to you, you have stepped in seamlessly to me. You know, you've been extremely responsive and I think the residents continue to see the results that you and him were working on and I know that you're going to continue to lead us in the right direction. And I know that you have a big crowd here. Clearly you have a lot of support in our department, which is great. And, you know, and honestly, he's a man of few words, but he's a man of action and believe it or not, a lot of humor. He just does it through means. With that, who else would like to go ahead and speak? Okay, let's actually work down this way and go to the end. So we'll start with Councilman Sanchez. You know, for a while I called you Major Select. Now we can officially say major, you know, and I know this is the second meeting where we can say it, but congratulations. You know, very deserving and I look forward to many, many good years of service to Miami Lakes and being the second coming of the traffic whisperer here in the town of Miami Lakes. I know that you had a great teacher in the major and and yeah, you know, good things ahead and you know that you have the support of this town behind you. Thank you. Councilman Fernandez. Congratulations again. I think the town is in good hands. I think that our future is bright and thank you for that. Thank you for your service. We appreciate it. Thank you so much. Vice Mayor Moreta. Thank you, Mayor. You got some big shoes to fill. I think you're the right man to fill those shoes and I know you have the support of the entire department. The guys back there love you. You're part of the culture. So look forward to good things in the future and keeping our town safe. Look forward to it. Councilman Garcia. Thank you, Mayor. I mean, it's it's it's a brotherhood and a sisterhood and over the years the majors have come from, you know, our town and they've been mentored just like the major Gonzalez mentored you and Mr. and major Ruiz. It's just I love it. It's from the families from the town and nobody knows the town better than than, you know, having you. They've been here for a while and part of the family understand it. So again, congratulations and I know you're going to do amazing for the town. Thank you. Councilman Herzberg. First, congratulations. This is a great milestone for you and your family. Thank you. And I I what what Councilman Sanchez says said we you had big shoes to fill, but it seems like it's been seamless and that says a lot about you and and the trust your officers have your deputies have one of them things. I always tell people about Miami Lakes, you know, when I'm traveling or something. Oh, what about Miami Lakes? I talk about, you know, what's great about it? It's so safe. We have such a safe community. We feel so safe and that's because of you guys and your leadership now. So just keep up the great work and we all I know we all look forward to working with you. Thank you so much. Councilman Cuadro Garcia. Thank you very much. I echo the words of my colleagues and you know, just I've already said it. Congratulations, sir. Thank you, sir. Okay. Thank you very much. Major, would you like to address the residents or any other words? I mean, like I mean, I obviously have I've been doing this already for quite some time here in the town and you know, I'm going to reiterate the same thing. I've always reiterated. You know, I'm very grateful for the opportunity. I look forward to obviously continue, you know, the excellent service that we've always provided the residents of the town of Miami Lakes. But I'll be remiss if I if I don't give thanks to the troops to my guys, the guys that are out there actually, you know, handing the calls being the face of of the town. You know, unfortunately enough, like I you know, obviously, I'm I'm at the tip of the spear, but the guys behind me are truly the ones that are carrying all the weight. And I'm extremely grateful for their for their effort and their work. And I look forward to continue to work with them. Excellent. And just as you know, you know, you have a new lieutenant. I believe you wanted to go ahead and introduce him for us. I do. I do. So. So that is Lieutenant George Castiano. Just a quick brief little overview on him. He's got a 14 years of service in police. He did Miami Gardens and lateral over to us. He has a multitude of experience from investigations to proactive work. He's done. He's been on the gun task force. Extremely well rounded, you know, and I really, really look forward to for him working with us. I think he's a great addition to the team. And, you know, just give him this moment for him to say a couple of things. Absolutely. Go ahead. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you very much. So as the major mentioned, yes, I did begin my career with Miami Gardens. And fortunately enough, I lateraled over in 2016 where I began my career with the Miami Day Sheriff's Office. Fortunately, I was selected and humbled and honored to take the position of lieutenant for the town of Miami Lakes. And I'm looking forward to the partnership between the town and the Miami Day Sheriff's Office. Excellent. Welcome to the family. Thank you. With that, we're going to take a five minute recess so we can go ahead and get photos with everyone. Don't worry if I got it. Before that, Mr. Mayor, I'd like to say one thing. Sure. I have the great honor of saying that I already have Lieutenant Cassiano's phone number. Right? Cassiano. Wow. That was fast. It's just so that everyone has it. So you put it on your speed dial. It's 305 Sheriff. With that, it is 7:28. We will come back in five minutes. So everyone be back by 7:33. That was corny. It's on the regular. We'll be in there. Everybody in the- ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The time is 7.33 as promised. Yeah, we're going to have to move to the next class. That'll be quick. Yeah. Yeah. No, no. 7.33 because I had said five minutes. So with that, we're going to ask all those that no longer have business here to please step out of the chamber and we're going to go to the town manager to introduce our latest member of the family. Yeah, the parks director will introduce her. Okay, perfect. Perfect. Hold on. Let's just give him a minute to filter out. Okay. Okay. Okay. With that, to introduce our new team member and if we can please have the doors closed. Matt, can you close the door there please? All right. So we got that. Okay. With that, go ahead. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Jeremy Blackdown, director of Parks and Recreation. Today, I have the privilege to go ahead and introduce to you guys our new parks and administrative specialist. She is taking over just so you guys are aware for Jessica Farrells who left us after eight years of serving with the town. She moved on out. But with that comes new talent. We're definitely excited. So with that, I'll go ahead and introduce Beatrice Adjalabi who comes to us from proud graduate of FIU, both her undergrad and her master's from F IU. She is actually in the process also, side note, of going ahead and securing her certification as a landscape architect. So she's already taking one test out of the five? There's one problem, Mr. Director. She spilled coffee all over the hallway earlier today. So. We will get to that. We will get to that. I'm just kidding. Well, what she did. But I was just making a bigger deal about it. And you know I love my Panthers, my fellow Panthers. Beatrice is a resident. So she is a Miami Laker. Her family still resides in town. She grew up in town. She is currently taking over everything that is reservation and rentals for pavilions and door reservations. She is also, no pun intended, she is the sheriff of our department. So we've had other sheriffs introduced. She keeps us in order with all the administration, making sure a lot of our deliverables are being submitted and a lot of internal things within the department. So with that, I go ahead and introduce Beatrice Al-Chelabi. Well, there you go. Please come on up. Good to see you again. It's just a hazing ritual that we do for new employees. Okay. Because I was told not to do a speech and then not to do a speech. So, but thank you for having me. Of course. We love to have fun. You know, with that, how do you guys want to do the photo? Yeah, we could do like a quick photo. What up? Mr. Mayor, she's landscape architect? Yep. Yes. Oh, no. Run. Run. Save yourself. I need you to recommend as much mulch as possible. The director knows what I want to talk about. Very interested to see what her opinion is on the mulching of the town. We got budget coming up. I would like to see that. Thank you. Hey, guys. Well, all right, guys. Well, let's take four minutes just to come down to the well . And, you know, someone can staff, if you guys want to just take a quick photo, just to welcome her official into the team. And then we'll get underway with the rest of the meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. you um the goal here and the recommendation is to take a look at what this cost for this style of uh exit feature is going to be and use that as a planning uh as a planning note in our upcoming budget cycle so with that you have the report in front of you any questions at this time i'm here okay well before uh we get to that i'm going to go ahead and turn over to councilman fernandez for motion yeah i'd like to move to uh to get you know the the funding for us to be able to install the sign excellent i'll go ahead and second it excellent second and then we'll go to the vice mayor for discussion thank you mayor uh just a quick question here in the in the item uh it it refers to a specific line item in the budget uh but it does so by the account number only uh not by title so i don't know where that money's coming that's the the same capital account that we utilize for the 67th ab feature it's entry features overall capitalized okay that's all i need to do now yeah and he's proposing for the 26 27 budget so it will when you get the budget proposals when we submit them in the summer this will be one of the items and then that'll be up for your consideration to fund for the uh fiscal 26 27 budget so really an approval of this item of councilmember fernandez's item is an instruction to staff to include it in the proposed budget correct okay got it thank you excellent any other uh questions or discussion on this uh councilman san chez what would be the exact location of the exit sign so that is still being determined uh we have already i've already spoken with omar there are some ft ot requirements in that land there because it has f to ft ot area but it is on the portion just before it expands and kind of before the sets of homes on your eastern side the goal is to catch people right before that bend to let them know that hey you've already exited the town and those homes which to the councilman's uh efforts here we've received calls of service on trees and stuff like that and we have to explain that that is outside the town boundaries is there going to be an electrical component to it at this time no what you were seeing is just the furnish delivering installment of the of the entry of the exit feature okay we can always look at installing solar down the road and so forth there's no canopy there so it's it's prime it is prime for solar um and it's just going to require then uh just going through f dot on there the one that we have that is like it right now on 67th avenue just as you pass underneath the grattney does that have an electrical component that has a solar component to it it does have a solar and it's strong enough to be able to light it up at night yes okay we had to do some trimming but yes okay and just to make sure that the project is done in completion how much more would it be to add the solar component so that we're not coming back to it later i don't remember that cost off the top of my head um i'd have to come back to you with that okay all right councilman juarez thank you unless you have anything else councilman sanchez jeremy is this pretty much what the facade is going to look like this is what you see there is the exact same mock-up of what we installed at 67th this is not exactly what you'll see this is just staff's rendering to show you leaving of the town um but yes this is what the design will look like is this right close to that church that's uh it's got that looks like the arabian the group orthodox church okay yes and how how far off from the road is it going to be i'm worried about some of the guys people that travel through there that are tipsy that might not see it and that's a separate issue on the driving with tipsy but uh as far as the offsets there are mandates by fdot which i would confer with public works and omar to make sure it meets all the requirements roughly how far off the road i don't know that i don't know off the top of my head okay all right through the chair councilman garcia thank you uh i know mr mayor you brought up an item a while back um about um the color being a little giving a little more oomph since we're doing this i think would be a good idea if you could look into the color scheme the mayor was looking at to not only do this one but the old one as well okay so they match up uh or order it at the color that that the mayor was was talking about different colors from the last report i think you came up with a report you did yeah if you can bring that report back we can take a look at it again okay and we can do maybe we can do that to all the the entry features make it give a little more room red bull but the color scheme to give it more room you know you guys unity i don't need anything to divide and mulch is a great divider right councilman herzburg yeah correct okay but yes but on the funding for this um all those in favor say aye aye aye all those no the guys have it and then just come back to us to approve the final color i know we had a color a couple color swatches to consider from but just yeah but thank you very much director um well okay it's you again 8d my colleagues office park enhancements uh thank you mayor uh so the item you have before you uh comes in recent um conversations from the council to look at how are we going to address some of the immediate concerns at optimus and what is the plan that we have for the the improvements that are needed for safety um for some of the deterred maintenance and infrastructure that we have that is degraded as well as looking at ways to reduce the annual cost on some of the maintenance and so forth so the plan you have before you goes over tackling the immediate concerns which include field one's remaining six wooden light poles removing them replacing the required amount of new metal poles with all led fixtures it also includes all the backst ops dugouts and fencing improvements for all five main fields includes the installation of safety ball ards at the corner of 67th and miami lakeway north protecting the closest field to that intersection it includes the concrete pads and bleachers for fields one through five the installation of pathways throughout the entirety of the park so creating that interior portion of the park's uh circular pathway creating connectivity through to each field and also traversing into the middle to field five as well as the purchase and installation of a prefabricated restroom building it's required slab and all connections to utilities required that amount is what we anticipate having by the end of this fiscal year and that's why that that number that you see there of one point make sure i have it here one point nine one six is our total anticipated amount that we will have in the account you also have an item before you that is moving some of the impact fees that will get us to the 1.6 with an anticipated 300 000 that is coming within like i said this fiscal year for future impact fees so that total and that approach is looking at spending what we have and what we know we're going to have in a few months what are the regulatory hurdles if you want to call it that as far as uh that we have to get through if we can get into that um you know just so we can have that discussion simultaneously or or whatever what do you prefer on that front um it just for transparency i mean it's listed there as well with some of the asterisks as far as what is going to require permitting a lot of improvements on the school board property will require their entire building building their permitting and it's not our town building department that permits it so it would go through their process and their timeline as well as there are some conversations that we are having with the jua in regards to some of the more substantive substantial improvements and if that triggers a uh um an adjustment required on the jua well um i'm going to go ahead and move this town staff proposal as presented i'm actually really happy that we're at this point right this is something that myself councilwoman ronno when she was here and former vice mayor goyasa were advocating for to improve in place right at a much lower price tag than what previously came before and i think that this is what the 60 percent of residents were asking for at the time when the ballot measure failed which was simply to allocate the money but using what we had the pay as you go what we have in front of us is an approach that is going to make substantial improvements especially on life safety issues and other regulatory issues such as the ada walkway and everything else adding a restroom which was the main issue that was raised by proponents of the bond back in uh 22. um so i think what we have here is again a fiscally responsible plan that does not uh involve uh on new taxes and uh and gets the park up to the the the proper posture right with a plan as well for the future um you know that we will be addressing you know when we get there right again the phased in approach so i'm in full support of this and it's been seconded by the vice mayor who i will go to first to go ahead and make his remarks and we'll go up and down uh the dais thank you yeah this is pretty much exactly what i think uh i i know that the mayor's mentioned that i know councilman garcia has mentioned it that we've been after something within the the budgeted funds and uh or at least within uh expected funds as well um i think that this is a critical investment um and then i did have a couple of questions uh specifically item one which is the um the replacement of the wooden poles i i noticed that it mentions uh installation of new modern metal poles but then the old wooden poles that have already been replaced they were replaced with concrete poles so is there an advantage to these metal poles as opposed to concrete there is there are pros and cons to each um everything that is new is going to be installed on steel um as far as what was so the newest poem field one the one that we had to take care of uh that is steel so that's very about great it but the remainder of the fields are concrete concrete will be longer lasting prices come out to about the same we went ahead and took a quick evaluation of that while concrete itself is cheaper than the steel the cost increase for delivery because of concrete weighing so much is where then it starts to balance out steel also gives you the flexibility long term if there are upgrades to lighting systems led takes an even more advanced turn and we have to then replace them in 15 20 years steel is easier to remount than concrete concrete eventually will not have the support needed for new fixtures and new crossbars and so forth okay so so the concrete is less future proof uh it's more longer lasting but future proof technology wise and then the metal ones um mainly maybe don't last as long but still lasting long they're anticipated to give you more than 40 years both more than 40 years yes great um other than that uh yeah i really like the proposal um i i like the i'd never even thought about this issue until i actually read this item and i brought it up at the at the uh agenda briefing the the bollards uh at the corner of 67th obviously that's a very high traffic corner i wasn't even aware that accidents had happened on that corner and i was informed that they in fact have and that's absolutely terrifying so i think that's a an enormous safety improvement to to bring in uh safety bollards and yeah it is at the end of the day for for better for worse a signature park in our town and we'd like to see it in good condition so this is a step in the right direction through the chair councilman gracio thank you i want to thank the staff director um i think the residents spoke that they wanted us to address needs not wants and take care of the park to at least a minimum standard and this plan is is what i call kiss keep it simple and the last word i won't say um the only motion friendly motion that i would make and my colleagues would um would consider is to keep simplicity part of this adding the bathroom at this juncture might create some issues creating a structure on land that's not uh that's the school board land might create some issues that might slow down the slow down the basic project which is the fencing the lighting what i would recommend is uh because if we go with the initial we're not going to do all the lighting we're just going to do the the six right but for an additional if we forego the bathroom this time around and we complete the completion of the lighting it's only an additional 195 000 that way we'll get all the fencing done all the lighting done yeah sure we'll get the ada requirements we'll get the back stubs done um with money that's already there in the mlop right money with uh uh we basically have the money already to do that except we might have to take some money from uh from some carry forward uh perhaps but the money's pretty much already there um and we forego the issues that have plagued optimist park improvement for decades complexity if we add the bathroom now it's going to add to the complexity if we forgo the bathroom and do everything else and then do the bathroom next year when we can actually replace the money uh needed um we're going to have new every the person look spray uh new and then we can go along with the bathroom so that's just a friendly amendment that i would i would proffer because it'll add to complexity remember complexity always kills us this has to be the the most cost effective simple uh effective plan that i've seen since i know since before i was here i know the mayor was here for years councilwoman ruano other councils other mayors uh and and my item i would also like to ask my colleagues if you if you because this is a team effort going back councils from the beginning of of the town if we could all co-sponsor the item together as a team um and because this is a team effort from decades going back decades i'll second that motion um i'm going to go to councilman herzberg and and then we'll have a round of discussion on the amendment so councilman garcia i i agree with you that was go be my comment um the bathroom i know is a is a big want but before the bathroom all i heard about for years is drainage and i know there's some drainage improvements that are not very costly in plan b that should be in plan a my opinion because what's the purpose of the fields if you can't play on them i know that i know it's not perfect and maybe you can give us a little bit more more input on what that drainage is because it's not a lot of money so it must be a a more you know basic improvement but any improvement on drainage i think should be a primary concern and i i think you hit it i i agree with your point 100 percent the bathroom is the most complicated thing we're talking about a permanent structure i want to do it but i i agree that that might be better for phase two and we can look at some more bigger improvements for the field in this phase one including um the lighting and the lighting is is a cost saver at some point right because we're spending a lot of money maintaining these old lights these old lights use a lot of electricity so i there is a long-term cost savings in in prioritizing the lights where again i i understand the bathrooms are very important but the bathroom is just the cost and and we're we're trying to use not that much funds to make the biggest improvements possible so i want to hear the input from everybody else i want to hear your input too what the most important improvements we can do for this park because at the end of the day uh your your knowledge in the park is something that i value a lot i'll reserve my comments but i'm going to go to the vice mayor in a second but i had a question for you we currently rent a trailer bathroom correct two two and what is the cost of the town every year on that annually is 22 400 okay thank you for both thank you i just i had that question in my briefing and i and i didn't get a response in time but vice mayor well that actually makes me now ask a different question which is how much would we save in power by switching to led annually on on the remaining lights so looking at it's it's going to be there so there's there 's one thing to address there so when we go to new poles the warranty is going to give you 25 years on average so that's 25 years of no maintenance nothing so that the newer poles will have a a more substantial return on the investment there as far as the power you're looking at 30 reduction across the remaining amount just field one some of the preliminary preliminary numbers we looked at power wise just field one was about 5 000 a year that is a conservative number taking a look at the amount of kilowat ts used per hour based on the fpl's current rate for sports field lighting based on the six poles that are there so if you multiply that by the remaining just 28 poles you can go ahead and see what that amount i don't have that exact amount on me but that's how much is spent overall it's not necessarily a savings number we don't have an estimate on the led or we do as far as the cost or as far as the i'm specifically referring to power costs like the cost from fpl the total amount of utilities yeah not the total amount i have of what we spend right now if we don't have the number it's okay it was just the mayor brought that up and i was actually curious like if there was a break-even point or what it was but my only uh concern on this is um the the the bond issue was and the park issue overall um the people who supported and i was one of the early supporters of of the park improvements um before it ballooned you know exponentially uh but the main thing that was constantly brought up by the supporters of those who wanted improvements was my kid has to run three miles to get to the bathroom and so i do think that the bathrooms need to get done uh and and not in a porta potty and i get it this is a very fancy porta potty but it's still a portable bathroom on a trailer uh i'd like them to be able to use the restroom on a concrete foundation slab and a proper building not you know a a trailer uh so so primarily because what i heard from the residents uh was the bathroom the bathroom the bathroom the bathroom um i'm i have to stay away from this one a little bit because i know it was a priority to the residents other than but again like i'm just i i like the whole thing and i and i think eventually all of this needs to get done all of it including the extra stuff that's um after the the 1.9 and one six uh mr uh mayor councilman cuadro-gracia and then uh well hold on just hold on councilman before you proceed i just want to make sure i get a good lineup here would you like to say something and and councilman sanchez okay so then after councilman cuadro-gracia we will go to councilman fernandez so basically uh yes i heard somebody state uh that 22 000 for a portable product porta potty that's that's money down the drain you're throwing money down the drain so yeah whatever you call it whatever you want to call it uh so basically i think that the you know get the right do it the right way yeah so um my other uh quick question is are all these numbers um do we have to decide on this today or we or we can digest this because i mean i mean how do we arrive with all these numbers have we gotten um have we gotten estimates i mean three estimates how did you guys get to these numbers so there are estimates there are contract values from our contractor as um as uh councilman i think it was hersberg about the drainage and why it was so cost efficient this time around it's because it's just positive drainage so it 's just re um readjusting the um the degree of the fields slightly a little bit of earth work um and that 's through our contract vendor that already provides maintenance so uh contracts some estimates and then some of them are just market value analysis looking at what costs are online but nothing will be a hundred percent other than our contracts and our estimates that we have um like the building for instance the prefabricated uh is a estimate based off what the typical cost for those prefabricated structures are with the distance of the site utilities those are all estimates i would say that that one is probably the one that we'll need to get designed and go out to bid to give us an actual exact number the rest for the most part are looking at projects we've done the ballards we just recently did there at the uh uh at miami lakeway and miami lakes drive so we've done that recently these are all numbers that are current estimates or contract values councilman or what sorry is the park contributing to some of this money in the optimist park contributing to some of these are all the optimist club yeah these are all town funds through park improvement funds and capital funds that we've had for optimists so no there are no other outside funds other than the town's funds so we have to make decisions on this today the agenda's been out for a while though uh so i think uh i think that's fair game i think everyone has a responsibility to get prepared for this meeting and um so again the agenda was stitched together how long ago now madam clerk last wednesday so that's a that's almost a full week and that's more than enough to at least review these numbers it's not a very long agenda this time around so i just wanted to point that out with that councilman do you you have anything else that's it i'm okay councilman fern andez it's it's no secret that i supported the bond um i promised the residents that you know they turned it down i that's 19 and a half million i don't think that anybody here is asking for that um i i appreciate what you're doing i understand why you're doing it i i just can't support that i think that i i'm all in i want to just move forward with the funds that we have i would actually ask my colleagues to consider the the rest of the improvements over a three-year plan for instance 500 grand each year from general fund if we can begin talking about that i know we're not gonna i'm not asking anybody to decide now nor is it even on the agenda but just to start thinking about that because we we got to get it done i mean there are things that are on here that have to be done we've been pushing it kicking the can down the road has been said so i just ask that um that we that we vote yes for what's being proposed from staff thank you well um before i go to councilman sanchez i just want to point out though that right now we 're voting on the amendment which is swapping out the bathroom for the field lighting correct yeah so yeah so that's that that's you know just that's going to be the first vote we take before we go back to the main item councilman sanchez so i'm a big supporter and i said this before of a phased approach um i 've taken it you know on uh i'm taking that approach on the project i want to do at background educational center with you know it's going to be over two years doing it little by little now the bathroom is something that you know i know we're all adults and we can hold ourselves for an extended period of time i was not only a player at optimist i was also a coach at optimist a all the way from t-ball to 14u and you know it gets to a point in time in the middle of the game where they have to run literally across the field because the porta potty that was right behind field four was either locked or the lights were off and there was no way of getting the lights on so they would have to run across the field over to the clubhouse to use the restroom um the lights yes they they i do agree that they do need to be repaired replaced and not repaired but replaced to led you know with the 30 savings on the electrical bill you know over i forget i don't know what term it would be it would be that cost savings would pay for itself but um i do support the fact that it needs to be a restroom just because i've seen those kids and sometimes they don't make it to the restroom you know and it's it's uh i know some of us here have younger children some of us have older children a you know everything from from infant in diapers to military service members at this point but we have to remember that not every child has the same phase in life when it comes to the to the item about the um the drainage improvement um i don't see any numbers with regards to that on the not in like on what wants to be done now and what's remaining in the 1.508 um i would like to see numbers on that obviously it's not going to happen tonight unless you have them there so what i do have in the report is what's listed under field regrading for five fields so that is adjusting just the pitch of the fields to positively move water off the fields but it's not retaining the water it's just to assist in the actual drainage of the fields to get it playable quicker but the the ideal solution would be a subterranean drainage that is under the field itself to actually pull the water downward right but in order to do that we would have to basically excavate everything more earthwork so the concrete the concrete paths that we're trying to create the bathrooms the lights all that would have to be removed and then reinstalled in order to do that type of project no no because it'll be in the field of play so it wouldn't be on any built surfaces it would be in either clay or in uh sod okay okay but yeah but as as somebody that up until two years ago was a coach at optimist i do see the urgent need for the restrooms and the lights phased approach because you can't tell a four-year-old to wait two years for a restroom that it's going to be you know close but not close enough through the chair right now uh councilman garcia for rebut tal thank you so much um gentlemen we all we will love i will love a bathroom it's definitely needed but that is not the point the point is and i'm going to ask the the town attorney to come up is we're everything else that we're we i've put here and they've put except except for the bathroom is basic maintenance it's maintenance we're replacing existing infrastructure we did it with the lights in the tennis court we redid the tennis course to pickleball and the school board was okay with that that's what we're asking now everything i've asked in the report i made it clear to the manager and and and dr l opez and the director is what can we do to get our chances it's close to 100 the school board will be like all right this basic maintenance go ahead if we add a structure at this point i want a bathroom that's what i want to do with the next round phase two right or bifurcate the bathroom from the lighting now you play ball there i play ball there with my kids i coached for a long time for 13 years i was there the lighting hits your eyes my kids i've got hit in the face because of lighting if we do the lighting we need to do the lighting right now all together i'm sure the park director will agree the only reason i say of course we need a bathroom but that's going to complicate the issue and that is what stopped this progress from this park for decades complications we have an ability here to do all the lighting all the fencing all the backstops and become ada compliant in this in this plan without call getting causing the ire of the joint use agreement or the school board slowing us down and we can do it within a year and we have the money available let's bifurcate the bathroom push it to phase two let's approve this with the lighting and everything get it going within three months the director said you can start start at least with the lighting or at least some fencing and we can see some progress once everything is moving along we'll come back to the bathroom when we can find a funding source and we'll build the bathroom and we won't have to worry about complicating it the bathroom is coming if we put the bathroom now we are doing the same error that we've made for the last 20 years and complicate the issue uh mr cobia can you express to us what your thoughts are on adding an actual structure to that area as opposed to not adding a structure and sticking with the maintenance proposed in the um in the first um proposal by the director and the manager so without going too much into the weeds of the jua sure i will say this whatever we as the town decide to to do or move forward it will have to be with coordination in coordination with miami-dade county public schools so if it is something that they would find offensive with regards to how the language in the jua we would know then and we'd be able to not proceed and or make a decision at that point of how we we want to move forward so if you decide tonight that that's something you want to look at we can definitely move forward in looking at it and if we can't then we can't would you say there's more of a chance of that issue coming up if we build a structure as opposed to the basic maintenance we're proposing of redoing old uh you know just changing the fences changing things around changing adding lighting and adding ada requirements by the way is required for anything it's not like we're adding this is required by federal law we have to connect the dugouts to the to the to you know to the uh in inner track would you say they would be more inclined to push back if we build a structure as opposed to not build a structure like we did redoing the lights and the tennis courts and be doing the pickleball courts i think anything you decide tonight is is an improvement on what is existing and our things that are necessary they're not i think as some of the residents say they're they're uh asks not wants or vice versa right their needs not wants needs not wants um i think a bathroom is is something that's needed again it's not the legality will deal with my immediate county public schools when we get there and we can have that conversation with them we're not going to do something that's going to trip up that agreement but why take the chance that's why i asked my colleagues we have an opportunity to do it all let's just start to start the fencing the lighting all that stuff we can get it start done in less than a year once it 's all started then we come back to the bathroom and then if something happens with the bathroom we already started everything else complexity is what's killed uh fixing optimus park for decades i asked my colleagues just to think back and and i know hindsight is 2020 but we have the opportunity here to just get basic things done get it started and the bathroom will come trust me the back if you ask most residents hey if we start the bathroom and might stop everything would you uh consider waiting another year for the bathroom they've waited decades for a bathroom there they will wait another year so i asked my colleagues i had to my motion let's change out the bathroom uh with with the total lights we'll bifurcate the bathroom uh to uh to next year or another plan that has nothing to do with the submission for this initial plan that way guys there's no issue at all um with and i think we could defend that we definitely i i feel we can defend that as a town to the school board saying all we're doing is replacing old stuff guys let's not take the risk it's gonna bite us eventually it will because it always has so please i just ask you to guys think about that and let's put the bathrooms for next year it's only one more year guys and it's 25 i know 25 000 is a lot of money but we're gonna save that just in the lights alone thank you hold on guys i'm gonna speak and then i just want everybody to know that uh uh we have some chairs that want to give reports they're waiting to get back to their families so um so let's not beat this horse horse to death right but what i am going to say is that i i agree with the council member that and i've been for the record i first want to begin by saying that i know the amendment is well intended and and your heart's in the right place there but i believe that the complexity that has killed this project has been the scale of it this subs this entire proposal is substantially scaled down i understand your concerns about now throwing in a structure into the mix here but this is something that myself and the and the manager discussed already with our school board member where we need to get to that point um and this is exactly the sort of plan that residents i believe will support again it's a phased-in approach it's fiscally responsible and not involving additional taxes and it fixes as you put it the maintenance and repairs that have been deferred and deferred and deferred i don't believe that this is going that the prefab structure is going to be what causes a delay here and there's nothing that stops us and my understanding is that with some of the other projects that are being discussed we would still have to go get permitting from them regardless but i again i also to the defense of the optimist club right this was an issue they made front and center of the campaign i think it would it would be you know putting them in a bad position now to then say oh we could have deferred this the entire time i would rather you know proceed with with the town's proposal as it is that includes the bathroom going first being that that was a central issue that was made in the campaign i i sent the entire proposal to chris mccall earlier who did not raise any objection so i think it would behoove us to proceed with the town plan as it is and for that reason on the amendment i would just uh state that i will be a no and but i will be moving to move forward on everything else because it meets exactly what i think the majority of residents have always been asking for with that councilman fernandez you had oh you know i want to speak and then councilman uh well i saw councilman quaz de la gracia first and then we'll go to councilman hersberg thank you i know that i've said things in the past to make you guys uh think that i'm a comedian but eight hundred thousand dollars for a restroom come on i mean i could build my house if it burnt down for half this price how can you tell me where what kind of bathroom is this huh is this a bathroom in dub ai no no no no no no no no come on thank you where do we get any numbers that's what i asked feel free eight hundred thousand dollars to build a bathroom feel free to vote no councilman hersberg is that okay so two things one i on the bathroom cost in my in my meeting i mean i think there might be an opportunity to move it closer i think a lot of the big cost is the sewage lines there might be some value engineering there given the way sometimes we budget i'm very optimist that optimistic that that eight hundred thousand dollars will be lower and there will be money for the drainage which i when you know when when the whole bond issue was discussed the biggest issues i heard was the the fields are not playable they can't play it's always flooded so that's why i want to see drainage and i agree with you in the lighting i i played sports at night i played baseball i played football and yeah lighting's very important i'm sure you agree with that too it's a safety issue and it's also a cost issue um that 's why i i would support this amendment because the other reason why is because we're asking for 1. 9 million we know the money's there i'm not making any promises that i'm voting for one additional 1.5 i don't know where the 1.5 is coming from i don't know if it's where it's where where we 're getting it from i know we have money now so i want to focus on what i believe is most important um and that's the field of play and making this a good place for kids to play sports and the bathroom is important but you know i i just it just is something pulling me away from that and wanting to focus more on the lights in the field if this amendment passes i'm going to move forward with it anyway on the other side but i agree with you but i do have a question for town manager or town attorney is there a difference between because building a building is a capital improvement is there a difference in the jua regarding a capital improvement and or just replacing something or maintaining because that's my concern are we going to get somewhere where we got everything else doing but then we're just waiting on the bathroom obviously you guys can come back to us and we can change our minds but that that's my concern in the jua right so so again like i mentioned whatever we do we have to go through the the so if if it's if you decide to move forward on on the project you can you can b ifurcate and say listen move forward on everything that's maintenance and take a look at the bathroom and see if you can move forward on the bathroom i think that that the school board is going to be um is not really going to object too much to the building of a bathroom uh but again an eight hundred thousand dollar bathroom it's not a small project right so i don't want to i don't want to really apply we don't know without no so hey we'll see how this motion goes but let's just keep our ears open about that issue let's we'll see where it goes councilman sanchez and then the director but then let's move it guys and then about the jua and optimist does the bathroom let's say that this goes through on the bathroom does it need to be available for the students during the day when they're at pe no right now the way the school board is operating they they went ahead and put up a they erected a new fence and under their new guidelines all their pe actually must be maintained on property now they would be utilizing it for extracurriculars so if they have any sports events or anything like that that's the only time they really exit the school lands but as of right now there is no direct school use of an external bathroom outside of their bounds within the fencing okay yeah because my worry is that middle school students can be very messy inside of a bathroom and then you know if they don't maintain it we have to maintain it yeah we we experience that it's typical for a lot of these parks that are sharing land with with schools so but they don't they don't have school use of that exterior restroom perfect thank you did did you make your comment and then the one item that i wanted to just to discuss the vice mayor's question with regards to the power uh usage right now so optimist right now last year we spent 113 000 so a safe number somewhere between 20 and 30 reduction of that total number would be your uh your led efficiency if converted okay thank you with that said madam clerk please call the roll on the amendment yes council and again the amendment is to forego the bathroom to bifurcate the bathroom until next year for phase number two and and add the lighting to complete the lighting and adding the lighting yeah correct council member cuadra garcia are we voting on this for voting the bathroom okay hold on to forego the bathroom if i say yes is that no bathroom no bathroom no bathroom no bathroom yes council member fernandez no council member garcia yes council member hersberg yes council member sanchez no vice mayor morera no mayor diegis no the motion the amendment fails with that said uh vice mayor i believe you had um a motion that to to allow us to go ahead and deal with the committee reports yeah uh take up the item of the committee's and then return to this item okay if no one has any objection to hearing the committee reports out of order i will go ahead and begin with the economic development committee mr casmaillod uh chair casmaillod mr vice mayor please take over thank you guys i appreciate that moving that around all right cool so first of all i just want to say thanks for making this little fill in worksheet or whatever it makes my life a lot easier versus having to just kind of make stuff up here so now at least we have a sort of idea of what we can talk about helps organize things so i appreciate that um so i'll just kind of go over how things have been so far we've been doing pretty good attendance has been good solid in our committee so far we've had a couple new members um and it's been going pretty well um we had a recent member kind of step down but i know we're in the process of looking for a fill- in so um if anybody out here is looking to join the edc we are available so i'll kind of just kind of run through what we've got going on um i'm just going to go through this little worksheet that you guys put together for us just because it makes life easy so i'll start with the budget so 25 26 we went over the approved budget from before um i know we're going to have more of a budget discussion end of this week right there's like an actual committee budget discussion i think right on the on friday next week next week there we go is it next week there's a special call meeting i know i got to turn something in by friday i think is what it is i think yeah okay whenever it is we have a special call meeting cool all right no worries on committee budgeting yeah either way i won't harp on the budget that's that's basically what it is to say so i'll just kind of go on into the events that we have going on and we'll talk about the budget next week um so basically the edc we kind of split ourselves between uh june 4th gotcha perfect thank you so the edc we split ourselves really between two um main events i guess we've got our one big event at the end of the year the business boot camp which is the one that's held here in the town hall and i believe that's the one that actually you guys approved and is more of uh considered an official event we also work with the um local chamber and the local bnis to host networking events usually in the previous years we were a little bit more sporadic with it and we were kind of giving money on on a whim because we give 500 basically to the restaurant that is either catering or the um place of business that is providing food to the um to the people visiting and before we were kind of doing a little bit sporadic with the uh with the chamber as was happening but this year we decided to be a little bit more organized with it and we're doing it once per quarter so it kind of limits us to just around two thousand dollars in the year for those networking socials and it's been working out pretty well um we're just kind of aligning with the chamber on certain events and and where it makes sense like for example we've got one tomorrow may 20th in trails cottage so if anybody is available available for that it would be awesome it's gonna be our first one not in a restaurant and kimberly's going all out to provide vendors local vendors local food i know you guys know how she loves to really go all out for the town so we're looking forward for that um another thing that we're starting to take a little bit more initiative in this year is the best of miami lakes the past couple years um i actually didn't know that the edc was the one that started that and then it kind of transitioned over to the town and it kind of faded away it still exists but um it's not really getting as much push and notoriety so that's why this year and last year we started but this year we're going to dive into a lot more is pushing best of miami lakes using our marketing dollars to really push that in the newspaper push it online and really get it going because i think and the committee thinks that that's a really great opportunity for miami lakes to kind of push its own businesses kind of market itself in its own way and it's just a fun engaging um competition i guess you know that gets the community involved so we really want to focus on that and make it more of a mainstay in the town um the business boot camp we're in the planning stage for that right now and um romey and the vice chair carlos are doing a fantastic job really putting that together and spearheading that um we're focused on making it just like last year in terms of focused on what businesses can do now small businesses so in this case it's going to be a lot of talks about ai and that kind of direction and how you guys can help and promote your business that way um that's it for our sort of events when it comes to future projects we're really just focused on growing main street live and helping out the cultural affairs committee we've already committed and worked with the local chamber and the local bnis we've sort of done a um a front sponsorship i guess where we front 500 and then they'll front another 500 and then we kind of work together to put a thousand dollars into each of those main street live events push them on social media push them online and i think it's worked we've gotten a lot more traction on mainstreet live this year than we did last so it's cool to see it growing um and it's great working with felicia and the culture affairs committee with that um but other than that that's really it we don't really have any things that you know shaking things up too crazy right now just kind of maintaining the status quo and organizing what we have but that's about it for me thank you mr chair any comments uh to the chair questions of councilman fernandez thank you thank you for your service matthew we appreciate it how's your dad good he's doing better day by day day by day he'll be back tell him that we all send him our regards i appreciate it thank you thank you guys he's definitely in all our prayers uh councilman herzberg do you have a comment or question yeah well first of all obviously we miss him we we look forward to having him back to all the events um i appreciate your comments on on the on the sheet i'm glad that someone found it useful no yeah it was nice um no but you're good but i do um two things one yeah from you because this is actually a board that usually gets a lot of um interest when you have an opening how do you how do you think there's the best way to to get that out because that's something i think we got to work on as a town to get those openings back out there and out in the public because make sure people know how to do it but what do you think is the best way to do that yeah i mean honestly the best way i think is what you did just last week where you went to the chamber luncheon because that's really the like the center the mainstay of the business community here in the town i think that's a great opportunity the local b and i's i think is also a good opportunity to kind of go in there you know they have the visits the i know that the b and i miami lakes the original one is i it's like seven in the morning and they do it there in the uh yeah seven in the morning they do it there and i thought i heard a whisper in main street um there in the uh miami lakes hotel and then um the other one is once a month united connects connect and i'm actually a member of that one and there's zoom and they meet once a month that first thursday of every month in cellos at noon so that's another one and that's a good opportunity and i can help promote it there as well in the b and i so i'll work on that as well any other comments questions thank you very much mr chair thank you guys appreciate it and we are moving on to elderly affairs come on up good evening gentlemen um i'm here with the elderly affair hopefully i'm asking for like six thousand dollars more this year to our budget because we the economy is what it is everything is more expensive and we're having more people come we used to have like a hundred people come to our bingos now we're getting 135 to 145 as the baby boomers are here um this year what else we're just going to have our movie night we still go to the movies in the afternoon i'm sorry we go to plays we have other senior events like our halloween party and our thanksgiving and our christmas um what else programs and this strengthens our community and reduces isolation for some of our seniors um in addition we 're bringing back the senior olympics i don't know if anybody remembers that we are trying we're going to try to do it for late october or early november so the weather is great and really that's it we just have a lot of people we have a lot of fun most of you come some of you don't come but most of you do come and participate with us is there any what all the lunches went up they're pricier because it is what it is and um and we have more people coming thank you madam chair uh before i turn it over to some of my colleagues i will say obviously we'll take up the the question of the the increased uh budget the 6k more uh later on once you submit the formal budget and and we'll take that into consideration i did just want to ask uh as a clarification point in the in the report form that you submitted uh there are what i want to say is just a repeated entry it's the senior olympics uh as a new initiative or event requiring council approval and then a new budget line item request also senior livers that's that's the same you're asking for 2 500 total for for that right because we're also going to hopefully get sponsor money okay i just want to understand that we're not asking for 5 000 that we 're asking for no no no for 2500 okay thank you and then um you're you're back in charge but any other comments uh councilman claude garcia councilman claude garcia you're recognized to proceed thank you mr is it 2500 or it's just 6 000. well and i did two papers i don't know why maybe because i 'm confused about it the one that i did yesterday when i added it up it came to 36. i don't know why but i only wanted another 2500 maybe whatever you know that i'm all for it anything to do with the seniors i'm all in i mean you know they're their biggest tax for they they worked in this community they pay taxes in this absolutely and they deserve it most likely it will be a 100 yes but can we get any type of sponsors we do we do sponsors all the time either they come in oh i'm sorry no you're either they come in or they pay for the food but we do get a lot of sponsor money because we i know the other communities might get mad but we are the biggest and the most you know we do the most we're constantly doing at least four times a month we do stuff you know and we spend money and i know you do it responsibly yep we do we really do okay if i may mayor councilman herzburg on that i would ask something i'm interested in when you present your budget is obviously we know what the town funds but i would really like to see how much sponsorship funds so we really understand your total budget from noah or ios so i think that would make us see wow this total budget is actually pretty big and like we can understand where the request comes from remember that we have a lunch right once a month right and the food alone runs like 1500 right that's what i'm saying i would like to see how much you're getting in sponsorships also i'll ask from no is that something that we've discussed the last budget season is trying to encourage more sponsorships but if you show that you already are having a lot of i know i know you are but seeing the raw figures would be nice i'll ask for you that's all yeah good all right councilman sanchez well the edc just i mean the um elderly affairs committee does so much you know and it's it's it's really that glimmer you know that the happiness that i see in the seniors every time we go to the bingos and to the to all the parties and you know in the state the socials um the only thing that i that i would ask um is on the first page of the report to council if you could update who the appointments are by in the what the appointments on the first page of the report to council it has all of your members their position and who appointed them but you have the appointments of of elected officials that are no longer um elected officials that they but that's who appointed them right but they get transferred over to whoever fills the seat now so for example in your attendance report it shows the proper individual who they're appointed to okay yeah so whoever took their seat would be the one exactly so for example whoever whoever was appointed to manny said now is is my appointee oh okay because he transferred with his own so yeah okay okay and then i would technically assume his appointees but since he's already here i assumed manny said's appointments so i would ask that but you know i i'm in full support and anything and especially now with with the senior center that now that's going to be the next i hope project that's going to spearhead especially over the summer months we're very aware but if we can't get a center we will be happy with mary collins right right and there's a discussion that you and i had last summer where you know residents you know reached out because there's nothing to do in the town for the seniors but summer camps also have to play a role in the community um but yeah you know this is a big supporter i'm always going to be a big supporter of anything to do with with elderly affairs and uh yeah yeah well what i guess my question to you is what do you need from the council tonight motion wise my understanding is i was told that you need approval for the senior olympics the senior olympics the restoration of that event the senior olympics right and they would happen just to authorize them to do the event i'm sorry to talk over you but uh correct okay just authorization because they say they're going to get sponsors for the 2500 right well some if you give us the money we're still going to get sponsored because there might be more remember we're going to feed everybody that goes we're going to do clean up the park because hopefully you'll be on a weekend there's we might need police i don't know if if it's going to be money i think that that's better served through the budget process but if it's just adoption of the event i need then they can do that now either later october or early november we want to do it when it's cool we can't really do it in dear christmas because it's too much and before thanksgiving we're going to try to fit it right in the middle so we know i might have a date already but i don't what we can consider as part of the budget process uh is what we can do um but i'm in full support of the idea of bringing back the senior olympics i used to volunteer with councilman collazo there all the time and councilman mingo and councilman llama um it was a fun event i remember they even did it at the christian one year um as far as the funding we'll talk more about that but i don't see the council having an issue authorizing the event but of course with the caveat that they would probably want to prioritize sponsorship dollars for the event perfect but we'll bring that back when we discuss the committee budgets in the budget season okay so that's it for me that's it ma'am you did great have a great thank you madam chair with that council we are now back where we left off on item 8. tony we need jeremy back on the main on it's it's it's okay uh i'm calling the the vote uh okay we are now on item 8. on the main motion without the amendment madam clerk please call the role council member hersburg yes council member garcia yes council member fernandez council member cuadra garcia ma'am i've lost i don't know where we are no 80 80. a david the optimist park yes motion to approve the town staff proposal okay he voted no no council member sanchez yes vice mayor morera yes mayor okay i'm gonna get the vote i'll vote yes uh for mine and then you can ask him now uh before you close out the vote council member fernandez on the main motion yes all right the motion passes by your vote it passes unanimously so uh congratulations on to all my colleagues and to staff on finally getting this over the finish line again in a physically responsible manner with that before we uh yes companion item 13b we're getting there he's gonna present the item now you know all right uh vice mayor yeah and i'll let the the the staff come and present the item itself but i did want to move 13b uh and then after they present whatever they have i'll make my comments all right so yeah direct it back down or he's got to read it to the record oh okay oh sorry yes second all right item 13b ordinance first reading uh an ordinance of the town of miami lakes florida amending the town's fiscal year 2025-2026 budget established by ordinance 25-346 providing for expenditure of funds providing for amendments providing for repeal of ordinances in conflict providing for implementation providing for severability and providing for an effective date mayor so moved is there a second second it's been seconded by councilmember garcia any discussion on the amendment yes okay vice mayor moreda i'd actually like to make a move a an amendment to this item based on what we just discussed and if you bear with me for one second sorry i'm used to having my ipad i don't like these uh physical papers um i would actually like to direct uh since we have the budget amendment already open uh i'd actually like to go ahead and uh move that eighty thousand dollars uh be transferred from the fund that we set up uh at the budget amendment for the field regrading that way it could be taken up at the same time since we are going to tear up the i'll second that any discussion uh yeah no great great okay all right all those in favor say aye aye aye all opposed no may have passes for procedure so it's really on on the other item eighty thousand moving it from the from the second section to the initial section and adding it to the 1.916 yes oh so what you're saying is you need budget authorization not just the official transfer because the item that you have now on the table is just the budget amendment to move the money that's currently in park improvement impact fees to the project to the capital okay well we'll go back there then but in the meantime we we have we've already moved the line items right we've approved that transfer um the i guess what i'll do then is i'll go ahead and move to amend our previous vote on 8d to permit the budget authorization necessary to expend those funds uh is there a second second it's been moved and seconded all those in favor say aye aye all opposed no the ayes that's have it the motion carries um okay with that we uh well 16f i guess we covered councilman and then i said it was a seconded all right when we when we discussed 8d yeah the only uh addition to that is that we we i wanted the co-sponsors everybody to co-sponsor the board yes to that item i'll i'll co-sponsor it i'll co-sponsor all of us okay everyone well everyone except councilman cuadra-cacia you know so um we want to respect this vote so i make a motion that those who approved it would be a co-sponsor on the item so we can go ahead i'll second that all those in favor say aye aye all opposed no the eyes have it the co-sponsors except for councilman cuadra-cacia will be added to the item okay with that um there being nothing else on 16f we are now on the consent calendar it's their motion no mayor mayor you got as amended the budget amendment 13 my apologies you're right you're right um i i have been uh i was a little thrown off i guess by your by your initial motion okay so on on 13b the main motion moving the the funds and approving the amendment in general um all those in favor say aye aye i have to do it because it's an ordinance okay yeah because i'm not looking at exactly where this falls so item 13b yeah councilmember hersburg yes councilmember fernandez not here councilmember cuadra-cacia yes councilmember garcia yes councilmember sanchez yes council member fernandez yeah vice mayor morera yes mayor diegas yes item 13b ordinance and first reading passes yes thank you vice mayor for catching the procedural issue and i apologize to councilmember fern andez who has had to come back and forth okay so with that now we are on the consent calendar is there motion so moved it's been moved by the vice mayor is there a second i'll second it's been seconded by councilman sanchez all those in favor of the of passing the consent calendar say aye aye aye all opposed no the aides have it and the motion carries the consent calendar passes and we are now on 13a non-advalorum special assessment rates for security guards and lake maintenance special taxing districts uh presented by director baghdad an ordinance of the town of council of town of miami lakes florida appro ving adopting and uh a non-advalorum assessment role for fiscal for special taxing districts approving adopting and ratifying special assessment district rates for special taxing districts including but not limited to security guard and all and multi-purpose maintenance providing for sever ability and providing for an effective date thank you very much director yes good evening um the item you have before you is essentially the base budget request needed for the special taxing districts in order to maintain their current level of service the budget only includes existing services and the current level for your consideration and under direction from the last workshop staff has also put together the items for consideration for additional service level within the exhibit c just note that none of those items are currently in the budget and that any adjustments um to some of those uh improvements would require also then a recalculation for the administrative fees other than that any questions from the council uh i i'm going to turn over to my colleagues who has questions on this item first uh the councilman herzburg thank you mayor so i i just we discussed at the workshop but i think it's it's important to state it's not to state it now but the reasoning some of the my understanding is the reasoning we have some increases is because of the reserve requirement the reserve last year gave a decrease and now it's back to what it really should can you just or maybe the budget director can explain that briefly good evening mayor council um in last fiscal year the council uh voted to reduce the contingency reserve to or cap it at five percent so since the contingency reserve was capped at five percent that provided um the residents an opportunity to receive a reduction to their assessment rate however now we've entered into a new fiscal year or we're going to be entering into a new fiscal year so based on inflation and different and other um items we the assessment rate would be increased very minor um miami lake section one is being increased by eight dollars and 43 cents lock loman by fifty dollars and fifty cents my royal oaks section one is being reduced by 109 dollars and royal oaks east is being increased by 70 dollars as far as the lake maintenance the lake patricia is being reduced by 17.44 and lake hilda is being increased by 62 dollars so for example rox east is being reduced by 109 next year that number is now going to go back up because that's they're taking care of the next year there is a possibility that that specific may increase slightly not not by 109 dollars but but it may increase maybe 20 dollars depends on on what is voted on for their budget specifically and i i know we have a list of like proposed improvements none of that's in this budget no okay got it and what about the the lock loman proposed improvements what what are what's going on with that we discussed it a little bit in the workshop but it's sort of like in the middle i don't know so at this point um it is currently as an additional consideration as far as the status i mean the hoa has already showed their support for something of that nature the one thing that we have discussed going back and forth over is and there's been previous council on action on this is on the capital improvement portion of it at this time there is no language within the ordinance that outlines capital items this is the existing guard gate and guard house for lock loman so it would not be in terms adding any services to the existing ordinance that governs the lock loman uh special taxing district so in that case by that reading um it would be something that you guys can approve to move forward with but at this point all that is uh funded here is a design with an anticipated cost so design cost is the cost for design is in is no that is as a separate item it is not part of the the base budget as an ordinance yeah correct that's all i wanted to make sure thank you thank you mayor anyone else councilman father de garcia thank you um um this is this is amazing um so so basically we have two of them that are on on brackets uh the 109 10 and 1744 those are going to be those are going to decrease this decrease and the one right next to which is the one that affects me is going to increase lovely so i'm going to be a no thank you anyone else councilman sanchez um to address the public comment by boris that he emailed over to us um with regards to the operating costs how is the operating cost figure for section one the same way the rest are and it's based on the total units within that special taxing district so originally we had it uh cut across all six districts it was then by council action that we adjusted to account for the amount of time if one district has 600 versus 900 there are 900 300 additional mailers going to one district that is going to take up a little more staff time so the decision was made to base the rates the administrative rates off the total units of the entire special taxing district budget has nothing to do with how many guard how many guards there are they have rovers nothing like that it has to do with more of the administrative function to run that the special testing district needs mailers and everything else that falls of to 841 homes correct versus 100 and change in other areas right yeah yeah it takes a lot more time to it's a level of service for the amount of units that's like the easiest way to put it with the services offered by us or the gates or anything like that right okay just wanted to address it to make sure that that that was brought forward thank you anyone else council man garcia just a quick question uh just to address what councilman walter garcia said and i know the reasons why it went up rural looks east but um is there any savings we can glean to instead of you know the 70 hit you know we can make make it more in par with uh what others are the only ones that increase by 20 30 you know they increase that much is there any savings you can gleam in the budget uh that could this is get us down some some at least give them some tax savings some savings um maybe 10 20 is there anything you see in order to do so it will drop the level of service compared to the remaining districts so and if i yeah if so in order to make up that that 20 30 you're looking at a change in level of service that would no longer be aligned with the remaining districts okay so changing like the level of the guard or changing the maintenance the level of maintenance the the amount budgeted for guardhouse repairs all that would be a drop in level of service we remove flowers we remove all that stuff right the royal oaks east has no flowers no flowers no nothing okay okay um and and if i'm not mistaken um i don't want to put my list on the spot but if i'm not mistaken i think royal east carried one of the higher contingency rates and i believe had one of the reductions last time using that which is probably what's causing this imbalance okay thank you mr mayor mr mayor hold on before i want to see if does anybody else want to go all right this will be the last round of discussion uh councilman quadro-graccio jeremy uh reduction of service uh how much lower can we go we got bubble gum everywhere on the floor of those guard gates i got videos and pictures i mean how much lower can we go so i mean and and the guard gates would be dirtier and and and more uh less maintained than than than what they are now yes you would reduce the amount of funds for the guard gate repairs for the repairs to the guard house itself and so forth disappointed one question okay so councilman hersberg again we're in the second round does uh uh does the the reading does this budget take into into account the increase the voluntary increase to sfl the no no that is the only thing being accounted for is the same base level of service that we have maintained anything that changes from we've approved last year is reflected in the exhibit c which is additional service for consideration okay there is nothing additional added there's no increase of sfm's rates ordinance is an increase anything it's just base level pursuant to last year's budget correct okay great so i mean we're not it is i mean i think we are at minimum level i have some ideas that i'll bring up in the next workshop to revamp these completely but i need to get community input but for now i mean this is base level so let's move forward yeah and i just want to remind everybody this is first reading um there is time between first and second reading to workshop this with staff with residents uh and come back with proposals traditionally remember that first reading is just an initial pass at it right it's not supposed to involve heavy discussion um you know because the expectation is that there will be an opportunity within that gap to go ahead and iron this out i mean i also have some questions based on uh mr mr foster's uh email uh that i that i will be you know asking to staff um and i'm also looking forward to councilman hersberg's hersberg's um uh uh i guess uh amendments if you will this uh overhaul then if you want to call it i have some idea i spoke spoke with the manager briefly we 'll talk about the next workshop i have a a complete overhaul which i think the residents would like but we got to discuss that and it won't happen this year that's fair yeah well regardless though you know i know you 're going to work at it and uh it'll give me a chance to ask mr foster's questions and more details and and to have follow-up with him so um you know but for now i'm going to vote to advance this uh just so we can keep this moving so with that madam clerk please call the roll i needed someone to make the motion and to second i thought we okay i apologize you know so with that i will move it is there a second second second uh all those in uh or rather uh for roll call councilmember sanchez yes councilmember fernandez yes councilmember garcia no councilmember cuadra garcia a big no councilmember hersberg yes vice mayor morera yes mayor diegas yes ordinance in first reading item 13a passes thank you very much madam clerk uh okay the the vice mayor wanted a moment of personal privilege while we have the director of parks with us so mr bagnow please approach the mic uh the vice mayor had uh some non-g ermane items that he's going to ask you as a moment of personal privilege thank you mayor and permit me to get back to that page it was still i used to this whole paper thing all righty um i wanted to quickly ask you and i know i came up to you earlier to ask about this we did have a resident who came up to public comments today inqu iring about the possibility of converting one additional tennis court at mlop into a pickleball court could you kind of just fill my colleagues in on what you told me what the possibilities are what options we have available so evaluating the request for additional dedicated courts is something that we have fielded uh in the past with other members of of the pickleball community and looking at other communities in a way to look at how we can still meet some of that demand without foregoing our tennis players that we do have still frequenting the park one option that i discussed with the vice mayor that we can take a look at and i can come back with a plan for you is a schedule in which we can overlay not redo the courts but overlay with temporary lines and establish a schedule in which for instance tuesday or thursdays or monday wednesdays after a certain time in the evening when it's predominantly pickle ball players activate two courts with temporary fence uh temporary nets and have them full like the individual said it's the right size net it's the right size court and for those two or three days at a certain time we can go ahead and dedicate it just to pickleball but still be able to remove it for the next morning's tennis players the the weekend's tennis players and still give that that use of the court without having them make such a drastic shift in the volume of pickleball courts first tennis courts thank you director so on that note i'd like to actually move to direct uh the director to come back to us and i'll second uh it's been uh moved and seconded any discussion uh seeing none those in favor say aye aye those against a nay motion passes unanimously and then the last item was i just wanted to request an update on the miami lake sign that was generously donated by the miami realtors i know that that was going to go off of one of the palmetto exits uh just what's the status on that i know we had to work with fdot and a few others right now we are working with the senator's office senator um maria rodriguez and um the manufacturer for the signs in order to obtain the proper set of plans to submit to fdot that is something that we've been waiting on and pushing and the senator's been helping us push it but we're just awaiting the manufacturer to give us those updated they have provided some spec sheets but with omar's review and his understanding of fdot requirements we've requested some revisions to make sure that on the first pass of the fdot review there are no concerns okay i'm gonna turn it over to councilman fernandez in a second he he wants to comment but if there's any way that um that myself or the mayor can help on um uh dealing with senator rodriguez's office let us know we're happy to help we have great relationships with them she's been incredible yes uh it's okay perfect it's down from there anything i'm just offering it if you need anything obviously we're incredibly thankful especially to the miami realtors association for donating it very kindly so um 30 year 30 year member of the miami board but anyway remember we have eddie blanco that is the president the current president of the board so we should use him he's a resident and he he could definitely help if we need him yeah it's the manufacturer and the person who did the the plans for the manufacturer that's where the sticking point is and the responsiveness has been less than ideal the senator has interjected on our behalf and really kind of put their feet try and hold their feet to the fire and we've gotten some level of the uh of plans when the the follow-up is the one now where we're stuck but i know jeremy's on it all the time and the senator's interjecting whenever she needs to we're she's seeing her on every email so she chimes in yeah and to the council man's point um eddie blanco has sat in on meetings and has jumped in and to assist us with this as well yeah awesome thank you for that update and thank you for that go ahead yeah through the chair other towns have accepted and have um put them in place can we ask them for their engineering drawings no because i think they're unique to our lettering our letters are unique so yeah and wind structure and they probably don't even have that level of plans because of the location where they have decided to put them in so an e is we're looking for a higher level a higher profile location it's the location it's the ftlt side of it okay primarily i just want to know that it was still moving forward and that we're still working towards uh resolution thank you for that uh director back down uh with that i am actually going to move backwards into our agenda i realize uh we did not cover attorney's report um so we so sorry you're up yeah it didn't turn on didn't want to turn on okay um so for our report you asked us just to uh come back to you on on the effects of senate bill 1134. this is the bill that was signed to governor this year uh and became a florida statute 16604971 and what it did was to uh i would say almost criminalize any activity that a municipality does that is not considered that that is considered dei dei is uh in essence any anything where uh to influence the composition uh of employees or promote a preferential treatment and special benefits of a person based on on certain characteristics based on their gender identity sexual orientation etc though the law is pretty broad in saying anything that does this is bad it also creates numerous exceptions so those numerous exceptions are those holidays those activities those events that are sponsored or are supported uh by by either the federal government or the state government or state government or our holidays and then you have a series of gray areas which is if they have significant cultural um value so as far as taking a look at the activities that the town currently has i i don't see any that we currently have uh that would be considered in violation of of the statute uh every single one uh from women of distinction we have women distinction month which is sponsored by the by the state uh we have you know different uh hispanic cultural month that's also sponsored by the state fourth of july events sponsored by the state so there's nothing really that i can see right now that is an a current activity something that is uh sponsored by the town that would fall afoul of the statute that being said from time to time you know there are uh there may be activities that some of our committees some of our residents may ask the town to sponsor uh or to promote uh and in those we have to be careful and make sure that they don't fall afoul of this particular statute why because one thing that the statute does is it kind of empowers the resident that if one of you fall afoul of it that then you can be held li able uh not only uh as as a body but on a personal basis the statute is brand new hasn't been challenged i suspect it probably will be challenged at some point uh on you know first amendment grounds to start off with uh but that hasn't happened yet uh but until that as as your attorneys you know we have to tell you you know uh let's be careful to stay clear of any activities that could run afoul so that we don't incur any uh unneeded uh liability uh for the town or for yourselves thank you anyone anyone have questions to the attorney councilman herzberg thank you and and thank you for the work you all know how disappointed i am at this law um and when i was speaking with other elected officials even some people mayor kava's office i believe the county mayor's office the county attorney's office is reviewing this and they have a boat load of events so i'm very interested and i ask them to make sure to share that report once it comes in but uh this doesn't only it's not just events it's also proclamation yes day of miami lakes you know this is your day today or month so we have to be careful with anything that the town promotes even just social media posts yes i mean the saying this particular person's day saying it's you know realty month or things of that nature it's not necessarily fall within dei but but now if you're talking about a particular cause and i don't want to name one in particular but we can all think about which some of those causes maybe you know if you could run a fall obviously yeah uh exempts it doesn 't exempt but understood that um but that but personally we're i guess it's important to understand there 's a personal as an elected official and then there's a town side correct there's both the only thing i would ask is to make sure that it's not just on us that the town staff is understands because my position is a social media post done by the town that promotes something that's not allowed would be a violation of this law it could yeah i haven't seen anything that we've really been promoting as of late that would really run afoul but to your point something where i think it's gray is what about a committee member that's pushing for for something and i don't know and that's something that committee or committee that votes to push something correct we're not aware of it and they're using funds like correct that's why i think we can all understand the issues but it's on you guys to make sure staff then also make sure all these committees are aware of these restrictions maybe that's you know something that can i make a motion to make sure staff presents uh this law to committees to make sure they understand the restrictions as well yeah i believe um second that mr cardinus was had been talking to me and she's been pushing me uh to start back and she left but uh to start back and uh seeing the committees and talking to them about sunshine and public records so we can talk to them also about the effects is there any discussion on the amendment or on the motion that's been made very briefly i i i think that it makes a lot of sense my only concern we are talking about high level legalese um i think we might inadvertently just confuse a lot of committee members i would rather uh as uh the deputy attorney was saying have them take a look at you know through uh mr cardinus's office um take a look at the events if there's something that maybe um is a red flag or even an orange flag right um of hey let's let's take a quick look at this event and see if it passes muster and then in that situation they they call it out but i think trying to get the committee to police itself they're all non-lawyers you know they don't know what is and what right if i may mayor uh thank you you may um i i get that but my concern is that they're just gonna vote on something we nobody would no idea the committees are pretty independent and now they voted on it oh and they they have two hundred dollars in marketing okay let's go let's spend the money that they have the ability to do that we give them that right to spend money at the the staff i guess you're right staff should i think the committee should be aware but understand that at the end of the day the staff the liaisons need to be up to date on this law i guess i'll accept that friendly element and how about that i mean to to what you stated we don't have to get to the weeds of it but we can go over the top that look there's there's laws that could restrict what type of activities you can do so anytime you have an activity before you pass it please discuss it with us or the communications department all those in favor say aye aye aye opposed no the odds have it the motion carries if there may nothing nothing further there's there's nothing further good unless you have any questions of our office all right boring is good boring is good yes i agree i agree i want boring i agree so with that we are now on ordinances on second reading which will be a public hearing mr attorney please read the ordinance into the record item 14a correct 14a yes an ordinance of the town of miami lakes florida amending chapter 18 parks and recreation section 18-94 public demonstration gatherings performances speeches of the town code of ordinances by adding section 18-94 c first amendment protected activities providing for purpose providing for codification severability and effective date with that i'm going to open the public hearing anyone wishing to speak it may do so now seeing no members of the public in chambers madam clerk anyone online i don't see anyone online with our hand erased okay so uh if no one wants to speak in this item i'm going to close the public hearing on 14a and with that turn it over to uh to the manager i guess who 's going to present this item well this is the item that you saw last month yeah that deals with uh an extra paragraph in our code that deals with um first amendment protected activities and in the parks all right thank you is there a motion i'll move it it's been moved by councilman hersberg seconded by the vice mayor any discussion seeing none uh madam clerk please call the roll item 14a ordinance in second reading council member hersberg yes council member cuadra garcia council member fernandez yes council member sanchez yes council member garcia yes vice mayor mor era yes mayor diegue yes the ordinance in second section reading item 14a passes thank you we're now in 15b authorization to apply for the fdot public transit service development grant program fy 2028 by presented by director olivia shock this is a grant application fdot to pay um it's a 50 50 match it's for uh for on-demand service for freebie service and the town match is being paid by our portion of the ptp 20. okay i'll move the item it's been moved is there a second i'll second for discussion second by councilman sanchez moved by the vice mayor any discussion or questions of staff yes okay one by councilman sanchez go ahead so i reviewed this item and in my research i went back to to the most recent copy of the budget that we have um and i i brought this up today with with the town manager and right now we have a total cost for the freebie service of 461 000 where 250 000 of to pay for that is through grants so it leaves the town with a bill of 211 000 the new one is asking for 560 total with the town providing 280 000 so we would increase from 211 to 280 imp uting a 32.7 percent increase uh because of such a high increase is there a way where we can keep it at the 211 and maybe go out to try to find a different vendor like go through the procurement process to see sorry so currently we estimated the additional we're estim ating the increase in service that we would do as a for this grant to cost around 104 000 additionally annually per year that would be the cost of an extra vehicle that would do that um the service to the trial station as well as service during the in town during the middle of the day and again it's about a hundred thousand dollars with the freebie grant it's always split exactly 50 50 between the town and the grant so the actual i believe total cost in the transit we have in the budget for the bus storage as well i don't know if it is but it's not part of the 468 000 i'm 461 there was 8 000 for bus storage because i believe the actual total we have estimated for what it's going to cost is 450 000 and then it's 225 from the freebie grant and 225 from the town but what i have i have the budget in front of me right now and what the town receives according to the budget for this fiscal year was 250 000. we were i can look at i can pull up what we received from the grant but we received i believe in 225 from the grant i mean i only go off i can only go off what the information provided to me and that budget just shows the 250 that is what provided to us what we have estimated with the 285 was again estimating for an additional um 50 000 in the budget to pay for half of the additional 100. okay and then the new service would be to the charles here because we already offer service to the metro rail station yes off the palmet to so this would be expanding on that to add additional um county-wide regional transit expansions from there so we in the mornings this would just be during commuter times so from 6 a.m to 9 a.m in the morning and then from 4 p.m to 7 p.m in the afternoon so we've seen a huge growth in the metro rail connection service that we're offering to the palmetto and so that was where and i don't know if susanna is coming back oh there she's there i said i don't know if she wants to talk at all about how that service operates or anything like that but yeah the idea behind it was again providing the additional connection to regional transit services as we've had such an expansion expansion and growth in that i believe we included some metrics um as an attachment to this but yeah and then the vehicle would run in town service in the middle of the day between those when it's not doing the shuttle okay so that's really where the increase is because we're adding service to the travel station not just keeping the same company with the same routes just adding that service no yeah it's adding additional hours of service and we are to to go back to your previous question too about exploring other vendors and other options we are currently preparing to bring out to put out the rfp for the service so this is again just based on an estimate for our current costs however we'll have to wait and see what the results of the rfp come back with to know the exact amounts of what the service will cost at that time and then is it a specific vehicle that would be going to the trial rail station or would it be like a tesla or would it be a van that can take currently we have oh sorry i say we're prepared to do another tesla if um that's what we're that's what we're currently working with with the freebie obviously depending on our contractor um freebie also launched some new vans that we've been taught discussing potentially launching but at this time we 'd continue with an additional tesla that would again do that shuttle and then in town service if demand gets to the point where we no longer it's not feasible to use a tesla and we'd have to go up to a van that can take eight passengers to give an example is there an additional cost to that or would it be the same cost that's something we have to talk with freebie i know they mentioned previously last time we were just in communication with them or again whoever our vendor is um with when we were in communication with them they mentioned the cost was comparable to the tesla however they were just rolling out these new vehicles in a couple of test sites um so they didn't have full pricing breakdown for us yet um because they do their pricing it's hourly but it's also based on kind of the terms of our contract where they get a portion of advertising revenue and we do so the number can change a little bit okay um but yeah that's something we could absolutely explore perfect thank you through the chair councilman gar cia thank you mayor i'll try to be um quick i have experience with this because my daughter i pick her up at the train station and i see in the numbers that the the metro station numbers have more than more than triple quadruple yes so i talked to the manager today about just what the what councilman santos was saying we need a new freebie that's uh ada compliant to carpool to not only palmetto station but if we 're going to add the tri-rail station we need to do that as well because what's happening is i and i see our freebies there all the time uh that is sent you know maybe two people come out three people come out but it's taking the level of service inside the town it's lowering that level of service by dramatically so i i would uh agree with uh mr uh councilman sanchez and see if i don't know if we need a motion for you to look into a van that's ada compliant that we can carpool to these uh to these additional uh areas of service and also because we can't have i don't think we should take a model y off off miami lake streets to to send all the way over there that's a in traffic it takes me 30 to 40 minutes to get there sometimes or 20 25 and 25 to come back yeah so that's something we could absolutely explore is looking at having an additional vehicle running during those hours but a van that we can carpool that's so i will say the thing with an ada van is we do currently have one that's available in town when someone requests an ada but you need it for the town yes i will say our number of ada rides is is pretty sure but we have to have it by law we have to have it here we can't leave the town it does my understanding i say we do we have one available for whenever one is requested okay well if that's the case then we use that for for palmetto we don't currently use it for the palmetto because the tesla model y 's actually have a similar seating capacity to the van that we offer because it's um like a hybrid van it's not a fully electric um van like we used to offer with the that was a larger se ater you mean a five-seater uh the tesla y's i believe are because they have three model x has the has seven seats yeah these are there's no more model x's because i've seen my lexus you got rid of the model x's yes we have model x's yes yes we do trust me i know tesla's they're the seven seater model x is a seven seater model yes sorry five seater they're x then sorry yes i don't know with the gold wings yes 100 there are seven seaters yeah so that was the the ada van it's a toyota hybrid sienna i was gonna say so it has the same well not the same because the x is not ada compliant yes yes no no sorry not the same capacity for that but i meant this it doesn't have an ada van wouldn't provide additional seating capacity for the palmetto shuttle if that was your concern in the in the interest of brevity because i know we have a we have to complete the uh the agenda just look into the vans i wouldn't like the model y's to leave the town because i don't think it i think it takes away from the level of service of the town yeah we and that would just require again additional funding so that would be an additional cost running an additional vehicle during those hours well when you do the rfp if you can get an additional van that's ada compliant in lieu of the model y that can be used for both so just so you realize part of the rfp is asking for a a an improved algorithm that allows a lot more sharing of rights both within town and going to the and going to the so this is part of what we're requesting as part of the rfp uh going to the tri rail and go so that they're more they're the better utilization of every ride right so they less one person riders are going to any of them right which is if you're taking out six passengers over to the tri rail at one time then obviously it's warranted to have the 20 minute over and 20 minutes back if you're just taking one person it's a lot you go so that's why we 're sort of optimizing the amount of riders that go together with a better algorithm and that's part of the rfp yes excellent thank you guys all right i'm going to go to the vice mayor then to councilman cuadra garcia thank you mayor uh quick question just because i've never understood this part for the in-town uh travel if if i'm in town and i main street can i take the freebie to home depot just outside our boundary no no no it is strictly in the boundary with the exception of the palmetto station okay got it got it and then if we did this the the tri rail yes okay got it and then um the the other question was as far as the changes that that have been discussed up here do you have a deadline for submission of this application yeah it's at the end of may so in a couple of weeks was when we have to so then okay so how do we do this then because you need an approval from us but then we're not sure if we would be approving the current uh what was it 280 000 number or potentially a higher one because you would need to go back and do the research i guess right on on how much we actually need in order to get the extra vehicle no i have the extra i believe the number that we have in the thing is correct is with the with the extra vehicle that should be correct after the discussion you didn't need the extra vehicle because we would just be using the one that's currently circulating in town well the the concern was not taking uh low um low you know low volume vehicles off the street miami lakes to send it over there gotcha now the metro rail on 74th takes takes it to the trial rail station um and then you could if you buy a ticket to the metro isn't there like a a free transfer over to the trial rail i believe so free transfer to the trial yeah because the trial rail is on 20 highly on 25th street yes and there 's a metro station there so why would we take somebody to the metro rail station as opposed to taking somebody so we 270 yes but the 74th is the end so they can get to the trial rail station do the free transfer and get on trial rail wow so we don't need to we can we can deal with trial by just dropping them off at uh at the 74th street it'll take them to the trial rail station they'll do the free transfer they 'll get on the trial well yeah i'm sorry to cut in but i saw that this is becoming an extended conversation and i wanted to give councilman guadalajara Garcia an opportunity to opine okay but so if anything we 'll come back look into that yeah no uh thank you mr uh mayor i'm i'm a little confused here uh with this issue with this freebie uh so basically you can't take the vice mayor to home depot right no i bet you can take it off on the palmetto and and go off the town uh perimeters yeah so with and this actually also sort of answers your question councilman garcia uh or both of you so with this we have with our our use our agreement with citt to use the citt funds which is the ptp funds um for this with that in our interlocal we're allowed to go technically up to five miles outside of our town boundaries when we set up our freebie service we made it so that it was geolocked strictly to the town boundary so that we didn't end up kind of losing our freebies to a lot of the traffic in the surrounding areas that can get they can get pulled out you know pretty far in miami lakes if you get on the freeway for a couple of miles and that was the decision that they made to geofence it strictly to the town boundary with the exception of doing just that shuttle to the palmetto rail station which is almost like just five miles from the town that is also why we can't take anybody to the tri rail transfer station because that's you misunderstood you're still taking the 74th street but that takes you to the tri rail station because there is a there's a metro rail station right there i've taken the trial many times through the metro rail trust me i've used since i was i was one of the first people to ride the metro in 1984 that's how old i am but i'm telling you the tri rail is there so you don't need to have two different drop-off points you can drop somebody off at 74 they get on the metro they get off they transfer to tri rail there's a free transfer to tri rail they still have to pay for tri rail but they can free transfer to the tri rail they're not you know so if they are they pay for metro they can they there's different things you can do i'm just trying to avoid having two vehicles one going out of the town going to tri rail another vehicle going to 74th and less vehicle servicing if you look at the map that you said the majority of the maps is our local main street our local shops the the students use it a lot but you know during that so i'm just trying to figure out the most so the reason why we're doing this very particularly is because in order to get this funding from fdot fdot requires that this be an improvement of the existing service so we don't get additional money for additional vehicles within town but we are possibly able to get additional funding to continue to connect to the uh in to the inter intra county and inter regional transportation network around us does that make sense so this is something that is very important to both the county transit system and the end and fdod transit system okay that we connect to that and that's and that's why it's possible that this is funding we may get if we request something else it may happen like last year where we lose the funding and we don't have it so that's why we're requesting for this particularly because we're likely to get it and it's also improving our uh our highest volume area which is the during the day like around two to three o'clock in the afternoon is where we have most most unmet need and we will have an additional vehicle at those times because we're not serving either the palmetto or the tri- rail uh wait wait hold on hold on hold on does that make sense i need everybody just to also keep in mind the the order of how this works right so i'm gonna go to the vice mayor but who are your jets all right let her finish her her explanation the way that that sounded it sounded a lot like we have to do an improvement i guess year over year and simply adding more vehicles does not count meaning hold on one of you is saying yes and one of you is not meaning what next year i gotta take people all the way to downtown like what's going on here no so this is the public transit and service improvement grant every three years we have to make an improvement to our service if we're as we're applying for funding the next two years we can apply for the same the same level of service now i will say adding an additional vehicle is something that could be considered an improvement for in-town service but it's not likely to get a not a very compelling application in that the additional just to piggy back on what you were saying about adding the service to the tri rail yes currently yes in theory you could get on the metro rail take it transfer and then start going on the tri rail north i think for us we're talking about adding that's you know obviously a multi-seat ride with multiple transfers for residents in this as we're trying to take vehicles in in that case i would just personally if i lived in town and i was taking the option if we're trying to get cars off the road and use have people use more transit specifically those that are potentially going north on the tri rail if i lived in town and i was choosing between using my car or taking the freebie to the palmetto to then transfer to then get on a different train to then go north i wouldn't do it you know so i think for us it's also with adding that the convenience and service of access directly to the tri rail at the opelaka station nearby because that you know it increases convenience and allows for more users who would hypothetically use it for commuting purposes that would be more willing potentially purposes of the vote here the the monetary value that's attached to this is it attached specifically to the vehicle or is there a different monetary value associated with the shuttle no there's no different monetary value that's just an additional vehicle then is it okay if we can go ahead and just push the approval of your number and then later on if we want to say you know we really didn't need don't need that shuttle base because of what uh councilman garcia said instead we want that money to go towards an additional vehicle is that something that can be done or no so if we're applying for the grant with the and we're putting in the grant application that we're doing this specifically for the purposes of adding that shuttle we'll be bound to do that shuttle for at least the year that we have that you know money what if if no one is calling for that vehicle because no one needs to get picked up at the tri rail station uh can it be going around the town doing yeah okay got it thank you let me finish my conversations i i didn't finish it thank you very much so basically uh i understand it now um so basically um and by the way i called it the other day i in 26 years i'd never used the freebie and they told me i was coming to town hall and they told me it would take anywhere between 35 to an hour i said you know what taking my bicycle so i'm i'm i don't know about that freebie i'm really concerned about that freebie okay so and another thing i don't know if you guys seen it there's one of those teslas that look it looks like it went to the war uh and back i mean they they keep them really dirty i'm going to take pictures to send them to everybody that you know in so you can see i mean that's that's not our standard it looks like it went to iraq and back please do let like send um susanna and justin i shared that with the manager thank you ladies thank you okay madam clerk please call the role thank you item 15b councilmember sanchez yes councilmember garcia yes councilmember fernandez yes councilmember herzburg yes councilmember quadra garcia is this is this to say if we want to apply for the uh grant yes that's a no vice mayor moreda yes mayor diegas yes item 15b excuse me but she is announcing the the result of the vote motion passes thank you what is your question councilman i'm i'm not laughing i but what i need is for everybody to please maintain the quorum and allow us to move the meeting forward this will be the last time i say it with that we are on 16a annual facility permit by council man sanchez which was deferred from the april council meeting yes and i deferred it because that meeting i think when a little bit went a little bit deep into the night so out of courtesy to everyone else i i deferred it but this item um is basically a uh a framework that the city of miami has established they have a you know a great landing page that explains it all it's an annual facility permit where a landlords not tenants can apply for this permit instead of having to apply for individual permits every single time that can delay the process of of doing improvements to to their facilities um and it just creates a 360 five-day cycle where they can create those improvements without having to take out individual uh permits i had a meeting um with our town manager and danny from the building department they said we have something like this already so if if mr angel if you 're available for a moment to come speak about the annual facility permit and uh and it does it replicate you know is it is it to the t of what i am requesting on the nbi that replicates what is in the city of miami is this something that is already a service offered by the town good evening mayor council can you repeat the question again sure the annual facility permit you know i i know we had a meeting and and we were going to see if it's if it's more or less the same as what's already in the city of mi ami where a landlord can apply for a permit that's good for 365 days and they don't have to apply for smaller permits to do improvements to their facilities it's just one encompassing permit to you know to expedite the process of things they want to do for 365 days so the annual facility permit process was established in the florida building code back in 2003 at the inception of the florida building code and essentially what it does it provides an opportunity for facilities that are grouped as facilities like hospitals universities things like that who have certified licensed facility individuals to do change outs of annual let's say lights they're replacing the lights to led or any of that case that has been established since 2003. okay but it's only so for example let's say that main street most people want the grounds want to do an annual facility payment of permit for main street they they won't qualify because based on the classification of the group of the facility that's obtaining the permit and we have very few group facilities in the town of miami lakes i could think of one cordis and they've been uh using the private provider process over the last couple years to do several improvements in their facility but that's pretty much the only one that comes to mind in your experience have we ever had a a owner of a building apply for an annual facility permit in the town at one point in 2009 we had miami-dade county water and sewer and that was to service all other pump stations located in town but in review of the application of that uh of that uh of that permit application uh to say the least essentially that was applied incorrectly because the way that it's applied it's even if you look at the city of miami website it's you still have to pull a permit per trade so using the example the lights you're going to pull one permit for the electrical but let's say cordis wants to change out the toilets they're still going to pull out another permit for plumbing i will tell you that our biggest landlords in town have not seen it as a feasible option um just based on the way it's structured but it is an option that's available to any and all facilities under the florida building code the florida building code you state has specific facilities that can use it are we able to add facilities that we in the town that can apply for that no it has to be strictly for facilities the florida building code correct okay okay well if we already have the the process um i would like to to kind of replicate and and bring it to a forefront as something that can be offered by the town the same way that the city of miami has done it so that if it ever comes up again you know and or it's been it's been part of our building uh permit fee schedule since 2008 so it is something that we offer all right but something like if you've seen the landing page that the city of miami has it breaks in down to the most layman's of terms um and it's just something that we can we can develop maybe with yeah you mean just add language on the website we could do that sure okay i'd appreciate it thank you so no action taken what was that yeah so i don't need to take okay perfect okay so uh thank you very much councilman sanchez thank you director angel we are now on 16b which is the revised lien reduction ordinance um which again i'm bringing up uh in part because of the way in which the manner in which the prior vote went where i felt that the actual will of the majority uh was to move forward something and and and and and within the same vein i had publicly stated and promised to the vice mayor that i would work on something that i could support now i'm sure there's going to be people that are going to be having whiplash on this and i can see my colleague over there looking at me you know with that such a face but i i i've met with staff i'm with the manager and with uh director angel by phone um and and went ahead and spoke with the attorney about this uh attorney corbiea um and came back with something that i think would get me closer to supporting it and i would ask for your favorable support when i move this item uh to continue the discussion which is uh that i'm proposing having a lien reduction program but in a far more limited scope than what it was before i'm proposing for staff to come back with an ordinance that reduces the window from six to two months explores whether we can differentiate based on the types of violations um and then further also uh provides for a reduced lean amount but what i mean by further reduced lean amount is that instead of forgiving the the offender all the way down to a day's fine plus cost to have perhaps a number such as 25 percent of fines still remain in place something that that actually involves enforcing our code which was my big frustration last time so uh that is my my emotion second it's been seconded by the vice mayor is there any discussion councilman garcia and then councilman herzberg um no i understand the the whole point of this is to have teeth but also encourage them to be compliant uh i i would prefer a friendly amendment to see instead of giving them that entire the quicker let's say you want to make it six months or three months or two months the quicker they come to compliance um the less we we we charge like if they come to compliance immediately yeah a scale that says the longer it takes for you to pay us off the more you have to pay percentage of the fine maybe that'll encourage people to pay it quicker what i would ask you if i may is just to wait for first reading on that because i like the idea in concept right um i think it actually could work but then i also a question and it's getting later that's why so i'm i'm just i want what i mean i bring that up just because i want more time to process what's being suggested which is i understand the sliding scale concept but i also really really really do not want to cut a break to people that i feel have been you know flipping the bird as it were to the town you know um you know through the chair would you be open to instead of a two-thirds cut in the timeline do it by half three months is three months too much for you i think it's it's a happy medium and it gives the staff time to to make the the arrangements and maybe come up with a uh in the second reading come up with a scale or time limits well you have an equal floor with the rest of us if you'd like to proffer an amendment but i just can't support that because again my my whole goal and what caused my very passionate uh response last meeting um had to do with the fact that i that this is going to be the third lean reduction program that's been proposed and in it needs to have teeth between the two proposals of having a sliding scale and and and even going to a a an additional month and the time to apply i still feel we're being too lenient on people that otherwise should have um dealt with the issues and that's what the second prong of my proposal is meant to do is to see if for example for certain types of violators right if we can you know that that have had time to correct for example easy violations like uh pressure cleaning the roof right but have deliberately because they want to send a message to the town right you know to go fly a kite i do not want to reward those people you know to be completely honest with you you know if it's an issue where you know a contractor forgot uh to close out a permit something like that i want to help those people um you know i don't want to help people that were just being delinquent in in their approaches non-homesteaded properties and right well well i'm talking about uh well i think this your original item encompass both correct the lean reduction would have to be across the board homestead non-homestead but this was a two-step process if you remember one was whether to open up the window then the second decision and you don't have to make that decision tonight you could do when we bring back the ordinance modification is then what right the next step would be to whether move forward with the foreclosure of the the non-homesteaded properties and that 's a something for all of you to chew on so you can discuss when we bring back the ordinance change i'm open to have a count uh sunshine meeting with you if that helps as well all right then uh so being that said i'll jv if you can work with alexis on scheduling a sunshine meeting between us and whoever else would like to join and we can discuss it in more detail is there any other discussion this councilman oh wait it was councilman herzberg and then councilman fernandez i i said in the last meeting i was you almost convinced me to just let's just move forward and honestly i understand why why you brought the item but i'm ready it's we're going to have another two readings i mean another two months another three months i'm ready to just move forward but uh uh if if the will of the council is to give it another shot i guess a question to the town attorney manager or we have to have two readings next of a new ordinance yes okay so because there's a new lien reduction schedule which is much more stringent this would be to open up the window which would be a require modification of that this is like the super really really really last time right substantially paired back from from previous no only if you say so and it 's tricker extra it's a smaller time period but that's it i i you convinced me last time i'll go i'll go with you again this time but that that really is we gotta something's gotta give it i'll bring i i do plan on bringing next next meeting uh a modification to our fines because i think that's a big issue councilman fernandez i'm going to support you on the item i with you know a lot of heartburn but you know it's councilman quite a garcia mentioned once you know about about he's not supporting the fines and i think we need a mechanism to enforce our code you live very close to this problematic home i won't name the the color of the homer but we have to drive by it and our neighbors and we have to see that every day for years and years it's a boat parked in the in the side of the house it's the unkept grass there's no grass and we have to see it i mean is it fair for us to have to see it just because we're going to take away this file we're going to give them an opportunity to come clean and to comply with us but who who's had to see the house for the last 10 years and suffer i mean it 's it's an eyesore it really is so i'm going to support it um i'm not crazy about doing this and i hope this is the last time anyone else all right with that madam clerk please call the role councilmember sanchez yes councilmember fernandez yes councilmember quadra garcia yes councilmember garcia yes councilmember hersberg yes vice mayor moreda yes mayor diegas yes the item passes thank you very much we are now in 16c which is tv monitor for council chambers presented by councilmember garcia thank you so much mr mayor um now this item has come up over the years i'm sure it's with you with to improve transparency and the comfort of residents who are here and presenters who have important powerpoints who participate in town hall council meetings and also events in the chamber i'm asking the town to look into options to add a tv monitor or screen behind us either in this space right here under the seal uh one big tv or two tvs on either side and that i help it'll help improve uh the viewing audience 's uh neck pain from looking sideways and looking backwards and for presenters to actually focus on the present presentation i have to be look backwards and sideways if they don't have a uh a laptop um i would prefer just one tv right there there's a perfect space for it uh it's high we're about three or four feet higher than the audience they'll be able to see over our heads um and it'll be easier for for the presenters and the residents to take a look at that and not turn their head around uh and i don't think it i mean there is a cost to it but common sense tells you most daises and most um town halls have have a tv behind the dais for that very reason so that's my motion is there a second second and seconded by councilmember fernandez i'll go ahead and and lead the discussion i i i agree with you i i think i would prefer to see two of them one on each side i think it's going to be more symmetrical uh a little bit more money but i think it is worth it i think it's going to benefit our residents so vice mayor moreda thank you um between one in the middle versus two on the sides i picked two on the sides i think in the middle nothing should be here other than in god we trust in the seal um i the manager showed me some renderings uh of so the staff is already kind of prepared yeah but we'll put together a report to come back to you with more detailed information exactly you know the the amounts for the actual equipment the wiring the any other uh switches or anything else and we'll give you so probably two or three different options for you guys to uh consider not not to steal their thunder but uh but but but or spoiler alert but but it was about 30 000 for for the screens right for the drop down screens uh and the projectors was about 30 and about 20 uh for the television um monitors so if you'd like i i can make it a friendly amendment or you can amend your own motion what i wanted to recommend though rather as an additional option that they can explore and come back to us with is rather than do all of that is there should be courtroom style most modern courtrooms there would be a a small monitor at the podium as well as a small monitor at every station of the dais because really the issue is we cannot see the the audience i don't really think has that big of an issue seeing those those tvs i think that the ones that actually don't see presentations 99 of the time is actually us because we cannot see that tv on the side and that tv over there is a little too far away we're not going to see the one behind us either this would give the presenter as well as us individually the ability to see and i think it would be substantially cheaper than 30 000 because for the most part the wiring would be quite easy to run and over there i think it it already exists um so i don't know if they can come back to us with that option you i'll i'll amend my emotion to to bring that option however uh most of us have laptops and most of us have already um you know enough like we can see what's happening because of that my concern was less for us but i understand what you're saying and more for the audience that and we see it all the time especially the presenters they have to be looking sideways or backwards and they've mentioned it many times they're looking backwards oh i can't see it my concern is more for the audience and the presenters to make sure the information gets we'll bring you back options that will cover the audience the presenter as well as the uh thank you the the people up on the dais appreciate it all right it was moved by uh the amendment was moved by uh councilmember garcia seconded by the vice mayor i just want to say that that is the option that i will be supporting um i just feel that the other tvs is just the last thing i think we need in here is another tv um and then what i do like about the idea that the vice mayor proposed with the podium um mini screens right is that we can still use it to uh to time uh you know members of the audience so they can see how much time they have remaining and then also you know for those who are presenting make their presentations and for us because for me sometimes i have to wait for the buzzer to go off um to help keep order during public comment that would be helpful to also for us to have the timer for us to also see simultaneously so um i support the amendment and with that all those in favor say aye aye all opposed no the ayes have it the emotion is amended uh councilman garcia do you want to close out the main motion that was approved to um add to the the main motion to have the the manager look into the options that that we just discussed and come back with us next time with a cost and price and all the all the issues uh everything that that takes to get it done all the timeline my apologies i didn't i didn't know you had uh yeah um all those in favor say aye aye aye all opposed no the ayes have it and we're uh okay excellent uh the item carries and we are now on item 16d review a transportation surtax uh uh ptp fund alternatives and future transit options by council member herzberg but this requires a waiver of 7.2 councilman herzberg you're recognized for a motion i'll move to wave second second second it's been moved and second that all those in favor of the 7.2 waiver say aye aye aye aye the a yes have it the the rule is waived councilman herzberg you may present your item i feel like we should just get rid of that rule guys i'll talk about it later anyway uh i i never seen it not pass so it actually has uh not passed in some instances okay i'll sure i'll find the meeting then i do like watching the meetings late at night uh oh that's right so anyway back back on point sorry i dig ress uh we just had the freebie discussion uh if you could tell by my voice vote i'm not a big fan of freebie even though i did move to vote the item forward we just voted on i want to understand what are all our options i'm frustrated that the law requires us to use this money on just this thing this it's like a free uber i get it there's some good uses to it uh we all know we could use that money for a lot better things that have to do with roads transit but there's a law that doesn't allow us to and that's a whole different ball game but i want to really understand and have staff come back to us especially budget season coming up what are all the options because i've heard that this is it that this is the best option i know we had the the shuttle bus that didn't work out very well i don't remember it that well so i guess it didn't but um i would i just i really want to know what all the options are so we can make a good decision because there's a significant amount of money that that we have that comes from the ppt funds and i really want it's just a matter of making sure that freebie is the best option or and i'm very interested in finding other facilitators vendors of that service but that's all i just want staff to come back give us a comprehensive and i want to point out councilman herzburg uh that there is a program that uber is running in texas now that is supposed to be comparable or better to freebie service um there was an initial conversation that i had regarding the service with representatives of uber however at the time they did not want to pursue it further under the prior lobbyist ordinance and then my friend that worked there ended up leaving uh uber and therefore and i never really had a time to follow up on those discussions but that program if you want to do some research on that might be a good alternative because they were telling me that it actually can even save the town money and have more reliable service so i if you know so if you want to do the research yeah i'll definitely take that into consideration and when we start talking but when the staff comes back to it i 'll bring it up the staff too excellent all right uh with that any discussion right yeah just hold on guys hold on yeah i know you all get scared about my efficiency sometimes but uh all right so vice mayor moreda councilmember fernandez and what other hands do they see over there uh councilman gar cia do you have your hand up or okay anybody else okay so just uh you two uh so first and foremost i did just want to point out you know the the use of the ptp 20 money it it could be better used but it also could be worse used it could be used on scooters um or or mulch but um the the and then the other thing i just want to say is i'm glad that uh my my investigative spirit on uh the uh special revenue funds and and on the ptp is rubbing off on other people so you know it just shows that you know to the residents that they might not understand what's happening right now on this dice but it's really that their council members are going out of their way to investigate how best to save them uh their money uh so i'll definitely be supporting this item councilman fernandez i'm going to support it i i do think when you do the when you there there has to be alternatives um and i hope that you know that we find out what they are but when you do the cost per riot it is absolutely ridiculous when you know i i wish i was in that business you know but but i'm i'm interested in hearing i'll keep my thoughts to myself on how these businesses came to be yeah that's that's it all right there being no further discussion all those in favor say aye aye aye opposed no the eyes have it item 16d passes and we are on 16e mobile constituent services by me this is very simple my friends um unfortunately i have had on two different occasions with two different constitutional officers some volunteers come to me uh talking to me about how some committees or rather a committee i would rather name nameless have been uncooperative in scheduling constituent services everything from the flow event that the tax collector does to the voter registration initiatives and education initiatives that the supervisor of elections office has tried to bring uh to our residents so i would like to make it codified in committee rules that they are required when it comes to constituent services to coordinate with those entities to make it happen um there's been some pretext put up as to why they don't want to do it but they just don't hold up to scrutiny and i just don't want there to be any more issues in again getting these services to the residents that's my motion second thank you any discussion councilman hersberg is thank you um and i i agree that you know the education the services these these officers the constitutional officers provide is important and we should be making it easier for our residents to to get to them my only concern is i mean i i guess we should trust the constitutional officers but for example 9 11 event i i don't believe anyone would come to that or any event there are some events that make sense and some of events that don't to have sort of like an event not not a vendor but another table there you know you understand what i mean this is not about that so okay i'm confused then maybe if you can sure i i have i haven't heard about this i understand if you want to not have to i just don't want to put this committee on blast although i'm getting close to it i mean rather than do it no okay but rather than do that well i mean look i need to understand the reality is that the elderly affairs committee different volunteers in and around that board have come to me saying that certain members have been uncooperative to helping or allowing these entities right supervisor of elections and tax collector coordinate with their events right to provide these services they may have happened right just as what happened to supervisor of elections but there was unfortunately you know resistance right so rather than that on this i feel strongly that they shouldn't have autonomy again the denying resident services under the basis of trying to depoliticize events and ultimately what they're doing is again denying services to residents so for that i want to just codify it in this in the rules uh that they cannot do that you got it i get it and yet at the end of the day will i'll trust the the constitutional the constitution officer so that they will they would pick proper events to provide those services again this is strictly on constituent services it's not about giving them a right to be able to campaign or to pontificate on whatever it but it has to be so you know again we can workshop the language when it comes back but this is just uh trying to say to insert that requirement uh any uh vice mayor moreno okay so my colleagues you guys know my favorite event as a elected official my favorite event of the month is not this council meeting it is is it is it is the bingo thank you um i love that you guys all know that and and so this this item in particular i i want to thank you for bringing it first and foremost because it it really upset me uh to find out at the last bingo there was a a resident who pulled me aside as they often do and says hey help me with this problem what was her problem her problem was that she was about to lose homestead because uh her her her spouse had passed away and he was the one on on the title and so now the county is sending the notices hey you're gonna lose homestead and she's like oh my god what do i do and then i come to find out that the the the property appraiser and or sorry the the tax collector was supposed to be at that bingo to help her and and they were rejected and when i found out about that i was very upset so again thank you for bringing this i'll definitely support this and yes uh obviously i want to trust that our account our constitutional officers are not going to abuse this uh this um discretion that we're giving them uh and if they do then we'll have to act accordingly anyone else seeing none all those in favor say aye aye all opposed no the eyes have it item 16 e passes and we are well we already covered 16 f so we are now my next item uh 16 g charter amendment early voting requirement which requires a waiver of 7.2 i move to waive the second second been moved and seconded all those in favor say aye aye all opposed no the eyes have it the the rule is waived and so very simply here um i don't think it's been any secret for since my time in the days i really believe that we need to ensure that when special elections or runoff elections occur we must allocate some time for early voting and i think a minimum of two days of early voting and requiring that by charter is the way to do this i think that what happened unfortunately in the runoff election and in my race right is that some residents were not able to vote because they maybe didn't know there was a runoff and did not therefore request an a b ballot on time and were traveling for the holidays on the day of the election and you know i know that they're talking about pushing the runoff date into december but in addition to that i still feel we also need to go ahead and give them in person early voting the way it has normally been done and um unfortunately the charter revision commission has not taken this up yet although i know that they got a little bogged down between 14 different ballot questions and it is not my intent to throw on a 15th rather my motion is to propose that a question be prepared providing for what i just stated contingent on whether or not the charter revision commission takes it up first so if uh the charter revision commission does not take up um you know this item and roll it into one of their existing proposals then at that point you know you you would have to come to us to go ahead and and get this approved uh uh oh got it yeah it's just i'm seeing lorenzo here but so that would be the the direction in the motion but what is uh uh you have a comment question yeah no i was just gonna make a comment that it can be done a couple ways it can be done that way uh the the charter commission just one of its members uh you know councilman fernandez can suggest it and it can be passed that way if they're opposite and they don 't want to do it and you can't force them to do it you can obviously pass a resolution and that can be rolled into one of the questions too so okay there's multiple ways to skin this cat okay so then just uh again uh my my hope is that this passes it with that instruction and therefore you can go ahead and prepare it and just again depending on whether they do it or not to roll it into one of their existing questions um or or whatever must be done on that front so with that um uh is there a second uh what second that's right by the vice mayor my apologies any discussion on this item seeing none all those uh huh vice mayor yeah the vice mayor um with that all those in favor say aye aye all opposed no the eyes have it um and the motion carries so 16g passes we are now in 16h the lock isle bollards beaut ification um which requires a rule waiver for 6.10 meaning that i have more than three items and 7.2 second second thank you it's been moved by me seconded by jc it was the vice mayor or jc okay by council member fernandez all those in favor say aye aye excellent um the waiver is approved uh this is very simple beautify the bollards there at the corner of the corner of lock isle which by the way i do want to know uh are serving their job there there was an accident there and uh and the wall was not destroyed so um with that is there a second thank you it's been moved and seconded any discussion seeing none all in favor say aye aye all opposed no the item passes and last but not least and this was a late filed item but it's relevant to the uh tomorrow which is may 20th which is the traditional and the real cub an independence day in my opinion the attorney has disseminated a resolution that i would like to pass and disseminate to the various cities in the county and the county commission um you know so they can uh hopefully add their voices as well to what we'd like to see done um in the island which is 90 miles south of us where many of us uh can trace our routes to um with that uh that is my motion to adopt that resolution it's been seconded by council member fernandez all those in favor say okay sorry uh let's go left to right then councilman sanchez would you like to opine councilman i just want to see can can i co-sp onsor the item oh absolutely i would love to co-sponsor as well okay so so there's a motion for for uh everyone to co-sponsor the item yes uh is there a second second all right all in favor say aye aye all opposed no you guys have it everyone's been added as a co-sponsor and any further discussion on this item okay uh councilman hersberg you if you i mean i think all of us on this dais come from come from cuba actually you're right yeah every single person up here my mother it wasn't always the case so that you know that that's that's where that's why i made it more generic if there's a town that should do this it's us and then obviously support yeah well thank you very much but by the way nobody leave uh after we take this film because there's i have i have something i want to say as a moment of personal privilege after mr manager let me take a point let me take a a moment of uh a point of uh personal privilege i will take it out of order unless it is on this item no it's not it's not on this item okay then do me a favor wait until we just vote this out and then you know then you know i'll let you go and then i will go um with that all those in favor of the resolution say aye aye aye all opposed no the ayes have it the resolution is passed mr attorney you may uh diseminate as need be councilman cuadro de gracia you're recognized for a moment of personal privilege just just like i said a point of uh personal privilege um some of you that will travel on 154 over the palmetto you will see the um the underpass uh pitch black i uh spoke to the uh um just need to ask uh mr peterman to put some pressure on uh on the issue of the lights um i spoke to the uh the the manager of the project and he's just pointing fingers that he did it or she did it you know uh so if you can look into that um because those lights have been out now three weeks and uh we we don't want to see the underpath uh pitch black thank you councilman quadro gracia now guys before we adjourn i just want to make it very clear that i was very disappointed with the way we were behaving tonight so uh yes this is papa bear you know scolding his children and i just want to be clear that we need to let each other finish right when you have the floor that person has the floor let them finish if if you see the opening where they are implying for you to join join in with them that's a different story but i don't want what happened tonight of people talking over each other uh getting frustrated whatever the case might be it we need to act with the dignity and grace expected of us as elected officials right representing our town and you know we've had unfortunately a few meetings where i feel we have not lived up to that standard concurrently i need everyone to make sure that when they get to this dais they do their homework and they vote and know how they're going to vote right it this is not rocket science we have at least a week normally to review the other agenda items we have agenda briefings and then you know even with the new business items we have time to do the research in advance so i want everyone you know to really make an effort to be prepared know how they 're going to vote uh in the future and i need everyone also to make sure that we are not talking over each other and we're treating each other with respect if not i will be more aggressive in how i maintain control of the meeting and i'll leave it at that with that there being no further business we are now adjourned at 9 59 pm Thank you.

April 30th, 2026. I'm going to go ahead and call this special taxing district workshop to order. Let's go ahead and please rise very briefly for what is on the agenda. For an invocation led by Councilman Garcia. Thank you. Lord, please lead this meeting. Give us the grace to listen well, the courage to speak the truth, and the unity to work together for the good of all. Amen. Thank you, Councilman Garcia. And now for the Pledge of Allegiance led by Councilman San chez. Public for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivis ible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. You may be seated. And at this time, Mr. Deputy Clerk, you want to just call the roll for the record, even though we're not going to be voting or needing a form? Yes, of course. Councilmember Herzberg. Here. Councilmember Garcia. Present. Councilmember Sanchez. Here. And Vice Mayor Moreira. Present. And then all other council members are not present. Just to be sure, Mr. Deputy Clerk, we do not have any of our colleagues online, right? Or on the end? No. I was told by Councilmember Fernandez he may want to make a few comments via Zoom, but I think he may have changed his mind. But if he does, I'll let you know. That is great. And then with that said, we'll go ahead and open public comments for anyone here in chambers. Anyone want to give public comments? Seeing none. Mr. Deputy Clerk, anyone online who would like to give? No public comments online. All righty. With that, public comments is closed. And we move on to the very first item, which is 5A, starting, I guess, with the proposed budgets for Miami Lake Section 1. Don't all run up here at once. Good evening, Council. So before you, you have the first draft of the budgets for the special taxing districts. Miami Lake Section 1, Lock Loman, Royal Oaks East, Royal O aks Section 1, Lake Patricia, and Lake Hilda. There set the assessment rates, the preliminary assessment rates. And I'm going to pass it over to Melissa to discuss some of the changes to the assessment rates from the previous year. Good evening, Council. Good evening. What to keep in mind when looking at these preliminary budgets is that they are just that, preliminary. And in May, what will be before you will be to set the assessment rate on first reading. And then second reading will be in June. And the reason that you have that for May and June is because in July, I am required to submit to the property appraiser's office what the assessment rate will be. Whatever is decided before with this council, as far as the assessment rate, it can be reduced, but it cannot be increased after you have set it in June. So some things to consider in these preliminary budgets is that everything has pretty much maintained its status quo, with the exception of a couple things. The overhead, direct and indirect costs may have gone up slightly. We did reduce the number of meetings for mail-outs from six to four. The postage obviously has increased and some other increases due to inflation. Last fiscal year, this council decided to cap the conting ency reserve at 5%. And because of that, we were able to offer a reduction in assessment rates to basically all the districts. Now, coming into this fiscal year, because of that and inflation and other minor things, we have had to increase all of the assessment rates, with the exception of Royal Oaks section one. So what I will tell you is that in Miami lakes section one, the rate is increasing by $8 and 43 cents. In Loch Lomond, it's increasing by $50 and 50 cents. Royal Oak section one will be increasing by 110. I'm sorry, will be reduced by $110 and 50 cents. This is the only district that's being reduced. Royal Oaks East will have an increase of $70 and 10 cents. And the lake districts. We'll have an increase for Lake Patricia will have an increase of $32 and 54 cents, which and then in Lake Hilda, it has an increase of $62. For the most part, all of these increases are still lower than what they were when we took it on from the county in fiscal year 2018, I want to say, or 2019. So that's basically a brief synopsis of the six special tax ing districts. Do you have any questions? Yes. Thank you, Madam. But the director, I'm going to go first to Councilman San chez. First to Councilman Sanchez, he was asking, and then Councilman Garcia. Councilman Herber, are you going to want to make some comments later? Yeah, when you're wondering. Okay, okay. We'll come back to you. Councilman Sanchez. Well, first, I'd like to ask for us to go a special taxing district one by one by one. I didn't do a deep dive. I did a mini dive into the budgets. I created a spreadsheet with what was already proposed. And I do have questions. So, for example, in Miami Lake section one, I'm going to speak about that one specifically for now. What caused a special assessment to increase from $243,000 to $250,000 year over year? I'm sorry. Oh, you're saying. The special assessment, yeah. It increased from $243,000 to $250,000. What caused that increase? So, the increase is due to the $8.43 that we're proposing to have an increase for this fiscal year. Yeah, yeah. But, okay. So, we need to, in order to keep the same level of service and to keep the expenses the same. Now, that leads me to my second question. If overall expenses went down from $279,000 to $272,000, why is there an increase? So, as I mentioned earlier, last year this council made a decision to reduce the contingency reserve and cap it at 5 %. Right. So, to lower the assessment rate without having to mail out a check from the town to each individual property, the way that they get their money back would have been in the reduction to the assessment. So, what happens now is now we have kind of like a leveling off where this is really the amount of money that you need to be able to fund your budget. Okay. Okay. I kind of understand, but just from like a 30,000-foot level, it just seems like the expenses went down, but then we're assessing more. I just want to make a point. Yeah. The budget that you have in front of you does not include any additions or anything that has been proposed before. So, for example, the Lock Lohman HOA has requested to proceed with removing the guardhouse and building a new guardhouse. Yes. That is not in the proposed budget. All right. No, I'm just going based off the information that I have displayed in front of you. No, no, no. I just want to clarify a couple things for the record so that it's there. SFM Security Services has requested an increase to their contract of 2.9%. I saw it. So, that is not currently in the budget. I know that the Royal Oaks HOA has requested to put entry features in front of the four guardhouses. That is not included in the budget. If we were to add that, that would increase the assessment. Right. But I'm not speaking to any of that. I'm not saying it's – I'm just speaking to what's in front of me right now, not what could be in front of me. No problem. No problem. I'll just let my colleagues know. I guess I'll be asking the mayor to give me permission at some point to talk to SFM and negotiate that increase. 2.9, it's a little steep. I know it's under that traditional 3%, but I don't really see an increase in services. Does the contract require an increase? Exactly. I don't think so. I don't think we're trying to get into that today. Right. Okay. I was just trying to make the note that unless you guys object, I'm going to ask the mayor to let me reach out to them. Yeah, you'd be good at that. And then before you jump in, I just wanted to clarify that Councilman Sanchez in our terms, right? Like, not people who deal with these kind of numbers every day. Okay. So you have the blue column that's 24, 25 actuals. You have the green column, which is the second green column , which is the 25, 26 amended. And then, no, I know. You're aware. I'm just kind of breaking it down. And then you have the first yellow column, which is the 26, 27 preliminary. What they're trying to let you know is there was a year last year that was an outlier. And correct me if I'm wrong on this stuff. That was an outlier because we were essentially reducing it heavily to give them back their money, essentially, because of our change to the contingency rate, the cap that we put on it. This is a rest kind of coming back to what it was before plus normal increases to inflation and all that. Now, I'm going to let Councilman Garcia, I'll have some questions still on that as well. But I just wanted to kind of put it into more layman's terms. Go ahead. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Just a quick question. And I'm trying to see this. So we're in the red, what, 12,000? So the red, that's not in the red. What that is, is so when you pay your property taxes, if you pay early, you get a discount. So what that, that's just taking 5% off of the total amount of the assessment for those people who are delinquent, people who get a discount for payments early. What, thank you for that clarification. You're welcome. What's the amount we would have to cut from expenses to maintain their current level of, of what they're paying right now? And all, all districts together. Okay. Yeah, each specific, they're all different, but what would we have to cut from expenses on each different district to maintain the same, you know, the same cost to them, the same level of taxation from last year? So, for example, for Miami Lake section one, you would have to cut about $6,800. Okay. Which essentially would be reducing the assessment rate or to keep it flat because we are increasing it by $8.43. But the total amount you would have to get rid of about, or not get rid of, reduce about, I would say to be safe like $ 7,000. Okay, so $7,000, if we reduce expenses in Miami Lake section one, $7,000 don't pay what they paid last year? Yes. Roughly what they paid last year. Is it just the difference between the 25, 26 amended and then the preliminary? Is that, is that the number that we're coming up with, that $7,000? No, what I did is on the, on the preliminary budget column, at the very top, if you notice, there's one that says number of units, assessment rate per unit. And you see on the budget comments, that amount there, the $298.03, do you see what I'm, we're on the same page. I reduced that amount, since I have it in my Excel, by the $289.60, putting it to the rate that it was last year. So then it'll give me the deficit at the bottom. But, but with that, that's why I gave an estimate because with that, that changes then some other things. Your contingencies and all that stuff. Yes, correct. Okay. So I didn't want to give a solid number because it's not. Yeah. If you could just give me a quick. Yeah. Seven, 7,000. It'll be less than that. And then. To be safe, seven. I mean, I don't, we have time here, but maybe the, Lock, L ohman, you know, all of them, all, all of them, the average there is, is what? Like Lock, Lohman. I know, like, one's probably more, right? Yeah. Give me one second and I'll, I'll, I'll go through each of them for you, sir. Mm-hmm. So if we put the assessment rate for Lock, Lohman to what it currently is, you would have to reduce it by $9,000, the budget. Okay. And section one? And section, my, Royal Oak section one has an increase, I mean a reduction, so. Okay. They're getting an assessment reduction. All right. So what, what are they getting reduced? They're getting it reduced by $110. So Royal Oak's East is. Royal Oak's East. Section one minus one. Okay. So they're already, they're already good. Yeah. They're already good. Minus 100. Okay. And Royal Oaks East? Royal Oaks East. You would need to reduce the budget by 30, 35. I'm sorry. $37,398. I have $35,000. Okay. But again, these are estimates because I have things that are linked and then I also have some numbers that will change very minimally, but. All right. Cool. Lake Patricia. Lake Patricia. Wait a second. I think you have a typo on Lake Patricia. Yes. It says increase of 32, but it's actually a decrease of 32. Yes. I just, I just noticed that. Now for Lake Hilda, on the other hand, it is a $62 increase . Just pointing that out. On that one, it's correct that there is an increase on Lake Patricia. The budget comment should reflect that it's a decrease in the assessment rate. Hold on a second. So let me jump to Lake Hilda and then I'll go back to Lake Patricia so I can correct that. On Lake Hilda, if you were to maintain the same rate as last year, which is $30.42, you would need about 7,000, less than $7,000. That would need to be $68,82. Okay. Okay. Okay. And Lake Patricia were there. Now let me go back to Lake Patricia because there is a, there is a. Okay. Okay. Okay. Let me go back to Lake Patricia. Okay. Okay. Okay. Let me go back to Lake Patricia. Okay. Okay. Let me go back to Lake Patricia. Okay. Okay. Let me go back to Lake Patricia. Okay. Okay. Let me go back to Lake Patricia. Okay. Let me go back to Lake Patricia. Okay. Let me go back to Lake Patricia. Okay. Let me go back to Lake Patricia. Okay. Let me go back to Lake Patricia. Okay. Let me go back to Lake Patricia. Okay. Okay. All right. So. Okay. So I guess what I would want for the next meeting or just information is, you know, the actual cost increase per household for each of the districts and. That. That can you can. I'm sorry. Can you say your question? That's for. Yeah, this is total amount for all the districts of the per household. So the amount that's there is. No, I can't. I can't see anything. That's why I'm asking you and I'm sorry about that. I can't see anything. I can't see anything. I can't see anything. I can't see anything. Okay. So I can see if we're at the end of the year. Okay. Okay. So yeah, I guess what I would ask is what we can do to, and the increase is due of course, to. Okay. Okay. All right. All right. Excellent. Okay. So yeah, I guess what I would ask is what we can do to, and the increase is due, of course, to what we did last year with, with, with the contingency and, but what, what, as far as expenses, what's the, besides the two to 3% they're asking, right? So if you'd like, we can go line line by line item for maybe one district. So it gives you an idea of what to look for, maybe reviewing the other districts. That's one of the reasons why it increased, besides the contingency, what's the average increase in actual cost? In actual costs, really the only thing that has increased operation wise, looking at Miami Lake section one operation ally, we actually reduced the budget. Okay. Okay. Um, the contingency reserve is a little bit less than the prior year. The security guard service is the same. Um, the only other minor increase is, uh, in the direct and indirect costs. All right. So, and, and when we sat to, to go through this, we were cognizant of the fact that we wanted to maintain the same level of service. Um, trying to reduce expenses as much as possible. So I don't really, I don't really foresee there being much space to be able to cut unless you were to reduce the contingency reserve far more than five, less than 5%. And I, I do not recommend that, but that is up to the will of the council. Okay. Or reduce the level of service. Or reduce the level of service. Which last year, just to remind you last year, part of the reason why we had a savings. In the assessment rate was because we cut our level of service for our security guards from level two to level one . Yeah. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you, Councilman Garcia. Uh, I have two quick, uh, questions that are germane to the points that he brought up. Um, first and foremost, on, on Lake Hilda, and I'm obviously a little biased on this one since I live on it. Um, but, and it is, you know, a 200% ish increase. Um, so I just want to confirm though. Um, the, the increase here, the same analysis that you did for him on Miami Lake section one. Can you do it here in terms of have any expenses gone up? Um, or is this strictly a contingency, uh, reserve? So for Lake Hilda, the operating expenses actually did go down because we have a new, um, contract for the water treatment of the lake. Um, so if you notice, um, last year we budgeted 17,000 going into next fiscal year, we, we budgeted less. We budgeted 14,000. Um, overall their budget, their operating budget has been reduced. However, the same thing goes as I had mentioned earlier about the contingency reserve, how before they had a much higher contingency reserve. I want to say there's was like a 12% last year. I would have to go and check and give you the exact figure, but, um, it's now reduced to five. So we gave them back all of the funds. Now, now this is a leveling off of that. I have a question that probably is going to show that I don 't know anything about budgeting. Um, for the 20, for, for, for the budget carry forward line item, which I could see is probably the main cause or the main culprit here, um, in Lake Hilda. Um, isn't the 25, 26 year in projection of 28,000. Um, wouldn't it make sense that if that's what we're projecting our budget carry forward at the end of 25, 26, that then that that would be the number for the 26, 27. Let me, let me explain to you. Hopefully I can do a good job. Um, so if you see on your actuals of 24, 25, you see that at the very bottom, it says $28,752. Now, I don't know when, when we are putting the budget together, what our actuals will be because we, uh, have our budget. Uh, have our budget done in September. We don't close our books until December. Our budget is published. So I have to do a projection. So at that time when the budget was adopted, my projection of what the year was going to end was going to be 20,000. The year ended with a $28,000 carryover. If you notice on the column next to it, where it says amended budget, you see the 28,000 because now I'm amending , carrying in the additional $8,000 to make up for that. So my year in projection is 10,000. If you look on the column for my preliminary budget, I have the same number, the 10,201. Again, this is a projection because I don't know how the year is going to end. I'm not going to have the exact figures. I won't have them until December. I hope that that answers your question. It did. It did. And I just wanted to know that that's, that there was a formula for it and not, because common sense would have said what I said, but what you said made sense from a conservative government budgeting standpoint, I guess. My other question was, and I feel like I really should know the answer to this already and all of us should. You mentioned direct costs, indirect costs as it relates to all of these. My understanding of direct costs and indirect costs, especially, okay, so management and monitoring. So, so direct and indirect costs. The, it's an overhead expense that the town charges. So for example, the indirect costs would be our procurement office going out to bid to get quotes for our security card services, for the water treatment service, for the extermin ation, for anything that is needed to, for me doing presenting the budget, our legal department. Sorry, that's direct. That's indirect. Indirect. Okay. 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So this is, you know, when they look at us for what we're taxing, oh, great. We did a great increase or we did a great decrease last year. But then this is what happened until we balance it and get, I guess, get a few years in the same way. I was just confused with why that had a decrease and everyone else had a little bit of an increase. I mean, I'll look at the numbers. Huh? Exactly. But I don't, we already reduced services last year. I don't see where the cutting is. I don't know about increasing any cost that's not contract ually required. And we can talk about that after you speak with everybody. But yeah, I don't know what you guys think, JP. This is where at minimum level here and I don't really see anything that can be cut. I mean, so JP, myself and Jeremy sat down and we were, again, we were cognizant of trying to reduce expenses and trying to maintain it at the same level of service. So if we reduce anything, I would say it would be the contingency reserve, which I don't necessarily recommend because I think 5% is pretty low. But maybe, I don't know, in gate arm repairs or cutting out landscape maintenance. I-- We're not doing that. Correct me if I'm wrong though, because you did mention the SFM contract. So this is, as you mentioned at the very beginning, preliminary. We could, depending on how that negotiation ends up, be seeing a slight little increase to these numbers. Not a lot. It might be 2%, whatever 2% of the security services contract is. But what we're trying to say is this is not a final number. We might see a little bit more, depending on what is negotiated. Ultimately, it depends on some of the requests that, like I said, that have been made from some of the HOAs. If you want to speak more of that, we can. We could go-- If you wanted to us to go get numbers for things of that nature, like the Loch Lomond requesting to look into knocking down the guard house and building a brand new one. Well, that's going to be its own special assessment, I would assume. That's a capital improvement. Oh, yeah, exactly. So we have a whole way to do capital improvement. But that would increase the assessment rate significantly. Yeah. We've talked in the past, an example for the lakes getting lake aerators. That's an increase. Have they passed the threshold that they needed to properly ? Like for the petition and all that stuff? Remember that-- I remember that-- what's it-- For Loch Lomond? Yeah. So Loch Lomond, the last time that we had this conversation , you told Loch Lomond that the-- as long as the HOA approves it, they could move forward with it and we would bring it to your attention for the next meeting. So then-- So then-- So then-- --they did reach out to me to make you all aware that they would like to move forward with-- Which option, though, did they go with? The four-- Knocking down the guard house and rebuilding a new one without a bathroom. So it would be-- Well, in that case, then I would actually ask that the preliminary budget that comes back to us that has two options. One without that and then one with either the estimated cost or at least potentially the estimated cost of designs, permitting, like the initial steps. Maybe not-- maybe we don't have to budget construction costs yet. We could budget those next year. But right now, at least get through the design and perm itting stage. So we'll have to spend funding immediate to get designs-- That's what I'm saying. To get the cost of some of these things-- I want to see the cost of design and permitting in the preliminary budget that comes back. Councilman Sanchez. And then also, did they opt in for the plan where we widen Turnberry? What they have requested is to move the guard house back. So to widen it? Not widen-- well, no. You're not-- you're not touching the street. You're just pushing the guard house back to give more space between the guard house itself and-- And the median? And the median. Okay. Because I've heard a lot of complaints that every time, for example, a garbage truck wants to come through that they have to remove-- Correct. The poles where it fits by. So in this case, they wouldn't have to do that anymore. Exactly. Okay. Just by moving it back by five feet, to give an example. Whatever it ends up being. Okay. Aside from that, any other comments on specific guests to the budget? Just one concern. I just would not like to see an increase for any district, an individual increase that's $100 or something like that. I just think we need to mitigate that. I mean, I understand it's a lot lower than it was because of everything we did. Maybe I understand a 5, 10, 20, but you know, any-- Any-- Locked on when you said-- No, I'm sorry. Royal Oak section one, you said it was $100 per plus? Per household? No one down. Which is the one that's going to go up at $100? Which I just think it's-- we've got to work on that. I don't believe there are any that are going up $100. 70 was the most? Yeah. Royal Oak section one? No, that's a decrease. A reduction. You're right. It's a reduction. Royal Oak's East is a increase of $70. Okay, $70. Okay. Okay. But we discussed that last time. You said that would-- because they went down last year a lot. They went down like $70 or $80 last year, something like that. I believe that's-- if I remember correctly. I remember looking at that, that they got-- they got a reduction. I had an increase. I was like, why? That's not fair. But now it's time for my reduction. Then I'll go increased again. I mean, that's-- Yeah. That's just the way-- Just for my edification, just to have it visual, I love to see all these changes, what it actually means over a three- year period. Like, with all the ups and downs, you're actually below what you were a couple years ago. Or with those ups and downs, you're a little bit higher than you were. So I can kind of see it on my own. I know it's probably here. I just can't see it right now. But I like-- Well, again, as I mentioned earlier, it's-- The only district is Miami Lake Section 1 that is above what they were when we came-- when they came over from the county. But not the-- But when they came over to the county was-- Anything that has come from the county, all the other districts has been-- the town has reduced their assessment rate. Sure. No, I understand from the actual county, but they've been with us for how long now? Since 2018. Since 2018. So it's been-- it's been eight years. Right, so-- Yeah, and we've reduced it in eight years. No, I-- again, I'm not arguing. I just want to-- because these are the questions I'm going to get. It's like, hey, you know, what's the-- why is it? So I can say, hey, listen, actually, you're paying a lot less than you were a couple years ago. Well, that's why I tell you so that when people come to you , you have-- No, but I'm-- I know, I know. I'm just asking that in a document. So I can say, ah, you see, over the last three years, you 're actually paying less or you're actually paying more. I just-- Well, what we'll get for you is a table that shows what the rate has been since 2015. I don't have 2015. Since 2018. I'm sure we could find it. The county. We would have to get public records from the county. Look at my trim notice from 2015. But I can certainly get you what we have since we got them from the county. Yeah. So then we could say, hey, look, actually, you know what? You're doing a lot better than you were. And it works. The system works kind of thing. Or, yeah, we got to work on expenses and stuff like that, and we might have to cut here or out here. I appreciate it, Melissa. 100% sir. Any other comments or questions on the budget? I do just want to ask, since this is technically our quarterly workshop, JP, anything that we need to know going on? I do see one of our, I assume, one of our vendors here. I don't know if there's any reports or anything that needs to be said, or are we good to go? Since we got a little bit of time here, just we did install the first TV monitor at 79th. It'll be up. 79th Ave. It'll be up and running next week. Cool. And then we have the second one that we've already received courtesy of SFM. They went ahead and provided it to us. So I would say that's about a month away from being installed as well. But we'll have two up and running. We're going to likely put the second one in on 162nd in Royal Oaks. At 162nd guardhouse. Yeah, 162 guardhouse. And then, again, biased. The lakes, everything's good there. So fish stocking, it has been a difficult year for Titan bass since the storm of last year. So we are pivoting. We are pivoting. And we are going to, I'm waiting for, to get quotes from our solitude lake management to give us quotes for different species of bass. We'll then have to decide if they are well fit for the lakes. But yeah. All righty. Hi. Anything else from the council? I see our budget director with her head. No. Sorry. To answer, Councilman Garcia, in our budget, in our adopted budget online, on page 55 of 104 of the adopted budget, under the special taxing districts, there is a table that reflects all the adopted rates that each special taxing district has had since we took them on. So you can always point our... Yes. Of... Of the actual adopted budget on our website. Not the PDF. The actual... It says page 55 of 104 at the bottom. It's under the special taxing district section. Can I just make a request that you include something like that in the agenda? Well, whenever we present the assessment rate to council, I believe that it is in there. All right. But I will make sure that we have it there for you, sir. I just think it's important that... So whoever reads it in just sees that overall, the rates have really been down the flat. In big font, please. Thank you. As a final item, I think JP wanted to recommend a second workshop, a second budget workshop. I put it in there in case we wanted to speak more on some of the things that were requested, like Locke Lowman's guardhouse, the request for the entry features at the Royal Oaks, the four Royal Oaks locations, the 2.9% increase for SFM, because I didn't know if we were going to have enough time to speak with it today. But it's up to you all. I just need direction if you want us to include those aspects into the May agenda. I definitely think so. And just obviously subject to the budget director's deadlines of what she needs to make sure that we're chugging along at the pace necessary. So when would be the most ideal time for that? First, thank you for considering me. So our regular council meeting is May 19th. I assume that after whatever discussion you have on first reading is probably when you would want to have a workshop, a second workshop, or you would prefer to have that before the first reading, which is on May 19th. I'd like to give enough time for the residents of those sections to come in. I don't even mind letting the residents show up and pick at it a little bit, and they'll give us some ideas. I agree with Councilman Hardsberg. I don't know that there's a lot in here to trim. But, you know, the residents act as an additional set of eyes for all of us. And, you know, I would say let's bring it up to the first reading in May, right, is what you're saying? And then we can have a second workshop once we get some feedback from the residents. But you're saying bring up in the proposed budget, so then, like, Locke Lomans goes, say, increase of $1,000, right? So I don't know if we want to do that. I think maybe you provide us two budgets. That would be correct if we did it that way. So I don't want that to happen. Well, actually, we'll get people to show up, so we do that. No, I don't want to do it that way. I haven't seen anything about these things. Well, if we increase assessments by hundreds of dollars, I'm sure we'll get the public to show up. Oh, yes, yes, yes. You're right. Okay, yes. We're just kidding. But no, I don't think that's a good idea. I think if you can give us, I think you should give us this budget and then tell us how much more each STD would pay if they included the requests that were made. Right? But I also like the idea. I think the vice mayor is right. For Locke Lomond, it would probably make sense to say, well , you need $80,000 for permits and plannings and whatever, so we'll do that for this year. And then you need $250 for a building. You'll do that the second year. Or maybe even look at financing options. You can probably finance that if they wanted to. It would cost a little bit more in the long run, but a lot cheaper. We could just bet on ourselves on Cal Street. So I don't think we should have a proposed budget in first reading that is insane. We've gone down that road. I don't want to go down that road again. But let's get the numbers so you can tell us this is how much the estimate is. I haven't heard about the HOA, the entrance features and stuff like that. That was presented to me via email to be proposed in this meeting, unfortunately, with the double booking. We kind of cut down the agenda. But, yeah, it was to be discussed. I don't mind seeing that at first reading. It should just be a second sheet that says, here are recommendations from HOAs, I guess. They're all just HOAs. Here are the recommendations from certain HOAs to think about. Are we considering any of the previous recommendations that have been proposed by you all? For example. I think most of them are already happening. The doors and windows for the guardhouses. You know what? Just bring them up. Give us all the costs. As a separate item, put the shopping list. So you have the shopping list for the design permitting plans of the Loch Lomond guardhouse. And then you would have the shopping list that includes the umbrellas, doors, windows, whatever you said. And we could then take. But you always have this original budget. And then what we would do at second reading is pull something or at first is pull from that shopping list into the budget. If that makes sense. So to be clear. So I understand and I have proper direction. You want us to present to you the same budget with exhibits that are showing what the district itself is requesting with what the increase to the assessment rate would be if said items were approved. On first reading. Yes. You decide that on first reading what we put what will stay . So when you have it on second reading, it's clean. So we're not having another workshop unless you decide to have one after first reading. I think that that sums it up. Okay. Perfect. Just want to make sure. Any other comments? I think they're going to want. Just quick. Just to make sure we get comment from the HOAs. It's more of a formal process. No, I know. I just want to make sure the HOAs are aware of this and what they've voted on and what they were like. And have the residents be able to opine and have the HOAs be able to opine. It's like, yes, this is what we want. So we need. So then, you know. This only applies to Loch Lomond and Royal Oaks. Okay. So. Hold on. Not even Royal Oaks. Royal Oaks is HOA does not represent the entire STD. Correct. The only HOA we have that represents the entire STD. So I think that's where we're allowed to say HOA wants it, we'll take it, is Loch Lomond. Okay. That is correct. As long as we get input. Which we have done in there. I was presented to be as an agenda item on the workshop by the HOA. Perfect. Anything else? Seeing all businesses have been covered, the time is 7.14. Workshop is adjourned.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hello? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. serves as a valued gathering place, a place for campaign victory celebrations, charitable events, and regular meetups, such as the Miami Lakes Run Club that promotes wellness and social connection among residents. Whereas, Chellos Miami has earned local recognition through the annual Best of Miami Lakes pool, receiving honors, including Best Dinner Restaurant in 2023 and 2024, and Best Happy Hour and Best Lunch Spot in 2025. And whereas, for five years, Chellos Miami has demonstrated a sustained commitment to the Town of Miami Lakes contributing to its economic vitality, public engagement, and a sense of place for residents and visitors alike, solidifying itself as a pillar in the community. Now, therefore, I, Joshua Die gis, by virtue of the authority vested in me as the mayor of the Town of Miami Lakes and on behalf of the Town Council and all 33,000 Miami Lakers do hereby proclaim the recognition in the month of April for Chellos Miami five-year anniversary. So, congratulations. So, congratulations. And if you guys want to say a few words, it's up to you. You don't have to, but it's up to you, you know? No, I just want to let you guys know that it's been five crazy years and we're very grateful for your support. Thank you. Simple enough. I love it. Thank you. Yeah, that was a few words. All right. Sorry, please bear with us. What time does somebody have? 6.20. All right, we will resume the council meeting at 6.30. We'll hear from our great kids that are going to be performing the national anthem and doing the pledge, and we will get on with the show. So thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We're going to go with Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Vice Mayor. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We have, we have Thank you. Every penny. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The number was proposed based on what we have used so far in the current fiscal year. Estimating that we're going to continue that trend of expenditure and the type of repair needs throughout the remainder of the fiscal year to be able to address. If we end up with the exact same amount of repair needs that we had in the first half of the fiscal year, it will get us to the end of it. But this is only for right away. It's not like park lighting or anything like that. This is just right away. Right. Street streets on the street lighting. Yes, correct. Okay. All right. Thank you. That's what I wanted to know. Thank you. Any further discussion? Councilman Herzberg. Just quickly, I guess I want to be very clear. The savings we have here, the 593, we're going to create like a like the mayor's item from months ago. We're going to create a fund that that goes in. It doesn't just stay in general. fund balance that money's going to go somewhere else and be used as a reserve and right. Correct. That's like we did some initial work internally amongst the staff. We've met with the mayor and we've been having conversations with the mayor to fine tune it. I hope and expect maybe in the next couple months will be have a product to bring back to you. They're waiting on me for some additional input and which I hope to provide to them within the next two weeks. All right. Madam clerk, please call the question or call the roll. So the main motion ordinance in second reading item 14, eight as amended. Council member Garcia. Yes. Council member Herzberg. Yes. Council member Fernandez. Yes. Council member. Mayor. Yes. Mayor. Yes. Mayor. Yes. Mayor. Yes. Mayor. Yes. Mayor. Yes. Mayor. Yes. Mayor. Yes. Mayor. Yes. Mayor. Yes. The ordinance in second reading item 14 a passes. Mayor. Yes. Mayor. Yes. Mayor. Yes. Thank you very much. We are now on 14 B, which is the lakeside flume amendment. Mr. Attorney. We're here. I'm going to read some instructions. We're here on item 14 B zone 20 26 007 lakeside flume amendment hearing numbers zone 20 26 dash triple 07. The applicants, the Graham companies, the folios are 32 20 22 07 00, 01 0, 30 20 22 06 8 00, 1 0, 32 20 32 20 22 06 8, 3 0. It's 146 10 Oak lane, Miami lakes, Florida 3 3 0 1 6. Please be advised that the following items on the board's agenda or the previous items and the following items on the board's agenda are quasi judicial in nature. An opportunity for persons to speak on each item will be made available and after the applicant and staff have made their presentations on each item. All testimony, including public testimony and evidence will be made under oath or affirmation. Additionally, each person who gives testimony may be subject to cross examination. If you do not wish to either be cross examined or sworn, your testimony will be given its due weight. The general public will not be permitted to cross examine witnesses, but the public may request the board to ask questions of staff or witnesses on their behalf. Persons representing organizations must present evidence of their authority to speak for the organization. Any person presenting documents to the board should provide the town clerk with a minimum of 10 copies. Further details of the quasi judicial procedure may be obtained from the clerk. All right. Now your presentation, is it going to be on? I think we're on 14 B. Right. So he's going to start there, which is not quasi judicial. Right. However, however, however, just just to get out of the way already, I'm going to ask the clerk to go ahead and swear in all those who plan to to speak on the question judicial item just to knock it out of the way. Yeah, I wanted to make one point just to make our lives easier. Sure. You're quite right, Mr. Mayor. The first item is not quasi judicial. It's legislative in nature. The next one, which is a rezoning is quasi judicial. And then the subsequent resolution, which is a site plan is also quasi judicial. Presentations can be done for all three items. Yeah. Just votes have to be done for all three. Even though the item is legislative, it does require a public hearing. So you need to open up a public hearing. Yeah, no, I'm aware of that part. But I just but before we get there even, I want to just I just want the clerk to go ahead and swear in all the potential witnesses. Just again, just to try to do as much as the labor ahead of time instead of later. Madam Clerk. Yes, please raise your right hand. Oh, and and please make sure that if anyone I don't know if anybody's watching online, but just please be aware, you know, in case there is. For anyone who wishes to provide testimony and speak in this item, please raise your right hand. Do you swear to say the truth and only the truth? So help you God. I do. Very well. Thank you. Let the record reflect that I only see one participant. Amy, her hand is not raised. Amy, if you want to speak, please let us know so that we can swear you in. In the meantime, we'll go ahead and go to Mr. Vasquez to make his presentation for all the items and then we'll open up the pub, the public hearing on 14 B for the for those that wish to speak there. Mr. Vasquez. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council members. My name is Javi Vasquez with law offices at 600 Brickle Avenue with the Gunster Law Firm here on behalf of the Graham Companies. As you can see, there are several members of the Graham Families with me tonight. Just a quick wrap up on where we've been. Earlier this month, this council passed the flume amendment and the rezoning on first reading. Last Tuesday, the Planning and Zoning Board recommended approval of the flume and the rezoning applications. Tonight, you have the flume and rezoning applications before you on second reading and the site plan approval resolution also accompanies the two ordinances. The other thing is, I think, is that the couple of housekeeping items that some revisions that were made. They're very, very significant to the conversation. An additional condition was added to all three items to where they only become effective if the companion applications are approved. This is the way that we've dealt with this property in the history of the property. This is what it gives reassurances to the city. It gives reassurances to the grams. And it doesn't have to -- it doesn't put you guys in a position, well, what if we approve this and later on the site plan doesn't get approved. They all travel together. And if one doesn't pass, none of them become effective. Now, having said that, I want to make one correction on the ordinance. The ordinance has the applicant proffering a covenant to be recorded in the public records of Miami-Dade County rest ricting development to no more than 541 units. We have agreed to that. And we will submit the covenant within the time prescribed. But we -- and I have spoken with the city attorney about this -- we want to make sure that that is part of the resolution for site plan approval. There's no need for that to be in the flume amendment. There's no need for that to be in the rezoning amendment. As a matter of fact, in the rezoning amendment, it would be inappropriate because you can't condition zoning. But because of the fact that we're proffering that covenant and in agreement with it as -- regardless of the proffer, it's a condition on your site plan approval. These are now all tied together. So what I'm trying to make the point is that they're all tied together. The site plan approval has that reassurance. And for cleanup purposes, I want to make sure -- and the Grahams are respectfully asking -- that that condition be part of the site plan approval resolution. So respectfully, I would like that -- that condition be deleted from the ordinance for the flume. Not to interrupt you, but Mr. Attorney, please make sure that when we get to that item that that -- that is done. Right. And I would be certain to raise it as well because it's very much our intention. So as it relates to the flume amendment, I will incorporate my presentation from last time by reference. There's no need to be correct to me -- for me to repeat the presentation. That is the only correction. And if -- if there is a willingness to make the -- the motion with that revision, we are very grateful. Thank you, Mr. Vasquez. At this time, I'm going to open up the public hearing for the members of the public that wish to speak on the flume amendment. Good evening. Hilda Fernandez, address withheld pursuant to FS 119. Mr. Mayor, council member, city manager, and city attorney. And I'm sure the applicant will be pleased to know I'm not going to speak the second time that this is possible tonight. Um, an incredible man and highly respected elected leader once said, "We work for all the taxpayers, not just the ones that vote for me." I hope tonight our elected leaders take to heart the words of former Miami Lakes resident, governor, and U.S. Senator Bob Graham. We have heard and will likely hear a lot more talk about this issue, but tonight I'm going to stick to numbers. We'll make it easier. 2015. That has been discussed tonight. That is the year that the town council approved resolution 15-1304, formally accepting the donation of the former Part 3. Landed under current requirements. Eleven years later, almost a generation -- I know you're talking about this generational, it's almost a generation -- still needs remediation. Needless to say, the city refusing to accept conveyance prior to remediation makes 100% sense. But any discussion relating to the Part 3 and this application should be divorced from each other. Why? 2017. That is the year the applicant submitted their rezoning request two years after the Part 3 process negotiation had been approved. In short, the inclusion of 1.3 acres and build out of the shell for the Senior Center included in the rezoning application would have been supplemental to whatever part plan we would gain by receiving the Part 3. The Part 3 is a potential solution to the issue of the Senior Center being removed from the proposed rezoning application that encompasses the 1.3 acres and Senior Center is not the magical solution. In fact, it is a net loss. Especially as there's no surety that the environmental issues will be resolved anytime soon. 5.11. That is a section of the Town of Miami Lakes Land Use Code referenced on page 24 of your staff's report submitted for the April 1st Special Call Meeting that speaks to required mitigation by the applicant, including mitigation because at this time we have insufficient parkland per capita. Per staff, the application conditionally applies provided there is mitigation. To quote, "The town is currently underserved with regard to level of service for total park area and large park area. So the applicant would be required to mitigate the proportionate share of required parkland prior to final approval of their request. Here we had a project that originally provided a Senior Center, what would be considered parkland removed from the application." Why? 6.62. No one is trying to deny anyone the right to develop their property. The applicant is a business, not a charity. No one is trying to deny anyone the right to be required. No one is trying to deny anyone the right to be required. No one is trying to deny anyone the right to be required. No one is trying to deny anyone the right to be required. No one is trying to deny anyone the right to be required. No one is trying to deny anyone the right to be required. No one is trying to deny anyone the right to be required. No one is trying to deny anyone the right to be required. No one is trying to deny anyone the right to be required. No one is trying to deny anyone the right to be required. No one is trying to deny anyone the right to be required. No one is trying to deny anyone the right to be required. No one is trying to deny anyone the right to be required. No one is trying to deny anyone the right to be required. No one is trying to deny anyone the right to be required. No one is trying to deny anyone the right to be required. No one is trying to deny anyone the right to be required. No one is trying to deny anyone the right to be required. No one is trying to deny anyone the right to be required. No one is trying to deny anyone the right to be required. units more that by covenant they are committing to which is 541. Basically they have excess density. 794. I mean not that they went for it but that is the number that could have been developed if all of it would be rezoned to RM36 which is the zoning on the parcel that was rezoned in 2017 and 19. 206 units more than the current application of 541. Again why is that even not being considered? Their application for 541 units is in fact 23 units per acre because this applicant is not interested in that level of density. Submitting a site plan and a zoning change that requests less than legally zoned suggests that while live local is a possibility legally it is likely not a practical reality for the applicant. It is inconsistent with their brand a well- regarded brand and why many of us make Miami lakes our home and the many governmental requirements of live local likely make this concept less attractive even with tax incentives for them not good for you all and us for a private for-profit developer. One plus one is not adding up to two but there is one thing for sure approving this request as presented is a minus a zero for this community. As much as coming back here again on this issue is not something to look forward to love you all but you know this has already been too many times I've had to come up here we ask that you defer this item until there can be further discussion and research including on the legal implications of underlying covenants and the live local act especially on the live local act and hopefully find a solution that works for all parties the applicants and the citizens of this community. Thank you very much for your time next speaker in public in the public hearing good evening town council Susana Rera Thank you very much for your time. First and foremost thank you so much. I know it's a long night so I'm going to try to keep it short. I'm going to remind many of you sitting on the dies on the first reading said we're going to move it over just so we can have continued discussions. No real commitments were established and I don't know that we were all convinced at one point. I have been sending communications to you. I like to think of myself as a resident that when decides to stand before you I'm going to be able to do is taking the due diligence and performing due diligence on getting educated. So I have been bombarding Gina and Susana thank you so much for your tolerance because I know I've been beating this dead horse. But the thing the thing is with discovery right and we have attorneys sitting here when you do a discovery and you get a document. Then there's a piggyback to that discovery so then you start wondering well where did this come from so you have to keep going backwards and backwards and backwards and getting to the point of how everything entangles. So here's what I can discover this this is what I've discovered from all the various information. So here's what I've discovered. The applicant the Grahams and the council have recognized that we have covenants in place. Covenants in place that affect three out of the four folios that are sitting before you for consideration. These covenants which it was kind of an oxymoron to listen to Mayor Diego said you know this was already established by the council. We have to make sure that as a new council we're not rever ting or changing things that were already decided by previous councils. The previous councils really worked very hard on this project alongside the Grahams so I'm not taking any credit from the Grahams. This was really really a united front to try to get this piece for the town which by the way is in need. And I in a meeting with a town staff yesterday we showed we did I looked at the numbers from 2000 to 2024 based on the census. I didn't pick this out of anything I did the research and the one area that increased by 116 percent of the population was the seniors 65 and over. So there is a need for this project. There was a need back in 2017 when we designed it and there 's a need today. More so today than ever. So here's the thing. We can agree we have covenants right and I haven't found anything to the contrary that says that we don't have rights under those covenants. So I'm struggling as a resident of Miami Lake saying why am I going to give this away. Another oxymoron that was presented today when Councilman Herzberg says you know as a town we tend to not accept opportunities to secure land. And here we are we have a legal standing where we have secured land and we're saying oh we're going to wipe it away. Where does that come from. We have a very strong position I think I think to continue the negotiations with the Graham family. I want to believe when Mr. Lewis Martinez stood before you in the planning and zoning meeting and here today. I want to believe that when he states that generally what's good for Miami Lakes is good for the Grahams and vice versa . I want to believe that but I'm having a hard time when promises covenants were given and reissued and somebody is coming up before the board and before you guys and saying oh we're going to scratch off and start from scratch. We can't start from scratch. There's just too much invested there. So I am going to appeal. And again I have not found any legal standing that says that we don't have the right to stand for those two parcels and questions. As identified in ordinance the 17207 ordinance and the fluent properties of the 17206. As a matter of fact and I send that to you as part of the discoveries in 2024 and I'm not going to go through the ordinance with beat this dead horse. But anything on 2024 it was interesting that they showed up to the town council requesting for that 2017 to be reversed . 2024 and the town council said no. This was a commitment. This was important. And it was strike. Are you nodding your head that that's not accurate because. As I told you yesterday that is not accurate. The council voted to defer but I also do not want to cut you off since this is the public hearing. This is your time. Please continue by. Okay. I'm just nodding because we went over this already. So it's a deferral. It was deferral because the town says that they're not willing to delete the items as part of the application. But I mean I'm just reading the documents that were provided to me. You want me to read it for the record. We have one request regarding the staff recommendation. We should include an additional condition that any and all prior restrictions or conditions relating to prior approvals be waived and or deleted. That was a formal request. This is an email from Javier Vasquez submitting that to Lorenzo Cubiela. And the answer on September 10. We have been advised that it is the town's opinion and position notwithstanding approval of our application. The conditions of approval of the rezoning application ordered in 17207 and application flume amendment ordered in 17206 would remain in full force and effect. And that's why they chose to defer. Because they didn't want to deal with that. And that's why they chose to be a resident. I'm just reading the information as it was provided to me based on public records requests. Okay. So as I continue the research again here this is this is discovery. We're doing discovery. We're shooting ourselves and not giving us an opportunity for discovery. So I met with town staff and I said there's a lot of information. There's a lot of legal stuff. I'm not an attorney but I'm I know enough to get in trouble and to ask the right questions. Okay. That's what I can do. That's as a resident. I think we're entitled to do that. But at the end of the day I'm thinking we need to defer this and give ourselves an opportunity to really look at the legal standing before we throw it away. We should not be throwing away legal standings. And then at the last meeting and I want to share this because I think it's kind of funny. Javier you'll get a big kick out of it. I'm going to quote the attorney Javier Vasquez who stood before you on April 1st. By the way I didn't like his opening statement when he says that we had created such a debacle that that he was there to be the savior of the world and he was this was the solution to how we had strewed up. So I didn't like his opening statement but I didn't like his closing statement either but I'm going to give him a counter. I'm going to give him a counter. On that special meeting he stood before you and all of us and the one thing the grams will not do is to remain idle and we recognize their rights to develop. We're not denying their rights to develop. We're asking to partner with us a little bit stronger than just push that reset button as stated in the opening statement by them. "A no vote to the responsible plan before you today is a yes vote to LIFT Local." That's what he stated. So the good news is as I continue to do the research and I got involved in LIFT Local and we're talking about you know does LIFT Local supersede existing ordinance and covenants within the attached parcels and the good news is that we can coexist. The act does not act as a blanket nullification of private or quasi-judicial covenants. I will remind you that the 2017 ordinance passed under a quasi-judicial and I will also remind you that the resolution under 2019 also passed under quasi-judicial. So under the threat of LIFT Local we are governed and covered by the state of Florida because we have a standing that these things were proffered , they went on record, they were considered as part of the applications and they were accepted with the full terms of the application. And in Florida, again I'm not an attorney, you guys are an attorney, you know there's such thing as anything that's proffered, presented as part of the application holds ground to whatever got proffered and presented as a condition of the acceptance of the application. Again, I'm not an attorney, this is what I'm asking the council right here right now. Give everyone, all the participants the fair share, okay, of stepping back and legally looking at the conditions of the proposal, at the existing conditions of the parcels because we're talking about specific parcels that got covenants and attachments to them, right? We need to put a pause, we're respectfully asking that you put a pause, we're not against the development of the Graham's rights, but we want the rights of the residents to be recognized. And as a town council, you know, it's your number one priority to the residents of the town. And there is a feeling of, I'm not going to say mistrust, but there's a feeling of we're showing up here and nothing happens, right? We've seen less and less participation. I sit here today and I'm looking at the name , meet them in this podium. I learned from her. And I can tell you many times I've wanted to stop this and say, who am I doing this for, right? I gain nothing. I gain nothing coming before you and spending them endless hours hours talking about this and presenting and researching. I don't get anything by that. But I feel that there was a promise made, there was a comment made, and that is worth fighting for. So I'm being a little bit mirta tonight and coming before you and she was the queen of everything. But anyway, just so you can understand the apathy, somebody really gravitated to the statement that Mr. Javi made last time and took offense to it. But to the offense, sometimes you have to make some laughter, right? So my email to you was labeled, is this the town council that will throw away the residents' legal rights? And they sent me this after I posted my email. Javi , you look good. He may have had more hair then. You see, I got everybody to join in a laughter. So I think I'm, we're, listen, we're not against it. But I think the senior center is important and we need to come to the table. And we need to look at the legal rights that were proffered to the residents of Miami Lakes. And I beg you to consider that, to consider how hard the other councils worked to get us here. I am going to beg the Graham family to please uphold the promises made and to come to the table with this council, which we all think we want to work in good faith. Josh, Mayor J aguez asked me in the meeting yesterday, excuse me for saying Josh, but he asked me a valid question . And he says, "What do you want?" I said, "I want the senior center. And I want what was covenant and told to do." And he said, "You know, I cannot force the Graham family to build." And I said, " Yes, I know that." And he goes, "So what do we do?" And I said, "We hold the terms of the covenant." Which were, we would hold that land, we covenant the senior apartments for 30 years with three 10 year renewals. No exceptions to that. That was a 2017 covenant. And my hope is, and if they can't live up to the covenant, they can't build anything, right? Because they're tied to the covenant. So it's not that I want to not determine that they don't have rights. I'm hoping that I can buy myself some time for somebody in the family from the Gramps to understand that it was passionate and it was moving for us, the residents of Miami Lakes, to listen to Senator Bob Graham stand before this podium in 2017 and ask for the council's participation and cooperation in delivering the most important piece of the puzzle for our town, which was an H in place, which was taking care of our seniors. He demonstrated it was important for him. And I'm hoping that if we buy ourselves some time, somebody from the Graham family, maybe not his children, but maybe his grandchildren or his great-grandchildren, they'll say, "I want to honor my papa," if that they called him like that, you know, and we're going to honor him and we're going to see this through. So, I can't, I'm looking for cooperation. I'm, I believe I'm a sports person and I want you to know that Babe Ruth would always say, don't, you know, don't let the fear of striking out, step up to the plate. So I'm stepping up to the plate regardless of the outcome. So thank you for that. Thank you very much. Is there, are there any other members of the public, uh, that wish to speak in the public hearing ? Seeing none, the public hearing is now closed. With that, I can't wait to see any other members of the public hearing . I can't wait to see any other members of the public hearing . I can't wait to see any other members of the public hearing . I can't wait to see any other members of the public hearing . I can't wait to see any other members of the public hearing . I can't wait to see any other members of the public hearing . I can't wait to see any other members of the public hearing . I can't wait to see any other members of the public hearing . 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All right. So before I go to Mr. Vasquez to speak about certain things , since his communications with the town were mentioned, to get us in the right posture, I'm going to go ahead and move the adoption of the proposed flume amendment. Is there a second? I'll second. Thank you. Mr. Vasquez, you are recognized to address Mrs. Zanna's comments. There's no specific rebuttal. I just wanted to close my presentation by just reminding you that this comes before you with a recommendation of approval from your professional planning staff, your planning and zoning board, and with that, we would respectfully request your approval. Thank you, Mr. Vaskins. So I'm going to kick off the discussion here, and I'm going to need Mr. Corriere to come up to the podium , and Mr. Attorney, Mr. Castese, you also need to be aware, because I want to kind of -- Mrs. Zanna Herrera mentioned that there were rights that the town has with respect to approvals that were given in the past. So I want to kind of -- and we -- and her and I spent about two hours or so last night with between -- with her and Ms. Fernandez -- Mrs. Fern andez, going ahead and discussing what those rights may or may not have been. First and foremost, I want to turn to the two ordinances that were approved at that point. I believe -- is this the right one? Please bear with me one second. Here we go. There was ordinance number 17-206 and 17-207. 206 dealt with the flume amendment and 17-207 dealt with the rezoning. In 206, when you look at paragraph -- or condition, rather -- condition -- okay, no, please bear with me -- condition number five. As profit and the applicant's letter of interest attach to their application, they shall donate 1.3 acres of land to include the completion of an appropriate 6,000 square foot building with completed exterior finishes in fulfillment of the small park concurrency requirement prior to the issuance of any certificate of occupancy issued to the property described at exhibit A herein. When I look over at 207, in the same paragraph -- in paragraph five, or condition number five, it contains the exact same condition, right? So my first question to you is, is that still enforceable as of today? The provisions that you see there, and those were done by another council that was representing the town at the time. Basically, what they did is they cut and past ed the area -- those sections, and you'll see them also, again, in the resolution that approved the site plan. That's really a condition for -- and it's germane to the site plan, where it is stating that for them to meet what was at that time considered the requirement for the small park concurrency and the large park concurrency, that they had to fulfill certain requirements, which was the donation of the land and the buildout of the senior center. Now, that was in order for them to be able to build and obtain, as you stated, Mr. Mayor, other certificate of occupancy. Since they did not move forward on that site plan, those conditions then extinguish. So -- They're not -- But don't get ahead of me, though. They're not going to run with the land. They're not going to get ahead of me, though. Sorry. You know, although -- So -- and I have here the site plan that you're referencing from 2017, that is resolution 17-455. And sure enough, that condition also appears as a condition number five. So what -- just to make sure I'm understanding you, though, clearly from what you described, the outside council, the outside independent council that was hired at that time, I'll say her name, Nancy Strauss, right, copy and pasted all these conditions across all these documents, the two ordinances and this resolution , even though you can't condition rezoning, for example. Correct. Okay. So -- But I would even go a step further. Let's assume that you were to consider it for some reason, okay, well, it was proffered. It's a covenant. It's in the zoning ordinance. We need to enforce it. You have to understand that covenants, when you're -- the courts have analyzed different covenants, you have to take a look at whether, A, the covenant runs with the land, and whether it attaches and is meant to and/or to other applicants. When you take a look at this, this is a specific proffer that tied into that specific site plan, and it's very specific as to it needs to meet that small park concurrency in order to get that certificate of occupancy. Mm-hmm. That was the reason for that proffer. That certificate of occupancy never gets there because, again, you have a site plan that is just never fully fulfilled. After two years, it would have expired. The only reason it doesn't expire -- I'm going to get a little ahead of myself -- Well, okay, go ahead. Is that in 2019, there's conditions that are changed in that site plan, and that site plan is then further extended. So were those -- were -- was there a triggering event for the site plan, which would have expired then on June 6, 2019? Was there anything that would have extended the site plan approval? Did the applicant, to your knowledge, go ahead and request an extension? So in 2019, there is an amendment to that site plan that incorporates all the same provisions of the 2017, except that it deletes the name of Miami Jewish. And I think there might have been another provision that might have been deleted as well, but I think it was something minor. So that site plan also, though, would have expired in two years unless the applicant had to ask for an extension? That is correct. Are you aware of any extensions? No, I'm not. Mr. Manager, are you aware of any extensions that were requested? No, sir. Did -- did -- Mr. Vasquez, did your client request any extensions? No, sir. So then those provisions are dead on -- or they're -- they 're currently -- they're currently -- they're extinguished. Mr. They're the operation of law. They no longer are applicable. Correct. Okay. So number two, the covenants at issue, right? Yes. In 2017, there is a draft of a -- of a declaration of -- of restrictive covenants for senior housing. Are there any other covenants that you're aware of, Ms. Strauss, or anyone else handled in that time? I am not aware of any other. Okay. Because this particular covenant is strictly on the housing . It has nothing to do with the small park land or the small park concurrency or anything to that effect. So I guess my -- go ahead, Ms. Strauss. And without going, you know, really in depth, based on Florida case law, how it views a covenant, I believe, and I think -- I'll stop there. I strongly believe that that would be enforceable, is enforceable. But that's as to the age restriction? Yes. Okay. So we don't have anything related to the senior center? No. Okay. So -- Not that I am aware. Okay. So last night when I was meeting with Ms. Fernandez and Ms. Herrera -- Mrs. Herrera, Fernandez -- we were talking about this, about rights that the town can enforce. When it comes to the senior center, not only does it appear to me that we can force them to build this or donate that land or build the exterior shell, right , it seems as if there's no basis to do so in fact or in law. Right. Would you agree with that statement? I'm not sure about in fact, but definitely in law, I can't enforce -- Correct. So -- So I'm curious then, the only thing that -- or rather, no, actually -- so the only thing that -- well, was any covenant recorded to your knowledge? No. That is why we've made it a point that any future documents , the firm will be recording them. Yeah. You know, and that's -- that was one of the reasons why I went ahead and I include -- or made that change when we met last on April 1st. Okay. Now, I'm going to -- thank you very much, but I think you addressed the questions that they had last night that we were still a little uncertain about. So the reason -- I'm not crazy about this either, right? I was really looking forward to the idea of the prior senior village concept, but you know, sometimes things just don't work out, right? Under the circumstances in the legal framework that we find ourselves, right? Because obviously, since there is no covenant that was not affected or was not -- or is that in effect with respect to the parkland or, you know, or for that matter, even on the age restriction, perhaps. So my point is that it's a moot point whether Live Local does impact covenants, right? Because it doesn't seem as if there's anything -- no -- any covenant present. And also, the conditions that were attached to the site plan fell off anyway, right? So under the circumstances, the best thing to do to me is to work -- is to approve the deal, all right? The rezoning -- or pardon me, the flume amendment that was along with what's been proffered, right? You know, everything that they're offering is a public benefit, I think, makes sense to me, right? They've come up a long way, right? All the way to the full asking or the full value of the app raisal that was done recently, I want to argue. They -- that money, of course, will go a long way toward helping the seniors get their senior center Now, instead of playing this game of waiting with them, of cat and mouse, you know, well into the future, right? As someone who frequently visits with the seniors, I can tell you that they bring it up all the time, that they want the senior center. What's going on with that? We can either continue to wait and hope that the money comes in from somewhere, as Councilman Garcia pointed out, you know, we're still waiting on money to come in for -- or then to materialize for the optimist part. Look how well that's going. So do we want to run the same risk here, right? That's one thing. Number two, with respect to the down zone that they are agreeing to and the additional covenant now, with respect to the total number of units, that to me, I think, is a very fair concession to the town, so that future generations, to the point that the vice mayor made earlier, looking ahead to my niece and nephew, perhaps my future kids, and, you know, and the vice mayor's future kids, you know, this is as good as a tool of controlling development as you're going to get, right, on that front. The other thing I want to point out is that, again, the height -- the heights, right? Two of the buildings are going to be five stories, correct? The rest will be four stories and three stories. Under the proposal that they would have to still give us the 1.3 acres, right, or under that train of thought, then while sure, in terms of the zoning, they are zoned to be able to go more densely than they are currently building out. If they were to give us the 1.3 acres, in my opinion, and I brought this up in the meeting last night, they obviously would have to look at going higher, which, again, is going to be a problem, I'm sure, for many of the residents that live across the lake. So I think that by them keeping this footprint, it allows them to keep the heights to no more than five stories, which has been the standard for a long time in this town, and I think will give relief, right? And on Facebook, what I constantly hear is that, oh, that seven-story monstrosity on Main Street, that seven -story monstrosity at the golf course, but if that's, if we're serious about trying to avoid a seven-story building, this is the best way, in my opinion, to get it done, right? And the last thing I want to say is that there's been some who have been advocating for what I consider a gamble to just continue to delay this and to vote this down and force a "better negotiation," right? And on the premise that they are saying the Grahams are not prepared to move on the Live Local. I disagree with that. I was here in 24 when the deferral vote was taken. The town did not say no. There was a deferral, and there was no other basis for that . The town simply voted to defer to have more time to consider, right? And the, you know, the truth is that they were looking for at that time for us to go ahead and revert back to the IUC designation. That is not conduct to me, and, and not to mention that there was some saber rattling, I'll leave it at that, you know, last year. So to me, that is not conduct from someone who is not serious about pursuing this. Now, as, as has been stated before in meetings with the council in our Sunshine meeting , maybe they're not going to go to the full maximum density under Live Local, but they will find a way to get to a number that will allow the project to pencil out. I think it's, I think assuming that they do not want to submit themselves to audits every year is not something that, that I think really scares them. I think it's been said many times that they have the capability to go ahead and pay for a service or, or in a firm that will handle that for them. I don't think it's a big issue for them. So I don't think that's a big deterrent for them not to go in their Live Local. The final thing, piece of the puzzle actually, and this will be my final, final one, right? I don't want to replicate what I said earlier with respect to the amnesty program. But my final, final point is that under Live Local, of course, we lose potentially, depending on, on what they do, all the way up to, I believe, 75% of the property tax revenues that we can generate there. That is, and we all remember what happened last year in the budget season, right? Just in the police contract, we had an 800,000 or so increase in the police, in the police contract. If they were to go and they live local, that is money. We now are not, we're putting ourselves at this advantage. Should we get another major, you know, hit like that to our budget? We're also foreclosing, or at least reducing the likelihood of a future tax cut that we may want to do. So to me, while I also would love to have had the original Senior Village concept, I think this council has gone above and beyond to go ahead and try to secure the best public good. And so to me, at the end of the day, while we may not like it, and it may not be perfect, this is the best interest of the town, right? And our residents. And what's more, that that this is in the best interest of the town, but then also, as far as selling the town's rights away or not enforcing our rights, again, we just heard this back and forth between us, right? Between myself and the deputy town attorney and everyone else that chimed in, that at the end of the day, in terms of the rights that the residents are, that those residents are asking us to enforce, they just don't exist. So we would be putting ourselves at a disadvantage under that. So for that reason, I moved to approve the Flume amendment and why I will be voting along for the reasons provided by the staff report and also by the planning and zoning board to go ahead and advance all aspects of this approval. Who else wishes to speak next ? Councilman Herzberg. Thank you, Mayor. You know, first, the idea of deferral and speaking to legal counsel, I have spent every hour I have that I have given to town issues on this. It's been hours and hours and weeks and weeks of reviewing meetings, reviewing resolutions, looking up case law about these issues. I agree with, and the town attorney knows that because I've been bothering him for months at all hours of the day. I agree with the town attorney's perspective that the only thing we have that's enforceable is the 55 year. And even then, I've personally been in the case where I convinced a circuit court judge to overturn a covenant because the purpose of the covenant was no longer there. That is case law in Florida. You can overturn it. It was a city of Miami covenant between a private owner and I had a judge overturn it. And then that case was appealed and the third DCA agreed with us. So this idea that the covenant is is perfect, I don't, it's hard for me. And that's a gamble. So the gamble is vote no, which politically is maybe easier , because then if they build the city, if they build live local, you say, go blame Tallahassee, not our fault. But you vote no, the gamble is that they don't do live local, which I, they have the means to do it. I've spoken to real estate developers, other real estate developers, market rates are live local rates are very close to it, especially when you get the tax savings. And then we fight over the RM 36 parcel for years and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in litigation about whether or not the covenant on the 55 plus can stay. And the same time that that covenant or that rezoning had a clause that says the town may consider bringing it back to bringing it back to industrial zoning, which is a good fact for the developer. So I mean, I'm in agreement with the mayor, I just don't see it worth the gamble. And I believe we have put in the time, our town attorneys put in time, our town staff is to put in time. I know I have put in a lot of time reading live local, reading the whole entire history. I don 't know how many times I've seen our town attorney, Lewis, Javi on on on on presentations that I've watched from the past. So it makes sense because we are getting a down zoning with what they're legally allowed to do. They are providing a benefit with the with with the senior center funding. Yes, I would have preferred a senior center. I would have preferred the the senior living. That would have been a great project. That's just not where we are now. We can't force them, of course, to develop something. That's just not our not what we're allowed to do . But now we have an agreement that's real and enforceable. And for the future of the town, it does make sense. It makes sense because it's a compromise. And when you have disputes, that's what happens. You compromise. And this seems to be a good compromise for the town. And if those that are against it, I would like to hear, you know, just just why. Right. Why take the gamble on allowing the two industrial parcels? Maybe they never develop. I don't know. But is that the gamble we really want to take? And then the other gamble is in fighting over the RM 36 for years in court about whether what they can and can't develop there. So this this makes sense. I wish we I wish the local didn't exist and we would have having a completely different discussion. But the law is the law. That's where we land right now. And that's why I'll be for it as well. Councilman Fernandez. Thank you, Mayor. So I'll start by by saying that I think and one of our conversations with with Mr. Vasquez, I think that if live local didn't exist, we would be in a much different position right now. You know, and he admitted to to me that, yeah, you know, we we would have a much better bargaining stance. But I just want the public to recognize that our staff is recommending it. We have two attorneys that both live in the town. I think if there was a way to avoid this project, I think it would have been would have been found. We have one attorney that lives on the west side that's going to be affected by the traffic more than the other. We have a planner that lives just outside the boundaries of the town, but close enough that she'll she'll be affected by traffic, too. So, you know, at the end of the day, I think that it's not a project. And for the record, this the buildings are going to actually block the office where my wife and I share office space. So I'm not create. I already said I'm not crazy about the project. I I don't like it, but they have rights. So I'm not here to determine whether it's something I like. Through the chair. Councilman Garcia and then Councilman Cu adro Garcia. Councilman Garcia. Thank you, Mayor. For me, it's just a matter of the spirit of the original promise. And what do we get? Someone said, where are we getting a return? The original plan was to have that senior village and that fell through. And the grants fell a lot of money on that on that idea. And they fought for it. And, you know, people backed out. And I understand that. But along with that came, we're going to give you land or we're going to give you a senior center much needed. And that to me was the spirit of the promise. Like, we're going to work. We're going to try to get this done. But you know what? We 're going to do this. This was before Live Local, before anybody knew that was going to happen. Residents were like they always are, balancing more density and apartments with traffic concerns, which is legitimate. But a lot of residents told me, hey, listen, I'm willing to make that, you know, that compromise if we get that senior village. I mean, if we get that that senior center. Right. And that's what I 've always what I've been thinking. Okay, I get it. The Gramps came back with a new proposal. Covenants or not. And frankly, we should have been stronger in the the first covenant and said, hey, any commercial prop, any commercial, I mean, any apartments being built here has to include, you know, either in the future or whenever this is done, has to include the senior center and the land. We should have been stronger on that part. Right. But we weren't. We need to do that now. And the mayor has has said that eloquently that we need to be we need to defend ourselves, our rights better when it comes to covenants. To me, it's a matter of, okay, what is the town? What benefit does the town get from this right now? Putting aside, um, live local. We're getting more apartments. We're getting more traffic. We're getting money. Yes, 1.5 million. And thank you for the Gramps for raising that offer. But as you know, and there's discussions with the millions of dollars we have in Optimus Park. It takes we don't have the land to put it on right now. And it takes a long time to spend that money. And I think in 10 years, the dollar has value has dropped 30% due to inflation. So 1.5 isn't what it was. You know, it's actually almost three when you think about it. Um, so to me, the promise of the residents of, Hey, we're going to get a senior village, a much needed senior center village is something that the Gramps have always been flexible and they've always provided and they've always done the right thing for the town. So I'm a little surprised when they decided to remove this. Instead of moving around, I wouldn't be opposed of adding a couple stories to some buildings away from the lake closer to the to make sure you have the 541 or whatever it takes. I know there's a level of apartments that you need to be successful and to make money. You're a business and I am pro 100% pro capitalism. I understand that. But I think the spirit of the promise made by your family seeks to say, Hey, okay, we're going to move things around. We couldn't get the senior village, but we're still going to give you the land and we're still going to build a senior center. We're going to work it around. It'll be an amenity for not only the town, but for the residents of that property to use as well. We can add that to the covenant that the residents of that town can use that that center and be part of that. And I think to me, that's what matters. The spirit of the promise that was made just adding apartments there, changing the entire site plan. Everything was done by the previous councils for the past 10 years to at least have the senior center. And now we're not even getting that. So where's the benefits of the town? Okay. Uh, you know, more inventory of apartments. Yes, that will bring down, uh, the rent. If someone's renting from the grams, incredible company, property management is the best in the country, I believe for over 11 years. I understand where they're coming from. However, there's nothing in return without the land and at least the shell of the senior center for the town. So if they would be willing to say, oh, you know what? We'll move things around. We'll get it done. And I know we're all frustrated. It's been 10 years. I mean, they're up to here and we're up to here and the residents are up to here. If we just take a breath and say, I think a compromise and a win-win for everybody would be let's, let's add that, that acreage and let's, let's build that. And we can work with think way around using as an amenity for, for that complex. Because right now, the residents are not getting anything except more changing an incredible, uh, um, uh, plan for this town that, that had everything, you know, industrial was, was, was industrial and we had mixed use. And it was an incredible, uh, the way they, they, they developed the town and the way they planned the town. And it's worked really well because residents are dying to come here and our property values have only gone up. Um, so, um, honestly, unless the grounds are saying, Hey, let's go ahead and we can work with you on that. And I've told them before, I told them that the money is, is not enough. And the part three has nothing to do with this. Putting the part three with this is a mistake. These are two different things. The part three was proffered a long time ago, had nothing to do with this and trying to say, okay, now we're going to take that money and we're going to hopefully be able to get the money, remediate the land. And then, Hey, maybe we can put the senior center there or whatever it is, where we're going to move it to, or we're going to buy a church that's unfortunately been there for a long time. They're having problems. Again, it takes forever to get things done. Unfortunately, look, look at just, you know, trying to, trying to do basic maintenance in the park. So if they were willing to, to make that adjustment, it's, I don't think it's a major adjustment to the site plan, in fact, I'd be willing to add, have them add a couple more , you know, more apartments to make sure this is done. I would be a yes on this, but we're not getting anything right now. I know they're

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. and zoning board before the first reading is very unfortunate only because of the concern that you would be given the impression that an action taken at first reading is a binding decision that you need to mirror or you need to ratify the action of the commission. You do not. The first reading, approving in our first reading just allowed the item to move forward unless and if, not just unless, if it is approved and it would have to happen at second hearing anyway. So your input is very vital. You sit here and listen to these issues on a regular basis, get residents who complain, get people come up and present issues and concerns. So your input in this process, in this project is essential. They are counting on that as they go into the second hearing and set that on the record and on the record wanted to make sure it was clear that there was an expectation that you all would listen to this regardless of what the first reading action was, that you would listen to this item and make your recommendation based on your best opinion of the facts that are presented. So thank you so very much. I know you sit here as volunteers. We appreciate that, that you're there representing the interests of this community and the residents. And if all we all want is a really beautifully growing, you know, Miami Lakes. Thank you, Ms. Fernandez. We'll go ahead with the next online speaker, Mr. Abel Fernandez. Go ahead and unmute yourself. IT, please allow him to speak. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, Planning and Zoning Board. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And my name is Abel Fernandez. Chapter 119, also withhold on public records for address. I'm asking you tonight to make a recommendation against the flume and against the rezoning. And I'll tell you why. I know that Vice Mayor Nelson Rodriguez was there and I see Omero Cruz in the audience from our great community of Royal Oaks. I know the question that was, at the time, let's go back nine years when the Graham companies came forward presenting this idea of a senior village. And one of the questions that we had was this is going to add a lot more response services for the fire department. And people like Vice Mayor Nelson Rodriguez and myself and others went to Miami-Dade County and pushed on the issue for an additional rescue unit there at Station 64. And it's called Rescue 64. That was needed with the idea of this senior village. Fast forward, we've developed many more areas on Commerce Lane. We've grown exponentially. And we have a massive seven story tower coming to the golf course. So the rescue will be needed. So tonight you're being asked to combine this and change the land use code. We were told to trust that decision nine years ago. And here we are tonight asking to trust their decision again. And actually, it's a little bit more to the point. This time it's a threat. Their attorney threatened in so many words. The last council meeting and said, you either give us this or we're going to go with the live local. We're not staying stagnant or dormant on this issue. And I took that as a huge offense. You don't have to do this. You can make a recommendation against it. And I'll tell you why. When they came, they proposed that this senior village was the last missing piece that was part of the dream from the beginning. And I guess now that dream has pivoted to rental units at market rate, which will add to their bottom line. And the dream doesn't matter. The dream doesn't matter. Even though we had individuals such as the former Senator Graham. And he came and spoke in favor and how this was necessary. And we saw the change that vice mayor was there and one of the ones that voted to change this. And we trusted in them. We took their word at face value. There were supposed to be covenants. And that's a whole different story. Bottom line, I ask you, and just for 10 more seconds, vote against this. We don't need to change the land code. It's going to create many more issues. Use of parks, crowding of our schools. We're not set up for that. The main vision was to have an industrial area, which is all the way to the east side. And this other side was supposed to be offices. And now we're changing the character of this town and losing the buffer between offices and the residential area. Please recommend and vote against this. Thank you for your time. And thank you for serving us. Thank you, Mr. Fernandez. Next public speaker online, Dr. David Bennett. Go ahead and unmute yourself. IT, allow him to speak. And once again, you have three minutes. Okay. Well, I got Abel's over. He's going through. Let me lower his hand, maybe. All right. Let me come back. Mr. Abel Fernandez. Can you please mute your microphone? Thank you. Dr. Bennett, go ahead. Okay. Thank you. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Go ahead. Okay, good. Well, good evening, ladies and gentlemen. David, Dr. Dave Bennett. 15830 Northwest 83rd place right here in Miami Lakes. I want to basically echo Hilda and Abel's feelings. The strategic plan has been around since inception. And in that strategic plan, a senior center was, for anything else, promised. As a matter of fact, that promise was proffered on several occasions over the last 22 years to get other concessions. Now, one of the things that I think concerns us is we have still trust in the system, that we're hoping that, you know , the seniors that have been wanting this, and I know they 've been trying for years to somehow get something or at least get an equitable trade. In other words, get a piece of land large enough and let them build a shell as they promised some part and some other part of the town if necessary. But more importantly, the density is the problem. Now, let me say something. I'm going to quote you a couple of United States Supreme Court cases. Okay. One case is called Village of Euclid versus Amber Realty Company. That was, that's one of the foundational cases in modern zoning law. And what it simply says is that a municipality can restrict development even when it reduces property value. It can, you can do that. Another case which is important is Village of Belterra versus Borales in 1974. It says that a developer cannot claim a constitutional right to higher density development simply because they own the property. Now, these are just two examples of United States Supreme Court cases. Obviously, getting a land developer attorney to talk to me was on the, shall we say, on the difficult side because of a lot of conflicts of interest. But I can name five or six more, but I want you to know you have the power to make a recommendation to say, send this back. And get a deal that is equitable to the seniors of this town that will benefit both the developer and the people of Miami Lakes. This is what we were promised. This is what we should get. These are very important things. And I'm hoping that you will go ahead and look at this and come to the same conclusion as we all have. And it's true. There are many people that are watching this in dismay, but they feel like, why should I bother? How can I, why should, why should I do this? It's already been done. The cards have been dealt and there's nothing we can do. And that's a problem. And the only reason I know this is because I placed this before the people on Facebook. And that's exactly the reaction that I got. At any rate, I'm hoping ladies and gentlemen, please do the right thing for our town, protect our seniors and give us what we were promised. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Bennett. I believe that concludes the online speakers through the chair. I do want to state for the record that through the clerk's office, we did receive written public comments as they were shared with you in the previous meeting. in February and two additional ones that were provided to you as well today. I'm going to read out the list of the written public comments that were all in opposition. None were in favor. They came from Maria Brissero, Andrea Rodriguez, Eduardo Bencourt, Susana Herrera, Hope Reynolds, Enid Lomax, Mario Pineda, Maria Rodriguez, excuse me, Ocasio Aguiar, Maria Santelises, Abel Fernandez as well, and Georgina Luz is. And they were all in opposition of the items. Okay. So public comments is closed. Yes. And there's no one online and I believe no one in chamber. I want to make sure that everybody got their chance to and then we'll do the second round afterwards. All right. Go ahead, Mr. Attorney with your first item. Thank you, Chair. So the first item that is before you is the flume item. And sorry, I'm just going to get to it. All right. So the first item. Is an ordinance of the town of Miami lakes. Amending the future land use map of the town comprehensive plan redesignating 12.75 acres plus or minus properties with folio numbers. 32, 2022, 070, 0010, 30, 32, 2022, 068, 0020, and 32, 2022, 068, 0030, located in the west side of Commerce Way and Northwest 146th Street as more particularly described at attachment A from industrial and office category to the medium density residential category. Providing for incorporation of recitals providing for findings providing for direction of the administrative official providing for repeal of laws in conflict providing for severability providing for exclusion from the code and providing for an effective date. Also, Mr. Chair for this item, the way that I would proceed if you as it should again, it's just a suggestion is let the Miss Alonzo from the town present. I am sure that the applicant has a presentation that they'd like to make open it up for public comments, close public comments and then deliberate. Absolutely. No problem. Good evening and welcome and thank you for coming today to deal with a interesting matter. We are the applicants proposing a flume amendment to three other properties that we're going to be discussing today. There's four properties in total that are going to be addressed. Three of them are here for the flume amendment. The other one is going to, is requesting a rezoning in addition to the flume amendment. So three of them for flume amendment and then four for the rezoning. I'm hereby entering the staff reporting to the record in its entirety and most of the questions that you should have should be answered in there. Basically this is a request to rezone from the industrial conditional use to the, to a residential multifamily use in this area. The applicant is requesting this in order to produce a project of 541 units. I'm going to let them do their presentation of what they're proposing to do at this time. We're not considering the actual project, which is reconsidering the flume amendment and the rezoning. The project will come for site plan approval with second reading to the town council, but he is going to present his , his case and I'll answer some questions after. Mr. Attorney. Mr. Attorney. Yes, Mr. Chair. This attorney. Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. You're not the only attorney in this room. Sorry. Good evening, Mr. Chair and board members. My name is Javi Vasquez. My offices are at 600 Brickle Avenue and I'm with the Gun ster Law Firm here on behalf of the Graham Companies. And I'm here with several family members, as you can see. Before I continue, and this is an item that I think is to be taken up with the council, but I appear before every city in this, in this county. The only city that allows the, the spirit of public comment is not how it's used in Miami Leagues. Public comment is supposed to be for items that might not necessarily be on the agenda, but when the items on the agenda and it's going to be open for a public hearing, to allow people to come just twice, just to make an impact, to say the same thing again is wrong. And I'm just saying that for the record because it's the only town that I see where that happens. I got that off my chest. I'd like to, I think that most of you, this, this happened in a little bit of a different sequence. There was a special call where the council heard this application on first reading. So there's a very high likelihood that you're all very, very, very familiar with the application, not just because of the staff report, but because you may have had the opportunity to either be at the town council meeting or to review the record. So I'm going to give a condensed version of my presentation that I gave at council with the intention of allowing for questions and answers as may be needed. So the subject property, you all know it well. We call it Lakeside. It's a 22.2 acres located at the northwest corner of Oak Lane and 146th Street. There's three applications involved in this project. There's the flume amendment, the rezoning and a site plan approval. The flume amendment and the rezoning are going through two rounds of readings and then the site plan approval will be a resolution on the last time next week, next Tuesday, when we come to the council for the second readings. As has been said, a flume amendment, the flume amendment is for three of the folios from industrial and office to medium density residential and the rezoning is for all four folios from IUC and RM 36 to RM 30. And for purposes of tonight, just as I did in the council, I will be just making one presentation and then when they call the rezoning, I'll incorporate my presentation by reference. So we're all very familiar with the history of the property dating back to 2010 when the Graham started working on a plan for a senior village. 2017, as was mentioned earlier, the 9.5 -- 9.4, five acre portion of the property was flume amended and rezoned. The 9.5, five acre portion of the property was a new plan to accommodate a senior village. And that plan called for approximately 220 age restricted residential units, as we're all very painfully aware. The Miami Jewish backed out and left the grams in limbo in December of 2019. And the Graham companies had to pivot from the senior village idea. We've heard several members of this community mentioned the threat. We all know that while the grams were considering the alternatives for the property, the state of Florida in 2023 enacted a law that came to be known as live local. This law allows multifamily residential development by right on property zone commercial industrial mixed use. That translates to 50 units per acre in Miami lakes. And the law requires 40% of the residential units to be offered as workforce housing. And the law requires 40 units to be offered as a new plan for the property. Given the market for office buildings, given the market for other options, and given the fact that many, many efforts were made to salvage the senior living idea and the fact that that did not work, the pivot meant considering live local. The next slide, and I'm going to ask IT to help me. Those are the three requests that I went over. It's hard to do it without having a TV here. Next one. So I believe that this is the slide. It's hard for me to see it from here. That depicts one of the alternatives that were considered under the live local, which called for a total of 822 units , with 220 units being those approved in 2017. 330 units in the area where the Bob Graham office building was planned and 272 units on the southern 5.5 acres. As our discussions evolved with the town, an alternative plan was discussed. And a lot of the conversation with Mr. Peterman started going in the direction of why we're here today, which is we 're going in the direction of this category that was created by the council last year that we know as RM30. Which is a much lesser intense zoning category. Now, approval of the three applications will allow for the development of 541 residential apartments. At this point, I'd like to ask IT if you can go to -- this is a density comparison under the current zoning. A lot of the total units prepared. Go to the next slide, please. Go to the next slide, please. So the next slide depicts the 541 residential apartments, including a mix of one, two, and three bedroom units. I'm going to skip over the details of the amenities. But again, all of this represents a down zoning. Down zoning from RM36 to RM30 for the portion of the property that was zoned in 2017. And a down zoning if you consider the 50 units per acre that the grams can do by right on the industrial portion. So the proposed rezoning before you reduces the maximum potential development from 978 units to 666, which is a 32% reduction. And not only are we not proposing to develop the 30 units per acre allowed under RM zoning, the proposed 541 apartments translates to a density of 24 units per acre. A live local based development would bring dramatic consequences to the town of Miami Lakes, especially on the subject of ad valorem taxes. Under live local, affordable units are granted a 75 to 100% reduction in property taxes, depending on the level of affordability. And that's something that this board should consider making its recommendation and the council has to take a look at as well. Now, some may ask why in the world would the grand companies down zone their land when they can develop more units under live local? First, it provides an opportunity to unify these parcels under one zoning category to create a much better site plan , which perfectly leads into number two. The grand companies always asks the question when evaluating a development or a redevelopment opportunity. Is this a good thing for Miami Lakes? Historically, the grand companies have taken a very responsible approach to development, creating a community that we all value today. And this is no different. We can all agree that this plan undoubtedly is better for Miami Lakes than a live local project. However, let there be no doubt, like I told the council at first reading, that the one thing the company will not do, that the grand companies will not do and cannot do, is to remain idle. A no vote to a responsible plan that's before the council is a yes vote to live local. And that's an unfortunate reality. Before closing, I do want to mention that while the grand companies were unsuccessful at creating this senior village that everyone imagined, they are very aware of the town's continued interest in having a senior center. Once again, the discussions with Mr. Peterman included the senior center's issue and a good faith offer was made by the grams of $1 million. To assist the town with efforts to fund a senior center at a location to be decided by the council, in response to the profit amount and appraisal was done, the appraisal came back at $1,560,000. The grams increased their offer to $1,280,000. And tonight, I will tell you, like I told the council at first reading, that the grams have once again upped their proffer from $1.28 to $1.56 million. And once again, this is a good faith offer for purposes of allowing the council, the town, to build the senior center at a location of its preference. So in closing, I would like to just thank staff as I have done in every step of the way. Lorenzo, Susana, Eddie. And at every level, we -- you know, this has been a lot of hard work, grueling work, many, many years in the making. And there is a recommendation before you of approval. There's a first reading before the council that was passed approving this plan. And I would respectfully request that this board forward a recommendation of approval to the council as well. And like I said, we're here to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Attorney. Yes, Mr. Chair. I'm going to have a question. Are you going to have any comments now or do we have another presentation? So now what I would do is just open the public hearing portion. Okay. Take testimony and then deliberate. Once again, anybody that wants to speak, please come up to the podium. Introduce yourself and we're happy to hear you. I'm going to have a really little presentation and I think that's what it's about when you need to set up first. It's not bad enough. If it's all right with the board, I don't think we should take time out of her three minutes for her to set this up, if that's okay with the board. Yes, that's fine with the board. Let me in. Thank you. Mr. Please introduce yourself one more time for the record. Thank you. Susanna, 149 70 Dumberton place. Very rustic, but I just want to take us to travel through time. Mr. You have to stay within the mic. He's going to go get you the portable mic or you know it's right there. We just need to turn it on. Are we on? No. Okay. So this is what we're looking at, right? We're going to travel through time. I'm going to try to do it as fast as we can. We're going to travel through time. We're going to travel through time. We're going to travel through time. We're going to travel through time. We're going to travel through time. We're going to travel through time. We're going to travel through time. We're going to travel through time. We're going to travel through time. We're going to travel through time. We're going to travel through time. We're going to travel through time. We're going to travel through time. We're going to travel through time. We're going to travel through time. We're going to travel through time. We're going to travel through time. We're going to travel through time. We're going to travel through time. We're going to travel through time. We're going to travel through time. We're going to travel through time. And you said, OK, they came before us and say, hey, we want you to do two things in 2019. A, we want to separate Miami Jewish from the application. And we want you to grant us the opportunity to start construction here in the community center without tying this to buy us time until we find another partner. And then they proffered, let me see if I can do my little thing here. They proffered, how does it go? Here. They say, Mr. Luis Martinez went on record saying, we are so confident we're going to find a partner that we are providing a covenant that matches the existing covenant for the senior living that ties into a term of 30 years. Renewable for 10 consecutive years. For 10 years, two more times, meaning a total of 60. So he's tying this covenant to this existing condition. OK. And he says, and I promise you, in addition to that, that we're still committed to providing the 1.3 acre land donated to the town with a community center. And in addition to that, we're going to build the inside for you at cost. And we will manage it. That happened in 2019. And we all, they came before you, they came before the town , they promised this to the residents. Time goes by, here we are today. They want to do this. They want to throw it all on the floor and say, we're done. This is what we want to do now. Right? They come up with this plan. This is what they just presented to you. That's the 541 units. We have like 80% more trees than what the requirement is. I don't need 80% more trees. That's, I don't care. Why do I want 80% more trees when I cannot develop? I need one more minute. If somebody can sponsor me and motion me for extra. We're going to do a motion for one more minute. Total of four minutes. Is there one second? I'll second. OK. All in favor for the extra minute? All in favor. Thank you. So here's the same thing that they promised. 541 units. And then they, there's no commitment to the town. The promises are going away. Why? Why? Here we go. Why can't we, let me take that one. Why can't we maintain the element of the senior living, not disrupted? I understand that it would be inconvenient to have the community center in the middle. But why can't we move these? This is a total, they had here a total of 72 units. Let them move the 72 units. Put additional floors here. And let them keep the 541. But let them carve out the land that they promised they were going to donate along with the community center. We would have our own access road to the community center. They would still maintain their 541 units. And it would allow them to be honorable men and to honor Senator Bob Graham when he showed up here in 2017 and promised the citizens that this was needed. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. that would like to speak. Okay we'll go ahead and start with Miss Hilda Fernandez. Go ahead and unmute yourself IT follow suit and you have four minutes. Go ahead. Thank you so much Hilda Fernandez. Address withheld according to FS 119. Let me just begin. I have to say something because I worked in government for 22 years. I'm quite offended with the concept that you should be told that it's a bad thing. A bad thing that you allow for additional public comments in your meetings. Congratulations for being a town that wel comes citizen comments and doesn't make it sound like it's a terrible thing that people are given three chances to speak for a whole whopping nine minutes on an issue that is important to them. And by the way Miami Beach Stanley Sutn ick Hour they've had that for 30 years on the record twice every single meeting people can come and speak about an issue of the item or whatever so it is not unique to the town of Miami Lakes. Now let to get to the issue live local there's an explanation of why they didn't live local but there's a simple explanation why they didn't live local because that's not the brand. The Miami Lakes brand for the grand company that owns a lot of the land and most of the land that is not privately owned is a brand of a low density model and I got to commend them they came in and asked for 35 originally for that one parcel they're coming in and trying to down zone that to 30. That's fantastic but the bottom line is live local does not match their brand. Building a live local in that location would be a negative for the adjoining property let alone for everything else that's happening in the town. Forget the financial fundamentals of whether live local even with a tax abatement of 75% would be economically feasible for the grams. That's that's even a totally different issue and by the way the issue of tax abatement of the impact to the community is a council issue that's not for the planning and zoning board as much as the attorney would like you to believe that you also get to react you know give impressions of your concern about that. That's a council issue is a big policy problem. The senior center is really the issue here when the first parcel was rezoned when they came to the PNZ and went to the count to the council and they rezone the first parcel to do the senior living community it included a senior center land and building out a shell. Fast forward and three years later four years later what has changed they come back and they propose 541 units you know the only thing that has changed since then because they have a right to come in and ask for redevelopment to change something else from industrial to RM 30 or RM 36 or whatever what really has bothered the community is the fact that the senior center that little parcel of land is no longer part of the equation. Why? Oh yes they were offering a million dollars let's be clear about something we're getting a million and a half dollars but where in the world will we buy land in Miami lakes if not from the same company that's giving us the money to buy land. Part three please you're going to hear part three as an option part three has environmental issues folks if we could have gone part three it would have been transferred already to us a very long time ago because the town really wants it so that is not the solution the the best thing they can do is go back to the people who came when they knew they had no choice but to offer something to the community as a way of sweetening the request for the rezoning in 2017 and 19 when they offered a senior village senior center the senior center all of a sudden that's off the table because they believe that they don't need to provide any incentive anymore because they believe that with the implied threat of what we could do live local and do 500 units they don't need to offer anything anymore. That unfortunately shows a little bit of bad faith. I'm suggesting that the to you all to consider the conversation about including the senior center like they originally did there's no reason with the parcels of their combining that they could not provide that amenity to the community that they first promised. Thank you very much. I know I went over a little bit. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Fernandez. And through the chair, I believe we have one more participant online. Dr. David Bennett. Go ahead and unmute yourself. I.T. Allow him to speak. And once again, we have four minutes. Dr. David Bennett. Yeah. Dr. David Bennett. 15830 Northwest 83rd place. I'm going to echo just about everything that Ms . Fernandez, Ms. Fernandez said. More importantly, I find it personally offensive that the part, the petitioner's attorney would imply that public debate and public comments should be excluded the second time. That would mean his entire presentation needs to be stricken from the record based on his own personal wants and desires. So no, public participation is essential. It's unconstitutional to even assume that we should not be able to speak whenever possible on anything that affects our neighborhoods, our lives, our community. Now, once again, I can continue on. I'm going to take just another minute to give you a couple more Supreme Court cases because obviously this seems to upset the council for the, for the, never. Basically, once again, Village of Terri versus Borales, the legal principle that municipalities can regulate land use to preserve neighborhood character and family residential environments. United States Supreme Court 1974. Okay. And then another one here, the zoning restrictions, you can go ahead and do it. I'm sorry, Egan versus City of Tiburon in 1980, US Supreme Court. The court held that zoning restrictions can be upheld, that you can decide what needs to change and what doesn't change. You don't have any penalties for doing so. So, I mean, once again, I don't want to go through the 12 cases that I have that basically supports the fact that you have the power to save the people of Miami Lakes to represent us in such a way that, you know, that our community gets better, not just bigger. All right. Well, at any rate, thank you, ladies and gentlemen. And I wish you all the best. I'll be watching from the corner here. Have a nice night. Thank you, Dr. Bennett. And through the chair, there are no further online public comments. Excellent. Let me get a point of personal privilege, please . I just want to say that the attorney did not say that people should not be allowed to speak. He basically said that you should not have two bites of the apple. Okay. You have a right to speak on any issue you want and then a right to speak on the item at hand. That's what the attorney said. It wasn't that he was trying to, in my opinion, constitutionally deny anybody freedom of speech. It was setting up two bites of the apple, which in most, of course, are judicial in other areas. It's not allowed. It's not allowed. So just clean that up and we'll get that we'll get past that so we can move on to the rest of the information. Mr. Attorney. So at this point, what would be proper is to close the public hearing and then deliberate amongst yourselves. Public hearing is closed. I see no objection. Go ahead. No objection. Anything else? Are we ready to vote on the flume? We have any more information? We have any questions? Sure. I mean, I would have a motion and second and then open up for discussion. All right. Anybody motion on this issue? I'll make a motion to open up for discussion, a motion to go ahead and approve the flume as requested and as drafted by staff so that we could discuss the item because there has to be a motion on the floor to discuss. I'll second it. I'll second that motion. There you go. Go ahead, Mr. Julio. So I understand the issue of people before developers. I understand that quite clearly. We also understand that there's a significant issue with traffic in our town. There's also significant traffic issue in probably most of Miami-Dade County. I speak regarding this matter because I am pretty familiar with Live Local and because I've been practically in the middle of perhaps developing under that law. So I'd like to at least inform everyone regarding what Live Local means and what Live Local provides is that you are able to to literally bypass the municipality. That's a state law. That's not a decision that anyone in this board or in this town approved. That law allows a developer that if you set aside a certain percentage and it's like 40% and you do 120% of area medium income, which in Miami-Dade County, the area medium income as of May of 2025 was 87,000 and change. So if you do 120% of that, you're at over $100,000. That's what's considered affordable. It's not low income guys. It's affordable. And I don't know what rule how the gram companies work on the residential side, but I do have residential units myself. And I've always done a third. So if somebody makes $1,000 a month or $3,000 a month, they could they could afford $1,000 a month rent. So if you under the affordable housing or the affordable workforce, whatever terminology you want to call it, that means that the person could pay $2,900 a month in rent, which I would venture to say is not much different than what an average unit in Miami to in Miami lakes today costs. So the live local, I'm not saying it's a threat. I respect the gram companies. I think most of us, you know, do. I don't think it's just a development right. And I understand that, you know, Dr. Bennett mentioned different cases, case law. In the state of Florida, there's such a thing called the Burt Harris Act. The Burt Harris Act basically says that we as a town cannot downstone someone. We could restrict what you could do to an extent. But if the code allows you to build 100 units, this board and this town, if they want to, they could pass and say you could only build 10. The town would then have to create the valuation or the property owner would have the opportunity to come and sue us for the difference of value of what one versus the other. We have to compensate the developer for what we're denying them because that's to protect the personal property rights. So that's why, you know, sometimes this whole thing is a balance. And my observation on this issue is that's why I proffered the motion. And I'll be honest with you, I, my suggestion is to approve it because the overall plan. Now, whether, you know, maybe there's a conversation to be had regarding the specific site plan. I mean, I, some of the items that you presented are probably something to consider. I'm not sure. That's not before us. We, we can only, uh, well, we, we, we're not even the, the final decision makers as to yay or nay. We could only give our, our suggestions. Um, my only suggestion, and this is the applicant has said RM 30 because that's what the, the, the new, uh, classification. They're bringing in something that's about a 24. I would say, I think that they, the, the applicant would be willing to perhaps go with the RM 30 and maybe limit the overall size of this project to the, what they've offered, which is 540 or whatever amount of units. And I think that that's less than, that's close to half of what they could go under live local. At the end of the day, this property is developed. So whether we do apartment buildings or commercial, there's going to be traffic. I know that there's been a lot of talk about, and I was on this board when we approved the senior living, and then there's some have probably thought of, well, if they didn't do the Jewish, uh, thing with the senior living, then we should take that right back for them. That actually goes against, it's not to our benefit because if the argument is, Hey, because they didn't go forward with that initial plan, they should revert back to the IUC. Well, then that now allows them to build 50 units per acre under live local. So these are all the different factors that at least in my mind, with all due respect, and I appreciate, I live over there too. I live in Silvercrest. It's probably another 10 minutes of my drive in the morning. I get it. And I live it. But I cannot, in all fairness, weighing all the different factors. This is my, my thinking point. And I want to express it, you know, where I'm coming from and why I think this is a viable solution given all the possibilities for this property. And I hope that at some point, maybe in the discussion of the site plan, maybe things could be tweaked. Uh, but that's basically my recommendation. I think that's a good question. Anybody else? Yeah, through the board. Good. Yeah, I, uh, I've lived in the area since 1957. And I've watched the Graham companies develop the properties. And I see what's going on in the other cities. And the other cities with the live local. And the Grahams have always been responsible. And I concur with what's been said here. And I believe that they will do the best for our town. And basically that's a, that's how I feel about it. Can I? Yeah, through the share, I, I concur with Mr. Julia and, uh, and the La Sierra. When, uh, we're voting tonight on just on, on, on this item that has nothing to do with the site plan. And perhaps when it's time to come in front of us for the site plan or, or the council, uh, perhaps you guys can, uh, think about giving a, a little bit of land to build a community center within the property. And I think the residents might be happy, uh, to have that because with a 1.560, there's not much that the town can do. The town doesn't own any land and to develop that, it's going to be more than that. But tonight we're not voting on that. There's something just to consider if you guys want to tweak the site plan here and there. That's my opinion. No. Okay. All right. So I'll close it out just by giving you a couple of things. I was part of that original, uh, discussion of Miami Jewish in 2016, 17. Um, and I was all for it. Absolutely. Mr. Fernandez was absolutely correct. I was planning on it for my future. I was planning on it for my mother-in-law's future. Um, and so, you know, I, I, I saw the effect. I know that, um, council member, council member Coyazo worked diligently, diligently to get that there. Okay. And yes, I, I, I can't remember, um, that it was a promise because I don't think I've ever read any of these, any developers say I promise. Um, because I, and definitely no attorneys will say I promise. So, but, um, the problem is that, um, the, um, the, um, the, uh, the state of Florida, um, the state of Florida put us into this position. This is not a position in the town of Miami lakes. This is a position of the state of Florida. The state of Florida has done this to us. Okay. They've tied our hands. And I know that people try to fight it through the home rule charter and all the other things and the state overroading. So little by little, Tallahassee's, you know, just taking power away from local government. All right. So that's something that needs to be addressed with the state. Unfortunately, not with the town. The, the grams are downsizing. Okay. They've gone from 50. They can do 50 units per acre, right? To RM's 30, which is 30 units per acre, but they're going to 24, which actually comes up to 22.2, which is I saw in the presentation. So it's a little bit lower than 24. I live on the west side. I live on 87th Avenue. If anybody knows about traffic, I was the traffic czar of Miami lakes. I know we had a, a traffic, um, what was, uh, uh, commander summit. What was it? Gonzalez Gonzalez. Gonzalez. He was the traffic wizard or he had a whisper, a whisper, a traffic whisperer that I, I, I would, with, uh, vice mayor, Tony Lama set up. I set up with one with him, a traffic summit, and I set up a second traffic summit when I was a council member. So if anybody understands the in and outs, what we've tried to do for years and years and years and years to get traffic development going and doing it right in the town, I know, but I do know that the town has been through this before with the Bert Harris Act. And we had a problem up here on the east side and we almost got burned on that one as well. So the fact is that we would lose $2.6 million in road improvements if they went live local. $275,000 in fire protection. Uh, well, these are funds. $37 2,000 in police. $331,000 in school and $1.5 million in parks. And I'm not sure if that includes the, the, the, the, the 1.5 million doesn't include the senior center as well, right? Mr. Attorney. No, no, no. So the 1.5 million is for parks plus 1.5 million for the senior center. Correct. Okay . So I can do some math. And 541 is a lot better than 978. Okay. And I'd rather have 978. I'm sorry. I'd rather have, uh, 570, 541 than to have 978. I can do the math and so can they. And I guarantee you if it was profitable for them to drown size even more, they probably would. But there comes a time where, you know, money and construction and factors come in and you know, at the end of the day, I'm not gonna, I refuse to put the town in a position where we're going to get sued and go through all that process. We've ever been sued multiple times by other people and spend millions of dollars on other stuff, which will, is not part of this now, but I can do that. So that's my concern. And I agree with, with the gentlemen, if the, if the, if the, if the Graham's finding in their heart later on to find us a piece of land where we can put that senior center, because 1.5 million is not going to buy us a piece of land and build a building. So, um, maybe we can squeeze their hearts that way and figure it out there, but that's not here now. So we do have a motion on the floor and I think we're ready to vote if there's any, no other issues. Yeah. I'm ready to vote. Sure. Calling the role to approve the item 5A, the future land use map amendment motion by board member Robert Julia and seconded by board member de la Sierra to approve the item with the recommendations by staff board member Cruz. Yes. Board member Leoncio. Yes. Board member de la Sierra. Yes. Board member Julia. Yes. And vice chair Rodriguez. Yes. The motion passes. Board member. Let's move over to the next item. Mr. Attorney. Give me just a minute. I'm looking for the, uh, You're not, you're not charging by the, uh, I just, just, just asking. Oh, the other one's charging by here. Oh, sorry. All right. So the next item you have for you is this is the rezoning. Uh, this is not a, uh, a public hearing. Um, this is an ordinance of the town of Miami lakes, florida amending the official zoning map to rezone approximately 22.2 plus or minus acres of property located on the west side of commerce way and northwest 146 street with folio numbers 32202070 0010 302020 680020 322020 680030 and 322020 680010 and more particularly described at attachment a from the iuc industrial district conditional and from the rm 36 residential multifamily 36 units to an acre to rm 30 medium density residential district 30 units to an acre providing for incorporation of recitals providing for findings providing for direction to the administrative official providing for repeal of laws in conflict providing for severability providing for room exclusions from the code and providing for an effective date we need we need a motion can i have a question with this conversation of burt harris how does that affect we're down zoning from arm 36 to arm 30 is that because there's consent it's applicant driven it's applicant driven the applicant driven sure so okay i just want to make sure we're covered and again i just want to make sure that the record reflects that our presentation is incorporated by reference this is just the rezoning component but i'm not going to repeat the same thing so go ahead mr attorney you're you're you're good i'm just incorporating my entire presentation from the last item all right excellent five right all right so do we have a motion to i believe the staff may have oh go ahead i'm sorry yes the same thing as the as the attorney for the the i'm gonna uh incorporate the staff report by reference and just to remind you that this does uh in your the four properties now not just three and that they're going for arm 30 which is 30 units to the acre for one of the properties is a down zoning from 36 to 30 and it's a voluntary uh down zoning uh requested by the applicant themselves and the other properties are going from industrial to arm 30 to match so that you have a uniform density throughout the throughout the throughout the area and i just if i may really quickly mr chair uh to your point uh member julia what you said about uh bert har ris is absolutely 100 correct yes we as a government can decide to not approve this project we can decide not to do the flume we can decide to vote no on the site plan we can do all those things however with that decision comes a the part that affects them and they they are as property owners if they are not able to use their property as zoned as their rights are under our code and we take that from them which you they can do then that's called a bert harris claim and so that's a taking in other words whatever value they've lost in their potential to build out then the applicant could file a claim against the the town so again and and that happens all the time throughout the state of flor ida uh less so now i think with uh live local because live local offers another opportunity well we're just not going to go through the town we're just going to do it as a matter of right and and build out if it's industrial commercial so i just wanted to say that everything you've stated is correct so do we have a motion i'll make a motion to go ahead and approve do we have a second second any discussion anybody anything you need to say no anything else okay well so again this goes from here to the town council they'll finish it off we just give our recommendations um i do i do have faith in what the the grams have built um i did come here and move here because of the area and what what i expected and and to me it's all been it's all been class um traffic we're not going to stop it it's just not going to stop and you can call uh i call as a matter of fact i put a call in today to uh i'm going to give them a call in today to our state representative mr fabrizio about the palmetto um and the design on that so we can there's there's major flaw designs that i see but i'm not an engineer but those those things are out of our hands they're out of the town hands and unfortunately um we have to deal with what we got so mr clerk calling the roll for the councilman's office and we're calling the roll for item 5b for approval of the rezoning with staff recommendations motion by board member cruz and seconded by board member le oncio board member julia yes board member de la sierra yes board member leoncio yes board member cruz yes and vice chair rodriguez yes the motion passes thank you have a good evening thank you any other items that we need to finish uh mr clerk or mr attorney any any housekeeping any we're good miss alonzo uh yes just to reiterate that this is our um april uh hearing we will have another hearing scheduled natural not on may uh the next one will be in june june uh we will probably skip july and august and try to do september october uh in a row obviously if there's no applicants i won't drag you in uh if uh but uh at this point we're looking at uh june and then skip july and august and then august did i say that right september and october okay excellent all right motion to adjourn second excellent all right meeting is adjourned Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So if you have more budget related discussion, I'd welcome it, but I don't want to continue having a back and forth about a single subject. And it's not even about budget. So if you want to go ahead and wrap up, that'll be welcome at this time. I'm confused, but I'll hold on to the thought. Hold on to that and I'll give it to you when I digest it. One second. So before I continue, Alexis, is there anyone online? There is not. There's none? Okay. Yeah, I just wanted to make sure to give the opportunity to follow the comment had anyone been present. Before you, Councilman Sanchez, Councilman Herzberg had requested. So Councilman Herzberg and then Councilman Sanchez. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I think the most important thing for this workshop is that the manager gets direction from us. And the way I see it, I don't want to go through the little bit of fiasco we went through last year. We increased the millage last year. I would expect that revenue will increase this year based off, you know, the franchise fee and property values. Maybe you'll be around flat in the properties. But ultimately, I expect that we should get a budget from the town manager of a flat rate. I think that's where we should be starting because we increased the millage last year. So for me, I'm not looking at any increase whatsoever. If we can decrease it, great. I'm not saying I have to decrease it. I'm not saying we have to go to a rollback rate. What I'm saying is I think our opening budget, which I believe the funds are there, should be based off a flat rate. So I don't want to I think it's a waste of time and effort if we go through the which we've done in the past. Not we all we did it once and and other councils on the past and getting this fully funded budget and discussing what the fully funded budget looks like. I you guys tell me if you tell, you know, tell the manager. But for me, I think I expect we should be working on a flat rate and see where we can go down from there. I'm not saying we have to go down. I'm saying we have to make all these amazing cuts. I think we're in a good position where we are, but I'm not going to move the rate unless there's some unprecedented event. So we got like councilman changes. So that's that's why I feel like I have two things to touch upon. One of the things is one of the things that our councilman, um, Guala Garcia brought up. If you remember last year, I did a resolution that forces the town staff whenever a renewal of a contract is 3.01%. The rate, the new rate is 3.01% higher than the original rate. The staff is forced to go out to put in a procurement process invitation to bid request for proposal request for bids in order to make sure that the costs stay down. So with regards to the police contract, that's something that would fall into place in order to keep the budget down. So whenever renewal comes in. So yes, contracts are technically in stone until the renewal period comes, comes to play. On as a side note, I think something that is the overall encompassing of what this meeting is meant to be is things that we have brought up over the council meetings over the year of things that we'd like to see in town that would come as an expenditure. I'm going to use myself as an example. One of the first things that I did last year, one of the first items was creating an extension to that median on Miami the next drive just the city. So the Palmeiro coming out of 77 Avenue. I believe it is where all the urgent cares are, where cars would have no choice but to make a right hand turn that comes as an expense. So it's the case. And so the budget, I think that's a lot of time to make sure that we have a lot of the budget. So I think that's a lot of time to make sure that we have a lot of time to make sure that we have a lot of time to make sure that we have a lot of time to make sure that we have a lot of time. So that's a lot of time to make sure that we have a lot of time to make sure that we have a lot of time to make sure that we have a lot of time to make sure that we have a lot of time. see as priorities in this town be a part of the budget so that we can discuss and when budget season does arrive am I correct in that assumption mr. vice mayor yes so that is so those are the two things so resolution I did last year councilman Quaglia Garcia about the 3.01% RFP and what we want to see in the town that would eventually cost money for us to implement around the town of Miami Lake so for example an idea for you would be how much would it cost to repair the the canal embankment along a Royal Oaks that would be something that that could be part of this discussion that's my Fernandez thank you chair I want to make a combo I want to remind us that if I'm not mistaken I believe that our last payment to the for the PZ settlement was last year so we do have that and I agree with councilman Hertzberg I think that a good starting point is to keep it flat and I do expect us to probably keep it flat um I think that we can get if not all of our our needs fit into that but but certainly most of them and I think that the residents would would appreciate that but you know I you guys know how I stand on things I'm not gonna go line by line but I do think that you have an idea of what I think is important for the town including parks and medians and you know beautification but I'll hear more as we discuss our priorities specifically yeah through the chair thank you just a couple things to make it easier for us and for the staff because the staff we're going to be able to do it I think that we're going to be able to do it for us and we want to make it as easy for them so I guess setting the priorities um just simple paperwork whenever print printouts come out you know anything to do with printouts or anything like that just for my sake since I'm 53 years old I need bigger font and just little things like that that I would ask if you guys can do that I know it sounds silly guys but it helps when we look at that council member I I understand exactly how you feel exactly In addition, I do agree that we caused, you know, there was some drama and residents were clearly upset about, you know, the millage, the initial millage that came out, the high millage. And we ended up almost getting to the flat rate, right? Because all of us, along with the staff, got together line by line and we prioritized and moved money around. So I like to see us start with the flat rate and also focus on priorities. And I think our priorities should be existing infrastructure, our parks, what we need to do to get them up, you know, up to the level that residents deserve. And, you know, put aside anything, you know, any future parks or any future things or any projects we want to do. I think we should put those, not prioritize those, prioritize what we have currently, our roads, our parks, our sidewalks. We really got to get to where they're at because honestly, we don't know what's going to happen next year. I mean, honestly, what would happen, sir, if as far as do you feel, how would it affect us? This is the budget. If the Florida residents decide to vote yes on the amendments that are coming up, what percentage of our budget for 2027 do you feel is effective or is that going to start in 2028? Yeah, the way it's being proposed is that the, if something passes the legislature and gets signed into law by the governor, it would go before the people to be voted on in November. November. And it would take effect for the following fiscal year. So for... 28. It would be... It would be... It would be... It would be... Not November of 26. It'd be starting November. The budget for the fiscal year, 27, 28. Which we're talking about right now, basically. No, we're talking about 26, 27. Wait, okay. I'm saying... Yeah, the one that you're about... A part of it is... We're about to embark on developing is the 26, 27 budget. The one that this would probably affect would start with the 27, 28 budget. Okay. So keeping that in mind, focusing on... I know the mayor has initiatives on making sure we have, you know, savings, right? And we're preparing for the worst. I think we need to start preparing for the worst now in this budget. Just make, you know, to see what happens because we're, you know, we don't know exactly how that's going to affect the next budget. And we might have to go into our savings. So I think we should keep that in mind when we come up with these numbers as well. But I'd also like to see a focus based on, you know, what we asked for last year. Any initiatives, any line items that could be moved around, like we did before, we kind of had to ask you, hey, can we move this around? You looked into it. We could move around, some we couldn't. Be a little more proactive in that and say, hey, we found some areas that we can move money around for you guys to make it easier for you ahead of time, right? I think just things that will make it easier for us ahead of time. I don't mind the exercise of going line by line. That's why we were elected, right? But it would be easier for us if you, if perhaps you propose, hey, there's some areas here that you could move money around. Instead of us having to, you know, go up to you every single time, hey, can we do this, can we do that? If you have some ideas on how we can move money around or if there's areas we can, let us know ahead of time. We'd love to see a report on that so we can make decisions based on that ahead of time. We don't have to go through the whole rigmarole of going line by line. And as far as, again, budget concerns, you know, every year we seem to have that million dollar surplus and we're moving some to say. But I also, I'm going to bring this up again. I still think that depending on what happens with the state and what people vote for, I still think there's an opportunity to have police officers to our budget, to have more police officers. I still think we need two more. So I'm going to push that. And the last thing I'm going to push is, you know, a solid plan B for Optimus Park seems to be very difficult to do. So instead of trying to make perfection the enemy of the good, I think we need to start piecemealing this. I asked my colleagues. Instead of $200,000, and I know the vice mayor brought that up, for tennis courts, well, we should spend that $200,000 on the backstops that are pretty much falling apart. Let's start doing it little by little. Let's start getting it done. And in fact, I'm going to blame myself. I would have said to myself, maybe we should do little by little instead of trying to do one big thing. We probably would have had all the backstops done. We probably would have replaced those wooden poles by now. So I think I asked my colleagues to just be open to that. Little by little, let's get Optimus Park to the level, at least minimum standards, you know. I think too much time was spent, and I'll admit it's spent by me, trying to fix things in one shot. I think we need to, infrastructure is a daily exercise that we need to do. And I think we need to focus on what we need to do every day. Instead of waiting for one big project, we should just start doing it piecemeal and get it done. I think the residents deserve that. So those are my thoughts on the budget. Again, thank you so much for being here. And every year you guys step up and prove that we have the best staff and the best finance department and budget department in the county. So thank you. Thank you, man. Thank you, Councilman Garcia. I'll say I definitely agree with the piecemeal and MLP. You know, I also know we have quite a bit of funds for the MLP that have just been waiting around. And I'd love to see plans for what we have. Councilman Cuadra Garcia, did you want to make a comment or suggestion? Because I have some comments that I want to make, but I just want to save myself for that. I'm going to make it quick. Go ahead. I'm going to make it quick. I'm going to echo some words that Councilman Hurtzberg said. We are doing very well. We have a surplus almost every year of a million dollars. My goal is going to be looking at doing a rollback. That's going to be my goal. So if we're doing so well, let's set our standards high and let's try to go and shoot to do a rollback. We're going to make a lot of residents very, very happy. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Cuadra Garcia. I'm going to go ahead and get some of my thoughts on the record. First and foremost, I will actually echo the sentiments of Councilman Cuadra Garcia. I do think that the flat rate is a good starting point and it should be. As Councilman Hurtzberg mentioned, where we start from, it will be my goal to reach the rollback. The housing market hasn't exactly been on fire lately. So it shouldn't be a gigantic difference between the rollback and the flat. And that's what I'd like to see the rollback. On another housekeeping matter, I want everyone on this council, let's just say everyone on this council should have the Excel file from day one. If they choose to use it, good. If they don't, if they prefer the PDFs, that's fine with them. They can do it. They can use whichever one they prefer. For me, and I know Councilman Sanchez and I know Councilman Herzberg, we were deep diving into that budget. And it becomes incredibly difficult when we do not have the Excel. And I know that there were issues with that last year because it was the first time anyone had really ever asked for it on the council. So that caused some issues with the formatting. So I would say plan accordingly this year, knowing that we're going to be asking for it. Go ahead. If you don't mind, let me just interject one little thing regarding that. Is that document is a dynamic document. Yep. So we can give you a snapshot at any given moment. And almost from the moment we give it to you, probably the following day, it's going to be, you know, stale. And that's completely understood. Right. So I think as long as we, everybody understands that that's the scenario. You know, look, every council is different and has different compositions. One of the things that this council does have, frankly, going for it is it is a particularly young council. And I think it's the coming in of, yeah, I include Councilman Fernandez and Cuadro Garcia in that. But the use of technology and incorporating it, we understand. It's a dynamic document. We're not saying, you know, once you send it to us and say, hey, here it is as of X date, you know. Yeah, you can link it to access. Sorry. Do a link to access, you know, what it looks like, except the only problem with that is we have to be able to view, not edit. Yeah. You'll be. But we would be able to download a copy. Yeah. Download our own personal copy. Yes. I understood what he meant. And yeah, we're not asking to be able to edit the official version at all. It could be a link to access and view and then download it at any time. Or it could be at predetermined moments throughout the budget period. Hey, after the finalization of departmental budget requests, after, you know, we receive certain numbers from the state and whatnot, as we hit these thresholds and you guys are producing new budgets. Hey, guys, here's the fresh one. Or I actually really like Councilman Garcia's idea of just provide a link to the access and we can pull it any day we want without even having to ask for it. And instead, all we're doing is downloading a copy on. Hey, I know that this is the budget as of April 7th. I get it. It's not a complete budget. But hey, here's what we're working on. And then in my head, I could start moving around because realistically speaking, I'm not trying to move around, even though, yes, last year we went so deep that we were cutting thousand and five hundred dollar items. That's not what I'm trying to do early on in the process. Early on in the process, I'm looking at more big picture items, which I don't necessarily think we'll be moving that much just because it's a non final budget. So in any ways, the Excel, we want that as soon as possible. I forgot who mentioned it, but great mentioning. I think it was Councilman Fernandez. I do think can we confirm we're done with the busy settlement, right? That's no longer. Yeah. So so so that gives further credence to not only being able to hit the flat rate, but actually being able to go to to the rollback rate. And we're all very happy that that's finally over. And in terms of aside from that. I'm going to bring up, you know, what was my big item from from last year's budget cycle, which is I'm imparting on the staff. I would love to see as much to the fullest extent possible. The use of recurring special revenue funds such as PPP, such as those things, which I don't even know if you can call them recurring right now with the budget amendments that he mentioned, because I assume CIT would also collapse if those amendments went through because they're all funded based on property taxes as well. So that's the CIT, which should be still there. That one should still be there. So to the fullest extent possible, whether it's the CIT or any of our other special revenue funds that we regularly receive it, as I pointed out with the PTP. Right. It's based on a on our population, the number of cars. There's like a formula involved. We're always going to get that money that should go toward to the fullest extent possible to fund ongoing operating expenses and relieve the general fund of pressure. Obviously, we have projects that are already underway and there's obligations to fund them year after year. I understand that. I'm not saying to defund those. OK. That's not my risk. It's always a zero sum game, right? Correct. Because if we use some of those funds for general operating expenses that qualify, right? Obviously, every single one of those pots have different set of rules. If we do that, that means that something else will not be getting done. Correct. So that's obviously we have to make sure that we understand. Correct. It's just nine times out of ten what's on the special revenue funds is stuff that half this council looks at and says, why are we paying for that? And I get it. Some of those stuff is important. But all I'm saying is you're absolutely right. It is a zero sum game. When we're looking at funding things, if we're staring at this item, whatever it is, right? I'm just using the gavel as an illustrative point. We were looking at funding this item. Just ask yourself, is there a way that this can be funded from a special revenue fund? And even if you decide in the staff's discretion, the manager's discretion, to not fund it from the special revenue fund, but you thought, hey, this might be able to be funded from somewhere. I would like to see that in the budget comment in the notes column. And I would like to say, hey, this might be able to be funded from the special revenue fund. And I would like to say, hey, this might be able to be funded from the special revenue fund. This might be able to be funded from the special revenue fund. Aside from that, the police is always going to be my number one funding priority. The safety of our residents is our one and only real obligation in this town. And along with that, the protection of our children, I would like to see the crossing guards once again being funded from the special revenue fund. I believe it was PTP. I would like to see that again. And then aside from the police, a big, big priority is parks and the conditions of athletic fields, as well as the conditions of just green spaces that are not considered athletic fields. Just, you know, our general parks that they look lush and nice. As we approach, and I'm letting my council members kind of like in on this, is as we approach this amended budget, process now for the current fiscal year. One of the things I'm going to be doing is asking our parks director, you know, we we gave you what you asked for. We fully funded the. The. Pretty much everything other than mulch. Yes. Thank you for putting that out. So, hey, are we seeing a tangible benefit from that? Or was this just extra money and really a marginal improvement? And then if so, what caused the marginal? Was it all of these things we did? Or maybe was it one of these and then we can one of these things and then we can continue funding that as opposed to the rest of it? Just kind of getting into pun intended, the weeds of it. Um, aside from that, um, yeah, I do look forward to seeing the, the proposed budget. Uh, and, and I do look forward to, uh, the staff's recommendations and I, and I do also look forward to hopefully, uh, on the amended budget that's coming up. I think, uh, Councilman Garcia pointed that out, uh, creating a little bit of savings, uh, for tax relief. We might see, uh, a significant rollback if, if, if we're, we're responsible up here. Well, if you may, Vice Mayor, I, I think. Yes, Councilman. Maybe it's important for the manager to hear this from us now because of the amendment coming up. I don't remember the number. I don't know if you have it offhand, how much money we took out of the carry forward and like put it in the contingency. About half. About half. So around. Yeah. 500,000, right around 500, maybe a hair below or a hair above. Right. So to me, I would like to see that money just sit there in the savings. I would like to see a budget that doesn't even take that money into corporation because my understanding of the item we passed that the mayor brought forward was this is a savings, not a let's give the taxpayers a break one year. That's not good accounting. It should be a savings for when we need the money. Here's the money. I mean, I know there's other municipalities that have tens of millions of dollars sitting in a bank. They have much larger tax bases. Don't get me wrong. But there are municipalities that have tens of millions of dollars sitting in a bank in a reserve. We don't have anything like that. This is how we can start it. We have five million. Well, we always have. I know I'm talking about outside of general fund reserve. Yeah. I'm talking about just a reserve account. Right. But regardless, my position on what I would like to see, obviously, we have the choice to use that money sort of like we've used Optimist Park like seven times now. So we'll have the choice to use that money. But I would love to see the first budget not incorporate any savings we take from this ordinance from the second meeting. And then we can make the decision to use that or not. I now understand what you're saying. And I agree 100%. Yes. I'm saying the budget that's presented should be flat rate, but not say, oh, here's a flat rate and here's an extra $500,000 we saved from the carry forward. It should be flat rate. And by the way, guys, we also have $500,000 here. If there's something that we need it for, if you want to lower the rate more, we can take money from there. But not just let's use this extra money towards the budget so we can add $500,000 in expenses. You know what I mean? And I don't want to speak for the mayor. He can speak for himself, but I believe his intent was exactly that, which was to create a fund where you can go to in extraordinary circumstances. And I don't want to use the word extraordinary because it seems like we'll never use it. But in special circumstances, right? It's not just an every year that you go to to lower the millage for, you know, whatever purposes. It would be something where there's some extraordinary thing that happens probably outside of our control, like the year that we had the transition and the FPNL franchise fee or there was something that happened with property taxes. Those kinds of years for that to be a source of revenue to minimize or limit the impact on that one year to taxpayers. Exactly. If I remember. We've been working with internally and with the mayor on developing the specifics of it to bring to the council. If I remember his item, he wanted to say it required a supermajority or something. All I'm saying is that $500,000 to me does not exist. Whatever savings we do on the next two weeks, that money doesn't exist to me. I don't want to see it. I don't want to think about it. Just, you know, we're not, we're not voting up here, but, but in general, I think he's just saying it should not be counted as revenue in any fund. Uh, in the first, we concur. And I believe the mayor concurs and I think that was his objective and we've been working on the, on doing that. Councilman Sanchez. So to reflect on the, on the carry forward, um, I'm a big believer of, of not living paycheck to paycheck. And I don't want to see this town leaving, living in the proverbial paycheck to paycheck year to year. I think that carry forward that we have halfway through the year is a big benefit as a rainy day fund, because if we see an issue that we need to fix and it needs to be fixed in the next two to three months, and we have to wait an entire year for the next budget cycle to happen. Like for example, the whole traffic mitigation that I brought up at Bob, at Bob Graham educational center. If we had to wait another year for the funds that I requested to be able to complete the traffic study and defenses. Now we're shooting into summer of next year. So it's just kicking the can down the road. So having those funds, yes, putting half of it into a savings account, but keeping that other half. So if I feel like if we go to the rollback rate, we're going to hinder ourselves by not being able to do that. And instead of having progress in a, in a three, four or a four to six month interval, we're going to delay progress by a year that can extend to a year and a half, two years down the line. I think that's going to hinder the progress of safety and traffic and public safety in the town. So yes, I agree with the, with the hundred percent of, of putting some money into savings, 50% of the savings, but not hindering ourselves to not have somewhat of a carry forward for those little projects that happen throughout the year. You know? I, I mean, I, I agree with you and I'm, I'm not tied to a rollback. We have a low tax rate. Right, right. But, oh yeah. Yeah. But, um, uh, what I'm trying to say is even we're, we, at the minimum, our budgets go have an additional 500,000 less. Now, obviously I know contracts go up and things like that. So if, if we're at a, a low tax rate and we see a little bit of a surplus, you know, we can say, let's put some more money away in this fund. Cause I agree. It's important to have that. And we don't know what's going to happen with the state. Right. We don't know what's going to happen with property taxes the following year. So we might have some shortfall very soon. So we have to think of, I agree with you a hundred percent. We have to think that way. And other big discussions, how much year after year after year, we've had a surplus. The surplus was, as the vice mayor pointed out, last budget season was in the budget. So are we going to start using that surplus or are we going to continue to ignore it? And then, voila, we have money again, like in March. That's another discussion that we have to determine. Cause I think last budget season, we could have said there's $700,000 surplus. We're comfortable with saying, we know that there's going to be at least 300. So let's apply 300. And we would have been almost at a flat rate at that point. So that's another discussion we should think about as well. So just to make one final comment about going to rollback. Hey, Councilman Cuadro Garcia, let's say, for example, you have been harping on for a while now on the Brazilian red pepper trees and removing them from the canal embankment. But that costs money. If we would have to wait for the budget cycle, you would have those red pepper trees for another year there. If we go to the rollback and we don't have that extra money. So my recommendation is I would work with staff to see how much it would cost to remove those red pepper trees and bring it up at a council meeting that we can include it. We can vote and include it as part of that rate that carry forward that we have to remove those Brazilian red pepper trees that you bring up during meetings. Because no one's going to do that at no cost. It's going to have a cost associated with it. I'm just using that as an example. I just want to point out though. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. 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It gives us options. I'm not saying if she if it says 700, we should use 700 towards the general fund. That's a bad idea. But if there if it says 700, I have zero issues saying, all right, let's apply 20% because I am 100% confident that if our staff says there's gonna be 700, that 20% of that money is safe and will be there. Or we can conditionally allocate whatever we want. I'm just saying it's something to think about for the budget season, especially if we're close. Last year, we were close. We could have used that money. Right. So let's just think about it. How are you doing Garcia? Yeah, I think honestly, we need to have an open mind. The last is my fourth budget cycle and yeah, I'm getting old. But this, you know, kind of like the sky is falling mentality in a sense where we've noticed we've noticed we do have options and the money, the carry forward and what we can do with carry forward and what we're going to we actually have those options. And before even talking about flat rate or rollback rate was like the end of the world. It's going to be the end of the world. It's proven it has not been the end of the world. Are we getting everything we want? Absolutely not. But I think as this is your second or third as your second budget part third. Okay, third. And those who are newer. Yeah, it's it's not a sky is falling kind of mentality. We have options and we can consider the rollback rate. We could consider saving money, but also adding. For example, I'm going to harp on the police officers. I think we could afford if we would have added police officers three years ago, we would have been able to afford it with no problem. So let's keep that in mind guys in this budget cycle. We don't have to freak out in the sky is not going to fall. We're going to make it work for the residents. So that's my 2 cents on that. Any other comments? Yes, let me. Can I see? And don't forget our sidewalk money and our swale money. So don't forget about those. So for you a priority in this budget is ensuring that safety is. I'm that's that's my main logo name. Safety is, you know, as they say in every department safety first. So sidewalks, let's consider that sidewalk in those swales. So mostly. Mr. Man. You got that right. Okay. Was that all? That's it. All right. Any other comments or feedback to. Yeah, I was actually going to hand the floor for them. Anyone else here? All right. So we're done on our side. Mr. Manager or Madam Budget Director, if you have any questions or any feedback to us, it's welcome now. No, we appreciate the feedback or the guidance. Because that makes our job a little bit easier. We don't have to do any guessing. But I just wanted to kind of point out some things. And I know that Council Member Herzberg says, oh, last year we were close. But I want to make sure that we keep in perspective that last year we balanced the budget with multiple, multiple one time transfers. That's not the proper way that one should develop, build a budget, right? You should. The goal should be that we should strive to have matching recurring revenues match recurring expenses, right? We shouldn't every year be nickel and diming from different places that are one time shots. Because at some point, at some point, we will exhaust those one time opportunities. They're not infinite. They have a, there's an end to them. And then we won't have that. But yet we have now built a revenue system that's built on hoping that we have these one time transfers to help augment our budget. So we just need to keep that in perspective. The percentage of variance that we saw in last year's budget at the end of the experience was within 3 to 5%, right? And it is a very acceptable in probably almost any organization. Forget about public organizations. Probably any organization. A 3 to 5% variance from what you budget to what the experience proves out is very, very good. Very good deviation, very good variance. So what we need to keep in mind is that while the numbers seem high, the numbers could either, in any given year, could be in either direction, right? Because if we're talking about a 3 to 5% variance, and I'm talking more about the carry forward, right? The dynamics that happen with the, or going on with the carry forward. As far as relying on it for actual budgeting and the vice mayor, I think, you know, was thinking about this. That the size of our budget, the size of the general fund, just because the dynamics of our general fund is growing, our general fund, and that 3 to 5% variance of a bigger number, because our general fund is growing, our variance is going to be bigger. So the variance could be 1.8 this direction, like it was this past year, and it could be negative. It could be the other way. So that's the challenge of trying to rely on it year after year for actual budgeting. What council member Sanchez preferred or proffered, I think, I don't, again, I don't want to put words in his mouth, but I think that his idea was using the carry forward for one time things. And that's probably a more appropriate way of doing it, as opposed to something that's going to be a recurring expense, using the opportunity, whether it be half of it or a quarter of it or all of it, whatever decision. Sorry, during the carry forward discussion, the opportunity for those one time expenses is probably a more appropriate consideration with the carry forward, with the mid-year budget amendment, because it is an unknown, right? It's such a big question mark for us to rely on even a portion of it, because even if we were to rely on 20% or 50%, you know, based on a track record in any given year, it could be in the opposite direction, because a variance, you know, could be a positive variance, which has been lately, most recently, but it also could be a negative variance. That's the only thing that I wanted just for all of us to keep in mind when we start developing the budget. And again, I just want to, you know, repeat that the goal should be when we start to develop the budget, that we try and mirror recurring expenses with recurring revenue and try to steer away from, I guess in Spanish, we would say tapando hueco, right? Covering the, covering all these, the whole, you know, in the dike with our finger, because eventually it's going to blow. And then we're going to be, you know, we'll catch ourselves in a difficult position. The practice should be trying to mirror revenues to expenses on a recurring basis on a year to year basis. Thank you, Mr. Manager. Any other comments, Madam director, any comments or questions? No. Alrighty. And still, Mr. Deputy Clerk, still no one online, just to give a final check. No one is online. Great. Then at this time, I'll call this meeting adjourned. The time is 7:20 PM. The time is 7:20 PM.